All language subtitles for The.Jane.Doe.Murders.2021.1080p.WEBRip.x264-RARBG-English

- They are known
as Jane and John Does.

40,000 murder victims
are still unidentified.

[gentle music]

Thousands of suspects
are still at large.

I'm on a mission
to change all of that,

one case at a time.

Who is she?

- Hunters discovered
the mystery woman's remains

back in 1996.

- Investigators want to get
this woman back to her family.

- For 23 years, Polk County's
Jane Doe has remained unknown.

Her family left wondering,
what happened?

Until now.

For nearly three decades,
I worked as a CSI,

specializing
in the recovery of DNA.

I'm hoping with the advances
in DNA testing,

we can get closer to
tracking down her family

and her identity.

- In the underwear,
there was a semen stain.

- She's not just
another Jane Doe.

She's a person with a story.

- My focus has always
been the victims

and the victim's family.

She deserves
her identity back,

and I'm gonna work for that.

[dramatic music]

[indistinct chatter]

[light dramatic music]

♪ ♪

[tense music]

♪ ♪

- I'm Yolanda McClary,

a retired crime scene
investigator

from the Las Vegas
Metropolitan Police Department.

I've helped to reopen and solve
some of the most complex

and mysterious cold cases
in America.

Polk County's
Jane Doe cold case

has been haunting
the local sheriff's department

for nearly 25 years.

I can only imagine how
Jane Doe's family must feel.

They still have no idea
what happened to their mother,

wife, or sister.

Thinking of my own family,

not knowing would
be so painful.

Murdered, discarded
in a wooded area.

Jane Doe has been at
the Oregon State Forensic Lab

for over two decades.

I want to give her
her name back.

Using genealogy to help
identify unidentified persons

has been a huge breakthrough.

My hope is that it will
lead us down the right path

for her identification.

- In September of 1996,
a father and son hunting party

stumbled upon
a skeletonized body

wrapped in a blue tarp,

up with ropes,

and called
the Sheriff's office.

Based on the wide pelvis,

the medical examiner
determined the body was female.

But DNA technology
in 1996 prevented us

from identifying her
any more specifically.

This is Burney Krauger.

He's a retired detective,

and this case was his
initially in '96.

- Hi Burney, nice to meet you.
- Nice to meet you.

- Obviously, trying
to find her identity

is gonna be the huge thing
to open up roads

on maybe a different
kind of investigation.

- Burney Krauger,
he kept the case

until he retired
in December 2013,

and I took over the case
at that point.

- So on September 1, 1996,
you're on patrol?

- Correct.
- Tell me about that.

- Well, I made contact
with the father and the son,

and they told me
they were grouse hunting

and the dad said
he came into a clearing,

and there appeared
to be a human skull

sitting in this clearing.

From that point on then,

we started the investigation
of the dead body.

The body was dumped
and was wrapped in blue tarp.

It had been there long enough
that the coyotes or varmints

pulled the body
out of the tarp.

♪ ♪

- Okay, well,
that makes sense.

Got a lot of animals out
and they're all feeding.

- Right.

- I chose this case

because this victim
was discarded like trash,

for animals to eat
her remains.

No one, no one deserves
to die that way.

- The Oregon Medical
Examiner's Office

did an autopsy on the bones,

and they were unable to
determine the cause of death

because they didn't find
any knife wounds in the ribs,

they didn't find any
bullet holes, et cetera, so...

- Okay.
If you don't mind,

I would love to get a feel
for where this was,

you know,
at least an approximate area.

So it would be okay
if we go out there?

- Yeah, we can do that.
All right.

- In order for me
to better understand

what happened to her,

I need to visit the place
where she was found.

Retracing the actual steps
of the killer

can reveal insights
into the crime

that a report
just can't provide.

[suspenseful music]

- At the time in 1996,

the location was a recently
cleared logging area.

- I don't know,
if I was just some person

that was finding a place
to dump a body,

I don't know that
I could find this.

- Well, in my opinion, I think
it would be kind of difficult.

They would have to be somewhat
familiar with the area.

- There are hundreds of
logging roads in this county.

You can get lost
pretty easily up there.

♪ ♪

- Now this is the end
of the log landing.

♪ ♪

I didn't realize
it'd be grown up this much.

- Yeah, it's--
- It's grown up a lot.

- I think we went over
someplace in that area

'cause I can remember
that one stump being here.

- That's probably where
we need to go down.

- Pretty close.

- What kind of person
would come all the way up here

to dump a body?

I got to tell you,
dragging a body down here--

it's steep, so I'm gonna
say, whoever this is, is--

I'm not saying you
have to be an athlete,

but you have to be at least--

- Kind of good shape.
- Yeah.

- There's some fallen logs.
Let's take a look at that.

Looking at the photos,
this is where the body was.

- We're lucky
she was ever found.

I mean, I don't know why,
but I'm just feeling that.

- I am too.

They actually found the skull
a couple hundred feet that way.

- Eventually a tarp
would have been found,

and that would have been it.
- Yeah.

- I don't think there would've
been anything else left.

I don't think they would've
found any of those bones.

That would've just been gone.
- Yeah.

From the landing to where
the body was, partway down,

hidden under a small tree,

was this bag of clothing.

Well, that clothing
that was found

was actually just up the hill,
right up in there.

It was a pair of pants,
pair of underwear,

shirt, socks, shoes.

34/34 pants, so it's belonged
to a tall person.

- Is it possible
the killer changed,

then discarded his clothes
after he dumped the body,

believing they would
never be found?

- That was significant.

It was likely a male,

tied to the person
who put the body there.

Size 34/34 pants, it's likely
someone over 6-foot tall.

- Did you guys ever have
any clothing

or the evidence tested?

- Yeah, actually
in the underwear

that was in the bag,
there was a semen stain.

They tried to develop
the DNA from that stain,

and they had no luck in '96.
- Okay.

- They stored the sample
that they created.

- I'm super impressed
and happy

that we had a possible
perp DNA profile.

- Finally in 2014, I said,

"Let's take
another crack at it."

At that point they were
actually able to get

a partial DNA
from one of the samples,

and it was good enough
to go into CODIS.

♪ ♪

- That's a really good sample
if it was good enough

to go into CODIS.
- Yeah, so.

But unfortunately, we've not
had any hits from that.

- Still nothing.

- On one of the trees,

there was a clump
of brownish colored hair.

♪ ♪

Like, you whack your head
on a tree

and it takes part
of your skin off.

- Brown hair?

It was caught
in a broken branch

above where the body was.

We think whoever,
disposing of the body

and then they raised up,
that they caught that--

- That branch.
- Chunk.

Whoever did it
must have felt it.

- Well, that was significant
'cause it didn't match her hair

and it points to the person
who drug her down there.

Now we're having it
looked at again.

- If we can get
a usable DNA profile,

it could possibly open up roads
we would never have before.

It's such a huge deal because

I want to give her
her name back.

I want to target her killer.

That could be a game changer.

- Her dad was a loser.

- He was playing chicken
on the railroad track.

- I tried to talk her
out of it.

- It's very shocking.

Almost like
an out-of-body experience.

[indistinct chatter]

[light dramatic music]

[tense music]

♪ ♪

[birds cawing]

- The discarded remains
of a woman

we call Jane Doe
are found by hunters

nearly 25 years ago
in Polk County, Oregon.

♪ ♪

I'm headed to
the Oregon State Forensic Lab

to meet with Nici Vance,
their state anthropologist.

It's amazing how much
information bones can tell us.

How old our victim is,
if they ever had a child,

how tall they were possibly.

- We've tried so many things
on this particular Jane Doe.

So she's right here.

- So you said you have
the majority of her?

- I do.

But we just can't seem
to identify her.

I'm gonna lay her out
in anatomical position.

- Yeah, absolutely.
Yes.

- So you can see
exactly what we have.

- Oh, my goodness.
- Isn't that amazing?

- Now that is really
a weird scar.

- Yeah, so this is definitely
a craniotomy scar, so--

- Surgery.
- Surgery, yes.

This is not an injury.

There's part
of her spinal column.

- Uh-huh.
- That would indicate

that she hadn't necessarily
been out there all that long.

- Uh huh.
She seems small.

- I don't think
she's over 5'3", 5'4".

We know she's female
based on characteristics

in her skeletal system.

We see a very,
very wide pelvis.

- Can you tell if somebody's
had children, given childbirth?

- Yeah, there's a little
divot right there,

a little depression
that is created

when a very large ligament
detaches during childbirth.

We see indication
that she very well

could have been a mother.

- As a mother,
this kind of hits home.

When I found out that Jane Doe
had at least one child,

I'm wondering if that child

has been looking for her
all these years.

- We know that
she's past her 30s.

We're now moving into probably
the fourth decade of life.

- Into her 40s.
- Mm-hmm.

- Got it.
- Exactly.

- Did you find any kind of
cause of death?

- We don't have soft tissue,
so we don't see a bullet wound.

We've looked, there
there's no knife defects.

So everything--

- No blunt force trauma there.
- Exactly right.

So we would see that
depression in the bone.

Don't see it here,

so we have virtually
no indication

regarding how she
came to die, yeah.

- How she died, okay.

- The cause of death based
on the bones is not clear,

but unfortunately
the manner of death

or why she died
is still homicide

since she clearly
didn't wrap herself up

in a tarp on that hill.

So we're down to DNA.

Other than that,
there's just not a lot.

- I lose sleep over this case
because she's so identifiable.

I want to believe that
someone's looking for her.

Let's give her back
to her family.

So if there's some sort
of new technology

that you can help us with,
let's see what we can find out.

- I'm hoping with the advances
in DNA testing,

we can now collect her DNA
from just her bones.

We don't know
the cause of death.

But what I do know

is that Jane Doe
has at least one child

who may still be alive.

So there must be family
out there looking for her.

Imagine all these years
looking for someone you loved.

It's heartbreaking.

Now I need to speak
with the detectives.

If detectives can determine

when Jane Doe's remains
were dumped,

it could help us find out
who she might be.

[tense music]

♪ ♪

All right, let's talk
about evidence a little bit.

And the time frame,
the time of year.

- We put a time period in there
of late June to the middle,

maybe even two-thirds July

because of what
the vegetation shows you.

Grass played
an important part

in determining
approximate time

of the body
being deposited there.

- Burney collected grass

from next to where
the body was,

and grass from under
where the body was.

The difference in height
between these two grasses

indicates that she was there
two to three months.

- And then we also found
a receipt

and some clothes
that were up there.

- In the shirt pocket
of one of the shirts

that was in this bag
was a restaurant receipt.

It was for around $5 worth
of food for one person.

This fast food receipt
was dated June 26th.

- Okay, that's
very interesting.

So you have two things now
saying probably late June.

- Yeah.
- I think your timeline's good.

I think your timelines
probably right on.

- So we know when
the killer likely dumped

his clothes and the body,

but we still need
to identify our victim.

Dr. Vance has been very helpful
so I was picking her brain,

I'm like,
"What else can we do?"

She's like, "I got somebody
that can do you a sketch."

So in 2014,
Dr. Vance provided the skull

to a forensic artist,

and it was remarkable
what came back.

A forensic artist can
approximate a person's face

based only on
the contours of the skull.

For the first time,

I was looking into
the face of Jane Doe.

We got those
beautiful sketches,

and they experimented

with different hairstyles,
hair colors

to give us a range of what
our Doe would have looked like.

- Once detectives had
three potential sketches

of their victim,

they turned to the media
to generate leads.

- Investigators want to get
this woman back to her family,

but they have no idea
who she is or where she's from.

If you think you might know
who this mystery woman is,

you're asked to contact the
Polk County Sheriff's Office.

- We were able to get
a variety of sketches

based on the skull of what our
victim might have looked like.

- Yeah.

- And I did get a call
from Canada.

They had a missing person
up there.

Turned out it wasn't--
wasn't ours.

That's the only serious tip
that has come in.

Kind of been disappointing.

- Well, and after 23 years

if you haven't even found
any good leads,

they're just probably
not there anymore.

Times have changed, you know,
in how we can do things now.

This is a great case
to try just genealogy.

It's not like anything else

that DNA
has ever been used for.

It's new to me, too.

DNA Solutions in Oklahoma,
private lab,

they'll try
to extract the DNA.

Doing this whole
different profile

that can be uploaded
into open source databases.

Then, you know,
you start building trees,

and these trees
have to connect,

and they keep connecting
and connecting and connecting

till finally, hopefully,
they all can come together,

and hopefully right down
to your Jane Doe.

I'm determined
to help detectives

identify their Jane Doe.

If my team can extract
a solid sample of DNA

from Jane Doe's bones,

we can then compare it to DNA
in public source databases,

in the hopes that any of her
relatives' DNA are in there.

It's a lot of work,
but I got a great team.

- We thank you.

We really don't have
anywhere else to go.

It's amazing 'cause
this new technology could be

just what we're looking for
to solve this case.

[tense music]

♪ ♪

[light dramatic music]

♪ ♪

[light dramatic music]

♪ ♪

- With this groundbreaking
forensic technology,

we have a new tool
to help solve cold cases.

Our Jane Doe's bones
are sent to DNA Solutions,

a highly-respected,
private lab in Oklahoma.

- I'm Dr. Anstead.
I'm the lab director.

We're a laboratory
that handles

a number of different kinds
of DNA work.

They've been extracting DNA
from skeletal remains

for quite a few years now,
but what's changed

is the technology
to actually recover that DNA...

[light dramatic music]

- I can't believe after
more than two decades

after our Jane Doe's remains
were found,

we had her DNA profile.

The DNA in this case
was a bit challenging

because there had been some
degration level in the bone

due to the fact that the bone
is 23 years old,

but we're quite pleased
with after two extractions,

we got what we want.

Finally, we are getting closer
to tracking down her family

and her identity.

Now from my hometown
in Las Vegas,

I contacted two of the best
genealogists in the country.

[energetic music]

- My name is Charles McGee.

I do all sorts of different
kinds of genealogical research,

with my main focus
being forensic genealogy.

- This kind of investigative
work is very different

than just genealogy,

because we start
with an unknown.

We have no clue
who this person is.

- I can't thank you guys
enough for coming.

I just got back from Oregon.

They had a body that was found
September 1, 1996.

Our Jane Doe would have been
in her 40s.

- And did she have children?
- She had at least one child,

but possibly more.

- With a viable DNA profile,
we're able to upload that

to a private genetic
DNA database.

Once we're able to show matches
to our Jane Doe,

genetic matches, obviously
we're hoping for a bull's-eye.

- What's a bull's-eye?

- Well, like a parent
relationship would be awesome.

- Okay.

- The more DNA that
you share with somebody,

the closer your relationship.

So a paternal line and a
maternal line coming together,

beneath there, somewhere,
is gonna be our Doe, hopefully.

- Gotcha.

- We can't expect
to get a parent

or a sibling bull's-eye
right off the bat.

I mean, we're always hoping
for something like that,

but that's pretty rare.

Then you get down to second,
third, fourth cousins

and removed cousins
and half cousins.

- Lots of headaches.
- We have tools--

we have all sorts of tools
that can help us

try to determine what
those relationships might be.

- Okay.

- So we can kind of
narrow the field.

Once her DNA is uploaded
to this genetic

genealogy research site
we use,

we're able to see
our Jane Doe's top matches,

her closest relatives.

[pensive music]

♪ ♪

- I got the top ten matches
that you sent.

- Yep, the DNA was uploaded
to the database

and matches for our Jane Doe
are listed there.

We were hoping for
something better, obviously.

Our Jane Doe matches
are so distantly related

that she likely never even
knew them during her life.

That makes the research
pretty difficult.

- I liken this process
to working a jigsaw puzzle.

When you get
a list of matches,

some of them are valuable,
some of them are not,

but you don't know
until you get going.

You're just flying blind.

- So we'll start out
with the Anna Adams tree.

- Yes.

- You can begin working
on that, Jean.

I can take
the Sam Smith tree.

And Yolanda,
you can start on DT Jones.

And we can just keep
on progressing from there.

- All right.

So now we have our top
ten matches to our Jane Doe.

That means building out
ten different family trees

that will have thousands
of people in each,

to ultimately find
that marriage

between Jane Doe's mother
and father to lead us to her.

- Somewhere there's
a marriage that occurred

that produced the parent
or grandparent of the Doe.

- We're looking
for the crossover

when one person in this tree
marries somebody in this tree.

- Where they come together
is where our Doe's gonna be.

- All right, everybody
divide and conquer.

[gentle music]

♪ ♪

Based on our
genealogy research,

the two common names
that we have

in our tree
are Thomas and Fuller.

So Chuck, you found some
crossovers, some marriages.

- Yeah, one of our matches
is related to Tennie Fuller,

and the other is related
to Claude Thomas.

And we found a crossover

because Claude and Tennie
married.

- So how does, ultimately,
our Doe fit into this?

- Our Doe could actually be
the child of Tennie and Claude,

or it could be the grandchild.

Claude and Tennie
had seven children,

six boys and one girl.

Morgan and Leo
were the oldest.

Billy and Bettie
were the youngest.

And Bettie Thomas, we believe
that she moved to Oregon.

- Wow.

- So that's a big hit
right there.

Bettie was born in 1934.

- We're looking for somebody
in their late 40s, maybe 50s.

She's a little older

than probably what
we want for our Doe, right?

- Yeah.

- Bettie would've been 62
when Jane Doe was murdered,

nearly 20 years her senior.

So she may not be our victim.

We needed
Detective Williams' help.

[energetic music]

- So looking into
Bettie's background,

I found something
that I didn't expect.

She had passed away
in King County, Washington,

in October of '96,

four months after our Doe
was likely killed.

So obviously,
it couldn't be our Doe.

- So Bettie's deceased
and actually had a funeral.

It's not her.

- Bettie's out.

- We know she had
four daughters,

but they're
all accounted for.

- So it has to be the daughter

of one of those
remaining siblings.

- So we have six boys
that we need to figure out

who they're married to
and every one of their kids.

Their kids would be born
in the right time frame

of the 1950s.

I guess everybody,
let's hit our computers,

see what we can find,
find phone numbers,

maybe we just need
to start talking

to some of these people too
if they're alive.

This is the biggest lead
in over two decades.

[light dramatic music]

♪ ♪

[light dramatic music]

- So we have six boys

that we need to figure out
who they're married to

and every one of their kids.

- Right.
- So it has to be the daughter

of one of those
remaining siblings.

- Starting out,
Morgan is the first boy.

Second boy is Leo.

- Leo.
Robert.

- Billy.

- And they're all still
Oklahoma-based?

- Well, we don't know
that for sure.

We're going to have
to begin to, you know,

fill that out,
fill that information.

- All right, well then,

let's do some more
research on all of them.

I guess everybody,
let's hit our computers,

see what we can find,
find phone numbers,

maybe we need to start talking
to some of these people too

if they're alive.

- Yeah.
- Okay.

- We methodically went
through the siblings,

starting with his oldest
and working down,

and trying to figure out,

you know, who they would
have been married to.

And if any of them
had a daughter,

that could be our Jane Doe.

We couldn't get anywhere.

But lo and behold,
weeks later we discovered

Billy Thomas,
Bettie's brother,

the only living sibling.

- This whole line of siblings
and only one of them

was still living,
and that was Billy.

He's now 85 years old,
in Oklahoma.

[line ringing]

- Hey, is this Billy?

- This is Detective Williams
from Oregon.

How are you doing?

- Hoping that he could fill in
some of the holes,

I asked Billy
about his nieces and nephews.

- We just had a conversation,
you know,

and he said that
he's working on this case.

I gave him what I knew.

I've got five brothers,
I'm the sixth.

Leo was my second
oldest brother.

Him and his wife
had three daughters.

- Billy said none of his
other brothers had daughters,

but Leo had three girls
with Jessie, his wife.

- I don't know how
he met her or anything.

All I can tell you is they had
Sandra, Linda, and Kathy.

- All he knew
were first names.

He hadn't seen them since
they were little kids,

so knowing that Leo and Jessie
had three girls

born in about
the right time in the 50s,

I'm almost certain that
one of them is our Doe.

♪ ♪

- Billy said the girls
were split up

after his brother Leo and
Jessie divorced around 1959.

Here in Oklahoma.

About five miles from town.

- Then Billy told us something
that blew this case wide open.

- Leo took Kathy to Oregon.

- This is big.

It's the same state
where our Jane Doe was found.

She's the right age.

She lived not far from where
our victim's body was found.

And her two sisters are alive,
living in the Midwest.

Kathy is the best chance
at being our Jane Doe.

- And I said "Well, what do
you think happened to Kathy?"

- Leo adopted her out
to a family

with the last name of Buxton.

He said,
"I don't how to spell it.

I don't know where they live.
That's just what I heard."

So I have a name, Buxton,

and now I got to figure out
who Linda and Sandra are.

How can I do that?

I'm like okay,
Leo died in 1966,

but Jessie, I knew she died
in Okemah, Oklahoma.

Called the little
newspaper there,

asked them if they had
an obituary from 2002.

A relative told me that Linda
and Sandra were adopted out

to a local family in Okemah
because Jessie, their mom,

wanted to continue
her party lifestyle,

and the two little girls
were kind of in her way.

The same relative was very
helpful, pointed me to Linda,

Kathy's sister,

and actually helped me
get Linda on the phone.

[line ringing]

- Hey Linda, this is Detective
Williams from Oregon.

How are you doing?

- Good.

- He said,
"Was your dad named Leo?"

I said yes.

"Did you have a younger sister
named Kathy?"

I said yes.

He said that they
had a woman tied in a tarp.

He wanted to know if it
could have been my sister.

My dad took off
with her to Oregon

once that Sandy and I
got adopted to the same family.

And I didn't know
what had happened to Kathy.

She was just gone
my whole life.

- I know you've wondered
for years, where's Kathy?

- She tells me Sandra,
her eldest sister,

is a nurse at a hospital
in Oklahoma.

So I'm like,
well, no one's seen Kathy?

That fits the puzzle.

Kathy is likely our Doe,

but we still need
to confirm it.

And I said, could we get
a DNA sample to see

if we're on the right track?

- And I said,
"Yes, I'll do anything I can

to find out if it was
my sister or not."

- Yeah.

- Well, will it also give you
some kind of sense

of "now you know"?

- That DNA sample,

that's gonna be the truth
one way or another.

[tense music]

♪ ♪

- After months of research,

my team and I
have narrowed down

Jane Doe's genealogy
to one family.

We believe Linda Amsler
may be her sister.

We won't know for sure
until we compare Linda's DNA

to our victim's DNA.

[dramatic music]

- She was just drinking
and running around.

- Never heard from her again.

Didn't know the husband's name
other than a nickname.

- I seen her one time.

I stopped in this little bar
there and she was there.

- I know that Linda needed
to hear the truth,

but it was very difficult
to break the news to her.

[light dramatic music]

♪ ♪

[light dramatic music]

♪ ♪

- We sent Linda's DNA
to DNA Solutions

to have a compared
with our victim,

our Doe's DNA.

♪ ♪

Now we know for sure
who our Jane Doe is.

It's Linda's sister, Kathy.

Now that we have the results,

Detective Williams and I
are heading to Oklahoma

to break the news
to Linda in person.

Hopefully, Linda can lead us
to who saw Kathy last,

and then ultimately
to her killer.

So Linda,
thank you for meeting us.

I know from the first day
that we called you

and talked to you,
this has been

kind of an emotional
roller coaster for you.

- Mm-hmm.

- Thank you for working
with us.

I know getting a phone call out
of the blue about your sister--

- Like you said,
out of nowhere, too.

- I know, and it was
out of nowhere,

and you did something
very special.

You gave me your DNA.

I know that Linda needed
to hear the truth,

but it was very difficult
to break the news to her.

So we do know, um...

You are a match.
You are her sister.

- I knew it.

[somber music]

♪ ♪

- The DNA definitely confirms

that our person that we have
is your biological sister.

♪ ♪

- I knew it was,
in my heart.

By looking at her picture.

We all have this nose.

I didn't really want it
to be her.

I wanted a family
when I was young, so bad.

And now to finally get it,
but she's gone.

And I'll never
have my sister back.

It would have been nice
if we'd had a real family

like everybody else.

- Tell me about your family.

- Leo Thomas was my dad.

And Jessie Dodson
was my mother,

Thomas after they got
married in 1949.

- What about Jessie?

- She was just a cool mom,

but she was alcoholic.

- And tell me about Leo.
- He was funny.

He was a little dude.
- [laughs]

- Everybody was scared of him.

I remember,
nobody messed with him.

- Leo and Jessie's marriage
wasn't a happy one,

and it got even worse after Leo
lost a limb in an accident.

- And he had one arm, right?
- Uh-huh, yes, he had one arm.

What I was told is
he was playing chicken

on the railroad track.

And I don't know
if it's true or not.

[gentle music]

♪ ♪

- I know that you guys
were all separated

when Kathy was six.

You would have
been seven, right?

- Mm-hmm.

- Sandy would have
been around eight?

- Me and Sandy's a year
and 11 days apart.

- Linda's story is
kind of tragic.

She had a rough childhood

'cause, you know,
her mom gave her away

and she kept running away
to go see her real mom.

- I love my mom
and I wanted to be with her.

And that's all I knew.

I mean, even though
I was adopted to good people,

there was something
missing in my heart,

and I wanted my mom.

But why she got rid
of all of us to begin with

is due to drinking
and running around.

She didn't want to be tied down
to all of us kids.

- Since their father Leo
took Kathy to Oregon in 1959,

no one in Oklahoma knew
what happened to her.

Then in 1977, when Kathy
turned 24 years old,

Linda finally heard
from her sister.

- She did come down here
once when she was grown.

She was flaunting money.

Kathy had left her husband,
and his name was Jug.

And that's when she showed me
pictures of the three babies.

She just left her kids
with him.

- We always suspected
that Kathy was a mother,

but now we have proof.

- She said that she had
three kids then.

I couldn't imagine her
having three

'cause I just had the one,
but she did show me pictures.

- Do you know how old the kids
were in those pictures?

- They was young.

- We know that she's a mother,
so there must be

a family member out there
looking for her.

- For 23 years,

I said to the people
that I was working with,

"Somewhere out there
there's somebody asking,

'Where's my mom?'
'Where's my sister?'

And that's who I want
to get the answers for."

- But it's amazing.

- This is better
than I expected.

- Now there's also the
investigation of the homicide.

- Mm-hmm.

- That's something
that's actively being worked.

I can't really say anything
until all of that happens.

But we'll let you know
how that goes.

- Yeah.

She's finally gonna
get to rest.

'Cause nobody who she was.

[gentle music]

But today it was like
she finally got some peace.

♪ ♪

- It was a very
difficult conversation.

But knowing the truth,

hopefully this will help
Linda heal.

♪ ♪

[tense music]

♪ ♪

- For me,
this case is not over

until we can get some answers

to find out
who did this to Kathy,

and get those answers
to Linda and her family.

The good news to me
is I have a name, Buxton.

So why not,
let's try and let's look

for property owners
in Oregon.

But then the team sends me

a little, tiny newspaper
article from 1966

that listed the incident

where Kathy's father Leo
and his buddy die in a car.

Leo, him and a buddy
get stuck in the mud.

They leave the car running
'cause it's too cold outside,

and they asphyxiate
in the car.

And as is common
when people are mentioned

in newspaper articles,

it lists the city
that they're from.

And next to Leo's name was
the words "Oakland, Oregon."

And that was the first time
we got a city in Oregon

where he's supposedly from.

I know Oakland is
a very small town.

It's not like Salem
or Portland

where you got hundreds
of thousands of people.

So pretty quick
property search

of Douglas County Records
for the name of "Buxton,"

and up popped an older couple,
so I gave them a call.

He was more than helpful,
but he was like

"I'm sorry, I don't know the
names you're throwing out."

I was about to hang up
with him and he said,

"You know, people used to ask
me when I moved here

if I'm related
to Richard Buxton,"

who I guess has been
around here forever.

So I called Richard,

I started to tell him
a little bit about my case,

and he interrupted me
and he said,

"Is this about
my adopted sister Kathy?"

[light dramatic music]

♪ ♪

[light dramatic music]

♪ ♪

- 23 years after
our Jane Doe was murdered,

we finally know her name
is Kathy Thomas,

born in Oklahoma.

Kathy's father, Leo,

took six-year-old
Kathy to Oregon in 1959,

and adopted her out
to a family named Buxton.

- Kathy's adopted brother,
Richard, lives in Oregon.

We're on our way to see him
to find out

what he knows about Kathy.

Which I knew was
a small town in Oregon,

so that caused me to search
property records in Oakland

for someone named Buxton,

and I found an old couple
who are in their 80s,

and they didn't know
anything about the names

I was giving them,
but right before I hung up,

they said,
"People used to always ask me,

'Are you related
to Richard Buxton?'"

- Right.
- And so I thought, well,

let's try to find Richard,
and I did find him.

When I started
talking to Richard,

telling him a little bit
about our case,

and he interrupted me
and said,

"Is this about
my adopted sister Kathy?"

I was just speechless.

You know, I'm like,
here we are.

I found somebody
who knows Kathy.

He said, "Well,
her dad's name was Leo.

Her mom's name was Jessie."

I'm like,
"Oh, Richard, you and I

are going to be doing
a lot of talking, I think."

- A lot of talking.

We've just got such huge gaps
in Kathy's life,

so it would be nice to fill
in some of these blanks.

There we go.

- Hi, Rick. Nice to meet you.
- You too.

- I think so.

- Oh, sweet!

- My wife dug out stuff out
of an old cedar chest

that I had ended up with.

Didn't even know
I had all this stuff.

- Oh, my God, look how cute
you guys look.

Richard was six years old,

the same age Kathy was,
when Kathy arrived with Leo.

- There are some
teenage ones in there.

- Mm-hmm.
- Probably junior high.

- Richard's parents,
Ailene and Orlin Buxton,

owned several properties.

One they rented to Leo
and Kathy around 1960.

- This is the house
that her and Leo stayed in

when they came.

They lived in this room
up here.

My mom had made all these
into apartments,

little single room,
and they stayed up there.

- These are amazing.
Why don't we do this?

Why don't we take a drive

out to the house
where you guys grew up?

- Yeah.
- We'll just follow you.

- Okay.
- Yep.

- It's changed a lot, huh?

This was your guys' house?

- When you first met Kathy,
you were an only child, right?

- Mm-hmm.

- So what was it like
having her around?

- She'd come walking up
every morning,

my mom would let her
come in and eat

because she never
had anything.

She didn't have any shoes.

We had a heck of a time
getting her to wear shoes.

I can remember a story

that her dad
would go into a beer joint.

Shouldn't have even took a kid
in a beer joint,

but you could back then.

She could sing.

And she would sing
and pass the hat.

- Maybe that's
why he took her?

He figured she could
make money for them.

- Oh, I think he'd just
make food, is what I think,

or beer.

- Horrible life for a kid.

- Yeah.

Her dad was a loser.

- Richard's mother,
Ailene Buxton,

took Kathy under her wing

and became a positive
influence in her life.

She even set up a bedroom
inside their home for Kathy,

and bought her clothes.

- She'd come up
and never leave and--

[laughs]
- Became a permanent guest?

- Did Leo bring up the idea of
the adoption or did your mom?

- My mom.

Leo left to go find work
and never come back.

And then he got in contact
with my mom

and he was up against it,
and my mom sent him $5,000,

which was a lot of money
in 1960.

- Sure.
- Yeah it was.

- And he signed
the adoption papers.

- She became Richard's
adopted sister.

- My mother wanted a daughter.

They couldn't have any kids.

They adopted me when I was,
like, a newborn.

- Growing up, Kathy and
Richard lost their adopted dad

to heart disease,

but Kathy became close
to her new mom, Ailene.

Ten years later, in 1970,
Ailene became ill with cancer.

It hit Kathy
particularly hard.

[gentle music]

♪ ♪

So when Kathy meets
18-year-old Carl Tracy,

she was very vulnerable.

Though Kathy was only 16,
she and Carl tied the knot.

Soon after,
she was pregnant.

They were both teenagers,
so it was no shock

that the relationship
didn't last long.

- They got married
in August of '70.

They got divorced
in April of '71.

And he left the state
almost immediately

and joined the Navy.

I don't know if Carl
paid child support.

Hard to know what Carl
actually thought at the time.

Carl's actions
are certainly suspect.

Perhaps he didn't want
to be tied down

with a child
or child support.

- Kathy gives birth
to a daughter in July.

She names her Tina Ailene,
in honor of her sick mom.

[gentle music]

♪ ♪

Really, the only people
that truly cared

about her was your mom,

and then she lost her at such
a young, vulnerable age.

- Her security blanket
was gone.

- Yeah.

In her will,
Ailene left a large estate

to Richard and Kathy
to split when they turned 25.

- A couple years later,
she was broke

and wanted to sell her part
of the escrow that we'd set up.

And I tried to talk her
out of it.

If she would have kept it,

it would have amounted
to $360,000.

She would have had $1,000
a month coming for 30 years.

- Starting when you were 25.
- Yes.

I mean, that don't sound
like much now, but it was then.

- She just wanted the money.
- She wanted out.

She sold me her part
of the escrow.

It was a bad choice.
Very bad choice.

- Very bad choice,
versus hanging onto it.

- Yeah.

[somber music]

♪ ♪

- Tina's entitled
to Kathy's share of that.

- Yeah.
- And I still got it.

- And your mom, I'm sure,
would feel the same way.

- Yeah, but I'm afraid
Tina ain't with us.

I don't know
who told me that,

but somebody said that
that Tina had passed away.

♪ ♪

- Richard told us that Kathy's
daughter Tina died.

But we have to find out
if that's true.

But a search for Tina Ailene
comes up empty.

So we need to track down
Carl Tracy,

Kathy's ex-husband,
Tina's father.

Does he know anything
about Kathy's murder?

Spouses, whether they are
still married or not,

are always potential suspects.

- We're trying to find out
more information about her.

- Why do you doubt
that they got divorced?

[light dramatic music]

♪ ♪

[light dramatic music]

[tense music]

♪ ♪

- In Oregon, Kathy's adopted
brother, Richard Buxton,

told us that Kathy
had given birth

to a daughter named Tina Ailene
when she was 17 years old.

Richard also revealed
that Kathy had married

and divorced the father,
Carl Tracy.

We have to find out
if Carl knows anything

about his ex-wife's murder,
but first we have to find him.

- The records I found show that
he lived in the Las Vegas area.

[line ringing]

- Hey, is this Carl Tracy?

My name's John Williams,
I'm a detective

with the Polk County
Sheriff's Office up in Oregon.

Wanted to know if you might
have a few minutes

I could talk to you
about Kathy,

who you were married to
years ago?

- The information
I've been able to find

was that she had
a girl with you,

and I think
her name was Tina,

but we've not been able to find
any information about Tina.

We were hoping
that she might have--

- Okay.

This might actually be true,

'cause Kathy has family
out in Oklahoma.

So I felt this was the time
now I could reveal to Carl

a little more about Kathy.

Kathy is deceased,

and we're trying to find out
what happened to her.

- Did you ever see her
after you guys got divorced?

- Did you see her with
somebody or not at all?

- When Carl said the name
Jug Gardner,

that immediately
rang a bell.

Linda told me that when Kathy
came out for that visit,

that her husband's name
was Jug.

Did you ever hear
that she got married to him

after she got married to you?

- Yeah.

- Okay.

- Well, thank you, Carl.

- Detective Williams finds
no evidence linking Carl Tracy

to his ex-wife's murder.

- When Carl and Kathy
got divorced,

he joined the Navy and then
once he got out of the Navy,

he's been living in Nevada,
and have been for decades.

There was no evidence
that Carl was in Oregon

at the time Kathy was killed.

- Now, we need to find out
what we can

about James Gardner,
nicknamed Jug.

Is he still possibly
in the area?

- We looked at birth records,
marriage records,

employment records,

and James "Jug" Gardner
was a laborer.

And what was interesting,
he rented an apartment

in the same building
that Kathy lived in,

and they must have
hit it off.

- At the time,
Kathy was all alone.

She never had
any close friends,

probably stemming
from being abandoned

by her biological parents.

Just 18 years old and with
an infant daughter to raise,

Kathy turns to Jug
for support.

According to court records,
the couple marry in December,

two months
after her mother's death.

Birth certificates
reveal that in 1973,

Kathy gave birth to her
second child, James, Jr.,

and then her third child,
Candice, in 1974.

Kathy and James Gardner
had split up.

We need to find
husband number two.

He might know something more

about where Kathy was
the night she was killed.

- James Gardner,
second husband,

had a lot of addresses
in his history.

A lot of phone numbers.
They were all disconnected.

I was lucky enough
to reach his sister.

She was not close to James.

She said, "I don't really
know where he's at,

but he's in Sutherland
somewhere."

[suspenseful music]

♪ ♪

So it's this side
of the street.

It's probably that
blue house right there.

There's a lady.
I'm gonna go talk to her.

- You go knock on the door,

and I can listen in the car
what's going on.

- Hi there!

I work for the Polk County
Sheriff's Office

up in the Salem area.

I was trying to find
a guy named James Gardner.

Does he live here?

- Well, he's not in trouble.

He's my I.D.

- I'm in the car watching
and listening,

I'm not sure who the woman is,
maybe James' wife,

but I hope she can convince
him to come out and talk.

- Hey, are you James?

- My name's John Williams.

- Kathy's been missing
for about 23 years, since '96.

- And we're trying to find
out more information about her.

- I've got a helper helping me
with this investigation.

Do you mind if she walks over
and joins in the conversation?

- James, this is Yolanda.
- Hi.

- Without mentioning
that Kathy was dead,

we asked James
about their relationship.

- When you guys got married,

I think it was like in '71,

did she have a kid?

- My understanding
is that you guys

had two kids together.

- What happened with the kids

when you got divorced
from Kathy?

- Okay.

James was told
by Oklahoma Child Welfare

that Kathy had the kids
removed from her

because she would leave
them alone, unattended.

And at the time,
they would have been five,

six, seven years old.

And all three got put
into foster care?

- And they were adopted out?

- It sounds like history
is repeating itself.

Kathy and her
biological sisters

were separated
from their parents

when they were about
the same age as Kathy's kids.

I'm not a therapist, but I can
see how Kathy's troubled past

affected her ability
to have a normal relationship,

or to parent
three small children.

James may have been upset with
Kathy for losing his kids,

but that's not all.

Money may have also
played a part.

Kathy was due to inherit
a fortune when she turned 25.

In my book,

that's a strong motivation
if they were still married.

- Did she ever receive any kind
of inheritance from her mom?

- But you didn't see
any of that

when you are married to Kathy?

- Okay.

- James Gardner last saw Kathy
years before her death.

And he was living
in southern Oregon,

and there's
really nothing to show

that he had anything
to do with her death.

- Whatever happened with Tina?

- I'm not sure on that.

- Do you still have contact
with James and Candy?

- Okay.
- All right.

- Well...

- No, you gave us some
information we didn't have,

so we appreciate it.

- Candice and James found
their biological father.

Could they have reconnected
with Kathy before her death?

We've got to find them.

- Uncle Billy who told us
that those kids may still

be living in Oklahoma,
and sure enough,

I found a number
for Candice Thomas in Tulsa.

I've been wanting to call her,
but I really don't have

the heart to break the news
over the telephone

that her mother passed away.

[tense music]

♪ ♪

Hi Candy,
my name's John Williams.

I'm a detective with the Polk
County Sheriff's Office

up in Oregon.

How are you doing?

- The reason I'm calling

is I've had a case
for about 23 years,

and we've determined that it
involves your mother, Kathy.

[light dramatic music]

♪ ♪

[light dramatic music]

♪ ♪

[gentle music]

- For the past 11 months,
Detective Williams and I

have been trying to track down
what happened to Kathy Thomas

and if her first child, Tina,
is still alive.

We located her youngest child,
Candice Thomas, in Oklahoma,

to find out
what she might know.

- This was such
an incredible moment

for Detective Williams and I.

Everyone thought that something
possibly happened to Tina,

and now both of us couldn't be
more excited to know

that Tina's here and well.

[uneasy music]

♪ ♪

Well, I am hoping that Candy
is still in touch with Tina.

- Yeah.

- It's just gonna be
an emotional moment.

'Cause for the first time,
you are going to hear

that your mother was murdered
23 years ago.

- It's a death notification,
it really is.

- Mm-hmm.

- I've done a few of those,
and they're not pleasant.

- This should be five and
maybe the next one is seven.

All right, here we go.

[dog barking distantly]

[knocking on door]

- Hi. Are you Candy?
- Yep.

Candice is what I go by.
both: Candice.

- Candice.
- All right. John Williams.

- Nice to meet you.
- Hi, Yolanda McClary.

- Nice to meet you.
- Nice to meet you.

Well, thank you
for seeing us.

[gentle music]

[Candice sighs]

- The only memories that I have
was from the foster home on.

I have no visual memories

of James or Kathy at all.

My mom and dad kept
all the details from us.

Everybody knew but us,
which, I mean,

you're not gonna tell kids,
you know, what happened.

- Were you adopted together,
all of you?

- James and I
were adopted together.

- Okay.

- Tina was adopted
one month before we were.

I can't tell you
how we ended split up.

I can't tell you why Tina
ended up somewhere else.

I just know that she did.

I just know that
she wasn't with me anymore.

We saw each other off and on
for a couple years,

and then we grew apart.

There was just,
I don't know,

a lot of outside factors
that kept us apart, I think.

It's just, um--

it's just really,
really hard

because we're all so scarred,
and we're all so hurt.

And we haven't known anything,
I mean, anything at all.

So we've just walked around
with a lot of hatred and anger

for many, many years.

I just knew that I was angry
and I wanted to find her,

and I wanted to tell her off,
and I wanted questions,

I wanted to know why.

And unfortunately,
you know,

I'm never gonna get
that answer.

I'm never gonna be able
to ask her, "Why?"

Why she did the things she did.
It's just not gonna happen.

My mom was young.

You know,
she had a rough life.

It's very understandable that
my mom would make mistakes

and that she needed support.

And then it finally dawned
on me that, you know,

my mom was the victim and not
the perpetrator in that crime,

and so it changed things
quite a bit.

It completely--
it changed things.

- But what's important is,
it's not your fault,

what happened to you.

It's not Tina's fault,
and it's not James' fault.

I mean, you were kind of
the victims of Kathy's

not able to take care of you.

So maybe something good
that can come out of this

is you guys can put aside
whatever it was

and reconnect and
stay connected and, you know.

- And I think we will.

We slowly are, and this'll
help get some closure

to maybe start healing
a little bit.

[somber music]

♪ ♪

I know, but they've got
a lot of information.

I mean, I found out a lot.

And they would like
to talk to you.

I mean...

Would you like--
would you want to--

- Yeah, why don't you
talk to her.

Ah.

- Hi Tina.
My name's John Williams.

- I've been working this case
for over six years,

and then Yolanda and her team

started to assist me in doing
genealogical DNA testing,

and we were able
to finally determine

just a couple months ago

that it was in fact Kathy,
your mom.

- I wish we could've provided

this info to you
and Candice years ago,

but unfortunately it finally
took till technology

kind of caught up
with these kind of cases.

- Yeah.

- Tell me the last thing
you remember.

- I can only tell you some of
the things that we found.

So you have an Aunt Sandy
and an Aunt Linda.

Linda, your aunt,
would love to talk to you.

- I had no idea about my aunt.

No clue.
I did know that some of--

that we had some family members
in Okemah.

And obviously I'm amazed,
I'm in shock.

I'm excited.

- We're going to meet
with your aunt tomorrow.

- Got some family members
who would love to meet you.

- We appreciate you
talking to us.

- So--

- Thanks, Tina.
Have a good night.

- Thanks Tina.

- Give me a hug.
- Oh.

- Gosh.

You have a lot to sink in,
but it'll be all right.

Well, thank you guys.
- I hope I see you tomorrow.

- I said many times
over the years,

somewhere out there,
there's somebody,

and this is better
than I expected,

to be able to actually meet
Kathy's relatives

and give them the information
that they've been looking for.

'Cause you were all adopted,
- Mm-hmm.

- And then Kathy's kids
were adopted.

- They were adopt--
- Oh, really?

- Yeah, they were adopted too.

- Ooh.

- Yeah, all three of them
were adopted.

- Oh, here we go again.

- I'll be right back.

- I mean, it just screws up
the family so bad.

- Linda, I want to
introduce you to your nieces.

- Oh, my God!

[light dramatic music]

♪ ♪

[light dramatic music]

♪ ♪

[gentle music]

- Linda, I want to
introduce you to your nieces.

- Oh, my god!
- This is Candice.

- Are you serious?
- And that's Tina.

- Oh, my God!

Oh, man.

That's all I've ever wanted.

It's amazing.

And I got to say, you look
like your mother.

You know it?
- No.

- You do.
You look like your mother.

- It's still very shocking.

- That's all I've ever wanted.

Almost like an out-of-body
experience for me.

Many, many years
I've always wondered,

I've always thought to myself,
if only I knew.

- If only I had something
to fill in those blanks.

- All of a sudden,
it was right there in my lap.

[light music]

I could remember her
holding me.

I have this vision and these
little flashes of her face.

There was obviously
some negligence,

there was intervention
by the State of Oklahoma

at some point.

And we were taken
and placed in foster care.

And I remember crying.

I was just holding
this little bag and I was,

"I want to go with you, Mommy.
I want to go!"

- You see, these--

this was the first time
I've ever seen her.

When I saw these pictures,
it was the first time

I've ever had a visual of her.

You know,
I didn't even know

what to picture for her
to look like.

I had no image to go by
or anything like that.

I just knew that
I wanted to find her.

- It breaks my heart
because part of me is angry

and part of me is heartbroken

because of the circumstances
and how she died.

She was alone.

- And she suffered.

- And she obviously suffered
quite a bit.

She is at peace.

Maybe this is her reaching
back out and helping us

get to some kind of closure.
- Mm-hmm.

[dramatic music]

[engine rumbles]

- Now that we identified Kathy
and found her children,

this was not the end for me
or Detective Williams.

♪ ♪

It looks like the same year
that Tina, Candice,

and James Jr. were adopted,
Kathy had moved to Portland.

Perhaps she was trying
to start over

after two bad relationships
and sad memories.

Here, people wouldn't
know her past.

So then what happens?

- So we do know that in 1984
she meets another guy.

His name is Brian Clifton,

and he's from
the Portland area.

He's got parents, a brother,
maybe a sister.

And they actually
get married in Portland.

- Ooh.
Okay.

- Apparently Kathy didn't like
to stay in one place,

and after she married Brian,

they moved from Portland
to the Salem area,

about 50 miles away.

Did we ever find anything
that they had any children?

- I don't believe
they had children.

- Okay, so Brian
and Kathy though,

were actually married
for quite some time, right?

- They were,
from '84 to at least '96.

- Now the question is,

were Kathy and Brian
still legally married

when Kathy was found murdered
on September 1, 1996?

There's also no divorce,
which is kind of odd.

- It is, because we found
her divorces

from the first marriages.

They were pretty easy to find,
and why can't we find that one?

- I guess the one thing
that just really,

really just keeps
getting to me is,

you never see your wife again,

but you don't report
her missing either.

- How does someone go missing

and no one reports
them missing?

- Yeah.

- So we've got
a lot of questions.

[tense music]

- Do we know anything else
about Brian?

- Well, he does
have kind of a past.

In 1973,

he was convicted of murder.

Sentenced to life in prison.

- Convicted of murder?
- Convicted of murder.

23 years before Kathy
was murdered,

Brian was convicted
of a different murder.

For strangulating
a female motel clerk...

♪ ♪

...with a vacuum cleaner
electrical cord,

over what he stated
was a robbery of, like, $65.

♪ ♪

He actually gets sentenced
to life in prison

in 1974,

and he actually
gets out of prison.

- And gets paroled when?
- 1981.

Up where Kathy was murdered,
24 years ago,

there's ropes everywhere.

There's ropes
binding the tarps,

possibly could have been
a strangulation of her as well.

And from our research,
we also found there are

some interesting things
about the physical aspects

of Brian that match
things at the scene.

Brian's information shows
he's 6-foot, 150 pounds.

The pants found at the scene
are size 34/34.

That's consistent.

The shirt from the bag

and the one he's wearing
appear to be identical.

He's got brown hair.

- Same color of hair that was
found near Kathy's body,

believed to belong
to the killer.

But it's what Brian doesn't do
that sparks our curiosity.

- No one reports her missing.

They don't appear
to have gotten divorced.

She was never declared
deceased by anyone.

To me, all of those line up
with someone

who doesn't want anyone looking
into Kathy's background.

That's huge red flags.

- So obviously,
Brian's a person of interest.

Do you know where he's at?

After Brian left Salem area,
moved to Portland...

And it kind of looks like
he bought a piece of property

from his parents.

I found a deed that shows he
purchased a house in 2008

But there was a woman on
the deed with him named Tina.

Not Kathy's eldest daughter,
but the same name.

And the deed listed them
as husband and wife.

- How do you get married

when you maybe
aren't even divorced yet?

What do we know
about Brian today?

- In 2010, Brian and Tina moved
to New Hampshire together.

and then he appears to move,
of all places, to Oklahoma.

Through a criminal
records search,

I was able to find
that booking photo

from Oklahoma in 2016.

For a driving infraction.

- Okay, so traffic infraction,
violation.

- But at this point, I'm not
exactly sure where he's living.

We're trying to find that.

Kathy was murdered
24 years ago.

Right now, our primary focus
is on the last person

Kathy was married to,
Brian Clifton.

[suspenseful music]

♪ ♪

24 years after we found
his wife Kathy dead

on a hill in Oregon.

My team wants
to approach him,

but we also don't want
to blow our one shot

and risk having him flee

before we have
confirmed evidence.

What we need now
is Brian's DNA

and see if it matches
any of the DNA from the scene.

We've got the semen stain,
we've got hair.

If his DNA matches
what's at the scene,

he automatically becomes
our prime suspect.

♪ ♪

[light dramatic music]

♪ ♪

[light dramatic music]

♪ ♪

[tense music]

♪ ♪

- Kathy had a hard life.

Looking for love, Kathy
went through a series of men

that didn't care about her.

Her last husband didn't even
bother to report her missing

when she disappeared.

And just a few months later,
her remains were found.

- While searching for Brian,

I found his sister Brenda
in Wisconsin,

and I reached out to her

to see if she'd be
willing to help.

[line ringing]

- Hi, is this Brenda?

- Hi, Brenda, this is
Detective John Williams.

I'm calling from the Polk
County Sheriff's Office

in Oregon.

Is a good time for you?

- Okay, so I have
a case where I have

a missing person,
who's Kathy,

was married to Brian
at one point.

- Do you recall
whatever happened

to Brian and Kathy's marriage,
how it ended or any of that?

- Why do you doubt
that they got divorced?

- So he would've illegally
married another woman?

- Okay.

So you don't talk to Brian.
You don't know where he's at?

- Yeah.

- I got you.

Well, and that's
what I'm showing too.

- Let me give you
some details.

So in 1996,

hunters found skeletonized
remains of a female.

- We do have the DNA
found at the scene

on some men's clothing
that was left behind.

I would think
has to be related

to whoever
put the body there.

- So we have a couple
of things we might try,

and one is if we can get DNA
from a relative

to get the best, you know, say,
oh, yeah, that's a sister--

- Would you be willing
if we sent you a DNA kit

to just swab your cheek
and mail it back?

- Oh, that's awesome.

- Okay.

To see what it matches
at the scene,

that's gonna be
super critical.

This would be an amazing boost
to this case.

[tense music]

♪ ♪

- Now that we know Brian's
sister is a sibling match

to the DNA found
at the crime scene,

I could finally
tell her family

and give them some closure.

I'm going to see Kathy's
daughters, Tina and Candice,

and Kathy's sister, Linda.

Never met each other
before all of this,

so I think it's great that they
all get to know each other,

and that they do
have family left.

Something they've always
wanted, and they have it.

Well, how are my most
three favorite women doing?

- Hello!
- Hello!

- Look at you,
pretty woman.

- How are things going getting
to know each other?

- With us, it's good.
- Oh, it's just--

- Is there something
that's not?

- It is what
it's supposed to be.

- I know.

- Well, I just wanted you
to know there were three

really important things for me
to do in this case if I could.

One of them
was to identify her.

Give her her name back.

Which would then
open up roads, second,

to hopefully help
the investigation.

You know, once you know
about her life,

once we found out
about all of you guys,

I mean, that all came about
because of her identity.

So many roads have been open,
learned a lot.

And then the third
most important thing to me,

so hold on one second.

- Is she going to do
something sneaky?

- I don't know.

[gentle music]

♪ ♪

- Oh, my--oh!

- Third most important thing.

- Oh, my god!

- Is to bring her home,
where she belongs.

♪ ♪

From the bottom
of all of our hearts.

- It's okay, baby girl.

♪ ♪

- [sobbing]

- We really got close.
These are my girls.

- You're family.
- That's so beautiful.

- It is.
- Thank you.

- I love it.

It was right then that my heart
went up in my throat,

and it was like
I couldn't say nothing.

Because I knew what it was.

Knowing that she is home,
where she belongs,

it was beautiful.

This is your mama.

It is so beautiful.
I mean, look at that.

- I think everything just
really hit home even harder.

The fact that I, you know,

knowing for 23 years

that she couldn't--
she couldn't reach out,

she couldn't check on us,

you know, that
something had happened...

it actually made me
start to heal a little bit.

- She needs to come home, okay?
- Yeah, yeah.

- To be able to actually
put her fully at rest,

we've talked
about that so much.

And what Yolanda has done
is so heartfelt that we can--

I don't know that
we'll ever be able

to really thank her enough.

- There's a lot of great,

great things
that came out of this.

- We're thankful for that,
and what you've done,

'cause you brought this
wonderful woman into our life.

Thank you, Yolanda.
Thank you so much.

- Wasn't for you guys,
I wouldn't have my baby girls.

- Well, you're family.

- I'm just grateful to
Detective Williams, Yolanda,

'cause I know my two nieces
in my life right now.

And we talk every day.

We have got so close,

and I'll give them the love
that they need from my sister.

Think her girls
are my girls now.

They're still her babies,

but I'm giving them
and they're giving me back.

- My mother's case, it's
not just another Jane Doe.

She's a person with a story.

She had family
that cared about her.

I would have liked for her
to have--see me now.

I think she
would've been proud.

[gentle music]

♪ ♪

- A year has passed since
I started this investigation.

My mission was always
to identify our Jane Doe,

to give her back to her family,
and give her back her name.

And I've done that
with Kathy's case.

- It's been a lot of hard work.
- Yeah.

- A lot of phone calls,
a lot of going down dead ends.

The adoptions threw us
for a loop--

- Yes.

- But we persevered,
we kept going.

I was totally clueless
to how, you know,

third cousins and genealogy
and all that work,

but I knew we had Yolanda's
team behind us.

It was a slow process
for a while

and then it started
building steam

until kind of everything
came together

and we finally
identified Kathy.

- Kathy got her name back.

Her identity back.

Nobody should die
without it.

Her family thought
she walked away,

maybe didn't want anything
to do with them,

I don't believe that.

But unfortunately, she didn't
have any more choices

after that of what she would've
wanted to do with her life.

She's been so wronged
in so many ways.

I just hope now that her
family can start to heal.

You and I said
we would figure it out.

We said we'd take her home.

And that we would pursue
any roads

that opened up
to find out who killed her.

- And that continues.

- Obviously the truth is
ultimately what we're after.

- Right.

- The case is now in
the investigators' hands.