Cold Case Files - Little Sister Lost

Episode Date: July 23, 2024

15 year old Penny Parker goes missing while delivering newspapers on a spring afternoon in 1977. When her body is discovered by a volunteer with a questionable past, investigators think they know who did it. The problem lies in how to prove it. Rosetta Stone - Cold Case Files listeners can get Rosetta Stone’s lifetime membership for 50% off when you go to RosettaStone.com/coldcase SimpliSafe - Right now, get 20% off any new SimpliSafe system with Fast Protect Monitoring at SimpliSafe.com/COLDCASE There’s No Safe Like SimpliSafe. 

From A&E, this is Cold Case Files, the podcast. May 7th, 1977 in Sacramento, California. On a soft spring afternoon, 15-year-old Penny Parker pedals her bike around the neighborhood, collecting for the Sacramento Bee newspaper she delivers. Her family expects the teenager home for dinner. Six o'clock comes and goes with no sign of Penny. By 9 p.m., worry has given way to full-blown panic, and Penny's family calls the police. The Sacramento Police Department organized a team to canvass a neighborhood, go door to door. That developed more information with witnesses who had seen Penny that afternoon walking with an individual.

The individual with Penny is described as a white male in his late teens with shoulder-length brown hair. Witnesses claim Penny was walking with a man along the railroad tracks and levee near her house. The next morning, neighbors and police search the area. Penny's brother Dennis joins the hunt. I had a Jeep at the time and I'd go out up and down the levees going through where they had been looking for her. And I didn't find anything. But the next biggest thing I remember was they had found her bicycle. Penny's bike, a gold 10 speed, is found about a mile from her home.

For her family, the implications are beginning to take hold. That's a bad feeling. So you're just starting to hope that she'd at least be alive. Three days later, Dennis Parker gets a call about his little sister. It is a phone call that changes his world forever. And I got a phone call from a son of the neighbor. And he said, I just heard on television that they found her and I said what so I rushed back to the house and about that time the coroner officers

and the police department showed up and I wouldn't let them go and tell my mother I went in and told my mother okay this is the crime scene. The body is in a small gully that runs along here in the row of trees. So there's a body laying right through the branch in there. Penny Parker's body is found in the woods about seven miles from her house. The victim is fully clothed, stabbed a dozen times in the chest and neck, with her throat slashed. Walking in on the railroad tracks northbound. Peter Willover is one of the first detectives on the scene. I responded to the scene about 7 or 8 o'clock at night.

I could recall it being a very emotional scene because of Penny's condition. There's blood on the front of her blouse. In the days following, the woods where Penny's body was discovered are combed for clues but offer up nothing. At autopsy, the coroner recovers semen from Penny's body and establishes that the victim was strangled as well as stabbed. To me, the crime was very brutal. I mean, why is anybody stabbed not once but 12 times and the throat slashed and strangulation also? It was almost an overkill. Willover begins his hunt for a killer by talking to the volunteer searcher who found Penny's body, a 21-year-old named Don Jennings. He told his brother-in-law, you take the car and go in one direction.

I'll walk off and look over in this area. And Mr. Jennings went directly to the body. We had a couple, husband and wife, who were in the area fishing at the time and observed this from a distance who gave statements to us that it looked suspicious to them the way he went directly to the area where Penny was found. Jennings found Penny Parker's body after only a few minutes of searching. A fact Willover is uneasy with. Jennings is white, with shoulder-length brown hair. A perfect fit to the man last seen with Penny on the day she disappeared. Then Willover discovers Jennings has a prior record for child molestation. The

volunteer is quickly changing from a hero who found a young girl's body to a suspect who may have killed her. Willover asks Jennings to take a lie detector test. He agrees and passes. In the days before DNA, there is little more detectives can do. We didn't have too much to hang our hats on. People who had seen Penny walking with this unknown male individual did not identify Mr. Jennings when they were shown photo lineups. Nobody could really positively identify him. There was not enough to make an arrest at that time. In the months following, few new leads surface.

Reluctantly, police are forced to let the case go cold. They continue investigating, and the lead didn't really pan out. But they thought they had their man, but they just couldn't prove it. It was a case that never left my desk, and I'd see the parents quite often and would sit and talk. I never held too much hope that it would be solved, but it was never forgotten. July 25, 2001, 24 years after Penny Parker's rape and murder, Sacramento County has established a new cold case prosecution unit, headed up by Anne Marie Schubert. The Parker case comes up for review. Penny's case was probably, if not at the top of the list, within the first couple that we talked about.

And because of the tragic nature, the fact that she was a teenager, the fact that she was sexually assaulted and murdered, it just kept coming back to that. The Parker evidence is pulled out of storage. When the boxes get to the cold case unit, however, there is a problem. Penny Parker's autopsy kit, containing semen samples collected from the victim's body, cannot be located. Our department property room had moved a couple times,

and a lot of the evidence was lost in the process. In the beginning, we felt terrible because we were being told by everybody that our evidence was no longer in existence. Then, police catch a break. A pair of the victim's underwear, worn the night she was raped and killed, is found stuffed inside one of the evidence boxes. Initial tests indicate the presence of semen. Investigators send the underwear to Jeff Herbert, a criminalist with the Sacramento County DA. I took the pair of panties and I needed to take a couple samples from the crotch area of the panties where we knew there was semen present. So I did that and I was able to extract the DNA off those samples that he took.

Herbert gets only a partial profile from the degraded sample. Then the investigation catches a second break. Slides taken from Parker's autopsy are discovered in the file of the medical examiner. They too are tested and provide a full genetic profile. Herbert downloads the profile into the California Cold Hit database. In a matter of moments, it is compared against the DNA of more than 150,000 violent felony offenders.

The search comes up empty. We knew at that point that all we really needed to do was to find the person that matched that profile. I mean, the answer's in the profile, basically. Police now know the identity of their killer. The problem is, that identification comes not by way of a name and address, but is encoded in the form of a DNA sequence. If you've been listening to the show for a while, you know just how important it is to keep our family and home safe and secure. And that's why I'm excited to talk to you about SimpliSafe. SimpliSafe is advanced home security that puts you first. Just last week, there was an incident a couple blocks away from my house, which makes me so grateful to have protection from SimpliSafe for some peace of mind.

SimpliSafe's exclusive 24-7 live guard protection allows monitoring agents to stop a crime in real time by seeing, speaking to, and deterring intruders in real time through the smart alarm wireless indoor camera. SimpliSafe's agents can act on an alarm within five seconds of receiving the alarm signal, deterring intruders and dispatching police police because in a crisis, every moment counts. SimpliSafe has been named in U.S. News & World Report's Best Home Security Systems for five years running and ranked the best customer service in home security by Newsweek. SimpliSafe does not lock you into a long-term contract, so you can cancel any time penalty-free. Try SimpliSafe risk-free with a 60-day satisfaction guarantee or your money back. We've partnered with SimpliSafe to offer our listeners an exclusive 20% discount on a new system with fast protect monitoring.

All you need to do is visit simplisafe.com slash coldcase to claim this discount. That's simplisafe.com slash coldcase. There's no safe like SimpliSafe. It's been more than two decades since 15-year-old Penny Parker was raped and murdered just miles from her parents' home in Sacramento, California. Her cold case is now reopened, and the man who found her body, an ex-con named Don Jennings, is once again the chief suspect. Gary Wagg is an investigator for the Sacramento County Prosecutor. Looking at all the circumstances of the case, I thought that Don Jennings was a really strong suspect. I just thought it was odd that he would find the body

so quickly, and that was the main thing that jumped out at me. An unknown genetic profile is lifted from semen discovered at the crime scene. Cold case detectives want to run it against Jennings. The suspect, however, lives in Arkansas. Further, detectives don't want to tip off the suspect that the case is once again active. WAG consults with county prosecutor Anne-Marie Schubert, who believes there might be a way to get a look at Jennings' DNA without ever leaving the state. I thought about it, and I knew that he had a wife, ex-wife, and I knew that he had a daughter. And I, you know, I sat at a meeting, a DNA meeting where we meet with some of the

criminalists, and I said, you know, can we do this? Would this work? And they said, yeah. What we thought was if we could locate his ex-wife or a biological child, then we could get samples from them and compare it to what we had. Jennings' ex-wife Cynthia Wood and the couple's daughter Melanie still live in Jennings' old neighborhood. WAG tracks them down and asks Cynthia some pointed questions about her ex. He asked me, did I remember Don Jennings? And I said, yeah. He started asking me questions and I said, are we talking about Penny Parker? And he said, yes. And I said, well, you know, he killed that little girl. He said, well, that's what we're going to find out. She had thought all along that Don could be a suspect because she didn't necessarily

believe the story and she had heard some things on the streets at the time. Wag asks for and receives saliva samples from Donald Jennings' ex as well as his biological daughter. Then Wag and Schubert stake their hopes on a bit of the DNA sleight of hand, also known as a reverse paternity test. December 12, 2002, in the Sacramento County DA Crime Lab, criminalist Jeff Herbert is about to attempt his first reverse paternity test. The process involves two steps. First, Herbert compares DNA from Jennings' biological daughter to DNA from her mother. After stripping out the mother's profile,

the scientist should be left with one half of the father's genetic code. That is the code of Donald Jennings. So I did that. We took the reference samples, developed their profiles, and I was able to extract out half of Don Jennings' profile. Jennings' partial profile is then compared to semen samples pulled from the victim's clothing and body. The result? A match. Good evidence, but not good enough by itself to support a charge of murder. I believe in this case it came out to one in 10,000 that somebody else was

the source of that semen. But I knew we needed to get, we needed his reference sample to compare every marker and every type on those panties are indeed from him to rule out the possibility that anybody else was there. To clinch the case, cold case detectives need to get a DNA sample from the suspect himself. And to do that, they need to go to Arkansas. January 23, 2003, in Hot Springs, Arkansas. In the dark chill of a hot springs winter, Arkansas police are called upon to escort California detectives Gary Wagg and Peter Willover to the home of a local resident. Don Jennings lives three miles outside the city limits. In 1997, he lost both of his legs

in an accident and is now confined to a wheelchair. Investigators do not expect any problems from their suspect. He was completely caught off guard. We identify ourselves and I don't think he was surprised to see hot springs detectives, but when the Sacramento officers identified their selves, you could just see the look in his eyes like, why are they here? It's kind of a shock to see him because this is a person that in your mind you know that he's probably killed this girl and all of a sudden he's right there in front of you. Detectives Willover and Wagg questioned Jennings once again about Penny Parker,

how he found the young girl's body more than 25 years ago, and whether he might have more to add to his story. Do you remember what I told you about the girl that you found the body in 1977? Do you remember that? I remember found the body in 1977 do you remember that i remember finding the body his only response was there has to be a mistake. I've never had sex with her. I didn't know her.

I just happened to stumble on her body that day. Wag and Willover decide not to press Jennings on his involvement. Instead, they collect a sample of the suspect's saliva and send it back to California, confident that science will put the lie to Don Jennings' story. Six days later, that confidence is rewarded. Jennings' DNA is a perfect match to semen pulled from the Parker crime scene, and a warrant is issued for the suspect's arrest in Arkansas.

The extra Rosetta Stone Spanish lessons with my daughter have really been a lifesaver in the summer heat. It's something we can do together indoors instead of just watching TV, and I love that she's learning something. Rosetta Stone is the most trusted language learning program available on desktop or as an app that truly immerses you in the language you want to learn. It has been a trusted expert for 30 years with millions of users and 25 languages offered. The process is so intuitive. It helps you pick up a language naturally, first with words, then phrases, then sentences, and is designed for long-term retention. It has been great learning new words and phrases to share with my daughter. As you're

learning and practicing, the built-in true accent feature gives you feedback on your pronunciation. It's like having a personal trainer for your accent. And it's convenient. There are desktop and app options with an audio companion and even the ability to download lessons offline so you can practice anywhere. On top of all that, the lifetime membership has all 25 languages for any and all trips and language needs you may have throughout your life. That's lifetime access to all 25 language courses Rosetta Stone offers for 50% off a steal. Don't put off learning that language. There's no better time than right now to get started. For a very limited time, Cold Case Files listeners can get Rosetta

Stone's lifetime membership for 50% off. Visit www.rosettastone.com slash cold case. That's 50% off unlimited access to 25 language courses for the rest of your life. Redeem your 50% off at www.rosettastone.com slash cold case today. A day after the warrant is issued, Arkansas detectives Billy Harverton and Chris Chapman arrive on Jennings' doorstep. Despite the suspect's physical limitations, investigators expect the pickup might be a difficult one. We go out to the house house and of course we are prepared for a tactical situation this time. We're trying to effect an arrest for a murder warrant and so we're in our vest and we're prepared for whatever happens. Of course when we got there we knocked

on the door and there was no answer and we continued to knock and announce ourselves to the police department told them we had a arrest warrant. No answer, wouldn't come to the door. So Detective Chapman looked in the window. Through the window, Chapman can see the suspect's empty wheelchair and Jennings himself stretched out under a sheet on his bed. The detectives again call out to Jennings to open the door. The suspect moves under the sheets but makes no attempt to comply. We force entry through the front door,

and as we're going through the front door, we're maybe 10 feet into the house, a good three or four steps into the house going towards the bedroom, and we hear a gunshot. And at that time, we're not for sure if he's shooting at us or he had shot himself. The smell of gunpowder lies thick in the air as Chapman and Harbiton make their way down a corridor towards Jennings' bedroom.

Again, the detectives call out to the suspect to show himself and surrender. The requests, however, are met with silence. Finally, they turn the corner into the bedroom where they find the suspect, still in bed, eyes open, but unseeing. And that's when we were able to actually see the gunshot wound and the firearm. And at that point, we removed the firearm from his hand and called in the paramedics

because we knew that he had shot himself. Don Jennings is declared dead on scene from a single gunshot wound to the chest. Arkansas' first call is to the original case detective, Peter Willover. When I heard Mr. Jennings committed suicide, it certainly wasn't the phone call I expected, nor did I want that. I was disappointed. Now the two people who know what took place out in that field are now gone. Detectives pass the news along to the victim's family, which has waited 25 years to confront Penny's killer. My first reaction was, that bastard, is what I said. And then I started thinking, I said I said well actually that's probably the best word for everything he gave us what state of California would have been

able to give us and that was the death penalty ultimately when you look at it he's he's gonna get his own justice and he did get his own justice in his own way and what matters is that they got the answer they'd waited for, and they knew who it was that killed their sister. She was the type of person, you know, you wondered what she would have done with her life, what she would accomplish in life. You know, that's the sad thing,

is that at a young age of 15, you know, your life is taken from you. Cold Case Files is hosted by Marissa Pinson, produced by Jeff DeRay, and distributed by Podcast One. The Cold Case Files TV series was produced by Curtis Productions and hosted by Bill Curtis. Check out more Cold Case case files at anetv.com. It's summertime and with Pluto TV's Summer of Cinema, the streaming is easy. Stream hundreds of free movies on all your favorite devices all summer long.

Chill out poolside with Mission Impossible and Transformers. Or stay cool inside watching Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark, Titanic, or The Wolf of Wall Street. No matter your vibe, download the Pluto TV app to spend summer doing what you love, watching endless movies.

Tell me that's not the deal of the summer. Summer of Cinema on Pluto TV. Stream now. Pay never.