This was the person who did that. This chapter in my life will close. She swabbed the sticky side of the tape and those swabs had the defendant's DNA on them. Amber was still deeply conflicted. But Sam did not report his roommate to the police. Coming up, a tantalizing lead from out of state, there was some guy in Virginia who had used duct tape in one of his murders and I was like, maybe this is my duct tape guy. How could anyone know whether or when he might attack someone else, where for it and any way she knew something else about that after going through his phone, something the jury didn't hear and it wasn't pretty. You are the man that did this to her and I pleaded with him to be the hero that I believed he could be and allow my victim to move forward with her life by apologizing and taking accountability for the things you've done. And well, Amber still has her struggles ahead. Midnight past the usual rowdies, busy, but nothing special. Cops are people, too, after all, just like Amber Dane Straten needed relief, but I started to think, what is this guy? What would happen to you inside when that happened? EXPAND ALL. . Father, an FBI agent, grandfather once with the CIA. One more night to take a lusty bite of fleeting summer that last Friday in August 2013. He had to be out there, was he watching? And if she did, would she be right or wrong? I have fought for my life because of my son. The guy you trusted. Did you find his DNA anywhere else, either on her body or on the. LifeLock sees certain threats you could miss and alerts you if they find something that could be suspicious. Who was that man on top of her? They just said, say what you want. A podcast hosted by Dateline Producer Dan Slepian tells the story of a man convicted of murder and the letter that changed their lives. A mysterious trail of death follows Helen and Olga, two kindly old ladies determined to help homeless men in Los Angeles. The brutality of this was unlike anything that I'd heard about why would you attack somebody and brutalize them to such a degree if you didn't know them or have a grudge against them? Original Podcast by Datelines Josh Mankiewicz: The murders of Gelareh Bagherzadah and Coty Beavers, and the investigation into Ali Irsan. You just kept stammering and kept denying and denying. She was found naked and bound with red duct tape. And Carol Boksburg said they didn't believe Sam's alibi for a minute. So I started to scream through the tape as loud as I could, and I was trying to break free from the tape. But give up. TUSCALOOSAThe University of Alabama is expanding into the land where Bryce Hospital resides. And her emotions, her depression, her fear pulled her down for months. Oh, I think I could tell you about Sam as day is a constant liar. Amber was there in court listening to all of this. Detective Chavan Seymour added that dismal result to her pile of bad news. And so she began, in a way, embarrassed about going drinking with her friend Eric. He was famous for doing stupid things, but nothing aggressive, nothing violent. It was like a bright light and a. Where is he? After all, many convicted murderers have got much less time, have had a chance to be released. Jun 2014 - Present8 years 10 months. You have something to offer her. While our producers were in Arkansas working on an all-new Dateline, they learned about a stretch of highway that was a hotspot for rock n roll in the '50s and '60s. Couldn't be true. Detective Seymour hope the moons might offer some insight into Sam and the odd habits of fetishes, even sexual deviances of their 30 something year old couch surfing son. What is the sense or the level of responsibility that comes crashing down on your shoulders when you see a thing like that? Like, who is this guy? Oftentimes, I would drive him home because the last thing that I wanted was somebody to turn up dead or washed up in a park. I saw that he had an affinity for rape and for torturing women based off of the searches that he had done. So how would your DNA be in my vagina? That was a place for her to call home there. Eric was twenty something, lived with his parents, but he wasn't home. When you see the photos, you can feel the terror. Yeah, I definitely thought I was still lurking, still trying to find me. Hey, it's Amber. It was crazy. Because the voice in my memory was her screaming, terrified, I want her real voice to be my new memory. That's all for now. I just felt helpless. That was probably the longest two or three seconds of my life from the first not guilty and then to the next one and then out it came one by one. Just my heart I don't even think was in my body anymore. Honestly, if this is his opening act, where's he going to go from here? Correct. It was that DNA that matched the sample recovered from Amber. By Cynthia Cole , Bryce Bailey , DJ Kim Lee. Coming up, why Amber couldn't believe what she'd been told, there's no way this is the wrong guy. It wasn't him. Well, that was easy, said Bryce on his ear, or to his trying to get revenge on me for getting in trouble in the first place. Tick tock. When Dateline continues, Detective Seymour had been so sure Amber Smith knew the man who raped her and nearly killed her. Don. A stew of emotions overlaid with confusion. Slow it down. When Dateline continues, the trauma of the kind suffered by Amber Smith is a beast, the long tail. I was like, there a mistake. And that's why his DNA showed up. The attacker had left his semen behind and maybe touch DNA. And so I kept screaming and screaming, and then I remember getting hit in the face right here like a pretty good blow. I felt just like I had failed. So why would his old pal Sam try to frame him for the attack on Amber? We expected that it would either hit to other cases or to an offender in the database or of course, to the last person I remember being with Eric Vannak. He was disgusted and surprised that he didn't feel this. Get started today at UMG Dot Edu Slash podcast. Hey, guys, Willie Geist here this week on the Sunday Sit Down podcast, I get together for a rare conversation with John Cusack to talk about his new series, Utopia and his long career of memorable roles. The county sheriff calls for a full-on manhunt and the search for Denise Hallowell's killer begins. They have had to have done something in the past. What kind of person does that sort of thing? She had been strangled, strangled like somebody tried to kill her. At the Desk of: Justin Ratchford, Dateline Meet Justin Ratchford, an assistant producer for Dateline. Did you have anything to do with the incident that happened to Amber in 2013? Coming up, for investigators, the depths of despair, I felt helpless. Um, yeah. I'm sorry for them and my heart breaks for them, but I just don't think that that's the right choice. She had thoughts of who might have done it, but she wasn't sure she'd been with the guy they'd been drinking. And then they started reporting they could hear her screaming, help, help. I said, yeah, let's do this. This byline is for a different person with the same name. Amber Smith had overcome her worst fears and confronted her friends and moon. Just a bunch of friends living together like the TV show, frankly, didn't feel a bit like that. SkyWest Airlines. Yeah. By 2015, the Amber Smith duct tape case was old news in Fort Collins at Colorado State University. It became very clear that whoever had done this to her was a stranger, a stranger who'd managed to avoid capture for whatever else she'd probably done, someone who had had the bad luck to encounter at a moment of vulnerability. But Sam wouldn't budge. He's going to slip up. Amber, that's I, I remember you talking about that and that's sick. When Dateline continues. June 20, 2016: School Camp. Yeah, and that was motivation enough for me to scream as loud as I could and get out. So as we received more known samples from individuals in this case, we anticipated that one of them would eventually or could potentially match the unknown DNA profile in this case. Did you have anything to do with the incident that happened to Amber in 2013? A resident of Fort Collins, Colorado, Stefan Moon, resided with his housemate, Bryce Bailey, at the time of the attack. Yeah, you got the guy. As a journalist, you can create a free Muck Rack account to customize your profile, list your contact preferences, and upload a portfolio of your best work. Bryce Bailey is on Facebook. In February 2003, a shot rang out in famed music producer Phil Spectors California mansion. She ended up getting pregnant with Gabriel and our relationship kind of grew from there. Frustrating. I was beyond scared. I feel more at peace now. And it was incredible to see red duct tape finding a woman alive enough to scream, but only just. So when I performed my statistical analysis in this case, the statistic was one in 10 quintillion. Detective Sharon Seymour found Amber in the emergency room. Kirsti had been helping raise and her son was babysitting the night of the attack. Dateline NBC Showcast. Like we need to figure out who this guy is. What's the next thing here? I still questioned would she have it in her to testify? Gradually, they and the other housemates helped Amber learn to smile again, but particularly Sam, a bright, gentle guy, good listener. Of the ducted case. Your good friend. It was Detective Seymour who told the story for the jury. It's all new. I tapped Amber on the shoulder and I very quickly spoke with her because I wanted to hear her. That was not an option. An unlikely hero. I had sex with a girl. And then I said there was a bicycle, the pawn shop and a small domestic drama. Oh my God, Amber, I, I, I don't know what to say. (NBC News) Tonight on an all-new "Dateline," a young woman survives a brutal attack and detectives work . and in the ambulance, as she struggled to calm down, David Stratton asked, what happened when you woke up, where you. Yes. Yeah, we have sex. The Drew Peterson began in 2001 but ended up lasting more than a decade. So we are just frantic trying to get any and all information that we can from her because is she going to be able to survive this? Oh. So that flipped a gear in my head that something was seriously wrong over there. It's broken down again, a smart and kind kid who did not always make the most intelligent choices, they said. And should he be able to walk around in our community that it's just a matter of time before he goes off again? Officially, it wasn't even a case anymore, the Amber Smith investigation was closed two years after the attack. So we could see where we go. | Reuters. Yeah, and he was eager to provide me with a sample of his DNA to exonerate him. She had several friends that he brought up that may have been involved in this. I'm a nurse and I say all I hear is that Shamoon was an unlikely suspect for sure, and he'd offered alibis. I'm . And though Amber survived, if only barely her trauma, the ugliness of the crime made their mission personal. I'm not a victim. I would try to be as sneaky as I could in these places. Oh, yeah, um. So she went on Facebook and found this picture. I'm one of that confession. Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. And this wound is never going to heal. After four years, they finally had a suspect actually woke up to an email from Siobhan. The holidays came to Fort Collins. As she ran her tests, the crime labs, Melissa Grass was optimistic that a solid DNA profile would emerge and solve the mystery quickly. Just I felt like I was going to vomit. You know that. We have that. DNA would tell the truth. Nobody there. A few hours after the attack, Detective Seymour, under partners tracked down Amber, sister in law and it turned out best friend Kirsty Aguilar. She had suffered from a broken jaw. Tonight on Dateline nine, one one calls started coming in. Thank goodness I became intoxicated. You're not one of those are, you know what kind, caring, quiet, quiet, peaceful mother. You know, there are some people who love nothing better than to get lots of attention, go on television, be seen by lots and lots of people. I thought I would come back for me, even in the safe houses. You were given out free. Detective Seymour also submitted a sample from her only person of interest, Aburish friend Eric Vanner. I just was so nervous and so many people I just was getting very overwhelmed. Have a seat on the couch, though, because they were the two people who might know him best and for whom the news was a blow. It's just awful. Yes, absolutely. Patrol officer Dane Stratton, first person to respond to the scene, haunted by it all for years, who'd spent many nights searching on his own for Ember's attacker finally in court, saw her for the very first time since he'd rescued her. I was overjoyed that I was alive and scared. No kidding. She said, call me. There's been an update in your duct tape case where at that moment were you thinking, like, we got it. Keith Morrison tells the twisted tale in Datelines latest podcast. While waiting in the car, Dianna was joined . It was a kick in the gut. Mr Donia looked pretty bad. But now she and her partner started all over again. It's you. How do you wrap your mind around the fact that somebody you trusted is the one who did this? I did do her best friend, Kirsty. And there was a verdict. She's bruised and beaten and bloody. 0:00. So a partner of mine and I went to the church to contact him there. Like we got it. I was like the last thing I thought about. But not quite for Officer Dane Stratton, the cop who found and rescued Amber in the park. Access full episodes from the current season of Dateline on NBC. Yes, I did. I teared up. I was to be honest with each other, we have your DNA in her body. Eric echoed Amber story about drinking and Roxburgh Park having one too many in amber falling asleep. Was it remotely possible he was telling the truth or what? This didn't seem like a stranger thing to me. A young North Carolina man named James Chambers goes missing and his family is frantic. But how after all those years of fruitless slogging, where did this DNA suddenly show up? No, I haven't. So it must have been cross contamination that spread Sam's DNA to her neck. Well, Detective Chaban Seemore raced against an awful possibility, maybe a probability that a serial kidnapper, rapist killer had moved into her town. Yeah, like I couldn't put the pieces together on this one. What about that screaming woman out on the edge of town, Cottonwood, Glen Park. Yeah. So often late at night in his patrol car, he prowled through city parks looking for what, a villain, a rapist, because if he'd done it once. Here's Keith Morrison with Left for Dan. We were surprised. What was her condition when you got there? That's all I wanted. I remember I didn't look at myself very thank God, three days. Where was she? Greater Memphis Area. We were surprised that there were no other cases and no offenders within the database that this case matched to. And then in 2015, a whole group, in a way came to members rescue housemates who invited her to live here with them in this safe place among friends in a good neighborhood. So they for her safety, they put her under an alias name. We got a CODIS hit on this case. I didn't see her face. I was. Goodness, we thought it possibly could have been Eric, the person she was with the night before. 20, 2013. I remember that vividly. Yeah, but all somebody is. I feel like I can finally move on with my life. Take it home with you. Resides in Palm Springs, CA. And then when I saw my face, I was like, Who am I? And then, nearly a week after the attack on Amber, DNA analyst Melissa Grass picked up the phone and called Detective Seymour with the news. . But this time Amber was more lucid and the story she told even now, years later, as she began to tell us the same story, waves of anxiety all but stopped her. Victimization. So she fought, struggled to breathe, and then the rope got tighter. Could anyone understand how she was feeling, the grueling pain, the unrelenting terror, humiliation, loss? That was my sister, my best friend. 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