The Salem Strangler

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1:03and state college students. Music Busy place. It was a place to be. That was the balancer, the door man. It was most Friday and Saturday nights. That door would be closing. I'd be standing directly behind this door. Oh wow. This place has changed. Quite a bit. It's crazy coming back here after all this time. People were referred to majors like chairs like norm, everybody knows your name. You wouldn't know everybody sitting here. You know the bartenders, you know the people in the kitchen. This was all the same. Actually, these are the same tables. I remember class sitting right there. Yeah.

2:07Sorry. This just, it just never goes away. All I did was show up to work one night. And now I'm connected to this. The rest of my life. It happened to her. It shouldn't happen. My name is James Gravel and I am Claire's younger brother by two years. I'm one of six with mom and dad. So there's eight of us total in a small home and Claire is three out of six. We were just a tight knit Irish Catholic family that did everything with family. We went to St. Michael's which was a Catholic school there. She was very feisty, very feisty. Redhead had a lot of friends.

3:09knew what she wanted in life. Would fight for it, would fight for her family. Claire was a rena sunshine and a breath of fresh air. She just had a very outgoing personality about her. Tell me about her going off to college. I was somewhat surprised she stayed somewhat close to home because Salem is only 45 minutes from North End over. If you've heard of Salem Massachusetts, the odds are the first thing that will come to mind are the rich trials that happened in the 1600s. 1986 in Salem, Massachusetts was kind of a really interesting time because there was this transition going on where Salem was starting to recognize that even though this is an unfortunate thing that happened is part of our culture. It has become a huge tourism industry. The witchy thing is what brings people here and Salem is definitely a tourist town. 1986 was a big year. The main first day.

4:11Top Gun was the big movie. Very good year. It's the Celtics one there, Champion Trip. For the Celtics today it was the sweet 16th NBA Championship. Gas was under a dollar. Claire, she loved all sorts of journalism music. The album Rio, Hungary like the wolf. Durand Durand Durand was her favorite band. I remember Claire introducing me to you too. She said, God, you got to listen to this band. This band from Ireland. She was fiercely proud of her Irish heritage. She loved you too. Claire and I went to a lot of concerts. We saw Rush. I don't know how many times we saw Journey. I don't know how many times. So it was up to Claire. She would have married Steve Perry from Journey. She absolutely loved his hair. Claire Gravel. She was 20 years old. She was a student at Salem State College. Claire got involved with a lot of stuff there at Salem State.

5:14They ended up working for National Rail Press. She used to talk about just how amazing it was all the time. To see, you know, have people with disabilities, the way that things were made for them, whether it be elevator buttons or trying to give them greater access. Claire liked to go to major with cleashes. It was hard to hang out with her friends, you know. It was just a typical college bar. Take me back to June 30th, 1986. What do you remember about that day? That day in the morning, the phone rang. And I picked up the extension phone at the same time and my mother picked up the phone upstairs. And it was National Rail Press saying, did Claire go home this weekend? Because she did not arrive at work. And my mother's like, no, she didn't come home this weekend. Was that unusual for her not to show up at work?

6:14Yes, it was very unusual. And because if she wasn't at work, she would be at home. I got my younger brother, Mark and I, and we took a ride down to Salem. You would just think, Claire, maybe she overslept. And that was very unlike her. She was always there, always on time. We went and contacted her roommate at the time, Julie. Julie hadn't seen her. We went to a few spots that Julie knew of here in Salem. That might be a hangout spot or to track down other friends. And no sign of Claire. Now, that had to be strange. It was. I was worried, but I was thinking, all right, maybe she just took off for a weekend without telling anyone. Right, just got away. That early afternoon, we ended up going to Salem Police Department filing a missing person's report.

7:14So, Mark and I went back home. Is the family getting panicked at this point? Yeah, there was a lot of concern at the time. On that day, June 30th. It was a beautiful summer day. The sun was shining brightly. There were three individuals who were working for a surveying company, doing some surveying out on Route 128 in the Beverly area. They happened to see what they believed to be a woman's pocketbook. Laying on the side of the road, they were just trying to figure out what it was doing. The obviously it was unusual. One of them walked to the woods, and he saw the body of a woman. And these road workers are obviously horrified by what they see, and they call police immediately. That was 24 years old. I was a young trooper from the Massachusetts State Police. We received a call and responded around noon time on that day. We did immediately notice the items that were laying on the ground.

8:16They find a pocketbook, a single sandal, and a Cosmopolitan magazine. They find a beer bottle that they suspect may be related to the dead young woman. Ultimately, we got into the woods. And we did observe that there was a white, young female lying on her back. It was pretty clear to us instantly that this person had been murdered. So of course the first question is, who is this person? So they look in her purse, they find her wallet, and in her wallet they find her driver's license. The photo appeared to be the same person laying on the ground in the woods. The name on that license was Claire Gravel. One of the very first things police have to figure out is how this person died. When they look at Claire, they find something that is very disturbing. The investigation is ramping up. Police are looking everywhere for Claire's killer,

9:18and they're about to get a big leave. We talked to several people. They witnessed something unusual in the bar that night. There was one gentleman that stood out. That definitely picked our interest. The police were looking at the police. They were looking at the police. The police were looking at the police. After Claire's body was found, we traveled to the scene and at the time there was no Godrail in the area that we ultimately stopped in. Today there is a Godrail to him. When we came into the woods, approximately 50 feet, we could see the body of a white female lying on the ground. On her back, at the slight angle on the hill. The body was in this general area right here. It's like it was yesterday, honestly.

10:18I can still vividly picture it in my mind, standing here and looking at her body. Based on what we could see on the identification, Claire was 20 years old. She had Madison Salem, Massachusetts. They see that she's barefoot. She's still clothed. She's wearing shorts. A white sweatshirt, but also a black tank top. The shirts have been pulled up. Her breasts were exposed. It was obvious to us when we looked at her that the tank top that she had on was used to strangle her. This shirt is similar to the shirt that Claire had been wearing. Ultimately, person had created an extra loop, almost like a figure eight, and brought it over her head. And around her neck and pulled in order to strangle her. This is what's known as ligature strangulation. That's five to seven minutes of constant contact, constant pressure on somebody's neck.

11:19It's an intimate form of murder. My name is Dr. Joni Johnston. I'm a clinical and forensic psychologist, and I study this case very closely. Strangulation is not a common way of murdering somebody. It isn't a gun, it isn't a knife. So it often has some specific meaning to the perpetrator. There was a knock at the door, and it was the chief of police and a detective. And they asked me to step out of the room to which I did. I went to the back, stoop outside, and I heard my mother scream. And at that time, that time I ran in, and said, what's wrong? And they said, Claire's dead. I took one look at my parents face. I knew it was true. I couldn't believe it. The first time I ever heard my father cry.

12:21Bob Gravel, Claire's dad, is now 90 years old, and he still lights up talking about his youngest daughter. Do you have a story you want to share about Claire? One thing we went up to my sister's house. Somebody says, was Claire? She went for a walk in the woods. In all of a seven streets hall, and I'm going to find me here. I'm going to ask her, I'm going to ask. We grew up in North Hand of the Massachusetts in the Marimack Valley. Jimmy was closer in age with Claire. Jimmy was really close to her. Where did you fall in the number? I was five out of six. I'm the second youngest. So three boys and three girls? Three boys and three girls. Just like the Brady Bunch. Just like the Brady Bunch. Correct. Yes. The house was small. My brother shared one bedroom. My sister's and I, we all shared a bedroom. We had time showers. We had scheduled showers.

13:21We fought it times too, because I mean, there's six kids. We beat the tar on to each other. My mom would pull on the driveway. It would be like, I won't tell her to you if you don't tell her me. Claire loved having a large family. That's what she wanted. She had told some of her college friends she wanted six to ten children. And I was like, wow. There's your Irish Catholic right there. So we had a 25th wedding anniversary party for my mom and dad. Hi mom. Hi boys. We took a sick normally and then we took a long time. I remember Claire being there. She had a professional quality camera. She took all kinds of pictures and everything. Claire was bubbly. She got along with everybody. But she could get her Irish out. If anybody ever picked on her younger brothers, it was dead man walking. She could be a little bodyguard. She wasn't tall. But it's just the best. Then she went off to college and we bonded even more because I was her ride to and from college.

14:23And we would do a lot of talking about life and school. When Claire started at Salem State, she went in as a political science major. She talked about going to law school. I thought, well of course, because you love to argue. So that makes sense. I wanted her to make something big for herself because I knew she could make something big for herself. When I sat down with Claire's brother Jim, it was clear from the start. How much he admired and looked up to his older sister. She was the pretty one. She was the smart one. She was the athletic one. She was the outgoing one. And she had everything that you would want in a person. We were trying to determine why somebody would do this to Claire. We ruled out other things such as robbery. Normally if somebody was going to rob somebody, they wouldn't strangle them. And her checkbook was still in that pocketbook. You know, there was a very small amount of money there. So we could rule that out pretty quickly. They look at sexual assault. The medical examiner later determined that there was no sexual assault.

15:25We wanted to backtrack and tried to see if we could figure out what her activities were before somebody killed her. We learned Claire did frequent major legal issues fairly often. That was the college bar. It was very close to the campus. And that's where all the kids hung out and tell them to stay. As police start putting the case together, they learned that Claire Gravel was at major mink leashes on the evening of Saturday, June 28th, into the early morning hours of Sunday, June 29th. Just over 24 hours before the body was found. Ultimately we talked to the bounces there, the bar tender, and some of her friends there. And what we found was that several people witnessed something unusual. There was a man in the bar that night that stood out to them. I'd never seen him before that night. He looked like he was out of place here. He didn't fit with the attire, didn't fit with anybody else there.

16:26Kaki's polo shirt with a collar on a couple buttons there. Everybody in here dressed in jeans and cut-offs and shorts. All of them saw this person interacting with Claire. And so that definitely picked our interest. Claire was just with her friends that night. Everybody kept looking over at her and hanging around next to her. He was like, right there. There are all kinds of questions swirling about this mystery man. But it turns out Claire didn't leave the bar with him that night. She left with somebody else. He is the last person that sees Claire alive. That's somebody that we want to talk to. I found out about Claire Gravel's murder through the newspapers, the local newspapers. Sam State College student murdered. Cowhead murdered, woman strangled.

17:26Those were the headlines. People were afraid. People were very afraid, very scared. Nobody had any answers. Was there any thought of who would have done this? There were so many names that came to my mind that it just... I wasn't sure which direction to go in. I remember hearing after the autopsy how she died. And it was like, okay, but who? I was just totally focused on the who. As far as whether Claire had any enemies, if she did, there wasn't any apparent to us. Strangulation is a very personal way of killing somebody. Investigators are going to look at just about everybody who was in Claire Gravel's life. She dated a guy named Michael James. Were you suspicious at the time of him?

18:26I had convinced myself that it was him. But then a lot of people said no, he really, really loved his sister. He wouldn't do something like this. That was sort of an honor and offer relationship. And so that's something else obviously we would look at. Was it a healthy relationship? Was it not a healthy relationship? Years later, Claire's former boyfriend would sit down for an interview with the local station, WHDH, in Massachusetts. I wasn't like we were madly in love when we met close. I knew her, I had gone out with her. And I was the last, my name was the last one, link with her. So that's how I came about to be associated with it. Ultimately, investigators were able to rule Michael James out and go as cleared. So investigators are talking to everybody they can. They're talking to her friends, they're talking to people at the bar. And they learn that Claire was at Major McLeish's on Saturday, June 28th. She was dropped off at her apartment around 130 on Sunday morning, June 29th.

19:29The person that gave her this ride, his name is Jim Kaffalas. Jimmy Kaffalas was a regular patron at Major McLeish's Claire knew him. Jim Kaffalas is in a queen's super purse. They weren't super close, but she seemed comfortable enough to accept a ride home. When we looked into it, what we gathered was that he's the last person that sees Claire alive. That's a huge thing for investigators. The suspicion was on Jimmy Kaffalas. All eyes were on him. We were able to get information from him. Jim just said that when he was at the bar, Claire approached him and asked him if he could give her a ride. And he basically told her, yes, but I'm not leaving right now. But when I am leaving, I'll give you a ride. He says they left the bar somewhere between 1 and 130, and he remembers dropping her off around 130 a.m.

20:31We obviously had to make sure we followed up on it and made sure that what he was telling us was true. He said he pulled into a bank parking lot, which is just next to her where Claire was living. He pulled up here to my right, just along this wall, and Claire got out of the car. And once she got out of the car, he started walking up the sidewalk here. He saw Claire just about to step on to these stairs right here. He laughed and he assumed that she got inside the apartment safely. She was right there. The building is now like a dark gray color at the time. It was like a bright yellow with white trim. Claire's apartment was upstairs on the left. The fact that she never made it inside. Of course, that was our big question.

21:31Well, what happened between this location and that doorway? Investigators want to interview tenants in Claire's building and nobody heard anything. They in here are a door slam, they in here are five, they in here are scream. And of course, that's then redirecting the spotlight again onto the last person who saw her. And then she went to the office to look for fallists. When I started working back in 1986, I was an investigative journalist. And the Claire Gravel story caught my attention. I got very connected to this case. I just couldn't give up. So I went to Claire's apartment a number of times. He was very chilling to be there. Claire Gravel was last seen walking up to these steps of her apartment at Fort Lorraine Avenue, directly across from Salem State College. And there were many witnesses, many witnesses. And some of them were defensive of Jimmy protecting Jimmy Caffalas. Others were like, I think it was him.

22:31Jim Caffalas actually worked at Salem State College as a police officer in security. So he was working late at that night. When he left Claire, he basically just circled around the intersection and headed right down to Salem State College. Another thing was concerning to them. He was supposed to be at work at 11 o'clock that evening. And he ended up clocking in around 140. This is a big deal. He's the last person to see her live, last known person anyway. And he shows up almost three hours late for work. That could be considered very suspicious. Obviously when we start to hear things like somebody was late for work, that's something we want to look into. We also eventually learned that he had called ahead of time and told the coworker he was going to be late. And then ultimately we learned that that coworker then saw him at 140 in the morning. At this point in time, Jim Caffalas is really in a great area.

23:31They can't rule him in and they can't rule him out. The police asked me questions about Jimmy Caffalas. And honestly Jimmy Caffalas' name kept popping up as always. You know, Jimmy, Jimmy, Jimmy, and I'm like, Jimmy didn't give us. He didn't do it. In the meantime, detectives are following up on all kinds of leads. And back at Claire's apartment, they find something intriguing. We obtained Claire's diary. It was just a notebook, if you will. A flip notebook. And there's a big clue, a name. She was mentioning a person who was interested in her. Today I want to tell you about an exciting new deal from our friends at CozyEarth. Take a moment and close your eyes and think back to the best night of sleep you ever had. Did it feel like you'd never sleep that well again? Well, good news. You can give yourself an amazing night of sleep every night by upgrading your bedding to CozyEarth.

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25:40Lululemon's fall line has some really versatile transitional pieces, so I can just wake up, throw on a matching set, add a jacket or a fleece, and head out, knowing that I'll feel comfortable enough to go wherever the day takes me. Check out the new fall arrivals in store and online now at Lululemon.com. Those first 48 hours, July 1st and 2nd, were just like a world-worn and a blur. I remember, they released their body. I took my parents to the undertaker, to the church, to the florists, to do all those things you need to do and how to get ready for a funeral. To this day, when I smelled fresh flowers, like my stomach turned a little bit, because it takes me right back to that funeral home. Tell me about that day saying goodbye to your sister. That was tough. The wake leading up to the funeral, walked in the funeral home and saw her laying there as when I really lost it.

26:47All of a sudden, it got real. It's not a headline. It's not something you saw on the news. Now it's real. That's actually her. And now you have to deal with it. Liz Pass is going down the middle of the aisle and our family going behind it and thinking that your sister's in this casket, that you're never going to see her again in. That we are here for Cleansfield Road. I remember the cops telling us that they were going to have some people. The cops said that if you knew because sometimes the person shows up. When I interviewed Mary Gravel, it's just this heartbroken mom that never was the same. Do you know what it was like in her funeral knowing everybody who came from that area, expressing their condolences and shaking your hand? And in your mind you're saying, is this the one? It's a terrible feeling.

27:51Jimmy Gravel told me that the day after Claire was murdered Mary was never the same. She always wondered who wasn't, who wouldn't why, is this the one? That's the question police are also trying to answer. And they're looking at every part of Claire's life, including something they found back at her apartment. Claire had a diary. She wrote everything down in a diary. It wasn't your typical fancy diary, it was just a notebook, if you will. And Claire would just note on variety days, not necessarily every day, but just things that she felt that she wanted to write down. The diary I think took on some significance for investigators, because even though she didn't write it every day, she obviously wrote things that were significant to her. One thing that popped up in her diary was Jerry Verret. It was a Salem police officer. And she did mention Jerry Verret in a couple of entries, a month or so before her death.

28:51Claire had mentioned in the diary about Jerry, wanted to buy her dinner, he wanted to take her on a date, and she really did not want to go. Jerry Verret was an older man. He was around 40 years old, married, and clearly not somebody that Claire was interested in. Much like Claire's friend Jim Kufalis, Jerry Verret also hangs out at Major McLeash's. Whenever friends had mentioned about him talking to them over the loudspeaker, so I would assume that would be the police crew's loudspeaker when he'd go by when they're in the bar. In best case, would be interested in Jerry Verret, because this is somebody who seems to kind of have some unreciprocated love or affection. And we know that that can certainly be emotive. And so once we heard that, when you obtained his work records, we learned that he was working basically the whole time on the 28th, the 29th, the 30th.

29:52He worked so many hours during that time, there was no way that he could possibly have been able to accomplish that. So Jerry Verret did have an alibi. So that turns out to be another dead end, but police are about to get their biggest lead yet. When the road workers of the saviors were at the scene with us, what they said was that in addition to finding the body, they noticed a pickup truck back into a path of 200 feet up the road from where Claire's body was found. They were asked, can you tell us more about the truck? What color it was? Would you say to see anybody in it? They said it was a white male, probably mid-30s in the vehicle with a mustache. So we wanted to determine who that person was that was in that pickup truck. So remember Roger the bouncer. Police are interviewing him and they learned that this mystery man was seen leaving the bar alone and also went to a white pickup truck.

30:55I was seeing a ride about here and he walked past me this way and then went across the street, heading towards a small white pickup truck parked right there. I'm assuming that's where the vehicle that he got into. But I had to turn around and go back in and do my jobs and that was the last I saw. The search for this so-called mystery man goes on but then somebody connected to the white truck, the one at the crime scene, comes forward. And he's got an interesting story to tell. And he told police I was doing something I shouldn't have been doing. The search for the mystery man was found in the car. The search for the mystery man was found in the car. The search for the mystery man was found in the car. There are some of the cars that I found in the car. They had been by here this area earlier in the morning.

31:57And so they had noted that they saw a vehicle parked just up the road a little bit. They described it as a pickup truck. They did see somebody in the truck. They said it was a white meal and the person they thought was sleeping in the truck. Later the Beverly police were approached by one of their officers. They told them that it was his truck. That officer is a man named James Stapleton. You can see him here in this photo which would prove critical to the case. He works for the Beverly Police Department which is only a 10-minute drive from Salem, Massachusetts. James Stapleton is listening to roll call and he hears about this truck that they're looking for. And imagine he's seeing that and instantly knows he's that man. As a result my detective lieutenant and a captain from Beverly Police did an interview with James Stapleton to determine more information about what he was doing out on Route 128.

33:07And Mr. Stapleton ultimately said that. It had a fight with his current wife at the time and so he did not want to go home. He made a statement stating, I was doing something I shouldn't have been doing. Of course that's something that's intriguing and we want to find out what is that. He says he gets an an argument with his wife. He goes out drinking. He's drinking and driving and essentially pulls over on the side of the road to sleep it off. That doing something he shouldn't be doing is referring to his drinking and driving. Stapleton tells investigators that he slept in his truck until around 9 the next morning. He says he woke up, saw those road surveyors and then drove off. Shortly after the news broke I went to where the crime scene was. I wanted to withstand a break where it happened.

34:09During my standup I was standing in a break where James Stapleton was parked. This is the dirt road off of Route 128 in Beverly near the Wendem Town line where state DPW workers found the body of Claire Gravel strangled on Monday, June 30th 1986, less than 36 hours after she was last seen in Salem. It was a tough place to find in that maybe think it has to be somebody that knows exactly where that road is. When James Stapleton was talking to the other detectives he had mentioned to them there was a gate there and he bumped the gate. He thought some paint chips might be on his car. They asked him if he would go for a ride with them back to that location. He did travel back with them to where he had parked. Then they took a look around and he noticed an orange soda can. He pointed that out to the detectives and you see that soda can? That's mine. He's doing this because James Stapleton was in the wrong place at the wrong time and he knows it.

35:13The next thing police have to do that are investigating the case is they get to take a hard look at James Stapleton. They got to look into exactly where he was the night the Claireoi missing. As I began investigating James Stapleton they realized that he had actually been at his sister's wedding. Saturday night the night that Claire had been at McLeish's and ultimately disappeared. He was able to actually provide photographs and that corroborated his story. Later as we continued to investigation we learned that Claireoi was likely placed in that location or she died in that location early Sunday morning. James Stapleton was there on Monday morning June 30th. This like at least 24 hours between the time she dies in those woods right there until he actually is seen parked in that location 200 feet away. He said he never knew that there was a body there and if he had been aware he would have made sure he did something about it.

36:24There are a lot of people who may know something maybe just a small fact. The other route that I tried to take was to keep the case in people's minds by getting out there and having the press either write another article on the case or have some news segment. We've talked to so many people, numerous people, we questioned regarding there whereabouts, their association with Claire. However, we have yet to talk to somebody who gives us enough evidence and actually leads us to Claire's killer. As time goes on, there's a lot of concern. This is becoming a cold case. And once you've exhausted the immediate leads that you have, you have to start broadening your suspect will. Maybe it's not somebody she knows. Maybe it's somebody who passed through the area. There was an active serial killer murdering women, strangling them and dumping them on the side of the road.

37:26You had to remain a woman after woman after a woman found along two highways. The New Bedford murders was a big story in 1988. Maybe it's a serial killer. I kept this case close to my heart. And I just had that determination. I wanted to find who did this because I had had those conversations with Claire's mom. And I could hear that pain in her voice when she spoke about her and how what a great person she was. Why did she lose her life? Could she have done something that terrible? Did she deserve this? Why did she lose her life? Questions that have been asked over and over by Mary and Bob Gravel. Why was their 20-year-old daughter Claire murdered in late June of 1986?

38:29So I just felt like there has to be some way that we can solve this case. But heartbreakingly for Claire's family, years would go by. No arrests. They were losing hope. After a number of years, I just convinced myself I was never going to have an answer. And part of that was I wanted it desperately for my parents. I just thought that was it. We were never going to know. I did have this box that I kept with a variety of little scraps of paper notes and things, like a small photo of Claire. I kept a picture of her with her, I believe it was her nephew. A picture of her, you know, patting a horse. Those things that kind of kept it in my mind as this is a person that had family and had friends. It's not just this is another case. It's somebody that was loved by everybody and loved everybody.

39:29And so it kept it alive for me. It's time goes on as becoming increasingly clear that the suspects they had initially have been, if not ruled out, they certainly haven't been rolled in. And so I think because of that, there's a lot of concern. This is becoming a cold case. We considered everything. Maybe it's not somebody she knows. Maybe it's a complete stranger. Maybe it's somebody who passed through the area. Maybe it's a serial killer. So in between 1988 and 1989, the skeletal remains of a young woman have been found along a southeastern Massachusetts highway. There was an active serial killer that was dubbed the new bed for serial killer who was murdering women and dumping them on the side of the road. But approximately 70 miles away from where Claire Gravel was discovered.

40:29Taking a look at how Claire's body looked at the scene, how that ligature was used to kill her. And we're trying to determine is this somebody that has some kind of parapheralia or some unique desires and motives that would drive them to do something like this. A parapheralia is an unusual or deviant sexual interest. And that would include things such as being sexually aroused by strangulation. So the new bed for highway murders were women that were strangled in similar fashion that Claire was. So you had the remains of a woman after a woman after a woman found along two highways. Noticing these similarities, which makes it worth investigating, they're also noticing very significant differences. The victimology is really important. In the new bedfurt highway so killer, the victims tend to be either involved in sex work or in drug. Or alcohol use. That's very different from Claire. They were ultimately never able to connect the two.

41:35And as a matter of fact, nine murders of these women has never been solved to this day. As the years go by and the investigation of Claire Gravel's murder, forensic technology is advancing at an almost magical rate. And one of the things they started doing is what's commonly known as touch DNA. And murder cases across America and really the world began getting solved because of this new technology. In 2004, I learned more about or touch DNA, a little bit different from getting DNA from blood or seminal fluid or hairs. This is more looking for somebody's DNA who might have had contact with an object, with an item. I knew that when I looked at that ligature, that the way the tank top was twisted and pulled over Claire's neck, somebody had to really hold that tight and really use force with a hand in order to make that ligature.

42:40And so I submitted it for processing. It takes almost three years as the technology catches up to the case. In 2007, they're able to isolate a complete male genetic profile. When I heard that they had the profile, I was just, I was blown away. It was, that was a huge moment for me. I felt like we're going to do this. We're going to get this person. Someday, it might not be tomorrow, it might be the next month, not next year, but we're going to figure out who did this. So we took that profile then and figured out, okay, now what do we need to do? So there's still one person who has spent all of these years living under a cloud of suspicion. And that's Claire's friend Jim Cofallis. And they're about to test Jim Cofallis's DNA because remember, he was the last person to see her alive that night. I had asked one of the other detectives if he would go and follow James Cofallis. And ultimately he contacted me and said, I just saw him drop his coffee cup in a trash barrel.

43:50I said, all right, take the coffee cup, which he did. And we submitted that to be tested against the profile that was located on the tank top. And ultimately they told us that it did not match that DNA that was on the cup that James Cofallis had, did not match the DNA on the tank top. So after 20 years, Claire's friend Jim Cofallis is cleared of involvement in Claire's murder. So Jim Cofallis is no longer under a cloud of suspicion, but he has said this case still haunts him, especially the idea that he drove Claire home, but never made sure that she made it safely into her building. Detectives also go to the trouble of tracking down James Stapleton, that officer who slept in his truck the night before Claire's body was found. They test his DNA and it doesn't match the profile on Claire's tank top either. James Stapleton was ultimately cleared in this case. The home run for every investigator is a COTAZ hit. And that is the national database that essentially documents every known convicted felon in all 50 states.

44:55They submit this to COTAZ and they get nothing. It was disappointing, but I thought this is a good step for us because now it's in that database. I retired in 2009 and it was hard to let it go, if you will. I mean, I said I kept a report on it because I didn't want to let it go. It's been more than 20 years since Claire's murder when Detective Gill retires. So now the case lands in the hands of a brand new set of detectives. And they're essentially starting at square one. And then later in a town not far away, there's an attack that it is eerily similar to Claire Gravel's murder. He's got this around your neck. Are you thinking you're about to die? I'm thinking you're about to die.

46:03I look in Hamilton, which is a beautiful suburb of Boston, north of Boston near Salem. People move there because it's a great school system. It's a family town. In my job, I often find myself sitting down with people who are recalling the worst day of their lives. And this time I sat down with a woman named Rosemary Diskin. She told me about that night back in 2007. If it had been 20 years after Claire Gravel's murder and Rosemary knew nothing about it, she was a mom separated from her husband who was at home with her 12-year-old son Jason. I was a real estate broker, so I worked a lot of hours and I had a son who was 12 years old. So most of my life was my son and my job. So take me back to June 6, 2007. What do you remember about that day? I remember about that day. I'm it was on Wednesday and it was like a normal day.

47:06It was a nice sunny day. I worked where in the day and took my son to baseball. And he wasn't feeling well, so I brought him home. And he informed me they had to do a project for school. He had to make a Mexican dish. So I was going to make a flan for him. It's in the evening, around 9.30, 9.40. She is cooking on the stove. There's a knock at the door. And she thinks it's her husband. And he had been over earlier and she thought maybe he had come back for something. So I walked over the door and he was standing there with her head bowed down. And it is a man that she knows. John Kerry. They're not friends, but she knows him.

48:07Was he a golfing buddy of your husbands? Not really a golfing buddy. They knew each other because they go to the same golf clubs. And I knew him because he was one of my friends ex-husband. And he used to live one street over. And his daughter played with my son Jason. I remember what he looked like. He was drunk. I opened up the slider. And he came in the house and I didn't invite him in. He just came right in. I'm like, you know, what are you doing here? You said your husband invited me for a drink. I'm like, my husband invited you for a drink. You're all right. Let me give him a call. So I reached over to get the phone. And he grabbed it out of my hand, threw it on the ground, and pulled out. Didn't know what it was. Put a tie around my neck and tried to strangle me.

49:07He pushed me back against the wall. And I did say why me? What's going on? on and he just said I don't know and that was the only conversation we had and he just kept pulling and pulling. I think it's so confusing at this point because here's a man who has come into a woman's house that he knows, they should identify and attacks her randomly and as opposed to him you know grabbing her breasts or trying to take her clothes off, he is strangling her. He's got this around your neck, are you thinking you're about to die? Oh, I definitely was cutting through my neck. I thought it was going to die. I really thought it was going to die. There's a struggle. She ends up knocking over this heavy chair. Her 12 year old son hears this and he comes down to see her husband on the floor and John Kerry pulling something around her neck. He'd saw John was hurting me so I said get a knife and stab him.

50:11He got a knife, he went behind him and he stabbed it in his back but the knife broke and then when he did that John Kerry let go of the news around my neck and went after him. My son went right out the slider and screaming murder, murder and the neighbors all heard him. I came to I got up. He turned around and came back and he socked a punch me right in the face. So I gave me a black eye and I just stood to this day. Remember the hand hitting me and the blood dripping down. Then he turned around and went after my son. What's going through your mind? Just that I didn't want him to get my son but my son went across the street through the yards down to his friend. Rosemary makes it to her friend's house. She tells them what's happened. She's a sterical. He picks up the phone and he calls. I'm on mine.

51:12Hamilton, Massachusetts is a pretty quiet town and from 901 operators some of their shifts can be pretty boring. All of a sudden about nine o'clock on this evening the call board lights up all describing the same incident of this man who came into the house and attempted to strangle Rosemary. Police were standing immediately. That was my first feeling that oh my god I'm not dead. I got away and my son was okay. My son Jason thought I was dead. He thought that I had been killed and the ambulance came when I went to the neighbor's house and then they got Jason and brought him to me. Ah this had to be terrifying. I've never had any violence in my life before. I mean I was in Hamilton. You know expect to have a neighbor that you know do something like that.

52:14Rosemary and Jason are taken to a hospital and police know exactly who her attacker is. So they go to find John Kerry and the story he tells them is pretty stunning. Whenever fall comes back around it always feels like a fresh start. This year I've been layering in some styles from the new Louis Le Mans fall drop because the weather is shifting and I find I have to be ready for the entire day and not just one part of it. Louis Le Mans fall line has some really versatile transitional pieces so I can just wake up, throw on a matching set, add a jacket or a fleece and head out knowing that I'll feel comfortable enough to go wherever the day takes me. Check out the new fall arrivals in store and online now at louleumann.com. Our thoughts about food, exercise and your body taking up too much space in your brain. You aren't alone and you don't have to live this way. Equip provides 100% virtual evidence

53:20base treatment for all diagnoses and all bodies. With Equip you'll get a dedicated care team including a therapist, medical provider, dietician and a recovery coach who has actually been in your shoes. Lasting recovery is possible. Visit Equip.health to book a free consultation today. After neighbors call 911, police are on the scene pretty quickly. Rosemary suffered some pretty severe injuries to her head and her neck. Tell me about this. This is where the time is around your neck. This is where I had my hands underneath trying to stop them from strangling me so this is basically what happened to my neck. It was cutting in all the way around my neck. And then what happened your eye is really red here. I think this is where he punched me. Ah, in the face. Luckily my son came and saved my life. So this is Jason. He looks pretty serious

54:23in these pictures. Yeah he does. You see a change in him afterwards? Yeah there was definitely a change. I mean he went through a very traumatic situation. The next stage John Kerry shows up at a police department. With a very very different tale to tell. I went over there and brought what I had. You know even on the same stage. But I wanted to prove. Yeah. John Kerry tells them that there was a situation that happened the night before and it was consensual. So we started kind of going at it. We don't, we don't hug. It's strictly sex. You know it's better than me going find a hooker and she knows it on a state so that's what I was going to do. And she was things over the chair in the kitchen. So I am a king you got.

55:32And that's well known. I like bondage. I like that. That's the way I am. John Kerry comes in with this. Hey fellas, you know how this is? This was crazy kinky sex as you watched that video. You can see this guy is reliving the act as he's telling it to the police. It was something on the table that I grabbed and I put it around the neck. And I was pulling her backwards pulling back the reins like you would not. Don't sling type of thing. She just went on the bedroom. I should not. I got it. In fact, I didn't want to lose what I had gone. I just wanted to get over with it. Be gone there. Which is where I do. Let me get over anywhere. John Kerry is describing this terrible misunderstanding where he's gone in to have consensual sex with this woman as he's strangling her. He looks up and he sees this young man, this 12 year old boy looking at him. You know what I am? I just tried to block myself,

56:35cut the table and then I ran out the door, flited waxed doors like that. I ran out the door. Now, I don't know what Rose is saying, but I was very embarrassing for both of us, obviously. John Kerry claimed it was consensual sex because he knew there was overwhelming evidence he had been there. There were eyewitnesses. There was corroborating physical evidence. I mean, it was an incredibly well documented attack. So usually we only have a situation like this. The doors are somewhat similar and they vary slightly or kind of embarrassed or whatever. On this one, they vary greatly. She has a huge injury on her neck and this is far more consistent with somebody who's trying to kill someone than somebody who's engaged in sexual play. So what they're trying to do is they're trying to pin him down on details and they're essentially either trying to confirm or refute his story. So how long have you been seeing women since

57:41the December? It's only a very fourth time. Have you ever been over there when some of them are now like you might see their in school or maybe with their staff? For the first time? I didn't know he was there. And then they're going to lower the boom and let them know they don't believe them. How can you not look at such a injuries? Take care of more care of those injuries. You know what I mean? So police arrest John Kerry and they charge him with attempted murder. So he's charged with this as a crime? It definitely was a crime for what you do to me. And if Jason hadn't been there that night? I don't think I'd be alive. John Kerry is ultimately tried and convicted of attempted murder and home invasion and sentenced to 20 years in prison. So then you hear the guilty verdict. What was that like? Not as happy. Good is gone. Hope he never gets out.

58:43This ordeal may be over but this case is about to breathe new life into a decades-old investigation. He was not on anybody's radar. That moment was incredible. It really was. Currently I work as the deputy chief of police at Mermer Med College. We've been now for 16 years and I've loved every minute of it. We ensure the safety of over 4,000 students here. Obviously for the last 40 years I've thought about Claire and her case. It's never left my mind. She was a young college student. She never got to experience all these wonderful things that ultimately you want kids to experience at college. She never got to do that. Decades have now passed in Claire's Mermer case. But Codis doesn't sleep and we have an unknown

59:53DNA profile from the black tank top and the computer in Codis is constantly looking for matches and every state in America submits DNA from their convicted felons. Detectives are always hoping that somewhere along the way the killer his DNA is going to pop up in the system. So in 2012 there is a huge break in Claire Gravel's murder case. I heard from the disc attorney's office that they actually had a match from the Codis database. The DNA on the tank top matched the DNA of somebody who was serving time in prison. That moment was incredible. It really was. It makes me emotional actually to talk about it. When the disc attorney's office told me the name John Kerry, I said I never heard that name before. Nobody ever provided that name to us

1:00:55through our entire investigation and no information or evidence ever led at that time to John Kerry. I didn't know anything about him. He was not on anybody's radar. As far as they knew he had absolutely no connection with Claire Gravel. So the very first thing police do is they look at the offense for which the guys been jailed and what do they find in John Kerry. He's serving 20 years for the strangulation and attempted murder of another woman. Rose Mary Diskin. So once the disc attorney's office knew that they had this match to John Kerry, it created a whole new investigation basically. One of the things they want to know of course is was he around in 1986 and they find that he was. He was 26 years old. He was living in Gloucester, Massachusetts, which is not very far from where Claire was found. Gloucester is actually north of Beverly where Claire's body was found and the way to get to Gloucester is on Route 128 and passing right through Beverly. He had gone to Salem State prior to Claire back in the late 70s. So he was

1:02:01familiar with the area. He graduated from high school in 1977 and Gloucester, Massachusetts. These are high school yearbook photos of John Kerry and you see in one he's golfing. He goes on to become an avid golfer. In 1989 he actually started his own Katerf maintenance company. Police now want to know more about John Kerry. They track down his friends. They learn about relationships. They even speak to his ex-wife. My name is Charlene Kerry. I was married to John Kerry. First time I ever saw John Kerry was in the seventh grade. I remember walking down a hallway and seeing him and just my eyes lit up and my heart was a flutter. John Kerry was very charismatic. He was a really good looking kid. It was just this real attraction. I kind of just waited and hoped that someday I'd be able to go out with him.

1:03:01And that finally happened in I think it was ninth grade. That young love leads to marriage. The two make it official in 1995. We were married for seven years and we had a child. The been the early days. There came a time where he just basically said can I try this? There's a way to like make your orgasms more erotic and I just want to you know pretend I'm strangling you or whatever. It just helps me get off. I kind of really didn't understand it but because I was totally in love with him I went ahead and did this I think play acting type thing where he would either take my nylons or he would grab the belt on my robe. I was afraid of

1:04:02anybody putting anything around my neck so I wouldn't let him just you know strangle me unless I had some control and I was very strong so I always make sure I was on my stomach and I put my hand under. I remember at one point I was crying. I was like screaming and crying and then he did stop. I thought it was weird but like I knew other people that got into this, say, to a masochism or whatever you want to call it. So I figured out I was with somebody that liked that type of stuff so now I have to deal with it. I'm married to him. I love him. In my mind I didn't think he was doing it for any other purpose except for him to heighten his orgasm. As investigators are looking at this they're really sorting to see this puzzle pieces kind of come together. They're looking at clear gravels murder. There was no sexual assault. Now they're learning from Charlene about somebody who's interested in strangulation and then

1:05:06they have Rose Murray Diskins experience. When it comes to John Kerry his sex is strangulation. That's what turns him on. Is it the fact that he's controlling another person's breathing? Is it the dominance? Is it the fear? I mean there's a lot of possibilities there but it's always very specifically about strangulation. In 2002 after seven years of marriage John and Charlene split up and eventually divorce. When he left he said to me, Charlene one of these days you're going to look back and wish you had left me sooner. He said there's a side of me that you know nothing about never for a million years thought there was a dark side and there is a dark side. There's a really dark side. So investigators in the clear gravel case now want to talk to John Kerry. John Kerry how are you? Oh, it's me. You think you can identify girl forming?

1:06:08The detectives showed him a picture of Claire. A girl? When ever fall comes back around it always feels like a fresh start. This year I've been layering in some styles from the new Lou Lemmon fall drop because the weather is shifting and I find I have to be ready for the entire day and not just one part of it. Lou Lemmon's fall line has some really versatile transitional pieces so I can just wake up, throw on a matching set, add a jacket or a fleece and head out knowing that I'll feel comfortable enough to go wherever the day takes me. Check out the new fall arrivals in store and online now at loulemmon.com. Our thoughts about food, exercise and your body taking up too much space in your brain, you aren't alone and you don't have to live this way. Equip provides 100% virtual evidence base treatment for all diagnoses and all bodies. With Equip you'll get a dedicated care team including a therapist, medical provider, dietician and a recovery coach who has actually been in

1:07:09your shoes. Lasting recovery is possible. Visit Equip.health to book a free consultation today. This is the take recorder. You can be recording this being sent here. Okay. Thank you, Alex. John Karrick. Detectives from Essex County went to Concord State Prison to see John Karrick who was doing 20 years for the attempted murder and home invasion of Rosemary. He had no idea why he was being interviewed. At this point he's been in prison for five years. I mean he's ready to imagine which could speak through his note. I don't know what we're talking about so I mean I'll speak until sure if we get to a point where... oh yeah yeah we're not gonna lose no trips. I'm not sure if we're... yeah I'll go on. They spend a considerable amount of time just kind of establishing work for within. You know I hear a good call from... I used to be.

1:08:12Maybe we could take off too. No, no. No, no. No, it wasn't for them. He has no idea that he is a suspect because they tell him that there's been a strangulation case and they like his help. I was hoping to get some insight from you on the strangulation thing. Yeah. People do that for the intersectional nature and people doing that for fun I guess. Yeah. I mean is that something you that was something you were into? That's my past, yeah. You were into that your whole life? No, not my whole life. He's very quick to say. I don't know that any more. Back in 86. What did you live in 86? Glossier. Glossier area. So the case I'm working on was in that area and I'm hoping that maybe you maybe do some people or into that sort of thing back then. Yeah, I can't help you with that. Yeah. I was an into it back then. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. John Kerry did everything to distance himself from anything like that in 1986. At one point they show him a picture of Claire Grable. Okay. Well otherwise if I showed you a picture

1:09:14you think you can identify a girl for me? A girl? Yeah. Yeah. Back in 86. And then the second time they showed him this picture of Claire, he looked at it and he goes, I need some glasses to look at it. Oh my god. Your glasses here. They were picking one 75? Yeah, that's good. Yeah, I do. It's nice all the way. He thinks it's a little song. It was almost his way of trying to be cooperative and friendly, but putting on a front. It looks like a guy. That's an old picture. Yeah. No. Claire Gravel. That's her name. Claire Grable. Frank Glossier. She was from, well she didn't sound attached from her hand over. Yeah. Doesn't look at the doll at all. I never knew she didn't know what band over here. She's trying to get him talking and then their plan all along. They're going to

1:10:17hit him with the idea that, I mean your DNA is on the tank top on this poor dead young woman. How do you explain it? At least I have to say she was found strangled to death. And I'm asking maybe you could shed some light on. Why? Are you accusing me? That's fine. Well, I'm going to ask you what we're going to tell you. Because we did find on the thing that strangled her. Yeah. The thing around her neck. Your DNA was fine. On this? Yeah. I'm that black thing around her neck. The photo was almost a puller where I taken from one of the crime scene photos. So it depicted her face and the ligature around her neck. I mean, you know what that black thing is? It's her tank top. And he took it, looked at it quickly, and then pushed it very quickly away. As far away from him as he could get it. Well, I don't know. And from that point in the conversation, it was like he would refer to Claire's picture, really not as a human being, but as that. I mean, maybe I could have run into her at some point,

1:11:22but I can tell you that that's not my my 86. Yeah. That's a lot of years. I think you remember, and girl, she you were playing around with her. If I was showing that, yeah, I wouldn't she'd absolutely. I would have. She'd know. No, I'm telling you, you know, who knows? I could have been dancing with that girl. I could have. Yeah. No, no. That's the one where you I don't know. John Kerry is looking for a way to explain the evidence against him. And this sounds very familiar to investigators because this is exactly what he did in 2007 with Rosemary Jiskin. He realized what he needed to explain away. You with DNA is a role in the murder way. And that's a huge problem for you. Yeah. I'm dead. You know, and you're claiming you have no knowledge for it. You may have danced with her. I don't know. I mean, again, I mean, my I was with a lot of women. I mean, a lot of women. I get I understand. I know it's not I don't have someone who's saying I'm not happy about my past. No, no, I'm not. I understand that. I'm not. You have to do. I am not

1:12:29clean to this thing. He denies, denies, denies it. And one of the things he says is that's not my work. This is not my work. I did what I did that night with Rosemary. I've done this stuff in the past. No, absolutely not. That is an odd thing to say. And that's the kind of thing you would expect somebody as a track record of perhaps strangling women would say. And they say, did you ever google clear gravel and he doesn't deny it. Yeah, we go play around and we're done. I probably got a list of strangulation victims and so forth and then I Google them. I'm sure. Do you have a memory of doing it? I don't really have a memory because I did so many. It's my buckling. Like, why would anybody be remotely interested than that? And he reaches a point, the interview where he realizes these guys know a lot more than they originally let on and then he shuts the interview down. That's enough. I'm not answering any more questions. Okay. No, you're done. I'm done.

1:13:32Not only do we have his DNA on the murder weapon but also everything that he's saying just helps us even more in this case. I felt confident that he's the right guy. This is the guy that killed Claire. Well tonight, a break in a murder on the North Shore that went unsolved for more than 35 years. The Essex district attorney announced that detectives identified a suspect. More than three decades after Claire Gravel's death, John Kerry is finally charged with first degree murder. Earlier this morning in Essex County, Grand Jury and daddy, John Kerry, 63, for the murder and connection with the strangulation death of Claire Gravel. They said we got him. I'm like, got him and they said, yeah, they're arresting somebody for killing Claire. And I remember I started to cry because I just was stunned. My mother passed away in March of 2015. It's sad that my mom wasn't here to see it.

1:14:40But I just remember being ecstatic in where halfway home or next, you know, third base is the trial. Or as in session, you may be seated. Morning or honor. When the trial started, John Kerry has a new story. So he writes this letter with some kind of alibi. Leading up to the trial, it was nerve-wracking. Because it had been 40 years, I never had that kind of emotion going into a trial before. What was that like for you in court and to see him? John Kerry, did you make eye contact? I didn't. I didn't want to, but for the family to see this day that we didn't think was going to happen, it was very fulfilling. Local Massachusetts Station, WHGH was there in the courtroom for opening statements. John Kerry murdered Claire Gravel on June 29, 1986, motivated by his sexual arousal to the act

1:15:48of strangulation. The first thing that I told the jury was that there was nothing cold about this case in 1986 at all. The police simply ignored potential suspects. This investigation was absolutely corrupted by bias, and that evidence is going to show that Mr. Kerry is not guilty. Prosecutors call Roger Bale, that bouncer from major McLeash's, who remember seeing Claire with that mystery man the night she disappeared. This is audio from his testimony. Well, he wasn't a regular, which was one reason he stood out, and he wasn't, uh, yeah, he looked like he was going out for a night to have a good time and dressed up. When I saw him in court and I made eye contact with him, it all came rushing back to me. And yeah, with him, there was, there was a guy who saw 40 years ago. I'm sorry.

1:16:50I'm not surprised that now 40 years later a witness is saying Mr. Kerry, I recognize him as the person who was in the bar. That's exactly the mischief of putting on a case that is fueled by cognitive bias. No one ever identified Mr. Kerry as having been in the bar before this trial occurred. So remember, John Kerry originally said he'd never seen Claire Gravel before. Now he's coming to trial with a brand new story, detailed in a letter that he wrote from prison to his old golf coach that used to coach him in the 1980s. So this letter is a letter that John Kerry wrote in June of 2021. So this was after the interview he had done with the detectives. It says, I met Claire after one of our Salem State outings in June of 1984, I believe. We got into a scuffle at the end of the night when Claire's friends caught her and I together in a bathroom of which she

1:17:52followed me into. She's looking for somebody to corroborate his brand new story that he didn't originally tell the detectives, that he did know Claire Gravel. John begins to think the investigators are telling me that my DNA is on this murder weapon. I think any reasonable person in that circumstance might think to themselves, could I have met this person, could I have danced with her in the bar? The golf coach testified that he didn't keep any records from that event who was there and didn't remember anything from the early 1980s. So even though John Kerry is now putting himself at the bar that night, his defense team insists that he's not the murderer. In fact, they point their finger at James Stapleton. Remember James Stapleton is that officer who says he was sleeping in his truck the night before Claire's body was found. Their argument is that James Stapleton was never thoroughly investigated and that he could be the killer of Claire Gravel. Mr. Stapleton, I'm just going

1:18:55to direct your attention to June 28th of 1986. Do you remember where you were? I was at a wedding. Whose wedding was it? My sister. So the prosecution introduces pictures of him being at the wedding. In these photos, each side is arguing something completely different. The prosecution is arguing that this proves that he was someplace else and he's got an airtight alibi. There were witnesses who testified that they saw a man in the bar who was wearing an outfit that looks quite close to what the outfit we know Mr. Stapleton was wearing at a sister's wedding. You know if they looked in your truck at any time, I don't recall if they looked. They never took a photograph of the truck. They never inspected the interior of the truck. They never did any of those things. Did you kill Claire Gravel? No, me. James Stapleton cooperated. He took police to the scene. He explains what he was doing there.

1:19:58Essentially, who cares if they took pictures of the truck? James Stapleton's DNA is not on the black tank top. John Carey's DNA was. But the defense questions that DNA evidence pointing out that it's touch DNA, which they argue can be left behind in all kinds of ways. Good John's DNA have landed on the tank top because he was in the bar and interacted with Mr. Gravel. Perhaps. We just don't know. So even if the jury struggles with the idea that maybe there's some other way that John Carey's DNA could have went upon her tank top, the judge also lets in other information regarding his criminal history. You're called to testify. What was that like for you? Well, I wanted to testify because I wanted them to know exactly what he did to me. And what was he doing with the respect to the news that was around right now? What was he doing with it?

1:21:02He's pulling it tighter and tighter. That's exactly what he did to her. Were you believing that this seemed like a pattern that this could be the same man? I knew it was the same man. I mean, why would you come to my house and try to kill me? I had nothing to do with him before. So, um, obviously he strangled that girl too. But during their closing argument, the prosecution attempts to answer questions that they anticipate that jury might have. I can't answer to you exactly how fair he came to be with John Carey. But based on the evidence, I offered him this. They basically say she voluntarily got in Carey's car. They were driving north together that she may have stopped to go to the bathroom. Maybe Claire had a beer from somewhere. Maybe there was some in the car. The A.D. was a very different time. She needed to stop and use the bathroom and she takes up belongings and she locks over.

1:22:06She places them down on grass. They speculated that that's when Carey thought this is my opportunity to go and strangle her. Well, the problem is there's no evidence to support any of that. There's absolutely no evidence that Ms. Gravel ever was in a car with John Carey. There's no evidence that Ms. Gravel stopped anywhere to use the bathroom. But what actually happened, the only two people who know for sure are Claire and John Carey. When the case went to the jury, I was shaking that never happened before. All it takes is one hour to reasonable doubt and this could get shot down really quick. The jury, they got the case on a Monday afternoon. A range of emotions are going through your head

1:23:11because it's you're hoping for the best. We were all holding hands and holding our breath and then we heard the word guilty and it was like this gasp. When I heard those words, I actually cried which I've never done in court before. Would you feel at that moment? Um, happiness for my mom. Um, happiness for dad and happiness for all of us just like we got the answers finally 40 years later. I've been breathed in 40 years now I can breathe. It took decades but today the siblings of Claire Gravel finally had the chance to confront their sisters killer. You and your siblings all spoke at the sentencing hearing. It was important for our family to let him know how 40 years of agony felt.

1:24:12Parents are not supposed to outlive their children because of your cruel act. They have to bury their little girl. Today I stand here for Claire. I stand here for the life she should have had and the moments she should have been a part of. I pray now that Claire, my mom and dad and my siblings feel a sense of peace which I have spent 39 years, nine months and nine days searching for. It is here by order by the court that you be punished. The judge sentenced his carry to life in prison without the possibility of parole. 39 and a half years it was unsolved and here we have 40 years later with it's all through the one of the unsolved families out there and we no longer are. For all the unsolved this keep hope and we hear and see you.

1:25:13I do visit Claire's grave. I most recently went after the trial had ended because she's been such a part of my whole law enforcement career and I just wanted to know like, you know, you've been with me during all of my career and law enforcement. So this is actually the first time that we've all been here together as one group, you know, long time. Mom and Claire are buried side by side and I would like to think that they're hugging right now. My father is 90 years old and I think my father lived to be the age that he is now because I think my father made a promise to my mother and said, I'm not going until I find out what happened in my little girl. My mom died March 8th, 2015 when the doctors declared her dead array of sunshine

1:26:19came in that hospital room. What do you think that meant? Claire was like finally, mommy with me. Jim tells me he was comforted by that ray of sun. David found it a bit healing. He says that Claire's case is a reminder that no matter how long it takes, there's always hope for justice. This story certainly proves that. We should also note tonight that John Kerry is appealing his first degree murder conviction. That is our program for tonight. Thanks so much for watching. I'm David Newer and I'm Deborah Roberts from all of us here at 2020 and ABC News. Good night.

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