CBS 48 Hours will examine Kassanndra Cantrell’s murder case and the digital clues that linked her ex-boyfriend Colin Dudley to the crime. The upcoming episode titled “Kassanndra’s Secret” airs on the network this Saturday, January 6, 2024, at 9 p.m. ET.
The official synopsis for the episode reads, “A young woman vanishes. Eerie surveillance video captures a man in a hat. Investigators learn the two are linked by a secret. 48 Hours contributor Natalie Morales reports.”
According to CBS, Kassanndra Cantrell went missing from Tacoma, Washington, on August 25, 2020. Over one month, investigators used digital evidence such as cellphone records, texts, vehicle location data, and surveillance videos to locate her remains. Additionally, the same evidence proved consequential in identifying Cantrell’s killer, her ex-boyfriend Colin Dudley. The duo had secretly rekindled their romance at the time.
Dudley’s arrest came in September of that year and he later pleaded guilty to first-degree murder. In November 2022, he received a prison sentence of 320 months, a little more than 26 years. He is now serving his sentence at the Stafford Creek Corrections Center, per the Washington Department of Corrections.
Why did Colin Dudley murder Kassanndra Cantrell & how was he caught?
CBS reported that Kassanndra Cantrell had told her best friend Alexandra McNary that she was pregnant. Cantrell also told McNary about the father of her future baby, her ex-boyfriend, Colin Dudley, whom she was secretly seeing again. The two women had planned to meet on August 26, 2020, to go to Cantrell’s first ultrasound scan. One day before that, she mysteriously disappeared.
McNary also told 48 Hours contributor Natalie Morales that Cantrell called her after revealing her pregnancy to Dudley. “She [Kassanndra] said, ‘Well, I told him … and it went better than expected … He was calm and said not to worry about it, and that they would talk,'” revealed McNary. The missing woman had previously mentioned to friends that Dudley told her he did not want kids.
On August 28, three days after Cantrell went missing, investigators used surveillance footage to locate her car in an industrial neighborhood. Camera footage from the location showed a man in a dark hat walking away from the vehicle. Authorities then traced the missing woman’s cellphone, which they found in the water near Owen Beach in Tacoma’s Point Defiance Park.
Around this time, investigators further learned that the 33-year-old was 10 weeks pregnant at the time of her disappearance. When authorities confronted Dudley about her pregnancy, he denied the claims. But they were able to link him to the suspicious man from the camera footage using a gray Chevy truck the latter was driving. The license plate on the truck was registered under the name of Colin Dudley.
In addition, other cell phone data revealed that Cantrell and Dudley texted frequently about meeting up at his house, per CBS. Messages showed that they texted each other on the morning the former went missing. Her text read, “I’m a bit early, that ok?” to which Dudley replied, “Yep, come on down.” They continued to investigate the case on several fronts and even searched the ex-boyfriend’s house, confiscating several items, such as his truck.
After zeroing in on Colin Dudley, authorities tracked his truck’s movements and learned that on August 26, the vehicle was in an area near a wooded ravine. In the same area, they found a trash bin with a bag liner, blood, and human remains on September 22, about a month after Kassanndra Cantrell’s disappearance. They identified the remains using a distinctive tattoo the victim had.
People Magazine reported that authorities believed that Dudley killed her after he learned she was pregnant with his baby. They then arrested and charged him with first-degree murder, to which the accused pleaded guilty. He received a prison sentence of more than 26 years in November 2022.
The CBS 48 Hours episode on Kassanndra Cantrell’s murder by Colin Dudley airs on Saturday, January 6, 2024.
