All language subtitles for The.Real.Murders.of.Orange.County.S01E05.A.Deadly.Double.Life.720p.HDTV.x264-CRiMSON[eztv.re]

I was on my regular
routine patrol route.

I noticed a vehicle
that was parked.

These people have been shot
ten, 12 times.

An astonishing murder
in orange county.

Who would want to kill
the doctor and the optometrist?

It's just unbelievable.

An enviable couple

stolen from their loved ones.

Was it a random act?

Maybe it was a-- some type
of a carjacking gone bad.

It could've been
a murder-suicide.

Basically the whole team,
the whole homicide unit,

was working
this high-profile case.

A cracked o.C. Fašade
would reveal

illicit ties
and deplorable motives.

Just because you're rich
doesn't mean that you don't have

skeletons in your closet.

Michael
the investigation has a new lead

from the orange county that
most people don't know about.

The orange county that people
envy is southern orange county.

The houses are new,
the cars are new.

The body parts are new.
Everything here is new.

Ken and Carolyn stahl

were the quintessential
o.C. Power couple,

living their best life

on the sparkling shores
of huntington beach.

This was a case about

the haves and have-nots

with disastrous
and tragic results.

The desire to be so perfect

creates enormous stress,
enormous pressures.

And for some people,
they just snap.

Of the nine girls in my class

from southern college
of optometry,

there was one from Michigan,
and that was Carolyn oppy.

There had been stories
that she'd been

a former beauty pageant
person.

She was beautiful. Everybody
wanted to be around Carolyn.

She lit up e-every room
she was ever in.

She's another transplant
to orange county.

An optometrist, very smart,
well-educated.

She and Ken met,

and she really liked him
because he was fit,

he took care of himself,
he was an anesthesiologist.

I never had a friend like Ken,

like, you know, a doctor,

or anything like that.

Most of my friends
are from the street.

But with him, he was just like
talking to one of my buddies.

So we'd go work out together.

For a guy at his age,
he was in great shape.

Carolyn had found
her match in Ken,

and together, they built
a wave-kissed lifestyle to envy.

They both looked like they were
having a really good connection

and a good relationship,
and I was like, "you know what?"

Like, "i-i wish
I had something like that,"

you know,
like the way they are.

She just seemed
like everything was normal

and everything
was going good with her job,

and that was her life.

Everybody thought

Ken and Carolyn were the perfect
orange county couple.

And then things changed.

Because of the affluent image
of orange county,

people assume
nothing bad ever happens.

But behind the scenes,
just because you're rich

doesn't mean that you don't have
skeletons in your closet.

And some individuals out here
in south orange county,

can have that sense
that they may be above the law.

In 1999, one of the areas
I patrolled

was along the Ortega highway.

The Ortega highway
runs about 44 miles

from San Juan capistrano
into the riverside county line.

At night, it'd be very desolate,
very dark.

It has always been
my opinion that

Ortega highway was nothing
but a dumping ground

for criminal evidence.

Such as murdered victims.

On November 20, 1999,

I was on my regular
routine patrol route.

At about 10:00,

just as I was approaching
the eight-mile marker,

I noticed a vehicle
that was parked

near the call box.

I noticed the passenger
front door was ajar.

I-I kept on thinking that,
you know,

there's something about that
vehicle that doesn't look right.

As I approached the,
driver's side of the vehicle,

I noticed the driver's side
window was blown out.

There was a male subject
slumped over to his right.

And I noticed a female subject

that was slumped over
to her left,

kind of positioning
her head on his lap.

One of her shoes
was lying on the ground.

And I also noticed that
there was a large smear of blood

running alongside
the right rear quarter panel

leading back
in to the passenger's side.

There was no signs
of moaning. No groaning.

There was just a large amount
of blood splatter

on the inside of the door.

I got on my, radio and
called it in to a dispatcher.

In the '90s, I was working

a number of murders
off of Ortega highway.

When I got there, there was
a male in the driver's seat

that had been shot
and he was deceased.

Then there was a female that
was in the passenger's seat,

and she also had gunshot wounds
and was deceased.

We preliminarily identified them
with their identification.

It was Kenneth stahl
and Carolyn oppy-stahl.

While I processed
the crime scene,

I made note of the fact
that Ken stahl

was in the driver's seat--
still had his seat belt on--

and didn't seem to have tried

to get out of the way
or do anything.

He just was slumped over--

had been shot and slumped over.

Unlike Carolyn, who--
apparently, it looked like--

had got out of the car
and tried to flee at one point,

and then turned around
and retreated back into the car.

Well, the shoe was back here
by the back,

so probably she got
at least that far.

So the two of them had
completely different reactions

to the shooting.

First thing we thought is it
could've been a murder-suicide.

We ruled that out
fairly early on.

There was no firearm in the car.

So obviously,
someone had-had shot

and killed them and then left.

When I found out they were
actually murdered, I thought,

"well, maybe it was a-- some
type of a carjacking gone bad."

When we looked into it further,

you can see her purse
is still on the floor intact.

Mr. Stahl had his watch and
his-his wallet and everything.

So it didn't look
like a robbery.

It looked like
something else had happened.

They see those shell casings...

...which suggest
it's a revolver.

Which means a six-shooter,

and these people have
been shot ten, 12 times.

So that means somebody
shot them, reloaded,

and shot them some more.

This is a-a level of violence

and, you know, cruelty

that you don't see
in southern orange county.

The stahls' desirable
orange county dream life

was cut cruelly short,
leaving only fragments

of grief and helplessness
for their loved ones to grasp.

The image they once reflected

suddenly splintered
on the pavement

into a thousand
untouchable pieces.

If it were a normal death,

I could accept it.

But the violence of it
and the uncertainty of it

and the puzzlement of it is--
it's very distressing to me.

And it's hard for me
to accept that.

I miss her not-not
still being around.

I just remember
how kind she was.

That was a fun trip,
when we went to Tijuana.

Back when we were
all much thinner.

And younger.

She was beautiful.

When you hear something like,

you know, "your friend died,"
it's always a shock,

but when you find out
she was murdered,

it's-it's just unbelievable.

You know, I was tripped out.
I just couldn't believe it.

I was like,
"I've just seen Ken."

You know? "We just spoke."

I just could not believe it.
I was in disbelief.

There was a lot
of sadness and wonder.

Crime scene photos.
They're still hard to look at.

Y-You wouldn't be human
if they, if they were,

but it shows you
that these are human beings

who really died
and-and who really suffered.

You know, if a wife is killed,
you can look at the husband.

If the husband's killed,
you can look at the wife.

But why are they both killed?

Who would want to kill
the doctor and the optometrist

and leave all their money
and jewelry behind in their car?

It just made
absolutely no sense.

The reality is,
in the beginning,

it was a cluster.

Everybody was chasing
this story.

I think people
were a little on edge.

Because of the location
and the lack

of physical evidence
or eyewitnesses,

they had to start from ground
zero with the strongest piece

of evidence that,
in many cases, we have,

which is motive.

But what could possibly motivate

such a horrific act
against this model o.C. Couple?

Perhaps that perfection
was only on the surface,

and a deeper look would reveal
dark secrets hidden beneath.

There was no inkling,
on my end at all,

that there was anything between
her and Ken that was bad.

I had no clue.

As we looked
into Ken's background,

and what Ken was doing,
and we talked to their friends

and people
that worked with them,

and one of the things
that we came up with

was that he was
possibly having an affair.

This wasn't the only girlfriend
that he had,

it wasn't the only affair
that he'd had through the years.

Maybe Ken was not really Ken,
you know,

wasn't the Ken that I knew.

It turns out that Ken
and Carolyn keep

keep this very, very typical
orange county veneer

of sunshine and happiness

over a very, very troubled
marriage.

Detectives dug into the stahls.

They found that Ken
was living a double life.

Some people
live by appearance only

in south orange county,

keeping up with the joneses.

I was associated with a gang.

I'm not part of that anymore.

"Why is he asking me this?"

He wasn't sure that,

any of this was serious,

until he read in the paper
that they were killed.

Ken and Carolyn stahls'
seem

was cut brutally short

when an evening drive
on a lonely highway

ended in a nightmare.

But the stahl's
false fairy tale

fractured against
the scrutiny of investigation,

revealing a marriage

that had been
secretly decaying for years.

Near the end,

after about ten or 11 years,

things seemed to have
really gone cold.

And it appears to be a loveless
and sexless marriage.

He just wanted
someone to talk to.

He didn't have any friends.

And he would use, like,
electrical work

to get me over there.

This is when
I started figuring out

that he was really going
through a bad depression.

At some point in 1998,
Carolyn went to Ken's office

and went through some folders
and some drawers and stuff

in front of patients,
and she just went off.

And I was like, "well, there's
got to be a reason, man.

Come on."

He's like, "well, no,
there's nothing.

I don't know what-what--
she thinks I'm cheating."

I didn't suspect it about Ken,

that he would ever, like,
even be with any other girls,

or anything like that,

because of the relationship
that I'd seen

that him and Carolyn had.

The philanderer.

Well, that's Ken stahl.

He has one, two, three...
I...

No one seems to know
how many affairs.

Things don't seem like
they're working out.

I said, "well, I thought
you guys were doing good,

"you know, and everything
was cool with you guys.

"But I didn't know you were
going through some stuff.

Get a divorce
if you're not happy."

And he goes, "we are.
It's not that big of a deal.

You know, whatever."

Detectives realized

that Ken had been
leading a double life,

one as the happy
huntington husband,

the other as
a habitual cheater.

Carolyn seemed
to have had heartache

in a prior marriage as well.

So why did she stay with Ken?

William:
For many reasons, I prefer
to be not identified on camera.

I remember things
going through the yearbook,

but it almost
doesn't seem real.

It's been so long.

Carolyn's first husband,
before Ken,

must have started
seeing someone else.

It resulted in him sending her

a single piece of paper
through an attorney

where she only had to sign
on one line to be divorced.

With a failed marriage
in her past,

despite the infidelity,

Carolyn is determined
to make her next marriage work.

I don't think
she went into a marriage

thinking about divorce.

I think she was
probably always thinking,

"it's gonna get better.

"It's-- I can make it better.

I can fix it."

That's the Carolyn I know.

Carolyn finds
other distractions,

and ways of dealing
with her pain.

She goes on buying sprees.

"Money doesn't give you
happiness,"

is what everybody says,
but, it sure makes it nice.

Keeping up with the joneses,
per se.

Some people live
by appearance only

in south orange county.

When we did a search warrant
on Ken and Carolyn's house,

we found a multitude of
very expensive items.

There was, like,
$30,000 in clothing.

The tags, and in the plastic,
just hanging up in her closet.

Carolyn would buy herself
beautiful gifts

for Christmas, birthdays,
Valentine's,

and she would tell her friends
that they were all from Ken,

when in fact, they weren't.

And it was just Carolyn
keeping up persona

that her life was great,

keeping up
with the affluent people

in south orange county.

I think Ken was
afraid to get divorced,

because he was afraid
of the disruption

to his life
that that would cause.

Even though people knew
about Ken's philandering,

he still had a lot of freedom
to do what he wanted.

Had Ken's womanizing ways

finally caught up with him

and given someone
a motive for murder?

Most times, I-If an affair
is gonna be

a motive for a murder,
it's gonna be something current.

So, we were out
trying to track down

any current girlfriends he had,
maybe put some perspective

into why he was
in the middle of nowhere

on the Ortega highway
that night.

The investigation
followed a path

as dark and winding
as the Ortega highway itself,

as detectives tried
to shine some light

on who was behind
the midnight murders

and the hidden life
of Ken stahl.

I was sitting at my desk

and I got a phone call incoming

from, Richard Anaya.

Towards the end of 1998,

he called me over.

And I was like, "you sure
you want me to come over?

It's 12:00 A.M."

"Yeah, you know,
p-plus my smoke detector lights,

it's bugging me."

And I was like,
"all right, well,

I'll come over
and check it out, you know."

While he was working,

Dr. Stahl noticed
some gang-related tattoos

that he still had,

and asked him if he had ever

been involved
in drive-by shootings

or anything like that.

And I said,

"I was associated with a,
with a gang,

"way back in the day.

I'm not part of that anymore."

And he was like,
"okay. So, now what?"

And he goes,
"well, no, no, now just,

you know, just bear with me."

He's like, "I just need
someone to talk to."

And then, finally he asked me
if I knew anybody

that would kill his wife.

And if I did,
he would give me $75,000.

And I was, I kind of
tripped out about that.

You know, I was thinking, why is
he, why is he asking me this?

You know, but he said it
in a joking way.

Why is he joking about this?

Never would I think that he
would ever even think of that.

You know?

And I was like, "man, Ken."

I said, "I don't know
what it is you're doing,

but you need to stop, man."

Richard Anaya wasn't sure that,
any of this was serious

until he read in the paper
that they were killed.

Now at least we had an idea

that he was soliciting someone

to kill his wife in the past.

So it started looking
more and more like this was,

in fact,
a murder-for-hire scenario.

Ha

had once allowed
a disturbing offer

from Ken stahl to slide.

But news of the stahls' double
homicide made Anaya wonder:

Could Ken's dark proposal
back then have been for real?

At the time when he did
tell me that, he was laughing.

He goes, "I'm just
playing with you."

He goes, "you know
I would never do that."

He goes,
"we joke about everything."

He's like, "you know
I would never say that."

He never brought it up again
after that.

Well, as soon as I found out
about Ken and Carolyn's death,

it crossed my mind
that maybe he found somebody

that would kill his wife.

But why would he be there
with her?

Didn't make a lot of sense

that someone would hire someone

to kill their wife
and then get themselves killed.

We were missing something.

You always feel a-a pressure
to solve a case.

The pressure I've always felt
is for the family.

US losing her
was beyond any of our control.

Just happened.

I felt a really true emptiness

because I had
so many questions unanswered.

I think Carolyn
deserved better,

sadly.

You're really doing the
investigations for the family

as much as,
justice for the victim.

We didn't go home
for several days.

We were continually
chasing leads,

because there's
really nothing I can say

to make it any better.

We can at least try
to tell them what happened.

The detectives were working
around the clock,

but at this point
in the investigation,

there wasn't close to enough

to explain a murder for hire.

And so detectives looked
deeper into their lives.

At the crime scene,
one of the things

we collected
was Ken's cell phone.

And it had a call record
of calls that were received

and calls that were made
the day of the murder.

And a number of the calls
were to and from,

a woman by the name
of Adriana vasco.

When I talked to Adriana,
she seemed to be

upset at the news.

She told me that
she was a receptionist,

and that she worked
for Ken stahl at his

pain management clinic--
nothing more than a friend.

That she just had
a platonic relationship

with the doctor.

Adriana vasco is from
the orange county that

most people don't know about.

She comes from the grittier,
working-class orange county.

She said at the time,
they were talking

about a computer
that she was having repaired.

Ken was helping her out
with the money for this

computer repair.
She said that she had

no idea where they were
going that night, other than,

than Ken had told her
he was taking Carolyn

out for her birthday.

And we just thought
that was nonsense.

My gut was telling me
she was being deceptive.

So we decided we needed

to sit down and talk to her.

We just showed up at her work.

She was startled at first,
but she agreed to talk to US.

So we-we transported her up
to one of our s-substations.

She continually said
that the only communication

was about the computer.

She would not tell US
anything, really.

We got to really start digging.

Then we started, like, pushing
a little harder on her.

And then we went
into their relationship.

And she finally admitted that
they were having an affair.

In a place like orange county,

the only thing deeper
than the ocean

are the pockets
of the privileged.

It turned out that Ken stahl
wasn't the only man

that Adriana vasco was dating

during the months leading up
to his tragic demise.

Back in 1999,
I was a very different person.

I was going through a divorce.

So I wanted what I didn't have.

I wanted a bad girl.

And I met Adriana vasco...

In the summer of 1999.

Adriana was quite
the femme fatale.

She hung out
with seedy characters.

And was kind of a seductress.

What I believe that Adriana

was looking for was somebody
who was extremely wealthy,

where she'd never have to work.

So she could have
the finer things in life.

My take on Adriana is:

She's got a lot of street smarts
and she's a master manipulator.

One of her gifts is making her
way through life using people,

particularly men.

Ken was just another
in a long line of people.

Detectives wondered
if Adriana saw Ken stahl

as a golden ticket
to the charmed life

of a south orange county
Princess.

During my relationship
with Adriana,

I believe she was good friends

with her ex-boyfriend,
Dr. Stahl.

She thought that he was actually
gonna divorce his wife

and marry her.

I don't know what world
she was living in.

That's a fairy-tale life.

Adriana was like, "look,
why don't you leave your wife,

and be with me all the time?"
And Ken won't do it.

And this creates
a lot of anxiety

and a lot of hurt for Adriana.

Adrianna wanted Carolyn taken
out of the picture.

Once Adriana fessed up
to her affair with Ken stahl,

a possible motive was
right there in plain sight.

Her insatiable thirst

for a taste of
the orange county good life.

And detectives knew she'd been
in touch with Ken

on the day of the murder.

Everything we did
circled back to Adriana.

What we believe is she wanted
to take Carolyn's spot,

and we felt
that she was the key.

All of a sudden the
investigation has a new lead.

The shock of Ken
and Carolyn stahl's slaying

still lingered nearly a year
after they were snatched

from the sunny shores
of huntington beach,

and their hopes and dreams
along with them.

Carolyn missed out on a lot.

She would've been
an awesome mom.

She was a giving
kind of person.

She was really good about
sending my kids birthday cards.

She sent me Halloween
cards, Thanksgiving cards.

She was so thoughtful,

enough for me to always know
she was there and remember her.

That's really sad that we have
to talk about her as a memory.

Although the case had
been open for nearly a year,

detectives were now closing in
on Adriana vasco,

as they continued
to interview her.

She was quick to play victim,
crying to the cops

over the loss of her lover boy
and his wife,

but detectives pried her
to come clean

about the layers she had
not yet chosen to reveal.

Adriana told US she was having
an affair with Ken stahl,

but it came to an end because
he wouldn't divorce his wife.

And then we found out
that she was now

with a guy named Greg Stewart.

Adriana moves on sexually.

She stops having a physical
relationship with Ken,

but they remain close friends
and confidants,

and Ken remains her sugar daddy.

For a five year period,

he was basically providing
everything for her.

Money for rent, money for food.

Bought her two cars.

He was constantly
taking care of her,

and Greg was okay with it.

It becomes almost creepy.

Adriana moves on
to another guy,

yet Ken keeps coming over.

It's like this weird threesome.

We finish the interview
with Adriana,

and we decided to take her home.

And she leads them
to this house in westminster,

and this is the home
of Greg Stewart.

Greg Stewart came
from the opposite side

of the oc tracks
as Ken stahl.

This was Adriana's world--
the rough side of orange county.

I don't know,
it just got into my head.

I just said, "you know,
I'm gonna ask him something."

So I go, "Greg."
I go, "if you were me,

who would you be looking at
for these murders?"

I wanted to see what
his reaction would be.

And he goes,
"I'd be looking at Tony."

We were like,
"Tony? Who's Tony?"

So he goes,
"Tony's Adriana's boyfriend."

He was a maintenance guy

at the apartments she was
living up, up in anaheim.

And basically, the whole team,
the whole homicide unit

was working this case,

and nobody had heard about Tony.

From that point on,
it completely turned.

Police also run Adriana's
criminal record.

Find out she had, a traffic
stop, a dui or something,

and the passenger
is Tony satton.

We sent a couple
of investigators

over to the apartment to try
to find out who Tony was.

They ended making contact
with the managers.

He's a handyman.

He blows into town
from north Carolina,

talking about how
he's killed people,

and, you know,
building himself up

as this real bad guy.

We end up pulling phone records

from the home
where Adriana was staying,

and we learned that the very
first day we interviewed her,

she made about five
or six phone calls

to Greenville, north Carolina.

So now we're thinking,

okay, Greenville,
north Carolina. Maybe it's Tony.

So, we take that photograph
that we have,

and we fax it to the pitt
county sheriff's department.

The bulletin arrives, lands on
the desk at a station house

at a station house
in north Carolina.

Deputy comes in for work.

He sees the picture,
and he recognizes Tony satton

as somebody he knows
as Dennis godley.

Dennis Earl godley clearly had
something to hide

by using the alias Tony satton.

This was the Mark
of a career criminal.

Dennis Earl godley was
a very bad guy.

Weapons possessions,
narcotics possessions,

robberies, larcenies.

He was in custody in Virginia

for a robbery that he'd done
in a convenience store.

At this point we thought,

this could be the individual
that killed the stahls.

We decided to talk
to Adriana again.

See what she had to say.

The suspected love triangle
was made more sinister

with the inclusion of Tony
satton, aka Dennis godley.

This looked like a recipe
for murder,

and Adriana was at least
aware of the plan

if not the mastermind herself.

Either way, it was time
to crack open this case.

Adriana agreed to have
a computer voice

stress analyzer test.

It's a basic form
of a lie detector,

or it'd be somebody being
deceptive.

She did fairly well
with most of them,

but there was one question
that she showed

an influx of anxiety.

But that was deceptive, because
her voice went off the charts.

And that's when
my partner Brian said,

"tell US about Tony satton,"

and her face went
completely white.

And her eyes...

You could tell we hit a,
we hit a nerve.

There's something there.

And she started crying,

and when she started crying,

we couldn't get anything else
out of her.

It's like a coping mechanism
that she has to--

when she's under stress--
to kind of withdraw.

We could tell we weren't
getting anywhere with her.

We had to make a judgment call,
so we decided to arrest her.

We decided to arrest her for
the traffic violation warrants

that she had out of la county.

While Adriana's locked up
on these traffic warrants,

the cops are now scrambling
to build the case.

That's when my partner and I,

we flew to Virginia.

It's time. Let's go speak
to Dennis Earl godley.

Unless the prosecutors can
come up with some new evidence,

she was gonna walk free.

The case is in jeopardy
of collapsing.

A pair of cold, dark eyes
stared back at detectives

from Dennis Earl godley's
mug shot.

Were those eyes the last
to see poor Carolyn stahl

crumple and die
beside her husband Ken?

And had Ken's philandering

brought this awful end
upon them?

Had godley killed them
in a fit of jealousy?

Detectives knew it was time
to make godley talk.

Me and my partner, we flew out
to a jail in Virginia,

and we sit down
with Dennis Earl godley.

This is a...
A really cold character.

And the detectives look at him,
and he's just got dead eyes.

It was kind of like
a chess match.

He was kind of wanting
to know what we knew,

as much as we were trying
to find out what he knew.

But he made a lot
of admissions.

He admitted that he was
in California

at the time of the murders,

he admitted that he had
had a relationship

with Adriana vasco.

He admitted
that he had met Ken stahl.

Lot of admissions,
but no confessions.

But one thing that was strange,

right at the end
of the interview, godley says,

"if I was to admit
that I did this,

could you not put me to death?"

We can't speak for
the district attorney's office,

and we kind of left it at that,
but we thought that was strange,

why he would say
something like that.

So we fly back

and we think it's him,
but we need more.

Ken was a womanizer,

but did that call
for his murder?

And Carolyn seemed
to have no hand

in her own unjustified
execution.

Detectives pushed on
to deliver justice

for their grieving families.

The clock is ticking.
They know they have

to jump on this lead.

Adriana's gonna get
out of jail at any minute,

on those traffic violations.

They decide to scare Adriana

through her sometime
boyfriend Greg.

The detectives go
to Greg's house,

and they say, "you know what?

"We found Tony.
And I don't want to scare you,

but maybe your life and
Adriana's life's at risk."

And one day,
we get a phone call.

I pick it up, it's a collect
call from L.A. county jail

and it's Adriana
on the other line

and she wanted to talk.

So we drive to L.A. county jail

and we interview her.

Finally, Adriana cracked.

With no one left to manipulate,
and no way of knowing

whether godley had already
implicated her,

Adriana's only possible way out

was to tell cops
her side of the story.

Adriana's very apologetic.

She's trying to do
the right thing.

Now, at this point,
she laid everything out.

She told US everything.

The truth was the most depraved
explanation possible,

a nightmarish reality
that detectives had considered

but hoped wasn't
the stahls' true fate.

Ken wanted his wife killed.

Adriana says
that he would hound her

over and over and over
and over and over for years.

Dr. Stahl had inartfully

and-- consistent with him
having no street smarts--

clumsily approached people
and asked them

if they would do a hit for him.

He even asked her
to kill his wife.

She refused.

So Adriana introduces Ken

and godley.

They met at a parking lot
in huntington beach.

Ken hands Adriana
an envelope full of cash,

$20,000 or $30,000,

and Adriana hands it to Dennis.

The plan is now set in motion.

So, the night
of November 20, 1999,

Dennis Earl godley shows up
at Adriana's apartment.

He says, "let's go.
We got a job to do."

Ken takes his wife out
for her 44th birthday dinner,

to a Mexican restaurant
in San Juan capistrano.

Adriana and godley depart

at a gas station that's
just right off the 5 freeway

and the Ortega highway.

And the plan is to wait
for Ken to come by

with Carolyn in their car.

As soon as Ken and Carolyn drive
by, they pull up behind them,

they follow them up
the Ortega highway.

As Ken stops...

...Dennis says,
"keep going and make a u-turn."

They park on the other side
of the road

and godley gets out of the car.

Crosses the-the Ortega highway

and approaches Ken's car.

All of a sudden, she hears

gunshots.

One of the most shocking and
disturbing things Adriana said

was that Carolyn was still alive

after Dennis
had unloaded his weapon.

Carolyn was able
to exit the car,

horrified, probably,
'cause she'd just been shot

by some unknown subject in the
middle of the Ortega highway.

We think that maybe godley
pushed her down,

and she crawled back in the car.

Then godley walked up...

...executed Carolyn.

Shot her
in the back of the head.

Tony gets back
in the car with Adriana

and he tells her,
"well, I killed them."

She says, "well-well,
what do you mean 'them'?"

So, he killed
both Ken and Carolyn.

The plan was for Carolyn
to get killed,

not Ken.

She says, "well, that wasn't

"what was supposed to happen.

Why did you kill Ken?"

And Tony says, "well, he didn't
follow directions.

Our theory is,
godley's a savvy criminal.

He knows that if he allows

Ken to live, there's
a potential witness right there.

He's not gonna leave
a witness alive.

Godley's calculation is, "this
guy's not gonna hold his mud,

he's gonna crack."

And the guy's stupid enough
to have paid him

most of the money
before the murders.

Ken got shot in the face
and in the shoulder.

He was mortally wounded
pretty much instantly.

I think he just saw the gun,
probably heard the sound...

...and then that was it.

Ken stahl was the master
manipulator all along.

His solicitation of Richard
Anaya held just a glimpse

into the conspiracy
he had fostered for years.

Was he the guy
that I thought he was

or was he just being nice to me
because he was gonna ask me

to take care of Carolyn?

Later on,

godley forced Adriana
to go with him

down to huntington beach pier.

He dropped the gun
in the ocean there.

With Adriana's confession,
detectives now

finally have
enough evidence to arrest

Dennis godley,
aka Tony satton,

and Adriana vasco

for the murders
of Ken and Carolyn stahl.

She gets transported
back to orange county

to await trial.

Well, the defense filed a motion

to suppress our interview
with Adriana.

Adriana's lawyer
says it was coerced.

And that her Miranda rights
were violated,

that she had indicated
she wanted a lawyer

and she never got a lawyer.

This is the lynchpin
of the prosecution's case.

They can't link her
in any other way

except through her own words.

And the judge

throws out the confession.

So now,
the prosecution doesn't have

a statement where she puts
herself in the middle of it.

And unless the prosecutors
can come up

with some new evidence,
she was gonna walk free,

the next day, as I recall.

At this point, the case is in...

Jeopardy of collapsing.

The judge threw out
Adriana's confession.

All of it was wiped out.

She could've walked freely
out the door,

so now we d-- we didn't
know what we were gonna do.

Adriana vasco's
twisted o.C. Fairy tale

had shattered when her bad boy
boyfriend killed her rich lover

along with the intended
target, his wife.

But will the judge's ruling

give the guilty wannabe Princess
a way out?

Not all is lost.

The prosecutors,
they have a backup.

On January 2, 2001,

I got a jailhouse interview

with Adriana vasco.

Getting suspects to talk to you

in a double homicide case...

...just didn't happen.

I can't say what was inside of
her head when she talked to me.

Maybe she thought she could,

if she put
this side of the story out,

it would make
everything go away.

I don't know.

Adriana has no idea

that the orange county register
jailhouse interview

is going to come back
and haunt her.

She provided a lot of
detail about the murders.

Adriana told me

that godley was jacked up
and that

he was threatening her.

She said she tried to stop it,

she said, you know,
she covered her eyes.

She didn't pull the trigger,

but she put herself
at the scene

when her boyfriend, Dennis
godley, gunned the couple down.

And she's smart,

but she's not smart enough
to know that even though

she paints herself as a,
a-an innocent lambikins

that got forced
into this by godley,

putting herself there
in the middle of it

is a really critical piece
of evidence.

That wasn't all the prosecution
dug up on Adriana.

Her ex-boyfriend Scott kasoff

revealed another slip
of the tongue.

She told me that she was
involved with the shooting.

Dr. Stahl, Adriana and Tony
got together,

formulated that Tony
was gonna kill her,

and she wanted to be there
to witness it,

to make sure that it happened.

The following day, I went
to the sheriff's department

and I reported
all the information.

And after that, I was requested

to testify in open court.

So now they have
Adriana's Internet lover

who can also back up
what she said to the newspaper.

So two secondhand confessions.

So, a few months later,

the jury trial
for Adriana commences.

Adriana and her lawyer
have to roll the dice

and they have to rely
on sympathy for Adriana.

And that means
she has to take the stand.

And one of the challenges
in this case is you're trying

a-a female defendant
for a double murder

that didn't pull the trigger,

that's a mother of two.

She was up there
and she cried for three hours.

I know there is not anything
that I can do to bring them back

and I wish there was.

Forgive me, please.

The jury did not sympathize
with Adriana vasco.

She is convicted
of double murder

and sentenced to life in prison

without the possibility
of parole.

Miss vasco, of course,
didn't take it so well.

There was, you know,
a flood of tears.

She wanted to take
Carolyn's place.

And now she's in prison
for the rest of her life.

Dennis struck a deal.

And the deal was
he would confess

to the murders, in exchange
for a life prison term,

and that's what he took.

The irony of the whole thing

is that Dennis Earl godley never
did a complete life sentence.

He ended up dying in prison
from cancer.

At the sentencing,
family members come forward

to give victim impact
statements.

And people talked
on behalf of Carolyn

and much they loved
and missed her.

Nobody came on behalf
of Ken stahl.

Every day I think about, you
know, what their options were.

He just manipulated people

to get what he wanted.

If he would've filed
for divorce,

he'd still be alive today.

What goes around comes around,
and guess what?

Karma's a bitch.

Beneath the fašade of palm trees

and ocean spray
in south orange county,

privileged playboys
may hide dangerous motives.

But trying to get away with
murder might just put you

on the wrong end of a gun
on a dark and twisting highway.

Carolyn oppy, real special girl,

beautiful girl.

Beautiful in heart,
beautiful in spirit.

And she was a good friend to me.

It's just too bad
she's not with US.

Through this
whole investigation,

Carolyn was
the only true victim.

That was very satisfying,

to bring closure
to Carolyn's family.

'Cause like I said,
she was their--

her family was devastated.

I certainly believe justice
has been served here.

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