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00:00This program is rated 14-plus and contains scenes of violence and mature subject matter.
00:08Viewer discretion is advised.
00:14On a day off from school, this sidewalk near Corinne's townhouse would be filled with children's laughter.
00:21But today, a somber mood has moved into the neighborhood.
00:24Corinne, if you're watching, please dial 911.
00:27You know it. Please.
00:30Come home. Please, babe. Come on, Punky. Phone us. Do something, Punky.
00:37I was just hoping that they'd both find her, but she was still alive.
00:42Today, it was confirmed. Corinne was kidnapped, sexually assaulted, and smothered to death.
00:53The task now is to find Corinne's abductor.
00:57Each of them has just the license number on them.
00:59The police were absolutely flooded with tips, and it was driving the two investigators.
01:03This was their first big case.
01:05It was utterly overwhelming.
01:07The fact that it's been almost 14 months now and it hasn't happened again might lead some to believe that our suspect is no longer here.
01:16It wasn't until a decade later, thanks to new technology, the police decided, let's take another look.
01:23I just cried.
01:25I had hope all day, I thought this would be the day that the phone would ring and said that they caught the guy.
01:33Welcome to Crime Beat, I'm Anthony Robart.
01:39Tonight, teams of police and volunteers hunt for any trace of Corinne Gustafson, known affectionately by her friends and family as Punky, a six-year-old girl who goes missing while playing in her yard.
01:53But it would be years before the terrifying truth finally emerged.
02:00Here now is Jamie Dahl.
02:07It was a sleepy Sunday morning on the Labor Day weekend in 1992, a hint of the changing season hung in the air.
02:16It was chilly day, it was a quiet morning, one of the ones that was up with me and Ray and Corinne.
02:25Families in this northeast Edmonton neighborhood were settling in to a new school year.
02:32In Rundle Park Village, six-year-old Corinne Punky Gustafson bounded out of her townhouse, eager to play with her friend, just two steps away from the porch.
02:43Got up in the morning, she was already out playing with the neighbours.
02:48I told Corinne to come and have breakfast and then she wanted to go back outside.
02:57My dad just got out of the hospital the day before and I forgot to go get him some stuff.
03:03So I said, OK, I'll be right back.
03:06And you gave her something, right?
03:07I gave her a two-dollar bill.
03:09I went to Bingle the night before and I said, if I win, we'll give his money and we'll go to the store together.
03:19I left the door and I went to my dad's.
03:22I was just getting a coffee when I looked out the door and couldn't see her or the neighbour girl, Lindsay.
03:33I went running to the next door and she said, Lindsay's here but Corinne's gone.
03:44So I ran all over the neighbourhood looking for Corinne.
03:48Lindsay told me that Corinne was taken.
03:52I told the neighbour lady to call the cops while I was out looking for her.
04:01Ray had phoned and asked if Punky came with me and I went, we said no.
04:07And he said, well then somebody took her.
04:09So I hurried up, jumped in my dad's truck and I took off and I went home.
04:15And she wasn't there.
04:21I just went crazy.
04:22I was just banging my head and just telling her I want my girl back.
04:29And they come home and she was crying.
04:34And I told her that I went, looked all over the neighbourhood and she just couldn't be found.
04:45I was just wanting to break down the tears.
04:49I couldn't get it in my mind who it would have been.
04:55She was playing at the door when I left the door and she asked me where I was going.
04:59And I said I was going to go to the bus bus to fix the TV.
05:03And I was going to come back and take a shopping.
05:07And she said I'll see you after.
05:09And I said yeah.
05:10And that was it.
05:11That was the last time I'd seen her.
05:13You don't know what was happening.
05:16And I cried and cried and cried.
05:18Kept on saying I hope whoever took her would drop her off.
05:23She would find her way home or somebody would find her.
05:29Police soon arrived at Rundle Park Village.
05:32After speaking with the young witness and Panky's parents,
05:35they launched their investigation into the abduction of Corrine Gustafson.
05:40Apparently that guy just grabbed her and put his hand around her and also she couldn't scream.
05:46And Corrine, Dad loves you. Mom loves you. Please come home.
05:53Just wait and hope that she's alive and able to come home.
05:59Once we found out it was an abduction, we went full gear.
06:02It was like okay, somebody's abducted this little kid and all they had to go on was the five-year-old's testimony,
06:08but that was enough to get police moving and us too.
06:11As soon as we put that on the six o'clock news, it was our phone lines just lit up.
06:17The switchboard lit up. It was terrifying.
06:19We didn't have stories like that very often that happened here in Edmonton.
06:23The whole city was checking all the parks in our neighbourhood.
06:28I just hope they will find her.
06:34A playmate is the only person who saw Corrine Gustafson picked up and taken away Sunday afternoon
06:40by a man with three earrings in his left ear.
06:43Somebody in his early 20s with a light brown skin with light, actually brown hair,
06:50short on the side, short on the top, and apparently there's some white stripes.
06:55Something like died probably on his hair.
06:59She did call him the boogeyman.
07:01Punky's friend called him the boogeyman.
07:03That's how she saw him.
07:04This was any parent's worst nightmare.
07:07At that time, there were no Amber Alerts.
07:09Everybody was just, well, we have to find this little girl.
07:11Like what has happened to her?
07:13I think everybody was just setting on pins and needles.
07:16Police received a tip from a young neighbour who said they saw a man get into a blue van
07:21with the little girl that morning.
07:23So you're driving around looking for a blue van.
07:26Hey, could it be that one or it could be that one?
07:28I got to know roads in the city that they didn't even know existed.
07:32And I did every dirt road, cow pasture, just looking for a blue van.
07:40You recognize that girl?
07:43She's about your age and looks almost kind of like you with long blonde hair.
07:47Corinne is six years old.
07:49She has blonde hair and is approximately four feet tall.
07:52When she disappeared, she was wearing a purple full-length coat,
07:55black and white polka dot pants, and white runners.
07:58She goes by the nickname of Punky.
08:00Corinne, if you're watching, please dial 911.
08:04You know what?
08:05Please come home.
08:07Please, babe.
08:08Come on, Punky.
08:09Phone us.
08:10Do something, Punky.
08:13None of the men in this group have ever taken part in a search like this,
08:19nor do they know the little girl.
08:21But they're out here for one simple reason.
08:23They care.
08:24You can't have nothing more important than to go out and look for somebody else's child.
08:28You know?
08:29That's the way I feel.
08:30Halfway through those trees, one at the top of the trees.
08:33Well, I've got two kids of my own, and yeah, I'm sure most people tend to have an uneasy
08:39feeling when it involves a defenseless young child.
08:43This is her graduation picture from kindergarten, and she just started grade one this year.
08:49She's six years old.
08:51They were going through hundreds of volunteers.
08:54They organized to go through ravines and neighborhoods, and they were looking for this little girl.
09:02I remember the intensity of that time.
09:06I remember there was a raft of really horrible murders at that time in Edmonton.
09:13Do we have to keep our kids in the house?
09:14Because, you know, somebody, some wacko, to put it nicely, has, you know, decided to terrorize the neighborhood.
09:21Whoever has her, can you please bring her home?
09:24Because I love her and I want her to come home.
09:26I'm not a sound sleeper.
09:29Like, I'm a very late sleeper, so any little noise, I wake up.
09:34Because I kept on hearing footprints in the house.
09:38We always thought that would be Corrine's footprint.
09:41Her saying, Mommy, I'm home.
09:44Nothing.
09:46Welcome back to Crime Beat.
10:00A little girl has been snatched from her parents' yard.
10:03The only witness, her five-year-old friend.
10:06Now, panic grips the city of Edmonton as hundreds of volunteers join the search for little Corrine,
10:12clinging to hope that she'll be found alive.
10:17We now return to Jamie Dahl with Stolen.
10:21The Boogeyman took Punky.
10:30She was my baby.
10:32I have my oldest daughter named my son and I had Corrine.
10:36Her nickname was Punky.
10:39Her hair was sticking up all over the top.
10:43And we'd seen that show of Punky Brewster.
10:48And we called her that Punky all the time.
10:53What was she like?
10:55Uh, lovable.
10:58She loved, like, even bugs, ants.
11:03She was just an outgoing girl.
11:07She always wanted to be outside doing things.
11:11She always wanted to ride her bike.
11:14She was just, she was so bubbly and cheery that, uh, yeah.
11:18She just, you're drawn to her.
11:20That's what it was.
11:21She was just starting grade one?
11:23Yeah, just starting grade one.
11:24She liked it.
11:26She wanted to go, even on, like, on that weekend.
11:31Um, she said, I'm going to school.
11:33No, it's a weekend.
11:34You don't go to school on the weekends.
11:36On a day off from school, this sidewalk near Corrine's townhouse would be filled with children's laughter.
11:41But today, a somber mood has moved into the neighborhood.
11:45I hope, you know, whoever took her would drop her off.
11:50She would find her way home or somebody would find her.
11:54I was just hoping that they would both find her.
12:00But she was still alive.
12:06She was still alive.
12:12RCMP were called to the Sherwood Park industrial area at a quarter to five.
12:18Two days after Punky disappeared, the agonizing hours of searching came to a grinding halt.
12:25A horrific discovery was made on the outskirts of the city, less than 10 kilometers from her home.
12:32A passerby found the body in this storage lot behind a trucking firm.
12:35The owner of the company, who refused an interview, said the body was that of a young girl.
12:41Someone who worked there came and he saw something.
12:44He thought it was like a doll covered in mud and dust, is how he put it.
12:50And he immediately went to the police and reported it.
12:54The body was found clothed.
12:56I don't know whether it was partially clothed or fully clothed, but clothed.
13:00And the clothing does match the description of Corrine Gustafson's clothing.
13:04The body was found between two truck trailers.
13:07After a crime scene investigation, the body was taken away by the medical examiner's office for an autopsy.
13:13Shortly after, police made a visit they had hoped they'd never have to make.
13:23They just knelt in front of Karen and they said, you know, I'm sorry we found her and she's gone.
13:32And then, you know, Karen was screaming in her head.
13:35And then it didn't take long after that I had to take Karen to the hospital because I thought she was going to have a nervous breakdown.
13:41I was banging my head against the wall.
13:44I was doing everything.
13:46So they tried to calm me down and I couldn't.
13:51My heart went right out of my chest.
13:56And they told me that they found her.
14:08Punky's dad and uncle rushed to the trucking yard.
14:12Then eventually, the morgue.
14:15I just wanted to hold her and just wanted to go see what she had to go through.
14:24Wondering what she felt when she died.
14:28And I just couldn't get through my mind.
14:38I just wanted to get revenge.
14:41When they came and gave us the news that she was deceased.
14:48I think that's when the light and the life of pretty much everybody in that household,
14:57just disappeared for a while.
15:01And then you kind of go numb.
15:04The body of the little girl has been positively identified as Corrine Gustafson.
15:17Today it was confirmed.
15:19Corrine was kidnapped, sexually assaulted and smothered to death.
15:23It scares the hell out of me.
15:26You know, it's kind of hard.
15:27How do you say your friend ain't coming back to school?
15:30It's really hard.
15:31Students have an understanding this morning that Corrine is gone from us and she is dead.
15:37And she won't be with us any longer.
15:39What is normal after we've lost one of our children.
15:42Thanks to all the volunteers.
15:54That's all I have to say.
15:55Thanks.
15:56To all the people in the city.
16:00I'm helping.
16:01I'm helping.
16:02No more.
16:03Okay, take her back.
16:04You got her?
16:05Okay.
16:06She was just right here five minutes before and looked in the patio window and I was right
16:11there and then all of a sudden she was gone.
16:14It was a nightmare.
16:16Cops are going to get you pretty soon or one of these days.
16:21You woke there?
16:24You look at this because you are going to hurt.
16:29This was national news by this time as soon as her body was found.
16:33Everybody wants to know who is the monster behind this.
16:35Where is he?
16:36And will he strike again?
16:38A few days after Corrine's little body was found, her parents were interviewed once again
16:44by police.
16:45They put us in a little room at the police station there and asked us a bunch of questions
16:52and it was hard.
16:57I told him I didn't have nothing to do with it.
17:00I couldn't understand why I'm being arrested and taken away from the family.
17:21Welcome back to Crime Beats.
17:22Two days after six-year-old Punky Gustafson disappeared from outside her northeast Edmonton
17:27home, her lifeless body was found in a trucking yard.
17:31That was police hunt for her killer.
17:34Her family has the painful task of saying goodbye.
17:37We now return to Jamie Dahl with Stolen.
17:43The Boogeyman took Punky.
17:54Weighed down in shock and grief, one week after the murder, family, friends and members of the public packed into an Edmonton church to say goodbye.
18:02To take someone's life to destroy this beautiful gift that God has given is the most evil act that a human being could ever commit.
18:17Just because the light went out doesn't mean she is gone.
18:23She will be in our hearts now and forever.
18:26Investigators told us that they had surveillance at the funeral.
18:33That maybe it's somebody that's sitting and watching.
18:36Were you scared that it could happen again?
18:38Yeah.
18:39The task now is to find Corrine's abductor.
18:43Police are scouring the area for any possible clues.
18:46They found a few tire tracks, but that's about all.
18:49What they'd really like to find is the pair of white canvas runners Corrine had on when she was kidnapped.
18:54They're missing.
18:55Besides that, police have only a sketchy description of a suspect to go on.
19:00A darker skinned individual with dark hair, five foot six to six foot tall, slim build, with a patch of white hair on the crown of his head, three earrings in his left ear, with a blue and white jacket and possibly glasses.
19:14Police have already received more than 300 tips on the abduction.
19:18The stumbling block is that the only eyewitness to the incident is a five year old girl.
19:23When Punky disappeared from her northeast Edmonton neighborhood, witnesses believe the suspect fled in a blue van.
19:29But when searching the Sherwood Park trucking yard where Punky's body was found, police were able to lift tire tracks, not from a van, but from a second vehicle.
19:38At the scene where Corrine's body was found, these tire prints were found. These tire prints cannot come from a van.
19:45Police believe the killer dumped the body from a car, a car similar to a Dodge Aries, Chevrolet Cavalier or a Ford Tempo.
19:53Each of them has just the, just the license number on them. Just follow those up. When they come back, just the attached report goes into the box right here.
20:01The police were absolutely flooded with tips and it was driving the two investigators, Terry Elm and El Sove, like they were, these were young guys.
20:11This was their first big case and it just, it was utterly overwhelming.
20:16Investigators Terry Elm and Albert Laher agreed to sit down with us to discuss intricate details of the case.
20:23They politely declined an on-camera interview saying the memories are still too triggering to relive in front of the lens.
20:31Both men had children close in age to Punky at the time and added while they were able to watch their kids grow up, Punky didn't get a chance.
20:41You know that these officers, the men and women in the police force, they took that case home every night to their families too and then they never let it go.
20:50You could see it was mentally draining.
20:52In this room in the police station, 50 officers a day work on the case full-time following up tips.
20:59It's an important case to police and they're not ruling out any means necessary in solving it.
21:05I'm going to forward this to homicide.
21:07Police were relentless in their pursuit of the killer, from sending out questionnaires to offering a $40,000 reward for information leading to an arrest.
21:18Even reenacting the gruesome story on camera, hoping to ignite anything to help capture the suspect.
21:25Police and actors are recreating the crime, complete with a Karine Gustafson look-alike.
21:32Crime stoppers, that would run every single night in our 6 o'clock news.
21:36I'm just trembling inside right now, just thinking about it. I just couldn't believe it. Especially in broad daylight. You know.
21:43But anyway, I hope they get the sick or they did it.
21:4623 days have passed since Punky's body was found. Three dozen police are hunting the killer around the clock.
21:55Punky's picture was wall-papered across the province.
21:59The billboard campaign was huge. It just swept right across Edmonton.
22:03Do you have any information at all leading to something that would lead to the arrest or finding a suspect?
22:09It was hard. It was hard. Even with my kids, when we took a bus and, Mom, there's Karine, yes.
22:19Every bus had a picture. And what it said was, somebody out there knows.
22:25Because I was the one that said it. That somebody out there knows.
22:28It was just eerie. This is the worst imaginable crime.
22:32Her picture, her pretty little face is on the front of every newspaper.
22:37It's just, it made people crazy. How can this evil be in our city?
22:41It was an awful time in Edmonton. And it haunted people.
22:48Meanwhile, investigators were still dissecting every inch of the scene where Punky's body was found.
22:54Police discovered a pubic hair on Karine's ankle.
22:57But scientists were unable to get a full genetic profile of the suspect.
23:01The technology just wasn't there.
23:04It wasn't all the killer left behind in the trucking yard.
23:08They also found his shoe prints with the baseball cleats in them.
23:13He tried to hide the evidence, the tire tracks and his own footprints.
23:18But he was in such a hurry that he didn't do a very good job.
23:22So they were able to get really good look and pictures of footprints and tire tracks.
23:29It was the same cleat, the same shoe size that was found at her home in Northeast Edmonton when she was grabbed.
23:37So they found the same one in soft mud beside the houses that she was taken from.
23:42They determined that it was probably something called a Mitre brand baseball cleat.
23:46And they started to go through every one who had played baseball in that area at the time.
23:52There had been a baseball tournament.
23:53So they tried tracking everybody down.
23:55Based on the evidence and the type of crime, police believed they were dealing with a solo perpetrator.
24:01We're working on that Karine Gustafson homicide.
24:03You guys see you play baseball?
24:05Yeah.
24:06Size eight feet hard so you know about it then.
24:07Were you in a tournament all that weekend?
24:09While some officers checked with baseball teams, the search for the suspected vehicles, that car with bald tires and a blue van carried on.
24:20They run on a diet of phone tips.
24:23This is tip 2849.
24:26A blue van that hasn't moved since September.
24:29Turns out it's been cleared before.
24:31Good evening and thanks for joining us tonight.
24:34Four months after Punky died, two of Edmonton's largest television stations came together for an unprecedented half hour special.
24:43This is such a horrific story.
24:45Let's get CFRN together with ITV.
24:49Global was ITV at the time.
24:51And let's team up and put all the resources, get all the police and let's really go.
24:56It was January of 1993.
24:59It was about a two day period in the time between when Karine was abducted and they found her body.
25:04What happened in that two day time period?
25:07Was she killed at the site where you found her?
25:09So we don't know exactly how long she'd been there ever.
25:11We do know that she wasn't killed at that location.
25:14We do believe that Karine was killed at another location, yes.
25:20I was talking to one of the detectives.
25:22I remember thinking and I looked at him and I said,
25:24do you think the killer might be watching us right now?
25:27And he looked at me and he went, there's a very good chance the killer's watching us right now as this broadcast is happening.
25:32And a chill just went up my back now thinking about it.
25:35I think the minute after they found her in the trucking yard was, I was put to the top of their list.
26:03Because I know the area.
26:06I gave them my DNA.
26:08I gave them a police report as to where I was the night before and what I was doing up until the time.
26:13I think these guys are grabbing it.
26:15Ron Davies emerged from his six hour interrogation with police badly shaken and angry.
26:20I got 15 nephews and nieces.
26:25They think I'm capable of doing that to one of them.
26:30They're crazy.
26:31There's no way.
26:32How many times were you brought in?
26:34I don't know, five, six times.
26:36There's one interrogation that he will never be able to shake.
26:40They threw all the pictures across the table of her laying underneath that trailer in the mud.
26:50Her body just plain as day right there.
26:53And it was like, ah, I did not need to see that.
26:58That's the one thing the family never got to see until that day at the RCMP when they threw out the pictures.
27:05And you see that tiny little body.
27:07And then it was like, he slaps his hands on the table and he says, you know you did it.
27:22Let's confess so we can close this case and I can get on with another one.
27:29Police said they had 400 suspects.
27:32But months went by with no concrete leads.
27:35Action.
27:36American program Unsolved Mysteries even came to town.
27:40Police hoped it would cast a wider net in their search for evidence.
27:44The fact that it's been almost 14 months now and it hasn't happened again might lead some to believe that our suspect is not going to happen.
27:51Our suspect is no longer here.
27:53We're not at the point where we can say that yet.
27:55Investigators told us they travelled far and wide to follow up on tips.
27:59Detective Terry Elm said he even flew to an advanced forensic lab in England with the hair sample found on Punky.
28:07To see if it was connected to another suspect in a similar case in British Columbia.
28:12It wasn't a match.
28:14They had just intense pressure.
28:16Mostly put up by themselves but other cops too.
28:19Everyone had a theory.
28:21Everybody, you know, get out, you guys are young cops.
28:24Get out there on the street more.
28:25Bang on the doors.
28:26Bang some heads.
28:27You know, the old school thinking.
28:28Like they were doing everything.
28:30They were being heavily criticized from within the force from other people.
28:33More experienced police officers about not solving this.
28:37For Punky's parents, grief grew into desperation.
28:41Parents supposed to go before the kids died.
28:48And I just felt like her being dead.
28:57I just didn't have nothing to live for.
29:00What were some of the thoughts you were having?
29:03I was going to jump over the bridge.
29:06I was going to go do something so I could be with Carmine.
29:15Towards the end, you know there's still police officers out there that think he did it.
29:19He says, we could put this all to rest if you would just agree to doing a polygraph.
29:25I went in and did the polygraph and he came back out and he says, you passed the polygraph.
29:32I said, I told you I would.
29:33I had nothing to do with it.
29:34Without any leads, the case went cold.
29:38And then new technology brought new hope ten years later.
29:43Thanks to new developments in DNA technology and testing and the DNA data bank,
29:49they were able to go back.
29:51The police decided, let's take another look.
29:53Punky's family was the first to hear what police believe could eventually solve the decade-old murder.
30:03The PCR test had come into being so they could use smaller and smaller bits of DNA to identify killers.
30:12And they just thought, well, let's just give it one more go.
30:15Let's send all of Punky's clothing in to get it tested one more time at this new lab
30:22at the forefront of these new techniques and let's see if they can find anything.
30:26And they did.
30:27They found a DNA sample on Punky's panties.
30:30When I talked to the scientist who eventually came up with the complete profile,
30:36he says, Terry, he says, I've got your killer.
30:40And I'll tell you, I'll tell you, that was the best news I'd heard in years.
30:45We are sending DNA samples to the lab.
30:50So we're hopeful that by reviewing these tips and from any information we may now receive,
30:55that will be compared to the profile we have.
31:00One week later, the family marked the 10th anniversary of Punky's death.
31:05She was buried on my son's birthday.
31:10It's going to be hard on him.
31:11It's only going to take one tip that it will catch the guy that did this.
31:14We live for the day that they catch him.
31:19And six months later, that day finally arrived.
31:24About 10 years after the murder, new technology allowed investigators to create a DNA profile of Punky's killer,
31:31but nobody matched it.
31:33Then came federal legislation allowing for the creation of a national DNA data bank.
31:38Many convicted criminals became compelled to offer a DNA sample,
31:42including Clifford Slay, convicted of a different crime.
31:46And then came word Slay's DNA matched the DNA profile of Gustafson's killer.
31:52I just cried.
31:55I had hope all day, every day.
31:58I thought this would be the day that the phone would ring and said that they caught the guy.
32:04And it happened.
32:09Punky's 20-year-old sister, Roseanne, promised her baby sibling the family would never give up hope.
32:15We just went to the grave site every year and just showed her how much we loved her
32:20and how much we were wishing that we would catch the guy.
32:24Big relief.
32:25I tell you, those 10-pound bricks are off my shoulders.
32:29This is the, by far, the best day I've had in over a decade.
32:3440-year-old Clifford Slay was already serving a 13-year sentence for two sexual assaults
32:39and forcible confinement at the Bowdoin Institute south of Edmonton.
32:44There was 26 convictions in all.
32:46He was clearly a psychopath, just a cold, machine-like human being
32:51who did not experience regular emotions.
32:54According to parole board documents, Slay had amassed 26 convictions,
32:59mostly for property-related offences, impaired driving, breaches of trust,
33:04escape unlawful custody and numerous violent offences,
33:08with his most concerning behaviour involving his pattern of predatory sexual assault.
33:14Police first met Slay weeks after Punky's murder, not as a person of interest but a potential witness.
33:23Two months after the crime, they sent a detective where Slay was moving with the woman he was with
33:33and she had told the police in one of the tips that her boyfriend, Clifford Slay, said,
33:40oh, he had been out driving around that morning and he saw someone who he thought might have done it,
33:45someone in a van.
33:46So they went and they tracked down Clifford Slay and they asked him about that story
33:51and he denied anything about that.
33:53He had come to our attention earlier on in the investigation from another investigation
34:02that was unrelated.
34:04In the spring of 1993, while detectives were interviewing Slay about one of the sexual assault cases,
34:10they brought up the Gustafson case and asked for a DNA sample,
34:14something they had been asking a lot of potential suspects to provide.
34:19They also searched Slay's home.
34:22They found a baseball cleat in the closet but when they took it to forensic it didn't match.
34:28His story was that he was babysitting for relatives and they checked out.
34:33And because of that and the cleat, he was taken off as a suspect essentially.
34:41He was right there in front of them but his family ended up covering up for him.
34:46They came up with an alibi so that kind of led police to go,
34:50well, maybe we don't have the right guy, let's keep looking in another direction.
34:53With the DNA match secured, investigators told us officers confronted Slay's former partner,
35:00who had provided an alibi.
35:02She admitted Slay hadn't been with her the whole weekend.
35:06Welcome back.
35:16About a decade after Punky Gustafson's murder, the creation of a national DNA databank
35:22finally gave police a match to her killer.
35:25Now, it was time to confront the man they believed was responsible,
35:29already serving time for other crimes.
35:32We now return to the conclusion of Stolen.
35:37The boogeyman took Punky.
35:43Police paid Clifford Slay a visit in prison.
35:46They set the stage, letting him know his DNA was on Punky's clothes.
35:51They also took another DNA sample at the request of the Crown.
35:55It didn't take long for Slay to unravel.
35:59What did you talk about?
36:01What were you saying?
36:02Well, she'd ask me where I was taking her.
36:08Okay.
36:09And the one by the call, right?
36:11I just ignored her.
36:14I didn't answer her.
36:15So it wasn't a conversation.
36:21Um, I didn't say nothing to her.
36:27She'd just come quiet, just wanted to try as far as I could understand,
36:31drop off and just leave.
36:34But when I realized that there was no traffic in this area,
36:39it seemed very secluded, you know, I just had to put on myself to,
36:43um, I guess, have sex up there.
36:50I don't know how to use the terminology, you have to put on it.
36:53I had no intention to put on it.
36:55You had no intention to put on it.
36:56My hopes were that somebody would find me.
36:59Right.
37:00I didn't expect to die from what I caused.
37:09I think that was some of the first times that we had really heard
37:12what had happened to, uh, to Punky Gustafson
37:15and through the words of the man who had done it.
37:1740-year-old Clifford Matthew Slay is now facing first-degree murder charges
37:23in connection to the death of Punky Gustafson.
37:25I got the first view of him when they drove him down into the police department
37:31in the backseat of that car, slowly, just enough
37:35to get the, so that the media and that could get his picture.
37:39Looking at him at that point, I thought, that guy has no soul.
37:45His eyes are just dark.
37:46The trial was set for May 9th, 2005.
37:57Punky Gustafson's family walked into the law court's building together,
38:01prepared to face the little girl's alleged killer for the first time.
38:08Dressed in blue overalls, Slay heard the charges against him.
38:11First-degree murder and kidnapping.
38:13Charges in connection with the disappearance of six-year-old
38:16Corrine Gustafson back in September 1992.
38:20Punky's mother quietly stared at Slay in the prisoner's box,
38:23while other family members openly wept.
38:25In a surprising move, Slay pleaded guilty to kidnapping,
38:29not guilty to aggravated sexual assault, and tried pleading guilty to manslaughter.
38:34But the Crown didn't accept the manslaughter plea,
38:36opting to continue with the first-degree murder trial.
38:39The whole trial took a bit of a turn.
38:41He's now admitting that, yes, I was there.
38:43I caused the death of Punky Gustafson.
38:45The question now is, did he murder Punky Gustafson?
38:49In court, he just sat there, was sitting on his arms and his head down.
38:53Never moved the whole time.
38:56If I could have, I would have smacked him.
38:59And that was why I just wanted to get at him to make him suffer pain like she did.
39:03I always wanted to just, you know, strangle him, do something to him.
39:12Punky Gustafson's family left court stunned.
39:15The description of the young girl's injuries forced
39:17some of them to leave the room and some jurors to tears.
39:21The forensic examiner thought the most likely cause of death was from the rape itself,
39:28from internal bleeding from the rape.
39:29That's essentially, she was raped to death by Clifford Slay.
39:41Clifford Slay had got into a fight with his common-law partner.
39:45He was very mad at her and wanted to go and hurt her.
39:48His partner had a young daughter and so his idea was that he was going to go
39:54and sexually assault his common-law partner's daughter.
39:56But the problem with that plan was that she wasn't there right then.
40:00So instead, he just went out to look for somebody else.
40:03She's sitting in her yard playing with a friend.
40:06He describes how he just goes and snatches her.
40:09Slay told investigators he took Corrine simply because she was the closest.
40:15to the fence.
40:16To have that confirmation and to see just how random this was,
40:21a bit of a jaw-dropping moment in a case filled with jaw-dropping moments.
40:27Two weeks after the trial began on May 25, 2005,
40:32a verdict was reached on the eve of Karen's birthday.
40:35We caught him and she rest in peace now.
40:39Okay.
40:40They said first degree.
40:44It just felt like it was a big load off of our shoulders.
40:49Relief now, finally come to her nap.
40:52We're able to see what the judge is done.
40:54I think you guys are always part of our family.
40:57Always welcome.
40:58I was in Homicide Unit for 10 years and this was the case I followed right through.
41:02And I had the opportunity to continue on with the investigation even after I retired.
41:08So yeah, you know, because of that I have some closure with it as well.
41:14Clifford Slay was given the maximum sentence of life in prison with no chance of parole for 25 years.
41:21The most dramatic moment of the sentencing hearing came when Slay addressed the court.
41:26Slay started by saying,
41:27I just want to apologize and say I'm sorry.
41:30Then, for the first time in the trial, Clifford Slay showed some emotion.
41:34He began crying.
41:35At that point, Punky's cousin stood up in the back of the courtroom and said,
41:39Don't cry for us.
41:40We don't need your remorse.
41:41It's over now.
41:42He's a little bastard.
41:44He shouldn't be able to go back to court.
41:46He shouldn't be able to go back to court.
41:48Oh my God.
41:49Okay, that's it.
41:49Let's go.
41:50Please get out of here.
41:51You tore a family apart and now we get our justice and I hope that you rot and rot.
42:03For me, it's a few moments in the courtroom, you know, having a daughter and
42:11thinking about that crime that has a big emotional impact on me.
42:16But for them who lived it, it would be overwhelming to talk about it again, to think about it.
42:27You know, even after 30 years, it still hurts.
42:30You see kids doing certain things that she used to do and then you think,
42:36what she would be like today, right?
42:38So, it never goes away.
42:41It's there.
42:41The pain's there.
42:42I wouldn't know what she would be like today if she would have got married, you know, and had kids.
42:49What do you miss the most?
42:51Her hugs.
42:53Saying goodbye, goodnight, and I'll see you later.
43:00This is the walkway.
43:04Where he took her from.
43:06Ah, baseball members.
43:08That $2 bill Karen gave Corrine the last time she saw her,
43:19was found by police still folded up in Punky's little coat pocket.
43:23I told them I want, I want, they thought that I wanted her clothes.
43:27I went, no, I want that $2 bill.
43:30So they put it in a frame for me.
43:32In 2015, Ray had Punky's body moved to the small Alberta town of Castor.
43:41Two and a half hours away from Edmonton.
43:43It's where most of his family members are buried.
43:46He's already picked out his final resting place.
43:49Right here.
43:51Right next to her.
43:53She's the love of my heart.
43:57I'll never get over it, even the odds I'll take it to my grave.
44:07This is Corrine's tree.
44:11That they planted.
44:15For her and her memory.
44:19While Karen now has to drive a long distance to visit her daughter's grave,
44:23she finds solace here on the grounds of Punky's old school.
44:28Corrine is watching over us at this time.
44:33Wherever I go, I think she's up there.
44:37She's our angel now.
44:42Clifford Slay can apply for parole in 2028.
44:46Corrine Gustafson's family has vowed to do everything they can to prevent that from happening,
44:53as they continue to keep the memory of their beloved Punky alive.
45:00Thank you for joining us tonight on Crime Beat.
45:03I'm Anthony Robart.
45:06Want more episodes of Crime Beat?
45:08Listen to the Crime Beat Podcast now for free on Apple Podcasts,
45:13Spotify, or wherever you find your favourite podcasts.
45:16And for past episodes of Crime Beat, go to the Global TV app, visit GlobalTV.com,
45:22or check out our Crime Beat YouTube page.
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