0:00

It's

0:00

August second nineteen ninety eight,

0:02

a Sunday in the summertime, when

0:04

the pace of Washington slows a bit.

0:07

Congress goes on vacation, schools,

0:09

and colleges are on summer break, and

0:12

interns have descended on the city for

0:14

a few months. That summer,

0:16

there's one story everyone seems

0:19

to be talking about.

0:20

As you know, in deposition

0:23

in January, I was asked questions about

0:25

my relationship with Monica Lewinsky.

0:27

Then

0:28

president's bill was an eagle addressing

0:30

the nation the day he testified before the grand

0:32

jury. At that point,

0:34

independent counsel, Ken Starr, was

0:36

still investigating Clinton. His

0:39

report wouldn't come out until September. It

0:41

was the biggest presidential scandal

0:43

since Watergate. But this podcast

0:46

isn't about Monica Lewinsky. It's

0:48

about another intern who came to

0:50

DC in nineteen ninety eight. Twenty

0:53

eight year old Christine Mirzayan. She

0:56

didn't come to Washington to work in the White

0:58

House. Christine was a scientist

1:01

by all accounts brilliant. She

1:03

had studied cell biology at Yale,

1:06

and earlier that spring, she completed

1:08

her PHD in biochemistry. at

1:11

the University of California, San Francisco.

1:14

She

1:14

was at the very end. It was it was a

1:16

summer intern at the National Academy of

1:18

Sciences. she had spent the summer there.

1:20

I that was it was the only time

1:23

in our relationship where we were separated.

1:25

I was still finishing

1:27

up my PhD at UCSF. That's

1:29

David Hackos, Christine's husband

1:31

at the time. He was planning to

1:33

join her in DC after he finished

1:36

his PHD. He'd

1:38

lined up a postdoc opportunity at

1:40

the National Institutes of Health in the

1:42

fall in nearby Bethesda, Maryland.

1:44

So during that summer, and I was kind of packing

1:47

up the house because we were going to we had found

1:49

an apartment that we were gonna

1:51

live in in Woodley Park in

1:53

in DC. she and so

1:55

she had done a an internship. And she

1:58

she she got this very, very prestigious

2:01

additional internship that she had not yet

2:03

started from the triple a

2:05

from triple a s American Association for the

2:08

advancement of science, where

2:10

she was going to work in

2:12

the Senate for a senator, basically,

2:15

to kind of learn how to do

2:17

what what what her passion was was

2:19

was to basically work on science

2:22

policy. So any

2:24

she had not yet started that, but she won

2:26

that friendship. And that's why

2:28

she was so excited about

2:31

going into that area that she

2:33

managed she also managed to get a

2:36

intern before to kind of

2:38

get ready. You know?

2:40

David and Christine were still newly wedged

2:42

that summer. Her internship in

2:44

DC was the first time they were separated

2:47

since they'd met in the university library

2:49

at UCSF. He had doubts

2:52

about her going to DC without him,

2:54

but Christine had a sense of mission. She

2:56

was passionate about using science

2:58

to solve the national and political

3:00

problems facing the country. And

3:03

she thought getting to DC early

3:05

would help her make connections. Christine

3:07

grew up in Newport Beach, California. She'd

3:10

been born in Iran, but when she was

3:12

a child, her parents fled

3:14

the country with her and her sister

3:17

after the Shaw was deposed in the

3:19

nineteen seventy nine revolution. Later,

3:22

her parents moved to Vancouver, Canada.

3:25

Through Yale, grad school, and now

3:27

her summer in DC, Christine

3:29

had a routine.

3:37

On Sunday, She always

3:40

called her mom. Okay? It was just like

3:42

her once a week, call her mom in the morning.

3:44

And so I didn't know anything was

3:46

wrong until her mom called me and

3:48

said, oh, I can't I can't get in touch with Christine.

3:51

She's not answering her phone. Do you know? Have

3:54

you heard from her?

3:55

And I had I we had talked the day

3:57

before. So I said, oh,

3:59

yeah. I I talked to her yesterday, and

4:02

and I I thought that it would be

4:05

she I'm sure she you know, I didn't

4:07

think there was anything wrong. I thought, oh, she's probably

4:09

just didn't forgot

4:11

to call you back or whatever, but it was unusual

4:13

because it was such a consistent thing that

4:15

she did. David had talked to Christine the

4:18

night before, She was staying in

4:20

a dorm on the Georgetown campus,

4:22

Neville's hall at thirty fifth and o streets.

4:25

At the time they talked, She was heading

4:27

over to a friend's house nearby for a

4:29

cookout with other interns from the

4:31

program. David

4:33

didn't know the interns very well. he had

4:35

only been to DC once. Actually,

4:38

just a week or two before that Sunday,

4:40

she showed him her dorm room they went

4:42

out to eat, went to a movie,

4:45

David remembers it was Goodwill Hunting.

4:48

After the call from Christine's mom, David

4:50

tried to reach his wife at her dorm room.

4:53

personal cell phones weren't all that

4:55

common at the time. As the

4:57

day went on, something just didn't

4:59

feel right.

5:06

This was Sunday. During that

5:08

day, I started

5:10

the trying

5:12

to get in touch with her. I would call her, leave

5:14

messages. I called her I

5:16

figured out how to call her roommate. And

5:19

I asked her roommate whether

5:22

or suitemate or whatever whether

5:24

he she had seen Christine

5:26

and she had she's hadn't seen

5:28

her, but she didn't know for sure that she

5:30

was not there. And

5:34

basically, over the day, I kept calling

5:36

and calling And then

5:38

I I got to point where I just could not

5:40

believe that this was just so out of character

5:42

for Christine that I didn't

5:44

believe that I I thought that there must be

5:46

something wrong. And

5:48

so basically,

5:53

I decided at

5:55

at kind of towards the towards night

5:57

because they they basically got to the point where

5:59

it was night in the East Coast. And I was in San

6:01

Francisco, so it's a three hour difference. And

6:04

I thought, okay, she's not even home and it's

6:06

nighttime. I mean, it's impossible. So

6:08

I called the first thing I did

6:10

was I called the

6:13

the campus, the Georgetown

6:17

campus police, and I reported

6:19

her missing at that point. And

6:22

I gave them some information, and

6:25

I didn't call the DC police. And

6:28

then I booked a an airplane

6:31

to fly there the next morning.

6:34

the And

6:35

I didn't want to call other

6:37

people because I was afraid that I'd be waking

6:39

them up and it was really late. So

6:42

in the morning, I took a cab to

6:44

the airport And

6:45

I called my mom basically.

6:48

And

6:48

I told her, can you call

6:50

these people, including Bruce Alberts,

6:53

just call them and see if

6:55

you can track down what

6:57

is happening with Christine. I'm gonna be on the flight so

6:59

I won't be able to call while I'm on the airplane.

7:01

Bruce Alberts was the head of the national

7:03

academies. Christine had once

7:05

been his graduate student and he was

7:07

instrumental in getting her

7:09

the fellowship. And then I jumped on the airplane,

7:12

and, you

7:15

know, it's a whatever, three four

7:17

hour flight or whatever. So when I

7:19

landed on the intercom

7:21

on the airplane, they basically

7:23

said David Hechos. Please

7:26

see there's somebody that

7:28

is gonna meet you at at the gate,

7:30

please see the person or whatever.

7:32

And it turned out to be the DC police.

7:38

David is a scientist too. You

7:41

can hear how methodical, logical

7:43

he is when dealing with a moment that

7:45

would send most people into a panic

7:47

For David, the voice on

7:49

the intercom was the moment the terrible

7:51

reality hit home. I

7:54

was really worried, obviously, obviously,

7:57

I but I I felt

7:59

like there was a good chance that this was

8:01

just some sort of, you know, nothing

8:04

that happened and I

8:06

ended up, you know, flying all the way

8:08

across the country for no good

8:10

reason. Right? Obviously, I flew

8:12

across the country obviously, I was pretty

8:14

worried. But

8:18

but the moment I heard that voice on

8:20

the intercom, I broke

8:23

down crying because

8:26

I I to me that meant

8:29

that Okay. Something really bad

8:31

has happened. And and

8:33

and then

8:36

I exited the airplane and

8:38

the DC police were there to meet

8:40

me at the gate.

8:42

They took me into the United

8:44

Airlines red carpet room, and that's where they

8:46

when they told me that

8:49

Christine had been that they think

8:51

that they had found the body of Christine.

8:55

Police told David Christine's body had been

8:58

found the day before, the day

9:00

she didn't call home.

9:02

She was found nearly naked in

9:04

a wooded area off a busy

9:06

street called Canal Road, just

9:09

yards away from the gates of Georgetown's

9:11

campus. There was evidence

9:13

she had been sexually assaulted.

9:15

She had been beaten with a massive

9:17

rock found near her body,

9:19

It appeared to the police that

9:21

Christine was walking alone

9:23

a long canal road the night she left

9:25

the barbecue. When her

9:27

killer came from behind, and

9:30

dragged her into the woods.

9:35

I'm Paul Wagner, and this is

9:37

unknown subject, season three

9:39

of WTOP's American

9:41

nightmare series.

9:45

I'm Paul

9:48

Wagner. In August of nineteen ninety

9:50

eight, I was working for WTI Radio,

9:52

the all news station here in

9:54

Washington DC, and the

9:56

producer of this podcast. I

9:58

reported on the murder of Christine Reziah, I'm

10:00

back when it happened. From

10:02

time to time, I checked in on the

10:04

investigation, and after five years

10:06

with the murder still unsolved, it

10:08

became a coal case. By

10:11

that point, I'd made the switch from radio to

10:13

TV and taken a job at the local

10:15

Fox affiliate, where I stayed for

10:17

twenty one years. I

10:19

filed a report for the station about Christine's

10:22

killing, a story that featured for the

10:24

first time the lead detective, a

10:26

man you will hear from later in

10:28

this episode. Then

10:30

in two thousand eleven, thirteen

10:33

years after the murder still unsolved,

10:36

I broke a major story on the

10:38

case, which changed the direction of the

10:40

investigation. The FBI

10:42

got involved and Christine's murder got

10:44

national attention. But

10:46

back in nineteen ninety eight on that hot August

10:49

day, Christine's body laid undiscovered

10:52

for more than fifteen hours.

10:54

we were chatting and, you know, just talking

10:57

about

10:57

whatever.

10:58

And I just

11:00

casually look towards

11:02

kinda towards a canal,

11:04

and I saw what I thought was a

11:06

mannequin. And I thought, well, it's

11:08

near Georgetown. It's probably some

11:10

kind of fraternity prank or

11:13

something, you know. And so

11:15

we started keeping on walking and I

11:17

said, well, we maybe we should check.

11:19

And so my my wife and her my

11:22

friend stayed on the sidewalk

11:24

there or on

11:25

the side of

11:26

the road, and I walked

11:27

in about twenty

11:30

feet, and I could see fives

11:32

around the head. And

11:35

so I

11:35

didn't get any closer. I just walked back and

11:37

we went back to the convenient

11:39

store and call the police. That's

11:41

Daniel Staufield. The first person to

11:43

spot Christine's body in a wooded

11:45

area. not far from her

11:47

dorm room on the campus of Georgetown

11:49

University. The exact

11:51

spot is just yards away from the

11:53

notorious staircase, Featured

11:55

in the movie, The Exorcist.

11:57

It was a nice day.

11:59

It

11:59

really was a nice day. It was it

12:02

was sunny. I

12:05

I had assumed duty. I'd signed

12:07

the members to clean

12:09

up assignments, and

12:13

we're just trying to get the day started

12:15

more or less when the call

12:17

came for medical local adjacent

12:20

to Georgetown University. Let's

12:22

retire DC firefighter Jeff

12:24

Stauffer. He was in charge of

12:26

engine five that day and remembers

12:28

the call coming into the station.

12:30

We responded, and

12:33

upon arrival, we're met by a

12:35

male and a female who

12:38

directed us to a

12:40

body that was laying in the coats

12:42

of trees, small cups of

12:44

trees adjacent to the campus.

12:48

Walking up to the body, it

12:51

became apparent that there had been a

12:53

sexual assault and

12:55

by the way her clothes were disarrayed

12:59

and that she had

13:01

was deceased. Her

13:04

pupils were fixed. Her

13:07

there was a significant trauma

13:09

to her head. There was also blood on

13:11

an adjacent rock next

13:14

to her head. At that

13:16

point, I direct did

13:20

my driver who had accompanied me

13:22

to step away from the body.

13:24

We walked back.

13:27

I communicated, yeah,

13:30

using my radio to prior

13:33

communications asking for

13:35

MPD to be dispatched

13:38

forklift, and a

13:41

few seconds later, the

13:44

fire

13:44

communications came back saying police

13:47

department wanted more wanted

13:49

additional information. At which point

13:51

I had said I would call them landline

13:53

and jogged. To

13:55

the x on station immediately

13:58

north of the cubs of trees

13:59

went into the into

14:01

the gas station use the pay phone to

14:04

communicate the exact details and

14:06

nature nature of

14:09

the situation. offers says he didn't

14:11

want to broadcast the graphic

14:13

details over the radio, but

14:15

wanted police to know this wasn't what

14:17

police called a natural death.

14:20

detectives needed to step it

14:22

up. Yeah. Man, it was hot today. That

14:24

was our third murder of the day already.

14:26

That's Dean Kabi. the

14:28

DC homicide detective who would take the

14:30

lead investigating Christine Rasillon's

14:33

murder. He's retired

14:35

from the police department now And because

14:37

of COVID, when I interviewed him last

14:39

fall, we sat at a table outside,

14:41

so you'll hear some background

14:43

noise during our interview. And

14:45

we we get we get up there, and

14:48

it was probably maybe

14:51

hundred fifty yards west of

14:53

the gas station that's right there at, you

14:56

know, on Canal Road there.

14:58

And actually, Sam's Street

15:00

extended, I think, and that's where Whitehurst Freeway comes

15:02

in right there in about I'll

15:04

tell you about, yeah, about a hundred fifty hours or so

15:06

west. and

15:11

the ground was had a lot of

15:13

ivy. There's a lot of ivy there, I

15:15

remember. And

15:17

it was It was an old

15:19

brick wall. It was, I guess, some sort of,

15:21

retaining wall or something that

15:23

basically bordered the

15:25

the edge of the thing there, which was probably

15:27

about fifty yards back. I would I would I

15:29

would guess, something like that.

15:31

was, you know, sort of a dappled say

15:33

a dappled crime scene if you wanna call it that

15:36

because it's like I said, a lot of trees there.

15:38

It was very overgrown. I'm

15:40

a eager to see her though because it's kinda like

15:42

kinda beamed just on a little spot where she

15:44

was, you know. So when

15:46

I get up there and

15:50

There

15:51

were some two d guys there. And,

15:55

you know,

15:56

they were telling me about the the person

15:59

that found her,

15:59

so we arranged for them to, you know, get go

16:02

go give a statement on the homicide. And

16:08

So

16:08

when I

16:09

got up there, it

16:12

was pretty pretty apparent, you know, right away

16:14

that there had been a sexual assault. And

16:20

her entire

16:22

head was just crushed.

16:24

It

16:26

was crushed.

16:28

And

16:28

I mean and when I say

16:31

crushed, I mean, crushed. because I

16:33

mean, it was probably no more than that thick.

16:36

hum Maybe

16:38

maybe three inches.

16:41

hum

16:42

could you see the rock that was used

16:45

right away? Yeah. It was right there.

16:48

It was but basically, you know, within a

16:50

foot of her of her head

16:52

there, you know. And you can see blood and

16:54

stuff all over it. And

16:58

So, you know, we process a scene. They

17:00

photographed it and

17:03

you know, retrieve your clothes. I was like, actually, there was no

17:06

identification, no purse, and anything like

17:08

that. So we had no idea who

17:10

she was. I

17:13

wanna say she still had an bracelet on one

17:17

leg. She was pretty

17:21

much nude. She was

17:23

on her back with her arms

17:25

slightly spread. An unfastened

17:27

bra wrapped around her neck. Her

17:29

dark green pants shirt and underwear were

17:32

tangled up and lying on the ground

17:34

just to the left of her head. To the

17:36

right of short distance away was

17:38

a large rock covered in blood.

17:40

Nearby, police found an old

17:42

boot. There were cobwebs inside.

17:45

They also found a weathered pair of pants

17:47

and a slightly wet black purse strap.

17:50

It appeared the murder took place amongst

17:52

a pile of trash, but

17:54

police collected it all, including

17:56

a juice bottle, two beer cans,

17:59

a two liter coke bottle,

18:01

a piece of string, and a piece of

18:03

foil. Detective combi noticed

18:05

something distinctive about

18:08

her clothes. they

18:08

were inside out.

18:10

So, like, if, like, if

18:12

you if you take and close off a kid,

18:14

you know, when put them to bed and you just pull them off, you know, you pull

18:17

they come inside out. That's the way your clothes

18:19

were. And then you

18:21

took from that, what, that

18:23

she was not conscious. at the

18:26

time that she that she was that her clothes

18:28

were taken off or removed. it

18:32

was if if somebody had told them to, you know, told you

18:34

to take your clothes off, you know, pull them

18:36

off inside out, you know, these pants and stuff

18:38

like you just don't. You know? So

18:42

that I kind of that was sort

18:44

of just a sort of working assumption if you

18:46

wanna call it that, you know. But that

18:48

scene and when you first

18:50

took a look at it, it was pretty clear to you that this was

18:53

whoever had

18:53

attacked her had been

18:55

a it had been a

18:57

vicious attack. Oh, absolutely.

19:00

Absolutely. We didn't know

19:02

how I mean, I didn't know how much of the rock wait.

19:04

I mean, the the rock was probably

19:08

I'd say probably twenty inches at least,

19:11

maybe. And maybe ten

19:14

or ten or eleven inches thick.

19:16

So we waited later and was seventy three

19:18

pounds. And what

19:21

did that say to you about the strength of the person?

19:23

Someone was very strong

19:25

to be able to to to do that, you know, to lift that

19:27

up and and smash somebody's head like that.

19:30

And during

19:33

the autopsy, we we discovered that,

19:36

well, they the when it

19:38

appeared, it was probably at least

19:40

three she was stuck at least three

19:42

times. with a rock. So,

19:44

you know. When

19:46

investigators

19:46

went through her things, they could

19:48

find no identification. There

19:51

was no wallet, no purse. Had

19:53

the attacks started out as a robbery?

19:55

If Christine's credit cards

19:57

were stolen and later used,

20:00

Police could track those purchases and possibly

20:02

come up with some solid

20:04

leads.

20:07

I was

20:11

off. It

20:13

was on a Sunday, if I'm not

20:15

stake in the second, and was off on Sunday,

20:18

Monday. But I remember when I

20:20

saw it on the news, the murder

20:22

because of the location, it was kind

20:24

of unusual. you know, up there on

20:26

a canal road up in far

20:28

two d. Wasn't

20:30

known for a whole lot of murders,

20:33

let alone that violent of a

20:35

crime. So, of course, it

20:37

was all over the news. Let's

20:39

retire DC police homicide commander

20:41

Mike Farish. In the summer of

20:43

nineteen ninety eight, he was a sergeant working

20:45

patrol in what's known as two

20:47

d. The Metropolitan

20:49

Police Department is divided into

20:51

seven districts and officers assigned

20:53

to the two d station patrol not

20:55

only Georgetown, but some of the

20:57

most expensive and exclusive

20:59

neighborhoods in the city. By

21:01

August of nineteen ninety eight,

21:03

the murder rate in Washington, DC

21:05

had been steadily falling.

21:07

Just a few years before, the city

21:09

was known as the murder capital. From nineteen

21:11

eighty nine to nineteen ninety

21:13

three, the city recorded well over

21:15

four hundred homicides a year.

21:19

By nineteen ninety seven, it had fallen

21:21

to just over three hundred. And in

21:23

nineteen ninety eight, the city would

21:25

record two hundred and sixty murders,

21:27

the lowest number in more than a

21:30

decade. That summer, the

21:32

police department was also trying to put

21:34

an embarrassing scandal in the rearview. The

21:37

chief of police, Larry

21:39

Solsby, had resigned in disgrace

21:41

after his friend and roommate, lieutenant

21:43

Jeff Stowe, was arrested for

21:45

blackmailing closeted gay

21:47

men. Stowe was accused of

21:49

sitting outside gay bars, looking for cars

21:51

with child seats inside, and

21:53

then ex storting the owners for

21:55

cash. The new mayor

21:57

wanted more stability and so he hired

21:59

an outsider. The Chicago

22:01

police department, second in Nevada, the

22:03

time Charles Ramsay. The

22:05

DC police department was now under new

22:07

leadership and Ramsay was trying to

22:09

write the ship. in Toni Georgetown

22:12

where murders were extremely rare,

22:14

the rape and murder of a woman who had

22:16

apparently been abducted off the street

22:18

was big news. and

22:20

it would bring intense scrutiny.

22:22

As detective combi was

22:24

going over evidence collected from the

22:27

crime scene, he got a heads up on a

22:29

name. Shortly after I got back

22:30

to the office and we weren't out at Wendy,

22:32

we were we were at headquarters. I

22:34

remember now. So It was

22:36

showing that we got back the office that we

22:39

got a call from two d indicating

22:42

that there was they

22:44

had taken or were in the process of taking

22:46

a missing person report from

22:49

her husband, from Christine's

22:52

husband. because

22:54

she there was they had a routine that

22:56

she would call him, like, every Sunday, you know.

22:58

And she had called him And so

23:00

he had called, and they said that, I guess, they spoke

23:02

to somebody else in the in the the one where she

23:04

was staying, and they were, like, she hadn't been we haven't seen

23:06

her, you know. So

23:08

he called in a missing parcel report. And

23:12

he gave a description of everything like that,

23:14

which was consistent with with what we David

23:16

Hackett,

23:16

who had flown in from San Francisco,

23:18

greeted by police at the gate,

23:21

positively identified, Christine.

23:23

They asked you to go to the morgue? I went

23:26

I did I did end up going to the morgue.

23:29

Yeah. To identify the

23:31

body. Oh, that must have been terrible.

23:33

Yeah. That was extremely

23:36

difficult. Extremely difficult. Detective

23:38

combi was there too. By that point,

23:40

armed with monstrous details of what

23:43

happened to Christine. He

23:45

says a facial reconstruction was

23:47

done. and David was able to identify

23:49

his wife from a photograph

23:51

along with personal items found on

23:53

her body, including her wedding

23:56

ring. The cause of

23:58

death was blunt force trauma

24:00

from being beaten with the massive rock.

24:03

Christine had also been

24:05

raped. The medical examiner found semen, and there was

24:07

also evidence that Christine's attacker

24:09

put her into a chokehold, and

24:11

she may have lost consciousness before

24:13

she was killed. confirming detective

24:16

combi's suspicions about the way her

24:18

clothes had been removed.

24:21

Once they had identified Christine as the

24:23

victim, police began retracing her

24:25

steps from the night before. We know that

24:27

she talked to David that Saturday as she

24:29

was getting ready for the get together.

24:32

It was a small barbecue hosted by some of

24:34

the other young women who were taking part in

24:36

the scientific internship program.

24:39

The barbecue took place

24:41

on forty fourth Street in the backyard of

24:43

a tutor style row house on a

24:46

charming tree lined street. in

24:48

the Foxhall village section of

24:50

Northwest DC. It's about a

24:52

fifteen minute walk from Christine Storm in

24:54

Neville's Hall. One of the women who

24:56

was there, another of the interns

24:58

that year, is a woman named Mary

25:00

Cartwright. I exchanged emails

25:02

with Mary, but She didn't wanna do an

25:04

interview for this podcast. She said, to

25:07

this day, she finds the subject

25:09

just too difficult to

25:11

talk about. She said it really wasn't

25:13

a party. It was more like a

25:15

low key socializing. There

25:17

were four or five other young

25:19

women there. They were making shrimp and chicken

25:21

kebabs. Another young woman later told the

25:23

Washington Post. Christine

25:25

made goose goose and tahini. Mary

25:29

Cartwright remembers they were all approaching the end

25:31

of their internships and they were talking

25:33

about their future plans. At

25:35

one point, they discussed the national

25:37

obsession, Clinton and Lewinsky. In

25:39

fact, one friend remembered it

25:41

was Christine who brought it

25:43

up. asking the others what they thought.

25:45

She said she thought all the media

25:47

attention was distracting from more

25:49

important issues on the national agenda.

25:52

The friend later told the Washington

25:55

Post. At

26:00

about ten PM, the cookout was

26:03

winding down. The women decided to

26:05

go out. Mary thinks they went

26:07

salsa dancing. They were headed to a night

26:09

club in the Adams Morgan neighborhood

26:11

called Heaven and Hell. Christine

26:13

didn't want to go. Mary remembers

26:15

she wasn't feeling well. Nothing major.

26:17

Mary can't remember exactly what, perhaps

26:19

a headache. Mary says

26:22

she also can't remember if two of the

26:24

women who had cars offered Christina

26:27

Rod. But Christine said she

26:29

wanted to walk home instead, and

26:31

they didn't insist The women

26:33

just didn't conceive of that part of

26:35

Georgetown being unsafe. Mary

26:38

says some of the women had walked at night in

26:40

the same area themselves. Mary

26:42

says she has survivors' guilt

26:44

about not insisting Christine get a

26:46

ride back to her dorm.

26:49

It's one of those what ifs. What

26:51

if she had taken a different way back

26:53

to Georgetown. David doesn't

26:56

think Chris teen had ever been to the house

26:58

on forty fourth Street before the night she was

27:00

killed. But he wasn't

27:02

surprised to learn the route she had chosen

27:04

to get back to the dorm, down

27:06

that narrow sidewalk of Canal

27:08

Road.

27:09

She must have

27:12

felt like she

27:14

wanted to go a different route the way home.

27:16

And Christine was a

27:18

fearless person. So she was unusual.

27:21

She had She was a

27:24

street tough kind of person. Mhmm.

27:26

And so she felt I

27:28

mean, she would not have been

27:30

afraid to to go down that route. Even

27:32

though it does, you know, as you

27:34

as you probably noticed when you were walking down

27:36

there, it's not particularly pedestrian

27:41

friendly type of environment. Right?

27:44

Mm-mm. It's

27:45

next to a busy street and

27:47

there's nothing there's a forest on

27:49

one side.

27:56

Christine left the house where the party

27:58

was just after ten o'clock

28:00

and walk

28:00

down Fox Hall Road towards

28:03

Canal Road. Now

28:05

when you get to Canal Road, all

28:07

along the left hand side. It's nothing but a

28:09

wooded area. Although it's a very busy road,

28:11

it's two lanes in each direction. And then

28:13

she would have come up to an entrance

28:15

to the university, but she chose not

28:18

to go up there and

28:20

take that route and said she

28:22

continued up to Canal Road where I'm

28:24

standing now, which is a wooded

28:26

area with a very steep hillside

28:28

on the left hand side,

28:31

and in the Busy Canal Road here to the right. I can

28:33

see the Potomac River. I can

28:35

also see the Key Bridge and

28:37

we're just steps from the heart

28:39

of Georgetown.

28:40

Now that's where Christine was

28:43

grabbed and dragged here into the

28:45

woods. How could something like

28:47

this happen? this part of

28:49

town, ran off a busy roadway so

28:51

close to a university. Is it

28:53

possible someone saw something?

28:56

In the first few days after Christine's murder,

28:58

police were operating blind

29:00

and then their first potential

29:03

break.

29:17

After

29:21

Christine's murder, police asked the public

29:24

for help. They went door to door in Georgetown. They

29:26

set up a roadblock on Busy Canal

29:28

Road one evening. Stopping traffic on

29:30

the same road Christine had been walking on,

29:32

handing out flyers On the off

29:34

chance that one of those same drivers might

29:37

have been on Canal Road on the night of

29:39

August first and seen

29:41

something. It wasn't

29:43

much, but you have to remember in nineteen

29:45

ninety eight. Surveillance cameras were

29:48

not nearly as prevalent as they

29:50

are today. and

29:51

soon a witness came forward.

29:53

On the Saturday night,

29:55

Christine was attacked. A man named

29:57

Peter Fachete was walking his dog

30:00

on nearby prospect Street.

30:02

And his

30:02

mother were walking their dogs up there and they heard

30:04

her scream for help. Well, something actually, they don't

30:06

know it was her. That was our assumption. It

30:08

was her. That's detective combi. They

30:11

heard somebody scream for help help

30:13

help. But they thought it

30:15

was some kids fooling around from gas station

30:17

or whatever, and so they didn't call the police or

30:19

anything. You know? There was a Fairfax

30:21

County major and his wife who were

30:23

driving on Canal Road. And

30:25

they saw

30:28

her or what

30:30

we believe to be her anyway

30:33

walking She just she

30:35

I think she was just it

30:38

was just about the entrance the back

30:40

entrance to Georgetown back there. I

30:42

mean, they have a traffic light there now, which wasn't there

30:44

at the time. And

30:49

it was that driveway that goes up to where

30:51

the field is, you know. It was just

30:53

about there. And they saw

30:58

a male appear

31:01

to

31:03

be African American.

31:05

walking,

31:06

you know, fifty yards or so behind her. I

31:09

mean, he wasn't, like, right up on or anything like that. I'm

31:11

just walking along. Didn't

31:14

really seem to be out of place. He

31:16

said he was wearing, like, a polo shirt

31:19

and, like, khakis or something, you know, or

31:21

jeans or whatever. But

31:23

didn't

31:24

really seem to be out of place. But

31:27

this major, something got

31:30

him suspicious enough that

31:32

that he decided to to give

31:34

you guys a call? Well,

31:36

because we put out a it was a press appeal

31:38

about if anybody seen or anything like that. So

31:40

he's like, you know, when they saw a had

31:42

her picture in the paper, or not

31:45

the paper, but in the on the news or whatever.

31:47

He was like, you know, that's that

31:49

looks like the girl you know, he's his wife or both of them. Like,

31:51

that looks like girl we saw. know, so they call.

31:54

Well, the wife noticed

31:56

she didn't really notice his face so much, but

31:58

she said he was very well built. you

32:00

know, because there's un wrestled or something like that. So he was very

32:03

muscular. She she knows that he's very

32:05

muscular guy. but

32:08

not I mean, not real big, but just very

32:10

muscular.

32:11

And the

32:12

major got a, you know, better look at

32:15

his face. but it

32:16

was just, you know,

32:17

as you're driving by, you know. So

32:20

and he gave you a composite sketch.

32:23

Well, eventually. Detective combi

32:25

contacted the FBI, and they lined

32:27

up the same artist who had worked up the

32:29

sketch of the Oklahoma City bomber.

32:31

A man who would turn out to be Timothy

32:34

McVeigh. Except the police major

32:36

and his wife had left the country

32:38

gone to Europe for a month. So composite

32:40

sketch would have to wait.

32:43

Meanwhile, police were chasing down

32:45

every lead. At one point, looking

32:47

into a report someone had been

32:49

phoning in up threats earlier

32:51

that summer to the Georgetown library.

32:53

Could it be related? Investigators

32:56

had to collect everything. They didn't know

32:58

what was relevant. As August

33:00

rolled into September, in September

33:02

into October, police had no

33:04

suspects and no good

33:06

leads to follow. Detective

33:08

combi worked with what he had, and what

33:10

he had was a file full of

33:13

nagging questions. he

33:15

had to have been covered in blood, you know, because I

33:17

was always like, how did he get away? You know? Where

33:19

did he go to, you know, to get

33:21

you know, because

33:24

you know, he would have had a lot of blood on him.

33:26

You know, it probably

33:28

leaves him

33:29

to waste down anyway, you know. Detective

33:31

combi is speculating about the killer.

33:34

how could he

33:34

have gotten away from the scene covered

33:36

in blood like that? I think

33:38

he just zipped right up behind her and, you

33:40

know, and grabbed her and and yanked her

33:43

into those up under those trees in the dark, which

33:45

implied some familiarity to

33:47

me. Like, he was had, you know, had

33:49

some familiarity in the neighborhood.

33:52

So when

33:53

I was looking at, you know,

33:56

people had been arrested up in there, and

33:58

and I went to Georgetown

34:00

and pulled all their employee records of

34:02

people who were working and was

34:04

running background checks on them, you know,

34:06

I mean, I I did a lot of work.

34:09

You know, it's just

34:11

nothing. Just need to get nothing.

34:13

Forensic investigator swabbed Christine's

34:15

body for DNA. A potential

34:18

link to her killer, but DNA was

34:20

still fairly new. The

34:22

National FBI database to

34:24

collect DNA had only launched

34:26

that year. and DC didn't have its own crime lab.

34:28

It used the FBI, and

34:30

that meant long waits.

34:32

Federal cases took priority

34:34

over DC

34:36

crimes, most of the time, plus the testing was

34:38

less sensitive then, which meant you needed

34:40

a lot of DNA material to test.

34:43

and that meant detective combi that to

34:45

wait

34:48

and wait. While

34:51

he

34:51

was waiting, detective combi had a

34:53

hunch about Christine's missing

34:56

wallet. He thought it might be at the bottom of

34:58

the CNO canal, which is

35:00

right across the street from where she was killed and her body was

35:02

found. I tried to get to

35:04

the

35:04

park police to

35:07

you know, drain off that and so we could

35:09

look for a purse and stuff in

35:11

there. And the interior

35:14

department said, it's a no. We're doing

35:16

that. And so why

35:18

did you think that it might be in

35:20

in the canal? because that's the closest place

35:23

to that that of concealment, you

35:26

know. So you knew she was missing

35:28

her purse and -- Mhmm. --

35:30

what else? I

35:33

think she had, like, a watch in them in a, like, a ankylose. We're still we're

35:36

still on her on her body and and maybe a necklace.

35:38

I can't remember. I think I I think that a necklace.

35:40

But her person ID you

35:43

know, I knew she had credit cards, you know, from her husband

35:45

and stuff like that. All that stuff, you know, wallet, all

35:47

that stuff was gone, you know. And

35:49

and the people said that

35:51

she had it. with her when she

35:53

left. So he either took it or disposed of

35:56

it. Well, the most logical place to

35:58

dispose of it is a canal right there because

36:00

somebody would have

36:02

found it it was, you know, because we

36:04

basically did a walk online canvas all through there. So if it had just been, you

36:06

know, thrown away in the immediate area,

36:08

we would have found it, you know.

36:11

anyway, you know, the interior department said, nah,

36:14

nope. So

36:16

but you had

36:17

an idea that perhaps it was at the

36:19

bottom of the canal? Yeah. simply because of

36:21

the the location of where the murder took

36:23

place and would have been easy to toss it

36:25

into the river. Correct. And I mean, into

36:27

the walk. Exactly. And

36:32

so probably

36:34

three

36:35

or four months

36:37

later, I guess, they

36:39

decided to to drain it because they had to

36:42

I guess there was a lot of underwater plant growth

36:44

in there. And so they had to go clean it

36:46

out every once in a while. And, of

36:48

course, they found a person.

36:50

Wow. And, you know,

36:52

her credit cards and stuff were still in there.

36:54

He didn't take anything. He didn't

36:56

take anything. just took it and threw it in the

36:58

water, put a piece of brick in it to make it

37:00

sank. Oh, and and threw it

37:03

in the water.

37:04

Okay. So clearly

37:06

that says he was looking to make sure that you'd have trouble

37:09

identifying right off the bat.

37:12

Yep. Yep.

37:15

And

37:16

and with all that kind of

37:18

stuff, it was just kind of spinning my wheels and

37:21

and not really getting anywhere. For

37:23

Christine's husband David Hacos, life was now a series of doors

37:25

he never wanted to open from

37:27

grieving his wife's death to

37:29

planning a funeral. and

37:32

then what? There was a lot of news coverage when

37:34

it happened, but I think that within

37:36

a week, the the the

37:38

news coverage had kinda disappeared. There

37:41

was a little bit of the scientific

37:43

community was still talking

37:45

about

37:45

it for a little

37:48

bit longer because they were in I

37:50

mean,

37:50

people so everybody was so in shock.

37:52

David decided to stick with

37:54

his original plan and took the

37:57

job in DC. where he lived for a couple of

37:59

years,

37:59

eventually moving back to

38:01

the West Coast. I

38:04

would kind of talk to

38:06

the DC police every once in a while.

38:08

Every few months, say,

38:11

over the years, to kind of

38:13

get updates on the case. And then they would sometimes they would contact me for to

38:15

ask questions. At one point,

38:18

they had

38:21

thought that AI had identified

38:23

the perpetrator, and they

38:25

were completely convinced

38:28

but the DNA didn't match. Detective

38:30

combi. There

38:31

was a guy that

38:33

got arrested for a sexual

38:36

assault on Capitol Hill.

38:39

And he assaulted

38:44

some high government official. She was, you know, worked

38:46

in the in the federal government and was like an

38:48

assistant secretary or something

38:50

rather. And

38:52

she actually

38:54

heard him coming in into the house and called

38:57

911 And he came

38:59

up and basically took the phone

39:01

from her, you know, and

39:05

assaulted her. Then went through

39:07

her purse and took some money out of

39:09

her purse and walked downstairs

39:11

and Popo was waiting for him at the door.

39:13

Oh, really? Yeah. So he he

39:16

got caught. He was sixteen years old.

39:18

Oh, gosh. and

39:20

we started, you know, when I

39:22

started backgrounding him and stuff like that. I mean,

39:24

he loyered up almost immediately. So then, you

39:26

know, I couldn't talk to him but

39:29

he when I

39:31

started backgrounding him, he had

39:35

a number of

39:38

assaults on young

39:40

boys when he was incarcerated.

39:44

And he was putting him. He was using chokehold him sleep

39:46

before he was assaulting him.

39:48

So needless to say because of

39:50

the the autopsy, he didn't think

39:53

inference, you know, that there is that somebody used a choke

39:55

hold on her to to dock her out. We

39:57

were pretty interested in that

40:00

guy. But They, you

40:02

know, they got swabs when we did blood draws,

40:04

stuff like that, you know, about it. Back then,

40:06

it wasn't buckle swabs yet. They actually go get blood

40:08

from them. Yeah. You know? So

40:14

Great.

40:14

Oh, it's over there.

40:18

Yeah. That's killing No.

40:20

That engine you're hearing

40:22

is landscapers. Doing interviews in

40:24

the age of COVID comes with all

40:26

sorts of outdoor sounds. Now that DNA

40:29

sample Dean had mentioned. Anyway,

40:32

eventually, that came back as as

40:34

a negative. Earlier in this

40:36

episode, I introduced you to Mike

40:38

Farash, a DC police

40:40

officer who was working in patrolled in

40:42

the second district when Christine

40:44

was killed. Fairech eventually

40:46

rose through the ranks to become

40:48

a supervisor in the homicide squad

40:50

before taking over as commander

40:52

of the unit. He's retired now

40:54

and living in Kentucky. We talked

40:56

over Zoom one day in late twenty twenty,

40:59

and I asked him about the work

41:01

that went into Christine's case. Dean

41:03

was

41:03

very methodical, very

41:06

thorough, very dogged.

41:08

He he would work a

41:10

case and work it hard. I mean, you

41:12

know, I I've known Dean a

41:15

long time. There was one of those

41:17

scenes, you know, in the police

41:19

department. You got ten percent

41:22

better

41:22

that top notch that you never even think about, especially when

41:24

you become a boss because they're

41:28

always plugging away.

41:30

They're just incredibly determined.

41:32

You got another group, you know, the

41:34

lower percent that you gotta worry about,

41:36

you gotta stay on top of.

41:40

And then most everyone else fits in the middle. And,

41:42

you know, I I I'd I'd like

41:44

to say with a few exceptions

41:48

in homicide, you really didn't have that bottom ten percent. That

41:50

bottom ten percent in homicide were

41:52

better than a lot of other people

41:54

elsewhere because it wasn't a unit you could just

41:56

go in

41:58

and be a slap in and not

42:00

do your work because someone

42:02

was gonna be on your rear

42:04

end constantly. Dean

42:06

was definitely in that upper

42:08

grouping. You knew if he had a

42:10

case, he was gonna work it. It was gonna work

42:12

hard.

42:13

What's a slap? Oh, I'm

42:16

sorry. That was an old saying that

42:18

we had on the department. It was SLAP

42:21

Sorry. stood for sorry, lazy ass

42:24

police. And was that

42:27

shared liberally, or were

42:29

there a few of those?

42:31

There were a few, but,

42:33

you know, like I said, I was lucky enough.

42:35

I spent so much my

42:37

career in homicide. You really didn't get to go to homicide and

42:39

be a slap. It just wasn't gonna

42:42

if you if you snuck in somehow, you weren't

42:46

gonna last. because your peers weren't gonna let you

42:48

last, let alone your bosses.

42:50

In Christine's case, Dean says

42:51

he was mostly

42:53

spinning his wheels. Nothing had panned

42:55

out. After just a few months of following

42:58

every solid lead, there was

43:00

nowhere to

43:02

go. detective combi had

43:04

DNA and not much else, so

43:06

he waited for a long

43:08

long time time. Years.

43:10

And this

43:11

is where the story seemed

43:13

to end, a brazen

43:16

senseless murder and

43:17

a dead end. But

43:21

eventually, the

43:24

DNA that

43:26

investigators took from Christie body would point

43:29

them in a new direction. Investigators learned the

43:31

same perpetrator who pulled Christine

43:33

off canal road and killed

43:36

her. Was also responsible

43:38

for a series of terrifying

43:40

attacks on women just

43:42

across the border of Washington DC,

43:44

in Montgomery County, Maryland. But at the

43:46

time, investigators made that link those attacks, which

43:49

I'm going to tell you about in

43:51

the next few episodes, were

43:54

also unsolved.

43:56

Police were dealing with an unsolved.

43:58

That's police speak for

44:01

an unknown subject If you watch crime shows, it's a term you

44:03

may have heard before. What it meant

44:06

for police, instead of the name or

44:08

identity of their suspect,

44:10

a big frustrating question

44:12

mark. They had DNA from

44:14

multiple crime scenes. It all

44:16

matched the same person, but they had

44:19

no idea who this man, this unknown

44:21

subject was. How was that possible?

44:23

How could someone commit a

44:25

series of vicious attacks and

44:27

least one murder and not get

44:30

caught. Now about those

44:32

attacks in Montgomery County,

44:34

you might assume they happened after

44:37

Christine's murder, but they actually

44:39

began years before.

44:43

I was babysitting You

44:46

know, I just started college, freshman year of college,

44:49

and I was babysitting. In the next

44:51

episode, I'll take you back to

44:53

nineteen ninety one. where this

44:56

story really begins.

44:59

I'm always like, where

45:01

do I get started?

45:16

Unown subject,

45:18

Season three of WTIOP's American nightmare series

45:21

has been written by me,

45:23

Paul Wagner, with editorial

45:26

assistance from Jack Moore, Julia

45:28

Zigler, and Craig Schwab.

45:30

This episode would not be possible with

45:32

out the help of David Hackers, Dean

45:35

Combi, Mike Farish, and Jeff Stauffer. Reporting and

45:37

production of this podcast was supported

45:39

by a grant from

45:42

spotlight DC, Capital City Fund for investigative

45:44

journalism. For grants, please

45:46

apply to spotlight d c dot

45:50

org. Our show relies

45:52

on people like you leaving ratings

45:54

and reviews on Apple to

45:56

help us climb the podcast charts

45:59

and attract new listeners. We

46:01

hope if you like what you hear, you will

46:03

take a minute to do

46:06

so. If you have questions or comments

46:08

about the show, send us an

46:10

email through our website american nightmare podcast dot com.

46:12

We are also on Twitter

46:14

and Facebook at american nightmare

46:18

pod. The music in this show is ethelred

46:20

thoughts by olive music

46:22

and steadfast by moments. And

46:26

as always, thanks for listening.

46:37

he

47:04

It happened

47:06

on a

47:07

frigid winter night. First,

47:10

a sudden moment

47:12

of terror then a frantic search to a

47:14

costumed killer.

47:16

I'm Josh Maykowitz, and this is

47:20

internal affairs. An all

47:22

new podcast from Dateline.

47:24

It's the story of men and women who wore

47:26

badges at work while living

47:28

lies at home. It's the

47:30

story of add choices and

47:33

fatal consequences. You don't

47:36

realize who you're hurting

47:38

sometimes. You just don't.

47:40

Listen now. wherever you get your

47:44

podcasts.