Original subtitles

17 -year -old waitress Shannon Ferris is home from work at her usual time.

Dad. The dead of night.

I told you, you don't have to wait up for me.

She had worked in a restaurant.

She waited tables. It was a long, tiring night. How was work?

Had some pretty big tippers.

Oh. But I'm beat.

Good night.

Good night. I love you. I love you, too.

As she's about to settle in for the night, Shannon gets a strange

feeling.

But it's probably just exhaustion.

She went to bed. She fell asleep.

But sometime in that middle of the night, she is sort of aware of something

happening to her, sort of a hazy, druggy feeling.

She has this incredible chemical smell going through her nostrils, just filling

her nose.

She fights really

hard to rise out of whatever stupor she's in. She fights her way to

consciousness, at least enough to bite a finger.

Of the hand that is holding this cloth at her face.

Shannon? Oh, my God. What happened?

There's a man in my room. No.

He left.

Are you hurt?

I don't know.

She appears to be covered in blood.

What's happening to me?

I'm going to get the police.

Turns out she actually has some red dye on her that apparently came from the red

rag that was used to anesthetize her.

Can you describe him at all? Did he have a tattoo?

Any little detail would help.

Detective, Pawn is outside.

That red cloth was actually part of a Tibetan prayer flag that had been

outside the house.

The dye from that had bled onto her clothes.

What are we dealing with here, a rapist?

A kidnapper.

We're a murderer.

After Shannon's attacker disappears into the night, he strikes again on the

University of New Mexico campus.

Tricia Lattance is asleep, but suddenly she regains some sort of consciousness

and realizes she's being raped.

It's a frightening thought to think that you are helpless in your bed and you

are not coherent enough to fight back.

She did try to regain that consciousness, but when she...

finally did, the masked man was gone.

Tricia cannot remember her attacker's face or anything else about him.

A detective named Rich Lewis from the Albuquerque Police Department started

really investigating the case. He started putting things together.

He must have come through the window, sat in a chair, checked out

his prey.

Detective, there are no fingerprints, but the rapist has left

something even better.

His DNA.

Okay, ladies and gentlemen, we got some work this evening.

I've got these cold case files here.

Now, what we know and what we have.

Detective Lewis realizes Albuquerque may have a serial rapist on the rampage, a

man guilty of more than a half dozen sexual crimes.

He started looking at similar cases that were occurring in the city of

Albuquerque. Almost all victims are students.

The women who were being raped or assaulted were living around the

New Mexico area.

Detective Lewis forms a task force, and over the next three years,

they examine every assault case in the area.

He would look in windows. Was there a young woman living there? Is there

else living with her?

He had glass cutters he used sometimes.

It happened in the middle of the night when someone's in bed in the safety of

their home when they anticipate sleeping and being secure.

And they're woken up and they're violated in the worst way.

Despite an exhaustive investigation, officers are unable to find the man

ravaging their town.

It's terrifying when you identify a serial criminal who is wreaking havoc on

community and we don't know who this person is and we don't know how.

Stop it.

And every night when you go to bed, I mean, women were thinking they could be

potential victim.

Class was really confusing today.

I, like, didn't understand the lecture at all.

No, nothing he talked about was actually in the textbook.

Like the worst professor we have.

I'm so over that class.

Mm -hmm.

Oh, my God, right?

I don't know. Whatever. We'll deal with it tomorrow.

Okay, I'm exhausted. I'm going to go to bed.

Yeah, I'll talk to you later.

Mm -hmm.

Police may not know his identity.

But he does have a nickname.

The reason he gets the name Etherman is because he was known for using some sort

of chemical in a rag or a cloth of some sort that he would apply to a woman's

face.

She'd be rendered unconscious, and he would then do whatever it was he was

to do, whether that be raping her, whether that be cutting her nightgown,

positioning her in odd ways.

Just a lot of strange and bizarre and sadistic, frankly, behavior.

By the time the woman started coming to, almost always he was gone.

None of the victims can give police a description.

They only have his DNA, but it doesn't match anyone in the FBI's database.

So what that tells police is whoever this person is has not been arrested and

therefore has not had to give a DNA sample. So it's a brand new person out

that has no record at all.

So the ether man keeps preying on women.

One evening, I had worked all day. I was exhausted.

Everyone else had gone out, and I had stayed home. So I was home alone. I was

reading, and I just had a very strange feeling.

And I have no idea why I had that feeling, but I just had a feeling that

was watching me.

So I approached my window, and I pulled back the blinds.

And there stood a man.

Mandra Ryan, a 20 -year -old University of New Mexico junior.

Get the hell out of here!

You sick creep!

Just got the shock of her life when she comes face to face with a man lurking in

her backyard.

And there's a man at my window.

I think...

He scared me, I scared him. He fell down to the ground, kind of in fetal

position, and I looked down at him and yelled at him that he needed to leave

premises. You're just hoping that the worst of the worst thoughts that you're

having don't actually come to fruition.

The police came.

They started to look at the backyard, and they started to look at the

He had unscrewed the sensor lights to get into the backyard.

He would hop the fence. He would set up a cinder block outside my window, and he

would watch me.

I want some shoe impressions here.

Got it.

Lewis is sure this was the ether man.

Unfortunately, Mandra can't describe him in any detail.

But another victim can.

She was a victim of an attempted assault.

And she was asked whether or not she thought she could identify this

because she had an opportunity to see his face.

And she worked with a sketch artist to develop a composite sketch.

He's a white male in his 30s, but he seems to have no distinctive marks or

features.

When you look at the picture, it could be anyone. That adds to the chilling

aspect because, you know, walking on the street, it could be anybody.

Worse, the investigation is facing an unforgiving deadline.

We've got to figure this out.

Statutes of limitation are almost up.

By 2000, we had 11 victims.

I've got this evidence here, just building up.

In New Mexico, you can't charge someone for a crime if a certain period of time

has expired.

For second -degree felonies, our statute of limitations is six years.

I've got an idea. It's a long shot.

But if I can get a judge on board, I think we might have a chance.

The district attorney's office said, we do not want to lose the opportunity to

get this guy once we figure out who he is. What are we going to do? What do you

think if we indict his DNA?

Has it been done before?

A completely unprecedented idea, here in New Mexico at least.

They decided that they were going to indict the DNA profile.

I think it's our best shot.

Let's go for it.

So here in New Mexico, John Doe was indicted on 44 counts.

Still, the indictment does nothing to stop the ether man's rampage.

Boys,

brush your teeth. I'll be up in 10 minutes.

I was

the single mother, kind of like overwhelmed with, you know, the

struggle with trying to work full time and then having my two kids being so

little. Joy Lynn Martinez is recently divorced.

She and her two young boys are living on their own for the first time in their

lives.

Joy Lynn's best friend Maureen is concerned that she's getting into a rut

frazzled single mother with no social life.

No. So this one night, you know, I felt bad, and so I thought, you know, well,

let's go out. So I was like, Joy, let's just go. I'm calling a babysitter. No.

And you're coming with me. No, I am not.

Yeah. That's terrible.

Drink, ladies?

Yes. Yeah. I think I'm going to do a Jack and a Coke.

He totally just checked you out.

Don't look. He's looking. He's so cute.

He is cute.

I had noticed Howard. He was across from where we were sitting and thought he

was very good looking.

Should I go talk to him? No. You need lessons. No.

Don't look. He's coming. How do I look? You look good. Excuse me.

I'm sorry.

You're so beautiful. I forgot my pick -up line.

Oh, my God. He needs lessons, too.

Howard kept telling Joy, you know, how beautiful she was and she was very, you

know, pretty and he was happy that he had ended up there.

Nice to meet you.

Nice to meet you too.

It was just, you know, casual, just a hi, how are you type. He bought us all

drinks and stuff when we started, you know, talking. I even went out and

with him. No, this is my first time here.

Can I ask you a question?

Yeah.

What are you doing tomorrow night?

I have two boys, so giving them baths.

How would you feel if I took the three of you out tomorrow night?

Really?

Yeah.

That sounds great.

Okay.

On our first date, we went to a country bar and danced.

Howard Bruce, a divorced father of three, is quite a catch.

He has a good job in computer sales.

He travels the country for business.

And he's generous to a fault.

He even went to the extent, because he knew I was struggling to support my

that he paid some of my bills without me even knowing.

He was like Prince Charming.

Howard may be a catch.

But unfortunately, Joy Lynn may not be the woman to land him.

Don't fall in love with me, because I won't be here long.

What do you mean?

I don't understand what you're saying.

My kids.

He was in the process of moving to Colorado to be closer to his kids. Joy

In 2002, Howard moves to Pueblo, Colorado.

He can't stay away for long.

We both agreed that we would try the long -distance relationship.

He would come back every other weekend. Sometimes it was every weekend.

You know, it was flattering that he would travel that distance to be with

Baby!

Get ready for the best weekend of your life. What is this?

As they get more serious... Wow, these are beautiful.

Mm -hmm.

Howard surprises Joy Lynn with a romantic getaway.

And expensive.

What are these for?

Grown -up clothes for your grown -up vacation.

What are you talking about? What about the kids?

I've got a sitter.

One time, he bought me a whole new wardrobe. I mean, stock shoes, short

You, you are unbelievable.

I love you. I love you.

Want to know where we're going? Yeah. Too bad.

Come on. Howard was really romantic, very sweet and sincere.

Should we get a three, Phil? Sure.

Five months later, Howard takes one of the biggest steps of his life.

Hey. Hey.

I never thought that I would ever want to get married again.

He got down on his knee and he proposed.

Told me he wanted to take care of me and my kids.

I was through the moon. I was so happy for her because she really, she was

truly, she was ecstatic. She was excited to have that.

It's perfect.

It was a very good time for her in her life.

Howard and Joy Lynn marry in a private ceremony on the Big Island of Hawaii in

September 2003.

Pretty much had the dream wedding with him.

I would love to go to Hawaii for our one -year anniversary.

You should. You only did one island.

Hey, babe.

Married life takes some getting used to.

She can't move to Pueblo until the end of the school year, so Howard checks in

with her all the time.

I will be safe.

You worry way too much. I would give him a hard time. Did you not believe I was

going to go do this or I was out with some guy?

He would joke about it and laugh.

Love you.

Howard has reason to worry about Joy Lynn.

There have been more violent rapes.

It seems the ether man.

is expanding his hunting ground.

Joy Lynn Martinez has found the man of her dreams in Howard Bruce.

And until she can join him in Pueblo, Colorado, she and her two young sons are

alone in Albuquerque.

The same place where a serial rapist had attacked dozens of women.

Now, more sexual assaults with a similar M .O. are popping up in the neighboring

states of Texas and Oklahoma.

How is she?

She had a pretty rough night.

Detective Jim Parks works violent crimes in and around the University of

Oklahoma.

I'm so sorry.

I arrive at the scene. There's two or three patrol officers there.

It was horrible.

I woke up and I saw that my hands were handcuffed to the

collar around my neck.

And then I looked and he was standing over me. I found out my victim had gone

sleep.

She doesn't know how long she had been asleep.

But she woke up and she realized that this individual was putting a sock or

stocking or something on her.

And she realized that she was being attacked.

She just summoned up all of her courage and ran to the bathroom. She realized

that her hands were handcuffed and clipped to a dog collar that had been

around her neck.

And she heard a bunch of movement out in the other room and heard the subject

running down the stairs.

That's when I called the police.

What am I going to tell my parents?

There was a boogeyman, nameless, faithless

boogeyman out on the loose. It could be anybody.

By 2004, the unknown assailant has struck six more times.

Detectives in Oklahoma, Texas, and New Mexico start realizing that they may be

looking at the same suspect.

We agreed to all meet and just kind of roundtable what everybody had,

hoping that one of my compadres in Austin or Albuquerque have some luck

up with a good suspect.

We have his sketch, we have his profile, and we have his DNA. Now all we need to

do is find the ether man.

These rapes are happening in university towns.

So they start thinking, is this a student that transferred?

Is this a professor?

Is this someone that is some way connected with the college?

Detective Parks has a psychologist create a behavioral profile of the ether

She basically told me that he was...

Probably a middle -aged white male, fairly well -educated, probably held a

job. He's not going to get away with it.

Babe, I'm home.

How was your day?

Long. Yeah? Very. A year after their wedding, Joy Lynn and her boys have

moved in with her husband in Pueblo, Colorado.

He was always in a good mood and said he was happy to be home and, you know,

anywhere he traveled, he would bring all of his gifts. I thought Jack could use

this. He's got his tryouts next week.

Oh, he's going to love it.

Listen, I love that you care about the boys so much, but I could use some

clothes for work and maybe a little money for makeup. Baby, you're perfect

way you are. You don't need anything.

Okay. Yeah, it was very weird. If I needed anything, like my hair dryer

he wouldn't go buy me a new hair dryer.

He would tell me I didn't need makeup.

What about the schooling that you said you'd help pay for?

When I first got there, it was like, oh, well, I just started this new job. I've

got to get settled first, and then we'll enroll you next semester.

And, you know, it was always next semester, next semester with him.

We'll talk about this later.

Without much support, Joy Lynn is left to manage family affairs.

As I'm going through this box of stuff that he had, I found a list of girls'

names.

My first thought when I saw these was that he was cheating on me.

There was even one girl that I called because he had her name with a little

on it.

Hi, is this Eva?

Do you know my husband?

Howard? I called her up and asked her how she knew my husband.

Are you seeing him?

She just said, I don't know him, and I'm not going to talk to you, don't bother

me. And she hung up on me, so to me that was like, yeah, he's cheating on me.

Babe, I'm home.

That's an old lift.

When I confronted him on the lift, Finally, he was just like, Joy, that's

long time ago when I was married to my ex.

That stuff that you found was from my office, and I didn't even know what was

there.

Hey, I love you. Why would I ever do anything to jeopardize what we have?

Look at me.

You have to believe me.

I'm like the only one who's been divorced in my family, so, you know, I

want to be twice divorced.

I believe that he did love me.

Although they've patched things up, Howard's still on the road more than

home.

So one week when he's gone, Joy Lynn decides to visit her family back in

Albuquerque.

My kids had been in a play, and my parents weren't able to come up and see

perform.

I wanted to bring that tape so everybody could see it, and I went through his

camera bag, and he had all these tapes in there, and none of them were marked.

So I'm putting them in to watch him to find the tape I want, and I came across

tape of me.

Joy Lynn has just discovered a horrifying video in her husband's camera

At first I didn't realize what it was. I knew it was my room.

And then as I watched it a little bit more, I was passed out in the tape. I

no memory of it.

It's a videotape of him raping me.

It was shock. It was anger. It was pain.

I mean, my head was just, like, spinning.

I couldn't believe, you know, what he was doing to me. I even got sick.

I mean, I was in the bathroom throwing up because I got so upset over it.

Maureen, he was having sex with me on these tapes, and I didn't even know it.

Passed out lying there on my own.

Husband did things to me.

Joy called me, and she was very upset.

She couldn't figure out, why would he do this? Why would your husband, who loves

you and cares, why would you find a tape like this?

No, no, please don't come over.

I need to talk to him.

It was really hard knowing that I had trusted him and that he could do

like that to me.

What's that? Found your little sex tape.

What are you talking about?

I saw the tape.

First, you know, he was like, what are you talking about? And I'm like, you

what tape I'm talking about.

Did it turn you on?

You sick.

At that point, I physically got sick.

How could you?

I'm sorry.

I was drunk. I didn't even know what I was doing.

I had packed up most of the kids' stuff and moved back to Albuquerque.

I felt, you know, kind of like a failure because it was my second marriage and I

didn't want to go back and tell my parents I'm getting divorced again or

isn't working.

Over the next couple of years, Joy Lynn struggles to get by without Howard's

support.

But she's happy on her own.

I had started working.

That's when he started calling me and sending me flowers again and showing up

and stalking me.

Joy Lynn doesn't have the money to file for divorce.

But she's certain her future doesn't include Howard.

I used to do the puzzles in the paper.

And then I came across the article.

It starts dawning on her that this is a guy that has lived in the same places

at the same time that her husband lived there.

My body was going cold.

After that article, I was convinced that Howard was the Etherman.

Before Joy Lynn can contact police, she gets a call from Detective Mark Bravo

with the Pueblo PD.

He has some urgent news to discuss.

Mrs. Bruce, are you aware that your husband has been arrested for attempted

murder?

What?

Earlier that day, Pueblo police officer Nathan Pruce was preparing to leave his

house to testify in a peeping Tom case.

He'd noticed a propane cylinder with a hose running from the cylinder under the

garage door.

It was an obvious incendiary device.

Honey, get the kids out of the house!

It was apparent that whoever put it there thought that possibly the hot

heater or turning on the light switch would actually cause enough spark to

trigger an explosion.

Turns out... You're under arrest for the attempted murder of Officer Nathan

Pruce.

Detectives have a pretty good idea who tried to kill him.

In 2007, Robert Howard

Bruce was arrested by Officer Nate Pruce.

The victim stated that she could send somebody at her bedroom window and could

actually smell his breath. So she called the police.

The officers stopped Robert Howard Goose several blocks away from the address of

the victim.

In the state of Colorado, that's a sexual offense.

And if you're convicted of a sexual offense, you are obligated to provide a

sample.

Joy Lynn now knows why Howard doesn't want his DNA in the system.

I was reading about all those other girls.

My husband traveled to all those places. I think my husband is the ether man.

Are you aware that your husband has been arrested for attempted murder?

Howard Bruce's wife, Joy Lynn, has just dropped a bombshell on Pueblo, Colorado

detective Mark Bravo.

I think my husband is the ether man.

She just had this gut feeling that it could be her husband.

As soon as I confronted him, I grabbed the kids and I got out of town.

I knew she was telling the truth because she had nothing to gain and everything

to lose.

When Detective Bravo gets back to Pueblo, he heads right for Howard Bruce.

Hello, Howard.

How are you doing today?

Not so good, huh?

Open your mouth, please.

What's this all about?

I can do it myself if you'd like.

I said open your mouth.

I looked him in the eye and I told him, I said, I think you know.

You have a good day.

The Pueblo police send Howard's DNA to Albuquerque, where the city's crime lab

compares it to the Etherman's.

And it was a match. So we knew we had our ether match.

At that point, we knew we had him in Austin because of his profile. We knew

had him in Albuquerque because of his profile.

And we knew that there was a hit in Oklahoma because of his DNA profile.

And we knew that he was accused of crimes in Colorado.

So we knew that all of these individuals were one person, and that is Mr.

Brewer.

Police in Albuquerque officially changed the name on the John Doe indictment.

In November 2009, Howard Bruce is charged with 44 counts of sexual assault

dating back to the 1980s.

For Joy Lynn, it's a day she'll never forget.

I didn't want the kid to hear about it in the news or anything.

I had to explain what rape was to my youngest, and that was hard.

And I also had to tell my kids that, you know, he had raped me.

My youngest, you know, he just tugged me.

My oldest, he's real sensitive, and, you know, he cried with me.

Hey, guys, I need to talk to you about something.

Howard pleads guilty to over 40 charges in three states related to his sexual

assaults. As part of his plea deal, he must tell the authorities everything.

He admits he started out as a peeping Tom while studying at the University of

Oklahoma in the early 1980s.

That's where he started his window peeking activities.

And just as a progression.

The window peeking just doesn't do it for him anymore. He's got to move it up

the next level, which means entering in someone's house.

He also went into a lot of detail.

He told us about his first time when he actually went in, confronted the woman

when she was asleep in the bed, forced her arm up behind her back, had sex with

her, and left.

As they start to really unravel who Howard was, you know, I mean, it was

sickening.

After marrying Joy Lynn, Howard preys on women during business trips. He often

drives all night to Norman, Oklahoma to hunt in a familiar area.

Mr. Bruce was very obsessed with what he referred to as urban hunting. He would

stalk his victims, decide when to strike or not to strike.

He was completely obsessed and everything was very much second place to

activity.

For a period of time, he wore a mask.

He changed his method of cooperation from the victim. He would use chemicals.

He said it was always ether and that there were times he could not get his

on it and he wouldn't use any chemical.

Each time he would pull one of these.

his ego would inflate, his confidence level would increase, and he got the

feeling where he was invincible.

For more than 20 years, Bruce evaded police in four states.

He was the all -American guy, the super nice neighbor that you would call.

in the middle of the night because there's a prowler at your back door,

unbeknownst to you, it was probably him. But, you know, his luck ran out

finally.

Police call him the Ether Man. Bruce is accused of using a rag soaked in

chemicals to subdue his victims.

For trying to kill a Pueblo police officer here in Colorado, Pueblo police

Bruce raped a woman near Pueblo Community College. First, Howard faces

attempted murder, sexual assault, and burglary charges in Colorado.

Mr. Bruce received almost 100 years in prison. It was a major victory as far as

seeing him placed behind bars and knowing that he would not be able to

any other women.

Oklahoma follows, ensuring Bruce will never see the light of day.

We wound up with 10 cases and received 177 years in an

Oklahoma penitentiary.

Finally... New Mexico sentences Howard Bruce, a .k .a. the Ether Man, to

156 years.

I'm very happy with the sentences. He's one man that doesn't need to be out on

the streets.

I think I was his easiest victim.

I've been able to heal. I don't know if you ever completely move on.

I still have.

you know, the nightmares about him.

Howard was very much a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, but he kept it suppressed for

such a long time.

I mean, and to this day, it's amazing to me that you can be in the presence of

such evil people and not even know it.

Yeah, I went through hell, but I survived.

I'm here, and I'm not going to let them win.

And I want people to know that you can get through horrible stuff and be okay.

Bruce will die behind bars, but questions still remain.

Why rape women?

You could have done anything.

When we started to conclude the interview, we said to him, you know,

very intelligent guy.

You don't have a drug habit. You're well -educated.

You could have pursued your wildest dreams.

And he looked us in the eye and then just got this strange grin on his face

said, I did.