In June 2002, three high school students from Randolph County, West Virginia, went on a camping trip that was supposed to be a routine school activity.

Connor Bailey, Maya Reeves, and Alicia Rodriguez had been friends since childhood, attended the same class, and often spent time together.

The trip to Manangahila National Forest was planned as a 3-day educational program.

18 students, two instructors, and vocational teacher Elliot Warren were to learn basic wilderness survival skills, how to set up camp, and how to navigate with a map.

No one imagined that this trip would be the beginning of a story that would span 7 years.

Connor was 18 years old and the oldest in the group of friends.

Tall and athletic, he played basketball on the school team and planned to attend college on a sports scholarship after graduation.

Maya, 17, was passionate about photography and always carried an old camera her father had given her.

She dreamed of becoming a photojournalist and was already working on her portfolio for college applications.

Alicia was the youngest of the three at 16.

A quiet girl with dark hair, she was a good student and helped her parents in their small family restaurant in the evenings.

All three were ordinary teenagers from a small town where everyone knew each other.

The group left early in the morning on June 4th.

The weather was warm and the sky was clear.

Parents saw their children off at the school, some handing them extra bags of food, others reminding them one last time to bring warm clothes and flashlights.

Maya’s mother later recalled that her daughter was in high spirits and promised to bring back beautiful photos of the forest.

Connor<unk>’s father shook his son’s hand and asked him to look after the girls.

Alysia’s parents were more worried than the others.

This was their daughter’s first serious hike without them, but the school principal assured them that the route had been checked and the guides were experienced.

Elliot Warren led the group.

The 42year-old man had been teaching labor skills at the local school for 15 years.

Tall, thin, with thinning hair and a constant smile.

He seemed like a good teacher.

The students didn’t particularly like his lessons, but they had nothing to complain about.

Warren ran a sewing and carpentry club and often stayed after class to help with projects.

He had an old car, a gray pickup truck, which he repaired himself in his garage.

No one knew him well.

He lived alone in a small house on the outskirts of town and had no children after his divorce 10 years ago.

The route was to follow a trail in the northern part of the national forest.

The plan was simple.

On the first day, get to base camp, set up tents, and build a fire.

On the second day, learn orientering, walk several short routes in groups, and gather around the fire in the evening.

On the third day, pack up camp and return to the bus.

Nothing complicated.

The route had been used by the school for several years in a row.

The forest was dense but safe, the trails were well marked, and the nearest road was a 2-hour walk away.

The first day went smoothly.

The group reached the camp by lunchtime and pitched their tents.

Connor helped the younger kids set up their tents.

Maya took pictures of the surroundings and Alicia helped cook food over the campfire.

The weather was good and there were few mosquitoes.

In the evening, they sat around the campfire.

Warren told stories about the forest and showed on the map where they would go the next day.

Several students from the group later recalled that the teacher was in a good mood, joking and offering everyone hot tea from a thermos.

The second day began just as calmly.

After breakfast, the group was divided into three parts for practical training.

Connor, Maya, and Alicia ended up in the same group with four other students.

They had to follow a route using a compass, find three checkpoints, and return to camp by lunchtime.

Warren stayed at the camp with the others while the second instructor led his group in the other direction.

Connor<unk>’s group left around in the morning.

They had a map, a compass, a radio, and a supply of water.

Maya took a camera.

By lunchtime, everyone except Connor<unk>s group had returned.

At first, no one was concerned, assuming they had been delayed at one of the checkpoints or had lost their way.

Warren tried several times to contact them by radio, but there was no response.

By in the afternoon, it became clear that something was wrong.

The other students began to worry, and the second instructor suggested that they split up and go look for them.

Warren said he would follow their route himself, while the instructor would stay with the others at the camp in case the group returned by another route.

Warren left alone at about in the afternoon.

He took a radio, a flashlight, and a supply of water.

He said he would be back in 2 hours at most.

The instructor stayed with 15 students at the camp.

The children sat around the extinguished campfire, some trying to joke, but it was clear that everyone was tense.

The sky began to cloud over and the temperature dropped.

By , it had become cool, and several students took their jackets out of their tents.

Warren returned to camp after dark around in the evening.

He was alone, tired, his clothes dirty.

He said he had walked the entire route, checked all the checkpoints, but found no sign of the group.

At one of the checkpoints, he found Connor<unk>’s backpack with a map inside, but nothing else.

The radio wasn’t working, and the rain that had started made it impossible to see any tracks.

Warren suggested that the boys might have gone further along the trail.

deciding to explore the forest on their own and got lost.

He explained that he had called out to them and shown his flashlight, but no one responded.

The second instructor suggested calling the rescue team immediately, but there was no communication, and the nearest phone was a 2-hour walk away.

On the morning of June 5th, the instructor and two senior students left for the road to call for help.

Warren stayed with the group at the camp.

The children hardly slept, sitting in their tents, some of them crying.

Warren tried to calm them down, saying that the boys had surely found shelter and waited out the night, and that they would be found soon.

By noon, a search and rescue team had arrived.

Eight people with dogs began combing the forest.

The school children were sent home by bus.

Warren stayed behind to show them where he had found the backpack.

The parents arrived at the police station that evening.

Maya’s mother couldn’t stop crying and Connor<unk>’s father paced the hallway, clenching his fists.

Alicia’s parents sat silently holding hands.

A police officer explained the situation.

Three teenagers had gone missing in the forest.

Only a backpack had been found and the search was continuing.

He assured them that the forest would be searched thoroughly, checking all the trails and shelters.

The parents were told to wait at home and were promised to be called if there was any news.

The search lasted a week.

Rescuers combed through dozens of kilometers of forest.

Dogs sniffed all the trails.

A helicopter flew over the area, but the thick foliage made it impossible to see anything from the air.

Several small items were found.

A chocolate bar wrapper, an empty water bottle, a piece of rope, but the teenagers themselves were never found.

On the seventh day, the search was officially called off.

A police officer gathered the parents and explained that all possible locations had been checked and there were no resources to continue.

The case was classified as missing persons.

Warren gave a detailed statement.

He said that the group had taken the standard route, had a map, and everything they needed.

He tried to contact them several times by radio, but received no response.

When he went to look for them, he walked the entire route, but found only a backpack.

He suggested that the teenagers might have strayed from the trail, gotten lost, and wandered too far.

Perhaps they had been in an accident, fallen into a ravine, or been injured.

The forest is large, and it is easy to get lost in it.

His version sounded logical, and the police found no reason to doubt his words.

The second instructor confirmed that Warren was an experienced guide who had taken school children on hikes several times without any problems.

Panic broke out in the city.

The parents of the other children demanded that school trips be banned and some accused the administration of negligence.

The school principal issued a statement saying that an internal investigation would be conducted and all safety procedures would be reviewed.

Warren took sick leave, saying he couldn’t return to teaching after this.

He looked pale and haggarded, answering questions in monosyllables.

His colleagues felt sorry for him, saying that he blamed himself even though he was not at fault.

The parents did not give up.

Maya’s mother printed flyers with photos of her daughter and posted them throughout the district.

Connor<unk>’s father hired a private investigator who spent another month combing the forest, interviewing locals, and checking out different theories.

He found nothing.

Alicia’s parents went to the place where she disappeared every weekend, walked the trails, and called out to their daughter, but the forest remained silent.

By the fall of 2002, the case was effectively closed.

The document stated, “Three minors missing, presumed cause of death.

Accident in the forest, bodies not found.” The police’s version was simple.

The teenagers got lost, wandered too far, possibly died of hypothermia or injuries.

Their bodies were carried away by animals or are in a hard-to-reach place.

The forest is large.

These things happen.

All the parents could do and hope.

Warren returned to work after 3 months.

He continued teaching, conducting his labor classes, and helping with projects.

No one suspected him of anything.

He was just a teacher who couldn’t protect the kids on a hike.

A tragedy, but not a crime.

The town gradually calmed down and life returned to normal.

The parents of the missing children continued to hope, but with each passing year, their hopes faded.

7 years passed slowly for those who remained waiting.

Connor, Maya, and Alicia’s parents continued to live in the same city, in the same houses, but their lives had changed forever.

Maya’s mother stopped taking pictures, and her daughter’s camera remained in a desk drawer.

Connor<unk>’s father quit his job as a school coach, unable to see teenagers the same age as his son.

Alicia’s parents closed their restaurant a year after the disappearance, unable to continue.

The city went on, but these three families were frozen in time in June 2002.

Elliot Warren also changed, but in a different way.

In the first few months after the tragedy, he was depressed, silent, and avoided conversation.

His colleagues attributed this to guilt, and some even felt sorry for him.

But by the end of the year, he had returned to his former lifestyle.

He taught labor skills, led clubs, and helped students with projects.

In the evenings, he worked in his garage, repairing his old pickup truck and doing carpentry.

Sometimes he would go to the woods for the weekend, saying he was going fishing.

He lived alone and rarely socialized with anyone.

His neighbors knew him as a quiet, withdrawn man who kept to himself.

In 2003, a minor incident occurred at the school.

One of the students, a 15-year-old girl, complained to her mother that Warren was keeping her after class too often, supposedly to help with a project.

The mother came to the principal and demanded an investigation.

An internal investigation was conducted and the girl and several other students were interviewed.

Nothing specific was found.

The girl said she just felt uncomfortable when she was alone with the teacher.

There were no other complaints.

Warren explained that he was helping with a sewing project which required extra time.

The principal gave him a verbal warning and asked him to avoid one-on-one situations with female students.

The incident was recorded in his personal file, but it went no further.

A few months later, there was another complaint, this time anonymous.

Someone left a note in the school’s suggestion box saying that Warren was acting strangely and paying too much attention to certain students, especially girls.

The note was passed on to the principal who called Warren in for a talk.

The teacher was calm and said that it was someone’s revenge or a misunderstanding, perhaps a parent who was unhappy with a grade.

The principal warned him again and asked him to be more careful.

That was the end of it.

The complaint stopped and Warren continued to work.

In 2005, Maya’s mother tried to reopen the investigation.

She raised money and hired another private investigator, a more experienced one.

The detective spent several weeks re-checking old materials and reintering witnesses.

He talked to the students who had been on that trip, the instructor, and Warren.

He checked the roots, the locations where the bodies were found, and tried to find something new.

But three years had passed and the trail had long since gone cold.

The witnesses remembered little and many details had been forgotten.

The detective wrote a report stating that the case was most likely an accident and that the bodies had been carried away by animals or were somewhere deep in the forest out of reach of the search parties.

Maya’s mother read the report and cried.

The money ran out and hope faded.

Connor<unk>’s father went to that forest every June.

He walked the trails, visited the site of the former camp, and stood there for hours.

Sometimes he took a photo of his son with him, showed it to the occasional tourist, and asked if they had seen anything strange.

No one had seen anything.

The forest was huge, almost a million acres of dense trees, ravines, and streams.

Finding anything there without specific clues was almost impossible.

His father understood this, but he couldn’t stop.

It was the only thing he could do for his son.

Alicia’s parents aged 10 years in the first two years.

Her mother started taking sedatives and couldn’t sleep without pills.

Her father worked two jobs, trying to drown out the pain with fatigue.

They hardly spoke to each other, each coping with their grief alone.

On holidays, they set the table for four, placing a plate for their daughter.

The neighbors didn’t know what to say and gradually communication ceased.

The family withdrew into their grief.

In the city, people remembered the missing teenagers less and less.

New students came to school, and new stories replaced the old ones.

Sometimes, one of the old-timers would mention the tragedy, but the young people no longer remembered it.

Life went on.

Warren became part of everyday life, just a labor teacher who had been working at the school for many years.

People knew that he had been on the trip where the children disappeared, but no one discussed it openly.

The subject was uncomfortable and people avoided it.

In 2007, Warren applied for a transfer to another school.

He said he wanted a change of scenery to start with a clean slate.

His request was denied.

They said he was needed at this school and it would be difficult to find a replacement.

He stayed.

He continued to teach and lead clubs.

He still lived alone and still went to the woods on weekends.

He had an old Manonga tourist map covered with notes and roots.

He said he was into fishing and knew all the good spots on the rivers.

In the fall of 2009, a severe storm hit western Virginia.

Winds reached 100 kmph, knocking down trees and tearing off roofs.

Electricity was lost in many counties and roads were blocked by fallen trees.

The storm hit Mononga National Forest particularly hard.

Old trees that had stood for decades could not withstand the force of the wind.

In the upper part of the forest, far from the main trails, a huge oak tree fell.

The tree was centuries old, its roots reaching deep into the ground.

When it fell, the roots were torn out, forming a funnel several meters in diameter.

Forester David Portman was walking around the area 2 weeks after the storm.

His job was to mark the fallen trees that needed to be cleared and check the condition of the trails.

He was walking along an old trail that was rarely used by tourists, leading to a remote part of the forest.

When he reached the fallen oak tree, he stopped to examine the damage.

The root system was massive and the ground around it was torn up.

David walked around the tree, making notes in his notebook.

That’s when he noticed something strange in the crater under the roots.

Among the dirt and rocks, the edge of something dark like fabric was sticking out.

David moved closer and crouched down.

It was a bag, a black plastic garbage bag partially covered with soil.

The bag was old and torn, but its shape suggested that there was something inside.

David did not touch the find with his hands, but took out his radio and called for help.

An hour later, two more foresters and a representative of the local police arrived at the scene.

When they began to carefully clear the ground, they discovered not one bag, but three.

All three were lying side by side, sewn shut with some kind of thread, the seams neat and handmade.

The bags were wet and torn in places by time and roots.

When one of the bags accidentally tore open during removal, it became clear that there were bones inside.

The police officer immediately called for backup and forensic experts.

By evening, a whole team had arrived at the site.

They cordined off the area, set up a tent, and began the professional excavation.

They worked until dark, then continued the next day under the light of flood lights.

The bags were removed completely without being opened on site, packed into special containers, and sent to the forensic laboratory.

Several small items were found near the bags.

A piece of fabric resembling the remains of a backpack, fragments of plastic that could have been from a phone or other device, and a metal buckle from a belt.

The bags were opened in the laboratory the next day.

Inside each one was a completely skeletonized human skeleton.

The soft tissues had almost completely decomposed, leaving only bones and fragments of clothing.

The condition of the bones made it clear that the bodies had been in the ground for many years.

Experts began a detailed investigation.

The first thing they determined was the age of the victims.

All three were teenagers or young adults between the ages of 16 and 18 at the time of death.

Further investigation revealed some personal items that had been preserved.

the remains of a student ID card in one of the bags, a metal pendant with initials in another, and a fragment of a leather bracelet in the third.

The student ID card was so damaged that the text was almost illeible, but the photograph was partially preserved.

Forensic experts processed the photo and enhanced the contrast.

The face in the photo belonged to a dark-haired girl.

When they began checking the missing person’s database, they quickly came across a case from 7 years ago.

An identification specialist retrieved materials about the disappearance of three teenagers in 2002.

The descriptions matched.

Three people, two boys and a girl, disappeared in the same forest in approximately the same area.

Investigators had information about the missing person’s personal belongings and descriptions of their clothing.

The pendant with the initials matched the pendant that according to the mother Maya wore.

The bracelet was described by Connor<unk>s father.

A comparison of the data showed a high probability that the remains found belong to those three teenagers.

DNA analysis was conducted for final confirmation.

The parents were asked to provide samples for comparison.

Connor<unk>’s father came to the laboratory on the same day he received the call.

Maya’s mother couldn’t believe that her daughter had been found.

Alicia’s parents sat in their car in front of the laboratory building for half an hour before they decided to go in.

Samples were taken and sent for analysis.

The results came back a week later.

A match in all three cases.

The remains found did indeed belong to Connor Bailey, Maya Reeves, and Alicia Rodriguez.

When the news reached the parents, their reactions varied.

Maya’s mother fainted right in the investigator’s office.

Connor<unk>’s father nodded silently, went outside, sat down on a bench, and stared at one spot.

Alicia’s parents hugged each other, and cried for a long time.

7 years of waiting had ended in the most terrible way.

But now, at least there was certainty.

Now they could bury their children, erect monuments, and visit their graves.

The police immediately reopened the investigation now as a murder case.

The first thing they did was return to the materials from 2002, reread all the testimony, and check all the witnesses.

They paid particular attention to the circumstances of the disappearance.

Who was the last person to see the teenagers alive? Elliot Warren, the teacher who accompanied the hike.

Investigators summoned Warren for questioning.

He was already 50 years old, had lost some of his physical strength, and his hair was almost completely gray.

He answered questions calmly and measuredly.

He repeated the same version he had given 7 years earlier.

The group had set off on the route, did not return.

He went to look for them and found only a backpack.

He suggested that the teenagers had gotten lost, possibly had an accident.

His voice was steady.

His hands did not tremble.

The investigator wrote down every word and observed his reactions.

So far, nothing suspicious.

But the forensic experts continued to work with the bags and their contents.

Examination of the seams revealed an interesting detail.

The thread used to sew the bags was not ordinary household thread, but synthetic industrial thread, the kind used in sewing workshops and manufacturing.

A textile expert identified the manufacturer, the type of thread, and even the approximate year of manufacturer.

It was thread produced by a Pennsylvania company and supplied to schools and workshops in the early 2000s.

Investigators looked at the Randolph County School’s purchase records from 2001 to 2003.

They found that the school had indeed purchased this type of thread for the vocational arts classroom.

The documents were signed by Elliot Warren as the person responsible for receiving the materials.

This was the first thread connecting the teacher to the burial site.

At the same time, forensic experts examined the remains themselves.

The cause of death was determined fairly quickly.

All three had skull fractures and signs of severe blows to the head.

Two also had damage to their cervical vertebrae characteristic of compression or strangulation.

The death was violent.

There was no doubt about that.

This was a triple murder, not an accident.

A detailed examination of the bones of the hands revealed microscopic scratches and damage, indicating that the victims had tried to resist.

Microparticles were found under what remained of the fingernails, fibers of tree bark and the same synthetic fibers that were found on the seams of the bags.

This meant that before or immediately after death, the bodies had come into contact with this thread and with wood.

Forensic scientists sent samples of the microparticles for further analysis.

The fibers turned out to be identical to those used to sew the bags.

But most importantly, traces of skin and fat secretions were found on the inside of the bag seams.

These were microscopic particles left behind by the hands of the person who sewed the bags.

Experts were able to extract a partial fingerprint profile, not enough for complete identification, but enough to compare with existing samples.

Investigators dug up the archives of all the fingerprints ever taken during the investigation of the 2002 disappearance.

They also requested the fingerprints of all school employees that were taken as part of that 2003 internal investigation when complaints were made about Warren.

When compared, the partial profile from the bags matched Elliot Warren’s fingerprints.

The probability of error was minimal.

This meant that he was the one who sewed these bags with his own hands.

The next step was to analyze the microfibers found on the remains and inside the bags.

Experts determined that these were fibers from work clothes, aprons, and jackets used in carpentry and sewing workshops.

The composition of the fibers matched the type of fabric that the school purchased for workc clothes in the labor classroom.

Investigators checked to see if Warren still had old work clothes from those years.

They obtained a search warrant for his home.

The search was conducted in November 2009 early in the morning.

Warren opened the door calmly, did not resist, and only said that he did not understand why this was necessary.

A group of investigators and forensic experts combed through the house from basement to attic.

They found what they were looking for in the garage.

On a shelf lay an old work jacket, dirty with paint and oil stains.

In the pocket, they found a sce of that very synthetic thread.

Experts compared the thread with samples from the seams of the bags, a perfect match in terms of manufacturer, type, and even batch number.

Next to the jacket was a box of gloves, old gardening, and work gloves.

One pair of gloves had dark stains on the inside.

The stains were taken for analysis.

Traces of blood badly degraded, but sufficient to determine the blood type.

The blood type matched that of one of the victims.

In the far corner of the garage, behind a stack of boards, three black garbage bags were found exactly the same as those in which the bodies had been found.

The bags were from the same batch, the same manufacturer, the same size.

But the most important find was a small notebook hidden in a desk drawer in the garage.

The notebook was old, its pages yellowed.

The entries were handwritten in uneven handwriting.

Most of the entries concerned ordinary household matters, purchasing materials, plans for work in the garage.

But on several pages dated the summer of 2002, there were strange phrases.

On June 7th, it said, “Problem solved.

No one else will find out.” On June 10th, the place is safe.

The roots are deep.

No one will find it.

On June 20th, everything has been done correctly.

Life can go on.

Handwriting experts confirmed that the handwriting belonged to Warren.

The notes were vague, but in the context of all the other evidence, they sounded like a direct confession.

Investigators showed Warren the notebook during a second interrogation.

He turned pale, but said that the notes were about school matters and that the phrases had been taken out of context.

He was unable to explain the context convincingly.

At the same time, the investigation worked on the motive.

Why would a teacher kill three teenagers? The answer was found during a second interview with students who attended the school in 2002 and knew the missing children.

One of the girls, now a grown woman, decided to reveal what she had kept silent about for 7 years.

She was in the same class as Maya and was her close friend.

Shortly before the trip, Mia told her that Mr.

Warren was acting strangely, paying too much attention to her, asking her to stay after class, touching her hand when helping with projects.

Maya felt uncomfortable, but was afraid to complain, thinking that no one would believe her.

A few days before the trip, Mia told Connor and Alicia about it.

Connor got angry and said they should go to the principal, that this was unacceptable.

Alicia agreed with him.

The three of them decided that after the trip they would go to the principal and tell him everything.

Maya was afraid, but her friends convinced her.

Maya’s friend remembered this conversation because Mia called her the night before the trip and repeated that after they returned, they would tell everything and Warren would get what he deserved.

This information completely changed the picture.

Warren knew that the teenagers were going to expose him.

For him, this meant losing his job, possibly a criminal case, and public disgrace.

He had a motive to get rid of the witnesses.

The trip to the forest was the perfect opportunity.

A remote location, no witnesses, and the opportunity to stage an accident.

Investigators pieced together a version of events.

On the evening of the second day of the trip, when Connor, Maya, and Alysia’s group returned to camp, Warren asked them to stay, saying he needed to talk.

Perhaps he tried to persuade them to keep quiet.

Perhaps he threatened them.

The conversation escalated into a conflict.

The teenagers refused to keep quiet, and Warren realized there was no way out.

A fight ensued.

He was an adult man against three teenagers, but he had the advantage of surprise and physical strength.

He killed them with blows to the head, possibly using a rock or a heavy branch, then strangled them to make sure.

After that, panic set in.

He realized what he had done and understood the magnitude of the problem.

But there was no turning back.

He decided to cover his tracks.

He returned to the camp, took the trash bags that were in his backpack for collecting trash after the hike.

He returned to the bodies and placed each one in a bag.

He sewed the bag shut with thread he always carried with him.

A labor teacher was accustomed to having tools with him.

He took the bags to a secluded part of the forest that he knew well from his fishing trips.

He found an old oak tree with massive roots, dug a hole under the roots, hid the bags, and covered them with earth.

He worked all night.

By morning, everything was ready.

Then he returned to camp and staged a story about the teenagers leaving and not returning.

He scattered some of their belongings around the forest to make it look like they had gotten lost.

He played the role of a concerned teacher who was looking for the children himself.

When the rescuers arrived, he showed them the places where he had supposedly been looking for them, but deliberately led them away from the real burial site.

The plan worked.

The search yielded nothing.

The case cooled down and no one suspected him.

For 7 years, he lived peacefully, knowing that the bodies were safely hidden.

Perhaps he sometimes went to check on the site to make sure everything was in place.

But nature had other plans.

A storm knocked down a tree, the roots were exposed, and the secret came to light.

On December 20th, 2009, Elliot Warren was arrested.

The charges: triple firstdegree murder, kidnapping of minors, concealment of corpses, abuse of authority.

He was led out of his home in handcuffs early in the morning.

Neighbors watched from their windows, unable to believe their eyes.

The quiet teacher who had lived nearby for so many years turned out to be a murderer.

A real storm broke out in the city.

The news spread within hours.

Parents of students demanded explanations as to how such a person could work at the school.

The principal resigned, admitting that he had not paid enough attention to the complaints.

The school board conducted an investigation and found that there had been warnings, but they had been ignored.

Several administrative staff members also lost their jobs.

The investigation lasted 6 months.

All the evidence was gathered.

Dozens of witnesses were interviewed and a complete picture of the crime was pieced together.

Warren refused to admit guilt, saying that he had been framed and that the evidence had been fabricated.

His lawyer tried to challenge the fingerprint evidence, arguing that a partial print was insufficient for a conviction.

But the body of evidence was too overwhelming.

The threads, the microfers, the blood on the gloves, the notes in the notebook, the witness statements, the motive.

It all added up to a complete picture.

The trial began in June 2010, exactly 8 years after the teenager’s deaths.

The courtroom was packed.

The parents of the victims sat in the front row holding hands.

Maya’s mother clutched a photo of her daughter.

Connor<unk>’s father glared at Warren with hatred.

Alicia’s parents cried quietly, their eyes downcast.

The prosecutor presented all the evidence methodically, step by step.

He showed the threads, the bags, the photos of the burial site.

He read out the forensic experts testimony about the causes of death.

He presented fingerprint data, blood tests, and notes from a notebook.

He called witnesses who talked about Warren’s strange behavior and the teenager’s plans to expose him.

Each piece of evidence fit into a logical chain.

The defense attorney tried to cast doubt.

He said that the partial fingerprint could be a mistake, that the threads could have belonged to anyone, that the notes in the notebook were ambiguous.

But the jury did not believe him.

There was too much evidence, and it all pointed to one person.

The trial lasted 3 weeks.

Warren sat calmly, showing almost no emotion.

Only when photos of the remains were shown did he look away.

He answered questions briefly, denying all charges.

He said he hadn’t killed anyone, that it was a mistake, that the real criminal was still at large.

But his words sounded unconvincing.

On July 8th, 2010, the jury returned a verdict, guilty on all counts.

The judge sentenced him to three life sentences without the possibility of parole to be served consecutively.

This meant that Warren would spend the rest of his life in prison.

When the sentence was announced, there were sobs in the courtroom.

Maya’s mother covered her face with her hands and cried.

Connor<unk>’s father hugged his wife, who had been unable to attend the trial and was waiting at home.

Alicia’s parents stood up silently and left the courtroom, holding hands.

Justice had been served, but it did not bring their children back.

Warren was led away in handcuffs.

He walked silently without looking back.

He is being held in solitary confinement for security reasons.

Child murderers are not respected in prisons.

He has tried to appeal several times, but all appeals have been rejected.

The case is closed.

The verdict is final.