of the caller nor the killer. he was still afraid to give us any more information. so i m doing everything i can to gain his trust, just keep talking to him. josh mankiewicz: the informant agreed to call again the next day. and this time, he was more forthcoming. he started telling me that i needed to look for a girlfriend of the shooter that was from las vegas. he kept saying the shooter is where i am. josh mankiewicz: the caller told beech that he was a retired air force serviceman and played in a band with the shooter. the shooter, he said, was his best friend. i asked him, again, to call the next day. and he said, i have to work, but i can call on thursday. and i said, ok, well, i ll be here waiting. and he almost whispered, the shooter is jim huden. josh mankiewicz: jim huden, in the age of google, that was all the break mark plumberg needed. by the end of the day, the detectives knew that jim huden lived in south florida
that all too often falls under the category of another woman. but there was more to it than that much more. a homicide investigation was at stake. one that, just days earlier, had led detective mark plumberg from whidbey island, washington all the way to punta gorda, florida. he was hot on the trail of a potential suspect. and then, came the hurricane. i didn t think he was going to stick around for us to come back. so the hurricane comes and goes, and your suspect is, quite literally, in the wind. he s gone. josh mankiewicz: for detective plumberg, the twisted trail that led him from whidbey island, washington to south florida began six months earlier just after christmas 2003. a geo tracker, a small suv, had been
where peggy worked, yes. so peggy knew all about this? she helped him. josh mankiewicz: for five months, bill hill says he struggled under the weight of that confession. then, in late july 2004, his conscience finally got the better of him. i decided to make my first call. your first call? to whidbey island. to the police. yes, to the island county sheriffs. i felt guilty i was giving up my friend. but i knew something had to be done. josh mankiewicz: within days of that call, detectives mark plumberg and mike beech were sitting face-to-face with both their tipster, bill hill, and their suspect, the artist formerly known as buck naked. [music playing] coming up, the interrogation gets tough. you know what you ve told bill. the guy is falling apart over the guilt he s carrying around because you told him what you did. josh mankiewicz: will jim crack? or will detectives realize they have the wrong man?
before he fled to mexico, jim had confessed to killing russel douglas. with jim gone and no evidence tying peggy to the murder, the detectives asked the public s help in documenting the couple s movements in december 2003, when russel douglas was murdered. mark plumberg: we put out descriptions of the vehicle that they were driving. just a few days after it hit the media, we got a phone call from the dona ana county sheriff s office in new mexico saying someone had turned in has a firearm that they believe might have been used in a homicide on whidbey island. talk about luck.
ballistics expert: this bullet was fired from this bersa 380 auto. josh mankiewicz: given those facts, it seemed odd that the murder weapon wasn t simply dropped into puget sound. but keith ogden told the court that in early january, just days after the murder, jim huden had asked him to keep the gun in a safe place. please take the stand. josh mankiewicz: the last witness for the prosecution was detective mark plumberg. he told the court that while he was questioning huden at his home back in 2004, huden asked a rather odd question of him. he said, is peggy angry enough at me that she would implicate me in this? greg banks: had you told mr. huden that peggy thomas had implicated him? i did not. i had not implicated peggy thomas and i had not suggested that she had any knowledge or part in the crime. josh mankiewicz: in closing, the prosecution played the videotaped statements huden later made to island county detectives down at the punta