The Binge Cases: Denise Didn't Come Home - Killer Story | 1. A Rose for Mom

Episode Date: February 2, 2026

Seventeen-year-old Sabrina Kidd goes missing. Four years later, tabloid reporter Lyndal Marks decides to find her. Binge all episodes of Killer Story ad-free today by subscribing to The Binge. Visit The Binge Cases on Apple Podcasts and hit ‘subscribe’ or visit GetTheBinge.com to get access. From serial killer nurses to psychic scammers – The Binge is your home for true crime stories that pull you in and never let go. Join our free newsletter at Patreon.com/TheBinge. The Binge – feed your true crime obsession. Killer Story is brought to you by Sony Music Entertainment and Orbit Media. Find out more about The Binge and other podcasts from Sony Music Entertainment at sonymusic.com/podcasts and follow us @sonypodcasts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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and hit subscribe at the top of the page or visit getthebinge.com to get access wherever you listen. The Binge, feed your true crime obsession. The Binge. It's just after dawn in late September, 1987, and Tom Percival is about half an hour by car from Las Vegas. He's just launched his boat into the Colorado River. His wife is with him.

They've planned a day with the kids playing in the river's clean, clear water. We were probably that 10, 12 minutes into the water. As they head across the water, the two watch out for debris in their path. And that's when I see it. It's about 75 feet away. 75, 80 feet, something like that. I told it was a log. It just looked like it was barely floating underwater.

It's barely breaking the surface. Tom's not convinced, so he steers the boat closer. As he approaches, time seems to stand still. I remembered everything. I mean, I could probably even tell you how many ripples were in the water at the time. Tom sees something unusual. He can't tell what it is. It looked like a beautiful mannequin.

So I took the oar and kind of pushed on her, and she went about six inches underwater, and then floated back to the surface. And I'm going, no, it was a girl. I didn't want to hurt her skin. I didn't want to touch. Really, I didn't want to touch her. And I was only this far away from her, six, eight inches. I remember looking at her hair, beautiful hair floating in the water.

just floating out like a like a rainbow kind of like just beautiful. And she did have this like a mossy green tint all over the skin that I could see. And that's when I noticed the tear drop. Right in the corner of her eye, I saw a bloody tear. I about lost it right there. I said, who would do this to this poor girl? The girl's name was Sabrina Kid, but no one knew that.

They won't know that for years. Nobody will know that Sabrina is dead and still wouldn't know if not for the preternatural drive of a total stranger, a stranger who decided for her own reasons to find out what happened to Sabrina. This is a story of lies, cons, and cover-ups. He said she never came home. I go, that motherfucker's lying. And of a woman compelled to get justice for someone she's never met. No, one ever dared tell me anything.

I did it because I wanted to, because I was telling the truth. And it's a story of yearning for better endings. She goes, I just want someone to love me, someone to care about me unconditionally. This is killer story. I'm Steve Fishman. Episode one, a rose for mom. Hey, Sal. Hank?

What's going on? We haven't worked a case in years. I just bought my car at Carvada, and it was so easy, too easy. Think something's up? You tell me, they got thousands of options. Found a great car and a great price. And it got delivered the next day. It sounds like Carvana just makes it easy to buy your car, Hank.

Yeah, you're right. Case closed. Buy your car today. On Carvana. Delivery fees may apply. Margo Freshwater. She's like a legend. Hot off a killing spree with a boyfriend twice her age. She was given a life sentence.

You'll be delivered to the ruling of the state penitentiary of Nashville. They'll be confined for a period of 99 years. But that didn't last long. She basically walked out of prison, and then she was able to stay hidden for 32 years. But one investigator never stopped looking. It goes from chasing a ghost to she does exist. For over 30 years, Margot Freshwater outran the law. Now, she's done running.

And for the first time ever, she's ready to tell her side. I wanted to get my story out there the way it really went down. From Sony Music Entertainment, this is the crimes of Margo Freshwater, coming January 1st to the binge. Listen, wherever you get your podcasts. Head west from the Colorado River, and you'll most likely run into Las Vegas, known across America as Sin City. That's its attraction. Las Vegas is a place to do whatever you want. People float into Vegas to shake off their work-a-day selves.

They hit the Vegas strip, a row of casinos with high-stepping showgirls and flashing neon lights, so bright you can see them miles into the Mojave Desert. Viva Las Vegas, a place where adults gamble on changing their stories. What Sin City is not is a place for a beautiful, naive teenager. So why in the late spring of 1987 did 17-year-old Sabrina kid move to Vegas alone? The answers begin with her mother, don't they always? It's the 1980s and Sabrina is a child living with her mom, Bobby Sue, in Texas. She worshipped her mom.

This is Dewana, Sabrina's first cousin. I remember when I would go over and I would spend the weekend over at my aunt Bobby's, and Sabrina and I would, we would go walk the strip mall. Sabrina was probably eight or nine at the time. At the strip mall, they drifted past store windows, peering in until Sabrina found what she wanted, always the same thing. And her pride deal was always to stop and get her mom a rose. And so I picture a young girl walking with a single rose in her hand.

She holds it in front of her like a candle. I imagine it's red. She's moving with purpose, eager to get home to mom with her special gift. But mom wasn't always there, not emotionally at least. Mom was beautiful herself, a playboy model at one point according to Dewana. And men flocked. And when a man came into Bobby Sue's life, well, that's when mom's focus changed. And Sabrina was out of the picture.

She spoiled Sabrina and gave her just about whatever she wanted. I mean, material things she didn't do without. But her mom was always gone. So, you know, as long as Sabrina got in the way of her boyfriends or got in the way of anything, then, you know, she just shoved her off onto people. At 17, Sabrina moved in with Dewana, whose family had migrated from Texas to Vegas. They shared an apartment for a time.

She was over in the one bed and I was in the other. bed and I asked her, I said, what do you want? And she goes, I guess, want someone to love me, someone to care about me unconditionally and not judge me. Hmm. Did you remember saying anything to that? I told her, you know, I love you. Sabrina wasn't particularly bold or assertive. She didn't strike people as driven. She was running from, not to, but she was a good friend, the kind of everyone values. This is her friend, Jennifer.

She was just a really nice, good-hearted person, and she was very trusting, and she was a good friend. And the big standout for me is that she was just really kind. Sabrina did have moments of conflict and not just with her mother. A few weeks after she moved in with her cousin, Dewana, they had a falling out. DeWana didn't approve of a guy Sabrina was seeing, so much for unconditional.

love. The boyfriend was soon gone and Sabrina was on her own again, hunting for a job and a home where she felt welcome. I imagine her rippling with anxiety, and yeah, I find that heartbreaking. 17 and on your own and just wanting to be loved. Then she met Jim, and life seemed to get better. They met at a party. As soon as I saw her, I was like, wow, she's a kitty. And so obviously I started to strike up the conversation and we just hit it off. This is Jim Vixel. Jim was a good-looking Vegas native. He sported a mullet when it was the going fashion and usually wore a leather motorcycle jacket.

She didn't get into detail with me, but just the little things that she did tell me, yeah, she did not have a great childhood. So one of my goals was just for me to make sure she had a great time whenever we were to together. A lot of those great times involve Jim's motorcycle. I bought a Kawasaki Ninja 600, the Cross Rocket, is what we called it. On the weekends, we'd meet at the old wet and wild water park on Las Vegas Boulevard on the strip right next to the Sarah Hotel.

And then at midnight we would all take off and we'd do a really fast, long ride somewhere. We went up to Mount Charleston. Charleston is over two miles high. We came down that canyon, and we were doing 135, 140 miles an hour. She was definitely holding on for dear life. She would love going fast. She would say, you know, riding on the bike really makes me feel free. In Las Vegas, friends remember Sabrina as a blonde,

though I've seen early photos, and in them she's a brunette with thick, gentle waves of hair. She has hazel eyes. Her skin is almost as pale as her shining teeth. In most of the photos, she's smiling, though it strikes me as the smile you put on for the camera, thinking one thing showing another. To me, Sabrina looks almost middle-aged in these photos. In one, she actually wears pearls.

She looks ready for a job as a bank teller. In Vegas, Sabrina seems to shake off the person she was. For one thing, she lightens her hair. And she crafts a signature hairstyle, short on one side, long on the other. And sometimes she manages to feel free. Jim introduces Sabrina to his friends. One, a childhood friend, lives with his girlfriend at his father's house. Turns out that his father has an extra bedroom to rent.

And Sabrina jumps at the chance. So Sabrina liked that idea and said, yeah, I'll do that. Sabrina hasn't had a steady address in the six months she's been in Vegas, and now that problem seems solved. Life seems to be getting better and better for Sabrina, a dependable living situation, new friends, a boyfriend who makes her feel free, and she's recently interviewed for a job at the fashion mall,

and she landed it, her first solid gig since arriving in Las Vegas. She seems to have, to her credit, developed a network of support in an intimidating new city. And then another break, her friend's father, her landlord. He asked her something, the effect of, hey, what do you want to do, ultimately with your life? And she said, you know, I'd like to be a model.

And her landlord, a kind fatherly figure, encouraged her. And so for Sabrina Kid, life is looking pretty good. She's too young to gamble, but it's as if she walked into a casino and exited with a pocket full of cash. And then, just as everything is coming together, one morning and late summer, one of Sabrina's best friends knocks on her door, expecting to spend the day with her.

Instead, she learns that Sabrina didn't come home the previous night. No one sees her ever again. Sabrina vanishes. Why? How? What happened to this promising life? on that late summer morning. Jennifer and Crystal. They were the same age as Sabrina, 17.

They'd grown up in Vegas. The three were a striking trio, young, full of life, and pretty. They snuck into Caesar's Palace to hear their favorite bands. They went to high school parties. They talked nearly every day. This is Jennifer. You talk about like girl shit and boys and what are we doing this weekend and what are you wearing.

That's the kind of stuff. It's day to day, it's weekend to weekend. It's not really deep. Like, oh, my mother's, you know, it doesn't, it never got into that. So you were all 17? Yeah. Vegas was a good town to be 17 in? It was because you knew everybody.

You know, there was only so many high schools. Everybody knew everybody. So they did Las Vegas things like hang on the strip and teenage things like attend a junior. varsity football game, which is what was on the agenda on what would be the evening before Sabrina disappeared. After Sabrina vanished, Jennifer and Crystal would review again and again their last hours together. It's September 17, 1987. The evening starts with a junior varsity football game at Valley High School. It's a bit after sunset and Crystal picks up Sabrina. Sabrina doesn't have a car,

though. With her new job, it's on her list. As usual, Sabrina looks great. She's tall and slender. Her nails are painted pink, her favorite color from childhood. A couple of boys decide to flirt with Sabrina, which annoys the boys' girlfriends, harshing the mellow. Crystal and Sabrina leave in a bad mood, talking about those rude girls. A bit after 8 p.m., Crystal dropped Sabrina off at her place. An hour or So later that same evening, so still September 17th, Jennifer picks Sabrina up. Around 9 p.m., they head over to Jennifer's boyfriend's apartment. He's older and has his own place.

Both Jennifer and Sabrina spend the night. It's now morning, September 18th. Sabrina's running late for work and starts shaking Jennifer awake. Sabrina needs a ride home because Crystal is picking her up. Crystal and Sabrina are both working at Lane Bryant at the fashion mall, and they can't be late. So Jennifer drives Sabrina back to her place. She drops Sabrina at about 8.30 in the morning. The drop-off will stick in Jennifer's mind because Sabrina doesn't have her keys.

She empties her purse in Jennifer's car looking for them, but no luck. Sabrina has to knock on the door. Jennifer remembers that the landlord lets Sabrina. Sabrina in. You dropped her off at like nine in the morning and you... It was early. Yeah. Right.

Right. Right. About an hour later, Crystal pulls up to Sabrina's place. It's around 9.30 in the morning. Sitting in her car, Crystal honks expecting Sabrina to pop out. As their friends know, Sabrina is dependable and always punctual. But Sabrina doesn't appear. Crystal gets out of her car and goes to the front door and knocks two times, three times.

The door finally opens, but only a few inches. It's the landlord in his bathrobe. Usually he's friendly to Crystal and invites her in. This morning he seems put out. Crystal asks him, You seen Sabrina? We're supposed to go to work. I told her I would meet her.

She's not home, the landlord tells her. He doesn't know. where she is. So Crystal heads to work alone. Sabrina doesn't show up. Crystal doesn't hear from Sabrina all day. And neither does Jennifer. And they're usually in touch daily. Sabrina had mentioned an opportunity to go to California for free that weekend. Maybe she's taken up that offer. Maybe it's tied to modeling work or that guy she just met. Still, it isn't like Sabrina to be out of touch. Jennifer says they have to go to the police. We waited 24 hours and then we went to the police.

We said she's missing something happened and they just didn't believe us. One point they said that she was class as a runaway and there's nothing they could do. Jennifer isn't satisfied. When Sabrina doesn't show up in the next couple days, she and Crystal returned to the police department. This time the cops accused them. I remember them saying, oh, you were a prostitute that went to Caesar's Palace. And I was like, no. Even if it was true, it had nothing to fucking do with the fact that she's missing.

I remember being so fucking angry. What happens after Jennifer and Crystal visit the police? As far as they can tell, nothing. Sabrina's case is filed with the files of hundreds of other missing teenagers. seemingly a final resting spot. Except that her family back in Texas, Bobby Sue, Sabrina's mother, along with her aunt, will not give up.

They scour missing person reports from around the country. They reach out to media. If they could just get her image on TV, maybe someone would recognize her. Four excruciating years passed like this. It's now 1991, and someone, mother or aunt, gets an idea. There's a very popular new tabloid TV show, A Current Affair. Maybe they'd take an interest in the story of a beautiful teenager

who mysteriously vanishes in Las Vegas. It's worth a shot. And I'm sitting there one day on the phone rings, and I pick it up. Don't want to wait for that next episode. You don't have to. unlock all episodes of Killer Story ad-free right now by subscribing to the binge podcast channel. Search for The Binge on Apple Podcasts and hit subscribe at the top of the page. Not on Apple?

Head to getthebinge.com to get access wherever you listen. As a subscriber, you'll get binge access to new stories on the first of every month. Check out the Binge channel page on Apple Podcasts or Get the Binge. to learn more. So in 1991, Lyndall Marks answers the phone in her office. Lindel is at that moment

a new reporter at the wildly popular TV show, a current affair. Leader in the newest TV genre, The Tabloid. I mean, we would get calls. Often it would be people that you knew were crazy. People who just

had dumb stories. Just unbelievable stories, or, you know, I've spotted a celebrity or whatever, and, you know, how much will you pay for my tape? Today, the caller is a woman, middle age from the sound of her voice, soft-spoken, a Texas draw. She introduces herself as the aunt. Lindel hears the mother in the background. So I'm talking to her, I'm talking to her, and they weren't crazy. at all. And this woman tells me that her niece is missing. And my first reaction was, okay?

The Anne explains that her niece was living in Las Vegas when she vanished. And she was clearly upset. We have phone newspapers. We've phoned other people in the media. We have phoned the local press. No one cares. We can't get anyone to do anything. You are our life. last resort. Right, okay. So what have you done to fight? Have you told the police? Yes, but the police have done nothing.

What do you mean the police have done nothing? We reported her missing a few days after she went missing. They've done nothing. And when I hear that that makes me go, I'm here for you, I will listen to you. Linda is in her 20s and already a seasoned reporter. She comes from her hard news background. She's Australian, but more at home in a place like New York, where ambition, and she's ambitious, matters. I've seen a bunch of her TV segments from the 90s, and she looks cool in a 90s sort of way,

petite with perfect bangs and those shoulder pads that seemed so excellent back then. She's down to earth. She does her own makeup for TV. As a reporter, she's old school, lots of shoe leather, door knocking, file searching and relentless, like irrationally relentless. Prides herself on that. The word hard-bitten comes to mind. You never take no for an answer. But also she's like wildly idealistic.

She seems to truly believe that her efforts, her relentless efforts, can change the course of history. If I feel like there's a big man kicking a little guy in the guts, I will go after that story. I will go after that with aggression and passion. And from where she sits at a desk on a phone in a New York office, the mom and the aunt in Texas are the little guys. Lindel can't believe that the cops shrugged at the report of their missing girl,

that they shirked their duty. For a soft-spoken, helpless aunt and mother, the system couldn't be bothered. Or so it seemed to Lindel at that moment. On the phone, the aunt shares more details. She says her niece disappeared from Las Vegas when she was 17. I asked her when did she go missing. She said, four years ago.

Whoa, Lindell, four years ago, and they're just popping up now? If there was a trail, it's not there anymore. That timetable would have made a lot of reporters hang up. Linda keeps listening. So she's begging me to help. I just, I felt a connection with that family. I felt their pain and I just, I felt something was wrong. People don't just disappear into thin air.

So, Linda, you thought everyone's pushed them aside so you can do something different? Yeah, 100%. Just one problem. Lyndle doesn't actually have the authority to decide what story she works on. At a current affair, there's a chain of command. So she hangs up with the mother and aunt and heads to the office of news editor Dan Meenan. It's Dan who clears or kills story ideas. Reporters are in and out of his office all day.

It's a busy place. Lindel edges her way in. This is Dan. She came up to me and said she got a phone call and what do I think of this story? I said, it's a missing person. We don't do missing persons. There's no conclusion to the story.

And she kept insisting there was. I said, I can't, no, I can't waste any money on this. I'm sorry. There is something going on here. This just doesn't sound right. She's so young. How do you not follow this kid? She's a baby.

How do you not follow that? How do you ignore a mother? She argued with me and said, it's a story here, I'm telling you, I feel it. This is a missing girl, and it's not a murder investigation, and we don't have facts. What is the viewer going to walk away with? Lyndall, he's being clear.

Stop the nonsense. Get back to work. You know, this is a sausage factory, and I've got to come up with about four or five stories a night. So I can't be wasting my time on stories that I feel doesn't have a conclusion. Lindel's reaction? Yeah, totally fuck off. All right, so a girl is missing. A girl who, because a one phone call, Linda feels tied to.

And so, guess what? Linda will find a way. When I feel something and my instinct is telling me, this is right, I have to follow this. I will follow it. I will go down every rabbit hole if I feel like a victim hasn't been given a voice.

I won't stop until I have found a way to tell that story. Now there's a reason that Lindel is so compelled by this phone call and by this story. A reason that Lindel's kept secret for years. A reason that she's ready to reveal on this podcast to a national audience.

Just like it's a segment on a current affair, only better. Next time on Killer Story, Lindel's secret revealed. A friend of mine came to visit me and she just walked in and I remember the shock on her face. I felt an incredible sadness because I could feel that it was going to have an impact on her for the rest of her life. not in a good way. I completely connect it to what happened to me. I was glad somebody was investigating it and I remember being glad somebody believed us. If this wouldn't have worked for Lendell, her career at a current affair may have come to a dead end. You wake up one more and you go, screw it, I need to do this story. Killer Story is a production of orbit media in association with

Signal Company number one. Creator and host is me, Steve Fishman. Executive producers are Michael Marks, Kevin Wardess, and Jonathan Hirsch from Sony Music Entertainment. Producers Jackie Pauley, Hannah Beale, and Austin Smith. Production coordinator, Austin Smith. Series consultant, Emil Klein, sound designer, Britt Spangler, fact check Ryan Alderman. Our lawyers are at Clarice Law. Special thanks to Emily Rassick, Steve Ackerman,

Catherine St. Louis, Sammy, Allison, Allison Haney, Fisher Stevens, and the glamorous Ria Julian. We also thank our agents at WME, Evan Krasick, Marissa Hurwitz, Ben Davis, and a special thanks to Shelley Chenoy for voiceover casting. And a special, special thanks to the inimitable Emil Klein.