All language subtitles for Episode 08 Three Miles on Castle Rock Road

In the news business,

we cover stories of the horrible
things people do to themselves,

and to everybody else, on a daily basis.

As a journalist, you try to
detach yourself from that.

But there are some that stick with you,

and this was definitely one
that stuck with all of us.

It was sickening...
Just turned your stomach.

It was just incredibly brutal.

The crow Indian reservation

encompasses 2.3 million acres

and it is the largest
reservation in Montana,

and happens to be
the fifth largest reservation

in the nation.

It's a very different world.

It's sparsely-populated.

It has this very wide-open, lonely, quiet,

and sometimes a desolate feel to it.

You can drive for hours

without seeing another car
pass you on the road.

April 17th, Steve Peterson made
his monthly drive up to Montana

to check on several head of
cattle he kept at a ranch.

During this drive, there was a
part on the road on highway 212

where he could turn off and
head north and relieve himself.

So he pulled off at that specific point

that particular day.

It was well off the road,
well out of sight.

My god! My god!

He looked down and he saw
it was a woman.

She was naked and she'd been beaten badly.

Steve went back to his pickup
and grabbed a sleeping bag,

and his first compulsion
was to wrap her up,

put her in his pickup,
and get her some help.

But he said she was in such bad shape,

it was impossible for him
to get her in the pickup.

He sees a car coming,

so he starts flagging down the driver,

and as luck would have it,

it was an officer with
the bureau of Indian affairs...

The b.I.A.

And that's when officer cottingham

sees Lynn lying on the road.

I have three children,

and my middle child
is roylynn rides horse...

We call her Lynn for short.

She had a beautiful smile.

She was a beautiful person,
inside and out.

We grew up together

and kind of just always thought
we were sisters.

Roylynn was kind of like a peacemaker...

She just wanted to make friends
and wanted to be loved.

She wanted to be a nurse practitioner

because she loved babies.

She tried to get into college,
but then she met Eric.

When she met Eric, she was real happy.

She thought she found the guy.

When I met him, he was really quiet.

To me, he just didn't seem
like her type.

But she wanted someone to love,
she wanted someone to love her.

She got pregnant in 2013.
She was really excited.

Eric was working at coal strip mine,

and she's like, "trista, me
and Eric, we found this house.

It's a big house.
We're going to be renting it

and we get to move in a few weeks."

She was happy at first.

But the relationship between
Lynn and Eric, it was rocky.

Eric was jealous.
He was very controlling.

Every little thing that Lynn would do,

he would have to have a say in it.

They had their highs and their lows...

Moments of arguing, fighting.

But then it would go back to normal.

And it just kind of slowly
got out of hand.

Lynn became different...

She was pushing me away...

And I did my best to talk to her.

Mom! Sit.

I am.

Stop cleaning. I've got it.

I've got it. It's okay.

Did you cut yourself?

Yeah.
Pregnancy brain.

Where did you cut yourself?

I looked and she had
a big bruise under her arm,

and I said, "Lynn, what happened?"

And she didn't say anything.

And I knew that Eric hit her.

I said, "you need to leave right now.

You just need to come with me."

And she said no.

She just insisted that she stay there.

She was afraid of him.

And I don't think she knew
how to, like, cope with it.

We encouraged her...

"Hey Lynn, that's not right.
That's not how we get treated."

But the reason why I think
she stayed was Eric was because

Lynn really loved him and cared for him.

She had so much faith in him

that he wasn't who he really was.

Lynn and Eric came
and stayed with us the weekend.

That night, she went into the kitchen

and I saw bruises on her again.

And I asked her, "did Eric do that?"

And she didn't say anything again.

She didn't answer me.

They had plans to go somewhere
that next day,

and I said "Lynn, you should
stay home tomorrow."

Don't go with him."

And she didn't say anything.

She went back to their room
and I went to my room.

The next day, we were hoping

that Lynn would stay home
with the baby,

but she left with Eric
and they took the baby.

Hey, it's roylynn. Leave a
message and I'll call you back.

I called Lynn's phone.

It would just ring, go to message.

I kept leaving messages...
Nothing.

Lynn wouldn't call.

So I was like uneasy about that.

I kind of knew Lynn was in trouble

and I didn't like that feeling.

Nightfall came and I couldn't sleep.

And I started praying.

And I asked the lord to bring
Lynn and her baby home safe.

We were sitting in the newsroom one day,

and we'd heard that a woman
was found severely beaten

on castle rock road.

There was really no evidence
available at the scene,

but she was still alive.

The woman was able
to tell the b.I.A agent

that she was at the kilfeather saloon

earlier the night before
with her boyfriend.

And that's what sent
agent cottingham to the saloon

to try to get the surveillance video.

Hey, boss.

I'm agent cottingham.

I'm investigating an attack
on a young woman.

According to what she told us,
she was here last night.

Were you working?

Nope.

Do you know who was?

Nope.

Is there anybody else here
I could talk to?

Nope.

That camera work?

Agent cottingham asked the bar owner

to download the surveillance video

that was inside the saloon
the night before.

What's the problem?

It's not working.

And why not?

Don't know. Guess I'll have to
call the company.

How long will that take?

Well, there's the phone.
Go ahead and call. I'll wait.

Thank you.

So while they were trying to get

those technical issues ironed out,

the agents started talking
to patrons in the saloon.

They did find out that
roylynn and Eric had fought

the night before.

That she was visibly upset,
that she was crying.

And so that set them on a path,
"where is her boyfriend, Eric?"

I was visiting my mom and my sister,

and about five, my phone rang.

It was the police.
"We're here at your home.

You need to come home now."

And I didn't say anything.
I hung up.

I hung up and I didn't tell
my mom and my sister.

I just up and left.

And when I got home, the police
were already in the dining room.

Why don't you have a seat?

They told me that they had found Lynn.

She was flown to a hospital
in salt lake city.

But I was like, shocked.
I didn't know what to think.

Fog in the morning:
My mom came over

and she was playing with my kids
in the dining room

and she got a phone call,
and she started screaming.

So I ran to her and I said,
"mom what's wrong?"

And she said,
"something happened to roylynn."

And we're thinking,
"well, if this happened to Lynn,

where are Eric and their baby?"

They did a Amber alert on the baby.

I was like this can't be.
It's like a nightmare.

And I need to, you know, wake up from it.

Fog in the morning: Right away,
we thought it was Eric who did it.

We were all at my auntie Ernie's.

Everyone was just praying.

And then somewhere
amongst everyone, a phone ring.

It was Eric.

Eric said that he was going
to come and shoot up the house.

He said, "I'm coming there"

and I'm going to kill all of you guys.

My uncle informed the cops,

and then the cops found Eric
barricaded inside the house

with Eric and Lynn's baby.

Eric, drop the gun!

Get off my property!

Or I'll start shooting!

You hear me?

Go! Now!

I think they had Eric
blocked off in that house

for like five or six hours.

Eric! Gun down!

Put the gun down, Eric!

We all went to where the cops
were and we waited.

When we got to salt lake,
her doctor told us

she lost a lot of blood.
Her kidneys failed.

She was on dialysis machine.

She was on all kinds of machines.

Roylynn was not only beaten badly...

She had been set on fire.

She had an accelerant, gasoline,
poured on top of her.

She inhaled that accelerant,
so when she was lit on fire,

the fire actually burned inside
her mouth and down her throat.

She was burned with
second and third degree burns

over 45% of her body.

And those burns were bad enough,

but you also have the contrast
with the colder temperatures.

It was very chilly that night...
Probably in the 20s.

So not only did she have
the damage from the burns,

she also had severe frostbite
on her legs as well.

She was in exceedingly critical condition.

My husband went and saw her
and he came back

and he didn't say anything...
He was quiet.

He didn't tell me how Lynn was
and I didn't ask.

I just refused to go in and
I stayed out in a waiting room

and I prayed.
I prayed for strength.

Why would someone do this?

Why Lynn?

Just a lot of whys and no answers.

They investigated Eric.

They searched the car

and they said there was nothing
at all in there

that belonged to Lynn.

Fog in the morning: They didn't
find nothing of roylynn.

No DNA... nothing in there.

How could that be?

Lynn drove that car...
I mean, they shared it.

We thought like, " he cleared everything.

He cleaned it out.
He didn't leave a trace."

When investigators talked to Eric,

I think they thought they would
get a pretty good line

on what happened.

Where were you two nights ago, Eric?

Went to a restaurant with my girlfriend.

We had a couple drinks.

The kilfeather saloon?

Where else can I go around here?

You know, your attitude is not
going to help you.

You're already looking at
attempted murder here.

Attempted murder?

Is that what that bitch said?

That I tried to kill her?

Come on, man.

Look, I'll be honest...

I've put my hands on her before.

I have.

Okay?

I ain't never tried to kill her.

Ever.

So you were with her
at the kilfeather saloon.

Yeah.

And then you got into
an argument,

and you drug her out to that gravel road

and you lit her on fire.

What I want to know is between there...

And the restaurant...
Wait, wait, wait.

What did you just say?

It's not over for you yet, okay?

If you help me,

maybe you can get
a plea deal out of this.

Did you get into an argument?

Maybe she said something...
She mouthed off.

It rubbed you the wrong way...
No! No, no! Wait!

And then you wanted
to shut her up for good.

Wait!

What do you mean lit her
on fire? Where is she?

Eric, listen to me!

You don't get a second chance.

Where is roylynn?

What happened to her?
Tell me, is she okay?

This was a really
difficult case for investigators

in those early days,

because where Lynn was found
is a very remote, desolate area.

It's not like in town
where you have traffic cameras

at the stop lights...

This is wide-open space in rural Montana.

So they're dealing with
a lack of evidence.

They're dealing with a lack of motive.

They're dealing with a lot of unknowns.

They had a lot of questions.
They had to ask and they didn't

really even know
who they had to ask yet.

After the feds cleared Eric,

he didn't call and say,
"hey, how is my son?

Hey, is there anything I can do?"

He just went ghost.
We didn't know where he was at.

After he got his car back, he just left.

Eric's mom lived in Arizona,

and I believe that's where
he went back to.

We would try to get updates

from the feds that were involved,

because we didn't know anything at all.

And it was just kind of quiet.

I mean, we didn't hear nothing.

But we still thought
it was Eric who did it

because he took her to the saloon.

When I first got to Utah
and I went in to see Lynn,

it was hard.

She was burned everywhere.

I remember looking at her,
thinking, "is this Lynn?"

I couldn't even
I mean, you just stand there

and you just cry and cry and cry.

But I think we all just had a lot of faith

that she was going to get better
and go home.

Family came,

and then they came back home to Montana,

'cause they had jobs
and they had families.

My husband said,
"I need to go back and work too,

but I'll come back."

And I said, "okay."

And I was all by myself over there

at salt lake, at the burn unit.

I was in the waiting room by myself.

I couldn't go in.

Her doctor came out.

She said Lynn was scared.

And that was what made me go in.

I closed my eyes
and I walked up to her,

and I said, "Lynn, I'm here."

And my eyes were closed.

And I said, "Lynn, I'm here."

And I told her I was there.

When I opened my eyes, I saw her eyes.

Her face was all burned...

She had no nose, she had no lips.

Her eyes, she could see,
barely see with one eye

'cause she lost the other eye's sight.

You couldn't recognize her.

I had the nurses play gospel songs.

I could see her feet move to the music.

And I would talk to her.

I tried my best not to cry
in front of her,

or my voice to even like,
you know, shake, or...

I tried so hard to be strong.

She was like in and out of surgeries.

She went through surgery
three times a day.

Then she had frostbites
on her knees and her feet.

Her fever was really high

and they said that the fever
was from the frostbite.

So they brought the papers
and I signed it,

and they took her out.

When she came back, she she had no feet.

I was crying.

It was so hard.

There was no evidence

but the video surveillance
from the saloon.

So once the technical issues
were ironed out,

the officers were able to watch
this video,

and they started to see that
there might be somebody else

they could talk to that might
lead them to the truth

of what happened to Lynn.

And that set them
on a totally different path.

Just a second.
Let me cue it up.

Once investigators were able
to see the surveillance video,

they start getting a clearer picture

of exactly what happened at the
kilfeather saloon that night.

And they determined that Eric
and Lynn were there fighting.

Stay.

Fog in the morning: Eric left.

In the video, you can see her crying.

And she was going around
asking people for rides.

When does she leave?

Who are these two?

I don't know who that woman is,

but I think that's Frank Sanchez.

Good. Let's bring them in.

The first person they went to interview

was Frank Sanchez.

Frank was Cheyenne.

Where the kilfeather saloon is located

is very near by the
northern Cheyenne reservation.

It's like an hour
drive from crow to Cheyenne,

and I hear stories of
cheyennes not liking crows,

and some crows not liking
or getting along with cheyennes.

And they identify Frank
as someone who was at the saloon

the same time as Lynn, and so
they wanted to go talk to him

to see how he might fit into this puzzle

of how roylynn went missing

and was found along castle rock road.

After Frank Sanchez is identified

as being on the video surveillance

from the kilfeather saloon
the night before,

the agents go over to interview Frank.

Frank tells them that wasn't him

on the surveillance video in the saloon.

It was actually his brother, Dimarzio.

The agents find Dimarzio...

He's already in custody
for unrelated charges,

but they knew that
they had to talk to Dimarzio

to try to drill down a little bit more

on exactly what happened to Lynn.

Dimarzio denied being there.

But then he found out

that they actually
had him on video surveillance

and Dimarzio says, finally,
that he actually took Lynn

and dropped her off at a trailer park.

And the last time he saw her,

she was walking up to the trailer park,

and that's when they left.

Where did you say
that trailer park was again?

I don't know.

It was dark. I was drinking.

So who were you with, then?
Maybe they remember.

You know, you don't have to
say anything

if you don't want to, Dimarzio.

We should have enough for an arrest.

You're going to arrest me
for giving a girl a ride?

What about your girlfriend?
What was her name again?

Angelica, right?

What's her last name?

Whiteman.

Angelica whiteman.

But while they talk
to him, investigators found out

that Angelica whiteman
was one of the people in the car

that evening with Lynn.

So they're searching for her.

But it's like Angelica
just vanished in the wind.

She was nowhere to be found.

When the cops were updating the family,

they didn't really want
to release anything

any little type of information we got,

it was just the same thing over...

That they were still looking,

they were still looking
to see who it was.

They were still looking
to build their case.

And that's when Angelica
starts to lay out the events

from her point of view
of what happened that night.

That night at the saloon,
Dimarzio and Angelica

were in the bar, and they
were gambling and drinking.

Angelica said that she saw Lynn in the bar.

She was crying.

Keep it.

Gelica, let's go.

Hey, um, do you think
I could get a ride?

Where are you headed?

Crow agency.

Where are you guys headed?

Cheyenne.

But we don't mind the drive.

Right, D?

Nope.

Dimarzio's brother
Frank was outside the bar.

Angelica says they got into the car,

they left the saloon.

As far as we know, Lynn had never met

Angelica, Dimarzio, or Frank before.

These were complete strangers to her.

She put her trust in them,

hoping that they would
get her home safely to crow.

And that's when the details get
so horrific

you can't even fathom

how somebody could do that to someone else.

As they're making their
way to the crow reservation,

Angelica was fixing her hair
and her makeup in the mirror

and saw Lynn looking at her,

and that irritated her.

"Why are you looking at me that way?"

And Lynn said, "nothing. No reason."

Angelica reached around,

went over the back seat from the front seat,

and started fighting with Lynn...

Punching her in the face
and pulling her hair.

And then Lynn is fighting back
against Angelica inside the car.

Angelica said she told Dimarzio,
"this bitch can walk to crow."

So Dimarzio pulls off on castle rock road,

just north of highway 212.

And that's when the fight
spilled outside the car.

Harder!

That's what you get!

White my god!

That's what you get!

Look at her!

She's so messed up!

They beat Lynn to the point
where she was unconscious...

She couldn't defend herself anymore.

- Hey.
- How's that feel?

Hey, where you going?

Hey. No no no no no.
Hey hey hey. Come here.

You're finishing this. Come on.

- You're going...
- You're finishing it.

I'm going to show you this.
Look at me.

Look at me. I'm gonna show you this once.

Come over here.

Dimarzio tells her,
"you need to finish her off."

And according to Angelica,

he shows her how to choke Lynn
with the bandana.

Come over here!
And finish what you started!

And Frank says
"no, you just blacked her out."

So they knew that Lynn was still alive.

Frank Sanchez was the one
who stripped roylynn naked.

Dimarzio told Frank
to get the gas can in the trunk.

The next thing we know is Angelica says

she saw Dimarzio
pouring gas on top of Lynn.

Fog in the morning: They don't know
who lit the match and threw it on her.

And according to Angelica,

Dimarzio runs back, jumps in
the driver's side of the car,

and takes off.

He says, "don't look back.
Don't look back."

And they leave the scene

with the flames in the rearview mirror.

When Angelica was asked why it happened,

she said she really couldn't explain it,

but she would blame it on her drinking.

They were all drinking that night...

Everybody in the car was at
various levels of intoxication,

and that could possibly be
a huge indicator

as to why things just
spiraled out of control.

The biggest hurdle investigators faced

was just really trying to drill down

on what the truth was
and exactly who did what.

And everybody was scared...

Everybody was lying to protect themselves,

so there are a lot of gray areas.

And even today, we really
don't have a clear picture

of exactly what happened.

The investigators said that she
walked 3 miles to get help.

Roylynn sat out there
in that road for 14 hours

before the farmer came across her body.

I mean, she suffered.

It's just hard...
Hard to think about it.

The severity of what they did to her

is... it's beyond the, I mean,
you can't even comprehend

how they could do that to someone.

How they could fight her when
she just wanted a ride home.

Lynn held on and fought for her life.

But I think her body
couldn't take it no more.

Her doctor came and told me that...

She was gonna die.

I went in there and I stroked her head.

I told her, "Lynn, it's okay."

And I said, "don't be afraid
and I won't be afraid."

And I told her just to fall in god's arms,

and she said, "okay."
And she had tears coming down.

I said, "Lynn, we'll be okay."

And I told her that
she's going to be okay, too.

And then that's when she passed away.

In 2016, there was a report done that found

that there were more than 5,700 reports

of missing and murdered
indigenous women and girls

across the nation.

We also found out through a study from

the u.S. Department of justice

that native American women are murdered

at 10 times the national average,

and that just boggles the mind

because the reservation, population-wise,

is nothing like it is
in the metropolitan areas.

And so you just start to really
understand and it soaks in

really the plight of
these women on the reservation

and how vulnerable they truly are.

There's no justice.

I don't think there was any justice.

Because Lynn's not here.
Lynn's not ever coming back.

All she wanted was to be loved.

Now, she's not even here.

She's still very much alive in our hearts.

We'll never forget her.

I know she can never come back here,

but I know one day, we'll go
to her. We'll be with her.

And that's the hope that we have.