Original subtitles

Narrator: On a pristine day in a michigan town,

a woman and her field hand,

attend to some work in her sprawling backyard.

Suddenly, the afternoon chores take a horrific turn.

He dug out a scoop of dirt.

And as he described it,

"a skull was looking at me."

mark: Teeth were still intact,

and one leg bone was there.

Narrator: The grisly discovery

leaves this close-knit community

shaken to its core.

Lynn: I went to my mail,

and there was a-- one of the flyers

for missing children.

I freaked out, I just freaked out.

Narrator: Could a playful pastime

be the perfect hunting ground?

John: After a carnival had been in a town,

one or two kids would disappear.

Narrator: Has a killer penetrated the safety

of this midwestern town?

John: The van drove south out of harrison

with bumper stickers, that said,

"don't let your child go with strangers."

narrator: Or is evil lurking much closer to home?

Stacy: We may think we know our neighbors,

but do we really know who lives next door to us?

[♪♪]

narrator: Even in the dead of winter,

the folks in harrison, michigan

know how lucky they are to call this quintessential

midwestern town home.

Harrison is a small quiet community.

It's a tight-knit community.

Almost everyone is, uh, familiar with their neighbors,

um, we have hardworking folks, uh,

retired folks,

and their-- there are a lot of family in harrison.

Our backyards can be a single city lot,

or they can be hundreds of acres of backyard.

Narrator: And in the warmer months,

people pour into their backyards,

and that's just where vicky hudson finds herself

on a late summer day in 1997,

tending to some yard work.

Stacy: They were disassembling a--

a structure barn,

and their farmhand was removing that structure

and digging the ground,

uh, with a piece of equipment.

And he dug out a scoop of dirt.

And as he described it,

"a skull was looking at me."

jeffery: He ran to get a hold of vicky.

Vicky got a hold of the dispatch.

Narrator: Officers are quick to arrive at vicky's backyard,

curious as to what exactly has been unearthed.

As soon as I got out there, and I walked down

to where the scene was,

I pick up the skull,

and I get chills going up my back

because right then and there,

I knew it was a human skull.

Narrator: The stunned officer secured the scene,

and call in a forensic team

to begin a painstaking excavation.

Mark: Crime scene examiners came in, and then we, uh,

proceeded to, uh, work through the property.

Digging shovel-loads of dirt out of the ground,

sifting them.

Jeffery: They were looking for any type of skeletal remains.

Narrator: What they discover is a grisly burial site.

Mark: The leg bone was laying out there,

you could tell that was a femur bone.

John: We also found a pair of socks

that were bound together by rope.

It was obvious that the death was very violent.

Mark: Personally, you know, I've been in law enforcement

for a lot of years,

that was very horrific to find.

Narrator: Nearby, residents watch from a distance,

shaken by what's unfolding.

Mike: My dad had told me that they had found some bones.

Almost in my dad's backyard,

I could see the police,

they were sifting dirt,

collecting bones.

It was quite a horrific scene to actually see.

Stacy: The news spread rapidly.

It's not every day that we find skeletal remains

buried in the backyard in our small community.

Narrator: Could this shallow grave

solve a decade-long mystery?

Stacy: We may think we know our neighbors,

but in all reality, do we really know

who lives next door to us?

Narrator: There's an almost imperceptible change

in the michigan breeze,

signaling the start of fall,

and the end of summer break

for the local kids.

In September of 1997, the harrison community schools

had just, uh, resume session after the summer break.

Lynn: Kandy and randy laufer lived about five miles

out of town with their parents, bob and lois.

Kandy was randy's older sister.

Mike: Randy was kind of a shyer kid a little bit,

he was smaller.

He was kind of quiet, unless he knew you.

A little more timid than most kids, I would say.

Lynn: They helped each other,

kandy was very protective of randy.

I would say they were closer

than a lot of children that age.

Narrator: When the final bell rings later that day,

17-year-old kandy is swept up in the wave of other kids

heading home.

Off in the distance,

she spots her 15-year-old brother.

Kandy was getting out of the bus,

and she saw randy walking toward

the edge of the schoolyard.

Mark: She saw him walk out through the parking lot.

Lynn: Randy had told his parents

that he was going to spend the night with a friend,

so it wasn't odd that he didn't

get on the bus that day.

And so, that night, there was no concerns at all.

Narrator: But the next day, randy's parents get a call.

Lynn: The school contacted bob and lois,

and they thought he was at school,

but the school told them

that randy did not show up at all.

So then they got a hold of the boy

he was supposed to stay with,

and he hadn't spent the night there.

Sometimes randy used to go off to get a little attention.

I thought he just maybe had gotten mad at something,

and just decided to strike out on his own.

Stacy: And it wasn't until after randy was not reported

in any friend's homes or any family member's homes,

um, no one had seen randy,

um, and then, the family became, uh, concerned

that randy was gone missing.

Narrator: With fear creeping into their hearts and home,

randy's parents called the police.

Mark: We sent out an officer to their location,

took initial report, got the--

randy's full physical description,

he was five-three,

a hundred, a hundred and five pounds,

if that, uh, soaking wet.

Blonde hair, real skinny,

he was last seen wearing shorts,

uh, with a red patch on them.

Narrator: Randy's parents sheepishly explain

there may be a very simple explanation

for why their son hasn't come home.

Jeffery: Randy got, uh, mad at his father, uh,

because his father refused to take him

to hunter safety class.

Mike: Maybe he was being bullheaded,

and maybe he did wander off.

Maybe he's out in the woods,

gonna camp out for a week

or do whatever, just to get away.

Narrator: But after a couple of days,

randy's parents know their son won't be okay alone.

Lynn: Bob and lois, and kandy really thought

something had happened to him.

The worry was starting to set in big time.

John: At that point, we interviewed several

of his friends, people that he was known

to, uh-- to hang with,

and that friend who randy was going to be spending

the night with, but randy never showed up,

and unfortunately, we learned nothing at all.

Now, too much time had passed

without any information,

we became really concerned.

Narrator: Harrison investigators redouble their efforts,

canvassing the community,

and it isn't long before a neighbor comes forward

with a disturbing story.

John: The husband and wife who knew randy saw him, uh,

in the downtown of harrison.

Randy was in a van,

and they specifically saw randy

reaching out of the van,

waving at them,

and the van drove south out of harrison

from that location.

And that was the last anyone ever saw of randy.

John: We learned randy had been seen with an individual

from our community.

Mark: Well, it drew a-- a fear in our minds

that we have a devil living in our county.

Lynn: That took us into a deep dark hell.

Narrator: Everyone in the small town

of harrison, michigan is eager to find missing teen,

randy laufer.

And just a couple of days into the investigation,

detectives have their first lead.

John: There was at one sighting,

there was a husband and wife who knew randy,

saw him going in a van of some type,

and there was an adult male driving the van.

Stacy: We became fearful as this wasn't a regular event

in our community.

We felt that it was possible

that randy was abducted by an outsider.

John: There are a lot of vans,

especially during that period of time.

And so, we're looking, trying to find that van,

but there wasn't enough specific descriptive information

leading to the van that the investigators

were able to pursue.

Stacy: The sheriff's department began putting out flyers,

talking to news media, asking for help,

um, asking if anybody had seen randy.

John: Randy's, uh, picture was also placed

on milk cartons.

Uh, all of them, which in those days,

uh, displayed pictures of missing, uh, children.

Randy's mother had a number of posters printed up,

and those were posted all over the harrison area

that sent out the law enforcement agencies

throughout the state.

Lynn: I can remember the day,

uh, that I went to my mail.

And there was, uh, one of the flyers for missing children

that was randy.

I freaked out.

I just freaked out.

Narrator: Hoping for a new lead,

investigators circle back to the laufer family

to learn more about the missing teen.

Ready laufer is a homegrown harrison kid,

he and his big sister, kandy,

have always been a tight pair.

Lynn: I watched both randy and kandy grow up.

And they lived out of town,

so they didn't have a biggest circle of friends.

Mike: He was kind of quiet, unless he knew you, uh,

a little more timid than most kids, I would say.

He was just getting bullied by some kids,

and I stuck out for him.

And we got along good after that.

Randy and another one of my friends,

rodney mcrae, become pretty good friends.

We spent most of our time on rodney's farm,

where they had goats.

And we'd like going out in the woods,

and a lot of fishing.

We were kids, we could pretty much do

what we wanted to then.

Narrator: On most days, a small town kid

in rural michigan has to make his own fun,

except when the carnival comes to town.

John: We learned randy had-- he had a love for clowns,

that he love circuses,

uh, fairs, for instance, the--

the clare county fair that came to town every summer.

His mom had a theory that perhaps he had run away

to join the circus.

Lynn: Randy was just totally fascinated by games,

and the smells, and the sound of it.

Randy felt that the carnival was a good opportunity

for going places,

and meeting different people.

I could see randy saying,

"oh, yeah, that sounds like fun."

narrator: It's certainly a far-fetched theory,

but it's one police believe is worth pursuing.

John: Quite often, after a carnival had been in a town,

one or two kids would disappear.

And they were traveling with that carnival.

Jeffery: There was a carnival in town

at the clare county fairgrounds

in the same timeframe

about the time randy disappeared.

John: We, uh, checked with the people who had been in town

with the clare county fair.

Jeffery: We wanted to know if there was any information,

you know, if they've seen this kid

and, where we were headed about the time randy went missing.

So after we talked to the people

at the clare county fairgrounds,

there was no indication that-- that we could find,

that he have gone with the-- the carnival people,

and ran away.

That all came to a dead end.

There was no validity to that idea.

Lynn: We thought if he did something like that,

maybe he'll walk in that back door.

But hope really took a nosedive after that.

[birds chirping]

narrator: Despite tireless efforts,

weeks go by without any word on randy.

And this entire community is wrapped

in a blanket of fear.

John: The longer a child is gone,

the less chance there is of,

uh, a recovery of a live child.

Lynn: It was like holding your breath,

and just waiting for something, you know, to happen,

and you knew it was gonna happen,

you knew it wasn't gonna be good,

but you didn't want to admit it to yourself.

Narrator: Fall gives way to winter,

and a distinct chill hangs in the harrison air.

Now, three months into the search for randy laufer,

an eyewitness comes forward

with some intriguing new information.

John: We learned randy had been seen

with an individual named marvin farand.

Mark: This person saw randy with marvin, uh, farand

at his residence numerous times.

Narrator: Some local kids playing football

on marvin's lawn claim they saw randy

through an open door, sitting inside.

John: There were sighting by local kids,

it was on the day

he disappeared, and he was never seen again.

Lynn: Marvin was randy's friend.

Marvin was a little bit older than randy,

maybe three, four years.

John: We had suspicions

about the friendship between marvin farand and randy.

When a-- a young child disappears,

unfortunately, one of the first things

that comes to mind is that child has been taken,

or lured into a situation.

We were inserting the possibility

that randy might be held hostage.

We thought he could be in tremendous danger.

We knew we had to locate randy as quickly as possible.

Narrator: Nearly three months after the disappearance

of 15-year-old randy laufer

from the tiny town of harrison, michigan,

authorities in clare county have eyewitnesses

who claimed to have seen randy with an older friend.

Mark: Through our investigation with the sheriff's department

learned that randy was a friend of an individual

by name of marvin farand,

who lived in harrison.

Lynn: We would see him at barbecues,

and we'd see him at bonfires, and stuff like that.

He was somebody I knew on site,

and we spoke to and that,

but I didn't really know anything else about him.

Narrator: After some digging,

investigators talked to a store owner who claims

marvin would laugh every time he saw

randy's missing person poster in his shop.

Mark: We had interviewed marvin farand.

His reaction, just like stone cold personality,

uh, not agitated, not upset.

He denied having any contact with randy laufer.

Narrator: Investigators tell marvin

they have eyewitnesses who claim otherwise,

and suggest a polygraph test could clear things up.

Jeffery: During the polygraph, we asked him,

"what's the story leading up

and afterward that randy disappeared?"

"do you know where randy laufer is?"

"do you know any physical harm came to him

or were you part of this physical harm?"

narrator: Marvin's answers remain consistent,

while he continues to maintain he knows nothing

about the disappearance of randy laufer.

Jeffery: Polygrapher said that...

Marvin passed the polygraph.

Mark: Marvin, he was not able to give any information

on randy.

Jeffery: The frustration is just, um, unbearable.

And especially, uh, a case where--

when there is a youth.

Uh, you're beating your head against the wall.

You get to the point that there's no hope.

Narrator: While much of town is filling

with christmas cheer,

the laufer family struggles to cope without randy.

Lynn: Randy loved christmas,

but christmas that year, that was different.

Everybody just kind of closed down,

and pulled in a little tighter,

and just, "well, he'll come back."

even if we had doubts, none of us voiced them

because it would've made it final,

and we weren't willing to do that.

[♪♪]

narrator: 1987 ends painfully

with no new leads in randy's case.

And then, like a bolt from the blue,

authorities receive a call from 1,500 miles away.

John: An investigator in florida was inquiring

as to the whereabouts, or any information

with an individual named john rodney mcrae.

Mr. Mcrae, uh, as the investigator related,

was a suspect in at least three missing individuals,

uh, ranging in the age, I believe,

from about 12 to 19

in the florida area.

They had word that he was living

in the harrison area,

and were looking for any information

that the authorities in harrison could provide.

It came as a shock.

We had no idea who john mcrae was,

uh, his background,

or, uh, that he was living in their community.

Narrator: What the florida investigator relays next

is bone chilling.

John: In the 1950s, in michigan,

john mcrae as a 15-year-old boy,

was convicted of first degree murder.

A young child was murdered

and buried in a shallow grave,

and a large chunk of concrete

had been pulled over the top of this body.

Mark: The boy had been mutilated.

John: John mcrae served...

20 some years,

and was granted a parole.

Narrator: When mcrae is released from prison in 1977,

the 43-year-old convicted killer

eventually settles in florida.

Around this time, kids start to disappear.

Three boys all with ties to mcrae.

Mark: There were some similarities

between randy laufer and the boys

who were missing in florida.

They were small in stature,

they sought out guidance from other individuals.

When we did some research on mcrae.

The sheriff's department found out,

that in fact, he did live in clare county on monroe road,

which is about a mile

as the crow flies where randy lived.

We knew pretty much everybody and anybody

that lived in clare county.

But john mcrae kept a low profile.

John: All of a sudden now we have someone that--

that can become the focus of our investigation.

Mark: It drew up a-- a fear in our minds

that we have a devil living in our county.

Lynn: That took us into a whole deep, dark hell.

[♪♪]

narrator: Authorities in the small michigan town of harrison

are stunned to learn there's a convicted killer

living among them.

John: We learned john mcrae and his wife barbara

and their son martin,

uh, they were living out on a farm.

They're renting a piece of the property

in the area south of harrison.

Mark: And he raised the goats inside his trailer,

and they're all over the property.

John: We learned his son martin and randy laufer

went to school together, and became friends.

As a result, randy laufer,

uh, spent a great deal of time apparently

at the mcrae household,

uh, including overnights and weekends.

John: John mcrae and his wife would dress as clowns,

and entertain the 4-h kids as clowns.

We later learned that john mcrae

would pick up randy laufer

and take him to the 4-h meetings.

Narrator: In this tight-knit town,

no one can fathom one of their own

might be to blame for randy's disappearance,

especially his parents.

Lynn: I don't think bob and lois thought

anything negative about john mcrae.

I don't think it's something

that would've entered their mind.

Stacy: We did not know john mcrae's history,

john mcrae's past.

We knew nothing other than where he resided.

John: Mcrae was very good at staying under the radar.

But at that point, uh,

investigators are starting to connect the dots.

Narrator: Eager to question mcrae

about randy's disappearance,

authorities dash to the mcrae's farm.

John: John and barbara, and martin mcrae

had packed up and were gone.

To me, as a-- a criminal investigator,

he's on the run.

It's as simple as that.

He's running from something.

Mark: There was a complete search of that property.

The trailers, the barn,

uh, all the surrounding areas.

We had, uh, probes that we probed the ground with,

looking for randy or anything suspicious.

Lynn: I couldn't believe that randy

might be on that property.

The whole family just kind of shattered.

It was just-- it was horrible.

John: At one point, they did bring in

cadaver search dogs.

Covered the entire property,

uh, with no indicators at all of a body being there.

Narrator: But investigators do make

an unsettling discovery.

Mark: Authorities were able to locate

actual missing person fliers

of the boys who were missing out

in the state of florida,

where john mcrae was a suspect in.

Jeffery: In our minds, we had no doubt

mcrae did something to randy.

And we were convinced that something bad had happened.

Narrator: Investigators race to track down mcrae.

They found out that he had moved to arizona.

Mark: We contacted the arizona authorities,

and they offered to do a surveillance on him.

John: We learned the van that john mcrae was driving,

uh, in arizona

was the same vehicle that he had in michigan,

which goes back to the couple in harrison

who saw randy,

uh, waving to them from a van,

being driven by an adult.

Um, john mcrae's van,

there were a number of bumper stickers on the back.

One was, "have you hugged your kid today?"

and one that was even more startling was,

"don't let your child go with strangers."

narrator: Michigan investigators are on the next flight

to mesa, arizona,

determined not to let this predator

slip through the cracks again.

And when they track him down,

mcrae is surprisingly cool and cooperative.

John: Mcrae was open, willing to talk.

He even seemed to enjoy talking to the investigators.

John mcrae was the type of individual

who thought he was smarter than any investigator

that was out there.

He said something about,

"I was convicted once because they found the body.

Do you think I'd ever let that happen again?"

john: "you don't have a body,

you don't have me."

other words,

"if you don't have a body, you don't have a case."

mark: We believed that he learned from being caught

on the first murder back in the 50s

how to do it right and get away with it

without leaving any evidence behind.

John: And it was extremely frustrating

for the investigators interviewing john mcrae.

At that point, they had no idea where randy was.

But they know in their hearts

they're sitting across from the individual

who is responsible.

Narrator: Whatever mcrae knows, he's not giving it up.

But authorities aren't giving up either.

The investigators were able to secure a search warrant

for john mcrae's van.

Mark: During the search of his vehicle,

authorities sprayed his van with luminol.

And at that point,

they found some dna in his van.

John: They unearthed a pair of socks

bound together by rope.

I get chills going up my back about this case.

I think john mcrae enjoyed every minute of it.

Narrator: When investigators find blood in the van

of convicted killer john mcrae,

they fear it could belong to 15-year-old randy laufer.

[camera clicks]

they seized a rag

that appeared to have old blood on it.

They also seized a old dirty blanket.

Narrator: Investigators rush the samples to the crime lab,

hoping this could be the evidence

they need to arrest john mcrae.

[♪♪]

mark: They did not find any evidence

of randy laufer in the van.

They did not find any of his, uh, dna,

uh, anything to do with randy laufer.

They found nothing.

John: We were not able to be success and identify

the blood in the van.

Jeffery: We could link randy and mcrae together,

but we can't link him for the murder.

Mark: It's very frustrating as an investigator

to get so close to an individual,

you know you had the right individual,

you just don't have enough information

to arrest that individual.

Narrator: Michigan investigators know,

if they don't put mcrae behind bars,

another life could ultimately be lost.

Mark: If you have a body, you have evidence,

so we needed randy laufer's body in order to proceed.

John: They ran cadaver dogs through the mcrae's property

a couple of more times.

[dogs barking]

john: There were ongoing interviews, uh,

searching for people who knew anything

about a connection between randy laufer and john mcrae.

But there were just no leads to follow.

The investigation had just kind of stalled out.

[♪♪]

lynn: It was hard on the entire family,

especially kandy.

And I think the saddest part

was that everybody kind of closed up,

and didn't share a lot.

It was just like silence,

and we wouldn't have to bring it to the top,

and it wouldn't hurt quite so bad.

[♪♪]

narrator: Ten painfully long years

after sweet randy laufer

vanished from the safety of clare county,

investigators have just unearthed a human skeleton

in a local backyard they know well.

Mark: The farmhand unearthed a skull.

We had probably 60% of the bones there

of a human body.

And it was on the property

that had belonged to john mcrae.

Vicky hudson is a neighbor

that actually bought that property

where john mcrae was living.

John: The remains were found almost immediately adjacent

to the mcrae house trailer.

Narrator: Investigators are baffled.

They did an exhausted search of this yard many years ago.

Mark: It turned out, that goat urine

will actually throw off the scent of a human body,

and mcrae used to having a goat on that property.

Then we, uh, proceeded to, uh, work the scene.

It was a crime lab,

pulling bones out of the sifter,

and putting them in, uh, a special pile.

The skull was there, uh, teeth were still intact.

The leg bones was laying right there.

And it was a surreal feeling.

John: But they also unearthed a pair of socks

that were bound together by rope.

And in those socks were the foot bones,

indicating that the feet were tied together.

Mark: We recovered numerous clothing items.

We've recovered the pair of shorts with the--

the red patch on them.

I get chills going up my back about this case

because I just knew for sure it was randy.

Narrator: Hoping for a positive identification,

the remains and the evidence are transported

to the medical examiner's office.

Mark: After comparing teeth we've obtained

with the dental records from the family,

and by the clothing that we had recovered at the scene,

it was definitely being what randy had on last.

The crime lab positively determined

that was randy laufer.

Stacy: The autopsy revealed that randy was, uh,

stabbed multiple times.

Mark: Cause of death was, uh, mutilation,

the cutting of the body.

Lynn: When they found randy,

there was just kind of numbness.

It was just nobody knew what to say.

But we just kind of sat there.

It's just heartbreaking.

Stacy: It was horrifying to discover

that randy was abducted, murdered,

and buried by one of our local residents.

Why didn't we see the signs,

uh, that there was a--

a prowler residing in our own backyard.

Narrator: Investigators can't afford any mistakes,

and need an air-tight case before they arrest mcrae

for the murder of randy laufer.

And as they collect evidence,

they're hit with a twist they never saw coming.

Mcrae may not have acted alone.

A boyhood friend of john mcrae's son, martin,

related to us an event,

uh, that struck him, uh,

after he learned that randy had been buried

on that property.

Mike: Back then, I spend a lot of time at marty mcrae's home,

because I live around the corner,

and me and marty were good friends.

I remembered going up there to his house one day,

and him and his dad argued because marty was upset

that he had to dig a hole for his dad,

paid no mind to it.

In hindsight seeing what has happened,

marty and his dad,

they were digging a hole.

For randy.

Mark: At that point in time,

we knew that martin had something to do with, uh--

with killing and burying randy laufer.

Narrator: On the verge of arresting john mcrae

for the murder of randy laufer,

investigators now suspect his son

may have played a hand in his friend's death.

The friend of john mcrae's son, martin mcrae,

said martin told them that he'd helped his dad

dig the hole randy laufer was put into.

We felt that martin mcrae was involved with the murder.

John: We felt we had enough evidence at that point in time

to arrest john mcrae, and to charge martin mcrae

as an accessory after the fact.

Narrator: After a decade,

michigan authorities fly to arizona

to finally arrest the now 63-year-old john mcrae

and his 23-year-old son, martin.

Mark: We brought them both back to the, uh,

mesa police department,

and interviewed both individuals.

John mcrae was read his miranda rights,

and he didn't request an attorney,

he just wouldn't give up any information at all.

Same thing with martin mcrae, he would not give up his dad,

or do anything towards, uh,

saying that he dug the hole for randy.

Narrator: Both father and son are extradited to michigan

to face charges for the murder of randy laufer.

Lynn: When I heard that both john

and his son had been arrested,

we were just flabbergasted,

just-- just could not believe

that this really happened.

We all had the same anger.

Why was he turned loose on a population after years

and years ago, he killed a boy?

Narrator: As prosecutors prepare for trial,

they receive an unexpected blow.

The judge deemed that for the murder in '87,

martin mcrae would have only been a juvenile,

so you couldn't charge him as an adult,

the judge threw that case out,

and martin was released from jail.

We were disgusted about it,

but it's the law.

Narrator: John mcrae's trial is now the last chance

to see justice served.

And in may of 2005, he faces a judge and jury

for the murder of randy laufer.

Mike: When the trial come about,

that time, it was surreal, you know?

I thought we would finally have the answer, though,

for the laufer family.

The whole family was there.

It was, uh, heartbreaking for his parents, his sister,

because they had to relive all their pain again.

Narrator: Prosecutors lay out the chilling details

of the murder of randy laufer.

Mark: Our last, uh, known sighting of randy

was at the school, after school,

where his sister see him walking through uh,

the parking lot.

After that, we believe that he was picked up

by john mcrae,

who was sitting down the road in his van.

We don't know how long,

many days he spent with john mcrae,

or how long he kept randy from his family.

Eventually, randy was killed by john mcrae.

Randy's homicide consisted of being stabbed numerous times.

John: Randy laufer incurred some horrific mutilation,

and I think that john mcrae enjoyed every minute of it.

Mark: I think john mcrae just killed him,

just cut him up in pieces, and put him in that pit

right there in the backyard.

[♪♪]

mark: During the trial, john mcrae just sat motionless,

didn't say a word, even when the forensic examiner

showed the jury how randy was murdered,

how the body was cut up in pieces,

just sat there like he didn't care.

Narrator: After a three-day trial,

and just three hours of deliberation,

the jury returns with a verdict.

Judge: 001 verdict 1,

we the jury find the defendant guilty

of first degree premeditated murder.

Mike: When they found him guilty,

first thing crossed my mind was it was finding

just a little bit of justice for randy.

Lynn: We just kind of hugged and cried,

and it could never get randy back,

but at least no one else could be hurt by mcrae.

[♪♪]

he was in prison for about three weeks,

and died of natural causes.

Lynn: When mcrae died, we felt it was totally done.

I wish he could've suffered longer in prison, to be honest,

but I was just glad because it was over.

We did not have to deal with his part

of any of this anymore.

Narrator: Now, randy's family can focus on him,

and the memories they'll always hold dear.

Mike: Randy was a friend, a good spirited person,

a happy person.

He was-- he was one of the good people.

Lynn: For everybody in the family,

christmas was the main holiday.

One of the last pictures I have of randy's at christmas,

and he was just special.

Randy had a lot of smiles, and a lot of love to give.

And I think if he would have had a chance,

he would have been a great man.

[♪♪]

woman: For more information about buried in the backyard,

go to oxygen.Com.