Steve Gatlin
Appearances
Dateline NBC
The Watcher
We started systematically taking each room and trying to find any evidence that we could using all the techniques and science that was available to us at the time.
Dateline NBC
The Watcher
I mean, the whole bathroom glowed. What did you think when you saw that thing light up that way? That tub. I probably can't say on camera. I cleaned it up. I was thinking, oh, crap. Because the whole tub, all the way up to almost two inches from the top, had the same glow.
Dateline NBC
The Watcher
Did somebody wipe everything down? Because you would think you would find other people's fingerprints and things like that.
Dateline NBC
The Watcher
The reaction that he gave, that's odd. Very odd. Lieutenant Gatlin checked on him. He was sitting on a cooler outside of our command post. Someone was trying to talk to him, and he just stared like he was staring off into space.
Dateline NBC
The Watcher
This is like a community laundry room for the residents. So it's got washers and dryers in there. And inside? This is the maintenance room.
Dateline NBC
The Watcher
It looks like there's blood on each end of the saw blade, where obviously somebody had rinsed it off but didn't do a thorough job. But wait a minute.
Dateline NBC
The Watcher
And that second key... Was cut to fit her apartment. There was a key to her apartment. To her apartment? To her apartment, yes.
Dateline NBC
The Watcher
And then they found this. We found packaging for that same type of hacksaw in his apartment. It was the same type as the one found in the maintenance room.
Dateline NBC
The Watcher
First thing you look at, who's closest to her romantically or geographically?
Dateline NBC
The Watcher
We started systematically taking each room and trying to find any evidence that we could using all the techniques and science that was available to us at the time.
Dateline NBC
The Watcher
Exactly. To just disappear with no trace of not talking to anyone that was unlike her.
Dateline NBC
The Watcher
The day was hot already. A humid breeze scattered across the yard. When we started coming down the stairs here, that's when the wind kind of hit you in the face. Yeah. And you could smell something. You could smell a foul odor. A recognizable foul odor.
Dateline NBC
The Watcher
And then I went to the bigger one, which is a large-sized package. It was a trash bag that as soon as I felt down and reached down and touched it and felt it, I felt like it had had some human remains in it.
Dateline NBC
The Watcher
We started cording everything off with crime scene tape, even used sheets to put up barriers on the other side of the fence so the news media and the general public couldn't see what we were doing because at that time, with this investigation, they didn't need to know yet. No. Just in case. We didn't want to mess anything up if it got out too quick what we had found.