All language subtitles for Dateline.Secrets.Uncovered.S11E01.720p.WEB.h264-BAE.[eng]

I'm craig melvin and this is
"dateline: Secrets uncovered".

- She was an 18-year-old girl
and it broke my heart.

It destroyed me.

What do you do?
You just keep fighting.

- Heidi allen was sweet,
spirited, and super-smart.

- Test tomorrow,
no sweat, huh?

- Yeah.

- She took a job here
to earn cash for college.

- She wanted to be responsible.

- She was working the early
shift on easter Sunday.

That's when she vanished.

- They called from the store;
they can't find heidi.

- They noticed somebody
wrestling with somebody

In a van.

- The theory became the two
brothers did it together.

- Mystery solved?
Maybe not.

Years later,
during a chance encounter...

- He said to us,
"do you really want to know

What happened to her?"
- a horrifying story.

- He said,
"I grabbed her like this."

- An old case blown wide open.

- I said,
"we can't let this go."

- Two women teaming up
for the truth.

- If they think
I'm going to walk away,

They are mistaken.

- Uncovering an
astonishing twist.

- Attached was a photograph
of heidi allen.

It had a code name
julia roberts.

- A teenager with
a secret identity.

Did she also have
a secret enemy?

- They are going to want to
shut her up permanently.

♪♪

- Hello and welcome to
"dateline: Secrets uncovered".

Secrets, we all have them

But some can be more dangerous
than others.

In the case of heidi allen,
there were two

And they were big.

One had the power to convict

While the other
could set someone free.

But would either
answer the question

Of what happened to heidi?

Here's dennis murphy
with "the informant".

♪♪

- Tonya priest never
wanted to be a star witness,

Least of all
in a long-ago abduction

And murder investigation.

But after that guy blurted out
what he did,

She felt she had to
come forward.

- Would you live with it?

Could you live with
all of that?

- And she found herself
on the phone,

Talking to a district attorney
in upstate new york.

- Tonya believed
she knew who'd done it;

Who'd done that terrible thing
at the convenience store

On an easter Sunday morning
many years ago.

That store clerk abducted
and never seen again.

- They probably took
maybe 60 seconds

To do what they needed to do.

- What tonya reopened
was a wound

That had never really healed
in oswego county, new york.

- I can't let it go
and I won't let it go.

- I will die trying
and fighting for her.

- If they think
I'm going to walk away,

They are mistaken.
I am not.

- Even today,
just say the name heidi allen

And a swirl of memories
come back,

Some of them fuzzy now.

It was 1994,
that missing girl.

The van, was it blue
or was it white?

And didn't they
get the guy who did it

And send him away?

Tonya was a teenager back then.

- Did you follow it
in the news

Or did kids talk about it
in school?

- I knew about that
they were looking for a van.

That's basically
all I knew at that point.

- Here's what's not in dispute

About that snowy
easter Sunday morning.

Eighteen-year-old heidi allen,
taking the early shift

For a co-worker,
opened the convenience store

About 5:45 a.M.

It was a part-time job for her,
a way to defray

Some of her freshman
college bills.

Lisa buske is heidi's sister.

- She was sassy and
energetic and a risk taker.

- Did she like school?

- Oh, she liked school
because she was smart.

She didn't have to study.
- Really?

- She was one of those.

- She was one of
those kids, huh?

- She was one of those.

- So, what was the job
at the convenience store about?

- It was close to home
and our friends owned it.

You know, so,
mom and dad felt safe.

- Before the early birds
started showing up

For their newspapers, ciggies,

Maybe a few gallons of gas
at the pumps,

Heidi's boyfriend
was there with her

To help get things
up and running for the day.

- He would take her so that
she wasn't alone until people,

You know, like the traffic
was picking up,

And then he would go.

- And that's what
happened that day.

- Right.

- Richard thibodeau, a regular,
lived a few miles down the road

And saw heidi that morning.

- I asked her for two packs
of basics cigarettes.

I paid her;
I said, "have a nice day."

- A few more cars
pulled up to the d&w.

Reporter john o'brien covered
the case for syracuse.Com.

- Some customers had come in
and didn't realize

She wasn't there.

And so, they'd been
there for a while.

They flagged down a deputy
and no heidi.

- Heidi's sister lisa woke up
that morning to very bad news.

- And my aunt was on the machine
and she said,

"lisa, heidi's missing."
- missing?

- We saw her the night before
when she delivered

Our easter baskets and --
in her usual goofiness.

- It was, uh, shocking that
an 18-year-old girl could be --

Just disappear like that
on easter morning.

- The convenience store was
strung with crime scene tape

By the time
heidi's sister arrived.

- I just really felt like
I was just watching a movie.

- Inside the store,
not promising.

They'd found heidi's purse,
her car keys,

Money undisturbed
in the register.

No signs of a struggle and
her car was parked in the lot.

- I just remember sitting
and just watching.

I didn't know what to do.

- The community made
a "find heidi"

Volunteer command center
at the old firehouse

While the authorities readied
their first news alert.

- We have an 18-year-old girl
by the name of heidi allen, uh,

Who lives here in new haven,
who was the clerk.

- Someone listening to
that bulletin

Was richard thibodeau who, of
course, recognized heidi

From the convenience store
where he'd shopped earlier.

He turned to his girlfriend
theresa and said as much.

- And richard said,
"well, my god."

He said, "I was there;

I bought two packs
of cigarettes."

So, he picked up the phone
and he called.

- Called the sheriff's
and set in motion

A sequence of
life-changing events

He could not stop.

Other callers that morning
offered tips about

A suspicious van in the store.

Reuel todd was
undersheriff at the time.

- They noticed somebody
driving very erratically,

Wrestling, or struggling
with somebody in a van.

- This van, sheriff,
did you get a make, model,

Color, anything useful?

- Different color, white,
light blue, that type of stuff.

- But in those early hours,
in the days before smartphones

And ubiquitous security cameras,
nothing was coming together.

Volunteers searched,

The national guard
was called out,

But heidi was gone
and stayed gone.

- We followed up
on every lead.

We had no major people.

- Weeks went by
without an arrest,

Without answers.

And then a couple
of months passed.

They had brought in
a criminal profiler

With the fbi's
behavioral science unit,

Someone who would later
correctly profile

The oklahoma city bomber.

But in this instance,
clint van zandt

Was the agent in the unit
who got assigned to

The heidi allen case
in upstate new york.

His take, look for someone
with a history of violence

And someone obsessed
with the case.

- The person
who committed this

Is somebody
who is really interested.

I mean, the community
was interested in the case,

But this is more interested.

- Obsessed?
- Could not let it go.

This is somebody who will be
saving newspaper articles.

- And there would be
many newspaper articles,

Decades of them, in fact.

The case of heidi allen
was just getting started.

- Coming up...

- Who'd grab an
18-year-old girl?

- Our theory then,
it was probably a sex crime.

- When "dateline: Secrets
uncovered" continues.

♪♪

Heidi, the teenager behind
the convenience store counter

Selling Sunday papers
and cigarettes

Had vanished
that easter morning.

Sheriff reuel todd...

- So, what was
your working theory?

Who'd grab an
18-year-old girl?

- Our theory then,
it was probably a sex crime.

- Abducted and after weeks of
fruitless searching,

Presumed murdered.

- She's the 18-year-old girl

That had her life
taken from her.

She was a good kid with goals.

- But the sheriff's department
was pursuing a promising lead.

And it concerned the guy
who had bought cigarettes

From heidi that morning,
richard thibodeau.

- Did the cops on the phone
start to ask questions?

- They sent someone
over to the house

And asked me
a bunch of questions.

- Investigators, it turned out,
were suspicious of him

From the get-go.

They even put him
under surveillance.

The reason?

Thibodeau's was
the last transaction

Recorded on the register
that morning

And richard thibodeau
also drove a white van,

One that seemed to match
a vehicle described by

A witness at the scene.

- At first it was blue,

It changed to white
as time went on.

But he did say, in the end,
that van, the thibodeau van,

That was the van.

- The witness reported
seeing more than one man.

So, investigators
also brought in

Richard's brother gary
for questioning.

The brother said he was home
asleep that morning

And his girlfriend
vouched for him.

But gary thibodeau
didn't have a spotless record.

He had an outstanding warrant
on a minor drug charge

In neighboring massachusetts.

- They extradited him
to massachusetts,

Which was an odd thing
on a drug charge.

- In the county jail,

Thibodeau struck up
a conversation

With a fellow prisoner.

- Him and gary
are sitting in there

Shooting the breeze
and they get talking about

Something like all of them do.

He says, yeah,
I killed this girl from oswego.

- He gives it up then.
- He gives it up.

- Brother gary is eventually
said to have told two prisoners

About his involvement
in the crime,

That he and heidi
used drugs together

And that she feared gary
was going to screw her over

In a drug deal.

And with that
jailhouse confession,

Investigators now believe
they had their case.

The two brothers, drugs,
an abduction, and money.

- I was waiting for
my school bus to come.

- This is richard thibodeau's
stepdaughter amanda.

She was just 11 at the time.

- And police cars came
pulling into my driveway.

I don't know how many, um,
but they just came

Shooting right in
and stopped quickly.

- Both brothers were arrested
and charged with kidnapping

In the first degree.

- A major break
in the heidi allen case.

- What's the motive, sheriff?

What's the theory
that goes with them in their van

And being at
the convenience store?

- Do you know what
the motive is?

Opportunity.

They stopped in there
to get the cigarettes

And that was the opportunity.

- Abduct this young
cute girl, huh?

- Appears to me.

- There would be two separate
trials for the brothers,

Two separate juries
to decide their fates.

And in the summer of 1995,
the first of the two,

Gary, went on trial.

Joe fahey, now a retired judge,
was gary's defense attorney.

He says the case
was forensically

And circumstantially light.

- There was no indication
that gary had ever been

Near the d&w that morning.

- Gary testified that
he was home asleep that morning

And the jailhouse snitches
who got him indicted

Were flat out lying.

He figured they must have been
angling for favors

From the prosecution.

- The only thing
they really had --

Had to contend with were
the, uh,

The two guys
from massachusetts.

They said that gary
kind of boasted about

They were looking for me
but they'll never find her.

- But they were statements
a jury apparently believed.

It took just four hours
to render a verdict.

- How do you find the defendant
as to count number one,

Kidnapping in
the first degree?

- Guilty.

- Brother richard,
owner of the van,

The one who bought
the cigarettes

And placed himself
at the store,

Went on trial
a few weeks later.

His stepdaughter amanda
was certain

He'd be found guilty as well.

- It didn't make sense for them
not to find him guilty

Because they found
uncle gary guilty.

And they were saying that
uncle gary did it with him.

- Richard was, without a doubt,
heidi's last customer.

And witnesses testified

They'd seen a van like his
at the scene.

Richard's van, however,
showed no trace of blood

Or anything connected to heidi.

This time the jury deliberated
eight hours and...

- We find him not guilty.

- Two trials,
two opposite results.

- So, here's the strange thing
about the two brothers,

It seems, sheriff.

You've got richard
who's acquitted

And yet he is the one that says,
yeah, I was in the shop.

And his brother
who doesn't put himself

In the-in the shop
is the one who's--

Who goes down for it.

But don't they have to be in --
in cahoots together

For this to make sense?

- I would say so
but it still doesn't matter.

And that's what happens
with different juries.

- Do you believe good arrest,
good conviction?

- Absolutely.

- Heidi's family
wasn't quite sure

What to make of the two trials.

Heidi's first cousin
is missy searles.

- It was confusing to have
basically the same evidence,

Just different jury,

And then you end up
with two different verdicts.

- And there was something that
always bothered cousin missy

About the trial.

The jailhouse informants
testified that

It was a drug deal gone bad.

- It didn't make sense.

- And she wasn't
a drug user herself.

She didn't
participate in that.

- Clint van zandt,
the fbi profiler,

Was also left
scratching his head.

His profile predicted
the person responsible

Would be an obsessive
stalker type.

- Did you think you
maybe missed something

In your evaluation?

- The thibodeau brothers
did not add up to my profile,

So I was trying to
figure out what I missed.

You know?

Was it something
that I didn't know about

That I didn't have a handle on?

- The years went by.

A fading sign
at the center of town

Was the lingering reminder

That once there'd been a girl
named heidi allen

Whose life was taken from her.

- Heidi allen has been huge
in everyone's mind for years.

I mean, because
she's never been found.

- And there was a lingering
feeling in the town

Amongst some people
that just maybe

There was more to the story.

- I didn't know what to do.
It broke my heart.

It destroyed me.

- Was there more to the story?

One woman is about to
hear a tale

That could change everything.

Coming up...

A chance encounter and
the shock of a lifetime.

- He said to us,
"do you really want to know

What happened to her?"

- When "dateline:
Secrets uncovered" continues.

♪♪

It was an odd conclusion
to the heidi allen case,

One brother convicted,
the other brother,

The one who admitted to be
at the store, acquitted.

And even though
richard thibodeau

Was found not guilty,
in some peoples' minds

He'd simply had
a lucky day in court.

Stepdaughter amanda...

- Growing up, we were known
as the kidnapper's kids.

We were known as
the murderer's kids.

We weren't treated nicely.

- For the allen family,
it was an unsatisfying result.

They still didn't know
what had happened to heidi

And her body
had never been found.

- She's out there somewhere
and somebody knows.

- That's right.

And some day
we're going to know.

You can't give up hope
on your missing loved one.

- Even after the dust settled,
the case stayed in the news

For years to come.

Some young people,
like tonya priest,

Never really forgot.

- Nothing like that had ever
happened in our area before.

So, yeah, it-it stood out.

- A full decade rolled by.

Tonya was now
in her mid-twenties.

And one day while visiting
a friend named vicki,

The tv was on.

Up popped a story about
the heidi allen case,

An anniversary report.

- When the news flashed
about heidi, I said to her,

"I wonder what
happened to heidi."

And she said,
"yeah, me, too."

- It wasn't really a question,
just an out loud thought.

But someone in the room
decided to answer.

It was the friend's boyfriend,
a guy nicknamed thumper.

- He said to us,
"do you really want to know

What happened to her?"

And we were like, okay, yeah.

- And this next version
of that easter morning

Is one that needs
close attention because

It didn't involve
the thibodeau brothers at all,

But put thumper himself
and two young buddies

At the epicenter
of heidi's abduction.

- He said that we pulled in
right up by the doors

With the vehicle running and
they left the back doors open.

And he said,
"I grabbed her like this."

He said, "we dragged her
out of the store."

And then he laughed.

He said,
"and when we hit that van,

We hit that van hard with her."

- Could he be serious?

- I mean, is this a guy
just kind of flexing his biceps

For the girls?
- No.

The more we didn't believe him,
the angrier he became.

I said, "okay, well, how did
the white van get involved?"

He said,
"we just got lucky.

One showed up before we did."

And I said, "thumper, there's
an innocent man in prison."

He said, "not my problem."

- So, did she run to the police
then and there?

Scream out to
anyone who'd listen?

It wasn't that simple.

Tonya, why didn't you go
to the sheriff's office

At that point and say
I've got a story to tell you?

- Well, he lived a mile
down the road from my house.

- Tonya says she was
paralyzed by fear of thumper.

- I went home and cried.
I didn't know what to do.

- But she never forgot about
that chilling conversation.

She tried to cut off contact
with her friend vicki

And the boyfriend.

And eventually,
tonya moved out of state.

- She was an 18-year-old girl.
It broke my heart.

It-it destroyed me.

- The turning point came
in 2010, three years later.

That's when tonya learned
some sickening news.

In a domestic dispute,

Thumper had shot and
killed her former friend.

- Did you then think
he was capable of

Having done that thing
to heidi?

- Oh, of course.
- A domestic.

- Of course.

- Thumper, real name
james steen, was convicted

And sentenced to life in prison.

Tonya says that conviction
and a tragedy in her own life,

The death of her husband,
galvanized her

To finally speak up.

She picked up the phone and
called the county prosecutor,

A guy she once knew.

- This is tonya
from high school.

- This is tonya
from high school.

- Greg oakes had risen through
the ranks

To become oswego county
district attorney,

Now running that same office
that had gotten

The gary thibodeau
conviction years earlier.

And, of course, he remembered
the case of the missing girl.

- I was home for easter

And I remember
that being on the news.

- So, when tonya priest
called him with a story that

Implicated three new suspects
in heidi allen's abduction,

He listened carefully.

- The d.A. Flew tonya
up to new york

To hear more details.

And together they discussed
how to verify her story.

And there was one detail
that seemed promising.

In the story
told by thumper that day,

He said they had taken heidi
in the van

To the home of a young woman
named jennifer wescott.

- He screamed,
"if you don't believe me,

Go ask jennifer."

- What we wanted to do
was try to follow up

To see if there was
any truth to that.

- Jennifer wescott was a girl
tonya knew from high school.

The d.A. Encouraged her
to get in touch by facebook.

They exchanged telephone numbers

And then it was time
for a phone call.

- They plugged into my phone and
taped the whole conversation.

- It had been years
since they last spoke.

Tonya made small talk at first

And then eased into the story
that she'd heard,

The murder of heidi
all those years ago.

- Jennifer didn't deny a thing

But she wasn't
saying much either.

- I had to keep
throwing stuff at her

And finally she would bite.

- It sounded as though
jennifer had real information,

Had just delivered the d.A.
The evidential goods.

- Tonya had just
one more question.

Had jennifer ever considered
going to the police?

- So, at first,
I felt sorry for her.

Then the more I talked to her
on the phone

And the more I realized
she had no remorse...

- Based on the conversation
that takes place,

We had concerns that

Maybe there was some truth
to tonya's claim.

- Twenty years,
20 easters had come and gone

Since heidi's disappearance.

And now with tonya's story,
everything old was new again.

- Coming up...

The d.A. Starts looking into
the evidence

Tonya helped gather and...

- When the investigator talked
to jennifer wescott,

She explained that, look,
my statements to tonya priest

Simply weren't true.

- What will that mean
for the case?

When "dateline:
Secrets uncovered" continues.

♪♪

Welcome back to "dateline:
Secrets uncovered".

I'm craig melvin.

Two decades after gary thibodeau
was convicted of

Kidnapping heidi allen,
she still had not been found.

Some close to the case
wondered

If the right person
was behind bars.

Then a woman
called authorities

With a secret
she'd been keeping

Involving three new
possible suspects.

Investigators
were intrigued.

But was any of it true?

Back to dennis murphy
with "the informant".

- Greg oakes had grown up

Not far from where
heidi allen disappeared.

And now, as district attorney
of the county,

He was tentatively giving
the case a fresh look.

- When somebody comes forward
with a claim

That potentially exonerates
a convicted man,

We have to take it
seriously.

- Inside the walls

Of the clinton
correctional facility

In dannemora, new york,

We met the convict
who was the subject

Of all this
reconsideration.

It was 2015.

Gary thibodeau
was an old 61

With gimpy legs
and a bad lung.

- Did you abduct
heidi allen?

- No, I did not.

- And then kill her?
- No.

Never abducted
or killed anyone.

- He says those jailhouse
snitches lied,

And their testimony was the only
real evidence against him.

- Did you tell those two

They're never going
to find the body?

- No.

- You're not doing drugs
with heidi there?

- No, no, no.

- Thibodeau had been
inside for 21 years.

He'd always proclaimed
his innocence

But had long since
been resigned

To the way
life turned out for him.

- Do you say, "why me?

Why is this thing
happening?"

- I have gone through
all of them,

Feelings and emotions
and thoughts over the years.

But, uh, I kind of
believed that, uh,

You are where you are
in life

Because that's where
you're supposed to be.

Whether it has anything to do
with the innocent

And guilty or...

- But yours is more than
20 years now

In the new york state
correction system.

- Yeah.

- For a crime you say
you didn't commit.

- No, I didn't.

- Back in 2013

When tonya priest
stepped forward,

Gary had no idea the case
was being given another look.

He had exhausted
his appeals.

The other brother,
richard,

The one acquitted
of heidi's kidnapping,

Says his life has been
filled with anxiety.

- I've been afraid for
the past 20 years

Of actually going
anywhere by myself.

- So, you've really
been traumatized

By this whole thing.
- Oh, yeah. Yeah.

- And he has also regretted
coming forward as the good joe

Who told investigators
that he'd been

In the convenience store
that morning.

- The worst mistake
of your life, richard,

Picking up that phone?
- Yeah.

- Calling the cops?
- Yes.

They had to
convict somebody.

Why us?
Because I had a van?

- Are the two brothers
self-pitying,

Saying, "why me?"

- They're together as-as--
like one,

Like, why did that
happen to us?

- Neither brother was aware
that a woman unknown to them

Was banging on
the authorities' doors

To get thibodeau's case
reopened.

Prosecutor oakes
was investigating

And he asked tonya's old friend,
the woman on the phone

Who seemed to know more
than she should...

- To come down to
the station for a talk.

- The investigator
asked her

About that recent
phone call with tonya,

Omitting the fact
that they had it all on tape.

- Well, in fact,
she had.

That's when they told her
the call was recorded.

- When the investigator talked
to jennifer wescott,

You know, she explained that
"look, my statements

"to tonya priest
simply weren't true.

"I was trying to get her
off the phone.

I was trying
to appease her."

- The d.A.
Tracked down thumper,

A.K.A. James steen,
and the other two men.

Each said that
the tonya/jennifer story

Was bologna.

Investigators also contacted
the jailhouse snitches

From back in the day,

And they stood by
their testimony.

More importantly,
greg oakes said

They got nothing
for testifying.

- So, you--
as you reviewed them,

You found them credible.
- I did.

- Why do you believe
some people and not others?

- We have to look beyond just
do we believe somebody or not.

Is there information
that they can provide

That can be backed up
by other independent evidence?

- The d.A. Didn't think
he could believe

Anything jennifer wescott
had to say.

And he came to question
tonya's credibility, too.

- I don't believe
in tonya priest

And her story.

She said that she had heard
these admissions back in 2006.

And I asked her,
"why didn't you

Immediately come forward
to the police?"

And her response was
"I simply didn't believe him."

- And after reviewing
all the evidence,

He decided there was
no there there.

- I was convinced that they had
had the right person.

- What would
the motive be

For these two
thibodeau brothers?

- Unfortunately, dennis,
there's been

No obvious motive
for all these years.

- Months had gone by

Since tonya first called
the d.A.'s office.

Now, she got a phone call.

- I was told that there would be
no further investigation.

- What, case closed, we've got
the thibodeaus for this thing?

- Yep. Yep.
I started crying.

- So, was that it?

Had she given it her best shot,
time to go home?

Well, you would think so.

- If they think
I'm going to walk away,

They are mistaken.
I am not.

- A secret document
and a stunning revelation.

Heidi allen was a young woman
with an alternate identity.

- Code name julia roberts.

- When "dateline: Secrets
uncovered" continues.

Tonya priest had gone
to the authorities

With an explosive
allegation.

She said a man
nicknamed "thumper"

Had confessed to her
that he and two buddies

Had abducted and murdered
heidi allen back in 1994.

And she was devastated

When the prosecutor
checked out her story

And ultimately chose
not to believe it.

- I was doing it
because I was a good person.

And that's how I felt.

- But tonya
wouldn't give it up.

She was convinced
an innocent man, gary thibodeau,

Was in prison.

She made calls
and was eventually put in touch

With a new york
federal public defender

Named lisa peebles,

Someone who had ties
to the defense lawyers

Who'd worked on thibodeau's
failed appeals.

- Tonya felt as though
things were amiss

By the time
she called our office.

- Lisa, the lawyer,

Listened to that secretly
recorded phone call

Between tonya
and her childhood pal

And came away with
a different take than the d.A.

- That was like jaw dropping.

- What do you hear
on that tape?

- A woman confiding
it took her a long time

To get the images
out of her head.

I heard her say
they made her sit in the van.

She also said that
she would never go to police.

- Did you believe tonya priest
when she came forward?

- I absolutely did.

I said, "we can't
let this go."

- Lisa called up her friend
john o'brien,

Then a reporter
with syracuse.Com.

- She says, uh, you know,
you've always told me

To call you when I have a--
a good case,

And I've got one.

- Lisa had a morsel that
intrigued the reporter.

- This was the first time
in 20 years

That anyone said
they knew anything

About what happened
to heidi allen.

- One of the early doors
the reporter knocked on

Was richard thibodeau's,

The brother who'd been accused
back when but acquitted.

- Oh, my god, finally!
It was unbelievable.

- Finally,
someone comes forward

To help my brother
get out of prison.

- I just said, you know, if
you have anything

That might help here,
I mean, let me know.

He said, "well, I do have
these seven boxes

Of documents in my garage."
- holy cow!

He's got the whole thing.
- Gathering dust.

I said we'd absolutely like
to see those right away.

- For two decades,
richard had kept

Every scrap of paper
related to his trial.

Was there something
buried in there

That the other lawyers
had missed?

Something that might
help his brother?

For lisa and the reporter,

Eagerly digging
through those boxes

Was like opening
presents at christmas.

- And I thought,
what is this stuff?

The whole thing was
so bizarre to me.

- There was something
buried in the box,

Something forgotten
that almost glowed

It turned out to be
so important for their quest.

What they fished out
was an internal memo

From the oswego county
sheriff's office

That put heidi allen
in a whole new light.

She wasn't just
the bright-faced,

Smart girl
selling Sunday papers.

It turned out she had
a secret arrangement

With local law enforcement.

- Heidi allen was
a confidential informant.

- Telling us who's selling acid
on school grounds,

Who's doing dope?
- Right.

- She'd been issued
a 3x5 informant index card.

It had her name,
fingerprints,

Even a secret squirrel
informant alias.

- It had a code name,
"julia roberts."

It had all of her personal
information on this card.

- Saying this woman,
code name julia roberts...

- Yep.
- Is a drug informant?

- For the county
sheriff's office?

- Yes! Yeah.

I was thinking how did this
not come out during the trial?

- The discovery of heidi's
informant status

Offered up whole new theories
about her disappearance.

- That certainly would have
opened up the field

To many other possible suspects
with motive to harm her.

- It turns out thumper
had said as much to tonya.

- He said that
that's what happens to rats.

Um, she was a rat,

She was going to turn
some big, big guys in.

And that's why they did it.

- As thumper tells it,
she's a snitch.

- She's a snitch.

- Lisa peebles
immediately got on

With gary thibodeau's
trial attorney

From 1995, joe fahey.

He says back when,
he did hear rumblings that

Heidi might have been working
with the sheriff's office,

But was told there was no file
and it simply wasn't true.

- I-I didn't know anything
about the card,

I didn't know anything
about the "julia roberts."

- So, who did know?

As it turns out,

Heidi allen's I.D. Card
wasn't locked away

In a sheriff's filing cabinet
somewhere.

A deputy actually carried it
around with him.

And one day, two years
before she disappeared,

He lost it,

Dropped it in the parking lot
of the d&w convenience store

Where heidi would one day
become a cashier.

The I.D.
Was later found.

- It's essentially like outing
an undercover officer

Or a protected witness.

- Yes. Yes.

The idea that it's out there,
that they believe

She's an informant,
is a problem.

- What was important
for lisa peebles

About the discovery
of the heidi identity card

Was that even though it was
in the brother's case file,

It had apparently
never been given

To gary thibodeau's
defense team.

She argued that was something
called a brady violation.

Prosecutors are required
to turn over any evidence

That might help
the defense.

Lisa filed a motion to have
gary's conviction thrown out

And john o'brien
broke news,

Writing the first of many
heidi stories to come.

- It just took off,
and people are devouring it.

- A rock had been
kicked over.

The reporter was now getting
hundreds of tips and leads.

He even tracked down
one of the jailhouse informants

From the trial,
robert baldasaro,

And recorded
the interview.

The man's story
had changed somewhat.

- And a coworker
of heidi's said,

In a sworn statement,

That shortly before
heidi went missing,

She'd been afraid

Because the sheriff's
department wanted her

To nail people
for dealing coke.

But heidi's sister lisa
was having nothing to do

With the new theories.

- Do you believe that
the conviction

Of one of those brothers
explains everything,

Or do you think there's
more to be told?

- This means that we trust
our law enforcement

And we trust our d.A.

- You had confidence in
their professionalism then.

- 100%.
- And you do-and you do now,

I think you're saying?
- Of course, we do.

- The judge, looking at
the new evidence,

Decided to hold
a hearing.

- You're saying to the court
there's new evidence,

Give him a new trial
or cut him loose?

- Yes.

I think that there's been
a huge injustice

And it's been
a huge mistake.

- Are you in
a better place now?

- I feel relieved.
I finally got somewhere.

- But all of the fervent
interest outside the walls

Over the fate
of gary thibodeau

Seemed to wash right over
the man himself.

- Can you imagine life
on the outside now?

- No. No, I-- no.

I'd like to go fishing
with a can of beer.

Yeah, that would be nice.

Sitting on the bank fishing,
having a can of beer.

- The question that
provoked this response.

- Are you out of your
ever-loving mind?

- Is heidi...?
- Why in god's name

Would we ever do
something like that? Why?

- When "dateline: Secrets
uncovered" continues.

In January 2015,

A judge granted a hearing
in the matter

Of gary thibodeau,
the man convicted

Of kidnapping
heidi allen in 1994.

His brother
richard thibodeau

Was also in the court
with his family.

Heidi's family was there
but not expecting much.

- There's nothing new today.
It's just sensationalized.

- The narrow issue
with his hearing

Was whether or not
prosecutors years ago

Unfairly and illegally
failed to turn over

A key document to the defense,
that I.D. Card of sorts,

Indicating that heidi
had been recruited

As a teenage sheriff's
drug informant.

District attorney
greg oakes

Argued that the state had,
in fact, turned over

The confidential informant
records before trial.

- They did receive
this information.

They did know about this.

- But beyond the issue

Of who saw what
discovery evidence when

Was another layer.

The prosecutor said
it didn't really matter.

- Really, your activity
was limited to giving

Some high school information
to the deputy.

- There was not
a contemporaneous investigation

About to do down.

- Around the time
of her disappearance,

No investigation that
she was involved with.

- So, if heidi wasn't
naming names

And turning in
drug dealers,

Then, the prosecution argued,
there was no foundation

For this new theory that
bad guys had killed her

In revenge
for being a snitch.

Reuel todd,
by then the sheriff,

Vehemently denied
the defense innuendo

That the deputies were
somehow responsible

For getting
heidi killed.

- Did you guys carelessly
bust her identity, sheriff?

- Are you out of your
ever-loving mind?

- Is heidi...
- Why in god's name

Would we ever do
something like that

And jeopardize a girl's life
or career or anything? Why?

- Accidentally.
You know, this resulted

In the girl
being vulnerable.

- How did she
become vulnerable?

- The sheriff said, yes,

Her I.D. Card was dropped
in a parking lot

But was returned
to the office right away.

Only the store owner
saw it.

But something else was
going on in the hearing.

Lisa,
the defense attorney,

Was also acting a little
like a prosecutor.

She was about
to introduce evidence

About those three men
identified

As the so-called
abductors and killers.

- All I have to do is say,

Hey, there's
this new evidence,

And had it been available,
it would have created

A reasonable doubt
for a jury to acquit him.

- The attorney called other
witnesses who, like tonya,

Had heard stories about
these three men killing heidi

And disposing
of her body.

- And that girl
from the phone call,

Jennifer wescott,
she changed her story again

Telling authorities on tape that
she did know what happened.

- And then
the men themselves.

First, there was thumper,
real name james steen,

Doing life for murder.

- I have nothing
I can tell you, ma'am,

About-- that'll save
that man over there.

Nothing.

- He claimed not to know
about heidi's abduction.

Nor did potential suspect
number two,

His buddy
roger breckenridge,

Another guy
with a record.

And then there was the third
guy from tonya's story.

His name was
michael bohrer.

He lived a mile
from the convenience store

And had heidi
make him a sandwich

Most days she was working.

What made bohrer stand out
among the three

Was his admitted obsession
with the heidi allen case.

He had told investigators
as much months earlier.

- Turns out he had a shoebox
full of old news clippings

He'd kept for two decades.

In court, bohrer's testimony
was not videoed,

But he admitted years back
he'd been a drug dealer.

And he became
very emotional.

- He started crying
when it came to questions

Concerning his obsession
with the case.

And he kept driving by the sign
that says "where is heidi?"

And he thought about her
six times a day.

- Strange.

And remember that profile
drawn up by the fbi agent

Clint van zandt,
the contributor to msnbc?

Back then
he had predicted

Heidi had been
killed by someone

Who would later appear to be
obsessed with the case.

- It's going to be someone
who knew the victim.

It's somebody who will follow
this crime very closely,

Who will gather newspaper
clippings, articles.

- And there was something else
the fbi profiler had predicted.

- What I suggested was
this is so bold;

They're going to have
other type of offenses

In their background.

You may see stalking;

You may see other type
of kidnappings.

- Holy cow, he just profiled
michael bohrer.

- The attorney tracked down
this woman, katherine schmidt,

Who says she was
attacked by bohrer

Years before
heidi's abduction.

She told us he tried
to push her into a car.

- He had me
in a choke hold

And was dragging me backwards
with his hand over my mouth.

And, I mean,
I couldn't breathe.

- She managed to run away
with minor injuries.

Bohrer pleaded guilty to
unlawful imprisonment.

But the judge wouldn't allow
katherine schmidt

To testify at this hearing,

Ruling her story about
michael bohrer was not relevant.

- He is absolutely
very curious.

I think he's
mentally unstable.

- Or he knows
what happened to heidi

And he feels remorse
all these years later.

- I don't believe
that's the case.

- So, the judge took it all
under consideration,

Dismissed the hearing,

And said he'd have
a ruling in due time

On whether thibodeau
should get a new trial.

Weeks went by, then months.

- It's given me
a reason to live now.

- And when it finally came,

The ruling was dropped
with little fanfare,

Just an entry
in the docket.

The judge ruled first,

There had been no so-called
brady violation,

No proof that the state
did not handle the documents

Related to heidi's
drug informant status.

And he agreed
with the d.A.

That it wasn't legally
relevant anyway.

- It's all speculation,
it's irrelevant,

It's hearsay.

- And as for those alternative
suspects put on by the defense,

Interesting,
but in his opinion,

Too speculative
and remote to warrant

Overturning
the jury's verdict.

None of the three
has been charged

With anything related
to the heidi allen case.

- I can't let it go.

And I won't let it go.

- Lisa peebles,
and most of all gary thibodeau

And his family
lost that day.

- As long as gary is alive,

I'm just going to keep on
fighting for him.

- Like I said, I think...

- And she did.

In August 2017,
new york state's highest court

Agreed to one more review
of the case.

- I hope gary lives
to see the day.

- But in June 2018,
the court of appeals

Rejected thibodeau's request
for a new trial.

His lawyer petitioned
the court to reconsider.

Gary thibodeau was
awaiting the decision

When on August 12, 2018,
he died in prison.

His decades-old battle
to clear his name

Had finally come
to an end.

Now, all these years later,
the two families,

The thibodeaus
and the allens,

Are left with
the same questions.

What did happen to heidi?

And will we ever find
a shallow grave?

- I think eventually--

Eventually someone's
got to talk.

- Eventually
it's going to happen.

Someone is going
to say something.

- I might not know
on this side of heaven;

I might have to wait.

But I will die trying
and fighting for her.

- She went to work early on
an easter Sunday morning

And was never seen again.

- That's all
for this edition

Of "dateline:
Secrets uncovered".

I'm craig melvin,
thank you for watching.