Original subtitles

Narrator: A loving couple on a perfect summer road trip...

You couldn't imagine any two people more in love.

...Never return.

As their family searches for answers...

I wanted to make them pay.

...Police discover a horrific crime scene.

His truck had been wiped down

to avoid leaving any fingerprints.

Narrator: To solve the mystery,

they must hunt down some of america's most

dangerous criminals...

That is the most chilling surveillance footage

I've ever seen.

...Who will let nothing get in their way.

♪

♪

♪

on a remote desert highway,

agent patrick bucksath of the new mexico state police

responds to a call from a rancher.

The man has reported a newly burnt out

and abandoned trailer.

The crime scene was 2 to 3 miles off of the main dirt road.

It was really rocky, really rough terrain.

When I pull up onto the scene,

the sheriff actually had his unit parked pretty close

to the, uh...Ashes.

Narrator: Bucksath immediately begins filming for evidence.

There was a bolt structure up there that you could tell

housed some animals in the past,

and then right next to the water tank was

the -- the remains of the trailer

after it had been burned down.

Narrator: He moves in for a closer look.

As you're walking up to the scene,

you could tell it was definitely a trailer,

just due to the metal frame.

There was no smoke,

and there was no heat, as well.

So we knew the, um,

crime scene had been there for a while,

at least long enough for -- for that to cool down.

The trailer was still intact.

The axle was still intact.

Some of the rims were still intact.

Uh, but everything else had burned away.

And the tires were burned out.

You could tell there were four tires,

but the tires were melted.

The ashes were very black,

and then just everything that had burned inside there was

in between the axles of the burned-up trailer.

Narrator: Hidden among the ashes,

he makes a terrible discovery.

Once you got within a couple of feet,

then you could see human remains.

The agents identified portions of a human skull.

They identified portions of human arm and leg bones.

This was a place where a human body had been burned.

Whether it was alive at the time

it was burned was unknown to them.

We couldn't tell how many bodies were in there,

but we knew there was at least one person.

But this then became

a full-fledged homicide investigation.

Narrator: Bucksath widens his search.

[ dog barking ]

the sheriff had actually located two dogs

that were at the scene.

Hi, guys. Hey.

There was a pile of dog food left out for the dogs.

So that told us there was somebody involved

that didn't want harm to come to the dogs.

The dogs had tags on 'em.

The dog tags had a phone number.

It's an oklahoma number.

Narrator: Later that night, 450 miles away

in norman, oklahoma,

chemical engineer talford perkins is getting ready

for bed.

[ phone ringing ]

[ phone beeps ]

it was my sister, sandra,

on the phone in a panic.

I told him that new mexico police

found a burned-out trailer,

and believed that linda and gary were in there.

Linda haas was my sister,

and gary haas was my brother-in-law.

In my mind, I couldn't wrap my head around

the idea that my sister and brother-in-law were murdered.

I didn't get to say I love you

or goodbye or anything.

♪

narrator: Just two days earlier,

gary and linda prepared to leave

oklahoma for their annual camping trip.

Thank you.

Linda and gary met in high school.

She was a-year-older in school

than gary.

They became high school sweethearts, and, uh,

they did everything together.

[ laughing and speaking indistinctly ]

you couldn't imagine any two people more in love.

Morgan: Their ideal thing to do would be to camp,

camp and fish, so they would take the trailer.

Narrator: On August 2nd, the haas's

set off for pagosa springs, colorado.

Little did they know this trip would be their last.

♪

investigators scour the burnt-out trailer for clues.

♪

in the ashes, they found, uh,

projectiles and shell casings of a 40-caliber handgun.

We were fairly certain that the victims had been shot

at this point.

Narrator: But there's no weapon at the scene.

We couldn't tell if it was a personal crime

or a crime of passion.

We had information that they were

good people with great friends and family,

so we didn't believe that this was

actually some type of personal vendetta.

Narrator: The casings are sent to the lab for testing.

With the killer likely long gone,

detectives are playing catch up.

They focus on their strongest lead.

The vehicle that was towing

the trailer was missing from the scene.

Gary and linda's family told us that they drive

a four-door white chevrolet pickup,

so it was very important to us to find that vehicle.

Narrator: As soon as he leaves the crime scene,

bucksath sends out an alert all over the southwest

to look out for the haas's chevy pickup.

Then, at the main road, he sees a gas station

and pulls in to check for cameras.

The gas station was located right off the exit on

the frontage road,

which you had to travel to get to the crime scene.

So there should have been some type of video

that showed who was involved or what happened.

Narrator: He's in luck.

The gas station's camera faces the road.

Will it reveal what happened to gary and linda haas?

♪

narrator: Investigators in new mexico believe

the remains found in a burnt-out trailer

are those of gary and linda haas,

and they hope cctv footage from a local gas station

will put them on the killer's trail.

The surveillance footage at

the gas station was an external camera

that pointed towards the frontage road,

which you had to take to get out to the crime scene.

So anybody traveling on that frontage road,

the camera was going to capture that.

Narrator: With no idea when the fire was started,

bucksath cues the footage to August 2nd,

the day gary and linda left their home in oklahoma.

♪

at 1:22 p.M., he spots something.

It's the haas's truck

headed in the direction of the crime scene.

You could see the truck with the trailer traveling

out to the crime scene.

It was really grainy, it was black and white.

We couldn't really see the occupants of the vehicle,

so we couldn't tell if it was the victims

driving the vehicle.

Narrator: They keep watching,

hoping for more clues.

39 minutes after the truck and trailer drove by...

♪

...The haas's pickup comes back down the road

without the trailer.

That is, in my experience,

the most chilling surveillance footage I've ever seen.

Only the truck is captured on

the surveillance camera going back to the west.

And of course, we all know now

where the trailer was and what had happened to it

in the interim.

Narrator: Investigators now know when the trailer

was unhitched and set on fire,

but the timing presents them with a new problem.

The date on the surveillance footage was two days prior to

the current date,

so we knew at that point we were two days behind.

Narrator: Investigators hope forensics

can help them catch up.

There were three shell casings,

but they were so badly damaged by the fire

that they could offer no forensic clues going forward.

The almost complete nature of this burn showed

the killers tried as hard as they could to

deprive it of any forensic value.

Narrator: They do recover

one other item with sentimental value.

Linda haas's wedding ring was found in the ashes of

the burned trailer,

and that was a ring that linda had worn on her finger for more

than 40 years.

Narrator: In oklahoma,

linda's brother, talford, must deliver

the heart-breaking news to his mom.

As talford: Mom?

It was probably the hardest thing

I ever had to do in my life.

There's no easy way to tell

a parent that their child is no longer with us.

Linda and gary...

Aren't going to be coming home.

That's not the nature of things.

You don't lose...

A child.

♪

my mom just closed up after that.

She didn't cry. She didn't...

She had no reaction other than that.

And I felt at that point that I had basically

taken my mom's heart out

and crushed it.

♪

narrator: At new mexico state police headquarters,

bucksath gets some good news.

We learned that mr. And mrs. Haas's white chevrolet pickup

had a onboard satellite tracking system.

The satellite tracking system said the vehicle was

in albuquerque, new mexico.

Albuquerque, new mexico, is located approximately

120 miles from the crime scene.

Narrator: Armed officers are immediately dispatched.

Bucksath: The vehicle was located kind of in the back side

of albuquerque, not the well-known areas,

um, so that kind of gave us an indication

that maybe the suspect

was familiar with albuquerque and maybe from that location.

Narrator: When officers arrive,

the pickup is empty.

Law enforcement didn't know how long the truck had

been there, didn't know

whether the truck was going to stay there,

didn't know whether anybody was going

to come back to the truck.

So they set up surveillance on it to see

what was gonna happen to this truck,

and after a number of hours,

it became clear to them that this truck had been abandoned,

and so they declared it a crime scene and processed it as such.

Narrator: With the investigation spanning multiple states,

the fbi is called in to assist.

Their first task is to search the pickup for clues.

In the course of fingerprinting

the truck, they find something sort of interesting.

What they notice is a lot of swirl patterns

around the whole outside of the truck.

What it became clear had happened was this truck had

been wiped down on its exterior to avoid

leaving any fingerprints.

Inside the vehicle, they find a roll of

paper towels,

and they find some transmission fluid.

It's not a full bottle of transmission fluid,

so it's clear that what's happened

is whoever wiped the truck down used

the transmission fluid and the paper towels.

It turns out that that's sort of an old trick

from convicts who are involved in auto burglary.

So this was somebody who

was criminally sophisticated enough to know

about leaving evidence like fingerprints behind,

and they went to some lengths

to try it and eradicate those fingerprints.

So the one thing that crime scene investigators wanted to

process to make sure that we were really gonna

get the best chance at identifying who had taken that

vehicle was the plastic wrapping on the paper towels.

So it was very important to process those for fingerprints,

because if they could identify the fingerprints on that

plastic wrapping, that's your murderer, most likely.

Narrator: The search also reveals a receipt from a walmart

in elk city, oklahoma,

315 miles from the crime scene,

timestamped 8:06 a.M., August 2nd,

the same day that gary and linda started their vacation.

When looking at the receipt, you can see that the items were

purchased using gary haas's

either credit or debit card.

They purchased bungee cords and straps,

the kinds of things that you use to kind of tie things down,

probably in the trailer or the truck.

It's important to see if it's gary indeed

who's making that purchase or somebody using his card.

Narrator: The footage is downloaded

and transferred straight to the station.

Investigators start by watching the camera covering

the lot.

Just before 8 a.M., they spot something.

It's the haas's pickup and trailer.

Investigators keep watching to see who's inside.

Two figures emerge,

but the footage is too grainy to identify them.

You can see them get out and walk into the walmart.

They come in separately.

When they get out of the truck,

they come in, and they walk in at different speeds

and at different times.

Narrator: One by one,

both figures walk toward the store.

So investigators switch to the camera covering

the entrance.

It's a man and a woman

matching the description of gary and linda haas.

They keep watching, looking for any signs

of distress.

I was obviously looking for

signs that someone had either already

targeted them and taken them and was

forcing them to do something there

at the walmart.

♪

narrator: Both visit the bathroom

before gary buys items from the store.

I was looking to see if their behavior was unusual

in any way.

Did they look distressed? Did they look upset?

Gary ends up checking out

and buying the things that were on that receipt.

Narrator: Everything looks normal.

No one appears to be watching them.

So they switch back outside to see

if anyone is waiting in the parking lot.

Linda gets into the truck first,

followed by gary 10 minutes later,

♪

and then they go back out to the parking lot

and get in the truck and trailer and drive away.

Narrator: There's no sign of any distress,

and no one appears to be following them.

Investigators deduced that this wasn't

the location where they had been intercepted,

but it's one of the last visible

pieces of evidence of gary and linda alive.

♪

narrator: Whatever happens takes place

in the next five hours,

before gary and linda are shot and set on fire.

Now, three days into the investigation,

detectives have no witnesses and no forensic evidence.

They desperately need a break.

[ phone ringing ]

I received a call from one of the crime scene team agents.

He told me a single fingerprint

was on the wrapper of paper towels,

and we had a suspect.

That was the finding that, in some ways, broke the case

wide open.

Narrator: Investigators in new mexico

have just identified their first suspect

in the murder of gary and linda haas.

His name is john mccluskey,

but something isn't adding up.

Fouratt: John mccluskey was 45 years old.

He was supposed to be at the arizona state

prison complex.

But on July 30, 2010, mr. Mccluskey, along with

two other inmates,

tracy province and daniel renwick, escaped.

I will tell you, with the benefit of hindsight,

that assigning them to this prison with level of security

that it didn't have, in retrospect,

was a negligent decision.

♪

investigators were able to deduce that these three inmates

went over one fence

by just climbing and then over a couple of short

barbed wire fences.

When they got to the final fence to cut through,

they had somehow secured these wire cutters.

It appeared that someone had thrown them

over the fence in plastic bags.

♪

narrator: When gary and linda set off on their vacation,

mccluskey, province, renwick,

and their unidentified accomplice had already been on

the run for three days.

Mccluskey, province, and renwick were among the most dangerous

inmates that they had incarcerated

in the kingman prison.

There was indications that all three

of them had gang prison affiliations

in addition to having all committed violent crimes.

John mccluskey was serving time for attempted murder.

His sentence was 15 years.

Tracy province was serving a life sentence

for murder,

and daniel renwick was also serving

close to 40 years for homicide.

Mccaskill: They were all gonna be even more dangerous

than they started, because they didn't wanna have

to go back to prison.

So everybody's frantic to get

a lead on where they might have gone

to put them back in custody before they do

more damage, before they harm somebody else.

Narrator: With the public in danger,

a nationwide appeal is made.

This investigation, as you know,

for over a week has been so very fast acting.

It's changing on a daily, sometimes on an hourly basis.

We're gonna continually work this around the clock,

uh, with all the resources that u.S. Marshals have

nationally --- we are managing hundreds of leads.

Please keep in mind, we are scrambling

to put an end to this nightmare,

basically a national nightmare, before this goes any further.

Narrator: For gary and linda's family, seeing the face

of the suspects on tv is especially hard.

I was worried that they would never be caught.

I was worried that they would either

make it to canada or mexico

or someplace, uh,

totally off the grid

where they would never be found.

I was mad.

I was mad that they would do something

to my family,

that they would take it in their hands to --

to destroy such a loving couple.

There was no excuse.

There was a reason for doing it,

and so I wanted to make them pay.

Narrator: Back at the fbi, agents are trying

to establish where the suspects have gone.

Mccaskill: Their faces were plastered

in every corner of the country,

and people were calling in with sightings of them

all over the country.

There were sightings on the east coast,

there were sightings on the west coast.

There were sightings down going across the border

into mexico.

We were trying to follow up.

People were working long hours and not taking

a lot of rest,

because it's so important to make sure that we get

these people back in custody.

Narrator: Most of the sightings are dead ends,

but then a call comes in from meeteetse, wyoming,

900 miles from where the truck was found.

A local woman claims to have seen a newcomer at her church

who looks just like tracy province.

Local officers are dispatched to check it out.

One of them saw him with a sign, he was trying

to hitchhike,

and they followed him back to a motel

where he ended up staying the night.

And the next morning, when he came out,

they arrested him.

Narrator: The man is confirmed to be tracy province,

and what he says next sends shockwaves across the country.

Narrator: Officers have just apprehended tracy province,

one of three fugitives believed to have murdered

gary and linda haas.

Narrator: Investigators start at the beginning

and ask province to explain how they all escaped.

Province identified that there was this female accomplice.

Her name was cassie.

She had been the one to throw the pliers

and dike cutters in the plastic baggies over the fence.

He also identified that she had thrown pistols

over the fence,

and she had been armed with a rifle.

The fact that she

executed a prison break for three dangerous,

violent criminals and armed them in the process made her

as dangerous they were.

♪

narrator: Agents need to be sure,

so they check this name

against visitation records at kingman prison.

Sure enough, casslyn welch

is listed as mccluskey's girlfriend.

Investigators want to know what happened next.

Narrator: To confirm his story,

agents request surveillance footage from the truck stops

province names.

They scour through hours of video...

Until,

at a gas station in seligman, arizona,

90 miles from the prison,

they see a familiar figure enter the store.

She is dressed completely in camouflage,

and she meets the basic description

that province provided.

And it's within the right timeframe.

You see her come into the convenience store,

do a bit of shopping,

gather some candy bars and some sugary drinks

and pay for it cash.

Some of the things that she purchased,

the empty wrappers and bottles were recovered in

the truck when it was searched for evidence.

So it was clear we were looking at the accomplice,

casslyn welch,

in the surveillance footage.

♪

narrator: It appears province is telling the truth.

Now they want to know what happened to gary and linda.

First province claims one of

the fugitives had already left the group.

Province said renwick decided to leave on his own

and made his way north to colorado.

Narrator: Then he tries to pin all the blame on mccluskey.

They dropped him off in wyoming.

Province doesn't know where they're going from there.

Province's only revelation about what

mccluskey and welch were planning to do

was to live off the grid,

but that doesn't really help us in terms of where they're going.

Narrator: Agents keep province in custody

and resume their search for the remaining fugitives,

but without any further clues to their whereabouts,

[ siren wailing ]

the manhunt is in danger of going cold.

But province supplies one final piece of information.

Province tells us that before they split up,

mccluskey had to change clothes,

because he was covered in blood.

So after dropping the truck off in albuquerque,

they took the sedan that they had taken from phoenix

to the nearest walmart

they could find and purchased clothes for mccluskey.

Narrator: If the walmart cameras captured mccluskey and welch

on tape,

detectives might be able to pick up their trail.

Now, a few days after the murders,

the haas family lay gary and linda to rest.

We had the funeral and burial in

our hometown in southwest city, missouri.

The church was packed.

There were so many people that,

um, grew up with lynn and gary,

grew up with our family, just came from all over,

and, uh, it was a beautiful service.

I wanted to get up and say something, but I didn't,

and I regret that to this day.

I wish I had.

♪

narrator: Back at the fbi,

the walmart footage in albuquerque is ready to view.

Mccaskill: So what we did was we started looking for

the car.

Province tells us that --

at this point, they're driving the sedan --

he told us about what time they were probably

coming into the parking area and into the walmart.

Narrator: Just before 6 p.M.,

they spot a silver sedan pull into the parking lot.

What you see in the surveillance is province

and welch leaving

the sedan, going through the parking lot,

and then coming inside.

There's no sign of john mccluskey.

Mr. Province told us in the interview that mr. Mccluskey

could not enter the store, because he had blood on him.

Narrator: Welch, in a pink shirt,

black shorts, and a white hat

and province, dressed in jeans, t-shirt and white sneakers,

casually browse through the store.

We're looking for what they purchased to help

corroborate things, we're looking to see where they go.

Is there, you know,

did they buy something else or steal something else inside?

And it shows mr. Province

and miss welch purchasing some shoes and some clothing.

Narrator: It all looks normal,

so investigators switch back to the exterior cameras,

hoping to see mccluskey.

While they've been in the store.

You can see on the surveillance footage

mccluskey get out of the sedan and stand

in between his vehicle and another vehicle and smoke

cigarettes, waiting for them to come back.

Narrator: They try to spot

bloodstains on mccluskey's clothing,

but the quality is poor, and he's obscured

by the parked cars.

But they do notice another detail.

There was something else particularly significant,

in my view, chilling, about that video,

because I am certain that as he stands in the parking lot,

he is wearing the hat of gary haas,

the ball cap that had been on the head of gary haas

earlier that day,

as shown on the elk city walmart surveillance video.

♪

mccaskill: It seems particularly crass

and...

Unemotional

and very chilling to be wearing gary haas's hat.

Only a brutal, cold-blooded killer

would reach down and pick up a guy's hat out of the trailer

before he left.

Narrator: But investigators still can't find him.

♪

as agents work around the clock, 220 miles away

from the fbi office,

an arizona park ranger is about to make a discovery

that will bring the search to a devastating conclusion.

Narrator: A park ranger believes he's seen wanted fugitives,

mccluskey and welch, hiding out in an arizona state park.

♪

the fbi sends a swat team to assist.

Mccaskill: They put a couple of people

in the forest, looking down to see

what they were doing and to try and identify them.

Narrator: Suddenly, mccluskey appears.

Stop! Wait!

Don't move!

Hands over your head!

Hands on your head!

[ shouting indistinctly ]

narrator: The couple is arrested and taken into custody.

Among the items recovered from the tent

is a 40-caliber handgun

consistent with the shell casings from the murder scene.

♪

now investigators want to know who killed

gary and linda and why.

Mccluskey is first to talk.

Narrator: Seeing both a vehicle and a place to sleep,

mccluskey creeps up on the trailer that gary

and linda used for their dream trips together.

Narrator: When the chevy and trailer passes

the gas station camera,

mccluskey is driving,

and the haas's are dead in the trailer.

Narrator: After confessing to killing gary and linda,

mccluskey confirms they dumped the chevy pickup

in albuquerque.

They then switched to their nissan sedan,

but after stopping at walmart for new clothes,

they dropped off province in wyoming

before driving back to arizona.

Narrator: Casslyn welch corroborates mccluskey's story

and pleads guilty

to second degree escape and two counts of armed robbery.

She is sentenced to 40 years.

Tracy province pleads guilty to multiple offenses,

including carjacking resulting in death.

He is sentenced to five consecutive life terms.

John mccluskey pleads not guilty

but is convicted of 20 counts relating to carjacking

and the murders of gary and linda haas.

He is sentenced to life in prison plus 235 years.

Daniel renwick, who had split from the group before

the attack on the haas's,

was captured in colorado after a shootout with police.

He was sentenced to an extra 60 years

for attempted murder of a police officer.

With the perpetrators behind bars,

law enforcement can finally put this tragic case to rest.

But for gary and linda's relatives,

there is no peace.

I know that deep down inside, this will never go away.

But some days I just wish it would, just...

For a week or two.

It's hard to describe when you know that

you have someone that you loved so deeply,

and you know you're never gonna talk to them again.

You're never gonna see them, and it's -- it's very difficult.

I miss them, every -- every day.