Wednesday, Mar 9, 2022 • 40min

At the Edge of Town

Dateline NBC
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When a college student is found dead after a party, his mother is determined to try to find out what happened. With the help of a new friend, she manages to get the case in front of a jury. Dennis Murphy reports on the unexpected twist that no one saw coming.
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Speakers
(11)
Josh Mankiewicz
Lovely Varughese
Monica Zukas
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Transcript
Verified
Break
Monica Zukas
00:34
Everybody thinks it can't be their kid until it is, this is her baby.
Share
00:41
His body was laying on a little bit of a clearing.
Share
00:44
This was someone who had a violent encounter.
Share
Priya Varughese
00:47
That's my brother. I want anything and everything done for him to get justice.
Share
Monica Zukas
00:51
We want answers, we want answers.
Share
Lovely Varughese
00:55
I said, who beat my baby?
Share
Speaker 6
01:00
How do you get in a scuffle with somebody? And the next thing you know, you're being charged with murder.
Share
Lovely Varughese
01:05
He knows he hurt my son bad.
Share
Speaker 6
01:07
I believed everywhere. My son said, and I still do to this day.
Share
Josh Mankiewicz
01:12
It was the first time I've ever had this happen.
Share
Lovely Varughese
01:15
We had to stop and think whether we heard it right.
Share
01:17
Several of the jurors were visibly shaken.
Share
Monica Zukas
01:21
I could hear crying from the other side, I could hear crying from our side.
Share
01:25
If somebody beats up your baby, you don't drop it.
Share
Josh Mankiewicz
01:37
Hard by the four lane and yards from the chicken wing place is an unlikely scrap of wilderness in a southern
Illinois
town. A thicket of vines and brambles.
Share
01:47
Acres of thorns that tear at the flesh for years. People just sped by without a second look. But something terrible happened there one cold night in the winter of 2014 that brought a stranger to town, a mother looking for answers about her son.
Share
Lovely Varughese
02:05
I knew one thing I wasn't going to stop.
Share
Josh Mankiewicz
02:08
No matter how painful the truth turned out to be. Does it hurt you to be back here?
Share
Lovely Varughese
02:13
Yes.
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Josh Mankiewicz
02:14
Her heartbreak launched another mother's fight.
Share
Speaker 6
02:17
I wanted to save my son. I'm a fighter and a mom.
Share
Josh Mankiewicz
02:24
And divided an entire community.
Share
Monica Zukas
02:27
No matter who you are, no matter where you came from, right is right and wrong is wrong.
Share
Josh Mankiewicz
02:35
Few people know this part of southern
Illinois
better than Monica Zukas. This mother of two children has spent most of her life in these parts.
Share
Monica Zukas
02:49
The average small town
America
Share
Josh Mankiewicz
02:51
Who runs it?
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Monica Zukas
02:52
That's a hard question. Until something goes wrong, we all do. Welcome to reality check with Monica's Zukas.
Share
Josh Mankiewicz
02:59
And for years she hosted a Friday night radio show called Reality check. Did you touch scandal or city hall politics?
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Monica Zukas
03:07
Oh yeah, oh yeah. I like to push the envelope a little bit.
Share
Josh Mankiewicz
03:11
So it wasn't unusual for people to send her tips about stories to watch. That's how this all began in February 2014.
Share
Monica Zukas
03:20
I had a random Facebook message from somebody I'd never heard of and it said, have you heard about this. And it was a link to a flyer for a missing person.
Share
Josh Mankiewicz
03:29
19 year old Pravin Varughese, a college sophomore at
Southern Illinois University
in
Carbondale
.
Share
03:36
Last seen leaving a house party, stepping out into the bitter cold
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Monica Zukas
03:41
And I was like, where is this kid at?
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Josh Mankiewicz
03:43
What caught your interest? Why don't you think maybe he'd taken an early spring break and gone to baja.
Share
Monica Zukas
03:47
The young man that contacted me, it was in distress. He said this is abnormal, he would not do this, something's wrong.
Share
Josh Mankiewicz
03:58
Monica learned that Pravin came from
Chicago
, a six hour drive away. He was the adored middle child of two first generation immigrants from
India
.
Share
04:07
His dad was a
Respiratory Therapist
, his mom Lovely, a nurse.
Share
Lovely Varughese
04:12
Thursday morning I woke up with this awful feeling of something heavy in my chest
Share
Josh Mankiewicz
04:19
When the phone rang that night, Lovely expected to hear Pravin's voice. He called home most evenings, but it wasn't her son, it was a police officer.
Share
Lovely Varughese
04:29
And he said well your son is reported missing by his cousin.
Share
04:34
I just screamed, everything changed that moment, everything changed
Share
Josh Mankiewicz
04:41
So lovely and her husband drove to
Carbondale
and met their daughter Priya at Pravin's student apartment. There was no sign of their boy.
Share
Priya Varughese
04:48
My parents were just so mentally out of it and it was just so hard. I just felt like I had to be the one to step up because that's my brother. I wanted to find him more than anything in the world. I just wanted him back.
Share
Josh Mankiewicz
04:60
Priya organized busloads of volunteers who showed up from
Chicago
to help the family search. They handed out flyers, posted them on telephone poles and in gas stations, desperate for clues.
Share
Priya Varughese
05:11
We had no idea what happened to Pravin at that point.
Share
Josh Mankiewicz
05:15
Police were searching too. Jody O'Guinn is the former police chief.
Share
Jody O'Guinn
05:19
We had 14 canines to help search the areas for him. We had two helicopters up. We had a state police plane.
Share
Josh Mankiewicz
05:27
See weren't blowing this thing off.
Share
Jody O'Guinn
05:28
No, not at all.
Share
Josh Mankiewicz
05:28
And then the road ran out. You didn't know where he was. What had happened.
Share
Jody O'Guinn
05:31
Did not, did not know where he was.
Share
Josh Mankiewicz
05:33
Lovely's family asked the public for help. They offered $15,000 in reward money. This is really the start of a very long journey for you.
Share
Lovely Varughese
05:42
Yes.
Share
Josh Mankiewicz
05:42
A journey that began as a search for her son but soon became something else. A search for truth and kindness. And finally justice. A first clue from the last person to see Pravin alive.
Share
Jody O'Guinn
06:01
Now we have an area to look for.
Share
Josh Mankiewicz
06:02
But what they discover will tear two families apart.
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Lovely Varughese
06:06
He said, Lovely, you are a nurse right? I said, yes. He said, you need to see him.
Share
Josh Mankiewicz
06:22
Lovely gazed out a hotel window and waited for news of her missing son. Memories crowded out the quiet. Pravin, her energetic child was always in motion from the time he was little singing, dancing, running.
Share
06:47
He'd made varsity on his high school track team.
Share
Lovely Varughese
06:50
His cross country coach said, I don't know any kid that can run that fast and talk and crack jokes.
Share
Josh Mankiewicz
06:57
Personality, who are we talking about?
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Priya Varughese
06:60
He's goofy and funny, always joking and always smiling.
Share
07:03
Never held a grudge ever.
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Josh Mankiewicz
07:05
But his real dream since he was a little boy was to become an
FBI
agent. The criminal justice program at
Southern Illinois University
was well regarded and there was something else the university was known for.
Share
Lovely Varughese
07:19
When we looked at the college, my husband said that's a party college.
Share
Josh Mankiewicz
07:24
Party, party boys huh?
Share
Lovely Varughese
07:25
And then he said which college is not a party college?
Share
Josh Mankiewicz
07:29
A party was the last place Pravin had been seen. Did this kid fit into that party crowd, from what you could tell?
Share
07:36
Uh, we had a lot of his friends that told us that he did party with them on a regular basis.
Share
Josh Mankiewicz
07:42
Drink until he got sloppy or how, how they characterize it.
Share
07:44
Well, he did consume alcohol and there were times that they had seen him drunk.
Share
Josh Mankiewicz
07:49
Including some witnesses told police at the party on the night he disappeared.
Share
07:53
He was kind of creating somewhat of a little bit of a disturbance there and was asked to leave.
Share
Josh Mankiewicz
07:59
Pravin's friends expected him to meet up with them at a bar a few blocks away, but he never showed. They didn't see him the next day or the day after that.
Share
08:08
Finally four days after he was reported missing. Someone came forward with a tip. Pravin, it seemed had scored a ride after the party, cops track down the driver.
Share
08:18
His statement was, Pravin seemed to be intoxicated and was unable to tell where it was that he was going.
Share
Josh Mankiewicz
08:26
There had been a fight and the driver said Pravin had run into the woods at the edge of town.
Share
08:31
Well now we have an area to look for.
Share
Josh Mankiewicz
08:33
Teams fanned out to search. It didn't take long.
Share
08:37
His body was laying in a little bit of a clearing.
Share
08:41
He didn't have a shirt on and he had a cellphone nearby.
Share
Josh Mankiewicz
08:43
Temperature had been 14
Share
08:45
14 degrees.
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Josh Mankiewicz
08:45
Overnight?
Share
08:46
Yes.
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Josh Mankiewicz
08:46
It looked as though Pravin had frozen to death in the woods. So this is the worst possible news of course for the family.
Share
08:53
Yes.
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Josh Mankiewicz
08:54
A police officer showed up at Lovely's hotel room door.
Share
Lovely Varughese
08:58
He said um. We found Pravin and I said is he alive?
Share
09:09
He said no.
Share
Josh Mankiewicz
09:10
And it turned out he was found in some rough woods, not all that far from the window of your motel.
Share
Lovely Varughese
09:17
400 yards from the motel, the whole
Share
Josh Mankiewicz
09:19
All those days you were wondering where he was.
Share
Priya Varughese
09:21
Yep, I think that's always the hardest part for me just thinking that he was alone and you know, there wasn't anyone by his side to tell him that, that we love him and he just had to die alone in the middle of nowhere in the woods.
Share
Josh Mankiewicz
09:35
And she wasn't just sad, she was angry. Priya thought she could hear the police judging her brother.
Share
Priya Varughese
09:41
They said he was too drunk to figure out where he was.
Share
Josh Mankiewicz
09:44
College kid, couldn't handle the liquor and ended up dead.
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Priya Varughese
09:48
That's what they said.
Share
Josh Mankiewicz
09:50
The police chief held a news conference that same afternoon seen here on the local
CBS
affiliate.
Share
09:55
The difficult terrain and low temperatures are believed to have contributed to Pravin's difficulty finding his way out of the wooded area.
Share
Josh Mankiewicz
10:03
Monica's Zukas who had been following the story, watched the presser at a friend's house.
Share
10:08
No foul play is suspected at this time he wasn't injured physically.
Share
10:13
There were no obvious signs of trauma.
Share
Monica Zukas
10:15
And I thought, this just doesn't sound right though.
Share
Josh Mankiewicz
10:19
She was struck by the sight of Pravin's mother on TV, Lovely had gone to the scene where her son died.
Share
Lovely Varughese
10:25
Oh my god, We love him from the bottom of our heart.
Share
Monica Zukas
10:30
When I first saw his mom, just broke my heart. And I remember thinking she's obviously not from Southern
Illinois
.
Share
Josh Mankiewicz
10:39
She's a stranger in a strange way.
Share
Monica Zukas
10:40
She does not know this town. I have so many questions and I'm from here.
Share
Josh Mankiewicz
10:47
Monica didn't know it but Lovely had questions too. When she got back to
Chicago
. The funeral director handling Pravin's body had disturbing news for her.
Share
Lovely Varughese
10:57
He said Lovely you are a nurse. Right? I said yes. He said you need to see him. This is not a frostbitten body.
Share
Josh Mankiewicz
11:06
Lovely had seen several dead bodies during her career as a nurse, but she never expected to see her own son's. She was shocked by what she saw, a massive bruise on Pravin's forehead and other bruises on his thigh. His lip was busted up. If a civilian had seen the body would they said I see an injury.
Share
11:28
Yes
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Josh Mankiewicz
11:28
But lovely wanted an expert opinion. So she hired her own pathologist, Dr. Ben Margolis to examine Pravin's body.
Share
Dr. Ben Margolis
11:37
This was someone who had a violent encounter.
Share
Josh Mankiewicz
11:40
Dr. Margolis noted injuries Lovely hadn't seen, including a bruise on Pravin's arm that went all the way to the bone, possibly a defensive injury. Theoretically if you're stumbling around the woods in the dark and you trip and you hit a rock, could that cause that kind of?
Share
Dr. Ben Margolis
11:55
That's really not enough.
Share
Josh Mankiewicz
11:56
So the more you became familiar with the body you're looking at, did you think this boy suffered a terrible beating or I don't know what caused this?
Share
Dr. Ben Margolis
12:04
If the body was found the way it looked on a city street, you would think that somebody hurt him.
Share
Josh Mankiewicz
12:11
But who? Lovely was determined to find out.
Share
Speaker 10
12:17
She was completely chattered.
Share
12:21
She just said, this isn't my kid, something's wrong
Share
Josh Mankiewicz
12:25
Two mothers United in a common cause
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Lovely Varughese
12:28
I'm like boy, there is another mother that's asking the same questions that I have.
Share
Break
Josh Mankiewicz
13:37
Pravin Varughese had been found dead in the heart of the woods. Police suspected he'd gotten lost in a drunken days and succumbed to the cold. His mother thought something far more sinister had happened, especially after reading the report of her own pathologist. He believed Pravin suffered blunt force trauma to the head. Blunt force trauma?
Share
14:04
Yes
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Josh Mankiewicz
14:05
Lovely wasn't alone in her suspicions.
Share
14:08
We've had a situation in southern
Illinois
that has been kind of disturbing
Share
Josh Mankiewicz
14:14
The same weekend, Previn's family and friends gathered for his funeral in
Chicago
. Monica Zukas was on the radio, 300 miles away, asking questions about his death.
Share
Monica Zukas
14:25
We have what we believe to be a healthy 19 year old found dead in the woods
Share
Josh Mankiewicz
14:29
During her show. A mourner who had been at Previn's open casket wake sent Monica a text.
Share
Monica Zukas
14:35
I just got a text message from a dear friend of Pravin. I went to Pravin's visitation. His face looks like he was beat bad.
Share
Josh Mankiewicz
14:44
Someone told Lovely about Monica's show
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Lovely Varughese
14:47
When I was listening to her. I'm like boy there is another mother that's asking the same questions that I have.
Share
Josh Mankiewicz
14:54
The two women started talking on the phone every day.
Share
Lovely Varughese
14:57
I just felt an automatic connection with her and I thought I can't tell her anything.
Share
Josh Mankiewicz
15:04
Lovely confided in Monica how hurt she was by all the talk of Pravin drinking.
Share
Monica Zukas
15:09
She was completely shattered. She just said this isn't my kid, something's wrong
Share
Josh Mankiewicz
15:18
Pravin's cousin Ashley had already given Lovely his version of events.
Share
15:22
Was Pravin drinking that night?
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Ashley
15:24
He was.
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Josh Mankiewicz
15:25
Was he drinking too much?
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Ashley
15:26
No.
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Josh Mankiewicz
15:27
And what of those reports of Pravin's rowdy behavior?
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Ashley
15:30
That's kind of how Pravin is like in general.
Share
Josh Mankiewicz
15:33
Friends and family have posted videos of his boisterous behavior but if he didn't know I mean
Share
Ashley
15:40
Yeah like he's kind of like energetic, you know what I mean?
Share
Josh Mankiewicz
15:43
But it was hard for Lovely not to wonder if Ashley was just telling her what she wanted to hear. Until Monica interviewed three other students on her radio show who were at the party that night.
Share
Monica Zukas
15:53
This is our second show we've done on this particular issue.
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Josh Mankiewicz
15:57
They explained that from what they had seen pravin hadn't been drinking all that much.
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Speaker 11
16:02
He was standing talking to me like I would talk to anybody else. It wasn't like he was leaning on me or like couldn't talk or think straight.
Share
Josh Mankiewicz
16:11
So if Pravin wasn't that drunk. Lovely wondered how had he ended up lost in the woods? Police had found his body hundreds of yards from the road. You can see them try to retrace his steps in this video, Lovely walk the route too. What's it like?
Share
Lovely Varughese
16:27
Very thick and full of thorns and wines. You have to kind of spread it.
Share
Josh Mankiewicz
16:32
There was barbed wire too, fencing off some of the woods from the highway and that's where they found a piece of his clothing.
Share
Lovely Varughese
16:38
Yep, this is where.
Share
Josh Mankiewicz
16:41
A piece of Pravin's T-shirt snagged on one of the barbs. So the lower strand has got a piece of his clothing.
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Lovely Varughese
16:47
Yep
Share
Josh Mankiewicz
16:48
Lovely thought that the rough terrain, the barbed wire made it unlikely Pravin would have wandered aimlessly into the woods and gotten lost. If he had been lost, why hadn't he just headed towards the cars or used his phone to call for help. And where was the phone?
Share
Lovely Varughese
17:03
His phone was found just right to his right side
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Josh Mankiewicz
17:07
Lovely was more convinced than ever. That Pravin's death was the result of foul play, which is why she was so surprised when six weeks after Pravin's death the official autopsy report came back and confirmed what police had originally said. Pravin had died of hypothermia. The report did note some abrasions on his body, but said there was no significant trauma. So one report doesn't have so much as needing a band aid. The others got blunt force trauma.
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Monica Zukas
17:34
Yes. That's one of the times that I thought I'm in the twilight zone.
Share
Josh Mankiewicz
17:38
But there was something else in that autopsy report. Something big. No alcohol had been found in Pravin's blood. Didn't that undermine the theory that Pravin had gotten lost because he was drunk. It certainly caught the attention of the police pathologist who wrote strangely talks is negative.
Share
17:57
No reason for Pravin's bizarre behavior and hiding in the woods. Did that say something about your attitude towards the investigation? Because it throughout your theory that he was drunk?
Share
18:08
Well you know it's surprisingly he's not drunk
Share
18:10
Right? You know it didn't change in my mind. Didn't change the the direction of the investigation. But it was definitely a surprise that there wasn't more of an alcohol level in his toxicology.
Share
Josh Mankiewicz
18:22
Police had a theory though, maybe Pravin had metabolized the alcohol as he lay dying in the woods. Lovely didn't buy it. She went back to
Carbondale
and staged a protest in the town square.
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Lovely Varughese
18:35
We will not rest until we find the truth.
Share
Josh Mankiewicz
18:38
It was the first time she and Monica met in person
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Monica Zukas
18:41
And we were just yeah, hugging and crying, hugging and crying.
Share
Josh Mankiewicz
18:45
They started planning their next move.
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Monica Zukas
18:48
Lovely said from the beginning, I don't want revenge, I just want answers. And if the answers are that somebody hurt my baby? I want justice.
Share
Josh Mankiewicz
18:58
Over the next few months Lovely and her supporters organized protests and press conferences demanding a new investigation and a year past lovely went to pray in the woods where Pravin's body had been found and she waited and then suddenly he releases a report.
Share
Lovely Varughese
19:21
He didn't call us. He gave it to the press.
Share
Josh Mankiewicz
19:24
It turned out the local prosecutor had been investigating behind the scenes. He had consulted new pathologists and convened a grand jury. In his report, he wrote the evident showed Pravin's death was an accident caused by intoxication, frigid weather and poor judgment.
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Lovely Varughese
19:42
He said Pravin was drunk, intoxicated, highly intoxicated.
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Josh Mankiewicz
19:47
What does the science say?
Share
Lovely Varughese
19:49
He didn't mention that the talks was negative.
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Josh Mankiewicz
19:52
Lovely felt as though Pravin story wasn't being heard. But Monica had an idea about how to turn up the volume. Monica why did you invest so much of your personal capital for a young man you didn't know for a mother you didn't know.
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Monica Zukas
20:06
I know it sounds cheesy and it sounds cliché, but I'm a mother and there's nothing we won't do for our kids.
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Josh Mankiewicz
20:17
One possible answer to what happened that night.
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Speaker 14
20:23
She didn't know what he was capable of.
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Josh Mankiewicz
20:25
And another mother tells her side of the story.
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Speaker 6
20:28
He immediately went to his father and they went and took care of things.
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Josh Mankiewicz
20:45
In the town where her son had lost his life. Tiny soft spoken Lovely was finding her voice.
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Lovely Varughese
20:53
I am not trying to blame anyone or point fingers. We just demand answers.
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Josh Mankiewicz
20:60
The investigation appeared to be over, but Lovely refused to give up.
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Lovely Varughese
21:04
This is not over.
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Monica Zukas
21:06
No, this is not over.
Share
Josh Mankiewicz
21:08
She had filed a lawsuit against the city of
Carbondale
and its police chief accusing them of negligence. 12 days after the boy's family files a lawsuit against you. You're fired, is that correct?
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Jody O'Guinn
21:20
It was actually over the weekend.
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Josh Mankiewicz
21:21
So 30 years of law enforcement work goes up in smoke.
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Jody O'Guinn
21:24
Yes, pretty much gutted my career.
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Josh Mankiewicz
21:27
The city manager said his dismissal was a confidential matter that had nothing to do with any litigation but the former chief believes he was the scapegoat of a city under siege from Pravin's family. Did you think it was a good investigation what you've done to that point?
Share
Jody O'Guinn
21:42
I did, I did think it was a good investigation. I think there were a lot of conscientious people that were working hard.
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Josh Mankiewicz
21:48
And there was one other person lovely sued. Remember a driver had given Pravin a ride that night? He was the last person known to have seen Pravin alive. What's the character of this kid? What did you learn about him
Share
21:60
At face value, typical southern
Illinois
guy you know, middle class family
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Josh Mankiewicz
22:05
His name was Gauge Bethune just like Pravin, Gauge was 19 years old. Just like lovely, his mom, Penny was also a nurse.
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Penny
22:15
Gauge was just very laid back. Good kid. A lot of, a lot of dreams and hopes.
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Josh Mankiewicz
22:23
Penny says Gauge had felt sorry for Pravin walking by in the bitter cold
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Penny
22:27
Didn't have a coat on and asked for a ride. So Gauge said yes.
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Josh Mankiewicz
22:31
She says Gauge had no idea Pravin was missing until days later when he saw a story about it on TV.
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Penny
22:39
Immediately went to his father and they went and took care of things.
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22:45
The following is a taped statement taken from Gauge Bethune
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Josh Mankiewicz
22:48
Gauge told police he was upset when he heard Pravin was missing.
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22:56
He seemed eager to tell detectives everything he knew.
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Gauge Bethune
22:60
And he came up to my window and said, hey give me a ride. So I said, okay, go ahead and get in, it's cold outside. Nobody needs to be walking when it's cold.
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Josh Mankiewicz
23:07
After he got in his truck, Gauge said Pravin didn't seem to have a clue as to where he was going. They drove around in circles for 30 minutes. He said they didn't really talk that much.
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Gauge Bethune
23:18
When he was on the phone, the majority of the time trying to get
Cocaine
off somebody.
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Josh Mankiewicz
23:25
Gauge said the talk of drugs made him nervous. He wanted to get home.
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Gauge Bethune
23:29
And I was like, dude, I've told you 10 times to get out of my vehicle now and then he started to get aggressive and then just give me a pop
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Josh Mankiewicz
23:35
Gauge said he immediately pulled over and that's when he said things got ugly.
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Gauge Bethune
23:41
It got ugly, he go swung on me, self defense. I moved back to dodge it and then I hit him and we rolled down the hill. He was on top, I was on top of, he was on top, I was on top. Punches were exchanged. I do know for sure the first hit, I hit him dead square in his face.
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Josh Mankiewicz
23:57
Maybe that would explain the bruise on Pravin's forehead.
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Gauge Bethune
24:01
You know I'm scared for my life, I don't know what he was capable of, definitely wasn't my race. I'm not used to being on that type of population.
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Josh Mankiewicz
24:11
At that moment, he said a state trooper had arrived at the scene and Pravin had dashed into the woods, really? That was something easy for police to verify and they did. Here's the dashcam video, there's no audio but you can see Gauge walking in the shot and the troopers shining his light into the woods looking for someone. The trooper told Gauge to head on home before leaving himself.
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24:36
Police hadn't told the family about the trooper but Monica did after getting a tip.
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Priya Varughese
24:41
It just haunts me cause I think my brother could have been alive at that time.
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Josh Mankiewicz
24:46
Monica was getting tips about that roadside fight too
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24:50
Our kids are talking over here. They're saying that this driver beat this kid up
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Josh Mankiewicz
24:54
And Previn's family thought they had proof. Pravin had been scared. A friend of his had been on the phone with him when the incident occurred and told the family what she'd heard.
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Priya Varughese
25:04
She said it just sounded like someone was running and he said don't hang up.
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Josh Mankiewicz
25:09
Don't hang up. Could that have been a call for help lovely was at her wits end imagining her son's last hours in the woods and frustrated that the case was going nowhere. And then she got a surprising break because the prosecutor did something Lovely never expected, he asked the judge to appoint a special prosecutor to take a fresh look at the case.
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25:32
Is this credit to the guy? I know you're not very fond of him as an individual, but that he did this thing
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Lovely Varughese
25:39
I guess he was. I believe it, it's, it's God pushing him to do that,'cause the truth still needed to come out
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Josh Mankiewicz
25:52
Lovely dropped her lawsuit against the city and the police chief and waited to see what would happen. But half a year went by.
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Monica Zukas
26:01
I said that's it we're going to the city council meeting and I'm gonna get eight by 10 pictures of Pravin's injuries and I'm gonna put it in their face.
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Josh Mankiewicz
26:08
Any other citizens comments? Yes ma'am.
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Lovely Varughese
26:12
I took a six hour train ride to be here today and I request your kind attention to me.
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26:19
She didn't damn him to hell. She didn't cuss him out. She didn't threaten him. She said please I just want answers and common courtesy.
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Josh Mankiewicz
26:27
Then it was Monica's turn.
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Monica Zukas
26:28
I just want to show you a few images of what we're being told here are not injuries.
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Josh Mankiewicz
26:36
She handed out photos of Pravin's injuries.
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Monica Zukas
26:38
One lady excused herself and was like crying and then this guy was like crying and I thought, oh my God,
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Josh Mankiewicz
26:44
Their presentation seemed to have an impact. A few weeks later, city officials handed over a copy of the case file, Lovely And Monica couldn't believe what they found inside.
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26:56
It's such a relief
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Josh Mankiewicz
26:59
News welcomed by one mother that stuns another.
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