The FBI is the most sophisticated law enforcement agency in the world, pursuing the most dangerous criminals. In Texas, when an 8-year-old girl is stolen from her own room in the middle of the night, >> it is an unspeakable crime. >> The bureau mobilizes. >> We knew that someone that was bold enough to do that, he'd had to have done something else. This is knee- driven behavior goes beyond what we could even understand. >> I feared that he would come back and like finish me off, you know? That's what I kept thinking of in my head. >> FBI criminal pursuit. It's the summer of 2008 and FBI special agent Richard Renison is digging into a cold case that rocks the veteran detective to his core. 18 years earlier in a tiny South Texas town, a young girl was abducted from her home, brutally assaulted, and left for dead. At the time, I had a daughter who was 8 years old, and it's just horrendous. It's just terrible to think about. The girl's attacker was never found. We didn't know if he he was still out there and and possibly abducting children, killing children. The FBI has to make a difficult decision about whether to tackle this difficult case. The more they learn about the attacker, the more they realize exactly what's at stake. He does have this um sadistic component to his sexual fantasies and he needs to see humiliation or torture in the eyes of his victims. That's what's dangerous because at some point, you know, he may decide to play out these fantasies just the spur of the moment. Dickinson, Texas, 1990. A mother wakes up and calls out to her 8-year-old daughter, Jennifer. >> Jennifer. >> But the young girl doesn't respond. >> We're late. >> Jennifer. >> The mother searches in every room, looking under beds and in closets, but Jennifer is nowhere to be found. Jennifer's mother did search for probably about 30 or 40 minutes on her own. >> Unable to locate her daughter, the mother frantically calls police. >> 911. >> At first, they think she must be at a friend's house. >> This was a real quiet area. It was not uncommon for a child to get out and go play out in the courtyard and things like that. >> But a search of Jennifer's room reveals that her bedroom window is open. The window is dusted for prints, though it's unlikely anything will be found. >> There had been so many people in and out of the apartment. So many people looked and examined the window that uh there was really nothing that I could do. Police don't know whether Jennifer left her room on her own or was taken by force, but violent crimes in Dickinson, Texas are rare. So they assume Jennifer has run away. With each moment, their concern grows. Even if she had run away, being at 8 years old, uh you know, she could be lost in one of these fields or could have been picked up as she was running away or something of that nature. So, the first thing we wanted to do was go ahead and start searching the surrounding area. Later that day, 9-year-old Cruz Nunees and his friends start a game of tag. >> Be careful, guys. >> In the overgrown field behind his house. I remember the grass was at least my height. >> The game barely begins before one of Cruz's playmates yells for him to come out of hiding. But she was like, "Just go down the trail a little bit." And I said, "For what?" And she kept pushing me and I I was telling her, you know, "What is it? Is it a snake or a dog or something? Cuz I don't want to get bit by it." >> Reluctantly, Cruz follows the trail a few more steps. It started to curve a little bit. The trail did. When it curved, that's when I when when I seen it. >> A little girl is lying in the grass and she appears to be dead. >> She was, you know, completely nude and I just seen a bunch of blood and it just it really bothered me. I never, you know, I was little to see something like that. >> What is it? Cruz and his friends raced back to his home. >> You know, I was such in a hurry. I missed the front step and I fell inside the living room and my mom and dad and everybody jumped up and they were asking me what's going on, what's wrong with me. I told them that there was somebody out here in the field. You know, somebody was hurt so they came running out here. That's when we called 911. >> Police and rescue personnel rushed to the scene. Dispatch, I've got a white female juvenile with a throat and >> they immediately know the girl must be 8-year-old Jennifer Shu. >> Come on. >> And she's barely clinging to life. >> Stay with me. >> I haven't seen a crime like it before in in my years in law enforcement. It's just it's it's unescribable. >> Jennifer is airlifted to a hospital in Galveastston. there. Doctors determine she has been raped. And there's more. Her throat has been sliced from ear to ear, severing her vocal cords. I was able to see the photographs from when she was in a hospital. The photographs that I saw depicted to me a young female that was deceased. And that's the way she looked at me. Doctor's labor to save Jennifer's life. >> We just got her out of surgery. We're not sure if she's going to be okay. >> They deliver the devastating news to her family that if she lives, she may never talk again. Okay. >> Jennifer has been silenced, leaving authorities helpless. They had a victim who was alive, but they couldn't communicate with her. Um, they couldn't get information from her as to what had taken place. >> Fear grips the entire hospital staff, including Sharon McBride, a registered nurse who has a daughter Jennifer's age. It was terrifying to think that something like this, you know, could happen to my own daughter. >> Nurse McBride encourages Jennifer to fight for her life and to somehow communicate to police who has done this to her. >> I was just reassuring her and and telling her how brave she was. >> You have to wake up. She needed if she could to try and do anything she could to to help the police to to to find who did this so that you know for one he couldn't hurt her again and and couldn't hurt anybody else again. >> Knowing a depraved criminal is on the loose. Dickinson police don't take any chances. They station an armed officer outside Jennifer's room. Nobody went in that room that didn't have any business going into that room that wasn't a staff member that we knew. This man was determined to finish the job. We We had to protect her from that. We did not know what we were up against. >> Authorities prepare for the worst in case the predator comes back for Jennifer or another child. This is uh needed driven behavior. Uh and he has uh sexual fantasy. It goes beyond what we could even understand. We were very concerned. Uh matter of fact, this was just something unheard of. You really get uneasy about it. You know, is he going to strike again? August 11th, 1990. In a Galveastston hospital, 8-year-old Jennifer Shuit is fighting for her life after being found in an overgrown field, naked, sexually assaulted, and with her throat slit. Jennifer's parents have been told that if she survives, she may never talk again. Without Jennifer's voice, it will be almost impossible for investigators to track down her predator. And Dickinson, Texas police are desperate to find him. >> There's always a clue. There's going to be something there. You just have to find it. And that's the hard part. >> Investigators scour the site where Jennifer was found. Using an ultraviolet light, evidence technician John Puit discovers microscopic cotton fibers just feet from where the tiny victim was left. My thought process at that time was, did this individual cut his own clothing off? Was he so focused on hurting this child clothing off? So, so those fibers were going to be important at one point if we could ever find something to match them to. Police extend their search for evidence and find Jennifer's pink pajama top and cotton underwear two blocks away. Dispatch, I need a forensics unit at the intersection of Homes and Unicorn. I've got some evidence to be collected. >> Wrapped around her clothes, a man's light blue t-shirt, and a pair of men's underwear. >> Finding that kind of evidence today would have been like uh you know the old cliche finding the smoking gun. It would have been the the golden egg of the case. But at this time, DNA technology is in its infancy. >> Back in 1990, a lot of people had never heard of DNA. Dickinson PD sends the clothes to the country's leading DNA experts. The FBI lab in Quantico, Virginia. The FBI laboratory had been doing DNA testing for 2 years at that time and you needed a pretty good size body fluid stain, either a blood stain or a semen stain about the size of a quarter. >> As investigators wait for results, they work feverishly to establish any lead they can. >> We couldn't rule out anything. There was nothing you could rule out at that time. Everything was ruled in. To their amazement, they get an unexpected break. Thanks to the care of nurse Sharon McBride, Jennifer's condition improves. As she gains strength, the child seems anxious to communicate. >> We finally got her some paper and and pen, and she started writing writing things that way. Nurse McBride and Dickinson police encouraged Jennifer to work with a sketch artist. >> Which one of these would you say would be closest? Can Can you remember what his face looked like? >> Try to think back, honey. >> These ones here. She identifies her attacker as a white male in his 20s or 30s with short dark hair and a thick mustache. >> Should circle whatever color shirt he had on. >> She describes his clothing as well as the Buick automobile he was driving. And she writes the man told her his name, Dennis. Police release the sketches to the media in the hopes someone will recognize Jennifer's attacker or the car. Leads pour in, but go nowhere. >> It gets frustrating because you you think that, oh wow, here we go. We've got a we've got a break in this case. And and unfortunately, we just hit we hit dead ends every time. But what happens next >> surprises everyone. >> Doctor, she she just made a noise. >> Despite the dire prediction of her doctors, Jennifer begins to speak. >> I think everybody was in tears when when when she talked. It was It was a miracle. It was. >> Well, we were in the car. Jennifer begins telling police everything that she experienced >> and the details are excruciating. >> My mother and I went to bed together like usual. our nightly routine. >> Switching >> and then in my sleep I was itching my mosquito bites and kicking her. So she just asked me to please go and and sleep in my own room. Uh that night I went in there and I got out books in my piggy bank and um fell asleep with my light on in my room um in my bed. Around 2:30 a.m. in the dark of night, the unspeakable happened. An unidentified man snuck through the first floor window of Jennifer's apartment. >> The next thing I remember is feeling almost like I was in a dream, feeling like someone was running with me. And I opened my eyes and this man that I did not know had me in his arms. >> I did try to scream, but he covered my nose and mouth immediately. The man placed Jennifer in his car and drove away. >> Fine. >> In the car, her attacker tried to convince her he was a member of law enforcement. >> I'm just kidding. >> A claim she believed. >> I'm an undercover cop, so just relax. Don't be scared. >> I was 8 years old. You're taught to trust police and that police officers are good. The man traveled several miles through residential areas, even passing her grandparents house. >> I saw their vehicles were there, and I told him that he could drop me off and leave me there, and he said, "No, nobody's home." You know, and kept driving. >> He eventually stopped at the local elementary school that Jennifer attended. >> I remember him offering me candy. I didn't take it, of course, because again in school I was taught like not to take candy from strangers. >> The man then drove the child to an overgrown field just down the street. >> When we got to the field, he told me that his gun was in the back seat. So, I leaned over to look into the back and he immediately ripped my panties off of me and started to rape me in the front seat of the of the vehicle. Jennifer blacked out and awoke to find she was being dragged by her ankles through the field. >> He had stopped dragging me. I had my eyes open and immediately shut them and played dead and he dropped my legs and uh left me in a fire ant pile and then he um he just left. Jennifer struggled to call for help but found she could not move or even scream. Every time I would try to even lift my head, I would, you know, I didn't have the ability to. I still didn't know that my throat had been cut. And I somehow got the strength to just kind of throw my hand on my neck. And when I did that, I could feel that it was open. I immediately um just started praying um for all my family and everything. I was very at peace. Um I don't remember feeling scared at that point. I just knew that I was going to die. >> But Jennifer has beaten the odds by surviving and regaining her voice. >> We were in the car. She undergoes months of extensive rehabilitation and wears a breathing tube in her throat for most of her third grade year. Her scars are far from just physical. At first, I was terrified. I mean, I was even scared of any male doctors. I just thought like everybody was the man that had done this to me. I mean, I feared that he would come back and like finish me off, you That's what I kept thinking of in my head. >> Dickinson police are relieved Jennifer is recovering, but they know that her attacker, a man named Dennis, is still on the loose. And according to Jennifer, he just might be a cop. >> I'm an undercover cop, so just relax. Don't be scared. >> We didn't know whether that was true or not. Until we knew who it was, that was a viable option that we had to look at. That's the scary part is that he was still out there. >> Just weeks after being taken from her home and having her throat slit, 8-year-old Jennifer Shuit has miraculously regained her voice. >> They asked him if he was really a cop, so he said. >> She reveals to authorities that her asalent claimed to be an undercover cop, a possibility that terrifies them. That's, you know, every parent's nightmare because parents tell their children, you know, you trust law enforcement. Then you have someone who's telling 8-year-old girl that he's law enforcement and doing horrible things to her. That's deeply disturbing. To make matters worse, the FBI lab in Quantico, Virginia is unable to even test for DNA. The stains on the man's clothing found with Jennifer's are simply too small. But the fibers found at the crime scene are a match to the men's underwear found two blocks away. And two pubic hairs of Caucasian descent are found intermingled with the clothing. But given the current technology, analysts are afraid that testing the hairs could jeopardize the entire case. cells as well. So, >> we had to make a decision based on did we want to take a chance on losing the only two pieces of evidence we had, those two pubic hairs, and try to extract mitochondria. If that extraction failed, then those two pieces of evidence for that time frame in 1990 were gone forever. >> Investigators make the difficult decision to delay further testing until they have a viable suspect. Here we have a bunch of evidence, if you will, that was recovered from a scene that and and our hands are tied. So, we have an individual walking around out there driving around looking for another victim and we couldn't do anything. That suddenly changes in 1993. >> It's a man. Police get a promising lead when Jennifer, now a fifth grader, is reading the newspaper and sees an obituary for someone who looks like her attacker. >> The deceased man was in prison and as it turns out, attended high school with Jennifer's mother. >> Her mother in her mind put two and two together and felt this must be her attacker. He knew me. He knew her. Must be him. Investigators consider testing the pubic hairs found among the discarded clothing to compare DNA. A move that would destroy the evidence. Then they learned that the suspect was killed during a prison scuffle and has already been buried. >> We didn't have hair to match with him, but based on his blood type, we ruled him out at that point. Days turn to months and the case grows cold. It will take 18 long years before new life is breathed into Jennifer's old case. 18 years the violent predator is on the loose. >> I thought about my attack every day. I still slept in bed with my mom till I was like 15 because I was terrified of the dark, just of him coming back. >> In January 2008, Dickinson police assigned Detective Tim Cromy to review the department's cold case files, including Jennifer's. >> This case had been here for 18 years. I knew a lot of the investigators personally. Um, I didn't want to talk to any of them and get opinions from them. I wanted to start with fresh eyes. He asks for help from an acquaintance in the FBI's Texas City Resident Agency. Special Agent Richard Renison. The agent specializes in the most heinous of crimes, those against children. The thought of an 8-year-old child laying in a field and covered in ants and after a horrible sexual assault just it's just horrendous. It's just terrible to think about. The investigators begin reviewing the evidence and reach several conclusions about the perpetrator. Tim and I both thought it was someone familiar with the area or someone local. And mainly because Jennifer's apartment was probably a quarter mile from Interstate 45, which is the main interstate between Houston and Galveastston. Yet, she was found the opposite direction from the interstate, further into Dickinson, and in a very secluded area that had basically one way in, one way out. Surprisingly, they find that the key evidence, the clothing found near the crime scene 18 years earlier, has been perfectly preserved in a room within the Galveastston County Sheriff's Office. >> Everything was always, you know, kept just the way it was supposed to. It was preserved very well and they really felt like maybe we had an answer just lying right there in Galveston County in that clothing. The evidence is old and DNA deteriorates rapidly in humid conditions, but DNA technology has made great strides since the early '90s, and there's a slight chance it can still be recovered. >> Investigators send the clothing to the FBI lab in Quantico, Virginia to be re-examined. We were cautiously optimistic, but no, we couldn't send that off and just sit back and wait for that to happen because there was that skepticism that that we weren't going to get anything just because of age. >> While waiting for the results of the DNA testing, Detective Cromy learns Jennifer's case has been selected for additional assistance from the FBI's Child Abduction Rapid Deployment, or CARD team. This is great news for Jennifer, who is actively helping investigators, providing all the memories and tips she can to catch the predator. >> I wanted that time with him in the courtroom. I wanted him to know that he chose the wrong little 45lb 8-year-old girl um to try and murder. The FBI assigns a forensic sketch artist to meet with Jennifer to compose an age enhanced picture of the suspect who told her his name was Dennis. The bureau also offers a $10,000 reward for tips. We were hoping to find that one person who knew of the crime that the perpetrator told about and that would be willing to talk to us. now that was afraid to talk to us back then. >> Their efforts go nowhere. All hope seems to hinge on evidence that's been sitting in a box for 18 years. >> The longer things went before we heard back from the lab, I I think my optimism was fading a little bit. But in September 2009, 19 years after Jennifer Shuit was kidnapped, sexually assaulted, and left to die, investigators get the break they've been waiting for. The DNA lab in Quantico is able to generate a profile from the biological material found on the waistband of the male underwear. It's still just a miracle that they pulled that profile just because the clothing was so old. >> But the miracle won't be complete unless the FBI lab can find a match. >> The issue is that that profile is just somebody's DNA. It doesn't have a name. I didn't know who it was. and and it's really someone out there um out of the 300 million people in the United States, there's there's one person whose DNA that is. Technicians run the profile through a nationwide database of the DNA profiles of more than 6 million known offenders. they get a single match. >> It was about 2:30 in the morning and my cell phone rings and it was Tamar Moretti at 2:30 in the morning calling to tell me that she had a DNA profile and who the person was. It was uh it's a pretty cool moment >> and it was simply amazing that we were able to find him. The DNA profile matches a sample taken from a man who was convicted on a kidnapping charge in 1997 in Hot Springs, Arkansas. His name Dennis Earl Bradford. My first reaction when when I got the call was we knew where he was now is, my god, how do I put this guy in Dickinson, Texas 19 years ago? Nearly 20 years after the kidnap and sexual assault of 8-year-old Jennifer Shuit, investigators finally have a suspect. DNA testing has linked the evidence to 40-year-old Dennis Earl Bradford. Neither one of us had ever heard of that name. Had never been in the investigation at any point. and was a complete stranger to us up until that day. >> Dickinson Police Detective Tim Cromy and Special Agent Richard Renison are anxious to learn more about this mysterious suspect. >> We had to show that this person was in Dickinson at the time, that he could have been responsible for the crime, and it wasn't some sort of administrative or clerical error that accidentally gave his DNA profile into this case. At first glance, Bradford seems like an upstanding citizen. He works as a welder in Little Rock, Arkansas, and is married with children. He He had a lot of aspects to his life that made him look like just a perfect normal family man. But Bradford also has a checkered past and roots that lead back to Dickinson, Texas. Bradford attended high school there and arrest records show he had been cited for traffic violations 3 years before Jennifer's kidnapping. Police search for his old address and hit the jackpot. that he gave his home address as apartments that were adjacent to where Jennifer lived and probably 200 yards on a straight line if you walked them. Authorities obtained Bradford's driver's license photo and are stunned by the striking resemblance to the sketch Jennifer helped the artist render almost two decades earlier. >> You think that's him? after all these years, you kind of question yourself, you know, just because there's never really been any big leads or suspects. It's like, okay, am I really remembering what he looked like? And everything was right on point with, you know, what I said right from the beginning. Investigators also learned that Bradford relocated to Hot Springs, Arkansas, 4 days after the attack on Jennifer. >> He was unable to escape his deviant sexual behavior. In 1996, Bradford was arrested on charges of kidnapping and sexually assaulting a 35year-old woman he met in a bar. >> How you doing? >> Hi. >> Can I be too? >> No, I'm good, thank you. >> The victim told authorities Bradford refused to take no for an answer. >> He offered her uh several times throughout the night to buy her drinking and and she refused. Later in the evening, she uh accepted a drink from him. >> When the bar closed, the woman accepted Bradford's invitation to go for a ride and listen to some music. >> He drove into a deserted uh dead-end road, a dirt road where he attacked her. >> Bradford sexually assaulted her. get it out >> and actually cut her throat, but it was a superficial wound. Held her head underwater in a creek and appeared that he was trying to drown her. And then for whatever reason, he stopped and cleaned her up a little bit and drove off. The woman remembered Bradford's license plate and reported the attack to police. Although unable to reach a verdict on the rape charge, a jury sentenced Bradford to 12 years in prison for kidnapping. Upon conviction, Bradford's DNA was entered into a national database. If he knew that we did recover that clothing, I'm sure he had to worry about that. I'm sure he thought every day of his life he looked over his shoulder wondering when it was going to come back to haunt him. >> Bradford served 3 years of his sentence before being released on parole in February 2000. He then relocated to Little Rock. Since then, he'd been a free man. >> Who are you in here for? uh just hanging out. Do you guys want to >> But the FBI is about to change that. >> On October 13th, 2009, authorities pulled Dennis Bradford over >> during his morning commute to work with his wife. >> They're making a big big mistake here. >> We we decided it would be best to have patrol officers pull him over and tell him that he had an outstanding warrant. I need you to put your hands back behind your back for me. We need to take you downtown and talk more. What is this all about, sir? >> Which in fact was truthful. We just didn't tell him that it was for attempted capital murder from 1990 in Texas. It was finally over. Um Jennifer could relax. She didn't have to worry about looking over her shoulder anymore. Or so police think. Because Jennifer's quest for justice is about to take another startling turn. 27-year-old Jennifer Shuit has waited nearly two decades for the arrest of the man who savagely assaulted her and left her for dead when she was just a child. On October 15th, 2009, her attacker, Dennis Bradford, is extradited back to Texas and Jennifer comes face to face with him. >> Detective Cromy and I drove Mr. Bradford back from the airport and brought him to the Dickinson Police Department and Jennifer was there waiting. Jennifer can't believe her attacker is finally in custody and wants to see him for herself. Bradford is placed in a holding cell with a two-way mirror. I didn't even cry, you know. I just um I was in disbelief. I was like, "Wow, this is the man that I've been looking for for 20 years." >> It was It was very emotional. And Jennifer was the one that was comforting people, saying, "It's going to be okay." >> Detective Cromy whispered in my ear. I said, "I told you we'd get him." It was really just like the best day of my life. Bradford is charged with attempted capital murder. If convicted, he faces up to life in prison. While Bradford is awaiting trial, Detective Cromy and Agent Renison question him about the attack. Bradford is unaware the two men are being guided by the instruction of FBI profilers. We never told him that we had DNA that linked him to the case. We just asked him, >> you know, if he knew Jennifer and uh knew the name. He said, "Yeah, and it went downhill from there for him." >> Bradford surprises them by confessing to everything. >> She was innocent and I was a sick, deranged, beat up little [ __ ] He also tells authorities he was exposing himself to women just hours before the attack. >> I do remember getting out of the car and I walked over to this window. Don't know why. I just peaked in. >> Surprisingly, he asks investigators what became of the little girl he brutalized. >> When they mentioned that she was alive, he uh began to cry. >> Oh, thank God. She's alive. >> Yes, she's alive. She's alive. Um, personally, I felt like uh that was an act. I I just find it hard to believe that after all these years and uh the coverage, the media coverage of Jennifer Shuitt and the fact that she was alive that he would be uh completely unaware of that. Jennifer is waiting for her day in court when she can look Bradford in the eye and tell him how his actions have changed her life. But that day will never come. 7 months after his arrest on May 10th, 2010, guards at the Galveastston County Jail find Dennis Bradford's body hanging from a makeshift noose inside his cell. could just be his, you know, narcissistic way of telling law enforcement, look, you got me, but justice is not going to play out in this matter. He has control of that by killing himself. I feel like um I was cheated out of that moment. like it was just like right before my eyes. It was just ripped away from me and it was very devastating to me. Um, and still is. I mean, that's something that's still fresh and new and it's hard for me to talk about um because that's not what I wanted to happen. I still hate it. You know, >> there are other scars that Jennifer has learned to live with. I've always wanted, you know, a big family. And so, finding out that um because of the attack that, you know, I won't be able to conceive naturally. I mean, that was heartbreaking to me, but again, there's nothing I can do about it but move forward and keep a positive outlook. Yes, sir. >> Jennifer has completed a 15week course at the Dickinson Citizens Police Academy. >> She has returned to school and hopes to earn a degree in criminology. For now, she shares her story through speaking engagements. There are thousands of victims every year like Jennifer. Unfortunately, a lot of them don't live through it. and and Jennifer I I think is able to give hope to people who have been been victims of some horrible crime and let them know that it's going to be okay. You can get on with your life. >> She always credits the investigators who held her hand in the fight for justice. I appreciate that they let me be involved. Um because, you know, I think that they knew as much as I did that we needed each other. >> And every time she tells her story, she is reminded of how she became unbreakable. >> I had a higher power looking out for me. Um, and you know, there's just that reason why I lived. Like I knew in that field that night that I was going to die and that did not happen. So I feel like I'm here for a reason and my reason is to use my voice and that's what I'm going to keep doing.