Finding Heather News Today

>> diane church and her family lived in a sparsely populated area, which meant the kidnapper could have abducted heather without drawing much attention. >> it was this 13-year-old girl who was home, and yet, her brother was left behind. she disappeared and her brother was just still sleeping in his bed. it all was a very suspicious situation right off the bat. >> an fiber profiler agreed. since there was nothing missing from the home and no signs of violence, the profiler suggested heathers abdu...

Originally was to be at home and just do whatever we do, probably read them stories and that kind of stuff that moms do. >> then diane remembered her older sons had a boy scout meeting that night. dianes other children, 5-year-old sage and 13-year-old heather, wanted to stay home. >> heather didnt want to go and hang out with all those crazy boys, and so she asked if she could baby-sit that night, and so, we said sure, fine, whatever. and we took off and went to the cub scout meeting. >> heather...

He most likely wore gloves, but when he had difficulty removing the screen, he took them off and inadvertently left three prints behind. prosecutors believe heather heard the noise and went to investigate. when brown saw her, he realized heather could identify him, so he struck her in the head with a blunt object, killing her instantly. he carried heathers body out through the front door, which he left unlocked, loaded her into his vehicle and drove to the mountains where he dumped her body in a...

Aint lying to you. your fingerprints are there. >> prosecutors believe browns motive was burglary. [ ringing ] on the night of the crime, heather church was babysitting her brother, sage. her mother called at 8:30 to check on them. after her mother called, heather put her brother to bed, turned out the lights and went to sleep herself. brown arrived at the churches home some time after 8:30. the house lights were off and there was no car in the garage, so he probably thought no one was home. bro...

>> the first suspect on the list was heathers father. at the time, he was separated from diane church and living on his own. >> the fbi wanted to talk to me for about four hours. i had the, like you see in the movie, the good guy/bad guy scenario, fbi agents asking me all these questions that some of them were really hard to imagine. they were very, very personal. things that, how i felt about my daughter. >> but mike church said he had an alibi for the time heather went missing. he attended a s...

Town by a hiker in a pretty steep ravine about a 400-foot ravine. >> the skull was that of a young caucasian female. >> the news came on, and the reporter was holding the skull, and was saying this body has been found, yada, yada, and all the details. and about, and this had happened to me so many times since she went missing. its amazing how many bodies are found. >> dental records identified the victim. it was heather church. >> at the beginning, i didnt want to hear it. for like 24 hours, i k...

Evidence technicians found three fingerprints on the outside of the screens frame. >> the prints themselves were very fresh in this particular case on that particular screen, they were very distinct prints. >> but these fingerprints could have been left by anyone. dozens of people had been in and around the house. >> this was a busy household just like many of our households. there were hundreds of prints throughout the house. >> it was a process that would take day, perhaps weeks. and they were...

Theft. >> he had a criminal history in both of those states. nothing for murder, but we knew he was a felon. >> browns fingerprints didnt make it into the fbis database, because his offense was comparatively minor. >> when louisiana notified us that they had matched the prints to a subject named robert brown, we immediately went into our files and our databases to find out where robert brown lived and we found that he lived just a quarter mile away from heather church. >> brown worked as a tree ...

>> the plans for that night originally was to be at home and just do whatever we do, probably read them stories and that kind of stuff that moms do. >> then diane remembered her older sons had a boy scout meeting that night. dianes other children, 5-year-old sage and 13-year-old heather, wanted to stay home. >> heather didnt want to go and hang out with all those crazy boys, and so she asked if she could baby-sit that night, and so, we said sure, fine, whatever. and we took off and went to the c...

When he had difficulty removing the screen, he took them off and inadvertently left three prints behind. prosecutors believe heather heard the noise and went to investigate. when brown saw her, he realized heather could identify him, so he struck her in the head with a blunt object, killing her instantly. he carried heathers body out through the front door, which he left unlocked, loaded her into his vehicle and drove to the mountains where he dumped her body in a ravine. to avoid the death pena...