Gone (2017) s01e04 Episode Script
Devil Among Us
1 Lynda: You do realize you're going to have to take a bubble bath after you eat that.
- Do you want to hold it now? - Grandma Two more.
There's one down there, too.
Repasky: My mom was one of my best friends.
I talked to my mom every day.
- [Ringing.]
- One day, I called her, and it just rang and rang and rang.
Nobody ever answered.
You come up with every reason that she's fine.
She's just not here, but she's fine.
That's how you go to sleep at night.
Opferman: We would talk regularly about Lynda's whereabouts.
There were a lot of missing pieces.
I just wanted to find her, to help her.
You don't know where to turn next.
You don't know what to do, and you feel this guilt.
[Indistinct conversations.]
[Child squealing.]
Oh, Lynda was ecstatic to be a grandmother.
She was thrilled.
She was the boss of being grandma.
Happy birthday to you, happy birthday Repasky: My mom, she let my oldest son Kind of let him run the show.
She did whatever he wanted her to do.
If he wanted to play baseball, she played baseball.
If he wanted to run around, they ran around.
Narrator: In the spring of 2000, 44-year-old Lynda Mcclelland is a doting grandmother of two with a third grandchild on the way.
Happy birthday to you Repasky: My mom was very, very excited when she found out I was pregnant.
I was crying, and she was so happy.
[Chuckles.]
Ready to make a wish? Miller: They didn't live very far from her.
She decided "That's who I'm going to live for.
" Are you ready? So I could not believe when my sister came up missing.
Three.
Two.
One.
Blow! [Breath echoing.]
Repasky: The day that my mom went missing, it was like any other morning.
I got up, made coffee, made the kids' breakfast.
We kind of got ready for the day.
It wasn't unusual for David to be gone if I woke up in the morning.
Narrator: 24-year-old Amanda Repasky is a stay-at-home mom while her husband, David, works as a cook and occasionally repossesses cars.
The two met when they were in high school.
Repasky: It's hard to raise children.
It makes you appreciate your parents more and understand a little bit more.
Narrator: Later that morning, Amanda receives an unexpected visit from her mother's boyfriend, Nate Linson.
Nate, what's going on? Have you talked to your mom? Lynda and Nate have been dating for 5 years, and Amanda knows they had an argument the night before.
I went to her house.
I called.
Nothing.
Repasky: She was breaking up with him, and because my mom wasn't home when he went over there first thing in the morning, he was alarmed.
Something's not right.
I told him to leave her alone, to give her some space.
It kind of upset me that he went over there.
Narrator: When Nate leaves, Amanda tries calling her mom, who lives alone less than a mile away.
[Ringing.]
Lynda works as a server at a local restaurant, but Amanda knows she's supposed to have the day off.
[Ringing continues.]
Repasky: It just rang and rang and rang.
Nobody ever answered.
Miller: My sister was very reachable.
We didn't have cellphones, but I always knew where to find her.
If she was going to a friend's or something, she told somebody.
Her house was two football fields away from her job.
She shopped in the same parking lot.
You knew where she She wasn't going anywhere.
Repasky: I went on my day.
I didn't become alarmed until probably around 5:00 or 6:00 when I hadn't heard from my mom.
Miller: By the evening, Amanda knew something was wrong, like, "Why isn't my mom answering or calling?" Amanda was pregnant, so Lynda would be calling every day.
"How do you feel? Do you need anything? Are you out of crackers?" Repasky: I went to her house.
It was probably around 8:30.
I thought it was odd because her door was locked.
Typically, if my mom wasn't there, her door wouldn't be locked, 'cause she always left her door open just in case, I guess, I mean, someone needed to get in or come over.
When I entered, her house was out of place.
Her keys were there, and her phone wasn't there, but the wire was there.
It looked like it had been cut, which was odd.
So, at that point, I was very concerned.
That night, I went to the police.
- How can I help you? - Hi.
Um, I need to report a missing person.
I told them that we hadn't heard from her all day.
At first, they told me they couldn't do anything because, for one, she was an adult, and it hadn't been 48 hours yet.
Until I told them that she had a mental illness, and maybe something was wrong, and she needed help.
That's all I knew.
Narrator: As Amanda provides police with background on her mom, memories of her childhood come flooding back.
Repasky: Oh, my mom loved me and my sister.
I mean, she was so happy to have us.
The first time I remember something being different about my mom, I was probably only 3.
She was hugging me, which is very endearing.
However, she was hurting me.
She was holding me too tight.
I remember my dad trying to tell her that, you know, everything was okay and that she needed to let me go.
Maybe she thought that somebody was about to hurt me.
At some point, she was diagnosed with schizophrenia.
When Lynda was on medication, she was normal.
I mean, she went to work.
She paid her bills.
She did everything that she was supposed to, but you knew if she didn't take her medicine.
Everyone did.
When my mom was off her medication, like, she would kind of see things that weren't there.
Narrator: But according to her family, the last several years have been one of the most stable periods in her life.
Miller: She made great friends.
She had a nice house, and she was really happy.
She was normal, healthy, as healthy as somebody with her mental illness could be.
Narrator: That night, Forest Hills police put out a missing persons bulletin for Lynda Mcclelland and gather more information from Amanda.
Last night her boyfriend, Nate, called.
He was concerned about her, so he went over.
And when Amanda provides details about the previous night, police believe there may be cause for concern.
That's the last time I've seen her.
Repasky: Dave, the kids, and I went out to a street fair, and when I returned home, I had a lot of missed calls from Nate.
So I called him back, and he was upset.
He said my mom wasn't okay, and that she was throwing glass and breaking glass around her house.
So a friend of mine watched my kids while I went to go check on my mom.
Mom! - Oh.
Amanda.
- Hey, Mom.
- Mind if we come in? - Sure.
When I got there, she was fine.
She had broken a glass that was on a shelf.
He's over-blowing things like he always does.
Why would you listen to Nate? She was sound.
She appeared fine.
There was no reason for me to be concerned.
I am fine.
Trust me.
I am fine.
Narrator: Amanda knows her mom's relationship with Nate had run its course, and they were no longer getting along.
Repasky: I had known, earlier that day, that they were fighting.
Both of them called me and talked to me.
I had told him just to leave her alone.
I don't know why he overreacted like that.
I really don't.
Come on, honey.
Let's go home.
Night, Mom.
They talked for a time, and Amanda felt that her mother was okay.
So she and her husband left, and that ended up being the last time that she saw her mother.
We were looking at every possibility at that point.
Fuoco: Because of the urgency, because of the history of mental illness, because of the possibility that she had wandered off and was confused, Forest Hills police did alert the media and let them know that Lynda Mcclelland was missing.
The night before, when I did see her, to me, she appeared fine.
However, I started to second-guess myself He's over-blowing things like he always does.
and think, "What if I misjudged, and she was off her medication?" Night, Mom.
Narrator: As news of Lynda's disappearance spreads through town, family members begin to scour Forest Hills and the surrounding area.
In between Lynda's house and where Dave and Amanda lived was, like, up a hill and a whole lot of woods in between.
Lynda had walked to their home, and it was a pretty good distance.
So we would walk through those woods.
And I know that Amanda hiked every inch of those woods pregnant.
We put signs up everywhere.
Like, everybody was looking for Lynda at that point.
My mom was loved by everyone that met her.
She would give the shirt off of her back to help anyone.
At this point, everyone was concerned.
Opferman: I was a member of the Allegheny County Police Department Homicide Unit.
They called us in to assist with the investigation.
So when was the last time you spoke to your mother? I guess it was 4 days ago now.
Fuoco: Anything could have been possible at that point.
She could have committed suicide.
She could have been murdered.
She could have died accidentally, or she could have just left the state and started a new life.
Can you describe what your mother was like? Repasky: My parents met in high school.
They were really in love.
They got married right out of high school, and then my dad joined the army, and then my mom and him traveled around.
I was born in 1976.
My sister was born actually not even 13 months later.
Miller: My sister, Lynda, wanted a family.
She wanted to be married and raise kids.
She wanted to be a mom.
Narrator: According to Amanda, Lynda was a loving mom.
But as the girls grow older, the family begins to see signs that things are off.
Repasky: My mother was a very spiritual person.
When we lived in Germany, she used to take us to churches, and we would just sit there for sometimes hours and just look at the different statues and graves.
Most of the time, she prayed for me and my sister, that we would be healthy and happy, that we would find the person that we're supposed to, have healthy and happy kids.
I was 9 years old the first time that my mom disappeared.
I remember, one time, coming home, and it was me and my sister, and our cat was about to have kittens.
We were really excited, so we came and were looking all over the place for the cat.
I remember opening the closet door to see if the cat was in the closet, and her stuff was missing, and we realized that she was gone.
At that age, I don't think we really understood what it meant to be sick or have a mental illness.
I mean, at 9, I wanted my mom.
I'm a girl, you know.
When you're a girl, you want your mom at 9 years old.
Miller: It's like she snapped.
She started to disappear for a couple weeks at a time here, a couple weeks at a time there, and not really give any location where she was going or why she was going.
Narrator: Lynda's behavior puts a strain on the marriage.
And when Amanda is 12 and living in Indiana, her parents divorce.
Her father gains custody of the girls while Lynda moves to Forest Hills to be close to her parents.
Repasky: He never said anything bad about her.
He used to always tell me and my sister that she loved us, that it wasn't her fault, and that, if she could be there with us, that she would be.
Miller: After she got divorced and moved to Pennsylvania, she was getting healthy again.
She took her medicine every day, did everything that you're supposed to do.
She got her home.
She had a job.
She was at the hospital every day for my dad, taking food to my mom.
She was taking care of the family.
More than anything, she wanted the girls to be able to come to Pennsylvania and live with her, more than anything.
Narrator: Four years later, Amanda moves to Forest Hills to join her mom.
Repasky: I moved in with my mom at 16, and we ended up being best friends.
I talked to her about everything.
Had she mentioned that anything was wrong? I wanted more than anything for her to call.
I wanted her to call and be upset with me because I did have everyone looking for her, and I did call the cops.
She she told me she was fine, but I don't know.
Lynda had disappeared in the past, but I know my sister.
This time, when she left, this time, it was definitely different.
Narrator: While the homicide team takes note that Lynda had occasionally gone missing in the past, a search of her home suggests possible foul play.
Opferman: The house was in somewhat disarray.
There were items scattered about.
One thing of note was there was some dried cleanser in the sink.
Amanda had told us that her mother was typically a very clean person, keeping a very neat home, and that wouldn't be something that Lynda would normally leave.
The other weird circumstance was that her telephone base and handset were missing from the home, but the purse was left behind.
That's a red flag that maybe something happened, either foul play or perhaps Lynda did, in fact, take her own life.
Narrator: But investigators find no traces of blood anywhere in the house.
Opferman: The crime lab actually used luminol, and that was all negative.
Narrator: Another day goes by, and Lynda's family continues to put up posters and scrapes together money for a reward.
They also keep searching the heavily wooded areas that surround Pittsburgh.
Miller: You're in limbo.
You stop everything.
You don't sleep.
You're not eating.
It was horrible.
David was worried about Amanda's state because she was pregnant.
She lost weight.
She was shaking.
She couldn't sleep.
Every time my phone rang, I thought, "Oh, God.
This is going to be it.
" And then I would be disappointed every time I answered the phone.
I just wanted to find her, to help her.
Narrator: While Amanda holds out hope that her mom is still alive, police pay a visit to Lynda's boyfriend, Nate Linson, who offers a strange theory of his own.
- Nate Linson? - That's right.
We're investigating the disappearance of Lynda.
He told us that he thought that Lynda may have taken a walk in the woods.
It was kind of an odd statement to just throw out there.
It was obviously something that we had to follow up on.
I don't know what to tell you.
I don't know where she is.
Repasky: Nate would say, "I'm so sorry, Lynda," to her picture.
He would apologize to me, and I would ask him, like, "What are you sorry for?" When's the last time you seen her? You might want to take a walk in the woods if you're trying to look for her.
Opferman: Lynda Mcclelland's boyfriend told us that he thought that Lynda may have taken a walk in the woods.
He said that she had a dream that somebody was in her backyard in the woods behind her home digging a hole.
That was kind of an odd thing to say.
Then he made some comments about how he and Lynda would take long rides together.
So we didn't know if maybe Lynda went with her boyfriend, and something happened.
I loved her to death, but she had her own unique way.
Narrator: Nate also tells investigators that Lynda called him the night before she disappeared, leaving him several voicemail messages.
Mind if I check inside the house, take a look around? Look away, sir.
I got nothing to hide.
He agrees to let detectives search his home.
Opferman: We did want to retrieve the messages from his answering machine.
We also had to look into every possibility, that maybe something happened to Lynda at his home.
Repasky: I did kind of suspect that something happened.
I thought maybe they went for a ride.
They got into a fight.
Maybe she got out of the car.
Miller: Amanda came to my home the night my sister came up missing.
She thought that Nate had a little something to do with where Lynda was, and he wasn't telling us.
Narrator: And as more time passes, Amanda finds Nate's behavior increasingly suspicious.
He would say some very strange things.
Nate would say, "I'm so sorry, Lynda," to her picture.
He would apologize to me, and I would ask him, like, "What are you sorry for?" But he never really would answer.
I would say, like, "Did you go for a ride with her, or maybe were you fighting with her, and she fell down the steps?" I would try to get him to tell me what happened.
Narrator: But when investigators search Nate's home, only a mile and a half from Lynda's, they come up empty-handed.
We'll be in touch with you.
Opferman: There was no indication or no evidence of any type of foul play that occurred at his home.
There was no physical evidence linking him to the crime, and as it turns out, there was really nothing of any value in those messages that helped us with the investigation.
At that point, we had no reason to believe that he had anything to do with her disappearance.
His general demeanor, although odd, it was very clear that he cared deeply for Lynda.
Narrator: Instead, Nate urges police to consider the possibility that Lynda took her own life, a scenario that Amanda's husband, David, also raises.
Opferman: There was an initial report that Lynda had made some statements about harming herself, in particular, that Lynda had threatened to jump off the Westinghouse Bridge about two weeks prior to her disappearance.
This bridge, in particular, is well-known in the area for people to commit suicide by jumping off of it.
It's a very high bridge.
It goes over a very, very narrow body of water.
However, we did conduct a very thorough search of that entire area, but we didn't find any evidence of Lynda's remains.
Narrator: And Amanda refuses to believe that her mother would take her own life.
My mom had a saying, when she would get frustrated, "I'm going to jump off the bridge.
" It never meant anything, though.
Miller: She was so excited about the new baby coming.
She would never have left the grandkids, never.
Narrator: With no sign of Lynda anywhere, detective opferman tries to prepare Amanda and her family for the worst-case scenario.
I recall telling her that she had to be prepared for the possibility that we may never find her mother, also the possibility that we may find her deceased.
He didn't sugarcoat things.
He warned me ahead of time.
But when you do watch the news, and you do see that they found a woman, then immediately, you think, like, "Oh.
Is this going to be it?" It's hard not knowing where someone that you love is.
Narrator: Just when the leads are beginning to dry up, a witness who'd seen a story about Lynda on the local news calls police with some new information.
Finally someone was like, "I know her.
" Narrator: It's been a week since Lynda Mcclelland vanished without a trace from her home in Forest Hills, Pennsylvania, and there has been no apparent sign of her until now.
This tip that we got was that Lynda was seen on a walking trail in an adjacent county to our jurisdiction.
That woman was very adamant that the person was, in fact, Lynda Mcclelland.
So Opferman had to go out to this trail for three or four days.
Opferman: We're searching for a missing person.
He would show the picture of my mom to people.
You might have seen her around here.
Yeah.
I saw her just yesterday.
And finally, someone was like, "I know her.
" Opferman: There was a woman who matched Lynda's description who worked at a nearby restaurant.
They were similar in appearance, but this woman was somewhat younger than Lynda.
It was very clear that it wasn't Lynda.
Repasky: I remember Opferman calling me and saying, "Oh, my gosh.
She looked identical to your mom.
It's like her twin.
" But it was not her.
Even though you feel, in your heart, that the outcome is not going to be the best, I don't think you ever really give up hope.
When you're driving, and you see somebody that looks like that person, you have to stop.
You have to look at their face.
You have to turn around.
Miller: Everybody walked like her.
If you walked like her, if you had a purse like her, every single person, you think it's her.
Repasky: When it was my oldest son's birthday, and she didn't call and tell him "Happy birthday," I think that was, in my head, the first time that I didn't expect her to turn up after that.
[Speaks indistinctly.]
- Do you want to hold it now? - Grandma Repasky: There was no way that, if she was alive, that she would let him have his day without her telling him "Happy birthday.
" Kind of slippery.
Here, grab ahold of this.
No way.
Narrator: The search for Lynda continues for weeks and then months, and still no leads.
Detective Opferman eventually moves onto other cases, but he promises Amanda he won't stop looking for her mom.
We continued to check with hospitals.
We continued to monitor any records about any remains that were recovered.
We had no real information about where Lynda could be.
The case went cold pretty quickly.
However, I remained in pretty regular contact with Amanda.
We would talk about different things, sometimes her theories about what may have happened to her mother.
Repasky: [voice breaking.]
You just don't know where to turn next.
You don't know what to do, and you feel this guilt.
A year goes by, and we were able to get somebody to put up more money for a reward.
Still nothing.
We still did not hear anything.
You really hope that maybe she's living in a cult somewhere.
You come up with every reason that she's fine.
She's just not here, but she's fine, and that's how you go to sleep at night.
Narrator: Around the anniversary of Lynda's disappearance, Amanda and her sister contact a television talk show and request a reading from the program's well-known psychic.
The family hopes their appearance will generate new leads.
[Woman speaking indistinctly, muffled.]
Repasky: I don't think that we really thought she was going to magically tell us where our mom is, but it put her picture out there so it wasn't forgotten.
I thought it was a good idea.
Any clue at all would be awesome, 'cause we knew nothing.
The psychic said something like, "M.
J.
came to the door, and she left willingly.
" She said that she was in a psychiatric ward in Florida.
The psychic told Amanda that her mother was alive, and that she was most likely near a body of water.
I was skeptical, but I didn't discourage her.
I think she was at a point where she needed to try to find this out herself.
Miller: After the psychic reading, we were thinking, "There is hope.
She's out there somewhere, and she's going to come home.
" I called every psychiatric ward that I could find, actually, in Florida, but they can't really give you any information.
They can't tell you anything.
So all's you can do is tell them who you're looking for and tell them something that you want to say to them.
And then they post it on a board, and then you just have to wait.
A lot of waiting.
[Child squealing.]
- Say hi to Daddy.
- Hi, Jasmine! There has to be a certain point where you have children, and you can't just stop your life.
Hey, Dad! [Speaking indistinctly.]
Repasky: I think that's the hardest part, though, is 'cause you do feel this guilt.
You're kind of moving on, even though you're really not moving on, but you do kind of feel Like you are.
Narrator: On Easter morning, almost two years after her mother went missing, Amanda is at home with her children when she gets a shocking phone call.
But it's not about her mom.
Repasky: David went out to go get Easter baskets, and we were supposed to go to his family's house.
So the kids and I were getting ready, and, the next thing I knew, his mom is calling me Hello? and said, "What is going on?" What? S-slow down.
What? And I was like, "What are you talking about?" And she's like, "David's on the news and just got arrested.
" [Wind whistling.]
Narrator: On March 30, 2002, Amanda Repasky is stunned to learn that her husband, David, has just been arrested.
Hello? Wait.
Wait, what? S-slow down.
What? Narrator: David is charged with criminal trespassing and burglary, 1 of 10 people arrested in a major burglary ring.
Fuoco: These were 10 men in their mid-to late-20s.
They would go down through roofs.
They would steal safes, any money they could get, to the tune of more than half a million dollars.
Repasky: It was just shocking that that's what you chose to do, is go and burglarize someone's house.
I was just so confused.
[Amanda chuckles.]
[Chuckling.]
You walking me? [Laughter.]
Krut: David tended to live two lives [Laughter.]
the one family life during the day, and then at night, he was out with his friends committing burglaries, robberies, or spending the money from those crimes.
All right.
Let's get some names.
Narrator: David admits to the crimes, and, over the next year, he works as an informant and gives up the names of his entire burglary crew, including his best friend, D.
J.
Wall.
Krut: David, I think, ultimately decided he was not going to go to prison for a robbery and leave his wife and children D.
J.
even if it meant telling on his lifelong friend D.
J.
Wall and the others to save his own skin.
Narrator: D.
J.
and another member of their crew, Doug Hubbard, are arrested and charged with multiple counts of burglary.
Krut: At the time that they were arrested, I believe they all knew that David had informed on them.
Doug Hubbard started to come unglued and was implying that David had done something serious that we were unaware of.
D.
J.
was more stoic and told Doug to shut up.
I could tell by D.
J.
's reaction that whatever he knew about David was significant.
I don't know, at that point, if we had thought that this might be about Lynda Mcclelland, but in the days after, there was speculation about this.
Opferman: Hey, D.
J.
How you doing? When we confronted him with the possibility that he had information regarding Lynda Mcclelland's death You know what I think? I don't think it's a coincidence.
his initial reaction was to, uh, break down in tears.
D.
J.
Wall told us that he received a call from Dave Repasky in the early morning hours.
Dave needed his help.
When he entered the home, he found the body of Lynda Mcclelland on the living room floor.
D.
J.
Wall's account was that Dave told him that he had gone to Lynda's house, that he had been drinking.
His words were, "One thing led to another," and that he and Lynda Mcclelland had sexual relations.
David told D.
J.
That he had been having an affair with Lynda Mcclelland.
Opferman: He said Lynda then threatened Dave, stating something along the lines of, "Now she's going to leave you for good.
" Apparently Lynda was going to tell Amanda.
You're done.
According to D.
J.
, Dave became upset about this and punched Lynda.
Lynda then fell to the ground, and then Dave choked Lynda with his hands.
And when Dave saw that Lynda was still alive and moving, he then stepped on Lynda's neck, eventually killing her.
Narrator: According to D.
J.
, Dave had called him to help him dispose of the body.
Opferman: He asked D.
J.
If he would start digging a grave for Lynda's body.
They settled on a property that was adjacent to D.
J.
Wall's grandmother's house.
When they unloaded her from the vehicle, he told me that David was standing in the grave, that he held her and said to her, "I'm sorry," before lowering her into the hole and covering her up.
I can only speculate that David miscalculated and figured that D.
J.
would not tell on him about the murder, because then D.
J.
would be incriminating himself in a homicide.
Narrator: D.
J.
Wall agrees to show police where the body is buried.
Opferman: Lynda's body was eventually recovered in that wooded area.
The location of her body, the cause and manner of her death was corroborated by his story.
Repasky: The day that I found out that she wasn't missing anymore, Detective Opferman called me, and he said, "I'm going to find your mom for you today, and Dave killed her.
" It still sends chills down me every time I think about that day.
Narrator: On March 17, 2003, David Repasky is charged with the murder of his mother-in-law, Lynda Mcclelland.
Miller: The day that we saw it on the news was possibly one of the worst days of my entire life.
She never just walked off.
She had never been missing.
None of that was true.
Repasky: I never suspected that my husband killed my mom.
I never for a minute thought it was him.
He was my best friend still at this point, and he watched me really go through a lot of pain and miss my mom.
I just don't understand how you can watch someone that you supposedly care about go through so much pain.
Narrator: As for David's motive, Lynda's loved ones believed she had learned about David's secret life of crime.
Miller: There is no way that my sister would have had sex with Mr.
Repasky.
No way.
If anything, she was going to call the police that night because of what he was doing.
She was afraid that what he did for a living was going to harm them.
Narrator: At David's trial for first-degree murder, he maintains his innocence and never takes the stand.
His best friend, D.
J.
Wall, is the lead witness for the prosecution.
Repasky: When his best friend was on the stand, and if you looked at David's face it was like he knew everything before he said it.
That was the day that I knew for sure that Dave killed my mom, by watching his reaction, his lack of reaction.
Narrator: In March of 2004, David Repasky is found guilty of murder and sentenced to life in prison.
When he said "Guilty," I was relieved.
Narrator: Soon after David Repasky was arrested on burglary charges, Amanda and her children move to Indiana to be closer to her dad.
It's taken years to put their lives back together and reconnect with the rest of her mom's family.
[Both laugh.]
- Hey, girls.
- Hi.
I think that Dave took a lot from us, but he didn't ruin our lives.
Hi, Noah.
Last time I saw you, you were like this tall.
- I grew a little bit.
- You did grow a little bit.
Me and my kids are happy, and I wanted that for them.
I didn't want this to be them.
I just want people to know, really, how great Lynda was.
There's two more.
There's one down there, too.
She was a great sister, a better mother, and a perfect grandma.
[Child speaks indistinctly.]
Whoo-whoo! She did not deserve to die because of Dave Repasky.
We miss her still.
- Do you want to hold it now? - Grandma Two more.
There's one down there, too.
Repasky: My mom was one of my best friends.
I talked to my mom every day.
- [Ringing.]
- One day, I called her, and it just rang and rang and rang.
Nobody ever answered.
You come up with every reason that she's fine.
She's just not here, but she's fine.
That's how you go to sleep at night.
Opferman: We would talk regularly about Lynda's whereabouts.
There were a lot of missing pieces.
I just wanted to find her, to help her.
You don't know where to turn next.
You don't know what to do, and you feel this guilt.
[Indistinct conversations.]
[Child squealing.]
Oh, Lynda was ecstatic to be a grandmother.
She was thrilled.
She was the boss of being grandma.
Happy birthday to you, happy birthday Repasky: My mom, she let my oldest son Kind of let him run the show.
She did whatever he wanted her to do.
If he wanted to play baseball, she played baseball.
If he wanted to run around, they ran around.
Narrator: In the spring of 2000, 44-year-old Lynda Mcclelland is a doting grandmother of two with a third grandchild on the way.
Happy birthday to you Repasky: My mom was very, very excited when she found out I was pregnant.
I was crying, and she was so happy.
[Chuckles.]
Ready to make a wish? Miller: They didn't live very far from her.
She decided "That's who I'm going to live for.
" Are you ready? So I could not believe when my sister came up missing.
Three.
Two.
One.
Blow! [Breath echoing.]
Repasky: The day that my mom went missing, it was like any other morning.
I got up, made coffee, made the kids' breakfast.
We kind of got ready for the day.
It wasn't unusual for David to be gone if I woke up in the morning.
Narrator: 24-year-old Amanda Repasky is a stay-at-home mom while her husband, David, works as a cook and occasionally repossesses cars.
The two met when they were in high school.
Repasky: It's hard to raise children.
It makes you appreciate your parents more and understand a little bit more.
Narrator: Later that morning, Amanda receives an unexpected visit from her mother's boyfriend, Nate Linson.
Nate, what's going on? Have you talked to your mom? Lynda and Nate have been dating for 5 years, and Amanda knows they had an argument the night before.
I went to her house.
I called.
Nothing.
Repasky: She was breaking up with him, and because my mom wasn't home when he went over there first thing in the morning, he was alarmed.
Something's not right.
I told him to leave her alone, to give her some space.
It kind of upset me that he went over there.
Narrator: When Nate leaves, Amanda tries calling her mom, who lives alone less than a mile away.
[Ringing.]
Lynda works as a server at a local restaurant, but Amanda knows she's supposed to have the day off.
[Ringing continues.]
Repasky: It just rang and rang and rang.
Nobody ever answered.
Miller: My sister was very reachable.
We didn't have cellphones, but I always knew where to find her.
If she was going to a friend's or something, she told somebody.
Her house was two football fields away from her job.
She shopped in the same parking lot.
You knew where she She wasn't going anywhere.
Repasky: I went on my day.
I didn't become alarmed until probably around 5:00 or 6:00 when I hadn't heard from my mom.
Miller: By the evening, Amanda knew something was wrong, like, "Why isn't my mom answering or calling?" Amanda was pregnant, so Lynda would be calling every day.
"How do you feel? Do you need anything? Are you out of crackers?" Repasky: I went to her house.
It was probably around 8:30.
I thought it was odd because her door was locked.
Typically, if my mom wasn't there, her door wouldn't be locked, 'cause she always left her door open just in case, I guess, I mean, someone needed to get in or come over.
When I entered, her house was out of place.
Her keys were there, and her phone wasn't there, but the wire was there.
It looked like it had been cut, which was odd.
So, at that point, I was very concerned.
That night, I went to the police.
- How can I help you? - Hi.
Um, I need to report a missing person.
I told them that we hadn't heard from her all day.
At first, they told me they couldn't do anything because, for one, she was an adult, and it hadn't been 48 hours yet.
Until I told them that she had a mental illness, and maybe something was wrong, and she needed help.
That's all I knew.
Narrator: As Amanda provides police with background on her mom, memories of her childhood come flooding back.
Repasky: Oh, my mom loved me and my sister.
I mean, she was so happy to have us.
The first time I remember something being different about my mom, I was probably only 3.
She was hugging me, which is very endearing.
However, she was hurting me.
She was holding me too tight.
I remember my dad trying to tell her that, you know, everything was okay and that she needed to let me go.
Maybe she thought that somebody was about to hurt me.
At some point, she was diagnosed with schizophrenia.
When Lynda was on medication, she was normal.
I mean, she went to work.
She paid her bills.
She did everything that she was supposed to, but you knew if she didn't take her medicine.
Everyone did.
When my mom was off her medication, like, she would kind of see things that weren't there.
Narrator: But according to her family, the last several years have been one of the most stable periods in her life.
Miller: She made great friends.
She had a nice house, and she was really happy.
She was normal, healthy, as healthy as somebody with her mental illness could be.
Narrator: That night, Forest Hills police put out a missing persons bulletin for Lynda Mcclelland and gather more information from Amanda.
Last night her boyfriend, Nate, called.
He was concerned about her, so he went over.
And when Amanda provides details about the previous night, police believe there may be cause for concern.
That's the last time I've seen her.
Repasky: Dave, the kids, and I went out to a street fair, and when I returned home, I had a lot of missed calls from Nate.
So I called him back, and he was upset.
He said my mom wasn't okay, and that she was throwing glass and breaking glass around her house.
So a friend of mine watched my kids while I went to go check on my mom.
Mom! - Oh.
Amanda.
- Hey, Mom.
- Mind if we come in? - Sure.
When I got there, she was fine.
She had broken a glass that was on a shelf.
He's over-blowing things like he always does.
Why would you listen to Nate? She was sound.
She appeared fine.
There was no reason for me to be concerned.
I am fine.
Trust me.
I am fine.
Narrator: Amanda knows her mom's relationship with Nate had run its course, and they were no longer getting along.
Repasky: I had known, earlier that day, that they were fighting.
Both of them called me and talked to me.
I had told him just to leave her alone.
I don't know why he overreacted like that.
I really don't.
Come on, honey.
Let's go home.
Night, Mom.
They talked for a time, and Amanda felt that her mother was okay.
So she and her husband left, and that ended up being the last time that she saw her mother.
We were looking at every possibility at that point.
Fuoco: Because of the urgency, because of the history of mental illness, because of the possibility that she had wandered off and was confused, Forest Hills police did alert the media and let them know that Lynda Mcclelland was missing.
The night before, when I did see her, to me, she appeared fine.
However, I started to second-guess myself He's over-blowing things like he always does.
and think, "What if I misjudged, and she was off her medication?" Night, Mom.
Narrator: As news of Lynda's disappearance spreads through town, family members begin to scour Forest Hills and the surrounding area.
In between Lynda's house and where Dave and Amanda lived was, like, up a hill and a whole lot of woods in between.
Lynda had walked to their home, and it was a pretty good distance.
So we would walk through those woods.
And I know that Amanda hiked every inch of those woods pregnant.
We put signs up everywhere.
Like, everybody was looking for Lynda at that point.
My mom was loved by everyone that met her.
She would give the shirt off of her back to help anyone.
At this point, everyone was concerned.
Opferman: I was a member of the Allegheny County Police Department Homicide Unit.
They called us in to assist with the investigation.
So when was the last time you spoke to your mother? I guess it was 4 days ago now.
Fuoco: Anything could have been possible at that point.
She could have committed suicide.
She could have been murdered.
She could have died accidentally, or she could have just left the state and started a new life.
Can you describe what your mother was like? Repasky: My parents met in high school.
They were really in love.
They got married right out of high school, and then my dad joined the army, and then my mom and him traveled around.
I was born in 1976.
My sister was born actually not even 13 months later.
Miller: My sister, Lynda, wanted a family.
She wanted to be married and raise kids.
She wanted to be a mom.
Narrator: According to Amanda, Lynda was a loving mom.
But as the girls grow older, the family begins to see signs that things are off.
Repasky: My mother was a very spiritual person.
When we lived in Germany, she used to take us to churches, and we would just sit there for sometimes hours and just look at the different statues and graves.
Most of the time, she prayed for me and my sister, that we would be healthy and happy, that we would find the person that we're supposed to, have healthy and happy kids.
I was 9 years old the first time that my mom disappeared.
I remember, one time, coming home, and it was me and my sister, and our cat was about to have kittens.
We were really excited, so we came and were looking all over the place for the cat.
I remember opening the closet door to see if the cat was in the closet, and her stuff was missing, and we realized that she was gone.
At that age, I don't think we really understood what it meant to be sick or have a mental illness.
I mean, at 9, I wanted my mom.
I'm a girl, you know.
When you're a girl, you want your mom at 9 years old.
Miller: It's like she snapped.
She started to disappear for a couple weeks at a time here, a couple weeks at a time there, and not really give any location where she was going or why she was going.
Narrator: Lynda's behavior puts a strain on the marriage.
And when Amanda is 12 and living in Indiana, her parents divorce.
Her father gains custody of the girls while Lynda moves to Forest Hills to be close to her parents.
Repasky: He never said anything bad about her.
He used to always tell me and my sister that she loved us, that it wasn't her fault, and that, if she could be there with us, that she would be.
Miller: After she got divorced and moved to Pennsylvania, she was getting healthy again.
She took her medicine every day, did everything that you're supposed to do.
She got her home.
She had a job.
She was at the hospital every day for my dad, taking food to my mom.
She was taking care of the family.
More than anything, she wanted the girls to be able to come to Pennsylvania and live with her, more than anything.
Narrator: Four years later, Amanda moves to Forest Hills to join her mom.
Repasky: I moved in with my mom at 16, and we ended up being best friends.
I talked to her about everything.
Had she mentioned that anything was wrong? I wanted more than anything for her to call.
I wanted her to call and be upset with me because I did have everyone looking for her, and I did call the cops.
She she told me she was fine, but I don't know.
Lynda had disappeared in the past, but I know my sister.
This time, when she left, this time, it was definitely different.
Narrator: While the homicide team takes note that Lynda had occasionally gone missing in the past, a search of her home suggests possible foul play.
Opferman: The house was in somewhat disarray.
There were items scattered about.
One thing of note was there was some dried cleanser in the sink.
Amanda had told us that her mother was typically a very clean person, keeping a very neat home, and that wouldn't be something that Lynda would normally leave.
The other weird circumstance was that her telephone base and handset were missing from the home, but the purse was left behind.
That's a red flag that maybe something happened, either foul play or perhaps Lynda did, in fact, take her own life.
Narrator: But investigators find no traces of blood anywhere in the house.
Opferman: The crime lab actually used luminol, and that was all negative.
Narrator: Another day goes by, and Lynda's family continues to put up posters and scrapes together money for a reward.
They also keep searching the heavily wooded areas that surround Pittsburgh.
Miller: You're in limbo.
You stop everything.
You don't sleep.
You're not eating.
It was horrible.
David was worried about Amanda's state because she was pregnant.
She lost weight.
She was shaking.
She couldn't sleep.
Every time my phone rang, I thought, "Oh, God.
This is going to be it.
" And then I would be disappointed every time I answered the phone.
I just wanted to find her, to help her.
Narrator: While Amanda holds out hope that her mom is still alive, police pay a visit to Lynda's boyfriend, Nate Linson, who offers a strange theory of his own.
- Nate Linson? - That's right.
We're investigating the disappearance of Lynda.
He told us that he thought that Lynda may have taken a walk in the woods.
It was kind of an odd statement to just throw out there.
It was obviously something that we had to follow up on.
I don't know what to tell you.
I don't know where she is.
Repasky: Nate would say, "I'm so sorry, Lynda," to her picture.
He would apologize to me, and I would ask him, like, "What are you sorry for?" When's the last time you seen her? You might want to take a walk in the woods if you're trying to look for her.
Opferman: Lynda Mcclelland's boyfriend told us that he thought that Lynda may have taken a walk in the woods.
He said that she had a dream that somebody was in her backyard in the woods behind her home digging a hole.
That was kind of an odd thing to say.
Then he made some comments about how he and Lynda would take long rides together.
So we didn't know if maybe Lynda went with her boyfriend, and something happened.
I loved her to death, but she had her own unique way.
Narrator: Nate also tells investigators that Lynda called him the night before she disappeared, leaving him several voicemail messages.
Mind if I check inside the house, take a look around? Look away, sir.
I got nothing to hide.
He agrees to let detectives search his home.
Opferman: We did want to retrieve the messages from his answering machine.
We also had to look into every possibility, that maybe something happened to Lynda at his home.
Repasky: I did kind of suspect that something happened.
I thought maybe they went for a ride.
They got into a fight.
Maybe she got out of the car.
Miller: Amanda came to my home the night my sister came up missing.
She thought that Nate had a little something to do with where Lynda was, and he wasn't telling us.
Narrator: And as more time passes, Amanda finds Nate's behavior increasingly suspicious.
He would say some very strange things.
Nate would say, "I'm so sorry, Lynda," to her picture.
He would apologize to me, and I would ask him, like, "What are you sorry for?" But he never really would answer.
I would say, like, "Did you go for a ride with her, or maybe were you fighting with her, and she fell down the steps?" I would try to get him to tell me what happened.
Narrator: But when investigators search Nate's home, only a mile and a half from Lynda's, they come up empty-handed.
We'll be in touch with you.
Opferman: There was no indication or no evidence of any type of foul play that occurred at his home.
There was no physical evidence linking him to the crime, and as it turns out, there was really nothing of any value in those messages that helped us with the investigation.
At that point, we had no reason to believe that he had anything to do with her disappearance.
His general demeanor, although odd, it was very clear that he cared deeply for Lynda.
Narrator: Instead, Nate urges police to consider the possibility that Lynda took her own life, a scenario that Amanda's husband, David, also raises.
Opferman: There was an initial report that Lynda had made some statements about harming herself, in particular, that Lynda had threatened to jump off the Westinghouse Bridge about two weeks prior to her disappearance.
This bridge, in particular, is well-known in the area for people to commit suicide by jumping off of it.
It's a very high bridge.
It goes over a very, very narrow body of water.
However, we did conduct a very thorough search of that entire area, but we didn't find any evidence of Lynda's remains.
Narrator: And Amanda refuses to believe that her mother would take her own life.
My mom had a saying, when she would get frustrated, "I'm going to jump off the bridge.
" It never meant anything, though.
Miller: She was so excited about the new baby coming.
She would never have left the grandkids, never.
Narrator: With no sign of Lynda anywhere, detective opferman tries to prepare Amanda and her family for the worst-case scenario.
I recall telling her that she had to be prepared for the possibility that we may never find her mother, also the possibility that we may find her deceased.
He didn't sugarcoat things.
He warned me ahead of time.
But when you do watch the news, and you do see that they found a woman, then immediately, you think, like, "Oh.
Is this going to be it?" It's hard not knowing where someone that you love is.
Narrator: Just when the leads are beginning to dry up, a witness who'd seen a story about Lynda on the local news calls police with some new information.
Finally someone was like, "I know her.
" Narrator: It's been a week since Lynda Mcclelland vanished without a trace from her home in Forest Hills, Pennsylvania, and there has been no apparent sign of her until now.
This tip that we got was that Lynda was seen on a walking trail in an adjacent county to our jurisdiction.
That woman was very adamant that the person was, in fact, Lynda Mcclelland.
So Opferman had to go out to this trail for three or four days.
Opferman: We're searching for a missing person.
He would show the picture of my mom to people.
You might have seen her around here.
Yeah.
I saw her just yesterday.
And finally, someone was like, "I know her.
" Opferman: There was a woman who matched Lynda's description who worked at a nearby restaurant.
They were similar in appearance, but this woman was somewhat younger than Lynda.
It was very clear that it wasn't Lynda.
Repasky: I remember Opferman calling me and saying, "Oh, my gosh.
She looked identical to your mom.
It's like her twin.
" But it was not her.
Even though you feel, in your heart, that the outcome is not going to be the best, I don't think you ever really give up hope.
When you're driving, and you see somebody that looks like that person, you have to stop.
You have to look at their face.
You have to turn around.
Miller: Everybody walked like her.
If you walked like her, if you had a purse like her, every single person, you think it's her.
Repasky: When it was my oldest son's birthday, and she didn't call and tell him "Happy birthday," I think that was, in my head, the first time that I didn't expect her to turn up after that.
[Speaks indistinctly.]
- Do you want to hold it now? - Grandma Repasky: There was no way that, if she was alive, that she would let him have his day without her telling him "Happy birthday.
" Kind of slippery.
Here, grab ahold of this.
No way.
Narrator: The search for Lynda continues for weeks and then months, and still no leads.
Detective Opferman eventually moves onto other cases, but he promises Amanda he won't stop looking for her mom.
We continued to check with hospitals.
We continued to monitor any records about any remains that were recovered.
We had no real information about where Lynda could be.
The case went cold pretty quickly.
However, I remained in pretty regular contact with Amanda.
We would talk about different things, sometimes her theories about what may have happened to her mother.
Repasky: [voice breaking.]
You just don't know where to turn next.
You don't know what to do, and you feel this guilt.
A year goes by, and we were able to get somebody to put up more money for a reward.
Still nothing.
We still did not hear anything.
You really hope that maybe she's living in a cult somewhere.
You come up with every reason that she's fine.
She's just not here, but she's fine, and that's how you go to sleep at night.
Narrator: Around the anniversary of Lynda's disappearance, Amanda and her sister contact a television talk show and request a reading from the program's well-known psychic.
The family hopes their appearance will generate new leads.
[Woman speaking indistinctly, muffled.]
Repasky: I don't think that we really thought she was going to magically tell us where our mom is, but it put her picture out there so it wasn't forgotten.
I thought it was a good idea.
Any clue at all would be awesome, 'cause we knew nothing.
The psychic said something like, "M.
J.
came to the door, and she left willingly.
" She said that she was in a psychiatric ward in Florida.
The psychic told Amanda that her mother was alive, and that she was most likely near a body of water.
I was skeptical, but I didn't discourage her.
I think she was at a point where she needed to try to find this out herself.
Miller: After the psychic reading, we were thinking, "There is hope.
She's out there somewhere, and she's going to come home.
" I called every psychiatric ward that I could find, actually, in Florida, but they can't really give you any information.
They can't tell you anything.
So all's you can do is tell them who you're looking for and tell them something that you want to say to them.
And then they post it on a board, and then you just have to wait.
A lot of waiting.
[Child squealing.]
- Say hi to Daddy.
- Hi, Jasmine! There has to be a certain point where you have children, and you can't just stop your life.
Hey, Dad! [Speaking indistinctly.]
Repasky: I think that's the hardest part, though, is 'cause you do feel this guilt.
You're kind of moving on, even though you're really not moving on, but you do kind of feel Like you are.
Narrator: On Easter morning, almost two years after her mother went missing, Amanda is at home with her children when she gets a shocking phone call.
But it's not about her mom.
Repasky: David went out to go get Easter baskets, and we were supposed to go to his family's house.
So the kids and I were getting ready, and, the next thing I knew, his mom is calling me Hello? and said, "What is going on?" What? S-slow down.
What? And I was like, "What are you talking about?" And she's like, "David's on the news and just got arrested.
" [Wind whistling.]
Narrator: On March 30, 2002, Amanda Repasky is stunned to learn that her husband, David, has just been arrested.
Hello? Wait.
Wait, what? S-slow down.
What? Narrator: David is charged with criminal trespassing and burglary, 1 of 10 people arrested in a major burglary ring.
Fuoco: These were 10 men in their mid-to late-20s.
They would go down through roofs.
They would steal safes, any money they could get, to the tune of more than half a million dollars.
Repasky: It was just shocking that that's what you chose to do, is go and burglarize someone's house.
I was just so confused.
[Amanda chuckles.]
[Chuckling.]
You walking me? [Laughter.]
Krut: David tended to live two lives [Laughter.]
the one family life during the day, and then at night, he was out with his friends committing burglaries, robberies, or spending the money from those crimes.
All right.
Let's get some names.
Narrator: David admits to the crimes, and, over the next year, he works as an informant and gives up the names of his entire burglary crew, including his best friend, D.
J.
Wall.
Krut: David, I think, ultimately decided he was not going to go to prison for a robbery and leave his wife and children D.
J.
even if it meant telling on his lifelong friend D.
J.
Wall and the others to save his own skin.
Narrator: D.
J.
and another member of their crew, Doug Hubbard, are arrested and charged with multiple counts of burglary.
Krut: At the time that they were arrested, I believe they all knew that David had informed on them.
Doug Hubbard started to come unglued and was implying that David had done something serious that we were unaware of.
D.
J.
was more stoic and told Doug to shut up.
I could tell by D.
J.
's reaction that whatever he knew about David was significant.
I don't know, at that point, if we had thought that this might be about Lynda Mcclelland, but in the days after, there was speculation about this.
Opferman: Hey, D.
J.
How you doing? When we confronted him with the possibility that he had information regarding Lynda Mcclelland's death You know what I think? I don't think it's a coincidence.
his initial reaction was to, uh, break down in tears.
D.
J.
Wall told us that he received a call from Dave Repasky in the early morning hours.
Dave needed his help.
When he entered the home, he found the body of Lynda Mcclelland on the living room floor.
D.
J.
Wall's account was that Dave told him that he had gone to Lynda's house, that he had been drinking.
His words were, "One thing led to another," and that he and Lynda Mcclelland had sexual relations.
David told D.
J.
That he had been having an affair with Lynda Mcclelland.
Opferman: He said Lynda then threatened Dave, stating something along the lines of, "Now she's going to leave you for good.
" Apparently Lynda was going to tell Amanda.
You're done.
According to D.
J.
, Dave became upset about this and punched Lynda.
Lynda then fell to the ground, and then Dave choked Lynda with his hands.
And when Dave saw that Lynda was still alive and moving, he then stepped on Lynda's neck, eventually killing her.
Narrator: According to D.
J.
, Dave had called him to help him dispose of the body.
Opferman: He asked D.
J.
If he would start digging a grave for Lynda's body.
They settled on a property that was adjacent to D.
J.
Wall's grandmother's house.
When they unloaded her from the vehicle, he told me that David was standing in the grave, that he held her and said to her, "I'm sorry," before lowering her into the hole and covering her up.
I can only speculate that David miscalculated and figured that D.
J.
would not tell on him about the murder, because then D.
J.
would be incriminating himself in a homicide.
Narrator: D.
J.
Wall agrees to show police where the body is buried.
Opferman: Lynda's body was eventually recovered in that wooded area.
The location of her body, the cause and manner of her death was corroborated by his story.
Repasky: The day that I found out that she wasn't missing anymore, Detective Opferman called me, and he said, "I'm going to find your mom for you today, and Dave killed her.
" It still sends chills down me every time I think about that day.
Narrator: On March 17, 2003, David Repasky is charged with the murder of his mother-in-law, Lynda Mcclelland.
Miller: The day that we saw it on the news was possibly one of the worst days of my entire life.
She never just walked off.
She had never been missing.
None of that was true.
Repasky: I never suspected that my husband killed my mom.
I never for a minute thought it was him.
He was my best friend still at this point, and he watched me really go through a lot of pain and miss my mom.
I just don't understand how you can watch someone that you supposedly care about go through so much pain.
Narrator: As for David's motive, Lynda's loved ones believed she had learned about David's secret life of crime.
Miller: There is no way that my sister would have had sex with Mr.
Repasky.
No way.
If anything, she was going to call the police that night because of what he was doing.
She was afraid that what he did for a living was going to harm them.
Narrator: At David's trial for first-degree murder, he maintains his innocence and never takes the stand.
His best friend, D.
J.
Wall, is the lead witness for the prosecution.
Repasky: When his best friend was on the stand, and if you looked at David's face it was like he knew everything before he said it.
That was the day that I knew for sure that Dave killed my mom, by watching his reaction, his lack of reaction.
Narrator: In March of 2004, David Repasky is found guilty of murder and sentenced to life in prison.
When he said "Guilty," I was relieved.
Narrator: Soon after David Repasky was arrested on burglary charges, Amanda and her children move to Indiana to be closer to her dad.
It's taken years to put their lives back together and reconnect with the rest of her mom's family.
[Both laugh.]
- Hey, girls.
- Hi.
I think that Dave took a lot from us, but he didn't ruin our lives.
Hi, Noah.
Last time I saw you, you were like this tall.
- I grew a little bit.
- You did grow a little bit.
Me and my kids are happy, and I wanted that for them.
I didn't want this to be them.
I just want people to know, really, how great Lynda was.
There's two more.
There's one down there, too.
She was a great sister, a better mother, and a perfect grandma.
[Child speaks indistinctly.]
Whoo-whoo! She did not deserve to die because of Dave Repasky.
We miss her still.