- 7 hours ago
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00:06Here we are.
00:07Here we are.
00:11When I first reached out to you about the interview,
00:14what was going through your head?
00:17To be honest, when I read your letter,
00:19I couldn't read it without tears.
00:22But it took me about 10 times to read the letter
00:27to be able to control that flood of emotion.
00:30The fact that your letter triggered such huge emotions
00:36tells me there's a part of me that's still unhealed.
00:41What was it like being married to a man
00:43who turned out to be a serial killer?
00:46It was shame.
00:48It was humiliation.
00:50It was fear.
00:51It was apprehension.
00:53I don't know to this day why I'm still alive.
00:56And that's the truth.
01:10After I left Mike, he called late at night.
01:14And I said, what do you want?
01:19And he's whispering.
01:20And he's like, I just wanted to hear your voice.
01:22And I discovered later on that he had called me
01:29from the victim's home on the night
01:34that they were murdered.
01:39I often think, was it me he was killing each time
01:45he brutally killed these people in his mind?
01:48So now, when you're seconds of death,
01:49Let's do this.
01:54We've got somebody here for you,
01:55but for me it's not okay.
01:55Vanessa's á»”anders in the entire world.
02:00Your story is always gonna do that.
02:01Whatever you think, you need me.
02:01Why don't you have to meet me?
02:12How did
02:14you come, prefer it? Noним
02:14policies. You need
02:15me. You have
02:17to be married.
02:34I was running a cardiology unit, and I had my office manager call me in one day, and
02:42she found out about my ex-husband, and she told me that she was going to lay me off because
02:50she couldn't handle the knowledge knowing that I was married to him.
02:59And the nature of his crimes, apparently, and her words freaked her out, and she couldn't
03:05deal with it knowing that I was in the same building with her.
03:10And that makes you feel like you're a plague, like you're a cancer, like you've done something
03:17wrong.
03:18I did nothing wrong.
03:26I remember going home and thinking, what am I going to do?
03:30You know, I have bills, I have children, I have responsibilities.
03:38There was a point in time in my life where I had nobody, where I felt very hopeless that
03:45nothing was going to change.
03:48I'd always have the stigma of being the serial killer's ex-wife.
04:15I thought he was the most handsome thing, dark hair, he was very muscular, and at first,
04:24he was a charmer.
04:27He would buy me flowers, and he would buy me chocolates, told me everything that a young
04:34girl wants to hear.
04:36He told me he loved me.
04:37I never had anybody, including my parents, ever say, I love you.
04:44My family was very strict, overbearing on religion.
04:49There was a lot of abuse.
04:53So he was the first person that made me feel special.
04:59I thought he was the love of my life.
05:02And we also connected through a bond of abuse.
05:13He told me early on about a story that he must have been about 10 years old.
05:22There was a conflict with his father, and then he proceeded to take his right hand, he had turned
05:34on the burners to the stove, and burned his hand.
05:42And how could you not have empathy?
05:53He started becoming very jealous and controlling, like even going to school, you know, like who
05:59did you talk to?
06:01You know, like, what do you mean, who did I talk to?
06:07One day, we were just driving along, and I don't even know what triggered it, but I was
06:11accused of cheating on him.
06:15When he got mad, he would speed.
06:19Now we're going 110 and 45.
06:23It perpetually got worse, and worse, and worse.
06:30Just all in anger and rage.
06:33And when he pulled over, the car skidded off to the side.
06:38Get out, get out.
06:42He literally dragged me out of the car.
06:48And he drove off, and I thought, how am I going to get home?
06:54He left me stranded on the side of some road that I had no idea where I was.
07:01I don't have any idea what's going on.
07:07This was my first love.
07:09This was the first person I ever dated.
07:13I truly thought I was in love.
07:17I wish I could go back to the girl I was.
07:21I wish I could just look at her and say, you're beautiful, and nobody needs to tell you that.
07:28I wish I had the strength to walk away.
07:38And then, of course, he came back telling me, get in the car.
07:43So, I got back in the car.
07:48I was scared.
07:50You know?
07:51And then that became a way of life.
08:06He would lose his temper.
08:08He would grab the back of my hair or grab my neck and shove me into the wall.
08:14He had a temper that would flare at a blink of an eye.
08:20You know?
08:21And no rhyme or reason.
08:23You know?
08:23Nothing that you could do to prevent it.
08:28And I think I had so much trauma as a child.
08:33I just kind of accepted it.
08:35Even though my relationship with Mike wasn't the best.
08:40It was the best I ever knew.
08:45People that haven't been physically and emotionally abused in their childhood have a very hard...
08:56It's very hard for them to relate to those of us that have.
09:02So, again, as abusive as it was...
09:08It was better than what I was used to.
09:19A friend of ours invited us to a Halloween party.
09:23And we went.
09:25And we were all dressed up.
09:27And having a great time.
09:29And obviously I'm talking to people.
09:33And I'm in the moment.
09:34And I had noticed that Mike was gone.
09:40And then I started asking people,
09:42Hey, have you seen Mike?
09:45And nobody did.
09:46And he was gone a good hour.
09:52When I finally did find him,
09:55I think all I said was, Hey, I've been looking for you.
09:57You know, and all of a sudden, the mood with him changed.
10:02And there was this refrigerator that was there.
10:06And he started punching it.
10:08And, like, all this rage out of nowhere.
10:15I mean, it was like he was fighting somebody.
10:18I mean, total, complete rage.
10:20You know?
10:21And leaving indentations in this fridge.
10:26It was horrible.
10:28And I was like, What is going on?
10:31And I remember he stopped punching the refrigerator.
10:35And he started punching me.
10:39What did I do to deserve this?
10:43It's not about love.
10:45More like I was his possession.
10:47And he needed something in his life that he can control.
10:52Nobody knew what to do.
10:53Then we're kids.
10:54It's not like you think now where you shield somebody.
11:00And I kept thinking, I don't want to do this.
11:04And I needed to leave.
11:07And then I found out I was pregnant.
11:19I was dating Mike for about a year and a half.
11:23When I found out I was pregnant.
11:26I was about 17.
11:29They just kept saying, I want to marry you.
11:32And I just kept saying, no, no.
11:34No, I'm good.
11:35I might be pregnant.
11:35But I don't want to get married.
11:38I knew that this isn't the life I wanted to be in.
11:41This isn't the life I wanted for my kids.
11:43I was petrified.
11:47My parents and his parents emphasized that if I didn't get married,
11:56that God would be upset with me and I would go to hell.
12:01And I truly didn't want to offend God in any shape or form.
12:05And I didn't want to be condemned to hell for eternity.
12:10You know, who would?
12:26Mike and I were going to my parents' home.
12:29And somebody had cut Mike off.
12:34And he grabbed a hammer and went over to the guy that was driving and screaming and yelling and waving
12:45this hammer, you know, and telling him he was going to kill him.
12:49And I was horrified.
12:52You know, I thought he was going to drag him out of the car and use that hammer on him.
12:59And then he was going to bash his skull in.
13:03And the man had the common sense to leave that immediate area.
13:15And then he just got in the car and nothing was ever said after it.
13:21He would go into these rages and then just snap out of them.
13:27And he could switch it on and off like a light bulb.
13:30You know, and your adrenaline's still going.
13:33Your fear's still going.
13:36Not only was I in fear for that man's life, but I was in fear for my life, too, because,
13:40you know, I knew what he was capable of.
13:59The wedding wasn't for me.
14:00The wedding was for them.
14:02It wasn't a happy event.
14:05First off, I was pregnant and everybody knew I was pregnant.
14:09And after the event, he was counting some envelopes.
14:13And I went to open up one of the envelopes and asked how much we had.
14:16And I don't know what trigger I hit.
14:37And he grabbed me by the back of the head.
14:42And threw me into the closet.
14:47And started beating me.
14:48And I went into a pedo position.
14:52And all I did was start kicking my back and my spine.
15:00And all I could do was try and deflect it.
15:07And so my wedding was not a beautiful thing.
15:17And I knew it wasn't going to get any better from here.
15:41Mike had fish tanks throughout the house.
15:47And we had come home.
15:50And there was a fish out of the tank.
15:54And he was enraged.
15:57And I had a kitten at that time.
16:02And whether the fish jumped out of the tank and died or the kitten got it, I don't know.
16:12But his rage was focused on that kitten.
16:16And he beat it to death.
16:20I was horrified.
16:24What could I do to stop it?
16:26Absolutely nothing.
16:27I think somehow I was responsible for the kitten that he felt killed his fish.
16:32So I was going to have to suffer and watch the brutality of it.
16:41That's what I think.
16:43I was absolutely terrified of him after that.
16:46I knew in that moment that he was capable of killing me.
17:04This is a picture of all the generations of the Edwin Bernard Capraths.
17:12It's a picture of Mike's husband with my oldest son as an infant.
17:17His grandfather and his father.
17:21And I actually look at this picture and Mike looks happy.
17:25He looks proud.
17:28He looks like a proud father.
17:30He looks hopeful.
17:33Optimistic for the future.
17:36That's the person that I fell in love with.
17:40Not the person that he became.
17:45And I would like to put this down.
17:58Sometimes I would wake up.
18:02And the man would be gone.
18:06Like, I have no idea where he went.
18:08You know what I mean?
18:12You know, like, are you in the bathroom?
18:14So you walk around and, no, he's not here.
18:16No, the vehicle's not here.
18:22And I never once asked him where he was because he wasn't one to take for questioning.
18:30You know, like, it kind of was like, I'm going to do what I want to do when I do
18:35it.
18:35And you're just going to have to deal with it.
18:41But I did notice a box that I never saw before and it had all sorts of miscellaneous items.
18:53Like a watch in there.
18:56Foreign money, foreign coins.
19:00Where did this come from?
19:04He probably was breaking into people's homes and stealing items.
19:09That's what occurs to me.
19:16But one time, when he came home early morning, his knuckles were swollen.
19:23And he had, uh, not welts, but red marks on the side of his face and on the side of
19:33his neck.
19:35And I did question him on that and he told me, none of your business.
19:39You know, that was the finality of it.
19:51The one time, he was gone for maybe two months.
19:55Not a phone call.
19:57Nothing.
19:58Absolutely nothing.
20:00It was a relief.
20:02I didn't want him back at that point.
20:05And, um, I remember the boys were sleeping and I went in to take a shower.
20:14And I came out and standing in my living room is Mike.
20:26And the first thing I said are, where are my kids?
20:31And he said, they're in the car.
20:37And he said, uh, I'm coming home.
20:41And I said, oh, no, you're not.
20:43And he said, before you say anything else, he said, understand, if you don't allow me back here to live.
20:54He said, I'm going to take both the boys and he said, and I'm going to kill them before you
21:01can even pick up a phone to call the cops.
21:09So people ask, why did you stay?
21:12I tried so many times to get out.
21:27We went from living in our apartment in New Jersey to all of a sudden, we're going to move to
21:34Florida.
21:35None of it made sense.
21:37Why are we going to Florida?
21:40You know what I mean?
21:41You know, was there a certain incident?
21:44I don't know the answer.
21:48It was right before Christmas.
21:50We moved in with his parents.
21:55And it wasn't good.
21:57At that time, he wasn't working and I was barely working.
22:03And at Christmas time, he went up to the attic and came down with everything my children wanted for Christmas.
22:15You know, Nintendo's, I believe there was one each, video games, things that were beyond his financial capabilities.
22:29You know, like, where is this from?
22:31Don't worry about it. None of your business, was what I was told.
22:36I thought it was very odd.
22:54Because of my childhood, I was overly protective of my children.
23:02I did everything for my kids.
23:05I lived for my kids.
23:06I took beatings for my kids.
23:10He always used the children as a weapon.
23:13The way that he could continue giving me emotional pain was by raising his voice to them, by grabbing their
23:20arms, by shaking them.
23:24I took so many beatings by overstepping my bounds, by telling him not to touch them that way, by not
23:30to scream at them.
23:33You know, again, it was a way of life.
23:36It's amazing, sometimes you don't stand up for yourself as much as you should, but you stand up for other
23:43people.
24:01I bought my ex-husband a big old bottle of Jack Daniels, and I got him good and drunk, and
24:11I knocked on the door.
24:14I introduced myself.
24:16I told him I need to go in there and get my kids and my cats.
24:22And he said, absolutely, I'll go to the house with you.
24:25And I remember walking through that front door, deputies behind me, he says, you go in there.
24:32And he says, and I'm not leaving until you retrieve your kids, get them safely in the car.
24:38And that's what I did.
24:41I wanted to leave from the day I got married.
24:46I remember being in that car and thinking that this is something I didn't want to have as a permanent
24:56part of my life.
24:57And I wanted something better.
25:01I guess a moment of clarity, a God moment, a universe moment, I don't really know.
25:07But I know that was the day.
25:12I didn't feel that sense of freedom until hours later when I realized nobody was following me.
25:32I was in New Jersey and I was at my parents' house.
25:36I remember thinking, I can do this.
25:41I had a job that took care of my kids.
25:44I remember thinking, am I really free?
25:48I felt safe.
25:53Until I opened that door.
25:58And he was just standing there.
26:04He had showed up out of the blue.
26:07Like, no phone call ahead of time.
26:09Just like, you hear the doorbell and you open up the door and he's there.
26:16He told me how much he loved me and he missed the kids.
26:21And my parents had this, that's your husband sort of attitude, so he can come and see his children anytime
26:28he wants.
26:31And he walked in the house and never left.
26:35So there wasn't much I could do about it because I was not in my own home.
26:40He just moved in like, he owned me again.
26:45I felt trapped.
26:47I felt like, what the hell am I going to do?
26:49And how do I get away from this now?
26:51Because I have nowhere to go.
27:10Two detectives from Florida had come to my parents' home and asked to speak to Mike.
27:20And at that time, I knew nothing.
27:23Um, and they didn't just speak to him.
27:26At that time, they put him in a car and that was it.
27:31I had asked, you know, what's going on?
27:34And that's when I was informed that he is being extradited back to Florida and placed under arrest for murder.
27:43That the man was bludgeoned to death.
27:47And that, uh, Mike was caught using his credit cards.
27:53And that's how they traced it back to him.
27:58After the fact, I put two and two together to realize that man lost his life to get my children
28:04presents.
28:07That's horrific.
28:20The system sucks.
28:22I truly did believe that he had killed this man.
28:26I filed for a divorce.
28:30And right before I left him, he grabbed my elbow and dragged me into a room and raped me.
28:43It's our yard.
29:00The last time that I had seen my ex-husband was when I was leaving the courthouse.
29:08Mike had come up to me and grabbed my arm.
29:13And his words to me were,
29:15I don't care about the kids.
29:17I only care about you.
29:20And that you need to come to Florida.
29:24And that's what I want.
29:25And that's what you're going to do.
29:28And as he's talking to me, his hold on my arm is getting tighter and tighter and tighter.
29:36And all I knew is there was a snowball's chance in hell that I'd ever go back to Florida with
29:41them.
29:42I fought too hard to get out.
29:46I heard that apparently he had gotten arrested at one point in time.
29:51And he was an informant to have his freedom.
29:55He was a rat.
29:56He was a coward, a bully, and a rat.
30:01And he had no idea that I knew.
30:04I told him, you f***ed over some pretty big cats, and I gave him some names, which I'm not going
30:08to share here.
30:10And I said, if I don't get to where I'm supposed to be at 5 o'clock, rest assured, there
30:16are three envelopes that are getting mailed.
30:19I felt good to make a stand and take my power back.
30:23And he didn't say a word.
30:24He just released my arm, and that's the last time I ever saw the man.
30:40I heard that he was arrested, and he was a suspect in multiple killings.
30:50I knew he was a monster.
30:54He's labeled a serial killer now.
31:00I think it was shock.
31:02I think it was traumatic.
31:04It was trauma.
31:08And then I was told that he targeted elderly women, which I think about, and I thought about the horror
31:17that I went through him.
31:18And then I thought about the horror that they went through.
31:23To me, it looked like the perfect victim, because I can't fight back.
31:32I really think it was because it made him feel powerful.
31:52So this is a page from Hernando County Sheriff's Office.
31:57You know, they didn't put a transcript of his confession, but they described it.
32:02I hope I don't have to read this out loud.
32:04You can make me do it if you want.
32:06It's much easier, because it's very emotional.
32:13In Kaprat's own words, he stated, I'm a sick individual.
32:17I broke in, found the people, did what I did.
32:21They were sexually assaulted, and then they were killed.
32:25He stated he confronted the victim and struck her several times.
32:29He admitted that he made the victim have vaginal intercourse with him and then made her perform oral sex on
32:35him.
32:36He states the victim did resist, and that at one point, while he was on top of her, she appeared
32:42as though she was having a heart attack.
32:44So he, in turn, stepped on her throat to put her out of her misery.
32:50Our body is shaking.
33:07Lydia M. Rydell was 79 years old.
33:12Lydia Rydell was active in her church.
33:14Neighbors remember her as caring and helpful.
33:17Someone who often looked out for others.
33:21What a beautiful soul.
33:25Some beautiful person lost their life for no reason.
33:30None of this should have ever happened.
33:32She should have died of old age in the arms of her family.
33:37William and Alice Whitney.
33:40William was brutally beaten and later died of pneumonia from his injuries.
33:46Alice, who has Alzheimer's disease, was also assaulted, but survived the attack, living with the trauma for the remainder of
33:53her life.
33:57I can only imagine growing old with the person that you love and trying to save your wife.
34:09And I couldn't even imagine what they felt during it and what they felt after it.
34:18Alice Dahl?
34:20Alice Dahl?
34:20It was 87 years old.
34:23Alice Dahl was found dead in her Spring Hill home, which had been set on fire.
34:34The 87 year old had been sexually assaulted and beaten to death.
34:37Alice Dahl, one time speed skater, an athlete, fought hard. I'm sure she did. Good for her.
34:45Her bloody dentures were found near her body. She had bitten the assailant in the back.
34:54That was the last victim, the one that got him caught.
34:57Good.
35:00I mean, it's not good that any of this happened.
35:03But it's good that somebody finally connected all the dots and put the pieces together.
35:22It's an atrocity. And if that wasn't horrific enough, I think the thing that hit home to me was when
35:28I had read articles that the victims, they were sexually assaulted.
35:37Essentially, it gave him a euphoria and a sense of power when he assaulted them in that manner.
35:46And that's very hard for me to talk about.
35:49I know towards the end, sex became very violent.
35:55He was violent with you during sex?
35:57Yes.
35:59It was choking.
36:01It was restraining.
36:04It was demeaning.
36:07And I still to this day believe that everybody that he killed, he thought he was killing me.
36:13And because he lost control.
36:15Because he couldn't control me anymore.
36:30I had a friend of mine that I was discussing this with.
36:33And my friend had asked him, hey man, where you been? We've been looking for you.
36:37And he said, I just killed somebody and smiled.
36:41And the person that told me, he was very freaked out about it.
36:45And he was like, do you think he did? And I said, I have no idea.
36:48I said, none of us know where he went.
36:50But now that I reflect back on it, I feel like it could have been possible.
37:13It's surreal.
37:15I don't know all the people that he killed.
37:18I honestly don't know.
37:21Where is the line that the only thing that brings you joy is extreme violence and cruelty?
37:40I have looked at this picture many times.
37:44And at first it was hard for me to meet his eyes in it.
37:51All I feel in this picture is suppressed underlying rage.
37:57Because he had gotten caught.
38:00I don't identify with who this person is.
38:03I mean, before I left him, he was becoming this person.
38:10But he wasn't wholly this person at this point in time.
38:13It doesn't even look like the same person.
38:19I don't know what makes people capable of killing another human being.
38:26But I really believe, and especially after looking at those pictures,
38:32the only thing that made him feel anything was committing these murders.
38:52I have no remorse for him being dead.
38:56I feel like death was too easy on him.
39:00I would have rather seen him spend his life in prison
39:07and be brutally sodomized by not one but many people.
39:15I would have liked him to be in fear for his life of every one of his days.
39:21I would have liked everything that he did to me and to these people.
39:28I would have liked to have him relive it every day.
39:37I feel like he got off too easy.
39:40I do. I think he, uh, he got off easy.
39:49That's the truth. That's how I feel.
40:04I wouldn't be the person I am today if this didn't happen the way that it did.
40:11It made me stronger.
40:14It made me live my life with no regrets.
40:20It made me recognize who the true people in my life were.
40:27And there is hope.
40:30And there is more to life than dysfunction.
40:36You know, I'm alive to tell my story.
40:38You know, and in some odd way, I am thankful for this experience.
40:49As painful as it is.
40:56Because it's helping me heal.
41:00And that's what I want for all people that have suffered abuse.
41:04Is healing and to be better.
41:07And beautiful.
41:18I hate him.
41:20The sight of him makes me sick.
41:22I think Leslie put him in the closet and left him.
41:26I don't know how they felt.
41:28But I think about it all the time.
41:30I chose this man to be my husband.
41:33That's a hard pill to swallow.
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