"The Ultimate Nightmare": The Murders of Sonja Larson and Christina Powell (ABC News 20/20, Part 1)

Part 1 of ABC's 2021 20/20 episode on the Gainesville murders: Sonja Larson's mother, Christina Powell's best friend and the apartment manager describe the two roommates and the day their bodies were found. Rolling is not heard.

Subject

Danny Rolling

Recorded

about 2021

Runtime

9:29

Content warning: Concerns the murders of five college students. Contains a graphic description of the crime scene of Christina Powell and Sonja Larson, including rape, mutilation and the posing of a body (07:15 to 08:01 of the video), and an account of the discovery made in front of a victim's parents.

The Report

This is a 9-minute-29-second segment of "The Devil in Gainesville," a 2021 episode of ABC News's 20/20, posted by ABC News as Part 1 of the episode on April 13, 2021. Correspondent John Donvan, who covered the murders for ABC News in 1990, narrates. The segment combines his narration with new interviews and with news footage, a recorded call to police and police radio from August 1990. Danny Rolling is not heard and is not named in this part.

Historical Context

In late August 1990, five students were murdered in Gainesville, Florida, over a few days: Sonja Larson, 18, Christina Powell, 17, Christa Hoyt, 18, Tracy Paules, 23, and Manuel "Manny" Taboada, 23. Danny Rolling was arrested on September 7, 1990, for an unrelated supermarket robbery in Ocala, pleaded guilty to the five murders on February 15, 1994, and was sentenced to death after the jury recommended death 12 to 0. He was executed on October 25, 2006.

Circumstances

Sonja Larson and Christina Powell had met over the summer and moved into an apartment together at the Williamsburg Apartments, just before the start of the fall semester at the University of Florida. Their bodies were found when Powell's family, unable to reach her, came to the apartment and a call from the complex brought police.

What the Report Covers

Paige Beck, a longtime employee of a local TV station (station not named), describes Gainesville as a small-feeling college town, and John Donnelly, identified on screen as an author of the book "Beyond Murder", describes the wooded areas between its apartment complexes. Alison Emery, Christina ("Christy") Powell's best friend from high school, recalls Powell's excitement about the University of Florida. Ada Larson, Sonja Larson's mother, calls her daughter "the dream child" and describes looking for a dorm room for her. A 1990 recorded call from the complex asks police for an officer, and the apartment manager, in a new interview, describes the door being forced with Officer Ray Barber present and the victim's parents on the stairs. The narration describes the crime scene. Ada Larson recalls hearing the news and asking, "God, why?" The segment ends with Chief Wayland Clifton's fear that the killer "would hit again" and the news of a third murder.

What Makes the Recording Significant

It preserves first-person accounts from a victim's mother, a victim's best friend and the apartment manager who was at the door when it was forced, alongside 1990 news footage and the recorded call that led police to the scene.

Archival Importance

A segment from ABC News's own upload of the 2021 episode, presented by a correspondent who reported the story in 1990.

Important Caveats

Danny Rolling is not heard. The segment is a 2021 retelling built partly from 1990 footage, not 1990 footage alone. The interviewees' names (Paige Beck, Alison Emery, Ada Larson) are given as they say them; spellings are not verified and should be confirmed from the on-screen name straps. John Donnelly's name and description ("Author, 'Beyond Murder'") are from his on-screen name strap. The crime-scene description at 07:15 to 08:01 is graphic and should not be repeated in page copy. Two phrases that the first machine pass produced over music in the opening ("And I say, hello, Satan" and "Me and that devil") were not confirmed by the second pass or the captions and are not in the transcript; a listener should confirm that no clip of Rolling is present.

20/20 Anchor Or Narrator: It stands as one of 1990's most shocking stories.

Archival Reporters: 18-year-old Sonja Larson was found murdered. 17-year-old Christina Powell. 18-year-old Christa Hoyt. Early this morning, three young women, all students, have been found. [unclear: "There was mutilation" (second machine pass) / "It was a mutilation" (Whisper) / "was uh mutilation" (captions)]. Manny Taboada. Tracy Paules. Brutally murdered at their apartment. [00:20: music.]

John Donvan: This was the ultimate nightmare for parents who are sending their kids off to college. In the space of three days, one after another after another, students in apartments being killed, totally vulnerable.

Archival Reporter: Now that the death toll has reached five, students are talking of returning home.

Student: I'm terrified. I couldn't sleep last night.

Student: It's really scary.

Interviewee: What's the worst that could happen? Well, this was the worst that could happen.

Archival Voices: They have a serial killer. [unclear: "The serial killer" (second machine pass) / "Serial killer" (Whisper) / "killer" (captions)] is on the loose.

John Donvan: I'm John Donvan, and in the early '90s, ABC News sent me to Gainesville, Florida, to cover the story of the Gainesville student murder. It's one of the most horrifying stories that I had ever covered.

Archival Reporter: Today, people walk and wonder if he walks among them. [01:07: music and title.]

Paige Beck: Gainesville is a college town located in north central Florida. It's a beautiful area of the state. My name is Paige Beck, and I've been here at the station for more than 31 years. We don't have high-rise buildings here. It still really has a small-town feel. The university plays a major role here. It's the major employer. It's a really well-regarded research university, and a really large, beautiful campus. It's known for its partying. The students come here with the idea that they're going to have lots of fun. Football is definitely king.

John Donnelly: So we're very student-populated area. We have a large amount of apartment complexes, a lot of houses and a lot of streets, but there's part of it that's just wooded. But once you're about 30 yards into these woods, you feel like you're in another place, in a secret, hidden place. So it's an incredibly easy place to go undercover, especially at night.

Interviewee: During the summer, it's a little slower. You could literally drive through town during the summer without hitting your brakes. Probably around the second week of August or, there's a lot more activity. You'll see the traffic really pick up in Gainesville, the students are coming back, the energy of the city really picks up.

Interviewee: There was a lot of excitement over the start of a new semester, Gator season. The legendary band Fleetwood Mac, of "Go Your Own Way" fame, was booked to headline homecoming. And two of the new students caught up in that excitement: Sonja Larson and Christina Powell. They were moving to Gainesville to begin classes.

Alison Emery: My name is Alison Emery, and I was Christy Powell's best friend. Christy and I met in high school. Our graduation was outside.

Voices On Graduation Home Video: [unclear: "Yeah, let us see the diplomas. Are they for real?" "They are for real."]

Alison Emery: We were just so excited about the next phase of life, about moving forward, about college.

Voice On Home Video: [unclear: "of mystery for mom and dad"]

Alison Emery: As soon as she knew she'd been admitted to Florida, she was all Gator all the time. She got a beautiful gold Gator necklace from her parents, as one of her graduation presents. Never took it off.

Voice On Home Video: [unclear: "Four years from now y'all will be going down to Gainesville. If you may go on the aisle, we'll be there."]

Ada Larson: My name is Ada Larson, and I'm the mother of Sonja Larson. Sonja and I were very, very close. Sonja was the dream child.

John Donvan: Everybody who knew her said she was an incredibly sweet, lovely girl. She was a lot more reserved, and she liked to work with children.

John Donvan: So these two young women, they had met over the summer doing some courses, and they decided to be roommates.

Ada Larson: We looked and looked for a dorm that she could go to, because I hated the fact that she was going to be in, in an off-campus location, but we couldn't find any. They were booked full.

John Donvan: So Chrissy Powell and Sonja Larson had found an apartment in a complex. It's called Williamsburg Apartments. So this was move-in day for them, and this was going to be their first night in their new place together.

Alison Emery: Christy's sister and brother-in-law, as I recall it, were supposed to bring her bedroom set and all the things that she was supposed to have in the apartment, and so they arrived Saturday morning, and nobody answered the door. There were some notes on the door from friends, like, "Hey, we went out."

Ada Larson: We had no way of reaching her. The phone hadn't been installed yet. She hadn't called us. And finally the Powells, who lived closer, went over there.

Alison Emery: Her parents came down, you know, to figure out where she was and what was going on, and they banged on the doors, and ultimately, I think, got a maintenance person at the apartments to ask to be let in.

Caller From The Apartment Complex: [unclear: "I was wondering if it would be possible for me to have an officer to meet me" (captions) / "I need to have an officer take me" (second machine pass)]. I have two girls, uh, [unclear: "the parents suspected" (Whisper and the second pass) / "suspected" (captions)] that something's wrong with them, or they've disappeared or something. I'm just not sure. And my manager informs me not to go in by myself, but [unclear: "she needs something by police" (captions) / "to do something by police officer" (Whisper)].

Dispatcher: Okay, go ahead, [unclear: "we'll have somebody" (captions) / "we're here to remind me, too" (Whisper)].

Apartment Manager: And an officer, Ray Barber, went to the door, and the Powells were behind them. My maintenance man broke the door in, and I was standing behind him, and the deputy sheriff was behind me. And when he went in, I followed him into the apartment and saw the young lady on the bed. And you could see, you could see her in a, in a bad position. And I just turned around and walked out. My maintenance man, unfortunately, ran down the stairs screaming, "Oh God, oh God." He came out, and he threw up. And the sad, sad part about it is we had the parents behind us on the stairs. When he came out throwing up, the parents knew that something was not good.

Police Officer: I need a supervisor and ID, criminalistics and detectives to respond down here to this [unclear: "apartment" (Whisper; not in captions)].

John Donvan: The police officers who went in there would later say that they had never seen a crime scene like this. Two women who had had a terrible ending to their lives. Downstairs, Christina Powell was lying, having been stabbed to death, having been raped. He had mutilated her breasts. Sonja Larson, who was on her water bed, she had multiple stab wounds to her arms and her torso.

John Donvan Or John Donnelly: And there's something that, that the officer noticed right away that was very unusual. She was posed. All her clothes were off. She was lying back on the bed with her feet on the floor, and her hair was fanned out, almost like a display, [unclear: "a shocking value" (Whisper) / "was a shocking value" (captions)].

Ada Larson: I screamed, and my husband didn't know what was happening. He came out and took the phone. It was just a horrible, horrible day. We just got in the car and headed for Gainesville. And, um, I had to have my husband stop the side of the road, and I looked outside, and the stars were shining, and I just looked at God, and I said, "God, why? How could this possibly happen? Why did this happen?"

John Donvan: Wayland Clifton was the chief of police in Gainesville, and he gets the call. And I recall him telling me that he didn't really want to have to go down on a day when he was home watching football, but the officer who called him said, "No, you've got to get here."

Police Officer: Two white females that are deceased in this, in this apartment right behind us.

Wayland Clifton: My great concern as I went home that evening, rather late, was that we have an individual that, in my mind, personally, I felt would hit again.

Archival Reporter: Sheriff's officials will only say the woman appears to be in her late teens.

Interviewee: And then we found out about the third murder, just eight hours after the first two. So we knew that there was a, a monster out there. But now the bloodlust was just up to a whole different level. [09:24: speech ends; the segment runs to 09:29.] ---