The Witness has the awful pull of a true-crime mystery as Solomon and Bill Genovese (who’s credited as an executive producer) try to track down the 38 witnesses. They begin with a trial transcript, then obtain a police report with nearly all the names redacted. Finally they get their hands on summaries of the original police witness reports, compiled by ABC News for a 1979 segment of 20/20. He tracks down Lynne Tillotson, who remembers only hearing a scream in the night, seeing nothing out her window, and going back to bed. He tracks down Hattie Grund, who says she called the police when she heard screaming, though police records show no evidence of this. You’re never sure whether to believe these people, because who would own up on camera to such callousness?
