Cold Case Files - The Bone Collector

Episode Date: January 10, 2023

When human bones were discovered in the woods in Schuylkill Haven, Pennsylvania in December, 1985, it put an end to the search for missing 13-year-old David Reed. A small detail found in the remains reveals David was murdered, but it will be decades before investigators can find his killer. Check out our great sponsors! This episode is brought to you by BetterHelp! Visit BetterHelp.com/coldcase to get 10% off your first month! ZocDoc: Go to Zocdoc.com/ccf and download the Zocdoc app for FREE! Healthy Wage: Cash in on your weight loss at HealthyWage.com/coldcase to have an extra $40 added to your prize.  Listen to SUSPECT wherever you get your podcasts. Prime Members can binge the entire series ad- free on Amazon Music! Download the Amazon Music app today.

This Thursday, witness the return of Accused, Guilty or Innocent, the acclaimed true crime series that puts you in the defendant's seat. Each week, follow defendants step by step as they live through the nightmare of being charged and prosecuted for a serious crime, all told from the perspective of the accused. Among the cases featured this season, a young man stabs another man who threatened him and assaulted his brother. Was it attempted murder or self-defense? A woman is charged with killing a man. Is she guilty of masterminding the murder or an innocent witness? And a man who falls asleep while driving hits and kills a road construction worker. Was he a reckless driver or an innocent man with an undiagnosed

medical condition? In each case, the stakes are high and emotions are raw as defendants desperately grapple with the reality of the situation and, in some cases, the chilling prospect of prison. Accused, guilty, or innocent. New season premieres Thursday at 9, 8 central. Only on A&E. Watch live, stream on the A&E app, or on demand. An A&E. Watch live, stream on the A&E app, or on demand. An A&E original podcast. This episode contains descriptions of violence. Listener discretion is advised. David and I were close.

He told me, I wish you were my sister. He loved to collect stickers. I loved to collect stickers. There's Skeletor, Spider-Man, Elmer Fudd. He started a sticker album just 11 months before he went missing. His mom looked at every face of every kid in the crowd to see if it was Dave. But the more time he was missing, the more we kind of knew that he wasn't coming home again. All we could picture then is poor Dave laying there, suffering, dying, and no one's

going to help him. It's, you know, it's really hard to think about. If you have someone missing, don't stop pushing until you find the answers because they depend on you to do it for them. Don't give up. There are 120,000 unsolved murders in America. Each one is a cold case. Only 1% are ever solved. This is one of those rare stories. It's shortly after 7 p.m. on August 21st, 1985, in Schuylkill Haven, Pennsylvania. The kids in the neighborhood are squeezing the last minutes of light out of the summer's day as it approaches dusk. Schuylkill Haven is a small town in Pennsylvania with a population of just under 5,000 people. Located along the Schuylkill River, approximately 92 miles northwest of Philadelphia, many of the residents of the small borough have lived there for generations. Rhonda Fino and Pamela Russell grew up in Schuylkill Haven, close to their 13-year-old

cousin, David Reed. Everybody kind of sort of knows everybody. It's one of those close-knit towns considered to be pretty safe, normal. Back then, we would just go out with our friends. Parents told you when to be home. You were home at that time. Be home at night, you know, before it got dark or before the streetlights came on. Every day was a normal day for us, just hanging outside, playing in the yards, jumping rope, my mom doing laundry, her normal thing. By 7.30 p.m., David Reed hasn't returned home yet, and his mom, Joan, begins to worry. Joan calls her family members who live close by to ask if anyone has seen David.

Rhonda thinks that her cousin is staying out later than he should be, but she knows that's out of character for the boy who idolizes his mother. It's getting dark, and Joan becomes more concerned because David has juvenile diabetes, and if he doesn't eat something soon, he could become ill. Joan sends her older sons out to look for David in the places he can usually be found. His friend's house, the playgrounds, the railroad tracks. But there is no sign of him. David was a part-time paperboy in Schuylkill Haven and he had cycled off on his bike that day

wearing a white Pottsville Republican-branded T-shirt, a pair of blue Haven, and he had cycled off on his bike that day, wearing a white Pottsville Republican branded t-shirt, a pair of blue jeans, and blue sneakers. David was just a sweet boy. He dreamed of being a pilot. He was shy and he was quiet, but yet he was protective. His sister Kathy was closer in age with me. If Kathy and I would have an argument of some sort, he would come and he would sit me down on the steps and put his arm around me.

He'd tell me, it's OK, I'll protect you. Dave wasn't one for confrontation. He wasn't one that liked to fight. He wouldn't defend himself as quickly as he would defend others. He was very affectionate, always hugging his mom, telling his mom he loved her and his older sister, Virginia. He was out every day on his bike riding around,

and he'd always tell his mom every time before he left the house, I love you, Mom. I'll be back. And off he'd go on his bike. But David hasn't come back, and it's dark outside when Joan calls the police in a panic to report her son missing. Police officer Bob Reedy is in the area

when he spots firemen searching the area by the railroad tracks. Generally when a child would be reported missing in Schuylkill Haven, we would find out who their friends were, check their local playground, and usually within a matter of a few hours the child would be located and returned home. Initially, I thought it was a runaway, that he might have been staying at some friend's houses or something like that. That theory doesn't make sense to David's family. He had no problems at home and no reason to run away. The idea of David being missing is worrying enough.

But when his sister Virginia discovers David's bike in the bushes near the railroad tracks the following day, they know that something is very wrong. He's not with his bike. That's highly unusual. Dave's bike was like his right arm. He wouldn't go anywhere without it. He wouldn't just leave it behind. It was like his best friend. The bike is unscathed and renders no forensic evidence.

Word of the young boy's disappearance travels fast in the small town. And within the first few days of the search, tips begin to roll in at the police headquarters. Schuylkill Haven's a quiet little town. Didn't really hear a lot of big scary stories until all this came about. After that, things changed. It wasn't the safe little town it was. Initially, there had been some rumors that David had gone by the railroad tracks with two or three individuals.

They were questioned numerous times. They all denied seeing David that night. We had gotten reports that David had been at a party at a house on Cadwell Street. We interviewed anybody and everybody we could there. Each and every one of them denied seeing David at that house when he went missing. Things did not look good for David

after the first two, three days, and nothing was panning out. It was not very hopeful at that point. The days turn into weeks, and David's disappearance takes a heavy toll on his family, especially his mother Joan and his sister Virginia. It was really frustrating that, you know, the police couldn't come up with anything.

My aunt cried just nonstop. She would just come to our house. I could still picture her sitting in the chair and just crying and crying. David's family members dedicate their time to hanging posters bearing his photograph and description all over Schuylkill Haven.

The posters are pinned to every telephone pole and taped to the windows of every local business, all in the hopes of getting some information about what happened to David Reed on August 21st. Officer Reedy spends extra time on the case, too. There were many times I took extra walks in what would be the train yard, again checking the boxcars and the cabooses that were left there, checking the bushes in the area.

I figured if anything had happened to David, it would have had to have been somewhere in that area. And there was no David. The seasons have changed and it's now December, four months since David Reed was last seen. The holidays are quickly approaching and David's family is hoping that there won't be an empty seat

at the table on Christmas Day. David's mom didn't change a thing in his room. His bed was made, his toys were out, she bought him Christmas Day. David's mom didn't change a thing in his room. His bed was made, his toys were out, she bought him Christmas presents. All his gifts that she had bought for him months earlier are just sitting there all wrapped up, waiting for him to have them open. Two weeks before Christmas, their hopes are shattered when Officer Reedy gets a phone call that changes everything. I was contacted to respond to an address over on Cadwell Street

because of something that had been found. I remember talking to the officer who responded. The officer explained to me that when he walked in, he was in total shock that there was a skull sitting on the table. This show is sponsored by BetterHelp. Shorter days mean it might be easy to find yourself in a darker or sadder mood than you otherwise would. Sometimes life bogs us down and you may feel overwhelmed.

Maybe you're not showing up in the way that you typically would. Working with a therapist can help you get closer to the best version of yourself. When you feel empowered, you're more prepared to take on all of life's ups and downs. I know that there's been several times in my life where I couldn't just go to my friends. I needed to talk to an expert, a professional, someone qualified to give me the advice that I needed. And BetterHelp was there for me. Thank you. licensed therapist. It's that simple. And you can switch therapists at any time for no additional charge. If you want to live a more empowered life, therapy can get you there. Visit betterhelp.com slash cold case today to get 10% off your first month. That's betterhelp.com slash cold case.

You're trying to find a cause for your symptoms. Your leg hurts. You have this cramp on the side of your stomach. You're nauseous. You can't sleep. And you stumble down a TikTok rabbit hole full of questionable advice from so-called experts. Guess what? There are better ways to get the answers you want and the care you deserve from trusted professionals. And not random people on the internet. ZocDoc helps you find expert doctors and medical professionals that specialize in the care you need

and deliver the type of experience you want. ZocDoc is the only free app that lets you find and book doctors who are patient-reviewed, take your insurance, and are available when you need them and treat almost every condition under the sun. Surprise twists may work for podcasts, but maybe not for medical care. and are available when you need them and treat almost every condition under the sun. Surprise twists may work for podcasts, but maybe not for medical care. Go to ZocDoc.com slash CCF and download the ZocDoc app for free. Then find and book a top-rated doctor today. Many are available within 24 hours. That's Z-O-C-D-O-C dot com slash CCF. ZocDoc.com slash CCF.

It's December 15th, 1985, and Officer Reedy has been informed that a skull was found in the woods not far from David Reed's home. Initially, the family over on Cadwell Street had lost a cat, and they went up into the woods behind their house, which was a rather steep embankment area, not an area that people would normally go through. And when he was up there looking for the cat, he found the skull. I couldn't imagine why anyone would disturb the remains of someone they found for any purpose. You would think they would know not to touch anything.

Call the police. Get them there. Get them to see everything intact as it was. I've heard of people finding bones and going back to the house and telling the police where they're at, but not collecting them and bringing them back. The man who found the skull takes investigators back into the woods, where they stumble across even more bones.

Through a small opening between the trees, the investigators can see that there are human remains lying on the ground. Among the skeletal remains, the investigators find what's left of a white t-shirt with a faded logo. The t-shirt matches the description of what David had been wearing when he went missing four months earlier. It's all Officer Reedy needed to see to know the victim's identity. The fact that the remains had a white T-shirt and writing on it was possibly from the Republican, and blue jeans, that pretty much sealed the deal that it was David that had been found. It's a devastating blow for David's family, who had held on to every last strand of hope that he was still alive somewhere.

The terrible memories of finding out are clear in David's cousin's minds. My mom was screaming, you know, it can't be and one of the hardest things I've ever seen in my life is, you know, my dad cry. I'm not sure that I cried right away because I didn't understand it, like I just couldn't wrap my head around it. David's mom still held on to the hope, even though they found the T-shirt on the remains. Not him. It's not. My Davy's still alive,

and she wouldn't bring herself to believe it. It wasn't until they used the dental records to identify that she finally, you know, broke down, okay, my son's not coming home. After the young boy is discovered dead in the community four months following his disappearance, the lack of an explanation understandably strikes fear into the parents of Schuylkill Haven.

I think it was almost the whole town of Schuylkill Haven. Everybody just started getting so protective. Normally you would see kids out hanging out and walking, riding bikes, and it just seems like all of a sudden, if the kids weren't in a group, they weren't all by themselves anymore. Reporters descend on the small town and new tips, leads, and evidence follow. As officers continue to investigate, they're approached by an individual who provides them with more bone fragments, including something that looks like a human jawbone. The individual's name is Joe Geiger,

a local who lives just a few miles from where David's skull had been found. Geiger tells the police that his dog had brought the bones back to his house and he had been throwing them into a bucket by his front porch to stop the dog from chewing on them. The pathologist reports that the bones are, fact the remains of David Reed and officers are hopeful that the additional bones would help them determine David's cause of death. After an autopsy is conducted, the pathologist attributes David's death to natural causes, something almost no one in the community believes. We were told that it was juvenile diabetes,

and I don't believe a single member of the department believed that it didn't fit. Investigators are stuck. With no witnesses and no other physical evidence, they don't have a homicide case. They decide to ask a forensic anthropologist to examine David's remains. Dr. Janet Monge agrees to assist the investigators, and in addition to teeth marks left by animals in the woods, she finds a fracture on the back of David's skull. So the complicated suture pattern that you see at the back of the skull is the connection actually between the parietals at the top and then the occipital bone at the back. So what happened in the case of David Reed

is something clearly hit his head and those suture lines sprung open from each other. Did he fall, like hit his head on a rock, you know, basically in the forest? That could have happened. There is no way to at least scientifically show, okay, that it was in one direction or the other direction or some unknown direction.

So the cause of death of David is listed as undetermined. With no proof of foul play, investigators don't have just cause to pursue a person responsible. The mystery of David's death leaves the people of Schuylkill Haven wondering if they'll ever know the truth. And David's sister, Virginia, won't give up easily. Virginia found his bike. She was always right out there in front trying to find something. And she definitely wasn't going to take undetermined as an answer. Schuylkill County Assistant District Attorney A.J. Serena

credits Virginia as being the one to push for answers. David's sister kept this case alive. She was trying to assist, trying to provide leads, doing her best to make sure that there was still a need for an explanation as to what happened to David. David's family continues to believe that there was something sinister surrounding his death, and it casts a dark cloud of suspicion over the entire town.

We knew we found him. We didn't know who put him there or how he got there. I think after that happened, we looked at everybody a little bit differently. Not just as, could you have been the one to do this, but do you know something? Somebody has to know something. The pathologist's conclusion that David's diabetes had caused his death doesn't seem to fit with what took place. He was partially buried. I mean, if you get sick and you fall over,

you don't partially bury yourself. I also had a gnarly kind of a feeling inside that, you know, something just didn't sit quite right. It's pretty rare that, you know, you have a 13-year-old die in the woods accidentally. We had no idea what happened to David Reed. We knew that this was his remains. But in terms of those moments, okay, that were associated with his death, this was just an unknown. While investigators look for evidence of foul play,

David's family and friends gather to say goodbye to the young paper boy. It's January 1986, the month when the Schuylkill Haven area middle school seventh grader should have been turning 14. I was at the funeral. It was very sad. Dave was a tall, husky kid. He was, you know, big, and there he was being buried in a baby casket. And we knew we didn't have, like, his whole body there, and it wasn't, like, fresh because it had been a while since they found him, but it was just, you know, it was really sad. It was really just, like, heartbreaking to see. David, who had aspirations of being a pilot when he grew up,

was buried in Schuylkill Memorial Park. The middle school yearbook contained a quote from one of David's teachers, John Zuber, that read, There will forever be one last jet trail in the sky. David never hurt anybody in town. He was just a happy-go-lucky kid, making a few bucks on the side, delivering the newspaper. It was upsetting that something could happen to David

that was just not right. Somebody had done him in was the general feeling. People were always asking, what happened to that Reed kid? Does anybody really know what happened to him? As grief all but consumes David's parents, his sister Virginia vows to keep the case alive. His mom was just so devastated that although she wanted the answer,

she just didn't have the strength to do it herself. His sister Ginny, Virginia, she wasn't going to let this be forgotten or swept under the rug. She was out there still and doing everything she can and contacting the police like you need to do still and doing everything she can and contacting the police like you need to do more and talking to his friends and, you know, asking questions.

The questions draw rumors from the locals and a witness reports a potential kidnapping sighting at the time of David's disappearance. One individual named Kathy came forward with information about David getting into a blue van.

She even supplied registration from the van. We immediately had that broadcast across the county. We would stop blue vans. We'd ask other people about blue vans. It was a wide net we were throwing. Despite the promising lead, the detectives draw a blank with the blue van theory. After a year, the case of the boy who rode off on his bike and never came home goes cold. It was nothing.

It just, we buried him, and then there was nothing. There was no mention. No new leads, no new, hey, you know, we think we might know. Nobody coming up to say, hey, you know, I saw him that night. There was just nothing. Over the years, five years would come along,

10 years would come along. It was just more frustration for everybody because to us it felt like nobody cared. Over 15 years go by without any closure, deepening the wound in the hearts of those who loved David the most. His mom was devastated through the whole thing. She turned to alcohol to try to get through.

And she turned to, you know, she would drink, and she would drink a lot. And she actually passed from cirrhosis of the liver years later. Virginia was the force that kept this case alive. She refused to accept the account that was provided, so she was the one that was in touch with law enforcement, letting them know that I'm here looking for closure on this case.

It's now the spring of 2005. letting them know that I'm here looking for closure on this case. It's now the spring of 2005, 19 years after David's mysterious death, when Trooper Bob Bettner from the Pennsylvania State Police arrives at the assistant DA's office to tell him that he had been assigned to reopen the cold case. This is something that should not happen in a small town like Schuylkill Haven. I think the town, many of the parents and elders felt that they let David Reed down, let the family down.

One, that this happened to David and two, that this mystery dragged on for so many years. When I had heard about David's case, I lobbied for, I wanted to be a part of it. Having Trooper Bettner on the case reignites the hope that David's family members

had been trying desperately to hold on to. Finally, it was somebody in our corner, somebody that wanted justice for David and would be damned if he didn't get it. You're not solving this investigation without taking it home. You know, Monday through Friday, 8 to 4, there had to be a commitment, and I made up a decision that I was going to be responsible for giving that family hope again and reaffirming their faith in law enforcement.

Is your New Year's resolution to lose 30, 50, 100 pounds or more? If so, I've got the ultimate motivation to help you accomplish your goal. Money. I'll see you next time. The bigger your goal, the bigger your prize. Customize your challenge to go at your pace. From 6 months to 18 months, lose weight safely and effectively. You can even build your own challenge or a workplace team wellness challenge. Featured on Good Morning America and The Today Show. Healthy Wage has paid out over $50 million with lots of winners every day. Cash in on your weight loss today through my special link and you will have an extra 40 bucks added to your prize. Visit healthywage.com forward slash cold case and start winning for losing. Again, visit healthywage.com forward slash cold case for the

extra $40. On a winter night in a small community near Denver, Colorado, Jim Matthews arrived home late. He expected to find his 12-year-old daughter who'd been dropped off after a Christmas concert. But when he called out, Hi, Janelle, the house was eerily quiet. His daughter's shoes were on the floor, but she was gone. And it would be 35 years before she would be found dead. After the discovery of Janelle Matthews' body in 2019, the police turned their attention to a man who had told law enforcement years ago that he knew

something, but they dismissed him. The man did seem obsessed with the case, but is that all he was? A true crime fanatic or a killer? Wondery and Campsite Media's podcast Suspect is back for a second season with a story that attempts to separate one man's true crime obsession from a motive for murder. Listen to Suspect wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, Prime members,

you can binge the entire series ad-free on Amazon Music. Download the Amazon Music app today. Trooper Robert Bettner had been tasked with solving the mystery surrounding David Reed's death almost two decades earlier. And he quickly realizes that cold cases are not a sprint. They are a marathon. He begins by reaching out to David's sister, Virginia.

Virginia began to cry uncontrollably on the phone. She thought that nobody had cared. The initial investigation, there were a number of photographs that we would spread out on the tables. X-rays, Kodachromes, Polaroids, TV footage, autopsy report. There was a lot to digest from that original investigation. My gut reaction was that David Reed had been murdered. David's remains were found in a wooded area

that was not known to be frequented by area youths or kids. That led me to one of two conclusions, that David Reed had died at that location or somebody had dumped his body there. Bettner combs through the interviews police conducted when David first went missing. And he zeroes in on someone who refused to speak with investigators back in 1985. This individual did have ties to David Reed's family, specifically his sister and his older brothers.

He did not cooperate with the initial investigation. He did not like the police because he was a drug dealer. But he was also incarcerated at this time. And when the police went to talk to him in jail, he wanted nothing to do with them. When I approached this guy, he was shocked that I wanted to talk to him about the death of David Reed. That one moment I had with him put the case

in a new direction that gave me a lot of hope that this case would be solved. This individual provided us with the name and an owner of an individual who owned a light blue colored van. This isn't the first time a blue van had been mentioned in relation to David's death. And when investigators run the van owner's name, the case takes a major turn. The van owner has prior convictions for crimes against minors, and he was arrested a year after David disappeared.

I'm not only given the owner of a light blue colored van, but I'm given the identity of an individual that resides in Schuylkill Haven that's a nefarious individual, that's sexually abusing children. He fit our profile. We've not talked to him yet. And wouldn't you know it, the person we suspected in David Reed's death has just walked through the front door.

We're all excited that, you know, we may have solved this case in a short matter of time. And they're like, hey, Rob, he's here. You know, he's here to talk to you. And they're thinking, he wants to talk to me for this case. It was crazy. It was surreal. But the explanation was much more innocent than that. He was there for his annual Megan's Law registration.

Under Pennsylvania's Megan's Law, sexual offenders are required to update their record with their address if they move or relocate within the state. He was cooperative, but he could also tell it was very painful for him to discuss his past. When he walks out of that interview, I was very confident that this individual was not going to be David's killer. Investigators realized that the possible suspect was in federal prison at the time of David's disappearance, something that completely excludes him from the case.

It's disheartening for Bettner, but he hasn't given up yet, and he turns to another person who also refused to let the case go, David's sister, Virginia. We were going to put this case on TV, and we were going to get flyers and put them out, and David Reed's sister, Virginia, she was going to be the face of this case. She agreed to do that,

and that publicity allowed us to get more people to come forward. Virginia pleads for information in a number of press conferences as the investigators begin interviewing anyone who knew David Reed and his family. During the numerous interviews, one name comes up more than once. One of the red flags that people in the community had raised to us is that after David's disappearance,

Joe Geiger disappeared. Joe Geiger is the same man who had been collecting bones his dogs had found in a bucket on his front porch back in 1985. Something was up when Joe said that he had bones from Dave's jaw. I can't imagine why they didn't know something was up right then and there. The fact that Joe Geiger is the one that's turning over David's remains to law enforcement, it's either Joe is incredibly smart or Joe is incredibly stupid. Joe Geiger was a local small-time drug dealer, But he also used to grow his own marijuana plants

in the wooded area behind his house, the same wooded area where David's remains were found. Stories resurface once Geiger is identified as a person of interest in the case. Every rumor that went around, it had Joe Geiger attached to it. There was a rumor that Dave urinated had Joe Geiger attached to it. There was a rumor that Dave urinated on Joe Geiger's pot plants. There was another rumor that he tried to steal his pot

plant. I remember hearing stories that, you know, Joe Geiger would be at parties telling people, well, if you want to murder somebody, do it in Schuylkill County because you can get away with it. The family would tell the police that, and, you know, I don't know if they took it seriously or what they did, but not at the time, at least. He's no longer around town. He's no longer associating with friends. He becomes a recluse after David Reed goes missing. We needed certain dominoes to fall for this to all come to fruition. We needed Joe Geiger to come in for an interview. It's June 29th, 2005, 19 years and 10 months since David Reed's death in the summer of 1985. And the detectives want to speak with the

now 40-year-old Joe Geiger. He does walk into the barracks and he had told us that he'd only seen David around town once, and then he ends up by my house dead. He barely knew him. And I said, well, let me tell you what the people of Schuylkill County think of Joseph Geiger, what he did, that he knew David Reed. We knew Joe Geiger had some involvement in David's death, and we overwhelmed him. He had no alibi. He had nothing. And he was boxed in, he knew it, and he breaks.

Under intense questioning by the investigators, Geiger snaps and admits that he was there when David died. And he blames someone by the name of John Fry. Joe tells us that the three of them had met down at the bank wall, and the train tracks are right there. Then they would go back to the train tracks, they'd hang out.

In 1985, John Fry, a smaller kid, he's a kid that would get in trouble drinking alcohol, smoking pot. But he was friends with Dave. He ran with those circles. Geiger tells Trooper Bettner that John Fry had punched David in the face, which caused David to fall back and hit his head. Armed with this information, the trooper speaks with John Fry, who gives an almost identical statement, except for one detail. He says that Geiger was the one who hit David Reed.

The investigators know that one of the men is lying, but they need something solid to prove which one of them killed David in 1985. They hope forensic science holds the key to proving that David was murdered. We always knew that there was one key piece of evidence that can help us solve David Reed's case. And that piece of evidence was David Reed himself,

buried, you know, six feet under at the Schuylkill Memorial Cemetery. With approval from David's family, the investigators exhumed the 13-year-old's remains on January 24, 2007. The day that Dave was exhumed, it was a cold day. We weren't allowed at the area. We just stood there and we just watched.

Seeing that little baby casket he was buried in, it was heartbreaking, you know, 20 years later. I think that's probably when I broke down, the minute I saw that box again. You know, it's just, it's not fair. The investigators want to speak with an anthropologist to get a professional opinion on anything that could indicate which one of the men had punched David Reed.

They decide to speak with Dr. Falsetti, an anthropologist in Tampa, Florida, and they fly David's remains out there to be examined. So the airline brings myself, Corporal Kevin Brennan, and David on the plane before anybody else. We have David in between us in a casket. As people are coming on the plane, they're asking, hey, what's in the box?

And Kevin goes, it's a little boy's body. And we proceed to tell people that this is a homicide investigation. And as this plane goes up and the seatbelt light goes off, a line on the plane forms on us, 40, 50 people. And we have a funeral line, people coming to us. Can I touch his casket? Absolutely. They're putting their hand on the casket. They're saying prayers.

We saw the very best of humanity that day. We really did. I think, you know, if Dave can be looking down, he'd probably love that ride. He wanted to be a pilot. I think that if he were here today, that's exactly where he'd be. Anthropologist Dr. Janet Monge

joins the case again to examine David's remains with the cold case investigation team. So to revisit a case as rare and coming back was unusual as well as really piquing my curiosity. We were able to take the skull over to the hospital

and have a medical CT scan actually produced. This were able to take the skull over to the hospital and have a medical CT scan actually produced. This allowed us to more realistically look at that burst fracture at the back of the skull and that cheek region are a series of hairline fractures. Looks like some kind of a blow, powerful enough that this could have produced a fall, a backwards game which event he would have hit the back of his head that then produced the burst fractures and then we could actually see it on the CT scan. It was consistent with what was described as the sequence of events that led, you know, essentially to his death.

It's enough to get the manner of death listed on David's death certificate changed from undetermined to homicide, which means that after 23 years, an arrest can finally be made. The investigators know that David had been killed by a blow to the head, but they had to determine whether it was Joe Geiger or John Fry who dealt that blow. We had a nearly 600-page report with all these different pieces of a puzzle, and it was our job to paint a picture, tell a story that's logical, conclusive, truthful, objective.

Joe Geiger was not only growing marijuana plants, but he was angry that somebody was stealing those plants. And we were able to flush that out conclusively. In the end, investigators noticed something about John Fry that rules him out as a suspect. John Fry was a right-handed person. Joe was left-handed person. Joe was left-handed. We observed when he signed his right warning and waiver,

he used his left hand. David had a fracture on the right side of his face, and we felt if two individuals were facing each other, if there were going to be a fight, that fracture on the right side of the face would have been more consistent with being struck by a left-handed person as opposed to a right-handed person. The skull fractures and Geiger's account

give investigators enough to make an arrest. Just in time for the 23-year anniversary of David's death. We got the warrant issued on August 20th, and really for symbolic purposes, we wanted that arrest made on that anniversary date. But tragically, before Trooper Bettner gets a chance to tell Virginia that her hard work to get justice for her brother has paid off, she passes away.

It was her son that found her on the couch. It was hard to think, you know, finally after all this time, answers were coming, and she wasn't going to be here to see the final outcome of it. She turned to drugs and tried to numb the pain of losing her brother. She tried really hard to light a fire under somebody to, you know, to get answers, and I think it sent her into, like, a depression that she couldn't get out of. Ginny needed something to get through because it was always on her mind.

It was eating her away inside, and it just brought her to her end before she finished the story. If I had a picture what that day would be like when David's killer was arrested 10 out of 10 times, I was there with Virginia, she was there. There would be that moment, and when I lost that, yeah, that hurt. It always will. Joe Geiger is charged with third-degree murder, manslaughter, tampering with physical evidence, and abuse of a corpse. Due to the limited witnesses available,

prosecutors allow Geiger to plead guilty to the involuntary manslaughter charge. This was a 20-year-old guy that was hanging out with 13-year-olds and 14-year-olds. And they were intimidated by him. They were fearful of him. Even as adults, they were not willingly cross this guy or testify against him. What was important to me was that I was able to go back to David's family and tell them what happened to their brother, to their uncle, to their friend, to their family member. That was the most important part of the case for me. As part of the plea agreement, Geiger has to disclose what happened on the day David was killed. He explains that he was growing marijuana plants

and he discovered that David was stealing the plants. This infuriated him. Geiger and Fry found David near the empty cabooses on the railroad tracks, somewhere David was known to hang out. Geiger claims that he confronted David in the train, and when he punched David, the boy had fallen backwards and hit his head on a metal object.

After he hit David, I see he started crying. They panicked and they went downtown and then went back to the train car hoping he wasn't there and unfortunately, David was still there. He thought he was dead and rather than notifying anybody, he took the coward's way out and he hit his body.

When you look back, those dogs actually set in motion a chain of events and helped link Joe Geiger to David's death. I'm glad that, you know, that he did have to tell what happened in his plea deal, but I think that a lot of it, like the crying, they told me he cried a lot. I think that was more because he was caught, because in court he showed no remorse. In February 2009, Joe Geiger is sentenced

to no more than two years behind bars. Joe took away my friend. He took away my cousin. He took away my cousin. He took away someone I thought of as another brother. He was a beautiful soul. I mean, he was such a loving boy. Loved his family, his friends. I wish he had the opportunity to grow up as I did, you know? It just seems so unfair, and I'm so sorry that his life was cut so short.

I just want them to remember him just riding his bike and being a paperboy, and he was a hard worker. You know, he gave that his all, and he wasn't afraid. He just went out and did what he wanted to do, and I want them to remember him happy and the loving kid that he was. Cold Case Files is hosted by Paula Borrows. Thank you. and our supervising producer is McKamey Lynn. Our executive producers are Jesse Katz, Maite Cueva, and Peter Tarshis. This podcast is based on A&E's Emmy-winning TV series, Cold Case Files. For more Cold Case Files, visit aetv.com. I love you. Medea's witness protection, and Medea's big happy family. Join Tyler Perry as he goes on a couples retreat with Sharon Leal in Why Did I Get Married?

Or Idris Elba and Gabrielle Union in the Tyler Perry-directed film Daddy's Little Girls. Plus, Pluto TV has hundreds of channels with thousands more movies and TV shows, available on live and on demand. Download the free Pluto TV app on all your favorite devices and start streaming now. Pluto TV. Drop in. Watch free.