The Night Shift

Summary

Cold Case Files: "The Night Shift" - Detailed Summary

Episode Release Date: June 3, 2025
Host: Paula Barros
Runtime: Approximately 36 minutes

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1. Introduction to the Case

The episode "The Night Shift" delves into the harrowing cold case of Brad Perry, a 22-year-old gas station attendant in Brigham City, Utah. On May 26, 1984, Brad's life was brutally taken during his overnight shift, leaving his close-knit Mormon community in shock and his family grappling with unimaginable loss.

2. The Aftermath of Brad Perry’s Murder

[01:25] Marissa Pinson introduces the victim:

"Brad Perry is a Box Elder County Deputy Attorney."

[02:11] Detective Scott Cosgrove recounts the events leading to Brad's death:

"On Memorial Day weekend 1984, two students, Sabah and Barish, studied all night for a final test. They wanted to put the books aside and go for a drive and have some breakfast."

Around 4:00 AM, Sabah and Barish stopped at Brad's gas station, where they encountered a suspicious attendant exhibiting blood on his hands and shoes. This unsettling encounter prompted them to leave swiftly, only to discover Brad's lifeless body shortly after.

3. The Brutality of the Murder

[04:01] Scott Cosgrove describes the grisly details of Brad’s murder:

"The victim had been stabbed with a foot-long screwdriver that penetrated through his upper chest. There was a large cast iron bell, appeared to be hit in the side of the head with that and had a skull fracture from that. The coup de grâce was a large soda canister, weighing probably in the neighborhood of 40 pounds, used to crush his skull."

The traumatic nature of the crime deeply affected both the community and the investigating officers, who personally knew Brad.

4. Impact on the Perry Family

[05:14] Lee Perry, Brad's brother, shares the immediate impact:

"Back in 1984, my mom and my little brother and myself all left on a trip to go to California and go to SeaWorld. Brad stayed behind... but by dawn he'll be brutally murdered."

[05:44] Claudia Perry, the mother, recounts the devastating news:

"Somebody killed him. Just like that. I just lost it."

The family faced not only the grief of Brad's sudden death but also the challenges of losing their primary support as Lee becomes the eldest son handling the family's turmoil.

5. Initial Investigation and Suspects

The initial investigation focused on potential suspects within the gas station since the crime scene suggested internal involvement.

[07:31] Scott Cosgrove explains:

"For example, when Barish and Sabah pull up to the gas pumps, the gas pumps have to be reset from inside the gas station. Somebody would have to know how to do that."

Suspicion initially fell on Thomas Nagger, the assistant manager, due to his absence at the time of the murder and his nervous demeanor during questioning. However, fingerprint evidence did not link him conclusively to the crime.

[09:41] Scott Cosgrove states:

"They had the insight to use a forensic vacuum to vacuum the fight area. And it's from that vacuuming that we were able to locate some hairs. There were hundreds of prints that were compared, and yet Tom Nagger's fingerprints weren't found."

Despite these suspicions, the lack of concrete evidence led to Nagger being released, leaving the case unresolved.

6. The Family’s Struggle and Vandalization

As years passed without resolution, the Perry family endured additional hardships. Their home was vandalized and burglarized, exacerbating their grief and frustration.

[11:50] Lee Perry reflects:

"Whoever did it broke into our house, vandalized it, stole some stuff, and even went so far as to defecate in Brad's bedroom. Why would somebody do something like that?"

The family also faced false accusations, including suspicion towards Craig Martinez, a neighbor with a criminal history. However, evidence such as fingerprint mismatches ultimately cleared Martinez, adding to the family's despair.

7. Reopening the Cold Case

Nearly a decade later, in 1995, Sheriff Jensen entrusted Detective Scott Cosgrove with revisiting Brad's case. Driven by a profound sense of purpose and spiritual conviction, Cosgrove meticulously reviewed old evidence, including a neglected hair sample from the crime scene.

[19:39] Detective Cosgrove shares his renewed hope:

"I received an answer in my heart that this was going to be solved."

8. Breakthrough with DNA Evidence

The pivotal moment came when Amy Huge, Brad's childhood friend and newly elected Box Elder County Attorney, advocated for modern forensic techniques.

[23:05] Amy Huge explains her motivation:

"I ran for county attorney. I just knew that it would go cold if I didn't do something."

Advancements in DNA technology allowed for a new analysis of the evidence. A blood sample on a dollar bill, initially dismissed as Brad's own, was re-examined and linked to Glenn Griffin, a federal inmate with a history of criminal activity.

[25:13] Amy Huge recounts the discovery:

"We had a hit, but the name he gave was somebody we had never even heard of."

9. The Confrontation and Confession

With evidence mounting, Cosgrove pursued Griffin, who was about to be released from federal custody. During interrogation, Griffin's suspicious behavior and inability to satisfactorily explain the DNA evidence led to his confession.

[29:21] Detective Cosgrove details Wade Maughan's testimony:

"Wade was at the station with Glenn, and they got in an argument with Brad over beer... Glenn became irritated and confronted Brad. They got in an argument. Glenn went berserk... Glenn tortured him, and then he killed Brad Perry."

Despite Wade receiving immunity, his reluctant testimony was crucial in implicating Griffin in the murder.

10. The Trial and Conviction

In 2008, the culmination of years of diligent investigation resulted in Glenn Griffin's conviction for first-degree murder.

[35:02] Marissa Pinson summarizes the outcome:

"In 2008, Glenn Griffin was found guilty of first-degree murder. He was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole."

While Griffin was convicted, Wade Maughan was acquitted, highlighting the complexities and challenges of prosecuting cold cases years after the fact.

11. Closure for the Perry Family

The resolution of Brad's murder provided a measure of closure for the Perry family after 24 years of uncertainty and pain.

[35:23] Claudia Perry reflects on the aftermath:

"Despite the acquittal of Wade Maughan, the conviction of Glenn Griffin gives the Perry family some closure and helps heal a wound left open for 24 years."

[35:59] Lee Perry shares his personal transformation:

"I became a law enforcement officer to protect good, law-abiding citizens from being hurt from people who are doing bad things. And that's what I do every day when I go out and do my job."

12. Conclusion and Lasting Impact

"The Night Shift" not only chronicles the meticulous detective work that eventually solved Brad Perry’s murder but also underscores the enduring resilience of a family in the face of tragedy. The episode highlights the importance of perseverance, advancements in forensic science, and the unwavering hope that fuels cold case investigations.

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Notable Quotes:

• [07:31] Scott Cosgrove: "Somebody would have to know how to reset the gas pumps from inside the station."

• [05:31] Marissa Pinson: "Claudia Perry is Brad's mother."

• [22:03] Lee Perry: "Why would you shave yourself from head to foot if you had nothing to do with this crime?"

• [25:28] Scott Cosgrove: "Mr. Griffin was being released from federal custody... how do you explain that?"

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Final Thoughts:

This episode of Cold Case Files serves as a poignant reminder of the profound impact unsolved crimes can have on victims' families and the communities involved. Through dedicated investigation and the evolution of forensic technologies, "The Night Shift" exemplifies how tenacity and modern science can bring justice, even decades later.

Transcript

[Marissa Pinson]

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[Lee Perry]

I think Brad knew something was going on and they killed him for it.

[Scott Cosgrove]

This young man is murdered in a violent and horrific manner.

[Lee Perry]

I was blaming God for what happened. He was a good guy and why would God let him die?

[Detective]

This piece we know that the suspect.

[Lee Perry]

Handled and I'm thinking this case may actually get solved.

[Marissa Pinson]

When an investigation runs out of leads, it becomes a cold case. Years pass and hope fades. But for the families of the victims, these cases are never cold. The truth takes time. It's May 26, 1984. 22 year old Brad Perry is working at the local gas station in the close knit community Brigham City, Utah. To make a little extra money for college and his upcoming wedding, Brad Perry decides to work the night shift. But by dawn he'll be brutally murdered and the small Mormon community where he lives will never be the same again. Scott Cosgrove was the lead detective on the case.

[Detective]

On Memorial Day weekend 1984, two students, Sabah and Barish studied all night for a final test. They wanted to put the books aside and go for a drive and have some breakfast. That was one trip that they will never forget. Approximately 3:50 to 4:00am the two students arrived at a gas station. They pulled up to a self service pump.

[Marissa Pinson]

Brad Smith is a box Elder County Deputy Attorney.

[Scott Cosgrove]

Someone came out to serve them which they thought was unusual. They were explicitly told not to go into the store and asked what they wanted. The student who was driving specifically asked for $5 in fuel and gave this attendant five $1 bills. The other student wanted cigarettes and gave him, I believe, a $5 bill. The attendant returned to the store to retrieve the cigarettes, came back out. The cigarettes came to $1 exactly, which was also odd. And four $1 bills were returned to the student. And all of a sudden they noticed wet blood transferring from this person's hands. They noticed that he had blood on his fingers and also on his shoes. Immediately they, in their words, decided they better get the hell out of there. They stopped about five or six miles down the road at the next phone booth.

[Detective]

Within five minutes, two officers arrived. The officers noticed that there was blood on the tile that led to the back room. A person was laying in a pool of blood, bound with a wire behind his back. He was deceased.

[Scott Cosgrove]

The victim had been stabbed with a foot long screwdriver that penetrated through his upper chest. There was a large cast iron bell, appeared to be hit in the side of the head with that and had a skull fracture from that. The coup de gras was a large soda canister, would weigh probably in the neighborhood of 40 pounds that was used to crush his skull.

[Detective]

A wallet in his back pocket had a driver's license id. It was quite traumatic for the officers because both officers had known the victim personally. In fact, everyone in Brigham City knew Brad Perry.

[Scott Cosgrove]

Brigham City was a small, bucolic, almost sort of a Mormon, Mayberry kind of a place. Many people were related. Everybody knew everybody.

[Detective]

The victim and his family, they're well known for being good people. Brad had everything going for him. He was engaged to be married. He worked full time, went to school. So there was a heartfelt concern for the family.

[Marissa Pinson]

Lee Perry is Brad's brother.

[Lee Perry]

Back in 1984, my mom and my little brother and myself all left on a trip to go to California and go to SeaWorld. Brad stayed behind. He would take extra shifts to the gas station, and this time he took a graveyard shift to work overnight because he was trying to save money for college and to get married.

[Marissa Pinson]

Claudia Perry is Brad's mother.

[Claudia Perry]

When we left SeaWorld, a friend of my husband came and said he had heard we were down there and he was in Southern California. So he thought he'd give me a ride back to the motel.

[Lee Perry]

We obviously didn't have cell phones back then. My dad knew we had to be notified. He said, well, I've got a friend that is a fireman down there and he could do it. We go back to the hotel. He took my mom into another room and told her that her son was dead.

[Claudia Perry]

And I said, well, what happened to him. He said, well, somebody killed him. Just like that. I just lost it.

[Lee Perry]

We started to drive toward Utah. And then I remember us on the freeway in California getting a flat tire. The worst part for me was to see my mom get out and get physically ill. I was the oldest son at that point, with my brother gone. And I just was like. As a man, I was like, I gotta protect my mom. But there was nothing I could do for her. I could just see she was physically ill. And I was thinking, wow, this is. I just couldn't even hardly fathom what I was seeing.

[Scott Cosgrove]

The two students from the gas station, Sabah and Barish, they were brought in for questioning. They had a police sketch artist who attempted to sketch the attendant that they saw come out and serve them as they were there at the gas station. Sabaa became frustrated with the sketch artist's inability to capture what he believed he saw. He's quite a good artist, and he actually sketched two sketches.

[Detective]

They were very consistent with their description of the suspect's eyes. And they talked about the emptiness looking into those eyes and how dark they were. The officers tried to get all the information on the victim and his duties at the station. They determined that it is highly possible that someone that works at the station was involved in this crime.

[Scott Cosgrove]

For example, when Barish and Sabah pull up to the gas pumps, the gas pumps have to be reset from inside the gas station. Somebody would have to know how to do that.

[Detective]

And then you have the fact the floor safe was opened up. Brad had no access to that. The only person that had a key to that floor safe was the assistant manager, Thomas Nagger. Thomas Nagor that was supposed to show up for work at 6am didn't show up. The police had the crime scene secure. They had the owner of the station there. Then they noticed that Thomas Nagger is in the background of all the people behind the tape. He didn't just come forward, which kind of brought red flags. The police described his demeanor as being nervous, kind of scared. They also noticed that the composite that the witnesses drew resembled Thomas Nagger. Police asked, Thomas, how come you didn't show up for work? He eventually said that he did oversleep, that he was at home. Brad was supposed to call him and wake him up. That didn't happen. That's why he didn't show up. In the 1980s, Speaker Print evidence was where DNA is today. The technicians that dusted for the prints told us that they could tell a fingerprint just like they recognize a face.

[Scott Cosgrove]

They brought in one of the internationally recognized fingerprint experts from West Valley city in Salt Lake, who diligently worked trying to make some sense out of the fingerprints. They had the insight to use a forensic vacuum to vacuum the fight area. And it's from that vacuuming that we were able to locate some hairs. There were hundreds of prints that were compared, and yet Tom Nagger's fingerprints weren't found.

[Detective]

Thomas Nagger's prints should be at the station. He worked there for years. They should be all over that place.

[Scott Cosgrove]

We had to release him, but Nagger was still considered a person of interest.

[Lee Perry]

It was evening when I finally pulled in my driveway, and my friends were stayed there. That was the hardest part, because then I was like, this is real.

[Claudia Perry]

When we got home, of course, everyone wanted the story. There were already newsmen here at the house. Yeah.

[Marissa Pinson]

Amy Huge is a box elder county attorney.

[Amy Huge]

My parents had been best friends with the Perrys for as long as I can remember. My father was very much involved with helping the Perrys deal with the media. The reporters would camp out on the lawn. They were like vultures. And my father would go and tell them they needed to give them space.

[Detective]

Later on that evening, officers traveling on Highway 89 noticed a male walking southbound who matched the description of the suspect that the students provided. When the officers stopped Mr. Ellsworth, they noticed blood not only on his shirt, but on his hands. Their thought was, we've got the suspect. They bring in the students who witnessed the person come out and pump the gas. Neither student said that Mr. Ellsworth was the person that came out and pumped the gas. It's disappointing. A lot of people thought they had the suspect.

[Scott Cosgrove]

There aren't enough links in that chain to make it link up.

[Claudia Perry]

We just wanted something to go forward. You keep praying something's gonna happen, and it doesn't.

[Marissa Pinson]

Two weeks after the murder, Brad is laid to rest.

[Detective]

The Perrys, after burying their son, needed to get away.

[Claudia Perry]

It helped when we went to Montana because we got away from the scene.

[Lee Perry]

The idea was to get our minds off of what had happened, hopefully, and get something more positive in our minds at that point.

[Detective]

But when they came back, they noticed that their home had been vandalized and burglarized.

[Lee Perry]

Whoever did it broke into our house, vandalized it, stole some stuff, and even went so far as to defecate in Brad's bedroom. Why would somebody do something like that?

[Claudia Perry]

I have to admit that I am the one that said, why don't you look next door? I thought Craig Martinez was involved.

[Scott Cosgrove]

Craig Martinez lived in the same neighborhood as the Perrys and was certainly not a model citizen by any one stretch of the imagination.

[Detective]

Craig Martinez did have criminal history. People that were around Craig did not want to set him off because they knew how violent he could become. The police searched Craig Martinez's bedroom. They found items from that burglary under his mattress. The crime looked highly personal. Police had some witnesses come forward who said that Craig Martinez came up to a party up above Brigham City the night of the murder with blood on his clothing.

[Marissa Pinson]

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[Detective]

In looking at Craig Martinez and the burglary at the Perry's house, the police found out that Craig Martinez was friends with Thomas Nagger. In doing several interviews, detectives determined that Thomas Nagger was dealing drugs at the gas station. In the mid-80s in that community, there was a lot of drug activity.

[Lee Perry]

I always thought the kids went to Salt Lake or the big city in Ogden or somewhere further south and they got their drugs there. To know that they were selling it out of this convenience store that people knew that's where to go buy it, that was a little bit more of a shock than I expected.

[Scott Cosgrove]

At the gas station, Craig Martinez was somehow involved with Nagger as a purchaser or otherwise involved with Nagger's drug distribution scheme. Did Brad Perry somehow become aware of the fact that Tom Nagar was dealing drugs out of the store?

[Detective]

Brad was a good kid. If somebody's breaking the law, Brad would have said something or even called the police.

[Lee Perry]

Theory came up that Brad knew something was going on and they killed him for it.

[Detective]

Brad Perry was 6:1 and he had great strength. It would have taken two people, Craig Martinez and Thomas Nagger, to do what they did to him. Craig Martinez, his nickname sums it up. They called him Monster. It's because he would lose it over nothing. We get the warrant on Craig Martinez to collect his fingerprints and to compare it with the evidence that we have.

[Scott Cosgrove]

But again, we couldn't make the link between the fingerprint evidence that could be found and a suspect at that point. There Was not enough evidence to charge either Martinez or Nagor with something related to Brad Perry's homicide. It was terribly frustrating. Everything was combed and re combed and combed again. We needed, at the very least, a witness or some evidence that would vector to a particular person. But the case was just largely at a dead end.

[Marissa Pinson]

It was a cold case for Brad's family. The pain of the loss remains fresh. They try to restore purpose to their lives without the person who held them together.

[Lee Perry]

Now we're talking two and a half, three years after the murder. Nothing's really been done.

[Claudia Perry]

We didn't think they'd probably ever solve it. We thought we just. We were through. And that's not fair. You miss Brad, whether it's cold, hot, or whatever it is, because he just was such a good person.

[Lee Perry]

I was angry and frustrated. I just kind of backed away and started to separate myself from my parents, my family.

[Claudia Perry]

Lee decided to alter his driver's license to get beer, which the LDS church does not allow.

[Lee Perry]

I was struggling. Not only that he'd been killed, but he was a good guy. And I was thinking, why would God let him die? And it was about that time when I discovered Brad's journals. As members of the church of Jesus Christ of latter day saints, we are encouraged to keep track of our history. Brad liked to write in his journal what he was thinking, what he was feeling. After high school, Brad was serving an LDS mission. On his mission, he was riding his bike and he had a terrible, terrible accident. He was in a major trauma unit down in Louisiana. He had severe facial injuries. The message I got from his journal was these things are not God's fault. They happen sometimes. These kind of things become challenges for us, and God will bless us to overcome them. And that's where the journal brought me back from a negative direction of being mad.

[Marissa Pinson]

It's now May 1995, 11 years after Brad Perry's murder.

[Detective]

Sheriff Jensen came to me and said, I know you're new in detectives, but I want to give you the Perry case. And I about fell over in my chair. I'm a spiritual person. The first thing I wanted to do is meditate with the lord. I was in my office one day, and I received an answer in my heart that this was going to be solved. I started to review the case, the photographs, fingerprints, and so on. I watched the crime scene video maybe 100 times, trying to see something that possibly we missed. We had this hair found at the scene that has been sealed and collected. What I realized was it had never been Analyzed. We needed to compare the hair at the scene to the main suspects, Craig Martinez and Thomas Nagger. We picked Thomas Nagger up on the way to the stage. He became irritated and blurted out that, why do you have me? You know, Craig Martinez killed Brad Perry.

[Marissa Pinson]

It's now March 2003, 18 years after the murder.

[Detective]

Thomas Nagar prompted me to get the warrant on Craig Martinez to collect his hair and to compare it with the hair found at the scene that's been sealed and collected.

[Lee Perry]

I get a phone call one day, a friend of mine who worked in a police department, and they say, hey, did you hear they have a suspect in your brother's murder case? That's the first time I knew they'd opened the case up. And I was like, really?

[Claudia Perry]

They weren't giving us a lot of hope. And then all of a sudden, we hear that they were going to the state prison where Craig Martinez was.

[Lee Perry]

And that's when we realized they were going after the hair on Martinez. They wouldn't be looking to match the hair if they didn't think he was a viable suspect at that point. And I'm thinking this case may actually get solved.

[Scott Cosgrove]

At the time, Craig Martinez was an inmate at the state prison.

[Detective]

The SWAT team has to bring Martinez down because of his violent history. So they bring him to me, and he is shaved completely. He turns to me, and he says, I guess you won't be getting my hairs.

[Lee Perry]

Why would you shave yourself from head to foot if you had nothing to do with this crime?

[Scott Cosgrove]

I mean, it's not like he's on the state penitentiary swim team. From a common sense perspective, who does that? Absent an intent to obstruct justice?

[Detective]

The nurse actually said, I'll find a couple. We found him, and she found two on his nipple.

[Scott Cosgrove]

Getting the hair evidence was to facilitate a hair fiber comparison.

[Lee Perry]

If that hair sample. If they can find hair on him and match those two, we might actually find out who did this. They do the hair, it doesn't match.

[Scott Cosgrove]

Now, does that logically prove Craig Martinez wasn't present? Absolutely not. It simply proves he didn't contribute that particular hair.

[Lee Perry]

We're like, okay, great. Now what?

[Detective]

At that time, I didn't feel anything but discouragement. So I said many prayers on behalf of the Perry family, and I put their name in a prayer box at the temple.

[Lee Perry]

Thank heavens that's where Amy came in.

[Amy Huge]

I wanted to try to do as much as I could for this case and for the Perrys to give them some peace. Brad would babysit for my parents when they would Go and play cards with Claudia Newell. He used to like to be the monster underneath the blanket. He'd put a big blanket over the top of him and you know, if you came anywhere near the blanket, he'd grab you and, you know, tickle you in. And he was just wonderful.

[Lee Perry]

She had gone through law school and was a lawyer.

[Amy Huge]

Approximately 18 years after Brad's death, I ran for county attorney. I just knew that it would go cold if I didn't do something. I sat down with Scott Cosgrove. I asked him, have we tested all the evidence that we have for DNA? And he told me no.

[Scott Cosgrove]

At that point in time, DNA testing was in its very beginning stages in the state of Utah. And they were pretty parsimonious with their willingness to test things. We had to go to our county commission to get some additional funding and Amy facilitated those additional funds. The results from the DNA testing are reported to us. All of the DNA related evidence was Brad Perry's blood.

[Amy Huge]

It was incredibly discouraging for me, frankly. We didn't really have anything to be able to move forward on a trial.

[Detective]

And that's when I remember there's one last thing to be reject the blood on the dollar bill.

[Scott Cosgrove]

All these years, the dollar bill had been stored at the state crime lab, preserved in their freezers.

[Detective]

The state crime lab tried to convince me that the blood on the dollar bill was a victim's. And I said, well, okay, if it is, it is. But this piece we know that the suspect handled and it's been in your custody ever since. Month or two went by and that's when I received the call.

[Amy Huge]

Scott tells me that we had a hit, but the name he gave was somebody we had never even heard of.

[Detective]

Who the hell is Glenn Griffin? So I immediately did all the research on who is this guy.

[Scott Cosgrove]

Mr. Griffin at the time was in federal custody in Lompoc, California, serving time for operating a clandestine meth lab. He'd been in and out of jail and prison for almost all of his adult life. We immediately get a hold of Griffin's probation records so we can start to build a sense of who his friends are, who his family are. That's how we located his mother.

[Detective]

I'm driving over the hill to Hiram, not far from Brigham City. That's where Glenn's parents live. I meet with them and I just asked them to tell me about Glenn. The mother said that they had problems with him as he grew up. He was acting out, stealing money out of the till at the store, harming animals. And I asked for photos of him in 1984 to compare it with a suspect sketch. It was an exact match. However, I was convinced that Glenn didn't do this alone. And I asked who he associated with, and she said that he was always with his buddy, Wade Maughan. They got into criminal activity and drugs together. She explained Glenn was the leader. He often threatened Wade or made fun of Wade. So Wade was kind of a follower. Wade was the weak link. And if anybody would give me good information, it would be Wade.

[Lee Perry]

Just after Brad's death, Wade moves to Spokane, Washington, and doesn't come back.

[Detective]

Based on that information, I traveled to Spokane. Spokane police said that Wade was a witness in another investigation. So I said, can we use that to get Wade to your police department where we could interview him? And they said, sure.

[Scott Cosgrove]

Okay.

[Detective]

So we got your permission to record this. Okay. And that's when we said, wade, this is not about that incident that occurred here in Spokane. This is about the murder of Brad Perry in 1984. This is the crime we're talking about. Oh, my God, Wade, I can't express this enough. You've got to be open and honest with us. So what happened when you got him in the back room? At first, Wade didn't want to talk.

[Scott Cosgrove]

Look at this kid.

[Marissa Pinson]

He's 22 years old.

[Scott Cosgrove]

He had a fiance.

[Detective]

He had his whole life in front.

[Scott Cosgrove]

Of him, and somebody snuffed it out.

[Detective]

But then we got into the conversation, and I says, wade, Glenn is being released from federal prison. And you could see the blood just drain from his face. And so now. Now I'm starting to think about that night, early in the morning.

[Lee Perry]

You know, I did.

[Detective]

I do remember this. Wade was at the station with Glenn, and they got in an argument with Brad over beer.

[Scott Cosgrove]

The dispute arose over change that Mr. Griffin was supposedly entitled to.

[Detective]

Brad told them to leave the station immediately. So Glenn became irritated and confronted Brad. They got in an argument. Glenn went berserk.

[Scott Cosgrove]

It became violent. It escalated into a physical altercation in the front of the store. As that's occurring, the students show up out front. Glen goes out.

[Detective]

At that point, Brad was still alive.

[Scott Cosgrove]

Glenn comes back inside the gas station. Brad is taken in the back.

[Detective]

Glenn tortured him, and then he killed Brad Perry. And I says, wade, I understand a lot of that. It's being truthful. However, there's no way Glenn did this on his own. And he said this, and I'll never forget it. That was on the guy's leg.

[Marissa Pinson]

He's holding him.

[Scott Cosgrove]

Holding my legs, holding him down.

[Detective]

All I did was help tie him up and keep him down, he said. Once Glenn goes off, I can't stop him. Are you scared of Glenn?

[Scott Cosgrove]

Yeah.

[Detective]

Okay, real scared. The county attorney said that Glenn will be on a bus Monday because he's being released.

[Scott Cosgrove]

There was a short clock. We were under a stopwatch because if he's released, we knew that he would disappear and we would never be able to find him.

[Marissa Pinson]

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[Scott Cosgrove]

We knew that Mr. Griffin was due to be released from federal custody in the next several days. And so Cosgrove immediately went down to interview Mr. Griffin.

[Detective]

When I first meet Mr. Griffin, I immediately see those dark, beady eyes that the witnesses described. And I knew at that point. We have the person that killed Brad Perry. He was familiar with the station where Brad worked, but he claimed that he's never been to that station. That's when I told him we had a hit on his DNA on a bloody dollar bill that came from the crime scene. I said, how do you explain that?

[Scott Cosgrove]

His claim was that his blood must have got on a dollar bill because he was always cutting his hand at work, and then it would have passed in the stream of commerce to the gas station.

[Detective]

And at that point, he stopped talking.

[Amy Huge]

We knew the case was going to be difficult to prosecute as it was because it's 30 years old. And so we needed evidence that was beyond a reasonable doubt.

[Detective]

We did have what Griffin's buddy Wade Maughan told us about what happened that night, but he feared Glenn.

[Scott Cosgrove]

Even though Wade Maughan was granted immunity, he nevertheless refused to testify. At this point, we know we have substantial evidentiary problems we need to look at. What do we have that could help us place Mr. Griffin at the gas station?

[Detective]

We still had the hairs that were found around the crime scene.

[Scott Cosgrove]

As we're proceeding to trial, the opportunity came up to have the mitochondrial DNA tested, which was a brand new technology, had never been used in the Utah court. And we were able to compare the hairs with Mr. Griffin's DNA, and we.

[Detective]

Have a DNA match.

[Scott Cosgrove]

That, to me, made an absolutely ironclad, unanswerable case. He might be able to explain why his blood was on the dollar bill. He might have been able to explain why his hairs were in that store. He certainly could not explain both of them at the same time together with the drawing in a way that was anything other than he, in fact, murdered Brad Perry.

[Marissa Pinson]

In 2008, Glenn Griffin was found guilty of first degree murder. He was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

[Scott Cosgrove]

Mr. Griffin's friend, Wade Maughan was tried, and the jury found him not guilty. That was a grave disappointment to me, but I respect the jury's role in this case.

[Marissa Pinson]

Despite the acquittal of Wade Maughan, the conviction of Glenn Griffin gives the Perry family some closure and helps heal a wound left open for 24 years.

[Detective]

I was satisfied that this was solved I'm convinced that Brad was with me on this journey and he wanted me to find some peace for his family.

[Claudia Perry]

What has helped me probably the most is the gospel is the church I belong to. I feel that Brad's fine. He's just onto another sphere and I feel like I'll see him again because.

[Lee Perry]

Of Brad and because of his death. I think it led me to where I'm at and allowed me to do the things I've been able to do. I became a law enforcement officer to protect good, law abiding citizens from being hurt from people who are doing bad things. And that's what I do every day when I go out and do my job. Try to find the Glenn Griffins of the world.

[Detective]

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