Original subtitles

[sirens wailing]

[dramatic music]

♪♪

RYAN: The whole state and country

was looking for her.

I was chomping on the bone

for every day of every week of every month

'cause I wanted to catch her.

Well, I know, but I'm not giving up either.

I haven't caught her.

But guess what... sometimes they don't want to be caught.

Oh, without a doubt,

law enforcement was under incredible pressure.

The prison that let her go was embarrassed by this.

We didn't know what she was gonna do.

It's kind of like a caged possum.

If you push him in the corner, they're gonna bite you.

There was urgency in finding her.

[bell rings]

RYAN: And then, you know, all my bosses

are talking to their bosses and talking to their bosses

out of Washington.

I was informed by my supervisor...

He had been in communication with America's Most Wanted.

DIRECTOR: Everyone ready?

RYAN: That wasn't my call. That was their call.

But at that point, I had nothing else to lose.

Here comes the roller coaster again.

Good evening.

Now, our first story tonight is about "an artist."

Everybody was at the TV to watch the segment.

JOHN WALSH: Some artists can take a block of clay

and manipulate it

and mold it into anything they can think of.

She manipulates people instead of clay.

And I remember thinking, that's not me.

And even when she was sent off to prison,

she never stopped working her craft.

They don't have a clue.

They don't know who they're looking for.

Everyone around her was putty in her hands.

♪♪

REPORTER: Rockville Correctional Facility,

Rockville, Indiana...

a place more than 1,000 women call home.

SARAH: Tom and I were in a hotel room,

and we watched what America's Most Wanted aired.

REPORTER: One of those women was Sarah Pender.

This is her entertaining some of her fellow prisoners.

The longer I watched myself on TV...

the worse it got.

I mean, I'm not stupid. I knew what they were doing.

REPORTER: But behind her angelic good looks

and endearing persona,

former Marion County Deputy Prosecutor Larry Sells

says Sarah Pender is a woman to be feared.

She has a Charles Manson-like ability to manipulate people,

to act as surrogates for and committing crimes.

All that stuff sort of ramped up

um, the scrutiny and the pressure

and the fear of her.

Not just in Indiana,

but, obviously, since it's been on America's Most Wanted,

everyday, normal civilian people

are gonna be looking out for her.

RYAN ON TV: Sarah's a convicted murderer.

She's a con. She's a convict.

She did con some cons to help her.

But since she's been out, she's flushed them

down the toilet as if she flushed the two bodies

in the back of a dumpster.

But manipulation is a story.

I hate to say it...

♪♪

But it's very common for a man

to blame a woman for their actions.

Men will point the finger and say,

the woman made me do it.

REPORTER: Pender is like a chameleon.

We know she's manipulative,

and she probably is already working her charms

on someone new.

Let's put Sarah Pender back behind bars tonight.

RYAN: When America's Most Wanted

uh, had got involved,

um, it generated a ton of leads.

You know, she's at a truck stop right now

in Nebraska.

Or, she's in Oklahoma. We saw her...

You know, it's just like, tips were all over the country...

[siren wailing]

From Minnesota, California, Florida, Texas.

I mean, there was no nexus to these locations.

So you couldn't let these tips lay dormant.

You had to go.

So it was a trade-off,

but I knew, though, that it was not favorable for her.

It just keeps on putting the pressure

on any movements that she may be trying to make

or not be able to make.

Was I obsessed with the hunt?

Uh...

that's a... that's kind of a crazy word to use.

I guess I was a little obsessed.

[keys clacking]

SARAH: After America's Most Wanted aired,

friends that I turned to whenever I needed help...

now they were gone.

Every moment was tainted with knowing...

that just a glance

or someone that I'd been in prison with

or someone with a great memory was gonna spot me.

[faucet running]

And of course, again, I dyed my hair.

♪♪

And I bought colored contacts, changed my eye color to hazel.

♪♪

I went to the eye doctor. I bought glasses.

I did not know how long my relationship with Tom

was going to last.

♪♪

I felt like it was important for me to keep moving.

So Tom had arranged for me to stay

with the niece of a friend of his.

And it just happened that...

a friend of hers

was looking for an estimator

for a construction company that his dad owned.

And I got on the bus,

and I just pretended that everything was fine.

[dramatic music]

♪♪

[indistinct chatter]

RYAN: A couple weeks later,

I was literally ferreting through a bunch of leads

from all over the country that were absolutely crazy leads.

I mean, I had stacks and stacks of stuff

that came in from America's Most Wanted.

I'm like, I don't have time to go through...

I mean, these were just, like, nutty people.

But it's what it was.

It was leads, but it was just not very tangible leads.

[telephones ringing]

Then all of a sudden,

I had a call from an Internal Affairs investigator

at Rockville.

And he was my eyes and ears internally in the prison.

Now, in the Department of Corrections...

I wasn't aware of this...

they have an email system set up

to where anybody can send messages

to and from the offenders.

They got an email.

It was directed to this inmate.

Her name was KP.

She used to have a relationship with Sarah.

They thought that Sarah may be trying to contact KP...

using another offender's login.

Is she gonna be that stupid

to use a login of another person

and try to communicate with her former girlfriend inside?

We couldn't ignore it.

[indistinct chatter over police radio]

We surrounded the house

where Pender was maybe using this account.

The America's Most Wanted crew were there,

with the anticipation of, this could be it.

This could be the one.

We were ready to rock and roll

with what we call "shock and awe,"

you know, waking people up.

[banging on door]

We got a search warrant. Come on out.

You know what this is about?

PERSON: No, I don't have a clue.

RYAN: Right. We're searching for the girl.

PERSON: What girl? RYAN: Sarah.

It scared him to death when they all came to the door.

She's got 110 years over her head.

You don't.

♪♪

She could have been there.

REPORTER: Unfortunately, daybreak revealed.

Pender was nowhere in sight.

RYAN: It was truly an offender reaching out to KP.

Nothing more than that.

Sarah had nothing to do with that.

The best thing now... I'm gonna back up out of here,

let the dust settle for a couple days.

No, no, no.

I don't give a shit about what.

America's Most Wanted put with me.

I didn't care about what Walsh...

They were doing their Hollywood shit, okay?

Did it keep the light on Pender?

It kept the light on Pender.

♪♪

[distant siren wailing]

SARAH: Being on the run,

I had no idea

what I was really getting myself into.

[birds squawking]

But Chicago was very convenient.

I felt like I could blend in.

♪♪

Each day, I went to work,

and I felt like a normal person.

I would put my high heels in my backpack,

put on my tennis shoes...

listening to the sound of my footsteps

on the pavement

as I walked up to get lunch.

I don't know if I ever forgot that I was a fugitive,

but there was not a time that I did not enjoy

experiencing new things.

I met this guy on the corner walking his two dogs

and chatted him up about, where did you get your dogs?

And he had rescued them from someplace.

And it was just...

it was the most normal, beautiful thing.

♪♪

And I... and I thought, this is real life.

This is real life.

♪♪

Those are the times that...

those are the times that being a fugitive didn't matter.

♪♪

REPORTER: Pender is on the 15 Most Wanted Fugitive list.

But she might not look like this.

Police say she has cut her hair,

colored it multiple times,

added a nose ring and a tongue piercing.

RYAN: They've got 15 they're profiling,

and she's the only woman on there.

It's individuals that the U.S. Marshals

at the federal level feel are the most dangerous people

that they are actively hunting.

♪♪

SARAH: It was really odd to see

that I was on this top-15 list.

♪♪

I knew that I wasn't dangerous.

I know that I'm not a threat to the community.

But they don't know that.

RYAN: I have strong belief

that she hasn't left the state of Indiana.

If she has, it's just been for a short stint.

I'm real dangerous...

with my charming smile.

[laughing]

I'm sorry.

RYAN: When Sarah was elevated

to the U.S. Marshals top-15 poster,

with that came a $25,000 reward.

And all that is, is to get people to drop a dime on her.

SARAH: I was hoping that eventually the U.S. Marshals

would just give up and find something else to do,

more important.

RYAN: She may think she knows our capabilities.

And she was good,

but I wouldn't want to be her right now.

[somber music]

♪♪

BONNIE: I worried about Sarah every day.

I lost my daughter because...

she has to be on the run.

I don't know how to explain it.

It... it messes with your mind,

you know, to... to not know for sure

what's around the corner.

♪♪

Thanksgiving... it's a time of being thankful.

Knowing that she was still alive,

I was thankful for that.

♪♪

But it's hard not to have your family together

sitting at the table.

♪♪

SARAH: On Thanksgiving Day,

Tom left to see his family.

And so I walked down

to the Denny's down the street

and picked up a traditional Thanksgiving meal

with two pieces of pecan pie.

♪♪

Yeah, it was lonely.

♪♪

When I was sitting in my apartment,

I had bought a guitar...

just a cheap acoustic guitar.

And I had to go in my room to play it

because I was afraid that my next-door neighbor

would hear me playing and singing.

And that was one of the things that they had put

on America's Most Wanted...

is that I liked to sing and play guitar.

And I thought, I have to hide this.

I have to hide this part of me.

♪♪

I couldn't be myself

because then I would be too much like Sarah Pender.

♪♪

It was emotionally exhausting.

♪♪

I just wanted to resume my normal life.

♪♪

REPORTER ON TV: Investigators say Sarah Pender

is on the loose and dangerous.

OFFICER ON TV: We received numerous tips and calls,

but here lately, they have since dried up,

and we're not...

RYAN: Wanted fugitives...

they're usually on the run for days, maybe weeks.

Very rarely are they months.

When I was hunting Sarah, though, she was...

she was all-encompassing in my mind,

from when I went to sleep until I woke up.

And a lot of times,

I'm watching TV with my... my daughter

or my son or my wife...

[cell phone vibrating] And my phone would ring.

I mean, from state police detectives,

Internal Affairs to America's Most Wanted...

they were all trying to get information to me.

Every lead I went to,

everything I went and checked out,

you have hope, and you have... you have "what if."

[door opens, closes]

I was gone all... all the time.

And I was coming up empty-handed.

[dramatic music]

And then I fell down the deep hole of... of...

I-I started drinking too much.

[ice cubes clinking lightly]

I would decompress in the evening

with Absolut Vodka

and wake up with a headache in the morning.

♪♪

I suffered, chasing her ass for four, five months.

♪♪

Yeah, I take ownership, I wasn't around.

So... that's all I want to say about my personal life.

The fear is not about returning to prison,

because I know what prison is.

♪♪

The fear

was that I would lose my freedom,

not that I would go back to prison.

One thing is punishment,

and the other one is loss.

♪♪

I had started packing my things

because I was moving in a couple of days

to a new apartment.

♪♪

It kept me on the move to avoid detection.

♪♪

And then...

[banging on door]

It was a loud knock. It's 11:00 at night.

And he says, maintenance.

And I shuffled across the parquet floor

in my little pink slippers.

And I remember looking out the peephole.

♪♪

And I see these four strapping men.

I think a couple of them had on, you know,

bulletproof vests.

My initial reaction is,

grab my go bag, go out the back.

There was a back stairwell...

my escape route.

♪♪

And I paused.

♪♪

This was it. You got me.

The universe let me out of prison,

and now the universe is telling me

it's time to go back.

And I opened up the door.

I said, let me get my shoes.

[siren whoops]

[indistinct chatter over police radio]

♪♪

And here are four men escorting me

out of the building in handcuffs...

[distant siren wailing]

Just walking to the car...

like nothing else is different in the world.

[siren whoops]

[dramatic music]

♪♪

RYAN: I-I remember I was in the car

driving with my family, going to see my in-laws.

And I got a phone call saying that Pender

was apprehended in Chicago by an anonymous tipster.

That's how I found out. Merry Christmas.

December 2008.

Would it have been nice to be the one to track her out

and put the cuffs on her?

Yeah, but guess what.

She didn't outwit us. She was put back in the cage.

And I turned my family around. I went to Chicago.

♪♪

When I finally got to meet Sarah,

the first thing she said... she goes, you know what?

You're much better-looking in person.

He didn't strike me

as someone particularly special.

♪♪

Basically, Ryan had been obsessed

with finding me for four months.

Ryan talked to me like I knew him,

like he knew me.

RYAN: There was a relief.

She was happy to see me. I was happy to see her.

Because she's tired of running. She told me she was tired.

She wasn't the only fugitive that I've caught

that was stuck... You know, I'm tired of running.

I'm tired of looking behind my back.

[scoffs]

♪♪

Ryan Harmon knows me

as much as you know me.

RYAN: And we got in the car

to take her back to Indianapolis.

♪♪

We had U.S. Marshals undercover

following us out of Chicago.

I was in the back seat with her,

and I put a digital recorder in my pocket.

I hadn't known... I didn't know anything about who helped her

while she was on the run.

RYAN: That's when she first divulged to me

her friend Thea had introduced her to a guy

by the name of Tom Welch.

RYAN: He's the one that sent her to Cincinnati

and back to Chicago and gave her a phone

and gave her money and...

All for getting your nuts off.

But, man, I didn't expect to hear what I heard.

And I was so goddamn close to getting her.

If he hadn't entered the picture,

I mean, she was choked.

[siren wailing] REPORTER: Law enforcement pull

into the Indiana Women's Prison

in this maroon Taurus,

Sarah Pender in the left back seat.

Pender now with red hair, wearing a Purdue sweatshirt.

They escort her inside the prison.

News everywhere outside the prison.

I mean, it was... I walked into a guillotine of, like, a...

It was crazy.

REPORTER: Sarah, how's it feel to get caught?

RYAN: And then...

♪♪

[voice breaking] I gave my life for that hunt.

But I lost a lot.

[normal voice] I lost my marriage, my children,

right after this capture.

I didn't know... that was gonna happen.

It didn't surprise me when it happened,

but it happened.

Because of her?

[sighs]

Big question there.

Was it worth it?

I don't know.

RYAN: She's on the run.

She's a U.S. Marshals top-15 fugitive.

And you're carrying on a relationship

like you picked her up off of Tinder.

RYAN: He told me his story with an attorney present

because the prosecutor

agreed to give him a proffer statement,

which means you give him a clean-up statement,

won't prosecute you.

Well, I listened to what he had to tell me.

He should get 24 years.

♪♪

SARAH: When I was returned to prison,

they told me that I was sentenced

to one year in solitary confinement.

♪♪

WILLARD: That was an administrative move,

which certainly we have that latitude,

if we feel like somebody's still a danger

to other inmates, to the... whatever.

If they're a danger, we'll keep them locked up.

I was told by officers, by staff,

you embarrassed the Department of Corrections.

Therefore, they're gonna keep you in solitary confinement.

[cell door closes]

♪♪

Solitary confinement is cold...

nothing but steel and concrete.

There's a concrete slab with a thin mat

with a steel toilet and a steel sink.

♪♪

And that is it.

All you have is your mind, and it just ravages you.

You think about all the things that I had done,

all the things that I didn't do.

It just eats... eats at you in this cycle,

and... and you can't get it to shut up.

♪♪

[indistinct chatter]

In my mind, I thought I was getting out

at the end of the year.

But I was told that I would not be released.

And when they told me it was indefinite...

♪♪

My mind started...

like, winding down almost.

♪♪

So I was sitting on the floor,

and I was trying to play solitaire.

♪♪

But the numbers didn't make any sense to me.

♪♪

I see things, but I don't know.

Something is happening. Something is happening.

I don't know what's happening.

Something is happening to me, literally in my mind.

♪♪

And I'm just ripping apart.

And just this part of me just floats away.

♪♪

And then nothing.

I have no thoughts. I have no feelings, nothing.

It was just...

[imitates soft whirring] Like white noise.

♪♪

Whenever I would think about...

the future...

♪♪

I couldn't see it.

♪♪

And there was just this darkness.

There was this abyss.

♪♪

I just kept sliding.

And I was afraid.

I was very afraid to lose my mind.

♪♪

[dramatic music]

♪♪

BONNIE: I knew.

I knew that it was taking its toll on her.

But I didn't know how to help her.

I didn't know what to say.

I didn't know, you know, where to go.

What... what do I do?

[telephone rings]

It was close to Mother's Day.

And I get a phone call around 8:00 in the evening.

It was Larry Sells, the prosecutor.

And he says, Bonnie...

I've done 72 murder cases,

and one was a mistake, and that was Sarah.

LARRY: And she started crying.

I said, Bonnie...

you may not believe this...

but it's my opinion, based upon what I know now,

that your daughter Sarah did not receive a fair trial.

After Sarah was rearrested,

an author by the name of Steven Miller

decided he's gonna write a book on the case.

So he asked me if I'd go

to Homicide Department with him

to help him look at the Homicide file.

So I got it out, and we were going through it.

And I recollected most of the stuff that was there.

But there was a file there that said "Floyd Pennington."

He testified against Sarah,

that she admitted to him that she got Rick Hull

to commit these murders.

And inside the file,

there were two legal-size sheets of paper.

And I saw what it was.

I said, oh, shit.

There was a whole list of violent criminals,

drug dealers, criminal gangs,

and even somebody named Pennington...

a relative of Floyd's... that was there.

I called it a snitch list.

And it was a list of people

that he would turn in to get a better deal.

It was like a rat crawled up out of the sewer

to try to gain some advantage for himself

and convince me that he was telling the truth

about Sarah Pender,

maybe because I wanted to be convinced.

♪♪

I should have had that.

I don't know why they didn't give it to me.

But it made me realize

that there was more to the Sarah Pender case.

♪♪

VIC: In 2013,

when I was a reporter for the Indianapolis Star...

and Larry had called me and said,

look, I have some problems, um, with this case.

I need to tell you about them.

One thing that, especially after the trial,

years after the trial,

I recognized was something

that should have been considered

even more than it was at the time...

[pen scratching]

Was the letter identified as being written by Sarah

where she confessed to the murders.

♪♪

BONNIE: I knew in my heart

that she didn't write this letter.

And I thought, there's no way.

What... you know, where'd you come up with this?

I had five handwriting experts

that all said the same thing...

that she did not write that letter.

VIC: The circumstances around how that letter

was delivered to prosecutors

was always a little bit suspect.

It was not found by the guards.

It was handed over by Rick and his attorney.

♪♪

LARRY: Rick Hull... he had had a cellmate

by the name of Steve Logan.

Rick asked him, I want you to do me a favor.

Rick gave him letters Sarah had written in the beginning,

and Steve copied her handwriting.

LARRY: Steven Logan had made an affidavit

admitting that he wrote that confession letter.

Rick Hull had him write it, made him write it.

There was a letter...

that was used at the trial that, uh...

♪♪

Was manufactured.

You know, I didn't write it.

Uh, somebody else did.

-So that, uh... -I mean, that just...

[clicks tongue]

Hit me like a... you know, a load of bricks.

This is what happened.

I allowed myself to be set up both for Pennington

and the phony letter.

VIC: The prosecutor

who called this woman "female Charles Manson,"

is now saying, I was wrong.

She's not that.

REPORTER: If you had had this at trial,

would you have prosecuted Sarah for murder?

Absolutely not.

REPORTER: Larry Sells is working

with Pender's new attorney to present the evidence

to the Marion County Prosecutor's Office.

Pender's attorney is still waiting to meet

with Prosecutor Curry's office about the case.

♪♪

SARAH: I had been in solitary for over five years.

And when they told me

they were going to let me out into the transitional unit

and they were going to put me on close observation,

it felt really good just to hear them say,

well, we're gonna try letting you out.

♪♪

I know that Larry Sells found new evidence

that changed his mind about my case.

And...

I believed that I was gonna go home.

I always believed that if you had new evidence

to prove, you know, your innocence

that that was what you do, and they fix it.

Now we have something that the authorities will...

you know, will pay attention to on it.

I just knew I was going home.

I knew it would take some months,

but I just knew I was going home and...

being so happy and imagining all these things

that I wanted to do with my family.

♪♪

By the time that I received the "no"...

♪♪

I had grown enough to know that...

[voice breaking] That it would absolutely devastate my parents

if I killed myself.

♪♪

[sniffles]

And I have not told people that.

[chuckles tearfully, exhales deeply]

But I also know that it's my only shot at freedom.

[sniffles]

♪♪

[distant siren wailing]

[dramatic music]

♪♪

MARTIN: I know what it's like to be in prison

where you don't belong.

And who better to represent somebody like Sarah than me?

JUDGE: How do you find as to the defendant, Martin Tankleff,

murder, second degree?

JURY FOREPERSON: Guilty.

[people scream]

MARTIN: I was in prison for almost 18 years

until I was exonerated.

And when I got out, I made a conscious decision

to go on to law school and represent people

who I believe were wrongfully convicted

or people who were abused by the system.

And I really think Sarah fits into both those categories.

♪♪

TIMOTHY: Even with the evidence out there,

unfortunately, there's no possibility

of just exonerating Sarah.

The track we're on is asking for mercy...

BAILIFF: Now in session.

The Honorable James K. Snyder, Judge, presiding.

-All right, be seated. -Good morning.

TIMOTHY: Because to put her in solitary confinement

for five uninterrupted years

so outstrips the crimes she committed.

And I believe that the sum of it

lends itself toward modifying the sentence.

We're gonna try to convince the judge

that I'm worth letting go.

JAMES: The state of Indiana versus Sarah Pender...

shows she is present and by counsels,

and the state is here by Mr. Cicchini.

DANIEL: Yes, Your Honor.

Judge, we are here for a modification hearing,

but that is because of the brutal murders

of Tricia Nordman and Andrew Cataldi 25 years ago.

Their lives were cut short at young ages,

and as evidenced by the letters that their family members

submitted to the court today,

they continue to grieve their losses,

and it continues to impact their lives on a daily basis.

And there has been a great deal of scrutiny

about Ms. Pender's role in the crime

and... and what she did or did not do.

Well, we're not here to relitigate that, Judge.

Uh, we have to recognize that the prosecutor on the case,

who sought and obtained the 110-year executed sentence

has recently changed his opinion

about both the veracity of that conviction,

as well as the justness of that sentence.

And that is leaving the court with the difficult task

of what to do with Ms. Pender's sentence,

to hand down a just decision in this matter.

Thank you.

JAMES: It is the defense motion,

so I'll hear any witnesses and evidence you have to present.

ATTORNEY: Defense calls Roland Pender, Your Honor.

Has she matured since she's been in prison?

Oh, very much, yes.

Very much, she's matured. She, uh...

I, uh... I-I-I seek advice from Sarah.

BONNIE: [voice breaking] You can't make up

for time lost.

And I've lost 25 birthdays,

25 Christmases, 25 everything.

I pray that I can have

the rest of my life with my daughter,

to hug her every morning.

[voice breaking] Today is one of the biggest days of my life

because I'm asking for the chance to be free

and to not die in prison.

I know that I deserve to be punished for what I did wrong

and for what I did not do right.

To Drew and Tricia's families...

[crying] I want to tell them that I am so sorry

for the terrible loss that you've suffered

and for the role that I played in it.

I have paid for it 10 times over,

with 25 years in prison

and 5 years, a month, and 12 days in isolation.

But, Your Honor, today I'm asking for your mercy.

And if you grant my petition,

I promise that you will never see me again.

I want to go home and keep working to make myself

and the world a better place.

Thank you. [sniffles]

JAMES: Thank you, Ms. Pender.

TIMOTHY: She has reformed.

And if you strip away that reformation,

all that we have left is vindictive justice.

Now, our petition, Your Honor,

is to trim count two to run concurrent with count one

such that Sarah is eligible for immediate release.

Thank you, Your Honor.

JAMES: All right. Thank you, Mr. Delaney.

Uh, so what I am going to do...

uh, first, I'm going to hold this under advisement.

I want time to, uh...

to contemplate this decision, all right?

So thank you all for your advocacy here today.

Uh, and I'll have...

like I said, I'll have my ruling in due course.

-TIMOTHY: Thank you, Your Honor. -All right.

Thank you all very much. SARAH: Thank you, sir.

♪♪

BONNIE: I have a room waiting for Sarah.

It's all ready for her.

I'm hoping that...

that she can actually see the outside...

♪♪

And...

enjoy what life she has left.

♪♪

[sniffles]

I really have a hard time thinking about that.

I know that...

it would kill her.

It really would.

And...

she might not make it.

♪♪

When I think of freedom, I think of all the tiny choices

that I want to make...

whether I want to leave the toilet seat up or down,

whether I want a hot or cold shower,

all these things that I haven't been able to choose

over the last 25 years.

Freedom means autonomy,

but mostly it just means being with the people that I love.

♪♪

DIRECTOR: Good.

[sniffles]

♪♪