“Cold Justice” season 2, episode 5: “He Said, She Said (Vigo County, IN)” airs tonight.
On this episode, Erika Case was a smart, precocious, 19-year-old who had graduated high school and was working part-time at the local mall in West Terre Haute, Ind. It was a Saturday night, Sept. 5, 1998, and she and her big sister Mary Case were house-sitting for a family friend. After Mary left for her night nursing shift at the local hospital, Erika’s good friend Isaiah Dooley came by the house with his friend Clint Mackey.
For the next few hours they all swam in the pool, drank alcohol and ate pizza. Early the next morning Mary finished up her nursing shift and drove back to the house. When she walked inside she found Erika lying on the living room floor, covered in blood, dead; she had been stabbed at least 33 times. When the Vigo County Sherriff’s officers first questioned Isaiah and Clint, they both made conflicting statements about who saw her last, but both of the boys asserted that when they left the house Erika was alive and well.
Erika’s murder has had a huge impact on the small, peaceful, suburban community of West Terre Haute and while there have been lots of rumors around town, no one has ever been able to determine what actually happened that evening or who is responsible for Erika’s murder.
“Cold Justice” is based on the idea that in small towns across America, cases involving violent crimes can often go cold because of a lack of funding, resources and state-of-the-art forensic technology. With the right resources though, it is possible that many of these cold cases can be re-opened and solved, bringing dangerous criminals to justice and providing closure for the families of their victims.
In TNT’s “Cold Justice,” Kelly Siegler, a former Texas prosecutor for 21 years who has successfully tried 68 murder cases, and Yolanda McClary, a former crime scene investigator who worked more than 7,000 cases in her 26 years on the Las Vegas Police Department, are putting their vast knowledge and experience to work helping local law-enforcement officers and families of violent-crime victims get to the truth. With a fresh set of eyes on old evidence, superior interrogation skills and access to advanced DNA technology and lab testing, Siegler and McClary are determined to bring about legal and emotional resolutions. Taking on a different unsolved crime each week, they will carefully re-examine evidence, question suspects and witnesses, and chase down leads in an attempt to solve cases that would have otherwise remained cold indefinitely.
“Cold Justice” season 2, episode 5: “He Said, She Said (Vigo County, IN)” airs Feb 14, at 8 pm EST on TNT.
