Anatomy of Murder - Chasing Ghosts (Linda Marie Thies)

Episode Date: May 10, 2022

A rookie investigator faces the brutal homicide of a young Jane Doe. But the answer to who killed her literally walks through the station door.  For episode information and photos, please visit https://anatomyofmurder.com/. Can’t get enough AoM? Find us on social media!Instagram: @aom_podcast | @audiochuckTwitter: @AOM_podcast | @audiochuckFacebook: /listenAOMpod | /audiochuckllc

I'm just thinking that's somebody's daughter. I have two daughters. Just the violation of somebody doing that to anybody, that's sickening to me. That's horrific. That's horrible. I would lose my mind. We had no idea who did this or why.

We were chasing ghosts. I'm Scott Weinberger, investigative journalist and former deputy sheriff. I'm Anasika Nikolazi, former New York City homicide prosecutor and host of Investigation Discovery's True Conviction. And this is Anatomy of Murder. Before we begin, we want to warn you that the description of the crime scene is both very vivid and disturbing. Today's episode has a mix of a lot. There's a Jane Doe, there's a quote-unquote temporary homicide investigator. And there's also a grisly, gruesome crime. I'm often asked, what is the hardest homicide case to solve? Is it a random crime or a cold case or even a murder for hire? And my answer normally starts off with, you know, that's a very good question.

Followed by, it's a case that has good detective work and unbelievable breaks. Today's case is a great example of that. For today's case, we spoke with homicide investigator Dwayne Stanton. Homicide investigation is a puzzle. And you have to find the pieces of the puzzle. But you can't force the pieces. You have to let them fit naturally. Dwayne got his start in serving the public at a really young age.

We're not talking in his 20s. We're not even talking in his teens. When he was a young boy in school, he was a safety patrol officer. I eventually moved from patrol officer to captain of the patrols when I was in the sixth grade in elementary school. All the patrols reported to me. I had a little book. It had all their names in it. And if they were doing the right

thing, if they were on time. And I have to admit, Atasiga, in elementary school, I also was a safety patrol officer. I'm laughing because I'm not surprised. Could you see me standing on the crosswalk telling people where to go? That's totally me. 110%. While other kids were playing outside, sports, doing all kinds of things, maybe even causing trouble, Dwayne spent his time observing a local detective in the neighborhood. One of our neighbors had a boyfriend that was a detective, and he used to come visit her. I remember watching him, and he would pull up, and he would get out, and he was dressed sharply, and his gun on one side, badge on the other, handcuffs around his belt, in an unmarked car.

I said, wow, that's sharp. I really wouldn't mind doing that one day. And as he was rounding out his teens, Dwayne joined the Army. And as you might have guessed, he became a military police officer. I didn't really realize that law enforcement was my niche. Initially, I was stationed in Stuttgart, Germany. And when I came back... He took the test for the police department soon afterwards, intending only to join for a temporary basis. After completing his time at the academy, Dwayne was assigned to the fourth

district in Washington, D.C. And it also happens to be the district in which I was born and raised. Early in his career, Dwayne always was interested in the process. I wanted to go up the chain and follow up with the detectives to find out, you know, what happens. What happens after Officer Stanton goes to the scene and completes a 251, which is an incident report or offense report? What happens after that? And after about a year of impressing homicide detectives from his work in the field,

Dwayne was selected to be part of the homicide branch. But it was only temporary. That was unheard of. I was sent there temporarily for 30 days. I was a young officer. I had less than two years on the street. And here I am going down to homicide. People have waited their entire careers.

And I will never forget, on my very first day, I was nervous, of course. I was the youngest guy, not only in the homicide branch, but I was the youngest guy in the criminal investigation division. On Saturday morning, November 1st, 1986, soon after he began his work in homicide, a call came in that Dwayne remembers vividly. We got a call late morning to go to Pennsylvania Avenue Southeast for the unconscious person. Two boys were playing on the railroad tracks

when they walked up on a disturbing scene, a woman's body. She was half naked, lying in the bushes. And they ran home and told their parents, and the parents called the police. The 6th District responded out, and then they called for homicide. Based on this being his first case,

I'm sure like any other detectives, you're hypersensitive to any detail. Trying to work through the motions, knowing so much is riding on every move that you make. It's a heightened state of alert. We get into the cruiser. I'm excited now because, you know, I've only been there a short period of time. And even though it's death and destruction, I mean, I'm getting a chance to sharpen my skills and learn more.

So when we get to the scene over near the railroad tracks and some shrubbery, you can see the remains of a Caucasian female, partially clad, and part of her skull was missing. But there was much more than that that told them so much of what had gone on before. She had a skirt on that had been pulled up and looked like it had been torn. Her panties were missing and no shoes. Her leg had been kind of placed over the other thigh as if she'd almost been rolled over. Her brow had been pulled to the side. Her blouse was on one arm or one shoulder. So you likely know exactly the type of attack that the police clearly believed she had endured.

She was a Jane Doe. We didn't have any identification. We had no idea who this woman was. I could see part of her skull, and it was like a gaping hole in her skull. It was extremely disfigured. It was disfigured like you would not believe. And we could actually see brain matter. And any of us hearing it, you know, you were just struck by the cruelty and the amount of brutality and trauma that she endured. And you can hear it just in the way that Dwayne recounts his memories of what he saw that day. I've seen a lot in my 40 plus years in this business.

I don't think I've, as of today, seen anything quite that bad. Crime scene technicians arrive to process the scene and they take their time doing meticulous work. Investigators and technicians are on the scene literally for hours before they even touch the body. Something you learn in homicide investigation, you never can recreate a scene. So you want to take your time, and you want to process every inch of that crime scene, because you'll never get it back again. Photographs over photographs over photographs from every angle. Time is on your side, and what you do there could make all the difference

in solving the case and prosecuting the case. The medical examiner determined that she had been strangled. That was a contributing factor to her death. Blunt force trauma coupled with strangulation was the cause of death. They also know from the autopsy that her body was likely dumped by the railroad tracks within 24 hours of it being found. So, Scott, we know that there is no identification and this young woman is just left lying in this field and is going to be at least temporarily termed this Jane Doe. You know, it's what you don't find at the crime scene that makes her a Jane Doe. You know, no one at the scene may know your victim, no identification found on or near

the body. You have to deploy other investigative methods like, is there any tattoos or defining things on the body that you were able to use? Maybe even the potential to do a sketch of the victim to be able to use to bring to the area, to ask the public for help. We need to find out who she is. So we have a service that's called Teletype.

And although this is long before my years as a prosecutor, I do remember certainly from watching the television shows at the time, it's basically a typewriter that is spitting out information. You could almost hear it like clank out the paper as the paper rolled off the top onto the ground. It's a system that you can type in, is there a missing person, Caucasian female,

partially clad, early 20s, short blonde hair, anywhere in the area. And this goes to all police departments. I'm really going to date myself here. Yes, teletype machines are located at many police agencies. And that message is sent to agencies all over the area, even all over the country. It was a couple of days later, we got a call from a police department and they said they had a missing person by the name of Linda Marie Thies, 22 years old, and she had been missing since the day before we found her body.

Now detectives must confirm that ID with family members, and detectives did locate the victim's brother Bill and asked him if he would come down to identify the body, which is obviously a heartbreaking process. You know, we jumped in the cruiser and he came over to the ME's office and sadly he possibly identified her as his sister. We need to just take a pause right here because while it's moving the story forward to talk about her being identified, let's just think about that for a moment. Remember the way that she was described. Well, that's the way that her brother needed to look at her to identify if, in fact, this was his sister.

And it just makes you turn your head and just want to scream. So it's the reality of it coming, you know, full force for us all. And to remember that these stories are all about people. You know, we both know that the AMI's office does the best they can to make this showing as respectful as possible. Understanding the gravity and why a family member is there, what they're there to do, what's their task is to identify a loved one. But that moment is never easy for anyone to see, especially for a family member like Bill to see his sister in that condition. And if you're curious, like, how it is that that happens, it happens usually in one of two ways.

Someone comes to the medical examiner's office and actually identifies the body and is shown that person. And sometimes the decision is made to show them a photograph. There are cases where they do not show the actual body, where they start with showing items that were recovered from the crime scene. For instance, personal items that may have been jewelry or it could be a pocketbook without ID. Often when things are like this, extremely brutal.

Now, we don't know which one he was shown here, but it wouldn't matter because no matter what he looked at, his sister in person or a photograph, it would have been brutal and that much more difficult as he faced the reality that she was gone. That was probably some of the hardest work we had to do as homicide detectives because typically you're going to bear bad news, horrible news, horrific news. And you have to be sympathetic and empathetic. And you feel for these people.

I mean, they just lost their loved one, their child. And I always say that, you know, it's out of order for a parent to have to bury their child. That's just wrong to me. Just think about Duane and the other investigators' resolve to solve this case all the more as they come face to face with her family members' reaction at seeing how she was left in her death. So now your work starts. You got a piece of the puzzle now. You know who she is. Now you got to find out what she's about, who her friends are, boyfriends, associates, girlfriends. You delve into all that. Linda was born in March of 1964

in Ellicott City, Maryland. She was raised in Hartford County, I think it was, with her parents. Good family. She was one of three children. She was the youngest. She had two older brothers. And her mom talked about while she was excited when every single one of her children were born that she was particularly excited when she now finally had a little girl that came along. She adored the ocean and was a member of the high school swim team. Full of life and into sports, horseback riding, softball. She was on the high school swim team. Her father also bought a camper trailer and a cabin cruiser, and they got away as often as they could.

Trips across the country, they would hook up a camper to the car and drive across country. But as so many young people, they take the wrong road. We all make mistakes. The more investigators dug into Linda, they uncovered something from her past that may or may not have led to her murder. The pictures that I've seen of Linda, she is always smiling, and she just has this very, like, sweet countenance is how I'd best describe it. But, you know, like so many, there's always so much more behind the photographs.

And she struggled in life. She had what her mom called difficult teenage years. She actually dropped out of high school when she was in 11th grade. But she did go on to vocational school, and she decided that she wanted to be a beautician. But there was more than that for Linda. Because as her brother Bill told Duane and other investigators, there was another piece of information that might be relevant to the investigation. Linda was a recovering addict. She had several drug possessions, and she had a lot of trials and tribulations with drugs. She would use drugs, and she would get help, and then she would go back to them and get help again.

And it was kind of like a revolving door. At the time of her death, Linda had completely turned her life around. She was doing well and recently finished a 30-day drug rehab program. Her brother had helped her get a job. She was doing so well where she was. So based on that, she was able to go out and get her own apartment. While devastating to her family whenever this had happened, it was all the more surprising that it had happened now when she had really been turning her life around and seemed to be really going down a much healthier path. So now that investigators know who Linda was, the next step is to investigate and learn where she had been in the moments leading up to her death.

It was the 31st of October. She called her mom and said she was going to hang out with some friends. Her mom had been worried about Linda's car because it wasn't working properly, but her daughter had said, Mom, I can take care of myself. And she would frequent kind of like a local bar. Everybody knew everybody in the neighborhood and shoe pool and have drinks and those kind of things. That bar also saw some drug activity, especially in the parking lot. What we learned was that Linda, this particular night, she was there with friends.

But at some point, she got separated from her friends and walked to a nearby convenience store, a 7-Eleven. Continuing on our timeline, investigators were able to locate that 7-Eleven, and that's where Dwayne would get his first confirmation on the timeline of events. And then we have her arriving at 7-Eleven on the video. The manager said, let me know. We showed him a picture and it's oh, yeah, she was here. 7-Eleven is just their pay phones outside of the store. Even though the convenience store had a surveillance camera within the store,

nothing outside, which was a complete disappointment for investigators. Cameras were not very popular at that time, and they were very expensive. So no, they didn't have any on the exterior. She actually came in and got some change and was on the telephone, but he wasn't privy to her conversation. And one of her friends, a young woman, confirmed that Linda's car indeed wasn't working properly, just like her mom had already reported. And she also added that she had probably gone to the payphone that night to try to call somebody to help and get her. So we have her car, and then we have her walking to 7-Eleven getting on the payphone. But as it turns out, that call wasn't necessarily for a ride. It was actually a call for help. The only thing that we know, the person that

she had called on the phone, she explained to them that somebody was bothering her. And her friend recalled that Linda did sound upset and then just hung up. In turn, her friend dialed 911. After she made the phone calls, the police went to the 7-Eleven, but Linda was not there when they got there. One thing that stood out to Duane and the other detectives now working this homicide case is that there was clearly this chunk of time

that was just missing between when Linda had been seen at 7-Eleven and her death and then when her body was found. And that's the part that they really needed to hone in on to figure out. Who was she with? And more importantly, who was making her uncomfortable enough to reach out and make that call? We had an ex-boyfriend, because, you know, you always start with the loved ones. So we were gathering his information, but the family told us there was no bad blood between them, that they were aware of.

The various possibilities of who she had ended up with were really endless. She was involved in the drug life, obviously. Maybe she owes a drug bill to, or she rogged in some shape, form, or fashion. Was it a predator? But ultimately, they led investigators nowhere. We had no idea who did this or why. We were chasing ghosts. You know, Anastasia, I love the saying, chasing ghosts, because to me,

the meaning is really possible theories about people without a name or a face. And they were these theories based on nothing, right? They had no information that was actually pointing them there other than these generalities. So they're just going, and it's almost like they're grasping at thin air. We were chasing a person or persons that we didn't know who they were. Who is it? We need to identify, grasp, get, obtain. We have to grab this and we have no idea where we're going. As investigators continue to pound the pavement, out of nowhere, a phone call would come in that finally set this case into overdrive.

Two days after Linda had been found, a police officer from the next county over made a connection between her death and a group of people that he had questioned that very same night that she'd been killed. And what he remembered is that he'd been on routine patrol that night and he's out looking for stolen cars. And in the early hours of that morning, he sees a car, and it catches his attention, not because of the car itself, it was a burgundy Pontiac Firebird, but because it's in a elementary school parking lot, and it's dark, and there's nothing there, and he can see that there's people inside.

You know, it's 1 or 2 o'clock in the morning. He sees this car sitting behind the school, so he pulls behind the school. He calls a backup. So he goes over there, he puts his high beams on, his spotlights, and inside the car he sees three young men and one woman. I can tell you from my experience on the road, three men and a woman sitting in a car in an empty parking lot in the middle of the night. Yes, it's suspicious, but it's not uncommon. But he also doesn't know what they're doing and

what he's about to face. However, any member of law enforcement, including myself, would want to check that out. So when he gets back up, he steps out of the car, he walks over to the car, he asks all the occupants, these three men and this young woman, to get out of the car. He had everyone step out of the car, patting them down for his safety. And he said, it just looks strange. But then the officer takes the added step of pulling this young woman aside. Away from the guys and said, are you OK? Are you being held against your will? Is there anything you need me to do? And she did say to him, according to the officer, yes, I'm fine.

The officers collected the ID from all four people and ran their names to see if there was any potential warrants. But past that, they weren't violating any laws. So he let them go. But now this officer realizes that the young woman he saw was a homicide victim. And we took a picture of Linda, a mugshot. She had a mugshot because she had been locked up, and put it in the photo array of eight other pictures. And he immediately picked out Linda as the person he saw at the car. While any eyewitness testimony is powerful evidence, an independent member of law

enforcement is a significant witness in a case like this. A member of law enforcement who is trained to pick up and remember specific details, vehicle descriptions, potential suspect descriptions. This officer had a direct interaction with our victim, and this is powerful. And in this case, he also had notes. In many police agencies across the country, officers are either required to fill out a log or a form detailing the interaction with a member of the public. On this night, that's exactly what this officer did and detailed all of the information. She said, I wrote some information down on a piece of paper. He said, I might still have it.

He went out to the car and came back and he had kind of crumpled up a piece of paper that had a registration on it. So this is not just a break. I mean, this is a huge break because now they actually have the identity of that car, who it belongs to. So with the registration, they know the names of the people in the car. And while it's big,

that's not the biggest thing that they're about to get because at the same time, one of the three men who had been in that car shows up at the police station. Investigators were working fresh leads in the murder of 22-year-old Linda Marie Thies. A Prince George's County police officer had stopped the vehicle that she and three other men were in just before the murder occurred.

So now we want to know who owns that car. We run it through the system. The car belonged to Terrence Waters. So we went over and just kind of passed the house. And lo and behold, there's this Trans Am, late model, burgundy in color, sitting right in front of the house. Chances are there's some sign of Linda Marie Fee's in that car. You know, they're not just going to say, can I get in? Because if they ask the owner if they can get in the car and then they say no, well, now, first of all, they're leading it down a whole different road.

So now we come up with a plan. What do we do? We do have the right and the ability to have the car towed and have it impounded because it was identified in a homicide. As the tow truck was hooking up the car, a woman approached the officers and asked, why are you towing my son's car? And then we find out that she's Terrence D. Waters' mother. So we said it was named an investigation, identified an investigation, and gives her a business card. As investigators wait for the search warrant for the car, they did not stop working. We went up three or four days straight. They teach you the first 72 hours are the most crucial. But we were up day and night working on this thing.

They wanted to locate the three individuals who were with Linda. But here's where luck really plays a role in this case. Because one of those three men was already at the police station. Wow. I mean, that doesn't happen. This guy in his early 20s, and he's got a newspaper like rolled up under his arm. And he was kind of cavalier, but he was clearly nervous. And what he said was, I want to come in here and talk to you guys, because I saw the female's picture on the news. And I was with her, and I was with some other guys last Friday night.

For purpose of today, we're going to call that man witness number one. We don't arrest him. We put him in the car down to our office in Washington, D.C. So this potential witness,

witness number one, began telling the events, at least according to him, as he saw them. He was clearly nervous as he spoke to investigators, but he was also very matter-of-fact. Now, another thing to know about him is that he did have his own criminal record. He had served four years for armed robbery. But from that point forward, it at least seemed on paper that he had turned his life around.

So maybe he's there because just the idea of going back to jail is enough to make him walk in those precinct doors. The witness explained that on Friday evening, he linked up with two other guys named Roy Lee Lewis and Terrence Lee Waters, aka Anthony. Roy Lewis came to the witness's home in Capitol Heights and Anthony Waters joined them later. Waters told them that basically the guys were looking for sex. So while they're out and about with that purpose in mind, that's when they end up at a 7-Eleven. The same 7-Eleven that Linda had made her phone calls from.

While the witness was inside the 7-Eleven buying snacks, Waters struck up a conversation with a girl outside. The witness said he never found out her name on that night. Now, according to Witness 1, Waters asked this young woman if she wanted to hang out and get high, and the young woman said yes. According to Witness 1, she got into the car willingly in the back seat with Terrence Lee Waters, who owned the car. But Roy Lewis was driving the car, and witness one was in the front seat. After picking up some PCP, they drove back to Maryland and parked behind that abandoned elementary school. And soon after they had finished smoking, well, that's when that police officer who we had talked about earlier pulled up to investigate.

The reason why this information is so critical is that it directly matches up with probably our most reliable witness. There is a police officer who approached the car in that parking lot of that elementary school. He is an eyewitness. And remember, after the police investigate that car with the occupants inside, they're eventually released. So it's about 2.30 in the morning, and that group is about ready to go to their next location. They went back to Witness One's apartment. At this point, I guess, it looks like the PCP and all the alcohol was kicking in, and Linda, she needed assistance. And they got her up to his apartment. Once inside the apartment, Waters tries to bring Linda into the bedroom,

but she did not want to go. She kind of comes around and she said, you know, where am I? Take me home. I don't want to be here. And at that point, when this one says, hey, look, I didn't sign up for this. Y'all need to take her home and get the hell out of here. I'm not taking part in this whatsoever. So goodbye and goodnight. And that's the last that he saw of them that night. not him. Yes, he's there. They go to his apartment, but it's the other guy who's trying to get her into the bedroom. It's him that tells the others to leave. At every turn, he's really trying to

remove himself from anything bad that's really happening. I think in order to evaluate anyone's credibility in a situation like this, in this case, Witness 1, you have to ask yourself what benefits him by telling the story the way he's telling and the details that he gives, removing himself from these sections. That is an important thing for investigators. That is a BRF. It's a big red flag. And I think this falls under the statement that you always make, Anastasia. It's that admit what you have to deny what you can. And let's think about it. Remember, a police officer got all of their names. So it doesn't take a rocket scientist to know that their identities, at least, are going to be discovered quickly once they've already determined that the young woman with them has now been found dead

by those railroad tracks. We see it all the time that the first one in the door has potentially the most opportunity for becoming a witness instead of a defendant, or at least that opportunity of striking a deal. And at least that's where you have to be suspect of here. He was very convincing. He said, man, I've been in jail and I don't plan on going back to jail. And I'm not going to jail for no stupid like this. And that's why I'm here talking to you. Whatever you need to know from me, I will tell you. I don't need a lawyer.

I'll tell you exactly what you need to know because I'm not with it. Obviously, people can lie and alter the truth to save themselves. I mean, that's human nature. But what they can't alter is science. And here they have a vehicle they've already impounded.

And what information is that going to bring to them? After the first 72 hours, we secured a search warrant for the car and its contents. So the FBI came out. They searched the car. They were hoping to find potential evidence inside that car that could be a change maker, even requesting the assistance of the FBI themselves to do an advanced forensic scrubbing of the vehicle. The search took hours. I mean, hours and hours and hours. Those evidence technicians went through that car, every nook, every cranny, every fiber. They collected it,

they vacuumed it, they swabbed it. And in the interior, what they found corroborated what they already knew from that officer. There were some blonde hairs and things like that. But that alone didn't prove anything. But in the trunk of the car, there was transfer of blood as well as brain matter. That is a very big moment, big enough to knock on a prosecutor's door and begin a conversation about placing people in custody for murder. But here's the thing. Remember, it's 1986. They have blonde hair and they have blood.

Testing doesn't happen quickly, so you aren't going to have those answers yet. At the same time, you have people out there running around on the street that have, someone has committed a very brutal crime. And so that's really the conversation between Dwayne and the other investigators that he was working with. So the next step is really going to be in this case to pull those people in and try to speak with them. Typically, what we would do is go get Terrence Lee Waters and bring him in and talk to him, not under arrest, and give him the opportunity to tell us what happened. Waters may not have been aware that his co-defendants had already given statements to police. So if that's the fact, he may paint himself in a corner making statements to implicate himself. If he makes an admission, maybe even a confession if they're that lucky,

well, then they have all their pieces in place and enough to put those handcuffs on him while they wait for those test results to come back in. We're spitballing, you know, about what to do next. We're still talking about if we should have locked up Witness 1. Before investigators had a chance to call Waters in to talk with them, another amazing thing happens. Here again, luck plays a role for a third time. Things like this just don't happen.

Terrence Waters walks into the station with his mother. Terrence Lee Waters said, I want to talk to you. Terrence Lee Waters had confided in his mother. She asked him, why are the police taking your car? Terrence Lee Waters had confided in his mother. She asked him, why are the police taking your car? Terrence Lee Waters wasn't raised in the city. He was a country boy. He was raised by his grandparents somewhere down on a farm, you know, guys hanging on the street,

and he wanted to be accepted. So she asked him why they're taking the car. He said, Ma, you know, something bad happened. And then he goes into a story, but it was enough of the story for her to be concerned, worried, and say, look, we're going to talk to the police. So she actually brought him down to the police station. That doesn't happen. There are two types of language going on in an interrogation room.

There is the spoken word, which is talking directly with your subject. And then there is body language. And when investigators sat down with Terrence Waters, they were keying on both. Now, he's nervous as a cat on a hot tan roof. He's showing all the signs. His mouth is dry. His lips are chapped. He needs some water, smoking a cigarette. And if their goal is to see if he will make any admissions, things they can use in their case as evidence against him. Well, the first thing they need to do in all these cases is build a rapport. You make the subject matter of your interview comfortable,

and that's exactly what they did here. You go in, you talk about family, you talk about the Washington Redskins, if they're a fan, you talk about the local basketball team. We got the food, we got, you know, cigarettes, candy, you name it, for defendants to make them comfortable. Because even though they've committed a dastardly deed, we have to keep our mission in mind. And our mission in mind is to extract information that they don't want to share with you. You know, it's all about really getting the opportunity to ask questions. If the person

you're interviewing wants a lawyer, it's game over. But if you have that opportunity to talk about things that are unrelated directly with the case, to get somebody comfortable and to see that you are there to really find out the truth, that gives them the opportunity to feel comfortable enough to answer a few questions, which opens that door ever so little as it could be to give you an opportunity to get information. I'm sure you probably heard the term good cop, bad cop. One would kind of play the role of a good guy. One would play the role of a bad guy. And believe it or not, that works. You set the detectives on either side of the table. A lot of times the subject will kind of gravitate

to one of the two. So if he's looking at the detective on the right-hand side more than the left, you let him be the good cop. The camera is on, the players are all in place, but detectives were not prepared for what they were about to hear. Terrence Water sat down with investigators and it didn't take long before he confirmed everything that witness number one

had said when he had come in before, including the fact that he, this other guy, and this woman who we know is Linda were kicked out of Witness No. 1's apartment, and he picked up this gruesome tale from there. They got her back downstairs, put her in the car. They come up with this master plan. We just need to give you the warning from here

that some of what you're about to hear next contains not only graphic detail of homicide, but also of sexual assault. You can choose not to hear the depiction by fast forwarding one minute. They drive her to a park, like a ball field, in Maryland. They took her out of the car. According to Waters, Lewis said, we're going to have sex with her. And according to Waters, Lewis went first. They took her out of the car, lay her on the ground. But the young woman, who we know as Linda, was becoming more lucid as time went on,

and she began to struggle and plead. And she said, oh my God, what are you doing? Oh my God, stop. But they didn't stop. Waters said that Lewis covered her mouth to stop her from screaming and even went as far as to strike her repeatedly to keep her quiet. And then afterwards, they still weren't done because Waters went next.

Lewis is still gagging her with his hand. And at some point, Waters says that Lewis had his hand around her throat. The whole thing between them took about 15 minutes. You know, as many times as we've heard these stories, it's still really difficult to process, even for us, Anastasia, about what Linda went through at the hands of these men. You know, the well of anger that I feel, and I'm sure we all feel, hearing what they did to this young woman repeatedly. Like, it's limitless. Like, it is just beyond unimaginable that they can do this, that people can do this to another person.

But as he spoke, they wanted him to just keep talking. And the interview wasn't over yet. He continues. He says, Lewis says, man, we got to kill this because she can identify us. We can't stand that kind of beef. They went to check to see if she was still breathing. And she was. So they put her back in the car and drove to D.C. to those railroad tracks. Drag her up by the shrubbery where she was located. Waters went on to detail for detectives, again, according to him,

that it was Lewis who said, hey, you know, we need to make sure that she's dead. So Lewis came over to the trunk of Waters' car, took the jack out, and came back over. And they beat Linda with it repeatedly until they were sure she was dead. I'm just thinking, that's somebody's daughter. I have two daughters. Just the violation of somebody doing that to anybody, that's sickening to me. That's horrific. That's horrible.

I would lose my mind. You know, you have to stay calm and cool as a law enforcement officer, as a peace officer, but I got to tell you, that hurt. It did. Skull fragments were located approximately 45 feet from where her body was. So imagine the kind of force that he struck her with to make that skull fragment a projectile and be able to travel 45 feet. That's horrific. But for investigators, while they are reeling from what he is saying and trying to almost X that out of their minds, they also have

to decide if they believe his story. And while for me, I come out that it has got to be true, if they're going to be able to corroborate it later with other piece of evidence, I do wonder if similarly to witness number one, why it is that he keeps pulling himself out as much as he is and putting all the blame on the one guy who hasn't yet walked in the precinct door, and that's Lewis. When you have multiple offenders pointing fingers at each other, it's so important to let the evidence speak. Whose story is backed up by the evidence?

And if not, perhaps, you know, Anastasia acting in concert charge? People say like, oh my gosh, doesn't it get more confusing when there's multiple people and they're saying different things? And we say no, like the more bring it on because we are able to ferret out the truth. You know, eventually it does at least usually come to light. And like you said, Scott, here, they think that they are getting out from under by putting everything on the other guy, but that's exactly what acting in concert is. In for a penny, in for a pound. I mean, first of all,

this guy talks about being very part and parcel of a brutal sexual assault. So that makes him guilty right there. But if that homicide occurs as part of this, what was a sexual assault. So that makes him guilty right there. But if that homicide occurs as part of this, what was a sexual assault, a physical assault, well, then he's as guilty as the guy who brings down that carjack, unfortunately, on her body over and over again. Waters continued to talk to investigators, and he continued to tell his story. They got back in the car, and they drove back and went in the house. The waters went in his, and Lewis went in his,

and then water started washing up, and his mother asked, why are you doing that? You know, but he said he was very nervous. The next day or two, he went to his car, took the jack out, took it around behind his house,

and took a water hose, and tried to wash it off. And then he left the jack behind the house for a day or so, and he wanted to get rid of it. Then one night, they decided to get rid of the evidence by dumping it into a sewer in front of his house. Not really smart, by the way. After completing the interview, the next move was to see if they could try to recover the jack, the murder weapon. So detectives now took Waters back to his house to identify the sewer. We called the Department of Public Works, and they come and remove the manhole cover. And here's where it becomes crystal clear that detective work, while exciting, is not always

pretty. Well, I'm 22, 23 years old, man, and I was a lot thinner, plus I was the rookie. So I was selected to go down in the manhole. Dwayne really had high hopes that the Jack would be in that sewer, and he was deeply invested in this case, and he did want to see justice served.

So I went down in there. There was nothing pretty down there. I take a deep breath because I don't know what it smells like. And I'm cautious and I'm nervous. I'm saying, Lord, let it be in here. First of all, I want to go in the sewer and I want to go in there for nothing. At least if I'm going to go in the sewer, let it be a huge piece of evidence that will close this case and put these two people in jail. And his prayer was answered because he did spot it. But it was laying right there.

And as soon as I looked at it, as soon as I laid my eyes on it, I could see blood, I could see hair, and I could see brain matter. I took it, and then we called evidence technician people. I messed up my suit, but you know what? It was worth it. And if I had to do it again, I would do it again. The only thing left after that was to see if they could actually identify the blood found as Linda's blood. And indeed, the blood that they found not only in the car, but on that murder weapon came back to Linda Marie Theis.

Detectives arrested Waters and began to type up an affidavit in support of an arrest for Lewis. Waters identified Lewis and told detectives the likeliest place to find him. He told us where Lewis lived, even though Lewis didn't really stay there. Lewis evaded capture for a few days until the D.C. SWAT team caught up with him at his girlfriend's apartment. Terrence Waters was the first defendant to be tried in court. Duane talked about being sure to attend the parts of the trial that he was able to, and he really laid out how the assistant prosecutor in the case laid out a strong, brilliant case in front of the jury

and an extremely compelling closing argument. The jury was out for four hours and came back with a guilty verdict on all counts. And after Waters' trial, Lewis then decided to plead guilty. They were both sentenced to 20 years to life. Now, because this sexual assault had happened in Maryland, they were sentenced for an additional 20 years. And the judge sentenced them consecutively, saying that if you have any additional time, it can't be served concurrent with this time.

You have to do my time, my 20 years I'm giving you, before you can go do somebody else's time. So I know we've talked about three people in this case, and that was Witness 1. He did not face about three people in this case, and that was witness one. He did not face any criminal charges in this case. Some people say it's closure. They call it closure. We got some closure because the person was arrested.

And in my 40 years, I've kind of put that term to the side. I don't use the term closure. I use the term justice because there's justice because you're going to jail. But it's not closure. And the reason? Because you can't get your baby back. You can't get your sweet daughter back. So that's not closure. That will always be a void and you'll never be able to fill it. Dwayne Stanton went on to have a very full career as a homicide investigator, assisting on upwards of 750 cases with a 91% closure rate. But relatives and loved ones are still thankful when you're able to take the bad guys off the street.

And their family was totally thankful and grateful. Her family said it best. Linda was on her way to recovery, on her way to a better life. And in a way, reconnecting with the family, making the best life had to offer at only 22 years old. When she was met by the worst kind of predator willing to inflict such horror and such pain. And the only reason why is they didn't want to get caught. But there were some dedicated detectives who were standing in their way. Tune in next week for another new episode of Anatomy of Murder. Anatomy of Murder is an AudioChuck original produced and created by Weinberger Media and Frasetti Media.

Ashley Flowers and Sumit David are executive producers. This episode was produced by Philjean Grande. So, what do you think, Chuck? Do you approve?