City Confidential Season 9 Episode 6

Cinema Series US Film

City Confidential Season 9 Episode 6 #CinemaSeriesUSFilm   🎞 Please join  https://t.me/CinemaSeriesUSFilm

Transcript

00:00it's kind of just this scar on the community that still hurts it was it was really frightening to

00:24hear that a three-year-old was missing you know and he could be anywhere what sources do say is

00:29his father was caring for him and he was reported missing at six o'clock this morning it was no longer

00:36an accidental drowning it was no longer a natural death it was a homicide i think it was a lightning

00:44bolt that jeez this happened to somebody in our safe neighborhood what else is going on

00:51i wish i could go back and change how everything went

00:58and we'd be living a happy life and i'd almost have a 10 year old

01:04from the pulsating streets of big cities to main street usa

01:12no neighborhood is safe from the unthinkable these are the stories of innocence lost

01:17of communities changed forever this

01:21is city confidential

01:24head just nine miles east of philadelphia across the delaware river and you'll smack into haddon

01:38township new jersey a three square mile area of land with a rich history

01:44back in 1698 john haddon a wealthy businessman from london purchased the land and sent his 21 year old daughter elizabeth to manage his investment

01:55for the next 62 years she works transformed the wilderness into a prosperous farming community

02:03by the mid-1800s the fertile land was some of the most sought after in the area

02:09then the iron horse roared into town with the construction of the camden and atlantic railroad

02:17it was a speedy way to get goods out and new residents in

02:23today the farms are long gone

02:31but the fifteen thousand four hundred and seven hard-working salt of the earth residents

02:35are still going strong

02:37always watching out for each other and the next generation

02:42the thing that always stands out to me about haddon township is there's a lot of schools

02:46within the small area and that every time you go by there

02:49either in the morning or in the afternoon you're going to see groups of kids walking to and from school with their parents

02:55it's an important aspect in a community

02:58because these children are going to grow up and they're going to be the future

03:02that's what's most important

03:05everything around this is just good awesome

03:09that's why families flock here just like fame director steven spielberg's parents did in 1952

03:17in fact spielberg has often said haddon township's westmont theater is where his love of filmmaking began

03:25in many of his blockbusters delightful little suburban towns like this one

03:29are used as backdrops and people here take pride in that hollywood connection

03:37so in 2015 locals were completely stunned when their filmic hometown became the setting for a real life horror movie

03:47on october 13th haddon township 9-1-1 dispatch gets a frantic call from 22-year-old resident dj criato

04:049-1-1 where's your emergency i i just woke up from a three-year-old

04:10three-year-old boy or girl three-year-old boy his name is brendan i i just woke up and he wasn't in my

04:16apartment i don't know if he wandered out or what happened i don't know where he is

04:19brendan brendan the hospital was locked and the bottom door was locked if it's unlocked the door

04:25it was left i don't know what happened police are immediately sent to dj's apartment

04:30haddon township's westmont district to help find the toddler dj criato told the police the last time

04:38he saw his son was around 9 30 when he put him in bed he then said that he went to bed at 10 o'clock

04:43at night and he woke up around six o'clock and noticed his son was missing dj tells detectives he

04:51scoured every inch of his apartment when he didn't find his son he called his relatives including his ex

04:59brendan's mom samantha denoto to help look for the boy

05:04when he called me that morning i was very shocked and i just hurried out as as quick as i could not

05:11really know knowing what the situation was and the drive over was very very frantic i don't remember

05:20much about it it almost seems like i got there in one second your mind races and you're just thinking

05:26a million different things that don't make don't make sense but still hoping that you know it's

05:33you know everything's going to be okay dj described his son brendan is approximately three feet tall he

05:39was wearing red and gray sports pajamas with socks he was uh with brown hair he was described as kind of a

05:46very sweet average child that he was always outside playing playing his favorite game which was uh

05:53pirates with captain hook he was uh smiley and he would wave at people passing by that he was just

06:01kind of a well-liked neighborhood child

06:07the fire department's search and rescue team is deployed and a command post is immediately set up

06:14they conduct a reverse 9-1-1 and what reverse 9-1-1 is central communications will put out a

06:20phone blast to the neighborhood and it will put out description of brendan and what he's wearing

06:25the contact ahead in township police department if he's spotted it caused a an understandable commotion

06:32in the neighborhood i think that everybody who's ever raised a child could put themselves in the

06:40shoes of somebody who had a three-year-old missing it was really frightening you know and he could be

06:47anywhere i went out front it was very chaotic the police were out there the helicopters were flying

06:56everybody that was locally around was out searching whether it was searching their backyard their

07:02neighbor's backyard around their house walking up and down their block screaming his name

07:09by 7 a.m the search expands beyond the westmont neighborhood

07:13haddon township volunteers put word out on social media they scour woods construction sites and

07:20abandoned houses anywhere a little boy might be stuck or hiding investigators with the prosecutor's

07:26office will not confirm what neighbors posted on facebook that he was in his pajamas and missing

07:32what sources do say is his father was caring for him and he was reported missing at six o'clock this

07:37morning by 8 a.m there's still no trace of brendan police calling the county's canine units to help cover more ground

07:46we reported to the command post and i got my partner ready i put his tracking harness on and i was

07:56greeted by one of the detectives and i just requested a item of brendan's that would have his scent on it

08:05officer kai nicholson was able to get a slipper uh from brendan's apartment and use that as article of

08:12clothing for her dog to track brendan's scent i went to the front door of the apartment to begin my track

08:24we went west and it i could tell he was kind of searching about um serpentining when they

08:32are on scent a lot of times they'll serpentine back and forth almost like a snake the search leads

08:39nowhere officer nicholson goes back to dj criado's apartment to try one more time her canine partner

08:47cowan immediately picks up the scent again he took me across the street and he pulled me off of the

08:54a path into this wooded area there were trees and overgrowth and there was an opening

09:08almost like the size of a football field just an open area and he at that point started pulling harder

09:15and harder and at times i was having trouble keeping up with him i just knew that he was picking up on

09:24ascent and i needed to put everything that i've learned in my training and into play and and

09:31follow follow his lead

09:36as the canine pulls her down a small hillside that leads to the cooper river

09:41no one has any idea that the heart of picture-perfect haddon township is about to be broken into a million pieces

09:59just a mile from three-year-old brendan criado's home officer constance nicholson and her canine partner

10:06cowan stopped short at the banks of haddon township's cooper river

10:12approximately 20 feet from me my sergeant said he's right here so it was at the

10:18uh at the creek where we found them

10:26brendan was laying on a rock uh with his head kind of positioned on the rock most of his body submerged

10:34it's one of the worst things you have to experience and seeing brendan in that water

10:40that will be etched in my memory for the rest of my life

10:42normally we reward our dogs when they completed a task

10:59and uh we cheer them up and we give them a toy and we sorry and we tell them they did a good job

11:08and uh i didn't have it in me to do that

11:20brendan doesn't have any obvious injuries and he's wearing gray and red sports pajamas like his father

11:26described he was also wearing these neon socks and immediately i observed that his socks look clean

11:38so you know you're looking at that and you're thinking really two possibilities

11:42the fall so you're walking on leaves and dirt and grass there's no way that someone could walk that way

11:48without collecting something on their socks well then the other only other possibility would be if

11:53they collected something on those socks and then the water washed it away but they were so pristine

11:58that there wasn't even kind of any residue so immediately what you're thinking is it doesn't

12:02seem like he walked down to where he was ultimately laid to rest

12:11investigators scour the area looking for any clues a potential killer might have left behind

12:17they don't find a thing meanwhile patrol officers take brendan's parents to the station so detectives

12:25can break the terrible news at the top of the creek embankment concerned friends and neighbors are trying

12:32to figure out what's going on below the firemen began walking up the street and when i looked at them

12:40i knew they found them because they all had their heads down some of them appeared to be crying it was

12:45it was it was really horrible it was in any scenario you know a child death in the community is is

12:56heart-wrenching and shocking to have it be this kind of mysterious scenario in a place like hadden

13:02township it's all the more people immediately want to know what specifically happened here and how did it

13:10happen the most horrific idea is that as a parent you lock your door at night and you go up and put

13:17your kids to bed and say good night and you wake up in the morning and they're gone so there was a real

13:23sense of fear and shock about the circumstances surrounding kind of brendan's death immediately

13:30that kind of reverberated throughout the community

13:32at the police station detectives have two jobs one to inform brendan's parents of his death and the

13:45other to make sure they had nothing to do with it they placed them in two different rooms so they can

13:51carefully monitor their reactions i had that gut feeling before they even even told me anything

13:58you can tell when something tragic's happened without without words being involved

14:12you found your son um he's deceased oh god no no no no no no no no no no no no you can't tell me

14:36this i'm sorry sir my best friend i love him so much we failed him

14:45because he was only a kid but

14:50you know kind of like when your your child falls and you know whether they get hurt you still as a

14:56parent you feel like it's your fault

14:58so anything that happens to them you know you still take on that guilt

15:14samantha tells detective rhodes that she and dj were no longer together but co-parenting wasn't a

15:19problem for them they lived just a mile apart in haddon township

15:26samantha and dj had a shared custody agreement with uh brendan um and they would alternate weekends

15:33uh there's no court order demanding one person gets brendan on certain days it was just a mutual

15:38agreement that they had so for the last year and a half of brendan's life he moved between the couple's

15:45two homes knowing he was loved even if his parents didn't feel that way about each other anymore

15:53i believe first started our relationship eighth grade summer um right before going into high school

16:00he was like a very sweet kid we could talk about anything like we just felt like we've known each

16:07other for our whole entire lives as teenagers it was like a best friend relationship that just kind

16:14of turned into teenage dating i had gotten pregnant very shortly after my 18th birthday

16:25and that was only a few months after dj and i had graduated high school it was a shock but

16:35we didn't have any doubt that we weren't going to follow through with the pregnancy

16:41dj was a very good father he was honestly the best his favorite thing to do was to read brendan uh

16:52books at night to go to sleep he did that from i think the day we came home

16:59samantha tells police both her and dj are currently in new relationships but dj was the same devoted dad

17:06he always was to brendan since brandon was staying in dj's apartment before he disappeared detectives

17:13want to know how the night played out dj says he took the three-year-old in locked up the apartment

17:20then called his girlfriend julia who was in college two hours away he talked to you what time you talked

17:26to your girlfriend i'm trying to remember that exactly my girlfriend i was talking to her probably

17:32around 8 30 we were just like texting saying good night and stuff she said she was going to bed early

17:37she had a math test in the morning has your son ever left the house on his own cord like no he always

17:44every time we leave the house he says to me daddy can i open the door daddy can i open the door i'm like

17:48no wait till i'm ready to leave he'll keep asking me till i'm ready as soon as i'm ready i'm like now you

17:52can open the door and then he'll open the door and we'll go out is there any other exits in the

17:57house besides like i said that exit how about the windows the windows go to the floor are they high

18:02up they're high up i'm on the second floor when you got up this morning were your windows open or

18:07they're closed they're closed they're closed you can take a guess i want to say he wandered off but i

18:12can't see that i just can't know your son yeah like in the middle of the night if he wakes up

18:25he's coming he goes straight to someone he's afraid of the dark like so but for him to just up and leave

18:32i can't see that i don't see him just walking out the door and just leaving and going all the way

18:45down to cooper that sounds so unlikely to me and i feel like that's where there's something wrong

18:51only eight hours into the investigation cops have more questions than answers and when the autopsy results

18:59come in it only adds to the mystery of what really happened to the little boy in haddon township

19:12in haddon township authorities are quickly trying to get to the bottom of what happened to brendan

19:17creato just 10 hours after they find the three-year-old's body his rushed autopsy results are in

19:24the medical examiner ruled that brendan's death was undetermined there was no water in his lungs

19:34evidently there was none in his ears either which you would expect if one side was placed on the rock

19:42and you drowned there the medical examiner wanted a second opinion on an autopsy

19:48uh of brendan um a lot of times it's good to have another set of eyes uh look at the body especially

19:55in this case when you don't have any answers of why this three-year-old is found at a waterway three

20:00quarters of a mile from his residence the deputy medical examiner conducts his own autopsy

20:08hours later he reports back his results are no different cause of death is inconclusive

20:15knowing in their guts that the little boy didn't somehow end up at the cooper river in clean socks

20:22in the middle of the night by himself veteran detectives kick it up to the new jersey state

20:27medical examiner to do another autopsy

20:35meanwhile residents of the quintessential american suburb do their best to cope with what's happened

20:45a lot of people were hugging and crying and you know it was very sad very very sad

20:56in a strange way it's a good feeling because you know the people in the community have had in

21:01township care you know they come together when when they're needed they show up

21:07it's very confusing especially like we're all young so we're all just like oh my god what is happening

21:19it was very hard for the town to process like something like this could happen why everyone's

21:25sleeping why no one's usually around um and yeah

21:44while the community openly mourns cops quietly investigate their this was no accident theory

21:51dj said all the doors and windows were locked the night brendan disappeared the cops go back to his

21:58apartment looking for signs of forced entry he may have missed there are none

22:08they want to develop a timeline when he was last seen what was his condition at that time detectives

22:14spoke to neighbors and tenants and they did not hear anything out of the ordinary that night

22:19leading up to brendan being reported missing so on october 14th uh in the early morning hours members

22:28of our crime scene unit and homicide unit uh did a video reenactment of the walk in the middle of the

22:35night to simulate the lighting conditions the video is very compelling because it's basically black

22:42you would have to have some familiarity with the woods itself in order to navigate down to the waterway

22:47the sergeant in the crime scene uh wore socks to simulate uh a child wearing socks if a child

22:55walked down how what what condition would the socks be in uh when the sergeant got down there

23:01his socks were completely filthy it's promising evidence but detectives realize a good attorney could

23:08blow the theory up since a grown man weighs a lot more than a child and his feet would sink into the mud

23:13it's time for another test one of the prosecutors volunteered their child who was three years old

23:20at the time similar height weight to brendan and we were able to locate the same socks that brendan was

23:28wearing that night and we placed them over uh the child's sneakers and simulated a similar walk during

23:35the daytime from dj's apartment down to the woods and the results of that test where the socks were filthy

23:46but since brendan was found partially in the water detectives realize it could be argued in court that

23:52the river washed the dirt off his socks we placed the socks in water uh at the same location where brendan was

24:00found and we left them in the water for 12 hours and coincidentally that day it was raining a lot

24:09at the end of the 12 hours uh we pulled the socks out of the water and they were completely filthy

24:17based on those kind of series of experiments we felt confident in making the determination that

24:23there wasn't any way shape or form a scenario in which brendan walked down there by himself

24:33detectives are going uh door to door trying to locate uh cctv cameras in close proximity to dj's

24:39apartment or to the cooper river we unfortunately did not find any cameras that were like the smoking

24:48gun where we could track somebody that was either walking with brendan or brendan walking for that

24:53matter or a vehicle that was observed in the area of the park but the cameras are fixed and offer

25:01limited coverage that means someone could have slipped by carrying the little boy and when the

25:07results from the new jersey state medical examiner come in there's proof that's exactly what happened

25:1472 hours after brendan criado was found on the banks of a local river the third autopsy results are in

25:30the state medical examiner found that brendan had died of lack of oxygen there were two small petechiae in

25:37the eyes petechiae are tiny first blood vessels in the white part of your eye and petechiae can be

25:44evidence of asphyxiation of the deprivation of oxygen and there was a bite on the inner cheek the bite

25:53sick was something that a child would do when they're unable to gather air and in kind of a moment of

25:58terror or they could be potentially biting their cheek it was no longer an accidental drowning it was no

26:06longer a natural death it was a homicide police know there are only three possible scenarios

26:16either someone had a key to dj's apartment and took brendan out brendan wandered out on his own

26:22and was snatched up before his socks even had a chance to get dirty or brendan died before ever

26:29leaving his father's apartment police keep their theories quiet but they released the shocking news

26:36to hadden township that the little boy was murdered i think the community was probably stunned because

26:44it's an optimistic community that looks for happy endings and i think it it was a a lightning bolt

26:54that jeez this happened to somebody in our safe neighborhood what who else is out there what else

27:03is going on the townspeople put out blue ribbons and hung them on their houses and on trees and things

27:11in their yards really kind of in solidarity in the memory of brendan

27:15it helps you remember what was happening and what had happened every time you walked out of the house

27:25you'd see them i know i lost mine a few times a bad rain storm it blew away but i hooked it back up and

27:33kept putting it back up and it stayed there for a long time

27:36i recall one blue ribbon placed on the corner across from my house so that was a daily reminder

27:44i had a job to do and that was to get obviously some answers for the for the family and the community

27:49as to what happened to brendan that day residents take action too they call police pointing fingers at

27:58anyone they've ever wondered about for a week detectives work day and night chasing down dozens of tips

28:06finally one rises to the top there was a tip about a man coming from the area where brendan's body was

28:14found rolling a black suitcase around the time uh that brendan was reported missing so the thought

28:22being that potentially that this man used this suitcase to carry brendan's body down there and leave him

28:29police review all the security footage taken from the creato's neighborhood the night brendan disappeared

28:35they finally find the suitcase man but when they see his actual bag the tip falls apart

28:42there's no way brendan could have been inside a bag so small

28:48i think it spoke to the level of paranoia in the community that

28:53people were connecting dots that maybe didn't connect

28:56cops go back to square one and start looking at people who might have had keys to dj's apartment

29:07family friends neighbors and the building manager

29:11we had to cast a wide net and rule out any possible individuals whether it was a tenant in the apartment

29:18building or whether it was a stranger that somehow gained access to dj's apartment everybody was a

29:26potential doer until we could rule them out

29:30everyone is cleared with one exception the last person to see brendan alive

29:36his father dj creado there's this chunk of time period where dj's unable to account for what happened

29:46to brendan so here we have these question marks he asked him for consent to perform what's called a

29:53phone extraction on his phone he gave consent to allow us to do that police hope dj's phone records

29:59will take him off the suspect list too but when the data comes back it looks like there was a lot more

30:06going on at dj's apartment that night than a devoted dad reading his son bedtime stories

30:2212 days after finding brendan creado's little body he is finally laid to rest

30:29i observed the viewing from across the street there were lines of people trying to get in and pay their

30:40respects i couldn't even count how many people showed up that day

30:51it was extremely overwhelming to just try and process that day i just

30:59it's a lot to a lot to to process and handle

31:08you're going through the motions basically trying to you know do the best you can to um

31:13you know just be thankful for everybody who's who's coming to pay their respects

31:19while the town mourns police comb through dj creado's cell phone records that have just come in

31:26right away they noticed dj was telling the truth about calling his girlfriend julia stensky the night

31:32brendan died but it was clearly more than a simple check-in we noticed that there was nine calls placed

31:39to julia stensky that night so that was a little alarming it was borderline uh obsessive you know

31:47paranoia on when we when you look at it investigators immediately reach out to julia to find out what's

31:54really going on in the relationship julia uh described that they met on a dating app

32:01over the summer time and they were dating for five or six months and that they had

32:06some relationship issues she didn't like the idea that he had this child with another woman didn't

32:13like the idea that he still had to uh kind of negotiate and navigate uh the relationship with

32:18the other woman and you know thought that brendan kind of slowed the two of them down

32:24i remember on the second date we went to wildwood he told me he had a kid and i was like great i don't

32:30care um i told him i'm not a big kid person though i'm not like oh my god a kid i have to say hi to it

32:37when i see this kid it's not that i'm mean to him or i'm rude like no i i

32:43i i'm more taken out on dj the fact that i have to be around a kid immediately what we are thinking

32:51is where was she that night that brendan was killed she advised us that she was up at school

32:58in manhattan um and that she uh was in bed at that time we were able to corroborate that alibi

33:05with both dorm swipes and interviews with her roommates as to the time frame that she was

33:11not down in hatton township julia may be in the clear but when cops continue sifting through dj's

33:18phone records they realize they're staring at a five month long electronic trail that could have

33:24led to murder there was a significant number of text messages over 9 000 between julia stensky and dj

33:34criata that really kind of told a story over the course of their relationship

33:37the text messages they started off you know positive

33:51when she went back to school and she was seeing dj less than less the text messages steadily progressed

33:58to be more toxic

34:12and then just one week before brendan is killed the relationship seems to be at a breaking point

34:19they have a day-long fight over text messages going back and forth about brendan being in

34:25his life and that she doesn't you know she doesn't want to be with a man who has is

34:29tethered to had in touch with this child tethered with this other woman

34:45that language signifies to me that you know potentially something could change here with

34:51this situation that you're so frustrated with which is the presence of my son and inside the text

34:58messages cops find something else a photo dj sent julia on the surface it looks like just another idyllic

35:06fall day in haddon township but it's actually so much more

35:22on dj criato's phone police spot a photo that looks eerily familiar and the metadata confirms it

35:30we were able to cross-reference the gps coordinates and were able to determine that the photograph was

35:39taken a little over 24 hours prior to brendan's death at almost the exact location where brendan was found

35:48that picture was significant because the person who was responsible was familiar with that area

35:55and after we were able to establish a motive and the fact that brendan didn't go under his own power

36:04to the water we knew that this was a homicide and that dj was the last person seen with his son alive

36:12you know for someone to think that someone else was responsible that person would have to somehow

36:16get access to his apartment and take brendan without him knowing

36:19they asked dj to come in for another chat he lawyers up but detectives know there's one person

36:28he'll still talk to his ex samantha denoto it was like unfathomable to to even think that someone

36:40that brendan trusted would be capable of of doing what he did and then hiding it and acting like

36:48everything is normal but it was also the only logical idea that was sitting right in front of me

36:58so when detective rhodes called me and asked me to basically do the wiretap it wasn't a question

37:03of yes or no i was on board with it because if there's any way that i could help i was willing to help

37:09samantha had a smartphone with her that uh had software installed on it uh that we provided her

37:20and we could remotely monitor her conversation with dj at his parents residence

37:28trying to figure out exactly what happened in the middle did you hear anything at all wake up nothing

37:35so then i uh i asked dj well you know what do you think what do you think happened since

37:50you know you claim that you know you went to bed didn't wake up and then he was gone

37:54there's so different scenarios that are possible yes and now i think there's there's

38:02and then only other news i'm supposed to say that when i woke up in the morning my doors were locked

38:07i never said that that's a twisting word what do you mean a lot of the articles say that i went

38:12out in the morning the doors were locked they were locked still which is not true what were they

38:16unlocked in the morning yeah obviously but cops listening know that's not what dj told them during the

38:23911 call the top door was locked and the bottom door is locked if i don't lock the doors i don't know

38:29what happened the wire interview lasts a little over an hour police are no closer to a confession from dj

38:40but with the change story about the locked doors the text arguments about brendan with his girlfriend

38:46and the picture of the crime scene the day before brendan was left there

38:50cops think there's enough to prove dj was responsible for his son's death

39:00we were in the living room and we heard helicopters we thought what now the helicopters are flying all

39:05over the house and we put on the local news and we saw it on there we found out that dj was arrested

39:12you know for brendan's murder i hate even saying those words i hate that word murder

39:25it takes two years then finally in april of 2017 dj criado goes on trial in front of a town that

39:33desperately wants justice for the little boy who loved pirates but it doesn't happen

39:39it was a mistrial i was really shocked you poured your heart and soul into this case because you

39:48want to go to that family and give them that closure that they deserve and we couldn't give him that

39:59if we weren't able to convict him at first then it was going to be more difficult a second time around

40:04we figured that you know it might be in our best interest uh to resolve the case he was offered

40:10plead guilty to a lesser count of aggravated manslaughter uh for in exchange for a recommendation

40:16of 10 years new jersey state prison serve 85 percent without the possibility of parole

40:24dj refuses to make a public statement admitting guilt but he takes the plea deal and silently signs the

40:31paperwork acknowledging he was responsible for what happened to his three-year-old son

40:38in order for someone to plead guilty you have to give facts that suggest why you are guilty of this

40:44there was the petechiae in the eyes the bite on the cheek and i think we used the term that he

40:50deprived brendan of oxygen and therefore recklessly caused uh his death

41:02he had a whole life in front of him and his father made the most disgusting decision anybody can make

41:11that is despicable and i'll never get over that

41:18it was just incredibly hard to process that anybody would murder their own child to this day

41:26it's hard to talk about you know too close to home

41:38wish i could go back and change how everything went

41:43and we'd be living a happy life and i'd almost have a 10 year old

41:47but that's

41:55it's not how life worked out

42:04to make sure brendan criato is never forgotten hadden township friends place a memorial bench

42:11near the river where he was found the inscription is inspired by the boy's favorite movie

42:17hook directed by hadden township's former resident steven spielberg captain hook you're my perfect

42:25storybook neverland i love you so you are now my home sweet home

42:47so

42:53you

42:55you

42:57you

42:59you

43:01you

43:03you

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