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00:00We're off the exit of Class A, Iowa,
00:28over by a public shooting area.
00:30What's going on?
00:32There is a dead body on the side of the road.
00:34Okay.
00:35Are you guys right where it's at now?
00:37Oh, yeah.
00:38Do you think it's male or female?
00:39It's female for sure.
00:40Did you check to make sure she wasn't breathing?
00:43No, half of her face is eaten off by, like, animals.
00:46Okay.
00:46How far off the roadway is she?
00:48Two feet.
00:49Okay, we're going to get him out that way.
00:50Thank you so much, okay?
00:52No problem.
00:53Bye.
00:58On February 26, 2023, I received a call of a possible deceased individual.
01:14In that particular moment in time, you don't essentially know what you're walking into,
01:18but you know it's bad.
01:20So I immediately called for backup, and I activated my body cam.
01:28Whichever unit gets here first, you're probably going to want to block off, maybe just a little
01:36bit south of the bridge here.
01:38I'm pretty much just north of the overpass here on .
01:42Anytime that someone believes they discover a body, you automatically have red flags going.
01:49I got an investigations guy coming.
01:52He might need to talk to you guys real quick, and then you should be good to go.
01:55You should be good to go.
02:01Deputy Hills arrived on scene shortly after I requested backup.
02:07So I was tasked with speaking with the actual 911 caller.
02:11It was important to talk to those two because they had found the body.
02:15I separated the two.
02:17You want to get people separated because speaking to them individually gets their direct story
02:23with no interruptions, and you could tell rather quickly
02:26whether or not it jives.
02:27First person that I talked to was the older gentleman,
02:31and he had told me his name was Thomas.
02:34So I'm Investigator Hills.
02:35I'm an investigator with the Sheriff's Office, okay?
02:37I'm just going to talk about today.
02:39It sounds like you may have been the one
02:40that had discovered it.
02:42What was your perspective on everything?
02:46We took the axil, and as we were speeding by,
02:53caught my eye in the shape of a human body.
02:58My job is to get the answers and find the truth
03:01of what really happened, and if people are being deceptive.
03:06My peripheral, last thing I noticed was it looked like a human hand.
03:13So I told him you better turn around and check it out.
03:18It looked like the real thing to me.
03:20After speaking with Thomas, I needed to speak
03:23with the younger witness, Antonio, to get his account
03:27of their finding and what led to their discovery that day.
03:31He was the actual 911 caller.
03:33I first asked Antonio what led them to that point in the day
03:37and their discovery.
03:39So you guys were on your way here when it happened?
03:41Yep, yep.
03:42What time was that, approximately?
03:43I don't know how long I've been sitting here.
03:48Did you guys call 911 right away?
03:49Yep.
03:50So according to my call screen, it looks like about 2.18.
03:55Seems pretty.
03:56Is that right?
03:57While speaking with Antonio, things start going through my head.
04:01Who is this dead person?
04:03How long have they been out here?
04:05Do these two have anything to do with this person's ending in this ditch?
04:13Did you call anybody else before that or did you just call 911?
04:15No, it's strange to you guys.
04:16Did you call or did your...
04:18I called.
04:19Okay.
04:20Yep.
04:21About that time, you guys were coming out here.
04:23Which way were you coming?
04:24This way.
04:25I don't know.
04:26Direction.
04:27Yeah.
04:28It's north.
04:29So you guys were coming this way, going towards the range?
04:33Yep.
04:34And that's just the range.
04:35Yeah.
04:36Based on the information that I had in talking to those two,
04:40I didn't believe they had anything to do with this body.
04:43After speaking with Antonio, I turned my attention towards the body.
04:50There had been a recent snowstorm, so obviously the snow sitting on top of her would help
04:56maybe find a date as to when she would have been left there.
05:05Another big thing that I noticed is that she was missing a shoe.
05:08You think to yourself, you try to not jump to conclusions on things.
05:12At this point, every detail matters.
05:14She didn't have any form of identification or any personal belongings other than the clothing
05:18that she was wearing.
05:20The more I looked at it, the more it seemed that the scene wasn't telling the whole story.
05:24It's got like a ligature mark on her neck from the look of it.
05:29If you look at her neck, there's that big purple.
05:32Yeah.
05:33So as I approached her, I noted that she had a dark purple, almost black, ligature mark,
05:39mid-throat about the thyroid area.
05:41We knew we had a murder on her hands, and the mystery was just beginning.
05:46And I know that whoever did this already had a head start, and we were going to have
05:49to play catch up.
05:52So after observing her, I returned to my patrol vehicle, and I started to document what she
05:57was wearing and relayed that information back to investigations guys.
06:01There's a missing person recently out of Council Bluffs.
06:05We might want to lock that whole area down.
06:07Yeah.
06:08I'm aware of it.
06:09I'm trying to figure out if it's going to be it or not.
06:12All right, man.
06:17Yo.
06:18She's wearing a tannish green shirt?
06:21Yep.
06:22She's got a green shirt on with a tan coat.
06:24All right.
06:25That's right.
06:26Based on clothing description, it was ultimately discovered she was, in fact, a missing person
06:32who was identified as Eileen Gatwin, who had been reported missing approximately two weeks
06:36prior by her daughter.
06:38I remember feeling of empathy towards Eileen.
06:41She's a human being.
06:43It wasn't something that just happened.
06:44We were looking at a murder scene.
06:46She hadn't just vanished.
06:55My relationship with my mom was, I was her baby and her favorite.
07:01So, I was spoiled.
07:02She was just my best friend.
07:04We were very close.
07:06Her personality is big.
07:10She is outgoing.
07:12She loves to live life.
07:13She'll walk up to a random stranger and just start having a conversation.
07:17Her laugh was very contagious.
07:19My mother was hardworking, tough, very caring, would take care of anybody, would do anything
07:27for anybody.
07:28And she was definitely there for us kids.
07:32She had a tough life.
07:36We had a tough life growing up.
07:38She had two jobs, sometimes three jobs, just to make it.
07:43I got a call from our detective and he asked if there was a time that he could meet up with
07:50me to, for me to answer some questions.
07:54I invited him over to my house and we sat down at the table.
08:00When he told me that it was her, I just lost it.
08:04I couldn't talk no more and any hope that we had that it wasn't her was gone.
08:11Worst news I've ever received.
08:14My sister had called and said that we needed to go to my aunt's, that the detectives were
08:20going to be calling sometime that day.
08:24And so she picked me up, took me to my aunt's.
08:28We were all just sitting there and they said that they confirmed that it was our mother.
08:35And everybody just started screaming and crying and I about had a panic attack.
08:42I didn't know what, how did it breathe, it just, everything stopped.
08:51Do you have any CAD coming out?
08:53Dodie and Hadley are both coming out.
08:55Dodie?
08:56Sweet.
08:57You know what?
08:58You have no water** club and stuff Monado Hill.
08:59So, once we were indeed aware that this was in fact a homicide, multiple personnel from
09:04multiple agencies started to show up to assist.
09:08He just said tape it up.
09:10We begin to cordon off the area with police tape.
09:12We weren't able to locate anything of real evidentiary value.
09:16No footprints, no personal items, no murder weapon, anything of that nature.
09:22It's extremely frustrating.
09:24Hey buddy.
09:25kim?
09:26What's up man?
09:27Where are we going?
09:28Right over here on the left, kind of right past that concrete block there.
09:32When I arrived on scene, I met with Deputy Norman.
09:35What's the story on this, uh, so I'm only working on the very back of the business.
09:41Uh, not yet.
09:44Well, let's see what we got here first.
09:45He led me to Eileen Gowan's body.
09:47After seeing how little evidence was there, it really was a mystery to us of what happened.
09:52Was she killed somewhere else and dumped here, or did the killer killer clean up and take
09:56everything with them?
09:57Whoever did this left behind very little answers and a whole lot of questions.
10:03With no clear suspect in mind and almost no physical evidence, we had to go back to the
10:06beginning.
10:09Back at the station, investigators immediately began to pull Eileen's file and view her missing
10:14person's report that had been filed by Eileen's daughter, Nicole, approximately two weeks prior.
10:19She told us Eileen was employed at Sugar's Lounge, which is a small bar in Council Bluffs.
10:25How about, uh, other employees at Sugar's?
10:31Is there, was she tight with any of them, or was that more of a bicker back and forth kind
10:39of thing?
10:40Yeah, they're all bitches.
10:42Okay.
10:43None of them would have ever dropped anything to lend her a hand?
10:48No.
10:49Once we had found out that she was frequently involved in some conflict with co-workers that
10:54was indeed relevant to the investigation, so now we weren't just looking at Eileen's disappearance.
11:00We were looking at problematic relationships she might have had with individuals that were
11:04in her life.
11:06What motives those people might have had.
11:08And now we're facing the growing mystery of what had, in fact, happened to Eileen.
11:13When we first found Eileen's body, we had basically nothing to go on.
11:25She didn't have her phone on her, didn't have her purse, no evidence on the scene, no tracks
11:31in the snow, so we were starting from scratch.
11:36All we knew, she was reported missing a couple weeks earlier by her daughter.
11:40Eileen's daughter gave us a name of Eileen's on and off again boyfriend, and his name was
11:45Ivan Sam Brammer, and he goes by Sam.
11:52Your mom and Sam have known each other and been basically on and off again for about a
11:58year?
11:59Year and a half?
12:00Yeah.
12:01What was their relationship like over there?
12:04Not an healthy one.
12:06And my mom went missing, and we went searching for her.
12:11We had a lot of family come from out of state, but Sam didn't help.
12:15He didn't offer to help.
12:17The information that we received from Nicole was that when alcohol was introduced into the
12:21mix, it became a very unhealthy relationship.
12:27I talked to my mom a lot about all the red flags that I've seen in the relationship and
12:32how toxic it was.
12:34Like when I say she loves hard, she gave it all she could until there was nothing left.
12:42We found out that Sam and Eileen knew how to push each other's buttons.
12:47So if they were upset or mad about something that was going on, then it would get very volatile.
12:54It was loud and violent, but no physical contact that anybody was aware of.
13:02He didn't like her drinking.
13:04He thought he could change her from the slope, get her to stop drinking.
13:09I told him that he can't because she won't change for a kid.
13:14She's not going to change for a man.
13:17And he seemed to think that he could change her, so we were trying with her.
13:25But there was things on his part and her part that were not healthy.
13:30They both had jealousy issues.
13:33He does a lot of odd things to people and then when you introduce alcohol, it exacerbates the issues.
13:41He has a very short temper, very short temper.
13:47And littlest things will set him off and it's just, it's like ridiculous.
13:52When they are good, they were good, but when it was not, I was constantly in the middle of it because she's my mom and that's my boyfriend's dad.
14:10At the time that my mom went missing, I was dating Justin, which is Sam's son.
14:16We met through Sam and my mom.
14:19I would lean on him for support and he would lean on me for support when my mom and Sam fought.
14:31When you say in the middle of it, does that mean it became physical or was it just verbal or what do you mean?
14:36Not verbal, but she would call me and talk to me about it.
14:40Now we have the name of the person who's close to her, so we needed to talk to Sam, find out whatever happened to Eileen.
14:48And we needed to know a little bit more about Eileen before we talked to Sam, what she was doing, where she was.
14:54We knew that she was at work at Sugars, so we reached out to her boss and went to Sugars.
15:00We interviewed several individuals.
15:04Her coworkers mentioned Eileen was a hard worker.
15:07Sam worked there as well.
15:09Sam was a dishwasher.
15:10She didn't fight with other people inside the restaurant.
15:13There may have been some misunderstandings or disagreements with some coworkers, but that's normal.
15:18You're going to have that.
15:19You can't get along with everybody.
15:21A security footage was pulled because we needed to retrace Eileen's last known steps.
15:29So that meant everything from when she left the diner.
15:32That's when it got a little interesting.
15:34The clothing that Eileen was wearing in the surveillance video matched the clothing that the female was wearing on the side of the road.
15:43And she had her purse in her hand in the surveillance video, but it was not at the crime scene.
15:48She got in the passenger seat of a blue Ford pickup.
15:51You see her in the truck.
15:52Whoever was driving that Ford truck was probably the last person that saw Eileen alive.
15:57We have a lot more questions than answers at this point in time, and it looks like something much bigger.
16:09We really needed to interview Sam Brammer, so we turned our attention directly to him.
16:14What we did first was run a criminal history, and in the research of Sam, we were able to determine that that blue Ford that we saw in the surveillance video did belong to him.
16:27Knowing that they have a volatile relationship and the history of their relationship, that raises a red flag.
16:36We needed to talk to Sam.
16:38We eventually did locate him and brought him in for questioning.
16:41We just asked him what happened that morning that he was seen with Eileen.
16:45Sam told us that after he had picked up Eileen, he dropped her off at a friend's house.
16:57His name was Mike, and he lived north of Council Bluffs.
17:01Sam was very credible.
17:02He did not show any signs of deception whatsoever during our interview.
17:04So if Sam wasn't the last person to see Eileen alive, maybe Mike was the last person to have seen her alive.
17:11So we turned our attention to Mike, checking Mike's history, there is no criminal record, he has no criminal history, but we brought him in for questioning, and that's when the mystery deepened.
17:18Hey, how you doing?
17:19Hey, how you doing?
17:20All right.
17:21Sergeant Roberts, Detective Ron Granigan, interviewing Mike.
17:25Mike, in reference to Eileen Gallin.
17:26They just kind of tell us how you guys know each other, how she is, how she is, how she is, how she is, how she is, how she is, how she is.
17:30Checking Mike's history, there is no criminal record, he has no criminal history, but we brought him in for questioning, and that's when the mystery deepened.
17:39Hey, how you doing?
17:40All right.
17:41Sergeant Roberts, Detective Ron Granigan, interviewing Mike, in reference to Eileen Gallin.
17:51They just kind of tell us how you guys know each other, how she ended up out there, your place, that kind of thing, and what kind of moves from there.
17:58Mike was very cooperative.
18:00He told us how he knew Eileen.
18:02She was a wager, some triggers, and I knew her from in there, and I talked to her before, and stuff like that.
18:09And then she told me that she got kicked out and she needed a place to stay.
18:16I said, well, you can stay in my place for a couple of days.
18:19She had told him Sam kicked her out of the house after they had that argument, and Mike said, well, you can come sleep on my couch.
18:27You know, come stay with me.
18:28And then, I think it was Friday.
18:33She called me and she said, I won't be coming back.
18:36She says, we're getting back together.
18:39Her and her boyfriend.
18:40And all I know is his first name's Sam.
18:43I've never had any contact with her after that.
18:46So now we have the story from Mike.
18:49We have the latest story from Sam Grammer.
18:52Both are completely different.
18:55Only one of them can be true.
18:58So now we have to run down all these facts and verify what we're being told.
19:02So did Sam drop her off at Mike's house like he says?
19:09Or did she never make it up to Mike's house like Mike says?
19:13So these are questions that have to be answered, and we need to find out who's lying.
19:21There wasn't any evidence to say Mike was involved with what happened to Eileen, so our focus shifted.
19:27Sam informed us that he had dropped Eileen off of Mike's, and after that he went to a gas station.
19:32And so we went to that gas station to get the footage to confirm Sam's story.
19:36When we reviewed the video, they saw that Sam pulled up to a gas pump, pumped gas, and Eileen could not be seen in the vehicle from the footage.
19:46Sam claimed after the gas station, he went straight home.
19:50And we didn't have anything to confirm or conflict with his story.
19:55Things are getting murky now.
19:58We have no witnesses.
20:00We only have Sam and Mike.
20:02And whether they're telling us the truth, telling us the lies, what we do know absolutely is that she was fine.
20:11That morning, she and Sam left Sugar's, and we haven't seen her since.
20:21So we were able to confirm part of Sam's story.
20:25Eileen did get into his truck that morning, and he did take her out of Sugar's parking lot.
20:31That much was true.
20:34And then during the investigation, 911 received a call from Emily, Sam's granddaughter.
20:41And she reports that she was concerned for the safety of her grandpa.
20:46She said that Sam had been drinking heavily and had been making some comments that led her to believe that he was going to take his own life.
20:55Officers eventually located Sam outside of Kicker's Bar here in Council Bluffs.
21:04Sam was very intoxicated.
21:06We were called to check your welfare.
21:07Again, I haven't patted you down, so I just don't want you to reach in your pockets for weapons or anything, but we were called to check your welfare.
21:15Okay, I think you talked to your granddaughter earlier, and she was concerned about you, some of the statements that you made to her.
21:21I'm here for you, man.
21:23Tell me what's going on.
21:24Why are you feeling the way you're feeling?
21:28My girlfriend.
21:29It was like a week ago.
21:32Me and her broke up, and she moved in with a guy.
21:36And apparently, supposedly, he raped her.
21:39What's his name?
21:40The only thing I know, he goes by Mike.
21:44Sam mentions that Mike had raped Eileen.
21:49To make this allegation against Mike, that's a very serious allegation.
21:53If by some chance this was true, that would completely change the trajectory of the investigation.
22:10We still have to check that allegation that Mike had raped Eileen.
22:14This is new information.
22:16We still have to prove that it either is, this did happen, or that it's not credible.
22:22Where's that at?
22:23Where'd they move in together?
22:24Uh, it's out by, uh...
22:30Oh, .
22:31It's down by, uh, Sugars.
22:33Like, two miles from Sugars.
22:35He was obviously having some issues.
22:37He was saying some things that made other people believe that he was going to take his life.
22:42That is enough for a police officer to take custody of him and conduct an emergency committal.
22:49It's always easier when a person commits themselves, checks themselves into the hospital.
22:56And that is what, ultimately, Sam decided to do.
23:01Do you care which hospital we go to?
23:03Jenny.
23:04Jenny, okay.
23:05Sorry, I didn't get up there.
23:06So now we need to talk to Mike again.
23:11We brought him in a second time for an interview.
23:13Hey, how you doing?
23:14All right.
23:15He was cooperative.
23:17I confronted him about this allegation.
23:19When she did live there with you for two or three days, what kind of relationship did you have with her?
23:25Nothing.
23:26I never even ate with her.
23:28I never had anything to eat with her.
23:31I might have a beer and...
23:32No sexual relationship whatsoever.
23:34None whatsoever.
23:35And she was in one room and I was in the other.
23:38Okay.
23:39And none whatsoever.
23:41I asked him during our interview, did you force her to have an intimate relationship?
23:46He denied it.
23:47Can you tell me, is that any of that accurate?
23:49Any of those statements?
23:50No.
23:51I would not do that.
23:54When we interviewed Mike, he pointed towards Sam and said that we should be looking at Sam.
24:00We didn't know if Mike was being truthful and trying to get the spotlight off of him or if he was telling us the truth about his concerns with Sam.
24:08We asked him what was going on that morning that Eileen went missing.
24:12What he did with Eileen that morning and where he last saw her.
24:16So you dropped off by five, what did you do then?
24:19Went to work.
24:20Okay.
24:21You work at .
24:22No.
24:23I work over.
24:24Okay.
24:25We reached out to his employer.
24:27We not only spoke with his employer but we also spoke with co-workers.
24:31Everything he told us checked out.
24:33Co-workers verified everything that we had a question on.
24:37His timeline checked out perfectly.
24:39This allegation by Sam Brammer.
24:41I completely discounted it.
24:43And Mike , he was an open book for us.
24:46So with no physical evidence tying Sam Brammer or Mike to what happened to Eileen, the mystery only gets deeper.
24:56We have some more work to do.
24:58My mom was a fighter and she fought her whole life basically.
25:08She fought breast cancer and won.
25:11Played at all her radiation and the cancer was gone.
25:16She raised four kids on her own.
25:19That was hard but she fought and she did it.
25:24She gave it all she could.
25:27Me and my mom liked to cook.
25:30So she would cook a couple, three times a week, you know.
25:34And we'd be in the kitchen drinking beer, cooking, playing country music.
25:40My mother was the person that would just give you a shirt off her back.
25:45The people that sit on the side of the road, she'd give them a dollar.
25:50I mean she just had the big heart.
25:53Nobody deserves to be murdered for one.
25:56But she was awesome.
26:03So now we're stuck.
26:04We don't have any new leads.
26:06But we kept getting pulled back to Sam.
26:09We're watching for when he is released from the hospital.
26:13So when that day comes, we're advised by the hospital.
26:17He's checked out.
26:19He's home.
26:20Sam calls and wants to come in.
26:23So let's get back to the day that you picked her up.
26:26Sure.
26:27Pulled right up front.
26:28She came out.
26:29She came out.
26:30That's when she wanted to stop at her mom's house.
26:32What she said she had to do inside the apartments there?
26:35Why did she want to go to her mom's house that day?
26:37She just said she wanted to talk to her mom.
26:39That's what she told me.
26:40Okay.
26:41Yeah.
26:42Okay.
26:43Okay.
26:44Did she come out with anything?
26:45Yeah.
26:46She had a purse.
26:47And she had a black tape with her.
26:48She had a tape with her.
26:49She had a tape with her.
26:50She told her.
26:51During Sam's interview, he added that they made another stop.
26:54That they'd went to Eileen's mom's house.
26:56And she had picked up the safe.
26:57It had $1,200 in it.
26:59And she was there for a handful of minutes while picking that up.
27:02All right.
27:03So did she just hold the safe?
27:06She said, hold on to it?
27:07What did she do with it?
27:08No.
27:09She got it past her side.
27:10She set the safe on the thing.
27:12And then she put her purse beside her.
27:14And okay.
27:15So I took her home.
27:16So over the course of the interviews, he adds more and more details.
27:19They've got the safe.
27:21It has all of Eileen's savings.
27:23Which I did pick her up.
27:24Yeah.
27:25No, you did.
27:26Yeah.
27:27It's right there.
27:28Yeah.
27:29Basically, you told me that you went straight to Mike's house.
27:33The house.
27:34No, no, no.
27:35Remember that woman?
27:36I told you she got a car.
27:37And that's when we were just discussing about me.
27:39Yeah.
27:40Yeah.
27:41I asked you.
27:42I said, what did you talk about on your way to Mike's house?
27:44And you said about the apartment, just like you said.
27:46Well, yeah.
27:47I thought, yeah.
27:48Yeah.
27:49My assumption was you went straight there, dropped her off.
27:52And then two or three miles, you talked about what was going on.
27:57And then.
27:58I'm shaking her cover down.
27:59I can take her straight turn.
28:00Okay.
28:01I'm shaking her cover down.
28:02And that's the one that people sometimes forget things.
28:03And they'll tell you.
28:04But that's not how it worked with Sam Brammer.
28:07He knew that he was coming in to talk to us additionally.
28:12Because we found information that just didn't add up.
28:16So now he's throwing in these extra things to make his story more and more credible.
28:22Is this a ruse? Is this just another lie that he's telling us?
28:28Is this just another story to misdirect the investigation?
28:32Sam plays off that information that he took Eileen to her mother's apartment as just being
28:49the forgetful old man. He's, oh, I just forgot about that. And when you confront him with
28:57something new, he changes the story, morphs the story just a little bit. So at this point,
29:03I don't take anything at face value. He's given us so many different lies, so many different stories.
29:09One of the big pieces in modern day cases is digital evidence, whether it's cell phones,
29:15surveillance footage, GPS locations, video footage captures a moment in time and is
29:21good evidence because it is a unique perspective. Sam gave us that information that he took
29:29Eileen to her mother's apartment to get that safe. And that's easily verifiable from that
29:36surveillance footage. Once we watched that footage, we could see that it fit in perfectly with the
29:42timeline, with what Sam was telling us up to that point. Watching that video, we're able to
29:51see Eileen enter the apartment building. She walks directly to the elevators,
30:00goes up to the second floor, comes off the elevators, walks directly to her mother's apartment.
30:05There's no hesitation. She's inside her mom's apartment for just a matter of seconds, really.
30:11Just comes out with the safe, walks directly back to the elevators, goes down to the first floor of the
30:18lobby and walks out of the building. The video confirms that at this point in time, Eileen
30:27is completely comfortable. She's not under any type of duress at this point. Everything that Sam is
30:35telling us during the second interview now is kind of making sense. And maybe Sam didn't do anything to
30:44her. Maybe Sam did exactly what he's saying. He took Eileen to her mother's apartment. Then he dropped
30:52her off at Mike's house. The only thing that we're trying to do is really determine exactly what
30:58happened next to her. That's where the story starts to unravel. That's where things started to go off the
31:04rails. Even though Sam claimed he dropped Eileen off at Mike's house, we did not find any evidence that
31:09he had done that. So, okay, where did they go? Did she actually get out of the truck? Next, we canvassed
31:17the entire area next to Eileen's mother's apartment and Mike's residence. Then we downloaded city traffic
31:24cameras. The reason we downloaded these videos was simply to track a timeline. We can see what direction
31:33he's driving, at what time, and if we can see inside the vehicle. Earlier in the day, at one particular
31:40angle, at one particular camera, you can see perfectly right through the windshield and see what's going on in that
31:46truck. We can see Sam driving, and it looks like that tan coat Eileen was wearing this up around her head, and she's
31:54in an awkward position. That body is kind of sideways, arm is awkward, that position doesn't move. As we're
32:02collecting the intersection cameras, we have this dead space with no traffic cameras. So, I sent two
32:10detectives to canvass that area to find any kind of video to determine where Sam's vehicle went.
32:18There's a Burger King restaurant. Sam actually turns into this fast food restaurant, and there's a camera
32:31that looks right through the drive-through window, and as Sam pulls up, you can see Eileen in that
32:36passenger seat, and the entire time, you don't see her move. You see her in that same position,
32:41leaning against the passenger side window. I don't know if she was dead at that point in time,
32:46but I do know that she was unmoving. She was not conscious, but it just blew my mind. It was,
32:53I couldn't believe that someone would drive through a drive-through
32:58and order food or drink with a possible dead body next to him.
33:05The evidence was starting to build towards Sam being involved in what happened to Eileen,
33:09and not Mike.
33:10We had a very good idea that he was responsible for whatever happened to Eileen, but
33:16a gut feeling doesn't convict someone of any crime. We have to have evidence. During an investigation
33:26of a suspect, we are going to look at all aspects of a person's life, and part of a person's life is
33:35their financial. We need to know what he's doing financially. Is he depositing money? Is he taking
33:43money out? Is he getting ready to take off? When we finally received the records from Sam's Bank,
33:53and as I'm scrolling through and looking through all the records, Sam's bank account, I see a deposit,
34:03a handwritten deposit slip that says $1,200, and immediately I stopped.
34:11And I looked at the date, and the date was February 15th, two days after Eileen went missing.
34:19We were able to get that security footage of when Sam made that deposit.
34:25When I watched that footage, I was just amazed, because this is very important. I can see
34:33the exterior of the building, Sam pull into the lot and get out of his 1999 blue Ford pickup truck,
34:41and he walks into the bank. He walks up to the teller, and he pulls out a stack of cash.
34:49And she counts it out. It's $1,200. This is two days after Eileen went missing,
34:55carrying a safe that held $1,200 cash.
35:00This isn't your typical murder investigation. You didn't have a gun or a knife on the scene that
35:05you could link to the suspect. You had a lot of circumstantial evidence. It was obvious that
35:10Sam had been lying about his whereabouts that day. All arrows point at Sam.
35:22We're compiling a lot against Sam Brammer right now, and when you put all that together,
35:27it's a pretty significant case. So we finally took the next step. We had enough probable cause to arrest
35:35him. But as we enter that residence, we don't know what Sam's mental state is right at that point in
35:42time. We don't know if he's armed. We don't know if there's any weapons inside the residence.
35:46So at this point, we know who Sam is, what he's done, not how he did it. But we know that
35:55he's responsible for this. I know he's depositing Eileen's money. This is the beginning of the end
36:01for Sam. Step out here. Show us your hand. No, no. Hey, hey, hey, hey. Okay. Come here. You got a
36:10warrant for your arrest. I'll let you smoke that if you just... Let me put it up. Yeah. Put it on
36:18any rest for. I'll explain it here in a minute, all right? Okay. Nothing that... No drugs,
36:26needles or anything like that? The weapons or anything? No? Okay. When somebody is continually
36:35lying to you and continually to make up stories and you know that they were involved in something
36:41as heinous as a murder, it really shows how cold-hearted they are, that there is no remorse
36:47in their heart. The autopsy took a very long time to come back, but we had asphyxiation.
36:56By homicide. That was the information we needed to have to go forward with a homicide charge.
37:05On the morning of February 13th, 2023, when Eileen got into the truck with Sam Brammer,
37:13I think that it was just that volatile relationship. That's all it was.
37:19Sheer jealousy and anger. And something snapped. And that is when he assaulted her and he twisted her coat, causing that mark on her neck.
37:36On this side, actually. Caused that mark on her neck and twisted that so tightly that she asphyxiated and she died.
37:48He caused her death. He murdered her. Then her body is thrown out like trash.
37:56In the end, we absolutely had proof positive that Mike had nothing to do with this. He was just a nice guy trying to help out an acquaintance.
38:11In January of 2024, Sam Brammer was sentenced for the murder of Eileen Gowen.
38:17He received 65 years for that. He received 10 years for the abuse of a corpse.
38:23An additional five years for stealing the money out of Eileen's safe.
38:26A guilty verdict is always great. Couldn't bring Eileen back. But at least we knew that Sam couldn't do this to anybody else.
38:36I think the thing that stands out with Sam's behavior with this is just leaving Eileen discarded on the road like that.
38:43He knew Eileen's daughter. He knew Eileen's family.
38:47He knew the amount of pain and hurt this was going to cause these people.
38:52But he still did it anyway.
38:56When a body is thrown out like trash, a monk's trash, and just left.
39:13You try to separate yourself from it.
39:15But those memories and the things that you see, they never leave you.
39:22They just stick with you.
39:24And this was completely senseless.
39:28And this poor woman lost her life.
39:32Her family lost their mother, their grandmother, their daughter.
39:37I still struggle.
39:41I'm mentally, I'm on a lot of meds.
39:46I've been through a year and a half of counseling.
39:51My anxiety is so high.
39:53My depression is, it's getting under control.
39:57It's getting better.
39:58Every time we think of mom, I just try to think of something positive.
40:04And I have a voicemail that she left me on one of my old phones.
40:08And so I play that every now and then.
40:10And, but it just makes me cry, you know.
40:15I don't like to listen to it, but I want to listen to it.
40:19I want to hear her voice.
40:22And that's the only way that I can.
40:24I'm so sorry that I couldn't do nothing to help her that day.
40:38I wish I would have known that she was in trouble.
40:41But she's the best mom.
40:51The hardest part of it is my mom shouldn't have died the way she did.
40:58She shouldn't have been beaten.
41:02She shouldn't have been left in the ditch by herself.
41:11That's the hardest part for me is I feel like if it was a natural way of dying,
41:18it would be easier for me to understand and deal with.
41:21But for her life to be taken, it's the hardest part.
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