Killer Story | 1. A Rose for Mom

Listen to all episodes of Killer Story ad-free right now by subscribing to The Binge. Visit The Binge channel on Apple Podcasts and hit subscribe at the top of the page or visit getthebinge.com to get access wherever you listen. The Binge. Feed your true crime obsession. The Binge. It's just after dawn in late September 1987, and Tom Percival is about half an hour by car from Las Vegas. He's just launched his boat into the Colorado River. His wife is with him. They've planned a day with the kids playing in the river's clean, clear water. We were probably at 10, 12 minutes into the water. As they head across the water, the two watch out for debris in their path. And that's when I see it. It's about 75 feet away. 75, 80 feet, something like that. I told her it was a log. It just looked like it was barely floating underwater. It's barely breaking the surface. Tom's not convinced, so he steers the boat closer. As he approaches, Tom seems to stand still. I remembered everything. I mean, I could probably even tell you how many ripples were in the water at the time. Tom sees something unusual. He can't tell what it is. It looked like a beautiful mannequin. So I took the oar and kind of pushed on her. And she went about six inches underwater and then floated back to the surface. And I'm going, no, it was a girl. I didn't want to hurt her skin. I didn't want to touch, really I didn't want to touch her. And I was only this far away from her, six, eight inches. I remember looking at her hair, beautiful hair floating in the water. just floating out like a rainbow kind of like just beautiful and she did have this like a mossy green tint all over the skin that I could see and that's when I noticed the teardrop right in the corner of her eye I saw a bloody tear I about lost it right there I've said, who would do this to this poor girl? The girl's name was Sabrina Kidd, but no one knew that. They won't know that for years. Nobody will know that Sabrina is dead and still wouldn't know if not for the preternatural drive of a total stranger, a stranger who decided for her own reasons to find out what happened to Sabrina. This is a story of lies, cons, and cover-ups. He said she never came home. I go, that motherfucker's lying. And of a woman compelled to get justice for someone she's never met. No one ever dared tell me anything. I did it because I wanted to, because I was telling the truth. And it's a story of yearning for better endings. She goes, I just want someone to love me, Someone to care about me unconditionally. This is Killer Story. I'm Steve Fishman. Episode 1, A Rose for Mom. So I've noticed this pattern lately in my life. I'll be shopping online. doesn't matter if it's clothes, something for the house or something I absolutely don't need, but suddenly deeply want. And I'll get to the checkout and think, okay, here we go. 15 steps, passwords. Okay, where's my wallet? And then I see it, that purple shop pay button. And I genuinely feel relieved. I'm like, hallelujah, because I know in about three seconds, I will be done. One tap, no login spiral, no typing my entire address for the 10,000th time. It's just done. That button is powered by Shopify, which is the commerce platform behind millions of businesses worldwide and about 10% of all e-commerce in the US. That's right. And what's cool is Shopify isn't just making checkout easier for shoppers. It's making easier for people to actually start and run their own businesses. You can build a beautiful online store with ready to use templates that match your brand. And Shopify even has AI tools that help write product descriptions, create headlines, and enhance your photos so you don't have to do everything all by yourself. You know, we got some help. They also help you find customers with built-in email and social media tools and manage everything in one place from inventory to payments to analytics. I mean, it's amazing. It's basically like having a whole team behind you. So whether you're shopping or selling, Shopify just makes things smoother. See less carts go abandoned and more sales go with Shopify and their ShopPay button. Sign up for your $1 per month trial today at shopify.com slash cases. Go to shopify.com slash cases. That's shopify.com slash cases. I've been thinking a lot lately about how nice it is to have a few pieces in your closet you can just rely on. The ones you reach for without overthinking it and somehow always feel put together when you put them on. That's exactly where Quince shines. They focus on premium fabrics, thoughtful design, and everyday essentials that feel effortless and dependable even as the seasons change. I've been eyeing this Mongolian cashmere oversized crewneck sweater in Heather Gray. I just love that it has this like oversized comfortable look that's still incredibly luxurious. 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Right now, go to quince.com slash cases for free shipping and 365 day returns. That's a full year to build your wardrobe and love it. And you will. Now available in Canada too. Don't keep settling for clothes that don't last. Go to quinc.com slash cases for free shipping and 365 day returns. Head west from the Colorado River, and you'll most likely run into Las Vegas, known across America as Sin City. That's its attraction. Las Vegas is a place to do whatever you want. People float into Vegas to shake off their workaday selves. They hit the Vegas Strip, a row of casinos with high-stepping showgirls and flashing neon lights, so bright you can see them miles into the Mojave Desert. Viva Las Vegas, a place where adults gamble on changing their stories. What Sin City is not is a place for a beautiful naive teenager So why in the late spring of 1987 did 17 Sabrina Kidd move to Vegas alone The answers begin with her mother, don't they always? It's the 1980s and Sabrina is a child living with her mom, Bobby Sue, in Texas. She worshipped her mom. This is Dewana, Sabrina's first cousin. I remember when I would go over and I would spend the weekend over at my Aunt Bobby's, and Sabrina and I would, we would go walk the strip mall. Sabrina was probably eight or nine at the time. At the strip mall, they drifted past store windows, peering in until Sabrina found what she wanted. Always the same thing. And her pride deal was always to stop and get her mom a rose. And so I picture a young girl walking with a single rose in her hand. She holds it in front of her like a candle. I imagine it's red. She's moving with purpose, eager to get home to mom with her special gift. But mom wasn't always there, not emotionally at least. Mom was beautiful herself, a playboy model at one point according to Dewana. And men flocked. And when a man came into Bobby Sue's life, well, that's when mom's focus changed. And Sabrina was out of the picture. She spoiled Sabrina and gave her just about whatever she wanted. I mean, material things she didn't do without. But her mom was always gone. So, you know, as long as Sabrina got in the way of her boyfriends or got in the way of anything, then, you know, she just shoved her off onto people. At 17, Sabrina moved in with Dewana, whose family had migrated from Texas to Vegas. They shared an apartment for a time. She was over in the one bed and I was in the other bed. And I asked her, I said, what do you want? And she goes, I just want someone to love me, someone to care about me unconditionally and not judge me. Hmm. Did you remember saying anything to that? I told her, you know, I love you. Sabrina wasn't particularly bold or assertive. She didn't strike people as driven. She was running from not to. But she was a good friend, the kind everyone values. This is her friend, Jennifer. She was just a really nice, good-hearted person, and she was very trusting, and she was a good friend. And the big standout for me is that she was just really kind. Sabrina did have moments of conflict, and not just with her mother. A few weeks after she moved in with her cousin, Dewana, they had a falling out. Dewana didn't approve of a guy Sabrina was seeing. So much for unconditional love. The boyfriend was soon gone, and Sabrina was on her own again, hunting for a job and a home where she felt welcome. I imagine her rippling with anxiety, and yeah, I find that heartbreaking. 17 and on your own and just wanting to be loved. Then she met Jim, and life seemed to get better. They met at a party. As soon as I saw her, I was like, wow, she's a kiddie. And so obviously I started striking up the conversation, and we just hit it off. This is Jim Bixle. Jim was a good-looking Vegas native. He sported a mullet when it was the going fashion and usually wore a leather motorcycle jacket. She didn't get any detail with me, but just the little things that she did tell me, yeah, she did not have a great childhood. So one of my goals was just for me to make sure she had a great time whenever we were together. A lot of those great times involved Jim's motorcycle. I bought a Kawasaki Ninja 600, the Crotch Rocket is what we called it. On the weekends, we'd meet at the old wet and wild water park on Las Vegas Boulevard on the Strip, right next to the Sierra Hotel. And then at midnight, we would all take off and we'd do a really fast, long ride somewhere. We went up to Mount Charleston. Mount Charleston is over two miles high. We came down that canyon, and we were doing 135, 140 miles an hour. She was definitely holding on for dear life. She would love going fast. She would say, you know, riding on the bike really makes me feel free. In Las Vegas, friends remember Sabrina as a blonde, Though I've seen early photos, and in them she's a brunette with thick, gentle waves of hair. She has hazel eyes. Her skin is almost as pale as her shining teeth. In most of the photos, she's smiling. Though it strikes me as the smile you put on for the camera, thinking one thing showing another. To me, Sabrina looks almost middle-aged in these photos. In one, she actually wears pearls. She looks ready for a job as a bank teller. In Vegas, Sabrina seems to shake off the person she was. For one thing, she lightens her hair. And she crafts a signature hairstyle, short on one side, long on the other. And sometimes, she manages to feel free. Jim introduces Sabrina to his friends. One, a childhood friend, lives with his girlfriend at his father's house. Turns out that his father has an extra bedroom to rent, and Sabrina jumps at the chance. So Sabrina liked that idea and said, yeah, I'll do that. Sabrina hasn't had a steady address in the six months she's been in Vegas. And now that problem seems solved. Life seems to be getting better and better for Sabrina. A dependable living situation, new friends, a boyfriend who makes her feel free. And she's recently interviewed for a job at the fashion mall. And she landed it. Her first solid gig since arriving in Las Vegas. She seems to have, to her credit, developed a network of support in an intimidating new city. And then another break. Her friend's father, her landlord. He asked her something to the effect of, hey, what do you want to do ultimately with your life? And she said, you know, I'd like to be a model. And her landlord, a kind, fatherly figure, encouraged her. And so for Sabrina Kidd, life is looking pretty good. She's too young to gamble, but it's as if she walked into a casino and exited with a pocket full of cash. And then, just as everything is coming together, one morning in late summer, one of Sabrina's best friends knocks on her door, expecting to spend the day with her. Instead, she learns that Sabrina didn't come home the previous night. No one sees her ever again. Sabrina vanishes. Why? How? What happened to this promising life on that late summer morning? In Las Vegas, Sabrina made a couple of close friends, Jennifer and Crystal. They were the same age as Sabrina, 17. They'd grown up in Vegas. The three were a striking trio, young, full of life, and pretty. They snuck into Caesar's Palace to hear their favorite bands They went to high school parties They talked nearly every day This is Jennifer You talk about like girl shit, and boys, and what are we doing this weekend, and what are you wearing? That's the kind of stuff. It's day-to-day. It's weekend-to-weekend. It's not really deep. Like, oh, my mother's, you know, it doesn't, it never got into that. So you were all 17? Yeah. Vegas was a good town to be 17 in. It was because you knew everybody. You know, there was only so many high schools. Everybody knew everybody. So they did Las Vegas-y things like hang on the strip and teenage things like attend a junior varsity football game, which is what was on the agenda on what would be the evening before Sabrina disappeared. After Sabrina vanished, Jennifer and Crystal would review again and again their last hours together. It's September 17th, 1987. The evening starts with a junior varsity football game at Valley High School. It's a bit after sunset and Crystal picks up Sabrina. Sabrina doesn't have a car, though. With her new job, it's on her list. As usual, Sabrina looks great. She's tall and slender, her nails are painted pink, her favorite color from childhood. A couple of boys decide to flirt with Sabrina, which annoys the boys' girlfriends, harshing the mellow. Crystal and Sabrina leave in a bad mood, talking about those rude girls. A bit after 8 p.m., Crystal drops Sabrina off at her place. An hour or so later that same evening, so still September 17th, Jennifer picks Sabrina up. Around 9 p.m. they head over to Jennifer's boyfriend's apartment. He's older and has his own place. Both Jennifer and Sabrina spend the night. It's now morning, September 18th. Sabrina's running late for work and starts shaking Jennifer awake. Sabrina needs a ride home because Crystal is picking her up. Crystal and Sabrina are both working at Lane Bryant at the fashion mall, and they can't be late. So Jennifer drives Sabrina back to her place. She drops Sabrina at about 8.30 in the morning. The drop-off will stick in Jennifer's mind because Sabrina doesn't have her keys. She empties her purse in Jennifer's car looking for them, but no luck. Sabrina has to knock on the door. Jennifer remembers that the landlord lets Sabrina in. You dropped her off at like 9 in the morning. It was early. Yeah. Right. About an hour later, Crystal pulls up to Sabrina's place. It's around 9.30 in the morning. Sitting in her car, Crystal honks, expecting Sabrina to pop out. As their friends know, Sabrina is dependable and always punctual. But Sabrina doesn't appear. So Crystal gets out of her car and goes to the front door and knocks. Two times, three times. The door finally opens, but only a few inches. It's the landlord in his bathrobe. Usually he's friendly to Crystal and invites her in. This morning he seems put out. Crystal asks him, You seen Sabrina? We're supposed to go to work. I told her I would meet her. She's not home, the landlord tells her. He doesn't know where she is. So Crystal heads to work alone. Sabrina doesn't show up. Crystal doesn't hear from Sabrina all day. And neither does Jennifer. And they're usually in touch daily. Sabrina had mentioned an opportunity to go to California for free that weekend. Maybe she's taken up that offer. Maybe it's tied to modeling work or that guy she just met. Still, it isn't like Sabrina to be out of touch. Jennifer says they have to go to the police. We waited 24 hours and then we went to the police. We said she's missing something happened and they just didn't believe us. At one point they said that she was classed as a runaway and there's nothing they could do. Jennifer isn't satisfied. When Sabrina doesn't show up in the next couple days, she and Crystal return to the police department. This time the cops accuse them. I remember them saying, oh, you were a prostitute that went to Caesar's Palace. And I was like, no. Even if it was true, it had nothing to fucking do with the fact that she's missing. I remember being so fucking angry. What happens after Jennifer and Crystal visit the police? As far as they can tell, nothing. Sabrina's case is filed with the files of hundreds of other missing teenagers. Seemingly a final resting spot. Except that her family back in Texas, Bobby Sue, Sabrina's mother, along with her aunt, We'll not give up. They scour missing person reports from around the country. They reach out to media. If they could just get her image on TV, maybe someone would recognize her. Four excruciating years pass like this. It's now 1991, and someone, mother or aunt, gets an idea. There's a very popular new tabloid TV show, A Current Affair. Maybe they'd take an interest in the story of a beautiful teenager who mysteriously vanishes in Las Vegas. It's worth a shot. And I'm sitting there one day and the phone rings. And I pick it up. So in 1991, Lyndall Marks answers the phone in her office. Lyndall is at that moment a new reporter at the wildly popular TV show, A Current Affair. Leader in the newest TV genre, the tabloid. I mean, we would get calls. Often it would be people that you knew were crazy, people who just had dumb stories, just unbelievable stories, or, you know, I've spotted a celebrity or whatever, and, you know, how much will you pay for my tape? Today, the caller is a woman. Middle-aged from the sound of her voice, soft-spoken, a Texas draw. She introduces herself as the aunt. Lyndal hears the mother in the background. So I'm talking to her, I'm talking to her, and they weren't crazy at all. And this woman tells me that her niece is missing. And my first reaction was, OK. The inn explains that her niece was living in Las Vegas when she vanished. And she was clearly upset. We have phoned newspapers. We've phoned other people in the media. We have phoned the local press. No one cares. We can't get anyone to do anything. You are our last resort. Right, okay. So what have you done to fight? Have you told the police? Yes, but the police have done nothing. What do you mean the police have done nothing? We reported her missing a few days after she went missing They done nothing And when I hear that that makes me go I here for you I will listen to you Lyndall is in her 20s and already a seasoned reporter. She comes from a hard news background. She's Australian, but more at home in a place like New York, where ambition, and she's ambitious, matters. I've seen a bunch of her TV segments from the 90s, And she looks cool in a 90s sort of way. Petite with perfect bangs and those shoulder pads that seemed so excellent back then. She's down to earth. She does her own makeup for TV. As a reporter, she's old school. Lots of shoe leather, door knocking, file searching, and relentless, like irrationally relentless. Prides herself on that. The word hard-bitten comes to mind. You never take no for an answer. But also she's like wildly idealistic. She seems to truly believe that her efforts, her relentless efforts, can change the course of history. If I feel like there's a big man kicking a little guy in the guts, I will go after that story. I will go after that with aggression and passion. And from where she sits, at a desk, on a phone, in a New York office, the mom and the aunt in Texas are the little guys. Lindell can't believe that the cops shrugged at the report of their missing girl, that they shirked their duty. For a soft-spoken, helpless aunt and mother, the system couldn't be bothered. Or so it seemed to Lindell at that moment. On the phone, the aunt shares more details. She says her niece disappeared from Las Vegas when she was 17. I asked her when did she go missing. She said four years ago. Whoa, Lyndall, four years ago? And they're just popping up now? If there was a trail, it's not there anymore. That timetable would have made a lot of reporters hang up. Lyndall keeps listening. So she's begging me to help. I just, I felt a connection with that family. I felt their pain and I just, I felt something was wrong. People don't just disappear into thin air. So Lyndall, you thought everyone's pushed him aside so you can do something different. Yeah, 100%. Just one problem. Lindell doesn't actually have the authority to decide what story she works on. At a current affair, there's a chain of command. So she hangs up with the mother and aunt and heads to the office of news editor Dan Meenan. It's Dan who clears, or kills, story ideas. Reporters are in and out of his office all day. It's a busy place. Lindell edges her way in. This is Dan. She came up to me and said she got a phone call. And what do I think of this story? I said, it's a missing persons. We don't do missing persons. There's no conclusion to the story. And she kept insisting there was. I said, I can't, no, I can't waste any money on this. I'm sorry. There is something going on here. This just doesn't sound right. She's so young. How do you not follow this kid? She's a baby. How do you not follow that? How do you ignore a mother? She argued with me and said, it's a story here. I'm telling you, I feel it. This is a missing girl and it's not a murder investigation. And we don't have facts. What is the viewer going to walk away with? Lyndall, he's being clear. Stop the nonsense. Get back to work. You know, this is a sausage factory and I've got to come up with about four or five stories a night. so I can't be wasting my time on stories that I feel doesn't have a conclusion. Lyndal's reaction? Yeah, totally fuck off. All right, so a girl is missing. A girl who, because of one phone call, Lyndal feels tied to. And so, guess what? Lyndal will find a way. When I feel something and my instinct is telling me, this is right, I have to follow this, I will follow it. I will go down every rabbit hole. If I feel like a victim hasn't been given a voice, I won't stop until I have found a way to tell that story. Now there's a reason that Lyndall is so compelled by this phone call and by this story. A reason that Lyndall's kept secret for years. A reason that she's ready to reveal on this podcast to a national audience. Just like it's a segment on a current affair, only better. Next time on Killer Story, Lyndall's secret revealed. A friend of mine came to visit me and she just walked in and I remember the shock on her face. I felt an incredible sadness because I could feel that it was going to have an impact on her for the rest of her life, not in a good way. I completely connected to what happened to me. I was glad somebody was investigating it and I remember being glad somebody believed us. If this wouldn't have worked for Lyndall, her career at a current affair may have come to a dead end. You wake up one morning, you go, screw it, I need to do this story. Unlock all episodes of Killer Story ad-free right now by subscribing to the Binge Podcast channel. Not only will you immediately unlock all episodes of this show, but you'll get binge access to an entire network of other great true crime and investigative podcasts, all of them ad-free. Plus, on the first of every month, subscribers get a binge drop of a brand new series. That means all episodes all at once. Search for The Binge on Apple Podcasts and hit subscribe at the top of the page. Not on Apple? Head to getthebinge.com to access wherever you listen. Killer Story is a production of Orbit Media in association with Signal Company No. 1. Creator and host is me, Steve Fishman. Executive producers are Linda Marks, Kevin Wardus, and Jonathan Hirsch from Sony Music Entertainment. Producers Jackie Pauley, Hannah Beal, and Austin Smith. Production coordinator Austin Smith. Series consultant Emile Klein. Sound designer Britt Spangler. Fact check Ryan Alderman. Our lawyers are at Clarice Law. Special thanks to Emily Rasek, Steve Ackerman, Catherine St. Louis, Sammy Allison, Allison Haney, Fisher Stevens, and the glamorous Rhea Julian. We also thank our agents at WME, Evan Krasik, Marissa Hurwitz, Ben Davis, and a special thanks to Shelley Chenoy for voiceover casting. And a special, special thanks to the inimitable Emil Klein. Thank you.