hanging out after school. what did he say? he just said, i killed russell jordan. as simple as that, i killed russell jordan ? yeah, that s what he said. did you think it was true? i didn t think it was true. because kids don t go around killing kids. right. and that s what i was thinking. you know, i mean, it seemed like at our school, you know, it seemed like kids didn t do that. didn t you think, i have to go tell the cops? i mean, i didn t have any evidence. and i wasn t i probably figured i d be grasping at air, or something like that, trying to pull something out of nowhere because they would ask me questions that i wouldn t know how to answer. remember, taten was only 15 at the time. like many teenagers, he says, he was conflicted about such things as loyalty, friendship, and justice. he says he couldn t have
a tip led police to sean viehweg. he pleaded no contest for cutting the brakes. he was sentenced to community service. do you think sean viehweg was trying to kill you or just frighten you? i could have easily been killed. and the tipster who fingered viehweg back then? jeff taten. you spent a lot of your life worrying about this guy. i probably did. i probably did. and yet, says jeff, he was not the only one who knew those stories about the cats, the brake lines, about russell jordan s killing. we had a big group of friends, and i know i wasn t the only person that he ever mentioned this to. taten told police this boy, chris fisher, another young kid that viehweg took in during high school, may have even more information about the killing. so we wanted to talk to chris fisher, find out what his involvement is. i explained to him that we re here to speak to him about the murder of russell jordan.
the school play that year was a murder arranged. and in her mind now, says sally, it s clear why sean viehweg suddenly took such an interest in her shortly after russell s killing. the los gatos police s theory was that he was probably keeping close tabs on me. i was probably his biggest threat at the time. i should have made a stink. i don t remember sean before russell and yet he kept a pretty close eye on me afterwards. kind of a creepy thought. so why is it important now? somebody needs to say russell was a nice person. taten still has only the vaguest memories of russell but wishes now to claim the timid boy as a friend. all these years later, that s still torturing you, isn t it? i mean, i feel like i know russell jordan more now than anybody ever has even when he was you know, ever been alive. at least he s got some kind of ending to his story now.
this is sean and jeff taten. and russell jordan. leafing through her yearbook, sally upton realizes none of her friends wrote a single departing word about russell jordan. nobody ever mentioned him to in the yearbook. there were, however, two pages devoted to a fictitious killing. the school play that year was a murder arranged. and in her mind now, says sally, it s clear why sean viehweg suddenly took such an interest in her shortly after russell s killing. the los gatos police s theory was that he was probably keeping close tabs on me. i was probably his biggest threat at the time. i should have made a stink. i don t remember sean before russell and yet he kept a pretty close eye on me afterwards. kind of a creepy thought. so why is it important now? somebody needs to say russell was a nice person. taten still has only the
he was hitching a ride home and got picked up by a creepy guy. and the guy tried to make a pass at him. and russell jumped out of the moving car to get away from him. he said that he hit the guy in the leg with the knife. and then rolled out the car? and then rolled out of the car. no one disputes that on this trail sean viehweg killed russell jordan. what was left of him, his skeleton, was found right over there, not six feet off the path. but there are so many unanswered questions. why were they here in the first place? it was the middle of a school day, a 30-minute hike from campus. did they really come all this way just to play some sort of childish squeezing game? why do you think he did it? it s probably the ultimate thing that a human can do to another person, is to kill somebody. i mean once you kill somebody, that s like the most ultimate thing, rush, you can get. taten recalls that viehweg also had a disturbing reputation for sadistic behavior.