Feb. 9, 2026

"SAVANNAH'S MOM'S $6M RANSOM DEADLINE HITS TODAY, SCHOOL SHOOTER'S DAD ON TRIAL & 18-YEAR COLD CASE GETS NEW LIFE"

Show Notes
Transcript

Reid Carter opens with the Nancy Guthrie kidnapping as the $6 million Bitcoin ransom deadline hits at 5 p.m. today - day nine with no suspects, no proof of life, and Savannah Guthrie telling captors "we will pay." California man arrested for sending fake ransom texts while real kidnapper remains unknown. Colin Gray's murder trial begins in Georgia - father bought his 14-year-old son the AR-15 used to kill two students and two teachers at Apalachee High School after FBI warned him about online threats. New documentary reopens the 2008 Lane Bryant massacre - five women executed in a clothing store, killer still at large 18 years later.

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Callaroga Shark Media. Good morning, I'm read Carter. Monday, February ninth,

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twenty twenty six. Three stories, all of them gut wrenching.

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Let me tell you where we are. Tucson, Arizona, Day nine.

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Nancy Guthrie, eighty four years old, mother of Today's show

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host Savannah Guthrie, is missing, kidnapped from her home in

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the middle of the night. No suspects, no proof of life,

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and today at five pm, the ransom deadline hits six

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million dollars in bitcoin. Savannah Guthrie sat with her siblings

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Saturday night and looked into the camera and said three

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words to whoever has her mother, we will pay. Meanwhile,

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a California con artist has already been arrested for sending

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fake ransom texts to the family, exploiting a kidnapping for profit,

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while the real kidnapper hasn't made direct contact with the

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family at all. Winder, Georgia jury selection begins today in

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State versus Colin Gray, not the school shooter, the school

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shooter's father. September fourth, twenty twenty four, fourteen year old

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Colt Gray walked into Appalachi High School with an ar

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fifteen and killed two students and two teachers, injured nine others.

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His father, Colin, bought him that rifle as a Christmas present,

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nine months after the FBI warned him his son had

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made online threats about a school shooting. Twenty nine felony

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charges up to one hundred eighty years in prison. Second

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time in American history a parent has been criminally charged

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for their child's school shooting, and a new documentary is

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reopening one of America's most haunting cold cases. February second,

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two thousand and eight, Tinley Park, Illinois, a gunman posing

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as a delivery driver walked into a Lane Bryant clothing

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store and executed five women. One survived by playing dead.

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Eighteen years later, the killer has never been identified, never

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been caught. The largest unsolved mass shooting in modern American history.

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Documentary releases Thursday. Filmmaker says police have done nothing. Families

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are still waiting for answers. I'm reed Carter today, a

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ransom deadline, a father's reckoning, and five women who deserve

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justice eighteen years too late. This is celebrity trials. Let's

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start in Tucson because the clock is ticking. January thirty,

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first twenty twenty six, Saturday night, Nancy Guthrie, eighty four

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years old, had dinner and played games at her daughter

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Annie's house, normal evening family time. Her son in law

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Tomaso Chioni, and Annie dropped her off at home around

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nine forty eight pm. Garage door opened, garage door closed.

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Two minutes later. Nancy was home safe. She was never

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seen again one for seven am Sunday morning, Nancy's doorbell

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camera disconnected. Someone turned it off. Minutes later, her security

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system detected movement at the home. Shortly after that, her

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pacemaker disconnected from her phone. Doorbell camera off, movement detected,

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pacemaker signal gone. In that order, in the middle of

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the night, someone came for Nancy Guthrie while she slept.

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Here's the problem. Nancy didn't have an active subscription to

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her doorbell camera service. The camera recorded that it was disconnected,

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but there's no footage, no image of who did this.

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Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos told the Associated Press, I

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wish technology was as easy as we believe it is

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that here's a picture, here's your bad guy. But it's

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not so. No video, no footage, no image of the kidnapper.

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Sunday morning, Nancy didn't show up to church. Her church

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friends called the family. Unusual for Nancy, she never missed.

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Family rushed to her house around noon, she wasn't there.

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Called nine one one. At twelve oh three pm. Pima

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County Sheriff's Department responded. Found blood on the front porch.

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Nancy was gone. Sheriff Nanos held a press conference Monday,

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said Nancy did not leave on her own. Said this

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was being investigated as a kidnapping, possibly taken in the

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middle of the night. Nancy has a pacemaker, needs daily medication,

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has mobility issues. She's mentally sharp, but physically vulnerable. An

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eighty four year old woman without her medication for nine

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days now. Then came the ransom notes. Multiple media outlets

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received ransom demands TMZ local CNN affiliate KOLD local ABC

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affiliate kg U N demanding millions in Bitcoin for Nancy's

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safe return. The notes weren't sent to the family, weren't

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sent to police, sent to newsrooms. That's unusual. Kidnappers typically

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contact the family directly. These kidnappers are communicating through the media.

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FBI Special Agent in Charge Janki confirmed the first note

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had a deadline of five pm Thursday, February fifth, said

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there was a second, more consequential deadline. That deadline is today, Monday,

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February ninth, five pm. KGUN reported The demand is six

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million dollars in bitcoin. The note threatens Nancy's life if

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the deadline isn't met. As of this morning, the FBI

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has confirmed no proof of life, no follow up communication

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from the original note sender, no confirmation that whoever sent

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the notes actually has Nancy Guthrie. Former FBI Deputy Director

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Andrew McCabe said it plainly, no proof of life undermines

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the credibility of the notes. Every kidnapper knows that you

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cannot get the money the ransom unless you've provided proof

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of life. So either the kidnapper is incompetent, or the

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ransom notes aren't from the actual kidnapper, or Nancy Guthrie

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is already dead and the notes are a distraction. None

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of those possibilities are good. Wednesday, Savannah Guthrie and her

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siblings posted an emotional video addressed the captors directly, We

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too have heard the reports about a ransom letter in

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the media. As a family, we are doing everything that

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we can we are ready to talk. However, we live

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in a world where voices and images are easily manipulated.

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We need to know without a doubt that she is

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alive and that you have her. Thursday, brother Cameron Guthrie

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posted another video, more direct, more desperate. Whoever is out

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there holding our mother, we want to hear from you.

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We haven't heard anything directly. We need you to reach

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out and we need a way to communicate with you

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so we can move forward. But first we have to

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know that you have our mom. They haven't heard it

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anything directly. The family of one of the most famous

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television anchors in America is begging a kidnapper to contact them,

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and the kidnapper won't pick up the phone. Then came

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the opportunists. Federal prosecutors charged Derek Kollella, forty two, from California,

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accused of sending ransom related text messages to Nancy Guthrie's

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daughter and son in law asking about the bitcoin payment

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demanded in the ransom notes. But here's the thing. Kollella

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hasn't been linked to the original ransom demand. He allegedly

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read about the kidnapping in the news and decided to

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shake down the family for money. Pima County Sheriff Nano's

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had a message for the impostors. My next message is

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to those impostors who are trying to take advantage and

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profit from this situation. Kallella is expected to make an

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initial appearance in federal court. Some people are just evil.

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A family's mother is missing, potentially kidnapped, potentially dead, and

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this guy sees it as a business opportunity. Saturday night,

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Savannah Guthrie posted what may be the most desperate video yet,

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sitting between her siblings Annie and Cameron holding their hands.

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We received your message and we understand. We beg you

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now to return our mother to us so that we

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can celebrate with her. This is the only way we

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will have peace. This is very valuable to us, and

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we will pay. We will pay. Three words from a

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daughter to her mother's kidnapper on Instagram because they have

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no other way to communicate. Former FBI agent Josh Campbell

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told CNN that the fact the family is posting publicly

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on Instagram suggests there is no established line of communication

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with the kidnapper. If there is an actual line of

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communication that is set up that is treated sensitively and

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protected you don't post it on social media for the

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world to see. Friday, investigators returned to Nancy's home for

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a third time, collected new evidence, found a camera on

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the roof that had been missed in previous searches, towed

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a car from near her home. A vehicle of interest

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was identified at a Circle K convenience store in the

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Tucson area. What connects that vehicle to the kidnapping is unclear.

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Law enforcement was also seen at daughter Annie's house Saturday night,

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deputies agents bright flashes through the windows, possibly photographing evidence.

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President Trump told reporters on Air Force one Friday that

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the investigation was going very well. Said, investigators have some

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clues that I think are very strong. We could have

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some answers coming up fairly soon. But as of this morning,

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no suspects, no persons of interest, no vehicles definitively connected

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to the case, no proof of life, and a six

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million dollar deadline hitting in hours. Nancy Guthrie is eighty

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four years old, mother of three, church goer, described by

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her daughter as a kind, faithful, loyal, fiercely loving, woman

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of goodness and light, funny, spunky, clever. She has a pacemaker.

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She needs medication. She's been missing for nine days. Savannah

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Guthrie earns a reported eight million dollars a year, has

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an estimated net worth of forty million dollars. Six million

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in bitcoin is achievable for this family. The kidnappers knew

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who they were targeting, knew the family had resources, knew

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the celebrity connection would generate media coverage. But they won't

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provide proof of life, won't contact the family directly, won't negotiate,

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just send notes to newsrooms and wait. Either this is

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the most incompetent kidnapping in modern history, or Nancy Guthrie

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was never taken alive, or this is something else entirely

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that investigators haven't figured out yet. The FBI is offering

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a fifty thousand dollars reward for information leading to Nancy's recovery.

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Digital billboards are going up across the Southwest. Neighbors are cooperating.

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The nation is watching five PM today. That's the deadline,

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and nobody knows what happens when it passes. Nancy Guthrie

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should be at church this morning, should be pl playing

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games with her grandchildren, should be safe in her home

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in the foothills outside Tucson. Instead, her daughter is on

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Instagram telling a faceless kidnapper She'll pay whatever they want.

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We'll keep you updated as this develops. We'll be right

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back with the trial that could redefine parental responsibility In America.

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A father bought his fourteen year old son the AR

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fifteen used to kill four people at a Georgia high school.

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Jury selection begins today. Welcome back to celebrity trials. I'm

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Reed Carter Wyinder, Georgia, Barrow County. Today, jury selection begins

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in one of the most important criminal trials in American history,

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not the school shooter's trial, the school shooter's father's trial.

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September fourth, twenty twenty four. Appalachi High School, about fifty

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miles northeast of Atlanta. Nine five. Fourteen year old Colt

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Gray left his algebra class, had a backpack inside an

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AR fifteen style rifle. Minutes later, gunshots, screaming, students hiding

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under desks, teachers locking doors. The sound every American parent

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dreads another school shooting. Fourteen year old Macy Wright was

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in a nearby classroom. I heard gunshots outside my classroom

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and people screaming, people begging not to get shot, and

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then people sitting beside me were just shaking and crying.

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First report of an active shooter came in around ten

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twenty am. A school resource officer confronted the shooter. Colt

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Gray immediately surrendered, told investigators, I did it. Four people dead,

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nine injured. Two of the dead were students, Mason Shermerhorn

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fourteen years old, Christian Angelo fourteen years old. Two were teachers,

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Christina Eremi, Richard Aspenwall, a girl, dad, a patient teacher,

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students brimming with dreams, all gone in minutes. The next day,

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police arrested Colt Gray's father, Colin Gray. Charged him with murder,

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not because he pulled the trigger, because he put the

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gun in his son's hands. Here's the timeline that prosecutors

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say makes Colin Gray a murderer. May twenty twenty three,

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more than a year before the shooting, FBI received anonymous

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tips about online threats to commit a school shooting. Threats

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included photographs of guns. The tips were linked to Colt Gray,

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then thirteen years old. Jackson County Sheriff's Office interviewed Colt

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and his father. Body camera footage shows the conversation. Colin

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Gray told officers he had guns in the house and

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his son had access to them. We do a lot

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of shooting. We do a lot of deer hunting. He

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shot his first deer this year. I'm trying to teach

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him about firearms and safety and how to do it

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all and get him interested in the outdoors. But Colin

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also told officers his the sun did not have unsupervised

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access to guns. Colt denied making the threats. No charges filed.

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Jackson County alerted local schools to monitor the situation. That

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should have been the end of it. Should have been

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the wake up call your thirteen year old is making

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online threats about school shootings. The FBI is at your door.

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Any reasonable parent would lock those guns in a safe,

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get their kid into therapy, take the threats seriously. Instead.

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December twenty twenty three, Christmas, seven months after the FBI visit,

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Colin Gray bought Colt an AR fifteen style rifle as

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a present, wrapped it up and put it under the tree.

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Marry Christmas, Son, here's the weapon you'll use to murder

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your classmates. But it wasn't just the rifle, prosecutors say,

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Colin also purchased a laser site, a tactical vest, ammunition,

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everything a fourteen year old would need to carry out

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a mass shooting, and according to investigators who testified at

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a two thousand, twenty four hearing, Colin was aware that

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his son's mental health had deteriorated in the weeks before

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the shooting, knew his son was obsessed with school shooters,

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had a shrine above his home computer dedicated to the

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gunman from the twenty eighteen Parkland, Florida school massacre. Let

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me say that again. Colin Gray allegedly knew his son

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idolized school shooters, had a shrine to the Parkland shooter,

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had been questioned by the FBI about school shooting threats,

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and bought him an assault rifle for Christmas. Smart enough

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to know better, too negligent to care, or too complicit

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to stop it. Colt Gray enrolled at Appalachi High School

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on August fourteenth, twenty twenty four. In the twenty one

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days before the shooting, he missed nine days of classes,

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more than a third of the school year. Something was wrong,

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obviously wrong, and Colin Gray allegedly did nothing. September fourth,

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Colt walked in with the Christmas rifle and opened fire.

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Colin Gray was a arrest to September fifth, has been

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behind bars ever since. Faces twenty nine felony charges, two

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counts of second degree murder, two counts of involuntary manslaughter,

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four counts of reckless conduct, nineteen counts of second degree

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cruelty to children. If convicted on all counts, up to

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one hundred eighty years in prison. The indictment alleges Colin

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Gray allowed his teenage son access to a firearm and

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ammunition after receiving sufficient warning that his son would harm

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and endanger others, that his actions constitute criminal negligence by

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consciously disregarding a substantial and unjustifiable risk. This is only

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the second time in American history that a parent has

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been criminally charged for a mass school shooting committed by

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their child. The first James and Jennifer Crumbly, their fifteen

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year old son Ethan, killed four students at Oxford High

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School in Michigan in November twenty twenty one. Prosecutors proved

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the Crumbling allowed their son access to a firearm while

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ignoring warnings about his declining mental health. Both convicted of manslaughter.

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Both sentenced to ten to fifteen years in prison. Colin

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Gray's charges are more serious. Second degree murder carries ten

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to thirty years per count. The Crumbly's got manslaughter. Gray

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is facing murder. Defense attorneys tried to suppress evidence. Argued

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Colin's statements to investigators after the shooting weren't voluntary. Argued

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the search of his home lacked proper warrant authority. Judge

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denied the motions the evidence comes in. Trial will be

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held in Barrow County, but with jurors selected from Hall County,

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about twenty seven miles away. Judge Nicholas Prim agreed that

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Barrow County residents were too close to the tragedy. Too

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many people know the victims, too many opinions already formed.

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Expected to last about three weeks, prosecutors will call witnesses

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from the school, students who heard the shots, teachers who

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locked their doors, first responders who found the bodies, and

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they'll build the case that Colin Gray created the conditions

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for this massacre. Defense attorney hasn't commented publicly, but the

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defense will likely argue that Colin took reasonable steps, that

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he was teaching his son firearms safety, that millions of

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parents give their children access to guns without incident, that

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Colt's actions were unforseeable despite the warning signs. Criminal defense

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attorney Andrew Fleischmann said the state's argument is powerful. But

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for this father's negligence, these kids would all be alive.

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That's very hard to get past. Here's the reality. If

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you're a parent and the FBI shows up at your

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door and they tell you your child is making threats

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about shooting up a school, and you buy that child

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an assault rifle for Christmas, and that child then shoots

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up a school and kills four people, you are responsible. Period.

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The Second Amendment doesn't give you the right to arm

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a child the FBI has flagged as a potential school shooter.

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Parenting doesn't stop at buying presents. It includes protecting other

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people's children from your own. Colin Gray failed every test,

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failed to secure his weapons after the FBI warning, failed

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to get his son mental health treatment, failed to intervene

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when his son built a shrine to a mass murderer,

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failed to notice his son missing nine days of school

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in three weeks, and he bought the murder weapon as

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a gift. Colt Gray, now sixteen, faces fifty five felony counts,

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including malice murder will be tried as an adult. His

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trial date hasn't been set. Medical evaluations are ongoing. But

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today is about his father, about whether American law will

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hold parents accountable when they arm children who've been flagged

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as dangerous. Mason Shermerhorn was fourteen years old, Christian Angelo

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was fourteen years old. Christina Irami was a teacher. Richard

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Aspinwall was a teacher and a girl dad. Four people

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who went to school on a Wednesday morning never came

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home because a father gave his troubled son a gun.

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Someone has to say their names coming up. Five women

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executed in a clothing store eighteen years no arrest. A

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new documentary asks the question nobody in Tinley Park wants

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to answer? Who killed these women? Welcome back to celebrity Trials.

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I'm Reed Carter, February two, two thousand and eight. Saturday morning,

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Tinley Park, Illinois, South suburb of Chicago, Brookside Marketplace shopping

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Center one hundred and ninety first Street and Harlem Avenue Lane,

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Bryant Women's Clothing Store expected to be a busy Saturday.

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Store manager Rhoda McFarland wasn't even scheduled to work that day,

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came in to help, anticipating the rush. That decision cost

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her life. A man walked in posing as a delivery,

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chatted with some of the women, seemed normal, then pulled

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a gun. Six women were in the store, the manager,

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one employee, and four customers. The gunman herded all six

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into a back room, tied them up with duct tape,

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and opened fire. Rhoda McFarland, forty two years old, store manager,

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former minister, adored by her staff. Even tied up, she

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managed to break free enough to pull out her cell

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phone and call nine one one, whispered Lane Bryant to

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the operator, while the gunman's voice echoed in the background

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that nine one one recording is chilling. You can hear

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the killer shouting, don't be a hero, all right. Then

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I'm losing it. He was losing it, and then he

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pulled the trigger. Rhoda McFarland dead, Carrie Chiuso thirty three

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from Frankfort, Illinois dead, Connie Woolfolk thirty seven from Flossmore

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fought back, her body had bruising. Her brother Eric told

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the Denver Post he might have tortured her. This person

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is obviously a sick person dead. Sarah Safranski, twenty two

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from Oak Forest, the youngest victim just graduated college, her

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whole life ahead of her dead. Jennifer Bishop, thirty four

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from South Bend, Indiana. I see you nurse, mother of

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three children dead. The sixth woman survived, a store employee.

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The gunman fired at her head, but she shifted at

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the last second. Bullet grazed her neck. She played dead,

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didn't move, didn't breathe, lay there while the killer walked

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past her and out the back door. First officer arrived

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within two minutes of the nine to one to one call,

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too late. The gunman was gone, escaped through the back

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of the store, vanished into the suburban landscape. Paramedic Kevin

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Colling was the first medical responder on scene. Actuly been

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called to the Target store next door on an unrelated emergency,

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arrived with sirens blaring. Has spent eighteen years wondering if

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his sirens startled the gunman, if the noise caused the

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killer to panic and execute those women faster than he'd planned.

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I know they were listening to my sirens when I

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was driving into the Target, Collings says in a new

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documentary that means they were in that store and in

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that situation, and I drove nearly in front of the store.

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Collings described what he saw inside as heinous and evil.

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Five women dead, one barely alive, blood everywhere. The terror

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lasted approximately forty minutes, unusually long for what appeared to

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be a robbery gone wrong. Why would a robber spend

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forty minutes in a store in broad daylight? Former Tinley

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Park Police Commander Phil Valois acknowledged the confusion. He might

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have had bad info, He might not have thought it

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out very well. The surviving victim gave police a description

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black mail twenty five to thirty five at the time,

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six feet to six two broad shoulders, husky build, two

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hundred to two thirty pounds, receding hairline corn rode hair,

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with one long braid hanging down his right cheek, sporting

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four light green beads. Police released a sketch, then a

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three D composite. The nine one one recording with the

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killer's voice is still available on the Tinley Park Police

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Department's website. A hundred thousand dollars reward was posted, not

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dependent on conviction. Any information kept confidential eighteen years thousands

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of tips, not a single arrest. Now, filmmaker Charlie Minn

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is trying to change that. His documentary Who Killed These Women?

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The Tinley Park Five releases this Thursday, February thirteenth at

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AMC Theaters in Chicago. Min is a former producer for

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America's Most Wanted made documentaries about Parkland, Uvalde, Orlando, The

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Man Knows Cold Cases. Min says Tinley Park Police have

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done a terrible job. The lack of transparency and communication

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is revolting, and it's already made a difficult case even

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that much harder to crack. For eighteen years, it's been

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horrific in terms of the results. He tried to get

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Tinley Park Police to participate in the documentary, no response.

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Tried to reach the surviving victim, no luck. She's never

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spoken publicly about what happened. We need a fresh set

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of eyes on this thing. Minn says, we need something

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more innovative, something more groundbreaking. Tinley Park Police Chief Tom

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Tilton pushed back on the anniversary, said the investigation has

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never stopped. Our detectives and partners continue to evaluate leads,

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review evidence, and apply available investigative and forensic tools. As

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they evolve. This work occurs every day, every day, for

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eighteen years, and still nothing. Here's what makes this case

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so maddening. The killer spoke during the nine call. His

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voices recorded. The surviving victim saw his face, gave a

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detailed description. He made off with only a few hundred

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dollars and some jewelry. This wasn't a criminal mastermind. This

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was a brutal, clumsy killer who should have been caught.

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Most criminologists believe the killer has told someone. That's how

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these cases get solved. The Brown's Chicken massacre in Palatine, Illinois,

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went unsolved for nine years until the killer's girlfriend went

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