Original subtitles

[music playing]

[owl hoots]

LT. KENDA: On this particular evening,

Ronald Jacobs is ridingaround through the back woods

of northern Vermont.

It's bitterly cold.

And he can't find his friend, Melissa Jenkins.

Come on. Pick up.

Pick up.

Pick up.

[phone ringing]

He knows she's out here somewhere.

She isn't answering her cell phone.

This is very unlike her.

And he's becoming very, very frightened.

[dramatic music]

And eventually, he runs into his friend's car

parked on the side of the road.

Melissa, everything OK?

[low, suspenseful music]

LT. KENDA: Melissa Jenkins is not in her car.

Where could she be?

Oh, my god, Tim.

HANNAH MCDONALD: The engine is on.

And Melisa's two-year-old son is in the backseat.

This little boy is her world.

Why would she not be with him?

Melissa!

Melissa!

Melissa!

LT. KENDA: Something's wrong.

Something's very wrong.

[owl calls]

RONALD: Melissa!

Melissa!

[clock ticks]

LT. KENDA: I spent my career closing murder cases.

[theme music]

But I'm not the only one who answered the call.

It takes a rare breed to solve the unsolvable,

to catch a ruthless killer, to find justice for the dead.

That's what it takes to be an "American Detective."

[music playing]

CAPT. CUSHING: My name is Robert Cushing.

I'm a captain with the Vermont State Police.

Back in 2012, I was the supervisor for the Bureau

of Criminal Investigations.

I was a lieutenant-- field lieutenant-- in plainclothes.

[phone rings]

I was at home asleep when I received a phone call.

What they had told me caught my attention enough so

that I got up and went to work.

But I never thought that a call like this

on that particular night would turn into what it became.

[suspenseful music]

[INDISTINCT VOICES ON POLICE RADIO]

[siren]

Goss Hollow Road is a dirt road.

In this particular location, there was nothing around.

[INDISTINCT VOICES ON POLICE

RADIO]

How's the kid doing?

He's in the care of a relative right now.

CDR. SINCLAIR: When I got the initial call,

the only thing we really knew was the car

was registered to Melissa Jenkins.

I knew who she was.

And to hear that her child was left alone in the car just

didn't make any sense.

[siren]

Melissa Jenkins was a household name in Saint Johnsbury.

She was a very sweet woman, grew up on a farm,

certainly knew what it was to put in a hard day's work.

She was a single mother working as a beloved teacher

at Saint Johnsbury Academy.

Melissa was my physics teacher.

She was really just a verykind, loving, warm person.

She was also a great mother.

I remember there were a few times where

she didn't come to class because her son was sick

or he needed her.

I had got to see him a few times.

And he was such a cute little boy.

CAPT. CUSHING: She also waitressed

at a local restaurant.

And my wife and I had been to that restaurant,

and we had seen her in there waiting tables.

LT. KENDA: Cushing was facedwith something every homicide

detective faces, including me.

The likelihood is great that someone he knows

is the victim of a violent crime.

It is extremely disturbing.

But you have to do what you're meant to do--

get to the bottom of this.

CAPT. CUSHING: Time is of the essence.

We didn't know exactly what had occurred.

Is she close by?

Is she far away?

I mean, we didn't know at the time.

[discordant notes]

In the vehicle was a smashed cell phone.

I didn't know what to make of that at that point.

But our department will process those phones.

They will retrieve whatever information we can.

CDR. SINCLAIR: Lieutenant, have a look at this.

[suspenseful music]

There was a shoe found at the scene.

And also, next to the front of the car,

there was a black ball capsitting on the ground, which

certainly was out of place.

There has been a physical confrontation between someone

in front of this car.

Whoever grabbed Melissa Jenkins lost his cap in the process.

CAPT. CUSHING: In front of the vehicle,

there was what appeared to be some sort

of foot tracks or foot marks.

CDR. SINCLAIR: We also found some tire prints

that were in the dirt that indicated

to me that another vehicle had accelerated

quickly away from the scene.

[suspenseful music]

[INDISTINCT VOICES ON POLICE

RADIO]

LT. KENDA: Cushing feels it in his gut.

This is going south very, very quickly.

Somebody found her and took her.

CAPT. CUSHING: So we're gonna have to ramp it up.

Now we're basically flooding this with detectives

and outside resources in order to find her

as quickly as we possibly can.

DET. NALLY: Bob Cushing isvery diligent on case direction

and what needed to be done and how things

needed to be prioritized.

CDR. SINCLAIR: At that point, we begin interviewing everybody

that becomes present in the case,

including Melissa's friend who found the car abandoned

with the child inside.

CAPT. CUSHING: He told me, Melissa made a phone call

to Ronald, advising him of the fact

that she was going to go out and assist

a person having car trouble.

LT. KENDA: When Ronald Jacobs got that call,

he felt as if there was something amiss in her voice.

Did she say anything about who she was going to help?

No.

CAPT. CUSHING: At this time, we need

to figure out who had contacted Melissa

on this particular night.

LT. KENDA: Cushing's people have conducted

a search within a half a mile of the car in total darkness.

But they find no further evidence.

So it's time to end it for now and refocus

the investigation as to what steps

are going to be taken next.

[birds calling]

[music playing]

CAPT. CUSHING: So early in the morning,

we knew that one of the people that we needed to interview

was Tim, Melissa's son.

The child had been released from the crime scene

to a family friend who brought the child to the barracks

to do this interview.

But interviewing a child--

it's extremely difficult. So we called

in an investigator that specialized

in child interviews.

Tim, do you think you can tell me about being in the car

with your mommy last night?

Do you know how many people she left with?

And what happened to your mommy?

Everyone in that room just stares at this child.

He's describing two people attacking his mother.

Now we just don't have one suspect.

We have two.

CAPT. CUSHING: It was at this point

that we knew for sure this was a kidnapping

and that she was taken against her will.

LT. KENDA: Cushing's worst fears have been confirmed.

Time is now everything.

[sirens]

CDR. SINCLAIR: And so we immediately amass a very large

team of detectives and investigators

to cover every possible facet that we can think of.

CAPT. CUSHING: And obviously, family

is going to be one of those targets

that you look to for guidance on this investigation.

They contact John Jenkins, who is Melissa's brother.

And they ask him to come to the station

so they can brief him about the disappearance of his sister.

We begin asking, when was the last time you saw Melissa?

How was she?

Has she been threatened by someone?

Has she ever expressed any concern over something

that happened at work-- anything that

might give you an idea on who might be involved in this?

I just saw her a couple nights ago.

DET. NALLY: He said everything appeared to be normal,

and she was in a good place in her life.

And there was nothing that stood out to be evil or bad.

What about any past relationships--

any trouble there?

Well, there was this guy named Ronald

Jacobs, who she used to date.

Ronald Jacobs is the person who found

that car on the road with her two-year-old

son in it and called 911.

Was it a serious relationship?

Ronald wanted it to be.

But Melissa wasn't interested.

I mean, she just liked him as a friend.

But that was all.

LT. KENDA: Now, as an experienced homicide detective,

that's going to pop a red flag.

You want something you don't have.

What are you willing to do to get it?

[anxious music]

So we ran Ronald Jacobs' background.

And one of the crimes that he had been

charged with in the past was false information

to a police officer.

[discordant music]

LT. KENDA: Now, that's distressing.

Jacobs tells the police that he discovered this crime.

What if he's lying about that?

What if he is the crime, because he could be?

He's in love.

Maybe he didn't get loved back.

At this point, everybody has heard

Melissa Jenkins is missing.

People were concerned.

CDR. SINCLAIR: In a small community,

that's on everybody's mind.

People are talking about it everywhere.

And people are very stressed out.

And you can really feel it.

Now, the police are focusing their attention

on Ronald Jacobs, who is the ex-boyfriend

of Melissa Jenkins.

CAPT. CUSHING: We knew thatwe needed to interview Ronald

a second time, because we haddetermined that in the past

he had been charged with givingfalse information to a police

officer.

So we don't know.

He may or may not be the person that abducted her.

Well, yeah, we dated.

But she didn't want to get serious.

And I was OK with that.

LT. KENDA: Jacobs went on to explain

that the father of the child was not involved in her life.

And Jacobs became a person that she could confide in,

someone to be an anchor point.

And she saw Mr. Jacobs as at least that.

So when Melissa gets this strange call

about helping someone with a flat tire,

he was someone that she thought of.

We just need to make sure that you're

not part of her disappearance.

Listen, whatever you need to do, do it.

All right, get the boots.

Ronald gave us bootsthat he had been wearing,

which show that the boot tracks in the dirt

were not the same as his.

CDR. SINCLAIR: We were able to find evidence of the calls

that he had told us in the beginning.

And so we knew he was telling the truth.

All right, thank you, Ronald.

CAPT. CUSHING: It was very apparent

and obvious that Ronald had nothing to do with this case

at all.

He was just trying to find his friend and help the police out.

LT. KENDA: With Ronald out of the picture,

detectives look elsewhere.

Although he's absent from the child's life,

they shift their focus to the father.

CAPT. CUSHING: So the biological father, Bruce Roberts,

came to meet with us.

DET. NALLY: We always speak withcurrent spouses or ex-spouses

to see if they arepotentially a suspect or not.

LT. KENDA: He is the father of their child.

What if there is something going on between Melissa

and he regarding visitation for this child?

You have to inquire.

We're gonna have to ask you your whereabouts

the night that this occurred.

In any crime, particularly in homicide, you need opportunity.

Could you physically have been able to commit this crime?

I was at work down in Burlington.

It's where I live.

And you have people that can vouch for that?

Yeah.

Mr. Roberts has the best alibi in the world--

80 miles away, in front of a number of people at the time

the incident happened.

He's not involved.

Mr. Roberts is out.

But Cushing is doing exactly what you

do in a criminal investigation.

You march through the known associates of the victim.

Somebody in that circle is most likely involved.

They just don't know who it is, at least not yet.

So Melissa lived just down the street

from where her vehicle was located.

Generally, crimes such as this do start

and/or occur in a residence.

So we're going to look for any signs of foul play--

forced entry, all of those sorts of things.

LT. KENDA: Nothing seems out of place.

There's no evidence of a struggle.

Nothing is disturbed.

But they continue to look for documents, love letters, phone

numbers, anything that may connect

Melissa Jenkins to a person.

Hey, detective.

LT. KENDA: When they're searching,

they find a bunch of papers.

But one thing unusual--

there's a business card.

CAPT. CUSHING: The business card was for Allen and Patricia

Prue, who lived in Waterford, Vermont, for a plowing business

that he had.

It didn't register with anyone.

LT. KENDA: They take the card along with the other papers.

And they may be meaningless.

There's an old expression in homicide investigation.

Everything's in until it's absolutely out.

[chaos of reporters' voices]

So now, Detective Lieutenant Cushing

decides it's time to ask for the public's assistance.

Detectives are interested in speaking with anyone who

may have information regarding the disappearance

of Melissa Jenkins.

CAPT. CUSHING: The hope was to ensure to the public

that we were working on this investigation

in a diligent and quick manner.

Because Melissa was such a popular person in the area,

it just heightened everybody's awareness.

And people were more concerned with the fact

that this young schoolteacher was missing.

EMMA LAPLAN: Prior to Melissa's disappearance,

I truly don't remember anything rocking

the community like this did.

Listen up.

CDR. SINCLAIR: During these investigations,

we would have periodic updates and briefings

where one detective would talk about what information

they had learned.

Everybody in the room gets to hear it.

How are we doing with Melissa's cell phone?

They said they hopefully have something

within the next 24 hours.

All right, I think we gotta change our thinking here.

At this point, we gotta start considering

the worst case scenario.

CAPT. CUSHING: There comes a point where

you know you're actually going to be

looking for somebody deceased.

LT. KENDA: Cushing is a realist.

He tells his people, search all places where one

would conceal or dump a body.

[melancholy music]

DET. NALLY: We started checking pull-offs alongside the road,

checking rest areas, checking rural areas

that you could get a vehicle to and quickly dump a body.

LT. KENDA: A few of the officers were

aware of a boat launch open to the public,

10 miles away from the town.

CDR. SINCLAIR: And they were able to look

to the far side of the bay.

And they saw something in the water

that didn't look quite right.

[suspenseful music]

And they get closer and closer.

And they look more carefully.

And they see human feet.

Apparently, Melissa Jenkins has just been found.

CAPT. CUSHING: I receiveda phone call stating

that they had located a body.

Myself and three other detectives

were shown where the body was.

We had members of the scubateam that came to the scene

to help retrieve the body itself.

CDR. SINCLAIR: Recovery of bodies in water

certainly present challenges,to say nothing of the fact this

was March in northern Vermont.

So the water was extremely cold.

She was in a fairly shallow body of water.

LT. KENDA: Pine boughs were placed

over the body in an attemptat concealment-- not

very efficient, but an attempt.

The body is nude.

The blonde hair is covering the face.

They move the hair away from the face,

and she's positively identified as Melissa Jenkins.

Our victim has been found, not in the way we wish to.

CDR. SINCLAIR: She obviously had not been there very long.

Certainly, the very cold conditions

would slow down decomposition.

ROBERT CUSHING: One could see the bruising

on her upper torso.

So there were signs of some sort of altercation.

Further, there are cinderblocks tied around the waist,

and her wrists are loosely bound in rope.

These failed to keep this body under water.

It's very difficult to submerge a human body.

ROBERT CUSHING: The body is then transported via hearse

to UVM Medical Center.

And that's where the autopsy is conducted.

LT. KENDA: When that body is removed from cold water,

contusions, abrasions, and other marks

begin to rise to the surface as the blood is

no longer frozen or very cold.

CDR. SINCLAIR: We also found a number of circular injuries,

parallel and very similar in distance from each other,

on multiple parts of her body.

LT. KENDA: This is indicative of a stun gun.

Somebody used a stun gun with great force

against her body to put her in a position of being supine.

CDR. SINCLAIR: The medical examiner

was able to definitively say, she had been strangled and died

of manual strangulation.

ROBERT CUSHING: Strangulation crimes such as this

are very up close and personal.

It's not like using a weapon.

Who would do this to Melissa?

Who would do this to a person that everybody

seemed to think the world of?

ROBERT CUSHING: This particular investigation

was hard for a lot of people to understand,

because you never thought that something like this

would happen in little Saint Johnsbury, Vermont.

And we're talking about a school teacher that was murdered.

It was so terrible.

CDR. SINCLAIR: Everything that we knew about Melissa

from her friends and family is that she

didn't live a risky lifestyle.

She wasn't into drugs.

Certainly, the violence that obviously beset her

was very out of place for what we knew she was like in life.

[birds chirping]

ROBERT CUSHING: At that point, we went to where she worked

at Saint Johnsbury Academy.

We were looking for anybody, whether it

be a student or a staff member, that

would have an issue with her.

LT. KENDA: People love to gossip.

And one thing homicide detectives the world over

love very much is gossip, because there's always a kernel

of truth in there somewhere.

She's a model employee and very

well liked by the students.

Melissa was a really good teacher.

She made me really enjoy physics.

And she seemed to understand when students

weren't understanding it.

And she would break it down.

She was just so kind and welcoming.

The feeling is, is that if this sort of thing

could happen Miss Jenkins, it could happen to anyone.

People in small towns are particularly

frightened by violent crime.

This is something that's supposed to happen in New

York City or Los Angeles.

It's not supposed to happen in Saint Johnsbury, Vermont.

I think it just woke people up a little bit,

that it's not just a sleepy little town,

that things can happen.

Would it be possible to look over any work

related materials she may have?

Yeah, sure.

They explain, they'd like to comb through her grade books.

They'd like to see her emails, everything regarding

her activities at the school.

ROBERT CUSHING: Anything?

No, nothing.

LT. KENDA: There is always dead ends in murder cases.

And people think that's frustrating.

Well, it is.

But by the same token, you're eliminating what didn't happen.

It allows you to focus on what did happen.

Melissa's cell records came in.

LT. KENDA: This is exactly what Cushing has been waiting for.

ROBERT CUSHING: Prior to the 8:39 phone call to Ronald

on March 25, Melissa had received a phone

call from a TracFone number.

CDR. SINCLAIR: These sometimes are

referred to as burner phones.

ROBERT CUSHING: In a lot of instances,

people that commit crimes use TracFones, because

their identity is not divulged.

Criminals think they are so smart.

The problem for them is the police are smarter.

Using a TracFone might make things more difficult for us,

but there are plenty of ways to trace

that TracFone to its owner.

CDR. SINCLAIR: They were able to trace this particular phone's

first point of purchase.

And they placed that phone being purchased from a store

in Littleton, New Hampshire.

LT. KENDA: So now they know where the phone came from

and what store it was purchased in.

DET. NALLY: They were able to get

cell tower hits from some very significant areas.

LT. KENDA: The location ping says, it's

at the scene of the abduction.

And more importantly, there is also a ping at the scene

where the body's disposed of.

The buyer of this phone is up to their neck.

The police have now found the phone number

that was used to call Melissa Jenkins

the night of her disappearance.

This phone is not only pinging at the place

where Melissa Jenkins was abducted,

but it's also pinging at the place

where her body was disposed of.

[siren]

ROBERT CUSHING: Detectiveswere sent to the store where

the track phone was purchasedto try to pull any receipt,

because that person very wellcould be a primary suspect

in this investigation.

LT. KENDA: They know exactly what time and what

day the phone was purchased.

The manager plows through his records

and finds the buyer had paid for this phone with a check.

ROBERT CUSHING: Patricia Prue was the name

imprinted on the check.

Those detectives remember a business card found

on the countertop of Melissa Jenkins' house,

advertising a snowplow service from one

Allen and Patricia Prue.

You are aware of the potential of two suspects

involved in this crime.

Now, bells are going off.

Alarms are sounding.

We are close.

DET. NALLY: Wherever you're going

to be, you're probably undersome sort of recording,

whether audio or visual.

Surveillance cameras are really crucial.

And it's a great tool for law enforcement

to solidify timelines in criminal investigations.

ROBERT CUSHING: An interview with Patricia and Allen Prue

was in order at this point, because Patricia

Prue was the last person to speak with Melissa Jenkins.

CDR. SINCLAIR: Things are beginning to point more

and more towards the Prues.

But probability wise, ahusband and wife taking part

in a savage crime like this-- it wouldn't

have been foremost in my mind.

To have a man and a woman join together

to commit a violent crime is incredibly rare.

For it to be a husband and wife-- it almost never happens.

I've never seen it in my career.

CDR. SINCLAIR: One of the surprising angles in the case

was when Allen and Patricia Prue--

they actually showed up at the barracks unannounced.

HANNAH MCDONALD: It's bizarrethat these people show up

at the state police barracks,because they are already

on the list to be questioned.

And here they are.

They had come down to talk to us about a fraud investigation.

Patricia wanted to make a complaint that somebody was

allegedly stealing her identity and were falsifying

records using her name.

LT. KENDA: Based on my experience,

they were trying to explain away the purchase of that phone.

All of our checks were stolen.

Oh, my.

And God knows, somebody could be using that.

This is panic.

This is rememberingsomething they had forgotten.

And they're coming to the police to cover it up.

ROBERT CUSHING: I was not in the room.

I was sitting in another room watching the interview.

I remember to this day.

Allen was sweating bullets.

And it wasn't cold.

DET. NALLY: Allen was a local, born and raised

in Waterford, Vermont.

He found Patricia on the internet.

And they seemed to be inseparable.

He did a paper route delivery in addition to plowing snow.

LT. KENDA: They say, by the way, what were

you doing on the 25th of March?

You recall that day?

Oh, yes.

ROBERT CUSHING: They had said that they

had been in Littleton, New Hampshire, running errands.

They also went through a fast food restaurant.

And then they returned home.

And they had been in bed since 7:30 PM.

At that point, Patricia quickly redirects

the conversation back to the identity

theft and says that she is suspicious of her ex-husband.

We did ask if they were familiar with Melissa Jenkins.

And they basically said that they were familiar with her,

but they had no contact with her other

than when they plowed snow for her the previous year.

That could explain the presence of the business card

on her counter.

What it does not explain is howsomebody named Patricia Prue

bought a TracFone 20 miles away and called

Melissa Jenkins on thenight of her disappearance.

DET. NALLY: Lieutenant Cushing felt

it was not time to go from an interview

into an interrogation.

And timing with that is crucial.

OK.

See yours.

LT. KENDA: There are moments in murder investigations

where you feel it in your bones.

But you're not ready to turn the key, not until you have it all.

Cushing felt the same way.

We'll wait.

We will let this simmer until it becomes soup.

ROBERT CUSHING: They left scot free,

but from that point forward, they were under surveillance.

Cushing has his sights set on the Prues.

And they have absolutely no idea.

CDR. SINCLAIR: Any information that we

gleaned from them from interviews

would have to be corroborated.

So we would assign different detectives different tasks

to follow up and either corroborate or refute

what they had said to us.

[crickets]

LT. KENDA: The video arrives from the store

where the TracFone had been purchased.

And lo and behold, there is Patricia Prue

and her charming husband, Allen, buying

the phone used to call Melissa Jenkins

the night of her disappearance.

ROBERT CUSHING: It was very detailed video footage of both

of them looking at TracFones and then grabbing a TracFone,

putting it in the basket, and purchasing it.

They also said that they had gone

through a drive-through at a local fast food restaurant.

We were able to pull surveillance

from that fast foodrestaurant of them driving

through the drive-through.

LT. KENDA: And their jaws dropped to their chests.

Oh, my.

Allen Prue is wearing the black hat

that was found at the crime scene

of Melissa Jenkins' abduction.

That is, as they say in tennis, game, set, and match.

NEWSCASTER: Melissa Jenkins'smemorial is ultimately

bringing everyone together.

MAN: I feel bad for that little boy.

How could anybody do that, to leave him motherless?

WOMAN: [CRYING] This is a very hard time for our community.

LT. KENDA: A town of 7,000 people turned

upside down by the brutal murder of a loved

member of the community.

The Vermont State Police are gonna

arrest Allen and Patricia Prue.

But they wanna to talk to them again

and see if they can get a statement

from one, the other, or both.

ROBERT CUSHING: Patricia and Allen Prue

came to meet with us after being called.

They were split up, one inone room, one in another.

The only time we ever talked to Melissa

was when we were plowing her driveway.

The interview with Patricia was very difficult.

She simply denied everything.

Detectives presented her with surveillance footage, pictures.

And she still would not cooperate and denied

her part in this case.

LT. KENDA: You have a person who is

in complete denial of reality.

It's not me. It's not me.

You can't see me.

You can't hear me.

La, la, la, la, la.

Yeah, we can, Patricia.

PATRICIA: I'm done talking to you.

I want a lawyer.

LT. KENDA: Mrs. Prue would not get an audition for

the Real Housewives of Vermont.

Now it's time to pursue Allen Prue and see how he reacts.

He is the last person in the world

that handles pressure well.

He's the kind of person that if coffee gets spilled,

it tends to get spilled on him.

And it's about to be spilled on him

by the Vermont State Police.

DET. NALLY: When somebodycommits an act like this,

it is extremely mentally exhausting

to try to script answers and remember the lies

that you told.

I said to Allen, there's no way out of this.

We know what happened.

We want to get the how and the why from you.

CDR. SINCLAIR: Ultimately, Ithink it became overwhelming

and pretty clear to Allenthat we were onto it,

and we had what we needed.

DET. NALLY: He started reminiscing

about when he was a child.

He would spit-shake for the truth.

And then he started unrolling the chain

of events that took place.

Allen told me that Patricia was bisexual

and that they had engagedin consensual threesomes

in the past.

LT. KENDA: Which they found to be somewhat disappointing.

They began to discuss the fact that they need a better girl.

They need one that turns them on.

And they begin to develop an obsession with Melissa Jenkins.

DET. NALLY: One thing he said to me that struck me as very

peculiar is when Melissa got out of her vehicle,

he didn't even ask her if she wanted

to have an affair with them.

He just started to strangle and choke her.

Allen advised that he was able to overpower her

and dragged her to the vehicle and put her in the back

where Patricia continued to choke her to make

sure that she wasn't moving.

LT. KENDA: There was no intent to kill this woman.

There was an intent to make her a sexual slave.

Let us know if you need us again for next season.

Yeah, for sure.

It was really nice meeting you.

Nice meeting you too.

All right, bye.

She's pretty, huh?

Yeah, she is.

I think she likes me.

Yeah, I think she likes me, too.

Melissa became the focal point with both Patricia and Allen

as the person that they wanted to get to be

part of their sexual fantasy.

So how are we going to do this?

I think I've got an idea.

This desire for Melissa just spiraled out of control.

[phone rings]

Hello?

PATRICIA [ON PHONE]: Melissa, it's Patricia Prue.

Oh, yeah, hi.

PATRICIA [ON PHONE]: Um, our car needs a jump.

We're just down the road from you.

DET. NALLY: Melissa was the type of person

that if somebody did need help, she would do whatever

she could to help them.

Hey, Timothy, you need to come with Mommy to run an errand,

OK?

CDR. SINCLAIR: I certainly don't think

she suspected that something like this could befall her.

Ron, hey, I just got a really weird call.

CDR. SINCLAIR: But she was very heads-up in calling her friend.

That played a huge part in ultimately solving this case.

[crickets, owls]

Allen, Patricia, you guys OK?

[eerie music]

Everything OK?

[screams] Help me!

Help!

Help me!

Help me!

She's in the fight of her life to protect

her child, which is why it takes two people to overcome her.

[breathing heavily]

They never did know that that child was there.

So now their whole fantasy is blowing up in their face.

They're in total panic mode.

What do we do now?

They go home to their house.

They drag Melissa Jenkins' body from their car.

They undress her.

ROBERT CUSHING: Put the body on the blue tarp.

They used bleach, poured that over the body.

LT. KENDA: They found some cinder

blocks next to their house.

They tie the cinder blocks to her body.

They dump her in the water.

And the initial reaction with the cinder blocks

is the body sinks.

They stand there for a moment.

And the body rises.

Well, isn't that a surprise?

The Prues had no idea how to plan a trip to the bathroom,

let alone how to try to dispose of a human body in water.

Now they're in pure panic.

They cut boughs from a tree to cover up this floating body.

And they run.

Patricia and Allen Prue are barbarians.

DET. NALLY: So I ask Allen what would he say to Melissa

if she was here right now?

LT. KENDA: So after all of this, we now have why.

We know what.

And we certainly know who.

Your Honor, we think theevidence of guilt is great

and that he should thereforebe held without bail pending.

ROBERT CUSHING: Both Allen and Patricia Prue

were charged with firstdegree murder, conspiracy

to commit murder, and kidnapping.

After a lengthy trial, Allen received life in prison.

CDR. SINCLAIR: Patricia took a plea agreement

and was sentenced to life without parole.

HANNAH MCDONALD: I don't think anyone's

ever gonna be able to forget that this happened.

It was almost that this was an attack on--

on goodwill and kindness.

CDR. SINCLAIR: Certainly the--

the tragedy of this case is never

lost on the investigators.

We know that her son is very beloved by both sides

of his parents' family.

From everything I've heard, he's doing very well.

There's a scholarship thatwas started in Melissa's name.

And the community stillholds her memory very dear.

ROBERT CUSHING: Why this case sticks

with me is simply because it was such

a horrific crime for the area.

But I'm very proud of our agency.

It was just a--

a full team effort.

LT. KENDA: The loss of Melissa Jenkins

is a hole in everyone's heart.

That hole will never heal.

But the people of Saint Johnsbury, Vermont,

should realize, the policemen that

serve them, like Robert Cushing, did

an outstandinginvestigation in this case.

But it's a wonderful thing that they were up to the challenge.

People in Vermont can sleep tonight, because the state

police are awake.