Catching Killers (2021) s03e01 Episode Script

1
[train whistle blows]
[train rattling on tracks]
I'd known Leafie since I was 16 years old.
[somber music playing]
She'd call every so often
and just chitchat.
Just to basically to say,
"Hi" and "Don't forget me."
[phone ringing]
[officer] October 2nd, I get a call
telling me that Leafie
hasn't shown up to visit her sister,
and they were worried about her
and wanted me to go
to her house to check on her.
[indistinct radio chatter]
[tense music playing]
[knocking echoes]
Front door's locked,
so I crawl in through the window.
I have this feeling of dread.
Everything is quiet.
It's it's eerily quiet.
[ominous music playing]
[officer] I walk in
to where her bedroom is,
and I see this body that has been covered
by a blanket on the floor,
and I pull it back.
And there's Leafie.
[ominous music swells]
[officer] She'd been beaten to death.
It was just a It was a shock.
[somber piano music playing]
"I just talked to you,
just a few days ago."
"Mm. And here you are." [chuckles sadly]
Ah.
[suspenseful music playing]
[officer] She was my friend.
It's just pure evil. It's just evil.
"Why did you murder her?"
[crows cawing]
[officer] I decided I am going to bring
whoever did this to justice.
"If it's the last thing I do,
I am going to find you."
"I don't care
if it takes me the rest of my life."
- [suspenseful music swells]
- "I'm gonna find you."
- [sounds fade]
- [somber theme music playing]
[theme music fades]
Randy, take one. ABC.
Countermark. Soft sticks.
[Kennedy] My name is Randy Kennedy,
Chief of Police, Hughes Springs, Texas.
[guitar playing]
[Kennedy] I've been in law enforcement
for a total of 46 years.
I, uh I've slowed down some.
It's like Clint Eastwood,
Dirty Harry, would say,
"A man's gotta know his limitations."
But, uh, I like catchin' the bad guys.
Find the ones responsible
and bring 'em to justice.
[guitar music fades]
[tense music playing]
[Kennedy] Leafie's murder
still weighs heavily on my mind.
It's, uh, one of the worst feelings
that, uh, you could ever experience.
At the crime scene, I'm looking at Leafie.
The marks around her head, her body.
And I see that she's been beaten
with a blunt instrument.
[tense music building]
"Who in the world would come in here
and do this to you?"
"Because you don't have any enemies."
[tense music playing]
In the bathroom, her purse is there,
with her identification,
her wallet, laid out on top.
[camera shutter clicks]
It's being displayed,
like he's proud of it.
[tense music building]
[Kennedy] And in the kitchen sink,
it looks like a meal had been eaten.
[camera shutter clicks]
"Did you leave this here, Leafie,
or did the killer leave it here?"
[camera shutter clicks]
As I walk to the back of the house,
I notice this window.
This individual pries the, uh, window out
with his fingertips and pulled back.
But it pressed his palm prints
up against it.
They were clear, pristine palm prints.
And I look across the street there.
Just right across the street,
it's a railroad track
[bell ringing]
[Kennedy] No one in the community
would do this to her.
It it just hit me
that it had to be the train.
[horn blares]
Somebody got off the train,
came over here and murdered her,
and got back on the train and left.
[rattling loudly on tracks]
I know that, uh,
hobos ride the train quite a bit.
They stop at Hughes Springs
every so often.
So over the next few weeks,
I'm getting their palm prints,
having those compared
to the palm prints I found.
No match, nothing.
[horn blaring]
[Kennedy] This person could be anywhere.
So I'm gonna see if any other department
anywhere here in the state of Texas
has had anything similar
to what I'm investigating here.
[phone ringing]
[Kennedy] About a week later,
I'm in my office.
I get a call from Sergeant Ken Macha
with West University Police Department.
He tells me they had a murder.
The MO was very familiar
with the case that I had here.
[tense music playing]
[siren wailing]
[reporter 1] Detectives search through
a West University home looking for clues.
A woman found murdered
upstairs in a bedroom.
[reporter 2] Bloodstains were also found
in several areas of the room,
as well as a large knife in the room.
There was blood on the knife.
It's hard for a person to believe
that a human being
could have that much rage and hate
and to want to kill in that fashion.
[camera shutter clicks]
I know things like this occur,
but they just weren't occurring
in our small little city.
[crickets chirping]
- [camera shutter clicks]
- [somber music playing]
[Macha] Dr. Benton was a mother
of lovely twin daughters.
Just a a a huge, um a huge blow.
I tell Chief Kennedy some of the details
concerning Dr. Benton's murder.
[camera shutter clicks]
[Macha] Dr. Benton was bludgeoned
with a bronze figurine.
[camera shutter clicks]
[Macha] The body was covered,
and the identification card
was turned upright.
- [camera clicks]
- [Macha] The purse was turned over.
[camera shutter clicks]
[Kennedy] As he was telling me this,
the hair on the back of my neck
just stood up.
[energetic music playing]
[Macha] One of the other strange aspects
about the case was that he ate food
and left some of the scraps
there in the kitchen.
I asked, uh, Sergeant Ken Macha,
"Do you have palm prints?"
He tells me, "No."
[Macha] But the fingerprints
that we recovered
from inside of the house,
they were compared
to all the unknown prints
in the fingerprint database,
and a match was made.
He tells me the suspect is called
Rafael Resendez-Ramírez.
I know that this is my guy.
[tense music playing]
[Kennedy] Ramírez is a Mexican national.
We have no address, no permanent location.
[Macha] We needed somebody that could
run down leads across the state
as they would come in.
That's why we enlisted
the help of the Texas Rangers.
[ranger] So I just go sit
and look at the camera?
Do I gaze in her eyes lovingly or what?
[guitar music playing]
Uh, my name is Drew Carter, and I was
formerly a sergeant in the Texas Rangers.
What's synonymous with the, uh, West
is the good guys wear the white hats.
So you'll find that all rangers
are gonna wear a white hat,
because at the end of the day,
we're good guys.
[guitar music fades slowly]
[indistinct chatter]
[Carter] I was three months
into my career as a ranger.
I was just excited to be working cases.
That's all I ever wanted to do, was be
a Texas Ranger, and here I was, livin' it.
Typically, if someone has committed
some type of violent act,
they want to escape.
This guy did the opposite.
He stayed in there
for a long period of time.
Now we have to figure out
who this individual truly is,
where they're from, and where they're at.
In both cases,
the houses were by railroad tracks.
And in his immigration file,
he does have a history of being
taken off the trains for trespassin'.
That gave more credibility to the fact
that he might be usin' the railroad
to get to where he's goin'.
I learned that not only
has he been arrested multiple times,
he's been all over the place.
He's been arrested in Michigan,
California, east coast Texas.
He's all over.
We really don't have a a pattern,
as far as figuring out where he might go.
[energetic music playing]
[Carter] What made this very challenging
is that each time that he was arrested,
he provided a different name.
Different date of birth.
And, in some cases,
a different social security number.
[indistinct chatter]
Our initial leads revolved around
the wanted poster that had been put out.
You know, it's it's frustrating.
We have a lot of tips about a Mexican male
that matches the description,
but nothin' concrete, nothing that leads
to any indications of where he might be.
[birds singing]
So it's now five, six months
since the the murder took place.
[phone ringing]
[Carter] I receive a call from
another investigator in our department,
and he's discussin' a case with me
that happened 100 miles west of Houston,
which is the area where Dr. Benton
was murdered and sexually assaulted.
[tense music playing]
[indistinct radio chatter]
[camera shutter clicks]
[camera shutter clicks]
You have, uh, someone that's going
into the church parsonage
[tense music building]
and killin' the pastor and his wife
while they're sleepin' in their bed.
With a sledgehammer.
- [camera shutter clicks]
- [chilling music playing]
This guy comes into your house,
you're behind locked doors,
where you think you're safe.
This is pure evil starin' you in the face.
[tense music playing]
[Carter] Karen Sirnic
was sexually assaulted during this attack
and was left in a pose
similar to what, uh, Dr. Benton was.
They're that similar that you
have to stop and take a look.
And it very well could be
that they're connected.
[music fades]
The next step is to compare
the DNA evidence collected from Dr. Benton
and the evidence collected
from Karen Sirnic to one another.
A couple weeks later, I get a call
from the crime lab.
They tell me
that the evidence from Claudia Benton
and from Karen Sirnic match.
This is much bigger
than what we initially thought.
We know that we, uh
we now have a serial killer.
[train horn blares]
- [train rattling on tracks]
- [energetic string music playing]
[interviewer] This is a huge case,
so would you say
you now really need the FBI?
I don't know if I can say we need the FBI.
[McClenaghan] My name
is Thomas McClenaghan.
I was a special agent
in the FBI from 1984 to 2009.
I always thought
if you're gonna get into a profession,
try to get on with the best.
And in the United States,
the FBI really is considered
the best law enforcement agency.
The FBI needs to get involved in this case
because state and local law enforcement
don't have the reach that the FBI does.
We use thousands and thousands
of agents we have all across the country.
[indistinct chatter]
[phone ringing]
[McClenaghan] The manhunt
for Rafael Resendez-Ramírez
was the biggest criminal case
that I've ever been part of.
His actions dwarf anything else
that I've worked during my career.
To try to find someone who is jumping on
and off trains is a horrendous problem.
[train rattling on tracks]
[McClenaghan] I want
to get his story out into the media
so that everybody
in the United States is looking for him.
[tense music playing]
[McClenaghan] We need to get him
in front of every screen,
in front of every newspaper,
so that all of America
is looking for this guy.
We print 400,000 flyers,
which contain his photographs,
his description, both English and Spanish.
We send the leads
to all the 56 FBI field offices
to go out to all migrant camps,
all soup kitchens,
any place that
a transient would be staying at,
and just blanket the area
with these flyers.
And hopefully, a lead
will come out of that.
[reporter] A news conference
is held by the FBI,
trying to keep the search alive
for Rafael Resendez-Ramírez.
Unveiled today, the most recent pictures
of the suspected Railcar Killer.
INS officials want to encourage everyone
to come forward,
including illegal immigrants
who may be afraid to come forward.
[music fades]
Whenever you have a bunch of different
various law enforcement agencies,
they all think they should be the ones
running the operation.
The only people who have bigger egos
than the FBI are Texas Rangers.
[guitar music playing]
[McClenaghan] Type A personality
like Drew Carter,
he's gonna start doing things
that I'm not aware of.
So I assigned Kim to work with Drew Carter
because I knew
that they would be able to get along.
I knew I could trust her.
Kim, take one. ABC mark.
- [man] Thank you.
- [Kim laughs]
This is more stressful
than being interviewed by the FBI.
[energetic music playing]
My name is Kimberley Barkhausen,
and I was a special agent
with the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
During my entire career,
my kids never thought
what I did was very exciting,
and they never paid much attention
to it, and it was just everyday life.
They are in their 20s now,
and I had mentioned
that I was going to be on Netflix,
and they were so excited!
[chuckles]
[music fades]
[interviewer] How would you describe Kim
in three words?
I would describe Kim
as hardworking, fierce,
but gentle in the way
that she gets along with people.
[phone ringing]
[Barkhausen] Yeah.
Drew and I got along beautifully.
He's pretty funny if you talk to him.
[Carter] Kim didn't have
to tell you immediately that she was FBI.
She was there to be on the team,
and, uh, she acted
very much like a team player,
not havin' to bring attention
to to who she was or her expertise
or anything like that.
We spent a lot of time together
for a short amount of time.
We were both pretty young,
early in our careers.
Both have young children.
It was easy. It wasn't
it wasn't it wasn't work to make it go.
[music fades]
[horn honks]
[tense music playing]
[Barkhausen] When I first see
the crime scene photos,
I I'd get a sick feeling
because these people died
a very brutal death,
and it it's horrifying to see.
As a person,
it takes away any kind of innocence,
any kind of deniability of the bad things
that are really happening out there.
I tasked Kim to look at all the cases
she can come up with,
looking at IDs, eating food,
occurring along railroad tracks.
Because we don't know
if there's ten more out there
or 50 more out there.
[Barkhausen] With serial killers,
they are very ritualistic.
So entering them into
a database can easily cross-reference them
with all the other unsolved cases
nationwide.
Within hours, we have another case,
and it's from Kentucky,
and it's from two years ago.
There are two college students walking
along the railroad, and they are attacked.
[train horn blares]
The murders have taken place,
now, not 100 miles apart,
but states apart.
Uh, and the timeframe of two years
has spanned.
[camera shutter clicking]
The murders haven't stopped,
and they're probably gonna continue.
[train rattling on tracks]
[car horn blares in distance]
[Barkhausen] It's been about a week since
we learned about the Kentucky murder,
and we get a phone call
that there's been another murder.
It's an elderly woman
named Josephine Konvicka.
This case is approximately three miles
from the Sirnics' murder in Weimar, Texas.
He was back in our backyard.
[Barkhausen] I drive
over to the crime scene.
I'm not sure what to expect,
because this is the first crime scene
I have been on as an agent.
[tense music playing]
[camera shutter clicks]
[camera shutter clicks]
[camera shutter clicks]
[camera shutter clicks]
[Barkhausen] I approached the bed.
What's very distinctive is the smell.
You never forget that smell of a body.
She appeared to be peacefully sleeping
when this occurred.
The killer's MO is to inflict
blunt force trauma to the victim's head.
And in Ms. Konvicka's case,
this was a pickax.
There's this dichotomy of a peaceful sleep
and this horrible, brutal murder.
In one of the rooms,
there's a newspaper that we discover.
Has an article about the Sirnics' murder,
and it is displayed.
And we also discover
that he has found a toy train,
and he's displayed it in the box.
[camera shutter clicks]
He recognizes that he has an identity now.
He is a Not only is he a serial killer.
He's the Railroad Killer.
And I think that's something
that feeds his ego.
[Barkhausen] He's almost leaving clues.
He is reveling in his crimes.
[music fades slowly]
After we learn about Josephine Konvicka,
within hours, we learn
about Noemi Dominguez.
[reporter] Houston.
Twenty-six-year-old Noemi Dominguez
was found beaten to death
in her home near the tracks.
[somber orchestral music playing]
[camera clicks]
[Carter] The victim is Noemi Dominguez.
She's on the floor,
evidence of blunt trauma.
As well as sexual assault,
similar to the other cases.
[camera shutter clicks]
I'm concerned at this point in time
because the number of people
being killed continues to rise,
and we're no closer
to catching him than we were,
you know, several months before.
[tense music playing]
[Barkhausen] So now we have two people
killed in one day.
The case is escalating.
He could be anywhere.
There are 140,000 miles
of railroad tracks across the US.
I am scared.
Scared for any future victims.
We've got to find this guy.
[reporter] There's been a run
on locks, alarms, knives, and guns.
Well, you're just scared to death.
It's hard to sleep. You know, you lock up.
[reporter] After sunset,
streets are deserted,
porch lights left on.
Everybody's livin' in fear.
[gun cocks]
[somber music playing]
[Kennedy] I'm horrified
by what he's done to communities.
It's just like a tide
of horror and devastation
that he's just leaving in a wake.
It's crazy. It was crazy.
It was difficult for me
to reassure my community
that this was not gonna happen again.
[Carter] And I realize
how hard it was for my wife.
We didn't have an alarm system,
so she talked about putting tin cans
in front of the front door
so they'd make noise
if somebody opened it.
She didn't feel safe,
because I wasn't there.
[crickets chirping]
[music fades out slowly]
[tense music playing]
[Barkhausen] The command center
is as busy as always.
People taking phone calls,
assigning leads, tracking facts.
[phone ringing]
But it's getting more
and more somber as the time goes on.
There's a lot of pressure
to get this case solved,
spending a lot of hours at the office.
[indistinct chatter]
I have three small children at home.
It's very difficult
to strike a work-and-life balance
when there's something
this important going on.
You know that this job demands
a lot from individuals,
and you have to,
at times, place your family second,
and that's a very difficult thing to do.
[Barkhausen] But Drew
and I helped each other
to make it all through this case.
I would never, you know, advocate
taking anything away from one's family.
But making sure
another family isn't victimized
becomes very important.
[train rattling on tracks]
[somber music playing]
[Barkhausen] Information is coming rapidly
from all different directions.
And we learn, much to everybody's
surprise and disappointment,
that several weeks earlier,
the subject has crossed the border
and been detained
by immigration officials.
But due to a computer failure,
he was let go
because the agents weren't notified
that he was actually wanted for murder.
It was a big deal.
A big deal.
It almost makes you sick at your stomach
that the, uh, circumstances allowed that.
Federal agents revealed today
they had the accused,
so-called Railroad Serial Killer
in their hands just weeks ago.
But somehow, he slipped through
the bureaucracy, allegedly to kill again
and to become the object
of an even more intensive,
frustrating manhunt.
[train rattling on tracks]
[McClenaghan] He reentered
the United States
and murdered Josephine Konvicka
and Noemi Dominguez.
[ominous music playing]
After all the work we've been doing,
I feel completely angry,
disgusted, betrayed.
We had him.
We could have ended this case immediately.
He was in in custody, and he got let go.
I mean, how do you
how do you answer that?
It's it's terrible. It's terrible.
[tense music playing]
[reporter] Rafael Resendez-Ramírez
has officially become one
of the nation's notorious criminals.
He joins the ranks of terrorists,
armed robbers, and other murderers
on the FBI's
Ten Most Wanted fugitives list.
By placing Resendez-Ramírez
on the top ten list,
authorities say they can now
better coordinate their effort.
[helicopter blades whirring overhead]
When he became a top ten fugitive,
the reward money was around $125,000.
It's a lot of money, and when you have
that kind of a reward out there,
a bounty hunter would love
to be able to capture an FBI top ten.
[somber music playing]
[Barkhausen] In the year 1999,
there is no social media,
so your most valuable tool
in getting the word out to
as many people as possible is television.
And America's Most Wanted
focused simply on wanted fugitives
[phones ringing]
[Barkhausen] So we were very happy
to have their cooperation.
[indistinct chatter]
[Carter] I go to Washington, DC,
where the show is going to be taped.
- [woman] Yay, Drew!
- [Carter] I'm back!
[Carter] That was my first involvement
ever with any type of TV production
or anything like that,
and it was
it was an eye-opening experience.
[Carter speaking indistinctly]
[Barkhausen] Reporters were drawn to Drew.
Rangers look great in their white hats,
and they have a presence.
And he's charming,
and they gravitated towards him
because he could talk to them.
And y'all throw all these lights on a guy,
and then you tell him he can't sweat?
The whole point of me
going up there, uh, for the show
was to see if we could generate
any credible tips,
uh, that would lead
to the capture of Resendez-Ramírez.
The key was gonna be
identifying someone that's close to him.
- [phones ringing]
- [operators chattering]
[Carter] We start out,
obviously, on the East Coast.
And it airs in every time zone.
East Coast, then, uh, Central,
then then Mountain Time,
and then, finally, uh,
it airs out on the Pacific coast.
[operators chattering indistinctly]
[Carter] The volume of calls
is very surprising.
And they range from,
"I have someone that's mowing my yard
that looks like that,"
to something as
as crazy as, "My cat told me so-and-so."
I mean, you get
all kind of people that are callin' in
on something like that.
[operator] Ramírez? Uh-huh.
[Carter] So I'm called
over to one of the call-takers,
and she is, uh, talkin' with someone.
[operator] Okay. How are you?
The caller says that her name is Lupe,
and that, uh,
she's a cousin of Resendez-Ramírez.
That that she knows
who he is and and where he's from.
[operator] Did you happen
to see what kind of
I'm very surprised,
and I immediately just blurt out,
"What's his mother's name?"
And she says, "Virginia."
I knew that we had something there
because that was not public information.
I'm pretty excited at this point in time.
It's the first bit of
of hard information that we have
that actually points to someone
that's willing to talk
about this individual.
[operators speaking indistinctly]
Lupe tells the call-taker that Resendez
is actually using his uncle's name.
Rafael Resendez-Ramírez is his uncle.
His real name is Ángel Reséndiz.
It's not Rafael Resendez-Ramírez.
[operator speaking indistinctly]
And identifies that he has
another sister named Manuela
that actually lives in Albuquerque.
So Manuela's the logical person
to go to first
because she's the only
known family member, other than Lupe,
that lives in in the United States.
[operators applauding]
[woman] Okay. Thanks. We're out.
[ominous music playing]
[Carter] Kim and I traveled
out to Albuquerque
and met with Manuela at her house.
She invites us into the house,
and and we go sit, uh,
sit in the living room.
[Barkhausen] Drew's easy to talk to
and friendly,
and sometimes law enforcement
can be intimidating.
You get a whole lot more
from being nice to people,
and I believe he has that same theory.
Persuading Manuela that we're there,
not to cause her any grief or pain,
but simply to get her brother into custody
so that he doesn't hurt anybody else,
is a sensitive subject.
How do you tell someone that their
loved family member is a serial killer?
I'm not sure she believes us, necessarily,
but I think part of her is saying,
"I don't want to believe this is true,
but if it is true,
I don't want it to continue."
[Carter] I asked her specifically,
"Do you know where your brother's at?"
And she says,
"I don't know where he's at."
I said, "Manuela, you need
to prepare yourself
for what you're gonna do
when he calls you."
And and she made the statement,
"Why would he call me?
I have not talked to him."
And I said,
"Because he has no other choice."
He had no place to go.
You know,
during the course of our conversation,
we realize that we're
both strong in our faith.
And I think she saw that that I
was sincere, and and, uh believed me.
She decided that she would help,
because it was the right thing to do.
Drew and I are excited,
but spending years in law enforcement,
you know that nothing ever really happens
the way it should happen,
so you're still a little cautious.
And now we're just hoping for him to call.
[reporter] An 80-year-old man fatally shot
and his daughter bludgeoned to death
inside their home in Gorham, Illinois.
Tuesday's discovery has police
taking a closer look
[Barkhausen] So we're building
this relationship with Manuela,
and we find out yet
another double murder in Gorham, Illinois.
Father and daughter.
It's very disheartening,
and it's 800 miles or more
from his last murder scene.
So once again, needle in the haystack.
He could be anywhere at any time.
[train rattling on tracks]
[Barkhausen] We have
a body count of eight.
Eight people have been confirmed
murdered in this case,
and four of them
have been just over the last few weeks.
[Carter] I get a call
from our communications center,
and they advise me
that Manuela had called them
and said that she needed to speak with me.
[tense music playing]
I called her, and, uh, she told me that
her brother had been in contact with her,
and that he was tired
and weary.
I'm thinkin' that if he's tired,
then maybe that means he wants to give up.
She trusted us.
That is our biggest contribution,
was that relationship that was developed.
[McClenaghan] The fact that he was now
a top ten FBI fugitive
and had 100 bounty hunters
searching for him in Mexico,
probably led to him reaching out to her.
This phone call is a big step forward
and a great break in the investigation.
After that phone call, there was
no sleeping, there was no eating,
there was nothing but that phone call.
I didn't know exactly what would happen,
but I knew that, uh, it was very important
that I get out there
because if anything
was gonna come of it, uh,
I'd have to be out there
to help orchestrate it.
[energetic music playing]
I told a little white lie when I called
and talked to my captain.
I told him that, uh I told him
I thought he wanted to surrender.
Didn't know that at the time, but I didn't
want to be told I couldn't go either.
[Barkhausen] Drew and I leave
Houston, Texas,
and fly to Albuquerque, New Mexico,
to meet with Manuela
so that she can hopefully facilitate
the surrender of the Railroad Killer.
[tense music playing]
We had to trust each other,
and we had to work together.
We were gonna be there as long as it took,
and it didn't matter how bad we smelled
or if we hadn't had any sleep. [laughs]
[tense music continues]
I call Manuela up, I tell her,
"Manuela, I know you're scared,
but I'll be there in 30 minutes."
[engines roaring overhead]
[music fades slowly]
[phone ringing]
[Carter] Manuela gets a call
from her brother.
And that's when I knew that [chuckles]
this is this is for real and game on.
[tense music playing]
[Barkhausen] The atmosphere
in the room is extremely stressful.
[Carter] We're communicatin' back
and forth with Reséndiz through Manuela,
negotiatin' and and finalizin'
the terms of the surrender.
[Barkhausen] He would talk about
what he wanted through Manuela.
We never spoke directly to him.
It was all through Manuela.
Their phone must have been dying,
'cause it kept goin' out,
so the phone phone call is,
like, a minute. [chuckles]
[Barkhausen] And we would either
get disconnected or he would hang up.
[line buzzes]
And then it was 45 seconds.
- [dial tone buzzes, keypad dialing]
- [Carter] And the phone keeps going dead.
[dial tone buzzing]
[Barkhausen] Sometimes hours are lapsing
[line beeps]
and we don't know
if he's going to call back.
[phone ringing]
- [Carter] He'd call back, then 30 seconds.
- [line beeping]
We don't know
if he's going to change his mind.
[phone ringing]
[tense music playing]
[Barkhausen] It's now the end
of hours and hours and hours
of these phone calls going back and forth.
We finally get it out of him that he wants
to surrender at the El Paso border.
[chilling music playing]
So it's it's the middle of the night.
He's gonna be there in six hours.
[suspenseful music playing]
[Carter] We load everybody up in a car
and, uh, we take a road trip
from Albuquerque to to El Paso.
[Barkhausen] This is
the strangest road trip of my life,
and it was a very tense situation.
It was a very serious thing
that was was about to occur.
[tense music playing]
[Carter] Nobody back in Houston
knows what we're doin'
or has any control over what we're doing.
[Barkhausen] There were a few hours before
he was going to be coming to the border.
[line ringing]
[Barkhausen] So I called
my supervisor, Tom.
He's really the only person
I felt bad for,
because I knew he was gonna have to act
as the intermediary
to tell people what was going on.
And he's like, "What?"
And and I'm like,
"Um, I'm I'm at the border."
"I was I was afraid too many people
were gonna show up."
His response, I'll never forget it, is,
"I know what you did and why you did it,
but don't ever do that again!"
And then he hung up on me.
[both chuckle]
[line beeps]
[tense music playing]
[Barkhausen] I'm watching Drew
walk across the border.
I was just kind of on adrenaline.
The biggest thing that can go wrong is
that he doesn't decide to turn himself in,
and then we're right where we were,
needle in a haystack, trying to find him.
I don't know how long it will go on
if this doesn't happen.
I don't know how many more people
are gonna be his victims,
so the stakes are very high.
He could get cold feet and run across
to the other side. He'll go back.
I really didn't know if his intent
was to surrender, or or what it was.
So I'm watchin' the vehicles
as they're goin' by.
I don't know what kind of vehicle
they're gonna be in,
so I'm checkin' the vehicles.
And I'm there for
what seems like an incredibly long time.
And, uh, just all of a sudden,
I see a truck comin' towards me,
and that truck has three people in it.
And in the middle, I immediately can see
that Reséndiz is sittin' in the middle.
[suspenseful music playing]
That's the first time where I told myself,
"This is actually gonna happen."
Reséndiz starts movin' to get out.
He was wearin', uh, blue jeans,
a long-sleeve shirt, glasses, and a belt.
And I'm I'm struck
by how small this guy is.
I mean, he was not very tall.
He was like 135 pounds.
Man, how can somethin' that small
have inflicted so much damage?
[tense music building]
He didn't really talk.
Didn't have anything to say.
I stuck my hand out
and just said, "I'm Drew,"
and, uh, I shook his hand
and just turned him around
and cuffed him right there.
[cuffs click]
[somber music playing]
[Barkhausen] The cuffs go on,
and I'm just
relieved and exhausted and excited.
It's finally over.
There's finally an end to this.
The surrender was voluntary,
and it's something that he did on his own,
and it was also the wishes of his family.
[reporter] Rafael Resendez-Ramírez arrived
in Houston Tuesday afternoon,
apparently ready to put his fate
in the hands
of the Texas criminal justice system.
[Kennedy] Houston PD
confirmed the palm prints
from Leafie's house
did belong to Reséndiz,
and when I got, uh
uh when they told me that,
I let out a a, you know,
a big, you know, whoop.
I'm jumpin' up and down,
and I run down the hallway.
You know, yellin' to everybody,
"We've got him!
We've got him! We've got him!"
[gentle music playing]
[Kennedy] And now Leafie
will have justice.
When I made the choice to retire
at a young age, people asked me why.
And the biggest part of the reason was
I don't want to see the bad things
people do to each other anymore.
[mournful piano music playing]
[mournful piano music continues]
[music fades]