True Crime with Kimbyr - A Flat Tire. A Missing Girl. A Mysterious Freezer With Horrifying Secrets Inside: Part 3

Episode Date: August 10, 2025

In the final part of the Denise Huber series on True Crime with Kimbyr, Kimbyrleigha takes us into the courtroom where justice was finally served. Discover how investigators built a case against Denise’s killer, the disturbing motive he confessed, and the emotional impact on her family and community. As the trial unfolds, new questions arise about how this tragedy could have been prevented. Tune in to True Crime with Kimbyr for the heart breaking conclusion to a story that shook a nation and left a legacy of resilience and remembrance. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Then in the basement, lots and lots of moving boxes labeled with different things like we do when we move. Some were holidays, other were miscellaneous items. And there were two of them labeled Christmas. Now, I don't know what drew the detectives to those two boxes. I'm sure they opened every single one. But in those two in particular, they found a hammer and a crowbar. Both had dried blood and tissue still on them. And they found a handcuff box.

a bunch of crumbled up duct tape, and a blood-stained towel, a pair of handcuffs, and a set of handcuff keys. They also found a bloody backpack and a bloodied plastic bag with Denise's driver's license inside. But here's the thing. As they kept rummaging through this home, they found 10 different IDs, ranging from social security cards, birth certificates, even driver's licenses, all from different women. They even found a men's bloody sweatshirt and jeans, a blood-soaked pair of women's underwear, and a bloodied black dress with spaghetti straps, one of which was ripped, as well as a bloodied black jacket and a purse with a key chain, and a key to a Honda was on it, as well as Denise's checkbook with her name on it, her AAA card, a makeup compact, and a small lipstick

pouch, all of which were items that belonged to Denise. This is what she was wearing and what she had with her the night she disappeared. Now another set of handcuffs were found on a desk, and they matched the exact handcuffs that were on the victim's body, which, by the way, had not been identified yet. But I think it's safe to say that they found Denise Huber, especially when they found a bunch of newspapers in one of the closets, all of which had Denise's story posted on them.

And a VHS tape with news segments on her case were recorded. John knew. He was watching the headlines. He was following the case in the media the whole time. And then there was the credit card receipt from a Montgomery Ward store back in Orange County, California on June 10th of 1991. At 140 p.m., he paid $562. This was for the freezer. And it was then delivered on June 12th to an address in Laguna Hills not far from where Denise's car was found. The detectives also found all kinds of pictures of women, sometimes only wearing a little bit of clothing, bathing suits, even bras and things like that, undergarments. It was odd, and it wasn't clear whether he took these photos or he stole them from somebody,

or if they were just from magazines. But it was starting to become clear that John had some kind of fascination or obsession with women, and now they needed to make sure that the women who John stole all of those things from were okay. There were a lot of women's clothing found in the basement, along with something very incriminating if all of this wasn't enough. There were also two Los Angeles Sheriff's Office uniforms neatly hung in John's closet. As well as what Detective Masher referred to as an abduction kit, it was a box and it had a pair of handcuffs, duct tape, similar cloth material to what was found in niece's mouth, and it was

theorized that John probably kept one of these boxes with him in his van or his truck or his car. He had multiple vehicles. And he probably used to pull women over. That explained why he had various IDs of females because he kept them as trophies, perfecting his technique until one girl either got out of her car or he had the opportunity like he had in Denise's case, where she had car trouble and was already on the side of the road because it was all adding up. Even the shoes that belonged to Denise were found with scrape marks on the back of both heels. It was clear she had been dragged and they scraped against the roadside. But detectives hadn't even gotten this far yet. They had not connected Denise Hooper to the body. This was just what you and I know because of everything

that was happening what I told you. They weren't done searching yet. This went on for days, especially when they found a big mound of dirt outside in the backyard. A lot of earth had been moved. but the entire yard looked untouched. It wasn't until they moved things around in the basement that they found a hole in one of the walls. And inside was a room, but it was underground. And this actually sent chills down detective spines. Were there bodies down there of the women

that he was collecting all these IDs from? They didn't know, but they began to dig deep down. And they brought cadaver dogs in, but no other remains were located. Who knows why John, would be digging a deep hole in that area. Maybe he had plans that the detectives intercepted, plans to take Denise out of that freezer

because he had already moved her all the way from California to Arizona. And now detectives needed to locate all of those women in the IDs. And I will tell you that luckily most of them were accounted for, and they had stories about John. A couple were in the sex work industry, and they had been paid by John for dates. And one woman in particular shared a very very,

terrifying story. She said that he drove around to the middle of nowhere in the desert, and they were getting physical. But then he started to attack her and put his hands around her neck, and she was fighting back, and somehow she got free, and she ran as fast as she could without her clothing on, just to get away from this man. Women like her were scared to report men like this, because they were so scared that they would get in trouble for the industry that they were in, but she was able to pick him out from a lineup. She knew right away which man was John. She truly believe that if she didn't get away, John would have killed her. And sadly, some of the women in the photos, those photos I told you about, they were not even identified. And finally, by this time, Denise

had come up as missing. The medical examiner's office got confirmation on the fingerprints as well. The victim was in fact Denise Hubert. All the bloody items from the house were swabbed. And they didn't have the ability to collect Denise's blood. That part I was a little confused about, but probably because of the state she was in. However, they were able to get DNA from her bone marrow, and the blood was hers and John's on all the clothing, or at least his DNA on there. Likely in another form, not blood in his sake, it was probably seminal fluid, because they also found semen on the swabs from Denise's body, specifically the rectal swabs, and the DNA matched John Femillero. There was no doubt about it. He not only violated her, but he killed her as well. And this guy,

is just sick. He's absolutely horrifyingly sickening. And now they wanted to know how Denise died. And that is where Dr. Laura Fulginetti comes in. She is the forensic anthropologist. She was tasked with putting together Denise's skull. And this was not easy, but she explained that she would begin with the round part of the skull because it was easier to match the rounded parts. It was more difficult when she moved to the face. When she was done, with the reconstruction, it was clear that two different weapons were used, and there was at least 31 strikes to Denise's head and face, while the plastic was still on it.

So the plastic was wrapped around, and then the weapons were used with such force that there were pieces of plastic embedded in her skull. Some of the areas couldn't even be put back together, because they essentially had shattered so badly that they were just dust, and some of the wounds were round. Other ones were narrow, showing that she was hit with both that hammer and the crowbar, specifically the nail-pulling part of that crowbar.

This was brutal. And a picture was starting to come together about what happened to poor Denise. Her cause of death was ruled as blunt forced trauma to the head. And both of these women doctors were emotional talking about Denise. The anthropologist explained that she has to view her job like a puzzle that's in front of her, not a skull and not a person, not a person, not a woman. woman because if she did look at it that way, she would be paralyzed to the point that she would not be able to do her job. She said that later she goes home and she cries in the shower, knowing what these victims went through.

The pathologist, she said she cried and she was crying, explaining that she doesn't take the freeway anymore. And she would never allow someone to help her if she was stranded. And that was all because of Denise's case. And I'm the same way when I cover these cases so much. I become so paranoid. But I don't want to live in fear, but I also don't want to die a terrifying death. And I think these doctors felt the same, knowing the intricate details, things that we probably don't even understand and aren't even reported. But there was also something very interesting that happened back in June of 1992, so almost a year after Denise had initially gone missing.

And now it looked really suspicious, because listen to this. There was a guy who was walking around at an Orange County swap meet, so in the area where Denise lived, And one of the vendors was a neighbor of Denise's parents. Her name was Dolores Berg. And she had a bunch of Denise's flyers on her specific booth. And this guy stopped to look at some wheels at her table, and he looked at the flyers, and he just kind of froze. And then he was examining a photo of Denise carefully.

And they looked up at Dolores, and he said, is this kid still missing? And Dolores said, yes, unfortunately she is. And this man was like, wow, I remember seeing her. on June 3rd at 2.30 a.m. on the freeway. She was standing next to her car. He told Dolores that he was driving home to Costa Mesa from his night job when he saw her talking to two men near her car.

Its trunk was open. One man was tall. He was the beechy type with long blonde hair. Well, there was a shorter man with dark hair. And you could distinctively remember the blonde man's face because he said he had eye contact with him. Well, when Dolores heard this, she was like, please report this to the police.

And the man said, no, I don't like cops. I don't like cops. And then Dolores recommended that at the very least, he reached out to Denise's parents, and she even tried to get them on the phone in that minute and then even get the guy's name and number. And that's when he got flighty. He said, I don't want to get involved.

And he just slipped into the crowd. But here's what's interesting. She said he looked like he was in his late 20s and described him as possibly Latino, about 5'8, weighing 155 to 160 pounds with dark eyes and dark short hair. At first I thought, why would someone in their 20s call another person in their 20s a kid? That was weird.

But doesn't that man fit John's description? I'm showing you a picture on the screen if you're watching. It's not really a coincidence, you think that John also goes to swap meets, that he lived in that area, and we know he was obsessed with keeping track of Denise's case. But apparently, he was shopping with a young woman and a newborn baby in a stroller. But I wondered, okay, maybe he didn't have a wife and kids. But could that have been his sister, maybe? Did she have a child? I just thought it was really creepy.

And even the media was out there putting a sketch out of a man and asking for him to come forward. Now, I tend to think, and this is just my opinion, that this was John. But at this point in the investigation, his DNA matched. So it didn't matter if it was him creeping around trying to get information or not.

Detective Masher contacted the Costa Mesa PD, And wow were they surprised when they heard Denise's name. It had been three years, and that's how long Denise's parents had waited. Three years of holding their breath every time the phone rang. Three years of investigators telling them they found a body and then wondering if it could be her. But now it was time to tell her parents. And it had to be done in person. And Ione said that when she saw not one but three detectives coming up her front door,

she knew it was serious. she actually began to cry before they even told her that they found Denise. And when they did, and they told her how they found her, I don't need to tell you this. I'm sure you can imagine the surprise and the horror and the shock that this family went through. And they told her that Elaine and Jack helped. They helped all of this come together from reporting a truck. Denise's family insisted on giving them the reward money, but they refused to take it.

Elaine didn't feel right because this family had been through so much. And besides, she had no idea that Denise was missing. She didn't even know who Denise was. She was merely doing the right thing. And now they wanted to take a closer look at who John was. And I'm sure you are aware that monsters don't just show up out of nowhere. They're created, a little by little, born into who they will become, and then molded by the people who raise them,

the secrets that they keep and the masks that they learn to wear. And John Femolero, his mask wasn't a good one. Looking back, it hardly fit him. John Joseph Fimilaro was born on June 10th of 1957 in Long Island, New York. He was the youngest of three children to Anne and Angelo Femolero. First came Warren, then came his sister Marion,

and last was John. He was part of a family that looked normal from the outside, but was anything but normal behind closed doors. When John was just a baby, the family relocated to Santa Ana in search of better opportunities. But for John, California wouldn't be sunshine and freedom. It would be control, shame, and silence.

At the center of all of this was his mother Anne. I told you, I was going to tell you more about her because she was very interesting. You know, the Christian lady, as she put it, well, she wasn't just a strict mother. She was religiously extreme. She was emotionally unstable and terrifyingly controlling. Her version of parents,

and blur the line between discipline and psychological warfare. She weaponized faith. She constantly warned her children that they were going to go to hell, especially if they misbehaved and didn't listen to her. Even slightly misbehaved. They were putting their souls at risk, she would tell them. She reminded them every single day that she had been chosen by God to save them

and that everything she did no matter how cruel was from God. And that's when everything became a sin. Every step out of her control was seen as a direct challenge to the Lord. She controlled her children's clothing, their privacy, when they could learn about their own bodies. She monitored their phone calls, their rooms, their social lives, or what little they had. She believed it was her divine duty to protect them from what she called corruption. But what she really created was a house of horrors. John was quiet. He was physically frail and he was deeply isolated from everyone.

And at school, he was, of course, bullied because he was different. He was called names. He was mocked, and he was pushed to the limits. Kids would give him really cruel nicknames. They would call him soft. They would call him strange. And at home, he was overlooked by his own mother. She favored his older brother, Warren. Warren was everything that John was not. He was confident, successful, and smart. But even Warren couldn't escape their mother's dominance. She controlled him to to, but praised him constantly, making John feel like he was permanently in second place and he couldn't move forward. Their mother's obsession with morality extended far beyond reason. When Warren began dating

in college, he's now in college. She followed him and his girlfriend to a motel, and once he left the room, she stormed in, ranting about sin and shame, and it turned physical. She attacked this woman. She had to be pulled away and it was so unhinged, but not surprised. Not if you knew this woman. And not too long after this, Warren was arrested and convicted for a series of very disturbing offenses involving non-adult victims. The damage that it did to this family

and their reputation was immediate. Anne? Well, she was so ambitious that she was even trying to run for city council. Well, all of that just ended overnight. That's when she and her husband quietly relocated to the small town of Prescott, Arizona, hoping to do a small town of Prescott, Arizona, hoping to escape the fallout. And meanwhile, John's life was spiraling out of control.

His mom sent him to a religious boarding school in his teens to not just study faith, but to, in her words, straighten him out. And that didn't work. He left after just a year, and then he drifted between odd jobs. He failed a bunch of college programs, and he had a string of broken relationships. At one point, he tried to even become a chiropractor, but he dropped out. However, his resume told a different story. Lies.

A bunch of lies. Like a 4.0 GPA and a doctorate of chiropractic medicine. Why then was he in construction? Well, because he wasn't a doctor. Even if he did name his business the maintenance doctor, which was described as highly successful painting and decorating company, which grew to more than $5 million in gross sales and included 60 employees and 10 subcontractors.

Those were his words on his resume. But let's back up. Because after he failed at everything, he lived with his grandmother, who, like his mother, was a hoarder. She hoarded everything, boxes, piled high to the ceiling, paper stacked in every corner.

The house was suffocating. And John began to mirror those same obsessive behaviors. And this is the time period when he eventually launched his painting business in California and rented a warehouse in Laguna Hills. to swirl his supplies. This was the warehouse, close to Newport Beach, where the freezer was delivered.

On the surface, John looked like a regular contractor, the guy with the clipboard and the clean uniform and the smile. But underneath all of that, he was withdrawn and he was deeply secretive. He hoarded receipts. He kept every scrap of paper and never let anyone into his personal space.

His bedroom door to his grandmother's, was always locked, and his mood swung without warning. Sometimes he was overly friendly, and then other times he was cold. But when it came to women, that is where things get dark. Back in 1987, John took a trip to New York with a woman named Cheryl, and at first everything seemed like a normal getaway. But one night in their hotel room, he played what he called a joke on her. He handcuffed her to a window bar, removed her clothing,

opened the curtains, leaving her exposed to the outside, to anyone that could see her, and he just laughed and walked out. He thought that was funny to leave her stuck there for hours. And when he returned, he acted like it wasn't a big deal. Now, she didn't protest at the time, not because she thought this was okay, not at all, but because she was terrified of what might happen if she made it worse. And then there was another woman, Nancy, that came forward about a separate incident. She described visiting John's house where a disagreement escalated, and he became physical,

and he pushed her down. He pinned her and restrained her with handcuffs above her head. She thought that he was going to hurt her. And only after she protested and threatened to report him, did he finally stop? He called her names and then you just walked out like nothing happened. I know you're not going to like me telling you this, but Nancy later said that she reconciled with John. That may seem really hard to understand, but unfortunately it's very common in these type of situations. They even got engaged. But by June of 1991, the same month that Denise disappeared, she ended the relationship with John for good. Now, these were not isolated mistakes. They were patterns, control, power, and dehumanization because Denise wasn't his first victim. She was

the one who never made it out alive. John would never speak about Denise. Investigators would have to piece all of this together by themselves. The warehouse that he was working out of, while someone else was renting it by the time they got there in 1994, and the new renters showed them an area that they said when they moved in was covered in paint stains, which they washed. But most of the stains remained. They were these very dark stains, which did look like paint. They were brown and red and even black in color. And when they tested it, it really was paint.

But investigators decided to go one step further, and they sprayed luminal all over that area. And it lit up. It was blood. He dropped paint there to cover up blood stains. Well, they luminaled that entire warehouse, and that was the only area that lit up. So now they knew where Denise was killed.

And the DNA in that area, it was tested, and it matched. And now, for the point, possibilities. I mean, they could truly be endless. Could John have seen Denise in town? Could he have been at the concert that night and watched her dancing with Rob? An ex came forward and said, Denise looked exactly like the girlfriend who had just recently dumped him, the fiancé. So could he have stalked Denise? Followed her around the whole night and even done something to retire to make it blow up. Even if the technician said that it happened from lack of air, could he have removed it? and just waited for his chance to attack?

Or could this have truly been random? Remember the abduction kit? Was he always scoping out the freeway at night? Because clearly he pretended to be a cop before. That's how he obtained so many IDs. He would keep them because maybe he let the women go because he wasn't ready to take the next step. Or maybe they just drove off because they knew he really wasn't a cop.

Or maybe they just weren't the right one. We will never know for sure. But what we know for sure, is that night on the freeway, Denise got out of her car. Whether she was put in a chokehold from behind when she was unaware that John was even creeping behind her and she was dragged back to his vehicle,

or maybe he appeared normal enough for her to trust him, that he was really there for help. And then he dragged her into his car, causing those scrapes on the back of her heels. Or was she hit over the head with that hammer that he kept in that box and then dragged unconscious? You can tell me your theory. It's okay. It's okay to question these things because we don't know.

But it doesn't matter how she was trapped. Because after this, she was driven to that warehouse where he carried out sick axe on her and then he killed her. Days later, he had a freezer delivered to stop her body from decomposing. And there was no rental agreement for a rider truck. It was stolen right from the parking lot. And it turned out, John paid two teens to drive it to Arizona. and he told them he had expensive meat in the cooler, so they had to stop every 15 minutes to plug it in.

Wow. I truly think he planned to put her underneath the foundation of that house. I can't see any other reason for digging so deeply into the ground. There were over 100,000 individual items that were cataloged from that house, 100,000. John's hoarding ways is what solved this case. He hoarded Denise. He hoarded the rider truck. He couldn't get rid of anything. Not even the evidence of his crime. For years, he could have dropped the bloody items all over the place, discreetly disposing of them. But no, he was stuck in his waist. John's carefully curated life, the quiet painter, the shy loner, had been hiding something much darker. He wasn't just disturbed. He was dangerous. He was dangerous. He was dangerous. and now, thanks to a stolen truck, and a woman's choice to do the right thing,

a sheriff's deputy followed through and the truth was uncovered. And now, he was going to finally face the consequences. When it came time to pick a jury, there was a problem, though, because everyone already had an opinion. This case was heavily publicized, but facts are facts, and they don't lie.

The trial began on May 8th of 1997, in Orange County Superior Court, six years after Denise went missing. Even though Denise's body had been discovered in Arizona, the prosecutors made the case that the murder took place in California, which gave California jurisdiction. But from the beginning, the media coverage was intense. This wasn't just a murder trial.

It was actually a spectacle, which sounds sad. The Famoleros defense team knew that, though. And just like in major cases nowadays, like Karen Reed or Brian Coburger, John's defense tried to argue that their client couldn't possibly get a fair trial in Orange County, California. He said that the community already decided that John was guilty. And they cited dozens of articles, TV segments.

They even ran telephone surveys. They would call up random people that lived in the area and they asked, have you heard the case? Do you think John is guilty? Do you think that he should get the death penalty? And the results were very damning. 83% heard of the case. 70% thought he was guilty and 72% supported the death penalty.

The defense said that proved bias. They argued that no one that heard this case would be neutral, that his reputation had been ruined way before he stepped foot in court. But the judge wasn't buying this. He pointed to the meticulous jury selection process, 1,200 prospective jurors, and then they were whittled down to 12 plus four alternates. Each one was questioned.

They were screened. They were grilled about the media exposure and their stance on the death penalty, and eventually they did seat a jury. And they felt the jury was fair. Even though they knew the case and they had opinions, they took an oath to listen to all the evidence and make a decision. And so the trial began.

The prosecution laid it all out. Every sickening piece of it. They said that John targeted Denise when he saw her tire blow out, that he took advantage of the dark, of the silence, of the fact that Denise was alone and that he offered her help. And she trusted him. But that's when he attacked, and he dragged her back to his car, and he brought her to his warehouse, where he attacked her, restrained her, and murdered her with a hammer and a crowbar.

At least 31 blows to her head while she was helplessly bound. And then he bought a freezer. He wrapped her body up, and he stored her inside for three years like a trophy, like something he couldn't let go of. He later had boys steal a moving truck, packed the freezer inside, and had them drive it to his parents' property and air, and he might have gotten away with it if it weren't for Elaine. The prosecution didn't rely on just a theory.

They had evidence. Every piece I already mentioned and more that I didn't have time to go into detail about. They had so many witnesses that it was overwhelming. The defense didn't deny it. They couldn't. So they pivoted. They tried to humanize John. They called over 20 people in, family members, old coworkers,

childhood friends, even his priest, his sister Marion, too. She talked about their childhood, how John had always lived in his brother's shadow, how he was overlooked, how their mother was overbearing and cold. She said that John was always quiet, he was shy, and he was deeply sensitive, that he was a good uncle to her children, so she did have children. She talked about how John helped their ailing father in Arizona, but that he did have demons, but he wasn't evil. Friend said that John was polite, he was reserved, he was intelligent, the kind of guy who always

showed up to work, who fixed what he broke, who stayed out of trouble. But none of this erased what he did. It didn't excuse the freezer. It didn't explain how he killed Denise or why, or why he kept her in a freezer. It didn't explain the two other women who had come forward about being restrained by John earlier. The defense attorney claimed that John had been carrying untreated trauma from his childhood and that he had been harmed by a family member growing up and had buried that memory deep inside for decades. They said it just all came rushing back in the days before Denise was killed because he had been dumped by his fiance and he was mentally unraveling.

They said Denise's murder wasn't calculated. It was a sudden moment of psychological. collapse. That's how they described it. Well, the prosecution hit back hard. They painted John not as a victim of his circumstances. He was a man who had complete control over his actions, and he was calculated. They argued that this wasn't a breakdown. It was a blueprint for murder. And I agree. The tools that he kept, the police uniforms, everything was methodical, the entire cover-up. This wasn't a moment of panic. This was a ritual. A man, that chose to preserve everything, even the woman he killed.

Some killers might want to forget what they've done, but others want to remember. The jury only deliberated for about three hours, and on May 22nd of 1997, they returned their verdict. He was guilty of first-degree murder with special circumstances for kidnapping NSA. And during the entire trial, he was emotionless. It was only when the verdict was read

that he hung his head down just for a moment. moment, but then he went right back to having no human emotions whatsoever because he was cold-blooded. He wasn't human. He was a monster. And then came the penalty phase, which was brutal because Dennis and Ione, Huber, had to stand before the court and describe how their lives had changed because of what this man did. And how Ion's body was breaking down and her spirit was next. She, missed their lunches together, their beach days, cooking together, and her health was steadily declining. She had to undergo multiple surgeries for cancer, one that I already told you about, and she believed that all of that was because of grief and stress, that at least played a role in her deteriorating

health. Dennis talked about his Friday morning breakfast with his daughter, a tradition for the two of them. The one day of the week where nothing else mattered but their company. He remembered one last note that his daughter left him. A yellow post-in note taped to his computer that said, Hi, Dad, I love you. Have a great day. Love Denise with a smiley face. He told the court, I wouldn't trade that piece of paper in for a million dollars, and I believe him because that's all this father had left.

A sticky note with a smiley face and a freezer full of what nightmares are made of. The jury recommended the death penalty and the judge upheld it, and they stated that Denise had suffered an unimaginable, terrifying death, and that her killer showed no remorse. And the pain that was inflicted on her family was immeasurable. John Familero appealed his conviction. He claimed that his trial should have been moved, but those victim impact statements, he called them too emotionally charged. What he did was so brutal. Nothing could compare. And the the California Supreme Court upheld his conviction, but there was no such thing as closure, but there was relief and there was justice. It's kind of crazy how something so small is a flat tire

of random everyday inconvenience that any of us could have happened to us could change everything and turn it into a nightmare. Something so unexpected is what makes cases like this so haunting. Denise wasn't taking a risk. She wasn't in a bad part of town. She wasn't meeting with a stranger or chasing danger or doing anything out of the ordinary. She was driving home from a concert, wearing her favorite outfit. She put her hazards lights on.

Her purse was in the passenger seat. She was just nine minutes from the safety of her home, where she was loved and cared for and would be missed. Somehow, she never made it home. For years, Denise's case was one of those vanished without a trace stories. People in Newport Beach drove past that stretch of highway on the 73 and wondered what happened. And her name stayed with them. They saw it everywhere, on flyers, at vigils, in conversations at the grocery store.

And everyone had a theory. Everyone hoped that she would come home. her parents did everything they could. They never stopped searching. And in the end, the break came, not from the police or a lab or even a witness. It came from a woman, Amy Lane, who went to buy some paint and was annoyed by a stranger that was rude to her grandson. She didn't ignore a feeling that she had. And she wrote down that license plate number and she handed that information to a sheriff's deputy, and that single act of doing the right thing cracked open a case that had haunted a city for three whole years.

Elaine later explained that she couldn't understand why the truck bothered her so much, but she said it did. It was the way it was parked, the way that the weeds had curled around its tires, and the way that John treated her grandson and seemed really nervous. It just screamed something wasn't right. And we hear people say, trust your gut, but in this case, a feeling like that solved a murder. And Denise's story doesn't have a happy ending. We know that. But it does have an answer. Her body was brought home. Her killer was put on death row.

Her parents could finally bury their daughter and say goodbye and give her at least a little bit of dignity that she was denied for all of those years. And ever since that day, they kept her memory alive. They speak out about missing person's awareness. and trusting your instincts and doing the right thing. And if you see something, say something. Even if you are in a safe place, it's a normal night and you don't think anything could be going wrong. If it doesn't feel right, say something. In this case, still haunts so many people because it's so random.

It forces you to ask so many questions that you really don't want to think about. Things like, what if Denise would have made it one mile further? What if Rob had insisted on driving that night? What if Steve would have just called sick out of work? What if someone would have passed her and stopped and really helped her that night? And what if Elaine never called in that truck? We don't get to know the what ifs.

We only know what happened. Denise was smart. She was strong. She was kind. And she had a future that she was actively building. She had a family who adored her, friends, plans. And on June 3rd of 1991, all of that was stolen, not because of anything she did, but because of John Fimilaro.

He decided that she wouldn't go home that night. And if the story leaves you with anything, let it be this. Listen to your gut. Look out for other people. And remember that even the most ordinary moments can carry the weight of everything. But most of all, do not forget to do not. Denise, remember her. And if you happen to live here in California and you do take that same road or you're in Newport Beach, because now every time I am, I can't help but remember Denise.

Try to think of her. And try to remember to be careful. I know that's, that that goes without saying and it almost sounds silly to say, but maybe don't travel alone, even if you are in the safety of your car. But if you ever find yourself on a highway or on a road and your car breaks down, stay inside. Stay inside. Hopefully, somebody of authority will come forward. They will pass that vehicle. Put on the hazards. Do those things to keep yourself safe. But now we have cell phones. Call 911 and don't open the door for anyone until the cops get there. Thank you so much for being here for Denise's story. I will see you my next one.

Bye.