Original subtitles

This was an isolated location.

She's gone home. She's not here.

In this rural environment,

to have a robbery in which the cashiers were missing,

this is very unusual.

At this point, it's all sinking in.

It's bad.

This is one of the worst crimes I've ever seen.

Rusk sits in east Texas

in the soft rolling hills and piney woods.

Probably about two hours north of Houston.

It's a type of town with the courthouse square,

all the old shops and buildings around it.

It's really picturesque, very, very friendly people,

you get to know most of the people around town.

A lot of timber, a lot of dairies,

and a lot of small truck farms.

Very peaceful.

Not as much crime as in other parts of the county.

In this particular crime...

...it was like the entire town had been violated.

We lived in the suburbs of Houston

and then we moved here to rusk.

I love the town. I love the smallness of it.

The safeness... It was all there.

Nikki was in the 9th grade.

She was the middle child.

She was not your kid to go sit down

and play in the corner.

She was active.

She got into everything.

She was in drill team,

and she was on the basketball team, and softball.

One time, she was throwing a ball

up and down in the air,

and that ball went up in the air and come down,

hit her right smack in the middle of the mouth,

knocked out her front tooth.

And by the time we got to her on the field, she looked at me.

She says, "mom, you're embarrassing me.

Get off field."

I just dropped.

I knew we were doomed.

So, from that point on,

we just played softball and softball and softball.

When she met Aaron Paul,

it was love at first sight, I guess.

And that went on and off

from the 9th grade to the 12th grade,

and then they were together the whole senior year.

Her senior year,

Nikki got a lot of offers from colleges to play softball.

I'm telling you, I think you throw harder

than some of the guys on the boys' varsity team.

You don't have to tell me, Aaron Paul.

I already know.

So, um... did you think any more about

those scholarship offers or...?

Yeah.

Yeah, okay. And...?

And... I'm gonna take bossier's.

It's not gonna that bad.

It's less than a two-hour drive.

Okay, you think... okay.

Is that Richard?

Hey, Richard, do you want a ride?

No, that's... That's okay, Nikki.

Don't worry about it.

Richard, come on. Just get in the car.

All right. Thanks, Nikki.

Nikki was known in school,

if you needed a ride, call Nikki.

Nikki was always the one that was out to help whoever.

Nikki would give you the shirt off her back

if you needed it.

After high school, she did go to bossier,

and it wasn't quite what she wanted it to be.

And she hung up her glove.

Nikki came home from college,

and then Aaron Paul comes in.

It was a fairy tale.

I mean, he proposed to her in the middle of a parade.

They bought a house and had planned to get married.

They were gutting and redoing this home,

and he worked on the oil rigs,

so he come and stayed at our house.

Everything was rolling right on cue like it should be.

Nikki wanted to pay for Aaron Paul's ring.

"I want to pay for it."

This was an argument going on between US.

"I want to pay for his ring."

But Nikki's never worked a day in her life. Never.

And I'm looking at her telling her this.

She says, "I'm just gonna get

something on the weekend and do... "

And she said, "it'll be fine."

Bdj's was a convenience store

that had a little lunch counter attached to it,

but it was somewhat isolated

from the rest of the stores in the rusk area.

We met Amy in church.

Amy and Nikki become friends,

and that's how she got the job.

Hey, Amy.

Thank you.

You, have no idea how much this means to me.

Nikki, don't mention it. I'm happy to help.

Besides, I needed the company.

Yeah, I was gonna ask, do we get customers?

Careful what you wish for, Nikki.

Come lunchtime, you'll wish it were this quiet.

Hi, Ken. Hi, Amy.

Who are you?

I'm Nikki.

The softball player. That's right.

The softball player. She's working here now.

I won $10.

Wow, that's great.

Cash or tickets? Like I have to ask.

Tickets, please.

I knew Kenneth when he was late teenager,

and then tragically was in a car wreck...

...that left him brain damaged.

He tried to work but had trouble maintaining employment

and basically just rode around town on his bicycle

visiting with people

get used to him.

He basically lives.

Someone has to make sure you're safe.

The convenience store was remote,

but it's a safe town.

I knew Amy,

and I knew the people that owned the store.

Nothing had ever happened in our town.

Like, nothing.

So, I never thought twice about it.

Nikki and Aaron Paul's wedding day

had been set for October the 11th.

Nikki was having all of the girls in her wedding

at our house

taking wedding pictures that whole weekend.

My house looked like a tornado had hit it.

Hey, you. Hey.

Where you going? I have to go

help Amy close tonight.

Okay, I will probably be asleep when you get back.

Okay, not with those hands.

Bye, mom. I love you. Thank you so much.

Be safe. I'll wait up.

Thank you.

Go to bed. Okay.

Aaron Paul had just worked straight 12 hours

and he had drove in,

and he had been up quite a while,

so he was tired.

Night. You, too.

We're the type of parents that we never went to bed

unless all of our kids were home.

I don't care if Nikki's 19,

so long as she's still living at home,

we were gonna be awake.

Well, for some strange reason, I went to sleep.

I dozed off and leaned over on the side of the couch.

Come with me, and I'll show you

how to close things up.

Okay.

It's not exactly rocket science.

So, at the end of the night,

you press these two buttons.

Drawer opens up,

you take it out, take the back room to count.

You don't want anybody seeing you counting it.

Got it? Like...

- Hi, Ken. - Hi, guys.

Okay, you try it.

Perfecto. you got it.

That's it?

That's it.

Alright.

I got it. -Thanks.

Got any winning tickets today, Ken?

Only $2.

But that's enough for two more tickets.

It sure is.

Hope you got your lucky quarter.

Thank you.

It was a typical night at work.

And then, things got much worse.

All of a sudden, I jumped.

It was 11:32.

Nikki wasn't home.

And I knew something was wrong. I knew it.

I just knew something was wrong.

I jumped up, and I went straight to the kitchen,

and I tried to call her cellphone.

She didn't answer.

Nikki's voice: Hi, this is Nikki. Leave a message.

And it was very cold-blooded,

all the death, destruction, violation.

This is one of the worst crimes I've ever seen.

I went straight to the convenience store.

All the lights were on.

All the gas pumps were all on.

Everything was all on.

Nikki's car was there, but I didn't see Amy's car.

Nikki?

Nikki?

Amy?

Todd!

Have you seen Amy?

No! Have you seen Nikki?

No.

I called and I called and nobody answered.

Maybe they're at that house that Nikki's fixing up.

Unh-unh.

No, they wouldn't have left the store like this.

How long have you been here?

Just a couple minutes.

They were supposed to close the store an hour ago.

Amy's husband just sort of had a blank look on his face,

and I guess he realized that,

"okay, there's more to it than this."

At this point, I'm looking I'm looking to see

if there's jewelry because my daughter

never went anywhere without earrings.

Her jewelry, her necklaces or something.

I'm looking to see if there's some type of a scuffle.

Nothing.

I never noticed that the the box was gone from the cash register.

Amy's husband did.

Then it hit me.

I went straight to the phone.

I remember telling my husband "she's gone.

She's not here at this point.

And it's all sinking in. Something...

You know, it's bad."

The Texas rangers are called in

when local authorities don't have the manpower, resources,

or the experience to handle some of the cases

that might come up in a more rural or small area like this.

The cherokee county sheriff's department called

and requested my assistance.

Well, I got to the crime scene,

made a survey there in the store.

Two clerks were missing.

I noticed that the cash drawer was missing from the register.

The security camera was pulled down from its mount

and hanging by a wire from the ceiling,

very much indicative of a robbery.

In this rural environment,

we may have a robbery or a theft from time to time,

but to have a robbery in which the cashiers were missing

and believed to have been kidnapped,

this is very unusual.

Anything you can think of?

It wasn't long.

She only worked here for about three months.

Who's bike?

It's Kenneth's.

Kenneth vandever. He's is a local man,

he's, touched.

Touched how?

He was in a car accident.

He's got a brain injury.

He's harmless.

He's diminished mentally.

He would not hurt them.

Well, he's part of this somehow.

They all are.

We know that both Nikki and Amy are missing

as well as Amy's vehicle,

so we've got a bolo out on the vehicle.

Kenneth vandever was also missing.

We've got multiple search units out,

both ground search and aerial search from dps helicopters.

By this point in time, dps was coming in,

but nobody's telling US anything,

but I could hear scanners,

and I knew to try to stay close to the one cop car

that was pulled up in there.

Did they find anything? Is she okay?

What happened? I don't know.

Dps helicopter en route.

Estimated arrival 00:40 hours.

All units, county route. 2434.

Reports female, apparent gunshot wound.

911 calls came in from some residents.

The homeowners called and reported

that a young lady who had been severely injured

was there and needed help.

N-No.

It's Nikki.

We don't know her status.

Emts are on the way.

What about Amy?

I don't know.

And they said she's been found. She's been shot.

My word.

That's a parent's nightmare.

I hit the concrete. I was screaming.

When the officers arrived at the scene where Nikki was,

they found her on the front porch.

She had collapsed after knocking on the door,

banging on the door and asking for help.

She had an obvious gunshot wound to her back,

was bleeding profusely.

The priority was saving her life.

They called for air ambulance

and transported her out of the county

to emergency surgery in another town.

I remember getting into the hospital.

I remember people flying around me

every which way doing this, doing that.

Ivs and taking x-rays.

People were moving so fast.

Then I can remember the first time

that my mom and my fiancú came into the room,

and I still had not gone back to surgery.

I just broke down.

I still remember telling her,

"don't... We ain't got time to cry.

We got to fight this."

And they brought in a whole team and did surgery.

I had a collapsed lung,

and my ribs on the left side were broken.

The wadding from the bullet was still stuck in my back,

so they had to remove that clean all that out.

And it had taken away all the muscle of my scapula.

So they had to go in and clean all that

and get all the debris out of it.

The surgeon that performed the surgery had walked out

and told my parents that

the muscle that was built up around my scapula and in my back

is what helped save my life,

for the bullet did not go all the way through.

It got lodged.

So, I think that playing softball,

that's the only sport I did

it helped build the muscle up.

Hey, it's okay. It's okay. It's okay, Nikki.

- Baby, mommy's here. - I'm here.

That's our girl. I'm so sorry.

Amy and Kenneth?

Did they find them?

Um... I don't know.

Nikki.

What happened?

After Nikki come out of icu,

she just sit up in the bed,

and she went to tell him the whole story.

We're about 15 minutes from closing.

We have already taken out the trash for the night,

and Amy and I were talking about dinner

and what we're gonna eat and that sort of stuff.

And Amy had walked over to the coolers

to look at stuff that was in there

that she was gonna take home that night.

Kenneth was sitting in the booth

that was kind of on the other side of the store,

and I was standing behind the register.

Where I was standing at,

I was able to kind of see the whole store,

and in my side vision,

I had noticed these two figures.

They were wearing masks,

and one of them was holding a gun

and pointed it at me and hollering,

"give me the money. Give me the money."

So I kind of stood there in shock.

It was like time kind of froze for a few seconds.

We just closed the register down,

and I know there wasn't much in the register,

so I looked over to Amy

and was kind of in shock, like, "what do I do?"

That's when they realized that I was not

the only one in the store.

Get your ass over here!

Amy had stepped forward and punched the button

on the register to let it open,

and one of them pulled out a money bag

and told her to load it up.

While she was loading the money up,

Kenneth didn't really understand what they were doing.

Get up, Ken!

They hollered at him, but called Kenneth by his name.

I knew that them calling him by name,

that these guys are from around here.

They start motioning, pointing the gun at US

and telling US that we need to go.

"Let's go."

So pleading with them,

trying to get them to take my vehicle,

take whatever they want to take.

Just leave US at the store.

They were not having it.

All three of US start walking out towards the front door.

I was really praying that somebody was gonna

pull into the store, and nobody did.

They tell US that they want the keys to Amy's car,

and then they pointed the gun at US and told US to get in.

Come on, let's go!

I knew that they looked familiar,

one of them had a ski mask that covered the whole face,

and the other guy...

...i could see his eyes.

I knew I knew him.

Yeah, you know who I am, Nikki.

He pulled off his bandanna.

It was beunka.

Beunka went to my high school.

He played football with my fiancú.

I was not friends with them on a day-to-day basis,

but I knew about him,

and I knew that once he took off his mask

and he revealed himself completely to US,

he doesn't plan on just letting US go.

They stop in a pasture

that is two to three miles off of highway 69.

There were woods surrounding it.

This was an isolated location.

It was a location where no one could be seen or heard

unless someone just came up on.

Get in the trunk.

Get in the trunk!

Beunka decided that Amy and Kenneth

were gonna get in the trunk

and I was gonna stay out of the trunk.

I was left with both of them alone,

and I knew in the back of my mind

that it was probably gonna be trouble.

There's something I want before we go further.

No.

S-St...

Beunka raped me.

It was awful.

But I knew that if I want to survive

and if I wanted to get out of this,

that I had to just close my eyes and let it be

and let it get over with.

And that's what I did.

After beunka raped me... Hurry up.

...we go back to the car.

He opens up the trunk... out of the car!

...and Kenneth and Amy climb out,

and it just kept escalating.

This is crazy.

Tell them we need to go home!

Stay over there! No!

- Stay there! - Get on the ground!

Face that way!

- Face that way! - Stop! Don't touch him!

Put your hands behind your back.

Put your hands behind your back.

Beunka looks at me and Amy, and he says,

"we're gonna have to tie y'all up

because y'all probably will get somewhere

before we get to our buddies,

and we can't take that risk."

They start pulling out stuff

like they're gonna try to find a vine

or something to tie US up with.

Just tie US up with our shirts.

Take your shirts off. Take them off now!

Hurry up!

I'm thinking if he ties up their shirts,

then I could probably get out of it if I had to.

If I had a chance to run,

then we can untie ourselves with our shirts.

- Stay there! - It's night, and I...

They didn't tie Kenneth up.

- Let me go home! - Hurry up!

They told US we needed to face that way.

That way we can't see where they're going.

Shut up.

Shut up with all that crying! I don't want to hear it.

Please. Please, I need to take my medicine.

Shut up! Shut up! I want to go home.

- Shut up! - Amy.

- Kenneth! - Shut up!

Kenneth!

Don't point the gun at me!

I'll shoot you!

Kenneth!

Beunka starts hollering,

"we didn't hit anybody, did we? We di...

We're just trying to scare y'all.

We didn't hit anybody, did we?"

Nobody got hit. Nobody got it.

Shut up! It's dark,

and I need to go home.

I will shoot you!

And next thing I know, the gun goes off again.

- Amy! - Kenneth!

Ken, no!

Why did you shoot me?

Kenneth!

Amy!

You shot me!

You sh...

Just breathe.

I thought my arm was blown off.

I thought half my back was gone.

I couldn't breathe. I was gasping for air,

and I can remember looking at Amy,

and she was on the ground, too.

You dead? You dead?

Say something or I'm gonna blow your head off!

Wait, wait! I'm talking!

It was like all the dirt and everything

just blew up around her.

I got really quiet and really still.

Something came over me where I needed to play dead.

Nikki, you dead?

Yeah, she's dead.

After they walked off,

I must've blacked out.

Whenever I came to,

I remember not being able to see

anything directly in front of me.

I was laying in ants,

and I can feel them just crawling all over.

And it's crazy because I guess...

My fighting mode kicked in.

I rolled over to a tree,

and I used the tree to help me stand up

because my hands were still tied.

Once I got stood up, I was able to untie myself.

I never looked back at Amy or Kenneth.

I just figured they were gone.

So, I took off walking up the same road

that we had pulled down.

I'm looking down this long, dark road,

and I see lights,

and I'm thinking, "there's where I need to go.

I need to go there because I can get some help."

Felt like my left arm is blown off.

So I'm walking, holding my arm, gasping for air the whole time.

I can barely breathe.

I was thinking nothing but surviving.

I finally get to a house, and I crawl up on the porch,

and I kind of knock... Like, banged on the doors

as much as what I could.

I just fell across the porch.

I couldn't move, but it was relief.

I knew then that I made it.

That's the last thing I remember.

Then I woke up here.

I remember being in icu

and the detectives coming in and talking to me.

Hi, Nikki.

I'm ranger flores.

Can I speak with you for a moment?

Did you guys find Amy and Kenneth?

Amy's alive.

I can remember finding out then that Amy was alive.

And I argued like, "no, she's not."

I can remember her coming in

and seeing me in the icu.

My god. You're alive.

It was relief knowing that she made it, as well.

Shots were fired.

Both young ladies collapsed.

At that point, both young ladies thought the other one was dead.

The two suspects then leave in the vehicle.

Nikki passes out.

Amy got up and went one direction for help.

Later, Nikki got up and went a different direction for help.

And again, both young ladies believe the other one was dead.

Kenneth?

Kenneth was a very kind-hearted individual.

He was the type of person

that tried to get along with everybody.

It's been devastating on the vandever family.

We need your help, Nikki.

Amy was able to give US a description,

but not an identification.

She said she thought they went to rusk high.

The principal gave US those.

That's him.

That's beunka.

You sure?

Yeah, I'm positive.

He removed his mask,

so I knew I knew him.

The other one stayed masked the whole time.

His eyes were pretty distinguished.

Like, I... those eyes, I can remember them.

When I saw the picture,

I knew that was him.

It's Richard.

Is that Richard?

Hey, Richard, do you want a ride?

Richard Cobb was about a year younger than me,

and he went to the same school,

and I was friends with his older brother,

so I saw him quite frequently.

Richard Cobb.

Nikki was able to pick out the two suspects.

They each had a criminal history.

Cobb had previously stolen a vehicle

from a church parking lot.

Adams had a juvenile history,

and now police were on the trail of Adams and Cobb for murder.

There was an individual that contacts,

the local justice of the peace

and said that Adams and Cobb are together at this person's house.

And that's where the police found Adams and Cobb.

Adams submits to the arrest. Cobb resists.

They're both taken into custody and taken

to the cherokee county sheriff's office,

then, an interesting sequence of events develops

as far as interrogation.

Richard Cobb invokes his rights to remain silent.

He's taken back to his cell.

They then get beunka Adams.

He waives his rights and gives a statement.

Adams admits to being there,

being involved in the robbery, kidnapping, the girls.

He did not confess to the sexual assault.

He claimed it was consensual,

but he still tells enough

to make himself a party to murder of Ken vandever.

But he didn't fully admit his role

then, Adams is taken back to his cell.

They take him where he passes

in front of Richard Cobb's cell.

A short time later,

Cobb sends a note to a jailer

that he wants to speak to the ranger,

and then he gives a full confession.

When their trials were set and we went to court,

it felt like a never-ending process.

I was on stand it seemed like a long time.

I was okay being in the same room with both of them.

I don't think I was nervous.

I wanted them to listen to me and hear

that I was there talking and they did not win that night.

Both of them received the death penalty.

Adams was executed in April of 2012.

Cobb was executed in April of 2013.

I know there's a recovery process,

and I know that there's ways that everyone has to do things.

But for the first couple of years in my life,

I was very nervous staying at home alone.

I would sleep with a gun beside me.

Of course, over time, has gotten better.

I don't live in that night anymore.

I haven't allowed that night to overpower my whole life.

Nikki's had a tough life ever since this happened,

but she continues to keep going.

And she got married to Aaron Paul.

We kept the date to get married,

we did get married on that day.

I have two beautiful children today.

The good lord has blessed US.

Things may not have went in life the way that I had set out,

but I'm happy where I'm at today.

People want to relate me to being a victim.

And I was a victim that night.

But I also like to tell them that I went into it as a victim,

and I came out of survivor.