Thats how we finished it. Narrator this was the final sketch. Just one hour after it was released to the media, a Prison Guard called police. He said he was sure it was an inmate once housed at one of the local prisons. The Inmates Name . Daniel lee corwin. Merillat ive seen a lot of composites in 40 years of police work, and never seen one that good. That looks just like him. Narrator in the mid1970s, when corwin was in high school, he was found guilty of assaulting and attempting to murder a fellow student. Her name was brenda evans, and like wendy gauntt, she also survived by playing dead. When shes in the ambulance, she can barely speak cause her throats been cut, and she said, Daniel Corwin did this. Narrator the attack on brenda was virtually identical to the attack on wendy, on mary risinger, and the other two cases in which the victims did not survive. In all those cases, the killer used a knife,
Dowgar i believe she knew something was up when this perpetrator pulled up. Narrator the man pulled out a knife, grabbed mary from behind, and tried to drag her toward his truck. He didnt appear to see the child. He had something in mind for mary risinger, and nothing was going to prevent him from doing that. Narrator he tried to force mary into his truck, but she wasnt going anywhere, especially with a toddler to protect. Burro that woman fought like a demon, and im convinced that it was less to do with saving her own life than her daughters. Narrator mary, unarmed and outmatched, didnt stand a chance. Her throat was slashed, and she was dead within minutes. A lot of lives changed forever that night. Dusty dowgar, an officer with the Walker County sheriffs department, was trickortreating with his family very near the Car Wash when he heard what happened
Dont wait call today. Narrator Texas Detectives amassed all the resources at their disposal to find mary risingers killer. The problem was that back in 1987, there werent all that many resources at hand
Get them out the back door, get them out as fast as possible. Narrator after his release, corwin went to work for a local cabinet maker. Corwins employer, ben pruitt, had taught a Carpentry Class at the prison. He knew of corwins past and wanted to give him a second chance. But when local women started getting attacked, mr. Pruitt suspected corwin might be responsible. After the highly publicized attack on wendy gauntt, mr. Pruitt remembered something strange from right after the murder of mary risinger. Ben pruitt recalls Daniel Corwin coming to work the day after halloween 1987 with cuts on his hands. Narrator could daniel Lee Corwin be the man who was attacking local women . It looked that way, but in the absence of any physical evidence and there was none there was no way to be sure. Police procedurals look so simple on tv, and theyre just not. You know, even when you know its somebody,
Investigators hoped he might confess and sent veteran Detective A. P. Merillat to interview him. Merillat thought a trip to the Crime Scenes might provoke something in daniel corwin. Merillat i brought him to the car wash. I pulled into the bay that he described as being the one he drove into. And it was really odd to me that he appeared to go into, like, a Trancelike State, or at first, i thought he was faking, but he continued to do this every time we met. So i think it was real. But he started reliving the events of that night when Mary Risinger was killed. Narrator even corwin admitted he got into a Trancelike State during these attacks, and this might explain one other commonality with all his crimes. All of them were spontaneous, spurofthemoment attacks in public places with plenty of potential witnesses. Theyre obviouy highrisk cres from the standpoint