Caught on Tape / A Son to Remember

Summary

Cold Case Files – "Caught on Tape / A Son to Remember"
Episode Date: July 7, 2026
Host: Marisa Pinson

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Episode Overview

This gripping double-length episode of Cold Case Files explores two chilling and deeply personal cases: the unmasking and conviction of Louisville’s prolific serial rapist, Daniel Cummings, and the decades-old murder of Gwendolyn Moore, found at the bottom of a Georgia well in 1970. Through survivor testimony, detective interviews, and family remembrances, the episode delves into how tenacious investigative work and modern forensic science eventually cracked these seemingly unsolvable crimes—bringing long-sought justice and closure to victims and families.

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Case One: "Caught on Tape" – The Crafty Drive & BP Oil Rapist

Main Storyline

Louisville, KY, late 1990s through early 2000s: Several women across the same neighborhoods fall victim to brutal sexual assaults. The attacker is a stranger, always armed with a knife and escalating in violence. For years, the cases go cold—until a lucky forensic break, a bold confession, and a citywide manhunt lead to the conviction of serial rapist Daniel Cummings.

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

The Attacks and Investigation

• Multiple assaults occur in the Crafty Drive apartment complex; victims recall the terror and detail similar attacker profiles.
• [01:20] Shannon Johnson (Victim): “The knife was to my throat and he started saying, do not say anything, don't say a word.”
• [02:52] Terry Poe (Victim): “He had the knife right at my throat and I'm trying to do exactly what he says.”
• Despite consistent descriptions, police initially have no leads.
• Attacks suddenly cease, leaving detectives frustrated and fearing the rapist has either been jailed elsewhere or moved.

Pattern Emerges and Breakthroughs

• New attacks at BP gas stations mirror prior MOs, prompting Detective Duane Colbank to theorize the same perpetrator:
  • [05:19] “We were pretty confident that it was the same individual. Close proximity... not that many serial stranger rapes.”
• Detective Larry Duncan spots connections across 10 assaults in Louisville, linked by method and geography.
• [07:49] Duncan: “He would conduct these sexual assaults almost without fail, in the same manner... His level of violence was increasing. And I was very, very fearful that these cases would turn into murder cases eventually.”

The Critical Mistake

• In 2002, Cummings steals a victim's phone and ATM card, using them brazenly on camera.
• [11:45] Duncan releases surveillance footage; tips flood in. Prints from a crime scene are matched to Cummings.

Confrontation and Confession

• [13:27] At the Red Roof Inn, Cummings tries to blame a fictitious 'Fred.'
• Detectives see through it:
  • [13:53] Det. Brian Arnold: “No way, Jose. He was the man.”
• During interrogation, Cummings initially invokes his right to counsel. Left alone, he quietly admits guilt to Detective Arnold:
  • [20:57] “You can tell that lady she can sleep tonight. I ain't gonna get her no more.”
  • [21:15] Admits: “There's so many that I can't remember.”

Justice Delivered

• DNA and partial confessions link Cummings to at least 11 assaults.
• [23:08] On trial, Cummings pleads guilty to 53 felony counts, sentenced to a total of 470 years.
• [24:09] Victim Terry Poe: “All I could do was cry... He broke into our homes in the middle of the night. Our safe haven... when you go to bed, you should wake up okay. Not tore up, not beat up, not raped.”
• [25:14] Det. Duncan: “The only comfort... is knowing the perpetrator is serving a 470 year sentence in prison. It is some comfort for these victims and I was very blessed to be a part of the case.”

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Notable Moments & Quotes

• [10:20] Det. Larry Duncan’s desperate prayer and forensic persistence yields the breakthrough latent print:
  • “I got back down on the hands and knees, and I dusted one more time. And at the first location that I dusted, two of the most beautiful prints that you've ever seen came up."
• [13:00] Detective Duncan, on the emotional closure:
  • “The good lord was letting everything go our way at this point. We were about to nab this person that I believe was responsible for these 14 attacks.”
• [24:49] Victim testimony (Terry Poe):
  • “When you go to bed and shut your eyes, you should be able to go to sleep. And that's what Mr. Cummins has taken from me.”

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Key Segment Timestamps

• 01:20 – First victim testimony (Shannon Johnson)
• 03:46 – Detective Larry Carroll discusses scene evidence
• 07:06 – Detective Larry Duncan identifies pattern of attacks
• 10:20 – Latent fingerprint discovery
• 11:45 – Surveillance images go public
• 13:27 – Cummings' arrest and 'Fred' alibi
• 19:18 – Interrogation and confession process
• 23:08 – Sentencing and victim impact

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Case Two: "A Son to Remember" – The Gwendolyn Moore Cold Case

Main Storyline

Oxford, Georgia, 1970: Gwendolyn Moore is found dead at the bottom of a well, “accident” declared by authorities despite evident abuse and a violent relationship with her husband. Over 30 years later, a chance family discovery—plus unwavering tenacity from her niece and a detective with a personal connection—revives the case, exposing a harrowing tale of domestic violence, community silence, and renewed hope for truth.

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

The Mystery Renewed

• [25:47] Leslie Power discovers a photo of her great-aunt Gwendolyn; her mother reluctantly recounts the disturbing story of her death.
• Family lore persists: hints of abuse, a suspicious well, and a mother seeking justice with a gun tucked in her bag.

Oral Histories and Past Injustice

• [27:03] Pat Terry (Gwendolyn's sister) recalls serial abuse by Marshall Moore:
  • “She had been beaten so bad, he had stomped her feet... She was black and blue all over.”
• [28:01] Gwendolyn’s lawyer warns, “If you don't get out... he will wind up killing you.” (She never serves divorce papers.)

Unearthed Records and New Eyes

• Leslie Power’s archival research uncovers Gwendolyn’s death certificate: homicide, with blows to the head.
• [30:40] Det. Clay Bryant, who witnessed Gwendolyn’s body’s retrieval as a teen, is assigned the cold case. His father—a police officer—had long suspected injustice.

Family Trauma and Recollections

• [32:24] Al Mohr, Gwendolyn’s son, recalls the night he found his mother battered and hiding:
  • “She was sitting on a block... her left eye was swollen completely shut... I was scared to even touch her hand. That's bad when you're scared to touch your own mother because she's hurting so bad.”
• [40:11] Even as a child, Al tells the police he believes his father is responsible—he’s ignored.

Forensic Breakthrough

• [41:57] Gwendolyn's body is exhumed after 33 years.
• [42:49] Dr. Chris Sperry examines the hyoid bone:
  • “If someone is being strangled... that is what breaks off the little end of the horns of the hyoid. I found that the ends... had been broken off. This is conclusive evidence that... she had been strangled.”

Justice—and Missed Opportunities

• [43:35] Marshall Moore is charged but dies of cancer before trial (July 6, 2005).
• [44:26] Al Mohr visits his mother’s grave, wrestling with regret:
  • “Had I taken her by the hands that night from underneath that porch and walked her down the road to the police department, maybe she'd be alive today... There's a lot of things, you know, and I didn't do that.”
• [45:19] Clay Bryant: “I know that my dad would have been very proud... It was a really remarkable case to be able to get back to where we were, considering where we started.”

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Notable Moments & Quotes

• [28:19] Pat Terry recounts her mother’s lethal grief:
  • "My mother... put a gun in her pocketbook and she carried it to the funeral home. When she died, she was going to kill Marshall because she knew what he had done."
• [37:17] Investigator Bryant on 1970s policing:
  • "By his own admission, he had struck her that night violently... The credibility of a polygraph alone in 1970 and under this situation especially, I don't see how you could lend the polygraph under that circumstance any credibility."
• [41:11] On systemic corruption:
  • "I think there was more than ample evidence at the time... For whatever reason, law enforcement just elected to forget about Gwendolyn."

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Key Segment Timestamps

• 25:47 – Leslie Power finds Gwendolyn’s photo
• 27:03 – Pat Terry recounts family abuse
• 30:40 – Clay Bryant revisits the case
• 32:24 – Al Mohr's memories of abuse and loss
• 41:57 – Exhumation and forensic revelation
• 43:35 – Marshall Moore charged, but dies before trial
• 44:26 – Son’s emotional graveside reflection

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Tone & Final Thoughts

Cold Case Files retains its signature blend of procedural clarity and emotional weight. By foregrounding survivor voices and persistent detectives, the episode balances technical descriptions with raw, unvarnished humanity. The recurring theme is one of steadfast pursuit—of truth, justice, and in some small way, healing.

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For listeners interested in how decades-old crimes can finally yield to perseverance and new science, or those moved by the enduring toll of violence on families and communities, this episode is both sobering and quietly hopeful.

Transcript

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This program contains subject matter that may be disturbing to some listeners listening.

[Narrator/Host]

Listener discretion is advised.

[Narrator]

There are over 100,000 cold cases in America. Only 1% are ever solved. This is one of those rare stories.

[Shannon Johnson (Victim)]

The knife was to my throat and he started saying, do not say anything, don't say a word.

[Narrator]

On February 28, 1998 in Louisville, Kentucky. It's just after 3am when 29 year old Shannon Johnson wakes to a stranger in her bed.

[Shannon Johnson (Victim)]

He tried to get between my legs and I'm thinking, okay, if I let him go through with this and he kills me, what's he going to do to my daughter? So it was just like a sleep snap instance to grab the knife and I grabbed it with this hand by the blade. And then we started fighting. We struggled for a minute, maybe even less than a minute. He stops, he pulls up his pants and he takes off running out the door.

[Narrator]

Johnson dials 911. When they arrive, the scene is very familiar to police. Twelve days earlier, a woman in the same apartment complex on Crafty Drive was attacked.

[Shannon Johnson (Victim)]

I knew he was African American. I knew that he had close cut hair. I knew that he was taller than me.

[Narrator]

Johnson's attacker matches a description given in the earlier assault. Investigators however, have no suspects and nothing else to move on. Meanwhile, a rapist is targeting Crafty Drive, waiting for another opportunity.

[Terry Poe (Victim)]

He had the knife right at my throat and I'm trying to do exactly what he says.

[Narrator]

It's just past 3am the next day when 56 year old Terry Poe wakes up to a man on Top of her.

[Terry Poe (Victim)]

I don't know if he kneed me or he hit me in the stomach or. But he just doubled me up. And he said, I'm going to rape you.

[Narrator]

The man pushes Poe down on the couch and presses the blade to her throat.

[Terry Poe (Victim)]

On the beginning, he was just cutting enough to let you know. He would cut you just enough that you could feel the blood trinkling. You know, he ripped the buttons off my pajamas. You know, he ripped my pajamas off, and he was on me. I'm trying to do what he said. I knew I couldn't get away. I knew I was pinned.

[Narrator]

The man rapes Poe repeatedly and then slips out the back door and into the night.

[Detective Larry Carroll]

I was asked to respond as an evidence technician. Detective. To the address of 5102 Crafty Drive.

[Narrator]

Detective Larry Carroll arrives on the scene and immediately recognizes the work of a man police are calling the crafty drive rapist.

[Detective Larry Carroll]

The suspect description also was the same, and also all of these crimes. The Jefferson county police certainly felt that they had a serial rapist in this area that was operating.

[Narrator]

Carol dusts for prints and documents the scene. Meanwhile, police circulate sketches and question male residents. Just as quickly as the attack started, however, they abruptly stop.

[Detective Larry Carroll]

What happened to the perpetrator, essentially? Were they incarcerated somewhere else? Did they move to another state? What caused these attacks to actually cease? It was very frustrating. Very, very frustrating because we felt that we had a serial rapist.

[Narrator]

Detective Duane Colbank works robbery for the Louisville police department in the fall of 1998, seven months after the Crafty Drive attacks. He investigates two BP gas station rapes.

[Detective Duane Colbank]

We forced both victims to stock rooms, had both victims disrobed, use articles of clothing to wrap around their heads so they couldn't see what was going on.

[Narrator]

DNA testing confirms the attacks are the work of one man dubbed by investigators the BP oil rapist. Colbank, however, thinks there could be further connections that the BP oil rapist might also be responsible for the rapes on crafty drive.

[Detective Duane Colbank]

We were pretty confident that it was the same individual. Close proximity. I mean, four miles. You really don't have that many serial stranger rapes. Also, the physical description he was described in both incidents as being a young black male in his late teens, early 20s.

[Narrator]

Colbank tries to find a link between the two series of attacks, but hits a dead end.

[Detective Duane Colbank]

What few leads that we got, they were followed up on, and nothing ever came. No good suspects were ever developed.

[Narrator]

With no new leads, the five assaults find their way into the cold files. But Louisville's Serial rapist is not finished.

[Kim Adams (Store Clerk)]

When he come in, he said he wanted to pack his cigarettes. And I was kind of leery. And when I turned around, that's when he jumped the counter on me.

[Narrator]

It is just past 2am on Louisville's south side, and a store clerk named Kim Adams is dealing with a man wielding a knife.

[Kim Adams (Store Clerk)]

I seen the knife as he was jumping. I just focused on that. I was like, he's got a knife and this man's really serious.

[Narrator]

As surveillance cameras record the scene, the man tells Adams to empty the register. Then the two struggle in the aisles of the convenience store. And the man pushes Adams into the parking lot, where she grabs the attacker's knife and bites down on his hand.

[Kim Adams (Store Clerk)]

As soon as I bit his finger, my body just went like this. And I got to the ground and I was kicking and screaming.

[Narrator]

The man flees, and Kim Adams survives. The attack is initially seen as an isolated incident until Detective Larry Duncan picks up the case and begins to provide some context.

[Detective Larry Duncan]

And you can easily visibly see how close these comfort zones are.

[Narrator]

Duncan believes Adams attack to be part of a larger pattern than anyone had previously thought.

[Detective Larry Duncan]

Seven of the attacks occurred down here, right off Preston Highway.

[Narrator]

Duncan identifies at least 10 assaults he believes to be the work of one man.

[Detective Larry Duncan]

Three of the attacks right off Shepherdsville Road. Three more of the attacks within a half mile radius of a center location within the Newburgh community, all of which were in walking distance.

[Narrator]

In almost all the cases, the suspect wields a knife. In the later assaults, he had begun to use it.

[Detective Larry Duncan]

He had gained control of the victims, all in a blitzkrieg style attack. And he would conduct these sexual assaults almost without fail, in the same manner. He would tie clothing around their faces almost in the same manner. He would use electrical cords almost without fail. He began to take pleasure, it would seem, in beating the victims. His level of violence was increasing. And I was very, very fearful that these cases would turn into murder cases eventually.

[Narrator]

By the summer of 2002, Detective Duncan has identified a lot of the victims, but has no solid leads to follow. Detective Duncan needs a break, which he gets, unfortunately, in the form of yet another victim.

[News Reporter]

It happened early Aug. 11. Police say a man pried a window screen open and grabbed a knife in a woman's apartment.

[Detective Larry Duncan]

There had been a sexual assault at Churchill Park Apartments.

[Narrator]

Detective Duncan gets called to the scene.

[Detective Larry Duncan]

The victim was terrorized by bisexual predator in essentially every manner possible.

[Narrator]

Early on, Duncan believes the assault to be the work of the suspected serial rapist. And about 15 minutes into processing, the scene Duncan's suspicions are confirmed.

[Detective Larry Duncan]

The boyfriend of the victim walks up to me and hands me his cell phone and said, he's on the line. And of course, I asked, who's on the line? And he said, the guy that did it.

[Narrator]

After the assault, the rapist stole the victim's cell phone. Now he's using it to confess.

[Detective Larry Duncan]

He, in graphic terms, described to me what he had done during that last sexual assault. At one stage in it, I asked him, I said, why would you do something like this? And he said, it's just something that I do. He kept saying, you think you're going to catch me? And I said, yes, I'll probably catch you. And he goes, I don't think so. How are you going to catch me? It made me feel like, quite frankly, a big, hungry dog that had just been thrown a piece of red meat.

[Narrator]

After 13 minutes on the line, the suspect abruptly hangs up. Duncan heads back to the police department, thinking about his conversation with the suspected rapist. With him is his best piece of evidence. The suspect's point of entry, a living room screen and window frame.

[Detective Larry Duncan]

And after dusting it both sides in every area, going over it with a fine tooth comb. I didn't get any prints. So in desperation, I looked to who I always looked to, and I looked up at the good lord and I said, God, please give me a print. I got back down on the hands and knees, and I dusted one more time. And at the first location that I dusted, two of the most beautiful prints that you've ever seen came up. I knew that this was my man's print. This was the serial rapist's fingerprint.

[Narrator]

The print is run through APHIS without a match. Detective Duncan, however, is not finished. Along with a cell phone, the serial rapist took his latest victim's ATM card.

[Detective Larry Duncan]

So I used that card 24 times up and down Bargetown Road here in our city. And we captured a number or a variety of images of him using the card. The perpetrator is about to use the victim's ATM card at a bank parking lot. As the suspect approaches, One of the identifying characteristics. Let's go over to this monitor. Is the footprints on the shirt that he's wearing and, of course, the image of the perpetrator himself, his face and the visor that he's wearing.

[Narrator]

On August 28, Duncan holds a press conference and asks the public for help.

[Detective Larry Duncan]

And this would be a copy of the wanted flyer we were releasing to the general public along with the local media.

[News Reporter]

On Wednesday, police released this bank surveillance tape of a man they suspected was a serial rapist.

[Narrator]

Within the hour, images are plastered on newspapers and TV screens across Louisville.

[Detective Larry Duncan]

Personally, I was 100% confident that someone would identify him because the images was too good, the shirt was too unique for somebody not to recognize him.

[Narrator]

The next day, an anonymous tipster tells police the man on TV is Daniel Cummings, a local with a history of felony offenses. Although his prints did not find a match in aphis, Cummings fingerprint card is in the local police files. Examiners compare it to the unknown latent print.

[Detective Larry Duncan]

It was like, larry, Larry, Larry. Perfect match. Daniel Jean Cummings. This is the man. And this was followed by a round of applause from the ID lab. You could hear him hooting and hollering. Everybody was ecstatic.

[Narrator]

After four and a half years, police finally have a name and are ready to make the arrest.

[Detective Larry Duncan]

The good lord was letting everything go our way at this point. We were about to nab this person that I believe was responsible for these 14 attacks.

[Detective Brian Arnold]

He actually invited us in. He says, yeah, come on in. I've been waiting for you guys to get here.

[Narrator]

On August 29th, detectives Brian Arnold and Larry Duncan approached room 115 of the Louisville Red Roof Inn. Inside the room is Daniel Cummings, a suspected serial rapist.

[Detective Larry Duncan]

He said, I know who did it. His name's Fred.

[Narrator]

Cummings admits he used an ATM card and cell phone from one of the assault victims, but claims a man named Fred gave him the items and that Fred is the rapist.

[Detective Larry Duncan]

In a nutshell, his story was that he was in the wrong place at the wrong time. He happened to be with Fred.

[Narrator]

Detectives listen but aren't convinced by Cummings story.

[Detective Brian Arnold]

No way.

[Detective Larry Duncan]

No way.

[Detective Brian Arnold]

No way, Jose. He was the man. And I think once we both set eyes on him, we knew he was the person who had done these rapes and that just by the way he was speaking in the story that he came up with, we knew it was a fairy tale because this was the person.

[Narrator]

Cummings, however, is adamant that Fred is the rapist and even offers to show detectives where Fred lives.

[Detective Brian Arnold]

He took us to where this imaginary person named Fred lived. And, you know, we knocked on every single door in that apartment. Everyone reiterated that there was no one named Fred that lived there. Fred did not exist. He was an imaginary person, similar to the person I had when I was a young man, a very little boy.

[Narrator]

After an hour and a half of searching for the phantom known as Fred, detectives head back downtown with their suspect, Daniel Cummings.

[Detective Brian Arnold (continued)]

I said, you have to make this right. And then he looked at me and said, you can tell that lady she can sleep tonight I ain't gonna get her no more.

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[Detective Larry Duncan (Interrogator)]

Speaking of Detective Larry Duncan the date is August 29, 2002. Mr. Cummings, would you speak into the microphone, state your complete name and spell your complete name.

[Narrator]

Daniel Jean Cummings In a police interrogation room, Detective Larry Duncan sits across from Daniel Cummings, a man Duncan suspects to be a serial rapist. The detective wastes little time, beginning with the latest assault just 18 days earlier.

[Detective Larry Duncan (Interrogator)]

You've been identified by your fingerprints, is entering the apartment. Okay, so now let's get to some truths. Daniel, I want to ask you about the entire series of rapes. I'm going to ask you to look in your heart right now and do the right thing. Okay?

[Narrator]

I've never done that.

[Detective Larry Duncan (Interrogator)]

Now, I know different than that because I've got your fingerprints in the apartment going into. I've never raped nobody.

[Narrator]

Duncan explains to Cummings he isn't suspected in just one assault, but in a series of separate attacks. Cummings feels the pressure and requests a lawyer.

[Detective Larry Duncan]

Oh, my heart sunk at that point because I had done everything up to that point to ensure that he wasn't going to initiate his invocation of his rights.

[Narrator]

With Cummings gone quiet, Detective Duncan walks out of the room, leaving Detective Brian Arnold alone with the suspect.

[Detective Brian Arnold (continued)]

Daniel's sitting there with his head in his hands, and he looks up to me across the desk and essentially says, hey, can I talk to you? And I said, well, I have to re advise you for rights, and this

[Detective Brian Arnold]

is the super bowl of investigations.

[Detective Brian Arnold (continued)]

I've got to do a good job here. And I said, you have to make this right. And then he looked at me and said, you can tell that lady she can sleep tonight. I ain't gonna get her no more. And at that point, you know, you feel like jumping up and saying, yeah, I gotcha. Because I knew I had him by that point. I said, now there's others, aren't there? And that's when he said, there's so many that I can't remember.

[Narrator]

Over the next two hours, a team of detectives walks Cummings through the assaults.

[Detective Larry Duncan (Interrogator)]

Two on cramped that we talked about. You meant that you did those.

[Detective Larry Duncan]

It was very difficult for me because he was such a despicable character to be gentle like I try to be with most of the questioning. So it was a hardcore questioning, hard targeting questioning that went on.

[Detective Larry Duncan (Interrogator)]

You entered ground level apartments. Yes, sir. Armed yourself with a knife? Yes, sir.

[Detective Brian Arnold (continued)]

I'm sitting across from a monster. This is an absolute monster who has terrified and ruined people's lives, assaulted and

[Detective Larry Duncan (Interrogator)]

raped the president inside both those apartments.

[Narrator]

I think that was a feeling of

[Detective Larry Duncan]

almost euphoria, going from invoking the rights to. Now he's talking again.

[Narrator]

Cummings implicates himself in 11 of the 14 assaults he is suspected of. Subsequent DNA testing bolsters the confession linking Cummings to five of the attacks. Cummings is handcuffed and led to jail, where he will await trial.

[Kristen Poindexter (Prosecutor)]

The case was incredible. From the moment I opened up that file and started reading it. I just knew Larry Duncan had basically tried my case for me already.

[Narrator]

Kristen Poindexter will prosecute Daniel Cummings. DNA and a partial confession make her job relatively simple.

[Kristen Poindexter (Prosecutor)]

The defendant, I think, realized the volume of evidence against him and there was really no defense that could possibly be put up.

[Judge]

Do you swear or affirm the testimony you're about to give will be the truth, so help you God?

[Detective Larry Carroll]

Yes, ma'.

[Al Mohr (Witness/Family Member)]

Am.

[Narrator]

On the morning of his trial, Cummings pleads guilty to 53 felony counts of rape and robbery.

[Judge]

Commonwealth sentences you 10 years on rape in the first degree.

[Narrator]

At sentencing, the judge reads each count and the corresponding term of years.

[Judge]

Ten years on each of three counts of sodomy in the first degree. Ten years on each of four counts of robbery in the first degree.

[Narrator]

The process takes three full minutes.

[Judge]

Mr. Combs, you're an extremely dangerous man. You are the serial rapist and you have caused an unbelievable and insurmountable amount of pain. Sentences this court just imposed. Total of 470 years. You'll be transported by the Department of

[Narrator]

Corrections to serve your time in the court that day. Are many of Cummings 14 victims, all there to see a chapter in their lives closed.

[Terry Poe (Victim)]

You know, all I could do was cry. You know, that sounds silly and it's a silly reaction, but it's honest. That's all I could do. He broke into our homes in the middle of the night. Our safe heaven. When you go to bed, you should wake up in the morning okay? Not tore up, not beat up, not raped.

[Shannon Johnson (Victim)]

I thought we would go in and they would just say, 20 years, you're gone. I didn't think I would hear from the other women. And that was the most, I think, striking thing to me to hear from the other women.

[Terry Poe (Victim)]

When you go to bed and shut your eyes, you should be able to go to sleep. And that's what Mr. Cummins has taken from me.

[Detective Larry Duncan]

I can't tell you the elation and the feelings and how good hugging the victims and talking to the victims afterwards felt.

[Narrator]

Larry Duncan has been a detective for 15 years and knows each of the women Daniel Cummings is convicted of assaulting. He is especially aware of their pain.

[Detective Larry Duncan]

The only comfort that some of these victims are ever going to get relative to this is knowing that the perpetrator is serving a 470 year sentence in prison. It is some comfort for these victims and I was very blessed to be a part of the case to be able to help these ladies.

[Leslie Power]

My grandmother had passed away and I had went with my mom to her house. To go through some of her belongings and pack things and stuff like that.

[Narrator]

In the spring of 2001, in Oxford, Georgia, Leslie Power and her mother sort through a box of family photos and happen upon a picture of a relative Leslie never knew she had.

[Leslie Power]

So I pulled them down and started going through all the pictures and, you know, seeing who they were. And this was one of the pictures that was there. There, which I found out was a picture of Gwendolyn we think was probably a school picture.

[Narrator]

Gwendolyn Moore was Leslie's great aunt. Leslie's mother tells her Gwendolyn died when she was just 30 years old.

[Leslie Power]

And I said, well, that's kind of weird. How come I didn't know her. I knew all my other great aunts and uncles. And she told me what had happened, that they had found her in a well. And I was like, what do you mean they found her in a well? So I didn't let that go for the rest of the day. I just, you know, I think I kept saying that. What do you mean? Isn't there more to that story?

[Narrator]

There is more to the story. For that, however, Leslie needs to seek out the oldest living member of her family, Gwendolyn's sister Pat.

[Pat Terry]

They went together for quite a while and was very happy. And then when they got married after about the second child, all this abuse started.

[Narrator]

In 1970, Pat Terry was 36 years old and an eyewitness to the punishment that was her younger sister Gwendolyn's marriage.

[Pat Terry]

She had been beaten so bad, he had stomped her feet until they was about twice the size they should have been. She was black and blue all over. And I said, what happened to you, honey? And she said, marshall stomped my feet.

[Narrator]

Marshall is Marshall Moore, Gwendolyn's husband, and according to Pat, a man with many

[Pat Terry]

faces, when he was around us, he was like a knight in shining armor to speak, you know, he was the sweetest thing, honey. Wouldn't melt in his mouth. He smiled, his eyes danced. And then as soon as he would get her home, he would beat her.

[Narrator]

According to her sister, in the spring of 1966, Gwendolyn Moore contacted a lawyer who drew up divorce papers and offered some free advice.

[Pat Terry]

The lawyer sat there and told her. He said, lady, I'm going to tell you one thing. He says, if you don't get out of it and get out of it in a hurry, said, he will wind up killing you.

[Narrator]

Gwendolyn never served the papers to her husband, and four years later, she was found dead at the bottom of an

[Pat Terry]

abandoned well, and my mother, God rest her soul, she put a gun in her pocketbook and she carried it to the funeral home. When she died, she was going to kill Marshall because she knew what he had done. And my brother was carrying her down there, and he had to talk her out of that gun, take that gun away from her, because she was going to kill Marshall right there in the funeral home. She didn't kill you.

[Narrator]

The family was told Gwendolyn's death was an accident. Pat Terry, however, never believed it.

[Pat Terry]

I called down there to the police station, and I called and I called and I called. Well, I could never, never get any answers out of her. So finally I just gave up, you know.

[Narrator]

31 years later, Gwendolyn Moore's niece, Leslie Power, picks up the hunt, searching for the answers as to how and why Gwendolyn Moore ended up dead at the bottom of a Georgia well.

[Leslie Power]

I just thought it was kind of strange. I just wanted to know, you know, who she was and what had happened to her.

[Narrator]

Leslie takes her search to the local archives, pulling newspaper clips on her great aunt's death.

[Leslie Power]

This article basically says that some children playing I crossed the street from her home, found Gwendolyn in a well.

[Narrator]

The articles provide some names and dates, but the question of Gwendolyn's official cause of death remains unanswered until Leslie obtains Gwendolyn Moore's death certificate.

[Leslie Power]

I thought that it would probably say it was an accident of some sort, so I went up there and got a copy of it. And that's when I actually found out that they had listed it as a homicide. Part of the cause of death says blows to the head. It also has some notes of a bottle broken on her temple, beaten in the eye and mouth.

[Narrator]

The black and white details provide some substance to the story of abuse told by Pat Terry. Leslie takes her findings to the local police.

[Leslie Power]

The investigator that I was speaking to at the police department called me and said that he couldn't find absolutely anything, and he was as confused as I was.

[Narrator]

Leslie's search seems to have hit a dead end until the file falls on the desk of an investigator who remembers the case as part of his own childhood.

[Investigator Clay Bryant]

The day that that case came to me was on the 24th of October, and that was my father's birthday.

[Narrator]

Clay Bryant is a detective as well as the son of a detective. At the age of 15, he. He stood by his father and peered into a well as Gwendolyn Moore's body was hoisted from the well.

[Investigator Clay Bryant]

As her body got to the top of The. Well, the tension on the cable. Her body was just spinning around in a circle. And I'll never forget the swelling and the way that she looked as she hung over that pit.

[Narrator]

Clay Bryant's father never got a chance to work Gwendolyn Moore's death as it fell outside his pocket police jurisdiction.

[Investigator Clay Bryant]

And knowing what I heard him say time and time again about the injustices that he felt about this case, I couldn't believe that it would come to me in that fashion. Thought about the times that I'd spent with him, running behind him in a police car, and the time that we spent together, just as my dad and I. It was just like he was there with me.

[Narrator]

Clay's first order of business is, is to get in touch with Leslie Power.

[Leslie Power]

The first thing he said was that he had something to tell me before we talked about anything. And I said, okay.

[Investigator Clay Bryant]

I said, before we start about this, I want you to understand and know that I was there.

[Leslie Power]

I was like, wow, you gotta be kidding me. No way.

[Narrator]

Clay Bryant promises to take on the case and agrees with Leslie Marshall Moore most likely beat his wife to death and then dumped Gwendolyn's body in the well. The problem, after so many years, is proving it. Until one of Gwendolyn Moore's children taps into some childhood memories of his own.

[Al Mohr (Witness/Family Member)]

Mama loved us enough that she took those beatings and never once left us. Mama loved us enough that she took all the abuse and all the humiliation, things that most women nowadays don't take for granted. Mama didn't ever have any of that. She done all that for us, the children.

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[Investigator Clay Bryant]

Generally, when we do open a cold case file, we get volumes of information. Cold case reports, interviews from during the history of the case, much like the files that you see here with the Moore case. When the case began, the file pretty much consisted of an empty box.

[Narrator]

An empty box is nearly all all Clay Bryant has to work with as he investigates the death of Gwendolyn Moore, found dead at the bottom of a Georgia well 32 years earlier. One of the only items of real significance in the murder file is a polygraph given to the victim's husband, Marshall Moore.

[Investigator Clay Bryant]

In the opinion of the polygraphist, Marshall Moore has no guilty knowledge of the matter under investigation. By his own admission, he had struck her that night violently and had in the past and the credibility of a polygraph alone in 1970 and under this situation especially, I don't see how you could lend the polygraph under that circumstance any credibility.

[Narrator]

Clay Bryant believes Marshall Moore might be his killer, but without any hard evidence, Bryant's best hope is a long shot. Someone who saw something 32 years ago and is now willing to talk.

[Al Mohr (Witness/Family Member)]

My earliest memories is going to bed listening to mama get beat.

[Narrator]

In 1970, Al Mohr was 13 years old.

[Al Mohr (Witness/Family Member)]

And I don't mean beat like what people think of today. I'm talking about hair being pulled out of her head. I'm talking about her not being able to see out of her eyes.

[Narrator]

Now 46, Al is approached by investigator Bryant who asks him about life under Marshall Moore's roof.

[Investigator Clay Bryant]

He spoke of beatings that he'd suffered, beatings he'd witnessed his mother suffer, said that he'd been beaten with everything from limbs and sticks, shoes, swing, chain. There's no way to describe the pain I felt for the man as he told what they went through through.

[Al Mohr (Witness/Family Member)]

Everybody was scared of daddy. He was an abusive, hot tempered individual that he only knew of one way and if it didn't go his way, you would pay for it.

[Narrator]

Al tells Bryant about one night in particular, when he went looking for his mother and found her under a neighbor's

[Al Mohr (Witness/Family Member)]

porch about 7 foot from where the doorway was up underneath the porch. She was sitting on a block and her left eye was swollen completely shut. Her right eye, you barely could see any kind of her pupil. Her mouth was swollen up real bad, and she was black and blue in the face. I was scared to touch her. You could say she was in that much visible pain. And I've regretted that for 30 something years. Mm, mm, mm. I was scared to even touch her hand. That's bad when you're scared to touch your own mother because she's hurting so bad.

[Narrator]

Gwendolyn Moore made her son promise not to tell his father where she was hiding.

[Al Mohr (Witness/Family Member)]

She made me promise that I'd go back to the house and that I wouldn't tell daddy where she was at and that she loved me and that she would be back to get us. And I never told daddy that she was under the porch. I never told him that I saw her.

[Narrator]

The next time the 13 year old saw his mother was the following morning, dead at the bottom of a well.

[Al Mohr (Witness/Family Member)]

I looked down in a well and I could see her. She was face down. It looked like she'd been on her knees or something, but she was face down. My body wasn't numb my mind, I mean, all of it, because it was something, you know, I couldn't believe. You know, this is not possible. This is not happening. And I knew then that this was not something that just an accident. Mama loved us enough that she took those beatings and never once left us. Mama loved us enough that she took all the abuse and all the humiliation and she done all that for us, the children. Mama wasn't going to end and fall in no well.

[Narrator]

Al Mohr told police he believed his father was responsible for his mother's fall down the well. Investigators at the time apparently ignored the boy.

[Investigator Clay Bryant]

I think there was more than ample evidence at the time to substantiate that the old, good old boy corruption of the south back in 1970, where he had a friend that had a friend that had a friend. For whatever reason, law enforcement just elected to forget about Gwendolyn.

[Narrator]

Now investigator Bryant offers Moore a chance to put away the bad memories and find some measure of justice for his mom.

[Investigator Clay Bryant]

It was during this conversation that, you know, I decided that this case got to proceed, that this was one of the biggest miscarriages of justice I'd ever heard of. And at that point, I was going to go as far as it would go.

[Narrator]

On May 2, 2003, Dr. Chris Sperry examines the remains of Gwendolyn Moore, exhumed from her grave after almost 33 years.

[Dr. Chris Sperry]

Once we found that the soft tissues, the muscles, the blood vessels, the organs, everything like that was just decomposed and gone, then we turned all of our attention to the skeleton to see if we can find any injuries, specifically fractures or breaks in the bones of the

[Narrator]

206 bones in the human body. One in particular piques the doctor's interest.

[Dr. Chris Sperry]

What we're looking at here is the specimens that I saved from the examination of Gwendolyn Moore's skeleton. And I saved the hyoid bone.

[Narrator]

The hyoid is a small U shaped bone that sits at the front of the neck and holds the clue to Gwendolyn's demise.

[Dr. Chris Sperry]

So if someone is being strangled, the thumbs and the hands are being pushed in from the front and the hyoid will be pushed backwards against the front of the spine. And when that happens, that is what breaks off the little end of the horns of the hyoid. And when I looked at these pieces, I found that the ends of each one of the hyoid bone horns had been broken off. This is conclusive evidence that a woman like this had been strangled.

[Narrator]

Chris Sperry calls Clay Bryant and shows him the smoking gun Bryant has been hoping for.

[Investigator Clay Bryant]

And I'll never forget what he said when he reached down and he washed a handful of bone off. He. And he said, oh, this is interesting. And he said, it's not interesting. This is murder.

[Narrator]

Marshall Moore, now 66 years old and still living in the community, is arrested and charged with murder. Moore wants his day in court and taps Bill Stemberger to build a defense

[Bill Stemberger (Defense Attorney)]

without any new evidence in regard to anyone seeing Marshall with her. In order to commit that act, you've got to be right there. You've got to be in the vicinity. And no one ever saw them together. So when did it happen? How did it happen? That's up to them.

[Narrator]

To prove Stemberger believes he can beat the case. But he never gets the chance. On July 6, 2005, six weeks before his trial is scheduled to begin, Marshall Moore dies of cancer.

[Al Mohr (Witness/Family Member)]

But we did bring you some flowers. Know how you like the colors on

[Narrator]

an autumn morning, Al Mohr pays a visit to his mother's grave.

[Al Mohr (Witness/Family Member)]

I don't know if you know it, but Daddy's dead too. We did get at the truth, though

[Narrator]

for Moore, the visit is a difficult one. His reflections are tinged with guilt over the last time he saw his mother. Beaten, bleeding, and hiding under a porch.

[Al Mohr (Witness/Family Member)]

Had I taken her by the hands that night from underneath that porch and walked her down the road to the police department, maybe she'd be alive today. She'd probably still sitting with my Aunt Pat right now, and they'd be having a good time. She'd got to see what her boys grew up like. There's a lot of things, you know, and I didn't do that.

[Narrator]

The murder of Gwendolyn Moore holds potent memory for investigator Clay Bryant as well. Of a childhood spent learning life at his father's side.

[Investigator Clay Bryant]

It takes me back. Of all the lessons I guess I learned on the seat of a police car, I expect I learned twice that many in the seat of a boat out here in this river. I hope and I know that my dad would have been very proud of the fact that we did the right thing about the case. It was a really remarkable case to be able to get back to where we were, considering where we started from. And it was just. It took a little more than luck.

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[Al Mohr (Witness/Family Member)]

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