The pandemic forced a five-year delay in reporting on the murder of Lauren DeWise, but when 20/20 returned, a brave survivor shared her story. Deborah Roberts talks with correspondent John Quiñones about his interview with Ashley Van Hemert, the toll the case took on investigators, and how retracing the hunt for the murder weapon gave John a chance to try something he’d never done before. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Chapter 1: What is the '2020 After Show' about?
Hey there, 2020 listeners. It's Deborah Roberts here, and I want to welcome you to our very first 2020 After Show. There are so many things that happen behind the scenes when we're out reporting. Surprising twists, incredible moments that we, our producers, and our correspondents experience. So we decided to share the best stories with you.
Every Monday, the 2020 After Show will take you behind the scenes of our most recent program, and we will also play exclusive audio that you won't hear on Friday's show. As you know, we've been bringing hard-hitting investigative reporting for nearly five decades. I wasn't here all five decades, let me tell you. I've only been here for a couple of them.
This whole team and I are so excited to bring this show to you, pulling back the curtain, if you will, on the program that you all know and love. And so for our first episode, I have the pleasure of welcoming my friend and colleague, ABC News correspondent, John Kenyonis.
Hi, Deb.
It's good to be with you. Good to have you. We call you Q around here, so I hope you don't mind, John.
Congratulations on anchoring the show. I just love having you at the helm with David, of course, of 2020.
It's a delight. And to see you on the program regularly. Now, John, your show, You Left Me for Dead, I'm going to give a little recap here because it's really interesting and lots of little twists. And a warning to all of you, there may be spoilers if you haven't heard the show. And you can find the episode, of course, right next to this one in your feed.
You Left Me for Dead is a story of absolute horror and homicide in a small town near Bozeman, Montana. Two women are at home, and this is a nightmare for any of us thinking about being at home on a quiet night, when an intruder breaks in and shoots them. Lauren DeWise dies, and Ashley Van Hamer miraculously survives.
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Chapter 2: Who is Ashley Van Hemert and what happened to her?
What follows is a dogged investigation by a pair of local police officers, telltale boot prints in the snow, an ice fisher who actually finds evidence, The search leads to Paul DeWise, Lauren's estranged husband. If you follow our shows, you know that wouldn't be a big surprise. But how it all happens is and his 15 year old son, Joe, his son from his first marriage.
So here's a clip from the show from Joe's interrogation.
Joe, we've got to be honest. I am completely honest with you. How did your boots, those same prints, end up at the crime scene? Joe, be truthful.
He was protecting his father. He was.
Now, this poor kid is a teenager. John, there are so many elements to this story. I just, what was it about this one initially that you really felt so compelled to jump into?
It was such a baffling case. You know, initially it was reported as a double homicide and that sort of crime doesn't happen in a town like Belgrade, Montana. We actually headed out to do the story five years ago and then the pandemic happened and we put everything on hold.
Well, that's what I wanted to ask you because it was a long time in the making. How did that change the reporting, though? Because when you wait five years, other things happen. People change their minds. Stories sort of change, maybe.
No, Deb. You know, actually, it helped us because so often when we murder like this happens or a tragedy, the media descends on the town and folks close to that crime really don't want to talk about it much further. Five years later, we were able, the community was ready then to talk to us.
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Chapter 3: How did the pandemic delay impact the investigation?
And more importantly, one of the crucial witnesses, one of the victims, Ashley Van Hamert, was willing to talk to us and ready to talk to us. So it really helped us, that delay.
Yeah, yeah. Sometimes people close up. Sometimes people are ready to talk right away. But the idea, this woman survives this tragic shooting, loses her friend. And why do you think finally, I mean, obviously she had healed a little bit from her wounds, I guess, but psychologically, I mean, why did she feel ready to process and talk about it on camera?
Because of everything she had been through. We spoke to her and her mother and her family for more than two hours. And then we spent all day with them. It was just beautiful the way she was ready to open up. And what really struck me was that she's so forgiving. After everything she went through, she was shot in the head, lost part of her brain and skull. She can hardly use the left side of
of her body and yet uh she is ready to forgive this man and and she um she was telling me that the one thing that she cannot stop thinking about is the dead woman's daughter lauren her roommate's daughter a lot of people would have felt great anger toward this man yeah no i've actually still to this day i've never felt anger at him wow it's just the more of like
How could you do this to, not even to me, but like the mom of your own daughter?
A woman you profess to love.
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Chapter 4: Why did Ashley Van Hemert decide to share her story?
Yes. Yes. How could you leave her without a mom? And at that time I was hoping, you know, you'll be in prison for the rest of your life for, you know, what you've done, you know, and that you wouldn't have a dad either anymore.
Gosh, just so heartbreaking.
You know what else she tells me in the interview? She says that she actually prays for Paul DeWise, this man who tried to kill her and killed her roommate. That's what also struck us. Her faith is so amazing. Her resilience, you know, her strength, her willingness to forgive this killer. She's an amazing woman.
Despite the horrific injury that I said she suffered to the brain, she now is recovering well. Well, that's what I wanted to ask you.
Yeah. How is she doing after all of that?
She lives by herself now. She has a job. And she's back to doing the things she loves. And that's being outdoors in the mountains. She's a snowboarder. And she's beginning to do a little bit of that. And, of course, hiking always with her beloved dog, you know, Bronson, by her side.
Well, if you're in Montana, of course, you probably do love the outdoors. It always strikes me when you interview and when we all go out there and we talk to these people who have gone through such an ordeal. Does she talk a lot about Lauren and just having had that loss?
She thinks about her all the time. You know, they had... just moved in together, but Lauren at one point said, this is the safest I've ever felt living here. She was so glad to be away from this husband who it turns out had been abusing her. She had started to open up, but not a lot to Ashley. It's so tragic that it happened before she had a chance to tell them what was going on.
But one of the roommates certainly believed that this was serious enough to lock the doors. You know, she was a woman who, she says, had not locked her doors as long as she had lived there. But after she heard about Paul DeWise, she started making sure that the door was locked and that they were better protected.
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Chapter 5: How was the murder weapon discovered?
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OK, John, we're back now. And I want to talk about not only just this crime and how it happened, but, you know, one of the things that's always intriguing is how police crack these cases. That's why our viewers and our listeners actually find these cases so interesting, how they found it. Now, the murder weapon in this case, these women had been shot.
They didn't find it right away, but they eventually you met the folks who found the murder weapon. And it was an intriguing way. Tell us a little bit about that in this cold part of the country.
In the very Montana way, as we like to say, that they find us. This woman was ice fishing at a place called Cattail Lake in Bozeman, Montana.
Andrea Larson.
Yes. And she's out there with her dog and her husband. And it's a frozen pond, of course. And I got to tell you, I was a little nervous heading out onto that pond. But we had a chart that showed that a car could drive over this frozen lake and wouldn't fall through.
Did your producer, Joe Diaz, have to convince you to go out there?
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Chapter 6: What role did local police play in solving the case?
Did you catch anything? No. No, of course not.
Not at all.
But, you know, I'm always struck by the fact that people are willing to take us out into their lives and to do these kinds of things. And you specifically probably wanted to be out there on the ice with her because that's – That factored into the story.
That's why we're reporters. You know, we're out there. We just want to learn more about the world and life. And this was an integral part of the investigation, what she found. And she eventually, of course, did turn it in. And that was a big break in the case.
I am always struck by the police officers in these stories, and they are just the unsung heroes many times, particularly in small towns where maybe they don't necessarily always have the experience of investigating big murders. Maybe they don't happen there.
And so in this particular case, a big part of the story was that dogged detective work that was done by Jeremy Kopp of the Gallatin County Sheriff's Office, you mentioned, and Dustin Lensing of the Belgrade Police Department. What about the two of them in trying to put this together? And I'm guessing this is probably maybe the biggest case they had had to try to solve.
They were so sharp in their investigation for small town cops that when they found boot prints, for example, in the snow, they lightly spray painted the boot print with red paint. To get the imprint. To create a kind of, yeah, 3D model of the prints. And then they went to Walmart where they searched the shoe aisles for the same kind of boots that these prints belonged to.
And they found the exact same. Kind of boot. And then they gently and methodically interview the characters in this case. It happened on a Sunday morning. They weren't even working. And then they worked seven days a week. It was really a master class on how to conduct these investigations taught to us by two small town cops.
Yeah. And they know to go to family right away to look at the family members. And certainly when they learn that somebody has been in the throes of a divorce, as Lauren had. So obviously they kind of knew where to swoop in. This case you talk about in the piece had a big impact on these two officers. And it happens all the time.
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