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Hi, I'm Tony DeCouple, and as anchor of the CBS evening news, I am filled with endless curiosity about our world and our society. Maybe you are too. My new podcast is called Great Question. It's an effort to capture that curiosity and to answer the question you haven't heard a satisfying answer to, or maybe haven't even heard asked. Follow and listen to Great Question with Tony DeCouple wherever you get your podcasts. "It's rare for 60 minutes to follow a story for 17 years, but tonight you'll be reintroduced to Jennifer Thompson, a rape victim who mistakenly identified an innocent man who was sent to prison." "And then I'm going to tie my string." Jennifer has created something called Healing Justice, a program that brings together crime victims, family members, and innocent men. "Dear Chris, you failed in life. Why did you confess? I will never confess." "Why can't you just be quiet?" "You are a angry black man. You were never no love. You are always be a prisoner." "It's not easy to get to, and it's not easy to see at first, but then one of the most amazing migration stories in nature reveals itself. Towers of monarch butterflies, orange, twisting, soaring, and one of the most remarkable things we've ever seen." "I'm Leslie Stahl." "I'm John Wertheim." "I'm Anderson Cooper." "I'm Bill Whittaker, those stories tonight on 60 minutes." 17 years ago, we reported on a woman named Jennifer Thompson, a rape victim who was devastated to learn years after her assault, that she and the police had identified an innocent man who was convicted and sent to prison while the actual rapist had gone on to attack several more women. It's not an uncommon story in this era of DNA exonerations, and Jennifer Thompson has tried for years to do something about it. Thompson knows firsthand that wrongful conviction scar not just the unjustly convicted, but also the original crime victims who are often overlooked. So as we first reported in 2024, she's doing something no one else has tried, and perhaps only she could pull off, bringing together crime victims and innocent men from different cases for what she calls "healing justice." "What I'm going to ask you to do is turn your bowl upside down." What we saw on day one of a multi-day group retreat, Jennifer Thompson is leading sure it didn't look like healing. Ten men and women, plus an observer, smashing bowls with a hammer. It was quite something to realize that gluing pieces back together at one table were two women who had been raped at the ages of 15 and 12, sitting across from two men who, in unrelated cases, had been wrongfully convicted of sexually assaulting children and had each spent more than two decades in prison. At the next table, another woman who survived a sexual assault, sitting beside a man exonerated for rape and murder, and at our table, the partner and daughter of a murder victim. Everyone here, part of a case where the wrong man was sent to prison for years and years. You have said that wrongful convictions aren't a single bullet, you said they're bombs. A wrongful conviction doesn't hurt like a person. It's not just Raymond Tower got hurt, like his whole family got shrapnel. And the victims got shrapnel, and the community received shrapnel because a child molester was still in the community. There's just so many people in a wrongful conviction case. I think it's hundreds of people for every single wrongful conviction case that are hurt. Jennifer Thompson was one of them. She was a college student in 1984 when a man broke into her off-campus apartment and raped her at knife point. Jennifer worked with police to create a composite sketch, then identified a man named Ronald Cotton in the photo and physical line-ups, police shoulder. Jennifer testified in court against Ronald Cotton and was relieved when he received a life sentence. But after 11 years in prison, DNA testing proved Cotton's innocence and identified the actual rapist whose photo had not been in the lineup. Ronald Cotton was exonerated and Jennifer was wracked with guilt that she told us in 2009. Shame? Shame. Terrible shame. I'm suffocating, debilitating shame. Jennifer turned that shame into action. She apologized to Ronald Cotton in person and then started speaking around the country to police and prosecutors sometimes together with Cotton about how to make wrongful convictions less likely. But over the years, as exonerations of the innocent have multiplied, with more than 3,800 deeds so far, based on new evidence including DNA, Jennifer began focusing in on what was being overlooked. What do you think most people feel and see when they see an innocent man come out of prison? It's the day that that man or woman who's wrongfully incarcerated and their families are rejoicing. I know you didn't do it, I know. It's the day they've been dreaming about they've prayed for. They're on the court steps and their arms are raised high and it's a day of celebration but for the crime victims, for the murder victim family members, they're sitting back here saying, hey, hold up a second. This is another nightmare on top of a nightmare. The victims have been forgotten. She says, like Tamecia Carrington artist who was 12 years old, when a man broke into her bedroom and raped her. He grabbed me by my throat and put a knife to my throat and said, if I scream, he was going to kill me and my mom. Grab me from behind, put me in a choke hold and panty burns in. Sexually assaulted at age 36, as she went for an afternoon run along the shore of Lake Michigan, and he said, now I'm going to kill you, no, you're going to die. Anne Loretta Zillinger White, who was raped at age 15 on the way to school one morning, after she'd missed her bus. It's hard. People expect you to just put it behind you and not think about it again. And they don't realize that it's going to affect you for the rest of your life. All these women, like Jennifer, had identified a suspect the police showed them only to learn years later that those men were innocent and they were gripped by a whole new nightmare. I felt so bad for him because I felt like I said this man in prison. That's all I could think about. I got scared. I felt like he was going to try to come out and kill me, I just, I shut down. Did people blame you? Oh, absolutely. The first time I went out in public, a friend came up to me and said, I can't believe you're showing your face. They were saying that I needed to go to prison, I needed to go to prison. They needed to go? Yes. That I essentially sent to Rome in to prison. Oh my gosh. Yeah. It was bad. Yeah. Memory experts have long understood how crime victims can get it wrong. In our earlier story about Jennifer's case, Professor Gary Wells showed us a simulated crime scene and then a line up. Now you know now after we've talked probably not to pick anyone. No, no, actually, I actually know who it is because if I had come upon that, I think it's this guy. Am I wrong? Am I wrong? Yeah. I'm wrong. Yeah. It's none of them. These have shown again and again when the actual perpetrator is not in the line up, witnesses often pick the wrong man who then comes to replace the original offender in their memory of the crime. In Jennifer's case and Tamecia and Pennies, the real perpetrators revealed by DNA years later had not been in the original line-ups. 20 years later when they come to me and say, by the way, oh, I can't imagine. The person who raped you. You never went to prison. And the person we thought is innocent. See ya. And oh, by the way, it's all your fault. So the system's fault. I mean, here was my narrative. Rape victim falsely accuses an innocent man and sent him to prison. Everything's wrong with that. 'Cause a false accusation denotes a lie. - Deliver it. - Why would a crime survivor, why would a victim want the wrong person to go to prison? That doesn't make any sense at all. - You know, when you hear what you're saying, then we get it, but we don't hear it. As you said, there's a blazing headline. Man is freed. Person who fingered him, got it wrong. That's it. - And the system now doesn't get held accountable for how it failed me, and it failed my family, and it failed the innocent person, it failed the innocent person's family, and it failed everybody. - That failure, Jennifer told us, is also devastating for families of murder victims, even when they played no role themselves in identifying the wrongfully convicted person. That's what happened to Andrea Harrison and her father, Dwayne Jones. Andrea's mother, Jacqueline, was raped and murdered in 1987, when Andrea was just three years old. It was one of the most horrendous crimes. She was brutally raped, tortured. Someone found her body, lock in the door. - A local man named Larry Peterson spent more than 17 years in prison for the crime before DNA testing proved his innocence, and he was released. - Did you know that he was gonna be released? Did they tell you? - No. - No. - No. - For many, many years, someone was tried, convicted, and put away. - Yes, ma'am. - And then you find out that the DNA doesn't match. - I mean, you go back into flight or flight. - Yeah. - You got scared. - Absolutely. - Absolutely we did. - Can you tell us of what? Who's the person? Who hurt my mother? What happened to Jackie? Who did it? Whoever that person is, they're still out here. - But since Larry Peterson's exoneration with the case now cold, they feel the original crime and victim have become an afterthought. - This always been, what do you think about Mr. Peterson? That is not my charge. I care about Jackie. I'm worried about Jackie, what about Jackie? - But even while victims and their families are left reeling in the wake of wrongful convictions, Jennifer knows from her friendship with Ronald Cotton and her work with other exonaries that heady, blissful first day of freedom is just the start of a tough, years-long struggle to rebuild. ♪ Only freedom ♪ Raymond Towler exonerated after 29 years in prison, 29 years plays in a band with other exonaries and says he struggles with the lingering stigma and hurt of being charged with such a heinous crime. - Tell us if it's not too painful, what the crime was. - It's painful. - I'm sorry. - I'm laughing over it, but it is painful. But it was rape of 11 and 12-year-old kids. (applause) - When DNA testing finally proved Towler's innocence and won his freedom, he says it was thrilling, but also daunting. - The adjustment was difficult. - Yeah, I couldn't even really go out the door by myself. - You don't feel like you fit in anywhere. At least I did. - Exonery stories are often filled with egregious police and prosecutorial misconduct. In Chris Ochoa's case, abusive interrogations that led to a false confession to rape and murder. For Howard Dudley, evidence withheld by prosecutors that likely would have cleared him of child sexual abuse, for which he served more than 23 years. - I always mean that my kids see the football game, feel more in the basketball court. Didn't get a chance to see none of that. - So I would like to, everybody, introduce themselves. - So Jennifer came up with a novel idea. - So I am Jennifer Thompson. I am a victim's survivor. - My name is Raymond, Raymond Towner. I'm an exonery. - My name is Loretta. - She started an organization called Healing Justice that brings together exoneries. - My name is Chris. - My exonery. - And crime victims. - Your name is Penny. - All from different cases. - I am Tamecia. - As well as family members. - My brother was an exonery. - My name is Andrea. - Healing Justice paid to bring them from around the country to this rented retreat center in Virginia, where they will spend three days sharing stories, playing games. (audience laughing) - That's her and she's saving up. - And eating all their meals together. This is the 17th retreat healing justice has done. - How effective is it when it's not the same crime? - Very effective. There's something powerful and healing when an exonery can hear what the victim in their case must have felt like. And for crime survivors, it's really healing to also hear about the experiences of exoneries. - The biggest thing I lost was trust. - Three days of emotional release, rebuilding trust and healing when we come back. (keyboard clicking) - Observe the North American dad. 50s, great polo collection. He enters his vehicle information on Carvana and offers appears in minutes. Remarkable, he squints, reads it again, smiles and says, dang, that's a good offer. The highest form of approval, no haggling, no hassle, no one called him boss. He's still on the couch, astonishing. Sell your car today on Carvana.com. Pick up these may apply. - The Unsold Mysteries podcast is back. I'm Jordan Murphy and each week, I'll take you inside a new investigation. It could be an unsold murder and unexplained disappearance. The search for a wanted fugitive, any mystery that still needs answers. We'll follow every new lead, every break in the case and the moments when a mystery is finally solved. Because after all these years, one thing hasn't changed. Someone, somewhere, knows the truth. Listen to and follow Unsold Mysteries. Available now wherever you get your podcasts. - Jennifer Thompson's goal when she created the nonprofit organization Healing Justice in 2015 was to help all groups armed by wrongful convictions. Healing Justice now advises prosecutors' offices around the country on dealing more effectively and empathetically with crime victims in exoneration cases. But it's what they call the healing side of their work that is most meaningful to Jennifer. She did course work in trauma recovery and worked with psychologists to design a program to safely bring together victims of crime and exonerees. They work in small groups on the wounds left behind when the justice system gets it wrong. (gun shots) - Nice. - Remember the breaking and gluing back together of those bowls? - Did you guys notice how fast and easy it was to break it and how hard it is to put it back together again? - That was just the start of this retreats opening exercise. And perhaps a metaphor for the whole endeavor. - So what I'm going to ask you to do now is to paint your broken places with gold. This is actually 24 karat gold paint. - She told us it's called Kinsugi. - Kinsugi. - Kinsugi. What is that? It's a Japanese concept that even in our broken places, we're still beautiful because we're strong at our broken places and we're not disposable. - But before they can paint their real wounds with gold, they have to look hard at the breaks that need repair. - I lost part of my heart. - So sitting in a circle, using a rock to give whoever holds at the floor and with a healing justice social worker always present, they talked about their losses. - I lost believing in myself. I had so much confidence. I had so much. - That first slam on the doors, everything got real. Right then, you know, I've seen people suicide, death by cop just getting beat up, killed. You know, the talk comes back and I have to keep reminding myself, you know, right here, I'm in the press right now. - The hardest part for me is hearing what the exoneries went through in prison. - It's so hard to hear, but it's so necessary. - So what I want to do today is to address - On day two of the retreat, Jennifer let an exercise on how the harsh words used against each of them end up becoming internalized. - You might have been called a liar. You might have been called a rapist and those words really do take on a life of their own. I'd like for you to write a letter to yourself from the space of the critical mind, that loop that plays in your head over and over again. You had them write letters. What was the purpose? I've done this before. When they're writing it, they're not happy. And then I had them read it out loud at the circle. They didn't like it. Dear Chris, you failed in life. Why did you confess how will never confess? Why can't you just be quiet? Dear Raymond, you are a angry black man. You were always be a prisoner. And then there was Loretta's. Dear Loretta, you deserve to be rape and beaten. You really don't deserve to be alive. You aren't brave nor strong. You are a failure as a woman and a mother. Loretta, Jennifer, told us, faces one of the most excruciating situations for a victim in an exoneration case. When the DNA clears one man, but doesn't identify who the actual assailant was. I'm stuck. She told us she relives the assault daily and can't get the exonerated man's face out of her memory. So even though he was cleared through DNA, his face is still there. Yes. The DNA said it wasn't him. You didn't believe it. No. I feel guilty. Because I feel like I did something wrong. So you're having both the feeling that he was the one and that you did something wrong? Yes. Oh my God. You really are stuck. I don't know who did this. For Andrea Harrison, whose mother's killer also remains unknown, it's a familiar struggle. What was told to me was that he was the person who murdered my mother. And so that was a belief of mine for a lot of years. I can't get that out of my head. On his side of it, I mean, that's sad. It is sad. It is sad. The justice system failed to him just like it did us. Until now, Andrea and her father had not been willing to attend a retreat with Exonery's present. Do you think that the exonerated person and the victim are almost pitted against each other when there shouldn't be? They're both victims of the same perpetrator. Who knows someone sitting in jail for what he or she did. That's right. At the end of the day, when an innocent person is in prison, a guilty person is not. We should all be concerned about that. And maybe they go off and do it many more times. In my case, the person who wasn't caught committed six more first three rapes before he was ever apprehended. I just love that we're here working on this. In the circle, after reading the critical letters, Jennifer turned the tables. So I want you to write a second letter now to yourself from the self-compassion voice. The voice that you would use for the person you love the most. So they rewrote it. And then they read that out loud in their faces. They smiled when they read it. Dear Raymond, you have a kind heart. You are love. Raymond, your dreams have come true. And you are free to dream more and create. You are a great mother, grandmother, wife, daughter, sister, friend. And so on and on. Keep going. You got this. I've seen you stumble and I've seen you bounce right back. Dear Loretta, you know that it's never too late to follow your dreams. You should never stop believing in yourself. You didn't deserve to be hurt by anyone or anything. I will always be your biggest fan and supporter. I love you. That was different. So why is it that we speak to ourselves in a way that we would never speak to the people that we love? Something I need to change is that it was actually harder to write the happy letter for me. I do believe the good things about myself. But I don't think I really say them to myself enough. And the reality is if we really want to do good in the world, hating ourselves serves nobody at all. Who's ready? After two emotion-filled days came a scene we weren't expecting. The group gathered together for improv games, acting like animals, smiling and laughing. You play a lot of games. The games are just really a way of inviting that child to come back and play again. If you feel safe, you can pretend like you're a monkey. You can do all kinds of ridiculous things and it's okay because everybody else is doing it too. We noticed a loosening and connecting. Later that night over an art project, the kind of impromptu conversation Jennifer says this retreat is all about. How can somebody look at me and think that I would do something so heinous like that? That's part of the trauma for me. When you hear some of our stories, do you ever like blame us? Like me, being an exonery? Yeah. Do you ever see yourself blaming the victims for? You didn't do anything wrong. It's not your fault. The next morning, as they gathered in the circle for the third and final day, I feel blessed. I feel like it's a feather. The mood had shifted dramatically. I feel open. I feel courageous. I feel nurtured, even though it's painful to let it out. I think you guys do it because you know it's going to help the next person and it has. So how did the retreat go? Very enlightening, very powerful. We took off the mask that everybody sees. What questions did you ask each other? Exonaries to crime victims and back around. I asked what happened to you when everyone was honest. I asked right away I shook Mr. Howard's hand. And I feel for this man and my other two friends back there that are exonaries. I see it now because we really looked from our side at the table. We never seen it from their side. I had that fear. Even when I came here, I didn't know if I would be coming into hate because I was exonery. Because nobody believed me for 30 years. I think we believe it. I had questions myself for an exonery. And I was able to build up the courage to even ask Raymond because I still hold this guilt. And I was finally able to let it go after talking to him. I knew he was speaking from his heart. And it took 30 years for him to let me get that guilt off of me. Wow. I thank you. May you keep spreading your love to everyone that needs it. So as the retreat drew to a close, they clasped hands and shared wishes for one another. Can you continue on your journey of healing? What happened in your case that allowed you to heal? I think I'll always be healing. But I think what has helped me more than anything is the relationships I've built along the way with people that have been harmed and hurt just like me. Because you're helping other people. So for me, you always be in our lives and may you always be courageous. I'm helping other people, but what they don't realize is they're also helping me. They're helping me. I didn't know that moving. They're healing. They are healing. And I want to walk with them on that journey. Woo, wee! A bit of good news. Three of the exonaries have gotten married since our story first aired. Congratulations to Howard Dudley, Chris Ochoa, and Raymond Taller. It was a gruesome discovery off a dirt road in Georgia. Hunters had found a body. Was it immediately clear to you that this woman had been murdered? Yes. But who was this mystery woman in the woods? That looks like Mindy. I'm Aaron Moriardi, and from 48 hours, this is the woman in the woods. I have never wanted to be wrong like this in my whole entire life. Binge, the full series, the woman in the woods, wherever you get your podcast. Hi, everybody. I'm Nora O'Donnell, and I want to tell you about my new podcast, Health Full. Every week, I renew the latest science. Dr. Brem, myth-busting. Okay. And trusted medical expertise. Harry Manapaz is hormonal chaos. We have biology to help you not suffer. To help you improve your health, your happiness, this is like such an ah-ha moment. And just to improve your life, I think talking about this is so incredibly important. Healthful. A new CBS News podcast, wherever you get your podcasts. One of the most remarkable and mysterious migrations in the natural world occurs every spring. From Mexico to the United States, tens of millions of monarch butterflies make the epic aerial journey home. They've spent the winter hanging out in trees in a forest on a remote mountain in Mexico, resting up after flying all the way from Canada and the northern US where they were born. It's believed monarchs have been making this journey for thousands of years. But there's a lot fewer of them than there used to be. The population in Mexico has declined 70 percent in the last 30 years. We arrived there last year just in time to watch the monarchs emerge from their slumber and begin to take flight. The monarchs come to these mountains in Michoal Khan in Central Mexico, starting in late October. Do you still get excited going up to see them? Every time there's no substance. One of our guides, Jorge Ricards, is the director of the nonprofit World Wildlife Fund in Mexico. We're going to leave the horses, walk a little bit, very, very carefully and very quietly, so we won't disturb the butterflies. The monarchs roost in patches of fur and pine trees 11,000 feet up. There are some 66 million of them here, but it's hard to see them at first. There are what appear to be clumps of dead leaves hanging from sagging branches. But those are butterflies. Tens of thousands of them clustered together and trees all around. There are so many of them on the branches of the trees that the branches are all pointing toward the ground. Imagine the likeness of a butterfly, and there aren't so many of them here that they actually bend the trees, and they like the fur as they have so many little leaves or spickles, so there's lots of surface to cling onto. The monarchs are in a kind of hibernation. On the way here, they've faddened up on nectar which helps them survive and rest through the long winter months. The climate on this mountain is ideal. The canopy of trees protects the butterflies from storms, and though the air is cool, it's relatively humid, so they stay hydrated. The clusters are so drab when you're looking at them because they have their wings closed. In many butterflies, on the underside, is drab were less likely colored, and that happens in nature a lot, so it's not very inviting. It wouldn't be inviting her. Why are we whispering? They are very sensitive to sound. They are also sensitive to seal too. So, unless we talk the better, they relate that with the predator, as other mammals might be. Like a mouse breathing or a bird. That is right. On the forest floor, all around us, monarchs litter the ground. But most are not dead. They've just fallen from trees during the night, and their muscles are too cold for them to fly. Cup them in your hands, you can revive them with your breath. So they need a certain temperature to get their wing muscles back. They are very vulnerable when they're on the floor, and the birds know that, and the mice know that. That's almost ready. There you go. Come on, little buddy. Maybe a little more. There you go. Yeah, he likes you. Wow. When the sun begins to hit the trees, flashes of orange appear. The monarchs are warming and slowly opening their wings. There is a day of warms up. We're going to see more activities. Court Whalen has been bringing tour groups here and photographing monarchs for more than 20 years. He shows us a spot where some butterflies have taken flight. Then, after a few minutes, suddenly, the air is filled with them. This is extraordinary. This is it. This is what it's all about. This is nature knows when to put on a show, huh? And how to put on a show. Why have they all now just suddenly taken off? So it's a warm day. We're getting a lot of sunlight. So we're just ramping up, ramping up. I mean, what's insane is it's not just over here. It's over there. It's over there. I mean, it's extraordinary. But yeah, it's all the heat and it's all the sun. You can actually hear the sound of butterfly wings. Yeah. Let's just be quiet for a second. Look at that. Look at that. Oh, my gosh. Whoa. This is about as gay as it possibly gets. It's like a snow globe of monarchs. You got a butterfly, honey. Oh, there we go. It's still something of a mystery how these monarchs managed to get here. Most only live about a month. They spend their short lives eating and mating and females lay eggs. But in late summer and early fall, what's called a super generation of monarchs appear. Hatched as caterpillars, they transform into Christlases. And then, after a week or two, emerge as butterflies. And that's when they do something extraordinary. With winter coming, they sense the shorter days and changing temperatures and suppress a key reproductive hormone, a process called diapause, which helps them conserve their energy and live up to nine months, nine times longer than most monarchs. It's crazy that there's this super generation of monarchs that can make it all the way. It's amazing. And then the rest will die off after a month. What is amazing is how they detonate this process of not developing sexual organs, but using that energy for the flight. Monarchs born west of the Rockies stay there. And migrate shorter distances. It's this super generation born in Canada and east of the Rockies in the northern United States that flies to Mexico. Hundreds of millions of them join up on a journey of some 3,000 miles, which can take them three months or longer. To help them find their way, monarchs have circadian clocks in their antennae and navigate using internal compasses that respond to the position of the sun and the earth's magnetic field. Why are they coming here? Well, that's a big mystery. Maybe it's a prehistoric route. Maybe it was determined by geographical conditions in terms of topography. Maybe it had to do with climate. You're talking about multiple generations who all have this exact same instinct and know where to go and all go to the exact same spot. That's one of the most magical things that could happen in the natural world. How do they know? The monarchs were discovered by researchers on this mountain range in 1975, and the Mexican government declared the area a federal reserve 11 years later. But for decades, illegal logging threatened the butterflies' roosting spots, which one's covered as much as 45 acres. It's now down to four and a half. Or a wildlife fund has spent years trying to combat the destruction, assessing the health of the forest, measuring the size of butterfly colonies and planting trees. They've also worked with local communities and indigenous groups to protect the land and help them profit from tourism. The good news is the forest is rebounding. Because it's just so unusual to see this. It's like almost an optical illusion because everything's beating at this weird frequency. It's like the whole world is kind of pulsing. So what are they doing here? Yeah, so this is kind of a classic mud puddling of modern butterflies. Mud puddling? Yeah, mud puddling. It's a real scientific term. So they're mainly after hydration, but butterflies are known to need some trace elements, like salts and whatnot. And it doesn't look like much, but just as little bit of water in this mud puddle is enough for them to get some water. And then what will happen is they'll return to the roost before evening. After about four months in Mexico, this super-generation of monarchs are near the end of their long life cycle. They're finally ready to mate and migrate north to lay their eggs. They'll die before they can make it back to where they were born and their offspring might not live long enough to get there either, but future generations will. And there's an army of people trying to help them. In Kansas, volunteers come out to catch and tag monarchs so scientists can track their migration. They're recruited by Chip Taylor, an 87-year-old ecologist who's been fascinated by monarchs since he was a child. There's over 100,000 species of butterflies and moths, but pretty much the only one people know are monarchs. What is it about monarch butterflies? Well, monarchs have got charisma. I mean, the way monarch butterflies have charisma? Well, yeah, they have charisma because they are accessible. They're large. They're beautiful. They're slow. You can catch them, it involves Canada, it involves Mexico. Taylor founded a nonprofit called Monarch Watch at the University of Kansas 30 years ago. Nice. And so far, it's helped tag more than two million of them. How do you tag a butterfly that's so delicate? This is a rough butterfly and it has to go thousands of miles. So it's a pretty tough butterfly. It's resilient. Yeah, it's resilient. But that resilience is being tested. Monarchs returning to the U.S. need milkweed plants to lay their eggs on. It's the only source of food their newly born caterpillars will eat. But milkweed is now hard to find. It's been virtually eradicated on agricultural land because of genetically modified corn and soybean crops that allow for mass spraying of herbicides. Monarch Watch encourages people to plant milkweed in their gardens and on public land, creating what they call Monarch Way stations. 50,000 of them have been planted so far. In Mexico, those efforts have gotten noticed. They are taking water. And water, redone, head of World Wildlife Fund's Monarch Butterfly Program showed us a tag he recently found. So this is one of the tags from Monarch Watch from Chip Taylor. Exactly. I find maybe 12 meters forward here. Yeah, I was measuring the colony and then I see the ground and I find this tag. But it's the only way that we can to prove that Monarch from the United States and Canada come here to overwinter. Less than 20% of the monarchs that head out on this miraculous migration actually make it to the mountains of Michoacán. Scientists say worsening storms and rising temperatures kill off many. Though this past year, the number of monarchs that survived the trip nearly doubled. It was particularly welcome news in Mexico, where the butterflies arrival in late October coincides with a deeply spiritual celebration, what's known as the Day of the Dead. That's when many here believe the souls of family and friends who died return to visit their loved ones. And so that's why the butterflies are returning as well. Local people believe that the monarchs are the returning spirits of. That is correct. Of the dead. That is correct. Yes. So who knows maybe we are actually, you are reviving, you're helping someone's ancestor fly back. Yes indeed, so it's very magical. Since our story aired, scientists tell us conservation measures are going in the right direction. One survey found that the monarchs covered more than double the forest area during this year's hibernation season. That's more than seven acres of Mexican forest covered in butterflies. Anderson Cooper's trip to sea butterflies, years in the making. Not quite so easy. At 60minutesovertime.com Kayla Harrison versus Amanda Nunez, in the biggest women's championship fight ever. Her greatest of all time came to fight. UFC 334 had Madison Square Garden, Saturday November 14 only on Paramount Plus. Need a break? Forget it, I quit. Escape to Pluto TV. This is objectively fantastic. Watch Tommy Boy, Crazy X Girlfriend, Wayne's World and More. We're not worthy! The best things on TV really are free. Pluto TV, stream now, pay never.