- 17 hours ago
Police retrace the steps of a young woman's preparations for a romantic Valentine's dinner that ended in her brutal murder. Hidden in the chaotic crime scene is the clue that will unlock the mystery.
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00:01Just how violent was her death?
00:09She had been severely beaten.
00:11She had been raped.
00:13It's still one of the most violent attacks that I've seen.
00:17She was struck over and over and over.
00:19And then he watched her in a fetal position
00:22and smoked a cigarette with no remorse.
00:25This was a monster of a person.
00:31My phone rang and my mother said, Terry's gone.
00:36My niece just buckled.
00:38She was getting prepared for Valentine's Day,
00:42trying to have a moment with her fiancé,
00:45and it was ripped apart.
00:48I never did celebrate Valentine's Day ever again.
00:54There were a lot of young women at that time being murdered.
00:58A task force was created to try to find out
01:02who's committing this string of killings.
01:04Our darkest fear was that her killer
01:08was someone who she trusted.
01:11I believe any case can be solved.
01:14It's not a matter of if, it's a matter of when.
01:16Do you think Terry had been targeted?
01:19Yes, I believe that he watched Terry and he waited to kill her.
01:38Hi, I'm Paula Zahn.
01:40And tonight, we're on the case in Arlington, Texas.
01:43The metropolis that separates Dallas and Fort Worth
01:47is known as the American Dream City.
01:50But sadly, it became the setting for a terrifying nightmare
01:55after 22-year-old Terry McAdams was murdered
01:58in her downtown apartment complex.
02:01The sadistic attack and its chilling details
02:05left law enforcement desperate to find her killer.
02:08But it quickly became obvious
02:11that the puzzling clues found at the crime scene
02:14would take a long time to piece together.
02:22February 14th, 1985.
02:25It was just before 3 p.m. on Valentine's Day
02:29when the Arlington Police Department got a call
02:32that made it clear that none of their detectives
02:35would be celebrating that night.
02:38A maintenance man who was going to be doing
02:41some pest control work attempted to enter an apartment,
02:44used his key to get in.
02:46He walks in and in a bedroom finds a horrific scene.
02:54Pushed the door open and seen a woman
02:57laying there beaten to death.
03:00He immediately calls 911.
03:06When officers arrived, the building's management
03:09had identified the badly beaten young woman
03:12as Terry McAdams.
03:15Although the 22-year-old was a resident of the complex,
03:18she didn't live in the apartment where she was found.
03:23Detectives learned that Terry did have her own apartment,
03:26but she was at her fiancé's apartment
03:28in that same apartment complex.
03:33Officers wanted to speak with Terry's fiancé,
03:37but none of the workers knew where he was.
03:40And that became more troubling
03:42as investigators began studying the crime scene.
03:46Everything they saw in the kitchen suggested
03:49that Terry had been preparing
03:50a romantic Valentine's Day celebration.
03:55There were candles on the table
03:57and a homemade heart-shaped cake on the kitchen counter.
04:03Those clues stood in stark contrast
04:06to the ones found in the blood-stained bedroom
04:08just a few steps away.
04:11Just how violent was her death?
04:14It's still one of the most violent attacks that I've seen.
04:19This was a monster of a person that committed this offense.
04:24What did the blood evidence tell you
04:26about how the attack had unfolded?
04:28With the way the blood splatter was on the door and the walls,
04:32the belief was that she had been struck
04:35with a heavy, blunt object.
04:41Experts believed that the blood patterns they saw on the wall
04:45were created by cast-off from the murder weapon.
04:50Being hit multiple times as you go back up
04:53and then go back down,
04:55that blood's going to be everywhere.
04:58Was it clear at the scene what she had been killed with?
05:01No, we felt like it was possibly a hammer.
05:03Unfortunately, it was not found.
05:10Analysis of the blood evidence told police
05:13that the attack had taken place between 12 and 15 hours
05:17before her body was discovered.
05:20Investigators studied the scene for clues
05:23that might explain more about the savage late-night attack.
05:28Did it appear as though the apartment had been ransacked?
05:31Not that we could tell.
05:33For the most part, the apartment was in good shape.
05:37Could it have been a robbery gone wrong?
05:39Don't think so.
05:40Just because he had numerous things to steal in that apartment.
05:45This was a person who wanted to kill her.
05:52The strewn clothing on the floor
05:55and a large blood stain on the mattress told more of the story.
06:00What did investigators theorize was the motive for the attack?
06:04She was almost completely naked,
06:06so we believed pretty early on that it was going to be sexual in nature.
06:11All of the chaos was concentrated within a few steps of the bed,
06:17leading investigators to believe that Terry had been ambushed.
06:21She was getting this cake prepared
06:23and trying to get this romantic evening ready to go,
06:26and I think she was taken by surprise.
06:33Did investigators think the crime was personal?
06:37That's immediately what we go towards.
06:40Scenes like hers where if somebody had been bludgeoned,
06:43they're very angry, very violent attacks.
06:46Usually you have a connection with that individual.
06:49And there were additional clues that added weight to that idea.
06:55Police saw evidence that the killer had been comfortable in the apartment
06:59even after the attack was over.
07:03One thing that stood out the most
07:06was a cigarette butt next to Terry's body.
07:10Ashes mixed with blood left no doubt
07:13that their suspect had smoked the cigarette after Terry was dead.
07:23The butt was collected along with anything else the killer may have touched.
07:28What evidence did investigators recover?
07:32Investigators did thorough work.
07:33The blood, of course, clothes, hairs.
07:37No fingerprints were found, but CSI located a telling clue
07:42when they pulled back the drapes and examined the bedroom sliding glass door.
07:48Were there any signs of forced entry?
07:50Yes. It appeared that the back latch was broken.
07:55It doesn't take much force to pry a door like that.
08:04Just outside the doorway, police found a footprint in the soft dirt.
08:10How clear was that footprint?
08:13It was very clear, very fresh.
08:15No doubt that it had to be the perpetrator.
08:17Did they believe that footprint was made when the killer came into the apartment or when he left?
08:23The footprint was pointing towards the door, so it would have been when the killer was coming in.
08:28We know that he entered the apartment through that sliding glass door.
08:37The investigators hoped the evidence might help them identify the killer.
08:42Meanwhile, officers went door to door looking for a witness who may have seen a man lurking on the patio
08:49or racing from the apartment.
08:52Was that back sliding glass door visible to anyone in the apartment complex?
08:58Yeah, it was visible to several people, but nobody heard anything.
09:03This was an absolutely brutal attack.
09:07Were you surprised that investigators couldn't find any witnesses that heard anything suspicious that night?
09:14No.
09:15At night, a lot of people probably sleep.
09:18And because the way Terry was hit, she had to be knocked on conscience immediately.
09:27Everything police had discovered had them convinced the crime was a personal and rage-fueled attack.
09:37Who would rip her clothes off, continue to beat her, smoke a cigarette, not have any remorse, and leave?
09:49That's just a complete monster.
10:01As investigators continued to process the grisly crime scene left in the wake of Terry McAdams' murder,
10:11they steeled themselves for the grim task of breaking the news to her loved ones.
10:18It was a life-shattering moment for her sister, Karen.
10:24Take me back to when you were notified Terry had been brutally murdered.
10:29My phone rang and my mother was just beside herself.
10:35I can still remember the panic and the pain in her voice.
10:42And she just said, Terry's gone. Terry's gone.
10:47My knees just buckled.
10:48The grief is so powerful.
10:51I never did celebrate Valentine's Day ever again.
10:55Never.
11:01The sense of loss Karen felt was only deep in knowing the changes her sister had made in her life
11:08after arriving in Texas for college.
11:12Did Terry have any safety concerns when she moved to Arlington?
11:17Yes. There were a lot of young women at that time who were being murdered.
11:23She called my mother a lot to talk about her concerns.
11:28The rash of violent attacks had been targeting young coeds like Terry.
11:34There were articles coming out in the paper.
11:37She was frightened.
11:38She was taking measures to try to protect herself.
11:48Steps that included quitting a second job she had working nights and making sure that if she was alone, she
11:56was home before dark.
11:57Those precautions made it difficult for her family to understand how Terry had been targeted.
12:05Could you think of anyone who could have been responsible?
12:10Terry was just so incredibly kind.
12:14She just radiated light and we worried that she knew her killer.
12:24Karen told investigators that the last time she had spoken with her sister was around 10 o'clock on the
12:31night before her body was found.
12:32Terry could hardly wait to see her fiancé and surprise him in his apartment with a romantic Valentine's celebration.
12:42Their final words to each other remain poignant.
12:46I remember that the last thing that we said to each other is, I love you.
12:51We never hung up the phone without saying, I love you.
12:58Based on the evidence investigators were assembling, it seemed likely that shortly after that phone call, the attack began.
13:08Police dissected every movement she made in the hours leading up to that fateful moment.
13:13What kind of a timeline could they construct?
13:17They constructed a timeline looking at receipts.
13:20She was at a local grocery store.
13:23The items Terry bought around 4.30 that evening were ingredients for the Valentine's cake she had baked.
13:30The receipts show that after leaving the grocery store, Terry had run one final errand.
13:36She had went to the dry cleaners.
13:39Terry had picked up a dress that police found hanging in her closet.
13:45And what time do investigators think she got to her fiancé's apartment?
13:49I want to say five or six.
13:51Would anybody have known she was in her fiancé's apartment that night?
13:56Her sister, but otherwise I would say no.
14:02The evidence indicated that Terry spent much of the next few hours getting ready for a Valentine's celebration.
14:09And that she was still alone in the apartment when her sister called at 10pm.
14:16What was the initial theory of how the crime unfolded?
14:20I believe after that phone call, the perpetrator forced entry.
14:26And when he brought the door open, she heard something to go to the bedroom.
14:30And that's when she got hit.
14:36Terry's autopsy left little doubt what happened after the attack began.
14:43A sexual assault kit was completed.
14:45We knew that she had been sexually assaulted, but were pretty antiquated back in 1985.
14:51So the most that we could hope for was a blood type.
14:55But the report contained other clues that might help identify her killer using old-fashioned police work.
15:03It noted that all of Terry's injuries had been caused by a hammer striking her in the right side of
15:11her head.
15:15What did the location of Terry's injuries tell investigators about her attacker?
15:21With blows to the right side of her head, they believe that he had the hammer in his left hand.
15:34The fact that their suspect was left-handed was just one of the leads investigators kept to themselves.
15:42And Terry's family provided another important detail.
15:46Her diamond engagement ring was missing.
15:49They said she never went anywhere without it.
15:54What did that suggest to you?
15:56Is it a lover that she may have had that nobody knew about that was jealous of the fact that
16:02she was engaged?
16:02Is it the fiancé?
16:05This was such a personal attack.
16:09And that put finding Terry's fiancé, Jeff, front and center on Investigator's Checklist.
16:32The investigation into Terry McAdams' murder was starting with a very narrow focus.
16:43And that spotlight was shining on her fiancé, Jeff, who detectives had been unable to locate 24 hours after the
16:53crime.
16:54Did they have concerns about her fiancé?
16:58No doubt about it. It was his apartment.
17:01We really wanted to make sure that we were able to find this individual as fast as possible.
17:09But investigators also wanted to be ready.
17:12And their conversations with the couple's inner circle raised the stakes.
17:20What did those closest to Terry have to say about her fiancé and their relationship?
17:25They mentioned that he was a little possessive and jealous.
17:29It seemed to be at times a tumultuous relationship.
17:34There was arguments.
17:36There was heated moments.
17:40Was there ever any indication that Terry might have wanted to have broken off the engagement?
17:46There was some speculation that at some point that thought did cross her mind.
17:52Could an end to her engagement have been the catalyst for the savage attack?
17:58All of the evidence police had seemed to support that theory.
18:03And more red flags were raised when detectives learned that Jeff was left-handed.
18:10Left-handed people account for a very small percentage of the population in the world.
18:15So that makes you want to take a look at him.
18:20Did police consider the possibility that the crime scene was staged by Jeff to look like a break-in?
18:26Yes, it was a possibility.
18:28We wanted to get him interviewed and we wanted to see if we could either prove or disprove if he
18:32was responsible for Terry's murder.
18:34When Terry's fiancé finally surfaced the next morning, detectives were ready to confront him with their evidence.
18:43He was immediately brought in for questioning.
18:45We wanted to get a timeline on where he was, where he's been, who he's been talking to.
18:55Jeff seemed overwhelmed by the detective's questions and devastated by his loss.
19:02He said that although he and Terry had disagreements like any couple, they were very much in love and were
19:09planning their wedding.
19:11He was cooperative.
19:12I know they specifically asked, is there anybody that has a grudge with him?
19:16Any issues with anyone that may have been going to the apartment to look for him and found her instead?
19:24He was distraught about it.
19:26He had a normal reaction for somebody that just found out that their loved one has been killed.
19:31But investigators probe deeper, sensing that those emotions also could have come from someplace darker.
19:40Guilt.
19:41Where did he say he had been the night Terry had been murdered?
19:46He told us he had been out of town in Kansas City for work.
19:54Jeff seemed puzzled by investigators' repeated questions about what brand of cigarette he smoked.
20:01The fiancé said neither of them smoked.
20:04Detectives were skeptical.
20:06But they slowly began to realize everything Jeff had told them was true,
20:11after a check of his itinerary clearly placed him out of the state during the window of the attack.
20:18Eventually, we were able to get that corroborated with an airline ticket,
20:23as well as members of the company that he worked for that did verify he was in Kansas City at
20:28that time.
20:34With her fiancé eliminated, police focused their attention on the symbol of Terry's dream for a life with Jeff,
20:42her engagement ring.
20:44How did investigators view that missing ring?
20:48If this ring is missing, who possibly has it?
20:52Law enforcement fanned out across Arlington during a massive search for the stolen ring.
20:59They put up flyers, they put up posters.
21:01They really went above and beyond to try to find who would have had that ring in their possession.
21:07Detectives reached out to over 250 pawn shops.
21:12Even if it was sold, we would at least have a description of the person that sold it.
21:18Was the ring ever found?
21:20It was not.
21:24Police also had experts examine every item collected from the crime scene.
21:30And with Jeff cleared, one piece of evidence loomed large.
21:36The cigarette butt found near Terry's body.
21:39What did the initial testing of the cigarette butt reveal?
21:43It revealed this person was blood type B.
21:46Type B blood isn't that uncommon.
21:50One in 11 people share the trait.
21:53That's the needle in the haystack.
21:58Detectives hope for more luck with the shoe impression found outside the sliding glass door.
22:06Once forensic experts had the opportunity to study the shoe print, what did they find out?
22:12They found out that the shoe originated from a blue commander.
22:17They stopped producing it that year.
22:21It was a very unique style of shoe.
22:25They immediately started asking witnesses and friends, have you ever seen this shoe?
22:31And police spent countless hours at stores trying to connect someone who bought that shoe to Terry.
22:39They also sent the shoe print out to the FBI to see, could they do anything else that we were
22:46possibly missing?
22:47The painstaking effort revealed nothing more than a shoe size.
22:57How frustrating was it that, in spite of all their hard work on the shoe prints, that it didn't really
23:06lead them anywhere?
23:07It wasn't for nothing.
23:10All that groundwork only helped me.
23:13He wore a size 10 or 11.
23:14I want to know who he is.
23:17It's something that I can use, knowing his shoe, knowing that he smoked.
23:21Why the hammer?
23:22Why the ring?
23:24It's something that you keep in your arsenal.
23:27It painted the picture even more.
23:28But would the details in that portrait of a killer lead police to the man who viciously ended Terry's life?
23:50The Arlington Police Department remained convinced that the murder of Terry McAdams was a very personal crime.
24:00But after eliminating all the men in her inner circle, they began to explore a new direction.
24:07Could Terry have been the victim of a deadly stalker whose relationship with her existed only in his own twisted
24:18mind?
24:19There was a lot of different theories, but I believe that he watched Terry for a very extensive period of
24:25time.
24:26I think he was studying, and he waited to make his move.
24:36Pursuing that theory meant taking a hard look at other sexually motivated crimes in the area.
24:44Did they think Terry's murder was connected to any of those other crimes?
24:49It was a possibility.
24:50Fort Worth had been working several similar offenses with the same type of MO.
24:55So young women, college age, were being brutally attacked and sexually assaulted.
25:04Some were beaten in their residence.
25:11In fact, the wave of violence that had terrified Terry in the days leading up to her murder had continued
25:19for several years.
25:21The unsolved attacks led multiple law enforcement agencies to join together.
25:27A task force was created between about 30 to 35 detectives to try to find out which of these offenses
25:35are related and who's committing them.
25:42Arlington detectives on the task force noted one vicious attack that seemed eerily similar to Terry's.
25:52There was a murder where an individual had broken into an apartment, had stolen some jewelry from a female victim,
26:01sexually assaulted her, and then ultimately killed her.
26:04We started looking into that.
26:06And their deep dive into the case file revealed more chilling connections between the two homicides.
26:14He had forced entry through the back sliding glass door.
26:18And it was a left-handed individual who bludgeoned her with a blunt object.
26:25But the Fort Worth murder also had one critical difference.
26:30The suspect had been caught fleeing the scene, carrying his victim's blood-stained purse.
26:36Who was the assailant?
26:38Curtis Brown.
26:42Did Curtis Brown live near Terry?
26:45Yes.
26:45He could have seen her.
26:46They could have ran into each other.
26:48You just never know.
26:50Investigators believe they were on the right track as they studied Brown's long rap sheet.
26:56They believed that he was responsible for over 18 crimes, but they were only able to approve three.
27:03Those details made Brown a prime suspect in the Terry McAdams case.
27:10We wanted to prove he was responsible for Terry's murder.
27:18Detectives were confident that there was one piece of physical evidence that would place Brown inside the crime scene.
27:25The cigarette butt.
27:28Ultimately, we were able to obtain a blood sample for him and compare that to that cigarette butt.
27:38What happened when Brown's blood was compared to the evidence that came off of the cigarette butt?
27:44He was exonerated.
27:46Unfortunately, we had to rule Curtis Brown out due to the blood being a different type.
27:54How crushing of a blow was that for investigators?
27:57Pretty crushing.
27:58You have somebody with the same style of offense being committed just miles down the road.
28:05You think you have it, and then we're back to square one.
28:12Sadly, that type of disappointment became a recurring theme detectives had to face for a long time.
28:20What other suspects did they look at in the decades that followed?
28:24There were some other serial type killers.
28:26If you committed an offense that was remotely close to what we had, it was somebody that our detectives wanted
28:33to talk to.
28:34Ultimately, each of those investigations led to the same conclusion.
28:40None of the suspects could be linked to the crime scene evidence.
28:47Still, detectives refused to give up on Terry and her loved ones.
28:52I believe they felt what I felt.
28:55Terry, her friends, her family, her sister.
28:58I love them like they're my own.
29:01I can hear the heartbreak in your voice when you talk about Terry.
29:07I'm wondering if that further motivated the detectives on the case.
29:11They continue to put hope into everybody.
29:15It gives you that fight to want to keep going.
29:19Everyone who touched this case over the last 40 years, they kept trying.
29:24I knew something was going to come out of it.
29:25And all those years of tireless work were about to pay off in a way no one could have expected.
29:47Decades after Terry McAdams' murder, the case remained unsolved.
29:53The lack of answers haunted investigators and her family.
29:59I can only imagine the levels of grief that you all experienced.
30:03But on top of that, you had to deal with year after year going by with none of the answers
30:10your family deserved.
30:12I'm a very hopeful person.
30:14I'm a very positive person.
30:15So I never wanted to lose hope.
30:17But so many years had passed.
30:19I just thought we're just going to live the rest of our lives not knowing.
30:24I watched my mom get her hopes up only to be disappointed.
30:28It was so hard for her.
30:33But Karen's optimism slowly returned as she read about dozens of cases like her sisters being solved with advances.
30:42In DNA technology.
30:44That was when my hope was truly reignited because I thought, well, gosh, if they can solve these, then they
30:50surely can do something with ours.
30:57And investigators like Blake Ritchie and Detective Devin Coffer refused to give up.
31:04Cases do go cold, unfortunately, but our detectives never stopped revisiting it.
31:12To make sure that there was nothing that we could do to push forward.
31:17And one piece of evidence detectives noticed during a review in 2023 reignited the case.
31:24I knew that if there was a chance that we were going to solve it, that cigarette butt was going
31:30to be our key.
31:35That cigarette butt left at the crime scene after the murder gave technicians a final chance to obtain the specialized
31:43type of profile required for the FBI's new investigative genetic genealogy unit.
31:51We wanted to pitch this case to them for this new technology.
31:58When Special Agent Seth Webb saw the test results, he believed the IgG unit could help.
32:06What made you think you might be able to solve it?
32:10Well, I would call it blissful ignorance.
32:12I was newly trained on IgG.
32:15I believe any case can be solved if there's DNA remaining.
32:19It's not a matter of if, it's a matter of when.
32:25Special Agent Webb immediately put the FBI's unmatched resources to work.
32:32When we start an IgG case, the process begins with the unknown suspect DNA and then a lab giving us
32:39a list of relatives that have opted into law enforcement seeing their DNA comparison.
32:45Then we build their family lineage into a tree.
32:47But in this case, there were a series of unusual gaps in the tree branches.
32:54When I got the results, it kind of took the wind out of my sails.
32:58Our matches were, to put it, nicely awful.
33:03There was no one closely related, but we knew we had a lot more work to do.
33:09Face-to-face interviews done by his fellow FBI agents across the country ultimately allowed Agent Webb to identify an
33:20unmarried couple who was genetically linked to the suspect.
33:24We had one match representing the maternal side and the other match representing the maternal side.
33:29A deeper dive into the couple convinced him he was on the right track.
33:35What did you find out?
33:37They were from Arlington, Texas.
33:38And up until this point in our family tree, we had seen no connection to the Arlington area whatsoever.
33:45When we started looking into them, our suspect had to be from these two individuals.
33:51Additional research revealed that the couple had three male children.
33:57Special Agent Webb believed it was now time to contact Detective Koffer.
34:03The first thing I want to do is call him and say,
34:05hey, I have a list of three suspects that have to be your suspect.
34:10As an investigator, my job is to dissect that list.
34:15A detailed background check on the three men narrowed the focus to a single prime suspect.
34:23His name was Bernard Sharp.
34:27Seeing his criminal history of sex assault, he stood out to me from that list.
34:32He immediately someone that I wanted to pursue.
34:38At the time of the murder, Bernard Sharp lived and worked less than three miles from Terry's apartment.
34:47And there was more.
34:48He was involved in janitorial work and maintenance work, and it was not uncommon for him to have tools with
34:55him.
34:57Tools like the screwdriver that pried open the apartment's sliding glass door and the hammer used to murder Terry.
35:07You start getting excited that maybe we're getting close.
35:12Step by step, Sharp's case file tied him to everything found at the crime scene.
35:21Did he happen to be left handed?
35:23He did.
35:26What was your reaction to finding that out?
35:28It definitely started putting the pieces together.
35:35But just when police had enough probable cause to arrest Sharp, it would now be impossible.
35:42Their suspect had taken his own life following a brutal double homicide months after Terry's murder.
35:53In that senseless attack, he had murdered his wife and another innocent bystander.
36:01Was there a part of you that was outraged that he had killed himself before you could get the answers
36:08you needed?
36:09Yes, there was a part of me that was upset that if this is our guy, he's never going to
36:16face justice for killing Terry.
36:18There's also sadness that he killed two additional people before he killed himself.
36:27The police reports detailing the double homicide were heartbreaking.
36:33All of it was witnessed by Sharp's 13-year-old stepdaughter.
36:38We interviewed the stepdaughter about what happened between our perpetrator and their mother.
36:44Sharp broke in through the back door before killing his two victims.
36:50And his final act contained a chilling similarity to Terry's murder.
36:56He lit a cigarette and killed himself after his cigarette was done.
37:01The cigarette was laying next to him, just like Terry's case.
37:11Sharp's loved ones believe that he had killed his wife to silence her.
37:16Do you believe she was aware that he had murdered Terry?
37:22I think that she knew some dark secrets about him that no one knew.
37:26It was all about to come out, and that's when he did what he did.
37:31A reverse paternity test on Sharp's daughter told police what they already knew.
37:37What did that test reveal?
37:39That Bernard Sharp was our killer.
37:42Absolute confirmation, Bernard Sharp was our guy.
37:51Detectives believe Sharp targeted Terry McAdams while she was running errands and followed her back home.
37:58I believe he watched her go inside her boyfriend's apartment.
38:01Sharp then waited until the young woman was getting ready for bed before he pried open the door and attacked
38:08her.
38:13One of Arlington's oldest mysteries had its conclusion.
38:17How satisfying was it for you to bring this case to a close after so many decades?
38:24I was elated, and then ultimately meeting Terry McAdams' family when we got to break the news to them, that
38:33was special.
38:38It was a bittersweet meeting for Karen Hopper.
38:42Both of her parents died without answers.
38:45As you can imagine, I would have given anything to have had my parents here for this.
38:52But I know that they're with her, so I know that they know.
39:00Now Karen had that answer as well.
39:04How much gratitude do you have that after all these years, they were not only able to solve the case,
39:13but prove their case?
39:15I still can't believe that they did it.
39:18It's a miracle.
39:21It really is.
39:23And none of the details police shared about Bernard Sharp lessened that feeling.
39:29How did they break the news to you that Sharp had killed himself?
39:34I had hoped all of these years that he would be alive, because I thought that that's what justice would
39:41look like.
39:42But I am at peace that he has been gone for all of these years.
39:45I'm at peace not having to go through a really long and difficult trial.
39:50I'm at peace knowing that he and my sister are in two different places.
39:56He is not where she is.
39:58He is not where she is.
40:00So I'm okay.
40:02I'm okay with this ending.
40:03I really am okay with it.
40:14Karen and her family can now put the worst behind them and move forward.
40:21There's not a day that goes by that I don't think about her.
40:24She lives on in the very best parts of me.
40:29She taught me so much about just being a good person.
40:38She definitely gave me the gift of just being grateful for every day.
40:43There's not a moment that I don't thank God for my life.
40:51Police continue to examine the possibility that Bernard Sharp may have been involved in other murders.
40:58So far, his DNA has not been linked to any unsolved cases.
41:04I'm Paula Zahn.
41:06Please join us again next time when we're back on the case.
41:10On the next, on the case.
41:13It's like she's there one minute, gone the next.
41:15That doesn't happen in Fairfield.
41:17I said, I honestly don't believe this girl's coming home alive.
41:21What did you think were the chances of solving this case?
41:25I knew we'd find something I don't miss.
41:26If it is you, I'm coming.
41:29To be continued...
41:30To be continued...
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