WEBVTT 00:06.089 --> 00:08.091 [ambient street noise] 00:29.446 --> 00:31.448 [tense music playing] 00:36.369 --> 00:41.082 A Wall Street banker who took regular jogs through Central Park lies hospitalized. 00:41.166 --> 00:42.917 Police said she was left for dead. 00:43.001 --> 00:47.338 In April of '89, we had the infamous Central Park jogger case. 00:47.422 --> 00:50.050 It was a huge case 'cause it was Central Park 00:50.133 --> 00:53.011 and because of the horrendousness of the crime. 00:53.094 --> 00:56.639 The victim in that crime, Trisha Meili, was sexually assaulted. 00:56.723 --> 00:58.058 She was left for dead. 00:58.141 --> 01:01.728 She was beaten so badly that she ended up in a coma. 01:01.811 --> 01:04.522 It really created this sense of abject horror. 01:04.606 --> 01:07.150 Police believe the gang confronted her here, 01:07.233 --> 01:10.070 then dragged her 200 feet into the woods. 01:10.153 --> 01:11.613 What is wrong with people? 01:11.696 --> 01:14.240 Definitely won't jog here at night, ever. 01:14.324 --> 01:17.243 It seemed like the NYPD had lost control. 01:17.911 --> 01:21.748 [Parrino] In 1989, the drugs and the violence was something 01:21.831 --> 01:24.542 I hadn't even seen in my career up at that point. 01:24.626 --> 01:27.504 I remember sleeping in this apartment being so afraid. 01:27.587 --> 01:28.588 I was by myself. 01:28.671 --> 01:30.840 I used to sleep with a gun under my pillow. 01:30.924 --> 01:33.927 And I've been robbed eight times. I've been jumped three times. 01:34.010 --> 01:37.472 [journalist] People wanted some kind of remedy 01:37.555 --> 01:40.016 to what seemed like an unsolvable crisis of crime 01:40.100 --> 01:42.727 and were just out for blood. 01:42.811 --> 01:45.855 So there was a big push to solve this fast. 01:47.023 --> 01:49.150 [Rivera] Five young males were brought in. 01:49.234 --> 01:51.820 Those boys were arrested and charged with rape. 01:51.903 --> 01:54.781 [journalist] These boys were known as "the Central Park Five." 01:54.864 --> 01:58.952 And the contrast between an affluent, young, blonde white woman 01:59.035 --> 02:01.663 and the young men of color, Black and Latino, 02:01.746 --> 02:05.458 who were in the park and immediately blamed for the crime, 02:05.542 --> 02:10.171 just pressed a giant nerve of race and prejudice. 02:11.005 --> 02:14.008 And, ultimately, these five men were convicted 02:14.092 --> 02:16.678 of sexually assaulting Trisha Meili. 02:16.761 --> 02:20.890 But there were people who had doubts as to whether justice was done. 02:20.974 --> 02:24.185 [man] The physical evidence was nonexistent as to any of these boys. 02:24.269 --> 02:26.437 And there may be a rapist out there 02:26.521 --> 02:28.648 who has struck or may be ready to strike again. 02:31.693 --> 02:35.905 But the Central Park jogger case, it didn't begin with Trisha Meili. 02:39.242 --> 02:43.705 There are other victims who never became known at all 02:43.788 --> 02:46.040 whose stories deserve to be told. 02:47.041 --> 02:48.960 [producer] Okay, speeding all around. 02:50.920 --> 02:51.838 [sighs heavily] 02:51.921 --> 02:52.922 [sigh echoing] 02:54.132 --> 02:55.717 [suspenseful music playing] 02:55.800 --> 02:59.220 [Mooney] Our job is to make sure you can go home and sleep at night. 03:00.638 --> 03:03.850 [Rivera] It's so important for a family to know who murdered their relative. 03:04.767 --> 03:09.022 [Reznick] Compassion for the victims, that's the most important thing. 03:09.564 --> 03:12.567 [Parrino] I've always liked the peek behind the curtain. 03:12.650 --> 03:13.902 What really happened? 03:15.403 --> 03:17.655 [McNeely] You want to find out the truth. 03:17.739 --> 03:19.365 That's what detectives do. 03:19.866 --> 03:22.785 [officer] Your instinct is to help people. 03:23.703 --> 03:27.081 [Titus] In New York City, the NYPD… 03:29.375 --> 03:30.209 this is it. 03:31.252 --> 03:33.254 [suspenseful music trails off] 03:38.051 --> 03:40.053 [foreboding music playing] 03:47.477 --> 03:49.270 [man] I was seven years old. 03:50.521 --> 03:52.899 Mom ordered Chinese food for us. 03:53.483 --> 03:56.069 -[knocking] -We hear a knock on the door. 03:58.321 --> 04:02.784 And I assumed that it was the Chinese food. 04:04.244 --> 04:07.413 We opened the door, and there was a guy there. 04:08.122 --> 04:11.960 He was asking for the super. And we said the super wasn't there. 04:13.753 --> 04:15.338 [Serrano Jr.] Then he let himself in. 04:15.880 --> 04:18.049 Shoved me to the side. Closed the door. 04:18.925 --> 04:20.969 [Vega] Then he started asking for money. 04:21.052 --> 04:25.556 And my moms offered jewelry and money that she had. 04:25.640 --> 04:29.310 And she was holding my baby sister Amanda at the time, and… 04:30.311 --> 04:33.940 He got aggressive, and I could tell my moms was scared. 04:34.023 --> 04:37.443 And then we started crying and stuff. 04:38.027 --> 04:40.905 We were confused of what was going on. 04:41.406 --> 04:42.407 He grabbed her, 04:43.366 --> 04:44.492 and he asked, 04:46.244 --> 04:47.870 "Your eyes or your kids?" 04:48.997 --> 04:50.873 He made her choose. 04:52.083 --> 04:55.795 She made the decision. And that was the last time I saw her. 05:05.138 --> 05:07.932 I'm a retired captain, NYPD. 05:08.016 --> 05:09.350 Did 31 years. 05:09.934 --> 05:11.686 I wanted to go to West Point. 05:11.769 --> 05:14.647 But since I got a 40 in high school chemistry, 05:14.731 --> 05:16.232 I ended up being a policeman. 05:16.316 --> 05:18.443 [chuckles] That was my second choice. 05:20.236 --> 05:23.323 Summer of '89, I was the commanding officer 05:23.406 --> 05:26.117 of the 5th Detective Division, Manhattan North. 05:26.993 --> 05:30.496 I was on my way to dinner when I got the call on my pager. 05:30.580 --> 05:34.667 The dispatch said, "Captain, we have a homicide on East 97th Street." 05:35.293 --> 05:36.627 So much for dinner. 05:39.172 --> 05:41.549 I responded to the location. 05:42.675 --> 05:45.261 The victim had been raped and stabbed. 05:45.762 --> 05:48.264 She had been taken to St. Luke's Hospital. 05:48.347 --> 05:51.768 Doctors worked on her, but she was pronounced dead on arrival. 05:52.268 --> 05:55.813 We were able to identify her as Lourdes Gonzalez, 05:55.897 --> 05:59.233 mother of three children and 24 years of age. 06:02.945 --> 06:05.531 There was blood on the walls, on the floor, 06:06.949 --> 06:09.410 and on the bed in one of the bedrooms. 06:10.703 --> 06:14.874 We looked for any knife with blood on it, and we couldn't find anything. 06:14.957 --> 06:20.129 Searched the apartment, the bedroom, the hallway, the courtyard, 06:20.213 --> 06:21.881 with negative results. 06:28.971 --> 06:32.725 When she was attacked, Lourdes was alone in the apartment 06:32.809 --> 06:34.811 with two boys and a baby. 06:34.894 --> 06:39.190 Her significant other, who was the super of the building, 06:39.273 --> 06:41.359 had gone to the Bronx. 06:41.442 --> 06:45.780 When he returned home, we inform of what happened. 06:48.491 --> 06:49.700 He was shocked. 06:49.784 --> 06:52.370 You could see he was visibly shaking. 06:52.453 --> 06:56.165 But with multiple stab wounds, it's a crime of passion. 06:56.249 --> 06:58.418 So you would look for the significant other. 06:59.210 --> 07:01.838 Did they have a fight? Did they have an argument? 07:01.921 --> 07:03.589 Detectives interrogate him. 07:03.673 --> 07:06.843 They determine that he can establish where he was 07:06.926 --> 07:09.804 and account for his time, so it rules him out. 07:12.723 --> 07:15.101 [Vega] Tony told me that she's not coming back. 07:15.601 --> 07:17.019 I didn't understand. 07:17.103 --> 07:18.271 [muttering] 07:18.354 --> 07:20.773 "What do you mean she's not coming back?" 07:21.899 --> 07:24.443 [Serrano Jr.] I remember Carlos crying. 07:24.527 --> 07:27.530 He was just hyperventilating and in pain. 07:28.489 --> 07:31.492 My mom, she was a loving woman. 07:31.576 --> 07:34.120 She was very young when she had me. 07:34.203 --> 07:35.955 She was about 18. 07:36.038 --> 07:37.415 I remember her smile. 07:37.498 --> 07:39.584 I remember her… her laugh. 07:40.376 --> 07:42.003 And I loved being with her. 07:42.503 --> 07:44.255 She brought joy to me. 07:45.756 --> 07:49.302 [Serrano Jr.] I feel like she was an angel put in my dad's life 07:49.385 --> 07:52.638 to be able to get us straight and together. 07:53.723 --> 07:58.060 I started living with her when I was six years old. It was seamless. 07:59.228 --> 08:01.939 Carlos was my roommate. That was my brother. 08:02.607 --> 08:04.734 [Vega] During the times we lived together, 08:04.817 --> 08:06.402 we did everything together. 08:07.278 --> 08:09.447 And she treated Tony like her son. 08:10.406 --> 08:14.368 [Serrano Jr.] I remember when she became pregnant with Amanda. 08:14.452 --> 08:15.995 Carlos and I were excited. 08:16.746 --> 08:18.789 We showed her so much love. 08:19.832 --> 08:22.752 She was always by one of our sides. 08:22.835 --> 08:26.088 And that was just the dynamic of our family. 08:26.172 --> 08:30.426 And, sadly, it was taken away as quickly as it happened. 08:32.637 --> 08:34.639 [dark, foreboding music playing] 08:37.350 --> 08:42.271 Detective Irma Rivera was one of my top Special Victims detectives. 08:43.189 --> 08:45.858 To the children, she signifies a mother, 08:45.942 --> 08:48.986 which helps in eliciting information from them. 08:49.612 --> 08:53.199 I got a call in my office to respond to the 23rd Precinct 08:53.282 --> 08:56.160 'cause they had two children they wanted me to interview. 08:57.578 --> 08:58.663 I come into the room. 08:58.746 --> 09:01.999 I see the two cute little boys, dark hair, Spanish. 09:02.083 --> 09:04.001 They looked a little bit scared. 09:04.085 --> 09:07.505 When you interview young children who had an experience like this, 09:07.588 --> 09:11.467 my main concern is trying to see how much information I can get from them, 09:11.550 --> 09:15.721 but doing it in a really slow pace, no rush. 09:16.847 --> 09:17.848 So I left the precinct 09:17.932 --> 09:21.852 and took them to the bodega on 102nd Street off of 3rd Avenue. 09:22.728 --> 09:26.190 Got them some candy and drinks, and I brought them back to the precinct. 09:26.774 --> 09:30.361 And I just hung out with them. I interviewed them each individually. 09:31.153 --> 09:35.283 In the police station, I reiterated exactly what happened. 09:37.660 --> 09:39.495 He gave her an ultimatum. 09:39.579 --> 09:43.666 He said, "Your eyes or your kids?" 09:44.458 --> 09:45.751 [Rivera] "Your eyes or your kids" 09:45.835 --> 09:48.879 is something that I've never heard any other perpetrator say before. 09:51.507 --> 09:53.050 [Vega] She told him, 09:54.176 --> 09:55.428 "Not my kids." 09:56.596 --> 09:59.598 [Serrano Jr.] So my mom told me and Carlos 09:59.682 --> 10:03.853 to take Amanda and go to the room. 10:03.936 --> 10:06.522 Amanda was in the closet with a pillow. 10:06.606 --> 10:12.653 And me and Tony were on the ground and looking at the door. 10:13.529 --> 10:16.907 They went into her room, and we hear everything. 10:18.284 --> 10:19.910 We were holding each other. 10:19.994 --> 10:23.706 And we was either waiting for my moms to come get us… 10:25.708 --> 10:27.918 or we was anticipating him coming in. 10:30.379 --> 10:32.298 I remember the footsteps 10:33.007 --> 10:34.467 of him traveling, 10:35.301 --> 10:36.594 and then leaving. 10:38.179 --> 10:42.016 [Serrano Jr.] When she yelled our name, I remember opening the door 10:42.099 --> 10:45.645 and seeing her in that long corridor of our apartment 10:45.728 --> 10:46.896 in a pool of blood, 10:46.979 --> 10:49.065 asking us to go get help. 10:50.232 --> 10:52.443 [Vega] Looking back at it now, 10:52.526 --> 10:54.195 she volunteered herself… 10:55.988 --> 10:57.239 to be sacrificed. 10:58.783 --> 11:00.451 She didn't think twice. 11:01.494 --> 11:03.496 [suspenseful music playing] 11:05.331 --> 11:09.251 [Rivera] These kids just saw the worst thing that anybody can see. 11:09.335 --> 11:12.588 It shattered their innocence in… in a second. 11:14.090 --> 11:15.800 The boys also gave a description 11:15.883 --> 11:19.428 to the New York City Police Department sketch artist. 11:19.512 --> 11:23.057 It gives the detectives an idea of what the perpetrator may have looked like. 11:23.140 --> 11:26.352 I remember distinctively his complexion. 11:26.435 --> 11:28.062 He was a darker person. 11:28.145 --> 11:30.106 And his hair was flat. 11:30.189 --> 11:35.569 They describe a male Hispanic, approximately 5'10", dark-skinned. 11:35.653 --> 11:39.240 He has a blue striped shirt and a flattop hair. 11:39.824 --> 11:41.742 What he did to these kids… 11:41.826 --> 11:45.079 I mean, they're children, and it's your mother. Horrible. 11:45.746 --> 11:48.040 This guy was a real piece of crap. 11:50.584 --> 11:52.336 [ominous music playing] 11:52.420 --> 11:56.841 Tonight, there is outrage over a murder and a manhunt to find a dangerous killer. 11:56.924 --> 12:00.678 She's a beautiful person. I can't even believe that she died. 12:03.180 --> 12:04.932 [Rivera] The medical examiner's report said 12:05.015 --> 12:08.978 that Lourdes Gonzalez had been stabbed nine times, raped, 12:09.061 --> 12:10.646 and she was six weeks pregnant. 12:11.480 --> 12:14.233 Hearing that she was pregnant makes me feel even worse, 12:14.316 --> 12:16.861 knowing that there would've been another child involved. 12:16.944 --> 12:19.488 [reporter] Mayor Koch is offering a $10,000 reward 12:19.572 --> 12:22.241 to try to capture the man who killed a pregnant woman. 12:22.324 --> 12:24.118 This is a pathological killer. 12:24.201 --> 12:27.288 So we're putting every member of the police force 12:27.371 --> 12:29.957 out there looking for him as well as this reward. 12:30.040 --> 12:33.627 Yesterday's incident, he asks for the super. 12:33.711 --> 12:36.464 He's attired in a blue and white striped shirt. 12:36.547 --> 12:38.507 We do the press conferences 12:38.591 --> 12:43.471 to let the public know what he looks like and to be on your guard. 12:43.554 --> 12:46.223 And, secondly, hopefully a witness. 12:46.307 --> 12:50.603 The child overheard a statement to the effect of, uh, 12:50.686 --> 12:52.396 "Your eyes or your children?" 12:52.480 --> 12:55.775 [woman] When I saw the news report about Lourdes, 12:55.858 --> 12:59.403 and I heard what he said to her, and the circumstances, 12:59.487 --> 13:01.113 and it sounded so familiar, 13:01.197 --> 13:03.574 and I heard some version of "your eyes or your life," 13:04.408 --> 13:05.367 it clicked for me. 13:05.451 --> 13:08.621 I said, "My God! Son of a bitch! It's the same guy." 13:10.414 --> 13:14.084 In the Sex Crimes Unit, we found a case on June 11th 13:14.168 --> 13:18.297 that had matched the same MO as Lourdes Gonzalez, 13:18.380 --> 13:20.382 and spoke to the victim. 13:20.883 --> 13:23.803 [Melissa] Suddenly, new policemen came to talk to me, 13:23.886 --> 13:27.681 and they had me retell the whole story again 13:27.765 --> 13:30.142 in excruciating detail. 13:33.395 --> 13:35.439 I was a girl from Brooklyn, 13:35.523 --> 13:39.485 and I was living in the city and working after college. 13:40.736 --> 13:43.364 It was a beautiful June day, and I was happy. 13:44.198 --> 13:46.325 I walked in Central Park. 13:46.408 --> 13:50.329 The attack on the Central Park jogger was something that I saw on the news. 13:50.412 --> 13:53.290 I read about in the newspaper. It was everywhere. 13:53.374 --> 13:55.584 It terrified people. 13:55.668 --> 13:57.962 And the day of, I just remember 13:58.045 --> 14:01.257 I was being jumpy and antsy and just trying to be safe. 14:01.340 --> 14:02.967 [tense music pulsing] 14:03.050 --> 14:05.636 I didn't know somebody was watching me, 14:06.804 --> 14:08.013 followed me home… 14:09.765 --> 14:11.141 rang the bell, 14:11.642 --> 14:16.105 told me he was the super's son coming to do the repairs. 14:16.605 --> 14:19.316 I was so naive and I just opened the door. 14:20.734 --> 14:22.152 He came in. 14:23.028 --> 14:26.866 And he locked the door behind himself, and I was like, "Uh-oh." 14:26.949 --> 14:29.243 [foreboding music playing] 14:29.326 --> 14:30.619 I resisted. 14:31.120 --> 14:33.414 He punched me in the face and broke my nose, 14:33.497 --> 14:36.375 and I just completely stopped resisting. 14:40.379 --> 14:42.047 I was being very careful 14:42.131 --> 14:45.467 because I could recognize that he was crazy. 14:45.551 --> 14:48.804 I did this separation thing where you rise above your body 14:48.887 --> 14:50.723 and you separate and look down. 14:53.225 --> 14:56.270 At some point after the sexual assault, 14:56.937 --> 14:59.273 he says, "Your eyes or your life?" 14:59.356 --> 15:02.067 And I said, "Well, no, I need my eyes." 15:02.151 --> 15:04.987 And he tried to stab me around my face. 15:05.070 --> 15:06.739 Lucky for me, the knife was not very big, 15:06.822 --> 15:10.242 so I had some puncture marks on my face that I needed stitches for. 15:11.035 --> 15:13.704 I think he was just all about the violence. 15:13.787 --> 15:15.164 It was fun for him. 15:17.499 --> 15:21.545 I was on the floor of the bathroom, kind of curled up in a fetal position. 15:21.629 --> 15:25.341 And then he took all my money, all my jewelry, 15:25.424 --> 15:26.925 and closed the door. 15:30.137 --> 15:34.183 And then I just said to myself, "Right now, you feel numb." 15:34.266 --> 15:37.645 "This is going to devastate you tomorrow." 15:37.728 --> 15:40.481 "This is going to destroy you." 15:43.275 --> 15:44.443 And it did. 15:45.653 --> 15:47.696 [reporter] The manhunt is in full swing. 15:47.780 --> 15:49.573 Police say they have a good description 15:49.657 --> 15:52.409 of the man believed to be Lourdes Gonzalez's killer. 15:52.493 --> 15:54.328 They say he could be the same man 15:54.411 --> 15:58.666 who stabbed a woman last Sunday in her apartment on East 116th Street. 15:58.749 --> 15:59.833 She survived. 15:59.917 --> 16:02.711 Among the similarities in the two cases, police say, is 16:02.795 --> 16:06.006 the suspect's fixation with his victims' eyes. 16:06.090 --> 16:10.844 I knew I had a rapist with the same modus operandi, if you will. 16:10.928 --> 16:16.141 The same weapon. He says the same thing, procures his victim in the same manner. 16:16.725 --> 16:19.478 They were young females in their twenties. 16:19.561 --> 16:23.774 But the second victim had been raped then killed. 16:27.903 --> 16:30.572 [reporter] Friends and family of 24-year-old Lourdes Gonzalez 16:30.656 --> 16:32.282 gathered to mourn her death today. 16:34.618 --> 16:36.078 [Serrano Jr.] I remember her funeral. 16:36.161 --> 16:42.376 I remember most vividly the church being full, full, full of people. 16:44.920 --> 16:48.007 I really do not remember talking much to Carlos after that. 16:48.590 --> 16:50.884 We were already separated at that point. 16:54.221 --> 16:57.307 I think, you know, the easy fix 16:57.391 --> 17:01.186 was for Carlos to go with Mom's side of the family, 17:01.270 --> 17:03.647 and then me stay with my dad. 17:05.023 --> 17:08.610 They didn't know who… who was gonna take care of me, 17:08.694 --> 17:12.197 and I guess nobody wanted to take responsibility of taking care of me. 17:12.823 --> 17:14.283 And I felt that. 17:15.451 --> 17:19.204 And jumping from house to house, it was difficult for me. 17:24.042 --> 17:26.378 [Serrano Jr.] I didn't really understand the decision 17:26.462 --> 17:29.590 of having my sister go to Puerto Rico with my grandma. 17:30.924 --> 17:35.012 [Serrano] I don't think that my dad was in the right state 17:35.095 --> 17:37.097 to have me, an infant. 17:39.892 --> 17:42.561 Carlos was like my best friend. We did everything together. 17:43.729 --> 17:47.691 Had we been able to communicate and talk, even though we were young, 17:47.775 --> 17:51.528 um, it would have gave us a support system. 17:53.280 --> 17:55.407 [Vega] All this stuff that happened, 17:55.908 --> 17:57.910 I don't feel protected no more. 17:58.744 --> 18:01.830 The one person I did feel protected with was my moms. 18:09.421 --> 18:13.675 [Petrak] On July 19th in the afternoon, in the sex crimes squad, 18:14.426 --> 18:19.932 we received a call from the 19th Precinct that there had been another rape. 18:20.432 --> 18:25.104 This rape occurred at 95th and Madison, close to Central Park. 18:26.021 --> 18:31.110 We responded to the hospital and spoke to the victim. 18:31.944 --> 18:34.321 She was seriously assaulted. 18:34.404 --> 18:37.658 She had cuts on her face, cuts on her legs. 18:38.951 --> 18:41.120 So you don't push. 18:41.954 --> 18:45.249 I went to the sex crimes squad because it was one of the few places 18:45.332 --> 18:48.377 that you could really make a difference in somebody's life. 18:48.460 --> 18:50.754 I wanted to be there, helping the victims. 18:52.756 --> 18:56.009 [woman] I pretty much grew up in New York City, 18:56.093 --> 18:58.971 and I heard about violence a lot. 18:59.596 --> 19:03.016 It's sort of a regular thing in New York, I mean… 19:03.684 --> 19:05.477 When… When it's not you. 19:06.145 --> 19:12.067 I had just turned 20, and I was taking art classes, 19:13.569 --> 19:16.113 and I made my way home. 19:17.990 --> 19:20.868 -[elevator dings] -So I took the elevator up. 19:21.660 --> 19:22.870 And… 19:23.537 --> 19:26.790 I'm standing in front of the front door to the apartment 19:26.874 --> 19:28.834 with a key in my hand. 19:28.917 --> 19:30.752 And I hear somebody coming… 19:30.836 --> 19:33.130 [inhales deeply, exhales] 19:33.213 --> 19:35.174 …with this strange kind of breathing. 19:35.257 --> 19:39.011 It was loud and it was rapid. 19:40.304 --> 19:43.348 This person walks past me, 19:43.432 --> 19:47.769 and goes one flight up, and then comes down. 19:47.853 --> 19:49.813 I said, "Where are you trying to go?" 19:49.897 --> 19:55.360 And at that point, he lunges at me with a knife 19:56.737 --> 19:59.990 and says, "I just want to talk to you." 20:01.033 --> 20:05.370 He has this knife to the back of my neck. 20:08.290 --> 20:10.292 So I let him in. 20:12.836 --> 20:15.005 And he says, "Take your clothes off." 20:16.131 --> 20:19.676 And I felt this reaction in me. 20:19.760 --> 20:24.306 I… I knew I had to be calm 20:24.389 --> 20:27.059 and take a soft approach, 20:27.559 --> 20:30.854 just to get through. 20:34.650 --> 20:37.361 And when it was over, 20:37.861 --> 20:41.657 he ripped the phone out of the socket. 20:42.991 --> 20:44.618 He ties me up. 20:45.118 --> 20:47.496 That's when he said, "Your eyes or your life?" 20:49.373 --> 20:52.960 And then he went and got a blade thing, 20:53.043 --> 20:56.254 and started cutting under and above 20:57.506 --> 20:59.216 my eyes, and… 21:02.094 --> 21:03.595 [chilling music building] 21:05.806 --> 21:09.434 I had hit my limit. 21:09.935 --> 21:13.146 And, luckily, he stood up, 21:14.231 --> 21:16.525 and he walked out of the room. 21:17.901 --> 21:22.823 I want to forget that I never fought back. 21:24.825 --> 21:26.743 That natural reaction, 21:27.369 --> 21:28.829 to have to subdue that, 21:28.912 --> 21:32.249 was a sacrifice that… 21:32.332 --> 21:35.585 I… I never quite repaired that. 21:35.669 --> 21:40.173 It's been an ongoing… thing. 21:43.260 --> 21:45.429 [mysterious music playing] 21:45.512 --> 21:47.723 [Petrak] You can never be sure it's the same, 21:47.806 --> 21:51.643 but the more information that I received from the complainant, 21:52.144 --> 21:55.439 the more I realized that we probably had the pattern. 21:55.522 --> 21:58.734 You have the MO, the same thing over and over. 21:58.817 --> 22:03.822 The perpetrator pushed into the apartment, raped, sodomized, robbed. 22:03.905 --> 22:06.158 And he said, "Your eyes or your life?" 22:06.241 --> 22:08.910 And he has stayed in the same area. 22:09.870 --> 22:12.873 Criminals find something that works for them. 22:12.956 --> 22:15.125 It worked once, it'll work again. 22:15.208 --> 22:17.252 I knew I had a pattern rapist. 22:17.336 --> 22:20.505 I tried not to bring my work home, 22:20.589 --> 22:22.883 but there's a serial rapist out there. 22:22.966 --> 22:26.053 You worry about your family, about your children. 22:26.136 --> 22:30.015 You're drilling them constantly to be careful. 22:30.098 --> 22:32.851 Your wife, you tell her all the time, 22:32.934 --> 22:35.937 "Don't open the door till you know who it is." 22:36.021 --> 22:39.566 Overabundance of caution, you know? 22:40.192 --> 22:41.902 Our biggest worry at the time 22:41.985 --> 22:44.613 was that this perpetrator would strike again, 22:44.696 --> 22:46.740 and we'd have another murder, another rape. 22:46.823 --> 22:48.450 [Rivera] It was put on the news. 22:48.533 --> 22:50.827 Sketches were hung up over the neighborhood. 22:50.911 --> 22:54.247 We knocked on doors and informed people in buildings what happened, 22:54.331 --> 22:57.334 to see if anybody witnessed anything, if anybody recognized a sketch. 22:57.417 --> 23:01.755 Police have set up a hotline for any information concerning these cases. 23:01.838 --> 23:04.841 We'd established a tips hotline. They're gonna make phone calls. 23:04.925 --> 23:08.637 "There's a guy that lives two doors down that fits that description." 23:08.720 --> 23:11.973 "I never trusted him. He's kind of hinky." 23:12.057 --> 23:16.353 Or, "I saw him with a pocketknife the other day cutting an orange." 23:19.523 --> 23:22.067 You have to track down each one of these leads. 23:23.026 --> 23:26.279 Unfortunately, in this case, none of them work out. 23:27.781 --> 23:30.534 I knew women were raped in New York and all over the country. 23:30.617 --> 23:31.868 I knew this happened. 23:31.952 --> 23:33.620 [unsettling music playing] 23:33.703 --> 23:35.831 But I didn't dwell on it. 23:35.914 --> 23:37.749 You just try to live carefully. 23:38.250 --> 23:39.960 You think it's gonna happen at night, 23:40.043 --> 23:43.213 or a neighborhood that maybe is not so safe or whatever, 23:43.296 --> 23:45.590 but it was just a beautiful afternoon. 23:46.091 --> 23:49.386 You just don't think it will happen then. 23:50.262 --> 23:52.973 I came up to New York to go to a small fashion school. 23:53.473 --> 23:57.477 It was Saturday afternoon, and I heard a knock on the door. 23:58.353 --> 24:01.022 I opened the door, and he put his hand on my face, 24:01.106 --> 24:02.649 and I think kind of pushed me back. 24:04.109 --> 24:08.572 You could feel the anger. You knew he was just a ball of rage. 24:09.573 --> 24:12.200 He raped me, I think, twice, and I'm… 24:12.284 --> 24:15.662 Part of the memory is something that sort of gets muddled, 24:15.745 --> 24:17.789 or lost, or locked away. 24:19.833 --> 24:23.336 He wanted to take my bank card and get money. 24:23.420 --> 24:25.213 Then he said, "I don't trust you." 24:25.297 --> 24:27.674 "I'm gonna have to tie you up or kill you." 24:27.757 --> 24:29.176 I said, "I'll get you scarves." 24:29.259 --> 24:32.888 So I had to walk by the door to go get the scarves. 24:33.430 --> 24:36.725 It was a tiny studio apartment, but he let me have that much distance, 24:36.808 --> 24:38.810 which was rare, 'cause he was on me. 24:40.020 --> 24:43.273 Something said to me, "Get out, get out, get out." 24:43.356 --> 24:45.692 "You've got one chance. Take it." 24:47.027 --> 24:48.236 I ran out screaming. 24:48.320 --> 24:50.363 He was inches behind me. 24:50.989 --> 24:53.575 And I ran into the super. I don't know what I said. 24:53.658 --> 24:56.703 "I was raped. He's right behind me." Or something like that. 24:57.662 --> 25:00.290 Super caught him, and someone else caught him, 25:00.957 --> 25:02.792 and then held him for the police. 25:02.876 --> 25:03.877 [sirens wailing] 25:08.632 --> 25:12.302 We had a call that a uniform had a perpetrator under arrest. 25:13.887 --> 25:16.181 [man] He gives his name, Matias Reyes. 25:16.765 --> 25:19.601 And without being asked or prompted, 25:20.185 --> 25:21.770 he says, "I did it." 25:22.270 --> 25:27.484 [Blando] He was an 18-year-old, quiet, 5'10", dark complexion. 25:27.567 --> 25:29.694 Once the detectives were interviewing him, 25:29.778 --> 25:30.862 they kind of realized 25:30.946 --> 25:35.283 that this could be the perpetrator from the previous rapes and the homicide. 25:35.367 --> 25:37.369 So we have a DA come down. 25:37.869 --> 25:41.581 [man] They're beginning to see that the pattern is coming together 25:41.665 --> 25:44.501 and he may be involved in the homicide. 25:44.584 --> 25:46.544 All of them involved young women. 25:46.628 --> 25:50.048 All of them involved either a ruse or a push-in. 25:51.383 --> 25:54.636 All of them occurred within a 20-block area. 25:54.719 --> 25:59.474 All of them involved the use of a knife, robbery, and rape. 26:01.726 --> 26:05.272 They wanted me to come down to the station immediately to identify… 26:05.355 --> 26:07.857 Just to take a look at a lineup. That's all they said. 26:08.608 --> 26:11.111 Just one glimpse, and I knew who it was. 26:11.611 --> 26:13.196 I was shaking with fear. 26:13.280 --> 26:15.448 It was a visceral reaction. 26:15.532 --> 26:18.410 There was no doubt that this was the guy. 26:19.494 --> 26:20.495 No doubt. 26:21.746 --> 26:24.791 [Amanda] I remember hearing that he was arrested, 26:24.874 --> 26:28.837 and I had to go meet the detective. 26:29.588 --> 26:32.507 Seeing him was shocking. 26:33.633 --> 26:37.220 He was wearing the same shirt that he wore, 26:37.304 --> 26:39.931 and it was very concrete. 26:40.015 --> 26:42.017 Like, I… I knew that was him. 26:43.601 --> 26:46.896 [Blando] He told detectives that he made love to these girls. 26:47.397 --> 26:49.149 He's a sick individual. 26:51.526 --> 26:54.612 [Girgenti] He says that he committed multiple rapes, 26:54.696 --> 27:00.744 but Reyes denies any involvement with the Lourdes Gonzalez homicide. 27:01.328 --> 27:05.332 And at that point, Reyes is shown a sketch 27:05.415 --> 27:11.546 that had been put together from the children of Lourdes Gonzalez. 27:11.629 --> 27:14.924 Matias looks at it, and the detective says, 27:15.008 --> 27:16.217 "Look familiar?" 27:16.718 --> 27:19.304 And Matias says, "Yeah, it looks like me." 27:19.804 --> 27:22.891 And looked at the detectives and said, "I'm fucked." 27:24.517 --> 27:27.187 Matias Reyes begins to give a confession 27:27.270 --> 27:30.649 to the murder of Lourdes Gonzalez. 27:31.983 --> 27:33.068 We get it on video. 27:34.027 --> 27:37.947 At times, he would rant and rave, really angry. 27:38.031 --> 27:40.784 And at other times, he was remorseful. 27:40.867 --> 27:43.536 He'd say, "Mommy," screaming. 27:44.037 --> 27:46.790 And she was, like, tossed in the air screaming. 27:46.873 --> 27:50.585 He says that Lourdes Gonzalez, she grabbed the knife, 27:50.668 --> 27:53.254 but she was shaking, she was scared. 27:53.755 --> 27:55.882 He says that he took the knife off her, 27:55.965 --> 27:57.926 and that's how he eventually killed her. 27:59.511 --> 28:04.224 When this occurred, I had a nine-year-old and a one-year-old. 28:04.307 --> 28:08.520 So I could relate to the need to protect your children. 28:08.603 --> 28:11.231 You have to feel for her. 28:11.314 --> 28:14.609 The idea that someone could be so brutalized, 28:14.693 --> 28:17.237 to be stabbed nine times, it made me sick. 28:17.821 --> 28:22.325 Matias Reyes, he's someone who has impulsive rage. 28:22.409 --> 28:23.743 He's a ticking time bomb. 28:24.536 --> 28:28.581 [Blando] He was formally charged with four counts of rape, first degree, 28:28.665 --> 28:30.542 sodomy, burglary, 28:30.625 --> 28:32.961 and assault with a deadly weapon, 28:33.044 --> 28:34.796 and one count of homicide. 28:34.879 --> 28:39.342 Locally, 18-year-old Matias Reyes is charged with a series of brutal rapes 28:39.426 --> 28:43.012 on Manhattan's East Side, one of which ended in murder. 28:43.513 --> 28:45.098 When I saw he murdered Lourdes, 28:45.181 --> 28:49.602 that's what hurt the most, was that I was alive and she was not. 28:52.188 --> 28:54.691 [Serrano Jr.] I remember receiving the news 28:55.525 --> 28:59.404 and feeling a… a sense of relief. 29:00.405 --> 29:03.324 [Vega] I remember seeing it in the papers that he got caught. 29:03.408 --> 29:04.868 When I seen the picture… 29:05.869 --> 29:07.162 I remember him. 29:09.038 --> 29:11.666 So I already knew that that was him. 29:15.420 --> 29:18.089 [Rivera] I get a phone call from my sergeant. She says, 29:18.173 --> 29:22.218 "Irma, does Matias Reyes ring a bell to you?" 29:22.302 --> 29:23.136 I go, "Yeah." 29:24.095 --> 29:28.641 On April 17th, 1989, I had his name as a possible suspect 29:28.725 --> 29:31.102 on a case that I had involving a rape 29:31.186 --> 29:34.856 that occurred in Central Park on 106th Street on the East Side. 29:34.939 --> 29:39.944 My case in Central Park was two days prior to the Central Park jogger case. 29:40.028 --> 29:42.030 [suspenseful music playing] 29:42.113 --> 29:44.866 We interviewed the victim, and one thing she noticed 29:44.949 --> 29:47.410 was that he had fresh stitches under his chin. 29:48.369 --> 29:49.829 Back then in 1989, 29:49.913 --> 29:53.082 a lot of the hospitals used to have a log in the emergency room, 29:53.166 --> 29:55.877 who came in and what they came in for. 29:55.960 --> 29:58.713 So what we did was we went to every hospital. 29:58.797 --> 30:00.215 We checked the log. 30:00.298 --> 30:03.259 There was one guy who has fresh stitches on his chin, 30:03.343 --> 30:07.263 and the name on that particular entry was "Matias Reyes." 30:08.932 --> 30:11.976 I did background checks. He had no criminal record at all. 30:12.060 --> 30:14.812 There was no photo on file for him. There was nothing. 30:14.896 --> 30:19.275 And then my boss pulls me off the case and puts me into the child abuse team. 30:21.361 --> 30:24.697 I had no choice, so I was kind of a little pissed off. 30:24.781 --> 30:27.659 So it's like the case just… just died. 30:28.743 --> 30:31.871 [Parrino] It's unfortunate that the leadership of the Special Victims Unit 30:31.955 --> 30:34.666 pulled Irma off this case and put her on another case. 30:35.583 --> 30:38.753 But you have to remember, this is 1989, 30:38.837 --> 30:41.923 and we're seeing tremendous, big crime waves 30:42.006 --> 30:45.969 that are pushing our resources to the edge. 30:47.470 --> 30:50.849 [Rivera] The name Matias, you know, it always stuck in my head. 30:50.932 --> 30:53.893 When Sergeant McLaughlin called me that day and told me that 30:53.977 --> 30:56.145 that was the person who killed… 31:01.734 --> 31:03.444 When she told me it was the person 31:03.528 --> 31:05.905 that killed that mother in front of the kids, 31:06.406 --> 31:08.324 it made me feel so horrible. 31:09.409 --> 31:12.078 And it made me feel horrible for years and years. 31:12.161 --> 31:14.038 I've always thought about them. 31:18.710 --> 31:20.253 If I had caught him on that case, 31:20.336 --> 31:23.006 I know that things would have been completely different. 31:23.089 --> 31:25.717 All these other victims would have not been victimized. 31:25.800 --> 31:28.094 Those kids wouldn't have lost their mother. 31:28.177 --> 31:30.722 And that's the part that bothered me the most. 31:31.681 --> 31:33.016 You know… 31:35.685 --> 31:36.686 [exhales] 31:39.647 --> 31:42.358 [Petrak] Cases where children are involved, 31:42.859 --> 31:44.903 it's tough on detectives. 31:44.986 --> 31:46.779 Irma, as far as I'm concerned, 31:46.863 --> 31:49.365 one of the best detectives I ever worked with. 31:49.449 --> 31:52.076 She really cared about what she was doing. 31:55.246 --> 31:57.248 [reporter] You are looking at a man police believe is 31:57.332 --> 31:59.792 a rapist and a cold-blooded killer, 31:59.876 --> 32:01.586 18-year-old Matias Reyes. 32:04.047 --> 32:06.799 [Rivera] So I went into work that day, and when I got into the office, 32:06.883 --> 32:08.676 I was shown a picture of him. 32:08.760 --> 32:11.888 When I see his picture, I go, "That's Matias Reyes? I know him!" 32:11.971 --> 32:14.307 I knew him since he was a little boy. Like, I knew him. 32:14.390 --> 32:17.477 He worked around the corner from the 23 Precinct. 32:17.560 --> 32:18.770 [reporter] In this bodega, 32:18.853 --> 32:21.481 Reyes served coffee to cops from the nearby precinct. 32:21.564 --> 32:24.317 For me, he's a good guy. One of the best. 32:24.400 --> 32:27.278 I was in the 23 from 1982 to 1987. 32:27.362 --> 32:29.322 So I… I saw him all the time. 32:30.073 --> 32:33.993 I never knew his name, I just knew him as the kid that worked in the store. 32:34.077 --> 32:35.745 Then I started thinking, "Wait." 32:35.828 --> 32:40.625 "I definitely brought Carlos and Tony to that store to buy them candy." 32:40.708 --> 32:42.877 I know he wasn't there then, but still… 32:42.961 --> 32:43.962 Ugh. 32:44.045 --> 32:45.254 That bothers me. 32:47.423 --> 32:50.635 [Girgenti] We did learn from talking to Irma Rivera 32:50.718 --> 32:54.389 that they had identified a person by the name of Matias Reyes 32:54.472 --> 32:57.392 as the possible perpetrator in another case. 32:57.475 --> 33:00.853 But, unfortunately, the victim left the State of New York, 33:00.937 --> 33:03.940 and any attempt to find the victim was unsuccessful. 33:05.233 --> 33:08.986 '89, it was kind of the frontier for the use of DNA. 33:10.863 --> 33:14.325 We submitted DNA evidence samples from the three rapes 33:14.409 --> 33:19.080 and the fourth rape and homicide of Lourdes Gonzalez to the FBI. 33:19.163 --> 33:23.793 All of the cases matched the DNA of Matias Reyes. 33:24.460 --> 33:27.964 And so Matias Reyes decided to plead guilty. 33:30.508 --> 33:34.137 [journalist] This sentencing hearing doesn't pass without incident. 33:34.220 --> 33:38.391 Reyes ends up turning his rage on his defense lawyer, 33:38.474 --> 33:40.309 and assaults him in open court. 33:42.645 --> 33:43.896 [Melissa] Who would do that? 33:43.980 --> 33:46.524 How could you sabotage yourself in that way? 33:46.607 --> 33:48.526 But he couldn't control his violence. 33:49.819 --> 33:52.488 [Girgenti] He was sentenced to 33 and a third years. 33:53.781 --> 33:56.659 Eventually, he became eligible for parole. 33:57.201 --> 34:00.913 He has the option of coming out. He has the option of coming out. 34:00.997 --> 34:06.002 So how am I supposed to live a life knowing he could potentially come out? 34:06.085 --> 34:07.086 Why? 34:09.422 --> 34:11.841 [Parrino] At this point, we think this is the end 34:11.924 --> 34:15.970 of the criminal reign of Matias Reyes. 34:16.721 --> 34:19.015 But we were to learn later 34:19.098 --> 34:21.517 that there were other crimes that he committed 34:21.601 --> 34:24.103 that we did not know that he did. 34:32.612 --> 34:34.614 [foreboding music playing] 34:35.782 --> 34:39.035 [Rivera] 2002, Matias Reyes called the district attorney's office 34:39.118 --> 34:41.245 and wanted to speak to someone 34:41.329 --> 34:43.623 regarding information he wanted to give them. 34:43.706 --> 34:46.834 [reporter] A man has come forward by the name of Matias Reyes. 34:46.918 --> 34:49.003 He claims that he alone attacked and raped 34:49.087 --> 34:51.214 the woman in Central Park back in 1989. 34:51.297 --> 34:53.549 I just rolled up behind her, 34:53.633 --> 34:55.593 and I attacked her with a stick and hit her head. 34:55.676 --> 34:57.512 And I dragged her into the bushes. 34:57.595 --> 34:59.806 Then I raped her there. 34:59.889 --> 35:06.270 Matias Reyes claims that he's involved in the 1989 Central Park jogger case. 35:06.771 --> 35:10.233 It's not shocking and unusual for somebody to interject themselves 35:10.316 --> 35:12.860 in a media case, whether they're involved or not. 35:12.944 --> 35:17.573 The unusual piece of this was his claim to act alone. 35:17.657 --> 35:19.158 [faint clamoring] 35:19.242 --> 35:21.577 [Weinman] By the time Matias Reyes came forward 35:21.661 --> 35:26.207 and said that he alone was responsible for the rape of Trisha Meili, 35:26.290 --> 35:28.292 known as the Central Park jogger, 35:28.376 --> 35:31.170 five other young men had been convicted 35:31.254 --> 35:35.675 and served long prison sentences for this crime. 35:35.758 --> 35:37.760 They always said that they were innocent 35:37.844 --> 35:40.972 and always proclaimed it whenever possible. 35:41.055 --> 35:47.103 And in fact, one of them, Korey Wise, actually encountered Reyes in prison 35:47.186 --> 35:49.313 and had some kind of altercation. 35:49.397 --> 35:52.692 And that may have contributed to why Reyes came forward. 35:52.775 --> 35:56.195 [Parrino] Eventually, the NYPD decides to form 35:56.279 --> 35:59.323 an investigative task force that I led 35:59.407 --> 36:01.951 to look into Matias Reyes's role 36:02.034 --> 36:03.744 in the Central Park jogger case. 36:03.828 --> 36:07.623 We know that there was a John Doe's DNA 36:07.707 --> 36:10.334 in that case that was never identified. 36:11.210 --> 36:15.673 So they got DNA samples from Matias Reyes and matched them up. 36:16.174 --> 36:21.554 Matias Reyes absolutely did rape the Central Park jogger, Patricia Meili, 36:21.637 --> 36:24.557 because it was his DNA that was recovered 36:24.640 --> 36:27.602 on the morning she was brought to the hospital. 36:28.978 --> 36:35.484 I wish we had had a DNA data bank back in '89, '90, and '91, 36:35.568 --> 36:39.488 because that would have allowed us to connect all of these cases. 36:39.572 --> 36:42.074 It's not just about convicting defendants. 36:42.158 --> 36:44.994 It's also about exonerating the innocent. 36:45.661 --> 36:51.167 [Parrino] So with the new information that Matias Reyes is the unknown DNA, 36:51.250 --> 36:54.045 and that he says he acted alone, 36:54.962 --> 36:59.550 the five defendants' cases were vacated, 36:59.634 --> 37:00.760 and rightfully so. 37:02.511 --> 37:05.389 It's a people's victory. That's what we have to draw from it. 37:05.473 --> 37:07.975 [crowd cheering] 37:08.059 --> 37:11.562 [Parrino] Unfortunately, this will be a black mark 37:11.646 --> 37:15.733 on NYPD's relations with the Black community 37:15.816 --> 37:17.026 for years to come. 37:18.653 --> 37:22.782 [Serrano Jr.] I was happy for the five men that were falsely accused, 37:23.282 --> 37:24.867 but it really did nothing for me 37:24.951 --> 37:29.747 other than rehash some emotions, and feelings, and memories. 37:30.248 --> 37:32.291 [tense music playing] 37:34.919 --> 37:38.089 -[reporter] Did you attack the jogger? -Yes. 37:38.673 --> 37:41.384 He was on 20/20, and I'm like, "What?" 37:41.467 --> 37:43.302 You know like, "What the fuck?" 37:43.386 --> 37:49.267 Having the past resurface is like life telling you, "You know what?" 37:49.350 --> 37:51.060 "This is always gonna be there, 37:51.143 --> 37:55.815 and there's no such thing as a fresh start." 37:55.898 --> 37:59.193 I just got angry all over again. 38:00.945 --> 38:05.199 [Weinman] The injustice that was done to the Central Park Five needed to be undone, 38:05.283 --> 38:10.496 but a parallel injustice happened to all of Matias Reyes's other victims. 38:11.205 --> 38:14.959 And so in 2019, I wrote a piece for The Cut 38:15.042 --> 38:17.586 called "Before, and After, the Jogger." 38:17.670 --> 38:22.008 I ended up speaking not only to Lourdes's children, 38:22.091 --> 38:25.344 but I also spoke with the three women 38:25.428 --> 38:28.889 whose sexual assaults Reyes was convicted of. 38:29.974 --> 38:33.352 These were the people who were written out of the story 38:33.436 --> 38:37.189 of what we now put under the umbrella of "the Central Park jogger case." 38:38.899 --> 38:41.652 [Serrano] She deserved her story to be told. 38:41.736 --> 38:45.656 And what better way to tell it than with her kids? 38:45.740 --> 38:47.158 I just… 38:47.241 --> 38:50.369 I thank her for everything she did for me. 38:52.288 --> 38:55.791 I always feel bad that she never got to meet 38:55.875 --> 38:58.044 what an amazing woman her mom was. 38:59.503 --> 39:02.882 [Serrano] Just the stories that I get from my brothers… 39:04.175 --> 39:06.010 She was an amazing person. 39:06.093 --> 39:09.013 Regardless of whether she's here physically, 39:09.513 --> 39:11.057 I feel like she's guided me. 39:12.308 --> 39:15.770 [Serrano Jr.] This happened in 1989. 39:16.312 --> 39:19.523 So any sports I played, that was my jersey number. 39:19.607 --> 39:21.984 Just paying homage to my mom. 39:22.485 --> 39:24.195 I feel like 39:24.945 --> 39:29.241 she was just somebody put in my path 39:29.325 --> 39:32.244 to lead me to something bigger. 39:33.245 --> 39:37.416 She told me to value education and make sure that I set a good example. 39:37.500 --> 39:38.918 And I did. 39:39.001 --> 39:43.005 And I kind of help instill those things in my own kids now. 39:46.467 --> 39:47.885 [Vega] I felt guilty. 39:49.011 --> 39:52.765 I went through those stages of just being angry, and… 39:54.433 --> 39:57.520 blaming myself and blaming others. 39:58.729 --> 40:01.524 It's done a lot of damage to me because… 40:01.607 --> 40:04.819 it was just destroying me mentally. 40:06.904 --> 40:09.365 [Rivera] Everybody talks about the case that haunts you. 40:09.448 --> 40:13.702 The case of Lourdes Gonzalez haunted me for years and years and years. 40:16.914 --> 40:18.290 [Rivera] Hi, Carlos. 40:20.084 --> 40:21.919 So nice to see you. 40:23.754 --> 40:25.214 So sorry. 40:26.257 --> 40:28.676 So it was important for me to meet Carlos. 40:29.552 --> 40:31.345 This case bothered me so much. 40:32.596 --> 40:34.557 I had his name on another case. 40:34.640 --> 40:36.100 I want to apologize to you, 40:36.183 --> 40:39.145 because I feel like if I had gotten him, this wouldn't have happened. 40:40.229 --> 40:42.273 [Vega] I was never mad at her. 40:42.356 --> 40:46.819 I would never want her to live life like that. 40:46.902 --> 40:49.405 The only person I'm angry at is Reyes. 40:49.488 --> 40:51.907 -[Rivera] Right. -Reyes deserves… 40:51.991 --> 40:53.492 He deserves misery. 40:53.576 --> 40:56.453 Don't give your power away to him at all. 40:56.537 --> 40:58.372 My life has been a mess. 40:59.039 --> 41:01.584 I've been incarcerated, in and out. 41:01.667 --> 41:03.461 How many felonies do you have? 41:03.544 --> 41:07.590 -I got… I got three gun possessions. -Okay. 41:08.215 --> 41:09.216 A homicide. 41:09.842 --> 41:12.052 I became a product of the streets. 41:12.136 --> 41:16.223 And there's always a beef. And there's always retribution. 41:16.307 --> 41:22.646 And I grew up wanting to destroy anything that destroys me and my family. 41:22.730 --> 41:24.815 And that's a never-ending cycle. 41:24.899 --> 41:28.110 Your life is not over. You can still do a lot with yourself. 41:28.694 --> 41:31.405 Your mother wanted to give you such a good childhood. 41:31.989 --> 41:36.452 Now is your time to honor your mother and have a good manhood. 41:36.535 --> 41:37.369 Yeah. 41:38.162 --> 41:40.915 I'm still striving for better. 41:41.457 --> 41:43.375 I'm still a work in progress. 41:43.459 --> 41:47.087 I'm on the path of… of doing better, and… 41:47.171 --> 41:49.048 my mom deserves it. 41:54.845 --> 42:00.476 [Melissa] I was aware that there were two other women victims, survivors. 42:01.060 --> 42:03.312 But we didn't get to meet, didn't get to talk. 42:04.313 --> 42:06.232 So I wrote a letter, and I said, 42:06.315 --> 42:10.027 "We all went through the same thing, and it's absolutely horrible, 42:10.110 --> 42:13.030 but it would be nice if we could be there for each other, 42:13.113 --> 42:16.575 because only we know and understand what each of us has been through." 42:16.659 --> 42:18.702 [somber music playing] 42:22.998 --> 42:23.999 -[Melissa] Hey! -[Amanda] Hi! 42:24.083 --> 42:25.417 [Melissa] And we all decided to meet. 42:25.501 --> 42:28.671 We get together multiple times over the years. 42:29.255 --> 42:30.965 Every year, the date would come, 42:31.048 --> 42:33.801 and I'd say, "Forget what the date is. Forget what happened." 42:33.884 --> 42:35.636 "Just go about your life. Forget." 42:35.719 --> 42:37.513 And last year, I thought, "Why?" 42:37.596 --> 42:39.431 So I invited my friends for dinner, 42:39.515 --> 42:41.725 and I had a "Fuck You, I'm Still Here" party. 42:41.809 --> 42:43.352 -I did! -[Amanda] Awesome. 42:43.435 --> 42:48.065 Melissa, Meg, and I have this friendship. 42:48.148 --> 42:52.236 We all are connected by this horrific story, 42:52.319 --> 42:55.614 but we're also connected by love. 42:55.698 --> 42:59.952 I thought to myself, "These other girls went through the same thing I did." 43:00.035 --> 43:02.413 -Yeah. -"We have to become friends." 43:02.496 --> 43:06.125 -It was, like, revolutionary to meet you. -[Melissa] Yeah. 43:07.293 --> 43:09.169 Having them, I feel very lucky. 43:10.838 --> 43:12.673 I don't know what I would've done without them. 43:16.093 --> 43:17.886 [Melissa] Lourdes is one of us. 43:17.970 --> 43:19.680 She is a fighter. 43:20.431 --> 43:22.516 I've thought about her a lot. 43:22.600 --> 43:25.769 I really felt for her, and I really felt for her family. 43:27.730 --> 43:29.648 [Meg] Lourdes isn't here to speak. 43:30.441 --> 43:34.820 So we wanted to kind of honor her and her family, 43:34.903 --> 43:37.364 and to say that we never forgot Lourdes. 43:38.282 --> 43:40.618 I want people to know her, and be like, 43:40.701 --> 43:43.370 "She was more than just this little footnote." 43:43.454 --> 43:45.164 "Lourdes was important." 44:30.125 --> 44:34.421 I don't think the NYPD or the City of New York ever saw this coming. 44:34.505 --> 44:36.715 [dark, menacing music playing] 44:37.299 --> 44:39.259 -[man] Go, go, go! -[crowd clamoring] 44:39.343 --> 44:42.054 [officer 1] We're heading down towards One World Trade Center. 44:42.638 --> 44:45.140 [MacLeod] My aunt JoAnn worked in the North Tower. 44:45.224 --> 44:47.851 "How the fuck am I getting up there to get her out?" 44:47.935 --> 44:49.561 [officer 2] The second building's on fire! 44:49.645 --> 44:53.273 78th floor of a building is on fire, and I don't know how to get out of here. 44:53.357 --> 44:54.900 [officer 3] Holy crap! 44:54.983 --> 44:56.860 The tower's coming down! 44:58.153 --> 45:01.240 My lieutenant says, "Fucking run!" 45:01.323 --> 45:02.700 [man] Get out of here! 45:02.783 --> 45:06.870 I see a bunch of EMS. He goes, "We're gonna go back into the building." 45:06.954 --> 45:08.956 "People in there need to be removed." 45:09.039 --> 45:12.668 I was like, "Okay, I'm not gonna have a fireman embarrass me. I'm gonna stay." 45:13.877 --> 45:17.881 One thing about 9/11, it helped me get used to the smell of death. 45:17.965 --> 45:20.050 You find out what you're really made of. 45:20.134 --> 45:23.387 You find out what it is to be a team player. 45:23.470 --> 45:26.098 You're not dead. Get to work. 45:27.391 --> 45:29.393 [dramatic outro music pulsing] team player.