All language subtitles for Episode 06 Secrets of the Santa Cruz Mountains

At an age
of pushing boundaries...

I'm fine, mom, really.

She thought she knew everything,

not really understanding
how naive she is to the world.

It's hard to know when you've
stepped too far over the line.

She was deciding if she needed
to listen to mom and dad

and willing to pay
the consequences.

What do you want from me?

At that time, it was
a very remote area.

It's not a road
that a lot of people drove.

Until suddenly,
there's no turning back.

I heard her scream...

...and I knew
something had happened.

He was very, very
paranoid.

He felt that she needed to die.

Santa Cruz, California,
is surrounded

by some of the most stunning
natural vistas on earth.

But beneath the
breathtaking beauty

and the city's vibe
of peace and free love

lies a violent, ugly underbelly.

The Santa Cruz mountains
are a heavily wooded

and a very steep affair.

Some of the more remote parts
of it, which are still,

to this day,
very hard to get to,

are areas that attract people

who don't want to be
around other people,

who don't want to be
around law enforcement.

Still, inside the city limits,

Santa Cruz remains
a close-knit community.

And for 19-year-old
Linda jozovich

this is a wonderful
place to call home.

Linda was the middle child
of five girls.

All my sisters played
Bobby sox softball,

but she, I think, is the one
that carried the athletic gene,

if you will, in our family.

Hey, dad.

Linda was very athletic.

How was the game?

It was good.

I hit a triple.

Down the right field line?

You should have seen it.

My father was working,

so he wasn't able to attend
a lot of the games,

but he supported US.

All of my sisters were
very close to my family.

How about we celebrate?

You and me, 49ers,
redskins tonight.

Dad, I would love to,
but I have to work,

and then afterwards, Sandy and I
were going to catch a movie,

but how about a game
this weekend?

It's a date.

Love you.

I love you, too.

It was so comfortable.

With five girls in the family,

the jozovich house
is always buzzing --

most recently, over the wedding
of the eldest daughter, Cathy.

! Hello!
-There she is!

Goodness.

Doesn't she look
beautiful?

My wedding
was a big deal.

I was the first one of
five girls to get married.

It was such an honor for all
my sisters to be part of that.

Cath, my gosh.

I love it!

I want a dress like this
when I get married.

You should
just wear this one.

You should just go to school
and finish school first,

don't you think?

-Yes, mom.
-Yeah...

At that stage
in her life,

Linda was looking
to find out who she was,

discovering what she wanted
out of life,

who she wanted to be
when she grew up.

May I have this dance?

But of course.
Anything on your day.

She was just getting over that
hump of crappy teenagehood,

deciding if she needed
to listen to mom and dad

or not listen to mom and dad,

having the chutzpah
to not listen to them

and willing to pay
the consequences.

Though she still lives
at home with her parents,

Linda finds independence
in going to work each day.

I had just left mervin's
department store

to have a grown-up job.

I got her a job
to take my place,

essentially, at the mervin's
in Santa Clara.

-Hey.
-Hey.

How's it going?

Good.

But I swear, every time
we have a sale here,

it's like a tornado
hit the place.

I know, right?

I'm gonna go get more hangers.
I'll be right back.

Can I help you?

Um...I'm looking for something
for a friend of mine.

What did you
have in mind?

Good question.

This is cute.

Um...

I'm having trouble
imagining...

Imagining it.

Would you mind
trying it on for me?

Excuse me?

You're the...
Same size and...Weight.

Um...

Unfortunately, I have to go
put away some merchandise.

But I hope you find
what you're looking for.

The day ticks by, and Linda
stays busy at the store.

Around 7:00 P.M., it's time
for her meal break.

Hey, have you had
your break?

Not yet.

You should go, then.

Alright.
I'll be back in a few.

Okay.

Watch where you're going!

Sorry.

She went out to her car
to get change that night

so that she could get something
out of the soda machine at work.

You just don't expect
anything to happen.

15...

An hour later, Linda's 30-minute
dinner break is long over.

Her co-workers are
wondering where she is.

Back at the jozovich house,

Linda's mother, sue,
is about to learn

that her daughter has gone awol.

Hello?

What do you mean?

She would never have
just left work.

She would have been reamed,
but she would have come home.

She left early?

Did she mention --

okay.

Yes, no. Thank you.

Alright, bye-bye.

The next morning, I got a phone
call from my father,

who said, "have you seen Linda?"

And I said, "no. Why?"

He said, "well, she didn't
come home last night,

so we're just trying to figure
out where she might have been."

I said, "nope.
I haven't heard anything."

As another day passes
with still no word from her,

Linda's family knows it's time
to bring in the police.

Your daughter's 19.
She's not a minor anymore.

There's basically nothing
I can do at this point.

I think the hardest thing
in the first few days was

not having police help.

Please.
You have to do something.

Trust me. I know.
A mother knows.

Ma'am, I'm sure your daughter
is absolutely fine.

It's okay.
It's okay.

We were just simply told
that we couldn't put

in a missing-persons
report for 72 hours.

We didn't know where to turn,
who to talk to,

how to move forward
to try to find her.

Linda's family
has no idea

of the horrors
the 19-year-old is experiencing.

Held captive in her own vehicle,

Linda has been taken miles away
from everyone she holds dear.

Who are you?

On a seemingly normal
night at work,

19-year-old Linda jozovich is
brutally abducted by a stranger.

Now, miles away from anyone
who could help her,

she's at the mercy
of a mysterious man.

Who are you?

What do you want from me?

He drove her up
into the Santa Cruz mountains

in an area that's right off of
highway 17 and black road.

At that time, it was
a very remote area.

It was not a road
that a lot of people drove.

My family is going
to miss me, you know?

They'll get worried.

They'll come looking for me.

Let them try.

Back in Santa Cruz,

there's been no sign of Linda
for 72 hours.

And her parents, once again,
turn to police for help.

The first few days
were really hard,

and it's mostly
because you feel lost.

You don't know what to do or
where to go or how to proceed.

Does she have
a boyfriend?

-No.
-Yeah.

I mean,
nobody serious.

I'll need a list of her friends
and anybody she may have been

in contact with
before she disappeared.

Of course. We'll get
everything we can to you.

Just...
Just find out daughter.

We're going to do our best.

With Linda missing
for three days,

Santa Clara county
sheriff's officers

know she could be
anywhere by now.

So they start by interviewing
any known customers

in the days leading up
to her disappearance...

I was with my friends the night
that she disappeared.

You can call them.

Why don't you walk US
through the last time

you were with Linda.

Well, I saw Linda
by the store

when I was hanging out
with a group of friends

...and those who have returned
to the store in the days since.

The rumor is
that you like

lurking around
shopping malls.

Is that true?
-Is that what you heard?

I was lurking?

I don't know.
You tell me.

I was shopping.

Linda never complained
about anybody stalking her

or creeping her out,

but I know that she did
have a lot of...Suitors.

As detectives hit a dead end
with interviews,

Linda's family does all they
can to keep up the search.

We had a printing company
make fliers for US

and spent time going out
and searching,

looking at places where
she would go to regularly,

talking to people,
whether we knew them or not.

You're just looking.

You're just doing
what you know to do.

Soon, it's more than just family
looking for Linda.

Once the police got involved,
the search changed

in that we felt supported.

We had people volunteering
to do search parties,

people we didn't even know,
greater numbers of people.

But the Santa Cruz mountains
go on for miles and miles,

and Linda's abductor has already
taken her well out of reach.

He pulled off the side
of the road

that goes to a little,
tiny reservoir.

No! Stop!

Take your hands off me!

And it's a remote area.

It's a lot of poison oak -- a
tremendous amount of poison oak.

No!

Stop!

Please!

He pulled her out of the car
and just beat her --

just absolutely beat
her mercilessly.

As days turn into weeks,
Linda's family clings

to the hope that
she's still out there somewhere.

I understand that,
detective,

but there's got to be
something more you can do.

I just...

Okay.

Alright.
Um, thanks anyway.

I-I appreciate it.

Thank you.

Dad?

Anything?

For about 2 weeks, we spent
a great deal of time

gathering people
and being very formal

about creating search parties
and crossing places off the map,

and then my mom decided
it was time for US

to all get back
to the real world.

With no leads in the case,
Santa Cruz county officers

have no choice
but to move on.

In this case, we had
zero physical evidence.

I want to assume it's murder,
but I figured,

I don't have a lot of time
left to prove

that this is worth doing
'cause we were pretty busy.

Days, weeks,
and then years plod on

without any updates on the
whereabouts of Linda jozovich.

It's been almost 6 years since
the bright-eyed 19-year-old

first disappeared.

I think the longer it went on,

the more literal
confirmation there is

to the fact that she's not
going to be coming home,

and so then you just want
to know what happened.

You just want to be able
to have some resolution.

Just a few miles away
from the jozovich home,

in a beachy Santa Cruz
neighborhood...

Hey, mom, it's me.

How's it going?

...17-year-old Lois sigala
is settling into her summer home

with friends.

How are you?

I'm fine, mom, really.

We were pretty close.

Lois was 16 months older
than I was,

and then Monica, the baby.

Lois was rambunctious.
Lois was free-spirited.

She loved art, painting.

She loved to draw.

Did you get the postcard
I sent you?

We did.
I absolutely love it.

That summer, she was staying
with her father in Nevada city.

Isolated -- a teenager --
and she couldn't handle that,

so she wanted to be
with the Santa Cruz crew

that lived out there
and to be free.

I just...I worry
about you, that's all.

I'm fine, mom, really.

Look mom, I got to go.
I'll call you tomorrow, okay?

Okay. Alright.
Well, I love you.

At that age,
she thought she knew everything

and knew how to survive,

not really understanding
how naive she is to the world.

Hey!

This is my friend Terry.

Hi, Terry.
Nice to meet you.

I'm jeanine.

Lois went by the name jeanine.

It was just kind of a nickname
that she had gotten somehow.

She just thought it sounded
like a cool, beach girl name.

It's nice to meet you,
jeanine.

Hey, let me introduce you
to the rest of the gang.

Yeah, sure, that sounds
like a good idea.

She met Terry
just through the beach crowd.

He was a big guy, a tough guy
that appealed to the girls --

especially the young girls.

"Here's this big,
strong, bad dude

that'll be the one
that takes care of US."

As the night wears on, a house
party quickly gets underway.

But Lois isn't into it.

She was pretty conservative
as far as activity

because we did grow up
in a good, balanced home.

That's what we grew up with,
and that's what she was used to.

So she didn't stray far
into the activity

of that crowd in Santa Cruz.

Lois, being introverted,
makes some people uncomfortable,

including Terry Childs.

Something wrong?

No.

I'm just thinking
about home.

Yeah, I think I,
need to get some air.

Do you want
to go for a ride?

Sure.

We'll
see you later.

Claire thought Lois
had been messing around

with her boyfriend.

So her revenge to Lois was to
tell people her name was Lois,

not jeanine.

Because of the name -- with
going by jeanine over Lois --

Terry thought that Lois
was a police informant,

and the rumor on the street

was that he just committed
a big cocaine rip-off.

It's a hot summer night
in Santa Cruz, California,

and 17-year-old Lois sigala,

who sometimes goes
by the name jeanine,

is eager to learn more about the
alluring young man she just met,

Terry Childs.

Hey.

So where
are we going?

I know
the perfect place.

Problem is, Terry's convinced

he already knows
too much about her.

He found out that her name was
not jeanine, but it was Lois.

He thought that
she was undercover,

and that's when he decided to
take Lois up into the mountains.

Santa Cruz is beautiful --
the redwoods and the mountains.

That's probably what really
attracted Lois to being there.

What Lois doesn't realize

is that this isn't
a romantic getaway.

Who'd you
tell about me?

Excuse me?

Look, I know
you're a cop, Lois.

He truly believed that she
had spoken to the police

about a crime that he had
committed in the past

and was very,
very paranoid about this.

Let's go.

You're kidding,
right?

I said, "go."

You're going to wish
you never met me.

But I-I didn't.

I'm not...

I wonder where jeanine is.

She's already got
a mom, you know?

Don't sweat it.

Probably out having
a good time somewhere.

You're probably right.

Deep in
the Santa Cruz mountains,

Lois is in
a fight for her life.

She just kept telling him,
over and over again,

that, you know,
she would never hurt them,

that she loved them,

and he was high on drugs
and did not believe her.

And that's when he decided
to kill her.

Back home in sunnyvale,
Lois' mom, Pamela,

is eager to hear how
her daughter is settling in.

But two weeks after Lois left,

she is surprised to learn
that her daughter is missing.

What?

What -- what do you mean
she never came home last night?

That's -- that's not
like Lois at all.

When Lois didn't come home,

I tried to make myself believe
that maybe she got arrested

or was just with friends, maybe.

We all piled up into our vw bus

and went looking
for her in Santa Cruz.

Lois' family checks in
with her roommates.

I don't know.

Well, then, is there anyone else
that might have seen her?

Not that I know.

They stop anyone on the beach
and all around Santa Cruz

who's willing to talk.

She's about 5 foot 6.

She has hair,
it's about my length,

kind of blond-ish brown.

Darkness falls without finding
a soul who has insight

into where the quiet
17-year-old girl may be.

Meanwhile, in another
Santa Cruz neighborhood,

the parents of 19-year-old
Linda jozovich

are still grieving
for their own daughter,

who disappeared
nearly six years ago.

In all the years that followed,
each one of US sisters, I think,

and my mom and dad as well,
handled it differently.

They looked at what
may have happened

and held on to it
in different ways

and processed it differently.

I've heard people say,

"you just want to close
the chapter in that book."

And it's like, "I don't
want to close that chapter."

I just want there to be
an end to the story.

That's all I want.

Then, two weeks after

17-year-old Lois sigala
disappeared,

her family makes
a shocking discovery.

A newspaper had
come out that there was a body

found in
the Santa Cruz mountains

and there was a description
of the female,

the woman that was found.

The description sounds
an awful lot like Lois,

but it's not until police reveal
an item found on the victim

that Lois' mom
knows for sure.

The young woman we found
was carrying this photograph

in her pocket.

Those are my girls.

Yes, ma'am.

Can you excuse me
just a minute, please?

Just take your time.

No.

No!

No!!

I heard her scream,
and at that time...

...i knew
something had happened.

Until Lois' killer
is brought to justice,

her family will
never have closure.

It all hinges on how well

Terry Childs' secret
can be kept.

They knew.
They all knew.

They knew on the street.

When you're in that community,
word goes fast.

Even law enforcement knew.

After 17-year-old Lois sigala
is found shot to death

in the Santa Cruz mountains...

...investigators are counting
on her roommates

to provide information
about the night she disappeared.

Can anybody tell me where --
where Lois went?

Last person
you seen her with?

Anything?

And sure enough, they can.

Young woman: The last I saw,
she went off with Terry.

That was
the word on the street.

"I hope Terry Childs didn't get
his hand on her.

He's a cancer of the earth."

As detectives probe further,

it's not long before they get
a bead on Childs' location.

There's a park where a lot
of the guys hung out,

Terry and his crew,
and they knew.

They knew where he was.

That night, Childs is brought in
for a formal interview.

I try and learn
everything I can

about the person
I'm interviewing.

And in this case, it was a lot.

Terry Childs has been in prison

or in some kind of
custodial environment

since he was,
I believe, 11 years old.

He was a known
nuestra familia gang member,

though he was completely
and totally white,

which says something about him
as a character in prison.

He is, what I would describe,
as an apex predator.

So, um, what time
did you drop Lois
off that night?

I don't know.

Like,
1:30 in the morning.

I took her
to the beach house.

Well, how come her friends
didn't hear your car?

Didn't see her?

I guess
they were sleeping.

But they weren't.

With no alibi and a
violent criminal record,

detectives dig deeper into
their person of interest.

Soon, evidence against
Terry Childs towers over him.

Investigators find traces
of Lois sigala's skin

under his fingernails

and Lois' blood
inside his vehicle.

In march 1987, Terry Childs
is convicted

of the first-degree
murder of Lois sigala

and sentenced
to 41 years in prison.

I feel like
justice was served.

They wanted to know
what we wanted for him --

if we wanted life in prison
or the death penalty.

And, for me personally,
I feel like the death penalty

would have just given him
an easy way out.

As Lois' family tries
their best

to put this tragic
chapter behind them,

another Santa Cruz family,

that of Linda jozovich
still aches for closure.

Where are you, baby?

Through all those years
that we were waiting,

I had just sort of
left it up to god.

And so I just continued
to pray about it.

My mom went to see a psychic,

hoping that that would
give some revelation

as to where
we should be looking.

Eight more years pass
without any sign of Linda.

Then, just when it seems that
this secret will stay buried

in the Santa Cruz mountains
forever,

a mushroom hunter, walking along
the Lexington reservoir,

stumbles across
something disturbing.

He found a lower jawbone
and some ribs

that he believed were human.

Hold on.

Hello, this is sue.

After DNA tests confirm

the remains
belong to Linda jozovich

her parents can
hardly believe it.

What? What?

What, what, what?

My baby...

No.

S-S-Sue...

At least they understood

that she was dead
and wasn't out there,

so it put a period
on that particular chapter.

It's not a chapter
that is forgotten,

but it definitely gave them
a piece of the puzzle

they didn't have before.

No, no.

Still,
Linda's parents have no idea

how her body ended up
so far out in the woods

or who to blame
for her untimely death.

Meantime, inside
a salinas valley
state prison cell,

guilt is weighing heavily

on a convicted killer,
Terry Childs.

Terry was
very upset by Linda.

He thought that she would
come back to his cell

and just stand there
and look at him.

He absolutely felt
a sense of remorse.

He knew that poor girl
should have never died.

As Childs continues to fight his
demons, the years keep passing.

More of Linda's
remains are found,

but the mystery of who
killed her and why lives on.

They recovered the
skull, or part of the skull,

and maybe some more bones,
but her entire skeletal remains

were never
completely recovered.

Then, 28 years after
Linda jozovich's murder,

detectives are made aware
of some jailhouse gossip.

I was working in
the detective division

as a jail crimes investigator,

and there had been rumors

that Terry Childs
had mentioned that,

at some point
in time in the past,

he had killed this girl.

We only had the rumor that
Terry Childs had done this.

So we'd gone down there
specifically to talk to him.

How's it going,
Terry?

How do you
think it's going?

I need to ask you
some questions about a murder

that took place
years ago.

Her name's
Linda jozovich.

Never heard of her.

Would you mind
if I showed you a photograph?

Pretty girl, right?

He was a career
criminal,

so I spoke to him
like a career criminal --

in words that he understood,
in ways that he understood.

Her mother has cancer.

She would love to know what
happened to her daughter

before she dies.

If you know something about
Linda, Terry, let me know.

Not for me --
for her poor, sick mom.

I basically told him, I
said, "I have no evidence.

I have nothing.

I have a mom who wants to know
how her daughter died --

and why she died,
more importantly."

And I said, "you're the guy
who can tell her."

Shouldn't have happened.

What shouldn't
have happened?

28 years after
19-year-old Linda jozovich

was brutally murdered way out
in the California wilderness,

police suspect an inmate
at salinas valley state prison

could be her killer.

Shouldn't have happened.

What shouldn't
have happened?

We had
zero physical evidence --

nothing that ties Terry to the
crime or the crime scene at all.

This is our only
chance at this man.

We're not coming back.

We're not going to
get to come back.

Just tell me
what happened.

I didn't stalk her
or nothing.

She was just there.

Where was she?

Outside the store.

He was walking past the car
that Linda jozovich

who had just come
out of the store,

was getting into -- her car.

Terry had just
visited his mother

and had gotten into an argument
with her over who knows what --

I can't remember --

and left her house
in an absolute black rage.

He was so angry.

Linda jozovich happened to be
in the wrong place

at exactly the right time
for Terry Childs.

And he goes,
"I hit her so hard,

she didn't even know
what happened."

It's then that Terry
says he pushes Linda

into the passenger seat
of her own vehicle

and drives her high
into the Santa Cruz mountains.

There, along an isolated
stretch of highway 17,

Terry gives in
to his darkest desires.

No! Stop!

Take your hands off me!

He goes, "I took my belt
off, and I strangled her.

And then I stabbed her
until I got tired --

until my rage was gone,

I basically beat her,
stabbed her, and hurt her.

Just hurt her a lot."

Linda never had a chance.

And as she takes
her final breath,

Terry comes up with a plan
to keep his secret safe.

He pulled her off
the side of the road

down into the bushes and left.

And he took her car
into downtown San Jose,

where he abandoned it.

Detective breuss can't
believe his luck.

Suddenly,
he's got a full confession

in the 28-year-old murder
of Linda jozovich.

But can it be true?

It wasn't her fault.

She was just in the wrong
place at the wrong time.

It could
have been anyone.

He gave US, in great detail,
how he committed that crime.

There was nothing
on the table for him.

This was genuine emotion.

This was genuine
remorse from him.

On October 12, 2007,

Terry Childs confesses
to first-degree murder

and is sentenced to life
in prison without parole.

At long last, Linda's family

gets the call
they've been waiting for.

It's over.

There was a sense of relief

that he wasn't going to be
able to do anything else,

but it just was such
a foreign concept to me

that somebody could
take someone's life,

particularly in the way
that I knew

that he had taken
my sister's life.

I don't know how to categorize
his anger or his actions.

He's just a sick man.

What's more,
Linda jozovich and Lois sigala

aren't the only victims
of Terry Childs.

In April 2017,

Childs pleads guilty to
murdering two more young women,

one of them also
in the Santa Cruz mountains.

There are certain people in this
world that only know one hammer,

and that's how to kill people.

Terry Childs is one of those.

I can't go back and fix
Terry Childs.

There is not enough
of the king's horses

or enough of the king's men
to fix Terry.

He is who he is and will die
who he is in prison.

And he is that scary,
but my role in society

is to protect society
from people like Terry Childs.

Even behind bars,

Terry's connection
to Linda jozovich endures.

When we took him to court, he
asked if the family was there,

and I thought he was going to
throw up, he was so nervous.

He was so afraid.

He was so affected by what
he had done to that family

that he was embarrassed to
actually stand before them.

And inasmuch, he had written
a letter to the family,

specifically,
and gave it to Cathy silva.

He actually wrote
a letter to my mom

and apologized
to her in that letter

and talked about

if he could change places
with my sister

that he would,
to make it better.

But he hoped that by letting
her know how sorry he was,

it would help her to heal.

For years, Cathy lived
with the knowledge

that her sister's killer
was still out there,

unaccountable for his crime.

Finally, in 2017,

10 years after Childs
confessed to Linda's murder,

she decides it's time
to reach out.

After my dad passed away, this
February, this last February,

and it seemed like it was
a good time to enable myself

to walk what I've been
wanting to do for a long time.

I told him that I needed
to forgive him

and wanted to offer that to him,

that it wasn't
my place to judge,

that I wanted him to find peace

knowing that this family,
at least,

was not bearing...

...hard feelings.

I have closure.

I know...

...the beginning,
and I know the end,

and that's what's important.

And yet, it doesn't
make it any easier for Cathy

and the rest
of the jozovich family

to move on in a life
without Linda.

She missed out on
my kids and my sisters' kids...

...graduating from high school
and college.

She just missed
a lot of things.

I wish more that my mom
would have been able to...

...just be able to say
goodbye to her.