"The cold case gets re-ignited when a very strange tip was called into police. The police get a call from a lady who was in possession of something strange. Her grandmother had just passed away, and so she was going through her house and found this journal. And inside this journal was a gruesome and detailed story that this lady's son had told about abducting and murdering Kirsten Hatfield." — Ashley Flowers
"We've talked a lot about kind of the background. I want to kind of talk to you about some new information developed in this case. Okay. As you know, Detective Miller got some buckles for me a couple months back or whenever it was. There was a reason for that. Okay. And we collected DNA samples from lots of people, but we submitted some evidence from the case and got a DNA hit. Okay. The reason those buckles were collected was we were trying to find the original responsible. Okay. We talked about had you ever been in the backyard, have you ever been in the house, all those things? And you said you hadn't. Well, they were there, no. Okay. Well, I don't believe you. I don't think you're telling the whole truth. Okay. Your DNA is in the backyard the morning that she was discovered missing. Okay. And on her window, and on the painting she'd been wearing the night before that were recovered in the backyard." — Detective Miller (paraphrased)
"But the answer to Kirsten's final resting place was lost with Tony's life." — Ashley Flowers
The episode chronicles the harrowing disappearance of eight-year-old Kirsten Hatfield from her bedroom in Midwest City, Oklahoma, in May 1997. Her mother discovered her missing the following morning, sparking an extensive search that uncovered a broken fence post, a small amount of blood, and Kirsten's underwear in the backyard. Initial investigations focused on individuals close to the family and led to a promising, though ultimately unfounded, tip about a friend of Kirsten's uncle. Despite tireless efforts by her mother and law enforcement, the case remained cold for years.
A significant breakthrough occurred in 2014 with a tip involving a journal detailing the abduction and murder. While this lead, which included claims of a videotape and evidence of blood at a specific house, turned out to be a dead end, it highlighted the persistence of false leads in cold cases. The investigation was reignited when a new detective re-examined the original evidence. Unanalyzed blood samples from the windowsill and Kirsten's underwear yielded an unknown male DNA profile.
This DNA profile, after being entered into CODIS, did not yield an immediate match. However, the investigation proceeded by collecting DNA from individuals connected to the case. A match was eventually found with Anthony Palma, a neighbor who lived just two houses away. During interrogation, Palma initially denied any involvement, but his DNA was found at the crime scene. Despite continued denial, he was arrested. Anthony Palma was convicted of Kirsten's murder but never revealed the location of her body. Tragically, he was murdered in prison in 2019, taking the final answer about Kirsten's whereabouts with him.