True Crime Vault: The Woman in the Suitcase

Summary

Title: True Crime Vault: The Woman in the Suitcase
Podcast: 20/20 by ABC News
Release Date: June 24, 2025

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Introduction

In the chilling episode titled "The Woman in the Suitcase" from ABC News' 20/20 podcast, listeners are taken on a spine-tingling journey through one of the most baffling true crime cases of the decade. This episode unravels the harrowing story of Ina Butnicka, a Ukrainian expatriate whose life was brutally disrupted in 2012, leading to a decade-long investigation marked by tenacity, innovative detective work, and ultimately, justice.

The Crime Unveiled

The story begins in Newport Beach, California, where Ina Butnicka, the owner of a marijuana dispensary, mysteriously vanishes. Detective Allen Foote recounts the initial shock:

“This young lady vanished into thin air. So that was the intriguing part.”
— Detective Allen Foote ([00:38])

Her disappearance took a dark turn when her body was discovered tortured and left for dead in the Mojave Desert. Michael Lee Jones, an investigator deeply involved in the case, describes the grim discovery:

“She had cuts on her face. She has swollen jaws, bruises on her body. She was unconscious for almost 24 straight hours.”
— Michael Lee Jones ([02:56])

Initial Investigation Challenges

The early stages of the investigation were fraught with obstacles. Ina was identified as a Jane Doe, with no identification and fragmented memories of the attack. Ina herself struggled to recall the events clearly:

“The memory was not clear because I was in pain, in too much pain. My head was not working.”
— Ina Butnicka ([00:51])

Detective Tom Chase notes the baffling aspect of the case:

“It’s just a complete mystery.”
— Detective Tom Chase ([02:09])

Enter Private Investigator Ken Brennan

As traditional investigative avenues led to dead ends, Ken Brennan, a private investigator with a reputation for unconventional methods, was brought into the case. Brennan's skepticism of the status quo fueled his determination to crack the mystery. His pivotal moment came when he analyzed hotel surveillance footage:

“This was the defining moment in the whole case right here.”
— Detective Allen Foote ([01:21])

Brennan hypothesized that Ina might have been concealed in a suitcase, a theory that initially met with ridicule:

“What the hell kind of an investigator are you?”
— Hotel Owner ([35:24])

Despite skepticism, Brennan's meticulous approach began to bear fruit. He conducted experiments to test the feasibility of his theory, demonstrating that Ina could indeed fit into the suitcase caught on camera:

“She was actually able to fit inside this suitcase comfortably. We could zip it up and wheel her around.”
— Ken Brennan ([31:31])

Breakthrough: Identifying the Suspect

Brennan's persistence led to the identification of Michael Lee Jones as the prime suspect. Utilizing DNA analysis and linking it to other cold cases via the CODIS system, Brennan and Detective Foote zeroed in on Jones. The investigation revealed a pattern of similar assaults across multiple states, painting Jones as a potential serial rapist.

Detective Foote expressed unwavering confidence in their lead:

“I knew I had the guy.”
— Detective Allen Foote ([32:56])

After obtaining a subpoena, investigators confirmed Jones's employment with Ovations and traced his movements, ultimately leading to his apprehension in Frederick, Maryland.

Interrogation and Legal Hurdles

Upon confronting Jones, investigators were met with his calm and collected demeanor, which contradicted the severity of the allegations:

“He was staying cool as a cucumber. He’s just very relaxed.”
— Michael Lee Jones ([55:29])

Despite Jones's initial cooperation and willingness to provide a DNA sample, inconsistencies in his statements raised suspicions. During interrogation, Jones attempted to shift blame and present the encounter as consensual, leveraging the victim's fragmented memories:

“We did it and gave her a hundred bucks, and I left.”
— Michael Lee Jones ([64:03])

Brennan's expertise was crucial in debunking these assertions, highlighting discrepancies between Jones's account and the surveillance evidence.

Prosecution and Conviction

Despite overwhelming DNA evidence and Brennan's compelling theory, the case faced legal challenges due to limited physical evidence and the victim's inconsistent testimony. Faced with a "he said, she said" scenario, the prosecution offered Jones a plea deal, resulting in a reduced two-year sentence instead of life imprisonment. This outcome left Detective Foote and Brennan feeling that justice was not fully served.

However, Brennan's tenacity didn't wane. Upon entering Jones's DNA into the CODIS system, another breakthrough occurred when a match connected him to a cold case in Colorado Springs, involving a victim named Jennifer Russler. This second conviction solidified Jones's pattern of criminal behavior, leading to a 24-year-to-life sentence, with an additional 45 years for similar crimes in New Orleans.

Conclusion and Aftermath

The episode concludes with reflections on the relentless pursuit of justice by Detective Foote and Ken Brennan. Ina Butnicka, though primarily a survivor, played a vital role in uncovering multiple crimes through her partial memories. The case underscores the importance of perseverance, innovative investigative techniques, and the critical role of DNA evidence in solving complex crimes.

Notable Quotes:

• Detective Allen Foote: “This young lady vanished into thin air. So that was the intriguing part.” ([00:38])
• Ken Brennan: “This was the defining moment in the whole case right here.” ([01:21])
• Michael Lee Jones: “She was actually able to fit inside this suitcase comfortably. We could zip it up and wheel her around.” ([31:31])
• Detective Allen Foote: “I knew I had the guy.” ([32:56])
• Michael Lee Jones: “He was staying cool as a cucumber. He’s just very relaxed.” ([55:29])
• Ina Butnicka: “I should never happen to any woman. I wish it never happened to nobody.” ([82:48])
• Jennifer Russler: “I think this is the most remarkable piece of detective work that I've ever come across.” ([83:19])

Impact and Reflections

The case of "The Woman in the Suitcase" not only brought justice to a heinous crime but also highlighted the evolving landscape of criminal investigations. The collaboration between law enforcement and private investigators like Ken Brennan proved pivotal in unraveling complex cases. Detective Foote's unwavering resolve and Brennan's unconventional methods serve as a testament to the relentless pursuit of truth in the face of adversity.

Ina Butnicka, as a survivor, emphasized resilience:

“I should never happen to any woman. I wish it never happened to nobody.”
— Ina Butnicka ([82:48])

Meanwhile, Jennifer Russler, a victim in a connected case, lauded the investigative efforts:

“I think this is the most remarkable piece of detective work that I've ever come across.”
— Jennifer Russler ([83:19])

Ultimately, the episode serves as a poignant reminder of the complexities within the justice system and the enduring spirit required to bring closure to victims and their families.

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Note: The timestamps correspond to specific moments in the transcript to provide context to the quotes used in the summary.

Transcript

[Narrator]

Newport Beach, California sits just south of Los Angeles.

[Detective Allen Foote]

It's 2012 and the owner of a.

[Ken Brennan]

Marijuana dispensary has been kidnapped, tortured and.

[Narrator]

Left for dead in the Mojave Desert. It began a decade long game of.

[Ken Brennan]

Cat and mouse between investigators and a perpetrator.

[Narrator]

A mastermind of escape.

[Ina Butnicka]

He's a psychopath.

[Narrator]

Oh my God. They let Hannibal Lecter out. Devil in the Desert is out now. Welcome to the True Crime Vault, home to 2020's most chilling stories.

[Detective Allen Foote]

This young lady vanished into thin air. So that was the intriguing part. That was the piece of the puzzle that you had to solve first.

[Michael Lee Jones]

It's the last we see of her. Pretty much. Somebody dumped her out there to die. Yes.

[Ina Butnicka]

The memory was not clear because I was in pain, in too much pain. My head was not working.

[Ken Brennan]

Had a horrific assault.

[Michael Lee Jones]

She has no clue what the heck happened to her.

[Narrator]

Were you thinking at any point that this case is just unsolvable?

[Detective Allen Foote]

You take whatever clue you have. It might take you to a dead end, might take you to a blind alley, but it might take you to the promised land.

[Ken Brennan]

Ken Brennan picks up on this one little piece of information that everyone else missed.

[Detective Allen Foote]

This was the defining moment in the whole case right here.

[Narrator]

This is a pretty bizarre theory.

[Detective Allen Foote]

They're looking at me like what the hell kind of an investigator are trying.

[Ina Butnicka]

To bring myself back into the accident and see if I can remember something else.

[Narrator]

Wow.

[Michael Lee Jones]

Wow is right.

[Detective Allen Foote]

You got to be kidding me.

[Ken Brennan]

Right now the temperature is as cool.

[Detective Allen Foote]

As Homestead at 70 and as warm as 74 in Miccosukee. Should be a very good beach day.

[Detective Tom Chase]

Sun's up at 6:51.

[Narrator]

This was one of those cases that just sort of grabs you by the throat. It's just a complete mystery.

[Michael Lee Jones]

It's about 8:15, 8:30 in the morning. The sun's starting to come up. You've got a Florida power and lightworker driving up the street and he notices what he thinks is a body. White female, blonde hair, nude, battered up, unconscious, lying on the side of the road. But she was dumped out and left for dead.

[Narrator]

This mystery woman who's just sort of turned up out of nowhere. Clearly a crime has happened and they don't know what to make of this at this point in the game.

[Detective Allen Foote]

The woman was airlifted to Jackson Memorial Hospital's Rider Trauma center in critical condition.

[Narrator]

Miami Dade Detective Allen Foote was the one who got this case.

[Michael Lee Jones]

She had cuts on her face. She has swollen jaws, bruises on her body. She was unconscious for almost 24 straight hours. I started out by going out and knocking door to door in the area.

[Narrator]

I didn't see anything or heard anything.

[Detective Allen Foote]

There's no clothing or anything that would distinguish who she is.

[Michael Lee Jones]

We've got no identification. I've got a Jane Doe on my hands. I'm running into nothing.

[Narrator]

And now the big question for investigators. Who is this woman and what happened to her?

[Detective Tom Chase]

A day passed as investigators waited to see if she was going to regain consciousness.

[Ina Butnicka]

I remember voices around me. Somebody asked me, what was my name. I had a lot of pain. I was in pain. Very, very, very painful.

[Detective Tom Chase]

At first, it's almost impossible for her to speak, but she can write.

[Michael Lee Jones]

When she came to, I get a phone call telling me that she's written some things down on a piece of paper.

[Jennifer Russler]

Her name is Ina Butnicka. She's Ukrainian. She wasn't particularly adept with English. Ina had been working for a cruise ship line.

[Ina Butnicka]

I wanted to have an occupation in my life. I want to be someone, but I guess it's all changed.

[Michael Lee Jones]

One of the things she writes down is my attorney's name is this and a phone number.

[Narrator]

Why did she write attorney? Did she need an attorney? Had she done something? What was that all about? So that was kind of the mystery number one.

[Michael Lee Jones]

I did not know whether she was involved in something civil or something criminal. But for someone to ask for an attorney as a victim, right off the bat does throw a red flag.

[Ina Butnicka]

I didn't know nobody. I was alone up here. So the only one person who I knew that was my attorney.

[Ken Brennan]

She was trying to reconstruct the events of probably the most horrific thing that can happen to anybody, much less a visitor to a strange country.

[Michael Lee Jones]

Her attorney basically tells me she has a civil lawsuit from an injury she sustained while working for the cruise line.

[Ina Butnicka]

My finger was cut and I was signed off of the ship for the medical treatment.

[Jennifer Russler]

She was recovering from this injury, and the cruise ship line had put her up in the hotel where she was just biding her time until the wound healed.

[Ken Brennan]

The first break Detective Foote has in this case is that the hotel where she is staying has a rather sophisticated extensive surveillance camera system.

[Detective Allen Foote]

We have 16 cameras covering the whole perimeter of the hotel, including parking lot, the entrance, the exits, the lobby, the restaurant, the lobby bar, the front desk, the back exits. Those cameras have a motion sensor detector. And then we have two security guards at night on duty so we can see, you know, anybody or anything that happens in the perimeter of the hotel.

[Ken Brennan]

So Detective Foote starts to look at the cameras.

[Michael Lee Jones]

Now, where's the guard shack up Here.

[Ken Brennan]

It's here, frame by frame to see if he can capture his victim and also anybody else that might have interacted with her inside the hotel.

[Michael Lee Jones]

There's no video cameras in the hallways. They don't do that for privacy of your guests. There's no video cam in the elevator, so all you have to rely on is the exterior and the interior lobby.

[Narrator]

In the hospital. Slowly, Ina is beginning to fill in a few blanks about what happened to her on the night of the attack.

[Ina Butnicka]

I left in the hotel. I went outside with my friend for dinner, had fun. We stayed there a while, had some drinks.

[Michael Lee Jones]

We were able to place her coming back to the hotel at approximately 11:30 midnight. There's no mistaking her.

[Detective Tom Chase]

The security cameras catch her leaving again at 3:33am in a red jacket and then returning at 3:40.

[Narrator]

Did that strike you as odd that she's going and coming in the middle of the night?

[Michael Lee Jones]

I mean, she could explain that.

[Ina Butnicka]

I went to the gas station to buy a phone card very close with my mother. I used to call her very often back in Ukraine. I love her and I miss her. She misses me.

[Narrator]

After running her errands, Ina returns to the hotel lobby at about 3:41am and she's never seen by those cameras again.

[Michael Lee Jones]

It's the last we see of her. So that's how we believe she was attacked in the hotel.

[Jennifer Russler]

The only chance that you have of sorting out what happened to her is when she starts talking.

[Ina Butnicka]

The memory was not clear because I was in pain, in too much pain. My head was not working absolutely. I was in shock. I couldn't stand up and I could not walk. It was very cold, if I remember. It was like very, very cold and dark and cold.

[Jennifer Russler]

The fragments of memory that she had didn't add up in any significant way.

[Narrator]

The biggest mystery, of course, is how did she get out of the hotel? Do you come up with any theories?

[Michael Lee Jones]

I was looking for anything. I'm looking in her room, over the balcony. I'm looking in the bushes to see if a body was thrown over and there was a body imprint or maybe she was lowered by rope.

[Jennifer Russler]

But all of the possible explanations didn't check out. The effort to find out who had done this to her was really hung up on the question of how had she ended up eight miles away in the weeds.

[Narrator]

They just have questions here, very few answers. Is she somehow involved in this?

[Detective Tom Chase]

Is there something in her life that wasn't revealed? Somebody she knows? Is it somehow tied to the hotel?

[Narrator]

This investigation is yielding nothing. Investigators are still trying to figure out who would have attacked this woman and left her for dead in a field. Detective Allen Foote is becoming frustrated.

[Michael Lee Jones]

I start following other leads. Suspects in the case.

[Ken Brennan]

Investigators identify the person that she was out with the night she disappeared. Peter Demoulius, who's a Greek national and he also works on a cruise ship.

[Detective Allen Foote]

The police, they ask me what happened with Ina.

[Michael Lee Jones]

He told me that they went out to the Coconut Grove area where they went bar hopping. They had quite a few drinks, and eventually, about 10 o' clock that night, they caught a cab back to his apartment. He gets out and then she takes the cab to her hotel room.

[Detective Allen Foote]

Why I have to worry? I don't worry. I know I am not on the cry.

[Ken Brennan]

Police look into Peter's background. They realize that several months prior, Peter was actually arrested for a dispute between the two of them at a nightclub in Miami.

[Michael Lee Jones]

Peter felt that there were some unsavory characters there and wanted her to leave. So she did not want to leave, and he kind of grabbed her by the arm and they got into a little argument. And an officer working security arrested him for domestic violence.

[Narrator]

Did that make him a suspect in your mind?

[Michael Lee Jones]

Partially.

[Narrator]

But then there are people in the hotel that they're also looking at. There is the night manager, George Perez. What does he know?

[Michael Lee Jones]

The very first time I met George Perez, he looked at me and said, oh, my God, I hate cops.

[Narrator]

Pretty blunt, pretty honest.

[Michael Lee Jones]

Oh, yeah, I'm used to it.

[Detective Tom Chase]

Was I nervous? Absolutely. I would have every right to be.

[Narrator]

So they're taking a good look at George Perez because first of all, he has this hostile attitude. He doesn't like cops. He's made that very clear. But then there's videotape of him talking to Ena. You can see her arm in this surveillance camera where clearly she's had conversations with him.

[Michael Lee Jones]

He left the front desk unattended and went into the elevator with the victim and was gone for approximately 15 minutes and then came back down alone. I asked him why he was going in the elevator with Ina, and he told me she was a little intoxicated.

[Ken Brennan]

George has a master key to every room in the hotel, and so it was important to sort of timeline him. The night she disappeared, she had had.

[Detective Tom Chase]

A few drinks out with her friends.

[Detective Allen Foote]

And I could tell that she was a little bit intoxicated. So I escorted her, made sure she got in the room safely, came back down to my post.

[Narrator]

Does she look intoxicated on the tape to you?

[Michael Lee Jones]

No.

[Detective Allen Foote]

No.

[Michael Lee Jones]

So with that, he became my second suspect.

[Ken Brennan]

By now, in the investigation, the police realized that not only was she severely beaten, but she was also raped. And so now they believe they have the DNA of a suspect.

[Detective Tom Chase]

So now investigators go back to that friend and the hotel manager to get their DNA to see if it was a match.

[Ken Brennan]

They had asked me if I would be subject to a DNA sample, which.

[Detective Allen Foote]

I voluntarily agreed to without a problem also. I don't afraid about that.

[Narrator]

And then finally, they think they might actually have a little bit of a break here. Ina is beginning to remember. Fragments of that night are starting to come into focus.

[Ina Butnicka]

I saw dreams. I saw nightmares. For me, it was very difficult to realize what was the reality, what was not the reality.

[Narrator]

What did she say about who she thought had assaulted her?

[Michael Lee Jones]

There were two white gentlemen. I don't think she could give me an age. They were either Hispanic or European accents.

[Ina Butnicka]

I remember, I guess, at least two other people. I don't remember the faces. I remember, like, noise. And I remember a person, like, standing over you, putting, like a pillow or something, and then it's dark. You know, it's just like a feeling that you cannot breathe.

[Jennifer Russler]

Ina's memory was very iffy, and she kept coming up with slightly different versions of what she thought might have happened. So they did try hypnotism. They tried everything they could think of.

[Detective Tom Chase]

One memory she has is of being taken down the back stairs of the hotel, out the door, and put into a car.

[Ina Butnicka]

I remember that something is going down, down and down. Like somebody cares you, and like you're going down, down, down, down. It's like a flashes, small flashes of the memory.

[Jennifer Russler]

She also said that she had vague memories of being sexually assaulted in a car.

[Ina Butnicka]

I remember a laugh. Somebody was laughing.

[Ken Brennan]

At this point, the problem is there are surveillance cameras at this back door that doesn't capture any of this.

[Michael Lee Jones]

The camera's working properly. So we reached a dead end on that point. It just didn't fit.

[Narrator]

For every step forward, they get a couple steps backward because her memory is all over the place. Then she's certain she remembers something happening in her room. So her story is changing. How much of a red flag was that to you?

[Michael Lee Jones]

For me, it wasn't a giant red flag. She had some head trauma, some serious head trauma. And I was giving the benefit of the doubt that that's pretty much what was causing the lack of memory.

[Ken Brennan]

Investigators obviously are wide open to look at any potential lead and search Ina's room to see if there's any evidence of an attack there.

[Michael Lee Jones]

I'm expecting furniture to be flipped Dressers to be knocked over, bed mattresses all over. I found it as a typical room, undisturbed.

[Narrator]

No sign of a fight or assault.

[Michael Lee Jones]

No beds unmade. I found beer bottles, I found clothes hanging in the bathroom, but nothing to indicate that there had been any kind of a struggle.

[Narrator]

What's hard for the detectives is that Ena is a victim, of course. But they're beginning to think that there's more to her story than either she is willing to tell them or maybe she can tell them.

[Detective Tom Chase]

Investigators are frustrated and so they go back and look as much as they can at Ina's movements. And it helps them that the hotel has a swipe key card system so they'll be able to go back and see exactly when she went into her room.

[Narrator]

They notice that Ina is coming back into the hotel, getting on the elevator, and it's 3:41am but then when she gets back to her room and she's got that key to swipe that tells what time It's 3:58. That's 17 minutes. That's a big gap. What happened? Police then have to look at a kind of unsavory theory. Could she be a prostitute? Could she have possibly gone to meet somebody, maybe a john at his room?

[Ina Butnicka]

They didn't told me exactly, are you a prostitute? All right. But the questions were like, you know, if I ever had a sex for money. And this kind of question, it was emotionally difficult. Very, very, very difficult.

[Michael Lee Jones]

Talking to employees at the hotel, security guards outside, even talking to her. I'm picking up absolutely zilch. Nothing to indicate that she was a prostitute.

[Detective Tom Chase]

On the contrary, everybody thought very highly of her.

[Detective Allen Foote]

Very quiet, very private girl.

[Narrator]

So that left you kind of at a dead end at that point.

[Michael Lee Jones]

Right.

[Narrator]

The case seems to be going nowhere and then somebody else enters the picture. An unlikely character who has a pretty unlikely theory.

[Detective Allen Foote]

I could feel it. I knew this was the guy. When you hear Lululemon, you probably think of Align yoga pants. Weightlessly soft, like you're wearing next to nothing. That's why you see them in class, at the grocery store and in the park. But did you know about skirts with built in liner shorts so you can still jump for the Frisbee and tanks and bodysuits. With Align's iconic stretch, you won't want.

[Ken Brennan]

To take it off.

[Detective Allen Foote]

And with endless style options, you don't have to shop in store or [e-mail]. you know that one friend who somehow knows everything about money?

[Ina Butnicka]

Yeah.

[Detective Allen Foote]

Now imagine they live in your phone, say hey to experian your big financial friend. It's the app that helps you check your FICO score, find ways to save, and basically feel like a financial genius. And guess what? It's totally free. So go on, download the Experian app. Trust me, having a BFF like this is a total game changer.

[Narrator]

Ken Brennan is a private eye who's kind of right out of central casting. I mean, if you've ever met him, you remember Ken Brennan.

[Jennifer Russler]

He wears gold chains and rings on his fingers, and he rides a motorcycle. He speaks with a New York, Long island accent, filled with profanity. He is funny, blunt, smart.

[Narrator]

If he's on a case, he's gonna solve it. What is it about this kind of work that attracts you?

[Detective Allen Foote]

It doesn't like catching bad guys. Something I've always, you know, enjoyed doing, even when I was a youngster. I've been working in law enforcement since 1975. I was in law enforcement before. I was a police officer before, as well as, you know, being a federal agent.

[Narrator]

Is it true that you've never taken a sick day?

[Detective Allen Foote]

No, I really haven't. You enjoy what you're doing. It never seems like a job.

[Narrator]

So when the Miami case dropped into your lap, what did you think?

[Detective Allen Foote]

Me? A fact that nobody knew how she got out of the hotel, that she just kind of vanished, and especially because it involved a sexual assault.

[Narrator]

This is a guy who feels determined to get justice in cases that involve sexual predators. In fact, he told us that he carried around the arrest file of the very first sexual predator whom he interrogated.

[Detective Allen Foote]

They're the worst crimes, I feel, of all of them, and there's too many of them out there that aren't solved.

[Ken Brennan]

One of the big challenges in sexual assault cases is that it's typically not funded as much as robbery and homicide. And so what happens is that sexual assault investigators get overwhelmed, and these cases aren't easy to solve. As weeks turn to months. Now, nine months in the investigation, and they still have no idea who attacked her.

[Narrator]

Were you thinking at any point that this case is just unsolvable?

[Michael Lee Jones]

I don't like to think that, and I really didn't think that. I always kept hope that something would eventually solve the case. I don't like to give up.

[Detective Tom Chase]

By now, Enos filed a lawsuit against the hotel alleging negligence in the security that they had that allowed this to happen.

[Ken Brennan]

We felt they could have had better security. They weren't monitoring the security cameras correctly. They led an assailant onto the grounds of the hotel.

[Ina Butnicka]

Why and how somebody would get into your room without the key. How.

[Narrator]

The hotel is denying any wrongdoing. So that's where Ken Brennan comes in.

[Detective Tom Chase]

When a hotel gets sued in a big case like this, they will typically hire their own investigator to determine the facts as best they can.

[Detective Allen Foote]

We have to clear the responsibility of the hotel. What happened in our hotel, it can happen in the best hotel in the world. The biggest glaring thing was is that nobody really knew how it occurred. Everybody loves a good mystery. Everybody wants to be the ability to solve something that somebody wasn't able to do before. Of course, that would be rewarding.

[Narrator]

What did you think of Ken Brennan when you first laid eyes on him?

[Michael Lee Jones]

This guy's going to drive me nuts.

[Detective Allen Foote]

Most police officers don't like PIs.

[Narrator]

How'd you get him to accept and to trust you?

[Detective Allen Foote]

He said, hey, listen, Alan, I'm not going to mess up your case. You know, I'm not going to screw it up. If we're going to solve this thing, we're going to be a team. We're going to work it together.

[Narrator]

You don't like PIs, but yet you trusted him. Why?

[Michael Lee Jones]

There was just something about him that was honest. I really felt that he was going to do what he said.

[Ken Brennan]

One of the first things that Detective Foote shares with private investigator Ken Brennan is that the DNA doesn't match Peter d' Amoulius or George Perez.

[Narrator]

Those two guys are eliminated. But now Ken Brennan's trying to figure out what did happen. Then he begins to share with the detectives his suspicions about Ina. Could there be more to the story? Could there be more about her? So he begins knocking on doors around the neighborhood where she was found.

[Detective Allen Foote]

Where exactly were they? Across the street. I bothered to take the time and to surveil her activities while she was still in the neighborhood. And there was nothing indicative of her being a prostitute.

[Narrator]

So you ruled that out?

[Detective Allen Foote]

I ruled that out pretty readily in the very beginning of the investigation.

[Ina Butnicka]

I was very, very upset about this. Very, very upset. I knew who I was. I know who I am.

[Narrator]

Another mystery. The tape shows the victim entering the elevator at 3:41am and then her room key swipe is showing recording at 3:58. So how did you explain those missing 17 minutes?

[Detective Allen Foote]

There seemed to have been a problem. They thought that maybe she might have went to another room, went and saw somebody. I said, well, listen, did anybody bother to take the time to out if the time stamp on the security cameras, if that matched the timestamp on a card access system, which nobody ever did, and it turns out when we did do that, there was a 17 minute lapse.

[Narrator]

So that mysterious gap in time wasn't really a mystery at all, just a clock that was 17 minutes off.

[Detective Allen Foote]

I knew immediately that after she was on that elevator, she went up directly to her room.

[Jennifer Russler]

One of the theories that occurred to Kent was because Ina had asked for a lawyer right at the beginning. There was some thought that this was some sort of Eastern European organized crime con.

[Detective Allen Foote]

I thought that in this particular case, that it might have been a possibility. The whole purpose was to try to obtain money from either the insurance company or from the hotel itself. It happens all over the world.

[Narrator]

Because she was filing a lawsuit against the hotel. A big lawsuit.

[Detective Allen Foote]

Exactly. And she didn't make a very good witness because she flip flopped on a lot of the statements that she had given to police.

[Ina Butnicka]

It just made me laugh. I mean, I don't know from where did they take this and who came up with this idea?

[Detective Allen Foote]

I believe that no matter what happened was going to be in the videotape.

[Narrator]

How much footage were you going to have to combine? Because there were a lot of cameras in the hotel, right?

[Detective Allen Foote]

Hours upon hours upon hours upon hours. It was extensive. That's something that you have to go through almost frame by frame, frame by frame. It was countless amount of hours.

[Jennifer Russler]

Ken has a very deliberate way of looking at the cases that he takes. He knew she had to have left the hotel, and he believed from everything he understood about the way the camera system worked, that that had to have been recorded.

[Detective Allen Foote]

You had to watch each and every frame on every video. Because we were originally looking for possibly an employee that might have moved one of the cameras out of the location it was originally at and maybe possibly snuck the victim past that way.

[Narrator]

Slowly but surely, Brennan has begun to eliminate pretty much everybody they've looked at except one guy.

[Detective Allen Foote]

She goes out on the video. She goes out of the hotel early in the morning. When she returns, there's a big lodge black man standing with her, and she just has a quick conversation with him. They get onto the elevator together, trying to look to see do they look like they know each other? Because again, I'm thinking this could still possibly be a scam or something like that. And after you keep reviewing it, it doesn't look like they have any kind of familiarity. He's just offering her to walk in front. She's not acknowledging him like she knows him.

[Narrator]

So Brendan has kind of given up on this whole conspiracy theory idea.

[Detective Allen Foote]

It appeared in the video that this was just a chance meeting and that it was Nothing that was staged and didn't appear to be staged at all.

[Narrator]

Now he's moved on to something else. He's looking at this one guy on the elevator, but that seems like it's a stretch as well.

[Detective Allen Foote]

Later on, during a video, he's seen exiting the elevator. So we follow him to another camera, and he goes off the property while I'm watching the video of this person coming off the elevator. And I went through this frame to time.

[Ken Brennan]

Sometimes the smallest details ultimately end up cracking a case.

[Detective Allen Foote]

This was the defining moment in the whole case right here. This young lady vanished into thin air. That was the intriguing part. That was the piece of the puzzle that you had to solve. First.

[Narrator]

Ken Brennan is now fixated on this guy that he saw on the surveillance camera walking into the hotel. You first see him at that elevator, entering it with ina at about 3:41am and then you see him leaving with a suitcase at 5:28.

[Detective Allen Foote]

About an hour later, he comes back and he reenters the hotel, but he doesn't have the suitcase with him.

[Narrator]

Does that register something right away in your mind?

[Detective Allen Foote]

As soon as he comes back without the suitcase now, he becomes a person of interest to me. He was the only one that had the time and the opportunity to commit the crime and come back to the scene.

[Narrator]

Many people would look at this video and just think, okay, a guy's wheeling a suitcase out of the elevator. Brennan sees something that nobody else would see.

[Jennifer Russler]

Ken observed that when this man pulled the suitcase out of the elevator, he had to give that little suitcase a tug to get it over the little lip between the elevator and the floor.

[Detective Allen Foote]

The suspect has to reach back and grab the handles with both hands to pull that suitcase out of the crack. I do a lot of traveling. You do a lot of traveling. I'm sure you have a lot of your clothing items in there. Was it ever so heavy you needed two hands to pull it out of the crack of it? No, probably not. As soon as he made the tug, as soon as he tugged out with both, like a light bulb went off my head, and I said, she's in that suitcase.

[Ken Brennan]

Ken Brennan is convinced that this suitcase may well have a body in it. And the problem is he's having trouble convincing the investigators, in particular Detective Foote, that this could be a plausible way that Ena was taken out of the hotel.

[Michael Lee Jones]

You know, where's this guy coming out of left field with this black male suspect.

[Jennifer Russler]

Alan Foote's reaction was that this just was not possible. The suitcase was too small. It was Just an outlandish theory, but.

[Narrator]

This is a small suitcase. What would lead you to even think a woman could fit into a small suitcase?

[Detective Allen Foote]

Well, the reason why I thought a woman might be able to fit in a suitcase is because this is a large guy. So our frame of reference on how large a suitcase is might be a little off. So I decided to use a measurement of the suitcase in relationship with markings on the elevator itself.

[Narrator]

With that reference point, it's pretty incredible. Brennan's able to determine that the bag is actually 29 inches high. And if you examine this image where we see the suitcase against the floor runner, he concludes that the bag is 19 inches wide, just like this one.

[Detective Allen Foote]

Then I knew exactly how wide the suitcase was.

[Narrator]

And then you were able to really theorize that someone could fit in there.

[Detective Allen Foote]

That's correct. What I did was had a. One of the fellows that worked for me had a girlfriend who was that size. So we got a hold of a suitcase that was the same dimensions and see if she could fit in it.

[Narrator]

She did.

[Detective Allen Foote]

He goes, yeah, she fits fine.

[Narrator]

The theory seems so bizarre. I mean, a grown woman being stuffed into a suitcase. So we decided to conduct a little unscientific experiment just to see. We went to a gymnastics school and found a couple of women who were about Ina's size and asked if they would help us figure this out. Our volunteer is about 53 ina's size. And to our shock and amazement, she was actually able to fit inside this suitcase comfortably. We could zip it up and wheel her around. She was okay. But it proved Brennan's theory.

[Detective Allen Foote]

So I knew that she would fit. All I was doing is basically validating what my hunch was.

[Narrator]

Brennan's theory actually fits. Now the evidence and even the timeline, he's able to conclude that this guy was able to go into the hotel, follow Ina. We see him on the elevator, somehow assault her, put her in the suitcase. We see him leaving the hotel with a suitcase, get her in his car, drive her to a location and dump her body, and then come right back to the hotel.

[Detective Allen Foote]

All the puzzles started fitting together at that particular point, and I knew I had my guy. Then I just had to find out who the heck he was.

[Ken Brennan]

The real limit at this point for Ken Brennan is he has a person pulling the suitcase, but he has no idea who that person is.

[Narrator]

He's got to find this guy. He's got to identify this guy. It's not a job anymore. It's an obsession.

[Detective Allen Foote]

I said, hella high water. I know I'm right. I Could feel it. I knew this was the guy. I was going to catch this guy.

[Ken Brennan]

Sitting down with Barbara Walters.

[Detective Allen Foote]

I know you don't want to talk about guys, and I won't push it, but how are you going to find anybody? No one ever got out totally unscathed. You don't really act. You don't sing. You don't have any talent. Forgive me, any talent.

[Narrator]

She was fearless, and sometimes she got under people's skin. Oh, my God. She asked the question nobody else had asked. She could talk to anyone about anything. Right now, ladies and gentlemen, Barbara Walters. Barbara Walters, tell me everything.

[Detective Allen Foote]

Only on Hulu. There's probably one really true thing about restaurants. You are never alone. FX presents the Bear. How do we keep this place open? We're going to figure it out. I'm fired up, ready to go. Showtime. The acclaimed series returns our flower, but budget is crazy.

[Michael Lee Jones]

I blame my elegance.

[Narrator]

Sometimes your work family is part of your family. Family.

[Detective Allen Foote]

If you're lucky. FX's the Bear. All episodes streaming June 25th on Hulu.

[Narrator]

When Ken Brennan posed this idea that Ina had been attacked by this large man that we see on the surveillance tape, wheeled out of the hotel in a suitcase and dumped, Detective Foote thought this was a joke, thinking that maybe he's a little out there sometimes.

[Michael Lee Jones]

We're all out there, but it's a lead. It's not on my priority. I'm putting this lead off to the side while I pursue the leads that I have.

[Detective Allen Foote]

Actually. He said, well, you know, that's a nice theory. Good luck with it. Let me know when you get any further.

[Michael Lee Jones]

Ken is persistent, and, you know, he went after that lead.

[Narrator]

He's determined.

[Michael Lee Jones]

He is determined.

[Narrator]

This is a pretty bizarre theory. How does this go over with the hotel?

[Detective Allen Foote]

In fact, one of the owners said, what the hell kind of an investigator are you? He goes, you're telling me it's this big black guy? Everybody else says it's too white, Hispanic. You know, where is this coming from? And they all started laughing, and that's what really pissed me off. And I said, hella high, Warren. I'm gonna find out. I'm gonna prove to these people that I'm right. I knew this was the guy. I was gonna catch this guy.

[Narrator]

The case is pretty cold at this point. He's long gone. How do you even begin to try to find this guy?

[Detective Allen Foote]

You know, I don't know if he was somebody that was staying at the hotel. There was a visitor that was just visiting. This guy just walked off the street. We didn't know. So that was the next part of the investigation.

[Narrator]

Like so many hotels, this one actually photocopied IDs of registered guests. But you can see the pictures are barely recognizable and weren't even useful. So you go back to the tape.

[Detective Allen Foote]

So I go back to the tape.

[Narrator]

And what do you find?

[Detective Allen Foote]

I was looking to see if he had any interaction with any of the other people at the hotel, and he does. He ends up interacting with another fellow.

[Narrator]

The big question now is, who is this second man that they see on the videotape? Well, Brennan, being the eagle eye that he is, notices right away that the man is wearing a lanyard around his neck. Could that help them pinpoint where this guy might have worked?

[Detective Allen Foote]

Trying to find out why he's wearing this name tag?

[Detective Tom Chase]

Problem is that they can't reach. The video simply isn't good enough to allow them to see what the name is on that lanyard.

[Ken Brennan]

One of the problems with surveillance cameras are that they many times are not totally crystal clear. So, for example, if you have names on a nameplate, you may only capture part of it. And unfortunately, that's where Brendan is at this point. He has partial words, but he doesn't know exactly what they mean.

[Jennifer Russler]

He even went to NASA to see if they had ways of magnifying images that would tell him what was on that ID badge.

[Detective Allen Foote]

And I say, listen, you know, I know you guys look at digital photography from light years away. Maybe you could help me out on this case that I'm working, You know, so they couldn't.

[Narrator]

They couldn't do it.

[Detective Allen Foote]

No. So they inform you, listen, you know, we tried, but we're not able to get that for you. So I said, okay, fine, you know, let's go back to the tape. Later on in the video, when he's out by the hallway, you can clearly see that this says Mercury. But I just.

[Narrator]

What's Mercury?

[Detective Allen Foote]

That. That was the problem. I didn't know if it be anything. And on the back of his shirt you could make out barely a V and an O. And for whatever reason, I don't know, I think that says Verrado. What the hell's a Verado? I said, I don't know, but let's find out. So then I went online and did a search and I got a hit, and it showed that Mercury Marine made a brand new outboard engine by the name of Burrado. After I saw that and I realized that was a boat engine, I said, these guys are working at the boat show.

[Jennifer Russler]

He discovered that in fact, this big boat show had been going on at the same time that this crime occurred.

[Narrator]

And then they learned that Mercury was a major exhibitor during the boat show. Brennan is convinced that he's just about to close this case. He assumes that the guy he's looking at works with this other guy that he's seen on the tape at Mercury. And so now the only thing he's got to do is figure out who he is.

[Michael Lee Jones]

Ken would text me or send me emails of everything he's doing. He tells me about the T shirt and the Verrado, and at this point, I'm giving him the thumbs up. Good job.

[Detective Allen Foote]

Breaking Marina is actually the parent company is a company by the name of Brunswick. I end up contacting Brunswick, speaking to the head of security, and I said, listen, do you have any employees that stayed at the airport Regency Hotel? I said, no, he didn't.

[Narrator]

So it's a dead end.

[Detective Allen Foote]

So it's a little bit of a setback. So I said, well, trust me, one of the guys there is walking around with one of those Mercury virus. Somebody was giving them out. So he goes, okay, let me get back to you. So I said, okay, fine. Couple days later, he calls me back. He says, as far as we can tell, the only people that received any of the Verrado shirts were employees that worked at the food court.

[Narrator]

So another connection.

[Detective Allen Foote]

So there's another connection. I said, well, let's find out who's the caterer for the Miami Boat show. So it ends up becoming a company called Centerplate. So I ended up contacting Centerplate, and they told me, listen, we'd love to be able to help you, but we hire people from all over the country. We wouldn't be able to tell you where these people stayed, no matter what.

[Ken Brennan]

They told him that they do reimburse people for housing, but they have no idea where they might stay.

[Detective Tom Chase]

They simply don't have that kind of detail. These are people who are coming in doing contract work, and when it comes to the hotel, it's up to them where they stay.

[Narrator]

They can't say who stayed at the Regency Airport hotel. So now he's hit another dead end.

[Detective Allen Foote]

But I've come a long way. And I said, I'm not going to give up on this guy yet. I said, listen, he's really distinctive. The guy's about 6 foot 4, he's a black fella, and he wears glasses. So I said, does anybody remember working with a guy that matches that description? Sure enough, about a week or so later, he says, nobody knows the guy's name. But one of the people that remembered seeing this fella remembers something about him being hired out of Louisiana. He believes that's where he's from.

[Narrator]

So now you've gone from Miami to Louisiana.

[Detective Allen Foote]

So now I'm over in Louisiana.

[Narrator]

Brennan's search is now taking a big turn to the Big easy. Trying to, trying to find somebody in New Orleans is kind of like finding a needle in a haystack.

[Detective Allen Foote]

I'm so far into this investigation now, there's no way I'm going to let this guy go. And I'm going to track this guy down.

[Narrator]

This is a case that has detectives in Miami stumped. It all starts in this hotel lobby. A petite blonde woman walking onto a.

[Jennifer Russler]

Hotel elevator was found miles away from where she was supposed to be. No memory of what had happened to her. She had been badly beaten.

[Ina Butnicka]

You're begging for your life. And for someone, it's funny.

[Narrator]

Somebody was laser focused on this case, determined to solve it.

[Ken Brennan]

This comes down to one particular moment where Brennan believes he's pulled the case together.

[Detective Allen Foote]

As soon as he tugged out with both hands, like a light bulb went off in my head and I said, she's in that suitcase. You stuffed her in there thinking she was a corpse.

[Ina Butnicka]

Why me? What did I do?

[Detective Allen Foote]

I'm so far into this investigation now, there's no way I'm gonna let this guy go.

[Narrator]

Brennan is now going in for the kill.

[Michael Lee Jones]

He's telling me, I got the guy. This is the guy. This is gonna be your guy.

[Jennifer Russler]

The person is so casual that he acts like a person who's done this sort of thing before.

[Detective Allen Foote]

You'll see, there'll be other cases start popping up.

[Narrator]

Bingo. I screamed with everything I had on that night.

[Detective Allen Foote]

Her whole life changed.

[Narrator]

He was like Jekyll and Hyde. I could just see the monster come over him.

[Detective Allen Foote]

I just want you to catch this guy. I knew I had the guy, and now I just gotta find out where the hell is he?

[Narrator]

It's New Orleans. It's Mardi Gras. It is one of the biggest parties of the year. But Mardi Gras also can have a dark side.

[Jennifer Russler]

The wildness of Mardi Gras can be a problem for the police because people who are drinking that much in crowded situations sometimes are out of control. And it can be. It can cause real law enforcement problems.

[Narrator]

It was here in 2000 that Captain Ernest Dema found himself in the middle of all of this mayhem trying to arrest a rowdy college kid. And it did not go well.

[Detective Allen Foote]

This is 10, 11 o' clock at night. I was in the process of effecting arrest. And during the course of the arrest, young college kid was able to get out of my grasp and start running down wrong street. And for all practical purposes, once he gets in the crowd, it's over. And out of nowhere, out of nowhere from the crowd comes this dark, imposing figure, just like you'd see in a Batman comic book. I mean, he swooped down on this.

[Ken Brennan]

Kid before the kid even knew what was going on.

[Detective Allen Foote]

I happen to been on vacation with my two boys and we were at Mardi Gras. There was a tussle and the guy broke away from him and started running through the crowd. And I witnessed it and I ran the guy down and boom, Batman comes swoops down on him, tackles in the street, pins him down, and by the time we got there, it was over. I gave him the nickname Batman just because how the incident unfolded. Yeah, he called me Batman because I had a black turtleneck and you swooped in black jeans on. So when I went and grabbed the guy, he said I looked like Batman coming through the crowd. It was almost like we bonded together immediately. So we ended up becoming friends because of that incident. And he says, listen, if you ever need any help in New Orleans, give me a call. Well, I needed help in New Orleans.

[Ken Brennan]

So that time is now. Brendan reaches out to captain Dema of the New Orleans police department for help.

[Detective Allen Foote]

He called me and he said, ernie, this is Ken Brennan. I said, who? He said, batman. And then I knew who he was. I call him up and I say, listen, you know, I need help. Like I said, if he would have called me and asked me for anything, especially criminal activity, I would have found him.

[Narrator]

So he calls him and he tells him about this big investigation, about the guy with the suitcase, how he's trying to track down who this guy is and having a tough time doing it. And he tells him about this company, center plate that had employed a guy from Louisiana who fit the description of the suspect he's looking for.

[Jennifer Russler]

Ken knows that the man he's looking for was doing food concessions, and he needs somebody in New Orleans to help him find out who this person was.

[Detective Allen Foote]

Centerplate handles a venue outside of New Orleans at a semi pro baseball stadium. So I said, listen, you know, I know it's not even in your city, but do you mind sending a guy out and see if you can find a guy, big, 6 foot 4, black guy wearing glasses? That kind of information wouldn't really be in the computer because we're looking for someone who only fit the description of a large African American. And we really didn't have any information on him per se that I know of. It was just talking with other officers who worked at the Zephyr Field and see if they knew anybody that fit that description.

[Ken Brennan]

This is a big deal for Brennan because he at least now has the power and authority of the New Orleans police to follow up on leads in that jurisdiction, which he wouldn't have had otherwise.

[Detective Allen Foote]

So he's good enough to send the sergeant out to that locality. And from the contacts at Zephyr Field, from the information we received, we were able to come up with a hard description on the person that he was looking for.

[Narrator]

Trying to find somebody in New Orleans is kind of like finding a needle in a haystack, because since that attack happened, Hurricane Katrina has devastated the area. Officials estimate that 80% of New Orleans is now underwater.

[Detective Allen Foote]

All of these levees had started to breach and that water was coming into the city and there was no way to stop it.

[Jennifer Russler]

The community there had literally been scattered to the four winds.

[Detective Allen Foote]

So I said, well, who knows if this guy's. Even if he's alive, who knows if he's living there anymore, what he's doing, what's going on? I said, I have no idea. I said, damn, I came this far. I'm not gonna give up yet.

[Jennifer Russler]

Ken Brennan's friend in New Orleans actually helped him enormously by tracking down the person he was looking for.

[Detective Tom Chase]

It's a big city, there's a lot that they don't know, and yet somehow they're able to, to figure out that he worked at the Superdome when Katrina hit, and they get a name.

[Narrator]

It has been months and months, Brennan trying to just get a name to this video image on tape. And when he finally hears the name.

[Detective Allen Foote]

I thought, you gotta be kidding me.

[Narrator]

Unfortunately, it's a name we've all heard from Miami to Louisiana. This case was taking private eye Ken Brennan on a multi state manhunt.

[Detective Allen Foote]

As long as I had a gasping breath on his case, I was gonna make sure that I saw it to the end.

[Detective Tom Chase]

This guy is exactly what you want. Obsessed, taking it personally, and unwilling to, to give up, even if that involves some wacky theories that other people would say, no way, no how.

[Narrator]

Brennan's got a contact in New Orleans, and incredibly, they're actually able to find the name of the suspect. But that name isn't the break he was hoping for.

[Detective Allen Foote]

They come back and tell me the guy's name is Mike Jones. I go, you gotta be kidding. Mike Jones was there 10 million of them.

[Narrator]

Mike Jones.

[Detective Allen Foote]

Mike Jones. That's the guy's name. I said, geez, you know, that's as.

[Narrator]

Generic as you can get.

[Detective Allen Foote]

Yeah, I mean, if the guy's name was like, Mikhail Gorbachev or something, you know, it'd be a hell of a lot easier to track down. But a guy named Mike Jones is pretty tough.

[Detective Tom Chase]

The name Mike Jones, there's nothing worse than that in terms of trying to figure out who it is. At least they've got a middle name, and that's Lee. So now they have Michael Lee Jones, and now they've got to do some more detective work.

[Ken Brennan]

The combination of having the middle name leads them to potentially identifying and locating this person.

[Detective Allen Foote]

What I did was I took that information, I went back to the hotel registry, and lo and behold, what do I find out? That there was a Michael Lee Jones Jr. That did stay at the Airport Regency Hotel.

[Narrator]

That's a pretty big moment.

[Detective Allen Foote]

Yeah, well, that's an aha moment where you say, hey, listen, at least I know I was on the right track and notated on his car that he did work for Centerplate. The Mike Jones that I was looking for was the same Mike Jones that was in Miami at the Miami Boat Show. Okay, that I know. And now I just gotta find out where the hell is he?

[Narrator]

Brennan is on a pretty good winning streak at point this. Now, it turns out Michael Jones no longer works for center plate, but Brennan is going to roll the dice once more.

[Ken Brennan]

One thing you have to do as an investigator is follow employment. And so now you have a suspect that works in food concessions. So the idea is, well, let's see if we can find him.

[Detective Allen Foote]

I said, the likelihood is that even though he doesn't work for Centerplate anymore, that he's probably going to work for one of their competitors doing the same line of work. So I asked the guy from Centerplate, I said, listen, give me a list of your, like, 10 top competitors in this business.

[Narrator]

This guy is not giving up. He makes a master list of all the catering companies in the country and calls them one by one, asking if they have a Michael Jones working for him.

[Jennifer Russler]

You know, it gets varying levels of cooperation from various companies.

[Narrator]

At the bottom of the list is a company called Ovations. It's based in Tampa.

[Detective Allen Foote]

I made an appointment to go see him in person. I talked to the COO of the company, and I said, listen, do you have a Michael Lee Jones working for you? He says, well, listen, he says, I can't help you with that. He says, I can't give you any information about my employees. You require it. You know, I'd require a subpoena to be able to release that to you.

[Narrator]

They want a subpoena. What does that tell you?

[Detective Allen Foote]

So what tells me that the guy works there? You know, why else they ask for a subpoena? You know, I talked to, you know, 35 other companies. Nobody had an objection to tell me that, no, that. No Michael E. Jones worked there.

[Narrator]

Brennan's now got to turn to Detective Allen Foote. He's the Miami Dade detective who originally handled the case and let Brennan run with it. How urgent was it for you to get that subpoena?

[Detective Allen Foote]

I wanted it right away.

[Michael Lee Jones]

I obtained a subpoena for Michael E. Jones record, and as soon as I received the information, I faxed the information to Ken.

[Detective Allen Foote]

It was very important. And fortunately, he was able to obtain a subpoena for me and get it faxed over to the company at Ovations to the COO there while I was still present.

[Detective Tom Chase]

Ovations finally releases the information. And it's just as Brennan suspected. He's working for them. And he's working now at a minor league baseball park in Frederick, Maryland.

[Ken Brennan]

It sometimes can make it really frustrating for investigators as the offender just passed through that location. And so as a result, it makes them sometimes difficult to catch.

[Detective Allen Foote]

So I said, listen, you know, we got to get some DNA from this guy, either from voluntarily or without his knowledge, because I have a DNA profile from the victim, and we have to match it to somebody.

[Narrator]

It's the moment Ken Brennan has been waiting for him. At long last, he's about to come face to face with that mystery man with the suitcase.

[Detective Allen Foote]

You take whatever clue you have, wherever you can go, and you just keep working at it and see where that takes you. Might take you to a dead end, might take you to a blind alley, but it might take you to the promised land.

[Narrator]

It's been more than a year since Ina Budnicka was attacked in that Miami hotel. And Ken Brennan has located that mystery man. He's been searching for Michael Jones in Frederick, Maryland.

[Jennifer Russler]

Frederick, Maryland, is in the western part of the state, in the mountains.

[Narrator]

At this point. Are you elated?

[Detective Allen Foote]

You're getting excited? Because I'm getting close to the end of the chase.

[Michael Lee Jones]

He's telling me this is gonna be your guy. And I'm thinking it's a theory, but I still have no indication that it's a black male.

[Narrator]

So you're not there yet?

[Michael Lee Jones]

I'm not there yet. I'm not there.

[Detective Allen Foote]

And I can understand his reluctance. However, I knew I had the guy. I gotta get his ass up there to get him.

[Narrator]

So what do you tell Detective Foote? What do you need next?

[Detective Allen Foote]

So I said, listen, we gotta get some DNA from this guy, either voluntarily or without his knowledge. So he made arrangements with his department to be able to fly up to Frederick, Maryland, and he was able to interview the suspect. Time.

[Narrator]

Detective Allen Foote is the first to actually confront Michael Jones.

[Jennifer Russler]

He found him working at the food concession of a minor league baseball park in Frederick.

[Narrator]

What was he like when you first met him?

[Michael Lee Jones]

A teddy bear.

[Narrator]

A teddy bear? A big. A big, mild mannered.

[Michael Lee Jones]

Mild mannered guy. He was soft spoken. He appeared to be educated. He was very, I thought, forthcoming.

[Narrator]

Michael Jones doesn't seem to be rattled at all. He is cool, calm and collected while he talks to the detective.

[Michael Lee Jones]

Oh, he's staying cool as a cucumber. He's just very relaxed, leaned back in the chair. No hiding or stuttering. Looking for something.

[Narrator]

Jones does confirm that he was in Miami, he was working at the boat show, and that he was indeed staying at that Regency hotel when Ina was attacked.

[Michael Lee Jones]

So I'm thinking, okay. So I said, do you have any sex with European women? And he says, yes, but it was with a German woman at the boat show. So I have to throw out some more at him. Was it a Russian girl? Was it at the hotel? And he's completely denying it. And he's being told, totally cooperative.

[Detective Tom Chase]

That's exactly what you want to do if the police or authorities are asking some very serious questions.

[Michael Lee Jones]

So I came out and eventually flat out asked him, did you rape be dropped for dead? Did you do it? And he says, well, no, of course not.

[Narrator]

And does he seem believable at that point?

[Michael Lee Jones]

Yes, he does. And then I ask him, would you be willing to give a DNA specimen? Because I have specimens from the rape. And he said, absolutely.

[Ken Brennan]

Jones readily gives up his DNA because he believes they can't link him to this crime.

[Narrator]

What did that tell you? That he was so willing.

[Michael Lee Jones]

And I figured the guy didn't do.

[Detective Allen Foote]

It because I don't know, Ken, I don't think so. I talked to him. I said, yeah, I know you talked to him. I'm telling you, it's the guy.

[Narrator]

It's going to take a while for these DNA samples to come back.

[Ken Brennan]

So while Brennan is waiting for the DNA to come back, he contacts senior investigator Tom Chase with the Frederick Police Department.

[Detective Allen Foote]

I informed Lieutenant Chase that I believe that he might be a person of interest for him in case something happened in one of those neighborhoods that he could possibly be responsible for. I utilized my contacts to keep an eye on the fact that he was still in town, because I want to make sure he's available for them when they're ready to come and get him. This is the ballpark where he was working at the time, and this is where he was living.

[Detective Tom Chase]

If the authorities have a strong hunch that someone's responsible for a very serious crime, they can keep an eye on that person.

[Detective Allen Foote]

I was more diligent in keeping track of the reports that were coming in for any type of suspicious person or any type of sexual assaults. He had his offices going by to keep an eye on him. He was going by on his own time on his way home from work.

[Narrator]

Brennan can't stand just sitting around waiting, waiting, waiting. So he actually gets J to meet him at the ballpark to talk to.

[Detective Allen Foote]

Him, and I interviewed him for three successive days.

[Ken Brennan]

Basically, these interviews with offenders are sort of a cat and mouse game. The offender is trying to figure out what you know as the investigator, and the investigator is trying to better understand the offender.

[Narrator]

The guy is calm and collected. What does he tell you?

[Detective Allen Foote]

He says, listen, I don't know what you're talking about. Yeah, I was at the boat show. Yeah, you know, I hooked up with a couple girls while I was there, but I don't know anything about this Russian girl.

[Narrator]

Are you believing him?

[Detective Allen Foote]

No, not at all. Not for a minute, not for a second. Because the first thing is, if he had nothing to do with it, why would he talk to me for three days? The reason why he talked to me for three days because he knows that I know more about this case than anybody did. So he's trying to find out for me how much he has to worry. How much of this case does this guy know? How close is he to me?

[Narrator]

How could somebody who's guilty of this horrible crime be so relaxed and friendly? I mean, who but an innocent man would willingly give up his DNA sample to a cop who he knows is looking at him for a crime?

[Ken Brennan]

He knows what evidence he's left and what he hasn't left. And he's been in his mind very careful.

[Narrator]

It doesn't trouble you at all that he seems to be cooperative?

[Detective Allen Foote]

Not at all. So let me tell you something. I know you did this. I said, this ain't like a bad dream where you're just gonna wake up and it's gonna be over. I said, take a good look at my face. I said, cause you're gonna see his face again, I said. Cause I'm coming for you.

[Narrator]

The next time Brennan sees Jones, it will be in an interrogation room. And this will be a chance to determine is his hunch right on the money, or is this gonna just blow up in his face.

[Detective Allen Foote]

You better remember how that happened. Something went bad. Didn't hurt that girl. Something went bad. You might not have thought you heard it.

[Michael Lee Jones]

Who do what?

[Detective Allen Foote]

Somebody did it.

[Narrator]

Since Ina was found assaulted and abandoned in that field, her memory has been foggy all over the map. But suddenly, she's got a breakthrough.

[Ina Butnicka]

I try to bring myself back into the accident and see if I can remember something else. Small details.

[Michael Lee Jones]

She came to my office and said she didn't know if she was dreaming or if it was a reality, but she remembers being in the hotel room and sitting on the bed, and across from her was a black male.

[Narrator]

Wow.

[Michael Lee Jones]

Wow is right. So I put together a photo lineup with Michael Lee Jones in it. And I just tell her, tell me if you recognize any of them for any reason.

[Ina Butnicka]

And I choose a person from the lineup, and this is the person who. Basically, who raped me.

[Michael Lee Jones]

I said, she goes, right for Michael Lee Jones.

[Narrator]

Finally, it all seems to be coming together, and the DNA results have arrived.

[Michael Lee Jones]

I called Ken up. I says, you're not gonna believe this.

[Detective Allen Foote]

He goes, it's him. I go, no kidding? Yeah, I know it was him.

[Narrator]

What was that moment like?

[Detective Allen Foote]

Oh, it was total elation. I was happy.

[Narrator]

So the next step would be to make an arrest.

[Michael Lee Jones]

Yes. I get an arrest warrant, and I go back to Maryland. I meet up with Ken and members of the Frederick Police Department, and we go out to Michael's apartment. We're caravanning like John Wayne in a wagon train where the calvary's coming, because we're gonna go get our guy, and we go to his apartment.

[Detective Allen Foote]

We knock on the door, and he comes to the door, and he answers. And we look looked at each other face to face. And I said, I told you I'd be back.

[Michael Lee Jones]

You're being charged with rape.

[Jennifer Russler]

All right? She says, I raped her.

[Detective Allen Foote]

We already have the hit on the DNA. Okay. Now it's just a question of interrogating them to see if I can get this guy to roll on it. Right?

[Michael Lee Jones]

Look at these. I didn't do that. You were there. I didn't do that.

[Ken Brennan]

You show some suspects pictures of victims because what you're trying to do is humanize the victim in the eyes of the offender. The problem is it doesn't tend to work because they don't care.

[Michael Lee Jones]

Once we started to throw the fact that, you know, obviously he was under arrest for this kidnapping of rape, his story changed.

[Detective Allen Foote]

Just give us your version of what went down, and you only get one chance.

[Michael Lee Jones]

All right, I'm gonna straight up.

[Detective Allen Foote]

I know the only thing he's gonna come up with is she was a prostitute. I paid for her. She was fine when I left her. I have no idea what happened to her. Okay.

[Narrator]

Joan says that he and a friend, that guy in the Mercury T shirt, went out to a strip club that night. That when he returned to the hotel, that he did see Ina hanging out with some women in front of the hotel.

[Michael Lee Jones]

I mean, obviously they were hookers or whatever. And, you know, we're talking, they were like, you know, want to have some fun?

[Detective Allen Foote]

And then what happens next? You go to her room? She go to your room?

[Michael Lee Jones]

Went to her room.

[Detective Allen Foote]

You went to her room.

[Michael Lee Jones]

And then, you know, she whispers in, I made her 100 bucks. So we did it and gave her a hundred bucks, and I left.

[Ken Brennan]

The offender is trying to steer them in another direction. Yes, I'll admit I had sex with her, but you can't prove anything beyond that.

[Ina Butnicka]

Is it even he's a victim. He's a victim for everybody. Is it to blame? You easy to blame.

[Detective Allen Foote]

Then what happened after that?

[Michael Lee Jones]

After you had sex with me, Went back to Myrmal. So you don't know what happened to her. That's what you're telling me, right?

[Detective Allen Foote]

Yes, sir.

[Ken Brennan]

Unfortunately for Jones, his story doesn't match their surveillance video. True, he's with his friend. They're talking to some other women. But the problem is, when you look at the surveillance video, when she leaves the hotel at 3:33am she walks out of the hotel and past these women and doesn't stop to talk to anybody.

[Detective Allen Foote]

There wasn't any kind of an exchange between the two of them. It would have been indicative at all of somebody soliciting a prostitute or a prostitute soliciting at John.

[Michael Lee Jones]

And then he couldn't come up with explanations as to why she'd leave the hotel when you weren't supposed to.

[Ken Brennan]

Jones literally stayed at the hotel another full day after the attack.

[Narrator]

The question is, why would he be leaving the hotel at 5:28 in the morning without checking out, carrying a big suitcase, only to return and about an hour later without it?

[Michael Lee Jones]

So he put his suitcase in the trunk of the car, but he never came back to get the suitcase. You know, I took my downstairs and put it in the trunk. I think I went to 711 or.

[Detective Allen Foote]

Something for a sodium in the middle of night, not in the morning when you check it out.

[Michael Lee Jones]

So I wasn't even sure if I was going to sleep.

[Detective Tom Chase]

Despite the fact that they have his DNA and he's given inconsistent statements, there are still real challenges in this case. He has got a story, and that is that their sex was consensual. She doesn't remember exactly what happened.

[Detective Allen Foote]

I didn't hurt her in any kind of way.

[Detective Tom Chase]

The key for investigators is going to be poking holes in his story.

[Detective Allen Foote]

Even though he's calm and he's cool and he looks like he hasn't done a thing in the world, it was my job to be able to show that he's a liar.

[Narrator]

Brennan is now going in for the kill. He is focusing on that key moment, that tug of the suitcase when Jones was getting off the elevator.

[Detective Allen Foote]

What stuff did you bring up here?

[Michael Lee Jones]

All I have is my suitcase.

[Detective Allen Foote]

I said, well, what was in the suitcase? What you have in your bag when you went out to your car? My clothes. How much clothes do you have over there?

[Narrator]

Like, I think, two weeks.

[Detective Allen Foote]

How much stuff? How big was.

[Ken Brennan]

When Brendan drills down on what exactly is in the suitcase, Jones actually pauses, which the investigators know they've now hit a nerve.

[Detective Allen Foote]

You could just see the wheels turning. And he's saying, well, I got to come up with a scenario. Why is this heavier than it appears to be? How heavy was it? Was it fairly light?

[Michael Lee Jones]

No, it was heavy. I have a bunch. I mean, Xbox in there.

[Narrator]

All kinds.

[Detective Allen Foote]

Xbox was in there. Anything else? You. Clothes. Clothes. How many pairs of shoes?

[Michael Lee Jones]

Books.

[Detective Allen Foote]

You got? Books? I said, you're an avid reader. You read all the time? I said, yeah. What kind of books do you like? What was the name of the books you would read? I have no idea.

[Michael Lee Jones]

I couldn't even tell you what the name of the book was. You just took out my pocket.

[Narrator]

He reads all these books, but now this avid reader kind of has a case of amnesia.

[Detective Allen Foote]

Everything you're saying doesn't add up. It doesn't make sense.

[Narrator]

What doesn't make sense?

[Detective Allen Foote]

Your timeline stinks. Your story stinks. The whole story stinks.

[Narrator]

There's no doubt in Brennan's mind that Jones is lying. And he's convinced that any jury that sees this videotape will believe the same.

[Detective Allen Foote]

Thing, because any of the things he was talking about made absolutely no sense whatsoever. Who goes and leaves, takes their clothes out to the car before they check out? Nobody who's 6 foot 4, weighs 380 pounds, has some underwear and an Xbox in a suitcase. Needs two hands to pull it out of a crack. Nobody. Doesn't make sense. Doesn't make sense because it's all. What is true is that he already beat this girl. He's dragging her out. He's gone for an hour because he's looking for a place to dump her because he thinks she's dead. Would you be willing to take a polygraph exam?

[Michael Lee Jones]

Sure.

[Narrator]

Jones fails the polygraph test, but he continues to maintain his innocence. So you don't know what happened to.

[Detective Allen Foote]

Her or how it happened to her?

[Narrator]

No.

[Detective Allen Foote]

He played his role right to the very end, the bitter end.

[Detective Tom Chase]

Michael Jones was charged with sexual battery and kidnapping.

[Narrator]

And before the case can even go to court, it almost falls apart. And the defense gets help from, of all people, the victim. It's seemed like at this point you've got a slam dunk case. But it wasn't.

[Michael Lee Jones]

No. I was afraid this guy was just going to get let off. He was going to walk.

[Narrator]

Ken Brennan has spent months and months on this case trying to figure out who committed this brutal attack on Ina Britnitzka in February of 2005. The big problem for him is that she just can't remember anything.

[Ina Butnicka]

It was stressful and many times upset of myself. I said, why can't I just remember?

[Detective Allen Foote]

We're at 3:38.

[Narrator]

But Brennan finally thinks he knows what happened in that fateful meeting between Eno Butnicka and Michael D. Jones.

[Detective Allen Foote]

Somewhere there's either an offer to come up to his room on the fifth floor and have a drink or something.

[Michael Lee Jones]

Talked to her, started telling me something about she was disabled, she got hurt on some cruise ship or something.

[Detective Allen Foote]

So they leave the elevator, she goes to her room, and I know she went there to leave her coat because her coat was left at the scene.

[Narrator]

Brennan doesn't know whether Jones may have gone to Enna's room that night, but he. He is convinced that the attack did not happen there.

[Detective Allen Foote]

The room was lived in, but it wasn't disturbed, which would be indicative of a crime of that nature. But somehow or other, they ended up in his room. And whatever happens, he ends up beating her to death there. He thinks she's dead, stuffs her in the suitcase, and then takes it down.

[Narrator]

But now, after almost a year of sleuthing, it looks like his investigation might come unraveled because Ina just doesn't accept Brennan's theory and she's sticking by her original story that the attack happened in her room.

[Ina Butnicka]

I didn't go nowhere. I didn't go to nobody's room. I remember myself going into my room. That's what I remember.

[Narrator]

But Ina's memory is all over the map. I mean, she first told police that she was attacked by two white men with Spanish accents, and then she picked Jones out of a lineup, but said that there might have been two guys who raped her.

[Detective Tom Chase]

They're concerned that there are inconsistencies. They're concerned she's not going to be a good witness. That's a real issue in a case like this.

[Jennifer Russler]

There has to be some physical evidence or corroboration to support the victim's claim that it was an attack as, as opposed to a consensual act.

[Narrator]

Even with Brennan's bombshell surveillance theory, the case against Jones is coming up pretty thin.

[Jennifer Russler]

I don't believe that they ever found the suitcase that Jones used. And of course, hotels are cleaned every morning, so the chances of their finding any physical evidence from his room would be very small.

[Narrator]

Jones's defense lawyer can smell the prosecution's weakness a mile away.

[Detective Allen Foote]

We believe that they couldn't prove the case beyond a reasonable doubt. The Miami Dade Police Department, I think detectives there believe that since they had DNA and a suspected match, that he must have been the one who did the rape and the beating. But there's no evidence that he did that.

[Jennifer Russler]

Michael Lee Jones never confessed to raping or beating he man. His claim was that he had consensual sex with her, but that he had had no part in beating her or.

[Detective Tom Chase]

Dumping her body for a potential jury. This isn't going to be a slam dunk case. Yes, they've got his DNA, but he's now saying, yeah, we had sex. I paid her for sex.

[Michael Lee Jones]

So we did it and gave her a hundred bucks. And I left. Prosecutor's office was uncomfortable with the fact that Ina's memory was in bits and pieces.

[Jennifer Russler]

Prosecutors decided they had a case of he said, she said.

[Michael Lee Jones]

They didn't feel they could win a case if it went to trial. You don't know the way that a jury would feel. So the prosecutor's office decided to offer him a plea.

[Narrator]

It turns out Jones pleads guilty to a reduced charge. The case never even comes up before a jury. And he gets. Get the two years. Two years.

[Michael Lee Jones]

Two years.

[Narrator]

Two years.

[Michael Lee Jones]

I was upset. I just told him, you can't. You can't let this guy out.

[Ina Butnicka]

I was angry. I was angry, but I couldn't do anything. I'm not familiar with the justice system, but I was upset and sorry. Yes, I was upset.

[Narrator]

In five, everyone involved in the case is upset. Everyone, that is, except Ken Brennan.

[Detective Allen Foote]

See, that didn't bother me either. I said, hey, listen, don't worry about it.

[Narrator]

The dogged investigator has yet another hunch.

[Detective Allen Foote]

This wasn't his first time at the rodeo. Here. He's done this before.

[Narrator]

And the hotel security cameras are about to give up. One final secret about Michael Jones.

[Detective Allen Foote]

Paradise is back. It's finally here in a new location. Costa Rica. There will be adventure, drama and romance.

[Ken Brennan]

All gas, no breaks.

[Detective Allen Foote]

That's my vibe.

[Michael Lee Jones]

Ready to find some love.

[Detective Allen Foote]

But it wouldn't be paradise without surprises along the way. These kids need to learn. That's right. Your favorite golden alums are crashing the beach.

[Narrator]

We bring in a party, baby. Bachelor in paradise premieres Monday, July 7th at 8.7Central on ABC and stream on Hulu.

[Ken Brennan]

Hi, Zoe Saldana.

[Detective Allen Foote]

Welcome to T Mobile. Here's your new iPhone 16 Pro on us. Thanks. And here's my old phone to trade in. You don't need a trade in.

[Ken Brennan]

When you switch to T Mobile, we'll.

[Detective Allen Foote]

Give you a new iPhone 16 Pro plus we'll help you pay off your.

[Ken Brennan]

Old Phone up to 800 bucks and you still get to keep it.

[Detective Allen Foote]

There's always a trade in. Not right now.

[Narrator]

@ T Mobile.

[Detective Allen Foote]

I feel like I have to give.

[Narrator]

You something in return for karma.

[Ken Brennan]

That's okay.

[Detective Allen Foote]

I don't really have much in my purse.

[Narrator]

Oh, let's see. Hand sanitizer. It's lavender.

[Detective Allen Foote]

I'm good. Seriously. Let me check this pocket. Oh, mints. Really, I'm fine. Oh, I have raisins. I'm a mom. Wait, wait one sec.

[Narrator]

I've got cupcakes in the car.

[Detective Allen Foote]

It's our best iPhone offer ever. Switch to T Mobile. Get a new iPhone 16 Pro with Apple intelligence on us, no trade in needed. We'll even pay off your Phone up to 800 bucks with 24 monthly bill credits.

[Michael Lee Jones]

New in line, 100 plus a month.

[Detective Allen Foote]

On experience beyond finance agreement. $999.99 and qualifying ported for well qualified. Plus tax and $10 connection charge. Pay off via virtual prepaid card. Allow 15 days credits end and balance due. If you pay off earlier, cancel ctobile.com.

[Narrator]

Now remember, remember, Michael Jones works for a company that sends him all over the country. He's never in one place for very long. You could say it's kind of a serial rapist. Ideal job.

[Detective Allen Foote]

This is a perfect gig for this guy. They pay you to move around the country, stay for a couple of weeks, you work there and then you move on. You're somewhere else. What better occupation could a serial rapist have?

[Narrator]

So when Detectives Foote tells Brennan that Jones copped a plea, a two year sentence for his attack on Ina, Brennan is ready to play his final ace.

[Jennifer Russler]

Ken Brennan knew that he was dealing with a serial rapist. And he was proved right.

[Ken Brennan]

The FBI has a system called codis, which is a DNA database. It's a central repository of all of the records that police submit to the FBI.

[Detective Allen Foote]

I said, make sure you put his DNA into codis and you'll see there'll be other cases start popping up because I'm sure this isn't this, you know, guy's first time.

[Narrator]

And once detectives entered Jones DNA into that CODIS system, bingo.

[Detective Allen Foote]

I was notified that they had DNA.

[Narrator]

That had matched my case. Turns out Detective Terry Thrumston had a cold case up in Colorado Springs. At that time, Jones was working at the Colorado Springs World Arena.

[Detective Allen Foote]

He traveled all over the United States for his job and he was good at being a rapist.

[Narrator]

The Colorado victim, 41 year old Jennifer Russler, is seen here just minutes before that attack, leaving a local convenience store.

[Detective Allen Foote]

On that night, her whole life changed. She was a woman alone, walking at 2:30, 3:00 in the morning. The man asked her if she wanted a ride. She said yes and got in his vehicle, got to her apartment. He asked for a drink of water.

[Narrator]

When I asked him, you know, you need to leave.

[Detective Allen Foote]

You know, I was going to go.

[Narrator]

To bed and he just, he was like Jekyll and Hyde.

[Ken Brennan]

He just, it just, I could just.

[Narrator]

See the monster come over and then.

[Detective Allen Foote]

He sexually assaults her.

[Narrator]

At that point, you know, he wasn't nervous, he was calm.

[Detective Allen Foote]

It was like we was on a date.

[Narrator]

And I knew Terry, I knew this happened before.

[Ken Brennan]

I've just, I had a feeling this.

[Narrator]

Has happened before because he was too calm.

[Detective Allen Foote]

She wanted to confront him. She wanted justice for what happened. I just want you to catch this guy.

[Detective Tom Chase]

The DNA is incredibly powerful, but it still doesn't make this an open and shut case. The defense focuses on the fact that Jennifer let him into the house. And they claim that shows this was consensual.

[Narrator]

But Thrumston refuses to let it go and takes the case to trial anyway.

[Detective Allen Foote]

I kept trying to get a hold of her and couldn't get a hold of her. And I didn't find out until the beginning of December that she had passed away. It was a shock. We had to figure out if we were even going to be able to go forward without our victim being alive. I still Wanted to go forward.

[Narrator]

Detective actually might have a DNA match to a case of another woman who might have been raped by Jones. Her story has a kind of familiar ring. A stranger in a car, a ride, and an attack. I screamed with everything I had, and the reality was just there was nobody there. There was nobody there. This woman, we're going to call her Rachel, might have been Jones's first victim.

[Jennifer Russler]

Rachel was the key to putting Michael Lee Jones in prison for the rest of his life. It was really Rachel who made a very convincing witness in court.

[Detective Allen Foote]

I'm a working professional, and I'm a mom.

[Detective Tom Chase]

Rachel's been waiting years for this moment to be able to tell her story as best she remembers it. Most importantly, to try to get justice.

[Detective Allen Foote]

She was able to describe a exactly what had happened to her six years later in full detail of what had.

[Detective Tom Chase]

Happened, without a doubt, at the time of the attack. Rachel helped create a composite sketch of the person who attacked her. And it looked a whole heck of a lot like Michael Lee Jones.

[Detective Allen Foote]

Seeing that sketch next to his face, it was extremely satisfying.

[Narrator]

I just felt like, yes, but is that going to be enough to sway a jury?

[Detective Allen Foote]

Within a couple hours, the jury came back and said, he's guilty.

[Narrator]

Jones gets hit with a sentence of 24 years to life. And in 2015, a Louisiana judge slams him with an even bigger sentence, 45 years for the brutal attacks in the New Orleans area. You gave almost two years of your life to this case. How did it feel to finally see this guy brought to justice?

[Detective Allen Foote]

I gave two years of my life investigatorial wise, but, you know, the victims give a hell of a lot more. They're the ones that should be commended for this, because I can only do the investigation and make an arrest, but they're the ones that put them in prison. The victims of the heroes here, they're the ones that have to get on the stand and say, this is what this guy did to me. This is when he did it to me. This is how he did it.

[Ina Butnicka]

And I feel happy that the criminal isn't, you know, where he's supposed to be, and he never gonna hurt nobody in the future.

[Jennifer Russler]

You need to go through this. As painful and as traumatic and embarrassing.

[Narrator]

As all of that that might be.

[Jennifer Russler]

You have to do that because you just don't. You never know how many other women.

[Detective Allen Foote]

May have been impacted by this person.

[Narrator]

Detective Foote has retired from the Miami Dade Police Department, and he's got a new opinion of private investigators, at least this one. You weren't that crazy about private eyes to begin with. Did this case change your mind at.

[Michael Lee Jones]

All in respect to Ken Brennan? It did, yes.

[Narrator]

But private eyes in general, not so much.

[Michael Lee Jones]

I still have the same opinion about private investigators, but I respect Ken Brennan as a person and as an investigator. I could count on him. Glad to know him.

[Narrator]

As for Ina, she settled her suit against the hotel, and even though she was the key to helping solve so many other crimes, she doesn't really feel like a hero. She says she's just a survivor.

[Ina Butnicka]

I should never happen to any woman. I wish it never happened to nobody.

[Jennifer Russler]

I've been a reporter and a journalist for almost a half century, and I think this is the most remarkable piece of detective work that I've ever come across. The sheer doggedness, the creativity, the cleverness that Ken Brennan brought to this case make it truly extraordinary.

[Narrator]

As for the man himself, Brennan, with the case closed, he can treat himself to a celebratory cigar and a great sense of satisfaction.

[Detective Allen Foote]

I've been doing this since 1975. In every one of the multitude of cases that I've done, this was by far the most reward.

[Narrator]

You've been listening to the 2020 True Crime Vault Friday nights at 9 on ABC. You can also find all new broadcast episodes of 2020. Thanks for listening.

[Detective Allen Foote]

This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. It's Brad Milkey, host of ABC's Daily News podcast. Start here. Fiscally responsible financial geniuses, Monetary magicians. These are things people say about drivers who switch their car insurance to progressives and save hundreds. Visit progressive.com to see if you could save Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates. Potential savings will vary.

[Narrator]

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