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00:00:00She was a horse girl.

00:00:01Well, he was just, he was a cowboy.

00:00:04You never, ever thought that something like this would touch your life.

00:00:07That somebody would break into your home and kill you.

00:00:11My sister was stabbed.

00:00:13Tim was stabbed.

00:00:14It was pretty much gut-wrenching devastation.

00:00:18The major scene took place inside the house.

00:00:21What did you see when you got in there?

00:00:22A lot of blood.

00:00:24Probably the worst scene in my entire career.

00:00:26There were some strange goings on before this occurred.

00:00:29Tim's truck was blown up, is that right?

00:00:30There was an explosion and all of a sudden it was burning.

00:00:33He had gotten at least one threatening letter.

00:00:37The letter scared me.

00:00:38I just said, you need to be careful.

00:00:41There were a lot of suspects, a lot of people who might have done it.

00:00:45I thought, that's insane.

00:00:47There's been a mistake.

00:00:48In my heart, I know he did not do this.

00:00:51He's an innocent man.

00:00:5330 years without an answer.

00:00:54And then finally there is one.

00:00:55It's pretty tough to talk about.

00:00:57I mean, murder is shocking, but this?

00:01:01Two deaths, three decades, one shattering twist.

00:01:06Murder at the farmhouse.

00:01:08I'm Lester Holt, and this is Dateline.

00:01:10Here's Keith Morrison with Raising the Dead.

00:01:22The morning was gray and solemn.

00:01:32It was Friday, the 13th of June, 2025.

00:01:37We are present at Oakwood Cemetery in the city of Wyoiga.

00:01:41This is the official recording for the court-ordered exhumation.

00:01:48They knew, every one of them knew, it could all turn on this moment, raising the dead to

00:01:55solve the murders.

00:01:57Evidence doesn't lie.

00:01:58Was the man in the grave, the killer?

00:02:03Did you hear that he had made statements about getting away with murder?

00:02:07I did.

00:02:09Or would he, now long dead, point to someone else?

00:02:14He's not a man.

00:02:15He is a monster.

00:02:16It all started on another Friday in tiny Wyoiga, Wisconsin.

00:02:26That was March 20, 1992.

00:02:30Tana Togstad and her boyfriend, Tim Mumbrew, were heading for a night out at a bar.

00:02:35Tim's sister, Tina.

00:02:37Their plans were they were going to go watch a band called Sweetwater.

00:02:42Are you coming?

00:02:42This is Tana's brother, Rick.

00:02:44They were up there dancing and stuff.

00:02:47They liked to have a noisy good time.

00:02:49Oh yeah, yeah they did.

00:02:50Yeah, Tana and Tim, they enjoyed having fun, yes.

00:02:54And why not?

00:02:55She was 23, he 34, and their love was still new, exuberant.

00:03:01They were on a double date with their friend Jill and her boyfriend.

00:03:06It was elbow to elbow.

00:03:08Tim and Tana started dancing country swing, which takes up a lot of room.

00:03:14And it's a very fast-moving dance.

00:03:17Not everyone loved that, as Jill could see, even if Tana didn't.

00:03:23I said, it might be a good idea for us to leave.

00:03:26I expected an argument, but she's like, yeah, I think I'm ready to go, too.

00:03:31You don't forget certain moments.

00:03:35Even now, Jill recalls it fresh, like a wound.

00:03:41She gave me a hug, which was odd.

00:03:45We weren't real, you know, physically affectionate at all.

00:03:49And then she said, you know, will you come over to my house tomorrow morning?

00:03:54When Saturday broke, Jill saw that it had snowed overnight.

00:03:58She didn't feel like going to see Tana.

00:04:01I talked myself out of going over there.

00:04:05We did that often, you know, I guess broke commitments.

00:04:09And I thought maybe she would call me later in the day and say, hey, are you going with us tonight?

00:04:14But I never heard from her.

00:04:16All day that Saturday, no one heard from Tana.

00:04:20And no one heard from Tim.

00:04:22Which was unusual, given Tana's family lived right next door.

00:04:27And then the following day, Sunday, they couldn't help but notice Tana and Tim's trucks hadn't moved.

00:04:32And Tana hadn't fed her horse.

00:04:35And so, they walked over to her farmhouse.

00:04:39Went inside.

00:04:39What they saw could not be erased or undone.

00:04:45I was the detective on call for the weekend.

00:04:48And my weekend was winding down.

00:04:50It was mid-afternoon when Al Crager, then a newly promoted police detective, got the call.

00:04:57Go to Tana's farmhouse.

00:05:01They just said there were people deceased.

00:05:04And I was to head over there.

00:05:06The chief deputy was en route.

00:05:08Oh boy, a big deal here.

00:05:10Yes.

00:05:11When I got to the scene, everything was roped off with the do not cross sheriff line.

00:05:17Another detective took him inside the house.

00:05:20What did you see when you got in there?

00:05:21A lot of blood.

00:05:23Then he takes me to the bedroom and that was like there was a war in that room.

00:05:31Tim's body was on the floor.

00:05:33Could you tell what had been done to him?

00:05:35He had a lot of blood on his chest.

00:05:37He'd been in a hell of a fight, was stabbed 27 times, his throat cut.

00:05:43Tana's body lay on the bed.

00:05:46Totally exposed, with no clothes.

00:05:49And then she had one single piercing to the heart area in the chest.

00:05:54Man.

00:05:55Had you ever seen such a thing before?

00:05:57Never.

00:05:58Never.

00:05:58In fact, that was probably the worst scene I've ever seen in my entire career of 41 years.

00:06:05Not even Tana's little dog, Scruffy, was spared.

00:06:09Scruffy, we believe, was stabbed out by the front door.

00:06:13Did it seem to you like it was done by one person or more than one person?

00:06:17That was tossed back and forth.

00:06:19Could it be one?

00:06:20Could one possibly do that?

00:06:22Whoever entered took him by surprise.

00:06:25And was very, very angry.

00:06:27Yes.

00:06:28Inside the farmhouse, crime lab techs went about the dismal work as best it could be done in 1992.

00:06:35Blood was collected from various spots.

00:06:39There was semen collected on Tana, so we believe she was sexually assaulted.

00:06:45They lifted what fingerprints they could, though perhaps surprising, given that chaotic scene,

00:06:50they didn't get any useful matches.

00:06:53But there was this.

00:06:55The door was taken because we had a bloody palm print.

00:06:59They collected anything that they thought might help in the future in case this case didn't get solved immediately.

00:07:08Just as well, because it did not get solved immediately.

00:07:13Neighbor-eyed neighbor with suspicion.

00:07:16Are we next?

00:07:17As the families lived and relived their pain.

00:07:21Never giving up on justice.

00:07:23I don't give up.

00:07:25No matter what.

00:07:26They were sure they knew who did it.

00:07:29Guilty as hell.

00:07:31He knows that he did it.

00:07:33The evidence was overwhelming.

00:07:35And they were sure they knew who didn't do it.

00:07:38It's not possible.

00:07:39I was just in disbelief.

00:07:41There's just no way.

00:07:42No way.

00:07:44But of course, that's why we have juries, isn't it?

00:07:48I said, he'll either be found guilty by the 12 in the jury or by God.

00:07:53That Sunday in March, 1992, amateurs monitoring the crackle of police radios picked up the news that Tana and Tim had been stabbed to death.

00:08:19Neighbors lit up the phone lines as they tried to reach the couple's families.

00:08:22Get home as soon as you can.

00:08:25I said, well, what happened?

00:08:27Tana's brother, Rick, was out getting farm supplies when his wife called the store to find him.

00:08:32Just in a panic.

00:08:35She said, Tana's dead.

00:08:37Tim's dead.

00:08:38What happens inside you when, you know, in your stomach and your heart?

00:08:42The pain and the anger and, oh, I guess I was completely distraught.

00:08:50Tana's friend, Jill, who, remember, had planned to see Tana again hours after they'd all left the bar on Friday night, was working when she got the news from her mom.

00:09:00At first, I thought, well, this has to be some kind of mistake.

00:09:05And I didn't, I was just in shock.

00:09:10Tim's sister, Tina, had been expecting him to visit that weekend.

00:09:14I can't even explain how horrific it is to have something that savagely, brutally horrific happen.

00:09:24She called her brother, Todd.

00:09:27And the phone rang.

00:09:31And it was Tina.

00:09:36She told me they both had been stabbed to death.

00:09:40Meanwhile, Tana's family told investigators about some strange noises they heard from their place just a few yards away, night of the murders.

00:09:48Tana's sister heard a dog barking in the middle of the night.

00:09:51She got up to explore and see what was going on.

00:09:54And she looked out this window right over here.

00:09:57She saw a pickup truck leaving the residence, and it sped off very fast.

00:10:02That was after 4 a.m. on Saturday.

00:10:05The detective figured it could have been the murderer, or murderers, getting away.

00:10:10But why would anyone want to murder this young couple, both from local farming families?

00:10:16Tim, remember, was 34, Tana just 23.

00:10:20She was just...

00:10:21She was a goofball.

00:10:22She was an absolute goofball.

00:10:25And captivating, said friends Michelle and Tammy from the minute they met her in high school.

00:10:30It was her smile.

00:10:32And it would just light her face up.

00:10:34And you would just see, just behind the eyes, this little bit of trouble.

00:10:38She loved horses, but also dogs and cats and cowboy culture.

00:10:45We got along really good. It was just her love of life and her fun personality.

00:10:51Fun, even when getting busted by the cops.

00:10:54We ended up getting underage drinking, but not Tana, because she told the cop that she wasn't feeling all that great.

00:11:01And she's like, sucker.

00:11:01You got it, you got it, not me.

00:11:03And I'm like, really?

00:11:05When her father died, Tana moved into his farmhouse.

00:11:10To pay the bills, this being Wisconsin, she worked at a local cheese factory.

00:11:16Boys?

00:11:17Her friends said she was cautious, didn't put up with any BS.

00:11:20For her, I think her knight in shining armor would be a cowboy.

00:11:26And around Halloween of 1991, she found him.

00:11:30Tall, slender, great smile, attractive looking man.

00:11:36If you saw him standing someplace, you would think he came in on a horse.

00:11:40Her cowboy, Tim.

00:11:41All of our family have been rodeo people.

00:11:46We were all really close.

00:11:48Tim's friends, Carol and Mark.

00:11:50He was good to everybody.

00:11:52Easy going, good with the kids.

00:11:55Tim was the protector when his sister, Tina, was 12 years old.

00:11:59We were hunting, and I had fallen through the ice.

00:12:03And it was up to my neck, and he was the first one up there to run up to me and grab my gun and pull me out of that.

00:12:09After a stint in the U.S. Navy, back home, Tim got a job doing maintenance at the local iron foundry.

00:12:17But his passion was rodeo.

00:12:20He would protect the kids by being the clown to distract the bulls so that the bulls wouldn't hurt the kids.

00:12:28It was thanks to Tina that Tim first laid eyes on Tana.

00:12:32He had been looking through Tina's photos.

00:12:34A picture of Tana was in those pictures, because Tana was at my baby's shower.

00:12:41And he saw her, and he's like, who is she? I need to meet her.

00:12:46Awkward.

00:12:47Tim was still married to his second wife, Colleen.

00:12:50They had a four-year-old son, so Tina said maybe not a good idea.

00:12:55But Tim didn't listen.

00:12:57And anyway, he and Colleen were getting a divorce.

00:12:59It was weeks away from being finalized.

00:13:02Tim, when he set his mind to doing something, he was going to do it.

00:13:07So Tim and Tana became an item.

00:13:10They rode horses, they went dancing, they fell hard for each other, said Tim's brother-in-law, Mike.

00:13:16He was in love with her.

00:13:19Devoted, apparently, until his last breath.

00:13:23He did everything he could until he couldn't do nothing else.

00:13:26And it was to protect her and to keep her safe.

00:13:29But why them, of all people?

00:13:33Neither Tana nor Tim seemed to have any enemies.

00:13:37There was no obvious motive.

00:13:39Not from the crime scene, anyway.

00:13:41Was there any sign of robbery?

00:13:43Not that we could tell.

00:13:45Once the family was allowed to go in there, once the scene was released,

00:13:49they couldn't pinpoint anything that was taken.

00:13:51So somebody just walked in on the middle of the night as they were in bed?

00:13:55Yes.

00:13:55In a town like Guayaquica, with fewer than 2,000 people,

00:14:01somebody had to know something.

00:14:04Tana's brother Rick was sure of it.

00:14:07Regina, little town.

00:14:08Well, little town, as they say.

00:14:11Everybody knows everybody.

00:14:13And everybody's business.

00:14:16Way back at the beginning,

00:14:18soon after that awful Saturday in 1992,

00:14:21investigators already had some solid leads.

00:14:25They knew who they needed to talk to.

00:14:28He had a temper, and he was into knives.

00:14:50Investigators were pretty sure of it.

00:14:51They'd soon figure out who killed Tim and Tana.

00:14:55Did the sheriff tell you that he thought it could be solved fairly quickly?

00:14:58I think they did think it was going to be solved very quickly.

00:15:02As Detective Crager interviewed family and friends,

00:15:06he learned that there had been signs, terrible signs,

00:15:09that something bad was coming, scary stuff.

00:15:13About two months before the murders,

00:15:15Tim's truck was parked in the driveway.

00:15:17Then we heard just the most horrific boom you could imagine.

00:15:26Something exploded underneath the hood, and his truck caught on fire.

00:15:31And his whole entire truck was engulfed in flames,

00:15:35and it was 20 feet in the air.

00:15:37Everything that he had from his home was in the back of that truck.

00:15:43And he was in the back of the truck, throwing things off.

00:15:47They were all yelling at him to get out of there,

00:15:49and it just burned up.

00:15:52Of course, they called the police right away.

00:15:54They couldn't find out if there was something put in there to detonate or what.

00:15:59Nobody knew why or how or...

00:16:01Right, correct.

00:16:02Then, poison pen letters arrived.

00:16:07About a month before the murders,

00:16:08one warned Tana that Tim was a jealous, violent man,

00:16:12and that he was using her.

00:16:15Another warned Tim that Tana was sleeping around.

00:16:19The final threat came just days before the murders.

00:16:23A message scrawled on a bathroom wall at the foundry, where Tim worked.

00:16:27Tim Mumbo must die on Friday, or something like that.

00:16:32And Friday was the day it happened, right?

00:16:34Friday night into Saturday morning, yes.

00:16:36Did you get the sense from these incidents that somebody was targeting?

00:16:40At least Tim, and maybe both of them.

00:16:43Yes.

00:16:44But who?

00:16:46I suspected everybody.

00:16:48Anybody that looked at me cross ways.

00:16:50And one obvious man to suspect was a guy known as Scooter.

00:16:55Scooter was Tana's ex-boyfriend.

00:16:58What did you know about Scooter?

00:17:00He had a temper.

00:17:01Uh-huh.

00:17:02And he was into knives.

00:17:06Tana's family and friends had stories about Scooter.

00:17:09He could be scary, they told the detective.

00:17:12And violent, too.

00:17:14This is where Scooter punched the wall.

00:17:16This is where Scooter kicked the wall in or broke the door or whatever.

00:17:21He threw a beer bottle through the back window of his truck,

00:17:25and she was sitting in the passenger side.

00:17:26It came through the window and just ruptured the window.

00:17:29I don't know if she got hit by the bottle.

00:17:30But I went to see Tana the day after, and she was still picking glass out of her hair.

00:17:35Thing was, investigators learned Scooter was determined that Tana couldn't leave him.

00:17:40He did not take the breakup well.

00:17:43He'd threatened her.

00:17:44If I can't have her, nobody will.

00:17:46So we just assumed it was him, that he finally did it.

00:17:49He was a good suspect.

00:17:50Yes, he was.

00:17:52He had nobody that could give him an alibi.

00:17:53I interviewed him many times.

00:17:56I was convinced he was our guy.

00:18:00But relationships.

00:18:02If Tana's ex was getting the third degree, so was Tim's.

00:18:07In fact, Crager discovered that Tim's not-quite-ex-wife, Colleen,

00:18:11was the one who'd written those menacing letters to both Tana and Tim.

00:18:14Was it obvious right at the get-go that it was Colleen?

00:18:19Yes.

00:18:20The divorce was especially bitter because Tim, who'd moved in with his sister Tina,

00:18:25wanted more access to their four-year-old son, according to family.

00:18:29The divorce that he was going through was the most wicked divorce thing I'd ever seen and heard.

00:18:37I needed to remove my baby daughter from the house

00:18:41because of what was being said on both ends of the phone.

00:18:47Did you question Colleen?

00:18:48Yes.

00:18:49But she was a very small, petite gal, and there was no way that she could do this.

00:18:56If she wanted it done, she would have to find somebody to do it for her.

00:19:01So was it a murder for hire?

00:19:04Certainly there was a motive.

00:19:06Possible one, anyway.

00:19:08There was a $100,000 life insurance policy.

00:19:11That had to make you think a time or two?

00:19:13Or three or four.

00:19:15They couldn't find the murder weapon, the knife,

00:19:18but they had two viable suspects,

00:19:21and they didn't stop there.

00:19:23They widened the search and rounded up men who lived in the area

00:19:27who were known in the past to have been violent.

00:19:30One of them was a guy who worked at the foundry, where Tim worked,

00:19:33and also lived close to Tana's farmhouse.

00:19:37His name was Jeff Teal.

00:19:39He was capable of doing it.

00:19:41He had a record.

00:19:43He carried a knife, but his threats usually were with a gun.

00:19:46Jeez.

00:19:47Nice fella.

00:19:48Yes.

00:19:50A fella investigators learned who liked a drop or two of the hard stuff.

00:19:54If you ran into him in a bar or someplace where he's having a bunch of liquid fight,

00:20:01you just stayed away from him.

00:20:03He just always carried a knife and he'd come off as a very mean hombre.

00:20:09I just remember a lot of talk about violence with him, domestic abuse.

00:20:15Kind of the guy you would think, we got to look at him for sure.

00:20:17Well, they did.

00:20:19They did look at him for sure.

00:20:22What might his motive have been?

00:20:24Investigators found out that Jeff Teal had stolen some wire from the foundry.

00:20:29And Tim had turned him in.

00:20:31What did you think about him as a possible suspect?

00:20:34With his background and his build and strength,

00:20:37he was certainly a person that we had to go after.

00:20:41Tim and Tyna, such a bright young couple, were gone.

00:21:01The whole county seemed in mourning as their families laid them to rest.

00:21:08All I remember is I could still see her laying there.

00:21:11And the rest of the whole thing was just, I don't remember any of it, really.

00:21:18I was in shock.

00:21:19Tana's mom let out such a guttural.

00:21:23It sounded like an animal.

00:21:24It was, it was devastating.

00:21:27She screamed, oh my Tana, why my Tana?

00:21:31That's the worst thing.

00:21:33It was pretty much gut-wrenching devastation.

00:21:36And it was like, oh, you don't even know the amount of pain that's involved.

00:21:41In a separate ceremony, Tim was honored as any cowboy would hope to be.

00:21:49There was a team of black horses that was the escort out to the cemetery.

00:21:56And they were the capes and like you'd see like in the old movies or something like that.

00:22:00So it was like the old west type of thing.

00:22:04Tim's brother-in-law, Mike, remembers how investigators roamed through the mourners.

00:22:09They videotaped the whole thing.

00:22:11And I understood why.

00:22:12I mean, most of the time a person does something like this, they may come back and act like nothing's wrong just to see.

00:22:20Did it help?

00:22:22Not much, apparently.

00:22:24This wouldn't be quick and easy after all.

00:22:27But every day, the investigators chipped away at their leads.

00:22:31And one by one, their list of potential suspects narrowed.

00:22:35This was 1992, remember?

00:22:37It was two years before the O.J. Simpson case made DNA a household word.

00:22:42Back then, Detective Crager and the others could only compare blood types.

00:22:47But that simple test was enough to rule out their very first person of interest.

00:22:52Tana's ex-boyfriend, Scooter.

00:22:54He did not match.

00:22:55So then I left him alone and moved on.

00:22:58Moved on to Tim's ex, Colleen.

00:23:02The investigators brought her in again and again.

00:23:05Trying to suss out whether she hired someone to kill Tim for the insurance money.

00:23:10That was looked at very hard.

00:23:11In fact, I think we even held that up for a while, the payment of it, until we were totally convinced that she probably didn't have anything to do with it.

00:23:22Eventually, investigators would rule her out.

00:23:25But they kept looking at Jeff Teal, that known-to-be-violent character from the foundry.

00:23:33He had left town three years after the murders in 1995.

00:23:37But the next year, in 1996, they got a sample of Teal's blood.

00:23:43That's around the time DNA was becoming an evidence gold standard.

00:23:47They ran a test with Teal's blood.

00:23:49And investigators concluded Teal was not the killer either.

00:23:56Well, they kept at it, but there were no arrests, no new suspects.

00:24:00Then, in 2008, Mike Sasse took over the case.

00:24:05Sasse, one of the original deputies of the crime scene, was by 2008 an agent with the Wisconsin Division of Criminal Investigation, the DCI.

00:24:14Myself and my partner started to methodically go piece by piece by piece through this investigation, organizing it into the modern day age.

00:24:25They dug all the way back to the first days of the investigation, looking for leads that back in 1992 didn't look like leads.

00:24:34It was granular sort of work.

00:24:36And it seemed to pay off when, in 2012, they found something, or rather someone, and they pounced on it.

00:24:45I get to a name of Glendon Gauker.

00:24:50Glendon Gauker was one of the men they'd looked at back in 1992.

00:24:56Glendon Gauker then worked for a man named Lane Shields, and he ran a Western store at the time.

00:25:03Why was that an issue?

00:25:04Tim and Tana bought their cowboy gear in that store, so a kind of connection.

00:25:08Anyway, back in 1992, they interviewed Gauker multiple times, strapped him into a polygraph at one point.

00:25:16Nothing came of it then.

00:25:19But now?

00:25:20I literally go to Google, and I looked at my partner, and I said, is it Glendon C. Gauker?

00:25:27He said, yeah, why?

00:25:29I said, because he's in Oklahoma, and he's in custody for a homicide he committed in Oklahoma in 2010.

00:25:35And it was a brutal murder.

00:25:37The case was splayed across the Internet.

00:25:41In September of 2010, a 19-year-old man named Ethan Walton drove out with his girlfriend to meet with Gauker at his home outside of Prague, Oklahoma.

00:25:51Gauker lived in a trailer home down a dead-end road.

00:25:54Ethan thought he was there to sell Gauker some land.

00:25:57There was a property deal that was fictitiously put together by Gauker.

00:26:02Instead, Gauker kills him and puts him in 55-gallon drums.

00:26:09He calls the girlfriend into the shed.

00:26:14She comes in, and he sexually assaults her.

00:26:18She's naked and literally gets herself free.

00:26:22She squeezed through a window to escape, then ran for dear life through a field to the nearest neighbor's place, and made it.

00:26:30Gauker in hot pursuit, shooting off his gun before the police caught up to them.

00:26:34And now, Gauker was facing the death penalty for killing the boyfriend.

00:26:38As this hits warp speed, like, we might be onto something here.

00:26:43We now have somebody that's in custody for the same situation that's involved in our case and was a suspect back in 1992.

00:26:52Yeah.

00:26:52It marries up very similar to Timantano.

00:26:56It sounds to me like this guy fits the profile of a psychosexual serial assaulter, if not killer.

00:27:02Correct.

00:27:03You think you got something here?

00:27:04Yeah, we think we got something.

00:27:05Absolutely we do.

00:27:06After the murders, a certain terror descended on Wapaka County, Wisconsin.

00:27:27This was a safe community.

00:27:28Tannen never locked her doors.

00:27:31For the longest time, I went through, oh my gosh, is it something that,

00:27:35did they go after Tannen, and now maybe Michelle's next, or I'm next?

00:27:39Yeah.

00:27:39Yeah, that was a definite fear.

00:27:42Yeah.

00:27:43As long as the case went unsolved, that fear lingered.

00:27:48Now, Agent Sassy and his unit had revived a person of interest, Glendon Gauker.

00:27:53As they dug into his time in Wapaka County,

00:27:57they discovered police had interviewed him even before Tim and Tannen's murders,

00:28:01for another crime back in 1990.

00:28:05Glendon Gauker had been a person of interest in a rape in the village of Iola,

00:28:10which is 20, 30 miles from this location.

00:28:15Just your sort of guy who would do this?

00:28:17Yes.

00:28:18He's a guy with a violent demeanor.

00:28:20He was never caught for the rape.

00:28:22Back in 1990, in the days before common use of DNA testing,

00:28:29investigators simply didn't have sufficient evidence to charge him,

00:28:32and the case went cold.

00:28:35But now, Gauker was in jail in Oklahoma,

00:28:39charged with rape and capital murder,

00:28:41and Oklahoma had his DNA.

00:28:44And it matched.

00:28:45No question, Gauker was the rapist.

00:28:48So, maybe Gauker killed Tim and Tannen, too.

00:28:54Kind of want to talk to him.

00:28:55Right.

00:28:56And Gauker agreed to cooperate,

00:28:58but with one very big condition.

00:29:01The death penalty he was facing,

00:29:03they'd have to make that go away.

00:29:06And after some wrangling,

00:29:07they made a deal.

00:29:10So we go down and we confront him,

00:29:12and I said,

00:29:12I know you did this.

00:29:14You were involved in the Togstead-Mumbru case.

00:29:16And he starts shaking.

00:29:19He just literally starts shaking.

00:29:21I didn't do anything.

00:29:22He swore he did not murder Tim and Tannen.

00:29:26So, who did?

00:29:29Gauker pointed the finger at this man,

00:29:32Lane Shields,

00:29:33his former boss at that Western shop

00:29:36that Tim and Tannen frequented.

00:29:38Gauker listed off all sorts of crimes

00:29:40he said he'd committed at Lane's behest,

00:29:43anywhere from arson to burying bodies.

00:29:46Gauker told them Shields had asked him

00:29:50to murder Tim and Tannen.

00:29:52He asked me, he said,

00:29:52we're going to kill two of them.

00:29:55He said, I don't want them shot.

00:29:56He said, I want them,

00:29:57and quote, slaughtered my cattle.

00:30:00It freaked me out.

00:30:01He insisted he refused the job.

00:30:03And Gauker said after the murders,

00:30:06Lane admitted he was responsible.

00:30:08I asked him directly,

00:30:09did you do it?

00:30:11He said, I brought somebody in.

00:30:12When you said no,

00:30:13he said, I brought somebody in

00:30:14from the outside to do it.

00:30:16Gauker offered to take a polygraph

00:30:18to back up his claims.

00:30:20They conducted it the very next day.

00:30:22Regarding the two victims,

00:30:24did you stab either one of them?

00:30:25Oh.

00:30:26He fails questions about,

00:30:28did he kill...

00:30:30Sure.

00:30:31...Tanatogstead and Tim Umbrough.

00:30:32So what was true and what wasn't?

00:30:36The investigators headed back to Wisconsin

00:30:38to try to run down Gauker's account.

00:30:40They got nowhere.

00:30:42And so they returned to Oklahoma.

00:30:44There was some inconsistencies last time.

00:30:46And this time,

00:30:47Gauker told them a different story.

00:30:50There's only one thing

00:30:51that I haven't told you.

00:30:53He admitted he was at Tannis Farmhouse

00:30:55the night of the murders.

00:30:57But he said he didn't stab anybody.

00:31:00He was just the driver.

00:31:01And you're saying

00:31:02you never went in that house?

00:31:03No.

00:31:04I certainly drove.

00:31:07I was not in the house.

00:31:08I was never in that house.

00:31:10You don't find anything

00:31:11for me in that house.

00:31:14It was Lane who went into the farmhouse,

00:31:17he said.

00:31:18Well, that guy Lane had hired.

00:31:20I drove him

00:31:22and this guy out there that night.

00:31:27The night of the homicide?

00:31:29I drove.

00:31:30All right.

00:31:31That's all I did.

00:31:33Who's the other guy?

00:31:36But he brought him from outside.

00:31:38Lane and the unknown third person

00:31:40who he said was an Irish guy

00:31:42committed the homicide.

00:31:44Tell me what's said when they walk out.

00:31:46I didn't say anything.

00:31:48Bulls***.

00:31:49Are you kidding me?

00:31:50No.

00:31:51I'm telling you,

00:31:52the guy that Lane brought,

00:31:54this guy,

00:31:55this is a scary guy.

00:31:56The guy scared the s*** out of me.

00:31:57This guy was a predator.

00:32:02What did you make of his story?

00:32:04Well,

00:32:04obviously the hair stood up on my neck.

00:32:07But could they believe him?

00:32:09The truth and Glendon Gauker

00:32:11were not well acquainted at all.

00:32:15That was obvious.

00:32:17So,

00:32:18are our chips all in on this poker table?

00:32:20Absolutely not.

00:32:21I mean,

00:32:21he is a con man.

00:32:23But a lot was riding on this.

00:32:25If there was even a chance

00:32:27his Lane Shield story was true,

00:32:29it had to be resolved

00:32:30one way or the other.

00:32:32Just maybe,

00:32:33this admitted murderer,

00:32:34this slippery liar,

00:32:35would help them finally

00:32:37catch their killer.

00:32:54Murderer,

00:32:55rapist,

00:32:56admitted career criminal,

00:32:57Glendon Gauker,

00:32:58was hardly the sort of man

00:33:00any investigator could take at his word.

00:33:02Certainly not Mike Sasse or his partners.

00:33:04It helped,

00:33:06mind you,

00:33:07that Gauker came clean

00:33:08and pleaded guilty

00:33:09to that whole other murder in Oklahoma.

00:33:12But,

00:33:13his story claiming

00:33:14that his former boss,

00:33:15Lane Shields,

00:33:16was responsible

00:33:17for the Tim and Tana murders,

00:33:19well,

00:33:20it might be true.

00:33:21But they couldn't know

00:33:22without learning more

00:33:23about Lane Shields.

00:33:25And then they caught a break.

00:33:27We were able to actually draft

00:33:29and go up on a state Title III wiretap

00:33:31on Lane Shields.

00:33:33This has only been done

00:33:34maybe a few times in Wisconsin.

00:33:36You wouldn't be able to get one

00:33:37unless it was a pretty good case.

00:33:39Correct.

00:33:40How to get Lane talking

00:33:42about the murders?

00:33:44Well,

00:33:44get everyone else talking.

00:33:46We beefed the media

00:33:47out of Green Bay

00:33:48and Madison,

00:33:50and we put billboards

00:33:53up near the crime scene

00:33:55out on our major highways

00:33:56around there.

00:33:57If you know any information

00:33:59who killed Tim and Tana,

00:34:00their pictures were on the billboards.

00:34:02Please call.

00:34:04Now,

00:34:04the thinking went,

00:34:06a nervous Lane

00:34:06would want to make sure

00:34:08the men with him

00:34:08at the murder

00:34:09would keep their mouths shut.

00:34:11So they set up a phone call,

00:34:13Galker to Shields.

00:34:15And of course,

00:34:16unbeknownst to Shields,

00:34:17they listened to every word,

00:34:19full of,

00:34:20what,

00:34:20hope,

00:34:21expectation.

00:34:23Instead,

00:34:24what they got

00:34:24was the nasty,

00:34:25deflating feeling

00:34:26of having been had.

00:34:29They're not saying

00:34:30what you thought they'd say.

00:34:31Right.

00:34:32What we were led to believe

00:34:33they were going to say.

00:34:35Lane didn't sound worried

00:34:36or threatening

00:34:37or indicate any involvement

00:34:38at all.

00:34:39It was just

00:34:40worthless chit-chat.

00:34:42So what did they say?

00:34:43There were no confessions.

00:34:44There were no admissions.

00:34:46There were no,

00:34:47they're coming after me now.

00:34:48We didn't get

00:34:49what we,

00:34:50what we were looking for.

00:34:51This wasn't the chatter

00:34:52of guilty individuals

00:34:53that you were hearing.

00:34:54Right.

00:34:55Yeah.

00:34:56As for the rest

00:34:57of the so-called evidence

00:34:58Galker had provided?

00:35:00We pulled out

00:35:01every investigative,

00:35:03high-end investigative

00:35:04technique that we could.

00:35:05And we didn't get

00:35:07anything that corroborated

00:35:08what Galker was telling us.

00:35:11If that didn't put

00:35:12Galker's account to rest,

00:35:14this did.

00:35:15They searched

00:35:16Lane Shields' property.

00:35:18You come in here

00:35:18to trash my house?

00:35:20They interviewed

00:35:20Lane.

00:35:21He was angry,

00:35:22sure,

00:35:23but more than willing

00:35:24to talk.

00:35:25I gave you everything

00:35:26when you were here.

00:35:27We've talked back.

00:35:28I agree.

00:35:29To the investigators,

00:35:30the hard-as-nails

00:35:31Lane came off

00:35:32as upfront,

00:35:34even honest.

00:35:35I should have

00:35:35an evidentiary hearing

00:35:37on these people

00:35:38that are putting

00:35:38heat on me

00:35:39because it's not true.

00:35:41I run a business here.

00:35:42So when he told them

00:35:44he was innocent,

00:35:45they believed him.

00:35:47Hard as they tried,

00:35:48investigators could find

00:35:50nothing incriminating.

00:35:52Agent Sasse walked away

00:35:53knowing Lane

00:35:54was not their guy.

00:35:56As for Galker,

00:35:58they'd had enough of him.

00:36:00Was there ever

00:36:01any point in the

00:36:02conversations you had

00:36:02with him when you said,

00:36:04Glendon,

00:36:05you're full of it?

00:36:06Yes,

00:36:06and that was it.

00:36:07All that time and money

00:36:09they'd spent on Galker

00:36:10and his story,

00:36:12their deal to allow him

00:36:13to avoid the death penalty

00:36:14for his own crimes

00:36:15in Oklahoma,

00:36:17it was all for naught.

00:36:19They wanted so badly

00:36:20to solve the Tim and Tana murders,

00:36:22and Glendon Galker

00:36:23had simply played them.

00:36:28For more than

00:36:29two and a half decades,

00:36:31Tim and Tana's families

00:36:32were in the dark

00:36:33about the ups and downs

00:36:34of the investigation.

00:36:36There were no arrests,

00:36:38no resolutions.

00:36:40It never got easier.

00:36:42It was really stressful.

00:36:44It's very stressful.

00:36:45Rick Todd said

00:36:46I didn't blame

00:36:47the investigators.

00:36:48He knew how hard

00:36:49they were working.

00:36:50Still,

00:36:51always seems like

00:36:52right around the anniversary,

00:36:54you know,

00:36:54the newspapers

00:36:55and local TV stations

00:36:57and everybody wanted

00:36:58to know what's going on

00:37:00and, you know,

00:37:00and then I'd get

00:37:01all nerved up

00:37:02and I'd be hard

00:37:03to live with

00:37:04and I'd be just,

00:37:06you know,

00:37:07wanting this thing solved

00:37:08and it wasn't getting

00:37:09done fast enough.

00:37:11Tim's older sister,

00:37:12Tina.

00:37:13There's no closure,

00:37:15you know,

00:37:15and I watched my family

00:37:18suffer from

00:37:19so much unforgiveness

00:37:20and hurt,

00:37:22and that hurt

00:37:23would turn into anger

00:37:24and distrust.

00:37:26I mean,

00:37:27many of us didn't know

00:37:29who might be

00:37:31over our shoulder

00:37:32or why

00:37:32because there was

00:37:34no answers.

00:37:362018.

00:37:38Detective Captain

00:37:38Nick Traeger

00:37:39of the Wapaka County

00:37:40Sheriff's Office

00:37:41had taken over the case.

00:37:43By then,

00:37:43the world of DNA evidence

00:37:45had opened up

00:37:45like a flower

00:37:46and Traeger wanted

00:37:48to try something new,

00:37:50familial DNA.

00:37:51That is the now

00:37:53widely accepted method

00:37:55of finding

00:37:55unidentified suspects

00:37:56by searching

00:37:57for their family members

00:37:58in DNA databases

00:38:00and then using

00:38:01family trees

00:38:02to narrow it down.

00:38:03Basically means,

00:38:05okay,

00:38:05not this person,

00:38:06but maybe somebody

00:38:07related to this person.

00:38:08Correct.

00:38:09In the same genetic,

00:38:10you know, line.

00:38:11Yeah,

00:38:12so that was

00:38:12the thought process.

00:38:13They submitted

00:38:16that semen

00:38:17found on Tana's body

00:38:18to criminal databases

00:38:19and got back

00:38:21nothing.

00:38:23They were out

00:38:24of new methods

00:38:25to find their killer,

00:38:26out of names.

00:38:27They were rudderless.

00:38:29And then,

00:38:30a surprise.

00:38:32It was April 2022.

00:38:34A woman called

00:38:35investigators.

00:38:37She was a child

00:38:38at the time

00:38:38of the murder,

00:38:39she said,

00:38:40but she thought

00:38:41she knew who did it.

00:38:42A credible suspect,

00:38:43a suspect

00:38:45she knew all about.

00:38:4730 years after the crime,

00:38:49she was still carrying

00:38:49this around

00:38:50and she wanted

00:38:50to do something about it.

00:38:51Correct.

00:38:52She believed,

00:38:53she told them,

00:38:54that her DNA

00:38:55could finally identify

00:38:57the man who murdered

00:38:58Jim and Tana.

00:38:59And who was that person?

00:39:01So she turned on

00:39:02her profile

00:39:03and it was,

00:39:05like,

00:39:06the Christmas tree

00:39:07lit up.

00:39:08Really?

00:39:08Yes.

00:39:13murder cast

00:39:25its dreadful damage

00:39:26wide

00:39:27and for a long,

00:39:28long time.

00:39:30Through the years,

00:39:31Tim and Tana's families

00:39:32never stopped

00:39:33looking for answers.

00:39:35What is it about you,

00:39:36your personality,

00:39:37that made you push

00:39:37so hard

00:39:38for all these decades

00:39:39to try to solve this?

00:39:40Well,

00:39:41I don't give up.

00:39:44Maybe it's just as well

00:39:45Rick didn't get to know

00:39:47what he was up against

00:39:48as he vowed

00:39:49to get justice

00:39:50for his sister.

00:39:52I just don't stop.

00:39:54I won't stop.

00:39:55I will not stop.

00:39:57We prayed a lot

00:39:58that somebody

00:40:00would come forth

00:40:01and somebody

00:40:02wouldn't be able

00:40:03to live with themselves.

00:40:04Three decades

00:40:05after those brutal stabbings

00:40:07in Wyoigo, Wisconsin,

00:40:09the families seemed

00:40:10to get their wish

00:40:11when a woman

00:40:12called investigators

00:40:13in 2022.

00:40:15Her name was Heather.

00:40:16She told the investigators

00:40:18she had heard

00:40:18about those murders

00:40:19when she was just

00:40:20a little girl

00:40:21and ever since

00:40:22she'd had this awful feeling

00:40:24that her father

00:40:26had something

00:40:27to do with it.

00:40:29And this got

00:40:29investigators' attention

00:40:30because

00:40:31her father was

00:40:33Jeff Teal.

00:40:35Remember him?

00:40:37Teal,

00:40:37the known

00:40:38violent offender,

00:40:39was one of the

00:40:40original suspects.

00:40:41But why did Heather

00:40:43wait so long?

00:40:45Well,

00:40:45it turned out

00:40:46she didn't.

00:40:47She told investigators

00:40:49the same thing

00:40:50way back in

00:40:512010

00:40:52when agent

00:40:53Mike Sasse

00:40:54had the case.

00:40:55Do you remember

00:40:55Heather Teal

00:40:56coming forward?

00:40:58Yes.

00:40:58What did she have to say?

00:40:59She was emotional.

00:41:01She says,

00:41:01I think my dad

00:41:02had something

00:41:03to do with this.

00:41:04And I knew

00:41:04that he was ruled out.

00:41:07That's because

00:41:08three years after

00:41:09the murders,

00:41:10back in 1995,

00:41:12Jeff Teal got

00:41:13into an armed standoff

00:41:15with law enforcement

00:41:16and then escaped

00:41:17and skipped town.

00:41:19It didn't end well.

00:41:20He dies by suicide

00:41:21I believe in the

00:41:22state of Washington.

00:41:24It's how investigators

00:41:25were able to get

00:41:26his DNA.

00:41:27The sheriff's department

00:41:28and detectives

00:41:29at that point in time

00:41:30are sent his clothing

00:41:32of when he died.

00:41:33That was blood

00:41:33on the shirt,

00:41:34is that correct?

00:41:35Yes.

00:41:36And that is sent in

00:41:37to a private lab

00:41:38and he is compared

00:41:40to the semen

00:41:41left at the crime scene

00:41:43and he's not a match.

00:41:45In other words,

00:41:46the DNA on his shirt

00:41:47said he didn't do it

00:41:49and he was cleared.

00:41:50Jeff Teal was buried

00:41:52near his home

00:41:53in Wisconsin

00:41:53and the suspicion

00:41:54about his involvement

00:41:55in the case

00:41:56was buried with him.

00:41:59But Heather Teal

00:42:00was so sure

00:42:00her father was

00:42:01behind the murders.

00:42:03Thirty years

00:42:04after the crime,

00:42:05she was still

00:42:05carrying this around

00:42:06and she wanted

00:42:07to do something

00:42:07about it.

00:42:07Correct.

00:42:09So Captain Traeger

00:42:10and his partner

00:42:10went to see Heather

00:42:11and her mom, Marie.

00:42:13You've always believed

00:42:15he's involved in this.

00:42:16What made you believe that?

00:42:17Because he did it

00:42:18and then said,

00:42:19it's funny how you can

00:42:19get away with murder

00:42:20these days.

00:42:21Jeff even saying

00:42:23to Marie,

00:42:24I've gotten away

00:42:25with murder.

00:42:26And his ultimate dream

00:42:27was to kill somebody.

00:42:29He used to tell me

00:42:30that all the time.

00:42:31Did you believe him?

00:42:32Oh yeah.

00:42:33He's had a gun

00:42:33in front of my face

00:42:34that if I ever

00:42:35called the cops on him,

00:42:36he's going to use it.

00:42:37A lot of childhood memories.

00:42:39My biggest memory

00:42:40of my dad

00:42:41is his obsession

00:42:42with knives too.

00:42:44Sitting in his chair,

00:42:45his rock and recliner,

00:42:46sharpening his knives.

00:42:48On top of all that,

00:42:49they said,

00:42:50Jeff made it pretty obvious

00:42:51how he felt about Tana.

00:42:53He was obsessed with Tana.

00:42:54How do you know that?

00:42:56I had heard,

00:42:57and I can't remember

00:42:58who I had heard it from,

00:42:59if it was Tana herself,

00:43:01Jeff wanted to date Tana.

00:43:03Tana wanted nothing

00:43:04to do with Jeff.

00:43:05I always would think back

00:43:06when I heard that

00:43:07she was murdered

00:43:08or whatever,

00:43:09that, okay,

00:43:11Jeff doesn't live far from her,

00:43:12wanted to date her,

00:43:13she wanted nothing

00:43:14to do with him

00:43:15and how he always said

00:43:15he wanted to kill somebody.

00:43:17And remember,

00:43:18Tana's dog Scruffy

00:43:19was stabbed to death too,

00:43:21apparently trying

00:43:21to protect him and Tana.

00:43:23Well, Marie told investigators

00:43:25Jeff had a history

00:43:26of killing dogs,

00:43:27two of them

00:43:28right in their neighborhood.

00:43:29They were two huge dogs.

00:43:31I mean,

00:43:31they were really, really big,

00:43:33and Jeff shot them both.

00:43:34I saw him shoot them

00:43:35and kill them.

00:43:36He picked them up

00:43:37and he threw them

00:43:38in the back of his truck.

00:43:39Hold on,

00:43:39you saw Jeff

00:43:40shoot whose dogs?

00:43:42Neighbors' dogs.

00:43:43But DNA doesn't lie

00:43:45and DNA cleared Jeff Deal.

00:43:49Just to be thorough,

00:43:50they did a cheek swab

00:43:51anyway of Heather.

00:43:53So, we collected her DNA,

00:43:56which she gave

00:43:57along with her mom,

00:43:59and I guess there was

00:44:00really no intent

00:44:01other than to,

00:44:03I guess,

00:44:03kind of have it

00:44:04because Jeff was eliminated.

00:44:06Then, just as they were

00:44:08getting ready to leave,

00:44:10Heather offered investigators

00:44:12something else.

00:44:13I'm on Ancestry, too.

00:44:16She had explained

00:44:17that she does

00:44:18the genealogy as well.

00:44:20She told investigators

00:44:21she'd been working

00:44:22on her family tree

00:44:23on Ancestry.com

00:44:25and offered them

00:44:27access to her account.

00:44:29The FBI had been helping

00:44:30with the investigation

00:44:31and got to work.

00:44:32And the FBI agent

00:44:35had reached out

00:44:36to Heather

00:44:37to turn the feature on

00:44:40where law enforcement

00:44:41can view your profile.

00:44:43So, she turned on

00:44:44her profile

00:44:45and it was

00:44:47like the Christmas tree

00:44:51lit up.

00:44:51Really?

00:44:52Yes.

00:44:53Heather was right.

00:44:55There was a connection

00:44:57with her father.

00:44:58But here came the twist

00:45:00and it was

00:45:02a big one.

00:45:03So, the FBI agent

00:45:05said,

00:45:07we are

00:45:07very close

00:45:08in the family

00:45:09but it's not

00:45:10Jeff Thiel.

00:45:11After 30 years

00:45:13of waiting,

00:45:14investigators

00:45:15finally had

00:45:16a DNA match

00:45:17and a new name.

00:45:19Was this

00:45:20their man?

00:45:21No.

00:45:28Summer of 2022

00:45:3830 years

00:45:40after the murders

00:45:41of Tim Mumbrou

00:45:42and Tana Togstad

00:45:43investigators

00:45:45finally had

00:45:46a new suspect.

00:45:48Genetic genealogy

00:45:49pointed to Heather Thiel's

00:45:50first cousin

00:45:51and Jeff Thiel's

00:45:53nephew

00:45:53a man named

00:45:55Tony Hayes.

00:45:57Nobody had ever

00:45:59heard of Tony Hayes

00:46:00in the case file.

00:46:01So, we started

00:46:02looking into

00:46:03where does

00:46:04Tony Hayes live?

00:46:06Who is he?

00:46:07And realized

00:46:08that he lives

00:46:09less than two miles

00:46:10from the original

00:46:11crime scene.

00:46:12Like a lot of

00:46:13men in town,

00:46:14Tony worked

00:46:15at the Iron Foundry

00:46:16but unlike

00:46:17his uncle

00:46:18Jeff Thiel

00:46:18he had no

00:46:19criminal record.

00:46:21Just unbelievable.

00:46:22He's been there

00:46:23his entire life

00:46:24and he's

00:46:26a nobody.

00:46:28Hiding in plain sight?

00:46:29Correct.

00:46:29So, we spent

00:46:30several weeks

00:46:30following Tony

00:46:32and

00:46:33it was

00:46:34the same

00:46:35thing

00:46:35almost every day.

00:46:37He went to work

00:46:37at the foundry

00:46:38and he went home

00:46:39and he worked

00:46:40around the farm.

00:46:42What to do?

00:46:43Get the man's DNA.

00:46:45So, they

00:46:46rifled through

00:46:46his garbage

00:46:47but

00:46:48nothing.

00:46:49So, we had to

00:46:50get creative.

00:46:51Yeah, I would think.

00:46:52I mean, because you're

00:46:52chasing him around

00:46:53looking for him

00:46:54to drop.

00:46:54Yeah, throw something

00:46:55out the window.

00:46:56Yeah.

00:46:57They noticed that

00:46:58Tony's car

00:46:59was missing

00:46:59its front license plate

00:47:01so they came up

00:47:02with a plan.

00:47:03Let's write him

00:47:04a warning

00:47:05for no front plate

00:47:06and have him

00:47:08touch a brand new

00:47:09pen and then

00:47:10we'll send the pen

00:47:11down to see

00:47:12if he's a match.

00:47:13Clever idea

00:47:14but it would involve

00:47:14you kind of

00:47:15conducting this

00:47:16ruse traffic stop,

00:47:18right?

00:47:18That's what we did.

00:47:19Hi, I'm

00:47:19Trooper Pullman

00:47:20with the state patrol.

00:47:21I stopped you

00:47:21for no front plate

00:47:22on the vehicle today.

00:47:23I'm just going to

00:47:23ask that you sign

00:47:24to acknowledge

00:47:25that you received

00:47:25the warning.

00:47:26I've got a pen

00:47:26right there for you

00:47:27as well.

00:47:28They sent the pen

00:47:29with Tony's DNA

00:47:30to the lab

00:47:31and

00:47:31it was a match.

00:47:35Wow.

00:47:36What was that

00:47:37moment like?

00:47:38It was

00:47:38unbelievable.

00:47:39I've never felt

00:47:40so joyous

00:47:41in my life.

00:47:42And yet

00:47:42nothing about him

00:47:44looked like

00:47:45a killer.

00:47:46He was just

00:47:47a regular guy,

00:47:48a father of four,

00:47:49with no criminal

00:47:50record of any kind.

00:47:52Not even a hint

00:47:53of any impropriety.

00:47:55He lived quietly

00:47:56on the same

00:47:57farm his family

00:47:58had owned

00:47:58for decades.

00:48:00We spent a lot

00:48:01of time

00:48:01goofing off

00:48:03at the farm

00:48:03and with our

00:48:04grandparents.

00:48:06Tony's sister,

00:48:06Cherry Hayes Gust.

00:48:08But as we got

00:48:09older,

00:48:10he was my defender.

00:48:11I always looked

00:48:11up to him.

00:48:13Jody Lynn Morgan

00:48:14met and rode

00:48:15the school bus

00:48:16with Tony

00:48:16when they were

00:48:17just five years old.

00:48:18He's the gentle

00:48:19giant.

00:48:20As long as I've

00:48:21known him,

00:48:21always, always

00:48:22has been.

00:48:23So they grew up

00:48:24liking each other

00:48:25and then loving

00:48:27each other.

00:48:28They lived together

00:48:29for about two years,

00:48:30had two kids,

00:48:32before deciding

00:48:32to go their

00:48:33separate ways.

00:48:34And then a couple

00:48:35of years after that,

00:48:36Tony went on

00:48:37to marry Tracy.

00:48:39How'd you meet

00:48:40him?

00:48:40We, um,

00:48:41we both like

00:48:43to fish,

00:48:44so we met

00:48:45in a bait shop.

00:48:47Yeah, that was

00:48:48his thing, right?

00:48:49Yeah.

00:48:49Fishing.

00:48:50Yep.

00:48:50Both of ours.

00:48:52Yep.

00:48:53Tony and Tracy

00:48:54had two kids

00:48:55of their own

00:48:55and eventually

00:48:56grandchildren.

00:48:58The couple

00:48:59celebrated their

00:49:0025th wedding

00:49:00anniversary

00:49:01in June of

00:49:022022.

00:49:04And two months

00:49:05later,

00:49:06investigators went

00:49:06to the iron

00:49:07foundry,

00:49:08found Tony,

00:49:09and asked

00:49:10to speak

00:49:10with him.

00:49:11So he came

00:49:12in, um,

00:49:13very nonchalant.

00:49:14Uh, it was

00:49:15low-key.

00:49:16Hi, Tony.

00:49:17Hey.

00:49:18We introduced

00:49:18ourselves.

00:49:19We asked just

00:49:20kind of some

00:49:20basic background

00:49:21questions of him,

00:49:23who he was,

00:49:24where he lives,

00:49:25some work history.

00:49:26He knew Tim

00:49:27and Tana

00:49:28personally?

00:49:29He said he

00:49:30had never met

00:49:31Tim.

00:49:31He knew of

00:49:33Tana only

00:49:34because they

00:49:35lived in the

00:49:35same town.

00:49:36Interesting.

00:49:37Did he wonder

00:49:38why, why you

00:49:38were talking

00:49:39to him about

00:49:39this all

00:49:40these years

00:49:40later?

00:49:41He questioned

00:49:42why we were

00:49:42talking to him.

00:49:43Uh, we

00:49:43explained that

00:49:44his name had

00:49:45come up in

00:49:45the investigation.

00:49:47Now,

00:49:48investigators

00:49:49asked him

00:49:49directly.

00:49:51Did you have

00:49:51any involvement

00:49:54whatsoever

00:49:54in this incident?

00:49:57In what

00:49:57incident?

00:49:58Uh, incident

00:49:58with Tim

00:49:59and Tana.

00:50:00No.

00:50:01We asked

00:50:02if he'd be

00:50:02willing to

00:50:03give his

00:50:04cheek swabs

00:50:05and fingerprints

00:50:05to us

00:50:06and he

00:50:07agreed to.

00:50:09Tony also

00:50:09agreed to

00:50:10take a

00:50:10polygraph.

00:50:11So,

00:50:12investigators

00:50:12took him

00:50:13down to

00:50:13the sheriff's

00:50:14station,

00:50:15performed a

00:50:15cheek swab

00:50:16and had him

00:50:16take that

00:50:17polygraph.

00:50:17And then,

00:50:18they placed him

00:50:19in an interview

00:50:20room.

00:50:21I'm sure you

00:50:21want to know

00:50:22how you did?

00:50:22Yep.

00:50:22Okay.

00:50:23You did not

00:50:24pass.

00:50:25Okay?

00:50:26It was very

00:50:27clear when it

00:50:28came to the

00:50:28questions regarding

00:50:29Tim and Tana's

00:50:30death that you

00:50:31are, you're

00:50:32lying.

00:50:32You continue

00:50:33to deny and

00:50:34lie and we

00:50:36will show you

00:50:36the evidence

00:50:37that we have.

00:50:38It's not going

00:50:39to look good

00:50:39for you.

00:50:40Does that

00:50:41make sense?

00:50:42Oh, it

00:50:42makes sense.

00:50:45I,

00:50:46I don't

00:50:49believe that I

00:50:49could have done

00:50:50something like

00:50:50that.

00:50:51Okay.

00:50:51And did he

00:50:52actually fail it?

00:50:53Yes.

00:50:54So they

00:50:54confronted Tony

00:50:55and explained

00:50:57that he was

00:51:00the match to

00:51:00the semen of

00:51:01the DNA that

00:51:02was left at

00:51:03the crime scene.

00:51:04Your semen

00:51:05that was found

00:51:05on her body

00:51:06at the murder

00:51:07scene.

00:51:09I still

00:51:09won't buy it.

00:51:10It doesn't

00:51:11matter if you

00:51:11buy it,

00:51:11Tony.

00:51:12I get it.

00:51:13I get it.

00:51:14You need to

00:51:14explain it.

00:51:15And what I

00:51:16found interesting

00:51:17was he never

00:51:18said, hang

00:51:19on guys,

00:51:20you're talking

00:51:21to the wrong

00:51:21person,

00:51:22that's not

00:51:23me.

00:51:23He just

00:51:24kind of sat

00:51:25there and was

00:51:25like, I don't

00:51:26understand.

00:51:28Did he ever

00:51:28say anything

00:51:29that would

00:51:29suggest that

00:51:30maybe he did

00:51:31remember doing

00:51:31something?

00:51:32So Tony took

00:51:33a long time

00:51:34to kind of

00:51:35get going.

00:51:37But once

00:51:38he did get

00:51:39going?

00:51:40It's going

00:51:40to sound

00:51:41stupid, but

00:51:42I never

00:51:45knew I did

00:51:45it.

00:51:45death.

00:51:47Death.

00:52:01August 11th,

00:52:032022.

00:52:04At the

00:52:05sheriff's office,

00:52:06investigators led

00:52:07Tony Hayes to an

00:52:08interview room and

00:52:09asked him questions

00:52:10about the murders

00:52:11of Tim Mumbrew and

00:52:12Tana Togstad.

00:52:14That is where he

00:52:15first mentioned

00:52:16what he called

00:52:16clicks or blurbs

00:52:18from the night of

00:52:19the murders.

00:52:20Memories of some

00:52:21sort.

00:52:22Over the years,

00:52:23little by little,

00:52:25you know,

00:52:26I'd see a little

00:52:27click here and

00:52:28there, but

00:52:29that I was

00:52:32wondering if I

00:52:34had something to

00:52:34do with it.

00:52:35But I'll tell you

00:52:36straight up, and I'm

00:52:37not lying, that I

00:52:38don't believe that I

00:52:40would do that.

00:52:41But then he

00:52:42recalled going on a

00:52:43binger that night and

00:52:44ending up at

00:52:45Tana's house.

00:52:46I remember the

00:52:47house.

00:52:48I remember the

00:52:49You remembered

00:52:49that house?

00:52:50No.

00:52:50Yeah.

00:52:51I remember the

00:52:52steps.

00:52:53I remembered a,

00:52:54like a barbell or

00:52:56something like that.

00:52:57Which, when you

00:52:58look at the crime

00:52:59scene photos, there's

00:53:00a dumbbell in the

00:53:01bedroom.

00:53:02What's another

00:53:03blurb?

00:53:06I remember walking

00:53:07down the road.

00:53:08I got into my

00:53:10truck and drove

00:53:13home.

00:53:14Could that be the

00:53:15truck Tana's sister

00:53:16saw driving away

00:53:17late that night?

00:53:19But even as his

00:53:20memories seemed to

00:53:21incriminate him,

00:53:22Tony remained

00:53:23adamant he could

00:53:25not have done

00:53:26this.

00:53:26I don't remember

00:53:27nothing about

00:53:29hurting any people.

00:53:30Investigators

00:53:31pressed him for a

00:53:32possible motive.

00:53:34You were never

00:53:34attracted to Tana

00:53:36when you saw

00:53:37her?

00:53:37No.

00:53:39Never wanted to

00:53:40date her, never

00:53:40jealous of some

00:53:42guys that were

00:53:42dating her.

00:53:43No.

00:53:44Tony was dating

00:53:46Jody at the time

00:53:47and denied any

00:53:48attraction to Tana,

00:53:50but then he

00:53:50started describing

00:53:51what sounded like

00:53:53a motive of

00:53:54sorts.

00:53:55It happened when

00:53:57Tony was just

00:53:57seven years old.

00:53:59His dad had been

00:54:00racing snowmobiles

00:54:01with Tana's dad

00:54:02and another friend,

00:54:03and suddenly the

00:54:04belt on Tony's

00:54:05dad's snowmobile

00:54:06blew and he was

00:54:07hit by the

00:54:08snowmobile coming

00:54:09up behind him.

00:54:10Killed my dad

00:54:11instantly.

00:54:12The third guy

00:54:12coming up ran

00:54:16that guy over.

00:54:17It was a

00:54:18horrible accident.

00:54:19Only Tana's dad

00:54:21survived, though

00:54:22he died a few

00:54:23years later.

00:54:24His father's

00:54:25death said Tony

00:54:26resurfaced 14

00:54:27years after the

00:54:28fact on the

00:54:30night of the

00:54:30murders.

00:54:31I was drunk

00:54:32and all I

00:54:34could think

00:54:35about was

00:54:35that accident.

00:54:37I didn't go

00:54:38there to hurt

00:54:39anybody.

00:54:40I didn't.

00:54:42But I honestly

00:54:43can tell you

00:54:44that I don't

00:54:46know what

00:54:48started, what

00:54:48happened, what

00:54:49started it all.

00:54:50I don't.

00:54:51What took you

00:54:52so long in this

00:54:54room to tell

00:54:55us the story

00:54:57about your dad

00:54:58and the

00:54:59snowmobile and

00:55:00Tana's dad being

00:55:01involved.

00:55:02Because I

00:55:02didn't want it

00:55:03to sound like

00:55:04I had this

00:55:05planned, because

00:55:06I didn't.

00:55:08Planned or

00:55:09not, investigators

00:55:10felt they had

00:55:11enough.

00:55:12It's 1.39

00:55:13Tony.

00:55:15I have to place

00:55:16you under arrest

00:55:16for the homicide

00:55:17of Tana

00:55:18Togstead.

00:55:19And Tim

00:55:20I'll do.

00:55:21Yes.

00:55:21Okay.

00:55:23Investigators

00:55:24were convinced

00:55:25they finally had

00:55:27their man.

00:55:27Tony's family

00:55:29was blindsided.

00:55:32Our youngest

00:55:33son messaged

00:55:34me in the

00:55:35afternoon and

00:55:36said that the

00:55:38cops were at

00:55:39our house.

00:55:40And I

00:55:41couldn't even

00:55:42drive down my

00:55:43road that I

00:55:44live on, because

00:55:46I had it all

00:55:47blocked off.

00:55:48Did you, Tracy,

00:55:50have to somehow

00:55:50deal with that

00:55:52question that you

00:55:53might be, you

00:55:54know, married to

00:55:55and living with

00:55:56a man who

00:55:57had done a

00:55:57very, very,

00:55:58very terrible

00:55:58thing all

00:55:59those years

00:55:59ago?

00:56:00No.

00:56:01Not even when

00:56:02they got the

00:56:02DNA comparison

00:56:04with the semen

00:56:05that they found

00:56:05in their body?

00:56:06In my heart,

00:56:07I know he

00:56:08did not do

00:56:09this.

00:56:09There is no

00:56:10possible way he

00:56:11could have ever

00:56:11done something

00:56:12like that.

00:56:13So, no.

00:56:15The investigators

00:56:16talked to Jody,

00:56:17too, of course.

00:56:18Well, the

00:56:19first thing I

00:56:20said was,

00:56:23no, you

00:56:24have the wrong

00:56:24guy.

00:56:26You have

00:56:26the wrong

00:56:27guy.

00:56:28Back in

00:56:281992, Jody

00:56:30and Tony had

00:56:31only just moved

00:56:32in together.

00:56:33And, yes, the

00:56:34murder happened

00:56:35nearby, but

00:56:37did you notice

00:56:38any changes in

00:56:39Tony's behavior

00:56:39after that?

00:56:40No.

00:56:42No, nothing.

00:56:43Nothing at

00:56:43all.

00:56:45But then,

00:56:45landing with a

00:56:46sickening thud,

00:56:48that DNA,

00:56:50and Tony placing

00:56:51himself at

00:56:51Tana's house,

00:56:52remembering

00:56:54that barbell,

00:56:55the snowmobile

00:56:56accident.

00:56:57Why do you

00:56:58think those

00:56:58things came

00:56:58out of his

00:56:59mouth?

00:56:59And what do

00:57:00you think it

00:57:00all meant?

00:57:01He didn't

00:57:02say any of

00:57:02those things

00:57:03until he

00:57:05had proclaimed

00:57:05his innocence

00:57:06a hundred

00:57:06times and

00:57:08was shown

00:57:08pictures and

00:57:10videos.

00:57:11They repeatedly

00:57:12told him he

00:57:13must have done

00:57:13it.

00:57:14He did it.

00:57:15He did it.

00:57:16They kept

00:57:16coming down

00:57:17harder on him.

00:57:19Tony's family

00:57:19knew they

00:57:20needed help,

00:57:21and they

00:57:21turned to

00:57:22defense attorneys

00:57:22John Birdsall

00:57:23and Nicole

00:57:24Muller.

00:57:25Usually when

00:57:26we get

00:57:26contacted,

00:57:27we get

00:57:27contacted by

00:57:28maybe one

00:57:28family member.

00:57:29Yeah.

00:57:29And the

00:57:30interesting thing

00:57:31was is that

00:57:32everybody believed

00:57:34in Tony Hayes'

00:57:35innocence so

00:57:36much,

00:57:36all his family,

00:57:37all his friends,

00:57:38that we had a

00:57:39conference call

00:57:40for people that

00:57:41wanted to help

00:57:41him financially

00:57:42to hire us.

00:57:44On that

00:57:44conference call,

00:57:45there were 55

00:57:45people.

00:57:47And right there,

00:57:49before I even

00:57:49met Tony,

00:57:50I was like,

00:57:51there's something

00:57:52going on here.

00:57:53There's something

00:57:54wrong with this

00:57:54picture.

00:57:55Bert Zoll and

00:57:56Muller got to

00:57:57work that

00:57:57summer of

00:57:582022,

00:57:59trying to get

00:57:59their heads

00:57:59around 30

00:58:00years of

00:58:01records they

00:58:02received from

00:58:02the prosecution.

00:58:03It took

00:58:04months.

00:58:05It was almost

00:58:05as if they

00:58:06just brought

00:58:07a truck with

00:58:08a bunch of

00:58:08boxes and

00:58:09dumped it out

00:58:10on the front

00:58:10lawn and

00:58:10said, there

00:58:11you go,

00:58:11work it out.

00:58:12And in the

00:58:13middle of all

00:58:14that working

00:58:15out, they

00:58:16read about the

00:58:17sheer depravity

00:58:18of the crimes.

00:58:20This is not

00:58:21somebody who

00:58:22just got

00:58:24drunk and

00:58:24had a bad

00:58:25night, like

00:58:25the interrogators

00:58:26tried to

00:58:27suggest to

00:58:27Tony.

00:58:27Something else

00:58:28was going on

00:58:29here.

00:58:30Which, it

00:58:31seemed to

00:58:31them, fit

00:58:32those other

00:58:33suspects.

00:58:34Remember?

00:58:35The suspects

00:58:35we've told you

00:58:36about.

00:58:37Basically, there

00:58:37was three there.

00:58:38Three?

00:58:39Three.

00:58:39Yeah.

00:58:40Glendon Goker,

00:58:41Lane Shields,

00:58:42and Jeffrey

00:58:43Teal.

00:58:44But remember,

00:58:45all three had

00:58:45been pretty

00:58:45thoroughly

00:58:46investigated, and

00:58:47all of them

00:58:47were cleared.

00:58:48In Teal's

00:58:49case, by his

00:58:50own DNA, which

00:58:52excluded him

00:58:52back in 1996.

00:58:54But 26 years

00:58:56later, thanks to

00:58:57familial DNA

00:58:58technology, it

00:58:59identified his

00:59:00nephew, Tony

00:59:01Hayes, as the

00:59:02likely killer.

00:59:03So now, pre

00:59:05trial, a legal

00:59:06skirmish began.

00:59:08Defense versus

00:59:09prosecution.

00:59:11The defense

00:59:11wanted to claim

00:59:12Jeff Teal was

00:59:13not excluded from

00:59:14all the blood

00:59:15evidence of the

00:59:15crime scene.

00:59:16And because of

00:59:17that, remained

00:59:18a potential

00:59:19suspect.

00:59:20Wapaka County

00:59:21D.A.

00:59:21Kat Turner

00:59:22objected.

00:59:24Jeff Teal seems

00:59:25like an obvious

00:59:25suspect to go

00:59:26after.

00:59:26He's dead.

00:59:27He was a bad

00:59:28guy.

00:59:28So, he had

00:59:30already been

00:59:31excluded in

00:59:321996.

00:59:34The judge

00:59:35sided with the

00:59:36defense.

00:59:37So, investigators

00:59:39decided...

00:59:40Let's show for a

00:59:41third time that he's

00:59:43been eliminated,

00:59:43convicted, and

00:59:44that way the

00:59:45defense can't

00:59:46use Jeff

00:59:47Thiel as the

00:59:49person who

00:59:50committed these

00:59:50crimes.

00:59:51But testing

00:59:52Jeff Teal's

00:59:53DNA wasn't

00:59:54easy.

00:59:55He was six

00:59:56feet under.

00:59:57Which brings us

00:59:58back to that

00:59:59gloomy day in

01:00:00the cemetery.

01:00:01So, we asked

01:00:03the court to

01:00:04allow us to

01:00:04exhume Jeff

01:00:05Teal.

01:00:05We did.

01:00:06The man in

01:00:21this casket had

01:00:22kept his secrets

01:00:22to himself for

01:00:24almost 30

01:00:24years.

01:00:26But Jeff

01:00:26Thiel was

01:00:28about to give

01:00:28one up.

01:00:30We rushed

01:00:30to the testing.

01:00:32The DNA

01:00:32analyst worked

01:00:34on nothing but

01:00:35that until

01:00:36he had the

01:00:37analysis complete

01:00:38and, again,

01:00:40excluded Jeff

01:00:41Thiel from

01:00:42all of the

01:00:43blood evidence

01:00:44that was

01:00:44available.

01:00:45All of the

01:00:46other evidence,

01:00:47prosecutors said,

01:00:48pointed straight

01:00:49at Tony Hayes,

01:00:50who was due to

01:00:51stand trial for

01:00:52murder in just

01:00:53two weeks.

01:00:54But when the

01:00:55prosecution revealed

01:00:56the new evidence,

01:00:57Tony's attorneys

01:00:58argued they didn't

01:00:59have time to

01:00:59prepare a response.

01:01:01And the judge

01:01:02agreed with

01:01:03the defense.

01:01:04He ruled that

01:01:05if the trial

01:01:06went ahead,

01:01:07the prosecution

01:01:08could not tell

01:01:09the jury about

01:01:10any DNA evidence

01:01:11involving Jeff

01:01:12Thiel.

01:01:14Did you think

01:01:14that was a good

01:01:15decision?

01:01:15No, I did not.

01:01:17And we very,

01:01:18very, very,

01:01:19very strongly

01:01:20argued to the

01:01:21court that it

01:01:23was inappropriate

01:01:23because everyone

01:01:25in the room,

01:01:26with the exception

01:01:26of the jury,

01:01:28knew that Jeff

01:01:29Thiel had been

01:01:30excluded as a

01:01:32potential contributor

01:01:33to any of the

01:01:33biological evidence.

01:01:35Tough luck,

01:01:36said the defense.

01:01:38They had years

01:01:38to do this.

01:01:40And they were

01:01:40trying to act

01:01:41like they were

01:01:42the victims.

01:01:43And even the judges,

01:01:43like, that's really,

01:01:44he used the word

01:01:44twice, disingenuous.

01:01:46For the prosecutors

01:01:48and Tana and Tim's

01:01:50families,

01:01:51it meant an

01:01:51agonizing choice.

01:01:53Go to trial

01:01:53with a weaker case,

01:01:55as they saw it?

01:01:56Or set a new

01:01:57trial date,

01:01:58who knew when,

01:01:59with a stronger case?

01:02:01In the end,

01:02:02they decided to go

01:02:03for it.

01:02:05Tana's friend,

01:02:06Jill.

01:02:06They said,

01:02:06the case is

01:02:07strong enough,

01:02:08we will go forward.

01:02:11And so,

01:02:12on July 17,

01:02:132025,

01:02:14it began.

01:02:15Please be seated.

01:02:17One of the biggest

01:02:18trials in

01:02:18Wapaka County

01:02:19history.

01:02:21Finally,

01:02:21a jury could

01:02:22deliver justice,

01:02:24said Tana's

01:02:24friends and family.

01:02:26What was the most

01:02:26important thing

01:02:27in your mind

01:02:28that they had

01:02:28against him?

01:02:29Well,

01:02:29the confession

01:02:30was huge to me.

01:02:32I mean,

01:02:32it was just like,

01:02:33wow,

01:02:34it's on tape.

01:02:35There was things

01:02:36that he said

01:02:38that unless

01:02:40you did it,

01:02:41you don't make

01:02:42that kind of stuff up.

01:02:43No,

01:02:43he wouldn't know.

01:02:44Did you feel

01:02:45a kind of weight

01:02:46on you

01:02:47as you're trying

01:02:48to bring this

01:02:49case to a

01:02:50successful conclusion?

01:02:51Absolutely.

01:02:52This is a small,

01:02:54small town,

01:02:55and you want,

01:02:57as the prosecutor,

01:02:59to get justice

01:03:01for those people

01:03:03who you care about.

01:03:04For three decades,

01:03:07this crime

01:03:08went unsolved.

01:03:10Assistant Attorney

01:03:10General Amy

01:03:11Otani

01:03:12opened for the state.

01:03:13For three decades,

01:03:15the person

01:03:15that committed

01:03:16these crimes

01:03:17believed he

01:03:18would never

01:03:19get caught.

01:03:20Otani told

01:03:21the jury

01:03:21that Tony Hayes

01:03:23stabbed Tana

01:03:24and Tim

01:03:24in the early

01:03:25morning hours

01:03:26of March 21,

01:03:271992,

01:03:28and she said

01:03:29the prosecution

01:03:30had the receipts.

01:03:31So what ties

01:03:33Tony Hayes

01:03:33to this crime?

01:03:34His semen

01:03:35on Tana's body?

01:03:37His handprint

01:03:38in blood

01:03:39on Tana's door?

01:03:40His own memories

01:03:42of killing

01:03:43Tim and Tana?

01:03:45The handprint

01:03:47evidence first

01:03:48found on the door

01:03:49for years

01:03:50a bloody emblem

01:03:51of this case.

01:03:53A forensic analyst

01:03:54for the state

01:03:55crime lab

01:03:55testified

01:03:56she was able

01:03:57to make a match

01:03:58to Tony Hayes.

01:03:59Item ABFRD2

01:04:01was identified

01:04:02to the left palm

01:04:03of Tony Garrett Hayes.

01:04:08ABFRD3

01:04:09was identified

01:04:10to the left palm

01:04:12of Tony Garrett Hayes.

01:04:14How confident

01:04:15can you be

01:04:15in a handprint?

01:04:17I believe

01:04:17they're reliable.

01:04:19However,

01:04:20I would not

01:04:21feel confident

01:04:22if that was

01:04:24the only evidence.

01:04:26It wasn't.

01:04:28Remember that

01:04:29male DNA

01:04:29on Tana's body?

01:04:31Over 30 years

01:04:32it had been

01:04:33seriously depleted

01:04:34by repeated testing.

01:04:36But new testing methods

01:04:37require very few cells.

01:04:40So when the analysts

01:04:41retested the DNA

01:04:42for investigation,

01:04:44they used

01:04:44the minuscule amounts

01:04:46that remained.

01:04:48Were you confident

01:04:48there was enough

01:04:49even at that level

01:04:52that they could

01:04:53get an accurate result?

01:04:54From speaking

01:04:55with our genetics

01:04:57DNA analysts,

01:04:59I was confident.

01:05:00It's a principle

01:05:01of DNA testing

01:05:02that there cannot be

01:05:03100% certainty.

01:05:05So the prosecutors

01:05:07called it DNA analyst

01:05:08with the Wisconsin

01:05:09State Crime Lab

01:05:11who had worked out

01:05:12an exact probability

01:05:14to show it most

01:05:15certainly was

01:05:16Tony Hayes' DNA.

01:05:18The random ash probability,

01:05:20the profile would not be

01:05:22less common

01:05:24than one in 234 quintillion.

01:05:26Okay.

01:05:28And that's

01:05:28234 followed by

01:05:3018 zeros, right?

01:05:32Correct.

01:05:33In other words,

01:05:34the likelihood

01:05:35of the DNA

01:05:35on Tana's body

01:05:36being from anyone

01:05:37other than Tony Hayes

01:05:38was astronomically small.

01:05:41But perhaps

01:05:42the most compelling evidence

01:05:43came from Tony Hayes

01:05:44himself

01:05:45during that

01:05:46marathon interrogation.

01:05:48I remember

01:05:49getting into

01:05:51the scuffle.

01:05:52You're in a scuffle

01:05:53with who?

01:05:54With Tim.

01:05:55Would you call it

01:05:56a confession?

01:05:57I would call it

01:05:59an admission.

01:06:00Uh-huh.

01:06:01I don't know

01:06:01that he

01:06:02confessed

01:06:04to everything,

01:06:05but he

01:06:07did acknowledge

01:06:08remembering

01:06:09committing the crime.

01:06:11Prosecutors played

01:06:12that interview

01:06:13for jurors,

01:06:14all five-plus

01:06:15hours of it.

01:06:16They heard Tony

01:06:17recall fragments

01:06:18from that night.

01:06:19Whatever

01:06:19happened

01:06:22that him

01:06:24and I

01:06:24started tussling,

01:06:26I'm pretty sure

01:06:26she was the one

01:06:27that said,

01:06:28what the f***?

01:06:29And that's

01:06:30when I hit her.

01:06:30Okay.

01:06:32And

01:06:32then I was,

01:06:34you know,

01:06:34fighting with

01:06:35Tim.

01:06:37Uh-huh.

01:06:38And then you

01:06:39go back to her.

01:06:40I must have.

01:06:43He

01:06:43said that he

01:06:45recalled some

01:06:46details of the

01:06:47order that

01:06:48Tim and Tana

01:06:50were killed in,

01:06:51and he said he

01:06:52remembered a knife.

01:06:53There was a knife.

01:06:55I remember

01:06:55having a hold

01:06:56of his arm,

01:06:58and we

01:06:59tussled,

01:07:01and then

01:07:02I had the knife.

01:07:05He said he

01:07:07remembered trying

01:07:08to have sex

01:07:08with her.

01:07:09I had sex

01:07:10with her.

01:07:10What made

01:07:11you, okay,

01:07:12I'm sorry,

01:07:12keep going.

01:07:13She started

01:07:14to stir,

01:07:14and I had

01:07:15to have

01:07:15stabbed her.

01:07:17And this,

01:07:19as the interview

01:07:19was ending.

01:07:20I remember

01:07:21thinking,

01:07:23holy f***,

01:07:25what did I do?

01:07:27In the end,

01:07:28the prosecutors

01:07:29told the jurors

01:07:30it was the weight

01:07:31of all the evidence

01:07:32that pointed

01:07:33to Tony Hayes.

01:07:34Despite living

01:07:36a seemingly

01:07:37law-abiding life

01:07:38for 30 years,

01:07:40he remembered,

01:07:41and he knew

01:07:41what he was hiding.

01:07:43He knew

01:07:43what he had done.

01:07:45I'm confident

01:07:46you'll find him guilty.

01:07:50Not so fast,

01:07:51said the defense.

01:07:52The prosecution

01:07:53had it all wrong.

01:07:56When they lie

01:07:57and manipulate

01:07:58to get someone

01:07:59to make a statement,

01:08:01that is not

01:08:01discovering the truth.

01:08:03That's planting it.

01:08:04Tracy Hayes

01:08:07dealt with the trial,

01:08:21just as she had

01:08:22dealt with the years

01:08:23of heartache

01:08:24since her husband's

01:08:24arrest in 2022.

01:08:27She took it

01:08:28day by day,

01:08:30going to court,

01:08:31sitting right behind

01:08:32her husband,

01:08:34stoic and silent.

01:08:37We were told

01:08:37we couldn't talk

01:08:38to him.

01:08:39I couldn't give him

01:08:39a hug.

01:08:41Couldn't tell him

01:08:42I love him.

01:08:43Anything.

01:08:44What'd you do?

01:08:45I knew he was there.

01:08:47He knew I was

01:08:48right behind him.

01:08:49And she listened

01:08:50intently to defense

01:08:51attorney John Birdsell.

01:08:53What kind

01:08:54of a sick,

01:08:57twisted,

01:08:59psychopathic person

01:09:01would commit

01:09:03a crime like this?

01:09:05Not gentle

01:09:06Tony Hayes.

01:09:08The state

01:09:08had the wrong man,

01:09:10he declared,

01:09:11thanks to a deeply

01:09:12flawed investigation.

01:09:14You're going to see

01:09:15the utterly botched

01:09:18crime scene collection

01:09:19of both fingerprints

01:09:22and DNA,

01:09:23and blood for that

01:09:23matter.

01:09:24And it's like once

01:09:25you have a compromised

01:09:25crime scene,

01:09:26How do you trust

01:09:27anything from that

01:09:28scene?

01:09:28It's just not

01:09:29possible.

01:09:31That door,

01:09:31for instance,

01:09:32with handprint

01:09:33evidence on it?

01:09:34Other prints

01:09:35were on it as well.

01:09:36Prints that should

01:09:37never have been

01:09:38there,

01:09:39said Birdsell.

01:09:40One of the

01:09:40detectives,

01:09:41the main detectives,

01:09:42fingerprints on it.

01:09:43Fingerprints on the

01:09:44palm print or just

01:09:45on the door?

01:09:45On the door.

01:09:47What's more,

01:09:48the defense insisted,

01:09:49no one could be

01:09:50certain any of the

01:09:51prints on the door

01:09:52actually belonged to

01:09:53Tony.

01:09:54The problem is that

01:09:55it's subjective,

01:09:57and I'm not even

01:09:57going to call it a

01:09:58subjective science,

01:09:59because it's not a

01:09:59science,

01:10:00but the whole point

01:10:01at trial,

01:10:01the analyst,

01:10:02she had to admit

01:10:03she couldn't be

01:10:03100% sure.

01:10:05And the DNA

01:10:06from the crime scene?

01:10:08Utterly unreliable,

01:10:09the defense attorneys

01:10:10argued.

01:10:11It's quality undone

01:10:12by repeated testing

01:10:13and decades of storage.

01:10:15And so they said

01:10:16the state was driven

01:10:17to extreme measures

01:10:18examining DNA residue

01:10:20in tubes and spin

01:10:21baskets.

01:10:23So they're just

01:10:23retesting their old

01:10:25equipment, basically.

01:10:27As well,

01:10:27the defense alleged

01:10:29the state's analyst

01:10:30had added data

01:10:31to the DNA profile

01:10:32developed from the

01:10:33crime scene.

01:10:34Those were used

01:10:36to compare to Tony,

01:10:38correct?

01:10:38Correct.

01:10:39We saw the DNA profile

01:10:42was a engineered profile.

01:10:45And when you are

01:10:46engineering facts,

01:10:48you're not finding

01:10:49the truth.

01:10:50The analyst denied

01:10:51engineering facts.

01:10:53On redirect,

01:10:54he testified that

01:10:55he updated the DNA profile

01:10:57to reflect new standards.

01:10:59So you didn't add

01:11:00anything, right?

01:11:03Checks of the rule.

01:11:05Correct.

01:11:06But the defense

01:11:07attorneys reserved

01:11:07their greatest outrage

01:11:09for that hours-long

01:11:10interrogation.

01:11:11They argued that

01:11:12any admissions

01:11:13from Tony Hayes

01:11:14were false,

01:11:16pried out of

01:11:17a frightened man

01:11:18by investigators

01:11:19using a controversial

01:11:20interrogation procedure

01:11:21called the

01:11:22read technique,

01:11:23which critics

01:11:24say uses

01:11:26manipulation

01:11:26and pressure

01:11:28tactics.

01:11:28You can't just

01:11:30keep saying,

01:11:31I don't want

01:11:32to remember this.

01:11:33I don't want

01:11:33this to be true.

01:11:34That stuff's got to go.

01:11:36Now it's got to be,

01:11:36I did it,

01:11:37and now I've got

01:11:38to come up

01:11:38with the answers.

01:11:40There's a lot of

01:11:40people who are

01:11:41waiting for your

01:11:42explanation.

01:11:45I don't have one.

01:11:47I don't.

01:11:49And when Hayes

01:11:50insisted he did not

01:11:51commit the murders,

01:11:52the investigators

01:11:53kept at him,

01:11:54told him they knew

01:11:55what happened that night.

01:11:56We are telling you,

01:11:57and this is true,

01:11:59your semen

01:12:00was on her body,

01:12:02okay?

01:12:03So,

01:12:04regardless of

01:12:05whether you're

01:12:05the kind of guy

01:12:06that could ever

01:12:06do that,

01:12:07regardless of the

01:12:08guy doesn't want

01:12:09to believe he did

01:12:10that,

01:12:12when I say,

01:12:13Jay says,

01:12:14you did that,

01:12:16no dispute,

01:12:18how do you feel

01:12:19with that?

01:12:20Well,

01:12:21I sure wish

01:12:21that I remembered it.

01:12:23As for those

01:12:24fragments of memory

01:12:25he had told them

01:12:26about,

01:12:27those were

01:12:28flashbacks,

01:12:29investigators said,

01:12:29to a nightmare

01:12:30he'd been trying

01:12:31to suppress for

01:12:32decades.

01:12:32You know you

01:12:33stabbed her

01:12:34through the chest

01:12:35when you were

01:12:36having sex with her

01:12:37or right after.

01:12:39You see it,

01:12:40but you don't

01:12:41want to say it.

01:12:42But...

01:12:44Those are the facts.

01:12:46Yeah.

01:12:47And we can see

01:12:48that from the scene.

01:12:49The defense

01:12:50called an expert

01:12:51in false confessions

01:12:52to the stand.

01:12:53He believed

01:12:54what they said

01:12:54that he was,

01:12:56there was no question

01:12:57that he was there

01:12:59and that it was

01:12:59his semen,

01:13:00so now he had

01:13:00to figure out

01:13:01how that could

01:13:02have happened.

01:13:03Dr. David Thompson

01:13:04testified that

01:13:05when he evaluated

01:13:07Tony Hayes,

01:13:08he found him

01:13:08to be suggestible,

01:13:11vulnerable to

01:13:12the investigators'

01:13:13tactics.

01:13:13When you look

01:13:14at those

01:13:14personality characteristics

01:13:16and then you

01:13:18look at the

01:13:18investigator's tendency

01:13:20to provide

01:13:21suggestive questions

01:13:23to him,

01:13:24that combination

01:13:24I think is

01:13:25very significant.

01:13:26When they lie

01:13:27and manipulate

01:13:28to get someone

01:13:30to make a statement,

01:13:32that is not

01:13:33discovering the truth.

01:13:34That's planting it.

01:13:36Well, but,

01:13:37you know,

01:13:37he's a grown man,

01:13:38he's not some kid.

01:13:39No, there's no

01:13:40buts about it,

01:13:42okay?

01:13:42Uh-huh.

01:13:42Those injuries...

01:13:44But the defense

01:13:45attorneys weren't done.

01:13:47Instead,

01:13:47they put a different

01:13:48man on trial,

01:13:50Jeff Thiel.

01:13:52Remember,

01:13:53the judge had ruled

01:13:53the jury could not

01:13:54hear the prosecution's

01:13:55DNA evidence,

01:13:57which they said

01:13:57excluded Thiel

01:13:59as a suspect.

01:14:00And now the defense

01:14:01went after Thiel hard.

01:14:03They called his

01:14:04ex-wife,

01:14:05Marie Stanchik,

01:14:06to testify

01:14:06to his bad character.

01:14:08I do.

01:14:09Did he ever

01:14:09physically hit you?

01:14:11Yes.

01:14:11I was pregnant

01:14:12with Heather then

01:14:13and we were

01:14:13on our way

01:14:14to Hamas classes

01:14:15and he hit me

01:14:17in the mouth

01:14:18and I got a fat lip.

01:14:20And then,

01:14:21just months after

01:14:22Tana and Tim

01:14:23were murdered,

01:14:24this.

01:14:25He had held

01:14:25a gun in my face

01:14:26and said he was

01:14:27going to use it on me.

01:14:28And she told

01:14:29law enforcement,

01:14:31Jeff Thiel told me

01:14:32that he was going

01:14:33to kill me

01:14:34and get away with it

01:14:35just like the

01:14:36Togstead-Mumbru

01:14:37homicide.

01:14:38They told jurors

01:14:41Jeff Thiel

01:14:41had reason

01:14:42to murder

01:14:42Tim and Tana.

01:14:44Tim had reported

01:14:45Thiel for a theft

01:14:46to the foundry

01:14:47and Tana had

01:14:48rejected his advances.

01:14:50So we have

01:14:51direct connection

01:14:51and direct motive

01:14:52to both the victims.

01:14:56How did it go down

01:14:58on that long ago night?

01:14:59The defense leaned

01:15:00on the tale

01:15:01told by convicted

01:15:02criminal

01:15:03Glendon Gowker

01:15:04that he,

01:15:05Gowker,

01:15:06drove two men

01:15:07to Tana's house

01:15:08that night

01:15:08and one of them,

01:15:09an Irish-looking guy,

01:15:11the guy the defense

01:15:12decided was Jeff Thiel.

01:15:14Surely there was

01:15:15more than enough

01:15:16reasonable doubt

01:15:17the defense told jurors

01:15:18to find Tony Hayes

01:15:19not guilty

01:15:20of the murders.

01:15:21If you pause

01:15:23or hesitate

01:15:23when considering

01:15:26all of the

01:15:27manipulation

01:15:28mistakes

01:15:30cover-ups

01:15:32lying

01:15:33that you heard

01:15:34in this trial

01:15:34that I didn't make up

01:15:36if that makes you

01:15:38pause or hesitate

01:15:39you know your duty.

01:15:43Now

01:15:44it was the jury's turn.

01:15:51In August 2025

01:16:02a jury of 12

01:16:04at the Wapaka County Courthouse

01:16:05went out to decide

01:16:06if Tony Hayes

01:16:07murdered Tana and Tim.

01:16:10Tim's sister Tina

01:16:11leaned on her faith.

01:16:13We walked

01:16:14around that courthouse

01:16:15seven times praying.

01:16:17I was praying

01:16:18for God's justice.

01:16:22Tana's brother Rick

01:16:23on his 33-year journey

01:16:25for justice

01:16:26was trying to stay calm.

01:16:29When they went out

01:16:30were you feeling

01:16:30relatively confident

01:16:31at least?

01:16:32I felt as though

01:16:33we were going to get

01:16:34a good verdict.

01:16:36Even though the defense

01:16:37had persuaded the judge

01:16:38to throw out

01:16:39all the DNA evidence

01:16:40clearing alternate

01:16:41suspect Jeff Thiel

01:16:43so the jury

01:16:43never got to hear about it

01:16:45Tim's family

01:16:46remained upbeat.

01:16:48I was feeling

01:16:49real confident

01:16:49because

01:16:50I thought

01:16:52the prosecution

01:16:53did an amazing job.

01:16:55We thought for sure

01:16:55we had a slam dunk.

01:16:58Jurors would later reveal

01:16:59that when their

01:17:00deliberations began

01:17:01six jurors believed

01:17:02Tony Hayes was guilty

01:17:03and six

01:17:05not guilty.

01:17:06It was extremely hard

01:17:07to know that

01:17:08his life was in

01:17:10somebody else's hands.

01:17:12Tony's family

01:17:13and friends

01:17:14were all too aware

01:17:15that a guilty verdict

01:17:16had to be

01:17:16unanimous.

01:17:17Was I confident

01:17:19when they went in?

01:17:20You can't be confident.

01:17:22I'm confident

01:17:22that he's

01:17:23not the guy

01:17:26but

01:17:27it's not me

01:17:28it's them.

01:17:30Of course you're

01:17:31worried and you're

01:17:32scared

01:17:32but

01:17:34I feel like

01:17:35it had been proven.

01:17:36But then the days

01:17:37went by right

01:17:38one after the other.

01:17:39It meant that

01:17:40they were really

01:17:41looking this over.

01:17:43Among Tana and Tim's

01:17:46family members

01:17:47and friends

01:17:47anxiety was

01:17:49setting in.

01:17:51I was more and more

01:17:51nervous the longer

01:17:53the jury

01:17:53stayed out.

01:17:55You could hear those

01:17:56guys arguing in the room

01:17:57the jury.

01:17:58And you could tell

01:17:59they were arguing

01:18:00about something

01:18:00but we didn't know what.

01:18:02On Monday

01:18:03August 11th

01:18:042025

01:18:05day four of

01:18:06deliberations

01:18:07the moment of truth

01:18:09was at hand.

01:18:10the jury

01:18:11came back

01:18:12and the judge

01:18:13read its verdict.

01:18:16We the jury

01:18:17find the defendant

01:18:18Tony Garrett Hayes

01:18:19not guilty.

01:18:24When they came back

01:18:25and they said

01:18:26not guilty

01:18:27that was beautiful.

01:18:32Tony's friends

01:18:33Joe, Jason

01:18:34and Liz

01:18:35I cried

01:18:36tears of joy.

01:18:40They got it right.

01:18:42Thank God

01:18:43the jury

01:18:43I was just

01:18:44thinking of Tony

01:18:46right

01:18:46I can't imagine

01:18:47what he'd been through

01:18:48you know

01:18:49during that

01:18:49three years

01:18:50of being put

01:18:51in that position

01:18:52right.

01:18:53Tony's wife

01:18:54Tracy

01:18:55would get

01:18:56her husband back.

01:18:57What was it like

01:18:58to give him

01:18:58a big hug

01:19:00when he finally

01:19:01came out of there?

01:19:02It was awesome

01:19:03to take him

01:19:05home to our children

01:19:06and he got

01:19:08to see his grandpa.

01:19:10His grandpa said

01:19:11that was the best

01:19:12day of his life.

01:19:15Of course

01:19:16it was a different

01:19:17reaction on the

01:19:18other side

01:19:18of the courtroom.

01:19:20What was that

01:19:20was like when the

01:19:21judge read the verdict?

01:19:22I couldn't believe

01:19:23he even said it.

01:19:25What?

01:19:26It's just like

01:19:27wow.

01:19:28My heart

01:19:29just dropped

01:19:30my stomach

01:19:31turned.

01:19:33A complete

01:19:33shock

01:19:34that 12 people

01:19:36could be that

01:19:37deceived.

01:19:37took you outside

01:19:39of your body

01:19:39almost.

01:19:41Pure rage.

01:19:42I couldn't breathe.

01:19:46Today Tony is

01:19:47back home

01:19:47with his family

01:19:48breathing the

01:19:50clean air

01:19:50of Waiyawiga's

01:19:51farmland

01:19:52feeding his cows.

01:19:54He's a free man.

01:19:57His wife Tracy

01:19:58feels free too.

01:20:01So what now?

01:20:02Just live day by day.

01:20:04I'll see what happens.

01:20:05See where God

01:20:08takes us.

01:20:10How are you and

01:20:10Tony adjusting

01:20:11to this?

01:20:12Good.

01:20:14He finally gets

01:20:15the sunshine

01:20:16and the fresh air.

01:20:18Have you gone

01:20:19fishing lately?

01:20:21No.

01:20:21Not yet.

01:20:24We will though.

01:20:26He owes me that.

01:20:29On the advice

01:20:30of his attorney

01:20:30Tony himself

01:20:31did not speak

01:20:32with us.

01:20:33His criminal

01:20:34case is over.

01:20:35Hard to accept

01:20:36for Tim and Tana's

01:20:37family members

01:20:38and friends.

01:20:39Those people

01:20:40on that jury

01:20:41let out

01:20:43a man that

01:20:44butchered two people

01:20:45and he is now

01:20:47walking around

01:20:48going to have

01:20:49family time

01:20:50play with his

01:20:51grandkids.

01:20:53Tana never got

01:20:54to have a kid.

01:20:55Tana never had a life.

01:20:56It's a hard pill

01:20:57to swallow.

01:20:58Yeah.

01:20:58Was he found

01:20:59innocent?

01:21:00He was found

01:21:01not guilty.

01:21:03Tana's brother

01:21:04Rick, who lives

01:21:05just three miles

01:21:06from Tony,

01:21:07filed a civil

01:21:08wrongful death

01:21:09lawsuit against him

01:21:10and said it

01:21:11isn't about

01:21:12financial gain.

01:21:14I don't want

01:21:15his house

01:21:15and I don't want

01:21:16his retirement.

01:21:18Acknowledgement

01:21:18is what I want.

01:21:20It's going to be

01:21:20expensive,

01:21:21that acknowledgement.

01:21:22Rick set up

01:21:26a GoFundMe page

01:21:27and meantime

01:21:29the crime

01:21:30against Tana

01:21:31and Tim

01:21:31remains officially

01:21:32unsolved.

01:21:34Even though

01:21:35investigators

01:21:36and prosecutors

01:21:36believe they

01:21:37know the answer,

01:21:39nothing to do

01:21:40about it now.

01:21:42You going to be

01:21:42able to get

01:21:42used to it,

01:21:44live with it?

01:21:44I don't know

01:21:45if I'll ever

01:21:45get used to it.

01:21:47Sometimes not

01:21:48knowing is better

01:21:49than knowing.

01:21:50That was a piece

01:21:50of wisdom right there.

01:21:53As Tana and Tim's

01:21:54families and friends

01:21:55try to make peace

01:21:56with the outcome,

01:21:58they take some

01:21:58comfort from their

01:21:59memories of the

01:22:01vibrant young couple

01:22:02taken far too soon

01:22:04who lived long

01:22:06enough to find

01:22:06each other

01:22:07and fall in love.

01:22:12That's all for now.

01:22:14I'm Lester Holt.

01:22:15Thanks for joining us.

01:22:22I'm Lester Holt.

01:22:23I'm Lester Holt.

01:22:25I'm Lester Holt.

01:22:26I'm Lester Holt.

Dateline NBC S34E09 Raising the Dead

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