How long does it take a killer to stop worrying about whether he'll ever be caught? A couple of weeks? A couple of months? 25 years? If he's still a free man then he's probably pretty sure he did, indeed, get away with murder. Detectives retire. Witnesses forget. The trail grows cold, never to warm up again. Until, one day, it does.
Keith Morrison with the story of a "Deadly Triangle," tonight at 10pm/9c on Dateline NBC.
Telling the story of the larger struggle in the American economy to lower unemployment, Lester Holt reports from Millen, Georgia, a small industrial town so devastated by the Great Recession, its unemployment numbers peaked at 21% - more than twice the national average. Between 2007 and 2009 all the factories that kept Millen running and prosperous closed shop or moved overseas. 1,300 people lost their jobs. Caught full-force in this economic tsunami, restauranteur Krystal Chance, banker Sandy Becton, and a single mother and former factory worker Kimberly Thompson, desperately struggle to survive and support their families. Facing a national crisis that has become deeply personal, they manage to persevere with inspiring determination, optimism and pride.
Dateline NBC's Lester Holt reports The Town That Jobs Forgot on Friday, December 23rd, at 10pm/9c.
Disturbing news out of Penn State put a cold case back in the spotlight. A decade ago, in Bellefonte, Pennsylvania, a tiny town just a few short miles away from the Penn State campus, the accusation that Coach Jerry Sandusky sexually abused a child, first came to the attention of Ray Gricar, the local district attorney.
Then, seven years ago Gricar went missing. Investigators uncovered his laptop but the hard drive was unreadable. The question being asked now is – could there be a link between Gricar’s disappearance and the Sandusky scandal? Lester Holt reports.
Dateline NBC
Kathleen and Michael Peterson in happier times.
Michael Peterson, the best-selling author whose 2003 murder conviction in the death of his wife inspired the movie "The Staircase Murders," has been granted a new trial.
Peterson's motion for a new trial was granted Wednesday based on new evidence suggesting that the original investigation was botched and a bizarre alternative theory that has drawn support from scientific experts: the possibility that an owl killed Kathleen Peterson in Durham, N.C., in 2001.
The case had already drawn widespread international attention because of Peterson's fame — his novels "The Immortal Dragon," "A Time of War, A Bitter Peace" and "Charlie Two Shoes and the Marines of Love Company" were well-reviewed and became best-sellers.
Kathleen Peterson, 48, was found dead at the bottom of a staircase at the family's home in Durham. Her husband, now 68, was sentenced to death after his conviction in 2003, but his family has been seeking a new trial based allegations that the State Bureau of Investigation mishandled the case.
Last year, a State Bureau of Investigation agent leading the case was fired after he was found to have mishandled evidence in 34 criminal cases. That was the basis for the ruling Wednesday by Hudson, who set bond at $300,000 and ordered Peterson held under electronic house arrest.
The case has also been closely followed because of an alternative defense explanation that has become known as the Owl Theory.
That evidence included a feather that was found at the scene and affidavits from neuroscientists and veterinary experts — including specialists from the Smithsonian Institution — saying the wounds on Kathleen Peterson's head were consistent with those that would occur if an owl had somehow become entangled in her hair.
In 2007, the case was the subject of "The Staircase Murders," a highly fictionalized account starring Treat Williams. It was also the subject of a 2006 "Dateline NBC" investigation, which raised the question of whether blood splatters at the scene were inconsistent with a blunt-force trauma attack.
Read the full 2006 "Dateline NBC" report
Kathleen Peterson's sister, Candance Zamperini, urged Superior Court Judge Orlando Hudson not to grant Peterson's request for a new trial earlier this month, telling him: "Ten years I've been without my sister. Ten years her daughter hasn't had her. And 10 years the rest of us have been alive and had our freedom, but not Kathleen."
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George Smith disappeared while honeymooning on a Royal Caribbean Cruise seven years ago, but his family believes more than 6,000 newly released documents may help solve this disturbing case. Dateline NBC's Dennis Murphy reports.
To hear some folks tell it, cruising is one of the safest forms of travel in the world.
To others, it’s an exceedingly risky proposition where you run the risk of robbery, sexual assault and death.
The truth? Few really know and those that do, aren’t talking.
The subject of the relative safety of cruising is once again in the news. On Nov. 22, Kert Clyde Jordan, 35, of Grenada was charged with engaging in a sexual act with a minor while he was employed as a waiter on the Carnival Liberty.
That news comes on the heels of several other incidents, including an outbreak of Norovirus that sickened 148 on Holland America’s Ryndam, the death of a Celebrity Eclipse passenger after a parasailing accident in the U.S. Virgin Islands and reports of a dead newborn found on the Carnival Dream in mid-October.
Worse, say industry critics, such seemingly isolated incidents are indicative of a much larger problem. “I would say that what the cruise industry claims [in terms of passenger safety] doesn’t correspond with the reality,” said Ross Klein, a professor at Memorial University in St. John’s, Newfoundland, and the publisher of CruiseJunkie.com.
“It’s probably a little better than it was in previous years,” said Klein, “but it still has a long way to go.”
That gap was supposed to be closed with the passage of the Cruise Vessel Security and Safety Act last year. In addition to mandating 42-inch guardrails, peepholes in all passengers’ and crewmembers’ doors and on-deck video surveillance, the law also seeks to improve the process by which cruise lines report thefts, sexual assaults and other alleged crimes to the Coast Guard and FBI.
But despite the new law, the way incidents are reported is already generating controversy.
“The number of cases reported are in line with those reported in previous years and are fully in keeping with the requirements of the law,” said Lanie Morgenstern, director of communications for the Cruise Lines International Association, a cruise industry trade group.
Not so, counters Kendall Carver, chairman of the International Cruise Victims Association: “Instead of reporting all alleged crimes as required by law, they’re only reporting cases where the FBI opens a file and decides to take action — minus cases that are still open,” he told msnbc.com.
According to Carver, whose daughter, Merrian, disappeared from the Celebrity Mercury in 2004, the problem is much larger than the posted numbers suggest.
As evidence, he points to historical data that shows at least 100 alleged crimes per quarter on board cruise ships as recently as 2007–2008. By comparison, the most recent reports, which are compiled by the FBI and posted online by the Coast Guard, show six incidents in the second quarter of 2011 and none in the third quarter.
Part of the discrepancy lies in the way the numbers are reported. “There is potentially a slight disconnect between the number the public sees, which is the number of closed cases, and the number of cases that actually occur,” said Alana Juteau, spokesperson for Rep. Doris Matsui (D-Calif.), who introduced the bill. “There could be many open but those numbers don’t go on the website.”
Cases in point: Neither Kert Clyde Jordan’s alleged sexual assault nor the dead newborn found on Carnival Dream would show up in the statistics. Nor will the FBI discuss the cases due to their open status.
“The reporting of an incident doesn’t automatically mean there’s been a crime,” said Kurt Schmidt, a supervisory special agent in the Bureau’s violent crimes unit. “If someone is saying that we’re supposed to report all incidents, that’s not true.”
What is true is that when it comes to determining the number of onboard incidents, there’s a gap in the new law that you could steer a cruise ship through. On the one hand, the cruise lines are required to record all onboard complaints; on the other, the FBI is only empowered to report cases that are no longer under investigation.
So what’s a concerned cruiser to do? Given the disconnect between reporting and recording, the scale of the problem will remain a point of contention. As result, potential cruisers would be wise to take the precautions necessary to ensure their own safety and security:
And, finally, says Lipcon, be aware that the best defense is simple common sense: “Keep in mind that 10 to 12 million people go on cruises every year and, for most of them, it’s very safe,” he told msnbc.com. “The No. 1 thing I see where people get into trouble is when they just do something really dumb.”
More stories you might like:
Rob Lovitt is a longtime travel writer who still believes the journey is as important as the destination. Follow him at Twitter.
The latest on the strange disappearance of Susan Powell. It was two years ago this week that the young mother from Utah vanished, on a chilly night in December of 2009. And ever since, her story has been making headlines. What happened? You'll hear the most detailed account yet, from those at the very heart of this case: A husband under suspicion... a father-in-law under scrutiny.... and investigators under pressure to solve this mystery at last.
Keith Morrison reports "After Midnight" on Friday, December 9th, at 10pm/9c.
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New York, NY — December 2, 2011
Just 24 hours after his return from Aruba, where he was held for four months on suspicion of murdering Robyn Gardner, suspect Gary Giordano sat down with “Dateline’s” Josh Mankiewicz for an in-depth interview. Giordano claims innocence, yet many still believe he is responsible for Gardner’s death. The story, which reveals new details that are exclusive to "Dateline," will be reported by Mankiewicz and will air tonight at 10p/9c.
Regarding when Giordano went searching for help:
Josh Mankiewicz:
This is something I know you heard before. On the security tape, showing you - after Robyn disappeared, at a time when you say you're lookin' for help, you're bangin' on the door there. You don't look frantic. You don't look concerned. Were you?
Gary Giordano:
Yes, very much so.
Josh Mankiewicz:
'Cause it seems more sort of casual that you're bangin' on the wall there.
Gary Giodano:
I was - it's hard to pick up on a tape - that I was exhausted, scared, and shocked that there was nobody there. There was nobody to jump up and down and say, "Come help me."
Josh Mankiewicz:
So that's you looking exhausted, scared, and shocked?
Gary Giordano:
Yeah. You don't know me.
+++++++++++++++
Regarding the last time Giordano saw Gardner - A "Dateline" exclusive:
Gary Giordano:
We drifted out. And then I noticed that the - we were getting in deeper water. So I reached out to grab her leg, pulled her leg to signal going in. And as I turned, my shoes had become extremely heavy, 'cause we were being pushed out by the wind and some current. And now I was struggling. So that's the last time I saw her. That's the last image I have of her.
Josh Mankiewicz:
You - at one point told police that the water was rough.
Gary Giordano:
It was - and I told them that it - at a certain point, I was struggling to get back. So you can determine what rough is, you know? There wasn't a tidal wave coming at me, but I was struggling - at one point realized this is - there's a problem here.
+++++++++++++++
Regarding the travel insurance policy taken out on Gardner:
Josh Mankiewicz:
Now that your incarceration's over, do you expect to get that money?
Gary Giordano:
I haven't given that - that - that's in - I haven't given that a thought - I haven't given that a positive thought.
Josh Mankiewicz:
Which means what?
Gary Giordano:
Whenever I think about that, it's dirty. As you pointed out, I would not have been arrested and detained in four - you know, four months in a prison with murderers, if, in fact, I didn't have that insurance. So to me, it was - it stole four months out of my life.
+++++++++++++++
Watch the full Dateline report tonight, Friday, December 2nd, at 10pm/9c:
Dateline's Unsolved Case Squad investigates the disappearance of Robyn Gardner, the beautiful blonde American missing in Aruba. Josh Mankiewicz reports 'Missing in Paradise' on Friday, December 2.
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