#video #Girl on the Run: The Hunt for Americas Most Wanted Woman - Season 1 - Episode 03: The Female Charles Manson Eng Sub
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00:12the whole state and country was looking for I was chomping on the bone for every day of every week
00:19of every month I want to catch her well I know but I'm not giving up either I haven't caught
00:26her
00:26but guess what sometimes they don't want to be caught oh without a doubt law enforcement was
00:31under incredible pressure the prison that let her go was embarrassed by this we didn't know what she
00:38was going to do it's kind of like a caged possum if you push them in the corner they're going
00:42to bite
00:43you that was her urgency in and finding her and then you know all my bosses are talking to their
00:52bosses and talking to their bosses in a Washington I was informed by my supervisor and he had been in
00:58communication with America most wanted that wasn't my call that was your call but that point I had
01:03nothing else to lose here comes the roller coaster again good evening now our first story tonight is
01:10about an artist everybody was at the TV to watch this segment some artists can take a block of clay
01:17and manipulate it mold it into anything they can think of she manipulates people instead of clay
01:24and I remember thinking that's not me and even when she was sent off to prison she never stopped
01:31working her craft they don't have a clue they don't know who they're looking for everyone around her
01:37but she was putty in her hands
01:49Rockville Correctional Facility Rockville Indiana
01:55a place more than 1,000 women all home Tom and I were in a hotel room and
02:03we watched what America's most wanted aired one of those women was Sarah Pender this is her
02:10entertaining some of her fellow prisoners the longer I watched myself on TV
02:17the worse it got I mean I'm not stupid I knew what they were doing but behind her angelic good
02:26looks
02:26and endearing persona former Marion County Deputy Prosecutor Larry Sells says Sarah Pender is a woman to
02:34be feared she has a Charles Manson like ability to manipulate people to act as surrogates for and
02:42committing crimes everything you know America was wanted that wasn't the person I saw that wasn't
02:48the person I knew that wasn't the person I talked with all that stuff sort of ramped up
02:55um the scrutiny and the pressure and the fear of her not just in Indiana but obviously since
03:03it's on been on America's most wanted everyday normal civilian people are going to be looking
03:10out for her Sarah's a convicted murderer she's a con she's a convict she did con some cons to help
03:16her but since she's been out she's flushed them down the toilet as if she flushed the two bodies in
03:22back of the dumpster but manipulation is a story I hate to say it
03:30but it's very common for a man to blame a woman for their actions
03:37men will point the finger and say the woman made me do it
03:42and her is like a chameleon we know she's manipulative and she probably is already working
03:49her charms on someone new let's put Sarah Pender back behind bars tonight
03:55when America's most wanted uh had got involved um it generated a ton of leads
04:02you know she's at her truck stop right now in Nebraska or she's in Oklahoma we started you know
04:07it's just like tips were all over the country from Minnesota California Florida Texas I mean there was no
04:16nexus to these locations so you couldn't let these tips lay dormant you had to go
04:23so it was a trade-off but I knew though that it was not favorable for her it just keeps
04:29on putting
04:29the pressure on any movements that she may be trying to make or not be able to make
04:35as I obsessed with the hunt
04:39that's a that's kind of a crazy word to use
04:43I guess I was a little obsessed
04:50after America's Most Wanted aired
04:53friends that I turned to whenever I needed help now they were gone
04:59every moment was tainted with knowing that just a glance or someone that I'd been in prison with
05:10or someone with a great memory was gonna spot me
05:16and of course again I dyed my hair
05:21and I bought colored contacts changed my eye color to hazel
05:29I went to the eye doctor I bought glasses
05:33I did not know how long my relationship with Tom was going to last
05:40I felt like it was important for me to keep moving
05:45so Tom had arranged for me to stay with the niece of a friend of his
05:49and it just happened that a friend of hers was looking for an estimator for a construction
05:58company that his dad owned and I got on the bus and I just pretended that everything was fine
06:22a couple weeks later
06:24it was literally ferreting through a bunch of leads from all over the country that were absolutely crazy leads
06:31I mean I had stacks and stacks of stuff that came in from there from America's Most Wanted
06:35I'm like I don't have time to go through I mean these were just like nutty people but it's what
06:40it was
06:40it was leaves but it was just not various tangible leaves
06:46and then all of a sudden I had a call from an internal affairs investigator at Rockville
06:50and he was was was my eyes and ears internally in the prison
06:55now the department of corrections I wasn't aware of this they have an email
06:59system set up for where anybody can send messages to and from the offenders
07:03they got an email it was directed to this inmate
07:08her name is KP she used to have a relationship with Sarah
07:13they thought Sarah may be trying to contact KP
07:19using another offender's login
07:22is she going to be that stupid to use a login of another person and try to communicate with her
07:26former girlfriend inside we couldn't ignore it
07:32we surrounded the house where Pender was maybe using this account
07:37the America's Most Wanted crew were there but the anticipation of this could be it this could be the
07:43one we were ready to rock and roll with what we call shock and awe you know waking people up
07:51you got a search warrant come on out do you know what it's about no i have a clue all
07:54right
07:55we're searching for a girl what girl Sarah it scared him to death when the eyes came to the door
08:00she's got 110 years that we're ahead you don't
08:05she could have been there unfortunately daybreak revealed Pender was nowhere in sight
08:11it was truly an offender reaching out to KP nothing more than that uh Sarah had nothing to do with
08:18that but the best thing now i'm gonna back up out of here let the dust settle for a couple
08:23days
08:24is that a feeling of embarrassment a little bit that there you are on national television
08:28no no i don't give a about where America's Most Wanted put it with me i didn't care about what
08:35washed they were doing their hollywood okay did it keep the light on pender it kept the light on pender
08:54being on the run i had no idea what i was really getting myself into
09:02but Chicago was very convenient i felt like i could blend in
09:14each day i went to work and i felt like a normal person
09:20i would put my high heels in my backpack put on my tennis shoes
09:27listening to the sound of my footsteps on the pavement as i walked up to get lunch
09:33i don't know if i ever forgot that i was a fugitive but there was not a time that i
09:39did not enjoy
09:41experiencing new things i met this guy on the corner walking his two dogs and chatted him up about
09:51where did you get your dogs and he had rescued them from some place and it was just it was
09:57the most normal beautiful thing
10:05and i and i thought this is real life this is real life
10:13those are the times that
10:17those are the times that being a fugitive didn't matter
10:29hinder is on the 15 most wanted fugitive list but she might not look like this police say she has
10:35cut
10:35her hair colored it multiple times added a nose ring and a tongue piercing they've got 15 their profiling
10:42and she's the only woman on there it's it's individuals that the u.s marshals at the federal
10:46level feel are the most dangerous people that they are actively hunting
10:53it was really odd to see that i was on this top 15 list
11:01i knew that i wasn't dangerous i know that i'm not a threat to the community but they don't know
11:07that
11:08that strong belief that she hasn't left the state of indiana if she has it's just been for a short
11:14stint i'm real dangerous with my charming smile
11:24sorry
11:27when sarah was elevated the u.s marshall's top 15 poster with that came a 25 000 reward
11:33and all that is is to get people to drop a dime on her i was hoping that eventually the
11:38u.s marshals
11:38would just give up and find something else to do more important she may think she knows her
11:44capabilities and she was good but i wouldn't want to be her right now
12:07i worried about sarah every day i lost my daughter because she has to be on the run
12:17i don't know how to explain it it it messes with your mind you know to to not know for
12:27sure
12:28what's around the corner thanksgiving it's a time of being thankful knowing that she was still alive
12:39i was thankful for that
12:43but it's hard not to have your family together sitting at the table
12:51on thanksgiving day tom left to see his family
12:58and so i walked down to the denny's down the street and picked up a traditional thanksgiving meal with
13:07two pieces of pecan pie
13:11yeah it was lonely
13:19when i was sitting in my apartment i had bought a guitar
13:24just a cheap acoustic guitar and i had to go in my room to play it because i was afraid
13:31that my next
13:32door neighbor would hear me playing and singing and that was one of the things that they had put on
13:38america's most wanted is that i like to sing and play guitar and i thought i have to hide this
13:47i have to hide this part of me
13:51i couldn't be myself because then i would be too much like sarah pender
13:59it was emotionally exhausting
14:05i just wanted to resume my normal life
14:10the investigators say sarah pender is on the loose and dangerous
14:14you know we received numerous tips and calls but here lately they have uh since dried up and
14:21uh wanted fugitives they're usually on the run for you know days maybe weeks very rarely are they
14:27months when i was hunting sarah though she was she was all-encompassing in my my mind from when i
14:35went
14:35to sleep and then i woke up and a lot of times i'm watching tv with my my daughter and
14:40my son and my wife
14:42and my phone ring i mean from state police detectives the internal affairs to america's most wanted
14:50they were all trying to get information to me every lead i went to everything i went and checked out
14:58you have hope and you have you have what if
15:03i was gone all the time and i was coming up empty-handed
15:10and then i i fell down the deep hole of of i started drinking too much
15:20i would decompress in the evening with with absolute vodka and wake up with a headache in the morning
15:28i suffered chasing her ass for four or five months
15:35yeah i take ownership i wasn't around so that's all i want to say about my personal life
15:48the fear is not about returning to prison because i know what prison is
16:01the fear was that i would lose my freedom not that i would go back to prison
16:10one thing is punishment and the other one is loss
16:18i had started packing my things because i was moving in a couple of days to a new apartment
16:28it kept me on the move to avoid detection
16:35and then
16:40it was a loud knock it's 11 o'clock at night and he says maintenance
16:46and i shuffled across the parquet floor in my little pink slippers
16:52and i remember looking out the peephole
16:58and i see these four strapping men
17:03i think a couple of them had on you know bulletproof vests
17:09my initial reaction is grab my go bag go out the back there was a back stairwell my escape route
17:21and i paused
17:25this was it you got me the universe let me out of prison and now the universe is telling me
17:32it's time
17:32to go back and i opened up the door just to let me get my shoes
17:48and here are four men escorting me out of the building in handcuffs
17:57just walking to the car
18:02like nothing else is different in the world
18:22i remember i was in the car driving with my family going to see my in-laws
18:28and i got a phone call saying that pender was apprehended in chicago by an anonymous tipster
18:35that's how i found out merry christmas
18:38december 2008
18:41would have been nice to be the one to track her out and put the cuffs on her yeah but
18:44you guess what
18:46she didn't out with us she was put back in the cage
18:50i turned my family around i went to chicago
18:59when i finally got to meet sarah the first thing she said she goes you know what you're much better
19:04look in the person he didn't strike me as someone particularly special
19:15basically ryan had been obsessed with finding me for four months
19:21ryan talked to me like i knew him like he knew me
19:28there was a relief she was happy to see me i was happy to see her because she's tired of
19:34running
19:34she told me she was tired she wasn't the only fugitive that i've caught where she's like yeah
19:37i'm tired of running i'm tired of looking by my back
19:40does ryan harman know you
19:48ryan harman knows me as much as you know me
19:55and we got in the car to take her back to indianapolis
20:04we had u.s marshals undercover following out of chicago
20:09i was in the back seat with her and i put a digital recorder in my pocket
20:12i hadn't known i didn't know anything about who helped her while she was on the run
20:17i had plan a b c and d you know and my friends like it really i don't like this
20:21guy he's old
20:22he's in his 50s he's very clean cut what was his name his name was tom
20:31that's when she first divulged to make her friend thea had introduced her to a guy by the name of
20:35tom
20:36welch tom is someone who is uh he's a sex addict and so he spends a lot of time and
20:43money and strip
20:44gloves and what have you so basically what yeah in the beginning i turned into an arrangement
20:53he's the one that sent her to cincinnati and he acted chicago and gave her a phone and gave her
20:58money
20:58and all for getting your nuts off
21:02but man i didn't expect to hear what i heard and i was so goddamn close to getting her if
21:09he hadn't
21:09entered the picture i mean she was choked law enforcement pulling to the indiana women's prison
21:15in this maroon torres sarah pender in the left back seat pender now with red hair wearing a purdue
21:22sweatshirt they escort her inside the prison news everywhere outside the prison i mean it was i
21:28walked into a guillotine of like a it was crazy sarah how's it feel to get caught and then
21:43i gave my life for the hunt
21:47but i lost a lot i lost my marriage my children right after this capture i didn't know that was
21:57going to
21:57happen didn't surprise me when it happened but it happened because of her
22:04big question there
22:08was it worth it
22:12i don't know
22:17the data is january 8 2009 time is approximately 1 30. i'm present with a tom welsh
22:25reference sarah pender matter tom if you can just start me at the beginning once upon a time
22:33first time i met her at the hotel there at uh speedway and we were literally six eight ten hours
22:40of just sex just you know and so uh i hate to say i started to have feelings after about
22:48the third day
22:49i mean we're dating we are freaking dating it's not like oh there's a cop there was none of that
22:54she's on the run she's a u.s marshals top 15 fugitive and you're carrying on a relationship
22:59like you picked her up off of tinder
23:03i wasn't hiding anything i just got into a love thing and then when i saw that she was captured
23:12that's when my world came apart not only that you were going to or somebody was going to talk to
23:17me
23:17but my wife
23:21he told me his story with the attorney president because the prosecutor agreed to give him a
23:24proper statement which means you give him a cleanup statement it won't prosecute you well
23:28listen to what he had to tell me he should get 24 years when i was returned to prison they
23:43told me
23:43that i was sentenced to one year in solitary confinement that was an administrative move which
23:52certainly we have that latitude if we feel like somebody's still a danger to other inmates to the
24:01whatever if they're a danger we'll keep them locked up i was told by officers by staff you embarrass
24:12the department of corrections therefore they're going to keep you in solitary confinement
24:21solitary confinement is cold nothing but steel and concrete
24:27there's a concrete slab with a thin mat with a steel toilet and a steel sink
24:34and that is it
24:37all you have is your mind and it just ravages you
24:41you think about all the things that i had done
24:45all the things that i didn't do
24:48it just eats eats at you in this cycle and and you can't get it to shut up
25:02in my mind i thought i was getting out at the end of the year
25:07but i was told that i would not be released
25:10and when they told me it was indefinite
25:17my mind started like winding down almost
25:28so i was sitting on the floor and i was trying to play solitaire
25:36but the numbers didn't make any sense to me
25:47i see things but i don't know
25:52something is happening something is happening i don't know what's happening something is happening to me
25:58literally in my mind
26:01and i'm just gripping apart and just this part of me just floats away
26:12and then nothing i have no thoughts i have no feelings nothing it was just
26:22like white noise
26:25whenever i would think about the future
26:35i couldn't see it
26:41and there was just this darkness there was this abyss
26:49i just kept sliding and i was afraid i was very afraid to lose my mind
27:12i knew i knew that it was taking its toll on her but i didn't know how to help her
27:19i didn't know
27:20what to say i didn't know you know where to go what what do i do
27:28it was close to mother's day and i get a phone call around eight o'clock in the evening
27:36it was larry cells the prosecutor and he says bonnie i've done 72 murder cases and one was a mistake
27:48and that was sarah and she started crying said bonnie you may not believe this but it's my opinion based
27:59upon what i know now that your daughter sarah did not receive a fair trial after sarah was arrested
28:08an author by the name of steven miller decided he's gonna write a book on the case
28:13so he asked me if i'd go to homicide department with him to help him look at the homicide file
28:24so i got it out and we're going through it and i recollected most of the stuff was there
28:31but there was a file there that said floyd pennington he testified against sarah that she admitted to him
28:40that she got rick hall to commit these murders and inside the file there were two legal size sheets
28:47of paper and i saw what it was i said oh there was a whole list of violent criminals drug
29:00dealers
29:01criminal gangs and even somebody named pennington a relative of floyd's that was there
29:08i call it a snitch list and it was a list of people that he would turn in to get
29:14a better
29:15deal it was like a rat crawled up out of the sewer to try to gain some advantage for himself
29:23and convince
29:24me that he was telling the truth about sarah pender maybe because i wanted to be convinced
29:31that i should have had that i don't know why they didn't give it to me
29:37but it made me realize that there was more to the sarah pender case
29:46in 2013 when i was a reporter for the indianapolis star
29:50and larry had called me and said look i have some problems um with this case i need to tell
29:58you
29:58about one thing that especially after the trial years after the trial i recognized was something
30:06that should have been considered even more than it was at the time
30:11was the letter identified as being written by sarah where she confessed to the murder
30:20i knew in my heart that she didn't write this letter
30:25and i thought there's no way what you know where'd you come up with this
30:31i had five handwriting experts that all said the same thing that she did not write that letter
30:42the circumstances around how that letter was delivered to prosecutors was always a little
30:48bit suspect it was not found by the guards it was handed over by rick and his attorney
30:59i recall he had had a cellmate my name was steve logan rick asked him i want you to do
31:08me a favor
31:10rick gave him her letters sarah had written in the beginning and steve copied her handwriting
31:19stephen logan and being an affidavit admitting that he wrote that confession letter rick hole had him write it made
31:30him write it
31:32there was a uh letter that was used at the trial that um
31:41was manufactured you know i didn't write it
31:47uh somebody else did so that uh i mean i just
31:53it hit me like a you know a load of bricks this is what happened allow myself to be set
32:02up both for
32:03pennington and the phony letter the prosecutor who called this woman female charles manson is now saying
32:14i was wrong she's not that if you had had this at trial would you have prosecuted sarah for murder
32:23absolutely not larry sells is working with pender's new attorney to present the evidence to the marion
32:29county prosecutor's office pender's attorney is still waiting to meet with prosecutor curry's office about the
32:45case
32:46i had been in solitary for over five years
32:53and when they told me they were going to let me out into the transitional unit and they were going
32:59to
32:59put me on close observation it felt really good just to hear them say well we're going to try letting
33:05you out i know that larry sells found new evidence that changed his mind about my case and
33:17i believed that i was going to go home i always believed that if you had new evidence to prove
33:27you know your innocence that that was what you do and they fix it now we have something that the
33:36authorities will you know will pay attention to on i just knew i was going home i knew it would
33:43take
33:43some months but i just knew i was going home and being so happy and imagining all these things that
33:51i
33:51wanted to do with my family
34:10by the time that i received the no
34:18i had grown enough to know that
34:23that it would absolutely devastate my parents if i killed myself
34:38and i have not told people that
34:44but i also know that it's my only shot at freedom
35:04i know what it's like to be in prison where you don't belong
35:08and who better to represent somebody like sarah than me
35:20i was in prison for almost 18 years until i was exonerated
35:24and when i got out i made a conscious decision to go on to law school and represent people who
35:31i
35:31believe were wrongfully convicted or people who were abused by the system and i really think sarah
35:36what if it's not really fit in a piece of this person and how how many awareness that he can
35:38be
35:38that all he has to be a journalist the first person who is against him he can't get to know
35:42what i'm
35:42or what i was going to do
35:42even with the evidence out there unfortunately there's no possibility of just exonerating
35:48sarah
35:49The track we're on is asking for mercy.
35:53I have a session. I'm James.
35:55Jay Snyder. Judd. Resigning.
35:56All right. Be seated. Good morning.
35:58Because to put her in solitary confinement for five uninterrupted years
36:04so outstrips the crime she committed,
36:08and I believe that the sum of it lends itself toward modifying the sentence.
36:15We're going to try to convince the judge that I'm worth letting go.
36:21State of Indiana versus Sarah Pender.
36:23So she is present and by counsels, and the state is here by Mr. Cicchini.
36:27Yes, sir. I'm welcome.
36:28Judge, we are here for a modification hearing,
36:30but that is because of the brutal murders of Trisha Norman and Andrew Cataldi 25 years ago.
36:37Their lives were cut short at young ages,
36:39and as evidenced by the letters that their family members submitted to the court today,
36:44they continue to grieve their losses,
36:45and it continues to impact their lives on a daily basis.
36:48And there has been a great deal of scrutiny about Ms. Pender's role in the crime
36:52and what she did or did not do.
36:55While we're not here to relitigate that judge,
36:58we have to recognize that the prosecutor on the case
37:00who sought and obtained the 110-year executed sentence
37:03has recently changed his opinion about both the veracity of that conviction
37:07as well as the justness of that sentence.
37:10And that is leaving the court with the difficult task of what to do with Ms. Pender's sentence
37:15to hand down a just decision of this matter.
37:17It is the defense motion, so I'll hear any witnesses and evidence you have to present.
37:22Hence call Roland Pender, Your Honor.
37:24Has she matured since she's been in prison?
37:27Oh, very much. Yes, very much she's matured.
37:30She, uh, I, uh, I seek advice from Sarah.
37:34You can't make up for time loss.
37:38And I've lost 25 birthdays, 25 Christmases, 25 everything.
37:46I pray that I can have the rest of my life with my daughter to hug her every morning.
37:56Yeah, today is one of the biggest days of my life
38:00because I'm asking for the chance to be free and to not die in prison.
38:05You know, I know that I deserve to be punished for what I did wrong
38:08and for what I did not do right.
38:12Did you and Trisha's families?
38:14I want to tell them that I am so sorry for the terrible loss that you've suffered
38:21and for the role that I played in it.
38:24I have paid for it 10 times over with 25 years in prison
38:29and five years a month and 12 days in isolation.
38:35But, Your Honor, today I'm asking for your mercy
38:39that if you grant my petition, I promise that you will never see me again.
38:44I want to go home and keep working to make myself and the world a better place.
38:51Thank you, Ms. Pender.
38:53She has reformed.
38:55And if you strip away that reformation,
38:58all that we have left is vindictive justice.
39:02Our petition, Your Honor, is to trim count two
39:05to run concurrent with count one such that Sarah is eligible for immediate release.
39:11Thank you, Your Honor.
39:12Thank you, Mr. Delaney.
39:14So, what I am going to do,
39:16first, I am going to hold this under advisement.
39:19I want time to contemplate this decision.
39:23All right.
39:23So, thank you all for your advocacy here today.
39:27And I'll have, like I said, I'll have my ruling in due course.
39:30Thank you, Your Honor.
39:31Thank you all very much.
39:46I have a room waiting for Sarah.
39:49It's all ready for her.
39:52I'm hoping that she can actually see the outside
40:03and enjoy what life she has left.
40:12And what will happen if, if she doesn't?
40:23I really have a hard time thinking about that.
40:29I know that it would kill her.
40:33It really would.
40:37And she might not make it.
40:44When I think of freedom, I think of all the tiny choices that I want to make.
40:50Whether I want to leave the toilet seat, up or down.
40:53Whether I want a hot or cold shower.
40:55All these things that I haven't been able to choose over the last 25 years.
40:59Freedom means autonomy.
41:01But mostly it just means being with the people that I love.
41:12Cuts, please.
41:48Cuts, please.
42:00Cuts, please.
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