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Crime Beat - Season 7 Episode 7 -
Stolen: The Boogeyman Took Punky
Stolen: The Boogeyman Took Punky
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00:00plus and contain scenes of violence and mature subject matter viewer discretion is advised
00:10on a day off from school this sidewalk near corinne's townhouse would be filled with children's
00:15laughter but today a somber mood has moved into the neighborhood corinne if you're watching please
00:21don't know what what you know what please come home please babe come on punky phone us do something
00:30punky i was just hoping that they'd both find her that she was still alive today it was confirmed
00:39corinne was kidnapped sexually assaulted and smothered to death
00:43the task now is to find corinne's abductor each of them has just a license number on them the police
00:55were absolutely flooded with tips and it was driving the two investigators this was their first big case
01:01it was utterly overwhelming the fact that it's been almost 14 months now and it hasn't happened again
01:08might lead some to believe that our suspect is no longer here it wasn't until a decade later thanks
01:15to new technology the police decided let's take another look i just cried i had hope all day every
01:23day i thought this would be the day that the phone would ring and said that they caught the guy
01:32welcome to crime beat i'm anthony robart tonight teams of police and volunteers hunt
01:38for any trace of kareem gustafson known affectionately by her friends and family as punky a six-year-old girl
01:45who goes missing while playing in her yard but it would be years before the terrifying truth finally emerged
01:55here now is jamie doll
02:01it was a sleepy sunday morning on the labor day weekend in 1992
02:07a hint of the changing season hung in the air
02:12it was chilly day it was a quiet morning one of the one that was up with me and ray and and corin
02:20families in this northeast edmonton neighborhood were settling in to a new school year
02:27in rundle park village six-year-old corinne punky gustafson bounded out of her townhouse
02:33eager to play with her friend just two steps away from the porch
02:39got up in the morning she was already out playing with the neighbors i told corinne to come and have
02:46breakfast and then they she wanted to go back outside my dad just got out of the hospital the day before
02:55and i forgot to go get him some stuff so i i said okay i'll be right back
03:00and you gave her something right i gave her a two dollar bill i went to bingo the night before
03:08and i said if i win we'll i'll give his money and we'll go to the store together
03:13i left the door and i went to my dad's i was just getting a coffee
03:21when i looked out the door and couldn't see her or that neighbor girl lindsay
03:28i went running to the next door and she said lindsay's here but corinne's gone
03:39so i ran all over the neighborhood looking for corinne lindsay told me that corinne was taken
03:47i told the neighbor lady to call the cops while i was out looking for her ray had phoned and asked
03:59if punky came with me and i went we said no and he said well then somebody took her
04:07so i hurried up jumped in my dad's truck and i took off and i went home and she wasn't there
04:13i just went crazy i just banged my head and just just thought i want i want my girl back and they
04:25come home and she was crying and i told her that i went looked all over in the neighborhood she just
04:37didn't couldn't be found i just wanted to break down the tears i couldn't get it in my mind who it
04:48would have been she was playing at the door when i left the door and she asked me where i was going
04:55and i said i was going to go to the papa's to fix the tv and i was going to come back and take a shopping
05:01and she said i'll see you after i said yeah that was the last time i seen her you don't know what
05:10was happening and i cried and cried and cried kept on saying i hope you know she whoever took her
05:18would drop her off she would find her way home or somebody will find her police soon arrived at
05:26rundle park village after speaking with the young witness and punky's parents they launched their
05:31investigation into the abduction of kareen gustafson apparently the guy just grabbed her and put his
05:38hand around her mom so she couldn't scream and kareen dad loves you mom loves you please come home
05:47just wait and hope that she's alive april come home once we found out it was an abduction we went
05:57full gear it was like okay somebody's abducted this little kid and all they had to go on was this the
06:02five-year-old's testimony but that was enough for to get police moving and us too as soon as we put
06:07that on the six o'clock news it was our phone lines just lit up the switchboard lit up it was terrifying
06:15we didn't have stories like that very often that happened here in edmonton the whole city was
06:21checking all the parks in our neighborhood i was just hoping that they'd both find her
06:30a playmate is the only person who saw kareen gustafson picked up and taken away sunday afternoon
06:35by a man with three earrings in his left ear somebody in his early 20s with a light brown skin with
06:42uh light actually brown hair uh short on the side short on the top and apparently there's some white
06:49stripes uh something like died probably uh on his hair she did call him the boogeyman um punky's friend
06:57called him the boogeyman that's how she saw him this was any parent's worst nightmare at that time there
07:03were no amber alerts everybody was just well we have to find this little girl like what has happened to her
07:08i think everybody was just setting on pins and needles police received a tip from a young
07:13neighbor who said they saw a man get into a blue van with a little girl that morning so you're driving
07:19around looking for a blue man hey could it be that one or it could be that one i got to know roads in
07:25the city that they didn't even know existed and i did every dirt road cow pasture just looking for a blue van
07:38you recognize that girl she's about your age and looks almost kind of like you with long blonde hair
07:43karen is six years old she has blonde hair and is approximately four feet tall when she disappeared
07:49she was wearing a purple full-length coat black and white polka dot pants and white runners she goes
07:54by the nickname of punky karen if you're watching please dial 911 you know what please come home please
08:03babe come on punky phone us do something punky
08:11none of the men in this group have ever taken part in a search like this
08:14nor do they know the little girl but they're out here for one simple reason
08:19they care you can't have nothing more important than to go and look for somebody else child you know
08:23that's the way i feel halfway through those trees one at the top of the trees well i've got two kids of my
08:29own and uh yeah i'm sure most people tend to have an uneasy feeling when it involves a defenseless young
08:37child this is uh her graduation picture from uh from kindergarten and she just started grade one this
08:44year she's six years old they were going through hundreds of volunteers they organized to go through
08:51ravines and neighborhoods and they were looking for this little girl
08:54i remember the intensity of that time i remember there was a raft of really horrible murders at that
09:07time in edmonton do we have to keep our kids in the house because you know somebody some wacko to put
09:12it nicely as you know decided to terrorize the neighborhood whoever has her um can you please bring
09:19her home because i love her and i want her to come home i'm not a sound sleeper like i'm a very light
09:26sleeper so any little noise i i wake up because i kept on hearing footprints in the house we always
09:34thought that would be chlorine's footprint her saying mommy i'm home nothing
09:49you
09:54welcome back to crime a little girl has been snatched from her parents yard the only witness her five-year-old
10:01friend now panic grips the city of edmonton as hundreds of volunteers join the search for little
10:06kareen clinging to hope that she'll be found alive
10:10we now return to jamie doll with stolen the boogeyman took punky
10:19she was my baby i have my oldest daughter and then my son and then i had kareen i heard her name was
10:33punky her hair had sticking up all over the top and we'd seen that moon show punky brewster and
10:44we called her the punky all the time what was she like uh love lovable um she loved like even bugs
10:58ants she was just a outgoing girl
11:01she always wanted to be outside doing things she always wanted to ride her bike
11:10she was just she was so bubbly and cheery that uh yeah she just you're drawn to her that's what it
11:16was she was just starting grade one yeah just starting grade one she liked it
11:20she wanted to go even on like on that weekend um she said i'm going to school no it's a weekend you
11:29don't go to school on the weekends on a day off from school this sidewalk near kareen's townhouse would
11:35be filled with children's laughter but today a somber mood has moved into the neighborhood i hope you
11:41know she whoever took her would drop her off she'll find her way home or somebody will find her
11:48i was just hoping that they'd both find her
11:59but she was still alive
12:07rcmp were called to the sherwood park industrial area at a quarter to five
12:11two days after punky disappeared the agonizing hours of searching came to a grinding halt
12:21a horrific discovery was made on the outskirts of the city less than 10 kilometers from her home
12:27a passerby found the body in this storage lot behind a trucking firm the owner of the company who
12:33refused an interview said the body was that of a young girl someone who worked there came and he saw
12:39something he thought it was like a doll covered in mud and dust is how he put it and he immediately
12:47went to the police and reported it the body was found clothed i don't know whether it was partially
12:54clothed or fully clothed but clothed and the clothing does match the description of
12:58kareen gustafson's clothing the body was found between two truck trailers after a crime scene
13:04investigation the body was taken away by the medical examiner's office for an autopsy
13:14shortly after police made a visit they had hoped they'd never have to make
13:20they just knelt in front of karen and they said you know i'm sorry we found her and she's gone and
13:26that's and then you know karen was screaming in her head and uh and then it didn't take long after
13:33that i had to take care into the hospital because i thought she was going to have a nervous breakdown
13:37i was banking my head against the wall i was doing everything so they tried to calm me down and
13:44i couldn't my heart went right out of my chest it's like somebody tore a heart on chest
13:55and told me that they found her punky's dad and uncle rushed to the trucking yard then eventually the morgue
14:11i just want to hold her and just want to go and see what she had to go through wondering what she felt
14:21when she died and i just couldn't get through my mind i just want to get revenge
14:39when they came and gave us the news that they uh that she was deceased
14:43and i think that's when the light and the life of pretty much everybody in that household just
14:54disappeared for a while and then you kind of go numb the body of the little girl has been
15:03positively identified as kareen gussis
15:06today it was confirmed kareen was kidnapped sexually assaulted and smothered to death
15:19it scares the hell out of me you know it's kind of hard how do you say your friend ain't coming back
15:25to school it's really hard students have an understanding this morning that that kareen
15:30is gone from us and she is she is dead and and she won't be with us any longer what is normal after
15:36after we've lost one of our children
15:47thanks to all the volunteers that's all i have to say thanks
15:51to all the people in the city i'm helping no more okay take her back you got her okay
16:02she was just right here five minutes before and looked in the patio window and i see i was right
16:07there and then all of a sudden she was gone just a nightmare cops are going to get you
16:12up pretty soon or one of these days you woke there you look at this because you are going to hurt
16:24this was national news by this time as soon as her body was found everybody wants to know who is
16:29the monster behind this where is he and will he strike again a few days after kareen's little body
16:36was found her parents were interviewed once again by police
16:41they put us in a little room you know at the police station there and asked us a bunch of questions
16:48and it was hard i told him i didn't have nothing to do with it i couldn't understand why i'm being
16:58western and taken away from the family
17:16welcome back to crime beats two days after six-year-old punky gustafson disappeared from outside her
17:22northeast edmonton home her lifeless body was found in a trucking yard
17:27that was police hunt for her killer her family has the painful task of saying goodbye
17:35we now return to jamie doll with stolen the boogeyman took punky
17:50weighed down in shock and grief one week after the murder family friends and members of the public
17:56packed into an edmonton church to say goodbye to take someone's life to destroy this beautiful gift
18:03that god has given is the most evil act that a human being could ever commit
18:14just because the light went out doesn't mean she is gone she will be in our hearts now and forever
18:21investigators told us that they had surveillance at the funeral that maybe it's somebody that's
18:30sitting and watching were you scared that it could happen again yeah the task now is to find koreen's
18:38abductor police are scouring the area for any possible clues they found a few tire tracks but that's
18:44about all what they'd really like to find is the pair of white canvas runners koreen had on when she
18:49was kidnapped they're missing besides that police have only a sketchy description of a suspect to go
18:55on darker skinned individual with dark hair five foot six to six foot tall slim build with a patch of white
19:02hair on the crown of his head three three earrings in his left ear with a blue and white jacket and
19:08possibly glasses police have already received more than 300 tips on the abduction the stumbling block
19:14is that the only eyewitness to the incident is a five-year-old girl when punky disappeared from her
19:20northeast edmonton neighborhood witnesses believe the suspect fled in a blue van but when searching
19:25the sherwood park trucking yard where punky's body was found police were able to lift tire tracks not from
19:31a van but from a second vehicle at the scene where koreen's body was found these tire prints were found
19:38these tire prints cannot come from a ban police believe the killer dumped the body from a car
19:44a car similar to a dodge aries chevrolet cavalier or a ford tempo well each of them has just the just
19:51the license number on them just follow those up when they come back just the attached report goes into
19:56the box right here the police were absolutely flooded with tips and it was driving the two investigators
20:02terry elm and al so they like they were these were young guys this was their first big case and it
20:09just it was utterly overwhelming investigators terry elm and albert laher agreed to sit down with us to
20:16discuss intricate details of the case they politely declined an on-camera interview saying the memories
20:23are still too triggering to relive in front of the lens both men had children close in age to punky at the
20:30time and added while they were able to watch their kids grow up punky didn't get a chance you know
20:37that these officers the men and women of the police force they took that case home every night to their
20:42families too and then they they never let it go you could see it was mentally draining
20:49in this room in the police station 50 officers a day work on the case full-time following up tips
20:55it's an important case to police and they're not ruling out any means necessary in solving it
21:00i'm going to forward this to homicide that's police were relentless in their pursuit of the killer from
21:05sending out questionnaires to offering a forty thousand dollar reward for information leading to an
21:11arrest cameras really even reenacting the gruesome story on camera hoping to ignite anything to help
21:19capture the suspect police and actors are recreating the crime complete with a kareem gustafson look-alike
21:28crime stoppers that would run every single night in our six o'clock news i'm just traveling inside
21:33right now just thinking about it i just couldn't believe it especially in broad daylight you know
21:39but anyway i hope they get the sicko that did it
21:4323 days have passed since punky's body was found three dozen police are hunting the killer around the clock
21:49punky's picture was wallpapered across the province the billboard campaign was huge it just swept right
21:58across edmonton do you have any information at all uh leading to uh something that would lead to the
22:03arrest of finding a suspect it was hard it was hard even with my kids when we took a bus and mom this corby
22:12thing is yes every bus had a picture and it was what it said was somebody else didn't knows because i
22:21was the one that said it that somebody else didn't knows it was just eerie this is the worst imaginable
22:27crime her picture her pretty little face is on the front of every newspaper it's just it made people
22:34crazy how can this evil be in our city it was an awful time in edmonton and it haunted people
22:42found the police in the crime in the middle of the police for the police discovered a pubic hair
22:51on corinne's ankle but scientists were unable to get a full genetic profile of the suspect
22:57the technology just wasn't there it wasn't all the killer left behind in the trucking yard
23:04they also found um his shoe prints with the baseball cleats in them he tried to
23:10hide the the evidence the tire tracks and his his own footprints but he's in
23:15such a hurry that he didn't do a very good job so they were able to get really
23:19good look and pictures of footprints and tire tire tracks it was the same
23:25cleat the same shoe size that was found at her home in Northeast Edmonton when
23:31she was grabbed so they found the same one in soft mud beside the houses that
23:36it that she was taken from they determined that was probably a something
23:39called a mitre brand baseball cleat and they started to go through every one who
23:46played baseball in that area at the time there had been a baseball tournament so
23:49they tried tracking everybody down based on the evidence and the type of crime
23:53police believe they were dealing with a solo perpetrator we're working on that
23:57Korean Gustafson homicide yeah so you know about it then we're in a
24:03tournament all that weekend well some officers checked with baseball teams
24:08the search for the suspected vehicles that car with bald tires and a blue van
24:13carried on they run on a diet of phone tips this is tip 2849 a blue van that
24:22hasn't moved since September turns out it's been cleared before good evening and
24:28thanks for joining us tonight four months after punky died two of Edmonton's
24:32largest television stations came together for an unprecedented half-hour
24:37special this is such a horrific story let's get CFRN together with ITV global was
24:45ITV at the time and let's team up and put all the resources get all the police and
24:50let's really go it was January of 1993 it's about a two-day period in the time
24:56between when Karine was abducted and they found her body what happened in that two-day
25:01time period was she killed at the site where you found her so we don't know
25:05exactly how long she'd been there ever we do know that she wasn't killed at that
25:08location we do believe that Karine was killed at another at another location yes
25:14I was talking to one of the detectives I remember thinking and I looked at him and
25:19I said do you think the killer might be watching us right now and he looked at me
25:23and he went there's a very good chance the killer is watching us right now as this broadcast is
25:27happening and a chill just went up my back now thinking about
25:34I think the minute after they found her in the trucking yard was I was put to the top of
25:58their list because I know the area if I gave him my DNA I gave him a police report as to where I was
26:06the night before and what I was doing up until the time I think these guys are grabbing it Ron Davies
26:11emerged from his six-hour interrogation with police badly shaken and angry I got 15 nephews and nieces
26:19they think I'm capable of doing that to one of them they're crazy there's no way how many times
26:28were you brought in battle five six times there's one interrogation that he will never be able to
26:35shake they threw all the pictures across the table of her laying underneath that trailer in the mud her
26:45body just plain as day right there and it was like oh I did not need to see that that's the one thing
26:55that family never got to see until that day at the RCMP when they threw all the pictures and you see
27:02that tiny little body and then it was like he slaps his hands on the table and he says you know you
27:17did it let's confess so we can close this case and I can get on with another one police said they had
27:26400 suspects but months went by with no concrete leads action American program unsolved mysteries
27:34even came to town police hoped it would cast a wider net in their search for evidence the fact
27:40that it's been almost 14 months now and it hasn't happened again might lead some to believe that our
27:46suspect is no longer here we're not at the point where we can say that yet investigators told us they
27:52traveled far and wide to follow up on tips detective Terry Elm said he even flew to an advanced forensic
27:59lab in England with the hair sample found on punky to see if it was connected to another suspect in a
28:05similar case in British Columbia it wasn't a match they had just intense pressure mostly put up by
28:12themselves but other cops too everyone had a theory everybody you know get out you guys are young cops
28:19get out there on the street more bang on the doors bang some heads you know the old-school thinking
28:23and like they were doing everything they were being heavily criticized from within the force from other
28:28people more experienced police officers about not solving this for punky's parents grief grew into
28:36desperation parents supposed to go before the kids died
28:42I just felt like it heard being dead I just didn't have nothing to live for
28:55what were some of the thoughts you were having I was going to jump over the bridge I was going to go do
29:04something so I could be with carbine towards the answer you know there's still police officers out
29:13there to think he did it he says we could put this all to rest if you would just agree to doing a
29:19polygraph I went in and did the polygraph and he came back on he says you passed the polygraph I
29:27said I told you I would I had nothing to do with this without any leads the case went cold and then new
29:34technology brought new hope ten years later thanks to new developments in DNA technology and testing in
29:43the DNA data bank they were able to go back the police decided let's take another look
29:48punky's family was the first to hear what police believe could eventually solve the decade-old murder
29:57the PCR test had come into being so they could use smaller and smaller bits of DNA to identify
30:06killers and they just thought well let's just give it one more goal let's send all of punky's clothing
30:14and to get it tested one more time at this new lab that's the forefront of this new these new
30:19techniques and let's see if they can find anything and they did they found a DNA sample on on punky's
30:25panties when I talked to the scientist to who eventually came up with the complete profile he says Terry
30:32says I've got I've got your killer and and I'll tell you I'll tell you that was that was the best news I'd
30:40heard in years we are sending DNA samples to the lab so we're hopeful that by reviewing these tips
30:48and from any information we may now receive that will be compared to the profile we have one week
30:56later the family marked the 10th anniversary of punky's death she was buried on my son's birthday
31:02it'd be hard on him it's only gonna take one tip that will catch the guy that did this
31:09we live for the day that they catch him and six months later that day finally arrived well 10
31:20years after the murder new technology allowed investigators to create a DNA profile of
31:25punky's killer but nobody matched it then came federal legislation allowing for the creation of a
31:31national DNA data bank many convicted criminals became compelled to offer a DNA sample including
31:38Clifford Slay convicted of a different crime and then came word Slay's DNA that's the DNA profile
31:45of Gustafson's killer I just cried I had hope all day every day I thought this would be the day
31:55that the former ring said that they caught the guy and it happened
32:00punky's 20 year old sister Roseanne promised her baby sibling the family would never give up hope we
32:10just went to the grave site every year and just paid to show her how much we loved her and how much we
32:16were wishing that we would catch the guy big relief I tell you those 10 pound bricks are off my shoulders
32:23this is the by far the best day I've had in over a decade 40 year old Clifford Slay was already serving
32:32a 13 year sentence for two sexual assaults and forcible confinement at the Bowdoin Institute south of
32:38Edmonton there was 26 convictions in all he was clearly a psychopath just a cold machine like in human
32:46being who did not experience regular emotions according to parole board documents Slay had
32:52amassed 26 convictions mostly for property related offenses impaired driving breaches of trust escape
33:00unlawful custody and numerous violent offenses with his most concerning behavior involving his pattern of
33:07predatory sexual assault police first met Slay weeks after punky's murder not as a person of
33:16interest but a potential witness two months after the crime they they sent a detective to where Slay
33:26was moving with the woman he was with and she had told the police in one of the tips that her boyfriend
33:34Clifford Slay said oh he had been out driving around that morning and he saw someone who we thought
33:40might have done it someone in a van so they went and they they tracked down Clifford Slay and they asked
33:46him about that story and he denied anything about that he had come to our attention earlier on in the
33:54investigation from another investigation that was unrelated in the spring of 1993 while detectives
34:02were interviewing Slay about one of the sexual assault cases they brought up the Gustafson case and
34:08asked for a DNA sample something they had been asking a lot of potential suspects to provide they
34:15also searched Slay's home they found a baseball cleat in the closet but when they took it to forensic it
34:23didn't match his story was that he was babysitting route for relatives and they checked out and because of
34:30that and the cleat they he was taken off like you know as a suspect essentially he was right there in front of
34:38them but he his family ended up covering up for him they came up with an alibi so that kind of led to let police
34:45to go well maybe we don't have the right guy let's keep looking in another direction
34:49with the DNA match secured investigators told us officers confronted Slay's former partner who had provided an alibi
34:57she admitted Slay hadn't been with her the whole weekend
35:01welcome back about a decade after punky Gustafson murder the creation of a national DNA data bank
35:18finally gave police a match to her killer now it was time to confront the man they believed was
35:24responsible already serving time for other crimes
35:27we now return to the conclusion of stolen the boogeyman took punky
35:36police paid clifford slay a visit in prison they set the stage letting him know his DNA was on punky's clothes
35:46they also took another DNA sample at the request of the crown it didn't take long for slay to unravel
35:54what did you talk about what did you say
35:57well she asked me where I was taking her okay I just ignored her I didn't answer her
36:12so it wasn't a conversation
36:17I didn't say that she just gone quiet I just wanted to kind of drive as far as I could I'm sure drop her off and just leave
36:28but when I realized that there was no traffic in this area it seemed very secluded you know I just had to put upon myself to me
36:38I just had to have sex with her I don't know how to use the terminology but I had no intention to tell her
36:49you had no intention to tell her
36:51my hopes were that somebody would find me
36:54right
36:54it's basically I didn't expect her to die from what I had caused
37:04I think that was some of the first times that we had really heard what had happened to
37:09the punky Gustafson and through the words of the man who had done it
37:1240 year old Clifford Matthew Slay is now facing first-degree murder charges in connection to the death of punky Gustafson
37:20I got the first view of him when they drove him down into the police department in the backseat of that car
37:27slowly just enough to get them so that the media and that could get his picture
37:33looking at him at that point I thought that guy has no soul his eyes are just dark
37:41the trial was set for May 9th 2005
37:50punky Gustafson's family walked into the law court's building together
37:56prepared to face the little girl's alleged killer for the first time
37:59Dressed in blue overalls Slay heard the charges against him first-degree murder and kidnapping
38:08charges in connection with the disappearance of six-year-old Corrine Gustafson back in September 1992
38:14punky's mother quietly stared at Slay in the prisoner's box while other family members openly wept
38:20in a surprising move Slay pleaded guilty to kidnapping not guilty to aggravated sexual assault
38:26and tried pleading guilty to manslaughter but the crown didn't accept the manslaughter plea opting to continue with the first-degree murder trial
38:34the whole trial took a bit of a turn he's now admitting that yes I was there I caused the death of punky Gustafson the question now is did he murder
38:43punky Gustafson in court he just sat there was sitting on his arms and his head down never moved the whole time
38:51if I could have I would have smacked him and that was why I just wanted to get at him to to make him suffer pain like she did
38:59always wanted to just uh you know what they're you know strangle them do something to them
39:07punky Gustafson's family left court stunned the description of the young girl's injuries forced
39:13some of them to leave the room and some jurors to tears
39:17the forensic examiner thought the most likely cause of death was from the rape itself from internal
39:23bleeding from the rape that's essentially she was raped to death by Clifford Slay
39:36Clifford Slay had got into a fight with his common-law partner he was very mad at her and wanted to go and
39:43hurt her his partner had a young daughter and so his idea was that he was going to go and sexually assault
39:50his common-law partner's daughter but the problem with that plan was that she wasn't there right then
39:55so instead he just went out to look for somebody else she's sitting in her yard playing with a friend
40:01he describes how he just goes and snatches her
40:04Slay told investigators he took Corrine simply because she was the closest to the fence
40:12to have that confirmation and to see just how random this was a bit of a jaw-dropping moment in a
40:18case filled with jaw-dropping moments
40:22two weeks after the trial began on May 25th 2005 a verdict was reached on the eve of Karen's birthday
40:32we caught him and she rest in peace now
40:37they said first degree it just felt like it was
40:40a big load off of our shoulders
40:45relief now finally come to an end we're able to see justice done
40:50I think you guys are always part of our family always welcome
40:54I was in homicide unit for 10 years and this was the case I followed right through and I had the
40:59opportunity to continue on with the investigation even after I retired so yeah you know because of
41:05that I have I have I have some closure with it as well
41:10Clifford Slay was given the maximum sentence of life in prison with no chance of parole for 25 years
41:16the most dramatic moment of the sentencing hearing came when Slay addressed the court
41:21Slay started by saying I just want to apologize and say I'm sorry
41:25then for the first time in the trial Clifford Slay showed some emotion
41:29he began crying at that point punky's cousin stood up in the back of the courtroom and said
41:34don't cry for us we don't need your remorse it's over now he's a little bastard
41:39he shouldn't be able to go back to court he should be the service time
41:48you tore a family apart and now we get our justice and I hope that you rotten
41:55rot for me it's a few moments in the courtroom you know having a daughter and
42:07thinking about that crime that has a big emotional impact on me but for them who lived it
42:18it would be overwhelming to talk about it again to think about it you know even after 30 years it
42:23still hurts you see kids doing certain things that she used to do and then you think what she would
42:32be like today right so it never goes away it's there the pain's there I won't know what she would be
42:39like today if she would have got married you know and had kids what do you miss the most her hugs
42:47I'll say goodbye good night I'll see you later
42:55this is the walkway
42:59where he took her from ah baseball members
43:03that two dollar bill Karen gave Corrine the last time she saw her was found by police still folded
43:16up in punky's little coat pocket I told them I want I want they thought that I wanted her clothes
43:22I want no I want that two dollar bill so they put it in a frame for me
43:27in 2015 Ray had punky's body moved to the small alberta town of castor two and a half hours away from
43:37Edmonton it's where most of his family members are buried he's already picked out his final resting place
43:44right here right next to her she's the love of my heart I'll never get over it even
43:56even the odds have to take it to my grave
44:02this is Corrine's tree
44:06that they planted
44:10for her and her memory
44:14while Karen now has to drive a long distance to visit her daughter's grave
44:18she finds solace here on the grounds of punky's old school
44:23Corrine is watching over us at this time
44:28wherever I go I think she's up there but she's our angel now
44:37Clifford Slay can apply for parole in 2028
44:41Corrine Gustafson's family has vowed to do everything they can to prevent that from happening
44:48as they continue to keep the memory of their beloved punky alive
44:55thank you for joining us tonight on crime beat I'm Anthony Robart
45:01want more episodes of crime beat listen to the crime beat podcast now for free on apple podcasts
45:08spotify or wherever you find your favorite podcast and for past episodes of crime beat go to the
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