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Discovery Global Crimes
Serie Documental, Drama, Suspense
En este programa se investigan los misteriosos asesinatos que se entrecruzan con el mundo de "Playboy".
Serie Documental, Drama, Suspense
En este programa se investigan los misteriosos asesinatos que se entrecruzan con el mundo de "Playboy".
Categoría
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CelebridadesTranscripción
00:01It was a huge deal to be a Playboy centerfold back in the 70s, and Star Stowe was at the
00:07center of that.
00:09Star was different from the other girls, and she loved that.
00:15She probably had the feeling that this will last forever.
00:19Sadly, that rarely happens in this world.
00:23Jeff made it very clear to Star that this is what you had to do if you wanted to keep
00:29this lifestyle.
00:30It was really an indoctrination. You were groomed to be a certain way.
00:37He admitted that he drove her to a location and dropped her off for a rendezvous.
00:42It's quite a coincidence, wouldn't you think?
00:44At this point, it was really starting to look like this could be the work of a serial killer.
00:50If you go down the road of false promises, there's no way out.
01:08It was the 16th of March.
01:10I received a phone call to respond to a scene.
01:14I think it was about 3.30 in the afternoon.
01:16We had an unidentified white female, late 20s or maybe early 30s, and she was partially nude from the waist
01:25up, laying over in the wood line behind the Eckerd Drugstore.
01:29She was face down with one of her arms, I think, was underneath her.
01:34Upon examination of the body, they found that she had been strangled.
01:40I noticed she had a star tattooed on her body, and I kind of kiddingly said to the detective, you
01:47know, back in the 70s, there was a girl who was dating Gene Simmons who had a tattoo in the
01:52very same spot.
01:53She was a centerfold for Playboy.
01:56And I says, what are the odds of that?
02:04Star Stowe was the playmate of the month in February 1977.
02:09It was a huge deal to be a centerfold back in the 70s.
02:12The sexual revolution was really at its height.
02:15Almost 6 million people were reading Playboy every month.
02:19Just a layout in a magazine would make you much more famous than it would today.
02:23And Star would have been at the center of that.
02:31I worked at the Playboy Mansion West in Hombly Hills from 1978 to 1980.
02:38I was a hostess at the front door.
02:40I would guide people through the party.
02:43Once you were in that house, you had to play the game.
02:46And Star was very good at it.
02:48She loved the whole idea of the Playboy world.
02:51It was everything.
02:52And she was going to climb to the top.
02:58The beginning of Star's story must have felt like an absolute dream come true.
03:03But she had no idea about the dark side of Playboy or the way things were going to go.
03:12She was from Little Rock, Arkansas.
03:14And she had a small-town girl vibe.
03:16And she had aspirations of being a dancer and a musician.
03:22She got out as soon as she could.
03:25She wanted to explore and she wanted to be in a rock group.
03:31So as soon as she was 18, she left for Las Vegas.
03:40It was 1975 and she was at the Sahara Hotel.
03:45And there's Gene Simmons without his makeup.
03:49I don't know how she recognized him, but she did.
03:52And they got to talking and they kind of took a shine to each other.
03:56She said he was just an adorable guy, really nice, down to earth, not like his persona on Kiss.
04:04They hit it off almost immediately and it turned into a three-year-long relationship.
04:11She was crazy about him.
04:13And he was crazy about her.
04:16You look at Gene Simmons and Star Stowe and you think, well, they sort of were part of writing the
04:21original book
04:22on how to be a famous couple in La La Land.
04:27She's a young, small-town girl hanging out with some of the biggest rock stars in the world.
04:31It just must have felt like such an incredible experience.
04:35Gene was a big act at the peak of his career.
04:38And she was everything to him.
04:40And it wasn't just a romance between the two.
04:43There was actually a romance between Star and the band.
04:47She was their muse.
04:48In his own autobiography, Gene Simmons takes credit for suggesting to Star that she send her materials to Playboy.
04:57Gene had sent the pictures in and there was a scout that went out and reported back.
05:02And from there it just spiraled.
05:04So many beautiful women were trying out to be playmates each month.
05:08And if one of the photos would have come along with a recommendation from a rock star like Gene Simmons,
05:13that would have definitely stood out.
05:16Heff saw the pictures and loved it and thought it was great and wanted to make her a centerfold.
05:22That was her big, big moment.
05:24She was flown to Chicago because that's where all the main shoots for the girls was always done.
05:30In the 1970s, Chicago was still the home of Playboy and its main hub.
05:36The Playboy Mansion in Chicago was definitely just as extravagant and decadent and crazy as the Playboy Mansion West in
05:44L.A.
05:44Heff had it customized in kind of a way that nobody had ever seen before.
05:48He had this giant indoor pool, an underwater tiki bar, like a fireman's pole, a bowling alley.
05:56So while she was in Chicago for a photo shoot for the centerfold, her life at Playboy really seemed like
06:05a nonstop party.
06:07She was hanging out and partying with all kinds of rock stars such as Elton John, Rod Stewart, Blackie Lawless
06:16from Wasp.
06:17And all this attention being paid to her, it had to have been incredible.
06:25When she did her shoot in Chicago, she said it was just like anything you wanted, you could ask for
06:30there, you could get it.
06:32We brought to you, they catered to you.
06:35You were just like an A-list movie star.
06:37This was a 20-year-old girl from Arkansas.
06:42Just makes your head spin because she is in a totally new, different world and situation.
06:47This was her big moment.
06:49You were the playmate of the month.
06:51That was a really big thing.
06:53That wasn't just a pictorial where people were just going through it.
06:55It was like, there I am.
06:57I'm the one.
07:02I have personal friends who did a lot of photography for Playboy.
07:07And they would express to me that many of the women were uncomfortable, insecure, afraid, not starstow.
07:15She walked into that photography studio ready to go.
07:21It definitely stands out among the history of all the Playboy centerfolds.
07:25It's very unique.
07:27The whole motif of the spread was that she was this rock and roll girl, which was incredibly appropriate because
07:34that's what she was.
07:35There were pictures of rock stars on the walls behind her.
07:39She was holding this blue Brickenbacker bass guitar.
07:44If you look at her face, you see this sultry baby face.
07:47So it was sort of this combination of the innocence but yet the sultry, vixen-y vibe.
07:54She really saw herself as this radical, kick-bottom kind of rock chick.
08:02Playboy tends to stick to one style with their centerfolds.
08:06Just like an upscale kind of generic look.
08:09And Star very much had a theme.
08:11You know, she was trying to get into the music industry.
08:13She was dating a very famous musician.
08:14So they gave her kind of this glam rock centerfold.
08:22It's really nice to read her words in the article and kind of get a feel of who she is
08:26and what she was like.
08:28Here she says, once in L.A., she recalls, while Jean was on stage, I flashed him.
08:31I just opened my jacket for a split second and I wasn't wearing anything underneath.
08:35Sometimes I just love to be naughty.
08:38Sometimes when I'm in the audience watching Jean perform, every once in a while during the concert,
08:43it seems like he's looking directly at me and it's such a great feeling.
08:46To me, his music is what sex would sound like if you could hear it.
08:52A normal Playboy centerfold pictorial would be nude, but you would usually only see a woman from like the front
08:58or back.
09:00The star was at the forefront.
09:02She was the first one with a tattoo.
09:04She was the first one to do the full front, open leg.
09:07And it was a turning of everything.
09:10It got more and more like soft porn than the tasteful pinup girl thing that they started out with.
09:17When her centerfold came out in 1977 for the month of February, it was huge.
09:23She's the most popular girl in America for a month.
09:26The star found it very overwhelming because of all the attention.
09:30She received a lot of money and from going from poverty almost to getting anything you want, a lot of
09:40people can't handle that.
09:42She probably had the feeling that I've made it and this will last forever.
09:48Sadly, that rarely happens in this world because for all the glamour and all the excitement, there is an ugly
09:57underbelly breathing beneath the surface.
10:04I think it was hard for a star.
10:06This little girl from Arkansas, she didn't know the ways of Hollywood yet.
10:10She didn't know about the mansion and what was expected.
10:14It was a very, very scary time.
10:17It was a dangerous time underneath and behind the closed doors.
10:22Star didn't understand much about what would happen after she was used up and there wasn't somebody there to catch
10:29her.
10:40Star went to her shoot in Chicago and then she came to Los Angeles.
10:46She was living in Hollywood and at the mansion.
10:49Playboy was huge at that time.
10:52Everybody who was anybody was at the mansion.
10:55She used to tell me that she was hit on all the time.
10:57Everybody that went up there wanted to be with her.
11:02If you drove down the street where the Playboy Mansion was situated, you would never imagine,
11:10oh my gosh, the stuff that goes on behind those walls.
11:17It was like a whole open house, all the time, 24-7, I kid you not.
11:24It was just a whole lifestyle.
11:26When people think of Playboy or like crazy stories from the mansion, it definitely stems from the 1970s.
11:33I think even in Hollywood, nobody had seen anything like this before.
11:38They would just be like orgies in the grotto and all kinds of crazy things happening upstairs.
11:44When Star first got there, she literally was like a little flower child.
11:49She had this straight blonde hair, very like sensual, beautiful, just stunning.
11:54And she was a really good friend, but she also was friends with a lot of the girls in the
12:00house,
12:01which was unusual because it was a very catty atmosphere.
12:04There was a hierarchy.
12:06And Star was a playmate, so that made her on the upper level.
12:14I was Hugh Hefner's personal valet from 1978 to 82.
12:23We would have a lot of conversations because she found out I was from Maryland and she was from Arkansas.
12:33And we would talk about Southern food and things like that.
12:38One of the main rules of the mansion was we were not allowed to talk to any of the girls.
12:43So it all had to be done in secret in the pantry where the butlers hang out.
12:50So not only is she reaping the rewards of being Miss February Centerfold 1977,
12:58she later on becomes Playboy Japan Centerfold of the Year.
13:05She must have just been feeling like she was living the life, and she was.
13:12Star was different from the other girls that were living there.
13:17She knew she was valuable to the Playboy magazine.
13:21She had so many fans from her centerfolds, from her pictorials.
13:28I think she knew her power.
13:30We had a nickname for her, El Tigre, because she was feisty and she loved that.
13:39She was a fighter.
13:42Sometimes when we're young, we feel like we're more invincible than we are.
13:45But I don't think there's any way Star could have been prepared for the type of debauchery that awaited her.
13:50The parties were just extravagant, and Star and all the starlets followed Hefner around in the party.
13:59It was unreal.
14:00I remember Star showed up, I think it was Midsummer Night's Dream Party, with a pacifier and a baby diaper
14:08and nothing else.
14:09She did what nobody else would do.
14:14Star was always at Hefner's table at the time and the era that I was there.
14:19She was one of the main beautiful girls.
14:23She and Hef were very close.
14:25Hef liked her personality, he liked her body, and being seen with her was good for him too.
14:31In Star's era, a lot was expected.
14:35There were definitely a strict set of rules that playmates had to follow.
14:39The rules basically were, you're Hefner's girl, nobody else can have you.
14:46If you were Playmate of the Month, that was it.
14:48You had to have scheduled sex with Hefner privately two days a week.
14:56She was with Jean Wright at that time, but she told me she had slept with Hef more than once.
15:02I think she felt she had to do it if she wanted to continue, because she had heard from other
15:06playmates that you really had to sleep with Hef to advance your career.
15:11And it wasn't just Hef.
15:13Anybody that came there that was important, if they came to her and chose her, then she had to sleep
15:20with them.
15:21Hef made it very clear to Star that this is what you had to do if you wanted to keep
15:26this lifestyle.
15:30It was really an indoctrination.
15:34You were groomed to be a certain way, and that was your normal.
15:38Star would be an ambassador for Hefner and go to the different advertising account executives and do a lot of
15:47schmoozing and pleasing the man.
15:50And there were a lot of favors. There was always a lot of favors.
15:53She was expected to be a plaything.
15:57You can't keep that lifestyle up and be okay and wake up and feel good, you know.
16:05At times she was happy as can be and feeling great, and other times she was depressed.
16:09I could see it was everything that was being forced upon her.
16:13Being forced to sleep with men.
16:16She told me, I don't want to sleep with these guys. They're gross.
16:21Star was basically advised to take drugs and alcohol because you got a party and when these people want you,
16:31you have to do this.
16:32So you increase your alcohol consumption, adding more and more and more until you really don't care what you do.
16:41They had an extensive open bar at all times, and they also had extensive drugs.
16:46There was always drugs.
16:48There were certain places they would keep the drugs, and Star would go to these places.
16:52She knew where to open the box, take out toot-toots, snort-snort.
16:58Hefner would usually give the girls kwaludes. That was his thing.
17:03It was a date rape drug basically, which would make her relaxed and lethargic and really didn't care.
17:11After a year of the fame and the glamour and the fast lane and the sex and the orgies, it
17:18hardens you.
17:19She was just in a haze.
17:24Star was really a fish out of water.
17:26She was brought into this environment where, you know, if things are starting to go off the rails for her,
17:32who's going to notice?
17:33You know, her family and her friends aren't close by.
17:36Some girls had a certain limitation, and they knew it.
17:41Star didn't have that. She didn't know how to stop.
17:44She needed to be put in rehab, but that wasn't an option because you can't be normal and straight and
17:51live that lifestyle.
17:51You have to be out of it to drown out all the hell that you're going to have to go
17:57through on a daily basis.
18:02At one time she told me, I think I'm addicted to coke because I can't sleep.
18:09How do I kick this stuff? I don't know how to go cold turkey.
18:13She was feeling really down and depressed.
18:17She told me that a few times she would, just out of the clear blue, start crying and weeping uncontrollably.
18:25It was really hard for her to be in a relationship with Jean because of all the other stuff going
18:31on.
18:31And Jean was also a womanizer, and he was in the mansion a lot.
18:37And I think it was hard for Star because she really wanted him to be all hers.
18:43She had told me a few times that she was having problems with Jean because he seemed to be a
18:51purist.
18:52Jean always claimed that he never did any drugs.
18:55So when he found out that up at the mansion she was doing coke, he was very angry with her.
19:04And so she was always torn between Jean's world and Hefner's world where there were so many drugs.
19:16Who knows what goes on behind closed doors, but it is understood that the relationship became quite difficult.
19:24And he eventually moved on.
19:27Star had such a hard time.
19:29When it was over with Jean, that whole flower child thing kind of disappeared and she became extremely wild.
19:37You know, just really out of control.
19:39It was really sad to watch.
19:42She woke up after a while and realized that she wasn't getting out of it what she wanted, but Playboy
19:49definitely was getting what they wanted out of her.
19:52It's too late to change once you get wrapped up in Playboy, especially if they've gotten you addicted to drugs
19:58and alcohol.
19:59It became a real nightmare.
20:01I don't think Star could have ever imagined in her wildest dreams that her decision to go to Playboy would
20:07have a deadly outcome.
20:20After Star got her main centerfold and all of the work that she had that first year, she realized that
20:31there was another crew coming up.
20:34There was always turnover, because once you start to lose that perfect 18, 19-year-old skin, they see that
20:43you're not that fresh, young girl next door.
20:46You pretty much are over.
20:49You're just a child, but in their world, you know, you're used up.
20:53There was a real disconnect in the Playboy world because they expect Star to be this party girl, but then
20:59the second she develops a problem with it, she's the problem.
21:03It was like that even when I was there.
21:05It was seen as like a character flaw within that person.
21:08So it was a really weird, hypocritical attitude.
21:14Three years after her centerfold came out, things were going downhill very fast.
21:19She couldn't handle all this that was going on.
21:22And then that's when she got abusive with Hef and told him basically to piss off and she didn't need
21:28him.
21:29And that's the one person you can't get abusive with.
21:33Almost immediately, everything with Playboy turned against her.
21:38And that was the end for her.
21:41They didn't want her at the mansion anymore.
21:43She was basically cut off for everything.
21:47Advertising, promotions, personal appearances.
21:50All of her income now is completely turned off.
21:58The moment that Star was kicked out, it must have just felt like she lost everything.
22:02Even if bad things were happening to Star at the mansion, that was all she knew at that time.
22:07Those were the only people she knew in L.A.
22:08That was her income.
22:10That was her job.
22:11It was everything.
22:12She didn't have any outside resources.
22:16She was 22 years old.
22:18She's now addicted to drugs and alcohol.
22:20And it just must have felt like she was adrift.
22:27Star stayed in L.A. for a little bit.
22:29But it wasn't very long.
22:32The Playboy Corporation had put a stigma on her and her name.
22:37No one really wanted to hire her or do anything.
22:39Because they're a powerful company.
22:43All those people that she met, like Gene Simmons and Rod Stewart.
22:47There were no calls coming to her from them.
22:51And she was realizing that that was all over with.
22:56So she decided to leave and go to Las Vegas and try something there.
23:03In 1981, she married Peter Maligo, who was an aspiring musician, rock musician, of course.
23:08They had a son.
23:10And within a couple of days after giving birth, he forced her to go out and start stripping so that
23:18they could make money.
23:23She made decent money.
23:26Enough so she could support a family easily.
23:30People still wanted to see a centerfold.
23:32And they still wanted to see the star that was at her bikini line.
23:36So that was her gimmick and that worked.
23:43Most friends of hers said that this relationship with this guy, Peter Maligo, was not great.
23:49I don't think it's a great relationship when you have a baby and then, you know, a few days later
23:53your husband's like,
23:54you need to go back out and strip and dance for a living, you know, because they needed to pay
23:58bills.
23:58And so she and the husband split.
24:01One of the biggest challenges of making money off of the way that you look is eventually that fades.
24:10When the stripping jobs in Vegas started drying up, she moved to Fort Lauderdale with her son in order to
24:18make a living.
24:19A lot of the clubs around here thought that she was sort of a celebrity because she had been in
24:24Playboy.
24:25And so that was sort of an attraction.
24:29She thought that there was places she could dance and she did, but she got older.
24:36And that rock and roll lifestyle with the alcohol and the drugs was catching up to her.
24:47It must have been really hard for Star to be 30 and not being booked at the exotic dancing clubs,
24:52because it was really all she had known was dancing, was posing for Playboy.
24:58From an outside perspective, it seems like there could be so many options.
25:04But when your self-esteem is at a certain place and you've been told for so many years you're only
25:09good for one thing,
25:10it can feel very differently.
25:12She needed to pay her bills, she needed to have a roof over her head.
25:16She didn't have the body and the beauty by Hollywood standards anymore,
25:19but she still could have sex and still make money by using her body for sex.
25:25And it is this dire need to survive that led Star or Stowe to become a prostitute.
25:37I told her, that's a definite no-no. You've got to do something else.
25:41You've already gone through that with Playboy.
25:43And then she'd say, what can I do?
25:49A couple of times when I went to see her at the house and she was already drinking and doing
25:55drugs,
25:55because I would say to her, you know, this is not your life.
25:59You know, you can't do this. It's going to take its toll on you.
26:03And she just said, I can handle it. I can quit anytime I want, but you can't.
26:09She had hoped that she might be able to stop someday,
26:13but she needed to drink and do drugs so she didn't have to think about it and didn't have to
26:18feel.
26:25At this time, she sent her son to go live with her mom in Arkansas because she just felt like
26:30he deserved a better upbringing than what she was able to provide.
26:36She had been a prostitute for a number of years.
26:41And then in 1990, Star was jailed for drug possession.
26:47When Star was in jail, she wrote a letter to her best friend, Mitchie Stone.
26:52I think this letter is really interesting because it speaks to her aspirations and what she dreamed of and a
26:59lot of regret.
27:00She said, I had such high hopes and now they're gone.
27:04I did it to myself and it's a nightmare.
27:07But when I get home, I get to go be the old me.
27:13I get to be by my son and go to church and it will be good someday.
27:22Unfortunately, Star was not able to turn her life around.
27:26I think Star had a huge struggle ahead of her just trying to get away from all the addiction and
27:31all the demons that really originated from her time with Playboy.
27:36You can have this idea like I want to change my life, but then when the rents do, you know,
27:40there's just so much stacked against her.
27:45Almost 20 years to the day since her centerfold came out, Star was last seen getting into a car in
27:51Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
27:57The next day, Star was found dead.
28:16I was heartbroken. Nobody deserves to be murdered.
28:20And especially someone that is trying to get back on the right track.
28:25Because she told me she was going to try and I believe she would at some point.
28:30I called her mother on March the 17th.
28:32She was uncontrollably crying, obviously. I mean, it's her child.
28:36And, you know, it's a tough thing.
28:43Her mother did tell us of a friend of hers named Mitchie Stone.
28:48And we spoke with Mitchie.
28:50And she said she was afraid for her.
28:53And she was trying to get Star out of that lifestyle.
28:56Mitchie told us that she had an ex-boyfriend.
28:59They had broken up about three weeks prior to her disappearing and being killed.
29:07Star was staying with Mitchie at the time of her death.
29:12Because she and her former boyfriend broke up.
29:16They had a pretty okay relationship for a while.
29:19And then a couple of days before Star was found murdered, they got into a fight.
29:24And she ended up with this nasty bump on her head and got away from him.
29:33We did find out that he was actually arrested for domestic violence.
29:37We thought he had potential as a suspect.
29:41We knew we had to speak with this guy.
29:48He was arrested for domestic violence, except the charges were dropped.
29:53Because the witnesses all said that he never did strike her.
29:57She was so highly intoxicated that she fell down and actually got the bump on her head.
30:02He was very upset.
30:04He obviously had a very clear love for her.
30:07And I don't think he had the wherewithal to do something like that.
30:11So we eliminated him as a suspect.
30:15The police were working hundreds of leads.
30:18They're out there getting rid of shoe leather and handing out flyers, knocking on doors, talking to people.
30:24Just trying to, you know, figure out if they could deduce, you know, who might be responsible for the death
30:31of Star Stowe.
30:32We went to the strip in Fort Lauderdale where she worked.
30:35We hit every single bar.
30:37We hit every single hotel.
30:39We hit every single pawn shop.
30:42We spent hundreds of hours on this.
30:44Just trying to find out if anybody saw her, you know, during the last few hours, few days of her
30:50life.
30:50And everything came back negative.
30:57I think oftentimes sex workers like Star are targets because they're seen as people who don't have a lot of
31:06close friends and family around them or who are kind of lost in the system.
31:11And I think that's why these cases can be harder to solve.
31:18When we were doing one of the many canvases, we actually developed another boyfriend.
31:23He was a little small-time drug dealer.
31:26But from what everybody was telling us, that was also her pimp.
31:31At that point, he became more of a suspect for us.
31:37We conducted an interview with him.
31:39He admitted that he was with her on the night she disappeared.
31:43He admitted that he drove her to a location and dropped her off for a rendezvous.
31:48And that's the last time anybody ever saw her.
31:52We executed a search warrant on his van.
31:54It was just a plain old white van.
31:57And you could tell there was nothing in it.
31:59The carpet had been ripped out of it.
32:02Everything was out of it. It was completely gutted.
32:05It just had the seat to drive and the passenger seat.
32:08If there was any evidence in it, it was gone.
32:13And, of course, he denied any knowledge of Starr's murder.
32:22We didn't develop another lead on this at all from any of that.
32:26It wasn't until maybe a month later.
32:30West Palm Beach had a homicide, and they contacted us.
32:34It was a prostitute who was strangled as well.
32:36It was a month before Starr's murder.
32:39Sandra Walters was left half-naked behind an adult video store.
32:43February 25th, she had similar physical characteristics to Starr.
32:48And so the detectives were trying to explore whether or not this was something that could be related.
32:55We went to West Palm Beach Police Department.
32:58We spoke with their detectives.
33:00And we compared our case to theirs at that point.
33:04There were parallels.
33:06They were both prostitutes.
33:08They were both on drugs.
33:10They were both alcoholics.
33:11They did, in fact, have similar, you know, appearances and builds.
33:15But at that point, we weren't convinced that serial killers operate like this.
33:24The day after Thanksgiving in 1997, several months after Starr and Sandra Walters were found murdered,
33:32another woman turned up dead in Broward County.
33:36She had fair hair, brown eyes, a similar height.
33:41She also was a prostitute.
33:42And at this point, it was really starting to look like this could be the work of a serial killer.
33:49She was strangled, and they threw her body in a dumpster.
33:53And, of course, right away, we wanted to look into that as well to see if there's any similarities.
33:58By the time it was spring of 1998, there were six sex workers that were found murdered.
34:05And had very similar characteristics.
34:13With all these murders, it must have been terrifying for any sex worker to think that possibly there was a
34:19serial killer out there.
34:21And they might be next.
34:32In September, we got a call from West Palm Beach about a guy named Kevin Johnson that they had in
34:36custody.
34:37He was arrested in connection with beating a prostitute so severely that she wound up losing her eye.
34:43They told us that he said that he was a monster, and he became very, very violent when he smoked
34:48crack cocaine.
34:50Kevin Johnson told the detectives he picked on sex workers and was glad he got caught because he felt like
34:57he had this monster inside of him and had so much rage against women that he was scared what might
35:03happen next.
35:04And, you know, eventually, he admitted he had killed two prostitutes.
35:09He bludgeoned one to death, and he stabbed the other.
35:12When they called us, obviously, antenna went up at that point, because they thought he could be responsible for everything.
35:24This man is readily admitting to violently murdering two women, and the more cops are listening, they're thinking, well, we
35:31may have the very guy who murdered Star Stowe.
35:37He didn't confess to any other killings other than the ones that he was arrested for, so we've compared our
35:42cases.
35:44But he didn't come down this way to Fort Lauderdale, to the Strip or anywhere around here.
35:48And the way he picked them up, where he killed them, the locations, was completely different.
35:54You know, the messiness, like stabbing somebody, that's a pretty messy crime scene, versus strangling somebody.
36:01It's a big difference.
36:04Detectives were able to figure out that Kevin Johnson was not responsible for the death of Star Stowe, or any
36:11of the other women that were found murdered.
36:14At this point, police have still not found Star's killer.
36:19Things seem to quiet down.
36:22But then, tragedy strikes once again.
36:28About three years after Star was murdered, there were two women that were found murdered.
36:35Again, in South Florida, their bodies were found in black duffel bags on the side of the road.
36:41It wasn't Kevin Johnson, he was in jail.
36:44It's either a different serial killer, or a set of very tragic coincidences.
36:50Their names are Sia Demas and Kim Livesey.
36:56It appears almost undeniable that there is still a serial killer on the loose in South Florida.
37:10In the murder cases of Kim and Sia, 12 years later, there's a big break in the case.
37:16Through fingerprints, police were able to identify a guy named Robert Fernandes.
37:22People ask, why does it take so long?
37:25It's not bad police work.
37:27Robert Fernandes had left South Florida after the murders.
37:32He was a Brazilian national who was living in Miami.
37:36When he went back to Brazil, the killing stopped.
37:40This is an awakening for detectives because they're thinking, well, maybe it was him that killed Star and others.
37:49Detectives were able to figure out that this guy was not responsible for the death of Star Stowe.
37:55Because he was nowhere in that area at the time of her death.
38:00It's another disappointing turn for detectives.
38:03Regarding his link to the murders of Sia and Kim, well, their families would never see justice.
38:10Because Fernandes died in a plane crash in 2006.
38:18Star's case still remains open today, 25 years later.
38:25I don't think it was the work of a serial killer in this case. I just don't think it was.
38:29I think that she knew who her killer was, and I obviously can't prove that.
38:34But just, you know, in my heart, that's what it tells me.
38:37She didn't scratch the person or fight.
38:40It just seems to me like she willingly got in that car, and I keep going back to the guy
38:46who was her pimp.
38:48You know, I can't get that out of my head that he gave her a ride on the day she
38:51disappears.
38:52It's quite a coincidence, wouldn't you think?
38:59I found out recently that the Coral Springs Police Department have reopened this case, which I think is pretty significant.
39:07Detectives took some DNA from Star's body at the time of her death.
39:11So it is possible that they may be able to find out who is responsible.
39:15In 97, DNA was still kind of new. There wasn't a whole lot we could do with it, like today.
39:21There was very few people in the database, suspect-wise.
39:25DNA is like a whole other level now.
39:28There's some evidence in this case, and I'm sure the police department will probably resubmit it for new testing.
39:35This case, I think, will forever stay with me.
39:38There's always that side that you feel bad because you didn't solve it.
39:43And, you know, you know how hard you worked on it.
39:46It just came up short.
39:48And I'm hoping that they get some DNA back on this, and I'm hoping they do arrest somebody.
39:52It would, you know, would make my day.
39:56I'm really happy that, finally, the PD is going to open this cold case again.
40:01I think this will be great if the police find the person that did it.
40:05That would be a good closure for her family and son, and friends.
40:08And for her, because Star deserved justice.
40:16Not long after she was murdered, I got a hold of her son, and he was 14 at the time.
40:22And he had very fond memories of his mom.
40:25He thought that she was an incredibly cool mom.
40:27They would talk on the phone very often, and he recalled that when they were living together, that she would
40:32make him stir-fry.
40:34And, you know, they would play video games and just basically have a good time.
40:39The other thing that he and his mom shared, they both loved music.
40:42And he told me that they were both crazy about the new Nine Inch Nails album that had come out
40:48recently.
40:51Star Stowe's case is heartbreaking.
40:54Young, beautiful girl, big ambitions of going to the big city, gets there, falls into the cesspool of decadence, and
41:03is not prepared for it.
41:04And something terrible happens to her.
41:10I thought about what Star could have become if she hadn't got that gig with Playboy, and I think she
41:17could have made it.
41:18She was a very good singer, and she was learning to play guitar, too.
41:22So, she could have done it.
41:24She would have been a good front person in a group.
41:28I think she would have been a really great rocker chick.
41:32She definitely could have done that.
41:34It's just sad that that was a dream that never transpired for her.
41:38I can relate to her because I know what it feels like, you know, to have those dreams and to
41:42want to be a centerfold.
41:44And I know how it feels to live at the mansion and feel like the world is so insular and
41:49feel afraid.
41:49If you're a young girl today, I think that Star would be a good example of what could happen if
41:58you go down the road of false promises of Playboy or buy into that dream.
42:04It ruins you. There's no way out. It's just a tragedy. It's sad.
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