Snapped

[00:31] In 1999, New Mexico artist and entrepreneur Linda Henning had a life that most would envy.

[00:38] I sold my clothing line in Europe, Australia, Canada.

[00:43] She was tall, attractive, always dressed nice, expensive clothes, perfect hair, perfect makeup, nails, you know, the whole thing.

[00:51] But that would suddenly change when she met a 34-year-old man named Diazien Hossencofft.

[00:57] He would promise people that he had a magic elixir that would bring eternal youth to women.

[01:04] And seemingly overnight, 45-year-old Linda Henning’s picture-perfect life changed.

[01:10] She changed so dramatically, so quickly.

[01:13] And when her new boyfriend’s estranged wife went missing, police would discover just how dramatic the change in Linda’s life had become.

[01:21] Girly Chew was an alien queen, and I must defeat her.

[01:40] On the evening of Friday, September 10, 1999, Albuquerque police knocked on the door of Linda Henning.

[01:47] They were looking for Linda’s boyfriend, Diazien Hossencofft.

[01:52] Friday night, two patrol officers come by, and they said they want to look for Diazien, to talk to Diazien.

[02:00] Earlier that day, Diazien’s estranged wife, Girly Chew, had been reported missing by worried co-workers.

[02:06] I mean, she’s just one of those employees who’s the model employee, the employee every boss wants.

[02:12] The Albuquerque police department learned that Girly Chew Hossencofft had disappeared when she failed to show up for work,

[02:18] and her employer called and notified the department.

[02:23] When police searched Girly’s apartment, it was clear that something was wrong.

[02:28] The first thing I noticed were three distinct bleached-out stains in the carpet in the den in front of her couch.

[02:35] It was obvious that there was a damp spot on the carpeting, as if someone had tried to clean up something.

[02:41] There were also minute drops of blood on the carpet and sofa.

[02:45] There were found these seven spots of blood.

[02:48] Police called in a forensics team to take samples for DNA testing.

[02:52] The samples were turned over to forensics, and police turned their eyes toward Girly’s estranged husband.

[02:58] Hossencofft becomes a suspect early on simply because of what Girly said.

[03:02] If anything happens to me, it’s Diazien who does it.

[03:07] But Diazien was also missing.

[03:10] There’s no sign of him. Nobody knows where he’s gone.

[03:13] That evening, police showed up at the home of Diazien’s girlfriend, Linda Henning,

[03:18] and Linda’s answers to the detective’s questions only deepened the mystery of Girly’s disappearance.

[03:25] What drew Linda to Mr. Hossencofft was their joint beliefs about aliens.

[03:30] Linda Henning believes in a lot of things that I guess you could say normal people don’t.

[03:41] Diazien Hossencofft came into Linda Henning’s life in July of 1999.

[03:50] The gym that I was working out, the owner of the gym said, you know, you might want to meet this fellow.

[03:55] He’s got a lot of interesting ideas, and then he gave me Diazien’s card.

[04:01] Those interesting ideas were one of Linda’s favorite subjects.

[04:05] Since I was probably 19 years old, I’ve done a lot of research on and off about government conspiracies,

[04:11] about things the government’s involved in, and that the public doesn’t know.

[04:15] She was interested in the aliens and UFOs.

[04:20] It seems to be sort of a slowly evolving interest, starting with things like simple things like watching the X-Files,

[04:27] wanting to discuss them at length with different people.

[04:32] Linda made the first move.

[04:35] She showed up at his front doorstep and said, hi, this is me, and I’ve heard you believe in X, Y, Z, and can we talk?

[04:41] I’ve kind of pieced together my viewpoint on where the government’s headed,

[04:46] and Diazien Hossencofft had already done a lot of investigation.

[04:50] So we kind of, you know, like the meeting of the minds, you know?

[04:55] He had a tremendous amount of information. I had a tremendous amount of information as well.

[05:00] The couple hit it off immediately.

[05:03] It was just an incredible rapport. We talked for probably about, I don’t know, three hours.

[05:08] He had a lot to say about that, and so she was more kind of like interested, I think, at first in information.

[05:15] Within a week of their meeting, Linda’s relationship with Diazien had become more than professional.

[05:21] Once we met, we were like together. We were like any spare time, we were together.

[05:27] Linda wasn’t concerned that Diazien was still technically a married man.

[05:32] Hossencofft was married to a lovely young woman named Girly Chew Hossencofft.

[05:37] She was a girl from Malaysia.

[05:39] I’ve never cared about the relationships that any man that was involved with me had.

[05:44] I don’t care about her because she’s not involved with us.

[05:49] Diazien had not told Linda much about his soon-to-be ex-wife.

[05:53] He never discussed it. That would be like airing your personal laundry, and he just didn’t do that.

[05:59] He had told Linda that Girly worked as a teller in a local bank. Diazien’s own work was less traditional.

[06:06] He came to tell her that he was a doctor and helped with youth serum, anti-cancer shots, and Botox.

[06:15] He was going to develop a company that was going to have some medical breakthroughs.

[06:19] But the company never seemed to get off the ground.

[06:22] Some mysterious obstacle would occur, and everything’s going to be delayed.

[06:27] And maybe every six, seven, eight months that would occur.

[06:31] And according to Diazien, Girly had decided to look for greener pastures.

[06:36] In January of 1999, after six years of marriage, she moved out and filed for divorce.

[06:43] She went her merry way, and they were separated for a year.

[06:47] A year before I ever met them.

[06:51] So I’m not a home wrecker.

[06:54] By 8 a.m. on the morning of September 10, 1999, Girly Chew Hossencofft’s supervisor at the bank was already worried about her employee.

[07:03] Around 8 o’clock, she already has employees coming up to her before she even gets to her desk saying, Girly hasn’t shown up.

[07:10] It wasn’t like Girly to be even a minute late.

[07:14] She’s the first to work. She’s the most reliable.

[07:17] Girly’s supervisor became even more worried when one of Girly’s close friends called the bank looking for her.

[07:23] She says, we always talk every night. I always want to make sure that she’s okay.

[07:27] And we talk before we go to bed. She never picked up the phone last night.

[07:32] Girly’s boss decided to call 911.

[07:36] Her boss is calling the police, trying to impress upon them that this is very serious, that she has met harm’s way.

[07:43] One of Girly’s co-workers went to Girly’s apartment to check on her.

[07:47] He goes out to the place. There’s no sign of Girly Chew Hossencofft.

[07:52] While waiting for officers to arrive, Girly’s worried co-worker convinced the apartment manager to check inside Girly’s apartment.

[08:00] The door was locked, but the deadbolt wasn’t locked. Automatically, people knew Girly.

[08:05] They realized she would have had that deadbolt latched. It had been left unlatched. Something wasn’t right here.

[08:12] A quick tour of the apartment didn’t reveal much, except that Girly was not there.

[08:17] Nothing really seems out of order aside from a pillow slightly askew.

[08:22] However, when police officers arrived, they immediately noticed something disturbing.

[08:27] The first thing the police noticed is a distinct odor of bleach.

[08:32] It was obvious that there was a damp spot on the carpeting as if someone had tried to clean up something.

[08:39] The officers called for backup.

[08:41] I was the on-call primary homicide detective for that time period and was brought in to assist the initial responding officers.

[08:52] Detective Fox got a search warrant for the apartment and put the crime scene investigators to work.

[08:58] Rather than cut out those spots in the carpet that had been bleached, the whole carpet area was lifted and taken to the crime lab, the Albuquerque Police Department’s crime lab.

[09:09] Girly’s co-workers also gave detectives a suspect in Girly’s disappearance, her estranged husband, Diazien.

[09:17] If what they told police was true, Diazien had good reason to keep the details of his divorce from Linda Henning.

[09:24] There were at least two reported episodes of domestic violence to the Albuquerque Police Department involving Girly Chew, Hossencofft, and Diazien Hossencofft.

[09:33] According to her co-workers, Girly had been a victim of domestic abuse. She had finally reached a breaking point.

[09:41] She actually moved to a location not known to Diazien because she feared for her life.

[09:46] She’s filing for divorce and that action right there compounded by the fact that she actually had the audacity to say, I deserve some of our stuff.

[09:56] This seems to be a moment that really triggers Hossencofft’s rage. He vows that she won’t see a single dime.

[10:03] And Diazien demonstrated just how seriously he took that vow.

[10:08] Hossencofft is calling her work. Hossencofft is telling her on the telephone that you’ll die and your body will never be found.

[10:16] Diazien Hossencofft was our initial suspect. He had a violent marital relationship with Girly.

[10:24] That afternoon, detectives tried to locate Diazien for questioning. They discovered that he had recently moved. Very recently.

[10:33] We found that Diazien had hired a moving company and left the state.

[10:37] Detective Fox put out a national attempt to locate Kahl for Girly and Diazien.

[10:43] I put in the locate that she may have been physically injured and is possibly bleeding.

[10:49] Detectives began checking into Diazien’s background. The more they found out, the more convinced they became that he was behind Girly’s disappearance.

[10:58] In checking his background, we found that Diazien Hossencofft wasn’t his real name. It was Armand Chavez.

[11:07] His name wasn’t the only thing he had fabricated.

[11:10] Hossencofft was not a doctor. Hossencofft was absolutely 100% a fraud.

[11:15] And his so-called youth serum?

[11:18] He would promise people that he had a magic elixir that would bring eternal youth to women.

[11:24] And there were women that would pay several hundred dollars for this injection.

[11:28] Diazien Hossencofft was exploiting a number of people for financial gain.

[11:32] During their check into Diazien’s background, detectives learned he was involved with Linda Henning.

[11:38] And as it turned out, Linda and Girly weren’t the only women in Diazien’s life.

[11:44] He was simultaneously engaged to a number of women, many of whom never met him, only knew him on the internet.

[11:51] Apparently in January of 1999, Girly had discovered the truth about Diazien’s extramarital activities.

[11:59] Her world is actually crumbling before her over time. At first, it’s very slow to come down, but then it comes down real fast.

[12:07] Ultimately, after these domestic violence episodes, Girly realizes that she has to separate herself from her abuser.

[12:15] Girly had moved out and filed for divorce. When detectives talked to neighbors,

[12:20] they discovered that Diazien had spent most of the week before Girly’s disappearance with his new girlfriend, Linda Henning.

[12:28] Linda Henning’s name came up early on in the investigation as being a friend of Diazien Hossencofft and a romantic interest.

[12:35] Which was why Linda found detectives at her door the same evening that Girly had been reported missing.

[12:42] They want to look for Diazien, so I did take them through the house. I brought them in.

[12:47] Coming up, police discover that Linda’s boyfriend has a secret life.

[12:52] He believed that he himself was an alien.

[12:55] But does Linda also have a secret?

[12:58] A passerby located a wallet with Girly Chew Hossencofft’s identification card close to Linda Henning’s residence.

[13:29] On the evening of Friday, September 10, 1999, 45-year-old businesswoman Linda Henning sent down with police officers in her Albuquerque, New Mexico townhouse.

[13:40] Her 34-year-old boyfriend Diazien Hossencofft and his estranged wife Girly had both disappeared.

[13:47] The officers were hoping Linda could help locate at least one of their missing persons.

[13:53] I told them exactly what Diazien told me, which he told me that he was going to go to, I think, Colorado and maybe Dallas, something like that.

[14:01] As for their other missing person, Diazien’s wife, police were starting to fear the worst.

[14:07] They believed that she was kidnapped and murdered.

[14:09] All of the evidence pointed toward a violent end.

[14:13] First, there were the three suspicious bleach stains in her apartment.

[14:17] These three stains had the smell of bleach and they looked like they had been a blood-stained area that had been cleaned up by bleach.

[14:26] Also alarming were items found near a desert highway. Just hours after Girly had been reported missing, a highway worker had discovered a blood-covered tarp beside the road, about 100 miles southwest of Albuquerque.

[14:39] At first, he wasn’t all that concerned.

[14:42] Well, it is hunting season. Could be that a hunter had been using it.

[14:46] Then he noticed a blood-stained blouse nearby. A thorough search of the area resulted in more gruesome discoveries.

[14:54] There are panties. They’re blood-stained. There’s duct tape. It doesn’t look good.

[14:59] Did the bloody clothes belong to their missing woman?

[15:03] They matched it to Girly Hossencofft by looking and determining that it was her clothing.

[15:09] But even if the clothes belonged to Girly Hossencofft, that didn’t mean the blood was hers.

[15:15] Only forensic tests could determine who the blood belonged to. That would take time, time the police were beginning to fear that Girly didn’t have.

[15:26] Interviews with Girly’s friends and co-workers revealed that the Hossencofft’s marriage had not ended as easily as Diazien had led his girlfriend Linda Henning to believe.

[15:37] Girly told her boss at the bank, if I don’t ever show up for work one morning, call the police right away.

[15:43] And her boss had done just that. Now Girly was missing and police were trying to track down her estranged husband.

[15:51] It didn’t look good that Diazien had apparently skipped town the same day that Girly had disappeared.

[15:58] In the initial part of the investigation, we found that Diazien had hired a moving company and left the state.

[16:04] All the furniture was gone, everything was gone.

[16:07] That evening, just hours after Girly was reported missing, police turned to Diazien’s girlfriend Linda Henning in their attempt to locate him.

[16:15] Friday night, two patrol officers come by and I allowed them to come in. I didn’t say, you have search warrants. I cooperated with the police 100%.

[16:24] The officers left Linda’s house with no clues to Diazien’s whereabouts.

[16:29] Two days later on September 12th, Diazien Hossencofft was still unaccounted for. That afternoon, police showed up again at Linda’s home.

[16:39] This time, new evidence had led them almost to her doorstep.

[16:44] Girly Chew Hossencofft’s wallet.

[16:47] A passerby located a wallet with Girly Chew Hossencofft’s identification card within it.

[16:52] It was within about a half mile radius of Linda Henning’s residence.

[16:57] Did the wallet mean Linda had been involved in Girly’s disappearance?

[17:01] It certainly had made her a person of interest to police.

[17:05] But when they questioned Linda, she told detectives she had no reason to harm her boyfriend’s ex-wife.

[17:11] I didn’t have any negative feelings about Girly. I didn’t. I didn’t know anything.

[17:16] Detective Mike Fox asked Linda to come down to the station to give a full statement.

[17:22] They wanted to debrief me and I agreed to it.

[17:28] When Linda sat down with detectives in the Albuquerque police interrogation room,

[17:32] they began by asking what she knew about Diazien.

[17:36] I’ll be with him at the University of Tokyo and he’ll just give me some information knowing he was a medical doctor.

[17:43] What’s his expertise in the field and what did he tell you?

[17:49] He said that he was fielding this and he had been a surgeon at one time. Cardio, thoracic surgeon.

[17:57] Linda told the detectives that Diazien’s moving the same day as Girly went missing was just a coincidence.

[18:04] She said she had known that Diazien planned to move out of state from the start of their relationship.

[18:09] At what point did he tell you he was moving earlier in the state?

[18:13] Oh, you know, he had told me that the first of August. He said that he was going to leave.

[18:20] And he said that it was even funny that I had even stopped by his funeral because he should have been out by like July and mid-July.

[18:28] He had already made plans to go to South Carolina and he had a house that was being built.

[18:36] However, Linda also claimed she had no idea where Diazien was at the moment.

[18:41] She said that he was going to Dallas and I told this to the police officer.

[18:46] Friday, the police officer correct me.

[18:48] I said, no, we don’t think so. He told me Dallas.

[18:51] He told me he said that he was going to go to Colorado.

[18:55] When asked about Diazien’s relationship with his ex-wife, Linda said Diazien had not told her much, nor had she asked.

[19:03] He told me, this is exactly what he told me. He said they lived separate lives.

[19:10] He said they lived as a man and wife for about 30 days and she moved out of his bedroom and they lived separate lives.

[19:19] I really didn’t care about an ex-wife, an ex-girlfriend or anything.

[19:23] I mean, if they’re meant to be together, they’ll be together.

[19:26] The detectives then tried to hone in on the exact nature of Linda’s relationship with Diazien.

[19:32] What was your relationship with them?

[19:34] Kind of a character.

[19:35] Kind of a character.

[19:36] You just kind of look down after her.

[19:38] Yeah.

[19:39] And it was this insistence that her relationship with Diazien was platonic,

[19:43] that ultimately would bring the investigation into Girly Hossencofft’s disappearance back to Linda.

[19:51] In following up, Linda’s statements were able to find out that she was lying to us

[19:55] and that she did have a romantic relationship with Diazien.

[19:59] At that point, she moved from being a person of interest to a suspect.

[20:07] Talking to Linda’s friends and acquaintances revealed the unusual nature of Linda and Diazien’s bond.

[20:14] Linda told people, and Diazien Hossencofft told people, was when they had sexual relations, they would actually become cats.

[20:23] Friends said that Diazien had told Linda that he had a secret life.

[20:27] However, it was not his history as a con artist that he had divulged.

[20:32] He believed that he himself was an alien.

[20:35] At least that’s what he wanted you to believe.

[20:37] He told some people he was from the giga-planet and he was 10 or 50,000 years old.

[20:43] Henning, I think, believed him.

[20:46] She also believed that he was able to morph into different reptiles.

[20:52] I remember her believing that government officials, you know, the president and world leaders were also aliens from another planet.

[21:01] Linda’s friends told detectives that within weeks of meeting Diazien, she had also undergone a transformation.

[21:08] Linda Henning had a propensity to believe or certainly fascinated and intrigued by the unexplained phenomenon,

[21:16] Black Hawk helicopters, cattle mutilations, UFOs, aliens.

[21:20] It seems that once Hossencofft is introduced to her life that these propensities are accelerated to becoming firm beliefs.

[21:31] Coming up, the search for girly heats up.

[21:34] They brought in psychics, they brought in dogs, they brought in machines that tell where, I guess, bones and stuff are.

[21:42] And authorities come up with a shocking theory about girly’s last moments.

[21:47] Linda apparently was an alien queen that had been sent here to save the world by killing Girly Hossencofft.

[22:18] By September 16, 1999, 36-year-old Albuquerque bank teller Girly Chew Hossencofft had been missing for six days.

[22:30] We had done a painstaking research into anything that would show that girly was still alive.

[22:37] Use of an ATM card, bus terminal, airplane, train, anything like that to leave Albuquerque.

[22:45] Every avenue led to a dead end.

[22:47] Police concentrated their efforts on finding their lead suspect,

[22:51] girly’s estranged husband, 34-year-old con man, Diazien Hossencofft.

[22:56] Four days earlier, they had grilled Diazien’s girlfriend, Linda Henning, in an effort to discover his whereabouts.

[23:04] I cooperated with the police. I was the only one that gave a police interview.

[23:08] If Linda had hoped that would be the end of it, she was in for a surprise.

[23:13] On September 16, detectives returned to request a DNA sample.

[23:18] With two missing persons, police were taking nothing for granted.

[23:22] I immediately offered what they call body collections. I had no problem with that.

[23:27] Within a week, one of the missing persons was found.

[23:31] Detectives tracked Diazien Hossencofft to Charleston, South Carolina.

[23:35] Diazien was located in South Carolina through moving records.

[23:40] He was with another woman who had believed that they were going to be married.

[23:45] He denied any knowledge of girly’s whereabouts.

[23:48] The New Mexico authorities had no body and were still awaiting the results of forensic tests on the crime scene.

[23:55] Without more, they couldn’t hold Diazien.

[23:59] Then, he gave them the break they needed.

[24:02] He made a phone call to one of his former neighbors back in Albuquerque.

[24:06] He calls this neighbor across the street and she perceives him to be threatening.

[24:10] For talking or having spoken with police, the FBI moves in.

[24:14] Hossencofft is arrested for making threats across state lines.

[24:20] On the morning of September 22, while Diazien was being transported back to New Mexico,

[24:26] Linda Henning was being escorted to the witness box in an Albuquerque courtroom.

[24:31] She had been subpoenaed to testify before a special grand jury convened to investigate girly’s disappearance.

[24:38] I was there for 12 hours.

[24:40] She was there basically as a witness to the case.

[24:43] Linda told the grand jury that Diazien had been with her the night before girly had been reported missing.

[24:50] Under oath, Linda admitted that she and Diazien had more than a platonic relationship.

[24:56] Your testimony today is that you went to bed at about 12.30 and you were in bed with him awake.

[25:02] He was there with you for several hours.

[25:05] He was at my home the whole evening.

[25:08] Now, I didn’t say, I did not tell Detective Fox that I had sex with him.

[25:12] I didn’t tell him that.

[25:14] She told the grand jurors that she had known that Diazien was moving to South Carolina with another woman,

[25:20] which raised a big question for one of the grand jurors.

[25:25] As a woman, I find it very difficult to understand me going upstairs and having sex with him,

[25:34] knowing that he was leaving the next day to go to South Carolina to another woman

[25:39] and not being emotionally upset like that.

[25:42] But yeah, I was.

[25:44] I confronted him with it, but I couldn’t say anything.

[25:48] You know, if he was involved with somebody between the time that girly left and everything,

[25:53] well, then he’s involved.

[25:55] Linda told the grand jurors that Diazien had let her know he was in Charleston,

[26:00] but not until the day after her interview with police.

[26:04] So Diazien called me and I said, you’ve got to call Detective Mike Fox.

[26:08] You’ve got to call him. You’ve been on the news.

[26:11] However, Linda said she had not asked about his ex-wife’s whereabouts,

[26:15] either then or at any other point in their relationship.

[26:19] She also insisted that she had never met girly, nor had she wanted to.

[26:24] Why would I be jealous of this lady? I didn’t know her.

[26:29] Linda’s 12 hours of testimony didn’t result in an indictment of Diazien,

[26:34] nor did it get authorities any closer to discovering what had happened to Girly Chew Hossencofft.

[26:46] Detectives decided to try a different approach.

[26:49] They conducted a thorough search of Linda and Diazien’s homes.

[26:53] At Linda’s house, they found a Japanese ninja sword hidden in the attic.

[26:58] Receipts showed that it had been purchased by Diazien on the day of girly’s disappearance.

[27:03] Linda told police that Diazien had given her the sword as a gift.

[27:07] He says, you know, you should take up fencing and you should learn how to sword fight.

[27:12] And I said, well, you know, I’ve always kind of wanted to do that.

[27:16] She also said that the sword had been in plain sight the first time officers had been to her house.

[27:21] She claimed she had only hidden it because she was concerned that police would take the only gift that Diazien had given her.

[27:28] The cops took my house, turned it upside down, stole things from me.

[27:33] Every single thing related to UFOs, ETs, everything, every single thing, they cleaned me out.

[27:38] Detectives turned the sword over for forensic testing.

[27:41] They also uncovered evidence that Linda had lied to the grand jury when she claimed she had never met girly.

[27:48] Bank records showed that Linda had banked at the branch where girly worked.

[27:52] In fact, on at least one occasion, girly had been Linda’s teller.

[27:57] Linda had gone to the bank and introduced herself to girly as a customer of the bank.

[28:04] It was like a 20-second encounter. Had I had time to think about it, I’d say, oh, yeah, at the bank.

[28:12] But I didn’t. I was being threatened. They screamed at me. They threatened me.

[28:18] I was there for 12 hours with one break.

[28:20] On October 29th, police swore out an arrest warrant for Linda.

[28:25] They brought perjury charges against me. You know, I had no idea what it was about.

[28:30] She had been lying to the grand jury.

[28:38] Albuquerque authorities now had Linda and Diozin in custody.

[28:42] But there were no closer to solving the mystery of Girly Chew Hossencofft’s disappearance.

[28:47] By mid-October, she had been missing for over a month.

[28:51] Girly had 100% fallen off the face of the earth, and there was not one sign of her still being alive.

[28:58] But if girly was dead, where was her body?

[29:01] They brought in dogs. They brought in machines that tell where bones and stuff are.

[29:07] They did everything. They brought in psychics.

[29:09] There were search parties out near where the bloody clothes were found.

[29:12] There were search parties everywhere, and they never found girly’s body.

[29:22] Albuquerque police and prosecutors were convinced that Girly Chew Hossencofft had been murdered.

[29:28] But the unsuccessful searches meant they would have to rely on a different body of evidence to get a conviction.

[29:35] This was one of the most expensive cases in the state of New Mexico.

[29:40] The prosecution spent a lot of money.

[29:43] Forensic tests were conducted on hundreds of pieces of evidence.

[29:47] Tests on the ninja sword were interesting, but ultimately inconclusive.

[29:52] Investigators determined that there was blood on it, but it’s been compromised and they can’t lift good DNA off it.

[29:58] DNA tests on the bloody clothes found by the highway proved that they had belonged to girly.

[30:04] The panties belong to Girly Chew Hossencofft. The blouse belongs to Girly Chew Hossencofft.

[30:09] The hair came from Girly Chew Hossencofft.

[30:12] There was also saliva on the shoulder of the blouse that did not come from girly.

[30:17] In inspecting girly’s bloody blouse, we found that guys in saliva had been left behind on that blouse.

[30:26] You had the blood of Girly Chew Hossencofft mixed with the saliva of guys in Hosenkopf.

[30:34] That puts guys in Hosenkopf at the scene of girly’s murder.

[30:38] Tests on the carpet and sofa from girly’s apartment also revealed two sets of DNA.

[30:44] One belonged to girly.

[30:46] Criminalistic detectives were able to find very small blood particles from Girly Chew Hossencofft in front of the couch area.

[30:53] If investigators were expecting the other DNA to be Diaz and Hosenkopf’s, they were in for a shock.

[31:00] The other DNA belonged to Linda Henning.

[31:04] When the crime lab advised me that they had come up with Linda Henning’s blood on girly Hosenkopf’s carpet and on girly Hosenkopf’s couch,

[31:13] we knew for certain she was involved in the murder.

[31:18] On November 17th, grand jurors heard all the evidence against Diaz and Hosenkopf and Linda Henning.

[31:25] The blood and DNA evidence, the bank records that showed Linda had met girly,

[31:30] and Diaz and threats against his estranged wife.

[31:34] The grand jury returned an indictment against both for the first-degree murder and kidnapping of Girly Chew Hossencofft.

[31:44] Coming up, Linda’s trial makes sensational headlines.

[31:48] There were all kinds of crazy things.

[31:50] Samurai swords, alien queen, reptilian creatures.

[31:54] It was hard to keep it all straight.

[31:57] And Linda’s attorneys gamble on the testimony of a con man.

[32:01] Linda Henning

[32:31] Linda was the first woman in New Mexico history since statehood that would have faced the death penalty.

[32:52] It was also a headline grabber.

[32:55] I think the media liked the idea of aliens, and I think the media liked the idea of the fact that there was a body that could not be found.

[33:03] There were all kinds of crazy things.

[33:05] Samurai swords, alien queens, reptilian creatures.

[33:11] It was hard to keep it all straight.

[33:14] In January of 2002, Diaz and Hosenkopf, Linda’s boyfriend, had surprised prosecutors by pleading guilty to planning the murder of his wife.

[33:24] Diaz and cut a plea deal where he pleaded, I believe, 96 years, pleaded guilty to the murder of Girly Chew Hossencofft.

[33:31] I’m sure that he and his attorneys sat down and said, you know what, even if you’re innocent, we could take this to trial.

[33:37] Chances of them finding you guilty are very, very good with all the publicity and all the things that have been put into the newspapers.

[33:44] Linda refused to even consider a similar deal.

[33:48] I flat out said I won’t take a plea bargain.

[33:50] I started talking to her about what the police believe, and she said, that’s silly.

[33:54] Told me that she had nothing to do with it.

[33:58] Before prosecutors could get a jury to convict Linda, they needed to prove that girly had been murdered.

[34:04] While Diaz and had pleaded guilty to murder as part of his plea, he claimed he had hired a hitman and didn’t know where girly’s body was buried.

[34:13] That could leave a big question mark in the minds of jurors.

[34:17] We don’t know what happened to her. She could be buried somewhere, she could be cut up in pieces somewhere, or she could be alive and well somewhere in Asia.

[34:29] The DA began by outlining the evidence prosecutors had assembled against Linda.

[34:34] Prosecutors relied a lot on forensic evidence. They relied a lot on the blood stains that were found in girly’s apartment.

[34:43] And the prosecutions alleged motive?

[34:46] There’s no way I’d benefit. There’s no way to tie it in. So they have to say, well, let’s see, what’s weird about Linda heading?

[34:52] Ah, she’s into UFOs. Well, we’ll blame it all on that.

[34:57] And so they came up with this idea that it was a battle between space alien queens, that girly and I had this long drawn out battle at her apartment, you know.

[35:09] According to Linda, the prosecution’s theory didn’t hold up to scrutiny.

[35:14] I battled her and this was a, you know, battled her to death.

[35:19] Then I would have had to come back to my own home somewhere. I am going to leave a trace. It’s going to be DNA. It’s going to be something.

[35:29] There was nothing in my car, nothing in my apartment, nothing on my clothes, nothing in my garage. There was nothing.

[35:35] However, in their open, her defense attorneys conceded that some of the blood found in girly’s apartment belonged to Linda.

[35:43] But they told the jury that there was an explanation that proved Linda was not a killer. She was a victim.

[35:49] Our position was that Diazien Hassenkopf collected blood from Linda when she was incapacitated and actually planted the blood in girly’s apartment in order to frame Linda.

[36:03] Mr. Hassenkopf claims that he had some of her blood as part of some research that he was doing.

[36:08] And the jury would get to hear Diazien’s claims for themselves.

[36:12] The whole case hinged on this impossible scenario. Will the trial jury believe that Diazien Hassenkopf placed the blood?

[36:21] The defense team’s job was made more difficult because their client disagreed with the defense strategy.

[36:27] What made it difficult was her unwavering love for Diazien.

[36:32] She never even accepted the fact that he entered, you know, he pled guilty to her murder.

[36:37] And she just thought that he was copping out.

[36:41] Diazien’s statement is fabricated. There was no truth to it whatsoever.

[36:46] Instead, Linda tried to convince her attorney to attack the forensic evidence head-on.

[36:52] There’s no integrity in the evidence. The custody tags show that the forensic detective processed the crime scene.

[37:00] And he never turned them in to the lab to test until after the indictment came in.

[37:05] According to Linda, her defense was handicapped because her attorney had never filed a motion to allow a defense expert to examine the forensic evidence.

[37:15] He writes, he prepares the motion to challenge the state, asking the state to produce blood evidence from the crime scene.

[37:23] Then he never files it.

[37:25] The prosecution began by presenting evidence to back up their theory about how the crime was committed.

[37:31] First, there were the records showing that Linda had come into contact with Girly at the bank.

[37:37] During that course of Linda going into the bank, she became friendly with Girly.

[37:42] It’s possible that this familiar face, a woman, doesn’t seem to be a threat, shows up on Girly’s front doorstep and the door is open.

[37:50] Police do not believe that Girly would have let Diazien in or any other stranger.

[37:55] And once Linda was inside, prosecutors called forensic experts who testified about the blood found in the apartment.

[38:03] With Linda heading, you actually have DNA evidence. You have her blood found in the victim’s apartment.

[38:08] They believe there was that altercation there and that Girly was taking forcibly, probably alive, from her apartment to some undisclosed place.

[38:20] Then, the bloody tarp and clothes found by the Desert Highway came into evidence.

[38:26] Girly was taken out, possibly in a tarp or a body bag, thrown into a trunk and driven to the area of Magdalene in New Mexico,

[38:34] where she was tortured, most likely by the use of the ninja sword and other items, and ultimately killed.

[38:46] On October 15th, the defense began their case with their star witness, Diazien Hossencofft.

[38:53] He did acknowledge under testimony that he did plant Linda Henning’s blood. It was to frame somebody else and not him.

[39:01] Since Linda’s defense had already painted Diazien as a con man and manipulator, putting him on the stand was a high-risk strategy.

[39:10] And with the death penalty still a possibility for Linda, the stakes couldn’t have been higher.

[39:17] You know what? It really doesn’t make any difference to me. I don’t care whether or not you kill this woman.

[39:23] You want to put the needle in her arm and go ahead. The only thing that’s going to happen here is that you’re going to kill my next victim.

[39:31] He acted like a maniac. He acted like an idiot.

[39:34] He sent me a note before he testified and he said, please forgive me for everything I’m going to say.

[39:40] But your attorney has asked me to put on, you know, put on a ground performance.

[39:46] Linda believed that Diazien had put on the grand performance in an effort to save her life.

[39:52] But while she believed his intentions were good, she was less sure about her attorney’s intentions.

[39:59] Not only had they introduced their star witness as a liar and a con man,

[40:03] Diazien’s testimony made it practically impossible for her to testify in her own defense.

[40:10] There’s no way I can testify. I’m going to say my lawyer is a liar, no good SOB.

[40:16] This whole thing is a hoax. I mean, they put me in a no win situation.

[40:24] When the case went to the jury on October 18th, Linda did not like her chances for acquittal.

[40:31] I knew I was going to be convicted. I had no defense. I had no defense.

[40:36] But her attorneys were more confident.

[40:39] There was no direct evidence that indicated that she was, she, she murdered.

[40:45] It was all circumstantial evidence.

[40:48] Coming up, the verdict and Linda gets her chance to speak to the court.

[40:54] He alleges I’m a cannibal, an alien queen and a ninja assassin warrior.

[41:01] Well, we file a motion this week saying I’m the Easter Bunny.

[41:10] You

[41:28] On October 25th, 2002, a Bernalillo County, New Mexico jury returned to the courtroom

[41:34] where 49 year old Linda Henning awaited her fate.

[41:38] She was charged with first degree murder and kidnapping

[41:41] and was facing the possibility of the death penalty if found guilty.

[41:46] To find the defendant, Linda Henning, guilty of first degree murder, felony murder

[41:51] is charged in the alternative to count one.

[41:54] The state, the prosecutors, they were going to crush this bitch

[41:58] who felt that she was going to, you know, stand up and demand her legal rights.

[42:03] Well, we’re going to make an example of you, bitches like you.

[42:06] And that’s exactly the way they think.

[42:08] They were going to make an example of this bitch.

[42:11] But the jury decided to spare her life.

[42:14] They decided not to give her the death penalty.

[42:18] On April 18th, 2003, 49 year old Linda Henning was back

[42:23] in the Bernalillo County Courthouse for sentencing.

[42:26] To ensure she served the maximum time, prosecutors added a gruesome new detail

[42:32] to their theory of how Diazien and Linda had disposed of Girly Chew Hossencofft’s body.

[42:38] I was set up by the prosecution as, let’s see, hit woman, ninja assassin, warrior,

[42:45] mind controlled robot, mastermind criminal and cannibal.

[42:50] When they ran out of everything else, they said cannibal.

[42:53] Linda scoffed, not only at the suggestion, but at the prosecutor himself.

[42:59] He alleges I’m a cannibal, an alien queen and a ninja assassin, warrior.

[43:06] Well, we file a motion this week saying I’m the Easter Bunny.

[43:10] Where is the evidence? Where is the evidence?

[43:13] Well, if I was a cannibal, why don’t you bring it up in the trial?

[43:17] Why don’t you bring it up in the trial? Well, he did.

[43:19] Don’t bring it up because there’s no evidence.

[43:21] The judge sentenced Linda to a minimum of 73 years in prison,

[43:26] even as she was being taken to begin what was essentially a life sentence.

[43:30] Linda continued to insist she was the victim of fault in forensics.

[43:35] This issue is about a chain of custody, 220 items of evidence were taken,

[43:41] only nine were done properly.

[43:44] Linda continues to maintain her innocence and her faith in Diazien Hossencofft.

[43:51] I love the kindness about him, I love the compassion, I love his brilliance.

[43:56] I hope that Girly Chew is found.

[43:58] I hope that a lot of this is really going to turn out to be a hoax.