Original subtitles

It's just that memory, it's a tricky thing.

It's complex, unpredictable.

Right now, Makayla says she hardly remembers a thing.

Right, because she was drugged when she was taken.

Phenobarbital, they kept her asleep the whole time.

I understand that.

But that makes it even more complicated.

At this moment, she seems to be coping remarkably well.

Why does it have to be "seems"?

She's sleeping better.

She's on a routine.

She's--she's happy.

I don't want to keep putting a label on my kid

that she's not well when she is.

She's okay.

I agree.

But I do want you to be prepared

that she might remember.

Okay, so--why?

Help us out, Doc.

I mean, will she or won't she?

I can't tell you that for certain.

[apprehensive music]

It's possible she may never remember the events fully.

It might feel like a dream to her, something abstract.

Or it might be images in her mind, like photographs.

Or one day, it very well could come back lucid, real.

I wish I could give you a clearer answer than all that,

but I can't.

I just want you to know that over time,

her memory will shift.

They do for all of us.

She does seem a little like a ticking time bomb.

Yeah, well, she's not. She's fine.

I know.

I wanted to talk to you about something else.

The building manager called me yesterday

about the three-bedroom that we put the deposit down on.

It's gonna be ready next week.

I was thinking I'd still take it for Makayla and I.

Really?

Yeah, you know, unless you want it for yourself.

No, it's too big for just me.

Yeah, I mean, bad things happened in that place.

I think it'd be good to get her out of it.

Clean slate.

♪

All right, well, I should get to my dad's.

He's been in Florida for the last seven weeks,

so you can imagine his fridge.

Ooh, that's a fun, fun treat for you.

I know, right? All right, Mak.

I've got to peace out, kid.

- Okay. - Hold up.

We caught a scene.

Makayla gets to see Disco Bob's?

Sure, yeah.

Okay, bye, Mak.

- Bye, Mom. - Bye.

♪

- Hey. - Hey.

- We the first ones here? - I think so.

[sobbing]

Intelligence. Who's she?

She found the victims.

They're her parents, the Graces.

She hadn't heard from them in a couple of days,

so she came here, used her key, found them.

Get the paramedics here to help her.

- 2622. - Casowith.

- Hey. - Hey.

[lullaby playing on stereo]

♪

It was on when we arrived.

We didn't want to touch anything.

Looks like they were being held in there.

[tense music]

♪

That's not water. That's bleach.

♪

Sir, please understand,

it's an active crime scene inside.

I don't get what you're telling me.

They're my parents. I want to see them.

I can't let you go inside.

They're trying to give my sister a goddamn sedative.

You're telling me my parents were murdered.

I'm going inside.

No, believe me, you don't want to see them like this.

You don't. Please.

- Children? - Yeah.

They got another son coming in from Dunlap.

The Graces have three children, seven grandkids,

and they've lived in this place for 36 years.

- Forced entry, home invasion? - No, sir, no signs of either.

Nothing appears to be missing at all.

We also found rope and duct tape in the bedroom upstairs.

Killer spent quite some time with the Graces

before he killed them based on this food cooked.

I'm thinking half a day. - Huh.

What's that smell, bleach?

They were bathed in it before they were killed.

The walls were wiped too. Should be splatter everywhere.

Killer wiped down everything.

This is the cleanest scene I've worked

in 30 years on this job.

He's damn smart.

I doubt we'll get anything.

Scrub it clean anyway.

This can't possibly be a first-time kill.

It's way too well-executed.

All right, so let's run it all past ViCAP,

see if it matches any other homicides.

Yeah.

There were no signs of sexual trauma on either

of the Graces' bodies,

so whatever the motive was, it wasn't rape.

Any low-hanging fruit on surveillance?

There's a wildlife camera in their backyard,

but that's all it caught--

squirrels and the neighbor's cat.

PODs?

No, whole stretch of that neighborhood

doesn't have them.

It's too safe to need them.

Well, the neighbors' security cameras--

there's four of them down the block--

got nothing on them either.

Right, and there's no 911 calls, no witnesses.

That block was dead quiet all night.

Strange thing is, I went back six months

to find in-service calls-- nothing.

No prints on any of the plates, cups, light switches.

No strands of foreign hair. No murder weapon.

And their family?

I spoke to the children.

They were aware of no threats made to the parents.

Couldn't think of anyone that would

want to harm them at all. We're at empty.

Well, clearly this is not a normal homicide.

I mean, it wasn't about passion, about opportunity.

It was sadistic.

I mean, killer played with these people.

Why?

I mean, why the dinner, the book, the bath,

this bedtime routine?

I ran our crime stats and MO through ViCAP like you asked.

No other homicides popped as a match,

but something else did when I ran

"bleach bath" and "lullaby."

Oh, good.

[suspenseful music]

All right, here we go.

This boy is Daniel Smith.

Police found him 28 years ago in 1994 at a rest stop

off 55 half dressed and covered in bleach.

Hmm.

Police believe someone had bathed him in it.

And Daniel, you say someone took

your parents, told you to run?

Who?

Did you know this person?

Okay.

Now, this man, he went into your house, right?

Where is your house?

RV.

Okay, an RV, that's good.

But Daniel, you said this man gave you a bath.

How did he give you a bath in an RV?

- I want to go home. - I know, bud.

Okay, what about your mom and dad's names?

Do you know their real names?

Mommy and Daddy.

Yeah, that's right,

but what about their real names?

It continues on like this.

The detectives interview Daniel dozens

of times over dozens of days.

His story does shift, but the gist of it is,

a man entered his house

and told his parents what to do.

He read them a book, made them eat dinner,

sing the lullabies, gave them a bath

in something that smelled. - Huh.

And when it got to nighttime, the man told Daniel to run,

and his dad said to listen.

And the boy's parents?

That's where it gets stranger.

They were never found, not even ID'd.

Police searched. They did a national poll.

There were no missing Smiths

that matched his parents, no Smith family

with a missing three-year-old, nothing on birth records.

They searched RV sites, every neighborhood in Illinois.

They did this for years.

They were never able to corroborate

a single detail of this boy's story,

not even his name.

So he's like a living John Doe.

Exactly.

He was placed into foster care and adopted finally at 13.

Says he lives in Oak Park now.

He does, 31 with a wife and child.

Get him to talk to you.

♪

Daniel?

Daniel.

We were hoping we could speak with you.

Yeah, you just stay right there.

Give me a minute.

You got it.

Sorry, just didn't want to talk in front of my family,

but this won't take long because I'm not interested.

I'm sorry?

I mean, I appreciate that you are, but I'm not.

This happens every few years.

Cops show up, they read my cold case,

and now I believe that the original cops,

they were probably right.

Okay, right about what exactly?

It's all in the full file.

Cops believe that the man I described,

my home, my parents, that it was all a response to trauma.

They thought that I'd been abused

and abandoned, that my mind couldn't handle it.

So I forgot, and I filled in the blank with something else.

They thought none of it was true.

You misunderstand. We're here for a current case.

Daniel, we're here because it appears that

what you reported, it happened again.

[tense music]

♪

You good? Comfortable?

No. No, not even a little bit.

We're sorry about this room, man.

It's just we have to be in here to capture

what you say on that camera there.

Sure, sure. Thank you.

You know, I just--

I doubt I'm gonna get you anywhere.

I don't want you to waste your time with me.

Probably better spent with the other family.

Yeah, no, we're digging into them, I promise you.

But it's possible this will help.

Yeah, I don't think you understand fully.

I've got no idea what's real and what isn't,

and I've spent, like, the last 30 years of my life

trying to figure it out, but I've gotten nowhere.

Why don't you tell the two of us everything you can?

And then this time, she and I can be the ones

to try and figure it out. - Yeah.

Uh...

I remember a mom and a dad.

They're young, and they're beautiful.

And there's an RV sometimes.

And I know that I--

I told the cops about a house, but I don't--

I don't really remember a house.

The only thing I remember are the curtains.

They're flowered, or with birds on them.

[suspenseful music]

And, uh, a bath.

I remember pain.

The bath, I had to take a bath.

Told Mommy, Daddy, I didn't like it.

It--it hurt my skin.

And I was crying.

And someone told me to stop.

Who?

I don't know.

Sometimes I convince myself that it was my dad, my mom,

that, you know, it really was abuse

and that it happened all the time.

And then I think that there was someone else, a man.

This man, do you know him?

No.

He's this stranger that just appears

one day out of thin air.

He drops down with this pink dust.

Pink dust.

Yeah, that's what I remember.

In my head, it falls off him like snow.

I don't know.

I get why the police thought it was something else.

The way Daniel talks about it even now, it feels made up.

It feels like a kid telling a story.

Yeah, it's hard to believe. I mean, why the gaps?

28 years between crimes?

It's a long stretch for any killer.

Exactly, especially one this elaborate.

All right, so what else do we know about the Graces?

Yeah, we're still scraping the barrel with the Graces.

Ran that duct tape and the rope from the crime scene,

both widely sold generic brands.

Same goes for the book and the CD.

They're dated, but they're sold everywhere.

Yeah, and re-interviewed every person on that block.

No report of a suspicious vehicle, suspicious person.

Nobody saw anything, and people were out.

That's what makes zero sense.

All right, so keep working both scenes.

Keep looking for a nexus.

Hey, I'm gonna go back over to my dad's.

Told him I'd send some clothes out.

Cool if Mak comes? - Yeah.

She gonna be your packing buddy?

She, uh--she found some baby pictures of me.

Apparently, I look like mashed potatoes.

[both laugh] So she wants to hunt for more.

Fine, I'll keep working,

and I'll meet you back at our house?

Yeah. Okay.

[suspenseful music]

♪

Dr. Magnuson?

I'm Officer Kim Burgess, Chicago PD.

I was hoping you could spare a few moments

to talk to me about a patient you evaluated decades ago.

His name was Daniel-- - Smith.

Yeah, that's right.

Yes, I always knew someone would come.

Come in. Come in.

Yeah.

Sorry for the mess.

My wife died two years ago,

and I have yet to master her tidiness.

I guess I'm lost without her.

But we can talk in here.

Now, memory is a fickle kind of ghost, so I kept everything.

Should be here somewhere.

And you knew police would come ask about Daniel?

Yes, I knew it was just a matter of time

until somebody turned up.

Oh, here we go.

The cops kept everything relevant,

but I continued seeing Daniel after he went into care.

I kept the rest.

- Why did you believe Daniel? - You don't?

- No. - Oh.

No, I don't--

I don't know what I believe, except--

look, I'm glad for him either way that he doesn't remember.

[soft sentimental music]

But you were the only professional listed

that didn't think it could be abuse.

I didn't have a professional answer then,

and I still don't.

But I've spent my life working with children.

You learn to see it when a child's loved.

It's something real-- a confidence, a protection.

And Daniel, I believed he was loved by parents.

I just believed him.

♪

Hey.

What's going on?

Well, we got a little bored of my dad's place.

Found two pictures, decided that's all

we were really interested in.

So there might have been a little phone bribing going on.

This is the last video, right, kiddo?

Mm-hmm, it's a good one.

Okay, let me see.

What exactly are you supposed to be?

[chuckles]

[upbeat music playing]

♪

Ready?

And pose!

- Gah! - Ah!

[both laughing]

Hand it over.

You're cut off for the evening, young lady.

You gonna do bedtime?

Yeah, I would love to do bedtime.

Let's hit it.

- Night. - Oh, good night.

I gotcha.

One book. - Okay.

It's very late.

[tense music]

♪

Huh.

♪

[grunting and panting]

You can enter every single row house

from the attic, each one.

All you have to be is small enough and determined.

And you'll have full access to every home.

Yeah, and a view.

You can see and hear from the ductworks.

And that's why we don't have surveillance

of the offender entering the Graces' home,

why he's been like a ghost.

He's coming from above.

How's the offender getting up there?

Well, the last row house on the block is empty.

It's been under reno for a year.

So easy to break into, nobody knowing.

So he breaks in without a trace.

He makes his way up to the attic.

He watches the Graces, waits, drops down without a sound.

You get anything from Daniel?

We showed him pictures of the row houses.

He didn't recognize anything.

The Graces have lived here since the '80s.

There's no record that Daniel's family ever did.

I'm thinking he lived in a different row house entirely

with a similar attic, same framing, same duct work.

That's our nexus, Sarge.

Our offender's not choosing our victims based on who they are.

He's choosing them based on the buildings.

He knows these buildings.

All right, so have Forensics do a second sweep

of that attic and the empty row house.

Then dig into the nexus.

Anyone who ever lived here, anyone who helped

build this place, we run.

[suspenseful music]

Good work.

Anything?

Yeah, the row homes were built by Age One Construction.

They still exist. They're a small company.

They take on Midwestern work. - And they hire out freelance.

Lots of contractors, especially the carpenters.

They keep records?

Oh, no, of course not.

So we're going to have to go person by person.

Oof.

Run through that for me.

Yes, you were listed on the building site.

No, sir, you were listed on Age One's records.

Okay, well--right.

We will confirm those dates for you.

Thank you very much.

All right, we've got another misprint.

This man said he worked with Age One in the office in 1989.

Where are we with the tenants?

Still nothing. I cleared four more.

All clean records. Don't fit the profile.

Also, they don't remember anything abnormal

about any construction workers.

It's been too long.

Yes, ma'am, thank you.

That's a no-go.

Says she barely remembers living there.

She was going through a divorce when she rented the place.

So she spent those months crying

and getting very into puzzles.

So I don't think she's our man.

What other buildings did Age One build?

Uh, let me see.

Hold on.

They did a bunch downtown and then two more row houses,

one in Cicero and one in the Back of the Yards.

When were the row houses built?

Three and seven years ago.

Okay, more likely you remember a construction worker

from a couple years ago

than 40. - Yeah.

Jay and I'll take the Back of the Yards.

Cicero.

♪

All right, I'm calling the leasing office.

Yeah.

Honey?

What about that one?

Yeah.

[under breath] You see that guy, my 9 o'clock?

That guy?

Yeah.

Sure looks like he's staking out the place.

Yeah.

He's bald.

Looks like he's shaved his eyebrows,

and the age is right.

Hmm.

- That's a good view. - That's beautiful.

All right, let's call the realtor.

♪

- You keep eyes. - Mm-hmm. I got him.

Sarge, this is Kim and Adam. We've got a person of interest

at our nexus condos on Cicero.

Male, white, 60s, 70s. Zero hair on his body. Bald.

Looks like he shaved his eyebrows,

so no hair for DNA evidence.

All right, Kim, he's moving.

Sarge, he's getting in his car.

We're going mobile.

Okay, keep a long eye.

I'll get Jay and Hailey moving to you.

Keep distance.

All right, easy, easy, easy, easy.

Keep it discreet, nice and slow.

I can't get a plate.

Me neither, I can't see a thing.

He was hunting that apartment, Adam.

Yeah, we need more cars.

Jay, Hailey, we're heading northbound on Laramie.

A grey Sedan. Male, white driver.

60s, 70s. He's in the car alone.

We can't get a plate read.

All right, we're in the game.

Pulling onto 2-1 now.

We are northbound.

We should be parallel to you soon.

Copy you.

He's turning left on Laramie and Cermak.

- Did you clock the plate? - No, no.

All right. Yeah, yeah, yeah, we got him.

We got him westbound on Cermak.

We're three cars behind.

All right, we're moving westbound now.

We'll pick him up from you on 21st.

Get eyes on a closer follow.

He's taking a right on Central Ave.

We can't follow. Kim, he's coming right to you.

♪

He's taking a left on 19th Street, moving fast.

Go.

All right, I got it.

Henry David 96 Young 3.

All right, I got him.

Name's Jim Wheaton. 62 years old.

Multiple priors-- disorderly conduct,

trespassing, multiple failures of protection orders.

Yeah, these are peeping Tom charges.

Kim. - What?

Guy's a carpenter.

Damn it.

Guys, target lives at 4272 18th.

He's gonna be bedding down.

He's gonna be right on top of you.

Pull back right now. Pull back now.

We're made.

Take him, Jay. Take him. Do not let him go inside.

Do not let him destroy evidence.

This is our guy, Jay.

♪

Hello. How may I help you, officers?

♪

Hmm.

Okay, someone want to explain to me

what that man's doing in interrogation

without a shred of evidence?

Because he's good for it,

and I'm not letting him stake out new victims

and destroy evidence. - Mm-hmm.

Jim Wheaton has spent the better part of the last

25 years in jail or prison, multiple habitual offences

that all add up to one thing.

That is a man who enjoys watching

other people, other couples.

It's a man who wants to kill.

He's been charged three times on peeping Tom offenses.

He is staking out victims.

What else?

There's a construction connect.

He's a carpenter, does freelance jobs framing.

It explains the attic.

Okay, can we hook him to the row homes?

Not yet, but we're working on it.

He also has a past that fits.

He was taken from his home into care

when he was eight years old.

They said it's complex trauma and abuse,

and he was abused by his birth parents

for eight years of his life.

But he wasn't taken from his home

until he tried to beat his mom with a baseball bat.

It's his MO, boss.

He finds a couple, parents, tries to recreate

a happy little childhood,

and when it doesn't work, he kills them.

It's him, it fits.

It does.

Unfortunately, the only thing I'm not hearing is evidence.

All of this is circumstantial.

Look, all of this will be beat down by any decent ASA.

We need more.

[sighs]

[suspenseful music]

♪

All right, let's just do everything we can in 48.

Dig into every aspect of his life.

Do a trash pull.

And press the hell out of him.

Let's just lie our asses off. Let's go.

Wait, Kim.

I want you to get Daniel in here.

It'll be inadmissible, but let's see

if this man sparks him, okay?

Yeah, got it.

♪

You understand, Jim?

We have you now.

We own you.

Hey, look at me when I'm talking to you.

You are not in control anymore.

Help me help you, man.

Only reason why you're still sitting here

is because we want more.

We have your file,

every detail from DCFS.

I know what your parents did to you, Jim.

The media gets a story like this, they eat it up.

And they eat you alive.

Do you understand me, huh?

A young boy just trying to find his parents, a family.

That's what connected you to the Graces.

We've got all your construction jobs.

We found all the homes that you framed.

You're gonna be eaten alive in prison.

I'm gonna personally make sure of it.

You understand me, huh?

Because they're good parents.

Because they love their kids more than anything.

And you wanted that.

I will give you solitary.

It's a one-time offer.

Cooperate, I will make sure you live.

What do you want to do, hmm?

♪

Daniel, do you recognize him?

No.

No, I don't remember him.

Okay.

All right, let's go through it one more time.

All the cash withdrawals on his accounts?

Aren't illegal.

We've got him going in and out of a bunch

of different convenience stores,

but it was a long time ago and he paid in cash.

There's no receipts. - Right, and his trash?

Not illegal to own cleaning supplies.

- The burnt pieces? - Not illegal to burn.

ASA won't give us a warrant out if we can't match the fibers.

And there's nothing on the construction jobs.

I mean, it's framing work, but there's nothing matching

those jobs to the row homes.

Right. He was just too smart. I mean, he left nothing behind.

Nobody saw anything. And he cleaned.

Well, he wasn't always so clean.

He got picked up half a dozen times by police for years.

All minor offences.

I mean, not the work of a criminal genius.

But then he was placed in protective custody.

And there's rows and rows of sexual deviants to learn from.

This man learned how to be clean

in the penitentiary from the pros.

So that's how he got better,

because he wasn't always that way.

Back then, he let Daniel go.

Not the work of a great criminal, right?

So if we find a mistake, it's not gonna be now.

It's gonna be then. It's gonna be with Daniel.

Mm-hmm.

You really think he'll remember?

I think we have to make him remember.

Daniel, if you're not comfortable doing this,

we would understand.

I'm sure there's a danger here of triggering something.

That's exactly what you want.

Yes.

I want to.

I want to know.

♪

That--he read that to us.

You remember that?

Yeah.

♪

Daniel?

Do you recognize that place?

Uh, I think I've been there.

Mm-hmm, I think that's where it happened.

♪

- Any room in particular? - Anything vacant's fine.

Room 10, right down here.

Boy, you two are sure far from the city.

We certainly are.

[suspenseful music]

♪

We'll take it from here. Thanks.

Adam.

Flowers, birds. - Yeah.

These woods go all the way up to Blow Creek

and down to Route 83.

Okay, listen up.

Each team moves in a line, shoulders 5 feet apart.

Alpha north, Bravo west, Charlie south.

We've got a lot of ground to cover,

so we go slow and steady.

If there is anything, it's been there 30 years,

and it's not running away today.

That's right.

If it's not green and growing out of the ground,

it doesn't belong here.

Okay, we're looking for trace evidence--

bottle cap, rubber band, anything.

If you find anything, flag it and then

get an intelligence officer.

All right, let's run it.

♪

Is that...?

♪

It's him.

It's Daniel.

Alpha team, cadaver dogs got a hit,

quarter mile west of Suttonbush Slough.

Dogs are alerting. Think we've got bodies.

♪

Mark and Isabella Smith.

We found their remains in the woods behind a hotel off 55.

But you remember. Your DNA was on them.

Yeah.

See, of all the people born in the world so far

and all the people still to come,

that DNA can only be yours, Jim.

We found this at your house.

That is a match to the weapon used to kill

Cathy and Herman Grace.

And these shoes, their DNA was on them too.

♪

Anything you want to say before I read you your charges?

Are you a good mother?

♪

I'm charging you with four counts of first-degree murder.

Each one, Jim, each one--

a life for a life.

You die in prison.

We think your family had been on the road for a while.

They stopped at a motel for a night for--

I don't know, for a movie or a warm shower.

That's where the offender found them,

and that's where your parents were killed.

And you found them.

My parents, they--it wa--

it was real.

It was real.

Both your parents, their names were Mark and Isabella.

ID'd them off dental records.

We also found this.

It's a camcorder found in your family's camper.

All right.

- I want that one. - Wave to Daddy.

Say hi to the camera.

I want to let the--

I want to let the wind blow out the candle.

Okay, baby, perfect.

[soft sentimental music]

[laughs]

both: ♪ Happy birthday to you

[noise maker blows]

Ready? [noise makers blow]

[Daniel laughing]

Oh-ho-ho!

[chuckles]

[laughter, chatter]

♪

Those geese come out the bay!

They're friendly! Hey, geese!

Wave to the camera!

That-a-boy!

Hi, Daddy!

Love you, Daniel!

♪

[screams, laughs]

Oh, Makayla.

Don't do anything crazy up there.

Okay!

The choice is beer or beer.

Ooh, I'll take beer.

Copy that.

Thank you very much.

Your dad's place is a weird spot to want to have a drink.

He's still not back? - Ah, no.

No, he's not coming back.

He called me this morning, and...

[sighs]

Apparently, the best way to get out of debt

is to stay in Florida and play the ponies.

So that's perfect. - Perfect.

I'm gonna buy it.

I loved this house growing up.

My childhood, I mean, you know--

- Yeah. - It wasn't the best.

But this house, man--

this house was.

Always full of light,

big-ass yard.

Best hiding spots in the neighborhood

for capture the flag.

A banister, you could climb the banister.

It wouldn't ever fall out.

I have the best memories here.

So I'm buying the house for Mak, for us, for you.

Adam--

Look, I can keep the undercover apartment.

I'm not moving in.

Wait, you--you can't buy me a house.

Why not?

I mean, I get it.

We're not perfect right now. I get that.

But why not this?

[sighs]

Kim, she might remember.

I know.

Either way, we can give her

all the best memories in the world

to protect her from that.

We can give her that here, together.

Why not?

♪

[dramatic music]

♪

[wolf howls]