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Visit disneyplus.com/Hulu for details. Tonight

0:32

on Dateline. He said

0:34

that the devil keeps making him do it. Oh

0:37

wow. And I said, oh my god,

0:39

you've done this before. What

0:42

is going on? She

0:45

just blurted out. When he

0:47

was killed. She

0:49

was face down in the water. He

0:52

called me very frantic. He was telling me

0:54

my sister was murdered. Two

0:57

murders in the same apartment complex.

1:00

I just couldn't believe it. This

1:03

is someone that's here. They're connected here. Living,

1:06

working. We got to

1:08

start looking at every male in this complex. He

1:10

is going to strike again. I

1:13

had a strong feeling that I was next. I

1:15

saw a man in a mask. He

1:20

asked me, do I feel the gun in my

1:22

back? And I said yes. It

1:24

took a part in me. It

1:28

felt like a death. I

1:31

promise that I'll never quit unless God

1:33

takes my breath. We

1:36

got to get this guy. He was known

1:38

as the bathtub killer. Then he went

1:41

up against detectives determined to stop him

1:43

come hell or high water. I'm

1:46

Lester Holt and this is Dateline. Here's

1:55

Andrea Canning with...

6:00

and he gets a quarter. According to Tang,

6:02

he walked to the pool area and called

6:04

Christine on the apartment pay phone, but she

6:06

didn't pick up. He walks back

6:08

to the apartment, puts his key in, and this

6:10

time the door opens. Tang

6:12

said that's when he found Christine face down in

6:14

the tub. According to

6:17

his story, that meant

6:20

the suspect was inside the apartment, killing

6:22

her while he was sitting there smoking a

6:24

cigarette. And waited for him to, had

6:27

to wait for him to leave and was

6:29

able to exit and blend into the

6:31

community with him being in

6:33

that close proximity. No one was ever seen coming

6:35

or leaving the apartment. That's quite the story. If

6:39

Tang's story was true, the crime scene

6:41

investigators hoped the deadbolt could provide a

6:43

clue. They dusted it for prints.

6:47

You found a print. Yes. On

6:49

the door latch? On the

6:51

front door interior only deadbolt latch.

6:54

What condition was the print in? It

6:56

was a high quality latent print. Once

6:59

we lifted it and put it

7:01

on a card and looked at

7:03

it, there was a noticeable scar

7:05

in the finger. Investigators

7:08

had their first solid piece of evidence,

7:10

but would it lead them to the

7:12

boyfriend or someone else? He

7:15

had some scratches on his wrist,

7:17

his neck, and then he had some

7:19

marks on his back. That could be

7:21

consistent with someone fighting back. Absolutely.

7:25

The race to find Christine's killer was

7:27

on, but not before

7:29

investigators made another horrible discovery.

7:32

Carbon copy murder. It is

7:34

carbon copy deja vu. They

7:37

would eventually encounter several more

7:39

victims. I am

7:41

fearful, absolutely, but I'm also thinking, how do

7:43

I get out of this? He said, if

7:46

you cooperate, I'm not gonna kill you.

7:49

And detectives would need to unravel a

7:51

double life as

7:54

they confronted a killer beyond compare.

7:57

This man has to be stopped. Yes.

8:01

He has got to strike again. Christine

8:16

Vu had been found strangled to death

8:18

in her bathtub in Arlington, Texas. Detectives

8:22

were canvassing the pear tree apartment complex,

8:24

hoping a neighbor had seen or heard

8:27

something. Knocking on door

8:29

after door. Knocking on doors. Are

8:31

they getting anywhere? No one heard anything.

8:35

The only thing anyone actually heard was when Tang

8:37

Ku came out yelling and screaming.

8:40

Based on Tang's account, investigators believed

8:42

Christine was murdered soon after arriving

8:45

home from work. The attacker

8:47

is taking a chance though. This is

8:49

brazen, committing a crime like that at

8:51

that hour of the day. It's

8:54

remarkably risky. This

8:56

is such a bold and brazen act. Would

8:58

a perpetrator actually do this? Or

9:00

would someone who would not worry

9:03

about anyone seeing him come and go,

9:05

who would not bring out any suspicion,

9:07

come in and go do this and

9:09

then stage the crime scene? Christine's

9:13

brother remembers how hard her murder was on

9:15

the family. It was very

9:17

devastating, extremely devastating. She really

9:19

was the glue for our entire

9:22

family. She had a good

9:24

relationship with everybody, all the siblings, you know.

9:27

Every sibling she loved equally. Christine

9:30

was the second of five kids. She was born

9:32

in Vietnam, but her family fled to the U.S.

9:34

at the end of the war. Your

9:36

parents were doing what was best for

9:38

their family. Exactly. It

9:40

was a lot of unknowns and there was a

9:43

lot of fear and just had the opportunity to

9:45

exit the country, you know, for a better life.

9:49

The family settled in Amarillo, Texas.

9:52

Christine was quiet, studious, and helped

9:54

look after her younger siblings. On

9:57

Saturdays, she played teacher. suspicious.

12:00

Absolutely. It's like, why would the story change,

12:02

you know? Did you question him on that

12:04

and say, why are you changing? Absolutely not.

12:07

I mean, it wasn't our place,

12:09

number one, number two. Part

12:12

of it is a little bit of fear, right? You're

12:14

fearful. Investigators had questions too

12:17

and had been grilling Tang at

12:19

the police station. What's his demeanor

12:21

like when he's sitting there and

12:23

you're looking at him as a

12:25

potential suspect? Tang is quiet-natured. He's

12:29

still upset. He's still obviously

12:31

insistent that he had nothing to do

12:33

with it. Voicing what can I do

12:35

to help y'all catch this person. We're

12:37

certainly listening to that, but

12:39

of course, guilty people do the same thing. They want

12:41

to redirect you. Tang provided

12:44

his fingerprints and consented to giving

12:46

his DNA. He also let

12:48

police do a physical examination. Did

12:50

Tang have any injuries on him? Scratches? He had

12:53

a few on his wrist, his neck, and then

12:55

he had some marks on his back. That

12:58

could be consistent with someone fighting back.

13:00

Absolutely. Did he say where he got

13:02

the scratches? He talked about

13:05

how the scratches came from playing with

13:07

the dog. Did you buy that? Frankly,

13:09

no. So

13:11

the investigators gave Tang a polygraph.

13:14

How did he do? He failed two

13:16

major questions. What were the questions? Did

13:18

you injure Christine and did you place

13:21

a duct tape on her? Those are big

13:24

questions to fail. Those are huge questions. What

13:27

was his response? His response is,

13:30

I'm not lying. Detectives

13:33

weren't so sure, but without solid evidence,

13:35

they had to let him go. Tang

13:39

is still at the forefront. He

13:41

is still one of the primary suspects. Investigators

13:45

were eager to compare Tang's fingerprint

13:47

to the print lifted from Christine's

13:49

door latch. They were expecting

13:51

a match, but when the results

13:53

came back, Tang

13:55

was excluded from those prints. So this is one

13:57

reason why you can't be putting all your eggs.

14:00

in one basket with Tang. Absolutely.

14:02

Someone other than Christine and

14:05

Tang's prints are on that latch. If

14:08

Tang is not your killer, those are the prints of our

14:10

killer. A fingerprint

14:12

wasn't all police had. They'd confirmed

14:14

Christine had been sexually assaulted and

14:17

there was DNA. They

14:19

found male DNA from

14:22

two separate males. And one of

14:24

the profiles came back to Tang.

14:27

Which was no surprise to the detective

14:29

since Tang was Christine's boyfriend. The

14:32

other DNA profile, however, belonged to

14:34

an unknown male. Could he

14:36

be the killer? That in itself

14:38

is frightening. Was that a shocker? When

14:41

you hear two? It's a

14:43

shocker, but... So one could be the assailant,

14:45

one could be the boyfriend. One could be

14:47

consensual, one can be the

14:50

product of a sexual assault. But

14:53

that didn't mean Tang was off the hook.

14:55

Perhaps Christine was seeing someone else and her

14:57

boyfriend found out about it. Did

14:59

he find out? Did he kill her and sexually

15:02

assault her? It

15:04

was a puzzling case and it was about

15:06

to get much harder. Just

15:08

three months after Christine Vu's

15:10

murder, detectives would be back

15:12

at the pear tree apartments

15:14

facing another grieving family and

15:16

an eerily identical crime scene.

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15:23

she had duct tape on

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16:50

tree apartments were on edge.

16:52

22-year-old Wendy Prescott was one

16:55

of them. She lived in

16:57

apartment 1126, just a

16:59

few hundred feet from Christine's place. We

17:01

were freaking out. Skyla

17:03

Taylor is Wendy's big sister. She

17:06

says, I can't wait till I move

17:08

out of the apartments. And we had

17:10

discussed moving in together when her lease

17:12

was up. You'd always been the protective

17:15

sister. I was very worried.

17:17

I would call her every day. Skyla

17:20

couldn't help but look out for Wendy after

17:22

a tragedy they'd experienced as little girls. Their

17:25

mother was murdered on her way home from

17:27

work. The killer never found.

17:30

How did that affect both of

17:32

you and change the course of your

17:34

lives? We got more close. We were

17:36

more close. I was like,

17:39

I'm going to protect my sister because

17:41

this is all we have. It was me,

17:43

my sister, my brother. That

17:47

was devastating. Their

17:50

aunt Brenda and uncle Norman took them in

17:52

and Wendy flourished. She

17:55

was just so full of

17:57

life. This vivacious, just... She

18:00

would come in the room and just

18:02

be so happy and make us all

18:04

laugh. It was just wonderful.

18:08

Tasha Fry still remembers meeting her best

18:10

friend Wendy on the playground during recess.

18:13

How old were you? I was like

18:16

nine or 10. At

18:18

third grade, she was in second grade.

18:21

And we hit it off every

18:23

since. So this friendship really endured

18:26

between you two, from the

18:28

playground all the way into adulthood. All the

18:30

way up until adulthood. You know, I'm going

18:32

off to college, full life ahead of me,

18:35

not married, and end up

18:37

getting pregnant at 20. And

18:40

it was Wendy. She was like, Tasha, we can do this.

18:43

Everyone needs friends like Wendy.

18:45

Absolutely. And Wendy

18:47

relished time with her friends and family,

18:50

cooking, shopping, and especially dressing up for

18:52

a night out. She

18:54

turned heads. Yeah, always.

18:57

The boys liked Wendy, and the women

18:59

wanted to be Wendy. That

19:03

is a good spot to be in. Yes, yes.

19:06

Wendy brought her fun and nurturing spirit to

19:08

her job as a teaching assistant. And

19:11

she wanted to be a teacher? Yes. So that was going to

19:13

be the next step? That was the next step. In

19:15

December 1996, Wendy was

19:17

looking forward to spending the holidays with her

19:19

family. On Christmas Eve, Skyla

19:21

was at home waiting for her to arrive

19:23

so they could go do some last minute

19:25

shopping. It got kind of late, so

19:28

I was like, huh,

19:30

Wendy hasn't called yet. Wonder

19:33

what's going on. She

19:35

thought maybe Wendy lost track of time.

19:37

She tried calling her, no answer. She

19:40

checked with Ann Brenda, who couldn't reach Wendy either.

19:43

She's like, I'm going to come

19:45

over there, and we're going

19:48

to go to her apartment.

19:51

They knocked on Wendy's door, no

19:53

response. Skyla had an extra

19:55

key. Her uncle grabbed it. When

19:58

he pushed, put it in the door, I guess he.

20:00

She shoved it in, and the

20:02

door just opened. So

20:05

it was like dark. I was standing

20:07

behind my uncle, and my friend was standing

20:09

behind me. She was holding me, and I

20:11

was holding my uncle. We

20:14

go in, and the apartment

20:16

was nice, normal. Nothing

20:20

seemed out of place until they reached the bedroom.

20:23

It looked like, you know, just like somebody

20:25

got out of bed, and she didn't make

20:27

her bed, which she normally always makes her

20:29

bed. Then her uncle looked

20:31

in the bathroom. I remember him

20:34

turning the light on. He didn't

20:36

see anything when he first went in, and then

20:38

all of a sudden I heard my uncle say,

20:40

f*** it. And

20:44

then me and my friend ran back, and

20:48

she was in the water. She

20:53

looked like maybe

20:55

three or four inches

20:57

of water, and she

21:00

was face down in the water. Her

21:03

legs were crossed, and

21:06

she had duct tape on

21:10

her legs, and

21:13

her arms were crossed on

21:16

her back. And

21:18

it had duct tape in

21:21

her mouth. Uncle

21:25

grabbed, and he was trying

21:27

to help her out with water, and

21:30

I just started screaming and yelling.

21:35

My friend ran out the door. I

21:37

ran out and just rolled down the

21:39

stairs, and all these people come out

21:41

of the apartment. What is wrong? I

21:45

was like, call 911. I called

21:47

911. Another

21:51

young woman killed in the same complex

21:53

as Christine Vu. Detective

21:55

Lenore was about to learn. This

21:58

was no coincidence. This

22:00

is horrifying because now I'm going, my lord, I've got

22:03

an individual responsible for two murders. And

22:05

he was running against the clock. So

22:08

it's more than catching a killer. You're

22:11

trying to prevent additional victims. It

22:26

was Christmas Eve 1996. Detective

22:29

Tommy Lenore was stealthily assembling the last

22:31

of the holiday gifts for his daughter.

22:34

A silent night, or so he

22:36

hoped. I am at home, putting

22:40

a Barbie house together, playing Santa Claus.

22:43

And I get the call. An

22:46

urgent phone call from his sergeant. 22-year-old

22:49

Wendy Prescott had been murdered at the

22:51

Pear Tree Apartments in Arlington, Texas. Christmas

22:54

presents would have to wait. Lenore was

22:56

the first homicide detective at the scene.

23:00

As he said, Detective Lenore, this

23:02

looks a whole lot alike with

23:04

Christine. And I said, I got to get in

23:06

there. So we walked in. And

23:09

when I saw that

23:12

crime scene, it was identical

23:14

to a murder that I've been working

23:16

for three months that is unsolved. Only

23:19

200 feet away. And

23:22

at that point in time, I

23:24

knew, number one, this was not an isolated incident.

23:27

And more importantly, I came

23:29

to the reality that this crime is

23:31

a continuance of three

23:33

months ago. Does that sound a chill down your

23:35

spine? It sounds a chill down your spine, but

23:37

it is a gut-wrench fear.

23:40

And one of the thoughts that go to my mind is this is number

23:42

two, my God, when am I going to see number three? I

23:44

don't want to see number three. Just

23:47

like Christine, Wendy had been strangled

23:49

and likely sexually assaulted. Once

23:51

again, no evidence of forced

23:54

entry. Everything is secure. Were the windows

23:56

locked? Windows were locked. He either came through the

23:58

front door or he was. broke

24:00

in and locked things behind him. Whatever

24:03

the case, it was unlikely he was let

24:05

in. Wendy kept a

24:07

baseball bat by her door. And

24:09

I'll tell you what that tells me, she's not gonna

24:11

open the door for somebody unless she knows them. Crime

24:15

scene investigator Joel Stevenson was also

24:17

at the scene and also stunned

24:19

by the similarities to Christine's murder.

24:22

It's eerie, all right? It's almost more than

24:24

that. It is just, I mean- Carbon copy

24:26

murder. It is. Carbon copy deja

24:28

vu. One difference,

24:30

Stevenson noticed that Wendy's clothes seemed to have

24:33

been carefully placed on a chair in the

24:35

bedroom. As we started

24:37

looking, examining that clothing, it was similar to

24:39

what we were told she was last seen

24:42

wearing, stacked from the way

24:44

you would take it off. Her

24:47

purse and two green pillow shams were placed

24:49

on top. So these clothes

24:52

being stacked as

24:54

they were told us that she

24:56

disrobed with no fear, calmly. There's

24:59

no fight at this point. Yeah, she

25:02

has no idea that anything's going on.

25:05

It looked to Stevenson like the killer had been

25:07

lying in wait. We think he's

25:09

in the closet. That's what the evidence

25:12

is kind of suggesting. And

25:15

this time some belongings appeared to

25:17

have been stolen, including a VCR,

25:19

telephone, and answering machine. If

25:21

this was the same perpetrator, he seemed to be

25:23

skilled at breaking and entering. You

25:26

don't become that criminally

25:29

sophisticated overnight. You

25:32

don't just wake up and have the ability to

25:35

get inside of a woman's apartment and three

25:37

months later get inside of another woman's apartment.

25:41

But even the most sophisticated criminal

25:43

makes mistakes. While swiping

25:45

that VCR, the killer appeared to

25:47

have left behind a thumbprint, a

25:49

particular kind of print. And

25:53

it's very important to know about

25:55

dust prints. They're remarkably vulnerable because

25:57

the slightest, and I mean the

26:00

slightest, The slightest breeze or motion

26:03

will distort that thumbprint. But

26:05

it was so pristine

26:09

and so defined. You're

26:11

guarding that thing with your life. You

26:14

better believe it. It's a miracle that

26:16

does print survive. This was multiple hours

26:19

into the investigation and nobody had laid

26:21

a clipboard, notebook, sat on,

26:23

leaned on that area of pain. Oh

26:25

my gosh, that's so scary to think

26:28

that that easily could have happened. The

26:32

print was photographed with the hope that there

26:34

would be a match in the FBI's fingerprint

26:36

identification system. Now police had

26:39

a thumbprint from Wendy's apartment and

26:41

an index fingerprint with a scar

26:43

from Christine's. They were different

26:45

fingers and couldn't be compared to each

26:47

other. But there was something they could

26:49

compare. A crime analyst

26:52

for the medical examiner's office recovered

26:54

DNA from Wendy's body. So

26:56

now you have prints and you have DNA.

26:59

Yes. It's a good start. It's a

27:01

very good start. We just gotta

27:03

find somebody that both of those match.

27:08

A match that could also tell them

27:10

with certainty if one person was responsible

27:12

for these crimes. You could

27:15

have a copycat killer. You just don't

27:17

know. But those

27:19

results would take a while and there

27:21

was a possible serial killer on the

27:23

loose. Now you have mass

27:25

panic. You don't

27:27

have fear. You don't have

27:29

concern. You've got absolute panic. ["The

27:43

The The The

27:46

Pear Tree apartment complex was suddenly the

27:49

best known address in Arlington, Texas for

27:51

all the wrong reasons. Who

27:53

killed 22-year-old Wendy Prescott?

27:56

It's the second murder investigation here

27:58

in three months. Once

28:01

Wendy was killed, it didn't even take a press

28:03

conference from the police department. You look up and

28:06

you see crime scene tape 200 feet

28:08

away from what just happened and

28:10

word spreads like wildfire. It

28:12

gets out and now, now

28:15

you have mass panic. You don't have

28:17

fear. You don't

28:19

have concern. You've got absolute panic.

28:23

Residents began packing up and leaving in

28:25

droves. You never know who it could

28:27

be, you know. That's

28:29

the reason why most people get out and don't know who it

28:31

could be next. This

28:38

entire area, especially where we're

28:40

standing, all of these apartments were vacated. So moving

28:42

trucks just pulling up, one after the next, out

28:44

of here. People

28:47

that are coming in from out of town to

28:49

get their friends, their daughters, it was

28:52

just incredible. I would do that. If

28:54

I was a young woman living here, I would

28:57

get the heck out of here. While

29:00

investigators waited for the results of the

29:02

comparison of the DNA samples taken from

29:04

the bodies of both victims and

29:06

for word of any matches to the fingerprints from

29:09

the crime scenes, they were trying

29:11

to figure out if Christine and Wendy knew

29:13

someone in common. Turned out they

29:15

might have. We found a

29:17

neighbor who actually worked for the school district

29:19

in another city, which is interesting because he

29:21

lived across from Wendy

29:24

Prescott. And at the time of

29:27

Christine Voo's murder, he lived

29:29

by her. Oh, so he moved within

29:31

the complex. And he had an educational

29:33

background. And he has an educational background. Just

29:36

like Wendy and Christine, who both worked at

29:38

elementary schools, Detective Lenore

29:40

interviewed the neighbor and collected blood,

29:42

saliva, and print samples. The

29:45

neighbor said he'd moved apartments so he could live

29:47

next door to his sister, who happened to live

29:49

right by Wendy. He was concerned

29:51

about his sister's safety after Christine's murder.

29:54

He just didn't want her to be put

29:57

in jeopardy. If in fact he is excluded,

29:59

it's just a crime. coincidence. In

30:01

the meantime, they learned more about Wendy. Wendy's

30:04

22 years of age, she's young, but

30:06

Wendy is a very outgoing

30:09

young lady with lots of

30:11

friends and lots of socialization.

30:13

Wendy's cousin, Nika, she

30:15

was the people person. Yes, we just

30:17

kept thinking like who or why, you

30:20

know, just why would someone even do

30:22

that? Wendy also had lots

30:24

of love interests. There was

30:26

one boyfriend in particular that concerned Wendy's

30:29

friend, Tasha Fry. She went to

30:31

the police about him after the murder. Wendy

30:33

was in a relationship that

30:35

had some issues. Yes,

30:39

we didn't like him. He

30:41

was verbally abusive. He was

30:43

emotionally abusive. It was like

30:46

he would try to break her down.

30:48

This ex-boyfriend wouldn't have any connection to Christine

30:51

Vu, but yet you can't just ignore

30:53

that she had issues with her ex-boyfriend.

30:55

Well, not only did she have issues

30:58

with him, she filed a harassment complaint

31:00

against him. He was an ex-boyfriend who

31:02

didn't really want to break up. So

31:04

I definitely had to find this guy,

31:07

bring him in, interview him, and knowing that

31:09

what evidence we have, I want to collect

31:11

his fingerprints, I want to collect his saliva

31:15

and blood for DNA. Was he cooperative? What was

31:17

he like when you interviewed him? He was actually

31:19

very cooperative with me, but he was

31:21

emphatic. I didn't kill anyone.

31:24

My concern is if that's not you, give

31:26

me your saliva, give me your blood, give

31:29

us your fingerprints, and let's exclude

31:31

you. Police again had

31:33

to wait for those results to come back.

31:36

Meanwhile, they expanded their search and began

31:38

the painstaking process of looking at any

31:40

men who had spent time at the

31:42

apartment complex over the past few months,

31:45

current and former residents,

31:47

locksmiths, maintenance workers. There

31:51

were a lot. It was almost overwhelming. It

31:53

was absolutely overwhelming. We had close to 500

31:55

leads, but that

31:57

is misleading in itself because... there

32:00

were several leads that had multiple suspects.

32:03

And these were the license plates that were

32:05

recorded in the apartment

32:07

complex when Wendy Prescott was killed. So you just,

32:09

you went around the apartment complex and

32:12

just started writing them down. Yes, we had, we had.

32:14

And then, yeah, I gotta look into everyone. Just the

32:17

license plate in itself can

32:19

identify many suspects. And we would sit in

32:21

that complex and it would be so frustrating

32:23

just to sit there watching people leave, knowing,

32:25

my God, is that my suspect? Is that

32:27

my suspect? Is that somebody that knows my

32:29

suspect? It's like finding a needle in a

32:31

complex. That's a pretty good cliche. They

32:34

checked alibis and collected fingerprints and DNA

32:36

from dozens of men with connections to

32:38

the complex. The long

32:40

list of leads was daunting. But then,

32:43

a call came in. The results from

32:45

the DNA samples taken from Christine and

32:47

Wendy were back. They were identical.

32:49

They were carbon copies. There's one killer out

32:51

there that you need to find. There was

32:53

one killer. We just don't know

32:56

who that killer is. They did know

32:58

who he wasn't. The DNA

33:00

results cleared the neighbor who'd lived

33:02

near both women, Wendy's ex and

33:04

Christine's boyfriend Tang. I

33:06

know it's a male that I can match DNA to if

33:08

I ever find them. And I know it's

33:10

a male that I very likely have prints I can

33:12

match to. Problem is, that male is a ghost. It's

33:17

nothing but air. Tommy Lenore

33:19

was stumped and it wouldn't be long

33:21

before the ghost he was hunting struck

33:23

again. But this time,

33:25

there was a survivor, a woman

33:28

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33:30

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33:32

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34:54

1999, Detective Tommy

34:56

Lenore was growing impatient. Over

34:58

two years had passed since the murders

35:01

of Christine Vu and Wendy Prescott. He

35:03

was still conducting countless interviews and

35:05

collecting new DNA samples for testing.

35:08

Just taking a lot longer than you thought. It takes a

35:10

long time. If I were in a perfect world, it would

35:13

have been solved a lot quicker. Unfortunately

35:15

the world that I live in and what we

35:17

would deal with, it's not a perfect world. Shema

35:20

Benson, a recent transfer student at the

35:22

University of Texas at Arlington, was unaware

35:24

of the fear that had gripped the

35:26

area. Just a few months

35:28

away from graduating with a degree in public

35:31

relations, she'd finally gotten serious about her studies.

35:34

My freshman year I went to a different school,

35:36

so I would have rather been there, but I

35:38

was actually, my parents made me go to UTA.

35:40

And so we'll come back to Texas to finish

35:42

up because I was having way too much fun

35:44

and my grades weren't

35:47

so good. But Shema still

35:49

managed to keep a busy social life

35:52

at UTA. She joined Alpha Kappa Alpha

35:54

and moved into the sorority house near

35:56

campus. Shema's bubbly personality helped

35:58

her fit right in. And she balanced

36:00

her studies with her social schedule. I

36:02

was active in my sorority, so we

36:04

had step shows and community service, things

36:06

of that nature. That must

36:08

have brought even more happiness to

36:10

this, the college experience, having all these

36:13

new friends. Yes, yes, we had a

36:15

great time. But

36:18

everything changed one February night. Shema

36:21

chatted with a friend on the phone before bed. We

36:24

were on the phone for a long time when

36:26

we started talking about just guys in general. I

36:28

was saying that I don't like a particular

36:30

guy from the South because of the way

36:33

that they tend to approach me. And

36:35

not all Southern guys, just a certain type. No,

36:37

there was a particular type. Because I had a

36:39

date with a Southern gentleman in a few days.

36:42

So... So just girl talk? Yeah.

36:46

After she said goodnight to her friend, she

36:48

heard a strange rustling on the roof. She

36:51

didn't make much of it, thought maybe it

36:53

was an animal outside. She

36:56

began to drift off to sleep. But

36:59

then... I

37:01

just felt darkness or like evil.

37:03

I felt something not right.

37:08

It's hard to explain it, but it

37:10

was like an evil presence had entered

37:12

my space and it woke me up

37:14

and I was disoriented. And

37:17

then I made sense of what

37:19

I was seeing. Then I realized, oh my God, it's a

37:21

person. The story you're about to

37:23

hear is disturbing. I saw a man in

37:25

a mask. It

37:30

was dark. He had a gun. And

37:34

he said to not scream. Don't

37:37

scream and I won't kill you. This is

37:39

every woman's worst nightmare. Right. Yeah.

37:43

I wasn't thinking he was going to kill me. I was thinking

37:45

he's going to rape me. I didn't

37:47

even think about being killed. I was thinking

37:49

about being raped and how much I did not want

37:51

that to happen. Does fear just take

37:53

over your whole body? Are you just frozen?

37:55

I am fearful, absolutely. But I'm also thinking,

37:58

how do I get out of this? How

38:00

do I get out of this? Was there

38:02

anything around you that you could fight back

38:04

with? My keys, my keys were on the

38:06

nightstand and then just threw them at him.

38:09

And then I had my phone as well,

38:11

the handset that I threw at

38:13

him as well. Like an old phone, a

38:15

landline. An old landline, right. Shema

38:17

doesn't remember saying anything to the man,

38:20

but he made this chilling comment. So

38:23

he said to me, so you don't like

38:25

guys like me from the South, like he

38:27

was offended by me having

38:29

said what I said earlier on the

38:31

phone. So he was listening to your

38:33

phone conversation. Yeah, it did kind of

38:35

click for me there like, oh wow,

38:38

he heard what I said. He's been

38:40

out there this whole time. Things

38:43

escalated quickly from there. Shema

38:45

did what she could to try to protect herself.

38:48

And so I bit him. The man reeled

38:50

from the bite to his genitals. That

38:53

must have really angered him. Oh yeah. And so then

38:55

he started hitting me and hitting me and hitting me

38:57

in my face. That's

39:00

when the beating turned to sexual assault.

39:02

My brain was an overdrive. How did

39:05

he get there? Who is this person?

39:07

He's beating you and raping you.

39:09

Yes, and gets my clothes off.

39:11

And I don't really know how that happened, but I

39:14

know I was fighting back. Shema

39:16

says the attack seemed to go on for hours,

39:20

then suddenly stopped. I

39:22

heard the front door close. And once

39:24

I registered that the front door closed and it didn't

39:26

sound like he was coming back, I

39:29

got up and got into the mode of getting literally everything

39:31

I've been saying the whole time is how do I get

39:33

out of here? Now I can get out of here. Were

39:35

you able to call 911? No,

39:38

because I wasn't able to call 911. That

39:41

was my intention. I went to find the hands that

39:43

I threw at him. I could not find it. So

39:45

I went across the hall to my roommate's room, picked

39:47

up her phone, and there was no dial tone. Do

39:50

you think he had cut the phone lines? I do

39:52

think he cut the phone lines. So

39:54

I ran over across the

39:56

street to the fraternity house to

39:59

get help. Did

42:00

you believe that you had endured it, you made

42:02

it through, that you're alive? You

42:04

know, I didn't have that realization

42:08

right away. I

42:11

don't want to cry, but it took a

42:14

lot. I

42:17

think, honestly, it took a lot for me

42:19

to get to the point where I was

42:21

also grateful that I'm

42:23

still here. I

42:26

wasn't murdered, but

42:30

it still took a

42:33

part of me. It

42:36

still felt like a death in a sense. So

42:40

I wasn't like super grateful to be alive

42:42

at the time, to be honest. And

42:46

I did hear a lot of, oh, thank

42:48

God he didn't kill you. And

42:53

I was like, yeah, I guess. You

42:56

went through something just

43:00

extremely traumatizing. Yeah.

43:02

You know, and this is something

43:04

that every woman fears will

43:07

happen to her at some point, and it happened to

43:09

you. Yeah, this is true.

43:12

You just think evil like that will never touch

43:14

you. News

43:16

of Shima's attack spread quickly across

43:19

campus, scaring students like Wendy Prescott's

43:21

best friend, Tasha Fry. Turned

43:24

out she was also Shima's sorority sister.

43:27

To know he did that to Shima, that

43:29

was my line sister. That

43:31

wasn't just a sorority sister. We

43:33

pledged together. It was

43:36

hard for Tasha to fathom that yet

43:38

another friend had been targeted. This

43:40

time the attack hit much closer to

43:42

home. Shima was

43:45

brutally raped in the

43:47

room that I moved out of. I

43:49

immediately- Oh my gosh, Tasha. How do you

43:51

even- Shabam. Shabam.

43:55

I have no words. Yeah, me either. Me

43:58

either. Complete. Tasha

44:01

had only been in her new apartment for a month, but

44:03

she would still visit the sorority house

44:06

for meetings. I'm thinking, was he after

44:08

me? Did I

44:10

put her in a situation?

44:13

Was I the reason that she was

44:15

attacked? All the fear

44:17

and anxiety she felt after Wendy's murder came

44:20

rushing back. I was

44:22

a mess, mentally. I

44:25

don't even know how I was functioning.

44:30

Lightning doesn't strike twice. Yeah,

44:33

it did for you in the worst possible way.

44:35

In the worst possible way. It

44:37

was like reliving a horror all

44:39

over again. Wendy's

44:41

killer was still at large. Now,

44:44

so was Shima's rapist, but

44:46

this time, Tasha's friend survived.

44:49

What do you say to someone after something like that? What did

44:51

she say to you? What do you say? First

44:54

off, it was shocking because he broke her face. He

44:58

broke her face, this monster. Tasha

45:00

was wracked with guilt. She

45:02

thought she might know the rapist's identity, a

45:04

man she says had been stalking her for

45:06

months. You were being stalked?

45:09

By who? This guy that

45:11

we had all met together at

45:13

a first Friday party that was prevalent back

45:15

in the day. We had dated for

45:17

a little while. He got really

45:20

weird. So I ended

45:22

things and he wasn't taken now

45:25

for an answer. So what was he doing?

45:27

Just coming by, calling, making

45:30

accusations about we are needing to still

45:32

be together. Like you did this to

45:34

me, you did that to me. Like

45:36

it was just weird stuff. Tasha

45:39

moved out of the sorority house, but she was

45:41

told her ex kept showing up there. He'd

45:44

even come by hours before Shima's attack.

45:47

Now I'm scared for my life because

45:50

I'm like, is he after

45:52

me? After

45:54

Shima's rape, Tasha went to campus police

45:56

about her ex. They'd taken

45:59

the lead on Shima's. investigation. Tasha's

46:19

ex quickly became the lead suspect, and

46:21

campus investigators sent out to bring him

46:23

in for questioning. She

46:25

had mentioned her friendship with Wendy to them,

46:28

but didn't think Wendy's murder had any connection

46:30

to Shema. Tasha

46:45

had also complained about her ex to the

46:47

Arlington police. She told the

46:49

detective that her ex knew Wendy too. A

46:52

detective with our department brought this stalking

46:55

report to my attention. And

46:57

the reason being is because it

46:59

mentioned Wendy Prescott. As

47:01

soon as he read it, Detective

47:03

Lenore realized Tasha was the common

47:05

denominator between the two cases, Wendy's

47:08

and Shema's. I knew that

47:10

name because I'd been dealing with her back when

47:12

Wendy was killed. It all

47:14

seemed too much of a coincidence, Tasha

47:17

knowing two rape victims. Lenore

47:19

needed to know more about her stalker,

47:21

so he gave Tasha a call and

47:24

discovered a startling connection between Shema and

47:26

Wendy. He

47:40

immediately got on the phone with one of the

47:42

campus police officers. And I just

47:44

told him, look, we need to look

47:46

at this gentleman for a couple of reasons. Number one,

47:48

yeah, he may be your sexual assault suspect, but he

47:51

will could be my killer

47:54

because I have a connection with this guy

47:56

and with Wendy Prescott back at the time

47:58

of her murder. There was

48:01

only one way to know if Tasha's ex

48:03

was responsible for the murders at the pear

48:05

tree apartments and Shema's rape. A

48:08

DNA match. Is there

48:10

DNA with Shema? There is DNA.

48:13

So we sent that to the lab. If

48:15

the DNA in Shema matches Christine

48:18

and Wendy. If it matches Christine and Wendy, we know

48:20

for a fact that that's our killer. Yeah, that's good.

48:22

We just don't know that's this individual being named. It

48:24

was imperative that we got his prints and we got

48:26

his blood sample. But that

48:28

turned out to be much harder than

48:30

detectives anticipated. Tasha's ex refused

48:32

to provide a sample. Not

48:35

only was he not cooperative,

48:37

he was confrontational. He let

48:39

myself and the detective from UTA

48:41

know right up front, I'm not

48:43

giving you anything. This is highly suspicious. Oh,

48:45

it's beyond that. Detectives had to

48:48

wonder, did his lack of cooperation mean

48:50

he was hiding something? They'd

48:52

have to jump through legal hoops to find

48:54

out. But when they did, Tasha

48:57

might just lead you to your killer

48:59

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your killer. Absolutely. Shopify

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slash podcast free with

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great big airport machine guns. An

49:48

autism patient's daring escape from NHS

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psychiatric care pits her against some

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of the most powerful institutions in

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the state. From

49:57

the multi award winning Sky News story

49:59

cast. team. In partnership with

50:01

the Independent, follow Patient11

50:05

wherever you get your podcasts. Detective

50:17

Lenore felt confident he was on to

50:19

the man who killed two women in

50:21

Arlington, Texas. The same man

50:24

he believed raped UTA student Shima

50:26

Benson. Tasha's ex-boyfriend.

50:30

Tasha had reported to police that her

50:32

ex had been stalking her. He'd even

50:34

shown up at the sorority house looking

50:36

for her hours before Shima was attacked.

50:39

Tasha might just lead you to your

50:41

killer, or at least the beginning of

50:43

finding your killer. Absolutely. When

50:46

Tasha's ex refused to cooperate with police,

50:49

Detective Lenore went to the grand jury

50:51

to compel him to provide a DNA

50:53

sample. The next day,

50:55

the ex voluntarily agreed. And

50:58

when the results came back, he

51:00

was excluded from the

51:02

DNA. His DNA didn't match the

51:04

DNA found on Shima. But

51:07

Lenore had requested a separate

51:09

DNA test, comparing Shima's case

51:11

with the bathtub murders. Those

51:14

results confirmed his suspicions. I

51:16

get a report. The person that raped Shima

51:18

is your killer. Oh, so you got

51:21

a match. I got a match. We

51:23

are connected. The rapist

51:25

from Shima's case was the bathtub

51:27

killer. How do you

51:29

process news like that? He's accused of

51:31

killing two women. So

51:33

I think it really drove home

51:36

that, oh my God, I could

51:39

have very well been another one

51:42

of the victims. Detective

51:44

Lenore wanted to meet with Shima, so he

51:46

traveled to San Diego where she'd moved to

51:48

be with family. She was concerned

51:51

the attacker mentioned her phone call about Southern

51:53

men and believed he'd overheard her talking on

51:55

the phone to her friend. She

51:57

told Lenore she was also worried about

52:00

another conversation, a chat with a friend

52:02

at the mall before she was raped. She

52:04

told me of an individual she

52:07

was concerned about that may have

52:09

overheard her. She was saying some

52:11

pretty negative things about Southern men. And

52:14

this individual overheard

52:16

her. And so her thought was,

52:19

you don't think he came after me because

52:22

of this? It was her fear. And

52:25

I said, well, if you've got a fear, then I'm

52:27

going to address it. I'm going to listen to what you tell me

52:30

and we're going to find this person. And

52:32

we found him. Who is this guy? He

52:34

was a friend that knew Tasha. He was

52:36

in that circle. Lenore

52:38

discovered an even more ominous detail about

52:40

this man. Just two months

52:42

before Christine was killed, he'd moved into

52:44

the same apartment complex. Did

52:47

he have a criminal record? Was there anything to be

52:49

concerned about with this man? This person had no criminal

52:51

record. That doesn't really mean anything, but he had

52:53

no criminal record. The

52:55

man voluntarily spoke with Lenore and provided

52:57

a DNA sample. And when

52:59

the results came back, he was excluded.

53:02

So another frustrating

53:05

dead end. Correct. Shema

53:09

did give Lenore something important,

53:11

something his investigation never had

53:13

before, a description of the

53:15

bathtub killer. She didn't

53:17

seem well enough to be able to

53:19

give us a good physical description of

53:21

the face, but she was absolutely certain

53:23

he was an African-American male. What

53:25

that does immediately is I go back

53:28

to this casebook with probably two thousand

53:30

suspects and I exclude 70 percent

53:32

of them just like that. I

53:34

go to our apartment list, which is a separate

53:37

list, and we've got probably another 150 people on

53:39

that list. And

53:41

I cut that out and now it's down

53:43

to about 40. I felt more

53:46

optimistic about capturing this individual than

53:48

I ever had in this investigation for the

53:50

first time. There was just we are going

53:52

to get this guy. But

53:54

of course, with that energy and

53:56

with that optimism also came

53:59

this gigantic. bolder

54:01

of fear going, oh my God, he's

54:03

still doing this. So are

54:06

there other victims out there that we don't know about?

54:10

Detective Lenore widened his net and

54:12

put out feelers to surrounding law

54:14

enforcement agencies, including the

54:16

Grand Prairie Police Department. Grand

54:18

Prairie is near Arlington, so you're

54:20

thinking, why not? It's not only

54:22

near Arlington, it's on the east side, which

54:25

is not far from Pear Tree. And I went and met

54:27

a detective in Grand Prairie that I knew and worked with.

54:29

And I just said, do me a favor, I said, I need you to do something for

54:31

me. Go through all

54:34

of your sexual assaults. If

54:36

any of your suspects after February of

54:39

1999, if you have any,

54:41

and they're African American male and they committed,

54:45

if they meet this physical or if they

54:47

have some type of severe injury, some type

54:49

of bite injury, I said, let me know.

54:52

Two months after that conversation, Lenore's

54:55

phone rang. It was the

54:57

detective at the Grand Prairie Police Department. The

55:00

moment Lenore had been waiting years

55:02

for had finally arrived. He

55:05

says, I may have your

55:07

guy. The

55:22

bathtub killer had eluded police for three

55:24

years, but women around

55:26

Arlington hadn't forgotten him or what he

55:28

was capable of. Everything inside

55:30

of me knew that I was

55:33

going to be a part of

55:35

that story. It

55:37

was a premonition 22 year old

55:39

Adrienne Fields carried for years. She

55:42

had lived near the Pear Tree apartment complex

55:44

but left after the murders. And

55:46

even though she moved away, she couldn't shake

55:49

the feeling she would be the bathtub killer's

55:51

next victim. I started feeling

55:53

like someone was following me, coming

55:56

from work, it started seeming like someone's exiting

55:58

everywhere I exit. at the grocery

56:00

stores and I'm noticing someone's

56:03

following me, I'm like, I'm super,

56:05

I'm tripping. Her

56:07

uneasy feeling only grew. Adrian

56:09

was terrified to be alone, to

56:11

sleep by herself. But

56:14

in October, 1999, she decided to reclaim her life. I

56:18

wrote a letter to myself and I

56:21

was like, you are 22 years old and

56:23

today is going to be the first day of the rest of

56:25

your life and you are going to

56:27

sleep with the lights off and you are going

56:30

to listen to jazz. You're not going to have

56:32

a TV light. You know, you're going

56:34

to not have anybody spend the night with you,

56:36

you're going to be a big girl. She

56:40

taped the letter to her fridge and followed the

56:42

plan. Lights off, jazz

56:44

on. From bed, she

56:46

called her mother and sister to say goodnight.

56:49

While she was on the phone, she heard something.

56:52

Pop pop, is what it sounds like. My

56:55

sister says, I'm coming over. And

56:57

I said, no, don't come over. I

56:59

told you, I'm a big girl tonight. You've prepared

57:01

yourself for this night. I prepared myself, right. And

57:04

so she says, well, are

57:07

you sure? Are you sure you don't want me to

57:09

come over? And I'm like, I'm positive. Can

57:11

y'all just stay on the phone with me until I fall asleep? Adrian

57:14

drifted off, but an hour later,

57:16

something woke her. I

57:19

hear breathing and shh, shh,

57:21

shh, shh, shh, shh, the

57:23

sound and I'm praying,

57:26

Lord, please, please, please, Jesus. Like

57:29

at this point, I'm begging God not to

57:31

let anybody be there as I turn over. And

57:34

as I turn over, and it's like

57:36

I connect to Him in the dark. An

57:39

intruder wearing a stocking over his face was

57:41

in her bedroom. And he

57:43

sees me turn over. And

57:46

he takes off running towards me like really

57:48

fast. And

57:50

he jumps up on my bed. And he puts

57:52

the gun in my back. And I can

57:54

feel the coldness of the gun in my back. And

57:57

then I'm screaming. Does he say anything? He

58:00

said, be quiet, be quiet, be quiet, be quiet,

58:02

be quiet, be quiet, be quiet, be quiet, like

58:04

that. And he puts his hand over my

58:06

mouth and he asked me, do I feel the gun in

58:08

my back? And I said, yes. And he said, if

58:11

you cooperate, I'm not going to kill

58:13

you. I'm not going to hurt you.

58:15

He said, stop screaming, stop screaming.

58:18

I won't hurt you if you don't scream. But

58:20

if you scream, I'm going to hurt you. Did

58:23

you think you were going to die? I did. I

58:26

did. Then the man began to rape

58:28

her. All of your

58:30

worst fears are coming true in

58:33

this moment. Yes. What does

58:35

he do next? He

58:37

tells me to get on the floor, just

58:40

directing me of what he wants. He's

58:43

telling me that he

58:47

wants me to act like there's no tomorrow. I

58:50

ask him, is there tomorrow? And

58:53

he says, of course there is. And

58:55

I said, but is there for me? And

58:58

he just stops and he's just standing there

59:00

and he's looking at me. I'm looking at

59:02

him and he says, yes.

59:05

Adrian didn't believe him. I'm crying.

59:07

He's asking me, why am I crying?

59:10

And I said, because I'm scared. You're

59:13

having a conversation with this man. The

59:15

entire time. He

59:18

started to ask me, what is your name? And

59:21

I wouldn't tell him my name. And so

59:23

he was like, well, how about I call you

59:25

Adrian? So

59:28

he knew my name. Oh my gosh. Oh

59:30

my gosh. Adrian. Mm-hmm.

59:33

It was real. That is so scary. So

59:38

right then you knew that

59:40

those times you felt like you'd been followed.

59:43

That changes everything. Right.

59:46

It changed everything for me. It was so

59:48

personal. What was inside of you that

59:50

instead of just going into a

59:53

shell and just wanting it to be

59:55

over, you're engaging with him? I

59:57

think it was just instinct, just survival.

1:02:00

with the sexual assault, these ladies have to live with

1:02:02

this the rest of their lives. But he's de-escalating.

1:02:04

I think when it went public to the media

1:02:06

with the bathtub killer, I believe he thought, well,

1:02:08

I better quit doing this part of it. Victim

1:02:11

by victim, investigators were connecting the

1:02:14

dots. And they were about

1:02:16

to crack the case wide open with

1:02:18

the most important detail of all. Your

1:02:21

ghost now has a name. Yes, ma'am. You're

1:02:23

coming for him. Yes, ma'am. For

1:02:31

true crime fans, nothing is more chilling

1:02:33

than watching Dateline. Have you ever seen

1:02:35

such a thing before? For podcast fans,

1:02:38

nothing is more chilling than listening. What

1:02:40

goes through your mind when you make

1:02:42

a discovery like that? And when you

1:02:44

subscribe to Dateline Premium, it gets even

1:02:46

better. Excuse me if

1:02:49

I sound a little skeptical. Every episode

1:02:51

is ad-free. Ooh, wow.

1:02:54

So this could be your ace

1:02:56

in the hole. And not just

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Subscribe now on Apple

1:03:09

Podcasts, Spotify, or datelinepremium.com.

1:03:11

You ready for what's

1:03:13

coming? Talk

1:03:27

to the families of murder victims, and

1:03:29

they'll tell you, almost as agonizing as

1:03:31

the loss is the waiting that follows.

1:03:34

The loved ones of Wendy Prescott and Christine

1:03:36

Vu know that all too well. How

1:03:39

does that weigh on your family? You try to

1:03:41

move on, but you know in the back of

1:03:43

your mind, there's somebody out there free

1:03:45

that has committed a crime,

1:03:49

killed your sister, killed

1:03:51

your daughter, killed your niece, and

1:03:53

he committed the same crime to

1:03:56

somebody else's daughter, sister, niece, right?

1:03:59

And so it was... just

1:06:00

outside of Dallas. His print

1:06:02

was a match. And when

1:06:04

Stevenson compared the print from Christine's case to

1:06:06

the Burglars, it was a match too. So

1:06:10

these two prints that started out

1:06:13

this whole investigation could

1:06:15

now be the key to

1:06:17

finally solving this. They broke the

1:06:19

case open, gave us a

1:06:21

name and a person to put

1:06:23

with the prints. That name was number

1:06:26

17 on our list, original list of

1:06:28

people. The chameleon was

1:06:30

not a chameleon anymore. What was

1:06:32

the name? Dale Channette. Dale

1:06:36

Channette, Detective Lenore's ears

1:06:38

perked up. I go, I know

1:06:40

that name. Really? I

1:06:42

know that name because I know every name in these books.

1:06:46

So who is Dale Channette?

1:06:48

Dale Channette was one of the males

1:06:50

that was connected to the pear tree

1:06:52

apartments by lease as

1:06:55

a co-signer for a young woman who

1:06:57

was his girlfriend. Eventually he married her.

1:07:00

Channette wasn't high on Detective Lenore's list because

1:07:02

he'd never been arrested until that burglary in

1:07:05

1999, two and

1:07:07

a half years after the murders. I'll

1:07:10

use a cliche under the radar. He

1:07:13

was eventually going to be interviewed,

1:07:15

but he was so low on

1:07:17

that list. That is

1:07:20

the moment in this investigation.

1:07:22

Oh. This is it. You

1:07:25

finally have a name. I've got a name. Your

1:07:28

ghost is now alive. My ghost is a human being

1:07:30

and he's an evil human being and we are going

1:07:32

to arrest him. Detective

1:07:35

Lenore worked on getting an arrest warrant while

1:07:37

another team went to Channette's house. We

1:07:39

had a team that was set up surveillance

1:07:41

on the house. During this

1:07:43

time, once I got the warrant, once it was signed,

1:07:45

he actually came out of the house, got his vehicle

1:07:47

and left. The team followed him? They followed him to

1:07:49

arrest him. Where did they pull him over? They pulled

1:07:51

him over on this road that we're on right now,

1:07:53

coming up the street. And what was his reaction? What

1:07:56

word did you get back? He basically cooperated,

1:07:58

didn't say anything. But what's interesting is he

1:08:00

also didn't question why he was being arrested.

1:08:04

They brought Shanet to the station. He

1:08:07

agreed to talk to me. He was actually

1:08:10

soft-spoken, polite, and

1:08:12

sat down and we had a conversation. I asked him,

1:08:15

I said, you understand why you're here. You

1:08:17

know why you're here. You're here

1:08:19

because your print was matched

1:08:22

inside an apartment, the pear tree, plum tree apartment.

1:08:25

Dale Shanet denied ever being in the

1:08:27

victim's apartments. Lenore knew he

1:08:30

was lying. How on earth

1:08:32

would his fingerprint be on Wendy's TV stand

1:08:34

and on the interior of Christine's door? I

1:08:37

said, listen, well, if it's not you, let's exclude you. I can

1:08:40

do it through your print. I can do it through your DNA.

1:08:42

He says, I'm not going to give that to you. And

1:08:44

he's not getting upset. We've made it. Of course,

1:08:46

I had nothing to do with that. As an innocent person, I

1:08:49

would be in shock. But

1:08:52

as we're talking, he says, you

1:08:54

need to understand about my past. He

1:08:57

said, I was abused. What

1:08:59

do you mean you were abused? And he said, I

1:09:02

was sexually abused when I was a kid. Then

1:09:06

Shanet said something surprising. And

1:09:08

so we're talking and he says,

1:09:10

well, do you care about my life? It's

1:09:13

kind of caught me off a little bit. And I

1:09:15

was like, well, I gave him the general answer. Yeah,

1:09:17

I care about everybody's life. And

1:09:19

he says, then don't let me get the death penalty. That

1:09:23

was a curious request. He's

1:09:26

been denying all of this. You're denying, but yet you're saying,

1:09:28

please don't let me get the death penalty. Yeah,

1:09:30

you believe you're looking at a guilty

1:09:32

man. If I were in Vegas, I'd

1:09:34

put all the chips on the table. He goes,

1:09:37

I will tell you everything I know you want

1:09:39

to know and more. And more.

1:09:42

And what's the more? Are you thinking more victims?

1:09:44

Oh, good Lord. Yes, absolutely. Absolutely.

1:09:49

Lenore told Shanet he didn't have the authority to

1:09:51

make the call about the death penalty. That

1:09:54

was the end of the conversation. His response

1:09:56

was, if you can't do it, I want a lawyer. And

1:09:58

when you say that, it's over. I've had some

1:10:00

times getting up and walking out of a

1:10:03

room that were hard. That was one of the hardest. But

1:10:06

Lenore still had some cards to play. He

1:10:08

got a search warrant to physically examine

1:10:11

Shanette. That injury, exactly

1:10:13

where Shima described, was

1:10:16

still there. The

1:10:18

warrant also allowed the detective to collect

1:10:20

Dale Shanette's DNA. As

1:10:22

he waited for the results, he dove deeper

1:10:25

into his suspect's life and

1:10:27

discovered he was in a relationship with a

1:10:29

woman who, as it turned out, had a

1:10:32

lot to share with police and

1:10:34

us. Well, he

1:10:36

just preferred that I took baths.

1:10:39

I did that instead of the showers. The

1:10:43

twisted truth was coming to light. There

1:10:45

were more victims and buried

1:10:47

secrets Shanette was keeping. It

1:10:58

was the news Christine Vu's family had waited years to

1:11:00

hear. The search for her killer appeared to

1:11:04

be over. The Arlington Police Department reached out

1:11:06

to us as a family and

1:11:08

told us that they have somebody in

1:11:11

custody. What's that emotion like for you when you

1:11:13

get that news? It was fantastic because

1:11:15

leading up to that point, we

1:11:17

felt it was this was a cold case, nothing's going

1:11:19

to get done. And we felt like we were going to be

1:11:21

in a cold case. At that

1:11:23

point, we felt it was this is a cold case, nothing's going

1:11:25

to get done. No one's going to

1:11:28

get caught. Wendy Prescott's family felt the same and

1:11:31

they also had questions. Did you

1:11:33

know the name Dale Shanette? Had you ever heard

1:11:36

of this person? No, never

1:11:38

heard of him. And then

1:11:40

you find out the connection that he was the

1:11:43

boyfriend of a woman living in the complex. Yeah.

1:11:47

I mean, I wouldn't have never imagined that he was living there,

1:11:50

you know, that it was a resident. But

1:11:53

detectives learned Shanette hadn't lived in the pear tree apartments for long. In

1:11:56

fact, he moved out before Wendy was murdered.

1:12:00

a quiet life. He and

1:12:02

his girlfriend married, had a child,

1:12:04

and eventually divorced. At

1:12:06

the time of his arrest, he was living

1:12:08

with a new girlfriend we'll call Kay. I

1:12:11

would not think that he was capable of hurting

1:12:13

a woman. She asked us

1:12:15

not to show her full face. Do

1:12:17

you worry what people will think of you? I

1:12:19

just rather keep my peace and

1:12:22

serenity away from everything. Kay

1:12:24

says her world was turned upside down the

1:12:27

day Dale Channette was arrested. Police

1:12:29

surrounded the home she shared with him, then

1:12:31

came inside to search. They

1:12:34

took me to the police station. They wouldn't tell

1:12:36

me anything until I actually got into the police

1:12:38

station. And that's when they dropped

1:12:40

the bomb on you. They told me that

1:12:43

I had been in danger. And they said,

1:12:45

do you know what he's been held for? And I

1:12:47

said, no. What is your reaction to

1:12:49

the police when they tell you this news? Just

1:12:52

shock. Shock,

1:12:54

and also disbelief. Kay

1:12:57

remembered the bathtub murders. For

1:12:59

years, she says she lived in terror of being

1:13:01

the next victim. She even

1:13:04

shared her fears with Channette. I

1:13:06

told him that I never thought I would live

1:13:08

in Arlington because, you know, they never found a

1:13:10

guy who killed those women. How

1:13:14

did he make you feel when

1:13:16

you expressed your concerns? Well, he just

1:13:18

kind of dismissed it. And I said,

1:13:20

that's why I always chose to move

1:13:22

on the second or third floor. And

1:13:25

he said, well, that just isn't safe either

1:13:27

because people can get in on the second

1:13:29

or third floor as well. Kay

1:13:32

couldn't believe the man suspected of rape and

1:13:34

murder was the same man she'd once considered

1:13:37

her protector. What was

1:13:39

it about Dale that made you feel safe?

1:13:41

Well, he was a big guy. He was

1:13:43

muscular. And I always had a gun, a

1:13:45

pistol. You just knew that he was going

1:13:48

to be there for you if something bad happened. Yes,

1:13:50

I did. He had proven it before. If I needed

1:13:52

him, he was always there. Kay

1:13:54

says she met Channette at a local club where

1:13:56

he worked behind the bar. They dated

1:13:59

for about eight months. Detectives

1:14:01

later learned that Adrian also frequented that

1:14:03

club. How do

1:14:05

you two start talking? Well, he noticed

1:14:07

me and he approached me and asked

1:14:10

me if he could give me his

1:14:12

number. A month later, Kay called

1:14:14

him and the two started dating. She

1:14:16

says at first, everything seemed great. He

1:14:19

was really nice. He just gave me a

1:14:21

lot of attention, compliments and stuff.

1:14:24

But thinking back, red flags popped up.

1:14:28

He had a recorder tucked away under

1:14:30

a couch and I thought

1:14:33

that was quite odd. You found the

1:14:35

recorder? Yeah, he was recording my conversations

1:14:37

with my mom and family

1:14:39

members. Did you confront him about

1:14:41

it? I did. I asked him

1:14:43

about it. But he dismissed

1:14:45

it and we really didn't talk anymore about it.

1:14:48

She also brushed off an incident at her old

1:14:51

place before she moved in with Dale. Kay

1:14:54

had gone on vacation with a girlfriend and when

1:14:56

she returned, she says her neighbor told

1:14:58

her someone had been in her apartment. He

1:15:01

could hear the footsteps from the

1:15:03

downstairs apartment and then when I got

1:15:05

home, I couldn't unlock my door. And

1:15:08

I had to get the police to come

1:15:10

and open the door for me. And they told

1:15:13

me that it was locked from the inside, so whoever

1:15:15

was in there, they

1:15:17

exited through the balcony. Kay

1:15:19

suspected it was Dale, but decided to let it

1:15:21

go. Now that I

1:15:23

think about it retrospect, I have fears.

1:15:26

What were they? He just

1:15:28

gave you the demeanor like you just don't want

1:15:30

to push him too far. Was

1:15:33

Dale ever violent towards you? He

1:15:36

wasn't violent for the most part. But

1:15:40

one time, I decided I

1:15:42

was going to leave because we were getting

1:15:44

along bad. And

1:15:46

he did a restraining move on me and

1:15:48

held me and wouldn't let me get

1:15:50

up. Did it scare you? It

1:15:53

did because it seemed like his

1:15:55

expression changed and I didn't know

1:15:57

him for a second. hadn't

1:16:00

seen before. And

1:16:03

there was one more thing a request Channette

1:16:05

made that at the time Kay thought was

1:16:08

harmless. He preferred that

1:16:10

I took baths and so I did

1:16:13

that instead of the showers. I mean was this

1:16:15

something that he wanted to see you taking a

1:16:17

bath or he just wanted to know that you

1:16:19

were taking a bath? He just wanted to know

1:16:21

that I was taking a bath. Did you find

1:16:23

that odd? No, I just

1:16:26

thought it was a preference. Clearly

1:16:29

there was something about bathtubs. You

1:16:31

know the fact that he wanted you to take baths, his

1:16:34

victims were found in the bathtub. Yeah,

1:16:37

I think that it was something maybe

1:16:40

some type of cleaning ritual or

1:16:42

something. I don't know. Despite

1:16:45

all the disturbing realizations, Kay kept

1:16:47

in contact with Channette, even visited

1:16:49

him in jail. Did

1:16:51

you ask him in that moment, did you kill these

1:16:53

women and sexually assault these women? No,

1:16:56

because I knew that that's something that he was

1:16:58

not willing to talk about. Could

1:17:00

you think of a reason why

1:17:03

he would do it? Was there something in

1:17:05

his past or something that he told you

1:17:07

that might shed some light on why? He

1:17:10

did have mommy issues. He said that

1:17:12

his sisters were treated better than him

1:17:14

growing up and he was also felt

1:17:16

rejected from his wife. Sounds

1:17:19

like he maybe has issues

1:17:21

with women or how he's been treated by

1:17:23

women in the past. Yes,

1:17:25

it could have been some rejection. Why

1:17:27

didn't you just cut him

1:17:29

off now that he's in jail? Because

1:17:32

it was part of me was still not believing

1:17:34

that he actually did it. Maybe he didn't do

1:17:36

it, you know, and that what

1:17:38

if he didn't do it and everybody's abandoning

1:17:41

him. Even

1:17:43

though Channette was behind bars, Detective

1:17:45

Lenore still needed the lab results. And

1:17:48

so now you have his DNA?

1:17:51

I have his DNA. Is there a rush

1:17:53

on comparing this DNA?

1:17:56

Absolutely. Then while

1:17:58

he waited, he got a call that

1:18:00

suggested this case was far from

1:18:02

over. There were three

1:18:05

more. More attacks. Three attacks. Three attacks. Three

1:18:08

attacks. From

1:18:20

the moment Detective Lenore heard about Christine Vu's

1:18:23

murder at the pear tree apartments, he'd been

1:18:25

on the hunt for a killer. Years

1:18:27

later, in March 1999, he

1:18:30

felt he'd finally found him. He

1:18:32

was just waiting for a DNA match to confirm

1:18:35

it. Then, two

1:18:37

weeks after Dale Channett's arrest,

1:18:39

the moment the investigator had

1:18:41

been waiting for arrived. The

1:18:43

DNA matched all four victims,

1:18:46

Christine, Wendy, Shema,

1:18:49

and Adrian. We have a DNA

1:18:51

match to all four victims. You

1:18:53

got your guy? Oh, he's definitely

1:18:55

our guy. There's no if ands and buts

1:18:58

about it. But Detective Lenore believed there

1:19:00

were other victims. Eight

1:19:02

months before Channett's arrest, he'd put out

1:19:04

a bulletin to neighboring police departments asking

1:19:06

if any of their unsolved crimes seemed

1:19:09

similar to these four cases. Investigators

1:19:11

from Lancaster, Texas, got that note

1:19:14

and believed three of their cases

1:19:16

were possibly connected. Turned

1:19:18

out Lenore's hunch was right. There

1:19:21

were more victims. At

1:19:23

that time, we connected his DNA

1:19:25

to three sexual assaults that occurred in 1998,

1:19:28

between September and December. One

1:19:32

of the victims was a Dallas police officer.

1:19:35

We threatened to kill her family,

1:19:37

even cited their address to her.

1:19:40

Saying, I know where your family lives. Oh, my goodness. Vicious

1:19:43

in one case, he sexually assaulted a woman in

1:19:45

front of her child. The

1:19:48

Tarrant County District Attorney pursued the

1:19:50

maximum penalty. Dale Channett was

1:19:52

indicted on capital murder charges. If

1:19:55

found guilty, he would face the death penalty. Channett's

1:19:58

biggest fear was now a

1:20:00

real possibility. But there was a

1:20:02

potential snag with the prosecution's case, Assistant

1:20:05

DA Greg Miller. Under

1:20:07

Texas law, we wouldn't be able to try

1:20:09

him at the same time for both murders.

1:20:12

So they chose Wendy Prescott's murder, which

1:20:14

meant the jury would not hear anything

1:20:17

about Christine Vu or the sexual assault

1:20:19

victims. Why try Wendy's

1:20:21

case first if she was

1:20:23

second in the murders?

1:20:26

The only issue that we had a

1:20:29

little bit of a concern about in

1:20:31

Christine's cases was Christine had a boyfriend.

1:20:34

Although Christine's boyfriend, Tang Ku, had

1:20:36

long ago been cleared by police,

1:20:39

prosecutors worried his presence at the crime

1:20:41

scene so close to the time of

1:20:43

her murder might confuse the jury. When

1:20:46

you're the prosecutor, you're trying to convince all

1:20:48

12 people beyond a reasonable doubt. And

1:20:51

all the defense is trying to do is find

1:20:53

one or two people that for whatever

1:20:56

reason don't believe that she and Adam,

1:20:58

you know, killed Christine Vu, too. Christine's

1:21:01

family understood. Once we

1:21:04

got to that point, it didn't matter. We felt

1:21:06

comfortable that there was enough linkage between

1:21:08

the two cases that they were done

1:21:10

by the same person. You just wanted him

1:21:13

to go away. We just wanted him to go away, exactly. The

1:21:16

trial began in January 2003 in Fort Worth. Christine's

1:21:21

and Wendy's families attended. It

1:21:23

was a top priority for us to attend and

1:21:25

see this through because that's the least we

1:21:27

can do for Christine in her memory. Wendy's

1:21:31

cousin hoped the presence of both families

1:21:33

sent a strong message to Channette. To

1:21:35

make sure that he knew that

1:21:38

he took away someone very special

1:21:40

to us and to make sure

1:21:42

that he was going to get his punishment. The

1:21:46

prosecution's case focused on the forensic

1:21:48

evidence, starting with that thumbprint. We

1:21:51

referred to it as a dustprint from

1:21:53

the TV stand of Wendy's apartment, which

1:21:55

is probably the best dustprint I've ever

1:21:57

seen. Yeah, it was very clear. I

1:24:00

was pregnant, about seven months pregnant. It

1:24:02

was the first time Adrian had come

1:24:04

face to face with Channette since that

1:24:06

awful night. And so

1:24:09

I'm telling my testimony and he's

1:24:11

looking at me like with those

1:24:13

piercing, evil eyes, he's just looking my

1:24:16

card like, I should have killed you. Like,

1:24:18

you know, I shouldn't have let you live,

1:24:20

you know. Did you feel so empowered?

1:24:22

I did. I did. I cried all

1:24:24

the way through, but I felt so strong and so

1:24:26

empowered, even in just like when

1:24:29

I walked out, it was like, I'm

1:24:31

leaving this behind me. I'm walking

1:24:33

out this door and this

1:24:35

is it. Shema felt

1:24:38

something different. I

1:24:40

remember being really angry at him.

1:24:42

Like, he didn't care

1:24:44

of the pain that he inflicted on

1:24:46

the families, the victims, the

1:24:48

survivors. But

1:24:50

the jury recognized all their pain and

1:24:53

once again decided in favor of the

1:24:55

prosecution. Dale Channette was

1:24:57

sentenced to death. Six years

1:24:59

later, on February 10th, 2009, he

1:25:02

died by lethal injection. The

1:25:05

families of Wendy and Christine were there in the

1:25:07

viewing room to watch his execution. There

1:25:09

were tears that were shed. Really? In the room.

1:25:12

Yeah. You know, it's not so much the tears

1:25:14

for the murderer. It's the tears

1:25:16

for the victims that we shed. Thankfully,

1:25:19

it was the closure that we

1:25:21

were looking for. Since

1:25:24

that day, Shema has also found a way to

1:25:26

move forward as a wife and a

1:25:28

mother. I

1:25:31

live in a beautiful place with my lovely

1:25:34

family and so I'm just grateful to be here

1:25:37

and to experience that.

1:25:39

You've overcome so much. Yes. Yes.

1:25:41

And it's a journey still,

1:25:43

you know, but I think I'm doing

1:25:46

well. Adrienne credits her

1:25:49

daughter for her positive outlook. Starting to notice

1:25:51

that my fears are taking over her and so I

1:25:53

begin to think if I'm the

1:26:00

woman that she will become, then I've got to

1:26:02

work on the woman that I am. I'm

1:26:05

going to live differently. She's

1:26:07

now an author and a motivational speaker.

1:26:10

I'm proof that you can get pass rate. My

1:26:13

experience is not everyone else's experience,

1:26:16

but I can tell you

1:26:18

from my experience that you

1:26:20

can live through it and that

1:26:22

you can breathe again. Adrian

1:26:25

wanted to help others through their

1:26:27

darkest moments and started a non-profit

1:26:29

called Rip the Bandage. I

1:26:32

call it my safe place. We do

1:26:34

a lot of great things, so we

1:26:37

go out to the streets, we feed

1:26:39

the homeless, we provide daily sustenance

1:26:41

like toiletries and clothes and shoes and

1:26:43

snacks and I am encouraging people all

1:26:46

day long. You can make it.

1:26:48

You're such an inspiration. Thank you.

1:26:51

Living proof that you can do it. It's

1:26:53

happened in your life, but it didn't happen

1:26:55

to knock you out the game. It came

1:26:57

to give you strength. That's

1:27:05

all for this edition of Dateline

1:27:07

and check out our Talking Dateline

1:27:09

podcast. Andrea Kanning and Josh

1:27:11

Mankiewicz will go behind the scenes of

1:27:13

tonight's episode, available Wednesday in

1:27:16

the Dateline feed wherever you get

1:27:18

your podcasts. We'll see you again

1:27:20

next Friday at 10, 9 central. I'm

1:27:23

Lester Holt. For all of us at

1:27:26

NBC News, good night. So

1:27:32

many twists and turns. There are

1:27:34

more surprises on the way. I'm

1:27:37

Andrea Kanning. Welcome to Dateline

1:27:40

True Crime Weekly, a new

1:27:42

podcast covering breaking crime news around the

1:27:44

country with the best reporters on the

1:27:46

case. NBC News

1:27:48

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1:27:50

ground. I'll dive

1:27:53

into stories that are catching Dateline's attention this week

1:27:55

and get to the

1:27:57

bottom of what you need to know. Did

1:28:00

you really think that you were going

1:28:02

to get away with it? Dateline True

1:28:04

Crime Weekly. Listen now and catch new

1:28:06

episodes every Thursday.