The FBI Files: Season 5 - Ep 11 "Dark Woods"

Click here to watch great FREE Movies & TV: http://filmrise.com

In June 1973, a young girl was abducted from a state park while camping with her family. A criminal profiler predicted that the kidnapper would contact the girl's family on the one-year anniversary of her abduction. When this prediction came true, the FBI agent noted behavioral clues, hoping that they could lead him to the kidnapper.

THE FBI FILES reveals the crime busting techniques and forensic science used by the FBI to solve the most baffling cases. Former head of the FBI's New York Office James Kallstrom hosts these true stories of crime and detection.

---

Closed Caption:

yeah
taking she's
recalling a similar crime investigators
fear a killer is back
desperate to find the girl alive they
face Grim clues Falls needs and a coming
suspect police agents and a mother with
unshakeable determination struggle to
solve the mystery of what happened in
those dark woods
yeah
yeah
yeah
while camping with her family in Montana
a seven-year-old girl was abducted from
her 10th no one in the campground
witnessed the crime and the kidnapper
left no clues
I'm Jim Kallstrom former head of the
FBI's New York office at the time little
was known of criminal profiling agents
would use it as they race against the
clock to find a criminal more monstrous
than anyone imagined
southwestern Montana
a land of Epic mountain ranges and fast
prairies
in june nineteen seventy-three the jager
family came to Montana from Michigan
Marietta jaegar was excited about her
family exploring the West
bill Yeager a long time auto worker had
taken a month off for this
once-in-a-lifetime trip
it was seven year old Susie's first
family vacation married his parents had
also joined them for the trip
we don't got a big day
on sunday june twenty-fourth they
prepared to spend their last night in
Montana's headwaters state park
in the morning they will continue west
the eldest boy slept in the van while
the four young ones had their own tent
like every night Susie wouldn't go to
sleep without a goodnight hug and kiss
mmm
the night was chilly still the jager
children slept peacefully
yeah
the adults slept in a camper truck a few
feet away
but not everyone in the camp ground was
asleep
hmm
around 4am a breeze a walk 13 year old
Heidi ager she noticed a hole in the
tent
then she noticed Susie wasn't there
confused and scared she rushed to tell
her parents
Marietta jaegar tried to understand what
her daughter was saying I just thought
it must be somewhere around
she's around she's said about the
bathroom she you know but at the same
time there's this terror rising in you
that you know
oh please God don't let this be true
don't let this be true
I mean I remember wanting to wake up and
find out that this is not real
this is not really happening
then they saw the whole sliced in the
tent
that's when it's like like it or not
marietta this is this is reality and
more than she's gone
but someone has taken their heart sank
further when they spotted Susie stuffed
animals in the grass
she was sleeping with him she always
stuck with them and she must have
dropped them because she couldn't hold
on to them
it made it clear to me that she was
taken away by force
right away bill jager drove to a phone
to call police
Thank You mr. Yeager slow down i need
you to tell me what's going on
I want you to hold on line of the game
the sheriff's dispatcher immediately
radioed Gallatin County deputy Don
Houghton was working the night shift
campground
every part of his medical and on the way
to the headwaters deputy how to stop to
pick up City County investigator John
onsted
violent crime was rare in the area so at
first investigator instead sort of false
alarm
we're thinking that it really must be
something else that something like this
would would would not be a kidnapping
and it would resolve itself somehow when
the investigators arrived the jager
family was destructed
as the egg is explained what they could
they brought the investigators to the
back of the campsite
that changed everything for deputy
Houghton and that's when we saw the
tempting with the tent had been slipped
and that kind of pick things up a little
bit
it was a little leery about footprints
from the family were scattered around
the tent in the damp grass but
investigator onsted could see one set
with a clear direction
I could see the tracks in the do coming
to and and from the area where the tent
was going back to a parking area in the
parking area had no vehicles in it
the gallatin county sheriff's office
contacted the FBI Special Agent P Dunbar
took the call at the Bozeman field
office
the bar the FBI often joins kidnapping
investigations because of the
possibility of interstate travel got a
call in any abduction
time is critical
as the chance of finding a victim alive
diminishes with each passing hour
what is it a on what dunbar and Special
Agent William Terry left for the
campground immediately
by the time the agents arrived local
deputies had started to search for Susan
had begun interviewing the other campers
the only Clues so far with the
footprints in the gash in the tent
what but that was enough to convince
special agent Dunbar what happened
no question there was a kidnapping in
some cases you don't know some types of
the parental type thing but in this
instance
absolutely no question but there was a
kidnapping of a child the search quickly
became one of the largest in Montana
history
we had helicopters we have a used the
National Guard flying we had boats we
had all terrain vehicles we had writer's
out to identifying areas of abandoned
buildings old mine sites anywhere where
a person like be located
they began at the jager campsite then
expanded in widening circles
during the search a few veteran deputies
recalled a similar investigation in the
same campground five years earlier that
crime was discovered May fifth nineteen
sixty eight when during a true pouting a
boy scout tried to wake up his tent mate
the 12 year old had been stabbed and
beaten during the night
the scouts long had been punctured and
he suffered severe head trauma
he died the following day that case
remained unsolved
many of those searching for Susie
couldn't help but wonder if that killer
was back
while the search of the woods continued
some deputies began tracking possible
suspects reviewing criminal records they
began with sex offenders living nearby
I love those without alibis were asked
to come in for lie detector tests
according to special agent Dunbar in the
immediate area
there were three or four absolute prime
suspects because of past activities
dealing with children
one in particular that was looked at
very carefully
you know the polygraph examiner asked
the suspect about the night Susie
vanished
though their uses controversial
polygraphs monitor changes in heart rate
respiration and perspiration you that
most people exhibit when they tell a lie
330am
the suspect said he could not remember
what he was doing that night
are you still the polygraph results were
inconclusive
well hoping for more information
agent sent the suspect to a nearby
psychiatric hospital to be interrogated
under sodium amytal often referred to as
truth serum
he a barbiturate sodium amytal produces
a relaxed state in which suspects become
less defensive and therefore more
talkative under its influence
most people are unable to lie once the
drug took effect in the suspect relaxed
his memory returned
anyone that you never met anyone he
remembered what he had been doing during
the time of the kidnapping
he had been in Butte Montana we checked
it out
people in Butte could verify what he
said was correct and he was eliminated
hopes of a quick arrest were dashed
police in the FBI sought the public's
help
hundreds of alarm citizens throughout
Montana called in tips
deputies followed up on each one
one caller urged authorities to
interview his 25 year old neighbor in
Manhattan Montana describing him as odd
the deputies knew the man local
contractor
nothing appeared suspicious however and
like others in the community he said he
would do what he could to help from down
there a problem
help
then a week after Susie disappeared
a man telephone the home of a Gallatin
County Montana deputy the deputy's wife
answered the caller claimed to be
Susie's kidnapper and demanded a
fifty-thousand-dollar ransom be
delivered to a bus station in denver to
confirm he had Susie
he described a minor deformity rounded
pump like nails on the young girls index
fingers
ok
the woman called her husband who
contacted the FBI at the command center
set up at the campground special agent
Dunbar told the jaegers about the ransom
call when he mentioned the fingernails
they were stunned Susie did have rounded
nails on our index fingers
the call was legitimate
agents needed the kidnapper to call back
with details about the ransom drop
but the call never came
a crushing blow for the family and
investigators
according to FBI Special Agent William
Terry s time went by and there was
nothing to give directions and so where
the money should be placed or how she
was going to be returned the hope left
watching deputies drag the rivers in
headwaters park for a body was agonizing
for the jaegers get marietta and Bill
refused to give up hope I made a
commitment to stay faithful to her is
her mother that not to give up to
continue to believe that she was still
alive until such time if ever would have
to happen that i would have to accept
concrete proof to the contrary
still the jaegers could not remain in
the campground forever
bill needed to return to work so after
more than a month
the family had to go home and it was so
hard to leave you know for me to leave
the last place that I had seen her
despite the best efforts of law
enforcement they had not been able to
find the kidnapper
but soon
he would find marianna in june nineteen
seventy-three seven-year-old Susie
Yeager was abducted from her tent and
headwaters state park montana
although the family had to return to
michigan the FBI assured Susie's parents
bill and Marietta jaegar that they would
not give up on the case as soon as we
got to detroit the FBI agents were there
were waiting for us and I saw I felt I
felt I could trust them i felt that they
were competent and they were willing to
keep me informed
and for me that was very important I
needed to know everything that was going
on
you know investigators thought Susie had
likely been murdered
the jaegers still hope she was alive and
that the kidnapper would make contact
again
the FBI arranged for the phone company
to trace any calls from the kidnapper
and ask the jaegers to place a recording
device on their telephone
it's nice to be able to handle them the
family and their friends work diligently
to make certain nobody forgot about
Susie
they established the Suze llega reward
fund and printed 10,000 posters which
they mailed to every sheriff's office in
Montana and the surrounding states
asking for them to be posted locally
months past
still the family continue to hold the
kidnapper would call it just sort of
became Mike asked to be there on the
phone and only one time did I leave in
the beginning and that was to pick up a
son
one of my kids at class from which he
was supposed to have gotten a ride home
and it but that did show and so I was
out of the house 10 minutes and the
kidnapper cop
following established routine
the eldest son Dan remained in the house
snapped on the tape recorder with us
would you like to know horses you can
ask the kidnapper to release his sister
the caller complaint at the police and
FBI were involved
yeah you may think he said he couldn't
really Suzie without getting caught
no seconds later that
marietta came home Danny had just hung
up the phone and I could just tell by
the look on his face it was just
tricking you didn't have to tell me I
knew he had just spoken to the kidnapper
and we had that call on tape but no way
of knowing who it was
authorities traced the call to a diner
in Wyoming local officers checked the
place but the caller was gone and
employees did not recall anyone who had
been on the pay phone
FBI Special Agent William Terry it was
the consensus of opinion at that time
that Susie was dead and for some reason
this individual was attempting the
torment the jager family
months passed with no new leads or calls
eight months after Susie's kidnapping
the gallatin county sheriff's office
received a report that a 19 year old
woman had disappeared from Manhattan
Montana 10 miles from the campground
where Suzy finished
her mother was worried and told the
deputies what she knew
she said that her daughter Sandra small
ian was last seen on februari night
returning to her apartment around
midnight after a night out with friends
her mother said Sandra's car was gone
and no one had heard from her in days
like almost everyone in the small town
the deputies new Sandra they opened a
missing persons case and set out in
search of her car
Gallatin County deputy Don houghton
still working the Suze jager kidnapping
was also part of the new investigation
the area that i was assigned with
to the north west of the town in
manhattan and this was a large area and
what we were doing was driving county
roads dirt roads farms roads looking for
the car on an abandoned ranch in
horseshoe hills
deputy how to noticed fresh tire tracks
off a dirt road then spotted something
that seemed out of place
got out -
to see what it was and it happened to be
a pair of women's panties
houghton wanted to check out the bar
nearby
the door was nailed shut
yeah
inside a tarp and other debris covered a
car
the license plate had been removed
but in the small community most people
knew their neighbors vehicles
deputy how to recognize the car
it was Sandra smaller guns
there was no trace of the young woman
had been 13 on a white or a mountain
called in the find you p by 2 1
yeah
deputies sheriff's posse members and
volunteers scoured five square miles
surrounding the barn in line searches
they marked any items that might be
evidence
two days into the search one group
investigated a 55-gallon drum we found
in a field with the right here for
something had been burned inside
exactly among charred wood were bone
fragments
the more we looked we found bones spread
out probably over a 75-yard area most in
very small pieces
they've been broken up chopped up
they were burned in the end they
collected more than 1,200 bone fragments
a forensic pathologist determined they
were human and some were probably from
an adult white female
dental records confirmed several teeth
and jaw bone fragments belong to Sandra
small again investigator John on stand
feared that Sandra's killer might have
also kidnapped Susie acre
there was beginning to be a connection
probably partly due to the to the part
of the country we live in and and what
what goes on here what doesn't go on
here
sandra small again had been dismembered
whoever committed such an unspeakable
crime might have taken Susie to the
deputy eight months after Susie jager
vanished from a montana campground
deputies discovered the remains of
Sandra small again at a nearby horseshoe
hills ranch
authorities feared a connection
the investigators working the two cases
frequently ate lunch together
one resident often joined them
always asking about the cases
David Masterson was an ex-marine and a
well-known local contractor
yeah you know some townspeople
considered in strange
in the first week of the investigation
Masterson had been questioned about
Suzy's disappearance
deputy d'en haut knew that people who
are overly curious about a crime are
often involved
on numerous occasions David come in and
and sit with this neat always
inquisitive
we were always cautious of what we said
around you but he was always
volunteering volunteering for a search
just kept in front of us I guess he just
bugged us
FBI Special Agent P Dunbar realized
Masterson was familiar with the area
where Sandra's body was found
David surfaced as a suspect again
because we knew enough about David from
before to know that he knew the
horseshoe hills very well and also it
developed that he had dated this girl
Sandra's Mulligan investigators asked
masters him to take a polygraph
examination he agreed
I had a great deal of faith in a
polygraph i had had it utilized on other
cases before and invariably was a
tremendous tool and never had one work
backfired
during the examination Masterson denied
knowing anything about Susie a girls
kidnapping or Sandra smaller guns murder
he confirmed he dated Sandra only once
because she didn't want to go out with
him again
the polygraph examiner detected no sign
of deception as they had with other
suspects in the Suze edgar cayce agents
asked him to submit to questioning on to
sodium amytal do I have heard about her
at the psychiatric hospital under the
barbiturates influence Masterson calmly
answered every question family
he said everything then that he told me
in my interview before we did a sodium
amytal he didn't deviate one iota far as
my interview is concerned there was no
difference whether he had her did not
happen
put the investigation back to where we
had nothing
we just ran out of everything couldn't
have been more discouraged
we didn't know where to go we had run
out of suspects
in the spring of nineteen seventy-four
the stalled case gathered new momentum
after Dunbar met special agent Patrick
Mulaney who worked in the emerging field
of criminal profiling believing he could
help
Mulaney asked for the files in the jager
case give us all the interviews you've
conducted give us all of the results of
the investigation you have conducted and
we sat down for days
going over all of those interviews
especially what kind of Investigation
that they were conducting and we came
back with an idea to the profilers the
nature of the crime including
surveillance and a stealthy abduction
suggested the kidnapper had military
training
he must have had the physical strength
to carry and keep quiet
a 55-pound girl who might be struggling
the profilers believe the perpetrator
was a loner
possibly a schizophrenic who has trouble
with the opposite sex
one suspect jumped out again David
Masterson
when we came up with David Masterson as
are most likely suspect
we met a whole lot of opposition from
the local police department
as well as the FBI agent and the reason
for the opposition was very reasonable
it was simply that he had been a suspect
early on and they had asked him to take
certain truth
test and David had passed both of them
but a schizophrenic and disassociate
from reality to such a degree
he might be able to live without
exhibiting any stress is beating the
tests the profilers also made a
prediction
that the kidnapper would telephone
Marietta jaegar on the anniversary of
the abduction
we felt that this was such an intimate
killer
you know that he had become personally
involved in the killing and in the
victim in the victims life and in the
victims families life
that he would much celebrate this event
like a normal person would celebrate an
anniversary to flush the kidnapper out
Marietta jaegar granted an interview to
an Associated Press reporter
she said her religious faith allowed her
to feel sorry for the kidnapper and that
she would like to talk to him to find
out why he did it
on the night of june twenty-fourth 1974
one year after Susie vanished marietta
went to bed knowing that although she
needed it she would not rest
yeah
as she raced to the phone and recorder
she halted finally to get some answers
exactly one year after Susie ager
vanished from a montana campground a man
telephone Susie's mother marietta the
first thing he said was this is his mom
and I mean I just then I knew for
certain who it was he said this is the
man who took her from you
one year ago to the minute
can we have her back and then the phone
what did
what happened to him the jaegers were
devastated
the call was so short a successful trace
was unlikely another call
if it should come
would be the only link to their little
girl
hello I was so relieved
I'm so relieved but my mind was spinning
you know what's going to happen what can
I say
and so in the beginning I sort of gave
the lead to him in the conversation he
had this need to let me know that he was
the one who was in control
I have Susie she's doing great the
kidnapper boasted he was too smart to
get caught
why didn't want you to worry about it
would be said he and Susan had been
traveling together we've been going all
over the place having a great time
people think we're family
very she right now
marietta wanted proof that her daughter
was alive she wanted to talk to Susie
you don't need to worry like i said we
could never said the girl was nearby
sleeping in his cabin
by this time I knew that my husband had
notified the FBI they're trying to trace
the call
so I knew it was important to keep him
on the phone I wanted the FBI to get to
him before he got away and find out you
know if I was going to get my little
girl back again and I will do whatever
it takes as she talked Marietta jaegar
began to take control of the
conversation
she said she had been praying for him
don't bring it all she said she felt
sorry for him
she really still alive
your strength and compassion war the
collar down
according to FBI profiler Patrick
Mulaney to be able to contain herself
over an hour with the person that she
viewed as having her child was beyond
belief
the caller initially starting with the
typical psychopathic challenge
I am the one who kidnapped your child
one year ago to the minute this day to
turn him from that point where he's
really sticking it to her to wear at the
end of the hour that caller could not
hang up the phone and when he ultimately
did hang up the phone
he was sobbing crying agents responded
to the jager home hoping the call would
finally lead them to the kidnapper at
the time
long distance calls passed through a
series of relay stations
yeah telephone personnel trace the call
as far as sarasota florida but a system
failure they're prevented further
tracing
agents had to tell the jaegers it didn't
work
your face
let me know all I could think of was
that he had said Susie was asleep in his
cabin and we lost the chance to find her
then a month later
a rancher in montana showed
investigators where somebody tapped into
his telephone line
his phone bill showed a call to the
jaegers in Michigan that he hadn't made
here under the lines had noticed fresh
tire tracks that did not match his truck
tires
when asked for names of people who knew
the ranch well the ranchers said David
Masterson used to work for him
the investigators recalled Masterson had
been a communication specialist in the
Marines and would know how to tap the
lines agents looked into a new
technology
voiceprint analysis a person's voice is
made unique by their bodies physical
makeup and scientists have begun
charting voice patterns using a sound
spectrograph the voiceprint experts
compared the anniversary call recording
to a recording of an interview with
Masterson
they reported a match
investigators confronted Masterson with
the voiceprint analysis they are you
doing take a look
they explain the results indicated he
had very likely made the anniversary
called to the jaegers Masterson told
Special Agent P Dunbar he was
unimpressed and he said old chute you
know I've got relatives whose voices
sound just exactly like mine
so we asked who they were to begin with
that one investigators put together a
voice lineup consisting of Masterson and
the relatives he named
ready from the ranch where the
anniversary call was made
they telephoned the jaegers yes marianna
IP you were ready
each speaker identified himself by a
number and read an excerpt of the
anniversary call
I'm number one is this Susie's mom we
went to lakeside park in the Southern
California zoo
I'm number two
Park California as soon as I heard the
second one I knew that that was the
voice that i had heard you know that was
indelibly etched in my memory I would
not forget that voice
it was more circumstantial evidence but
still nothing concrete
yes mrs. eager
investigators wanted a confession yes we
came up with the notion that the only
thing that would bring him off target
and motivate him to do something that
might betray himself ultimately was to
put them into a direct confrontation
with Marietta jaegar
we requested Marietta jaegar fly all the
way back out into the Bozeman area an
area which had nothing but dark memories
marietta had always believed that she
and Susie's kidnapper would meet felt
this must be the opportunity so I was
very grateful for the opportunity to
come out and say to him face to face and
not just your voice on the phone that i
had forgiven him
she's a extremely strong person very
different from any the victim's mother
that I know and her forgiveness
well frankly i think is very much
different
very much different I know she feels
strong about it and have not sure I
agree with her on the morning of sep
tember 12 1974 Marietta jaegar and David
Masterson met at his Attorney's Office
something in the depth of me knew that
this was this was the man
and when I looked into his face
I could tell by his eyes that he was a
mentally ill man its unwavering marietta
told him she knew he had taken Susie
Masterson insisted he was innocent
they spoke for more than an hour
marietta trying to get him to admit what
he had done but he never cracked
finally the attorney said well you know
I think this is enough
we've given it a fair shot and so we
stood out
he shook hands with me but it took all
the discipline i had to let go
I mean I just he was the one I knew he
was the one and I didn't want a lot of
my sight
we'll be right back shareable sorry
to keep the pressure on Masterson
Gallatin County deputies put him under
24-hour surveillance
they made no effort to hide the fact
that they were watching the surveillance
seemed to amuse him but on sep tember
24th the suspect slipped away
according to deputy Don houghton the
team of officers and watched him go into
his house but he didn't come out the
following morning
it got to the point that we actually
went and knocked on the door somebody
did and nobody home started looking
everywhere we knew David frequented went
to his job sites in there was no David
while authorities was searching for
Masterson
the man called the jaegers it was
exactly one year after the kidnapper had
called the first time when Mariette it
was out the caller identified himself as
mr. Travis
but as soon as he got on the phone i
know it was his voice what he was trying
to convince me and the FBI that the real
kidnapper was somebody in salt lake city
utah and not this person David who's
been considered as a prime suspect -
here in Montana
he said he could prove that Susie was
alive by putting her on the telephone
well then listen to this the night mean
I knew it wasn't Sue's voice as he never
called me Mommy show is called me mama
then my fear was that he bribed a child
to speak those words and that in his
sick mind this child would become Susie
and that he would harm this child to
even
when marietta kept calling him David he
began to unravel
he blurted out information marietta
discussions Masterson in Montana
yeah things only David would know I
think they ever and so we totally
incriminated himself and when he
realized what he did he said you'll
never see your little girl alive again
and he slammed down from marietta called
the FBI and authorities traced the call
to a salt lake city motel room
more than 400 miles from Masterson's
home
but by the time they arrived he was gone
after David Masterson eluded
surveillance
investigators believe he called Marietta
jaegar married I heard a young girl's
voice but she knew it wasn't suzy
others . gallatin county prosecutor
Thomas Olson who had been hoping for
more evidence before an arrest feared
Masterson was more dangerous than ever
I was in a state of panic immediately
assumed he had taken another child and
we knew he had to act we couldn't wait
any longer
when masters and came back into town
they decided to make the arrest and hope
to find more evidence against him later
he offered no resistance
he had already hired one of the area's
top attorneys
among his personal effects they
discovered stationery from the salt lake
city hotel with the latest call
originated with the name travis written
on it
authorities executed a search warrant
created with the help of FBI profilers
according to deputy Don Houghton
paper they told us that the suspect in
this kind of a crime or these kind of
crimes would probably keep souvenirs or
trophies of his victims to include
everything from jewelry clothing to body
parts or search warrant listed all those
items inside the freezer
deputies made a grisly discovery
packages wrapped in butchers paper
marked with the initials of the murdered
woman Sandra Marie small again then they
found a human hand with two severed
fingers clutched in its palm
they discuss the evidence with
Masterson's attorney who announced his
client had a shocking confession
the attorney says David's going to admit
to four murders and that hit me like a
sledgehammer
sometime
masters and told them about the four
killings they began in nineteen sixty
seven
he was a high school senior when he
committed the first one fellow student
and picked a fight with him one day he
spotted the students brother fishing
with a friend
he killed students brother for revenge
why the boys Masterson said his second
murder was when he killed the boy scout
at the headwaters campground in 1968
he did it to embarrass the local troupe
that had terminated his participation of
the scouts his third victim was Susie
anger he waited until he thought
everyone was asleep
he said he took Suzy to the horseshoe
hills ranch where they had found
Sandra's Mulligan's bones
he strangled her dismembered her body
and scattered her remains
anything special stand down somebody
else everyone wanted to know why
Masterson had no answer
he also confessed to killing Sandra
small again after she refused to see him
again he broke into her apartment
listen listen to me keep your mouth shut
all right his plan was to abduct her
when he covered her mouth with duct tape
he inadvertently covered her nose too
yeah
don't move it all the over here
she packed her clothes sandra smaller
than suffocated
Sandra
at the same ranch he dismembered her
body then incinerated the remains over a
fire of cedar shingles and spread her
bones among Susie's it was late i mean i
think it was like 3am and my lasting
vision of David was that as he confessed
to four murders he seemed to shrink
smaller and smaller in in stature in
size and so at the end he was a shell of
a person
thanks deputies returned him to jail but
he never made it to trial
although prosecutors told them they
would not seek the death penalty
David Masterson hanged himself with a
towel hours after he confessed
yeah
yeah
yeah