Narrator (2:27)

There are over 100,000 cold cases in America. Only about 1% are ever solved. This is one of those rare stories. It's June 26, 2023 in Aurora, Colorado. John Kellner is a district attorney for the 18th Judicial District.

John Kellner (2:52)

Aurora is the gateway to the Rockies. You've got the mountains to the west. You've got the wide open plains to the east. You've got everything that really makes Colorado. Colorado Rora is the kind of place you can go to reinvent yourself. Like a lot of people here in Colorado, Carolyn came out here to try and start a new chapter in her life, to start over. And she ended up being brutally murdered and just thrown away like a piece of trash. I started my career in the 18th Judicial District in 2013. Before that, I was a prosecutor in the Boulder County District Attorney's office. Before that, a prosecutor in the United States Marine Corps. So I've been doing this cold case work for years. I've been to Afghanistan. I've seen how cheaply life can be treated. And, you know, seeing what happened to Carolyn and how she was treated just, you know, really shook me to my core. This case sat as a cold case for over a decade, waiting for a detective and a prosecutor willing to take on that challenge. And that's what we decided to do.

Detective Steven Connor (4:21)

My name is Richard Johnson. Was just moving some stuff off my patio that a former friend had stored. And one of the ducks and getting slowly. It appears to be the female human body.

Narrator (4:39)

It's a quiet summer evening, and as the sun starts to set over the Rocky Mountains, police get an emergency call from a worried resident.

Detective Steven Connor (4:48)

I can see a bracelet. I can see long ready for brown hair.

Narrator (4:53)

Dispatch sends the Aurora police to investigate, including retired detective Steven Connor.

Detective Steven Connor (5:01)

The officers exit the car and approach the house. And the only way it can be described is the odor of decaying flesh. That was the worst that I've ever smelled. I mean, it was. It was bad.

Narrator (5:20)

As the police investigate the scene, they find that a large plastic container wrapped in duct tape is emitting the foul odor.

Detective Steven Connor (5:29)

It was a fairly heavy duty rubber plastic box. The odd part of it was the amount of duct tape that was around it. So whoever taped it wanted to make sure it wasn't open. The officer who actually looked inside saw skeletal remains.

Narrator (5:49)

Kirk Mitchell is a retired reporter for the Denver Post.

Detective Steven Connor (5:54)

It was grotesque. The body was found scrunched up in a fetal position where their knees almost touching her chin. It takes a special kind of person to do something, you know, that evil.

Narrator (6:14)

25 years earlier, a young girl is growing up in Washington County, Ohio.

Victoria Baker (6:20)

My name is Victoria Baker. I was adopted when I was 13, 14 months old. I was born in Amsterdam, New York, but grew up in Ohio. When I was growing up in my adoptive home, I was told very little about, in fact, almost nothing about my family of origin. I often wondered why I had poor vision and thick glasses. And I've always wanted to know why, you know, why I'm visually impaired. I don't know why I have the hair color. I do. When I was 11 or 12, I began to really Have a desire to know my birth mother's identity. If I didn't know who she was, did I completely know who I was? I wanted to find her so I could find myself.

Narrator (7:17)

Back in Aurora, Colorado. It has been four hours since the body has been found.

Detective Steven Connor (7:23)

Headquarters. It's a dead body in a box. Go ahead. Sergeant's out here right now.

Narrator (7:30)

Detectives interview Richard Johnson, the man who found the foul smelling storage bin. Johnson claims that the storage bin belongs to an acquaintance named J.D. harrington.

Detective Steven Connor (7:43)

Richard said, I distorted for him. He never touched JD's stuff. It just sat there. And then three years later when he's moving it, that's when the body was discovered.

Narrator (7:56)

Johnson also tells police that he thinks he recognizes the body in the box as a friend from the neighborhood.

Detective Steven Connor (8:04)

Richard saw the hair first, reddish brown hair. And he immediately thought it was Carolyn Jansen. Richard met Carolyn through jd. Carolyn Jansen was a roommate of JD Harrington. They both worked at the Waffle House in Aurora. They were both hurting for money, so they decided to rent an apartment together.

John Kellner (8:33)

When Richard Johnson was interviewed, he said that Carolyn was a woman who was working hard, trying to turn her life around. But he told the police about how J.D. harrington was saying, Carolyn took off with my rent money. Carolyn disappeared.

Narrator (8:49)

Rick Yount is Carolyn Jansen's son.

John Kellner (8:53)

My mom was very hard working. Whether she was a cashier at a Circle kid or whether she was a waitress at a restaurant, Carolyn gave it her all. We grew up poor and she taught us how to, you know, cook chicken, make fudge. Carolyn taught us, you know, those were the small things that it was enough to get by. I remember from a very young age that she always made it adamant that we looked out for one another. Carolyn struggled with demons all over life, but she loved us kids, man. She. We were her world.

Narrator (9:32)

A DNA test confirms that the body is indeed Carolyn Jansen.

Detective Steven Connor (9:38)

Carolyn suffered a fracture to the skull above the left eye. The cause of death was blunt force trauma.

Narrator (9:47)

Homicide, now a murder investigation. Police searched Johnson's property. Inside, they discover an unsettling scene.

John Kellner (9:58)

This was a jumbled mess of a house. This man is a person who a lot of folks would probably call a hoarder, a pack rat.

Detective Steven Connor (10:10)

But they also found some disturbing things that created concern for them. There was a mannequin in there. They found some hidden cameras in the restroom to take video of anyone who was in the bathroom.

John Kellner (10:26)

And he had a lot of odd sexual toys that some folks would say is out of the ordinary.

Narrator (10:36)

Although the contents of the home raise suspicion, investigators don't find anything linking Johnson directly to Carolyn's murder. But they do make other discoveries.

Detective Steven Connor (10:48)

They found possessions that all belonged to Carolyn Jansen. There was a Social Security card that was there. There was a day planner.

John Kellner (11:00)

And I wonder, okay, well, did Richard Johnson take these? Because they're some kind of trophy and he knows about what's happened to Carolyn. If you save everything in your home, did he maybe save the body of Carolyn Jansen? Did he maybe take her in that plastic container and keep her, like many of the other possessions in his home.

Detective Steven Connor (11:30)

It's a dead body in a box.

John Kellner (11:35)

We wondered about Richard Johnson and really that was the focus of the detectives. He acted in a way that you would expect somebody to act if they found, you know, a dead body on their back patio. He called 911. But, you know, did Richard commit this crime?

Narrator (11:58)

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Detective Steven Connor (16:40)

Under the circumstances, I can understand why I'm here and why I'm answering all the questions. I'm the guy that found her. Yeah, you know, most of the stuff that was in the garage, I had moved back into the shed. He almost was reliving the event because he would get a little amped up while he's talking about it. So it sounded kind of strange that she should up and split. But I never gave it much more thought than that. And there were a number of items that I just thought that she might like if she ever contacted me. And so I saved those.

Narrator (17:23)

Three years earlier, in Ohio, 1,000 miles away from the mountains and prairies of the west, adoptee Victoria Baker, now 24 years old, scours public records looking for her birth family.

Victoria Baker (17:37)

So I decided, okay, I know where I was born, and I know where I was adopted. I got a phone book, and I wrote a letter to every single baker in that phone book, upwards of 180, 190 letters. I did have two or three very kind, very sweet responses. I wish we could help you. We don't know. So I contacted a private investigator, and I discovered that my biological mother's married name was Carolyn Jansen. I found out that I had five siblings. I was definitely excited. And then I had the opportunity to meet them.

Narrator (18:33)

Jonathan Krutzer is Carolyn Jansen's son.

John Kellner (18:37)

We'd always known about Victoria. We had just never met her. That was our sister Victoria. But we knew that she was giving up. We just didn't know where she was. When I first met Victoria in person, I saw my mother. Actually, Victoria looks a lot like my mom.

Narrator (19:00)

Victoria learns from her siblings that they haven't heard from their mother in several years.

John Kellner (19:06)

Everybody was like, oh, mom's missing. And some of us were, like, not really concerned too much about it, because this is something that she does every once in a while.

Victoria Baker (19:19)

They shared with me some really hard stories, some things that were hard to hear. My mother didn't always make the best choices. I learned that she did move around quite a bit. New York, of course, where I was born, and Oregon, Nevada, Colorado. Almost every place that she moved, it was to escape an abusive relationship.

John Kellner (19:50)

The west was an escape for her to get away from the abuse that.

Detective Steven Connor (19:55)

She'D already been putting up with her entire life.

John Kellner (19:59)

And every time we moved a little.

Detective Steven Connor (20:00)

Further west, it was something new. She never dwelled on the things that.

John Kellner (20:06)

We had to move away from. But mom struggled heavily with alcohol. On her good days, man, she was a ray of sunshine. But when the demons got the best of her, she was low, and there was no talking her out of making another drink.

Narrator (20:26)

Victoria and her newly reunited family travel to Aurora, Colorado, to find their mother.

Victoria Baker (20:34)

I created missing persons flyers for my mom and put those up at locations where she was known to have frequented. You know, please call. Your kids are worried about you.

John Kellner (20:50)

I went over to the old apartment complex, knocked on a couple doors just to see if the old neighbors had.

Detective Steven Connor (20:55)

Remembered or had seen her.

John Kellner (20:59)

I started doing some investigating of my own and found out that her Social Security number wasn't being used. She wasn't working anywhere. But my mom usually always had a job and sometimes two, three jobs. So it really was odd to me. We need to find Mom.

Victoria Baker (21:23)

I received a call from my stepsister, and she asked me if I was sitting down. And she informed me that in Aurora, Colorado, the police had located the remains of a body that they believed was Carolyn Jansen. My mother. And I felt like I failed. I let her down. Maybe if I had found her sooner, maybe if I had hired a private investigator sooner, maybe if I'd stuck with it, I would have found her and I could have protected her. I never got the opportunity to meet my mother. I never had the opportunity to say goodbye.

John Kellner (22:26)

They reached out to me and some of the siblings to inform us that mom had been murdered.

Detective Steven Connor (22:33)

She had been stuffed into a plastic.

John Kellner (22:35)

Storage bin and pretty much put on.

Detective Steven Connor (22:38)

Some guy's back porch like a piece of trash. And, yeah, that was. That was probably the hardest thing I've ever heard. Who would do such a gruesome act? It's just.

John Kellner (22:50)

It's mind blowing to me.

Narrator (22:54)

While detectives are still unsure of homeowner Rick Johnson's involvement, they turn to the next logical suspect, J.D. harrington, the supposed owner of the storage container.

Detective Steven Connor (23:07)

JD, do you have any idea who's in that box. Who more I don't know. Like I said, my stuff has been there for years.

John Kellner (23:18)

Harrington admits that these are his plastic containers. He admits that he actually duct taped a number of them. He wanted to protect those things from the elements.

Narrator (23:29)

In Colorado, forensic analysis reveals that fingerprints from both J.D. harrington and Richard Johnson are on the bin.

Detective Steven Connor (23:39)

But it's like, yeah, well JD And Richard both handled the bin. So naturally their fingerprints are going to be on the net. There wasn't any physical evidence pointing to a particular suspect.

John Kellner (23:55)

JD Denied having anything to do with Carolyn's death.

Detective Steven Connor (24:00)

He claimed that he stacked his boxes outside his home the day before moving day. The implication was that during that time, somebody, whoever was the killer, would have put the body in the plastic container. JD told police that in early February 2002, he last saw Carolyn in his apartment and she just took off. He never saw her again. The only problem with that is she left behind things that would be important to most people. Her purse, her Social Security card.

Narrator (24:44)

Harrington points the finger at another possible suspect.

John Kellner (24:49)

If something happened to Carolyn and I.

Detective Steven Connor (24:51)

Actually had to take, yes, I would say her husband.

John Kellner (24:56)

Brent Jansen was Carolyn's ex husband. There's allegations he was abusive of Carolyn. We had to find out if that person could have killed her.

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John Kellner (27:53)

I wanted to be a prosecutor early on in my life, to be the person who's able to help deliver justice for somebody who so badly needs it. Out here in Colorado, we've got a lot of people from somewhere else, a lot of people just passing through looking for something new. We've got all kinds of different opportunities for somebody who's looking to start a new chapter in their life. And I think that's what Carolyn was trying to do. When detectives began to look into Carolyn's life, some focus turned to an exercise husband who lived in Wyoming. So just a few short hour drive away from where her body was ultimately found, a man named Brent Jansen. And he was allegedly abusive, he was allegedly violent. And so naturally some suspicion turns to the ex husband. Detectives wondered where was Jansen when Carolyn went missing?

Detective Steven Connor (28:52)

Brent Jansen was a person of interest because of his volatile Relationship with Carolyn. Brent was a very violent man. In fact, J.D. harrington portrayed himself as rescuing Carolyn from that relationship and moving her into the apartment where he could protect her. What was her situation? She married or divorced? Well, she was staying with me to get away from her husband because the guy was just beating the crap out of her. Really. Okay.

John Kellner (29:25)

Brent Jansen was a bigger guy. My first impression of Brent was he seemed right off the bat that he was brash.

Detective Steven Connor (29:34)

My sister would tell me stories of.

John Kellner (29:36)

Brent being physically violent with mom.

Narrator (29:39)

Investigators reach out to Jackson, Wyoming, authorities to track down Carolyn's example.

Detective Steven Connor (29:45)

Brent Jensen said, you know, I'm not gonna talk to you. He was very uncooperative. So it was tough in the back of your mind thinking, yeah, it could be him.

John Kellner (29:57)

Ultimately, they found out he was not even in the state in the time that Carolyn Jansen disappeared. He was in Wyoming. Nobody had seen or heard of him coming into Aurora in that timeframe.

Detective Steven Connor (30:10)

He wasn't related to the bins in any way. He didn't know where Carolyn Jansen lived, that she had moved into the apartment. All these things told us that he's probably not the guy we're looking for.

John Kellner (30:23)

He was ultimately cleared.

Narrator (30:27)

Investigators turned their attention back to Carolyn's roommate, J.D. harrington.

John Kellner (30:33)

One of the things looked at was what is the changed circumstance between the people who were involved in. And by that, I mean maybe an ex girlfriend who now says, we're not in a relationship. So I'm willing to tell information now that earlier wasn't the case.

Narrator (30:51)

When they interview JD's former girlfriend, she makes a shocking revelation.

Detective Steven Connor (30:57)

Detective Connor interviewed a former girlfriend of JD's. She explained that after Carolyn Jansen went missing, he came to her house broke down in tears. I didn't expect him, but first thing he did was got down on his knees and started crying that he had just killed somebody. Detective Connor interviewed a former girlfriend of J.D. harrington, and she explained that after Carolyn Jansen went missing, he came to her house with incredible story. I didn't expect him, but first thing he did was got down on his knees and started crying that he had just killed somebody. What's going on?

Victoria Baker (31:55)

Because at the time, I honestly didn't believe it.

Narrator (31:59)

Police interview J.D. harrington yet again.

John Kellner (32:03)

He admits that these are his plastic containers and that he had duct taped a few of them, but claimed not to know what was inside. And you ask, does it look like this tape had ever been removed and then reapplied? The answer is no. And that sets off some alarm bells. It just didn't make Sense.

Narrator (32:24)

The investigation narrows its focus on J.D. harrington. And Carolyn's family feels more certain that detectives are on the right path.

John Kellner (32:33)

He was the last person to have seen my mother. In my eyes, he was my prime suspect.

Victoria Baker (32:43)

I thought, okay, well, he's going to get arrested. And that was not quite as easy as I thought it was going to be.

Narrator (32:52)

It's now been six months since Caroline body was found.

Detective Steven Connor (32:57)

It was a circumstantial case. We had no physical evidence of time to connect J.D. harrington to the crime scene other than the body being at the address. And everybody saying, this is how this bin got here.

John Kellner (33:12)

There's a big distinction between direct and circumstantial evidence. Direct evidence is something you actually saw. Circumstantial evidence is taking pieces of a puzzle, putting them together one by one. It's inferring from all the evidence what that likely outcome is.

Detective Steven Connor (33:34)

I felt there was sufficient evidence to pursue prosecution. The former DA Said it wasn't there.

John Kellner (33:42)

I was a part of that Prosecutor's office in 2006, but they just felt they didn't have enough to prove this case beyond a reasonable doubt.

Victoria Baker (33:51)

It made no sense to me. It made me feel like they saw my mother's life as having no value.

Detective Steven Connor (34:02)

There was nothing else I could do with it. That DA would not take the case.

Narrator (34:08)

After a year of investigating with no new evidence, Carolyn's case goes cold and stays that way for another two years until Detective Connor is assigned to work on cold cases full time.

Detective Steven Connor (34:23)

All of a sudden, state of Colorado mandated that all cold cases be reported to the state. Great idea, I thought. So they said, who wants to work cold cases? I first met Victoria Baker at a cold case conference in Colorado Springs. And I didn't know who she was immediately until she started talking about her mom's case. Then I knew exactly who she was.

Victoria Baker (34:49)

Detective Connor let me know that cold didn't mean done, didn't mean it was over. And I never for one minute felt like he had forgotten.

Narrator (35:05)

It's now 2013. Detective Connor has kept Carolyn's case file on his desk for five long years. Years. Until a call from newly appointed Deputy District attorney John Kellner changes everything.

Detective Steven Connor (35:20)

When John Kelner became the cold case da, he actually called me at my office and wanted me to submit five of the best cold cases I had for prosecution.

John Kellner (35:31)

Our goal with every single case was to take a look and try to solve it and bring it to closure. The Carolyn Jansen case, it was complicated. There were folks that said it cannot be proven beyond a Reasonable doubt. So we had some work to do to bring this case forward.

Detective Steven Connor (35:49)

John Kellner, he's dogged and he's got a huge brain. I can't remember 30,000 pages of documentation, but John can remember quite a few more than me.

John Kellner (36:04)

We were going to do our best to bring Carolyn's killer to justice. What turned a lot of attention towards JD Harrington is the fact that he claimed that these were, in fact, his containers, that he did, in fact, duct tape them closed. And a body doesn't just magically appear inside a container that's been tightly sealed with duct tape.

Detective Steven Connor (36:30)

We have to take the steps to be able to prove that JD is the one that killed Carolyn. There's very few cases I attach myself to emotionally, but I've met Victoria Baker, and she was very emotional. I told Victoria, there seemed to be a disconnect at that point between the detectives and the DA's offices, and I need physical evidence to connect J.D. harrington to that body. So I kept reading through the case file, and I'm going, okay, I can shore up this. I need to do a second interview over here, and I need to review the evidence on the bin. Morning.

Narrator (37:15)

Cindy brought over the evidence for you.

Detective Steven Connor (37:18)

Okay. Can still smell it after all these years. Here's the duct tape they had peeled off of the plastic container that Carolyn was found in. On this side, they would have done the fingerprinting, and on the backside, they would have swabbed for DNA in hopes of recovering whoever it was that sealed the container.

Narrator (37:43)

Nine years after Carolyn Jansen's body is found, Detective Connor examines the plastic bin once again.

John Kellner (37:52)

That duct tape, what I was concerned about is how old it was. It had been exposed to extreme heat, extreme cold in our Colorado weather, and that can degrade DNA. I remember from my time serving in Afghanistan how we would sometimes look at the sticky side of tape from ieds to find out who's creating the ieds. So we wanted to know, could they potentially pull DNA from the sticky side of that duct tape? In the early 2000s, there was not touch DNA that was going to be, you know, found on that duct tape or on the container. But now we're really dealing with a completely different technological time, with new forensic science. But it is a big risk because, look, it could come back with nothing.

Narrator (38:45)

After months of painstaking work, the forensics team successfully extract DNA from the sticky adhesive portion of the duct tape and send it off for testing. Two months later, the results come back.

John Kellner (39:00)

J.D. harrington could not be excluded. And this is important because when you add all of those pieces up together, you're talking about placing one circumstantial brick in the wall one at a time. It just helped us feel confident to bring this case forward on J.D. harrington and make him face these charges in court. So 2014 finally rolls around. We've got our DNA evidence in hand. We've got our statements from our suspect. It's now time to pull the trigger. J.D. harrington was finally charged with the murder of Carolyn Jansen.

Detective Steven Connor (39:49)

You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can will be used against you in the court of law. I was excited that I actually had him for real to keep. So it was a sense of relief.

John Kellner (40:02)

With these rights in mind, would you.

Detective Steven Connor (40:03)

Be willing to answer some questions now? No, I'm not willing to answer any questions. And he just looked at me and said, I want an attorney. So I thought, okay, we're done, and we took him to jail. I want everybody now to place under arrest for the murder of Carolyn Jansen. Do you have any questions for me? I'll think that's enough.

Victoria Baker (40:28)

I received a phone call from Detective Connor informing me about the arrest of J.D. harrington in connection with my mother Carolyn's murder. It was almost 10 years.

John Kellner (40:42)

That's a long time for any family to wait for justice.

Victoria Baker (40:47)

I was optimistic, but I also was holding back a little.

John Kellner (40:55)

You don't know what's going to happen when you ask 12 random strangers to decide somebody's guilt or innocence, and there's just no telling, you know, what happens once we get into this trial. Can you prove it in court? I remember walking in the courtroom and feeling a lot of pressure that her family was truly counting on us to answer questions that had been unanswered throughout all this time.

Victoria Baker (41:25)

I couldn't be let down again. I just couldn't. My mother's murder was being taken seriously, but at this point, it had been so many years that I stayed fairly guarded on the issue until I saw court dates happening, and that showed that this was moving forward and moving forward quickly.

Narrator (41:49)

On August 18, 2015, the trial of J.D. harrington begins at the Arapahoe County Courthouse.

John Kellner (41:57)

Walking into the courtroom, it was. It was tense. I remember sitting, you know, and looking at J.D. harrington, and I'm thinking to myself, I could fly off at the handle at any moment and feeling the tension so thick in the air.

Detective Steven Connor (42:13)

That's when it's like, okay, here is where we determine, with everything that we've done up to this point, if it's going to pay off.

John Kellner (42:21)

I really tried to let the jury understand that this had taken many years to get to where we were, but not for lack of trying and not because people didn't care about Carolyn Jansen. J.D. harrington was known as a guy who would get potentially violent if somebody messed with his money. The story that comes out of this is that maybe Carolyn had taken their rent money and used it for something. We don't know for what. But I suspect that could be the trigger that set him off, that caused him to kill her.

Narrator (42:58)

After hearing a week of evidence, the jury deliberates.

Victoria Baker (43:03)

And I just, just kept thinking and praying, let it be enough.

John Kellner (43:09)

It was nerve wracking because you got one shot and it's either get it right or it's done.

Narrator (43:18)

On August 25, 2015, the jury delivers its verdict.

John Kellner (43:25)

The jury convicted J.D. harrington as charged of second degree murder for the killing of Caroline Jansen. He was ultimately sentenced to 25 years in prison.

Detective Steven Connor (43:38)

To me, it was just a feeling of satisfaction. It's like, gotcha, you know, finally, thank God, finally justice.

Victoria Baker (43:47)

I remember feeling relieved that the guilty verdict brought justice to my mother's case. I honestly don't believe, however, that I will ever have closure.

John Kellner (44:05)

There's this saying about justice delayed is justice denied. And I don't buy into that. You know, I believe that there is justice at the end of the road. And sometimes it takes a tremendous amount of patience and, you know, a lot of hope and prayer to get there. My mother had a hard life, but.

Detective Steven Connor (44:24)

She was a wonderful woman.

John Kellner (44:28)

She didn't deserve what she got. If my mom were here today, she would know how strong her kids have become.

Victoria Baker (44:44)

Throughout my search for my mother, I've learned that I'm stronger than I ever thought I was. But strength doesn't mean that you don't hurt. What you do with that hurt determines your strength. I feel grateful for being able to talk about my mom, talk about this story. Her life as almost my chance to make her proud. And I'm very grateful for that opportunity.

Detective Steven Connor (45:33)

Extra value meals are back. That means 10 tender juicy McNuggets and medium fries and a drink are just $8 only at McDonald's for a limited time only.

John Kellner (45:43)

Prices and participation may vary. Prices may in Hawaii, Alaska and California.

Narrator (45:47)

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