Investigations
By Jack Cloherty, Dateline NBC National Producer
In 30 years of covering crime, cops and courts, I've never heard a story so evil: a 22-year-old woman is abducted and taken to a "party" where she is humiliated, abused, gang raped and strangled. At least two dozen of her so-called friends are at this "party," but no one intervenes on her behalf. Her naked and battered body is dumped in a snowdrift off the interstate, and for 25 long years, no one goes to the police. That's the thumbnail sketch of Janet Chandler's murder, and it is so gruesome it makes you want to stop believing in the decency of human beings.
But on the flip side of this horror is one of the most affirming stories about the human spirit that I've ever covered: a college professor and a group of students at Janet Chandler's old college make a documentary about her case, and spark a new police investigation. A tenacious cold case team works more than two years to track down the killers, and cracks the decades-old conspiracy of silence. Then Assistant Michigan Attorney General Donna Pendergast and the prosecution stepped up to put on a bullet-proof court case, and by late 2007, six people had been convicted of Janet Chandler's 1979 murder. There is a measure of justice for Janet today, but only because dozens of people worked in harmony for years to to win that justice.
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By Dan Slepian, Dateline Producer
The email arrived on a Sunday morning, at 4:50 a.m.
I'm writing to you about a 25-year-old cold case from 1981 in which a woman named Barbara L. Winn was shot in the chest with a .38 Special after a violent fight.
A woman named Patty Bruce was writing about her sister-in-law, Barbara Winn, whose death in 1981 had been ruled a suicide.
The e-mail claimed Barbara had not killed herself, but that Barbara was murdered by her ex-boyfriend, Aaron "Bubbie" Foster. The e-mail revealed that Foster was currently a free man, working for the St. Paul Police Department.
We receive many e-mails alleging miscarriages of justice, but there was something about this one.
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Chris Hansen, Dateline correspondent
Every once in a while a story finds you. Such is the case with the hour-long investigation we'll bring you on Friday night, May 2.
I think it's one of the most unique and interesting stories we've done this year and it came to us in an equally unique and interesting way. It was a tip from a Texas-based cameraman that got the ball rolling. In the past, Izzy Cardoza had done some work for NBC News and so he felt comfortable calling NBC after he says a so-called producer/reality show host didn't pay him for a project Izzy and his crew shot.
Izzy, as it turned out had kept all the tapes as collateral and when the producer/host never came up with a promised certified check, Izzy and his crew walked off the job with the tapes.
Guess who has the tapes now?
That's right, Dateline. And they not only make for compelling television, they allowed us to track down a group of contestants who say they were duped into believing they were going to appear worldwide on a reality show. The group was told that the winner would get $50,000 and the possibility of a big time modeling contract.
The host/producer was a fellow named Gemase Simmons. He claimed to be a former supermodel, but as our investigation would reveal, that and so many other things he claimed couldn't be confirmed or just weren't true.
As you'll see, Simmons puts the contestants through the kind of grueling physical contests that have become reality show fare, but it's what was going on off-camera that was really bizarre.
We'll show you that, and also what happens when we go looking for Gemase Simmons to ask him what he was really up to.
'Reality Bites' aired on Friday, May 2. Click here to read Gemase Simmons' response after the broadcast.
By Josh Mankiewicz, Dateline Correspondent
It's been a long road for Cindy Sommer. Her U.S. Marine husband died in February, 2002, and she just got out of jail last week after being convicted by a jury of his murder. Now here's the hitch: she's innocent. Officially.
Cops and prosecutors will tell you, somewhat derisively, that the jails and prisons are just full of innocent men and women, that everyone behind bars comes armed with a story about how they got jobbed by the system. I don't know how often that's true, but it's certainly true for Cindy Sommer.
Her husband dropped dead on the bedroom floor that awful night, and although Cindy tried to do CPR, Todd Sommer died at only 23. The official cause of death was a heart attack.
A year or so later, Naval investigators (NCIS) were about to close the case when they decided to send Todd's tissue samples to a lab for heavy-metals analysis. That lab test came back showing more than a thousand times the amount of arsenic in Todd Sommer's tissues than should have been there.
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By Chris Hansen, Dateline Correspondent
We’d been hearing complaints from senior citizens and government regulators across the country about the tactics some insurance salesmen are using to sell certain investments to retired folks. I’m a long ways off from retiring, but it’s an important subject to me because my mom’s close to that age and my aunts and uncles are already there. Given the turbulence we’ve seen on Wall Street, it seems like everyone is re-evaluating or repositioning their investments and would like to have their money in a safe place. And that’s what a lot of salesmen are pitching these days.
The investments are called equity-indexed annuities. They may be appropriate for some, but not for everyone. Why are so many people trying to sell these to retired folks? Simple: that’s where the money is. Seniors control more than $15 trillion in today’s economy and for the salesmen, these annuities pay healthy commissions.
Dateline decided to use hidden cameras to find out what salesmen were really saying or not saying to seniors when peddling these investments. We attended some of those “free lunch” seminars put on for potential clients, classes where salesman are taught the tricks of the trade. We wired some houses in communities where a lot of retired people live, so we could see the one-on-one pitch play out in real time.
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By Keith Morrison, Dateline Correspondent
A strange thing has happened in recent years to some of law enforcement's signature tools, those pieces of evidence which have sent countless thousands of men and women to prisons all around the world. The agent of change is, of course, that amazingly accurate marker of individuality, DNA.
DNA is now helping police solve crimes which once would have languished in a cold case room forever. But as we have also learned, occasionally to our surprise, DNA has also undone convictions once considered absolutely solid.
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By Sara James, Dateline Correspondent
I only wish I had met Abe Anhang under different circumstances. I only wish I had met his son, Adam, at all.
Abe Anhang is both razor sharp and resolute, a man crackling with integrity and brimming with love for his family. Adam Anhang was also known for his quick wit and equally ready smile, a magnet of a man. The kind of guy who would figure out the puzzle more quickly than you, but happily turn around and show you how he did it -- that uncommon blend of a brilliant mind and a gentle, generous spirit.
Like father, like son.
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By John Block, Dateline Producer
I have been tracking Adam Anhang's case for over a year and a half, along with the rest of the Dateline NBC team. In the course of it, I have come to know, like, and respect Adam's family as well as Adam himself. It may seem strange hearing that I feel as if I know and care about someone who has passed on, but I feel as if I do -- at least a little bit.
I've been introduced to him through his family's recollections as well as those of his many friends. I admire very much the kindness that he showed to them all, as well as many of his other strengths.
The family was initially very wary about telling their story to a television audience. They were, and continue to be, in a lot of pain. And like most of us, they are very private people. I think that they finally agreed to be part of our report because they hope it will somehow lead to more answers.
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By Captain David Thomley, Kershaw County Sheriff’s Department
When I was asked to write this blog I was not sure how to start. You have now seen her story and there is no way for me to relay the sheer terror that Lizzie and her family endured.
I have been in law enforcement for 19 years now. As a young patrol officer, I have dealt with family members being killed in automobile accidents, taking reports for assaults, and arresting suspects for every crime imaginable. I have witnessed firsthand how this affects the lives of the family members of all involved, not to mention the victims.
One of the first lessons I was taught after becoming a criminal investigator is to follow the facts, keep an open mind, and don’t get emotionally involved in the case. Over the years I have done my best to abide by these seemingly simple rules, even though at times it was very difficult.
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By Lt. Eric Tisdale, Kershaw County Sheriff’s Department
Where do you start? Who do you talk to? What assets do you devote to the investigation? Where do I look? What happened? Where was she last seen? What was her state of mind? What are the facts?
Facts dictate much of what we do in law enforcement. Facts are not something you can make or generate. They are to be followed. Facts are something you look for, and that lead you to other facts, which in turn, we hope, lead to the truth. This is true with any investigation.
So, where do you start?
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