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It all started

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that January morning.

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When I arrived at the scene,

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it was very easy to see
the victim's body from the road.

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You could equate it
to looking at a mannequin.

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It... It was ghostly.

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There was a rope around her neck.

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It was obvious
that she was the victim of a homicide

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and probably a sex crime also.

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It was noticeable
that her jeans were down below her knees,

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and then, as I got really close...

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...I could see that a section of the jeans
in the fly area had been removed.

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That's the first time
I'd seen anything like that.

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Well, whoever did it
had to be a sick individual,

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because he wanted a...

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a souvenir of some sort.

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Unless you're extremely cold-blooded,
when you see something like that,

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it has some effect on you.

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If it doesn't,
in my opinion, you're not human.

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We're running now
on all cameras and sound.

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Here we go.

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This goes on TV, right?

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I grew up in a... a town
called Hamilton, Ohio.

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I started out studying business.

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Well, to be real honest with you, uh,

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in my second semester,

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I didn't do very well
in my business classes.

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I had other interests.

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And, uh...
...a lot of it involved partying.

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They started a program
in criminal justice,

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and I thought
that sounded kind of interesting,

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and so I changed majors.

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I started work
for the Multnomah County Sheriff's Office,

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in Portland, on June 23rd, 1969.

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And the next thing I knew,
I ended up in the Homicide, uh, section.

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You'll see headlines
in the paper or in the media,

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and they're always talking
about the suspects

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when the victim's the forgotten person.

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The police become that victim's voice.

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That morning, at the crime scene,

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the first big problem
was identifying the victim.

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There was no identification
on or about her person,

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in any of her pockets.

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We gotta find out who she is.

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We had no idea.

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So, a sketch was made
of the victim's face,

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and it was circulated to the news media.

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About a week
after the sketch had been released,

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I was contacted by a woman

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who informed me that she believed

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that the person depicted in the sketch

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was her daughter.

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I took a relative
to the medical examiner's office...

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where he identified the victim
as definitely being...

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...Taunja Bennett.

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Taunja Bennett was 23 years old

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and resided with her mother
in northeast Portland.

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Mrs. Bennett told me Taunja could be

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a wonderful, loving person
around her family.

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But she said Taunja liked the bar scene,
she liked to party.

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It wasn't unusual for Taunja
to meet someone in a bar

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and spend a night or two with him.

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What I gathered
from the interview with Mrs. Bennett

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was that Taunja was very naive,

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and she was
a potential target for violence.

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A few days later...

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...a phone call comes in
to the Detective's section

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of the Sheriff's Office.

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And it was a female who said
that the person who'd committed the crime

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was named John Sosnovske.

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I ran his name through the databases...

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...trying to spell it correctly.

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And finally got a hit.

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And found out
that John Sosnovske was on probation.

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So, I phoned his probation officer.

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He told me
he had also received a phone call

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from John Sosnovske's girlfriend,

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Laverne Pavlinac.

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Ms. Pavlinac told the probation officer...

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that she'd overheard John Sosnovske
telling someone in a bar

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that he had met Taunja Bennett.

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He said that he had picked her up,

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and he ended up murdering her

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and dumped her body up by Vista House
in the Columbia Gorge.

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Okay, now we've got something
to work with here.

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Myself and my partner drove
to Laverne's house.

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My first impression was
she was very cordial and very pleasant.

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A nice older lady.

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I asked her why it took her
a couple days to come forward.

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She said
that she was afraid of John Sosnovske.

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That he had abused her.

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She said that John was an alcoholic,

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and that John would become violent
at times during sex.

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And he had this strange habit
of tying knots into rope.

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Uh, she was in her late fifties,
uh, 58 or so.

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John was around 40 years of age.

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I just found it odd that she would,

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with the age difference and everything,

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that someone would put up
with a relationship of that nature.

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So, I asked Laverne what she was doing
on the night of January 21st,

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when Taunja was murdered.

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She explained that John asked her
to take him to JB's Lounge in Wilsonville.

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Laverne said he arrived home
around 1:30 or 2:00 a.m...

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...and immediately took a shower.

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And she found that to be unusual.

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The next morning, she noticed
that he had a bruise on his left hip,

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and he was complaining about his hands
and his wrists hurting him.

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She seemed to be telling the truth.

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So, we ask her if she would consent
to a search of her apartment.

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And she said yes, she would.

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We were hoping to find anything

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that may relate back
to John having known Taunja Bennett.

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As I began to search in the bedroom...

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I found an envelope
addressed to John Sosnovske.

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On the back, I found written...

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...the letter "T. Bennett,"

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with the notation "good piece."

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"P-I-E-C-E."

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At that point, it's looking pretty bad
for John Sosnovske.

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As we were preparing to leave,
John Sosnovske arrived home.

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We identified ourselves
as police officers,

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and... he was very cooperative.

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He volunteered to go with us

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and be interviewed.

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<i>I'd like to ask you,
do you know Taunja Ann Bennett?</i>

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<i>Not... not
to my recollection, sir.</i>

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<i>We have been to your apartment
and retrieved various things,</i>

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<i>one of them being a piece of paper</i>

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<i>with the name "T. Bennett."</i>

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<i>Is that your printing?</i>

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<i>I cannot answer that
in full honestness.</i>

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John Sosnovske
was being somewhat evasive.

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They were
pretty straightforward questions.

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Yes or no.

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<i>Okay,
then once again, I'll ask you,</i>

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<i>and this will be the final time I ask you.</i>

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<i>Do you have any knowledge
of the death of Taunja Bennett?</i>

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<i>No, sir.</i>

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Of course, I knew that
if he had done it, he would deny it.

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But we had no probable cause
to arrest him at that time,

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and he was released.

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I felt like I had this inner sense...

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...that was telling me,
"Don't jump to conclusions."

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"You've got to build the case
one way or the other."

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That's my job.

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And that was when Deputy DA Jim McIntyre
was assigned to the case.

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I think we're ready to roll.

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Okay, it's done.

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Can we just adjust Jim's tie
a little bit, please?

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Yeah, cool.

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Your generation
doesn't appreciate a half-Windsor.

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I know I haven't.

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His reputation was A-one.

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He was an ace, he was a charger,

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a go-getter.

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Very knowledgeable.

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On February 19th,
my boss walked into my office

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and told me that there had been
a body found at the end of January.

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He wanted me to get on it
to get the investigation moving.

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He viewed me as someone
who was a little bit reckless,

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um, a little bit over the edge,

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someone who would start directing people

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and pushing people around
to get things done in a certain way.

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I briefed him on the case and, uh,
the... the information I had obtained

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to that point.

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It struck me that they were

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floundering a bit in their investigation.

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It seemed as if they were stuck
and didn't know which way to go next.

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So, I made it clear
to Detective Ingram and his partner

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that they needed to get
some information and some evidence

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about whether or not
Sosnovske was involved.

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They needed to go back

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and put this together,

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or prove that it couldn't be put together,
and we had to move on.

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I still wasn't convinced

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that John Sosnovske
had any involvement in the case.

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But then I got a phone call from Laverne

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saying that she had found some items...

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...which she thought were...
would be of value to the police.

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She had placed these items
in a paper sack and stapled it shut.

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In the sack, I found... a purse.

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And upon opening the purse,

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I found the fly section

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from a pair of acid-washed jeans.

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I thought, "Okay, wait a minute here."

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"Is this really the fly section

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from Taunja Bennett's jeans?"

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I found it almost too good to be true.

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And it did set off some alarm bells.

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But, regardless,

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we had to interview John Sosnovske again.

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<i>I make the above statement
freely and voluntarily.</i>

193
00:13:46,283 --> 00:13:50,246
<i>I have been advised of my rights,
which I understand.</i>

194
00:13:56,418 --> 00:13:59,213
<i>I have seen T. Bennett at JB's truck stop</i>

195
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<i>on several occasions.</i>

196
00:14:02,633 --> 00:14:03,633
All right.

197
00:14:04,760 --> 00:14:08,764
Now he's claiming
that he had seen her at JB's Lounge.

198
00:14:09,807 --> 00:14:13,269
<i>The last time
was 21 January, 1990.</i>

199
00:14:14,144 --> 00:14:16,814
<i>I was visiting with Chuck,
who was playing darts.</i>

200
00:14:17,773 --> 00:14:22,444
<i>Later on in the evening, Chuck left,
and T. Bennett left shortly after.</i>

201
00:14:23,612 --> 00:14:25,197
Now you got John saying...

202
00:14:25,281 --> 00:14:28,450
"Well, yeah. Hey, I knew this girl."

203
00:14:28,951 --> 00:14:30,578
Why would he change his story?

204
00:14:31,620 --> 00:14:34,748
<i>I believe
she left to go to a motel room</i>

205
00:14:34,832 --> 00:14:36,667
<i>to have fun with Chuck.</i>

206
00:14:37,835 --> 00:14:40,963
<i>Later that evening, I saw Chuck
and asked him for a ride home.</i>

207
00:14:43,299 --> 00:14:46,176
<i>I believe I saw a body
in the back of the car.</i>

208
00:14:50,723 --> 00:14:55,769
The hackles on the back of my neck rise up
when I hear stuff like that.

209
00:14:59,189 --> 00:15:01,775
<i>I got into
the front passenger seat.</i>

210
00:15:03,861 --> 00:15:05,946
<i>The body was wrapped in a blanket.</i>

211
00:15:06,530 --> 00:15:09,533
<i>The body was one of a white female adult.</i>

212
00:15:11,368 --> 00:15:13,037
<i>During this ride home,</i>

213
00:15:14,121 --> 00:15:16,916
<i>the dead female
was in the back of his car.</i>

214
00:15:18,584 --> 00:15:20,336
"Oh, sure, just give me a ride home."

215
00:15:20,419 --> 00:15:22,296
"Oh, what's that?" "Oh, a dead woman."

216
00:15:22,379 --> 00:15:25,466
"Oh, no problem." Ahem.
"Just take me home and drop me off."

217
00:15:25,966 --> 00:15:26,966
"See you later."

218
00:15:28,636 --> 00:15:30,012
Come on, I ain't buyin' it.

219
00:15:30,971 --> 00:15:31,971
Uh-uh.

220
00:15:34,183 --> 00:15:37,728
John Sosnovske's statement
did nothing more than raise more red flags

221
00:15:37,811 --> 00:15:40,189
that he was probably involved.

222
00:15:41,690 --> 00:15:43,442
And why would this somebody

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00:15:44,735 --> 00:15:47,279
confess to being
in the presence of a dead body

224
00:15:48,030 --> 00:15:50,407
if they weren't
in the presence of a dead body?

225
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The next morning
when I came into work, my partner said

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00:15:57,373 --> 00:16:01,251
the results are back from the crime lab
with regards to the section of jeans...

227
00:16:01,335 --> 00:16:04,088
...that was, uh, found at Laverne's house.

228
00:16:07,257 --> 00:16:10,094
The jeans were not a match
to Taunja Bennett's.

229
00:16:13,555 --> 00:16:14,598
I mean, I don't...

230
00:16:15,683 --> 00:16:19,019
I'm befuddled. I'm thinking,
"What the hell?" "What's going on here?"

231
00:16:23,732 --> 00:16:25,526
I confronted her with the fact

232
00:16:25,609 --> 00:16:27,987
that the jeans
were indeed not Taunja Bennett's.

233
00:16:30,114 --> 00:16:32,908
And Laverne admitted
that she had planted them there.

234
00:16:35,411 --> 00:16:38,330
She said,
"I really wanted John Sosnovske caught."

235
00:16:38,872 --> 00:16:39,957
"I, uh..."

236
00:16:40,666 --> 00:16:42,918
"I was trying
to make it easy for the police."

237
00:16:46,046 --> 00:16:49,216
I was frustrated. I was disappointed.

238
00:16:50,968 --> 00:16:52,720
But I wanted to know the truth.

239
00:16:54,763 --> 00:16:56,640
So, we started again.

240
00:16:57,433 --> 00:16:58,475
<i>Okay.</i>

241
00:16:59,393 --> 00:17:04,565
<i>What happened during
the evening hours of January 21st, 1990?</i>

242
00:17:06,191 --> 00:17:07,526
<i>The phone rang.</i>

243
00:17:08,068 --> 00:17:10,696
<i>It was John Sosnovske calling</i>

244
00:17:11,780 --> 00:17:15,117
<i>to tell me he was in trouble
and to come fast.</i>

245
00:17:15,743 --> 00:17:19,163
<i>And to bring... bring something large
to wrap something in.</i>

246
00:17:20,247 --> 00:17:21,665
<i>What did you take with you</i>

247
00:17:21,749 --> 00:17:24,877
<i>when you went to see John
at the JandB Lounge?</i>

248
00:17:24,960 --> 00:17:26,795
<i>A blue shower curtain.</i>

249
00:17:27,963 --> 00:17:30,174
This was
a new version of the story.

250
00:17:33,969 --> 00:17:38,140
<i>When you arrive there,
Laverne, what did you find?</i>

251
00:17:40,851 --> 00:17:41,851
<i>A female.</i>

252
00:17:42,811 --> 00:17:46,398
<i>She was lying, uh, on her side,</i>

253
00:17:47,149 --> 00:17:49,359
<i>very prone, very quiet.</i>

254
00:17:50,402 --> 00:17:52,988
<i>And John Sosnovske came up to the window,</i>

255
00:17:53,072 --> 00:17:54,239
<i>and I asked...</i>

256
00:17:55,657 --> 00:17:56,825
<i>if she's sick.</i>

257
00:17:58,410 --> 00:18:00,412
<i>He says, "Worse than that, she's dead."</i>

258
00:18:04,625 --> 00:18:08,712
She said that John placed the body
into the shower curtain.

259
00:18:10,214 --> 00:18:12,216
At that point, he got into the vehicle,

260
00:18:12,299 --> 00:18:15,135
and she asked, "What do we do now?"

261
00:18:15,219 --> 00:18:17,096
And he said, "Just drive."

262
00:18:22,810 --> 00:18:23,810
<i>I said,</i>

263
00:18:24,353 --> 00:18:28,315
<i>"I think we need
to take her to a hospital."</i>

264
00:18:28,899 --> 00:18:30,526
<i>"We need to report this, John."</i>

265
00:18:31,360 --> 00:18:33,779
<i>He says, "No, no, I'll go to death row."</i>

266
00:18:34,446 --> 00:18:35,697
<i>"You will not do it,</i>

267
00:18:36,198 --> 00:18:38,450
<i>because I will kill you...</i>

268
00:18:40,410 --> 00:18:42,121
<i>and harm your family</i>

269
00:18:43,580 --> 00:18:44,790
<i>and your grandchildren."</i>

270
00:18:47,876 --> 00:18:51,296
I was starting to think that,
you know, this guy is really a monster.

271
00:18:52,381 --> 00:18:56,385
And I could understand
why she would be in extreme fear of him.

272
00:19:00,347 --> 00:19:04,434
<i>He opened the back door
on the passenger side</i>

273
00:19:05,435 --> 00:19:07,563
<i>and pulled her out.</i>

274
00:19:07,646 --> 00:19:10,065
<i>He went off into the woods...</i>

275
00:19:10,274 --> 00:19:13,360
<i>...and he was gone about 15 minutes.</i>

276
00:19:20,159 --> 00:19:21,869
I felt sorry for Laverne.

277
00:19:22,953 --> 00:19:26,707
She had gotten herself
into something way over her head,

278
00:19:27,374 --> 00:19:28,458
undeservingly.

279
00:19:29,585 --> 00:19:34,006
You know,
I had, uh, some feelings, emotionally.

280
00:19:35,883 --> 00:19:37,843
With what we had been told,

281
00:19:37,926 --> 00:19:40,888
we thought we had enough reason to believe

282
00:19:40,971 --> 00:19:45,559
that John Sosnovske murdered
Taunja Bennett,

283
00:19:45,642 --> 00:19:50,022
and, therefore, he was arrested
on the charge of aggravated murder.

284
00:19:56,069 --> 00:20:00,908
But I wanted to make sure
we had enough for a murder conviction.

285
00:20:03,202 --> 00:20:05,555
We had a conversation
with Ingram and his partner

286
00:20:05,579 --> 00:20:09,958
that, uh, they should take,
uh, Laverne up into the Gorge

287
00:20:10,042 --> 00:20:15,088
and see if they could bolster
her rendition of what happened.

288
00:20:22,971 --> 00:20:25,891
We asked
if she would be willing to accompany us

289
00:20:25,974 --> 00:20:29,019
to retrace the route that she had taken...

290
00:20:29,102 --> 00:20:30,437
...the night of the murder.

291
00:20:33,190 --> 00:20:37,903
We were anxious to see
whether or not she could show us

292
00:20:39,238 --> 00:20:42,950
where the body
had been placed by Sosnovske.

293
00:20:45,244 --> 00:20:49,915
So, we proceeded up
past Crown Point and Vista House...

294
00:20:51,333 --> 00:20:54,878
to the area
where the... the body had been dumped.

295
00:21:00,259 --> 00:21:03,845
We drove on past the area
where the body had been found.

296
00:21:06,431 --> 00:21:08,100
We kept on traveling eastbound.

297
00:21:12,312 --> 00:21:13,313
And then, suddenly...

298
00:21:15,899 --> 00:21:17,985
...she said, "Stop the car and turn around."

299
00:21:22,364 --> 00:21:23,490
Laverne said...

300
00:21:25,284 --> 00:21:27,077
"This gives me the creeps."

301
00:21:29,746 --> 00:21:31,623
And she pointed...

302
00:21:34,209 --> 00:21:35,877
almost directly...

303
00:21:35,961 --> 00:21:38,380
...to where that body had been located.

304
00:21:39,965 --> 00:21:42,843
It couldn't have been a distance
of more than ten feet off.

305
00:21:47,764 --> 00:21:48,764
My gosh.

306
00:21:49,808 --> 00:21:50,809
She's nailed this.

307
00:21:56,481 --> 00:21:59,276
Five days after John Sosnovske
was arrested,

308
00:21:59,359 --> 00:22:01,903
I receive a phone call
on my pager at 3:00 a.m.

309
00:22:05,490 --> 00:22:08,910
Laverne wanted to have a conversation
with me and my partner.

310
00:22:10,495 --> 00:22:12,331
Oh, crap.

311
00:22:12,414 --> 00:22:13,957
Where are we going now?

312
00:22:22,299 --> 00:22:26,094
<i>When you drove over
to JB's from your daughter's house</i>

313
00:22:26,178 --> 00:22:28,618
<i>and you pulled into the lot...</i>

314
00:22:28,680 --> 00:22:30,265
<i>...what did you see, if anything?</i>

315
00:22:33,643 --> 00:22:36,563
<i>Um, I seen John standing
with the young lady,</i>

316
00:22:38,106 --> 00:22:43,528
<i>and they appeared
to be arguing... in a... playing way.</i>

317
00:22:45,489 --> 00:22:46,656
Wait a minute, now.

318
00:22:47,240 --> 00:22:50,369
You've told us
this... this one... this one story

319
00:22:50,452 --> 00:22:54,623
where you said Taunja was dead
in the parking lot of JB's Lounge.

320
00:22:54,706 --> 00:22:58,418
Now you're saying
that she was alive when you got there.

321
00:22:58,502 --> 00:23:00,087
Now, see, listening to that

322
00:23:01,797 --> 00:23:03,799
makes me question the whole damn thing.

323
00:23:05,509 --> 00:23:08,387
<i>He said to her,
"Get in the car, it's cold."</i>

324
00:23:08,929 --> 00:23:11,056
<i>And as you
continue to drive,</i>

325
00:23:11,139 --> 00:23:13,975
<i>there was a point
that Taunja Bennett apparently agreed</i>

326
00:23:14,059 --> 00:23:15,227
<i>to have sex with John.</i>

327
00:23:15,310 --> 00:23:16,561
<i>Yes, she did.</i>

328
00:23:17,062 --> 00:23:18,855
So, I'm anticipating,

329
00:23:18,939 --> 00:23:22,776
I'm waiting to hear
where this is going to lead.

330
00:23:25,320 --> 00:23:27,823
<i>We arrived at Crown Point.
They got out of the car.</i>

331
00:23:27,906 --> 00:23:29,116
<i>I remained in the car.</i>

332
00:23:30,158 --> 00:23:32,994
<i>I understand
that a short period of time went by</i>,

333
00:23:33,078 --> 00:23:34,788
<i>and John came back to the car.</i>

334
00:23:34,871 --> 00:23:36,498
<i>- Is that true?
- That's true.</i>

335
00:23:36,581 --> 00:23:39,793
<i>He went to the trunk,
and there was rope in there.</i>

336
00:23:39,876 --> 00:23:41,962
<i>And he took the rope.</i>

337
00:23:42,045 --> 00:23:45,841
<i>I asked him, "Why do you need the rope?"
He says, "I'm gonna tie her up, it's...</i>

338
00:23:47,050 --> 00:23:48,677
<i>more of a thrill this way."</i>

339
00:23:48,760 --> 00:23:49,760
Damn.

340
00:23:51,138 --> 00:23:52,138
<i>So...</i>

341
00:23:53,098 --> 00:23:55,434
<i>at that point,
you walked with John to where Taunja was?</i>

342
00:23:59,271 --> 00:24:00,689
<i>Where did you see Taunja?</i>

343
00:24:00,772 --> 00:24:04,818
<i>She was laying in a doorway,
and she was laughing.</i>

344
00:24:07,863 --> 00:24:10,657
<i>He told me to take the rope...</i>

345
00:24:13,952 --> 00:24:14,952
<i>and, uh...</i>

346
00:24:16,204 --> 00:24:17,372
<i>put it around her neck.</i>

347
00:24:23,879 --> 00:24:25,839
How in the hell could this...

348
00:24:27,215 --> 00:24:29,301
older lady, this grandma...

349
00:24:31,720 --> 00:24:35,807
place a rope around a young lady's neck
and draw it tight?

350
00:24:38,560 --> 00:24:40,854
I'm having trouble processing that.

351
00:24:41,980 --> 00:24:45,650
<i>What happened then?
Did... Did John have sex with her?</i>

352
00:24:46,359 --> 00:24:47,359
<i>Yes.</i>

353
00:24:47,777 --> 00:24:50,405
<i>And I had my eyes shut...</i>

354
00:24:50,489 --> 00:24:53,700
<i>...because I knew what he was doing,
and I didn't wanna observe it.</i>

355
00:24:53,783 --> 00:24:55,785
<i>And he kept saying, "Hang on, hang on."</i>

356
00:24:57,204 --> 00:24:59,831
<i>I must have tightened it
as I was hanging on.</i>

357
00:25:00,540 --> 00:25:02,334
<i>He was hitting her in the face.</i>

358
00:25:02,417 --> 00:25:05,253
<i>- What was he hitting her with?
- His fists.</i>

359
00:25:06,963 --> 00:25:07,963
<i>And then...</i>

360
00:25:08,632 --> 00:25:10,383
<i>Then she became limp.</i>

361
00:25:17,474 --> 00:25:21,353
<i>Did you realize
that Taunja Bennett had expired?</i>

362
00:25:23,605 --> 00:25:24,605
<i>Yes.</i>

363
00:25:29,861 --> 00:25:33,823
You listen to her story,
the emotion in her voice and her tone,

364
00:25:33,907 --> 00:25:36,284
and just fact, bam, bam,

365
00:25:36,993 --> 00:25:38,828
and you're thinking, "God, this..."

366
00:25:38,912 --> 00:25:43,041
"Maybe this is... This is sounding
like it really happened this way."

367
00:25:46,253 --> 00:25:48,547
<i>Ms. Pavlinac,
let me ask you a question.</i>

368
00:25:49,047 --> 00:25:51,675
<i>Do you believe, sitting here today,</i>

369
00:25:51,758 --> 00:25:54,135
<i>that by pulling that rope tight,</i>

370
00:25:54,219 --> 00:25:57,180
<i>that you caused the death
of Taunja Ann Bennett?</i>

371
00:26:01,434 --> 00:26:02,434
<i>Yeah.</i>

372
00:26:05,230 --> 00:26:06,230
<i>You do?</i>

373
00:26:06,898 --> 00:26:09,067
<i>I... I feel like it's my fault.</i>

374
00:26:13,613 --> 00:26:17,659
I just couldn't... I couldn't...
I just... I couldn't believe it.

375
00:26:24,249 --> 00:26:26,501
And I knew right then that<i>,</i>

376
00:26:28,086 --> 00:26:31,047
at some point,
we were going to have to arrest her.

377
00:26:34,884 --> 00:26:37,387
But something was still bothering me.

378
00:26:42,601 --> 00:26:47,439
There must be a side of this woman
that I am missing very badly.

379
00:26:48,064 --> 00:26:51,318
I've either terribly misjudged her,

380
00:26:51,401 --> 00:26:54,613
you know,
as being this older, grandmotherly type...

381
00:26:58,158 --> 00:27:03,413
or, at some point,
she had to have some evil in her,

382
00:27:04,205 --> 00:27:06,458
which was a shock to me, you know.

383
00:27:10,462 --> 00:27:13,923
So, I had two thoughts in my head.
Is there a side of this woman I don't see?

384
00:27:14,966 --> 00:27:18,386
Or is it John Sosnovske
with this influence over her?

385
00:27:24,601 --> 00:27:28,188
I remember
Detective Ingram seeming exasperated,

386
00:27:28,271 --> 00:27:32,025
dropping his notebook on the table
and going, "You're not gonna believe it."

387
00:27:32,651 --> 00:27:37,530
And he then walked us
through Pavlinac's confession.

388
00:27:38,281 --> 00:27:39,908
At the end of that conversation,

389
00:27:39,991 --> 00:27:42,369
I looked at Det. Ingram
and said, "Where is she?"

390
00:27:42,452 --> 00:27:45,705
And I said, "Jim, we didn't arrest her."

391
00:27:46,956 --> 00:27:47,791
And he says to me...

392
00:27:47,874 --> 00:27:49,834
"Well, Jesus Christ, go get her."

393
00:27:49,918 --> 00:27:52,629
"Get her and arrest her
and put her in jail."

394
00:27:53,129 --> 00:27:56,091
"You've left the confessed murderer
sitting at home,

395
00:27:56,174 --> 00:27:59,302
drinking coffee and tea
with her daughter." Um...

396
00:27:59,386 --> 00:28:00,428
"You don't do that."

397
00:28:12,482 --> 00:28:15,360
Myself and my partner
drove out to Wilsonville,

398
00:28:15,443 --> 00:28:17,195
and we took Laverne into custody.

399
00:28:18,571 --> 00:28:21,449
Procedure requires me to handcuff Laverne

400
00:28:21,950 --> 00:28:24,327
prior to placing her
in the police vehicle.

401
00:28:25,203 --> 00:28:26,246
I didn't do that.

402
00:28:28,456 --> 00:28:31,626
I felt comfortable around Laverne.

403
00:28:33,586 --> 00:28:35,088
And I felt sorry for her.

404
00:28:35,171 --> 00:28:37,298
She had just talked herself...

405
00:28:40,135 --> 00:28:41,803
into a charge of murder.

406
00:28:48,435 --> 00:28:51,312
I remember Laverne turning around

407
00:28:51,396 --> 00:28:53,565
as I was escorting her
to the holding cell.

408
00:28:56,025 --> 00:28:58,403
And she looked in my eyes,
and she gave me a hug.

409
00:29:01,823 --> 00:29:04,784
I'd never had that happen before.
That's for sure.

410
00:29:05,910 --> 00:29:07,579
And I thought, "Wow."

411
00:29:09,622 --> 00:29:11,958
It just made me feel
like I was putting my mother

412
00:29:12,041 --> 00:29:14,753
or my grandmother into that holding cell.

413
00:29:17,422 --> 00:29:19,257
And it made me feel sad.

414
00:29:23,219 --> 00:29:24,219
Phew.

415
00:29:34,147 --> 00:29:35,565
I need a break for a minute.

416
00:29:56,795 --> 00:29:57,962
Suck it up, boy.

417
00:30:01,716 --> 00:30:04,844
Laverne Pavlinac
had those investigators charmed.

418
00:30:04,928 --> 00:30:06,471
Not only did she have them charmed,

419
00:30:06,554 --> 00:30:09,933
but she had control of them
without anybody realizing it.

420
00:30:12,977 --> 00:30:13,853
I think, at one point,

421
00:30:13,937 --> 00:30:16,773
that maybe he was slightly
the victim of a Stockholm Syndrome.

422
00:30:18,107 --> 00:30:19,192
From my perspective,

423
00:30:19,275 --> 00:30:23,404
I had sympathy or empathy for her,
for the position that she had been in,

424
00:30:23,488 --> 00:30:27,158
but it still did not negate the fact
that she had killed Taunja Bennett.

425
00:30:39,212 --> 00:30:41,005
As we were getting ready for the trial,

426
00:30:41,089 --> 00:30:42,507
Laverne was now contending

427
00:30:42,590 --> 00:30:47,095
that her confession
was basically a fabrication and a lie.

428
00:30:51,057 --> 00:30:53,268
And that she had done all this

429
00:30:53,351 --> 00:30:57,355
solely for the basis
of getting John Sosnovske arrested

430
00:30:57,438 --> 00:30:58,648
and out of her life.

431
00:30:59,315 --> 00:31:01,860
The fact that Pavlinac wanted
to recant her confession

432
00:31:01,943 --> 00:31:03,194
was not surprising at all.

433
00:31:07,240 --> 00:31:09,784
So, just prior
to the trial beginning...

434
00:31:09,868 --> 00:31:11,588
...I went down

435
00:31:11,619 --> 00:31:12,996
to the District Attorney's office

436
00:31:14,038 --> 00:31:15,665
and I said, "You know,

437
00:31:15,748 --> 00:31:18,042
there's something bothering me
about this case."

438
00:31:18,835 --> 00:31:22,338
Jim says, "Well, what's the matter?
Don't you believe they're guilty?"

439
00:31:23,464 --> 00:31:25,884
And I said, "There's something
in the back of my mind

440
00:31:25,967 --> 00:31:28,720
that keeps telling me
that we've missed something here."

441
00:31:29,387 --> 00:31:31,472
He was trying his best
to reassure me that,

442
00:31:31,556 --> 00:31:34,642
"Hey, based on those facts,
you know, it's... it's there."

443
00:31:34,726 --> 00:31:35,643
"What's wrong?"

444
00:31:43,776 --> 00:31:47,155
The trial was moving along just fine.

445
00:31:47,238 --> 00:31:49,324
I mean, there had been no... no hiccups.

446
00:31:51,075 --> 00:31:52,493
During the closing arguments,

447
00:31:52,577 --> 00:31:54,537
Ms. Pavlinac's attorney
was trying to argue

448
00:31:54,621 --> 00:31:57,916
all of the reasons
why she would make up the confession

449
00:31:57,999 --> 00:32:00,001
and why she would be so desperate

450
00:32:00,084 --> 00:32:03,212
to get Sosnovske removed
from her family and from her life.

451
00:32:04,839 --> 00:32:06,090
My closing argument,

452
00:32:06,674 --> 00:32:08,009
I didn't say anything.

453
00:32:09,177 --> 00:32:10,386
I simply got up,

454
00:32:10,470 --> 00:32:13,431
walked over to the table
where I had laid out a tape recorder,

455
00:32:13,514 --> 00:32:16,809
and I let that tape play
for the length of her confession.

456
00:32:19,896 --> 00:32:21,856
<i>Ms. Pavlinac,
let me ask you a question.</i>

457
00:32:22,649 --> 00:32:27,153
<i>Do you believe that,
by pulling that rope tight,</i>

458
00:32:27,236 --> 00:32:30,448
<i>that you caused the death
of Taunja Ann Bennett?</i>

459
00:32:31,324 --> 00:32:32,324
<i>Yeah.</i>

460
00:32:32,742 --> 00:32:35,703
- <i>You do?
- I... I... I feel like it's my fault.</i>

461
00:32:41,668 --> 00:32:42,668
Um...

462
00:32:45,171 --> 00:32:47,090
And, you know, that... And that was it.

463
00:32:50,593 --> 00:32:54,722
Laverne Pavlinac was convicted
by a jury of 12 for felony murder.

464
00:32:56,265 --> 00:32:59,435
After that,
Mr. Sosnovske entered a plea of no contest

465
00:32:59,519 --> 00:33:00,979
to the murder of Taunja Bennett.

466
00:33:04,232 --> 00:33:06,317
Every murder case I ever handled,

467
00:33:06,401 --> 00:33:09,195
there was more
a kind of a feeling of sadness

468
00:33:09,278 --> 00:33:10,822
than success.

469
00:33:13,324 --> 00:33:15,952
But at least there was some closure

470
00:33:16,703 --> 00:33:18,121
for Taunja Bennett's family.

471
00:33:42,228 --> 00:33:43,521
Want me to read everything?

472
00:33:51,446 --> 00:33:52,989
"I killed Ms. Bennett."

473
00:33:54,782 --> 00:33:57,285
"I cut the buttons off her jeans."

474
00:33:58,286 --> 00:34:02,123
"I left her facing downhill
and her jeans down by her ankles."

475
00:34:06,544 --> 00:34:07,795
Now, three years later...

476
00:34:09,213 --> 00:34:12,508
letters started to surface
that were written by an individual

477
00:34:12,592 --> 00:34:15,178
claiming responsibility
for Taunja Bennett's murder.

478
00:34:15,970 --> 00:34:17,805
"A man and a woman got blamed for it."

479
00:34:17,889 --> 00:34:20,725
"She was my first,
and I thought I would not do it again,

480
00:34:21,392 --> 00:34:22,643
but I was wrong."