The Kidnapper's Wife

79. Epilogue - Jade - Public

Fifteen years. At the end of the long and emotional trial, Connor only got fifteen years. He'll be out in eight on parole.

Months, years really, of lies, of plotting, of considering every detail. And I guess it paid off in the end. Because the prosecutor told me they felt lucky to get what they did when it came to Connor. In fact, they were worried he would get no time at all.

I didn't attend the trial. But it was broadcast live by the media after Connor's legal team lost the battle to close the court room. When I heard the verdicts, I remember feeling trapped. In the end Connor had been found guilty only of transporting a minor across state lines for the purpose of engaging in criminal sexual conduct. The sentencing for that charge can span from a minimum of ten years to a maximum of thirty. Due to lack of evidence, the judge felt the best he could do was fifteen.

The fact that there was a lack of evidence is laughable. From the bloody chains, to the outside dog collar, to the video surveillance, to the testimony of Anna's friends, it would seem like the evidence stacked against Connor was high. But much of that evidence was circumstantial, and Connor concocted a stellar story to combat all of it.

Connor was overly careful in every detail of his time with Anna. Not one molecule of DNA from Connor was found in Anna's bedroom. This supported Connor's claim that he did not hold Anna against her will or abuse her, because she could always have escaped from him in her bedroom.

In addition, three other male DNA samples were found throughout the house, and in Anna's bedroom. Miraculously, they even found semen in Anna's bed, that did not match Connor. The police believe the semen is from Connor's many infamous poker nights before he had Anna come to live with him. Those nights when I thought he was on hiking trips, he was actually getting to know the locals and inviting them to his home for guys nights.

Sometimes, they would play strip poker, and often, both men and women would stay over at Connor's cabin after becoming too intoxicated to drive home. Police suspect it was on one of these nights that two of them decided to get frisky.

Connor was careful to clean everything from the room before Anna arrived at the cabin. No female DNA or fingerprints were found anywhere. But the traces of semen were found on the mattress, one of the only DNA types that would have made it through washing the sheets, which Connor must have known.

And of course, male fingerprints were found throughout the house, undoubtedly because Connor, as he himself told me from jail, continued to hold guys nights after Anna had come to live with him so that no one would become suspicious about who Anna was and report her to the police.

Although much of this evidence could be at least supported by testimony from the locals who attended Connor's poker nights, when they found out who Connor was, they all clammed up. Connor had been careful to befriend a certain kind of local. Ones who weren't so clean cut themselves, and had a mistrust of the police.

So the physical evidence did not refute Connor's story of other lovers for Anna, if anything it supported it. There was no physical evidence of Connor ever touching Anna, or even being in her room. There was also no DNA evidence from Anna in Connor's room of the main cabin.

Connor also kept a second cabin on the property. All of his things were in that cabin, and there was evidence he had recently slept in the bed there. Which further supported Connor's story that he wasn't even staying at "Anna's" cabin with her.

No fingerprints aside from Anna's were found on the chains or dog collar in the yard. Connor explained the locks on the kitchen cabinets as for Anna's own protection. She became depressed at some points, he said, and he feared for her safety.