Cold Case Files - Written In Blood

Episode Date: December 13, 2022

Heidi Jones was just four years old when her mother was killed in 1970. Four decades later she vows to solve the cold case and enlists an old high school friend to help. Check out our great sponsors! If you’re 21 or older - download Slotomania on the App Store or Google Play Store and get one million free coins! SimpliSafe: Go to simplisafe.com/coldcase and claim a free indoor security camera plus 20% off your order with Interactive Monitoring! Vegamour: Go to Vegamour.com/coldcase and use code "coldcase" to save 20% on your first order! Cold Case Files is sponsored by BetterHelp! Learn more and save 10% off your first month at BetterHelp.com/coldcase 

An A&E original podcast. This episode contains descriptions of violence and sexual assault. Listener discretion is advised. I think for me, because I'm Loretta's daughter, I know she would have gone to great lengths to do whatever she needed to do for me, and she proved that the night she was murdered. How somebody could not make a sound through any of that, not screaming out for help.

She went through it because she didn't want anything to happen to me. How could I just let that go? My mom was my hero that night. I owed it to her to do something about this. If I could become her hero by solving this, I was gonna do it. 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. Just after sunset in Price, Utah on July 30, 1970, four-year-old Heidi Jones is about to drift off to sleep when her 23-year-old single mother, Loretta, cracks open her bedroom door. That night my mom came to my bedroom and she told me, don't come out. And I believe that if I heard any sound or anything that night, I did what my mom told me to do, and I didn't go out.

Heidi wakes up early the next morning and peers through the keyhole of her bedroom door. When I opened the door, I saw something lying on the floor. My next vivid memory is I am out on the front porch, and my next-door neighbor is out there digging for worms. He says, Heidi, come here, I have to show you something. And I says, I can't, I think my mommy's dead. The neighbor walks over to the home and looks into the living room window.

He sees Loretta's body on the floor, wedged between a couch and a small coffee table. He observes that she is semi-nude and surrounded in a puddle of blood. The neighbor, shocked by what he's seeing, runs back to his home and calls the police. Detective David Brewer describes what police find when they arrive shortly thereafter. When police arrived, they saw Loretta half-clothed, laying on the floor, deceased. She's wearing only a blouse and a brassiere, both of which are saturated in blood. Loretta had been sexually assaulted, and she was stabbed twice in the chest and 17 times in her back. And her throat was attempted to be cut.

Detective Wally Hendricks recalls the immediate investigation into the murder. The investigation didn't reveal any forced entry, any real signs of tremendous struggle. There wasn't tipped over furniture, there wasn't broken windows, the door jam wasn't broken. The police at the time did take quite a bit of forensic info. Fingerprints, blood samples, carpet fibers, and some couch fibers as well. Investigators want to wait to interview Heidi until her family arrives. For Loretta's sister, Carolyn Kendall, the moment the family is informed of the tragedy, still sticks out in her mind. The sheriff kept calling my mother, trying to locate my father.

And finally, my dad comes home and he's very upset and, you know, looks kind of white and in shock. And my mother asked him, what is wrong? It was just such a shock because I felt like nothing bad would ever happen to my family. There was six of us total, six children. They ranged to my oldest sister is nine years older than me and then Loretta was seven years older than me. I had a really good relationship with Loretta. We shared a bedroom for, gosh,

clear through my elementary years. We'd go to bed at night and she'd have us look underneath the covers and she'd say, do you see them? There's Fauna, Flora, and Meriwether, the little fairies from Sleeping Beauty. Her imagination was so awesome that she got me to believe that I could actually see them.

When we found out that Loretta was pregnant, I remember my dad not really being upset that she was really pregnant, but upset with her father. But Loretta did want to keep her baby. There was no question about that. She was just happy that she was going to have this little baby, and she was just a happy mom when Heidi was born. Loretta did work for my dad, and she was taking accounting classes. She was really working hard on making her life better for her and Heidi.

And Loretta was so awesome as a mom. She always had to make sure her little girl was taken care of. I remember we would go out and we would get ice cream. She made a ton of my own clothes. She made me dolls. She was a wonderful mom to me. As Loretta's family members learn of the murder, their first thought turns to her daughter, Heidi.

The first thing that my mother said is, where is Heidi? And we found out she was at the next-door neighbor's house. So we went to go get Heidi. With her grandparents now by her side, investigators ask Heidi what she saw and heard the night before. I know that I have something trapped in my brain of something that happened that night.

I believe it was too traumatic for me to remember. I don't believe my mom screamed or cried that night. If I had heard my mom scream in the next room, I probably would have came out of the room to see what was going on. So I believe my mom was my hero that night by protecting me. The four-year-old's memory is understandably murky, except for one important detail. I remember telling my grandma what I could possibly remember.

I said, Tom did it. Tom killed my mom. During the investigation, Heidi's grandma was jotting down everything Heidi was saying at that time. And there was an entry on this notepad on the morning that the body was discovered. Heidi told her grandmother, it was Tom that killed my mom. Heidi could provide no last name and no description. They weren't sure which Tom she was even referencing. All she could remember about that night was that a man named Tom allegedly

killed her mother. I still have so much hidden inside my head that doesn't want to come out. But I know that I knew Tom. Tom was a person that came around my mom, our house, quite a bit, because as a four-year-old, I knew his name. As friends and family search their minds for a man named Tom, investigators get a new lead about the night of Loretta's murder from a member of the Fenner family who lived nearby. Lori Kulo Fenner remembers the night of the murder well. July 30th, 1970. I lived about three blocks away from Loretta. At the time, I was 10 years old.

My brother and his friend were outside playing ball. I was out riding my bike around the house, and I come around the corner and noticed that my brother had gone in the house, and it was starting to get dark. So I figured I'd better go in as well. As I was walking is when I noticed this man coming at me. He grabbed me and held me up against the side of the house, and he had my hands behind my back.

He was stepping on my feet and another hand over my mouth. I was trying to scream, and I couldn't get the scream out. It just wouldn't come out. I was terrified. I couldn't get away from him. Eventually, his hand kind of got loose, and I was able to scream really loud. Lori's brother, stepfather, and brother's friend run outside

to see what the commotion is about. They see the suspect taking off on foot. He runs south in the direction of Loretta's home. The odds of an attempted abduction and a homicide that happened within an hour of each other, three blocks

away from each other, is far more than a coincidence. I would immediately assume that this was the same guy that killed Loretta. So the police at the time, are combing the area looking for a murder suspect, been doing field investigation on pretty much anybody that's walking near the house or even miles away.

They found an individual that was hitchhiking from Price to the town of Provo. This gentleman was carrying a pocket knife with what they thought was blood on it. They had taken him back to Price. That point in time, my mom and I had to get in the cop car and they drove us to identify the guy. And when I looked at him and saw him,

I knew right away it wasn't him. The hitchhiker is off the hook for the attack on Lori, and the knife he's carrying can't be linked to Loretta's murder. They eventually released the suspect they found in Provo. His alibi checked out. He was nowhere in that area at that time. Residents of Price live in fear as the specter of an unknown killer looms overhead. A lot of the town was just scared

that here's this guy that killed my sister and he had grabbed a little girl that night as well. Everybody's wondering, where's this guy? What happened to him? On August 1st, a tip comes in to the sheriff's office. The caller suggests that they take a look at a local railroad worker named Tom Eggly. I knew that Loretta had dated Tom Egli one time on a blind date. I thought she didn't like him, and she didn't want

anything to do with this guy. But Heidi was always right to the same story every time. You know, Tom killed my mom. He just seemed like he was a perfect suspect. At the time of Loretta's murder, Egli was living in a motel near Helper in Utah. He was staying there with his girlfriend, who was eight months pregnant.

Investigators decide to pick Egli up and bring him to police headquarters to be interviewed. Tom Egli explained to the police on the night of the homicide, he hitched a ride with a couple of younger teens. He'd been dropped off in Price at a little local fast food joint. He said he grabbed a burger and sat down on the curb and ate it. And then his story is that he was in Price just walking around window shopping,

but he was nowhere near Loretta Jones' house. Eggly insists that while in Price, he did not attack Lori or even visit Loretta, let alone kill her. Tom says he wound up at a bar called the Highway Rendezvous on Springland Road, probably 11, 11.30 at night. Investigators immediately set out to corroborate Egli's story.

At the Highway Rendezvous, the owner of the bar, she said that Tom did come in that night, kind of skittish, nervous. Tom had red speckles on his shirt, and he said he had been painting. Red paint must have got on him. The cops met up with Tom at his apartment, and he allowed them in to let them search his room. They did take a pair of Levi's that Tom said he was wearing that night and a shirt.

Investigators bag the clothing and collect hair, blood, and fingerprint samples from Egli. It's all sent to the FBI crime lab in Washington, D.C. As the investigation continues, Loretta's loved ones gather to bid her one final farewell at her funeral. I remember my mom's funeral. She had on a blue dress, and it had a super high collar so that you couldn't see where her neck had been slit. I remember looking in the casket, and I thought she looked like Sleeping Beauty.

It was really hard to see Loretta, and there's her daughter, Heidi, just crying, realizing that her mother is gone now. I was pretty angry. One month after Loretta is killed, investigators receive the results from the clothing tested with the FBI. So the fibers that they discovered on Tom's clothing did match the fibers that were found

to be similar to those on Loretta Jones' rug. Investigators feel that they had enough probable cause to arrest Tom, and they did. Investigators theorize that Egli was being chased through the neighborhood for attempting to kidnap Lori. They speculate that when he spotted Loretta's home, he sought out shelter. They had arrested a man. My brother and I went up to the jail and was asked to try to identify him. Lori's brother Jim believes he's looking at the right person,

the man who tried to abduct her. But Lori isn't so sure. In November, Egli pleads not guilty to Loretta's murder, and prosecutors present the evidence they have gathered against him during a pretrial hearing. During this preliminary hearing, prosecutors did bring up the witnesses for Tom being in town that day, seeing him at the bar.

The prosecutors said the fiber evidence that the FBI produced out of their lab was similar in nature to the rug that Loretta had in her home. But Tom was known to have been in her home before. The case against Egli is paper thin. There is not enough evidence to bind him over to trial, so he's released. Tom Egli just happened to be a guy at the wrong place

at the wrong time walking around. Unsure if they ever had the right suspect, investigators start over again from scratch. But it's now been 13 weeks since Loretto's murder. Carbon County Sheriff Albert Pasik and Price City Police Chief Art Pelloni, they would come to our house regularly to interview me about what I knew that night, if there was anything else that I could possibly remember.

But, unfortunately, there's nothing else that four-year-old Heidi can offer. I think a lot of people were confused of what really happened as we were. Where's this guy that killed Aretha? One year after her mother's murder, by the time Heidi turns five, the case begins to go cold and the hardship of the murder begins to take its toll within the family. My parents ended up adopting Heidi after Loretta got killed.

With my dad, he was really hurting inside. I think this really took a toll on him. That's why maybe he passed away four years later at a pretty young age. Once my grandpa died, it was pretty much my grandma and me and my uncle that lived at home. And, you know, life was happening. School was happening. And any time I tried to talk to my grandma about my mom, it would just make her cry. My mom was to the point where she just wanted Loretta to rest in peace.

It was just kind of accepted, for lack of a better word, that my mom's murder wasn't going to be solved. We were all just trying to find something that was normal, you know, just to heal and move on with our lives as individuals. I moved to California in 1986. Life was good. It was very freeing being able to tell people what you wanted them to know about you. Time continues to trickle past. Months transform into years and years into decades. Now an adult, Heidi refuses to let her mother's case be forgotten.

By 2006, it's been 36 years since Loretta was found dead in her living room. In 1989, I started this whole letter writing campaign. I wrote to Price City Police Chief. I wrote to Carbon County Sheriff's Office. I wrote to the FBI. But it seemed like the more that I pressed for information on my mom's case, I started hitting brick wall after brick wall. I was getting nowhere. So I took all my notes and letters away into a binder, and hopefully I'll pull it out again later in life.

I was struggling hard in California. I know that my mom would have gone to great lengths to do whatever she needed to do for me and she proved that the night she was murdered. How could I just let that go? My mom was my hero that night. I owed it to her. I owed it to her to do something about this. I approached my grandma and I says I'm gonna see if I can't solve my mom's murder case. She said, why don't you just let it go? And I says, because I can't let it go. If I didn't do it, nobody else was going to do it. I really honestly had mixed feelings. I was kind of feeling a little bit like my mom. Maybe after all these years, we need to let Loretta rest in peace.

But the other part of me was like, it's time for us to find out who really killed her. In 2009, Heidi moves back to Utah and she meets with the Price City police chief. He informs her that they had done everything they possibly could in trying to crack the cold case. The only thing they hadn't done yet is re-interview the original suspect, Tom Eggly. Fourth of July weekend, 2009, my car was stolen. I had jumped on Facebook and put, my car is stolen. Can you believe that? And David responded, oh, too bad I'm not closer. I could help. I met David Brewer when I was in high school. He's a year older than I am.

He says, I work for Carbon County Sheriff's Office in Price, Utah. The case back in 1970 belonged to the Carbon County Sheriff's Office. And immediately I got the ding, ding, ding. I need to go talk to David Brewer I called David Brewer and I told him this story about my mom being murdered it wasn't until I met her in person and she handed me photographs that the decels started really kicking in the photographs that Heidi produces are family photographs and the true impact of the unsolved case hits the police chief hard. I says, well, I'll just go down and get the case file,

go grab all the evidence and start going through it and get this thing going. But it was quickly discovered that there was no case file and there was no box of evidence. They were thrown away or missing. The old jail used to be the evidence room. I honestly think that when they moved the new jail from the old, I think someone probably looked at that case and just says, this will never be solved, and they tossed it.

I mean, it's sad to say, but I think that's how it was. You know, it's hard to tell why this case went cold in the first place. Without having the case file, I can't really say why it went dormant. But then once the evidence was lost and the case files were lost, it was bound to just stay that way permanently. I'm Lola Blanc.

And I'm Megan Elizabeth. And we're the hosts of Trust Me, Cults, extreme belief, and manipulation right here on Podcast One. Join us this month as we explore the world of conspiracy theories. We'll interview experts about how conspiracies start. Dive into the psychology of how they spread. And learn how you can help stop the spread of false information. Join us for Conspiracy Month right here on Trust Me. Get new episodes every Wednesday on Podcast One, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Being the rookie homicide investigator cold case guy, it is very disheartening when you don't have anything to go off of. You don't have a case file. While searching the state medical examiner's office in August 2009, Detective Brewer finally locates a document from the original case. They did have a very good detailed medical examiner's report. It was discovered that a vaginal swab had been done and there was semen present on it. And with today's standards, of course, in DNA, I thought I could have this guy in 10 minutes if I just had that swab.

But it was gone with everything else. I had my peers and some of my superiors tell me that it was time to just let it go. Even my partner told me, you've done all you can. But no, I never let it go. Besides, Heidi wouldn't allow me to quit. Shortly after, I ran a newspaper article for more information in this case

because I was hoping the public could be my case file. So I get a call from this gal who said that she had info for me on my case. She said, have I ever seen that Loretta wrote the killer's name in blood? And I says, how would you know this anyway? I mean, you weren't allowed in the crime scene. And she says, yeah, I was.

She says, I was living with Heidi's grandmother at the time going to school. And the day after this happened, Heidi's grandfather asked her and one of Heidi's aunts to go to the house. The family had been allowed to enter the crime scene to get some clothing and some other items for heidi so they went into the living room and she says i saw it right there with my own eyes didn't write the whole name she only got the t and the o out we pulled the photo up blew it up and there was definite t and an o written in blood wow that. That is, that is, that is heavy duty stuff. I get goosebumps right now thinking about that. Loretta was trying to tell the story herself and help us out.

And it looks like the last thing she did on this earth was write the letter O. And she couldn't get the M in there for Tom. In the beginning, to be fair, I excluded the knowledge of an individual named Tom Eggly. I could have only assumed that they didn't have enough evidence to bind it over for trial because they had the wrong guy. But at the end of the day, Tom Eggly was the only person we could not eliminate as a suspect. And at that time, he became the focus as he was in 1970. Detective Brewer speaks with every living witness who testified during Egli's 1970 hearing.

He also speaks with one witness who never testified, Marsha Hidalgo, Egli's then-girlfriend. We drove 14 hours to get to Kansas and met up with her. I asked her, I said, do you know anything about that homicide he was arrested for back then? All I was ever told, this girl that he had been going with before I got there had been stabbed 14 times. What do you remember about that night? You know, I was pregnant. I waited up for him to come. It was late. Marsha tells investigators that Egli came home at around 3 a.m. in the morning.

I was kind of ticked, you know. Where were you at? He's like, oh, you know, I'm here now. And then he went in and he took a bath in his clothes. He bathed in his clothes. He bathed in his clothes. And then after he took a bath in his clothes, he put them in a bag, and then the next day

took them down to the laundromat, where this burn barrel existed, and threw them in there and burned them. My jaw dropped. I did ask her if she told the cops then what she's telling me now, and she said she did. Um, I have my doubts on that. Back then, she's telling me now, and she says she did. I have my doubts on that.

Back then, she's eight months pregnant with his child. So I think the protection end kicked in with Marsha. It was time to take my knowledge of things that people had told me and take it right to Tom himself. Okay, 11.35 a.m. I'm approaching the residence of Thomas Edward Eggly for an interview. It's now the 16th of March, 2010,

40 years after Loretta was killed. Detective Brewer tracks Eggly down to a town called Rocky Ford in Colorado. Along with Detective Taylor, he pays him a visit. I want to know if we could take some of your time this morning, talk to you about some issues back in Carbon County a few years back. Carbon County? The two investigators enter Egli's home. Well, you have any idea why you think we might be here to talk to you? Well, years ago, one of my ex-girlfriends was killed. They arrested me for it, but they turned me loose.

Detective Brewer asks Egli what he remembers about the night that Loretta was killed. I stopped at a drive-in or something there and got me a hamburger. I know I sat down on the curb and ate it. There was nothing going on, so I headed back. Marsha was at the hotel with the baby, so she knew I was gone. Loretta's daughter, frankly, named you back then. Well, yeah, she knew my name. I had been there.

Detective Brewer then asks Eggly what he thinks should happen to a killer if they're caught 40 years after the murder. Do you think that person would deserve to go to jail now? Depends on whether he's done it again or not, you know? Huh, obviously he did this and didn't do it again. Is this what he's trying to jail now? Depends on whether he's done it again or not, you know? Huh, obviously he did this and didn't do it again. Is this what he's trying to tell me? Something comes up, be sure to call. I knew beyond any reasonable doubt that this was the guy

and wanted to pitch it to our county attorney, which I did. His opinion was there was just not enough. We wouldn't never be able to get it past their desk, let alone into court hearing. So this thing got colder than it's ever got. When you work so hard on something, it's hard to swallow that pill. In 2016, Detective Brewer presents Loretta's case at a regional cold case seminar. One thing that came about was, have you ever thought about exhuming the body? And so a gal from a private crime lab stood up and says, they've retrieved DNA of people after 50-plus years in the grave.

When I got back from that cold case conference, first thing I did is called Heidi. I says, thinking about exhuming your mother's body, what do you think? I told him, give me a shovel, I'll help dig. It's decided that Loretta's body will be exhumed. Investigators hope that they will be able to recover DNA, and they anticipate a media buzz that will reignite the case. So as they are pulling the body out of the ground,

water started pouring out of the vault. The crime scene investigator looked at it and says, no, we're not going to find any DNA here. Investigators are disheartened, but they have another tactic up their sleeves. Detective Brewer calls up the Rocky Ford Gazette and tells them that they have a local suspect out there and that they've recovered DNA on Loretta's body. It's a bluff, but he wants Egli to think that the net is closing in on him just to see how he reacts. The day after they re-intern Loretta, Detective Brewer receives a phone call from Rocky Ford from a woman named Lisa Carter. I knew Tom Eggly well.

He was my neighbor and he was a friend of my dad's. She had told me that I have the right guy. Tom Eggly is the one that murdered Loretta Jones. I says, well, what makes you think that? She says, well, I have property bordering his, and one day Tom came over to the house in the backyard, and he was going to cut down my tree with a chainsaw because some of the branches, I guess, were hanging over to his property or whatnot. I was mad. So I went out to the driveway.

I tapped him on the shoulder, and he came up with that chainsaw, and he swung like a baseball bat. I says, all that makes you think that, you know, Tom killed Loretta Jones? Tom had a look in his eyes. His eyes become a white crystal color, and you can't even see a soul. There's nothing there. He would have cut me in half in a heartbeat and not thought twice. That's why when somebody said that he might have a propensity for violence,

I believed it. She says, hey, if you need my help with anything, let me know. It was like a gift from God. And I kind of ran it by our prosecutors. You know, what do you think of using an undercover? Just don't come back without a confession. Lisa Carter knew Tom personally,

so she had almost a daily contact with him. And, wow, then I started thinking, we could use an undercover agent here. A total stranger's gonna step in, wear a wire, and help us? Lisa Carter is an incredible human being. We'd learned her husband was a Rocky Ford police officer, and Tom was aware her husband was out of town for several days for training.

And so we adopted the plan. Lisa goes to 76-year-old Egli with the idea that she was going to betray her husband. She explains to Egli that her husband had been training in Utah when Egli's name popped up as the lead suspect in Loretta's murder. I said, I've known Tom 20-plus years. Tom's kind of in a bad spot. And I said, what do they have? Said that they still had the swabs from the night of the killing that the people from the autopsy took. Lisa tells Egli that she feels it's important to protect him because he was such good friends with her now deceased father. And that's what he would have wanted.

Everybody makes a mistake in their life. You know, everybody snaps. Everybody has a moment when they're just fried and s*** happens. During the conversations, I never feared for my safety. I was careful. I never turned my back, and I watched as any time his hands went near his pockets. Over the next two days, Lisa works at gaining Egli's trust before she strikes gold.

Egli tells Lisa that on the night of the murder, he went into Price to get a hamburger. And how far did Loretta live from the sandwich place? Not very far, I don't think. He offers no information about the attempted abduction of Lori, but he tells Lisa that he was in Loretta's neighborhood and decided to knock on the front door.

According to Eggly, Loretta welcomed him into her home. Okay? And the door closed, and then what? What would you think happened? If you had to guess, what would you think happened? I was turned down for sex. Okay. And that would you think happened? I was turned down for sex. Okay. And that made you feel how?

Like... He said that she walked into her kitchen, and it's my understanding that Heidi Jones' bedroom was off of the kitchen. I believe in my heart that Loretta knew that she was going to die or there was going to be something really bad happening. And I believe she shut that door.

And when she come back, I stabbed her. It totally blew me away. He never changed his voice, and I think that's what got me. It was just like as if I was telling you about Sunday dinner. He acknowledged that she wasn't dead, that she was moaning. And I said, well, did you have sex with her? And he said, yeah, of course I had sex with her. He said it was consensual.

And I said, Tom, you stabbed her. How is that consensual? And he said she didn't tell me no. And it took me a while before I was able to process what I just heard. I don't believe there's any remorse to Tom at all. I don't believe he even cares. But I pulled myself back together. So you remember having sex with her, and then what?

I lost it. I cut her throat, and I left. That just blew me away. I could not react. I didn't know what to say. I know a good admission when you hear one, and I had it. I had a lawfully obtained admission to murder. It was game on from then.

Lisa tells Egli that the family deserves closure, and she convinces him to sit down and speak with investigators. But there's one condition. He cannot be arrested during the meeting. Detective Brewer reluctantly agrees. He knows that he will only elicit a confession by agreeing to Egli's terms. I'd be lying if I didn't say I wasn't nervous, but we got there. Tom invited us back in the house. It's been 46 years, so I'm scared

every time somebody shows up at my door. It's a hard thing to look over your shoulder that long. Yeah, it is. It really is. Without ever being encouraged, Eggly begins to divulge information about Loretta's murder. We had sex. There was no rape involved. Okay. I lost it because I'd been drinking. Do you remember cutting her throat? Yeah, but I don't remember ever stabbing her. Okay. Before investigators leave Egli's home, they have one last question. If you could tell Loretta's daughter anything in the world right now, what would you tell her?

I had just came out of the store and Brooke called and he says, hey, are you busy? And he's like, Tom said to tell you that he's sorry he killed your mom. And I'm like, oh my God, are you serious? Are you freaking kidding me? Are you serious? She was the only person that I wanted to call. And that was a very, very good moment. After detectives Brewer and Hendricks returned to Utah, U.S. Marshals arrest Tom Egli in Rocky Ford for Loretta Jones' murder. He is arraigned, and he tells investigators he wants to confess to the murder, but only if he doesn't have to confess to the rape. Heidi is more than happy with the arrangement. Egli is sentenced to 10 years to life in prison,

which was the maximum penalty that could have been given to him back in 1970. He will be 96 years old when he goes out before the parole board, and I will make sure he doesn't get out. After the sentence is handed down, Egli is asked if he has anything he wants to say. He stands up and states, I'm sorry I killed her, and I'm surprised you're doing something about it after 46 years. And, you know, our family's sitting there in the courtroom like, really? What do you mean after 46 years? It doesn't matter if it was 46 minutes, 46 days, 46 years. The fact of the matter is, you killed our sister, and you not only took life away from her,

but you took it away from her little girl at four years old. You took it away from me enjoying her as a sister. You took it away from her mother and father to enjoy her in their last years. And for somebody like that not to show any remorse, it was just mind-boggling. This wasn't about closure. This was all about getting justice. 46 years it took, but we did it. I don't even know how to put into words what David Brewer means to me. It wasn't just that Loretta was a victim. Loretta mattered. And David took the time to know that. When David and I first started working together, 1% of all cold cases were

solved. 1%. I learned to believe in the impossible. And as long as you have hope, you have a chance. Thank you. Senior producer is John Thrasher. And our supervising producer is McKamey Lin. 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'm Lola Blanc. And I'm Megan Elizabeth. And we're the hosts of Trust Me, Cults, Extreme Belief, and Manipulation. Right here on Podcast One. Join us this month as we explore the world of Trust Me, cults, extreme belief, and manipulation right here on Podcast One. Join us this month as we explore the world of conspiracy theories. We'll interview experts about how conspiracies start.

Dive into the psychology of how they spread. And learn how you can help stop the spread of false information. Join us for Conspiracy Month right here on Trust Me. Get new episodes every Wednesday on Podcast One, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.