Surviving the Southie Slasher | The Case of Kayleigh & Amy | UNSEEN

I'm Harvey Ghien, and this is Killer Stories. Every Monday, I'm cutting the lights. I'm telling you a bedtime story. Except these stories are all real. We're talking Brazen Heist, Devastating Cons, Serial Murders and Cases that Defy Tidy Categories. So join me for new episodes of Killer Stories with Harvey Ghien every Monday. Pay attention to the black SUV. It belongs to 24-year-old Amy Lorde, a Massachusetts native living in Boston. The vehicle pulls up to a bank. It stops at the ATM. Everything looks normal. Until she rolls down the window. Amy isn't the one driving. The man behind the wheel tries to hide his face from the camera. There's also something wrong with Amy's face. Her left eye is swollen. The transaction only lasts a few seconds before Amy quickly pulls back. She then shows the driver the money and the two exit the frame in reverse. A few minutes later, the SUV stops at the Metro Credit Union. Amy seems more panicked. She looks straight into the CCTV camera. And here again, the pair drives away within seconds. Between 6 and 7 AM, Amy empties her accounts using five different ATMs around South Boston. At 8 AM, her SUV is found to blaze in a parking lot. At 11 AM, her manager reports her missing. With only CCTV footage to guide them, police race to find Amy and stop her kidnapper before he strikes again. But just as the search begins, another woman is found in a pool of her own blood. And I said, "Oh my gosh, this is Kayleigh. I know something bad has happened. I wanted to speak to her and he said, "You can't talk to her right now. She's in the emergency room." Kayleigh might be the only one able to stop the South Boston slasher and find Amy. But first, she has to survive the night. This person was trying to kill my daughter. I was very afraid that he would come into the hospital and come after her. Three months before the attacks, Kayleigh moves to Boston from her small town in Maine. Her best friend offers a room for the summer and her mother, Kim, helps her settle in. I do remember moving her in the end of May and then saying, "Let's take a ride on the subway. Let's get on the tee." Trying to teach her which line goes to your job in Cambridge, how you're going to get back and forth, where the apartment was, so just trying to acclimate to the city. Yet, Kim worries, as most parents would, Boston is far from Maine and she can't shake the feeling that something could go wrong. I wasn't overly excited about her being in Boston for the summer just because it's a big city. A lot of things happen down there, but she always had that spirit and there wasn't going to be anybody who was going to take advantage of her. Three months in, Kayleigh's balancing an internship, a restaurant job, and field hockey training. So far, the city's been good to her, but on July 23rd, a chain of events is set in motion, one that will change her life forever. It's 4.23 a.m., Kayleigh is still asleep, less than a mile away from her Gate Street Department, a man randomly attacks a woman right before the sun rises. My name's Paul McLaughlin, I'm a sergeant detective with Boston Police Department. I was in the courthouse with my squad, we were waiting a jury verdict on another homicide trial, and I was told about an incident that happened at about 4.24 in the morning where a victim named Alexander Cruz had been attacked by a man. The Alexander, this is everybody's worst nightmare. Alexander Cruz, a 21-year-old single mother, is on her way to work. Before heading out, she leads her son with the babysitter. It's still dark outside, the streets are quiet. She walks along Old Colony Avenue, minutes away from the Dunkin' Donuts she works at. The man is walking behind her. She doesn't think much of it until she feels a hand grab her from behind. Before she can react, he wraps his arm around her neck and begins choking her, dragging her into a nearby parking lot. Alexander tries to fight him off, but the man starts punching her and she blacks out. When she wakes up, she's lying on the ground. Her attacker is crouched nearby, picking up the contents of her purse. By the time the young woman stands up, he's gone. By pulled the answer report, and there was a description of an individual from Alexander Cruz, a Hispanic male, one of the particular things that she talked about was that he had a mole on his lip. As a result, I did a query in our booking system. From that query, I came up with about 10 possibilities, and I pulled a picture of a guy who lived in South Boston and put it in my pocket. Detective McLaughlin from Boston Homicide and Detective Flynn from Southly Police were just getting started with their investigation into Alexander's attack when even more disturbing news comes in. That same day, I'd also get a call from my superintendent saying that I just want to give you a heads up. There's this missing person situation going on in South Boston, a young woman named Amy Lloyd. She'd live walks away from the Alexander Cruz incident, her co-workers were reporting missing. Amy was a person that was on time from everything, so when she didn't show up, that was the first of all. Being late on my sister, I'd never do that. She was just so very sure of herself and what she wanted to do. She had big dreams and she was headed right in the direction of them. Carly and her parents drive all the way from Wilburham to Boston and meet the detective at Amy's apartment. There are no signs of struggle or forced entry. Both the police and the lords are at a loss, but two things are missing. Amy's black jeep and her wallet. Detective McLaughlin decides to look at Amy's final bank transactions to try and locate her. The bank records showed that starting at about 6.03 a.m. that morning, there was a sequence of five different banks that she made or attempted to make withdrawals from. The detective isn't yet convinced that Alexandra's attack and Amy's disappearance are connected, but with both happening so close together, it's hard to shake the feeling that they might be. While he waits for the various financial institutions to provide him with the CCTV footage, McLaughlin tries to explain the situation to the lords. Obviously, the missing person is concerning, finding out about ATM withdrawals at different banks. Before we continue, we'd like to take a brief moment to think our sponsor, Aura Frames. At Unseen, we know that it's the people in our lives that mean the most to us. And it can be hard to keep in touch with loved ones if you live far away. But with Aura Frames, you can stay connected this holiday season, even when you are miles apart. 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Eventually, the tapes containing the footage start coming in. The first is from Bank of America, timestamped at 628 AM. It shows Amy Lorde using the ATM. There's nothing unusual that could help police find her before they can finish their review. Another tape from Citizen Bank arrives. This one shows a 643 AM. A black Jeep stops in front of the bank and something unexpected happens. Amy gets out of her car from the passenger side. While she walks toward the entryway, her vehicle backs up. She isn't alone. Someone else is driving her car. Even stranger, the left side of her face looks swollen. More footage comes in. McLaughlin reviews each frame carefully. The sovereign bank tape at 636 AM doesn't have a clear view of the driver. We were able to get a good look at Amy and her condition, her clothing she was wearing. You see the beginnings of redness and puffiness around her face and her eyes and her nose that indicated to us that she had been assaulted. I think it was very clear it was nothing done by choice here. This was an abduction. The last two tapes are McLaughlin's final chance at learning who's behind the wheel, and they deliver. The Metro Credit Union footage, timestamped at 614 AM, shows Amy's Jeep turning into the parking lot and stopping at the ATM. Through the glass, the driver can be seen, but he quickly spots the camera, pulls back, and reappears with his face covered. For a split second, he removes his cap, revealing a closely-shaven head. "So he never got out of the car, while she's leaning over him, he leans back. We were never able to get that full-on frontal picture that we could say that's him." On top of the bank footage, Detective Flynn secures video surveillance from a building across the street from Amy's doorchester street apartment. "The video shows half of the door of Amy's apartment. We see what we believe to be Amy coming out. But just before this, we have a figure, walk in front of that door, and we don't know who it is. We can't even. We can tell it's a male. He walks by. We believe he turns and looks into the glass doorway, and we believe that he sees Amy coming down the stairs, because he takes another step. He turns around like he's going to go back the way he came and the door opens, Amy comes halfway out, and he bum rushes her in. The quality of the video was not good at all. All I could think of was the fear that she must have been feeling at the time. And again, that might have gone to something that was set to her in the hallways, knowing where she lived, knowing where roommates lived, knowing her car, knowing a lot of things that might have caused her to just realize that, you know, I better cooperate. I better do what he says. And so, to me, all I can really think about is fear, and it hit me looking at her in some of these videos, still does. However, before they can investigate any further, detectives are hit with more devastating news. A vehicle burned beyond recognition earlier that morning in South Boston has just been identified as Amy Lord's missing Jeep. When I was notified that Amy Lord's black Jeep Grand Cherokee was found fully engulfed in flames, it was like, hey look, you know, we don't know for sure, but this is going in a bad direction. Towards the end of the afternoon, McLaughlin's worst fears are confirmed. The search for Amy is over. At the end of the day, we were notified by our operations division that we needed to respond to the Hyde Park section of the city, that they had found a body in a wooded area. I got there as quickly as I could. I arrived at the scene where the body had been found. I realized that it was Amy Lord. Detective Flynn is with the lords when the news breaks, witnessing their reaction is unbearable, even for a veteran like him. We were up at Amy's apartment. I got a phone call from one of my bosses, one of the big bosses, and he said, where are you? And I said, you know upstairs, he says, are you close by to parents? And I said, yeah, and he said, move away. When I moved away, I knew. I knew it was the next year we found her. I had to get, I wanted to get that out of there. It's just, it was awful. At the scene, McLaughlin's overwhelmed by what he sees. The young woman he's been pursuing all day, who was alive just this morning, now lies dead before him, beaten beyond recognition, stabbed over a dozen times, and stripped naked, safe for an angel-wing necklace she was wearing. Obviously, you feel for every victim and you feel for the families, but when something is so senseless, feelings about this case, I had a daughter who was born in the same year, graduated from college at the same time, and so my mind kind of immediately went to the devastation that I knew that her parents were going to feel as I stood there. That's kind of all I could think about. The emotional toll is heavy, but McLaughlin can't dwell on it. There's a violent killer on the loose, moving too fast for the detective to keep up. He must identify who this man is, prove he's the same attacker who went after Alexander Cruz, and stop him before he strikes again. To accomplish this, McLaughlin requests the footage covering the streets between where the first assault happened and Amy's apartment, hoping the cameras can reveal the path the killer took, and maybe even catch his face. It was clearly showing that there was a guy out there who seemed to be making the loops around that area. There was a good chance this was the same person. There was a close proximity, and there was obviously a time connection with the original incident with Alexandra Cruz, and so I was thinking now we're able to say there's a killer out there. By nightfall, the murder of Amy Lord dominates the news. Police warn women to stay inside or walk in pairs when moving around South Boston. However, Kayleigh Valentine has been working late in Cambridge, unaware of the panic that is taking over her neighborhood. On her way home, she takes the tea to Broadway. From there, she has less than a mile to walk back to her apartment. By 11.45pm, she's only a block away. What happens next isn't immediately clear. Kayleigh makes it home, but somewhere between the building's entrance and her apartment door, she's violently attacked. When her roommate opens the door, there's blood everywhere. Kayleigh is on the floor, barely alive. At that point, myself and the two detectives from South Boston were outside of Amy Lord's apartment, and we were processing the hallway in the front door area, and it was at that point as we stood there at that scene, call came in for a woman stabbed up on Gates Street, and that was literally 500 yards from where we were. We all look at each other because it sounds like the same thing that just happened, and we don't know, not again. Far from Boston, in rural Maine, Kayleigh's mother, Kim, is woken up by a call in the middle of the night. It was a 617 number, and I said, oh my gosh, this is Kayleigh. It was a horrible feeling, and I just stood looking at the phone, thinking something bad has happened. He said this is Bobby Flynn from the Boston Police Department, your daughter has been stabbed, and I just became hysterical. I wanted to speak to her, and he said, you can't talk to her right now, she's in the emergency room, they're working on her. I was thinking this person was trying to kill my daughter, and what if he's still out there, where is he? They didn't have him. But if he knew that she hadn't passed away, I was very afraid that he would come into the hospital, and come after her. With her daughter's life hanging by a thread, Kim rushes toward Boston. The two-hour drive feels endless, or mind constantly looping back to the worst-case scenario. Back in South Boston, Detective Bobby Flynn walks up Telegraph Street, where Kayleigh's attacker fled, leaving behind a trail of blood. He and McLaughlin have already spotted a few security cameras in and around the area. From what they've gathered, their suspect is a young man in his 20s, with multiple tattoos, wearing a tank top, and a hat. After nearly 20 hours chasing him through security footage, Flynn feels like they're finally closing in. But, in fact, the killer is much closer than he could have ever imagined. It was like my third or fourth trip up to Telegraph Street, and the dispatcher got me on the air any since then. They think that that guy, who's involved in your incident, just walked into the same hospital that Kayleigh's in. So I said, so now you tell me the suspect is in the same emergency room with the victim? Well, y'all down to Stevie, we gotta go on. Stevie's looking at me going, probably we got a crime scene. Stevie, we gotta go. With lights flashing and sirens wailing, Flynn and his partner rushed to Tufts Medical Center, every second counts. They arrive within minutes and run to Kayleigh's room. So now we get all over there, and we come in the ambulance entrance. I walk in and Kayleigh's in an emergency room to the right, and I go in. She reaches out and she grabs me right here, and I'm telling ya, if I didn't know it was Kayleigh Valentine, I would've said it was Haystack Alhoun that grabbed me because she had a death trip on me. And she says, "He's here, they just told me he walked in, is he here?" And now she's panicking. One of the EMTs who heard Kayleigh describe her attacker earlier that night recognizes a man matching her description, walking down the hallway. He warned security, and the hospital goes on lockdown. And Stevie gives me the high sign. Look over here, and look over. The bad guy's showing up at Tufts. How do you figure that? While Detective Flynn and Kayleigh are at the hospital, Detective McLaughlin is still out on the street, tracking down each and every security camera that could have caught a glimpse of their killer on his way out of Kayleigh's apartment, he still has the picture of the original suspect from the Alexandra Cruz case in his pocket. Short time later, I got a call from one of the detectives who was down at the hospital. He said, "You know that picture that guy you told me about? He's down here at the hospital. The connection's drawing closer and tighter." He had a real good gash on his hand. What we believe happened is during the time that he was stabbing her, Kayleigh was, you know, she was fighting her, fighting to save her life, so he sliced himself real bad. All the evidence just pointed to, this is the guy that's attacked Kayleigh, but did he murder Amy Lloyd? We don't know. But one thing is certain, Flynn won't let him get close to Kayleigh under his watch. "We didn't want to get into a huge fight with him inside the emergency room, so it was like four or five of us in there, and he was placed under arrest." Flynn brings their suspect, now identified as 28-year-old Edwin Alamani into another room and begins questioning him, he denies everything, fabricates a story about a street fight and refuses to answer any questions. "The interview was basically a long series of denials by him that he didn't have any recollection of anything." While this is happening, Kim finally arrives in Boston, she rushes to Tufts Medical Center, her police meet her in the lobby and lead her through the hallway. Her daughter is alive, but just like at the cabin in Maine, Kim can't shake the feeling that this nightmare isn't over yet. When I go to the hospital at 5 a.m., when I saw her burst into tears and hugged her and she hugged me and we cried for a while and I'm like, "You're gonna be okay, you're gonna be okay." The lockdown was over, but I was still feeling as though I've got to protect her. Maybe he's not here any longer, but is this person part of a gang? Is there somebody else who might be here? I had five stab wounds on my left arm, two on my torso, one under my left breath, which is a half an inch from my heart, and one on my left rib cage that collapsed, my left along, and then two on my face. on my face. I looked at the Doctor, and I said I just want to know am I going to live. It was such a hard time in my life, but I'm so happy because my family is there. And it just brought so much, like, happiness into my life when they were, when they were able to, you know, you just felt, you know, it's just a very difficult time and you can't. You don't understand why someone, or how somebody can do this to your child. Walflin stays at Tufts to protect Kayleigh. McLaughlin reviews the CCTV footage collected from the day before. On one of the tapes, Edwin appears just after Amy's murder, buying gasoline, minutes before police discover her Jeep and gulped in flames. At the gas station, he even crosses paths with an acquaintance. McLaughlin later tracks the acquaintance down, who confirms without hesitation that it was Edwin Alamani. Later, footage shows Alamani spending Amy's money across the city. He buys a new phone and signs the paperwork under the alias, slim shady. Cameras also catch him buying lottery tickets, beer, cigarettes, even treating his friends to dinner at a Chinese restaurant. The footage from after Kayleigh's attack paints an equally chilling picture. Edwin stops at a gas station, bragging about being in a fistfight, the supposed reason for his bloodied hands. He laughs, putting on a show for the cashier and anyone close by. He then takes a cab to the hospital. Now that McLaughlin has pieced together the entirety of Edwin's day with surveillance footage, it's up to forensics to tell the rest of the story. Back at the hospital, Flynn tries to figure out how to break the news to Kayleigh concerning Amy's fate. Kayleigh didn't just stop a random attacker, but a serial predator and killer. We make the decision not to tell Kayleigh about the Amy Lord incident. So we try to hide that for three or four days. Bobby Flynn came in to the hospital room. And I remember him saying, do you think she's ready, and I'm caught off guard, and I'm ready for what? And he told me that Edwin had murdered Amy Lord. This is say that damn broke big, that's why wouldn't it? I just lost it. Here I am, like proud of myself, and what I shouldn't be feeling any pride, like this girl just got murdered by him. I immediately left into this place of not feeling worthy, and feeling guilty, of surviving, and who am I to even feel anything right now, because she can't feel anything, she's gone. Over the next two years, Kayleigh struggles to come to terms with what happened. recovery is slow, and reliving her trauma during the legal procedures nearly breaks her, but thanks to McLaughlin and Flynn's thorough investigation, the jury reaches a verdict quickly. At the sentencing, Kayleigh finally gets a chance to speak to her attacker. I just started, you know, speaking from my heart, I didn't even read the impact statement that I made. It was starting my senior year, the summer that I got stabbed. I couldn't walk, I had to learn how to walk again. This is so hard, something that someone should never have to do, and come up here and speak, but I won, and he didn't win, and I didn't get this until yesterday, from Cindy Lord, and I had no idea that this was, Amy had this, Amy had this around her neck, and now I have one too, because I carry her on my shoulder, everywhere I go, everything that I do for the rest of my life, she's going to be with me every step of the way. She's my guardian angel, and she helped me fight and do what I did, and I'm still here today because she wanted me to be here today. And I speak not only for myself, and what's coming out of my heart right now, but I speak for her too. Over the next few years, life returns to some semblance of normalcy, Kaylee finishes her studies, Alexandra finds her footing again. McLaughlin's promoted to head detective, and Flynn retires from the force. A strange bond still unites all of them, and one morning Flynn receives an unexpected call. Another year and a half ago, Kaylee called me, and she told me that she was thinking of writing to this individual, and when I heard that, I went to dead silence on the phone. And in my mind, I'm saying, Kaylee, what are you doing? Stay away from that. I mean, nothing's good. You've got to come out of it. And I tried to explain to her that what I just said, but that's coming from me. That's me saying, I don't want anything to do with this clown. Kaylee was the first to come to all of us and say she wanted to forgive her attacker. And we all had the same reaction. How could that be? And in my heart, I knew that was the right thing. For years, Kaylee's life has been defined by the hatred she felt toward her attacker, but she now sees that forgiveness is the only way to take that power back. This was a letter I wrote to my attacker, Edwin Alimani, while he was in prison. I believe you get what you deserve for doing what you did. I will go through life being reminded of it every single day. But knowing that I have forgiven you, Edwin, is what will allow me to move on with peace and fulfillment, knowing I've healed all that is in my control. Knowing that I've forgiven the man that once caused me so much pain also caused me to be thankful every second of every day. I pride myself in standing for what's right and hate isn't right.