Missing | FULL EPISODE | The New Detectives

Seven years after a woman goes

missing

, a trail of evidence leads investigators to a secluded boat ramp on the Missouri River. They must dig evidence of her murder out of the murky river in a rural Virginia county. A skull and a jewel are the only clues the police have. to identify a victim, but will it be enough to catch a murderer? A woman is

missing

for weeks when her body is discovered Police must piece together her case from a few pieces of duct tape When someone goes missing It's hard for police to prove murder without one But today forensic science can find justice for a victim months and sometimes even years after her disappearance Maryville Missouri is a small Midwestern town, but in 1990 it became caught up in a big city problem combating a growing methamphetamine industry that investigators sought help from those inside.

Christine Elkins had been arrested for selling the drug in exchange for immunity. Christine cooperated with authorities by helping to build a case against her supplier. She agreed to record their next meeting with a microcassette recorder hidden in her clothing on July 26, 1990, under the watchful eye. from investigators, elkins met with the dealer at his home, grabbed agent mike schmitz, headed the case for the bureau of alcohol, tobacco and firearms, she returned later extremely upset and said she knew I was connected, tried locating the recorder was very upset christine told the officers she feared for her safety she was urged to stay away from Tony when the officers tried to listen to the tape it was indecipherable the case against Tony Emery would have to be based on the testimony of an informant a few weeks earlier After Christine testified against him, the police received a call from her mother.

She hadn't heard from her daughter in several days and she was worried. A search of Christine's home indicated no signs of a struggle. Her car, a brown Oldsmobile, was missing. Missouri State Police worked with ATF on the Emory narcotics case, investigator Larry Bodenhamer. Well, the investigation changed after she disappeared because after a period of time it was like, where is she? Do you know what happened to him? Did she leave alone? agreement or something has happened to their investigators they interviewed christine's friends and acquaintances a friend told the police that she had seen her around 10 o'clock the night she disappeared christine had asked her to watch her son for a few minutes while meeting someone Christine made a chilling prediction when she left, if she didn't return in a few minutes she would be in the morgue, no one had seen her since, okay I need to inform everyone today, the ATF and the police now suspect that Tony Emery was behind. for his disappearance he had a strong motive but without evidence of a real crime authorities could not prove his involvement three weeks later maryville police received a tip from a federal drug agent in colorado a methamphetamine manufacturer facing a sentence in federal prison He wanted to make a deal with him.

He claimed he knew about the murder of an informant in Maryville. Investigators feared he was referring to Christine Elkins. Maryville police and ATF agents flew to Colorado to question James Witt. He told them that he manufactured methamphetamine for Tony Emery and his cousin Herb Emery. He said he had heard the two men talk about killing an informant in Missouri in exchange for leniency. Whitt agreed to meet with his memory and wear a wire. Authorities hoped his conversation would provide details of the alleged murder and possibly lead them to Christine Elkins three months after Christine disappeared. She met Herb Emery in the parking lot of a restaurant.

The agents heard his conversation from a nearby car. He pretended that he needed to dispose of a body and asked her for advice. Herb Emery told him that the best way to dispose of a body was to put it in the trunk. of a car and sinking it into a rock quarry, was investigators' first clue. Using detailed maps, they identified rock quarries deep enough to hide a car, but the Midwest, famous for its native limestone, had literally hundreds of quarries to further narrow your search. They had to think. like a murderer if you have a person in the trunk of the car, what would you do?

You would drive a long way when it wasn't your car. You could break down if you found a quarry. It would have to be. something like that would have to be something you wouldn't have to drive it's a very wet season, you wouldn't have to drive through a field because you could get stuck, they focused on a 75 mile radius but that still left hundreds of possibilities over the next few months , investigators systematically searched those rock quarries for a car containing a body, but found nothing. The ATF, Missouri State Police, and Maryville Police deemed the Emery dangerous, but lacked sufficient evidence to support a murder charge.

A working group was created that the researchers devised. a strategy to get them off the street until they could prove murder. Federal agents used James Witt again, this time to prepare a meth for Herb and Tony Emery met with Wit at a pre-arranged location. Agents observed that Tony Emery gave Wit twenty thousand dollars for several pounds of ETF drugs on the floor moved to make the arrests in the summer of 1991 herb and tony emery were convicted of conspiracy to keep and sell methamphetamine were sentenced to nine years in a federal penitentiary with emery prison authorities we were able to focus on the disappearance and possible homicide of christine elkins according to maryville police investigator randy strong tony emery was a dangerous man to cross the community he had a great fear of tony emory if we had a witness of him committing a crime they would just not show up or they would withdraw from the case, no one wanted to talk about it because they were afraid of what he might do to them, but with the Emory cousins ​​safe behind bars, the authorities hoped that His associates were no longer afraid to speak and they had a clue in their recorded conversations Herb Emery had told James Witt about a third man who was present the night of the murder Bobby Miller was a friend of Herbs in Colorado but when investigators tried to question him miller got nowhere even from prison They cast a terrifying shadow Investigators went to one of Emery's rental properties mentioned in a monitored conversation between Herb Emery and James Witt.

They suspected this was the site where Christine had been murdered. The woman who answered the door confirmed that she rented the house to the Once Emery was inside, investigators were shocked to discover that the house had been destroyed and remodeled. If Christine had been murdered at the scene, all evidence of the crime had been destroyed. Left with no options, investigators re-examined the case files for a lead. he missed the first time that would link the emerys to christine's murder investigators found phone records linking bobby miller to herb emery around the time christine disappeared. They also learned that Bobby Miller had rented a van near Maryville the night Christine was last seen, suggesting his involvement, but they had to find a way to get him to talk in September 1996, six years after Christine's disappearance. christine, the police came back to miller, okay, bobby, you know why they offered him immunity in exchange for his testimony, on his lawyer's advice, miller took the deal, miller admitted. he was outside the rental property in his memory the night christine elkins disappeared said he saw her enter where herb and tony were waiting when he heard screams he panicked and left investigators believed they knew what happened next but without a body Filing a murder case against Emery's would be difficult, if not impossible, it had been seven years since Christine Elkin's disappearance the ATF and the Maryville Missouri Police had Bobby Miller's account of her murder but there was no evidence to support it. support them and time was running out the suspects in their disappearance tony and herb emery were about to be released from prison determined to prevent their release the authorities examined every facet of their case decided to take a closer look at emery's associates dana kleiser no was directly involved with emory or his drug trafficking ring, in fact, investigators only interviewed him because tony had once gone out with his sister according to klizer tony emery arrived at his rural house the night christine disappeared borrowed some gas and then He asked Klyser to show him a nearby boat ram He distrusted Emery's reputation Klyser didn't ask any questions but took him to a boat ramp on the Missouri River Tony told him to wait several miles away The pieces of the puzzle were falling into place investigators now believed they knew the location of the car containing christine's body now we realized we had to at least try to plan to recover a body from the missouri river and i think what was going through our minds was a big flood of 1993 and i know i was thinking unfortunately christine is probably in the gulf somewhere now after that flood, the currents of the missouri river are normally powerful enough to move something the size of a car great distances.

During the 1993 floods, the river became a raging torrent that overflowed its banks and caused millions of dollars in damage. It was another long shot, but it was all investigators had. To continue the case against the Emerys, they had to find Christine's car. They enlisted the help of a non-profit organization called Necro Search International. These Colorado-based scientists helped authorities around the world find clandestine graves. and hidden evidence when clark davenport A forensic geophysicist with necrosearch arrived at the boat ramp. He had already accumulated a large amount of data before setting out to take magnetic measurements. We look at the make and model of the car.

We spoke with the manufacturer to determine the mass of metal in the engine. We also look at the currents in the river, the conditions of the river bottom, the speed of the river, the flooding that has occurred since the car entered the river, and the manufacturer's float time, how long they estimated a car would float armed with that information, necro search scientists spent two days searching a six-mile area adjacent to the boat ramp, using a magnetometer, a torpedo-shaped device that measures changes in magnetic fields floating several feet below the surface of the river, takes readings every two seconds and recognizes large masses, such as those of a used car in Along with global positioning satellites, the magnetometer allowed search scientists to pinpoint five locations where abnormal masses or anomalies were present on the river bed.

I felt fairly confident that the anomalies were consistent with what I would expect from a car of that size the next day. Researchers. He returned to the boat ramp with a team of divers battling the current of the murky river. Divers searched the five areas Davenport pointed out as possible locations for the car. Within hours, one of the divers surfaced holding a Missouri license plate. Against all odds, investigators had finally found Christine. The Elkin car, this was an incredible moment, it was like Excalibur coming out of the lake with the sword, you know, it's just incredible, you know, the emotion that was involved in that we knew we were getting close now that we go.

To close this case, divers attached steel cables to the car and pulled it out of the water, sending it to a Maryville garage for indoor processing. Forensic examiners discovered a piece of wood wedged between the driver's seat and the accelerator in the trunk and found bones. wrapped in a padded rug using hospital X-rays, the medical examiner confirmed that Christine Elkins' remains had finally been found. The autopsy revealed a large hole in the skull consistent with blunt force trauma. Christine had apparently been beaten to death. Investigators had the physical evidence that they needed to charge the Emerys with murder, they believed that Tony found out that Christine was going to testify against him and offered her money to disappear.

She was too terrified to refuse him, but when she went to the house that night, the Emerys had other plans once inside Tony. and herb attacked christine tony delivered the lethal blow by hitting her on the head with a heavy flashlight her body was wrapped in a padded mat placed in the trunk of his car and driven to the boat ramp there tony manipulated the accelerator and sent the car down the ramp into the river herb emery pleaded guiltyof murder and was sentenced to 22 years in prison Tony Emery was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole in Maryville Authorities knew the name of the victim and the alleged killers, but he fought for seven years to find his body in a rural Virginia county.

Investigators had to identify a body before the search for a killer could begin. Amelia County is a growing community nestled in the hills of western Virginia. It is a neighboring area with a low crime rate. Do not rate murder location In 1990, while deer hunting, a man made a gruesome discovery on an embankment near a small creek, found a human skull and took it to the Amelia County Sheriff's Department. Sheriff Jimmy Weaver examined the skull. Her condition told him she had been outside for some time. The presence of long reddish hair as well as the small size and characteristics of the skull suggested that the victim was probably a woman.

Two opposing holes in the skull were consistent with entry and exit wounds made by a single bullet sheriff weaver and his deputy went to the scene on the way i was trying to think of who it could be no one was missing in amelia no one had called me amy it's a small, close county if something happens we will know immediately after securing the Weaver conducted an extensive search and found more bones, jewelry, part of a blanket and a piece of denim. He worried that the animals might have scattered additional clues. Investigators expanded their search and soon discovered what appeared to be an arm bone and a gold bracelet.

The evidence seemed to confirm Sheriff Weaver's original theory that the victim was a female. Weaver sent the evidence to the medical examiner's office. of the state of virginia in richmond for analysis the chief coroner marcella fierro examined the remains the skull told her a lot about the victim first she showed that she was a young white woman. Secondly, it showed that he had a gunshot wound and that there was an injury related to this gunshot wound and the trajectory of where this bullet entered and where it fractured on the other side indicated that he had a path that was lethal as it continued Upon examination of the skeletal remains, the medical examiner's office was able to establish that the victim was between five feet two and five feet four inches tall and had reddish blonde hair.

The description was distributed to law enforcement agencies throughout the state of Virginia. The search was looking for any missing woman that matched Amelia County's Jane Doe. Now Sheriff Weaver could only wait and wait. In January 1990, the Sheriff's Department in Amelia County, Virginia needed a lead to establish the identity of the remains. bones found in an isolated area where it didn't take long Police arriving in Chesapeake, Virginia, reported that a woman fitting the victim's description had been missing for eight months. Dental records confirmed the victim was Regina Butkowski, 29, known to her friends as Jeannie. The same day, officers showed Jeannie's mother the jewelry recovered from the scene. she identified him when her daughter's Chesapeake police sent Butkowski case files to Amelia County while Weaver reviewed them.

She learned of the circumstances of Genie's disappearance on the night of May 6, 1989. Jeannie's roommate discovered that the front door of her house had been kicked down, out of concern for her. checked the parking lot for jeannie's car, it was not there, called jeannie's mother who said she had last spoken to her daughter at 10:45 the night before, a fact in police files immediately called the attention of sheriff weaver. Genie's stormy relationship with a man named Pernell Jefferson Jeannie had met Jefferson at a local gym, became her personal trainer, and the two dated for several months when Jefferson became too possessive.

The genie tried to distance herself from him, but he refused to back down on one of the things he had in any way. His obsession with Regina wasn't going to make it except the fact that she wasn't His obsession with Jefferson had become frighteningly clear when he supposedly kidnapped Genie in March 1989, but by a surprising stroke of luck more than seven minutes of that fight. on the answering machine at his house it was a very dramatic tape, no one really knew how it was recorded, but that's how it was and it was a huge situation, tell him, no, pernell, don't hurt me, don't do things and he continued, you could hear the noise . deep down and probably one of the most dramatic things is that you once heard this tremendously deep sob from Regina Weaver and found out that Genie's roommate told Jefferson about the tape and threatened to call the police.

He freed Genie and she refused to press charges against him. However, for fear of taking out her anger on someone close to her, two months later, Jeannie Butkowski disappeared again. Sheriff Weaver focused the investigation on Purnell Jefferson. Genie's parents received a clue: they had received a letter about her daughter's car at an apartment complex. In Richmond, Virginia, 130 miles from Genie's house, the apartment manager alerted them that Jeannie's car had been parked in the parking lot for six months. Investigators examined her car in hopes of finding clues linking Jefferson to the murder. They were disappointed during the time that the car had been there, it had been exposed to the elements when they had the flood in Richmond, it had been submerged in the flood, so a lot of the evidentiary value of that vehicle was lost, but it was quickly recovered. established a new lead, said a resident of the apartment complex.

Investigators soon discovered that Genie's car had changed hands several times and eventually traced it to a man named Daryl Jones who was incarcerated in Henrico County. Jones told officers he bought the car from a local man. named West Greene Greene was with a stranger who claimed the car belonged to his girlfriend. He had taken it from her and brought it from Chesapeake because he was angry with her. Investigators suspected the stranger was Pernell Jefferson. They wanted to know more and they believed. Wes Green may have the key they just needed to find him As evidence against Bernal Jefferson piled up The Amelia County Sheriff's Department believed his friend Wes Green might know more about the murder of Jeannie Butkowski Deputies quickly tracked Green down to a complex apartment in richmond when questioned he admitted that he helped jefferson get rid of jeannie's car, the officer insisted, green added that jefferson had borrowed a coworker's car at the time the genius disappeared, if the car was had used to dispose of his body, it was likely that incriminating evidence had been left behind.

Officers went to the appliance rental store where Purnell Jefferson had worked. A co-worker confirmed that on May 5, the day Jeannie disappeared, Jefferson had borrowed his car and did not return it until late at night. A few days later, Jefferson went to lunch. and never returned Investigators obtained permission to search the employee's car The search returned incriminating results Technicians found traces of lime, a corrosive substance that accelerates decomposition More importantly, they found reddish-blonde hair similar to that found on the skull of jeannie butkowski's hair was sent to the crime lab for analysis a comparison indicated that the two hairs were consistent in texture and color investigators now had their first physical evidence connecting jefferson to the murder of jeannie batkowski sheriff weaver swore a warrant for pernell jefferson's arrest on capitol murder charges authorities tracked jefferson to stuart florida, where he had moved shortly after jeannie's disappearance on february 3, 1990, a swat team stormed the suspect's home and found him hidden in a closet.

They quickly arrested him. Jefferson was extradited to Amelia County to stand trial for murder based on the evidence. Investigators reconstructed the events of the night Jeannie Butkowski died on May 5, 1989. Bernell Jefferson and Wes Green drove from Richmond to Chesapeake and broke into Genie's house while she was sleeping. Jeannie struggled with Jefferson, who dragged her off of her, forced her into her own car, and sped off. Green left separately, although investigators never learned the precise location of the murder from him, suspecting that Jefferson stopped in a remote area while he was driving back to Richmond. He initially disposed of his body on the outskirts of town for fear of being discovered there.

Jefferson recruited Wes Green to help. He moved the body to Amelia County, where it was buried in a shallow grave. Pernell Jefferson thought he had covered his tracks, but underestimated Sheriff Weaver and his deputies. He thought he would take her to a rural county where he probably was. a rural law enforcement agency that didn't find him or if they found him they wouldn't solve him on march 28, 1991 bernell jefferson stood trial in amelia county for killing jeannie butkowski was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to life in prison with a minimum of 25 years Wes Greene was also charged and convicted for his role in the genie's kidnapping in a murder investigation.

Police often discover that the killer was close to the victim, but when a killer takes advantage of a stranger, it is much harder to find him hiding at the intersection. of two rivers wichita kansas is an all-american city with a touch of old west charm in this story some of the names have been changed on september 17, 1995 a woman called the wichita police to report a missing person, He said his friend Jody McCown got into a brown car on South Broadway around 1:30 the night before and had not returned. Most missing people turn up within a few days, but South Broadway is a tough neighborhood plagued by drugs and prostitution.

Wichita police immediately began searching for Jody Macau. She contacted

detectives

. Becky Sims, the woman she called to report the missing people, hoping to give them more information. Becky told him that she was with Jody and her boyfriend Keith Perry. The night Jody disappeared, a man drove up in a brown car and told him she was looking for drugs. he introduced himself as chester higginbotham jody and keith got in the car to talk to him becky heard the man offer jody 200 to help him find drugs jody was reluctant but keith said they needed the money he took 100 and got out of the car detective dana gouge remembers that Becky was disturbed by the unusual circumstances of Higginbotham's request, she was very suspicious of the situation due to the amount of money Jody was offered in this situation, she found something very strange, so strange that she wrote down the tag number that investigators They traced the license plate to a resident named Matthew Murphy who lived in the nearby town of Newton.

They wondered who Chester Higginbotham was and how he was connected to Murphy. They did a background check on the two men I'm working with and now they did an investigation as well. A background check on Jody's boyfriend, Keith Perry, soon learned that he had several outstanding warrants during questioning, Perry confirmed Becky Sims' account of Jody's disappearance, with one important difference: he denied encouraging her to Joining Higgins in the car, suspecting Perry's involvement,

detectives

obtained a warrant to search his apartment. They found nothing implicating him, but collected several items for possible DNA testing. Later, investigators had the results of background checks on Chester Higginbotham and Matthew Murphy.

A comparison of fingerprint photographs and DMV records showed that Matthew Murphy and Chester Higginbotham were the same man, he had arrest records for robbery and larceny going back many years under both names, in fact there were several burglary charges pending against Murphy's alias in Kansas and other states, identity change and arrest records made Lt. Ken Landwear of the Wichita Police Department very suspicious when we discover that Matthew Murphy is an alias for Chester Higginbotham, again is a clue that will show us that he is trying to hide his background, which has to mean that if he is hiding his background there is probably something there.

That is more serious than robberies and robberies. Police called Higginbotham, who quickly admitted that he picked up Jodie McCown on September 16, but said he dropped her off later and had not seen her since. Despite his claim, police were eager to question him and search hishome. He was hoping that he could check her house to try to determine whether or not he may have been involved in this and we were also very hopeful that we could find Jody because Higginbotham was the last person seen with Jody. The researchers could. To obtain a search warrant, whatever she was hiding, investigators hoped to find the answers in her home.

Wichita and newton kansas police struggled to solve the disappearance of 28 year old jodie mccown. She was last seen with a man named Chester Higginbotham when investigators arrived at Higginbotham's home. no one was there armed with a warrant they started looking for clues detective t walton found nothing to suggest murder we were collecting fibers from the carpet we were looking at his boots and shoes we were looking for a body but we didn't find a body inside the house investigators They were pondering their next move when a car pulled up in front of the house and a couple got out of the car.

The man calmly identified himself as Matthew Murphy and asked what was going on. Investigators served a warrant and took them to the station for questioning. Sitting across from you during questioning, Murphy admitted that his real name was Chester Higginbotham. He claimed that he assumed an alias when he and his wife were placed in the federal witness protection program. According to Higginbotham, both were witnesses in a mob-related murder case. Higginbotham reiterated his original account. who picked up a girl who fit jody mccown's description on september 16 said she was going out of town so he dropped her off at the bus station around midnight with the detectives his story didn't ring true at all his times that he dropped Jody off were not consistent with the times our bus stations were open here in Wichita, whether it was the city buses or the trail buses, when you came in and asked about it, he still insisted that that was what what he was doing, we knew that couldn't have been true at the investigator's request.

Higginbotham agreed. to submit blood, hair and saliva samples in case a DNA comparison was required in the future. Detectives also spoke with his wife Vicky, she told them that she did not know that her husband's real name was Higginbotham and contradicted her claim that they were a witness. protection program vicky also said that her marriage was in trouble and that she believed her husband was seeing other women when she was asked about the night jody mccown disappeared vicki said she came home from work and found a note from her husband, He said he was going to pick up parts for a car he was working on in a rented garage when he didn't come home at 3 a.m.

Vicki drove to the garage to look for him and said she surprised him with a girl in his car even though her husband he wouldn't let her near the vehicle she could see a girl with brown hair in the passenger seat when Vicki confronted her husband, he claimed he was just taking the girl, Vicki told him to come home immediately and then left, She said her husband arrived home about five minutes later. Based on conflicting information obtained from Vicki, investigators questioned Higginbotham again when they asked him about the girl in the garage, he claimed she was a friend from a local bar, but detectives suspected it was Jody McCown armed with a gun.

Police searched the Higginbotham's rented garage inside the suspect's car and found a wad of green duct tape with hair stuck to the adhesive. Investigators also collected a white button with thread, black zip ties, a roll of green duct tape and a yellow rope. Detectives now believe that Chester Higginbotham had murdered Jodie McCown but were still unable to prove it without a body. Over the course of several weeks, investigators conducted an extensive search of the area surrounding his rented garage but found nothing without Jody's body. mccown looked like chester higginbotham might be getting murdered weeks after her disappearance wichita police were no closer to finding jodie mccown, although they suspected that a man named chester higginbotham was involved in her disappearance, they had no solid evidence that he had been committed a crime on october 11, almost a month after jody disappeared.

A county gardener working on the outskirts of town made a gruesome discovery: the decomposed body of a woman was lying in a ditch on the side of the road. When investigators arrived they believed they had finally found Jodie McCown. The victim was lying face down a sweater and several underwear were found near the body while searching for clues. The scene yielded a large amount of physical evidence. It had black plastic zip ties. She had green duct tape, like the one found in her shed, wrapped completely around her head, covering her nose and mouth. In the area where her hands and feet were tied with a yellow rope that was similar to the rope that was in the shed, fingerprint analysis confirmed that the victim was Jody McCown.

The medical examiner performed an autopsy and collected evidence of hair and fibers from her body. duct tape for further analysis based on his findings the medical examiner ruled that the probable cause of death was asphyxiation caused by the duct tape covering the victim's nose and mouth due to advanced decomposition of the body the medical examiner did not could determine whether Jody had been sexually assaulted and there was not enough material for DNA analysis, detectives would have to build their case based on other evidence at the Wichita Police Department's crime lab, evidence technician Patrick Cunningham hoped the Duct tape led investigators to her killer using a solution called gentian violet that Cunningham sought out. latent prints left on the tape when the dye comes into contact with human protein residues, such as those left by fingerprints, a deep purple stain appears when the tape on Jody McCown's body was placed in the gentian violet solution , the results were disappointing and when we examined the back on one side near the torn edge there were some partial fingerprint impressions in that area, but there was not enough detail for comparison purposes.

Forensic examiners had one last chance to present their case against Chester Higginbotham at the Sedgwick County Regional Forensic Science Center in Wichita. Examiner Gary Miller would use fracture analysis to try to prove that the duct tape on Jody's body came from the roll of tape in Higginbotham's rented garage. He first painstakingly separated individual pieces of tape recovered from Jody's body and then analyzed the torn edges to establish the sequence. in which the pieces had been torn from the roll by aligning the torn edge we can go and see that the fractures like those of the puzzle fit together but we can also align that the space between these threads is consistent and visually we can by the color they are consistent the analysis of miller showed that the roll of duct tape collected from higginbotham's garage had been used to bind jody mccown.

Forensic scientists also compared fibers recovered from the victim's clothing to carpet fibers taken from Higginbotham's car under a microscope; the texture and color of the fibers were consistent. Detectives had ultimately established physical links between Jody McCown and Chester Higginbotham. Scientists then compared the button and thread found in the garage to those on Jodi McCown's shirt. They care

full

y measured the buttons, noting similarities in the size, design, and material of the threads. The garage and the victim's shirt were consistent when Ultimately, forensic science had provided detectives with enough evidence to file a murder charge based on the evidence.

Police reconstructed the sequence of events on the night Jody was murdered. They believe Chester Higginbotham drove Jodie McCown to the rental. garage overpowered her tied her up with duct tape and killed her then disposed of the body in a ditch on the side of the road chester higginbotham also known as matthew murphy was convicted of first degree murder and kidnapping was sentenced to 40 years without the possibility of Parole once and the elements could destroy evidence linking a killer to his victim, but forensic technology has found new ways to get around these obstacles. Investigators can overcome impossible obstacles and bring justice to murder victims long considered to be missing you.