Snapped: Women Who Murder - BONUS: Dark Echoes (Accident, Suicide, or Murder)

Episode Date: January 19, 2023

We are bringing you a special bonus episode featuring a case from Oxygen's hit series, “Accident, Suicide, or Murder.” A weekend trip to an Alaskan lodge turns deadly for a young mother when she's killed by her boyfriend; the death is ruled an accident and the case is closed until an eerily similar incident in Montana drives investigators to reopen the case.Season 3 Episode 1Originally aired:  April 17, 2021Watch full episodes of Snapped: Killer Couples live or OnDemand for FREE on the Oxygen app: https://www.oxygen.com/accident-suicide-or-murderSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Hi, I'm Lindsey Graham, the host of Wonder East Podcast American Scandal. Our newest series looks at the story of OxyContin, a popular painkiller that helps spur an epidemic of addiction and drug abuse, in which prompted a broad campaign to hold the pharmaceutical industry accountable. Listen to American Scandal on Amazon Music or wherever you get your podcasts. Hi Snap listeners. We are bringing you a special bonus episode today for Moxygen's hit series Accident Suicide or Murder, airing on oxygen on Saturdays at 8.7 Central. You can also watch full episodes live or on demand on the free oxygen app

by clicking the link in our description. Enjoy! A romantic getaway ends in tragedy. Yeah, that accidentally shot his girlfriend. We could see blood on her face. It was horrible. It broke us to the core. But what begins is an open and shut case. It pretty much looked like an accidental shooting. We as law enforcement did not look at it that way.

Turns into an explosive showdown. The next time he came to the window, he had the gun pointed to his head. He was just a shell of a human, revealing a damning pattern of abuse. We're looking at a potential two-time killer. There are people out there that get away with homicide because you can't prove it otherwise. Or they're smart enough to really make it look like an accident. The Yakutat is a small fishing fly-in town. There's a lot of people coming for their honeymoon. It's a real relaxed atmosphere. July 21, 1996, the peaceful morning was interrupted when police received a bizarre 911 call from

a local fishing lodge. A distraught guest had reported accidentally shooting his girlfriend in their room during the night. For the normal person, it's pretty nasty seen. We found the victim laying back in bed. Her bottom half of her body was underneath the covers. She was laying back onto some pillows that had been stacked up, you know,

like you normally do to sit in bed. Of course, basically the top of her head was gone. A 12 gauge shotgun that might have been used in the incident was still there, a 12 gauge is pretty devastating. And as I recall in the reports, mention of some teeth that had been embedded in the wall by the fourth of the last.

And it was an awful, awful, awful scene. Was this a mishap or had the trigger been pulled with intent? The boyfriend of the victim had been alone with her during the incident. Despite his traumatized state, investigators gathered his version of events. The victim was Sandra Perry, she was 38, she was from the state of Washington. Her and her boyfriend, Robert Kualsky, had come up to Alaska,

but it's kind of a romantic getaway. They were in Yachtitat just briefly for about a week to picnic, hike, just enjoy the surroundings. They had been enjoying themselves, and of course, Alaska. Got a lot of bears right around your cabins. He had a shotgun that had been lent to him by the owner of the lodge for bear protection.

Robert Kualsky was extremely upset about the situation. He was telling us basically they returned from drinking as the bar there at the lodge 3, 10 in the morning. And he said they had been sitting there and Sandra indicated to Robert that she thought maybe there was a bear or something at the window. Robert stated that he'd picked up the shotgun to, you know, check it out.

And he said that she had said boo, or something that startled him when he turned and tripped and fell on her with the shotgun and went off. Mr. Kowalski sat in the room with Sondra Perry's body for the rest of the evening. After the incident, Robert was extremely upset. He thought he probably went into shock and he considered a committing suicide. And then when he did come out of the room and go down to the office,

he had a very difficult time describing it. He made myself, that's a real indicator. I mean, when you've got somebody that doesn't call right away, so you have to look at both the accidental part and the homicide part. It's a homicide where killer had to be brought to justice and the family members that were left behind, it's a terrible travesty, you know, when people die.

Sandy Perry was my sister. Sandy wanted to be friends to everyone. She had a heart of gold. My mother was happy and was always there for me, and tried to give me as much love as I needed. Even when I was a pain in the ass, I don't know how to describe her except for the most amazing woman in the world. Sander was like my second mom. We were a horses, we were a dirt bikes, we were from the net house, we were always there, we were out there, we were out there, we were out there, we were out there, we were out there, we were out there, we were out there, we were out there, we were out there, we were out there, we were out there, we were out there, we were out there, we were out there, we were out there, we were out there, we were out there, we were out there, we were out there, we were out there, we were out there, we were out there, we were out there, we were out there, we were out there, we were out there, we were out there, we were out there, we were out there, we were out there, we were out there, we were out there, we were out there, we were out there, we were out there, we were out there, we were out there, we were out there, we were out there, we were out there, we were out there, we were out there, we were out there, we were out there, we were out there, we were out there, we were out there, we were out there, we were out there, we were out there, we were out there, we were out there, we were out there, we were out there, we were out there, we were out there, we were out there, we were out there, we were out there, we were out there, we were out there, we were out there, we were out there, we were out there, we were out there, we were out there, we were out there, we were out there, we were out there, we were out there, we were out there, we were out there, we were out there, we were out there, we were out there, we were out there, we were out there, we were out there, we were out there, we were out there, we were out there, we were out there, we were out there, we were out there, we were out there, we were out there, we were out there my step-dad. The divorce came and we didn't know if she'd even start dating.

She wasn't quite ready yet. Something changed when Sandra met Robert Kowalski in the summer of 1995 while living and working outside of Seattle. The first time we met Bob Kowalski, he was a very nice guy, very polite. He treated Sandy like she was a princess. Sandy just was head over heels. We were hoping she would find somebody just like this to make her happy and the kids happy. She told us that Bob Hat asked her to go to Alaska, that they could make a small vacation out of it, because it was beautiful up there.

I remember the day that she left. We were both standing at the door. She were giving us hugs and kisses, goodbye as she would, like whenever she went in places, let us know that she loved us. And for whatever reason, in the back of my mind, I knew she shouldn't get on that plane. Well, Sandy was supposed to be only gone a week,

and Jeremy was going to go pick her up. Their flight came in, and as the last person walked off, there was no mom. I just felt super off, and I'm like, something's not right. Later on that night, my daughter, Gina, woke me up in the middle of the night and says, mom, there's an officer on the phone from Alaska. He said, something happened to your sister.

They never left their lodge. She was still there because there was an accident. I remember walking onto the back porch, my grandma's house. And then everybody being there, I thought it was a little weird. I found out basically your mom has passed away. I pretty much bald my eyes out, couldn't believe it was true. I mean, there's not a whole lot you can do.

Let's just sit in my room, look at this healing, think about my mother. I had to register what just happened. It was unreal. It broke us to the core. It was very heartbreaking. Miles from Sandra's family in Washington, the investigation into her death deepened during the autopsy.

Although the cause of death was quickly confirmed as a gunshot, something surprising was found. Once she was examined, there was a perfect circular mark on her body. A impression on her chest, consistent with the muzzle of the shotgun being pressed into her chest. That was very odd. Mr. Pulaski said that he'd fell forward

and actually poked her with the gun. The first thing that you kind of ask yourself is, well, why didn't the shotgun go off then? His story was when he was getting up from falling on to her, is when the shotgun went off. And generally, it's going to be the impact, is when you're going to squeeze the trigger. To me, that's when the gun should have went off,

had it been an accident. To us, that was a poke and aggressive type mark. Was Kowalski telling the truth? An interview with another guest at the lodge added a layer to Kowalski's story. Richard Tenwald was a person that was staying in room number nine. The room that would have been next to Sandra Perry and Robert Kowalski's room. He stated that night he'd heard them come back to the room

approximately two o'clock. At that point, he thought there was some arguing going on. Robert seemed to be talented, be quiet, and she was not. She was being loud and kind of obnoxious. Then they went to sleep, Richard Tenwald and his roommate. and she was not, she was being allowed and kind of with noxious. Then they went to sleep, Richard Tenwald and his roommate. And about 3, 10, they woke up to a bang that they thought was a gun shop.

They'd actually got up and looked out the room but didn't see anything so they went back to bed. Not only did he establish the timeline, but he also could establish there was an argument going on. So that would indicate it was a fired in anger shot. It's certainly possible that what had happened was not an accident, but an intentional killing. I am immediate family. All believed that something was up. You've got medical examiner, personal calling at a accidental.

No attempt to CPR, no 911. If this wasn't accident, why wasn't something done sooner? The punches just keep coming. Alaska State Troopers were investigating a shooting incident that left Sandra Perry deceased and her boyfriend Robert Kowalski holding the shotgun. Kowalski had claimed it was an accident, but two days later, another guest reported having heard an argument between the couple within an hour of the fatal shot. Was this truly accidental?

Or could it be an act of anger? There was an indication there might have been an argument but they weren't sure because Richard Tenwald was in the next room over from where the victim was shot. Then here any argument from Robert. In the interviews Mr. Kloski had with the troopers. He explained that Sandra talked loud. In particular she was talking loud because her ears hadn't unpopped from the flight in the Akita.

It's certainly possible. That's what Mr. Tenwald was hearing was her talking aloud. It's a plausible story. So you can't establish a true argument that would actually truly point to a homicide. The law-journer indicated that he thought they were really in love and so didn't think there was a hate going on there. So there wasn't a lot that we were able to clean out of the witnesses in that case and didn't really find any history of violence at all, from Robert. But then you've got the officers who actually felt it was a homicide.

You've got the drinking going on, the fact that it wasn't reported immediately. You've got that 12-gauge mark inner body, which to us would have indicated the previous strike. But it doesn't show if they were arguing when the shut took place or if it was an accident. So with what was given at the time, the chances of getting a guilty conviction may have been pretty slim. While detectives short up their evidence, Sandra's family struggled to comprehend how this idyllic vacation

had ended the life of their dearly departed. My grandmother and my aunt, Gloria, had to fly to Alaska to identify the remains and to have her brought back to Washington State for her funeral. We put personal things from the children into the casket so that it could go with her. The family loved her very, very much. I remember when I got to my mother's funeral, Robert was there and I was I was not pleased to say the least. We wanted to believe that it was an accident. However, how could Bob show his face at my aunt's funeral? It was very balsy of Robert to make it.

We all kind of let it fly because my mom brought him and we have respect for her, but deep in our hearts we're going, no, Bob does not belong here. My grandma blessed her heart. We're keeping our hearts. We're going, no, Bob does not belong here. My grandma bless her heart. She wanted to believe that he was innocent. Nobody would want to believe that somebody could actually do that to their daughter.

There's a real bummer that he was there. Even though it was an accident, he took away my family. The children's mother, it was like a slap in the face. We didn't hear from him very much at all after the funeral. He didn't want to talk to anybody, and that's when we got the DA up there in a lawyer in Alaska to find out exactly what happened up there.

Detectives had compiled their evidence, but would it be enough to build a case for murder and sway the medical examiner? According to the autopsy, there were no defensive wounds to suggest that there had been some kind of a physical altercation between the two. Kowalski had given relatively or fairly consistent statements. There were some discrepancies, but nothing that could not be explained away.

And nothing to really contradict Mr. Kowalski's account. So without evidence to suggest the contrary strongly, it would pretty much look like an accidental shooting. We as law enforcement did not look at it that way. But the medical examiner's office classified this as an accidental shooting. There wasn't proof beyond a reasonable doubt that this was not an accident. And you don't want to take a case that you may not be able to prove to trial for a number of reasons. If you take a case and they're found not guilty,

your chances of prosecuting them later is zero. So sometimes it's, I hate to say it better to wait. And that's what he told us that there was not enough evidence that it wasn't accident, and that's what we hear, and that's what we had to take. It was yet again, and another hard time in life. I mean, the punches just keep coming. Sandra's family wrestled with the ending of the investigation. Months of unrest slowly became years.

My immediate family all believed that something was off. We were beginning to believe it wasn't so much an accident. To the point that my mother started investigating herself. And when my lawyer went up there we found out all the records were destroyed. All the records were destroyed. Ah, the Bahamas. What if you could hang out with celebrities living a penthouse above the crystal clear ocean with all your best friends and have it be 100% paid for? FTX Founder Sam Bankman-Free made that dream a reality, but U.S. prosecutors say he was hiding a dark secret. Barely 30 of the young crypto billionaire became a powerful financial figure, but in just one month, his exchange would collapse, and SBF would find himself in handcuffs.

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As Sandra Perry's family began privately investigating her death, they discovered that the Alaska police evidence was gone. It was a case that was closed because it was believed to be accidental. That meant that after a certain period of time, the evidence would be destroyed. Every few years, most of your law enforcement agencies go through their evidence rooms and their files and get rid of the evidence in those. All the interviews with Mr. Klawski and others, they were destroyed for standard procedures. It was hard to comprehend and all of a sudden I was paralyzed. All those suspicions remained nearly two years after Sandra's death. Setbacks piled up and her family was running out of options.

Ultimately we knew that we were fighting a never-ending battle. The lawyer's decision was to try to go after a wrongful death suit. If Bob did it purposely, the children would receive nothing. But if it was declared an accident, they could go to his insurance, and each child would have money that they could use when they got older. And we thought, this is for the best. At least the children come out ahead.

My mother decided to take the money, all was set in down, and the case was over. We were angry the whole time, but it was out of our hands. All we could do was help the kids to move on. all we could do was help the kids to move on. What's something like that happening at such a young age, I don't know, six, seven years old, I did my best to move on and try to have somewhat of a normal life, but it was very hard to pick up the pieces.

I can't begin to tell you how much I miss her every day. I can't begin to explain the hurt there is in my heart that my kids can't see their grandmother. I mean, I could only dream of what the possibilities are. I'll never know. Why did bad things happen to good people, you know? Nobody else needs to suffer like this. Sadly, the shock waves of Sandra Perry's untimely death

would be felt years and miles away. This is a place because of its vastness where people come to maybe forget their past and forget maybe who they were because it's really easy to disappear once you get up here. 9-1-1, what's the address of the emergency? I've got a report of a dead body. Okay, is it an accident or...? It's a shooting. The shooter had returned to his home that morning, had told his roommate there had been a terrible accident, and that he had accidentally shot his girlfriend. The shooting happened at his girlfriend's house?

Right. I was home doing my laundry like I said in my underwear. Okay, and then he showed up and told you all the dance. And when you left what exactly was he doing? Walking around crying and he was going to shoot himself. Okay, do you know if she's dead or not? Maybe she's alive, maybe she's not. Okay. Okay, do you know if she's dead or not? Maybe she's alive, maybe she's not. I'm not a clue. That prompted units to start to respond

to the girlfriend's residence. When deputies first responded to the house, there was no response at the door. The deputies looked through the window and he could see the victim slumped in a chair. And so they forced entry and determined that she was deceased. When Sheriff's Dispatch received a call, they learned that the victim's name is Lorraine Morin.

She was a mother of six children. We could see blood on her face, blood on her mouth, and on her forehead was what appeared to be a V-shaped cut. There is a lot of discolourisation, and it appeared initially that she had been deceased for quite a while. I later learned that she had been shot just above the chin area, and it had went through and was lodged or severed the C2 vertebrae, which says that she probably

would have died instantly. Every time somebody makes a claim of an accident or something, there has to be evidence to prove that. So we're looking for things of maybe a scuffle, some kind of altercation. We're also looking for a firearm. On the floor was a broken telephone, and a TV had been turned over.

There was a holster laying nearby that's from a small revolver, but no revolver at that time told us that her boyfriend took that with him. At that time, we couldn't determine if this was accidental, however, it was obvious there had been some kind of a big disturbance. The home was quickly secured as a potential crime scene, as deputies rushed to the boyfriend's house in nearby callous spell to check on him.

We know at the time the shooter was at his residence. We knew that at this point he was suicidal, which would probably make him dangerous. The flathead county SWAT team was the first on scene. Immediately following something that traumatic, people can do just about anything. I was the first negotiator on scene. The SWAT team set up a perimeter

and I moved around to a building on the back side of the residence. At that point, basically, I was just shouting from a back of a building trying to get him to answer. I knew what his name was, and that's about all I had to work with at that point. His name was Robert Kowalski's accidental shooting in Alaska had been settled in civil court, a similar incident found Kowalski hold up hiding from Montana police. It just intensified. I mean, the heat was turned up right away on this.

The majority of us thought that maybe he had just been so guilt-ridden over this accidental shooting that he was just going to end it. I heard that yesterday was an accident. We know that. Oh, my God. No, move with that already. I'm so sad that she's gone, but you have a lot more to live for. And so the team moved up to do what was called a break and rake.

This is where we break the window. Rake a clean in case we had to make entry. And that's when things changed. That's when we heard the gunshot. We didn't know what had happened. Whether you were shooting at us or you shot himself. But you assumed the worst. You assumed that was at that moment.

The negotiations were moving forward, and that may be it taking his life in his own hands. But I kept trying to make contact with him. While the situation at Kowalski's home escalated into a standoff, the victim's family were notified back at the crime scene. When I pulled into the drive way, I was stopped by an officer and he asked me who I was and why I was here. And I informed him that this was my mother's house and

his face just went ghost white. He was just about to tell me the worst news of my life. My mother, Lorraine Morin, had been shot and she was no longer with us. I just dropped to the ground and started crying. She wore her heart on her sleeve, but she was tough as nails. She just had this way about her that it was just beauty and everything she did. My mother never missed a single event. Basketball game, baseball game, play, detention, all around good mother.

She had horses, she took care of people's horses out on the property for a while. Yeah, it was great. It was kind of like, I mean, pitch and perfect for the majority of it. My mom met Robert Kualsky in 2005. He seemed like he was an honest, hardworking, faithful guy. There was never a question whether or not he was dangerous. The night before it happened, I called out there, and my daughter was supposed to stay the

night out there and mom said, oh, I'm not tonight. Robert and I are having date night. I said, all right, mom, I love you. That's the last time I spoke with her. She was all about the kids. And a lot of them shouldn't get to meet. For me, it was important that they got him out alive because I didn't want him to take the easy way out. And at that moment, I wanted to know what really happened. While the rain Maureen's family wrestled with the shocking

loss, officers struggled to determine if Kowalski was still alive inside his home. The SWAT team, again, approached the house with a camera on the end of a pole. And they put it in through a broken window. We were expecting to see his dead body in the room, and he grabbed the pole and pulled it away from the officers. Well, for us, that worked wonderfully because we determined he was still alive.

People were able to watch through the windows from a distance with optics, and he was normally always carrying the gun at his side. We're able to enter Mr. Kowalski's information into the system to kind of figure out what our history is. We noticed his history, had some partner family members solved. Individually, those things are just incidents, but when you line them up with what our current situation is, it plays a big part in his personality. The more we learn about him, the more I can use that in dialogue with him. It's called hooks and triggers.

Hooks are things you talk to them about, triggers are ones you never mentioned. Learning yourself is just gonna hurt everyone you love. We can still have this in peace with you. As it went on and on and on, it became apparent this was going to be a larger news story that likely went into the next day. We just had no idea how long it would last.

So it was very tense. We had been there at that point around 29 hours and Sheriff decided it was time to escalate. So they pumped gas into the house. Oh, Jesus! Throw! Robert, all you need to do is drop the gun and put your hands on the wall and be hurt. And after the first series of glass went into the house, the next time he came to window, the talk to me, he had the gun pointed to his head. The Police The Police The Police

The Police The Police The Police The Police

Nearly two days after the allegedly accidental shooting of Lorraine Morin, Robert Koewalski faced off with police, threatening suicide as tear gas filled his home. was caught by a police officer. The police were caught by a police officer. The police were caught by a police officer. The police were caught by a police officer. The police were caught by a police officer. The police were caught by a police officer. The police were caught by a police officer. The police were caught by a police officer. I was using my hooks, trying to convince him

that was not the way to go. He had an older son that he was really close to. Richard loves you. He's planning on you getting him a job this summer. He could get away from your head. That's not how we're going to answer this. I could visually see him put the gun down and walk away from it. He disappeared in the house, the unlock the front door, stepped outside. We safely took him in the gun. It was a huge relief that it was over. Nobody was hurt.

And then it turned to, OK, what happened to Lorraine Morin? Kowalski was immediately brought in for questioning. Would his account of an accidental shooting align with the evidence left in his wake at Lorraine Morin's home? His basic story was that she came home and toxicated, and they started to fight. The argument escalated.

He went and grabbed her gun, was trying to get her to stop screaming at him. So he said he shot the PV in order to get her attention. She was still hauling at him. So he said he pushed her down in a chair, and he went over to the couch and plopped down, and when he plopped down on the couch the gun went off. As I had learned from officers that were at the crime scene, there was gunpowder stippling on her face, which means a close contact gunshot

wound. And the couch he plopped down on was of a sufficient distance that there would have been no gunshot stippling at all. So I knew he was lying about where he was when the gun went. He remains with Lorraine's body until the next day. No attempt to see PR, no 911, if this was an accident. Why wasn't something done sooner? But the most damning part of Kowalski's past was still yet to be revealed to the Montana investigators. to get us. Somebody gathering intel had talked to the next girlfriend when we were trying to get

information on him, and we learned that he had shot and killed a girlfriend in Alaska, and he was never prosecuted. It was deemed as an accident. I said, well, I'm going to start searching and I spoke to a local FBI agent who put me in contact with the Alaska State Police. I talked to Pat Walsh this case that they had matched what happened in our events.

In Alaska, a lot of similarities. We have Kowalski's accident story. We have a relationship involved and we have a firearm. There is also that V-shaped cut on her forehead, apparently, was made with the muzzle of the revolver. Well, in the Alaska case, they found the imprint on her chest of the barrel of the shotgun. The similarity of the crime shows exactly the same kind of behavior. We're looking at a potential two-time killer. In light of this new information, we're taking it very

seriously and that he is going to be charged to the fullest extent of the law. I believe it was the very next day. It's not a county prosecutor's charged Robert Kulalski with Braini's murder in Montana. My mind was just reeling with grief and all these questions. It just seemed so bizarre that somebody relatively easy going could do something like this. I thought to myself, this is what he does. He ruins people's lives and then he runs away from it. It's an accident I didn't mean to.

I'm so sorry. And then he does it again.. It's an accident, I didn't mean to, I'm so sorry. And then he does it again. But this time, he got caught. As the preliminary hearing approached, news spread of Kowalski's murder charges. My wife called me in tears and told me that Robert had done it again. He's killed another woman.

It was horrible. The sons of both victims formed an unlikely brotherhood as Kowalski faced trial in Montana. Jeremy and his brother Brad, good guy, good group of people, came up here for Robert Kowalski's hearing and sat with me in my family. So I figured maybe that would give me some sort of closure having somebody else have the exact same thing from the exact same person happen. We sat down in the courtroom and Robert Kowals to get the guy that murdered my mother sat down five feet in front of me. And I remember me just starting to shake.

He didn't seem like he even had a soul behind his eyes. He was just a shell of a human. There are people out there that get away with homicide because you can't prove it otherwise. of the human. There are people out there that get away with homicide because you can't prove it otherwise. Or there's smart enough to really make it look like an accident. But with this case, when you compare the physical evidence involved, it's very feasible that it was a homicide. There's no question that he's going to be convicted if he goes to trial. And he ended up accepting the plea bargaining. His plea was what's called an Alfred plea, which does not

admit guilt, but says there's a lot of bad evidence here that makes it look bad for me. They don't have to get up and say they're sorry. They don't have to get up and say they're sorry, they don't have to get up and testify. They just simply accept the plea and they're sentenced. And he was sentenced to 50 years in the Montana State prison with 10 years suspended. He was found guilty finally in Montana.

Our family wanted to prove he killed Sandy as well. Was justice possible for Sandra 12 years after her case was closed? I was very encouraged about prosecuting the killing of Sapari in the act of attack when I started to see the details of what had happened in Montana. When we saw the evidence from Montana and the similarities between that we absolutely knew we had it. The physical evidence in the Alaska case had been destroyed but the police report still existed. So the case was reopened for investigation in 2008. Next thing we were getting phone calls from Alaska detectives,

our reaction was, let's get it. MUSIC MUSIC 12 years after the shooting of Sandra Perry, Alaskan State Troopers set out to build a murder case against Robert Kowalski. When I found out that my mom's case was going to be reopened, I was worried. They had a lot of work ahead of them from what didn't happen years prior. We had 98, the case basically had been pretty much destroyed. They would have to rebuild the case piece by piece,

so they started with the ear witness closest to the event. Sometimes people will actually be more forthcoming in the first time that you talk to. So we went back and re-interviewed Richard Tenwald. He was in the next room over from where the victim was shot. He had witnessed actually Sandra and Robert arguing the day before the shooting. Sandra had been talking to these other fishermen down by the fishing table and Robert got extremely upset about it and was really dressing her down. And then one of the main things that Richard Tenwell told

was the fact that when the shooting took place, Sandra Perry was yelling and screaming up to the point where the shot was fired. So what he essentially said was that in mid-sentence, the shot ended her conversation. was that in mid-sentence, the shot ended her conversation. According to Mr. Tenelwald, back in 1996, he really didn't want to get involved. He didn't think it was that significant,

but the revelations were important. This new testimony revealed Kowalski's malice towards Sandra Perry on the night of the shoot. Through all the work that we did, the medical examiner's office reclassified that incident from a accidental shooting to a homicide. That allowed our DA's office to prosecute him. Mr. Kowalski was extradited to Alaska.

Once that happened,als were set. Although Kowalski would be imprisoned for his crime in Montana, parole was not out of the question. For Sandra's family, all hope was riding on this trial. What if this doesn't go? There was a possibility who knows if he would have got out again. He's already destroyed two families. I didn't want to see him destroy another one.

Would Alaska prosecutors have enough to put Kowalski away for another homicide? One of the things that made this case unforgettable is that another state was able to use our evidence. The jury in Alaska was allowed to hear basically all of the facts surrounding the killing in Montana. That made a big difference. If the judge allows it, you can use that evidence to show one or the other was not an accident. In 2014, Robert Kowalski is convicted of second-degree murder in Alaska, and basically given the same sentence he received in Montana,

which is 50 years with Tens suspended to be served after he's done with his time in Montana. We were excited. We were excited. He finally got what he deserved. He's never going to hurt another person again. He's in jail for the rest of his life. I was definitely glad to hear that if there was a chance that he ever was to get out here that he would go straight there and serve out in his sentence there,

which I'm sure they would hold him for the entire time. If they would have just prosecuted this Alaska case, Lorraine Morin would have still been alive. I mean, I was really upset. As bad as it is, it allowed Alaska to prosecute him. I do think it weighs heavily on the criminal justice system, but we're fortunate enough that we could give a voice to another victim. And hopefully bring some closure.

Me talking about this is a chance for my mother's death to not be in vain. She's taught me that family is number one, and I hold my family dear because of that. So I'm just thankful for having a chance to have a mother like that. I still live in the house where my mother passed away with my family because the memories there outweigh

the one tragedy. My mom's still there. When I'm riding my horses, I always feel her with me. tragedy. My mom's still there. When I'm riding my horses, I always feel her with me. She used to come pick me up from the bus stop with my pony and we race home and gallop across the wheat fields. She's the wind in my hair and the wings on my back.