The Dateline episode ‘Good & Evil’ investigates the 2014 murder of a woman whose body was discovered at a recycling plant in Anaheim, California. Her body was wrapped in a blue plastic tarp, buried under piles of garbage. The woman was later identified as Jarrae Estepp, a 21-year-old who recently moved to California from Oklahoma and was working as a prostitute. A detective on the case, made the connection between Estepp’s murder and three other prostitutes (Kianna Jackson, 20, Josephine Vargas, 34, Martha Anaya, 27) who were murdered in Santa Ana (their bodies were never found).
In 2016, registered sex offender Steven Dean Gordon was charged with kidnapping, raping and murdering all four women. He initially pleaded not guilty and represented himself in court. According to the prosecutor, Gordon and his alleged accomplice, fellow sex offender Franc Cano, exchanged texts and used the word “cats” to refer to their victims and “happy hand” to refer to strangling their victims. Cano was called to testify at Gordon’s trial but he invoked the Fifth Amendment. In February 2017, Gordon was sentenced to death. Cano is awaiting his trial; he too faces the death penalty. Dateline airs Fridays at 9pm on NBC.