All language subtitles for Crime Nation S01E09 - Death in the Ozarks

♪♪

-Family and friends
in Mountain View

are coming to grips
with the shocking murder

of a college student,
22-year-old Rebekah Gould.

-This beautiful young woman
with her whole life ahead of her

goes missing,
and the whole town was on edge.

-It was so unusual for something
like that to happen here.

-The police found this
very bloody crime scene.

-It scared everybody.

-There was a lot of rumors,
a lot of speculation.

-It divided the whole community.

-There is so much
"he said, she said."

What is the absolute truth?
What do we know for certain?

-I thought the investigation
was in serious trouble.

-The narrative that we had been
fed by the police was wrong.

-He told me there are certain
cases that will never be solved.

Crazy.

-Something completely random
has happened,

and that didn't make sense.

♪♪

-This is a cute one.
This is at graduation,

and I've got Rebekah
right next to me.

My name's Larry Gould,
and I'm Rebekah's father.

Rebekah, at an early age,
walked to a different beat.

There was
this rebellious attitude.

Rebekah was always the last one
to come when she was called.

She was tough, but very loving.

She was definitely
her own person.

When Rebekah was
just a few years old,

her mother and I divorced.

It was kind of
a tumultuous situation.

I fought for custody for years.

All right.
You ready to put this away?

When you only have your kids
on certain weekends...

Happy Halloween.
-Happy Halloween.

-...you want to make the best
and the most

of every moment that you have.

We'd take them to restaurants,

swimming,

everything you can imagine
that you'd do

that would be different and fun.

You know, every parent,
I think, looks at their children

and says, "Okay, I wonder
what they're gonna be

when they grow up?"

There are certain types
of people

that, when they make up
their mind,

they're gonna go for it.

And that was Rebekah.

Rebekah grew up
really all over Arkansas.

She ended up
in the Mountain View area.

-The Arkansas Ozarks
are very geographically isolated

from the rest of the country.

A lot of places around here
did not have

paved highways until the 1960s.

Even today,
there are many places up here

where you cannot get cellphone
reception for days at a time.

It really is remote.

Mountain view, Arkansas,
has just under 3,000 people.

Rebekah moved to the area
in the late '90s.

That's where she stayed
after she graduated high school.

Mountain view has
a small-town vibe.

Everybody knows everybody.

And everyone knew Rebekah.

♪♪

-Rebekah was one of the most
beautiful people I knew,

inside and out.

In 2004, she didn't have
a place to live,

and I had an extra bedroom,

and we just got to know each
other through living together.

I had too many dogs
and she had her dogs,

and so that kind of bonded us.

Rebekah was fun-loving,
free-spirited, feisty.

She wasn't afraid to back down
from a fight if she needed to,

but at the same time, she was
very caring and very giving.

-In 2004, Rebekah was 22,

and she had been dating
Casey McCullough.

-Casey and I first met whenever
we were working at Sonic.

We hit it right off because,

well, we shared
a taste in music, movies,

and just art altogether,
and we became friends.

He sang and played the guitar.

Whenever you're working,
especially in fast food,

you kinda got to
entertain yourself

to get through the monotony,
you know,

and Casey was good
at entertaining.

They had brought in
a new general manager,

and he brought with him
some of his friends.

In that group was Teresa Apple
and Rebekah.

-I was behind
the counter working,

and I heard Larron say, "Who is
that walking in the front door?"

And Casey's like,
"Oh, no, she's mine.

She's beautiful."

-Casey and Rebekah
became inseparable.

And [chuckles] Casey kind of
became all about Rebekah.

-She always said
how sweet he was,

you know, how he just
kind of doted on her.

-But at the same time,

Rebekah was going through
a period of transition.

22 -- it's a time in our lives

when we're figuring out
who we're gonna be,

what we're gonna do.

-Sometime in
late summer of 2004,

Rebekah asked to talk to me
privately.

She wanted to move
over to the Fayetteville area

to go to a college there
that would prep her

to be accepted
into the University of Arkansas.

Her goal was to become
a Razorback.

That's what she wanted.

She made a comment to me
that I'll never forget.

She said,
"Dad, I want to be like you."

She meant to make something
of her life academically

and to go on and grow.

-Rebekah had a sister,
Danielle.

She was one year younger
and so they were very close.

She and Danielle had moved
to Fayetteville, Arkansas.

They were going to
a community college there,

and on weekends Rebekah would
come back down with Danielle.

Danielle would stay
with her boyfriend at the time,

and Rebekah would stay
with Casey.

♪♪

On Friday, September 17th, 2004,

Rebekah and Danielle
drove from Fayetteville

down to Mountain View.

-So Rebekah drove her car.
It's about a three-hour drive.

So they're talking.
They're listening to music.

And once they got
to Mountain View,

Rebekah dropped off Danielle.

And then she continued
on to Casey's house

just outside
the town of Melbourne.

The plan was for Rebekah to pick
Danielle up on Monday afternoon

to go back to school, because
they had classes on Tuesday.

But Rebekah never showed up.

♪♪

♪♪

-I was at my office,
and there was a phone call.

It was from Rebekah's mother,
and she was frantic.

Danielle was upset that Rebekah
didn't show up to pick her up.

And then there were calls
made to her cellphone,

and there was no response.

So I shut my office down,
drove to Melbourne.

♪♪

-After Rebekah did not show up
on that Monday,

Danielle called her mother,
Shirley.

They started to call friends.

They were calling Casey,
everyone they could think of,

and they couldn't find her.

Tuesday morning,
Shirley called

the Izard County
Sheriff's Department

to ask police to do
a welfare check on Rebekah.

-In a welfare check, you're just
looking for a human being.

You're not looking necessarily
for evidence of a crime.

At 8:30 on Tuesday morning,

that deputy who was dispatched
stopped by Sonic

and located Casey,
and the two of them together

went to Casey's residence.

-When the deputy arrived
at the trailer with Casey,

they looked around.

♪♪

Her car was parked there.

Her purse, her wallet,

her fluffy little white dog,

a lot of her clothes were there.

All of Rebekah's things
were there, but she was gone.

-They went into
Casey's bedroom.

Things looked a little bit
in disarray.

There was a broken ashtray.

There was a mirror that appeared
to have fallen off the wall.

And Casey remarked that
the sheets were not on his bed.

The deputy lifted up
the mattress,

and that's when he found a large
bloodstain on the underside.

♪♪

So he asked Casey if he could
look in the washing machine.

And upon opening
the lid on the washing machine,

he did see bedding in there.

He also noticed
in the bleach-dispenser tray

what appeared to be blood.

♪♪

-Casey claimed
that he had no idea

where the blood had come from,

but you got to imagine what was
going through the deputy's mind.

I mean, he was sent out there
to do a welfare check,

and now he's found
a crime scene.

Rebekah was still missing,
and things --

they were not looking good
for Casey.

♪♪

♪♪

-Once the local police found
the blood on the mattress,

they did exactly
the right thing.

They immediately turned
the case over

to the Arkansas State Police.

-When Arkansas State Police
investigators

arrived on scene,

they found a very large
bloodstain on the carpet.

blood spatter in the corner
of the bedroom,

bloody pillows stuffed
under Casey's bed,

and a wash rag
underneath his bed.

-There were little spots
of what looked like blood

on one of the trash cans.

And there were cleaning supplies
on the counter.

It looked like someone
had done a cleanup job.

-The back door of the trailer
appeared to have been

broken in some form or fashion,

as if someone was trying
to break in or out of it.

When they inspected
the back porch of the house,

they found blood smears
on the steps.

-The trailer is
in a very remote location.

It's set back from the road.

You have to know exactly
where it is.

Police developed the theory
that there had been

some kind of an altercation.

Something bad had happened
to Rebekah in that trailer.

♪♪

-I was working
at a local newspaper.

I had been there
for about seven months.

I had done a lot of local
reporting in local government,

you know, small-town stuff.

I was young.
I was just out of college.

I got a call, and a woman told
me that her niece had vanished.

And so I got in my truck,
and I drove south to Melbourne.

I arrived at
the sheriff's department.

I met Dr. Larry Gould.

-So you arrived in Melbourne.

Did they tell you about
blood in the trailer or...?

-I didn't know any details.

The sheriff told me
that Rebekah --

she's at least missing.

I thought,
well, we just have to find her.

We all paired up differently
in the search.

-The search efforts
were primarily focused around

where the McCullough
residence was.

-One thing
that stands out in my mind

is we were all out
down this dirt road

that was up from Casey's.

We were 6 to 10 feet apart,
and everybody was silent.

And so I just started screaming,
"Rebekah!

Rebekah, can you hear me?
Are you hurt?

Can you hear me?"

To know that Rebekah was
out there somewhere --

it was just very scary.

-As the search for Rebekah
progressed,

the investigation into the case
is full-on at this point.

-When someone goes missing,

police always have to
look at the partner,

the boyfriend, girlfriend,
of the person who's missing.

Casey would have been
an obvious person

police would want to talk to
because,

"A," he was her boyfriend,

"B," she was staying
in his home.

♪♪

-In his initial interview
with investigators,

Casey said that he and Rebekah
were not dating anymore,

but they would still
sleep in the same bed.

Casey outlined pretty much
what they did that weekend.

-He said everything was
pretty much normal.

Things were good.

He had to work Sunday morning,

and then he and Rebekah
went down to Mountain View,

rented movies,

and then supposedly
they went back

to Casey's trailer
Sunday evening.

-I woke Rebekah up.
She took me to work.

-Casey said that
he worked all day

after Rebekah dropped him off
at work,

and that when he got off work,

that she was supposed to come
and pick him up,

but she never showed up.

-Casey said he didn't go home
at all that day.

He hung out with friends and
stayed the night at their house.

The next morning, he went
straight from his friends

to work, and that's when
he spoke to Rebekah's mother.

-Okay.

-Well, the police can't really
hold someone

without any evidence.

So while investigators may
have had suspicions about Casey,

they had to let him go.

What they really needed to do
was verify Casey's story.

-On Sunday, September 19th,

I was grocery shopping,
and as I was exiting,

I saw Rebekah and Casey,
and I was like,

"Oh, hey, y'all.
What are you doing?"

And Rebekah said,
"We're just renting some movies.

Gonna hang out
and watch movies tonight."

The next day,

I was working at Sonic,

and Casey was supposed to
be there at 8:00.

And I remember
the opening manager saying,

"Where's Casey?"
screaming from the kitchen.

Then Casey showed up.

Nothing really
out of the ordinary

other than just, you know,
"Sorry. I'm here."

So he went back to the kitchen
and he went to work.

And I think that I saw
Rebekah's car waiting to turn.

-And then apparently
she stopped by the gas station.

The cashier told police that
Rebekah had been in the store,

that she'd bought a cappuccino,

and that she went out
and took a right

back toward Casey's trailer.

-So sometime after 8:00 a.m.,
that's the window of time

when she may have disappeared.

Throughout Monday,
Casey's at work.

-I went in to check my schedule.
I see Casey.

I don't think he got off
till about 4:00 or so that day.

I say, "Hey, buddy,
we're getting ready

to go to the movies
this evening,"

and Casey says,
"Okay, cool. I'll go."

We go to the movies.
We go out to, you know,

get something to eat.

And when we get back
to my house,

either his phone was dead
or out of minutes.

I can't remember.

He says, "Larron, can I borrow
your phone?"

He called his phone, I guess,
checking his voicemails.

He comes back and he says,

"Nobody can get ahold
of Rebekah.

Her mom's left messages
on my phone freaking out."

We all just reassured him --
maybe she doesn't have signal.

Maybe her phone's dead.

-They smoke some weed.

Casey decides
he's gonna stay the night.

So he never returns
to his own residence that day.

-Casey stayed with us, and
he was there the whole night.

-Several witnesses vouched
for Casey.

So investigators -- they thought
this was an airtight alibi,

but Rebekah was still missing.

-The police --
they've obviously found

this very bloody crime scene.

At this point,
they have to find her.

♪♪

-Police in Izard County
are performing

a wide-scale search in an effort

to find a missing
Mountain View woman.

-Each day that passed,

the panic slowly came in
each day a little more,

a little more and a little more.

♪♪

-Monday, September 27th, 2004,

I got a tip

that they are searching
down Highway 9.

As I was coming on to Highway 9,

I noticed in the sky --
there was a few at first,

but I noticed vultures.

And I noticed
as I got closer to the spot

where they were searching
that there were more and more,

and it was really ominous

because it was, like,
a perfectly bright, sunny day

and you just see
these birds swirling.

And then I see cars lined
on the side of the road.

So I pull in behind
this set of cars.

I get out,
and down this embankment,

I see a searcher.

And I asked the searcher,
I said,

"Are you guys out here
looking for Rebekah?"

And he points.

And there she was.

♪♪

-Rebekah's body was found
very near the side of the road.

It's a steep incline.

It looked like
she had been dumped,

like someone had tossed
the body down.

-She was partially clad

in just a t-shirt
and a pair of underwear.

She was in a what I would call
loose fetal position.

-She had been dead
probably for about a week.

I arrived back
at the sheriff's department,

and Dr. Gould comes
walking up to me,

and he asked me, he said,
"Did they find my daughter?"

And I said, "Larry, you need
to go talk to the sheriff."

At that point, he grabbed me
and said,

"Did they find my daughter?"

And I said, "Yes."

-At that point, I mean,
I just obviously lost it.

I mean, it's --
I was just in tears,

and, uh, still to this day,
I mean...

I had wanted to see her,

and they told me,
"You shouldn't."

And that can
play on your mind if...

[ Crying ]

♪♪

-We were all hoping, you know,
to get her back,

to have her back in our lives.

And the shock of knowing
that she was never coming back,

you know, and that
somebody could

do something so heinous to her,

it was very hard
to come back from that.

♪♪

-Family and friends
in Mountain View

and surrounding communities
are coming to grips

with the shocking murder
of a college student

-I would not say at this point
that we have cleared anybody

as far
as being a potential suspect,

nor have we zeroed in on any
one particular solid suspect.

-I can remember, uh,

when I first heard about
Rebekah's murder.

It was so unusual for something
like that to happen here.

-The thought that someone
would come in

and kill Rebekah just
kind of rattled people's minds.

Did she know the person?

Was it a stranger
just come through?

It's kind of scared everybody.

-Police, when they are
developing a list of suspects,

they want to say, "Okay, was she
having conflicts with anybody?"

People did say
Rebekah could scrap.

Yes, she loved her friends.

But if you got in her face,
there would be a fight.

There were a lot of rumors
at the time.

This could have been
a girl-fight-type situation.

-Problem was,
there were so many rumors

that were so untrue.

I feel like the police just kind
of ran with whatever they could.

Anybody that was even
remotely close to the case

was a suspect.

You know, when I walked in
and done my first interview,

it was like, "You did this.
You know who did this.

We've been told
that after the crime,

you went and helped
clean up the mess."

And that just shattered me.

I-I was in shock.

The whole time,
I was just shaking.

-As you're moving
through an investigation,

you really have to
follow every lead,

even if it's based on
town gossip.

And investigators --
they found nothing concrete

connecting any of Rebekah's
female friends to her murder.

But that did not stop
the rumors.

♪♪

-The rumor mill --
it just really divided everyone.

It divided the whole community.

We didn't know who to trust.

If you walked in a gas station,

you'd just get these looks
and, like, whispers,

and you never had any peace.

You never had any time to
just sit and mourn your friend.

-When enough people
buy into a rumor,

that just becomes
the accepted narrative,

and that's when
the real truth just gets buried.

♪♪

-We now know
that it was a horrific crime.

We're in shock.
It's the type of thing

that you think only happens
to other people.

-Dr. Larry Gould and his
daughters, Tiffany and Danielle,

hold on to each other
for comfort.

Their sister, Rebekah,
was found murdered

and at the bottom
of this embankment.

-The State Police has
the best of the best,

as far as I'm concerned,
involved with this case.

I did what everybody does
when these things happen.

You trust law enforcement.

But this is
the preliminary aspect

of a criminal investigation,

and they're not gonna
tell you anything.

-As with any investigation,
only members of law enforcement

knew what Rebekah's
injuries were.

None of the details from
the autopsy were made public

or shared with Rebekah's family.

-The official cause of death
listed by the medical examiner

was blunt force injuries
of the head.

And the official manner of death
was classified as a homicide.

She had basically a shattered
nasal structure,

so she'd clearly been hit
in the nose.

And then she also had
four to five fractures

on the left side of her head.

-Whoever hit her
hit her really hard.

-The medical examiner
did say Rebekah possibly

could have been strangled,

but he couldn't make
a conclusion on that.

The medical examiner
also could not determine

whether Rebekah had been
sexually assaulted

because of the level
of decomposition

that her body experienced.

♪♪

-As a reporter, I get calls
from people all the time,

and so I would get little bits
and pieces leaked to me.

Rebekah reportedly had brought
two large suitcases with her

on this weekend trip
to Casey's house,

but they only found
one of those suitcases.

-The other item
that was discovered missing

was a leg off of Casey's piano
in the living room.

-Now this piano leg
would periodically just fall.

It was kind of an older piano.

Police were operating
under the assumption

that she was possibly struck
in the head

with this loose piano leg,

and whoever killed her
likely wasn't going there

with the intention
of killing her.

Early on in Rebekah's case,

the lead detective --
he got promoted.

So a new detective
was actually brought in,

a guy named Dennis Simons.

-Special Agent Dennis Simons
was a reserve member

of the U.S. Marines.

He was a trooper
with the Arkansas State Police

for about five years
before he officially joined

the Criminal Investigations
Department in 2004,

and he was local
to the Mountain View area.

-Rebekah was known
to consume marijuana.

Dennis had a theory
that this was drug-related,

and so he's trying to vet
everybody in Rebekah's world

who has some type
of drug connection.

He interviewed a lot of people,

and he went down
a lot of rabbit holes.

And so you have a new suspect,
and that's Chris.

-Chris had a reputation
of being a bad boy.

He had a rough exterior,
had a rough upbringing.

-Chris was in the drug scene
in Mountain View,

and he and Rebekah were friends.

-He knew Rebekah from school.

They had grown up together.

Rebekah did buy some pot
from Chris's friend

a few days before the murder,

and there were rumors
going around that Chris

and his friend might have had
something to do with it.

-There were some
local residents who said

they overheard Chris
make some comments

about the murder,

about not actually
committing the murder,

but maybe being there

or helping to move her body
with his vehicle.

♪♪

-Investigators interviewed
Chris multiple times.

They gave him
a lie-detector test,

which he failed.

So police became
sort of convinced

that he and his friend
had been responsible for it.

-Chris kept telling
investigators

that he was innocent,

but the more
he was investigated,

the more people in the community
seemed to come forward

with these stories about him.

♪♪

-Chris's vehicle was seized

and processed
for forensic evidence.

They were obviously
looking for Rebekah's DNA,

and they were looking for
forensic evidence

inside Casey's trailer.

-I'd get some kind of a notice

that the Arkansas State Police
wanted to bring me up to date,

and they told me they had
two suspects.

They wouldn't give me names.

They were being watched
and that

they felt that there was --
an arrest was imminent.

And so my -- my hopes
and my thoughts

were just all over the place.

♪♪

-The lead investigator
in the case, Dennis Simons --

he was telling people
that Chris was the guy.

-But they never found
any evidence

that he had been
to that trailer

or that he even knew
where it was.

No evidence, no DNA,

nothing that would put him
at the crime scene.

-Despite all of the rumors
swirling around Chris,

the prosecutor on the case
eventually told Dennis Simons

that the evidence was
just too circumstantial,

and in order to charge Chris
and his friend

with Rebekah's murder,
he needed more.

♪♪

-As time went on,

I tried to make life go on
because I had to,

not because I wanted to.

-For months,
sometimes years at a time,

there would be
no investigative activity.

-It was almost like they just
set her case file on a shelf,

and it was never
coming back down,

you know, that they'd given up.

-People just wanted answers,

and there was none being given

because the investigation
was going nowhere.

♪♪

-I didn't have any updates,
any facts.

None.

I knew that the only way
I was gonna get information

was to become
my own investigator.

And so that led me
to begin the letter writing.

I began by writing a letter
to the prosecutor at that time.

"As of next month,
eight years ago,

I lost my daughter
to the hands of a killer.

Her case remains unsolved,

so I have decided to formally
request certified copies

of all records concerning
my daughter's murder."

I was after anything
they'd give me, you know?

Let me look at your file.

Let me see where
it fits into maybe

the rumors
that I've been told.

"I am writing
for the second time,

as I have not received
a response from you...

This is unacceptable
and frankly, cruel...

Accountability and justice...
are parents...

Stop hiding under the guise...

Perhaps if you have a child
of your own,

you can understand my feelings."

I was pissed.

When you have a parent
that's reaching out like this

after so many years, I think
you can set aside some time.

"I am politely and respectfully
asking you to cooperate

or provide me a no-nonsense
written explanation as to why

you will not provide justice
for my daughter

Rebekah's murder."

I'm pretty sure this is the one
that he gave in a little bit,

maybe because of all the --
being so forceful.

But he finally released
the autopsy report to me.

And that was it.

-For nine years, Dr. Gould had
no idea how his daughter died.

And the autopsy report
finally gave him some answers.

But it was really,
in the end, just breadcrumbs,

given that they'd been
investigating this case now

for nearly a decade.

-A year or two years later,
I saw Dennis Simons.

We had our first real
introduction,

and he told me
that there are certain cases

that will never be solved.

Crazy.
I mean, literally crazy.

-So Dr. Gould and I started
reconnecting.

He asked me, "What can we do
to force the State Police

to investigate this case
better?"

I said, "Doc, there's only
one thing I know of,

is public pressure."

And on March 13th, 2018,
I got an e-mail,

and it was from
Catherine Townsend.

She wanted to do a podcast
about Rebekah's case.

-I got involved with
the Rebekah Gould case in 2018.

I am from Arkansas.

My sister was very good friends

with Rebekah Gould's
sister Danielle.

Danielle had been completely
traumatized by losing Rebekah,

and she just felt that
it wasn't being investigated.

Over the years,
I would go home to visit,

and everybody would talk about
this case, this unsolved case,

and it just really
kind of drew me in.

And I kept wondering,
why hadn't her case been solved?

When I started
investigating the case,

I went to see Dennis Simons.

My attitude going in was

even if he couldn't share
any information with me,

I just wanted to let him know
what I was doing as a courtesy.

And he openly told me he thinks
it's Chris and his friend.

He said something like, "I
arrest him every chance I get."

And he said,
"I'm making sure he does life

on the installment plan."

He was arresting Chris
every chance that he got,

and he was gonna keep him
in jail

on whatever charge he could.

And that's when I thought
the investigation was

in serious trouble.

When I got to town,

people initially did not really
want to talk to me.

It was difficult.

There are a lot of people here
who are not used to outsiders,

maybe a little bit hesitant
to accept outside help,

and it just took time
to build trust with people.

It was going back
and finding everyone

who said they had information,
one person at a time,

one door at a time.

It was a real-time
investigation.

Rebekah was beautiful,
popular, and full of life.

It's been 14 years,

and Rebekah's killer
has never been found.

-The podcast launched
on October 17th, 2018,

and it was like
a bombshell going off.

-It took a case that people had
forgotten about for 14 years,

and it made it into
really a national sensation.

All of a sudden, everyone was
talking about Rebekah's case.

-That's the first podcast
I'd ever listened to.

-Mm-hmm.
-And, I mean,

it was just like you were there

and you were investigating
with her,

which is I'm all about,
you know?

-Well, it was exciting to me.

It was like you were
addicted to something

that you couldn't
stay away from.

-All these groups started
forming on social media.

There were a lot of, like,
theories and innuendo

that kind of boiled back
to the surface again.

♪♪

-Everything in the world
was being thrown out there.

At some point,
there was something on there

that we had killed her
and put her in --

and buried her in my backyard.

-When the podcast came out,
that was a good thing

for Rebekah and for her case.

But the old feelings and the
old rumors and things like that,

it made me very sick
to my stomach.

-I took no joy ever in putting
people's names out there

and traumatizing them
in any way,

but I think it's important
to remember

that it's an unsolved murder.

We've got to figure out
who did it.

-As the episodes kept
coming out,

it was becoming clearer
and clearer that the narrative

that we had been fed
by the police was wrong.

Something wasn't making
any sense here.

-I was trying to find answers,
so I did a local radio show.

I said, "Call me
if you have any information."

I then got a call from someone
whose voice was shaking.

This person was terrified,

and what they told me --
that blew me away.

♪♪

-I got a call from someone
who said

that they had worked with Casey,

putting up, like,
cellphone towers

in the years around 2010,

and they said
that Casey was drunk

and was sort of talking
about the case.

Casey had told them Rebekah
was trying to break up with him.

And, you know,
we aired a short interview

with this person on the podcast.

♪♪

-When the interview aired,

it stirred up
all sorts of speculation,

and all of a sudden, Casey was
back in the spotlight.

-One of the first things
that I was trying to figure out

was what the relationship was
between Rebekah and Casey.

When I spoke to Casey's friends,

they told me he described her
as the love of his life.

But Danielle had told me

that Rebekah was ending things
with Casey.

-Just before she disappeared,

Rebekah had told me
that she was leaving

and moving
to the Fayetteville area,

so she was gonna
be breaking up with him.

-There are plenty of murders

where the motive is
an unwanted breakup.

But in 2004,
when Casey was first questioned,

he downplayed the fact
that they had broken it off.

-Okay.

-There's other circumstantial
evidence

that makes Casey
a viable suspect.

The week
that Rebekah was missing,

his behaviors were
extremely odd.

-All right,
so this is my statement

from when we were first

interviewed by
the investigators

at Izard County
Sheriff's Office.

"I had been told by Casey

that Rebekah was supposed
to have picked him up,

but that she hadn't shown.

We all returned to my house
at around 11:00, 11:30 p.m.

Casey used my phone.
After he had hung up,

he stated
that Rebekah was missing.

That's when it really seemed odd

that he didn't head
out the door to find her."

You know, when you look back
at all the things

that don't make sense,
well, sure, it raises eyebrows.

Even as a friend,
you know, it's like,

well, I don't know
why you didn't leave

and go back that night
to check on her.

-Immediately
after Rebekah went missing,

it seemed like everyone
in the town was looking for her.

Casey, however, was not part
of that search party.

-I met Casey
at my daughter's graduation.

He was absolutely taken
by Rebekah.

So when there was
very little effort on his part

to help in the search,

that became a real red flag
for me.

♪♪

-[ Exhales ]

I met Casey in 2010,
in Texas.

My dad was a project manager
for cellphone towers,

and he had a worker
from Arkansas

that he'd been working with,

and that person
brought on Casey.

He was kind of a hipster dude,

cute, had a little swagger about
him, I guess you could say.

I would not have guessed
that he was from Arkansas

just from, like, talking to him.

He felt a little more cool
than that.

He had a very fairy-tale way
of looking at life.

Eventually, he just moved in,
pretty much.

Casey told me about Rebekah

when we were getting to know
each other.

My immediate reaction was
I felt bad for him

for what he had been through.

I could tell
that he cared about her a lot.

It seemed like
he really loved her.

I didn't even ask him
if he was a suspect.

He was such a nice guy
that it was easy to go,

"There's no way he did it."

So we go to Arkansas.

We went to his house,
and we went inside,

and we bring our stuff
into the first bedroom.

And I hopped down on the bed,
and I'm looking out the window.

All I could think about
was Rebekah, and I was thinking,

wow, this is so far
from everybody.

I'm like, he could get away
with anything out here.

I just couldn't take it anymore,

and I asked him
where her body was dumped.

He got frustrated with me
and he said,

"It's 10 minutes from here.
It's a different highway.

Let's move on."

I was worried because
he would not tell me any more.

I couldn't trust him.

♪♪

Casey went back to Arkansas,

and then I hear nothing else
until the podcast.

I remember where I was standing
when I heard that.

I was cooking breakfast, and
I just kind of hit the floor.

The witness said he was working
on towers when he confessed.

My sister actually was like,
"We know that guy.

It's got to be that guy."

And sure enough, it was.

-We went to
the witness's house,

took the statement,
and at that point,

it became part of
the official case file.

That's when Dennis talked
to Casey.

-In 2018, Casey was living
back in Arkansas,

and when Special Agent Simons
took the witness's story to him,

Casey denied ever working
on cell towers

at the same time as the witness.

-The witness was
very believable to me.

He's worked with my dad.

But I could never prove

that they were at the same hotel
at the same time.

-Investigators could not find
corroboration that the witness

and Casey ever worked
on cellphone towers together,

and they didn't think
the story was credible.

Investigators believed
that Rebekah was killed

the morning of Monday,
September 20th,

and Casey had an ironclad alibi.

♪♪

-Ultimately, Casey
kind of just became a recluse

and sequestered himself
from everyone,

and he was just different
from then on, as you would be.

You know, I believe in my heart

that there's no way Casey
would be involved in anything

that would be harmful
to Rebekah, you know?

So the longer this goes
unsolved,

you start to think
something completely random

has happened
that none of us can see

because it is just so random.

♪♪

-The podcast ended,
and I had the feeling

that all this effort
was for naught.

It's not gonna change.

But then I got an e-mail
in my inbox.

It was from
a criminology professor

at American Military University.

She had heard me
on the "Hell and Gone" podcast,

and she became very intrigued
with Rebekah's case.

-That house is remote.

You have to know it's there.
-Right.

-I am a combat Army veteran

and former
counterintelligence agent,

and I'm a criminal investigator

for my local sheriff's office
in Colorado.

I had binged the podcast,
and I was pretty much hooked.

But what hooked me
is some of the specific actions

that Rebekah's killer took in
the aftermath of her murder.

It's got to be someone
with a tie to that residence.

They've been there before.
-Yeah.

-Because they took her
out that backdoor.

-They did.

Jennifer saw this case
the way I saw it.

Whoever killed Rebekah Gould
moved her body

and cleaned up the mess.

These are critical details
that cannot be ignored.

That means that the killer has

an intimate connection
to the house.

They leave all of this evidence.

They leave her car.
-Right.

-They leave her dog.
So they're gonna know

this was the last place she was.

-Right.

By the end of 2018,
it was clear

that Dennis Simons had focused
the majority of his efforts

towards trying to find things
that would implicate Chris.

But why would he stick around

and remove Rebekah's body
to a secondary location?

And why does he care about
cleaning up Casey's bedroom?

-When you develop
a theory about a case,

if your theory is wrong,

you will potentially miss
key details

that could lead you
in other directions.

You just dismiss them because
they don't fit your theory.

-And I promised Rebekah
that I would find her killer.

It was a promise to never quit.

She deserved that.

So I filed a complaint
with the Arkansas State Police

against Dennis Simons.

One of the things
that I mentioned was,

if this case is ever gonna
be solved,

that Dennis Simons
has to be removed

and another investigator
brought in.

-In 2020, out of the blue,
I got a call.

I saw the Arkansas State Police
number flash up,

and I picked up,

and this person said,
"My name's Mike McNeill.

I'm a new investigator
on the case.

I hear you may have
some recordings for me."

-I was told by a source
inside the State Police

that they had had enough
of the bad publicity.

Now their public statement was,
was that Dennis was retiring,

and they assigned
Special Agent Mike McNeill

to take over the case
in January of 2020.

-He did the one thing
nobody ever did.

He came to my office.

For the first time,
I knew I was getting somebody

that was sincerely listening
to what I had to say.

And he did exactly what I asked
to be done in my letters --

go back to the beginning.

-George and I did have
communication with Mike,

and I could just tell
from some of the questions

he was asking us that he was
looking at the McCulloughs.

-When Casey talks to
Special Agent McNeill

for the first time,
he throws out the same theory

that the previous
investigator had,

but McNeill completely
dismisses that idea.

-Mike McNeill clears Casey
because of his alibi.

He clears Claude, Casey's dad,

because he was driving a truck
in upstate New York at the time.

And then he starts
going one by one through all

of the male members
of the McCullough family

that had ties to the trailer
where Rebekah was killed.

-At the same time,
Jennifer and I decided

that we were gonna start
a Facebook page.

-Unsolved Murder
of Rebekah Gould.

-And we started getting
a flood of members.

-We wanted as many people
as possible,

and we never censored comments.

We actually encouraged
people to brainstorm.

Give us your ideas.

-We followed it every post,
every step of the way.

-Every step of the way, and we'd
call each other and discuss it.

What do you think?
Well, what do you think?

-People were constantly
fighting online,

like if it was one of Casey's
friends or one of his relatives,

they were defending him.

And then somebody would chime in
and say,

"Oh, you must have had something
to do with the murder, too."

And it was just conversations
like that,

and they would just erupt.

-My sister was very vocal
on the web page.

My sister is very opinionated,

and she can take so much,
and then she gives her opinion,

[laughs] whether they want it
or not, I guess.

-George and I hoped it would
bring people out of the woodwork

who maybe knew what happened
to Rebekah.

And then a guy named
William Miller joined the group.

-He was from the Philippines.
We could tell that,

you know,
from looking at his profile.

Why is somebody from the
Philippines joining our page?

-Now, we had a member
of our volunteer team,

I guess you could call it,

who had mapped out Casey's
whole family tree.

-Jennifer -- she texted me
and she said,

"Do you know who
William Miller is?"

And I said,
"That is Casey's cousin.

That's his first cousin."
-I thought, well, huh,

he's in here under
his real name. Okay.

You would think
he might be concerned

that we know he's a member
of the family,

but, you know,
we weren't gonna stop him.

We're just monitoring him.

It was in January of 2020

when I received the first direct
message from William Miller.

The first thing he sent me
was a screenshot

of a newspaper article.

So I responded
like I do to everybody else.

I just kept it cordial
and normal.

But we continued
to communicate throughout 2020

about different topics.

Several times,
he said that he hoped

I would get justice for Rebekah.

He said,
"I think you can solve this."

I said, "How did you even learn
about this case?"

And he just said,
"podcast," one word.

A couple months later,
I brought it up again.

I said, "I can't remember
if I asked you,

but have you been to Arkansas?"

Like, did you know
anybody, like,

related to this case?"
or something like that.

And he responded with,
"I've been to all 50 states."

I said, okay,
so he's definitely trying

to hide his relationship
to Casey's family.

We had done our research,
and we knew that he'd been

living in Texas in 2004,

and he had a fiancée
and a small daughter.

-And then Jennifer and I learned
something that was a bombshell.

We found out that William Miller
had been in proximity to Rebekah

within hours of her murder.

♪♪

-September of 2020
was a turning point

for our investigation.

That is when somebody
reached out to me

and told me that William's
brother, Jeremy Miller,

had attended that Mount Pleasant
High School in 2004.

-William Miller's mom,
Linda, and his brother, Jeremy,

had moved to Arkansas
before the murder,

and they lived two miles
from Casey's house.

-The other part of the tip
was that

the day after
Rebekah's disappearance,

Jeremy Miller was taken out
of school and never seen again.

And when Jeremy was pulled out
of school,

there was another guy
with the mom.

He was described
as definitely older than Jeremy,

but not the mom's age.

He was reported
as acting suspiciously,

like, looking out the windows
to see who might be around.

The mom isn't married.

She didn't have a boyfriend
that we knew of.

Like, who else would it
have been?

We concluded that that
probably was William Miller.

That was the tip we needed.

That was the turning point
for us.

And I realized his motive
for joining the Facebook group

was probably much different
than I originally thought.

-Now, here's the thing.

The police knew
that William Miller had been

in town that weekend.

-Remember, Casey had said
that a cousin of his

had come to the trailer
on Sunday night.

-Back in 2004, a few days after
Rebekah was reported missing,

the Arkansas police did
actually follow up on this lead.

They had police in Texas
track down Billy

along with his mom
and his brother.

-What Linda told investigators
was that shortly after

they got to
the Melbourne area,

Jeremy started having
trouble in school.

-So she decided she wanted
to move back to Texas,

where they were from.

And so on Sunday,
Billy came up to help them move.

Billy told them basically
the same story that Casey does,

that he just showed up
at Casey's house.

He just was there
for a few minutes,

they talked, and that he left,

and that the next day,

the same day Rebekah vanished,

they decide they're gonna
take this impromptu trip

to Branson, Missouri,
which is three-plus hours away.

And she said the next day
they get Jeremy out of school

and they pack up
all their stuff.

On Wednesday,
they move to Texas.

-The Arkansas State Police
apparently found

the answers pretty satisfactory,
and then that was the end of it.

They talked to them once.

-After that, that lead
was left alone for 15 years.

As soon as we found this out,

we start going over the things
he was saying on our page.

It was clear from his messages

that among all
of the McCulloughs,

he was the one
who really focused in

on some of these details.

-So I made sure
that the person

who reached out to us
went to Investigator McNeill

and told him
those recollections.

Mike did his due diligence

and conducted a background check
on William Miller

to see if he had
a criminal history.

There had been a couple
accusations made about him,

but that those accusations
never resulted

in charges or a conviction.

One was aggravated assault
against his ex-wife,

and another was molestation
of a minor, a child.

-William Miller lives
in the Philippines.

He worked on oil rigs
all over the world.

Special Agent McNeill put
a flag out for his passport.

He said, "He's not a suspect
in this murder,

but he's someone
I want to talk to,

so let me know when
he comes back into the country."

-So he gets the notification
in October of 2020,

and he knows William is
in the country at this point.

-William Miller was in Oregon
because his mother and brother

were now living in Oregon.

McNeill calls Linda Miller
and he says,

"Hey, you know,
I need to talk to you,

I need to talk to Jeremy,
and I need to talk to William."

-And she said, "I don't know

when William's gonna be
back home.

You know, he works overseas."

But Mike knows
that William is in the U.S.

If William has no involvement,

why is she lying for him?

♪♪

-After Linda Miller and
Mike McNeill first connected,

a couple of days later,
she called Mike back

and informed him
that William would be around

in the near future.

-So the State Police sent
Mike McNeill to Oregon

to interview him in a little
town called Cottage Grove.

William Miller goes into
the interrogation room

to talk with Mike McNeill,

and they're having
a pretty bland conversation

about the case, the facts.

-Mike's building rapport
with William,

making him feel comfortable,
all the typical stuff you do

to put somebody at ease.

And one of the key
turning points is

when Mike tells William,
you know,

"There's others in your family
who have been willing

to take a polygraph test."

Mike basically says,
"Well, you know what?

Maybe this police department
here has a polygrapher on staff

that's available today."

Meanwhile, the polygrapher
is already at the station,

ready to go.

-Immediately, you can tell
William's body language --

he starts tensing up.

Moments later,
the polygraph guy is in there,

and now William's trapped.

He is asked several
specific questions about

if he had anything to do
with Rebekah's murder.

-Okay.

-So he gets through
the polygraph,

and then, you know, William
pretty quickly asked,

"How did I do?"

You can see it.

The stress is just, like,
emitting itself from him.

And then he goes, "I think Mike
has some things to show you."

So they switch.

Mike McNeill comes back
in the room and sits down.

-And he's got a folder with
him, you know, with some files.

He opens it up,

and he shows William
a picture of a rag --

the rag that was found
underneath the bed.

-Okay?

-Then Mike McNeill goes
to a second picture,

and it's a picture
of the inside of Billy's truck,

the one that he owned
at the time of Rebekah's murder.

He had had the Texas Rangers
track this truck down

and had pictures taken
inside of it.

-Then comes
really the turning point.

You know, Mike brings out
a photo of the floorboard

of William's truck.

-Mike McNeill is using
a time-tested technique here --

the bluff.

He's got no evidence
linking Billy to this crime.

The wash rag, the floorboard --

there's no conclusive DNA
on any of it.

But he wants to see
how Billy will react.

-[ Exhales ]

-You don't ever want them to
leave the environment you're in.

You don't want to stop
the momentum.

You don't want to give them
a minute outside

to second-guess themselves.

And Mike knows,
like, he doesn't have anything

to arrest William on,

but he knows William
can walk right out the door.

What if I give in
to this request

and his mom's like, "Let's go"?

It's very, very risky.

-And then Mike McNeill
does something that I --

I'm still astonished.

He lets William get up.

-All right.

♪♪

-McNeill takes this huge risk

and lets William Miller
leave the interview,

just leave the room and
go outside to talk to his mom.

It was just when
it seemed like he was

inching towards a confession.

He just lets him go.

-That was one hell
of a decision he made.

-All right.

-But I think Mike read
William well enough

that he was gonna be able
to get William back in the room.

-And that's when Billy
finally admits

that he was the one
who murdered Rebekah.

-And then William tells him
the story.

-Billy goes on to say
that after he hit Rebekah,

he strangled her with a necktie

that he found
in Casey's bedroom.

He said he put the tie
in Rebekah's suitcase.

-When I talked to Danielle,

she said Rebekah's oversized
black suitcase was missing.

Billy knew
where the suitcase was.

That was hard, physical evidence

that could tie him
to this murder.

-The suitcase was found
on a piece of property

that was across the street
from the property

where Linda Miller was living
at the time of the murder.

-So next to the suitcase,
investigators found a comforter.

They found some sheets
that matched the pattern

of bedding found in Casey's
washing machine back in 2004,

but they did not find
a murder weapon.

No piano leg. No necktie.

-A breaking news update --
major breakthrough

in a murder investigation
that spans nearly two decades.

An arrest has been made
in the case of Rebekah Gould,

who was killed in 2004.

-44-year-old William Miller
was arrested in Oregon

after living in the Philippines
for years.

♪♪

-Hearing that they had
made an arrest,

I was almost like,
no, come on.

But then it kind of --
reality set in,

and I realize
they've got somebody.

-I was an emotional wreck.

It was the sense of relief,

but then again a sense of shock

that this person
that was arrested was no one

that I knew Rebekah ever
associating with.

-William Miller? Who is that?

Like, you know,
it was Casey's cousin.

Well, what cousin?

Like, you know,
and why did I do this?

-William Miller pleaded guilty
to the murder of Rebekah Gould.

The prosecutor agreed
to a plea deal.

-William Miller was sentenced
on October 18th, 2022.

He got 40 years in prison,

and he'll have to do
most of those.

-And he did something
I've never, ever seen.

He agreed to talk to her father
after the sentencing.

♪♪

-I wanted to hear what happened.

I wanted to hear answers.

When I met him
face to face in the jail area,

his eyes were down.

He wouldn't make eye contact
with you.

I had an opportunity
to ask him some questions,

and the minute he felt like
he had an audience,

the minute he felt like
he was in control,

his posture changed.

He puffed out. He --

and then he started
making more eye contact.

The simple question he was
asked was, what happened?

Why?
He said that he hit her

and then immediately
started giving her CPR.

So, give me a break.

He never strangled her,
according to him.

And he was attempting
to revive her to save her life.

His story completely changed.

And so did he rape her?
Did he actually strangle her?

I don't know.

There's a lot of questions
that don't have answers.

♪♪

-The one thing
that we know for a fact

is that William Miller is
a liar.

There were several details
that William Miller gave

in his confession
that did not make sense.

-He claimed that he went
to the McCullough property

early on Monday morning.

He killed Rebekah,
took her body,

disposed of her over on
Highway 9, several miles away,

did a semi-cleanup
of the trailer,

and said he was back home
before his mom and brother

even got up for his brother
to go to school.

So that timeline is impossible.

There's not enough time
for that to have occurred

before his brother
had to go to school.

But the bigger problem is,
if that was the time frame,

then Casey is at the trailer,
because Casey didn't go to work

till about 8:00 a.m.
that morning.

So I know that that part
of William's confession

cannot be true.

And this is
another peculiar part.

He never actually declares

that he used the piano leg
to hit Rebekah and murder her.

-I don't believe
he falsely confessed,

but I think there could be
more to the story.

-All right.

-It seems strange to me

that there literally is
no real motivation.

It just seems like
there's something missing.

-Camera speed, sound speed.

This is Nathan's interview,
take one. Mark.

-My name is Nathan McBride.

I am Billy Miller's cousin.

He was one of my best friends
for a portion of my life,

and for another portion
of my life,

he was my enemy
because of the things

he had done
to family members and others.

-This is Nathan's interview,
take one. Mark.

-My name is Nathan McBride.

I am Billy Miller's cousin.

Billy and I were very,
very close for a time.

Billy was a very fun guy
to be around back then.

When he was younger,
he was a very attractive guy.

So he obviously got
a lot of the ladies.

But I think his charisma

and his ability to persuade
was exceptional.

Billy had a shoebox
full of photographs,

Polaroids he had taken,

of women in the act of,

and without exaggeration,
hundreds and hundreds of photos,

all different women.

This was his trophy, you know?

I am not related to any of
the family that's in Arkansas.

That is on
Billy's mother's side.

So I had no knowledge of Casey

or any of his side
of the family whatsoever

until I found out
about the murder.

-44-year-old William Miller
was arrested in Oregon

after living in the Philippines
for years.

-It's still unclear
what led police

to initially suspect Miller
or his connection to the victim.

-It was a shocker.

But to be honest with you,

whenever I started
learning more details about it,

a lot of light bulbs
went off in my head.

♪♪

Billy had been accused
by a family member

of trying to date-rape her.

He had gotten her drunk and
tried to take advantage of her.

Even though I knew
he was a sexually driven person,

I didn't want to believe it.

No one wants to believe

that essentially
their best friend

is raping
their own family members.

Around 2002,
there was an allegation

of Billy sexually molesting
a child.

That was when we stopped

being as close as we were.

Billy was never
formally charged

with any of
the sexual allegations.

If they would have
actually pursued this,

he wouldn't have had
the opportunity

to take Rebekah's life.

♪♪

I believe Billy went
to the trailer

to try to have
a sexual encounter with Rebekah.

And her resistance sparked him
to commit the murder.

I do believe he was
the sole murderer of Rebekah.

As far as Casey or any
of the other McCulloughs,

I honestly think that
they were victims of this crime,

not near to the magnitude
of Rebekah,

but they were victims of Billy.

-Rumors have their way
of going around,

and with people insinuating
or saying

that Billy ended her life,

but someone helped him,

is just a farce.

As far as me and my boys go,
we did not know.

Some people can't just
drop the story.

It's like a never-ending story.

I am just glad that
Rebekah's family got closure.

-One of the most curious things
about this case

is that William Miller got away
with Rebekah's murder

for a very, very long time.

It's almost like
the renewed interest in the case

lured him out of hiding, and
he almost couldn't help himself.

-I think he very much enjoyed
the cat-and-mouse game

that he played online,

nobody knowing
that he was actually the killer,

that he could reveal himself

when he wanted to reveal
himself,

and then he could go back
into the shadows

whenever he wanted to go back
in the shadows.

-At the plea hearing,

I was told that I had to write
a victim statement.

"18 years ago,
my life changed forever.

18 years ago,
many lives were changed forever.

My precious daughter
Rebekah Christian Gould

was taken from us.

You took away a chance
for a young,

tenacious, and blossoming girl

to dream of her possibilities
in life.

You took away from me

my opportunity
to watch those things happen.

My daughter was dumped
like trash.

You were long gone.

You have had 18 years
of life, family,

children, money, a career.

Today that ends,
and today I grieve.

I will leave you
with this one statement.

Rebekah lives in all of us.

She will never die.

Rebekah inspires us all
to better our lives

and to know that love
and grace are words

I will remember her by."

[ Crying ] I'm sorry.

♪♪

For me to walk away
at this point is something

that I emotionally have to do.

I want other families and people

not have to go through
what I've gone through.

The problem is that
if the law enforcement

labels a case like this
an active investigation,

they never have to
release their file.

-These cases can go on
for 15 or 20 years

with one person in charge,
with no release of information.

There should be a process
of oversight.

-There's a point in time when
this is no longer a murder case.

It's a cold case.

I'm not here
to belittle law enforcement,

but I think they need
to change their procedures

and get a different
cold-case team

to come in at a certain point
in time.

Turn it over to people

that are trained
for this next phase of it.

If there's anything that's
obviously been overlooked,

purposefully or not,
it can be caught.

So I'm asking for change.

And to me,
that's my way of giving back.

I want it to be called
a Rebekah Law

to honor Rebekah.

♪♪

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