48 Hours - Spies, Lies, and Secrets

Episode Date: January 25, 2024

Shane Todd, a high-tech engineer, was found dead in his Singapore apartment in 2012.. He was scheduled to leave the country in a matter of days when he was found dead. To the police in Singapore, he was just an American who killed himself. But his parents believed he was killed because he was unwilling to go along with a plan to share cutting-edge American technology with China. “48 Hours" correspondent Peter Van Sant reports. This classic "48 Hours" episode last aired on 6/28/2014. Watch all-new episodes of “48 Hours” on Saturdays, and stream on demand on Paramount+.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. It was 1989 in Titusville, Florida. Kim Halleck said she and her ex-boyfriend Chip Flynn were kidnapped and attacked at gunpoint. Kim fled the scene, but Chip didn't make it out alive. Did you kill Chip Flynn? No, ma'am. Crosley Green has lived more than half his life behind bars for a crime he says he didn't commit. I'm Erin Moriarty of 48 Hours, and of all the cases I've covered, this is the one that troubles me most, involving an eyewitness account that doesn't quite make sense. A sister testifying against a brother.

They always say lies. You can't remember lies. A lack of physical evidence and questions about whether Crosley Green was accused, arrested and convicted because he's black. Just because a white female says a black man has committed a crime, we take that as gospel. Listen to Murder in the Orange Grove, the troubled case against Crosley Green, early and ad-free on Wondery Plus in the Wondery app. Shane had a spirit of adventure, and he wanted to do something different,

and I think he wanted to see the world. Rick begged him not to go to Singapore in the first place. I warned him. He said, you've got to be very, very careful. I never in a million years thought that they'd actually kill my son. Before Shane's death, we were the average American family. I would say we were a Pollyanna family. In your bed, it's all rock and roll. Just saw life as rosy and had long-term marriage, great kids.

After Shane's death, we've been thrown into a spy movie, an intriguing espionage story that would be fascinating if it wasn't about us. Look, an American has died in Singapore under suspicious circumstances while working on high technology. That is a story. Our son told us ahead of time that he was being pressured to compromise U.S. security and that he would not do it. He wouldn't go along with the illegal transfer of technology to China. One friend who knew him said he was such a loyal American.

I mean, he was really red, white, and blue. He was very patriotic. He was clearly anxious about work. He clearly did not like the situation at work, whatever it was. His girlfriend told me he hated his job. Did Shane ever tell you that he felt his life was in danger from some outside force?

I just remember him saying there were heavy hands coming after him. When he said that I'm afraid, I said, Shane, if you truly believe this, you need to leave right now. He said, Mom, if you don't hear from me every week, email me right away. If I don't call you immediately, call the American Embassy because something's happened to me. I got dressed and went up to his apartment.

I saw the light shining underneath the doors. And when I opened the door, I got the shock of my life. When I saw him, I just screamed, oh my God, oh my God. She called and I couldn't understand at first what she was saying. Finally, it hit me. My firstborn son was dead. And I just fell to the floor and sobbed. I screamed. I think I told the people next to me, my son just hung himself. The police say it was suicide. The Todds are convinced he was murdered. There is not one shred of evidence that Shane committed suicide. Not one. There's a lot of unanswered questions. Every term, every question that we ask, everything that was given to us has been not true.

Spies, lies, and secrets. Half a world away from where Shane died is this majestic slice of Montana's Big Sky Country. Bitterroot Lake, home to the family of Rick and Mary Todd. This is a place that we believed we were always going to have our boys and our grandchildren and hopefully our great-grandchildren. And it is a place that Shane has loved since he was a little, little teeny boy. The Todds could not be more proud of their four boys, John, Chet, Dylan, and Shane. Our sons are the joy and the loves of our lives and they

know it. They were raised to know that they are the priority. We adore them. Centered on the family-run bed and breakfast is the compound that's their base of operations. There's even an airstrip out back. I am a pilot for American Airlines. I fly a Boeing 777. And three out of the four boys are licensed pilots. This is really cool. And for Mary...

All right, let's go do this. There's the airplane hangar that doubles as the church where she's now a pastor. My son Shane is with Jesus now. airplane hangar that doubles as the church where she's now a pastor. My son Shane is with Jesus now. 31-year-old Shane was their oldest. I knew something was different about that child. It's Shane Truman time! And throughout his life, Shane loved to perform.

Pushy, pushy, blonde hair, do you? Surfing your waist, yeah. He was a brilliant child, a brilliant man, and a brilliant scientist. Shane was also a gifted athlete. In his senior year in high school, he took second place in the state wrestling tournament. I tried to wrestle my whole life. It sucked. It's terrible, but... I hated wrestling, man,

because you always won very easily. One of his known things for doing was head-butting. But it was Shane's strong academics that propelled him to earn a Ph.D. in electrical engineering in 2010. He wanted to go out and do something different. So he took off immediately on an adventure to Singapore. And his first job as a research engineer with the prestigious Institute of Microelectronics,

known as IME. What'd you think of it, this decision to go to Singapore? I did not like it at all. It was a hard sell, but I was happy for him, you know. John considered his big brother Shane his best friend. And he's like, it's only for three years, you know, the contract, I'll be back. And our minds never went to a direction of fear or fearing for Shane's life. Shane was content and seemed to be enjoying Singapore for the first year.

He even had a steady girlfriend. Before all this happened, I knew he was okay. But then, everything changed. In February 2012, Shane Todd's career and life here in Singapore suddenly turned threatening. The brilliant engineer, now heading a team researching cutting-edge technology, believed he was in danger. When he said, I think they're asking me to compromise U.S. security, I don't feel comfortable about it. I'm not going to do it. Shane was working with a new and highly challenging technology inside IME,

supplied in part by an American company. Oh, we know that he's doing a lot in gallium nitride. Gallium nitride, or GAN, is used extensively today in LED technology, from lights to television sets to making smartphone screens brighter. But it's the military potential of GAN, such as in advanced radar, that has spawned top secret research. By the spring of 2012, Shane began voicing concerns that scientists from China working with IME were pressuring him for information.

I felt like he was being a little sensationalistic when he said, I fear for my life, my life is being threatened. Then, in June 2012, Mary hears unexpectedly via Facebook from Shane's girlfriend, Shirley. I knew at that point that something was wrong. I had no idea how wrong. It was early evening on a muggy summer day. Responding to an emergency call, police entered Shane's second-floor apartment. What they found was shocking. 31-year-old Shane Todd was dead.

His body hanging from the bathroom door. He hung himself. What happened? I have no idea what happened. I was so shocked. I was so stunned. But to the Todd's surprise, police present them with these five typed suicide notes found on Shane's laptop computer. The first one begins with Shane thanking people he worked with. And I knew right then that my son did not write this note. My son would never thank a company that he hated. And then it went on. It got more ridiculous and more ridiculous.

You gave me so many great memories in life, spending time on the lake in Montana, going to the beach to drink Shirley Temples. We've never once drank Shirley Temples on the beach. Never? No, never. Shane is not in this at all. This is not his writing. This isn't his vernacular. I know how Shane sounds in that. Never? No, never. Shane is not in this at all. This is not his writing. This

isn't his vernacular. I know how Shane sounds in that. It's not Shane. There's things in here that I'm like, this doesn't even sound like an American. Shane was preparing to leave Singapore within days and had a new job lined up in Virginia. But still, Shane told his mother he feared for his life. He also said things to me like, Mom, I'm afraid I'm never going to see you again. Convinced that their son was killed because of the secrets he knew, Rick and Mary Todd embark on a mission. And we needed to get to Singapore. To find the truth. Our son was murdered. We believe it's espionage. We believe that we're uncovering something much bigger than our son.

I think we are Singapore's worst nightmare. 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. 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 bolder risk takers who brought them to life. Like, did you know that Super Mario,

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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 best idea yet. Within a half an hour of hearing of Shane's death, we were packing our bags and going to the airport. So you got there as fast as humanly possible.

Yes. The Todd's first stop in Singapore, a meeting with U.S. Embassy officials who accompanied them to police headquarters. They took us to a little, it looked like an interrogation room. It was a small room. The Todds were briefed

by 23-year-old Detective Mohamed Khaldun, who they say told them an incredible story of the method Shane used to kill himself. They said first he screwed holes in his wall with bolts. To the bolts he attached ropes and pulleys and then he took those ropes and pulleys, slung them around a toilet which was directly behind the bathroom door, fashioned a noose around his neck. He stood on a chair and jumped to his death. Mary refused to believe it. She and son John rushed to Shane's

apartment to see for themselves. Mary took us back there nearly a year later. I quickly walked in and told us exactly what she'd seen only days after Shane was found dead. I opened this bathroom door and I said, John, John, get over here. I said, do you see any bolts? Do you see any screws? And we started touching the wall. I said, is there any place where they could have patched? It was all wrong. Mary immediately called Detective Khaldun,

who came right over. He said, oh, you misunderstood. I said, no, I heard every word you said. Where are the ropes? Where are the police? Oh, no, no, no, no. I said, did you take a picture of my son hanging on this door? And he said, no, in Singapore, we care more about life. So we took him down. And then he said, I'll call you in two to three days and let you know how it happened. I have yet to hear from him. Do you think there's been an intentional campaign to mislead the Todds about what happened in that apartment? Well, it's either intentional or sloppy. Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Ray Bonner is a 48 Hours consultant who broke this story for London's Financial Times.

He was surprised that some basic investigative techniques were not followed by the Singapore police. They didn't dust for fingerprints. I mean, it's criminal law investigation 101. Unprofessional by Western standards. Well, and unprofessional by Singaporean standards. I'm quite surprised. Singapore is not a third Singaporean standards. I'm quite surprised. Singapore is not a third world banana republic. It is quite sophisticated. Singapore is the financial capital of Asia, a booming, sophisticated center that is among the world's richest countries. Bonner says nearly every aspect of life here is closely monitored by the government.

Can't we basically believe they knew everything that Shane Todd was doing in Singapore? If they didn't know it at the time, they do now. They've gone back and found out. The Todds were also piecing together Shane's final hours inside his Singapore apartment. What they found back then was evidence of a son moving on with his life, not preparing to end it. I saw bags packed, laundry in the middle of being done, suitcases out, boxes in the bedroom, his airline tickets stacked on the table. Those all indicated to me that he was going home on July 1st. At the heart of this story is this very bathroom door in Shane Todd's apartment where his body was found.

And the question is, did he commit suicide or did professionals murder Shane Todd and hang him from this door to make it look like suicide? They were trying to say, this is suicide. There's no other way out of this. How many times did he tell you, Shirley, I just can't go on? He never said that at all. Shane's girlfriend, Shirley Sarmiento, was his closest confidant in Singapore. Did he ever say, I'm desperate, I need help, I'm thinking about taking my life?

Never. In fact, Shirley, a registered nurse, says Shane never seemed suicidal. I remember him saying there was something that he was doing or working on that could get him into trouble with United States government. Shane never revealed what that was. What did Shane think of work?

Well, he liked it initially, but towards the end of his life, he expressed how much he hated his job. And were you guys all excited about your brother's coming back to America? Oh, yeah. Oh, man. Yeah, so excited about him coming back.

Yeah, we had tons of plans. I mean, he was going to be moving into Montana for a bit in that summer, and we were talking about what we were going to do, like our usual being on the lake. You guys are smart, and you've added all this up. All these plans that he had, how excited he was to come home. Is this a guy who then decided to check out? No, it doesn't make sense.

He was haggling with people over some of his furniture. I mean, somebody that's suicidal doesn't care about whether they get $20 or $15 for, you know, a TV stand. Shane's belongings were still in his apartment. As Rick and Mary sadly packed up back in June 2012, they say they found something that, at the time, seemed insignificant. I thought it was a Mac speaker. And I said to Rick, do you think one of the boys would be able to use this? And he said, just throw it in the bag. And you guys went back to the United States?

Yes. We are in Montana, and we are both working at our kitchen table. And I said, I think that was a hard drive. Let me go get it. I ended up plugging it into my computer, opened it up and saw that there was a large amount of files on there. It just was full of a lot of information. Technical information, copies of Shane's work files, and most importantly, exact memory of which files had been accessed by someone

three days after Shane was found dead. Discovering the hard drive was huge. Because it proves and it shows what happened and why our son was murdered. Come on up and do a double tap. You ready? Very good. Believing their son Shane was murdered by unknown assailants, Mary and Rick Todd want to be prepared.

Finger off the trigger, right? We believe we know, based on the evidence, what we're up against. And it is a David and Goliath situation. Hi, Scott. Did you get my message? The Todds are convinced that clues about Shane's death are locked inside the external hard drive found in his apartment. I knew that we found something very, very important. I knew that we found something very, very important. So they hired a certified forensic computer analyst who's also a former police officer. His name? Ashraf Massoud.

I hook it up to my forensic laptop machinery, and we do what's called a forensic image. Peter, when I sorted the drive by the last access date, just so I can see what kind of activity was happening on the hard drive, I noticed that the majority of the activity started in a folder called IME. IME, the Institute of Microelectronics, where Shane worked. Someone was opening sensitive files at a time Shane was already dead. And how would you characterize what you found? Suspicious at best, you know, intriguing and concerning, really. It only deals with his work stuff. His pictures are never

touched. None of it is touched except his IME folders. So somebody clearly wants IME information from this hard drive. They want to know what Shane knew. Right. And Shane knew plenty. In January 2012, IME had sent him for specialized training at a New Jersey company supplying sophisticated gallium nitride machinery. We're talking about highly sensitive equipment. Once back at IME in Singapore, Shane told his mother he was being pressured to share what he had learned with representatives of a Chinese company. It was Huawei. Here on this side of the screen, it clearly shows IME and Huawei together, working together. Huawei, the largest telecommunications equipment maker in the world. Until now, the Chinese company's dealings with Singapore's IME about GAN were top secret.

IME will work with Huawei to design and run two iterations before confirming the final specifications mutually. Investigative reporter Ray Bonner was told Shane's GAN research could benefit China. This is something the Chinese Navy would definitely want and our Navy would be very frightened that the Chinese Navy would have because it would help guide their missiles and would put our ships, American ships, at risk. China's Huawei technologies was investigated at length by the House Intelligence Committee in 2012. The committee warned that Huawei may have links with China's military and poses a national security risk to the United States.

If he came back to the United States with everything that we know was on his external hard drive, he could have gotten Huawei and IME in a lot of trouble. So eliminate him, eliminate the problem. These companies initially said that there was no contact between them over this gallium nitride research. Yeah, pretty surprising, huh? Peter, what's been funny

is we've not changed our story from day one because we're telling the truth. IME and Huawei keep changing their story. They first had no affiliation with each other. Oh, well Huawei keep changing their story. They first had no affiliation with each other. Oh, well then they had talks and now they're saying well they approached us but we didn't, we denied. We have evidence to the contrary. We have evidence that there was far more than just talks and that's why we believe our son was murdered.

The Todds also turned to Dr. Edward Adelstein. I've been practicing in pathology for over 35 years, but I've been a medical examiner for over 20. The Todds hoped that as chief of pathology at the VA hospital in Columbia, Missouri, he'd be able to bolster their case. At no expense to the Todds, he agreed to review the autopsy report from Singapore and to study photos of Shane's body taken at this family-owned mortuary back in the United States. When I saw these photographs, and this one in particular, then I became even more concerned that this was quite atypical of a standard suicide. As I see this as makeup covering up what I would call blunt trauma to his head. And it's not mentioned in the autopsy,

yet it's very critical. Remember, Shane was a championship wrestler, and his father said he'd often headbutt opponents if he got into a fight. These photographs are very important, and the Singaporean authorities, they interpret them very differently than you do. They claim this is blood pooling, lividity, essentially. What do you say to that? I say they're wrong. We always look at people's hands because we're always interested to see whether they're bruises

because it indicates they've been in a fight. So it's hard for me to believe that I would misinterpret this. And to Dr. Adelstein, this line around Shane's neck is further proof that someone killed him. Based on your examination, is this suicide by hanging or murder by strangulation? It's murder by strangulation. We believe our son was killed by two hitmen, at least two,

according to the pathologist's report. With their expert findings in hand, Mary and Rick now desperately want to sound an alarm. In the fall of 2012, they called Ray Bonner. The Todds felt that nobody was listening to them, and nobody was. The Todds said to me at one point, we don't want our son to just be forgotten, you know, he's disappeared. We were begging for help and people wouldn't listen to us until that Financial Time article came out. And boom. Boom. Overnight. Viral. The death of an American computer engineer in Singapore.

U.S. researcher Shane Todd. I'm going to be now Shane's parents, Rick and Mary Todd. Thanks, both of you, for being here. Suddenly, everyone seemed interested in the Todd's case, from inside the halls of Congress... Allow me to talk to the FBI. I'm just going to do a quick debrief. ...to senators... Mary Todd. ...and up to Secretary of State John Kerry,

who met with Singapore's prime minister. Pressure was mounting. Singapore announced an expanded coroner's inquiry into Shane's death, and his parents prepared for one more trip to where their son died. Who in their right mind would put themselves through what we're going through? This is agonizing. The Todds deserve to know the truth. I think some people need to be held accountable

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The day before the inquest into her son's death is Mother's Day. The Todds attend church in Singapore. They then make the emotional pilgrimage to Shane's apartment, now nearly a year after his death. Look at that. They still have the marks on the door. We're less than 24 hours away from you beginning this inquiry,

this inquest that you have longed for. What's going through your mind now? Frankly, I want it to be over. I really do. I pray the judge is a fair and righteous judge, but I want it over. I want to go home. I don't like being here. The inquest of a dead American engineer dominates the news. The state council and the Todd's Singaporean lawyers will each present facts over the next two weeks.

There is no jury. A judge will decide if Shane's death was suicide, homicide, or undetermined. Cameras are not allowed inside the courtroom. The first witness is Shane's girlfriend, who testifies that Shane told her he'd been depressed for about eight months. When Shane used the word depression, was he talking about, hey, I'm just depressed, as Americans will say, or do you think he was saying to you, I'm ill, I need help? When he told me that, he said he was depressed. He seemed really sad about work, but it wasn't like he was crying, I'm desperate, I need help.

Shane apparently did need help. It's revealed in court that he once visited a Singapore psychiatrist who diagnosed Shane with moderate depression and prescribed antidepressants. He made the determination he was depressed on several factors. There was weight loss, loss of energy and fatigue, and inability to concentrate. But the doctor also said today that he did not show any signs of suicide. But a forensic analysis of Shane's computer shows

that he visited suicide-related websites on 19 different days in the months leading up to his death. The Singaporean investigators claim that your son researched how to tie a hangman's noose seven separate times. You buying it? No. No, the thing is, you've got to understand, and the people need to understand, that they never secured Shane's computer. So you're saying someone could have manipulated this computer, put false memory into it, essentially? Absolutely. They had over a month in order to do that. But why would they do that?

To cover it up. A blatant conspiracy to cover the truth. Evidence of possible witness tampering is revealed when the judge is given a transcript of a secretly recorded audio tape. On that tape, Shane's boss, Dr. Patrick Lowe, tries to keep secret the joint project between IME and Huawei, the very project that Shane was working on. Lowe says, quote, it's only between us and the police. There are secrets in Singapore,

and although a lot will come out, a lot has come out, there's still things we don't know. Under questioning at the inquest, Dr. Lowe admits that an IME team led by Shane did in fact discuss a joint project with Huawei, precisely what the Todds say they discovered on Shane's external hard drive. But Dr. Lowe insists the project had nothing to do with classified military research. Shane Todd told his parents that he feared he had compromised American security. Did he think, I'm going back to the United States, I might be prosecuted?

The answers reside with IME. What was Shane Todd working on? What kind of meetings did he have with Huawei or others? One mystery seemingly was solved when the Singapore police admit it was Detective Khaldun who accessed Shane's hard drive and that IME folder three days after his death. But many questions about the case remain, and Ray Bonner says it's partly due to the Todd's lawyers. Were the Todd's lawyers overmatched? Yes. They were the worst cross-examiners that I've ever experienced. My parents are desperately reaching over their shoulder and handing them notes,

please ask this, ask this question, why are you letting them say this? It's just like, you know when you're having that bad dream and you're trying to scream and you can't scream, nothing comes out, that's how it felt like, you know? Perhaps the last, best hope for the Todds to prove murder is the testimony of medical examiner Dr. Edward Adelstein. He testifies by videoconferencing from his office in the U.S.

I swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. So help me God. Remember, Dr. Adelstein was convinced Shane was murdered after examining photographs provided by the family. When you look at the scene and the facts, you have no other conclusion. There's none, except that he was murdered. There's no other conclusion. But that was before he saw these official autopsy photos of Shane's neck,

only days before his testimony. I'm changing some aspects of what I think based on the new information I received within the last couple of days. Dr. Adelstein backs off his contention that Shane was strangled with a cord, but continues to insist Shane was somehow murdered by unknown assassins. He died, I think, by a mechanism that I can only guess. There are a number of ways to kill people. Adelstein's reversal and his speculative theories certainly damaged the Todd's case. It was a nightmare. It was horrible. But no one could have predicted what the tods did next 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 would still have heard it. 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 Pitink of extinction. Listen to the Pitcairn Trials exclusively on Wondery+. Join Wondery in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts or Spotify. After six days in court and clearly frustrated with the proceedings... We're getting sprung stuff at the last minute. A drama also erupted in court. Mary and Rick Todd shock everyone. In the afternoon, Dr. Todd's family walked out of the hearing. Within a day, the entire family decides it's time to pack up and go home to Montana.

We're done here. I never want to come back to go home to Montana. We're done here. I never want to come back to Singapore as I live. No matter what evidence that is presented, the conclusion will be the same. Still, the court case continues without them. Goodbye. In all, some 70 witnesses come and go, over 10 days of testimony.

Then, the judge, citing what he calls incontrovertible evidence, finally issues his decision. The state coroner has ruled that the death of American researcher Shane Todd was suicide by hanging. Suicide, not homicide. Suicide, not homicide. Authorities say Shane stood on a chair, put a strap over the door, pushed the chair away, and hanged himself.

The state was against us from the beginning. The state attorneys never even interviewed us personally. Everything was stacked against us to prove their theory of suicide. In a 145-page report, the judge says there was no foul play, nor was any information planted in Shane's computer. The judge found nothing legally wrong in the IME-Huawei relationship. IME-Huawei relationship. Yet he determined the meeting Shane's boss had with IME colleagues was, quote, improper, but not witness tampering.

The evidence presented at the inquest is overwhelming that it was suicide. Journalist Ray Bonner, who's also a lawyer, thinks the Singapore case was strong. It was impressive to watch legalistically and journalistically. It was a serious hearing. Are you two in denial for whatever reasons, maybe with all the pressure at work, that he did take his life? This is a profound tragedy, but do we look like people who are in denial? Do we not have the evidence to back up what we are saying? Do you not believe that we would rather have just had it be a tragedy and gone on instead of fight three countries, China, Singapore, and the United States to bring justice to our son? We are not in denial. Sir, may I ask one question? 48 Hours requested interviews with IME and Singapore officials, including Detective Khaldun.

All refused. But Khaldun did speak with a government-owned news channel about his first meeting with the Todds. I wish to state that I did not mention anything about Nats, boats and police to Shane Todds' parents. The Todds still say Khaldun has been lying since day one, and that they have a witness who could back them up. It would blow up in the case. Surprisingly, it's a top diplomat at the U.S. Embassy, Tracy Goins. Tracy Goins witnessed Detective Call describing to us from a written piece of paper how Shane hung himself with bolts, ropes, and pulleys.

She heard the whole thing. But when the Todd's lawyers wanted Goins to testify, they say they were told that Goins would claim diplomatic immunity. The U.S. Embassy disputes that. 48 Hours asked repeatedly to speak with Tracy Goins. The U.S. Embassy refused. I would like to say, Tracy, now it's time for you to stand up and do what's right and tell the truth. You know Detective Call told a lie when he said he didn't give us that description. Please come forward, Tracy. Who is silencing and why would anyone silence Tracy Goins? We believe it's because the United States

does not want to damage the relationship with Singapore. For Ray Bonner, key questions remain. Of the thousands of files on Shane's hard drive, why did Detective Khaldun choose to open the IME files? Because you had sloppy police work, you're always going to have questions. You're always going to have a hook. In fact, less than a month after Shane died, IME and Huawei abandoned their proposed GAN project. Is this a spy novel? Is this espionage? We do not know. The only people who know are IME and Huawei.

Especially disconcerting for Shane's parents is the statement from the U.S. embassy calling the inquest comprehensive, fair, and transparent. I feel betrayed by our country. I believe if somebody reads through the details and sees the conclusions that this judge had to come to, they would realize this family was hung to dry in Singapore. And the Todd family received more bad news. During the inquest, a government lab admitted it had discovered the DNA of unknown persons on the noose found around Shane's neck. The family requested the noose be returned to them.

48 Hours was told the Todds wanted it independently analyzed. But following what Singapore authorities called normal protocol, the noose was destroyed by police. For Shane's brothers, trying to move on with their lives, even frolicking on the Montana lake that he loved, isn't the same. There's just, there's just a hole there. There's somebody missing. Can't have the same dynamic without Shane being there. He's always on my mind. He's always on my heart, you know? It's like a presence. It's like a body change.

It's weird. I genuinely understand what real pain is now, and I never even knew it real pain existed before this. We are continuing our quest to seek truth and to reveal what we know that we were not allowed to reveal in Singapore. Please continue to celebrate with us the wonderful life of our son Shane. Their pain is somewhat tempered by the strong bond they now have with Shane's girlfriend, Shirley, and by their overwhelming pride for their firstborn son. We just remember him just who he was.

I mean, a loving son, loved his brothers dearly, loved us dearly. The way I would like my son Shane to be remembered is exemplified by his middle name, Truman. Shane was a true man, and we are very, very proud of him. And we know that our son died an American hero. 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.