I beat her to death, raped her and loved it. Pavlinacs release was trickier. Clear your docket, Schrunk told McIntyre. I wanted to get those two people out of prison," he said in 1995, referring to Pavlinac and Sosnovske. In 1990, when authorities were trying to solve Bennett's murder, Pavlinac came forward with a story implicating her boyfriend at the time, Sosnovske, in the crime. He liked to think he moved cautiously while deciding what to believe. Down the street, on this dreary morning in early May 1994, his divorce trial had just started. I'm thinking, 'My God, she is actually involved in this,'" Ingram said. Yes, planting phony evidence, that certainly looked dubious, but Pavlinacs motivation made sense. Pavlinac and Sosnovske were both arrested on March 5, 1990, and both convicted of the murder on Feb. 8, 1991. She had been beaten, raped and strangled. Come fast, he said. Do you believe that by pulling that rope tight that you caused the death of Taunja Ann Bennett?, Yeah, Pavlinac said. 5, we're diving deep into the story of Laverne Pavlinac and her ex-boyfriend, . It was founded in 2012 in conjunction with the Center on Wrongful Convictions at Northwestern University School of Law. Even their fiercest opponent, Pavlinacs defense attorney, Wendell Birkland, thought them men of good will. Laverne claimed that Taunja was still alive when she and John met her on the night of January 21. He ordered McIntyre to give him daily briefings; he appealed for results; he told reporters, I dont want our office to do wrong. "I had been worried about this for a long time", he said. She would pop in and pop out, and over the years, She was that type of person.". Sometimes he thought he should have been a Jesuit. She was so hospitable, not the typical sort they interviewed at all. I raped her and beat her real bad . McIntyre reviewed all they had. They now had Pavlinacs confession, Sosnovskes statement, Sosnovskes two failed polygraph tests. What a hassle, what an irritation. . She even said we could search the house, but we thought we should get a search warrant.. How can you ever know for sure? Cigarette butts everywhere, messy, stinky. Corson, with the Oregon State Police, was the more hardnosed; some in the district attorneys office even called him a right winger. He believed people should go to jail, he was a sniper on the state SWAT team, he pursued suspects relentlessly. On Oct. 14, 1995, after checking with McIntyre, Peterson ordered the Explorer Scouts back out to Sandy River. I want to deal.. Laverne used those details as well as what she could gather from the news and concocted a story. Had the detectives manipulated Sosnovske with their hypothetical questions? Pavlinacs eyewitness account, Sosnovskes polygraphs, Sosnovskes handwritten statement. . The search warrant had listed those items; thats where shed gotten the idea. Pavlinac seemed to know intimate details about the case. The National Registry of Exonerations is a project of the Newkirk Center for Science & Society at University of California Irvine, the University of Michigan Law School and Michigan State University College of Law. That's when they said she implicated herself in the murder, according to Det. McIntyre sat in his office, studying the first anonymous letter. Shutterstock Following Laverne Pavlinac's false confession, Keith Hunter Jesperson decided to become the latest serial killer to take credit for his own crimes. I am sure they will kill me for this. First they would hack away the blackberry bushes. . Most critical, the logistics didnt seem right. Refreshing because the prosecutors for once admitted and undid their own wrong, rather than dig in their heels. When he did, he started to hear the full story out of Clark County. Each theory had its supporters. Mike Schrunk, as a result, no longer was just asking questions. No, no, she insisted. But it was all a lie. McIntyre quickly authorized a polygraph exam. He has to sell the goddamn car. The further he delved, the murkier everything looked. Laverne Pavlinac convinced investigators she and John Sosnovske had killed Taunja Bennett, when they hadn't. It's thought that Pavlinac suffered abuse at the hands of her partner, John Sosnovske. Like the Happy Face Killer, he claimed to have started killing five years before. Even a baby, she observed, could have found the location of the body out in the gorge. The second letter, sent to the Oregonian newspaper, was a little harder to dismiss. Her daughters are still trying to understand why their mother did what she did, and why she didn't see another way to end the relationship. After contacting police, Ms. Pavlinac and Mr. Sosnovske were charged with the murder, the latter eventually pleading guilty to avoid the death penalty. Then she dropped her guard. McIntyre felt certain now: Jesperson was full of bull. Even if he had more or less stumbled into it. While police didn't get any hard evidence, the recordings demonstrate how Pavlinac attempted to convince her boyfriend he played a role in Bennett's death. Laverne Pavlinac, 57, a plump, gray-haired hospital worker, confessed to helping her boyfriend, John Sosnovske, 39, attack the girl. In mid-February, the cases two lead investigators, Al Corson and John Ingram, came to brief them. Bennett was dead. Five years later, Keith Hunter Jesperson confessed to a series of murders, including that of the woman. His attempted murder trial lasted four weeks. "Madonna, that's what she listened to all day," White said. Despite a gag order, he was still talking to journalists. Phelan was already there, waiting in a back conference room. Taunja Bennett, 23, is seen here in this undated photo. For days on end in May 1994, Corson and Ingram scrambled across eastern Oregon, tracking the Bend man whose wife thought he might be the Happy Face Killer. Everything unfolded quickly after that. We have the right people in jail. Nor was McIntyre. Getting a ride home with a dead body in the back seat? The day after the Pavlinac visit, detectives wired Jesperson to a polygraph machine. She'sgiveher the shirt off her back," McAlpine said. He couldnt, though. Im sorry for the whole situation., When it was Sosnovskes turn, he addressed not her but the judge. She was very co-operative with the police. Then, one day in mid-November, Birkland suddenly announced they were rejecting the plea deal. After Pavlinac confessed to investigators, her daughter said she got a call from the detectives asking her to come to her mother's house right away. People took the blame and Im free.. If Jesperson threw anything, it should still be here. Yes, shed planted those items in the trunk, Pavlinac admitted. She's told her own daughter the same story, very convincingly.' When he did, he confessed to Bennett's murder. At Pavlinac, at Jesperson, at the whole situation. I cant undo what I did, Pavlinac told Sosnovske. Few knew he was a highly decorated infantry commander in World War II and Korea, for he talked little of himself. I have been a killer for five years and have killed eight people.. Then Jespersons appointed defense lawyer, Tom Phelan, called. The first search just hadnt been done to his liking. Something about a guy whos confessing to a case we already have a conviction on. But maybe Pavlinac and Sosnovske were also. At first, she denied everything. Chris Peterson to the Clark County Jail. "[Julie] was beautiful inside as well as outside. Daily News reports 57-year-old Laverne Pavlinac confessed she and her boyfriend, 39-year-old John Sosnovske, kidnapped, attacked, and killed Pavlinac before dumping her body along the highway. A strange purse that, the detectives soon saw, contained a newspaper clipping about Taunja Bennetts murder and a piece of fabric cut from the fly area of acid-washed blue jeans. After Jesperson came forward in March 1995, he pleaded guilty to first-degree murder charges for Bennett and Winningham of Camas, Washington, his last known victim. He wasnt headed for just any hearing; this was a motions hearing on an attempted murder. Meisenheimer shook his head. It was as ugly as ugly could be, every detail bitterly contested. The hotline is available 24/7 in more than 170 languages. Most telling, on Oct. 2, when they drove out to where the body was found, Jesperson pointed to the wrong ravine. A similar obsession seems to have led crime-novel buff Laverne Pavlinac to implicate herself and her boyfriend in an Oregon murder in 1990. When he drew a life sentence, with a 15-year minimum term, that appeared to be the end of the Taunja Bennett murder case. Or 'I will cause trouble for your family. In January 1991, a jury had convicted Laverne Pavlinac of felony homicide; two months later, her boyfriend, John Sosnovske, had pleaded no contest to the same charge. On Sept. 25, Phelan met in the district attorneys office with McIntyre and his second chair, Keith Meisenheimer. She told investigators she had gone to the bar to meet Sosnovke, but Bennett was alive when she picked them up and both got in the car with her. At home, the disarray looked even worse. The next morning, in a cardboard box containing Sosnovskes papers, they found a half sheet of paper with the words T. Hes an alcoholic, hes moody, he physically abuses her. Sitting in the sheriffs station that night, a thirsty, cantankerous drunk, he looked weak, mean and ravaged. "Her persistence in this manipulation resulted in her own conviction.". She gleaned many details from early news articles. Sosnovske pleaded no contest to the killing of Taunja Bennett, believing it would steer him clear of the death sentence. If the murder happened up at Vista House, that put it back in Multnomah County. Before serial killer Keith Hunter Jesperson, known by his nickname "Happy Face Killer," turned himself in, authorities believed they had solved the murder of his first victim Taunja Bennett. In November 1995, Jesperson pleaded no contest to murdering Bennett. Sometimes you end up on the wrong side., Barry Siegel is a Times national correspondent. Could a journalist have fed information to Jesperson? That was when Laverne added details to her story and claimed that on the night of January 21, she met John, and together, the two disposed of Taunjas body alongside the Old Columbia River Highway. It was, to him, familiar territory: You take a stand, or else you never get anything done. She was frightened, she wanted to make sure they took Sosnovske away. Pavlinac's son also died shortly after due to medical reasons. Lets dig into the details and find out where John and Laverne are at present, shall we? She left with his friend Chuck Riley to have fun. Later he saw Riley in the parking lot, so he asked for a ride home. [He said,] 'No, no. She recanted her confession and said that she had made it up to escape from Sosnovske. From where he sat, he could see the radiant bronze statue of a woman, perched gracefully on a terrace by the Portland City Hall. They told her they were going to have to release him. But at her trial, Pavlinac recanted, saying that she had lied in an attempt to escape her abusive. As reported by the New York Daily News, Laverne Pavlinac confessed to the murder of Taunja Bennett in January 1990. Authorities in Livingston, Mont., had called Det. On January 21, 1990 the body of 23-year-old Taunja Bennett was found in a remote area of the Columbia Gorge, just outside Portland, Oregon. More to the point, he accepted the lawyers proposals for how to free them. Only occasionally does someone ask how often other such mistakes go undetected. Pavlinac had become obsessed with details of the crime during interrogation by police. information about the Registry. Its an imperfect system. I didnt plan to kill her, Pavlinac sobbed. Convicted murderer Keith Jesperson, right, shown here at a Nov. 2, 1995, court appearance in Portland, Ore., with attorney Thomas Phelan, has recanted all his previous murder admissions. In 1994 newspapers and authorities began receiving anonymous letters from someone who contended he had killed Bennett. Some involved tangible evidence--the crime lab could find no physical trace of Taunjas presence in Pavlinacs car, for instance. Witnesses offer conflicting accounts, Mars Voltas lead singer broke with Scientology and reunited with the band. You cant drop a case, he figured, just because someone writes on a bathroom wall. Hoping to un-fix it, Schrunk arranged for an expedited hearing at the Marion County Circuit Court in Salem, near where Pavlinac and Sosnovske were imprisoned. She was going to send John Sosnovske to jail - by any means necessary. Two gang members had shot a Portland police officer; now their lawyers wanted to block the evidence. Laverne Pavlinac confessed that she and her boyfriend murdered a woman in Oregon in 1990. Trials and cops were better than writing briefs. Whered you put her?, The detectives shifted in discomfort. Then on May 5 theyd discovered a letter Jesperson had written to his brother on the day he was arrested. People glowering at you. The truth must be told on this case as God is my witness, he wrote. In 1990, 23-year-old Taunja Bennett was beaten, raped, and strangled to death not far from Portland, Oregon, and Laverne Pavlinac started down the bizarre road of false . He was late, he was busy. If it were me Id explore this, Phelan advised. Dad always has worried about me because of what I have gone through in the divorce finances etc, hed written in various letters. McIntyre grew animated. A jury had convicted a Portland woman named Laverne Pavlinac based on her detailed confession to police that she helped her boyfriend John Sosnovske rape and kill the 23-year-old. She has changed her confession many times, and there is not a shred of physical evidence tying either of the two to the crime, but a jury convicts her. . When he walked into the B&I;, Bennett hugged him. We have the wrong people in jail, he told Schrunk. She recanted her confession and said that she had made it up to escape from Sosnovske. The pair were convicted in 1991 for the murder of Taujna Bennett, 23, of Portland.. We have made a mistake, McIntyre and Schrunk declared, standing before Presiding Circuit Judge Paul Libscomb. I have always wanted to be noticed . Thus, Laverne and John were released from prison in 1995. In January of 1991 she was convicted of felony murder by a jury in Multnomah County Circuit Court. One day he placed five collect calls to Phil Stanford. . He then wrote a confession on the wall of a truck stop he was passing through, but to no avail. She did well at identifying the place where the body had been found, but failed to accurately identify places where personal items belonging to Bennett had been located. At a second hearing on Nov. 27, Judge Libscomb finally relented. . That was when she read about Taunja Bennetts murder in the news and hit upon a plan to escape her relationship. Schrunk put McIntyre on it right away, gave him Keith Meisenheimer as his second-chair prosecutor. The courthouse got one, the Oregonian another. I killed a woman in my truck . I understand that, so Im skeptical.. Jesperson was a giant of a man, 6-foot-6 and 250 pounds. "He went off into the woods with her," Pavlinac told investigators. Nor were any of his own lofty, passionate proclamations to Pavlinacs jury. I was given a ride home with the dead female in the back. The detectives sat before the prosecutors, appearing tentative but pleased with themselves. Where, for so long, hed been absolutely convinced he put the right people in jail, he now felt puzzled. Laverne Pavlinac and John Sosnovske (Oregonian). He said one end of the rope was burned, although both ends were cut clean. I grew up with this, he would later say. He knew that now. In April 1989 shed called the FBI to say a bank robbers photo resembled Sosnovske. Pavlinac was tried first. Then he turned on the tape recorder. Shes not in custody. OK, he said. In 1990, Laverne Pavlinac had reached her breaking point. She was wrongly convicted after falsely confessing that she and her then boyfriend Sosnovske strangled and disposed of the body of Taunja Bennett. Once more, a person seemingly had details only the killer could know. Did she want them to leave? Watch the full story on "20/20" THIS FRIDAY at 9 p.m. Combined, it looked mighty compelling. If the defense arguments were so strong, they reasoned, why then was Wendell Birkland, one of the best in the state, making noises about a possible deal? Most of what Jesperson related, hed already told the news media. When do you ever see two different people confessing to the same crime, both with facts only the killer could know? Not until the spring of 1995, almost a year after the Happy Face Killer letters arrived, did McIntyre once again hear about a serial murderer.