Real Detective (2016) s01e02 Episode Script

- (Narrator): I don't
think there's been
another case where I was so
emotionally tied to a victim
and so badly wanted
to catch somebody.
(gasps)
Even when you're asleep,
the case is overwhelming you.
Nothing compared
to working this case.
If somebody said: "I can erase
that from your memory,"
I'd say: "Put it on me;
I'd take it."
This case made me cry
a whole lot of times.
(theme music)
-(Narrator): 40 murders I'd
probably done by that day.
I can't tell you what
the second most horrible was.
I mean there's no contender;
it's the worst thing
I've ever had to do.
(crows caw)
(ominous music)
Looks like Christ on a cross.
Could be some kind of a cult
killing, the way he's laid out?
- I doubt it;
looks more like he
was just left here.
(crows caw)
-(Narrator): Lee had been
missing for three days.
I felt confident that we
were gonna find the boy.
What we were afraid of
is that we would find the body.
(cries)
-(Narrator): I could
feel the pain in me
as a parent.
- Dark
dark blue pants, white T-shirt.
- Ball cap? Socks?
Kind of underwear?
Anything that stands out.
- If you found him
without any clothes,
what difference does it make
what he was wearing?
- Sometimes these killers
(clears throat)
they like to take things
from the scene with them.
I know that's hard to hear.
I'm sorry.
- He had a
grey zipper-type jacket
with red stripes
down each sleeve.
Ghostbusters underwear.
He loved them;
he wore them all the time.
Justin and Lee,
they'd gone to the park
hundreds of times before.
This is a safe
neighborhood, all right?
I don't get this!
- I need to ask Justin
a few questions, Mr. Iseli.
- Yeah.
(sighs)
Justin!
Can you come down here
for a sec, bud?
- Lee's mother?
- Jewel.
I have full custody; she hasn't
seen them in a long while.
- Hey, Justin.
- Hey, bud.
- The name's CW.
I wanna ask you
a few questions
about your brother.
You remember
what happened?
- I looked over and
Lee just disappeared.
- You know what?
Do you mind
if we go down to the park
and you show me around?
-(Justin): Lee was here,
at the volcano.
We were over there
at the fort, playing.
Then I saw the man
talking to Lee,
so I ran over
and said:
"Don't talk
to strangers, Lee."
- And then what?
- Went back to playing football.
- You went back to the fort
or back to playing football?
- Sorry, the fort.
When I looked back,
Lee was gone.
- How long were your eyes
off your brother?
- I don't know. We ran
around looking for him,
screaming his name
and stuff.
But he was nowhere
so I ran home as fast as I could
and told Dad.
- Asas soon as he got back,
I called the cops.
- Did Lee scream for help?
- I didn't hear him.
- You remember
what the man looked like?
- Tall. He had a moustache,
blue shirt and a blue hat
with red on it.
- You think you could
come down to the station?
Describe him
to a sketch artist?
- I'm so sorry, Dad.
- Hey, hey, hey,
no, no, no, no, okay?
You got nothing to be
sorry about, nothing. Okay?
It's not your fault.
-(Narrator): Emotionally,
Justin felt
like he let Lee down.
He was just having fun.
He was just playing.
He just got distracted.
He didn't do anything wrong,
but he got distracted
at like the worst time ever.
So turned around, vanished.
- Look, are we done
here, because
- You happen to know
where I can find your ex-wife?
- Yeah. I'll get you
the address.
Come on.
Hey, detective?
You find out
who did that to my boy
and keep him the hell
away from me, you understand?
Because I'll kill him.
(sighs)
-(Narrator): The first
stumbling block
was to try to find Mom
and figure out
where she fit into this thing.
(knocks on door)
- Jewel?
- Yeah?
- Detective CW Jensen.
Can I come in?
(cries)
- My poor Lee!
He had a special glow about him.
Whip smart.
Could walk at eight months.
(sobs)
Why did Robert let them go
to the park by themselves?
- Must be tough
being a single dad,
working, raising two boys
on his own.
You dating anyone
right now, Jewel?
Is that right?
I won't keep you.
(weeps)
- Was it quick with Lee?
Did he suffer?
- I'll make sure the funeral
home reaches out to you.
(sobs)
-(Narrator): By the time
I was done talking to her,
in my mind,
she was absolutely not
a suspect.
Sometimes, you know, you have
to look someone in the eye
and try to figure out
what they're thinking.
That wasn't too tough with her.
I think she felt
horribly guilty, too.
(weeps)
- Cause of death
was strangulation.
Ligature marks on the neck
indicate he hung
for quite some time.
The boy died slowly.
(retching)
-(Narrator): He was
sexually abused.
It's a little kid;
the things that were
done to him were horrible.
The doctor at one point
turned him over and
his blond hair kind of
flopped down.
And um
so I got home
and I look at my
daughter whose blonde
and her hair
is laying just like that.
It was one
of the hardest things.
I just, I just dropped
to my knees and just cried.
- What's wrong, CW?
- Nothing. I'm good, I'm good.
I start focusing on things.
What do we know?
He was sexually abused.
It's got to be a male.
What do we know? He'd got
from one place to the other
so he's got a car,
the ability to travel.
People do not go out
and kill and rape
just on a whim one day.
So I knew this guy
has to have been convicted
of a felony
against a child.
You have a jigsaw puzzle
and nothing's put together.
And it's almost like people
have made it so it's gonna be
more difficult for you
to put the puzzle together.
-(Narrator): And I finally
realized that two months before,
two boys had been
murdered in a park,
near where we found Lee.
The two Neer brothers.
The Neer brothers
were in a fairly large park
and had wandered down to an area
that was kind of empty.
And then disappeared.
To me it had to be connected.
All of a sudden
in the space of two months
we got three dead
kids and it just,
didn't make sense to me.
-(Jensen): Jeff, it's CW Jensen.
I wanna come see you about the
Neer boys murder you're working.
Why? Because these crimes
are connected.
And I don't think
the killer's done yet.
The thing that
terrified me the most
was that this guy was gonna kill
another little boy
before I could find him.
The first thing
that I wanted to do
was to compare our case
with the Neer brothers' cases.
We knew that the two
Neer brothers had been killed,
had been sexually molested.
Lee had been abducted
and murdered
and he was sexually abused.
The similarities were ligature,
shoe laces on the boys,
rope on Lee.
That meant
we had a serial killer
and that meant
we really had to get going.
- There were ligature marks
on all three victims.
That's a consistency.
- In my opinion,
we're talking about
two different murders.
- Maybe I'm reaching.
- Look, Lee was tortured,
strangled for an extended
period of time.
Ligature marks
on the neck.
The Neer boys were stabbed;
they went quickly.
Ligature marks
on the wrists and ankles.
- Which suggests
two different murderers.
-(Narrator): The idea
that all these cases
were related was
still really bothering me.
They had a guy in custody
for the murders
of the two Neer brothers.
So I go to see
one of the detectives
and we discuss both cases.
- They were kidnapped, molested
and fatally stabbed.
I'm telling you
my case is related.
- It's impossible, CW.
- Come on, Jeff.
The last time
a kid went missing around here
was what, four years ago?
Now we have three missing kids
in less than a month.
And you're telling me
this is unrelated?
- It's impossible because we
already had our guy in custody.
- That doesn't mean
he's not my guy. Look,
both cases involved kidnapping,
murder, molestation.
The kids looked the same.
For God's sakes,
what else do you need?
- I went to town on my guy, CW,
and he was already in
custody when your kid
was killed. I'm sorry,
there's no connection
between the cases, period, okay?
- Did your guy keep any trophies
from his murders?
- We didn't find any.
- Did you look?
- If you wanna look at my case,
CW, look at my case. Okay?
You'll see it's crystal clear,
there's no connection
between Lee and my guy.
I got my guy; go get yours.
- He was tall;
he had a moustache
and a blue shirt
and a blue hat with red on it.
- Thanks, Doug.
You sure this is him?
That's how he looked?
This is the man
you saw in the park?
- Yeah, that's him.
- Okay buddy,
good job.
-(Narrator): After 11 days,
I'd ruled people out,
but I hadn't ruled nobody in.
Obviously, the longer it takes
it's driving you crazy;
you try to figure out what else
can I do; what am I missing,
what are we not doing?
Around that time,
we talked to a kid named Adam
who had been in the
schoolyard at the time.
And his version
differed slightly
from Justin's version.
- At what point did Justin run
out to the man talking with Lee?
- He didn't.
He never ran up to him.
(paper rustling)
- He looked like this?
- Yeah, that's him.
He had a truck too.
- He did? What color?
- Green, I think.
- Did Lee get into the truck?
- No. He had a German Shepherd;
I remember that.
- You're sure Justin
never talked to him?
Because he said he did.
Okay, buddy thanks.
Get back to class.
-(Narrator): When you have
someone tell you something
and then someone else
tells you something different,
one of them
isn't telling the truth.
And there was obviously
no reason for Adam to lie;
it wasn't his watch, right?
- I looked over
and Lee was gone.
- Is that after you went up
to Lee and told him
not to talk to strangers?
- Yeah, after.
- It's an awful long run
back to the volcano.
You sure that's how
it happened?
Your story
doesn't line up
with Adam's, so stop lying.
- Hey, hey, hey.
He's just a kid,
all right?
- I'm trying to catch this creep
so that he doesn't kill
another kid. Okay?
I don't have time for lies.
It will be a lot easier
on all of us
if you were just honest, okay?
What really happened, Justin?
- I never ran over to Lee
when the man was there.
I was playing football
over there.
We had our backs turned.
I didn't know it was a bad man.
- You remember if the
man at the volcano,
if he had a German Shepherd?
- Maybe. I can't remember.
I'm sorry I lied, Dad.
I didn't want you to think
it was my fault
that Lee disappeared.
-(Narrator): Well, wait
If Justin lied about that,
what else would he lie about?
Are we wasting our time
with this sketch?
If someone has built you a story
and then pieces start falling
off of that for some reason,
you've got to figure out
what's going on.
You've got to figure out why.
And I just think it was guilt.
Just basic human guilt
that his brother got snatched.
At this point in the case,
I mean it's consuming me.
No one put more pressure
on me than me.
- All right, tell me when, okay?
- Okay.
- That's enough.
- Perfect. Eat it all.
Drink your juice too
please, okay?
- Okay.
-(Narrator): As you can imagine,
a case like this,
I mean it literally
captivated the city, the region.
That gets you nervous.
Knowing that the guy
will commit another crime
makes you nervous.
I promised I'd find the guy
and every second of the day,
that was on my shoulders
like a weight.
We're getting
all this information in
because everybody wants to help.
Dead gang banger;
nobody calls the police.
Dead little boy;
everybody calls the police.
And of course, most of that help
was absolutely terrible.
I mean, sent us on
wild goose chases
and talking to people
that had nothing to do with it.
But clearly, the one
thing that made sense
was that we had
gotten information
that a young blond child
had been running
down this intersection
at the same time
that Lee was taken.
So we were driving over
to that intersection
and I looked
and there's the bank.
(thunder rumbling)
ATM cameras at banks were one
of the first video cameras
that would always be running.
I talked to the bank,
told them what was going on
and they were more
than happy to get it for us.
It was a long shot,
but at the time,
all we had was long shots.
- Got the bank footage, CW.
CW?
- Yeah.
You got it? I wanna see it.
Whoa, whoa, whoa.
Rewind.
That looks just like Lee.
Play it again.
Stop right there.
That is obviously Lee.
I'm sure of it.
(slams on table)
- Damn it.
- What's up?
The timestamp says 11:44 am.
Lee wasn't at the
playground till 1:45pm.
That's a good two hours before
he would have been there,
which means that's not Lee.
And there's
no green truck either.
(sighs)
So much for that.
-(Narrator): At the time
this happened,
we had information that a man
with a green truck
and a German Shepherd dog
was in the schoolyard.
- He had a German Shepherd;
I remember that.
-(Narrator): And I get a phone
call from this guy that says:
"I'm the guy with the German
Shepherd that you guys
are talking about on the news".
His house was two blocks
from the schoolyard
where Lee was grabbed.
I mean for all I knew,
I could be driving
to talk to Lee's killer.
(knocks on door)
(dog barking)
- Thomas Allen Jones?
- Yeah.
- I appreciate your
honesty, Thomas.
A lot of people in your position
wouldn't have been
so forthcoming.
So you were at the playground
the day Lee was there?
- Yeah, yeah, I walk
through there all the time.
I was walking my dog.
I wasn't there long though;
I went to my brother's house
for a party after that.
- Where's that?
- Not far from the
playground, I suppose.
- Specifics, Thomas.
How far is not far?
- 119th Street over in Felida.
- Well, that's the opposite
of not far Thomas; it's like
way the hell over by
Vancouver Lake, isn't it?
- Yeah. Sort of far I guess.
- If I do some digging
around on you, Thomas,
I'm not gonna find something
I don't wanna see, am I?
- No, no, not at all, no.
- You spend a lot of time
over by Vancouver Lake?
- No.
- That's Lee there.
He was four years old.
Kidnapped, molested and killed.
Who does that
to a little kid, huh, Thomas?
- That's horrible.
- You have a good time
at the party?
- What?
- And how long were you
at the playground again?
- 20 minutes about.
- And that's when
you talked to Lee?
- No, I didn't talk to him.
- That's right.
So what you're saying
is you're completely innocent?
- Well, yeah.
I didn't do anything.
(dog barking)
Down! Go to the kitchen.
- Okay, Thomas. Thank you.
-(Narrator): Well, as soon
as I saw him, I go yeah,
he's a creep.
I left Thomas' place
and I dug a little deeper
into his background.
Thomas Allen Jones
had a history
of sexually abusing boys,
which he had
neglected to tell me.
(knocks on door)
- Thomas!
(dog barking)
(foreboding music)
-(Narrator): I can't arrest him
just for being a dirt bag.
So I had to just
lay back and wait
and grab him another time.
Every day I prayed
to figure something out
because every day
was another day closer
to another kid dying.
The funeral was probably
my lowest point
because I really felt helpless.
(woman sobbing)
- I'm so sorry for your loss.
Thomas!
I don't like people making
me run, Thomas.
- You're hurting me!
- Save it for the station.
Come on, get up.
You were charged
for child molestation.
You like molesting
little boys, Thomas?
- No. I never did any of that.
- It says you pled guilty
so you must have done
something wrong.
- They made me say that.
- Sure they did.
Why did you kill
Lee Iseli, Thomas?
You acting out on one
of your sick fantasies?
- I did not kill
that little boy.
I never even seen him before.
- Then why the hell are
you at his funeral?
And I hear from my guys
that you're snooping around
where the Neer boys
were killed, too.
- Why is that, Thomas?
- Iwanted
to help solve the crime.
I'm very good
at finding clues.
- Why do you think you'd be good
at solving these crimes?
- I know things.
- What kind of things, Thomas?
- The other day,
after we talked, you and me,
I got to thinking about the boy
and his family.
I felt that
I owed it to them.
- Owed them for what?
What did you do, Thomas?
What the hell are you doing?
I'm right in the middle of this.
- You got to see this now.
Lee was at the playground
between 1:30 and 2, right?
- Yeah. So?
- Bank security cameras
were wrong. They were
behind by two hours.
- Meaning?
The timestamp is wrong?
So it's actually 1:44,
not 11:44?
The footage synchs
with the timeline perfectly.
Play it for me.
That's definitely
Lee Iseli.
What the hell is that?
I need to find out
who was driving that car.
-(Police Tech): Please state
your full name for the record.
- Thomas Allen Jones.
-(Police Tech): How
old are you?
- 48.
- Do you have
a German Shepherd?
- Yeah.
- Do you have
a green pickup truck?
- Yes.
- Do you have a yellow car?
- No.
- Did you kill Lee Iseli?
- No.
-(Narrator): He passed
with flying colors.
Even though he was a scumbag,
he was at that day
a truthful scumbag.
I mean, everything
was a dead end.
And remember everything we did
was a dead end.
Every day you'd go home
and you've really
accomplished nothing.
(gasp)
- It's killing you, baby.
You need to get some help.
- No, it's
it's okay.
I told you I'm fine.
It's almost like you don't get
any break from it
because sleep doesn't give
you a break from it.
It just ate at me
and I couldn't take it anymore.
I was hurt.
(tv plays)
(phone ringing)
(phone ringing)
- Hello?
What do you want, Jeff?
-(Jeff): We just arrested a guy
named Wesley Alan Dodd
on sexual misconduct.
He fits your composite
perfectly.
- That's why I called you.
- No one said a word to him yet?
- No.
- I'll take a crack.
-(Narrator): He'd got him
for attempt kidnap of a child.
The composite sketch
looks like him.
He was a perv.
The guy's a pervert;
the guy has sex crimes.
He fits everything.
I mean, he's a creep.
I mean, this guy wasn't a
some burglar, right?
This wasn't just
some jerk armed robber
or something like that. This guy
might have killed some kids.
And he tried
to grab a kid that night.
Me and a friend
I work with
saw that on the TV.
He said: "Hey Wesley,
that looks like you."
Everyone laughed.
- So is it? Is that you Wesley?
- No. Hell no. That isn't me.
- I hear you got yourself
into some trouble?
- Yeah, I tried to grab a kid
at the Liberty Theater bathroom.
His dad caught me.
It was stupid.
- Well, this isn't about that.
I'm investigating
the abduction
and murder
of a little boy
right here in Portland.
I'm sure you heard about it:
Lee Iseli.
- I think I saw
it in the papers.
- Yeah, it was in
the papers, Wesley.
What were you doing
Sunday, October 29th?
- I was at home
watching football.
- With friends?
- Alone.
- Anyone can back you up
on that or?
- Not really.
- You have nothing to do
with Lee Iseli?
- No, I've done
stuff I shouldn't,
but I would never
kill a boy.
- Well, what would you do?
- Can I have some water?
- Yeah. Sure.
Let's take a sec.
I'll grab you some water.
-(Narrator): When I started
talking to Wesley,
he was overly cooperative
and it made me think
he was hiding something.
If I could have
beaten the confession
out of him,
I would have.
But what I was there
for was to get
his confession
and get him to court.
It was a challenge in
some ways, you know,
that he thought
I was gonna back down.
That didn't happen.
- This is what I'm gonna do.
You're going to jail anyway
so I'm gonna have them
take you away.
But I want you to do for me is,
I want you to give me permission
to search your car
and the place where you live.
- If you wanna do that then
I think I need an attorney.
- You want an attorney?
- Only if you are
searching my place.
- And if not?
- I'd prefer to keep talking.
Had he said at that time,
"You know,
you're right let me,
I just need a lawyer."
I was done. I was done.
- I'm gonna be honest with you
because I think you deserve it.
Not only do I think
that you were involved
with Lee Iseli's murder,
but I think that there's
something in your apartment
that can prove it.
- I have a problem.
- We all have problems, Wesley.
It's okay; you can tell me.
- I I can't.
(sighs)
- If you did something bad
Trust me; I understand.
I know what you're feeling.
- What am I feeling?
- Guilt, Wesley,
you're feeling guilt.
So trust me, son,
I know all about that feeling
that you're carrying
around in you.
It's time, Wes;
it's time to tell me the truth.
Let me carry that guilt for you.
- On my keychain there's a key
to a briefcase under my bed.
And in there you'll find
some things.
- Things about Lee?
- Yes, things about Lee.
Once he started talking,
he got into it;
he was remembering.
And off he went.
- We was at that park.
I walked up to him
(sirens wailing)
told him I knew his dad
and that he was allowed
to play with me.
I brought him to my place.
He wasn't happy about it,
but I didn't care.
I brought him a toy.
Then after I gave it to him,
I started touching him
all over.
Then we went to bed.
Whenever Lee would fall asleep,
I'd touch him
until he woke up.
Then around 3:30 in the morning,
I woke him up
and whispered to him
that I had to kill him.
And he said I didn't.
Around 5:30,
I started strangling him.
He made me mad
because he was fighting back
and hitting me.
I strangled him
until he stopped breathing.
And then when it
was done, I did CPR.
- Why did you do CPR, Wes?
-To see if it worked.
It did.
I was tired of strangling him
so I hung him by a rope
in my closet
and that finished him off.
Then I hopped in the shower
and went to work.
That night I cut him down
and dumped him by the lake.
I killed Lee Iseli.
- Why did you do it?
- Because the other ones
went too fast.
- What did you say?
- The Neer boys were stabbed.
They went quickly.
- Lee wasn't the first, was he?
This thing inside you
will kill you
if you don't get it out.
But once you let it out,
everything is
gonna be all right,
I promise.
The Neer brothers?
You killed them, didn't you?
- They were dead so fast.
I just had to do it again.
With Lee I made it last.
- Jeff.
- What's up, CW?
- The Neer brothers killings.
- What about them?
- You were wrong.
Wesley killed those boys, too.
I just got him to confess.
He killed all of them:
Lee Iseli, Cole Neer,
and William Neer.
You've got the
wrong guy in jail.
-(Narrator): I felt filthy
when we were done,
I literally needed a shower.
When I got done with him,
I said I don't wanna see him.
I said get somebody else
to take him away. I said
I don't wanna look at him again.
You have the choice:
you can be executed
by injection or hanging.
Dodd chose hanging,
and it's, to me,
I've always believed,
when they put that noose
around his throat,
remember, we had ligature
on all the killings,
rope, hanging
and stuff like that,
he alluded to that.
And he said,
that's how I wanna go, because
that's how I killed the kids.
I was just depressed,
you know,
the kids were still dead.
If I am this affected
26 years later,
I can't imagine
how they got past it.
- There you go,
my beautiful ballerina.
Let's go get
your ballet slippers.
- Let me take her.
Oh! Ha! Ha! Ha!
Hi. I missed you.
-(Narrator): I'm proud
that we were able
to get him off the streets
and saved lives,
I mean we saved lives, I'm sure.
But everything comes
with a cost.
Kind of makes me feel
like a coward, but all in all,
if I didn't have to do that one,
things would have been
a lot different.
But at the same time,
if I hadn't done it
maybe it wouldn't have got done.
So that's the, you know,
that's your prize.
No win, but you lose
part of yourself forever.
(soft music)