48 Hours - Decades of Deceit

Episode Date: August 23, 2015

Decades of DeceitSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can listen to this podcast ad-free right now. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app today. Even if you love the thrill of true crime stories as much as I do, there are times when you want to mix it up. And that's where Audible comes in, with all the genres you love and new ones to discover. Explore thousands of audiobooks, podcasts, and originals, with more added all the time. thousands of audiobooks, podcasts, and originals, with more added all the time. Listening to Audible can lead to positive change in your mood, your habits,

and even your overall well-being. And you can enjoy Audible anytime, while doing household chores, exercising, commuting, you name it. There's more to imagine when you listen. Sign up for a free 30-day Audible trial and your first audiobook is free. Visit audible.ca. In 2014, Laura Heavlin was in her home in Tennessee when she received a call from California. Her daughter, Erin Corwin, was missing. The young wife of a Marine had moved to the California desert

to a remote base near Joshua Tree National Park. They have to alert the military. And when they do, the NCIS gets involved. From CBS Studios and CBS News, this is 48 Hours NCIS. Listen to 48 Hours NCIS ad-free starting October 29th on Amazon Music. Say goodbye to him, Emily. Take a bite. What did your baby say?

What happened is something that I don't really remember. Give your baby a kiss. There were definitely times where I wished that I could just remember anything that would help anything at all. What's your name? My name is Emily Widener, and when I was two, my mother Amy was murdered. I wonder what Amy would be like now.

Would she have gone to college? What would she have done with her life? I imagine that Amy and I would probably be friends, not just mom and daughter, but friends. My daughter Amy was intelligent, and she smiled all the time. She was kind to people. She made people feel good because she would make them important. I got upstairs and found Amy. No parent should ever find their child. She was terrified.

That's how she died. Terrified. On the day that Amy died, Emily was there with her. She was in bed with her. And she called Amy, Mamie, and she told me she tried to pick Mamie up, but she was just too heavy. She tried to pick her up. You have 24 years of always wondering why this happened. Why did they not find anyone? Is he still out there? I thought, they're going to see we're a good family. They'll figure this out. And then you go through periods of,

you think it's never going to be resolved. This is the original case file for the Amy Widener murder. I'm William Carter. I'm the detective sergeant with the Annapolis Metropolitan Police Department. I'm just a civil-type police officer. I wasn't a homicide detective, or anybody that ever investigated a homicide. The detective that was assigned to Amy's case didn't know how to print from Facebook. And he approached me originally and asked me, how do you print from Facebook? That's how I got involved in the case.

I spoke to Gloria Widener. She had lost all hope, and it just kind of made it a personal thing for me. Did you have faith that he could solve this? Well, we really didn't know. No one else had. We expected to hear a name that Not someone that we knew. I'm Troy Roberts. Tonight on 48 Hours. Decades of Deceit. Hot shot Australian attorney Nicola Gaba was born into legal royalty. Her specialty? Representing some of the city's most infamous gangland criminals. However, while Nicola held the underworld's darkest secrets, the most dangerous secret was her own.

She's going to all the major groups within Melbourne's underworld, and she's informing on them all. I'm Marsha Clark, host of the new podcast, Informants Lawyer X. In my long career in criminal justice as a prosecutor and defense attorney, I've seen some crazy cases, and this one belongs right at the top of the list. She was addicted to the game she had created. She just didn't know how to stop. Now, through dramatic interviews and access,

I'll reveal the truth behind one of the world's most shocking legal scandals. Listen to Informant's Lawyer X exclusively on Wondery+. Join Wondery in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. And listen to more Exhibit C true Crime shows early and ad-free right now. In the Pacific Ocean, halfway between Peru and New Zealand, lies a tiny volcanic island. It's a little-known British territory called Pitcairn and it harboured a deep, dark scandal. There wouldn't be a girl on Pitcairn once they reach the age of 10 that would still a virgin. It just happens to all of us.

I'm journalist Luke Jones and for almost two years I've been investigating a shocking story that has left deep scars on generations of women and girls from Pitcairn. When there's nobody watching, nobody going to report it, people will get away with what they can get away with. In the Pitcairn Trials, I'll be uncovering a story of abuse and the fight for justice that has brought a unique, lonely, Pacific island to the brink of extinction. Listen to the Pitcairn Trials exclusively on Wondery+.

Join Wondery in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts or Spotify. I just remember feeling mostly sad. And mostly sad for my family because I was so young. There is not one day of my life that I do not think about my daughter. For more than 24 years, Gloria Widener has been mourning her daughter Amy, who at age 16 was brutally murdered in their Indianapolis home. She loved school. She loved education. I always thought that someday she would probably have been a teacher. She kind of was our leader as far as doing our chores and making dinner.

Cassie, the youngest of the four Widener children, was just 12 when Amy was killed. Despite the decades that have gone by, the Widener siblings, Tonya, one year younger than Amy, and JP, one year older, have vivid recollections of their sister. What's some of your favorite memories of her?

My ninth birthday cake. She baked that? We would play make-believe. Karen and Bebe were our names, and she always made me be Bebe, just playing and being a kid. How about you, JP? Just how much she looked up to me. The thing is, I had good kids. Gloria, a divorced mother,

was raising four children by herself, which came with challenges, especially when she learned Amy was five and a half months pregnant. I was overwhelmed. I just couldn't even believe it. I thought that was the worst thing in the world that could happen. But, you know, I found out worse things can happen. How did she hide her pregnancy

from you for five and a half months? Well, she did. They wore the sweatshirts. You had no suspicions? No. No one did. That was until Amy could keep her secret no longer. And she just started crying. And she said, Mommy, I don't want you to hate me. And I said, I would never hate any of my children. I really didn't know what to do. It helped that Amy's teachers, like Jodi George, were supportive. And I just remember asking her, Amy, are you pregnant? And then she said, that's why I'm coming in every day early. I want to be sure that I'm as caught up as I can possibly be when I have to

miss school. Of course, I just said, well, you let me know. I'll do whatever I can to help you. Gloria made it clear to her daughter that school would remain a priority and told Amy she didn't want her involved with the baby's father, 17-year-old Tony Abercrombie, a friend of JP's that Amy had been quietly seeing. I was angry. I'm not going to tell you anything different. I felt betrayed by a young man that was, I would say, my son's best friend. In October of 1987, Amy gave birth to a beautiful daughter, Emily. I believe she missed six days of school. Not many grown women can do that. She was just a very strong student. I think the most important thing about her was her work ethic. She had everyone to help her, and she was more than capable.

This is sleepy girl. Time to go to bed. We called her ours. That means my family. Motherhood seemed to agree with Amy. Jodi George noticed a newfound confidence in her student. She used to talk to me about my daughter Molly, asking me questions. I'd ask her about Emily, and she would say, Now, you know what you should do. You need to get Molly a coat this year or something like that. She was just giving me little bits and pieces of advice.

Still, Amy enjoyed teenage life, spending time with high school friends Angie Moore and Amy Summers. Angie had a Halloween party. It was hilarious. Amy was a jelly green giant and Emily was Sprout. But then later on, Gloria came by and picked up Emily. But she would, you know, allow her to have some time because she did still want her to be a teenager. Happy birthday! In the Widener home, there were celebrations as well, especially on Emily's birthdays. Blow candles!

Yeah! But on November 13, 1989, one month after celebrating Emily's second birthday, the Widener home was changed forever. She told me her throat was hurting, and I said, well, okay, and I said, do you want me to take Emily to the babysitter? And she said, no, leave her home with me today, and I cannot remember exactly what time I started calling, but I'm going to say probably around 9 30, and she didn't answer the phone, and so when I called back, and she still didn't answer, I called my neighbor.

I said, would you please go check, knock on the door. So she knocked on the door, came back and called me and said, nobody's answering. Gloria immediately left work to return home and to a scene in Amy's bedroom that will always haunt her. Her daughter was beaten, strangled, and dead. She was laying on the bed. You really don't know what to do. You just kind of panic. You don't know what to do.

And I don't remember now if I called 911 first or I got Emily out of the house. Emily was there with her. You knew right away that she had been murdered? I didn't know what had happened. I felt like somebody had done something to her. So the word murder is just really a hard word. The other thing I had a problem with for a very long time when I talked about her, I'd say, well, before Amy died, after Amy died.

But the truth was, she didn't just die. Another human being did this. did this. As a kid growing up in Chicago, there was one horror movie I was too scared to watch. It was called Candyman. The scary cult classic was set in the Chicago housing project. It was about this supernatural killer who would attack his victims if they said his name five times into a bathroom mirror. Candyman. Candyman? Now, we all know chanting a name won't make a killer magically appear. But did you know that the movie Candyman was partly inspired by an actual murder? I was struck by both how spooky it was, but also how outrageous it was.

We're going to talk to the people who were there, and we're also going to uncover the larger story. My architect was shocked when he saw how this was created. Literally shocked. And we'll look at what the story tells us about injustice in America. If you really believed in tough on crime, then you wouldn't make it easy to crawl into medicine cabinets and kill our women. Listen to Candyman, the true story behind the bathroom mirror murder. Early and ad-free on Wondery Plus and the Wondery app. Have you ever wondered who created that bottle of sriracha that's living in your fridge? Or why nearly every house in America

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you're going to dominate your next dinner party. So follow The Best Idea Yet on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to The Best Idea Yet early and ad-free right now by joining Wondery+. It's just The best idea yet. I'm sure that there were moments when I was angry, but I think I felt more confused.

Like, why did that have to happen? On November 13, 1989, family and friends of Amy Widener were learning the unthinkable, that the 16-year-old's life suddenly ended. Despite the years that have gone by, emotions remain raw. First thing you think of with teenagers is suicide. And after school, a reporter was there, and I remember stopping and saying,

well, she didn't get an A from me this time, she got a B, thinking, was it because of her French grade? And she said, no, it's a homicide. She had lacerations to her upper head, unclothed. It was a scene that you don't forget. Captain Jack Gelker, now with the Marion County Sheriff's Office, was at the time of Amy's murder one of the first to arrive at the Widener home from the Indianapolis Police Department. There was blood prints, and you could tell that it was a violent scene.

Police believed Amy's murder was a result of a robbery gone wrong. Stereo equipment and cash were missing. The theory was that the assailant entered through an open back door. Amy surprised him, and a struggle ensued, during which she was raped, beaten, and strangled. When you see that this young mother is murdered

and the baby was there, was wandering the same floor, it's something you really don't see too much in your career, thank God. Emily no longer has a memory of those events, not even of how she learned Amy was murdered. I don't even remember when a serious conversation was had about it. I feel like from that point on, they would say, Amy is gone.

Emily talked about the crime. There was a police officer that actually interviewed victims and he used finger puppets to talk to her about the crime. She would show me how she ran back and forth from her bedroom and Amy's bedroom to my bedroom. Back then, Gloria said Emily shared a few details about what happened to Amy, to Amy. Or Mamie, as Emily called her. She also told me that Mamie was mean and meaning that she fought. At first, the family hoped the crime would be quickly solved. Whoever killed Amy had left behind a key clue. They had a handprint. They took parts of my wall. They took all the bedding. They took clothes.

Police also conducted interviews with people like Amy's classmate, Angie. They obviously wanted to know who she'd been around, who she's been dating, what she's been doing, where she's been. Even Amy's brother, JP, was questioned. How old were you? Uh, 17th time. What kind of questions did they ask you? Really, I don't remember all the questions they asked,

but they were accusing me of doing it. And that was pretty tough. I talked with him. You've got to consider everybody in a situation like that. As police investigated, the news of Amy's murder spread. The room was full of students who needed help coping.

But nobody teaches you how to help kids cope with tragedy. At school, Jody George wrote a letter to help Amy's classmates. We have all suffered deeply because of Amy's death. How can we accept it? Why does sorrow have to be a part of our lives? It was, unfortunately, my first funeral. I remember being so overwhelmed with sadness that I almost couldn't feel. Attending the funeral were not just those close to Amy, but also detectives.

We went to the cemetery and to the funeral home the night before just to watch people. With the leads that we'd had, the names that we'd been given, you got to go there and you got to study what's there. One of the names they were given was Tony Abercrombie, the friend who got Amy pregnant, seen here in a news report a day after Amy's murder. Great girl. There wasn't really too many out there that liked her. I mean, she was very, very smart. Pretty. I actually called him at work. Joy Haney was friends with Tony Abercrombie and Amy, living across the street from the Wideners at the time of the murder. I said, hey, you need to come home. There's something's wrong.

I had to leave work because I was just tore up. I mean, hit me pretty hard. Abercrombie had an alibi, so eyes turned to another friend, Troy Jackson, who lived in a house behind the Wideners and who police say knew about the stereo equipment stolen on the day of the murder. DNA testing was in early stages, so police photographed Jackson's hands, which did not show bruises from a struggle. Jackson also submitted hair samples, which did not match any found in Amy's room, and he passed a polygraph test.

So detectives continued their investigation into other suspects. We're not close by any stretch of the imagination. Weeks went by, then months, and still no arrest. As family and friends wondered, was there a killer in their midst? We didn't know who it was. You're leery of everyone. It's just constantly in the back of your head, wondering who.

It's a sad thought, knowing the family you could have been growing up with versus the family that just fell apart and they didn't really know how to put the pieces back together to become that family that they were before Amy died. We became a family that really didn't talk for a long time. It was you didn't know what to say. My children didn't even come home from school for a while until they knew I was

home. It was difficult. This house holds a lot of memories, some of them painful. Yes. Why did you decide to stay? I had no money. I had four other children. Where am I going to move to? Gloria did her best to keep life normal for her family. She legally adopted Emily, the little girl who had been a granddaughter and a niece,

became daughter and sister. I was raised knowing Cassie and Tanya as my sisters and John Paul as my brother. And Mom, Gloria, as Mom. I understand that Amy is my biological mother, but Gloria has raised me. You got that, I hope. She's absolutely my mom. Family and friends kept Amy's memory alive with stories for Emily,

as did teachers like Jodi George, who had both Amy and Emily in her French classes. I said, I just remember so many things about your mother and about how your mother felt about you. And when it was time for her to graduate, we talked a little bit, and I just said to her, I know your mother would be so proud of you right now. While Emily only recalls life following Amy's death, she says when watching her movies, she can see it before and after. Birthdays one and two, family is great. They're all happy.

And after that, it sort of changes. You can feel the difference in their personalities. It was tough going for everyone. Police believed Amy had been murdered by an acquaintance. And with no arrest, fear and suspicion spread. When I come home and I know one of my children were supposed to be home and they're not answering me and I have to walk up those same stairs to find out if they're in their room. It's terror because you don't know what you're going to see.

I was absolutely terrified. I asked my dad to put nails in my windows. And then when you go a few weeks, months, years, and you're thinking, I could be standing at the grocery store next to this person and I'd have no idea. It was unbelievable because you think there's a print on the wall and we can't figure out who it is. But police could not find a match for that promising lead, the handprint, and the investigation grew cold. Years would go by without contact from the police.

Sometimes you get to the point, or I got to the point, that maybe I didn't want him to solve it. I wanted him just to go away and leave us alone. But you certainly wanted justice for your daughter. Yes. And it's not that I didn't want it solved. Truth is, I wanted it all to go away. Because every time they come back with something else, you start all over again.

Like in 2002, when police thought they had a promising lead. This call came in about a person wanting to talk about an old murder. Twelve years after Amy's murder, Roger Spurgeon was heading the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department's new cold case unit. He was telling me that he had had some dreams about this murder that happened ultimately back in 1989 and that he, from this dream, believed he knew who the suspect was. Lieutenant Spurgeon was not familiar with Amy Widener's murder. It was in a pile of 800 cold cases, but the caller seemed to know all about it. A lot of information

did match up, but there was really not a lot of what he had spoken of that could not have been gleaned from news reports at the time. It was determined the caller was not a legitimate source, but it raised Spurgeon's interest. Did this look like a case that could be solved? Well, I believe that all cases potentially could be solved. What were the challenges with this particular case, though? It was really difficult to kind of figure out who the suspects might most likely be. You know, is this somebody that simply was committing a burglary and it was a burglary that went bad? Is this somebody that had some sort of a relationship with Amy?

Still, Spurgeon had persons of interest. He spoke again to several people previously investigated. And then a few years passed after I've done everything I can do, I move on to another job. The case remained with the cold case unit with no new leads. Then in 2011, in response to a newspaper article about unsolved cases, friends created a Remembering Amy Widener Facebook page. The cold case detectives were not familiar with Facebook but knew someone who was. Detective Sergeant William Carter, a

nuisance abatement officer. This is a typical Saturday night detail. We'll hit three or four of them. We'll be looking at nightclubs, they'll be looking for liquor law violations, the fire marshal is going to be looking for overcapacity. Concerned with quality of life issues like underage drinking and overcrowding, Carter uses Facebook to try to find events being promoted, not solve murders. I really knew nothing about the case. My job was to print this Facebook memorial page out. I looked at it, and then eventually I read the case file, the case notes.

It's something that I dove into, and I just couldn't put it down. But no one asked you to read the file, did they? No. So what prompted you to just pick up the file and take it home and read 65 pages? Why were you intrigued? I think it was the photo we always saw of Amy. In the file was the original palm print that was recovered from the scene. On his own time, Carter continued working the case, looking at everything that had been collected over two decades. Evidence at the

crime scene, school attendance records from the day Amy was killed, even the list of people attending the funeral. Older files, of course, were all typewritten. Carter entered it all into a database and soon realized the other investigators had overlooked some obvious leads. There was tons of friends of her brother's that they'd never even talked to and never got DNA from. Once I saw a lot of those things, I guess it became a mission of mine to say, hey, we're going to fix this. What did you have to work with to solve this crime? I had the original palm print. It was a full palm print that was left on the wall in Amy's blood. And I had some parcel DNA, not enough DNA to put into the national database. Parcel DNA, not enough DNA to put into the national database.

Carter started contacting the Widener's family and friends, asking for names of people who might remember anything, and began collecting DNA from individuals police had ruled out. Did you canvas this neighborhood when you started investigating? Luckily, in 1989, when they canvassed the neighborhood, they wrote down and took notes of everybody that lived in the neighborhood. I took those notes and went to those homes to see if those people still lived there. And for the most part, most of them did not. So Carter tracked down old neighbors like Joy Haney, Amy's friend who had lived across the street. He just mainly was asking me to kind of recall the day and if there was anybody that, you know, stuck out in my mind or just give him names of, you know,

people that hung out with us. Most of the people Joy mentioned were ones Carter was already familiar with and had been cleared of wrongdoing. But one name was new, a name that Carter hoped could solve a 22-year-old mystery. We probably all turned pale. It was disbelief. It would come in waves.

There would be times where I was very hopeful, and I thought, yes, certainly. Certainly this could be solved. For more than two decades, Emily Widener had been waiting for justice. And then there were times where so many years had gone by that I didn't know. I didn't know anymore. But in 2012, with the cold case unit's approval, Detective Sergeant Bill Carter was on the case and asking lots of questions.

I reached out to one of the former neighbors, and she gave me the name of Rodney Dink. Not as a suspect, just talk to Rodney and see if he actually knew anything. But Rodney Dink was a new name that I hadn't heard. But the Wideners were very familiar with him. I hadn't seen him in a long time, but I would have considered him to be a good friend. What kinds of things did you do with Rodney? Just normal things that kids do, running around, being teenagers, riding bikes, fishing. When Detective Carter asked me about Rodney, I said no.

I said Rodney was quiet, kept to himself. There wasn't a suspicion of Rodney. Still, Carter went to Dank's Indianapolis home. Long divorced from a woman with whom he had a son, Dank lived with his mother, but was at work at an auto shop when Carter came by. So he left his card with Dank's mother. He did call the office and left me a message. I immediately called him back and asked him if he would meet me.

I needed to talk to him about this case. And I told him Amy Widener, and that was it. Denk agreed to meet at his house, but when Carter arrived, he was nowhere to be found. Now, Carter was suspicious and ran Denk's name to see if he had prior arrests. He found a 1991 battery and a 1997 larceny. With his interest raised, Carter took the prints from Denk's last arrest to the forensic unit to compare to the palm print from Amy's bedroom wall. My goal was kind of, hey, I'll submit the print.

If it doesn't match, we'll just move on. I just wanted to clear him as a suspect. Later that day, Carter checked back with forensics to see if he could cross Denk off his list. Instead, he received stunning news. Rodney Dank's print was a match. 22 years of waiting were over. Finally, there was a real suspect for the murder of Amy Weidner. I was kind of shocked. I really, you know, didn't expect it really to be that easy. While it had been a year since Carter had been asked

to look at Amy's Facebook page, it was only in the past two weeks that he began questioning potential suspects. And now he felt he had his man, but Dank had disappeared. We contacted our fugitive task force unit to try to track him down. He had used his credit card to rent a car

that was equipped with OnStar. With the help of the OnStar tracking device in the rental car, detectives went in search of Dank. Meanwhile, Carter let the Wideners know they had identified a suspect, but did not give a name. He felt a wave of relief?

No, almost fear. Why fear? Because who is it? A few hours later, they would have their answer. Dank's rental car was found in Indianapolis, where he was visiting a friend. As Dank was about to get into his car, police approached him, and he pulled out a knife. He made a statement, something to the effect of, I didn't do it, and he had a knife that he cut his wrist with,

but they were able to bring him into custody without any further injury to himself or any other officers. Anything you say can be used as evidence to get you in court. Yeah, we're still in that. While Dank was taken to a hospital to treat his wounds. The Wideners wondered why their former friend would betray them. To comprehend that this person that you knew did this,

it's just impossible to wrap your mind around it. I think the four of us just stood there looking at each other in shock. I found out through Cassie, and then my next thought was, oh my gosh, he was at the funeral with us. How can you commit this murder, this brutal, to someone you know, and two days later sit with us at the funeral and mourn with us. Dank had even signed the visitor's book at Amy's funeral. And that wasn't the only place Carter found Dank's name. Dank was overlooked.

His name was given to a detective, somebody to talk to. Did they talk to him? They didn't talk to him at all. Had you heard of the name Rodney Dank before Sergeant Carter came to you? No, never heard that name. However, Dank's name appeared in this 2003 statement from Tony Abercrombie, Emily's birth father, as someone who spent time at the Widener home, a statement taken by Spurgeon when he led the Colcate unit. If the name Rodney Dank ever came up in the course of my investigation or re-looking through the files, that was one of literally dozens upon dozens of names that I may simply have not had the opportunity to look at during my years of the investigation.

I simply don't recall seeing that name. What I don't understand is how did you recognize the mistakes that were made in this investigation that seasoned detectives overlooked? I respected those people because I assumed, hey, you know, I've never done this job. I'm just more of a civil type police officer, but I don't know why no one ever looked at Rodney Dink. I really don't. I don't know why no one ever looked at Rodney Dink. I really don't. For some reason, Detective Carter found it in his heart and who he is to have this determination to find who Amy's killer was.

When you walked into Homicide, were you met with wild applause? I don't know. I really don't know. I always felt like I was stepping out of where I belonged. Still, Carter found himself an unlikely hero at the center of a press conference. It's been a long time coming for the family, I will say that. And I'm just happy that we do have someone in custody and we can offer some closure to the family. It was emotional for me to think that, you know, all these years, after all these years, you know, it was somebody that was there. It wasn't the boogeyman. It was somebody that was a friend of their family's. You feel like you can tell us and finally put

this to bed, what you carried for 22 years? With Dank now under arrest and in the hospital, investigators got some long overdue answers about his motive. It was, as suspected, a robbery gone terribly wrong. I didn't know she was in there. I was in jail for all the work. I took the radio. She came around the corner and I hit her in the head. Over the course of 48 hours, police questioned Dank on videotape, who admitted to raping and hitting Amy with an object, but kept changing his story about whether he acted alone. I have one dude that was, like, staking out the house.

But his name was, like, Bucky or Buck or something like that. Maybe it wasn't Buck. Maybe it was the other guy. I don't remember. I don't remember a whole lot about that day. Can I just say it was me? I did everything.

One thing Dank seemed certain about was that he never saw Emily. Where was Emily? I don't know. Did you ever see the baby at all? Did you ever hear the baby crying? I don't remember seeing or hearing the baby. In the time that you spoke to him, what were your impressions of Rodney Dank? Was never upset, never screamed, never hollered. Was pleasant with us.

Not what I would think that would be a killer. Rodney, did you have anything to do with Amy's death? Dank provided a DNA sample which, as expected, matched semen taken in 1989 from Amy's sheet and blanket. However, there was something

unexpected that police discovered during their investigation about Rodney Denk's son, Dylan. I always tried to be a good person, but I guess I don't know deep down inside I'm not a good person. With Rodney Denk in custody for the murder of Amy Widener, detectives were learning more about their suspect, including something shocking about Denk's son, Dylan. It was very odd to me that father and son about the same age committed two terrible acts, horrible acts. This is probably best described as just a bizarre coincidence. In 2009, Dylan Dank was charged with murdering his mother, Mary McHenry, beating her to death with a baseball bat.

The circumstances stand out to Kentucky Commonwealth Attorney Bruce Kegel. I think it's the brutality of the crime, the fact that he is so young. He was 16 years old at the time, almost 17. In fact, during that week, he turned 17. One year younger than his father, Rodney, was at the time of Amy's murder. This one involved just a brutal act by a son against his mother. A mother who, according to court testimony, had a history of abusing Dylan. Rodney Dank had little contact with his son or ex-wife for years,

but he did attend some of Dylan's hearings, prompting a social worker to recommend Dylan be released to his father, who no one knew was living with his own secret. However, the judge ruled against releasing Dylan. Sir, I just want to apologize. In a plea deal, Dylan Dank was sentenced to 20 years. Meanwhile, his father was looking at spending the rest of his life in prison for the murder of Amy Widener.

You were prepared to stare down, Evo. You were preparing to go to trial. I'm worried to death about it. I didn't want my girls and my son to have to hear or see any of the things that I saw when I found her. Gloria Widener was set to go to trial, as was Marion County Prosecutor Denise Robinson. Attempts at a plea deal had been stalled until Denk told the prosecutor no one else was involved in Amy's murder. Before you offered him this plea agreement, he had to make certain admissions to you. Yes, he told us that he acted alone, which was something that we had felt confident in after we had intercepted some jail calls that he had made to his mother. We

wanted to be able to tell the family that there wasn't another suspect out there that we should be looking for. In June of 2012, just 10 days before the trial was scheduled to start, Dank pled guilty to the murder and rape of Amy Widener. He would be sentenced to 65 years. Despite Denk finally admitting to acting alone, family members and police are not completely convinced. Was he really the only one? Was there other people that knew he did it? That's something we're not going to know unless Rodney tells us those things.

I just can't definitively say that with the arrest of Rodney Dink, the case is absolutely closed and he's the only one that will ever be held accountable for it. Without a trial, the Wideners would not hear testimony about what may have occurred. But at hearings and sentencing, they faced the man who changed all their lives.

I had prepared myself to feel this anger and overwhelming rage. And when they brought him in, all I saw was Rodney. For the Wideners, having Dank behind bars has brought some resolution, but the impact of Amy's murder still haunts them. They still know that Amy is not coming back. So relief, yes, but there's definitely still sadness there. I miss her. And the thing is, the older I get, the more I miss her.

Because they're all grown, and they have their families, and they have their lives, and she's not here. What triggers the pain? Just Emily's birthdays, Emily's accomplishments, her graduations. I always feel like it should be Amy here enjoying these. Gloria tries as best she can to focus on the present. Amy's old bedroom, the site of the murder, and a place she once feared, is now used for happier times.

It's for my grandchildren now. When they come to stay, they have a room. The only thing that's in here that was here when Amy was here is the hat that's on the door. It's not Amy's room anymore. Amy's in me. She'll always be with me. You're still in our hearts. Those touched by Amy have found through the years different ways to cope with their sorrow. Does it feel like it's over to you?

No, not really. Me either. For Angie Moore and Amy Summers, visits to their friend's grave help. As does reading that letter from long ago that teacher Jody George gave students, which Amy still keeps nearby.

My advice to you, be kind to others, always even if it hurts. I wish you peace and comfort now and always. You go through life and you wonder, I'm really introverted. I wonder why. Or I get really angry at certain things. Maybe it's because of what happened. Or I get really angry at certain things. Maybe it's because of what happened. But I don't know. Emily felt a change of scenery might provide some answers. A year after graduating college,

she left Indianapolis for California. I couldn't be who I thought I was supposed to be in Indiana. And I don't know that I'm necessarily the person I'm supposed to be yet, but I'm getting closer in California. Emily visits when she can. 48 Hours brought her to Indianapolis to be part of a celebration decades in the making. We're calling this a Midwest open house. It was an opportunity to share memories of Amy.

Oh, Amy would have loved this. She's here. Believe me, she's here. As well as to honor the man who did what others could not. On behalf of everyone here, I say thank you from the bottom of our hearts. It's nice for me to hear so many people who adore this girl.

And she was a girl. She was 16. She had, like, impact. Like, she was there and she had a purpose. We're going to release 24 balloons. I like that because it makes me think that was my mom. One for every year that we've been without Amy. That was, yeah, I'd like to be like that.

Give it love. Give it love. OK. In January of 2014, Bill Carter received the Indianapolis Police Department Award of Merit. Carter was offered the opportunity to join the Homicide Unit. He has decided to remain a nuisance abatement officer. On his own time, he is looking into another cold case of a murdered 19-year-old woman. If you like this podcast, you can listen ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery

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