Fateful Connection

Summary

48 Hours – “Fateful Connection” (January 28, 2026)

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Episode Overview

In “Fateful Connection,” 48 Hours explores the mysterious disappearances of Amy Hearst and Wendy Huggie, two women who vanished in Florida in 1982. The episode untangles how their cold cases—long thought to be unrelated—became intertwined through decades of heartbreak, dead ends, and new forensic breakthroughs. The story details the emotional journeys of the victims' families, the dedicated detectives who refused to give up, and how one case’s resolution sparked hope for another still unsolved.

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. The Disappearances

• Amy Hearst:

  • Moved to Florida with her second husband Bill, a man many recall for his drinking and abusive behavior ([13:03]).
  • Last seen in Spring 1982; her sudden silence with family, especially missing her mother’s birthday call, alarmed loved ones ([00:30], [14:47]).
  • Early investigation hindered by clerical error—her maiden name “Amy Rose” was entered in records, not her married name ([15:48]).

• Wendy Huggie:

  • A 16-year-old who relocated from Chicago to Florida, largely to escape tensions with her mother (a Playboy Bunny-turned-flight attendant) ([03:31], [05:15]).
  • Last contacted family in April 1982 from a mall, mentioning a mysterious “Don” would drive her home, but she never arrived ([03:54], [04:21]).
  • Her married status as a minor led authorities to consider her disappearance voluntary, effectively closing her case ([06:39]).

2. Early Investigations and Setbacks

• Missing Person Policies:

  • Law enforcement’s decisions: once adult status was recognized, police stopped investigating Wendy’s disappearance ([06:58]).
  • Both families describe frustration and the emotional impact of official indifference:
    • “This is a teenager. Who cares if she's married, she's still missing.” — Detective Lisa Shahneman ([07:08]).
    • “We kept making inquiries... really getting the run around, not really getting any answers.” — Amy Hearst’s sister ([16:02]).

• A Grim Discovery:

  • In September 1982, a decomposed, unidentifiable body is recovered from the Gulf of Mexico—wrapped in a distinctive multicolored afghan and green bedspread, tied to a concrete block ([01:34], [10:31]-[11:18]).
  • Neither family is made aware of the recovery due to the disconnected investigations.

3. A Family Never Stops Searching

• Lingering Hopes and Guilt:

  • Both families endured years of not knowing—whether their loved ones had simply started new lives or fell victim to violence ([17:17], [17:27], [17:59]).
  • “You always hope.” — Amy’s sister ([17:27]).

• Amy’s Family’s Key Clues:

  • A strong family tradition of crocheting afghans provided a link—years later, the afghan around the Jane Doe in the Gulf was instantly recognized as one made by their mother ([22:19]-[22:37]).

4. Cold Case Breakthroughs

• Technological Advances:

  • The 2001 exhumation of the Jane Doe body allowed for DNA testing and digital reconstruction, uploaded to the DOE Network ([20:36], [20:53]).
  • In 2009, Amy’s son Jeff finds the DOE Network entry. The description of the afghan and bedspread triggers recognition ([21:53]).
    • “The bedspread. Anything else?” — Detective ([22:05])
    • “Turquoise jewelry. An afghan.” — Jeff ([22:05])

• Delayed Answers:

  • DNA comparison confirmed the body was Amy, 29 years after her disappearance. The backlog and waiting tormented the family ([24:05]).
    • “It wasn’t good news at all. But it was good news for me to know that... we knew where she was at.” — Jeff ([24:24])

5. Bringing Amy’s Killer to Justice

• Bill Hearst's Trail:

  • Hearst had evaded suspicion for decades, living under the radar in Dawson Springs, Kentucky ([02:41], [27:41]).
  • His sister’s cooperation and a friend’s (Elmer Cruz) moral decision to wear a wire caught Bill making incriminating remarks ([29:47], [30:14]).
    • “I would not let anybody get away with murder. It’s that simple.” — Elmer Cruz ([30:03])
    • “There’s no eyewitnesses, you know. I made sure of that.” — William Hearst ([30:32])

• Arrest and Interrogation:

  • Hearst’s confession downplayed deliberate intent, claiming Amy’s death was accidental ([33:06]).
    • “She went to kick me, her foot slipped, and she hit her head...” — William Hearst ([32:50])
    • “All just a terrible accident, he says.” — Detective ([33:06])
  • SWAT team apprehended Hearst when he emerged to help his dog ([31:43]).

6. The Trial and Aftermath

• Legal Hurdles:

  • Critical confession evidence was excluded by the judge; the case depended on Elmer Cruz’s testimony and corroborating details ([34:49]).

• Family Testimony:

  • Amy’s relatives recounted a history of domestic violence; Jeff testified to witnessing severe abuse as a child ([36:15]-[36:57]).
    • “Black eyes, fat lips. I saw him hit her with an iron skillet...” — Jeff ([36:43])

• Prosecution and Verdict:

  • Medical examiner’s testimony disputed Bill’s version, noting multiple head injuries suggest homicide, not accident ([37:23]).
  • Jury deliberated for three hours before returning a verdict of first-degree murder; Hearst sentenced to life without parole for 25 years ([40:08], [40:38]).

7. Emotional Closure and Ongoing Hope

• Amy’s Family:

  • Her ashes were returned to Michigan, offering some peace, although “it’s just like she died yesterday” ([41:14]).
  • “Time heals. But... it’s just like she died yesterday. Her kids in so much pain. They’ve had to live all these years without their mother.” — Amy’s sister ([41:14])

• Wendy’s Mystery Remains:

  • The same process that identified Amy rekindled hope; Amy’s family tells Wendy’s: “Don’t give up. Never give up. Something could still happen.” ([42:13])
  • Detective Lisa Shahneman promises to keep looking for Wendy: “I’ll keep looking. I’ll find her.” ([42:44])

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Notable Quotes and Memorable Moments

• “This is one of those cases that haunts you.” — Narrator ([00:07])
• “This case means a lot to Shahneman. Why is your heart in cold cases? Because they’re the hardest. You know, they’re the toughest. When I do bring closure to a family, there’s nothing better than that.” — Detective Lisa Shahneman ([03:09]-[03:14])
• “You don’t go off with somebody that kills you and then they bring you home and wrap you in your own blankets to dispose of your body. You were at home when you were murdered, and it doesn’t take a great time to figure that out.” — Narrator ([27:14])
• “We knew absolutely it was Bill. But we have no way to prove it. I thought he would get away with it.” — Amy’s sister ([25:03])
• “He wrapped it up in plastic, tied a concrete block around it and took it out and dropped it in the water.” — Elmer Cruz ([38:42])
• “Mr. Hurst, you are well and truly an evil man. I sentence you to life in prison.” — Judge ([40:38])
• “Don’t give up. Something could still happen... I’ll keep looking. I’ll find her.” — Detective Lisa Shahneman ([42:13], [42:44])

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• 00:07 – Introduction to the haunting case of two missing women.
• 01:34 – Fisherman discovers a body in the Gulf, establishing the earliest forensic clues.
• 10:31-11:18 – Discovery details: Plan to identify and preserve evidence.
• 22:19-22:37 – Family recognizes signature afghan; DNA match process begins.
• 29:47-30:32 – Undercover operation: Bill Hearst’s incriminating confession on wire.
• 33:06 – Hearst’s confession of “accidental” death.
• 36:43/36:57 – Testimony about domestic abuse.
• 40:08-40:19 – Jury returns guilty verdict; sentencing.
• 41:14 – Scattering Amy’s ashes; family reflects.
• 42:13-42:44 – Message to Wendy Huggie’s family, ongoing search.

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Conclusion

“Fateful Connection” expertly chronicles how diligent family members and dogged detectives overcame decades-old mistakes and indifference to reveal the fate of Amy Hearst. The episode stands as a testament to the resilience of victims’ families, the growing power of forensic science, and the hope that cold cases can finally see justice—even if one mystery remains. The story closes as both an indictment of systemic failures and a tribute to persistence: there are always those who will keep looking, no matter how cold a case might seem.

Transcript

[Narrator]

This is one of those cases that haunts you. It's about two missing women that disappeared at the same time.

[Amy Hearst's Sister]

In 1982, my sister, Amy Hearst, and her husband Bill moved to Florida.

[Amy Hearst's Son Jeff]

When I was nine years old, my mother left. And I always wondered why, all of.

[Amy Hearst's Sister]

A sudden she stopped calling. And when she didn't call my mother on her birthday, we knew something was wrong.

[Narrator]

The other young woman that went missing was Wendy huggy. She was 17 years old.

[Detective Lisa Shahneman]

Wendy's mother Susan was a Playboy bunny. My name is Angelyn Chester and I worked with her. She flew on Hugh Hefner's plane.

[Advertiser/Host]

She was a jet setter.

[Detective Lisa Shahneman]

So Wendy might have felt rejected by her mother. And they fought a lot.

[Witness/Acquaintance]

She said she wanted to go to Florida and stay with grandma and grandpa, and she knew that they could help her out. She went to a party and disappeared from there.

[Narrator]

Two women missing for 30 years. Where do you start? Now, at that time, we had a serial killer in the area. His thing was to kidnap women, take them out on a boat, put them in the water alive, tied to a cement block, and let them drown and die.

[Detective Lisa Shahneman]

September 5, 1982. What happened out here?

[Witness/Acquaintance]

A fisherman found a body floating in the Gulf of Mexico. This body was weighted down with one concrete block.

[Detective Lisa Shahneman]

Oh, boy.

[Narrator]

She can see how far offshore she had drifted.

[Witness/Acquaintance]

It had no face. It was badly decomposed, and there was no way to identify it.

[Narrator]

Was this Amy? Was this Wendy?

[Witness/Acquaintance]

The body itself was wrapped in a homemade looking afghan.

[Narrator]

Then there was the afghan. It had very distinctive markings. This led us to another suspect, one that's still out there. I think we're about to find him. The cases are connected. We couldn't have solved one without the other. And we're not done yet. Someone thinks they got away with murder. No way. My concerns are danger.

[Detective Lisa Shahneman]

More than 30 years after Amy Hearst and Wendy Huggie disappeared, Detective Lisa Schahneman is about to make an arrest.

[Narrator]

We had received information that he did carry a gun.

[Detective Lisa Shahneman]

She's tracked her suspect from Florida to Michigan, finally hitting pay dirt here in the backwoods town of Dawson Springs, Kentucky. And her fugitive knows she's here.

[Narrator]

And he told his friend that if I had pushed him any further that he was going to take the gun out and shoot.

[Detective Lisa Shahneman]

This doesn't seem to faze you.

[Narrator]

Well, of course I'm going to be cautious. I don't want to take any unnecessary risks.

[Detective Lisa Shahneman]

But this case means a lot to Shahneman. Why is your heart in cold cases?

[Narrator]

Because they're the hardest. You know, they're the toughest. When I do bring closure to a family, there's nothing better than that.

[Detective Lisa Shahneman]

Unless perhaps it's two cold cases intertwined. That's what she's juggling now. Two victims, two distraught families, two eerily similar situations forever linked. Both began some 30 years ago in Pasco County, Florida, Shahne home turf. The first to go missing was a 16 year old girl named Wendy Huggie who vanished in April of 1982.

[Narrator]

Wendy Huggie was a beautiful 5 foot 8, 5 foot 9 blonde girl who came to Florida to visit her grandparents and to live here. And she'd only been here for a short time. Her grandparents were going to pick her up at Countryside Mall. They got a phone call from her and she said, you don't need to pick me up. Dawn's gonna bring me home, Don, whoever that is. Unfortunately, we don't know. She never arrived home.

[Detective Lisa Shahneman]

And that's the last anybody has seen.

[Narrator]

Or heard Wendy Huggy anybody has ever seen or heard.

[Amy Hearst's Sister]

Always my darling girl.

[Detective Lisa Shahneman]

Patty Sprague is Wendy's aunt. She was just a girl. She was just a regular little girl. Patty says Wendy moved to Florida from Chicago in part to get away from her mother, Susan, Patty's sister. I know she didn't always get along with her mother. I know they fought. Who doesn't? Susan, who died a few years ago, was a single mom and a Playboy bunny, which apparently aggravated the usual problems between teenager and mother. Well, it definitely did not involve what people usually think. It involves. Angela and Chester, who worked with Susan in the Chicago Playboy Club, says Wendy had no reason to object. The job was basically that of a waitress, but in a costume. Certainly not the same thing as a Playboy playmate. The difference is that a bunny is an employee. We have a uniform, A playmate is nude and they are in the centerfold.

[Narrator]

Doesn't make them bad.

[Detective Lisa Shahneman]

It just means that that's the difference. In any case, Susan soon was promoted to flight attendant on Playboy founder Hugh Hefner's private plane. That meant lots of and even more problems with Wendy, the fact that she was gone. Maybe she thought that she didn't care about her. But Angie says Susan was in fact a devoted mother. She was always concerned about her. In Chicago, Wendy often stayed with Susan's parents and when they moved to Florida, the 16 year old who had dropped out of high school was quick to follow.

[Amy Hearst's Sister]

She just wanted, I guess, come down.

[Detective Lisa Shahneman]

Here and start over. She was going to go back to school and she was very excited about going to work. Her new job in a Fast food restaurant was to have started on April 8, 1982. She disappeared the day before.

[Narrator]

Two days later, the grandparents got very concerned and they came here to the sheriff's office and reported her missing.

[Detective Lisa Shahneman]

The Pasco county police investigation turned up neither the friends from the mall nor the mysterious Don. But it did stumble across one fact that stopped the investigation cold. Wendy Huggie was married under the criteria.

[Narrator]

That made her an adult. If you're an adult and you want to go missing and there's nothing to lead us to believe that you're a harm to yourself or somebody harmed you, you can go missing.

[Detective Lisa Shahneman]

This is a teenager. Who cares if she's married, she's still missing.

[Narrator]

I agree with you. But for whatever reasons, he took her out of the system.

[Detective Lisa Shahneman]

With the case in effect closed, neither the husband nor anyone else was actively investigated. That infuriates Wendy Huggies uncle Robert Richards. But as a former cop, he understands.

[Witness/Acquaintance]

Why I don't think they had a whole lot to go on. Florida has a pretty high transient population. People come and go. And the people that make people disappear can come and go.

[Detective Lisa Shahneman]

What seemed to be the handiwork of one of those people surfaced not long after Wendy went missing here off the Florida coast in the Gulf of Mexico. About five months after Wendy Huggie disappeared, a fisherman spotted something odd in the water. He soon realized to his horror that he was looking at a dead body. He left it right where it was and immediately called the Coast Guard.

[Witness/Acquaintance]

When I first saw the body, all you could see were blue jeans and bare feet.

[Detective Lisa Shahneman]

Greg Stout was on the Coast Guard boat sent to the scene.

[Witness/Acquaintance]

The body itself was wrapped in a homemade looking afghan in a real bright green bedspread.

[Detective Lisa Shahneman]

Was this the body of Wendy Huggie? The teenager so excited about her future and her new life. Whoever it was, her killer probably had been confident she would never be seen again.

[Witness/Acquaintance]

Then there was rope around the waist of the body. And then you could look down in this clear water and you could actually see a concrete block floating below.

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[Detective Lisa Shahneman]

The body found in the Gulf of Mexico in September of 1982 was 27 miles offshore, carried out by the tide.

[Narrator]

It's kind of floating like a cork.

[Detective Lisa Shahneman]

The Coast Guard couldn't pinpoint where the body went in, but theorized it might have been near what's now the Sunshine Skyway Bridge. It had been in the water about a week, rising to the surface as it decomposed. Despite the concrete block tied around the.

[Witness/Acquaintance]

Waist, the medical examiner was pretty sure that there was blunt trauma to the back of the head. They also thought that she was actually alive when she was tossed in the water.

[Detective Lisa Shahneman]

Was there any way, if anybody had known who the relatives were, could they have identified this person?

[Witness/Acquaintance]

No, not at all. If you put a body in water over a period of time, it's really the worst condition that you can find a body.

[Detective Lisa Shahneman]

Still, the victim's family might have recognized personal effects as well as that green bedspread and that distinctive afghan. Which was she wrapped in first, the bedspread or the afghan?

[Narrator]

The bedspread first, then the afghan was on the outside.

[Detective Lisa Shahneman]

Wendy Huggie had gone missing about five months before this body was found. Is there any indication at all that an attempt was made to determine if this might be Wendy Huggy?

[Witness/Acquaintance]

Not that I'm aware of.

[Detective Lisa Shahneman]

There was, remember, no ongoing investigation. So Wendy's family never saw the bedspread, Afghan or the jewelry. Never even knew a body had been found an oversight that decades later would help solve a crime. The unidentified body ended up here in this Tampa cemetery in the Potter's field section, in an unmarked grave known only as Jane Doe 82120. It would be years before Jane Doe's true identity was known. And then only because of the heartache of another family. A family some 1,200 miles away, just outside Flint, Michigan. In 1982, the family of a woman named Amy Hearst was coping with her sudden disappearance. Amy Hearst also went missing in Florida about the same time and in the same county as Wendy Huggie. The two women's descriptions were similar, but Hearst was older, 29, and a mother of two.

[Amy Hearst's Sister]

Oh, gosh. Amy was full of energy. She was a wonderful mother.

[Detective Lisa Shahneman]

Laura Champine was Amy's niece.

[Amy Hearst's Sister]

She just loved her kids to pieces and was very devoted to them.

[Detective Lisa Shahneman]

Which made it all the more shocking that spring when Amy announced she and her new husband Bill were moving out of state, leaving her kids with her ex husband.

[Amy Hearst's Son Jeff]

They just came up to the house and said that she was going to Florida and she was going to, you know, we would be able to go down there and see her. She'd be back to visit us.

[Detective Lisa Shahneman]

Amy's son Jeff was 8. Her daughter Lisa, then 10.

[Narrator]

I can remember her like talking about us coming down for Christmas and for Easter, stuff like that.

[Amy Hearst's Son Jeff]

She just said bye, and she left.

[Amy Hearst's Sister]

I didn't care much for Bill.

[Detective Lisa Shahneman]

Amy's sister Sharon blamed the move on Amy's second husband, Bill. He drank a lot and Bill was abusive. When were you first aware that there was actual domestic violence involved here?

[Amy Hearst's Sister]

I saw the bruises and there was one incident that I witnessed where he hit her in front of me. I never understood with Amy why she stayed in that kind of a relationship. She didn't need to.

[Detective Lisa Shahneman]

Amy and Bill settled in Newport Richey in Pasco County, Florida. Bill got a job as a truck driver. Amy worked in a grocery store. At first, she kept in close touch with her family.

[Amy Hearst's Sister]

I had a whole shoebox, as a.

[Narrator]

Matter of fact, full of letters.

[Detective Lisa Shahneman]

And Amy always called her mother on her birthday until that year when my.

[Amy Hearst's Sister]

Grandma'S birthday came and went and Amy didn't call. My grandma got on the phone to all of us and you know, something's wrong. And that's when I called the Pasco County Sheriff's Department. They called me back the next day and said they went out to check and Bill was there and they asked him about Amy and he said that they got in a fight three days earlier and she left.

[Narrator]

They contact her work, they find out that she's not been to work. Nobody's heard from her, nobody's seen her.

[Detective Lisa Shahneman]

Bill Hearst was a suspect in Amy's disappearance from the very start.

[Amy Hearst's Son Jeff]

Everybody knew that he had something to do with it.

[Detective Lisa Shahneman]

His actions only seem to confirm it.

[Amy Hearst's Sister]

They did ask him if he would take a lie detector test and he said he would. But when the police showed up the next day, he was already gone. He left in the night.

[Detective Lisa Shahneman]

And just as in Wendy Huggies case, the Hearst investigation stalled before it even began. This time because of a clerical error involving her maiden name, Amy Rose.

[Narrator]

And when her sisters reported her missing, they reported her as Amy Rose, not Amy Hearst.

[Detective Lisa Shahneman]

Her sisters contacted police, but no one ever changed the records. A simple mistake that had disastrous results.

[Amy Hearst's Sister]

We kept making inquiries over the years and you know, really getting the run around, not really getting any answers.

[Detective Lisa Shahneman]

And did you at any point just acknowledge, even privately that in all probability we're not going to see Amy again?

[Amy Hearst's Sister]

Yeah, I knew Amy would not go that long without talking to her kids. That is not Amy.

[Detective Lisa Shahneman]

As for Bill Hurst, at one point.

[Amy Hearst's Sister]

They had found traces of him in one of the New England states. And then after that it just kind of fell off and nobody did anything about it.

[Detective Lisa Shahneman]

But 20 years later, a new suspect surfaced.

[Narrator]

Unfortunately, there was a lot of female bodies that were being recovered in this.

[Detective Lisa Shahneman]

Area were Amy Hearst and Wendy Huggie, both victims of a serial killer. For years, Amy Hearst's family clung to the hope that as long as no body had been found, there still was a possibility Amy was alive somewhere. Amy's son, Jeff.

[Amy Hearst's Son Jeff]

I always thought for the longest time that she started a new life maybe, and then one day she would just show off.

[Detective Lisa Shahneman]

Amy's sister Sharon was sure of it.

[Amy Hearst's Sister]

I remember one time I was driving and I looked in my rearview mirror and I could have swore the person in the car behind me was her. I, I opened my car door and jumped out of my car and I thought, how stupid, you know, but, you know, you always hope.

[Detective Lisa Shahneman]

It was much the same for Wendy Huggies family. Her uncle Robert Richards says that in the decades after the 16 year old's disappearance, her distraught mother Susan barely could bring herself to mention her daughter's name.

[Witness/Acquaintance]

I think she had some of the guilt of, you know, maybe I could have kept her here. Maybe I could have changed jobs sooner and been at home more. It was not something that she liked to talk about.

[Detective Lisa Shahneman]

Wendy's aunt, Patty Sprague. It was devastating, but I would think at any sort of family gathering this is sort of the elephant in the room, right?

[Amy Hearst's Sister]

You're always aware that she's not there.

[Detective Lisa Shahneman]

You know, when you have Christmas and birthdays and birthday. Yes, birthdays. In 2001, Wendy would have celebrated her 36th birthday. About that time, some 20 years after she went missing, a Pasco county cop decided to take a fresh look at this very cold case. His name was Robert Hamm.

[Narrator]

He became fascinated with it and then to the point of obsessed, really. He was determined to find Wendy.

[Detective Lisa Shahneman]

Hamm soon unearthed the 1982 report of the body found in the gulf in his heart. He knew he was onto something.

[Narrator]

Now, at that time, we had a serial killer in the area, Opa Chandler. His thing was to kidnap women, take them out on a boat, put them in the water alive, tied to a cement block and let him drown and die. And thought, oh my gosh, it has to be Wendy. He was convinced that she had been kidnapped and she was another victim of his.

[Detective Lisa Shahneman]

But from death row Oba Chandler refused to talk to Bobby Hamm. And eventually Chandler was executed. His silence didn't stop Ham. He retrieved Wendy Huggies dental records and asked the medical examiner's office to exhume the body. The grave is right over here.

[Narrator]

Yes.

[Detective Lisa Shahneman]

So the exhumation takes place. Everybody thinks that they know who this is already.

[Narrator]

Oh, Bobby was so sure. He was telling everybody, this is Wendy. I've done it. I found her. It's going to be her, right? And unfortunately it wasn't. He kept trying until he passed away. He kept trying to find her. He didn't give up. I mean, he was devastated, he was discouraged, but he continued to try. And after he was gone, I've continued to try.

[Detective Lisa Shahneman]

But for all their efforts, the identity of the body dug up from Potter's field remained a mystery.

[Narrator]

But there's a good side to that story because she was assumed. Now we can get DNA. Well, the medical examiner did some DNA testing and. And they had a recreation of her, what she may look like done and placed her on the Doe network, as.

[Detective Lisa Shahneman]

In John and Jane Doe. The network is set up to locate the missing and identify the dead. Information about the exhumed body, information Bobby Hamm dug up in his failed search for Wendy, sat there unnoticed until years later when Amy, her son Jeff went online searching for clues about his mother.

[Narrator]

He was having a really hard time his whole life not knowing what happened to his mother. And one day decided, that's it. I've got to do something and I've got to know. I tried. I've got to know what happened.

[Detective Lisa Shahneman]

In 2009, 27 years after his mother, Amy, disappeared, Jeff stumbled across the DOE Network website with its description of the body in the Gulf. The artist's rendering didn't look familiar, but something else on the website did. What did you see on there that piqued your interest right away?

[Amy Hearst's Son Jeff]

The bedspread.

[Detective Lisa Shahneman]

Jeff and his sister Lisa had loved bouncing on it as children. The bedspread. Anything else?

[Amy Hearst's Son Jeff]

Turquoise jewelry. An afghan.

[Detective Lisa Shahneman]

The Afghan really hit home.

[Amy Hearst's Son Jeff]

The Afghans are a big part of our family. My grandmother made everybody afghans. My mom made them, and my aunts made them. Everybody made them.

[Detective Lisa Shahneman]

And one of them had been wrapped around the body in the Gulf. Amy's sister was sure of that the second she saw the description on the website.

[Amy Hearst's Sister]

It's made of multicolors. It's basically white. But my mother would take all her leftover pieces of yarn, and she would make the little squares out of them. And we have numerous Afghans that we all have still today. And all those same colors are in this afghan.

[Narrator]

This is the Afghan that Amy's mother made for her. And it was wrapped around the bedspread that was wrapped around her body.

[Detective Lisa Shahneman]

You can see why that's something that you would recognize.

[Narrator]

Oh, absolutely.

[Detective Lisa Shahneman]

That's very distinctive.

[Amy Hearst's Sister]

Yes.

[Detective Lisa Shahneman]

And each of the sisters had one of these?

[Narrator]

Yes.

[Detective Lisa Shahneman]

No one in Amy Hurst's family needed any more evidence.

[Amy Hearst's Son Jeff]

When I saw the afghans next to her there, I was 100% sure.

[Amy Hearst's Sister]

We knew then that it was her.

[Detective Lisa Shahneman]

Despite their certainty, the afghan and jewelry didn't prove this was Amy Hearst. For that, Shahnema needed hard evidence, and she would find it in, of all places, Potter's field, where, fatefully, the Hearst and Huggie cases would intersect. The body dug up in 2001, the body that was not Wendy Huggie. Would DNA prove it was Amy Hearst? Tests and analysis to match it to Jeff's DNA took two years. I would have thought you'd be pretty frustrated. I was. Why did it take so long?

[Amy Hearst's Son Jeff]

There's so much backlog DNA. And it just waited and waited and waited and waited.

[Detective Lisa Shahneman]

In July of 2011, an excited detective Shahneman called Jeff with the results.

[Amy Hearst's Son Jeff]

She just says, are you sitting down? I was like, do I need to be? And she says, I don't know. She usually might want to.

[Narrator]

I said, it's her, Jeff. We found her. It's her.

[Amy Hearst's Son Jeff]

It wasn't good news at all. I mean, but it was good news for me to know that we found. We knew where she was at.

[Narrator]

And I just started shaking.

[Amy Hearst's Sister]

Just shaking, shaking, shaking. He called me and we cried together. You were glad to know that you had an answer. But then it was permanent, you know, it was like she just died. Because you just found out to you, she had just died.

[Detective Lisa Shahneman]

After 30 years, there was no longer any question. Amy Hearst had been murdered. And for Amy's family, no question who did it.

[Amy Hearst's Sister]

We knew absolutely it was Bill. But we have no way to prove it. I thought he would get away with it.

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[Narrator]

What's up little psychos?

[Advertiser/Host]

I'm investigator Slater, host of the Psychopedia podcast.

[Narrator]

Psychopedia is a true crime podcast delivering raw, real and absolutely gripping episodes every single week.

[Advertiser/Host]

I dig deep to uncover fascinating details.

[Narrator]

Of heinous true crime cases while explaining exploring criminology and psychology theories.

[Advertiser/Host]

I take you into the absolute darkest.

[Narrator]

Corners of the human psyche. My favorite territory. And present cases like you've never heard them before. Follow and listen to Psychopedia everywhere you get your podcasts.

[Amy Hearst's Sister]

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[Narrator]

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[Advertiser/Host]

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[Amy Hearst's Sister]

And since we know all the new.

[Narrator]

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[Amy Hearst's Sister]

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[Advertiser/Host]

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[Detective Lisa Shahneman]

Amy Hurst's killer had gone unpunished for things 30 years only to be tripped up by a very stupid mistake.

[Amy Hearst's Sister]

When we confirmed that she was murdered and where she was found, there could be nobody but Bill. Especially when she was found with the blankets off her own bed.

[Narrator]

You don't go off with somebody that kills you and then they bring you home and wrap you in your own blankets to Dispose of your body. You were at home when you were murdered, and it doesn't take a great time to figure that out.

[Detective Lisa Shahneman]

Now, all this detective had to do was find him. Did you at that point know where Bill Hurst was?

[Narrator]

I thought he was in Michigan. I went to see his sister who still lived up there, and she told me where he was at.

[Detective Lisa Shahneman]

She even agreed to call him.

[Narrator]

She said, bill, the police have been here. They found Amy's body. What did you do?

[Detective Lisa Shahneman]

You wanted to make him nervous?

[Amy Hearst's Sister]

Of course.

[Narrator]

What happens when you get nervous?

[Detective Lisa Shahneman]

You make mistakes.

[Narrator]

Yeah, she did.

[Detective Lisa Shahneman]

Hearst had been living here in Dawson Springs, Kentucky, a small town in the western part of the state, once the home to the imperial clans of America. But if he thought his neighbors would stick up for him in his time of need, he was sadly mistaken. Elmer Cruz, a retired tool and die maker, was a close friend. What did you think of him? What was he like?

[Witness/Acquaintance]

He just seemed like one of the guys, you know? I mean, he was. He drank a lot, but so do a lot of people, you know.

[Detective Lisa Shahneman]

Did he tell you he'd been married?

[Witness/Acquaintance]

He told me that he had had a girlfriend named Amy. But he said just all of a sudden, she got up and left.

[Detective Lisa Shahneman]

After his sister told him the cops were on his trail, Hearst called Elmer.

[Witness/Acquaintance]

Yeah, he sounded really, really down and really bad, and. And so I went over there and.

[Detective Lisa Shahneman]

Heard a shocking admission.

[Witness/Acquaintance]

My past has finally caught up with me. He said, I'm going to go to jail for the rest of my life if they don't execute me. I thought I'd got away with it, but he said, evidently, he said, I think they found the body. And then I thought, whoa.

[Narrator]

I get to town, I contact the local police department, which were great. Not a lot happens in their town. So this really excited them.

[Detective Lisa Shahneman]

Turns out Captain Craig Patterson already had his eye on Hearst for allegedly selling prescription drugs. But the idea that he had murdered somebody and put their body in the Gulf of Mexico was not something.

[Witness/Acquaintance]

No, no, that was not anything that I would have guessed in 100 years.

[Detective Lisa Shahneman]

So where did the break in this come?

[Witness/Acquaintance]

The break came when Elmer Cruz walked into the police department here and said, bill Hearst told me he disposed of a body a long time ago, and it had caught up with him. We knew. Here's our break. We've got to go now.

[Detective Lisa Shahneman]

They hatched a plan to trick Hearst. Elmer would go back up to his house with a surprise. Wait a minute. Wait a minute. Elmer agrees to wear a wire?

[Amy Hearst's Son Jeff]

Yeah.

[Detective Lisa Shahneman]

Why do you think he did?

[Narrator]

Because he said it Wasn't right. Kill somebody.

[Witness/Acquaintance]

I would not let anybody get away with murder. It's that simple.

[Detective Lisa Shahneman]

48 hours obtained the tape of their extraordinary conversation.

[William Hearst]

I'm not worried about it too much. They're trying to say I took this body out in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico and dumped it. I didn't have access to a boat. Well, out in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico. It would have never been found anywhere.

[Detective Lisa Shahneman]

Hearst is nervous and wants reassurance.

[William Hearst]

Like I said, if they had any hard evidence, they'd arrested me when they came to the door. But they don't, so they have no way of proving that I had anything to do with anything. There's no eyewitnesses, you know, I made sure of that.

[Detective Lisa Shahneman]

Based on Elmer's tapes, a grand jury indicted William Hearst for first degree murder. A few weeks later. It had been 29 years since the murder, and now it was time for an arrest. Shahneman was leaving nothing to chance. Hearst had become a recluse, hunkered down in his house.

[Narrator]

He wasn't coming out. You know, he was barricading himself in.

[Detective Lisa Shahneman]

There, and he was heavily armed.

[Witness/Acquaintance]

He had a.45 that he had bought a pistol, and he had bought a.380 and a. A couple of rifles.

[Narrator]

You'll always have to worry about that, but you can't let it stop you. If I let that stop me, I'd never make an arrest. And, you know, I just have to be prepared for it.

[Detective Lisa Shahneman]

A SWAT team was hiding outside, almost ready to pounce when Hearst's dog did them a huge favor.

[Narrator]

You know, he cared enough about the dog when it got tangled and couldn't reach its water that he left the seclusion of the house to come out and untangle him.

[Detective Lisa Shahneman]

And that's when they grabbed him.

[Narrator]

Yes. Yes. You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. You can decide at any time to exercise these rights and not make any statements or answer any questions. Do you understand those rights?

[Detective Lisa Shahneman]

48 Hours was at the station when Hearst was questioned. He did not ask for a lawyer.

[Narrator]

I have a reason to arrest you for your wife's murder, but I would like also to hear your side of the story. Do you want to tell me that, your side of the story?

[William Hearst]

Well, all I can tell you is I didn't kill her.

[Narrator]

If you didn't kill her, how'd she die? And how'd she end up in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico?

[William Hearst]

That's about as much As I want.

[Detective Lisa Shahneman]

To say right now, he still doesn't specifically ask for a lawyer. And Detective Shahneman plows right on.

[Narrator]

And I know you were there when she died, and I know you got rid of her body.

[Detective Lisa Shahneman]

I'd like to know why, Hearst tells her, blaming Amy for what happened.

[William Hearst]

She went to kick me, and when she kicked me, her foot slipped and she fell and she hit her head on the back of the concrete floor.

[Narrator]

Was it just the one time she did. Did she bleed or what happened?

[William Hearst]

I didn't notice any bleeding, and I panicked and I didn't know what to do.

[Detective Lisa Shahneman]

All just a terrible accident, he says.

[William Hearst]

And I rolled her in the blanket and I did dispose of the body I'm guilty of.

[Narrator]

Well, how?

[William Hearst]

Where?

[Narrator]

Did you use a boat to do it? No.

[William Hearst]

Off Sunshine Sky Bridge.

[Narrator]

Why didn't you just call the police, Bill?

[William Hearst]

I don't know. I just panicked out. I don't know why. I know I should have done that, but I don't know why I didn't. I just wigged out and I didn't know what to do. So I couldn't for the life of me bring. Because that woman I love with all my heart, I couldn't bring to bear the fact that she had passed.

[Detective Lisa Shahneman]

Hearst almost seems to think he deserves sympathy.

[William Hearst]

Are they going to release me to go back to my house or what?

[Narrator]

Oh, no, Bill. You're raspotted. You've been charged with first degree murder, and you're going to be staying in custody.

[Detective Lisa Shahneman]

With Hearst behind bars, Shahneman makes the call she's been looking forward to for years. To Amy Hearst son. Jeff.

[Narrator]

Jeff, guess what? It's over, dude. It's all over. He's in custody. He's been charged with your mother's murder. That was a great call. I didn't tell them I was going. I didn't tell him what I was doing initially because I didn't want him to. To be disappointed.

[Detective Lisa Shahneman]

Please be seated. This is State of Florida v. William Hearst. But disappointment may be coming before trial. A judge rules that most of Shahneman's interrogation can't be used as evidence, all because of one sentence.

[William Hearst]

That's about as much as I want to say right now.

[Narrator]

The judge found that because he said he didn't want to talk about it, that he had implied his right to remain silent. So he didn't allow my conversation to be heard by the jury.

[Detective Lisa Shahneman]

But without Hearst's candid admissions of how Amy died, how he rolled her body in the Afghan, how he dropped her off the bridge. What would a jury decide? It's been 30 years since both Wendy Huggie and Amy Hearst disappeared. Wendy's fate is still unknown. But in searching for clues about Wendy, detective Lisa Shahneman solved the mystery of Amy. The final chapter now about to be written in a Florida courtroom. Ladies and gentlemen, just like every good book has a title, this story has a title.

[Advertiser/Host]

The title is I almost got away with it.

[Detective Lisa Shahneman]

So begins the prosecution's case against William Hearst, charged with first degree murder in the death of his wife, Amy. For Amy's family, the trial is a necessary but painful ordeal. Sitting in that courtroom, you know, 20ft.

[Amy Hearst's Son Jeff]

From this guy, that was hard to do. I couldn't look at him when I.

[Narrator]

Was on the street. I didn't look at him either.

[Amy Hearst's Sister]

I stared at him the whole time I testified. I had to look him in the eye. Laura Ann Champagne. Amy is my aunt.

[Detective Lisa Shahneman]

Family members recount Hearst's physical abuse of Amy.

[Amy Hearst's Sister]

Amy and Bill were arguing back and forth, yelling. Bill told her to shut up, and he backhanded her across the face.

[Amy Hearst's Son Jeff]

Black eyes, fat lips. I saw him hit her with an iron skillet. He threw her through a shower enclosure, into a bathtub, and down a flight of stairs.

[Detective Lisa Shahneman]

You recall this as a kid?

[Amy Hearst's Son Jeff]

Oh, yeah. That was one that you don't ever forget.

[Detective Lisa Shahneman]

Did you ever recall Mr. Hearst threatening to kill your mother?

[Amy Hearst's Son Jeff]

Yes.

[Detective Lisa Shahneman]

Hearst's defense is not a surprise.

[Witness/Acquaintance]

This death was an accident. She tried to kick him. She fell. She hit her head. She died accidentally, and that is not a murder.

[Detective Lisa Shahneman]

There were two gashes to the back of the head. They're right here and here on the left side of her head, there was.

[Witness/Acquaintance]

Another marked contusion somewhere over here.

[Detective Lisa Shahneman]

But to medical examiner Dr. Russell Vega, the multiple injuries indicate that Amy's death was no accident. Would you expect to see those types of injuries when someone falls and hits their head?

[Witness/Acquaintance]

Not three injuries, no. My opinion of the cause of death is unspecified. Homicidal violence.

[Detective Lisa Shahneman]

But proving murder could be a problem for prosecutors because the judge has ruled that they can't use the tape of Hearst's incriminating interview.

[William Hearst]

I can't remember if she died instantly or if she was just knocked out because it was like three days between the time that it happened to the time I disposed of the body.

[Detective Lisa Shahneman]

Detective Shahneman admits she wanted the jury to hear that. Were you completely confident in your own mind that you would be okay without it?

[Narrator]

You're never completely confident. You know, you don't know what the jury's gonna think.

[Witness/Acquaintance]

He had his elbow on his coffee table, had his head in his hands.

[Detective Lisa Shahneman]

But the jury does hear Elmer Cruz's chilling testimony.

[Witness/Acquaintance]

So he said, I got rid of the body the way you're supposed to get rid of a body. He said, I wrapped it up in plastic, tied a concrete block around it and took it out and dropped it in the water.

[Detective Lisa Shahneman]

This is what he uses. Perhaps the most damning evidence of all. The secret audio tapes Elmer Cruise made in which Hearst brags about his crime.

[William Hearst]

They have no way of proving that I had anything to do with anything. There's no eyewitnesses, you know. I made sure of that.

[Amy Hearst's Son Jeff]

Thank you, sir. You may step down.

[Detective Lisa Shahneman]

You're free to go. What was that like for you?

[Witness/Acquaintance]

It was a new experience. That's the first time I'd ever done anything like that. But see, when you tell the truth, you don't have to worry about what's right. My wife tells me every day I get done at a good thing.

[Detective Lisa Shahneman]

The defense calls no witnesses.

[Witness/Acquaintance]

This is a case of a tragic accident.

[Detective Lisa Shahneman]

And William Hurst does not take the stand.

[Amy Hearst's Son Jeff]

I'm upset about that.

[Detective Lisa Shahneman]

Really? Why?

[Amy Hearst's Son Jeff]

I want to know. I want him to tell me what happened.

[Detective Lisa Shahneman]

You still want to know exactly what happened?

[Amy Hearst's Son Jeff]

Absolutely.

[Detective Lisa Shahneman]

This defendant, William Hurst, is guilty of first degree murder.

[Advertiser/Host]

Thank you.

[Detective Lisa Shahneman]

What was your frame of mind when the jury went out at that point?

[Amy Hearst's Son Jeff]

I just wanted to go home. But they said sometimes it takes. It could take eight hours, sometimes it can take 20 minutes.

[Detective Lisa Shahneman]

In fact, the jury is out a mere three hours.

[Witness/Acquaintance]

I understand the jury has reached a verdict.

[Detective Lisa Shahneman]

Yes. Please rise.

[Narrator]

State of Florida v. William Hearst. The defendant is guilty of murder in.

[Detective Lisa Shahneman]

The first degree as charged in the indictment.

[Advertiser/Host]

So say we all this fourth day of.

[Detective Lisa Shahneman]

Can you describe your feelings when you heard those words? Guilty.

[Narrator]

I had something in me that I.

[Advertiser/Host]

Didn'T know was even there.

[Detective Lisa Shahneman]

What do you mean?

[Amy Hearst's Sister]

I just gasped out and started crying.

[Narrator]

And my cousin was sitting next to me. And we both just cried and cried.

[Witness/Acquaintance]

Mr. Hurst, you are well and truly an evil man. I sentence you to life in prison.

[Detective Lisa Shahneman]

Life with no chance of parole for 25 years. Did you want him to get the death penalty? Mm. Mm.

[Amy Hearst's Son Jeff]

We don't want the death penalty. Cause that's the easy way out.

[Detective Lisa Shahneman]

Amy's family gathered at Elizabeth Lake in Waterford, Michigan, where Amy had often spent family vacations.

[Amy Hearst's Sister]

Her ashes were spread on the water, and they had roses on it, and they had rose petals out there. And it was absolutely beautiful. It's been 30 years. Time heals. But as we stood there on that boat, And I thought to myself, it's just like she died yesterday. Her kids in so much pain. They've had to live all these years without their mother.

[Amy Hearst's Son Jeff]

I drive by there all the time. I always look at the water.

[Detective Lisa Shahneman]

But it gave you a sense that maybe she's at peace, right?

[Amy Hearst's Son Jeff]

Yeah.

[Detective Lisa Shahneman]

Amy's family acknowledges she that peace would not have been possible were it not for Wendy Huggie. What would you have to say to the Huggie family?

[Amy Hearst's Sister]

Don't give up.

[Amy Hearst's Son Jeff]

Never give up.

[Amy Hearst's Sister]

Something could still happen.

[Detective Lisa Shahneman]

Do you think there's any hope that you'll ever know what happened to Wendy?

[Witness/Acquaintance]

Honestly, no, I don't. It's really, really a long stretch.

[Narrator]

It's a beautiful 17 year old girl who just disappeared. Where is she? What happened to her?

[Detective Lisa Shahneman]

But cold case detective Lisa Schneman is not about to give up.

[Narrator]

Just came across a couple the other day, but it wasn't her.

[Detective Lisa Shahneman]

But you're not going to stop looking.

[Narrator]

Oh, no, no. I'll keep looking. I'll find her. I'll find.

[Detective Lisa Shahneman]

It is my great honor to welcome.

[Amy Hearst's Sister]

You all to Starfleet Academy.

[Detective Lisa Shahneman]

There's never been a better time to enroll in Star Trek. It's our job to prepare you for the unimaginable. To the Night Cadet.

[Advertiser/Host]

In high pressure situations, positive reinforcement is crucial to one's success. You're doing a great job.

[Witness/Acquaintance]

This is what we train for.

[Narrator]

These friends of mine, they all live.

[Detective Lisa Shahneman]

For something bigger than themselves.

[Advertiser/Host]

Starfleet Academy New series now streaming on Paramount.

[Witness/Acquaintance]

Plus, everything you've done has come to this.

[Detective Lisa Shahneman]

The biggest and wildest mission yet is now streaming.

[Amy Hearst's Son Jeff]

I need you to trust me one last time.

[Detective Lisa Shahneman]

Tom Cruise Mission Impossible the final reckoning.

[Witness/Acquaintance]

Rated BG13 now streaming on Paramount.