Original subtitles

Narrator:

Narrator: In a small town in Michigan,

Narrator: In a small town in Michigan, a mother of two went missing

- after a home invasion. - ( woman screaming )

He went down to his mother's room and he could hear her screaming.

I think we have something here that's considerably worse

- than what we were called for. - ( woman screaming )

It shook your sense of security.

I was scared, I was hopeful she would be found.

Narrator: The tight-knit community was shocked,

but they came together in the search

for 33-year-old Lisa Fein.

Just behind Lisa's house we started digging with our hands and feet.

I really started to get a bad feeling.

Narrator: To solve this crime,

investigators would have to dig up secrets buried in the past.

She paged him the night before she turned up missing.

Man: I started hearing stories of his dark side.

He used to park and watch her house.

She purposely didn't go near him and he scared her.

( music playing )

( phone ringing )

( music playing )

Narrator: At eight o'clock in the morning,

on June 30, 2000,

police arrived at the home of Ron and Lisa Fein.

Just a few minutes after Ron's panicked phone call.

Ron told the officers, that to his relief,

he'd found 10-year-old Shane and 12-year-old Jacob

safe at his grandmother's home next door,

but there was still no sign of Lisa.

Deputy Julia Flick: Ron was very concerned

with the fact that his wife was missing,

and he seemed completely confused

as to what could've happened.

Narrator: Ron and Lisa had met five years earlier

at their jobs at a nearby nuclear plant.

Greg Weiser: Ron and Lisa worked in the same department at the power plant.

They were around each other quite a bit,

and just through time, you know, they grew close.

I think he really loved Lisa and Lisa really loved him.

They worked out well together.

Narrator: Ron and Lisa were both single parents

when they started dating.

Lisa had a son, Jacob, and Ron had a son, Shane.

And they all got along well.

Jake and Shane were only a year apart.

And they made a nice blended family.

Narrator: After Ron and Lisa's wedding in 1995,

the entire family, Ron, Lisa, and the boys,

lived together in the house on Olive Branch Road.

To their friends and family,

Ron and Lisa's marriage seemed happy and secure.

They were good parents, who always put their kids first.

Ron, he works hard to take care of his family,

He was willing to put in the long hours.

He was upstanding, upright guy.

Barbara Kain: Lisa was a very doting mom.

She thought being a mom was just the greatest thing.

That was like her sole focus, being a good mom.

Narrator: But now, according to Ron,

Lisa had vanished.

Ron told police that he'd last seen Lisa

at 10:00 PM the night before

when he left for his regular overnight shift

at the power plant.

He said he got off work at 6:00 AM.

Flick: Ron told me that he arrived home in the morning

and he found some things were out of order.

Narrator: In fact, the entire downstairs appeared to be trashed.

Ron said the house wasn't like that when he left.

Flick: His basement door was unlocked,

and when he walked outside he found a little duct tape.

We went in the house and Ron walked with me to his bedroom.

In the bedroom I saw

that the sheets on the bed had been pulled from the mattress,

and that some hats had been knocked off a hat rack.

I also noticed that Ron's wife,

Lisa's ID and money were still on the dresser.

I also realized her glasses were still on the dresser

and her contacts were still in the bathroom.

I also wear contacts and glasses,

and so I know that I wouldn't leave the house

without contacts or glasses.

So, for Lisa to leave the house without being able to see,

I knew something very bad had possibly happened in that house.

Robert Mazurek: After getting the initial information

Deputy Flick advised me to go out

and make perimeter check around the residence

and the property to see if there was anything that we could find

that was of suspicious nature or out of place.

Narrator: The Fein's home was set on a large plot of land

surrounded by dense woods and acres of bean fields.

A thorough search of the property could take hours

or even days.

But just minutes after the deputy set out on his mission,

he spotted something unusual.

Mazurek: When I got to the east side of the property line

I found a spot that went through the grass

where it appeared as if somebody had been dragged.

I followed the tracks back to the basement.

I went over to my partner immediately and advised her

that I think we have something here

that's considerably worse than what we were called for.

Flick: When Deputy Mazurek showed me the marks

that were leading out of the house,

I recognized that they appeared to be

from the heels of a person

that was being dragged away from the house.

When looking at the marks,

the drag marks were two steady lines.

So I knew that there was no way the person

that was dragged from the house

could've been conscious at the time.

It immediately sent chills up my spine.

Mazurek: There would be no reason to be removing

anybody from a house in that manner.

Narrator: With the disturbing discovery,

the deputies knew it was time to call in detectives.

Rolland LaBaumbard: At the time of this missing person complaint,

I'd been a detective for approximately eight years.

I was in charge of the investigation.

Narrator: Detective LaBaumbard examined the drag marks in the backyard.

LaBaumbard: You could tell there was almost a path,

which led out the side yard, into a vegetation area.

We followed that path back out to the road on Olive Branch,

where it stopped, and you could tell on the side of the road

there was tire impressions.

Narrator: For LaBaumbard, a chilling picture was coming into focus.

LaBaumbard: I believe Lisa was probably dragged from the residence

to the roadway, placed in a vehicle,

and taken someplace which we did not know.

It was imperative to do whatever we could do

to try to locate her in a timely fashion.

Because for any time that's idle,

you're losing time about finding the victim alive.

Narrator: As each minute passed without a word from Lisa,

Ron grew more and more distressed.

He was desperate to find her.

Deputy Julia Flick took on the difficult task

of interviewing Lisa and Ron's sons, Jacob and Shane,

to find out when they'd last seen their mom.

But she was unprepared for the conversation that followed.

12-year-old Jacob revealed chilling details

that quickly shifted the course of the investigation.

Flick: Jacob was very upset

and concerned about where his mother went.

And he told me that some time around 3:30

some loud noises woke him up.

( woman screams )

He went down to his mother's room

and he could hear her screaming.

( woman screaming )

The door was open so he was able to look into the room,

and he saw his mother and another man wrestling.

Jacob told me that person that was fighting with his mother

was wearing a black, snowmobile helmet

with a tinted visor that was pulled down.

He became very scared

and that he went and woke up his brother Shane.

They went to the living room and decided

that they needed to call 911.

( phone beeping )

But when they picked up the phone to call 911,

all they could hear was a beeping tone on the other end.

When they were trying to call 911,

they kept hearing a thumping noise

coming from the bedroom and stair area.

( thumping )

They knew that they had to get out of the house

and get help for their mother.

Narrator: At 3:30 in the morning,

Jacob and Shane ripped out their bedroom window screen

and ran out onto the dark street.

Determined to escape from the horror

happening inside their home.

House: Poor Jacob.

It's terrifying to think he went through that.

He described it to me about how he took a pencil

and tore the screen so they could get out.

And I asked him how he knew to do that,

and he said his mom taught him.

Flick: While they were out they saw the same person

that had been in the bedroom with a black snowmobile helmet

was actually running down the roadway.

They had then decided to run to the grandmother's house.

Narrator: But then Jacob mentioned one other detail.

He said the dark figure and the leather jacket and helmet,

who attacked his mother was someone he knew really well.

He told me that the person that was fighting with his mother

was Ron.

They had a time where they weren't getting along well.

LaBaumbard: We talked to numerous friends that made mention

that they did have trouble in their marriage.

Barbara Kain: She was sort of a party girl.

He didn't like that.

He did a lot of mean, vindictive things.

In the little township

In the little township of Galien, Michigan,

police learned that Lisa Fein was snatched from her bedroom

in the middle of the night by a masked intruder.

Lisa's 12-year-old son Jacob, who saw the invader,

said it was his stepfather, Ron Fein.

LaBaumbard: Jacob had made the statement that,

"I thought you and mom were fighting."

And Ron's first statement out of his mouth was,

"I was at work all night. It wasn't me"

Narrator: Could Ron have slipped away

from his job at the nuclear plant

in the middle of the night, attacked Lisa,

then returned to work without anyone knowing?

Due to the fact that Jacob had made a statement

that he thought it was his mom and Ron fighting,

we had to follow up and verify the whereabouts of Ron.

Narrator: The cops also couldn't understand why,

after seeing his mom and stepfather arguing so violently,

Jacob didn't notify the police that night.

Jacob told me that he and Shane ran back

to their grandmother's house and started beating on the door

until their grandmother answered.

Jacob told his grandmother that mom and Ron were fighting

and that she needed help.

His grandmother welcomed them into the house

and told them to stay there for the rest of the night

and not to go back home.

She told them just to go to bed

and that she would take care of everything.

Narrator: The boys' grandmother said she didn't call police

because she hadn't realized the extent of the brawl.

She also didn't want to insert herself

into a disagreement between Lisa and Ron.

The grandmother, Janet, was devastated

to find out in the morning that Lisa was missing

and she was blaming herself for not calling 911

in the middle of the night when the boys came over.

Narrator: Police had lost valuable time

in trying to catch Lisa's abductor.

But now they had a suspect in their sights,

her husband, Ron Fein.

LaBaumbard: During the course of the investigation,

we talked to numerous friends

that made mention that they did have trouble in their marriage.

It appeared like every other marriage,

had to do with money.

Kain: I do believe that she loved Ron,

but I believe they had their share of problems.

She was sort of a party girl. He didn't like that.

They apparently had a time where they weren't getting along well.

Narrator: Detectives speculate if their marital problems

had finally boiled over and caused Ron to lash out at Lisa.

But they also wondered, how was that possible

if Ron, as he claimed, was at work all night.

LaBaumbard: We sent a detective directly to his place of employment

to interview everybody that Ron had worked with that night

to verify at what times they saw him.

The place we work is a very secure place.

You have to have a badge to go into the place,

out of place, to move around the buildings,

and go into different rooms.

Logs are kept of where you're at.

LaBaumbard: We were able to obtain a copy of the printout

of Ron's ID badge.

The print out showed

that Ron had been to 40 different locations,

in and out of doors.

It showed him leaving the plant

with that ID card at approximately

6:00 AM, and the only person that could use that ID card

would be Ron Fein.

I was confident that Ron was at work that whole night.

Narrator: Ron was in the clear,

but now nearly eight hours

after Lisa was attacked and kidnapped,

detectives still had no idea who had done it

or where Lisa was.

I made contact with our reserve unit, the sheriff's department.

I was able to get probably 12 to 15 reserves

to search the immediate area of the property.

Contacted the Michigan State Police for a helicopter

to do a flyover of that area

to see if they could find anything unusual in the area.

Narrator: By now, word of the abduction

had reached Lisa's family and friends.

I can remember like it just happened yesterday.

I was concerned.

I was scared.

I was hopeful she would be found,

but I felt very helpless.

I felt like I was the one

that had to try and keep hope alive for my parents.

Kept saying, "We'll find her. We'll find her."

When I first heard about Lisa missing,

I was in utter shock.

I didn't know how to react.

I had just spoken with her a few days previous.

I prayed that she'd be found alive.

Narrator: Nothing like this had ever happened

in this sleepy town before.

Locals began to fear for their own safety.

Kain: People couldn't believe it.

Everyone that you talked to, it was like, "Not in my town.

That would never happen in this town."

It shook your sense of security.

It shook you right to the core.

People started locking their doors,

and we never did that.

Narrator: Over the next 24 hours,

Ron Fein anxiously waited at home,

desperately hoping his wife would be found,

trying not to let himself think

about what might've happened to her

or whether she was even still alive.

Lisa's friend Greg joined the a volunteer search party

to try and find her.

Lisa was a longtime friend.

When I saw the signs

at work that she was missing

and they were gonna form a search party,

I had to go.

We all gathered at a hall in Galien,

and we were handed out preprinted maps

of the area surrounding their home.

So our group was assigned

to area east of Ron and Lisa's house.

It's a very rural area, open fields around their home.

It was all, you know, one big open area.

At that point, we weren't really expecting to find anything.

We were just verifying that there wasn't anything.

We were hoping for the best and looking for the worst, I guess.

Narrator: Just after dusk on July 2, 2000,

Greg Weiser and a small group of volunteers

set out on their search.

Their target area was the patch of woods and open fields

in the back of the Fein property.

We went down a two-track that's just behind the bean field

that's immediately behind Ron and Lisa's house.

And there's a

woody area that kind of follows that field

and right at the base of that woody area,

there was an area that looked a little odd.

There was some placement of some pieces of wood,

that didn't look natural.

And you could see like a sandy soil around the edges

as if it had been turned over,

and the stuff placed on top of it.

Nobody had tools.

So we start digging

with our hands and feet.

That's when I saw a patch of blue material.

When I saw that patch of blue material,

my heart sunk.

Two days after Lisa

Two days after Lisa Fein's disappearance,

a volunteer search party uncovered

a suspicious piece of blue fabric

buried in a field behind her home.

Detective Rolland LaBaumbard immediately began inspecting the new evidence.

LaBaumbard: I felt what I thought was

some type of soft flesh.

And at that time I stopped doing what I was doing,

contacted the Michigan State Police crime lab

to come down and excavate the burial site.

Due to the fact that we were ready

for a huge thunderstorm that night,

I was told by the person in charge

that they wouldn't be able to come down until the morning.

Any physical evidence of value

I was worried about

if Lisa was buried there.

I did not want to lose any type of evidence.

So I knew I had to keep the area as dry as possible.

I had a raincoat in my car.

I waited over the burial site,

and we tented the area the best we could.

At 8:00 AM the next morning, July 3rd,

technicians from the Michigan State crime lab

arrived to carefully remove the dirt

surrounding the blue fabric.

They quickly confirmed detective LaBaumbard's worst fears.

LaBaumbard: It appeared to be a human figure in a fetal position.

You can tell

that the head had some kind of material around it.

There was a white towel,

and then on top of that material,

the whole face was wrapped in duct tape.

All the way around.

Narrator: After comparing fingerprints,

provided by one of Lisa's previous employers,

the detectives were able to positively identify the victim.

33-year-old Lisa Fein was dead.

LaBaumbard: There's nothing worse than telling a family member

about a situation where a loved one had been killed.

It was a very emotional time with the family.

Felt extremely bad for 'em.

Kain: I remember that they found her

in a shallow grave covered up with dirt.

A pillowcase over her head.

You know, it's one of those memories that never leaves you.

House: I'm really glad I didn't go

with the group that found Lisa's body.

I feel like Lisa was pushing me to go the other direction.

And I'm thankful I didn't find her body,

but I'm also very, very thankful for our heroes that found her.

When Jacob found out he cried, of course.

I remember just trying to get him through it.

Kain: People couldn't believe that there would be someone

that would have the audacity to bury her behind her own home.

To end up like that, people that knew her,

thought it was just

a horrible tragedy that she met her demise that way.

Narrator: Within just a few hours

of being found in a shallow grave on her own property,

Lisa's lifeless body was taken

to the medical examiner's office.

Investigators were anxious to learn

exactly how she'd been killed.

The autopsy revealed that Lisa died of asphyxiation,

which is suffocation.

The autopsy also showed blunt force trauma

to the left side of her head.

She had a large contusion on the temple area.

I believe she was knocked semi-unconscious at least.

There were numerous things that were collected

from Lisa Fein's body at the time.

Of course, the head wrapping which included

the duct tape, the pillowcase, the towel,

along with fingernail clippings.

During the course of the examination those items were taken

into the Michigan State Police crime lab.

The duct tape was processed for prints,

any types of DNA that might be located on 'em,

as well as the pillowcase,

which could've been used by the perpetrator in the past,

along with the towel.

All those items were tested for DNA.

Narrator: But the results would take a few days to come back.

Distraught and full of unanswered questions

Lisa's grieving family planned her funeral.

On July 10, 2000, she was permanently laid to rest

in front of hundreds of friends and well-wishers

still reeling from the shock of her murder.

Everyone there was asking the same questions.

Who would want to murder Lisa

and bury her body in a field behind her own home?

Could it even be someone standing next to them?

Who was the masked man that Jacob claimed he saw?

The results of the forensic tests gave the cops their first real clue.

Although the pillowcase, towel and duct tape, were all clean,

investigators were able to find DNA in another place.

DNA was located underneath of Lisa's fingernails.

On the right hand, there was two fingernails

that had unknown DNA located on 'em.

Any foreign DNA, which is blood or scar tissue or anything,

would mean that Lisa was actually fighting

or attempting to fight off someone

while she was being assaulted.

Which would leave scratches on people's bodies,

on people's faces.

Narrator: For investigators, the most urgent task was to try

and locate the anonymous attacker.

But then detectives discovered

that Lisa had some secrets of her own.

Lisa was having an affair with a local man.

A father of boys that her boy played ball with.

Lisa had an affair with a subject by the name of Jeffrey Rohl.

Kain: I don't think it was anything she was proud of.

I didn't hold it against her.

She was still my friend.

I think it was the thrill.

And I think Lisa briefly thought

the grass is greener on the other side.

LaBaumbard: Jeff was actually coaching

Jacob's baseball team in the summer,

and that's how they got to meet each other.

Narrator: Lisa and Jeff Rohl's affair took off

when Lisa was going through a rough patch

in her marriage with Ron.

House: Lisa never told me about her affair.

I was shocked to hear about it.

Detective Danneffel told Ron about the affair.

I know Ron was crying.

He was-- I know he didn't know about it.

He was very upset.

LaBaumbard: I was concerned about it 'cause I had no idea at the time

if it was still going on or if it had ended.

Were they on good terms, bad terms?

When's the last time he saw her?

When's the last time he had talked with her?

Narrator: Police turned up the heat

on their investigation of Lisa and Jeff's relationship.

We did subpoena the phone records from the Fein residence

and it was discovered

that on the night of the 29th,

which is a day before Lisa turned up missing,

Lisa paged Jeff during the day and asked him

to call her back later that night.

Narrator: Investigators needed to know why Lisa paged Jeff

on the day before she went missing.

Did he return her call?

And if so, did something happen in that conversation

that lead to the violent attack on Lisa?

Where was Jeff during this time period?

A lot of unanswered questions.

So we had to interview Mr. Rohl to find out what was going on.

I made contact with Jeff,

he agreed to meet me at a location

away from residence so that he and I could talk

by ourselves.

When I confronted Jeff about having an affair with Lisa,

he admitted on numerous occasions that he had met her,

and had a relationship with her.

Jeff stated the affair had been over for about six months.

And Jeff said the reason why the affair ended

is he was married, Lisa was married,

and they both decided to work things out with their spouse

and discontinue their affair.

Kain: She told a friend of ours

that the grass wasn't greener on the other side, and that

she and Jeff both decided

that it was best to go their separate ways.

LaBaumbard: I asked Jeff,

"When's the last time you had contact with Lisa?"

And then Jeff told me that on the night

of the 29th, which is the day before Lisa turned up missing,

he actually stopped at a payphone,

about 10:30, called Lisa.

Jeff said

they just wanted to know how each other was doing.

Lisa was telling him about some baseball game

that they're supposed to go to with the kids.

That they were gonna do a family camping trip.

Jeff said they still touched base like once a week by phone.

Even though the affair had been over for six months,

they stayed friends.

The phone call lasted for about 15 minutes

and then he left the payphone and went home for the night.

Narrator: LaBaumbard realized

Jeff knew it was safe to call Lisa late at night,

since Ron would be at work,

but the veteran detective also noticed something odd

about where Jeff stopped to make the call.

The payphone was approximately two miles

from the Fein residence.

After he made the phone call, where did he go?

Did he stop at Lisa's house?

Narrator: It was too big a coincidence to ignore.

Detective LaBaumbard was determined

to find out the truth.

Narrator:

Narrator: Phone records revealed that

Narrator: Phone records revealed that murder victim, Lisa Fein,

paged her former boyfriend, Jeff Rohl,

the day before she went missing.

Investigators needed to find out

where Jeff went after their phone call on June 29, 2000.

LaBaumbard: We followed up to verify his whereabouts

the date Lisa turned up missing.

Detective went to the residence, interviewed family members.

Danneffel: Jeff Rohl did have an alibi,

which was his wife.

They actually had slept together in the same bed that night,

along with a sick child.

And both of them stated during separate interviews,

that they hardly-- either one of them hardly slept that night,

because the child was tossing and turning in the bed.

And the wife of Jeff Rohl was absolutely positive

that he had not left that bed during that time period.

Narrator: Anxious to further prove his innocence,

Jeff volunteered to give police a DNA sample.

Danneffel: When the DNA for Jeff Rohl was examined

by the Michigan State Police crime lab,

it was found not to be a match

to the DNA underneath Lisa Fein's fingernails.

Narrator: Jeff was scratched off the suspect list,

but Detective LaBaumbard still hoped Lisa's ex-lover could help the investigation.

Did Jeff have any insider information

about who might've wanted to harm Lisa?

LaBaumbard: I asked Jeff what he thought could've happened

and all Jeff could say was,

that if something happened to her that Frank was involved.

Frank Spagnola was an ex-boyfriend of Lisa,

and they had a child

together, who was Jacob.

Lisa and Frank met at work, at the Cook Plant,

and started dating.

Like any relationship,

it was exciting and new.

Narrator: Several years before Lisa married Ron,

she and Frank Spagnola were dating,

but the young couple grew apart

after the birth of their son Jacob in 1989.

Weiser: Lisa got pregnant, Jacob was born, but then

their relationship soured.

Narrator: While Lisa hoped they could maintain

an amicable custody arrangement,

Frank had other plans.

After Jake was born it was downhill.

She'd called me and, um,

asked me if my husband had ever hit me,

and I said, "Never. Tell me what happened."

And she told me he hit her,

and I told her I was gonna call Dad

and she talked me out of it,

which I still regret.

He wouldn't bring Jake home on time.

He would tell Jake terrible things about her,

but she wouldn't let anybody say anything bad about Frank.

She wanted Jake to have a good relationship with his dad,

which was the opposite of what Frank wanted.

Frank did mean, vindictive things

to try to cause problems for Lisa.

Weiser: Lisa would tell me things

that had occurred between her and Frank,

and I was initially stunned it was not congruent

with my image and what my thoughts were of Frank.

I mean it just-- To me, he was always a smiley, happy person,

but then I started hearing stories of his dark side.

House: Frank just got stranger and stranger.

He used to park and watch her house.

I guess back then we didn't think as much about stalking,

but I guess that's what he was doing.

Kain: Frank was scary.

He did a lot of intimidation tactics,

like trying to stare her down.

She purposely didn't go near him.

And he scared her.

She lived in fear of Frank.

Narrator: After investigators learned about the abusive,

and violent relationship between Lisa and Frank,

and the custody battles over their son Jacob,

Frank became the prime suspect in Lisa's murder.

I proceeded to Mr. Spagnola's residence to interview him.

Frank appeared to be tired.

He was unshaven, and I noticed he had what appeared to be

a red mark on his chin that was approximately an inch long.

I go, "Frank, what happened to your chin?"

And Frank supplied me

that he had cut himself shaving that morning.

It appeared to me that Frank had not shaved in a day,

'cause he had a little stubble.

Narrator: Detective LaBaumbard wasn't remotely convinced

by Frank's story about a shaving accident.

He had another theory about how Frank ended up

with an inch-long scratch on his chin.

LaBaumbard: The first thing I thought about was the DNA

under the fingernails of Lisa.

And I think Lisa was actually attempting

to fight off someone

while she was being assaulted,

which would leave scratches on people's faces.

Over the years,

Over the years, Lisa Fein had a series

of complicated relationships with men,

which led police to speculate

did any of them have a motive to kill her?

But when detectives learned about Frank Spagnola,

the father of Lisa's 11-year-old son Jacob,

the picture came into focus.

LaBaumbard: When I asked Frank where he was on the night of June 29th,

Frank told me that

approximately 9, 9:30 he went to the Watervliet Hospital,

picked up a check for his mom, brought it back home,

and then remembered he had

some videos that were due at a video store,

and then drove to St. Joe Township,

ended up renting a couple videos.

I ask him what time he was there,

he said, "I thought it was about closing."

He left the video store in St. Joe,

and drove directly back to the house in Watervliet,

where he spent the night.

He had slept a little bit on the couch,

slept a little bit in his bed, stayed up for a while.

There was two people at home that night,

Frank's mom and dad.

Both of those people were interviewed.

Mr. Spagnola made mention he heard Frank taking a shower,

approximately 12:30 in the morning,

but did not see him,

and then never saw him the rest of the night.

And Mrs. Spagnola stated she went to bed earlier that night,

about 9:30 or 10, and did not see Frank

until approximately six o'clock that next morning.

Narrator: No one could vouch for Frank's whereabouts that night.

He had no alibi.

We went to the prosecutor and obtained a search warrant

for DNA or a blood draw from Frank Spagnola.

We obtained the DNA sample and the blood draw,

and then that was sent to the crime lab to compare.

Narrator: Detectives needed to know

if Frank's DNA matched the DNA

that had been found on Lisa's body.

For Lisa's family, waiting for the results was painful.

Danneffel: It took a couple months for that to be processed

through the crime lab.

At that point,

Frank Spagnola had been identified as being the donor

to the DNA underneath Lisa Fein's right fingernails.

Narrator: With the DNA match,

police knew they had Lisa Fein's killer,

but since Frank could argue that he and Lisa had gotten

into a scuffle earlier that day,

they needed evidence to put him directly at the crime scene.

We did obtain a search warrant

for the residence of Frank Spagnola.

So during the course of this search,

we did locate a matching pillowcase,

that had the same manufacture brand

to the one that was located on the victim, Lisa Fein,

when she was discovered.

The significance of the same manufacturer,

was that upon contacting them,

they had not manufactured anything under that name

in the previous nine to ten years.

Also recovered during the search warrant,

we did find a matching towel, that matched

the manufacturer of the towel that was located on Lisa Fein

at the time of her death.

Narrator: Investigators also seized a black helmet

from Frank's house that matched the description

given by Jacob on the night his mother was attacked.

They also found duct tape in Frank's car.

They Michigan State Police crime lab was able

to identify the manufacturer of that duct tape.

The duct tape was off the same roll

as the duct tape that was found

on the victim, Lisa Fein.

Narrator: Another piece of the puzzle fell into place

when detectives discovered Frank Spagnola had a strong motive

for killing the mother of his own son...money.

LaBaumbard: The information we were getting was

that Lisa and Frank were having a custody battle over Jacob,

and that things were not going well with the custody battle.

Frank had not been paying child support,

Lisa had hired an attorney,

in attempt to facilitate that,

and Frank was still fighting it.

Narrator: But the court eventually sided with Lisa,

and ordered Frank to pay his overdue child support.

The judgment was finalized on the date of June 30, 2000.

This is the same day Lisa turned up missing.

I believe Frank's motivation was twofold.

He was obsessed with obtaining custody of Jacob,

and also the child support.

Frank, in reviewing his financial records,

had the means to pay the child support.

He just did not wanna give the money to Lisa Fein,

in no way, shape or form.

And it was being forced upon him, finally, by the courts.

We did conduct surveillance

at Lisa Fein's parents' house,

where we knew that Jacob would be dropped off

by Frank Spagnola that day,

which was a typical visitation day for them.

We waited for Frank to pull away from the residence,

and made sure that Jake was not in any danger at that time.

Once we were comfortable with the distance that Frank had traveled,

we did conduct a traffic stop

at which time Frank was arrested.

He was handcuffed, placed in a patrol car,

and transported back to the sheriff's department.

Myself and another detective attempted to interview Frank.

His Miranda Rights were given to him,

at which time he indicated

that he would like to speak to an attorney first.

No further interviews were conducted with Frank.

He was booked at the county jail.

Narrator: With Frank Spagnola now in custody,

investigators began piecing together the events

that took place in the early morning hours of June 30, 2000.

After a months-long

After a months-long investigation,

Berrien County detectives had finally arrested Frank Spagnola

for the murder of his ex-girlfriend, Lisa Fein.

By this time, the cops had a good idea

about how Lisa's killing had gone down.

Danneffel: It's my belief that on the night of June 30th,

Frank Spagnola went to the Fein home,

parked down the street,

walked to the Fein house.

There was a spare key that was left

outside of the Fein home.

I had asked Jacob if he had ever told

his father about the spare key,

he indicted to me that he had.

And once inside, he went immediately

to the bedroom of Lisa Fein.

LaBaumbard: I think Frank probably surprised Lisa.

( woman screaming )

Danneffel: Frank Spagnola knocked her semi-unconscious

or unconscious.

LaBaumbard: Frank brought the towel, the pillowcase,

and the duct tape to the residence,

which leads me to believe

this whole thing was pre-planned out.

Frank duct taped her in that bedroom.

Danneffel: Once she was quiet and still,

he was able to drag her out of the bedroom,

down the basement steps and out through a wooded area.

He then went back and retrieved his vehicle,

loaded that body up and took it out,

and buried Lisa Fein behind her home.

In June of 2003,

Frank was taken to trial on this case for first-degree murder.

The prosecutor wraps it up pretty well

during the course of the court proceedings.

What are the chances of having DNA

underneath the victim's fingernails,

having matching duct tape,

having similar pillowcases and towels,

what are the odds of that?

Narrator: In spite of the overwhelming evidence against him,

Frank shocked everyone by pleading not guilty.

Danneffel: After a four week trial,

Frank was convicted of first-degree murder,

and sentenced to life in prison with no parole.

House: When the jury said guilty,

I cried.

Um, I hugged my dad.

( exhales )

And-- Spent so much time getting ready for the trial,

and so much time sitting in that courtroom,

that it finally dawned on me, she was still dead.

He was going to prison for the rest of his life,

but she was still dead.

Kain: I felt relieved that it was over with.

I felt relieved that they had

caught the murderer.

That people didn't have to worry

about that murderer maybe sitting beside 'em in church

or at a school function.

I remember thinking,

"I knew you did it. I knew you did."

And then-- and I also remember in my mind saying,

"They got him, Lisa. They got him."

House: Frank has never admitted to anything,

and I don't believe he ever will.

I think he's convinced himself he didn't do it.

A lot of people say you have to forgive

to get past something like this, but, um,

how do you forgive somebody

that won't even admit what he had done?

I won't forgive him.

Kain: If I could have one more conversation with Lisa,

I would say something to make her laugh.

So that I could see her laugh again.

I would just--

Just let her know we all still think about her,

we still talk about her, we haven't forgotten her.

We miss her, and...

I wish she were still here.

( music playing )

Announcer: For more information on "Buried in the Backyard"

go to Oxygen.com.