All language subtitles for Taken Together 2024 2

[Child 1] Get up, hurry up.
I don't wanna get up.

I'm gonna get ya!

[Child 2]No, you're not! You're it!

[Kent]Where could they be?

I mean,
they could be anywhere.

What happened?
Who took them?

[Woman] It's just scary
to think that a monster

came into our town
and plucked two little girls.

[suspenseful music]

[Larry] December 5th,

about five months
after the abduction,

we were notified
that some hunters

had found the remains
of two bodies.

[Kent] I received a phone call
telling me

that we needed to get there.

It was pretty certain
they were our girls.

[suspenseful music]

[Dylan]
Seven Bridges Wildlife Refuge

is a unique park,

as in it's one way in,
one way out.

[Dan] Seven Bridges
was a random location

to dump a body.

It's so far out
in the middle of nowhere.

Why here?

What did those
little girls go through.

If you scream back there,
nobody's going to hear you.

[Larry] Now, okay, well,

clearly once
their bodies are found,

we're working
a double murder case.

[Kent] We had something
more to go on,

we had
more physical evidence now

that we could use to try
and narrow

the search down
on who was responsible.

[suspenseful music]

[time ticking]

[Dan] A plan
had been developed

that when
the girls’ bodies were found,

I was supposed
to go to Evansdale...

I was supposed to go
to City Hall,

yeah, and meet
Drew and Heather.

[cries] So I did,

'cause I had developed
a relationship with them.

So, I met Drew
and Heather there

and Chief Smock
wasn't there yet.

They had all kinds
of questions for me

and I didn't have the answers.

You know one of
the first questions was,

"Well, did they
find the girls?"

And I lied, I say,
"I don't know, uh,

uh, we're just supposed
to wait here for Chief Smock,"

and I think
it was Kent that told them.

[dramatic music]

[Drew] I got a call
and they said,

"You gotta get down
to the City Hall."

We had talked about like

if they had found
the girls alive

that they would be
rushed to Iowa City,

to be tested
and different things

that they would have to do.

And so, I was like,
they must not be alive.

[dramatic music]

[Dan] They were saying
they were calling a meeting

in Evansdale or something

and I didn't want to hear
what they had to say,

I knew it wasn't good,
I don't know.

I didn't want to lose my hope
and so I just,

I didn't,
I didn't go down there.

[tense music]

[Kent] We didn't want it
getting out in the media

to notify the families,

it needed
to come from a friendly face.

I've delivered
a lot of death notifications

in my career...

none harder.

Those two girls
had become my two girls.

[Drew] Kent Smock came in
and I just,

I'd seen his face and...

I knew.

[tense music]

[Wylma] So I called Heather
and she said,

"They found them,
they found them."

I just crashed to the floor
and started crying,

because I knew
they were dead.

[Misty] I remember
laying on the ground

and just kicking it and crying
and just screaming at God,

"Like if you, if you are real,
like why would I continue

to call out to you or,
or believe in you,

when you let little kids
be hurt, you know?"

[Dan] My mom was
the one that told me.

[sighs] It's been a while
since I thought about that.

She said, "Daniel,
they've found them."

That's all she had to say.

It wasn't,
"They've found them,

let's go get them,
here they are, you know."

[Heather]I remember
just being numb,

just sitting there like
what do we do now?

We've been for five months
looking for them,

praying and hoping
they were gonna come home.

It's home but it's not
home with us, you know.

[Elizabeth] Dad just got me
this in church.

[dramatic music]

[Heather]The next day it snowed.

Their bodies
would have been covered

for so long till spring,

so I'm really grateful
to the hunter

that he found them.

I don't know how much longer
Drew and I

could have like
kept going like we were.

[Drew] You know
that part is done

and being relieved
and like feeling so guilty

about being relieved,
it's like that is,

that will just...
that will haunt me

I think anybody that knows
what I'm talking about,

will agree.

[Vicki] There's so many
out there

that have lost
their loved ones

and they've never
found them.

I was grateful
that we at least,

you know, found them
and had some closure.

[tense music rises]

[Larry] We know
what happened now,

it's the worst
possible scenario

we could have imagined,

they're dead, and we want
the person

or persons that did it,
and, you know, so it's,

everything's ramped up again.

[Dan]Seven Bridges County Park,

we're looking at that
as a crime scene.

We have to process
that crime scene.

[Kent] Where the girls
were found

was some distance away
from any parking area or road.

I don't want
to go into the graphics

of what I saw,

but since there was
footwear on them,

we could surmise
the girls went there

on their own power,

but it doesn't necessarily
mean that,

it could have been
that they were carried,

that there was more
than one person responsible,

at that point anyway.

We knew that
their clothing was there,

their full clothing was there.

[Drew] I had one question
for them and that was just,

"Were they found together,
were they together?"

And he said, "Yeah,
they were together."

At least they had each other,
you know.

And he said, "And Lyric
had her flip-flops on."

I didn't ask them for that,
you know,

that tells me more
than I need to know,

you know, that she trusted
and believed

that if she just went along
with whatever's going on,

that she would come out okay,
everything will be alright.

You know, she's so trusting,
she didn't realize

how dark this world was

and how evil
these people could be.

[Misty] I do believe
that had somebody

taken them
that they didn't know,

I do believe
she would have fought,

and I do believe
she would have tried

to protect Elizabeth.

[Dan]I rely on my faith a lot.

I'm hoping that somehow

God gave them comfort
as they were dying.

[Dylan] One of
the big questions in this case

was how long were
Lyric and Elizabeth alive.

There's a number
of different scenarios

that could have happened
to the girls,

one being they're abducted
and killed the same day,

another being
they were abducted

and held for a period of time,

and then murdered
and left in Seven Bridges.

Investigators
have never revealed

whether the girls
were sexually assaulted,

because the investigation
is ongoing.

[Dan] Statistics show
that so many of these kids

are killed
within the first hour.

I'm convinced within 24 hours
those girls were dead,

that day, probably Friday.

[soft music]
[birds chirping]

Seven Bridges area,
it's all recreation area

that people use for hunting
and also

from everything I've learned,

it's a magnet
for bad activity.

The Waterloo Police Department
has discovered

evidence of crimes there,
some...,

we'll have a burglary
and so we'll find

a safe dumped there,

or a firearm
will be discarded.

So, it's an area
that's well known

with a criminal element.

[Larry] Seven Bridges Park
is what I would call

extremely remote,

if you didn't know
it was there,

you wouldn't just
stumble across it,

you wouldn't just be driving
down a road and say,

"Oh there's a park,"
you know,

if you're looking for a place
to dump the bodies.

We can make
a pretty strong argument

that the person knew
that park existed,

had been to that park before,

had some connection
to that park

and clearly
had some connection

back to Evansdale,

and you've got
cellphone towers

up in that area,

you've got cellphone towers
down here.

Can we find people

that their phones
are pinging down here,

and then they were
pinging up there,

and what's your time frame,
what's your window?

Well, it's five months.

A short period of time
after the bodies were found

there were
over a thousand people

that had been interviewed.
People started calling in tips,

"Hey you need
to look at this guy,

he used to go
up there and hunt,

he used to go up there
and fish,

or he used to go up there
and whatever."

So it generated a new energy,
a new focus

and a new level of activity
in the case.

Now the resources
that had dwindled, back,

you know, pretty much
full strength.

Well, now we need them
where the bodies were found,

there's a neighborhood
around Seven Bridges

that needs to canvassed.

[Kent] It was a common area
for hunters,

so we started looking
at hunting licenses,

people that were known
to hunt that area.

We wanted to know
who was familiar enough

with Seven Bridges

that could get in and out
basically unseen.

[Dan] Motive for this case
still troubles me.

I don't know
if it's retribution

through the drug trade

or if the motive is sexual
in nature.

Statistically they're
sexual in nature.

[Mike] In this general area
has the most sex offenders.

We've talked to well over
300 sex offenders

but once we started working
the Seven Bridges area too,

we started reaching out

and doing a radius
in that area.

[Larry] It's a difficult chore
to go somebody in December

and say, "Did you see anything
suspicious back in July?"

[suspenseful music]
[birds chirping]

[Dylan] Did the investigators
reveal any details to you

about how the girls died
or anything like that?

[Dan] Absolutely not.
Absolutely not.

[Misty] It was very hard
for me to believe

that that was her,

because I've never seen
any coroner's report

or not getting information

about how she died,
how they know it's her,

you know, and I've never
seen anything like that.

[Misty] I understand

why we can't know
that information

but, you know,
nobody said,

"oh, well, we did
a dental record

or we did this
and matched it to this

and that's how
we know for sure

that that's your kid.

[Drew] I don't know
what they went through

but I can only imagine.

That's something you sit
and wonder about,

is like what did this bastard
do to them girls?

[tense music]

[Dan] Iowa DCI
does a phenomenal job.

They play their cards
really close to their chest.

They don't let out
to the public

what only the killer
would know.

Only the investigators who are
closest to this investigation

should have that knowledge.

[Kent] We had
a number of false confessions,

people that would come in
and claim responsibilities.

Some of them were people
that had mental illness,

and there were a couple
that were looking

for their
five minutes of fame.

But we would have
to ask them particulars

and some of
the easiest ones were,

"What were the girls wearing?

What color were their bikes?"

There were a series of checks
and balances in place.

[Larry] The other part
of the equation

is you hope whoever did this,
you know, hasn't done it again

and won't do it again,

and so all those thoughts
go through your mind.

[tense music]

[suspenseful music]

[Dylan] Double abductions
or dual abductions,

you know, there's only been
15 of them since the 70s.

Evansdale was number 16
and shockingly number 17

would happen
less than a year later,

also in Iowa.

[tense music]

[Nicholas] Dayton was just
like any other town

in America's heartland;
a nice quiet small town.

We do have our national
circuit rodeo every year.

In May 2013, there was myself
as the only full-time officer.

Crime-wise, not a lot.

I would see Kathlynn
every day,

if not every other day.

Always would see her walking,
had a ball cap on.

She was typically holding
a football

or some type of ball.

Dezi I... she was one
that I'd never really had

much contact with
prior to the incident.

We didn't really see her
out too much.

But yeah,
I do remember Kathlynn,

I'd see her quite a bit.

[Dylan] So tell me
about Kathlynn Shepard.

[Dezi] She was the coolest
person in the world.

Me and Kathlynn used to go
to the bus together,

we used to come home together,

we'd hang out in my front lawn
with my dog George.

Every time we were together,
we were having fun.

She was always smiling,
we were always laughing.

She had these little
rubber bands on her braces

and I would say
the stupidest things

to make her laugh,
and she'd laugh so hard

her mouth would open too far
and they'd snap.

So, she carried
this little bag

of rubber bands with her,

she'd be like,
"Ouch." [laughs]

And I'm like, "What?"
She'd pull out the bag,

I'm like "Another one?"
And then she'd just

keep doing it and it was
the funniest stuff ever.

She was so outgoing,
she was funny.

She was my best friend

when I was 12 and she was 15.

My best memory was Kathlynn
would have to be

laughing on the school bus

and then every time
we came home

she always grabbed me
a Mountain Dew

and her a Pepsi.

And then we'd drop
her stuff off,

I'd go to her house

and then she'd come
to my house.

I can't drink Pepsi anymore.

[sad music]

[suspenseful music]

[Dezi] We were walking
our normal route,

after the bus,

and then
this man pulled up next to us.

We were not even a block
away from our house

and he pulled up
in a red truck

and asked if we were willing
to make money to go mow lawn,

since it was a hot day,
he needed help

and it was a lot of land,
and we told him

we had to ask
our parents first,

we're not even a block away,
I was like,

"We're just gonna run home,
drop our stuff off

and ask if that's okay."

He offered to give us a ride.

So, we got in the truck...

[dramatic music]

He told us, you know,
like his name was Michael

and he offered
to shake our hands.

He's a pretty big guy,

he's kind of like
250 to 280 lbs.

He started going
the opposite direction

of our house and, you know,
that kind of felt weird

and it was wrong really

but we've got
to ask our parents,

we can't just go first.

He was like, "Well,
you can just use my phone,

there's one at the house
that you could use"

told us we were going
to a house.

He took us like this weird way
out of Dayton

and then he took
the back roads.

He just kept driving
and wouldn't turn around.

It just seemed
more and more like...

unsettling the farther we got.

[car runs]
[suspenseful music]

He took gravel as much
of the way as he could,

which was weird to us
'cause, you know,

he could use the main road.

[tense music]

When we got there,
there's two hog confinements

and there was a shed
in front of the lawn.

He pointed and he's like,

"Oh, in there
is the lawn mowers,"

and we walked in and then
we're kind of looking around

and we're just like,
we went to turn around

and he had a gun
pointed at us.

[dramatic music]

Kathlynn felt really scared.

He told us
to get on the ground

and to lay on our stomachs
and he told us

just if we did what he said
that he would let us go

and we just, you know,
had to listen.

And so, we got quiet
for a minute.

He zip tied us.

Our hands are on our backs.

He stepped on my leg
and I said, "ouch"

and he apologized,

he like rubbed my thigh
sympathetically.

People that act like that,
you know,

why would you care
if you stepped on my leg?

I didn't understand.

He put the gun down
and he pulled out a knife.

We started to cry
and she was looking at me

and we were talking
and just like,

"We don't deserve this,

you know,
just let us go home."

[breathes heavily]

[sighs]

[tense music]

[Dezi] He got mad at her
for talking

and he grabbed her by her arm

and he ripped her
up from the ground,

and as soon as she got
around the corner,

the last thing she yelled
was my name

and then she went quiet.

[cries]

I moved my arms underneath me
and unfolded them

so they were in front
and I grabbed the gun

and I ran as fast as I could.

[intense music]

When I got into the woods
I hid behind a tree

and I checked the gun

to see if there was
anything in it.

It was one of the hog
like tranquilizing guns

or something like that
and it was empty.

Next thing I heard
was he had his truck

and he yelled [bleep]
and then he got in the truck

and I heard the truck
started moving

and I started to try
to like hide farther down

into like the woods,

'cause I don't want
to be seen.

[tense music]

[time ticking]
[tense music]

So, we're in the...

the woods I had to run to.
[cries]

To the right...

would bethe hog confinement

I was taken to
with my best friend.

I was wearing shorts
and a t-shirt

and I did have shoes on

but when I was running,
they got stuck in the mud,

so my shoes and my socks
came off running through mud.

There was a lot of, like,
the raspberries bushes,

they had thorns all over them
so I could feel

the blood going down my legs.

I could feel the blood
but everything just felt numb.

My feet were cut open,

I still had thorns
stuck in them.

I was tripping
over everything,

I mean, there's no stopping
and, I mean,

he was driving
his truck around

and I could hear it
and at times I could see him

driving next to the woods,

so I'd go further
into the woods

so he couldn't see me.

It seemed like I was running
for days.

It just,
it didn't seem to end,

there was nothing
but the same trees,

everything looked the same.

[tense music]

And then this is the farm
I ran between,

the three red buildings,
'cause I could hear talking

and I ran to them.

I was talking so fast
and like halfway screaming,

they couldn't understand me,

they tried to get me
to calm down first.

I just kept telling them,
you know,

"Like I need a phone,
I need to call the police."

[911 Operator]911 Boone County.

What's the location
of your emergency?

[Dezi] Can you please help me?

There's a...
I need a... [cries]

[Patrick] What can I do?

[Dezi cries]

[911 Operator]What's going on?

[Dezi] This dude picked me
and my friend up and he...

I'm [bleep] worried
and I need help.

Can you call my mom?

[cries]

[911 Operator] Can I talk to the
other person that you're with?

[Patrick] - If you will?
[Dezi] - Yeah, here.

[Patrick] It's two miles north
of Pilot Mound,

as a crow flies.

[tense music]
[birds chirping]

[Patrick] Dezi comes running
around the corner, she says,

"Help, help,
I've been kidnapped."

And she had these
plastic things on her wrists.

Her legs were scratched all up
and she was crying.

She was so scared,
I think she was

even scared of me,
all humans.

She said, "I'm so worried
about my friend,

he's gonna hurt her."

I told my friend
to go get a gun

and go up to that hog farm
and if that guy's there,

just keep him there,
don't shoot him yet.

[tense music]

[Dezi] When Patrick's friend
got back, he told us that,

you know, there was
a pile of blood

but nobody was there

and he couldn't find
the truck,

he drove around
for a little while

trying to find the truck.

We waited for the police
and everything to come

and I couldn't stand still,
I couldn't sit,

I just, I wanted
to find my friend,

I wanted to find Kathlynn.

[suspenseful music]

[Nicholas] Got a phone call

from one
of our sheriff's deputies.

I went to the hog confinement

and by talking
to the property owner

there at the farm,

I found out
that his son-in-law

was identified as driving
a red Toyota Tundra truck.

So, at that time

we identified the suspect
as Michael Klunder.

[tense music]

[Dezi] I was in the hospital
and a detective

and another police officer
came in together.

They showed me a photo
and they asked

if I recognized him
and if that was the man,

and I said, "Yeah, you know,
the one that just took us."

And they just said,
"Are you sure?"

And I said, "Yeah,
there's no second guessing it,

that's, that was him."

[Nicholas]
Some of the deputies

found Michael Klunder's
home address,

which was over in Stratford,

about ten miles away
from where we were.

We arrived
at Michael Klunder's house,

no-one was there at the time,

but then his wife came home
and we were asking her

"Have you heard from him?"

She'd received a text message,

it went something
along the lines of,

"I'm so sorry, I love you,
I'm so sorry."

And I remember reading that
and just knowing

that this
wasn't gonna be good.

[tense music]

[Nicholas] So I came back
to City Hall in Dayton

and starting setting up
a command post.

We had Iowa State Patrol,

Iowa Division
of Criminal Investigations,

a number
of FBI Agents arrived.

We began just working

on trying
to gather information,

started doing pings
on Mr Klunder's phone.

Well, the same time,

Michael Klunder's
father-in-law,

the owner of the farm,

he went to, started checking
his other properties,

'cause he's got a number
of different hog confinements

around this area,

and we received word

that they found
Michael Klunder,

he had hung himself
inside a machine

shed on that farm.

[tense music]

[Reporter] Authorities found
the suspected kidnapper's body

and they say
he committed suicide.

[Nicholas] Michael Klunder
hung himself,

we couldn't ask him
any questions.

The pickup truck was there,

they did locate some blood
on the tailgate of the truck

but there was no sign
of Kathlynn.

And now Kathlynn
is still out there.

[Reporter] Locals volunteered
to scour the area

in the search for missing
teenager Kathlynn Shepard.

Authorities released
this photo of Kathlynn Shepard

getting off a school bus

likely minutes before
she was kidnapped.

[Man]Until we know differently

we're gonna assume
that she's alive somewhere.

[Police Officer] If somebody
sees something don't touch it.

[Reporter] Today,
searchers fanned out

to comb the dense woods
along the Des Moines River

in Boone County.

[tense music]

[Nicholas] There was
an amazing search,

just the sheer
number of people and resources

that were put forward.

I mean, we had probably

a hundred law enforcement
officers here every day.

We had volunteers show up
with horses,

a large number of ATVs.

It was the neatest thing
I don't want to see again.

[Dezi] They started
search parties

and I wanted to go find her
and I kept asking

if I could go,
I wanted to leave,

I wanted to go help, you know,

and everybody refused
to let me leave the house.

I wasn't allowed
to do anything.

I wasn't allowed
to go help search, nothing.

[intense music]

[Nicholas]
Looking at cellphone pings,

we tracked
Michael Klunder's cellphone

over a 40-mile area
of just driving around.

I think he took
Kathlynn in the truck

and started driving around,

trying to figure out
what to do.

Probably went
into a state of panic.

You know anywhere

in between Point A,
Point B and Point C

could be Kathlynn.

It's a huge area to check,

we're talking hundreds
of square miles,

and you just want
to hold out hope

that there is by some miracle

you'd find her
alive somewhere,

sustaining herself somehow.

[Reporter] Late today,
investigators recovered

the young girls' backpacks.

They were found
in the town of Fraser,

in a ditch along the road.

[Nicholas] It appeared
that they were

just thrown
out of the pickup truck,

on a gravel road.

It kind of confirmed to us
that okay,

we know for sure
he was down on Juniper Road,

which turns into River Road
here in Webster County.

Said okay,
so, he's following the river

and he's following the river
for maybe a reason.

So, you know, our boat teams
went back out and,

you know, almost every day
we had a boat team out.

[Dan] I was assigned
with others to search an area

along the Des Moines River.

I couldn't believe
how heavily wooded it was

and it was brutal
searching it.

[Nicholas]48 hours had passed,

you want to stay optimistic.

Once we got into two weeks,
two and a half weeks,

you know we've already checked
250 square miles

at that point in time.

[tense music]

We had every hope in the world

of finding her
alive somewhere.

[suspenseful music]

[Reporter] After 18 days
of searching,

we finally know the fate
of Kathlynn Shepard.

Her body was found
by a search team

in the Des Moines River
last night.

The State Medical
Examiner's report

says she died
of multiple sharp

blunt force injuries.

[tense music]

[dramatic music]

[Nicholas]So Kathlynn was found

in the Des Moines River,

20 miles south
of the hog farm.

[Dezi] I was told
she was found by a fisherman

and she was
wrapped in plastic,

and he threw her in the river.

Kind of just broke my heart,
I didn't leave my room,

I didn't... I didn't want
to do anything anymore.

[sniffs]

She was stabbed 27 times,
her throat was slit,

she was punched in the head.

You kind of know after so long
that they're not coming back,

but when you hear
it's something like that...

[cries]

I don't know how people
can do that. [cries]

Yeah, I don't want to know.

[dramatic music]

[Reporter] Kathlynn's father

issued a statement
to the media.

An exert from it said,

"Today our family has lost
part of its soul.

Not just the Shepard family,

but the families of Dayton
and all of Iowa.

An innocent, caring,
fun-loving child

was taken from this world
long before her time.

Our daughter was torn
from our family and murdered."

[Dezi] I talked
with Kathlynn's family

a little bit, it was
really hard.

I felt like they'd hate me
'cause I hated myself.

[Dylan] Why would you
hate yourself over this?

[Dezi] 'Cause I
couldn't do anything.

And even if I could
have done anything,

I didn't try. [cries]

It's the one thing
I regret most,

is I feel like
I still should have tried.

[dramatic music]

[Nicholas] If Dezi
would not have escaped

I wholeheartedly believe
that she would have suffered

the same fate as Kathlynn.

[Dan] If that girl
didn't get away,

Michael Klunder would probably
still be out there,

getting away with it.

[Drew] Dezi's my hero.

And I feel I've got

a connection
with her because...

[cries]

I know I just feel
a connection with her

just because she did get away

and she was tough enough
to get away.

[sad music]

[Dylan] Immediately after
the Dayton case,

people started putting
together the Dayton case

and the Evansdale case,
I mean right away,

'cause the crimes
were so strikingly similar.

[Reporter] Two Iowa towns,
two pairs of girls,

similar ages, both crimes
occurred on sunny afternoons

less than a year apart.

Both kidnappings happened

around a hundred miles
from each other,

less than a two-hour drive
down Highway 20.

[Mike] I think everybody,
all of us were like,

"That's the guy."

[Nicholas] I didn't know
who Michael Klunder was

prior to this incident.

I had pulled up
his driver's license photo

once we'd identified him,

and I had seen
his face before.

And it took me a little while
to remember where I'd seen it;

prior to me becoming
Chief of Police,

I worked for the Iowa
Department of Corrections,

and Michael Klunder
was one of the inmates

at one of the prisons
I had worked at.

It was at the
Newton Correctional Facility.

[dramatic music]

[tense music]

[Dylan] Michael Klunder
has a heart of darkness.

From the time
he was a teenager

he's been evil.

At the age of 15
he was convicted of intent

to commit sexual abuse.

He beat up a girl
in a bathroom

to the point of he thought
he'd killed her.

And in 1989,
a judge ordered Klunder

to receive
sex offender treatment,

while he served
nearly two years in prison.

[Nicholas] Michael Klunder's
got a violent past.

I'm aware of two incidents.

December 15, 1991,

Michael Klunder
was following a young woman,

flagged her over
under the pretense

of her taillight was out.

While she was out of the car
looking at her taillight,

he gets control of her,
grabs her

and puts her in his car,

drives her
to another location.

Fortunately,
she's able to escape.

Around that same time
in Charles City, Iowa,

he abducted two toddlers
from the yard of a daycare,

put them
in the trunk of his car

and drove them
to a state park.

That ended with him
putting the two toddlers

in a dumpster
and leaving them,

I'm assuming to die.

[Dylan] Michael Klunder,
you know, abducted

two three-year-old girls.

It happened back in 1991

and it was
his first double abduction.

[tense music]

[Steve] My name
is Steve Castaneda.

I was Michael Klunder's
prison counselor.

Michael Klunder I would say
had a small group of friends.

He was reserved.
He lifted weights a lot.

Michael could easily
be intimidating

but also the dark side,
he had an underlying

current of anger
all throughout his time

that I dealt with him.

And I recall saying,

"Mike, you put two kids
in a dumpster bin?"

And he said, "Yeah."

And it stuck with me
for a while

that he really was
short of any empathy.

[tense music]

[Graduation Presenter]Mike Klunder.

[clap hands] [cheering]

[suspenseful music]

[Fred] When someone
walks in our door,

if they don't have
a mandatory sentence,

which in this case did not,

for every day they serve,
1.2 days

comes off the back end
and eventually they meet

and that becomes
the discharge date.

[tense music]

[Dylan] He only did
20 years in jail

and they released.

[Dezi] He was supposed
to do 40 something,

he should have never
gotten out, period.

[tense music]

He got out on good behavior.

People like that don't change.

[sniffs]

[tense music]

[Drew] There's no reason

Michael Klunder should have
ever seen the light of day.

[Dan]Klunder was a sick puppy.

This guy is the worst
of the worst in our society.

I only feel bad
about him killing himself,

because investigators
weren't able

to get information out of him,

that possibly could have shed
some light

on the Evansdale case.

[Steve] Klunder, I would not
be surprised

if he participated
in that abduction,

of the two Evansdale girls.

[dramatic music]

[Dylan] Since the 1970s
through 2011,

there had only been

15 double abductions
in the US.

The Evansdale case in 2012,
made it number 16.

Number 17 was less
than a year later in Dayton.

Now there's been
three in Iowa.

Iowa comprises less
than 1% of the population,

but accounts for three
out of the 17

double abductions in the US.

Two of those three

we know were perpetrated
by Michael Klunder.

[Kent] Michael Klunder

had taken
two youngsters years before

and now he'd just done
it again in Dayton.

What's the likelihood
that he was involved

with our case in Evansdale.

[Heather] I was just hoping
and praying like

we have our guy.

This has to be
Michael Klunder.

[Dezi] I strongly believe

that that was
one of his favorite things,

was taking two girls at once,

it just seemed
like a repeated pattern.

[Dan] The parallels
between the case in Dayton

and the Evansdale case
are uncanny.

Two little white girls,
pretty close

to the same age
as Lyric and Elizabeth.

[Dylan] Eight and ten
and then 12 and 15.

One is a larger girl

and the other one
is a smaller girl.

We know Michael Klunder
threw Kathlynn's backpack

and Dezi's purse
out of his truck.

In Evansdale, whoever abducted
Lyric and Elizabeth,

threw Elizabeth's purse
over a fence.

In both cases, the abductors
got rid of the victims' bags

while fleeing the crime scene.

[Dan] Michael Klunder

threw one of his victims
in a river.

Lyric and Elizabeth,
their bodies

were found near a river.

[Reporter] Investigators
are examining

Klunder's work schedule
and credit card purchases.

They're also looking
at DNA evidence

and comparing the killer's MO
in both cases

to determine if Klunder
also murdered

the Evansdale cousins.

[Kent] I know what happened
to the cousins

and I can't say whether

what Michael Klunder did
is or is not

what we know
happened to the cousins.

There are things
that we know

but I can't say what they are

without tipping a hand
that I can't tip.

There are things
that happened in Evansdale

that only that person knows.

So, we worked hard
doing interviews,

did he know anybody
in Black Hawk County

or in Evansdale?

Did he know the victims?

Did he know
the victims' families?

[tense music]

[Reporter] There are still
no arrests

in the cousins' death
a year later.

DCI continues investigating

a possible
Michael Klunder connection.

[Kent] We were trying
to do everything we could

to attach Michael Klunder
to our case.

Were there ties
to our community?

Were there ties
to Seven Bridges?

[Dylan] When Klunder
was in his teens

he went to a youth
detention center

in Waverly, Iowa,

which is located
in Bremer County.

It's just miles away
from where Seven Bridges is.

Recently we had found out
that at one point

while Klunder was at Bremwood
he escaped

and when he ran
he went to Seven Bridges.

That's relevant to this case

because that's where
the girls' bodies were found.

[Reporter] Klunder's
whereabouts on the day

Lyric Cook
and Elizabeth Collins

disappeared last summer
are still being investigated

by the Black Hawk County
Sheriff's Office.

[Kent] We wanted
Michael Klunder to be able

to be tied into our case.

We wanted the answers
that we'd been seeking

for almost a year, and to know
that we didn't have

a serial killer running
on the loose anymore.

I wanted, in the worse way
I wanted it to be him.

[tense music]

[Dylan] After the police
investigated Klunder

for about a year,

they announced that he
wasn't a suspect anymore.

[suspenseful music]

[Dylan] Can you say
why he's ruled out?

[Mike] Um...

it goes to the information
that we received

and whether or not
it puts him in this area

at a particular time.

I guess without getting
too specific on that,

there's a lot of data
that you're able to collect

to really put a person
in a certain spot,

and with Michael Klunder
it would be,

it would be
next to impossible for him,

based on the information
we collected.

[Newsreader] It
wasn't Klunder.

Evansdale Police
say they have ruled him

out as a suspect.

They say for months
they tracked his whereabouts

and that he was
likely at work

during the time Cook
and Collins were kidnapped.

[Kent] At the end of the day,

not only
could we not find any ties,

but the physical timelines
that we could definitively say

he could not have gone
from where we knew he was

to Evansdale,
abduct the girls,

take them to Seven Bridges,

commit the crime
and get back in that time.

It's physically impossible.

There wasn't time.

Knowing that we still had
someone out there

who's responsible
for the cousins,

I've gotta be true to myself,
I've gotta be true to Lyric,

I've gotta be true
to Elizabeth

and their families,

and he's not our guy.

[tense music]

[Nicholas] I fear now
going forward

is if Klunder
didn't take the girls,

then who did and are they
gonna do it again?

[Drew]They're gonna catch you.

You are as good
as caught right now.

It might not be today,
it might be tomorrow,

be ready for that knock
on your door.

It's coming.

[tense music]

[Reporter]Two Carroll County girls

have gone missing

near the Monon
High Bridge Trail in Delphi.

[Jeff] There's
some cellphone evidence

where they were able
to take a picture of a guy

walking along the trail
that they had encountered

and there's audio.

We kind of hear
part of the guy's voice.

[Suspect] [hiss]Guys, down the hill.

[hiss]Guys, down the hill.

[Dan] That's the killer
on her cellphone footage.

[Police Officer]If you're watching,

we'll find you.

[tense music]