Original subtitles

This is the story of a fun-loving trucker...

He's just the funniest guy I've ever met.

Doug could charm the pants off a nun.

...and a classy lady...

Her and I clicked.

She fit in with all of US.

...who fall in love.

I remember how happy they were.

They were the model couple.

We honestly thought Doug and Rose would be together forever.

But when the good times die...

There's trouble in paradise here.

...laughter turns to tragedy.

Something bad was gonna happen that night.

You knew something was very, very wrong.

It's September 18th, 2010,

in Havana, Illinois,

and 46-year-old Doug Bailey is playing for the camera.

Waiting for Doug.

It was my dad's 80th birthday party.

We're all getting together, all of our brothers and sisters.

Birthday boy Jim and wife Bonnie

are surrounded by their children

for a photo to Mark the milestone event.

Doug is not only the baby of the bunch.

He's also the class clown.

To meet my brother Doug was like walking into a comedy club.

He had something funny to say all the time.

Doug was hilarious.

He's just the funniest guy I've ever met.

Even as a young dad in 1987,

he was the family entertainer.

My dad was a very fun person, very carefree.

Everybody that knew him, I think, loved him.

He loved kids. He loved old people.

Doug loved everybody.

It's always a big deal

when the Bailey clan assembles,

but this year is extra special

because Doug has brought along his new girlfriend,

39-year-old Rose Marie Kuehni.

He figured it'd probably be easier to bring her all at once

instead of having to introduce her to everybody separately.

Because we can be a little overwhelming at times.

Doug and Rose were polar opposites.

At first I thought, "she don't look like Doug's type,"

and then when I met her, I fell in love with her.

Her and I clicked.

Doug found him a college professor,

very well-educated woman.

I felt very happy for him.

Doug's a trucker, so they're an unusual match,

but they sparked right away.

Her grandmother lived next door,

so she was coming to see her grandmother.

And so Doug would help the grandmother do a lot of stuff.

Rose has a young son, and Doug is a big hit with him.

Closer!

And Rose is a hit with Doug's siblings too.

Brother David playfully muscles in

to stake a claim.

Doug was explaining some of the things about Rose,

and I said, "my god, Doug. You should marry her."

And she's going like this.

Just a year later, he makes good on that

for the wedding of the year.

Aunt Sheila?

What?

This is too cute.

Doug and Rose are getting hitched,

and they're doing it their way.

This is actually Doug's second wedding,

and he's keeping the mood light.

The theme is rednecks and vikings.

My brother Doug, ever since he was little,

he always made an entrance.

He had a shirt with a tie on it but no sleeves

and pants real high.

When my sisters and I were walking down towards the chapel

from this little bar that they had been meeting at,

I saw some guy walking towards me with a wet suit on

and the fins and a viking hat, and I looked at him, and I said,

"you have got to be Doug's best man.

There is nobody else that's gonna be doing this

except for Doug's friends."

The viking hats were something that Doug decided he wanted

because it would make people laugh.

He called it a redneck wedding.

I wasn't so sure about the redneck part,

but it was definitely weird.

Doug always enjoys a flirt,

even on his wedding day.

He turned a lot of women's heads.

Doug could charm the pants off a nun.

The ceremony reflects

the groom's unconventional personality.

The groomsmen enter wearing matching horned helmets.

Doug himself makes his arrival

with his headgear polished to a shine.

Rose throws herself into the madness of the occasion,

bopping down the aisle with her son.

While other brides might flinch at Doug's jokes,

Rose loves every minute of it.

Doug and Rose also take their vows

to one another's children.

The wedding was really awesome

because they involved all the kids.

You know, they joined hands,

and they were gonna be a family, one family.

That was amazing, and the boys were so happy.

But the eldest son, Douglas, isn't there.

He hasn't been close to his dad in many years.

I did not know he was getting married.

We had gotten into a bit of an argument.

At that point, I didn't really care to talk to him at all.

I just kind of learned to deal with it and live with it.

It was a day the rest of the Bailey family

will never forget.

I remember how happy they were,

the smiles, the look in their eyes,

the love that they had.

I was so proud. I was so proud of him.

After the vows,

the newlyweds have their first battle...

Over the cake.

Rose is always up for a good time,

but there are some lines even she won't cross.

She put her hair in a thing

so she wouldn't get cake all over her.

No.

Doug gets in the first shot.

Soon, it's all-out war, with the other guests joining in.

In the past, Doug's certainly been no angel.

Doug cheated on every girlfriend he had.

He said, "well, they're gonna do it to you anyways.

May as well do it to them first."

But everyone can see that this time, it's different.

We honestly thought Doug and Rose would be together forever.

We thought, "gosh, Doug. You really did it this time."

It's the day after Doug Bailey and Rose Kuehni

tied the knot.

Ninety beers. They went through...

The party never stopped,

and now the newlyweds and their guests are recovering

on turtle beach, overlooking the Mississippi river.

The morning after the wedding,

we're all sitting around in our lawn chairs.

Doug and Rose were just so... So happy.

Everybody was smiling, even with hangovers.

Sheila captures the aftermath

and bonds with her new sister-in-law.

She fit in with all of US,

so meeting her was amazing,

cause I felt like I had a friend.

This was the beginning of the rest of their lives.

Rose immediately brings calm

to Doug's former wild ways.

Right after they first got married,

they were a model couple.

He was an over-the-road truck driver.

When him and Rose got together, he decided to drive local

so he could be home every night.

And Doug throws himself into family life.

That little boy called him dad.

They had a very close bond.

They went to the races every weekend.

Set!

Doug spent a lot of time with that little boy.

They had the most amazing relationship.

He was really crazy over Doug.

But change isn't easy,

and his desire to be the center of attention is hard to resist.

...redneck!

A year into the marriage,

he tries to find an outlet with stand-up comedy...

...where the material isn't exactly family-friendly.

But he's not enjoying himself as much as his audience.

Doug seemed to not be his normal, fun-loving Doug.

I knew there was some trouble there.

Four years after their crazy wedding,

the good times are fading.

Doug is spending more and more time away from home,

and Rose isn't happy.

I think Rose was getting tired

of Doug's laid-back attitude because it just never ended.

And I think she was wanting him to change,

but that was not going to happen.

In November 2015, Doug gets himself into hot water.

Sheila spots a photo on Facebook of Doug kissing another woman.

And I went, "my god, Carol. Look at this. Did you see that?"

And she said, "yes. What the heck?"

I felt kind of sorry for Rose 'cause Doug was wandering again.

I think when Rose seen that picture

and it was on social media, it humiliated her.

And it's not just any woman.

Doug was seeing Brenda.

I about fell over.

Brenda's history with our family wasn't so great.

She had been married to Lisa's ex-husband.

I said, "wow."

Just "wow."

Hi, Brenda.

I thought maybe this would be just a little fling thing

and it would go away

and Doug and Rose would be back together.

Doug tries to convince Rose

it was just an innocent encounter.

That was just a bit of fun!

But Rose drops a bombshell of her own.

She is kissing me.

They're not married.

We went to the wedding. We had so much fun.

It was great.

It was, you know, this big thing,

and it wasn't real.

It was all fake.

I said, "you two really aren't married?"

He said, "no. We didn't sign any papers or anything.

I thought that we were married."

At the time of their wedding ceremony,

Rose's divorce to her ex wasn't final,

meaning the marriage was never legitimate.

For once, it seems, the player has been played.

Doug and Rose's wedding was a sham.

That just floored me.

Doug's love life may be uncertain to his sisters,

but Thanksgiving gives them the opportunity

to host their baby brother.

Doug, we don't get to see all the time,

so we're always excited when Doug comes into town.

Two days before Sheila is due to host the holiday,

she receives some surprising news.

Doug said, "sis, I got something to tell you."

And I'm like, "okay."

And he said that he was bringing Brenda to Thanksgiving.

That was kind of weird for me, you know,

knowing we were gonna have to spend the holiday with Brenda.

We knew it was gonna cause some conflict with the family.

But when they try to contact Doug,

he doesn't answer his phone.

So I text Rose. I said, "Rose, is Doug okay?"

And she said, "yeah. He's not feeling so good.

He's feeling a little under the weather."

Later, she said, well, don't worry.

I'll make sure he gets ahold of you.

I said, "okay.

What is that?

Rose doesn't mention anything about Brenda

or of Doug leaving.

I was confused.

I was so confused. We were all confused.

But the next day,

the Bailey sisters receive some great news from Doug.

He and Rose have made up.

We got a text, said Rose was coming.

It looks like Doug is going to keep them guessing.

So we didn't know who to expect.

Is he with Brenda? Is he with Rose?

What's going on?

But at least the family will be together again.

We're probably gonna feel a little uncomfortable,

but Doug can lighten any mood.

Doug Bailey and his partner, Rose Kuehni,

are invited to Thanksgiving dinner

with Doug's family in pekin, Illinois,

a seven-hour drive away from their Wisconsin home.

With the Turkey in the oven,

the family read on Facebook that they're not far away.

Doug said, "I'm at the world's largest truck stop,

and the little lady made me stop here on my day off."

But three hours later, when mealtime rolls around,

Doug and Rose are nowhere to be seen.

Doug and Rose were supposed to arrive around 3:00.

And no show.

I texted Doug, and I said, "where are you guys at?"

You know, and nothing back.

As the family begins to eat,

Sheila sets plates aside for them and tries not to worry.

It's very unusual for Doug to be late like that.

Doug is usually always on time.

It only takes two hours

to get from the Iowa 80 truck stop to pekin, Illinois.

We found it very odd that he hadn't shown up yet.

Something was weird. Something was up.

But then Doug posts again.

So I'm sitting there,

and I said, "did you just read that?"

Sounded like somebody that couldn't take anything else

and was gonna end it.

The update suggests happy-go-lucky Doug is suicidal.

I just didn't want to believe it.

I didn't want to think anything bad could happen to him.

Lisa tries Doug's cell.

You knew something was very, very wrong.

You just didn't know what.

But it's switched off,

and she can't get through to Rose either.

My god.

We were all getting so frantic

and just, you know, sitting on --

I'm waiting for Doug to --

I keep trying to text him, and nothing is coming back.

I said, "please, Doug.

Please contact anybody somebody.

Just let US know you're okay."

As the hours tick by, there's no response.

Try calling.

The family keep trying until, to everyone's surprise,

Rose answers her phone. Rose?

She said that her and Doug were having arguments

and he said, "just pull over. Let me out of here."

So she did. She pulled over and let him out.

What do you mean, he walked off?!

And so she drove off.

She said she felt guilty

so Rose decided to come back and pick Doug up.

Well, she said whenever she got to where she dropped him off,

Doug was not there.

Doug Bailey has vanished.

Sister Sheila decides to call the police.

I called the police station,

and I said, "I want to report my brother missing."

We do getting numerous missing-people reports

on a weekly basis.

Most of the time, people turn up within a day, hours.

They turn up fairly quickly.

They said, "have you called

all the hospitals and the police stations?"

And I said, "never thought of that."

So I hung up, and I called them all.

I called all the peoria hospitals,

all the pekin hospitals, the police stations,

you know, no Doug. No Doug Bailey.

The Bailey family mount their own search.

And in the meantime,

we're getting missing-person posters out.

We know where the exit was, so we went that way,

and we walked the whole creek line

and, you know, yelling and looking for cigarette butts

or beer bottles or something,

some kind of sign where Doug would've been there.

Even little Dougie went out looking for him

'cause he knew his dad was missing too.

The last known sighting of him was around my area.

It was not too far away, so I gather up my family.

I kind of felt this was a chance for me and him to reconnect.

And we would drive around

the last place that we knew he was.

It started to get more worrisome when nobody could find him.

Monday morning, I called the police again,

and I said, my brother hasn't shown up.

I want to report my brother missing."

Peoria county sheriff's office takes the lead.

After Sheila filed the report, we called Rose

because she was already back up in Wisconsin.

She was cooperative.

She was very detailed on what happened,

saying her and Doug were on the way down

and they got in an argument.

He got out of the car and walked in the woods.

Their next step is to try and locate Doug's phone.

When investigating a missing-persons report,

the first thing we do is ping the phone.

By triangulating the GPS coordinates,

that tells you which tower the phone was last used from.

The phone was last used in peoria county.

It was used by a tower that was very close

to where Rose had told US that he'd gotten out of the vehicle.

But it's a vast, rural area.

Doug could be anywhere.

So detectives call Rose again for more information.

She described the area off interstate 74.

She also gave US certain things

where she thought she said she saw, like, a logging operation.

She talking about going over a bridge.

Detectives are worried.

The situation looks bad.

He ran into the woods,

which would be typical of a suicidal person.

Police search the area

but 24 hours later have found nothing.

At that time, we started raising flags

because we were confident that the area

that the phone was pinging in, Doug was not there.

But something about Doug's Facebook updates that day

doesn't add up.

The last year or two, he doesn't post any words on Facebook.

He just shares memes.

And all of a sudden, the day he goes missing,

he's doing three detailed posts of where he's at,

saying he's done with the world and he wants to go down south.

And Sheila was very adamant -- that is not her brother.

It just didn't sound like Doug.

Why would Doug say,

"I stopped at the world's largest truck stop,"

when he does it every time?

He would never have said that.

He idolized his sisters.

Doug would not have just taken off

not letting US know anything.

He would not have done that.

It's been seven days

since police launched a search for Doug Bailey,

who's vanished after a fight

with his girlfriend, Rose Kuehni.

Doug's Facebook posts give detectives a lead.

One of the posts talked about being

at the world's largest truck stop, on i-80.

When I contacted Rose,

she said that her and Doug stopped there and got gas.

When we get to the i-80 truck stop in Iowa,

we see that there's numerous cameras.

It's a huge truck stop.

A lot of people coming in and out.

The manager was very cooperative.

We told him the date and time we were looking at

because of the Facebook posts and the cellphone pings.

We start looking at video,

and we see a red Chevy truck

that matches what we were looking for.

It appears to be Doug's truck.

We can see a partial plate, which matches Doug's.

We see Rose get out of the driver's seat,

and we also see a couple dogs

running and jumping around inside the vehicle.

We see Rose get out of the truck, come in.

It appears she uses the restroom,

walks out, gets back in the vehicle,

and leaves.

It appears that Doug is not in that truck at all.

It doesn't match Rose's story

that Doug was there with her.

While watching this footage, I see that Rose is lying to US,

because Doug's not in the vehicle.

But the truck's not empty.

You do see two big boxes in the back of the truck,

so I know that there's more to this,

and we know we need to get up to Wisconsin

and figure out what's going on.

Investigators travel to speak with Rose again.

Rose? Detective hoyle.

Rose's demeanor was a lot different when we showed up

than on the phone.

She was very nervous,

really acted like she didn't know what was going on.

And then it changed to almost distraught.

We could tell that she wanted to say something,

but she was being a little reluctant.

So we knew she knew something.

At one point, I said, "Rose, do you want US to find Doug?"

Rose said, "no."

Our red flags really started to raise.

Rose then just blurted out to US that "he was going to kill me."

So at that time, we told her,

"we need to probably move this conversation

to the sheriff's office."

At that point, to follow Illinois law,

everything needed to be recorded.

When we place Rose into the interview room,

we start recording.

We read her her Miranda rights

because at this time, she is a murder suspect.

I simply said, "Rose, start at the beginning."

Rose admits that she shot and killed Doug Bailey.

She claims she acted in self-defense.

Investigators are suspicious.

We didn't know if she was telling US the truth or not.

I definitely had some questions about her story.

Most self-defense murderers,

they call the police right after the fact.

They immediately call, say, "I was being attacked.

I had to shoot and kill someone."

Detectives ask her what she did next.

Rose tells police her son would be home soon,

so she had to move Doug's body.

Detectives realize they've seen this box before --

on the back of the truck in the security footage.

Doug was with Rose when she stopped for gas,

but he was dead.

After she wrapped the boxes, she kept Doug's phone.

But then something unexpected happened.

Investigators need to find evidence

to confirm or disprove her story.

But there's a problem.

When the police were doing their search,

they never found any blood evidence.

And then found out through Rose that she had cleaned it

and then she had repainted the entire room,

and that's how she covered up all of the blood spatter

and blood evidence.

None of these actions line up

with someone who was killing someone for self-defense.

It now falls on detective Watkins

to call the Bailey family.

And he said, "Sheila?"

And I said, "you're gonna tell me, aren't you?"

He said, "yep."

I said, "she did it, didn't she?"

And he said, "yes. She did."

I said, "what kind of a monster is she?"

I just sat there and couldn't say anything,

just stayed there on the bed and just...

Stared off into space.

I just...

I was devastated.

We didn't have the best relationship,

but I still would've liked to have talked to him again.

All we knew was that she shot Doug,

and we didn't know where he was.

Investigators realize that only by finding Doug's body

will they discover the truth.

And back in the interview room,

Rose reveals a whole new dimension to her story.

First thing comes to my mind is,

she definitely has a relationship with this guy.

It turns out that Rose has been unfaithful too.

She has been seeing 60-year-old Clarence Hicks for some time.

Rose and Clarence would get together and have sex

and then go back their separate ways.

They both were trying to get out of the relationships

they were in.

But neither one of them actually did.

And she asked him to carry out a very big task.

So we had to find Clarence

and find out where we could find Doug.

Four years after Rose Kuehni

supposedly married Doug Bailey,

she shot and killed him, put his body in a box,

and asked her lover, Clarence, to dump it.

She claims it was self-defense,

but finding Doug's body is the only way to reveal the truth.

They located Clarence Hicks, told Clarence Hicks the story.

Clarence Hicks said, "yes, I did dump a box."

Hicks tells police he drove to a mountainous area

near hazard, Kentucky...

...and flung the boxes over the edge of a cliff.

Two weeks after Doug's family alerted police,

his body is recovered.

Hicks took them to where the box was found.

It had exactly what Rose said it had in it.

One box had his personal property,

and another box had Doug Bailey's body.

Police locate two shotgun wounds on Doug --

one on his side, just as Rose said,

but the other is in his back.

Because of decomposition,

it's hard to say if it's an entry or exit wound.

It was important to get the autopsy done as soon as possible

because we wanted to see

if what Rose was telling us was the truth.

The autopsy confirms the bullet hole in Doug's back

is an entry wound, contradicting Rose's account.

Rose said that she shot Doug the first time in the side

and then shot him the second time in the chest,

which is completely opposite of what the autopsy revealed --

that Doug was shot in the back.

Detectives must question

every aspect of Rose's account.

Rose explained that she shot him with a 20-Gauge shotgun

in the side first,

and then he got up and started charging her,

and then she shot him again.

When you get shot by a shotgun, from my experience,

there's not much movement after that.

The way she says that he keeps charging her,

it didn't come off too believable.

Clarence insists

he didn't know his love rival was dead inside the box.

But Rose continued her deception that Doug was just missing.

Several days after she had killed Doug,

she's on his social media.

She's responding to text messages

and just trying to keep the perception that he's alive.

Detectives believe

that Rose prepared for Doug's death.

The fact that she conveniently for some reason

did not have her son on that same night,

to me, indicates some premeditation.

Because of the fact that Rose had a boyfriend,

I find it very hard to believe that this wasn't planned

long ahead of the night that she shot Doug.

I don't believe her story that night.

I believe this was a planned-out murder.

Clarence Hicks pleads no contest

to hiding a corpse and is sentenced to three years.

Detectives charge Rose Kuehni with first-degree homicide,

second-degree homicide, and hiding a corpse.

She pleads not guilty.

At trial in August 2016, she sticks to her claim

that she was a domestic-abuse victim in fear for her life

when she pulled the trigger.

Her defense team presents photos Rose had previously taken

of her face marked with bruises,

which they say are evidence Doug was violent with her.

They also play an audio recording

that Rose secretly made of an argument between her and Doug.

Then Rose herself takes the stand.

She testifies that she suffered abuse at the hands of Doug

for four years but felt helpless to leave him.

On the night of November 22nd, 2015, Doug advanced at her...

...so she grabbed the shotgun and fired to protect herself.

But the assistant d.A.

Believes the evidence tells a different story.

He says Doug couldn't have been attacking Rose

when she killed him

because he wasn't even awake at the time.

The prosecution tells the court

that Rose waited for Doug to fall asleep upstairs.

They argue that she shot him twice as he lay defenseless.

The jury finds Rose Kuehni guilty of hiding a corpse

but not guilty of first-degree homicide.

They don't accept that the killing was premeditated.

But they're deadlocked on second-degree homicide.

Prosecutors plan a retrial for second-degree homicide

and also offer Rose a plea deal.

She takes it and pleads guilty to aggravated battery

with intent to cause great bodily harm.

It comes with a recommended sentence of 10 years

plus five years for her conviction of hiding a corpse.

But the sentencing is up to the judge.

He gives her two years in jail

with credit for time served and good behavior

along with 17 years' probation.

Whether or not there's any history of physical

or sexual abuse on Doug's part was never proven.

I was shocked.

I thought this was an open-close case.

Doug's family are devastated.

I was very angry

that someone could do that to another human being

and then have zero repercussions.

My dad didn't deserve any of what had happened to him.

I don't believe the story that Rose had given.

I feel she planned this because she got by with it.

She got by with it.

The way she did it

and the way she planned... How to get rid of him --

that shocked me.

I mean, that's just completely cold-blooded.

She threw him away like garage.

I don't understand it.

The family has strong opinions,

but no one knows for sure what happened that night.

The only certainty is that Doug is gone.

My god.

There are no words to describe how much I miss my brother Doug.

Stepping back in time.

All those memories coming back.

What I miss most about Doug is his laughter,

his smiles, his jokes.

Our baby brother is gone.

The baby of the family is gone.

Look at him! Isn't he cute?

It was so final.

I hadn't gotten to see him or talk to him

for a very long time.

So that was rough.

I miss that I don't have the opportunity

to speak to my father.

I'd give anything to see him again.

One day, I will.