said hey, if this is somebody in my family that did this, they should be arrested for the crime. there should be justice for this young victim. what s that like for you knowing your sort of pursuing this, this cipher? haven t been a competitive athlete most of my life, really it was a competition between him and i. i knew i was gonna find him, i wanted to win for helene. and by the fall of 2019, detective jensen seemed to be making progress. after speaking with contacts through the database and building those family trees, she had found a woman whose dna was so close to that of the killer she might be a first cousin. there was just one problem. that first cousin didn t really know her family, the family wasn t close. would there be any way to fill out that possibly critical family tree? the cousin put jensen in touch with another cousin. when you talk to that woman you think this is it, we re getting close? yeah, i knew, this is it, i m on the right track, i m gonna figure
they re known as serial killers and according to law enforcement officials, there are at least 35 of them roaming the country now. and these two admitted killers told police about one particular victim, in colorado. the confessed to committing the murder of helene pruszynski. what was unique about then is that detectives often thought that there might have been another person may be in the car waiting for whoever they took out into the field. that was one of the theories. so, these two guys who worked together, these powerful prolific serial killers, that certainly fit? it certainly fit. it s pretty seductive when a couple of serial killers who are on the hook for a lot of other murders confessed to your murder, because it would close a lot of cases if you can link them to these guys. that s right. obviously they were like, this is awesome. we ve got a confession. colorado investigators
headed for texas to interview lucas themselves. you re being questioned in connection with a crime of homicide. the detectives showed him a map and asked him to pinpoint where he and tool picked up helene. we stopped her on the street and took her out of the car. and we took her all the way out to the country out there well, there s a bunch of rocks and stuff out there. she was struck to death and raped and covered up with, i think, a sheet and some plywood. then lucas added a another detail. she was stabbed to death and shot once, i think, in the head who shot her? i shot her in the head. at that moment, they had a problem. helene was stabbed, not shot. for detectives, this confession was starting to sound phony. they dug deeper, looking into lucas and tools long trail of arrest records.
group. also joining and, kimberly s older brother john. it was a real feeling of camaraderie, but also a dedication to excellence in our singing. he remembers the day camaraderie turned to something else. we started talking and for me it was an immediate spark. it was that kind of fluttery feeling that you have when you know you re talking to somebody that you realize you really like immediately. they were just in love. they were each other s first loves in high school, but very genuine. it didn t last beyond high school, but john and kimberly both kept in touch with helene after graduation. helene attended wheaton college in massachusetts where she sang into another group. there she is in the back row with the black dress on. one more thing, as much as she left her singing, helene had a another passion. journalism. what did you think what s going to happen to her? everywhere she headed?
for great things. i saw helene the christmas of december of 1979 at church. she told me that she was going off to denver to do this internship to further interest in journalism. helene arrived in january 1980 to begin that internship at a radio station in denver. a long way from home. fortunately, she had relatives nearby. your family didn t worry about her going off to colorado because she was it going to be alone and she was staying with your aunt and uncle. exactly. then came that day, january 16th. helene had barely been there two weeks when she grabbed the bus from the radio station around 6 pm to go back to her aunt and uncle s house. she d made that commute before without a problem. that night, helene pruszynski never made it home. my parents called me and said they just gotten a call