48 Hours - Deadline for Justice

Episode Date: May 6, 2026

In 2002, television reporter Jennifer Servo was found murdered weeks after moving to Texas to start a new job at a local news station. In 1991, Patty Scoville moved to Vermont to become a ski instructor, but weeks later was found raped and murdered on a local hiking trail. Both murders went unsolved for years, but in one case, the killer was finally brought to justice. "48 Hours" correspondent Harold Dow reports. This classic "48 Hours" episode last aired on 12/13/2008. Watch all-new episodes of “48 Hours” on Saturdays and stream on demand on Paramount+. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Women were so brutally murdered here just a few short days ago, the hair gallery has been considered a crime scene. She loved being in front of the camera. She loved reporting all kinds of stories. Many restaurants actually pay to have their fry grease hauled away, but when David comes and picks it up for free, he modifies it and uses it as fuel in his van. Jennifer told her friends, her parents, her professors,

that she would be in Katie Couric's seat one day. And we didn't have any doubt about that. I was so proud. That's my daughter on TV. I'm Jennifer Servo. I'm Jennifer Servo reporting. Reporting from Buffalo Gap. I'm Jennifer Serbo.

KRBC 9. As you have probably heard, one of our reporter was found dead at her apartment today. Jennifer moved to Abilene, Texas on the hopes that her life was just beginning. Somebody cut that short. My name is Jeff Bell. I've been assigned to Jennifer Servo's homicide case since September of 2002.

My name is David Adkins. I'm a detective with the Abilene Police Department. They left her lunchtime. We received a call. Apparently some coworkers had not seen Jennifer in several days. They went to the apartment. I knew right away once we saw the window sill

and the shades were down that, Something was wrong. Something had happened. There was blood on the floor. There's obviously there's going to be a homicide. I said it's Jen, isn't it? I just started sobbing. I couldn't stop.

We're still puzzled about what happened, what sequence of events took place. We have no witnesses. Nobody saw anybody suspicious leaving the apartment. I thought for sure it would be solved and taken care of of within three months and then more time passes. We've kind of handed this case over to our cold case division. Whoever did it did a good job of covering his tracks.

I just knew it has to be him. He was definitely the first person that came to mind. At some point we're going to come to an end with this case and he's not going to be free. All it takes is one small piece of information. He'll pay one way or another either on the case. another either on this earth or in heaven or hell. Deadline for justice. Tonight's 48 hours mystery. How is it?

Here we go. Forward to make the move. Four go. CBO. South to four. South to four. Anchoring the evening news. There may be no bigger job in television journalism. It's the dream of every young reporter, one that often begins here at a small-town television station.

television station. You're watching Avales 1st, KRBC TV. These men and women of the 39th Air Lift Squadron knew they would be deployed to Central Command, but they didn't realize just how soon. But the dream of this woman who loved to report the news ended tragically when she became the news. I'm Jennifer Servo, KRBC 9. On Flathead Lake in Northern Montana, a summer evening spent sailing can be the perfect end to a perfect day. But for Jennifer Servo's mother and stepfather Sherry and Tom Abel, it's also a time to remember.

Jen loved it on the lake. She loved to sail. I loved the beauty of the mountains around it. And whenever we're out here, I feel close to her. It was more than six years ago that Sherry said a final goodbye to her daughter and spread her ashes on these waters. I miss her terribly. I wish she was here with this.

Jennifer Servo was a small-town girl with big city dreams. She grew up here in the shadow of Montana's Glacier National Park. She always talked really big. She was going to live in a penthouse in New York, and she was going to be the next Katie Couric. It was a dream Jennifer's big sister, Christa, found remarkable. When she was on television, it was like she was somebody different. I really thought that she would.

would go as far as she wanted to. She got interested in writing in high school and wrote some wonderful stories. And then she decided she wanted to do something with writing. Jennifer knew her plan would have to include college an expense her parents couldn't afford. But she got some help from her Uncle Sam. Where did the idea come from for Jennifer

to join the Army Reserves? That was all her idea. She was a junior in high school, called me from the recruiter's office and said, Mom, you need to come down here and sign some papers because I'm joining the reserves. And I said, no, you're not. You're not going to do that.

But that's exactly what she did, trading the Army 38 days a year in exchange for enough money to help chase her dream. Pretty persuasive young lady. Oh, you don't tell her no, because she'll do it anyway. Jennifer headed off to the University of Montana in Missoula. where she immersed herself in the school's professional journalism program. She had a singular purpose.

It was clear to Denise Dowling, assistant professor of radio and television, that Jennifer Servo had that certain spark. She knew that this is what she was meant to do. Everything that she did was focused on making television a career. She'd worked in college, I think three years for both two years. TV stations in Missoula starting out behind the camera at five in the morning for the early show. In addition to that, she was anchoring here on the radio station and she had her guard duties,

so she was incredibly busy and pulled it all off, did it all well. So well, in fact, that it wasn't long before Jennifer ended up in front of the camera, reporting the news like a seasoned pro. There are two sexual predators with the dresses on Main Street here in downtown Missoula. The summer before her senior year was a big fire summer in Montana. So she was out covering fires. She covered hard news, feature news. She was a great storyteller.

On Big Mountain, I'm Jennifer Servo reporting. Now, the first time that either of you saw her on television, what thoughts went through, Amina? That's my daughter on TV reporting the news. I was just so proud. Okay, and it goes to the left. Jennifer's graduation in May of 2002 should have been the start of a well-deserved vacation. But all she really wanted to do was get right to work.

She was determined she was moving. She was going somewhere, you know, and so kept applying every place. She heard there was a job. After completing her final Army Reserve duty, Jennifer returned home with exciting news. She had landed a job with a small television station in Abilene, Texas. While it was still a long way from New York City, it was a start. She was so excited. She was ready to go.

She was ready to start her career. Jennifer came home with one more surprise as well. A new boyfriend, Ralph Sopoveda, a former Army Ranger and Reserve Training Instructor. She thought, you know, he's really very very... very, very nice man and they had fun together. It was unfortunate that she was moving because they were crazy about each other, she said. But as usual, luck seemed to be on Jennifer's side. She called me a couple weeks later and said, guess what?

He's going to, good news, Ralph is going to move down with me. Her plan was simple. Jennifer and her mother would drive down to Texas and Ralph would follow once she was settled. I said, Jen, do you really want to do that? to do that, you know, you've just met him. That was one side of me. The other side of me was saying, at least you'd know somebody there. But in fact, Jennifer Servo would soon discover she didn't know Ralph Sulvita at all.

It's more than 1,700 miles from the lush mountains of northern Montana to the grassy plains of western Texas, a long way from home for a young girl just out of college. But when Jennifer Servo showed up for work as Abilene's newest television reporter, it was clear there was no place she'd rather be. I'm Jennifer Servo, KRBC 9. Anchor woman Jennifer Luron and weatherman Brian Travers, who both worked at KRBC in 2002. So I thought this guy looked a little bit like Brian. Quickly discovered that the new kid on the block was a natural.

A lot of people say when you come into the news business, you either have it or you don't. She had it and she hit the ground running from day one. There was no doubt Jennifer Servo was good at her job. But when it came to relationships, it seemed she still had a bit to learn. On her first day at work, I said, so you came out here by yourself? And she said, no, actually, there's a guy that's with me. And oh, so you have a serious boyfriend. No.

Ralph Sapovita, who was 34 when he started dating 22-year-old Jennifer Servo, had moved to Abilene to continue what he thought was a long-term relationship. So she agreed to let him come down there with her and stay for a while. We didn't know this guy. They didn't know anything about him. But he had these tattoos covering all his arms and legs and chest.

And I said, Jen, this isn't anybody like you've ever brought home before. What are you thinking? Whatever she was thinking, Jennifer had a change of heart after Sepovita told her some startling news. It turns out he had left another woman back in Montana, his fiancé. Jennifer later discovered that he had fathered a child during a previous relationship as well. She didn't really think that things were working out and that she had asked him to get his own place. They agreed to remain friends and Sepovita moved into an apartment nearby.

After that, Jennifer seemed to blossom. A whole new world was being open. up for her and a weight was lifted off her shoulders. She was just so exuberant about him being out of there. We were all fresh out of college, so all we did was hang out with each other. Going out to clubs and the bars, she was becoming one of us. Her and I took trips by ourselves to Roswell. At one point, we all went to the Texas State Fair together, which was fun.

She was really big into experiencing where she was. I'm here in Minter Park in downtown Abilene for art walking. In just eight weeks, Jennifer became. a valued member of the KRBC family. So when she didn't respond to a call to cover for a sick colleague, her coworkers began to worry. I tried calling her too, and she didn't answer, left her voicemails. She's M.I.A. We got to find her.

Brian and I drove over to her apartment. Her car was parked there. We knocked on her door. There was no answer. Hoping she'd soon turn up, no one raised an alarm. But after two days, it was closed. clear that something was terribly wrong. And I told my news director what had happened.

He immediately was concerned and said, no, this isn't right. I'm calling her apartment complex. I just hopped in my car and drove probably 90, 100 miles per hour over there. And then remember seeing the ambulance and everything out there. So I'm standing there talking to the executive producer and the police scanners are right behind her and all of the sudden I hear her address with a DOA, dead on arrival. It was here that Jennifer Servo's dream of reporting the news was finally becoming a reality.

But her colleagues never imagined that just weeks after she had been hired, they would have to report that Jennifer Servo had been brutally murdered. As you have probably heard, one of our reporter was found dead at her apartment today. And then we just, for 28 minutes, sat on the picture of Jennifer Servo. In the news business, we report on death and crimes all the time. This was different, though, wasn't it? When it happens to your friend, your good friend, a co-worker, it takes on a whole new meeting. I remember walking into the newsroom and seeing her desk and just breaking down and walking right on out.

Thousands of miles away. So I just had a feeling. I just had an odd feeling. Something's wrong. Sherry Abel was chilled by the memory. of a dream she had had months earlier, a dream that she had lost her daughter forever. I tried to call Jan on Sunday, and she didn't answer.

And I tried calling her on Monday, and still no answer, and that's not like her at all. Two days later, an unexpected visitor turned her dream into a terrible reality. And I look out, and there's a sheriff's officer. I get a feeling that I had this dream, dream before. And I said, it's Jen, isn't it?

And he said, yes, ma'am. I said, is she dead? And he said, yes, ma'am. I'm sorry. And I said, what happened was in a car accident? Because that was my dream. He said, no, ma'am. She was murdered.

I just started sobbing. I couldn't stop. Abilene police detectives, David Atkins and Jeff Bell, began their investigation he at Jennifer Servo's apartment. When we first got in, we noticed that obvious signs that an assault had occurred there. Right here directly next to the bed

is where we feel pretty much the initial incident occurred. There's a large area of blood, as well as a trail into the bathroom area, where it looks like Jennifer's body was moved. Medical examiner tells us that she had strangulation and the blood force trauma, and either or both could have killed her. Investigators collected fingerprint, blood, and DNA evidence, but their first lead came from what they didn't find.

Any sign of a break-in. I personally do feel that she knew who did this to her. I think she had issues with someone, and this person obviously had issues with her. I know she was very smart and very safe, and she would not have opened that door to anyone. She did not know. The first person that I thought of was Ralph. I just knew that it has to be him. Everyone was like, go find Ralph.

I remember those three words. What did he tell you about where he was during the time Jennifer Sergo was killed? Ralph told us that he was at his apartment. Any witnesses? No. Were you able to verify that he was at his apartment at that time? No, we could. But Sepavita wasn't the only suspect they were looking at.

When she changed her last name to Servo, she never spoke to me again after that. It was a bitter divorce that first separated Norman Olson and his daughter, Jennifer Servo. But it was her murder that ended their relationship forever. I can't escape from the fact that my only daughter is a homicide victim, and I won't get to be with her again in this world. In 2003, Olson launched a website, Justicefor Jennifer.org, hoping it would generate tips that would lead to an arrest. would lead to an arrest.

Are you worried that someone might get away with murder? It's sure something I can't accept. It's something the investigators in Abilene won't accept either. These are those shorts that Jennifer Servo was wearing when we found her. At first, detectives were confident crime scene clues would lead them to Jennifer Servo's killer.

But it turned out, much of the evidence was badly contaminated by the only witness to the crime. Jennifer's cat, Mr. Binks. It took the lab quite a while to actually differentiate between the cat hair, human hair, any kind of fibers. Did the evidence collected point to any specific suspect? Physical evidence, no, it did not. I mean, you obviously have circumstantial evidence

that would lead you to believe it was somebody who she knew. With that in mind, investigators focused on the two men who fit that description best, Ralph Zupovina and the fit that description best, Ralph Zopovoda and Brian Travers. Being a suspect, you know, it didn't click in my mind at first. I'm like, oh, they just need to know when I saw her last, you know, it just didn't click. In fact, they needed to know a lot more because it turned out Travers wasn't just Jennifer Servo's co-worker.

Brian and Jennifer had a romantic relationship also on the side. And we hit it off as friends right off the bat, even though she had a boyfriend at the time living with her. As that kind of waned, we became closer. Travers was with Jennifer just hours before the time investigators determined she was murdered. Brian said they worked a late shift together, made the decision that they were going to go to Walmart. Seen here on this security video, it would be Jennifer's final appearance on camera. Did you drop her off at home? No, she actually dropped me off at home. I walked her back to her car, gave her kiss good night. Then she was pulled all out of the parking lot. That was the last I saw. Jennifer returned home shortly after

midnight. Sometime after that, police believe, Jennifer opened her door to a killer. Who do you think killed your daughter? Ralph's a pole of the death. Why do you think he did it? I think he was a jealous, bitter person. If he couldn't have her, nobody could. While investigators lacked the evidence to reach the same conclusion, they did discover a stunning reason to move Sepulveda to the top of their list of suspects. She did tell me one time that she did not like the way that he treated her when they were together intimately. Meaning?

That he wanted to strangle her while they were having sex, and she did not like that. She told you that? Yes. Initially, Sepulveda cooperated with investigators, consenting to interviews, searches, and DNA sampling. But that didn't last long. Wouldn't I take a polygraph?

Later on, subsequent interviews, he refused to talk to us as the investigation proceeded. Why was he never arrested for the murder? We don't have enough probable cause to go out and make an arrest on this case. I just don't think we're there yet. It's been more than six years since the murder of Jennifer Serval, but this case is far from closed. Of all the people you looked at as possible suspects, have all of them been clear today? No, they haven't. The people you had as suspects five years ago remain suspects?

Pretty much. Investigators say neither man has any history of criminal activity. In 2005, Brian Travers relocated to Chattanooga, Tennessee. Ralph Sopovina re-enlisted in the Army and served a one-year tour in Kuwait. Now living in Tacoma, Washington, he is currently stationed here as an environmental science officer. He has declined our requests for an interview. You know, whoever did this is going to tell somebody someday. That's all it's going to take.

We owe it to the city, Jennifer's family, and ourselves to find out who did this. Jennifer Servo was a young girl with a big dream, a dream shared by everyone who knew her. Now all they can share are the thoughts of what might have been. It's really hard not having my sister. my sister. When Jennifer died every bit of magic in the world left with her. I miss her smile, miss her enthusiasm.

She was inspiring, and sometimes you need some inspiration. We give a scholarship in her name every year, so we remember her. She won't ever die at the University of Montana. I was so proud, so beautiful, and did such a wonderful job. And she was determined to make her dream come true? She was. And she would have. Never giving up, it's a powerful conviction for families of crime victims.

In fact, never giving up is what helps solve the case of another young woman whose dreams were also cut short by murder. Her parents did something remarkable, taking matters into their own hands to put a killer behind bars. Vermont is a beautiful, tranquil, serene place. Stowe's a resort town. It's a place where... people often come to vacation and enjoy themselves.

And that's what attracted 28-year-old Patty Scoville, a Cornell graduate who was looking for a more laid-back lifestyle. So in October 1991, after working at a corporate job in Boston, Patty moved here to Vermont and applied to become a children's ski instructor. She loved to have fun. That's what the cow says. She was a family-oriented person. Patty's dad David and her mother, Ann, couldn't wait to visit their daughter.

She was vivacious, she was outgoing, she was energetic. But before they could make that trip, Anne became concerned when Patty's roommate hadn't heard from her in two days. When I hung up from that call, I knew there was something very wrong. Patty's roommate called police. Last night about 8.30, we received a report of a 28-year-old. female, I went out for a bike ride and has not been seen since. Just three weeks after moving, Patty had vanished. Detective Bruce Miriam got the call.

Initially, we're looking for a lost or injured person, and the search was far and wide. There was an elderly gentleman that had called in and said, I think I saw our bike. The tip led police to Patty's bike. It was found at Moss Glen Falls, a local scenic hiking trail. What did you think when they found the bike? Something's wrong.

A command post was set up, and the search was on. It was large. How many people involved? Over 100, for sure. The search involved helicopters, divers, dogs, and volunteers. The whole community, even her parents, were looking for Patty. The second thing they found were her gloves.

Yes. They're on some rocks. Yes. What are you thinking at this point? Something's definitely wrong. More than a week would pass without finding any more clues. And police were about to call off the search. I'd like to have you come up with King and...

Eight days after Patty was last seen, a searcher found Patty's water bottle. How soon after you found the water bottle did you find her body? Minutes later. Patty's body was covered with leaves, dead wood, and branches. The killer took the time to conceal the crime that he committed and did so in such a way that we were fortunate to even recover her body that season. What happens is you go through all these scenarios about what her last moments were like. She was our firstborn. She was everything. She was everything. everything.

The investigation clearly showed that Patty Scoville was raped and killed and the killer left behind his DNA. With the DNA evidence, police and her parents were confident Patty's killer would be easy to find. I expected an arrest, you know, next week. If it wasn't next week, it was going to be next month. But incredibly, it would take the efforts of the police. FBI, the governor of Vermont, and Patty's own parents to bring the killer to justice.

Hi, my name is Lloyd Lockridge, and I'm the host of a new podcast from Odyssey called Family Lore. In this podcast, I'm going to have people on to tell unusual and sometimes far-fetched stories about their families. I've heard my whole life that she invented the margarita. And then we're going to investigate those stories and find out how much of it is true. He gets a patent one month before the Wright brothers. Oh my God. Please follow and listen to Family Lore, an Odyssey podcast, available now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your shows. I had actually been up to Mosk, Ledden Falls, a bunch of times. That's the place I used to like to hike and stow.

So when I read it, I was really shocked. In a small state like Vermont, the murder of Patty Skullville touched everyone. Even former presidential candidate, then-governor Howard Dean. It was a real shock to the community. And when somebody gets murdered, you feel like it's your neighbor. And the job of solving that murder fell largely to a young detective, Bruce Miriam, then 28. And I have to tell you, I was the youngest guy on that team, so I caught a lot of flack from some of these senior state police detectives. One of those was this man, his dad, a state trooper, also working the case.

He did a lot of legwork. From a lead investigator's standpoint, not that he took orders well, but, uh, he did a lot of legwork. He was great. And he worked the case hard. A 15-man squad was assigned to the investigation. They looked closely at Patty's whereabouts the day she disappeared. We collected all the material tracing her movements during the time period that she was in stow, including phone records and banking records and calendar information.

And these are bank photos we see here? These are photos with Patty. These are the last pictures of Patty, making a bank deposit before she rode her bike to Moss Glen Falls. The falls themselves are deafening. At that location, you can't hear anything but the waterfalls. So if she were to scream, no one would hear? No.

What story did the crime scene tell you? It rather quickly told me that we were investigating a sexual homicide. She was struck from behind, and she was raped and murdered right there. The best physical evidence would be the DNA recovered from the crime scene. We didn't know who it belonged to, but when a sample eventually came in, we felt good that we could match it to a person. Dr. Eric Buell, now head of Vermont's forensic DNA lab, was hoping to match that DNA to one of 20 suspects, men who knew Patty or were at the falls that day. They investigated and investigated and investigated and investigated and still came up

empty. It was something that we had hoped to be able to solve since we had such great evidence. But in 1991, we didn't have a DNA database. Vermont was one of the last states without a DNA database, so they couldn't compare crime scene DNA against known offenders. We needed the DNA database in order to find Patty's killer. The Skullvills realized that the key to finding justice for Patty was to channel their grief and energy lobbying lawmakers for a DNA database.

Anything that we can do to level the playing field is, you know, what we're after. I was so impressed when I met David and Ann for the first time. They put their heart and soul into getting this past. They were the face of this. Lawmakers wanted to force convicted felons to submit to the DNA testing. I was always looking for ways to make sure that people who were guilty couldn't threaten folks again. But even with the support of Governor Howard Dean, getting the legislation passed was a tough sell. People really are very sensitive to their invasion of privacy, and there was some resistance in getting this passed.

Years began to pass. In the meantime, Patty's family kept her memory alive with memorial bike rides, dedication ceremonies, and offers of rewards. It was difficult to talk to them during those anniversaries where we didn't have any new information for them. Until finally, after seven long years of lobbying, Patty's parents saw the bill creating Vermont's first DNA database signed into law. They had achieved the impossible. Okay, so law was signed by Governor Dean?

Yes. The DNA database was established? Okay, what happened next? Did you get your killer? No. No? No. The DNA from Patty's killer was run against the first group of samples, but there

was no match. Dr. Buell, who had worked side by side with the Scovilles, felt their anguish. I'm a parent. Yeah. Yeah. But it's one of those things where you can't. You know, as a forensic scientist, you have to divorce yourself of these cases.

So the unidentified DNA from the Scoville case was now part of the new database. My worst fear all the way through was that either I I would die where the person who committed the crime would die before he was discovered. There's this fear that people will forget, you know, that she'll be forgotten. Progress was slow. There was a massive backlog of cases and little money for testing. DNA analysis is not a cheap affair. It takes money. These things took time and we didn't have the funding. But suddenly in 2005, seven years after the down,

database was established and 14 years after Patty was murdered, there finally was a match. I was flabbergasted. It was just remarkable that we were saying that this is the way to solve this case and it happened. Is this really it this time? You know, what...it can't go wrong. It's a hit. After testing 80 people and following up on a thousand leads, investigators had a name. Howard Godfrey, a 59-year-old window installer, who had served time for assault. I'm feeling like we've waited a long time for this, and we're not going to mess this up. Cindy McGuire is Vermont Assistant State's attorney. We wanted to know everything about him before we sat down to interview him.

His DNA was taken in 2000 when he was released from prison. Why was he in the database? As a result of the conviction from 1996 for the aggravated assault. But before police can make him, an arrest, the law which the Scoville's help pass, required police to reconfirm the source of the DNA. But investigators couldn't risk just walking up and asking for a sample. They needed to find a secret way to get Howard Gottfried's DNA.

So they staked out his window business. So you knew he was a smoker through his surveillance? Yes. We were able to surreptitiously gather his discarded cigarette butts. Police bagged and tagged the cigarettes and sent them to the lab for testing. This time the DNA results came back a lot quicker. We had a match. People talk about a smoking gun, but in this case, it turned out to be a smoking cigarette.

Yes. Yes, it did. After 14 long years of waiting, Merriam had his man, or did he? I've been here 24 years, and this is... the only homicide we've ever had. It was scary in that for so many years we didn't know who we were looking for. Now, with the suspected killer Howard Gottfried identified, linked to the crime by DNA, Detective Bruce Miriam couldn't wait to confront him. I was ready for the interview. Detective Miriam wore a hidden wire during his first interview with Gottfried, hoping he would say something incriminating.

He said he never knew her, never dated her, never had sex with her. So when he says, I never had sex with her, what does that tell you? He's lying. What were you thinking? I knew he had him. He was our man. But when police told him they had his DNA at the crime scene, his story suddenly changed. He told us that he had sex with the case. He told us that actually he had had sex with Patricia Scoville, but that he didn't kill her.

And did he say this was consensual? He didn't elaborate, but it was certainly a different story than he had told us a couple hours earlier. Godfrey is arraigned and charged with killing Patty Scoville. He pleads not guilty. Thank you. Please be seated. January 2008, 17 years after Patty's death, Godfrey is on trial for her murder. I want you to ask yourself where Howard Godfrey could have possibly had consensual sex with Patricia Scover. Because there's no evidence of that.

His defense attorney has a lot to overcome. Mainly, Gottfried's DNA found on Patty's body and clothing. DNA is really hard to refute. Juries accept it. We see it every day on TV. The DNA between K-14, which was the known sample from Howard Godfrey matched the DNA from Q40 at all 13. DNA locations. But defense attorney carried DeWolf then dropped a bombshell.

There is other DNA on Patty's body, unidentified hairs found in her mouth, which FBI tests showed, didn't belong to Godfrey. I did exclude him as being the source of all of those hairs that we discussed. So could investigators and prosecutors be wrong? Could it be that Godfrey didn't commit the crime? and the hair belonged to the real killer? The link between the deposit of that seminal fluid and her time of death was so close

that it was really preposterous to accept that some other than the donor killed her. And there was something else that convinced the prosecutor she had the right man. That assault in 1996, which Godfrey had served time for. He hit me in the head with a mallet. And I felt like I was going to pass out, but I didn't. The attack on Karen Karen was eerily similar to Patty's murder.

She got hit on the head. He had raped her, and I was hit on the head, and I fought my way out of it. If I hadn't, he would have killed me. Karen, a district sales manager for Burlington Free Press, was lured by Gottfried to his cabin to talk business. When I came up around, he had a shock. in my stomach. I pleaded with him. I said, I just got married. I want to have a family. And so I took the barrel, pulled it away from me with both hands, and we started a struggle.

And I asked him to please let me go, and he said, no, he couldn't do that. And he said, he had done something in the past. And I didn't know what it was. I didn't care what it was at that point. I was thinking of my life and my family. Aaron managed to escape. She went for help and called police. She remembers saying, You know, you got the missing girl in Stowe. Is there a connection?

At the time of that assault, I was aware of the incident. And in fact, Howard Godfrey made our top 10 list, if you will, in October of that year. We were prioritizing our leads based on information with Patty, and we had no connection between Patty and Howard Godfrey. What makes Howard Godfrey so dangerous? He's a predator. But the jury never got to hear about Karen's attack

because the judge ruled it was prejudicial. Now they have to decide if Patty had consensual sex with Godfrey and was killed by someone else. The jury reached the verdict. In a scant two hours, Howard Godfrey is found guilty. How were you feeling? Relieved. Relieved. Relieved for the family and relieved for the public. Because he's a very dangerous man.

Governor Dean, now chairman of the Democratic National Committee, followed the case all these years and was thrilled with the verdict. So having the database was critical. We never would have found Howard Godfrey if it hadn't been for the database. For Patty's parents, it's a battle they wish they wish they'd never had to fight. He took Patty's future, he took our future. But when they're glad they did for all victims of crime.

It was almost a silent, okay, Patty, you know, there you go. We did it. How has this investigation and trial affected you? Investigation has affected me, you know, the length of time. Right out of high school, I joined the Marines, and that gave me certain tools in that you never give up the fight. So he never give up the fight until the fight's done. In 2013, Howard Godfrey died while serving his life sentence. When beloved family patriarch, Gary Ferris went missing, his family looked everywhere on their

property until they came across something horrifying. It's a homicide. Absolutely. The blame game in this family went round and round. This is blood as thicker, the Ferris wheel. I would, Don't see how anyone can look at this story and think they were happy. Binge the full series, Blood is Thicker, The Ferris Wheel, on the free Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcasts.