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00:00Few details are being released in what deputies
00:03are now calling a homicide.
00:04Several women are ripped from their loved ones
00:06by an unknown suspect.
00:09He wrapped a belt around her neck
00:12and submerged her in a half-filled tub.
00:16Did she see whoever it was?
00:17No.
00:18Somebody waited for the right opportunity
00:21to make their move.
00:22The subject was trying to not leave any DNA behind.
00:26Who do you think did this?
00:27I have no idea.
00:30Officials are now working together
00:31to see if any links exist between the deaths
00:33of an elderly couple in North Carolina
00:35and a woman in Florida.
00:37There were similarities between these cases.
00:40She was dating this man.
00:42I was very concerned.
00:44He had said, I got away with it once
00:46before I could get away with it again.
00:48Nobody else has a history of attacking older women.
00:52Could he possibly be the one that did this?
00:55Was it an accident?
00:56Did you mean to kill her?
00:57Was it an accident?
01:27This story hits close to home for me because I grew up in Florida.
01:32I think about my grandmother and my mother who could have been targeted by this killer.
01:38And that is especially haunting.
01:50This picture does mean a lot.
01:51I believe I was around 30, so that makes her almost 50 in this picture.
01:56She wanted to get her high school diploma because she had never done that.
02:02And so she went to night school.
02:05She felt like she succeeded at something.
02:08We were really proud of her that she was able to do that.
02:12My name is Jacqueline Byrd.
02:14I'm the daughter of Judith Osteen.
02:17I've never spoken publicly about my mom on television.
02:22It was, I guess, kind of a traumatic experience.
02:28My mom was 17 when she had me.
02:31We kind of grew up together, I believe, because my mother was a young mother.
02:37I did not know my real father.
02:40So she was extremely close to me.
02:43She loved with all of her heart the people that she really cared about.
02:48My mom would give you the shirt off of her back.
02:51Still as close as ever, in the early 2000s, Jackie is 36 years old and living in Jacksonville,
02:58while her mom Judith lives a couple hours away in remote Dixie County.
03:10Dixie County is a very rural part of Florida.
03:12It's about 800 square miles.
03:14A lot of it is not habited by people.
03:17It's a lot of waterways, swampy woods.
03:24In the 2000s, my mom met Charles Carr, and he owned his own business, Carr's Furniture.
03:31They started dating, and it wasn't long before she ended up moving with him right there where the furniture store
03:39was.
03:39So she helped him with his business.
03:42And she was very happy with him.
03:46He always looked out for her.
03:48He wanted to make sure that she was okay.
03:51In 2004, she was his fiancée.
03:55Even though they had not gotten married, Charles felt as if she was his spouse.
04:03That was before everything happened.
04:10Halloween night of 2004, dispatch called me at home and said we'd had a homicide at Carr's Furniture.
04:19A male by the name of Jimmy Lawrence was burglarizing Carr's Furniture.
04:26Charles Carr, he had some kind of alarm, so he knew that there was activity going on in the store.
04:32And when he went in, he was gunned down.
04:40Judith Osteen, his fiancée, called the sheriff's office.
04:50Jimmy Lawrence, he jumps in his truck, leaves Mr. Carr's body laying dead in the road bench.
04:55One of the deputies pursued Jimmy, ran him down, and put him in jail.
05:02The next morning, I turned on my phone.
05:05I had a ton of messages from my mother, very upset, telling me what had happened.
05:13Driving as fast as I could to get to Old Town to be with her.
05:19It was a really tough situation.
05:22It was traumatic for her.
05:26It was hard to even acknowledge that that had just happened.
05:33My mother stayed with me for a little while in Jacksonville,
05:38and she was trying to get through the trauma of it.
05:41And then she wanted to move back.
05:46I was very concerned, but she felt safe.
05:51Once she was settled in, she had her older sister, Catherine, come move in with her.
05:58My Aunt Catherine was the oldest.
06:01She was a little developmentally delayed.
06:04My mom knew that her older sister needed a place to stay,
06:08and she wanted to help her with her health needs.
06:13It takes years, but by December 2007, 60-year-old Judith has gotten into a routine,
06:19taking care of her sister and focusing on her business,
06:23buying and selling antiques at local flea markets.
06:25She even starts dating again.
06:29I talked to her on the phone.
06:31I just remember that she was excited because the guy that she was dating was coming to see her.
06:37I mean, that's the last time I remember talking to her.
06:44In the early morning hours of December 16, 2007,
06:49one of our deputies responded to a gas station in reference to an abduction.
06:54When deputies arrive, they find Catherine, who was terrified and has a head injury.
07:02She's with a woman Judith had hired to come and clean the house,
07:07who had arrived at the home, and she found Catherine in her room, hiding.
07:17She took Catherine to the gas station down the street from their house to call for help.
07:24Catherine reported that a man came into their house and took Judith the night before.
07:32Catherine said she was laying in bed asleep, and Judith was in her bedroom next door.
07:42Catherine said she was awoken to this man that she did not know pulling on her leg.
07:52He drug her out of bed, and she hit her head on the table.
07:59Catherine screamed for help, and Judith came into the room and told the intruder to leave Catherine alone.
08:07The intruder picked her up and carried Judith out the door, just walked right out with her.
08:15Catherine said she heard him, put her in the car and drive off.
08:19And that's the last she's seen of Judith.
08:27Catherine said the man told her that he'd be back for her.
08:30He would kill her and feed her to the gators.
08:34Catherine was terrified.
08:36She didn't know what to do.
08:37Her sister took care of her.
08:39So she hid for the rest of the night until the early morning when the housekeeper arrives.
08:46Detectives press Catherine for a description of her attacker, but still in shock, she is only able to give a
08:52general description of the man.
08:54He's white, middle-aged, and with a large build, and she's never seen him before.
09:00I'm driving, and there's a phone call from Scott Harden, Dixie County Sheriff's Department.
09:07He told me that my mother had been abducted.
09:13It was hard for me to grasp.
09:20I went to see my Aunt Catherine, and she was devastated because of what had happened, and she was scared.
09:28The investigators had a statement, and that's it.
09:32When you don't have a lot to go off of, the best thing to do is to go to where
09:37the crime happened.
09:40Scott, back in 07, was this the Duda's driveway?
09:43Yeah.
09:44None of this growth was here.
09:49So you could see their house from the road?
09:51Plain as day, yeah.
09:52You could sit out there on the highway and probably see what was going on through the windows.
09:57There was no forced entry or anything?
09:59No forced entry, no breakage, nothing.
10:01Of course, it's been left abandoned and unattended.
10:04So that was the living area.
10:06Okay.
10:06The kitchen.
10:07There was furniture and stuff.
10:08Yep.
10:09That was Judith's bedroom.
10:12And that's where Catherine was, in that bedroom.
10:16All this stuff wasn't in here back then.
10:18Somebody else has lived here.
10:20Yeah.
10:21I mean, it was just a straight shot from coming in the door straight to the bedroom.
10:25It really is.
10:26Any evidence that something took place?
10:28None.
10:29Other than the abrasion to her head when he drug her off the bed.
10:33Other than that, it was just in and out.
10:36She's just completely disappeared.
10:38We don't know what happened to her, where she went when she left the house, who she went with.
10:44She just was here one minute and gone the next.
10:57There was a lot of evidence recovered from Judith's home.
11:00They collected light switches, cigarette butts, soda cans.
11:06All of those were sent to the lab to see if we get any DNA matches.
11:11Investigators also take Judith's computer to look into her recent communications.
11:16Nothing in the house immediately points to who could have abducted Judith.
11:20They looked around the yard.
11:22There were no tire tracks.
11:24There were no footprints.
11:26The next step was a grid search of the local area.
11:29There's always a chance that you might find Judith injured in the woods.
11:34We got a bunch of officers, bloodhounds.
11:38We stonked the woods out, you know, all behind the property, all around the property.
11:43I was frantic, very upset.
11:46Some of the family members had all come to that house to help look for her.
11:51We walked the property.
11:53We went near the lakes to see if we could find anything.
11:58But we didn't see anything or hear anything of her whereabouts.
12:03She was just gone.
12:08Now police really start to take a deep look at what is on Judith's computer.
12:15The investigators, they went through her online history, emails, phone calls, and discovered
12:23that she had been going to a website called Adult Friend Finder and meeting men online.
12:32She lost her fiancé.
12:34She lost her fiancé.
12:35She was lonely.
12:35And Dixie County just doesn't have, you know, a lot to do here.
12:39The Internet brought a whole new world to Judith.
12:43We're talking 07, so I don't know how much attention was back then to Internet safety
12:49and probably telling your kids to, you know, be careful.
12:52But how many people are worried about adults on the Internet?
12:55The investigators ended up with over a dozen names of people she had recently been in contact with.
13:02And these people weren't in Dixie County.
13:06With the clock ticking and a potential pool of suspects extending far beyond the Dixie County line,
13:12investigators need to narrow their gaze.
13:16They show the list of names to Judith's family, and one of the men stands out.
13:21I met with the police and told them that she was dating this man,
13:27and he was actually supposed to come and see my mom on the 17th, the day after.
13:32She was abducted.
13:34The man come from Pennsylvania.
13:37We want to know if this guy flew into Jacksonville at any point in time
13:41surrounding those days of the abduction.
13:44That check, I called an airport, and he hadn't.
13:48Still didn't rule him out completely because he could have driven down here.
13:51He could have flown into Orland or anywhere else.
13:54So one of the agents reached out to the FBI.
13:57They were able to confirm through his phone records and other resources
14:01that he wasn't in the area at the time Judith disappeared.
14:07He's ruled out.
14:08So where do we start now on this list of females and acquaintances?
14:13The investigators would determine where these men lived,
14:16and they got their bank records to see if they had been traveling,
14:19and then they would contact law enforcement in the jurisdiction where these men lived
14:24and ask them if local law enforcement could place them at home at the time Judith's crime occurred.
14:31They were able to clear all of them.
14:40As the days pass and investigators are able to rule out all of Judith's recent contacts,
14:46detectives turn their attention to Judith's past to see if she has any possible enemies.
14:52Jimmy Lawrence had been put away in prison.
14:56My mother had to testify against him.
15:00The investigators looked at could this be a retaliation against Judith for her or in his conviction.
15:08Investigators looked at Jimmy Lawrence's phone records and who all met him during the time that he was in prison
15:14to see if any of these people that he'd been in communication with had anything to do with the Judith
15:21Osteen case.
15:22And there's nothing tying in to this.
15:28The investigators worked really hard, but they weren't able to find any connection.
15:34At that point, they were left with basically a blank canvas.
15:40But you just do everything in your power to try to find out who did this to Judith.
15:50But then there's a twist in the case on New Year's Day 2008.
15:55400 miles north in a state park in Georgia, a woman disappears while she's out for a hike,
16:00and a man named Gary Hilton is arrested for her murder several days later.
16:04Shortly after his arrest, he's linked to several other crimes in the region.
16:10Officials from Georgia, Florida, and North Carolina are now working together to see if any links exist
16:16between the killing in Georgia and the deaths of both an elderly couple in North Carolina and a woman in
16:21Florida.
16:22Gary Hilton at the time was a suspected serial killer who had committed a homicide in Leon County in December
16:302007
16:32and then traveled to Columbia County, Florida, where he had been camping.
16:38Dixie County is between those two areas.
16:42So at the time that Judith went missing, he would have been in our area and possibly in our county.
16:48The investigators went out to his campsite, which was an hour drive from Dixie County.
16:56They collected everything that was left behind.
16:59Police scour Gary Hilton's campsite for any clue that he had anything to do with Judith Osteen.
17:07They find nothing.
17:10His attacks were taking place there on the trail.
17:14So nobody thought that he follows people home, and so it didn't fit.
17:19Hilton generally won't talk with law enforcement unless there's a plea deal on the table.
17:25So they don't get anywhere with him.
17:28Unfortunately, they could never link Gary Hilton to Judith Osteen's disappearance.
17:35I actually called Scott and asked him had there been any updated information on my mom.
17:42But there was no new information.
17:44So it was devastating for me, thinking that my mom was gone.
17:52My Aunt Catherine was eventually moved to a nursing home where she would be safe if the man came looking
18:00for her.
18:00But she was very scared and nervous about the whole situation because her sister was taken in front of her
18:09and never came back.
18:12Weeks later, detectives get all of that evidence back from the crime lab, and they're really dismayed to find there
18:20are no hits.
18:21The case is at a standstill.
18:24So now police are thinking, okay, let's go back to Catherine, our only eyewitness, and let's do something maybe out
18:32of the box.
18:32When the investigations absolutely ran out of Leeds, the investigators took Judah's sister Catherine to see an agent in the
18:42Florida Department of Law Enforcement that had a specialty in hypnosis.
18:47While she was under a partial hypnosis, she was able to provide enough information for the FDLE agent to sketch
18:56out a drawing of the suspect.
18:58The completed sketch was of a heavyset man in his 40s with bushy eyebrows and a round face.
19:07Once we had the sketch, we were able to take it to the family and friends, really the entire county.
19:13Can someone ID this guy?
19:17Unfortunately, we weren't able to identify anybody just based on the drawing.
19:24Detectives send out the sketch to other sheriff's offices across Florida, but no one recognizes him.
19:36I had dreams for a few months that my mom was shot.
19:40I would go out by myself, sit by the lake, trying to just stay calm.
19:47It was a very tough thing for me to deal with, but over time, I realized that she probably was
19:54murdered, and that, you know, we may never see her again.
20:11Years pass with no further leads in the case, but then in 2018, Major Scott Hardin gets a call from
20:19an agent at the Florida Department of Law Enforcement with a new potential lead.
20:26An FDLE agent out of Jacksonville, he said, hey, I'm sitting here looking at a copy of y'all's sketch.
20:34He said, have you looked at Michael Porter on your Judith Osteen deal?
20:38I'm like, who's Michael Porter?
20:40Now 58-year-old Michael Porter was arrested after a Gilchrist County Sheriff's Office investigation in August of 2013 for
20:47a murder, sexual battery, and burglary in Bell.
20:50Out of all the people that's been looked at, he is the one that's like, man, the shoe fits.
20:58Nobody else on that list of suspects has a history of attacking older women except Michael Porter.
21:14When I heard about Michael Porter, I did pull his picture of what he looked like in 2007, and he
21:21did resemble the sketch that was made with FDLE.
21:33When Hardin gets the tip, 58-year-old Michael Porter is awaiting trial for a 2013 crime.
21:39It was the home invasion and murder of 55-year-old Joyce Burrow in nearby Gilchrist County, Florida.
21:46You know, Catherine was snot well, so we couldn't show her a photo of Porter.
21:51But as the crow flies, it's probably less than 10 miles distance between Judith Osteen and Joyce Burrow.
21:59It's just like a ray of hope. Here we go.
22:02And I thought, could he possibly be the one that did this?
22:13This is probably the last picture of all three of us girls together.
22:16It's Joyce, myself, and Diane.
22:19She was so happy to finally get a grandchild.
22:24Diane was the oldest sister, and then Joyce was seven years older than me.
22:28She was the responsible one.
22:31And I was probably the wild child.
22:35We were a very close family.
22:37We did everything together.
22:39Joyce was a big West Virginia fan.
22:41They were all big West Virginia fans.
22:44When I met my husband John's family, I right away noticed the closeness.
22:51When they were together, they were hysterical.
22:53I mean, all they did was laugh.
22:56Joyce was John's aunt, and she was just the most kind-hearted person I had ever met.
23:02She wanted to always give back.
23:04Give back to the community.
23:05Give back to her family.
23:07Joyce and I, we always had a closeness.
23:11In 2013, we found out that we were going to have another baby.
23:15Joyce decided that she was just going to move right next door to John and I to help us with
23:20the baby.
23:20She was filling that void of both mother, mother-in-law, you know, aunt as well.
23:32When I was actually awoken to what sounded like someone doing donuts, there was just something about that noise that
23:41I knew something wasn't right.
23:42I patted John and I said, something's going on outside.
23:48He quickly jumped up and he grabbed his pistol.
23:52I remember holding the house phone and my hand just waiting.
23:59John came to the door and he said, call 911.
24:03Joyce has been raped.
24:07So I immediately dialed 911 and continued to run outside.
24:14She was laying in the middle of the road.
24:20So I approached her and laid in the road with her.
24:38She didn't have any clothing on except for a nightgown around her neck and it was tied tight.
24:45I pulled that article away from her neck as much as I could to allow her to continue to talk
24:51and breathe.
24:52Were they hitting you?
24:54No.
24:56Oh, my God.
24:58Oh, my God.
25:02Did she see whoever it was?
25:05Did you see who it was, Joyce?
25:08No.
25:09They just drug you out here?
25:12I ran.
25:13You ran from him?
25:15Yes.
25:16And then he came out here and ran you over?
25:18Yes.
25:19Oh, my God.
25:20They broke in and then what they do?
25:22They raped you in your room?
25:25Yes.
25:26And you don't remember anything that they look like?
25:29Nothing?
25:31No.
25:33Joyce, they're coming, honey.
25:35I can hear them.
25:38At that point, you couldn't really understand what she was saying, but it wasn't long after that EMS had arrived.
25:44They took over from there.
25:46I arrived at the hospital and they immediately took me into a family counseling room.
25:52I sat there waiting on someone to come and talk to me and tell me what was going on.
25:57As doctors do everything they can to save Joyce's life, deputies from the Gilchrist County Sheriff's Office and agents from
26:06the Florida Department of Law Enforcement arrive at her house.
26:11When you're looking at the crime scene, you're listening to what she has said on the 911 call.
26:16You're trying to piece together what happened.
26:19It was apparent that Joyce was trying to get to John and Heather, her family, to get help.
26:26And the suspect had seen what was going on and hit her with a vehicle.
26:32There was tire tracks in the yard of her residence.
26:36Some of the tire tracks showed down the dirt road, then into the yard, almost like it was turning around.
26:42And after hitting her, come back and hit her again.
26:48Seeing the tire tracks, we noticed that the tires on the suspect's vehicle did not match each other.
26:55These tire tracks wouldn't be just any type of vehicle.
26:58We were looking for a vehicle that had some distinguishing tread and mismatching tires.
27:04So we knew what we was looking for.
27:07Just south of the residence, there was evidence of a vehicle being parked there with some fresh cigarette butts,
27:13which led investigators to believe that somebody was watching her and waited for the right opportunity to make their move.
27:22Inside, all matched what she was saying.
27:25But whatever happened in the residence at that point, somebody was trying to clean up the crime scene.
27:33The subject responsible was trying to not leave any DNA behind.
27:39But investigators found some sheets, some underwear, lingerie, and a sponge.
27:45That's all taken straight to be processed.
27:50At the hospital, I remember John was calling Denise and just telling them that something bad had happened.
27:56My husband answers his phone, and he says, it's Heather.
27:59Some things happened to Joyce, and it's bad.
28:03And then we started getting a little bit more details.
28:05When I finally realized that she had been raped, I just, you never think something like that's going to happen
28:11in your family.
28:12Never.
28:14We waited for what felt like hours.
28:17Eventually, the doctors tell us that they weren't able to save her.
28:25They told us that we couldn't leave the room, and then I was surrounded by investigators.
28:31They were asking us questions, who do you think you did this?
28:35I couldn't even think of one person that would do this to Joyce.
28:41When I returned home that day, I was scared to death.
28:45I had a fear that this person was watching me.
28:49I had a fear that this person was going to come back and harm one of us.
29:02Few details are being released in what deputies are now calling a homicide.
29:0655-year-old Joyce Burrow was found dead near her home early Wednesday.
29:11It's not a sprint, but it's a marathon, and we're going to exhaust any and all resources that are available.
29:18Just a week after the murder, investigators get a DNA hit on the yellow sponge they found in Joyce's home.
29:25The DNA came back to somebody who had previously had law enforcement interaction, and his name was Michael Porter.
29:33We found out that he had a sexual assault case in South Florida.
29:37We found out that quickly were pulling up everything that they possibly can on this person.
29:43Michael Porter is a truck driver, and in 2013, he's 53 years old.
29:48As it turns out, he works 20 minutes from where Joyce Burrow lives.
29:55We drove to a trucking company outside of Brantford, Florida, where we had learned that Michael Porter's vehicle was parked
30:02at.
30:03As we arrived, we walked around to the back and identified at Michael Porter's late model Ford truck.
30:10I walked over to the vehicle and noticed the tire tracks matched identical to the tire tracks left at the
30:18crime scene.
30:19There was some mismatched tire tread from the crime scene.
30:23This had oddball tires on the truck as well.
30:27This is the vehicle we were looking for.
30:31With no sign of Porter near his personal vehicle, officers across Florida are on the hunt for a 16-wheeler.
30:41Finally, on the afternoon of August 3rd, 2013, agents from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement
30:47intercept Michael Porter at a truck stop near the Florida-Georgia state line.
30:52What do you want to say to our family?
30:56Was it an accident? Did you mean to kill her?
31:00Do you think you'd get caught?
31:04I remember my phone ringing, and it was the sheriff.
31:07They asked us if we knew a person by the name of Michael Porter.
31:12I have no idea.
31:14Never even heard that name ever in my life.
31:18Michael Porter is arrested for the murder of Joyce Burrow.
31:21But it turns out he had actually been arrested for a similar attack years before.
31:28That investigation into his criminal record revealed Michael Porter was convicted in 1988
31:33of several charges, including sexual battery, in Pasco County.
31:37On June 26, 1987, 50-year-old woman named Morton Young was watching TV in her bedroom
31:46at the LaRue Motel in Holiday, Florida.
31:49At about 11.30, when she heard a noise, she went to see what was going on, and she was
31:55shocked
31:56to find a man standing there.
31:58He wrapped a belt around her neck and raped her while he submerged her in a half-filled tub.
32:06When he's done, he orders her to wait 30 minutes.
32:11The man leaves, and then she runs for help to a nearby gas station.
32:17A deputy sheriff found a Marlboro cigarette on the floor where she had been attacked.
32:22And as it turns out, Porter's DNA was found on that cigarette pot.
32:30Michael Porter, he got sentenced to life in prison.
32:33But 14 years later, he actually gets his conviction overturned and gets released.
32:40In 2002, Porter was set free when an appeals court found his due process rights were violated
32:46when several police reports were not given to him during the trial.
32:50In the decade after his release in 2002, Michael Porter faces domestic violence charges and pleads
32:57guilty to an assault and battery case.
33:00Porter does serve time in prison during this period, but he is out when Judith Osteen is abducted
33:06from her home.
33:07There were similarities between these cases.
33:10They were committed against women of a similar age.
33:14And there had been entry made into the woman's home.
33:20In the Judith Osteen case, the assailants probably thought they were going in on a single female.
33:27And then out pops Judith, which is like, now you've disrupted my plan.
33:33And his only reaction was to grab this petite little old lady, and off we go.
33:40We're two counties with a combined population back then of probably 30,000.
33:45What's the odds of having more than one serial rapist that like to rape old women?
33:52Investigators don't have any physical evidence connecting him to the abduction of Judith Osteen.
33:57But prosecutors in Gilchrist County move forward to try him for the rape and murder of Joyce Burrow.
34:05It was five years after Joyce's murder.
34:09The time was coming that we were going to have a trial.
34:12And knowing what we know about his past, I was scared to death that he was going to get off.
34:20As the trial starts, the judge issues a decision.
34:23There should be no mention of the 1988 trial involving 50-year-old Morton Young before the jury
34:29as the case had been expunged.
34:33When I saw Porter the first time in court, my heart was pounding.
34:38All I could think of was what Joyce was thinking that night.
34:42I couldn't even hardly look at him.
34:45On the second day of testimony, the trial takes an unexpected turn.
34:51They put one of Michael Porter's cellmates on the stand, and he had said that Porter told him,
34:58I got away with it once before I could get away with it again.
35:02But he wasn't supposed to mention the first case because it had been a sponge that resulted in a mistrial.
35:09I was just heartbroken thinking that he's going to get off.
35:14Finally, a new trial for Michael Porter is scheduled for October.
35:20We went back for the trial, hopeful this time that everything would go well.
35:26Porter would look at us, smile at us, wink at us.
35:31I think so.
35:35Made us very uncomfortable.
35:37He was so cocky sitting there.
35:40All right, what's going on?
35:41Our aunt was just worried.
35:44Oh, my God.
35:46The first time I heard the 911 call was at the trial.
35:50Heather asked Joyce questions, what happened?
35:54And you could hear Joyce say, he ran over me.
35:59Were they hitting you?
36:01No.
36:02No, no, no, no, no.
36:03Oh, my God.
36:05Oh, my God.
36:06I do remember the gasp in the room from the jury.
36:11She was a witness to her own murder and was able to speak at her own trial.
36:17That was huge.
36:29Testimony wraps, and both sides rest their case, and the jury begins deliberations.
36:34We were nervous that there wouldn't be justice for Joyce's murder.
36:39The jury, they deliberated for four hours, and we got a call that they had a verdict.
36:4658-year-old Michael Porter was accused of killing 55-year-old Joyce Burrow back in 2013.
36:52And tonight, a jury has found him guilty.
37:03I'm not going to say it's closure, because there's no such thing as closure.
37:07I was so glad I didn't have to look at his face again, and that none of us had to
37:11go through that again.
37:13It was a relief, but not a closure.
37:17There's no such thing.
37:19Five years after Joyce Burrow's murder, Michael D. Porter is sentenced to life in prison
37:25on charges of first-degree murder, burglary assault, and sexual battery.
37:30There's always still that fear.
37:33He'll file for an appeal and get off.
37:35But I think justice was served.
37:39I just hope everyone will remember Joyce as just the wonderful, kind-hearted person she was.
37:48I miss her.
37:49Life is not the same without her.
37:52Your family's stories, I've got no one to share them with.
37:57Because we thought we was going to grow, be old ladies together.
38:02So I miss her.
38:03I just miss her.
38:09Police still don't have any evidence linking Michael Porter to Judith Osteen's disappearance.
38:17So everything's still in question.
38:20I think Porter is a habitual rapist.
38:23I think he's done it before he did Joyce.
38:26I think it might be many people out there.
38:31The Judith Osteen case, it never got solved and remains active.
38:35But with Michael Porter, it seems like the shoe sure fits.
38:42Michael Porter remains a person of interest, and People Magazine Investigates has reached out for an interview.
38:48But to date, he has not yet responded.
38:51There's enough similarities between the two cases, and the fact that he does resemble the sketch makes him someone that
38:59we want to talk to now.
39:02After almost 14 years on the case, I retired from the Dix County Sheriff's Office in 2021.
39:09Right now, I'm the lead investigator on the case.
39:13And with me coming in 17 years later, everybody's fresh to me.
39:19This is the evidence that was on file at the Sheriff's Office for the Judith Osteen case.
39:25There was DNA that was collected at the house from various locations.
39:29There's some doorknob swabs and cigarette butts that are all housed in here.
39:36They have already been sent and processed through the lab.
39:40So far, none of the DNA from the scene has been matched to Michael Porter or any of the other
39:45suspects.
39:48Investigators never forget their previous cases.
39:52And it's the same with the cold cases.
39:53Once you open that box, it's your case.
39:57You don't ever let it really get too far out of your mind.
40:00I hope that people remember Judith, and I hope we can find out what happened to Judith.
40:09My mom was a wonderful person, a good person.
40:13At the end of the day, she saved her sister's life to give up her own.
40:18My Aunt Catherine, she's no longer with us.
40:21She had Alzheimer's at the nursing home before she passed.
40:28There's so much that has been taken away from our family.
40:32How do you deal with the fact that your mom has been abducted and murdered, and it's never going to
40:39leave your mind?
40:42After all of these years, I wish I could find out exactly what happened to her, because we don't have
40:49anything concrete.
40:51So I just pray that someone will come forward and give some information that can help solve this case.
41:25This is my next step.
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