Gone (2017) s01e06 Episode Script

[Birds chirping.]
West: This one's a male, the other two females.
They're fun to watch, they're fun to listen to [Chirping continues.]
But I think my daughter'd want one.
Dena asked for one of my birds, but she never showed up.
Plante: This is one of those cases that is so strange, so bizarre, with so many different twists and turns.
You don't throw blood up on the walls without some type of violence.
Patino: I would think about her and ask, "What happened to my cousin, and why isn't she here with her family?" West: Every day, I would pray, "Just bring her home.
That's all I want.
" West: The last time I talked to Dena, she was all excited.
Dena had gone over to help my sister pack and move, and her aunt Linda had given her this cute, little, yellow birdcage.
Narrator: 36-year-old Dena Raley-McCluskey has also just moved and is eager to brighten up her new home.
Why don't you take it for your new place? West: So she called and she says, "Mom, can I have one of your birds?" I said, "Sure, when do you want to come and get it?" Yeah.
I'm just trying to figure out where I have room to put it.
She's, "Well, it won't be today because I'm still helping Aunt Linda pack and move.
" She said she'd be over in a couple of days and pick out one, and I said, "Okay, any time.
Come on over.
" Narrator: The day after speaking with her mother, Dena is starting back up at her former job at the county welfare office.
After years of setbacks, it's a fresh start for Dena, and her mom can't wait to get the full report.
West: I didn't hear from her that evening, and I thought, "Well, she's probably tired and exhausted.
" She would usually call every day if it was just to say, "Hi, I'm fine," you know? And I didn't get that call Monday.
Then, Tuesday I thought, "Well, she's way too busy probably to call.
" Narrator: That afternoon, Barbara hears from her daughter's ex-boyfriend, Kevin Amondola.
Barbara: What do you want? West: He says, "have you seen Dena?" No.
I went to her office.
She wasn't there.
He says, "I took some flowers yesterday to work, and they said she didn't show up.
" And I said, "What do you mean, Kevin?" They said she didn't come to her job.
Things are going through my mind.
This is not right.
There's something not right about this.
She was so excited about going back to her job that Monday and becoming independent again.
Dena was definitely the brains of the family.
There's nothing that she couldn't have done because she was that outgoing and intelligent.
Narrator: Dena has lived her whole life in Modesto, growing up the oldest of three, with a younger sister, Sonja, and a baby brother.
When her parents divorce and remarry, she and her siblings become part of a large blended family.
Patino: I always looked up to Dena.
Even though she was younger than me, she was beautiful, polite, very well-behaved.
Our families would get together a lot.
We would have picnics at the park Threw out blankets, and people would play horseshoes.
There was a little stream there, and we would stick our feet in the stream.
We would all play leap frog together.
Love: Family meant everything to her, and it was pretty cool to be a part of that and to see that bond.
West: Nobody has seen Dena.
I haven't heard from her, so I called Sonja.
I said, "Is your sister up there by any chance?" "No, Mom.
Why? What's going on?" I said, "Well, nobody has seen her.
Kevin said he can't find her.
" She's," Mom, I think we better look into this a little further.
" Narrator: Barbara is worried that Kevin doesn't know where Dena is.
Until recently, he's been a constant presence in her daughter's life.
Dena had met Kevin at a yard sale that her stepmom and her sister were putting on.
- Now that one's really special.
- Really? Eight bucks special? I'll tell you what.
What if I gave you, like, six? Done.
Sold.
Narrator: Kevin often goes to yard sales for his antique retail business.
West: So he showed up at the yard sale, and both hit it off right away.
Hi, again.
I could tell by the way she talked that she thought a lot of him.
Narrator: After struggling for years to find the right relationship, Dena hopes Kevin is finally the one.
West: He seemed like a great guy.
If she liked him, we liked him.
When Kevin was around us with her, he treated her like a Princess, but behind closed doors, it wasn't all roses.
Narrator: After Dena moves in with Kevin, the relationship quickly becomes volatile.
According to her family, Kevin is controlling and jealous of Dena's large circle of friends and family.
West: It was a very violent relationship, and if it wasn't her calling the police, the neighbors were calling the police.
Those years for Dena when she was with Kevin was a struggle and a contentious relationship.
A lot of the ugly fighting.
West: She would call me, and she'd say, "Mom, Kevin and I are fighting, and I think we just need to give some space.
I'm going to be hiding for a few days.
" I did beg Dena to stop seeing him.
I told her, "He's gonna end up killing you is what's gonna happen.
" Narrator: At the time of her disappearance, Dena is no longer living with Kevin, though he still attempts to see her.
When Barbara alerts friends and family that Dena is missing, they first assume she's hiding from Kevin again.
I was speculating that maybe Dena had decided to leave so That he wouldn't be able to find her.
I was hopefully that she was in a safe place.
Narrator: But because of the couple's history, Barbara begins suspecting the worst.
I thought Kevin had done something.
It was just mother's instinct.
I thought, "Oh, he's covering his tracks.
" "I went and took her some flowers at work for her first day.
Nobody's seen her at work.
I've called her mom.
She hasn't seen her.
I'm the nice guy looking for her.
" Narrator: Three days after her disappearance, Kevin takes his search to the next level.
I'd like to, uh, report a missing person.
He calls the Modesto Police Department and reports her missing.
Yep.
Thank you.
There's two ways you can look at Kevin Amondola is he a slick operator trying to fool us, or is he genuinely concerned, "Hey, she's gone.
" We don't know what's going on here.
5'2", strawberry-blond hair Plante: When Kevin reported Dena missing, it was highly suspicious, and it set the family on high alert.
But Kevin actually appears to be very distraught.
I mean, he's worried.
He wants us to find her or somebody to find her, so he appears genuine.
Narrator: But Dena's family has serious doubts about Kevin's true intentions.
West: After the whole family had really checked around with each other, we had a family gathering.
We said we need to go to the police.
Plante: The family made their own missing person's report, which is highly unusual.
It had already been made by Kevin, but they suspected Kevin as, like, "No, we've got to get our own story to the detectives.
" West: They took every one of us into separate rooms, and we had to write things that we knew about, things that could have led up to her missing.
One of the natural questions for us to ask "Who do you think did this? Who do you think is involved?" And without any hesitation, without any doubt, every one of them said - Kevin.
- Kevin's got to know something.
You've got to find Kevin Kevin Amondola's involved.
We would've bet the farm that he was the one that had done something to her.
Narrator: Dena's family knows all too well that troubled relationships are this bright, young woman's Achilles' heel.
Love: Dena was very success-oriented.
She had laser focus, and just, boom, get it done.
I always admired her for that.
West: Dena got As and B s in high school, and her dream was to become an attorney.
Narrator: Instead, Dena marries her high school sweetheart right after graduation and focuses on domestic life in Modesto.
Love: I would drive by the house.
She'd be out there working in the yard with the perfect stripes on the lawn Just absolutely immaculate and she had a great job working for the county.
Narrator: But a tragic incident derails the marriage.
West: She had got pregnant and she was so excited about that and then she lost the baby.
It was just a real downfall for her.
I don't really think Dena ever got over the loss of that child, and she started drinking.
After that, things just went downhill.
She got a divorce, and she lost her job with the county.
Love: She really struggled.
It was hard to see that, you know, 'cause she was still happy, caring, sweet, and her dark moments weren't things that we saw necessarily.
Narrator: After years of personal setbacks, in the fall of 1999, Dena finally decides to stop living with Kevin and turn her life around.
West: Dena called me one day, and she says, "I'm going to straighten up, Mom.
I'm going to get my own place, and my life's gonna change.
" Love: At that point, Dena had really pulled herself together and she was on-track, got her job back at the county and was definitely moving forward.
Narrator: After seeing her through good times and bad, her friend, Russell Jones, helps Dena make a fresh start.
- Hi.
- Welcome.
Plante: Russell Jones offered her a safety net.
He's got a stable job.
He's got a regular house, a room that she can have.
You know you can stay as long as you like.
Thanks.
West: She felt protected with him 'cause Russell was a big guy, and she figured if Kevin came around to give her trouble that he would stand up for her.
If you need anything else, you know where to find me.
Love: I remember that that was difficult for her to get away from Kevin, but she planned it out, got out, moved into a place that was safe.
[Telephone rings.]
Modesto police.
Narrator: With missing persons reports filed, police start a full-fledged investigation.
Plante: So, we're contacting her friends and saying, "Who else could we talk to?" This guy, Russell Jones rented a room from him.
One of the people we naturally contacted was Russell Jones.
Thanks for coming in.
And tell me, how would you describe her state of mind? Um, happy.
Yeah, she was starting over.
She was happy.
In talking with him, he's saying, "Well, nothing appeared unusual.
She left the house like always.
Nothing unusual.
" Narrator: Russell tells police that when Dena didn't come home on the night she vanished, he assumed she was with Kevin.
Um, I mean, I've been seeing Kevin a lot more.
Plante: He's saying, "Kevin Amondola has come over and confronted me a couple of times asking 'Where's she at?'" What are you talking about? Dena, where is she at? I know you know where she is.
And Russell was like, "Um, what are you doing coming over to my house confronting me? You're the violent one.
" Narrator: Kevin is now considered the investigation's main person of interest.
Plante: So the family, Russell, everyone is pointing us in that direction.
Our team of detectives ran with it.
They uncovered a long history of abuses, of threats, of everything the family had said.
There were several reports of domestic violence.
Dena called the police on several occasions and numerous police reports were made and in every one of those incidents, the charges were later dropped.
Narrator: As Modesto police dig further into the case, one recent development in Dena and Kevin's embattled relationship jumps out.
Plante: Dena filed a restraining order keeping Kevin away from her, and in fact, the day after she was missing, the restraining order kicked in.
It was highly suspicious.
Narrator: And Kevin can't provide police with an alibi for the night Dena went missing.
Plante: So our detectives invite him to come down.
They talk to his lawyer who says, "Kevin is no longer cooperating, and he is not going to talk to you.
Anything you need to talk about needs to come through our office.
" Narrator: Through his lawyer, Kevin also refuses to take a polygraph test.
That's not the sign of a cooperating witness.
That's a sign of somebody that's got something to hide.
The family went into overdrive.
They're getting posters printed.
They're working overtime to get this thing solved right away.
Patino: I went out knocking on doors, leaving the flyers, and asking people, you know, if anyone had seen her.
Pretty much everyone said no.
West: It's indescribable to have a child missing.
[Sighs.]
Hey, Mom.
There's no words to describe how desperate you are.
Every day, I would wake up and wonder.
Every night, go to bed, pray "Just bring her home.
That's all I want.
" Patino: When someone you love goes missing, it really tugs at your gut.
It's not something you expect you're ever gonna have to do, and just makes you sad.
Narrator: Five days into Dena's disappearance, there are still no leads, but police will soon uncover an alarming clue that points to a darker solution to the mystery.
Plante: They notice blood spatter on the walls.
[Camera shutter clicks.]
Immediately, we go into overdrive because this is probably the crime scene.
Plante: Dena disappeared, and for the next few days, we had nothing.
[Telephone rings.]
Narrator: But Modesto police finally get a break in the case from the last person they expect prime suspect Kevin Amondola.
Modesto police.
Kevin calls the police, and he says, "I found her car.
" Can you describe the car? He'd been driving around, spotted her car, and it's, like, "You're the suspect, and you just happen to find her car also?" It was very suspicious.
Narrator: The car is found parked on a residential road close to both Kevin's place and Russell's house.
If Dena had wanted to hide the car, she was still walking distance to a safe haven at Russell Jones' house.
Our detectives went out there and processed the car.
Her keys are no longer there, her purse isn't there.
There's no fingerprints, there's no blood, there's no hair, there's no anything.
The only thing that was different in that vehicle was that the driver's seat had been moved back to a position that was much too far for Dena.
Dena was petite.
She couldn't have driven the car in that position.
Narrator: Police also know that their primary person of interest, Kevin Amondola, is not a tall man.
Plante: Kevin's like a 5'6"-ish kind of guy.
This seat is set up for someone in the 6-foot range.
It just added to the mystery of the case.
[Country music playing.]
Deejay: You're listening to KATM Kat Country.
Here's an important announcement about a missing person Dena West: I listened to the country music station because I was told they were going to announce Dena missing every 30 minutes.
Please give Modesto police a call.
So I listened to them so I could hear or give us a call here at the station.
[Country music plays.]
Dena loved country music.
I think she knew every word to every country song.
[Music continues.]
We would go somewhere and she would have that country-western music on and sometimes I wondered if she did it on purpose because she knew I didn't like it.
It was cute.
To this day, that's all I listen to.
[Country music plays.]
Narrator: With no sign of Dena yet, police keep their eyes on Kevin, but they can't rule out other possibilities.
Plante: I'm asking myself, "Could Dena be a victim of a serial killer coming through Modesto or tied to the Yosemite murders?" Narrator: The local community is still reeling from a spree of murders earlier in the year, when four women were killed in Yosemite National Park just 80 miles east of Modesto.
38-year-old Cary Stayner was caught and confessed to the crimes, but police now wonder if a copycat is on the loose.
Plante: In the back of my mind, it's something you think about.
Is there more to this case than meets the eye? If you're to commit a murder, Modesto's a pretty good place to escape.
You can disappear into the Bay Area, go up into Yosemite, head down towards Los Angeles.
If Dena had been killed by a serial killer, that guy could disappear and we'd never know which way they went.
One week into this disappearance, the family has pooled their money and come up with a $10,000 reward a huge amount for them.
Donna Raley, Dena's stepmother, was the voice of the family.
She was a hard charger.
"Let's get the press conferences.
Let's put the word out.
" Patino: It was just too hard on Barbara, and Donna was there trying to fill that need.
West: Donna kept it going with the media.
The flyers were in every window through the stores.
Narrator: Despite the publicity, no new leads surface.
Police continue to try to build a case against Kevin.
Plante: So we go to the district attorney and get a search warrant.
Getting into his house and digging around was huge.
Our team is going room to room.
Is there any evidence of a struggle? Is there maybe some stains on the carpet? Is there anything unusual? She could have left a letter or a note or something.
I'm sitting here looking at Kevin and I'm thinking, "I could be looking at a murderer.
" Narrator: And when the forensics team searches a shed in Kevin's backyard, they make a gruesome discovery.
They notice blood spatter on the walls.
[Camera shutter clicks.]
Immediately, we go into overdrive because this is probably the crime scene.
You don't throw blood up on the walls without some type of violence.
Narrator: But the lab doesn't deliver the results the team expects.
It turns out to be chicken blood.
They've been killing chickens in this back room.
This is such a bizarre thing.
And so, after the search warrant, this case hits a roadblock.
There is no evidence.
It's at a dead end.
Narrator: For months, the case goes quiet, but a stunning twist will take the investigation completely by surprise.
Lo and behold, we get somebody that sends information to the detectives that, "I did it.
" It's like, "Are you kidding?" Six months went by, had not heard a word.
I personally started to believe that Dena wasn't going to be found.
Nobody wanted to say it, but I think we all felt it.
The hope stayed there, but it was very tiny.
Just kind of knew she wasn't with us anymore.
I would drive around wondering where she could be.
I would talk to her, said, "Do you hear the country music? Mom's listening to your country music.
Where are you? We got to find you.
" I felt better just driving around town and looking at people, seeing if she was out walking around, but I knew in my heart she was gone.
Patino: The family started to resign themselves to the idea that the best we could hope for, maybe, was that they found her body.
West: I would hear different things on a television station that this body was found in a ravine, and first thing "It's got to be her.
It's got to be her.
" You don't know where to look.
You don't know where to go next.
I just can't tell you the feelings that goes through you.
I was mad at everybody.
I was mad at the world.
I was mad at G od.
It was, "Don't look at me.
I hate you right now.
" People were so nice, and it was like, "Leave me alone.
" Narrator: While Dena's case goes dormant, the disappearance of two other Modesto residents rocks the community and the nation.
Patino: We had the Chandra Levy case going on and we had Laci Peterson going on.
Everything just seemed to center around Modesto.
Narrator: In August 2001, with the help of the other missing women's families, Barbara and Dena's stepmother decide to hold a rally to put Dena's case back in the public eye.
And they get with Chandra Levy's family, Laci Peterson's family, and have a huge press conference.
Patino: I thought, "Now now maybe people will pay attention.
Now maybe something will happen, and we'll get a little more information.
" Plante: And lo and behold, we get this confession from this guy in prison down in Phoenix, Arizona.
He sends a letter to detectives saying, "I know about Dena Raley's disappearance.
I was there when she was murdered.
" Narrator: 30-year-old Matt Lautenschlager is serving two consecutive sentences for attempted first-degree murder.
He tells detectives he abducted Dena in Modesto and took her to Georgia, where he killed her and buried her body.
It's what I wrote, isn't it? And it's, like, "Thank goodness.
Finally, the break we've been looking for.
" Let's go over the timeframe again.
What do you want to know? After a couple of days of talking to him They found out he was just a manipulator.
He'd actually read the story in the newspaper and then thought, "Oh, I'll make up a story and get the detectives to get me out of here for a while.
" I think we're done here.
And so it turned out to be just a completely made-up hoax red herring.
Terrible news for the family, and it completely shut down the case.
Narrator: Six more years go by with no new information about Dena's disappearance.
Plante: This case was always stuck in the back of my mind.
I never forgot about Dena.
Narrator: In October 2007, Sergeant Plante decides to take another look at the case that has haunted him for so long.
Plante: So, I go into the cold case room.
I go through all the binders, and one thing one little teeny piece of paperwork in all of those binders strikes me.
One of the witnesses refused to take a polygraph.
Narrator: Eight years after Dena vanished, Detective Plante will finally track down the only person who knows what happened to her.
He's saying, "I've got Dena here.
" Narrator: In the fall of 2007, Detective Plante looks back into the case files when he notices a striking detail.
Plante: One of the witnesses refused to take a polygraph.
Just a simple, little two-line sentence in a memo buried in seven binders.
Narrator: The witness is Russell Jones Welcome.
Dena's roommate and close friend.
At the time of her disappearance, he'd only been questioned once by police.
Plante: If he was a friend at the time, why didn't he take a polygraph? It didn't make sense.
Narrator: Sergeant Plante tracks down Russell Jones, who's still living in Modesto, and pays him a visit.
[Knock on door.]
Hey, Russell.
Just wanted to ask you a few questions.
I said, "You had said in this memo that you wouldn't consider taking a polygraph.
" He goes, "No.
" I go, "Why not?" He goes, "I don't trust them.
I don't trust cops.
" And it's like, "Huh.
" Alarm bells are starting to go off.
I don't have anything to do with this, no.
Okay.
And the more he talked, the more I knew that he was involved.
Narrator: Back at the station, Sergeant Plante discovers that Russell had served time for federal weapons charges before Dena's disappearance.
Like, holy cow, how did Russell get under the radar early on? How did we miss this information? Narrator: Two days later, Craig Plante and his partner, Matt Medina, pay Russell a follow-up visit.
We started talking to him on his porch.
I had a digital recorder.
Craig Plante and I, we started recording the conversations with Russell.
And at that point I knew we were gonna find her.
What was really surprising to me is how quickly we got with him, how fast we were getting to the point we're finding Dena Raley.
This doesn't happen every day.
Narrator: The detectives convince Russell to get in their car and take them to Dena.
He directs them to his parent's property in Groveland, 50 miles east of Modesto.
Plante: It's a secluded, little, teeny town up in the middle of nowhere.
Narrator: During the hour-long drive, Russell suddenly starts telling the detectives what happened to Dena at his house the night she disappeared.
Medina: He said, "I did federal prison time, and if the cops came and found a dead body, I'm going to prison.
" Narrator: According to Russell, rather than call police, he decided to hide her body.
Then Russell said, "I wrapped her in a blanket.
I put her in the back of the truck.
I grabbed some shovels.
I put the shovels in the truck.
" Narrator: He says he then drove to the property in Groveland and started digging a hole.
And he said it took three or four hours of digging to only get a couple feet deep.
Narrator: When they arrive at the property, Russell guides detectives to the burial site.
Plante: I remember he pointed down the hill and said, "She's there.
" I couldn't believe it.
Narrator: Two days after the trip to Groveland, a forensics team locates Dena's grave and exhumes her remains from the very spot Russell had indicated.
[Telephone rings.]
I get a phone call, and told to come up to the police station.
The police told me that they had found Dena, and that they were getting her remains.
It was a relief that I was gonna get her home.
Narrator: Before the detectives arrest Russell for burying Dena's body, they hope he'll reveal more information about how she was killed.
Medina: Russell had not admitted to killing her, so we still had more work to do to figure out how did Dena die and who killed her.
And I started explaining to Russell, you know, accidents happen.
When he sat down, that's when we knew he was gonna tell us.
They got in an argument, and at some point, Dena slapped him in the face and he says, "No one slaps me in the face," and then he took his fist and he said, "I punched her," and he made a punching movement and he said he struck her very hard.
So that's when we knew we have the killer right in front of us, and he confessed.
Plante: I still can't believe it.
Matt and I were just We were so happy but yet so sad for the family, but at least they had an answer.
They finally knew.
West: When they told us it was Russell Jones, I said, "Did he help Kevin?" "No, Kevin had nothing to do with this.
It was all on him.
" On Russell Jones.
Narrator: Dena's family is devastated to learn that the one friend Dena was counting on for protection turned out to be her killer.
Patino: I just felt shocked and sad to find out that Dena was living with such a violent person.
Narrator: In the fall of 2011, Russell Jones stands trial for the murder of Dena Raley-McCluskey.
He's found guilty of voluntary manslaughter and sentenced to 11 years in prison.
West: And the little time that he got, the system Just dumped her.
Justice was not served for Dena.
Justice was not served for her whole family.
No, it was not.
People say, "Oh, you know, it'll get better.
" No, it's been 18 years, and it's still not better.
It's Something that will eat at me till the day I pass.
Plante: It was a real wake-up call for me and the police department That how did we overlook Russell Jones? We had so narrowly focused our search on Kevin that he slid under the radar.
Narrator: But Barbara only has high praise for the investigators who brought Dena's case to a close.
West: My two angels.
Those two found my daughter and brought her home to me, and I was able to put her to rest.
Narrator: Barbara and Craig Plante haven't seen each other since Russell Jones' trial in 2011.
- Barbara.
- My hero.
Oh, my God.
[Laughs.]
Plante: You know, so many of these cases don't get solved.
To have this come to a successful resolution, it really means a lot to me.
I know it means a lot to her family.
West: And if it hadn't had been for you, you know I wouldn't have her.
I wish I knew how to say thank you for finding my daughter.
[Sniffles.]
[Laughs.]
Say thanks.
That was the case of my career the proudest thing I ever did.
West: Any other mother that has had to gone through this, it changes you in every way.
I still talk to Dena to this day.
I can see Dena in heaven right now listening to country music, and if they don't have any I'm sure she's singing it.