FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 3 9-11 p.m.
"Dateline’s" Dennis Murphy reports on a young woman who disappeared at a Dairy Queen and the detective who finally cracked the case 22 years later. REPEAT.
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 3 9-11 p.m.
"Dateline’s" Dennis Murphy reports on a young woman who disappeared at a Dairy Queen and the detective who finally cracked the case 22 years later. REPEAT.
A husband is found dead in a stable in what appears to be a horse accident. But when bullet casings and a bloody pipe are found nearby, blame shifts to his wife, whose daughter and son accuse her of plotting the murder and convincing her son to commit the crime. Tamron Hall reports, Aug. 30, 10 p.m./9C.
Audio files:
Little more than an hour before Neil Olsen was murdered, his stepdaughter, Amanda Robinson, is recorded having a phone conversation with her boyfriend who is in prison. In this phone conversation, Amanda tells her boyfriend that Neil has smacked her mother and that if " that thing" doesn't happen that night, her mother will leave Neil. Listen to the audio here.
Hours after Neil Olsen's body is discovered in a horse stall, Amanda receives a phone call from her imprisoned boyfriend. In this conversation, Amanda tells her boyfriend that Neil has been murdered and that she is not OK with having advance knowledge of the plot to kill Neil Olsen. Amanda also tells her boyfriend that her mother is upset about the murder and that she thinks her mother is "regretting some things." Listen to the audio here.
In this clip recorded shortly after Amanda has returned to Massachusetts for Neil Olsen's funeral, Amanda tells her boyfriend that the murder investigation is underway. She says that she has spoken to police detectives and that things don't look good for her brother. Amanda also hints that knows her call is being recorded and that she doesn't want to put herself in jeopardy by answering her boyfriends questions about the murder and the investigation. Listen to the audio here.
The full transcript of this episode will be available Tuesday afternoon. The full video will be available on the Dateline.msnbc.com site by Monday at 11pm PT.
Dateline NBC producer Carol Gable writes:
Since our story first aired in March, Jayne and Eduardo continue to settle into their new life in the eastern United States. The couple has testified before closed door congressional committees and international security conferences about their kidnapping experience. Both are also working with the email provider used by Eduardo’s kidnappers in hopes of making it more difficult for criminals to use the protection of the internet to commit such crimes. The Valsecas say the Mexican government assures them the investigation to find Eduardo’s kidnappers continues.
Jayne is working on a memoir about her family’s ordeal. Eduardo continues to physically improve from the injuries he suffered during 7 months in “the box”.
More on Friday's Dateline:
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Mike Gonzales shares how this terrible online threat led to his daughter Suzy's death:
Seven and a half years ago, we were told the news that parents fear the most: “Suzy is missing and there’s a note.”
Our youngest daughter was attending Florida State University on a full ride. We thought she was doing great. Little did we know that she had fallen into a severe depression and was contemplating suicide.
Instead of turning to her parents or professional help, she had turned to the Internet.
She found many pro-suicide sites, groups and chat rooms. She found sites that detailed very conceivable methods of harming oneself with cold accuracy. Suzy ended up at a Usenet group where she thought that she had found others who could relate to her feelings of sadness, worthlessness and wanting to die.
She thought of the people that she connected with as friends, but some had a more deadly intent. I call these individuals "Internet suicide predators."
Once she started to post messages, she was quickly befriended by a suicide predator. He first became her friend online and later became a sort of a father figure for her. He validated her feelings -- lonely, lost, and wanting to die.
He gave her reasons to die, but said nothing of why she needed to live. He gave her encouragement that she was doing the right thing, and said that he was also planning to kill himself.
This predator knew Suzy’s full name, where she lived, where she was going to kill herself, and how she was going to do it. He made no effort to stop her. He even proofread her suicide note to make sure that no one could stop her from dying.
Shortly after her death, the predator posted a message saying, “Suzy needed to die…I was with her till the end…Yes, I killed Suzy.”
We went to law enforcement to see if this man could be charged with a crime, but nothing could be done. Right now, going online to find depressed and suicidal people and giving them that virtual push over the edge is perfectly legal.
Nothing can be done to stop this predator until the laws are changed, so change is what we are attempting to bring.
We went to our Congressional representative, who authored a bill that would make it illegal to use the Internet to assist another person in killing themselves. The bill does not shut down sites or ban books, printed materials, films, radio or Internet service providers.
It’s been an uphill battle for what we thought would be a rather simple decision. So far, we can only persuade a handful of representatives to publicly announce their support. It will take overwhelming public outcry to convince our lawmakers to take on this effort.
This Friday at 9/8pm Central, Dateline NBC showcases a new deadly danger online in Dangerous Connections. Here, one example of the unbelievable threat on the Internet that you may not yet know about:
Suzy Gonzales, a 19-year-old on a full scholarship to Florida State University, committed suicide in 2003. She was told how to make a deadly cyanide cocktail by someone she met online.
The man who allegedly encouraged and coached Suzy to commit suicide lives in Florida. Not only did he allegedly instruct Suzy to pose as a jeweler in order to obtain cyanide, he openly claims to have proofread her suicide note. He claims he remained in touch with her right up until she went to a motel to kill herself. The Gonzales family says he even put up a memorial website to Suzanne.
At the time, there was no law in Florida against encouraging someone to commit suicide.
After Suzy’s death, her parents began pushing for a federal law that would make it illegal to use the Internet to coach vulnerable people to kill themselves. The federal law promoted by Mike and Mary Gonzales, "The Suzy Gonzales Suicide Prevention Act," would specifically prohibit teaching or encouraging someone to commit suicide if it’s known that person is likely to use such support to take his or her own life.
The Gonzales family says that the proposed legislation would fill gaps left by local assisted suicide laws, which vary widely from one state to another. The bill was introduced in February 2009 and remains stalled in the Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism and Homeland Security.
We've received a lot of inquiries about how to get in touch with the Chicago organizations featured in the Dateline report on "Faces Against Violence."
Below is some contact information:
Blair Holt Foundation:
Website: www.blairholtmemorialfoundation.org
Contact: rholt@blairholtmemorialfoundation.org
Pain to Power Foundation: (Derrion Albert’s foundation)
Website: www.paintopower.org
Contact: aleonard@paintopower.org
Phone: 877-723-3909
North Lawndale Boxing League (Derek Brown, aka Shotgun, boxing program)
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=145108912177562&ref=ts
Contact: Derek Brown
Email: Derek.brown76@yahoo.com
Mothers Opposed to Violence Everywhere
Contact: Louvenia Hood
Email: revhood@gmail.com, louveniahood@gmail.com
Mothers for Peace
Contact: Oscar Contreras
Phone: 773-447-4105
Email: contreras301@comcast.net
This Sunday at 7/6pm Central, Lester Holt shares what happened when Dateline NBC traveled to Chicago to learn about its gang violence.
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Lester Holt writes: I've always hated the term "senseless violence," because rarely have I covered a story in which violence made any sense to me. As I interviewed some of those who have lost children in Chicago's raging epidemic of gang-related killings for my upcoming Dateline hour, I found myself in that familiar place of struggling to offer them the appropriate words of comfort. There is just no making sense of an innocent child not making it home from school alive simply because another youth decides to try and shoot a rival that afternoon and misses his target. Or, as in the case of Derrion Albert, a group of classmates decide they need someone to take their rage out on.
It was video of Derrion being pummeled to death near his school last year that made the country stand up and pay attention to what has been happening in this country's third largest city. Last year, Chicago lost 63 school age kids to violence, with scores more wounded. That's a third more than were murdered in New York, a city three times larger. This year at least 218 young people have been shot.
I lived in Chicago for 14 years, and raised my children there through middle school. Though I was born and mostly raised in California, I have long considered Chicago my "adopted" hometown, and proudly tell people it's the most livable big city in America. Yet in certain parts of the city, gangs have robbed too many good people of the freedoms to enjoy all Chicago has to offer, and they are literally killing its children.
This was not an easy Dateline project. The personal accounts of families and victims who have suffered loss are painful to hear. At the root of the violence are guns and gangs, but we found disagreement and even controversy over other factors that may be contributing to it. We also found hope, however, in the character of those standing up against the violence. And in that hope perhaps lie the appropriate words of comfort. That these deaths which defy sensible explanation have forced people to take notice and dedicate themselves to saving other children.
I hope you can watch this special Dateline broadcast, America Now: Faces Against Violence.
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From the producers of Dateline comes "Solve My Mystery," a new crime story experience narrated from a unique perspective – the murder victim. Interviews with those who knew the victim of the crime and law enforcement are complemented by high-end dramatizations to offer viewers a more immersive approach to storytelling.
This Friday, "Solve My Mystery: The True Story of Chris Jenkins" focuses on the life and death of a college student who went missing after a Halloween party at a local bar. His parents have spent years in an exhaustive search for the truth, but the case remains unsolved.
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A mother's chilling premonition comes true when she is murdered by a stranger at the door. Another mother knows information that could help catch the killer. Will she risk everything to tell it? Chris Hansen reports. ‬Airs Friday, 9 p.m./8 C on Dateline NBC.
Check out his video blog taken while filming the report (a little bit of behind the scenes)