48 Hours - Fatal Crossing

Episode Date: March 3, 2019

A beautiful mom and her young daughter are found dead near train tracks -- was it a murder-suicide or a cold-blooded killing? "48 Hours" helped reopen the case. Correspondent Peter Van Sant reports.See 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. It was January 16th, 2008. The weather that night was icy, cold, sleety. It was one of the coldest nights that year. I will never be able to ever forget the details of that night. They are burned into my mind forever and

ever. That was the night that my daughter and granddaughter died. Katie just loved River Lynn with all of her heart. She was so proud of her. She loved being a mother. She was just a person that was so full of life. She's right here, and she is not on the track. Her body is actually right here beside the track. Her body was right here?

Beside the track. My body was right here beside the trap. My name is Rick Alec, and in 2008, I was the case agent in charge of overseeing the death of Katie Major. I've had several train incidents, but not one where I had a mother deceased and a child. The baby was found over here in this ponding area. See, it's all full of water and drowned in that area. So is your opinion of what happened out here, that this essentially was a murder-suicide? That's my theory. Do you think your sister Katie committed suicide?

Absolutely not. Do you believe that your sister Katie murdered her daughter? Absolutely not. She loved her daughter with all her heart. My name is Reaver. Sam can be a keyboxer. For 10 years, it just was really hard to get any communication with the sheriff's department. They didn't want to hear from me.

What they said happened back then is absolutely not the truth. It can't be. My name is Jessica Sanders. I'm a private investigator, and I've been investigating the death of Katie Major. She didn't step in front of that train. If she had been, there would have been no open casket. There would have been pieces everywhere.

It was ruled a suicide within days. I knew no way. And I would fight with everything I had to prove that. My mom was trying to get justice for her daughter. And then here's where Katie called me. Mm-hmm. And my mom wasn't going to stop until somebody listened to her. And nobody did. That's the last phone call on record.

They avoided me. They absolutely avoided me. to her and nobody did. That's the last phone call on record. They avoided me. They absolutely avoided me. They labeled her as crazy because she wasn't giving up. Katie was still alive. I think that's really what it all was about. It was easier to dismiss her than to answer her. What I'm holding here, Vicki gave us, it's dozens and dozens of pages of emails that she said that she sent to you during that time.

And you didn't answer one of these. I don't recall. Vicki had a lot of roadblocks, but she didn't give up. She's held true to her word. I remember I was just walking outside by myself, and I just looked up and I said, Katie and River, I promise you, I will do whatever it takes to find the truth. 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 reached the age of 10 that was still a virgin. It just happens to all of them. 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 Plus. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Have you ever wondered who created that bottle of sriracha that's living in your fridge? Or why nearly every house in America has at least one game of Monopoly? Introducing The Best Idea Yet, a brand new podcast from Wondery and T-Boy

about the surprising origin stories of the products you're obsessed with and the bold risk-takers who brought them to life. Like, did you know that Super Mario, the best-selling video game character of all time, only exists because Nintendo couldn't get the rights to Popeye? Or Jack, that the idea for the McDonald's Happy Meal first came from a mom in Guatemala? From Pez dispensers to Levi's 501s to Air Jordans, discover the surprising stories of the most viral products.

Plus, we guarantee that after listening, 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. Plus, we guarantee that after listening, 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 Plus. It's just the in my head. Look into the camera. in my head and I never knew that my daughter and my granddaughter would have been laying there dead every night for the past 11 years that train has come barreling down the tracks

behind Vicki Hall's horse farm in Moncks Corner South Carolina near Charleston. And every night, the forlorn cry of its whistle brings her grief roaring back. It's just still hard for me to have to believe that that happened to them. And the hardest thing, I guess, is to know how much they suffered. From day one, Vicki did not believe her daughter Katie, five months pregnant, drowned her baby daughter River Lynn, then jumped in front of a train. A pregnant woman doesn't walk three-fourths a mile down a railroad track in pitch dark night. There's no way Katie would have ever, ever killed River or herself. I believe this is a cold-blooded murder.

Rick Olick, who led the investigation back in 2008, didn't see it that way. You believe that she was walking along these railroad tracks, carrying her daughter River, with suicide on her mind? That's what we believe. Olick says they found this note in Katie's pocket, which he believes is compelling evidence that she was delusional, obsessed with reading about end-of-the-world conspiracies on the Internet. Among the scribblings was this,

the Antichrist could be a woman. There were some things that were in that note that made me believe that she was buying into this spiritual warfare that she had going on in her life. I just remember looking at me in the eye and saying, your daughter had a mental illness and she did this. Officially, the manner of 10-month-old River Lynn's death was undetermined. But unofficially, investigators believed Katie murdered her.

But unofficially, investigators believed Katie murdered her. A branding that almost destroyed Vicki, says her brother, Chad Dillinger. She'd call me in the middle of the night. She'd just scream for hours. Like the worst death scream that you can't even imagine. I couldn't hardly function. Couldn't keep running the farm well. Didn't want to go to the grocery store. Because everywhere I would go to, I would see them.

It just made no sense that they weren't here. Nothing made sense. Desperate for answers, Vicki started her own investigation. Gathering documents, keeping meticulous notes, anything to find the truth. She kept fighting and fighting and fighting and fighting. She wouldn't let anybody tell her different. It really took its toll on her.

I turned to alcohol, trying to numb my pain, but actually all it did is make everything worse. With the help of some good friends and a strong dose of faith, Vicki stopped drinking. I remember saying, okay, Vicki, you can either let this kill you and destroy you, or you can try to make Katie and River proud of you and pull it together. Vicki got her horse business back on track, then did something she never thought she'd do with the paperwork from her private investigation. I couldn't fight no more for a while. I didn't grieve and take time

for me for a while. Some friends said, Vicki, just put everything in the box. Put all your papers in a box and stop looking at them and put it in God's hands. So I put everything back in the box and I closed it and I locked it and I put it in my closet. But Vicki never forgot that promise to clear Katie's name and show the world who her daughter truly was, a kind-hearted 26-year-old who loved horses and her family. Katie, this is for Ravers. Katie's uncle, Ken Dillinger.

It was a smile. I mean, there was a permagrin on her face, and it was always lit up, always lit up. She was better than most people, just had a giving heart, just a true, genuine person. Sarah Watford is Katie's little sister. Katie, 12 years older, was like a second mother. I just think of what a good mom she was and how I want to be a good mom like her. And she's the person that I want to be. What were Katie's dreams in this life? She was living the perfect life for her. That's what Katie wanted to be, was a mother, have children, be a wife, take care of her house, cook, garden.

She was living her dreams. She really was. Aaron and Katie, you're about to launch into a new life. Katie had married the love of her life in 2003. Thank you, Katie. Her high school sweetheart, Erin Major. They really were just like best friends. Erin went to work for Katie's dad, who was a house painter. She settled in as a homemaker.

In 2007, they welcomed River Lynn. She had this beautiful little smile that made her just look like an angel. Look at River. She's all smiley. Vicki says Katie had never been happier. Look at those pictures. We need to get River. She was so excited about having children, and she wanted a big family. Not long after River was born, Katie got pregnant again. This time, she learned with a son.

She was so excited, she gave the unborn child a name, Aiden. What was her reaction to that? She just couldn't stop smiling. But just one day later, that perfect world came crashing down. Vicki and her husband Jeff were awakened at 1.44 a.m. when Aaron suddenly showed up at their home. I remember telling myself, oh my God, what is wrong? Why is Aaron here? Sitting on the porch, he's never come in the middle of the night. She's never come in the middle of the night.

Vicki says he told her when they arrived home after Aaron finished working, Katie started acting paranoid and stood in the doorway with River refusing to enter. He said when Katie got home, she said she had a premonition that someone was going to kill her. He said she's standing there shaking and trembling, and she wanted to go get a hotel. And he said, I told her, let me go take a shower, and then I'll bring you wherever you want. And he said he went and took a shower. He heard her truck start, and she's gone. Then, Vicki says, out of the blue, Aaron suddenly started going off on a string of bizarre conspiracy theories.

Like the world's coming to an end and, you know, the government blew up the Twin Towers. They asked him, why are you talking about this? And that's the moment everything changed. That moment. As a kid growing up in Chicago, there was one horror movie I was too scared to watch. It was called Candyman. It was about this supernatural killer who would attack his victims if they said his name five times into a bathroom mirror. 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. Listen to Candyman, the true story behind the bathroom mirror murder, early and ad-free on Wondery Plus and the Wondery app. 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 Marcia 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 Informants Lawyer X exclusively on Wondery Plus. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. And listen to more Exhibit C true crime

shows early and ad-free right now. Katie and River Lynn had now been missing for more than 12 hours in stormy, icy conditions. Vicki Hall and Katie's husband, Aaron Major, set out searching for her truck at local motels. This was the first hotel we checked. And on the back roads of Monk's Corner.

All I'm concerned about is finding Katie and River. But, Vicki says, something seemed off with Aaron. I'm looking at every car coming, trying to see her truck, and he's just not looking. And I'm like to myself, why is he not looking? Why is he not looking? Then, the usually quiet Erin started talking, not about Katie, but about those same strange theories. Still that same stuff about the Twin Towers being a conspiracy. Back at Katie's house, Sarah was waiting alone in case her sister came home. She noticed a highlighted Bible passage on the

kitchen table. What did you read on those papers? The thing that stands out that I read that I will never forget is that the firstborn son is to be sacrificed. I knew something wasn't right. Frightened, Sarah immediately called her mom to come get her. When Vicki and Aaron picked her up, both mother and daughter noticed something that would become etched in their memories. Aaron's hand. He had lifted his hand up. And I'm like, oh my God.

Why is his hand so big? What I didn't know at that moment is Sarah saw it too. It just almost looked like a monster's hand, you know, it just looked bad. His whole fingers were swollen. Was it connected to Katie's disappearance? Vicki filed that detail and the other red flags in the back of her mind and went out searching on her own. her mind and went out searching on her own. Then, at 11.31 a.m., came a call from Erin that would alter the course of her life. He said, I heard on the radio that there's an accident. A train

hit a vehicle on Oakley Road and two people are dead. Vicki headed straight to Oakley Road, but there was no train, no vehicle, no sign of a collision. Then, as she was leaving, she spotted Katie's truck, undamaged about 500 feet from the tracks. And I just fell on my knees and collapsed because I knew

it wouldn't make any sense. Her truck should never be here, right here. Erin was her first call. You tell him that you have found the pickup truck. Does he cry out? No. Not at all. By then, a forensic team was at the death scene,

over half a mile down the tracks. A railroad worker had discovered the bodies around 8 20 that morning. Katie, they believed, had been struck on her side by some object hanging off the train. She had deep lacerations across her lower abdomen and right thigh. Rick Ollick of the Berkeley County Sheriff's Office delivered the shattering news. Captain Ollick's right there and I'm just looking him in the eye and I just remember his face. He told me they were dead. I'm numb. Just totally broken, just totally devastated. Totally devastated. totally devastated that night

Aaron was asked to give a written statement to authorities claiming he was too emotional to write a detective wrote it for him there was no mention of a swollen hand in his statement Aaron said she was acting so paranoid

that I couldn't reason with her, just wanted to leave the home feeling that someone was out to kill her. Erin told a version of that story to Katie's uncles, adding that she was suffering from postpartum psychosis. But with every telling, crucial details changed. In one story, Aaron said that Katie refused to enter the house because she was panicked, in a state of paranoia. In another version, he says she did go in to feed the baby. What does that suggest to you, the fact that he's told different stories? Pretty much cut and dry that he doesn't have his stories together and what really happened. And every time he thinks about it, he doesn't remember what he said. The family was suspicious.

And Sarah, remembering that swollen hand, was convinced Aaron broke it while killing her sister. It just made me think, like, did he hit his hand on the train and pushing her into the train or fighting with her? That's what made me know in my heart and my head that he was involved. Both Sarah and Vicki say they had seen Aaron's injured hand the morning the bodies were discovered. But Alec's investigation turned up another explanation, that Aaron injured it two days later at the funeral home when he punched a wall while choosing a coffin.

We inquired with the funeral director, and she said, yes, I witnessed him punch a cinderblock wall. At first, Aaron tried to make the funeral private, telling Vicki and her family they were not invited. Everything was a fight from the very moment they died to have things done normally. Mother and daughter were in the same coffin. Miraculously, Katie's face was largely undamaged,

and the family wanted an open casket for Katie and River. But Vicki says Aaron took it a step too far. He wanted Aiden, the unborn son, displayed publicly for viewing on top of Katie. I'm like, Aaron, no. That wasn't the end of his bizarre behavior at the viewing, says Chad. He was just sitting there nonchalantly on the front pew eating McDonald's, drinking out of his big McDonald's cup. The dead bodies of his family are right in front of him. He could reach out and touch them. He never shed a tear. He never came and hugged anybody. It was the sickest thing I've ever witnessed in my whole life.

Two days after the funeral, Aaron went in for surgery to mend his broken hand. The next day, eight days after his wife and baby died under mysterious circumstances, Aaron, with a freshly bandaged hand, was finally brought in to the sheriff's office for questioning.

Do you have anything to do with your wife's death? Do you have anything to do with your child's death? If you knew what happened, would you tell us? Mm-hmm. But by then, it was too late, says private eye Jessica Sanders. The coroner had already issued

a preliminary ruling of suicide, later made permanent. How would you describe the quality of the original investigation? Horrible. They dropped the ball in every way here. You ready? By day, Jessica Sanders, the mom, is busy taking care of her children. But by night, Jessica Sanders, the private eye, is at the range.

Or on the road, with cameras and disguises in hot pursuit. I catch cheaters and anyone who's lying pretty much. Is that your specialty, cheating husbands and wives? Mostly, yes. How's business? Good. Business is good. Vicki met Jessica four years after Katie's death. She suspected her now ex-husband was having an affair and hired Jessica to investigate. We became very close.

You know, she had lost Katie and I had actually lost my mom. And we just, we bonded. Jessica says she saw Vicki through some of her darkest years as she battled to get the Berkeley County Sheriff's Office to take another look at the case and another look at Erin Major. Vicki was really up against a department that had their mind made up.

She always had questions and none of them were answered. That changed in 2015. Seven long years after her daughter's death, 48 Hours producers got a tip about Vicki's case and that box of evidence she had locked up so many years ago. They wanted to know more. I realized it was time to get started back on the case. Vicki asked her PI pal Jessica to help. Did you open the box?

I did. It was like Pandora's box. It's unbelievable at all the information that she had and how badly this case was handled. It didn't take 30 minutes of looking at it to be in, like, shock. Together, Jessica and Vicki built the war room. Where's the transcription that we had? They covered the walls with timelines and facts about the case, determined to find the truth, whatever that might be. If you can tell me I'm

wrong, my daughter really committed suicide. Tell me I'm wrong, please. The last thing I wanted was her to die at the hands of her husband. What does he say there? We could not exclude it. We tried. We worked this case for months. We believe we unturned everything that was unturned at the time. But Rick Ollick, now the chief of the Monk's Corner Police Department, maintains he considered Aaron Major a suspect. Did you suspect foul play? I always suspect foul play until proven otherwise. But never found proof that Aaron killed his wife.

We were never able to connect the dots. He says the evidence, Aaron's statements, and that note in Katie's pocket with scribblings about the Antichrist all pointed to a woman in deep psychological turmoil. There was information that she was going through some type of spiritual warfare in her life. He believed Aaron's story that Katie's actions were driven by postpartum psychosis.

She was alive when the train struck her. To me, it was self-inflicted. Two months after the suicide ruling, Vicki hired a forensic psychologist in the hopes of proving Alec wrong. But the psychologist's report said there was not enough evidence to overcome the presumption of suicide. Why shouldn't people believe that Katie, for whatever reason, snapped that night and committed suicide? I knew she wouldn't do that, wouldn't be capable of doing that.

But Aaron's behavior, he was not acting normal. He's not acting right. He's got a broken hand, talking crazy things that never once came out of Katie's mouth. I believe she wrote these notes down in this paper because she was seeing what Aaron was reading and seeing what he was believing, and it was scaring her, and she was just making notes of all the titles on the computer. Vicki and Jessica went to work determined to show that Katie was not psychotic.

They spoke to dozens of witnesses, including Katie's obstetrician, Christine Case, who examined her the day before her death. I do not think, in my professional opinion, that she had any depression or postpartum depression. Back then, Alec and his team did not speak to Dr. Case, and Vicki says would not listen to what she had to say. She says she was never questioned about her daughter's state of mind and what had happened in the hours on that day that she disappeared. How could someone not have interviewed the family about those things?

I don't recall when she was interviewed, and they should have been interviewed for those things. And Vicki says they should have been more suspicious of Aaron's story about Katie's alleged paranoia the night she disappeared. She got more and more, like, paranoid about me and started completely not trusting me at all. In his story, she's shaken, trembling, scared. But Jessica says phone records show during that time Katie called her mom and Vicki says she sounded perfectly

normal. When she called Vicki, she was wanting to go eat dinner with her. This is not a person who's frantic. Jessica says the more she dug, the guiltier Aaron looked. Most ominously, a computer search he made early in the morning before the family was notified Katie and River were dead. That morning, he had searched two dead in Berkeley County. So why do you think he was Googling that? Well, I think he was Googling that because he was trying to find out if the bodies had been found yet. He's trying to determine his next move.

They believe that next move was his call to Vicki, saying he heard on the radio that two people were killed in a train accident on Oakley Road. I called every radio station. I went to the TV stations after they died. I searched and searched for years. Not one person could tell me Oakley Road was ever on the TV or the radio. If there, in fact, was not a news broadcast, how would he have known that location, that there had been an accident there? I have no, I have no, I have no idea how he would know. Is this suspicious to you? Absolutely. Jessica says there's only one reason he would have known.

He knew because he's the one that put him out there. Vicki and Jessica say there were more damning clues back at the house. Some stuff was knocked off a river's dresser. There was clothes on the floor. All of these drawers, they were all open in the whole bathroom. What does that suggest to you? There was a fight. I believe 100% there was a fight and she was trying to leave him. Do you believe that Katie Major may have died inside her own house? I do. I think it's very possible that she died at the house.

at the house. Their house, a potential crime scene, was never properly processed. There's no photos. No forensics search at the house. No forensics at all. If there was a fight that started there, luminol tests, easy. They did nothing.

And Aaron Major, Alec's number one suspect, was allowed home unaccompanied the night his wife and daughter were found dead. He could have altered a potential crime scene that no one went there to check that, correct? Possibly. Family members who had been inside that house claim it was in disarray, that things had been thrown about. 24 hours later, it had all been cleaned up. Is that true?

I don't have an answer for that because I don't recall when we went. I mean I'd have to review back to the case. It was 10 years ago. But a lot can happen in 10 years. There's a new sheriff in town. And a new cold case team. Do you believe today that Katie Major committed suicide? No. No.

Things were changing fast in Monk's Corner. In 2015, that new sheriff, Dwayne Lewis, swept into town. We're all part of one team. With a brand new attitude. Look out for our citizens, keep them safe. When two 48 Hours producers called him, asking about the Katie Major case, he listened. I was not familiar with the case. I asked my cold case detectives to locate the file.

After 10 years of heartache. I have the notes, so I'm gonna give them to the detectives today. Vicki Hall is finally getting the chance to talk to Berkeley County detectives about her case. And 48 Hours was there to document it. For justice to happen would be the best news of what really happened that night.

Sheriff Lewis had assigned Lieutenant Dean Kokinda to take a second look. Glad to see you. Vicki, long the target of country gossip, first had to clear a big hurdle. Vicki had a reputation that she was crazy, so I wasn't looking forward to meeting with her. But when she came in, I talked to her

for a couple hours. I was like, but she's not crazy. And when she's shaking and trembling, how's she holding River? She had valid questions and they weren't answered. There's no no that, you know. She also had a lot of information to share with Lieutenant Kokenda. And with this man, a detective brought out of retirement to help him, the sheriff's little brother, Darrell Lewis. When I walked in the door,

I said, I need you to look at this. Towards the back here. Something's wrong with this case. All right, Lieutenant, I got it. Am I ready to go? Yeah, let's go. To begin with, Lewis says, blood and tissue spatter evidence

show that the original investigators got the wrong train originally they said a southbound train hit her evidence shows it was a northbound train what else did they get wrong what else did they miss Lewis quickly answered his own question what do you think happened they missed their one and only opportunity to ask Aaron the tough questions. I don't know what happened. During their interrogation. You call it an interrogation, we call it an interview. The investigator never even asked Aaron about that hard-to-ignore bandaged hand.

And he never challenged Aaron's version of events, including Katie's supposed breakdown. She just got real paranoid and quit trusting people and stuff. Did you hear that? I did. Are you buying Aaron's story that she was out of her mind? No. No.

I mean, he's the only person who said this. Lewis and Kokinda did what Alec and his team didn't do hello talk to katie's closest friends and i'll just get with you monday and family she was very happy she was very excited to have a boy they discounted that psychological report because they say was based largely on Alec's investigation. And they quickly ruled out postpartum psychosis. You can hide depression from your friends and family, but you don't hide paranoia. And they didn't believe that Katie could or would have made that six-tenths of a mile walk in pitch black on gravel in the rain and sleet carrying a 30-pound baby

she wanted to kill herself she parked right here she could walk right here she doesn't have to walk six tenths of a mile down there to get hit by the train she can get hit 10 feet from her car lieutenant kokinda thinks like jessica andicki, the trouble started back at the house. We believe that night there was a fight, some argument, whether it be verbal or physical. Which may explain how Aaron injured his hand, says Kokinda, and why they found $1,000 in cash in Katie's truck and her wedding rings not on her finger, but in her pocket.

To me, that was very symbolic of her ending the relationship. It's parked right here. Just weeks into their investigation, the cold case team became convinced it was not a suicide. It just don't make sense. Very strange. But they still had a lot of questions. Why is she on the tracks in the first place? That's the million-dollar question right now. Among their many theories, maybe an answer to that question, that Katie fled the house after a fight, drove her pickup truck to the tracks,

got out and ran with Aaron giving chase, he caught her and threw her against the train. That's a possibility. She could have been thrown and struck by the side of the train. Absolutely. Another possibility, as Jessica believes, Katie was killed elsewhere and dumped at the tracks. I've never ruled out that it could be a staged crime scene.

There's a possibility she was, in fact, dead at the time this train struck her. I think that's one of the possibilities, yes. Another mystery, just how did River Lynn get in the water 100 feet from the spot where her mother's body was found? We don't know how River came in contact with the water. Kokinda says the cold case unit has confirmed that Aaron told the original detective a huge lie, a potential game changer. That's when I heard on talk radio, 94.3, that there had been a person, a young child hit by the train in Berkeley County.

And just as Vicki had said, that was a bold-faced lie. There was no radio report. There was no radio report. There was no radio report. Why would he have told a story about hearing this report, do you think? I think he wanted Katie and River found. The team would like to ask Aaron about those lies, but there's a problem. Aaron Major, is he cooperating with you guys? No.

Is that a red flag for you? It is for me because I'd want to know what happened to my child, my unborn child, and my wife. 48 Hours would like to speak with Aaron Major as well. Hey, Aaron Major? Hey, how you doing? Peter Van Sant, CBS News. There have been many dark days, but one memory above all else has kept Vicki Hall fighting for Katie and River.

The night they died and Sarah was there, my daughter, I looked out the window, we have a pond right there, and there is a cross on my pond. And every night me and Sarah would go stand at that door and we'd look out and that cross never came back. Vicki believes Katie and River will never be at peace until Aaron Major is brought to justice. They are at the prom. They're more happy times. Vicki rarely sees the man she believes put her daughter and granddaughter in their graves, but says he has harassed the family for years.

Even at the cemetery. If we put something there, it would be thrown in the woods and destroyed, broken. Vicki called the authorities, and they confronted Aaron, who then returned some of the items he had taken, including this toy version of Katie's favorite horse. When he returned it, the tail was cut off and it was just very upsetting. Vicki suspects he also put this doll with a hole in its stomach at the makeshift memorial where Katie and River's bodies were found. On the cross is this old nasty looking doll and I just know Aaron put it there to freak me out.

It's disturbing. It's almost like psychological warfare. Out of all his alleged scare tactics, this is the most heartless, says Jessica. Aaron shot this video, That's Him in the Mirror, 10 months after Katie and River's deaths and laid it on their grave. He allowed it to look like they were still living there. Like he had River's high chair pulled up to the table with jar food on it, a pillow stuffed in the bed where Katie would sleep, as if she's laying in the bed. Psychopathic behavior to me. After his wife and child died, Aaron moved in with his parents in Charleston, about a 40-minute drive from Monk's Corner. He started his own house painting business. We found him at home washing out his fishing gear

and in the church parking lot with his mother. Jessica, who has been studying his movements, says he spends a lot of time alone outside. This guy, he goes hunting, goes fishing. He's living the life. But life was about to get a lot harder. Everybody ready? Sheriff Lewis decided to let Aaron know he hasn't been forgotten

and announced the reopening of the case in a very big, public way. Initially, it was believed that Katie was suicidal and had some psychological issues. I can tell you that that is not the case. Vicki then stepped to the microphone. Thank you to this sheriff's department. I want to thank Charleston County. 48 hours because we would not be standing here today if it wasn't for them. And she didn't mince words when it came to Aaron Major. I believe that Katie and River and Aiden were murdered by Katie's husband,

Aaron Robert Major, and that's what I believe. Investigators continue digging, but say, for now, they don't have enough evidence to make an arrest. They are, however, for the first time, publicly naming Aaron Major the prime suspect.

Right now, he's the only one we're looking at. Is there anything you'd want to say to Aaron Major right now, if he's watching? Yeah, well, come talk to us. Tell us what happened, because what you've told us before is not the truth. 48 Hours asked Aaron Major to speak with us on camera, but he declined through his attorney. So we went looking for him and found him in the parking garage of an

apartment complex. Hey, how you doing? Peter Van Sant, CBS News. You are the only suspect in the deaths of your family. What do you have to say about that? I don't have any comment on this. Why not? You can tell me whether or not you murdered your family. Because I don't have any comment at this time. Nothing whatsoever? No. Do you know why you...

Please leave. Aaron Major continues to live the life of a free man, something Vicki blames on the original investigator, Rick Olick. This beloved young mother was made out to be some depressed child killer. Would you be willing to apologize if it turns out you were wrong? Always do the right thing. It's always important at any time to do the right thing. It's been 11 years since that cold, wet January morning. No matter how long it takes, Vicki Hall will battle on until the truth is found. You know, we can't bring them back, and that's what I would love more than anything.

But justice needs to be served. I will fight for this to the day I die. I know she's up in heaven saying, you go, mom. You go. Thank you. How much videotaping are you doing? You're making it boring. Here. Aaron.

The Cold Case team partnered with the state to conduct a reconstruction of the scene at the railroad tracks. They are awaiting results. The Berkeley County Sheriff's Office was so impressed with the investigation by Jessica Sanders, she was offered a job. so impressed with the investigation by Jessica Sanders, she was offered a job. Learn how our producers helped reopen the case at 48hours.com. If you like this podcast, you can listen ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app. Before you go, tell us about yourself by filling out a quick survey at wondery.com slash survey.