Original subtitles

[narrator] This week on Crimefeed, serial killers,

the cases that terrorize communities.

A developing mystery in Oregon, six women dead

and fears that a serial killer is to blame.

Plus, Dennis Rader, the BTK killer,

named for his method, bind, torture, kill.

For decades, he stalked his prey.

Now police believe there may be more victims

yet to be found.

And a killer on the border.

Detectives in Texas learn a serial killer

is hiding in their ranks,

investigating the murders during the day

and slaughtering witnesses at night.

This isCrimefeed with Nancy Grace,

private investigator Derrick Levasseur,

and investigative reporter Mara S. Campo.

Good evening, I'm Nancy Grace.

This is Crimefeed and I want to thank you

for being with us tonight.

Are there more serial killers now than in the past?

Or are we just catching them more now more than ever?

More victims seemingly emerging.

First up, dog catcher turned serial killer

Dennis Rader, AKA BTK, bind, torture, kill,

based in Wichita and a warning tonight.

Much of what you are about to see and hear...

very disturbing.

The local church deacon, Dennis Rader,

stoking fear across the heartland

with ten known victims, all of them bound, tortured,

murdered in similar modus operandi,

method of operation, even sometimes dressing

in his victims' clothes, binding himself

and taking selfies to relive the thrill of the kills.

But now, are more of Rader's victims being uncovered?

He bragged about the murders of defenseless women,

taunting the media, sending police bizarre puzzles

and bone-chilling letters,

even suggesting his own moniker to them.

And it stuck, B-T-K.

But his own bid for attention

and adulation led to his capture.

-Did it not, Mara? -It sure did, Nancy.

In 2005, BTK sent a floppy disk to

a local news station, which police then traced back

to his church computer, unmasking this sadistic monster

as a seemingly ordinary husband and father of two,

a Boy Scout troop leader, a church deacon,

and a city employee.

But Dennis Rader, he was hiding in plain sight

and, Nancy, Rader was so calculated that

in his courtroom confession he described the measures

that he took to keep kids calm

during the murder of Shirley Vian.

We're going to take a listen to it now,

but again, we have to warn you this describes violence

around children, so please, protect your peace.

And Nancy, you know, he has said that he planned

to kill those children as well,

but the phone rang and he got scared that

maybe somebody was coming over and that's why he left.

But we know he had killed children before.

This man is a demon on this earth.

And there are more victims.

Mark my words, there are more victims.

What do you make of the recent digging

in rural Butler County?

I mean, listen, they're discovering more trophies, right?

They found the pantyhose ligature.

Wasn't that one of the items that they found out there?

Well, I think there they're looking

at a barn, because in one of his musings,

he talks about, "I wonder if they'll find anything in a barn."

And a credible source has recently told

the task force that

BTK Dennis Rader had been in that area on that land.

So in the past days, the task force has been out there

looking with drones, with sniffer dogs.

Um, but I think after this many years,

I would be very surprised if there was any DNA evidence,

but maybe something buried.

Yeah, I mean, Nancy, we know that Rader

has given detectives plenty of reasons to believe

there are additional victims out there.

Let's look at some of the sketches

that Rader has drawn over the years.

Police believe these sketches are either his victims after the fact,

so he can relive that moment, or they're just fantasies

he was having at the time.

But the question is, are these sketches of victims

they haven't found yet?

Many of them are depicted in barns,

and Rader's daughter, Kerri Rawson,

has said he's always had a fascination with barns.

So could there be additional victims out there

that we just haven't found yet?

That's the real question.

Yeah, so his daughter has announced that

they are investigating his possible connection

to five more victims.

So these are unsolved cases of women who disappeared.

And now police think, based on some of these sketches

and some of the evidence that they uncovered

when he was arrested,

you know, they recovered a trove of information

because, like Derrick said, he was keeping all of these trophies.

He was keeping all of this detailed information

in his journals, and now they're trying to piece them together.

So, for example, in 1976,

Oklahoma teen Cynthia Dawn Kinney disappeared.

Now they think she may have been who he referred to as,

"bad laundry day." He had all of these codes.

So there are a lot more questions now about who else.

[Nancy] Cynthia worked at a laundry and he had reason,

business purposes to be across the street from that laundry

where she goes missing and as a matter of fact,

it is Cynthia that I believe they're trying to connect

to that Butler County search and this search

has just been going down.

This didn't happen last year, two years ago.

It's happening now and they've gone back multiple times

dating back all the way back to last March

and they keep going back and they keep going back

and I'm waiting for them to go back

with ground penetrating radar because...

that sonar device shows where the dirt deep down under

where you're standing.

It looks like a metal detector but it shows up like

a baby sonogram and you can see where the dirt

is actually different like disheveled,

out of place from the dirt around it.

So that's something I believe that they will do.

Now the task force is doing a lot under Sheriff Verdin

that we can't talk about, but...

That search is out in the open.

You can see the drones, you can see the dogs,

and even a former FBI out there looking.

But what's interesting, Nancy and Derrick,

this is something we've spoken about.

BTK, as far as we know, was completely quiet

from 1991 to 2004.

There was no activity that we know of.

That's 13 years.

So does a serial killer suddenly stop for 13 years...

-No. -...before re-emerging?

And that's exactly, in terms of their psychology,

do they stop?

Well, I think that's where the sketches come in, right?

'Cause detectives in the task force are going to have

to go in and reverse-engineer this entire thing, right?

They're going to follow the breadcrumbs in reverse,

-Yeah. -where they're going to look at these... they're going

to look at these sketches, they're going to look at the trophies,

and they're going to compare them to cases from that timeframe,

where they were missing person cases or murders.

And what they have to do is look at these sketches

and see, are there anything in them?

Some of the sketches we saw earlier,

there's specific colored dresses.

Were any of the victims wearing something

like this at the time?

Then they can go in and look at the photos

that Dennis Rader took of himself.

A lot of the times they said those photos

were actual depictions of some of his victims.

So in any of those photos, have they not been linked to certain cases?

This is where you may be able to do that.

You know the sketch of the little girl wearing a yellow...

It looks like a nightie.

-Yeah. -Well, here is Dennis Rader.

I've been comparing and connecting sketches...

-Yeah. -...with pictures that he is wearing.

And I mean, this guy, I had to actually put these face down.

I don't know how many autopsies,

crime scenes, murder scenes, homicide scenes I've been on,

but I actually have to put these face down.

I don't want them looking at me.

Where Rader will, there it is, thanks Charles or John Dee,

there it is, this is him, this is Dennis Rader.

He gets the victim's clothes, he dresses up

in the victim's clothes,

sometimes putting on their makeup,

and then he dresses himself up...

like this, bind and torture to relive it.

Nine photos, I believe. Correct me if I'm wrong.

I believe there's nine photos, and I wonder if all nine

of those photos have been linked to the ten murders

he's already been connected to.

If not, we have to relook at those photos,

compare them to the sketches to see what other

unsolved cases they might be tied to.

Did you see that background?

The background was in a rural forested area.

This guy did not go dormant.

He didn't go to sleep for ten plus years.

He killed somewhere else or he disposed of the bodies

in a way that we have not found them

or connected the missing woman to Dennis Rader.

They're out there.

His daughter is right.

Well, in addition to the photos

that he took of himself in these poses,

he also would often take photos of his victims.

And one of the most disturbing details of many,

many to choose from,

he took one victim from her home,

where he killed her, to his church

because he had keys to the church,

based on being a church leader,

and took photos of her dead body in his church

because that turned him on.

This man is as sick as they come.

He would even take the victim's makeup.

And put on their makeup.

Little known fact, did you know Ted Bundy

would actually sometimes bathe, redress,

and do hair and makeup of his dead victims?

-I did not. -And then have sex with parts of their body.

But I'll leave that for another moment.

So what is it like to sit down with

a sadistic killer like Dennis Rader for years

and listen to him describe his "conquests,"

also known as his murders?

We find out from author Katherine Ramsland next.

And then later, another cold-blooded killer

uses his position as a lawman himself

to intercept vital intel on the case

to hide the fact it's him.

Oh, please.

You are seeing and hearing serial killer

Dennis Rader, a.k.a. BTK, bind, torture, kill,

making a self-serving apology to the families of

some of his murder victims.

It almost sounds like he's making some sort of

an acceptance speech to some...

at an awards banquet.

This guy's narcissism really knows no bounds,

and our next guest has seen it and experienced it

up close and personal.

Katherine Ramsland, the author ofConfession of a Serial Killer:

The Untold Story of Dennis Rader,

the BTK killer, and she is with us now.

Katherine, you spent five, it must have been,

excruciating years interviewing Dennis Rader

and, hey, one more thing, when he says the light

is beginning to shine. My rear end.

This guy...

if he, if he thought he could do anything

to make up to victims' families.

He could tell the rest of the families where

the dead bodies are of their daughters,

but he's not doing that.

Right, he's, he claims that ten is his number

and that's as far as he's going.

He's not going to confess to something he didn't do.

This is his position and that's where he's standing

and he said it yesterday to me.

That's it, ten. And he, he is not...

the killer of anybody else.

[Nancy] Do you believe him?

I I think there might be others.

I'm not sure the cases have been made on

some of the victims we're looking at, but I think.

We've got ambiguous circumstances

that he interprets one way.

The task force and the Sheriff interpreted different way,

so I think physical evidence is going to tell the tale.

Did you say you spoke to Rader yesterday?

I did.

About what may I ask?

Some of the things that are ongoing with all of this.

I have been back in touch with him for...

I talk to him every couple of weeks just to keep in touch

with what's happening.

And that's it, just because the case has been reopened.

Who knows if I'm going to add another chapter?

I might.

But certainly, I want to know what's happening

in his mind with all of this.

Since I've been in his mind for 13 years,

I want to keep up with,

with what the recent events have been like for him.

Doc, if there are more victims, and I believe that

there are, he is a narcissist.

He wanted everyone to know his name, BTK,

all that good stuff. You've talked to him a lot.

What would be the rationale behind not giving closure,

or at least giving answers to the rest of those families

who have loved ones out there that they still don't know

what happened to them?

What would be the rationale behind that from his perspective?

I'm asking to get into his mind,

which is tough, but I'm trying to understand,

why not just tell us all the cases he's involved in?

He says he has told you all the cases

he's been involved in.

So the rationale for him is, "I've told my story.

I have nothing more to say."

And his question back is, "Why wouldn't I tell?"

Because he is a narcissist. He knows that he is.

He loves attention. He loves...

He said, why wouldn't I tell and get even more fame?

So he answered your question with a question.

See, I don't like that.

When you say, hey, why haven't you told

the rest of the story? And he's like, "Well, why wouldn't I?

Why don't I just answer?"

Does that mean you don't think he's connected

to Cynthia Kinney or Shawna Garber?

[Katherine] I don't know what happened to Cynthia Kinney.

I'm not sure anybody does. She disappeared.

But the investigators for Garber have said

he is not their chief suspect.

But he did say, this is my story.

It's ten. That's it.

And then he puts the question out to the task force.

Why wouldn't I tell?

Doctor, there's a part of the story that has

always confounded me.

And there's a quote in your book that speaks to my question.

The quote is, "You win if people think

they're going to be okay."

In many cases, he was able to convince people

to allow him to tie them up. He didn't overpower them.

He convinced them. How was he able to do that?

And what, if anything, can we, the public, learn about

managing psychopaths in the world from that?

There are quite a few predators know that

about human nature, that if they let you relax

and think, all you have to do is do what they say,

you will survive, you'll be okay.

Um, that's a way for them to keep you under control.

If you're frightened and you're panicked

and you're struggling and you're trying to run away,

that's harder for them to control.

If they make you believe that you are going to survive this,

you will relax a little bit more.

Not entirely, obviously, because you're terrified

that somebody is in your house, but if they say,

"Look, I'm on the run, I just need your car,

all you have to do is do what I say,"

that's a way to make them feel a little bit more at ease.

And that helps with the control issue.

Has anybody thought the reason he's not coming clean

with any other murders is because those murders

may have occurred in a death penalty jurisdiction,

which, you know, of course, he's not going to come forward with that.

And I...

I believe that that is a specter that haunts him,

the fact that he could get the death penalty.

But regarding Cynthia Dawn Kinney, the 16-year-old

that goes missing from a laundromat,

he's dropped so many clues that he was responsible

for that, like it was a bad laundry day.

and that he always had a fantasy

of stealing someone from a laundry.

And wow, she goes missing from a laundry

across the street from where he has been.

It's just too many coincidences.

I've got a question.

What is he like when you talk to him?

What is his demeanor?

He's calm and he will say the bad laundry day

refers to a Wichita laundromat where he had an apartment

for a while.

So that's one of the cases of ambiguity.

And there isn't any proof that he was in the bank

next door or across the street from her.

So he will say it isn't him and the bad laundry day

is about watching people in a laundromat

on 17th Street in Wichita.

What's his explanation for these other sketches

that we viewed earlier in this episode?

Does he shed any light on to who those women are?

Are they just random depictions of fantasies

he had, or are they connected to something?

He says they are drawings he made as part of his fantasies.

Do you believe that?

It could be. He made hundreds of drawings.

He doesn't have hundreds of victims.

-[Derrick] We don't know that. -So, yeah, it could be.

But the idea that he would have been completely dormant

-for 13 years, do you think that that's possible? -He wasn't.

He said he was not dormant.

He was always, he sent me a list of 55 projects.

These are people whose houses he cased, people he stopped,

people he took a lot of details on.

Did you just call the dead people projects?

Just curious.

-What? -Did you just call the dead murder victims

-projects, the girls, the women, the children? -That's what he--

That is what he does.

He has names for all of them as projects,

like Project Cookie, Project Lights Out.

Project Mexico. He has names.

That's exactly how he referred to them.

Katherine, thank you so much for being with us

and shedding light, more light onto the nature of

BTK Dennis Rader, the dog catcher killer.

Guys, still to come.

Did an elite investigator lead a double life

as a serial killer?

The Border Patrol serial killer case next.

Tracking a serial killer who successfully eludes

law enforcement, it's all-consuming.

But this next serial killer seems to know

the investigator's every move. Why?

Because he himself is on the team assisting in

the hunt for the killer.

The killer is him.

Mara, the serial killer actually inside

his own murder investigation.

Yeah, and part of what's so disturbing, Nancy,

is that this guy actually had his hands in the investigation.

Juan David Ortiz was a border patrol supervisor who had

formerly been a Navy medic and completed

a tour of duty in Iraq.

He held a master's degree in international relations,

but his credentials were masking a dark truth,

his heinous acts of violence. Let's take a look.

[Nancy] On September 4th, 2018, beside a stretch of road

just outside the city limits of Laredo, Texas,

a rancher discovered the body of 29-year-old Melissa Ramirez

with multiple bullet wounds to the head.

Ramirez had been a sex worker in the city's roughly

four-block red light district on San Bernardo Avenue.

Local police took up the case, turning to the nearby

U.S. border office for help.

Investigators had gotten the lead that Claudine Luera,

another sex worker, had some ideas of who killed Ramirez.

But before anyone could question Luera,

she was also found murdered in the same style as Ramirez,

shot in the head at close range.

Finally, ten days into the investigation,

a break came in the case.

Sex worker Erika Pena flees from her client's truck

after he brandishes a gun at her,

running to a nearby police officer for help.

[speaking in Spanish]

She was able to identify her captor,

leading investigators to the man's home.

That's when they learn it's one of their own.

Juan David Ortiz, a border patrol officer

assigned to help investigate the killings.

But before fellow officers could find Ortiz,

he claimed two more victims, also women he picked up

on San Bernardo Avenue, killing Griselda Hernandez

and Janelle Ortiz in one night.

But why did he do it?

Ortiz has been convicted of murder

for four victims in total.

Police were able to capture him after

he was spotted at a gas station

and ran away to a nearby parking garage

where he was finally apprehended.

After hours of police questioning,

Ortiz finally revealed a motive, hatred of

the very sex workers that he himself

had been regularly visiting.

Let's hear what he had to say about it.

This was his way of cleaning up the streets.

-Mmm. -Cleaning up the streets.

So he was the good guy in this scenario?

These women, as you often point out,

we refer to them as sex workers because,

you know, that's the industry which the risk that

they were in that led to their deaths.

But these women were mothers.

These women were trying to get food to feed their families.

I mean, he's talking about cleaning up the streets,

like these women were trash and their lives mattered.

Did you notice in his confession,

he kind of makes himself the good guy?

And much like we just heard the judge's son from Aruba,

Joran van der Sloot, who confessed to killing Natalee Holloway,

he basically whitewashes everything he does.

And says, "I killed Natalee." Same thing here.

Oh, they're terrible. They're the scourge on society.

I'm cleaning up the streets by having sex

-with them and killing them. -Yeah.

What's interesting to me is Ortiz initially,

like you said, he confessed to these killings

and then later retracted his statement saying

he was coerced into it.

Let's take a listen to what Ortiz actually said

during that police interrogation.

[imitates gunshots]

Blew my shot.

[bleep]

And that's what we refer to as guilt knowledge.

And just so casual about the poof, "pow,"

just like it's a game to him.

But we're also supposed to believe that a man

with a gun is saying walk away from me and she's saying no,

and walking back towards him.

I don't believe, he's making it seem as though

he was merciful in some way and trying to provide warning.

When I don't think any person would walk towards someone

with a gun who's saying get away from me.

-No. -But there are a lot of questions about

what happened because at some point in time,

this man was known as a really hard-working

dedicated agent who got into this field

because he said he wanted to use his medical training

from the military to to help those who had crossed the border.

He was described by everyone who knew him

as a solid guy, a family guy.

Even the sex workers that he had had encounters with

said, "No, this was one of our favorite dates."

This was a nice guy.

He was normal. He was funny.

So the question is, what happened? Where did he snap?

[Nancy] You know, when you talk to these women,

especially the one that survived,

Erika Pina, and she describes what happened to her,

it's a fingerprint crime.

It's exactly the like, the same modus operandi,

method of operation every single time.

And when a jury saw that,

they quickly returned a verdict of guilty.

Just, he was so blase about killing the women.

Yeah, and he wasn't even--

He wasn't really calculated about it, either.

With Erika Pena, specifically, he had her in the vehicle.

He told her that he was a federal agent.

He actually threatened her one time,

this particular night, where we see the body cam footage.

He actually pulled out the .40-caliber pistol,

pointed it at her.

That's probably your murder weapon.

And then, when he's picked up later,

he brings law enforcement officials

to the remaining crime scenes for

the two last victims, as well.

So, it's pretty simple to see why they came back with

a guilty verdict.

Just to think about this, though,

he was on the inside of the investigation.

So when one of the women says, "Hey, I know who the serial killer is."

-And then that day she's murdered? -Yeah.

They couldn't put that together?

Not good for law enforcement to have, you know,

-No. -a wolf inside--

A Trojan horse, if you will, someone inside who's getting

all the pertinent information and is able to do this.

It's, uh... It's a police officer's worst nightmare.

But now he says...

and, Nancy, I can't wait to hear your reaction to this.

He blames this on PTSD from his military service

and his tour of duty in Iraq.

When he was arrested, he reportedly said, quote,

"The VA did this to me," presumably referring to the meds

that he had been put on for his PTSD.

During his interrogation, he said that he sometimes

would mix the meds with alcohol

and then he would, quote, "black out."

So this was his explanation for why he was tied to those crimes.

You know what, that's a smear on veterans.

Like my dad, who gave their all for our country,

and now he's blaming being a serial killer

on his time in Iraq.

Well, one woman at the center of the case,

a Laredo hero, Priscilla Villarreal,

who personally investigated the cases,

broadcasting it all live on Facebook.

I'm headed that way.

Another body has been found at the 15-mile marker on 35.

[Nancy] Priscilla Villarreal with us next.

And later, Oregon police insist there is

no serial killers stalking Portland.

They were wrong.

Priscilla Villarreal now held as a hero

in Laredo, Texas, partly because many believe

she had a hand in the ID and capture of

a serial killer, David Ortiz.

Priscilla, thank you for being with us.

Tell me how you got involved in this case.

Well, thank you for having me, first and foremost.

I knew all these-- All these girls that were murdered.

I live about six blocks away from where they used

to transit, you know, San Bernardo area.

And, you know, when all of this happened

and all of this went down, you know,

we first found the first body.

And yes, it was a shock to our city, because we didn't know,

you know, we were trying to find out who had done this.

And then the second body shows up,

and then we have a third,

and then everybody's just, you know, kind of scared

and freaking out about, you know, what's going on.

It was so disturbing, the fact that, you know,

the way they were killed, that I had went on social media

and I said, I think we have a serial killer in our house.

But what do you mean by that?

It was so disturbing the way they were killed.

[sighs]

Nothing like this has ever happened in our city.

So, you know, you come to a big city and,

you know, it's very common to see it in other cities.

But when it's a small town like where I live at,

it's not common. So it was scary.

We were shocked.

And when I was reporting on this, you know,

I had went live, like I said, and started telling everyone,

I think we have a serial killer in our hands.

Apparently, they have found another body,

fourth body of a female...

at the 15 mile marker northbound.

I am headed that way right now.

I got a lot of calls from our local authorities saying,

you're scaring the community, this is not right.

I said, somebody needs to speak up,

because this is not right either, you know?

Something is happening, and the city needs to be aware.

We need to be vigilant.

As women, we need to be vigilant.

Somebody's out there, nobody knows who it is,

and we need to find them.

Now, you say that you knew these women,

and I would love to hear a little bit about the victims,

because we often describe them as sex workers,

but of course they were so much more than that.

-Yes, they were. -But their families spoke to this,

and they testified about what these women

meant to them and how devastating this loss has been.

So we're going to take a listen to that person.

I would love your thoughts on the other side.

Here's some of what the families had to say.

[sighs]

I'll tell you what my sister was and will always will be.

She would always be the six-year-old little girl.

[sighs]

[breathing heavily, sighs]

She was all I had, bro.

She was all I had left.

Monsters like you don't even deserve to breathe,

nor wake up to every morning.

You are a turd, so take back those words

you've said to these beautiful women.

You deserve to die and suffer for what you did.

And when that day happens, I will finally be in peace.

So Melissa, Claudine, Giselda, and Janelle,

what can you tell us about them?

They were great women.

Sorry, I get a little bit emotional,

because I knew them on a personal...

you know, on a personal basis.

And I would transit this area, because I live about five blocks

from where they used to walk the streets.

So, before I had kids, you know,

I was in the streets all the time.

I was up till five o'clock in the morning.

I would see them walking around.

I would stop, talk to them.

You know, Melissa Ramirez was one of them.

I remember, you know, talking to her on a daily basis,

four, five o'clock in the morning.

She was pregnant, walking the streets.

And I'd say, Melissa, if you need anything, let me know.

You need some food?

I would buy her some food, you know.

And Janelle, I knew personally, too.

Janelle was an awesome person with an awesome personality.

Claudine, I knew before she started working

the streets of Laredo.

I knew her when I was younger.

But, you know, when I found out that they were being targeted,

which is after the second body was found,

you know, I made sure that they were, you know,

ready for anything because they were still walking the streets.

And I said, hey, you need to be careful.

You all need to be prepared for whoever is doing this, right?

You know, and then when we found out it was

a Border Patrol agent, everybody was just shocked.

[Derrick] What's so powerful to me about this case

is in a lot of situations, the detectives are ultimately

the reason the case is solved.

They do good police work, they solve the case,

but to me, the real heroes here, the real problem solvers,

the real crime solvers, not only yourself,

but also Erika and Claudine.

I know Claudine passed away, obviously,

but her being willing or starting to put it out

in that community that she potentially knew

who it was is what caused Ortiz to...

attack her, which has caused him to target her.

And that's what exposed him.

And then, couple that with Erika, as well.

They ultimately solved this case for the

other members of that community.

So, it's a really profound case for me to feel that,

if they-- If Claudine hadn't spoke up,

if Erika hadn't came forward, he still may be on the run.

-Of course. -I honestly believe that.

There may be more victims if it wasn't for

those two individuals.

I, I, I agree.

You know, I'm curious, why, with all the fervor

for the death penalty in Texas,

why did this guy walk with life without parole?

-Why? -You want me to be honest with you?

Yes.

[sighs]

The DA's office did a [bleep] job at what they do.

It really... they really did, to be honest with you.

They were fighting amongst them during the trial.

One of their prosecutors basically said, "I'm done, I'm leaving."

And he walked out.

I mean, I can't answer that question,

but everybody was wild when he got the life sentence.

Everybody wanted the death penalty.

If this case doesn't support a death penalty,

I don't know what case does.

I mean, what he was doing-- not only that, his position.

I think that has to be considered.

The role he was in, he was there to protect people,

and this is what he was doing.

And I think that you have to make an example--

Makes it so much worse, Derrick.

Yeah, you have to make an example out of

a situation like this, because we know--

And again, it's another can of worms,

law enforcement, the trust within a community.

When you have someone in uniform abusing their power,

using it like this, you have to make an example out of it.

You really do.

Well, I just, I want to, as a reporter,

I want to thank you for the work that you're doing.

-You're doing the real work. -I appreciate it.

You're on the ground, you're talking to the people

who are affected, you are live streaming,

you are speaking truth to power.

-You are doing the real work. -Thank you.

No, thank you for having me here

and I appreciate your words.

Priscilla, thank you so much, not just for being here,

but for everything that you've done to help

so many people

that typically don't have a voice.

After the bodies of multiple women

are discovered across the Portland area,

why do police still deny what's plain to anyone

who hears the news?

Why go to such great effort to deny a serial killer

is stalking women in Oregon?

That's in Portland, Oregon. Next.

The bodies of one, two, three, four, five, six women

found in just three months in the Portland metro area.

Police scrambled to shut down theories of a potential

serial killer, even issuing a press release,

accusing media and the public at large of stoking fear

and anxiety.

But just two days after that statement, everything changed.

Mara, what happened?

Well, Nancy Portland police are keeping

pretty tight lipped about this case.

They haven't given a cause of death for all of the women,

saying only that the circumstances are suspicious.

But finally, in July they revealed that

the murders of at least four of the women

are connected and they made an arrest

and take a look at this.

-Get your hands up. -Both hands up! [bleep]

-Put your hands up. -Picked the wrong day to stop [bleep].

That's police cornering 38-year-old Jesse Calhoun

at a gas station before he tried to escape

by jumping into a river.

I guess he was planning to swim away.

Cops say they connected the career criminal

to those four victims.

They are calling him a person of interest

and say he had a violent history.

with one of the victims.

Now, Calhoun has a long record with charges such as assault,

harassment, theft and kidnapping.

And get this, Nancy, he was actually

let out of prison early.

His sentence was commuted by the governor because

he had helped fight wildfires in 2020.

It's very disturbing when police know that

there is very likely a serial killer.

In fact, some of these victims knew each other,

so they were clearly connected.

Yeah, well, we know he hasn't been charged for

any of these murders yet, right?

But what's concerning to me is that in November of 2022,

Ashley Real came in,

filed a domestic complaint against him

for strangulation, and where did that go?

What happened with that?

Because she was last seen in March,

and how was he not tied to this?

You're obviously going to look at a significant other

if someone goes missing.

Was he already on the radar, or we just didn't know about it?

Did they not put this information out publicly?

And if they did have this information,

why would someone come out and say,

"Hey, no need to worry, these aren't connected

in any way, shape, or form?"

[Mara] Well, we're talking about the six deaths in

a relatively short period of time of these young women.

And now officials, initially they were saying

they have nothing to do with each other.

Now they're saying four of them they believe are connected.

-So they still believe that two of them... -Right.

are not connected.

But of the four, one of them is this woman

who actually filed a complaint against Calhoun.

-That presumably is the link to Calhoun. -That's right.

And they have other commonalities.

They were all found outside in wooded,

secluded areas, all under the age of 40.

Two of them were found on the same day

and less than three miles apart.

Many of them frequented the same places.

So there is reason to believe that there's something to look into.

[Nancy] Have you guys looked at his rap,

his record, his rap sheet?

Yet they let him out?

Okay, meth, number one, methamphetamines.

Guns, a prolific thief, career criminal,

burglary, even injuring not only a cop,

but a police dog.

He actually attacked not only a cop,

but a police dog as well.

And yet, he walks out of jail.

I don't get it.

Um, one, two, three, four, five, six, yeah,

six women now dead. That we know of.

And we know Bridget Webster is tied directly to Calhoun.

There was... Allegedly,

he would exchange drugs for sex with her.

And I wonder if that's going to be a connection

that we find with the other female victims, as well.

I'm wondering, not only there may be DNA,

'cause now they have him in custody, he can do a buckle swab,

they can get all that information.

We don't know what they have at these crime scenes,

because obviously they haven't said it publicly.

But I think a combination of forensic evidence

containing DNA, but also digital evidence.

Did Calhoun ever have communications with these women,

whether it was through the phone or on a computer.

-That's all things that need to be seen. -They need to ping him.

-Ping him. -See if his pings show up with their phones,

like they did in Alex Murdaugh...

-Yeah, absolutely. -...where you see his phone

with his wife, Maggie's phone.

-Yeah. -They can do that.

And not only that, we know that a huge disservice

was done to the public by announcing

there is no serial killer,

when in fact we think that there was.

I'm curious why they haven't made...

formal charges and why they haven't announced that yet,

but I think that's to come.

-[Derrick] They're playing catch up. -[Mara] And they also

they haven't released a cause or manner of death

in many of these cases, and it'll be interesting to see.

There is one of the six women, now this is one that

they say is not related to the four,

who they do believe is a victim of foul play.

They say that the body was found in a location

where she was not killed.

So the body, in other words, was moved to that location.

She appeared to die of violent death, blunt force trauma.

So it'll be interesting to see if this woman

is then connected to the other four.

Did you look at their pictures?

Charles or John D., can you put up the victim's pictures?

Much like with Ted Bundy, do you see

the physical similarities in these women?

Because I do.

[Derrick] To answer your question earlier,

that's what they're doing right now.

They're dotting their I's, they're crossing their T's.

Now they have a suspect, they have the victims.

They're going to see if they can make

any connection between the two of them.

And they're going to do that for each victim individually.

I mean, one of the women is the woman he beat.

But these other four, we know that he's connected

to two personally.

The other four, they can go back.

Like you were just saying, GPS coordinates,

cell phone coordinates, forensics.

Was there any personal relationships?

-Derrick, Derrick, Derrick. -Then the charges are coming.

My sweet boy, it takes one subpoena.

-Yeah. -One subpoena...

take him to the phone company

and there's your digital evidence.

-Yeah. -It's not rocket science.

It ain't brain surgery.

He's in jail till June of 2024.

So there's really no rush at this point.

He's not going anywhere.

-They have plenty of time. -He got out early once before.

-No, he's not going anywhere. -You want to try it again?

-Yeah. -Well, they revoked it

just to button that up, they revoked the,

the commutation of the sentence or whatever

-Yeah. -the actual case was and...

And he's now back in prison because he got out

-and was committing crimes. -For now.

Mara Campo, for now.

We thought he wouldn't get out before, right?

He did.

Guys, every week, Crimefeed brings you

the biggest crime stories from across our great nation,

some ripped from the headlines.

Some you may never have heard of.

For myself, Mara, and Derrick,

we'll see you next week. Good night, friends.

[inaudible conversation]