True Crime Documentary

00:03 Back in 1981, I had the American dream, the beautiful wife, the house in the suburbs, and a beautiful six-year-old son. And one day I went to work, kissed my son goodbye, and never saw him again. 00:16 In two weeks, I became the parent of a murdered child, and I'll always be the parent of a murdered child. 00:22 I still have the heartache. I still have the rage. I waited years for justice. I know what it's like to be there waiting for some answers. And over those years, I learned how to do one thing really well, and that's how to catch these bastards and bring them back to justice. I've become a manhunter. I'm out there looking for bad guys. 00:51 I hope you're having a great day. I'm missing you so bad. Can we please just be together? 01:04 I'll make you happy, I promise. 01:08 I have to go now. I love you, baby. 01:17 My supervisor called me to report that we had just been notified of an escape from the halfway house. 01:23 For Stoser, it's young girls. Cubescent, 13, 14, that is his fixation. 01:30 Baby, I miss your voice, and I miss talking to you. I wish you were here right now. 01:36 I know one thing for sure. Kevin Stoser's going to do what he did his whole life, prey upon young girls. He's going to do it until we catch him. 02:23 Kevin's mother was the victim of a sexual assault. She was raped at the age of 13, and then she had Kevin at the age of 14. 02:33 It was an assault by the stepfather, which ultimately produced Kevin Stosser nine months later. 02:46 mr stoser had by all accounts a difficult upbringing his relationships with other individuals in his in his home were quite strained i went to school with him lived down the street he was just kind of a geeky different you know didn't didn't stand out but didn't fit in you know but he was a stoser everybody liked the stoshers you know march of 1994 he joined the army as an infantryman 03:16 And he actually excels and promotes quickly. Within a matter of a couple of years, he has already promoted up the ranks to sergeant. 03:25 In early 1996, while he was stationed at Fort Head, Texas, he saw a young lady who at the time was 16 years old. They struck up a relationship, and just under a year, they actually got married. 03:37 A month or two later, she actually ends up giving birth to their daughter. 03:42 His wife was a juvenile. He was 24 years old. He was committing a crime. He was breaking the law and had to get her parents to give him special permission to marry a young woman who wasn't of the legal age to get married. That was the first evidence of his predilection for pedophilia. 04:01 Kevin was very proud to be a father. He felt very blessed to be a father, but he was very emotionally and verbally abusive, and he was having extramarital affairs. 04:14 And because of his activities, she took the baby and she left. 04:20 Kevin Stoser is a good example of what the field refers to as travelers. These are typically men who seek out vulnerable children online and they begin to worm their way into these children's lives. 04:38 This was back in the day before Facebook, before a lot of your current social media was out there. 04:50 Kevin met Shannon in one of the chat rooms. And at the time, she's a young teenage girl. 04:59 She felt that her stepfather was too strict, wouldn't let her go out on dates, wouldn't let her date older boys. And so she was disgruntled with her parents. And Kevin, seeing that opportunity, befriends her. He listens to her. 05:16 Within a month, he was telling her that he loved her, that this was a relationship that was enduring, that they were going to get married and have a life together. This is after one month of conversation. 05:33 These men slowly erode these defenses by assuring the child that While typically children and adults do not engage in such activity, this relationship is special. This child is different. This child is capable of making decisions that other children cannot make. 05:54 And this carries on for about six weeks. And then Kevin says, how about we meet in person? 06:01 Give me your address. Let's meet up. 06:06 And then 06:08 Out of the blue, Kevin shows up one day. 06:12 Stoser knows that his sexual interest in children are aberrant. He understands that this is wrong, that this is deviant. Nevertheless, he tries to present as if this behavior is occurring in a context of consent. Now, of course, 12 to 15-year-old girls cannot consent to engaging in sexual activity with an adult. 06:36 There was only one sexual encounter between Shannon and Kevin. 06:42 Kevin had made the comment that every time I'm with you, you tease me. You leave me without doing anything about it. 06:48 Shannon said that at that point she decided that she would take action on it to make him happy for fear that he would leave her. 06:59 Her stepfather found out about him being 28 at the time. 07:03 He didn't stand for that. 07:05 That call to the commanding officer is what started this downfall, you want to call it, a spiraling downfall of Kevin Stoser. 07:16 The company commander informed the battalion commander that there was already another pending investigation on Kevin. 07:23 That he had been contacted by the Harker Heights Police Department for allegations of making sexual advances toward a 13-year-old girl online. 07:34 I wanted to tell you I miss you, and I can't stop thinking about you, honey. I told you age does not matter to me. I wanted to be with you. I'll see you whenever you could see me, okay? 07:46 And I promise I will make you so happy thinking about you nonstop. 07:51 You're my beautiful princess, is that okay? 07:54 Love Kevin. He was the result of a rape. 07:59 His mother was raped at the age of 13, and the emotional scarring that it would have had on him might have helped guide him toward that target victim of a 13 to 15 year old age group. 08:15 Kevin had been online stalking and chatting with a 13 year old. 08:20 A month or two later, he's initiating contact with a 15 year old, has sexual contact with her. 08:29 Kevin had been confronted with this accusation. He was not allowed to leave post. 08:35 He was to cease and desist all contact with the 13-year-old. He definitely showed a pattern, and his behavior never ceased. 08:43 And there was no remorse. He didn't care that he was being investigated, for one, when he's carrying on the same activity with someone new. 09:02 Janelle is 15. 09:04 She has just gotten out of school. 09:11 Kevin picks her up. 09:17 And at some point, we have sex in his vehicle. 09:37 Janelle ultimately spends the night with him, where they again engage in sexual intercourse. 09:44 And according to Janelle, it was completely consensual. 09:51 And she also states that during the evening, Kevin produces a camera and he takes digital photos. 10:02 And he records their activity. 10:05 Don't be shy. Don't be nervous. 10:09 In many cases, it's to relive the experience later on. It also could have been designed for trading, for other images with like-minded individuals online, or perhaps he could use this as a form of blackmail. 10:24 It's a compulsion that they fight They know it's reprehensible. They know that people hate what they do, but it's a compulsion and a narcissistic desire that they have to satisfy. These guys are cunning. They're smart. He manipulated her so well that she even went and told her mother, this is the guy for me. This is my road to happiness. 10:46 Janelle finally confesses, hey, I've spent the last couple of days with him. We've had sex. We've done this and that. Mom goes ballistic. They start arguing. Voices start getting raised. 10:58 They get into a very heated argument. 11:01 Mom then decides she's going to call the police because her young 15-year-old daughter has been sexually assaulted. 11:08 She calls the police and reports rape. 11:13 Interestingly, Mr. Stoser was described by the police officer as not asking any questions, as not even appearing concerned whatsoever with the fact that he was under arrest for the sexual assault of a child. 11:28 This event and this arrest occurred while he was still under investigation, still being looked at for the previous two offenses. And these all came to light within a three to four month period. 11:40 At no point did he ever give any of these young ladies a false name. He never tried to hide his age. He believed he was untouchable. 11:47 He's almost borderline nymphomaniac. It's as if he can't get enough sex. He's always looking for sex. He always needs sex. And obviously his preference is young, you know, young teenage girls. 12:03 The military investigators were able to obtain search warrants for Kevin's apartment. They ultimately found images of child pornography. 12:12 And then Kevin eventually got charged with eight different offenses, of which he was found guilty on six of those and ultimately sentenced to 13 years in the military prison. 12:25 He spends roughly 10 years incarcerated at Fort Leavenworth. When he gets released in 2011, he is sent back based on his military home of records. The closest place that they can send him to with a halfway house with probation supervision is Rapid City, South Dakota. 12:47 And at this point, Facebook was now relevant. 12:52 I was in my room, supposed to be doing homework, but I was on my cell phone, on Facebook, scrolling through the news feed. 13:16 A message from Kevin Stocher popped up. 13:20 I didn't think anything of it because of the last name. 13:24 My family is really good friends with them, and they're really well known in our hometown. And I remember reading the message. It said, hi, Tori. My name's Kevin. 13:36 I went to high school with your mom. 13:39 I said, Kevin Stocher? He sent you a friend request too? And she said, yeah. And I said, well, I guess, you know, if you want to accept it, you can. You know, it's somebody my age as one of your friends, and I never thought more of it. 13:55 I said, hi. Kind of just small talk. And then I went to say, you're really beautiful. 14:03 Kevin continued to talk to me throughout the night. 14:06 He had told me that he was in Rapid City, South Dakota, that he might be coming to town, to Fort Pier, South Dakota. 14:16 I did not reply. 14:27 I went to school the next day and a couple of my girlfriends in my grade had said, this Kevin Socher guy keeps contacting me. And I was like, what? 14:40 It was basically the same thing. Like, do you know Tori Deal? I went to high school with her mom and would ask him to hang out, continue to tell him how beautiful they were. 14:49 I said, seriously, he's saying those things to you? So I asked for the number and I had said, you need to stop texting my daughter and her friends. That's just not cool. You know, they're 20 years younger than you. You just don't do that. And he responded, sorry, I understand. You know, no hard feelings. 15:09 I thought that was the end of it. 15:18 It was shortly after that when she told me Kevin wasn't stopping, and I googled his name. I had sent her this text. 15:34 Get on the computer and block that Kevin. Tell your friend too. He just got out of prison for raping a young girl. Now tell everyone. 15:49 I'm just glad that and happy that Tori came to me and that she didn't meet him. 15:58 And no one, you know, none of her friends did either. 16:01 If you want children to be safe, you have to separate those predators from society. And when they get out, like this creep got out a couple of times, you have to track them. 16:12 I can't imagine what those girls feel, that he is destroyed by his sickness, if you want to call it that. 16:30 Kevin had returned to his old activity. Based on this, they revoked his probation and sent him back to prison. 16:37 So he serves that 18 months actually in the prison. 16:41 And at this point, they determined that once again, he's eligible to be released early. 16:46 And then they forward him to the halfway house here in Austin, Texas. 16:57 He actually requested to come to the Austin area because it was the closest location he could get to his daughter. Now she's 16 years old. 17:05 She told me that he said, I apologize for everything I've put you through. I want to try and make it up to you. I want to try and be a father. I want to be a part of your life if you'll give me that opportunity. But he would call repeatedly, answer your phone. Where are you at? What are you doing? What's going on? She wanted to give him an opportunity. but he was just so aggressive about it that it made her feel uncomfortable at times. 17:38 Most offenders are able to keep their drive in check when circumstances indicated that the risks were very high. 17:48 What makes Mr. Stoser different is the fact that he has shown an inability to delay gratification for even a short period of time. 18:02 Being that Kevin was a convicted sex offender, he's not allowed to have any communication device that would allow him access to the internet, i.e. a smartphone, or any mobile device that had camera capabilities. 18:19 One of the staff members there at the halfway house is just doing a random routine walk through the dormitory area. 18:34 They looked at Stosser and I think Stosser at that time knew this is it. 19:03 He's not familiar with the Austin area. He spent no time here in Austin. He doesn't know the terrain. He doesn't know his surroundings. 19:10 We obviously find out he left with nothing. He didn't have anything on him. 19:15 So we did think he would be an easy catch. 19:21 But that hasn't been the case. 19:34 Once they've made that big leap, once they become a fugitive and all the boundaries are crossed, that's when they accelerate the behavior. That's when they're dangerous. While they're out there, they're going, I got nothing to lose. When I get caught, I'm going back. And maybe I'm going back forever. That's when nobody's child is safe. 19:53 I know there's an age difference with us, but I figure if two people really like each other, then age shouldn't matter. 20:09 He preyed on these young girls who were having problems at home. 20:13 And he would win their trust. 20:16 Mr. Stoser is a predator. 20:18 My fear that Kevin comes back. 20:21 Small town. I don't think he would. 20:26 But I didn't think he would do this either. 20:31 It bothers me the most that I don't know where he's at or if he's alive even. 20:39 It's the thing of not knowing. 20:59 The reason that I've kept my identity concealed is because I would like my son to move on and not be identified or stigmatized with this event for the rest of his life. 21:35 He went by Charlie, but his legal name is Charles Richard Mazder III. 21:47 We were friends since middle school. 21:51 He never really fit in with one group. He was kind of like the lone wolf, and he took some pride in that, even as an adult. 22:05 Charlie and I met at school and we got along really well. He's very charismatic and we just, we bonded over certain things. I'm an artist and he is also very artistic. 22:22 All the ladies in the family, he would grab them, take them by the hand and kiss their hand and greet them and be very, very charming, almost like overboard, almost like in a manipulative way. 22:35 We became friends enough to become roommates in college. 22:40 People that didn't get Charlie, they didn't tend to be friends with him usually. 22:46 But nobody really knew him that well. 22:51 Our friend, his roommate, had told me on numerous occasions how filthy his room was. 23:02 It just was putrid. It just smelled like rotten food and dirty laundry. And it was very, very dark. The blinds were always drawn. His door was always shut. 23:15 He didn't want people in his private space. There was a safe haven there. 23:22 We all felt that he had a secret life. 23:28 I remember him telling me some stories that just seemed very outlandish. 23:32 His conquests in Paris, how he made love there at the Eiffel Tower, that he was like kicked out of the country. He was asked to leave or told to leave before there was charges pressed upon him. I just kind of blow it off and look at it as like, oh, that's just Charlie. 23:51 When John and I got married, Charlie was very helpful in the sense that he wanted to be the photographer. He wanted to offer any sort of help he could. And he did. He was very helpful in putting it all together. 24:03 Charles Mosder did a great job and spent his whole life doing this great job. You know what his great job was? Hiding from everybody what he really was. 24:14 Charlie knew everything about us. He knew our deepest secrets. He was like a brother. 24:23 Even when my son was born, he was there, I think in the delivery room. 24:28 Liam and Charlie were close in the sense like of an uncle and a nephew. 24:35 This case is so disturbing because this type of predator is so cunning and uses his charm to make his victim accessible through the victim's own parents. A little bit different than the internet pedophile. This guy ingratiates himself with the family. He's the go-to guy. He's the guy that everybody trusts. 25:02 Liam was sick. He came home with 105 fever from school. 25:08 My daughter was a newborn. She was only a few weeks old. And I was trying to care for her with little sleep and also care for Liam being very ill. 25:21 I had spoken with my husband to see if he could come home from work. He's gone all the time in the late spring and the summer due to his line of work. And me being in the delicate state that I was, I felt that I really needed someone there that night. 25:38 I actually kind of convinced my wife to call Charlie knowing that he is a night owl, that he sleeps in the middle of the day and is up at night on his computer and that he would be more than willing to do that, that he's like family to us and that he would do anything for Liam. 26:00 And I felt a little bit strange about it, actually. As good of friends as I was with Charlie, I felt like I was in such a vulnerable place that I just wasn't sure about the whole idea. But I remember him being very resistant at first. Well, you know, isn't there somebody else? Or are you sure? 26:20 He came over and witnessed how sick Liam was. 26:29 I hadn't had very much sleep since the baby had been born, but I was trying to stay awake and keep an eye on Liam just to make sure that he was safe and he wasn't getting too hot. So Charlie offered to, you know, put a washcloth on his forehead and sit next to the bed and just monitor his temperature every now and then. 26:49 And I told him, we'll take shifts. You can keep an eye on him for a little while and then I'll watch over him. And he said, no, no, no, you haven't had any rest since the baby's been born. Why don't you go ahead and get rest and I'll look over him. 27:27 In the morning, when I woke up, I felt that we had made it through the night successfully. 27:35 The morning that Charlie left, I thanked him for being a great godfather and told him how much I appreciated his help and his dedication to our family. 27:49 That was the last time I saw Charlie. 27:59 My son sat me down, and he said, Mom, I have something to tell you. 28:06 And I said, well, what is it? And he said, I don't know if I should, because he promised me I wouldn't say anything. And at that moment, my heart just sunk. 28:18 And he proceeded to tell me that Charlie had touched him inappropriately and how he did it. 28:30 When he finished telling me I was physically sick and I called his father and said, you need to come home right now. We need to talk. 28:43 Even though Melissa was in the same bed, not only in the same house or in the same room, but in the same king-sized bed, he pulled back the sheets and proceeded to play with our son's private parts. 29:02 And he tried to explain to our son that it was normal what he was doing to him, that his parents were going to be upset with him if he told them. But it was normal for friends to do that, that it was normal for him to know about how to masturbate. 29:28 We both listened to the story, and we both wanted to make sure that we weren't accusing one of our best friends of something so horrible. 29:52 They did the right thing by coming forward right away so we could get the ball rolling as far as our investigation and not lose the element of time, which we always want on our side. 30:03 Charlie also asked Liam, do you know that dogs have big penises? 30:09 And when I told that to the Coronado detectives, it raised an eyebrow with them. 30:16 We executed the search warrant. 30:18 Coronado investigators found evidence of child pornography and bestiality on his cell phone and his computers. 30:27 What the police found would probably shock the average person. Alleged contact with animals. Bestiality is a taboo of centuries. In societies that even accepted child molestation, no society accepts bestiality. 30:43 It's a secret taboo world that they got to keep from their family members, friends, co-workers, anybody else. And the second somebody finds out about it, their whole life turns upside down. 30:56 He appeared to be shocked. 30:59 He denied that he had done anything wrong. He continually asked me why he was being arrested and what his charges were. 31:08 You put your greatest treasure, your greatest possession of all time, with all kinds of people. Anybody could be a pedophile. It could be your grandfather. It could be the child psychologist. It could be the Catholic priest, the rabbi, the minister. That pedophile, that child molester could be somebody that's right in your own house. 31:28 He continually brought up how he would never do something like this to a child, how he loved the victim so much, how he would never do something like that to hurt or jeopardize his friendship with a family. 31:40 They love children in the worst way. They love children as an object of desire, an object to use as their sex slave, their toy or whatever, and throw them away. 31:54 His family reached out to me. They showed up at my house. 32:03 They tried to get me to come with them to get Charlie out of jail and to drop the charges, telling me that I was a horrible friend and a horrible person for doing what I was doing. After much yelling and shouting, they finally left. We were at the courthouse. And at that moment, the district attorney had called John and was on the phone with him. And I just saw it was like somebody ripped John's heart out. 32:34 And he got off the phone and he just collapsed. 32:42 And I'm like, what is going on? What happened? 32:45 And he said he did it before. 32:50 Liam's not the first victim. 32:54 After receiving the initial crime report, I conducted a search on law enforcement databases of our local database here for Charles and located a prior allegation where he was also suspected of molesting a child from several years back. 33:11 It was a similar case of Charles babysitting and another young boy who brought the incident to his mother's attention. 33:23 However, after an investigation, there was not enough physical evidence to arrest him or press charges. 33:30 He's like the junkie that can't resist the heroin. It's a crime of opportunity. It's an arrogance, a compulsion, and a cunning that we can't understand. 33:44 And at that moment, you feel a sense of torture and pain because you know that You were so close to this person, but you didn't see the signs. 33:58 I think something broke in John at that moment, and he hasn't trusted people in the same way since. 34:07 Well, the day of Charlie's arraignment, we were all on pins and needles. 34:14 Called his sister and said, hey, I'll see you at court on Friday for my court appearance. 34:20 His family had bailed him out and put up a pretty big bail bond from what I knew of. So we were all hopeful that he would be there and they could serve him the restraining order. Well, he didn't show up. 34:33 And that's when the warrant was issued and they all began to look for him. 34:46 Mosier was not at the residence. 34:50 I spoke to Charles' roommate and he told me that Charles had been there a week before. 34:59 that he believed it was the day he bailed out and that he was very nervous, very anxious. 35:06 He said, yeah, Charlie grabbed his stuff in a hurry. He said that his friend John is lying and falsely accusing him and that he would kill or that he would take John out, myself, he would take John out before he would ever go to prison. 35:30 The roommate knew for a fact that Charlie had two guns, one registered, one unregistered, and wanted the detectives to know that, that this threat could be valid, that this should be taken seriously. 35:46 When we found out that he was gone, that he had skipped out, it made us feel very vulnerable. We felt very, very worried, especially him knowing where we live. 36:34 The vehicle was found and I literally did a jig. I thought, oh, this is amazing. 36:42 Several days after Charles went missing, Moser's vehicle was located in Georgia. Appeared to be abandoned. The license plate had been ripped off. There was an extra gas tank in the vehicle leading us to believe that he was in a hurry. 36:57 We're thinking he drove all the way out there over to McIntosh, Georgia for a period of two to three days. 37:03 It appeared that someone had left the vehicle in a state where they didn't want it to be found. 37:18 After ditching his car, he had a few options. 37:21 The dog's bloodhound that picked up his scent from his vehicle leading to the highway and picked it up one more time to his car. And the final scent was to US Highway 17. 37:33 And from there, we're thinking somebody probably picked him up, whether it be a friend, family member, or an unknown stranger. 37:43 And one of his last phone calls he had with a friend was, I need to take off. I'm probably going to go to Mexico, but I might also go to Japan. 37:55 And after we found his car in Georgia, there's been no new leads. It's been cold for almost two years now. 38:05 At this point, he's scared, you know, running for his life. 38:08 And that's a worry for anybody in law enforcement. They have contact with this guy because we don't know what he's going to do. 38:16 He is an EMT. He's trained in search and rescue. So I wouldn't be uncommon if we got a tip saying, hey, this guy's been camping in the woods here for a long time, living off the land. 38:29 It is in my opinion that he is a predator. We want Charles Richard Mazur III behind bars 38:54 Because of the wonderful, brave viewers of the hunt, we had our first capture. 39:00 Moser pulled out a gun and he began firing. He had one of the detectives in the abdomen. He had another in the leg. Another was injured with what appears to be a shrapnel or a bullet to the arm as well. They opened fire back, taking him down. He was killed, pronounced dead on the scene. 39:17 Charles Mazder, after two years on the run and not one clue to where he was, was taken down. Charles Mazder chose to run and he stayed out there for two years. And he chose to have a gun and he chose to shoot those cops first. They wanted to bring him in. They wanted to take him in alive. They only had to fire because he shot each one of those three cops. I always believed that the public was the best ally to law enforcement. All I asked was, go online, make that phone call, give us the tip, we'll take it from there. And they came through again. 39:48 You came through again. 39:54 I felt it was very important to share our story in hopes that Charlie would be brought to justice. 40:04 This is not an easy choice to make. 40:08 but could possibly help protect somebody out there from being a victim in the future. 40:17 I figured out one thing, one thing in all these years since my son was murdered. They're out there, they're evil. Till we figure out how to keep them away from children, it's up to you to protect your child and to be street smart and follow your gut.