Original subtitles

There's no way

anybody could see what was going on there.

He knew of a place to go that was remote.

He brutalized her. She tried to escape.

He had no intentions of letting her go.

We had no idea who he was.

Is he capable of doing it again

before we can get to him?

Riverdale is about 12 miles south of the city of Atlanta,

located on the West Side of our county.

In the '80s, it was more like

what you call a bedroom-community-type thing.

People lived here and maybe worked in Atlanta.

The school system was one of the best in the state,

and a lot of people were here with children for the schools.

Larry: At that time, it was a small, growing town.

It was a good place to live, and we had a lot --

we had good friends across the street from US,

next to US.

We did lock our door at night,

but during the day, it was open.

So it was pretty safe.

We would have never dreamed

anything like this would happen.

And looking back,

I believe he would have been another Ted Bundy.

I believe he was just getting started.

Legg: Tammy grew up in Riverdale, Georgia.

She was attending Clayton junior college.

Both of US were looking to become teachers and our future.

I first met Tammy --

we were working at the restaurant, waiting tables.

I'd been working there, I think,

maybe three months before she started working there.

I thought Tammy was a, you know, good-looking girl.

She was tall and slim, very attractive.

I can tell she was very outgoing,

which was something that was kind of intimidating to me,

and I was looking for a reason to go talk to her.

On a cash register, she was having trouble,

so I thought that was my opening.

I was gonna walk up and help her out and show her the ropes,

and she would be very grateful and go out on a date with me.

Hey, you having a little trouble?

Not really.

I can tell. Um, the drawer kind of sticks.

You have to knock it on the side --

I said I'm fine.

I'm just trying to help.

I can handle it. Thank you.

Okay.

It didn't go very well at all.

She told me to go away and leave her alone,

she'd figure it out herself.

And so I went away and it's like,

"that was my one moment. I guess we're done.

That'll never happen."

What's your damage? What?

He's sweet on you.

I don't know, Beth.

I mean, he's sweet and all,

but I'm not so sure he's my type.

Well, don't be so sure. Give it a shot.

You never know. Go on one date.

Yeah. Way too busy for that.

Well, he was right about one thing.

The drawer sticks, and you got to hit it on the side.

Thank you, Beth. You're welcome.

I'm not a very outgoing person at all. Fairly shy.

So a friend tried to set US up, and she was trying to get US

on a date to go to stone mountain,

a park fairly close to Atlanta.

She didn't tell Tammy she was setting US up.

She told me that her and Tammy were going to the mountain,

why didn't I meet her there?

So I showed up, and I hung around for about an hour,

and they never showed up, so I went home.

When they finally got to the park an hour and a half late,

her friend said that they were supposed to meet me there

and she was upset.

She remembered who I was.

So when Tammy got home,

she gave me a call on the phone to apologize

for unintentionally blowing me off.

And so we talked for probably two hours that night,

and that was the start of the relationship,

was that phone call.

6 minutes, 30 seconds.

Tammy was very artistic.

She loved to draw, but she was very good at other things.

Was a softball player. She was very athletic.

I had been running for quite a while when we met.

And like you do when you meet somebody,

you want to do things together,

and so we ran together a little bit.

No.

Tammy. Tammy!

Cheat. What?

You cheated.

What? Cheat?

Wayne, how did I cheat?

I didn't cheat.

I think I tore my leg. I'm done.

No. You tore your leg.

Come on. Come on, get up!

That's not even a thing. Come on.

Wayne!

Get up!

Come on, get up!

Legg: I'm not quite sure

where love actually kicked in there...

...but I had a great amount of feelings for her

right off the bat,

and we became fairly serious with each other

almost immediately, I would say.

Larry: Wayne was always a gentleman when he came over

and he was real kind.

He'd say "yes, sir," "no, sir."

He met with my approval and I think hers, too.

Tammy was a very good girl.

We never had to worry about her trying to get out

and get in trouble or nothing like that.

If there's any trouble at all, it came to her.

She didn't go to it.

Hey! Hold on. What's up?

So I'm having a little housewarming party

at my new place. You guys should come.

Okay, yeah. Congrats on the new place.

Thank you.

You're such a grown up now. What are we gonna do?

Shut up. Stop it.

What time?

Like 4:00-ish.

Legg: Beth was her friend from high school,

and Beth had recently gotten married

and moved up to downtown Atlanta, close to piedmont park.

We were gonna go up and have a little cookout,

maybe walk over to the park,

just enjoy an afternoon together.

Okay, bye, guys. Drive safe.

Bye. Bye.

Alright. Change of plans.

Tammy lived at home with US

when she was going to college.

We were both working all the time,

so we kind of met in passing.

But we never had any reason to be concerned.

Mnh-mnh.

Yeah.

Wait, what?

Marie? Marie Jacobs? She's dead?

Are you sure?

I don't -- I don't know.

Yeah, I have the yearbook right here, yeah.

Legg: Tammy's old high school had some bad history.

She had told me that they had had somebody die at her school

in some sort of accident or car accident or a shooting accident

or maybe suicide every single year.

I would think it'd be extraordinarily ironic

that she had that conversation that day,

considering what would happen later.

What had happened to her, that should never happen to anybody.

This was Saturday.

Just a normal weekend day.

Tammy told US she was going to go

and meet her friend Beth

and her boyfriend in Atlanta for dinner.

So this is just a normal afternoon dinner

with friends.

Thought nothing of it.

She was gonna leave her house in Riverdale

and on the way, she was gonna stop by the grocery store

and pick up some chips and a few other things

that we would take with US to Beth's house.

She should pick those up and be on her way shortly.

But she never showed up.

And that's where the real nightmare of this story begins.

Legg: Tammy's reputation for being on time was not very good.

Hi, it's me, leave a message.

Hey, Tammy, it's me.

You're late...Again.

On that day when she was 10 minutes late,

it was not a big deal at all.

When it got closer to 45 minutes,

then I started getting worried.

You're just a little later than normal.

Setting a record or something?

Just give me a call.

Okay. See you soon.

Bye.

Hey, walk straight!

Get up! Let's go!

Let's go!! No!

Tammy had no idea where she was as he was dragging her

through the woods.

From the tree line,

it went down the embankment pretty steep.

The highway was so far away that anybody driving by

wouldn't have been able to see what was going on.

If I'm Tammy,

the only thing that's on my mind is, "what is he gonna do to me?"

No, no, no.

Take off your clothes.

No.

Please.

Please don't do this.

I didn't do anything wrong.

I ain't asking you. I'm telling you.

Take off your clothes or I'll cut you.

No, no, no, no, no, no, no.

No! Help! Help!

He wanted to sexually assault her,

and he forced himself on her for a very long time,

in a very brutal way.

He was a -- a brutal, vicious, sadistic individual.

And that's who Tammy got to see in that creek bottom.

On that day, as more time went by,

then I started getting worried and got in my car

and went to drive and see if I could locate her.

I figured she was broken down on the side of the road.

So I drove all the way to her house in Riverdale,

saw their car waiting in the driveway,

decided not to ask her parents in case --

didn't want to alarm them.

I was just -- naturally assumed that she had been

in some sort of car accident or a car wreck.

I was just thinking, "I hope she's not --

I hope she's not hurt. I hope she's not hurt too bad."

So I turned around and drove home,

looking for a car on the side of the road.

That's what I was afraid I was gonna find.

There.

That wasn't so bad, now, was it?

At some point, Tammy thought she had an opportunity

to escape.

It's like the scene from a horror movie

where the victim trips and falls,

and the bad guy catches up,

but that's exactly what happened.

Try that again!

Try it! I dare you!

Don't, please.

He continued to assault her in multiple ways

over the next 20 or 30 minutes.

It was -- it's hard for me to fathom how long that was.

I just had enough of you.

He had reached around,

put the knife to her throat and drawn it across her neck.

It was fortunately a dull blade, and it didn't cut well.

Aaaahh!

Aah!

She fought viciously

to try to save her life,

and I think the more she struggled,

the madder he got,

and that's when he began to stab her.

No! No! No!

Aah!

And that's when she stopped fighting,

and he thought she was dead.

He took off his belt and choked her to kill her,

leave no witness to what he had done.

This time, he was certain that he had done it right,

and he left.

I was trying to breathe really shallowly

so that he wouldn't hear me and, um...

I just listened and listened.

And I can hear birds,

and I can hear planes going overhead.

But I don't hear him, which is what I'm listening for.

I couldn't hear anything, I couldn't hear him.

And so I look down.

And I was covered in flies.

They were all over me.

And I remember I got this image in my head of roadkill.

A possum on the side of the road,

dead deer on the side of the road and I thought,

"you got to get up.

You can't die here in the woods.

Nobody will find you. You have to get up."

I knew that I can't die in here in the woods.

I have to get back to the road.

And I looked down,

and...there were...

Three stab wounds in my upper chest.

And they're what are called sucking chest wounds,

which means when you breathe in, the air comes out the holes,

which means you're not getting any oxygen.

And I remember thinking, "hey, you got to do something.

You're gonna suffocate. You won't bleed to death.

You'll suffocate. You've got to do something."

So I just scooped up handfuls of sand,

started packing it and holding it into the wounds,

thinking the blood will coagulate

and maybe at least slow down the bleeding.

So when I got to the point where I felt like

it was holding the best it was gonna get,

I got up and I thought, "okay, you got to go that way,

you got to get back to the road."

And I get to the hill and the gravel pit.

And I want to say it was about 75 feet

maybe from bottom to top.

It seemed like 100 feet.

And I'm hurting.

And I remember thinking,

"I'm not gonna be able to get up this hill.

I'm just not gonna be able to get up."

And I thought, "well, you got to try."

So I started climbing the hill,

and I was using branches and bushes and vines,

and I'm pulling myself up the hill.

So I got to the top of the hill and I'm in shock,

so I'm cold, I'm shaking.

And these two guys, they didn't see me at first,

and I remember thinking, "god, surely they see me."

I can't scream, I can't yell.

So I made my way over there.

And they just stopped.

And I could tell they were just --

and I said, "help, please help, somebody tried to kill me.

Please help me."

And one of them immediately turned around and took off.

And I figured he was going to call the police.

And at that point, I finally kind of relaxed and thought,

"okay, you can die now."

"Somebody's found me.

I just need to tell somebody what happened."

It was about 5:30 in the afternoon

when I received the call to respond to the crime scene,

being told that there had been a stabbing and a rape involved

at that location.

Tammy was treated

by our emergency's medical service personnel at that time

and that the helicopter was on the way

to transport her to Georgia baptist hospital.

We came home from the grocery store.

We were putting away groceries.

Phone rang. Someone said --

a woman said,

"I need to speak to a relative of Tammy Crowe."

I said, "this is her mother.

Can I help you?"

And she said these exact words.

"I'm calling from Georgia baptist trauma center.

Your daughter has been stabbed and raped,

and we need you here immediately."

We hit the road.

We got there as fast as we could.

Larry: I was running red lights, blowing horns.

We had no idea if we were gonna walk in

and find our daughter dead.

It was awful, horrible.

I wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy.

She was conscious.

She knew who we was when we walked in

we didn't know who she was,

that's how bad she was beaten up.

Her neck was all bruised from strangling her.

Beat up very bad.

I will just say that it's not something that any parent

wants to see -- your child covered in blood.

Legg: My mother, she had gotten a phone call

from Tammy's parents at the hospital

that she was in the E.R.,

she's been stabbed, 12 stab wounds, 13 stab wounds.

I wasn't -- I was kind of preparing for the worst.

I didn't see how somebody was gonna survive that.

She had a punctured lung that had collapsed.

The surgery they performed to her in the E.R.

Saved her life.

It wasn't very long that we'd been there

that they said, "we've got her stabilized."

Actually being able to see her at that point

was comforting that she was gonna be okay.

She was very upset that once we found the details

that she had been raped,

that her mom or dad or I were,

um, were gonna think less of her.

She was very worried about not loving her anymore.

I knew it was not something that was her fault,

and that was something

that I had to try and get across to her.

I ended up staying in the emergency room,

her room, for most of the night,

talking with her, trying to comfort her,

trying to make her feel okay, holding her hand.

The police were there.

They wanted to talk with her a little bit,

and they wanted to keep her under protective custody.

So they put armed guards outside her door.

Miss Crowe, I'm detective jewett.

I'd like to take a few moments

to talk to you about the events this evening.

Is that okay?

Miss Crowe, can you talk about what happened to you?

I left the house, I believe it was around 4:00

and drove to the grocery store.

Um, pulled in,

and I was actually sitting there turning off the radio,

getting ready to get out of the car.

Excuse me.

Hey.

Hey, hey, um, my truck broke down,

and the sky just opened up

and it's not helping out much.

I'm sorry.

Damn thing's a piece of junk.

Do you mind helping me out?

Have you got any jumper cables?

Yeah. Yeah, sure. Some in the back.

Great. Do you mind pulling up nose to nose with me?

Yeah. Which one's yours?

The red hunker over there.

Okay, I see it. Alright, let me pull up.

Awesome. Be right there. Yeah.

I remember looking at my watch, thinking,

"I can spare, you know, 10, 15 minutes if I hurry.

Wayne will be -- he'll understand."

He knew I was never gonna be on time anyway.

Is that good? Yeah, that's good.

Okay.

Whoa. What are you -- shut up. Move over.

What are you doing?

Get on the floorboard now! Okay, okay.

Down. Put your head down. Okay, okay, okay.

You want -- you want money? I have money.

Shh. Stop talking.

Just sit tight and shut up,

and everything will be fine.

Please. Please don't hurt me.

Did you hear what I just said?!

Okay.

Sit tight and shut up.

Everything will be fine.

Okay, we're good.

And at this point, I'm shaking, I'm crying.

I'm like, "please don't hurt me. You know, you can have the car.

Just don't hurt me."

Head down!

Can't be more than a 5-minute drive

from the grocery store to where we ended up.

And I can hear gravel under the tires,

and I can see out the windows.

I can see trees, not much else.

Get out of the car.

Get! Okay, okay.

He got out and walked around and opened the door

and got me by the arm and pulled me

out of the passenger seat, and I got my first look.

And we were in a gravel pit surrounded by trees.

I have no idea where we are.

Where's your money?

$12.

What am I supposed to do with $12?!

So take it.

Just please let me go.

Please.

Come on. -No.

Come on. Come on. -No.

He then forced her to go down this steep embankment.

No! No!

There, he raped her, stabbed her several times.

He believed he had committed murder,

thinking she was dead,

found out she wasn't and went back

and strangled her with his belt

until he believed she was dead again

before leaving the scene.

Thank you, miss Crowe.

You've done a terrific job.

I appreciate you taking the time.

Get some rest.

I'll come check on you tomorrow.

We'll start looking into this

and see what we can find.

From the beginning, talking with Tammy,

it seemed like it obviously

was not anybody connected to her that she knew.

So we knew we had a random attacker here.

All we found at the crime scene at that time

was evidence of a struggle.

But we did not find any weapon that was used against her

and there was absolutely no physical evidence

left at the location.

And don't have any identification

of who the person is.

Somebody that's capable of doing this,

is he capable of doing it again before we can get to him?

So it was kind of that kind of feeling.

We need to get him off the street as quick as we can.

After I came out of I.C.U.,

they put me in a private room.

They had police officers outside the door

because he was still out there.

And we -- we were really frightened.

Good morning, miss Crowe.

I just wanted to come by and give you an update.

Unfortunately, I don't have

any new information at this time.

But we're doing everything we can.

He's still out there?

I'm supposed to be released

from the hospital soon.

He has my purse, my I.D., all of my belongings.

He knows where I live. I mean, wh--

I'm gonna bring in a police sketch artist,

and we're gonna get him to take your description.

Actually... I made one of my own.

I think this might help.

Wow.

This is amazing.

Tammy provided me

with a hand-drawn sketch of the suspect,

also drew a picture of the knife that had been used against her.

The following day,

we went with a professional police sketch artist

to do a composite sketch of her attacker

based on her description.

And when the sketch artist was done,

it was amazing how similar the sketches looked.

Because this is a remote location,

it wouldn't be familiar to a lot of people.

There was the possibility that somebody very familiar with it,

maybe an employee of one of the four or five businesses

in the area, was responsible.

Let's see what this gets US.

So contact was made with each of those,

either the management or personnel director

of each of those companies

within a few days of the incident.

And they asked them to check their personnel records to see

if anyone was familiar.

It was just really scary not knowing where he was.

So when I went home, one of the first things

my parents did was they bought blinds,

and they put blinds up in all the windows

because he was still out there.

He took my purse,

which had my wallet and my driver's license in it,

and my license had my address on it.

And I mean, he could have showed up at any time.

I was really worried that he would come back.

We don't need him to find her.

He'll come back and try to finish it.

I had a pistol with me.

I'd have probably used it.

That's what a father is supposed to do --

protect his kids.

I felt like I didn't do a good-enough job.

There are four or five industrial-type companies

right at the location.

So the first place to check

would be possible employees of that location.

Each manager or personnel, hiring person was contacted.

One manager contacted the police department within a few days.

Just the information that she was able to provide

gave US one main target to look at.

In this case, Tammy had no idea who this person was.

Hello.

Yeah.

Within days of the incident,

we had a personnel manager call in,

and the manager provided US

with the name of David James eatherly,

who had been and was an employee there as a truck driver.

Her description of him matched almost exactly

what Tammy had provided to US.

Thanks.

I believe the first thing we did

was ran a criminal history.

And from that, we learned that there was an outstanding warrant

for him from fulton county.

We also learned that he had been arrested

in the city of Atlanta previously.

We traveled to Atlanta, were able to obtain copies

of fingerprint cards for him there.

We received an address from his employer,

as well as from the records that we had obtained,

so we executed the search warrant.

County police.

Does David eatherly live at this residence?

Yeah, he rents from me.

What did he do now?

I just need to know where he is.

Hell, I do too. Okay?

Deadbeat skipped town a few days ago.

He owes me two months' rent.

He didn't even leave a damn note.

Mind if we take a look inside?

I don't care.

He was not there.

She explained to US that he had left

and probably had gone to bowling green, Kentucky,

where his parents lived.

We went in and checked the room where he had been staying,

took some clothing that was similar

to what Tammy had described him wearing at the time.

In the kitchen, there was a set of knives

that the smaller ones seem to match the description

and drawing that Tammy had provided to US.

That's when we contacted the bowling green police department

and asked them to check known addresses where he had family.

Based on the information we had sent

to bowling green police department,

asking them to check addresses for eatherly,

they were able to locate him and arrest him.

The day after he was arrested, we traveled -- three of US;

myself, another investigator, and a sheriff's deputy --

to bowling green to interview him

and transport him back to Georgia.

We just spent three weeks just in fear,

never knowing where he was,

and we got the phone call that they wanted me to come

and look at a police lineup.

And so we went to look at the lineup,

and I picked him out fairly quickly.

I didn't know at the time

they already had his fingerprints.

They just needed the positive confirmation for me

to kind of put the last nail in the coffin.

My parents and I and Wayne went to the courthouse,

and we were there for the sentencing.

And he came out with his attorney.

I was -- I had this fear

he was gonna turn around and look at me.

He didn't.

And so that was a huge relief to know that,

you know, he was behind bars, and he was no longer a threat.

I slept a lot better after that, to say the least.

My mom and dad did not want him paroled.

But I said, "I don't care if you parole him.

My life is my life, and you are irrelevant.

You don't matter.

So go home.

I don't care.

I'm gonna do what I'm gonna do.

And you can rot in hell as far as I'm concerned."

He didn't destroy my life, but he destroyed his.

Wayne and I got married in '89.

I had children, I got my degree,

I'm in my 30th year teaching, he's in his 33rd.

She had things to do, places to go, people to see.

I don't feel like the attack has slowed her down at all.

It's made her a better --

a tougher person, a better teacher.

Don't mess with her, that's all I can say.

Don't mess with her. She's a strong person.

You can let it define you

or you can move on with your life.

I absolutely, flatly, 100% refuse to allow that to happen.

I will not live in fear.

This is my life, and I'm gonna live it.