David Reichert arrived at a routine report of two bodies floating in the Green River. When he got down on his hands and knees to push through the tall grass, he came face to face with a third. Three women, one crime scene: Marcia Chapman, Cynthia Hines, and Opal Mills.
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At 12:37 · chapter starts 11:54
Three days after finding Deborah Bonner, a rubber raft treasure hunter on the Green River came upon two nude women half-submerged along the bank. He spotted a young man on the shore who waved politely, then walked to a pickup truck and drove away. When Reichert arrived and walked the banks himself — crawling through tall weeds on his hands and knees — he came face to face with a third body: a teenage girl, partially dressed, her pants tied around her neck in the same fashion as Wendy Coffield's. The three victims were identified as 31-year-old Marcia Chapman, 17-year-old Cynthia Hines, and 16-year-old Opal Mills. At a press conference the following day, officials confirmed to the public that one suspect was likely responsible for all five deaths, making it official: there was a serial killer on the loose in the Tacoma area.
Reichert had barely begun following up on the lead about Deborah Bonner's boyfriend when the next report came in — not just one body this time, but two. Then a third in the weeds. The killer was moving faster than any task force could track.
A man treasure hunting in a rubber raft on the Green River suddenly found two half-submerged women along the bank. He also spotted a young man on shore who waved politely — then walked to his pickup and drove away.
On August 15, 1982, Detective David Reichert discovered three women's bodies at a single location along the Green River banks.
Stricter enforcement against sex workers in the Tacoma region made them far less likely to report assaults or cooperate with police, increasing their vulnerability.
A man used ChatGPT as a de facto lawyer, sharing self-incriminating details in his chats. When the transcripts were subpoenaed, the judge ruled no attorney-client privilege applied and admitted the chats as evidence against him. AI first passes are useful — treating AI as your counsel is dangerous.
CIA operative Edwin Wilson armed Muammar Gaddafi with 10,000 machine guns and 20 tons of C4 hidden in barrels of mud and flew them to Libya himself. He was sentenced to 52 years and served 12 in solitary. He was also a founder of the same arms network Oliver North contracted for the Contras.
Kim Dotcom's legal nightmare had nothing to do with copyright infringement. He donated to WikiLeaks and Julian Assange — and the US government charged him under RICO statutes, seeking 186 years in prison as payback.
More than a decade after his indictment, the US is still trying to extradite Kim Dotcom from New Zealand — even after he suffered a stroke. He cannot be convinced the authorities are on his side; only the legal process, run by his lawyers, keeps him free.
The illegal wildlife trade and the drug trade aren't just parallel industries — they actively overlap. Smugglers force-fed cocaine to boa constrictors to evade customs, packed drugs beneath layers of live animals in crates with spitting cobras on top, and exploited the chronic under-resourcing of US Fish and Wildlife inspection teams.
Mario Tabraue was sentenced to over 100 years in prison for murder and drug trafficking. He served 12. Nobody — not even the DEA agent who put him there — knows why he got out. That agent, Larry Lovelace, now lives in rural West Virginia with a gun within reach every night, still expecting retaliation.
Anson Wong from Malaysia was the Pablo Escobar of the global reptile trade, supplying rare animals — including Komodo dragons — to buyers across the world. He was caught in a sting, extradited to the US, and served the longest wildlife crime sentence at the time. The animals seized from him went on to stock some of America's biggest zoos.
Zelig Williams landed a role in Hamilton at just 19 while still in college — a rare achievement in a world where most Broadway dreams die young. By 28 he was a veteran ready to mentor the next generation, until he disappeared without a trace on October 3, 2024.
Season 5 of Dateline: Missing in America brings six new unsolved mysteries. The show is explicitly asking listeners to engage — because a detail someone remembers might be the break investigators need.
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