It was a very powerful moment. Thats when a new night began. This one for justice. The question, who was really behind that attack . I was troubled. A girl sitting in prison for a crime she didnt commit. I stepped into some places i didnt think i would walk out of. Would they uncover the truth . Maybe. Maybe. This momma wont stop. This is never going to be over. Im lester holt and this is dateline. Heres Keith Morrison with one summer night. Heres where it happened. Just over here off the edge of a country road. Peaceful now, summerlovely, boise, idaho as if the horror has never come here. On that warm summer night in the year 2000, but theres no changing that history now or that evil act that festered unsolved for 15 years. The file was tucked neatly away, up in some computer cloud to gather virtual dust. Until, well, stir up clouds of dust and theres no telling what you might find in there. Boise is the big city around here, attractive, growing, newly hip, the Boise State University is attractive enough to attract a student, ginny hatch is her name. It was 2007. Ginny was doing some volunteer work. For the idaho Innocence Project. And one day, ginny cracked open the file, launched that awful summer night by the side of the road. One of the most vicious attacks idaho has ever seen and an attack on Linda Lebrane. When you first read of the attack of Linda Lebrane, what did you think . What impression did it make . One of the most horrible, horrific experiences i could imagine a person would go through. Absolutely horrible. Hard to find words for what Linda Lebrane went through, but maybe the word thats most astonishing is simply survivor. Its been your companion for a good percentage of your life. Its been my nightmare for 12. 5 years, yes. The 12. 5 years, well, yes and more now because of what happened, yes, but also maybe because of what ginny hatch discovered in that old computer file. It was the summer of 2000, mid june. Linda said goodbye to her family in little Port Townsend, washington and hit the road. The mormon mother of seven, baker, poet, accomplished vi ee low was going on vacation. All by yourself . All by myself. Ive been doing it for years. Her practice on the road was so sleep during the hot afternoons and drive at night to enjoy the cool summer air. It was midnight when she crossed the border into idaho. All my windows were rolled down. I was playing annie lennox walking on broken glass. Feeling good. I was feeling good. Then no warning at all. There it was. I looked to my left and there was a car with four young people in it and i kind of speeded up, they speeded up, and then i slowed down and they slowed down. The next thing i know they were moving their car towards mine. I stopped my car and i tried to go around them from behind and they pulled their car perpendicular across the highway. What were you thinking . Did you roll up your windows and locked your do eyour doors . I thought i had done that. All except one, the passenger side window. They were wild. They were saying, give us your money. Give us your money. You must have been just terrified. I wasnt terrified yet. I thought i could reason with them. They shoved linda into the passenger seat. Seemed like the womans boyfriend maybe, her brother. At the wheel, a man linda nicknamed greasy man using one hand to drive and the other holding a knife. The first time he lunged at me with the knife, i grabbed it with my hand and i pushed the knife away. He kept saying, wheres your money . Wheres your money . All i had was 40 cash in my wallet. Try to put me inside your head. My heart was pounding. I look eed at the woman in the eyes and said, please dont kill me. Take everything, but please dont kill me. She said shut up bitch. Were going to take everything and were going to kill you. The woman, linda said, barked orders to one of her cohorts in spanish. She was the ringleader. She said go ahead, bitch, beg me for your life. Before she could do that little boy grabbed my hair and cut my throat from behind and then greasy man took my wedding ring off of my finger and i think that hurt me more than anything. The blood was pouring out of her, but maybe it was the adrenaline. Linda was still fighting to escape. I got out of the car pleading on my knees, facing into the car. And then from behind the back of the car, i called him fat boy, he came around the back of the car with a baseball bat in his hand. Fat boy swung at my head with the baseball bat, and i fell down face first in the dirt right by the open passenger side door. When i landed on the dirt, it sounded like people were pounding on my back. And i found out later that i had been stabbi inbed almost 17 tim the back. Then as suddenly as they appeared, they were gone. I was able to sit up against the car and i had the conscious feeling, oh, so this is how im going to die. Then i saw headlights coming. And i waved, help me, help me. But it wasnt help. It was them again. Coming back to finish her off. And i realized at that very moment if i dont pretend to be dead, theyre going to kill me. I fell face down in the dirt again. The next thing i heard was this whoosh, and i realized that they set the car on fire. Then her attackers drove away and left her in the dust to die. I made a pillow of dirt, and i started singing in my mind one of my hymns. And i was totally surrounded by this beautiful, beautiful white light. And then i was physically lifted in my heavenly fathers arms, and it was very peaceful. And i was ready to go with him. But then she heard voices again. Had the attackers returned a third time . No, this time it was two young men who had seen the flames from the nearby farmhouse. When i yelled, help me, help me, im out here, they ran out to the field and dragged me from the car before the fire hit the gaslight. So the method they used to extinguish your life actually wound up saving it. Those were beautiful, beautiful young boys. Linda lebrane somehow had ginny hatch was stunned. For me, the worst part is she thought they were gone and she flags down her attackers again. When i saw that, gutwrenching. Gu gu gutwrenching. Linda lebranes story was a book with many chapters. Ginny didnt know it yet, but it was a story she was going to help write. When we come back, the investigation begins. Why would a woman driving down the road at night be attacked so viciously . You figure there would be a reason for that. Right. Yes well, i found this new thing. Called Allstate Quickfoto claim. Its an app. You understand that . Just take photos of the damage with your phone and upload them to allstate. Really . 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Because i used the Citi Thankyou card and got two times the points on alllllll of this. Well, and spending time with you guys of course. That was a better answer. The Citi Thankyou preferred card. Earn two times the thankyou points on entertainment and dining out all with no annual fee. To apply, go to citi. Com thankyoucards. Nearly one in three children in america is overweight. Lets lighten up those numbers with fruits and vegetables, lean protein, and lots of water. Add in plenty of active play and the odds of good health are in your favor, the more you know. Except this story was painfully true. What happened to that woman back in the summer of 2000 was beyond savage . Carjacked on a quiet country road, terrorized, stabbed beaten, her throat slit, and then left to burn to death in the flames of her own car. Flames two local farm boys just happened to see just in time. If it hadnt been for those two boys, she would have been deader than dead. She would not have made it. Im surprised she made it at all. I feel so much empathy for her. I cant imagine what that must feel like. She was rushed to a hospital in nearby boise. I kept saying get my husband, get my husband. Did he think you would make it . No. He thought he would bring me home in a body bag. But somehow she survived the 17 stab wounds in her back, the collapsed lung, and a head wound administered by a baseball bat all because someone wanted to steal 40 and some credit cards. The sheriff kept coming and said, were sorry, but we have to get information from you. And they did. Linda was able to help a Police Artist make sketches. But finding them, not so easy. It was one of the bigger cases during my time at the department. Wayne christie was one of several Canyon County detectives that chased what leads there were. A couple hours after the attack, a young hispanic less than five feet tall, used a washington drivers license to check in. Probably lindas investigators thought. Minutes later, they changed their minds and left. Somebody used lindas credit card at a texaco station. The attendant remembered one hispanic female, two hispanic males. We stopped at all the towns along the way, the casinos, and talked to people there. We didnt develop anything at that point. She went out to the crime scene. Your crime scene was burned. You dont have fingerprints. You dont have dna. You have nothing to work with except this poor woman who almost died and her visions and her recall. What did you think when you heard her story . It was kind of suspicious at first. Why would a woman driving down the road at night be attacked so viciously . Right. You figure there would be a reason for that. Right. Well, as it turned out, these people already attempted this maneuver three times before earlier in the evening. A man reported seeing and feeling threatened by two men and a young woman. They were out looking to score money or property or something that could be turned into purchasing illegal substances. Highwayman, as it were. Yes. The Canyon CountySheriffs Office put out a nationwide alert describing the four, describing the woman as pretty, petite, and bilingual. She spoke english and spanish. As linda struggled to recover at home, detectives chased their tails. Americas most wanted even came to town, reenacted the vicious crime using lookalike attackers. A month later after the program aired, detectives showed linda this lineup. She picked out this woman, but no the police told her, it couldnt have been her. Though she did look a lot like the americas most wanted actress, but by then the investigators turned up a possible suspect. This one no actress. Not much more than a girl, really. 17yearold erica curiel. Did she look like the sketch . Not a dead ringer, but there were still a lot of similarities. In fact, erica curiel seemed the fit the bill on many accounts. She was hispanic and pretty and spoke english and spanish and had no credible alibi. I mailed the photo lineup to the Port Townsend police. We requested they show the lineup to lebrane and she did. Linda signed her name right across ericas photo. So bingo, right . So what did you think . I thought there was a good likelihood of it. Or maybe not. Erica curiel denied any involvement and agreed to take a polygraph. Lo and behold, the polygrapher said she passed. Lead investigators, though not christie, dismissed her as a suspect in the beating of Linda Lebrane. Years later in 2007, ginny hatch saw how after that the investigation lurched to a virtual halt. I think there was a lot of pressure to get this case closed up. And then, what do you know . A lucky break gave those investigators what they couldnt find themselves. Coming up thank goodness. Lets get this thing on the road. For prosecutors, a jackpot. For someone else, the shock of a lifetime. I lost my ability to hear and everything started going in slow motion. Thats a moment you dont forget. When dateline continues. Use with caution in dogs with a history of seizures. Recommended by vets. Loved by dogs. From the makers of frontline plus. Everybody here got the lunchtime blues they need to be inspired Something Better than the rest. New lipton peach iced tea with that ham and cheese it tastes so sunshiney [ carl ] drink it down and youll believe the taste of peachiosity [ carl ] drink it down and youll believe say goodbye to the same breakthrough in break time. A introducing the new bacon clubhouse. Loosen the tie, punch the clock, and grab 100 beef or premium chicken on an artisan roll with apple wood smoked bacon and big mac special sauce. Its the best thing to happen to lunch since. Lunch ginny hatch, a graduate student and Innocence Project volunteer, was nothing if not relentless if there was a trail to follow, that is. Something about the case of Linda Lebrane looked off to her, but by 2007, whatever trail there was, had long since grown over. Any idea when you committed to it, how long this would take . No, no idea. Or how hard it would be . No. No idea on that one either. First, it was a matter of immersing herself in the details. The case was finally broken two years after the attack on Linda Lebrane. A young woman in South Carolina saw the story on americas most wanted and called the police to say her boyfriend told her he was one of the attackers. This was him, 33yearold kenneth wurdemann, who looked a lot like the sketch linda helped make of the man nicknamed fat boy. Remember what you thought . I thought thank goodness. Lets get this thing on the road. Lets get this going. And oh, things did get going then. Kenneth wurdemann confessed and named an accomplice, his brother, 31yearold, john wurdemann. John pleaded not guilty, but his resemblance to the man in the sketch linda called greasy man, uncanny. Jeremy sanchez already facing charges that year for three unrelated Violent Attacks was the man linda called little boy. Detective Wayne Christie arrested sanchez himself. Did he look like the sketch . Id say they could be an overlay. But sanchez, too, pleaded not guilty. Linda lebrane was afflicted with ptsd. Each one was a terrible ordeal. Every time that i had to go between 2002 and 2004, i would become just violently ill. And id say, i cant do this. I cant do this again. My husband would say, well, fine. Call them up and theyll just let them out of jail because youre the only witness. You know, youre the witness. Lindas eyewitness testimony was the heart of the case. They were just wild and hyped up. They just acted like animals. John wurdemann and Jeremy Sanchez were sentenced to life in prison. The girl, she was all that was left to find. None of the men would roll over and tell detectives who she was. Again, they got lucky. The detectives canvassed nearby jails and found an informant who said he once heard a young woman in a drug hangout talk about stabbing someone. That young woman ran with, thats the phrase she used, Jeremy Sanchez. And here she was. Her name sarah pearce. But this time, she was 19, had kicked a drug habit, and joined the job corps, where detectives arrested her. She didnt exactly fit the description. She was not hispanic and half a foot taller than five feet. She took two polygraphs though and according to the polygrapher, she failed them. They kept her in jail apparently preparing a case for seventh months, and then suddenly released her. Sarahs mom anita brown was hugely relieved. She already told everyone who would listen that her daughter would never attack another human being. That night, she said, sarah was home with her. The attorney told me straight to my face, he says, that the best thing you can do with her is take her and run. Take her and run . Take her and run. Run where . He didnt say. She will go down for this. Did you wish you had run with her . If i knew what i knew today, youre damn right. The attorney was right. Sarah was rearrested. I would like you to repeat after me. And placed in a jailhouse videotaped lineup to speak the words which Linda Lebrane heard her assailant say. And linda, linda said viewing a video lineup was far superior to photographs. So did the man who witnessed the attackers at the rest stop and the motel clerks who saw them afterwards. They all picked out the same woman, sarahearce. At sarahs trial, her attorney said she didnt know any of those men, wasnt there, didnt do it. Among the eyewitnesses was a young man who testified that sarah was lying, that she, as he put it, ran with Jeremy Sanchez. So the verdict guilty of conspiracy to commit robbery. When they started reading the verdict, my stress was so high i lost my ability to hear. Thats a moment you dont forget. The judge gave sarah 15 to life. Linda joined a prosecutor and some of the witnesses for a final photograph and it was dpo done. What was your level of confidence about this case . 100 . But the new uninvited investigator stared at her computer screen. It just didnt make sense. There are so many things that are just alarming, red flags, red flags. But what were the red flags . How did she know . And perhaps more to the point, what, if anything, could she do about it . Coming up oh, my god. Somebody for the first time said, i believe you. A phone call launches a formidable new team. That was where the world changed. Ive got one other person. Thats all i needed. 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