Cold Case Files - A Brother's Burden / The Midnight Attacker

Episode Date: April 14, 2026

A police officer helps solve an 18-year-old murder case when he finds the prime suspect-his older brother. And a biker with a bloody finger is the clue that police need to put away a rapist who assaulted 31 women over six years.Apartments.com - To find whatever you’re searching for and more visit apartments.com the place to find a place.IQBAR - Get 20% off all IQBAR products plus free shipping by texting COLD to 64000Shopify - Sign up for a one-dollar-per-month trial period at Shopify.com/coldcase and take your retail business to the next level today!Thrive Market: Go to ThriveMarket.com/coldcase for 30% off your first order, PLUS a free $60 gift!See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This program contains subject matter that may be disturbing to some listeners. Listener discretion is advised. There are over 100,000 cold cases in America. Only 1% are ever solved. This is one of those rare stories. It was his habit of get up of a morning. He would go to the barn, take care of the animals. It's early morning on July 12, 1985, in Winnebo, North Carolina,

and 51-year-old Don Spalding begins his morning ritual. And he would go out and feed up, and then he would go on to work from there. On this particular day, however, someone else is in the barn with Don and the animals. A gun is raised and four shots ring out. Don Spalding's feed buckets fall to the ground. Captain Phil Perry of the Brunswick County Sheriff's Office takes the call and heads over to the Spalding property. He was right inside the barn about three or four foot laying kind of on his back with his arms thrown out.

A bucket kicked over where he was preparing to feed up his animals. Perry directs crime scene crews who pick through straw, muck, and mud, but cannot find even a single bit of brass from a gun. There had been reports of prowlers on the premises. Was there a possibility that he surprised somebody in the barn trying to commit a crime, trying to steal something, and he confronted them, and as a result of that, he was shot. Perry walks out of the barn and down to the house, where he talks to the victim's wife, Shirley Spalding.

She told us when she got up that morning, she took it for granted that he had already been to the barn, it fed the horses, and had left to go to work as he normally would. Shirley Spalding received a call around 8 a.m., telling her, Dawn never made it to work. It wasn't until after 10 a.m., however, when a neighbor saw Don's truck by the barn that Shirley found his body. I couldn't understand why she had not been out in the yard or been down to the barn to see if maybe something would have happened to him that morning. If it would have been me, I think I would have been out looking for his vehicle or in the yard or, like I say, in the area of the barn. It would just be natural. It's not just Shirley's story that gives Perry Paws, but also her different.

meaner. Usually when you have a crime of this nature, people pretty well tore up and really upset. She was not upset that much, very little. And of course, you wonder these things, wonder why, you know, your husband's been killed. Why aren't you crying and going on? In the days following the murder, Shirley Spalding calls the sheriff's office at least two times to report prowlers on her property. None of the calls. be substantiated. And an officer was sitting 55, 60 yards away on the highway looking right down towards the residents and he didn't see anything.

And of course, sometimes a light bubble light up in your head, you know, what's going on here? Bill came in and told me and the first words out of my mouth was Shirley. Ellen and Phil Doak were friends with Don Spalding and carries strong opinions about his wife. It wasn't three days after he met Shirley that he called my husband late in the evening and says, I met a woman I'm going to marry. And I said, well, Don, how long have you known this woman? I think he said three or four days, something like that.

I said, man, be careful. Slow down. They literally elope because nobody knew anything about it. And the Don came on the job and says, I got married. Sometimes whirlwind romances work, and sometimes they don't. In this case, according to friends, Don Spalding was planning to end his marriage of two years. He was telling me about feel things aren't right. I've got to get out of there. I've got to get away from her.

I'm going to take Matt, his son. I'm going to leave just as soon as I get things lined up and get squirt away and find a place to live. Investigators interview the dokes and explain they are entertaining the notion that prowlers might have killed Don Spalding. The doaks don't buy it. She had two Doberman pinches, and those dogs would rip somebody to pieces, and they heard every single noise. And no, I don't think there was any prowlers. Never was. I don't know to this day who it was that called me. They told me that my dad had been murdered, and then I had suspicions. Linda Smith is Dawn Spalding's daughter. She pushes Captain Perry to sharpen his focus on Shirley, so he follows the money.

looking for a motive. If you put a hefty insurance policy together, stock options that you may have, and a retirement check coming in every month, you're having problems with a husband or a wife, and sometimes people will do crazy things. I think it was money. All about money. Captain Perry decides to bring Shirley Spalding down to the station

and connect her to a polygraph, to ask some hard questions. Usually your questions are asked, did you kill? Do you have knowledge of who killed? But there was no deception there. Shirley passes the polygraph. Her husband's former employer

cuts her a check for more than $120,000. And Don Spalding's murder gets dropped into the cold files. I never gave up. I never gave up. I prayed. every day that something would come up, that there would be some clues.

I would hope it wouldn't be in the unsolved caught, but sometimes it takes several years before something pops up. And in this case, we needed somebody to talk. Years later, that's just what happens, when one brother turns on another.

I was on patrol one night and got a call on my cell phone. My oldest brother, Blake, needed to come see me urgently that night. I had no idea that it would have entailed a murder. In April of 2003, Ash North Carolina is home to three brothers. Wes Evans, a police officer, Blake Evans, a truck driver, and Trent Evans, the most likely of the three to cause problems. If there's been anyone to get into trouble, he was by far the most likely person to get into trouble. Trouble is what the call's about. Trent, according to his brother,

brother Blake is in deep. He told me, you know, the same thing happened to me, having to Don Spalding. I said, so what you say, and he did kill the man? He said, hell yeah. In 1985, Donald Spalding was found face up on the floor of his barn, with three bullet holes in his chest.

18 years later, Trent Evans is threatening to do the same to his brother Blake. Now, the third brother, Wes, the police officer, needs to figure out what to do about it. I listened to Blake's story, and we went the next morning down to the sheriff's department. We sat down with David Crocker. He explained to me that he was an officer, but yet he was his brother, and he felt he needed to bring it to our attention to see if it was true or not. He didn't want to believe it, but the report had come to him, and he felt like, you need to pass it on.

Lieutenant David Crocker and Captain Gene Kaysen work major crimes for Brunswick County. they pull the murder file of Don Spalding and discover Trent Evans was once married to Shirley Spalding's daughter. Shirley was Don Spalding's wife. And at the time of the murder, a strong suspect in the case. It started to fit together

when they were explaining to me how Trent was married in the family and the strong connection between Trent and Shirley Spalding. Here we had someone giving direct information that they had been told. I thought

at least we could give it a shot. Kaysen and Crocker ask Wes Evans to wear a wire, set up a meat, and help make a case for murder against his brother. David told me

that it was his last shot to try and solve this case. So I agreed. It's my hope that he's not guilty. It's my hope. But I'll find out when I look into his eyes.

I don't know because I grew up with him. On April 23, 2003, Wes Evans gets in the car with his brother Trent and drives to their father's grave. I'm your brother, and I get him about. Oh, I don't know that. What you called me last night? Middle and night. And he told me to say he told me he involved in Don C's gone to him.

And he looked at me and he denied it. But the look on his face was, there was a look of a guilty man. As the two brothers pull up to the empty graveyard, detectives are parked in a car less than a mile away. Yeah, we were listening to every word. Number one, we wanted to hear what was being said at the time, and number two, we wanted to ensure West's safety. I just kept reiterating that I was going to cover for him, and who better to have in his corner than a police officer as an alibi. Me being a police officer, I can help you and cover you. I'll be in your corners, but I try and got to know all the damn fat.

That's all I'm asking. I said, now, the truth is you were there that night. You were in that barn, weren't you? I said something to that effect, and he said, he said a very low, yes, I was. Surely he'd be the one they went. You know why? Because she's a black wit. You don't have her black with her?

Let me tell you this. A gun was 40 feet on a high. Wes Evans leaves the cemetery with an audio tape that appears to seal the case for murder against his brother. It is a piece of evidence, however, that comes with a price tag. There had always been a certain respect that I felt that he had for me, a certain trust, and I used that trust up that day. You drove your own vehicle up here.

You're free to leave. You came out of door freely, and it's not locked. You understand that. You ever walk out any time. Is anything confusing about that? No. Good. That's something I want to explain.

Three hours after meeting with his brother, Trent Evans sits in a police interrogation room, answering questions about Don Spalding. Trent claims he is being framed by his brother Blake, for a murder he did not commit. He said, I'm going to go down to the sheriff's property. He said, I'm going to tell him you killed Don Spelden. I said, Blake, I said, go ahead, son. I said, you want me use my phone to call? Cold case detectives listened to Trent talk.

and then confront him with the audio tape collected by his other brother, Wes. And confronted him with it and you can see the tie turn. He became very anxious, uneasy in that room with us. He knew that we knew everything and he had to make a decision. Trent's mother is brought into the room and he begins to talk. First about Shirley Spalding. When you Shirley approached you? Okay.

The way this thing started. She said, I wish that bastard was gone. Trent claims Shirley offered him money to kill Don, which he thought was a joke. According to Trent, he even laughed about it with a co-worker, Michael Strickland. And Mike said, hell, I'll do. Mike Strickland. Mike Strickland. Okay.

I thought it was a joke. Trent says he put Shirley in contact with Strickland and drove him to the Spaulding Bar. but that's the extent of his involvement. Detectives don't believe it. There's things that you're not telling us. I'll just be honest with you about that. You're not being 100% truthful. No, no, no, no, I ain't killing.

I told you the whole nine york. Mike fought an old man. She'd give me to me. I give him to me. You didn't get any part of it. You drove the man up there. You knew about him. He was going to do it.

I didn't know what he was going to do. I didn't. Cold case detectives believe they have a case against Trent Evans, but want more. Specifically, the woman behind the murder, Dawn's wife Shirley. Are you willing tonight to go and talk to Shirley? Would you consider doing it? Yeah. Would that work?

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This is a conversation between a 64-year-old widow named Shirley Spalding and her daughter's ex-husband, Trent Evans. Trent is tape recording the conversation for police, hoping to entice Shirley into talking about a secret they share. The plan she concocted to kill her husband, Don Spalding. When he went to Shirley, he went to her under the guise that there's talk about this murder that had occurred, and he more or less gets confrontation with her about wanting to know. She's been running her mouth. How do I know I can trust you?

Have a true, trust me? Yeah. Well. The truth. I am... Yeah. I am so sure. Like the front of my head, I would do it.

When she says that, I mean, we know that she's taking the bait. When I got me, that last bout of the bank, was for you and get his trust. It's $5,500. And that's what was in that last one. given that last time to link on the very last statement she said was, I gave you my last $7,500 for your truck, which was something we hadn't heard before. Apparently some money was given for the last payment for his truck.

Police believe the cash payment to be blood money, a tangible link between Shirley Spalding and her husband's murder. We're on target. Enough for her to say the cover up, let's do this, talk about the exchange of money. We felt confident that we definitely had our master plan here. And at that point, we know we got to be able to be. We got enough we can charge her.

We were absolutely elated. And we started giving each other high fives. Trent says good night to his former mother-in-law and gets back in his car. His next stop is the home of a former friend and suspected shooter, Michael Strickland. We caught him in his sleep. We took him off guard. Trent Evans' approach to Strickland is similar. Someone's talking and Evans is scared.

And he's always going to get more than she never told her son. For sure. Yeah, I know. You just pulled the line there. And he constantly talking about keep your mouth shut. Shirley's going to get more time than we will if she talks, so she'll keep her mouth shut. I think the last thing he tells Trent is, no matter if the police come to you, no matter what they tell you,

they tell you they got 50 people lined up to testify against you, don't believe. against you, don't believe it. Just stick to your guns and we'll be all right. And we know at that point we got him. The audio tapes, coupled with Trent Evans' statements, are enough to flesh out the murder-for-hire scheme and bring in the major players for some hard questions. Trent, what's your house last night? We did you? We know that. You're out. Because he was wearing a wire and we were listening everything he said to him. Cold case detectives have Shirley Spalding in a tight corner. and decide to push her.

You see me sliding the chair up closer to her. We're going to start getting into, this is what we know now. I want to show her that we are in control and that we're not lying to her. With her back to the wall, a suspect sometimes reveals the one thing in life that she holds most dear. In Shirley's case, it's her Doberman pinchers.

I really don't know. But there are certain things you do now. Do you want to tell us with you? I'm scared too. I'm scared that you put me in jail and there's nobody to feed my dogs. And she opened the door. What about my dogs? And what are we supposed to say? No, we're not going to take care of him? No, we'll take care of him that day, for sure. With the dogs off her mind, Shirley opens up.

Don Spalding, she claims, made her life a living hell of physical abuse, until Trent Evans offered a way out. It was approached by Trent. He said he could handle that for me. at some time in the near future not to trip away. We went and checked there with no hospital record to her being in the hospital,

no reports to neighbors, 9-1-1 calls him being abusive. She's never confided with anybody him being abusive. It just never came to it. Cold case detectives believe Shirley Spalding killed her husband for his money, with Trent Evans and Michael Strickland acting as muscle. In the end, Shirley even provides a play-by-play her version of Don Spalding's last moments on Earth.

When they're in the barn, did they tell you what Don did for him show? All he said is he called me a bitch. I saw him. So you say the last words from Don? What does he call him? He said that. He said, Don was walking down the runaway with the buckets. And he said, well, she's the biggest, she's a bitch or she's a biggest bitch or something.

All I know is that she's presumed he was referring to me. Shirley Spalding is arraigned on a single count of murder. Trent Evans and Michael Strickland are similarly charged. There remains, however, a missing piece of the puzzle, one that lies at the bottom of a swamp. This is the bridge that Trent Evans showed us that he threw the weapon into the water. The day after Trent Evans is charged with murder, he takes detectives to a spot locals refer to as the green. swamp. The place, according to Evans, where he and Strickland dumped the murder weapon. He indicated standing from the top of the bridge that the weapon had landed probably 20, 30

feet off to my left, into the water on this side of the bank. Divers searched the swamp, but find nothing, until a local man comes walking up to the search party. And the guy says, it's not a 20-sealed rifle, is it? And of course, everybody's eyes lit up and said, yeah, he said, well, About a year ago, my girlfriend's father found a rifle, the barrel sticking up, and he retrieved it, and it's now behind his barn just up the road. The rifle is IDed by Trent as the one he threw away, and the last piece to Don Spalding's murder falls into place. We felt confident with it. We had good interviews.

We had all the pieces, all the small pieces that we felt that we were able to get, and we proceeded to the DA's office and laid it out to them. Of course, he indicted on first-degree murder. Remain seated and come to order. Courts back in session. In the spring and summer of 2004, all three defendants plead guilty to second-degree murder. Shirley Spalding gets 30 years in prison,

Trent Evans, 21 years, and Michael Strickland, 25 years. I'm really satisfied as long as they have to spend that whole time there, because I will be there when they come up for parole. I know this doesn't make up for what happened, for what he did to them, but I hope at least that this gives them the closure that they were after all these years. Twenty years ago, Linda Smith lost her father when the woman he once loved killed him for money. At that same moment, a course was set for Wes Evans, who would be faced with a choice, cast a blind eye toward murder, or turn on his own brother.

At the end of the day, one is right and one is wrong. And you've got to make that choice. In this case, it was personal for me. And it was not a matter of choosing my profession over my brother's freedom. It was a matter of choosing between right and wrong. It got to be about 9.30 or 10 o'clock, and I went out to return a video, and I noticed that the deadbolt had been tampered with. On January 17, 1997, a Long Beach woman, we will call Jane, leaves home and walks to the local video store.

At the back of her mind, a hint of concern about the lock on her front door. I thought maybe I should do something, you know, maybe someone had tried to get in and all the possibilities ran through my mind of calling a friend or calling the police, wondering what they would do and... In the end, Jane does nothing, returns home and gets ready for bed. I think I was pulling my nightgown on over my head, so my arms were up. He leapt out of the closet and grabbed me and threatened me, told me to be quiet and cooperate, or he would get ugly. The intruder wears a mask, gloves, and a pair of underwear.

Forced me down on the bed and eventually raped me. At one point, he asked me if I would forgive him for doing this. And I said that I would pray for him. Two hours later, the rapist slips out the back door and into the night. and Jane calls police. I went to the hospital as a part of a sexual assault response team call out and met the victim there who had been transported by patrol. Jay Craig Newland is a sex crimes detective with the Long Beach Police Department.

We had her examined, did he a forensic medical exam, and that evidence was packaged and preserved. She seemed to be coping fairly well, although she was tearful and obviously afraid. Initial testing yields a sample of her attacker's saliva. With no suspect identified, however, DNA testing is put on hold. The evidence is packaged and preserved. Meanwhile, Newland begins his investigation. What I did was I issued a press release and just asked for the public's help of anybody who might have been seen

that was acting suspicious in the neighborhood or anybody who fit that general description that people thought might have been involved. The press release generates a few leads, none of which pan out. Six months after the attack, Jane's rape remains unsolved, and her case is shipped to the cold files.

I didn't really feel that he had singled me out or was attacking me personally. It felt like, you know, this is a crime that's been committed against women since the beginning of time. And I was unfortunately an easy enough target for someone with this criminal mind to take advantage of. A rape victim sits in her home, very much alone and very much afraid. Unfortunately, she is about to have a lot of company. Obviously, this was an area here that was very close in proximity. Detective Catherine Criskevick works in the...

Long Beach's sexual assault unit and is at the center of a growing investigation. In the 18 months since Jane was attacked, 10 more women have been assaulted. All of the attacks centered in the upscale towns of Belmont Shore and Belmont Heights in Long Beach, California. We needed to solve this case. We did not want any more victims. Detectives pull each case file and compare notes. What they see is not one but two serious.

serial rapists on the loose, each with a distinct M.O. The first dubbed the Belmont Shore rapist targets older women in Belmont Shore. Women, 40s up into 79, and he would commit the sexual assault and flee. The second rapist, known as the Belmont Heights rapist, works farther inland, targets younger women and likes to linger after the attacks. He would actually spend time with the victims, in some instances, several hours. And it was a date to him, and that is how he described it to the victim. He would cuddle with them.

He would converse with them. Sketches are circulated, but generate few leads. Meanwhile, detectives warn the public to be especially careful, to lock their doors and windows. Some people listen. Others, unfortunately, do not. It's disheartening that there's another victim, but in the same sense that adrenaline kicks in to go out there and do whatever it is that we can.

It's just after 10 p.m., and Detective Kriskovic arrives at the scene of the most recent attack, a 54-year-old woman raped by a masked man. It is an MO that fits the Belmont Shore rapist. Chris Kovic cordons off the block and calls out the dogs. At this point, we were using as many tools as we could possibly come up with. And one of the tools was the Bloodhound team. And they collected several scent pads from the area of the entry as well as the suspect's exit.

And from that point, they used that scent pad and the dogs trailed them to an apartment complex. detectives begin knocking on doors and talking to tenants. One in particular catches their eye, a man who looks a lot like sketches made of the Belmont Shore attacker. A man named Jeffrey Grant. We believed that we finally had a break. Ultimately, we had three victims positively IDing Jeffrey Grant. Grant is arrested, charged with rape, and put behind bars.

A sample of his saliva is sent to the LA Sheriff's Crime Lab for comparison with DNA from three of the Belmont Shore rapes. Everyone involved agrees, Grant is their man, and science will cinch the case. Basically, our job is to screen for biological fluids. We primarily analyze blood, saliva, and semen for purposes of DNA testing. On October 1st, 1998, criminalist John Bachroth sends semen from two of the rape kits, along with Grant's saliva sample, to an outside lab for testing. Three months later, the results are in. He was excluded as a suspect on the two cases that came back as a match to each other.

DNA confirms the Belmont Shore attacks are the work of one man, but not the work of Jeffrey Grant. After being detained for three months, Grant walks out of jail a free man. It was back to square one and back to digging and trying anything and everything that we can do because we knew that we did not have that serial rapist. The digging begins back at the property room, where detectives pull rape kits from the second string of attacks, the Belmont Heights series. In January of 2000, DNA analysis on that group is complete. As expected, the cases yield the same. same profile and are connected.

But then the case takes yet another turn. The profile also matches the Belmont Shore series of rapes. It was surreal. To have two series going on in your city split and then all of a sudden put together, we realized that we had an extremely horrific series going on. One man responsible for attacking 18 women over the power. four years and he wasn't done yet. You know, before I started my podcast, I was really second guessing myself. I remember sitting at my kitchen table wondering, is this really it? What if no one

listens? What if I mess it all up? That moment felt huge and honestly, terrifying. But taking that leap turned out to be one of the best decisions I've ever made. And if you're in that same should I or shouldn't I space right now, let me tell you, having a partner like Shopify makes that leap a whole lot easier. Shopify powers millions of businesses across the world, from big names like Thrive Cosmetics and Jim Shark to brands just getting started. They've got hundreds of ready-to-use templates to help you design an online store that feels like your brand.

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slash goldcase. That's shopify.com slash coldcase. Having the kids home for spring break this year really took it out of me. And also my fridge and pantry. So I've been leaning on my Thrive Market membership a lot lately because now I'm in full restock mode. My most recent order had pantry basics I use every week. Plus a few better for-you swaps I wanted to try without doing a bunch of label detective work. That's what I love most. Thrive Market has already restricted 1,000 plus ingredients.

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weekly sales, free gifts, price matching, and free delivery on qualifying orders, all in the membership. And most importantly, these perks give me the best. peace of mind that comes from knowing the hard part of shopping has already been done for me. Ready to do your own spring reset, join Thrive Market with my link, Thrivemarket.com slash cold case. For $20 off your first three orders, plus you'll get a free $60 gift. It's kind of one of the few areas of the city that still has a town, neighborhood feel.

A lot of people that grow up there stay there. And a lot of people, you know, didn't have locks on their gates. A lot of people slept without locking their doors, you know, when you just don't see that too often anymore. In January of 2000, Tracy Manzer is a crime reporter for the Long Beach Press Telegram. The Belmont Shore Rapist is her headline story. You saw people putting in security systems, the little signs advertising insecurity systems were cropping up all over. We joked like weeds. They knew they had somebody in their midst who was watching them and praying on people and they did not know who it was. The attacks began in 1990.

By 2000, at least 18 women have been assaulted. We were like the funnel. Everything had to come through our task force office. In the spring of 2000, Estella Martinez and Catherine Kriskovic act as point on the investigation. Despite four years' worth of legwork, they quickly realize, in terms of leads, they have nearly nothing. Everything that we normally depend on to try to,

to try to solve cases. Everything was out the door in this case. This case was going to be solved by DNA. And we were going to have to be awfully, awfully lucky to come across that one particular swab that was going to match. Chris Kovic calls in reinforcements from CCAT, a covert surveillance unit,

and asked them to hit the streets looking for suspects and collecting DNA samples. Our unit was eight detectives and one sergeant, so we had nine undercover vehicles. Mike Dugan acts as the investigation's eyes and ears on the street. He works in neighborhoods where attacks occurred, looking for anyone and anything unusual. People dressed in dark clothing, walking down streets, looking at residences, somebody walking up a driveway and then returning to the sidewalk. Because there was so many descriptions of the suspect, he was white, he was Hispanic, he was Italian, he was light skin black, we didn't know what to really look for.

If a suspect is IDed, a marked car is dispatched to stop the individual and question him. We will request a swab from him and it usually was a consensual swab which most of the people submitted to. Over the next two and a half years, cold case detectives, cold case detectives, objectives swab and eliminate 81 suspects. Meanwhile, the Belmont Shore rapist remains at large. It's past midnight on May 11, 2002, and 71-year-old Margaret Gentry goes to sleep with her front door unlocked. Around 1 a.m., she awakens to a pair of hands at her throat. He kept pulling my head back and telling me not to scream. I want to live. If it means not screaming, So be it. You'll do anything when it's your life.

He took me around the bedroom into the bathroom and stretched me out on the counter, rape me there. Then he'd come back and put me back in the bed and rape me again. So I was raped three times. He rubbed my back, calm down, calm down, calm down. You can't calm down. When you're frightened half to death, it's pretty hard to calm down. After an hour and a half, the attacker is finished and leaves the house. Margaret Gentry gathers herself, finds a phone, and calls police.

I refuse to be intimidated. I won't let him get the best of me. When that phone rang, the heart sank. It was, please don't let it be another hit. Squad cars converge on Margaret Gentry's neighborhood, but the Belmont Shore rapist has once again disappeared. He will reappear for the last time, six. months later. I wasn't able to breathe, so for a while I really thought, you know, this may be it. On November 7, 2002, Julie Adler awakens to a man on top of her. A shirt is tied around his head, and he is ripping at her clothes. And then I just told him, you know, I'll do whatever you want. I'll do whatever you want. The man eases up, and Adler thinks fast.

Once I realized there was no knife or no gun, then I just kind of started stalling. Adler asks if she can use the bathroom. Once inside, she locks the door. He started banging on the door, and the only option I had was just to scream out the bathroom window and hope that somebody heard me. And the next thing I knew is he's coming at me from outside. He's reaching in the window. Adler bolts out of the bathroom and heads for her front door.

She's tackled in the hallway and fights to stay alive. At some point in the struggle, his hand slipped in my mouth. And I bid him. Just total instinct, I just bit him. And that was enough for him to stop. The attacker flees. Adler runs to a neighbor and calls 911. Chris Kovic arrives on scene.

In this particular area, the homes are so close, everything is fairly compact that it would be literally less than a block would be the first perimeter, then the second perimeter, then an outer perimeter. Less than 10 minutes after the attack, a shirtless man on a bicycle spins out of an alley. An officer stops him and notices he has a bloody finger. The biker identifies himself as Mark Wayne Rathbun and agrees to provide a saliva sample. We learned, after all these years, not to get too terribly excited because of the letdown. And we were used to letdowns. When Kriskavik runs Rathbun's criminal history, however, pulses quicken. His record includes arrests for peeping in women's windows and residential burglary.

He works odd jobs, a lifestyle that would allow him to roam freely without raising eyebrows. We were at that point sitting on pins and needles waiting for his analysis on that oral swab to come back. Two days later, the DNA is in, and police hold a press conference. To the citizens of Long Beach, sleep well tonight. Sleep well. We have the suspect. Rathbun's DNA provides a full genetic match to semen collected in the Belmont Shore rapes. He is charged with 47 counts of six. sexual assault and brought to an interview room for questioning.

After six long years, Kriskovic comes face to face with her suspect. I want you to speak from the heart. I said I can't undo what I have done. I should show you regret that my worship. Okay. In August of 2004, Rathbun is convicted of raping 14 women and sentenced to more than 1,000 years in prison. For Catherine Criskovick, it's the end of a journey and the end of a nightmare.

Justice was served. It was one of the best feelings in the world to be able to say that there was an end. That it's done. It is over. I'm just glad that he's behind bars and that he's going to stay there. Whatever happens to him in jail is fine. I have no qualms about if they kill him, great. He's just an animal. He's not human.

Margaret Gentry is a rape victim, one of thousands each year. For Gentry, telling her story is the first step, out of a world of shadow, and back to living her life. And I think that anybody that has been raped, I think that they need to talk about it. I think that as long as he's got you intimidated till you can't talk about it, you're never going to get over it. Thousands of free movies and TV shows. We're coming at you with everything we got.

This is the mindset. Free. This is the mantra. Free. This is the... Movies like Pineapple Express, the entire Star Trek film franchise and Gladiator. And TV shows like Survivor,

SpongeBob SquarePants, the fairly odd parents and ghosts. Pluto TV is always free. Hazzal. Pluto TV. Stream now. Pay never.