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See No Evil - Season 14 - Episode 06: One Hour in Omaha
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00:14it was very clear that she had been beaten up she was involved in a very physical altercation
00:21now we have to start running down the details surveillance footage was really paramount in
00:27this investigation why did she need that money could she have gotten in trouble she's gone and
00:34now he's throwing things away right when he gets home something just didn't look right
00:39and it raised our suspicion where'd you go oh well camera doesn't lie
01:13Eileen Gowan is celebrating her birthday with her family
01:17happy birthday mommy happy birthday mom happy birthday mom she didn't like getting older
01:27that's for sure but she still looked good for being 60 okay let me get this food ready I'm starving
01:37she was getting her buzz on cooking just then her element in the kitchen she was an awesome cook
01:43can I help you can get me another beer Eileen and Sam were dating off and on for about a
01:52year and a
01:52half maybe two years my mom was married three times I believe she was a hopeless romantic and
02:00she was always looking for that right person cheers cheers she definitely wanted things to work with Sam
02:06they seemed like they were having a pretty good day together she just loved that we were all together
02:13I just wish I would have done more I wish I could have made it more special
02:28how can I help you ma'am I need to report a missing person Nicole came into police records and
02:34reported
02:35her mother missing on the 14th of February 2023 she last heard from her mother the morning of the 13th
02:42I spoke to her at like 8 30 in the morning and she told me that Sam kicked her out
02:48and she had nowhere to go
02:50there was arguing going on and it wasn't good so a friend of hers Mike offered to let her stay
02:59for a couple
03:00days I didn't have Mike's number I called Sam he said he hasn't heard from her it just was very
03:07odd to me I was worried
03:10I'll get an officer to look at this so Nicole provided us with two names Sam Brammer Eileen's on again
03:20off again boyfriend and Mike Brockman who she was currently living with so we needed to speak with both of
03:34them right away on the 15th of February we reached out to Sam Brammer and requested an interview with
03:42him the missing persons case was initially assigned to sergeant Ted Roberts I'm the sergeant he talked to on
03:49the phone my name is Ted Roberts you know Eileen she's never done this kind of thing she's never just
03:55you
03:56know took off and gone he explains that they would be together they would get in these arguments and
04:10they would break up Sam tells detectives that Eileen messaged him on February 13th the same day that
04:17Nicole last heard from her mom she texted me okay and want to know if I would come and get
04:23her he said
04:25she needed to ride from Sugar's Diner to Mike Brockman's residence my mom was working at Sugar's
04:31and Council Bloss as a server she would come in at 5 6 in the morning and clean it and
04:38then serve for
04:39the morning shift and then come back for her afternoon shift Sam says that he picked up Eileen in his
04:471999
04:47Ford F-150 at 8 30 in the morning they leave Sugar's Diner and he takes her to Mike Brockman's
04:54residence I pulled up she gets in the truck we take off and uh drops her off there then I'm
05:02left it's about two and a half miles from Sugar's Diner he would have dropped her off there at about
05:088 40 in the morning Sam indicated that he had not heard from her again
05:13when Sam mentions that it certainly makes us want to talk to Mike sooner than later
05:22detectives bring in Mike Brockman for questioning I'm Detective Branigan this is Sergeant Roberts thanks
05:28for coming in today law enforcement wants to know when was the last time Mike Brockman saw Eileen how did
05:34that relationship work or go tell me how you met Eileen Mike said he's a regular patron of Sugar's Diner
05:42he knows Eileen from frequenting that business we asked him if he had any type of contact with Eileen
05:51was there ever anything sexual between you and Eileen he flat out denied that he said he had no desire
05:57to have an intimate relationship with her why was Eileen staying at your place he allowed her to stay on
06:04this couch and stay there for a short period of time on Sunday night had a conversation with her that
06:10that
06:10was going to be her last night she needed to find another place to stay and he would take her
06:15to work
06:16that morning on the 13th Monday morning and he would come pick her up gather her things and he would
06:20take
06:21her wherever she wanted to go what time did you drop Eileen off at Sugar's Diner Monday morning
06:27he said he dropped her off at about 5 in the morning thanks Mike
06:34and he says he worked all day he arrives home around 5 o'clock in the evening so he waits
06:41until
06:41about 8 p.m. he still hasn't heard from Eileen what did you do then so he gathers up Eileen's
06:47belongings
06:48he drives two sugars himself and drops them off Mike's account is directly contradicted by Sam's
06:56interview that he picked up Eileen and he drove her straight out to Mike Brockman's house both Sam and
07:03Mike are released pending further investigation police are now trying to verify the stories that
07:15they've received from Sam and from Mike first thing they do is start looking for video so I reach out
07:21to Sugar's morning I'm sergeant Roberts this is detective Brannigan morning we'd like to ask you
07:28some questions that morning Eileen came in early she did her cleaning then she left at 8 30 in the
07:35morning was there anything odd or unusual about Eileen's mood or behavior she was supposed to be back at
07:42two o'clock in the afternoon and she didn't show up it was completely out of the ordinary do you
07:47have
07:48any surveillance cameras on the premises Sugar's diner has a camera at the back door has a camera at
07:55the front at the entrance what we're hoping to see is Eileen come to work and how she's acting we
08:04want
08:04to make sure that she's first off acting normal can you start just before 8 30 a.m. on the
08:10backdoor camera
08:28stop
08:34there's Eileen
08:37we see Eileen walking across the video screen she leaves work she doesn't look like she's in any type
08:44of distress okay keep playing they're really hoping that you know as that camera advances that they
08:52will be able to see what happens next where she goes who she's with Sam indicated that he was driving
08:59her out and he had a fairly distinctive truck he had a Ford F-150 we want to play that
09:11again
09:18it's grammar we see Sam's truck drive directly in front of that camera angle play that again
09:36we can clearly see Eileen sitting in the passenger seat of that truck so that confirms the statement
09:46from Sam that he did pick her up that morning at 8 30 and she was healthy alive and with
09:52him voluntarily
09:54it's time to start trying to verify Mike Brockman's story he indicated that he had dropped Eileen's
10:01belongings off that evening at the back door of Sugar's show me the camera that covers the back play just
10:08before an E.P.
10:17stop there
10:24we can clearly see Mike Brockman removing some items from his truck and leaving them at the back door
10:31and then he gets back in his truck and he drives off so he was telling us the truth now
10:38we know that at
10:398 30 in the morning that she's alive and well in the passenger seat of Sam Brammer's truck at about
10:45eight o'clock at night Mike Brockman is dropping off her belongings at the back door so we need to
10:51be able to put
10:52more things in that timeline we need to know where she was at what time who she was with what
10:56she was
10:57doing we don't have any of this information yet
11:08see now police have to start running down the details does Mike Brockman have an alibi for his
11:13whereabouts on the day of February 13th and so detectives went to his work
11:20the manager pulled up his timesheets on the morning of the 13th
11:24he clocks in around six o'clock in the morning Mike Brockman was still there talking with co-workers
11:30when she left around four o'clock Mike Brockman was at work all day long on the 13th just like
11:38he told
11:39us Mike has a pretty solid alibi so Sam Brammer was the last one that has been seen with her
11:46at 8 30 in
11:49the morning investigators switch gears the police are trying to find out who has spoken with Eileen
11:57who has seen Eileen after salmon picked her up from sugars so they reach out to friends and family and
12:04they end up speaking with Eileen's mom Kathleen at Dudley Court Apartments Kathleen tells detectives
12:11that Eileen visited her at around 8 45 a.m. how was Eileen when you saw her on February 13th
12:17Kathleen said that she
12:19was acting completely normal what did Eileen do when she came in Kathleen said that she went into the
12:25apartment went straight into the bedroom where the safe is kept retrieved the safe and she left the
12:33apartment that safe at about $1,200 into according to her mom that's a pretty good sizable amount of
12:40money Eileen's visit to her mom's apartment conflicts with Sam's account of her movements that morning
12:48Sam's interview indicated that he picked up Eileen at Sugar's at 8 32 and he drove her straight out to
12:56Mike Brockman's house he lived north and east of Sugar's about 5 10 minutes away Eileen's mom's apartment
13:05is around 15 minutes west of Sugar's and if he drove her straight out to Mike Brockman's house
13:10then she couldn't be at her mom's apartment at about 8 45 a.m. 10 minutes later
13:19so law enforcement is looking to try to verify again the accuracy of the statements
13:24they're able to acquire the surveillance footage from the Dudley court apartments okay start just
13:30before 8 40 a.m. so at about 8 45 in the morning we see Eileen enter Dudley court she
13:49comes in through
13:50the foyer she gets on the elevator next camera and then we see her come off the elevator on the
14:05second
14:05floor and she walks directly to her mom's apartment and she goes off camera and then about five minutes
14:18later you can see her coming out she's carrying the safe it was a small black safe with a handle
14:31on top
14:37why did she need that money did she need to just get away from everything for a little while or
14:44could
14:44she have gotten in trouble did she need to pay somebody off that's the lobby camera
14:52she exits out of the lobby unfortunately there's no cameras that cover where she goes once she leaves
14:58it's not seen with Sam Bramer but he's the one that left Sugar's with her and 15 minutes later
15:05she's on camera at Dudley court apartments so this is certainly pretty good evidence
15:09that she is still with Sam Bramer during this period of time
15:18across town Eileen's family struggles with her disappearance as time went we became more and more
15:28concerned my brother Jack made a missing person flyer and we all went every gas station every bar
15:38I mean just every business that would let us put it up
15:48I was calling her blowing her phone up no response
15:56my mom was my best friend and so I knew I had to stay strong for the girls but believe
16:03me there was times
16:04that I couldn't investigators refocus on Sam's movements on February 13th they review the data
16:17from traffic cameras to trace where he went that day Sam told us that he picks her up at 8
16:2430 took her
16:25to Mike Brockman's house and he went back home there are a couple of surveillance cameras that were
16:33positioned between Sugar's and Mike Brockman's house that captured the highway Sam's truck is not captured on
16:40that video but Sam's truck is identified at 9 28 a.m. on the 13th heading westbound on West Broadway
16:48at
16:49about 36th Street which would be leading into Omaha Nebraska still not in the direction of Mike's house
16:55which is north and east of town the next surveillance camera photograph we receive is Sam returning now
17:04traveling eastbound at the same location at 10 28 a.m. one hour later so for one hour he's somewhere
17:14in Nebraska
17:16there is someone in the passenger side but you can't see the passenger's face
17:24something just didn't look right and it raised our suspicion
17:35investigators invite Sam to the police department for a second interview we began talking with him again
17:42about his movements that day now this time he knows that we have some questions
17:47he's prepared and he gives us a little bit more information so I went and picked her up and she
17:54got
17:54in the truck but she didn't want to go home right away so me and her just went right down
17:59Broadway and
17:59then she wanted to stop at her mom's house he tells us well I didn't take her straight to Mike
18:06Brockman's
18:07house first she needed to go see her mom so we went to Dudley Court I stopped in her mom's
18:13house
18:13and she was in there for I don't know five or ten minutes she come out of there got back
18:18in
18:19she just said she wanted to talk to her mom that's what she told me did she come out with
18:23anything did
18:23she have anything she had her purse and she had a black coat seat with her she wanted to talk
18:28to me about
18:29helping her get in the apartment now we know what that money was for that money was to put down
18:35on an apartment the deposit first month's rent we received video photos from sure what apartments
18:42and located them walking up to the door seeing that the office doors were closed and then they left
18:49that confirms that part of his story but he still ends up with the story that he drops her off
18:55at
18:55Mike Brockman's house we know that he didn't take her to to Mike Brockman's house because we have the
19:14video of him going back west we have a camera 36th and Broadway and we have your truck going westbound
19:21at 9 28 a.m going to Omaha I told you I don't remember going home well camera doesn't lie
19:31and then one hour later you're coming back from Omaha and you're going he's down back coming back into
19:37accounts plus one hour later where'd you go I'm not sure you know I know that he's not telling me
19:43the truth I don't know why he's lying to me yet but there's a lot of things that just aren't
19:50adding up
19:50we'd like to look a little bit further in your phone and take it get the location information
19:55off of it so that we can see where you went during that time okay we apply for search warrants
20:02for
20:02Sam and Eileen's phone we can find out the movements of their phones
20:14while investigators wait for the phone data they review the surveillance footage from the
20:21apartments where Sam lives play the camera that faces the parking lot
20:31that's Sam's truck this camera angle shows Sam Brammer arriving home at 12 59 on the 13th
20:40the day that Eileen went missing
20:45he gets out fiddles around with his truck
20:54Sam takes some things out of the truck and walks away
21:00what's he got in the bag
21:11is there a camera that shows where Sam goes right at the entrance is a dumpster
21:19we can see Sam and he walks toward that dumpster carrying whatever it is that he's carrying
21:35what's he throwing in the trash it's hard to tell go back to the first camera he returns to his
21:43truck
21:45he's opening up the doors he looks like he's cleaning a couple of things up
21:50why is he spending so much time in the passenger side
21:53that door is open with there's there's a tree there it's hard to see exactly what he's doing
22:05then he closes up the truck and walks back to his apartment we can clearly see that Eileen's not in
22:12the truck at this time
22:16she's gone and now he's throwing things away right when he gets home that raises some red flags with me
22:25by the time we realized that footage existed it was too late to find out what he put in the
22:30dumpster
22:30that dumpster had already been emptied
22:48the surveillance camera on the 14th shows him leaving in his truck after dark about 8 p.m
23:06he returns at about 10 p.m so he's gone for about two hours
23:11we need to know where sam went so we still have some unresolved questions that we would like to talk
23:19with him about
23:26we had tried to contact him uh leaving messages but we didn't get any response investigators issue a polo
23:33for sam and his pickup a patrol officer spots the truck in council bluffs later that afternoon
23:44sam is obviously beginning to elude he speeds up it's a dangerous pursuit he's driving recklessly
23:55there's traffic the speeds are getting pretty high he's running stop signs
24:03so it's determined that this pursuit needs to end a warrant is obtained for sam's arrest for eluding
24:18three days later sam brammer turns up at the police department
24:23i'm sam brammer i got outstanding warrants i'm here to get myself up
24:28i drove straight to the station and prepared to talk to him detective branigan questioned sam for a
24:36third time about his movements on the day that eileen disappeared i'm trying to really lock him in to a
24:44the final route that he took where did you go between 9 28 and 10 28 with eileen he now
24:52um admits
24:53to having new memories uh he now remembers that they did actually travel over across to omaha
24:58he said they went to carter lake to the park which is actually in omaha and he said that they
25:06fooled
25:07around a little bit so that was his reason for being in omaha for an hour and where did you
25:16go then
25:16i dropped her off at mike's place but if you don't believe me i can show you the route we
25:22took
25:22and i thought you know that's a great idea let's do that
25:31we turned up 205th street and 205th is where mike brockman lives he says this right here is where
25:38i turned around she got out grabbed her purse grabbed her safe and she just stood there as i
25:46drove away so he's able to claim at that point he has no idea where she went because he last
25:51saw her
25:52standing on the side of 205th street between two homes i absolutely know he's lying at that point
25:59he never made it there he never went to 205th street
26:05so we drive back to his apartment i pulled up right behind his truck and i asked him
26:10sam do you mind if we take a look in your truck he says you're not going to find anything
26:16he said
26:16we just want to look and see if there's anything in there that tells us that there was a disturbance
26:21between you and eileen inside that truck so detective fletcher looked inside the vehicle
26:28he didn't see anything completely out of the ordinary sam brammer knew now that we were definitely
26:34interested in this truck we wanted to see inside that truck but at this point we only have a missing
26:41person we don't have a crime so i don't have probable cause to seize or search anything
26:52sam is taken back to the station and released on bail for his traffic violations
27:00investigators refocus on tracing sam's movements on february 13th the day eileen disappeared
27:07when sam comes back from omaha the traffic camera captures his truck at 10 28 but we didn't know where
27:16he went after that so i requested a couple of our detectives to go canvas every business in
27:21that area for any kind of video footage that they could find and they did just that
27:28we were able to secure video from one of the businesses in this area it's a burger king
27:32in the 3200 block of west broadway right by the traffic camera at 36th and broadway play from
27:44there we can see sam brammer's truck pull up to the drive-thru
27:51okay rewind let's have another look
27:55it captures both him and eileen in the passenger side we know it's eileen but the way she's
28:03position is very awkward it's strange zoom into eileen
28:14it looks like her right arm has crossed her body it just she doesn't look right and all
28:18you can see is her lower body and nothing moves the whole time that he's sitting there nothing moves
28:37we watched it several times i never thought that i would ever see a piece of video footage
28:43like this we started noticing brammer look at his chest it's really moving up and down
28:51he was taking very large breaths he was gasping
28:57you could see the nervousness on brammer after that we were convinced that eileen was either hurt
29:07very bad and unconscious or already deceased
29:14and that we received a phone call
29:209-1-1 what's the address of your emergency
29:23iowa what's going on so we're driving down the road and there is a dead body on the side of
29:29the road
29:29you know if it's male or female it's female for sure
29:33on february 26th a 911 call came in alerting authorities to a body that had been located
29:40i was the on-call supervisor that day and so that's why i was dispatched to it
29:47i could see that the body was on the side of the roadway in the ditch the body had jeans
29:53on
29:54and a coat with a zipper and i was aware of the clothing that eileen had last been seen in
30:00so it was pretty apparent that that was her
30:06detective you seen a black safe box nope
30:10the safe wasn't anywhere in the area she was missing her glasses
30:16one of her shoes was missing her purse was not in the area her phone wasn't around her
30:22when could she have been dumped here
30:24it had snowed several days before and so the snow had begun to melt
30:31that's when the body was able to be seen
30:34we could see that there really wasn't snow underneath the body
30:38which suggested that she had been there prior to when it snowed
30:42since roughly the 13th on the day she went missing
30:47there was a laceration on the top of her head
30:50there was also a ligature mark on her neck that we noted
30:53the number of contusions and injuries that eileen sustained
30:58it was very clear that she had been beaten up
31:02she was involved in a very physical altercation
31:05now my investigation ramps up
31:09now we absolutely have a homicide
31:17investigators contact eileen's family with the news
31:21detective brannigan said i'm sorry to inform you but
31:24it was your mom's body that we found
31:29i just lost it
31:33that little sliver of hope is of course gone
31:37you don't ever think that something like this is going to happen to someone you know
31:41i couldn't tell my daughter
31:43that the person she loved so much was never coming back
31:47i felt between helpless and hopeless
31:50my focus was they better get him before i do
31:56detective secure a warrant to search sam's apartment
31:59and his pickup truck
32:01the truck wasn't there that night
32:03we had announced ourselves
32:06entered
32:06sam was inside the residence
32:09he didn't want to talk to us
32:11put sam on the stairs and search the apartment
32:15sam shares that apartment with his granddaughter emily
32:18we asked emily what happened to her grandpa's truck
32:23my grandpa told me to tell anybody who asks about the truck and where it is he told me to
32:30say i don't know
32:32that's all he told me to say was i don't know where it is
32:36i told the police officer that a few days prior my grandpa asked me if i could follow him in
32:44his truck
32:45to the scrap yard in carter lake he pulled his truck in to go get crushed
32:51we received still photos from lakeside auto salvage
32:55we can clearly see his truck his driver's license
33:04our belief was that there would have been incriminating forensic evidence in that truck
33:09he was able to get that truck crushed before we were able to get it searched
33:14we missed that opportunity it just makes you shake your head it's unbelievable what else could happen
33:27detectives received sam's and eileen's cell phone data from february 13th
33:32we were able to triangulate their locations with cell towers the information that we received shows
33:40the phones traveling together up until about 11 o'clock in the morning
33:46and right about that time the phones are no longer communicating which means they were either turned off
33:53or they were placed on airplane mode investigators search for surveillance cameras close to the location
34:00of the last ping from eileen's phone we were able to find some surveillance video from a department
34:08of transportation camera out in trainer iowa on highway 92. at 11 46 a.m on february 13th a camera
34:17captures sam brammer's pickup sam's truck is seen traveling east on highway 92 through trainer iowa
34:27and he drives out of sight continuing east
34:37and at 12 34 we again see sam's truck this time traveling on highway 92 back toward council bluffs
34:47now we can clearly see through his windshield as he's driving he's the only person inside that truck
34:56but eileen's phone is with him
35:06sam continues all the way to his home when he gets home at 12 59
35:11we know eileen is not in that truck because he has it all opened up
35:19i believe that sam dumped her somewhere east of of trainer just to get her out of his truck
35:39the next day we know he's gone for two hours on the 14th as we see the surveillance video showing
35:46him
35:46leaving the apartment complex about 8 pm
35:50and returning at 10 pm that would have been plenty of time for him to drive retrieve her body take
35:58her to
35:58the different location and drop her body on mormon bridge road
36:05law enforcement is really you know looking at motive at this point so we've obtained sam spank records
36:12i came upon one deposit that occurred on the 15th of february this was a deposit of 1200 in cash
36:22this amount of money matches the amount of money that should have been in the safe that eileen had
36:28video from the bank does show sam brammer enter the bank and give cash to the teller
36:36this was very significant because eileen has the safe that has 1200 cash in it that has gone missing
36:42and then two days later he's showing up at the bank depositing coincidentally 1200 in cash he had taken
36:50possession of her safe so at this point we had enough probable cause to issue warrants for sam brammer's
37:02arrest on may 24th sam brammer is arrested he was formally charged in august of 2023 with second
37:12degree murder and then the trial began in mid-november prosecutors lay out the events that led to eileen's
37:21murder sam picked her up at sugar's at 8 32 he drove her to her mom's apartment where she retrieved
37:29the
37:29safe then they started heading westbound through the city of council bluffs across to omaha they drove to
37:38carter lake oh no no come on come on come on jump out it's a beautiful day come on come
37:46here
37:54i posited to the jury that he's assaulting her with something more than his fist something significant
38:02enough to cause a laceration to the left side of her scalp he brutally assaulted her while he was
38:08choking her and during that assault she died he then puts her back in the truck and heads back into
38:18council bluffs at 10 36 a.m she can be seen now awkwardly slumped in the drive-through at burger
38:28king
38:32we have cell phone data and the surveillance video that showed that he was heading east
38:38toward trainer where he dumped her body shortly thereafter he's heading back westbound back into
38:45council bluffs without eileen and then he arrives back home the cottonwood apartments he grabs something
38:53from the bed of the truck and we see him walk across and deposit that item in the dumpster
39:02the next day he's leaving the apartment complex about 8 p.m to collect her body from maybe where
39:08it had initially been dumped to where it ultimately ends up north of town at mormon bridge road in 152nd
39:18then sam bramer deposited 1200 cash probably taken from her safe
39:26on january 18 2024 the judge sentenced sam bramer to the maximum of 65 years in prison for murder in
39:34the
39:34second degree abuse of a corpse and theft in the second degree mike brockman was cleared of any wrongdoing
39:41whatsoever surveillance footage was really paramount in this investigation even though
39:48the crime itself was not captured on video almost the entire before and almost the entire after was
39:56captured on surveillance video without the cameras we would have possibly never solved this crime
40:06it was partial release when we found out that he was guilty but then the other part of it is
40:13it didn't
40:14bring mom back so that would give anything to talk to my mom one more time
40:20i just miss her big personality and it's infuriating that someone could take that for no good reason
40:32i would just choose to remember her as somebody who was always willing and able to do her best for
40:38her kids and her grandkids she was funny she loved life she had this weird laugh that was contagious
40:49she was just a great person whenever i needed her whether it was in the middle of the night or
40:54she had something going on she would stop what she's doing and come to be with me just anything
41:03she was there i love and miss her very much
41:11next time on see no evil now when you're the death of your emergency calls of death had been ruled
41:16a
41:16homicide they said it was very clear strangulation i noticed several cameras we see the suspect we need
41:23to find out who he is i want to get this person off the streets immediately
41:26so
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