1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:22,260 My mom was the most cautious, overprotective person in the world. 2 00:00:22,260 --> 00:00:27,860 For them to say that she left the church to walk across the street in 12 degree weather, 3 00:00:27,860 --> 00:00:33,820 dark of night, where it was icy and snowy, into a foot of freezing cold water to take 4 00:00:33,820 --> 00:00:40,580 her own life, it just doesn't make sense. 5 00:00:40,580 --> 00:00:43,980 Who did your mom fear? 6 00:00:43,980 --> 00:00:47,500 That's a sensitive subject at this time. 7 00:00:47,500 --> 00:00:50,180 People within the family, people close to the family? 8 00:00:50,180 --> 00:00:52,180 I can't say that right now. 9 00:01:27,860 --> 00:01:41,820 Can you just say your full name for the record? 10 00:01:41,820 --> 00:01:47,020 Daniel Jensen, J-E-M-S-E-N. 11 00:01:47,020 --> 00:01:48,020 Where was her car found? 12 00:01:48,020 --> 00:01:53,180 It was on a one-way exit drive adjacent to the church, approximately 100 feet from the 13 00:01:53,180 --> 00:01:54,180 lakeside. 14 00:01:54,940 --> 00:01:58,220 It was the only car on that exit drive. 15 00:01:58,220 --> 00:02:00,860 It was almost 10 o'clock at night. 16 00:02:00,860 --> 00:02:06,260 The church appeared dark and there was really no good reason for it to be there. 17 00:02:06,260 --> 00:02:09,980 The officer approached the parked vehicle, illuminated same. 18 00:02:09,980 --> 00:02:18,100 We saw the purse in the car, checked down to the water, and saw the footprints. 19 00:02:18,100 --> 00:02:22,900 There was the two prints in the snow from apparently where someone sat down with hand 20 00:02:22,900 --> 00:02:24,300 prints alongside of it. 21 00:02:24,300 --> 00:02:29,500 It slid to the second level, another butt print hand prints. 22 00:02:29,500 --> 00:02:34,380 The minute the footprints and the butt prints were seen, it was confirmed immediately by 23 00:02:34,380 --> 00:02:36,220 all three officers on the scene. 24 00:02:36,220 --> 00:02:40,900 They sincerely believed there was a person in the water. 25 00:02:40,900 --> 00:02:46,620 It went to immediate request for help for a search and rescue operation. 26 00:02:46,620 --> 00:02:51,220 We have a possibility, a good chance that we may be able to save a life. 27 00:02:55,220 --> 00:03:01,180 That night, my mom had a 7 p.m. prayer service that she would attend and at this point it's 28 00:03:01,180 --> 00:03:02,180 9.20. 29 00:03:02,180 --> 00:03:07,940 And my brother's upstairs sleeping and I'm getting, you know, just put my pajamas on. 30 00:03:07,940 --> 00:03:10,220 And I see a car come around the corner. 31 00:03:10,220 --> 00:03:17,140 I was like, oh, there's mom. 32 00:03:17,140 --> 00:03:21,180 And I looked out and it was a police officer. 33 00:03:21,180 --> 00:03:24,340 And I said, can I help you? 34 00:03:24,340 --> 00:03:29,340 And he said, yes, we found your mother's car abandoned in the church parking lot. 35 00:03:29,340 --> 00:03:32,620 Is she missing? 36 00:03:32,620 --> 00:03:37,140 We start calling her phone like that second and her phone's going right to voicemail. 37 00:03:37,140 --> 00:03:40,420 So her phone's off. 38 00:03:40,420 --> 00:03:46,660 I was 29, my sister Kelly was 27 and my brother Michael was 20. 39 00:03:46,660 --> 00:03:51,340 My mom and my dad were separated and they didn't really get along that well. 40 00:03:51,340 --> 00:03:55,180 Me and my siblings, we all lived together with my mom. 41 00:03:55,180 --> 00:04:00,300 And so that night we started calling family friends and, you know, anybody that she could 42 00:04:00,300 --> 00:04:01,820 have gone to get coffee with. 43 00:04:01,820 --> 00:04:04,460 No, everyone's like, no, we didn't hear from her. 44 00:04:04,460 --> 00:04:07,180 We're not with her. 45 00:04:07,180 --> 00:04:11,940 My niece Michelle called me and said, get over here right away. 46 00:04:11,940 --> 00:04:14,100 And she was totally freaked out. 47 00:04:14,100 --> 00:04:20,580 She said, two gross point woods police officers came to the house and said, my mom's missing. 48 00:04:20,580 --> 00:04:25,740 And I was like, what? 49 00:04:25,740 --> 00:04:29,380 She said, OK, let's get over to St. Paul's church because apparently that's where her 50 00:04:29,380 --> 00:04:30,380 car is. 51 00:04:30,380 --> 00:04:36,820 My mom was 55. 52 00:04:36,820 --> 00:04:39,100 She was full of life. 53 00:04:39,100 --> 00:04:46,860 The best mom, just the warmest heart. 54 00:04:46,860 --> 00:04:51,660 And we were just really a close knit family. 55 00:04:51,660 --> 00:04:53,580 My mom was a great lady. 56 00:04:53,580 --> 00:04:54,580 Everyone's best friend. 57 00:04:54,580 --> 00:04:58,500 Like happy, fun to be around. 58 00:04:58,500 --> 00:05:00,580 Our house was the house to be at when we were growing up. 59 00:05:00,580 --> 00:05:02,460 All the friends were over. 60 00:05:02,460 --> 00:05:06,220 It made her happy to see us with her friends. 61 00:05:06,220 --> 00:05:08,940 She was an angel. 62 00:05:08,940 --> 00:05:13,420 Just a great soul, you know, out to help everybody. 63 00:05:13,420 --> 00:05:21,300 She was my favorite sister and the closest person to me. 64 00:05:21,300 --> 00:05:28,100 She was pretty much everything I made. 65 00:05:28,100 --> 00:05:33,140 When we pull up at the church, we see crime scene tape around the car. 66 00:05:33,140 --> 00:05:35,300 And there's always a place everywhere. 67 00:05:35,300 --> 00:05:45,620 We're like, what is happening right now? 68 00:05:45,620 --> 00:05:51,860 My mom's car was parked in the driveway of St. Paul Catholic Church. 69 00:05:51,860 --> 00:05:53,380 The car is locked. 70 00:05:53,380 --> 00:05:57,420 The keys were nowhere to be found at that time. 71 00:05:57,420 --> 00:05:59,380 Her cell phone was missing. 72 00:05:59,380 --> 00:06:01,380 Her purse is on the front seat. 73 00:06:01,380 --> 00:06:03,500 She's never left her purse behind. 74 00:06:03,500 --> 00:06:13,940 So when I saw the purse in the car, I was extremely nervous at that point. 75 00:06:13,940 --> 00:06:18,540 We're all running around the ground of the church, you know, when we are just searching 76 00:06:18,540 --> 00:06:24,700 through every spot you could possibly get into inside the building, outside the building. 77 00:06:24,700 --> 00:06:30,540 So the fact that we're now approaching three hours at night and no one's heard from her, 78 00:06:30,540 --> 00:06:31,820 something's wrong. 79 00:06:31,820 --> 00:06:33,300 It was a shit show. 80 00:06:33,300 --> 00:06:38,340 It seemed like the whole Coast Guard, whatever it was, a helicopter and divers and all kinds 81 00:06:38,340 --> 00:06:39,460 of Coast Guard equipment. 82 00:06:39,460 --> 00:06:42,620 They had the Grosspoint Farms cops there. 83 00:06:42,620 --> 00:06:46,540 We start just asking, what's going on? 84 00:06:46,540 --> 00:06:52,260 They're like, oh, we think your mom walked into the water. 85 00:06:52,260 --> 00:06:56,780 There's no way she's in the water. 86 00:06:56,780 --> 00:06:57,780 It was freezing. 87 00:06:57,780 --> 00:07:03,500 I just remember it being just so cold and you're just shivering. 88 00:07:03,500 --> 00:07:06,740 The water was partially frozen. 89 00:07:06,740 --> 00:07:08,620 It was one to two feet deep. 90 00:07:08,620 --> 00:07:13,020 You could see the rocks. 91 00:07:13,020 --> 00:07:16,980 They basically said we think that your mom walked from the car to the water and committed 92 00:07:16,980 --> 00:07:18,980 suicide. 93 00:07:18,980 --> 00:07:23,740 There were no signs of a struggle either around the car or in the car. 94 00:07:23,740 --> 00:07:32,420 There were no signs of any, for example, torn clothing, items on the ground, purse dumped, 95 00:07:32,420 --> 00:07:40,980 car ransacked, scuff marks or drag marks around the scene, blood, bullet casings, any type 96 00:07:40,980 --> 00:07:43,500 of evidence that would lead one to believe that a crime occurred. 97 00:07:49,980 --> 00:07:52,420 It was 4 AM. 98 00:07:52,420 --> 00:07:53,740 Nobody had heard from her. 99 00:07:53,740 --> 00:08:02,260 They called off the helicopters and they towed the Lexus to the police station. 100 00:08:02,260 --> 00:08:05,620 We just had no idea where she could be. 101 00:08:05,620 --> 00:08:06,620 She had vanished. 102 00:08:06,620 --> 00:08:11,620 We did the fingerprinting of the car. 103 00:08:11,620 --> 00:08:12,620 I did. 104 00:08:12,620 --> 00:08:13,620 And what were the results? 105 00:08:13,620 --> 00:08:14,620 There were no clear fingerprints. 106 00:08:14,620 --> 00:08:15,620 How's the blood just? 107 00:08:15,620 --> 00:08:16,620 None of the purse. 108 00:08:16,620 --> 00:08:17,620 None of anything inside the car. 109 00:08:17,620 --> 00:08:18,620 We didn't fingerprint the purse. 110 00:08:18,620 --> 00:08:19,620 How about the door handles? 111 00:08:19,620 --> 00:08:20,620 Inside or outside? 112 00:08:20,620 --> 00:08:21,620 No fingerprints from? 113 00:08:21,620 --> 00:08:22,620 No usable prints. 114 00:08:22,620 --> 00:08:23,620 Joanne Matuke Romain disappeared. 115 00:08:23,620 --> 00:08:38,740 The 55-year-old woman from Gros Point Woods was last seen in her church. 116 00:08:38,740 --> 00:08:44,140 Suicide speculated but nobody was found and there's little current if she went in here. 117 00:08:44,140 --> 00:08:48,820 She could have been here. 118 00:08:48,820 --> 00:08:56,260 My mom worked part-time at a boutique in Gros Point. 119 00:08:56,260 --> 00:09:01,020 Gros Point is the suburb bordering Detroit. 120 00:09:01,020 --> 00:09:06,860 It is a very rich community, a very tight community. 121 00:09:06,860 --> 00:09:09,380 Everybody knows everybody's business. 122 00:09:09,380 --> 00:09:13,700 If you were born there, you're basically raised there and you stay there. 123 00:09:13,700 --> 00:09:17,260 Everybody ever truly leaves Gros Point. 124 00:09:17,260 --> 00:09:21,980 My mom definitely loved it. 125 00:09:21,980 --> 00:09:27,660 Her social life on a weekly basis was just having lunch with girlfriends, inviting people 126 00:09:27,660 --> 00:09:32,780 over to the house for dinner, having our friends over, having family over. 127 00:09:32,780 --> 00:09:39,380 It was just a very active, loving lifestyle. 128 00:09:39,380 --> 00:09:43,260 My mom had a lot of friends. 129 00:09:43,260 --> 00:09:49,100 So for my mom to disappear, it was the end of the world for a lot of people. 130 00:09:49,100 --> 00:09:51,300 We were putting flyers together. 131 00:09:51,300 --> 00:09:53,740 We had a mass search. 132 00:09:53,740 --> 00:09:58,260 People were looking in woods and dumpsters. 133 00:09:58,260 --> 00:10:07,820 Anywhere that she could possibly be, we just had no idea where she could be. 134 00:10:07,820 --> 00:10:12,580 There was an extensive three-day search in the area that the police had alleged my mom 135 00:10:12,580 --> 00:10:15,420 had entered the water. 136 00:10:15,420 --> 00:10:17,500 There's no current. 137 00:10:17,500 --> 00:10:20,060 It's clear. 138 00:10:20,060 --> 00:10:23,100 It's a foot or two feet deep. 139 00:10:23,100 --> 00:10:27,860 And the night she disappeared, she was wearing a black blouse, black pants, black high-heeled 140 00:10:27,860 --> 00:10:30,380 shoes, a black coat. 141 00:10:30,380 --> 00:10:37,020 You would be able to clearly see her if she was here. 142 00:10:37,020 --> 00:10:42,420 The hippie diving team searched for three more days to officially say she's not in 143 00:10:42,420 --> 00:10:45,420 here. 144 00:10:45,420 --> 00:10:49,580 The search that we had done for Mrs. Romaine was the most thorough search that I've ever 145 00:10:49,580 --> 00:10:53,620 done or my team has ever done. 146 00:10:53,620 --> 00:11:01,420 We found a lot of cold water, a lot of ice, and unfortunately not Mrs. Romaine. 147 00:11:01,420 --> 00:11:05,580 I just don't think that she was in that location. 148 00:11:05,580 --> 00:11:09,900 There was nothing found indicating that a person stepped onto broken ice and or entered 149 00:11:09,900 --> 00:11:10,900 the water, right? 150 00:11:10,900 --> 00:11:11,900 Correct. 151 00:11:11,900 --> 00:11:14,740 So there was no evidence that she actually went in the water, right? 152 00:11:14,740 --> 00:11:16,940 Correct. 153 00:11:16,940 --> 00:11:22,100 She would have had to cross the initial two-lane traffic, gone to the median, cross the other 154 00:11:22,100 --> 00:11:27,180 two-lane traffic, and then gone over to the embankment where the water would have been, 155 00:11:27,180 --> 00:11:33,660 which was very steep and icy and would make no sense for anybody to be over there at that 156 00:11:33,660 --> 00:11:36,700 time of night and that temperature. 157 00:11:36,700 --> 00:11:39,660 It was snowy on the ground. 158 00:11:39,660 --> 00:11:44,940 She's not going anywhere near water that she could possibly slip and fall into. 159 00:11:44,940 --> 00:11:45,940 That's not her. 160 00:11:45,940 --> 00:11:47,700 Not my mom. 161 00:11:47,700 --> 00:11:51,460 Not this little lady who was cautious for everything. 162 00:11:51,460 --> 00:11:52,460 Something's wrong. 163 00:11:52,460 --> 00:11:53,460 Someone took her. 164 00:11:53,460 --> 00:11:54,460 She's somewhere. 165 00:11:54,460 --> 00:12:01,260 And we're going to find her. 166 00:12:01,260 --> 00:12:03,620 I can't believe this isn't my life right now. 167 00:12:03,620 --> 00:12:07,980 We're talking about a lady that went to church and cooked. 168 00:12:07,980 --> 00:12:08,980 That's all she did. 169 00:12:08,980 --> 00:12:12,140 Police believe the gross point of Wood's mother committed suicide. 170 00:12:12,140 --> 00:12:15,980 Her family does not. 171 00:12:15,980 --> 00:12:23,340 Joanne is probably the one person that I know that would never commit suicide. 172 00:12:23,340 --> 00:12:25,500 She had such great faith. 173 00:12:25,500 --> 00:12:30,300 There's no way that she was going to end her life and walk away from her kids. 174 00:12:30,300 --> 00:12:34,260 Never happen. 175 00:12:34,260 --> 00:12:36,260 There was no suicide note. 176 00:12:36,260 --> 00:12:39,860 She was never on any medications. 177 00:12:39,860 --> 00:12:41,780 My mom always was. 178 00:12:41,780 --> 00:12:45,380 And as she got older, it became more of it about Catholic going to church more than just 179 00:12:45,380 --> 00:12:48,620 on Sundays, you know, going during the week. 180 00:12:48,620 --> 00:12:55,300 If you're worried about Catholic suicide is against all beliefs. 181 00:12:55,300 --> 00:13:02,180 Joanne and I were friends since the fourth grade at St. Joan of Arc Elementary School. 182 00:13:02,180 --> 00:13:05,540 I talked to her three days before she disappeared. 183 00:13:05,540 --> 00:13:07,100 She was upbeat. 184 00:13:07,100 --> 00:13:13,420 She and I had a good laugh about something that had occurred in my life. 185 00:13:13,420 --> 00:13:18,020 And I remember at the end, we both kind of shared, I love you. 186 00:13:18,020 --> 00:13:20,820 See you soon. 187 00:13:20,820 --> 00:13:28,620 Joanne never displayed to me any signs of depression. 188 00:13:28,620 --> 00:13:31,740 She would never leave her children. 189 00:13:31,740 --> 00:13:33,500 They were her life. 190 00:13:33,500 --> 00:13:37,100 They were her everything. 191 00:13:37,100 --> 00:13:41,700 The police's theory was she committed suicide close case. 192 00:13:41,700 --> 00:13:45,820 I believe it was foul play because she would never just disappear. 193 00:13:51,820 --> 00:13:58,220 January 12, 2010, family's nightmare began right here at St. Paul Catholic Church in 194 00:13:58,220 --> 00:14:00,860 Grose Point, Michigan. 195 00:14:00,860 --> 00:14:06,740 I hired Salva Australia to come out as an expert crime scene investigator and also as 196 00:14:06,740 --> 00:14:09,380 a water expert to help solve this case. 197 00:14:09,380 --> 00:14:14,420 Her car was found in the parking lot there behind these cars that you see in our view. 198 00:14:14,420 --> 00:14:17,060 A couple cars back. 199 00:14:17,060 --> 00:14:22,940 Mr. Claim she jumped in the water or got into the water somehow and committed suicide. 200 00:14:22,940 --> 00:14:29,140 I have traveled literally all over the country and looked at cases like this. 201 00:14:29,140 --> 00:14:34,140 And something I've seen over my career, even in law enforcement, was officers that get 202 00:14:34,140 --> 00:14:38,460 on a scene and right away they think it's a suicide. 203 00:14:38,460 --> 00:14:42,940 Everything after that is geared towards proving the theory of a suicide. 204 00:14:42,940 --> 00:14:48,580 And when I started looking at the photographs that they took of these apparent footprints, 205 00:14:48,580 --> 00:14:51,380 all you see is basically something walk through. 206 00:14:51,380 --> 00:14:56,140 And it could have been anybody or anything based on those photographs. 207 00:14:56,140 --> 00:15:01,820 The one thing they didn't do, which is elementary in footwear impression work, is to take 90 208 00:15:01,820 --> 00:15:02,820 degree photographs. 209 00:15:02,820 --> 00:15:07,340 In other words, you know, you set a camera up on a tripod and shoot a picture straight 210 00:15:07,340 --> 00:15:14,900 down on top with the scale on it so you can enlarge that image to actual size and then 211 00:15:14,900 --> 00:15:20,660 compare it and any law enforcement officer that's been trained should have ever omitted 212 00:15:20,660 --> 00:15:22,260 those kind of photographs. 213 00:15:22,260 --> 00:15:25,220 That's one of the things that was crucial in this case. 214 00:15:25,220 --> 00:15:27,860 It isn't a confirmed exact footprint. 215 00:15:27,860 --> 00:15:31,660 There's a footprint and then another one with some sliding going on, but it was evident 216 00:15:31,660 --> 00:15:36,620 to Detective McCarthy that it appeared to be a small, high-heeled boot. 217 00:15:36,620 --> 00:15:41,460 Did any footprint experts review those photographs at all? 218 00:15:41,460 --> 00:15:44,540 Not that I'm aware of, sir. 219 00:15:44,540 --> 00:15:45,540 No. 220 00:15:45,540 --> 00:15:46,540 Okay. 221 00:15:46,540 --> 00:15:51,340 Mr. Romain was supposed to be wearing a pair of four-inch high heels. 222 00:15:51,340 --> 00:15:58,540 And she was alleged to have traversed this with high heels on in the snow, in the dark. 223 00:15:58,540 --> 00:16:04,300 I was kind of curious to see what it would be like for a woman wearing similar shoes 224 00:16:04,300 --> 00:16:05,300 to traverse this. 225 00:16:05,580 --> 00:16:06,580 It was dark. 226 00:16:06,580 --> 00:16:07,980 Okay, here we go. 227 00:16:07,980 --> 00:16:10,740 And it was full of snow and ice. 228 00:16:10,740 --> 00:16:15,300 And she was wearing shoes like you're wearing, which obviously is difficult for you and 229 00:16:15,300 --> 00:16:16,300 difficult for me. 230 00:16:16,300 --> 00:16:18,060 Please let that both go in. 231 00:16:18,060 --> 00:16:19,540 And this had ice on it. 232 00:16:19,540 --> 00:16:20,540 I don't know how anybody... 233 00:16:20,540 --> 00:16:21,540 It would have been snow and ice. 234 00:16:21,540 --> 00:16:23,220 Now we got this bad crevice here. 235 00:16:23,220 --> 00:16:24,740 So I'm going to stop here. 236 00:16:24,740 --> 00:16:25,740 Okay. 237 00:16:25,740 --> 00:16:29,620 If you want to come a little further, just watch your footing before you go to the next 238 00:16:29,620 --> 00:16:30,620 step. 239 00:16:30,620 --> 00:16:31,620 Let's see. 240 00:16:31,620 --> 00:16:32,620 You want to come one more? 241 00:16:32,620 --> 00:16:33,620 Yeah. 242 00:16:34,060 --> 00:16:35,260 Get you on level ground. 243 00:16:35,260 --> 00:16:36,260 This is old. 244 00:16:36,260 --> 00:16:37,260 Are you okay? 245 00:16:37,260 --> 00:16:38,260 Yeah. 246 00:16:38,260 --> 00:16:42,500 When I came here for the very first time and saw this slope, there's no way a woman could 247 00:16:42,500 --> 00:16:43,660 have done this in heels. 248 00:16:43,660 --> 00:16:47,020 And you just proved it without the snow and ice. 249 00:16:47,020 --> 00:16:53,780 Then they claim that she made her way across that next level and then down into the water. 250 00:16:53,780 --> 00:16:59,900 So that meant she would have had to drop five feet or more off that ledge down to the boulder 251 00:16:59,900 --> 00:17:03,260 strewn bottom. 252 00:17:03,260 --> 00:17:06,860 The chief of police here said, he knew it was a suicide in five minutes. 253 00:17:06,860 --> 00:17:11,740 He said, you must have a crystal ball because in my 30-some-odd years doing this, there's 254 00:17:11,740 --> 00:17:15,780 no way you can ascertain something is what it is in five minutes. 255 00:17:15,780 --> 00:17:16,820 It's not going to happen. 256 00:17:20,580 --> 00:17:25,660 You always have a glimpse of hope that they're still alive. 257 00:17:25,660 --> 00:17:32,740 But as the days turn into weeks, turn into months, you realize your odds are slim. 258 00:17:33,740 --> 00:17:40,660 It's just a very traumatic event to happen to have your mom disappear. 259 00:17:40,660 --> 00:17:45,340 And for my brother and sister, it's been extremely difficult. 260 00:17:45,340 --> 00:17:48,780 My brother, Michael, emotionally is a wreck. 261 00:17:48,780 --> 00:17:49,780 He still is. 262 00:17:49,780 --> 00:17:54,740 And it was very hard for him to talk about any of this. 263 00:17:54,740 --> 00:18:01,020 I'm the oldest, so I knew I was going to have to take this into my own hands. 264 00:18:01,020 --> 00:18:03,580 And I need to find the witnesses that saw something. 265 00:18:03,580 --> 00:18:10,740 I need to go back to that night, and I need to re-walk the steps of what occurred and 266 00:18:10,740 --> 00:18:14,860 what they're saying happened versus what could have possibly happened. 267 00:18:17,380 --> 00:18:21,380 The day she disappeared, my mom dropped my brother off at home and told him, I'm going 268 00:18:21,380 --> 00:18:23,980 to go fill up gas for the next morning. 269 00:18:23,980 --> 00:18:25,300 I'll be right back. 270 00:18:31,820 --> 00:18:39,980 Joanne was a really good friend of ours and a good customer for a very long time. 271 00:18:39,980 --> 00:18:45,660 So the night that Joanne came in here, actually she was just like normal, very happy, cheerful. 272 00:18:45,660 --> 00:18:50,100 I went out there, pumped her gas for her, nothing out of the ordinary. 273 00:18:50,100 --> 00:18:53,980 We just had our normal conversations, how's the day going, how's the family, you know, 274 00:18:53,980 --> 00:18:56,580 talking about her daughters and so on and so forth. 275 00:18:56,580 --> 00:18:58,500 And then she was on her way and that was it. 276 00:19:01,020 --> 00:19:08,780 There was a prayer service at 7 p.m. 277 00:19:08,780 --> 00:19:12,820 It was about 15 to 20 minute prayer service. 278 00:19:12,820 --> 00:19:19,820 From what we know, after she went to get gas, she decided to go to the church. 279 00:19:19,820 --> 00:19:29,220 So it was a very routine thing for her to do, and if she could make it to it, she would. 280 00:19:29,220 --> 00:19:34,500 There was only about 10 or 15 people in the entire prayer service, so it was a very small 281 00:19:34,500 --> 00:19:35,500 thing. 282 00:19:35,500 --> 00:19:40,980 There is a witness that identified my mom in the church. 283 00:19:40,980 --> 00:19:44,100 They were sitting in the front of the church by the altar and my mom was sitting in the 284 00:19:44,100 --> 00:19:45,980 back of the church. 285 00:19:45,980 --> 00:19:51,140 So when they had turned around, they saw her in the aisle and she departed at 7 p.m. 286 00:19:51,140 --> 00:19:53,420 when the service ended. 287 00:19:59,220 --> 00:20:14,140 Within the month of my mom disappearing, I hired, retired FBI agent Bill Randall to 288 00:20:14,140 --> 00:20:17,940 help solve this case. 289 00:20:17,940 --> 00:20:22,900 Originally when Michelle and Kelly met with me and told me what had occurred, I said the 290 00:20:22,900 --> 00:20:29,420 first thing we needed to do was to get a copy of my mother's cell phone records. 291 00:20:29,420 --> 00:20:31,540 There was one number in particular. 292 00:20:31,540 --> 00:20:34,860 We called the number and found out it was a security company. 293 00:20:34,860 --> 00:20:40,660 We, prior to her disappearance, Joanne had left a voicemail and she was attempting to 294 00:20:40,660 --> 00:20:41,900 contact an investigator. 295 00:20:41,900 --> 00:20:50,340 I think she believed she was being followed by person or persons unknown and she was concerned. 296 00:20:50,340 --> 00:20:57,780 In the weeks leading up to my mom's disappearance, she did seem more nervous, more cautious. 297 00:20:57,780 --> 00:21:05,540 And I personally wasn't paying as much attention as I probably should have until she disappeared. 298 00:21:05,540 --> 00:21:10,020 She was acting very troubled, not herself, very scared. 299 00:21:10,020 --> 00:21:15,420 She wouldn't tell me what she was concerned about and she always told me everything. 300 00:21:15,420 --> 00:21:19,380 Almost like if she told me she would put her kids or myself in jeopardy. 301 00:21:19,380 --> 00:21:22,100 So I was like, what's going on? 302 00:21:22,100 --> 00:21:25,100 Like something's not right. 303 00:21:25,100 --> 00:21:26,500 I contacted a number of people. 304 00:21:26,500 --> 00:21:32,740 I contacted a woman that owns a clothing store where Joanne worked and I also talked to one 305 00:21:32,740 --> 00:21:35,500 of her co-workers. 306 00:21:35,500 --> 00:21:40,940 One of the persons that I talked to indicated to me that starting around January the 7th 307 00:21:40,940 --> 00:21:47,700 to January 8th of 2010 that Joanne was receiving more calls than usual and that she would always 308 00:21:47,700 --> 00:21:52,500 walk away to talk to whoever the party was that she was on the phone with and that was 309 00:21:52,500 --> 00:21:57,740 very uncommon for her to do so. 310 00:21:57,740 --> 00:22:02,980 There was an instance where she felt that her mail was being interdicted from the post office 311 00:22:02,980 --> 00:22:07,140 and that there was someone, someone had followed her to the post office. 312 00:22:07,140 --> 00:22:12,860 She also indicated that she felt that her phone was being tapped. 313 00:22:12,860 --> 00:22:27,500 She didn't like going many places alone and the only place she truly felt safe was church. 314 00:22:27,500 --> 00:22:29,620 I've spoke with a number of witnesses from the church. 315 00:22:29,620 --> 00:22:35,260 They indicated that they did see Joanne at the service the night she disappeared. 316 00:22:35,260 --> 00:22:40,340 After leaving the services approximately 7.15 to 7.20 pm one of the witnesses indicated 317 00:22:40,340 --> 00:22:45,540 she thought she heard the auto alarm going off on the Lexus that was driven by Joanne 318 00:22:45,540 --> 00:22:49,740 or it could have been the panic alarm. 319 00:22:49,740 --> 00:22:52,820 The witness saw the lights flashing. 320 00:22:52,820 --> 00:22:59,020 She said it lasted for about 15 seconds. 321 00:22:59,020 --> 00:23:03,380 She didn't make anything of it because there was no other disruptions so they went about 322 00:23:03,380 --> 00:23:06,780 their business. 323 00:23:06,780 --> 00:23:09,860 I interviewed another witness who was at the service. 324 00:23:09,860 --> 00:23:14,900 She indicated that she left the church at approximately 7.25 to 7.35 pm. 325 00:23:14,900 --> 00:23:17,260 She was one of the last to leave. 326 00:23:17,260 --> 00:23:20,460 She felt very uneasy because it was so dark. 327 00:23:20,460 --> 00:23:25,740 So as she proceeded towards her car she looked to the left and to the right of the drive 328 00:23:25,740 --> 00:23:30,020 and she said she noticed no vehicles parked in the driveway. 329 00:23:30,980 --> 00:23:37,220 This empty which indicates the Lexus left the church and then at some point had come back. 330 00:23:37,220 --> 00:23:42,420 It was like someone moved the car and put it close to the very same spot although not 331 00:23:42,420 --> 00:23:45,220 exactly the same spot. 332 00:23:45,220 --> 00:23:49,740 When the cops found the vehicle it was positioned right here with the front of the car aligned 333 00:23:49,740 --> 00:23:52,140 with this bush. 334 00:23:52,140 --> 00:23:56,500 So the car left and then it came back but nobody understood why. 335 00:23:56,500 --> 00:23:58,500 How good this up happened. 336 00:24:19,340 --> 00:24:22,940 It was a Saturday and I got a call from the detective. 337 00:24:22,940 --> 00:24:25,060 You need to call me back. 338 00:24:25,060 --> 00:24:30,500 At this moment I'm thinking worst case scenario like obviously something bad's happened. 339 00:24:30,500 --> 00:24:36,620 Michelle comes out of her bedroom and she's like they found mom. 340 00:24:36,620 --> 00:24:40,940 It was like a sinking feeling. 341 00:24:40,940 --> 00:24:46,700 The body was found by two fishermen on Babel Island in Amishburg Ontario where she was 342 00:24:46,700 --> 00:24:49,660 found. 343 00:24:49,660 --> 00:25:04,420 It was 35 miles from where they alleged she entered the water. 344 00:25:04,420 --> 00:25:07,460 Our worst fear came to light at that point. 345 00:25:07,460 --> 00:25:12,060 You know all these days that we're hoping and praying just you know that she'd walk 346 00:25:12,060 --> 00:25:15,380 through the door. 347 00:25:15,380 --> 00:25:20,380 Usually my mom it was like we lost everything because she really was the backbone of the 348 00:25:20,380 --> 00:25:23,460 family. 349 00:25:23,460 --> 00:25:29,300 Her brothers and sisters and just the entire family. 350 00:25:29,300 --> 00:25:37,860 So it was a huge shock and a huge adjustment and a huge loss for everybody. 351 00:25:37,860 --> 00:25:43,300 Yeah we were devastated. 352 00:25:43,300 --> 00:25:46,380 We didn't stop. 353 00:25:46,380 --> 00:25:50,980 Now let's figure out how it happened and why it happened. 354 00:25:50,980 --> 00:25:52,860 I want justice for Joanne. 355 00:25:52,860 --> 00:26:08,340 That's the bottom line. 356 00:26:08,340 --> 00:26:14,940 So right around in this area is where the GPS says her body was recovered. 357 00:26:14,940 --> 00:26:20,660 Scott Lewis is an investigative reporter for 25 years in Metro Detroit. 358 00:26:20,660 --> 00:26:23,460 Then turned PI after he retired. 359 00:26:23,460 --> 00:26:29,340 Scott came in, new fresh set of eyes on the case. 360 00:26:29,340 --> 00:26:34,260 Joanne Romain was found down in the Detroit River on the Canadian side of an island called 361 00:26:34,260 --> 00:26:35,860 Babel Island. 362 00:26:35,860 --> 00:26:40,180 This is kind of a historic island in Detroit back in the day. 363 00:26:40,180 --> 00:26:45,140 It had an amusement park on it and people about my age will tell you they remember going 364 00:26:45,140 --> 00:26:46,300 there as kids. 365 00:26:46,300 --> 00:26:50,700 Eventually it closed down and I think it became a development with housing and some other 366 00:26:50,700 --> 00:26:54,540 things. 367 00:26:54,540 --> 00:27:02,340 I didn't realize how far the travel actually was until we took this trip. 368 00:27:02,340 --> 00:27:03,620 I had the same perspective. 369 00:27:03,620 --> 00:27:07,820 It's one thing to look at it on a map and talk about 30 miles. 370 00:27:07,820 --> 00:27:09,500 You get in the car and drive 30 miles. 371 00:27:09,500 --> 00:27:10,740 It doesn't take very long. 372 00:27:10,740 --> 00:27:15,900 But when you actually get out here on the water, my God. 373 00:27:15,900 --> 00:27:22,220 So for her body to have left that shallow water along the shore with no current, it would 374 00:27:22,220 --> 00:27:26,300 have had to somehow get out into that shipping channel in the middle of the lake and then 375 00:27:26,300 --> 00:27:30,900 found its way into the Detroit River and 30 miles downriver. 376 00:27:30,900 --> 00:27:34,260 That's a little bit of a stretch for me. 377 00:27:34,260 --> 00:27:38,660 But first I wasn't sure if this was a kind of case I would want to get into. 378 00:27:38,660 --> 00:27:44,180 So what I told Michelle is that if I review your case and I think there's even a chance 379 00:27:44,180 --> 00:27:47,700 that this was a suicide, I'm done. 380 00:27:47,700 --> 00:27:50,220 If I think this is a murder, I'm in. 381 00:27:50,220 --> 00:27:56,940 I don't see anything that points to suicide. 382 00:27:56,940 --> 00:28:01,300 To begin with, who fills their gas tank on the way to commit suicide? 383 00:28:01,300 --> 00:28:03,300 That was the first red flag to me. 384 00:28:03,300 --> 00:28:10,140 If she had driven into the garage and closed the garage door and let the car run, I'd buy 385 00:28:10,140 --> 00:28:11,660 it. 386 00:28:11,660 --> 00:28:18,660 If she had shot herself, I'd buy it. 387 00:28:18,660 --> 00:28:22,540 I don't believe for one second that she walked into that lake. 388 00:28:23,540 --> 00:28:29,980 I can't see any way that you could go into two feet of calm water in a bay and somehow 389 00:28:29,980 --> 00:28:34,980 get out into the deep water with a current and end up 30 miles downriver without somebody 390 00:28:34,980 --> 00:28:39,340 finding that body with all the divers they had out in the helicopters and all the searching 391 00:28:39,340 --> 00:28:42,780 they did. 392 00:28:42,780 --> 00:28:47,940 Nobody thought out of the investigators I hired that she could have traveled from where 393 00:28:47,940 --> 00:28:53,380 the police were alleging she had entered to the vicinity and what she was found. 394 00:28:53,380 --> 00:28:58,100 The only other possibility is that she didn't enter at the location the police alleged that 395 00:28:58,100 --> 00:28:59,100 she had entered. 396 00:28:59,100 --> 00:29:03,740 That she had entered somewhere way further down, somewhere in Detroit, and that she 397 00:29:03,740 --> 00:29:09,140 was dumped. 398 00:29:09,140 --> 00:29:17,260 I'm just thinking if she struggled, if she was scared, you know, the moments before 399 00:29:17,260 --> 00:29:26,580 she entered the water, if she knew what was going on, and, you know, what her last thoughts 400 00:29:26,580 --> 00:29:30,420 were when she knew she was in danger and she wasn't going to make it. 401 00:29:39,140 --> 00:29:53,900 Joanne Romain's body was recovered on March 20, 2010. 402 00:29:53,900 --> 00:29:59,660 The body was in an advanced state of decomposition such that we couldn't make a definitive determination 403 00:29:59,660 --> 00:30:02,100 as to the time of death. 404 00:30:02,100 --> 00:30:06,900 But the body may have been there for some time as there was a gray-brown algae and zebra 405 00:30:06,900 --> 00:30:12,860 mussels that were stuck to the legs and lower extremities. 406 00:30:12,860 --> 00:30:19,940 In my opinion, Joanne Romain's death was caused by drowning, but it's certainly possible 407 00:30:19,940 --> 00:30:25,020 that she could have been dead prior to entering the water. 408 00:30:25,020 --> 00:30:30,180 The manner of her death was indeterminate, meaning that we can't differentiate between 409 00:30:30,180 --> 00:30:35,420 a homicide or a suicide or an accident. 410 00:30:35,420 --> 00:30:42,260 There may have been someone else involved or it may have been a self-inflicted drowning. 411 00:30:42,260 --> 00:30:48,780 There were two bruises to the left upper portion of the arm. 412 00:30:48,780 --> 00:30:53,540 The bruising on Joanne Romain's upper arm certainly could have been the result of an 413 00:30:53,540 --> 00:30:59,540 assault or some kind of injury inflicted by another person, or it could represent just 414 00:30:59,540 --> 00:31:02,580 two coincidental bruises to the arm. 415 00:31:02,940 --> 00:31:07,820 However, it would be my opinion that those bruises were anti-mortem or occurred before 416 00:31:07,820 --> 00:31:08,820 death. 417 00:31:12,820 --> 00:31:17,300 So this was my mom's brand new designer purse that she had purchased about six weeks before 418 00:31:17,300 --> 00:31:19,180 she disappeared. 419 00:31:19,180 --> 00:31:23,780 And this is the condition it was in when we got the purse back from the police. 420 00:31:23,780 --> 00:31:25,940 It's ripped. 421 00:31:25,940 --> 00:31:28,540 There's a big hole where the rip was. 422 00:31:28,540 --> 00:31:35,460 My mom always had her purse on her left shoulder like this, and she had contusions on her upper 423 00:31:35,460 --> 00:31:40,460 left arm, which is the same place that she carried her purse. 424 00:31:45,580 --> 00:31:49,940 So that's just another piece of evidence that suggests she was grabbed. 425 00:31:49,940 --> 00:31:51,780 Her purse was ripped. 426 00:31:51,780 --> 00:31:56,420 To me, that is important evidence that there was a crime that committed against her that 427 00:31:56,420 --> 00:31:58,420 she did not commit suicide. 428 00:31:58,700 --> 00:32:03,020 You're aware that Ms. Romain's purse was found in the car, correct? 429 00:32:03,020 --> 00:32:03,540 Yes, sir. 430 00:32:03,540 --> 00:32:05,140 You're aware that it was torn, correct? 431 00:32:05,140 --> 00:32:06,260 Yes, sir. 432 00:32:06,260 --> 00:32:07,940 Why do you believe it's not evidence of a crime? 433 00:32:07,940 --> 00:32:09,380 Because where the tear was. 434 00:32:09,380 --> 00:32:10,100 Where was the tear? 435 00:32:10,100 --> 00:32:11,780 The tear was not on a strap. 436 00:32:11,780 --> 00:32:14,180 It didn't appear to come from a physical struggle. 437 00:32:14,180 --> 00:32:15,940 There was no buckle torn free. 438 00:32:15,940 --> 00:32:18,020 There was no rivet torn. 439 00:32:18,020 --> 00:32:20,940 It came from by the flap area of the purse. 440 00:32:20,940 --> 00:32:23,020 They never fingerprinted the purse. 441 00:32:23,020 --> 00:32:25,460 They never got any DNA off of it. 442 00:32:25,460 --> 00:32:27,740 They never tested it for any DNA. 443 00:32:27,740 --> 00:32:29,860 And they just acted like, oh, no big deal. 444 00:32:29,860 --> 00:32:32,220 So it's shredded and torn. 445 00:32:32,220 --> 00:32:34,980 That's just probably how it was. 446 00:32:34,980 --> 00:32:38,340 And just let it go like that. 447 00:32:38,340 --> 00:32:43,660 When they found my mom's body, her car keys were found zipped up in her coat pocket. 448 00:32:48,060 --> 00:32:51,420 Now, what bothers me about that is that everything was zipped up. 449 00:32:51,420 --> 00:32:53,540 Her coat pockets were zipped up. 450 00:32:53,540 --> 00:32:56,380 Her jacket was zipped up toward chin. 451 00:32:56,380 --> 00:32:57,340 That didn't make sense. 452 00:32:57,340 --> 00:32:59,780 Because she never zipped up her jacket. 453 00:32:59,780 --> 00:33:01,140 It's not something she would have done. 454 00:33:05,180 --> 00:33:07,260 There's two things that were missing. 455 00:33:07,260 --> 00:33:09,820 And it was her rosary and her cell phone. 456 00:33:09,820 --> 00:33:12,500 Both are things that she would have had in her coat pocket. 457 00:33:15,300 --> 00:33:18,300 When there's some type of crime committed, 458 00:33:18,300 --> 00:33:19,700 what's the first thing you want to get rid of? 459 00:33:19,700 --> 00:33:23,420 A cell phone, because you can track a cell phone. 460 00:33:23,420 --> 00:33:26,260 The other thing was that her shoes were intact. 461 00:33:27,820 --> 00:33:33,820 The police assert that she walked down an embankment over some concrete rods 462 00:33:33,820 --> 00:33:38,940 into some rocks, walked out 100 yards to drown herself. 463 00:33:38,940 --> 00:33:41,700 Now, the entire bottom of the lake is rocky. 464 00:33:46,180 --> 00:33:47,220 Her clothes were intact. 465 00:33:47,220 --> 00:33:49,100 Her shoes were still on. 466 00:33:49,100 --> 00:33:54,420 So it didn't really seem that she had been traveling too far and gone through too much 467 00:33:54,420 --> 00:33:58,180 to have all of her clothes still on, her shoes still intact, 468 00:33:58,180 --> 00:34:00,140 you know, her jewelry still on. 469 00:34:00,140 --> 00:34:01,180 It's very odd. 470 00:34:14,500 --> 00:34:17,460 I believe that my mama was abducted while walking out of church. 471 00:34:17,460 --> 00:34:21,900 She was grabbed from the left side where the bruises and contusions are on her arm 472 00:34:21,900 --> 00:34:22,900 and her purse was ripped. 473 00:34:24,420 --> 00:34:29,140 Pushed into her own car where the abductor then drove away in her vehicle. 474 00:34:30,420 --> 00:34:34,140 They took her somewhere along the Detroit River, 475 00:34:34,140 --> 00:34:38,700 rendered her unconscious or killed her, put her body in the water, 476 00:34:38,700 --> 00:34:40,900 drove the car back to the church, 477 00:34:40,900 --> 00:34:45,420 parked it in a spot where it would maybe get a little attention, 478 00:34:45,420 --> 00:34:48,900 and created the scene in the snow with the trampled footprints 479 00:34:48,900 --> 00:34:50,460 and the butt marks in the snow. 480 00:34:51,460 --> 00:34:56,220 Her car being moved from the location and back to the church 481 00:34:56,220 --> 00:34:58,220 indicates it was foul play. 482 00:34:58,220 --> 00:35:02,220 Whoever did this wanted it to look like a suicide, 483 00:35:02,220 --> 00:35:07,220 so they left her purse on the seat of the car after they abducted her and took her. 484 00:35:08,220 --> 00:35:11,780 Did the fact that this Alexis was not in the parking lot, 485 00:35:11,780 --> 00:35:14,060 according to a number of witnesses, 486 00:35:15,060 --> 00:35:18,060 and then was in the parking lot later that evening, 487 00:35:18,660 --> 00:35:21,660 did that particular fact or that evidence 488 00:35:22,660 --> 00:35:27,060 make you think one way or another about whether or not this was an abduction, 489 00:35:27,060 --> 00:35:29,060 suicide or something suspicious? 490 00:35:29,060 --> 00:35:30,060 No. 491 00:35:32,660 --> 00:35:36,660 I believe that more than one person abducted my sister Joanne. 492 00:35:36,660 --> 00:35:39,660 I think they took her to scare her. 493 00:35:39,660 --> 00:35:41,660 I really do think that. 494 00:35:41,660 --> 00:35:44,660 I don't think the intention was to kill her. 495 00:35:44,660 --> 00:35:47,660 If it wasn't a robbery motive, which it didn't appear to be, 496 00:35:47,660 --> 00:35:52,260 it could have been some sort of an issue between her and someone else, 497 00:35:52,260 --> 00:35:55,260 a family member, I mean, because most of the time it is family, 498 00:35:55,260 --> 00:35:59,260 but not all the time, or someone that you knew that knew she'd be there, 499 00:35:59,260 --> 00:36:02,260 may have been following her or just knew she was going there. 500 00:36:05,260 --> 00:36:09,260 We definitely know enough that it was not a suicide, it was a murder. 501 00:36:10,260 --> 00:36:13,260 Once you sit back and reflect, you realize, oh, wow, 502 00:36:13,260 --> 00:36:16,260 look at all these dots that do not connect. 503 00:36:18,260 --> 00:36:21,260 I think that's the reason why I'm so happy. 504 00:36:21,260 --> 00:36:25,260 Initially, I told the police there was potentially several suspects. 505 00:36:26,260 --> 00:36:28,260 Joanne was my father. 506 00:36:29,260 --> 00:36:33,260 My mom and my dad, they were married a long time, 25 years. 507 00:36:33,260 --> 00:36:36,260 Towards the end, the reason they separated was 508 00:36:36,260 --> 00:36:39,260 she just got to a point she was fed up and, you know, 509 00:36:39,260 --> 00:36:42,260 she just wanted to live like a peaceful, happy life 510 00:36:42,260 --> 00:36:46,260 instead of a toxic, you know, argumentive household. 511 00:36:46,860 --> 00:36:49,860 My dad was really angry that my mom left him. 512 00:36:50,860 --> 00:36:53,860 And so there's always that in the back of your mind, 513 00:36:53,860 --> 00:36:55,860 like, could he have done it, something? 514 00:36:55,860 --> 00:36:58,860 But I wasn't really sure, but still part of him on the list. 515 00:36:58,860 --> 00:37:01,860 I asked Michelle to contact David Romain 516 00:37:01,860 --> 00:37:06,860 for the purpose of an interview, and he declined to be interviewed. 517 00:37:06,860 --> 00:37:10,860 But with my investigation, I didn't find anything that would indicate 518 00:37:10,860 --> 00:37:12,860 that he had anything to do with her disappearance. 519 00:37:16,260 --> 00:37:21,860 I told the police my number two suspect is Joanne Matuke, her brother. 520 00:37:21,860 --> 00:37:26,860 I don't think he did anything, but I thought that there could have been people out to get Joanne, 521 00:37:26,860 --> 00:37:29,860 and it could have been a revenge on my mom because of him. 522 00:37:30,860 --> 00:37:33,860 Joanne has a interesting past. 523 00:37:33,860 --> 00:37:36,860 A lot of business deals that hadn't gone right, 524 00:37:36,860 --> 00:37:40,860 and a lot of people that he allegedly owed money to. 525 00:37:41,860 --> 00:37:44,860 There was rumors that Joanne had a large amount of money 526 00:37:44,860 --> 00:37:49,860 that he owed to a number of people, and that this could be a plausible reason for Joanne's disappearance. 527 00:37:49,860 --> 00:37:53,860 I did speak with him. He says he had nothing to do with it. 528 00:37:53,860 --> 00:37:57,860 And maybe he didn't. Maybe it was someone that he was dealing with. 529 00:37:57,860 --> 00:38:00,860 Had he had some dealings with? I don't know. 530 00:38:03,860 --> 00:38:08,860 I think it's entirely possible that John got in trouble with somebody, 531 00:38:08,860 --> 00:38:12,860 and everybody knew that he and Joanne were very tight. 532 00:38:12,860 --> 00:38:15,860 And in some situations, she bailed him out financially. 533 00:38:15,860 --> 00:38:20,860 So I think if somebody wanted to get back at John Matuke or send a message to him, 534 00:38:20,860 --> 00:38:24,860 there would be no better way to do it than to kill his sister, 535 00:38:24,860 --> 00:38:27,860 the probably the most important person to him in his life. 536 00:38:31,860 --> 00:38:35,860 Well, in 2009 and 10, I was struggling financially. 537 00:38:35,860 --> 00:38:37,860 The real estate depression hit. 538 00:38:37,860 --> 00:38:41,860 It was awful for everybody that had any real estate liabilities at all. 539 00:38:42,860 --> 00:38:46,860 So I owed a lot of money to certain people. 540 00:38:46,860 --> 00:38:52,860 It's possible that someone I had dealings with could have murdered Joanne. 541 00:38:52,860 --> 00:38:54,860 I can't control that. 542 00:38:54,860 --> 00:38:57,860 Sorry that this happened no matter what. 543 00:38:57,860 --> 00:39:00,860 Wish they would have done this to me. 544 00:39:04,860 --> 00:39:08,860 I told the police my number one suspect must be cousin. 545 00:39:08,860 --> 00:39:11,860 That was a cop. His name was Tim Matuke. 546 00:39:11,860 --> 00:39:13,860 Can you give me your full name, please? 547 00:39:13,860 --> 00:39:15,860 Timothy James Matuke. 548 00:39:15,860 --> 00:39:18,860 Tim is a first cousin of my mom. 549 00:39:18,860 --> 00:39:23,860 There was a strange relationship between Tim and my mom. 550 00:39:25,860 --> 00:39:27,860 We had a big family, a big loving family. 551 00:39:27,860 --> 00:39:31,860 But as soon as my grandma had passed in 1994, 552 00:39:31,860 --> 00:39:34,860 the family just started falling apart. 553 00:39:34,860 --> 00:39:38,860 There was a lawsuit between the siblings over family inheritance, 554 00:39:38,860 --> 00:39:40,860 which was pretty substantial. 555 00:39:40,860 --> 00:39:43,860 Money was supposed to be split five equal ways, 556 00:39:43,860 --> 00:39:46,860 and it was never distributed popularly. 557 00:39:46,860 --> 00:39:51,860 And ever since that time, the family had never been the same. 558 00:39:51,860 --> 00:39:56,860 When was it you last spoke to Joanne 559 00:39:56,860 --> 00:40:00,860 prior to discovering she was missing? 560 00:40:00,860 --> 00:40:03,860 It was sometime in October of 2009. 561 00:40:03,860 --> 00:40:05,860 In the weeks before my mom disappeared, 562 00:40:05,860 --> 00:40:07,860 Tim Matuke had called my mom. 563 00:40:07,860 --> 00:40:10,860 And she got into an argument with him. 564 00:40:10,860 --> 00:40:13,860 And I don't know what he said to her exactly, 565 00:40:13,860 --> 00:40:15,860 but I remember her screaming at him, 566 00:40:15,860 --> 00:40:17,860 saying, how did you get my number? 567 00:40:17,860 --> 00:40:19,860 Never call me again. 568 00:40:19,860 --> 00:40:22,860 I could hear him yelling, but I couldn't hear what he said. 569 00:40:22,860 --> 00:40:25,860 And I heard her say, leave me and my family alone. 570 00:40:25,860 --> 00:40:27,860 Never call me again. 571 00:40:27,860 --> 00:40:29,860 She hung up on him. 572 00:40:29,860 --> 00:40:31,860 And at that moment, she turned to me and said, 573 00:40:31,860 --> 00:40:33,860 if something happens to me, look to Tim. 574 00:40:33,860 --> 00:40:36,860 Do you recall today the conversation that you had with her? 575 00:40:36,860 --> 00:40:38,860 I do. 576 00:40:38,860 --> 00:40:41,860 My cousin Billy had called me and told me that Joanne 577 00:40:41,860 --> 00:40:45,860 had just said to him that all of Joanne's problems 578 00:40:45,860 --> 00:40:47,860 were because of me. 579 00:40:47,860 --> 00:40:52,860 So I took exception to that, and I called Joanne's phone number. 580 00:40:52,860 --> 00:40:55,860 I asked her, I said, Joanne, why would you tell people 581 00:40:55,860 --> 00:40:59,860 that I am the reason why Joanne's got so many problems? 582 00:40:59,860 --> 00:41:03,860 Her response to me was, you're just nothing but a big troublemaker. 583 00:41:03,860 --> 00:41:06,860 I don't even want to talk to you, and she hung up the phone. 584 00:41:08,860 --> 00:41:11,860 Throughout all of my interviews, it became apparent 585 00:41:11,860 --> 00:41:14,860 that there was a lot of infighting going on 586 00:41:14,860 --> 00:41:18,860 and a lot of dislike amongst family members, 587 00:41:18,860 --> 00:41:22,860 which, again, makes it even harder and more difficult 588 00:41:22,860 --> 00:41:26,860 to try to get down to the root cause of Joanne's disappearance 589 00:41:26,860 --> 00:41:28,860 and subsequent death. 590 00:41:28,860 --> 00:41:32,860 Did you attend the funeral service of Joanne Matuke, 591 00:41:32,860 --> 00:41:34,860 who remained your cousin? 592 00:41:34,860 --> 00:41:36,860 No, I did not. 593 00:41:36,860 --> 00:41:40,860 Were you specifically asked to avoid that service? 594 00:41:40,860 --> 00:41:41,860 I was. 595 00:41:41,860 --> 00:41:44,860 Who specifically asked that you not attend 596 00:41:44,860 --> 00:41:48,860 and pay respects to your cousins? 597 00:41:48,860 --> 00:41:53,860 It came from John Matuke, and just to avoid any controversy or conflict, 598 00:41:53,860 --> 00:41:56,860 we decided it was better that I don't go. 599 00:41:56,860 --> 00:42:01,860 It's my understanding that there was probably some personality clashes 600 00:42:01,860 --> 00:42:03,860 between Tim and John. 601 00:42:03,860 --> 00:42:06,860 I think Tim may be harbored some bad feelings towards John, 602 00:42:06,860 --> 00:42:09,860 so there's a lot of family dynamics that come into play, 603 00:42:09,860 --> 00:42:11,860 and they kind of feed off of each other. 604 00:42:11,860 --> 00:42:13,860 There was an issue between Tim and John. 605 00:42:13,860 --> 00:42:14,860 They were butting heads. 606 00:42:14,860 --> 00:42:17,860 Tim was always poking his nose into what John was doing. 607 00:42:17,860 --> 00:42:22,860 It's just been ugly between the two of them, and it always has. 608 00:42:23,860 --> 00:42:26,860 My mom was always kind of like a mentor to John. 609 00:42:26,860 --> 00:42:31,860 So when John was having an issue, or especially this battle he had going on with Tim, 610 00:42:31,860 --> 00:42:35,860 I felt like my mom was trying to be, you know, the mediator, 611 00:42:35,860 --> 00:42:39,860 the peacekeeper of the drama that was going on. 612 00:42:41,860 --> 00:42:47,860 In the back of my mind, I just keep rehashing that conversation she had with me regarding 613 00:42:47,860 --> 00:42:51,860 Tim and the conversation and the fight on the phone, 614 00:42:51,860 --> 00:42:56,860 even though I don't know what the content of the reasoning he's calling her is, 615 00:42:56,860 --> 00:43:00,860 but I do know that she has a fear of him, and now she's gone. 616 00:43:01,860 --> 00:43:08,860 Did you at any point in time conspire with anyone to have Joe Ramatook remain murderous? 617 00:43:08,860 --> 00:43:10,860 No, I did not. 618 00:43:10,860 --> 00:43:14,860 I did speak with Tim Matook, 619 00:43:14,860 --> 00:43:17,860 and I found him to be credible. 620 00:43:17,860 --> 00:43:22,860 I didn't find anything that would indicate that he had anything to do with her disappearance. 621 00:43:23,860 --> 00:43:30,860 Was there ever a time that the department considered a crime you had been kid-emitted against Miss Romain? 622 00:43:31,860 --> 00:43:32,860 No, sir. 623 00:43:33,860 --> 00:43:37,860 Do you have a belief as to how Miss Romain died? 624 00:43:37,860 --> 00:43:40,860 My belief is she committed suicide. 625 00:43:40,860 --> 00:43:44,860 And not just that she committed suicide. How did she do it? 626 00:43:44,860 --> 00:43:46,860 By drowning, walked into water. 627 00:43:47,860 --> 00:43:51,860 So you think she just walked into the water and just kept walking? 628 00:43:51,860 --> 00:43:54,860 I don't know about that. I believe she entered the water. 629 00:43:54,860 --> 00:43:57,860 How far she walked without falling or whatever, I don't know. 630 00:43:57,860 --> 00:43:59,860 We have no witnesses to that. 631 00:44:00,860 --> 00:44:06,860 Knowing the history of her youngest brother and the stress he may have brought into the relationship, 632 00:44:06,860 --> 00:44:12,860 knowing the history of the family divide between half the family against the other half of the family, 633 00:44:12,860 --> 00:44:17,860 these are all things that could lead a reasonable person such as myself in this field 634 00:44:17,860 --> 00:44:21,860 to believe these are major stressors that could lead to a suicide. 635 00:44:27,860 --> 00:44:33,860 In all my years in law enforcement, we don't operate on theories, we operate on facts. 636 00:44:33,860 --> 00:44:40,860 All the facts that I've obtained through my interviews indicate to me that I really can't determine. 637 00:44:40,860 --> 00:44:47,860 I can't determine whether she took her own life or whether it was done through other criminal means. 638 00:45:03,860 --> 00:45:24,860 My mom was a very strong spirit. As much as we miss her every day, they still feel her around a lot. 639 00:45:26,860 --> 00:45:32,860 So don't really feel like she's completely gone, if that makes any sense at all. 640 00:45:33,860 --> 00:45:37,860 She gave me this rosary that I keep with me. 641 00:45:39,860 --> 00:45:44,860 She wanted me to, you know, have faith. I think about her often. 642 00:45:45,860 --> 00:45:50,860 I'm never going to move on until this gets exposed and solved. 643 00:45:50,860 --> 00:45:59,860 And we adjust this for her and we put certain people that I believe are responsible for the murder of my sister, 644 00:45:59,860 --> 00:46:02,860 where they should be, prison. 645 00:46:03,860 --> 00:46:09,860 The day that she disappeared, we lost everything. It's empty. 646 00:46:09,860 --> 00:46:14,860 You don't have that love anymore, you don't have that light. 647 00:46:15,860 --> 00:46:23,860 I miss everything. But just, you know, that warmth and love and just comfort that she would give us. 648 00:46:23,860 --> 00:46:27,860 And, you know, that's something you can never really get back. 649 00:46:33,860 --> 00:46:36,860 I'm not going to let you go. 650 00:46:36,860 --> 00:46:39,860 I'm not going to let you go. 651 00:46:39,860 --> 00:46:42,860 I'm not going to let you go. 652 00:46:42,860 --> 00:46:45,860 I'm not going to let you go. 653 00:46:45,860 --> 00:46:48,860 I'm not going to let you go. 654 00:46:48,860 --> 00:46:51,860 I'm not going to let you go. 655 00:46:51,860 --> 00:46:54,860 I'm not going to let you go. 656 00:46:54,860 --> 00:46:57,860 I'm not going to let you go. 657 00:46:57,860 --> 00:47:00,860 I'm not going to let you go. 658 00:47:00,860 --> 00:47:03,860 I'm not going to let you go. 659 00:47:30,860 --> 00:47:33,860 You 660 00:48:00,860 --> 00:48:02,860 You