48 Hours - Last Seen in Breckenridge

Episode Date: November 20, 2022

In 1982 the bodies of Annette Schnee and Bobbie Jo Oberholtzer were found outside a luxe ski town. A man rescued from a snowdrift the night of the murders turned out to be their killer. "48 Hours" contributor Natalie Morales reports.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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ConstantContact.ca You come here for the lifestyle and the beauty and the mountains, getting to go skiing and hiking and biking. Annette Schnee was very beautiful. She had gone to a modeling school and she came here to Breckenridge. Everybody was going to Colorado, you know, go find yourself, go to the big town, you know. In 1982, on January 6th, Annette had gone from her work in Frisco at the Holiday Inn. She needed to get home to get her outfit to work at the Flipside Bar that night. She would hitchhike from her house, do her day job, hitchhike back,

put on her nighttime cocktail waitress outfit, hitchhike to there, and then hitchhike back. A lot of people hitchhiked at that time because they can't afford to drive or get a car to drive back and forth. There was a storm, a bad storm. It was very cold, too. I think it was 20 below. About 4.45 in the afternoon was the last time anybody saw Annette Schnee. That same night, another young woman disappeared in Breckenridge, Bobbie Jo Oberholzer.

Bobbie Jo had received a promotion at work, and she was going to go celebrate with some friends. Bobbie Jo was free-spirited. She loved life. She was happy wherever she was. She left and went to go hitchhike home, and that was the last time she was seen. The day after Bobby Joe disappeared, her body was found here on the side of a snowbank on Hoosier Pass, 10 miles outside Breckenridge. She had tragically been shot. Six months later, the body of Annette Schnee was also found about 10 miles outside Breckenridge. She had tragically been shot. Six months later, the body

of Annette Schnee was also found about 10 miles in that direction in a desolate area lying face down in a stream. She had also been shot. The mystery of what happened to these two beautiful young women would haunt their families and investigators for years. These two women, they were both killed the same night. The thing that tied them both together was an orange booty sock. You get a sock near Bobby Joe Oberholzer, and the mate to it is found on the body of a Nakashni. I'm saying, this is amazing. occasionally. I'm saying, this is amazing. As years went by, you know, we'd muse about whether or not we were going to die before we solved this case.

What no one else knew at the time was that the killer's truck got stuck on a snowy mountain pass that same night right after the murders. That would be right where that curb is over there. And there was snow banks. Yeah, at least that deep. And a local fire chief saved him. Everything catches up. You don't get away with anything forever. A.I. Every day that I made this drive and got to see all the scenery and the sunrises and sunsets, especially from the top of Hoosier, it's like I am so lucky to live here.

But for 40 years, these towering, craggy Rockies outside Breckenridge, Colorado, held a dark and silent secret. The unsolved murders of Annette Schnee and Bobby Joe Oberholzer. They would define the career of now Park County Detective Sergeant Wendy Kipple. But back in 1982, when both women were killed... I was a senior in high school doing high school teenage stuff. We were just basically footloose and fancy free and never giving the first thought that something could happen to us. It was an attitude from another time, a feeling Wendy shared with Bobby Joe.

Bobby Joe Oberholzer was somebody that I think I would have been friends with. How much is she missed by her family? A lot, still. Lori Merlo's memory of big sister Bobby Jo is frozen in those gentler times. One of the best things that ever happened in my life was being her younger sister. How do you describe her? A free spirit, a loving person.

Very pretty. You know, fell head over heels for her. You fell hard. Yeah, yeah, I did. Jeff Oberholzer and Bobby Joe dated for a few years before making it official in 1977. And soon the newlyweds from the Midwest headed for the mountains. Colorado was calling, you know.

They'd called the town of Alma, half an hour south of Breckenridge, home. It just seemed to be the place to be, you know, as hippies. You were a hippie back then. Oh, sure. Yeah. And was Bobby Joe a hippie too? Oh, yeah. Yeah. Jeff opened an appliance repair business.

Bobby Joe worked for a real estate company in Breckenridge. She'd often hitch a ride to work. Back then, many people did. People would look for you. They saw you standing by the side of the road, they'd pick you up. Still, Jeff knew trouble could be just one ride away. So he had handmade Bobby Joe a secret weapon. It was a large brass clip, very heavy, with a large brass ring attached to it. And it was made for self-defense. January 6th, 1982.

Bitter cold with snow in the forecast. Bobby Joe hitched to work where that same afternoon she'd be pleasantly surprised. A job promotion. She called Jeff with the good news and told him she planned to celebrate with friends after work and would be home soon. Okay, everything's

good. But when Bobby Joe wasn't home by midnight, he got worried and drove to the home of the friends Bobby Joe had been celebrating with. Woke him up, asked him, you know, where Bobby was, if they knew, and she said no. And it wasn't like her to not come home. No, not at all. Jeff went to the Breckenridge Police Department, but was told it was too soon to file a missing persons report. So he headed back to Alma alone. The phone rang, I think, about

quarter to eight. It was a rancher. He had found her driver's license and some of the contents of her wallet blowing in his driveway. Oh, oh. Then I knew something was horribly wrong. Jeff and some friends all headed towards the ranch where Bobby Joe's license had been found. all headed towards the ranch where Bobby Joe's license had been found. That's when I spotted her backpack out in the snow.

And I got out of the vehicle and went through the snow. That's when I found her glove in the snow. And it was covered in blood. And... Oh. A bloody tissue also lay in the snow, but still no Bobby Joe. Jeff went back to their house, and friends headed up Hoosier Pass, the route Bobby Joe usually took home. They went up with cross-country skis to the pass and they found her body. Now investigators join Bobby Joe's friends. Spreading out across the stark landscape,

Bobby Joe's brass key ring with the hook was found in the parking lot. Bobby Joe's brass key ring with the hook was found in the parking lot. That her husband, Jeff Oberholzer, had put together for her to use as a weapon if she needed to. Former Colorado Bureau of Investigation agent Jim Hartke was at the crime scene. The other item that was found up there was an orange booty like an ankle sock. It didn't belong. It didn't fit anything connected with Bobby Joe Oberholzer. And off the side of the road, in the grim shadows of the mountains, lay Bobby Joe. The body was frozen. She was fully clothed. Her hands were close together. She was fully clothed. Her hands were close together. One hand had been zip-tied.

And Hartke believes Bobby Joe had been shot at close range in the chest. Once a free spirit, the lifeless 29-year-old was placed in a bag. Jeff pleaded to look. They unzipped the bag. And... It was my Bobby Joe. Did you have any idea who could have done that to your wife? None. But Jeff's tears weren't what cops were looking for. When did police call you in and say, we have some questions for you?

Maybe the next day or so. I told him he's the number one suspect. Evidence so far indicates the woman may have been trying to escape into the trees when she was gunned down. But the investigation was about to become a lot more complicated when police learned of the disappearance of Annette Schnee, who vanished the very same day as Bobby Joe. They probably just passed each other and didn't even know they would be connected. 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.

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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, We'll see you next time. the first inkling cindy french had that her big sister annette was missing came when her mother answered the family's old rotary telephone i heard her on the phone i heard her start to cry i said what's wrong and wrong? And she said, Annette is missing. All the police could tell the family was that Annette Schnee had vanished. The news seemed inconceivable. Only 21 years old, Annette had left the family's home in Sioux City, Iowa a year earlier and seemed to be thriving in Colorado. She had two jobs, housekeeper by day and cocktail waitress by night. And she was friends with her roommates, and the people that she worked at the Holiday Inn at were her friends

that she would talk about quite frequently to Mom. And it was a friend from work who reported Annette missing. It was January 8, 1982, the day after Bobby Joe Oberholzer's body was found. As soon as older sister Karen Reeson heard the news, she rounded up relatives and headed to Colorado. What were you thinking could have happened to her in that moment, not knowing? Knowing she hitchhiked, we figured somebody picked her up. Yeah. We were all hoping she was still alive. You know, you do keep that hope, but in the back of your mind, you're probably thinking not.

But you don't want to think that. As investigators tracked Annette's last movements, they discovered she had actually disappeared the same day as Bobby Joe. But the twist was that Annette vanished hours as Bobby Joe. But the twist was that Annette vanished hours before Bobby Joe. Annette was last seen at about 4.30 in the afternoon in Breckenridge. Bobby Joe Oberholzer was last seen in Breckenridge

at about 7.30 in the evening. From the outset, former CBI agent Jim Hardkey suspected the two cases might be connected. It was a pretty all-out effort to find any information from anyone. Investigators learned that after Annette left her job at the Holiday Inn on January 6, she had visited a doctor's office and then hitchhiked to a drugstore in Breckenridge. Detective Sergeant Wendy Kipple showed us where that drugstore once was located. She went in to get some medication. She went in to get some medication here. She was talking to a woman that we've never been able to identify,

and that was the last time she was seen. Cindy says not knowing the details of Annette's disappearance haunted their mother. I know mom would just say I just want to know why how you know I just that's all I want to know nobody can give it to me nobody knows why or how. And in a strange turn of events Jeff Oberhol, already a suspect in his own wife's murder, told police when and where he thought Annette's body might be located. Well, how would you know that? I've always had different premonitions all my life. I had told them that I felt that she'd be found four miles from my house on the 4th of July. That's pretty specific.

Yeah. And it wasn't far off. That sure made me look pretty bad. In fact, when Annette's body was discovered nearly six months after she vanished, Jeff's premonition turned out to be scarily accurate. She was found on July 3rd, 1982, a day before Jeff's prediction, and her body was roughly seven, not four, miles from Jeff's house. It was a young boy who came across the crime scene. He was a fishing man-founder, reported to his dad and the dad called the sheriff's department. Charlie McCormick, a private investigator hired by the Schnee family, says Annette was lying face down and fully clothed in Sacramento Creek, about 23 miles from the drug

store where she was last seen. But she'd been shot once in the back, exit wound front on a downward angle of about 30 degrees. So what does that tell you? Could be she was on her knees, could be she was running downhill away from her, the person shot her. Authorities suspected Annette might have been sexually assaulted. Evidence kind of indicates that her clothing was found in disarray. Her blue jeans zipper was broken. We believe that the shoes were on the wrong feet when she was found. Former CBI agent Hartke attended Annette's autopsy and his eye was drawn to something that would forever change the course of the investigation.

On her left foot, I noticed an orange booty. And in my mind, I'm remembering the orange booty that was found at the top of Hoosier Pass, very close to where Bobby Joe Oberholzer's body was found. And I'm saying, holy s***, this is amazing. This ties the cases together. Up until that point, Hartke says investigators never knew what to make of that orange sock or booty from the Bobby Joe crime scene.

It was just one of those mysterious things that you pick up at a crime scene. Kipple believes Annette lost her orange sock in the killer's vehicle, and there it remained until hours later when he picked up Bobby Joe and attacked her. She jumps out, and when she jumped out of the truck, the orange sock gets kicked out of the truck. And that sock was not the only piece of evidence found on Annette's body. In the pocket of her jacket, they discovered a business card like this one, with a familiar name, Jeff Oberholzer. Jeff told police he recalled giving Annette a ride in November 1981, when she was out hitchhiking.

Jeff says that at the time he was promoting his appliance repair business with those cards. I gave them to everyone. So now police know that you had met Annette? Yes. Did that add to their suspicion? Oh yes. Jeff did you have anything to do with the murder of your wife Bobby Jo? Nothing. Nothing. Did you have anything to do with the murder of your wife, Bobby Jo? No, nothing, nothing. Did you have anything to do with the murder of Annette Schnee? No, nothing, no. Despite now being connected to the two murdered women and having that very accurate premonition,

Jeff eventually was cleared. His blood type did not match the blood found on Bobby Joe's glove and the nearby tissue. And as advances were made with DNA technology, Jeff's DNA was not a match. I told him, I said, Jeff, in my book, you're not a suspect. But after nearly 40 years, could DNA help identify the real killer in the murders of Bobby Joe and Annette? Early in 2020, Kipple and her team decided to try and find out. And I said, let's try this genealogy thing. Maybe it can work for us. She sent the DNA sample generated from the Bobby Joe investigation to United Data Connect, the Denver company runs crime scene DNA profiles through publicly available genealogical databases.

On January 9th, 2021, I get a phone call from the genealogist, says, I have two more names for you, and one of those turned out to be the one. I knew from the start this was going to come down to DNA. In January 2021, Park County Detective Sergeant Wendy Kipple got a call about those new DNA test results. And it turned out there was not one, but two possible matches for blood found on Bobby Joe's glove and that tissue that were recovered back in 1982. I'll never forget the day I got that phone call and I got those names. And what were the two names you were given? Alan Phillips and Bruce Phillips.

69-year-old Alan Lee Phillips and his older brother, Bruce Phillips. Kipple reached out to Bruce first. According to Kipple, Bruce said he never lived in Colorado, but that his brother, whom he was estranged from, had. And when Kipple dug deeper, she discovered that not only had Alan Phillips previously lived just outside Breckenridge and worked in a local mine. Alan Phillips still lived nearby.

He had his own mechanic shop shop and he was still here. Phillips had been married three times and had a daughter and two stepsons. Kipple wanted to learn more about Phillips' past. When I looked at his criminal history, it showed that he had been arrested in 1973 for assault and burglary, and that just kind of set off all kinds of red flags. So she set out to find the arrest file, but she was met with dead end after dead end. The courts had no record of the case. Neither did the DA's office. I knew I had to find that case file, so I went over to the archives for the sheriff's office. There was a fire and a lot of them were destroyed.

But Kipple was undeterred. She says she combed through hundreds of boxes and filing cabinets, finding nothing. Until... I get down to the last filing cabinet. Are you kidding me? The last one? The last filing cabinet. And even down to the second to the last filing cabinet. Are you kidding me? The last one? The last filing cabinet. And even down to the second to the last drawer. Halfway back, I see this tab that says Alan Phillips.

Wow. I was like, this is it. This is our golden egg right here. In that police report from July 1973, nearly a decade before the murders of Annette and Bobby Joe, Kipple found a signed confession from Phillips, then just 22 years old, explaining how he attacked a young woman. The first sentence reads, I saw a woman hitchhiking on the south edge of Breckenridge, and I stopped and gave her a ride over to Fair Play. And then he goes on and describes what he did to her.

What Kipple read was chilling. Phillips said that he stopped at an empty cabin along the road, pulled the girl from the Jeep, and then picked up a rock and used it to hit her several times. When I saw that first sentence, I was like, this is him. This is our guy. Incredibly, the young woman who didn't want her identity revealed was able to convince Phillips to let her go

and later reported the incident to police. Did he say in that confession why he did it? He didn't know. He told her, I don't know why I do this. I mean, that makes your skin crawl. Yeah. Phillips was charged with assault and burglary and served six months behind bars. Kipple also learned that Phillips's name had come up in connection with the double murder back in 2005, when an anonymous caller gave a tip to Crimestoppers. Investigators checked it out, but according to Kipple, the lead went cold when the information

couldn't be verified. But now Kipple was confident. She was on the verge of nabbing a killer who had eluded them for decades. There was only one thing left to do. We had to get surreptitious DNA. That's what we needed. So you're looking for anything he's thrown out? Anything. In late January 2021, Kipple and her team began secretly surveilling Phillips. It turned out obtaining a sample of his DNA wasn't easy. He wouldn't throw anything away. He didn't even throw out his garbage. Where did he put his garbage? I don't know.

That wasn't the only challenge. This guy's kind of a hermit. He stays at home. He doesn't interact with people too much. Finally, after five weeks, there was a break. Phillips left his home and went to a Sonic drive-in. We're all like sitting there watching and watching. He gets his food, eats, and then he leaves. I'm like, dang it, he didn't throw his trash away. So Kipple and her team followed Phillips as he drove to a post office.

He walked in carrying the sonic bag, but on the way out, he was only holding mail. The second Phillips pulled away, investigators recovered that all-important bag from this trash can. It's like, oh, okay. That bag was like gold. Investigators recovered that all-important bag from this trash can. It's like, okay. That bag was like gold.

It was like gold. Yeah. The bag was taken to a lab where Phillips' DNA was pulled from saliva on a napkin. And what were the results? It was Alan Phillips' blood that was on Bobby Joe's glove and that Kleenex. Nearly 40 years after the murders of two women near Breckenridge, investigators make an arrest in this cold case. On February 24th, we arrested Alan Lee Phillips. I got to put the handcuffs on him. And he was shocked.

Really? The look of shock on his face is just priceless. Alan Lee Phillips was initially charged with two counts each of first-degree homicide, kidnapping, and assault. He denied any involvement in the crimes. For the families of Bobby Joe and Annette, it was a moment nearly four decades in the making, one they thought might never come. That was a shock. The way that they were able to get the DNA to find him and

catch him was amazing. Truthfully, I didn't think it would happen in my lifetime. It was just mind-blowing, jaw-dropping. I didn't know what to think. Is it like relief all at once too? Yes, a relief. And you're happy, but yet it doesn't take the hurt away. But the surprises didn't end there. In another strange twist after Phillips' arrest, a local man recalled a harrowing story of how he helped rescue Phillips from a snowstorm the very night of the murders. When I heard this story, my mind was blown. Look through more of the evidence in the case at 48hours.com. Look through more of the evidence in the case at 48hours.com.

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On January 6, 1982, just hours after Bobby Joe and Annette were murdered, an airline passenger looked down at Guadalupe Pass from a plane flying overhead and saw lights flashing. He recalled it was SOS, a call for help. It came from the driver of a truck stranded in a raging snowstorm. His rear end sunk in the snow, so his headlights were pointing up. Dave Montoya was a fire chief at the time who also worked in the local mines. And lo and behold, here comes the plane. He sees it, flashes, SOS, SOS. Well, he didn't

know if somebody saw him or not, but he took the chance. Well, somebody did see him in the Arapahoe County. Yeah. The passenger notified the pilot, who radioed down the approximate coordinates to dispatchers on the ground. So I was down there. I had my radio with me. So I said, let me go check it out. What were you thinking as you're driving? I thought it was a tourist. I thought, that crazy go check it out. What were you thinking as you're driving? I'm thinking, who does that? I thought it was a tourist. I thought, that crazy tourist. He got up here and now he's going to ask us all to see him. But when Montoya arrived at the scene, he saw it wasn't a tourist.

It was someone he knew. A man named Alan Phillips. And he comes running out and he says, man, am I glad to see you. And I says, Alan, what the hell are you doing? You knew who he was? I knew who he was because I worked with him in the mines. He says, well, I got drunk. And I decided to come home and I didn't want to go on the highway to get caught.

So I went over the path because the cops ain't there. Did you happen to notice anything about him at the time? Yeah, he had a big old cut right here on the eye. Montoya says when he asked him how he got the injury, Phillips said he hit his face on his truck. I kind of laughed. I said, boy, you are really stupid. Montoya says Phillips refused medical treatment, and he dropped him off near his home.

He gave an oral statement to police about the incident. That week, local newspapers reported the unusual rescue and included a photo of the then 30-year-old Alan Phillips. If I would have known what I'd known then, I probably would have left him. Montoya would only learn in 2021, after Phillips' arrest, that he was potentially involved in the murders of Bobby Joe and Annette. Who has luck like that? Really, you commit two murders, involved in the murders of Bobby Joe and to pay. Phillips may have escaped back then, but now 40 years later, Alan Phillips' fate would be in the hands of a jury.

On August 31st, 2022, Alan Lee Phillips' double murder trial began in Fairplay, Colorado. Annette's sisters and brother flew in from across the country to be there. But we wanted to make sure that the family was represented, you know, that when the jury looks over, you want them to see the concerned, not leftovers, but the left behinds. At times, seeing Phillips in court was painful for Annette's sister Cindy. I was disgusted. You got to live 40 years of your life. You took my sister to see him sit there so emotionless, no emotion whatsoever, just very stoic.

It was very frustrating. Because of the DNA match, did you think this is a slam dunk in a trial? To me, it's a slam dunk, but to attorneys, they have ways to make it not seem like such a slam dunk. And that's what Phillips' defense team set out to do. They would question the validity of the DNA and other evidence, and instead blame Jeff Oberholzer for murdering his wife and Annette Schnee, even though he had been cleared by investigators years before. They pointed the finger at Jeff every step of the way. It's so maddening because that's not where the evidence led to.

When Jeff took the stand, the defense was relentless. They raked him over the coals, and like he hadn't been through all this for the last 40 years. They definitely wanted to put the crimes back on me, the murders back on me. It was quite painful. The defense claimed Jeff had motive to kill his wife. They said he was angry at Bobby Joe because the day before her murder, she brought home cold pizza. Jeff had told investigators about the pizza years earlier.

I kind of found that a little bit ludicrous. I couldn't fathom Jeff killing Bobby Joe over a cold piece of pizza. And the defense questioned Jeff about his bizarre behavior, like when he told investigators about that premonition he had about where and when he thought Annette's body would be found. Details the defense argued only the killer would most likely know. This could be seen as pretty damning to some, right? And so it was.

I just tried to tell the truth and answer the questions. And what about the DNA evidence against Phillips? Hoping to create reasonable doubt, the defense claimed evidence had been tampered with and mishandled throughout the years. There was some contamination. It wasn't known, oh, I have to be careful and wear gloves so I don't get my DNA on that item. But the bottom line is, the blood that is on Bobby Joe's glove and the tissue was Alan Phillips' blood.

How do you explain that? The prosecution said there was a simple explanation. Alan Lee Phillips was the one and the only one who murdered Bobby Joe and Annette. I mean, what are the odds that it could be anybody else? On the glove, it was 1 in 17 quadrillion, which is 2,275,000 times the population of the earth. Wow. Phillips' DNA was found on Bobby Joe's belongings, says Wendy Kipple, only because Bobby Joe fought for her life and caused him to bleed.

She was a fighter, and without her being a fighter, we wouldn't have the DNA that we needed to solve this case. And what about those orange booty socks? DNA testing conducted months before trial revealed that Annette's DNA was on the inside and Bobby Joe's DNA was on the outside of that orange booty sock found on Hoosier Pass, not far from Bobby Joe's body. So that ties both women to that one sock. But despite the strong DNA evidence against Phillips, investigator Charlie McCormick was concerned. Would the way DNA was challenged by the defense confuse a jury?

Are they going to buy it? Are they going to understand it? After two weeks of testimony, the case finally went to the jury. Jeff and Wendy were nervous. Were you worried the jury is going to have reasonable doubt? I felt that that was possible. There's always doubt. There's always doubt because you know that there's probably one juror that might hang up everybody and you never know. What do you make of the case against Alan Phillips? Chat now with the 48 Hours team. 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. 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. Bathroom Mirror Murder, early and ad-free on Wondery Plus and the Wondery app. Tell me what it was like for you waiting for the verdict.

Pins and needles. On Thursday, September 15th, 2022, the families of Bobby Joe Oberholzer and Annette Schnee anxiously awaited the jury's decision. Was Alan Lee Phillips guilty or not guilty? It just takes one juror that didn't believe it. The waiting was the hardest part, says Detective Sergeant Kipple. Thankfully, the jury kept it short. Four hours and 45 minutes. the jury kept it short.

Four hours and 45 minutes. The jury's verdict on eight charges, including two counts each of first-degree murder, felony murder, and kidnapping, guilty as charged. He's going to get what he deserves now. Oh, and I just couldn't believe it was happening. I was so happy.

Tell me about the emotions you were feeling as the verdict was read. Alan Phillips Phillips guilty. I think I let out a sigh. For Jeff Oberholzer, justice had finally been served and decades of suspicion decisively lifted. And there was a great weight lifted from my shoulders. We hugged and said, you know, we were happy for him and for us and that it was over. Over for everyone. Over for everyone. Alan Lee Phillips showed no emotion, but his daughter did. His poor daughter cried. I felt bad for the family.

Because what they were going through had to be bad. Because they probably wanted to believe, you know, that he didn't do it. 48 Hours reached out to the Phillips family and legal team for interviews, but they all declined our requests. A little over seven weeks later, Phillips was back in court for sentencing. His attorney insisted that his client had been wrongfully convicted. He maintains his innocence, and he maintains that the wrong man is being sentenced. But Judge Stephen Groom wasn't persuaded and handed down two consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole.

To give him the maximum allowed by law. He then addressed the families of Annette Schnee and Bobby Joe Oberholzer. I wish you the best and hope the healing starts today. But it seems that justice for Annette and Bobby Joe may not be the end of this story. Some investigators believe that the case against Alan Lee Phillips is not yet closed. There are a lot of lingering questions, but the one main one is, are there more victims? What do you think? Short answer, yes.

I think there are several that he certainly could qualify for. There's just no evidence to prove it. Not yet. While investigators carry on, two families still struggle. You know, once you give someone your love, you never take it back. And I don't want to. There's a special place in my heart, and Bobby will always be there.

I was cheated out of 40 years without my sister. We'd still be the best of friends today if she was still here. He took a really good person away from this world, and it saddens me that we won't ever get to know how she was when she was 30 or when she was 40 or 50. And because Alan Lee Phillips maintains his innocence, they still have one more agonizing question. Why, you know, why did you take these two beautiful girls? In honor of Annette and Bobby Joe, Annette's sisters and brother decided to visit where the young women were murdered. There's a cross. There it is.

They were there to thank Bobby Joe for fighting back and causing Alan Lee Phillips to leave behind his DNA. Without her, we wouldn't be here. Nope. Thank you, Bobby Joe. Yes, thank you, Bobby Joe. Thank you, Bobby Joel. Yes, thank you, Bobby Joel.

At the place where Annette's body was found, they delivered a long overdue message to their sister. Well, Annette, they caught him. He'll be in prison for the rest of his life. Ellen Phillips. Just wanted you to know. Love and miss you. We'll be right back. convicted. She was very close with Michael. He was her baby. 48 hours, Saturday on CBS and streaming on Paramount Plus. 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

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