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On December 19th, 1979, Michelle Marteno was a 18-year-old high school senior. >> She was impossible to miss.
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She had the big blonde hair. >> She was that striking. >> She was striking. Just a smart, kind, [music] nice person.
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She was a member of the concert choir. They had a banquet which she attended. >> Afterwards, Michelle ended up going to
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the mall. So did a bunch of her friends from the choir. >> The mall had just opened. It was 2
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months old. It was the place to be in Cedar Rapids at the time. >> So she would have been parked right in
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this area. >> Yeah, she would have been parked facing this direction. She left the mall shortly before it
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closed. It closed at 10 p.m. [music] that night. >> You're talking December in Iowa. It's
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very dark. >> It's very dark. >> Michelle walks out and gets in her car. This person snuck up on Michelle, opened
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the door, and climbed in. >> She was stabbed and cut a total of 29 times. >> This was a real fight.
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It looks personal. It's a lot of stab wounds. It's overkill. It's always the boyfriend, the
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girlfriend, the husband, someone really, really close to the person. >> Did either of you know Andy Sidell?
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>> I knew Andy through Michelle. That was her boyfriend. >> I took an [music] instant dislike to
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Andy. He was very possessive of Michelle. >> I believed Andy did it. I did not see
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anything from the men in her life that would give any of them motive to do something like this.
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I definitely didn't see that from Andy Sidell. >> Entire police force dedicated time and
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energy to try to find answers to [music] what happened to Michelle. >> After a couple of years, the leads were
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starting to dry up. >> The case then goes cold. >> Yeah. >> We really had given up hope. We truly
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had. >> These guys never gave up. The investigation never really stopped. >> I've been through every piece of paper
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in here. Probably close to 8,000 [music] pages of reports here. The biggest break came in 2005.
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The DNA was the key. We collected DNA from 161 people. >> We were looking for a needle in a hay
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stack. >> We just need to get lucky. It took us 13 years until we had a suspect. We immediately call up the lab.
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Is this our guy? >> What was the answer? >> Yes. >> What are you doing in that moment?
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>> I don't know what I was doing. I was speechless. >> So, do you think he just all these years
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thought he got away with it? >> Well, yeah, cuz he did. >> [music] [music] [music]
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>> this tragic case that's been haunting this community for years. Just before Christmas in December 1979,
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every single police officer in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, was called to work on the horrific murder in the parking lot of
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Westdale Mall. >> I never seen [music] anybody stabbed that many times, >> including now retired detective Harvey
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Deninger. >> Something like that was unheard of around here. [music] Michelle Martino, an 18-year-old high
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school senior, had been found violently stabbed in the front seat of her car. Her killer unknown, confounding [music]
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generations of investigators. >> We couldn't come up with anything. And we just kept plugging away.
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>> How old were you? >> I was 5 years old. >> Do you remember the case? >> No, not not from when I was little.
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>> Harvey's [music] son, Matt. But every single year on December 19th, >> Michelle Martino was a brighteyed
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blonde. >> The local news would have a Michelle Martino segment. >> 27 years ago, her life was cut [music]
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short. >> So, it was really hard to miss the severity of it. >> Decades later, Matt, now a detective
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himself, joined the investigation into Michelle Martino's murder. >> I love how old this map is. 36 years
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after his father had begun working the same case. >> Wouldn't it be something if I could find
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our suspect and my dad is still alive? >> And as he dug into the thick files, the
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son went to his father to help him make sense of it all. >> I wanted someone to talk to about it and
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[music] I wanted someone that really understood it. >> The crime had stunned the small city of
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110,000. It scared the hell out of us. >> Tracy Price went to high school and sang
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in the choir with Michelle. >> It just hit me [music] like a brick. >> It was just shocking.
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>> Mike Hayrick had dated Michelle in high school and says her murder shattered the
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city's all-American image. >> If that could happen and the person wasn't caught, anything could happen.
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[music] >> This one, I think, is one of our favorite pictures. She's sleeping with
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her dog. [music] So cute. Here we're into the hair stage. Lots of hair pictures.
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>> Yep. >> Janelle Stonereaker is Michelle's big sister, 12 years older. Michelle was the
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flower girl at her wedding. She and her husband John say nothing could have prepared them for the horrible news they
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got the morning after Michelle was killed. >> We just hugged and we couldn't believe
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she was gone. My dad was very stoic about it, but he was angry and my mother was just brokenhearted.
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[music] It was a devastating blow to parents who had been through so much with Michelle
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already. Janet Martino had suffered five miscarriages and was 44 years old when Michelle was born.
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>> It was great. I mean, it was just so exciting when my sister was born and she
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was the miracle baby. >> When she was 12, Michelle was diagnosed with scoliosis, a curvature of the
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spine. She had to wear a brace that went from her neck to her hips. >> She felt very different, very
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self-conscious. So, that was a tough period. >> But at age 14, she was able to shed the
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brace. And then Janelle says everything changed for Michelle. >> Farra Faucet was in with the hair and my
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sister always had the long blonde hair. So she thought, "Okay, I can do I can do
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the hair." You [laughter] know, >> Michelle was blissfully unaware. She was >> of all this uh attention that she was
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getting from men. >> She caught the eye of Andy Sidell, who at 16 was a year older than Michelle. We
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met him roller skating. >> Michelle's friend, Gail Dawson, remembers him, >> and there was this flashy
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sports car guy, you know. Michelle and Andy were together for 2 years and then broke up. Friends say she didn't want to
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be in a committed relationship. And Andy apparently didn't take it too well. >> After they broke up, he wanted to know
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her every move, who she was dating, why she was dating that particular person. He would talk to her friends.
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He just wouldn't go away. >> Police learned Andy had run into Michelle at the mall that fateful night.
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They brought him in for questioning. Did he have an alibi? >> Andy did have an alibi. Andy was at home
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shortly after the mall closed and his mom uh provided an alibi. The problem with Andy's alibi, though, is that
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moms would say a lot [music] to protect their children. Every male that knew her
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was a suspect that they had to clear. >> You must have been a suspect. >> I was.
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>> Mike Hayrick was questioned as well. And even though he was more than a 100 miles
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away at college when Michelle was murdered, police knew he had also dated her. >> All of it was a little intimidating. It
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was hard. It was scary. >> Mike says the police were tough on him. At one point they thought that I wasn't
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telling them everything and they laid the crime scene photos out in front of me and it was hurtful.
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>> Mike was never considered a serious suspect because he was not in Cedar Rapids at the time of the murder, but
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Andy was. And Andy's behavior at Michelle's funeral only reinforced many people's suspicions about him.
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>> He was almost in the casket. [music] He was so emotional. He has arms around her and he was just
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sobbing. And he said to me, "I have to know who she loved when she died. Did she love me or did she love Mike? Who
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did she love when she died?" >> But police had no hard evidence pointing to Andy Sidell. He left Cedar Rapids
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soon after high school and joined the Navy. There's a large amount of us that were convinced that he did kill her.
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>> I thought it was just a matter of time before he was arrested and charged. >> There was no one else.
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There really wasn't another suspect. [music] As police investigated those closest to
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Michelle Martino, looking for potential suspects, they were also looking at the possibility that Michelle may have been
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killed outside the mall by a stranger. She was out there and she was looking for a coat that her mom had put on
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layaway for her for Christmas and she was going to pay it off. >> Michelle had $186 with her to pay for
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the coat, but ultimately decided she didn't [music] want it. Tracy Price had run into her at the mall that night and
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gave her a protective warning when he saw her holding the cash. >> Put that away. You know, don't be
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flashing money out here in the middle of everybody. Tracy only learned later that Michelle
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was a little anxious that night. >> She was nervous about going out to the mall by herself and that she had told
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someone that she felt like she was being followed. >> You didn't notice anybody watching her,
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paying close attention to her. >> I never got that feeling. >> Michelle headed to her car in the dark.
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>> So, she was parked pretty far away. >> Yeah, she was parked a ways out here. I
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think she gets in. I think she probably turned that car on herself and and was warming it up for a minute to get the
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frost off the windows. And I think that in that moment before she puts it in drive and leaves, I think he's at the
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door, pops it open, pushes her over, and climbs in. >> Sounds like a robbery. >> On the surface, it would sound like a
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robbery, but she did have cash on her. It wasn't taken. She did have a a bag with some items she had purchased in the
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back seat. Those weren't taken. >> So, is it a sexual assault? It very well could have could have been the plan.
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>> Although the autopsy showed she was not sexually assaulted, [music] Michelle had defensive slice wounds on
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her hands and body. >> You have to assume that that pretty much any motive that you can logically think
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of was a possibility and that Michelle decided she wasn't going to allow that to happen. She fought.
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>> Whatever the motive, the asalent had come prepared. They found rubber glove indentations on
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the outside of the car in dirt. They found them inside the car in blood. It was clear that that person was trying to
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conceal their identity. [music] >> Investigators had no fingerprints, no witnesses, and few leads. Although they
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had a blood soaked crime scene, DNA technology was still years away. >> It's frustrating. [music] By 1986, this
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case is sitting on ice. It's that cold. No one can think of anything uh more to do at that point.
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>> Michelle's family was even more frustrated. >> It seemed that everybody had been looked
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at. >> We thought the investigation was pretty much dead in the water. >> It would take almost two decades, but
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the case would come alive again. In 2005, Detective Doug Larrison was in charge.
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Coincidentally, he had gone to high school with Michelle. Although they were not close, her murder had deeply
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affected him. >> So that had been on your mind since you were 18 years old. How do we get this
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solved? >> Right. I felt the responsibility towards my classmates actually to get this crime
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solved. >> In the years since Michelle's murder, DNA had emerged as a forensic tool.
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>> Technology changes, science changes. So I wanted to proceed and move the case
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forward. >> And Larrison did just that. He was reading Michelle's file when he discovered that sometime earlier,
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another detective had sent blood scrapings found on the gearshift of the car out for testing, but nobody had
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followed up on the results. And it just stays in the file until somebody finds it
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>> and it can get lost in the file. >> And until somebody actually sits down and reads the file, do they go, "Oh,
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wow. We have DNA." >> Those different investigators don't necessarily network with one another.
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But Larrison found that lab report and [music] it showed that not only did the gearshift have DNA, it was male DNA.
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>> He had probably cut himself and that's how his DNA [music] and his blood got mixed with her blood
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on the gear shift selector. >> Larrison then sent Michelle's dress, which had been safely tucked away in an
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evidence locker, [music] to the lab for further testing. >> What did they find? a spot of blood on
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her dress with a full male DNA profile and uh it was consistent with the male DNA profile on the gear shift selector.
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>> Larrison had identified a crucial piece of evidence. >> I think it's just common sense that
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that's probably your killer right there. >> Detectives had the evidence. Now all
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they needed was the suspect. >> We know we just need one person. We just need to get get lucky, you know, have
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the sunshine on us just one day when we find one person that matches that. >> But it would take many days, more than a
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decade. And it wasn't luck. It was cops who wouldn't quit until they finally narrowed in on one very surprising
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suspect. >> Oh boy. This is it. We have finally gotten down to the wire [music] on this.
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here in America's heartland for friends like Tracy [music] Price who saw Michelle Martino the last night of her
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life. >> Every anniversary it goes through your head, you know, here's another year.
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Still don't know >> for ex-boyfriend Mike Hyrick. >> We all were victims in a way.
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>> Well, your innocence was stolen. >> Yeah, >> exactly. >> Then the fear set in.
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>> And for close friend Gail Dawson, Michelle's murderer left a mark on all their lives.
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>> You're scared. You're afraid to go places. >> The killer had vanished. But by 2005,
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investigators were on to something new. Science [music] and that male DNA profile in Michelle's
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dress and the DNA from the blood on her car's gear shift. >> Would it be fair to say you found a
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needle in a hay stack? [music] >> I think there was a lot of needles in in a lot of hay stacks in this case.
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>> For lead investigator Doug Larrison, old evidence suddenly had fresh potential.
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He shipped the blood samples to Cotus. the nationwide database of DNA collected from arrested offenders. If Michelle's
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murderer had a previous record, >> Cotus will give us a hit and tell us who matches the profile.
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>> So, you send it to Cotus and what happens? >> Well, we never got a hit. >> Dead end.
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The DNA from Michelle's dress and car did not match up with anyone in the huge government file.
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>> So, now we had a job to do. Starting with locating all the people Cedar Rapids cops had originally
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interviewed. >> We collected DNA samples from over a hundred different people. >> Cops had to convince [music] them to
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take a DNA test. >> It was timeconuming. >> Mike Hyrick and Tracy Price were tested.
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Both came up negative. At the top of Larrison's list was Michelle's old boyfriend, Andy Sidell.
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>> I think he was probably the main suspect from the very [music] beginning of this
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case. Andy Sidell had lived for 27 years with many in his hometown believing he was a killer.
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>> I said, "Listen, Andy, if you give us your DNA and it doesn't match, then you're
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eliminated. You're cleared." So, he voluntarily gave his DNA and he was eliminated.
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But whoever ended Michelle's life left a different but lasting mark on Andy. Michelle's parents both died before that
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DNA test exonerated him. They likely went to their graves believing Andy was their daughter's killer.
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>> I feel very bad about that. >> Andy was a victim himself because [music] many, many fingers were pointing
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at Andy. >> Larrison moved on. classmates, friends, family searching for a match with that
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male DNA. >> So, you do a hundred different people, what comes back? >> Everybody's eliminated.
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>> No matches. >> It had been 10 frustrating years for detective Doug Larrison. >> I was kind of burned out. So, I went to
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my supervisors and I said, "Hey, I think you need to get somebody to replace me on this case."
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>> One of these had the FBI profile in it. >> And that's when Matt came in. >> Matt Deninger, Harvey's son. that second
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generation searching for Michelle's killer. In 2015, he took over as lead detective.
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>> They would tell you our computer records only go back to 1990. >> Facts hadn't changed, but DNA technology
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had once again advanced further, offering tanalyzing possibilities. >> We've got this DNA profile. How can we
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get more information from it? Can we find out eye color, hair color, race? Deninger reached across the country to
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Virginia's Parabon Nano Labs >> and they said, "Yeah, we know what you're trying to do and guess what? We
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can make a picture of a potential suspect from that DNA sample." >> Did you think that that could be
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possible? >> No. No. I had no good concept that that was possible. Um, it sounded a little bit
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sci-fi, but I was ready to try. We had to do something. [music] >> The portrait was striking. Parabon
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called the technique snapshot. It put a face on a phantom. >> What we learned from that is our suspect
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was probably a white male, blonde hair, blue eyes. >> This first image let's show you here.
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>> And so we had a press conference. >> Investigators had narrowed down the suspect's genetics, but they did not
00:21:08
know his age or have a clue as to how he wore his hair. So different sketches were created, each with a different
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look. [music] A town hungry for justice searched its memory for a match. >> Do you get a lot of tip calls?
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>> We got hundreds. >> Any of them pan out? >> No. It's every blondhaired, blue-eyed
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guy that ever walked the face of the earth and step foot in Iowa. >> Are you just confused?
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>> I was really confused and I did not know where to go next. That answer came from an infamous but
00:21:52
totally unrelated case. California's so-called Golden State Killer. Joseph D'Angelo was arrested in 2018, charged
00:22:01
with a decadesl long spree of serial murder and rape. >> That was big news. [music] That was big
00:22:06
national news. Then I read the article and it talked about genetic genealogy >> and you went bingo.
00:22:12
>> I went bingo. >> Genetic genealogy. the charting of DNA from one family member to another, a DNA
00:22:21
family tree. Parabon was ready to test that same DNA one more time. >> They said, "We'll use the sample you
00:22:28
already gave us for the uh snapshot images." I said, "Let's do it." >> Parabon searched a public national
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database called Jed Match of people who submitted their own DNA voluntarily to trace their own personal [music] family
00:22:43
tree. And in July of 2018, we got a report back from him. They said, "Good [music] news. We found a relative of
00:22:51
your killer." [music] >> Brandy Jennings is our gal in Vancouver, Washington. >> She's the second cousin, right? Once
00:22:58
removed. >> Exactly. >> Brandy Jennings, an office manager and single mom, was a distant relative to
00:23:05
the male whose DNA was found on Michelle's bloody dress and in her car. >> So, you start with her.
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>> We start with her. Deninger spent months building Bry's family tree all the way
00:23:17
back to her great greatgrandparents. >> We used genealological records, [music] birth records, marriage records,
00:23:24
gravestone records, anything we could find to fill in a bunch of these unknowns. As more blood relatives of
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Brandy Jennings provided their DNA, a genetic puzzle filled in and the detective reached out to Parabon once
00:23:38
again >> and they recalibrated things and said, "Listen, [music] we think your best odds
00:23:43
are these three brothers who live in Iowa. >> Three brothers, all from Iowa, all
00:23:50
likely sharing some DNA with the blood found in Michelle Martino's car. A 38-year trail was heading straight back
00:23:59
home. >> 20 minutes away. I was pretty excited about this one. By October of 2018, Detective Matt
00:24:22
Denlinger's painstaking ancestry searches had narrowed the suspects down to three brothers in Iowa, and all of
00:24:29
them were still alive. >> We immediately started doing [music] research on these three brothers. Donald
00:24:36
Burns, Kenneth Burns, and Jerry Burns. >> Deninger and his team set up a plan. They would collect DNA samples from the
00:24:44
brothers to see if any were a match. and they would do it without them knowing. >> You think one of them's a suspect, you
00:24:52
can't tell any of the three. >> Not only can I not tell any of the three, but I was careful who I told in
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general. Iowa is not the biggest state in the union, and you never know who knows who.
00:25:04
>> They followed one brother to lunch and grabbed his straw. For the second, a toothbrush was collected from his
00:25:09
garbage. And then the third brother, Jerry, >> we drove up to Manchester. We had
00:25:16
already established kind of a pattern or or some locations to try to find him. >> After a couple of hours, he spotted
00:25:23
Jerry Burns at this pizza restaurant. >> He drank at least two sodas out of a glass with a straw.
00:25:30
>> All three brothers samples were sent to the lab. Don and Kenneth were not a match, but the results showed Jerry
00:25:38
Burns's DNA was an exact match. For Deninger, the message was clear. >> I I [music] was definitely speechless.
00:25:48
I'm almost speechless today thinking about it. >> It turns out that Parabon sketch of the
00:25:53
suspect was very similar to a young Jerry Burns. But Burns wasn't an obvious suspect.
00:26:01
>> We are not finding any connection at all. No connection to Michelle. No connection to that car.
00:26:08
Even more baffling, Jerry Burns's resume was the opposite of a cold-blooded killer. He had no criminal record and
00:26:16
was even a respected businessman with a wife and three kids. Deninger picked a particular day to
00:26:24
interview Burns at his business. >> Hello. >> December 19th, 2018. >> Hey, how are you today, Jerry? My name's
00:26:32
Matt from the Cedar Rapids Police Department. Exactly 39 years to the day after Michelle was murdered.
00:26:39
>> I wanted to rattle him. I wanted to bring that up during the interview and see if that would do anything to him.
00:26:46
Copy of the >> using a hidden camera inside a coffee mug. Deninger tried to get a confession.
00:26:52
>> The reality is we have your DNA at the crime scene and so we know you were there that night this happened. How
00:26:58
[snorts] would we get your DNA at the crime scene there, Jerry? >> I don't know. But Jerry acknowledged he
00:27:03
had been to the mall with his family in the past. >> Did you go to Westdale Mall?
00:27:08
>> Oh yeah, we've gone to Westdale Mall. >> Although Jerry couldn't remember when he
00:27:12
was at the mall, Danglinger continued to press him. >> Jerry, what happened that night?
00:27:17
>> I don't know. >> Despite Burns's denials, the DNA was enough to arrest him for the murder of
00:27:23
Michelle Martino. >> Anything you say can will be used to get you in a court of law. On the ride back
00:27:30
to Cedar Rapids, a camera was rolling again. This time in the police car and Deninger believes Jerry offered
00:27:38
something revealing. >> He said a few things about blocking stuff out, traumatic events. I
00:27:45
>> think it's possible it's happened to something like that would be possible. Block things out your memories.
00:27:53
>> You're a homicide detective. Your gut tells you something. What does your gut
00:27:56
say? My gut told me the second he refused to deny [music] it or give me a plausible explanation that we had the
00:28:03
right guy. >> For Michelle's [music] sister Janelle, news of the DNA match and the arrest
00:28:09
signaled hope. And a day she and her husband John thought would never come. >> We were just hooping and hollering and
00:28:18
we were just talking and talking. We were just so excited. But for the Burns family, it all came as
00:28:26
a complete shock. Jerry's daughter Jennifer and his brother Dawn could not believe the man they know and love could
00:28:34
ever be capable of such a gruesome act. [music] >> We did not believe it. This could not be
00:28:40
our dad. >> He couldn't have done it. There was just no way. I mean, he was he was always
00:28:45
there for his family. >> Circumstances just made it highly improbable from our perspective. First
00:28:49
of all, there was no connection between Jerry and Michelle Martino. None. >> Leon Spees is Jerry Burns attorney. He
00:28:57
believes his client's demeanor during the police interview wasn't out of the ordinary.
00:29:02
>> I challenge anybody to to predict how any person is going to react, let alone
00:29:08
react being caught out of the blue with an investigator trying to attribute them
00:29:13
to a a horrible, horrible crime. He did not commit this murder. >> In February of 2020, Michelle Martino's
00:29:22
accused killer went on trial more than four decades after her murder. Due to the buzz surrounding the [music] case in
00:29:29
Cedar Rapids, the judge granted a venue change to Davenport, Iowa, [music] an hour away.
00:29:35
>> The evidence will show that Michelle Martino was murdered that night by the defendant, Jerry Burns.
00:29:43
Prosecutor Nick Maybanks felt the weight of his hometown on his shoulders. >> A lot of eyes on this case. There are
00:29:50
generations that grew up with this story >> and the generation who lived through the
00:29:56
horror and [music] suspicion. always seemed to be happy. >> Several of Michelle's friends were
00:30:00
called to testify, including Michelle's ex-boyfriend and [music] once prime suspect Andy Sidell, who says he and
00:30:08
Michelle were on good terms. The last time they saw each other, >> there was no reason for us to to part
00:30:14
ways [music] in a bad way. We just kind of grew apart as we evolved, growing into adulthood. Do you swear or
00:30:22
>> Mike Hayrick was also called and had to relive Michelle's murder all over again.
00:30:27
>> This trial was hard on me for a lot of us. Brought it all back into focus in a
00:30:32
way that it hadn't been in focus since those early, early days. >> This was a random act of violence
00:30:38
committed by a stranger. >> From the start, the prosecution faced a number of hurdles. The case and the
00:30:45
evidence were decades old. tried to take 40 years of investigation and condense it into a story.
00:30:54
>> And a lot of things about this suspect didn't make sense. >> What's that like for you? You have a
00:31:00
suspect who has no criminal background that we're aware of. >> Mhm. >> And this heinous crime that looks
00:31:07
extremely personal, >> right? Yeah. >> You have no story. >> I don't. Yeah. And after he was
00:31:13
interviewed, we didn't have much of a story either. A story the Burns family believes was problematic from the start.
00:31:20
>> They wanted an explanation of how his DNA got there. Well, how is he supposed
00:31:24
to know from 40 years ago? You know, I can't even remember what I did last week every day.
00:31:29
>> So, would you say it's impossible that Jerry murdered Michelle? >> I'd say it is. There's absolutely no way
00:31:35
it could have happened. >> I don't think there's any way that my dad could have done this.
00:31:40
The [music] prosecution's case hinged on that one critical piece of evidence. Jerry Burns DNA. [music]
00:31:48
>> We got the science. We got the guy. There's a one in 100 billion chance that it could be somebody else's. There's
00:31:54
only 8 billion people or so in the world. >> But Leon Spees argues the DNA evidence
00:32:00
isn't foolproof. >> There are lots of misconceptions about DNA. It's not the silver bullet that law
00:32:05
enforcement often portrays it to be. As the state's case wound down, prosecutor Nick Maybanks had one last
00:32:23
card to play. He called a new witness, Michael Allison, a drug offender who had become friendly with Jerry Burns in
00:32:31
jail. >> Yes, I [music] do. >> I asked him directly if I asked him, Jerry, did you do do the crime? and he
00:32:38
said, "I can't talk about this." [music] >> But Burns did say something curious.
00:32:44
>> He feels like uh no matter what happens in this case that he he wins because he
00:32:50
had had the opportunity to be out there with his family all these years. >> Allison said Jerry later made another
00:32:57
comment while they were playing cards that disturbed him so much he volunteered to testify.
00:33:04
He had told me if I keep beating him in peuckle, he was going to have to take me
00:33:07
to the mall. It disgusted me. >> In his defense case, Leon Spees calls only one witness, Dr. Michael Spence, a
00:33:17
molecular biologist. [music] He says while there is no doubt the DNA in Michelle's car belonged to Jerry Burns,
00:33:24
how it got there was another matter. >> Is it, Dr. suspense [clears throat] a plausible explanation that the DNA of
00:33:34
Jerry Burns could have come about by a transfer. >> Yes, that's a distinct possibility.
00:33:41
>> Every time you come into contact with something, you're shedding DNA. You're leaving a biological trail of yourself.
00:33:47
She was in a shopping mall before she was killed. A shopping mall that the Burns family had used. She sat down with
00:33:53
a friend at a food court, a food court that Jerry Burns and his family may have sat at.
00:33:59
But how did Jerry's DNA end up on the Buick's gear shift? Jerry's brother, Don Burns, believes there could be an
00:34:07
innocent explanation. >> He worked in a dealership that sold Buick cars. So, there is a possibility
00:34:14
that if if records show that that car went through that dealership, his DNA could be in that car.
00:34:22
>> But Detective Matt Deninger isn't buying it. My question for them would be, did the
00:34:28
dress go to the dealership, too? This is this fantasy world. Common sense says that that's not the case.
00:34:35
>> Impossible. >> Impossible. >> Ladies and gentlemen, the jury, good morning. >> In his final arguments, prosecutor
00:34:44
Maybanks tells the jury there was only one way Jerry Burns's DNA got into that car. There was no chance of outside
00:34:54
contamination on this dress. We know how it happened and we know who did it. >> In his closing argument, SPE attacks the
00:35:05
integrity of the investigation. >> You can consider not only the evidence, but also the lack or the failure of
00:35:11
evidence produced by the prosecution. and he tells jurors to consider how unlikely it is that a man like Jerry
00:35:18
could commit a crime like this. The state scenario here is that Jerry Burns, a married man with two young children at
00:35:27
home, leaves, drives to Cedar Rapids, Iowa in the night, leaving his wife and children behind,
00:35:36
armed with a knife, armed with rubber gloves, goes to Westdale Mall on the chance that he's going to encounter
00:35:45
Michelle Marteo, designs to kill her, and then leaves and drives comes back home splattered with
00:35:52
blood, presumably with a knife wound in his hand. That's the scenario the government wants you to believe.
00:36:01
>> The jury begins deliberations on a Monday afternoon. >> Remember, you are the judges of the
00:36:07
facts. >> Nerves are on edge. >> I was not thinking [music] slam dunk. All it takes is one juror to have a hung
00:36:14
jury. >> But just 3 hours later, >> I said, "We have a verdict." So, we rush into the courtroom, sit down, [panting]
00:36:22
and we wait. >> Thank you. We, the [music] jury, find the defendant, Jerry Lynn Burns, guilty of
00:36:34
the charge of murder in the first degree. Guilty. The courtroom was silent. We almost couldn't breathe. It was just
00:36:50
amazing. It was fabulous. We were aware of how quiet it was on Jerry's side and that there was no
00:37:02
reaction. Unfair. >> I'd say I was stunned. The verdict came back so fast. I don't know if the jury
00:37:10
really took time to look at the facts. >> What do you feel in that moment? Extreme relief. The weight of the world
00:37:19
was off my shoulders now. >> Harvey Deninger, the investigator who was there at the beginning of the case
00:37:26
40 years earlier, saw his son help end it. >> I'm [music] proud as heck of him. >> I really am proud to to get an answer,
00:37:36
you know, while he can he [music] can still appreciate it. >> He said today how proud he is of you.
00:37:43
Well, all right. We're going to take a break. >> Finally, there was an answer to the
00:37:51
question that had haunted Cedar Rapids for so long. But there is a lingering question. Was Michelle Martino Jerry's
00:38:00
only victim? >> I just seen something about Jodie Husen Troop recently. >> In his interview with Deninger, Burns
00:38:07
randomly mentioned the name of Jodie Husen Troop. You are watching News Channel 3 Daybreak.
00:38:12
>> She was a blonde news anchor kidnapped near her car in a parking lot in 1995 and never found. She worked in Mason
00:38:20
City, Iowa, [music] 2 hours from where Burns lived, though there is no evidence he knew her.
00:38:26
>> Do you suspect that Jerry Burns was involved in other crimes? >> I don't know the answer to that. My gut
00:38:35
tells me there's probably something else out there. Mason City police will not disclose
00:38:40
whether they are investigating Burns in the Who's and Trude disappearance and his DNA is not connected to any other
00:38:47
cases. But in Michelle Martino's case, she played a unique role in revealing her killer.
00:38:55
>> She fought so hard that she caused the murderer to cut himself. He left his DNA
00:39:01
and so Michelle helped solve her own murder. >> This human right here Four decades after Michelle's death, her
00:39:10
friends, family, and generations of investigators gathered to celebrate her memory.
00:39:17
>> This case wasn't isn't just about her death, it's about her life. >> Nick Maybanks worded it the best. I
00:39:22
mean, he said it's not about how she died, it's about how she lived. >> You can't help but wonder
00:39:31
where life would have led her. Her name will be forever etched in local history as part of Cedar Rapids most
00:39:38
haunting crime. >> You've been a prosecutor for 20 years. Is this the biggest case you've ever
00:39:44
had? >> Yeah. Every case you want justice, but a case like this touched so many people
00:39:49
over so many years. There'll never be another one like it. [music] >> [music] [music]
00:40:35
[music] >> This is a case about betrayal. murder and a cover up. On April 16th, 1960,
00:40:52
Irene God went to Sacred Heart Church in Macallen seeking to save her soul. Instead, she was suffocated.
00:41:03
And you're going to find out that the man who did this is John Fight. There may be people who don't understand
00:41:15
why an old man is being prosecuted. He looks like everyone's grandfather, but make no mistake, this is an evil man. He
00:41:22
was a predator. >> He was a wolf in priest's clothing, looking to attack. [music]
00:41:31
>> She was not only beautiful physically, she had a beautiful soul. I think she just loved her faith. I
00:41:42
[music] don't think she thought of it in terms of, oh, look how religious I am. It was like, this was [music] my life.
00:41:50
Down here, it's a primarily Catholic community and and Easter is the high holiday. [music]
00:41:58
Irene on Holy Saturday with the church packed with everybody trying to cleanse their soul in this
00:42:05
confessional about 7 o'clock walked in. She would never again be seen leaving that church. They'd later find her body
00:42:17
in an irrigation canal thrown like a piece [music] of trash. >> Irene was found 5 days after she
00:42:22
disappeared. >> And what had the killer done to her? She was uh sexually assaulted,
00:42:28
physically assaulted, [music] and she died of suffocation. >> Back then, the the church was very
00:42:33
powerful. It was unheard of to be [music] accusing a priest. You know, you just didn't do that.
00:42:37
>> My father that was a deputy sheriff at that time. He approached his superior and asked him why is nothing being done
00:42:46
and he was told to just step away from the case. Just step away. Let [music] us take care of it. Did the Catholic Church
00:42:54
in those days have the power to prevent a suspect in a murder case from being arrested?
00:43:00
>> Yes. >> The case died. It was a cold case. [music] >> Is this the man that you knew as John
00:43:19
Fe? >> Yes. He was perhaps the key witness [music] in the case. >> He assaulted her, bound her, and gagged
00:43:26
her. As he left, he could hear her saying, "I can't breathe. I can't breathe." >> We got a word for that in Texas.
00:43:34
>> What's that? >> There isn't any forensic evidence that affirmatively linked John Fight to this
00:43:40
crime in any way. >> You will see her clothing. >> Is there any evidence of DNA? The
00:43:48
evidence will show you no. You will see her purse. >> Is there any evidence of fingerprints?
00:43:52
The evidence will show you no. >> You will see her shoes. >> There wasn't enough evidence then.
00:43:59
There won't be enough evidence now. >> I don't expect that there'd be another case like [music] this ever come around
00:44:05
in my lifetime. >> The institution who was in the business of seeking salvation was complicit in
00:44:12
covering up this murder. It was a case worth losing. It was worth taking a risk. It's [music] a story that needed
00:44:19
to be told. [music] [music] [music] 48 hours. sins of the Father. [music] Assistant District Attorney Mike Garza
00:45:00
is not part of Irene Garza's family, but Irene Garza's story has been part of almost everyone's life in Macallen for
00:45:09
generations. >> Kind of grew to folklore, kind of grew of legend about a girl that, you know,
00:45:14
went to confession and, you know, never left. The story of the priest accused of
00:45:21
killing a parishioner is finally being heard in a courtroom [music] after nearly 60 years. Does your
00:45:28
Catholicism make it more difficult [music] for you to go after this guy? >> The church seeks to do good. It's the
00:45:34
men in the church and the men at that time that did wrong. It became clear that on April 16th,
00:45:43
1960, John Fe murdered Irene Gasa. He did this with malice of forethought. >> At 85 years old, former priest John Fe
00:45:55
hardly looks like the heartless killer the state says he was. In 1960, it was a rainy Easter Sunday.
00:46:06
Sylvia Asdo Stern was then 18 when she received some news about her childhood friend Irene that she has difficulty
00:46:15
talking about still. >> We were all very scared and it was just this scary unknown
00:46:26
that someone you knew and that you loved had disappeared. [bell] 25-year-old Irene Garza had gone to
00:46:37
confession at Sacred Heart Church the night before and had failed to return to her parents' home where she still lived.
00:46:46
>> That was not like Irene. She checked in all the time. >> Parishioners had spotted Irene earlier
00:46:52
that night putting on a lace veil, kneeling in a pew, and in a confession line, but no one ever said they saw her
00:47:01
leaving the church grounds. Uh, people remembered her. Whether she was your neighbor, whether your wife was jealous
00:47:08
of her, people knew her. Irene had been crowned prom and homecoming queen at the local college
00:47:18
and Miss All South Texas sweetheart. No, Pon Seagler was part of Irene's extended
00:47:26
[music] family. Do Do you remember how you felt about her? I mean, what what she meant
00:47:31
to you? She stood [music] out. She was elegant. >> But Irene was far more than just a
00:47:38
pretty face. She was a trailblazer, says her cousin, Linda Deavvenia. >> She and her [music] sister Josie were
00:47:47
the first uh Mexican-American twirlers in history of Macallen High School. And then ultimately she became the drum
00:47:54
majorette, the [music] first Mexican-American drum majorette. Irene had been the first in her family to go
00:48:00
to college and graduate school. She became a second grade teacher and chose to work with Macallen's poorest
00:48:08
students. >> Often times she would use part of her salary to buy buy them school supplies
00:48:14
to buy them things that they needed. >> And Irene was generous with her own family. Linda was just nine, but she
00:48:20
still remembers their last conversation. She had Easter baskets for us and my brother and I were excited and jumping
00:48:29
up and down because we just knew that she would not have forgotten us. >> But before Easter Sunday, Irene had to
00:48:35
go to confession at Sacred Heart Church. Religion played a central role in her life.
00:48:42
>> Every Sunday she'd go to church. >> Every Sunday, every Saturday she'd go to confession.
00:48:49
It was a little bit of a family thing. And Irene's going to confession whether she needs it or not. You know,
00:48:54
>> when she disappeared, the search for Irene Garza was huge. 70 members of the Hidalgo County
00:49:02
Sheriff's Posi, many on horseback, fanned out looking for Irene. And one of them [music] was Noamy's father.
00:49:11
>> That man wouldn't even sleep trying to find Irene. Sylvia remained at the Garza home for
00:49:18
days after Irene vanished. She says at first everyone tried to hold on to hope, but then Irene's purse was found near a
00:49:29
dirt road. >> Is this the purse that you recall that was brought to the house? >> Yes.
00:49:35
>> The news only got worse. Just up the road, they found Irene's shoe. >> Is that Irene's shoe?
00:49:43
>> Yes, sir. And the shoe was it was a killer. >> Then 5 days after she vanished,
00:49:54
everyone's worst fear was confirmed when Irene's body was found floating in an irrigation canal.
00:50:03
>> And I just remember her mother just dissolving. I mean, I just saw her just bending over in pain.
00:50:14
Irene was still partially dressed, but her blouse was unbuttoned and her underwear was missing. The autopsy
00:50:21
showed she had been beaten and sexually assaulted. >> That was showed that she was killed by
00:50:27
exfixiation, probably suffocation. >> At first, there were few leads at the crime scene, just an imprint of Irene's
00:50:35
pett coat on the canal bank and a partial heel print from a man's shoe. But two weeks later, police discovered a
00:50:45
curious clue. They drained the canal and on the bottom, they found this, a photo
00:50:52
slide viewer. The police turned to the public for help in identifying the owner. Two days
00:50:59
later, they received a note from Father John Fe, a visiting priest from the missionary oblates of Mary Immaculate.
00:51:08
John Fe writes a letter saying that slide viewer belongs to me. >> Why in the world [music] would he tell
00:51:13
the police, "Yeah, that's that's my slide viewer." I think it was taunting. >> Taunting the police.
00:51:19
>> Taunting the police. >> Police only grew more suspicious of the 27year-old priest when he gave them
00:51:25
different stories about that night. At first, he said he had not heard her confession at all.
00:51:32
>> He changes it by saying later, "I took her confession in the rectory." And there were other peculiarities. Fight
00:51:40
had been staying temporarily at the rectory to help with the busy Easter holiday, but he kept going back to the
00:51:47
pastoral house where he lived [music] just a few miles away. Six times in a 24-hour period. He used excuses [music]
00:51:55
like breaking his glasses, needing to get clean clothes, u different things that became very suspicious.
00:52:03
And father Joseph O'Brien, the assistant pastor, told police that fight had some
00:52:09
injuries the night Irene disappeared. >> He noticed some scratches on his hands,
00:52:14
some scratches that ran vertically down his hands and on the top of his arms. >> Father fight said he had been locked out
00:52:21
of the pastoral house and had scratched his hands climbing up to the second floor balcony. They were on the back of
00:52:28
his hands. And I guess this gentleman climbs the wall like this. But he said he got them climbing a wall.
00:52:36
>> They had a pretty good case against him. Why wasn't he arrested? He was protected
00:52:42
>> by >> by the hierarchy of the Catholic Church. [bell] >> [bell] >> It's always been very difficult.
00:53:11
>> In the days after Irene Garza's murder, Sylvia Asdo Stern was struggling not just with grief, but also with guilt. On
00:53:20
the Saturday she vanished, Irene called Sylvia's [music] house, hoping she could accompany her to
00:53:25
confession. But Sylvia wasn't home. >> That day might have been different if I had been with her.
00:53:35
She might not have gone to the rectory. >> But why had Irene agreed to go to the
00:53:42
rectory that night? >> Your honor, at this time, the state should call Anna Maria Hollingsworth. A
00:53:47
new witness, Anna Maria Hollingsworth, testified that Father Fight, had pulled Irene out of the confessional before.
00:53:55
>> It's not the same, she says, going to confession anymore because I don't get to stay in the confessional.
00:54:00
>> He had pulled her out of the confessional, told her she was too good to confess in the confessional, and took
00:54:07
her to the rectory. >> Anna Maria says her friend Irene seemed confused by Fight's insistence. If
00:54:14
that's true, why would she have gone with him to the rectory on that Saturday evening?
00:54:19
>> Because he was a priest and you didn't fear priests back then. She had no reason to suspect he was going to do
00:54:27
something violent or sexual to her. >> What angers Mike Garza is that he says the church had warning signs about
00:54:34
fight. >> Just three weeks before Irene was killed, a woman named Maria America Gara
00:54:42
had been attacked. in a nearby church. >> A man that she had seen came up behind
00:54:49
her, tried to stuff a rag in her mouth, threw her to the ground, and at that point she was able to bite his finger so
00:54:57
hard that she tasted blood in her mouth and get away. >> Although the church suspected fight, he
00:55:04
was not turned in. Mike Garza says a source told him the solution was to send fight a few miles away to Irene's family
00:55:13
parish. What was the point of that? >> I guess to keep an eye on him, I guess to protect him at the time. They
00:55:19
certainly weren't going to turn to protect him. >> So, did he behave himself up until the
00:55:24
time that you believe he killed Irene Garza? >> No. >> Is that what you look like when you were
00:55:30
about 20 years old? >> Yes. Garza found another new witness, Beatatric Garcia, who says in the weeks
00:55:36
before Irene Garza was murdered, she had a bizarre encounter with Father Fight. >> I was walking to work, a car approached
00:55:45
me and I said, "Can I help you, sir?" And he said, "I would love to take a picture of you dressed in black by the
00:55:54
cemetery." >> And that man in the car, who was it? He was um the priest. That's him right
00:56:02
there. >> He liked a certain look in a woman. You know, America Gera, Beatatrice
00:56:11
Garcia, Irene Garza, they all looked the same. America was a violent attack and maybe
00:56:20
he got a little taste of it then and was looking for his next victim. And Garza says that victim ended up
00:56:28
being Irene. Yet despite the evidence against fight at the time, the case seemed to stall.
00:56:36
No Pon Seagler recalls finding her father, one of the original investigators, very upset. One day,
00:56:45
>> I saw him sitting in a chair with a white handkerchief and he was crying. No says her father had been told his
00:56:53
superiors would take over the investigation. Around that time, Irene's parents got a
00:57:00
visit from Father O'Brien of Sacred Heart Church. >> The church tried to plate them saying,
00:57:07
you know, even if it is him, we're going to take care of him. He would find justice within the church if it was him.
00:57:13
Irene's family had long suspected that there had been a conspiracy between the authorities and the church to protect
00:57:20
fight. They could never prove it then. >> I'm showing you what's been marked as states exhibit 108.
00:57:27
>> But the state says there is proof now. >> I was stunned. I felt like I had a smoking gun at that point.
00:57:36
>> It's a letter written in 1960 from one church official to another. Garza says
00:57:42
this is proof that the church and the Catholic sheriff at the time, EE Vickers, conspired to undermine the
00:57:49
Irene Garza investigation. >> At some point, the sheriff would meet with the DA and explain to them what a
00:57:55
weak case uh they had against him in an effort to get it dropped. >> In the letter, they were concerned about
00:58:01
how the case might not only affect the church, but also the campaign of Catholic presidential candidate John F.
00:58:09
Kennedy. There are also political implications to this that could make this a juicy scandal for the opposition
00:58:16
to Kennedy. >> Father Thomas Doyle, a leading expert on clergy abuse, analyzed the letter for
00:58:22
the jury. >> And I believe I found in every paragraph some element that I found very unusual,
00:58:28
but pointed to an attempt to cover this up, to make it go away. But there was no getting away from Maria
00:58:36
America Gar's accusation because she had identified Fight. A year after Irene's death, he stood trial for attempting to
00:58:45
rape Gar, but the jury deadlocked. Rather than face a second trial, Fight pled no contest in 1962
00:58:54
to a lesser charge, aggravated assault. >> And what happened to him? >> He was fined $500.
00:59:02
>> $500. 500 bucks. >> The state calls Daryl Davis. >> And Daryl Davis says he knows how that
00:59:09
happened. >> And who is that young man standing there? >> That's Daryl Davis, Channel 5 News.
00:59:16
>> Davis is now a local attorney. But back in 1962, he was a young TV reporter who
00:59:23
had covered the Maria America Gara plea in this very courtroom. that the clock that's on the back of that wall there
00:59:30
>> still there after 57 years. >> Davis says around that time he and several other reporters were summoned to
00:59:38
an off thereord meeting with Robert Latimore who was then the district attorney.
00:59:46
>> He said, "We know the verbatim. We know that father fight killed Irene Garza."
00:59:54
And I remember he said and the church knows that he killed Irene Garza. So we have made some arrangements.
01:00:04
Davis says in exchange for that plea in the Maria America Gara case fight would not be prosecuted in the Irene Garza
01:00:12
case [music] and the church would send him away. He said the church is going to [music]
01:00:19
put him in a monastery for disturbed or troubled priests and he will be kept there for the rest of his life.
01:00:31
And so father fight disappeared from the area. The case was buried. Irene's parents died without knowing that
01:00:40
decades later it would be brought back to the surface. by a former monk. >> I covered up the evidence. I'm sorry for
01:00:51
what I did. Your honor, the state of Texas were called Dale Tashnney. Dale Tashnney is
01:01:08
88 years old, a former monk from Oklahoma, and now the star witness at John Fight's murder trial. Tashnney has
01:01:18
waited years to be able to take the stand. >> Do you remember what you were feeling at
01:01:23
that moment? >> Relief. >> Relief. >> This was my chance to tell what I knew, what I remembered. In 2002, 42 years
01:01:33
after the murder of Irene Garza, Tashnney sent a letter to the San Antonio police saying he had information
01:01:41
about the death of an unnamed woman in the 1960s on Easter weekend. >> She went to confession to to the priest.
01:01:50
After hearing her confession, he assaulted her, bound her, and gagged her. >> The priest's name was John Fe.
01:02:00
The San Antonio police knew nothing about the case, but the Texas Rangers did. It just so happened the cold case had
01:02:09
been reopened that year and Ranger Rudy Harmo had been working on it without much luck. And then Dale Tashnney came
01:02:19
along. >> That's a huge break for you. >> Right. >> Harmo got in touch with Tashnney and was
01:02:25
amazed by what he heard. Even though Tashnney didn't know the name of the victim and had the incorrect date and
01:02:32
city, Haramo was certain Tashnney was talking about the murder of Irene Garza. Back in 1963, Tashnney was a monk at the
01:02:43
Assumption Abbey in Ava, Missouri. >> [singing] >> He says his superior ordered him to
01:02:56
counsel a young priest named John Fe who had just arrived at the monastery with an unusual story.
01:03:05
>> I was told that he had killed a woman and then asked if we could see if he would fit in in the monastery and
01:03:13
possibly become a monk. And I said >> a murderer become a monk >> as >> Did that seem odd to you? to me. Yes.
01:03:22
>> Tashnney says over the course of many months, Father fight told him about that
01:03:27
attack. >> After confession, he took her blouse off. He fondled her breasts and then
01:03:35
after that he took her down in the basement and somehow she remained in the basement. I assumed that he that he tied
01:03:44
her up down there. Tashnney says fight told him he later moved her from the rectory to another location
01:03:51
>> the next day Easter Sunday I believe it was and he put her in the bathroom put her in the tub and he had put her in
01:04:01
a bag or something overhead >> some sort of a plastic bag >> I don't fully remember but when he was
01:04:08
leaving he heard her saying I can't breathe I can't breathe with Daddy, he shut the door and left.
01:04:17
When he came back, he opened the bathroom door and she was dead. And then with the body, he dumped the
01:04:24
body along the road by a canal. >> Despite hearing all this, Tashnney says he did not call police then because he
01:04:32
felt his only job was to counsel the priest. But it soon became clear that fight was not a good fit at the
01:04:40
Assumption Abbey. And he eventually was sent to another monastery in New Mexico.
01:04:46
>> Send him out the door. >> Yes. >> Knowing what you knew? >> Yes. Buried as much of it as I could.
01:04:54
>> Tashnney eventually left the priesthood, got married, and raised a family. But in
01:05:00
the early 2000s, he says he had a crisis of conscience and could no longer carry
01:05:06
the burden of John Fight's story. Did you know Irene Garza? >> No. >> As the jury listened, Tashnney shared
01:05:15
his story and the pain he felt for denying answers to Irene's family. >> Did you know her parents?
01:05:23
>> No, but I knew she had parents. Okay, we move on to Centinos. But it took 15 years from the time
01:05:45
Tashnney first came forward to get him in front of a jury. And this man, Renee Gara, is a big part of the reason why.
01:05:54
>> But you don't believe Fight ever confessed to him? >> I don't believe so. >> Gar was the DA in 2002 when Tashnney
01:06:01
came forward. He refused to charge Fight. We spoke to him in 2013. >> I mean, why would he make up this
01:06:09
conversation? >> I don't know. >> But why what makes you think he did? >> The fact that he had no specifics.
01:06:17
>> But Tashnney was not the only new witness at the time. Ranger Harmo had also tracked down Father O'Brien, who
01:06:24
said fight had also admitted guilt to him. Jammo recorded an interview with O'Brien
01:06:31
in which he matched many of the details in Tash's account. >> Did he put her anywhere that to hide her
01:06:38
to place her in, you know, anywhere where he might have to bet? So, did he tell you how he killed her?
01:06:47
She died from the gagging. >> Garb did not believe Father O'Brien either. He says O'Brien had been
01:06:54
diagnosed with a form of dementia. Is he misunderstanding and fabricating in his
01:06:59
mind a story that he might have heard about, might have read about? >> Harmo felt O'Brien was clear-minded, but
01:07:08
Renee Gar would not bend. Linda de Lavinia remembers he confronted her as she and Noami Pon Seagler tried to push
01:07:17
him to prosecute. And I'll never forget, he put his finger in my in my face and said, "You know, you'll never get an
01:07:27
indictment. You'll get one when pigs fly." >> Linda and No. Amy refused to back down.
01:07:33
And in 2004, Gara finally seemed to give into the public pressure, and his office
01:07:38
took the case to a grand jury. But jurors would only be given audio tapes and transcripts of what Father O'Brien
01:07:46
and Dale Tashny told investigators. They were never called to testify in person.
01:07:53
>> The charge has been made that you could have called them and that you didn't do
01:07:57
it in this case cuz you didn't want to prosecute this case. Irene Gar's family saying that's what the police. There's
01:08:03
some interested parties that are saying that >> the grand jury did not charge John fight
01:08:08
and he continued to live as a free man. He had left the monastery and the priesthood by 1972.
01:08:15
He married and became a father and a grandfather and had worked for decades at a Catholic charity when we found him
01:08:23
near his home in Scottsdale, Arizona in 2014. >> Um, well, let me just ask you straight
01:08:30
out. Did you kill Irene Gorsa? >> No. >> Do you know who did? >> Uh, no. >> Well, Dale Tashnney says that you told
01:08:36
him that you did kill >> Dale is full of >> I'm sorry. >> Dale is full of >> fight. Could not have known it then, but
01:08:43
his time was running out. >> Get lost, brother. >> Shortly after our conversation with him,
01:08:51
there was a big development in Macallen. Renee Gara, who had been DA for 32 years, was defeated by Ricardo
01:09:01
Rodriguez, who promised to look into the case. And in February 2016, Fight was arrested
01:09:10
and brought back to Texas to stand trial. But after nearly 60 years, is it too late?
01:09:26
After hearing her confession, he assaulted her, bound. >> Dale Tashnney's testimony allowed the
01:09:32
prosecution to piece together the last hours of Irene Garza's life. >> He put the young lady downstairs in the
01:09:42
basement of the rectory at that time. >> And this is the rectory? >> Yes. Prosecutor Mike Garza says because
01:09:49
of [music] the recre's thick walls, nobody would hear sounds of a struggle or any screams for help
01:09:55
>> and left her there and left her there. [music] >> And Garza says father fight went back to
01:10:00
church to hear confessions. After parishioners left that holy Saturday, Garza says fight moved Irene a few miles
01:10:08
away to the pastoral house. Tash's story was that he had placed her in a bathtub
01:10:15
and had kept left her there while he was going to go back and say vigil mass. Uh
01:10:20
and at that time she said I can't breathe. I can't breathe. Garza says when fight returned from church Irene
01:10:27
was dead. >> At the point that he left we believe she was still alive but we you know with
01:10:32
every [music] intent to kill her. Um that's a depraved heart. That's a pretty cold heart. That night, Easter night,
01:10:40
Dale Tashnney believes Irene was moved one last time. >> He put her in a car and put her aside of
01:10:49
the road near a canal. >> Tashnney's testimony has some details, but Mike Garza knows it also has holes.
01:11:01
>> Do you recognize that, sir? >> Yes, sir. In his letter to police in 2002, Tashnney said the murder happened
01:11:07
in 1962 or 1963 in San [music] Antonio, several years after and more than 200 miles from where
01:11:17
Irene Garza's body was found. >> Why did you think it was in San Antonio? >> Father fight was from San Antonio. He
01:11:26
went to school there. >> Did you know what year this had happened? Since Father Fight came to the
01:11:31
monastery in 1963, I thought it happened in 1963. >> Did you later find that you were
01:11:38
mistaken? >> Yes, but I wasn't easily convinced. >> Defense attorney Renee Flores believes
01:11:46
Ranger Rudy Harmo fed facts to Tashy so he could close [music] the case. >> Could you have done that? Did you do
01:11:54
that? >> No, sir. Harmo says he corrected Tashnney only because the former monk was racked by guilt, wanted to find
01:12:02
Irene's family and clear his conscience. >> I had to set him straight as to when it
01:12:08
happened and where. >> But the defense says Tashnney isn't simply mistaken. >> He assaulted her, bound her, and gagged
01:12:16
her. >> Renee Flores says Tashney is simply lying. >> Okay. Did you ever told my father fight
01:12:22
that she had been bound and gagged? That's correct. >> Tashnney admits he assumed that because
01:12:28
Irene didn't escape from the rectory. >> After some time, he placed her in a cellophane bag and put her into a
01:12:37
bathtub. >> You also talked about a cellophane bag. We know that didn't happen. Correct.
01:12:42
>> No, we don't know that that didn't happen. We know that he didn't tell me it happened.
01:12:47
>> Well, if he didn't tell you all of these different things, Mr. Tashy, why would
01:12:51
you come forward to law enforcement and tell them that he did? There were reasonable assumptions.
01:12:56
>> The prosecutors don't think the problems Tashnney has with details [music] make
01:13:00
him unreliable. And they say much of his testimony is corroborated by what Father
01:13:07
O'Brien, who has since died, told the police. >> Did he tell you how he killed her? She
01:13:14
died from the gagging association. >> But the defense says O'Brien, like Tashnney, got help with his story. And I
01:13:23
think Joseph O'Brien was fed, [music] given, or confronted with what the investigators believed. May I have a
01:13:32
moment here? >> Renee Flores is arguing Fight was never prosecuted because of a lack of
01:13:38
evidence, not a conspiracy. And he questions Daryl Davis's testimony about that off therecord meeting with the
01:13:47
prosecutor at the time. We were talking to the defense attorney and he doubts this meeting ever really took place.
01:13:55
>> Really? Well, I'll look him straight in the eye and tell him that I remember it parts of
01:14:03
it as clear as a bell. [bell] >> But nobody is clear, according to Flores, on exactly when Irene went
01:14:10
missing. He says witnesses saw her on church grounds more than an hour after the prosecutors say she was abducted.
01:14:19
>> She had been seen at least an hour and a half to an hour and 45 minutes later.
01:14:24
>> And if the jurors conclude a priest murdered Irene, Flores wants them to consider a different priest. Father
01:14:31
Richard [music] Junius was also hearing confessions at Sacred Heart that day and
01:14:36
knew Irene. Is Father Junius a reasonable other suspect in your mind? >> Sure. >> Flores says Texas [music] Rangers
01:14:48
interviewed Father Junius decades after the crime and he seemed nervous. >> If I recall correctly, Texas Ranger
01:14:55
Hadamu indicated that uh Richard Junius was not very happy about being interviewed. That suggests something.
01:15:03
And why law enforcement ignored it, I don't know. But Father Junius was never considered a suspect in the case and he
01:15:11
died in 2007. So he can't defend himself. But John fight can if he decides to take the stand [music] at his
01:15:20
trial. >> There are several things I'd like to speak to. Mr. fight. Would you raise your right
01:15:35
hand, sir? Do you swear from the testimony you're about to give in the case now before the court is the truth,
01:15:38
the whole truth, and nothing but the truth? >> So, help me God. >> Very well, sir.
01:15:42
>> For years, people have been trying to get answers from John Fe about Irene Garza's murder.
01:15:48
>> There are several things I'd like to speak to, >> and it looked like Fight might be
01:15:53
considering taking the stand at his trial. >> I'm kind of between a rock and a hard
01:15:58
place here. During a break, his attorneys consulted with Fight, who finally announced his decision.
01:16:05
>> Well, it was a wrestling match between my vanity and common sense, and [clears throat] common sense prevailed.
01:16:13
>> Mr. F, do you wish to testify in your own behalf? >> No. >> You think he would have been a good
01:16:17
witness? >> I think he would have been a great witness, >> but I think that the prosecutor would
01:16:23
have >> done his very best to attack and eat him up. Please rise for the jury. >> With that settled, closing arguments can
01:16:34
begin. >> May I proceed? Yes, sir. May please the court. >> Prosecutor Mike Garzo reminded the jury
01:16:40
of the women he says father fighted upon. >> He was a wolf in priest clothing waiting
01:16:49
to attack. attacked once, tried to attack again, and finally he got his prey. Ask yourselves this, what evidence was
01:17:02
there that John Fine had any intent to kill? What evidence did you hear? You're here to find facts. And sometimes there
01:17:09
just aren't enough to convince beyond a reasonable doubt. Fight went through the trial alone
01:17:21
without his family. And on December 7th, 2017, after 6 days, the cold case against the former priest was in the
01:17:30
hands of the jury. >> The jury began their deliberations just this afternoon. And after
01:17:35
>> I was confident. I felt we had the right jury in the box. >> And that carried you through the first
01:17:42
what, two hours of the >> That carried me probably through the first two hours. And then what happened?
01:17:46
>> It started taking long. >> We received another note from the jury >> and I started losing faith.
01:18:00
>> After 6 and 1/2 hours, there was a verdict. >> Would the defendant please stand?
01:18:08
We the jury find the defendant John Bernard Fight guilty of the offense of murder with malice of forethought as
01:18:16
charged. >> John fight once a cleric is now a convict. >> Guilty. Tell me what you're feeling.
01:18:40
>> Justice was served. Irene finally got her day in court and that's all we ever wanted.
01:18:57
After 57 years, we have found justice for Irene. And for today, pigs are flying.
01:19:06
>> Mr. Fight, any words? >> No comment. >> When you heard that Father had finally
01:19:11
been convicted, what did that feel like to you knowing the role you played? >> The debt is paid both to Irene and
01:19:19
Father Fight. Justice has been done for the both of them. The verdict against John Fight was one
01:19:26
thing, but the jury still had to decide on his sentence. Linda and No, Amy worried that Fight might be set free.
01:19:35
The jury might decide because he is older and he's frail that they would be somewhat lenient.
01:19:47
>> The morning after the extraordinary verdict, something else extraordinary happened. It snowed here along the
01:19:54
border with Mexico as the sentencing process began. It's >> snowing outside morning.
01:20:02
>> And one last time, the lawyers addressed the jury. >> It was a time where this man wasn't
01:20:09
walking in a walker, where this man wasn't sitting here weak. It was a time when this man was strong.
01:20:17
Prosecutor Mike Garza pulled out the photo of Irene he carried close to his heart throughout the entire trial.
01:20:24
>> She was a person that was loved. We ask that you assess punishment at 57 years.
01:20:32
Every year that he was free, having a family, getting married, hiding behind the protection of the
01:20:41
church. Is it a just penalty to impose a sentence upon a man who is different 60 years later?
01:20:54
It's up to you to decide. But do you really think he's going to live 57 years? >> 4 hours later,
01:21:04
>> would the defendant please stand? >> The jury announced its decision. We the jury assess punishment and imprisonment
01:21:12
for a term of life. >> It was a perfect plan. It was a perfect fight. Had the perfect result. Everybody
01:21:22
won >> except John fight. >> Well, he was the villain. The villain's not supposed to win.
01:21:29
[bell] >> [bell] >> I said, "Okay, Irene, [music] I know what your message is. We must get
01:21:48
back to respecting, caring, and loving each other. That's [music] what we have to do. That's the lesson she taught us.
01:21:57
She was so good. She was and will be my hero. >> For Mike Garzup, this case tested his
01:22:08
trust in the church, but in the end, he kept his faith. >> I've probably crossed, [music] no, I
01:22:16
have crossed the emotional line in this case. This case was very important to me
01:22:20
from my heart. I truly believed [music] that faith would win and it did. Heat. Hey. Hey. Hey.
01:22:41
[music] [music] [music] >> [music] [music] >> 91 moment emergency. My wife and I had
01:23:32
needed ambulance for bleeding. >> I was called at approximately 4:00 in the morning on February 3rd, 2018. There
01:23:40
had been a home invasion robbery in the area of Hail Plantation. >> You said someone was in your house?
01:23:46
>> Yes. >> I'm being advised that the wife has severe injuries. and was currently being trauma alerted
01:24:02
to our area hospital. >> You woke up to her scream and tall figure with ski mask starts uh fighting
01:24:11
with you. I >> see. I felt something sharp. >> Susan Relle almost died that night.
01:24:20
[music] If Susan had died, the truth of what happened that night would die with her.
01:24:29
When Susan Relle comes out of surgery, she tells investigators that there is no intruder
01:24:35
and that the [music] person who inflicted all of the injuries that she is suffering from is Michael Relle.
01:24:40
[music] This case is about the power of money. It's about the power of desire for
01:24:47
control. >> When Susan [music] asked for a divorce, Michael Rashelle snapped. When he was faced with the prospect that
01:24:57
he would have to give her half of his fortune, he made a calculated and premeditated decision to kill.
01:25:06
>> This is the knife that was used to stab Susan. [music] >> The bending in this knife, you believe,
01:25:12
is a result of it hitting bone and bent the blade. >> That's correct. >> All rise for the jury.
01:25:21
Members of the jury, we're just going to lay here until you die, Sue. We're just going to lay here until you
01:25:29
die. Those are the words of that defendant, Michael Relle, spoken to his wife of 10 years, Susan Relle.
01:25:41
>> I got close to her right here, and her hand comes out and >> Was there anything in her hand?
01:25:49
>> Yeah, a knife. There's no way on God's green earth that my father would stab anyone.
01:26:04
>> Was Mike's daughter Caroline a source of conflict in the marriage? >> Absolutely.
01:26:09
>> Didn't you tell Michael Relle that you hated [music] Caroline? >> Those words came out. Yeah.
01:26:16
>> And in fact, you called her a >> Is that right? Yes. >> Never in 1 million years [music] would I
01:26:29
think that my wedding would be the catalyst of all of this. >> Who do you believe brought the knife
01:26:41
[music] into that incident? >> Susan Relle. Who do you believe was the attacker in the February [music] 2nd
01:26:48
incident? >> Susan Rochelle. >> And who is the victim? >> My father >> [music] >> Where were you and how did you learn
01:27:50
that your father on February 3rd, 2018 had been arrested? >> I was in Chicago with my husband and
01:28:00
I got an incoming call on my cell phone. This is a collect call from >> It was a recording that said, "An inmate
01:28:09
from the Elatchua County Jail has called you." >> An inmate at the Elatchua County
01:28:14
Department. >> Minutes later, the phone rang again. Caroline Relle quickly answered and
01:28:20
heard the voice she'd known her entire life. >> And he said, "Caroline, you have to get
01:28:26
me out of here. You need to call my lawyer." and I dropped to the sidewalk and I just sat on the sidewalk.
01:28:36
>> The events leading to the arrest of Mike Ruchelle began to unwind very early that
01:28:41
morning after he called police. >> Tell me exactly what happened. >> I don't know. Someone was in the house
01:28:47
and next thing I know I wake up next to my wife and we're bleeding. Mike reported that he and his wife Sue
01:28:53
had been stabbed by an intruder inside their home in an upscale section of Gainesville.
01:29:00
>> You're fine with the subject and he just ran off. You managed to scare him off.
01:29:04
>> Yeah, I guess >> Sue's injuries were life-threatening. And as medics rushed to save her,
01:29:10
Detective David Viscanti was called to the scene. >> There was no force entry initially
01:29:16
observed by any of our deputies. No broken window, no knockdown door, nothing like that at all. No, sir.
01:29:25
>> Still, Viscanti had no doubt that something terrible had happened inside that house.
01:29:31
>> There was most certainly a struggle. There was a vast amount of blood around the bed that was located on the wall of
01:29:38
the bedroom. But overall, the scene was missing something, Viscanti said, and he did not
01:29:45
believe a violent intruder had been there. >> Typically, we'll see many things knocked
01:29:50
over furniture, items broken, um, indentations in the walls, in the drywall. >> Did you see any of that?
01:29:56
>> None of those things were present. >> What's more, the Rochelle's had security
01:30:01
cameras covering the outside of the house. The intruder allegedly fleeing the house from that direction is
01:30:07
something that would have been captured on video. >> The veteran detective was becoming
01:30:12
suspicious. Then hours later, Sue awoke from surgery [music] and broke this case wide open, telling
01:30:19
detectives that the story about an intruder attacking them was a [music] lie. She claimed that Mike concocted the
01:30:26
whole thing and that he was her true asalent. Mike was arrested and charged with attempted murder.
01:30:36
>> He could never have done anything like this. >> Mike's ex-wife, Dee Hoffman, was
01:30:42
incredulous. >> I have known Michael James Rochelle since I was 19. And I wouldn't be here
01:30:50
today if I thought Mike was possibly capable of harming another person. >> Dee met Mike in college. They married
01:30:58
and had two daughters, Caroline and Kate. During your many years with Mike, was he ever physically abusive to you?
01:31:07
>> He never touched me. Not ever. Never. >> But like in many marriages, there were
01:31:14
problems. Mike made millions in the technology business, but his job required him to travel all over the
01:31:21
world. >> [sighs] >> Truthfully, he wasn't around much, so it was it was hard. >> In 2005, after 25 years of marriage, Dee
01:31:33
asked for a divorce. Dee said she moved out of the family home so their children away at college
01:31:41
could always return to the house where they were raised. But soon, another woman unexpectedly joined the family. I
01:31:49
moved out in July, but then all of a sudden, Susan moves into our house. >> Sue is then 38 years old and a hospice
01:31:58
nurse. She and Mike, 49, met on [music] match.com. And Dee says Sue quickly became the lady of the manor. Dee says
01:32:07
everything she left behind, including her dog, became Sue. >> Mike and I were really opposites. He was
01:32:15
engaging and outgoing and I was really and I think I still am more reserved, not quite so exuberant.
01:32:25
And I think he was looking for exuberance. >> Caroline remembers the first time she
01:32:31
met Sue at a dinner. >> And my dad seemed to be laughing and having a good time.
01:32:37
>> But Caroline says she couldn't help but notice how much Sue was drinking. We've never seen anyone take down five
01:32:47
to six martinis and be able to stand and speak. >> Some 2 years after they met, Mike
01:32:56
married Sue in August 2007. Mike stopped traveling and bought a local business. The couple's happier
01:33:05
times are reflected in some of the thousands of text messages that surfaced during legal proceedings. [music] Mike
01:33:12
refers to Sue as his trophy bride and writes that their lives together are simply amazing.
01:33:22
But Caroline says Sue became jealous [music] of the close relationship she had with her father and tried to keep
01:33:29
them apart. She had such walls around him. He wouldn't call me unless he was in a car alone.
01:33:39
He wasn't allowed to take my call in front of her. >> But surprisingly, when Caroline
01:33:46
announced in 2016 that she was getting married, Sue was happy to help. But Caroline says Sue wanted to do it her
01:33:55
way. >> Sue was pretty adamant about throwing me a shower. My mother was invited, but
01:34:02
none of my mother's friends were invited. So, the majority of the guests were Sue's friends and family,
01:34:12
>> but Caroline admits the shower was a lot of fun and she was looking forward to
01:34:17
the wedding. Sue helped her pick out a dress. >> I tried on a dress and I liked it and
01:34:26
Sue kept telling me like, "This is your dress. This is your dress. It's so beautiful. You have to have this."
01:34:34
Sue handed over her credit card and it was done. Do you mind me asking how much the dress was worth?
01:34:42
>> This is so go. I think it was 11 >> $11,000. >> The wedding itself in November 2017
01:34:52
[music] would be a royallike affair. The setting was the sumptuous Oha Castle on Long Island. 160 people attended the
01:35:03
wedding [music] and Caroline says the day was magical. >> My husband and I know how lucky we are
01:35:11
to have had that weekend. It was beyond beautiful. >> Caroline says it was nearly perfect
01:35:19
except for something that caught her eye. An unusual mark on her father's face. The last thing I saw before
01:35:27
walking down the aisle at my wedding was this white scar from here to here. And in my mind, I was like, "What is
01:35:40
that?" >> Weeks later, she found out. Mike revealed to Caroline what he said was a
01:35:46
dark, disturbing secret. He claimed Sue had been physically abusing him for years.
01:36:08
I called him on his birthday and I said, "How are you doing?" And he just started crying.
01:36:17
It was late November 2017, just 3 weeks after her fairy tale wedding, when Caroline says her father shared a
01:36:25
disturbing secret about Sue that he had promised not to tell. >> And he said, "Sue
01:36:32
was arrested." And he said, "She started attacking me." And I think he was so victimized that he
01:36:44
was really scared to tell anyone. >> Sue had been charged with domestic battery, but the details of what
01:36:53
happened that day would not become public until 2 years later at Mike's trial for attempted murder.
01:37:01
Please wear a fern at the ed >> when they both testified about the last tumultuous months of their marriage.
01:37:08
>> Ma'am, please be seated. Speak clearly. >> What was the state of their marriage?
01:37:13
>> I think it was in the lowest place that it could possibly be before a divorce.
01:37:18
>> I was upset. >> Sue told prosecutor David Byron that shortly after Caroline's wedding, Mike
01:37:24
told her it had gone nearly $150,000 over budget. Was it fair to say that you were partially upset with defendant, but
01:37:33
mostly at Carolyn? >> Yes. >> Mike says Sue [music] attacked him when the fight escalated.
01:37:39
>> She throws the phone at him and charges around the bed, pushes into our hering
01:37:45
like this. >> But Mike didn't call 911 that day. Sue did. >> I just felt as though things were a
01:37:54
little out of control. When police arrived, Sue admitted to pushing Mike and agreed to go to their
01:38:02
beach condo to diffuse the situation, but she was arrested half an hour later when she hadn't yet left the house.
01:38:11
>> He said, "Please place your hands behind your back. You're under arrest." >> Sue told the jury that she was ordered
01:38:19
to stay away from Mike. She moved to their beach condo and got counseling for alcohol and anger management. Weeks
01:38:28
later, [music] Mike declined to pursue the battery charge and it was dropped. Prosecutor Shawn Brewer.
01:38:34
>> Did she have a problem with alcohol? >> Susan Relle has testified that at times
01:38:40
when she would drink, um, she would lose her temper. >> But Mike says Sue's actions went way
01:38:45
beyond a bad temper. He told the jury she had tormented him for years. and she'd lunge at me again, punch me in the
01:38:53
face, um, scratch my face, punch him in the arms, and bent my glasses. Actually,
01:38:58
>> she would throw things at him, very heavy things like voses and very heavy coffee mugs.
01:39:09
>> Sue denies abusing Mike and Mike never reported any of the alleged incidents to
01:39:14
police. >> Is it true that you have seen your father with a black eye? He's sent me multiple pictures of him
01:39:24
with a black eye. >> Mike did take photos of some injuries which he shared with Caroline and later
01:39:31
the jury. >> He is a picture that he showed me of his face gushing blood and there was one
01:39:41
mark from here to here. The prosecution admits this injury [music] may have been caused by Sue, but they
01:39:48
say the evidence shows Sue was fighting for her life after Mike attacked her. >> There are text messages where she
01:39:56
accuses him of smothering her with a pillow, which in fact is the same instance that she ended up scratching
01:40:03
him in the face. Despite the alleged abuse and Sue's arrest, Mike says he still loved his
01:40:10
wife and wanted [music] to stay married. In February 2018, he asked Sue to come to Gainesville for the weekend.
01:40:22
>> Mike had asked me to come in. He wanted us to work on the marriage. >> They decided to go to their favorite
01:40:30
steakhouse. That's Sue on home security video getting ready and enjoying a glass
01:40:36
of wine. Mike arrives home and the two share a kiss before heading out. But over stakes and more wine, old wounds
01:40:46
reopen. >> He just received a text message from Caroline. >> Sue says that's when Mike admitted he
01:40:53
had betrayed her trust by telling Caroline about Sue's arrest. He and I both agreed that we weren't going to
01:41:01
discuss that. >> Mike drove home alone. Sue followed in an Uber, her anger spilling into a
01:41:08
series of text messages about Caroline. Good luck with your She will ruin any relationship you have.
01:41:19
Once home, they went to separate parts of the house. Sue continued her angry texts.
01:41:28
I am filing for divorce. I will leave in the morning. The last text from Sue is sent at 10:13
01:41:38
p.m. You have serious boundary issues with your daughter. Later, Sue says she was alone in the
01:41:48
guest room when Mike entered. There are no cameras inside that room. >> And he just hopped on top of me. And I
01:42:01
felt like this pressure right here. And then all of a sudden, I saw a knife coming. I said, "Oh my god, did he stab
01:42:13
me?" And he said, "Yes." >> At some point, does he say something to you? He said, "Uh, Sue, we're not
01:42:23
getting a divorce." >> Sue says Mike was on top of her, pinning her arms with his legs. In the struggle,
01:42:30
her left thumb was sliced. Then, she says Mike stabbed her again >> and my neck right here.
01:42:40
>> Sue says Mike then started slashing her wrist. >> Felt like he was mutilating me.
01:42:49
my hand. It was like just I couldn't feel anything and I could see into my arm. >> Losing blood, her life in danger, Sue
01:43:03
[music] says she vomited and lost control of her bodily functions. She says she tried to wrigle out from
01:43:10
under Mike and they ended up lying sideways across the bed. He just said to me, "Sue, it's going to
01:43:19
lay here until you die." >> Sue says as she was lying there struggling to stay awake, she saw Mike
01:43:27
raise the [music] knife yet again. Desperate, she offered him a way out. >> I said, "Mike, we don't have to divorce.
01:43:36
I won't divorce you. Just put the knife [music] down." Sue says after Mike put the knife down,
01:43:43
she begged him to call for help. But he would only do that if she agreed to say an intruder had stabbed her.
01:43:53
>> When she agrees to go with his story of the intruders, she saved her life. >> A toxic marriage, texts brimming with
01:44:01
hate and a bloody room. Mike [snorts] Rochelle's future will now depend on whether he can convince jurors that he
01:44:11
is the real victim. When first responders entered this bloody scene in the early morning hours
01:44:32
of February 3rd, 2018, [music] they'd been told by Mike Ruchelle that a stranger had broken into their home and
01:44:39
assaulted his wife and then him with a knife. But in court now with his defense attorneys Patrick McInness and Anne
01:44:49
Finel, Mike [music] admits that story was a lie and says he's finally ready to tell the truth. He says despite Sue's
01:44:58
drinking [music] and violent outbursts, he was hoping to reconcile that night. >> I don't care if she's a mellow drunk the
01:45:05
rest of her life. Just the anger's got to go. >> But at dinner, once again, they fought
01:45:10
about Caroline. And that fight continued back at the house. After that, [music] Mike and Sue's stories diverge. Mike
01:45:18
says he came into the guest room a little after 10:00 and was startled to see Sue [music] kneeling on the bed
01:45:25
holding a knife. >> I said, "Sue, give me the knife." And then next thing I [music] know, I felt
01:45:29
searing heat. That's that's all I remember. And I'm just trying to get my hands on it. And
01:45:36
I'm on the bed with her now. We're all on [music] our knees. Mike doesn't say how he got his hands on the knife, but
01:45:42
he says as they struggled and fell over on the bed, he felt the blade go into Sue's stomach.
01:45:49
>> She's falling backwards and I'm falling in front on top. I felt the knife penetrate here and I I rolled off as
01:45:55
fast as I could because I was afraid if that went in her it would kill her. Mike
01:46:00
offers no explanation for how Sue was stabbed in the neck >> or thumb, but he does say about one
01:46:08
minute into the struggle, he somehow calmed her down and put the knife out of reach.
01:46:14
>> Now, you're both bleeding during this point in time, right? >> Yeah, but it's not squirting and there's
01:46:20
no blood at all. You can see on Sue through the through here. Mike says he wanted to call for help right away, but
01:46:27
Sue wouldn't let him because she was afraid she'd be arrested again. >> I said, "Sue, we need to go to the
01:46:35
hospital." And she said, "Then make up a story so I don't get arrested." Mike says they argued about a possible cover
01:46:44
story, [music] but then as bizarre as it sounds, they just laid together bleeding
01:46:50
for several hours, having what [music] Mike says was one of the best conversations of their lives about
01:46:58
future vacations to Europe. >> We talked [music] about going to Germany on the Ryan and Moselle river cruise.
01:47:05
Maybe we'll do Burgundy next. If Mike is speaking the truth, this happy conversation happened on a bed soaked
01:47:12
with blood and human waste. >> Greece because we've never been to Greece in >> Mike never mentions that.
01:47:18
>> Tuskanyany and Florence >> and prosecutor David Byron suspects why is this believable? I don't think it's
01:47:25
believable at all. He held her there and he can't admit that. Michael Relle had months and months to go over the
01:47:31
evidence and construct a story that fit with things that he couldn't admit. >> According to Mike, at about 3:00 a.m.,
01:47:39
their dog Susie wandered into this bloody [music] scene where violence was about to erupt again. I get up out of
01:47:48
the bed to deal with a dog and and behind me was the knife and next thing I know she sliced her right wrist with her
01:47:57
left hand. >> Did you talk to her about why she had cut herself? >> Yeah. She said she doesn't want to go to
01:48:03
jail. I said, "Sue, I'm not going to send you to jail. I'm not going to get you arrested. Calm down." She goes, "You
01:48:11
promise? You promise?" I said, "Yes." As Mike tells it, Sue cooked up the whole idea to lie to police and he reluctantly
01:48:21
agreed in order to protect her. I said, "Then the only chance I have is to turn the cameras off to give a window of
01:48:29
opportunity to say someone broke in and did this to us." >> Mike says after Sue cut her own wrist,
01:48:35
he left the room to turn off security cameras [music] and stage a break-in. 25 minutes passed before he called 911 and
01:48:44
turned the cameras on again. >> And he's doing that with the knowledge [music] that with every beat of her
01:48:50
heart, more of her blood is pouring into that bed. >> But the defense thinks the blood at the
01:48:55
crime scene helps to prove their case. >> People lie. The [snorts] forensics don't
01:49:02
lie. And that's why the blood spatter was so important in this case. Michael Berkeland is a former doctor and blood
01:49:09
stain pattern analyst who testified for the defense. What do you consider the most important
01:49:16
blood evidence inside that bedroom? >> The arterial spur patterns. Berkeland says he reviewed records which stated a
01:49:25
small artery in Sue's wrist was cut that night and he believes the blood here on
01:49:30
the pillowcase and here on the nightstand came from that artery. >> The important thing about arteries
01:49:37
though is that you get blood coming out of that with every beat of the heart. >> Berkeland uses stage blood and a small
01:49:46
syringe to demonstrate the way Sue's blood may have traveled. making a line or fine spray of drops.
01:49:55
>> So the blood in your opinion gives us a timeline as to when Sue's wrist was actually cut.
01:50:01
>> Correct. Because arteries don't close up on their own. >> Remember, Sue says the attack, including
01:50:08
the cuts to her wrist, started sometime after 10:13 p.m. But Mike says Sue cut her own wrist at around 300 a.m. [music]
01:50:18
hours later. Berkeland says if Sue's wrist was cut before 11, she would have died long before help arrived.
01:50:28
>> How much time does she have to live in [music] your opinion? >> If the wounds happen no later than
01:50:33
11:00, she's dead before it ever hits midnight. >> Which leads you to believe what?
01:50:41
>> When it comes to this injury to the wrist, Michael's story makes more sense. The defense team says if we can't trust
01:50:49
Sue's account about what time things happened, then her entire story is suspect.
01:50:57
>> It is absolutely impossible to have happened the way she claims it [music] did.
01:51:26
Inside this box, >> this is the [music] knife that was used to stab Susan. >> Encased in protective plastic,
01:51:35
>> this is a lot of blood. >> This is a lot of blood. are the remnants of the vicious confrontation inside that
01:51:42
bedroom that prosecutor Shawn Brewer is certain contain evidence of an attempted
01:51:48
murder. >> This is Mike Ruchelle's [music] pajamas. >> Yes. And they are soaked in blood.
01:51:58
>> And whose blood is that? >> Well, Susan is the one that had the injuries [music] that provided uh the
01:52:04
mass amount of bleeding. So, if blood could talk, this blood is telling you what?
01:52:10
>> This blood is telling me that um [music] Michael was on top of her while he was
01:52:14
stabbing her and um she was bleeding quite a bit without any aid. >> Prosecutors say this evidence backs up
01:52:23
Sue's testimony that Mike attacked her. They also say the items on that bedside table help prove this was not a dynamic
01:52:32
fight between two people. David Byron says that only one person had control of the situation. Mike Ruchelle.
01:52:42
>> There's a full glass of wine. There's some glasses. There's a lamp. And it's evidence of the fact that Michael Relle
01:52:48
was so physically capable of constraining her that none of those things are disturbed. And the
01:52:54
prosecution disputes defense expert Michael Berkeland's claim that these stains on the nightstand came from
01:53:02
spurting blood from Sue's wrist. Instead, their expert says the blood was most likely cast off flung from the
01:53:10
knife and not from Sue cutting her own wrist. >> The castoff shows that he was swinging
01:53:16
that knife as he's plunging it into her stomach and into her [music] neck. >> Call Dr. Burke to his head. Prosecutor
01:53:22
Brewer not only attacks Berkeland's conclusions, he also challenges his credibility, letting jurors know that
01:53:29
his medical license was suspended and he was later arrested for storing body parts from autopsies [music] in
01:53:37
Tupperware containers in an unusual place. >> You were storing them at Uncle Bob's
01:53:42
storage shed, weren't you? >> In a climate control [music] room. >> Were you storing them at Uncle Bob's
01:53:47
storage shed? >> Yes. And the actual organs that you were storing included brains and hearts.
01:53:53
>> I did have some hearts and brains. Yes. >> Berkeland says the organs were preserved
01:53:57
[music] for private cases he was working on while he was still a licensed doctor.
01:54:03
>> I used the storage locker because they were safe and secure. Either that or I
01:54:09
put them in my house. This was safer than my house. >> The charges were later dropped. [music]
01:54:16
Prosecutors also want the jury to know that the severity of Sue's wrist wound suggests she did not do it herself.
01:54:24
>> The one that was truly life-threatening was the the [music] cuts that the defendant made to her wrist.
01:54:31
>> She was cut all the way down to the bone. >> Mike's injuries were a lot less serious.
01:54:38
As you can see, he had some small cuts on his fingers and stomach. And Sue says these larger cuts to his forearms were
01:54:47
in fact self-inflicted. >> He put the knife in my hand and he stabbed himself in the arm.
01:54:56
>> And what about that story Mike told investigators that an intruder did all this? The prosecution says it was all
01:55:05
his idea to cover up what he had done. He turned [music] off the cameras and did things to make the police believe
01:55:15
that there had been a burglar. >> And the motive for this alleged attack, the prosecution believes it was all
01:55:23
about money. That Mike didn't want to give up half of his fortune, [music] millions of dollars in a divorce.
01:55:31
>> You didn't tell this jury that after all you've been through, it didn't seem fair
01:55:34
for Susan to take half your money. >> Yeah, that is true. It didn't seem fair. The prosecution refutes Mike's [music]
01:55:42
claims that he still wanted to reconcile the troubled marriage by [music] pointing out that he had visited three
01:55:49
dating sites. Ukrainian single girl arena. She's 18 years old, right? >> I looked at pictures from women with
01:55:57
clothes on. Yes, sir. >> Understand they had clothes on, sir. Question I'm asking is you were looking
01:56:03
for your next girlfriend, right? >> No, I'll tell you exactly what I was looking for.
01:56:07
>> Sure. All I want out of a woman in my life is someone to be kind and nice to me. That's all I care about. I looked at
01:56:14
pictures and descriptions of how they would treat their male. And Sue and I have looked at these together many times
01:56:20
and in our relationship saying, "Sue, that's all I need from anybody. Please be nice to me. Please."
01:56:28
>> The defense counters that Mike's other internet searches prove that he [music]
01:56:33
was being abused by Sue. Did you visit numerous sites related to battered husbands?
01:56:41
>> Yes, I did. >> He has all of the economic resources. He's not cut off from any family
01:56:46
members. Michael Relle doesn't meet any of the criteria for what a battered spouse is.
01:56:52
>> The defense also tries to counter Sue's claim [music] that Mike's attack came
01:56:57
after she threatened divorce. They produced dozens of text messages going [music] back to 2015 that show Sue had
01:57:05
made that threat many many times. >> You actually say for the 50th time I want a divorce.
01:57:13
>> It's just an expression like saying for the you know 100th time >> but it is about 50 times isn't it?
01:57:22
>> I don't know. I didn't count. And what time? >> And defense attorney Anne Fenel suggests
01:57:27
those texts also reveal Sue's destructive intentions. [music] >> Have you told him I hate you?
01:57:36
>> Yes. >> Okay. You've said I will destroy you. >> Yes. >> And on your anniversary in 2017,
01:57:45
hate you. Happy 10th anniversary. I'm divorcing you. You said that. Yes. >> In her closing argument, Finel insists
01:57:57
Mike would never try to kill for money. She says Sue was the aggressor that night and Mike was just defending
01:58:05
himself. >> She hates everybody. She hates his daughters. She hates his former spouse.
01:58:13
That's how hateful this woman was and is. But the prosecution says there is no question [music] Mike wanted Sue dead.
01:58:26
>> This is not a frenzy struggle between two adults. This is a blood bath committed [music] by one person who has
01:58:32
imprisoned the other on that bed. >> In the War of the Rochelle's, jurors will soon decide which one they believe.
01:58:50
>> [music] >> as the jury goes out to deliberate. Um, what are those minutes and hours like
01:58:57
for you? >> I I just like couldn't talk to anyone. [snorts] I spent the past year and a
01:59:03
half like mentally preparing myself for the worst and hoping for the best. >> Caroline does not have long to wait. All
01:59:15
rise for the jury. >> After a 9-day trial, it took little more than 4 hours for the jury to reach a
01:59:22
verdict. >> They say a quick verdict is often a prosecutor's verdict. >> It's a thought that creeps into your
01:59:28
head, but you never really know what a juryy's going to do. >> Members of the jury, I understand you
01:59:32
have reached a verdict. >> Your honor, >> please pass it. We the jury unanimously find as follows
01:59:40
the defendant Michael James Relle in this case. As to count one, the defendant is guilty of attempted
01:59:47
first-degree murder [music] as charged. >> Guilty. Mike Rochelle is convicted of
01:59:52
the most serious count against him. >> We were all so shocked. >> As [snorts] to count two, the defendant
01:59:59
is guilty of false imprisonment. in quick [music] succession. The jury also finds Relle guilty of four additional
02:00:07
crimes, [music] including false imprisonment and tampering with evidence. >> Jury number 51. Is this a true verdict?
02:00:14
[music] >> Yes. >> Jurors utterly reject Mike's story of a knife fight with his wife.
02:00:22
Prosecutor Shawn Brewer says justice was served to a man who lied to investigators and to the jury. Michael
02:00:31
went through great lengths to try and kill Susan. He just wasn't very good at it. [music] And what's more, Brewer says
02:00:37
Mike Rochelle tried to kill Sue, not once, but twice. While he was in jail awaiting trial, an informant came
02:00:45
forward [music] to claim Mike tried to hire a hitman to kill Sue, a charge Mike strongly denies. Do you believe that
02:00:54
your father in jail plotted to hire someone to murder his wife? >> No. Honestly, I don't mean to laugh, but
02:01:03
it is beyond laughable. >> As we were interviewing Caroline, she got a phone call that surprised us.
02:01:12
>> Dad, hi. I'm good. I'm with 48 hours right now, literally with cameras. Mike Ruchelle allowed me to ask a few
02:01:24
questions. >> Mike, I just want to hear you tell me, [snorts] did you take a knife into the
02:01:30
room that night on February 2nd, 2018 and attack your wife? >> Absolutely not. >> And you're telling me the truth?
02:01:41
>> Absolutely. On my children's lives. All I did was defend myself and I got attacked.
02:01:49
>> In December 2019, everyone returns to Judge William Davis's courtroom for sentencing. The victim in this crime,
02:01:58
Sue Ruchelle, does not appear in person. Remain standing face judge and raise your right hand, please.
02:02:04
>> When it's Caroline's turn to speak, [music] the moment is charged with emotion.
02:02:09
No one is as positive, caring, and generous than this man. I will say I am and will always be a proud
02:02:26
daughter. >> One of the most [music] caring, kind, gentle people I've ever met. Several colleagues and friends speak of
02:02:37
Mike in glowing terms. [music] >> He's a good person. >> The Mike Relle I know is a standup
02:02:44
gentleman. >> Then Judge William Davis took center stage. >> Mr. Michelle, will you please stand?
02:02:51
>> Mike was about to learn his fate. The >> first I heard through the evidence and
02:02:57
the witnesses was somebody who was cold. They were brutal. On count one, the attempted u
02:03:04
first-degree premeditated murder. I'm going to send you to 30 years imprisonment in the department.
02:03:09
>> All told, the judge gives Relle 30 years, not the 50 years requested by prosecutors.
02:03:17
But for Mike, who is 64 years old, it is in essence a life sentence. Here are two sophisticated people, very
02:03:31
wealthy, living in paradise in one of the most beautiful parts of Florida, and yet they couldn't work this out, it's a
02:03:39
real tragedy, isn't it? >> Absolutely. I mean, when you hear who Michael and Susan Relle were before this
02:03:46
all occurred, they lived exemplary and mostly normal lives. And to see it get to this point really is a tragedy.
02:03:55
The war of the Rochelle is not over. [music] Mike and Sue are divorcing and continue to fight over the marital
02:04:03
assets, including the house where Sue was nearly stabbed to death. >> [music] [music]
02:04:40
[music] [music]