Original subtitles

Narrator:

Narrator: In a California coastal town,

two young college students vanished.

Gail Crawford: I sat straight up in bed,

and I said, "There's something wrong."

Narrator: Police recovered clues

that painted a gruesome picture.

Larry Hobson: There was an unusual amount of blood

found on the bridge.

Ashley Newhouse: There was a panic,

'cause we knew something bad was happening.

Cindy Skelton: We knew that the person who was abducting them,

this predator, he had a type.

Jerome Tushbant: We didn't know what we'd find

buried in the backyard.

I have to get to her. Where is she?

Tushbant: We knew that if we didn't stop him,

we would have more victims.

( music playing )

( music playing )

Larry Hobson: This case was one of the most intense

murder cases I've ever been involved in.

Officer: We're on our way up the canyon.

Narrator: In April, 1999,

homicide detective Larry Hobson

and his fellow officers set out on a grim excursion

through the mountains outside of San Luis Obispo, California.

Officer: At 1:06, we're pulling into a driveway.

After five months with no substantial leads to follow,

we finally had something that could break the case.

Narrator: Hobson had received a promising tip

from a local prison inmate.

He hoped the convict would help them put an end

to an agonizing investigation.

He agreed to take my partner and I out to Davis Canyon

which is a very isolated area.

Officer: And stopping in front of his house.

Hobson: You don't know what's gonna happen,

so there's always nervousness.

I don't care who you are.

Narrator: As they made their way

into the backyard of a secluded home,

Hobson and his team would make a grisly discovery.

After months of searching,

Detective Hobson's greatest fears

were confirmed.

Hobson: It was all over.

Narrator: The search for answers started five months earlier

on November 13th, 1998,

Friday the 13th.

Operator: 911, what's your emergency?

Narrator: In San Luis Obispo, California,

911 dispatch received a call from a student

at California Polytechnic State University

reporting that her roommate,

20-year-old Rachel Newhouse

had vanished without a trace.

On the night of Thursday November 12th, 1998,

the bubbly, outgoing 20-year-old

went out with friends downtown.

In many ways, San Luis Obispo is kind of a throwback

to the way California used to be.

It's a really-- it's a small town,

but it's a coastal town.

It's a college town.

We don't have a lot of traffic,

and we certainly didn't have a lot of crime.

Rachel had gone to Tortilla Flats,

which was a popular nighttime place in San Luis Obispo.

Narrator: What started as a typical night out

turned sour when Rachel got into an argument

with one of her friends.

Cindy Skelton: Rachel decided to leave,

and that's when she chose to walk-- walk home...

...by herself.

Narrator: It was sometime before midnight

when she set out on the 40-minute walk home.

But she never returned home.

Nor did she show up for work

at a local brewery the next day,

setting off alarm bells.

When we talked to Rachel's friends,

we found that she's not someone who would run off...

...that this was very unlike her,

not to be home.

Her absence was definitely suspicious,

so we had to contact the Newhouse family.

Ashley: I was just starting my freshman year

at San Diego State, so I was in the dorms.

My mom called me.

Her voice was definitely concerned,

and she said, you know, "Rachel's missing,

and you need to come home."

There was a tone in her voice,

and immediately I knew something was wrong.

My sister was two years older than me.

I was the baby of the family.

My sister was my role model from day one.

She was my best friend,

and I wanted to be exactly like her,

do everything she did.

I just idolized her.

That's just how we were,

and there was so much love between us.

She was just my hero.

Pemberton: Rachel Newhouse had a very ideal

Southern California upbringing.

She was a very outgoing, pleasant person.

She had a lot of friends.

Ashley: She was a perfectionist to a fault,

and played it safe, played it safe.

The night when Rachel went missing,

I got hit with the most severe stomachache

I've ever had in my life,

and I was-- I've never been in pain like that,

and part of me feels like

I was that connected to her

that I was feeling something was wrong.

Something was going on.

( music playing )

We knew that we had to start moving fast

to find out what happened to this woman.

So we put up a hand-written missing persons flyer

and then the media picked up the story.

Investigators have spent much of the day here

in an effort not to overlook any clues

in the search for this missing woman.

Narrator: Hours went by and still there was no sign

of the missing college student,

but there was one ominous development.

( camera shutter clicking )

Pemberton: The morning after Rachel went missing,

several people who walked over the Jennifer Street bridge

saw a large amount of blood.

Narrator: It was the very bridge

Rachel would have taken

to get home the night before.

Pemberton: The Jennifer Street Bridge basically connects

one side of town to the other side.

People thought it had to be animal blood,

but some of them did report it to police.

Tushbant: We brought out our crime scene investigator,

and we closed down the bridge.

Narrator: Preliminary tests confirmed everybody's worst fears.

It was human blood.

Tushbant: We realized that there was blood

going from the top of the bridge,

and we followed the trail of blood and spatter

down to the ground, where we found that it stopped,

and that's usually an indication that the victim

was removed from the scene, probably in a vehicle.

Ashley: I remember my parents getting a phone call

that they had found blood on the bridge,

and they needed my parents' blood in order to test it,

and initially we just thought, "No. There's no way.

This doesn't happen to families like ours.

This doesn't happen."

It just felt like a horror movie.

Narrator: It would take several weeks for DNA testing,

leaving Rachel's family on pins and needles

and a community in fear.

Tushbant: San Luis is a safe place.

This put a frost over everything.

So now, like, we all try and go places together and stuff,

don't try to walk at night alone and stuff.

Being with friends, having my cell phone.

Narrator: Students and locals

weren't the only ones who felt panicked.

More than a week after Rachel disappeared,

her family struggled to hold it together.

Ashley: There's just no words for the panic and the pain

and the terror and the fear.

You-- you just stop functioning.

Narrator: Hopes of finding Rachel unharmed were shattered

when DNA tests on the blood pool came in.

It came back as a match to Rachel Newhouse.

Ashley: When it was a match...

...that was a shock.

I remember, in the police station,

all this hustle and bustle going around

and these questions and talking about blood,

and I think it was just too much,

and I-- I fled...

...out of headquarters so quickly

and just ran into the middle of the street,

and fell onto my knees and just started screaming.

It was just all I could do.

The possibility of what was happening to her,

I couldn't handle it.

( music playing )

Skelton: We knew that the person who was abducting them,

this predator, he had a type.

Gail: She never went without answering me.

I knew, there's something wrong.

( music playing )

Narrator: In late November 1998,

San Luis Obispo was living in fear

after Cal Poly coed Rachel Newhouse

vanished into the night.

When police found a pool of blood that matched her DNA,

they escalated their efforts to find the missing girl.

We realized that she was at least hurt,

if not worse, and we had all of our investigators

working on the case.

Pemberton: When somebody goes missing in San Luis Obispo,

that sort of sets off a little bit of a panic.

The police had to take action.

We called in the sheriff's office and the FBI.

Within days, we had resources coming in from all over the state,

counties, cities, state agencies.

We wanted to find this girl, and we wanted to find her alive.

Narrator: They also brought in veteran investigator

Larry Hobson from the DA's office.

Since the pool of blood was so large...

...we were concerned that we did have

some type of an abduction on our hands.

Narrator: Without any obvious suspects,

the team cast a wide net.

Hobson: We started with the registered sex offenders

within the city of San Luis Obispo,

going to their residence, conducting interviews

either at their residence or down at the police station.

Tushbant: We got their alibi. If we were able to verify

where they were, we could take them off the list.

Narrator: After two weeks of interviewing potential suspects,

detectives reached a dead end.

They were unable to connect anyone with Rachel's disappearance.

Skelton: It was primarily just processing leads,

trying to think of things to do,

which was pretty frustrating.

Narrator: As the fall semester came to a close,

hundreds of Cal Poly students went home for the Christmas break.

Sadly, Rachel Newhouse was not one of them.

Ashley: The first holidays without her,

I really don't know how we did it.

It's almost impossible to-- to-- to go on like that,

to try to celebrate and have a happy time

when there's just such a huge presence missing.

I think the scariest and hardest thing was...

...wanting to get to her,

because you knew something bad was happening,

but you didn't know where she was,

and you couldn't get to her. You couldn't help her.

And as her sister...

...that was the hardest thing in the world for me.

I just wanted to-- I just wanted to find her,

just wanted to get to her.

I couldn't think about what she was enduring,

or possibly enduring, but at the same time,

I couldn't not think about it,

so there was a panic.

"I have to get to her.

Where is she?"

Narrator: Adding to the family's anguish,

investigators were still no closer to finding Rachel.

Hobson: It was difficult to get out of bed and go to work,

knowing that we would be going in for another 12 hours

of following up leads that just weren't going anywhere.

But we had to follow those leads up,

because the one you don't follow up

could be the one that breaks the case.

We phased from being exclusively about Rachel Newhouse,

and we started taking other cases.

Ashley: I knew that law enforcement

was doing everything they could,

but as her sister, that's my big sister,

and she's out there somewhere. It's never enough.

Until she's found, nothing is ever enough.

Narrator: Four months after Rachel Newhouse disappeared,

the case seemed destined to go unsolved,

until it all happened again.

( indistinct police radio chatter )

Newscaster: San Luis Obispo police

were called to this house in the early morning hours

after Aundria Lynn Crawford's mother

reported her missing.

Narrator: 20-year-old Aundria Crawford

was an interior design student at Cuesta Junior College

with aspirations of attending Cal Poly someday.

Hobson: Aundria and her mother Gail Crawford were very close.

They talked to each other daily.

On March 11 of 1999,

Gail Crawford tried to call Aundria

four or five times during the day,

and never got a return phone call.

She never went without answering me.

That was one thing she always did.

So I was expecting to hear from her on Thursday,

and didn't hear from her when I got home from work,

so I started calling her.

Never heard from her.

I fell asleep at 5:00 AM.

I sat straight up in bed...

...and I said, "There's something wrong."

Narrator: Overwhelmed with dread,

Gail called 911.

She requested that the police department

force entry into the residence,

because she feared something was wrong.

And that's when they found out she wasn't... there.

Aundria Lynn Crawford was reported missing

early yesterday morning.

Aundria Crawford's home here on Ranch Street

remains cordoned off by police tape tonight.

We almost immediately started seeing a lot of indicators

that said that something wasn't right.

First of all, her car was there.

Second, her personal belongings were in the car,

her driver's license, her purse.

These are things that you don't leave without.

Narrator: Strangely, Aundria's signature keychain

was nowhere to be found.

Gail: She had this little 8-ball on a chain.

You know 8-balls where you shake 'em?

And she just always carried that, all the time.

Narrator: Detectives picked up the search inside,

and in the bathroom found a possible lead.

Tushbant: We noticed dirt and marks in the bathtub.

And there was a very small window

above the shower,

and we thought, "I wonder

if someone had come in through this window."

Announcer: In the foyer,

there was more cause for alarm.

Tushbant: When we looked at Aundria's house,

we saw blood,

but it wasn't significant.

We knew that when she left, she was probably alive,

and that meant we had to work fast.

Police now say 20-year-old Aundria Crawford

is the victim of foul play, possibly abduction.

Narrator: Just like the case of Rachel Newhouse,

police couldn't find any likely suspects

inside or outside Aundria's social circle.

Gail: Aundria was really sweet.

She was loving. She liked everybody.

She was a diplomat. ( chuckles )

She had a lot of friends.

Come to find out, she had a lot more

than I even knew about.

Ashley: When we heard that Aundria Crawford went missing,

I immediately thought it was connected.

That was just my instinct.

I didn't know, but that was--

It just seemed too coincidental.

I thought, "Okay, here we go again."

And my heart broke for that family.

Rachel and Aundria were pretty similar in appearance.

They were both in their early 20s.

Seeing their photographs side by side

was actually quite eerie.

They were both between 5'4" and 5'6"

and about 120 pounds,

and we knew that the person who was abducting them,

this predator, he had a type,

and there's a lot of girls in our community

that have similar appearances.

It just added to the fear and anxiety

that the town of San Luis Obispo was experiencing.

I'm really freaked out. I'm not leaving the house.

I think I'm just gonna lay low for the weekend.

Tushbant: We know these offenders don't stop on their own.

We know that they continue to improve and learn

from their previous experiences.

We knew that if we didn't stop him,

we would have more victims.

( music playing )

Narrator: Police in San Luis Obispo

were under tremendous pressure to find two college coeds

who had vanished without a trace.

The two students were similar in appearance,

and both left behind a trail of blood

and few other clues,

leaving detectives with little to go on.

Desperate for answers,

the girls' families tried to take matters into their own hands.

Newscaster: Aundria's mother Gail Eberhart and her grandmother

met again with San Luis Obispo police.

My mom and I got in the car every day...

...and drove around. We went to empty fields,

parking lots, deserted houses...

places we probably should never go.

We looked everywhere, anywhere we could think of,

to find Aundria.

Ashley: We couldn't just sit there without doing something,

so we all would go to the police station

to check in with the headquarters

and to speak with them to see what they knew.

There was that hope. There is always that hope,

that she's just gonna come through that door

and just everything would be okay

and life can be normal again,

but deep in your heart you knew...

that it wasn't gonna happen.

Narrator: As the search continued,

the case caught the attention of David Zaragoza,

a local parole officer whose caseload included

the worst of California's felony offenders.

I was assigned a lot of high control cases.

Those are highest supervision cases--

gang members, parolees that have been

convicted of rape, child molest.

I had the more serious cases assigned to me.

On March 16th, 1999,

I saw the article in the "Tribune"

regarding the possible abduction of Aundria Crawford,

and when I read that, I started thinking

about parolees that were on my caseload.

When I found out that point of entry was a small bathroom window,

which, in my opinion, a small man

would be able to fit through if he was motivated enough.

And as I read, one of the parolee cases really stuck with me.

He had broken into one of the victims' residences in 1987

through a small bathroom window...

and Rex Allan Krebs was just that person to me,

in my mind, as far as his previous criminal history.

In May of 1987, he committed a rape.

In June of 1987, he committed an attempted rape.

So I talked to the lead investigator

of the Aundria Crawford case.

Narrator: Despite his violent past,

Rex Krebs appeared by every measure

to have been rehabilitated since his release

from prison one year earlier.

Tushbant: Rex Krebs was a model parolee.

He was a part of the community,

and he was even Employee of the Month

at 84 Lumber, where he worked.

Hobson: This employer knew of his past sexual assault behavior,

hired him anyway because he felt that he wanted to give him a second chance.

Rex Krebs was extremely likeable.

According to his employer, he was liked

by not only other employees,

but also customers that came to the store.

He had a girlfriend, Roslynn,

and he lived on and off with her in Los Osos.

Eventually Roslynn became pregnant with Rex's child.

He was excited about being a father,

excited that Roslynn was pregnant.

Zaragoza: He stabilized pretty quickly,

comparatively speaking with other parolees.

Narrator: In order to rule Krebs out as a suspect,

detectives paid him a routine visit in the spring of 1999.

We went with Dave Zaragoza to Rex Krebs'

place of employment at 84 Lumber.

Narrator : Rex was amiable and cooperative,

however detectives soon discovered

something unsettling.

We found a .22 caliber pellet pistol

that Rex Krebs admitted that he used to shoot at birds

that got inside the working area at 84 Lumber.

One of the conditions of his parole

is he not be in possession

of any firearm or replica firearm.

And he was arrested for a parole violation.

( handcuffs ratchet )

Narrator: Investigators had no evidence

that Krebs was involved in the disappearance

of either Aundria Crawford or Rachel Newhouse.

But since Krebs had been detained

for violating his parole,

Larry Hobson questioned him about the missing girls.

Have you ever met Rachel and Aundria?

- No. - Ever see them any place?

You know, like I said, you've had a long time

- to think about it. - Not that I can think of.

I've never actually...

- which one's this? - That's, uh, Aundria.

- Not that I can tell you. - Okay.

Narrator: Krebs claimed to have no involvement

with either Rachel or Aundria.

He was eager to clear his name

and help police find the real culprit.

Anybody that you can think of

that you would suspect of abducting these two women?

Hobson: I felt that I had developed some rapport with Rex Krebs

and I asked him for his help

in identifying any person or persons

that he may have met or seen in the county jail

or he knew out on the street

that would be capable of something like this.

And Rex Krebs was more than willing to help me.

There's a skinhead right next door to me.

- In here, and still in iso? - Mm-hmm.

Okay.

He said the FBI was following him around.

In regards to what?

In regards to the first girl.

Krebs wanted to help us with the investigation.

He wanted to be a part of the solution.

Hobson: He actually provided names

of several people in the county jail

that he felt could be responsible for it.

Naturally, we took those names and looked at 'em,

but they never became a suspect.

We were able to substantiate an alibi.

Narrator: Although Hobson viewed him as a person of interest,

Rex Krebs seemed surprisingly cooperative.

Hobson: He gave me permission to search his house,

search his vehicles.

and he wanted to do whatever he could

to help us find Rachel and Aundria.

During the search,

we looked at Rex Krebs' Ford Pickup,

and we noticed the jump seat

behind the passenger seat was missing.

We found that jump seat hidden underneath the house.

Narrator: The seat looked as though it had been recently cleaned,

raising Hobson's suspicions.

We took the jump seat and shipped it off to the lab

to have them do an analysis on that jump seat.

Narrator: As investigators continued to search the house,

Detective Zaragoza noticed something unusual.

As I was approaching a bookshelf,

my attention was drawn to a wood carved box.

My suspicion escalated.

And that's when a lot of things started to make sense.

( music playing )

Narrator: In March of 1999,

investigators in San Louis Obispo

were trying to rule out Rex Krebs as a person of interest

in the suspicious disappearance of two young college students.

But during a routine search of his home,

a wooden box happened to catch the eye of one detective.

It the kitchen drawer, there was a box.

we opened the box and there was this 8-ball keychain.

According to Gail Crawford, Aundria had a 8-ball keychain.

At that point, my suspicion raised even more.

I felt strongly that Krebs was involved.

Narrator: With this new lead, investigators moved quickly

to determine what Krebs knew and what he could be hiding

about the disappearance of both Aundria Crawford and Rachel Newhouse.

Surprised I came back?

Hobson: When you sit down with a person

that's accused of a serious offense,

that person isn't gonna just jump up and talk to you.

The person that's sitting across from you

doesn't like you,

doesn't respect you,

and doesn't trust you,

so before you can expect to sit there

and get any information,

you have to develop that trust and respect

and make that person want to talk to you.

We're gonna find the person that's responsible

for both Aundria and Rachel's disappearance.

What do you think should happen to 'em when we find 'em?

- Kill him. - "Kill him"?

Narrator: Over the following days,

Hobson continued questioning Krebs,

hoping for a confession that never came.

Finally, on April 21st, 1999,

the forensic analysis on Krebs' jump seat came in

and the investigation took a sharp turn.

They told us that the blood on the jump seat...

belonged to Rachel Newhouse.

We finally had our first significant evidence

that would indicate that Rex was definitely involved,

at least in the disappearance of Rachel Newhouse.

Narrator: But what about Aundria Crawford?

If there was any hope of finding either girl alive,

Hobson knew he had to turn up the heat on Rex Krebs.

Remember last time we talked about the 8-ball?

Right.

You want me to to touch that and put my fingerprints on it?

My fingerprints are all over it.

Ahem, you know whose 8-ball that is?

- It's Aundria's. - Wow.

One other thing

that really jumps out...

is you only have one jump seat in the back of that truck, right?

Mm-hmm.

What happened to the other one?

Took that out.

And where did you put it?

Mm, it's out at the ranch.

Where?

In the storage area downstairs.

Right, that's where we found it.

And what do you think we did with that?

You have to push the suspect in any particular crime,

but at the same time, you don't want to push too hard.

I didn't want to push him to the point

that he was going to invoke his right to an attorney,

because then our conversation with Rex Krebs is over.

We sent the whole chair over to the lab in Fresno.

Okay.

You're familiar with DNA, I'm sure.

The results, and so forth.

And guess whose blood that is?

Hobson: At that point, Rex went from being

very open and articulate in our conversation

that we had had the previous two hours,

and suddenly he stopped talking completely.

I see the wheels turnin', Rex.

I'd like to be able to put closure on this,

for those families that have been dealing with this since November.

Rex, look at me.

Hobson: I think Rex realized, at that point,

once he knew it was Rachel's DNA, it was all over.

He knew that we knew that he did it.

Narrator: Rex Krebs had been cornered.

As Detective Hobson braced for Krebs' next move,

he wondered, would Krebs shut down the interview

or would he confess?

I'd like to hear the story.

I'd like to be able to go out

and find Rachel, find Aundria.

Hobson: Rather than make it difficult for him,

I said, "Let's start it out this way.

Let me ask this first."

Okay, are you responsible for the disappearance of both girls?

Are we going to find either girl alive?

( music playing )

Narrator: After weeks of interrogation,

investigator Larry Hobson

finally had his prime suspect,

Rex Krebs, cornered.

However, he still needed to find out

where the victims were

and if they were still alive.

Are we going to find either girl alive?

That was a no? Okay.

Narrator: Finally, Hobson had his confession from Rex Krebs.

But he wasn't finished.

Hobson: Only Rex Krebs knew what happened

to Rachel Newhouse and Aundria Crawford.

We need to find out where those victims are,

for the families.

From there, we started to get into

the specifics of what he did and how he did it.

Let's just start at the beginning with Rachel.

What was the circumstances

where you first saw her that night?

He stalked her for several blocks.

Somehow he knew she was going to the Jennifer Street Bridge.

And he went to the top of the bridge.

He had a Halloween mask

and he waited for Rachel to come up to the top of the stairs.

He jumped out at her and slammed her head

down onto the cement walkway,

and then drug her down to where he had his truck parked,

and then took her back out to his house.

Where did you take Rachel, then?

What happens in there?

Hobson: Rex Krebs decided to tie her up

with a rope around her neck

that went down and connected to her feet

while she's laying on her stomach,

and if she moved her neck forward,

the rope would get tighter.

If she moved her feet backwards,

the rope would get tighter on her neck.

Narrator: Krebs claimed he left her like that overnight.

The next morning, when he came to check on her,

Rachel was dead.

Skelton: The way she was left and the restraints she was in,

she died from strangulation.

So what you're telling me, then, is her struggling

caused her to strangle herself?

That, or her legs relaxed or something, I don't know.

Okay.

And then what'd you do?

Hobson: Rex Krebs took her down the road

about two miles from his own home,

went up on the hillside, and dug a six-foot hole,

placed her in the hole, still bound...

and covered it with hog wire

so the animals couldn't dig her up,

and then filled it back in with dirt and leaves.

I have to keep him talkin'.

We moved on to Aundria Crawford.

To use Rex Krebs' words, he watched her.

You knew you were gonna take her out of the house.

So you check the back door, it's locked.

What do you do next?

Skelton: What we knew about Aundria

was she had a cat that was ill

and had recently had surgery

that was locked in the downstairs bathroom.

Hobson: All her windows and doors were locked

except for that one window

so the cat would have some air.

The window's open. What do you do?

( thumping )

Skelton: It's out belief that Aundria heard a noise

and, thinking it was her cat,

went downstairs to investigate

the downstairs bathroom.

And, to use Rex Krebs' words,

he decided to take her.

Narrator:

Narrator: After five months,

Detective Hobson was ready to put an end

to the investigation,

but not before Rex Krebs admitted to what happened

to Aundria Crawford.

Hobson: What happened?

Skelton: Krebs abducted Aundria,

taken her to his residence

where he raped her.

She woke up and she tried to escape.

Aundria was legally blind

without her contacts and her glasses.

She couldn't see anything. She didn't know where she was.

She didn't know where she was going.

Skelton: He woke up, and, to use his words,

he had to kill her with his hands.

Hobson: I'm sorry, Rex, I couldn't hear you.

Hobson: She died?

Narrator: Rex then disposed of Aundria

just as he'd done with Rachel.

Skelton: He dug a large hole outside of his house

and buried Aundria right there.

Hobson: Rex agreed to take my partner and I

out to his house, to Davis Canyon

and show us exactly where he had buried Aundria and Rachel.

Officer: Okay, arriving at Davis Canyon at 12:45.

We drove into See Canyon.

We're stopped.

Hobson: He went up on the side of the hillside

about two miles from his house...

Man: Straight forward.

( indistinct conversation )

...and pointed to location that was covered with brush

and tree limbs...

...and said that's where he buried Rachel.

We then drove down to his house.

Officer: Marked the first site.

Now we're on our way up the canyon.

Narrator: Detectives started up the road to Krebs' property,

where he told them where Aundria Crawford was buried.

Newscaster: Investigators spent their Thursday afternoon

searching two separate locations

on the very private Davis Canyon Road.

Tushbant: Rex Krebs lived off the grid.

He didn't have electricity. He didn't have cable.

This was not somebody who was interacting with society.

Skelton: There's no street lights.

At nighttime, it's exceptionally dark out there,

which is perfect if you're trying to hide your activities.

Rex Krebs pointed out the grave site

about 30 feet from his front door of where he buried Aundria.

Tushbant: It's human nature. If something works

and you can do it with less effort, you will,

and that's what he did with Aundria.

He buried her... in the backyard.

Narrator: With both victims recovered

and positively identified by the forensics lab,

detectives set about the hardest part

of their five-month investigation,

informing the families.

The police, they called and told me they'd found her.

I was...

relieved they had him.

upset-- upset she was...

not alive.

I didn't want to believe that that--

that could actually happen to her...

that we didn't get to say goodbye,

that she was just...

...thrown away, so to speak.

That was so heartbreaking.

It was too much to deal with.

Newscaster: For the first time since his arrest two years ago,

Rex Allan Krebs faces a jury of his peers.

Zaragoza: In May 2001,

Rex Krebs was convicted of two counts of murder.

Jury foreperson: We the jury, having convicted the defendant,

Rex Allan Krebs, now fix the penalty at death.

Hobson: This case with Rex Krebs,

most of the people, it's something they probably never get over,

something they think about every day.

Gail: Just to lose her, you know,

she wanted to get married, she wanted to have children.

She wanted to have a horse ranch

and she wanted to have a design career.

Those were her dreams.

Ashley: If Rachel was here with us,

I would tell her how much I miss her.

I would tell her that...

life isn't the same without her.

But it's my belief that there is hope

for anybody who's struggling with anything

that feels too big.

There's hope for peace.

There's hope for joy.

So hopefully her story can help somebody else,

and there's beauty in that.