[narrator]
in the farm country of southwestern Ohio,
cornfields sit empty
while the church is filled to overflow.
One of the regulars, however, is missing.
Ruth Doench lay sprawled on the floor,
just inside her front door.
Doench is half nude,
with a gardening axe embedded in her forehead.
Despite the grievous wound, there is a lack of blood.
Suggesting the killer used the axe
after his victim was already dead.
Detectives speculate Ruth Doench
was the victim of a random act of violence.
And begin to track down people
with whom she might've had contact.
Friends, as well as delivery and repairmen
in the community, are all questioned and cleared.
Then, Detective Deaton picks his way
through Ruth's personal property,
and turns up his first solid lead.
A receipt book, listing the names of people
who rented a small home
on the back half of Doench's 18-acre property.
Found the names and began actually looking for those folks
to determine, uh, where they lived,
were they still in the area, still in the neighborhood?
[narrator]
Police learn he lived in Doench's guest house
for more than a year.
And decide to pay Korn a visit.
[Deaton]
He had me convinced that, uh,
he was not a person that would, um,
do something of this nature.
And-and he had alibis at the time, as I recall.
[narrator]
but no hard evidence connecting Korn to the murder.
The case goes cold,
and stays that way until a second attack takes place
in another small town
130 miles southwest.
[pensive music]
[narrator]
in the community of Jeffersonville, Indiana.
54-year-old Dorothy Hendron sits in her La-Z-Boy,
watching
when her head is pulled back, a knife laid across her throat.
[man]
And she was begging him,
"Please tell me what you want me to do.
I'll do anything, just don't kill me."
[narrator]
and rapes her.
The attacker cuts her again,
and Hendron plays dead.
The intruder leaves his victim where she lay,
rummages through the house for valuables,
and departs.
Hendron drags herself to the phone,
and manages a call to 911.
By the time police arrive,
the victim is on her way to the hospital,
fighting for her life.
Forensics collects blood and hair samples
from throughout the house.
Beyond that, there is little else to do.
[Kemp]
Waiting for her, hoping that she would survive
to give us more information.
[narrator]
and provides a description of the man who attacked her.
Police, however, have no name to put to the description.
That is, until they get a visit from a woman
who fears for her life.
[pensive music]
[narrator]
is Dorothy Hendron's next door neighbor.
Three days after the assault,
Allen calls police to tell them about a man she saw
near Hendron's house
the night of the attack.
I saw him when he pulled up.
And then, I saw him get out of the El Camino
and I never dreamed that
anything like what happened would happen.
[narrator]
Kathy Allen knows.
Someone who, a month earlier,
lured Allen herself onto his houseboat
and attacked her.
[Kathy]
And he was trying to get my clothes off.
He did get some of my clothes off.
And then, um, I started biting.
And he bit me back, and then
I bit his hand,
and when he let go, I just remember I got away.
I got out. I flew.
[narrator]
about the attempted rape.
Now, however, she provides police with his name:
Donald Korn.
Donald Korn is arrested,
and placed into an Indiana jail cell.
A search warrant on Korn's houseboat
turns up a pair of bloody shoes
matching footprints found at the Hendron crime scene.
Then, Hendron's purse is discovered,
ditched in the river, alongside Korn's boat.
Ron Kemp asks that Korn be brought to his office.
Kemp gets Korn a cup of coffee
and some food.
Talks a bit with Korn about his family.
And then moves a bit closer to the suspect.
Kemp tells Korn he needs to turn the interrogation
over to Ohio detectives
who want to talk about the murder of Ruth Doench.
[Kemp]
I need to know something.
Did you kill Mrs. Doench in Ohio?"
He said, "Yes. I stabbed her in the heart."
"Did you attack Mrs. Hendron?"
"Yes, I did that also."
And he said, "I want to get those things off my chest."
[narrator]
seals the case against Korn in Indiana.
And provides Ohio with a gift-wrapped confession
to Ruth Doench's murder.
Or, at least, it would appear that way.
Korn appeals both convictions.
Claiming he asked for an attorney
during the interrogation but was denied one.
Police deny Korn ever made the request.
And the argument goes nowhere in Indiana.
Ohio, however, is a different story.
The Court of Appeals looked at the law and said,
"You know, we don't have an appetite
for what we're about to do,
but we feel that the law requires us
to throw out the confession
because he asked for an attorney.
And that's what we're required to do.
We're required to follow the law."
[narrator]
Donald Korn's conviction in the Ruth Doench case
is overturned.
His confession ruled inadmissible.
When that was done, it kind of gutted the case.
I mean, that was, at that time,
the core of the case was his confession.
And without that confession, the prosecutor at the time
felt that he couldn't prosecute.
[man]
on this heinous crime that-that he had confessed to,
and had been convicted on,
and was sentenced to death to die in the electric chair,
I-I was just shattered that he had gotten off scot-free.
[narrator]
But still faces a minimum of 20 years in Indiana.
A comfort to some, but infinitely troubling
to others who can envision the day he might, once again,
walk the streets.
[Deaton]
and you can tell that he's a killer.
And the way he committed both of these crimes,
in Indiana and Ohio,
uh, I wouldn't want this guy back out on the street.
[dramatic music]
[man on PA]
at 21, two minutes remain in the game.
[narrator]
the name Donald Korn
doesn't mean what it used to around Hamilton, Ohio.
The memory of Ruth Doench's murder
has faded away for most.
Save those whose job it is to dig into the old files
and not to forget.
Frank Smith works the Ruth Doench homicide
as if it were fresh.
Looking for a new angle,
anything that might tie Korn to Ruth Doench's murder.
Leafing through the old files,
Smith happens upon a woman named Louis Amburgey.
A woman who is actually Donald Korn's sister.
[Smith]
I introduced myself, and I explained to her
that, uh, I was there because of her brother.
Uh, she told me that, uh,
it had been a long time coming, that, uh, there were something
that she needed to tell us.
[narrator]
Now, however, conscience demands
she do exactly that.
First, with Detective Smith,
and, subsequently, in a taped deposition.
Amburgey details conversations
she and her mother had with Donald Korn
during their visits to the state lockup.
[narrator]
with the break he needs.
A firsthand account of Korn's confession to murder.
With Korn's potential parole date looming,
Smith secures a grand jury indictment
for the murder of Ruth Doench.
And prepares for trial.
[Piper]
Whether we failed, whether we were successful or not,
wasn't as important as the fact
that we had to be committed to try
to get a conviction so we could keep him in prison
for the rest of his life so the rest of us could be safe.
[narrator]
On June 17th, the jury returns with a verdict.
Korn is found guilty of aggravated murder.
Under Ohio law, the crime is no longer eligible
for the death penalty.
Instead, Korn is sentenced to life in prison,
with no chance of parole for 30 years.
For Ruth Doench's family,
the nightmare finally comes to an end.
[man]
that he would come after us.
And try to harm us.
Or-or my daughters.
That was a real fear we had over our heads all these years.