[music playing]
WOMAN: I was home with my mom.
[phone ringing]
And I remember my mom getting a phone call
from my Aunt Joan, Dave's mom.
He hadn't come home for supper.
Honestly, the first thought when he didn't come home,
I thought, uh-oh, he's in trouble.
He stayed out later than he should have, you know?
And then I thought, well, it's not like him, though.
She sent his older brothers out to look for him, his places
that he would normally look.
They checked everywhere.
Dave wasn't one for confrontation.
He wasn't one that liked to fight.
He wouldn't defend himself as quickly
as he would defend others.
WOMAN: He was very affectionate, always hugging his mom,
telling his mom he loved her, and his older sister, Virginia.
WOMAN: He was out every day on his bike riding around.
And he'd always tell his mom every time
before he left the house, I love you, Mom, I'll be back.
And off he'd go on his bike.
BOB REEDY: Back on August 21 of 1985,
I saw that there was numerous firemen searching the area
down by the railroad tracks.
I checked and found out that a young boy had been missing.
Initially, I thought it was a runaway, that he might
have been staying at some friend's
houses or something like that.
[music playing]
Dave's bike was found by his sister, Virginia.
It was on the railroad tracks in the bushes.
Virginia was devastated when they found the bike.
It made the realization that, you know,
there was definitely something wrong,
and we just needed to find out what it was.
WOMAN: Dave's bike was like his right arm.
He wouldn't go anywhere without it.
He wouldn't just leave it behind.
Jenny took it hard.
And she wanted people to do things.
And she kind of felt, I think, helpless.
WOMAN: It was really frustrating that, you know,
the police couldn't come up with anything.
My aunt cried just nonstop.
She would just come to our house.
I could still picture her sitting in the chair
and just crying and crying.
As time went on, days turned into weeks and then months.
We had no idea where he was or who he was with
or if he was even OK.
WOMAN: My brothers and I walked all over Schuylkill Haven.
And I think we've hung these on every telephone pole,
put them in every grocery store, every storefront window
that we could possibly find.
And all hopes of trying to get some information.
BOB REEDY: There were many times I took extra walks in what
would be the train yard, again checking the boxcars
and the cabooses that were left there, checking
the bushes in the area.
I just figured if anything had happened to David,
it would have had to have been somewhere in that area.
And there was no David.
I was contacted to respond to an address
over on Cadwell Street because of something
that had been found.
NARRATOR: A Schuylkill Haven resident
has found a skull in the woods not far from his home.
[music playing]
BOB REEDY: Initially, the family over on Cadwell Street
had lost a cat.
And they went up into the woods behind their house.
And when he was up there looking for the cat,
he found the skull.
WOMAN: I couldn't imagine why anyone
would disturb the remains of someone they found.
Call the police.
Get them there.
Get them to see everything intact as it was.
I've heard of people finding bones and going back
to the house and telling the police where they're at,
but not collecting them and bringing them back.
NARRATOR: The man who found the skull takes
investigators back into the woods, where
there are even more bones.
BOB REEDY: There was a very small
opening between the trees.
And you could see that there were human remains
laying on the ground.
And there was clothing that was associated with it.
The fact that the remains had a white t-shirt and writing on it
was possibly from the Republican and blue jeans, that
pretty much sealed the deal that it
was David that had been found.
NARRATOR: Investigators have no witnesses
and no other physical evidence.
So they ask an anthropologist to examine David's bones.
In addition to teeth marks left by animals,
Munge finds a fracture on the back of David's skull.
So what happened in the case of David Reed
is something clearly hit his head,
and those suture lines sprung open from each other.
Did he fall, like hit his head on a rock?
That could have happened.
So the cause of death of David is listed as undetermined.
BOB REEDY: One individual named Kathy
came forward with information about David
getting into a blue van.
She even supplied registration from the van.
We immediately had that broadcast across the county.
And we were able to run numerous ways that license plate--
you know, a B instead of an 8.
And we tried to run it in various different ways
to come up with a vehicle that it would match.
And none of it was successful.
[music playing]
I was sitting in my office one day,
and an individual came in and introduced himself as Trooper
Bob Betnar, and that he had been assigned to reopen
the cold case of David Reed.
ROBERT BETNAR: When I had heard about David's case,
I lobbied for it.
I wanted to be a part of it.
NARRATOR: Betnar focuses on the interviews police conducted
when David first went missing.
ROBERT BETNAR: This individual did have ties
to David Reed's family, specifically his sister
and his older brothers.
He did not cooperate with the initial investigation.
He did not like the police because he was a drug dealer.
But he was also incarcerated at this time.
And when the police went to talk to him in jail,
he wanted nothing to do with them.
When I approached this guy, he was
shocked that I wanted to talk to him
about the death of David Reed.
MAN: There were always rumors circulating about an abduction
that took place, that there was a van
that may have abducted David and took him away from the area.
ROBERT BETNAR: I'm not only given the owner
of a light blue colored van, but I'm
given the identity of an individual that resides
in Schuylkill Haven that's a nefarious individual, that's
sexually abusing children.
He fit our profile.
[music playing]
We're all excited that, you know,
we may have solved this case in a short matter of time.
And they're like, hey, Rob, he's here.
You know, he's here to talk to you.
And they're thinking he wants to talk me through this case.
It was crazy.
It was surreal.
But the explanation was much more innocent than that.
He was there for his annual Megan's Law registration.
NARRATOR: When investigators dive deeper
into this possible suspect's record,
they discover that he was in federal prison
when David went missing.
ROBERT BETNAR: It was very disheartening to exclude
the Megan's Law offender.
I remember one of my immediate supervisors even coming to me
and asking, are we done now?
Are you satisfied?
You know, you took a shot at it.
It was a good run.
MAN: Betnar hasn't run out of steam yet.
ROBERT BETNAR: We were going to put this case on TV.
And David Reed's sister, Virginia, she was going
to be the face of this case.
We went out looking for witnesses.
One of the red flags that people in the community
had raised to us is that, after David's disappearance,
Joe Geiger disappeared.
Joseph Geiger was not only a local small-time drug dealer,
but he used to grow his own marijuana
plants back behind his house--
in fact, in the wooded area where
David Reed's body was found.
WOMAN: I remember hearing stories
that, you know, Joe Geiger would be at parties telling people,
well, if you want to murder somebody,
do it in Schuylkill County, because you
can get away with it.
The family would tell the police that, and you know,
I don't know if they took it seriously
or what they did, but not at the time, at least.
NARRATOR: Detectives want to question
the now 40-year-old Geiger.
ROBERT BETNAR: He does walk into the barracks.
And he had told us that he'd only seen David around town
once, and then he ends up by my house dead.
He barely knew him.
He had no alibi.
He had nothing.
And he was boxed in.
He knew it.
And he breaks.
MAN: Geiger tells Trooper Betnar, I was there.
I saw it.
And it was John Fry.
ROBERT BETNAR: In 1985, John Fry is a smaller kid.
He's a kid that would get in trouble drinking alcohol.
MAN: The story was that John Fry punched David in the face.
David fell backwards, and he hit his head.
And that's what happened.
ROBERT BETNAR: John Fry gives us a consistent statement with Joe
Geiger, only he indicates that Joe Geiger is the person that
hit David Reed and not him.
We were given very specific facts as to how David died.
We wanted to take that scenario to an anthropologist
to get a professional opinion.
Because of Janet Munge's work and her examination of David,
we were, in fact, able to get the cause of manner
changed to blunt force trauma and the manner of death
to homicide.
Now, it's game on.
For the first time in 23 years, we
can make an arrest for criminal homicide in David Reed's case.
John Fry was a right-handed person.
Joe was left-handed.
David had a fracture on the right side of his face.
And we felt if two individuals were facing each other,
if there were going to be a fight,
that fracture on the right side of the face
would have been more consistent with being
struck by a left-handed person.
We got the warrant issued on August 20.
And really, for symbolic purposes,
we wanted that arrest made on that anniversary date.
Mixed emotions come into play again because we're
finally getting him arrested.
He's finally going to pay for what he did.
But then it's the, you had 23 years
of freedom to walk around.
NARRATOR: Joe Geiger is charged with third-degree murder,
manslaughter, tampering with physical evidence,
and abuse of a corpse.
MAN: Geiger explained to us that he
was growing marijuana plants.
And he had discovered that David was stealing his plants,
and that he was angry, infuriated by this.
NARRATOR: Geiger and Fry found David near the empty cabooses
on the railroad tracks, a known hangout spot for the young boy.
MAN: He confronted David in the train,
and John Fry was there, and that during the confrontation,
he admitted to punching David, and that when
David fell backwards, he hit his head off of a metal object.
ROBERT BETNAR: After he hit David,
he said he started crying.
They panicked and they went downtown,
and then went back to the train car, hoping he wasn't there.
And unfortunately, David was still there.
He thought he was dead.
And rather than notifying anybody,
he took the coward's way out and he hid his body.
WOMAN: I'm glad that-- you know, that he did have to tell what
happened in his plea deal, but I think that a lot of it,
like the crying--
they told me he cried a lot--
I think that was more because he was caught, because in court he
showed no remorse.
NARRATOR: A judge sentences Geiger to no more
than two years behind bars.
[music playing]
WOMAN: Joe took away my friend.
He took away my cousin.
I wish he had the opportunity to grow up as I did, you know?
It just seems so unfair, and I'm so sorry that his life
was cut so short.