Cold Case Files - Snatched / A Detective's Promise

Episode Date: June 2, 2026

The dogged work of an Alberta, Canada, detective finally pays off when he tracks down the man who raped and murdered a 6-year-old girl 10 years earlier. And when police search for the killer ...of an 18-year-old hitchhiker, they find that the victim's diary is one of their best clues.Apartments.com - To find whatever you’re searching for and more visit apartments.com the place to find a place.Figs: Check out Wearfigs.com May 6th through the 12th for 20% off everything during Nurses week!Hers: Start your free online visit at forhers.com/CCF for your personalized weight loss treatment options.Progressive: Multitask right now. Quote your car insurance at Progressive.com to join the over 28 million drivers who trust Progressive.Quince: Go to Quince.com/coldcase for free shipping on your order and 365-day returnsShopify - Sign up for a one-dollar-per-month trial period at Shopify.com/coldcase and take your retail business to the next level today!See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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Starting point is 00:00:00 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. There's a quiet morning. There wasn't much happening in the Northeast District of Edmonton, which is the district that we were working.
Starting point is 00:00:35 And this call comes in. It was about 1022 that we were. actually dispatched. It's 1992 in Alberta, Canada. Dave Bittman is a constable for the Edmonton Police Service. On a Sunday morning, he and his partner are called to Rundle Park Village, where a six-year-old named Corrine, Punky Gustavson has gone missing. My first thoughts were, come on now. It's a quiet morning. Perhaps this little girl went to the local convenience store with another friend and maybe there's trouble at home and she didn't want to go home right away. Unit 148, or correction, 149 is the second unit in from the corner here.
Starting point is 00:01:18 And this is the Gustafson residence. Bitman arrives at the Gustafson home around 10.30 a.m. I could see people inside. I went up to the front door and knocked on the door. And there I met Ray Gustafson. Gustafson tells Bitman, Kareen was outside playing with her friend, Lindsay, who reported that a man had taken Corrine.
Starting point is 00:01:42 As Bitman takes Ray Gustafson's statement, his wife, Corrine's mother Karen, arrives at home. I was really upset. I was bawling. I was going to say, just go find her. It's always worried about them finding her. Between her mother coming home with the look of sheer terror on her face and the information that we'd gleaned thus far, I had thought in my own mind at that time that this, This was a bona fide abduction. To get a better idea of what he's dealing with, Bitman walks to the back of the house where the girls were playing.
Starting point is 00:02:16 This suspect walks up, comes right up to them, and essentially just grabs onto Corinne, takes her in his arms, and then turns 180 degrees and heads directly back towards that walkway. Lindsay is unable to provide a clear description of the abductor, but Bitman gets what information he can out of the five-year-old. We come around the corner and ask our witness,
Starting point is 00:02:43 point directly the route that this fellow took, point to us, tell us, show us. And she walks us again through this little walkway between the units, 147 and 148. About 50 feet down the walkway, Bittman notices a dampened patch of mud and a footprint. The most prominent footwear impression that was inlaid in this mud
Starting point is 00:03:09 appeared to be that of a sports shoe like somebody playing soccer or baseball would wear like a cleat. Bitman takes a sketch of the impression and a door-to-door search of the neighborhood begins. Corrine's family is staying pretty much shut in their townhouse now with the curtains closed.
Starting point is 00:03:26 The media gets wind of the disappearance and by nightfall, most of Edmonton, it seems, is searching for Corrine Gustafson. Meanwhile, her, family waits. I was banging my head on the walls. I thought it was my fault and and all that and I was hoping that she would come home. I kept on the can outside. Maybe she went to a different friend's house or maybe she just went for a walk and I just kept on looking outside
Starting point is 00:03:55 and she didn't come home. RCMP were called to the Sherwood Park Industrial Area at a quarter to five. A passer-by found the body in this storage lot behind a trucking firm. The owner of the company said the body was that of a young girl. As we pull up out front, you know, there's a helicopter. I can't remember if it was landing or taking off. There were police cars everywhere. There was media everywhere. A lot of things were going through our mind.
Starting point is 00:04:22 We knew that the eyes and ears of the city were on this investigation and we're going to demand answers. Two days after Kareen Gustafson disappeared, detectives Terry Alm and Al-Sovey arrive at a trucking just outside Edmonton City Limits. The body of a six-year-old girl lies on the mud near the back of the lot. If I had to guess, I'd say, I'd say Corrine's body was probably somewhere.
Starting point is 00:04:50 I'd say right about here. Well, we see the body of a young child laying face down in the mud with their head slightly turned to the side. There's a lot of mud over her clothing. You can't quite see your face, but you can see that she's turned to. the side.
Starting point is 00:05:07 It is not immediately apparent to the detectives how Corrine Gustavson died. It does appear, however, that she was killed somewhere else and then dumped among the flatbeds. She had been redressed. The way in which her panties were on, the way in which her pants were on, the way the which her coat was put on, all led us to believe that she was killed and raped somewhere else. far from the body, investigators noticed tire tracks and cleat marks, similar to those found at the Gustafson home. The first responding RC&P members that responded here immediately saw the tire tracks and
Starting point is 00:05:47 the footprints, the marks in the mud south of Corrine's body, and they felt that they could be related to the crime. So right away, they identified them. They knew they had to be protected. With the evidence preserved, Alm and Sovey take stock of the same. and tried to piece together the movements of a killer. So it looked as if a suspect vehicle had come in on the west side of the lot, pulled in just south of where Karin's body was and did kind of a 180,
Starting point is 00:06:18 backed up, and then started in a westerly direction again. And then as he got out of his vehicle, he left a bunch of footprints around the vehicle. That's why we theorized that he stopped the vehicle there. probably removed Corrine from the vehicle, dumped her underneath the trailer unit, and then back to the car. An autopsy establishes that Corrine was most likely smothered to death. The medical examiner also discovers a single pubic hair on Corrine's left ankle. But it was such a small piece that the DNA technology at the time didn't lend itself to developing a profile from that.
Starting point is 00:06:58 So the hope was that have DNA technology advanced that we'd, eventually get a profile from the partial root bulb on that pubic hair. Corrine Gustafson is dead and the city of Edmonton is stunned. Her family is left with nothing but its grief. It was really hard. I just wanted to go and get the guy that done it. I just wanted justice to be served. I wanted him caught.
Starting point is 00:07:26 No words can take away the pain or erase Karin Gustafsson's tragic ending from our minds. Her death has had a tremendous impact on the entire city. There's just this air of the surreal when you go and you see what was a beautiful, lively vivacious, six-year-old girl, a pretty little girl lying in a coffin, and she looks like a doll. It's just this very strange feeling to see something like that. It just doesn't make sense. David Staples is a reporter for the Edmonton Journal.
Starting point is 00:07:57 On September 14th, he covers the funeral of Corrine, Punky, Gust of sin. This case, it scared the hell out of Edmonton. It changed this city forever. People altered their behavior. People in this city used to feel safe, sending their kids to the playground and sending their kids to school on their own.
Starting point is 00:08:17 And that changed after this crime. From the car parked in the parking lot over here to coming around the corner to where Lindsay and Corrine were playing, that just takes a matter of, what, 30 seconds there and back. If that. It's been eight days since Gustafsson was taken from her home, assaulted and murdered. As a city watches, two rookie homicide detectives Terry Alm and Al Sovey
Starting point is 00:08:43 lead a team of detectives in the hunt for her killer. One of their first persons of interest is Corrine's uncle, Ron Davies. Ron became the family spokesperson. And a lot of people, a lot of police officers didn't like the way that Ron was reacting. And there were a number of detectives who really investigated Ron to the end's degree. Then they showed up at the house
Starting point is 00:09:12 and asked for DNA samples from everybody. So I gave them that, no questions asked. Not realizing that at that point, I was their number one suspect. Due to the fact that she was in a trucking yard, I drove trucks. Davy's possible link to the trucking yard is enough for investigators to bring him in and push him with some hard questions.
Starting point is 00:09:36 After a while, it got to the point where I said enough was enough. Then the RCMP, which is the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, they took me in for an interview and right away out of the officer's mouth was, you know you'd kill your niece. Let's just sign this confession, let's get it over with so everybody can get on with their lives. I said the next time you say that I killed my knees, I'm going to hit you. I'll drop you where you stand. In the city, in the newsroom, in the police station, Terry Alm's being bombarded.
Starting point is 00:10:10 It's the uncle, isn't it? The uncle did it. In the newsroom we hear, well, there's this uncle. He's probably the guy. Speculation builds that Ron Davies might be the killer. Terry Alm, however, is not so sure. I had a lot of dealings with the family, and I had seen Ron be. being interviewed. I spent a lot of time with him and the family. And I guess it was more than
Starting point is 00:10:36 anything. It was just from looking at all the evidence we had, um, um, um, knowing, coming to know Ron if I did, I just didn't feel he was involved. Alm pushes the investigation away from Davies, back towards a reexamination of the evidence and a growing stack of leads. And the boxes here represent probably a a third of the paperwork in this file. There were over 5,000 tips. When you're faced with hundreds of tips coming in a daily basis and you're looking for, you know, the needle in the haystack, as it were, it becomes very, very challenging, very daunting, almost overwhelming. Detectives plow through literally thousands of tips, turning up nothing of substance.
Starting point is 00:11:22 Meanwhile, Edmonton grows impatient. It was the biggest, most expensive, most intensive, homicide investigation and the history of Edmonton and also the most anguished and it was anguished because of this tidal wave of information coming in and some of the homicide detectives are looking at this guy saying he's just sitting there shuffling papers like get out there on the street omm and solve this thing there was a lot of internal criticism of terry alm is under scrutiny in the hallway of the edmonton detective division he earns the nickname ofer as it was Terry's first file is the primary investigator. Someone at one of the meetings mentioned the fact that he was O-Fer 1,
Starting point is 00:12:03 having been assigned one file and zero solves. And kiddingly, they called him O-Fer, but it stung because he's also a sensitive guy and it hurt his feelings. You know, as the days and weeks and months go by, you often wonder, you often doubt, you know, have self-doubt as to whether you're up to the challenge or not. And, you know, you look inside yourself and say, you know, it's just too much for me to handle.
Starting point is 00:12:27 In the weeks immediately after Karin Gustafsson was killed, 50 detectives worked the case. Two years after that, the number is down to just a few. Then in 1996, Sovey leaves homicide. The only thing that made me regret
Starting point is 00:12:45 leaving the unit was the fact that the file was unfinished and leaving Terry behind, obviously, because I knew he was never going to give up. Eventually, the team was paired down. and it pared down and pared down again so that eventually I was the only one working on the case. By January of 2000, Terry Alm has been working the Gustafson case for more than seven years, nearly the last four by himself. We had so many tips and so many suspects that required more work.
Starting point is 00:13:17 But how could you separate the wheat from the chaff as far as these tips went? So we decided to have all of Corrine's clothing and the swabs re-examined. Alm hopes new technology will be able to identify and develop a usable DNA profile in the case. He sends items of evidence to a private lab in North Carolina. And one year later, he gets a call. You know, he had asked me, he says, well, you know, does Corrine have any boyfriends? And I said, well, she was only six years old. and then he said, well, then I've got your guy.
Starting point is 00:13:55 The unknown profile is uploaded into Canada's National DNA Databank and matches a man named Clifford Slay, a convicted sex offender and a name Terry Alm is familiar with. Clifford Slay had come to our attention in May of 93 when he had sexually assaulted a young teenage girl. And he was investigated at the time. his family had alibied him and he was sort of put on the back burner.
Starting point is 00:14:24 Slay was one of thousands of suspects looked at during the 10-year Gustavson investigation. Now he becomes Alms' main focus and is asked to explain why his seaman was found on the close of a six-year-old. We're not here to pass judgment on you. We're only here to deal with the truth. Cold Case Files is brought to you by Progressive Insurance.
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Starting point is 00:18:08 No credit cards or alien encounters necessary. Pluto TV, stream now, pay never. You're not, you have a stupid man, but it's a tough situation. of 2003 at 10.20 p.m., the questioning of Clifford's Slay, a suspect in the murder of 6-year-old Corrine Gustafson, begins. The man who built the case against Slay, Detective Terry Alme, has retired. Detective Ralph Godfrey handles the interrogation. We knew from our background research that once Clifford was put into, or painted into a corner
Starting point is 00:18:44 where he thought the gig was up and the deck was stacked against him, that, that he would tell the truth. Slay is informed that DNA testing has matched his genetic profile to semen found on Kareen's clothes. The next day, Slai decides he wants to talk. He is cold and calculated. It's almost a matter of fact.
Starting point is 00:19:10 At that point, with us, there are no tears, there is no emotion. I look at what I've done. There is no light of human tunnel. I guess, I'm hon. We're going to prepare for what's going to happen, but I'm going to have to have to be. Slay tells Godfrey that in September of 1992, he was having marital problems with his common-law wife. There was a combination of a lot of things going on and started drinking.
Starting point is 00:19:40 I was with my common wife and went to a bit of a fight. And he wanted to punish her. And potentially he wanted to local her daughter and assault her. Slay could not locate his wife's daughter. Instead, he left the apartment and got into his brother-in-law's car. I had plans as this going down to the Mohawk station, just for a pack of cigarettes. He went out, and it would appear he went out on the prowl or on the hunt.
Starting point is 00:20:12 I was so near angry. I was pretty drunk. I was actually going to turn around. I turned into his apartment, Cey says he pulled into Rundle Park Village and noticed six-year-old Corrine Gustavson playing with her friend. I had seen how these two of her in the fence during. I made it my mind. I was going to grab one and just happened to be one post of the fence. And he tucked her under his arm and put her in his vehicle and took off.
Starting point is 00:20:50 I take him, you know, there's no girl through, I don't know, there was just this road that I thought. I drove down his road, I mean, he thought you were there, but I didn't want to do anything. And I just wanted to kind of drive as far as you put on this road dropped off and sleep. But when I realized there was no traffic, it was very, you know, it's been very screwed, you know, I just put on that song to, I just had an sense of him, you know, you know, you're trying to be thrilled. says he raped Karin for 10 minutes. When he finished, Slay claims Karin was still alive and that he let her go. I take her note of the car. I took her and I put her on the back end of this part of the
Starting point is 00:21:35 trail and this offenders wouldn't cover the tires. I sat around there. We know how she was found. That's very clear how she was found. And that was not true. Slay fails to take responsibility for Corrine's murder and Godfrey believes it to be a calculated move. I think he tried to minimize his involvement. I think he knew the difference between first-degree murder and second-degree murder and potentially manslaughter so that his explanation was made to try and fit
Starting point is 00:22:10 something less than a first-degree murder conviction. Slay is arrested and booked on a charge of murder. News spreads quickly throughout the city. It's an announcement that took 10 years to make. Police have finally made an arrest in the murder of 6-year-old Corrine Punky Gustafson. Today, a judge of order was issued for 40-year-old Clifford Matthew Slay. There was jubilation in Emmington. I mean, people were so relieved that this person had been caught,
Starting point is 00:22:37 but we were also left with that age-old question, who could do such a crime, who is this guy? On May 12, 2005, the people get an answer. Clifford Slay is charged with first-degree murder, kidnapping and aggravated sexual assault. Punky's family is hoping to finally find out exactly what happened 13 years ago. It was every person within the city of Edmonton who saw a six-year-old child an absolutely innocent little girl who was playing just a few feet from her back door and was abducted by a total stranger, raped and smothered to death. for that reason it hit me and it hit every one of us on a personal level. Jason Track is the Crown Prosecutor for Alberta
Starting point is 00:23:24 and responsible for trying Clifford Slay for first-degree murder. He made the admission of abducting this child. He also made the admission of sexually assaulting her. We looked at all of the evidence and we believe that to a degree of 100% certainty, not beyond a reasonable doubt, but to 100% certainty, She was dead when he left her. As part of his case,
Starting point is 00:23:49 Track plays Slay's confession in open court. I just say I reached her, you know, but I didn't kill her. I was very surprised when I hurt when she died. It was putrid to listen to the tape of his confession and to hear this stuff coming from his mouth and trying to downplay his culpability in this crime. The tape plays exactly as the prosecution had intended, with Slay's words appearing to be both callous and calculating.
Starting point is 00:24:22 If he was capable of empathy and a remorse, he never would have committed such a crime, but he's such a botched human being that he was able to do such an act. The jury deliberates for one day and returns the verdict to track requested. Slay is found guilty of murder in the first degree and sentenced to life in prison. Under Canadian law, however, he will be eligible to apply for parole in 25 years. Clifford Slai's arrest and conviction is front-page news in Edmonton, and the man most responsible for putting Slaid behind bars is Detective Terry Alm. This was the case of someone dedicating more than a decade of his life to solving this crime,
Starting point is 00:25:02 and it was in the end it was his dedication that solved it. It was his sticking with it, going back over the evidence. that allowed the police to figure out, we'd better take another look at this DNA evidence or we'll never solve this thing. That was Terry Alm. You couldn't ask for a better result. I mean, I would have liked to have come a lot earlier,
Starting point is 00:25:22 not just for myself, but for everybody concerned. And if in some way that my work that I did on this file contributed in the end result, I guess I can take some comfort in that. Thank you all for coming here. here today with us. It's been 13 years since we said goodbye to Punky. It's been hard on all of us and on a city who took Punky in as their own. On September 4th, 2005, Detective's Alm and Sovey attend a memorial service for Kareen. Her family sends up more than 300 balloons in memory
Starting point is 00:25:59 of the six-year-old. When everybody's at work, if I'm at home by myself, I'll come out here and I'll sit with her for a while just to be beside her. So she just knows that. I still love her. And I'll see her soon. She's our angel watching over us. We're going up Hallin Hill Road heading up into the Jedediah Smith's date park. It's October 30th, 1994.
Starting point is 00:26:37 Things are quiet in Crescent City, California on a Sunday morning. until a call comes in to police dispatch. A woman's body has been found lying in a ravine. Deputy Jean McManus responds. Well, I saw what appeared to be some kind of a blanket, but I saw the head of a young woman with pretty bright red hair and a lot of exposed cut tissue. She'd been brutally beat.
Starting point is 00:27:06 There was a lot of trauma. The victim has a rope tied around her neck, severe lacerations on her face, and her left arm is almost completely stripped of flesh. It's a scene that hits the deputy hard. And I realized that, you know, this could have been my daughter. The tragedy of it struck me, and I actually made her a promise that I would find whoever did this. As McManus continues investigating the girl's murder, he calls for backup, and Detective Bill
Starting point is 00:27:39 Stephen arrives. I think everybody agreed that evening that it was a dump site, that more than likely the crime had not occurred here. It was her backpack and her shoes and some other items that were kind of strewn along the hillside here. Inside the backpack, detectives find a diary and an ID. Their victim is 18-year-old Camilla Randall. As the body is transported to the morgue, detectives track down Camilleia. family in Washington and prepare to break the news. I had two police officers come to my door.
Starting point is 00:28:20 Marjorie Reynolds is Camilla's mother. On October 31st, she gets a knock on her door and the visit, every parent dreads. All I could say was, many times, was please, please don't tell me my daughter's dad. And then my body just shook. Reynolds tells police her daughter was a free spirit, hitchhiking her way to California.
Starting point is 00:28:44 The family had last heard from her on October 26th when Camilla arrived in Crescent City. Wendy Whiteman is her aunt. She said, Aunt Wen, I just wanted to call and tell you I made it here all right. And she said she was going to sleep on the beach that night. She said you call me. That phone call gives detectives a starting point.
Starting point is 00:29:08 Camilla may have run into trouble some time that evening. Detective Stephen checks Camilla's last diary entry. Her diary referenced a ride that she had gotten from a couple of guys that live in Brookings, Oregon, which is just north here by about 30 minutes. And so we contacted them. Detective Stephen brings the men in for questioning. They deny any wrongdoing and are eventually alibied out. Meanwhile, a team of detectives reaches out to residents, trying to find the killer in their midst. We had a person that was basically passing through town, through a town that they didn't know anybody in, and there was little or nothing to grab hold of as far as an investigation.
Starting point is 00:29:52 With leads quickly drying up, investigators turn to the body of the victim, hoping it might hold a clue as to the killer's identity. There were all these little pocket knife like shallow incisions over her arms and her face. On October 31st, Dr. Ken Falconer begins an autopsy on the body of Camilla Randall. So I decided that she probably was being tortured while she was being sexually molested. In addition to torture and rape, the medical examiner also discovers that Camilla's heart and lungs are missing. There was a big hole in the left side of her chest with a lot of jagged broken ribs there. I don't know whether it was ritualistic. Even the nasty thought of cannibalism came to mind,
Starting point is 00:30:43 but this is the most brutal thing that I'd ever encountered. Falconer performs a rape kit and sends samples to the crime lab for analysis. This is the main examination area of our laboratory. On November 4th, criminalist Kay Belshner opens the kit. What I did find was semen present in the vaginal swabs, taken from her, and more significantly, semen taken in the oral swabs. And that there was a large number of sperm there
Starting point is 00:31:15 meant that she was not swallowing, that saliva was not being washed through the mouth, and that therefore she was most likely dead. None of the incisions were bite marks, either human or animal. It was an edged weapon that did that trauma to her. Detectives review the forensic reports try to get a handle on what appears to be the work of a sexual sadist.
Starting point is 00:31:41 A genetic profile is developed from the semen left at the scene, but no genetic match is found. It was frustrating in that there was nothing much to grab hold of locally, so as time went on, things just kind of got colder and colder. Weeks turn into months, and Camilla Randall's case slips into the cold files, where it will stay for almost seven years, until Detective McManus ID's a suspect and decides to confront him. How do you show me like that?
Starting point is 00:32:16 If you were aware of what the client is, what big of that you do? You don't mind for you to say, you're going on the other than to watch you too quick. I still remember the time before I started my podcast, those late nights where the excitement was there, but so was that quiet voice going, is this actually going to work?
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Starting point is 00:36:11 In August of 2001, in a room where the walls are lined with evidence from hundreds of homicides, there was one file Detective Gene McManus returns to, the 1994 murder of Camilla Randall. She was so gentle and so innocent, and she was so brutally murdered. It was absolutely necessary to find out who did this and to keep them from doing it again. Over the past seven years, McManus has kept the case alive, but has been a lot of the case alive, but has never been able to get the break he needs. Then on August 16th, he takes a phone call. There was a hit on the DNA evidence. I mean, I felt the blood rushed to my head. I had a very emotional response. Cotis, California's DNA data bank, has returned a match from Seaman found
Starting point is 00:37:01 at the scene to Robert Wigley, a convicted sex offender. First of all, I needed to find him. I needed to get him into custody before he found out. He found out that we knew who he was. McManus runs a background check and finds Wigley living in Oregon. The suspect is picked up on probation violations and transported to Crescent City for questioning. You have the right for name to sign up? Do you understand that? Anything you say it can and will be used to get to your court of what?
Starting point is 00:37:31 Do you understand this? On November 6, 2001, Detective McManus sits across from the man he believes killed Camilla Randall. He's a very calm individual. He tries to be very casual. And he attempts to be pretty personable when he's talking to you. McManus asks Wigley if he ever met Camilla. I'm going to come back to that red hair girl. Do you know anything about that girl?
Starting point is 00:37:57 No. You ever meet her or see it out? The picture is in the paper about it. You sure about that? I'm sorry. And he denied it. He said no. And I was trying to give him more than enough rope
Starting point is 00:38:12 to hang himself with as far as catching him in a lie. For 30 minutes, Wigley sticks to his denials. Then McManus cuts to the chase. Well, I had P&A Evans on this murder girl, and it showed him. He was calm. He said, no. How could that be?
Starting point is 00:38:35 And he was exceptionally calm. McManus needs to shake up Wigley, so he pulls out a crime scene photo and slides it across the table. Here's right here, girl. I am telling you that that's what the evidence shows. Why are you showing me like that? What you're aware of what the crime is. I'll take you back to the jail. You are being out of that? Yes, I am.
Starting point is 00:39:00 I'm telling you I'm going to prosecute you for it. Let's go. Wigley's statement locks him into a lie, and the way. lie, and the crime scene photo gets him thinking. It's a good start, but McManus needs more. You need to get a timeline on his actions, his movements, and his associates, and there's no one better than a spouse. Marie Biggers is Robert Wigley's ex-wife. At the time of the murder, the couple was still married and managing a local motel in town. On November 27th, McManus tells Biggers he suspects her ex is a killer. Her initial reaction was shock and fear, and you could see it on her face.
Starting point is 00:39:42 I remember his first question is, do you think he's capable? And I said, oh, yeah. I said, no doubt in my mind. Bickers has not seen Robert Wigley in more than two years. Still, she scared her ex-husband might hurt her if she talks to police. When I assured her that he was not going to be getting out of custody, that he was in custody at that time, and that she would be safe, then she would be safe. then she started talking to me about what they were doing back at that time in their lives.
Starting point is 00:40:12 Hitting me, pushing me across the room, throwing me across the room. He choked me until I passed out. He held a gun to my head. It shows his violent background. It showed his need to dominate and it showed a progressing amount of violence. For Detective McManus, Marie Biggers is the voice he has been looking for, the voice of a victim. On November 30th, McManus arrests Robert Wigley and charges him with the murder of Camilla Randall.
Starting point is 00:40:43 This is basically a map of Southern Crescent City. A.C. Field is an investigator with the DA's office. His job is to develop a timeline that provides Robert Wigley with a window for murder. The purpose of this was to show the jury that Wigley had opportunity that night by his own admissions of working. at the Super 8 Motel. Camilla Randall was last seen alive at a mini-mart, less than a mile from where Wigley worked. Field plots Camilla's movements based on eyewitness accounts.
Starting point is 00:41:17 We know she was seen at the Redwood Mini Mart by the clerk there. We believe she continued traveling southbound on Highway 101 toward Crescent Beach. About a quarter of a mile from where she was last seen is the Super 8 Motel at 685 Highway 101. And so we believe at that point, Wigley saw her and came out and made contact with her. The map and timeline place Camelia just steps away
Starting point is 00:41:48 from a convicted sex offender. It appears to be the final piece in the state's case. That is, until Wigley fires his lawyer and decides to represent himself. Once he decided to represent himself, he started getting our evidence as we were producing it. And so he had a good year of collecting evidence by the time he decided to give us an actual statement. So what we found was when we spoke with him, it was a story crafted to the
Starting point is 00:42:20 evidence that he had received up to that point. Wigley now admits he knew Camilla Randall, that he met her on the night she died and had threesome sex with her and his wife at the time, Marie Biggers. It basically becomes a sexual escapade that gets out of hand, and Marie ends up strangling Camilla. I was pretty horrified, but I was also, you know, I knew I was innocent. Robert Wiggly's story is interesting, but it has a rather large hole. Camilla Randall showed up in Crescent City on October 26, 1994, and Marie Biggers went into the hospital, for severe abdominal pains October 25th, 1994.
Starting point is 00:43:09 So that put a big hole in Wiggly's entire statement at the time. On the eve of his trial, Robert Wigley is left with no credible alibi, and no way to explain a DNA match that could put him in prison for the rest of his life. When we pitched it to the jury at the beginning on our opening statement, we told them, expect a conclusive proof, but expect to sit here and you, hear one of the most horrifying deaths of a young lady that you could ever imagine. District Attorney Michael Reese presents the state's case against Robert Wigley. After 10 weeks of testimony, the jury returns its verdict. Guilty of murder in the first degree. Wigley
Starting point is 00:43:51 is sentenced to life in prison without the chance of parole. I remember the family looking at him waiting, waiting to see any response. Mr. Wigley was standing up, staring at the jury as to taunt them. And then as the verdicts were read, he turned over his left shoulder, staring at the family as if to say it didn't matter. Look at her face here. She was always so full of life. Marjorie Reynolds is present when the guilty verdict is read. But afterwards, she leaves the courtroom, just as she came in, very much alone. When I walked out of the courtroom, I didn't walk out with my daughter. She was still gone.
Starting point is 00:44:35 And he'll never suffer, never suffer like he made her suffer. At first, I didn't think it was real. I woke up to this blinding light, and I was transported to another place. Pluto TV! Then I heard a voice. Come with me if you want to live. There were thousands of movies and shows,
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