All language subtitles for Episode 03 The Phantom of La Palma

Cold cases can
haunt a detective forever.

And, in 1996,
that detective was me.

The murder of Annie Ross

is one of the oldest
cold cases in America.

Annie's so sweet,
she's so lovable.

You know,
it sent chills down my spine.

When you've just heard
that your best friend's murdered,

everybody is a suspect.

Was it somebody in her
inner circle of close friends?

There were
as many as 50 suspects.

We hit brick wall

after brick wall
after brick wall.

I was getting to a point where I
had retirement in my binoculars,

but I felt
a connection with her.

You chose to start this,

and now you see it
through to the end.

There's somebody
walking the streets right now

that committed a crime
all these years ago,

and never had to answer for it.

If this guy does something
really bad again,

the blood's on our hands.

I broke the mold with my family,

I was the first to become
a police officer.

I became interested
in law enforcement

during the time
spent in the Navy.

I was befriended by
a current LAPD officer.

He took me on a ride-along,

and it was nothing
like I ever thought.

He acted with compassion,
he was dedicated,

he spent his career
helping people.

It was at that point

when I knew I wanted
a career in law enforcement.

La Palma is a very
quiet bedroom community, safe.

I was raised right down
the street from La Palma.

People here are genuine
and very friendly.

I became a full-time
police officer

with the La Palma Police
Department in May of 1991.

I started working
for the patrol division,

that's what everybody
has to start out with.

Wally Davis was my first
field training officer.

I remember riding around in
a black and white with him.

On my first day on patrol,

Wally told me about the city's
only unsolved homicide.

The murder of Annie Greenthings.

Annie's case haunted
every single investigator.

Since 1974,
this case has been a legend

with the La Palma
Police Department.

Every single detective that
went through the bureau,

they took a crack at it, going,

"Who could have
possibly done this?"

But 22 years later,

when I rotated into
the detective bureau,

the case was still unsolved.

In 1996,
here I am, a new detective.

I had something to prove.

I wanted to be the one
who solved this case.

I had asked the sergeant
at the time

if I could go through
the Ross case.

And he goes,
"Go knock your socks off."

So, I go in there,

walking into that evidence room

and looking on that third shelf,

and then seeing
the last name of Ross

in '74,

and I just dug right into it.

First thing I see in there
was a brown purse

with all the contents
still inside.

It was like going back in time.

I found an address book,
her sunglasses.

I found journals,
I found letters,

I found her wallet

with her driver's license in it.

And I saw her jawbone that
was collected as evidence.

And then I pulled out
another item,

it was a Kodak camera.

We got those pictures developed.

I went through
every single picture.

I felt a connection with her,

and I felt as though she's
looking down on us right now,

asking us, begging us to find
who was responsible for this.

And then I see
the original report

from the responding officer,
Jim Wells.

Something in here could,
basically, tell us who did this.

December 11th, 1974,

I was working swing shift
in La Palma in patrol.

I had only been a police
officer a little over a year.

There was no 911 back then.

A call would come in
on a regular business line,

and somebody
would report a crime.

I got a call of a death

occurring at one
of our apartment complex.

So, I responded
and went to the door.

It was your typical
'70s apartment.

You walked in,

and off to the left would be
a small dining area,

behind that, the kitchen.

Off to the right would be
the living room area.

And you walk straight
through the small hallway,

that was the bedroom

and then, off to one side,
was the bathroom.

So, it was just
the four little rooms

that comprised the apartment.

And I went back there, and
that's when I first saw Annie.

She was laying face down in
the bed, her head tilted to one side,

part of her body
was covered by bedding.

Her arms were out

and she appeared to be
nude at the time.

There were no immediate
signs of violence

or anything on the body.

It didn't appear
that a crime had occurred,

so it could have been,

unlikely as it was
for her age, natural causes,

but it could've been
an overdose.

So, we proceeded
to handle the case

as it unfolded in front of us

as death in the field.

It wasn't till waiting for the
coroner and looking into this

that a small amount
of blood was found,

not much more
than a couple of drops.

And then somebody
in the room noticed

that a small dog had been
put in a dresser drawer.

That's when we said,
"There might be more to this,"

and that's when
investigators were called in.

Detectives had come in

and they immediately
hit the ground running,

and they found
a number of things.

They found
an unknown blood smear

on the comforter
on the middle dresser drawer,

right above
the bathroom light switch,

and also on the bedroom window.

Those blood samples
were collected

and booked into evidence.

But there was no information

regarding fingerprints
that were collected.

There were no signs
of forced entry.

They noticed that there were
some puncture marks

on the side
of the victim's neck.

They could tell that
there were some

potential strangulation signs.

The fingernails
were bent upward.

Someone who gets strangled,

the thing you're gonna do is,
you're gonna grab

and you're gonna try
to forcibly take that off,

which would cause your
fingernails to move upward.

It looked like, based on
the scratches on her neck,

that she was violently trying
to free hands from her throat.

And that's when
investigators knew

that this was not
a natural death.

This was a homicide.

It is just unfathomable,

that sheer terror, that must
have been going through her.

Detectives noticed
that her big toe,

I believe it was
on her right leg,

had a laceration.

They also noticed one leg was
shaven and one leg was unshaven,

which would indicate that she was
possibly accosted by the suspect

when she was taking her
shower, shaving her legs.

Another thing that they found

was that she was
violently sodomized,

there were some
internal injuries to her anus,

but they were able to determine

that there was no semen present.

She was most likely alive when
that trauma to her anus occurred.

And the object used in the
sexual assault was never found.

Annie's murder was
exceptionally brutal for the city.

La Palma had never experienced
a murder scene like that.

That was why people
didn't forget about it.

It was because of the nature of
the crime and the brutality involved.

Within the months
leading up to Annie's murder,

Annie was looking
for a new lease on life.

She was 31 years old,
she was recently divorced

and she moved
from Tucson, Arizona,

to Southern California.

She got a dog.

She made many friends
very quickly.

Everybody that
knew her liked her.

She was quiet,
but very good-natured.

She was searching, and she
was searching for happiness.

I knew Annie
from Annie Greenthings,

a plant shop.

I was interested in
houseplants at that time,

and I found her shop

and I went in there
to buy some plants.

When I walked in, there was
just a ray of sunshine

in the back of the counter.

She was very gregarious,
she was friendly.

After a few months
of knowing Annie,

we became best friends.

We could confide in each other.

I would go to play
with the puppy that Annie got.

That puppy was very,
very protective of Annie.

We'd sit and have wine
and just... total girl gossip.

You know, she was just a caring,

friendly, trustworthy,
very wonderful person.

And then, all of a sudden...

she was murdered.

And I just sat and cried.

Who would wanna do
something like that?

When
the investigation opened up,

detectives immediately talked
to everybody who was there.

Neighbors that lived
right across from Annie,

they talked to the neighbors
that lived directly above her.

Above, and to the side.

And they were able
to establish a timeline

by those interviews.

Investigators were able
to get information

about the dog
and about the dog's barking.

Those people that lived
there knew the routine.

When Annie walked in,
door opened, door shut,

it would be unusual
for the dog to be barking.

But there was a period of time,

a period of about a half hour...

where the dog was barking.

Then they heard the sounds
of muffled barking,

so they were able to narrow
a timeframe down.

5:00 p.m. to 5:45.

So that was a very
important window of time.

But none of the neighbors
saw any suspects

coming or going during
that time frame.

It was quite remarkable

how a suspect could
enter an apartment

without being heard,
without being seen,

murder Annie, and leave nothing

but a little bit of trace
blood in the apartment.

The residents of La Palma
and the police force

were terrified by the fact

that this phantom could snuff
the life out of a young woman,

who was going to begin
a new life, for no reason.

Just take her life and leave.

Like most homicide
cases, there was theories.

Was it somebody in her inner
circle of close friends?

You think about
everybody that she knew

or that you knew mutually,

and I didn't think anybody
that we knew could kill her.

So, the day of the murder,

Annie spent most of the day
at her business...

and she was supposed to go

to a housewarming party
at 6:00 p.m. in Seal Beach.

Her friend Bob Johnson,

and Rod Walters, and Shari,
were at Seal Beach.

Shari was dating Rod, and
Annie was dating Bob off and on.

Annie was supposed
to pick up pizza

and be over there
about 6 o'clock.

So, 6 o'clock comes,
and Annie isn't there.

So, about 6:15, I said to Rod,

"I'm surprised
Annie's not here yet."

And I said,
"I'm gonna start calling her."

So, I started calling her
every five minutes

for a very long time,
probably an hour.

At 7 o'clock,
Annie's still not there.

Now, I'm really, really worried

because this is not like her.

If she was gonna be late,
she would have called us.

Annie and Shari had
a close enough relationship

and Annie felt comfortable to
give Shari a key to the apartment.

So she told Rod,

"I need you to go backtrack the route
Annie would have taken to come down here.

See, perhaps,
if she broke down. Who knows?"

So he did, and he went straight
to the apartment complex.

He approaches the door.

The doorknob is locked.

The apartment is
completely dark, black.

He calls out for Annie.
There's no response.

He makes his way to the bedroom

and noticed that Annie lay there
motionless, completely nude.

He checked her pulse
and there was no pulse.

So he called the La Palma
Police Department

that got us to respond
to the residence at that time.

About maybe 8 o'clock,
the phone rang,

and I picked it up
and it was Rod,

and then
he told me that Annie was dead

and that she was murdered.

To find out that somebody that
you loved has been murdered,

I can't even
explain the feeling.

It's like everything
in your body

just goes out, and you're numb

and you just sit there, like,
"Is this real?"

"Did this really happen?"

And... it's awful.

We just couldn't believe it.

And after that, we went to the
police station in shock, all of us.

Rod was questioned

as part of the investigation

and based on the timeframe
of the murder

and when he arrived
at the apartment,

he was quickly cleared.

For the same reason,

Shari was at the Seal Beach
get-together, so she had an alibi as well.

Rod was able to provide
the timeline.

Shari was able
to provide a timeline,

but it was a little bit
different with Bob,

who Annie had been dating
on and off.

Apparently,
Bob left the party early on

to go play basketball at
John F. Kennedy High School,

which, by the way,
is in La Palma,

not even a mile away
from Annie's apartment.

Now, why would he go
play basketball

when they were supposed
to have a party?

When Bob did come
home, he had a big gash in his head,

and I said,
"Bob, what happened?"

Then he said, "Well, I got
elbowed at the basketball game."

Now, at the police station,
I'm going, "Oh, my God!"

The first thought is, "How did he
really get that gash in his head?"

Shari is kinda putting
two and two together,

"Okay, Annie's dead,
Bob left..."

She's thinking,
"Could he have done this?"

You're scared
at that moment

that if Annie was murdered,

was there somebody that you knew

that was gonna
come after you, like Bob?

After the police station,
I was afraid to go home.

When you just heard that
your best friend's murdered,

everybody is a suspect.

The original investigator
at the time, Sergeant Vince Giampa,

he did so much work
on this case.

And I remember the first
conversation I had with him.

I asked him, "Well,
who do you think did it?"

"What's your gut tell you?"

And he always said, "Bob."

He always said Bob.

The Brookside
Apartments put up barbecues

so that all the residents
in the apartments

could get together
and meet each other.

Annie met Bob
at one of the barbecues.

Annie was dating Bob
off and on for several months.

But she was dating
several people at a time.

Annie was not committed to Bob,

and investigators questioned
the fact that, you know,

could Bob have been upset because Annie
didn't wanna have a relationship with him?

So, they had their
suspicions about Bob.

Why was Bob away
from Rod's residence

when they're supposed
to have a party?

He was playing basketball.

When investigators asked Bob,

"What was the name of the
opposing team, and who won?"

He was not able to answer
either of those questions.

These are things that any
normal person would remember.

He's gone at the
time of the murder,

and then he shows up at Rod's
apartment with a gash over his eye.

The investigators did
quite a bit of work.

In the first 48 hours,

they got a hold
of the team captain

and some other players
on the team.

Detectives were able to verify
that, yes, a game took place, yes.

Bob's team played another team,

and they confirmed that Bob was
actually there playing basketball.

He could not have murdered Annie

and then gone back
to play basketball.

So they cleared him
at that point.

After Bob,

detectives quickly moved on

to the next portion
of the investigation

with the leads they obtained
during the initial investigation.

The neighbors described

one of the people
who would visit Annie

was a tall, skinny, dark-haired
guy with a moustache

who drives an El Camino.

They were able to determine
who this person was,

and that was Mike Greene.

Annie was introduced
with Mike Greene

not long after she moved
out here to La Palma.

The two were set up
on a blind date.

It never moved beyond that,
but they remained friends.

So, they decided to do a joint
venture in a plant business,

Annie Greenthings,
out here in La Palma.

Annie loved plants,

and Mike Greene was more
into partnering up

and kind of letting her
run things.

After six or so months of trying
to make it at the plant shop,

things were just not
going well financially.

Mike Greene and Annie,

they knew that the business
wasn't going anywhere.

Annie was, she was
working without a salary.

Mike Greene wasn't able to put
the time he needed to,

so they both mutually
agreed to sell the business.

So on December 10,
Annie and Mike

were meeting
two potential buyers.

Annie hosted a get-together
at her apartment.

They had agreed to purchase
Annie Greenthings for $3,000.

So, arrangements were made
the following day,

December 11, for Annie to go
to the business

and help the new owners
do an inventory.

So, early in the morning,

she's there with the two buyers,

and Annie tells the new owners
that she had to get going

because she had
a hot date that night,

but it might turn
out to be "lukewarm."

She made a phone call
to Mike Greene,

They talked about, you know,
how things were moving on

and that they're finishing up
the inventory.

She left the plant store
at 5:00.

And when she left, that was the
last time anybody heard from her.

So, investigators started looking into
Mike Greene and his potential motives.

Might it be because

the blind date didn't work out?

Was he upset that the
business didn't work out?

Was he upset at the fact
that Annie was the recipient

of most of the money
of the business?

All these things
point to a motive.

Of course
they thought I was a suspect.

I'm not.

I think anybody who was in that
situation would feel the same way.

I would think
that like a ex-husband,

an ex-boyfriend, an ex-partner,

I'd be thrown right in that mix.

So, I went the next day at 8 o'clock
in the morning and met with the police.

My first reaction was,
"No, it couldn't be!"

You know, "Annie's so
sweet, she's so lovable.

How could this happen to her?"

And the thing is,
they wanna talk to you,

and they already know quite
a bit about what happened.

And I knew nothing.
You don't know the time.

And so you're trying to pin down
your times as best as you can.

And I remembered going to
dinner, what I had for dinner.

I remembered the server
we had, her name was Lana.

And I'm to find out they
checked on all that stuff.

I had nothing to hide,
I was innocent.

Detectives
were able to confirm

Mike Greene's alibi
fairly quickly.

And he was eliminated
as a suspect.

As far as who
would have killed Annie,

I had no idea
who it could have been.

I just knew her as a sweet girl.

And I thought, horrible enough

that here's this beautiful young
lady being strangled to death,

being so helpless,

this killer
savagely attacking her,

and it just broke my heart that it
would happen to her or anybody.

And so, it just hurt very badly.

So now, what are
the investigators gonna do?

They're gonna start
branching out a little bit.

It's routine for investigators
to look at close family

because most victims of a homicide
occur by a close family member.

Annie had married
Frank sometime in 1963.

She was still hung up
on her ex-husband, Frank.

She wanted children and he
was not able to have children.

The marriage
didn't last very long.

Her and Frank divorced, and Annie
wanted to start a new life in California.

Although Frank
stayed in Arizona,

they maintained a
good relationship.

He even put up $5,000 of his own
money for anyone with information.

And investigators were able
to clear Frank as a suspect

because he was able to verify what he
was doing at the time of Annie's murder.

After investigating
Annie's friends,

her inner circle, her family,

and ruling out any of them
as potential suspects,

the probability of solving this
homicide began to dwindle.

Investigators can
only do so much.

They've talked to everybody
that knew her,

they've got their timeline,

and they pretty much cleared
everybody, a person of interest.

Detectives talked to, I know originally,
in the infancy of the investigation,

more than 50 people.

Investigators had done
a lot of work,

and they just hit brick wall

after brick wall
after brick wall.

So they developed flyers

that they had sent to numerous
police departments in California,

but no major leads came in.

So, the investigation went cold.

In the early years,
I thought, you know,

"Somebody may have
gotten away with this,

and are not gonna be
held accountable."

When you know that
somebody you loved has been murdered,

and they cannot solve the case,

it really makes you sick.

And you wonder

how the person
can even live with themselves.

Although
Annie's case was cold,

it was never forgotten
in La Palma.

Throughout the years, every
new generation of detectives

took a crack at this case,
looking for a new clue.

And in 1996,
that detective was me.

At that point, I felt like
I had an obligation.

Because as I learned,
early on in my career,

"Do not leave
anything unfinished."

You chose to start this, now
you see it through to the end.

And now I have a chance to
be a part of something really big,

and maybe, just maybe,
find something,

and then that's gonna
help me solve it.

So as I'm going through the
evidence, I'm pulling out envelopes,

and I'm looking at
these things going,

"Unknown blood smear
on bedroom window,

blood from kitchen cabinet.

Blood from above light switch.

Blood found in the bathtub."

I'm thinking,
"Oh, my gosh, we have DNA."

Back in the 1970s,
DNA didn't exist,

but the investigators
at that time

had enough foresight
to collect blood evidence

and preserve it
for a future time.

Now, fast forward to 1996.

DNA was new,

but it was going to be better
than fingerprints and we knew it.

So, we have this new
technology now, boom.

Let's go start from square one.

If this blood is not Annie's,
then we may be onto something.

A short time after that,

Orange County
Sheriff's Department,

the crime lab, sent out a memo

going, "If you have cold
cases with blood, send it to us."

So, we submitted it.

In those days when
I was a new detective,

it took a long time
to get those results,

because DNA
technology was so new.

It took a long time,
but we got results.

The blood came back
with the Y chromosome,

which indicates
blood from a male.

And that was
the first break in this case.

After that DNA came back, we
had it submitted in the CODIS

and we knew at that point,
it wasn't a matter of "If,"

it was a matter of "When we
were gonna find our suspect."

We thought he was gonna
turn up fairly quickly,

but the CODIS database
was new, it was still growing.

So, we knew we had to be
patient with that.

While waiting for the DNA hit
to come back from CODIS,

we developed a few more leads.

We had thought, you know, that it
could be Ted Bundy that was involved.

That was during
his reign of terror.

At that time,

Ted Bundy was operating
on the West Coast.

Annie fit the description
of a number of his victims,

as well as the injuries
found on Annie.

The pathologist who was
performing the autopsy,

said he believes there was
a bite mark on the victim.

That was Ted Bundy's MO.

However, 22 years later,

DNA was able to officially
eliminate Ted Bundy as a suspect.

So now, at this time,
all the leads went dry.

We hadn't got a match on CODIS,

and then I had to drop the case.

So, La Palma,
being a small city,

you can't hold a permanent
position as a police officer.

One of the reasons being is,

you have to give everybody a chance to
rotate through the different opportunities

that the La Palma Police
Department had to offer.

So, typically, each position
would be a three-year rotation.

So, I knew going in 1996, that
I would be rotating out in 1999.

It's been three years that
we developed DNA evidence,

and we haven't got a hit.

So here I am now,

rotating out of the detectives.

That was hard,
that was really rough.

I spent the next six years
out of the detective bureau.

I made sergeant.

So as much as I wanted to,

I didn't have any time
for detective work,

especially for a
25-year-old cold case.

There was not a day that went by

that I didn't think about Annie

and solving this case.

I never felt quite complete, as a
law enforcement officer and detective,

having not solved this case.

I rotated back into
the detective bureau in 2005.

We were busy, I mean, there was
a period of times where you're either

really, really busy or
then you're not so busy.

Well, we were busy, we had a number of
robberies, we had a couple of homicides.

Right around
the first part of 2007,

I was frustrated because
here we had blood evidence,

we had a male profile, and
we've had nothing all these years.

Ten years have gone by from the
time we had a DNA profile, male,

and nothing had
come to fruition out of this.

And the DNA is sitting in CODIS,

and it will remain there
until a match is made.

And I know that, you know, I probably
have another year in detectives.

And now we have a whole
new wave of investigators

that have been trained
on the new technology.

We can have a fresh set of eyes

looking at this case
from a different angle,

and bring something
to the table.

If we're not gonna get
a DNA hit,

then maybe this is what we
need to solve this case.

So, as supervisor
of investigations,

I made the decision that we
are gonna reopen this case.

On the day we
officially reopened the case,

I put some three-ring binders
together of all reports.

I gave everybody
their copy and I said,

"Take it home on the weekend,
look at it on your own time.

I'm gonna do the same.

Because our suspect
is in these binders.

I know it, I know in my heart.

The investigators way back in
1974 talked to so many people.

This person's in here."

One of those
new investigators that came in

was Paul Bracciodieta.

I sat in
on the detective interviews.

Paul stood out.

He was like a law-enforcement
encyclopedia.

This guy had answers
to everything.

Relating to search warrants, relating to laws
of evidence, relating to the court process.

I was so impressed,

I recommended
that he join the team.

He was brand-new,
and I was getting asked

why the heck am I having
him involved with this.

And I said,

"Because I know that he's
a key to solving this case."

And let's just say this.

Paul was the first big break
that we had on this cold case.

Many investigators can
go their whole police career

without ever having an
opportunity to work a cold case.

So, as a brand-new detective,

I looked at the opportunity
that Jim was giving me

as too good to be true,
that I wasn't gonna pass up.

I was willing to do
whatever it took to help him,

and our unit, achieve that goal.

Paul Bracciodieta
is like a sponge.

Paul would do things

that no other investigators
wanna do.

He would get into the weeds.

He didn't care
about getting dirty.

I'm pretty meticulous.

Things might jump out to me that they
might not to other officers or detectives.

I have the attention
span and discipline

to really pore through her case.

I think that's, overall,
my personality.

Not just as a cop, but
specifically as a detective.

If I told him to bring
five things to the table,

Paul would bring
50 things to the table.

That weekend,
one of the first things I did

was go into
the La Palma PD evidence room

and start examining and
re-inventorying evidence items.

The one thing that stuck with
me and continues to stick with me

throughout this case,
and even to this day,

was the one human remain
of Annie

that we still had in evidence,

was literally
her jawbone in a glass case.

They kept
Annie's jawbone

just in case if
a suspect was identified,

if she perhaps bit the suspect,

we'd be able to match
Annie's dental records.

When you look at
the pictures of Annie in life,

up until the time of her death,

it was difficult to reconcile.

You have this beautiful
31-year-old woman

whose life was snuffed out
for no apparent reason at all,

and all that we have remaining
of her is her set of jawbones.

She deserves
much better than this,

to honor her memory,
to try to find her killer.

So, when Paul
came back on Monday,

I knew that he had spent a lot
of time, more than anybody else.

He spent a lot of time
going through that binder

and he says, "Sergeant Engen,
I've got a couple of people here.

One in particular, this person's name
came up in a transcribed interview,

and I can't find anywhere
where this person was talked to."

And I said, "That's
what we're looking for!"

In that interview
transcript, Annie's girlfriend, Shari,

mentions that Annie had
a casual sexual relationship

with a doctor named Fred Bisson.

I had, at one time fixed
her up with a doctor friend of mine,

and they did have a few dates.

Annie definitely wanted
to get married again.

She was more of a homebody,

and I don't think
that relationship

worked out that well.

We looked into Fred
Bisson's criminal history

and found he had no record.

He was a orthopedic resident
in the Long Beach area,

and that he and Annie would get
together once every few months.

We verified that
nobody had followed up,

or identified
Fred Bisson at the time,

or tried to talk to him.

So, I said, "We definitely
need to go speak with him.

You ready? And he goes,
"Let's do it."

In January 2008,

Jim and I interviewed
Fred Bisson

at his residence in Los Angeles.

So, we get there,
knock on the door.

He answers,
and he's in his scrubs.

Reach out, shake his hand,
and as I shake his hand,

his hand's already
cool and clammy.

So he invites us into his house,

we sit down in the living room
at the table,

and I've got
my briefcase with me,

with all of Annie's photos
when she was alive.

So, we started
questioning him about Annie.

He said, "The name
doesn't ring a bell."

Mr. Bisson was adamant
that he did not know her name,

had never heard of her.

Basically, claimed to have had
nothing to do with her at all.

At one point, he had
to stop the interview

and go in the kitchen
for a minute.

He had asked us if we
wanted coffee or, you know,

water or whatever, but...

And he spent an awful
lot of time in that kitchen.

And I, you know, nudge Paul
and go, "Okay, be ready.

Hopefully he's not gonna,
round the corner

with a deadly weapon
in his hand."

He returned to the interview,

and there was a couple other times where
he had to stop, excuse himself and leave.

Throughout
the whole interview,

Mr. Bisson
was extremely nervous,

to the point where
his hands were shaking.

It looked like
he was looking at a ghost.

He says, "You know, I pride
myself on my memory

and she doesn't mean
anything to me."

He goes, "She must
not have been very important

because if she was important,
I would've remembered her."

At the end of the interview, I
couldn't wait to pop the question to him.

I asked Dr. Bisson if he
would be willing to submit

to a "Voluntary
elimination swab."

That's how I worded it.

He goes, "No, I'm not planning
to volunteer a swab.

You do whatever you gotta do."

We left
his residence at that point.

Shortly after that, we received
notification from an attorney

that had been retained
by Mr. Bisson

that he was no longer
gonna answer questions

about or cooperate
in any further way

with our investigation
into Annie's murder.

Throughout
the entire investigation,

he was the first
person of interest

who did not want to
cooperate ever so slightly.

He's hiding something.

At that point,
our guts were telling us

that Mr. Bisson deserved
further investigation

and that he likely had
more information that,

for whatever reason,
he was unwilling

to provide to us at that time.

In my mind, this is our guy.

So, our job now with him was to
get his DNA and solve this case.

So I called the DA's office,
and we have this meeting.

We gave him the whole scenario.

And I asked, "Do we have
enough for a search warrant?"

He said, "No, you don't have
enough for a search warrant

because you have to find
something independent, a tie-in,

other than this person's name
that came up in a transcript."

And then he said,
"Well, you know,

you don't have to get
a search warrant,

but there are other ways
you can get his DNA."

I was like, "Yep."

So that night,
we drove up to San Gabriel,

where he worked,

and we launched our plan on
surreptitiously collecting his DNA.

The first thing we did was,
went to his vehicle,

where he parked his truck,
and waited for him.

Shortly after, we see him
leaving work, off for the day.

He gets in his car, so he takes
off, starts driving, so we follow him.

During that time,
we were extremely hopeful

that he was gonna
discard something

that we thought might provide
a comparison DNA sample

to run against the profile
we had in CODIS

for the suspect
in Annie's murder.

And then he went
to a liquor store.

So now we're thinking,

"Gosh, okay, hopefully he's
gonna discard something."

As a brand-new detective

who had never done
surveillance before,

I was worried
in the back of my mind

because despite
all the excitement,

despite the euphoria of a possible
new break and a new suspect,

I had the fear
of being discovered

and having him know what we were
doing, and that we were onto him.

So, we see him drinking.

We just talked to him the
other day, and now he's...

Gets off work and he drinks?
Is this his normal routine?

Paul and I are thinking, "This
is the behavior of somebody

who's thinking
about something."

Then we see him smoking

and we could tell that he had
dropped a cigarette butt.

So as he drives off and leaves,

we go straight to where
he dropped the cigarette butt.

We book it and
we submit it to the crime lab.

We were more than hopeful

this would be our break.

So, we're thinking this.

"We already had Dr. Bisson in
a sexual relationship with Annie,

we had him refuse
to voluntarily provide DNA,

then Bisson retained
an attorney,

he's saying he will not answer
any questions, anything at all."

So, what we did believe was that

he was afraid his DNA was
gonna show up in that apartment.

So we were confident
he was our guy.

We were
excited at that moment

because after 34 years
and the amount of detectives

and time that was put
into all this,

Jim and I finally had the
chance to resolve this case

that had remained unsolved
over the past few decades.

And it was about two weeks
after that, we got results.

A DNA comparison
from Mr. Bisson

to the unknown CODIS profile
was a big, fat negative.

The initial blow...

that was hard,
that was really rough.

I was absolutely
crushed and disappointed.

I wanted the crime to be solved,

I wanted him to be our guy.

It was disappointing,
but we just had to regroup.

In the months
following reopening this case,

going through 2008,
we got pretty busy again.

We couldn't spend
as much time on duty

working on the cold case.

But now, here, we felt
like we had momentum

and we didn't wanna
give that up.

So, we decided at that time, "Hey,
we're gonna have to work on this off-duty."

So, we both started
taking copies of the case file home,

and we both became, for lack of a
better word, obsessed with the case.

Reading it backwards
and forwards.

Once, twice, several times over,

and then calling each other
on the weekends,

on our off-hours to discuss,

"Hey, why don't we
look at this?"

Or, "Did they talk to this
person back in the day?"

And make notes.

And then Monday was the day
we would come back to the office

and commiserate about it.

And it was from that,

spending all our off-duty
time together

investigating this case,
when we realized

how much we had in common.

And Paul and I would become
friends along with coworkers.

Jim mentored me,

and he was an older,
more-experienced supervisor

mentoring a younger,
less-experienced detective.

And that, the professional aspect,
developed into a personal friendship.

We were both driven
to the Ross case,

to see it through to the end.

Paul and I had
the exact same goal in mind.

And so, I knew,

"If Paul is willing
to put this time in it,

and I'm willing to put
this time in it,

we're gonna get
this thing solved."

So, Jim and I
redoubled our efforts

into what else may have been
overlooked over the years,

not only by prior investigators,

but, "What are we missing?
What are we not seeing?"

And during one of the many
go-arounds in the case file,

I saw, on page 34,

something that stood out to me.

Not because there was a lot of information
in the case file, it was the exact opposite.

It was lost in the background
noise of the rest of the case file.

And it was a first name
and last name, Larry Stephens.

Nothing else.

No date of birth
or address listed.

And that's what, the lack of
information, stood out to me.

And in the investigators'
report at the time,

this Larry Stephens was connected
to a guy named Paul Williams,

who lived in the apartment
directly above Annie.

And Paul Williams' name
raised red flags

with the investigators
at that time,

because a few weeks
after the murder,

there was a female neighbor
on the floor above Annie,

who reported
a suspicious incident

where she's inside her
apartment, her door's shut,

but she sees and hears
what she thinks

is somebody rattling her
door handle from the outside.

Naturally, she goes to see,
opens the door,

looks outside the hallway, and
she sees two guys walking away.

And this woman is pretty sure that the two
guys came from Paul Williams' apartment.

So, Detective Powers
talks to Paul Williams,

Paul Williams says, "I don't
know what this lady is talking about,

I don't know anything
about anybody,

I didn't touch
her door handle."

But he does mention, "Yeah, I
got my buddy, Larry Stephens,

he stays with me
occasionally."

And that's about
the extent of it.

From that point, we
couldn't find any follow-up.

So, we decided, "Well,
there's our next contact.

We need to go talk with,
with Paul Williams."

So, we did some
homework, we knew that

Paul was living
out of state in Arizona.

And I knew that we had
to fly to Arizona

and get this interview done.

But, right around that time, we're
going through some budget cuts.

Here we are in 2008, the country is
experiencing a major financial crisis,

and the last thing that
the department could afford

was to spend money working
on a 34-year-old cold case.

You know, we were
running short on resources.

One of the things that the
chief said at the time was,

"We're not paying you
to fly over there."

I said, "You're not
paying me for anything."

So I'm a licensed pilot,
I have my own plane.

For just the cost of fuel, we can
turn a long trip into a short trip.

I told Paul, I go, "Hey, we
gotta do this on our own time.

So, hey, let's go talk to him,
we're gonna get my plane.

We're gonna go fly to Arizona
and get this interview done."

We got a rental car
and we interviewed Paul.

When we spoke to Mr. Williams
in Lake Havasu,

he remembered Annie Ross.

Although he did not know her
very well personally,

he remembered she lived
in the apartment below his.

He remembered
she had a small dog and,

most importantly he remembered,

in 1974, that
she had been murdered.

He had an incredible memory.

In fact, we almost
thought too incredible.

Because he remembered, on
the day, that it was a Wednesday

and that for some reason he
left his apartment at 5:00 p.m.

That was right at the start
of our time frame,

that was 15 minutes
before Annie got home.

And by the time he came back,

there were police and a lot of
activity in Annie's apartment,

he found out later
that she was murdered.

And then we asked him,

"Would you provide us
with a voluntary DNA swab?"

And readily said,
"Absolutely."

So, we continue to question him.

I said, "Do you recognize
this gentleman right here?"

He goes, "Yeah,
that's just Larry Stephens."

We learned
that Larry Stephens and Paul

went to the same high school,
they became close friends.

After they graduated in 1967,

they continued to remain
good friends

up until the time,
later on down the road,

when Paul moved
from La Palma to Lake Havasu.

And we asked him, "When was the
last time you saw or talked to Larry?"

And he said, "Right around
the time of the homicide."

"Really? You never kept touch with
him after that?" He goes, "No, not really."

So, we go, "Okay.

So, you know,
how would you describe him?"

And he said, "He's harmless,
he wouldn't hurt a fly.

You know, he just loved
to smoke his marijuana.

He didn't wanna be bothered.

He just, he wanted to smoke his
marijuana. That's all he liked to do."

So, we asked, "Well,
tell us more about Larry."

And he had told
us that he would,

he would come by and
stay at his apartment,

and that he was married
before and divorced.

And he remembered
the wife's name, Francis,

and that they all went
to the same high school.

And when he showed
the picture of Francis

in the high school yearbook,

one of the things
that stood out,

and it was a little eerie,

she bore a striking physical
resemblance to Annie.

We got her last name,

and that was not documented
in the original report.

So, we had that lead,

we knew we had another area
to go on.

Later on, we found out
that Paul Williams' DNA swab

did not match
our suspect sample.

At that point, and
I was confident that,

Paul was not
a person of interest.

We knew we had to focus
on Larry Stephens.

The thing was, Paul Williams
didn't know where he was,

we didn't have
his date of birth,

and Larry Stephens is
a very common name,

there's thousands
of Larry Stephens,

but now we did have the name
of his ex-wife, Francis.

We quickly identified her
and where she was living.

So, the next logical step was to
talk to Larry Stephens' ex-wife.

One day I was
sitting there and I hear a knock,

and there's two

La Palma policemen

standing at my door.

The key thing that I'll always
remember and never forget,

the look on her face when we
said the name "Larry Stephens."

Instantly turned to stone.

And she looked like
she had seen a ghost.

And, boy, did she paint
a different picture than Paul.

I met Larry when
I was in the 12th grade.

I graduated
from high school in June,

and then we got married
the next January.

And everything seemed
to be okay then.

And in the September of '69,
that's when he got drafted,

and he had to go to Vietnam
for a year and a half,

was very hard for me because I
was pregnant with our first child.

When he got back from Vietnam,

that's when things
started changing.

His anger came out.

He was verbally abusive.

He tried to strangle me.

He wasn't a good husband,
he wasn't a good dad.

He wasn't good at anything.

I came home to work one day,

there was a splinter
in my finger,

and I went in the bedroom
to get it out.

And he followed me and said,
"Where's my dinner?"

I said, "As soon as
I get the splinter out,

I'll help you
get dinner ready."

I got a black eye.

That happened on Mother's Day,

and I went and saw a lawyer
the very next week.

We get a divorce.

And then after that,
Larry started stalking me.

He'd be looking in my windows
to see who I had in my house.

If he saw a strange
car in the driveway,

he had to come see who it was.

And I had a .22 gun,
and I chased him down.

I never saw him
again after that.

Talking to Francis,

Larry Stephens went
from a person of high interest

to a very, very viable suspect
for the murder of Annie Ross.

And my gut was telling me
this is gonna be our guy.

Who knows a bad guy
better than their wife?

Nobody.

And I asked,
I had asked Francis,

"Is he capable of murder?"

And I told him, "Yes.
He could kill somebody."

I told Paul, "This is it.

This is our guy.
Let's do our homework,

let's get everything
we can possibly get on him."

We dug up police
reports from around

2007 to 2008 on Mr. Stephens,

and we found out he had a new
wife that he was also abusing.

There are police
reports of Santa Rosa

documenting physical
abuse up to and including,

and this is what struck us,
strangulation.

We didn't have any DNA,

so we needed to
get a sample from him.

We knew we had to figure out,
"How are we going to do this?"

We have to go follow him around,

and surreptitiously
collect his DNA.

We were able to determine

that Larry Stephens was
currently living in Santa Rosa,

700 miles north of La Palma.

After that,

I couldn't wait to get up there

and start asking him questions.

However,
at that particular time,

we are hit with more
significant budget cuts,

our department size is reducing.

Unfortunately,
a decision was made higher up

that, because
of the department priorities,

we weren't gonna be able to put
any more resources into this case.

So, the decision was made
to put a pause, indefinitely,

on the Ross murder
investigation until further notice.

There was internal conflict

and there was a lack of support from
management to continue on with this case.

Paul and I had talked a lot

about just going
up to Santa Rosa,

but the thing of it is
I was a sergeant,

I was told to cease and desist.

And we have to
take steps properly,

otherwise we can ruin the
chances of solving this case.

The best way
I can describe it,

you're in a marathon race and
I can see the finish line,

and then somebody
physically stops

and holds me back
and moves the finish line

miles and miles down the road.

So far that I can see it
on the horizon,

but it's a long way off.

You feel
as an investigator.

"Here we have a person
of interest.

If this guy does something
really bad while we were waiting...

the blood's on our hands."

There was not a day that went by

that we didn't think
about this case.

That was hard to deal with

because I was getting to a point

where I had retirement
in my binoculars.

My wife, Laurie,
convinced me to keep on going.

Laurie was aware
of this investigation

and I told her, "There's
gonna be a lot of work to do."

And she said, "You need to wait
this out. You need to see this through."

I knew at that point

that this case is gonna be
closed and set before I retire

and there's no question
about it.

And then May 13th, 2015,

a call from the Orange County
Sheriff's Department changed everything.

So,
I was in a hotel room in Napa,

I think it was early afternoon.

I saw there was
a voicemail from Jim

and a text message
from Jim saying,

"Paul, call me." It was pretty
short and to the point.

He got back to me relatively quickly
and I said, "Are you sitting down?"

He says, "What's going on?"
I go, "Guess what?"

Jim tells me,

"Orange County
Crime Lab called me,

and we have a CODIS hit
for the Ross case."

He goes, "Are you
serious? Are you kidding me?

And I said, "Guess who?"

And he tells me
it was Larry Stephens.

And my immediate feeling was
a feeling of vindication.

So, this is validating all
the hard work, the setbacks,

and all the criticism
we got from peers,

or superiors over the years that this
was a dead end, it was a waste of time.

So that's a phone call in the
day I'll never forget, May of 2015.

The reason
that we got his DNA

was because he was involved
in an incident with his wife

and he was arrested
for a felony,

and his DNA was collected.

Back in March of 2015, he and
his current wife at the time, Susan,

had been drinking
in the afternoon

and Larry started
screaming at Susan.

He strangled her, punched her in
the face and, I mean, drew blood.

Luckily, Santa Rosa police
were called.

And Larry had
gotten a butcher knife.

As they arrived, he's outside with the
butcher knife saying, "Come and get me."

And they tase Larry,
and Larry immediately gave up.

So he was arrested for a felony,

and he had his DNA taken
and it was submitted

to the CODIS database
and tested and matched

to a sample collected
from Annie's crime scene.

That faceless,
unknown DNA profile,

that phantom that was haunting
the city of La Palma...

there was finally a name
and a face put on that,

and the face was
Larry Clark Stephens.

So now, this 40-year-old
cold case just turned hot.

We were given all of the
resources needed

by the city to bring this case
to a successful conclusion.

Well, it was time now,
we needed to go talk to Larry.

On June 1st, 2015, Paul and
I headed up to Santa Rosa.

We knew Larry was out on bail
because he had this felony over his head.

And our entire drive up there was
strategizing on how we're gonna do it.

Our strategy
turned out to be,

"We hope he denies knowing
anything about Annie."

If we show him a picture, he's
gonna say, "I don't know who this is."

More importantly, was he
ever in any other apartments

besides Paul Williams'
in that complex?

And if the answer is no,
that's good.

And the strategic thinking was
"Okay, now he has to explain

why his blood is
all over her apartment

and even on the comforter where
Annie's dead body was found."

So, Paul and I drove
to the front entrance

of Sequoia Gardens Mobile Park.

And as we pulled in, I said,
"Okay, we're on. Let's go."

Test one, two.

One, two, three, four.

So, we get out of our car

and there he is,
there's Mr. Stephens,

first time we're seeing him
in person.

It's exhilarating, but there's a lot of
pressure for everything to go right.

So, we began that conversation,

you know, "We were up here
looking into some old crimes."

He was unexpectedly calm...

polite.

It was creepy.

I felt he would be
able to outwit us.

One of the first things I asked
him was, "Do you know Paul Williams?"

And we started asking him
questions about where he was living,

was he familiar with the
Brookside Apartment complex.

Then at that
point we asked him,

has he been in any other
apartments

besides Paul Williams'
in that complex? "No."

"Has he ever been
in the apartment

below Paul Williams' back
in 1974 that belong to Annie?"

Larry denies ever knowing Annie,

ever being in her
apartment, completely.

So, we end up getting
exactly what we want

out of this poolside
conversation with him.

And after
a couple other questions,

we show him a picture of
Annie when she was alive.

And then he looked at it close up and
then far, and we could see at that point

that his behavior was changing,

and his hands
were shaking a bit.

He said that photo
reminded him of Samantha,

A neighbor of Samantha
Stephens from the show Bewitched.

And we go,
"Well, no, not quite."

And it was, you know,

"We're showing you
a picture of someone

who we believe you murdered
41 years ago."

He knew that
the gig was up at that point.

I said, "Paul, I think
it's time to wrap this up."

Paul handcuffed him.
He didn't even resist.

He didn't even ask
why we were arresting him.

The only thing he said was,

"Are you gonna
go tell my wife?"

Undeniably,
my overriding emotion upon

taking him into custody was
the achievement of a goal

that Jim and I had been
working on for the last eight years.

Once we got the cuffs on him,

the satisfaction
was overwhelming

because, you know,
after all these years,

we're gonna
get this thing solved.

But now we have our work
cut out for us even more,

because now we have to prove
this in a court of law.

That blood we had

for not days,
not months, but years.

There's a big gap there.

Well, if I was
a smart defense attorney,

I'm gonna attack that evidence

'cause if you can
attack the evidence

and make the evidence
inadmissible,

you don't have a case.

I started in the
DA's office in March of 2000,

and I received the Annie
Ross case in January of 2017.

This case holds a special significance to
me personally because I had also worked

as a sexual assault
victim counselor

for a short period of time.

And so that's when I formed my real desire
to become a sexual-assault prosecutor,

which I did
for about seven years

before going
to the homicide unit.

So, I was thrilled to
get the Annie Ross case.

What happened to Annie,

that she was
violently sodomized,

was not something that we
were used to, here, in La Palma.

This was horrific.

And we knew that we need
to bring justice for Annie.

The biggest challenge
in a cold case

is the loss of evidence.

We had people who had died,

we had witnesses
that were not available.

You have evidence that becomes
not able to be reprocessed.

So for instance, in this case,

some things become
disintegrated.

That was one
of the defense arguments.

"Well, this blood
has disintegrated."

We had to find a new coroner
that could review the documents,

we had to make sure that all
the crime-scene evidence was...

A proper foundation was laid, and
the older it is, you lose that information.

There were challenges,
but she was confident.

She believed in this case.

She was determined,

and you know, she was a bulldog.

I asked that the court designate

retired captain, Jim Engen,
as my investigative officer

to sit with me during the trial.

He's had the case
longer than me.

Even though I have read
everything and prepared it legally,

factually, he's been there
from the earliest point.

We did not have the confession,

but when you have a DNA case,

sometimes it's more helpful
when they don't confess,

because they gave him
an opportunity

to put himself
in that apartment,

and he continued to deny
ever being in there.

But his DNA was.

We do know that her dog, Jody,

had some kind of interaction
with defendant Stephens

because he eventually put her
in a drawer of the dresser.

She likely bit him because we
had blood evidence on the comforter

and on the windowsill.

The blood is essential.
It tells the story, too.

It's how he
had to close the window

to quiet the crime and
not attract the neighbors,

and not be
further attacked by Jody

while he was attacking
her owner.

The complete
denial of being there

was very compelling evidence,

but also we had the
defendant's letters

he wrote to his wife, Susan,

once he was in jail for having
finally been arrested for this crime.

And I read the defendant's
words to the jurors.

"June of 2015,

I really regret
not killing myself

the night before
those detectives showed up.

I had awakened at 2:20 a.m.

thinking about the
domestic violence issue.

I had never thought
about the DNA swab.

If I had, this would
all be over already.

Should have followed
my gut instincts."

In a letter dated July 13, 2015,

the defendant wrote,

"If I had known that DNA swab
was going to result in a cold hit...

How? I don't know,

I'm sure I would
have taken my life.

This is the lowest
point in my life, ever.

They keep it
so damn cold in here.

I'm just so pissed they have me.

I should have never let
them get their hands on me,

and I only have myself
to blame for that, too."

These letters show no surprise,

no shock, no disbelief.

"Why am I here? I didn't
do anything, I'm innocent!"

Those weren't his words.

His words were,
"I wish I'd known about DNA.

I wish I had taken my life.

Being in jail sucks."

He wasn't sorry,
he was sorry he was caught.

The ability to do
such a violent act,

to strangle and sexually
assault and kill and then,

after living with it
for decades,

still have no remorse,
speaks to...

the evil in that person.

In my closing arguments,

I remember talking to them
about those final moments,

how terrible
they were for Annie.

In order to strangle someone,

you're looking at at least three
minutes to effectuate the killing.

And if you sit
for three minutes in silence

and know how very
long three minutes is

to have someone's hands
around a person's neck

and be squeezing
the life out of them...

The horror that must have been
for her fighting for her life.

That's the reason why
Annie deserves justice.

So,
while the jury deliberated,

we're down at the DA's office
and we're just in suspense.

And then the phone rang.

Jennifer says,
"They have a verdict."

He could either be spending
the rest of his life in prison,

or he can walk out
of the courtroom.

As they're getting ready
to read the verdict,

I reached
and held Jennifer's hand.

And they came back...

"Guilty."

Larry Stephens was
convicted by the jury

of murder in the first degree.

He was sentenced
to life in prison.

That was when I just took that
deep breath and that sigh of relief.

Because we did it.

I mean, this is it, we did it.

When I heard "Guilty,"

it felt so nice to
know that this person,

who's had all of those
years of freedom

and still had no remorse

and still felt sorry
for himself,

could hear that those 12 people

knew what he did.

Our theory, we believe

that he was not killing Annie,

but he was killing
his ex-wife, Francis.

After talking with Francis,

we learned that there had
been some alleged infidelity

which ultimately
led to the breakup.

And Annie had arrived
at her apartment,

and we believe he saw her,
and he saw Francis, not Annie.

Annie was just at the wrong
place at the wrong time.

Jim called me, and he told
me that Larry was convicted.

And I just started crying...

You know, I was very happy
to bring this all to an end.

It'd be equal justice
for what happened to Annie

only if the same thing
happened to him in prison.

And I would not shed a tear
if that had happened to him.

The murder of Annie Ross

is one of the oldest
cold cases solved in America.

For over 41 years,
her killer walked free,

but the diligent work
of the original investigators

and the thousands
upon thousands of hours

put in by
generations of detectives

brought this case to a close.

I was happy for everyone
involved on the law enforcement side,

but most importantly
for Annie's spirit,

'cause I think she was in
the courtroom the whole time

watching and waiting
for justice to be done.

She was definitely
with us that day.

Yep.

You can tell how
much this case meant to you.

Yeah. It meant a lot.
It meant a lot to all of us.

I remember driving
home that night,

going, "We didn't
give up, Annie".

I knew that Annie was...

I knew that Annie was looking
down on us going, "Thank you."