after brenda disappears. a young, relatively inexperienced assistant u.s. attorney. he s thrilled to be thrust into the middle of a highly publicized criminal case. by hounding the fbi, cox finds a way to break the case wide open. they told us at one point they thought he wanted to come forward and we just had to keep pressuring him a little bit more and a little bit more. cox has an idea. ignatow has never been arrested, and is still living well, he is surrounded by a cloud of suspicion and is having trouble hanging on to a job. employers are telling him he s bad for business. so cox convinces ignatow and his attorney that testifying before a grand jury can help him. he could get out on the courthouse steps and say, hey, i volunteered to come down here. i m trying to assist authorities in this case and shift the community s ire away from him on to somebody else. the plan almost backfires on cox when ignatow testifies, he
mel ignatow went out in the street in front of maryann shore s house and she stayed in the house and screamed and the scream could be heard out in the street. [ indistinct talking on radio ] [ tires screech ] [ crying ] [ applause ] [ laughs ] [ tires screech ] [ male announcer ] your life will have to flash by even faster. autodrive brakes on the cadillac srx activate after rain is detected to help improve braking performance. we don t just make luxury cars. we make cadillacs. we don t want anything to slow us down so it s surprising that most women aren t getting enough calcium. with over 25 flavors, yoplait original gives you 50% of the daily value of calcium in every cup.
does she have the motive to lie? here again is chris hansen. maryann shore s story of the torture and murder of brenda schaefer horrified all those who heard it. commonwealth of kentucky versus maryann shore. in return for her testimony against ignatow, prosecutors agreed to charge her only with tampering with evidence in her role in helping to bury the body. she was later sentenced to five years in prison. ignatow was in jail, too, awaiting trial. he turned to religion, claiming to be a born-again christian. he was also going broke, paying his legal bills. he sold his house and his boat. accused murderer mel ignatow. all of the publicity made holding the trial in louisville impossible. it was moved north to kenton county. just before christmas 1991, more than three years after brenda
could be sitting on death row. that is a that is a constant reminder that always goes through my mind. the county police and fbi had searched that house twice and we missed it, and it s a terrible feeling. ignato was sentenced to eight years for perjury conviction, but federal rules gave him two years credit for time served and he got another year shaved off for good behavior. before his scheduled release in october 1997 he called our louisville affiliate wave and spoke with rotor greg hoffman. the whole time you knew you killed brenda schaeffer and god has forgiven you with that murder. well, sure. don t you believe in that? not only does this confessed killer believe he s been forgiven. he said he d like to spend the rest of his life preaching a
former house that ignato had to sell while he was in jail. the job of removing the old carpet was going smoothly until he reached an area near a wet bar, behind a set of french doors and it was real hard to pull up around that wall so i had to tug on it harder and when i pulled it up it brought me to my feet. dougherty found a heat vent. taped inside was a plastic sandwich bag. i looked at the bag to see what it was and i seen jewelry and some canisters. when you say canisters. you were talking about film canisters. three roles of undeveloped film. the critical evidence police had failed to find. the case against mel ignao was to break wide open. did you have any idea what you found was crucial evidence. no. i just thought it was the owners hiding place.