All language subtitles for Before.They.Kill.Again.S01E06.1080p.WEB.h264-FREQUENCY_track3_[eng]

[Joan] Robert received
a ransom note.

It was in his mailbox.

[ominous tones playing]

The ransom note said,
"For the last time, no police.

Do exactly as we tell you."

"Remove all posted
missing person flyers.

If not, death will be
the end result."

"Three million in a black sport
bag is the sum of life.

"This is the last chance.

From now on,
it is all in your hands."

When I saw that note,
I believed that whoever was

involved in this was desperate
enough to kill Heddie Braun,

or had done it already.

I need to do whatever it takes
to get inside his head.

[siren wailing in distance]

That somebody would chain
her up like an animal.

It was almost like
time stood still,

that we were in this
horrible dream.

It made no sense to me.

She never hurt anybody.

She was loved by everybody.

Why would anybody take
my mother?

Why?

[kidnapper speaking]

[Michael]
This is the first time I had to
get into a kidnapper's head.

I knew how he operated.
I knew his personality.

Pitted against somebody
else, one-on-one.

And the question is,
if he wasn't gonna let her go,

then what was
he gonna do with her?

And there's only
one answer in my mind.

He was gonna kill her.

[slow, ticking theme music]

[siren wailing]

[theme music intensifies]

[theme music mellows]

[Joan] What I miss most about
Mother is her hugs.

She was a good mom.
Fair, honest.

Strict when she had to be.

We were best buddies.

I could talk to
her about anything.

I never dreamt in
a million years

that Mother would be kidnapped.

Walworth County is very rural.

Where we live, everybody
knows everybody.

We didn't lock our doors.
Very safe.

Pretty much every day, I would
go down by my mom and dad.

I'd bring them their mail
or check on them.

But on February 4th, my nephew
Robert called me up.

He says, "Where is Grandma?"

I says, "I don't know,
she's home."

He says, "Well, she called me,
and she says some man has her.

"And she said that she was in
a closet, and it was dark,

she was cold, and the man says
he was gonna kill her."

It was strange that Mother
called Robert at work.

Mother would never have bothered

any of us at work with
phone calls.

She just celebrated her 88th
birthday the day before,

but I know she had
a clear mind.

She didn't have dementia.

I says, "I'll go down.
I'll get dressed right now.

"I'll go down to Mother
and Daddy's and see

"what's going on.

And I'll get back to you as
soon as I can."

When I got to Mother
and Daddy's house,

their garage door was open
and her car was gone.

That was strange.
She didn't drive.

Especially in the winter,
she didn't drive.

Daddy was sitting
in his recliner.

My dad wasn't
the healthiest man.

He was legally blind.
He couldn't hear the best.

I says, "Where's mother?"

And he says, "Oh, she must be
down to the farm."

Which is my brother's house.

And I says, "Well, I'm gonna
run down to the farm and see

where mother is, what
she's doing."

Because I didn't want to
alarm him.

I went to my brother's house,
and she wasn't there.

I knew right away something
was the matter.

[David] It was a real cold day.
I was in a meeting.

Lieutenant kind of whispered in
my ear that they had

a missing person.

Those first few hours are very
crucial when you have

a missing person, especially in
the cold like this.

It was close to the zero mark
when all this took place.

You could freeze to death
from exposure.

I told him, "Get as many people
up there as you can,

start searching the area,
see what you can find out."

[ominous tones playing]

[David] The concern, in Heddie's
case, is she's elderly,

88 years old.

Maybe she was confused,

and maybe was starting to get
some dementia.

Did she get in her car
and drive away?

It was a short time later that
her car was discovered

down the road.

When we found the car, it was
driven into the field.

The keys were in the ignition.
The car was unlocked.

I found nothing out of
the ordinary in the car.

There was no footprints
or anything to go on.

There was no tracks to indicate
another vehicle or vehicles.

The discovery of her car down
the road made it appear that

she lost control of her car on
the slippery roadway and drove

off into a field and then maybe
walked away from the vehicle.

I later learned that
the kidnapper planned for that.

That's exactly what he wanted.

[door clanking]

The kidnapper taking the car
and making it appear that

she drove off into the field,
I think it was smart

on his part.

We weren't thinking that
this is a kidnapping.

We're thinking that she was out
there in the woods somewhere.

So here I am wandering around
with, you know,

30, 40 firefighters checking
the woods and everything.

That was a red herring.

The search of the woods
took an entire day.

After we had cleared that
entire area,

it was getting to be dark.

And I decided at that point
that Heddie wasn't out there.

And I told Sheriff Graves,

I said, "Dave,
she's not out here."

[David]
I trusted Mike, not just because
he's a good cop or a good

detective, I trusted him
because he was a tracker.

He was a hunter.

When I arrived at
Heddie's house,

that's when it starts to
seem kind of strange.

I was gonna make some phone
calls at the house,

and I picked up the phone,
and it was dead.

We found that the phone line
has been severed at the house.

And I remember looking at that
phone line, I can vividly

remember that it was
a clean cut.

And now I'm starting to think,
we got something going on here

bigger than
her just driving off,

that this might be
a kidnapping.

When the phone lines are cut,
her car's missing, the car gets

found on a side road -- all of
it comes together, and you say,

this is not someone wandering
away out in the field.

This is an abduction.

The phone lines being cut,
I think it was a way to

try to confuse the police.

It probably bought him some
time to get away.

[Michael] I start to think, this
guy, you know, had a plan.

Try to throw us off track as to
what actually happened to her.

And it worked.
He wasn't a dummy.

He was smart about
the whole thing.

But on the other hand,
in hindsight,

he probably should have never
cut the phone line.

If he would have just left
the phone line intact,

that would have never aroused
our suspicion even longer.

That would have gave him
even more time.

[tinkling sounds]

The police questioned
each of us.

They asked us if we knew
who would take Mother.

I didn't have a clue.

We're nice people.
We didn't really have enemies.

Mother and Daddy were
financially secure,

but we didn't have
an awful lot of money.

There was no reason to
take her.

We couldn't comprehend that.

[David]
The Mann family were known to
be a wealthy family,

had a huge sand and gravel
business.

Dick Mann, I guess you would
call him the patriarch of

the family at the time.
Heddie was his mother-in-law.

My sister Judy married
Dick Mann.

My brother-in-law's mother's
phone line had been cut.

She was the first person
he was gonna kidnap.

He had started with
Dick's mother.

[David] OK, this is starting to
make sense.

It tells me that he had a plan
to first abduct Dick's mother.

He wasn't successful there
because she had more security

in her house.

Now, you know, another part of
the puzzle is starting to

come into play.

This isn't just some old couple
that lives out in the woods

that she's gone missing.

Now there's a tie to
the Mann family.

The Manns were well off.

Now we've got somebody that is
associated with somebody

that's got money.

We thought that the next thing
that would happen is

the kidnapper would
make demands.

I would think that right out of
the box, he would say,

"I'm holding this person,
and this is what I want."

Because otherwise, why did
you abduct this person?

[Michael] We all were puzzled.
We haven't got a ransom.

There's nothing.

You got this time frame that
nothing's happening.

You're waiting for his move to
counter with your move.

And right now,
there is no movement.

There had to have been a reason
that there was this time --

once again, a time delay.

[David] I thought we would
probably hear from him

each day at least.

The longer it goes on,
the more you kind of got to

face reality that maybe --
maybe she's not alive.

The weather was very cold,
and it got colder

as time went on.
I think it was close to zero.

Heddie was on heart medication,
and she was gonna need it.

The whole thing is
a ticking clock.

I mean, every hour that she's
missing, the pressure grows.

[Joan] A couple of nephews got
together, and they got

a picture of my mom

and put a missing persons
bulletin out.

And got people to put them up
in the windows at gas stations,

fast foods, hardware stores,
grocery stores.

The nights were the hardest for
me because you'd lay down

and hope to sleep,
and your mind would wander.

I think that's maybe why
I would get up

and drive around the country
roads looking for Mother

in case he had let her go.

And I could bring her home.

Just keep praying.

I just wanted my mom home.

My family is everything to me.

I guess that's -- I got that
from my mom, because family was

everything to her.

[ominous tone playing]

[David] On Thursday, the ransom
note was in the mailbox.

When I saw that note,
I believe that

whoever was involved in this
was desperate enough

to kill Heddie Braun,

or had done it already.

"For the last time, no police.
So do exactly as we tell you.

"Remove all posted
missing person flyers.

"If not, death will be
the end result.

"Three million in black sport
bag is the sum of life.

"In case of dirty
or tapped phone,

"death will be the conclusion.

From now on, it's all in
your hands."

Now you got something concrete
that you can start to examine.

You want to try to dissect it
and see what

you can pull out of it.

It gives you an insight on what
type of person

you're dealing with.

The kidnapper that demands three
million dollars tells me that

the kidnapper is desperate.

Dealing with any desperate
person is dangerous.

You don't know what
they're going to do.

They're unpredictable.

Desperate people do
desperate things.

And that's what scared me.
That's what worries me.

[Michael] You read this,
whoever the kidnapper is,

is serious about what
they're doing.

He reiterated twice in
there -- death,

he meant business.

And if he doesn't get it
his way, he will kill Heddie.

The other thing is too,
the ransom note said, "We."

So does he have a partner?

Are we talking more than
one person?

Is there one person watching
or staying with Heddie

and another delivering these
notes and moving

around the community?

[Michael] I later found out that
he purposely put "we" in there

because he wanted to give us
the idea that we were dealing

with maybe the mob or some
group of people that

kidnapped Heddie.

He purposely did it
to throw us off.

He was trying to throw us
off again.

And at the time, it worked.

The ransom note put the thought
in our mind that we were

dealing with somebody like
the mob or something.

[David] I was new to being
the sheriff.

And I guess you would call this
a baptism by fire.

We called in some of the family
members into the office I said,

"Can you get
three million dollars?"

When we found out
there was a ransom,

we started getting money
together.

But just in the next hour
or two to have

three million was
impossible.

It wasn't like, that we'd go dig
under the mattress

and find that money.

Daddy's first thing out of
his mouth was,

"We'll sell the farm."

[Michael]
How much can you get together
in the next couple of days?

And I think it was a couple
hundred thousand dollars

or something like that.

But now they've got
a problem where

they can't deliver
three million bucks.

The longer it goes,
the worse it gets.

He went through all this work
and planning and everything for

a big payback.

And I think he would have been
pissed if he didn't get

his three million dollars.

And the question is,
if he wasn't going to let

her go, then what was
he gonna do with her?

And there's only
one answer in my mind.

He was gonna kill her.

[clanking]

Here's another clue that was in
that ransom note.

He asked for the missing
person's flyers

to be taken down.

So he's got to be still
locally in the area.

You pull up to a stop sign,

you see Heddie's picture
on the --

you go to the grocery store, you
see Heddie's picture.

And I think that's starting to
wear on him.

[David] We took the pictures
down because it gives them

the feeling that
they're in charge.

And we didn't want to upset
the kidnapper to the point

where he might
do something to her.

You need to control it
as much as you can.

And at the same time, try to
let them think that

they're in control.

We thought that the next thing
that would happen is

the kidnapper would give us
a drop point or we would get

instructions,
which we never did.

The kidnapper had either used
his computer or his landline at

home to register
and get it activated.

The FBI determined the location
of where it was registered

from, which was then
the kidnapper's address.

[David] That was what kind of
broke the case.

That was the a-ha moment.

And it was like, OK,
now we got a suspect.

[Michael] I can remember
that day vividly.

It was getting late at night,
and I was either just getting

home, or I got home,
and I got a phone call.

"Get your ass back here.
Turn around.

We got a suspect."

Unbeknownst to me,
it's gonna be somebody that

I know really well,
and have known for years.

And the agent goes,
"You know him?"

And I go, "Yeah,
I know him really well."

[Michael]
They're all gathered around,
and one of the FBI agents hands

me a photo and goes,
"This is the suspect."

And I looked at it,
and I'm like, "Holy [bleep],
it's Reinier."

Reinier Ravesteijn was a
carpenter and a handyman.

He would do handyman stuff out
at Dick Mann's place,

and that's why he had so much
knowledge of

the family and everything.

Reinier was a resident of
the Netherlands,

lived in Amsterdam.

His wife had taken a high
school trip there and met him,

and they eventually married,
came back to the States.

It hit me like a ton of bricks
that I never spotted it

when I read the ransom note.

He says, I want three million
dollars delivered

in a black sports bag.

[David] Do you call your gym bag
a sports bag?

If I'm going to the gym,
I either take a backpack

or a gym bag, I don't call it
a sports bag.

Him being from the Netherlands,
that's a European slang.

And it was something that
I missed.

Every law enforcement guy that
read that note

missed "sports bag."

You can be the best detective
in the world,

and you still overlook stuff.

If I would have caught it at
the time, that sometimes can

make a case, you know?

To this day, it just baffles me
how something can boldly be

flashing right in your face,
and you don't pick up on it.

I knew Reinier through
my old partner at

the Sheriff's Department.

My partner was
the brother-in-law to Reinier.

Now we got
the upper hand on him.

I spent enough time with him to
know his inner workings

and how he thought.

They immediately asked me to
sit down and write down

everything I knew about Reinier.

I wrote down in that sheet of
paper everything that I had

knowledge about,
especially his mindset.

You know, what kind of mind are
we dealing with?

He was arrogant,
selfish, egotistical, cocky.

He liked to be in control.

He thought of himself being
really intelligent,

and knowing more than you.

Reinier had been arrested
by us in the past

in a disorderly conduct case,
bar fight.

Wasn't a pushover by
any means.

He was a tough dude.

Their next question out of
their mouth was,

"Would he kill her?"

And I'm like,
"Yes, he would kill her."

I didn't have to hesitate.

Based on what I knew of Reinier
and everything, I felt that

he'd kill Heddie.

[David] When he said that,
it's like, holy cow.

You've got a detective
who knows him better than

anybody, saying he could
do a homicide.

She may already be dead,
because it's been four days.

You want to get to her
as fast as you can.

The clock is still ticking.

But we didn't immediately move
on him, because we had no clue

where she was.

We didn't go into his house,
because at that point,

if she's not there, then what?

Reinier could just button up
and not say anything.

"I'm not gonna tell
you where she is."

So what do we do next?

And the answer was, we're
gonna follow him around

a little bit and see if
he leads us to her.

[David] It was a risk,
but everything was a risk.

You think to yourself,
the longer this goes on,

the worse things get for her.
It's very tense.

At that point, he's not taking
care of her, and she's freezing

out in the cold, or she's gone.
She's dead.

[David]
The SWAT team crept up on
the house

and placed a tracker

on Reinier's vehicle in hopes
that he would lead us

right to her.

Once Reinier got to his house,
he just didn't seem to move.

He didn't leave
the residence that night.

[Joan] She's gone now four or
five days without her medicine.

That was a concern to me.

I know Mother is a tough woman,
a strong woman,

determined woman.

The bottom of your heart
drops out

because she's little.

Somebody's got to
take care of her.

I felt that was my job.

And I was worried

because it was so cold,
and she's so small,

and she didn't like the cold.

I'm OK.

In the morning, we followed him
around, and it's like he's not

leading us anywhere.

He went to the hardware store
to pick something up,

and then he went to McDonald's.

He's not really doing anything.

I mean, if I've got somebody
held captive somewhere,

I'm gonna be
checking on 'em,

and he wasn't doing
any of that.

Sometimes we wondered if
he knew he was being followed,

and he was just driving around.

You find a beacon and you know
the cops are on to you

and you're still gonna go
through with the plan?

That's not rational.

And that's what worried us all
about his personality.

He was irrational.
He didn't care.

Deep down inside,
he thought

he could get away with it.

I think he continued on because
he just has -- had that kind of

ego that I mean, just wasn't
gonna give up.

Maybe he was in it for
the thrill

to see what exactly --
what's gonna happen next.

[David] He wasn't really leading
us to Heddie.

The longer that day went on,
the more concerned I got

that we're never gonna find her.

He was headed towards
the county line.

The agent looked at me and said,
"You're the Sheriff.

What do you want to do?"

I was in command and four days
was long enough.

Don't let him leave
the county, stop him.

Take him down.

It was gonna be a takedown
with shock and awe.

We wanted to rattle his cage.

One vehicle pulls in front of
him, one pulls behind him,

lights come on, and I watched
the whole takedown take place,

taking him out of the vehicle.

[Michael]
The thought process was that if
he was gonna disclose to

anybody about what he did
and how he did it,

it was gonna be to me.

And he rolls his head and looks
up at me and he goes,

I'll talk to Bambi.

I'll tell Bambi.

[Michael] Was it a case of
good cop, bad cop?

Yeah, I guess you could
say that.

We all had planned that that's
what we were hoping for.

They lifted him off the ground,
and they put him in

the back seat with me.

And now it came time to ask
my questions.

And I was hoping that
she'd be alive.

[David] I knew Mike was
up to the challenge.

If anybody could get him to
speak, it would be Mike.

He trusted Mike more than
the rest of us.

His whole demeanor,
when they put him in the back

seat, you could just see that
there was a big burden.

You could tell that this had
all been weighing on him.

I think it was a sense of
relief that he could finally be

done with this.

It helped me formulate a plan,
and I decided at that point.

I wasn't screaming at him.
I wasn't spitting in his face.

First thing I said to him was,
"Is she alive?"

And he says, "She's alive."

I said, "Where?
Where is she at?

Where, Reinier, where?"

And then he started to lean
away from the seat and reach

into his back pocket.

And in his hand that was
handcuffed,

he's holding a set of keys.

We drive into the backyard,
and lo and behold,

there's two construction
trailers back there.

[David] Heddie was being held in
a utility trailer.

Some of the SWAT guys probably
did walk by the trailer,

but a logical person would not
expect someone to put

an 88-year-old lady into
a utility trailer in the middle

of the winter.

[Michael] I unlock the lock,

and I peer into the trailer,
and the trailer is just

full of crap
all over the floor.

And I look down on the floor,
and I can see

a bundle of blankets,

and I figure it's got to be
Heddie down there on the floor.

And I reach down to touch
her and touch her hands,

and she awakes or
comes to life.

And I said, "Heddie,
we're the police.

We're here to take you home."

And she goes, "What took
you so long?"

And I go, "You're one
tough lady."

And she goes, "I'm Norwegian."

She was definitely in
a weakened state.

I personally don't think
she would've lasted

a whole lot longer.

And inside the trailer,
the whole entire floor was

lined with tarps and stuff.

Seeing the plastic on the floor
of the trailer, if she did die

on him, he had a plan to
dispose of her.

He says he would never hurt
her, but I don't know what

other purpose that plastic
would have served if it's not

to cover up a body.

If we hadn't found her,
that plastic would have been

utilized in the next
day or two.

I think it's total bull [bleep].
That's what I think.

I mean, "never ever wanted
her to get hurt," stutters --

Come on, I mean really?

I'm not a blooming idiot.

You know he's not
telling the truth.

He felt so bad when he put,
"death would result,"

in the ransom note.

Oh yeah, I bet you
he shed a tear over that.

Yeah, yeah,
bunch of bull [bleep].

[siren wailing]

[David] The whole family was in
the waiting room.

Best moment of my career was
walking in and telling that

family that she was OK.

Great moment.

Never forget it.

[Joan] We were all crying,
even the SWAT team.

We were happy.

They got her on the right heart
medicine and put her in

intensive care.
You could see she's OK.

She's talking.
She's breathing.

Dave Graves was there and he
told us that it was Reinier

that had taken my mother.

It was just a shock.

He had worked at times for
my brother-in-law.

He swore a lot.

Carried on, got loud.
I wasn't a fan of his.

Uh -- he just wasn't
my kind of person.

I was never comfortable
around him.

Seemed like he wanted that
money so badly,

and I didn't know why.

I never heard a reason
whatsoever why he took her.

When I listen to that,
I think he's full of crap.

That's a nice way to put it.

He did the least he could do to
keep her alive, and then later

on to say she was happy,
she was warm.

Are you kidding me?

She wasn't happy.
She wasn't warm.

She was hungry.
She had no medicine.

She had chains on her ankles.

And when she'd urinate,
it would roll down her leg

and froze her toes.

Did a lot of damage
to her nerves.

They didn't know if they'd have
to amputate or not,

but they didn't.

That was the worst part,
that somebody would chain

her up like an animal.

It's hard to think about
her going through that.

We had animals at
the farm growing up.

We never treated 'em
like that, never.

[Joan] He was sentenced
the 18th of December

in 2003.

One year to the date of
his sentencing, my mother died.

I went to the nursing home
where Mother was,

and I held her in my arms.

She buried her head,

and I had her like this.

And that was our goodbye.

It is hard to think about
the stuff that Mother

went through.

I do believe it had shortened
her life some.

[David]
It feels good to have caught
the person who did this.

And sometimes I wonder

if deep down inside,

he knew he couldn't pull it off.

I was pitted against somebody
else one-on-one.

I was able to catch him.

It was a big game to him.

And he wanted to play
a little bit more.

But then he came to the point
where it's over.