Real Detective (2016) s01e05 Episode Script

-(Narrator): Jodi Bartmess,
that was the one
that changed my life.
Back in the day when I first
started working homicides,
there were so many murders
that you really didn't have time
to think about the victim,
(police siren)
but I didn't really care
about who was murdered
or if they had a family
or if anybody was going
to mourn their death.
My job was to solve that murder,
not to feel sorry for the person
laying there on the ground.
When I first saw Jodi
lying there and see
that she's been stabbed
a number of times,
that's the first little inkling
I got that
this is going to be different.
How do you go from this young
little girl being born,
getting her first dress,
and dancing
into junior high school,
to ending up next to a dumpster?
Jodi wasn't just
a case to close,
she was my case to close
and that was the first time
that ever happened to me.
(theme music)
(police radio chatter)
- (female dispatch) We've
got a code 1-8-7,
corner of Vanowen and Woodley.
Coroner's unit is already
in place.
Homicide is on the way.
- (Narrator): Two a.m.
Phone rings.
When you work homicide,
it's a 24-7 moving city
and with those 24 hours,
murders happen.
(police radio chatter)
Hollywood at that time
was a cesspool.
That's the only way
I can describe it.
It was just a big cesspool.
Anything that had to do
with vice or
the brutalness of society
happened in Hollywood.
There were more victims
than you could shake a stick at.
Everybody was a victim
in Hollywood.
- I.D.?
- Nothing. No wedding ring.
- You think she
worked the street?
- Doesn't look like it.
- It's a lot of stab wounds.
Not a lot of blood
on the ground.
- What do you think?
Killed somewhere else?
- Based on what we're seeing,
I'd say she was dumped here.
-(Narrator): There was blood
underneath the
way she was laying.
We determined through
post mortem lividity,
where the blood settles
to the bottom of the body,
that she had been moved
from somewhere.
- Just another kid.
Came here to be somebody.
- Welcome to Hollywood.
Start knocking on doors.
- Good luck with that
in this neighborhood.
- Somebody always sees
something even if they didn't.
- Yeah, yeah, I know.
Oh, by the way,
coroner's office is
a little backed up,
might be a while
on the dead girl.
- Search the neighborhood.
See if anybody saw anything.
That way at least we get
ahead of the autopsy.
I know it's late.
Most people wouldn't
bother, so thank you.
- Like I said, I was
watching the news
and saw this car.
- You said you heard a scream.
- I think that's what
got me out of my chair.
- You get a good look
at the car? Make, model?
- Think it was a Ford,
late model.
- Okay, if you remember
anything else, anything at all,
give me a call,
day or night
at that number.
- Okay.
This used to be
a great neighborhood.
- (Narrator): Murders happening
so often in Los Angeles,
it was so backed up that
we didn't even get our autopsy
for six days after the murder.
- I can wait on the autopsy;
looking for an I.D.
- You're lucky. Fingerprints
on Jane Doe got a hit,
Jodi Lynn Bartmess.
- Jodi Lynn Bartmess?
- M-hmm.
- Phone number, address?
- Nothing yet.
- Time of death?
- Midnight.
- You got time of death
as midnight?
- M-hmm.
- That's when the
first call came in.
Paramedics got
there 8 minutes after.
I thought she was killed
somewhere else.
- No.
She was still
pumping blood
when the paramedics
got there.
- So you're telling me
whoever did this
dumped her body
while she was still alive?
She bled out
next to that dumpster.
City of Angels, my ass.
- (Don Tabak): Got a
name on our vic.
Jodi Bartmess, and get this.
She was still alive
when she was dumped.
- You got to be kidding me.
(sighs)
So we're
looking for a
- A house, a car,
maybe an alley.
She was stabbed
34 times.
She had to scream
and somebody had to hear it.
- Yeah, well some of the houses
in that area are
(chuckles)
Who knows who's
shacking up around there?
- Not sure if she
was killed around there.
- The old man heard a scream.
- 34 stab wounds,
one scream?
No way. This hurt.
Get someone
to notify next of kin.
- What's her name again?
- Jodi Lynn Bartmess.
We need to look
into that late model Ford
the old man was talking about.
Looks like it's our only lead.
- Do you know how many
late model Fords there are
in L.A. County alone?
A lot. This car is
a needle in a haystack.
- Just keep at it.
Talked to major crimes
to see if there's a crossover
between Jodi,
found nothing.
Talked to the store where she
was busted shoplifting at.
It was food by the way.
She stole food.
- Runaway's starting
to make sense.
- Let's run her mug shot
through the departments.
Someone might get a hit,
might get a crossover.
- Detective Tabak?
- That's me.
- I'm here about my daughter.
- Who's your daughter?
- Jodi Bartmess.
- (Narrator): Jodi Bartmess
ran away from home
at 16 or 17 years old
to see the bright lights
of the big city.
This was someone's daughter.
This was a loving girl
at some time, who had a family
that for whatever reason
went sideways
and this is where she ends up.
She mattered.
She mattered to somebody
so she matters to me.
The last thing I wanted
to tell Jodi's mother
was that we could not solve
her daughter's murder.
- Jodi had
big dreams.
She wanted
to be somebody.
She was
a normal kid.
I raised her
on my own.
Her sister still lives
in Michigan.
She has
a baby now.
- I totally understand about
taking care of kids on your own.
I'm divorced.
Got two boys.
- Spend time with them?
- Not as much as I'd like.
- I should have spent
more time with Jodi.
Maybe this wouldn't
have happened.
- (Narrator): I related
it to my sons.
God forbid something
had happened. I would be insane.
I'd be searching night and day
for whoever killed my sons.
Jodi, in a very weird way,
became my daughter.
- Ms. Bartmess, did she know
anyone out here
that you might remember?
- I can only remember
this guy she met
when she was 16,
Larry Jameson.
She called me excited
about becoming an actress
and Larry was
helping her.
I didn't like him.
He was older.
- Was he with Jodi?
- I can't say for sure.
- Yeah.
These cases, Ms. Bartmess,
they usually take some time.
So probably, um,
best for you to, to go home,
be around family.
- I'm not leaving,
Detective.
I gave up
on Jodi once,
I'm not
doing it again.
- (Narrator): I never
had a parent show up.
That just blew me away.
We couldn't do anything
to stop Jodi's murder,
but we could sure
the hell do something
to get out there and, and solve
that murder any way we can.
- Got a name: Larry Jameson.
Some sleaze who was connected
to Jodi when she was 16.
- Boyfriend.
- So a grown man dating
a 16-year-old? He's gonna have
a real problem with me.
Larry Jameson owned a video
rental company in Van Nuys,
in fact, not too far from
where Jodi was discovered.
We called the number that we had
for the business, but it was
a disconnected number.
- Looks closed down.
- Yeah.
- (Narrator): So Larry Jameson
is now missing,
his business is shut down
and his car,
we have a description
that the old man had given us.
- I think it was
a Ford, late model.
- Last registered
vehicle plate's expired.
Wasn't a Ford, but that
doesn't mean anything.
- Seems Larry Jameson
left in a hurry.
- (police dispatch): Tabak?
- I'm here.
- Patrol found a car
abandoned in the river
off of Riverside in Van Nuys.
- What kind of car?
- It's a Ford.
- Tell them to sit tight,
we're on our way.
(police sirens)
- You run the plates?
- If it had plates,
I would have.
You guys were
looking for a Ford.
When I saw it;
I called it in.
- Blood.
- Looks like it.
Parsons.
Key's been snapped off.
Go get
the crowbar.
See what the hell's in here.
Damn it!
Get this piece of crap
processed,
find out if it's blood inside.
We need to find Larry Jameson.
- (Tabak): Let's run this again.
Jodi Bartmess,
stabbed over 30 times.
Person had to be really strong.
- We have someone hearing
a scream and seeing this car,
some late model Ford.
- If it's even that. Now we
got this Larry Jameson,
business closed,
no address.
- And a car with
expired plates
with possible blood
in the back seat.
- Possible.
What are we missing?
Has anyone checked to see
if this Larry guy is in jail?
- (Narrator): Turns out that
Larry Jameson was in custody
on a grand theft auto charge.
That's why we couldn't find him.
And it turns out that
he is a bigger (bleep)
than we thought he was.
- (Tabak): How long
you known Jodi for?
- I don't know,
like 5 years.
I haven't seen her
in ages though.
- Why is that?
You done with her?
She get too old for you?
- Hey! Look, man.
I ain't like that.
I never touched the girl.
I even helped her, man!
- Her mother says otherwise.
- Her mother? Ha! Her mother
was never even around.
Look okay, I met
Jodi in Michigan
when I went to see
some family, all right?
And then all of a sudden she
just shows up out of the blue
and I did what I could.
- You're in jail.
Got a record. I'm not buying
what you're selling.
- Well, I haven't seen her
in ages and that's the truth.
- Well you're gonna have
to give me something,
anything that makes me
think that I need
to look somewhere else.
- Okay. She started hanging
around with these kids,
uh, and then all of a sudden,
she's different.
She was like
a totally different girl.
- What kids?
- Party kids, I don't know.
They like stay out all night
and sleep all day and ugh
- Where can I find
these kids?
- Jodi took me to a party once
just off Vanowen
and that's where
they hang out,
so that's all I got.
- I'm gonna say this now,
you're a suspect.
- I didn't even do anything!
- That's what everyone says,
even the ones
who did it.
So until you can prove
to me otherwise,
that's how it is.
- (Narrator): In working
Hollywood Division
from 1974 until 1987,
you saw every
conceivable walk of life.
Every pimp, every prostitute,
every drug dealer.
Anything that had to do
with the brutalness of society
happened in Hollywood.
- Larry Jameson hasn't made
a phone call yet.
- The guy is shady.
Soon as he makes
a move, let me know.
(phone ringing)
This is Tabak.
What else?
Okay, we'll be right there.
They got the results back
at the autopsy.
- (Narrator): Jodi was
stabbed over 30 times.
The coroner told me
that most of the wounds
were shallow wounds
that were all over her body.
Jodi wasn't raped so we knew it
wasn't a sexual attack murder,
but because of the
number of stab wounds,
it indicated to us
that it was an
act of anger or rage.
The actual stab
wound that killed her
was a stab wound to the heart,
but we didn't know
whether that was
stab wound number one
or stab wound number 30.
(weak moan)
I did know that Jodi suffered.
They left Jodi basically
in a parking lot next to
a dumpster to die alone.
No one deserves to die that way.
I've never not solved
one of my murders
and I was hell bent
that I was not going to start
now with Jodi Bartmess's murder.
- Well?
- The coroner will send
the report in the morning.
- Anything we can use?
- Depends on how you look at it.
Knife wounds look
like they came
from a pocket knife
of some kind.
- Killer must have been
really pissed off
to use a pocket knife.
Maybe someone set him off.
You think it was premeditated?
- My gut says no,
but that's not
the interesting part.
There are two types
of stab wounds:
clean and
straight stabs,
about ten others that
were jagged, even serrated.
We got two killers
on our hands.
-(Narrator): Predicated
on the stab wounds,
it occurred to me that we might
be dealing with two suspects.
Parsons was entering the
information of Jodi's murder
into a database to see if there
were any similar or like murders
in Los Angeles
or in L.A. County.
- City's full of dead bodies,
anything could be a possible.
I checked with six
other divisions.
- A pattern,
a clue of any kind,
just something.
Jodi's mother's calling me
every day and I got nothing.
Get new flyers of Jodi sent
to vice and major crimes,
see if something links up.
And if you have to,
get beat cops knocking
at every door in the city.
-(Narrator): When you become
a homicide detective with LAPD,
they expect you to solve
your crime at a very
at a very quick pace.
Our focus turns
to the location where these
party kids hang out.
Someone who might
have known Jodi,
seen Jodi that night.
- Hey. Got a second?
I just want to ask
a few questions.
I'm looking to see
if anybody knows this girl.
- It's Jodi.
- You know her?
- Yeah, uh
- Look, I'm not pressing you.
Do you know her, yes or no?
Hey! Use the street, jerk.
You know that guy?
Take another look.
You sure?
She's dead so think real hard.
- She's dead?
Yeah, I know her.
We used to be friends.
- "Used to be?"
- Just grew apart, you know.
I mean she started hanging out
with a rough crowd.
Just wasn't really my thing.
- When was the last time
you saw Jodi?
- Look. I don't want
any trouble, okay?
- What's your name?
- Maya.
- Maya, you don't talk to me,
you're the one
that's gonna be in trouble.
- We used to party at this
house down the street.
- Can you show it to me?
- (Narrator): What was
frustrating is I knew
Maya was lying to me.
She had information
about where Jodi hung out
and most likely how Jodi was
killed or where Jodi was killed.
- It's really disgusting
back here.
- Second home.
So, where is it?
- That one, over there.
That's where I last saw Jodi.
Been a lot
of parties over there.
Can you get me out of here now?
(muffled dance music)
(muffled dance music)
(knocking)
(knocking)
- Police, open the door.
- What do you want?
- I want you to open the door.
- Man, I was just sleeping.
- What's your name?
- Tommy.
- Tommy, you gonna let me in?
- You got a warrant?
- Do I need a warrant
to have a conversation?
- No warrant,
you ain't coming in.
- Is this your house, Tommy?
- Yeah, this is where I crash.
- She stay here too?
- Never seen her before.
- Sure you have.
She used to party here.
- Man, I don't know
what you're talking about.
- Tommy. It's been a long day.
Cut me a break, all right?
Now, I can drag you downtown,
and we can have this
conversation there if you want.
- Let me see that.
Yeah, she's been here
a few times.
A lot of people party here so
- Can you be more specific?
- I don't know.
A month ago, man.
Something like that.
- Tommy, I'm a little
confused here. You told me
you've seen her around,
but now you're telling me
that she was here a month ago?
- Jodi and me used to hang.
- She your girlfriend?
- Nah, man. We just chill.
- When was the last time
you saw her?
- Dude, like I said, a month
ago. We were having a party.
She was here. Started to get
in a fight with someone.
- Who?
- I don't remember! She got in
a guy's car and left with him.
- Remember what it looked like?
- I don't know! A car.
- Tommy. Why don't you make
this easier on yourself?
Let me look around.
I'll be
on my way. Or
I can come back with a warrant.
Up to you.
- Hey, man. No warrant,
you ain't coming in.
- It's funny.
You never asked me
if Jodi was dead or alive
and yet for some reason
you want me to get a warrant.
- (Narrator): When you're
running with a murder
and you're trying to solve
a murder, the last thing
that you want to hear
from anyone is no.
It's very frustrating,
but again, you have to play
within the rules.
They don't, but you have to.
(police siren)
(knocking)
Is this what you wanted?
Can you read or do you want me
to read it to you?
Parsons.
Bag it.
- (Narrator): You
see this squalor
that these people are living in,
you're seeing
all the trash in every room,
the toilets are backed up,
but now you come to a room
in that same house that's
cleaned and sterile looking?
Something's wrong.
There's a reason.
There's a reason
that room is cleaned.
- Blood.
- Not enough blood to have been
where Jodi was killed.
- (Narrator): The room's
cleaned except
for that one little blood spot.
My gut feeling is
we're going to find more.
- Tabak.
- Yo, what are you doing man?
- Tabak, seriously,
what are you doing, man?
- No, don't do that!
- That enough blood for you?
Take him downtown.
- If the blood
comes back to Jodi's,
now I have my crime scene.
Now I absolutely know
and have evidence to prove
that Jodi was stabbed
inside that house.
- Hey. Anything on the blood?
- Nothing yet. Still waiting
on both the cigarettes
and the floor.
You think this kid did it?
- I think he's involved.
- What's the motive?
- I got to talk
to this kid.
- (Narrator): Tommy
is suspect number one
and I am that close
to solving this murder.
The interrogation that I chose
to use with Tommy was to just
hit him from all fronts.
There's no rules
in interrogation that says
I have to be honest with him.
- So you want
to save me some time?
Confess to killing
Jodi Bartmess or what?
You know
what this is?
- File.
- Wow!
Aren't you
a smart kid? Ha!
It's your file.
- My file.
- Yeah. I open up
this file
and it says
it was Jodi's blood,
I'm putting you
in jail.
- Man, if you had
anything on me,
you'd bust me
right now.
I'm done talking with you.
I know my rights
and I want a lawyer.
That's all I'm saying.
That, and I didn't kill
that little b--
- That what?
Say it.
That's what
I thought.
- (Narrator): My first
thought of Tommy
is I thought he's
just a dirt bag,
just another hanger-on.
He was lying to me
and I immediately knew
he was lying to me.
- Wants a lawyer.
- Wait on the blood,
then we'll get him.
- It takes 60 days
before that happens.
I need to find something else.
- The coroner called. He says
he was wrong about
the two knives.
- You're kidding me?
How could they be
wrong about that?
- He says a piece
of the pocket knife
broke off in Jodi's skull.
Took him a while to find it.
That's why it looked
like two knives.
- A piece of the knife
broke off in her skull.
- (Narrator): Jodi's
mom called us.
I had no news to give her
and that made me feel bad
as I wanted to be able
to keep her hopes up
that we were
going to solve
her daughter's murder.
- We're still waiting
on lab results,
but we don't really have
much to go on.
- I want you
to take me there.
I want to see it.
- I don't think that'd be
a good idea right now.
- Larry Jameson?
- He was in booking
when Jodi was killed.
It wasn't him.
It was him who pointed me
in the direction
of Jodi's new group of friends.
- I should have
fought for her.
- You can't blame yourself.
- Yes.
I can.
I'm her mother.
It was my responsibility
to take care of her,
to protect her.
Her death is on me.
- (Narrator): My heart broke
for her because you could see
all the hurt in her.
How do you go
from this young
little girl being born,
laying in a crib,
getting her first dress,
and dancing into
junior high school to being
found in a parking lot
next to a dumpster?
Its got to blow you away.
It's like, you know,
where did it go wrong?
Talking to her mother,
it brought it
to a very personal
level with me,
and then just thinking
it's a horrible way to go,
that this was
a horrible way to die.
It was disgusting to me
knowing that there was
a room full of people
in that house
when Jodi was killed
and no one chose
to come forward.
And the fact that they
didn't is just pathetic,
just shame on them.
When I figured out
that Maya was in the house
at the time Jodi was killed,
I went ballistic.
And from that moment on,
I was not going
to stop until I found Maya
and confronted her
with the information
that I knew to be the truth.
- Hey.
You lied to me.
- What are you talking about?
I didn't lie to you.
- We'll see. Get in the car now.
- Wait!
- (Narrator): Grab onto her,
threw her into the car and there
was no doubt that I was upset.
(tires screeching)
I mean I was in control.
I'd never hurt her or anything,
but just such a flow of emotion
I had never had before
on solving a case.
- Not only
do I have this,
but Tommy threw you under
the bus to save his own ass.
He said you were there too.
- I didn't do anything, I swear.
- She's dead, Maya.
Your friend's dead.
You get that?
Either way it's your fault.
- No, it's not.
It's not my fault.
- Yes, it is.
This is your last chance
to help her.
- God.
- I'm done with you.
I can't help you.
- Look, okay, okay.
I'll tell you who killed her.
But I didn't do it.
Tommy was throwing a party.
He had a lot of parties.
Jodi and I went.
It was a pretty crazy party.
It was pretty packed
and then this
Indio guy shows up.
- Indio.
Who's Indio?
- That kid
on the BMX.
- That punk from
the ice cream shop?
Hey!
- I just didn't say anything
because, because he scares me
and I saw
what he did to Jodi
and I thought
I would be next.
- Maya,
what happened?
- We were all hanging out.
Everything was fine
and then for some reason,
he thought that
Jodi stole from him.
And then he just went nuts
and he started
started stabbing her.
- You saw this?
- I didn't know
what to do.
- Try to stop him?
Call the police?
- That guy Indio,
he's crazy!
We were all scared.
- Who dumped
the body?
- Tommy and myself.
We helped Indio
carry her out.
- You carried her out?
- Indio didn't give me
much of a choice.
- She was alive
when you dumped her.
She would have lived.
Where was she dumped?
- By the dumpster
(sobs)
over there
on Vanowen.
- First moment I met her,
she had an opportunity
to tell me what happened
and she chose not to.
So I'm looking at her
as what kind of friend was this?
What kind of human being
was this that allowed
somebody to be killed
in front of her
and she says nothing?
I just couldn't understand that.
(police sirens)
- He's going around back.
- Go get him; I'll cut him off.
- Gotcha.
- I'm coming for you, Indio!
I'm coming.
- (Narrator): So now I'm pissed.
If I would have been able
to catch him,
yeah, he would have
been in custody,
but he would have gone
the hard way.
As luck would have it,
he's captured by another
unit for a burglary
and they're holding him for us.
- I'm Detective Don Tabak.
This is Detective Parsons.
We'd like to talk to you
about Jodi Bartmess.
- Don't know her.
- Let me remind you.
- Don't know her.
- Sure, you do.
You're the one that killed her
and your buddies
Tommy and Maya
helped you
dump the body.
Why don't you make
this easy? I got a party
full of people wanting
to testify that you did it.
- Nah.
You ain't got nothing on me
and you know it.
- What is it
with guys like you,
trying to act all tough?
You think that's gonna
make me go away?
She was still alive
when you dumped her.
You know that?
- Guard.
- We don't have enough
to charge him.
The kid will walk.
It's their word against his.
- (Narrator): The one item
that we didn't have
in this investigation
was the murder weapon.
We had no idea
where it could have been.
As the police gods were
looking down on us
when we went to pick up Indio,
one of the officers brought out
a box of his property
that had been taken from him
when the officers
took him into custody.
And because it was taken
into property
we had immediate access to that.
We didn't have
to get a search warrant.
My heart was beating
so hard, it was like,
jumping out of my chest.
It was just "yes!" You know,
I mean, I just "oh!"
It was like everything,
everything just came together
when we opened that knife up.
We had a totally completed case
against Indio.
I think about Jodi's mother
leaving Los Angeles
after we solved Jodi's murder
and going home
without her daughter.
And to this day, it's just
it just bothers me
that people just didn't care.
If one of those kids
in that house
would have had enough compassion
for just another human being
that they would have called 911
and requested an ambulance.
They didn't have
to give their name, they could
have run from the scene,
but at least an ambulance
would have been en route
and that poor girl
might have had a chance
to survive that attack.
If Jodi got some help,
maybe she lives today
and like I said,
that part saddens me.
The thing I learned most
about investigating
Jodi Bartmess's murder
I think she was able to teach me
to be more compassionate,
which in essence made me
a better person,
a much better detective,
a much better parent.
From that time forward,
I was able to feel
and able to think
about that victim.
It made me realize that's
someone's son or daughter.
I would just feel so empty
knowing that one of my sons
has passed away.
I don't know if I would be
as strong as Jodi's mom was.
I think that she
at least felt good
that my promise to her
to solve her daughter's
murder came true.