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- Emilie morris was a star high school athlete.
- Emilie was excited about life.
- Cute kid, great personality.
- And her coach was james wilder.
- Wilder had a reputation of being kinda the golden boy.
- He was like you'd see a coach in movies,
Always enthusiastic.
- It seemed that emilie and coach wilder
Had a normal student-coach relationship,
But emilie kept a terrible secret.
- I didn't, in my wildest dreams,
Think that jim wilder was sexually abusing emilie.
- She hid the truth for years
Until she finally found the courage
To break her silence.
- It was just like this act of bravery
That I couldn't believe.
- In her fight for justice,
Emilie was able to get coach wilder
To admit his alleged crimes
While secretly recording him.
- Emilie was determined to face wilder in court,
But in a shocking turn of events,
She mysteriously died.
- I said, "emilie,
What are you doin' on the floor?"
I reached down.
She was cold.
- There was definitely a huge question mark
Over the circumstances of how emilie died.
- Upon her death, justice goes unserved
When the case against wilder is dismissed.
- It seemed too unjust to just let it go.
- Oh, I was furious.
- Why was justice halted?
You have this recorded confession.
Why wasn't this enough to go forward with the case?
- Is it a coincidence emilie died
Just days before an important court appearance?
- I don't believe that there was any other reason
For her to die that day
Than her life to have been taken against her will.
- I think there are people
Who would love to have seen her die.
- She was fighting for justice.
When she passed away, it ended everything.
- He gets to go on and live his life,
And emilie's dead, and nobody cares.
♪♪
- I'm loni coombs.
As a former criminal prosecutor
For the los angeles county district attorney's office,
The case of emilie morris intrigues me.
I learned about emilie's story
In an article on buzzfeed news.
She was the victim of alleged sexual abuse
In high school
And pressed charges 18 years later,
Then mysteriously died during the criminal proceedings.
Upon her death,
The st. Louis county prosecutor's office
Declined to continue with her case.
Emilie's family has now been fighting
For over five years to try and find out--
Can the sex abuse case be reopened,
And are there other potential victims?
- Hi. - Hi. How are you? I'm loni.
So, I've come to kirkwood, missouri,
A small suburb outside of st. Louis,
To find out what happened to emilie morris
And to see if anything can be done to reopen the case
That died with her.
First, I would just like to know a little bit
About emilie when she was growing up.
- She was funny, fast, smart, accomplished.
So, she would decide she wanted to learn how to do something,
And she would learn how to do it.
She was very much a tomboy.
Children are supposed to crawl first,
And she didn't wanna be bothered with that.
It wasn't fast enough.
She walked when she was ten months old,
But she also then felt awkward.
She felt like she was a nerd.
Even though she was very accomplished,
And attractive, and intelligent,
She felt like she didn't fit in.
- She was not afraid to fail.
Her key statement was, "I didn't win this time,
"but I'll win next time."
She was quite a young lady.
She was athletic.
That was her forte.
[cheers and applause]
- Emilie was this older sister
That could do everything.
I mean, I think there are a couple of photos of, like,
Me and my friend, kelly,
Staring at emilie in her, like, prom gown,
You know, just looking gorgeous,
And we're just like, "aww!"
I, like, looked up to her, you know?
- She was very intelligent.
She seemed to be almost on the shy side,
But then you'd get closer to emilie,
And you could see what a spark plug she was
And how much of a taste for life that she had.
- She was a total goofball.
You would be having a serious conversation.
Then she would just either say somethin'
Or make some silly face,
And everyone would just crack up.
- In high school, I always saw her as the star athlete,
The cross-country star.
- The summer prior to freshman year,
Emilie told me with great enthusiasm
That she was going to go out for cross country.
- She was just very dedicated,
Very disciplined.
She ended up bein' my number one runner.
- Nancy sachtleben coached emilie her freshman
And sophomore years,
But then took another job
And left her position at lindbergh high school.
Coach wilder took over as coach
For both the boys and girls teams.
- Jim wilder didn't teach at the high school.
He taught down at sperreng middle school,
And he was a math teacher down there.
Coach wilder was a terrific guy.
- Wilder had a reputation of being,
You know, kinda the golden boy.
He was young. He was a successful coach.
He really motivated the kids.
- He was very much like you'd see a coach in movies,
Always on, always enthusiastic.
- His persona was such that you trusted him.
He has the best interest of these kids at heart,
And I believed it.
I did notice emilie talking about jim wilder,
And she would phrase it that she admired him
And that he did a lot to motivate her running skills,
And I thought she maybe had a crush on him,
And I would play that down.
He's a married man.
Be careful your behavior is appropriate
So that people don't interpret it incorrectly.
- Emilie's devotion to james wilder covered up
A horrible secret,
That he was allegedly sexually abusing her
Throughout her junior and senior year
Of high school.
- Emilie and I went to high school together,
But we became very good friends after college.
We had some very frank conversations
About coach wilder.
She didn't recognize that she had been a victim
Of sexual abuse in high school.
- I think her first sexual experience
Was with james wilder.
I'm pretty sure it ruined her life.
- Emilie went to college on a scholarship
And continued running cross country.
After college, emilie married an older man
And had two children.
For a short time, she seemed happy
And loved being a mom,
But then her life spiraled out of control,
And she began to struggle with alcoholism.
- I think she became an alcoholic
Trying to find a way to deal with what happened to her
In high school.
- I think when you're robbed of your innocence
At a young age,
It definitely plays a part in your bad behavior
As an adult.
- Emilie's alcoholism led to her marriage ending.
She lost custody of her children
And began a string of volatile relationships.
- She was constantly being in abusive relationships,
Older man, younger girl.
- Every relationship in her life,
Including her marriage,
Always had a power differential.
Was this because of an injury
Caused by the trauma of child sexual abuse?
Quite possibly.
- Emilie started seeing a therapist
In an attempt to work through her issues.
- Her counselor had been telling her for a long time
That she needed to come forward.
That just never was something that she felt strongly about
Until she heard about our friend's daughter.
- In 2013, 18 years after the alleged abuse started,
Emilie was with christi and another friend
Playing in the backyard on a trampoline.
- We were sitting there,
And one of our other girlfriends from high school
Had a daughter that was now in middle school.
Her daughter had gotten home from soccer practice
That afternoon
And told her mother that she didn't like the way
That coach wilder had touched her
When he was stretching her out at practice.
- She experienced, like, muscle tightness,
And so his solution was to massage her leg.
He must have crossed the line
Of what's appropriate, what's not appropriate
Enough that this kid went home
And complained to her parent.
- And emilie-- it made her very angry.
She was a mother, as well,
And I think she was okay with somebody doing this to her
But to hear it happening to one of our daughters
Was not acceptable to her.
- She realized that her daughter
Might suffer the same fate,
So that's when she decided to go ahead
And try going to the police.
- The first time that I talked to emilie,
She was distraught.
She was obviously very affected by the-the events
That she was trying to relay to me.
It was very difficult for her
To finally tell somebody exactly what had happened
'cause this is a time in her life
That she had kept quiet for many years.
- Coming forward to say that you were sexually abused
Is one of the hardest things
That a survivor can do.
They know that they're gonna be dealt
A great deal of resistance
Because these horrible crimes,
More likely than not, were perpetrated
By someone that the greater community
Knew and loved.
- Emilie secretly recorded wilder
Admitting to their sexual relationship,
Which led to his arrest by the st. Louis county
Police department in August 2013.
- Jim wilder was arrested
And charged with six counts of sodomy.
He was arrested on school grounds.
- I was completely shocked.
It did not fit his personality at all.
He was very much a family man.
- There were a lot of people that were like,
"well, why is she doing this now?"
We had our fair share of wilder supporters
That were trashing emilie's reputation.
- People had villainized her,
Like she crossed the line
Because of a reputation that she had
Maybe of being a little bit promiscuous.
- She felt that some of the students that she knew
Saw her as-as a young lady of ill repute, if you will,
And that bothered her to-to no end.
- Everyone thought she was the bad guy.
- She thought she was the bad guy, too,
You know? - Yeah.
- Where she was betraying this man, you know?
- She was worried about the effect
That it would have on him.
- Yes.
- As opposed to the effect that it had on her
All of those years. - Mm-hmm. Correct.
- At any time, did she tell you
That she was rethinking actually following through
With the criminal case? - No. She was discouraged
About the amount of time it was taking.
- Mm-hmm.
- But her resolve became stronger.
She became more convinced
That it was the right thing to do.
- The judicial process doesn't move fast.
It's a very daunting task for these victims.
They don't get instantaneous justice.
- How long had the sex abuse case been pending?
- A year and a half. - Okay.
- Where it was just about to plea bargain
Or go to trial.
- So, there was going to be a decision.
Either it was gonna settle,
Or it was going to go to trial.
- Yeah. It was supposed to happen
A week after she died. - Wow.
Right before this critical court appearance,
She's found dead.
- It was just another thing that was odd.
- And I know this is really difficult,
But can you tell me about her death,
About what happened?
- Statutory sodomy has a punishment range
Of one to seven years.
- For each count? - For each count.
- That's looking at a substantial amount of time.
- She said she was afraid of him,
And she was afraid of people close to him.
- I think somebody killed her.
- There were people who would love to have seen
Emilie dead.
♪♪
- Can you tell me about her death,
About what happened, how you found out?
The tragic story of emilie morris
Brought me to kirkwood, missouri.
In 2013, emilie pressed charges
Against her high school cross country coach,
James wilder, alleging that he sexually abused her
18 years earlier in high school,
But shortly before a major court appearance
In the fall of 2014
Where it would be decided if wilder would plead guilty
Or the case would proceed to trial,
Emilie was found dead in her apartment.
[phone ringing]
For several days in the fall of 2014,
Emilie's father, richard morris,
Attempted to contact his oldest daughter.
- I checked on her all the time.
She needed something, or food, or anything,
Whatever the need was, I-I was there.
- When she didn't respond to his messages,
Richard went to her apartment.
- I got through the door.
I went in.
I knew somethin' was wrong.
And she was laying on the floor next to her bed.
And I said, "emilie,
"what are you doin' on the floor?
"did you hurt yourself?"
I reached down, and she was cold.
I don't know how long it took for me
To realize that she wasn't there anymore.
- He called me and said, "she's dead."
I got there and went in,
And I kept hoping that he was wrong.
I went in and sat next to emilie
And-and playing with her hair...
And that just slayed me.
And then people started arriving.
There were quite a few policemen.
- According to the police report,
When the police arrived,
They searched the apartment for any clues
Of how she died.
They saw no sign of forced entry
But found her back door unlocked
And slightly open.
Her purse was located in the kitchen
With her wallet inside, full of cash.
Her laptop sat on the kitchen counter
With a credit card right on top.
Emilie was face down on the floor
In the master bedroom
Wrapped in a white comforter.
Police found two bottles of vodka,
And there was vomit in the trash can.
- The police officers pointed to the bottle of vodka
That was in the room.
They said that that would've been enough
To have caused conditions, possibly,
That something could have happened by accident.
- Is that the explanation they gave you,
That this was an accidental death?
- Yeah.
They never said that it was overdose.
I remember a detective saying that, "you know what?
"she was probably so out of it that,
"you know, it wouldn't have been,
"you know, a painful way to go."
- Emilie did struggle tremendously with alcohol,
But when the call came in that she had passed away,
It was at a very unexpected time.
She was in one of the best places
That I had ever seen her.
The trial was getting ready to come up.
She was ready to face it in court
And ready for justice to be served.
- On the day of emilie's death,
Police speculated
That she died from alcohol poisoning,
But to her family,
Details of the scene just didn't add up.
Some of the best evidence that we do have
Is what you saw when you went in there.
So, if you are able to just go through
Those details with me, that would be helpful.
- She was face down.
Trash can was there.
- Do you remember if it was on her body
When you first got there?
- Yes.
- She had-had a kitchen trash can, he told me,
'cause I didn't see it,
Pushed down over her shoulders.
She had vomit underneath her face
And up past her head,
And she was wrapped in a white comforter
On the floor.
- We have the pictures of her body.
The one thing that was changed
That isn't reflected in the pictures
Is the trash can.
- My dad, in that kind of middle time
Where he was waiting for people to come,
He took that trash can
And was tidying up around the apartment.
- He tried to clean up the place
Because he didn't want people thinking
She was a slob.
- The ballwin police felt like the scene was messed with
Or something 'cause they didn't see the trash can.
They were sort of inferring
That no one should have touched anything
And because the scene was messed with,
Nothing could have been done anyway.
- We were in the room when they wheeled her body out.
I mean, it's just-- it's so surreal.
- Emilie's autopsy revealed
That she died from asphyxiation
Due to trash can lined with plastic bag over head.
About two months later,
The police closed the death investigation
Without determining exactly how emilie died.
Emilie would not see the justice
She desperately wanted in her case against james wilder,
And her family soon discovered
They wouldn't either.
- I was told by the detective, detective cook,
At her funeral
That the charges against jim would be dropped.
- I talked to them at the funeral home
To pay my respects,
And they were obviously distraught
When they found out the case wasn't going forward.
- Since she wasn't there to face him in court,
They didn't have enough evidence, they said,
To go forward.
It seemed too harsh, and too unjust,
And too awful to just let it go.
- Oh, I was furious.
He gets to go on and live his life,
And emilie's dead,
And apparently nobody cares.
- I came to kirkwood to see if emilie's sex abuse case
Could be reopened and, if by telling her story,
New victims might possibly come forward,
But talking to her family
Raised my suspicions about her death.
The timing of emilie's death is so questionable,
So close in time to a major court date
For the sex abuse case against james wilder.
Is her death somehow connected to the sex abuse case?
Hi. I'm loni coombs.
- Dennis cook-- nice to meet you.
- Sergeant dennis cook was the lead detective
On emilie's sex abuse case.
You met emilie morris in, um, August of 2013,
I believe. - Correct.
The first time that I talked to, uh, emilie,
She, uh, readily admitted to me
That she was in a dark place in her life.
She told me that she had been drinking heavily
For many, many years.
She told me that she had been suffering
With depression
For the better part of her adult life.
She went into- to details about what the incident was
Specifically that led her down that path.
- Was she able to tell you events in her life
That you believed constituted sexual assault?
- The incident that she described to me
Was of a criminal nature.
I believe I was probably one of the first individuals
That she disclosed, uh, that time period of her life.
So, she had a little bit of alcohol
Prior to us showing up.
- And how did you respond to the fact
That she had been drinking?
- The fact that she's drinking
Doesn't mean that it's not credible.
To me, it-- more of a byproduct of the pain
And of the abuse
That she was trying to come to grips with.
- From the first time you met her
Until the time of her death,
Did you see a change in her personality?
- Sure, 100%.
She was in a much better place towards the end.
She told me that her relationship
With her mom and dad had improved.
Her attitude when I last talked to her versus
When I first talked to her was night and day.
- I don't believe that she drank herself to death.
Once she filed the complaint,
It was going pretty well.
- When was the last time that you spoke to emilie?
- I spoke with her a couple of weeks
Before she passed away.
Uh, she was preparing a-a deposition for the trial.
- So, that would be a situation, for example,
If she was dead or unavailable at the time of trial,
That testimony could be used.
- Yes.
- I need to find out if emilie's deposition took place.
If it did, her sworn testimony could have been enough
To keep the case open.
If emilie died before the deposition was taken,
That means no legal statement
Expressing her side of the story
Could be presented in court,
Another reason why her death could be suspicious
And may not have been accidental.
♪♪
- The tragic death of emilie morris
In November 2014
Devastated her family and friends.
- I remember just feeling, like, in total shock.
It felt like I was living in a nightmare.
- It broke my heart. It really did.
I remembered emilie as this cute kid,
Great personality, braces,
Just giggling, so full of life.
To know that she longer was, it was very sad.
- Shortly before her death.
Emilie told law enforcement
That she was preparing for a deposition
In the sex abuse case
Against her high school cross country coach,
James wilder.
- Once something gets to the deposition phase,
That's the next step
Before it's either gonna go to trial,
Or the, uh, suspect is gonna make a plea.
- I reached out to the prosecuting attorney's office
To find out whether that deposition took place.
"there were no depositions ever taken
"on the criminal case prior to her death.
"the defense did plan on taking her deposition,
"but they never had any dates."
So, emilie dies before giving sworn testimony.
The timing seems strange to me.
But they still had one key piece of evidence,
Wilder's confession on tape.
- When emilie went to the police, they told her,
"you know, we're gonna put a wiretap on you,
"and you're gonna call coach wilder."
They wanted her just to talk about
When this happened to her, how old she was.
- She obviously wanted to perform well,
And it's a daunting task,
And it's somethin' that she had never been through before,
So she was nervous.
- She tried calling jim wilder on the phone,
And he didn't want anything to do with that.
- He immediately said, "not on the phone."
He was very suspicious, very paranoid
About talking about this on the phone.
- So, then she took it upon herself
To set up a date with him to meet
Because she wanted to talk about old times.
- She decided to do whatever it took
To get him on tape to admit what he had done to her
In high school.
- She wore a wire
And met him in the galleria parking lot.
- It was just like this act of bravery
That I couldn't believe.
I still can't believe she did that.
They made it into a joke,
But it was just chilling to hear that.
- Yeah.
- I was just like I--
- Yeah.
- I think that wilder knew what he was doing was wrong
And by maintaining a relationship,
He was ensuring that she would not talk
And report him
Because why would she report a friend?
- Right.
- She came back to the house afterwards,
And she was a wreck.
She was going to destroy the tape because she said,
"you know, I'm going to ruin his life,"
And my comment was, "he's ruined your life.
"do you want other kids to suffer the same?"
- Emilie turned the entire 87-minute recording
With james wilder over to the police.
Based on his own words
And the statement emilie gave to police,
We can piece together the exact nature
Of the alleged sexual abuse
Perpetrated by james wilder.
Emilie began running cross country
Her freshman year at lindbergh high school
And started to develop a relationship
With james wilder.
She referred to it as a mentor-student relationship.
She said that they would talk while they were running,
Or she would call him at home,
And she would ask him about advice about boys
That she was interested in.
- Emilie told me how things kind of started.
She did talk to me about his marriage
And how frustrated he was with his marriage.
His wife was pregnant at the time,
And so he was sexually frustrated.
This is all per emilie.
And she thought she could be better for him.
- Based on emilie's statement to the police,
Coach wilder may have been preparing emilie
For the alleged sexual abuse for two years.
- Predatory grooming is how a child sexual abuser
Tricks the victim into thinking
That the abuse is okay.
It creates what we call a compliant victim.
- In the fall of her junior year in 1995,
This relationship changed.
According to emilie's statement to the police,
Coach wilder had a cross country practice
At bohrer park,
A very large park, about 16 acres.
Emilie said that she found coach wilder behind a tree,
So she started talking to him about a boy
Who wanted her to play this game called chicken
Where the boy would put his hand on her thigh,
And coach wilder said, "well, shall we play?"
And he put his hand on her thigh,
And then he stopped, and emilie said, "chicken."
So, coach wilder did it again.
He put his hand on her thigh,
And he started moving upward,
But this time he didn't stop.
He got to her vagina,
And he left his hand there,
Over her clothing, on her vagina,
Until another runner went by,
And he stopped.
- Kids think they're adults, but, as a teacher,
You still are the one in the position
That's here to protect them.
If a girl is having some thoughts like that,
It's up to that adult to make sure
That those thoughts aren't carried out.
- Emilie said that after that practice,
He gave her a ride home,
And when they got home, her parents weren't there,
So they went inside.
In the living room,
Coach wilder sat her down on an ottoman.
He took her pants off, he took her underwear off,
And then he performed oral sex on her.
- Yeah.
And finally, I felt--
- Child sexual abuse has nothing to do with sex
And everything to do with power,
And through the sexual abuse,
They get instant verification of their power.
- According to emilie's statement to the police,
She told wilder she wanted to stop.
That day, he did,
But that was not the end
Of the alleged sexual abuse.
- In her junior year of high school,
She had qualified to go to state with cross country.
That meant a lot to her.
- She was the only girl from the cross country team
To qualify.
Emilie stated that over the next few weeks,
She would see wilder on a daily basis, alone.
- This is clydesdale park.
From what the police report said,
This is actually where one of the incidents
Of sexual abuse occurred.
She was apparently in a practice for state.
They came down to this bathroom.
She and wilder went into the male bathroom,
And she performed oral sex on him.
He was bold enough to kinda direct her here,
Out in public, which is kind of creepy.
In this instance,
Somebody actually walked in on them, um, a stranger.
They didn't say if it was a student or not.
- Like, I would because-
Because-- I know.
- I recently watched a diving video of emilie
When she was still just a teenager.
[cheers and applause]
And the thing that struck me the most
Was how unseductive she was.
[laughing]
Her first sexual experience was with james wilder.
It ruined her life.
He was a trusted adult teacher,
And she was still a kid,
And that should not have happened.
- By the fall of 1995,
James wilder had already allegedly attempted
His first sexual encounter
With then 16-year-old emilie morris.
- He was one of the bad apples.
He had this beautiful looking apple
On the outside
But was rotten to the core.
- Eighteen years later,
Emilie disclosed the details of the first incident
To detectives
At the st. Louis county police department.
- She didn't really have a whole lotta people
That she had disclosed to.
She was keeping this secret,
This deep, dark secret, to herself for years.
According to her statement to police,
Emilie and coach wilder traveled to jefferson city, missouri
For a state cross-country competition.
She described an incident where she masturbated
Coach wilder inside a movie theater
While another coach sat nearby.
- Perpetrators love to flaunt.
We see cases
Where children are sexually molested
At the dining room table in front of their parents,
And the parents don't even know.
- Emilie's family obtained the police report
And read in graphic detail several specific incidents
Where coach wilder allegedly abused emilie.
- She and jim wilder would go to the wrestling room,
Which is up a flight of stairs.
She would perform oral sex on him.
There were several instances where someone else
Would be coming up the stairs.
Jim would have her hide in one of the boxes
In which the wrestling uniforms were kept
Until the person was done doing
Whatever they were doing, and then they would leave.
It's disgusting.
- She did talk to me about a relationship
That she developed with coach wilder.
What existed between them was mostly oral sex.
I knew emilie wanted it.
I couldn't see the damage it was doing to her.
- Everybody knew about it.
It was just one of those things that you didn't talk about.
- I know there were some people that raised the red flag.
- There was a student that was on
The cross-country team with emilie,
And he saw some things in the forest,
And he told his parents,
And the parents went to the administration.
- In March of 1996,
The principal of lindbergh high school
Allegedly got some information that
Perhaps there was an inappropriate relationship
Between emilie and coach wilder.
He called emilie in and spoke with her,
And she denied anything going on.
Then he called in coach wilder and talked to him.
He also denied.
And so, then he talked to emilie's parents.
- We received a message on our answering machine
From mr. Skillman, who was the principal
Of lindbergh high school at that time,
Indicating that emilie had been accused
Of having an affair with a teacher.
I was outraged.
We went to the high school.
Skillman said this was a one-time accusation,
Possibly out of jealousy because wilder was a top coach,
And emilie was a top runner.
It was handled very casually.
"we've looked into this, and there's no problem."
And I think to make our lives easier maybe,
We believed it, and I wish we hadn't.
- I could've things a little bit better.
I'll accept that,
But if lindbergh high school would have done
What they needed to do, it would not be as bad.
- Wilder was a very successful coach.
I don't think they wanted him out
Over an incident like this,
And maybe people were willing to say
We can look away and-and let it go on.
- Lindbergh high school is an amazing school.
There's an incentive to not want to publicize
Those types of incidents
Where a student and a teacher are involved
Because it's exposing the school to risk
That they may not be happy to adopt.
- Institutions protect predators over kids
Because of liability.
They don't wanna be sued.
They don't want other victims to come forward.
They wanna make the problem go away.
- Emilie said that throughout her junior year
And into her senior year,
They were performing these sex acts
Approximately once a week.
By her senior year, emilie's feelings
About james wilder seemed to change.
- Predators convince their victims that
What's happening isn't abuse,
But the victims know something is wrong.
For many victims, during the course of the abuse,
You'll see huge behavioral changes
Because a victim is scared.
A victim has nowhere to turn.
- Emilie, at that time, was bordering on
Being frantic all the time.
She began having trouble with classes.
She was moody.
I knew something was wrong, but I wasn't sure what.
- I remember thinking that, like, high school seems
Really hard because my sister cries,
Like, almost every day before she goes.
- Senior year, she was a different person.
You were more inclined to see her walking
Around school depressed.
- In emilie's senior year of cross-country,
She was on track to qualify to go to state.
In order to do that, she needed to run
In the sectional race.
She awoke that day and professed not to feel well,
And I knew how much it meant.
You know, if you don't qualify, you don't go to state.
I drove her to the race, and the whole way,
She didn't wanna do it,
And I kept trying to find a way to,
Well, just, you know, do the best you can.
She didn't qualify,
And she told me later, later years,
That she blew the race on purpose
Because she did not want to have
To go out of town with wilder.
- Emilie began to struggle with her body image
And started to develop an eating disorder.
- Wilder told her that she was starting
To put on a few pounds.
She was eating the whites of oranges,
And that's it, and you could just see
How torn apart on the inside she was.
- Emilie told me about her struggles
With her eating disorder.
She was bulimic.
I can definitely pinpoint her eating disorder
To a-a specific day,
And had that day never occurred,
She would've never had to deal with that.
- James wilder saw a picture that emilie
Had taken in their uniforms.
He commented that she needed to get liposuction
Because she looked too fat.
- I was very aware of her bulimia.
You would, like, hear her doing it downstairs
And felt powerless to help
Or do anything for her about it.
- In hindsight, I can attribute that
To the sexual abuse,
But, at the time, I didn't, in my wildest dreams,
Think that jim wilder was abusing emilie.
Even to this day, it astonishes me.
- Emilie recorded wilder in July 2013,
18 years after the first incident
In bohrer park.
The tape provided enough evidence
For the st. Louis prosecuting attorney
To charge james wilder with six counts
Of statutory sodomy in the second degree.
- Under missouri law, statutory sodomy is
Oral sex, anal sex,
Or penetration by finger or foreign object.
For a second degree charge, the victim has to be
Under 17 years old,
And the offender has to be 21 or older.
- But despite what appears to be a confession by james wilder,
Emilie's case was still dismissed
After her death.
Bob mcculloch was the st. Louis prosecuting attorney
At the time of emilie's case.
It was his office's decision to dismiss the case
When emilie died.
In 2018, bob mcculloch was voted out of office
And replaced by the current st. Louis county
Prosecuting attorney, wesley bell.
Jim wilder was charged with six counts of statutory sodomy
In the second degree. - Mm-hmm.
- Can you just tell us the punishment for that?
- That has a punishment range of one to seven years.
- For each count? - For each count.
- So, that's looking at a substantial amount of time.
- Absolutely.
- Do you know why the case was dismissed?
- Yeah, my understanding was that the case
Was going to be hard to prove
Even with miss morris's testimony.
There was no forensic evidence.
There was no dna evidence.
- But you have this recorded confession
By the defendant.
Why wasn't this enough to continue with the case?
- There was never a direct admission
As to when these acts may have happened
Because, keep in mind, if they would've happened,
Say, the week before or-or even the year before,
They would've been legal acts.
- So, when they were planning to go to trial
When she was still alive,
You'd have that recording,
And then you would have her be able to testify
And put the timeframe to it. - That would be correct.
- Despite what sounds like a confession,
Wilder never says he was 29 and emilie only 16
When they alleged sexual abuse started.
To prove their case, prosecutors needed
Both wilder's taped confession and emilie's statement,
And when she died,
Her testimony died with her.
All hope of a conviction against james wilder vanished.
- We have this audio document.
To have that there and then know logically that
This still can't go forward is really difficult.
- If we prosecute a case that we know we can't win--
- Mm-hmm. - And we don't win,
We can't prosecute that case again
In the event that new evidence would come into play.
- But if we were able to uncover anything else?
- If we find evidence to support a charge
And thereby be able to give a victim's family
Some semblance of justice, we will do it.
- Unless someone comes forward that witnessed
The alleged interactions between coach wilder and emilie
Or someone that wilder confessed to in more detail,
I don't think the sex abuse case can be reopened.
It seems like the only way to get justice for emilie
Is if another victim comes forward,
But, as it turns out, emilie was not the first person
With claims of sexual abuse by james wilder.
♪ - in 2013, emilie morris told police
About the alleged sexual abuse in high school,
But she was actually the second person
To come forward with a claim
Of being sexually abused by james wilder.
Jessica testa is a former reporter
For buzzfeed news.
In March 2018, she published an article
About emilie's case.
As part of her investigation, jessica discovered
That james wilder had been arrested in 2008
Under similar circumstances.
- In 2008, a girl at lindbergh high school
Told school administration
That she had been inappropriately touched
And had inappropriately touched jim wilder.
He was arrested.
- Everybody supported jim wilder
And maligned the person that had come forward.
- Emilie, at the time, kept the secret about
Her relationship with james wilder to herself.
- When the 2008 victim came forward,
Emilie was still in support of jim wilder.
She maintained that jim wilder was innocent.
- It's possible that she just didn't wanna accept
That what happened to her was abuse.
- For years, very few people knew the details
Of the alleged incident in 2008 that involved james wilder,
But, recently, that changed.
- In the course of reporting the story,
Eventually, I was able to read the 2008 report
From the girl who had brought charges
Against jim wilder.
- Jessica shared the police report
With me and the morris family,
And the similarities to emilie's case
Are astounding.
- So, this is-- it's titled st. Louis county
Police department investigative report.
"on 11-6-2008, at approximately 10:30 a.M.,
Detective sergeant quinn responded to south lindbergh
To school resource officer
"relative to the original and criminal complaint
"of sexual assault that occurred
"at lindbergh high school."
- In 2008, at lindbergh school,
A 15-year-old female student
Went to her science teacher with a friend
And asked, "what should someone do
"if something is happening to them
"that's inappropriate?"
The science teacher said,
"well, you should tell somebody about it."
- If you're a schoolteacher, and two kids come up to you
Asking you about being inappropriately touched
By an adult, like, that should set off
Serious alarm bells.
- The teacher says that as these two girls walk away,
The 15-year-old turns to her friend and says,
"I told him to get off me,
"and he said, 'this is the way it's done.'"
- A few days later, the science teacher
Got an email from this student's grandparents.
The grandparents had actually sent it
To all of the teachers of this young girl.
- "me and grandma are sending an email
"to all of teachers.
"ask if behavior has been different in class lately."
- Huh.
- "she has been acting very different at home,
"and we are trying to figure out the problem,
"and she won't talk to us,
"so we are seeing if maybe it has
"something to do with school."
- This is a direct correlation to the morris' family
And how they felt like emilie had been changing.
- The science teacher decides to write an email
To the school guidance counselor
And says, "look, what do you think I should do?"
That guidance counselor forwards this email
To another counselor,
Who then forwards it to the principal.
On November 4th of 2008,
The principal and assistant principal
Of lindbergh high school called this young girl in
To interview her.
- "tenth grade principal interviewed the victim
"about the allegation of inappropriate touchin'
"she indicated that during the victim's eighth grade year,
"she would stay after school,
"and wilder would massage her knee."
- This 15-year-old girl was able to give
Quite a few specific details about coach wilder.
She talked about conversations they had
Where he talked about his marriage,
And his relationship with his wife,
And his penis size.
- The girl tells these principals that wilder
Has been massaging her knee since the eighth grade.
They would do this on a weekly basis,
And he told her to keep it secret.
They exchanged phone numbers.
- The young girl said, "he would call me.
"I would call him.
"we had these conversations
"when he was at home at nighttime."
He denied that. He said he'd never called her,
And yet the investigator actually pulled
The phone records, and there were phone calls
Going back and forth between the coach
And this young girl.
- The victim, she stated that things slowed down
During ninth grade
Since wilder didn't want the coaches to know anything.
- But that changed in the fall of 2008.
There was one incident
Specifically in the police report
That the 15-year-old girl recalled.
She was at her boyfriend's house,
And wilder called her
And then came and picked her up
And brought her back to the school.
They were up in the wrestling office.
He was touching her.
- She tensed up during a massage,
And wilder wanted her to relax.
He stated, "if you have an orgasm,
"your body will relax."
Then he started laughing and said,
"oh, my god, I can't believe I'm doing this."
- He said, "you can't keep tensing up.
"the muscles will relapse."
And then he said, "if you're not comfortable
"with this, we can stop."
He locked the door
And put a box in front of it.
She said, "I don't wanna keep doing this.
"my muscles are too sore."
And so, then wilder suggested
That they switch.
He laid on his back and pulled his shorts down
With just his underwear on,
And then he guided her to how to touch him
And brush up against his penis.
And at that time, she noticed that he was erect.
- I'm stunned.
The similarities are glaring.
The verbiage is almost identical.
The victim is even younger than emilie was.
- Based on police reports,
There are a number of similarities
Between the 2008 case and emilie's case.
Both girls were students at sperreng middle school
Where james wilder was a teacher.
Both girls were runners.
James wilder gave both these young girls
His phone number.
He'd given them advice, be a mentor.
We also have a wrestling room office
Being used on both girls.
And in both cases, wilder appeared
To have befriended them to such an extent
That they each expressed concern
Over what would happen to him
Once they came forward.
In 2008, this 15-year-old girl gave police
Very specific details about the alleged sexual abuse,
And she was able to give them one key piece of information
That could possibly seal the fate of james wilder.
- Her high school coach had brought another man
To a hotel room,
And the three of them engaged in sexual relation.
- Emilie messages friends about other alleged victims.
At least nine other girls have come forward.
- Emilie had a lotta darkness in her life.
I don't think she was alone when she died.
- In 2013, emilie morris broke her silence
About allegedly being sexually abused
By her high school cross-country coach,
James wilder.
- Her family had felt that emilie really wanted
A conclusion to that case.
She wanted jim to have his license taken away.
She wanted him to be on the sex offender registry.
- Upon her death, the st. Louis county prosecuting attorney
Dropped the sexual abuse case against james wilder.
- The prosecuting attorney didn't feel like
It would have been a successful enough case,
And so-- at least that was my understanding,
And so it didn't go forward.
- Emilie knew that the situation that she
Went through isn't unique to her,
And I think emilie knew that by coming forward,
Word would get out, and word would spread,
And other victims would possibly
Be inspired to come forward, as well.
- But emilie was not the first person
To come forward with a story of alleged sexual abuse
Involving james wilder.
In the fall of 2008, a 15-year-old girl
Told lindbergh high school administrators
About an incident in the school's wrestling room.
At the time that the school reported this to the police,
They said they'd done
Their own internal investigation of this report
And found the allegations to be baseless.
Teachers, including wilder, called the young girl troubled
And a difficult child.
She was accused of making up lies.
The police asked the administrators
If they'd made a report
To the missouri children's division of social services.
The school said they'd not made the phone call
Because they'd been advised by their legal counsel
To not do so.
- I'm stunned.
- So, like, how often is lindbergh school district's
Legal counsel making these decisions?
- Yeah.
- If you suspect child abuse,
You are a manded reporter. - You report it, yeah.
- You report it before-- you don't need to talk
To the school legal team.
You don't need to tell anyone that you're reporting.
You can report confidentially.
- That's right.
- Based on the 2008 police report
And statements made by the morris family
About how the school handled emilie's case,
Lindbergh high school may have violated
Mandatory reporting laws in both situations.
- Mandated reporting laws outline individuals
That are required to report a suspicion of abuse or neglect
To social services.
They're going to be anybody involved in a school,
So teachers, principals, even bus drivers.
- As a mandated reporter, you're not responsible
For substantiating or doing your own investigation.
- The police informed the administrators
That a hotline call should have been made immediately
Prior to any internal investigation,
And this action may have jeopardized
Any criminal investigation.
The police are pointing our right here that
Whatever they find in this investigation
Might be compromised because of the actions
Of the lindbergh high school.
- When institutions conduct their internal investigations,
They're usually doing it for liability purposes.
- Mm-hmm. - And not focused
On the health and safety of a child.
- On November 6th,
A week after the alleged victim's grandmother
Sent the email to her teacher,
The police finally interviewed the girl.
The police asked this young victim,
"did you ever touch jim wilder's penis?
"uh, did he ever touch your vagina?"
"and she said, "yes, several times."
She gives them full statements
Telling police the same thing she told school administrators,
But this time she gives the police
One additional detail.
- The girl saw wilder's groin,
And she noticed that there was a knot/bump
In the right groin area about the size
Of a quarter or smaller from an accident.
- She also said that he was circumcised
And that he would wear boxer briefs.
The police got a warrant to be able to view
His private parts,
And they said he was circumcised.
Apparently, he did wear boxer briefs,
And while they didn't see a bump
On the right side of his groin,
They saw what they described as a crescent shape swelling
On the right side of his groin.
That sounds awfully similar.
- When wilder is interviewed
And when other teachers are interviewed,
There is indication that the girl is not reliable.
She has told lies in the past,
Exaggerated stories.
Her friends even paint her as kind of a drama queen,
But they also defend her. They say, like,
"yes, in the past she has told lies to get attention,
"but it's not like it this time.
"you know, when she's done that before,
"she's told everyone.
"with this wilder thing, she's only told a few people,
"and she's asked them to keep it quiet."
- I think he knew exactly what he was doing.
When he targeted her,
He knew that if she ever spoke up,
Who's gonna believe her?
She's a-a problem student who has lied before.
That's what he told the police.
Wilder also mentioned the 2008 victim
In emilie's recording.
The st. Louis county police department
Brought the results of the investigation
To the prosecuting attorney's office,
But, in February 2009, prosecutors decided
Not to charge james wilder with a crime.
- The then prosecuting attorney of
St. Louis county, bob mcculloch,
Said that there had not been enough evidence
To move forward with these charges,
And wilder returned to school that spring.
My perception is that she was really damaged
By the character assassination that happened.
- Why didn't they believe her?
That's what I don't understand.
- I don't know. I don't know.
- Like, what else do you need to know?
- I don't know. - Uh--
- Just like in emilie's case,
It appears that james wilder managed
To avoid prosecution for alleged sexual abuse.
Why did the administrators of lindbergh high school
Wait so long to call the police and social services?
- Why do institutions cover it up?
Because it's much easier than doing the right thing.
Children are a short-term problem.
In a high school, kids are only there four years,
A middle school, two or three years,
Elementary school five or six years,
And if you get the kid out,
And you can discredit the kid, then you're fine.
- According to u.S. News, lindbergh high school
Is ranked as one of the ten best high schools
In the state of missouri.
Its high rank may have been a contributing factor
In how the school handled both cases
Of alleged sexual abuse.
- This happens all the time where you have students
That approach the school with a claim of a--
Of a teacher having
An inappropriate relationship with them,
And when you have a program
That's known for being so good,
There's a lot of pressure on administrations
To make those problems go away
And to brush them off like they don't matter.
- I reached out to school officials
Asking if they would meet with me
To discuss the investigation.
They declined,
But they did give jessica testa a written statement
When she asked how they handled the 2008 case.
- They said, "we must make decisions
"based on the information we have.
"in 2008, mr. Wilder was found not guilty
"of the charges made against him."
That is patently false because those charges
Were never brought to the point of a verdict.
"lindbergh schools did not receive
"any other parent or student complaints
"during mr. Wilder's time with the district."
- Is the last statement actually true?
Are emilie and the 2008 victim
The only two girls that came forward?
In the 2008 police report,
The young girl tells police
About another potential victim.
- Wilder told her that he got away with
Another incident involving a student
Because he had a good attorney.
So, there is a third victim, you know?
- Holy crap.
♪♪
- When emilie morris heard about the allegations
Of sexual abuse against james wilder in 2008,
She remained silent because she didn't think
It was the same thing as what happened to her.
- It's possible that she just didn't wanna accept
That what happened to her was abuse.
She still viewed this as, like,
Her first relationship, her first love.
- The police report of the 2008 incident
Says that wilder told that young girl
About a potential third victim.
- When the 2008 victim came forward,
It raised questions as to,
Well, how many other victims are out there?
- Joan reaches out to the alleged victim
In the 2008 incident hoping for more information.
- "my name is joan morris.
"I am emilie morris' mom.
"I wanted to tell you how sorry I am
"that she chose not to contact you
"when you brought forth charges against james wilder.
"I'm so sorry for you,
"that people did not believe you.
"emilie had the same problem."
- A few hours later, she responds.
..."I'm sorry she just didn't get to see
"the justice she deserved."
Is it possible that emilie knew the identity
Of the woman mentioned in the police report?
And, if so, did she reach out to her?
That information could possibly be on her phone.
Emilie's family found her phone next to her
When they found her dead in her apartment,
But when they tried to open it up
On the day of her death,
They made a startling discovery.
- Her cell phone, which had always been
The same password, had a different password,
And we couldn't get into it now.
I can't think of a reason she would've bothered to change it.
She wasn't, like, secretive about her phone.
It made me feel really suspicious.
- It would be several months,
But emilie's family was finally able
To open her phone.
In the days leading up to her death,
Several friends and family members
Reached out to her.
Here's her dad.
"hope you're feeling better. Dad."
She writes back, "love you, dad.
Thank you for your message."
If emilie was communicating with other possible victims,
And if they're willing to come forward now,
It might be enough to get the case reevaluated.
Here's one exchange with someone in August of 2013.
So, this would be right about the time
That the case is getting filed against wilder by emilie,
And she starts talking about,
"this coach did a lot of things to me when I was just 16,
"and it took me until now to come forward.
"he's currently a pe teacher
"and the main girls' track and cross-country coach."
And then whoever this is responds,
"just a random question. Is the coach at lindbergh?"
Emilie responds, "yes."
And then the person says, "jim?"
And she says, "yes, how did you know?"
"holy crap," and then this person says,
"because the same thing happened
"to one of my friends with him."
This could be another victim.
And then emilie says, "so, was that the case
"that went to the news?"
And this person says, "no."
I think she's referring to the 2008 case there.
So, this person is talking about a whole 'nother person
That we haven't even talked about
Or heard about.
There's no reference to who this person is.
The messages go on to say,
"how did you find out about this thing happening to her,
"if you don't mind me asking?"
"she told me.
"there are probably many others."
That message was just the beginning.
That same month, emilie messages several more friends
About other alleged victims.
- "I have six counts against him,
"and since I've come out,
"four more girls have come forward."
Here's one from a different friend.
"emilie, I've heard of two
"to three other girls coming out."
That one is from the woman
Whose daughter claimed to be inappropriately touched
By coach wilder at soccer practice in 2013.
- I think that really brought things to a head for her
Because after she heard about our friend's daughter
At soccer practice,
That's when she decided to go to the police.
- And going back even further,
When the 2008 victim came forward,
A friend of coach wilder's messaged emilie,
"apparently, the new info that might have caused the arrest
"is that another girl came forward
"with allegations of her own."
This one is referencing
Another victim coming forward in 2008
Other than the one who gave a statement
To the police.
So, this could be the mysterious other possible victim
Mentioned in that police report,
Or it may be someone else altogether.
Her phone is just loaded with messages
About other alleged victims,
But, unfortunately, she never mentions their names.
♪♪
- I think emilie deserves some justice.
It would be ideal if another victim would come forward
And then perhaps some of this evidence
Would be admissible.
- I've had victims tell me that,
"if I don't think about it, it never happened."
It's not uncommon for them to want to push it away,
Never talk about it again, never think about it again.
- Only one friend emilie messaged
Agreed to speak with me via skype.
She's asked to keep her identity anonymous.
If that friend knows the identities
Of other alleged victims,
I might be able to use that information
To get the sex abuse case reevaluated.
- Emilie and I were really good friends.
We hung out all the time.
She had told me about her relationship
With her high school coach,
And that really weighed heavily on her.
I remember her telling me that her high school coach
Had brought another man to a hotel room,
And the three of them engaged in sexual relation.
I do think that she had said
That he was also an educator.
- In August 2013, emilie sent the following message.
"since this has happened,
"at least nine other girls have come forward."
Did emilie ever tell you the names of
Any of these nine victims that she told you about?"
- I don't remember her ever telling me any names.
I just remember them being women that he coached
That were also underage.
- As I looked over the case, I wasn't able to
Uncover the identity of any of these alleged victims,
But emilie's friend did disclose
One additional detail that could possibly
Relate to her death.
When she would talk to you about this relationship
With her high school cross-country coach,
How did she characterize it to you?
- She said she was afraid of him,
And she was afraid of people close to him,
And she was afraid what would happen to her
If she did come out.
- Now, you've asked to not be seen on camera.
Can you tell me why you don't want to be seen?
- If there is a murderer at loose,
Then I wanna protect my identity.
I don't believe that there was any other reason
For her to die that day
Than her life to have been taken against her will.
- So, you think she could've been murdered.
- I think that the probability is definitely there
And something to look into.
- Was emilie morris murdered?
As it turns out, james wilder was not the only person
She had conflict with in the months
Leading up to her death.
♪♪
- Emilie had had a relationship with a ballwin officer.
He was making advances, and she wanted it to stop.
- She could have asphyxiated on a trash bag
With someone else with her,
But I don't think that that's possible by herself.
- Is it possible to use a trash can
As a murder weapon? - Yes.
♪♪
♪ ♪♪
- At the time of emilie morris' death in 2014,
She seemed to know the identities of several women
Who had allegedly been sexually abused
By cross-country coach james wilder,
But she never got a chance to disclose their names,
And that information,
Along with her own case against coach wilder,
Died with her.
There are so many unanswered questions
About how emilie died.
Did she pass out from drinking too much
And suffocate e inside the trash can
As the police seem to believe,
Or was there someone in her life
That could have wanted her dead?
- I think there was foul play in her death.
There were people who would love to have seen emilie dead.
♪♪
- Her family and friends initially believed
James wilder might somehow be connected to her death.
- I know that she didn't kill herself,
And I know that wilder was facing...
Decades in prison.
- Police never found any evidence
Connecting james wilder to emilie's death,
But there were other people that she had conflict with
In the last few months of her life.
In July 2014, four months before her death,
Emilie moved into a new apartment in ballwin.
She began having a relationship with one of her neighbors.
- Emilie had had a kind of friendship maybe, like,
Crossing into a little bit of a more romantic relationship
With a ballwin officer.
It sounded like he was making advances
And, at a certain point, and she wanted it to stop.
♪♪
- Emilie begins telling friends
That the officer's behavior is frightening her.
♪♪
Then, in September 2014, less than two months
Before emilie died,
There was a disturbing incident between emilie
And this police officer.
When emilie didn't return his calls,
The officer burst into her apartment,
But she wasn't alone.
The police officer found emilie with another man,
A married coach from a local high school,
That she'd had an on again, off again relationship with
For years.
- There, again, she was having an affair
With a married man who's a teacher and a coach.
It reads like a bad story.
- Emilie did not tell anyone the specifics of what happened
When the police officer walked in on them.
A short time later, emilie tells a friend
That the wife of the coach, who knew about the affair,
Had begun harassing her.
The last person to hear anything from her
Was her mom on November 2nd.
Two days later,
She's found dead in her apartment.
Because of the vodka bottles, her position on the floor,
The vomit on her clothing,
And the trash can over her head,
Some people believed she got drunk,
Threw up in the trash can, passed out,
Suffocated to death on the trash can bag.
And emilie did have a history of alcoholism.
- Emilie would go and get a entire bottle of vodka,
And it would not be uncommon for her
To drink that in one evening.
- With victims of child sexual abuse,
We'll see chemical dependency issues as self-medicating.
We see alcoholism, drug addiction, depression,
And suicidal tendencies.
- Frequently, she would drink so much
That she would pass out.
She'd be close to death.
- On one occasion, years before her death,
Emilie's parents discovered her on the bathroom floor
Unconscious, barely breathing.
They rushed her to the hospital.
When she recovered, emilie later told friends
That the doctor said her blood alcohol content
Was .550 percent, significantly higher than
What would be considered a lethal dose.
A blood alcohol level of .40 percent and above
Is considered possible death by alcohol poisoning.
♪♪
- I assumed that she had been drinking,
But she was detoxing. I knew that.
When emilie was detoxing, her solution,
Because she would be nauseous,
Would be to camp out on the floor.
She would have a blanket on the floor.
She would have her phone and then some small snack.
The autopsy was done.
The autopsy indicated,
No, emilie, was not drunk when she died.
♪♪
- I remember them telling me that the tox screen
Was gonna get back,
And her blood alcohol volume was gonna be through the roof.
- Mm-hmm.
- And then we got it back, and it wasn't.
She had about the amount of two drinks in her system.
- In the toxicology report,
Emilie's blood alcohol percentage is listed as .048,
Roughly half the legal driving limit of .08.
♪♪
- From the very moment we were talking with the police,
We were indicating this just isn't right.
This doesn't make sense.
- What do you think happened in her death?
How did she die?
- All I can say about how emilie died,
Is what didn't happen.
She didn't commit suicide.
The circumstances don't lend themselves
To a simple accident.
- She had a kitchen size trash can over her head,
Past her shoulders.
Emilie was claustrophobic.
She would never do that herself.
♪♪
- Andrea and I talked for hours trying to figure out
A way this could've happened.
- And we did that with the medical examiner, as well.
You know, we went in, and he was trying to
Give explanations of how she got in that position.
- Mm-hmm.
And how did he explain that to you?
- He said he didn't know.
No one has ever been able to give us a good answer,
Even, you know--
- Not only that. They didn't try.
It isn't just that you don't have an answer.
It's that the,
"well, there wasn't any real evidence,"
Is basically what we were told.
- Mm-hmm.
- It was so clear that they weren't taking it seriously.
- Several months after her death,
Emilie's family obtained her autopsy report,
But that information created more questions than answers.
- The death certificate, a manner of death,
Which is traditionally, you know,
Homicide or suicide, is left essentially blank.
It's undetermined in emilie's case.
You know, they know how she died.
She died from asphyxiation from the plastic trash bag
That was lining the trash can where her body was found,
But there was no indication of how she got into that trash can
In the first place.
- I think there are enough things suspicious
About her death that I have never felt comfortable
With the answers I've been given.
- She could have asphyxiated on a trash bag
With someone else with her,
But I don't think that that's possible by herself.
I think somebody killed her.
Somebody in this world knows what happened to emilie
On November 4, 2014.
♪♪
- When emilie died, she was wrapped up in this quilt.
It's never been washed. It's never been touched.
We've been questioning the manner in which she died,
So it might be important.
- At the time of emilie morris' death in 2014,
Police seemed to believe she overdosed on alcohol,
Passed out,
And suffocated to death in a trash bag.
- They anticipated a really, really high
Blood alcohol volume, and that wasn't the case.
♪♪
- Is there anything else in the toxicology report
That could help explain how she died?
I asked dr. Frank sheridan
To review emilie's toxicology report.
Dr. Sheridan is the former chief medical examiner
For san bernardino county
And specializes in forensic pathology.
♪♪
- She also had another thing present in her tox results,
And that was a muscle relaxant,
And that can act in conjunction with alcohol to cause, uh,
Some depression of the nervous system,
But the level of that drug was very low,
So I really don't think it's significant.
They also did the alcohol level on the vitreous,
Which is the fluids in her eye.
That was a bit higher, which would indicate that,
At an earlier time, she probably had a higher level,
But even still,
It's not a staggeringly high level.
You would generally expect a person should be able to
Function reasonably well
In a situation where they have to save themselves.
- Finding out that emilie wasn't drunk
Gives credence to my initial thought
That there was foul play.
We talked to the police
Indicating that there were people
Who would have benefited from emilie's death,
And we gave them names.
- Emilie's family later told police
About several people emilie had conflicts with,
James wilder, the police officer
That burst into her apartment uninvited,
The married high school coach she was having an affair with,
And his wife, who discovered the affair.
- And we came to find out that they never talked with anyone.
They never really looked into the possibility
That another person had been there
Or might have been involved.
- Despite the family's suspicions,
Police gathered no forensic evidence
At the time of her death.
They didn't take any fingerprints,
Gather any dna,
Or take any evidence to be tested later.
Less than two months after she died,
Police officially closed the investigation
Into emilie's death.
- Emilie's sexual abuse case was handled by
The st. Louis county police department,
But her death case was handled by
The ballwin police department,
And ballwin is kind of a small city
Within this larger st. Louis metro area.
- This could have been an accident.
All I wanted to know was, like,
Please figure out what happened.
I went by myself to the ballwin police department.
For my own documentation purposes,
I recorded it.
[coughing]
- Mm-hmm.
Well...
- Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
- Mm-hmm.
Right.
- Mm-hmm.
♪♪
- After andrea's meeting, the ballwin police
Did speak with some of the people
Suggested by the morris family,
But those interviews were done
Over four years after emilie's death
And did not reveal any new evidence.
The ballwin police department
Did not reopen the investigation.
I want to go over the crime scene photos
With dr. Sheridan to see if he might be able to
Provide any insight that could be helpful
In understanding exactly how emilie died.
So, to be able to suffocate in this way
That's described from a trash can,
I have a hard time understanding how that ends up
Actually suffocating her to the point where she-she dies.
- If the trash can were such a size
That it fitted snugly over the upper part of her torso,
Then essentially her head is now inside the bottom
Of the trash can with a very limited
Amount of air in there, and it doesn't take long
To use up that limited amount of air.
- We're not assuming she was strangled.
- Strang-- yeah, strangulation
You can easily diagnose that autopsy.
- Okay.
You know, the fact that we don't have photographs
Of how that trash can was actually found
Positioned on her body,
Does that make it difficult for you to determine
Actually what happened here?
- Yes, it does.
I mean, it would be of great help
To have a better understanding of this trash can
In relation to her.
In other words,
How far down was it on her chest, for example?
- Mm-hmm.
- Was it pinning her arms to her side?
Was it a tight fit or loose?
These things could all be potentially important
In trying to evaluate whether we're dealing with
An accidental death here or otherwise.
- So, is there a way that a trash can
Could be used as a murder weapon?
- Yes. Mm-hmm.
If it was a homicide,
This can was placed over her head
And probably held in place for as long as it took
For her to go unconscious,
And then she'd be just pushed down on the ground.
Depending on many factors, there may not be
Any signs of struggle or bruising on the body
In a situation like that.
- And the autopsy report shows
She didn't have any signs of struggle
Or bruising on her body.
- That-- that's correct. Yeah.
- I still find it hard to believe that
That can somehow end up being so tight
That it could suffocate anybody
Over their head like that.
Do you have a trash can like that?
- We-we have one here, actually.
- Okay.
- Which I think is roughly the same as this.
- I'm gonna put this on my head
And-and see if it actually--
Well, okay.
The plastic went right up against my face.
- There's a chance. Uh-huh.
- I can see how a trash can could be used in a homicide.
Is there a scenario where this could be an accident?
♪♪
- She's feeling sick, so she goes to vomit
Into the, uh, trash can. - Okay.
- And then she falls. - She falls into it.
- And goes head down into it.
- Is that likely?
- I would generally expect that if it happened like that--
- Yeah.
- She should have been able to do something about it.
- Yeah.
- But we know that she had, in the past,
Had-had seizures, too.
- People who have been drinking are prone to seizures.
I had seen her have one about a year earlier.
- Seizures are on their own, actually, can be lethal.
If you're having what's called a grand mal seizure,
You're going to be unconscious,
And that obviously makes it impossible
To escape from the situation.
- The father said that in the trash can
At the time he pulled it off her head,
There was a rag and a small amount of vomit
Inside the trash bag. - Yes.
- Does that change anything?
- I don't think so.
No, but the vomit suggests that she was already vomiting
Into the trash can.
- How long does it take for someone to suffocate like that?
- A few minutes. - A few minutes.
- Maybe three or four
But unconsciousness long before that.
It wouldn't take very long to go unconscious.
- Does this look like a-a homicide or, um,
An accident?
- If it happened the way we've been discussing here
For the last several minutes,
It is an accident. Yes.
- Mm-hmm.
- But we don't know for sure
That that is the way it happened,
So possibility of homicide still remains.
- Dr. Sheridan has given me several theories
About how emilie could have died,
But that information is too speculative
To be used in court.
Without new evidence, her death case
Most likely won't be reopened,
And unless another victim comes forward,
The sex abuse case against james wilder
Will also remain closed,
But emilie's family has not given up hope.
- For as long as I still feel like
There's something that I can do that would make a difference,
I'm okay with pursuing this.
- The morris family would soon discover
A shocking new detail about james wilder.
♪♪
- Emilie put this scrapbook together in her senior year,
And on this page in particular shows, uh,
Jim wilder four times.
More than likely, I'm the one that took all the pictures.
That even makes me angrier.
Here I am documenting his infatuation
With my daughter, and I didn't even realize it.
It's strange to live with anger
Because it doesn't do you any good.
I don't want this to wreck my life.
And yet, on the other hand, I feel bad for emilie.
I think emilie deserved some justice.
- Five months after emilie's death,
The morris family discovered that
James wilder was still on paid administrative leave.
- When emilie filed the charges against jim wilder,
Wilder was put on administrative leave
Following his arrest,
And as a term of his administrative leave,
He was still receiving a salary.
- We're looking at almost two years
Of jim wilder being on paid administrative leave.
The morris family were able to get the tape
Of jim and emilie discussing their inappropriate relationship
To the school board.
♪♪
- And at that point, the school board
Made the decision to allow wilder to resign.
The only sort of punishment was that he was no longer able
To apply to any school
In the lindbergh school district.
- Wilder being able to withdraw the way he was,
I'm furious.
He kept his teaching license.
He was not a registered sex offender.
- If jim wilder had been found guilty
Of the charges that emilie brought,
He would have had his license taken away
By the missouri department of education.
Because emilie died
Before the case was able to go to trial,
And the charges were simply dismissed,
He did keep his license.
♪♪
- Emilie did not get the justice
She desperately wanted.
The case died with her,
And her family struggles to move forward with their lives.
- Sometimes I think "what is it that I didn't do
"that she couldn't come to me
"and tell me?"
I'd have done anything.
- I felt like, um, like I was so close
To a point where we both were adults,
And there is better understanding
Of what had happened with her whole life,
And I just feel so mad at myself
That I didn't see what was actually going on.
[laughing]
- Emilie was a hero.
For her kids, they need to look and say,
"my god, my mother was so brave,
"because in spite of her pain,
"she was able to stand up and do the right thing."
♪♪
- Years after emilie's death, the morris family decided
It was time to go public with her story.
- In the middle of 2017,
Andrea morris wrote into our tip line.
She wrote something like,
"are you interested in covering the murder
"of a sex abuse victim?"
Bringing new awareness to emilie's life
Became really valuable in their minds.
- Jessica investigated emilie's story
For a buzzfeed news article she wrote in 2018
During the height of the #metoo movement
And helped change the perception
Of what constitutes child sexual abuse.
- The #metoo movement started in about 2017.
In my opinion, I think that
If she would have had this occur in 2017,
Her reputation wouldn't have been
Taken into effect with this
As much as what had happened to her.
- Within the #metoo movement, we are now very aware of
The sort of consequences that women can suffer
In the workplace,
But we haven't really talked enough as a society
About the lifelong effects
On victims of child abuse.
Growing up, every school had its rumor.
There was always, like, one teacher and one girl,
And no one took it really seriously.
Nobody stopped to think, "this is abuse."
- When emilie told me what was going on
Between her and wilder, at the time,
I didn't think of it as abuse.
I was very wrong, and I struggle with that
Because I feel as though I should have known.
♪♪
- I came to kirkwood to learn why emilie morris' case
Against james wilder never went to trial.
Unfortunately, so much of emilie's story
Remains a mystery.
It doesn't look like either the sex abuse case
Or the death case will be reopened,
But emilie's bravery
May inspire other women to come forward.
- Many victims think because I didn't say, "no,"
I thought that, somehow, I wanted the abuse,
Or I deserved the abuse.
It shames a victim into silence.
- Emilie ended that shame when she broke her silence
And by telling her story, emilie morris helped change
The public perception
Of what constitutes child sexual abuse.
♪♪
- After the buzzfeed article came out,
People who knew emilie
Had actually reached out to our family
And said they were sorry for their perception of emilie.
They apologized because they believed wilder,
And now they don't.
- It had an unexpected effect of exonerating emilie.
People realize, now that they're adults,
Oh, that wasn't right.
That shouldn't have been going on.
It made me feel a lot better for her memory.
I hope she knew
That we loved her dearly,
And we're trying the best we could
To help her through this.
I want emilie's kids to know that we never stopped trying...
And I think it's important that they know that
We never stopped believing in emilie
And trying to-to do the best.
♪♪
- For more information on "the case died with her,"
Go to oxygen.Com.