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00:00We mentioned this very delightful little lady, you write her name down, because a couple
00:24of years from now she's going to be a very, very important name in the motion picture
00:29business stage too, and her name is Karen Kupcinat.
00:45Karen Kupcinat never got the chance to fulfill her promise.
00:50On November 30th, 1963, a 22-year-old actress was found murdered in her West Hollywood apartment.
00:57The killer has never been found.
01:02Karen Kupcinat occupies a lonely corner of Hollywood mythology, the girl destined for
01:07stardom whose biggest close-up came in death.
01:12In the next hour, we will recount the haunting story of Karen Kupcinat.
01:18It was, to me, the quintessential story of the young woman who comes West to be a movie
01:22star and finds death instead.
01:24We will explore Karen's brutal desire for perfection.
01:28If she gained three pounds, she would go crazy and she'd take a diet pill.
01:32We will examine how a broken love affair pushed Karen towards the edge.
01:37I did not see deeply enough who she was and how lonely she was.
01:42We will unravel the events which led to her mysterious death.
01:47Karen was the epitome of what you think of as a victim.
01:51And finally, we will discover how Karen touched the life of the niece she never knew.
01:57I want people to see that she was just a human being, just a woman trying to make it.
02:04This is the story of broken dreams and innocence lost.
02:08This is the story of Karen Kupcinat, the E! True Hollywood Story.
02:15The dream of being one of the world's...
02:17Her life's ambition was to be a star.
02:19She never recovered from the public scandal.
02:36November 30th, 1963.
02:39The nation mourned the death of President John F. Kennedy,
02:43assassinated in Dallas one week earlier.
02:49In Los Angeles, actor Mark Goddard and his wife, Marsha,
02:53were preparing to go out for a Saturday evening.
02:56I was shaving and I was looking in the mirror and all of a sudden, Karen.
03:01I was looking at Karen and I was thinking of Karen.
03:06Mark and Marsha were concerned about their friend,
03:0922-year-old actress Karen Kupcinat.
03:12She had been extremely depressed over a broken relationship.
03:16I just knew that something had happened.
03:19So it took us about 20 minutes to get there,
03:22from where we lived to her apartment.
03:25I parked near the garage of her apartment house.
03:30I went up the stairs and I saw her.
03:34I could sense the heaviness of death.
03:37I really could.
03:39I walked down the hallway, outside hallway, to her door.
03:44I opened the door and it was dark in her apartment.
03:47We walked into the room and I saw there was a bowl of cigarettes
03:52over on the floor and the television was on.
03:55The whole room looked black and white except for this figure of a body.
04:01I went over and I said, Karen, Karen, wake up.
04:04Thinking that maybe she had taken an overdose of drugs or something.
04:09Then I turned the lamp on and I just screamed.
04:15We ran out and called down, suicide, suicide, there's been a suicide.
04:23But 22-year-old Karen Kupcinat was no suicide.
04:27The coroner determined she was strangled.
04:31Friends and family anticipated a swift resolution to the crime.
04:36There were, however, more questions than answers.
04:41Karen's father, Chicago columnist Irv Kupcinat.
04:45The cruelest moment came when one of the top officers told us,
04:48well, your daughter now is a statistic.
04:51More than three decades later, Karen's murder remains unsolved.
04:56Karen never found stardom, but she won the role of a tragic icon,
05:02writer Sam Kashner.
05:04Karen Kupcinat is a kind of stand-in for every young woman
05:09who wanted to go to Hollywood,
05:11who was the cutest or perkiest girl in her class
05:15and winds up there looking for stardom
05:19and finds out that it's a kind of mirrored haven
05:26for lost souls.
05:28About to make a better life for all of our citizens.
05:32A dangerously destabilizing precedent.
05:35Time and events swept Karen Kupcinat out of the public's memory.
05:41The story might have ended here
05:47if it weren't for a young woman named Carrie Kupcinat.
05:51To me, she was like a legend.
05:53Ever since I was so young, I would look at pictures of her
05:56and think, gosh, she was so beautiful and she was so talented and wonderful
06:00and so I always thought how wonderful it would be to be like her.
06:06Carrie is the niece Karen never got the chance to meet,
06:10the daughter of Karen's brother, Jerry.
06:13In 1989, when Carrie was 17,
06:16she discovered her aunt's publicity file
06:19at the Los Angeles Film Academy library.
06:23She had to find out more.
06:25My grandparents started bringing out boxes and boxes of stuff
06:28that they had kept, you know, letters that she had written
06:31and diaries and publicity photos and childhood photos.
06:34She was suddenly was starting to become a real person
06:37and a real person that might have, you know, been like me.
06:42The letters and diaries revealed that Carrie and Karen shared similar traits.
06:47Like Karen, Carrie pursued acting,
06:51carefully documented her life,
06:53and suffered from an eating disorder.
06:56There was one obvious distinction.
06:59Writer James Elroy.
07:01Karen Cupcinat never got the chance to grow up.
07:05Karen Cupcinat did not have the presence of mind that Carrie developed.
07:10Were it not for Karen Cupcinat and the road that she went down,
07:15Carrie Cupcinat might have foundered in Hollywood the way Karen did.
07:21Coming up...
07:24Karen is entranced by the magic of Hollywood.
07:27It was very glamorous and she only saw that side of it.
07:30And later...
07:32I thought she took her own life because of her broken love affair with Andy Prine.
07:36On November 30th, 1963,
07:3922-year-old actress Karen Cupcinat
07:42was found murdered in her West Hollywood apartment.
07:45Police never found her killer.
07:48The vestiges of Karen's life lay in the shadows
07:51until they were brought to light by her niece in 1996.
07:55She was found dead at the scene of the murder.
07:58She was found dead at the scene of the murder.
08:01She was found dead at the scene of the murder.
08:05She was found dead at the scene of the murder.
08:08She was found dead at the scene of the murder.
08:11They were found dead at the scene of the murder.
08:14Her victims,
08:22The more Carrie Kupcinet read her Aunt Karen's diaries, the more fascinated she became.
08:44Karen Kupcinet grew up privileged.
08:46Her father, Irv Kupcinet, was a syndicated columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times.
08:51Karen's mother, Essie, nurtured a passion for the performing arts in her daughter.
08:56Irv and Essie nicknamed their pride and joy, Cookie.
09:00She was a born actress.
09:03She never stopped.
09:05She was a natural.
09:07Every time she was in any kind of a show at school, she was always commented about being
09:14so talented.
09:15Karen's younger brother, Jerry.
09:18She was always either reading plays or in plays at school, or we'd go to plays.
09:24There was always something theatrical going on.
09:27A visit to the Kupcinet household was almost like going to the movies.
09:31There were always celebrities around, so you never knew who would be there.
09:35A lot of the film stars of the 40s and 50s would make their way to the Kupcinet's apartment.
09:42Joan Crawford coming in in the middle of the night, making her do calisthenics, and Burt
09:46Lancaster carrying her on his big shoulders.
09:53Family vacations often took the Kupcinets to Los Angeles.
09:56It was very glamorous, and she only saw that side of it.
10:01And she only saw the side that PR people would present to a columnist.
10:05Karen's acting break came in Chicago at the age of 13.
10:09She was asked by a family friend to be Carol Lindley's understudy in a play called Anniversary
10:15Waltz.
10:16She had a curiosity and a generosity as a human being, even as a kid, that was very
10:22noticeable.
10:23I mean, I can still remember her bouncing up and down the steps to this day.
10:27Lead roles in high school plays, and later in Chicago theater, came easily for the Ingenue.
10:34In the fall of 1959, Karen moved to New York to conquer Broadway, but she later described
10:41that experience as one of the low periods in her life.
10:45I couldn't help being aware of the attitudes manifested by producers, directors, etc.
10:53They were gracious and friendly to me.
10:55They saw me only as Kup's daughter, never as a 19-year-old girl with talent.
11:01This led to self-doubt, insecurities, and humiliation for me.
11:05Karen's insecurities led to an obsession with her physical appearance.
11:09She gained and lost weight, agonizing over each extra pound on the scale.
11:15Her body was not a tall skin, she was short, and she had kind of a round, kind of like
11:21a tiny Marilyn Monroe-y kind of figure.
11:24In her search for perfection, Karen had a plastic surgeon reshape her chin, but her
11:29new look changed little in her quest to make it on Broadway.
11:33Then in November 1960, family friend Jerry Lewis offered Karen a bit part in his upcoming
11:40movie, The Ladies' Man.
11:42I've been in New York and I haven't been working very much, but I've been learning quite a
11:45bit and going to classes out there.
11:48And the thought of working in Hollywood sort of intrigued me.
11:50In December, a resolute Karen headed to Los Angeles.
11:54She was 19 years old.
11:56She was smart, she was ambitious, she was talented, she had so many hopes and dreams.
12:03Coming up, Karen loses weight to gain self-esteem.
12:12She would go crazy and she'd take a diet pill.
12:15And later...
12:16One of the guys took me aside and said, don't you know that Karen Kempsen was found dead?
12:27The E!
12:28True Hollywood Story is on every night at 9.
12:31This week, it's Fallen Angels.
12:38Karen Kempsen grew up with entertainment in her blood.
12:41When Hollywood beckoned in 1960, the 19-year-old was determined to prove she could make it
12:47as an actress.
12:48The door to fame was open, but what lurked beyond was unknown.
12:52She could have stayed in Chicago and been a queen, you know?
12:56And it was very brave of her to come to Hollywood.
13:07Unlike many other aspiring actresses who came before her, Karen Kempsen didn't arrive in
13:12Los Angeles alone and penniless.
13:15The first time I met her was at the airport when I went to pick her up.
13:18And she came down with her grandmother off the runway with 47 different suitcases.
13:26Kempsen's father, famed columnist Irv Kepsenet, asked family friend Marsha Ross for a big favor.
13:32My job was to oversee her, watch her, take care of her, introduce her to the right people,
13:38and make sure that she didn't get in any trouble.
13:40An apartment in Hollywood became home for Karen and her grandmother.
13:44By late December 1960, Karen made her appearance in The Lady's Man.
13:50But what she saw on the big screen was not the image she expected.
14:14Soon after her move to Los Angeles, Karen recorded her thoughts in a date book.
14:19There were few entries in the diary until May 16, 1961, when she had plastic surgery
14:26on her nose.
14:27Awake during operation, agony, felt needles, cutting, everything.
14:35Here's this woman who's not yet 22 years old who's having her face fixed.
14:42And there's an amazing entry, this kind of heartbreaking entry in one of her journals,
14:47where she said, Warren Beatty said, I'm pretty today.
14:50And Eddie Fisher said, you look like Liz.
14:53And that's the kind of thing that made her happy.
14:56We took her to see Eddie Fisher.
15:00Eddie Fisher had been married to Liz Taylor.
15:03After the show, we went backstage with Eddie, and he said, I've never seen a resemblance
15:08so keen, so perfect.
15:10And it caught my eye, and it caught my breath, he said.
15:13Still, confidence remained elusive to Karen.
15:16She hated rejection, because she was so accepted all the time.
15:21And she comes from Chicago, where she's so well-known, and she goes to Hollywood.
15:27People were finding out about her, but it took a while.
15:30In June 1961, a chance meeting turned into a golden opportunity for the 20-year-old.
15:37Just a quirk of fate, I happened to see a producer, and he asked me to come in and read
15:42for Hawaiian Eye, and I read for a part on it, and I got it.
15:46And it was strictly on talent.
15:48Karen's luck continued in August, when she landed a recurring role in another TV series,
15:54Mrs. G Goes to College.
15:56But nothing could alleviate Karen's anxiety about her weight.
16:00If you looked at her, you'd think she was perfect.
16:03So I don't know whether it was all in her head, or whether she was getting this reaction
16:07from other people that she went to work with.
16:10Eventually, Karen discovered what she believed was the perfect solution, diet pills.
16:16She was living with my mother.
16:17When my mother was there, and Cookie had pills all over the place, finally Cookie put them
16:23in a laundry hamper, and my mother found them and said, you're on pills.
16:31To that generation, that was pretty horrible.
16:35If she gained three pounds, she would go crazy, and she'd take a diet pill.
16:39I could tell when she was on them, because she was always a little bit more excited and
16:43a little hyper.
16:45January 23rd, 1962, 121 pounds.
16:50I look too heavy, yet everyone calls me beautiful.
16:53February 1st, 117 pounds, everyone noticed my weight loss.
16:59February 5th, 125 pounds, I stayed in bed, ate, feel so draggy and tired.
17:06February 15th, 121 pounds, took pills, looked gorgeous.
17:18In late February, 1962, Mrs. G. Goes to College was canceled.
17:23She was a good actress.
17:25She put on an act several times with us, because she didn't want to worry us.
17:32And then my mother couldn't take it there anymore, and she moved back, so Cookie was
17:36living alone and loved it.
17:43Coming up, Karen becomes driven by another obsession.
17:47You're young.
17:48You're going to be young forever.
17:49You're going to be a star forever.
17:56Tomorrow on E!, at 8, talk soup with new host Hal Sparks.
18:00At 8.30, mysteries and scandals expose the secrets of Hollywood outcast Ingrid Bergman.
18:04At 9, the E! True Hollywood story reveals ice skating's fallen diva, Tanya Hart.
18:08Tomorrow, starting at 8, only on E!.
18:14Times change in Tinseltown.
18:16I'm A.J.
18:17Benz, a host of E!'s mysteries and scandals.
18:19Join me at our new time, 8.30 p.m., weeknights, only on E!.
18:228.30 p.m.
18:23Nice.
18:24It's your thing, do what you want to do, I can't tell you who to sock it to, all right.
18:52What do you call hamburgers that are grilled one at a time by a person?
19:03Absolutely delicious.
19:04Chili's big...
19:05Karen came of age during a time that ushered in the winds of change, but still held the
19:15illusion of innocence.
19:17No one ever thought of anything going wrong.
19:21It was like you lived for the moment, you lived for the day.
19:24While America reinvented itself, Karen searched for her own place in the sun.
19:30The promising actress landed the role of Annie Sullivan in The Miracle Worker at the Laguna
19:35Beach Playhouse in the summer of 1962.
19:39I was floored, you know.
19:40I didn't realize that this wonderful person had all that talent besides, yeah, she's very,
19:46very talented.
19:48But still, Karen struggled with low self-esteem and a growing dependence on diet pills.
19:54In those days, diet pills was pretty regular.
19:58I didn't know she was doing so many.
20:00I don't think any of us knew.
20:02In a town where despair is not an option, Karen hid hers well, but diet pills and sleeping
20:08aids were taking their toll on her mind and body.
20:14October 1st, 1962, woke up feeling slightly nauseous and groggy.
20:19Hallucinations, inferiority complex, aching limbs, stiff neck, surely liver damage resulted
20:28from pills.
20:29Two months later, Karen's diary noted an important date, December 4th, 1962.
20:36A rangy, good-looking 27-year-old actor named Andrew Prine entered her life.
20:42I saw Karen and immediately was attracted to her.
20:45She was so bright-looking and so beautiful, and there was an intelligence about her that
20:54was immediately apparent.
20:56Karen was captivated by Prine's charisma.
20:59You're young.
21:00You're going to be young forever.
21:01You're going to be a star forever.
21:03There's not quite anything else hanging in the heavens like you.
21:07By February 1963, Karen's universe revolved around Andrew Prine.
21:13She was very reliant upon me, and I had to have more room.
21:19I was at that time in my career, in my life, when the world was open to me.
21:25I mean, in terms of young ladies, it was endless and wonderful.
21:30Karen's diary illustrated the fine line she walked between hope and dejection in her unpredictable
21:36relationship with Prine.
21:38February 19th, 1963, must maintain my own identity, not become his doormat, so useless.
21:46May 30th, 1963, Andy distant, me terribly possessive and weak.
21:52I began to realize that she was taking pills, which I really didn't understand.
21:57And I must say, no credit to me, I was sort of impatient about it.
22:02I did not see deeply enough who she was and how lonely she was.
22:07Back in Chicago, Karen's mother was in the dark.
22:11We shared many conferences, she and I, and I can't understand why I didn't know more
22:18of what was happening.
22:21Karen's fragile emotional state spilled over into her professional life.
22:25If you are not a struggling actor, it's very difficult to impart to you what that's like
22:30and how scary that is.
22:33She worried very much about her weight, excessively so, because of the demands of the business.
22:43There is no forgiveness if you're overweight.
22:46There is no forgiveness if you're too old.
22:48There is no forgiveness if your nose doesn't look right.
22:50No one cares.
22:52And she knew that, and she was getting that message.
22:54By the summer of 1963, Karen's unhealthy fixation on Prine began to consume her life.
23:01If she knew he was going to be at a certain party or at a certain club, she'd make sure
23:05she was there watching him and who he was with, and he kept telling her, just leave
23:09me alone.
23:10It was very strange why she would do that, because she wasn't nuts.
23:14She was very intelligent, very smart, very down-to-earth, but when it came to Andy, they
23:18were falling apart and she was pretty unhappy about it.
23:23So you do strange things.
23:30Coming up, Karen's desperation builds to a disturbing climax.
23:35She had all the sensibilities of a person who was going to get hurt.
23:44Her life was a dangerous cocktail of sex.
23:47I knew she was a porn chick.
23:48Drugs.
23:49Shannon was duped.
23:51In the summer of 1963, Karen Kupcinat was struggling as an actress and distressed over
23:58a crumbling romance.
24:00As Karen's depression deepened, the only outlet seemed to be her diary.
24:05Why does my image of me have to be so aesthetic and perfect?
24:09What's the use of living with nothing to believe in?
24:11Have faith in.
24:12Despite personal setbacks, nothing prepared Karen Kupcinat for the unwelcome news she
24:25received in July 1963.
24:27The 22-year-old was pregnant.
24:31In those days, an abortion was a big deal.
24:33And she had to go to Tijuana to do it, and she almost bled to death on the way back.
24:37And I think Mark and Marcia both were there and they drove her to Tijuana.
24:41And she sure didn't want my parents to know about it.
24:45Karen recovered from the physical trauma of the abortion, but not from its far-reaching
24:50emotional effects.
24:52Andrew Pryne remained the unhealthy focus of Karen's life.
24:56Friend, Earl Holliman.
24:58Karen was the epitome of what you think of as a victim.
25:05She had all the sensibilities of a person who's going to get hurt in one way or another.
25:11Very sensitive girl, insecure, not knowing yet who she was.
25:19And needing, desperately needing somebody to love her the way she wanted to be loved.
25:25Later that summer, Karen and Andrew received a series of anonymous death threat notes.
25:31They were predicting my death and terrible things.
25:35And it frightened me.
25:37And I went to the Hollywood police station, in fact, and showed them this and wanted a
25:41permit for a gun.
25:42And they just said, look, just forget it and go home.
25:46Pryne couldn't forget about the chilling notes.
25:49I took security measures in my house and in her apartment to sort of make us feel more
25:56secure because something that was out there.
26:01The summer of 1963 passed without incident.
26:05In September, Karen moved to another apartment in West Hollywood and landed a guest spot
26:11on the Perry Mason Show.
26:14She still clung to Andrew Pryne.
26:17She'd stalk him.
26:18And a couple of times she told me she'd gone to his apartment and opened the window
26:23and was peeking in on him.
26:25November 4th, 1963, I hid in the attic, then sat outside in cold for two or three hours.
26:33Wish I were dead.
26:36On November 22nd, 1963, President John F. Kennedy was assassinated.
26:46I called Karen right away because I knew she would feel terrible.
26:51And we decided to get together with my buddy, Earl Holliman.
26:55We all felt so terrible.
26:57We said, let's get out of here.
26:58Let's go somewhere.
27:00So we went to Palm Springs.
27:01I mean, never knowing it would be Karen's last weekend on Earth.
27:04It was a close time.
27:09That part of it was sweet.
27:11And we parted, friends.
27:13It was the last time Andrew Pryne saw Karen.
27:19On the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, Karen had dinner with Mark and Marsha Goddard.
27:24She was crying.
27:26She was upset.
27:27She wanted to get her boyfriend back.
27:29She knew he was seeing another girl.
27:31She wanted to know what she could do, how she could get him back.
27:34And we were trying to convince her to get on with her life.
27:40Karen returned home around 8.30 p.m.
27:44Later that evening, she was joined in her apartment by two male friends.
27:51While the three watched television, Karen dozed off.
27:55Her friends left and were home by 11.30 p.m.
27:59Between 11.30 and midnight, Andrew Pryne called Karen.
28:04She seemed all right.
28:07I don't remember any details of the conversation.
28:10It wasn't dramatic.
28:12It was she was okay.
28:14She seemed okay.
28:15No one heard from Karen again.
28:28Three days later, at 7 p.m. on Saturday, November 30th,
28:33the Goddards discovered Karen's body.
28:36Within minutes, West Hollywood patrol officers arrived.
28:40I thought she took her own life because of her broken love affair with Andy Pryne.
28:46Sheriff's detectives found 13 containers in Karen's medicine chest
28:51filled with diet pills and tranquilizers.
28:54The investigating officers contacted the Kupsonit family in Chicago.
28:58We were all pretty shaken up by it, obviously.
29:03My father and a couple of his friends flew out to L.A.,
29:07and he had to ID the body, and that was very rough on him.
29:10Word of Karen's death spread quickly in Hollywood.
29:14As I walked in, someone, they all turned and looked at me in a very shocked way,
29:19and they said, what are you doing here?
29:21And I said, what are you talking about?
29:23And one of the guys took me aside and said,
29:26don't you know that Karen Kupsonit was found dead?
29:29And I was blown.
29:32My mind was blown, and I couldn't get it.
29:35On Sunday, December 1st, the coroner announced the cause of Karen's death,
29:41murder by strangulation.
29:43The estimated time of the murder was late Wednesday or early Thursday morning.
29:48I feel so sorry that I couldn't have talked to her that night.
29:52You know, you never know what's going to happen,
29:54and you don't know if I had been there, if I had visited her, you know,
29:59over Thanksgiving, maybe something would have been different, I don't know.
30:05You know, we all feel so guilty about it because we weren't there,
30:08and because she was alone.
30:09Investigating officers began interviewing witnesses and potential suspects.
30:15Karen's former boyfriend, Andrew Pryne, was high on the list,
30:19but Pryne believed he had the key that could unlock her murder.
30:23I gave them the death threat notes, and they took them to the lab,
30:27and of course the next day they said her fingerprints are under the tape,
30:32and she sent the death threat notes.
30:34And I was completely stunned, not over what she had done,
30:40but over my lack of perception and insensitivity toward her.
30:46A 27-year-old male who lived in the apartment below Karen was also questioned,
30:51but there was no evidence to link him or anyone else to the crime scene.
30:57On December 4, 1963, the funeral of Karen Ann Cufsonet was held in Chicago.
31:04She was laid to rest, but there was no closure.
31:07Our feeling was bitter, bitter, absolutely bitter,
31:11because of the lack of a real thorough investigation.
31:14With no suspect in custody for Karen's murder,
31:17Pryne became an easy target of suspicion.
31:20This very well-dressed older lady that I didn't know looked at me and screamed,
31:25you murderer.
31:27She said, get away from me, and she was terrified.
31:29She said, I'll hit you with this plate.
31:33And the whole room was staring at me in shock.
31:39Karen summed up the dark side of Hollywood in an eerie epitaph.
31:44It's an emotional industry, buying emotions,
31:47molding emotions, selling emotions.
31:50It's a woman, a bitch wearing cheap clothes, too much makeup,
31:54costume jewelry, and rented furs.
31:56It's a town where actors pour their lifeblood into it,
31:59and then kill themselves because of it.
32:01In the years that followed, dead-end tips trickled in,
32:05psychics came and went, and investigators continued to question witnesses.
32:10Somewhere in the puzzle, a killer was free,
32:13and Karen Cufsonet's death remained a mystery.
32:17Coming up, a new theory on what may have happened to Karen Cufsonet.
32:26I don't think Karen Cufsonet was murdered.
32:33I had no prior knowledge of the planned assault on Nancy Kerrigan.
32:38They wanted her.
32:39The murder of 22-year-old Karen Cufsonet has been shrouded in mystery for 36 years.
32:50In the spring of 1998,
32:53Carrie Cufsonet was determined to unravel the facts of her aunt's death.
32:57Just having a broken hyoid bone is not, in and of itself, fatal.
33:02Through Karen Cufsonet's diaries and letters,
33:06Carrie grew to love a woman she never met.
33:09Just like her aunt Karen,
33:11Carrie Cufsonet pursued an acting career.
33:14But by the age of 27,
33:16Carrie was no longer interested in the allure of Hollywood.
33:20She had a different goal.
33:21I decided to call the sheriff's department,
33:25the unsolved homicide department,
33:27and ask them to help me find the killer.
33:29The sheriff's department,
33:30the unsolved homicide department,
33:32and see if there would be a way I could get into her file
33:35that I know has been very closed off to the public for 35 years.
33:41Sergeant John Yarbrough of the L.A. County Sheriff's Homicide Department
33:46was in charge of the Karen Cufsonet case.
33:48We decided to work with her in that regard because it is an unsolved case.
33:53And maybe with the attention that she would bring to the case,
33:56we might be able to come up with a new solution to it.
34:00There was disarray in the bedroom as well.
34:02Yarbrough put Carrie in touch with someone else
34:05who had been captivated by the Karen Cufsonet story.
34:09Best-selling author and crime aficionado, James Elroy.
34:14It was, to me, the quintessential story of the young woman who comes west
34:17to be a movie star and finds death instead.
34:20He saw the story, and the story now is Cookie through Carrie's eyes.
34:26And how it affected Carrie.
34:29Carrie saw the road that many, many women went down.
34:33Carrie saw that her aunt went down that road specifically and that it killed her.
34:39Carrie was able to rest change from Karen's tragedy.
34:43Irv and Essie Cufsonet find it impossible to understand
34:47why their daughter's case remains unsolved.
34:50They did a precursory investigation.
34:53They did the usual thing they have to do,
34:55but you got to go beyond that when you're dealing with a murder suspect,
34:58and they failed to do that.
35:02The facts of Karen's death are complex,
35:04and various theories abound on what may have happened that November night in 1963.
35:11The cause of death in this case is known to us.
35:16But whether it's murder, suicide, or accident,
35:20is not so easily defined in this case.
35:24And that's what made it so difficult for them to determine any injury because the...
35:28Retired L.A. Sheriff's homicide detective Bill Stoner
35:32helped Carrie sort through the voluminous murder files on Karen Cufsonet.
35:37I think when they first found her, they thought it was probably a drug overdose.
35:40They had all these empty pill vials.
35:42Her body was in a deep state of decomposition.
35:46Uh, the indication at the time was they couldn't determine any injury to the body.
35:53I am primarily a novelist.
35:56Secondly, a journalist.
35:59I've had my snout in the gutter of crime for over four decades,
36:03and my instincts say it's not a murder.
36:05It's an accidental death.
36:07If somebody held a gun to my head and I had to make a decision,
36:11is this a homicide or an accidental death?
36:13I lean towards homicide.
36:15If this is truly a murder case, which I believe it is,
36:18then somebody in her social circle is the one who did the killing.
36:23The last week of her life, she had gone through 80-odd Dazoxin pills.
36:29A book was found open here to a page that said,
36:33Dance in the nude like a wood nymph to free your inhibitions.
36:37She could have fallen down while dancing around in the nude like a wood nymph to free her inhibitions,
36:41clipped her hyoid bone, crawled up over on the couch,
36:44right against this wall here, and died.
36:48Nobody heard anything.
36:50It could also be true that somebody re-entered or came into the apartment
36:56without her really realizing it, and made some sexual advances,
37:02and was immediately rebuffed and immediately retaliated.
37:05Um, they have actually done something overt to prevent her from becoming more vocal.
37:13So therefore, nobody heard anything.
37:16The hyoid bone is right about here in the neck.
37:18And when a person is strangled, it pops.
37:20It's a small bone.
37:22Karen Kupchnitz's hyoid bone was allegedly broken.
37:26A strong theory of Sheriff's homicide at the time was that Dr. Harold Kade,
37:31the coroner who performed the autopsy on Karen, broke the hyoid bone.
37:35If he knew that he broke that hyoid bone and he lied about it, I don't see that happening.
37:41The role that drugs played in Karen's death may never be known.
37:45When it was called death by manual strangulation, right off the bat,
37:50they didn't test for the presence of the drugs that Karen Kupchnitz had in her medicine chest.
37:5736 years later, the motive behind the death threat notes
38:00that Karen sent to herself and Andrew Prine almost makes sense.
38:05She began to create not only a perception that she was a victim,
38:11but that they were victims together.
38:14And I think one could speculate that perhaps in her thinking,
38:18this would be a way to bond back with him.
38:21Confusing leads and misinformation,
38:24possible forensic mistakes, too many different ways to die.
38:30These are the facts that, for now, make the Karen Kupchnitz case an enigma.
38:41Coming up, Carrie meets the man who was so much a part of Karen's life.
38:46I said, this is a very important moment.
38:59There is no simple explanation for the death of actress Karen Kupchnitz.
39:04One fact is certain.
39:05The Kupchnitz family carries a timeless portrait of Karen in their memories.
39:10That of a woman with the poetry of life and the power of beauty undiminished.
39:17Karen's story has a common thread for anyone who grieves
39:26over the sudden tragic loss of a loved one.
39:29It has happened to so many other people that getting her story out there
39:33maybe will touch somebody else that either this has happened to,
39:37or they'll see how one person's death can affect someone that didn't even know her.
39:44This is a story that I don't think will ever be over.
39:49And now that my daughter is so engrossed in it and so enveloped by my sister's life,
39:55that to me is scary and it's wonderful because I love seeing parts of my sister in her.
40:01With the death of someone so young comes the speculation about what might have been.
40:07Think of the power that she could have developed if she ever reached a level of A,
40:17self-knowledge, B, sobriety, and C, self-worth.
40:24She could have taken these obsessive drives,
40:27turned them back around and made something good out of herself.
40:33She was a gifted writer.
40:34I think that's why writers respond to her.
40:36It's not just the tragedy.
40:38I also think they sort of recognize a kind of kindred spirit when they see one.
40:43I saw changes all the time throughout the years looking back at her diaries.
40:48And I think that if she had lived to be my age,
40:51she would have been long over all of those.
40:53And she probably would have been a lot happier with who she had become.
40:57In the fall of 1998, 27-year-old Carrie Kupcinat continued her search for the truth.
41:04Meeting Carrie Kupcinat was wonderful.
41:06All of a sudden, the whole past comes forward.
41:09And not all bad.
41:11And I put my arms around her and I said,
41:14this is a very important moment.
41:17And we both were laughing and almost crying.
41:20And she said, yeah, it is.
41:21It is.
41:22Karen's friends, barely able to grasp the magnitude of her death more than three decades ago,
41:28now have a deeper perspective.
41:30You don't really heal.
41:31You forget for a while.
41:33And you go on and you lead all these different lives.
41:36But when you start thinking about the person, the pain doesn't go away.
41:41It dulls, but it doesn't go away.
41:44It's a spirit that's so strong that lives with me.
41:47So I was, you know, she's okay right now.
41:53She's in good hands.
41:55At the end of all of it or any of my self-pity
41:58or the rage against the injustices of the world,
42:02all I could think was, what a dreadful waste of a beautiful person.
42:08What a horrible waste.
42:10Perhaps one day, the truth of what really happened in 1963 will be uncovered.
42:17Until then, Karen's story lives on through her family.
42:21I keep thinking of her as a young girl.
42:23A child, in our view.
42:29A divine child.
42:33I don't really know where I'm headed with this in my life.
42:37But I know that wherever I end up, I know that she'll be there.
42:41And I think she's guiding me there.
42:44Whatever the future holds, Karen's words still ring true
42:49for those who dream of stardom in a mythical place called Hollywood.
42:55It's terribly difficult to keep your head clear in a town
42:58where the largest experts are make-believe, fantasy, and unreal reality.
43:03The best way to keep from sinking is to have other interests
43:06that have nothing to do with your personal career.
43:09To learn, to grow intellectually, and to be realistic,
43:13and to try to be objective about yourself.
43:48Uh-oh.