All language subtitles for A.U.S01E07.1080p.WEB.h264-CASUALTY_track3_[eng]

(suspenseful music)

[Narrator] A newborn
child is found abandoned

and near death in a ditch.

- It's likely for this small
town no one can comprehend

who could have committed
this kind of crime.

- [Narrator] A community
claims the child as their own.

(suspenseful instrumental music)

- This is a horrible tragedy,

but it reveals a community of
people motivated to do good.

- There's so little to go on
and the case goes cold fast.

- You got a baby here that
doesn't have a family.

We need to find
out what happened.

- [Narrator]
Eventually, technology

and old-fashioned
detective work catches up.

- We're gonna solve this.

I'm gonna bring this home.

- Police desperately need clues.

- You almost have
to rely on tips,

the community coming together.

(suspenseful instrumental music)

- [Narrator] And one
woman will face the past

she tried to desperately bury.

(suspenseful instrumental music)

- The unsolved ones,

we have to stand up.

- And approach these cases
in a way outside the box.

(door creaking)
- Let the world know,

is for those out there
that did commit a murder,

there are people that
are coming after you.

- There's just a lot
of good people trying

to do the right thing.
(emergency siren whaling)

- Because it's
something that you have

to be passionate about.

- Solve this, bring some
peace to the family at least.

I'm just doing my job.

(suspenseful instrumental music)

(Koki scribbling on paper)

(ominous instrumental music)

- [Narrator] Sioux
Falls, South Dakota,

on a chilly winter day.

It's later in the afternoon

when police receive a
panicked call for help.

(indistinct radio chatter)

- A baby is found in ravine
in the outskirts of town.

The frantic caller thinks

there's still a
chance for survival.

- Police speed to the scene.

It's a fluke that this
newborn has been found.

- [Narrator] Earlier
that afternoon,

a Sioux Falls man, Lee Litz,

is test driving a vehicle.

- It was on the
edge of Sioux Falls,

again, farming country,

a dirt field approach
where a farmer

would take his tractor
into the cornfield.

- Ahead in the distance,

Litz sees what appears
to be red wine spilled

on the side of the
wintry gravel road.

- He pulls over
for a closer look.

(suspenseful instrumental music)

The red wine color is
from a newish blanket

that's protruding from the
ditch on the side of the road.

- [Narrator] With the
terrible premonition,

(dramatic instrumental music)

Litz steps into the cold
to examine the site.

- And they saw what looked like,

and one of the
comments was a doll.

(somber instrumental music)

Like, why would that
be thrown in the ditch?

(dramatic instrumental music)

- It was a baby boy in
some blankets and blood.

(somber instrumental music)

(ominous instrumental music)

- The child's umbilical cord

and placenta are still attached,

and Litz notices that the
child has been crying.

- This case was so horrific
that the baby was left

in a ditch in the winter
to slowly freeze to death.

And when the baby
was discovered,

there were tears
frozen on his face.

That makes me so angry.

(camera shutter clicking)
(ominous instrumental music)

- Police lose no time
getting to the scene,

but it's too late.

The baby is dead and his tiny
body has no apparent injuries.

All they've got so far,

in addition to the
wine-colored blanket

the baby is wrapped in,

is a bed sheet.

- It really didn't
tell you much at all.

A gravel road that has hundreds
of thousands of tire tracks.

- The reality is
that weather-related
contamination due

to wind and snow is
blowing away evidence.

They go over the scene of
the discovery in a thorough,

(camera shutter clicking)
systematic search for clues.

- When you're dealing with
an infant or a child case,

it's at a whole nother level.

I'm not saying we don't
work hard on adult cases,

but man, you really
give it all you can

when there's a baby involved.

(camera shutter clicking)

- From the outside,

forensics can be seen
as gruesome at times,

especially in homicide
investigations.

(camera shutter clicking)

But for the professionals

who do this work
day in and day out,

it's about the greater purpose.

- There simply wasn't anything
at that scene but a blanket,

a baby,
(camera shutter clicking)

and some other articles
within that blanket.

- There are no more clues
and nothing else to go on.

- [Narrator] Officers
find clothing

with traces of blood nearby.

A shirt
(camera shutter clicking)

(suspenseful rumbling music)
and a pair

of women's underwear.
(camera shutter clicking)

Meanwhile, the
tiny body is taken

to the Minnehaha County
county coroner for autopsy.

Lee Litz is only the first

who will become
consumed by this case.

(suspenseful rumbling music)

The discovery of the baby's
body stuns and horrifies

Sioux Falls residents
and they demand answers.

- There's a
groundswell of people

who mobilize themselves
for this unknown child.

(ominous instrumental music)

- And here, you're talking
also before social media,

so people would've
found this out listening

to the old radio news and
probably the six o'clock news.

And you could just feel,

even from reading the report,

that this shook the community.

- Everyone now pins their
hopes on some revelation

from the autopsy report.
(ominous instrumental music)

- [Narrator] The coroner
finds the baby is born alive

and the cause of death
is likely exposure

and failure to assist the
baby in maintaining an airway.

- Police desperately need clues.

- I mean, you're talking
about a very safe community.

No one locked their doors,

especially back then.

This was unheard of.

- It's a small community
and everyone is looking

at each other and wondering
who could have done this?

- You know, where do we start?

There has to be a
string to pull at.

There has to be something
we can shake loose out

of this tree,

and there just simply wasn't.

- But the unspeakable
has happened

and suspicion has been sewn
in a small South Dakota city.

(suspenseful rumbling music)

But one woman struggles
alone in secret.

She makes a choice
that will haunt her

and an entire community.

The police need to
find the mother.

(camera shutter clicking)
(ominous instrumental music)

- [Narrator] An anonymous
woman steps forward

to claim the body and
arrange the funeral.

About 50 residents
attend the burial

in St. Michael
Catholic Cemetery,

including Lee Litz who
found the child's body.

Nearly all the funeral
services are donated.

- But the community
came together

and gave him a a
beautiful funeral.

There was a local funeral
home in Sioux Falls here,

he stepped up and paid
for the whole funeral.

(somber piano music)

The flower donations
coming in, it's incredible.

And to be honest with you,

that's what we should be doing,

especially when it's a baby.

- Next to the casket
is a bouquet of flowers

and a ribbon with
the name, Andrew,

the name given to the baby
by an anonymous donor.

- The child's buried in
a tiny, white casket.

There are flowers,
stuffed animals,

and a note pinned to
his pajamas that reads,

"You are loved."

- [Narrator] Baby Andrew's
name is immortalized

on his headstone.

- Andrew John Doe is what
is on his gravestone.

(somber piano music)

I don't know how the
John Doe got kept,

maybe there's some
legalities to that,

but that just became his name.

At least he had a name.

(somber piano music)

- With all of
Sioux Falls asking,

how could someone have done
this to an innocent newborn,

the mother seems bound
to be identified.

The witness describes to
police a light-colored vehicle

that was parked near
the crime scene.

(ominous instrumental music)

- The clue is big.

Police believe they can close
in on Baby Andrew's mother.

- [Narrator] And by closing
in on Baby Andrew's mother,

detectives hope they can
finally unravel the mystery

of just who is Baby Andrew
and who left him to die.

(upbeat instrumental music)

(suspenseful instrumental music)

Tragedy it's a small
town in South Dakota.

A Sioux Falls man notices
something strange at the side

of a country road
and is horrified

to discover a newborn
baby boy wrapped

in a heat and blanket.
(camera shutter clicking)

(suspenseful instrumental music)

Two items of bloodied
clothes are discovered

(camera shutter clicking)
but nothing else.

(camera shutter clicking)

As a community
clamors for answers,

police receive a promising tip.

A description of a vehicle
that was seen in the area

with the glimpse
of a woman's legs

and some blankets
hanging out the door.

Police hunt for the car,

while they sift through more

and more potential leads
that are coming in.

- Meanwhile, local residents
are still grappling

with this seemingly
senseless act.

- [Narrator] Lee Litz is
haunted by the lonely death

of the baby in the ditch.
(somber instrumental music)

- [Lee Voiceover] "I can
still see the little boy lying

"in his casket and
feeling this is so wrong."

- Lee Litz's his
wife is pregnant

when he discovers Baby Andrew,

and his daughter is almost
the same age as Baby Andrew.

Litz agonizes that he did
not find Andrew fast enough

to save him.
(somber instrumental music)

- Two days after the funeral,

he hears about a baby
that was dropped off

in front of a
local fire station.

He wishes Baby Andrew
had the same chance.

(ominous instrumental music)

- [Lee Voiceover] "I sure
would've adopted him,

"rather than see him die
like that," Lee Litz.

Litz turns to alcohol
in the weeks following.

- Grief can include symptoms
like nightmares, flashbacks,

(suspenseful instrumental music)

uncontrollable thoughts
about the event.

- Litz wants justice for
Andrew and only the capture

of the baby's killer
will satisfy him.

- [Lee Voiceover] "To see a
child thrown away like that,

"how could someone do that?

"Someone got away with
murder," Lee Litz.

- Police aren't
finding the vehicle

but they do have tips
about pregnant women

who are no longer pregnant and
there's no baby to be seen.

- That was a typical tip

and they would go
knock on the door.

She would either answer
the door with the baby

in her arms or maybe there's
some paperwork for adoption.

Just those dead
ends, constantly.

There just wasn't anything
to follow up on at all

and you think there would be,

someone would've noticed this.

- There aren't more than a
handful of unsolved cases

in the Sioux Falls community,

and unfortunately, this
could become one of them.

(ominous instrumental music)

All investigators had
to go on was the fabrics

from the ditch and
the blood type.

Despite the blood

on the shirt and underwear,
(camera shutter clicking)

this is 1981.

It's five years away from the
first time DNA will be used

in a criminal case.

The DNA technology
that we've come to take

for granted today
doesn't yet exist.

- And again, back then
their minds weren't on,

gosh, I could send this
off for DNA or anything.

They were still relying on
that phone call to come in

because it's such a unique case.

- [Narrator] After following
up every lead possible,

the police have no suspects.

- This is tough
because Baby Andrew

has become important
to the detectives.

(ominous instrumental music)

- You do everything you can
to have it absolutely run out.

You're working for a victim.

You're working for their family.

You're working for the
community and, you know,

part of it, yourself too.

There's a lot of pride.

I'm gonna solve this.

I'm gonna bring this home.

- The lonely death of a
helpless newborn is going

to be impossible
for them to drop.

- [Narrator] By
December of 1981,

the case in the death of Baby
Andrew John Doe goes cold.

- The Litz family and
everyone who attends

the child's funeral holds
Baby Andrews memory close.

(somber instrumental music)

- I think they just
came to such a dead end,

what else do we
do at this point,

that it ended up in a box,

and with the black
marker of murder written

on the side and put on a shelf.

- Justice will have
to wait, not forever,

but there's no easy
ride to this case.

- They did not anticipate as
much incredibly frustrating,

almost tear-jerking dead ends.

- [Narrator] Detectives continue

to pursue all leads in the hope

that they can finally
solve the Baby Andrew case.

(ominous instrumental music)

- It's 28 years later,

when the Baby Andrew
files are removed

from the cold case room.

- We had moved over to a
new law enforcement center.

I was over in our
records division,

looking for something else.

I looked up on a shelf way
in the back and here it is,

this dusty old paper ream box.

It had black marker with,

"Murder," on the side.

You could almost smell
the must coming off it.

But, of course that word,

murder, scrawled on the
side gets your attention.

I hate to say the
word, forgotten,

but I think it was, it was.

I think they just came
to such a dead end,

what else do we
do at this point?

It started right there.

(ominous instrumental music)

- All at once,

the torch on the Baby Andrew
case is picked up again.

And like other Sioux fall
residents still absorbed

by the case,

Detective Webb starts to
visit Baby Andrew's grave.

(ominous instrumental music)

- [Narrator] Detective Webb
becomes aware of the evidence,

a bloodied woman's
shirt and underwear,

a wine red blanket and a sheet.

- Technology has changed
a lot in 30 years.

These items could've held the
key to solving this mystery.

(ominous instrumental music)

- The very first
absolute punch in the gut

on this case was going
back to the crime lab

and finding out that
someone in the early '90s

had issued a destroyed
order for all that.

We had no evidence.

What are the odds of that?

'Cause we don't destroy
evidence on an open case.

Somebody must have screwed up.

- It's obviously
a major setback,

but this detective is
not easily deterred.

- I don't know what you call it.

Either you just call
it or is it just fate?

I had just been recently

to a cold case investigator's
course in Chicago.

There's a gentleman there
talking about exhumations.

I had never done one.

I didn't expect to ever do one.

Here I am a couple months later,

I come home and open this case

and I'm glad I kept
his business card

because I called him
very quickly, saying,

"What do we do?"

(suspenseful rumbling music)

(upbeat instrumental music)

(suspenseful instrumental music)

- [Narrator] The man
who finds the body

of Baby Andrew is haunted
by his tragic discovery.

Authorities follow up
on every possible tip,

but each one is a dead end.

In the absence of clues,

the community of Sioux
Falls must accept

that child's death
is now a cold case.

(ominous guitar music)

- A court order is obtained

and Baby Andrew's
body is disinterred.

Local residents
who made the effort

to provide Baby Andrew a
proper burial wouldn't know

that years later it would
also provide the key

to solving this killing, DNA.

- I'd already been told,

"You can run with this, Mike,

"but we just don't
have the extra money."

Myself and my partner,

we brought a couple
shovels from home.

We didn't know what to do.

We didn't know how
this was gonna go.

- Digging up a child is a
difficult thing to comprehend,

but the officers must do this.

They need the child to
finally have an identity.

(camera shutter clicking)

- And the cemetery
crew was there,

just a couple guys
'cause to be blunt,

it's a very small grave.

Once the cemetery caretaker
kind of started digging,

(camera shutter clicking)
we couldn't help ourselves,

we started in too.

We're invested in this and
we carefully exhumed Andrew.

(camera shutter clicking)
(ominous instrumental music)

It hits you how small
those caskets are.

We've all been to
our grandparents'
funerals and things,

but that baby's a
different level.

(camera shutter clicking)
(ominous instrumental music)

I carried him

and

I guess if you think about it,

I think my mind just said,

you know, this is mine,

and I wasn't gonna let
anybody else carry it.

I don't think that
was my intention

but I think back now and
I think that's exactly

why I had that in my hands.

And there's a picture of me
holding this small casket.

(camera shutter clicking)
And again, when you think back

to that and, gosh,

nobody should have to
carry a baby casket ever.

(camera shutter clicking)

- But this case
gets even stranger.

- When that caretaker at the
cemetery took the sod cutter,

took the first inch and
a half of grass off,

that sod cutter
went over the soil

and made a perfectly
nice, flat surface.

There was a penny laying there.

So I bend over and pick it up.

That blade somehow went
right over the top of that.

(camera shutter clicking)

I put it in my pocket.

We finished the exhumation.

- The baby is disinterred
and Detective Webb

has the penny from his
grave site in his pocket.

- It was about at that
point in a very long day

that it kind of hit you
that the blood sugar's low.

So there's a Chinese
restaurant across the street

from the law enforcement
center and I ran over and

got my usual.

I'm not a sweet guy.

I was hungry so I ate
the fortune cookie.

I normally throw it away.

My fortune that day was,

"A lost penny will
bring you a look."

You can believe it
and anything you want,

it's just another bizarre
part of this story.

That penny and
that fortune out of

that little fortune
cookie stayed

in the case file for 10 years.

- Now that they have
the body and find its

in good condition, the
(camera shutter clicking)

North Texas University Science
Center gives instructions.

(ominous instrumental music)

- "How do I do this?

"The exhumation went well.

"The baby's in good condition.

"What do you need from me?"

They said, "Well,

"we need to get
ahold of your corner.

"The baby needs to
be transported there.

"What we need are parts of him

"sent."

I had a hard time with that.

(camera shutter clicking)

I had a hard time with
the image of taking

that baby out of his casket

and removing parts of him.

I did not do that.

I made a command
decision at that point.

(camera shutter clicking)

The lady at the lab I talked
to had made a comment about,

again, more of an adult case.

She said, "Well,

"we don't want the whole coffin,

"adult coffin shipped
with the whole body."

She had made that.

That stuck in my
mind and I thought,

this isn't an adult.

So

Andrew was sent to them whole.

One of those things where
you ask forgiveness later.

- Because the
casket is so small,

instead of just sending
a part of the body

to the North Texas
University Science Center,

detective Webb sends
a whole casket.

How do they do it?

By courier.
(ominous instrumental music)

- And I waited a few days

and I called down
there and I said,

"This has been shipped."

I emailed you the
tracking number and,

oh by the way,

the box is gonna be a little
bigger than you expect.

And she says, "What
do you do you mean?"

And I told her what I
did and I held my breath,

'cause these people were
doing us a big solid,

working this case for us.

And she just kind of
laughs and she goes,

"I get it."

So I couldn't,

I couldn't take him apart.

I didn't even bring
it up to the corner.

(camera shutter clicking)
(ominous instrumental music)

- [Narrator] The child's
DNA is obtained by the lab,

but when searched,

no matches are found.

- I didn't anticipate
that emotion of

hitting that wall,

just when you think
you got some momentum.

And I guess that's the
nature of cold cases.

They want cold for a reason,

there's not an easy answer.

- Detective Webb has done
everything he can at this point

and the case just
won't be solved.

(ominous instrumental music)

- I still had 10, 12,

15 cases coming in every day

that required my
immediate attention.

I can admit that I broke policy
and brought this case home.

I read it at night.

That's when you had to
find the time to do it.

And it sounds weird to say,

but there's times where
even you'd wake up

in the middle of the night and
something would click, like,

hey, I wonder if
I could try this?

I wonder if we should do this?

Talk about something
that's always on your mind.

It's weird how in
depth and obsessed

and part of your
life it becomes.

It's a pretty big
chunk for 10 years.

(ominous instrumental music)

You really wanna
solve that for him

and this case was unique.

- DNA profiles of
Baby Andrew are run

through the South Dakota
database once a year.

More and more data is
inputted all the time.

They're waiting for a hit
but it doesn't happen.

- But we're very,

very limited in
what we can search.

We could only search the
South Dakota database.

- [Narrator] The cold case

of Baby Andrew is
now 37 years old.

How does the motivation to
solve a cold case continue

over decades like this?

(suspenseful rumbling music)

- We always had a
family to talk to.

There's always somebody
to keep updated.

And that kind of
motivated you too,

to keep going.

Even in those long months
where nothing was happening,

sometimes the phone would
ring and it would be,

maybe it's a niece or
a mom or a dad saying,

hey, what's going on
with my loved one's case?

We didn't have that in this one,

so we had to keep
that motivation up.

That's just what's so unique
about Baby Andrew's case.

- From Andrew's death
in 1981 to 2019,

this case that looks
unsolvable is now on the verge,

and that really stems

from Detective Michael
Webb's persistence.

- Talk about learning patience,

'cause nothing is
gonna move fast.

You want those results.

Again, your brain starts going,

hey, we can solve this.

I'm gonna send this to the lab,

and you might wait six,

eight months before
that comes back.

Talk about
perseverance, patience,

and just sheer stubbornness.

'Cause you can't quit.

Once you're in it,

you're not quitting.

- [Narrator] In 2019,
instead of running the DNA

of Baby Andrew just through
the South Dakota database

as they have each year,

police try something different.

Baby Andrew's DNA
is sent to a company

that makes connections
through DNA and genealogy.

- Well, these are the most
controversial types of cases.

They're the ones that
a lot of my colleagues

in genetic genealogy
do not approve

of us using our techniques
and databases for,

and so I really struggled with
working this type of case.

(camera shutter clicking)
But the bottom line is,

everyone deserves an identity.

Everyone deserves that dignity,

whether you're a
baby or an adult.

So our job is simply to
provide that identification

and then the rest is
left to the detectives

and to the courts.

- [Narrator] Detectives
work closely with scientists

at the genealogy lab.
(ominous instrumental music)

- But in working
with those amazing,

smart people at that lab who
are doing this profiling,

doing this genealogy
family tree,

now, they gave us the tools,

we had to do the family tree.

- Our goal is really
to try to zero in.

Optimally, we wanna narrow it
down to maybe just one person

or a set of siblings for law
enforcement to investigate.

(ominous instrumental music)

- [Narrator] The lab
determines some family trees

and the ones in Sioux
Falls interest police.

Detectives piece together
a genealogical story

and track women who
have had children

who would've been
18 or 19 in 1981.

When they get a sample
from a woman in Sioux Falls

that they think
might be related,

they check the sample with
the South Dakota State Lab.

- The names of a couple come up,

Theresa Rose Bentaas
and Dirk Bentaas.

(suspenseful rumbling music)

Police feel they're
on the right track

and getting closer
to the baby's DNA.

- That's where,

well, I say old-fashioned DNA,

right, a swab,

a something needs to
be done to prove that,

to prove our family
tree's correct.

So obviously, there's
legalities to that too.

We can't just grab
somebody and haul them in.

- Then once you find
this suspect on the tree

and it fits the time
and other criteria,

it still needs a DNA test
to see if it is a match.

- [Narrator] Police
conduct a trash pull

of the Bentaas home.

- When garbage is put
out for collection,

it's fair game.

Law enforcement
officers will conduct

these perfectly legal pulls
to potentially find evidence

that will help them gain a
search warrant for a residence.

This can lead to
charging the occupants

with criminal activity.

- [Narrator] Female DNA is
found on a water bottle,

a beer can and a cigarette butt.

- On a personal level,

we were nearing my
set retirement date,

February 15th, 2019.

I was waiting right
up to the day.

I had already briefed my partner

that I already put the
case file on his desk,

finger in his face saying,

"You better keep me updated
on this, I'm retiring."

Two hours before my
retirement ceremony,

which was two o'clock,

I was out to lunch with
my family and my kids

and we were eating.

We were gonna go over to
the law enforcement center,

meet with my old coworkers and
they're gonna wish me well.

My partner walked
in the restaurant

and I did a double
take and I'm like,

what's he doing here, right?

He's staring at
me the whole time.

He's staring at me walking
across the restaurant.

He goes, "You're not
gonna believe this."

(suspenseful rumbling music)

(upbeat instrumental music)

(ominous instrumental music)

- [Narrator] Baby Andrew
is exhumed to extract DNA

from his bones to
find his parents

and finally give
him an identity.

Years pass with no matches

and justice for Baby
Andrew seems unlikely.

(ominous instrumental music)

- When items taken from the
garbage are seized as evidence,

they yield shocking results.

(suspenseful instrumental music)

- [Narrator] And on the day

of Detective Mike Webb's
retirement celebration,

his partner delivers
some unexpected news.

(dramatic instrumental music)

- He goes, "You're not
gonna believe this."

He goes, "We got mom."

I still can picture
it, but again,

it's almost like a dream.

And he looks at me
and I looked at him

and I didn't know what to say.

And he goes, "And dad."

(somber instrumental music)
- So again, we didn't know

at that time that was the house.

We knew a sample was hoping
to get us closer in that tree.

And it all hit me,
(camera shutter clicking)

the cigarette butts the can,

it was just,

it fast forwards
in your brain like,

oh my God,

we leapfrogged everything.

We have a positive
confirmation through DNA

that this is Andrew's parents.

(somber instrumental music)

- Incredibly, on what would

have been Baby
Andrew's 38th birthday,

Detective Webb interviews
Dirk and Theresa Bentaas

in their home.

- I thought, well,

this will be the
easiest interview

of my life for a homicide,

'cause I think that sheer
emotion after 38 years

of a detective saying,

here's why I'm here.

It didn't go that way.

Sitting there

with the person that
I had been trying

to find for the last 10 years,

yeah, you can't put,

I don't even know
the words for that.

(somber piano music)

You know, there's
nothing she could say

because I had already explained
to her why we're there.

I mean, DNA,

DNA doesn't lie, we know,

and I wanna know why?

- Detective Webb
finally hears the story

in the mother's own words.
(ominous instrumental music)

- [Narrator] Theresa Rose
Bentaas is a Sioux Falls native

and lives in the far
southeastern part of town.

- February 27th, 1981,

she's 19 years old.

She keeps her pregnancy a secret

and gives birth to baby
Andrew in her bedroom,

wraps him in a sheet and blanket

and then takes him to a
ditch and abandons him.

He's later found by Lee Litz

who notices the
red wine blanket.

- Theresa Bentaas sees the news

after Baby Andrew is discovered.

- Against all odds,

her secret isn't gonna die,

she just doesn't know it yet.

- [Narrator] But is in denial
that she is responsible.

- Denial's a coping
mechanism that can kick in

when the mind is under stress.

- The stress Theresa Bentaas
was under was so great

that she may not have
recognized what she had done.

- Dirk Bentaas remembers

that around the time
Baby Andrew was found,

he notices that Theresa had
a bump and then no bump.

- He doesn't think
much more about it.

- But there's more to this
strange and tragic story.

- [Narrator] In 1985, '86,

5 years after Baby
Andrew is born and dies,

Theresa becomes pregnant again.

She's unaware until late in
the pregnancy and tells no one.

- She gives birth in
her mother's home.

Upon hearing cries,

her mother and
stepfather enter her room

and are surprised to see Theresa
holding a newborn daughter.

They call 911.

- [Narrator] Theresa doesn't
know if she'll keep the baby.

- But her mother
insists that she talks

to the baby's father first.

Theresa and Dirk Bentaas
decide to keep the baby

and raise it together.

- [Narrator] In August, 1987,

five years after
Baby Andrew dies,

Theresa Josten and Dirk Bentaas
obtain a marriage license.

They eventually have
two children together,

the daughter that
Theresa nearly gave up,

and then a son.
(ominous instrumental music)

Theresa, now age 57,

admits that in 1980, '81,

when she's pregnant
with Baby Andrew,

she is young and stupid.

- Dirk Bentaas remembers hearing

about the child 40
years ago on the news,

but never once
entertained the idea

that it belonged to Theresa.

(ominous instrumental music)

- Police strive to
keep their emotions,

bias and expectations
out of the picture,

and sometimes that's hard to do.

(ominous instrumental music)

- It tripped me up
during the interview,

I'm not gonna lie.

There was a lot of
personal emotion going on,

and it was hard to remind
myself that I needed still

to ask some factual questions.

I keep using the word, surreal,

but it really was, sitting there

with the person that
I had been trying

to find for the last 10 years.

Yeah, you can't put,

I don't even know
the words for that.

There really wasn't
any fulfillment

to those theories of emotion
because it was just kind of,

"Yeah, I did."
(ominous instrumental music)

And again, I expected
more emotion.

Even for somebody

that maybe doesn't outwardly
really show emotion,

I mean, this would
be too powerful.

I have to have something

and I just didn't
get that from her.

Like I said,

I don't know if I'd wanted it,

I needed it, expected it,

but it was a very factual,

the the whole
interview threw me off.

It did, it wasn't
what I expected.

(ominous instrumental music)

- Detective Webb tries
to get a show of emotion

from Theresa Bentaas.

- She only lived a few blocks
from where that spot would be.

That's where they lived.

I said, "You drive
by there every day,

"doesn't it come back to you?

"You would drive
by there to work."

(camera shutter clicking)

Instead of getting an
answer that I expected,

it was, she said,

"Well, I don't always
take that way."

(camera shutter clicking)

Yeah again, I wanted more.

I thought I'd get more.

It was your baby.
(camera shutter clicking)

So yeah, it was a
strange interview.

(camera shutter clicking)

I got what I needed
factually for the case,

for a prosecutor,

but it certainly
wasn't what I wanted.

(ominous instrumental music)

- [Narrator] Police
execute a cheek swab

on both of the Bentaas.

- This is a buccal
swab or smear,

a common noninvasive
method of obtaining DNA.

It can determine whether
individuals are suspects.

- It really solidifies it,

although we already know
that this is the mother.

It puts that extra layer now,

right from her saliva
from her cheek,

that DNA, compared to
Andrew's DNA profile

to say a positive,
positive match.

I guess that's
one way to say it.

- Test results from cheek swabs

show extremely strong evidence

that Theresa Bentaas
and Dirk Bentaas

are Baby Andrew's parents.

(ominous instrumental music)

- Police determine that
Dirk Bentaas is not involved

in Baby Andrew's death.

- Incredible waves of
motion right there.

Like, we did it,

but I didn't.

I'm not gonna bring this over
the finish line, you know.

And I have amazing partners
and I was gonna be proud

to watch them push it
over the finish line,

but I invested
way too many years

to walk off into retirement.

(dramatic instrumental music)

(upbeat instrumental music)

(upbeat instrumental music)

- [Narrator] A case
of an infant's death

that would've remained
unsolved if not for advances

in DNA technology and
detectives who never gave up.

(suspenseful rumbling music)

- At the bond hearing,
Crystal Johnson,

of the Minnehaha County
States Attorneys Office says

that the passage of time does
not diminish the severity

of the crime.

Bentaas does not
seem to understand

that she is facing
charges in Andrew's death,

until police arrest her.

(somber instrumental music)

Due to the severity
of the charges

and the possibility
that Bentaas could flee,

a preliminary hearing is set.

- And all these years later,

watching as a case unfolds
in court is Lee Litz,

the man who found Baby Andrew.

- [Narrator] Theresa
Bentaas pleads not guilty

to all three charges.

- But her case is scheduled

for a change of plea hearing
on October 8th, 2021,

and will go to trial.

- Theresa denies
any responsibility,

but a jury may not agree.

- If found guilty,

Theresa Bentaas could
face life in prison

or even the death penalty.
(suspenseful rumbling music)

- Theresa Bentaas is 19

when she abandons her
newborn in a ditch.

Now she's almost 60.

For the many people who
never forgot Baby Andrew,

her upcoming trial is
a chance to understand

what brought about this tragedy.

- [Narrator] Theresa
Bentaas undergoes

a five-hour
psychiatric evaluation

with a psychologist
who diagnoses her.

The expert asserts she
has a textbook case

of complete pregnancy denial,

which is a phenomena that occurs

in roughly one out
of 2,500 pregnancies.

- Most who suffer

from this condition
misinterpret their symptoms

and end up giving birth at home.

And that is what happens
with Theresa Bentaas

with her first two pregnancies,

and she wasn't able to
name her first baby.

(ominous instrumental music)

- Theresa Bentaas changes her
guilty plea to an Alford plea,

which allows her to
maintain her innocence

while authorizing the court
to enter a guilty plea.

In exchange, the
state drops the first

and second degree
murder charges.

(ominous instrumental music)

- Lee Litz is there
watching again.

He's deeply invested in finding
justice for Baby Andrew.

- [Narrator] Litz and his
daughter visit the grave

and leave tokens on
the baby's headstone,

next to other items
left by unknown people

who have also been
touched by the story.

- [Crystal Voiceover]
"I'm so glad the parents

"have been found.

"It means justice for Andrew.

"That's what we've
wanted this whole time

"was justice for Andrew,"
Crystal Litz-Oestreich.

- Four decades later,

this case goes to trial at the
Minnehaha County Courthouse.

- [Narrator] Despite
the plea deal,

Bentaas still can
face life in prison

for first degree manslaughter.

It's revealed the baby
has a small portion

of air in his lungs and stomach.

But Theresa Bentaas testifies,

"When Baby Andrew was born
he is not crying or kicking."

- And the judge finds
there's no evidence

to suggest the baby
would've survived,

even if Bentaas had
sought medical help.

- In the end,

the judge doesn't
condone what happened,

but he also doesn't
condemn Theresa Bentaas.

- Theresa Bentaas is sentenced
to 10 years in prison

and the judge suspends
nine years of that.

Finally, this long
cold case is resolved.

(ominous instrumental music)

- Mr. Litz was an amazing man,

showed up to the court trials

when this thing did get solved.

He was there for sentencing.

When I shook his hand and I
thanked him and he thanked me

and that kind of hit me.

I'm like, I was thanking
him for being there.

- Because of DNA and a
determined law enforcement team,

this terrible shrouded mystery
seized the light of day.

- This was a case of
complete pregnancy denial.

But tragic as this case was,

it united a whole community
around this child.

(somber instrumental music)

- Maybe there's something
about detectives

that wanna work cold
cases, they're incredible.

I mean, these are like
the best of the best

and they are not desensitized

and they care about
these victims.

- And we're talking
about a human life,

so I think it's actually
wrong to have closure on that.

Andrew should be remembered.

The case should be remembered.

A long ways to get there,

but sitting in that
courtroom and finally saying,

"Court adjourned," and
walking away going,

wow, that was it,

we got it done.

(somber instrumental music)

(suspenseful instrumental music)