Ur-Nammu

In 1995, police arrested a man for shooting an 18-year-old boy and raping his girlfriend. She picked him out of a lineup herself. He spent two years in jail before DNA proved it wasn't him. 30 years later, detectives sat down with the real one. He told them: "They solved it. They found a gun and everything." Burney, California, December 1984. Terry Arndt and his girlfriend were parked near their high school, talking. A man walked up and fired. Terry died shielding her with his body. Then the man raped her and left. His name was Roger Neil Schmidt. He was 23 that night. By 2025 he was 64, a grandfather in Tucson. Detectives pulled his leftover pizza crusts out of the trash. Then they brought him in and told him it was about a stolen package. In the video below, watch how relaxed he is. "Any criminal history?" "Keep my nose clean." "You ain't going to find nothing on me." When they tell him what it's really about, he says the case was already solved, and he doesn't understand "what the hell's going on here." Then he breaks. "I was on drugs." "Can I say I'm sorry for sitting here and lying to you?" The detective reminds him of the last thing the girl asked him that night: "Are you going to kill me now?" He told her no. He pleaded guilty and got life without parole. The man she picked out of the lineup got $360,000 from the county. She was sure it was him. Would you trust your own memory after a night like that?