The Lake Erie Murders

We're talking about rewards on this program and how

you might be able to help with some unsolved crime.

This is judy gifford, and this is a home video

of her now five-year-old daughter, kali.

Kali disappeared on her tricycle in may.

She was playing in front of her home, america.

Narrator: On the banks of the erie canal,

a child goes missing.

kali, if you can hear me, this is daddy.

- We love you, and... - We love you, baby girl.

- We want you home. - Come home.

He wanted her.

And he stole her.

Narrator: Across town, a beloved grandmother

is found brutally murdered.

No, please don't!

He did things to her that we're just despicable.

Can police stop a ruthless predator

before he kills again?

narrator: It's 1988,

and just along the banks of the erie canal

is the small, tight-knit community of hilton, new york.

It was a really nice, quaint town that you would --

you would want to bring your family up in.

Everyone knows everyone.

Confer: We've all been raised here.

Our whole family has gone to hilton schools,

right back to my mother.

80 years ago, she went to hilton schools.

So, uh, you know, we're all from here.

My grandmother and my grandfather bought

a house in hilton along the lake.

I can certainly remember going to my grandmother's house,

and it seemed like there was constant parties,

and the holidays were always full.

She was always either cooking or feeding

or taking care of us.

There we go!

Sulimowicz: She had a lot of different recipes, you know,

she used to make anything from apple pies

to lemon meringue pies to chocolate pies.

They were soooo good.

I was very close with my grandmother.

She was an amazing listener.

We would just talk about everything.

She was always there for me

when I needed her.

Narrator: In 1979, viola's husband passes away.

As the years go by, she is determined

to spend all the time she can with her grandchildren.

Confer: My grandmother lived alone in an apartment.

She enjoyed family time for sure.

It got her out of the house.

She didn't really like being alone in the apartment.

Narrator: Over the years,

viola becomes well known in the local community

as a friendly, independent,

and strong-willed woman.

Confer: I would go visit her, and she'd get on

the back with a motorcycle and take a ride along the lake.

You don't hear a whole lot about grandmothers that are

74 years old that want to take a ride on a motorcycle.

I think she liked to do it just to show that she still

could do it sometimes, um,

but always enjoyed herself.

Narrator: Viola's apartment complex backs onto

an abandoned railroad line that once ran through hilton.

On the morning of November 29, 1988,

the 74-year-old leaves to take

her daily two-mile walk along the trail

that runs next to the tracks.

Sulimowicz: She walked where she felt that she was most of peace,

where she could be herself, do her own thinking.

That was part of her --

her routine, her daily routine.

Narrator: Viola's family talk to her every day,

but no one has been able to reach her

since the night before,

and her neighbors haven't seen her all day.

Answering machine: Please leave your message.

woman: Mom, please call me when you get this.

My mom gave her a call, and there was no answer.

Narrator: At 4:30 p.M.,

her granddaughter, susan,

heads to viola's apartment to check on her.

My gran, she always wore her reading glasses,

and what's in my memory is seeing that chair there

with that day's newspaper and her glasses right --

right there on the chair.

I mean, she just left everything as it was.

Where was she?

As the hours pass by without a word,

viola's family are increasingly worried.

Then, a mile down the road,

a duck hunter makes a horrific discovery.

the, uh, deputies in the area were the first ones to respond.

Very secluded area along the railroad tracks.

We looked out there at the crime scene

and evaluated what we had.

When the sheriff's office first arrives,

the only thing that I think can be concluded is that

the woman was obviously beaten to death.

Narrator: The body is too badly injured

for police to identify the victim.

She had some defensive wounds on her arms that indicated

that she had fought back or attempted to fight back.

She's wearing one earring.

The other earring seems to be missing.

She had a jacket on, but her jacket was pulled up.

Her shirt was pulled up.

She was partially naked.

Her pants were removed...

And discarded in the bushes.

Given the state of the clothing,

this was a possible sexual assault case.

The sheriff's department collect a...

Piece off a handle that appears to have been

broken off bb gun.

They don't actually find a gun,

but they've got this handle piece,

and it appears to have some blood on it.

There are a number of other items that

have blood on them, as well.

There's a railroad tie, viola manville's jeans,

her jacket,

and they collect up everything that

could possibly be a piece of evidence.

narrator: With still no sign of viola,

her family call the local police.

When we called in to let police know

that she was missing...

there was a report of a hunter

finding a body on the railroad tracks,

and he wasn't sure, they don't know

if it's her yet, but I should come.

Narrator: Viola's family immediately drive over

to the coroner's office.

My father went in first to try to identify her.

He was unable to conclusively say

that was her because of the brutality of it.

I was able to recognize her teeth being crisscrossed,

and that was how I was able to tell that was her.

If there's one thing that sticks in my mind,

it's that she was not recognizable.

Sulimowicz: I was in disbelief.

All of our family was in disbelief.

It was just like...

A punch to the gut that I can't even describe, um...

It was horrible.

One of worst days of my life.

How could someone do that to someone

who just minds her own business, does what she's supposed to do,

loves her life, loves her family.

How do you do that to someone?

Narrator: Investigators hope viola's autopsy will

provide critical information about her killer.

The autopsy report reveals that miss manville

was shot twice

with a bb gun, once just behind a ear,

once near the eye.

She had many injuries that were

indicative of a very severe beating,

and she passed away as a result of that beating.

Narrator: Despite being found partially nude,

the pathologist finds no evidence of sexual assault.

There was -- there was no semen to subject to dna testing,

no fingerprints on the bb gun,

and the clothes weren't tested, because you did not have

the sophisticated ability to pull evidence from clothing,

the touch-type dna as they call it now --

that just didn't exist then.

Narrator: Unable to draw anything concrete

from the physical evidence,

the police have no idea who the killer might be,

but viola's family do.

Three years earlier, I had asked my gram if she

wanted to go to the shopping with me, to the mall.

I could tell that she -- something had upset her.

Something was not right.

I could tell that she had been --

that she had been crying,

and I said, "gram," I said, "something's going on.

"what is going on? You seem sad.

Why are you crying?"

narrator: But susan could never have prepared herself for

what her grandmother was about to tell her.

And what she said to me, I'll never forget

as long as I live.

That morning, she had been on her walk.

She said that there was this -- this man.

Then he saw my grandmother, and he approached her.

And then he attacked her.

He sexually assaulted her.

He did things to her,

um, you know, that were just despicable.

Before he left her, he said to her, if you ever tell anyone...

I will kill you.

Narrator: 74-year-old viola manville

has been brutally murdered

not far from the banks of the erie canal.