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00:16real estate agents have a dangerous job
00:21they usually meet
00:26prospective clients alone we didn't know this person that he was with
00:33he could be a victim of a robbery a kidnapping or homicide
00:41we have two fake names two fake stories on the same day this guy i basically turned into a hunter
00:51hunting real estate agents but nobody could identify him then we got a call from a high-end
01:00realtor
01:03she had a scheduled meeting in the desert she was frantic suspicious and afraid
01:10that is the fight or flight syndrome telling your body and your brain it's time to fly
01:16so he kept hunting he walked over and he pulled the gun out
01:23drugged the body through the sand to the shallow grave that he had already dug
01:28i was stunned i had no words
01:46when you're in barren arizona sonoran desert you're talking about a vast vast territory
01:57there's rattlesnakes coyotes cactus it can get up to as high as 120 degrees out there
02:04i mean extremely high it's not a place you want to be
02:13on november 6 1983 scottsdale police department got a call from some dove hunters that they
02:21had found a body up in the pinnacle peak area they found a jaw bone and some jewelry there was
02:31a
02:31couple other bones scattered around obviously dug up by animals and they called the police
02:41it's about 75 yards off an isolated dirt road as we got closer we could see obviously that it was
02:49remains of a human being buried in the sand in this shallow grave
03:03the whole scene is photographed by our forensic crime scene unit
03:07dirt is scraped away with trowels and garden tools everything had to be meticulously removed from those
03:15remains there was no flesh on the body except on the inside of the cowboy boots
03:26most of the body was still buried in the grave but it was clear that it had been out there
03:31for a long time
03:33so many people who were buried in the grave but it would have been out there for a long time
03:34and he was on his back and his arms were up and over behind him like this
03:42I could see a hole at the top of the head.
03:46It appeared like he was forced to his knees and executed.
04:00There's time to get to work, trying to find out what happened and who killed him.
04:26When my family moved to Scottsdale, it was a sleepy little town with a lot of open desert and fresh
04:34air.
04:36Thousands of acres of pristine Sonoran Desert, very, very peaceful, low-crime, just a great place to grow up.
04:44It was really something back in the day.
04:54My older brother John and me were very close.
04:59He was my best friend.
05:04He was an excellent mentor.
05:06He spent a lot of time with myself and my middle brother, Mark.
05:12He taught me perseverance.
05:15He taught me integrity.
05:17He had a great value system.
05:22John got drafted into the military, and he chose to go to Officer's Candidate School.
05:27And it gave him the opportunity to serve and then play for the Marine Corps baseball team, which he loved.
05:37When my brother was in the Marine Corps, he met his wife, Joan.
05:43She was a school teacher, and they got married, and they bought a starter home.
05:52In the 80s, there was a lot of opportunity in real estate.
05:57John became a real estate agent and was extraordinarily successful selling homes.
06:05Absolute born salesman.
06:07John was relentless.
06:09John was relentless.
06:09He latched on to every opportunity he could.
06:12There's no halfway with him.
06:15John's family at the time was blossoming.
06:17He had four young daughters, Janice, Jackie, Jennifer, and Jill.
06:21He was a dedicated father and a loving husband.
06:32In 1983, and for a couple years beforehand, I played softball, and my dad was the coach.
06:42On March 14th, I remember my dad leaving to go meet a client.
06:48He had his business suit and his briefcase in hand.
06:52We were supposed to have softball practice that night.
06:55And I told him, see you later, alligator.
06:59He said, after a while, crocodile.
07:04And those were the last words I said to him.
07:18That night on March 14th, John missed the practice.
07:23That's so out of character for him.
07:24He never missed anything.
07:30My dad was always one to communicate what he was doing.
07:35For him to not come home, it was not common for him to do that.
07:44That night, John's wife, Joan, reached out to my family.
07:50I got that call late at night that everyone dreads.
07:55And it was my father telling me that my brother had gone missing.
08:01The next day, he had a very important meeting at 9 a.m. in the morning.
08:05And apparently, he did not show up for that meeting.
08:09And that's when my mom knew something was off.
08:12And that's when she contacted the police at that time.
08:17On March 15th, 1983, Joan Madsen came down to the station and reported her husband, John, missing.
08:29The first question was, was she having any problems with their marriage?
08:34And she said no.
08:36Is he having any problems with any specific people?
08:39No, he's not.
08:41No, he's not.
08:42She told us.
08:43At that point, she was pretty fearful that something bad had happened.
08:51He was wearing a cowboy hat, cowboy boots, and lots of jewelry.
08:57He had an eagle on one piece of jewelry that he was wearing.
09:01John drove a blue Lincoln Continental, and the car's missing also.
09:08That was listed on the police report and given to NCIC, the National Crime Information Center.
09:18Detective Art Scott contacted the employees where John Madsen worked.
09:24And he talked to the secretary who related that a person wanted to meet with John about listing 10 acres
09:35of land in North Scottsdale.
09:38But she had no idea who this person was that he was meeting.
09:47Real estate agents have a dangerous job.
09:50They usually meet prospective clients alone.
09:55And in the desert, anything can happen.
09:59We were told John Madsen had a lot of ambition in making the deal.
10:05He was successful and would go to all lengths and try to do that.
10:10He could very well be being set up.
10:16He could be a target.
10:19Something was very wrong with this situation.
10:23It just wasn't right.
10:28We started getting all kinds of hits on the credit cards.
10:33Speed is vital.
10:34She stops using the card, and we never identify him.
10:38We're in trouble.
10:39We'd never find our suspect.
10:48The ΠΠΎΠΊΠ° of Phoenix and the Walking Dead
11:01Phoenix realtor, John Madsen, hasn't been seen or heard from for approximately 24 hours.
11:11The Phoenix realtor, John Madsen, hasn't been seen or heard from for approximately 24 hours.
11:18He never missed work.
11:22Was there foul play?
11:24Would he run away?
11:25You don't want to think, okay, something nefarious has happened.
11:35We knew from his secretary he had a possible meeting with an unknown male.
11:45But we didn't have the address.
11:50We didn't know this person that he was with.
11:54He could be a victim of a homicide or a robbery or a kidnapping.
11:59So we needed more information about the meeting.
12:10Detective Clark Scott proceeded to the realty executives where John Manson worked.
12:18He talked to an employee there named Peggy Sunby.
12:23He learned the same afternoon that John Manson went missing, before his meeting, he went to a bar with Peggy
12:32Sunby.
12:34She said John and her were talking about how he wasn't happy at home.
12:43John had told us that there was nothing wrong with their marriage.
12:48But Peggy Sunby had a very different story.
12:53We didn't have any evidence that Joan had anything to do with it.
12:57But we thought John very well could have just walked out on Joan.
13:09On March 17th, John's vehicle, a blue Lincoln Continental, was found at the long-term parking at Sky Harbor Airport
13:19by the airport security people.
13:24And we found that the vehicle was unlocked.
13:27We checked for blood, hair, whatever evidence that we could find.
13:32And it was dusted for prints.
13:34But there were no prints.
13:37But there was a day planner in the vehicle.
13:41In the day planner, John had written that he did have an appointment with a person named Ron Empey on
13:50March 14th.
13:52Now we had a name and address of the meeting.
13:59We still thought it was possible that John could have left Phoenix.
14:07We asked at the airport and found out John was not listed on the flight manifest.
14:13He didn't get on a plane.
14:17At that point, we didn't think John Manson had left his wife.
14:24The problem with that was whoever the suspect really was was someone dangerous and wanted us to think John Manson
14:32had left the car there at the airport and took an airplane somewhere.
14:38At this point, I was positive.
14:41Foul plays involved.
14:44We went back to the name Ron Empey, found in the day planner, and we started running it through NCIC
14:53and locally.
14:58Most people, even if they're not criminals, have a record of getting a citation or something.
15:05There was nothing on this person.
15:07There was no information whatsoever that gave us the indication that it was a fake name.
15:16The Ron Empey name was given to the rest of the people that worked at Realty Executives, and nobody had
15:24ever heard of that person.
15:26We went to the Denny's, where John Manson had met Ron Empey, and we showed the photo of John to
15:34everybody that worked there.
15:37They remembered John, but they couldn't give us a description of that other person, and this was 1983.
15:45There were no security cameras at the Denny's.
15:50We had nothing.
15:55Our sergeant gave the information that John Manson was missing to the press.
16:01Real estate agents were talking about his disappearance.
16:10A real estate agent named Richard Funk called in and said that he had been contacted by a person named
16:18Richard Scheibel.
16:21Scheibel wanted to meet with him on March 14th, the same day that John Manson went missing.
16:28He told him that he had 10 acres in the desert.
16:32The same story Ron Empey had told John Manson.
16:39When Richard Funk met with Richard Scheibel, Richard Funk decided that it was too suspicious and he would not go
16:47with him anywhere, and that was the last time he saw him.
16:54When we heard this, we felt it was connected to John Manson.
17:04Richard Funk gave us a description that could only tell us it was a man in his 20s.
17:12We also ran Richard Scheibel the same way we did Ron Empey through NCIC and came up with negative results.
17:22We have two fake names, two fake stories on the same day, but we have one person that's missing.
17:32There's no coincidences.
17:35My gut told me that this was wrong.
17:42After a few days, and there wasn't any news, there was a whole lot of soul searching.
17:48Some of us started thinking, this might not end well.
17:55Three days into the investigation, we asked John's wife, Joan, to check with the banks to determine if his credit
18:04cards were being used.
18:06And we started getting all kinds of hits on the cards in Phoenix and Tempe and even in Tucson.
18:16For both cards together were used 47 times.
18:20A little more than $4,000 was rung up.
18:24Whoever's using the cards is buying freeze-dried foods, a cassette player, gold coins, camping equipment.
18:33What you gonna do with this stuff?
18:35I don't think anyone in the family thought that John made those purchases because they were so out of character.
18:44We went out to get the credit card receipts so they can fingerprint it as soon as possible.
18:51Maybe we can catch him.
18:53The speed is vital.
18:55If he stops using the card and we never identify him, then we're in trouble.
19:00We'd never find our suspect.
19:04Most businesses have security cameras.
19:08But in 1983, nobody did.
19:13We showed the merchants in Phoenix and Tucson a photograph of John who had a very distinctive mustache.
19:21And the merchants said, that's not the person that used the card.
19:27They described a young man with brown hair parted on the side.
19:33We had our artist talk to those merchants and Richard Funk and put together a composite.
19:41It's the first time that we see what our suspect possibly looks like.
19:47At this time, the credit cards are actually still being used.
19:51And we need to identify the suspect before he disappears on us.
19:56The man in the composite is the key to finding John Madsen.
20:15It's three days into the investigation of Mr. Madsen as a missing person.
20:33We've got a composite of the person that actually used his credit cards.
20:40It's about the closest thing we have right now to identifying a suspect and finding John Madsen.
20:52With every day that passes, we are told by authorities that the likelihood of finding my brother alive fades.
21:04Joan is numb, she's devastated, she's trying with her whole heart to keep her family unit together, vacillating between hope
21:18and despair.
21:22I was 22 at the time and scoured the desert on my dirt bike.
21:29Going all as far as the Verde River, Dreamy Draw, any of the desert sanctuaries, just hoping to find anything.
21:42It really brought to me the enormity of, wow, if he's out here, we may never find him.
21:49I think you go out and you talk to God and, you know, you send your message and you hope.
22:01Just give me a clue.
22:05Help me.
22:15The story of the missing realtor was in the press with our composite and a photograph of John.
22:22And nobody called in with any tips on John Madsen.
22:31But then on March 23rd, an employee at Hollywood Records in Tucson gave us a call.
22:39He told us that he was out of town on the day that we went to his store.
22:44But he advised us that after John Madsen disappeared, a subject came in using one of his credit cards.
22:56And he was very nervous.
23:04When he left, the employee took a license plate number of a white van that he was driving.
23:16That plate number came back to a rental in Phoenix at the airport.
23:23A person named William Dabney Villa Jr. used his Arizona driver's license to rent the vehicle.
23:37That was a big, huge break on the case.
23:42Unfortunately, it had been rented, returned and cleaned by somebody else after Villa.
23:49And so there was no chance for fingerprints.
23:56At that point, we searched the vehicle and found a manual to a cassette player.
24:04And it was the exact cassette player that was bought with one of John Madsen's credit cards.
24:16Of course, we seized that as evidence.
24:22At that point, we were able to get a good photograph of William Villa from the driver's license.
24:31We now have his name and his photograph.
24:35William Villa is now our prime suspect in the disappearance of John Madsen.
24:45The successful real estate agent gave us a call.
24:50She was frantic.
24:51She had a meeting with a man that wanted to sell some land in the desert.
24:58She was definitely a target.
25:00Just like John Madsen.
25:21John Madsen has been missing for approximately a week.
25:25We have now identified a man we believe is responsible for John being missing.
25:35Our prime suspect is a person named William Dabney Villa Jr.
25:42And he had no record.
25:47We get a hold of his address from the driver's license.
25:51Detective Scott and myself headed right over to Villa's residence and made contact with his father.
26:02We advised him that his son was involved in fraudulent use of credit cards.
26:09And we wanted to know where he was.
26:13He told us his son was a college student.
26:16He's never been in trouble.
26:17And that he was out of town.
26:20We asked Mr. Villa if we could come in the house and search.
26:24And he said no.
26:26It was obvious that he was trying to protect him.
26:30Which was immediately suspicious.
26:34Mr. Villa told us to talk to his son's girlfriend, Rose Bahi, giving us her address.
26:46Rose said that William would never commit a crime.
26:50And that he was on a long camping trip to see if he could survive off the land.
26:59Detective Scott and I were very suspicious because camping equipment and freeze-dried foods were bought with the credit cards.
27:08And it seemed like William was just hiding out somewhere in the desert.
27:21On March 24th, Karen Hemphill, who was a real estate agent, gave us a call.
27:28She was frantic.
27:30She had a meeting with a subject that wanted to sell some land in the desert.
27:37She scribed a young man with hair parted on the side.
27:42Exactly like the guy in the composite.
27:45And it was the same story that realtor Richard Funk told us.
27:51And Karen Hemphill felt that the meeting with this guy was strange.
27:56And she was suspicious and afraid.
27:59Karen Hemphill decided that she didn't want anything to do with getting in the car with him.
28:04That is part of your fight or flight syndrome.
28:06Kicking in, telling your body and your brain, this is a bad idea.
28:12It's time to fly.
28:13Karen Hemphill, she was definitely a target.
28:19She trusted her gut and she did the right thing.
28:25John Madsen did not.
28:37Time kept going by and we weren't sure that this was ever going to be solved.
28:47It didn't seem like anything was happening and we just wanted answers.
28:53A month after John Madsen went missing, William Villa's attorney contacted myself and Detective R. Scott.
29:02He advised us that William Villa Jr. had returned from the camping trip.
29:08He had heard that we were looking for him.
29:12And if we took him into custody, we were not to speak to him unless the attorney was present himself.
29:25We didn't have a warrant at that point, so we wrote a court order for evidence on William Villa Jr.
29:32If we couldn't talk to him.
29:35If we couldn't talk to him, we are still going to get evidence from him.
29:40We picked him up and took him back to the station.
29:43We got his fingerprints.
29:45We took his photograph.
29:46And we got him into a lineup with other people.
29:56We showed all the merchants that received the credit cards from William Villa Jr.
30:04And real estate witnesses and the employees at the Denny's.
30:13Unfortunately, nobody could identify him from the lineup.
30:19The only person that did identify him was real estate agent Richard Funk.
30:30And he told us that that's the guy I had breakfast with.
30:36But having breakfast is not a crime.
30:44We were pretty sure we had the right person.
30:48But all our evidence was circumstantial.
30:53We didn't have the case made yet.
30:58Eyewitnesses could not identify William Villa Jr.
31:02So he had to be released.
31:05Under the circumstances, we hit a brick wall.
31:09It was maddening.
31:26A month after John Madsen went missing.
31:30none of the merchants or witnesses could identify our prime suspect William Villa
31:39jr so he had to be released it took quite a long time but when the
31:48fingerprints on the credit card receipts came back from the lab it matched
31:54undeniably William Villa jr at this point we do have enough to make an arrest for fraudulent use
32:04of credit cards we don't have a body to make an arrest for homicide no body no crime we want
32:15to arrest him for murder so William Villa was followed by detectives but he didn't
32:24do anything that was suspicious the case went cold until November 6th
32:40quail hunters had found remains on a makeshift grave in the desert at Pinnacle Peak in North Scottsdale
32:52Scottsdale Police Department thought it was most likely a realtor missing from Phoenix but we didn't
32:59know for sure the next morning we asked Detective Lewis with Phoenix PD to come out to the scene with
33:07us
33:09there was a lot of brush and a couple other bones scattered around obviously dug up by animals there
33:21was a jawbone on top of the grave the skeletal remains had clothing on them jewelry the mandible was
33:32separated from the skull and a couple of teeth were missing the body was on its back the legs were
33:40tucked
33:41underneath we had to move nice and slow we were very meticulous you're brushing
33:49you're brushing you're brushing and then bam you could see that there's a gunshot wound at the top of his
33:57head
33:59he was shot in cold blood
34:05we sifted the sand looking for a bullet and we didn't find one
34:13there was no gun most obvious the evidence was cowboy boots and the eagle medallion
34:22John Madsen had expressed to us that John always wore a medallion with the eagle on it
34:33we confirmed at the medical examiner's office that the remains were John Madsen through the dental x-rays
34:39the manner of death was a gunshot wound cause of death was homicide
35:02when the phone call finally came that his body had been discovered I was actually with
35:11Joan and at their house and we just fell apart I remember my mom was tearful and I just remember
35:25thinking wow dad's not coming home my brother was shot the head my hero my idol is now dead it
35:37took all my
35:37time to help away and it's it's tough
35:48detective Lewis had told us that he had a very strong suspect William Villa we had probable cause
35:56to believe that he was involved in this murder of John Madsen it's time to arrest this cold-blooded killer
36:08near Mr. Villa's parents house our surveillance detectives arrest and handcuffed him and put him in the back of the
36:17car
36:20William Villa was charged with premeditated first-degree murder armed robbery and a slew of credit card
36:30in January of 1984 two and a half months after William Villa's arrest there was an interview set up
36:39with Mr. Villa with his attorney president hoping for leniency William Villa confesses to the murder of
36:47John Madsen he told us the murder of John Madsen he told us the whole story of his plan I
36:55was stunned I had no words John Madsen never saw it coming
37:16William Villa confesses to the murder of John Madsen hoping for leniency Mr. Villa told us he needed to get
37:24money to start a marijuana farm
37:26William Villa confesses to the murder of John Madsen hoping for leniency Mr. Villa told us he needed to get
37:31money to start a marijuana farm
37:31to kill him to kill him and take his credit cards to purchase items fast for his marijuana farm
37:38John Madsen was well known and made a lot of money off of his sales and William Villa murdered him
37:46for a little more than $4,000
37:50William Villa walked us through what happened
37:58March of 83 William Villa met John Madsen at Denny's he said I have some land that I'd like to
38:05sell up in the Pinnacle Peak area
38:14and John Madsen wanted the opportunity to make a sale
38:19and so they drove out to the desert in John Madsen's car
38:31he got out of the car he had a briefcase with him
38:37inside the briefcase he had a pistol
38:42pulled the gun out walked over to John Madsen
38:48and shot him five times in the chest
38:55Mr. Madsen fell to the ground
39:00Villa said he walked over put the gun to his head
39:03and shoots him in the head
39:05it was just absolutely brutal
39:11he drugged Mr. Madsen's body through the sand
39:14he put them in the shallow grave that he had already dug
39:19he covered him up as best he could
39:24he then took Mr. Madsen's car to the Phoenix airport
39:28and he left it in the long-term parking
39:33the murder weapon was never recovered
39:38in telling us all this information
39:40Bill Villa was hoping for leniency
39:43but we weren't going to make him a plea deal
39:45we didn't even make him an offer
39:50in April of 1984
39:52a trial started for the murder of John Madsen
39:56our county attorney Mark Budoff
39:58he laid out the entire case
40:01Bill Villa had basically turned into a hunter
40:05he decided to hunt real estate agents
40:09Mr. Funk was the first attempt
40:11then Villa tried to meet with Karen Hemphill
40:15it didn't work
40:17he kept hunting
40:18and he found John Madsen
40:21I couldn't believe it
40:22you killed a man over
40:26growing marijuana plants
40:30the jury is deliberating for about nine hours
40:36juries are unpredictable
40:38you never know what a jury is going to do
40:43April 25th 1984
40:45the jury found William Villa guilty of murder
40:52on June 6th William Villa is sentenced
40:55to life imprisonment
40:57for the murder of John Madsen
40:59in addition to life
41:01he was given an additional 15 years
41:03for a usage of the credit cards
41:05and a fraud scheme
41:09when I heard the sentencing
41:11I knew that we did our job for the family
41:14and the victim
41:18William Villa
41:20this wolf in sheep's clothing
41:23would never be able
41:25to commit this kind of
41:27heinous crime again
41:29I'm grateful for that
41:32we wanted justice
41:34that was at least some closure
41:39my dad was taken from me
41:41and I have very few memories of him
41:43and it just makes me really
41:45sad to realize that he was never a part of my life
41:48or my kids' lives
41:51this is a favorite
41:53it's a very special picture
41:55it was nice for us all to be together
41:57and this was
41:59I want to say
42:00maybe 71 or 2
42:03it's Thanksgiving
42:03I remember it
42:05he had a sense
42:07of strength
42:10he walked into a room
42:12and lit it up
42:13and we're blessed
42:15that we had
42:16a big brother like this
42:20we idolized him
42:26they don't make them like that anymore
42:48they don't make them like that anymore
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