WEBVTT

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[ambient street noise]

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[subway car rumbling]

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[suspenseful music playing]

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[woman] My mom worked at Two Rector Street
as a cleaning lady.

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Her hours were from 5:00 p.m.
to 11:00 p.m.

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On July 7th, around 10:30 p.m.,

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I get a phone call from her coworker Rosa

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asking to see if my mom was home.

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I said, "What do you mean?
My mom is not home."

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"Isn't she at work?
She's supposed to be at work."

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She's like, "No."

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They were supposed to take lunch
around 7:00 p.m.

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So she was curious that her phone was off.

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It was going straight to voicemail
at that time.

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[woman] I called my aunts, my uncles.

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We actually agreed to rush to her job
to see if we were able to find her.

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During the day, I was working
in Two Rector as a security guard.

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So I went to the floor
that she was working on.

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And I'm screaming her name
throughout the building, the hallways,

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and the back of the basement.

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I'm trying to listen for anything.

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Maybe she was hurt.

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Maybe she was somewhere
she can't be heard.

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People saw her
coming in the building obviously,

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but we do not see her leave.

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[woman] We spoke to the security guard
that was there at the moment,

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and he said that he didn't see
my mom coming out the building.

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So then we started calling the police.

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She was nowhere to be found.

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[Mooney] Every single case
takes a piece out of your soul.

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[Butcher] You cannot do this job
unless you really care.

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[McNeely] You want to find out the truth.

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That's what detectives do.

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[man] I've always liked
the peek behind the curtain.

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What really happened?

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[Rivera] It's so important for a family
to know who murdered their relative.

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That's my job.

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[Titus] In New York City, the NYPD…

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this is it.

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[suspenseful music trails off]

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[Titus] When I'm driving
into work every day,

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and I'm heading into the city,

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you see the whole skyline,

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and I would always say to myself,

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like, "Wow. I'm in… Homicide detective
in NYPD in New York City."

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I grew up in a tough area
in South Jamaica, Queens.

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There was drugs.

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There was prostitution. There was gangs.

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And it was a decision
that I ultimately had to make

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that I chose education over the streets

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and became a cop.

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[low, distressing music playing]

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July 8th, 2009, we arrive at work
at eight o'clock in the morning.

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The phones are ringing like crazy.
We're getting calls from the 1st Precinct.

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We're getting calls from One Police Plaza.

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We're getting calls
from the chief of detectives' office.

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Everybody's talking about

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a missing cleaning woman
in the financial district.

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I think the public is kinda consumed

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with what takes place
with the stock market hours in that area.

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Like, what goes on,
and then the fast pace,

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and the great wealth that's transferred,
and things like that.

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That's the kind of sexy part of it,
but you have workers behind the scenes.

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After the white-collar crowd went home,
there's people that clean.

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There's people that mop,
there's people that do repairs,

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people that have families,

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that are working very hard
to earn a living.

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[man] Detectives responded
to Two Rector Street.

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We don't have any information
at the very beginning.

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All we know is that we have
somebody who did not return home.

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[tense, mysterious music playing]

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Outside the building, one of the bosses
gathers everybody up

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and gives us a brief synopsis
of what's going on.

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So we find out that the woman missing
is a woman named Eridania.

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Forty-six years old.

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She worked from 5:00 to 11:00.

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And at some point during her shift,
she vanished.

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[man 2] One of the things

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that stood out to me
when I got to the building

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was that this lady's family was down here

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within hours of her
just not being reachable.

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You don't see that a lot in New York City.
You can tell they were close-knit.

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My sister, she has 17 years over me.

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She always came through
and helped out taking care of me.

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She was a great sister and a great mother.

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She would never leave the family.
It's impossible.

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[McNeely] Her family contended
that after she was done,

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she would go right home.

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So it was, like,
very out of the ordinary for her

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to leave work without notifying somebody,

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particularly her coworker.

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So these raised red flags to everyone.

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[Martinez] It was very unlike her
just to disappear like that.

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Not answering her phone calls.

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I was very worried.

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[suspenseful music playing]

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I was working there for a year and a half,
and my sister, approximately six months.

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I know the building very well.

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That evening when she went missing,
we was, like, combing the whole building,

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floor by floor.

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I even went back to the basement

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and… and looked up.

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I screamed her name…

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but it was so quiet.

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[erratic, distressing music playing]

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[McNeely] The location
of where she went missing

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is in the heart of the financial district.

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So naturally, the police department
takes that very seriously.

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Any case in Manhattan South,

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anything south of 59th Street,

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always seems to be amplified.

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I knew for sure this thing
was gonna get a lot of media attention.

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Her coworkers say that she always
has dinner with them during their shift,

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but the last time they saw her
was around eight o'clock,

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and she hasn't been seen since.

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[McNeely] Basically,
you have to do a search of every floor,

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and the building needed to be evacuated.

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So everybody, all personnel,

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the suits, cleaning personnel,
elevator operators,

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anybody that was in there
needed to be out of that building

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at the time that this search
was conducted.

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There could be a dead body
in the building, and we don't know.

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It's a little scary.

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[Titus] One of the things
that made the location, Two Rector Street,

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so unique for a missing person case

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was the fact that it is like
a self-contained environment.

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So there are only certain ways out,
certain ways in,

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and everything else is just up.

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It's definitely a daunting task
to search that building

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for anyone or anything,

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because it goes up 26 floors.

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It was an all-hands-on-deck.

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Detectives were brought in
from other commands to help.

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Not just the homicide squad
and 1st Precinct detective squad.

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There were detectives
from Midtown South, Midtown North.

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[Titus] Everybody is involved.

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But on top of that,
you have helicopters in the air.

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This was a comprehensive sweep
of the entire building, top to bottom,

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every nook and cranny.

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When they went into her locker,
we found her purse was still there.

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I had a mom and four sisters.

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And they don't go anywhere
without that purse.

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Basically a… an appendage.

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So it definitely
set off bells and whistles.

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[tense, unnerving music playing]

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[Titus] And then
her pushcart and hair clip

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were found on the eighth floor.

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What was the purpose
of it being on the floor?

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Uh, you know, was there a struggle?

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Maybe it's some kind of
a sexual assault type of thing,

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and the person is holding her hostage.

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We need to speak to people.

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We need to know employees of the building
who work for the building itself.

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Who was there during Eridania's shift?

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[McNeely] The people working
in the building at the time,

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I would categorize them all as witnesses,

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or people of interest, if you will.

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[Titus] There's a lot of different things
playing in our mind,

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but we do know
that time is of the essence.

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The longer it takes us to find her,
the less likely she'll be alive.

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[dramatic music playing]

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[Titus] We knew
that if she left the building,

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she would be captured by one of
the many videos at one of the entrances.

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[Vergona] There are 32 cameras
that were in this building.

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So 32 cameras at eight hours a clip
that you want to review,

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that you want to look at,
is a really tedious act to do.

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So we sent in our best guy.

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Brian MacLeod, known as the "Video God."

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[Vergona] He's a fantastic detective.

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Brian's… a very quirky fella.

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It's an important job.

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Not everybody can do it,
and deal with what we deal with.

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-[fly buzzing]
-This… I'm gonna squash that fly.

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[laughing]

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[McNeely] Brian's intense.

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When he gets focused,
he liked to put his headphones in,

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and he'd listen to heavy metal music.

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[heavy metal rock playing]

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[MacLeod] Headbanger?

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Well, when I was younger,
I had a mullet, so…

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[laughs]

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I always had my heavy metal music
going at work all day.

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[Titus] He just has
the patience and the diligence

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to just stay there
and… and stare at a screen for hours.

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We knew that if she left the building,

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he was gonna find her or anything else
that may have looked suspicious.

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You don't wanna miss something.

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All you need's that one frame.
You're gonna miss something.

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[fly buzzing]

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I got it.

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[menacing music playing]

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[MacLeod] It's boring.

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It's time-consuming.

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It strains on your eyes.

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But I just had the patience for it.

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Eridania is seen getting onto an elevator

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to go to the upper floors
to start her shift.

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Think it was roughly, uh, 5:12 p.m.

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But she's not seen again.
She's not seen again on camera.

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She's not seen getting off the elevator
at any other time,

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and she's not seen leaving that building.

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Where is she?

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[tense music playing]

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[Titus] In order to understand her better,

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you do a complete background,
find out about relationships,

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whether they had financial troubles,

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everything you can
about the, uh… the victim.

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We found out from the family that Eridania
was from the Dominican Republic.

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My mother was born in Santo Domingo

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and came to the United States in 1973.

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She married my father, Jeronimo Figueroa,

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and she had three kids.

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She actually stopped going to school
to basically take care of us.

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[somber, touching music playing]

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[Martinez] She was a matriarch herself.

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Her cooking, it was unbeatable.

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I always looked forward to it on
Thanksgiving, New Year's, and Christmas.

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It didn't matter what it was,
she always wanted the family together.

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This brought back memories of my mom.

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She was an immigrant herself from Panama

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and found little jobs
until she got her feet planted

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to provide for the family and make sure
that we had everything we need.

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I can imagine
something happening to my mother

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and how I would have to deal with that.

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It just made the case very personal.

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[Figueroa] I wasn't thinking right.

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I was depressed at that moment.
I was panicking.

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I was just praying to God
that my mom will walk in any minute.

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[mysterious music playing]

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With Eridania, we found out
that she was divorced

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and later reconnected with her ex-husband.

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So we talked to her family.

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He was not down at… at Two Rector Street.

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So in the back of my head,
I was thinking, "Why isn't he here

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if the daughters are all here,
the brother is here?"

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He is our very first suspect,

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and we need to interview him,
find out what he knows.

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[tense, curious music playing]

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Besides the husband,
the family said several days earlier

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that Eridania was

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what she thought was being stalked
by someone that worked in the building.

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[erratic music playing]

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[Martinez] My sister said
she had a couple of bad vibes.

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She mentioned one guy looking at her

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when she was taking the elevator
to the floors to clean.

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The news reporter
came into the house to interview us.

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[reporter] Her kids say her mom
was nervous about a man

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who worked also
in that Rector Street office building

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and who she believed was stalking her.

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He would look at her weird,
and she was nervous.

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So while she was cleaning,
he used to stare at her.

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She said that someone
was making her scared, following her.

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[Vergona] The person did it two times,

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but Eridania's daughter had told us

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that a couple of days
prior to her being missing,

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he tried to speak to her again.

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Obviously, the family
is very scared about the situation.

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She was very upset and worried
about the situation

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that she mentioned it to her family.

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I told her give me a chance
to try to get her another job.

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And she's like, "Okay."

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If it doesn't work in a week,
she was gonna leave.

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[tense music pulsing]

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It was something she was willing to quit
her job about because she felt unsafe.

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And the fact
that it happened multiple times…

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Would he assault her, take her,
abduct her?

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How far is this guy willing to go?

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Knowing that the stalker
knows the layout of the building,

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and the exits
and entrances of the building.

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It's somebody that was there daily

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and knew where people went at what times,

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what time the building shut down,
what time it opened up,

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who was where, when.

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It became very important

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to identify this person
as soon as possible.

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[McNeely] While we're looking
for that guy,

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detectives were dispatched
to interview Eridania's husband

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and verify his whereabouts.

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[officer knocking on door]

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His story was that he was working
that evening until about eight o'clock,

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at which time he went home
to their apartment.

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He was the only one that stayed home
to see if she was to come home.

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The detectives were able to verify
his whereabouts and, uh, put it to bed.

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[Vergona] At this time, we were confident

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that he had nothing to do with
the disappearance of Eridania.

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[low, distressful music playing]

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[McNeely] Meanwhile,
we were able to contact the stalker.

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We brought him upstairs to the squad,
put him in the interview room.

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He claimed that he was
playing ping-pong with friends

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that evening when Eridania was at work.

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And all those people that he claimed
participated in that event,

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that were with him, were interviewed too,
thoroughly and in detail.

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And they were able to rule him out
as any particular person of interest.

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[suspenseful music playing]

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Now we needed
to really step up our efforts

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and try and locate Eridania,

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meticulously, with K9 units.

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[Titus] Everybody knows
that when they bring in K9,

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if there's something there,
they're gonna find it.

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[Vergona] The K9 dogs,
as they came through the 14th floor,

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they had two hits in the utility room,

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which houses the air conditioning system
and the heating system for the unit.

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[McNeely] They had
emergency service personnel,

18:26.480 --> 18:30.359
everybody that you can imagine,
focusing now on that floor.

18:31.276 --> 18:34.696
We were just waiting for the notification
that they found something,

18:34.780 --> 18:36.198
something that we could use,

18:36.281 --> 18:39.326
something that would tell us more
than what we already had.

18:40.869 --> 18:44.081
It was a false hit with the K9 unit.

18:44.164 --> 18:46.166
[distressing music playing]

18:46.917 --> 18:48.252
It's very frustrating.

18:48.335 --> 18:51.922
And you feel for the family
because you know that they're just…

18:52.005 --> 18:55.342
You know, every day that goes by,
every hour that goes by,

18:55.425 --> 18:57.845
their hope is shrinking too, you know?

19:00.889 --> 19:03.267
[Martinez] For every second
that was passing, every minute,

19:03.851 --> 19:07.479
the family is just getting,
like, overwhelmed.

19:07.563 --> 19:11.066
Everybody's scared. Nobody's eating.

19:12.693 --> 19:13.527
Like…

19:14.111 --> 19:15.654
Everybody fears the worst.

19:15.737 --> 19:17.739
[frantic music playing]

19:17.823 --> 19:19.825
[sirens wailing in distance]

19:23.745 --> 19:27.791
[MacLeod] There were so many cameras.
Hundreds of hours' worth of this video.

19:28.458 --> 19:30.002
I've spent hours at work

19:30.085 --> 19:33.630
watching that video surveillance
over and over and over.

19:33.714 --> 19:37.259
Make absolutely sure
that nothing was being missed.

19:37.342 --> 19:40.512
I'm lookin' for evidence,
anything that's suspicious.

19:41.096 --> 19:44.766
And the only individual that was, um…

19:44.850 --> 19:48.312
his behavior was a little off,
was the maintenance guy.

19:51.607 --> 19:55.861
You see him workin' the freight elevator.
Then you see him in the basement.

19:56.445 --> 19:59.239
You see him walking
to his maintenance room,

19:59.323 --> 20:01.909
which is also like his locker area.

20:02.409 --> 20:06.163
Followed every single camera
that he was pictured on

20:06.246 --> 20:08.040
while he was in that building.

20:08.123 --> 20:12.711
And he… he disappeared
for quite a few minutes.

20:13.837 --> 20:16.924
It may have been like 45 minutes or so.

20:17.007 --> 20:19.801
And then all of a sudden,
a little after 8:00,

20:19.885 --> 20:21.845
he's spotted in the basement.

20:22.638 --> 20:25.974
But he's not caught on camera
comin' from the elevators

20:26.058 --> 20:29.019
either in the basement or in the lobby.

20:29.102 --> 20:31.939
The only way he could have gotten there
was from the stairwell.

20:32.022 --> 20:34.024
[menacing music playing]

20:35.776 --> 20:40.322
His behavior on camera was like,
"Hmm, what is going on here?"

20:40.906 --> 20:44.159
We're very suspicious of what is up.

20:44.243 --> 20:46.787
Now we felt it necessary to get him in.

20:46.870 --> 20:52.000
He was definitely now a person of interest
with regard to Eridania's whereabouts.

20:52.084 --> 20:54.044
That person was Joseph Pabon.

20:55.504 --> 20:59.174
I called him,
and he said okay, he would talk to us.

20:59.258 --> 21:02.177
So what I wanted to do was
go back to the precinct

21:02.261 --> 21:04.513
so we can get into
a more controlled environment.

21:04.596 --> 21:06.598
[suspenseful music playing]

21:09.393 --> 21:11.561
[Vergona] Now, when Joseph Pabon came in,

21:11.645 --> 21:14.564
he had said
he was working the freight elevator,

21:14.648 --> 21:16.900
and he was taking the cleaning ladies,

21:16.984 --> 21:20.737
dropping them off at the floors
that they were scheduled to clean at.

21:20.821 --> 21:24.866
He explained that
he dropped her off on the 8th floor…

21:27.411 --> 21:31.039
which is where they found
her cart and hair clip.

21:31.540 --> 21:33.500
And that was the last time he saw her.

21:33.583 --> 21:35.585
[unnerving, erratic music playing]

21:37.504 --> 21:38.338
It was July.

21:38.422 --> 21:42.384
You know, you could sweat in an igloo.
It was so hot.

21:42.467 --> 21:45.595
I have to wear a suit
because I'm a New York City detective.

21:45.679 --> 21:51.810
If I could have a pair of flip-flops on
and a bathing suit and, you know…

21:51.893 --> 21:52.728
I'm all-in.

21:53.562 --> 21:55.313
But he was wearing a…

21:55.397 --> 21:59.151
Like a thermal long-sleeve shirt
and a T-shirt over it.

21:59.234 --> 22:03.447
And I'm thinkin', you know,
"This… This kid's out of his mind."

22:03.530 --> 22:06.950
"He's dressed for a snowball fight,
and it's July."

22:07.034 --> 22:10.871
And that just kept bothering me
the whole time I was talking to him.

22:10.954 --> 22:14.374
Then I said, "Take your shirt off."
We made him take his shirt off.

22:17.336 --> 22:19.254
He had scratches
on the back of his shoulders,

22:19.338 --> 22:21.423
his neck, other parts of his torso.

22:21.506 --> 22:24.468
And I asked him,
"How can you explain them?"

22:24.551 --> 22:29.056
And he said that, on the Tuesday evening
that Eridania was reported missing,

22:29.139 --> 22:32.309
he was charged
with operating the freight elevator

22:32.392 --> 22:34.811
to take this construction crew
up and down.

22:35.312 --> 22:40.567
He claimed that he was helping them off
with these carts with rebar and framing.

22:40.650 --> 22:45.322
So, I'm like, "You're a 32BJ guy.
You're a union guy, right?"

22:45.405 --> 22:46.490
He's like, "Yeah."

22:46.573 --> 22:49.826
And my knowledge is,
coming from a family that…

22:49.910 --> 22:52.037
Union family, people in different unions,

22:52.120 --> 22:57.459
I know if you're tasked with a job
and you do another job, you're in trouble.

22:57.542 --> 23:02.422
You don't touch anything other than
that elevator lever or pressing a button.

23:03.006 --> 23:06.718
I was like, "And you helped these guys
on and off with carts?"

23:06.802 --> 23:11.306
So, to me, that was unfathomable.
I didn't believe that at all for a second.

23:11.389 --> 23:13.475
[mysterious, disturbing music playing]

23:13.558 --> 23:15.477
[Vergona] I tried to implore to him,

23:15.560 --> 23:18.647
"If you did something with her,
or she's somewhere in the building,

23:18.730 --> 23:21.066
let us know where. We'll go get her."

23:21.149 --> 23:24.194
"And maybe we could
bring her back to her family."

23:24.986 --> 23:29.408
And he just maintained
that he didn't do anything.

23:30.408 --> 23:34.246
We interviewed him
a good 14 hours at that point.

23:34.329 --> 23:38.375
We asked him,
"Do you mind giving your DNA?"

23:40.168 --> 23:42.796
And he was okay with giving his DNA.

23:42.879 --> 23:44.214
He swabbed himself.

23:44.923 --> 23:49.386
He was not admitting to any kind of
criminal activity or anything like that.

23:49.469 --> 23:52.222
So we were forced to let him go.

23:57.561 --> 23:59.646
[Vergona] We don't have a body
to charge him,

23:59.729 --> 24:04.276
but I made it known to my supervisors
that we believe that

24:04.359 --> 24:07.988
this guy right now
is the number one person of interest.

24:09.406 --> 24:13.201
And at that time,
we started following Joseph Pabon

24:13.285 --> 24:15.537
and watching his whereabouts

24:15.620 --> 24:18.665
because, possibly,
he could have her somewhere.

24:18.748 --> 24:21.126
He could have her at his house.

24:21.209 --> 24:25.088
He could have her, uh,
at another building or another site.

24:26.506 --> 24:29.801
We put a couple of detectives on him
to follow him around

24:29.885 --> 24:33.513
and just to keep up with his whereabouts.

24:34.055 --> 24:38.852
We wanted to provide
24-hour surveillance on Pabon.

24:38.935 --> 24:40.645
So we set up different shifts.

24:40.729 --> 24:43.982
If he made a right, I made a right.
He made a left, I made a left.

24:44.065 --> 24:47.444
When he went into a diner,
if he stayed in there too long,

24:47.527 --> 24:50.489
we sent someone in
to make sure he was still there,

24:50.572 --> 24:54.117
and we weren't trying to be inconspicuous.

24:54.201 --> 24:57.829
We had no problem with him knowing
that we were following him.

24:57.913 --> 25:01.458
It was like cat-and-mouse game,
us against him.

25:01.541 --> 25:02.959
We weren't gonna lose this.

25:03.043 --> 25:05.045
[sirens wailing in distance]

25:06.713 --> 25:09.341
We've been looking for her
for a couple days now.

25:09.424 --> 25:11.301
We can't find her on the video.

25:11.384 --> 25:14.054
We can't find her
actually leaving the building.

25:15.347 --> 25:17.766
[Titus] We'd looked
at every nook and cranny of the building

25:17.849 --> 25:20.852
from top to bottom, and couldn't find her.

25:21.394 --> 25:24.773
It's like…
It's just not making sense at this point.

25:25.815 --> 25:29.319
So now, not only did we feel deflated,

25:29.402 --> 25:33.698
but that also made our jobs
a whole lot more difficult.

25:33.782 --> 25:38.078
That means that instead of just
Two Rector Street being the place

25:38.161 --> 25:41.373
where all of the investigation
was gonna take place,

25:41.456 --> 25:43.250
it now became New York City.

25:44.543 --> 25:47.295
It just became even bigger.

25:47.379 --> 25:51.841
That means more resources
and a wider-scale investigation.

25:51.925 --> 25:53.802
Because she could be anywhere.

25:53.885 --> 25:55.428
[frantic music swelling]

25:55.512 --> 25:59.349
We decided to expand the video canvass,
or surveillance canvass.

26:00.141 --> 26:03.603
[MacLeod] Do we see her
going up Trinity Street?

26:04.104 --> 26:06.314
Do we see her walking up Greenwich Street?

26:06.398 --> 26:09.484
Do we see her walking
down Rector Street, east or west?

26:09.568 --> 26:12.279
But that wasn't fruitful.

26:12.362 --> 26:14.948
That didn't… We didn't see her.

26:17.742 --> 26:20.870
[Vergona] "How come I can't find them?
What am I missin'?"

26:21.371 --> 26:23.123
"What are we missin' as a collective?"

26:23.206 --> 26:25.667
Because there's so many of us
workin' this case.

26:26.960 --> 26:30.171
[McNeely] During the search,
a bit north of Rector Street was a store,

26:30.255 --> 26:36.261
and we found video of Joseph Pabon
from Tuesday when Eridania went missing.

26:36.344 --> 26:38.346
We were able to get
the receipt from the vendor

26:38.430 --> 26:43.685
that Joseph Pabon had purchased alcohol
inside that establishment.

26:44.644 --> 26:48.607
Possibly Eridania
stumbled upon him drinking.

26:49.691 --> 26:55.071
Maybe a verbal dispute ensued,
and he made it physical.

26:56.156 --> 26:58.033
I like to call it an "oh shit" moment.

26:58.116 --> 27:01.786
Like, "Now I gotta cover this up."
So it's reactive.

27:02.454 --> 27:05.290
But we didn't have probable cause
to arrest him.

27:05.373 --> 27:07.167
[Titus] We still don't have a body.

27:07.250 --> 27:10.003
We still don't have an actual crime.

27:10.086 --> 27:13.340
We're gonna just continue following him
like… like we have been.

27:13.423 --> 27:15.425
[mysterious music playing]

27:23.683 --> 27:28.396
We are now looking at areas
where a body could be dumped,

27:28.480 --> 27:31.107
rather than where a person
could run off to.

27:31.191 --> 27:36.738
We thought that maybe she was put
into one of the trash containers.

27:36.821 --> 27:40.075
And they are taken away
by a private sanitation company.

27:42.577 --> 27:44.621
We sent detectives out to Pennsylvania

27:44.704 --> 27:48.166
to sift through the area
in which they dumped all their trash.

27:48.249 --> 27:50.168
[somber, pensive music playing]

27:54.130 --> 27:56.466
[reporter] The family's been through
every emotion this week.

27:56.549 --> 28:00.345
An exhaustive search ensued earlier
when police scoured a landfill

28:00.428 --> 28:03.306
in Pennsylvania where garbage
is dumped from the building.

28:03.390 --> 28:04.724
I couldn't believe it.

28:05.517 --> 28:07.060
My mom was not garbage.

28:09.187 --> 28:12.899
I was just thinking,
"Oh my God, can my mom be there?"

28:15.193 --> 28:16.319
Horrible…

28:17.946 --> 28:20.031
if someone can do that to her.

28:21.658 --> 28:24.619
At the end of the day,
there was no Eridania Rodriguez,

28:24.703 --> 28:26.496
and there was no more evidence

28:27.080 --> 28:30.458
that we could use
to try and find Eridania Rodriguez.

28:30.542 --> 28:35.422
Since they said nobody was found there,
I had a little bit of hope again.

28:36.214 --> 28:38.758
Forty-six-year-old Eridania Rodriguez
has not been seen.

28:38.842 --> 28:41.219
[reporter 2]
Police now believe she is likely dead.

28:41.302 --> 28:45.014
Right now, the family is going through it.
We're waiting for answers.

28:45.098 --> 28:48.143
It turned into a big story.
And when you have a big story,

28:48.226 --> 28:53.398
and you got the press askin',
you know, the police department,

28:53.481 --> 28:54.941
"What's going on here?"

28:55.024 --> 28:58.820
There was a lot of frustration.
Like, "Where the fuck is she?"

29:00.321 --> 29:01.740
[Titus] The pressure was on.

29:02.240 --> 29:04.951
So many resources were put on this case

29:05.034 --> 29:08.663
that it could not be sustained
at that level.

29:08.746 --> 29:11.374
Other detectives
had to get back to their cases.

29:11.458 --> 29:13.543
Cops have to patrol the streets.

29:13.626 --> 29:17.755
The department was gonna
start pulling resources away from this

29:17.839 --> 29:19.591
to go to other things.

29:20.300 --> 29:22.552
Not only aren't we solving the case,

29:22.635 --> 29:25.722
but it doesn't look good for NYPD.

29:29.184 --> 29:32.645
[MacLeod] Now we start getting
a little bit of heat from our bosses.

29:33.146 --> 29:35.148
We're like, "Shit," you know?

29:35.774 --> 29:38.943
Chief Matarazzo, who was
the chief of detectives of Manhattan,

29:39.027 --> 29:40.445
had us all in a meeting.

29:40.528 --> 29:43.406
And at one point,
Chief Matarazzo turned to me and goes,

29:43.490 --> 29:47.160
"Hey, John.
Well, you know, what's going on?"

29:47.702 --> 29:50.455
You know, "What do you think?
Where is she?"

29:51.122 --> 29:54.667
I just turned to him and said,
"She's gotta be still in the building."

29:54.751 --> 29:56.753
[unnerving music playing]

29:58.421 --> 30:01.591
He goes, "Let's get
another canvass on that building."

30:01.674 --> 30:03.676
[frantic music pulsing]

30:06.596 --> 30:10.475
Here we go again, searchin' this building.
She did not leave this building.

30:11.059 --> 30:14.479
"Get in there.
Find out where the hell she went."

30:14.562 --> 30:18.483
And they called in ten sergeants
and 100 officers

30:19.067 --> 30:22.570
to search every nook and cranny
of that building,

30:23.238 --> 30:24.364
floor by floor.

30:25.406 --> 30:26.991
[Titus] We were all invested.

30:27.075 --> 30:31.621
We spent so much time with the family,
with the… the whole case.

30:31.704 --> 30:34.374
So we all wanted it
to be a positive outcome.

30:36.751 --> 30:39.128
Unfortunately, that's not what happened.

30:39.754 --> 30:42.966
I got a phone call
from a detective in the 9th Precinct.

30:43.049 --> 30:46.594
He said, "John, I'm on the 12th floor.
I just got off the elevator."

30:46.678 --> 30:47.679
[dog barks faintly]

30:49.055 --> 30:50.849
"You're gonna wanna come up here."

30:51.474 --> 30:54.936
[MacLeod] Floor number 12
was under construction.

30:55.019 --> 30:59.732
Bare-bone walls, you know, just concrete.
No Sheetrock, no furniture.

31:01.484 --> 31:03.152
[Vergona] When I got off the elevator,

31:04.153 --> 31:06.447
the smell on the floor
is the smell of death.

31:07.574 --> 31:10.910
And the detective was like,
"Take a look inside."

31:12.203 --> 31:14.289
And I can see, um,

31:14.998 --> 31:18.585
some blood and residue

31:18.668 --> 31:20.587
coming from the air conditioning duct.

31:21.838 --> 31:24.215
We had ESU and Crime Scene come.

31:24.716 --> 31:27.302
And we opened up
the air-conditioning duct,

31:28.052 --> 31:29.220
and she was inside.

31:29.304 --> 31:31.306
[low, haunting music playing]

31:32.849 --> 31:35.059
Now you know you for sure have a homicide.

31:36.644 --> 31:37.896
The original search,

31:37.979 --> 31:41.274
those dogs weren't making up
the scent they were getting.

31:41.941 --> 31:44.277
The air was passing and rising.

31:44.861 --> 31:47.405
On the second search,
that air duct was shut off,

31:47.488 --> 31:52.285
and the air stayed stagnant where Eridania
was found on the 12th floor.

31:52.368 --> 31:54.704
Unfortunately, there was decomposition,

31:55.204 --> 31:59.709
which made
physical identification, uh… impossible.

32:00.710 --> 32:04.672
But we can make assumptions at that point
that it was Eridania.

32:06.174 --> 32:11.638
She was bound, hogtied,
hands behind her back, mouth duct-taped.

32:11.721 --> 32:14.140
The duct tape,
I remember, wasn't typical duct tape.

32:14.223 --> 32:17.310
It was almost like a caution tape.
Yellow and black.

32:17.393 --> 32:22.523
Oddly enough, Eridania had a crucifix
that she wore around her neck,

32:22.607 --> 32:25.109
and it was in her mouth.

32:25.193 --> 32:27.028
There was a lot of people theorizing

32:27.111 --> 32:31.074
that it might have been
some sort of a ritualistic intent.

32:31.783 --> 32:34.619
When you think about
doing that to a person, and…

32:35.495 --> 32:38.581
Man. He put her
in the air conditioning duct.

32:38.665 --> 32:42.126
Like, you know, who would even think
to go to that extreme?

32:42.210 --> 32:43.753
"That's how I'm gonna hide her."

32:46.464 --> 32:49.467
Medical examiner's office
was just here to remove the body.

32:49.550 --> 32:51.594
Police have been here all day.

32:51.678 --> 32:54.555
We're waiting to hear
who they found in the building.

32:54.639 --> 33:00.103
A lot of us still hope it's not her, but…
I have a bad feeling.

33:00.186 --> 33:02.188
[distressing music playing]

33:13.950 --> 33:14.951
[shallow exhale]

33:17.286 --> 33:18.788
My mom was found.

33:22.583 --> 33:25.378
She was found in an air conditioning vent,

33:25.920 --> 33:27.463
tied up…

33:28.297 --> 33:29.632
like an animal.

33:30.550 --> 33:34.554
[shakily] I'm, like,
banging on the kitchen table,

33:35.096 --> 33:37.557
and my brothers try to hold me down.

33:41.394 --> 33:45.898
It was just nonstop of crying.

33:47.525 --> 33:49.402
How can a person do this to a person…

33:49.485 --> 33:55.658
[voice breaking] …that all she has done
is always be there for a person?

33:57.034 --> 33:59.370
She was so kind, so loving.

33:59.454 --> 34:01.873
Always bringing joy to everybody.

34:02.623 --> 34:04.834
What did she do to deserve this?

34:07.086 --> 34:08.963
I could imagine her screaming.

34:10.423 --> 34:12.592
Trying to scream for help,

34:12.675 --> 34:15.803
but in that building,
you could scream all you want,

34:15.887 --> 34:17.138
they won't hear you.

34:18.931 --> 34:24.562
I said, "We are absolutely
gonna get justice for your mother."

34:25.646 --> 34:29.984
"Because Eridania didn't deserve
what happened here."

34:31.861 --> 34:34.447
[taut, suspenseful music playing]

34:41.496 --> 34:44.415
[McNeely] I was tasked
with attending the autopsy.

34:45.792 --> 34:50.254
I knew that whatever was found there
was definitely gonna help the case.

34:50.338 --> 34:54.175
Cause of death to start with
and then forensic information.

34:55.176 --> 34:56.803
Sexual assault was ruled out.

34:58.054 --> 35:01.724
There were no signs of blunt trauma.
No stabbing. No gunshot wounds.

35:01.808 --> 35:03.476
No skull fractures.

35:03.559 --> 35:07.438
Her hyoid bone was intact.

35:07.522 --> 35:10.525
It wasn't done
with a ligature or anything like that.

35:10.608 --> 35:14.570
Because of the constricted nature
that Eridania was in,

35:14.654 --> 35:15.863
being bound,

35:15.947 --> 35:19.784
her head was kinda pushed forward,
and her neck was down.

35:19.867 --> 35:24.288
She was duct taped,
so she couldn't get a lot of air.

35:24.372 --> 35:28.292
So it was deemed homicidal asphyxiation
was the cause of death.

35:30.002 --> 35:33.005
[Vergona] She was probably alive
when somebody taped her up,

35:33.089 --> 35:34.382
lifted her up off the floor,

35:34.465 --> 35:37.301
put her in the air conditioning duct,
and sealed it back up.

35:45.893 --> 35:46.769
[sputtering] I…

35:46.853 --> 35:48.020
Yeah, it just…

35:48.855 --> 35:53.192
Yeah, like, my heart sunk
because when I was in that basement,

35:53.276 --> 35:56.863
and I looked up, I looked at that vent,

35:57.405 --> 36:00.408
and I screamed her name,
and I'm trying to listen to her.

36:01.284 --> 36:04.620
And obviously,
if she was still alive, she couldn't…

36:05.705 --> 36:08.207
scream back, or say my name,

36:08.291 --> 36:10.626
or scream for help, because…

36:11.252 --> 36:14.672
the tape was…
the caution tape was covering her mouth.

36:19.677 --> 36:23.723
[voice breaking] People say, "It's
not your fault. Don't think that way."

36:24.765 --> 36:25.766
[shuddering breath]

36:26.934 --> 36:29.645
But put yourself in my position.

36:30.396 --> 36:32.773
When it was the last time
I spoke to my sister,

36:33.649 --> 36:35.693
she felt, like, a weird vibe.

36:37.153 --> 36:42.200
And I told her give me a few days
to get her another job somewhere else.

36:43.075 --> 36:44.452
And then this happens.

36:49.582 --> 36:52.585
I guess I dropped the ball
on that one too.

36:53.336 --> 36:55.087
Not letting her quit

36:56.380 --> 36:59.467
and not combing
that vacant spot on the 12th floor.

37:00.593 --> 37:01.928
[McNeely] Fortunately for us,

37:02.011 --> 37:04.221
we still had
a person of interest remaining.

37:04.305 --> 37:06.641
Joseph Pabon didn't have an alibi.

37:06.724 --> 37:09.435
He actually was
in Two Rector Street working

37:09.518 --> 37:11.062
when Eridania was working.

37:11.145 --> 37:13.439
Joseph Pabon was the only person

37:13.522 --> 37:16.776
that had scratches on his body
that weren't properly explained.

37:17.276 --> 37:19.278
[pensive, mysterious music playing]

37:20.988 --> 37:23.783
[MacLeod] During an autopsy,
they take DNA swabs.

37:24.492 --> 37:26.535
They take fingernail clippings

37:26.619 --> 37:30.498
to see if there's any DNA
that doesn't belong to the victim.

37:30.581 --> 37:33.334
The only problem with that is… uh…

37:33.417 --> 37:36.212
It's not like a COVID test
you get back in 15 minutes.

37:36.796 --> 37:40.341
We had to wait for those results,
and we were hopeful

37:40.424 --> 37:44.428
that we were gonna get back
a connection between Joseph Pabon

37:44.512 --> 37:47.932
and the DNA samples
that were taken from Eridania.

37:52.895 --> 37:54.689
[taut, suspenseful music playing]

37:54.772 --> 37:57.817
As we dug deeper on Joseph Pabon,

37:57.900 --> 38:03.489
we found several cases
of domestic violence against women.

38:03.572 --> 38:06.867
In one case, after an altercation
with his ex-girlfriend,

38:06.951 --> 38:10.955
he took a bowling ball
and smashed out the windows of her car.

38:11.038 --> 38:13.416
That kind of made us feel even stronger

38:13.499 --> 38:17.712
that it's possible that this guy
had some kind of breakdown or issue

38:17.795 --> 38:20.798
where he completely lost it with Eridania.

38:21.841 --> 38:25.636
[Vergona] We already initiated
a tail on him after we interviewed him

38:25.720 --> 38:28.931
to make sure that we knew
where he was at all times.

38:29.015 --> 38:32.643
Now we're definitely staying on him
until we get the DNA back

38:32.727 --> 38:36.480
that shows us
beyond a reasonable doubt that that's him.

38:36.564 --> 38:39.108
It would have been a major disaster

38:39.191 --> 38:40.776
if we had lost him,

38:40.860 --> 38:43.529
and the DNA came back,
and we didn't have him.

38:43.612 --> 38:47.658
Here we have a guy
who possibly committed this heinous act.

38:48.159 --> 38:51.662
Tied up this woman, asphyxiated her.

38:52.163 --> 38:56.459
And yet he's living his normal life
as if he did nothing.

38:56.542 --> 39:01.213
But another thing that was also concerning
was that, you know,

39:01.297 --> 39:08.054
if he's had a domestic violence history,
maybe he might attack his new girlfriend.

39:12.350 --> 39:14.352
[suspenseful music continuing]

39:25.029 --> 39:30.868
On July 17th, I receive a call
that the DNA came back.

39:30.951 --> 39:36.582
And it's… it's looking like
two-billion-to-one that it's Joseph Pabon.

39:38.542 --> 39:40.252
When we got the arrest warrant,

39:40.336 --> 39:43.839
I made a phone call
to Al Titus and told him,

39:44.590 --> 39:46.842
"It's a go. Time to arrest him."

39:48.010 --> 39:49.720
[Titus] He lived in Staten Island.

39:49.804 --> 39:53.849
He pulled off the main street
and went into one of the backstreets.

39:53.933 --> 39:55.142
We surrounded him.

39:56.894 --> 39:58.854
Came out with our guns out

40:00.022 --> 40:02.316
and told him to stop the car.

40:02.400 --> 40:03.776
[sirens wailing]

40:03.859 --> 40:07.488
When we finally pull out Pabon
and arrest him,

40:07.571 --> 40:09.782
his girlfriend was in the car too.

40:10.658 --> 40:13.702
She may not have realized it
at the moment,

40:13.786 --> 40:17.206
but at some point,
I'm sure she realized, like,

40:17.289 --> 40:20.417
"Wow, I was living with a killer."
You know?

40:20.501 --> 40:23.838
We possibly saved her
from being the next victim.

40:24.672 --> 40:29.093
It was a great conclusion
to a long, drawn-out case

40:29.176 --> 40:32.346
that allowed us to get the guy,
which was good,

40:32.430 --> 40:34.265
to get Pabon off the street.

40:36.392 --> 40:38.060
[Martinez] When we finally got the news

40:38.144 --> 40:41.397
saying they arrested Joseph Pabon
on murder charges,

40:41.480 --> 40:45.151
and everybody's screaming with happiness
and crying,

40:46.193 --> 40:47.194
I was just…

40:47.278 --> 40:48.612
I was happy, but…

40:51.532 --> 40:55.494
When we got off the phone
with the investigator,

40:55.578 --> 40:57.580
we was asking questions.

40:57.663 --> 41:02.376
Like, "Why would he do
something like this?"

41:04.795 --> 41:07.214
I've been working with this guy
for a year and a half.

41:07.298 --> 41:09.383
Always conversed.
He always said good morning to me.

41:09.467 --> 41:14.263
He always talked to me at the front desk,
always did his job.

41:14.847 --> 41:16.807
I had never had a problem with him.

41:16.891 --> 41:18.559
I never did anything to him

41:19.185 --> 41:23.564
for him to, like,
do any harm to my sister.

41:26.317 --> 41:29.445
I didn't think he was my enemy.
He was my coworker.

41:29.528 --> 41:31.530
[somber, determined music playing]

41:33.532 --> 41:34.658
[McNeely] He's brought back,

41:35.868 --> 41:39.038
placed in a cell
in the 1st Precinct detective squad.

41:39.538 --> 41:41.207
Everybody's fuckin' psyched.

41:41.290 --> 41:44.126
I was chomping at the bit.
I wanted another crack at him.

41:44.210 --> 41:46.545
I wanted him to admit what he did.

41:48.255 --> 41:50.049
It was personal at that point to me.

41:50.132 --> 41:53.302
Unfortunately,
he invoked his right to counsel,

41:53.385 --> 41:54.720
and we never got a crack.

41:55.846 --> 41:59.517
But at the trial,
Joseph Pabon was convicted

42:01.477 --> 42:03.979
and sentenced to 25 years to life.

42:04.939 --> 42:06.232
And, uh…

42:07.107 --> 42:10.361
that's a fate he definitely deserves.

42:12.279 --> 42:14.823
[Figueroa] When they mentioned
that he was guilty,

42:16.367 --> 42:18.035
I just broke down.

42:23.082 --> 42:24.333
We all broke down.

42:27.253 --> 42:28.712
He wasn't sorry.

42:29.213 --> 42:31.924
He was laughing while looking at us.

42:32.841 --> 42:34.468
That really broke my heart.

42:35.135 --> 42:37.972
It took every… every strength from…

42:38.514 --> 42:43.852
every little bit of me in my gut
not to rush straight to him.

42:44.853 --> 42:49.149
I just wanted to punch him,
like, in the back of his head.

42:49.233 --> 42:51.402
I wanted to, like, choke him out.

42:56.323 --> 43:00.452
[Figueroa] Pabon never answered
the question why he did this.

43:01.954 --> 43:05.165
To this day,
we're still waiting for that answer.

43:05.916 --> 43:09.253
What was the purpose?
Did my mom did anything to him?

43:10.296 --> 43:13.591
Did she say anything that made him upset?

43:17.803 --> 43:18.637
Why?

43:21.890 --> 43:24.018
[Vergona] I just think he snapped.

43:24.768 --> 43:28.272
I think he had a moment of anger.

43:28.772 --> 43:34.403
Like he had
in the other prior issues with women.

43:34.486 --> 43:37.239
[solemn, mournful music playing]

43:37.323 --> 43:40.326
[Martinez] She fought for her life.
I know she did.

43:40.826 --> 43:45.998
During her last moments,
I know she was very scared.

43:46.749 --> 43:48.667
But she's gone.

43:49.877 --> 43:51.211
She's not coming back.

43:53.130 --> 43:54.548
My life hasn't moved on.

43:55.424 --> 43:58.344
I have it in the pit of my stomach.

43:58.427 --> 44:02.931
Like, I still, to this day,
don't get what happened.

44:03.641 --> 44:07.102
Like, he altered the family,
like… like, forever.

44:09.897 --> 44:16.904
Investigating this case,
and seeing them, and their grief, and…

44:17.946 --> 44:21.909
all the work we put into this
to eventually find the guy who did it…

44:21.992 --> 44:23.869
You know, it'll stay…

44:23.952 --> 44:26.038
That'll stay with me forever.

44:28.248 --> 44:30.250
[somber, dramatic music playing]

44:32.586 --> 44:37.091
I remember growing up thinking of NYPD

44:37.174 --> 44:40.594
as the biggest gang in New York City.

44:41.095 --> 44:44.473
But after working with them
for so many years,

44:44.556 --> 44:47.726
I realized that it's more of a family.

44:49.311 --> 44:54.650
There's not enough understanding
of what the police do.

44:56.151 --> 44:59.321
They're not this occupying force.

44:59.405 --> 45:02.866
And the community
are not these bunch of savages

45:02.950 --> 45:05.452
that we have to go attack.

45:07.830 --> 45:10.040
So a couple of years after the trial,

45:10.124 --> 45:16.588
I retired with the goal of doing my best
to bring the two entities together.

45:19.383 --> 45:24.012
I went from Detective Titus
to Doctor Titus,

45:24.680 --> 45:27.641
teaching at John Jay
College of Criminal Justice…

45:27.725 --> 45:30.394
An arrest is removing someone's freedom.

45:30.477 --> 45:32.688
…working with future law enforcement.

45:32.771 --> 45:34.732
Hear all of the facts and the evidence,

45:34.815 --> 45:39.069
and then determine
whether or not an individual is guilty,

45:39.153 --> 45:43.407
not just based on their looks
or some kind of stereotypical bias that…

45:43.490 --> 45:47.327
My goal is to get you to understand

45:47.411 --> 45:50.289
that there's
a lot of different perspectives.

45:50.372 --> 45:53.375
Some are like yours.
Some are very different from yours.

45:53.459 --> 45:57.671
And when you go into law enforcement,
you have to acknowledge that.

45:57.754 --> 46:01.967
You can't treat them differently
because they're from a different place.

46:02.050 --> 46:05.679
So the students can understand
this is the world they're going out into.

46:05.763 --> 46:08.140
And that's what's important to me.

46:08.223 --> 46:10.642
Work for the common good of everyone,

46:10.726 --> 46:13.562
to make the world
a better and safer place.

46:13.645 --> 46:15.647
[somber music continuing]

46:20.736 --> 46:22.738
[distorted audio warping]

46:28.577 --> 46:30.871
[Parrino] I think survival guilt
from September 11th

46:30.954 --> 46:34.208
is what motivates me
to go to the Middle East.

46:34.917 --> 46:37.377
I was a contractor with the Marine Corps.

46:37.461 --> 46:39.338
And my last tour in Afghanistan,

46:39.421 --> 46:43.842
I got a call telling me that they were
gonna reopen the Howard Pilmar case.

46:43.926 --> 46:45.928
[cryptic music playing]

46:47.387 --> 46:49.807
[man] He was murdered in the office.

46:49.890 --> 46:53.018
I knew no one that would want him dead,

46:53.101 --> 46:55.604
that would want him murdered like that.

46:56.146 --> 47:00.317
There's very few cases that I continue
to think about because they're unsolved,

47:00.400 --> 47:03.695
but the Pilmar case,
I'd still be thinking about years later.

47:04.196 --> 47:05.531
We were almost there.

47:06.824 --> 47:09.409
I think every detective has a case

47:09.493 --> 47:12.120
that has eluded them
for some reason or another,

47:12.204 --> 47:15.958
and it becomes
the Moby-Dick of their careers.

47:16.583 --> 47:19.920
Howard was slaughtered.
He was slaughtered like a pig in a pen,

47:20.003 --> 47:21.463
like an animal.

47:24.716 --> 47:26.718
[dramatic outro music pulsing]
slaughtered like a pig in a pen,