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They called it the happiest place on the high desert, home to a tight-knit group of 30-somethings who like to party. It starts as a Playboy Channel fantasy, but this is real life. Where passion leads to murder, and a killer seeks God's help with the cover-up. I'm Josh Mankiewicz, and this is Deadly Mirage, an all-new podcast from Dateline. Listen to all episodes now, wherever you get your podcasts.

I call and her phone went straight to voicemail over and over and over. I realized something was wrong. I got the call that they had found Heather's car. We popped the trunk and there's our victim.

A body of evidence that made no sense. She was wearing an oversized Mickey Mouse shirt. She owned any Mickey Mouse clothing? No. She had long hair. And her hair was cut. Her hair was cut. Who could be this sick in the head to do this? Potential suspects would pile up. So why did loved ones distrust the lead detective? Off track right from the beginning. We were begging them, take him off the case. A case building to an explosive reckoning.

the world blows up. The world blows up almost surreal. No one can say that they forgive the devil. Had the real killer been staring them in the face all along? I'm Lester Holt and this is Dateline. Here's Josh Mankiewicz with Jagged. There aren't too many places left in this country where you'll find Americans still making the things Americans use. One of them is this plant in northern Ohio.

Inside these walls is where an astonishingly long and twisting trail began. By the time it ended, it had touched a shattered family, a stunned law enforcement agency, and a surprisingly large collection of potential suspects whose names became known to all.

Often on Dateline, we tell the stories of families and detectives who find themselves bound together by the same murder, who end up working side by side toward a common goal, sometimes pursuing the same investigation from two different angles. And often each can wind up appreciating the efforts of the other. This wasn't that. At the center of this human cyclone of distrust is a young mom who worked in that plant,

Heather Bogle worked overnights, one eight-hour shift after another, a single parent with a singular mission. Her main focus was always her daughter. Heather's younger sister, Jen. She wasn't too concerned about getting into a relationship. It was more being responsible and taking care of her kid, making sure she was working enough hours to...

support them both. You look up to her? Yeah, she was more like a parent to me than she was a sister. Even though she was only 18 months older? Yeah, because she always looked out for me. At 28, Heather Bogle was mostly looking out for her five-year-old daughter, Mackenzie. Heather had never married Mackenzie's father, and Sister Jen says Heather's romantic life had never really worked as well as her professional one. There was definitely a lot of guys who wanted to be her boyfriend. She was...

very pretty. When everybody says like her smile was the best smile they ever seen, that is completely true. Carmela Badillo was the closest of close friends. When I say that she made an impact on people, she touched their soul, not their heart. Heather Bogle sliced up each day into a life-size jigsaw puzzle. After clocking out at Whirlpool around 6 a.m., she'd sleep during the day, waking in time to pick up Mackenzie from daycare.

And then the two could have an evening together until the spin cycle began again around 10 p.m. Her factory job made it all possible. Heather's cousin Pat Harger was also a co-worker. I remember the day she got her first check. She was overjoyed and she was thrilled. You know what I mean? Almost like she hit the lottery.

That schedule went like clockwork until April 9th, 2015. That's Heather, punching out at 6.17 a.m., wearing a Whirlpool t-shirt. We don't know for sure what happened next. We do know she didn't pick up Mackenzie later that day. At first, Jen thought maybe Heather had overslept. I call and her phone went straight to voicemail over and over and over. Which was unusual. Very unusual.

The hours passed and no one had seen Heather. The family called police and were told to give it some time.

That didn't work for Jan, who along with a couple of Heather's friends made these flyers and started putting them everywhere. Sort of with every passing minute, you're getting a little bit more... Frantic. Yeah. Definitely. I just kept trying to tell myself that she's okay, we're going to find her. There's got to be some reasonable explanation. Except there wasn't. So the family filed a missing persons report with the Sandusky County Sheriff's Office.

And that put them in touch with Detective Sean O'Connell. Soon, O'Connell was looking at Heather's phone records. I think her phone was last pinged, give or take around 920. That ping fixed Heather's phone in an area nearly six miles wide.

The cell company couldn't narrow it down anymore. And then her phone stops. Then her phone stops. Yeah, either her phone had been destroyed or her phone obviously was shut off or lost power in some form or fashion. While the search continued, O'Connell started finding out as much as he could about Heather Bogle. One of the first things he learned was that Heather was in the midst of trying something new. She had begun dating a woman.

which is where Carmela comes in. Were you in love with her? Absolutely. Was she in love with you? Absolutely. You're sure of that? Yeah. As we've all learned too often and too well, love can lead to jealousy. Carmela and Heather fought, and O'Connell heard they had recently broken up. What did you find out about the nature of Heather's relationship with Carmela? I don't think it was a relationship that Heather truly wanted to be in. That was my take on it, from talking to...

family primarily. I think Heather was mixed on, do I want to be with Carmela? Do I want to be with other persons? And then the wondering about where Heather was stopped. The day after she vanished, sheriff's deputies found Heather's 12-year-old old Zalero in an apartment building's parking lot. It wasn't where Heather or her family lived.

The car was locked, and on the front seat, a handwritten note. That note's from Carmela. What's it say? The note pertained to an argument that they were involved in, how much she loves Heather, and that type of thing. Detectives opened the trunk, and then Heather Bogle was missing no longer. She'd been shot twice and badly beaten.

Bruises on her ankles and wrists indicated she'd been bound. She was wearing a Mickey Mouse t-shirt, which wasn't hers, and it didn't have any holes in it, meaning someone had dressed Heather after she was murdered. And that shooting didn't happen in the trunk. Not enough blood there and no bullet holes. And there was one more thing. Something downright weird. Heather's killer had taken a scissors to her long hair, cut it unevenly,

close to her scalp. What do you make of that? I thought it was odd and it made me believe that whoever did this probably did it out of anger. Anger was only one of the emotions Heather's family was feeling. I'm in tears. My wife says, what's wrong? And I said, they just found Heather. My gut just fell to the floor. I think I was in shock. I can't even comprehend that this is even real life.

It was. And now Detective Sean O'Connell began a real-life investigation. So, who'd want to kill Heather Bogle? You know, I don't know. It wouldn't take him long to find suspects. That's suspects plural. A mystifying crime scene about to set off a mind-bending investigation. When we come back, what a neighbor saw.

She tells me she sees the victim's vehicle being parked and a subject getting out wearing some sort of a hoodie. What detectives said a search dog did next. The dog automatically alerts on apartment B. I assure you that if you pick me, I won't let you down. In high school, Heather Bogle auditioned for a game show. As a young woman, she wanted to be a nurse. As a mom, she loved her daughter.

And now, way ahead of time, she was gone. Sandusky County, Ohio Sheriff's Detective Sean O'Connell's investigation...

began with some basic forensics. Fortunately, the coroner's office was able to locate some DNA underneath her fingernails. Was that DNA in the national database? It did not come back to anybody. O'Connell started asking questions near where Heather's body had been found, at the Somerton Apartments. I talked to a female, and she tells me sometime between 1.30 and 3 o'clock in the morning, she sees the victim's vehicle being parked, and

and a subject getting out of the driver's side wearing some sort of a hoodie and taking off on foot heading in a northern direction. Man or woman? Couldn't tell. That's your killer? That's my person being responsible for dropping off the vehicle with the victim's body. Investigators went looking for security footage that might help ID the person in the hoodie. At the same time, it was clear Heather's car wasn't the primary crime scene.

So O'Connell says he brought in a cadaver dog, thinking that killing ground was somewhere close by.

So I'm looking for some place that's somewhat secluded, some place that's indoors that this crime may have occurred. Didn't find anything. So I thought, you know what, let's bring the cadaver dog back to the Somerton Street apartments to where the vehicle was found. And the dog automatically alerts on apartment B, which happens to be the apartment of Kiana Bohr.

Kiana Boer was a 25-year-old single mother who'd lived there about a year. O'Connell says he knew her through her longtime boyfriend, someone O'Connell described as a drug dealer. An autopsy found Heather Bogle had marijuana in her system, and Detective O'Connell thought Heather might have gone to the Somerton Apartments to buy more of it.

So he paid Kiana a visit. And Kiana appeared to be very evasive, not wanting to talk to us for one reason or another, which I thought was a little odd. O'Connell said something else also made him suspicious of Kiana Bohr.

Obviously one of the things we did was go into Kiana's Facebook account and we noticed that Kiana had a theme of Mickey Mouse clothing that she was known to wear that was Mickey Mouse related. Because, remember... When we found the victim, the victim was wearing a XL red t-shirt with a Mickey Mouse face on it. Heather wouldn't wear a size XL. No. Would Kiana Boer wear a size XL? Yes. Circumstantial? Sure.

Then investigators found security footage from a nearby grocery store that seemed to show Heather Bogle's car driving in the direction of the Somerton Apartments. The video is of VHS quality. It's not real clear. It appears to be the victim's vehicle, and it's the right time. The only other car O'Connell saw on that video during those early morning hours was a white SUV.

It was headed in the same direction, toward the Somerton Apartments.

O'Connell wanted to know more about that car. Can't tell the make or model. Cannot. Anybody involved in this case drive a white SUV? There were some pictures of Omar Satchel being taken where he's associated with a white SUV, yes. This is Omar Satchel. He was friends with Kiana Boer and had been seen at the Somerton apartments in the days and weeks before Heather's murder.

he had a lengthy criminal record, ranging from drug offenses to some violent crimes. More importantly, this is a photo from Omar's Instagram account showing him in a white SUV. That helped spur O'Connell forward. And even though he had no murder weapon and no eyewitnesses, O'Connell says he continued to pick up talk that Omar Satchel, Kiana Boer, and as many as two others were somehow involved.

He says he heard from an informant that someone had disposed of a gun in the Sandusky River right after the murder. O'Connell's divers couldn't find it. That did not make him think twice. You still think that's a good investigation? I think it's, yes, I do. I truly do. And so O'Connell had Omar Satchel arrested on unrelated weapons charges, hoping he'd be able to add murder to that.

And O'Connell named his suspects in Heather Bogle's murder, publicly, in the newspapers. A day of reckoning was coming. Coming up, one suspect is about to make an accusation of her own. You knew Detective O'Connell before all this began? Correct. And there was some bad blood between the two of you? Correct. Why the family thinks this detective is blowing the investigation. Everything he was doing was wrong. When Dateline continues...

Ready actors! A new horror movie with a promising young star. Action! She was so good at playing a killer. But where did the performance end and reality begin? Cut! A story with surprises even Hollywood couldn't have imagined.

I'm Keith Morrison. Think you've heard every Dateline story? Think again. Listen to Killer Roll and a dozen other riveting series when you follow the Dateline Originals podcast.

Hey guys, Willie Geist here reminding you to check out the Sunday sit down podcast on this week's episode. I get together with Lisa Kudrow to talk about her new Netflix series, no good deed, and to reflect on her time as one of six friends on one of the most popular and enduring shows in the history of television. You can get our conversation now for free wherever you download your podcasts. A true crime story never really ends.

Even when a case is closed, the journey for those left behind is just beginning. Since our Dateline story aired, Traci has harnessed her outrage into a mission. I had no other option. I had to do something. Catch up with families, friends, and investigators on our bonus series, After the Verdict.

Ordinary people facing extraordinary circumstances with strength and courage. It does just change your life, but speaking up for these issues helps me keep going. To listen to After the Verdict, subscribe to Dateline Premium on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or at datelinepremium.com. Detective Sean O'Connell thought he was on his way to figuring out who had killed Heather Bogle.

He named three suspects, all of whom were connected to the Somerton apartments where Heather's car and body were found. O'Connell's theory was that Heather had gone to that apartment complex to buy drugs. I'm thinking that she's there to make maybe some sort of a purchase for personal use. And then something on the bad side had happened at that point. O'Connell suspected Heather may have bought drugs from Kiana Bohr.

who was living at the Somerton Apartments when Heather was murdered. You ever sell marijuana to Heather? No, I didn't. Never sold drugs. Investigators found some people who thought they might have seen Heather in that apartment complex before. You'd never seen her? I don't recall seeing Heather. I pretty much stayed to myself and minding my business. Why would a cadaver dog lead...

from the trunk of Heather's car into your building and almost to your apartment. I don't believe that they led them to my door like they told the media. I believe that he just fabricated that piece of evidence. Accusing law enforcement of making up evidence is usually a losing proposition.

Kiana Boer said this was all about history. You knew Detective O'Connell before all this began? Correct. And there was some bad blood between the two of you? Correct. What was the nature of that? He pretty much had like a personal vendetta against my child's father. And you think you just got caught in the middle of that? Correct. I think I was a familiar face in the right place for him at the right time for him. A perfect opportunity.

Remember, O'Connell says he believed Kiana wore Mickey Mouse apparel, like the t-shirt in which Heather was found.

Kiana says that isn't true either. That wasn't your t-shirt that Heather Bogle was found in? No. Detective O'Connell says that when they came to your door and asked whether you knew Heather Bogle, that you seemed evasive. Correct. Why would you have been evasive? I was evasive because I was smoking marijuana at the time, and I get a knock on my door, and I crack the door, and the police was at my door. So if you seemed evasive and closed the door, it's... It's because I was smoking, actually.

O'Connell's other primary suspect was Omar Satchel. Did you know Heather Bogle? No. And that never met her? Never met her. Never been in the same room with her in my life. I didn't even know what she looked like until somebody showed me on their phone. Like Kiana Boer, Omar Satchel says O'Connell's investigation was essentially a frame job. Honestly, I just think they were looking for someone to pin it on, and as my lawyer told me at the time, I was the perfect scapegoat. Why were you the perfect scapegoat? I'm African-American.

And I had priors. I had a record. And that he definitely does. This is your record. And it is the proverbial record that is as long as my arm. So it's not exactly shocking that they thought you could have been a suspect in this. I mean, I understand that. I'm like, I can't help you. I don't know anything about this. What do you want me to do? I volunteered my DNA. I volunteered a mouth swab.

And Omar's DNA was not a match for what was found under Heather's fingernails. O'Connell thought Omar's friend, Keri Jeffrey, might have played a part in the killing, but he wasn't a match either. Neither was Kiana Boer.

Omar had an alibi for the day of Heather's murder. And as for that photo of Omar in the white truck... I'm taking a picture in the rear view mirror. That picture was taken two years before I ever even came to Fremont. That truck has never even been in Fremont, Ohio. After having their patience tried for four months, Heather's family came to the conclusion that Sean O'Connell was dead wrong.

My gut instinct was that Sean just wasn't doing what he was supposed to be doing. Everything he was doing was wrong. Heather's family thought the real suspect was someone much closer to Heather. And they thought the best clue might be that haircut given to Heather Bogle by her killer. Coming up.

Stories of bad blood between Heather and her brother. They were fighting a lot. Oh, yeah. And battles with her girlfriend. They had to be broken up in a fight, you know. Oh, like literally pulled apart? Yeah. Detective Sean O'Connell had what he thought were three, possibly four good suspects in Heather Bogle's murder.

The way he saw it, she'd been the victim of a drug deal that had turned violent. But Heather's sister Jan and her cousin Pat thought O'Connell was way off base. Was Heather involved in drugs? No. She smoked pot, but she never did any kind of other drugs. Less than a spoonful. It was to help her anxiety. Your family and the sheriff's department were very much not on the same page. That came pretty quickly. Very quickly. I'd say about a month into it.

Jen and Pat thought O'Connell should be looking closer to home, a lot closer, and at someone with whom Heather had a volatile relationship. That person was Heather's brother, Josh Feasel. They were fighting a lot. Oh, yeah. According to Jen, Josh sent Heather an ugly text message just hours before Heather went missing, berating her for failing a nursing exam.

He knew what to say that would get under her skin. But it was fair to assume that Heather and Josh didn't always see eye to eye.

O'Connell said Josh was less than cooperative when approached by investigators. Josh would have his good days on wanting to talk to us than Josh would have his bad days on not wanting to talk to us. At one point, O'Connell said he asked for Josh's DNA just to rule him out.

He wouldn't give it to us initially. That's got to make you sit up a little straighter. It did. I sat down with Josh. What was it like to be accused of having played a part in killing your sister? I felt like you guys are crazy to think I would do that. You loved your sister. Definitely. The only person in my family who I felt like wanted me to succeed was my sister, Heather. Josh agreed his angry text message was hurtful.

He explained it by saying it was simply a misguided attempt at tough love. I felt in my mind if I shame Heather, I'll shame her into doing the right things. But it was the wrong approach, clearly, and it was abusive. Do you regret sending Heather that text? Yeah, definitely.

As for why Josh refused to give up his DNA? According to police, when they went to you and asked for your DNA, you said no. They never went to me. Josh said O'Connell never asked him for it. They never even tried to get my DNA. At the end of the day, they know I'm innocent, and their opinion doesn't matter. Facts are facts, and opinions are opinions. Jen and Pat thought there was someone else who should be looked at with suspicion.

Someone much closer to Heather, her ex-girlfriend Carmela. You guys go back and forth between Carmela and Josh being involved? I did. They were the only two that made sense in my mind. Jen said it was common knowledge that Carmela and Heather fought. And they'd fight about what usually? It was mostly jealousy stuff.

Something else that implicated Carmella, said Jen, was the way Heather's killer cut her hair. Heather dyed her hair a lot, and it was kind of fried, and she didn't think Carmella liked her hair. I just instantly was like, her hair's cut off, what do you mean, who would touch her hair? Nobody made sense except for Carmella.

Jen and Pat shared their feelings with Detective O'Connell. To an investigator, when you have somebody's hair cut, they're doing it as a means of getting even. They're doing it as a means of anger, frustration. Add to that the note from Carmella found in Heather's car. I remember telling her, you're dead to me, and the note. You're dead to me. Hard words that carried weight like knives, and I didn't know the weight of them. I took her for granted.

You regret writing that? Oh yeah. In more ways than one. Carmella says there was never a serious argument about Heather's hair. I would have never said anything to make her feel bad or think that her hair wasn't looking good.

It was just a color preference. I said I liked it better blonde, but it still looks nice. That's literally all that was said. So that's not a fight about her hair? No, there was never a fight about her hair. The main thing with her, if you felt that something was off, you could communicate about it. And I can't tell you how many times we agreed to just disagree. Carmela said the investigation ultimately built a wall between her and Heather's family. Of course I'm hurt, and I'm like, why would they even suspect me?

Well, here's why. It was never a question if Carmella loved my sister. It was just, did she love her this much that she went crazy and killed her because she couldn't have her? Heather's family was convinced that Carmella was a very strong suspect. They were very well convinced of that. You were not as convinced. I was not as convinced. O'Connell said he didn't think Josh had anything to do with it either.

And O'Connell said his drug theory was still the best theory. By now, Pat and Jen had become so frustrated with O'Connell, they actually called his bosses to complain. We were begging them, take him off the case. He's not doing anything. He's not doing his job. He's not looking into leads. All he needed, he said, was a little more time. Instead, all the clocks suddenly stopped. The world blows up. The world blows up.

An arrest, but it's not one of the suspects. I was actually dumbfounded. Then, startling news turns the case upside down. Tough. Very tough. When Dateline continues.

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Let's do this. To subscribe, download Start Today from the App Store on your Apple device now. Terms apply. Cancel anytime through Apple under profile settings. The news reports were all about failure. Heather Bogle's murder was still unsolved after 16 agonizing months. There had to be a point where you thought this was never going to be solved.

There was lots of points where we thought this was never going to be solved. By now, Pat and Jen had lost all faith in the sheriff's investigation and in Sheriff's Detective Sean O'Connell. I knew he was off track right from the beginning. Yes. I even called him incompetent a couple different times because I was very frustrated. So frustrated that Jen and Pat finally decided to take matters into their own hands, appealing directly to the community for help.

Then something happened that no one expected. There had been an arrest. Only it wasn't of Heather's killer. It was of the sheriff himself.

I was actually dumbfounded at first. Sheriff Kyle Overmyer was caught stealing prescription pain pills held in county custody. Your sheriff had a drug problem. He did. And he was supporting his habit by pilfering money from a county fund. Sheriff Overmyer eventually pleaded guilty and was sentenced to four years in prison.

To Jen, it was yet another indication of a sheriff's office in disarray. It all made sense of why we weren't getting any answers. That turned out to be just the beginning. Soon, Detective Sean O'Connell was under investigation for how he was handling, or mishandling, the Heather Bogle murder case.

The state attorney general's office began looking into allegations that O'Connell was tampering with evidence and coercing witnesses. You're sort of accused here of misleading, concealing, slanting, all to sort of fit your theory that you had blinders on. Yes. Did you? Absolutely not. No. What I was doing, Josh, was following the leads on where they were taking me.

To Heather's family, the announcement that Detective O'Connell was under investigation came as welcome news. Anything that didn't fit into what he thought was going on, he just kind of dismissed and didn't even look back at. He just wanted to be able to pin it on somebody and somebody go to jail for it.

Facing possible criminal charges, O'Connell resigned from the sheriff's office and began managing a McDonald's. It's not the way I wanted to end my law enforcement career by any means. Tough. Very tough. You guys saw a side of the sheriff's department that most people don't ever see. Yeah. We just never thought we'd be part of that. You trust the law.

The monumental job of restoring the county's faith in its sheriff's office, as well as jump-starting the Heather Bogle murder investigation, now fell to the newly elected sheriff, Chris Hilton, and his newly appointed lead detective, Major Nick Katsopoulos. What condition was the case in? In trouble. It was...

The mask. Was Detective O'Connell just over his head or just wrong or deliberately trying to focus the investigation on people who didn't have anything to do with it? In my opinion, it started off with probably going down the wrong path. I think where it ended up for him was sticking to that path so that he wouldn't be wrong.

Katsopoulos began by looking at O'Connell's three named suspects, Omar Satchel, Kiana Boer, and Kary Jeffrey. And he found exactly nothing connecting any of them to the murder of Heather Bogle. We stopped looking at them at that point. We followed the evidence and it took us a different way. So that investigation that not only focused on them, but named them publicly, nothing pointing to them? No. No.

Next, Katsopoulos focused on Josh and his fractious relationship with his sister. Investigators obtained Josh's DNA and compared it to the mystery DNA under Heather's nails. And he's negative. He's not the guy. It is not his DNA. That's correct.

So then, what about Carmela Badillo? You looked pretty hard at Carmela, didn't you? Very hard. He considered whether Carmela could have been responsible for Heather's jagged haircut. It certainly piqued my interest. But Katsopoulos soon found Carmela to be both cooperative and credible. Carmela was extremely heartbroken. Anything that she could do...

to try to bring whoever did this to Heather Bogle, to justice, she was going to do it. Carmela's DNA didn't match either. And when detectives asked Carmela to take a polygraph, Carmela agreed and passed. And so she too was cleared. As soon as I passed the polygraph, first thing I said, now will you do your job? For those who'd been publicly named by O'Connell as Heather's suspected murderers,

Word that they were no longer suspects was little reason to celebrate. What's this all done to you? This has destroyed my life. It's hard for me to get employment. Anybody ever apologize for sort of making you famous in a way you never wanted to be? No, they pretty much just, it's over with, move on with your life. My face was put in the paper. Murder suspect, murder suspect, murder suspect.

three to five times a week. It still bothers me. You go certain places, people look at you and then, you know, they recognize your name or they recognize your face and they give you those looks. And so Major Katsopoulos wiped the slate clean. It was a start over case. I needed to go back to the beginning. And to Heather's last known whereabouts. 6:17 a.m. leaving the Whirlpool parking lot.

He then examined those phone records, indicating her phone last pinged a cell tower at 9.20 a.m. in an area not far from the plant. We had a radius at that time of how big an area. 5.79 miles. It's a pretty big area. If only there were a way to narrow it down. And then investigators found one, and it turned out...

The prime suspect had been right under their noses the whole time. Coming up, a new name surfaces along with an eye-popping detail. Where does he work? Whirlpool. Same as other Vogel? Correct. A case about to explode. We about fainted. I got weak in the knees.

Major Nick Katsopoulos and his team worked overtime, trying to answer a banker's box full of questions. Starting with, what happened to Heather immediately after she left Whirlpool? Information from cell towers in and around Sandusky County provided little help. But what about satellite information? If your cellular device is communicating with a GPS satellite,

It will continue to do that once in a while. In this particular case, Heather Bogle's phone did communicate with the satellite. It was one of the many avenues Sean O'Connell had not pursued previously. And we were able to retrieve that data through a search warrant that we served on Google.

That data was manna from heaven. It pinpointed the location of Heather's phone with far greater precision than a cell tower ever could. It puts her phone very close to a trailer in Emerald State Trailer Park. To within just a few feet of the trailer's front door. And who lives there? Daniel Myers. That name come up in the investigation before? Not to our knowledge at that point.

Suddenly, Katsopoulos had a fresh lead. He began to dig. Daniel Myers. Age? Late 40s. Married or single? Single. And where does he work? Whirlpool. Whirlpool? Same as other Bogle? Correct. It later emerged that Detective O'Connell had assumed other detectives would handle what turned out to be critical interviews with Whirlpool employees. And so he never picked up Myers' trail.

He also missed or failed to follow up on an email sent by a tipster pointing him in the direction of Daniel Myers. Any indication that the investigator did speak with that person? No. Because if they had, they would have heard the name Daniel Myers. Correct. Now, Katsopoulos and his partner were paying Myers a visit, which the major recorded. How you doing, Dan? He could have told us anything.

We're friends. She stopped by to have a cup of coffee. And then she left and I never saw her again. Yes. Except Daniel Myers didn't say that. Did you know her at all? Very, very little. Very little. He was completely trying to distance himself from her. You don't yet say, we know that she and her phone were at your address the day she vanished. No, not yet. Did you ever know her to have friends in this trailer park?

It certainly made him look more suspicious than initially. That led us into search warrants. Including one to search Meyer's trailer.

The investigators found that several parts of that trailer subflooring had been replaced. Almost as if he were trying to fix some damage that he'd done to his trailer by firing some bullets into it. Correct. Katsopoulos also secured a warrant for Myers' DNA. And suddenly, that mystery DNA under Heather's nails had a name. We about fainted. It was, in fact, Daniel Myers. I'll tell you, I got a little weak in the knees.

Two years after Heather's body was found, Daniel Myers was arrested and charged with her murder. Katsopoulos thought Myers might have lured Heather to his trailer, hoping to have sex with her, and attacked her when she refused. You ever hear the name Danny Myers before? Nope. Never. Never. She never talked about him? Never. Myers sat in jail for a year and a half, and then came word of a deal in exchange for no death penalty.

Myers agreed to plead guilty to Heather's murder and receive life without parole. At sentencing, DA Tim Braun gave the Bogle family a glimpse into Heather's last moments. This is her body as it was discovered. As for Heather's cut hair, Braun said that was not just the final insult in a crime of fashion. It was, he said, Myers' deliberate and futile attempt...

to remove all traces of his DNA from Heather's body. Heather Bogle was the real hero in this case because she fought back and that evidence was in her fingernails. So she helped solve her own murder? She really helped solve her own murder, yes. Mr. Myers, did you wish to make a statement? I had nothing to say. Heather's loved ones did.

Carmela Badillo was allowed to speak to Daniel Myers just before he was led away to begin serving his life sentence. I want you to know, Daniel Miles, I do not forgive you. No one in this room can say that they forgive the devil. I'm excited for your future. I know it's going to be a short one. I hope you're not an ugly piece of shit. When you think about her, what do you think about? I just think of...

Not the least of which was the damage done to Carmella's relationship with Heather's family. At some point, you realized you'd been wrong about Carmella.

Part of me really didn't want to believe the whole time. Feel bad? Yeah, horrible. Me too. What'd you say to her? We hugged. We cried together. She tried to apologize and I stopped her and I said, "No, don't because that's what you felt."

and that was your sister, and it was justified. Bottom line, we were fighting against each other for loving the same person. Daniel Myers would not be the only person sent to prison as a result of the Heather Bogle murder case. In July 2018, former detective Sean O'Connell accepted a plea deal of his own, admitting to evidence tampering. Other charges, including witness coercion and dereliction of duty, were dropped.

His punishment? Two years in prison. I can assure you that... At his sentencing, O'Connell spoke directly to Heather's family. Again, I apologize to the Bogle family. I truly do. I can assure you that I was just doing everything in my power as a police officer to find those persons responsible for Heather's death. For all those swept up in this investigation, this was a long journey to justice.

involving not just a search for Heather's killer, but a battle with a sheriff's office run amok. A battle Jen Bogle was determined to win. This girl was tough, investigating up all night, working, taking care of kids. Her number one priority was still Heather. We need to find out who did this. I would think your sister would be proud of you. Thank you. You feel any better? I feel relieved we finally know what happened.

happened. You know who. Yeah. And you know who it wasn't. Yeah, exactly. That's all for now. I'm Lester Holt. Thanks for joining us.

They called it the happiest place on the high desert, home to a tight-knit group of 30-somethings who like to party. It starts as a Playboy Channel fantasy, but this is real life. Where passion leads to murder, and a killer seeks God's help with the cover-up. I'm Josh Mankiewicz, and this is Deadly Mirage, an all-new podcast from Dateline.

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