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Narrator/Host
Teens share everything that may include the bacteria that can cause meningococcal disease known as meningitis. Even if your teen's been vaccinated in
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the past, they could still be missing meningitis vaccinations.
Narrator/Host
Ask your teen's doctor or visit meningitis.com today. Sponsored by GSK. Welcome to the True Crime Vault, home to 2020's most chilling stories. A young woman goes missing from a mall. The surveillance tapes and the frantic search
Alan Shadin (Drew's Father)
told 2020 starts right now.
Victoria's Secret Manager
The fear of women walking out to their car by themselves. It's a real feeling that everybody has felt.
Investigator/Detective
Drew was working at Victoria's Secret.
Narrator/Host
She did a little Christmas shopping, headed to her car, and then went missing from the mall.
Law Enforcement Officer
She was talking with her boyfriend.
Prosecutor/Attorney
Her last words that he heard her say were okay, okay. And the phone went dead.
Journalist/Reporter
It's the last time anyone heard from Drew Schedeen.
Narrator/Host
The family of missing college student Drew Shodeen is still holding out hope that she will be found alive.
Investigator/Detective
At the time of her disappearance, she was a 22 year old UND college student.
Narrator/Host
Did you feel safe?
Gamma Phi Beta Sorority Sister
I felt Safe. We were 17 to 22 year olds. We were invincible.
Alan Shadin (Drew's Father)
I found her car and I just sat there.
Narrator/Host
You were holding vigil at her car?
Alan Shadin (Drew's Father)
I was sitting right there, yeah.
Narrator/Host
Do you believe this morning that she is still alive?
Law Enforcement Officer
Well, we're certainly hoping so, Diane.
Narrator/Host
It's a mystery that would wait 20 years for resolution.
Investigator/Detective
In the parking lot of the mall was found a knife sheath.
Detective/Investigator
Whoever lost that sheath may very well be involved in the abduction of that girl.
Gamma Phi Beta Sorority Sister
It was just a daunting feeling in the pit of my stomach knowing that something is desperately wrong.
Narrator/Host
This is such a large area to cover.
BCA Agent/Investigator
There were people who she may have had contact with that she wouldn't even recognize as a potential threat.
Narrator/Host
Red, you have a serial predator on your hands.
Law Enforcement Analyst/Investigator
Yep.
Detective/Investigator
Yep.
Narrator/Host
For most people in the land of 10,000 lakes, heading up north means taking a trip to their weekend cabin. Few are lucky enough to call the north woods home year round. But the Minnesota father who built this cabin with his own two hands is one of them. This is you and Drew. What year is this, do you know?
Alan Shadin (Drew's Father)
2000. Just getting ready to go to college.
Narrator/Host
Yeah.
Alan Shadin (Drew's Father)
Yeah.
Narrator/Host
Alan Shadin has called his daughter Drew Druzy ever since she was little. She vanished just before Thanksgiving in 2003. That's one of her early works, right?
Alan Shadin (Drew's Father)
Yes, that one's real early. I think she was seven or eight years old when she drew that.
Victoria's Secret Manager
Amazing.
Narrator/Host
It's basically the View right outside the window.
Detective/Investigator
Yep.
Narrator/Host
As a college student, Drew was majoring in graphic design. But it's clear she had been an artist long before that. Before she disappeared, Drew was a senior at the University of North Dakota and so excited to graduate. But the Gamma Phi Beta sorority sister would never get the chance.
Alan Shadin (Drew's Father)
Last time I saw her was right downtown Park Rapids, watching a Vikings game.
Narrator/Host
That's a good memory.
Shirley Iverson (Victim from Rodriguez's Past)
Yeah, yeah.
Alan Shadin (Drew's Father)
And as I drove away, I had this really eerie feeling.
Narrator/Host
Do you remember the last thing you said to her?
Alan Shadin (Drew's Father)
Oh, be careful. I love you.
Narrator/Host
One month later, and a few hours away In Grand Forks, North Dakota is when and where Alan Shadine's 20 year nightmare would begin.
Law Enforcement Officer
So the Columbia Mall is in the south end of Grand Forks. It's just a shadow of what it was back in 2003. Several of the businesses inside have closed. And Victoria's Secret, where Drew was working, that closed several years ago. In 2003, during the Drew Shuddeen investigation, I was assigned to assist. At the time, my partner was Horry Seneschal.
Investigator/Detective
Grand forks was approximately 50,000 people at the time. It's right along the Red river, on the west side of the Red river, putting it into North Dakota. The University of North Dakota was a big part of that town.
Narrator/Host
Just across the Red river is Minnesota and the city of East Grand Forks. But for people living on both sides, it feels like one big community.
Investigator/Detective
People were nice and everybody, I think, felt comfortable there. And there wasn't a lot of crime.
Narrator/Host
It's a place where people might think bad things don't happen here. But what happened to Drew Shadin changed everything.
Investigator/Detective
On November 22, 2003, Drew was working at Victoria's Secret in Columbia Mall. I believe she was scheduled to get off work at 4pm after work, she went to Marshall Fields, which was also in the mall, so she could purchase a purse. They found video at Marshall Fields. In the video, you can see Drew entering the store, exiting the store.
Law Enforcement Officer
Drew was wearing black pants, a black pea coat, and she had a pink shirt on underneath the coat.
Investigator/Detective
She was a 22 year old undefeated college student. She was from Pequot Lakes, Minnesota. She was described as one of those people that everybody liked. Bubbly personality, outgoing, very kind, very giving.
Narrator/Host
The purse she bought at Marshall Fields that afternoon was a gift for her mom.
Investigator/Detective
It would have been dark or getting to be dark at 5 o'.
Detective/Investigator
Clock.
Investigator/Detective
It was November 22nd. So approaching the winter months, she made a phone call to her boyfriend, Christopher Lang, and she was speaking with Christopher as she was walking to her car.
Law Enforcement Officer
Drew had been talking on the phone from roughly 5pm to 5:04pm to her boyfriend. And that phone call was interrupted and she abruptly hung up. Prior to doing so, she said something along the lines of, okay, okay,
Investigator/Detective
we've all been leaving work, talking on the phone, multitasking, doing this, doing that. And then all of a sudden, in the blink of an eye, you're in that situation and you know, things have changed forever.
Journalist/Reporter
I'm a journalist from Minnesota, and this was one of the first big cases I covered a few years out of college. Being close to Drew in age, it really impacted me. I think Drew's case touched people on a national level because she seemed just like everybody's daughter, everybody's friend, somebody that everybody could identify with. And it was tragic when she disappeared.
Narrator/Host
Chris initially thinks Drew's going to call back. When six o' clock rolls around and he hasn't heard from her, he gets worried. He starts calling her and leaving messages. He also calls her roommate and learns she hasn't been back to their apartment.
Law Enforcement Officer
Later in the evening, Drew's boyfriend Chris did receive a phone call from Drew's phone, but at that time, there was no communication. All Chris was able to hear at that point was what sounded like the buttons being pushed. And that was approximately 7:42pm Drew's boyfriend
Narrator/Host
calls Drew's roommate, Meg Murphy, again and suggests she try calling the bar where Drew was supposed to work a shift later that night.
Investigator/Detective
She was employed at El Rocco Bar. She was supposed to work, I believe, at 9pm that night, and she did not show up for work. They didn't think she would have not shown up for work without calling somebody or letting somebody know,
Narrator/Host
hi, I'm calling one of our. Actually, my roommates was supposed to be home like a couple hours ago. How old is he? 22.
Police Officer
November 22, 2016. In 2003, I'd heard them dispatch one of our other officers to talk to a roommate of a cattle that hadn't shown up. I said, well, I drive down with the mall and see if I can spot her car. We're in the northeast parking lot of the mall outside the Penney's building, and Drew's car was parked in this space. Red old's Cutlass was parked in this parking spot. By 11 o' clock when I got here, the lot was pretty much empty and there wasn't anybody around, so it was easy to find. I went and looked in the car. It looked like a bomb had gone off in the backseat. But then a lot of Kids had cars like that. So I did find the bag with the purse that she bought at Marshall Fields. I locked it up by the driver's side. Rear wheel was a black object, so it looked out of place. The knife sheath was laying by the left rear tire on the driver's side. I picked it up, put it in my pocket. I have no idea how important that piece of evidence was going to turn out to be
Narrator/Host
as the search for Drew continues. Police soon asked Drew's boyfriend, Chris, more questions, including why he didn't call police right away.
Detective/Investigator
It wasn't a scream. It wasn't. It wasn't anything that would. It was just a. It cut off.
Investigator/Detective
He was in a relationship with her. We needed to verify his alibi. Oftentimes, the people close to the victim are responsible for their disappearance.
Narrator/Host
On the night of the disappearance, how did you get word?
Alan Shadin (Drew's Father)
I got a phone call. They. It found her car in the parking lot.
Narrator/Host
Were you alarmed? What was your initial reaction?
Alan Shadin (Drew's Father)
Oh, I was panicked. I jumped in my work truck and took off. And it was a snowstorm that night, and I had to follow behind a semi because it was snowing so crazy.
Narrator/Host
What did you feel in your gut?
Alan Shadin (Drew's Father)
I think you don't want to think the worst. You know, you're trying to be positive. First, I drove down to the police station. There wasn't anybody around. I pounded on the doors, couldn't get in. So then I jumped in my car, my pickup, and I drove back to the shopping center. And I found her car. And I just sat there.
Narrator/Host
You sat with the car?
Alan Shadin (Drew's Father)
Sat with the car.
Narrator/Host
You were holding vigil at her car.
Alan Shadin (Drew's Father)
I was sitting right there, yeah. It was God awful, terrible night.
Sven Shadin (Drew's Brother)
I had received a phone call from my father, and my dad said, drew's missing. It doesn't look good. I just remember going, you know, I don't understand what this all means. He goes, she's missing, Sven. We just don't know where she is, and we don't think that it's good. He shared the story of what happened while Chris was on the phone, walking out in the parking lot by herself. I had moved away. I was starting a family in California, and Drew was working on college. I didn't really know my sister's pattern in life at that time. I didn't know where she could be or what she might be doing. She loved her sorority and her sorority sisters up there.
Gamma Phi Beta Sorority Sister
It was my second year on campus at und, and I thought joining a sorority was the last thing on earth I would do. And meeting the sisterhood of Gamma Phi Beta, and especially Drew. All of a sudden, I was enrolled as a Greek.
Narrator/Host
How did she draw you in?
Gamma Phi Beta Sorority Sister
Her big blue eyes, first off, was one driving factor. Her smile could light up a room.
Narrator/Host
What was Gamma Phi Beta like on campus?
Gamma Phi Beta Sorority Sister
If you've ever seen it, it is a pink cancel. It is high energy. That's what I remember. Everyone loved them. A slice of Deke's pizza. You would all be centered around a large pizza and sharing laughter and life, really. I remember rush week walking down University Avenue, and I was like, ah, I don't know if this is for me. And she just told me, trust in your journey. And you only get one. Try it this life, so those it will stay in my memory forever.
Sven Shadin (Drew's Brother)
I was looking forward to having Auntie Druzy there to be a part of my son's life. We're two years apart. Around 1990, 1991, we moved up to Pequot Lakes, Minnesota.
Narrator/Host
It is recording. If it's recording.
Alan Shadin (Drew's Father)
No, I can't tell if it's recording or not. I had already separated from Linda, the mother of my children.
Sven Shadin (Drew's Brother)
My parents divorced when I was 7, so Drew was 5. We live with my mother and my stepfather, Sid Walker. We call him Sitter. He was an amazing man. We grew up in a very beautiful lake. It's a beautiful place.
Friend/Acquaintance
First time we met, I was out on a jet ski that broke down. Drew and Sven happened to be driving by in a boat, and he essentially towed me home. Drew was energetic, she was compassionate. And the right amount of goofy mixed in there.
Alan Shadin (Drew's Father)
The opportunity to move to the lake was really good for her and her brother.
Narrator/Host
There's Druzy.
Officer Connolly
Hi.
Alan Shadin (Drew's Father)
Gave her a lot of freedom, gave her a work ethic. Because she started working young
Narrator/Host
in high school, Drew spent summers waiting tables at the Manhattan Beach Lodge on Big Trout Lake. It's just a few minutes away from her home. A place where little has changed. Where a photo of her in the newspaper is still displayed alongside an article touting the food and the resort.
Sven Shadin (Drew's Brother)
My sister loved her high school years playing basketball and golf and was actually quite good at that.
Narrator/Host
She was very popular. She was homecoming queen.
Alan Shadin (Drew's Father)
Yes.
Narrator/Host
Do you remember that?
Alan Shadin (Drew's Father)
Absolutely.
Narrator/Host
What was that like?
Alan Shadin (Drew's Father)
Oh, it's fantastic. She deserved it. She was one of those kids that everybody loved. Coaches, teachers, townspeople, neighbors. I just see her smile and her grace and her gentleness. Really gentle, but tough.
Narrator/Host
Around the same time, Drew's car and a knife sheath were discovered in the Columbia Mall parking lot. Word that Drew was missing was already spreading around campus. She hadn't shown up at her on campus apartment. How did you get word that she was missing?
Gamma Phi Beta Sorority Sister
Well, with the sisterhood kind of the calling train came out. Has anyone heard from Drew? Big sisters would call little sisters and then just make sure that everyone at that time had not heard from Drew. We started making calls throughout where she could be or possibilities. It was just a daunting feeling in the pit of my stomach knowing that something is desperately wrong, Desperately wrong.
Narrator/Host
As for Chris Lang, the last person Drew spoke to on the night she disappeared, police wanted to know why he didn't call authorities immediately when their call got cut off.
Detective/Investigator
She was telling me about the stuff she bought. I'm picturing her, like, driving out of the parking lot abruptly. It was. She said, she said. She said. She said something like, okay. Okay is how I remember it. And I know, and I know it struck me as a little odd. It wasn't a scream. It wasn't. It wasn't anything that would. It was. It was just a. It cut off. I remember saying to her in a message that. That I left her, like, you know, did you get in a little bender, bender? And then later on that night, Sid called me at like midnight or something, and he told me that. That they had found her car in the parking lot. And that, to me, was the moment I knew that she, indeed, in my
Narrator/Host
estimation, was taken because Chris was 300 miles away, moving into a new apartment in Minneapolis. Police say he was never really a person of interest. So who was?
Law Enforcement Officer
We're listening to any tidbit of information, so someone gives us, we don't know
Investigator/Detective
her patterns, we don't know who she knows. And we're looking to those people who are close to her to find out that information. Meg had mentioned that she was familiar with a person by the name of Mike who Drew had at some point, some kind of a romantic relationship with. Drew met Mike through her work at El Rocco. I believe he was a patron who frequented there. Mike Hager was a mechanic. He lived in Grand Forks. He was kind of outside of Drew's normal circle of friends.
Narrator/Host
He's someone she and Drew's dad, Allen, were both concerned about. Why did you think the police should look at Mike Hager?
Alan Shadin (Drew's Father)
Well, just because of a couple of things that she'd said. He, you know, he just was kind of glammy and wanted more in the relationship than she was willing to give.
Investigator/Detective
They, at some point, did have some kind of relationship. It seemed as though towards the end, they're kind of starting to annoy her. And that she, you know, kind of wanted to cut ties with him. The morning of November 23, at 6:00am, officers went to Mike Hager's residence. And the person who answered the door said, mike lives here. I'm his roommate, but I haven't seen him for a week. So they left it at that. He didn't realize that the person who answered the door actually was Mike Hager. He lied about who he was.
Narrator/Host
This guy has lied to police. Yes, that's not a good sign. Neither was what Steve Connolly spotted by the front door when he paid Mike Hager a visit.
Officer Connolly
I noticed a pair of female shoes.
Narrator/Host
Did you think maybe they were Drew shoes?
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Investigator/Detective
Meg mentioned Mike's name right away when she reported Drew missing.
Detective/Investigator
I talked to the roommate and we might have a possible suspect. I'm trying to get you information. Information on it right now. Guys are planning to get on her at the El Roco.
Investigator/Detective
It seemed as though he was more interested in a relationship with Drew than she was.
Narrator/Host
When police had knocked on Mike Hager's door, they were told Mike wasn't there, but an officer was assigned to follow up later on.
Officer Connolly
I was a patrol officer at that time. My shift began at 7:30 in the morning and I was then briefed on the investigation that began overnight. I was advised that Drew had gotten off work. Victoria's Secret did not make it to her evening job. Had been on a phone conversation with her boyfriend at the time and that appeared to abruptly ended. They weren't able to make contact with her and that her vehicle had been found at Columbia Mall. I was tasked with trying to make contact with Mike Hager that reportedly had dated Drew. And my understanding was maybe had not wanted the dating to end.
Narrator/Host
And so you knock on the door.
Officer Connolly
Yes.
Prosecutor/Attorney
What happens?
Police Officer
Doors.
Officer Connolly
Answered by a gentleman that I personally know to be Michael Hager.
Narrator/Host
And where did you know him from before?
Officer Connolly
We used to work in a restaurant in the Columbia Mall years prior. He was a cook and I was a manager.
Narrator/Host
When he opened the door, how was he dressed?
Officer Connolly
Just in a pair of sweatpants.
Narrator/Host
Shirtless?
Officer Connolly
Yes. He was open, cordial, smile. He was very nice to me. I said, I understand that the officer had stopped by earlier. And he said, well, I talked to the officer and I said, well, my understanding was you weren't here.
Narrator/Host
This guy has lied to police.
Officer Connolly
Yes.
Narrator/Host
Does that raise alarm bells?
Officer Connolly
It did, absolutely. I asked him about his whereabouts since the day before on Saturday. He provided me information as to him and a friend had come back to his apartment at 5. Numerous other people came over throughout the night.
Narrator/Host
There was some heavy drinking.
Officer Connolly
Yes.
Narrator/Host
And what did you notice by the door that made you think twice?
Officer Connolly
I noticed a pair of female shoes.
Narrator/Host
Did you think maybe they were Drew's shoes?
Officer Connolly
There was a possibility. I said, is there a female in the house? He said, yes. And then a short time later, a female came from the bedroom out into the living room.
Narrator/Host
Officer Connally quickly realized it wasn't Drew Shadim.
Officer Connolly
There were several people on scene that could attest to his whereabouts. When I told him about Drew and she was missing, he understood the seriousness of it, and he's very cooperative.
Narrator/Host
But you're still not letting him off
Officer Connolly
the hook at that point. It's still an active investigation.
Narrator/Host
Connolly realizes that Mike Hager has a misdemeanor arrest warrant for failure to pay some fines and decides to bring him in for further questioning.
Investigator/Detective
They were able to talk to him. He lied about who he was because he was upset that officers were at his house at six in the morning and like they were going to come raid the place. And so that's why he said he lied. He was eliminated.
Narrator/Host
Thanksgiving is approaching, and police are facing a monumental task outside Grand Forks city limits. It's nothing but farm fields as far as the eye can see. Drew could be anywhere.
Law Enforcement Officer
When Drew was reported missing, all of these fields were bare. The ground was frozen at the time. So just a very, very difficult scene than what we have today. Grand Forks is right on the border of North Dakota and Minnesota.
Narrator/Host
Because of that proximity, police wondered if Drew could be on the Minnesota side. And it wasn't long after she vanished that they discovered something else that would make them almost certain of it.
Investigator/Detective
They were able to identify the general location of where the second phone call to Chris Lang had come from. Based on tower data,
Task Force Member/FBI Agent
the FBI initially got involved in Drew's investigation on Sunday around noon. She was taken on Saturday night. The Sprint phone records indicated that her phone was still on and pinging in the Crookston area, which is a town east of Grand Forks in Minnesota.
Narrator/Host
You learned that Drew's cell had pinged?
Alan Shadin (Drew's Father)
Yes.
Narrator/Host
Did that give you hope?
Alan Shadin (Drew's Father)
Oh, it did. It gave us hope that we could at least get to a point where, you know, we might find some evidence or get an understanding what, you know, potentially where she could be.
Narrator/Host
A search of Drew's apartment turned up no clues to her whereabouts. Police collected several items, though, including her sheets, her toothbrush, which could be used to get samples of her DNA, and a book, the Lovely Bones. It's a fictional story written from the point of view of a young woman who goes missing and is murdered. Police hoped Drew's disappearance wouldn't end the same way.
Task Force Member/FBI Agent
Her phone continued to be activated until about 6 o' clock that night, Sunday night.
Law Enforcement Officer
It's obviously, if we can find Drew's phone, we have a better chance of
Narrator/Host
finding Drew and a better chance of finding out who else she might have been talking to just before she disappeared. Is that the kind of thing that might lead investigators to think she had a stalker?
Officer Connolly
Potentially.
Victoria's Secret Manager
Sure.
Law Enforcement Officer
Winter weather started coming in and it started to snow a little bit. We were really trying aggressively to search and try to locate where her phone might be in hopes of finding Drew.
Task Force Member/FBI Agent
This early in the investigation, there's always in the back of your mind the potential that she's a college student who just hasn't been seen yet and will show up. We were able to get great video that showed what Drew was wearing, and we could see that she was bringing the cell phone to her ear right at 5 o' clock as she walked out of Marshall Fields.
Law Enforcement Officer
The video footage of her in Marshall Fields really drew no red flags or concern. There was no indication of anyone following her or her being nervous or upset in any way.
Journalist/Reporter
Police knew how serious this was from the very start. The hangups on the phone, the knife sheath found in the parking lot by her car, neither were a good sign.
Alan Shadin (Drew's Father)
The young deputy, he informed me that they had found a sheath from a knife. And so not certain that he was supposed to tell me that, but he did.
Narrator/Host
That must have sent a chill down your spine.
Alan Shadin (Drew's Father)
Yeah. Yes.
Narrator/Host
I can't imagine the kind of adrenaline you were running on.
Task Force Member/FBI Agent
Yeah.
Narrator/Host
What did that feel like?
Alan Shadin (Drew's Father)
My work life always was high anxiety. We're going to put our shoulders back and we're going to be brave.
Prosecutor/Attorney
I previously served twice actually, as the United States Attorney for North Dakota. I was getting hourly reports, it seemed, because I think we all had a sense that this could have very easily been a crime that would be implicated for federal investigation and prosecution.
Narrator/Host
The Federal Kidnapping act states that if a victim is kidnapped and taken across state lines, the crime falls under federal, not state, jurisdiction. It also allows for harsher sentences, including the death penalty, if that kidnapping results in murder.
Prosecutor/Attorney
There were federal and state and local authorities involved on both sides of the state line with Minnesota, and there was an almost immediate urgency about the matter.
Attorney General or Legal Official
It's almost impossible to avoid working together with state and federal agents from both states when you are located like Grand Forks and Minnesota are.
Law Enforcement Officer
We knew she wasn't with her vehicle. We didn't know what her status was, why her phone was active, where it was. We didn't have any luck finding her phone initially, and obviously we didn't find Drew initially either.
Narrator/Host
Back in Grand Forks, Officer Conley is also back to square one. You were tasked to go to the mall?
Officer Connolly
Yes. When I got there, it was a Sunday early morning, so they would have barely opened. I just went to Victoria's Secret and J.C. penney's.
Victoria's Secret Manager
I was the store director at Victoria's Secret and that is how I first met Drew. It was a great atmosphere, fun, and everybody made it a great place to work. Drew was a sales associate. She was such a bright light. She was so awesome. She was such a happy, smiley, incredible lady.
Officer Connolly
I was able to gather that she had worked yesterday from about noon to 4 and gotten off of work, told one of the employees that she was gonna go pick up something. She had also indicated to an employee that since she did not have to work at her other job till nine, she was gonna go home after work.
Victoria's Secret Manager
It was right before Thanksgiving and we always called it Pink Friday. So it was very busy. Drew worked a day shift and she
Narrator/Host
got done around 4:5pm when we know Drew left the mall was still early in the day during the busy holiday shopping season
Victoria's Secret Manager
starting to become winter. So it gets darker a little bit earlier. The fear of women walking out to their car by themselves, It's a real feeling that everybody has felt not once, twice, but many times.
Journalist/Reporter
Any lingerie store could occasionally attract a few creepy people. And the manager says the store took employees safety seriously.
Victoria's Secret Manager
Our security officers that would Walk. Them all were wonderful. And they would always say, you know, let us know. Give us a call if you're feeling like you have a, you know, a weird vibe from people. So we. We took advantage of that, but it didn't happen very often. They were questioning some of the managers. Was anybody, you know, bothering her or anything like that?
Narrator/Host
And, in fact, investigators learned there was someone who'd been called the store asking for Drew.
Investigator/Detective
There was somebody who kept calling for her with a foreign accent was the only way it was described.
Officer Connolly
There had been a male and a female that repeatedly called the store asking for Drew to the point where they were told, you can no longer call here. And they responded with, well, that's okay. We have her home phone number.
Task Force Member/FBI Agent
My memory of Monday was it was a very busy day.
Narrator/Host
Sunday had come and gone, as did any hope of finding Drew's cell phone, which stopped pinging.
Gamma Phi Beta Sorority Sister
I was wondering what we were going to uncover, and am I ready to gain that knowledge of what really happened to Drew? Because as the minutes ticked on, that feeling in my gut just got bigger and bigger.
Narrator/Host
You were full of dread.
Investigator/Detective
Mm.
Journalist/Reporter
Police decide to go public with their investigation, holding press conferences for local and national media. This was when most people learned that Drew Shadin was missing.
Narrator/Host
The family of missing college college student Drew Shodine is still holding out hope that she will be found alive.
Officer Connolly
Drew's boyfriend, Chris Lang, believes passionately she is still alive.
Sven Shadin (Drew's Brother)
She's.
BCA Agent/Investigator
She's somewhere safe and warm. I believe in my heart, you know, she's fine.
Narrator/Host
The mysterious phone calls Drew was getting at work were also raising concerns. Is that the kind of thing that might lead investigators to think she had a stalker?
Officer Connolly
Potentially. Sure.
Narrator/Host
Figuring out if Drew had a stalker was crucial to the investigation, especially because a female employee of nearby Marshall Fields had recently reported to police that she was being allegedly harassed by a man whom she said makes her uncomfortable. Even ran after her once and has been at the store three or four times in the past month. Police reports show he was ordered to stay out of Marshall Fields, but not out of Columbia Mall, where Drew was when she vanished.
Law Enforcement Officer
His name was Ed Levine. He was continuing to visit a sales clerk at Marshall Fields and paying a lot of attention to this person. It was unwanted attention. At one point, he'd even been warned that returning to that store could cause him to be arrested.
Narrator/Host
One of the first things they found out when they tracked him down was he was near the mall. The day Drew disappeared, he'd been in
Law Enforcement Officer
Ranfork shopping and provided a list of
Narrator/Host
places they Asked for his receipts, he said he'd been home by five o', clock, but they needed to be sure. That's because 5:04pm was when the call Drew was on with her boyfriend, Chris Lang was cut off and she vanished.
Journalist/Reporter
Grand Forks police know they need more help looking for the phone and for Drew. And that's when yet another law enforcement agency gets involved.
BCA Agent/Investigator
In 2003, I was employed as a special agent with the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension. This is in the early days of cell phone technology. And triangulating off of cell phone towers or directional usage from cell phone towers was really just getting started.
Sven Shadin (Drew's Brother)
Winter had come. So we went from great search conditions to look for someone and look for evidence to some of the worst conditions that you could think of. Coming across the tundra, in the air
Narrator/Host
and on all terrain vehicles. The volunteers came from everywhere, Canada to Kansas. Drew is from an area where I had a second home. I knew Drew, I knew many of her friends. I knew I had to try and do something, try and help somehow.
Friend/Acquaintance
Twenty years later, I still can't describe that experience. It's something that I never thought I would go through and something I certainly don't want to go through again.
Gamma Phi Beta Sorority Sister
They went through and asked about her relationships, if there was anyone that we would suspect or think or anything that she had done in the past week that was out of the ordinary and if there was any other places that we think she was.
Narrator/Host
Did Drew have any enemies?
Gamma Phi Beta Sorority Sister
Not that I knew of.
Narrator/Host
It's no secret that in disappearances like this one, sometimes police look at the partner first. But they'd already ruled out Chris Lang because he was proven to be 300 miles away in Minneapolis when Drew went missing. As for the guy Drew dated for two and a half years before Chris Lang, authorities felt he raised more suspicion.
Law Enforcement Officer
Drew and Meg shared an apartment that was on campus. While we're working with Meg, she did mention one of Drew's ex boyfriends, Adam. Adam Schultz.
Investigator/Detective
He was mentioned early on as being a possible suspect in Drew's disappearance. Adam Schulz was also a UND student. He was an aerospace student. During the interview with Meg, she talked about Drew's relationship with Adam. And she did have some concerns there in how he was treating her and that the breakup didn't go well. So that was one of the things that led us on to Adam.
Narrator/Host
Meg told police that when Drew and Adam Schulz were both interning in Aspen, Colorado, he allegedly caught her cheating on him. According to police reports, Drew's roommate claimed that this upset Schultz to the point where Drew became scared of him because of some of his actions, and that apparently Drew had tried breaking up with Schultz several times, but Schulz wouldn't take the hint.
Law Enforcement Officer
He was certainly cooperative. He was forthright with us, but it seemed like he was trying to help steer the investigation in certain aspects. We're generally a little bit skeptical, you know, when we're talking to someone and they're trying to steer us in a certain direction.
Narrator/Host
Back when police had searched Drew's car, they found a lot of items in the back seat and in the trunk. It's the trunk where police found a card they seized with the name Adam on it saying, drew, I just wanted to write and tell you that I've had a great time spending time with you this past week. I hope it continues. I look forward to seeing you this weekend. Love, Adam. But because there was no date, there was no way to tell when it was from and if it was from the weekend Drew vanished.
Investigator/Detective
He was somebody that made some of Drew's friends uncomfortable. They thought that he maybe wasn't very nice to her. He.
Narrator/Host
Police reports don't include any details Adam provided authorities regarding the claims people made about his relationship and breakup with Drew. We reached out to Adam Schultz, but he declined to be interviewed. She would never do anything to anyone.
Journalist/Reporter
In a news clip recorded by the station I worked for at the time, Adam appears genuinely concerned when speaking about Drew. But police had concerns of their own.
Narrator/Host
Never asked for trouble, and I really
Alan Shadin (Drew's Father)
was looking for it, so I don't
Narrator/Host
understand how this situation could happen.
Law Enforcement Officer
We asked him, you know, what his activities were, and, you know, he had talked about getting gas in his vehicle, and also that he had flights, he was a flight student, and that he was out flying and that sort of thing. The flight information that was pretty easy to verify him getting gas that day was not easy to establish.
Investigator/Detective
He thought he got gassed and that he would have a gas receipt to prove that he was getting gas around that time. So he was able to find the receipt. And then it turned out that the receipt was from two days prior.
Narrator/Host
As detectives were working the leads on Adam, dozens of people at all levels of law enforcement were working 247 to figure out what happened to Drew.
Law Enforcement Officer
Our searchers were finding pretty much anything that could potentially be evidence. You know, we had cigarette packs and multiple clothing items, you know, bras and underwear, and just really anything that anyone thought potentially could be involved.
Narrator/Host
None of it would end up being connected to Drew. But what they found under a bridge in Crookston That Tuesday was we were
Law Enforcement Officer
able to establish that with certainty that was Drew Shadin's shoe.
Narrator/Host
It wouldn't be long before police had more than one person on their radar. You have a serial sexual predator on your hand.
Law Enforcement Analyst/Investigator
Yep.
Narrator/Host
And a piece of video turns up, the police say shows that Drew may not have been her kidnapper's first target.
BCA Agent/Investigator
He did appear to be watching women as they were exiting the store.
Narrator/Host
So his violence is escalating.
Officer Connolly
Yes.
Investigator/Detective
We've all been leaving work, talking on the phone. All of a sudden, in the blink of an eye, things have changed.
Victoria's Secret Manager
Fore.
Narrator/Host
On November 22, 2003, college student Drew Shadin vanished from the mall.
Gamma Phi Beta Sorority Sister
She was the girl next door to everyone.
Narrator/Host
Did Drew have any enemies?
Gamma Phi Beta Sorority Sister
Not that I knew of, no.
Prosecutor/Attorney
One of her shoes was found, and there was an opening in the water.
Investigator/Detective
Where can we find her? Who can we talk to? Who's responsible for this?
BCA Agent/Investigator
There was this sheath that was found. They showed us the knife that was associated with the sheath. I had just seen that exact knife. I said, we gotta go right back out to talk to him.
Shirley Iverson (Victim from Rodriguez's Past)
He was excellent at stalking people. This was his pattern.
Narrator/Host
So his violence is escalating.
Law Enforcement Analyst/Investigator
Yes.
Narrator/Host
And you have a serial sexual predator on your hands.
Law Enforcement Analyst/Investigator
Yep.
Police Officer
Yep.
Journalist/Reporter
How heartbreaking is that to think about? She's alive and she's crying, and she doesn't know what's going to happen to her.
Alan Shadin (Drew's Father)
Now it gets to be a lot uglier. You know, There has to be a good outcome to this.
Narrator/Host
Tuesday, November 25th. Four days into their investigation, detectives are moving on all fronts to find out exactly what happened to missing University of North Dakota student Drew Shadin.
Journalist/Reporter
Thanksgiving was around the corner, and I remember Christmas lights had sprung up, but the mood was somber and surreal.
Narrator/Host
Until 2003, the holidays for Drew's family had been a lot like they are for most families. What was Thanksgiving like?
Alan Shadin (Drew's Father)
You know, a lot of food. Typical Thanksgiving. Eat a lot, you know, go to a movie. The last movie Drew and I went to was Titanic. That was a Thanksgiving movie between us. We were both trying to hide the tears.
Narrator/Host
You can tell Drew and her dad had a special bond. Drew and her friends did too. I get the sense that everybody loved Drew.
Gamma Phi Beta Sorority Sister
Yes.
Investigator/Detective
Yeah.
Narrator/Host
Mm. And so I wonder. You said you felt safe. Mm. Did that change that was ripped away from us?
Investigator/Detective
Absolutely.
Narrator/Host
Police were working day and night to piece together leads in the case. There's the knife sheath from the parking lot. Questions about various people she may have come in contact with. The possibility she had a stalker at her Victoria's Secret job. Now, one of her nine west shoes found near a highway bridge in Crookston. The last place her cell phone was
Investigator/Detective
pinging from the Columbia Mall to the area where the shoe was located is approximately 25 miles.
Journalist/Reporter
It was Drew's roommate, Meg, who identified the shoe.
Investigator/Detective
She said, 100%, I know this is Drew's shoe. She said that she wears the shoes often as much or if not more than Drew did.
Law Enforcement Officer
The shoe was found under the bridge on the Highway 75 bypass going into Crookston, which goes over the Red Lake River.
Narrator/Host
Actually, how it exactly got there, we don't know.
Journalist/Reporter
I saw the location where the shoe was found. Based on where it was, it looked like somebody could have just pulled over to the side of the road and dropped. But that's just one possibility. Drew also could have lost her shoe while making an escape. No one knew.
Investigator/Detective
So it was emotional, and it was a big step in the case.
Prosecutor/Attorney
Law enforcement was out there with dive teams and cadaver dogs. And I have to say, there were hours that we all spent assuming we were about to find her body under the icy water of that river. And that, of course, did not pan out over the days ahead.
Narrator/Host
There were other things that weren't panning out for investigators either. Remember Ed Levine, the man who was banned from Marshall Fields by police after a woman reported he was allegedly harassing her? Detectives had wondered if he was involved.
Law Enforcement Officer
This was happening roughly two or three months before Drew was reported missing. So, you know, certainly a situation like that we look into.
Narrator/Host
While his receipts showed he had been near the mall that day, a search of his house and car revealed nothing suspicious, and they ruled him out.
Law Enforcement Officer
Levine was not involved. We're pretty clearly able to prove that he was not involved.
Narrator/Host
As for the idea that Drew had a stalker calling her at Victoria's Secret, that fizzled out, too.
Investigator/Detective
There was somebody who kept calling for her with a foreign accent. It was determined that it was debt collectors that were probably calling regarding an outstanding cell phone bill.
Narrator/Host
Even though those leads didn't pan out, Drew's family and the entire community believed the right lead was right around the corner.
Victoria's Secret Manager
Pink was one of her favorite colors. One thing how our community could keep Drew alive is those pink buttons, and everyone was wearing them.
Gamma Phi Beta Sorority Sister
Our sorority house was a hub for if you wanted to pick a button or if you wanted to grab a ribbon. We felt like if anyone saw pink, it would spark some type of thought or hopefully some type of clue into Drew and where she was.
Narrator/Host
So many people we talked to about the story said that Hope became synonymous with this case?
Alan Shadin (Drew's Father)
Yes.
Narrator/Host
Why do you think that is?
Alan Shadin (Drew's Father)
I think that anybody that looked at her beautiful smile and her presence said, okay, there's hope.
Sven Shadin (Drew's Brother)
I just wasn't going to stray from. She's out there. We just have to find her. I just couldn't. I wouldn't let myself do it.
Narrator/Host
Three days into Drew's decision, police decide to look into another pool of potential suspects.
Task Force Member/FBI Agent
Polk county detectives and Crookston City police and probation officers began to look at local sex offenders in the area.
Investigator/Detective
Police identified two individuals that were living in the area where the phone was when it made that second call to Chris Lang.
Narrator/Host
The first has an alibi, someone to vouch for him, and police rule him out. But authorities had to dig deeper for another offender on the list, Roger Van Heuvelen.
Law Enforcement Officer
He pretty quickly asserted that he was at home and alone.
Narrator/Host
And that wasn't all. When police approached Van Heuvelen, he says something chilling, something like, I was expecting you.
Alan Shadin (Drew's Father)
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Advertiser/Commercial Voice
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Alan Shadin (Drew's Father)
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Narrator/Host
Stassi is back. Most people know me from banner pump rules, but I'm a mom, a wife, a podcaster. I'm traumatized by reality tv, but I
Gamma Phi Beta Sorority Sister
can't stay away from it.
Narrator/Host
It's like if they're not on your payroll, they don't get to be in your life.
Shirley Iverson (Victim from Rodriguez's Past)
Wow.
Gamma Phi Beta Sorority Sister
Reality has never been this real. Not everyone is built for this.
Advertiser/Commercial Voice
I'm not here to ice anyone else,
Alan Shadin (Drew's Father)
but when you said that don't cut
Narrator/Host
me off this time, I get to do it on my terms. I showed up for you. What could go wrong?
Journalist/Reporter
House of stasi Wednesdays at 10 on
Narrator/Host
Freeform and now streaming on Hulu.
Law Enforcement Officer
Investigators started looking at sex offenders early on. They interviewed one named Roger Van Huvalin.
Narrator/Host
He said he had no personal knowledge of Drew's abduction. All he knew was what he'd heard about when he was at church. But investigators weren't so close. Quick to write him off, he says something chilling, something like, I was expecting you.
Law Enforcement Analyst/Investigator
I wouldn't be surprised at that, because everybody on the registry knows that when something like this happens, if he had heard about an abduction, he's going to think, oh, they're going to come and start questioning me.
Law Enforcement Officer
When you're an investigator and, and, you know, you're trying to sort through information that is something that would stand out as, you know, being unusual, for sure.
Journalist/Reporter
I looked into his background, and after graduating from high school in Iowa and serving in the air force for 20 years, he settled on the outskirts of East grand forks.
Narrator/Host
In the mid-1990s, Van Heuvelen was convicted of two counts of criminal sexual conduct with a girl he'd met at the park and molested at his home. While the type of attack was different than what police believed happened to Drew Shadin, he had to be eliminated as someone who could have been involved.
Law Enforcement Officer
You know, it's just as important to prove someone did not commit a crime as it is to prove who did commit the crime. And we made sure that all leads, you know, were followed to that natural end.
Narrator/Host
That would take time. And there were still other leads to keep chasing, too. Another lead police say still couldn't be resolved was whether Drew's ex boyfriend, Adam Schultz, may have been involved. They say he couldn't prove that he was getting gas at the time he says he was.
Investigator/Detective
We weren't able to corroborate his story with anybody else. However, he had consented to searching his house.
Narrator/Host
That search wouldn't take place until Friday the the 28th, the day after Thanksgiving. And police had gotten a tip about yet another sex offender they should check. A man by the name of Alfonso Rodriguez, a man who a tip collar said he saw shopping in Grand Forks the day Drew vanished.
Investigator/Detective
The 26th was the day that Alfonso Rodriguez came into the picture. He was identified as a sex offender who was living in Crookston, and He had served 23 years in prison for previous offenses.
Journalist/Reporter
As part of this 2020 report, I interviewed Special Agent Dan Alquist with the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension. He was the first to interview Rodriguez about Drew's disappearance. What information did you have about his prior offenses?
BCA Agent/Investigator
We didn't have a lot of information. His prior offenses were from 1974 and 1980, prior to computers.
Narrator/Host
Shirley Iverson, Rodriguez's first known victim, knew exactly what he did and what he was capable of. This story takes a trip back in time to 1974, when a different college student's life was about to change forever.
Shirley Iverson (Victim from Rodriguez's Past)
I was home from Concordia College on a break. I had just turned 18, and we were gathering at a pretty common spot for high school kids and college kids to gather, which was the Viking Bar. I went to my car to drive home. As I got to my car, there was a rap on the window, and it was a man asking for a ride home. It was someone whose brother was a classmate, and this was his older brother Alfonso. You know, a ride home about seven blocks would be no big deal. So I gave him a ride home. Unbeknownst to me, they had moved. And so we were actually at an abandoned home, and he sexually assaulted me. The terror is just profound as you're being strangled in the car, because obviously I was saying no. Being held against your will and then to be, you know, sexually assaulted combines the two worst fears that you have. I drive home, and to this day, one of the hardest things was climbing that flight of stairs to awaken my mother and to tell her what happened.
Narrator/Host
Two days after Shirley's assault, Alfonso Rodriguez is charged with four sex offenses related to the attack.
Shirley Iverson (Victim from Rodriguez's Past)
He was released on his own recognizance. They did not see him as a flight risk, and so he was allowed
Narrator/Host
to go home before he could appear in court on the charges. In Shirley's case, he attacked again.
Shirley Iverson (Victim from Rodriguez's Past)
A month later, I find out that a classmate had been raped. She had been kidnapped as she came out of our local theater. Alfonso abducted her and took her out to a rural road and rapes her.
Narrator/Host
In the second case, Rodriguez is charged with three felonies. Rape, kidnapping, and assault with a deadly weapon, a 6 inch kitchen knife he'd used to threaten his victim on New year's Eve of 1974. He pleads guilty to the rape charge and gets a sentence of up to 15 years, which is stayed, meaning he won't serve prison time unless he violates terms set by the judge. That same day, he also pleads guilty to one of the charges in Shirley's case, attempted aggravated rape. And the judge sends him to a Minnesota security hospital for sex offender treatment. But his time there appears to do little to curb his violent tendencies.
Shirley Iverson (Victim from Rodriguez's Past)
In the spring of 1980, one of our school teachers had decided to go for a walk. Alfonso Rodriguez was on a leave to visit his family from the state hospital. He pulls over, he asks for some directions.
Law Enforcement Analyst/Investigator
He was armed with a knife, and he attempted to get her into the car. She fought him off, and he stabbed her in the arm and in the abdomen, and she was able to get away.
Narrator/Host
So his violence is escalating.
Law Enforcement Analyst/Investigator
Yes.
Narrator/Host
And you have a serial sexual predator on your hands.
Law Enforcement Analyst/Investigator
Yep. Yep.
Narrator/Host
In stabbing her and attempting to kidnap his third victim, he receives 20 years in prison. He's also violated his probation with his new felony conviction triggering the original prison sentence of up to 15 years. So how much total prison time did he serve for these attacks?
Law Enforcement Analyst/Investigator
23 years.
BCA Agent/Investigator
He got out May 1st of 2003.
Narrator/Host
Rodriguez has served his full sentence. And when he was released, he wasn't on probation. He was a free man.
Law Enforcement Analyst/Investigator
The only thing we were able to do is contact law enforcement, tell them that he is getting out of prison, make sure the public knows about his history and that he has come back to live in Crookston again.
Shirley Iverson (Victim from Rodriguez's Past)
What happened in the fall of 2003 is that Drew Shadin is abducted in Grand Fork, N.D. and immediately the little hairs on the back of my neck stand up.
Journalist/Reporter
For people not familiar with Minnesota, Crookston and Grand Forks, where Drew disappeared, are close together. It's just a 30 minute drive.
Shirley Iverson (Victim from Rodriguez's Past)
I did call, I did talk about where he lived. I was pretty clear this would fit his M.O.
Narrator/Host
a lot would hinge on whether Alfonso Rodriguez had an alibi.
BCA Agent/Investigator
We learned that Alfonso Rodriguez was working at a construction site. His eyes met my eyes and he immediately reached for his tool belt, unclasped it, dropped it on the floor and walked towards me. I asked him if he would be willing to come out to our car and visit for a while, and he said he would. I was with a fellow BCA agent, Brad Barker.
Detective/Investigator
We're working on the disappearances, gal, and everybody's a suspect until we can rule them out, you know. What were you doing on Saturday? Well, I went to go on port.
BCA Agent/Investigator
He was shopping for some jeans. He said he'd gone to Target and a few various stores, went to the mall and he said he went to a movie.
Detective/Investigator
What time did the movie start? 12:30, 12:40. What time did you leave the movie theater? Small.
BCA Agent/Investigator
What was the name of the movie again?
Detective/Investigator
Left Hard Times in Mexico.
BCA Agent/Investigator
I hopped out of the car and called my boss who was at the command post, and I asked if he could just quickly get on the phone or the computer and try to determine where are all the movie theaters in Grand Forks and what was showing on Saturday. I got a message back that that particular movie, Once Upon a Time in Mexico, wasn't playing anywhere in grand forks on Saturday, November 22, 2003. I didn't let him know that we knew that just then. Confessions are great, but lies put people in prison.
Narrator/Host
Rodriguez agrees to let them search his car.
BCA Agent/Investigator
The first thing that struck me is the car appeared to be kind of immaculate and the trunk was kind of the same. There was a fishing rod and a pair of rubber Gloves. And there was a folding lock blade knife. These are ubiquitous in, you know, northern Minnesota. I mean, everybody's got one. We looked in the glove box in the interior of the car, and there was a small folding knife, like a pocket knife, that had two blades, and one of the blades was broken, gone. I asked if he would be all right if we took that as evidence, and he was fine with that.
Narrator/Host
Investigators also want to know what Alfonso Rodriguez did after he said he saw that movie.
BCA Agent/Investigator
On the way back, Alfonso had told us he left the area of the movie theater and the Columbia Mall area, and then he drove to the McDonald's restaurant. We were going to drive right by that McDonald's on the way to the police department. So we whipped in there, and we asked about any surveillance footage. And we turned that in when we got to the command post for viewing and for review.
Narrator/Host
At the same time Dan Alquist was interviewing Alfonso Rodriguez, other investigators had already been assigned to look into the mysterious sheath found near Drew's car the night she disappeared.
Task Force Member/FBI Agent
Investigators from the task force had gone out to Menards and determined that the sheath that was found near Drew's car was part of a set that's sold exclusively at Menards. And that sheath goes with a folding neck.
BCA Agent/Investigator
They showed us the knife that was associated with the sheath, and you could have knocked me over with a feather because I had just seen that exact knife in Alfonso's trunk. And I looked at the commander, and I said, we gotta get right back out to talk to him.
Narrator/Host
Before attempting to seize the knife, investigators wanted to confront Alfonso Rodriguez with inconsistencies in his story and dig deeper into his whereabouts.
BCA Agent/Investigator
He agreed to come to the police department, talk to us, get to the theater.
Detective/Investigator
Initially, I think he said it was about 4:45 or 4 or 4:40. 4:40. A movie's about two hours long. You're out of there at 6:40, and you're driving away to go anywhere after the movie or do.
Narrator/Host
In that McDonald's surveillance footage they'd gotten, he never appears. Where he does turn up is in footage pulled from Target in a chilling clip that haunts investigators to this day. He's following a woman, and it's not Drew.
BCA Agent/Investigator
It did appear that he was looking for a victim.
Narrator/Host
While much of Drew Shadin's investigation was focused on Alfonso Rodriguez, who lived in Crookston, police and Grand Forks were still in charge because that's the city where Drew vanished from the mall and where target surveillance footage surfaced placing Rodriguez in the area just an hour before Drew's disappearance.
BCA Agent/Investigator
I did have an opportunity to see the video from the Target store. He did appear to be watching women as they were exiting the store, and it was quite chilling to see him hunting. Like.
Task Force Member/FBI Agent
He spent a few minutes sitting on a bench in the vestibule area at the entrance exit of Target. The blonde woman leaves the store and walks into the parking lot. And shortly after, Rodriguez follows her. Throughout the investigation, she was referred to as probably the luckiest woman in Grand Forks that day.
Narrator/Host
Just an hour after, after this clip was recorded, Drew Shadin vanishes from the mall.
Detective/Investigator
A number of years ago, they convicted you of assaulted crime, stabbing and whatnot. Now a girl is abducted and taken from the store there, from the mall property, and you're right in that area. Tell us that you went to the movie theater, but that doesn't really pan out. We're having trouble finding you on the McDonald's videotape. If you or me put yourself in my shoes, what. What would you think me suspicious? You know, I wasn't at the mall when the squirrels have done.
BCA Agent/Investigator
I said, well, I'll tell you what, Alfonso. All we really want is that knife in the trunk. Would you at least let us look at that knife? And he said, oh, yeah, no problem, and I'll let you look at the knife. And so we went out there, opened the trunk, got the knife, and it was the exact same knife as I had just seen. I was suspicious that it was, but now I'm looking at it, and it looks just like the same knife that was at the command post.
Narrator/Host
As search warrants for Rodriguez's house and car are drafted to be served early Thanksgiving morning, the search for Drew continues. What is the reality of each morning?
BCA Agent/Investigator
Like Sven,
Task Force Member/FBI Agent
you know, just that the next day, to count down to having
Narrator/Host
her back with us.
Alan Shadin (Drew's Father)
This is something you can't control. I can control most of my world. I can control myself in my world, but I couldn't control this.
Narrator/Host
Allen and I were together on a daily basis and became really inseparable. He would sometimes go off on his own. Maybe after we were done, he would probably go out there and have conversations with Drew. It was very difficult to be out there in these conditions and just not knowing what you're going to come across. If Alfonso Rodriguez knew where Drew was, he wasn't talking, even when investigators tried appealing to him.
Detective/Investigator
Again, not too late to change back and tell us what happened. Because if you are involved, if you did have a conversation with this girl and something went wrong, and you'll remember, okay,
Narrator/Host
that interview ends with Rodriguez asking for a lawyer and Dan Alka telling him he is not going free.
BCA Agent/Investigator
I didn't want him to destruct evidence and I didn't want him to go anywhere where he could, you know, potentially hurt a live victim.
Narrator/Host
In less than a week, she has gone from a complete stranger to a member of countless families. We all now know Drew Shadin, where she goes to school, her sorority, where she works, what kind of car she drives, and how police believe she was abducted. This Thanksgiving, Alan had a message for all the searchers who had set their plans aside to search for his daughter.
Alan Shadin (Drew's Father)
We need everyone to go and look and check. Check your buildings and if you've seen anything, come forward.
Narrator/Host
There would be no holiday for investigators who spent Thanksgiving Day serving a search warrant at Alfonso Rodriguez's house.
Task Force Member/FBI Agent
He had a corner of the, of the downstairs he kept very neat. It kind of looked like someone who had been in prison for over 20 years. It looked like he had recreated that within the home.
Investigator/Detective
There was nothing initially that really struck us as a deep connection to Drew's disappearance. There were some items that were seized. A pair of jeans that he said he was wearing. But there was nothing that really stood out, like, oh, this is a smoking gun sort of a thing.
Journalist/Reporter
Police had spent days searching for any sign of Drew. They even purchased clothing similar to hers and showed it to investigators at the daily briefings so they could be on the lookout. They showed it to the media, too, and I remember it vividly. Pink shirts, black pants, black shoes, black pea coat.
Narrator/Host
Imagine their surprise when a black pea coat and other items turn up in a different search at someone else's house. The home of Drew's ex boyfriend, Adam Schultz.
Task Force Member/FBI Agent
FX presents the Shards Los Angeles, 1981
Law Enforcement Officer
we're gonna roll the school, don't we already?
Task Force Member/FBI Agent
It was supposed to be the best year of their lives.
Narrator/Host
Stab someone for a drink right now. Until their friends started going missing.
Alan Shadin (Drew's Father)
There's something going on.
Task Force Member/FBI Agent
From executive producer Ryan Murphy. And based on the best selling thriller
Narrator/Host
by Brett Easton ellis. Sounds terrifying.
Task Force Member/FBI Agent
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Prosecutor/Attorney
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Narrator/Host
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Narrator/Host
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Law Enforcement Officer
Right around Thanksgiving, Alfonso Rodriguez was certainly developing as a suspect. But that didn't mean we stopped investigating the other names that were coming forward. We started following up on Adam Schultz.
Narrator/Host
Adam and Drew had dated for two and a half years.
Investigator/Detective
He was mentioned early on, as well as being a possible suspect in Drew's disappearance.
Law Enforcement Officer
The flight information that was pretty easy to verify, him getting gas that day was not easy to establish.
Investigator/Detective
He gave a consent to search his vehicle, his residence. He voluntarily gave his DNA so that we could have that on record. And he was cooperative with the investigation. However, he was somebody that made some of Drew's friends uncomfortable.
Narrator/Host
The search for Adam's home yielded some curious items. A knife, women's underwear, brass knuckles, a list of weaknesses, including jealousy and vengefulness, and a black pea coat, the type of coat Drew Shadin was last seen wearing. Intriguing finds, but in the end, nothing was connected to Drew's disappearance.
Law Enforcement Officer
He was not involved. At the same time that he was on one phone call, Drew was on phone call with her current boyfriend. So, you know, the cell locations were verified. We were able to ultimately eliminate him as potentially being involved.
Narrator/Host
Police determined Adam Schultz had nothing to do with Drew's disappearance. And on Friday, they found what they needed to help prove who did.
Journalist/Reporter
In my interview with Dan Alquist, he told me Rodriguez's Mercury Sable looked pretty clean when investigators first saw it. But now the forensic team was going in for a closer look.
BCA Agent/Investigator
And I'll never forget it, the scientist got in the car and he was looking around and he was looking at this light colored interior, and he said, oh, wow. He pointed with his finger at a tiny little speck. And once you saw that one tiny little speck, then it was a whole bunch of tiny little specks. Then we looked at the right rear passenger's window, and there's some of these tiny little specks on the glass. The blood that was present in those tiny little specks was found to be Drew Shudeen's blood.
Narrator/Host
For investigators, this is the smoking gun they've been waiting. Rodriguez becomes the focus of the investigation, and Van Heuvelen and the other people they questioned in the early days of the case are ruled out.
BCA Agent/Investigator
I believe that she may have been hit in the face or something that caused bleeding, and I think she was probably crying very hard.
Journalist/Reporter
How heartbreaking is that to think about? You Know if she's alive and she's crying and she doesn't know what's going to happen to her.
BCA Agent/Investigator
I'm sorry about that.
Journalist/Reporter
You've been asking the question is always. It's tough.
BCA Agent/Investigator
I've got a good answer for that. I just want to try to get it out.
Narrator/Host
Sure.
BCA Agent/Investigator
It's absolutely tragic. All I can hope is that it didn't last very long.
Alan Shadin (Drew's Father)
Alfonso Rodriguez Jr.
Narrator/Host
Appeared stoic, his head down as the
Alan Shadin (Drew's Father)
charges against him were read aloud in court.
Narrator/Host
To wit, that alfonso Rodriguez was Jr.
Law Enforcement Analyst/Investigator
Did abduct Drew Shadin.
Officer Connolly
JCPenney store parking lot With Drew Shadin's
Narrator/Host
father sitting quietly a few feet behind him.
Alan Shadin (Drew's Father)
Rodriguez offered few words during the 10 minute hearing.
Narrator/Host
What were your thoughts?
Alan Shadin (Drew's Father)
Oh, just that, you know, I mean, devastation, you know. You know, his history was such that, you know, every attack was getting more brutal and you know, where does it go from there? Right.
Narrator/Host
Rodriguez was charged with kidnapping at the state level, though the case would later become federal if they could prove Drew was taken over state lines. All I care about is that that's what made us the way she lives. And right now we've got news and we've got a good person sitting in this. A good person that I know can do good. I know he steps over and do
Advertiser/Commercial Voice
the very thing
Law Enforcement Officer
I have a homework.
Prosecutor/Attorney
The communities all poured out to try to find that girl's body. It was a quest for answers and then it became a quest for justice.
Narrator/Host
There would be no Christmas miracle for Drew's family. In fact, spring would arrive and have to thaw those frozen fields before they would be another big break in the case.
Law Enforcement Officer
In April 2004, on the 17th, there was a retired sheriff's deputy that was out searching. I was in California and my partner Ori had called and I still remember her words. Bill they found Drew. She was generally covered by this brush. You could see her pea coat pretty clearly. They found her shoe. Her cell phone was in this area and several other pieces of clothing.
Narrator/Host
Her clothes alone tell the story of her, her death.
Law Enforcement Officer
Unfortunately, Drew was, you know, naked from the waist down and her hands were bound behind her back.
Narrator/Host
Remnants of a plastic bag suggest she may have been asphyxiated. Tell me about that horrible day when they found her body.
Alan Shadin (Drew's Father)
It was a, it was absolutely horrible day, but it was, it was a day of, a day of relief because at that point we, you know, knew that Druzey was no longer with us. I unknowingly parked there a number of times down in the bottom end of that ravine.
Narrator/Host
But it was all covered with snow.
Gamma Phi Beta Sorority Sister
Yeah.
Police Officer
God of grace, we thank you for Drew. For the many ways her all too brief life has touched and enriched so many lives.
Gamma Phi Beta Sorority Sister
At the funeral, I had a moment of realization that this was not just Gamma Phi Beta, this was not just UND this was not just North Dakota. This was our nation that was affected by what happened to Drouchedine. And up there, watching her mom let
Narrator/Host
go of that white dove
Gamma Phi Beta Sorority Sister
was something I will never forget.
Attorney General or Legal Official
Drew Wrigley and I believed that this was an appropriate death penalty case. And we submitted our recommendation to the attorney general. It was a kidnapping, number one, and it was across state lines. It also involved an individual with a long criminal history involving sexual assault of women. The deputy Attorney general made the decision to have the case be prosecuted. In North Dakota.
Prosecutor/Attorney
There hasn't been a death penalty of any kind for over 100 years in our state. It's not part of our culture.
Detective/Investigator
We.
Prosecutor/Attorney
We did everything that we could to make sure we got the best information possible in front of that jury. Sometimes. Sometimes it doesn't go the way you hope. And when I walked into that courtroom, I knew.
Narrator/Host
In North Dakota, a guilty verdict for the man charged with the killing of college student Drew Schodine. There are some stories that just stick with you. I remember reading the story for GMA in August of 2006, on the day a jury found Alfonso Rodriguez guilty of kidnapping and killing Drew Shadin. A month later, they came back with their death penalty verdict. A federal jury in North Dakota has handed down the first death sentence in that state in almost a century. I know it wasn't easy a decision for the jury, I. I'm sure. But Drew's voice was heard today.
Prosecutor/Attorney
I did wish that there was more that we could do because it couldn't bring Drew Shadine back. But we obtained justice on that day. 12 people. 12 people in a region of the country that doesn't exactly embrace the death penalty.
Narrator/Host
Alfonso Rodriguez would spend the next 15 years on death row. But just two years ago, in 2021, the same judge who presided over the trial stuns the Shadin family. Though Rodriguez's guilt was never in question, the judge overturns his original sentence, citing a handful of things, including issues with the medical examiner's testimony and a failure by Rodriguez's defense team to pursue an insanity defense. A new sentencing hearing was ordered just recently in 2023. But before the hearing could take place, Attorney General Merrick Garland halted executions of all federal inmates.
Attorney General or Legal Official
Right now, he's serving life in prison without the possibility of parole. And that's because the Department of Justice withdrew its motion for the death penalty.
Prosecutor/Attorney
While I understand there could be some, maybe many will say, that still sounds like justice. That still sounds pretty good. I will. I'll leave public life when I start determining something that I don't believe to be justice is pretty good.
Sven Shadin (Drew's Brother)
I'm strongly opposed and disappointed that they would do something like that. Open up the. The wounds and that. You know, my mother, my father, myself went through this because the ones that suffer in.
Detective/Investigator
In.
Sven Shadin (Drew's Brother)
In death are the living, not the dead. They're gone.
Friend/Acquaintance
Oh, I'm wearing the pink tie because pink was Drew's favorite color. All my memories of Drew are ones that I will cherish forever and, God willing, never forget.
Narrator/Host
This is one of her pieces of art.
Task Force Member/FBI Agent
Yes.
Alan Shadin (Drew's Father)
She drew that as a young lady. I always thought there was probably a premonition because it's an angel. It has an awful lot of her in the picture.
Narrator/Host
Sadly, it's almost as if she drew herself in heaven.
Alan Shadin (Drew's Father)
Exactly.
Narrator/Host
Complete with angel wings.
Alan Shadin (Drew's Father)
Angel wings, yes. She deserved something more than just a granite gravestone.
Narrator/Host
It's the Tree of Life.
Alan Shadin (Drew's Father)
Tree of Life. That is her gravestone, that tree. That was the last project that she worked on at the University of North Dakota.
Narrator/Host
I'm sure you talk to her a lot.
Alan Shadin (Drew's Father)
Yeah.
Narrator/Host
What do you say to Druzy?
Alan Shadin (Drew's Father)
Oh, you know, she talks to me. She tells me more than I tell her because she knows I'm more wayward than anybody else around, so.
Narrator/Host
Alan Shadin can also hear his daughter in voicemails that he saved from 20 years ago. Hi, Daddy.
Officer Connolly
It's me.
Narrator/Host
I know that you're in Mexico, but I just want to call and tell you happy Valentine's Day. I love you. Hope you're having a fantastic event.
Alan Shadin (Drew's Father)
She had a huge heart. She had a beautiful smile, and she was just a fantastic young lady that went way, way too soon. One way she will always be remembered
Narrator/Host
is by the creation of what's being called now Drew's Law, which is legislation that's created a more interconnected national database. The public can use it to track level three sex offenders, which we know is so vital. That's our program for tonight. I'm Deborah Roberts.
Alan Shadin (Drew's Father)
And I'm David Muir. From all of us here at 2020
Narrator/Host
and ABC News, good night. Thanks for listening to the 2020 True Crime Vault. We hope you'll join us Friday nights at 9 on ABC for all new broadcast episodes.
Investigator/Detective
See you then.
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Podcast by ABC News
This episode of 20/20’s True Crime Vault explores the haunting case of Drew Shodin, a University of North Dakota student who vanished after leaving work at a mall in Grand Forks in November 2003. With extensive interviews, investigative insights, and emotional family testimony, the episode tracks the desperate search for Drew, the wide-ranging investigation that followed, and ultimately the pursuit for justice after her fate was discovered. The case would become a federal landmark—resulting in North Dakota’s first death sentence in a century—while also serving as a catalyst for greater public awareness and legislative change.
The episode is deeply empathetic toward Drew and her family, weaving personal memories with investigative detail. The tone moves from urgent and anxious in the search phase, through heartbreak upon the discovery of Drew's body, to determined in the community's ongoing advocacy for justice and prevention.
The true crime storytelling here prioritizes the victim’s memory, the painstaking work of investigators, and the wider implications for public safety and sex offender legislation.
For listeners unfamiliar with the case, this episode provides a comprehensive, emotionally resonant account of Drew Shodin’s story—her life, her loss, and the search for justice, both in the courts and in the lasting changes her tragedy inspired.