Episode 290

<v Speaker 1>Sword and Scale contains adult themes and violence, and is
<v Speaker 1>not intended for all audiences.
<v Speaker 2>Listener discretion is advice.
<v Speaker 3>She couldn't even defend herself. Look how big he was.
<v Speaker 1>All right, don't get used to this. This isn't gonna
<v Speaker 1>be the new norm. We aren't gonna do two episodes
<v Speaker 1>a week, every week forever. I mean, do you want
<v Speaker 1>to kill me? This is season twelve, episode two to ninety,
<v Speaker 1>Sword and Scale, show that reveals it the worst monsters. No,
<v Speaker 1>I missed it, damn it all right, let me try
<v Speaker 1>to get it. This is season twelve, episode two ninety
<v Speaker 1>of Sword and Scale, a show that reveals it the
<v Speaker 1>worst monsters are real. It was a cold January in Cleveland, Ohio.
<v Speaker 1>Then again, is in every January cold in Cleveland, Ohio.
<v Speaker 1>A thick layer of snow covered the ground and the
<v Speaker 1>sky was gray. Inside the modest downstairs apartment of a
<v Speaker 1>turn of the century house, thirty five year old Denisha
<v Speaker 1>Cooper was pacing through her living room. Her hands were
<v Speaker 1>shaking as she called nine to one one Cleveland.
<v Speaker 4>I want one to patch the malave.
<v Speaker 5>I mean, please, fire ambulance, please, what's going on over there?
<v Speaker 5>In a hundred pointin attorney, So reporter miss.
<v Speaker 4>A child howl is the child even went to the
<v Speaker 4>child's name. Okay, hey, she ever done this before?
<v Speaker 5>No?
<v Speaker 6>I put her on the RCaH this morning. God see
<v Speaker 6>NICKI a bus ticket and she knows hep right down
<v Speaker 6>the streets.
<v Speaker 4>From the police station and.
<v Speaker 6>I gave her.
<v Speaker 4>I put her and she ki on the TM hits
<v Speaker 4>the school and the school I had apparentage conference and
<v Speaker 4>I say she never checked hit to school.
<v Speaker 1>Donisha's fourteen year old daughter, Aliana had not returned home
<v Speaker 1>from school. Aleianna took the RTA bus every day. RTA
<v Speaker 1>stands for Regional Transit Authority and it's basically a city bus.
<v Speaker 1>Even though Denisia was weary of sending her daughter to
<v Speaker 1>school this way, it had never been a problem before.
<v Speaker 4>What time did you put her on the RTA? It
<v Speaker 4>was about people say when the bus turns out? That bus?
<v Speaker 4>She said a sixth grade this morning? What school? Uh?
<v Speaker 4>Did she go to? Acres?
<v Speaker 1>Every weekday morning Aleana would get on the bus at
<v Speaker 1>six forty five am and ride halfway to school to
<v Speaker 1>ninety third Street and Kinsman. Then she would transfer onto
<v Speaker 1>another bus which would take her all the way to school,
<v Speaker 1>and she.
<v Speaker 4>Never made a school this morning at all.
<v Speaker 6>No, and they usually get out a phone call is
<v Speaker 6>a child that they come to school, but I didn't
<v Speaker 6>get a phone call.
<v Speaker 1>Denisha never heard anything from Alliana's school about her not
<v Speaker 1>showing up. Normally, they would send her a text message
<v Speaker 1>through the school's messaging service, but Denisha received no notifications
<v Speaker 1>or telephone calls, so she assumed her child was safe
<v Speaker 1>in her classroom with her teacher and peers. But then
<v Speaker 1>Aleanna never returned home. Denisha called the school to check
<v Speaker 1>to see if her daughter was still there. She had
<v Speaker 1>a parent teacher conference scheduled for five PM that evening.
<v Speaker 1>Maybe Aleiana had decided to stick around for some reason.
<v Speaker 4>Oh that's a lot she didn't just now, okay, all right,
<v Speaker 4>she's trying to get her own car over to you.
<v Speaker 7>Now.
<v Speaker 4>What was she seen? What was she worrying when he
<v Speaker 4>last seen her? Call her a funiform brown colt like
<v Speaker 4>swater black pants. Yes, okay, has she ever does this?
<v Speaker 6>No?
<v Speaker 5>She never ran away before this said, you know, not
<v Speaker 5>the one just before. Oh, okay, she's trying to get
<v Speaker 5>his own car over to you.
<v Speaker 4>Now, if anything.
<v Speaker 5>Happened her for you year back if it's a call back,
<v Speaker 5>because we're gonna have an officer to make a report
<v Speaker 5>for you.
<v Speaker 4>Okay, okay, thank you.
<v Speaker 1>Denisha was sick of worry. This was not like Aleianna.
<v Speaker 1>Her daughter was a good kid. She was sweet, shy,
<v Speaker 1>and young.
<v Speaker 2>For her age.
<v Speaker 1>She still liked Disney movies and dolls. She was innocent
<v Speaker 1>and inexperienced. The panic of where Aleana could be did
<v Speaker 1>set in. Here's one of the administrators at the eat Prep.
<v Speaker 8>Like I mentioned, I opened the door physicool every day
<v Speaker 8>for my students and greeted everyone finding I was in
<v Speaker 8>and out of classrooms every day, coaching teachers and stuff.
<v Speaker 9>I had a lot of interactions with students in the
<v Speaker 9>lunch room Alliana.
<v Speaker 7>Because I was the first when a contact that egret,
<v Speaker 7>she felt comfortable coming to me often.
<v Speaker 1>This administrator had a special relationship with a Leana.
<v Speaker 3>She was never.
<v Speaker 7>Absent and she was the type of student that loved
<v Speaker 7>coming to school.
<v Speaker 2>So I.
<v Speaker 7>Don't have the data in front of me, but I
<v Speaker 7>just haven't.
<v Speaker 1>I know she was in school all the time, so
<v Speaker 1>when she heard she was missing, she sprung into action
<v Speaker 1>and I put my coat on and.
<v Speaker 7>My director of critualm and instruction went on to the
<v Speaker 7>library to see if she was there. My first instinct
<v Speaker 7>was maybe she just didn't come to school because she
<v Speaker 7>was at the library. I don't know, I just that
<v Speaker 7>was my instinct.
<v Speaker 1>She checked the library, but no a Leana. However, there
<v Speaker 1>were other places and other libraries that she might be at.
<v Speaker 9>You got in my car and we drove to the
<v Speaker 9>library at our earth bus stop on Kidsmen to see
<v Speaker 9>if she was there.
<v Speaker 3>So that was happening.
<v Speaker 2>I was on the boat with Missus Cooper.
<v Speaker 7>While also calling the police to follow up. At that point,
<v Speaker 7>the police were at Ethro, so I went back to
<v Speaker 7>school to talk with the almost.
<v Speaker 1>Back at the school, the staff talked with the police.
<v Speaker 1>As concern grew. Everyone who knew Aleana could tell something
<v Speaker 1>was very wrong.
<v Speaker 7>The police officer was there.
<v Speaker 9>He wanted to take my statement and learn more about Aliana.
<v Speaker 9>At the time, the officer had felt like maybe she
<v Speaker 9>was just a typical.
<v Speaker 1>Kid and run away.
<v Speaker 7>And I had told the officer that that was in
<v Speaker 7>my gut. I knew Aliana that was not something should do.
<v Speaker 2>And so.
<v Speaker 7>He told me that he would go back on to.
<v Speaker 9>The community and myself and three of my staff members
<v Speaker 9>continued to call parents and.
<v Speaker 7>Call students to find out if anyone had any understanding
<v Speaker 7>of where she was. I go home.
<v Speaker 9>I called us to Scooper to let you know, you
<v Speaker 9>stay on the phone.
<v Speaker 3>That had high night she called.
<v Speaker 7>I remember missus were calling me around midnight that night,
<v Speaker 7>just keeping in touch.
<v Speaker 1>Nobody slept that night, not Denisha Cooper, not any of
<v Speaker 1>the school staff, not any of her friends or extended family.
<v Speaker 1>Everyone was busy making a plan for how to find her,
<v Speaker 1>and the next day they got to work.
<v Speaker 9>The next morning, we set up a system where my
<v Speaker 9>school and a few of our other schools brought teachers
<v Speaker 9>and staff over and we'd canvass the area with flyers
<v Speaker 9>and we divided the city up, so myself and my
<v Speaker 9>director of Crikham Instruction we went as far as Tower City.
<v Speaker 9>We had folks up and down nine third, up and
<v Speaker 9>down all the neighborhood.
<v Speaker 7>We were there looking That evening.
<v Speaker 9>I went to a community event with the peacekeepers and
<v Speaker 9>Alianna's family.
<v Speaker 3>There was a.
<v Speaker 7>News media there.
<v Speaker 9>We wanted to do a call to the community to
<v Speaker 9>find out if anyone had any information about her.
<v Speaker 7>Pray that night and that was at the.
<v Speaker 1>End of that night, the community rallied together in search
<v Speaker 1>of Aliana, and the faculty at E Prep took charge. Meanwhile,
<v Speaker 1>the police were starting their investigation, retracing their steps. Every
<v Speaker 1>weekday morning, Aleana would catch the number fourteen bus and
<v Speaker 1>ride it to ninety third and Kinsman. Then she'd transferred
<v Speaker 1>to another bus which took her down ninety third to
<v Speaker 1>her school. This was not the best area between Kinsman
<v Speaker 1>and E Prep. Ninety third Street was home to a
<v Speaker 1>few churches, auto shops, vacant lots, and some houses. The
<v Speaker 1>officers searched every location for Aliana and took note of
<v Speaker 1>where they could collect surveillance footage along her bus route,
<v Speaker 1>but they started with the video footage from the bus
<v Speaker 1>she got on the day she went missing.
<v Speaker 3>That point, I did review the video.
<v Speaker 2>It was a couple of things that we saw on
<v Speaker 2>the video.
<v Speaker 10>Was talking to any younger age kid approxily her age phiscol,
<v Speaker 10>aage kid that you know. Peat that interest because she
<v Speaker 10>she was having for a conversation with him.
<v Speaker 2>And then there was also another adult nail that was.
<v Speaker 10>Seen on that video who was seen exiting the boss
<v Speaker 10>fan Aleana bid and exit the bus.
<v Speaker 2>That beat our interest as well.
<v Speaker 1>The man in the video footage did more than just
<v Speaker 1>talk to Aliana on the bus.
<v Speaker 3>He had gotten off the bus, falling Aliena's saint path.
<v Speaker 11>Alianda was going to where she was crossing East many
<v Speaker 11>third Street to the other side. Then that mail in
<v Speaker 11>that video appeared to reach out and say something.
<v Speaker 2>Never in the crosslot that kind of peat our interurse.
<v Speaker 10>It's an older adult mail and had no conversation with
<v Speaker 10>her whatsoever on the bus reached out and that's the
<v Speaker 10>period that's something to her in that crossland.
<v Speaker 1>The man in the RTA bus footage sat facing the
<v Speaker 1>front with his white hoodie pulled up. As Aliana exits
<v Speaker 1>the bus, he looks up, grabs his two bags, and
<v Speaker 1>gets off the bus behind her. He yells something as
<v Speaker 1>they both cross the busy intersection, but Aleana keeps walking
<v Speaker 1>until she gets to the other side of the street.
<v Speaker 1>That's when the footage ends. The bus continues its route.
<v Speaker 2>So what do you do next?
<v Speaker 11>At that point I started to check bake it last
<v Speaker 11>in the area of ninety third and kidsmen also on
<v Speaker 11>the path of kidsmen.
<v Speaker 1>To union the score, so they kept searching. Soon the
<v Speaker 1>FBI got involved. Denisea handed over her daughter's phone, just
<v Speaker 1>in case there was something on it which she'd found
<v Speaker 1>in her bedroom dresser. Anything on there could help. Still
<v Speaker 1>no Aliana. The whole neighborhood was on high alert in
<v Speaker 1>search of this beloved teenager. It felt like she had
<v Speaker 1>just vanished into thin air. Then police found a body.
<v Speaker 12>Police have more questions than answers after they discovered the
<v Speaker 12>body of a female inside an abandoned home late last.
<v Speaker 3>Night, and while investigators wait for a positive ID, there
<v Speaker 3>is concern tonight that it could be that of a
<v Speaker 3>missing fourteen year old Cleveland girl.
<v Speaker 1>On Sunday, January twenty ninth, twenty seventeen, only three days
<v Speaker 1>after she'd been reported missing, officers searched an abandoned house
<v Speaker 1>just off ninety third Street. Inside the cold and crumbling home,
<v Speaker 1>the police used their flashlights to follow bloody footprints and
<v Speaker 1>smears towards a room. Inside, they found a training bra,
<v Speaker 1>some clothes, a ripped condom wrapper, and the body of
<v Speaker 1>a young black female. She was naked except for a
<v Speaker 1>pair of soft on the built in window bench. Next
<v Speaker 1>to her was an assortment of torture tools, a drill
<v Speaker 1>of Phillips head screwdriver, a nut driver, and a box Cutter.
<v Speaker 12>There has not been any positive identification of a victim
<v Speaker 12>found in that house on Sunday night, and until there
<v Speaker 12>is positive scientific evidence, we're not going to announce who
<v Speaker 12>that person is. We have a very strong idea based
<v Speaker 12>on evidence and things like that, of who that person is,
<v Speaker 12>and we've talked to that family. We're in constant contact
<v Speaker 12>with that family, but until the medical examinter makes that
<v Speaker 12>positive identification, we don't have an announcement for that.
<v Speaker 1>The body looked like Aliana, but there had been several
<v Speaker 1>missing women reported in the area, so they had to
<v Speaker 1>be sure. After securing her dental records, it was confirmed.
<v Speaker 2>I went home.
<v Speaker 9>I went home, and then a few hours later I
<v Speaker 9>got a call my boss to let me know what
<v Speaker 9>had happened.
<v Speaker 7>I had to call all her teachers, I had to
<v Speaker 7>call her ones, tell everybody what about my school. She's
<v Speaker 7>my student, it's our community. I just felt like everyone
<v Speaker 7>had been putting so much time and effort into finding
<v Speaker 7>Heart that we needed everyone needed to know what had happened.
<v Speaker 1>As far as anyone could tell, a Leanna had been
<v Speaker 1>mercilessly tortured and killed in this terrifying house with its
<v Speaker 1>cracked door frames, scurrying rats and peeling wallpaper. Now the
<v Speaker 1>police had to follow the breadcrumbs of video footage to
<v Speaker 1>find the person who killed her. Fourteen year old Aliana
<v Speaker 1>de Frieze had mysteriously disappeared one January afternoon on her
<v Speaker 1>bus ride to school. The entire community had banded together
<v Speaker 1>to find her, but it was the police who eventually
<v Speaker 1>discovered the dead body of Aliana in an abandoned home
<v Speaker 1>just off her bus route on ninety third Street. This
<v Speaker 1>area of Cleveland, Ohio was littered with abandoned and crumbling homes.
<v Speaker 1>Over the past few years, five women had gone missing
<v Speaker 1>near ninety third Street, their bodies mutilated and dumped like trash.
<v Speaker 1>All the murders had remained unsolved. Like we said before,
<v Speaker 1>this was not a safe area. Crime had started to
<v Speaker 1>fester there among the abandoned homes, and the women who
<v Speaker 1>were killed before Aliana were adults caught up in that
<v Speaker 1>dark world. But after what happened to Aliana, an innocent
<v Speaker 1>school kid, officials started to perk up. Some members of
<v Speaker 1>the city council feared the worst.
<v Speaker 13>This is not a coincidence to me that now this
<v Speaker 13>is the fifth young lady. Then in less than a
<v Speaker 13>mile whose body has been dumped on ninety third and
<v Speaker 13>either in a vacant line or a vacant house.
<v Speaker 1>This city councilman was convinced a serial killer could be
<v Speaker 1>targeting the East Side neighborhood, but the cops didn't agree.
<v Speaker 13>Every time I bring it up, they tell me that
<v Speaker 13>I don't know what the hell I'm talking about, that
<v Speaker 13>these aren't connected. Well, like I said, I just want
<v Speaker 13>them to prove me wrong.
<v Speaker 1>Meanwhile, Aleana's family grieved publicly, and the entire community decided
<v Speaker 1>enough was enough. This was a teenager who had been
<v Speaker 1>taken from her family, and residents who rode the bus
<v Speaker 1>every day with Aliana and kids like her decided to
<v Speaker 1>take turns guarding the last place she had been seen
<v Speaker 1>her bus stop.
<v Speaker 14>All we're doing is watch, just making sure that didn't
<v Speaker 14>get from one bus to another. I'll be out here
<v Speaker 14>every day to the end of the school year until
<v Speaker 14>they find some other way to get those babies to
<v Speaker 14>school safe.
<v Speaker 1>As much as it was about preventing future tragedies, this
<v Speaker 1>was also a way to honor Aliana.
<v Speaker 14>Community is out here and we didn't forget about you
<v Speaker 14>or sorry, did this happen on our watch and we
<v Speaker 14>don't want this to happen again.
<v Speaker 1>Police continued pulling surveillance footage from around her first bus transfer,
<v Speaker 1>where the man in the white hoodie had followed Alliana
<v Speaker 1>across the street.
<v Speaker 15>At that point, after seeing that video there and til
<v Speaker 15>the video over the Arch of Us ends, after the
<v Speaker 15>bus keeps me along Thamesman Passas ninety third, I resigned
<v Speaker 15>to Shelley ass Station, which is right on that corner
<v Speaker 15>we're in that passes.
<v Speaker 3>I went inside there.
<v Speaker 10>The check to see what kind of video was available
<v Speaker 10>there on the two only had interior video, so I
<v Speaker 10>did watch a little bit of the video.
<v Speaker 3>There was nothing at the video that indicated me, and
<v Speaker 3>we out of the content.
<v Speaker 1>The detectives continued pulling video from businesses and churches all
<v Speaker 1>up and down Aleanna's bus route. They kept thinking they
<v Speaker 1>would see the man in the white hoodie again, But
<v Speaker 1>then something strange happened. Another man appeared in the surveillance
<v Speaker 1>footage from her second bus stop, and it was not
<v Speaker 1>the man in the white hoodie. Outside the True Gospel
<v Speaker 1>Mission Baptist Church on East ninety third and Fuller, only
<v Speaker 1>a few blocks away from where she was murdered. Camera
<v Speaker 1>footage showed a black mail pacing back and forth across
<v Speaker 1>the parking lot at around seven am. Then Alana gets
<v Speaker 1>off her bus and crosses the street towards the church.
<v Speaker 1>The black mail then goes up to Aliana and starts
<v Speaker 1>talking to her. She takes a cautious step back. Even
<v Speaker 1>from the grainy video, you can sense the fear in
<v Speaker 1>her body language. Then she scurries away. A few seconds later,
<v Speaker 1>the video catches him following her up the street. It's chilling. Meanwhile,
<v Speaker 1>the community continued to make sure Alana was not forgotten
<v Speaker 1>like the other murdered women before her. Standing the church
<v Speaker 1>video was released to the public and tips soon came
<v Speaker 1>flooding in, but they would prove unnecessary because the killer
<v Speaker 1>had left his DNA all over the crime scene. In
<v Speaker 1>that cold, disgusting house, Alianna had not only been viciously murdered,
<v Speaker 1>tortured with tools, but also raped. The killer's DNA was
<v Speaker 1>like a white flag all over the abandoned house. When
<v Speaker 1>the police sent what they had out for forensic testing,
<v Speaker 1>they found the culprit was already in the system. His
<v Speaker 1>name was Christopher Whittaker. He wasn't hard to find either.
<v Speaker 1>Forty four year old Christopher was an ex con who'd
<v Speaker 1>been living and working in the ninety third Street area.
<v Speaker 1>He had a nineteen year old daughter to himself. But
<v Speaker 1>he was a negligent father, you know, being in and
<v Speaker 1>out of jail and all. Can't be a good father
<v Speaker 1>if you're locked up, you know. Anyway, Christopher had listed
<v Speaker 1>his aunt's house as his last known address, but he
<v Speaker 1>was staying with a girlfriend while he worked when he could.
<v Speaker 1>And when I say he worked, I mean he did
<v Speaker 1>random construction like tasks on homes for a buddy. I'll
<v Speaker 1>explain in a second. Anyway, he couldn't do much else
<v Speaker 1>given the lengthy criminal history.
<v Speaker 3>Do you know him? Have you ever seen a news
<v Speaker 3>or anything recently in the past week or so?
<v Speaker 16>You know what's going on in that area? Yeah, so
<v Speaker 16>then you know why I'm asking all these questions.
<v Speaker 2>Yea, I know.
<v Speaker 3>I Are you o familiar with the girl that went missing?
<v Speaker 2>I do not know anything.
<v Speaker 3>You know where when you were over there working or anything?
<v Speaker 3>Did you ever see her?
<v Speaker 2>Never? I wasn't even out there. Early in the morning
<v Speaker 2>first we had heard about it. I was in the
<v Speaker 2>car with uh raised brother t. We were going to
<v Speaker 2>move a.
<v Speaker 17>Friend of his and we saw a lady passing out
<v Speaker 17>flyers and we stopped and he grabbed two flyers and
<v Speaker 17>we was reading the flyers. First when you heard about it.
<v Speaker 3>What day was that?
<v Speaker 16>Do you know?
<v Speaker 3>Mm?
<v Speaker 17>It was like, uh that Yeah, I did go back
<v Speaker 17>over there that Friday because I went the have to move.
<v Speaker 16>Okay, so Friday you were fuller, yeah, and I went
<v Speaker 16>back on Yeah, and people were passing out the flyers.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah.
<v Speaker 17>It was I don't know if she was white or
<v Speaker 17>part recon or something. And she was staying right there.
<v Speaker 17>In ninety third kids were passing out flyers, some.
<v Speaker 16>Females passing on flyers. So nothing about her looks familiar.
<v Speaker 3>You don't know her.
<v Speaker 16>You have no information as to her whereabouts or what
<v Speaker 16>happened to her from you, What what's the next thing
<v Speaker 16>that you heard about what was going on over there?
<v Speaker 2>Ian? What I heard on the news? What did you
<v Speaker 2>hear on the news they discovered the body?
<v Speaker 4>Uh?
<v Speaker 2>They wasn't releasing much information. I mean, I don't know,
<v Speaker 2>just basically what I heard on the news.
<v Speaker 1>Christopher said that the only thing he knew about Aliana
<v Speaker 1>was the same thing anyone else did, but the police
<v Speaker 1>knew that he was involved. His DNA was literally everywhere.
<v Speaker 1>Instead of bashing him with the cold hard evidence right away,
<v Speaker 1>they wanted to see him squirm a bit. It's fun
<v Speaker 1>and cops need to have fun too sometimes.
<v Speaker 3>Were you were in that house?
<v Speaker 17>I mean, I'm not gonna lie. Yeah, we went in
<v Speaker 17>the house, me tea and what's this? Uh the other
<v Speaker 17>guy's name, what they call him?
<v Speaker 2>What is his nickname? They call him boogie? What boogie Boogie?
<v Speaker 17>Yeah, I mean we went We took the hot water
<v Speaker 17>heater in the furnace out and took compete couple pieces
<v Speaker 17>of uh, some wiring, some you know, little metal stuff
<v Speaker 17>connected to the pharnace.
<v Speaker 3>Took that out and so you're talking about the piping
<v Speaker 3>and wiring, Yeah, took it, take scrap. How long was that?
<v Speaker 2>It's like Bond two'sday when we use there.
<v Speaker 1>Oh and by construction work, I also mean that Christopher
<v Speaker 1>and his friends would go into abandoned houses and dismantle
<v Speaker 1>whatever parts they could use, like hot water heaters, sinks, pipes,
<v Speaker 1>or scrap metal. They were scrounging, you know, like rats
<v Speaker 1>like furmit.
<v Speaker 3>Where did you guy spark the vehicle to load all
<v Speaker 3>this stuff up?
<v Speaker 17>We just put it on like a car a shopping
<v Speaker 17>cart and took it up the street, and the next
<v Speaker 17>morning you put it in a van.
<v Speaker 2>And took it to the home started.
<v Speaker 3>Do you know how much you got for it?
<v Speaker 2>S not m's like it was like thirty seven dollars
<v Speaker 2>split between three people.
<v Speaker 1>Thirty seven dollars, just three grown men stealing metal from
<v Speaker 1>abandoned houses and lugging it out in a also stolen
<v Speaker 1>shopping cart, then trading it in at a scrap yard
<v Speaker 1>for a measly thirty seven dollars to split three ways,
<v Speaker 1>instead of just, oh, I don't know, flipping a burger
<v Speaker 1>or maybe even delivering a burger these days for way more.
<v Speaker 1>But nah, nah, just keep doing what you're doing. Why
<v Speaker 1>would anyone resort to such a low level cash grab?
<v Speaker 3>Oh?
<v Speaker 1>Right, right right? His criminal record keeps coming back to that,
<v Speaker 1>doesn't it. Let's just keep all of this in mind
<v Speaker 1>while we listened to Christopher spin his little web.
<v Speaker 16>Well, if I was to tell you that we found
<v Speaker 16>your DNA inside the house and the upstairs, would that
<v Speaker 16>surprise you?
<v Speaker 2>Probably through your kitchen?
<v Speaker 16>Maybe, so I can tell you that we didn't find
<v Speaker 16>your DNA in the kitchen. That's not the room that
<v Speaker 16>we found your DNA in. That's the reason I'm asking
<v Speaker 16>you if you went into any other part.
<v Speaker 3>Of the house, you know your DNA is on file.
<v Speaker 16>I mean.
<v Speaker 3>The case, Yeah, for the kitchen isn't where we found
<v Speaker 3>it because there was nothing in the kitchen.
<v Speaker 16>The kitchen was empty. The dying room was where we
<v Speaker 16>found your DNA. Do you want to think about whether
<v Speaker 16>or not you were in that room at all? But
<v Speaker 16>then i'd explain your DNA and actually your print and
<v Speaker 16>then walked.
<v Speaker 2>Around the house.
<v Speaker 17>But we just didn't want I mean, it's like we
<v Speaker 17>didn't focus in there like we in here trying to
<v Speaker 17>see what it's in here.
<v Speaker 2>We just looked around.
<v Speaker 17>I mean, I'm not saying debasement in the dining room
<v Speaker 17>was the only thing we looked at. I mean we
<v Speaker 17>looked around out, but I didn't go around the house
<v Speaker 17>like just trying to see what's all in here we
<v Speaker 17>can take.
<v Speaker 3>Did you find anything in any of the other rooms
<v Speaker 3>that you guys took or touched or no.
<v Speaker 17>I did go upstairs because we went to see if
<v Speaker 17>they had a cast iron tub up there, because cast
<v Speaker 17>iron tubs?
<v Speaker 3>Are you talking about? Second floor?
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, we went up to the vadroom and looked came
<v Speaker 2>back down.
<v Speaker 1>Christopher said that they walked around, poking their heads in
<v Speaker 1>each dilapidated room, trying to salvage anything of value that
<v Speaker 1>someone else hadn't already ripped from the homes carcass. But
<v Speaker 1>it was jittery as he spoke, a little nervous. What's wrong, Chris, I'm.
<v Speaker 2>Trying to get it right when I'm sitting here.
<v Speaker 17>I'm nervous because I'm actually in the house that this
<v Speaker 17>girl's body was found here.
<v Speaker 3>So I'm like, that's understand I want to get right. Yeah,
<v Speaker 3>and I understand that.
<v Speaker 16>Getting back to her now, now that we've got the
<v Speaker 16>house down, Pat, you've never met her, you've never seen
<v Speaker 16>it before. You didn't recognize her when you saw the flyer. Okay,
<v Speaker 16>she's not a friend of yours or somebody that you
<v Speaker 16>talked to on the street when you were working on
<v Speaker 16>the street.
<v Speaker 2>I would have no reason to street til fourteen.
<v Speaker 3>Well, sure, she's a fourteen year old girl. I can
<v Speaker 3>understand that.
<v Speaker 16>So then then my next question would be, can you
<v Speaker 16>explain how your DNA, your seamen would have ended up
<v Speaker 16>inside her?
<v Speaker 2>About that?
<v Speaker 3>You don't know anything about that.
<v Speaker 2>I'm I wasn't even over there own that day.
<v Speaker 16>Okay, you weren't over there, then I've got to wonder
<v Speaker 16>how your seamen.
<v Speaker 3>Could have ended up inside of her.
<v Speaker 16>So now we have your DNA inside the house, we
<v Speaker 16>have your fingerprints inside the house, and now now we
<v Speaker 16>have your DNA inside of her.
<v Speaker 1>Christopher sat there across from the detective with his broad
<v Speaker 1>shoulders slumped forward. He looked like a gigantic toddler being
<v Speaker 1>punished in his naughty chair. The flyer of Aliana was
<v Speaker 1>on the table in front of him, her smiling, innocent
<v Speaker 1>face looking in his direction, but instead he just stared
<v Speaker 1>at his hands.
<v Speaker 3>There's going to be more things that are going to
<v Speaker 3>come up once they're finished testing it. So I'm asking
<v Speaker 3>you this.
<v Speaker 5>Now.
<v Speaker 16>You can get in front of this straighten us out,
<v Speaker 16>tell your side of the story, or you can just
<v Speaker 16>let us assume whatever we want to.
<v Speaker 3>It's up to you, right, you want to explain to
<v Speaker 3>us what happened?
<v Speaker 2>I must explain you for really, well, sure you do.
<v Speaker 3>How did you meet her? How did you get to
<v Speaker 3>talking to her? Did you see her before that day? Never? Well, then,
<v Speaker 3>how did you get talking to her? Tell us what happened?
<v Speaker 1>Christopher refused to look up. The detective pushed the picture
<v Speaker 1>of Aleana closer to him and tapped her pen on it.
<v Speaker 16>So why don't you just tell us how you came
<v Speaker 16>upon Aliana that's her name, How you came upon her,
<v Speaker 16>how you got your talking to her, How did that
<v Speaker 16>come about?
<v Speaker 2>What happened? Crazy?
<v Speaker 5>What is that?
<v Speaker 3>It's crazy? What did you run name?
<v Speaker 17>I'm a crack and I get high and I do
<v Speaker 17>stupid shit for people for moment.
<v Speaker 1>Okay, the scrap metal scrounging makes a little more sense, now,
<v Speaker 1>doesn't it.
<v Speaker 17>Everybody you hang with that you smoke with or get
<v Speaker 17>hide with, you don't know everybody you deal with. Sure,
<v Speaker 17>you don't know everybody's situation or how everybody got in
<v Speaker 17>that situation. So I mean for me to sit in
<v Speaker 17>and try to put the names or faces to everything
<v Speaker 17>that went on that night or that morning, I I
<v Speaker 17>it's probably impossible cause I was high.
<v Speaker 3>So you're telling me there was more than just you?
<v Speaker 4>There?
<v Speaker 3>Is that what you're saying?
<v Speaker 13>Chris?
<v Speaker 2>By the time I realized how old this girl was,
<v Speaker 2>I left. Okay, I left and it was.
<v Speaker 17>Other smokers around. Yeah, I mean, like late at night,
<v Speaker 17>you tryna find out. You don't know who to ask. So,
<v Speaker 17>I mean, smokers come together to get high whatever what not.
<v Speaker 2>You don't even know.
<v Speaker 17>It's like I might not know you if you were
<v Speaker 17>getting high and I'm l like, you know where it
<v Speaker 17>gets something at?
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, well, when you gonna look out for me? You
<v Speaker 2>have whatever? I mean, how this little girl got involved
<v Speaker 2>after it? That?
<v Speaker 16>You know?
<v Speaker 2>And if I could go back to this day and
<v Speaker 2>prevent what happened from happening, I would.
<v Speaker 17>Had I been in the house for the remainder of
<v Speaker 17>that day, I probably would have never let anything happen.
<v Speaker 1>As a taxpayer, aren't you sick of this shit? Just
<v Speaker 1>asking you do pay your taxes?
<v Speaker 16>Right?
<v Speaker 1>Christopher tried to say that this all happened because of
<v Speaker 1>his addiction to crack. He was out looking for drugs
<v Speaker 1>when he met some guys who took him back to
<v Speaker 1>the house. It was someone else, not him. Oleanna was
<v Speaker 1>already there naked. He was being very vague about the
<v Speaker 1>whole thing.
<v Speaker 3>How did you get into the house? Start with that?
<v Speaker 2>That part? I can't say I was invited in it.
<v Speaker 2>I can't. I don't know the name of somebody I
<v Speaker 2>was smoking with.
<v Speaker 1>Male Despite the video evidence of Christopher stalking Aliana near
<v Speaker 1>the church on ninety third Street. He tried to tell
<v Speaker 1>the police that two strangers invited him into the abandoned
<v Speaker 1>house and Aleanna was already inside. He just happened to
<v Speaker 1>be cruising around town looking for drugs on yep, you
<v Speaker 1>guessed it. A stolen bicycle.
<v Speaker 3>And what bike were you riding?
<v Speaker 2>I was riding a blue and green Mountainvirony.
<v Speaker 3>Whose bike is it?
<v Speaker 2>I was a bike land around in the backyard down
<v Speaker 2>on Edy fourth.
<v Speaker 1>Chris went on for a long time, spinning a story
<v Speaker 1>about two random men who he described in great detail.
<v Speaker 1>They were the ones who had done this, not him.
<v Speaker 1>He just happened to be there, and yes, sure he
<v Speaker 1>had sex with her. I mean, why not. You know
<v Speaker 1>she was there, and she also wanted to get high,
<v Speaker 1>and you know she's naked and stuff. So whatever. Imagine
<v Speaker 1>being so stupid that you think other people are this stupid.
<v Speaker 1>The whole thing was completely unbelievable to anyone who knew Aleana. Actually,
<v Speaker 1>it was completely unbelievable to anyone with a brain. But
<v Speaker 1>Alianna was a good kid. The detectives knew this, yet
<v Speaker 1>they sat and listened as Chris went on and on.
<v Speaker 17>As far as hurting her, No, I had none to
<v Speaker 17>do with that. I'm gonna give you honest to God's true.
<v Speaker 17>They told me that she was somebody that was getting
<v Speaker 17>high or whatever. And now when I see hear the
<v Speaker 17>news and they say she was slow, I understand why
<v Speaker 17>she was going along with what they were saying.
<v Speaker 2>She was probably scared or whatever. I had no idea.
<v Speaker 2>I'm high.
<v Speaker 17>I'm just you get hide and thinking it's cool. I mean,
<v Speaker 17>you just women. I dared that sell everybody for those What.
<v Speaker 3>Room of the house did you have sex with her in.
<v Speaker 2>On the carpet on the little bundlework here? Which room?
<v Speaker 2>I think it was the little room closer to the door.
<v Speaker 3>Did you recall what she was wearing?
<v Speaker 2>No, she was naked when I got there.
<v Speaker 16>Well, you were there on Wednesday night. She wasn't picked
<v Speaker 16>up until Thursday morning.
<v Speaker 2>Wednesday.
<v Speaker 3>Uh huh.
<v Speaker 17>We was just smoking. We're just getting high. I went
<v Speaker 17>and got some more dope, came back, and then she was.
<v Speaker 2>Already here naked. I don't know how they got her naked,
<v Speaker 2>how they got her in there? Okay, she was already naked.
<v Speaker 2>And so I'm taking this to a party.
<v Speaker 1>Can you imagine what a piece of shit you have
<v Speaker 1>to be to show up at an abandoned house, see
<v Speaker 1>a naked teenage girl and think this is a party.
<v Speaker 1>I mean, that's some straight up diddy shit. I mean,
<v Speaker 1>you're basically a shuldn't cut her at that point. This
<v Speaker 1>man is so beyond scum of the earth that this
<v Speaker 1>is the story he's willing to admit, this is what
<v Speaker 1>he thinks is acceptable to tell detectives.
<v Speaker 3>And she was already inside the house, naked in what room.
<v Speaker 17>In the living room, she was just sitting there quiet,
<v Speaker 17>and she had like a black hat on black hat
<v Speaker 17>the only thing she had, almost like a black hat.
<v Speaker 17>I don't know if it was one of theirs or
<v Speaker 17>if it was hers that she had wore. It was
<v Speaker 17>basically like he was like, man, just look out for me,
<v Speaker 17>and she gonna look out for you whatever whatever, like
<v Speaker 17>lay down and open your LIGs.
<v Speaker 2>Going there, give my tous hun.
<v Speaker 3>Oh, so they offered her up to you. I'm just
<v Speaker 3>wondering if you had any conversation with their I never
<v Speaker 3>talked to her. Was she crying emotional? Not at all? No,
<v Speaker 3>that's surprising.
<v Speaker 17>I mean, I mean she it's I mean, it's surprising
<v Speaker 17>to me now that I look at this and I
<v Speaker 17>see what I saw on the news, and I saw
<v Speaker 17>the flyers.
<v Speaker 3>And I'm like, well, so it's just the three of
<v Speaker 3>you inside this house, and basically it's like.
<v Speaker 17>What I really didn't even fit insider. So it was
<v Speaker 17>basically me just sitting here and I jacked myself off.
<v Speaker 3>Basically use a kindom or anything.
<v Speaker 2>No, I gave the kund them to somebody.
<v Speaker 3>You gave the kind of to somebody. Well, there's only
<v Speaker 3>two other guys there.
<v Speaker 2>To one of them.
<v Speaker 17>I mean, I had opened it up and I was
<v Speaker 17>about to use it, but I just jacked myself off,
<v Speaker 17>and then I rubbed up against.
<v Speaker 2>Her as I was coming.
<v Speaker 3>And so your DNA and the kind of rapper that
<v Speaker 3>was in the living room would explain you touched it,
<v Speaker 3>you opened it, and then you hand.
<v Speaker 2>As you open the other guy because it's about time
<v Speaker 2>for me to go to work.
<v Speaker 1>So this is how forty four year old Christopher had
<v Speaker 1>been living his life. He stole scrap metal for cracked cocaine,
<v Speaker 1>He worked random drywall jobs, and his only mode of
<v Speaker 1>training inspretation was with friends or on stolen bikes. Quite frankly,
<v Speaker 1>his life wasn't worth living, and it hadn't been for
<v Speaker 1>some time, a long, long, long time. Chris grew up
<v Speaker 1>the youngest of seven kids. His father was not around.
<v Speaker 1>When Christopher was eight years old, his mother died of
<v Speaker 1>kidney failure. Fearing the state would try to separate the
<v Speaker 1>kids into foster care, Christopher's eldest sister moved the family
<v Speaker 1>to Cleveland to be closer to their aunt. Christopher grew
<v Speaker 1>up and, like his older brothers, turned to drugs and
<v Speaker 1>petty crime. So you're telling me the Nancy Reagan say
<v Speaker 1>no to drugs thing didn't work?
<v Speaker 2>Weird.
<v Speaker 1>Christopher was arrested throughout the late nineties and early two
<v Speaker 1>thousands for burglary, felonious assault, and other drug related crimes.
<v Speaker 1>Years went by. He stayed in the drug world and
<v Speaker 1>had a daughter of his own, but by the time
<v Speaker 1>his little girl turned six, Chris would be behind bars.
<v Speaker 1>When he was thirty two years old, Christopher attacked a
<v Speaker 1>female friend when she came over to use his bathroom.
<v Speaker 1>He sprang open the door, stabbed her in the neck
<v Speaker 1>with a pair of scissors, and then strangled her.
<v Speaker 3>Then he grabbed me around my neck and was choking
<v Speaker 3>me and I passed.
<v Speaker 1>Out, then he raped her repeatedly. When she woke up,
<v Speaker 1>she was naked and bleeding out. She barely survived. Chris
<v Speaker 1>was charged with third degree felonious sexual assault and attempted murder,
<v Speaker 1>but he pleaded down the murder charge. He only got
<v Speaker 1>four years in prison. Four I mean, what kind of
<v Speaker 1>judges are we putting on the bench four years for
<v Speaker 1>a violent rape and attempted murder? Makes you wonder what
<v Speaker 1>the fuck is going on in Ohio. Christopher has been
<v Speaker 1>a registered sex offender since his release in two thousand
<v Speaker 1>and nine. On post release control. He offended again, but
<v Speaker 1>managed to slip through the cracks of the legal system.
<v Speaker 18>For some reason, the sexual assault case was closed, his
<v Speaker 18>sentencing was over, and so that could not be used
<v Speaker 18>as a reason to put him back into prison. The
<v Speaker 18>process did what it's supposed to do. It doesn't make
<v Speaker 18>us completely safe. It never can.
<v Speaker 1>Even Christopher's former victim knew he killed Aliana, and a parson.
<v Speaker 19>Could go out and say our drugs and get more tanned,
<v Speaker 19>and they gave him and I looked what he don't
<v Speaker 19>came back and did when they found her body, it.
<v Speaker 3>Was like something came over me. And said Christy did.
<v Speaker 1>Her death was so violent and sick. Her throat had
<v Speaker 1>been slashed with a box cutter, her face had been
<v Speaker 1>stabbed with a screwdriver. Then he had wedged her eyeball
<v Speaker 1>out of its socket. Then he left the tools on
<v Speaker 1>display on the windowsill before discarding her body like trash
<v Speaker 1>in the corner of the room. Now Here Chris was
<v Speaker 1>his DNA all over the place, his criminal history chock
<v Speaker 1>full of violence and rape, and he was still trying
<v Speaker 1>to convince the detectives that he did nothing wrong to
<v Speaker 1>hurt Aleana. Sure, Chris, Sure, There's only one problem with.
<v Speaker 3>Your story, Chris. The footprints is the house. There's only
<v Speaker 3>one set three yours.
<v Speaker 2>There's only one set.
<v Speaker 3>There's only one set.
<v Speaker 2>Thirty people went in here scrapping, and then the two
<v Speaker 2>people was in the house with you.
<v Speaker 3>I'm not lying to you. I can show you the pictures.
<v Speaker 3>There's only one set of footprints in there.
<v Speaker 1>Oh, did you believe Chris? You should probably rethink some things,
<v Speaker 1>A lot of stuff. There were more problems with this
<v Speaker 1>story than just the footprints.
<v Speaker 2>Though.
<v Speaker 16>I believe that you were high on drugs. I believe
<v Speaker 16>that you were out of your mind. I can believe
<v Speaker 16>that point. But I don't believe that two unknown strangers
<v Speaker 16>that you've never met before in your life bring you
<v Speaker 16>to this house that you've already been to a couple
<v Speaker 16>of times. Just decide to go to the same house
<v Speaker 16>that you've already been to.
<v Speaker 3>You and then you leave, and.
<v Speaker 16>Surprisingly, in a matter of ten minutes, they find her,
<v Speaker 16>bring her into the house, get her naked, and then
<v Speaker 16>you return.
<v Speaker 3>It doesn't match up, Chris. So you're like halfway there.
<v Speaker 3>You're halfway to accepting responsibility, but you're still trying to
<v Speaker 3>You're still trying to blame other people.
<v Speaker 2>No, I'm not trying to blame other people. I'm trying
<v Speaker 2>to tell you exactly what happened.
<v Speaker 18>Now.
<v Speaker 16>You're trying to lessen your responsibility for what happened.
<v Speaker 2>Christopher's people in the house?
<v Speaker 3>You now, y'all, that's that throwing two of the people
<v Speaker 3>in that house?
<v Speaker 2>What's two of the guys? It was as huge? Who
<v Speaker 2>wasn't it?
<v Speaker 3>I swear my mom, I'm not going don't do that.
<v Speaker 3>Please don't do that.
<v Speaker 16>The prince that you left behind were bloody, Prince, they
<v Speaker 16>could only have gotten bloody if she was bloody.
<v Speaker 3>Do you understand what I'm saying.
<v Speaker 16>You couldn't have just jacked off on her and then
<v Speaker 16>left and she was fine if you had bloody Prince
<v Speaker 16>left in the dining room.
<v Speaker 1>Chris had been caught literally red handed and red footed.
<v Speaker 1>It was almost as though he had no foresight at
<v Speaker 1>all when he killed Aliana. I guess crack does that
<v Speaker 1>to you. It was almost as though the slap on
<v Speaker 1>the wrist he had received for raping a woman and
<v Speaker 1>stabbing her in the neck enabled him the power to
<v Speaker 1>do this again, except get it right this time. This
<v Speaker 1>wasn't about drugs. This was about the fact that his
<v Speaker 1>urges of torture and rape were bubbling up to the
<v Speaker 1>surface yet again, and he was powerless to stop them.
<v Speaker 1>Forty four year old convicted sex offender, rapist, drug dealer,
<v Speaker 1>and user Christopher Whittaker had been taken into custody for
<v Speaker 1>the heinous murder of fourteen year old Aliana de Freeze.
<v Speaker 1>Despite the overwhelming DNA evidence at the scene and on
<v Speaker 1>her body, Christopher continued to try to blame the crime
<v Speaker 1>on other men and of course, his disgusting drug habit.
<v Speaker 1>Maybe his mind was so warped from decades of crack
<v Speaker 1>use that he thought there were two other men with him,
<v Speaker 1>or maybe he was just a seedy, worthless rapist and
<v Speaker 1>murderer lying his ass off to try and get away
<v Speaker 1>with it. Yet again, which.
<v Speaker 3>Bus step were you standing right there at the corner
<v Speaker 3>of Fuller by the church?
<v Speaker 2>Okay, because we was trying to do bad word, We
<v Speaker 2>was going to get the dope from.
<v Speaker 3>And everybody, that's what I was trying to get at.
<v Speaker 2>You to the church.
<v Speaker 17>Everybody that's that we was calling either wasn't even answering
<v Speaker 17>her phone or didn't have nothing.
<v Speaker 3>So so the video from the church is gonna show
<v Speaker 3>a solace.
<v Speaker 17>The video from the church is gonna show I'm standing there.
<v Speaker 17>My due would walk by to show him walking down
<v Speaker 17>talking with Aleana, she probably walking a few steps behind him,
<v Speaker 17>and I'm still standing there.
<v Speaker 1>But the surveillance video from the church showed Christopher pacing
<v Speaker 1>back and forth, confronting a timid Oleanna and then stalking
<v Speaker 1>her as she walked away. Christopher then changed his story
<v Speaker 1>and said two guys didn't actually go into the house
<v Speaker 1>with him, They just helped walk her to the house.
<v Speaker 1>He'd gone through about four different versions of the events
<v Speaker 1>at this point.
<v Speaker 3>When once you got inside to get hi.
<v Speaker 2>What happened?
<v Speaker 3>Did you get high?
<v Speaker 2>Actually? I stood like in the little storm thing and
<v Speaker 2>got high just so the wind wouldn't blow my.
<v Speaker 3>Lighter in turn storm door? Is that what you're talking about?
<v Speaker 2>The basement? Okay? Where she at? She's like standing right
<v Speaker 2>there by the door back door. What do you mean it?
<v Speaker 3>What happened then?
<v Speaker 17>And I came through the house and said there she
<v Speaker 17>was like she just looked at me crazy, like what
<v Speaker 17>does that make you feel?
<v Speaker 13>Like?
<v Speaker 4>Yeah?
<v Speaker 17>So I said it made me horn you. I said, uh,
<v Speaker 17>I actually we could get naked and do something. And
<v Speaker 17>she was like it's cold, and but she took her
<v Speaker 17>back back in her jacket off anyway, and I'm thinking
<v Speaker 17>it's okay.
<v Speaker 1>Sometimes his delusions are so unbelievable that it does seem
<v Speaker 1>like the drugs removed him from reality. Christopher said it
<v Speaker 1>was all consensual, but then Aleanna flipped on him.
<v Speaker 17>I don't know exactly what happened to demoment, like she
<v Speaker 17>attacked me or whatever, like if she suddenly realized.
<v Speaker 2>That was wrong and I need to get away from here.
<v Speaker 2>But I was high and it scared me.
<v Speaker 17>I turned around and it's like I pnstured but then
<v Speaker 17>it's like after that, it's like a blur. It's like
<v Speaker 17>I almost blacked out or something. I don't mkay, where
<v Speaker 17>where'd you punch her?
<v Speaker 2>So really he can't say.
<v Speaker 17>I don't know if it's in her left side or
<v Speaker 17>the right side or birthplace side.
<v Speaker 3>But interface alright, was it with a closed fist or
<v Speaker 3>an open hand?
<v Speaker 2>It might've been a clothes face. But after that, I
<v Speaker 2>just blacked out.
<v Speaker 20>And not just like but when you said you punched her,
<v Speaker 20>what did she like fall back or something like that?
<v Speaker 20>I remember, like like I said, when I turned around.
<v Speaker 2>And went into that rage, it's like I blacked out.
<v Speaker 3>And did you have those tools with you when you
<v Speaker 3>went to the house? Was that something you were carrying around?
<v Speaker 16>Yeah?
<v Speaker 3>Who's back back?
<v Speaker 13>Is that?
<v Speaker 2>Actually? Those tools?
<v Speaker 16>Was there's?
<v Speaker 2>They were there at the house and I remember seeing
<v Speaker 2>'em there? What did you see 'em at the house
<v Speaker 2>sitting on the legs by the window. Did you use
<v Speaker 2>any of those tools?
<v Speaker 17>I don't remember what I picked up. I'm telling you
<v Speaker 17>that I just to got you. I don't remember what
<v Speaker 17>I did. I just remember when I came through that
<v Speaker 17>it had happened, and it was disgusting, right.
<v Speaker 16>Now, Chris, there's just one more question that we have
<v Speaker 16>for you, as far as that's concerned, because I can
<v Speaker 16>see this is uncomfortable for you.
<v Speaker 3>I appreciate you telling us what happened, but there's one
<v Speaker 3>thing that's not as good.
<v Speaker 16>After you dragged Aliana into that bedroom, there's evidence that
<v Speaker 16>you then did something to her before you left.
<v Speaker 3>Do you recall that I'm.
<v Speaker 2>Being honest with you.
<v Speaker 17>I don't remember your name, but I'm being absolutely honest
<v Speaker 17>with you, Okay, I mean I was.
<v Speaker 16>There's indications, based on the condition of the room, that
<v Speaker 16>you then cut her one more time at least do
<v Speaker 16>you recall that?
<v Speaker 1>Of course, he would not recall Christopher was selectively forgetting
<v Speaker 1>everything about the gruesome butchery he committed with those drywall tools.
<v Speaker 1>But Alianna's corpse told a different story. Her body told
<v Speaker 1>the detectives what a vile monster her killer really was
<v Speaker 1>before throwing him in jail. The detectives asked him about
<v Speaker 1>five other missing women from ninety third Street. He admitted
<v Speaker 1>he knew one of them and said they used to
<v Speaker 1>get high together. She was quote good people.
<v Speaker 17>I just regretting HI and if I was in my
<v Speaker 17>right state of mind and their child will still be.
<v Speaker 2>Here's like, I mean a lot of things.
<v Speaker 17>He blamed on drugs, but like I told him, I
<v Speaker 17>was cleaned for three years and then it's like when
<v Speaker 17>I started getting high again. I don't know what happened.
<v Speaker 17>It just turned on the monster inside. I mean, I guess,
<v Speaker 17>I don't know, and I just hated myself so much.
<v Speaker 1>With Christopher behind bars, Aleiana's family felt a little relief,
<v Speaker 1>but this tragedy was far from over. Here's Aleiana's father.
<v Speaker 21>Please watch your children. There's a lot of Christopher Whittickers
<v Speaker 21>out of here. There's a lot of Christopher Wittickers out
<v Speaker 21>of there, and watch it as I speak.
<v Speaker 1>Aleiana's mother was determined to stand strong when the court
<v Speaker 1>proceeding started.
<v Speaker 19>I'm going to go to every pre trial, every trial,
<v Speaker 19>everything so he sees my face. But I want him
<v Speaker 19>to suffer, like you know, he made my daughter suffer.
<v Speaker 19>But I also don't feel like he deserves to live
<v Speaker 19>or take my daughter away from me.
<v Speaker 1>Christopher was given ten charges, including aggravated murder, rape, kidnapping,
<v Speaker 1>abuse of a corpse, and tampering with evidence. He admitted
<v Speaker 1>that he was involved, but his defense argued that it
<v Speaker 1>was crack cocaine that actually caused the crime, not Christopher.
<v Speaker 1>Isn't it funny how you can just escape responsibility like that,
<v Speaker 1>just point at another thing and go, now, that did it?
<v Speaker 13>Not me?
<v Speaker 1>So everyone who loved Aleana, including her family, her friends,
<v Speaker 1>and teachers, had to endure a very public trial. They
<v Speaker 1>had to sit there and watch CCTV foot of Alana
<v Speaker 1>on a bus smiling her last smile as she exited
<v Speaker 1>onto ninety third Street. They had to watch Christopher stalk
<v Speaker 1>her outside the church. They had to look at pictures
<v Speaker 1>of the crime scene and the unthinkable ways she had
<v Speaker 1>been tortured. They had to hear the medical examiner explain
<v Speaker 1>how it was most likely that she was in fact
<v Speaker 1>alive when Christopher stabbed her face with a screwdriver and
<v Speaker 1>plucked her eye out of its socket. They had to
<v Speaker 1>hear how after he murdered Aliana, Christopher went to a
<v Speaker 1>local church and helped to past her unload food pantry
<v Speaker 1>items with a calm smile on his face. The jury
<v Speaker 1>found him guilty on all charges. They recommended the death penalty.
<v Speaker 1>The judge agreed. Christopher Whittaker was sent to death row,
<v Speaker 1>finally where he belongs. Before he was locked away, Christopher
<v Speaker 1>told the judge he wanted to say something to ali
<v Speaker 1>On his family.
<v Speaker 17>I never wanted this to happen, and ever since that day,
<v Speaker 17>I've been in field with great ignomers Through the year,
<v Speaker 17>I made a lot of phone calls, and in those
<v Speaker 17>calls I said things, a.
<v Speaker 2>Lot of things.
<v Speaker 17>In order to protect my family's feelings, I've admitted to
<v Speaker 17>my guilt to the detectives and to my lawyers. I
<v Speaker 17>asked my lawyers and not to contest or challenge anything
<v Speaker 17>in this case because I really wanted to the priest
<v Speaker 17>family to have clothes in I will not try to
<v Speaker 17>hide behind drugs or alcohol. I will not pretend or
<v Speaker 17>allow because it wouldn't be fair to the family. I
<v Speaker 17>apologize to the family and the community for my actions.
<v Speaker 17>There is now excuse for what I've done. I can't
<v Speaker 17>imagure the pain the family feels, but I know the
<v Speaker 17>pain I'm failed when I hate.
<v Speaker 2>To look at what I did.
<v Speaker 1>Outside, the media buzzed and ali On his family stood strong.
<v Speaker 2>What do you think of the death penalty recommended?
<v Speaker 21>I went in life without the possibility of parole, but
<v Speaker 21>I respect whatever the jury and the judge has come
<v Speaker 21>up with. I prefer him to sit there forever. You
<v Speaker 21>can sit on death row forever, but you're isolated. I
<v Speaker 21>want this man experience hell on earth before he's experience
<v Speaker 21>as a hell and after life.
<v Speaker 1>Aleana Dafries's family did not stop fighting even after the trial.
<v Speaker 1>Her father and stepmom made it their mission to see
<v Speaker 1>that the house she was killed in be torn down.
<v Speaker 1>This cluster of forgotten homes attracted seed activity, drug use,
<v Speaker 1>and crime. Five women had been killed there already, and
<v Speaker 1>Aleiana was the last girl the city was willing to lose.
<v Speaker 1>Standing outside in the rain, Aliana's father spoke to a crowd.
<v Speaker 22>To our understanding, this building, this house needed to remain
<v Speaker 22>standing for legal purposes. But now that we have a
<v Speaker 22>conviction of the man that took our baby away, this
<v Speaker 22>house can be torn down.
<v Speaker 2>We want to bring light to the other women.
<v Speaker 22>They were found within a mile of this house, and
<v Speaker 22>we want to send our condolences to their families. We
<v Speaker 22>have to get these eye sores in these safe havens
<v Speaker 22>for crime, because that's what they are. You have individuals
<v Speaker 22>that seek out these places, and beforehand they come by
<v Speaker 22>and they replay in their mind what they plan to
<v Speaker 22>do later. So we have to bring awareness to the
<v Speaker 22>dangers that lurk in these abandoned structures.
<v Speaker 1>The house was destroyed on December twenty eighteen. Oleanna's family
<v Speaker 1>felt that her death was preventable, like, I think they're right.
<v Speaker 1>I think it was. The school she attended had an
<v Speaker 1>alert system in place where a text message could go
<v Speaker 1>out to a parent whose child didn't show up to school.
<v Speaker 1>But on the day Aliana was murdered, Denisha received no
<v Speaker 1>text message, no phone call, nothing. Remember, the only reason
<v Speaker 1>she found out her daughter was absent was when she
<v Speaker 1>called the school office. Aleiana's family sued the school and
<v Speaker 1>the city. After a lot of back and forth, the
<v Speaker 1>case was finally settled in the Freeze family was given
<v Speaker 1>a one million dollar settlement, not much if you ask
<v Speaker 1>me for a life taken. Aliana's family took it a
<v Speaker 1>step further and advocated for a new law to be
<v Speaker 1>put in place that required schools to make contact with
<v Speaker 1>parents if their child is absent from the school within
<v Speaker 1>the first two hours of the school day starting. This
<v Speaker 1>bill was brought to the House of Representatives in early
<v Speaker 1>twenty nineteen, and it was promptly signed and passed. It's called,
<v Speaker 1>of course, the Aliana alert law. This year, Alana da
<v Speaker 1>Freeze would have been twenty one years old. She had
<v Speaker 1>so much ahead of her. The way she was taken
<v Speaker 1>from this earth is the kind of tragedy that makes
<v Speaker 1>your heart hurt, makes you worry about the future. Hell,
<v Speaker 1>it makes you worry about the present. To die alone
<v Speaker 1>in that freezing house, in the dark and snow, with
<v Speaker 1>a sexually depraved monster plucking her apart as she lay
<v Speaker 1>there dying, it's just too awful to think about. You
<v Speaker 1>can't let it sit in your head too long without
<v Speaker 1>doing some damage. She was an innocent, beautiful child who
<v Speaker 1>was beloved by so many. Her family did everything they
<v Speaker 1>could to make sure her death served a higher purpose
<v Speaker 1>for the community at large. But, like Aliana's father said,
<v Speaker 1>monsters like Christopher Whittaker are out there. We hear about
<v Speaker 1>them every day. They slipped through the cracks of the
<v Speaker 1>legal system and often blame drugs for their actions. But
<v Speaker 1>I think we all know better. We've talked about so
<v Speaker 1>many of these monsters, these former human beings. They're all
<v Speaker 1>cut from the same cloth. Narcissism, sociopathy, psychopathy, the inability
<v Speaker 1>to empathize with the pain of others, and the uncontrollable
<v Speaker 1>need to satisfy one's own carnal gratification above all else.
<v Speaker 1>Christopher blamed drugs for what he did to Aleana and
<v Speaker 1>his other previous victim, but it had little to do
<v Speaker 1>with drugs. Christopher had depraved urges inside of him, and
<v Speaker 1>he spent most of his adult life repressing them. He
<v Speaker 1>pushed them deep, deep down inside the deviant killer and
<v Speaker 1>Christopher came out when he was thirty two when he
<v Speaker 1>stabbed and raped a woman in his bathroom. Who knows
<v Speaker 1>what set him off. Then he was able to keep
<v Speaker 1>his urges at bay for another twelve years until the
<v Speaker 1>day that he murdered Aleana. Like an aerosol can near
<v Speaker 1>a fire, he finally exploded. This time. He couldn't stop it,
<v Speaker 1>just one stab to the neck. He had to keep going.
<v Speaker 1>After he raped Aliana, he treated her like she was
<v Speaker 1>a dead animal in a science lab. I think Christopher
<v Speaker 1>willingly gave up his self control that cold January morning.
<v Speaker 1>He wanted to do this. He got sexual gratification from
<v Speaker 1>not only the rape, but also the torture the murder.
<v Speaker 1>It made him come to be frank about it. He
<v Speaker 1>is one of the most wicked and vile men that exist,
<v Speaker 1>but certainly not the only one. There is no forgiveness
<v Speaker 1>for this type of crime. There is no forgiveness for
<v Speaker 1>what Christopher has done. Here, no sentence suitable to fit
<v Speaker 1>his crime. Only Christopher knows what's waiting for him when
<v Speaker 1>he finally crosses over to the other side for all eternity.
<v Speaker 1>If you believe in that sort of thing. I hope
<v Speaker 1>he does, and I hope that his final days on
<v Speaker 1>earth are filled with fear as to what's coming. I
<v Speaker 1>hope he's a man of faith, and I hope he
<v Speaker 1>believes in eternal damnation and hell fire, because I think
<v Speaker 1>that if he's right about that, there may be a
<v Speaker 1>very warm future waiting for him, a future much warmer,
<v Speaker 1>nay hotter than the freezing cold house Aleanna died in.
<v Speaker 1>I'm sure this will come across as bitching, but it's
<v Speaker 1>just me explaining to you why there's so many episodes
<v Speaker 1>all of a sudden. I don't want you to get
<v Speaker 1>used to it and think it's gonna be the normal schedule.
<v Speaker 1>You see, we make our money by selling advertising or
<v Speaker 1>premium subs, and if there are fewer of you coming
<v Speaker 1>in the door, then there are leaving. Then we can't
<v Speaker 1>really do that anymore. Canley and Apple loves to hide us,
<v Speaker 1>even though we've been a top premium channel ever since
<v Speaker 1>they launched their premium channel's service. So we're gonna just
<v Speaker 1>put out a shitload of episodes and try to capture
<v Speaker 1>more eyeballs that way for the time being, to see
<v Speaker 1>if we can turn around this trend and get some
<v Speaker 1>more people coming in the front door. I'm only telling
<v Speaker 1>you this because you're gonna complain eventually, and I'd rather
<v Speaker 1>just deal with it now.
<v Speaker 2>Stay safe, remember n