Cold Case Files - REOPENED: Manhunt

Episode Date: April 25, 2023

From 1999 to 2002, eleven young girls and women were sexually assaulted in a similar way. Despite these cases spanning across five states, in all of them, the same man kept popping up as a suspect. The problem wasn't figuring out who had committed these crimes. The problem was figuring out how to catch him. Sponsors:  Angi: Download the free Angi mobile app today or visit Angi.com. Earth Breeze: Switch from the old-fashioned goo to something new! Right now, my listeners can subscribe to Earth Breeze and save 40%! Go to EarthBreeze.com/coldcase to get started.  Progressive: Get a quote at Progressive.com to join the over 29 million drivers who trust Progressive. Simplisafe: Customize the perfect system for your home in just a few minutes at simplisafe.com/COLDCASE. Go today and claim a free indoor security camera plus 20% off your order with Interactive Monitoring.  Skylight Frames: Now, as a special Mother’s Day offer, get 10% off, up to $30 off your Frame when you go SkylightFrame.com/COLD .  Zocdoc: Go to Zocdoc.com/CCF and download the Zocdoc app for FREE. Then find and book a top-rated doctor today. Many are available within 24 hours. 

Hey, Cold Case fans, we have something special for you. We're bringing you double the episodes every week. We know you dedicated fans need your fix in between new episodes. So every Thursday, we are back bringing some of our best episodes from previous seasons. Let us know which classic episodes you'd like to hear again in the comments. And don't worry, we'll see you back here every Tuesday for all new episodes of Cold Case Files 2. Now, on to the episode. In the fall of 1999, Sarah Jones had an experience in the middle of the night,

one that she'll never be able to forget. She was nine years old at the time and at first thought she was dreaming. A man picked her up and carried her outside, and he told her that her house was on fire. She wasn't dreaming, though. She was fully awake, and the fact that she was being carried away into the night by a strange man would become the lesser of the evils she'd be exposed to that night. He laid me on the ground and told me to take my shorts off, and I started screaming and yelling, and I told him no. And then he put some kind of leather glove in my mouth. And then, since I wouldn't take my shorts off, he took them off for me.

Sarah's life had been changed forever that night. And she wouldn't be the only one to fall victim to this particular perpetrator. Over the next five years, he would assault over nine other women and girls, continuing to stump detectives as he chose his next victims. One-third of all murder cases in America remain open. Each one is called a cold case, and only 1% are ever solved. This is one of those rare cases. From A&E, this is Cold Case Files, the podcast. Sarah's mother, Melissa, for some reason decided to look in on her daughter that night.

Not because their house was on fire. That was a lie told by Sarah's attacker. But rather, because she was a mother, and that's what mothers do. When she discovered that her nine-year-old daughter was missing, she was worried, but managed to focus on finding her rather than panic. She got into her car and drove around looking for Sarah, shining her headlights into hard-to-see places. Nine-year-old Sarah was assaulted in a nearby field.

She screamed and she cried, but that didn't evoke any sympathy in the man who forced himself on top of her. In fact, it spurred the opposite. At that time, I was screaming and fighting and trying to just break free and get home again. And then he told me he was going to kill me if I didn't quit, so I quit, and I let my defenses down. The attacker got up and told Sarah to be quiet and wait for him. He was going to get a friend, but he'd be back.

Sarah didn't listen, and as soon as the man was out of sight, she ran as fast as she could toward her neighbor's home. She was found by her mother. Her hair is just everywhere. She's got leaves on her hair. She has on a sports bra, and that's it. She's barefooted, and she's screaming my name, just in such a voice that I've never heard it before,

would never hear it again if I could. Melissa was appropriately concerned for her daughter's safety, but because of the way she found Sarah and her state of undress, she had feared that Sarah had been assaulted. She was taken to the doctor where her mother's suspicions were confirmed. An examination of Sarah revealed the nine-year-old girl had been raped. The DNA evidence was sent to the crime lab and an investigation into the perpetrator of this crime began when the sun came up the next morning. The perpetrator came up here, the window wasn't locked and he just raised it.

The young lady was just inside there laying on the bed. We done what we call a neighborhood canvas. We went to each residence and talked to them kind of just in a real quick manner, just to find out who lived there, who was there that night, and any new people in the area. Captain Gerald Moody and his team focused in on a neighbor, James Selby, who had previously had charges of sexual assault brought against him, though he wasn't convicted in that case. The police looked into Selby, and he quickly became their number one suspect. That is, until he left town without a trace.

Here's investigator Rhett Burnett. We did have enough information that made him probably our number one person to look at and try and eliminate, And when he took off, just pretty much solidified it in our mind that he was probably our guy. With their number one suspect missing and no other obvious leads, detectives were forced to shelve this case and wait, while a family and a nine-year-old girl herself were also forced to wait, wondering if she would ever feel safe from the man who attacked her. For a while, for the first year and a half or so, that's all I thought about.

Because it was kind of scary and it interfered with all my sports and all the things I did around with my friends and my family. Another lead was coming, though. Unfortunately, it was coming in the form of a frightened 12-year-old girl who had been attacked in her bedroom in Nevada. Pick up that glass of Pinot Grigio, your drink of choice, and come have some fun with us on Turtle Time. We're going to do more than just drink and party on this podcast, Mom. I know, I know.

Okay, if you don't know who I am, well, I'm Ramona Singer, and party on this podcast, mom. I know, I know. Okay, if you don't know who I am, well, I'm Ramona Singer, and that's my daughter, Avery. And you probably know us best from The Real Housewives of New York. And now you'll get to know us even better on our podcast, Turtle Time. Let's make more iconic moments together every Wednesday. It's Turtle Time. Follow, rate, and review now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, or wherever you get your podcasts. Angie's list is now Angie. And they've made it easier than ever to get all your home projects done right. If you need help with landscaping, electrical, remodeling, roofing, or just a handy person, Angie can help you find what you need.

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I'll put the bristles into a tube. And obviously I want as many as I can because we want to get a full DNA profile off of that And he does it He's able to extract a full DNA profile from the cells on the toothbrush The next step is for Rollins to compare the DNA to the attacker and determine what the odds are

that the DNA from the semen found at the crime scene matches the DNA found on the toothbrush It turns out the odds are that the DNA from the semen found at the crime scene matches the DNA found on the toothbrush. It turns out the odds were pretty good. Greater than one in 500 billion. Without a doubt, it was Selby. We've talked about a lot of cold cases, but I don't know that we've covered one yet where the perpetrator has been the sole suspect all along. A warrant was issued for Selby,

but it didn't really matter because he slipped away again and traveled west. It turned out his days of assaulting little girls were over. Unfortunately, though, his days of assaulting grown women were just about to begin. It's every woman's worst fear, is to be in the safety of your own home and then have somebody come in and not only violate the security of your home, but then to violate you. I can't imagine anything being worse than that.

That was Detective David Dolan. He and his partner, Detective Jack Nish, specialized in sexually motivated crimes, where they were based in San Diego. Specifically, at this point in 2001, they were hunting for a serial rapist who had assaulted three women in their own homes in just nine weeks. The victims were all young, in their 20s. The attacker would gain entry into their homes through an unlocked window or door. He'd threaten them and assault them and leave. He'll confront the victim, usually when they're asleep,

and immediately blindfold them or put something over their face so they can't recognize who he is, and then he sexually assaults them. And then would make them get into the shower or go to a secluded place within the house, and he'd usually tell them to count to to a thousand, and then he'd flee. The method, the M.O., sounded eerily familiar to the crimes we were just speaking about. These detectives didn't know that, though, so they kept coming up empty, and more women were being assaulted. By fall, four women, all connected by DNA, had been attacked by the same man.

We had no idea who we were chasing. We didn't even have a race. We resorted to using psychological profiles, geographic profiles, submitting information to the Department of Justice, State of California. And even with all that, we were still coming up empty-handed. The attacks in San Diego had all taken place in affluent neighborhoods, and though unfair, this afforded them an increased amount of media coverage. Police were pressured to do more and investigate harder. They camped out in a local park, basically a tent city for the homeless and transient.

They came up empty empty though, and the attack stopped altogether. It was anxiety provoking, not knowing if the perpetrator was gone or just waiting until the time was right to move in on his next victim. On October 5th, 2001, Tiffany Nakajima, a student in Tucson, Arizona, left home to rush to the grocery store. But when she returned around 2 p.m., someone was there that she didn't expect. I opened the front door, and I went in, and there was someone in my house, and he came up from behind me and put a knife to my throat. The man told Tiffany that he just wanted to rob the place as he blindfolded her. Then, he let her down the hallway into her bedroom I knew he had a knife

So I stayed very calm And just followed what he wanted He had me lay down on the bed And then next thing I knew, he was on top of me And reaping me Though to Tiffany, it must have felt like forever. The assault lasted about 20 minutes and ended with a man confronting Tiffany. He asked if she was going to say anything about what had happened

and when she told him that she wouldn't, he slashed her throat two times and said, No, you're not going to say anything. He thought she was dead and he left. But she wasn't. Tiffany was alive. I was just thinking, I'm going to die. I'm not going to see my family again. I just need to survive. I went out the door and I screamed and he was walking away.

He turned around, looked at me, and then he began to run away. He was a Caucasian man, kind of sandy brown hair. He was wearing a black T-shirt and blue jeans. Detective Mary Game takes the case and discovers that a similar incident had taken place. In the house right across the street from Tiffany's. There were two college-age girls living in the residence, and one had been confronted by a male in her bathroom, and he had grabbed her by the throat, told her he was there to rob her, and not to give him any problem. The man is described in

a similar way that he was described by Tiffany, so the police make a composite sketch to pass her on campus. The investigators pass out the sketch and ask questions, but they don't find any leads. Then, three weeks after the initial attacks, another woman has reported being assaulted. It would appear that Detective Game had a serial predator on her hands. The attacks in Tucson appear to stop,

but three months later, another attack is reported. In this case, the victim isn't a woman, though. She's a 14-year-old girl. She wakes up to a male subject laying in the bed with her, one hand over her mouth and the other on her throat, telling her not to scream. Her hands were swabbed for potential DNA evidence and tested, and it matched our other two cases. The DNA was uploaded to CODIS, which is an acronym for Combined DNA Index System.

The FBI uploads the DNA of every adult convicted of a felony into this system. No matches were returned, though, so all Detective Game could do was wait. I don't know what the process is for entering something into CODIS, but it seems like it might be time-consuming. It wasn't until this point, years later, that the CODIS manager for the San Diego Police Department, Brian Burrett, entered the DNA information for the four unsolved assaults in their area. Once we uploaded to the national database, then we started getting the matches with Arizona. The connection was made, and the detectives in San Diego and Tucson were able to work together. But that connection didn't come soon enough to be useful to Tamara Faust,

a 27-year-old woman living in Tucson. As soon as I entered my bedroom, I was grabbed from behind. The man said, if you scream, I'll cut your throat. Tamara had taken a shower. She was getting ready for her day. But when she entered her bedroom, she was surprised when a strange man grabbed her from behind and threatened her. He told her if she screamed, he would cut her. Tamara stayed quiet. He said, I'm just here for your car and for your money. I just caught my girlfriend cheating on me and I just killed her and the man that she was with. So I'm on the run from the police. Not going to hurt you. The thoughts that were going through my mind were that this might be my last day alive.

And so my mind was only thinking about remaining as calm as possible because I knew that if I stayed calm, that would help him remain calm. He tied her up and made her lay on the floor. She gave him her money, her ATM card, and keys, hoping that it would encourage him to leave faster. But it didn't work. He had everything he needed to make a successful getaway, but he still wasn't leaving. That's when she realized he hadn't been honest about his intentions, and he attacked her. He was talking to me. He was asking me if it felt good, if he was of adequate size. So I knew that even though I was a victim in the moment,

I knew that after the assault was over, if I could survive the assault, I wouldn't be a victim anymore. I would be a survivor, and I could take control of my life again. Then, in a sickening turn of events, the man tells Tamara that he wants to spend the day with her, as if they've just completed some act of love and not a brutal assault. Tamara tells him no. She tells him that she's late for a meeting at work and she'll be missed and has to leave. The man tells her to close her eyes and count to 100 before getting up. He says by the time she finishes, he'll be gone and it'll be safe for her to leave.

Tamara flees from her home and runs to a neighbor's house where she calls the police. Detective Mary Game gets the call and is immediately on her way. I think that when I first heard the call and was being sent over here, I pretty much knew it was the same guy. Unlike the other cases, there's a piece of physical evidence beyond DNA linking the perpetrator to his crime. A way to track him. Tamara's ATM card. The card was used just 30 minutes after the perpetrator left Tamara's home, and the bank sent the photos from the machine immediately. The problem was, the person using the card hit his face with a brochure while making the transaction. The link turned out to be not so useful after all.

At this point, though, another connection was made, in another state. It turns out there was another DNA hit. This time, it was connecting these assaults with an assault committed on a nine-year-old girl. A girl that was removed from her home and assaulted in a field in Oklahoma three years earlier. Who's planning to do some spring cleaning this year? Dust those hard-to-reach places? Clean out that closet?

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and attacked in a field outside of her house. Her case had basically gotten cold until Captain Moody attended a conference for investigators. One of the instructors was from the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation telling about they were going online with CODIS, and if we had any cases that were pending. And I asked her, I said, it's just one of the cases that really bothers me. I would really enjoy it if you would put this one in.

And I said, I think it can be solved through CODIS. I said, that's going to be the only way. Shortly after going online with CODIS, I got a telephone call from Tucson, Arizona. They told me that they had the same profile on the DNA as we had here in Oklahoma. At that time, I told her, I said, well, I believe it to be James Selby. As a result of the hit and the suspicion that James Selby was the culprit behind these attacks, his name was run through the system to check if he was wanted in any other areas. It was determined that he was, in Nevada. There was a warrant for his arrest for the

assault of a 12-year-old girl based on DNA collected from a toothbrush. The toothbrush DNA was then compared to all of the outstanding rapes in California, Arizona, and Oklahoma. The detectives finally had all of the pieces of the puzzle, the name, and the evidence to convict him. James Selby was their rapist. The manhunt for James Selby began. Checking into some history, he'd been in the military,

in the Army, had done some time in Desert Storm. He had apparently gone to the VA here locally for some unknown medical reason. So that information was put out through the marshal's office to the VA. So in case he turned up at another VA facility, we could be notified. We're going to shift scenes for a minute to Colorado Springs. A homeless program at the Veterans Affairs Clinic is a place where veterans who are down on their luck go to get a helping hand.

Debbie Fowler is working to assist those in need at the time, and she gets a visit from a Gulf War vet by the name of James Selby. He has a simple enough request. Shoes, that's all he needed was shoes because his was cracked on the soles at the bottom, and he said that he couldn't find a job unless he had some shoes to wear. As hard as she tries, though, Debbie can't seem to find shoes that fit Selby, so he makes another request of her. He needs to refill a medication that had been prescribed to him from the Tucson VA's office. Debbie makes the call, and she's shocked by the information the person on the other

end of the phone shares with her. And he was sitting in the chair in my office, and I called Tucson, and then the lady at phone shares with her. U.S. Marshals get on the line with Debbie in an attempt to calm her and help her through He is a rapist. And I said, you've got to be kidding. U.S. Marshals get on the line with Debbie in an attempt to calm her and help her through the situation. They tell her help is on the way. Debbie's understandably nervous for her safety, but also because she doesn't want a rapist to get away before he can be taken into custody. She paces from the phone to the waiting room, asking God to help her stay calm and for things to go smoothly. I'm not going to debate the existence of a higher power, but whatever the reason, it worked.

James Selby, a man wanted in connection with nine violent sexual assaults in Arizona, California, Oklahoma, Nevada, and soon to be realized, Colorado, is taken into custody. Selby's processed by the Colorado Springs Police Department, and though the detectives from all the states that Selby's left in his wake are lining up to talk to him, Detective Leslie Malikmadani, a Colorado local, is the first to speak with him. She notices that Selby's M.O. matches the M.O. of an attack that happened more than a year earlier in Colorado to a 55-year-old woman. He performed oral sex on her first, and then he had vaginal intercourse with her. What we ended up having was a stain on the shirt, a sperm stain that he had used to cover her face. There was a stain on the shirt, and that was the only evidence we had. Since the woman hadn't been able to identify her attacker, all they had was the DNA profile. Detective Malik Madani talks to Selby for over five hours trying to get him to confess to the Colorado assault.

But he just doesn't do it. His answers are controlled. He never lets the conversation stray too far from the topics he wants to discuss. Even though he doesn't confess, the DNA evidence is a match. James Zelby is convicted of sexual assault in connection with the rape of the 55-year-old woman and then sentenced to 20 years to life in prison for the Colorado attack. He's next transported to Tucson, Arizona, where he'll be tried for nine more counts of sexual assault and one charge of attempted murder.

Before the trial begins, Selby grants an exclusive interview to a reporter, a woman named A.J. Flick. She focuses on Selby's life circumstances and what might have brought him to this point in his life. She asks him about his time in the service, noting that he had served a year in the Gulf War and raped his first victim seven years later. What made you change, though? Just being in war made you change? Seeing things you don't ever want to have to see, doing things you don't ever want to have to do. It's a cold feeling when you have to shoot someone that you don't know. You change your whole outlook on life.

I think he was definitely broken down. I don't know that he was so much making excuses. I think he really believed those things. And I think that's what made him snap. She also asked about Selby's decision to forego an attorney and to defend himself. Why do you feel that, you know, instead of having an attorney that you're working with, why is it so important to you to do it yourself? My feelings with public defenders are they are nothing more than an extension of the district attorney's office.

You touch that furnace and it burns, you want to learn not to touch it again. What do you think the outcome is going to be? Do you think you have a good chance? No, I don't. I don't think I have a good chance at all. I think that there's so much immediate attention. There's no possible way that I'm going to get a jury that isn't tainted. It's hard for me not to be biased against a proven rapist, but he does have a point. With the way information travels in today's society, it's frequently hard to find a jury

that isn't familiar in some way with a high-profile case. On September 28, 2004, Selby's trial began, and all the women he had violated came to confront their attacker. I wonder how they felt. Was it traumatizing? Or did it provide the closure that they needed? You know, I guess you would imagine a rapist to look very scary, intimidating, unattractive, grotesque. And he was just an average-looking guy.

I'm very happy they found him. I just want to be able to go on in life knowing that he's still out there, and it was just not right. Suddenly, you know, the boogeyman that had been haunting me had a face and it was, he looked so normal. After five days of representing himself and after Tiffany Nakajima's testimony, he asked for a public defender. He asked me if the person who had cut my throat was left or right-handed. He asked me if the person who had cut my throat was left or right-handed. He asked me if his voice sounded familiar to me.

I told him that it made me nauseous. Yes, his voice sounded familiar to me, and it made me nauseous. Two weeks later, James Salby was found guilty and sentenced to spend the rest of his life in prison. That same day, he was found dead in a to spend the rest of his life in prison. That same day, he was found dead in a cell with a homemade noose around his neck. Let's not talk about justice. Let's not talk about the value of this man's life or time. Let's listen to Tamara talk. I think she says it best.

In some ways, it closes a big door for me because I don't have to think and wonder about what he's doing in jail, how he's being treated in jail, what he's thinking. Should I go and visit him? Should I write him a letter to try to learn more about him and understand why he did the things that he did. Cold Case Files, the podcast, is hosted by Brooke Giddings. Produced by McKamey Lynn and Scott Brody. Our executive producer is Ted Butler.

We're edited by Steve Dolomater and distributed by Podcast One. Cold Case Files Classic was produced by Curtis Productions and hosted by the one and only Bill Curtis. Check out more Cold Case Files at AETV.com and by downloading the A&E app.