Cold case: Who killed Amy Gellert

**SPEAKER_1** (0:00)
Real people, real crimes, real life drama.

**Todd Goodyear** (0:12)
This was a very shocking case.
For someone to come into somebody's house, stab two people and kill someone. We want to get the bad guy.

**Erin Moriarty** (0:25)
Who is this?

**Marlon Buggs** (0:26)
It's Amy Gellert.

**Todd Goodyear** (0:30)
The Gellert case is one that's kind of haunted us for 20 years now. The biggest problem I think we have is really trying to figure out why it happened.

**Erin Moriarty** (0:39)
This cold case could be solved tonight. So listen carefully. Detectives need more evidence and it could come from you.
Maybe you know some of the suspects or maybe you'll just notice a vital clue to this brutal murder that investigators somehow missed.

**Bunny Leighton** (1:01)
It was spring break. The town was full of people. The weather was awesome.

**Marlon Buggs** (1:09)
Well, March 20, 1994, Amy Gellert and her parents attended a church service in Merritt-Allen.

**Bunny Leighton** (1:15)
I see Amy at church.
And she says, I'll be home soon. We go home and we're early.

**Marlon Buggs** (1:24)
The parents returned home. Unknown to them, there was an intruder in the residence.

**Bunny Leighton** (1:30)
I see the man step into the room and he's completely disguised. And then I saw that he had a dagger and a gun. Basically, we had to crawl through here on our hands and knees.
And he took us to this area right here. He was pacing.

**Bob Leighton** (1:56)
He was going out this door here.

**Marlon Buggs** (2:00)
They had offered money. They had offered cars.
They made all these offerings just to kind of get rid of him.

**Carlos Reyes** (2:06)
Why remain there? Why keep looking out?

**Bunny Leighton** (2:10)
I sensed, and Bob sensed, that he was waiting for a ride. And I saw the lights coming down the driveway. He panicked. Something switched in him, and he just lost it.
First, he slices me across here. He stabbed me here. And he starts stabbing me in my neck.
And it's going in so deep, I can feel the bones crunching. That sound of my bones. To this day, 20 years later, I can hear those bones crunch.

**Erin Moriarty** (2:50)
Do you think he thought he had killed you?

**Bunny Leighton** (2:53)
Mm-hmm.

**Bob Leighton** (2:56)
As soon as the lights hit, man, he came down with a knife in the back of my head as hard as he could. If I don't get to the front door and start screaming, no one's going to get out of that house alive.

**Wayne Simok** (3:09)
We've been stood at multiple times by one.

**SPEAKER_1** (3:12)
You're bleeding very badly.

**Erin Moriarty** (3:16)
And what happened to the intruder?

**Marlon Buggs** (3:18)
He fled on foot.

**Erin Moriarty** (3:22)
At that moment, Bob, you think the only two people who are hurt are you and Bunny.

**Marlon Buggs** (3:27)
The suspect came across Amy, who was standing in the driveway behind her car, and of course, without warning, she was stabbed.

**Bunny Leighton** (3:36)
I remember getting to the hospital, a pastor that I knew coming in and saying to me, Amy didn't make it. No, no, this can't be happening.

**Todd Goodyear** (3:54)
Any case that's open, we want to close. It's the only closure you get for the family.

**Erin Moriarty** (4:06)
I'm Erin Moriarty. Tonight on 48 Hours. Who Killed Amy Gellert?
Subs www.zeoranger.co.uk There's no day more difficult for Bunny Leighton than March 20th. Just a bad day all the way around.

**Bunny Leighton** (4:44)
The anniversary of her daughter's murder. Life will be better.

**Erin Moriarty** (4:55)
The bunny hasn't let fear force her out of her home, but continues to grieve along with her husband, Bob, and her two sons, Amy's older brothers, Mark and Ryan.

**Mark Leighton** (5:11)
It just doesn't end, man. It keeps on going.

**Ryan Leighton** (5:18)
It's been tough, and I think it's just changed us all profoundly as a family and individually.

**Erin Moriarty** (5:24)
It's hard to think of better, isn't it?

**Ryan Leighton** (5:27)
That's it.

**Erin Moriarty** (5:34)
When you first started on this case, did you think it would be solved right away?

**Todd Goodyear** (5:39)
We always think that.

**Erin Moriarty** (5:41)
Back in 1994, Todd Goodyear was one of the investigators called to the crime scene.

**Todd Goodyear** (5:47)
You've got a well-respected family that is living in a nice house in a quiet area. And all of a sudden, somebody breaks in, and then something sets them off and starts to stab them, and it's a blitz attack.

**Erin Moriarty** (5:59)
Goodyear says when Amy's stepfather ran out to get help, his attacker followed. Bob didn't see Amy standing by her car, but the intruder did.