i just i didn t feel like i had any recourse. she did talk about the case later with reporter kelly brown. it bothered me at the time because i wondered why didn t the grand jury indict him for at least attempted sexual assault. but it seemed a little troubling to me that what were we missing? what part of the story did we not have? did the detective say something that made them think maybe it was consensual. he was still facing the misdemeanor charge of unlawful restraint scheduled to go to court down the road. in the meantime, he was a freeman. he s out walking around. he s out walking around. in the next town over, detectives at the sheriff s office were still working the jamie hart murder case. in addition to keeping an eye on jamie s boyfriend chuck, they say they followed up on hundreds of other leads and tips, but no one in that department looked at kristen s case for a possible
friend and stuck around talking to the upstairs neighbor. so you were feeling protective. he actually said to me, are you worried about your friend? he said yes i am. he said we can go to my apartment and you can have a phone to call. she and the neighbor walked up the staircase to his apartment. it s directly above her apartment and he opens the door and i was barely stepping into the door and he just pushes me in and slams the door shut. he locks the door and immediately grabs a remote that was right there and turns the stereo up to a deafening volume. kristen reached for the door to leave. and he pushes me back and that s when he starts making some demands. all of a sudden it s very serious and aggressive. and almost to the point where i thought he was joking. but he was serious and demanded she undressed. i kept saying i m not going to do that. he said you re going to do it. he grabs me by the throat and he s choking me and the second
that only shhappens on tv. i know. they ran in and i was just curled in a fetal position on the floor just shaking uncontrol bli and i remember them asking what happened and the words were just coming out so fast. the cops took the man away in handcuffs and kristen slept on her friend s couch that night. the friend called the police to see what would happen next. they didn t book him for sexual assault charges. in fact, kristen s attacker, the man she said almost killed her had been released. that must have been a tough pill to swallow. it was terrifying. i thought he was going to come find me and kill me. the man had given a wildly different version of events. he wasn t with the department back then, but he says the suspect told investigators that he and kristen had a fight over drugs. she got angry when he asked for cocaine and she went off in
running, got a new boyfriend and though kristen thought the pain of that horrible night was behind her for good, it wasn t. there s police tape everywhere. may 28th, 2000. kristen had just arrived to visit friends at an apartment complex. there was no reason, not then anyway to think her case was connected to the scene unfolding then. police cars and ambulances and all kinds of emergency response vehicles everywhere. and now, the site of police tape sent memories rushing back. it was just fear. the firefighter had arrived at the apartment complex early that morning after a neighbor reported smoke in one of the units. the bedroom door was open and we could see some flames on the carpet. so we had a water extinguisher that we used to put the small fire out. there on the floor, a body. we backed out to make sure that we preserved as much evidence as we could. he sensed foul play, not just a fire and called for the
that s what kept people saying was it the boyfriend? was it someone that s still out there? is he going to strike again? it was scary of course and students like kristen lancaster followed the investigation. did people change their behavior patterns because of this crime? to a certain degree but it was short lived. people went back to their classes. you start rationalizing that maybe it s the wrong person. this doesn t happen to you. exactly. yeah. then it was late october. half a year since the murder of jamie hart. kristen didn t know it yet, but she was about to become part of a chain of events that only deepened the mystery. i think maybe i went to classes that day. i m not sure. i know that the evening time rolled around. i think it was a friday. a friend invited kristen to a party. she said well, i m having a get together at my house. why don t you come by. kristen drove over to the