Woman: hi. We can't come to the phone right now,
but leave a message, and we'll call you back.
Have a blessed day.
Man: hey, mom, it's me.
Just wanted to say happy mother's day.
It was very scary not knowing why and what happened.
Pattison: is this just the tip of the iceberg?
Are we gonna have more phone calls from around the neighborhood
that someone else can't reach their mom
or someone else didn't show up to work?
This person or people are on the loose.
Why are they killing people? Are they gonna stop?
It was really devastating, and it still is.
It never goes away.
It always hurts.
I wanted to kill that son of a bitch.
Man: okay. Um, I love you, mom. Bye.
Captions by vitac... www.Vitac.Com.
Captions paid for by discovery communications
narrator: the day starts out like any other.
In this peaceful town outside of Reno.
But then a call comes in to 911.
There's been a fire.
And damage to a truck gives investigators
reason to believe this isn't an accident.
There was indications... The way the fire burned...
That there was intense heat around the vehicle.
And didn't really find any ignition sources
that would have caused that.
You smell that?
I had some gut feelings
that something was really wrong with this situation.
When it comes to an arson, when you suspect it,
what would drive somebody to do something so destructive?
Why?
Narrator: with the fire in the garage under control,
chief Huntley searches the seemingly deserted home.
Huntley: i found the home in disarray.
It just looked like somebody left in a hurry.
It was definitely suspicious.
Dickson: when you find a dead body.
That has unusual circumstances,
you don't know what trauma caused their death.
If there's a structure fire,
you automatically believe that this is all related
and this is one incident, part of a chain.
Pattison: when the phone call came in.
That we have a house on fire and a homicide scene,
we immediately responded.
We don't average very many homicides in Lyon county.
Looks like two shots each,
one to the head, one to the chest.
We just have to kind of let the evidence tell us the story.
There's usually three motives for homicide...
Sex, money, or revenge.
Narrator: the victims are Robert and Dorothy pape,
and even early in the investigation,
detectives have a theory.
Pattison: someone was obviously looking for something.
Dues: a very large jewelry chest was pushed away from the wall,
which probably weighed in excess of 100 pounds.
Okay. jewelry box, money.
Now you start thinking burglary gone bad.
Narrator: while detectives piece together.
What happened at the papes' house,
Robert and Dorothy's loved ones get the devastating news.
Terry: I come screaming up this driveway,
and this cop comes running out to me,
and he says, "this is a crime scene.
You need to move this car."
And I... we stood there and argued for about...
I don't know... Three or four minutes.
And finally he says, "we have two victims inside."
We believe them to be Robert and Dorothy pape.
At first, I didn't believe it, and then it dawned on me,
and then I just... My knees buckled.
I just fell apart.
Narrator: Dorothy and Robert pape.
Met 64 years earlier
when they both worked in a factory.
Robert: my dad was there on his forklift,
and she came up to him and goes,
"can I have a ride on that thing?"
And he goes, "yeah, jump on."
So they went around the factory with it.
And then that night, they went out to dinner,
and ever since then, they've been together.
Terry: unwavering devotion,
each to the other.
It was unspoken.
It didn't need to be demonstrated.
But if you were to watch them together,
um, she would have...
Given her life for her son or her husband.
64 years.
Everywhere they went, they were always together.
Never failed.
And some son of a bitch takes it away?
Narrator: the papes were gunned down in their own home.
Within a tight-knit neighborhood.
We enact a neighborhood canvass.
We pool resources from the entire county.
I don't think there was a cop on that morning
that didn't respond to fernley from anywhere in the county.
Basically, the houses there are so close together,
they figured that someone had to see or hear something
that would lead them to the killer,
so they just started going door to door.
Did you see anyone coming or going from the papes
that didn't belong,
anything that didn't seem right to you?
I saw smoke coming from the papes' garage.
I ran back inside my place and dialed 911.
Okay, but no people,
not even one person that looked out of place?
No, nothing.
Farley: they just kind of struck out here.
They went door to door.
They were asking neighbors if they had seen anything.
People said they didn't see or hear
anything out of the ordinary,
just the smoke, so really this was just a bust.
Man: I'm coming back.
Narrator: with no known witness,
investigators turn their focus back to the burned-out truck.
It was odd to have a cab full of newspapers.
Dues: you know, does it belong here?
Does it not belong here? Is it a clue?
Is it something we need to collect?
But this vehicle's been burned so badly,
I don't have a v.I.N.
Can you run a plate for me?
It's Nevada. Csu-6679.
You sure?
Farley: the truck did not belong to the papes.
It belonged to elliezear Graham,
and Graham is someone that police know all too well.
What was the charge?
Narrator: elliezear Graham has a long criminal history,
and he spent the past several years behind bars.
Now we realize that we may have somebody on the loose.
We knew we needed to find this person
before we had more bodies.
How many more are out there?
We've got a suspect on the run.
What is it?
Ma'am, I need you to get back in your car right now!
Narrator: in fernley, Nevada, Robert and Dorothy pape.
Are gunned down in what looks like a botched burglary...
Leaving everyone in their tight-knit neighborhood
in shock.
Super-nice neighbors. Just the quietest people in the world.
He owned several acres, so he was out there
every day working on his property.
He lived to work on his property every day.
Every single day, he was up with the birds.
Super-nice guy. He always waved, "hi, hello."
Brought me watermelons that he grew in the fall
and that, you know?
It's just hard to grasp right now that someone murdered them.
Farley: this is something that, in a small town,
you look at and you believe will never happen to you.
And here they were dealing with the fact
that there was this violent killer on the loose.
And obviously everyone was just completely frightened.
Narrator: and now there's a new and strange piece.
Of the puzzle... The truck found torched
in the papes' garage isn't theirs.
It belongs to a man named elliezear Graham.
One of the initial things that we learned about elliezear
is that he's a convicted person in the state of Nevada.
Narrator: and Graham's job piques the detectives' interest.
As it progressed, we started to really see
the depth of the situation
and find out that he did a paper route.
I remember hearing that and saying,
"it is related. It's all part of this."
Immediately, i suspected foul play.
It looked like somebody had stuffed paper everywhere,
newspapers in the truck itself.
Man: hey. It's me.
I'm on my way back from Reno.
Caldwell: we do have a regional offender notification unit.
That goes out and does face-to-face checks
with their clients just to make sure
they're abiding by all the conditions
that they might be subject to when they're released.
Mr. Graham, come to the door, please!
Mr. Graham!
Farley: so, now they have a person.
Who could be key in solving this... Eli Graham.
But Eli Graham is missing, and at the time,
I don't think anyone thought this was just a coincidence.
Female operator: 911. Where is your emergency?
I'm at the i-80 mustang exit.
The mustang exit... It's a pretty popular exit,
as far as being known
because you can say to anybody in town,
"mustang ranch,"
and that's a brothel that's out in that area.
So that's what it's kind of known for.
Farley: it's really a service road.
It's pretty remote, and there's only one
convenience store there in the area.
- You called 911? - It's probably nothing.
It just seemed weird, all these papers blowing around
and no one in that truck.
She saw what she described as a bunch of newspapers
she believed was suspicious.
Okay. you stay put. I'll have a look around.
It's stuck, even though it's a four-wheel-drive vehicle.
Dispatch, I'm responding to the scene, i-80 at the mustang exit.
Need a trace run... Nevada tag, 8-5-hotel-6-Victor-2-zero.
Over.
Man: that's a 2010 dodge 2500 belonging to
Dorothy and Robert pape sr. Of fernley.
Can you repeat that?
That pickup is registered to Dorothy and Robert pape.
I don't know. He just told me to stay here.
I told you... I don't know.
Let me call you back.
What is it?!
Ma'am, I need you to get back in your car right now!
Dispatch, I need a backup. I-80 at the mustang exit.
Dickson: he called for every available detective to respond.
We didn't know if it was a murder.
We didn't know what was going on.
He had suffered some pretty massive trauma
to most of his body...
Something that would be consistent
with an assault on him with a vehicle.
Frankel: you're looking at this thing, going,
"did somebody hit this guy?"
Since the brothel was close,
a lot of people drive out of there...
They've probably been drinking. Maybe they hit him.
We have a major interstate that he's next to.
Is this a body dump or what?
Terry: never in our wildest imagination.
Would we have thought that Bob's truck
is sitting out on mustang at a murder scene.
Never in a million years.
Man: hey. It's me.
Dispatch, I've got positive I.D. On a victim.
Man: go ahead.
Last name, Graham. First name elliezear.
Frankel: automatically you're thinking,
"okay, something is going on here
more than we're seeing right here."
Obviously we were very interested
in finding out whatever information
they had at that fire as soon as possible.
Dues: you have elliezear Graham in the papes' truck.
And elliezear Graham's truck at the papes' house.
I could have easily put elliezear Graham
coming to Robert and Dorothy pape's house,
killing them, swapping vehicles, starting a fire.
The problem is elliezear Graham is my second victim.
The papes didn't kill him,
and he doesn't appear that he killed the papes.
We have to figure out this new dynamic in the case.
Narrator: with a new victim in this killing spree,
investigators hope they may also find
some new leads from the victim's family.
Ramirez-Diaz: my son actually called me at work.
He's like, "yeah, we're in the parking lot. Can we come?"
I'm like, "okay, fine. I'll come down."
And so in the parking lot, my son...
He told me...
That Ellie had been killed.
Narrator: elliezear Graham.
Was one of seven kids in the Graham family.
They all lived together on a farm in mustang, Nevada.
And though he had served time in prison,
his family believed elliezear had turned a corner.
Roseanna: he felt that he needed to make up for that lost time.
And make sure we were okay
and spend that quality time that we needed.
You can do wrong. You can make mistakes.
And if you do the right thing and make the right changes
and atone for your sins,
only god can judge you.
Narrator: police question Graham's family and friends,
looking for any lead on who would want him dead
and whether he has any connections to the papes.
Did your brother ever mention anyone named pape?
No. I mean, I don't think so.
Bob, Dorothy, an older couple?
Not to me, he didn't.
Do you have any idea who might have done this?
I got an idea, yeah.
Frank... our brother.
I thought my brother frank had killed him.
The psychological damage and the things that I witnessed
from the time of my brother's demise
were things that I only thought were in the movies.
Farley: things like this just don't happen in fernley.
It is a quiet town.
There is virtually almost no crime,
let alone a violent crime like this.
So, as you can imagine, people were just
on the edge of their seats, worried,
scared that there was a violent killer out there.
This much violence in such a short period of time...
It was really a blow to their sense of community,
their sense of safety.
You don't comprehend
that kind of sorrow and suffering
until it happens to you.
Dues: we've got a suspect on the run.
Do we have somebody on a rampage?
Do we have a serial killer?
We didn't know what was going on.
You're looking at just two points on a line,
but you don't know what the connection is.
Narrator: and now a new and baffling.
Piece of the puzzle emerges.
Graham's family claims they know who killed elliezear.
Ramirez-Diaz: I thought my brother frank had killed him.
Him and frank have been going at it for years.
Frank... every time he seen Ellie,
he just wanted to kill him.
Narrator: and it's more than a family hunch.
Frankel: they had some sort of dispute.
Within a few weeks of this incident,
where the brother may have tried
to run Mr. Graham over with a vehicle.
So, you have Mr. Graham deceased in the roadway,
you know, it obviously raises a question,
and this is somebody we need to talk to.
Man: hey, man. Can you help me out?
Narrator: investigators try tracking down frank Graham,
starting at his house.
Kdu-4879.
That's frank.
Let's see what he has to say for himself.
Frankel: you really have to look into him.
And make sure that he was telling the truth
about whatever it is he's saying.
Frank!
Frank! fernley police! We just want to talk to you.
Frank? frank!
- Downstairs is clear. - Up here, too.
Let's take a look at that truck.
Ellie Graham was shot and run over,
so any suspect that police were gonna look at at this point,
they really needed to look at their vehicle.
Was there any dent?
Was there any blood, any scratches,
any sign that it may have been involved
in some sort of accident?
Right there.
Yeah, I see it.
Narrator: finding frank Graham.
Is now investigators' number-one priority.
The following morning,
detectives receive autopsy results for the papes,
and they take everyone by surprise.
It's not what we thought.
They were dead for three days before the fire was set.
Whoever did this obviously came back to the crime scene.
Dues: why do criminals set fires?
"I need to get rid of any evidence in this house.
I'm gonna get caught."
So you come back later, and you try to burn all the evidence down.
Narrator: the papes' time of death.
Was not the only new lead to come out of the autopsy.
The coroner also determines what weapon the killer used.
Pattison: both Dorothy and Robert pape.
Had been shot in the head from a .22-caliber gun.
Narrator: the autopsy also reveals.
It's the same caliber weapon that killed elliezear Graham.
Man: I'm coming back. I've got to, man.
There's no...
There is a clearer sense of urgency
to discover who did this.
Narrator: police had searched for frank Graham,
elliezear Graham's brother, and come up empty.
But the next day, investigators get an unexpected visitor.
You were looking for me. I'm here.
I suppose this had something to do with what happened to Ellie.
"What happened"?
What "happened" was he was murdered
a week after you tried to kill him.
Frank ran Ellie over with dad's tow truck.
And then the last incident
where the police were called was the shootings.
Me and my brother didn't get along,
but I had nothing to do with his murder.
And that's between me and my brother.
Not anymore.
Narrator: but little did police know,
just as they're turning up the heat on frank Graham,
another piece of the puzzle is about to be revealed
in the form of another horrifying scene.
"Somebody's going around murdering people."
Narrator: mother's day weekend, 2013.
The town of fernley, Nevada, is in sheer panic
as word of the ongoing homicide investigation spreads.
In a small town like this, you believe nothing like this
is gonna happen in your backyard, but it was.
It was unfolding all around them,
and they were just terrified
that there was a violent killer in their community.
It's never happened in the history of Lyon county.
We've investigated homicides, and, you know,
there's different reasons for them,
but just the absolute senseless taking of life
is something that you rarely deal with.
My daughter called me, and she goes,
"mom, lock your doors.
Somebody's going around murdering people."
Narrator: now, with frank Graham still answering questions.
About the killing of his brother and two others,
police get another 911 call.
Pattison: a call comes over the radio.
A possible burglary.
I left where I was at and headed over to that house.
The first individual that i had located was Andrea Wilson,
clearly deceased, covered in blood.
Look at this.
There was a blood trail that led down the hall
and into a spare bedroom at the front of the residence.
In that location, i found a white male
who was also deceased.
The male victim was laying on his back
with his arms spread out and covered in blood.
Narrator: the victim is 69-year-old Lester leiber.
It definitely did raise a question of,
what are the connections
between these three different crime scenes
and these five victims?
Narrator: as Lester leiber and Andrea Wilson.
Are taken to the morgue,
investigators continue to search for answers
and notify family members of the latest victims.
Shenefelt: my stepmom had called.
She said, you know,
"i have something really bad to tell you."
And she said, "your dad has been killed."
And I just... I didn't believe her.
I'm like, "what?"
And when she said, "your dad has been murdered,"
I just fell to the floor.
Larry: my dad became friends.
With everybody in his neighborhood.
He was just that guy that would pick up the paper
and bring it to your doorstep.
He just... he loved life,
and everybody around him just loved him because of that.
Wilda: he was the type of father
I think most families would love to have.
He was always strong.
It was very scary.
It was, you know, not knowing why and what happened
and who this person was that did this.
Man: I've got some stuff I need pawned.
Narrator: word of the latest killings.
Spreads around fernley like wildfire,
and panicked citizens take cover.
Pattison: we knew we were dealing with a monster at that point,
and we had to do everything we could
to stop him and catch him.
Narrator: police begin processing the most recent crime scene,
looking for anything
that will help them catch the killer...
When their fears become reality once again.
Detectives, we just received another 911 call
from down the street. What?
Farley: police got a call from a few houses.
Down the wilson/leiber home.
Apparently someone was coming home and found a burglar inside.
That burglar immediately ran off,
but all of this happening
right there in the same neighborhood.
Stop anyone coming or going from this neighborhood.
Get s.W.A.T. Over there right now.
Yes, sir.
It's a bit surreal to know that they could be
within literally a block's distance still of you.
You almost can't believe that your suspect
would even possibly still be there.
We have now activated the Lyon county s.W.A.T. Team.
We make sure that there's nobody else in the house,
make sure nobody's been hurt, nobody's been shot, injured.
Second floor's all clear.
Dues: and you've cleared every room except the last one.
It's still a caged animal, and you're down to that last thread.
It's like you've lifted every box.
All clear.
Hey, captain, there's a door over here.
We got something down here that shouldn't be here.
We were ecstatic. You don't get breaks like this.
Man: yeah. I ran out of money.
I've got to get more.
Narrator: police in fernley, Nevada,
have gathered some key evidence in the string of shocking crimes
that have terrorized the neighborhood.
We have a cellphone and about $1,000 cash.
It's got to be his, right?
Let's get it over to tech services, see what's on it.
Man: I'm coming back.
Farley: with all of this going on,
police decide just to seal off the entire neighborhood.
And once they did that,
then all of a sudden, something happened
that they say they have never seen happen before.
We have law enforcement inside, outside, around,
at the other residence.
We're talking within...
We're only talking within like two or three blocks.
Man: get on the ground now!
So, as they were sitting there
processing the scene on tamsen street,
all of a sudden, this guy in shorts
just covered in blood
just walks right into the middle of the crime scene.
Man: don't move! Do not move!
He just kind of, like, walked out into the scene
and kind of stood there until he was put at gunpoint
and didn't fight, didn't argue, didn't scream.
Nothing, very calm.
Narrator: could this man be the killer.
That has slaughtered his way through the neighborhood?
Two key fobs, and they just happened to match
the female and the male's car
that are parked right behind him.
You going somewhere?
Narrator: despite his surrender back at the scene,
at the station, bean clams up.
I want to speak with an attorney.
We can get you an attorney,
but I think there's something you should hear first.
The suspect somehow jammed his phone into his pocket,
pressed "record," obviously accidentally,
but there was a recording of him
talking about these crimes in a muffled voice,
but police could make this out.
It sounds like he's having a conversation with his roommate
on this covert recording in his pocket.
Narrator: the recorded conversation.
Between bean and his roommate
captures bean's real-time description of his crime spree.
Dickson: you could hear the person.
Having the interaction with his roommate
and that his roommate's upset
and telling him he needs to get out of there.
And he's upset that he brought his friend into this.
It was like, you don't get a recording of the suspect
and his actions committing a crime.
It just doesn't happen.
Narrator: in the interrogation room with detectives,
bean realizes he's been caught with a smoking gun
and finally describes what happens at the papes' house.
The killer says it all started out as a burglary.
He was looking for anything he could steal and sell later.
He went over there with the .22 that he had
and shot her in the head.
It had alerted Mr. pape.
He had came into the room.
He takes items from the house,
and he's trying to get stuff he can profit from.
He also gets something that he didn't have,
was he gets a vehicle.
He gets the papes' truck.
Farley: bean just takes everything that he's gotten there...
We're talking jewelry, valuables...
Shoves it into the papes' truck,
and then he just takes off to Reno.
Dickson: he made contact with friends in the Reno area.
And immediately starts asking them
about where he can get rid of the jewelry.
Narrator: in Reno, bean gets a few hundred dollars.
For the jewelry he stole from the papes' house.
Dickson: some of it was used on drugs.
He abused heroin.
He admitted to using marijuana, and we also learned
that he had used methamphetamine, too.
We know that he visited a brothel
as a part of that weekend,
which went to just show that this was, you know,
"I'm gonna use this money to have a big party."
Narrator: and when the money runs out,
he heads back to the papes' house, looking for more.
But that's when his plan hits a snag.
Dickson: he had missed a turn, and then it's also confusing.
Whether to get back onto an on-ramp,
or there's a private road.
He mistakenly took the private road, which was gated off.
Dickson: I think from the moment he got the papes' vehicle stuck,
he went into panic mode and was willing to do anything
to get out of there and to get out of trouble
and to try to cover up the evidence that he had left behind.
Jeremiah bean sees a vehicle,
which happened to be elliezear Graham
in the vehicle he was driving.
Hey, man, I could really use some help here.
Jeremiah bean pulls out a gun,
shoots him three times in the face.
And he takes elliezear's vehicle
and starts going back to the pape residence.
When he gets back to the papes' residence,
he parks inside the garage.
Narrator: that's when he lights elliezear's truck on fire.
Farley: bean leaves, and he goes to the home of Lester leiber.
And he's trying to get even more valuables here.
And once he does,
he doesn't want to leave any witnesses behind.
Larry: I think that he was absolutely evil,
and obviously in my own mind, i think he must have got
some sort of joy out of killing people
and maybe thinking that he was that man,
that guy, the big shot, the gangbanger
that has killed all these people.
So, it is difficult to come to terms with it.
I'm not sure that I ever can.
Robert: if you don't have your parents, you have nothing.
This is coming from my heart.
They were everything.
Everything to me.
Count one, first-degree murder with a deadly weapon
committed against a person 60 years of age or older...
Narrator: Jeremiah bean is convicted.
Of five counts of murder
in the killings of Lester leiber,
Andrea Wilson, elliezear Graham,
and Dorothy and Robert pape.
The roommate he talked to on the recorded phone call
during the crime spree testifies for the prosecution.
The roommate does not face criminal charges.
On August 6, 2015,
Jeremiah bean is sentenced to death.
Larry: my father's in my heart every day.
I wake up every single morning.
When I turn my alarm clock off, my father's picture is there,
holding a Halibut that he had caught.
And that's the man I know.
Terry: that's the legacy that Jeremiah bean left...
The pape family and the other victims' families.
And the saddest part of all...
It was none of your own making,
but you have to live it
every day, every minute,
in your dreams, wide awake.
It doesn't change.
Shenefelt: he deserves to get every single bit.
Of what he did to the victims.
The only thing we can do at this point is really hope
that, you know, the justice system follows through
and actually does carry out the sentence
that he's been given.
That day in may
changed fernley's innocence.
We can never be the same again with such a great loss,
such a great loss of wonderful people.