Dateline NBC - Facing the Music

Episode Date: July 2, 2024

When a young schoolteacher in Pennsylvania is murdered, her friends wonder if the killer will be caught. Following years without an arrest, investigators discover a new tool that may finally help unlock the murderer’s identity. Can police work fast enough to catch the suspect? Or will the killer slip away again? Andrea Canning reports.Listen to Andrea Canning and Josh Mankiewicz as they go behind the scenes of the making of this episode in ‘Talking Dateline’: https://link.chtbl.com/tdl_facingthemusic

He said, Christy's been murdered. She was taken so soon and so violently. I couldn't stop shaking. A young teacher leaving for school, murdered before she could get out the door. This was a horrific scene. It was a nightmare scene. She had Christmas presents that she was taking to her students that day.

I was petrified. I just thought, who? Why? We looked at suspect after suspect after suspect. The crime was a mystery for decades. We were still with no answer. I mean, this poor family. We thought we might be able to solve this case. Could cutting edge science yield a new clue? This was a huge lead.

Absolutely. This wasn't someone that they had had a reason to look at or talk to before. He was here. He was here the whole time. You are literally talking to Christie's killer. Right. Face to face.

Evil comes in all packages. It certainly does. Who was the killer hiding among them? I'm Lester Holt, and this is Dateline. Here's Andrea Canning with Facing the Music. They were having so much fun. A group of girlfriends hitting the town one Saturday night. Lost in the music.

We would go to different clubs and we probably made ourselves known. We're here, come look at us, in a fun way. This was the playground they knew by heart. This was the home where they felt safe. They were invincible. You were in this bubble, you're 25, like nothing's going to happen to you. And then, less than 48 hours later,

one of them was gone. Murdered, and the killer was at large. And I remember being paralyzed, like not being able to leave the house. This not only stole your friend, it stole your innocence. Yeah, it did. It would take another 25 years to find the killer, a most unlikely suspect, always there, watching them, daring them.

You are literally talking to Christy's killer. Right. And I kept thinking after the fact, I'm like, he had to have known who I was when I was standing in front of him. He had to have known who I was. Some things are so life-altering you can't forget them, no matter how hard you try. For Harry Goodman, that moment came the morning of December 21, 1992. Harry was the principal of an elementary school in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. His star teacher, 25-year-old Christy Merak, was late for work. Christy was there every morning right around

8 o'clock. When 8 became 8.30, Harry grew uneasy. And the kids had started to come into the classroom. So I called her apartment about five times. Nothing. He contacted her family who lived about a two-hour drive north. Christy's brother, Vince Merak. The kind of person she was, we just thought something was wrong. It was that gut feeling. The family told Harry they hadn't heard from Christy that morning. Harry couldn't wait any longer. He knew she lived nearby with a friend.

So you decided to jump in your car to go see what's going on with Christy. I was prepared to go down and change a tire along the interstate. That's what you were expecting. That's what I was expecting. You thought, okay, her car's broken down. Right. But it wasn't. And when he eventually pulled up to Christy's apartment complex...

I saw her car there, and it was iced over. And then I started to freak out. Her front door was open. He went inside and looked to his left. He saw her in the living room, lifeless on the floor. He ran to call 911. I was a total mess. I mean, I was in hysterics.

In total shock. It was pretty apparent that she had been murdered. Craig Stedman is a former Lancaster County District Attorney. Back in the early 90s, he was a young prosecutor. This was a horrific scene. Yeah, it was a nightmare scene. You know, not only the fact that he had this young teacher who was brutally murdered, but she had been sexually assaulted on top of that. Did it seem clear, at least at first glance, how she died?

No, other than there had been a brutal struggle. The medical examiner would later determine that in addition to being sexually assaulted, Christy had been beaten and strangled to death, likely that very morning. I mean, she had her gloves on. So most people, when they're getting ready to go to work, it's the last thing you do is you put your gloves on beforehand. She had Christmas presents that she was taking to her students that day that were strewn about as part of the struggle.

So brazen, too, that this would happen at that hour of the morning when people are going to work, to school, and those places are close together, and there's a lot of cars around there and people. A lot of people around, the number of witnesses that could have been there. I mean, that person was very determined to do whatever he wanted to do. Police collected crime scene evidence, including DNA the killer left behind during the sexual assault, and they canvassed the neighborhood for witnesses. Her brother Vince says he had no idea what was happening until he arrived at the police station. The session was started with, you know, there was an accident.

She passed away. And of course, obviously, we said, what happened? And that's when they told us she was murdered. Christy's roommate, Mary, got a call from police asking to meet back at the apartment.

Something about Christy being in trouble. When she arrived, a detective approached her. And he brought me into his car and he said, Christy's been murdered. And I just remember like, like being doubled over just trying to stop the shaking. Mary explained that she left the apartment around seven that morning. Christy was still getting ready for work. I was driving away and I'm like, oh, I should go back

and get my lunch. And I'm like, oh, I'm already this far. I'm just going to keep going. That meant Christy was murdered sometime between 7 and just after 9 that morning when Harry Goodman found her. Investigators asked Mary to do a walkthrough of the apartment. Right away, she saw scuff marks on and near the front door. There's something from his shoes or her shoes. She dug in.

It's what I thought. She just dug in like she was dragged. And then there was just a lot of blood on the carpet. And you had to see that? Yeah. It just has to be so traumatizing. Yeah, it was. Investigators believed Christy opened the door to leave,

only to have the killer drag her back in. Something else caught their attention. Mary's final conversation with Christy. Before I left, I went and said, OK, we're going to meet up later. And she sounded distant. And I said, are you OK? And she's like, no, I'm fine.

So then I just went to work. What do you think it was? I don't know. I don't know if she was just thinking about the day or just she was preoccupied. Christy had something on her mind and only moments to live. Investigators had to find out if the two were connected. When we come back, clues to a mystery. A boyfriend. She had told me that things were ending. She was finally ready to move on.

This was a big deal. And a mysterious visitor at Christy's school. I thought I may have just been face to face with the killer. Lancaster County is Pennsylvania Amish country. A place where old ways and modern suburban sprawl meet. The brutal murder of a schoolteacher just before Christmas 1992 upset that sense of peace. A lot of people in Lancaster County, particularly back then, they just didn't lock their doors, they didn't lock their cars, very trusting community. And yet, former DA Craig Stedman says Christy Murak's killing didn't have the mark of a stranger. 7, 7.30 in the morning, home invasion, sexual assault.

It would be highly unusual for something like that to take place at that time of day in someone's apartment just at random. Police wanted to know if Christy had any enemies. The answer was no. Her brother Vince says his sister had tons of friends. She was kind, caring, and focused. From the time she was a little girl, she wanted to be a teacher. We had a little thing set up in our garage where she was the school teacher. Now it's the summer, and the kids want to go out and play,

and my sister is pulling them in to teach them. When she wasn't playing school, she was goofing around like a normal kid. You can ask anybody and they'll tell you the same thing. She always was laughing, smiling, just having a good time. And always dancing. There she is as a high schooler in the yellow top, grooving to the 80s in the old TV dance show, Dancing on Air. What's your favorite attraction here at Hershey Park?

It's a stumper! After high school, she took her work play ethic to Millersville University in Lancaster, where she met her other family. Were you all like sisters? Yeah. Absolutely. like sisters? Yeah, absolutely. Christy's circle included that roommate, Mary Franciscus, Chris Walter, Lisa Bailey, and Marianne Taylor. We've shared clothes. We've shared hair products. We share everything. I don't think there's anything about each other that we don't know.

And that's such a rare friendship. And when it came to Christy, her friends knew she could hold her own, especially when they'd go out. If someone came up and she wasn't interested, she had no problem telling people, hit the road, I'm not interested. She was also protective of her friends. When they graduated, a few of them set up house in that apartment complex just outside downtown Lancaster. Christy was always a very safe person, like lock your doors, always leave with a buddy. And we did feel safe. There was no time. We were in the middle of nowhere. I mean, our backyard was an Amish farm. It was a dairy farm. By then, Christy had already landed her dream job as a teacher.

Here she is, leading a sixth grade class in science. These are the ways we would classify any type of animal. Harry Goodman saw something special in her. She had the kids motivated. They were captivated. Some people would drag themselves into work. Christy didn't look at it as work. If only you could bottle that. Oh my gosh. And sell it. Yeah, tell me. But investigators did find one loose thread in her life. She loved him.

So loyal to him. Christy had fallen for a man who went by the nickname Dagger. It wasn't exactly her friend's idea of a catch. Christy was 25 and he was not. He was old. I remember how old he was. He was 20 years older than us. Almost twice Christy's age. But he had a good job as president of the local Teamsters, and he was generous. I think she felt cared for. I don't even know exactly how, whether that was financially or what, but I think she felt cared for. Christy didn't divulge much about her boyfriend or his past, but her friends could tell he was in no rush to the altar. They thought that bothered Christy, especially as the friends started moving out and getting married.

Maybe having just been to Chris's wedding that September, I'm thinking maybe that she was realizing that's the life I deserve, too. Two days before she was killed, that Saturday, Christy had come to a decision. She had told me that things were ending with Dagger. She was finally ready to move on. This was a big deal because she had been with him for years at this point. She looked happy, and we saw Christy back, bubbly, happy, ready to get out there and live. And that night, she did.

The friends went out downtown hitting the clubs. Now, police had to consider whether Christy told Dagger she wanted to break up. If so, had he taken it badly? Was that on Christy's mind the morning she was murdered? Or had Christy angered someone else from that Saturday night? Police wanted to know more. Where did you eat? Where did you go dancing? Where did you go after that? Who was there? Then, something bizarre.

The day after Christy's murder, a man walked into her school. He clearly didn't belong there. I approached him and said, may I help you? Bob Wildeson was an assistant school superintendent. He said, oh, I'm just here to see Christy Mirack. I said, well, unfortunately, you're going to have to leave. Christy has passed. The mysterious visitor said he hadn't heard the news.

He claimed he was Christy's friend. Then he left. It was hard to believe that anyone in Lancaster County would not have heard about it. Bob Wildeson's mind raced. He'd heard stories of investigations where the criminals seemed eager to catch the attention of police. Immediately after that is when I called the police.

I thought, I may have just been face-to-face with the killer. Whoever that mystery man was, police knew they had to find him immediately. Coming up. It would have been shocking to her to see him come in that building. A surprise was in store about that surprise visitor. It was something to do with him. There was no other logical explanation. You were terrified.

When Dateline continues. Bob Wildeson was one of Christy's colleagues. He was certain the man who'd shown up at school a day after the murder, claiming to be her friend, had instead been her killer. I was convinced. In fact, I said, we're going to get the guy who did this right now today. He called police, told them the story, and gave them the man's name. Turned out, it was no random visitor at all. It was none other than Dagger, Christy's longtime boyfriend. Police brought him in for questioning. They found out Dagger had a secret. He had a wife. He was married, so he was pretty high on the suspect list. And I can tell you, just even talking to the investigators, they were absolutely convinced that this was him.

But Dagger insisted it wasn't. He said when Christie died, he was hundreds of miles away in Virginia, where he'd recently moved with his wife. Christie's friends were stunned. She never mentioned Dagger was married. They weren't sure she even knew. Now, they had to wonder if her decision to break things off with him two days before her death had doomed her. He might not have liked that.

I mean, she was devoted to him, and I'm sure that would be a loss for him to not have that in his life anymore. And it was years. I mean, you don't just cut that tie and have it not mean anything. And when they heard he'd shown up at Christy's school, their suspicions grew. We were all thinking he was trying to establish some kind of alibi or to show that he had no involvement.

Look how much I love her. I'm ready to make it public. And it was so odd because it was everywhere that she had been murdered. I mean, everywhere in Lancaster. So I just never understood how he didn't know. And it was very uncharacteristic of him to show up at the school.

I think it would have been shocking to her to see him come in that building. Like, it would have been unnerving for her to have her worlds collide like that. But the idea that Dagger did it fell apart. Police confirmed his alibi. He had been in Virginia at the time of the murder. They also tested his DNA against the DNA the killer left during the sexual assault. He was eliminated through alibi as well as scientifically. Still, her friends wondered if he might have been involved in Christy's death somehow. To them,

Dagger had always been a man of mystery. He didn't talk about his life or work. Their imaginations ran wild. He either hired a hitman. Right. Or it was revenge. It was something to do with him. It was somebody that wanted to get back at him for whatever reason. Yeah. There was no other logical explanation for us at the time. We were terrified. But investigators didn't buy the hitman angle. Professional hitmen do not usually get into hand-to-hand physical combat with their victim.

And they certainly don't leave multiple DNA samples behind. You wouldn't think that anyone would do it at 7.15 in the morning in her apartment. There'd be way better ways to do this. It's just not consistent with a professional-type hit. So police needed to consider other men Christy might have crossed. Her friends did mention one incident from that Saturday night. They ran into someone who dated another one of their friends. Who was not a good guy, and we called him out on it. They believed the man had been abusive to their friend, had even killed her dog.

I think we yelled puppy killer. Puppy killer. Oh my gosh, how did he react? He was scary. Yeah, he was a sociopath. Big, scary. Yeah. So did you tell the police about him as well?

Yeah, I mean, talk about emotive. That's something we latched onto because we thought Christy angered him by calling him this name in a very public place. Police looked into it, but eventually cleared him, too. In the meantime, her friends kept trying to help with the investigation. They had her photo albums, and we would go through all the guys on the photo album and give them their names. As it happened, police were already interested in someone else.

His connection to Christy was more recent and compelling than those old photos. And he'd practically driven himself into the heart of the case. Coming up. I walk in the door and they start to fingerprint me. I'm thinking, what? They think I did this. A principal under the microscope.

What's their tone? What kind of questions are they asking you? Extremely accusatory. First question, did you murder Christy Merak? After Christy Merak's murder, her principal, Harry Goodman, says he got a phone call to come down to the police station. And they said, we want to talk to you and ask you questions about Christy's teaching and those kinds. So I walk in. He thought they would ask routine questions about Christy's background.

He was wrong. I walk in the door and they start to fingerprint me. I'm thinking, what? They think I did this. I'm mourning the loss of our teacher and our friend. And all of a sudden, I'm being interrogated. Why do you think they zeroed in on you? I found her.

And that's it? Yeah. That one moment in time? I found her. Actually, there was a bit more. The DA said investigators found Harry's drive to check on his employee that morning very strange. A lot of bosses when someone's only, you know, 30, 40 minutes late, they don't jump in their car, you know, to go to go see if someone's okay. Why did you feel the need to do that? That's just who I am.

I knew something was wrong. I thought Christy might need help. He says police asked where he'd been in the hours before her death. Harry recalled going to the gym, coming home to change, and heading back out to work. What's their tone? What kind of questions are they asking you? Extremely accusatory. You know, why would you have

hired her? What was it about her that you like so much? I mean, they were coming at me with all ends. Detectives asked if he would take a polygraph. I'm thinking, I've got nothing to hide. Hook me up. First question, did you murder Chrissy Murak? Harry told them no. After answering all their questions, he says he passed the polygraph. They later confirmed his alibi, and his DNA was not a match. But Harry knew some people still suspected him. My teachers would always come up to me, Harry, you should have heard what so-and-so was saying. And I said, don't tell me. I don't want to know.

Police began looking elsewhere. They even considered the possibility that Christy might not have known her killer. That's when her friends recalled something that had happened months earlier at the apartment. Back then, they brushed it off. Now, they wondered. You have a bizarre incident one night

where Dagger comes over and sees somebody in the bushes. They went after the stranger. We immediately jumped up and started screaming at him. And we chased him down here and all the way down there. And what gave you the courage to go after this person? Because he violated us. He was peeking in our window. But they never got a good look at the guy. That wasn't much help to police.

Investigators needed to focus on the solid leads they did have. Neighbors told them they'd spotted a white car outside Christy's apartment just before the murder. There were four, five, or six people that saw at some point that morning a white car driving around that complex. Some thought it was a Toyota Celica like this one, but one witness who saw a man get out of the car near the apartment that morning described a different Macon model, a Dodge Daytona. Police decided to focus on that type of car. So they took that information and then they put it in the registry for Pennsylvania for anyone that had a similar type vehicle. But her friends didn't know anyone who drove that kind of Dodge. They started to worry the killer, whoever he was, might come back for one of them.

I remember going to go to work and I saw a car that was meeting the description of the car that they were looking for, being paralyzed, like not being able to leave the house because he's waiting for me. And I remember writing their license plate number down and putting it in my pocket so when they found my body, they would have this clue. This has to strike fear into people when a young girl like that is brutally murdered and the person who did it is at large. Was out there. That person was out there this whole time. The investigation dragged on.

Weeks became months, then years. Still, police believed that white car and the DNA from the crime scene would lead them to Christy's killer. Do you remember how many people were tested for their DNA? Well, it was definitely dozens. We looked at suspect after suspect after suspect. As time went on, we started just reaching out to just, well, could it be this person? Could it be this person? And when the FBI created a national DNA database, CODIS, investigators on Christy's case uploaded a sample from the crime scene. It didn't match the DNA of anyone in the system. The waiting was especially hard for Christy's

mother. A decade after the murder, she died not knowing who killed her daughter. I promised her that I wouldn't give up. You know? Because I knew it was, you know, she was leaving and we were still with no answer. Vince took up the cause, staying in touch with police, even putting up a billboard looking for any new leads. But nothing. Just hitting this dead end all the time was just, it was just extremely frustrating for us as a family. But a breakthrough was coming.

A new way to analyze DNA and catch criminals. A new way to find Christie's killer. Coming up. So what we're looking for is the pieces of the DNA for that person's eye color, their hair color, their face shape. Could a DNA breakthrough break the steelmate in Christie's case? He could look a lot like this. Right. When Dateline continues.

Time seems to pass more slowly here in the rolling farmlands of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. But for Christy Murak's loved ones, it felt like time had stopped altogether. Nearly 25 years had gone by since her death, and investigators were no closer to catching her killer. It must have bothered you knowing that whoever did this was getting away with it. Oh yeah. They were still out walking around. Or was he? I think there were times where we thought this person could be dead by now. We'll really never know. Still, they wanted to know, needed to know who her killer was. They just had to wait a little longer. Some things in law enforcement are just through hard work and dedication. Some things are just through coincidence and a little bit of luck.

In 2016, the DA's office heard about a new tool that uses DNA to solve cold cases. Genetic phenotyping allows scientists to create a composite of a suspect using the DNA left at a crime scene. So we're reading the information out of that DNA that determines what that person looked like. Ellen Greytak is director of bioinformatics at a company called Parabon, which has helped pioneer the use of DNA phenotyping. So that DNA built that person,

and that's what we're looking for, is the pieces of the DNA that coded for that person's eye color, their hair color, their face shape, and then we can tell that to the detectives. This isn't the first time phenotyping has come up in one of our stories. In 2018, Parabon created an image from my DNA to show how it works. Why am I anxious right now? What? Like, I feel like I'm the criminal or something. Let's see it. Okay. Oh, wow. I felt like after I got my composite sketch from Parabon that if I had have committed a crime and left my DNA, I would have been completely busted.

Yeah, absolutely. You would have been right at the top of that suspect list. And now the Lancaster DA hoped the company could help with Christy's case. They analyzed the DNA left by her killer, trait by trait, hair and eye color, facial structure, even ancestry. We found that he was partially of European descent, but also partially of Latino descent. So he was a mix of those two ancestries.

They came up with three composites to reflect how he might have aged over the years. He could look a lot like this. Right. This may have been approximately what he looked like when the crime was committed. The DA asked Christie's family and friends to take a look. But when they actually saw the composite... I didn't see anyone I know, and I'm like, this is a stranger. In October 2017, the DA made the composites public during a press conference. Maybe someone else would recognize the person in those images. There will be no tip that's going to be a waste of our time. We got a lot of calls. Some of them seemed hopeful at first, but ultimately led to nothing.

Oh, that's so frustrating. Yeah, this was kind of, we had felt like our last shot, our last thing that we could do. The composite didn't work, but it would not be their last shot. That's because investigators working on an unrelated crime in California came upon another way of solving cold cases. Police arresting a man they believe is a so-called Golden State Killer, discovered using DNA. California detectives found their suspect after uploading DNA from a crime scene to a database used by thousands looking for lost relatives.

Their search turned up people whose DNA had distant matches to the killer. From there, investigators constructed a family tree and narrowed it matches to the killer. From there, investigators constructed a family tree and narrowed it down to their man. When you read about it and you see it, you just say to yourself, well, why didn't I think about this? I mean, it's completely brilliant. Parabon's genetic genealogists did the same thing in the hunt for the man who murdered Christy. Sure enough, they found relatives who shared DNA with her killer. In a couple of days, they're able to take these few people who share DNA with our unknown killer

and build to who that person could have been. Remember, they knew the killer had European and Latino ancestry. One man in the family tree stood out. He matched the ancestry and lived near Christy when she was murdered. But that didn't mean investigators in Lancaster could make an arrest. We don't arrest people

on what genetic database is saying to us. We needed to get his sample and we needed to have it confirmed through the state police crime lab. So they staked him out, hoping he'd leave behind something with his DNA on it. We had a couple undercover guys watch him all day long to try to see him abandon something. He abandoned nothing. He took everything with him. We completely struck out. They tried again. State troopers eventually followed the man to, of all things, an event at a public school.

This time, success. An undercover female trooper befriended him, and she was able to get some things directly from him. What did she get? She was able to get a water bottle and gum that he had used. The state crime lab compared the DNA from those samples to the DNA from the crime scene. They matched.

Now, investigators were confident they had their man, standing right where they least expected him, in the shadows of the dance floor. Coming up... He slept on my bed that night. You just don't know what to think. Who was the man who murdered Christy?

His stunning identity revealed at last. Oh my gosh. You are literally talking to Christy's killer. Right. Face to face. Detectives believed they'd finally found Christy Merack's killer They matched his DNA to the crime And they were ready to arrest him Until

You realize he's not even home He's on vacation We found out that he was actually on a trip across America With his wife and daughter Now, DA Craig Steadman Had an agonizing decision to make. Do we arrest him out there and not have our investigators try to interview him? Do we risk the safety of his new wife and adopted daughter? So what do you do?

Well, so I made the decision to wait. Thankfully, their man returned to Lancaster. And on an early summer day in 2018, they arrested him outside his house. What was his reaction? He kind of was acting pretty calm. Oh, well, this is kind of a joke, right? And they kept telling him, no, you're arrested for criminal homicide of Christy Murak. He denies it?

He denied it. He denied ever knowing her. Today, we are announcing the arrest of Raymond Charles Rowe for the murder of Christy Murak from December 21st, 1992. Raymond Rowe. Who was he? Never heard of the guy. I don't know who this person is. Turned out many people knew the accused by a different name. DJ Freeze. Christy's friends were floored. He was the local DJ everyone wanted. He was the guy who went to the same church as me. He had been raised in Lancaster and he had essentially stayed here for his life.

Around the time of Christie's murder, Rowe worked a warehouse job by day and performed in clubs at night. Aside from a brush with the law in 2001, disorderly conduct and resisting arrest, he stayed out of trouble. Over the years, he married four times and built a name for himself as a DJ. A lot of our officers knew who he was. A lot of our officers had been at events that he had been at. He was living in plain sight. He was living in plain sight. He had been living in plain sight. He never hid it. Now, he was charged with murder. Investigators quickly connected him to another key piece of

evidence, that white car. In 1992, Roe owned a Toyota Celica, similar to this, that some of Christie's neighbors had mentioned, not the Dodge Daytona police focused on. I had sitting in my office a pile about this big of all the Dodge Daytonas that were registered in Pennsylvania back at that time. But not the Celica? Not the Celica. Why not go through both in the database? I did not have an answer for you on that. I think that they felt like, based on the information they had, that the Dodge Daytona was the way to go.

Investigators now believed Roe drove that car past Christie's doorstep often. We discovered that he worked very, very close proximity to where Christy's apartment was. Stedman says it's even possible Roe was the peeping Tom that Christy's friends chased just months before her murder. The what if haunts them. The thing that bothers me is if it would have, like what if it was him? If I would have

caught him, then... It gets you upset, like, just thinking about it now. Yeah. Investigators also knew that Roe might have spotted Christy in one of the downtown clubs, like that Saturday before her death. Was he at the club that weekend, one of the places you went to? We don't know. We didn't know him. He didn't stand out if he was there. And yet, the DA thinks it's likely the two met. I think it was targeted. I think that she had encountered him at some event beforehand.

My guess is had spurned him, and he saw her out there at that apartment at some point. The DJ's connection to Christy seemed tenuous, but Stedman says the DNA proved Roe killed her. In fact, the odds of the killer being anyone other than him on the entire planet weren't just one in a million. Non-million, octillion, a thousand trillion trillion, things like this, you can't even actually conceive of a number with 27 zeros or 30 zeros,

which is what we ended up getting. It's remarkable. I've never heard of a case with this much. And remember that composite from the killer's DNA? Turns out it was a pretty good match to Roe. Even then, it was hard for some in Lancaster to believe Roe could commit such a horrible crime, especially this woman. He was the life of the party.

Her name is Monica Whelan. She was engaged to Roe when Christy was killed. This was the first time she publicly talked about their relationship. You're learning that they believe he brutally murdered a woman, sexually assaulted her, and then came home to you. Yes. How do you process that? You just don't know what to think. I mean, he slept on my bed that night.

You know, we had Christmas four days later, and we got married months later. And you're none the wiser. No. But Monica does remember Christy's murder being in the news and talking to Roe about it. He was concerned about your safety after this murder. Yeah. It's outrageous to think that he's advising you on your safety and worrying about you when he was the killer. Yeah, it is surprising. The couple divorced almost six years later. There must also be a part of you that's like, what didn't I see? Yeah, there was that, there was, it could have been me.

You know, why wasn't it me? Why did she have to die? Roe was now facing trial and, if convicted, the death penalty. But it didn't come to that. In January 2019, he pleaded guilty to the murder and rape of Christy Merak in exchange for a life sentence. Her family felt relieved, but also cheated. He's been doing what he wanted to do for the last 26 years, and she's been dead for the last 26-plus years. And I still think he got off pretty easy.

Christy's friends are angry that Roe was able to live among them for so long, never hinting at what he'd done. He was the guy I talked to when my daughter was planning her wedding. No. At a wedding expo, face-to-face. Oh, my gosh. Spoke to him. You are literally talking to Christy's killer.

Right. And I kept thinking after the fact, I'm like, he had to have known who I was when I was standing in front of him. He had to have known who I was. Now, she'd like to have one more chance to meet him face-to-face. How did you know her, and why did you do this?

I still want to drive to the presidency of a lemmy, and I just want to ask him. I just don't understand why he did this. Since then, Raymond Rowe has been appealing his conviction, saying he was pressured into pleading guilty. Rowe's lawyer says DNA testing on additional evidence could help clear him. Those closest to Christy say they try not to think about him anymore, only about their lost friend, what she meant and still means to them. I'd like to think Christy's kept us together.

You almost feel guilty that we were able to get married and have kids. And we still think about Christy, like that she never got to have that. She was a huge light in this world that was just taken way too soon. Just way too soon. That's all for now. I'm Lester Holt. Thanks for joining us.