Transcript

How Fugitives Bradley Martin & Carolyn King Killed Across America

From The FBI Files · Episode page · Watch on YouTube

· 2 h 29 min · 19,049 words · 451 timestamped sections

This is the full, timestamped transcript of "How Fugitives Bradley Martin & Carolyn King Killed Across America", an episode of The FBI Files published December 14, 2025 (2 h 29 min, about 19,049 words). It mentions 16 people, works and ideas, including Bradley Martin, FBI, Guy Goodman, Donna Martz, Paul Zechman.

What this episode is about

Two fugitives, Bradley Martin and Carolyn King, evade law enforcement as they commit a series of violent crimes across the United States, leaving a trail of fraudulent activity and murder behind them. With authorities, including the FBI, hot on their heels, the investigation intensifies after the discovery of a gruesome crime scene in Pennsylvania, revealing the depths of their dangerous escapes.

Key takeaways

  • When criminals flee, they often leave a high-tech breadcrumb trail that even the brave can’t outrun.
  • In crime scenes, even small traces—like duct tape—can lead to big breakthroughs in capturing the elusive.
  • In tranquil towns, a single heinous act can shatter the illusion of safety, rippling fear through communities.
  • Murder isn't always the main event; sometimes it’s the messy aftermath that reveals crucial clues.
  • Unexpected partnerships in crime—like a fugitive couple—remind us that danger often wears a familiar face.

Who speaks in this episode?

What is discussed, and when

  1. – 15:00: Bradley Martin, Guy Goodman, Michael Weman, FBI
  2. – 30:00: Guy Goodman, Bradley Martin, Donna Martz, FBI
  3. – 45:00: Bradley Martin, Donna Martz, Michael Weman
  4. – 1:00:00: Donna Martz, Guy Goodman, Jim Calstrom
  5. – 1:45:00: Memphis, Doe Roberts, Tennessee, Shelby County Sheriff's Department
  6. – 2:00:00: Memphis, Doe Roberts, Shelby County Sheriff's Department, Sam Wagner
  7. – 2:15:00: Jeffrey 71st – Miller, Charles, Doe Roberts, Memphis, Shelby County Sheriff's Department
  8. – 2:28:52: Jeffrey 71st – Miller, Charles, Memphis, Tennessee, Doe Roberts

Notable quotes from "How Fugitives Bradley Martin & Carolyn King Killed Across America"

  • Card receipts and death, authorities track the pair, but always find themselves one step behind. I'm Jim Calstrom, former head of the FBI's New York office. The FBI and police…
    about Jim Calstrom · at
  • Fingerprints that we had obtained at the crime scene matched Bradley Martin.
    about Bradley Martin · at
  • Detective Weman asks American Express Global Security in New York to help.
    about Michael Weman · at
  • Investigators determined that the victim's charge card and a book of checks were stolen.
    about Guy Goodman · at
  • The FBI dispatches teams to interview sales clerks at the mall.
    about FBI · at
  • Pennsylvania Detective Paul Zman chased the pair from the beginning of their flight.
    about Paul Zechman · at
  • The caller demanded a $100,000 ransom for Do's safe return.
    about Doe Roberts · at
  • As the investigation's first full day drew to a close, Special Agent Overall's concern grew.
    about Eids · at

Who and what is mentioned in this episode?

People

  • Bradley Martin — Person · Primary suspect / fugitive (referenced subject) · 16 mentions · first at
    Central perpetrator in the episode’s first case: identified via fingerprints, tracked via stolen cards/checks, later captured after a high-speed chase and confesses to killing Donna Martz.
  • Guy Goodman — Person · Homicide victim (referenced subject) · 14 mentions · first at
    First case’s murder victim in Palmyra, Pennsylvania; his stolen American Express card and checks create the electronic trail that drives the multi-state manhunt.
  • Donna Martz — Person · Kidnapping and homicide victim (referenced subject) · 13 mentions · first at
    Second victim of Martin and King during their flight; her disappearance escalates the case, her card is used to track suspects in near-real time, and she is later found murdered in Nevada.
    The detectives fear Martin and King have grabbed Donna Martz.
  • Paul Zechman — Person · Lead investigator (county detective; referenced speaker) · 1 mention · first at
    Lebanon County detective who leads the Goodman homicide investigation and pursues Martin/King; coordinates with other jurisdictions and helps identify suspects from evidence.
  • Doe Roberts — Person · Missing person / kidnapping victim (referenced subject) · 11 mentions · first at
    Victim in the later segment set in Eads, Tennessee: disappears from home and a ransom call is received, triggering FBI involvement.
  • Michael Weman — Person · Local police chief / investigator (referenced speaker) · 4 mentions · first at
    Palmyra police chief who knows the victim, helps interpret motive, and coordinates with American Express and other agencies during the manhunt.
  • Jim Calstrom — Person · Host / narrator (on-camera expert) · 3 mentions · first at
    Introduces segments and provides authority framing as former head of the FBI’s New York office; appears across multiple cases in the episode.
  • Joe Ganon — Person · Corporate security investigator (referenced expert) · 1 mention · first at
    American Express security investigator who helps police flag and track Guy Goodman’s account, producing the transaction trail across multiple states.
    Joe Ganon, the chief investigator in AMX security works to assist the police.
  • Sam Wagner — Person · Referenced individual (potential lead in Doe Roberts case) · 4 mentions · first at
    Named as the prospective buyer who scheduled a meeting with Alan Roberts on the morning of Doe’s disappearance but did not show; potentially relevant timeline detail.
    The buyer, a man named Sam Wagner, had called the day before making an appointment to see the property at 10:30 that morning.
  • Jeffrey 71st – Miller, Charles — Person · Referenced person (unclear/insufficient context) · 21 mentions · first at
    Name appears in the extracted entity list but is not clearly present in the provided transcript context; cannot be reliably enriched without additional episode text.
    Come on in. I have Charles Lord stated that late in the evening he heard a car out on his cove.

Companies & orgs

  • FBI — Company · Law enforcement agency · 2 mentions · first at
    Primary law enforcement agency involved in the investigation and pursuit of the fugitives.
  • Shelby County Sheriff's Department — Company · Local law enforcement · 6 mentions · first at
    Local law enforcement agency involved in the initial investigation of the disappearance.
    The team of deputies and sheriff's inspectors responded to the house.

Places & events

  • Eids — Place · Setting · 1 mention · first at
    Small town where the disappearance occurred.
  • Memphis — Place · Setting · 14 mentions · first at
    City near where the disappearance occurred.
    Word of the kidnapping spread and news stations picked up the story.
  • Tennessee — Place · Setting · 6 mentions · first at
    State where the disappearance occurred.
    A Tennessee community is shocked when a beloved elderly woman vanishes.
  • Wolf River — Place · Geographical feature · 2 mentions · first at
    Mentioned in the context of the investigation.
    Charles Lord agreed to tell us where Doe Robert's body was after he had confessed to the kidnapping in exchange for Shelby County not pursuing the death penalty.

Full transcript with timestamps

Two deadly fugitives are on the run from justice. Authorities follow an electronic trail

and chase the escaped convict and his partner from state to state. The suspects are moving fast, [screaming] determined to avoid capture. 39.

The police and FBI must track them down before they take another life. In Pennsylvania, an inmate escaped with the help of his female accomplice. Following a trail of fraudulent credit card receipts and death, authorities track the pair, but always find themselves one step behind. I'm Jim Calstrom, former head of the FBI's New York office. The FBI and police raced to capture the deadly couple who seem to be running with no direction, no sense of fear, and nothing to lose.

107 investigation in September 25th, 1993. Friends of 74year-old Guy Goodman contact the Palmyra, Pennsylvania police. How you doing?

Um, Mr. Goodman. They're concerned because they have not heard from him in over a week.

Wondering where he is. Goodman's landlord meets an officer at his rented house.

You have a key for the door there? I do. Okay, let's go check it out. Okay. You just want to step back there?

All right. The officer observes shards of broken porcelain on the floor and dried blood on the floor and walls. Blood spatter trails down the hall and leads to the basement stairs.

In a storage room, he discovers a body. The officer calls for assistance. Headquarters. Code three. Code three. Requesting backup. Are you clear?

Unit 1 833. Go ahead. Detective Paul Zman of the Lebanon County Detective Bureau takes the lead in the investigation.

Go ahead. 104. I'll be in route to that location. The countywide bureau helps township police departments with major crime investigations.

It was evident that the house had been ransacked. Kitchen drawers were open. Things were strewn around on the floor.

Going down into the basement area, you could see drag marks led from the uh stairway uh to a small storage room. The crime scene is gruesome. The victim's hands and feet are tied behind his back. Several layers of plastic bags, sheets, and blankets enshroud his head. Coverings are tightened at his neck with makeshift bindings.

These items were either duct taped or tied with electrical cords. The plastic bag was duct taped over the cloth covering.

Hoping to find a trace of the perpetrator, crime scene investigators carefully process the house. They dust every surface for latent fingerprints. and collect a roll of duct tape left on a table. Likely the same tape used in the bindings. With no witnesses, only the careful examination of every item can help the detectives understand this crime. We were trying to not only obtain the forensic evidence, but we were also trying to determine if any of the property was taken from the residence. We were able to establish that Mr.

Goodman's wallet was missing. They find American Express charge statements. Oh,

but the card itself is missing. Statement here. The account numbers get that over here.

In the bedroom, investigators discover an open box of checks. checks. A series of checks from the middle of this box had been removed. We also knew that the vehicle of Mr. Goodman was also missing at this point.

What do you have to do out here yet? Guy Goodman seemed like an unlikely target for this type of attack. Like most of the Palmyra, Pennsylvania community, Chief Michael Weman knew of the victim.

Guy Goodman was a retired florist. He was a lifelong resident of the of the Palmyra area. Uh well known within the community and liked by uh everyone in the community. It was apparent that either the motive for this crime was a robbery that had gone bad or that there was a robbery after the fact uh after Mr. Goodman was assaulted and died.

Palmyra, Pennsylvania is located in Lebanon County. This peaceful community sees fewer than three murders per year. In most cases, the victim knows the killer. At the autopsy, the victim's face is unrecognizable. The medical examiner uses dental records to confirm it is Guy Goodman. Based on the body's decomposition, he concludes Goodman has been dead for about a week. Although the victim was severely beaten, his wounds were not fatal. An examination of his respiratory tract reveals he died slowly from suffocation.

Blatant prints recovered from Goodman's house processed at the lab. Examiners check the prints against local arrest records and find a match. When the forensics report arrives on Zechman's desk, he isn't surprised by the results.

Fingerprints that we had obtained at the crime scene matched Bradley Martin. Zachman knows the name all too well.

I just entered him as a wanted person charging him with the escape from the county prison. So, I knew he was on the run.

Many of Lebanon County's inmates are part of a work release program. Bradley Martin, a repeat thief and drug user, is one of these workreleased prisoners. Over a week earlier, Martin used a 2-hour pass, a weekly perk of the work release program, to meet his new girlfriend, Carolyn King. 27-year-old King worked at a factory where she met the 21-year-old workrelease prisoner. When Martin failed to return, prison officials launched a fugitive investigation. They called the Lebanon County Detective Bureau. After obtaining a fugitive warrant for Martin, the detectives checked Carolyn King's apartment, concerned for her wellbeing.

But King is not there and they find nothing to indicate where she is gone or even if she is with Martin. The detectives entered Martin in NCIC, the National Criminal Information Center.

Once the murder of Guy Goodman is discovered, there is a greater urgency to find Martin and to determine if Carolyn King is unharmed. The detectives interview Martin's friends and co-workers. What they learn surprises them.

Through interviews, we were able to establish that Bradley Martin and Carolyn King were together several days after Guy Goodman was murdered. We were able to establish that they were together in the Palra area and then it was just blank. Detectives faced the possibility that Carol and King may be Martin's accomplice.

Earlier, when Detective Zechman ran a statewide background check on King, she came up clean.

He tries again, this time using a national database. He learns she has a long criminal history, including theft and check forgery. She has outstanding warrants for her arrest and is also a suspect in two murders in Virginia.

The detectives have no idea where the two suspects are. If they left town right after the Goodwin murder, they have more than a week's head start. Detectives hope to track the suspects using the American Express charge card and the check stolen from the victim's home. Okay, let me call the guy at the American Express security department.

It's great. Detective Weman asks American Express Global Security in New York to help.

Joe Ganon, the chief investigator in AMX security works to assist the police. And I'll be back to you as soon as I can.

Got it. Thanks. We flagged Mr. Goodman's account because he was the victim of a homicide and the chances were that the perpetrators of that homicide were in possession of that car. A review of Goodman's account shows purchases made after Goodman's death. The transactions leave a trail that may lead to Goodman's killer. We discovered that the charges began in western Pennsylvania and continued out through the Ohio Valley down into Iowa and Kansas and then they turned north. And the last transaction we had on record was in Rapid City, South Dakota.

Armed with a solid lead, the Pennsylvania detectives waste no time. They catch the next available flight to Rapid City, South Dakota. The killers had disappeared,

but the victim's charge card had become the investigator's best informant. Police hope the trail of surfacing transactions will lead them to the murderers. Within hours, the Pennsylvania detectives arrive in Rapid City. Accompanied by local police, they visit the last stores where the charge card was used.

Interviews with clerks verify their suspicions. Up until this point, we were speculating that Bradley Martin and Carolyn King were the two people that were using Goodman's American Express card.

Then investigators catch their first real break. Some of the individuals were able to identify Bradley Martin

as a user of the card. Some were able to identify Carolyn King as a user of the card. This one,

the revelation confirms their theory. It was no longer a who done it. We knew for certain who had done it. Now it was a matter of changing the focus of the investigation to apprehending them.

The Pennsylvania detectives circulate photos of detailed information about the suspects to all South Dakota law enforcement agencies. The Rapid City Police Fraud Unit or Bunko Squad tells them of an interracial couple who've been passing bad checks at local stores. Rapid City Police Department had a black and white bunko team who are trying to do a con game within the area was a black female and a white male driving a vehicle with Virginia plates. We knew that this fit the description of Carolyn King and Bradley Martin. We knew that Carolyn King had a vehicle with Virginia plates. We felt that they were there working in the Rapid City area.

Registration, please. The Pennsylvania detectives assist as Rapid City police pull over the couple in the car with Virginia plates.

They confirm the couple is the team Rapid City detectives have been hunting down,

but not the suspected killers. The black female and the white male were in fact not Martin and King. They were just simply another couple that matched the description and who were doing their own criminal activities. American Express informs the detectives there have been no new charges in over a week. The investigation appears to be back at the beginning with no leads. Okay. What I can do for you is

But King and Martin are having trouble using their murder victim's outofstate checks.

Let me get my manager for you, ma'am. They need another source of cash. Come on.

Their next victim, a 59year-old woman traveling alone. Donna Martz. Why are you doing this?

The terrified woman complies when they force her to take them to her car. The next day, the Pennsylvania detectives learned that someone passed several of Guy Goodman's checks in North Dakota.

The bank had cleared checks written in a number of locations in the Bismar, North Dakota area.

This supports the detective's theory. They had used the credit card. Now, they were utilizing the checks stolen from Guy Goodman at the time of his homicide that further validated that they had to have been the persons who committed the homicide.

Detective Allander, please. Zachman phones authorities in Bismar from the road.

I'm Sergeant Zeman from Leon County, Pennsylvania. I made contact with a detective within the Bismar Police Department. Uh, I told him of locations that I had had checks passed and I gave him the rundown of the Guy Goodman homicide and who was involved and and what evidence we had discovered up to this point. And there was a long pause uh from the detective and I asked him what was wrong and he said, "Well, we're investigating a missing person's from that same hotel where one of these Goodman checks were passed."

Donna Martz's family called police when she did not return home from Bismar. They described Marts in their Chrysler New Yorker.

Police comb Bismar for any sign of Marts or her car, but find nothing. The detectives fear Martin and King have grabbed Donna Martz. The case has a new urgency. A woman's life is at stake. Police investigate the death of 74year-old retired florist Guy Goodman, who was severely beaten, then murdered in his rural Pennsylvania home. Investigators determined that the victim's charge card and a book of checks were stolen.

Right there in a row. Fingerprints at the scene identify two likely perpetrators. 21-year-old Bradley Martin and his 27-year-old girlfriend Carolyn King.

Pennsylvania detectives Paul Zeman and Michael Weman follow the pair of fugitives to Bismar, North Dakota,

and learn authorities there are investigating the disappearance of a woman from the same hotel where one of Goodman's checks was passed. Donna Martz, a traveling tour guide for an interstate bus line, was last seen at the hotel where the suspects were staying. When March didn't arrive home as scheduled, her family reported her missing. Local authorities issue an APB on March's Chrysler New Yorker. The Bismar FBI joins the case, led by special agent Craig Welker.

The FBI and the North Dakota Bureau of Criminal Investigation set up a task force which was joined by other agencies including the Bismar Police Department and the local sheriff's department.

When the Pennsylvania detectives arrive in Bismar, they share the information on the fugitives that they gathered over the past week. me and take me to the store.

They became an integral part of the task force on this case. The linking of King and Martin was very critical in the investigation.

With potential suspects identified in the abduction of Donna Martz, the task force still struggles for viable leads.

They continue to search the hotel. We spoke with the clerks at the hotel in Bismar where where Don Marts was last seen and they were able to tell us that Bradley Martin and Carolyn King stayed at the same hotel. Hotel personnel also recall that around 9:00 a.m. on September 26th, King and Donna Marts were only a few feet apart.

They were able to confirm that Carolyn King had been in the lobby at the same time that that Donna Marts was in the small dining area uh having her continental breakfast.

No one noticed Marts leaving the hotel with anyone, but investigators fear she has been kidnapped. Now they need to find out where the fugitives went next. Then police discover Guy Goodman's car abandoned outside Bismar. There is no sign of Donna Marts.

I got and the search reveals only receipts from stores along the suspect's route and several unused checks bearing Goodman's name. Once again, the suspects have left authorities with no leads.

FBI special agent Craig Welcon knows they must find Mars before her kidnappers decide to kill her.

Everybody in an investigation like this is extremely busy. Lots of information coming in, including information that really is extraneous, but you don't know that at the time. So, there's a lot of sifting and sorting of information. Um, a lot of trying to prioritize and make sure that your primary emphasis is in the right direction to recover the victim alive and well and apprehend the suspects. Sleepless hours pass with no leads. Then, a break. Working with Donna Mars's bank, detectives learn her credit card was used in a shopping mall more than 100 miles away.

She had no relatives out there. There was just absolutely no reason for her to go that way.

The MMO matches that of Goodman's killers. Mart's credit card started showing charges on it. Uh a day or so after she had gone missing, we were fairly certain that she was not the one doing the charges. The FBI dispatches teams to interview sales clerks at the mall.

None of the clerks can positively identify Martin or King as the user of the card, but they are sure March did not make the purchases which were for young men's clothing.

Did they say where they were going? When you're working the case, you become very much aware that the clock is working against you. particularly when you have a situation like this where we know that Guy Goodman was murdered.

The next significant lead comes when Marx's account posts a withdrawal in Montana. It occurred days earlier at an ATM in the small town of Shelby. Montana FBI agents bring the ATM surveillance tape to the command post in Bismar. Yeah, one by the

detectives Weman and Zechman positively identify Bradley Martin using Mart's credit card.

It is the first definitive proof linking the suspects to Donna Marts. The tape confirms Martin and King traveled west, but there is still no sign of Marts. The evidence is building yet. investigator's main concern is not prosecution but finding Donna alive. And although we had an ideal that they were heading in a general direction of West, they could change that direction at any time. So it was very frustrating because we felt that there was a short time frame in which if Donna March was still alive that we would be able to apprehend them and save her.

Special Agent Welcon knows they must speed up the process of tracking the victim's credit card usage.

I contacted Ben Patty, a retired FBI special agent who is employed by a major credit card company issuing Donna March's card. At Visa's San Francisco headquarters, International Fraud Control Director Ben Patty agrees to help.

Normally, when a card holder uses their credit card, that bank that issued the card will not see that transaction information for two to three days. That's when it's posted, and the bank would then know where the transaction occurred. Craig Walcon was really wanting to find out when the card that belonged to Donna Mars was used in real time,

which we could not do with the systems as they were at that time. To locate the suspects the instant they use the card, Visa must create a complex reporting system for a single credit card. But Donna Mart's life is on the line. We contacted the systems people in the computer center and explained to them what we wanted. They said, "Okay, we'll go into our systems, make the necessary changes in the mainframe computer so that this specific card holder number could be captured as it came through our systems."

The programmers estimate it will take at least 24 hours to create and implement the new program. No problem.

FBI agents hope that the computer program will finally put them closer to the murder suspects and to Donna Martz before she too is killed. The coroner for Lebanon County, Pennsylvania, determined that retired florist Guy Goodman was savagely beaten and then slowly suffocated to death. His face was unrecognizable at the autopsy. The suspects, 21-year-old Bradley Martin and 27-year-old Carolyn King, have more than 20 felony convictions between them and are now fugitives on the run across the heartland of America. Authorities believe the couple is holding their latest victim, Donna Martz, captive and using her credit cards.

The last charge was recorded in Montana. The FBI and police from across the country are in pursuit. Tracking the suspects through the victim's credit card usage. Investigators remain one step behind.

Led by special agent Craig Welcon. That was due to the flow of the information from the merchants to the credit card company. And then when that information was actually available from the computer database

in 1993, banking computers take days to post each transaction. Investigators await a new Visa program that will trap any activity on Mart's card. Pennsylvania Detective Paul Zman chased the pair from the beginning of their flight. It was very frustrating being days behind locating places that Mart's credit card had been used because we knew that number one, this couple had killed Guy Gman. We knew that Donald Martz potentially was going to be the next victim if she had not already been killed. There's nothing we could do more than what we were doing to try and locate them and stop this from happening.

Investigators try to estimate where the suspects will go next. They alert all law enforcement agencies on the suspect's possible routes.

They post descriptions of the suspects in their vehicle and the National Crime Information C Center's nationwide database.

We entered both Bradley Martin and Carolyn King in NCIC. They were also entered in as kidnapping suspects. In addition to that, regional messages had gone out to all the police departments to be on the lookout for Donna Marts, Carolyn King, or Barley Martin. If any police force in the country runs into the couple, the Bismar task force will be notified. To further increase their chances, investigators fax descriptions of the suspects and the victim to police agencies along Martin and King's likely routes. But there are no incoming leads beyond the sporadic credit card purchases.

Detectives Weman and Zechman returned to Pennsylvania to reinter everyone who knows the fugitives. They hope Martin and King have made contact with someone back home.

We continually talk to individuals in the Palmary area who were associates of Bradley Martin trying to find out if there was recent contact with him or Carolyn King and if there was where were they at where did they call from

but no one offers new information. Despite every effort, investigators still have nothing. model.

The FBI receives an update from the Visa Corporation in San Francisco. This Ben Patty International

Visa fraud investigator and former special agent Ben Patty had asked the company's systems programmers for a way to trace Mart's credit card transactions as they are made. and I told the FBI and we set up a system of contact between our systems people in Virginia, myself and then the FBI and their command post. After the system was in place, the first transaction that came through was a service station gas transaction in Southern California. It was in Los Angeles several hours earlier. Investigators are closer, but still too far behind.

While the task force notifies authorities in the LA area, Visa gets another hit on Donna March's card. The transaction came through our systems in real time. As soon as it came through the systems, we notified the FBI's command post with and it would have been within our 2hour time that the transaction actually occurred.

Then a transaction is made at a hotel in National City outside San Diego. Agents at the command post contact the FBI's San Diego field office and the lead goes to Supervisory Special Agent Sam Stanton. We received information that uh that the Donna Mars credit card had been used at the hotel in National City. So immediately I dispatched agents over to the hotel off Interstate 5. agents interviewed the uh manager and the security guard and employees at the hotel and was able to determine that uh a couple matching Martin and King had stayed at the hotel using Donna March's credit card.

But the couple checked out 2 hours earlier, paying for the room with the Visa. Identify them.

Probably. Police officers and FBI agents swarm the area, checking hotel parking lots, convenience stores, and gas stations for Donna Mars's Chrysler New Yorker or any sign of Martin and King. Special Agent Stanton knows finding the car is a long shot, especially when that car has a 2-hour lead on authorities. where San Diego is a very large city and to try to find a vehicle in a city that size would be almost impossible,

but we did put out an all points bulletin and notified the uh state judicial police and the federal police in Mexico and the border patrol uh thinking that maybe the individuals were headed toward Mexico.

The Tijana border is the busiest in the world. In 1993, nearly 40,000 Americans cross into Mexico every day without having to show even an ID. If the fugitives make it past the border, it is unlikely they will ever be found.

All right, I know it's been a couple of days, but have you heard from Brad or Carolyn?

Wow. Then the Pennsylvania detectives finally catch a break that narrows the search.

What do they have to say? According to Chief Michael Weman, we received information from a an associate of Bradley Martins indicating that they had received a phone call from Bradley and that Bradley was in San Diego, that he was with Carolyn King and that they were headed back towards Pennsylvania. Um, we took that information. We notified the San Diego office of the FBI and they in turn notified the California Highway Patrol. The fugitives made the call as they checked out of the hotel in San Diego. Martin and King still have a 2-hour lead, but authorities continue closing the gap.

Soon, a hunch and a bit of luck will bring the investigation to a violent and dangerous conclusion. Fall 1993. Authorities chase Bradley Martin and Carolyn King, suspected of murder in Pennsylvania and kidnapping in North Dakota. Investigators from both states are frustrated that for weeks they have been one step behind the suspects. They hope to find the pair before the abducted woman, Donna Martz, is killed. Then, a new program created by the Visa Corporation at the FBI's request puts investigators only 2 hours behind the suspects.

Investigators learned the two have just checked out of a San Diego area hotel based on their checkout time and the tip that the fugitives are heading east. FBI agents try to estimate their position.

Special Agent Stanton has a hunch that the suspects will use Interstate 8, the southernmost highway going east.

He determines that Martin and King will soon be approaching El Centro California near the Arizona border.

It's just two hours. I called Agent Paul Vic in the El Central office of the FBI and asked him to send out an all points bulletin. Stanton hopes he has picked the right route

as El Centro special agent Paul Vic takes it from there. I called the California Highway Patrol dispatchers and asked them to broadcast the Mars's car description. wanted for murder that just left a a hotel in San Diego and we suspect they might be headed east on Interstate 8 and even stopped. The all points bulletin about 187 suspects police code for murder is transmitted to every officer on Interstate 8, including California Highway Patrolman Richard Chambers. CHP unit central contending a semi copy information on 187 suspects possibly in route to uh petrol.

I went checked my section of the freeway like I normally would on in the beginning of my shift and uh I went west on Interstate 8.

As Chambers drives, he receives the suspect's descriptions. Anyway, first suspect is a Bradley Martin, white male, 6' 160. Second subject is a Carolyn King, black female, wanted by the FBI.

Within minutes, Chambers believes he has spotted the car. I was driving west on the freeway through the desert, and there's not that much traffic. I saw the car go by eastbound and I believed it matched the description.

The chambers cannot see the car's license plate. I wasn't sure, so I made a U-turn through the center divider and overtook the vehicle and verified the license plate and it was in fact uh bearing the North Dakota license plate that we had received.

L Central 11684, I think I'm behind the 187 vehicle. Could you send me a backup car?

Two suspects in the vehicle. Looks like the black female's driving. Dispatch advises officer Chambers that there is no backup immediately available.

888 respond. Only one unmarked unit races to catch up to the suspects. Sergeant Riley come responding to the pursuit. Uh joining pursuit. Police know the suspects are desperate and probably armed.

Two suspects of black female driving will attempt to contact DPS and they know I'm behind them at 60 mph. Coming up on 186 at 50 mph coming up on 186.

But so far the suspects appear calm as they approach State Route 186. report. They're going to head us south on 186. They're getting off 186 southbound on 186.

Chambers backup is still several miles behind, racing to catch up. On route 186, the chase intensifies. Do not stop and turn to accelerate to 70.

The suspects try to shake Officer Chambers, but he maintains pursuit even as they escalate to 90 m an hour.

Notify you and DPS. Looks like we're going to be going and they go eastbound. Proceeding eastbound in Arizona.

The suspects cross into Arizona with Chambers on their heels. Although a California officer outside of his jurisdiction, Chambers continues his pursuit. He relays information to Arizona authorities. Then the danger increases. The male passenger did come out of the uh right front window with a handgun.

They're shooting. They are shooting. Sound like they're shooting. Chambers stays on them, intent to capture the deadly suspects [crying] as the cars speed toward the town of Yuma, Arizona. Dozens of officers listening in race to cover chambers. October 5th, 1993. California Highway Patrol officer Richard Chambers engages in a high-speed chase with murder and kidnapping suspects Carolyn King and Bradley Martin.

Shoot at him. Do something. Near El Central California, the pursuit crosses into Arizona. Backup is responding. But as the suspects barrel toward the town of Yuma, Arizona, Officer Chambers is on his own and under fire. He knows he must capture the pair before they kill again. [screaming]

The suspects exit onto a smaller road. This one with intersections. Chambers radios their position.

They're going into human now. Get my units out there to back them up. They run through two stop signs without incident. Then

when they crash, the suspects flee on foot. I got out of my car and drew my uh my pistol and ordered them to stop. And I I told them if they didn't stop, I'd shoot. And at that time, the female did stop.

Then Carolyn King orders Martin to stop. Get down. Right there. and I was able to handcuff the female. I just had one pair of handcuffs with me at the time and uh I held the male passenger at gunpoint until uh Yuma PD arrived.

It was probably only a minute or two, but it seemed longer than that. When the backup officer arrives, he helps take the suspects into custody. Trans your back.

After a two-w weekek cross-country flight pursued by police and the FBI, Carolyn King and Bradley Martin have finally been stopped. But investigators first concern is the safety of the kidnapped woman, Donna Martz. She is not inside the car. On the floorboards lies the handgun Martin fired at Chambers. They open the trunk. Inside, police find duct tape, a knife, and Donna Martz's glasses, but nothing indicating where she is. Martin and King are taken to the Yuma Police Department, but they refuse to tell officers what happened to the kidnapped woman.

Done once. FBI agents arrive and interrogate the suspect separately. The one Carolyn King is defiant from the start, refusing even to admit her real identity. She claims no knowledge of Donna Martz.

Another agent is unsuccessful with Bradley Martin as well. When Special Agent Paul Vic reaches the station, he learns that Martin has refused to talk.

Bradley Martin was pacing back and forth with his hands handcuffed behind him. He appeared to be in some kind of discomfort. Vic decides to try another approach.

Martin told me that his neck hurt and he had pain extending down into his right arm.

Hoping to win Martin over and get him to cooperate, Vic offers to recuff him in front so he will be more comfortable. His strategy works.

Martin told me that he would speak with me. The agent reminds Martin he had earlier invoked his right to an attorney, but the suspect says he is now waving that right.

Vic drafts a statement to ensure Martin's waiver will hold up in court. Once he agreed to that, he signed this piece of paper that I wrote out that he agreed to talk to me even though he had invoked earlier. after he signed that document. I looked him straight in the eyes and I told him that I knew that he killed somebody in Pennsylvania, but that I wanted to know that Marts was okay. And then I told him, "Is she okay?" And Martin looked at me and he told me, "No, I killed her."

Martin says they kept Mrs. Marts for over a week. But after several close calls with police, he decided to get rid of her. They stopped in the Nevada desert. He got her out of the trunk and walked her to a ditch at gunpoint. He says she knew he was going to kill her. She said one thing before he fired, that she loved her children. The news devastates everyone who had hoped to save Donna. At the conclusion of the interview with Martin, we obtained a map which showed approximately where Marts could be located in Nevada.

And we then faxed the map to the Elco, Nevada FBI office, at which time late at night, a search was initiated to look for Donna Mart's body.

But Martin was doing drugs during his fugitive trek. His memory is unclear and his map inaccurate. Several times during the night, search crews call in for more information. The desert area near Elco, Nevada is hundreds of square miles. The crews do their best searching through the night and into the morning. Then on October 7th, investigators find the body of Donna Martz about a mile and a half off Interstate 80. In a case like the guy Goodman Dunham Mart's homicides, the drive is to keep anyone else from getting hurt.

Secondly, it's solving the case, get them off the street and into jail, and then successfully prosecute them.

In Nevada, Martin and King plead guilty to the kidnapping and murder of Donna Martz and receive life sentences. In Pennsylvania, they are found guilty of the murder of Guy Goodman. Both Martin and King are sentenced to death. This case is an excellent example which showed the inter agency cooperation between the FBI and local county and state officials uh in California, Arizona, North Dakota, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and numerous other states. From working together, we were able to solve this case and apprehend King and Martin and get them convicted.

For Donna Martz's 11 grandchildren, three children, family, and friends, the convictions bring a sense of closure. Even today, they are comforted in knowing police and the FBI caught Martin and King before they could claim yet another victim. Seven inmates break out of a highsecurity prison in New Mexico. State and local police call in the FBI. They begin a desperate search to find these dangerous men. The escapees, all violent criminals, threaten the public and terrify the community. Investigators must capture these men before they rob, rape, and kill again.

Heat. Heat. In 1987, the New Mexico Penitentiary housed hundreds of violent offenders, rapists, killers, men that juries put behind bars to protect society. On July 4th, seven of those men escaped. I'm Jim Calstrom, former head of the FBI's New York office. It was one of the worst prison breaks police and the FBI had ever faced. For the innocent people caught in the prisoner's paths, it was the most terrifying ordeal of their lives. The north unit at the Penitentiary of New Mexico outside Santa Fe is a level six facility.

Open up E3. It houses some of the state's most violent offenders, armed robbers, rapists, and murderers. Convicted killer William Gilbert is the assigned janitor for his cell block for Gilbert. July 4th, 1987 is Independence Day.

Nothing stupid. Tell me your name and get Wilson to open the door. He forces his way into the control room.

Open the door. Get down. Get down. No. Get away. Come on. Moving. Get over here. Gilbert releases six other inmates.

They join him in the control room. The inmates climb a ladder to an emergency hatch that leads to the roof. They take one of the guards with them as a hostage. The inmates walk along the roof searching for an exit. They are looking for a spot where the perimeter fence meets the building entrance so they can jump to the ground.

Once they get down, they handcuff the guard to a fence and disappear into the night. The guard quickly frees himself and goes for help. Prison officials are stunned when they realize several dangerous inmates are now on the outside. Somehow Gilbert got a gun inside the prison. He managed to get past the unit's security in less than 2 minutes. Because of budget cuts, there was no guard in the tower overlooking the roof area where the men escaped. Also, the security sensors on the roof were not functioning. The prison officials have no idea if the inmates were aware of this or if they just got lucky.

The prison goes into lockdown. Officials begin a search of the immediate area around the prison. The escapees only have a 15-minute lead. The warden calls the New Mexico State Police. They want the roads sealed off and every officer on the lookout for the escaped convicts. Not certain how many escaped, guards conduct an emergency headcount. They find seven inmates are missing from the north facility, home to the prison's most dangerous inmates. Next, the entire prison is searched to determine if any of the escapees are still hiding within the prison complex.

The seven men are nowhere to be found. Storage air is clear. Going to second location. Local police and sheriff's departments are given the inmates descriptions and warned to be on the lookout.

Prison officials brief investigators from the New Mexico State Police. Former Lieutenant Mark Reosvich.

We have to develop an investigative plan, a public notification plan, and an apprehension plan. And they all have to be working simultaneously. If we fail to do them in an appropriate manner or in a timely manner, the the results could be devastating.

The prison is 14 miles from the heart of Santa Fe, and several residential areas are within a few miles of the complex. Investigators fear the inmates are desperate enough to resort to violence. The prison staff identifies the seven escapees. William Gilbert is a four-time killer. His death sentence was commuted to life in prison when New Mexico abolished the death penalty in 1986. James Kinslow is a serial rapist and killer. At the age of 22, he was sentenced to three life terms. David Gyos is serving a sentence for armed robbery.

Robert Davis is a former police officer turned armed robber. John Schmidt, Hector Torres, and Michael Romero are all violent criminals serving lengthy sentences.

The New Mexico State Police assigned David Osuna as the case agent. On the end, I could hear the other people from the Department of Corrections saying, "Oh no, it's Jimmy Kinslow. Oh no, it's William Wayne Gilbert." David Gos probably the most notorious and dangerous individuals at the penitentiary of New Mexico. Deputy Warden Keith Norwood.

They're serving life sentences. What do they have to lose if they outside the perimeter fence and within the community? They had nothing to lose. The time factor in catching an escapee is critical. You have 24 48 hours to catch these individuals. After that, there's a good chance that they've gotten outside the perimeter.

As minutes turn to hours, state and local police expand the search area to a 10mi radius around the prison. Carlos Maldonado was a criminal investigator with the New Mexico State Police at the time of the breakout. We went into each cell and brought out clothing from each of the escapees and we sent them with the dog handler and they would go out in the perimeter of the facility and start seeing if they could pick up a trail. The immediate need was to apprehend and recapture these individuals before they used any sort of violence against our citizens.

The stress level for us in the law enforcement uh arena was was considerable. This was one of the most um intensive searches I've ever participated in. We had individuals on three-wheelers running around. We had people on horseback. I mean, if there was a way to search for for these inmates, we look for it. The state police had a a chopper flying around and it had a flare with it. Flur, forward-looking infrared, is a special camera mounted underneath the helicopter.

With that flare, they were able to locate body heat off of the ground. Police helicopters coordinate with search teams on the ground.

We could provide immediate response to any potential sightings. In the absence of sightings, we identified areas where we thought individuals could be uh hiding out, conducted searches. We'd move tactical teams uh into those areas to conduct foot searches. We had different teams starting a house to house search in the near areas of the uh penitentiary. And then there were other teams that were following up on the leads, people that were calling in, suspicious people, what have you.

Near the prison complex, canine units pick up the escapees trail. They were able to maintain a scent trail until they crossed Interstate 25 and then they lost it.

At the edge of the interstate, the trail stops cold. For law enforcement, it's an ominous sign.

If they got a gun into the facility, then more than likely they planned on a vehicle to escape on foot here in New Mexico. It's kind of difficult because there's not a lot of water. There's a lot of cactus. There's snakes. There's just all kinds of stuff that run around here at night. The corrections department, Mexico State Police, the sheriff's department had a series of predetermined roadblock locations that in the event of an escape or an emergency would be manned in in a certain order.

Law enforcement expands the search area and calls in officers from all over New Mexico to man the vast network of roadblocks. Not only do we have the state police, but the city Santa Fe city police department, Santa Fe County Sheriff's Department, we have different uh tribal officers here. We have Tusuk, Poake, uh San Leonso, Santa Clara, uh Santa Domingo. I mean, these all encompass Santa Fe County. And then I believe that we also also pulled in officers that were currently in class at the New Mexico Law Enforcement Academy. We basically had an inner perimeter roadblocks and then an out of perimeter Roblox just in the event that they somehow got past the first group.

For law enforcement, the pressure is building. If these escaped killers are hiding out in the residential areas around the prison, no one is safe. In Santa Fe, New Mexico, seven men convicted of robbery, rape, and murder break out of a maximum security prison. Investigators suspect the mastermind is William Gilbert, a four-time murderer. 7 months before the escape, Gilbert had his death sentence commuted by the governor. When an inmate escapes, they're looking to get out and never come back.

Former New Mexico State Police investigator David Osuna. They may do just about anything to keep from being apprehended again. and that includes uh the possibility of murder.

Authorities need to make the public aware of the danger. I've never heard of a correction officer being shot and it was just my opinion that they'll shoot anybody to get away.

The governor authorizes the use of the National Guard in the fugitive hunt and gives a shoot tokill order to police searching for the seven men. Investigators know that the physical search for the escapees is only part of their task. They need intelligence. Authorities pour over the fugitives records.

We're going to look at the segregation logs. We're going to see how many phone calls they've made. We're going to see who they've been associated themselves with.

Lieutenant Mark Reosvich. The institutions keep volumes of records. Anyone on a visiting list, anyone that's come into the institution, when individuals were moved from cells, where they went during the day, can all be located in one form or fashion. It takes time, but you can find those records.

Right now, it seems the escaped inmates have every advantage. These people have time on their side in terms of planning and strategizing and putting these things together. Carlos Maldonado was a criminal investigator with the New Mexico State Police.

But as we know, the best conceivable plans always have something going wrong. So, we were hoping for that human element to present itself.

Investigators believe at least one other person must have helped the inmates escape.

The weapon that the inmate had, how did it get into the facility to begin with? Could there have been another accomplice that maybe was employed through the correctional facility? We didn't know, but we knew that the weapon gained or entered into the facility somehow.

They also suspect someone close to the inmates must be helping them now, possibly family or friends.

They're going to need a change of the clothes. Uh they're going to need food. They're going to need transportation. Um they're going to need a means to communicate. We have to know early on if these inmates are going to contact somebody, who would it be? It doesn't take any sort of sophisticated analysis or evaluation to know that it's probably going to be family members that are going to step out on the limb and risk their own freedom to try to help out a loved one. That's kind of the common denominator and one that we're going to look at uh immediately.

Investigators compile extensive lists of people associated with the escapees. We wanted to know exactly who was visiting with who and to find out if maybe if it's another inmate that they showed particular interest in maybe their family members. So we tried to expand that net as much as we could without depleting resources to the point where you reach the point of diminishing return. It's a huge undertaking.

The FBI joins the search. Former special agent in charge of the Albuquerque FBI office, William Brennan. What we can do is any out of state leads that are developed as a result of this investigation, uh, no matter where they are in the country, we can have an FBI agent on scene within an hour or two to conduct the interview or to gather the information.

At the prison, state police investigators question the inmates, but they have to do it carefully.

I think you know more than you're telling. Timing was very important when you interview inmates. It's a different world.

Everybody's timing everybody else. They're watching. If you spend more time with one particular inmate than you do with somebody else, the first question they're going to ask, I wonder why did he divulge any information and their life is on the line?

We had a timer set up. The inmates would come in. We'd talk to them for 20 minutes and regardless of where we were in the conversation, we'd send them back. The inmates of the north unit say they were not aware of the escape plan.

These guys kept that plan pretty confidential. And for inmates not to know things was going on, especially on their pod, that's pretty unusual.

Investigators also questioned prison personnel. Good. They learned that days before the breakout, guards confiscated copies of state police and prison radio codes from Robert Davis's cell. Hours after the escape, guards made another [clears throat] surprising discovery in Davis's cell. Aeronautical charts and maps of Mexico. Was that truly part of a plan to take a plane? to hijack a plane, to drive to Mexico, or is it to send us off in a direction 180 degrees from where they're really at?

We sent an officer over to the airport in Santa Fe. State police ask airport security to be on the lookout.

Bob Davis, although he's an inmate at the facility, is a very intelligent individual.

This was not an escape of opportunity. It was well planned. high-risk individuals. They were highly motivated.

Investigators need help and appeal to the public. They want the local people to call in if they see one of these individuals.

Police release the fugitives mug shots and wrap sheets to the press. And more importantly, they need to know how dangerous these individuals are so that they don't allow them in their houses, don't assist them in any way.

They were our eyes and ears. They started airing footage on the history of each of the inmates.

Thousands of calls overwhelmed police hotlines. Anybody who saw anything unusual in Santa Fe or within 40 miles of Santa Fe were calling the police departments or the crimes stoppers hotline reporting suspicious or unusual activity. While investigators sort through tips, they work to close off every avenue for escape. Santa Fe was uh completely locked down. I mean uh everybody from the governor on down was exceedingly concerned about this. Uh the whole state of New Mexico was concerned about it.

The residents of Santa Fe are terrified because they're constantly living in a state of fear that somebody might break into their house, somebody might cause harm to their family, somebody could be killed. It was just my opinion and the opinion of the investigators that these inmates were still in the Santa Fe area. We felt very strongly that they had not escaped our perimeters.

2 days after the escape, a homeowner in Santa Fe reports a break-in at his house.

Police find a prison jumpsuit. The find indicates that some or all of the inmates may still be in the Santa Fe area. Then on that same day, 2 miles from the penitentiary of New Mexico at a local racetrack, a security guard makes his rounds. A security guard who was on his toes saw this individual walking through track.

Come here. Come here. Where you going? Come on over here, sir. He confronted the individual and after a quick discussion realized this was probably one of our escapees. He was able to handcuff the guy, call local officials.

New Mexico State Police identify the trespasser as Hector Torres, one of the seven escaped inmates.

With one captured, there's always the possibility that the other ones are close by.

One inmate has been found. Authorities dispatch a SWAT team to the racetrack to search for the other six convicts. If the other men are hiding at the track, police have them cornered. But that is when these men are most dangerous. Outside of Santa Fe, New Mexico, seven convicts escape from a maximum security prison. One man is in custody and SWAT teams search a racetrack complex for the other six escapees.

There is no sign of the remaining fugitives. Investigators only lead to their whereabouts is Hector Torres, the man they captured.

Where are the rest of the guys? Carlos Maldonado was a criminal investigator with the New Mexico State Police.

Tell me you don't know where you're at. When we interviewed him, he said he walked for hours. Didn't know where he was going. Just continued walking and walking and walking. And uh he said before I knew it and he was so fatigued he was tired he wound up back at the penitentiary.

I don't know. Torres claims he knew nothing about the escape before Gilbert opened his cell.

There was no plan. He just knew that he was free for the moment and took advantage of that.

I can't. According to Torres, four inmates stuck together. Gilbert, Davis, Kinslow, and Gyos. But the rest pretty much just scattered in different directions. Investigators suspect these four prisoners planned the escape. Gilbert only released Torres, Romero, and Schmidt to distract law enforcement. Former FBI special agent in charge William Bron. It was a pretty good thing to do as far as the ring leaders were concerned because they would put these people loose and out there and who didn't have a plan, who didn't know where they were going to go. This would certainly occupy law enforcement and running these individuals down.

3 days after the escape, police believe six of the inmates are still somewhere near the Santa Fe area. Armed robber Michael Romero and violent offender John Schmidt, four-time murderer William Gilbert, armed robber and former cop Robert Davis, serial rapist James Kinslow, and robber David Gyos. The men pose an incredible threat to the citizens in the area. There was no doubt in law enforcement mind that uh that there were going to be home invasions and that these people they had to seek food, they had to seek shelter, and they had to seek transportation to get out of the area.

On July 7th, authorities worst fears are realized. In a suburb of Santa Fe, a teenager babysits her young cousin. She looked out the window and saw a man coming to the house.

She was so paranoid, as everybody was in Santa Fe. She was able to call the police to to say that somebody suspicious was approaching.

One of those guys was trying to break in. Oh no. He's trying to break into the window. Oh no. No. He's at the door. He's at the door. Please call. Hurry.

Put the phone down. Put the phone down. [screaming] What do you want? What do you want?

I need something. I need some food. I need some food. Come on. Incredibly, the intruder only steals a bag of bread. then flees.

Police arrive quickly. Investigators asked the teenager if she can identify her attacker.

Former New Mexico State Police investigator David Osuna. This young lady identified David Gyos as one of the escapees who broke into her house.

SWAT teams converge on the area. Law enforcement officers searched every home within a mile radius during that time looking for the escapees. [clears throat]

Gyos and the other five fugitives are nowhere to be found. When you get a call like that and the idea is that these inmates have broken into a home. They're taking clothes and food. That means they're trying to change their identity as an inmate. They're trying to uh mix in with the general public and maybe go to a restaurant or do whatever some of the local people do, but they're looking for a way to get out of the Santa Fe County area.

State police. The next day, there's another sighting. 85 miles south of Santa Fe, a highway patrol officer sees something strange on the back of a flatbed truck.

When he pulls the truck over, you let me see your hands. A man is hiding on the back

truck. Slowly down. Slowly. Come on down. Hands up. Get you on the ground. Get your hands out in front of you. It is one of the escapees. Former police officer turned armed robber Robert Davis.

All right. Tell me about New Mexico State Police questions Davis. What are you going to do for me?

The interview with Bob Davis was instrumental in breaking this case wide open. What Bob was able to tell us is how this plan developed from the initial stages all the way to the escape. and where probably the other three important escapees were currently at.

According to Davis, Gilbert, Kinslow, and Gyos are hiding out together. As police suspected, a relative of David Gyos is helping them. This relative was going to take him to a storage facility here in Santa Fe where they would be housed until the roadblocks were down and then a relative of David Gigos would once again meet them, bring them to Albuquerque and they would make their escape all the way to California.

Former New Mexico State Police Lieutenant Mark Roovich. But I think there was a sense from the investigative team and the management team that the information wasn't exact, but it was credible. Based on Davis's statement that the men planned to cross state lines, New Mexico State Police contact the FBI.

Ultimately, I think the FBI found that there was enough information that the individuals might have left the state of New Mexico, then giving them federal jurisdiction, the FBI decided to file an unlawful flight to avoid confinement complaint. This is called a EUAC complaint.

The FBI's EUAC casts a drag net across the nation. Agents around the country are now on the lookout for the convicts. The manhunt intensifies. In New Mexico, investigators turn their attention to trying to find the storage unit. According to Davis, it was rented under a fake name and address. Please.

Yes, here they are. Agents and police searched the records of every storage facility near the airport in Santa Fe.

Have you seen anyone suspicious? They checked the names and addresses in the files,

all of which are valid. Let me give you my card. You do see the fact that we couldn't find Gilbert Kinslow or Gyos indicated to us that they probably had some type of help and somebody was hiding them in the Santa Fe area. agents and state police trying to find out who is helping the fugitives investigate the people closest to them.

The FBI tracked them down, found their locations, determined what type of people they were, whether or not they could have been involved in assisting the people in the uh prison break. And we eliminated a lot of these people as probably not having been involved. But we came up with a handful who we thought might have been involved. Have you heard about the

And among them was Gyos's brother-in-law. The different agents, including myself, found themselves in Albuquerque a lot interviewing members of the David Gyos family.

Newspaper. According to Ggo's brother-in-law, he has not been contacted by the fugitives.

He has no idea where they are. Investigators suspect he is lying. Several more days go by. The roadblocks stay up. Hundreds of officers continue to search for the remaining five fugitives. Even if it's true that three of the escapees are on their way to California, two remain somewhere in the Santa Fe area.

July 11th, 7 days since the breakout, a 17-year-old girl is housesitting in an exclusive neighborhood. She has no idea she's not alone. Two gunmen suddenly appear.

They demand the teenagers car keys. Come on. Did you hear nothing? You didn't see nothing.

She notifies the Santa Fe police. As an officer responds to the scene, he spots two of the fugitives coming straight at him.

410 vehicle spotted in pursuit. The officer swerves just in time. Please get down.

The fugitives aren't so lucky. You would think that both of them would get hurt and injured because it was a good crash. It wasn't just like a little fender bender.

Michael Romero was captured, but Schmidt is able to run from the scene. Up on your knees. He's hiding somewhere in the neighborhood, possibly injured and desperate to do whatever it takes to remain free. In New Mexico, three prison escapees have been recaptured. Four are still on the run. On the morning of July 11th, a Santa Fe resident notices a blood trail leading to his garage. He notifies police. The house is in the neighborhood where Michael Romero was arrested and John Schmidt disappeared the night before. Officers follow the trail of blood to the homeowner's garage.

Put your hands where I can see them. There they find John Schmidt. Cover me. This individual was uh arrested in a garage near the governor's mansion in downtown Santa Fe, which caused a little bit of a stir. former FBI special agent in charge William Bron.

After the first four individuals had been apprehended, the only people on the loose were Gilbert, Kinslow, and Gyos.

They are the three most dangerous escapes. Four-time murderer William Gilbert, serial rapist James Kinslow, and robber David Gyos. But nearly 3 weeks after the escape, the investigators are running out of time and money.

Not only had the main players not been caught, but now we were looking at a great expense in keeping these roadblocks up and using the manpower that were available. So finally, a command decision was made to pull the roadblocks.

David Osuna of the New Mexico State Police questions Robert Davis again. Davis sticks to his story. He was insistent that they're here in San Fipe and that they're at a storage shed, you know, and and honestly, I believe him.

Agents and police continue following the only lead they have. So, please step behind the vehicle.

They take another look at all the storage facilities in the Santa Fe area. We finally end up at this one storage facility off of Airport Road.

All right. Ready? Let's go now. Nothing at this facility. Investigators find that several people occupied one of the units for an extended period of time.

Nothing. I didn't see anything. Investigators find a tiny hole drilled through the concrete wall of the storage unit.

And they could actually see uh although it was a very small hole, traffic going by, people going by and talking, what have you. Lieutenant Mark Revich.

The agents did check that particular location repeatedly, went through the records, but there were some cards that had been inadvertently stored in another file cabinet that were not provided to the agents on any of their visits. Again, we were that close. The discovery of the storage unit confirms the agents suspicions that the fugitives are receiving outside help.

We felt that someone had to have contact with that group. Investigators surveiled the remaining fugitives family members. Former New Mexico State Police criminal investigator Carlos Maldonado.

We use a technique where it's not aggressive, but it's obvious. obvious surveillance where they look out the window. They know that you're parked out there.

37, go ahead. Yeah, I hear something move right now. And it's to raise the stress level uh so that hopefully mistakes are made.

Agents set up pin registers, a device that enables them to track the numbers of all incoming and outgoing calls on the phone lines of a select number of the fugitives associates and family members. We had a pin register installed on a particular individual and uh on the 21st day that individual received a call from a motel in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

We send an FBI agent and a state police agent to that motel. You hope so. Hi FBI agent. Um

they show the desk clerk photos of the remaining fugitives. You have seen them before? Yeah, I have seen

the desk clerk recognizes the three men. She says they checked out of the hotel a few minutes ago.

Did you notice that car that police and FBI agents searched the area? There is no sign of the fugitives.

We recognized that we win Gilbert and Jimmy Kinslow and David Gables had probably left the state. We didn't get any more tips, no phone calls, no nothing. Investigators believe California is a likely destination. They know Gyos has relatives there and recaptured escape Robert Davis mentioned California. Authorities contact police agencies and FBI officers in California to be on the lookout for the three men. They believe the three fugitives are traveling together. Authorities most feared Jimmy Kinslow.

They just knew or felt or believed that because of his background being a stone cold killer and rapist that he was going to do that again.

The FBI's fears are justified. In Arizona, Kinslow has already identified a victim. Seven inmates make a daring escape from prison. Only three escapees remain free. They are heading west and one is taking hostages.

Don't move. Don't wake up. Convicted murderer and rapist Jimmy Kinslow forces his way into an Arizona home.

Don't move. You move, I'll kill you. right now. He demands to know if there are any guns inside.

Don't move. Former FBI special agent in charge William Brandon. He obtained several handguns, a shotgun, and I believe four rifles. So now he's very highly armed.

He forces the entire family into the car. Kinslow orders the father to drive from Flagstaff to Barstow, California, a 350 mi trip. In Barstow, he holds the family hostage in a motel room. 3 hours later, he leaves the motel. He takes the couple's 11year-old daughter with him. He leaves in their car with the 11-year-old and leaves the area. The mother and father are able to free themselves from their being tied up.

Go get the police quick. Hurry, please. They notify the Barstow Police Department. Barsto police immediately contact the FBI.

He's got my little girl. The FBI responded uh to the area and began looking for the car that uh Kinslow was using.

Former special agent in charge of the Los Angeles FBI office, Bucky Cox. The fact that Kinslow now uh was on the loose with an 11-year-old girl notches this up considerably. Uh there there is no type of case in law enforcement that gets law enforcement's attention more than the possible harm to a child.

Agents and police search the streets looking for the abducted family's van. Two hours later, they get an incredible break. The 11-year-old girl approaches a police car in Garden Grove, California, 115 miles from Bartow.

All right, hold on a second. Step back. She tells the police officer she was abducted in Flagstaff, Arizona by an escaped convict along with the rest of her family.

What's happening? Who took? The kidnapper drove her around for several hours before dropping her off behind a restaurant

and says to her, "You stay here. I'm going to come back. If you're gone, I'll find you." Well, as soon as he left, she disobeyed that order and walked out to the street and flagged down a patrol car. She gives police an accurate description of Jimmy Kinsel. According to the girl, the kidnapper is still driving her father's car.

She tells them she overheard him making plans to meet friends at a trailer park somewhere nearby.

All right. Garden Grove police spread out and searched the area looking for the abducted family's car. They quickly spot it. Garden Grove didn't approach that vehicle. They backed off of it to establish a surveillance to see if they could catch someone coming to that vehicle. They backed off in such a manner as not to tip anybody off that they were in the area and had any interest in that vehicle.

An FBI SWAT team sets up a forward command post in a strip mall two blocks from the trailer park. We didn't want to be in a position where we could be observed by anyone who might be going to that vehicle or have anything to do with that vehicle.

Garden Grove detectives maintain surveillance on the van. All of a sudden, an excited voice came across the radio. The lights are on in the van and he's and it's fired up, meaning somebody had started the van, turned the lights on.

Be advised, lights just came on and seconds later, the van is moving. It's rolling.

Vehicle's about to roll. It's backing up. They pull out in pursuit. Investigators thought the vehicle was empty. Apparently, Kinsler was inside all along. The convicted murderer and rapist is finally in their sights. The FBI had to make a decision. Did they want to follow the car, see where it took them to to try to capture Gilbert and Gyos, or should they immediately arrest Kinsow? They made the absolute correct decision and decided to immediately take down Kinsow.

FBI agents and Garden Grove police converge on all four sides of the vehicle. He's got a van in front of him. He's got FBI behind him. I think there's a Garden Grove patrol car behind him. Put your hands out.

I'm actually coming the opposite way and turning towards the side. So, he has no place to go at this point.

Kinslow is outmanned and outgunned. But police fear this ruthless murderer will not go down without a fight. In Garden Grove, California, agents and police have dangerous fugitive Jimmy Kinslow cornered.

Investigators fear they are in for a fight. Let me see your hand. Let me see your hands.

Jimmy Kinslow finally gives up. All right. [screaming] You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say it cannot will be used against you in a court law. You have the right to have an attorney. You can't afford one. One will be appointed for you.

Investigators search the fugitive's car and make a chilling discovery. Former special agent in charge of the Los Angeles FBI office, Bucky Cox. I don't know. We looked down and there was a 357 Magnum pistol revolver that was laying on the floorboard on the driver's side.

Investigators find additional weapons in the back of the vehicle. Kinslow is interrogated at the Garden Grove Police Station.

We need to find agents need to know where the remaining two fugitives are. Okay, more you help us. At least turn up the pressure.

Although Kinslow has nothing to lose, he starts to talk. Fire station. Former FBI special agent in charge William Bron.

There's no honor among these guys. Kinslow told us where Gilbert and Gyos were.

According to Kinslow, the last two fugitives are staying at a motel in Garden Grove, California. He doesn't know the room number, but he can describe the room's location.

Kinslow agrees to draw a sketch of the motel and of the room. And then he also tells us that another family member is there that had helped uh Gyos and Gilbert and actually brought them to the motel.

Gilbert and Gyos are on the second floor. The family member is in the room directly beneath them. From their command post two blocks from the motel, the FBI decides whether to raid the rooms.

Fugitives are armed. They have nothing to lose and the motel is full of innocent people.

Sketch that I drew face. We could get in law enforcement terms burned. they'll they'll spot us and now we've got a really a dangerous situation on our hands. Conversely, if we hit the wrong room, then it's going to wake up the whole neighborhood and we've got a dangerous situation on our hands. So, we weighed the options.

It's a risky operation. But losing the fugitives is even riskier. The FBI decides to raid the motel rooms. All ready to go.

So here we had two separate rooms. One where the remaining two escapees from New Mexico are located and the other one where the people who assisted or facilitated the escape are staying.

Ready to go. Let's do this thing. All right. So, what we decided is we are going to do a SWAT entry on the room with the two fugitives, and we are going to do basically a knock and announce on the room down below as soon as the flashbang goes off.

At 6:30 a.m., an FBI SWAT team forcibly enters room 243 at the motel. No knock was made. A device called the flashbang was thrown in. It immediately disorients whoever is in the room.

William Gilbert and David Gyos are quickly taken into custody. Don't move. Inside the motel room, agents find two sawoff shotguns and a revolver along with a large quantity of ammunition. I think once these three individuals got to the motel, they probably figured that uh they had pulled it off and that they were going to get off scot-free,

but not so because technology and law enforcement caught up with them. All seven fugitives are finally back in custody. It was an exhilarating experience when they were caught because the team had done their job. It was great. On July 31st, 27 days after the escape, the last of the fugitives are returned to the penitentiary of New Mexico. Their breakout had been months in planning. To this day, no one knows how Gilbert got a gun inside the prison. After the escape, New Mexico built a new prison with more modern security features.

Thanks to the hard work of the New Mexico law enforcement agencies and the FBI, Michael Romero, Robert Davis, John Schmidt, and Hector Torres face additional charges. William Gilbert, Jimmy Kinslow, and David Gyos will spend the rest of their lives in prison. A Tennessee community is shocked when a beloved elderly woman vanishes. As investigators search, the mystery of her disappearance deepens. The truth begins to emerge. But slowly and in unexpected directions.

See anybody around? As police and the FBI try to help a troubled small town find their dear friend. We got heat. In 1992, a woman disappeared from her Memphis home. When the ransom went uncollected, the FBI suspected a desperate amateur and feared the worst. I'm Jim Calstrom, former head of the FBI's New York office. As the search for the woman progressed, investigators uncovered a web of lies and false accusations designed to hide the real perpetrator.

Memphis Tennessee. On August 7th, 1992, 25 miles outside the city in the small town of Eids, successful land developer Alan Roberts arrived home from work. As usual, his wife's car was in the driveway, but he was surprised to find the mail there. Do

his wife do Roberts usually left a note when she went out, but there was none. Do

in the kitchen. Alan spotted Doe's asthma medication on the counter. She always took the inhaler when she went out. He called their closest friends nearby. Bill. Yeah, Bill. This is Alan. Have you seen Do today? Has she been over there?

No one he spoke to had heard from Do I'm a little bit worried. Okay, I'm going to tell you what. I'm going to go up around the property for you. Do me a favor. Call her out. See if you can find her. Okay.

Robert's worried she might have had an asthma attack while working in the garden.

He searched the grounds of their farm. No sign of dough. Do he was about to call the police when his telephone rang.

Hello, Do. It was a man speaking with an Asian accent. You have Do? What do you mean you have Do what do you want?

The caller demanded a $100,000 ransom for Do's safe return. Not a problem. I can take care of it. Just it'll take me a little time. You just let me know what what you want me to do and I'll do it. Okay. But he didn't explain where to take the money.

Where do you want me to take it? Before he hung up. Hello. Stunned, Allan immediately called the Shelby County Sheriff's Department and told them about his wife's disappearance and the ransom call he received. The team of deputies and sheriff's inspectors responded to the house. Not too good. My wife is not here.

Roberts told them he did not recognize the voice of the caller and did not know anyone who would want to harm Do.

Came back home then about 7:30 8:00. As the interview continued, agents from the FBI's Memphis field office arrived.

Ee is about 30 miles from both the Arkansas and Mississippi borders. If someone took dough across state lines, the FBI would take the lead since transporting a victim state to state is a federal crime.

Roberts explained he last saw his wife that morning. So, you plan on working in the

They had eaten breakfast together as they had every morning for 43 years. Yes, I am. I hope it's not too hot to work. At 10, Allan left to meet a prospective out of town buyer for a property he was developing.

See you later. All right. Have a good day. All right. Byebye. Bye. The buyer, a man named Sam Wagner, had called the day before making an appointment to see the property at 10:30 that morning.

Morning. Robert said he waited for over an hour, but Sam Wagner never showed. Seemed like it.

He spent the rest of the afternoon laying sod at another of his development properties.

Sure. Yeah. You want this way? The investigators needed to check the house for evidence. Robert showed them Doe's asthma inhaler and said if she suffered a serious attack without it, she could die.

They needed to find her immediately. So, looking for signs of forced entry, deputies checked doors and windows.

Nothing appeared suspicious. Is it locked? Knowing that people sometimes run off voluntarily, faking abductions to cover themselves, deputies checked Do's bedroom.

Her suitcases and all of her clothing were still there, as were her valuables. It didn't seem like she left on her own. If someone had abducted her, one clue suggested it happened outside. According to FBI special agent Joanne Overall,

Allan Roberts located mail halfway into the garage and it was not taken into the house. He suspected that his wife had gone to the mailbox and never made it back into the house and she had laid the mail down at that point. Beginning at the driveway, deputies form search lines, fanning out in a grid pattern to scour the 150 acre farm for any sign of the 65year-old woman or what happened to her. Despite the efforts of multiple search teams, they found nothing. The best chance for a new lead would be additional ransom calls.

Got this hooked up. Will he call? We began monitoring Alan Robert's phone right after the kidnapping. With his consent, we placed a recorder on his phone should he get a call from the kidnapper.

Recording when the phone rings. They also installed tracing equipment. Leave it down the whole time you're talking. When you finish, push.

If the man with the Asian accent called again, the FBI would be ready. Later that night, the phone rang. Hello. Uh,

yes. It was coming from a nearby pay phone. No, ju just don't hurt her. I'll do whatever you want.

Deputies headed toward the source of the call. Okay. It sounded like the same man who called earlier.

Okay. He said Do was safe for now and he knew law enforcement was listening. Robert said the caller ordered him to remove the tape of their conversation and crush it in the driveway. Once

we were taking it outside and spanked, they quickly switched it with a blank tape.

All right, go out there and crush it and I'll watch it. Oh. Oh, okay. At that time, no surveillance officers were outside. When Shelby County deputies arrived at the pay phone, it was clear.

Whoever made the call was gone. By daybreak, investigators expanded their search into the Eid's community, asking friends and neighbors when they last saw Do and if they noticed anything unusual on the day of her disappearance.

Dylan Robertson. Yeah, sure. They live right over there. No one recalled seeing or hearing from her that day.

Yes, sir. One neighbor told investigators that at church that week, there seemed to be tension between Do and Allen,

but no solid clues emerged. Word of the kidnapping spread and news stations picked up the story. Joe Burch of WMCTV in Memphis reported on the small community's reaction to Do's disappearance.

What are you doing? Oh, I'm just looking at the story. A lot of people felt it must have been someone from the outside who committed this crime because these people worshiped together. They went to square dances together. They spent a lot of their time together and their focus was their little community and staying away from downtown Memphis and all the danger that might be here. Um,

so I think the people in the Eids community felt like an outsider probably committed this crime. But investigators wondered how in a place like Eids, the stranger wasn't noticed. As the investigation's first full day drew to a close, Special Agent Overall's concern grew. The 24 hours immediately following a kidnapping are critical. As more time passes, the chances of finding the victim alive diminish rapidly. On the second day, community members gathered to show their support and offer prayers for Do's safe return.

While the town of Eids prayed, investigators turned their attention to the most likely suspect. In a case like this, we always look at the family members and relatives, people that are closest to the victim first, and then work the circle outwards. They needed to start with the husband, Alan Roberts. It was possible he had harmed Do then used an accomplice to make the ransom calls. It is always difficult when family members realize they are suspects.

Authorities had to ask the worried husband to take a polygraph test. Anything I can do to help.

It was an unexpected request, but Allan agreed. A polygraph measures a subject's physiological reactions while answering questions. The subject reviews all of the questions before the test so there are no surprises.

Though commonly called a lie detector test, a polygraph does not actually detect lies. It only detects whether the subject is exhibiting the characteristics most people exhibit when lying. Robert,

spikes in heart rate, perspiration, blood pressure, and respiration. Are you convinced that I will only ask you questions that we've gone over before?

While polygraph results are rarely admissible in court, many investigators find they point them in the right direction.

Is your first name Allan? Yes. The examiner asked Robert's questions unrelated to the case to establish a baseline for truthful responses. Then he asked questions about his relationship with Do and the events of the day she disappeared.

Did you kill Do Roberts? No. The examiner then interpreted the graphic output to determine if Roberts appeared to be deceptive on the questions about the case.

All right. In his opinion, Alan Roberts answered all of the questions truthfully. That indic.

Allan was sure this was the end of it. But agents knew the test results were not always accurate.

To save his life, right? Yeah. They could not eliminate him yet. To check Robert's story, the FBI wanted to find Sam Wagner, the man he allegedly went to meet on the morning of Doe's abduction. We thought Sam Wagner may have come into this area and because of their financial backings and holdings that he may have kidnapped Do Roberts for the money that they had cuz they had a substantial amount of money.

Agents checked FBI databases and nationwide DMV records searching for anyone named Sam Wagner. In several states, FBI agents interviewed men of that name, but eliminated each as a suspect.

Allan Roberts story became more suspicious when Sam Wagner became an unknown individual that we couldn't locate. And it became more apparent to us that Allan Roberts could possibly be behind the kidnapping.

Looks like he checks out. I don't think he's going to If Allan did do something to his wife, perhaps the couple's phone records and banking statements would reveal a clue.

There's nothing unusual about any of the phone calls. Yet, investigators uncovered only evidence of a normal life spent in a small town.

With no sign of contact with anyone suspicious and no record of Do spending money after August 7th,

no leads were panning out. Eventually, they came to believe Doe Roberts was dead.

After approximately 2 to 3 weeks of being unable to locate the victim, that was more than likely going to end up being a homicide. I requested through my supervisor that we bring in Shelby County Sheriff's Department into the investigation to make it a joint investigation.

If it were a murder, it would be prosecuted in state court. The team returned to the Robert's house.

The second search of Alan Roberts property was done more in a forensic frame of mind and we were looking for blood spatterings in the house as well as in the barn.

Again, Roberts cooperated. He would do anything. Forensics technicians from the FBI and the sheriff's department processed the buildings, looking for any evidence of a murder, cleanup, or disposal of a body. They also gathered hairs and carpet fibers from Allen's truck to compare to any evidence recovered later. The painstaking search lasted two full days. Thanks.

Alan Roberts grew more frustrated that law enforcement had to devote so much time to him as a suspect. He was wearing down and the real kidnapper was out there somewhere. In 1992, the Shelby County Sheriff's Department and the Memphis FBI searched Alan Roberts farm and its buildings for any sign of his wife's possible murder. Roberts had passed a polygraph, and now none of the items on his property tested positive for blood. Yet, no other suspects emerged, and investigators had developed circumstantial evidence that implicated Roberts.

Although several witnesses had seen Roberts that day, his confirmed alibi only accounted for about 5 hours. Authorities knew that left plenty of time to get rid of a body. Also, some members of the Eids community gave statements claiming Alan Roberts had acted in a suspicious manner following Doe's disappearance. According to special agent Joanne Overall

hung up after people within the community felt he did not openly grieve for the loss of his wife. He was socializing shortly after her kidnapping that both him and his wife were members of a square dancing group and within a couple of weeks Allan was back at the square dancing group with various partners. News anchor Joe Burch observed Robert's lack of emotion during media coverage.

When somebody's wife disappears, you'd expect to see a level of emotion. And we just didn't see it from Alan Roberts. He was just kind of calm, cool, and collected and very direct. And there wasn't a lot of uh tearyeyed emotional appeals that we see a lot in in kidnapping cases. Investigators kept watching Roberts as he tried to carry on with his life, struggling with the frustration of not knowing where his wife was and being the only suspect in her disappearance. Yet, they saw nothing that led them to Do Roberts.

In September, the man with the Asian accent resurfaced, now saying Allan was involved.

Hello. The kidnapper began calling people in the Eids community, stating that Doe Roberts was still alive.

Many of the phone calls indicated Allan was part of the scheme to kidnap his wife. It was extremely frustrating because he never gave specific points to drop money. Several of the people who talked to the kidnapper had caller IDs on their phones. So, agents traced the calls to phone booths on a welltraveled road. We would go to the phone booths immediately. And of course, the individual who was making the phone call was already gone. Other people had already used the phone. We would check the phones for possible fingerprints.

And there was just never any evidence to tie an individual to that phone. Okay here.

Each of the calls were made within a few miles of the Robert's house. A significant risk in a small community buzzing about the case. This boldness suggested that the caller was an insider, familiar enough to be inconspicuous in public and that he considered himself beyond the reach of investigators. Desperate for something solid, Alan Roberts took things into his own hands, offering a reward for Do's safe return and announcing he disconnected the FBI's recording and tracing equipment from his phone so the kidnapper could call freely.

On October 8th, 1992, 2 months after Doappeared, the kidnapper called Alan Roberts again.

Is she okay? He told him to drive to a pay phone at a country store a mile away. Now, Roberts hurried to the store. Once again, he was on his own with no corroborating witness to prove what was happening. The phone was already ringing when he arrived. He hoped finally this would be his chance to get his wife back.

Hello. 2 months after someone abducted 65-year-old Doe Roberts, the kidnapper ordered her husband, Alan Roberts, to a pay phone.

Hello. Hello. The man with the Asian accent said Do was alive and still with him.

He asked Roberts for the name of an intermediary, someone Allan trusted that the kidnapper could contact.

Somebody at the church. What do you mean somebody at the church? Roberts suggested Charles Lord, a leading church member and friend of the family.

Charles, the caller said he would be in touch about where to bring the ransom money. Listen, can I talk to do? Let me please let me talk to Do. Hello.

Then he hung up. Well, they they've been good. Charles Lord, the man Roberts picked to be his intermediary, was a civil servant and treasurer of the local church. church with him.

He made a public appeal to the kidnapper on Alan Robert's behalf, asking the man to call him and finally give specific instructions for a ransom drop.

Call my number and I'll line up how to get. They all wanted to get dough back. More calls from the kidnapper came to Charles Lord and others in the community, but still no details for an exchange. In November 1992, Charles Lord called investigators [clears throat] to his home. Special Agent Joanne Overall hoped they finally had a direct link to the kidnapper.

Come on in. I have Charles Lord stated that late in the evening he heard a car out on his cove. He walked down to the mailbox and there was a letter placed in his mailbox which was a kidnapping ransom letter.

Investigators were glad to have physical evidence. Fingerprints, hairs of fibers on the letter might provide a link to the kidnapper. But by the time they got to it, they found the evidence tainted. Charles Lord took this letter and showed it to several people before we were called in and obtained the letter. So, there was quite a few fingerprints on the letter before we got it. Lab examiners checked all of the prints, determining they belong to Lord and the people he let handle the letter. Nothing to lead them to the kidnapper.

The message was no help either. The ransom had been lowered, but still no instructions for a drop. It seemed the kidnapper was playing games with them. In case he contacted Lord again, agents set a trap. Our office set up surveillance on his mailbox using a hidden camera which was literally placed in a birdhouse close to the mailbox.

Okay, now you can back off. If the kidnapper dropped off another note, they'd have him on tape. Agents also installed wiretap and recording devices on Lord's telephone.

Basically, what you do, you just hit the play button. They still had no real evidence against Alan Roberts. But a new suspect was developing.

Yes, sir. Come on in. Charles Lord began taking an active role in the investigation, often stopping by the sheriff's office to check on their progress.

The Roberts, no Roberts. Yes, sir. The deputies became suspicious. He seemed too interested.

Their suspicion deepened because of the peculiar nature of the phone calls he claimed he got from the kidnapper.

Charles Lord stated he received several phone calls from the kidnapper. He did say that he talked with Doe Roberts, which was unusual because none of the other callers talked with Doe Roberts.

But agents never got tapes of the calls. But every time he received a telephone call, it appeared that our equipment didn't work. Over the next week, Lord reported another ransom letter and one of Doe's scarves placed in his mailbox. Agents recovered no evidence from the items, but hope their camera captured images of the kidnapper. They had plenty of the regular mail carrier, but when the tape got to where the kidnapper should appear, it went blank. When the equipment that was placed at Charles Lord's residence continued to fail, I just thought we had poor equipment.

Eventually, it became apparent that somebody was tampering with it. Agents suspected the interference came from Charles Lord.

Then the victim's husband, Alan Roberts, reported a strange encounter with Lord. He said the night before at the Eids Community Center, Lord summoned him to a private meeting. Allan was surprised when his friend offered to help get Dough back for a price. Alan Roberts told me that Charles Lord had advised that he had underworld contacts and that there was information available if Charles could get some money to pay for it.

Also, Allan advised at that time that Charles Lord was wearing a gun. It was clear Lord was somehow involved.

But investigators needed more than suspicion. Got it. Just hold your phone. Thank you.

They needed evidence. On March 4th, 1993, 7 months after Do disappeared, there was another twist in the case.

Can we help you? Memphis news anchor Joe Burch received a call at his office. Yes.

I've never recorded a a telephone conversation before, but I decided that I would record this conversation.

Where is Roberts right now? The call set off a trigger in my mind that this could be the same individual who's been making the anonymous calls in the Doe Roberts case. And I tried to get the man to stay on the line for as long as he would stay. As Bur spoke to the man with the Asian accent, he tried to elicit details as to who the caller was and what happened to Do

Roberts alive. When Bur tried to set up a ransom drop, the caller hung up. Hello. Hello.

I took the tape directly into my boss's office. We immediately called the FBI and the Shelby County Sheriff's Department.

What can you tell us about Robert? Investigators agreed to WMCTV airing the tape, hoping it might flush the kidnapper out.

The kidnapper called back. He was angry they aired the tape and demanded no more coverage. But this time, Joe Burch got him to do what no one else had.

Arrange a ransom drop. Agents and sheriff's inspectors staked out the drop location, ready to grab the caller who had eluded them for so long.

Is that her? That's her. Yeah. As instructed, a reporter from WMCTV drove to the spot with $80,000 in cash. But I don't see anybody else. Do you see anybody else?

Everyone waited hoping. But the kidnapper never showed. She's leaving. It didn't happen.

One more disappointment in a frustrating investigation. 9. Be advised, subject has just left. No contact. Show us going ahead and clear the scene.

Other deputies observed. Charles Lord was home the entire time. Weeks passed with no movement on the case. Then in June 1993, the kidnapper arranged another drop. He called two of Doe's nephews and told them to bring the ransom money to a local motel. Soon, the elusive kidnapper finally would surface. In June 1993, investigators working the Doe Roberts kidnapping staked out an Eid, Tennessee motel. He did a good job.

Special Agent Joanne Overall was part of the surveillance. Do Robert's nephews received a call from the kidnapper and they tried to make an arranged ransom drop. They were told to go to a motel room, which they did, but they also called the FBI. They were waiting to get a phone call or meet with somebody. Other surveillance deputies had been unable to find suspect Charles Lord that night.

As the team at the motel watched, a man approached. There's something. It was Lord.

He went to the room the nephews had rented. Charles Lord told the nephews of Doe Roberts that he had received a call from the kidnapper and that he was to show up there and get the money and he would receive a phone call as to where to take the money.

But the nephews wouldn't give him the cash. They said they wanted to deal with the kidnapper directly. Investigators were sure that was exactly who they were dealing with.

He is the only individual who had received a telephone call stating that he had uh talked with Doe Roberts and now he was meeting with somebody to pick up money, but we did not have enough evidence at that time to go forward with an arrest. They did however increase their focus on Lord.

To look for a financial motive to the kidnapping. The FBI subpoenaed Lord's bank records.

Yes, sir. Earlier on the phone. We went through records trying to determine if he had loans out, if he what his financial holdings were, and it became apparent that Charles Lord owed a lot of money to several banks in town, substantial amounts of money, and that he was unable to meet the payments and that he had filed for bankruptcy.

That circumstantial evidence allowed investigators to secure a search warrant for Lord's house. Get the stand over here.

In late June 1993, they served the warrant, which allowed them to look for and seize any financial documents.

Some of the files they recovered revealed Lord's criminal past. He had embezzled over $150,000 from the Memphis Depo where he had retired several years prior and he had embezzled approximately $70,000 from the church there in Eid where he was attending.

As treasurer of the church, Lord had access to the parish bank accounts and cash donations. Despite the find, investigators still had no direct evidence of the abduction.

We had nothing that we could use to charge him with a kidnapping and the murder of Doe Roberts.

It was important to obtain a confession from Charles Lord because we had no body.

Good. Maybe this will help us out a little bit. One agent working the case was trained in criminal profiling.

He wants more attention. Analyzing Lord's actions, he offered a behavioral profile to help get the confession here. We got all these files. Is he going to repeat?

He suggested Lord was a manipulative, pathological liar who believed he was untouchable.

He's going to help us out, but I don't know if the agent felt that overwhelming the suspect's ego was the only way to beat him. All right. What you guys need to do is let

The plan was to bring Lord in for an interview and let him see what he would take to be evidence of a massive investigation against him for months.

Push into his confessing. Agents created numerous evidence boxes, hoping to trump Lord's belief he was above the investigation. Then on August 25th, 1993, at the FBI's Memphis field office, investigators met with Lord and his attorney.

Got some questions about you know anything about Mrs. Roberts? As Charles Lord sat in that room during the interview, I was watching him look at these boxes realizing that he had been under surveillance for a lot longer than he had anticipated and he became very nervous. The FBI's tactics appeared to be working. Lord eventually admitted to making some of the ransom calls. He said he did it to keep the investigation alive for Do's sake, but denied any involvement in her abduction. Sensing that he was ready to crack, the investigators offered him a deal.

Charles Lord was told by our office as well as the Shelby County inspector that if he would take a polygraph and pass a polygraph, we would not look at him any further for the Dough Roberts kidnapping. However, if he failed the polygraph, his attorney and Charles Lord agreed to a further interview interrogation in reference to the kidnapping.

He agreed. After asking control questions to gauge Lord's truthful response levels,

the polygraph examiner asked about Do including whether Lord was involved in her abduction.

Did you harm Do Roberts? In the end, the examiner believed the polygraph results showed Lord being deceptive. Though the results could not be used in court, they meant authorities could continue questioning the suspect. With Lord's attorney present in the interrogation room, FBI agents and inspectors from the Shelby County Sheriff's Department pressed the suspect, returning again and again to the polygraph results. I've got every piece of evidence I need. What I need you to do.

At first, he continued to deny involvement, but after several hours, the interview tactics wore him down.

Lord said he was ready to tell them what happened. He said he needed cash to pay back his loans and cover the money he stole from the church and decided to kidnap Doe for ransom. On August 6th, 1992, he called the Roberts, posing as a property buyer named Sam Wagner and arranged to meet Allan. The next day, when he knew Allen was waiting at the development property, he drove by their house. Do was bringing in the mail.

Do there's been an accident. He knew she would trust him. Allan's been involved in an accident. Yeah. Get in the car and I'll take you to him.

What happened? Do you know? Do you Is he all right? Lord told investigators he planned to release Do after he got the ransom, but she suffered a fatal heart attack in his car.

He said he panicked and dumped her body in her purse, but he would not say where.

Would you be willing to take us to where she is? The investigators believed he was lying, at least about planning to release Do and perhaps about other details.

You did what you were supposed to do. Special Agent Joanne Overall knew they had to find the body to check his story.

They offered a deal. Charles Lord agreed to tell us where Doe Robert's body was after he had confessed to the kidnapping in exchange for Shelby County not pursuing the death penalty. Lord claimed he dumped her in the Wolf River, a slowmoving river that runs 90 miles across the southwest corner of the state. The Wolf River empties into the Mississippi at Memphis. Lord said he dumped the remains from a bridge in Faget County, 13 miles from the Robert's home.

Divers would begin 50 yards up river, searching for the body and purse. Lieutenant John Yansy of the Shelby County Sheriff's Department led the dive in the murky river.

We had 21 divers involved total. The visibility in the river was uh zero. It was told black water

and in the dark water several species of venomous snakes. Adding to the challenge was the fact that the crime took place a year earlier. Any remains would be scattered and difficult to find. FBI agents and sheriff's deputies helped the divers by stretching a rope across the river's width. Divers held on to the rope and moved across its length, searching the river bottom by hand. Normally, you do an arms arm over arm for a search for a body because it's large. But we were looking for contents of the purse at the time to try to make sure that this was actually the scene.

So, we had to bring it down to where we were instead of doing the large arm spins, we were having to do what I call this the hand grab. And that's where you just get the dirt with your hand. And that way, you're able to find everything on the bottom. Once the divers reached the other bank, the team would move the rope a foot down river and start over. Anytime a diver found something, he signaled, and additional divers came in to mark and extract the item. We found a safe that had been taken in a robbery of a cleaners and the money had fallen out of the safe and we found the pennies on the bottom and the dollar bills but we found no contents of any of her purse. So I feel like if we'd have found pennies on the bottom we would have found her makeup or a wallet or IDs or anything ties back to her.

In 110 degree heat, the team continued their search of every square inch. On my second day, I was on the the bridge and and an elderly lady walked up to me and said, "I want you to do me a favor." And I said, "I'll try to if I can." She said, "I want you to find us something today so we can get this over with so we can go ahead and bury D and get this case over with." After three full days, they had searched a half mile of the river.

They believed the body would not have gone farther than that in the land waters.

I went to my boss, my chief, and I told him, I said, "Based on my experience and what we have done, she's not in here, but if you want us to continue the search, we'll search till it runs into Mississippi. Every how you want to do it. But I can tell you right now, she's not here. Investigators were convinced Lord had lied to them, unnecessarily, placing the dive team in danger. Special Agent Overall confronted Lord. We took Charles Lord out to the site and explained to him that these divers were putting their lives in jeopardy and we needed to find the body and it didn't appear that the body was there.

The suspect had run out of lies. Now he was ready to tell investigators what really happened to Do Roberts. After a three-day search of Tennessee's Wolf River, dive leader Lieutenant John Yansy believed the remains of kidnapping victim Doe Roberts were not in the river. We had searched everywhere possible and just over the years of experience. Uh I would have found something by now. Either some bones, some makeup or something. I said based on my experience, if she's not in here, the divers are, she's not there. Investigators confronted suspect Charles Lord.

The deal is going to come off the table. realizing they would not give up until they got the truth. Lord admitted do had not died of a heart attack in his car.

They searched. He said he took her to his house and tied her up in a room above the garage. He could never let his neighbor go now. He tried to kill her with sleeping pills.

Okay. When that didn't work, he smothered her with a pillow. in our backyard. Lord said he buried her in his backyard compost heap. On top of the body, he placed a layer of lime, then concrete, hoping they would hasten decomposition.

They needed to determine if Lord was telling the truth this time to retrieve evidence and give Do's family the closure of knowing what happened.

Stand by. The sheriff's department called in forensic anthropologists from the University of Tennessee. After removing layers of leaves and compost, they began the dig. Shelby County Sheriff's Lieutenant Ronald Goodwin supervised the meticulous excavation.

It's just uh using brushes and little trials much like uncovering artifacts. And it's just it's one spoonful at a time to make sure that you don't miss any evidence and make sure you don't do anything to harm what evidence may be with the body.

After 2 hours, they pierced a shell of concrete and lime in the space underneath a body.

The first thing that we came to was a hand. The rest of the body was laying flat in the uh grave site uh on its back face up. It took 17 hours to completely exume the remains and what investigators found surprised them. The skin was intact. The body was in such good condition. I felt like that many scientific tests that we could run might reveal poisoning uh cause of death, sexual attack or whatever. It appeared that the actions that uh Mr. Lord had taken such as the lime and so forth on top of the body had worked in reverse and it had preserved the body for us.

The most chilling detail was the position of the 65year-old woman's hand. The only thing that was out of normal position was the hand which was up in front of her face in a defensive position with a finger spread. It appeared to investigators she might not have been dead when she was buried.

Maybe she was still alive. Maybe she was pushing up with her hand. Over a year after Doe Roberts disappeared, the FBI and Allen Roberts had their evidence. On October 19th, 1993, Charles Lord plead guilty to first-degree murder and kidnapping. He was sentenced to life plus 25 years. Do's husband Allen had endured being a suspect for months. Now with the truth out, he could finally lay Doe to rest. But one challenge remains for Alan Roberts.

It's an uneven closure. I'm trying to forget about Charles, Lord, and I'm praying that God will let me forgive him. I'm praying that dough is in God's hands right now. Mr. and Mrs. Roberts enjoyed 43 years of marriage before they were torn apart. He has faith that one day he will see her again.

Yeah. Heat. Heat. N. Heat. Heat.

Questions about this episode

Who speaks in "How Fugitives Bradley Martin & Carolyn King Killed Across America"?

Jim Calstrom (Host), Paul Zeman (Guest), Michael Weman (Guest), Craig Welcon (Guest), Joe Ganon (Guest), Bradley Martin (Guest), Carolyn King (Guest).

What is "How Fugitives Bradley Martin & Carolyn King Killed Across America" about?

Two fugitives, Bradley Martin and Carolyn King, evade law enforcement as they commit a series of violent crimes across the United States, leaving a trail of fraudulent activity and murder behind them. With authorities, including the FBI, hot on their heels, the investigation intensifies after the discovery of a gruesome crime scene in Pennsylvania, revealing the depths of their dangerous escapes.

What is mentioned in this The FBI Files episode?

16 people, works and ideas are mentioned, including Bradley Martin, FBI, Guy Goodman, Donna Martz, Paul Zechman, Doe Roberts. Each one on this page links to its own page with every episode that mentions it.

How long is "How Fugitives Bradley Martin & Carolyn King Killed Across America"?

The episode runs 2 h 29 min; the transcript is about 19,049 words in 451 timestamped sections.

More from The FBI Files

About this transcript: the episode's spoken words as captioned on YouTube, split into timestamped sections. Reclip.Me locates every person, work and idea in the text, keeps the time it is first named, and quotes the words around it verbatim. Last updated January 25, 2026.