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00:01This is an approximate area of where the crime scene was.
00:06I've replayed it in my mind a lot what it must have been in those moments,
00:10knowing that you won't make it out of these woods alive.
00:14It's hard to imagine how small she was.
00:17I almost broke down.
00:20Someone forced her into the woods, and she was murdered.
00:25In a small town, the killer could easily have been just down the road.
00:30Wow, could my father have done something like this?
00:34The man most of us know as Ted has been seen only in a picture.
00:38They had no idea was the Ted Bundy who had terrorized this state.
00:42For decades, law enforcement couldn't rule anybody out.
00:45And then they managed to locate something.
00:49Amazingly, it broke the case wide open.
00:52She look familiar?
00:54I don't remember any of this.
00:56You do, sir.
01:24Oh no!
01:27I don't remember any of this.
01:28Well, go ahead and get them stuck.
01:28I've never found that one.
01:29I feel like they had no idea.
01:29The sheer number of suspects in this case is staggering.
01:33No one had any idea if the killer could still be out there
01:38lurking in the dense forests of the Pacific Northwest.
01:50Growing up in Bothell back in 1972 was a very small town, USA.
02:00We'd either be working on our tree fort,
02:02or we would be running down the street to go ride horses.
02:06The area was very country.
02:09After school, we'd do our chores and farm duties.
02:13People didn't lock their doors.
02:16Everybody knew each other.
02:19You felt safe.
02:21The Loomis family live on Wineshap Road.
02:24There's the mom, Rosemary. There's the dad, John Sr.
02:26There's Jody Loomis, who's 20.
02:29She lives at home with her parents and her younger sister,
02:31Jana, who's 12.
02:32And then they also have an older brother, John,
02:34but he at that point is living out of the house.
02:37My sister Jody was eight years older,
02:40and she was everything that I wanted to strive to be.
02:44She could draw.
02:46She could paint.
02:47She could carve.
02:49She could just pick anything up,
02:51and she would see something in it,
02:54and it would mean something to her.
02:56At that time, my sister was still living at home,
03:00and Jody would paint storefront windows
03:03and sell her carvings and make her money.
03:08Jody's biggest passion is taking care of animals,
03:11including her horse, Sodhi,
03:12who is boarded just four miles up the road.
03:15I remember one time she had run across
03:17some people target shooting with pigeons,
03:20and there was a pigeon flailing around on the ground,
03:23and she put the pigeon in her shirt and rolled it up,
03:26and she started yelling at them to stop.
03:31That was Jody.
03:32She would always look out for the underdog.
03:36In 1972, with Jana finally catching up
03:39to her older sister's height,
03:41they arrive at a sisterhood rite of passage.
03:44Jody was around five feet tall,
03:46and for the first time,
03:48I could fit into something of hers,
03:51or she could fit into something of mine,
03:54and that was just good fun.
03:59On August 23, 1972,
04:01Jody wants to go ride her horse, Sodhi,
04:03and she wants to wear her sister Jana's new boots.
04:08My mom had just purchased some boots for me for school
04:12called waffle stompers.
04:14Because of the waffle shape,
04:16they would leave on the ground,
04:17and my sister really liked them.
04:20So that particular day,
04:23Jody wanted to wear them to go ride Sodhi.
04:26So Jody tied up the boots and walked outside with my mom.
04:33Jody grabs her new white 10-speed bike
04:35and gets ready to ride the four miles
04:37to the farm where Sodhi is ported.
04:39My mom always wanted to make sure
04:41that if we needed to make a call,
04:43that we had a dime on us for a pay phone.
04:46And so my mom said to her,
04:49Jody, do you have your dime?
04:53She checked her pocket.
04:54It was there.
04:55And she said,
04:56Yep, I got it.
04:59At that point, my mom said goodbye,
05:02and Jody wrapped her horse's bridle
05:05around the handlebars
05:08and rode off.
05:12That was the last time that my mom ever saw Jody.
05:27I'm sorry.
05:34A couple of miles away from the Loomis household,
05:37Walter Morris and Kathy Gogol had gone into the woods
05:40in order to do some practice shooting.
05:42They drove their car into a pathway
05:45and discovered that it was blocked by a log.
05:48When they got out to move that log,
05:50they discovered a woman who clearly suffered
05:52a traumatic wound to her head,
05:54surprisingly still alive.
05:58She wasn't able to speak,
05:59but she did have some raspy breath.
06:01And so they immediately swooped her up
06:03and drove as fast as they could to the nurse hospital.
06:07On the drive to the hospital,
06:09there was a moment that they realized
06:11she had likely passed.
06:15On the evening of the 23rd
06:17at Stevens Memorial Hospital
06:19down in South Snohomish County,
06:22I was directed to a deceased female
06:25between 17 and 22,
06:28but very tiny, very petite,
06:32with what appeared to be a bullet wound
06:33to the right side of her head.
06:37The woman did not have any identification on her,
06:40so at that point she was considered a Jane Doe.
06:42She was partly nude,
06:45but still in her underwear,
06:47boots and socks.
06:48She had glasses kind of hanging off her face
06:52and some jewelry.
06:53The boots were kind of a hiking boot.
06:56We called them waffle stompers.
06:58One was tied, one wasn't,
07:00which seemed to indicate
07:01that maybe she was either getting dressed
07:03or undressed when she was shot.
07:06When detectives arrive,
07:07they ask Walter Morris and Kathy Kokel
07:09to bring them back to the woods
07:10where they found Jane Doe.
07:14All summer long,
07:16I ran a produce stand
07:17on the corner of 164th
07:20and the Bothell Everett Highway,
07:23selling the produce that we grew on our farm.
07:26And in the early evening,
07:28on August 23rd, 1972,
07:32all of a sudden there's all these police cars
07:35heading up Penny Creek Road.
07:37And I thought,
07:38wow, I wonder what happened up there.
07:47Probably three quarters of the way
07:49up the hill on Penny Creek Road,
07:51there was a dirt drive
07:53that went off into the woods.
07:57The witnesses,
07:58Walter and Kathy,
08:00took the detectives down that dirt road
08:03heading to the crime scene
08:06and find a man named Ken Rice
08:08and his son Alan along the dirt road
08:11cutting firewood.
08:14And the police talked to them
08:16and learned that the Rice family
08:18lived at the bottom of the hill
08:20and they were renting this particular property.
08:23My dad and brother had been cutting wood.
08:26We lived on 2,000 acres
08:28where we had our farm, our garden.
08:31But that area was nothing.
08:35Ken Rice didn't remember
08:36ever hearing a gunshot,
08:38but he did add
08:39that it wasn't uncommon
08:41to shoot on that property.
08:44Ken and Alan Rice are told
08:46to vacate the area
08:47while deputies cordon off the scene.
08:54Once Ken Rice and his son Alan Rice
08:56leave the area,
08:57the couple take the investigators
09:00to where the body was found.
09:02And there was a pool of blood
09:03there by the log.
09:07The deputies and detectives
09:08are looking for any sort of evidence
09:10they can use to help them
09:11figure out what happened,
09:12figure out who Jane Doe is.
09:13And unfortunately,
09:14they don't find a whole lot.
09:16But they do find a white 10-speed bicycle.
09:21And on the path,
09:23they find a dime.
09:30My parents' rule was to be home by dark.
09:33And that day,
09:35I remember running down Poppy Road going,
09:37oh my gosh,
09:38I'm pushing this,
09:39it's dusk.
09:41I walked in the door,
09:43and my mom said,
09:44okay, well you're here,
09:46but your sister's not here.
09:48I didn't think anything,
09:50just that she's gonna be in trouble.
09:53As the hours tick by,
09:55Mr. and Mrs. Loomis begin calling Jody's friends,
09:58local hospitals,
09:59and the sheriff's office.
10:01Soon, word reaches the detectives
10:03investigating the Jane Doe.
10:06When my mom was making calls,
10:08her voice was shaking,
10:09and all of a sudden,
10:10it dawned on me,
10:11she's scared.
10:12My dad's scared.
10:15And then,
10:17there was the knock at the door.
10:21And I remember my mom's look on her face.
10:35There were two detectives at the door,
10:38and they told us,
10:40we think,
10:40we think your daughter is deceased,
10:44and she's at the hospital.
10:49With that,
10:50my mom went to the ground.
10:53My dad's just standing there,
10:55numb.
10:57It was an unbelievable moment.
11:02I've never seen pain like this before,
11:04and as a 12-year-old,
11:06I think I totally changed as a person that day.
11:11Yeah.
11:13Detectives ask Jody's father, John,
11:16to come identify the body of the Jane Doe at the hospital.
11:21At about one o'clock in the morning,
11:23I met with Mr. Loomis
11:25and escorted him back to the examination room
11:28to possibly identify this young woman
11:32when we got there.
11:34Mr. Loomis got very upset,
11:36and that's when he kind of fell apart.
11:43I still feel,
11:46I still identify with him,
11:48because it's just,
11:50it's,
11:52it's so hard to be around that
11:54and not feel all their pain.
12:04The next morning,
12:05as news spreads of Jody Loomis' murder,
12:08a pathologist and Deputy Coroner Christensen
12:11conduct an autopsy.
12:13The pathologist was able to locate
12:17two bullet fragments inside of her head.
12:21One was just barely under the skin,
12:23and the other one had penetrated through the skull
12:27into the brain,
12:28which was the cause of death.
12:30The bullet fragments were from a .22 caliber pistol.
12:35They believe that the gunshot wound
12:37came to the right side of Jody's head.
12:38It was at a downward trajectory,
12:40meaning somebody was above her,
12:42whether she was sitting or kneeling or on the ground
12:45when she had been shot.
12:47Based on her state of undress,
12:50it is also clear to Deputy Coroner Ken Christensen
12:52that there was some kind of sexual assault that took place.
12:54So they do a rape kit.
12:56Swabs and her panties were sent for detailed analysis,
13:01and they got a report back stating it was positive for semen.
13:07But in 1972, there was no DNA.
13:11People knew about it, but it was never a forensic tool.
13:14So that evidence was just booked into the property room
13:18at the sheriff's office.
13:20But looking at the autopsy,
13:22it appears Jody Loomis was forced into the woods
13:25at gunpoint, made to undress,
13:28and then was raped.
13:31And as soon as he let her up,
13:33she was able to get her panties and her boots on,
13:37and she tied the right boot
13:39and was in the process of tying the left boot
13:42while she was sitting on the ground.
13:44And that's when she was shot in this side of the head
13:47at a downward angle.
13:53Without more evidence,
13:55investigators turned to Jody's family
13:57to gather information that could point to a suspect.
14:01That next day, I remember detectives asking questions.
14:07Who was the last person to see Jody
14:10or talk to Jody or had anybody called the house?
14:14My mom, my dad, they didn't know anything.
14:18They tell them Jody was riding her bike.
14:20She took her dime with her.
14:21She had her horse bridled.
14:23Jody's mother told detectives
14:25that no one else other than her family
14:26would have even known that she would have been on that road.
14:29So now investigators track the path
14:31that she would have ridden her bicycle.
14:34As they're retracing Jody's bike route,
14:36they come across a farm stand
14:39and they meet this 14-year-old girl named Kenda Rice.
14:47I remember it was a very slow day
14:50and a sheriff came to the produce stand
14:53and showed a picture of Jody.
14:56That's when I learned that the young lady
14:59that I'd seen on the bicycle had been assaulted.
15:03And I told them everything that I could remember.
15:09It was sometime after four,
15:12and a girl not much older than myself
15:15came heading east on 164th on a bicycle.
15:22I rode horses all the time,
15:24and I noticed she did have her bridle with her on the bicycle.
15:30And she rode by the produce stand across the highway,
15:35across the driveway for our house,
15:37and headed up Penny Creek Road,
15:40which goes very steeply up the hill and around a corner.
15:44And I lost sight of her.
15:47They asked Kenda Rice,
15:49was she talking to someone?
15:50Was there any vehicles that were seen?
15:52Anything that stood out?
15:54I remember that within a few minutes,
15:58a car came by,
16:02and it was the Brady Station Wagon.
16:05It was really long,
16:07and the whole side was that wood paneling.
16:11There were two gentlemen in the car,
16:13mid to late 20s.
16:15They had the sideburns, big glasses,
16:20long hair.
16:23And they went straight up the hill,
16:26the same way that the young lady on the bicycle had gone.
16:30After a good hour,
16:32the same vehicle came back down the hill,
16:35and headed out.
16:42After they had interviewed me,
16:44I was in shock.
16:47So, my mother came over,
16:49and we packed everything up,
16:51and we did not do the produce stand the rest of that summer.
16:55We had never locked our cars.
16:57We had never locked our house.
16:59And from that day forward, we did.
17:02Deputies continue to search the woods where the woman was found.
17:05They're looking for a small caliber gun.
17:08They searched for shell casing and didn't find one.
17:11They looked for Jody's bridle,
17:13and it was never found.
17:16There wasn't much to go on.
17:18Although nothing more of Jody's can be located in the area,
17:22investigators do find a man's red jacket,
17:26and they trace it back to someone spotted near the crime scene
17:29shortly after Jody's murder.
17:32When Jody would have been killed,
17:34Ken Rice had been out in the land with his 12-year-old son, Alan,
17:38and they were essentially each other's alibi.
17:42But at this point,
17:44investigators weren't going to just take their word for it,
17:46and they were able to interview them at the Rice family farm.
17:50When the sheriffs were questioning my father, I was surprised.
17:55My father wasn't one to be able to keep a huge secret like that.
18:02Ken Rice is confronted with the red jacket,
18:04and he confirms that it does belong to him,
18:07but that he must have forgotten to grab it
18:08after he was asked to clear the area the day before.
18:12Investigators were curious as to how it was
18:15that he wouldn't have heard a gunshot go off that day,
18:19considering the woods and the way it would echo.
18:22And so, investigators keep digging.
18:25At that time, Ken Rice actually said that he had seen Jody that day,
18:30writing her 10-speed,
18:32which means he was the last person to see Jody Loomis alive
18:35other than her killer.
18:49Ken Rice told detectives that around the time that he saw Jody on her bicycle.
18:57He also heard loud motorcycles in the area.
19:02And like his daughter, Kendra Rice,
19:04he also described seeing a station wagon driven by two men.
19:09He described them as kind of hippies with long hair and beards
19:13around the time that Jody was killed.
19:17After that, Ken Rice said that he and his son, Alan,
19:20continued chopping wood up until the sheriff's detectives arrived later on that afternoon.
19:29Now, with an additional report,
19:31the sheriff's department notifies local newspapers to get the word out that they're seeking the two men in the station
19:37wagon.
19:38At the same time, they're still keeping their eye on Ken Rice as a person of interest.
19:43I knew that my brother was with him the whole time.
19:46But part of me questioned,
19:48and wow, could my father have done something like this?
19:53Which seriously concerned me from that day forward.
20:03For a few days, my parents were pretty speechless.
20:08My brother had arrived, and being Jody's protector from the time that they were little, there was no words to
20:16say the pain in that spot in his life.
20:20Five days after my sister was murdered, my parents held her funeral.
20:27For a 12-year-old, it was really eerie, and I just remember thinking, Jody's gone.
20:42We have no particular suspects at this time.
20:46We do have several people we do want to talk to. We have talked to two already.
20:51Every angle was looked at.
20:52They looked into friends, people that would have some sort of motive.
20:55And in Bothell, even though it was small, there was a ton of names that couldn't be eliminated.
21:01There was nobody that actually witnessed the crime.
21:05There was no weapon that was ever recovered.
21:08They couldn't locate a station wagon that was involved.
21:12Tips dried up.
21:14It didn't take long, and this case started going cold.
21:18My parents called the detectives all the time, asking questions.
21:22How do we solve this, and who could have done this, and are they going to hurt somebody else?
21:27And all of a sudden, your mind just starts looking at people and things differently.
21:35Friends, our neighbors.
21:37In a small town, Jody's killer could easily have been somebody that was, you know, just down the road.
21:47And you think, are they out there in the trees right now?
21:51You know, just staring and watching.
21:58A year and a half later, in April, 1974, and an anonymous tip comes in from a member of a
22:03biker gang known as the Reapers Roadmen.
22:07The Reapers Roadmen were a roaming biker gang in the Sonoma County area known for various crimes, including acts of
22:14violence towards women, oftentimes with firearms.
22:18In 1974, one of the members of Reapers Roadmen was working as a police informant and reported hearing other members
22:24talking about the rape and murder of a young girl.
22:26They were describing her body, and they were actually describing a 10-speed bike that she had been riding.
22:33The informant thought that the details were very similar to Jody Loomis.
22:40Remembering that Ken Rice had told investigators that he had heard motorcycles in the area on the day of Jody's
22:46murder, detectives looked deeper into the Reapers Roadmen.
22:49The detectives discovered that one of their members had recently been involved in a shooting where the shooter used a
22:55.22 caliber, which is the same caliber that Jody was killed with.
22:59The perpetrator's name was Richard Lovell. His nickname was Yamaha. And Yamaha shot at a train and actually hit the
23:09conductor. And at the time of the arrest, he was in possession of a .22 caliber handgun.
23:17So the detective working the Jody Loomis case at that point was able to get the bullets and the gun
23:24and send it off to the FBI crime lab to see if there was a match.
23:30Unfortunately, those lab results showed that was not the weapon that was used to kill Jody Loomis.
23:35But the elimination of the gun itself didn't convince anyone that this group or a member of this group was
23:40not responsible for Jody's murder.
23:42It just meant that that specific gun wasn't responsible for it.
23:46It's a huge blow to the case, and investigators feel like they're back at square one. This was their best
23:51lead, and now they have nothing.
23:54But at this point, there's a turn in the Pacific Northwest.
23:58The man most of us know as Ted has been seen only in a picture. It's a composite drawing that
24:03police created from eyewitness accounts.
24:05Young women the same age as Jody Loomis have been vanishing into the dense woods of the Pacific Northwest, all
24:12of them connected to a man simply named Ted.
24:15Police admitted that they would only catch Ted if he committed another crime and got caught.
24:20In Utah 1975, investigators arrest this Ted character.
24:25Ted Bundy was first brought to the attention of the police by a phone call from a citizen.
24:30He's charged in Salt Lake City with aggravated kidnap and attempted murder.
24:42I think you were surprised when you went to jail, for better of course.
24:46Surprised? I don't know. I didn't know what to expect. I've never been in jail before. I've never been arrested
24:49before.
24:49Ted Bundy had terrorized this state and, in fact, the entire Pacific Northwest with his crimes.
24:56And in 1975, when word got to the Sonomish County Sheriff's Office about his arrest,
25:02he was the first person that they immediately thought of as being someone that could have been involved.
25:06He was described as a smooth-talking man with his arm in a cast who asked several women to help
25:12him load a boat onto a Volkswagen.
25:14Ted Bundy preyed on young women. He'd fake injuries or he would ask for help when they were not around
25:21a lot of other people.
25:22In looking at Jody's personality, it wasn't outside the realm of possibility that if Ted Bundy asked for help, that
25:28she likely would have offered the help.
25:30She was definitely young and full of spirits.
25:35A very tender-hearted person. She couldn't hardly stand to see anybody hurting.
25:40All of a sudden, this name appears and you start noticing, oh, he's from our state.
25:45They're tying him to the wooded areas. He's a manipulator asking girls for help.
25:53Could he be somebody involved over here? And all of a sudden you get hope.
26:01Investigators were actually able to establish that Ted Bundy was elsewhere on the day that Jody Loomis was killed.
26:06And so he was eliminated as a suspect in this case.
26:11Despite being able to eliminate Ted Bundy, investigators are left with a laundry list of suspects.
26:17It includes members of the Reapers Roadmen gang.
26:19It includes Ken Rice. And they have no leads.
26:25As soon as I was 17, I left home.
26:29I couldn't wait to go.
26:31But because Jody Loomis was murdered on our property, it was important for me to just check in regularly with
26:43the sheriff's office to see, had any progress been made?
26:47And at the same time, I always wanted to know, was my father still a suspect?
26:54Because from what I personally experienced at his hand, I did not confidently know that my father was not involved.
27:03So if I'm understanding this correctly, your dad was abusive to you?
27:09Yeah, I was sexually assaulted by my father.
27:13Many times.
27:18I have sisters, and when they went to bed at night, they padlocked their bedroom doors.
27:25It's difficult to talk about, but truth is truth.
27:29And so it really always was in the back of my mind, did my father commit this crime?
27:36But I never got one word of anything that offered too much information about this case.
27:45Kendra Rice doesn't tell law enforcement about the sexual abuse.
27:48And as time passes, occasional newspaper articles are written about Jody Loomis in the hopes that somebody might know something.
27:55But ultimately, nobody knows anything.
28:00So this one right here, Thursday, August 24th of 72.
28:06So this was the day after we lost Jody.
28:10Over the years, my dad kept all of the articles regarding Jody.
28:16In 89, this was an article on Ted Bendy.
28:19We were always very interested in him to make sure that he truly was in another area and that he
28:27had nothing to do with Jody's death.
28:29My mom would always keep her eyes open for anything that seemed suspicious and let the detectives know.
28:38But as time went on and Bothell started to evolve and get bigger, my parents came to the reality of
28:46the fact that they're probably never going to find this guy.
28:52After 33 years, there's been little to no progress.
28:55But things changed in 2005 when the sheriff's office creates a specialized cold case team.
29:02Jody Loomis' case was one of the cold cases that had the best chances of being solved because we knew
29:09there was semen evidence collected in 1972 now that we could get a DNA profile on.
29:16So we started going through the evidence.
29:19But we found that there is no underpants.
29:23There were no swabs.
29:25There were no bullets.
29:27And everyone was very concerned.
29:30At the time, I was the supervisor of the sheriff's office evidence unit.
29:35I went through 40 years of paperwork trying to find out what happened to that DNA evidence.
29:42Every spare moment I had, I was looking for it.
29:44I finally just had to give up.
29:46I couldn't find it.
29:47I was really upset.
29:50Here we thought we were going to have the best DNA evidence.
29:56And we've got nothing.
29:58That made us sick.
30:05Investigators dig through the evidence locker to locate whatever other evidence from the crime scene might still be in their
30:11possession.
30:13The boots are still there, the pants, the shirt, the bra is still there.
30:18Might as well send those clothing items to the crime lab and just see what we can get out of
30:22them.
30:26May 18th of 2008, the state patrol crime lab said they found semen on the right waffle stomp or boot
30:35that Jody Loomis was wearing when she was raped and murdered.
30:42That semen has got to belong to our killer.
30:47Forensic scientists were able to take that known profile and compare it to CODIS.
30:51CODIS is a database of DNA samples from criminals and offenders throughout the country.
30:57And they were looking for a match.
30:59Unfortunately for investigators, there is no hit in CODIS.
31:04Which means likely that this person has managed to stay off of law enforcement's radar all of these years.
31:10At that point, I told the Loomis family that we got a DNA profile of Jody's killer and that the
31:17next step is go through a list of suspects and start ruling them out one at a time.
31:24Detective Scharf told us that they were going to be doing the DNA swabs from people that were suspicious.
31:32And we're all excited thinking, OK, this is going to be solved.
31:36I contacted Ken Rice and got his saliva sample and ruled him out.
31:43The DNA did not match my father.
31:46It was just a relief that there was finally an answer for me.
31:53But, of course, I always wanted justice for Jody.
31:57Over the next 10 years, we tracked down all the people that were ever listed as a suspect.
32:04I had to serve search warrants on the Reapers Roadmen.
32:08Yamaha was living in El Paso, Texas.
32:11Another guy was living in Florida.
32:13I had to get DNA from the son of another Reapers Roadman that was deceased.
32:19Got DNA from those guys and that ruled them out.
32:23Unfortunately, for all of those years collecting potential suspects' DNA, Detective Scharf didn't identify a suspect.
32:30But in 2018, cold case detectives wonder, can we upload this male DNA profile to a privately owned site like
32:38people do to build family trees?
32:40And can we get some sort of tip of who our suspect is?
32:45Investigators sent that DNA profile.
32:47And it was at that point that investigators got their break in the case.
32:51They got a really strong match to Jaquette and Albert Miller, who had six sons.
32:56And one of those six sons was the person that had murdered Jody Loomis.
33:05Detective Scharf came to me and said, hey, do any of these six have any kind of criminal history?
33:10And one of them stood out.
33:12Terrence Miller.
33:14In 2018, Terrence Miller was approximately 77 years old.
33:18And investigators quickly focused on Terrence because he had lived in the area most of his life working construction, close
33:24to where Jody Loomis was killed.
33:26And he was no stranger to law enforcement.
33:29In the 1970s, there was accusations that Terrence Miller had sexually assaulted his daughters.
33:33More recently had been accused of sexually assaulting his granddaughters.
33:39Surprisingly, he had actually never really served any time on them, which would explain why his DNA profile wasn't in
33:45the CODIS system.
33:47We had detectives do surveillance and follow Terrence Miller around and collect anything that touches his mouth because we want
33:56to get his saliva to see if we could get a DNA profile on him.
34:00What they were hoping for was that he would discard some sort of item, a cigarette butt, piece of gum,
34:06coffee cup, things of that nature.
34:09Detectives followed him to the Tulalip Casino and he was laying the slot machines and drinking coffee from this cup.
34:18And he threw it in a garbage can so they were able to collect that cup.
34:24And I took it to the crime lab.
34:33Using now the known DNA sample that they have from Terrence Miller in that coffee cup, they were able to
34:39compare it to the DNA sample from Jody Loomis' booth.
34:45Today, a breakthrough. Detectives announced the arrest in the 1972 homicide of 20-year-old Jody Loomis.
34:52His name is Terrence Miller. He was charged with murder in the first degree yesterday afternoon.
34:57Detective Scharf told us Terrence Miller had been booked into jail for the murder of Jody.
35:04I tell you, we were all jumping up and down like, yes, but yet, here you're saying a name that
35:11I've never heard before.
35:12How did he run across Jody?
35:18The investigator's working theory was not that he knew her, but in fact, that this was a crime of opportunity.
35:30That he had seen her that day when he was traveling for work, and that he had taken that opportunity
35:35to commit this act.
35:44After we arrested him, Terrence Miller agreed to talk to me, he agreed to answer my questions, right up until
35:51I saw his face when we showed him Jody's picture.
36:16Miller's arrested, he's arraigned, and then in a shocking twist, a judge lets him out on a $750,000 bond.
36:24Because Miller says he has to take care of his elderly wife, who suffered a stroke.
36:30I was actually shocked Mr. Miller was granted bail.
36:33All the years that I've done this, I've never had a murder suspect out of custody.
36:38After the shock of seeing Terrence Miller walk free on bail, the trial begins on October 26, 2020, and the
36:46prosecution makes its case by highlighting the DNA evidence connected to the key piece of evidence in the case, Janna's
36:53waffle stompers.
36:55The first time I saw my boots in 48 years was at the trial, and the murderer is sitting right
37:02there, and it still doesn't faze him.
37:05He still thinks he's above it all or what, I don't know.
37:10Defense cited to the fact that the murder happened in 1972, and they really wanted to try and paint him
37:17as somebody who was non-violent in nature, who was not a criminal, and he was innocent.
37:23The trial lasts two weeks, and finally the jury files out to make their decision.
37:29I remember putting on my suit that morning and driving to work.
37:32I felt good, and then I got a phone call from one of our patrol sergeants.
37:38And she said, I hate to tell you this, but Terri Miller committed suicide.
37:45And I remember sitting there just shocked, and I said, I'm sorry, I don't, you need to tell me that
37:50again.
37:51And she said, he's dead. He committed suicide.
37:54While Terri Miller was out on bail waiting that verdict, he had committed suicide using a .22 caliber pistol.
38:01In fact, he had committed suicide in the same manner with which he murdered Jody Loomis, which just solidified my
38:08belief in our case.
38:10Investigators test that .22 caliber handgun, but unfortunately, it's not the same gun that was used to murder Jody.
38:18When I found out he shot himself, I was angry at that moment because I felt like that was the
38:27weaselly thing to do.
38:30Back in the courtroom, prosecutors know what happened, the judge knows what happened.
38:35The judge decides to let the jury return their verdict without letting them know Miller's committed suicide.
38:43When the jury came back with the verdict, I can remember them being a little confused as to why Terri
38:48Miller was not sitting there.
38:50We all rise, and the verdict was read, and when I heard the word guilty, I think I froze.
39:02It was an odd feeling of feeling happy that we had done our jobs, feeling happy that Jody finally got
39:10justice and that our family finally had answers.
39:13He cheated us in us seeing him hear the guilty verdict, but Terri Miller is guilty.
39:23You felt like you could breathe.
39:30See, this would be the left shoe, the little waffle stomper shoes, that I took off of Jody Loomis.
39:41It looks like it's brand new and very petite.
39:46They appeared to almost be a child's size.
39:49These boots were actually too big for her.
39:51They belonged to her sister, and she was wearing them.
39:58It's hard to imagine all this.
40:01This has happened 50 years ago, and it's still with me.
40:05It was a terrible thing.
40:08She didn't deserve what happened to her, and it's good that it's taken care of.
40:14And I'm sorry it took so long.
40:21Jody's horse thought he was always waiting there for Jody to come, and she never made it.
40:27After Jody's death, I wasn't riding horses for many years.
40:33But I started riding again with my own daughter, and it's a good feeling of this is what Jody would
40:42want.
40:43This is something that she would have done with me and then with her own, you know, child.
40:50So I feel like I've got to try and do my best to live the life that Jody missed out
40:54on.
40:56All the things that she didn't get to do, I'm living for her.
41:16Dad, please dad.
41:18Her dad was slumped over in the backyard with multiple stab wounds.
41:22It appeared like a blitz attack.
41:24We just need you to be truthful.
41:26How do you do that?
41:28We were shocked to the core.
41:30To think that you're going to get away with it blows my mind.
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