Buried In The Backyard

In the fall of 1982, a terrifying scene

awaits Ohio investigators in a backyard cornfield.

We weren't expecting a torso.

A body?

Yes. But a torso?

Wow.

It's the first in a series

of unspeakable discoveries.

The remaining body parts were buried all over

the cornfield.

Just horrendous.

Who has fallen prey to this atrocious crime?

The first thing you think of,

it's got to be them.

And what kind of killer is lurking

in this small Midwestern town?

A lot of people thought that there was some kind

of satanic cult going on.

This is someone we knew,

someone our brother had trusted.

A final dark twist no one saw coming.

We thought a killer was released from prison.

People were very scared.

They were afraid of what might happen next.

I can't believe they're letting him go.

A nightmare come to life.

Thirty minutes from the state capital

of Columbus, Ohio, the small town of Logan

is a step back to simpler times.

It's your typical small town.

Industrial. A lot of factories

and fabrication.

It's a good place to raise a family.

When, we were, younger,

we'd take off in the morning and then we'd come back at night

when we're supposed to be home.

It's a tight-knit community,

population almost 7,000,

it's the, gateway to Southeastern Ohio

where most of the crossroads come through Logan.

Everybody is friendly

and, if somebody needed help,

then they were all there to-- to give a hand.

Didn't lock the doors.

You know, you didn't have to worry.

Even the happiest small town

is certain to have a dark underbelly.

And for the last week, investigators have been

searching for clues to unearth one of Logan's

most horrific tragedies.

We all met there about 9:30

on that Saturday morning.

The police department,

we set up a small, command post

near the cornfield.

The search party was organized,

broken down into groups,

and some go into the cornfield

and another team behind them

is looking at the river.

Now, we were only into that search

not even a half hour

when a couple of people come running back

and one of our officers said they spotted something

down in the river.

Will Logan's most terrifying mystery

unravel in this backyard cornfield?

That smell of the fall always kind of brings me back

to '82.

You're talking the middle of October now.

You're coming up to Halloween, Beggars' Night.

The atmosphere was festive.

A lot of people came out to the cornfield.

It was kind of in the middle of the town.

The cornfield was like the little town's backyard

because a lot of activity took place down there.

People went down there to party, and also hunt,

and fish, and-- and target shoot.

Kids could go play along the river,

or they're throwing corn stalks in the river,

or rocks.

Nobody spends more time

walking through these majestic fields

than popular town couple,

19-year-old Todd Schultz

and 18-year-old Annette Cooper.

Todd met Annette at Tri-County High School

and they struck up a friendship,

but then the next thing you know,

they're-- they're going together and dating.

They mostly went for walks,

down the railroad tracks

and over into the field.

They were lovey-dovey.

Todd and Annette couldn't keep their hands off

of each other. I mean,

they were always holding hands

or he had his arm around her.

You knew they were a couple.

There wasn't any question about it.

They were close.

After graduation, the couple becomes closer still

when Annette moves in with Todd and his family.

Sometime in the fall of 1982,

Annette moved in to my mom's house.

Todd and my brother, Eric, shared a bedroom.

And Annette shared the bedroom with my sister.

They were planning to move in together.

They were looking for a place.

On this October afternoon,

the typically doting teens

get into it about something.

Annette was talking to Todd upstairs

and suddenly she comes downstairs

and-- and she just walked out the front door.

Todd went after her.

He caught up with her

and he waved at me like,

"Don't worry about it.

It'll be fine."

When dawn breaks the following day,

the Schultz home is eerily quiet.

It was about 6:00 in the morning.

I walked upstairs, looked in Todd's room.

I noticed his bed was made but hadn't been slept in.

I noticed that Annette's bed was unslept in as well.

So, I went to my mom and I said,

"Hey, mom. Todd and Annette

didn't come home last night."

It didn't make any sense,

and he wouldn't have gone

without saying something to somebody.

I just was racking my brain

to think of things that could've happened to him.

It was not like Todd to just up and leave

and not let someone know where he was.

Just not come home,

was not like him.

I called Annette's mother

and, asked her if she had seen them.

And she said no.

Annette's mother was concerned

about where they could be,

and why they wouldn't be contacting anyone.

Their worry rising,

Todd's family calls and reports the teens missing.

We ask the Schultzes, "Was there anything missing?

Did it look like they had packed up,

you know, going away for the weekend?"

We thought that because they had been going

together for quite a while.

And they just might decided

to go get a justice of the peace

and get married.

We knew better.

We knew Todd wouldn't even run off

to elope without telling somebody

that he was leaving, or why he was leaving.

It wasn't his character to do that.

And I said, "Why would he go on foot

when he has two cars sitting here,"

you know?

So I didn't put any credence in anything they were saying.

The day they went missing,

my mom tried to call as many people as she could

to try to find out if they knew where he might be

or might've gone.

I was pulling my hair out

trying to figure out where they could be.

We had tip lines set up at both the sheriff's office

and police department that people could call

to offer any tips

or assistance to us.

With each tip,

investigators start piecing together

a timeline of where and when the couple was last seen.

Reports started coming in

that they had been seen previously,

walking down Gallagher Avenue

with a couple of blankets, a pillow, and a boom box.

One can kind of assume from that

that they were walking to the cornfield

and that they were gonna enjoy each other's company.

The station is flooded with calls.

Then a sudden lead puts investigators

on high alert.

Someone that lived close to the cornfield

reported gunshots

and the girl screaming.

The first thing you think of,

it's got to be them,

Todd and Annette.

At that point, we did not know

if Todd and Annette were dead or alive.

The first head that we pulled out,

she had blue eyes

and blonde hair.

There was some cult activity

practicing out in the woods.

Maybe it was some sort of a--