The Deck

In late June 1987, the town of Bemidji, Minnesota, was gearing up for Independence Day weekend. Celebrations quickly turned to panic when Anita Carlson, a college graduate with hopes of working in TV production, went missing from her nighttime job at Pete’s Place, a convenience store at the intersection of Highways 2 and 89. By the end of the weekend, Anita had been found dead. Nearly 40 years later, investigators are still trying to figure out what happened that night.

On August 6, 1989, Rosa McMillian was found murdered inside that home. She had been brutally attacked—and sexually assaulted—in her own living room. The crime scene didn't make sense, and a few mysterious items were left behind by whoever killed Rosa. Something else left behind? The killer's DNA. In most cases, that would be enough to close the books. But in Rosa’s case…DNA isn’t what brought answers. In fact, it’s the opposite…and the one thing that would keep a solve out of reach.

In February 2013, 21-year-old Kelsie Schelling had just learned she was eight weeks pregnant. Hours after her first prenatal appointment, she drove from Denver to Pueblo - and was never seen again. Kelsie’s body has never been found. But years later, someone was convicted of her murder. How do investigators build a case without a body? And after more than a decade, is there still a chance of finding Kelsie?

There is a man serving a life sentence in a Florida prison for his part in the 1989 murder of a 29-year-old pregnant woman named Donna Callahan. Two brothers were ultimately convicted for her abduction – and each of them pointed to the other as the ultimate preparator. But only one of them would go on to confess to over a dozen other murders. That man is now considered, by some, to be one of the deadliest killers on Florida’s Gulf Coast. And if his original confessions are to be believed, then not one, but two Fort Walton Beach cases could be closed. Right now, one detective is making it his mission to find out once and for all: Can he prove Mark Riebe is the serial killer everyone thinks he is? And was he–or someone else entirely–responsible for the murders of Ronda Taylor and Bonnie Ryther?