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The Hunt with John Walsh

Still Running

Aired July 12, 2015 - 20:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[20:00:14] JOHN WALSH, HOST: A crime against any of us is a crime against all of us. That's what the law says. And that's what I believe. That's why I spent 30 years working to bring fugitives back to justice.

Here are the fugitives profiled on THE HUNT so far whose run has finally stopped.

After our segment on alleged pedophile Charles Mazder aired, two viewers called our hotline to help the Marshals track him down in New York City.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: One of the officers went inside and identified Mazder. He was alone, police say, inside that smoke shop. When members of the task force entered, the shooting began.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WALSH: A coward Mazder opened fire on them with a handgun, wounding all three of them. And he was killed in the shootout that followed. Thank God those brave officers all survived.

Soon after the broadcast of our episode on Dr. Genevieve Kelly, accused of abducting her daughter for 10 long years, Kelly surrendered to authorities in New Hampshire. In June 2015 Kelly pleaded guilty to misdemeanor custodial interference. She was sentenced to 10 months in prison.

The hunt for alleged family killer Shane Miller ended 15 months after his crime when his body was found on a river bank in Petrolia, California. He had died in gunshot wounds.

Then when a family dog in Austin, Texas, came home with a skull in its jaws, DNA tests confirmed that the skull was that of convicted sex offender Kevin Stoser. And in March of 2015, religious leader Victor Bernard, accused of maintaining a whole house full of young women to serve his own sexual needs, was captured in Brazil. He is currently awaiting extradition to the United States.

Now that leaves seven fugitives from our first season still out there, escaping justice and laughing about it. So I'd like to add their names to the list of the apprehended.

With your help, we can do that.

It all started out pretty innocently. Three buddies get together, fun night out. But it ended with the death of William Angel.

JAY DAVIS, WILLIAM'S FRIEND: He's one of those guys that you see is just so grisly well, but at the same time is just so warm and welcoming.

WALSH: They played some pool. They had some laughs. Then they decided to call it a night. They all piled into William's Mustang for what should have been an uneventful ride home.

DAVIS: We were coming up to the merge. I saw headlights. And I remember veering to the right and I heard both William and Robert scream. Before I knew it, I was going through the windshield.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There is a pretty large signal 4, 275 northbound.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE) F-18.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: 10-4.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What we surmise occurred was that the driver of the Ford had entered the wrong exit ramp coming the wrong way and collided head on with the Mustang.

DAVIS: When I opened my eyes I was laying face down on the engine. I could hear the ambulance, I could hear a helicopter also. And I could see the lights from the ambulance. And the paramedics says to me, he didn't make it. And that was the first time that I heard that I had lost my best friend.

WALSH: I know that feeling. I have been there. Somebody tears your heart out, but you don't die. You don't bleed to death. You still function. You're heartbroken and you're devastated. We want justice. We want our day this court.

STEVE GASKIN, SERGEANT, FLORIDA HIGHWAY PATROL: We identified what became known as the wrong way driver as Christopher Ponce. And in a case like this, that is so egregious, it was clear early on that alcohol most likely played a role. He had had a previous DUI arrest. We knew that his license has been suspended numerous times for various reasons.

[20:05:14] WALSH: Without a doubt this is not an accident. This was a deadly, troubled, alcoholic time bomb waiting to blow up.

GASKIN: Our investigators arrived at the hospital when we knew that Christopher Ponce would be released once his treatment concluded.

DAVIS: He had a broken ankle from the accident which seems minute compared to everything that we went through.

WALSH: Ponce was taken to Hillsborough County Jail booked and charged with reckless driving, DUI manslaughter and vehicular homicide. Then the judge said what everybody was thinking. JUDGE WALTER HENRICH, TAMPA, FLORIDA: I think you were drunk. I

think you are lucky you didn't have a girlfriend in the car that didn't die.

WALSH: Unbelievably Ponce was allowed to go home, fitted with an ankle monitor while they waited for the toxicology results.

LYNN ANGEL, WILLIAM'S MOTHER: See, I don't understand is that you kill somebody with a gun, you're not allowed out on bail. You kill somebody with a car -- I mean , he still killed him. So why is he given the privilege of being home?

WALSH: The toxicology results showed that Ponce was driving with nearly twice the legal limit of blood alcohol. But a new judge let him remain out on bail anyway. That's when he planned his run.

GASKIN: May 9th, 2013. I had received a call that Christopher Ponce had removed his ankle bracelet. So the ability to track him was now gone. And that we didn't know where he was.

MIKE PEROTTI, MAJOR, HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY SHERIFF'S OFFICE: It's one thing when somebody was just recently in our custody and then is now on the lam somewhere. It's another thing when they were in their own home. Capable of making of any number of arrangements that we don't know about.

I don't know a lot of 22-year-olds that are going to successfully pull off going off the grid without help. And that's what he's done. Thus far.

WADE ANGEL, WILLIAM'S FATHER: Somebody knows where he's at. I mean, this is a kid who makes messes and somebody else has to clean them up. So somebody knows where he's at.

WALSH: Chris Ponce has brown hair and brown eyes. He speaks Spanish fluently and may be living in a Spanish-speaking country. If you have seen Chris Ponce or have any information as to his whereabouts, please, call 1-866-THE-HUNT or go online at CNN.com/thehunt.

You can remain anonymous. We'll pass your tip on to the proper authorities and, if requested, will not reveal your name.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WALSH: There are so many cold cases. But this is one of the most horrible. It's time that bastard pays.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[20:11:51] WALSH: On March 2nd, 1976, a ranger in the woods in North Carolina investigating a possible wildfire came upon a smoldering pit that held a gruesome scene.

LEWIS YOUNG, NORTH CAROLINA STATE INVESTIGATOR: I was seeing a leg sticking out, an arm, and shoes. It was human beings in this hole. We took these first two bodies off. There was another body. We removed the third body and then there was another body. How many bodies can be in this hole? Finally after the fifth one we found the bottom of the hole, thank God. No one knew who these people were.

WALSH: Working on the only real clue they had, a price tag on a shovel, detectives backtracked, working town by town all the way up to the D.C. area. That's where they received a tip about a family that had vanished.

DARREN POPKIN, SHERIFF, MONTGOMERY COUNTY, ROCKVILLE, MARYLAND: The neighbors said they hadn't seen the family in a week and the papers and mail were backing up. Because normally the family would tell the neighbors that they were going somewhere.

WALSH: Police went to check out the house which belonged to State Department employee Brad Bishop and his family. Nobody was prepared for what they found.

Brad Bishop was a career officer in the Foreign Service. He certainly had the experience of traveling the world.

JAMES BRUNO, FOREIGN SERVICE OFFICER: He was posted to Italy. After that, to Africa, to be the number two in the embassy. It's an up or out system. If you don't get promoted to a certain grade within a certain number of years then you're let go. We all take that very seriously in the Foreign Service. Brad Bishop took it much more seriously than I guess the rest of us did.

WALSH: On March 1st, 1976, Bishop got the news that his promotion hadn't gone through. That's when he put his plan into action.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was approximately 6:00 p.m. He was spotted in a Sears Department Store where he purchases a two and a half pound mini-mall sledgehammer.

BRUNO: And used it to bludgeon to death his wife first.

MIKE MCNALLY, OFFICER, MONTGOMERY COUNTY, ROCKVILLE, MARYLAND: And you go upstairs and you see where the 14-year-old son was murdered. Just blood everywhere.

WALSH: The rampage continued when Bishop bludgeoned his other sons to death in their bunk bed. Then he turned his rage on his mother.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Same thing with the hammer blow to the head. He then collected the bodies of all of his family members and he put them in the station wagon. He drove 275 a miles south.

[20:15:16] UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Then to a state road to then to a rural road, and the logging road wasn't even on the maps.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And dug a shallow grave, he then placed all the bodies of his family members in that shallow grave.

POPKIN: Why he burned the bodies, I just don't know. He could have buried them deeper and covered them up. And who knows if they ever would have been found.

RICHARD WALTER, FORENSIC PSYCHOLOGIST: It doesn't count unless somebody sees it. He's making the statement. I, William Bradford Bishop, am in control. These are my family members. I did it. Screw you. Bye.

POPKIN: His training with the State Department really would have provided him the ability to know where to hide, how to hide. He spoke six different languages.

BRUNO: Nobody knows where he went. Nobody knows.

WALSH: Over the years there have been three credible sightings of Brad Bishop. One in Stockholm, Sweden, one in Basil, Switzerland and one in Sorrento, Italy.

If you've seen Brad Bishop or have any information as to his whereabouts, please call 1-866-THE-HUNT or go online to CNN.com/thehunt. We'll pass your tip on to the proper authorities and, if requested, will not reveal your name.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Imagine being inside like that and not being able to do anything.

WALSH: Somewhere after that stop in Kingsville their rail car became a coffin.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[20:21:20] WALSH: Denison, Iowa, is a friendly little town in the heart of corn country. Autumn is the busiest time when the grain elevators are working nonstop to fill train cars that go all over the country. It was on one of those busy days that a very grisly discovery was made. Workers found the decomposing remains of 11 people.

TOM HOGAN, FORMER SHERIFF, CRAWFORD COUNTY, DENISON, IOWA: They probably entered the railroad car on their own free will. But then somebody had closed a latch and locked it so that it couldn't be opened.

WALSH: This is a case of illegal immigrants where the traffickers, the coyotes, are directly responsible for their horrible deaths.

ALONSO MARTINEZ, FORMER ASSISTANT TO DISTRICT DIRECTOR: To smugglers, people are goods. These were 11 human beings. Somebody was responsible for these 11 people who had died.

WALSH: To find out who the smugglers were, authorities first had to identify the victims. It was a concerned relative who provided the very first clue. MARTINEZ: We received a phone call from a person in New York. This

man told us about his young brother that he was waiting for, and how he was afraid that one of those bodies was going to be his brother. His younger brother called him to tell him he was in Arlington, in South Texas. And he needed money to pay the smugglers.

ELISEO ACEVEDO, GUATEMALAN IMMIGRANT: I said to him, don't put yourself on any danger. I'd rather you be caught than anything happen to you. He told me to -- also to send him $300 because he ran out of money, which that's what they wanted to move him to Houston.

WALSH: A few days later Eliseo got a call from a man named Memo who claimed he had nothing to do with Byron's death except for the fact that Memo knew details that had never been published like the fact that there were four women and seven men that death car.

MARTINEZ: Eliseo's information was invaluable to us. We now know that this Memo that Eliseo was talking to was Guillermo Ballesteros, one of the main operators of this smuggling operation. Guillermo, Memo was in Mexico, bringing in people to the United States.

MICHAEL WYNNE, FEDERAL PROSECUTOR, HOUSTON, TEXAS: There aren't very many roads leading from the border communities along the Rio Grande up to our sort of major metropolitan areas. The government has set up checkpoints where all traffic has to stop and be inspected. Sort of a double check, if you will. A safeguard.

If the people who are being smuggled want to get anywhere beyond any of these checkpoints they're going to need either to walk through the desert in blazing heat or they going to have to enlist the assistance of people smugglers, that is a coyote, to get them through the checkpoint somehow or to get them through on the train and find some other way to get through.

WALSH: So 37 desperate people chose the train. They were taken to the rail yard under the cover of darkness.

WYNNE: The people were loaded into two different railroad cars. 26 in one. And when the capacity was reached there, 11 in another nearby car.

[20:25:11] GABE BUSTAMENTE, RETIRED ANTI-SMUGGLING AGENT: They were fed the line that it's not going to be that long. You don't even need water because you will be let out in maybe an hour or so, which was a lie.

WYNNE: That might the train was stopped and searched by border patrol.

WALSH: The coyotes have spotters that drive parallel to the trains and cars. But when the Border Patrol inspected this particular train they all bailed out. They uncovered the group of 26 but the Denison 11 still were undetected.

MARTINEZ: The train stopped again in the Kingsville area. This is where I am sure that they thought, OK, we have made it. But the longer they sat in there, the doubts had to have taken place.

DENNIS KLEIN, DEPUTY STATE MEDICAL EXAMINER: I suspect that at one point when these individuals realized that no one was going to open that rail car for them that they were desperately trying to find an escape route.

ACEVEDO: You know the heat in Texas and all those days, imagine being inside like that, and not being able to do anything.

WALSH: Somewhere after that stop in Kingsville their rail car became a coffin.

KLEIN: The causes of death of all 11 individuals were hyperthermia or elevated body temperature, and dehydration.

ACEVEDO: You see all your friends dying in front of you, knowing that you're next.

WALSH: Even though his fingerprints may not be on the hatch of that train, police say he's alleged to have been an accessory, a major part of the murder of these 11 people and those families cannot even begin to heal until Guillermo Madrigal Ballesteros in handcuffs.

If you have seen Guillermo Madrigal Ballesteros or have information as to his whereabouts, please call 1-866-THE-HUNT or go online at CNN.com/the hunt. You can remain anonymous. We'll pass your tip on to the proper authorities and, if requested, will not reveal your name.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Who would want to kill Syd, you know? How is this even possible?

WALSH: This guy is dirty and he's going to run.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[20:30:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SAM WELLS, VICTIMS BROTHER, BOULDER CO.: Thayne Smika was a new person in our lives. So we didn't know him very well.

JOHN WALSH, THE HUNT HOST: Sam Wells and his little brother Sid were sharing an apartment in Boulder Colorado in 1983. They needed a third roommate. So they thought that Thayne might be a good fit.

S. WELLS: Thayne took the main room downstairs and I had the bedroom upstairs.

JUNE MENGER, VICTIMS MOTHER, BOULDER CO.: They found after he did move in that he was not very sociable. And I think he was trouble coming up with the rent money.

DAVE HAYES, FMR. DEPUTY CHIEF BOULDER P.D., BOULDER CO.: At about 12:26 in the afternoon, the Boulder Police Communication Center got a report of a man not breathing.

UNIDENTIFED FEMALE: 911 Emergency.

S. WELLS: Yes. This Sam Wells over at Stage Tower. And looks like my brother's laying here dead. I don't know what happened.

UNIDENTIFED FEMALE: What do you think at all?

WELLS: No.

Walking on that -- still have our time with him today.

WALSH: To be the horribly unlucky person to find a loved one murdered is a scene or a snapshot that you're never be ale to forget.

HAYES: Police and fire officials were met by Sam Wells at the elevator. Sam took them to the apartment and on the living room floor of the apartment, they found Sidney Wells dead of an apparent Ggun shot wound to the head.

RYAN BRACKLEY, ASSISTANT D.A. BOULDER COUNTY CO.: They didn't see any sign that there had been an obvious burglary, robbery, or assault in this apartment. That leads investigators to think that they should be looking at roommates, or friends, or relatives, or people who had access to this apartment.

WALSH: So naturally, police questioned Sam but quickly he was ruled out as a suspect. That left one very big question for the investigation.

ROB WELLS, VICTIM'S BROTHER, BOULDER CO.: Who'd want to kill Sid, you know? How is this even possible?

HAYES: My initial involvement in this case was being assigned to the crime scene. There was very little blood splatter although there were some.

BRACKLEY: Crime scene investigators in1983 used a substance called luminol to look for the presence of blood at a crime scene.

HAYES: We got quite a bit of a reaction. Somebody -- something who has blood on it had been moving around the apartment.

BRACKLEY: The trail of the apartment went into Thayne Smika's bedroom.

HAYES: On the coffee table next to where Sid's body was found, we found a note and an envelope. That envelope had the numbers $300 written on it.

August 1st was right day. Thayne Smika was due to pay Sid $300 that he was going to take to his mother. We didn't find anything in that envelope.

BRACKLEY: What was interesting to the police was that, there were a number of small spots of blood found underneath the note that Thayne Smika wrote.

[20:35:03]

HAYES: It appeared that the note from Thayne to Sid and Sam and the envelope had been placed there after Mr. Wells was shot.

WALSH: The note from Thayne said that he was going to go visit his family in Akron, Colorado. So the detectives drove the two hours to question them.

HAYES: Mr. Smika did not appear to be particularly nervous, didn't appear to be too surprised that the detectives were there, and certainly wasn't surprised to learn that his roommate had been killed.

WALSH: Police return with a warrant several days later and found a 20-guage shotgun in the back of a closest, the same type of weapon that killed Sid.

HAYES: I remember feeling at the time that we probably had our man.

R. WELLS: We heard Thayne Smika had been arrested. We were elated. We were going to get the rest of the story now and really find out what happened to Sid.

HAYES: And I certainly had a feeling of relief that we had solved the case but within the next few days in the DA's office who had approved the arrest warrant for Mr. Smika came back to us and said that they felt there was not enough evidence. As a result, they wouldn't be found in the murder charges against Mr. Smika.

R. WELLS: And then, within a few days it was released. Shock, absolute complete mystification. Grief turns into anger that day.

HAYES: It represented to me at that time an undermining of the system. That's not the way the system was supposed to work.

MENGER: We appreciated Dave Hayes so much. He has never given up on this case.

WALSH: It is so uncommon for a dedicated detective to never give up on a 30-year-old case and to get the main suspect reindicted years later.

BRACKLEY: In the summer of 2009, Dave Hayes showed up on our doorstep with boxes and boxes of the investigative file into the murder of Sid Wells.

In December of 2010, 27 years after Sid Wells was murdered, the D.A. signed off on an arrest warrant accusing Thayne Smika of murder in the first degree.

At that time, Thayne Smika is essentially out living in the society. R. WELLS: Shortly after that arrest warrant was issued, that's pretty much the last week for Thayne Smika.

S. WELLS: There's not a day that goes by that I don't think about it. We love to see Thayne Smika arrested, in charge to relief, it would make me very happy. I would probably the happiest guy.

WALSH: If you've seen Thayne Smika or have any information as to his whereabouts, please call 1-866-THE-HUNT or go online at cnn.com/thehunt. You can remain anonymous. We'll pass your tip on to the proper authorities and if request, we will not reveal your name.

UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Jehovah's Witness, they are very close knit community and then here comes Rick McLean and he destroys all of that.

WALSH: They are the vampires of our children that live amongst us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[20:42:24]

WALSH: By all appearance is Rick McLean was an upstanding member of the Jehovah Witnesses Community, loving family, loving wife. Why wouldn't you trust him?

DEBRA WESCHE, NEIGHBOR AND FAMILY FRIEND: We started doing family things with them right after their daughter was born.

ANDREA WESCHE, NEIGHBOR AND FAMILY FRIEND: He always wanted to do stuff with us kids, whether it be like, "Do you guys want to go like play games at the arcade or do you want to go get ice cream." He was definitely respected in the church. I felt like everyone got along with him. He was definitely trusted, well-liked.

WALSH: But Rick McLean was up to something far more sinister.

A. WESCHE: He would always have my brothers and I. "Do you guys want to come spend the night?" So we would spend the night frequently. As time went on, that is when he started molesting me. Basically, right in front of my brothers but they did not even know it. I mean, lights were off and no one knew what was going on.

This started probably around 8. It went on for about -- I would say until I was about 13. I did not really know what to do, so I just did not say anything.

WALSH: Paedophiles have a compulsion that they cannot deal with. They will risk family, fortune, reputation, to satisfy that narcissistic desire.

TOM MARANDA, U.S. MARSHAL, SAN DIEGO CA.: The first step in his process would be to gain the trust of the parents of the young girls he intended on victimizing, so he would leverage that fact of how close-knit a Jehovah's Witness community is. He would build on that to get the parents to bring children to him. Finally, in the spring of 2004, the first victim confronted him and said point-blank, you molested me, and he admitted to it in front of her, in front of the adults, and in front of his wife. That was the dam-busting moment and the floodgates opened from then.

[20:45:01]

D. WESCHE: Nancy McLean called me and told me someone had come forward and told them that she had been molested by Rick. She said, "You need to talk to your daughter." I called her up to my bedroom and as soon as I said that I knew that it had happened to her. I could just tell by her face, by the look on her face. So -- and then I said did anything happen to you and she said yes, and she started crying.

A. WESCHE: It is just something that I just tried to forget about for so long. At that point, I had just like suppressed all of this. Like you know, you block out so much.

MARANDA: More victims started coming forward through summer of 2004.

WALSH: So, at this point, McLean's been charged with 16 counts of sexual assault on four children but instead of sticking around to face the accusations and most likely present time, Rick McLean decided to disappear.

A. WESCHE: I figure they would find Rick. I did not think it would be 10 years later we're still wondering, where is he? Are we going to find him? We do not even know how many kids he has molested over the last -- however many years.

MARANDA: The hardest part about this case is that I know that this guy is still out there. His used for the Jehovah's Witness church was his access to victims. There are several other churches and organizations in the country that would take him in that would give him similar access to victims.

WALSH: I'm sure Rick McLean is out there. I'm sure that he has got children in his crosshairs. He is not going to stop. He is out there trying to convince you to let him have your children so that he can rape them.

If you've seeing Rick McLean or have any information as to as where about, please call 1-866-THE-HUNT or go online at cnn.com/thehunt. You can remain anonymous. We'll pass your tip on to the proper authorities and if requested, we will not reveal your name.

MIKE DOMINICK, CAPTAIN, SHERIFF'S DEPARTMENT, MISSOULA COUNTY: He had told people that he was going to go down in a ball of flame and glory.

WILL NEWSOM, DEPUTY SHERIFF, MISSOULA COUNTY, MT: I was looking down the barrel of his gun. And, then I saw the gun go off.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[20:51:18] WALSH: Montana is stunningly beautiful and full of ragged people who want to make it their own. And David Burgert was just one such person until a bunch around him with a law and big chip on a shoulder turned that idealism into paranoia.

SHERIFF CHUCK CURRY, FLATHEAD COUNTY SHERIFF: Mr. Burgert was the kind of guy that just did not fit well in normal society.

WALSH: But one place Burgert did fit in was with one of Montana's anti-government malicious, a group that became known as Project 7. Project 7 believed that if big brother or big government becomes too oppressive, they were going to fight back.

DAVID BURGERT, MEMBER OF PROJECT 7: Nobody surrender your weapons to nobody. I do not care what color the uniform is. Do not surrender your weapons.

WALSH: Wanting to stop any trouble before it started, the government decided to bust Burgert in anybody that was involved with the Project 7.

CURRY: Project 7 had a huge stockpile of weapons and ammunition. Some of these were actual machine guns that it was not legal for them to possess. Additionally, we found evidence that they were compiling a list of people that they felt needed to be assassinated in local government.

AMIE ROGERS, JOURNALIST, MISSOULA, MT: David and the other members of the group were brought to federal court and charged with weapons violations.

WALSH: Several members were found guilty including Burgert who was sent away for seven years.

ROGERS: When he got out of prison, things were not better for David Burgert. And, in the spring of 2011, David removed himself from society more or less and was living in a campground outside of Lolo, Montana.

WALSH: Burgert set the stage for the grand finale.

NEWSOM: So, we passed each other. As he is leaving, he just plain runs the stop sign. He gets on the highway, and he speeds up to 80, 85. When I ran the plate, dispatch told me that he was on federal and state probation.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE POLICE: I have information of violent toward law enforcement.

NEWSOM: At that point, he slowed quickly and made a hard right turn on the jeep trail that goes by the power lines. This is bad. He is taking us into the wilderness and I see he is trying to isolate us. This was not going to end well.

WALSH: Burget geared off the road, drove to the top of the hill and jump out of his vehicle. NEWSOM: He had a gun pointing at me. I was looking down the barrel of his gun. And, then I saw the gun go off. He shot directly at me. I fired all five rounds. I assumed we would hit him or he was hiding behind his jeep. So, we slowly worked up the hill. And when we got to the point we could see behind the vehicle, he was not there. Burgert was gone.

WALSH: Montana back country is vast, very forbidding place. Is David Burgert hiding out there somewhere?

CURRY: There are a lot of Dave Burgert's theories. Has he met up with Militia groups that are plotting and planning other things?

NEWSOM: He is out there somewhere and he needs to be found.

WALSH: If you've seen David Burgert or have any information as to as where about, please call 1-866-The Hunt or go online at cnn.com/thehunt.

[20:55:00] You can remain anonymous. We'll pass your tip on to the proper authorities and if requested, we will not reveal your name.

I think one of the tough things for Americans to grasp is that a predator can be anywhere. A crime can happen to anyone at any time.

JERRY WETTERLING, JACOB'S FATHER, ST. JOSEPH, MN: Patty and I have four children. Our oldest daughter is Amy, and Jacob was next, and Trevor and Carmen.

PATTY, WETTERLING, JACOB'S MOTHER, ST. JOSEPH, MN: Jacob was out first born son.

JACOB WETTERLING: My name is Jacob Erwin Wetterling. My favorite food is stake. My favorite color is blue. My best friend is Aaron Larson.

JERRY WETTERLING: The day of October 22nd, a little after 5:30 or 6:00, Patty and I went to dinner party with some friends about 20-25 minutes away.

PATTY WETTERLING: We weren't going to be gone very long and they were just going to stay home.

WALSH: But the boys, Jacob, his brother Trevor and a friend Aaron, wanted to ride to the store, so they called their parents at the party to ask permission.

PATTY WETTERLING: There's nothing between us and the store. It's farm field mostly and a few houses, but it was starting to get dark and I said, "No. You know, find something to do. You've got plenty to do." And Trevor said, "Let me talk to dad."

JERRY WETTERLING: And my thinking is, "This is safe country that my only concern is on this one -- for the long stretch of road is, the car traffic". In my mind it covered those bases with flashlight and I said, "OK, but go down and come straight home." It must have been about 45 minutes, give or take, and the phone rang and they called for me to come to this take this call. And it was our next door neighbor, Meryl, who called and said, "Jerry, you have to leave the party right now and come home."

PATTY WETTERLING: He came back to the table and said, "We got to go". And I said, "You know what, are those kids back yet?" And he said, "Somebody took Jacob".

SHERIFF'S OFFICE: Trevor?

TREVOR WETTERLING: Yes.

SHERIFF'S OFFICE: You're talking to the sheriff's office, OK? I want you to give me anything you can recall about this male party that approached you guys, OK?

TREVOR WETTERLING: Yeah. He had like a--it looked sort of line a nylon thing as a mask.

SHERIFF'S OFFICE: Do you know that color it was?

TREVOR WETTERLING: Black.

SHERIFF'S OFFICE: A black mask?

JERRY WETTERLING: This guy wearing a mask came out and they could see his handgun. This guy told them to get off their bikes and lay out in the ditch or else he would shoot.

After that, he had Trevor and Aaron one by one run off into nearby woods. As Aaron was taking off, he saw the man grab Jacob's arm.

PATTY WETTERLING: When he caught up to Trevor and they felt safe enough to turn around and look back, they were gone. They're just gone.

JOHN SANNER, SHERIFF, ST. JOSEPH, MN: So we start to search the area, the immediate area of the abduction and start to tan out there.

Everybody thought that within a few hours, we would get it, take care of.

WALSH: In the beginning, there is this initial search. The media is fascinated, strangers you never meet, trying to help in some way. Police are really on top of the case. But then, that reality sets in that if your child's missing for certain period of time, couple of weeks. Now, your child drops from being the hottest, the top of the news, to just another poster of a missing child.

PATTY WETTERLING: We cannot leave our house without driving passed here. It took me a longtime, I mean, I come here and I say a little prayer every time I walk by and I talk to Jacob. But it was -- that's been a really hard thing.

I want to know who took Jacob. I want to know what happened. WALSH: If you have any information relating to this crime, please call 1-866-THE-HUNT or go online at cnn.com/thehunt. You can remain anonymous. We'll pass your tip onto the proper authorities. And if requested, we'll not reveal your name.

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