Dateline NBC - Secrets in the Ozarks

Episode Date: June 6, 2023

When the body of 22-year-old college student Rebekah Gould is found a week after she vanished, theories about her murder run rampant through the Arkansas Ozarks. Dennis Murphy reports.

Tonight on Dateline. She was a tiny little thing, but she was not scared of anybody. Got a call from dispatch, said that Rebecca was missing. There was bloody items, pillows and clothing that was shoved under the bed. Where'd they find the body? Right down there close to that big tree. There's your girl in a coffin. There's my...

Yes. A lot of suspects. A lot of suspects. Casey was the boyfriend. They was on and off again. She had Justin, who she went to high school with. Justin was the bad boy. We had heard a rumor that Chris was covered in blood that day. So that is a red flag.

We have no forced entry, so she knew who her killer was. There was a car there with Texas plates. Who were the Texas plates? He had a picture of Rebecca's headstone, newspaper clippings about Rebecca's murder. We know what you did. We know how it went down. This is a total bluff. It is. Yeah. You're free to go anytime. The detective doesn't have anything. Right. Right. It was a little bit of shock. Oh my God, it's over. Would an investigator's risky strategy doom a case or reveal a killer? I'm Lester Holt, and this is Dateline. Here's Dennis Murphy with Secrets in the Ozarks.

An awful act. One you couldn't unsee or forget. And there was no shortage of suspects. A small mountain town with relatives and neighbors turned against one another. They all went through being accused, every single one of them. It hurt a lot of them. Without an arrest, the court of public opinion never really went into recess or stopped spinning fresh theories. Old names, new names, whispered about. There was lots of names thrown out there. Rumors about Jennifer. He flat out told some people

that I was the one that done it. Chris Cantrell. And largely Casey. Everybody was pointing the finger at him. So many reputations were dragged through the mud. The true killer, meanwhile, following it all from so many miles away, tickled to be getting away with it. He was very proud that he was able to fool everybody. Until he encountered this man. And all his bravado fell away in a heartbeat.

The evil laid bare by a simple question. Would you be okay with taking a polygraph? I'll just ask you. So let's follow the hills into the postcard-pretty Arkansas Ozarks. That's where Rebecca, the young woman in our story, was raised. If you like, you can just let your ears direct you to the sounds of the fiddle and the sweet song of the dulcimer. And there you'll be in the town of Mountain View, the self-designated folk music capital of the world. In cozy parlors, you can hear the timeless old hymns and the ballads of faithless lovers come to murderous ruin. But one person's timeless and satisfying can be another's claustrophobic. There's not a whole lot to do there.

I mean, it's a beautiful area, but it's just a small town. You're lucky if you have a stoplight in your town. Tiffany Moore grew up in Mountain View with three sisters. Eventually, she enrolled in the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville, three hours away. She wasn't surprised when her Restless Kids sisters, Rebecca, that's her on the right, and Danielle moved there too. Rebecca, 22 years old, wanted so very much to be a Razorback. Well, she was going to a community college because she wanted to get into the University of Arkansas. But she had to get a couple of classes under her belt first. And that's what her and Danielle were both enrolled in, the same classes, going to the... So do the community college thing and then become a Razorback.

Yes, that was the plan. College was the future, but Tiffany's sisters missed their mom and friends from the old days. So on that third weekend of September 2004, with her little dog, Lady, and sister, Danielle, riding shotgun, Rebecca drove home for a visit. She planned to spend most of her time in a nearby town at the home of a friend. A guy named Casey, huh? Casey, yes. Yeah. And that's who she would stay with a lot of the times when she would go back home. Boyfriend of Rebecca, Casey, or not so much? At one point, yes, they were. They were kind of on and off.

Come late Monday, September 20th, 2004, the sisters were supposed to head back to school, Rebecca at the wheel. That never happened. She didn't answer her phone and she never picked Danielle up, but Rebecca was kind of like that too. You know, if she wanted to do something, she was going to do it. By Tuesday morning, Rebecca's mom knew something wasn't right. She called the police department and asked them to do a, what is it, a welfare check or something. So when this thing went down, are you already working? Are you on shift? I'd been on shift about 30 minutes that morning. Charlie Melton is now the Izzard County Sheriff.

But back in 2004, he was a newly minted deputy when his dispatcher told him to locate one Rebecca Gould. Just in general, what do you think your mission is here? To go find somebody that has either lost or just for some reason didn't want to go back to where they're supposed to be. So you think it's going to be a pretty simple deal, huh? Just a pretty routine call. Rebecca's mom suggested they track down that friend Rebecca was staying with, Casey McCullough.

They'd most likely find him at work at this Sonic drive-in. So you went to the Sonic? Yes, sir. There he was. He was pulling out, his eyes pulling in. Casey told the deputy he last saw Rebecca the day before, Monday morning, when she dropped him off for his shift at the Sonic. She was supposed to pick him up later that day, but for some reason didn't show. He spent the night out with friends and didn't go home.

But now, having just swung by his place, he noticed Rebecca's car and dog were still there. She was not. The deputy asked Casey to take him back to the house. So this is Casey's place? Yes, sir. Here we are, what, 19 years on? Close to it. It's a mess. It sir. Here we are, what, 19 years on? Close to it. It's a mess. It is. But not so bad then, huh? It wasn't. It was pretty well maintained

and taken care of at that time. Milton says as soon as he walked into the house, he realized his routine call was anything but. Went in, her purse was on the table, and her dog was there, and other personal items, but she wasn't around. I was for sure concerned then. He asked Casey to show him the bedroom where he and Rebecca slept. The linen had been stripped off the mattress. I asked him if I could look under the mattress. When I flipped it up, the bottom of the mattress had blood covering a large portion of it.

And in the laundry room you found something, huh? The washing machine was just right outside the bedroom door. I lifted the lid on it and there was portion of it. And in the laundry room, you found something, huh? The washing machine was just right outside the bedroom door. I lifted the lid on it, and there was the bedding. And in the bleach dispenser for the washing machine, there appeared to be blood. This sounds like trouble, Sheriff. It was. And at that time is when I took Casey outside and called our sheriff, told him what I had found.

Told the sheriff that Rebecca Gould was more than just missing. The deputy suspected the young man standing before him knew where she was and maybe what had been done to her. Arkansas police were rolling out. 22-year-old Rebecca Gould had gone missing. Her friend Casey McCullough's home, a potential crime scene. There was bloody items, pillows and clothing that was shoved under the bed. There was blood on the walls behind the bed. But it didn't really describe what was happening at that point.

It did not. It was by then Tuesday morning, September 21st, 2004. A full day since anyone had seen or heard from Rebecca. Police told her family little of what they discovered inside the house. They had told me that there was blood, but they didn't tell me how much. Rebecca's sister, Tiffany Moore, and her half-sister, Angela Neubauer, were not alarmed so much as rolling their eyes at their sister's latest stunt. They made the long drive over to a town near their old home in Casey's, a place called Melbourne.

We're probably going to give Rebecca a lecture because she's probably partying somewhere, because there's no way this could be happening. Tiffany, you agreed? You thought this was an incident we'd all look back and laugh at sometime after Rebecca got a scolding? I did, yeah. Yeah, I really did. She was always going to be the last one to come if you called her. Rebecca's father, Larry Gould, lived an hour away. When he got word he wasn't overly concerned either, not at first.

He says his daughter was a rebel, had been from the word go. She had a mind of her own. She was really fearless, even at a young age. I mean, things that she shouldn't do, like sneaking out, even had us just to go out and go down to the park down the street. If she wanted to do it, she was going to do it. Free spirit, huh? She was very much fearless. Yes. Fearless and independent by nature, independent by necessity after her parents divorced. I tried to get custody of my girls for years and years and years.

They went with their mother and lived throughout Arkansas, different places in Arkansas. An ugly divorce, none of them were great, but this one was especially painful. Absolutely. Very. It involved nasty allegations. Mom against dad. Dad against mom. It wasn't all a bed of roses for you guys growing up, was it? No, no, it wasn't. It was, it was... Some foster homes along the way? Mm-hmm, yeah.

We're in foster home for, I think, a good year or two. After which, they reunited with their mom. But their father, a dentist, says his daughters lack stability, and he lacked consistent contact with them because of their mother. She'd live one place and the girls would never be settled. Something would happen and she'd move somewhere else. So there was never any security in their life. Did that worry you? Of course it did, absolutely.

Even so, Tiffany remembers Rebecca having a mostly happy childhood, one filled with outdoor adventures. We'd go camping a lot. That was our vacations when we were little, and Rebecca was always in the water. She was either swimming or trying to catch crawdads. Couldn't get her out of the water, huh? Nope. She was a little fish.

The scrappy little mermaid grew into a self-assured and fiercely protective young woman. She was only 100 pounds and a tiny little thing, but she was not scared of anybody. But people were drawn to her. People loved her. She doesn't sound like she'd be easily intimidated. No, she wasn't. She'd stand up and fight for herself? Oh, yeah. And anybody else she loved. Yeah. She had the whole family's back, herself? Oh, yeah. And anybody else she loved? Yeah. She had the whole family's back, huh? Oh, absolutely. I mean, I was the oldest, but I guarantee you if there was a conflict that I was having, she'd be the first to jump over me to get that person to, you know, protect me.

Now maybe it was Rebecca who needed protecting. Deputy Melton suspected, at the very least, someone had attacked the young woman before dragging her away. He believed Casey knew more about her disappearance. And I asked Casey again, I said, where is she? He said he didn't know, and I said, what happened to her? And he said he didn't know. I left with Rebecca and we went to Mountain View. Casey, in a recorded interview, later retraced the hours before Rebecca vanished as state police built a timeline. He said the night before Rebecca went missing, Sunday was nothing special. When we got to Mountain View, we really actually drove around trying to figure out something to do, and then we decided to make more movies.

They came back to his place and watched the first film. After that, she looks out the window and she sees somebody out on the road, the dirt road. And I look out there and I told her it was my cousin. Casey said his cousin Billy, in town from Texas, stopped by that night for a quick hello. How long did he stay? About 10, 15 minutes tops. We just really talked about old times and stuff. An hour or so later, he said, he and Rebecca went to bed.

On Monday morning, Rebecca drove him to work, just as he'd already explained to the deputy. All I remember is saying bye and smiling to each other and waving. That's the last time I saw Rebecca. Her plan was to return to his place to catch a nap before picking him up at 4 p.m., then driving back to school. When she didn't show that afternoon, he called, but she didn't answer. At the time, he said he shrugged it off. It wasn't until Tuesday, when he returned home with the deputy, that he realized something bad had happened. Did you have anything to do with Rebecca's disappearance?

No, sir. Did you in any way cause any harm to Rebecca? No, sir. The investigator wasn't getting much from Casey at all, though when he asked about Rebecca's past, the young man's tone changed. Do you know anybody she's had relationship problems with or somebody that knows she's out there that she would feel comfortable either letting in the house or that could talk to her to get inside the house?

I don't know. Casey told the investigator they should check out one of Rebecca's old boyfriends. As it turned out, her sisters were already calling him, a fellow named Justin Gullet. Casey kind of just fell over himself for Rebecca, and then Justin was the bad boy. Justin, police needed to find him and have a chat right away. Rebecca Gould had been missing since Monday. By Wednesday, law enforcement had launched a full-scale search. It's a lot of national forests.

They're used to doing the searches. Dennis Simons was an investigator with the Arkansas State Police when Rebecca disappeared. He eventually took the lead on her case. He knows this part of the Ozarks, lived here for years. Arkansas State Police when Rebecca disappeared. He eventually took the lead on her case. He knows this part of the Ozarks, lived here for years. They did horseback, they did the four-wheeler. Anytime we've ever done a search up in this area, you get the gaming fish, you get the National Forest Service, you get the volunteer fire departments. Have to, he says. This is challenging terrain, especially in mid-September. That time of year, you're going to have a lot of underbrush, a lot of thorns.

I mean, it is very thick, rugged terrain, steep terrain. You can walk 10 feet from something and not see it. It's just very thick underbrush. When Rebecca's family got to town, police explained they thought it unlikely that Rebecca, on a whim, had decided to take off on her own. When did you realize she never really did hit the road because her car was there, her purse was there? Yeah, honestly, I don't know that that even sank in.

I mean, we were just hoping that, you know, she was somewhere else. Then police filled the family in on more of the details, starting with the amount of blood found in Casey's room. When I found out how much blood it was and that it couldn't be something else, it had to be a little more serious, I started getting concerned, but I still didn't think the worst. They continued to believe Rebecca would show up at any moment, explain it all away. Maybe she was with that old boyfriend of hers, the one Casey mentioned to police. Justin, who she went to high school with, old boyfriend of hers, the one Casey mentioned to police. Justin, who she went to high school with, that was her everything, pretty much. Justin and Rebecca, that's the couple. Yes.

They had long since broken up. But Tiffany says Rebecca still regarded her old flame as the one who got away. I think Justin always stuck out in her mind that that's who she loves and who she wanted to be with. Their hunch that Rebecca was with Justin made even more sense when police handed them Rebecca's personal items, including her purse. Inside it, Angela discovered a letter. Interesting, a letter. From whom and what did it say? It was from Justin. What was the gist of the letter, Angela?

That he loved her, you know, and that they belonged together. The letter gave her sisters hope. Now, they weren't the only ones who wanted to talk to Justin. Police did too, but he wasn't at home. When we couldn't get a hold of him, we couldn't get a hold of her, we just kind of held on to that hope that she was with him. After two days of calling, Justin finally answered his phone. He was at the casino with his father, and we asked if he had seen her, if she was with him, and once he said no, I mean, it was just,

it was kind of devastating. Justin met with police and they interviewed him. It turned out the old boyfriend had been off gambling well before Rebecca vanished. Still, the family would not give up hope. I just know that she's out there and she needs us. Not even when they joined the search. You have caves there, you have old wells, you have woods, lots of waterways. Yes. And so she could be anywhere. The only thing on my mind was to find her. I just felt like somebody's going to say, got her, here she is. I remember looking at birds and we'd walk over towards where the birds were flying around and just kind of giving a sigh of relief that we didn't find anything. I remember that. You do want to find

something but you don't, right? Right, right, yeah. We definitely didn't want... He wants answers. We wanted the answers, yeah, but we didn't want to find anything. But hope, with nothing to sustain it, can only last so long. By week's end, it was gone for good. Sheriff, where'd they find the body? Right down there, close to that big tree right there. She lay there on her side, about 30 feet down a steep embankment off this mountain highway. If you could put yourself in his head, the killer's head, why does this make sense for him, where we are?

Because it's a rural area, little traffic, no houses close by, so that may be the reason he chose this spot. Despite the decomposition of the young woman's body, investigators were sure it was Rebecca. Shortly after, they gathered her family in a room at the station and told them she had at last been found. It didn't feel real. It didn't, it didn't at all. You don't know how to take it. Still, police needed a formal ID that fell to her father, the dentist. They asked if I happened to have dental records

on my daughter. And I said I did, and I provided them to the state police, which went to the crime lab. Yeah, that was hard. The records were a match to the body. For one agonizing week, all eyes had been fixed on finding Rebecca Gould alive. Now their attention turned to finding her killer.

Investigators were pretty sure they already had his name, Casey McCullough. They'd discover a possible motive soon enough. I'm going to take revenge on this girl. Definitely a big motive for murder, no doubt about it. The day after searchers recovered the body of Rebecca Gould, the county M.E. performed an autopsy. Deputy Melton saw the report and knew. Rebecca's death had been especially gruesome. What was the M.E.'s finding about cause of death, what had happened to her? Blunt force trauma. Blows to her face and head.

To investigators, that suggested rage. Any indication she'd been sexually assaulted? Could they say one way or the other? They couldn't say. The body isn't too bad a shape. The next heartbreak for her parents and sisters, funeral arrangements. It was the only time that I've ever had to really do that.

But, yeah, you have to go through and figure out which casket. You know, she would be happy spending the rest of her life, or, you know, however you want to say that. And you found one in pink? It was like a pinkish purple color because that was her her favorite color you don't want to pick your sister's casket but there you yeah yeah so we wanted to make it pretty for her father gave the eulogy i'm not a public speaker so for me to get up there and do that i'm going to tell you right now

it meant that nothing in this world would have stopped me. And there's your girl in a coffin. There's my... Yes. Her pink-themed funeral was filled with flowers and those she loved, including her dog, Lady. And I'll never forget that something was being said about Rebecca, and all of a sudden, the dog barked. It was like it was programmed. It was amazing.

I believe strongly that the only way you get through horrific events in life is you have to have a foundation in faith, or it will tear you up. And the dog was delivering from channels unknown. Absolutely. In my mind, she was. A moment of peace, perhaps, to cling to. Investigators, meanwhile, were pulling together the pieces from the crime scene, already dusted for fingerprints, gathered for DNA testing, hoping to reconstruct what had happened to Rebecca.

I think from minute one, the original investigators really felt like she was murdered in the house. In that bedroom where a lot of Rebecca's blood was found, a missing piece of furniture from another room suggested the weapon used on her. It was noted that a piano leg was missing. It had reportedly been loose and would commonly fall over. And if you walked, trot on the floor in the wrong way, the piano leg would drop off, huh?

Yep. And if you went by it and shook the floor enough or stepped just right, the piano leg would fall over. Another missing item, her suitcase, offered a window into the mind of her killer. I think they truly thought they were going to make people think, in whatever little mindset they had, that she just disappeared. She went, she grabbed her suitcase and left. The detective thought if he could find that suitcase, it could lead him to the killer. To early investigators, it looked like that person was Casey. Tell me, how did you come to know Rebecca?

We worked at Sonic together, and the very first day that she worked at Sonic, I thought she was the most beautiful creature I've ever seen. So, you know, that's when we started talking. Him and Rebecca had been on and off again, boyfriend, girlfriend, and just being the simple fact of their rocky relationship and that she had been staying there and her car was still at his house and her belongings still at his house when she went missing. Romantic entanglements can be part of the cocktail of homicide, huh?

They can be. Rebecca's father says in the weeks before her murder, she complained that Casey was possessive, that he hadn't gotten the message they were through as a couple. How do you know that, doctor? Because that's what she told me. She told you? She told me that she still had to go down and to break it off with him.

There's no doubt, you know, he wants this girl. He wants her. This girl's rejected me. I'm going to take revenge on this girl. Definitely a big motive for murder. No doubt about it. Just a week before, life was simple for Casey McCullough, flipping burgers and strumming his guitar. Now it looked as though he was cruising to a murder charge. A timely miracle would be

helpful, and just maybe the story told by a breakfast sandwich wouldn't hurt. In the days after Rebecca Gould's murder, Casey McCullough was pretty much public enemy number one in Mountain View, except perhaps to his family and friends. I can remember my gut telling me, and I trust it, that my friend didn't have anything to do with this, you know. Laron McClure and Philip Schultz are Casey's former co-workers from that Sonic drive-thru. They say soft-spoken musical Casey didn't have a mean bone in his body. Yeah, you know, we hit it off, and he was a great musician, you know, played the guitar and sang, you know. Well, I don't, a lot. He played a lot, and he used to sing a lot in Sonic,

which kind of irritated us a little bit, but still at the same time, it was like, it would brighten up a mood. Yeah. Now their friends seem to be withdrawing from the world and himself. Did Casey know that he was twisting slowly in the wind here, this whole thing?

Investigators were looking at him. Oh, I'm sure. Yeah. Oh, I'm sure. Yeah, I'm sure. He knew. Investigators kept putting him in the chair, and their line of questioning left little doubt. Did you and Rebecca have any kind of a disagreement? No, I didn't have any kind of a disagreement. I was trying to keep him from out in the pool. Okay.

That's the only disagreement y'all had that weekend? Yeah. They only had Casey say so that Rebecca indeed dropped him off Monday morning for work. Was it possible he'd killed her before then, or maybe afterward, when she didn't show to pick him up after work and he got angry? They also thought it strange he decided to stay out all night with friends, something he rarely did. Did he do himself no favor by not coming back to his place that night? It did make him look more suspicious by not coming home. But a vaguely suspicious story wasn't enough to pin Rebecca's murder on Casey.

Investigators needed to narrow down the timeline of her death and check that against his alibi to rule him in or out as their prime suspect. That's how Casey's Sonic co-workers got dragged into his nightmare. They bring us in, you know, one at a time and interview us. Yeah, they came to our house. Dennis Simons did knock on the door. I'll never forget that. Well, yeah, a cop knocks on the door. Yeah, it was kind of scary.

They and other co-workers proved to be Casey's lifeline. They could largely account for Casey being at work all day Monday from just after 8 in the morning to 4.30 in the afternoon. That's when Laron and Phillip pulled into the Sonic lot to find Casey stranded. I was like, hey buddy, what are you doing?

He's like, I'm waiting on my ride. I'm like, oh. I was like, well, we're going to the movies, you know, if you want to go. And he's like, yeah, yeah, you know, I'll go. They said Casey was with them for the rest of the night. They drove to a nearby town so he could pick up his truck. His dad had borrowed it the day before. Then they all went to the movies and back to Philip and Laren's for the night.

We're at, you know, the receipts from Hastings, the movie tickets, and then... So the night checks out. The night just was what it was, you know. The thing that stood out from that night was when Casey checked his phone messages. One was from Rebecca's worried mom. And he was, something along the lines of, nobody can get a hold of Rebecca. It was a bit odd. The next morning, Tuesday, they watched as Casey got up and left for work.

Hours later, they heard the news. Rebecca was missing. They said, something's going on. Like, they can't find Rebecca Rebecca and the cops come got Casey from work. Coworkers and friends could account for Casey's movements that Monday into Tuesday, but what about Rebecca's movements? Investigators thought she stopped here after dropping Casey off at work on Monday. A convenience store called the Possum Trot just down the road from the Sonic. They believed that for two reasons. This uneaten sandwich and a full cup of cappuccino found in Casey's kitchen

suggested she bought the meal to eat sometime later. An eyewitness gave credence to the theory. The lady at the Possum Trot actually called that in and said, Hey, I remember seeing Rebecca at my store in her little vehicle, and she was by herself. So she goes to the Possum trot, time frame matches, even though they couldn't get an exact time on the purchase. And from there to the house, she never eats the biscuit, and she never drinks the cappuccino.

Investigators say that cashier, not Casey, was the last person confirmed to have seen Rebecca alive. They think Rebecca returned to Casey's after buying that meal. She'd do that at home. She'd put her breakfast in the microwave and she'd go back to bed. So there was nothing unusual up to that part of the story? Not at all. They reasoned that Rebecca was killed shortly thereafter. Casey's alibi seemed solid. He was not arrested, not charged in connection with Rebecca's murder. Investigators had no choice but to start considering other possibilities, like his relatives. They started looking at the rest of the family, who else had access to the house.

They asked Casey's dad, Claude McCullough, about that missing piano leg, a weapon that could have been used to kill Rebecca. They started looking into Casey's dad. a weapon that could have been used to kill Rebecca. Have y'all ever seen the same thing on that piano lady? Nothing. They started looking into Casey's dad. You know, could he have come back to the residence? But Claude, a truck driver, was on the road when Rebecca was last seen. They eliminated him pretty quick. He was training a new driver who also confirmed, you know,

I believe they were in Kentucky or somewhere during that time frame. Next, they considered Casey's brothers. He had three of them. Likewise, they also had alibis that seemed solid. Investigators even tracked down that cousin Billy from Texas, the one who stopped by the Sunday night before Rebecca's death. They contacted the Texas authorities who pulled the family in and interviewed them, gave the results of that interview back to the Arkansas State investigators. None of the interviews with relatives led investigators any closer to Rebecca's killer.

But they weren't discouraged. In the weeks that followed, tips poured in. We keep pursuing our local leads because they just kept coming in and we could not eliminate people. Simon says the focus of the case pivoted from Casey and his family to Rebecca's friends, the people in Mountain View she came home every weekend to see. She had many admirers here and maybe a few enemies. He accused me of killing there for over 20 bucks, over the $20 that she'd owed me.

If anything, Casey McCullough's friends thought Rebecca's killer would be found closer to home, her home. They knew she used to run with a tough crowd in Mountain View. The first thing you think of is something must have went wrong, you know, with whatever she was trying to do with the Mountain View crew. That seemed to be the consensus in the months following her death. What were people talking about in town? Rumor mills just went wild. Everybody had a theory and a thought of who done it. A lot of suspects all of a sudden.

A lot of suspects all of a sudden. A lot of suspects. In the weeks that followed Rebecca's death, her sisters had one name in mind, Jennifer Turner, one of Rebecca's former co-workers when she, too, worked at the Sonic. Jennifer had a thing with Rebecca's old boyfriend, Justin. He had gotten together with Jennifer, and she was pregnant, but he still loved Rebecca and Rebecca still loved him. Jealousy. Yeah. Yeah. Detective Dennis Simon says early investigators dug into this Jennifer connection. I've never hated her. Never, not one time. I loved her. She's my friend. My best friend. Everybody says, oh, we were best friends. Oh, you know, I love this girl, blah, blah, blah.

I didn't buy into that part of it. That's just somebody trying to deflect heat from them. Did you ever tell anybody that you wish she was dead? You were just going to get along better if she was gone now. Definitely took notice of her. I mean, I brought her in for interviews, subpoenaed a lot of phone records. But found nothing really to connect Jennifer to the murder.

What he did find was an alibi that checked out. I determined during the time frame of the murder, she had been at work. She'd went shopping in Conway, which is a town about 60, 70 miles from here. But then this case had no shortage of suspects. Rebecca's my friend. She's a fighter fighter and I respected the hell out of that. This is J.B. Yates. Like Jennifer, he considered Rebecca a true pal

and a customer. She wanted a sack of weed and I knew where I could get her a sack. Rebecca, he says, would buy small quantities of pot from him to take back to school. Typical college stuff. And she owed you 20 bucks from that transaction.

She did. He says he was stunned when Rebecca disappeared and floored by what came next. And little birdies in that town are talking and it gets to law enforcement. Oh yeah, it just went, blew up. I mean, it just blew it up and everybody started saying it. The scuttlebutt, J.B., killed Rebecca. J.B. had a formal sit-down with the detective.

Tense doesn't even begin to describe it. He accused me of killing her for over $20, over the $20 that she'd owed me. So it all goes back to that debt that she had for not paying for the bag of weed, huh? Yes. And you then, theory goes, killed her? That's what they claimed. JB's interview come off as a very

cold person. Just in general. Just in general demeanor. Just a very nonchalant, just I don't give a **** kind of personality. JB insisted he did not kill Rebecca, that she had settled her debt a few days before she'd vanished.

Not that he could prove it. But she paid me. And besides, it's 20 bucks. I had people that owed me way more money than that. And you're not in a credit card and receipt kind of business in those days? No, sir. And yet the detective could not link J.B. to the murder. No evidence either of J.B. being at the crime scene.

Got a loose thread there. I nearly couldn't prove that J.B. did or did not know where she lived at. Or where she was staying at. So he began looking at the man who started that J.B. rumor. His name, Chris Cantrell. And he had a reputation for being a badass. People were scared of him. Turned out Chris was doing more than tossing

J.B.'s name around. He was weirdly putting himself in the picture for Rebecca's murder. So much so that police grilled him repeatedly over the course of the investigation. He bragged to a lot of people about being involved in the murder. When the

detective heard a rumor that Chris had been talking about blood in his vehicle, Simons confronted him. He also found out that Chris sold that very car to another man because the man informed police. And said, hey, I bought this car off of Chris Cantrell. He made some very weird statements about if you find body parts in the trunk, thank God you had my car destroyed before law enforcement got to it. I said, you know, again, why would you make that statement? And yet Chris insisted to police time and again he was not involved in Rebecca's murder. Eventually, Simons hit another dead end.

On the one hand, he liked Chris for Rebecca's murder. And even if anybody else, other investigators would read the case files like, man, this Chris is your dude. But he didn't think Chris had a convincing motive or access to Casey's house. Moreover, evidence collected from the crime scene never put him, JB, Jennifer, or anyone else from town inside those rooms. We just could not get a break on DNA evidence, fingerprints, or anything else. Still, the detective didn't remove him or anyone else really from his suspect list. In the meantime, the Mountain View rumor mill kept turning. There were so many people that called in so much crap that just, you had the psychics, you know.

You just had, let's just be honest, just nutty people that sat around and thought about this all day long. Until one day, a stranger stepped forward with one particular story. He said an old acquaintance of his had confessed to Rebecca's murder. A disturbing tale that brought this case, and almost everyone in it, back to the beginning. The way he said it, he just lost it.

He said, next thing he knows, he's cleaning stuff up. There had been so many suspects, so many tips, but never an arrest for Rebecca Gould's murder. Months turned into years, and Rebecca's family, including her sister Angela, was losing hope. I was mad. What made you mad about it? Because there was no explanation, no answers, and she had so much to offer this world, and she had so much going for her. She was going to set the world on fire. Meanwhile, Larry Gould, who'd watched from the sidelines as the police worked the case, became frustrated. By 2010, six years after his daughter's murder, he couldn't take it anymore

and felt he had to do something. I've given them lots of time. Now it's time to jump in and try to figure out for myself what happened. As a father, that's the part that ate away at me. I wanted to know how my daughter was murdered. So the dentist started peppering officials with letters, lots of them. He wanted access to some of the police investigative files. Let me see records. Let me see the ME report. Let me see some depositions.

I wanted the basics. Why can't I have an autopsy report? It's my daughter. Officials told him they didn't want to release the information for fear it might negatively affect their investigation. Are you becoming the troublesome father of the victim who just won't stay in his place? I hope I'm characterized that way. He's there again. If anything, I should have done a lot more earlier. Rebecca's dad ended up hiring a private investigator, but felt his findings only added confusion and went nowhere. So he devised another idea. I want a Rebecca law. I want something that makes this system function a little bit better than it does. He wanted a new law in

Arkansas that would allow loved ones, after a certain number of years, to see at least a portion of a case file. If you have children and you have a daughter that's murdered, what would you do? You'd want to know things. In 2016, the prosecutor voluntarily released one piece of evidence to Rebecca's dad. And that's when he learned some of the details of how his daughter died. He finally did release the autopsy report.

So he denied anything else, but he released the autopsy report to me. After that, the family didn't hear much until 2018, the 14-year mark of the homicide. Rebecca was beautiful, popular, and full of life. It was by then a new cultural era. Podcasts became a phenomenon, and there was a nationwide fascination with all things true crime. And one podcast about the Rebecca case turned heads with its revelations. I've come back to Mountain View with one mission,

to get justice for Rebecca. Helen Gone is hosted by Katherine Townsend, a writer and private investigator whose family lived in the area. Her series made news with a blockbuster accusation. He said that he killed her. A man told the podcaster he knew who killed Rebecca. He said a co-worker of his admitted to the crime. And who was that person?

None other than Casey McCullough. The podcaster says not only has Casey all these years been the number one person of interest, in fact, he's confessed to it. Yes. The man said he worked with Casey repairing cell towers. According to the co-worker, one drunken night, Casey confessed and said after Rebecca rejected him, he killed her. He said that pretty much that she was telling him that this would be the last time that he saw her because they were, I guess, coming to an end.

But they got into it, and she said some offensive things to him. It was information Special Agent Simons couldn't ignore. The detective, still working the case more than a decade later, interviewed the co-worker, who then shared details. Casey gets drunk and confesses to this witness that he did in fact kill Rebecca. But there was something off about the co-worker's story. He said the blurted out confession had occurred eight years before, and yet he never told police. It never made sense he would come forward that many years later. He was very just uncooperative and bitter. And why would you not want to tell me Casey murdered this girl?

And there was another red flag. There was an accusation Casey once had a sexual relationship with the co-worker's ex-wife. Casey had slept with his wife, and he was trying to get revenge on Casey for sleeping with his wife. We reached out to that co-worker who asked not to be identified because he's received threats. He told us he stands by his story and denies his ex-wife had an affair with Casey. Simons considered it a dead end. Casey claims that he was at work all day and after work, so the killer cleaned somewhat. Eventually, more than half a dozen podcasts about the case were released.

And now social media, like the town gossips of years before, was on fire with finger-pointing accusations and speculation. The sisters felt, at times, it was just all so destructive and pointless. Every state has got some fascinating unsolved mystery. Right. In Arkansas, that became the story of Rebecca. Mm-hmm. It did. Did that distress you? It did.

I mean, it's hard. It's constantly, you know, in your face. According to Rebecca's sisters, it got so wacko on social media that some posters suggested Tiffany could be responsible for the murder. People are mean. They say mean things and hurtful things. You know, if it kept the case alive and forefront, I'm thankful for that, but I'm not thankful for all the drama that it caused my family. As the years continued to slip by, it was almost closing time for Detective Dennis Simons.

He was nearing retirement. In 2020, he reluctantly handed over his investigation to someone new. I didn't want to leave this thing unresolved. In his 29-year career, he says it was his only unsolved homicide. And he especially regretted never finding that missing suitcase, which his gut instinct told him might be an important clue. If I could find the suitcase, maybe I could get physical evidence off of it, which throughout the case, we never could get physical evidence.

That damn suitcase. It just breaks my heart. There was about to be a new investigator in town, someone with fresh eyes to take his shot at turning this case upside down. Why, thought the new agent, had so much attention been put on Casey McCullough, but not the rest of his family? Any male McCullough, I wanted to put them under the microscope because I believed that this was probably a sexually motivated crime. And there were a lot of McCulloughs. Arkansas, January 2020.

Could a new year and a new detective finally unravel the mystery? Who killed Rebecca Gould? Special Agent Mike McNeil with the Arkansas State Police was newly in charge of the nearly 16-year-old investigation. He had a lot of catching up to do. I've got a vision in my head of here comes a dolly down the hallway with a lot of boxes on it. That's right. Filled with depositions, videos, and somebody bring it in and say, here you are, have at it. Yeah, well, I think if you stacked it all up in documents, it'd be four foot high.

Rebecca's dad remained cautious but hopeful about the new investigator on the case. So McNeil comes along. Do you think this is a healthy change, or we'll see, or I don't have much hope in this? He did the right thing from the case. So McNeil comes along. Do you think this is a healthy change or we'll see or I don't have much hope in this? He did the right thing from the start. Which was? Called me on the phone, said, can I come up there and see you? He showed compassion and empathy, but more so he really wanted to hear my frustration and the things that I needed at this point. And that hit home in me. And McNeil, a 24-year police veteran,

decided that if he was going to find Rebecca's killer, he needed to start from square one. Let's go back to day one. That's right. Your first focus is on the inner circle of the victim. Who does the victim know? Casey is obviously suspect number one, just because he's... His place, because he's his place, his girlfriend, his place, his girlfriend. Yeah, absolutely. It's nice to finally meet you. Yeah, I was waiting on

you. So right off the bat, Casey was questioned yet again. An impromptu interview was done from the detective's car. There is a lot of people from what can gather, that think you had a hand in this, right? On social media, yes. All those podcasts and social media posts mostly pointed to Casey as the killer. Rumorville and the court of public opinion, Casey is the guy. Right, yeah, absolutely. He's been tried and convicted. Absolutely.

But the special agent came to believe Casey McCullough was not involved. I truly believe that you did not have a hand in this. Makes me feel better. But McNeil did believe someone related to Casey McCullough had murdered Rebecca. So he started looking at his family. Remember, the McCulloughs owned the property where Rebecca died, a place that's long since been abandoned. Several family members lived in the area. I was probably 80% of McCullough's responsible.

And are they all in your frame? Absolutely. Any male McCullough, I wanted to put them under the microscope because I believed that this was probably a sexually motivated crime. McNeil, like his predecessor, thought Rebecca knew her killer. We have no forced entry. We have no forced entry. So that would lead you to believe that she knew who her killer was. She knew who she was letting in.

McNeil quickly eliminated Casey's dad as a suspect. He then met with a half-brother, Randy. Randy. Yes. Hey, can I talk to you a minute? In a voluntary interview, Randy was cooperative. When this happened, the information in the case file says that you were working at the flooring company.

No. I was in the Air Force. Randy was also quickly cleared. He wasn't even in Arkansas when this happened. Hey, Chris. How are you? Good, man. You mind having a seat? No, I don't care at all. The detective decided to more aggressively interview the next brother up,

Chris. He bluntly asked a shocking question. Did he have a secret sexual relationship with Rebecca? Brothers sometimes mess around with brothers' girlfriends. It happens.

It was a bluff. McNeil had absolutely no evidence of an affair. I never even hugged her or anything, so no. There's no way that's going to happen. Okay. The detective cleared him, but Chris, perhaps unwittingly, opened an investigative door to his brother, Corey, involving his whereabouts on the day Rebecca was killed. What about your other brother during this period of time? Where was he?

Corey. You know, I have no clue. Really? I really didn't have any concerns with any of the McCulloughs except Corey. And who was he? He was the younger brother. Why him? Well, if I believed that a McCullough was responsible for this, and I had already went through all of them, and Corey's my last, well, Corey's my guy. Corey had worked in law enforcement himself as a parole officer. McNeil asked him to come in for an interview. It didn't go well. I think the interview with him ended with me telling him, I believe that the next time I see you, I'm going to be putting handcuffs on you. Regarding the death of Rebecca, do you intend to answer each question truthfully?

Yes. Special Agent Mike McNeil and another officer had a prime suspect seated across the table from them, Corey McCullough, Casey's brother. I told you when I first met you that we believed that we had the DNA from the killer at the crime scene. As captured by a camera on the table, McNeil told Corey he had some new blockbuster evidence, and it involved him. His DNA had been found on a cloth under the bed where Rebecca had been murdered. The problem that we have, Corey, is that washcloth right there, that has your DNA on it.

I seriously doubt that. I don't believe you. If it's got mine, it's from a long time ago. It don't work like that, Corey. Corey seemed to be admitting his DNA could be at the crime scene, yet he remained defiant. Okay, well, do what you gotta do. I'm innocent. And I knew nothing about this until I was told about it. I don't believe you.

I'm not going to sit here and let you do this to me. Either let me go or arrest me. McNeil then said he had even more evidence. He found the old truck Corey owned back when Rebecca was murdered. Remember, detectives believed Rebecca's body had been transported from the crime scene to that ravine five miles away. You know where your blue Ford Ranger is right now? No. It's at the Arkansas State Crime Lab. Cool.

I'm glad you found it. I am too. Because I know you were looking for it. Because whenever you got in that truck, you were covered in blood. And I guarantee you, we're going to find Rebecca's DNA in the cab of that truck. I know how this works. I know what you're trying to do. I'm completely innocent and you're looking at the wrong people. I mean, I'm sorry. I don't want to be a d*** to you, but you're being a d*** to me.

There was one thing McNeil didn't tell Corey. He was bluffing. A standard but controversial police interrogation technique. McNeil used the ploy because he thought it might help him crack the case. In fact, he didn't have Corey's DNA at the crime scene. And he didn't have his truck. Completely innocent to this man. I really hope I was able to help you with this.

You were. I really do. With that, the interview ended. And so did the theory that Corey was the leading suspect. McNeil concluded he was not the killer. So it was time to move on to his next suspect. What you do is you find out who was at the McCullough residence last, and then you focus on that person. That was Billy. Billy. Billy Miller. Who was he? He was Casey's

cousin from Texas who'd stopped by the house the night before the murder. He was interviewed in 2004, but police didn't consider him a viable suspect. Back then, Billy told investigators he'd stopped by Casey's house the night before Rebecca was killed. McNeil decided to take a second look and do a deep dive into Billy's background. What came back? So in 2002, two years before Rebecca's murder, he is a suspect in an aggravated sexual assault on a minor. Now, that investigation concluded with no charges. But that's an interesting thing for you.

Oh, that's huge. Billy, it turned out, had also been arrested in 2010. He allegedly used his elbow to push his ex-wife after he forced his way into her Aransas Pass, Texas home. The charges were later dismissed. Now I've got two police reports that show me exactly what I'm looking for. He's checking the sexual component box. He's checking the forcible entry, physical harm to a female. He's the focus of the investigation. I did this kind of systematically, one at a time, and now I'm on Billy.

Let's see how far this takes me. McNeil wanted to meet with Billy in person, but there was a problem. Where is he physically at this point? He is currently married with a family, living in the Philippines, an offshore oil rig worker. Billy, who was 44, had moved to the Philippines where he said he owned a 30-acre farm, including a banana plantation. He had married a Filipina woman he'd met online. They had two children together. And while living overseas, McNeil could see that Billy joined a Facebook group that actively followed Rebecca's case.

Is he also posting notices to her? He made a number of comments. He's trying to keep tabs on the investigation from the Philippines. Well, why? Why is that? McNeil would have to patiently wait. He put an alert on Billy's passport to be notified if he returned to the U.S. And you asked Customs, if you guys get a hit, give me a call. Yeah, absolutely.

Did that in fact happen? It did. In October 2020, about 10 months after McNeil started working the case, Billy flew home to see his mother Linda in Oregon. At that point, the detective gave Billy's mom a call. And that's when she said something suspicious. Her son was still in the Philippines. When's the last time he was in the U.S.? It's been, it's, he came last.

So the last time Billy made it home was sometime last year? I don't know. She told me that she hadn't seen Billy and she hadn't talked to Billy. Which you knew clearly was a lie because immigration had eyes on him. That's right. Hello, this is Linda Miller. But a few days later, Billy's mom called back with a new story, saying her son was going to be in the U.S. She was unaware authorities knew he was already here. When's Billy called back with a new story, saying her son was going to be in the U.S. She was unaware authorities knew he was already here.

When's Billy coming back in? He'll be here November 7th. That's when we want to have our meeting with you. Okay, November the 7th. She said Billy would voluntarily come in for an interview with Special Agent McNeil. Did you have any guarantee that he was going to be a show? No, no guarantee. He didn't have to be there if he didn't want to be. Undeterred, McNeil traveled from Arkansas to Cottage Grove,

a picturesque town in Oregon where Billy's mom lived. Billy, do you want to have a seat back there, sir? And on the designated day, Billy willingly came into the local police station. He didn't have any idea what we had in store for him. Sixteen years had gone by since Rebecca's murder. For her sister Tiffany, those years were filled with regret and what-ifs. She struggled over whether back then she could have done something differently. There's so many times I've, you know, wished I could do things and, you know, turn everything around and go back.

Meanwhile, Agent McNeil was busy, very busy, researching and prepping for his meeting with Billy Miller. How are you going to play this thing? What's your strategy? We knew Rebecca had been transported from the crime scene, so I knew a vehicle was involved. This time McNeil decided he would try to actually locate the truck Billy owned back in 2004, a black Chevy S10. 16 years later, would it still be around? A lot of time's gone by. This thing could be in a junkyard or not above ground. Could be in a junkyard. It could be anywhere. Surprisingly, the truck was still on the road. Billy had sold it long ago, but the detective found the new owner and had photos taken of the vehicle. The 16-year-later photograph was useful

to you, wasn't it? It was. I ended up using a couple of them in Billy's interview. The detective had already decided how and when he would use those photos. Billy, if you want to have a seat right there, sir. Because this agent was about to deploy every technique from his investigative toolbox for Billy Miller's interview. And he would once again use a potent weapon, the bluff. You're not being detained. You're free to go at any time. Billy, visiting his mom in Oregon,

arrived 30 minutes early at the local police station. It was time to execute the detective's game plan. I'm going to be honest with you and truthful with you. And there he is. You guys are eye to eye.

And there he is. You never know how this thing's going to play out. The special agent wanted Billy to take a polygraph on the spot, but feared he wouldn't agree. So he came up with a less threatening offer. Would Billy agree to take the test later in Arkansas? If you ever make it back to Arkansas, maybe we could, you know, get you to take a polygraph

because a bunch of people have taken polygraphs and that thing. Whatever you want, I'll give it to you. I don't have nothing to hide. It worked. With no immediate pressure, Billy quickly agreed. Billy hasn't been to Arkansas since 2004, and he's never coming back to Arkansas, willingly, in my opinion. But what does he say? Absolutely. So now I've got him locked in on a polygraph. The detective was setting Billy up and would soon come back to that question about taking a lie detector test. I go to work for a month, that's, you know, like close to 25 grand. Right. In the meantime, the detective made Billy feel comfortable.

Billy likes to talk. He's kind of like a chatty Cathy. He thought he was the smartest one in the room. Billy was friendly, happy just to shoot the breeze. With his suspect relaxed now, McNeil saw his opening coming. He changed subjects. Getting back to that polygraph test, would Billy stand by his word and take one right now? Would you be okay with taking a polygraph? I'll just ask you. Yeah, I don't have a problem with it. I'll call the sergeant up here to see. They may have a polygrapher in town. You know, it's a shot in the dark.

Does he know you have a guy waiting outside the door? Absolutely not. Polygrapher Damian Acosta with the Oregon State Police was already at the station. McNeil had set it up all in advance. Billy had no clue. This is where it's shot. At the station, McNeil had set it up all in advance. Billy had no clue. McNeil acted as though he was trying to find a polygrapher at the last minute. Of course they did. McNeil had him in the on-deck circle. Now Billy appeared hesitant.

He wondered, could the polygraph result be used as evidence against a defendant? Then came the big swing of the hammer. The detective told Billy, falsely, they had the killer's DNA from the crime scene and asked if Billy would mind giving a sample. Remember, police didn't have any usable DNA evidence. It really doesn't matter if he provides me with his DNA or not. I've got nothing to compare it to. I just want to see how he feels about it. Does he get a little anxious?

He did. He did. Obviously, we've never gotten your DNA. You know, it's my job to ask if you don't feel comfortable with it. Now it seems like, you know, you're in the window to me that you're saying that I had something to do with it. If you don't feel comfortable doing it, I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna push you or try to put any pressure on you. I didn't take your test and all that stuff. He said he'd take the lie detector test, but balked at a DNA swab. McNeil, not wanting to spook his suspect, moved on.

It was time to bring in the polygrapher. My name's Daniel, I'm a state police detective. But now Billy was having serious second thoughts about taking it. If I refuse, then I would be more looked at, more or not incorporating with the police and all that stuff. Special Agent McNeil watching a police monitor in another room now, waited to see how his plan would play out. My heart's beating out of my chest. And he still had a few more surprises in store for his suspect. After almost two decades and dozens of interviews, there had never been a break in this case. But was that about to change?

I had anxiety, really bad anxiety. Could this, at long last, be the face of Rebecca Gould's killer? Billy Miller, now suspect number one, was about to undergo a polygraph test. But before that, the test administrator, Detective Damian Acosta, asked him questions about his visit to Casey's house on that Sunday night before the murder. I think we pulled in and he saw the light or whatever and he came out and then he realized it was me and mom. As he told police in 2004, Billy said he briefly talked with his cousin in the driveway that Sunday night, when Rebecca was staying over at Casey's.

That's the same story Casey told investigators back then. However, Billy added some new details. He had been in Casey's house before, meaning his DNA might be found inside. Remember, Special Agent McNeil had falsely told Billy they had the killer's DNA. But he didn't. Down in the living room and all that stuff. And I remember going to the restrooms and all that stuff. Billy added that there was a whole bunch of furniture, including chairs, couches, and beds, that his mom gave to the McCulloughs. Furniture that ended up in Casey's house.

So it's possible your DNA could be on any bed or bedding that could be used. Yeah. Okay. Perfect. Because all that furniture came from my mom that, you know, that came from our house. The detective continually assured Billy his story made sense. If we didn't talk to you, you wouldn't know that, right? Damon followed the script, did a super job interviewing Billy,

building rapport with Billy, and then putting Billy through the polygraph. When it came to taking the polygraph, Billy was instructed not to respond verbally. Instead, he should only shake his head yes or no to answer the questions. Did you cause that woman to die? Are you responsible for causing that woman's death? He shook his head no. And after about 45 minutes and a slew of repeated questions, the test concluded.

How do you think you did? I don't know. You failed the test. I failed the test. Yes. Yes. And so my heart rate felt like it was just beating out of my chest. Yeah.

The detective did conclude Billy wasn't telling the truth. At that moment, Special Agent McNeil returned to the interview room. All right, Billy. Gone was his good cop demeanor. He was showing Billy bad cop attitude. Because you're wrong. McNeil said he wasn't buying Billy's story about why his DNA would be all over Casey's house. You even said that it would be reasonable for your DNA to be on the bedding,

which is absolutely absurd. No, I didn't say that. Actually, he had said that. Now McNeil felt it was time to show those pictures he'd been holding back, ones of Billy's truck from 16 years before. That truck look familiar? Yeah.

Yeah, That's your truck. Biological evidence, Billy, lasts for decades. Blood, skin cells, all kinds of stuff. That was a really bloody crime scene.

What happened, you got blood on the side of your shoe. We got Rebecca's DNA next to the gas pedal in your truck. No question about it, her DNA's in your truck. Did you have traces of her blood? No. We had no physical evidence.

So this is a total bluff. It is. Yeah. You know who did. We had no physical evidence. So this is a total bluff. It is. Yeah. You know who did. Sensing he was making progress, the detective chipped away at Billy Moore. Dude, I'm telling you, you have got to come forward right now with what you know. Because you cannot get around biological evidence in the floorboard of your truck. Okay?

So tell me what happened, Billy. Tell me. I did not kill her. Who did? Who did? I don't know who the people are. In a dramatic moment, Billy suddenly changed his story and shared for the first time 16 years later that he actually did see who killed Rebecca. What I saw was it looked like somebody was cleaning up. Billy said it all happened early that Monday morning. He'd gone hunting on his grandfather's property where he could see the back of Casey's house. Suddenly, he saw some men.

I saw a white vehicle and a young blonde haired guy on the back porch and it looked like he had gloves on and he jumped over the back porch. I jumped over, kind of walked into the house to see what the hell was going on. He sees the rear of the McCullough residence and sees two white males fleeing the residence, getting into a vehicle and speeding away. So he's giving you the unknown perpetrators. Right. Two guys.

Right. He's telling me something I have never heard before. But before Billy would tell him more about the killers, he made an unusual request. Can I speak to my mom outside? Let me bring your mom in here, and let's talk to her together, if that's what you want to do. I want to talk to her outside. His mom. His mom wants to talk to his mom. He wants to leave the interview room and meet with her.

This is when McNeil's plan went off script. Basic interrogation techniques dictate you don't stop an interview when a suspect is giving valuable information. Yet, the detective threw the dice and let him leave. Are you worried about breaking the flow here? I mean, you're dangling him right over the edge. He's put himself at the scene in the critical time period.

It's time to close the news here. It goes against... Then something unexpected happens in our interview with the agent. It goes against everything that you know as an investigator. It came to a sudden and abrupt halt. that you know as an investigator, you know. It came to a sudden and abrupt halt. Had Special Agent McNeil's decision to let Billy leave that interrogation room proved to be one of the biggest mistakes of his career. You guys good? Good. We didn't see it coming. Special Agent Mike McNeil

had stopped our interview. When he sat back down a few minutes later, he explained why. Investigations like this, you allow the investigation to kind of consume you. It's the last thing you think of before you go to bed, and it's the first thing you think of when you wake up. And that's how this one has been. You get emotional. He got emotional, he said, because of his pivotal decision to let Billy walk from the interrogation room. Just when he was starting to reveal

crucial information. Did you think you were on the edge of getting this thing? I did. I did. When he wanted to leave the interview room, that's like a kiss of death for an interview. You've lost the momentum, huh? Well, yeah, very rarely will you get a suspect to go back into an interview room.

Nonetheless, the detective decided to take a risk and follow his gut. Billy was allowed to meet his mom in the police station's garage. Agent McNeil and another officer stood by. They embrace, they hug. He is whispering something to her in her ear. I can't make it out. I don't know what he said to her. Billy wasn't under arrest, free to leave the station at any time. But he didn't.

Okay, I held up my end of the deal. Let's talk. And that's when something remarkable happened. One thing about this is it's been reeling in your head like a movie reel since it happened. There isn't anything about this that you forgot. I know that. Because I've been doing this a long time. I didn't tell you that I did it.

I did it. I'm sorry. I'm sorry for what I did. He starts to confess to the murder of Rebecca Gould. It was a rare and stunning about-face, a full confession. I'm telling you that I did it. Everybody that I've associated

is a victim of me. Absolutely. A victim. Absolutely. And I played everybody as a fool. Everybody. I never told anybody but you right now. Billy said he confessed

because he thought Rebecca's DNA was found in his old truck. He says, you've got my DNA. I'm telling you I did it. He totally took your bait. He did. He did. And now Billy was ready to tell all, including the hard-to-hear details of how he killed Rebecca. Early that Monday morning, he said he parked his pickup truck on his grandfather's property.

He went around and knocked on Casey's door. Rebecca answered. The two had never met, but he knew she was in the house from his visit the night before. He said he was Casey's cousin and asked to use the phone. Did he ever really call anybody?

No. That was just a ruse to get inside. Because you'd already paid up your mind what she was going to do. Right? Yeah, you can say that. He said Rebecca went to the bedroom while he paced back and forth in the living room.

And by chance, that previously broken leg from the piano fell off on its own he grabbed it she goes back goes to the bedroom you get the piano leg and enter the bedroom what did she say nothing she's sleeping she didn't see it coming how many times you remember hitting her? Twice. And then the thing fell apart.

And I went in like a rage. He said the wooden piano leg fell apart. As for why he did it, Billy didn't have an answer. And it remains unknown. He claims it was not sexual. What was your intentions? Your intentions were to go in there and just kill her? Why? He claims it was not sexual. or just kind of, I don't know. Has she made fun of you? No, she didn't. I just went in there and it was like, bam, bam, bam.

And that was it, and I freaked out. He said after he hit Rebecca, she was still alive. So he used a man's tie he found there and strangled her. He then scrambled to clean up. I took the bedding and put it in a suitcase and then flipped a mattress because there was blood on it and then wiped up everything the best that I could. What about the laundry? I put stuff in the laundry. What'd you put in the laundry? There was bedding. So bedding went in the laundry and in the suitcase? Yeah. It all matched what had been documented at the crime scene. And he knew about that missing suitcase, a fact never made public by police.

The piece of evidence Detective Simons had so desperately searched for and never found. Billy was arrested and charged with first-degree murder. You're under arrest for the murder of Rebecca Gould. Okay. Okay. Soon after, Rebecca's dad got the call he thought might never come. We have made an arrest after all these years.

Yes, I think it was more of a little bit of shock because I didn't know the name. And I felt, oh my God, it's over. And there he'd been all those years. Yeah. While everybody else was in the hot seat. Yeah. Off living his life and, you know, fooling everybody. And proud of it?

I'm very proud. It's clear the other suspects, Casey, the rest of the McCullough family, Jennifer, J.B. Yates, Chris, Justin, none of them had anything to do with Rebecca's death. Still, this case wasn't yet over. It was crucial for police to locate that suitcase to corroborate whether Billy was telling the truth. He gave investigators

a general location in a wooded area where he said it would be found. A search party was sent out and of all people, it was Detective Simons, not yet retired, who found it.

I know that I got emotional, but I dang sure I got a little excited. I knew that was the nail in the coffin. I knew that we had our man when I found that suitcase. But just when it seemed it was all over came a bombshell development. And it involved Billy's confession. Number three, he has a right to talk to a lawyer. development, and it involved Billy's confession. It might not be admissible in a court because his defense argued he didn't get read all his Miranda rights. After reading three of the Miranda rights, Officer Acosta got distracted by a not a lawyer. He was never read his fourth right,

and according to Billy's attorneys, Gray Dellinger and Joe Denton, that was a violation of his rights. If you cannot afford an attorney, one will be appointed for you. That warning has to be given to every person in America if the police want to use anything that they develop in that interrogation later at trial. After being extradited back to Arkansas, Billy pleaded not guilty. Now, not only could his entire confession be thrown out, so too could key evidence. Eric Hance was the prosecutor for the case. If there's a confession that is tainted, any evidence we obtain as a result of that confession

is inadmissible at trial as well. So the suitcase and all of the clothing and all of those things that corroborated the confession would go out with it. It felt incomprehensible. After all these years, it seemed the case might fall apart. And we told the family that. The confession goes out, he goes back to the Philippines, and it's game over.

A tense three-day hearing was held about whether the confession could be admitted at trial. Because Billy signed a document acknowledging his Miranda rights, the judge ruled the confession was admissible. In the end, the family agreed with prosecutors to accept a plea deal. They didn't want a risk that even one juror could set Billy Miller free. He got 40 years with a chance of parole. We have justice. We have the person behind bars. He cannot roam. He cannot find somebody else, and he can't do this to somebody else. As for Casey McCullough, he sent us a statement. In part, it read that his heart goes out to Rebecca and her family.

He thanked his friends and family, who stood by him during the social media attacks, and said he can now live his life in peace. And speaking of Casey, Billy had a question about his cousin, the man who'd endured years of scorn and suspicion. Do you think it's possible that I could tell Casey that I'm sorry? I want to go to Arkansas. I think you'll have that opportunity. After Billy's sentencing, Rebecca's sister Danielle

passed away after a long battle with cancer. As for Rebecca's father, he's still working on getting Rebecca's law passed. He's now found some peace in that he finally fulfilled a pledge he made the day he buried his daughter. One he talked about and read at Billy's sentencing. Nothing would ever stop us from finding the person who murdered Rebecca.

Today I look to heaven and I simply whisper, promise made, promise kept. That's all for this edition of Dateline. We'll see you again next Friday at 9, 8 central. And of course, I'll see you each weeknight for NBC Nightly News. I'm Lester Holt for all of us at NBC News. Good night.