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[music] [music] >> Carol Kennedy was a 53-year-old divorcee. She was a mother of two children. She
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was an artist. She was an educator. She lives in a somewhat secluded area outside of town.
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A lot of open land. I just loved Carol immediately. We were very good friends. She was an absolutely beautiful, pure,
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loving person. July 2nd of 2008, Carol Kennedy was murdered in that house. This all starts that Carol Kennedy's on
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a phone call with her mother. Next thing you know, the mother hears her say, "Oh,
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no." And all of a sudden, the call is disconnected. Sheriff's Office, Maria, how can I help
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you? Mother suspects something's not correct, and she called 911. I was on the phone with my daughter, and she
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screamed and said, "Oh, no." And the phone's gone dead. Can you go check? And next thing you know, the police
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arrive. Somebody looks through the window and sees a dead body on the floor. She sees blood all over the
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place. The person who killed her was very upset with her. There's no reason to whack her seven, eight times over the
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head with a club. It was a horrific crime scene. We knew very little other than the fact that she
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had been clearly beaten to death. It's horrible. Just horrible. I I mean, I just can't believe a person
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would be so cruel. >> [music] [bell] >> My name is Joseph Mora. I'm a private investigator. I was hired by 48 Hours to
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look into this case. This was a passion passion crime. This was clearly somebody who knew her, and
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therefore, the suspects are very limited. And to all a good night. My brother Steve and Carol were together
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for about 30 years. They were just crazy in love for each other. Steve was a very
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successful financial advisor. He had just been promoted to the senior vice president at UBS. So, he had a very
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strong position and a job that he loved. I always had a sense they were both deeply in love with each other and that
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the marriage had become toxic. Steven DeMocker puts himself approximately a mile, mile and a half
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from this exact location the night of the murder. He claims that he went for a bike ride.
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So, obviously, being the ex-husband and putting himself in the area, he becomes a suspect immediately.
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I want to be cooperative, okay? And and I'm hoping, like I said, I I do my best to rule people out.
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He's the only person that [music] hated her. She was just too good. No one else could
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do that to her. They already don't believe him. They didn't buy his initial story. They don't
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buy the alibi of riding a bicycle. They're saying, "Oh, we got our guy." Steve couldn't [music] do this to
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anyone. Certainly not to Carol. Not to the mother of his children. From the defense point of view, the
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biggest aspect of reasonable doubt in this case is the lack of physical evidence. There was none on his bike.
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There was none in his car. There was none in his house. There was none in his clothing. There should have been
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something. As an American, you're entitled to you're innocent until proven guilty.
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Boy, we found out that that wasn't true. If you decide that you're going to arrest Steve DeMocker for the murder of
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his wife without any physical evidence whatsoever, you better have a very strong circumstantial case.
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They cannot put Steve inside that murder scene. So, there's nothing we're going to find in that's going to tie you
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there. I wasn't there. I wouldn't do that. Okay. What we do know is the DNA under Carol
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Kennedy's left fingernails is a complete profile. And it's not Steven DeMocker. >> [music]
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>> I'm Maureen Maher. Tonight on 48 Hours. End of the trail. >> [music] [music] [music]
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[music] >> I think it was really extremely shocking. >> [music] >> And you just don't expect something like
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that to happen here. The murder of 53-year-old Carol Kennedy had a devastating impact on her friend
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and neighbor Jan Wheeler. I didn't know anything about it until the next morning
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and there was the yellow tape across. So, I stopped. And I said, "Hey, my good friend lives there. Is Is
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everything okay?" And they said, "No, it's not." And they said she's dead. Carol had been a teacher and a therapist
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working with addicts at a local women's clinic, but she was mostly known around town as an artist, a printmaker.
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Printmaking is a fine art form that brings the disciplines of drawing, painting, graphic arts all into one
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arena. She spent hours in this studio working alongside fellow artists like Barb
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Wills. To me, her artwork gave her her voice. Nobody was judging her. Nobody was
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hurting her. The bitterness of her divorce with Steve could be clearly seen in her work,
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according to another friend, Betsy Pettit. And I think for her, it definitely showed.
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Especially the colors. They were much darker, much moodier. He was a fun-loving person. He wanted to
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have fun, and he wanted to be around us. Steve is the oldest of nine children. He
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taught me how to canoe and swim and ride a bike. And he was just the the best big
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brother you could ask for. As he's a very gentle, nonviolent guy. Which is why his family was so shocked when
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police claimed they had a strong circumstantial case and arrested him in October of 2008, 3
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months after Carol's murder. Carol Kennedy's body was discovered laying in a pool of her own blood.
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At Demarkers' trial, the horror of the crime was hard for some to reconcile with a successful stockbroker sitting at
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the defense table. When I met him, he he was clearly in in shock. Uh clearly was
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trying to hold his family together. Rich Robertson is an investigator for Demarkers' defense team. Robertson
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walked us through Carol's home. So, what do we know about Carol's activity that night? What was she doing? Well, when
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Carol got off work, probably about 5:30 in the afternoon, she went to the store,
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bought some salad, came home and went for a run. Robertson saw the gruesome crime scene
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within days of the murder. It was clearly a violent crime scene. Just the blood spatter on the wall, on the desk.
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It was just all over. I mean, it was it was all the way to the other wall. How do you have
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this much blood and there's no bloody footprint, no bloody fingerprints or handprints
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anywhere? I mean, it's like a ghost came in. Right. Well, look Defense lawyer Larry
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Hammond insists there was no record of any violence throughout the DeMakers marriage. Someone might say, "Well, a
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great theme here is that this was a a very contentious divorce, which causes most of us to think, well, it must have
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been violent. There must have been threats. There must have been protective orders."
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>> And was there any of that? >> No. Was there ever any >> Not at all. None. Anywhere.
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>> No. No. I never saw him act violently. He's very controlled. Even DeMakers girlfriend at the time of
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the murder, Renee Girard, says that he often spoke fondly of his ex-wife. He shared a lot
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about his marriage and he shared it in um many stories that were heartwarming and
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joyful and as something he regretted losing. But Carol's friend Jan says in truth,
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Steve was angry about the divorce. Oh, he was furious. He was absolutely furious that she would have the nerve
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to do anything against him because she never had. >> [music] >> But clearly, Carol had finally had
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enough. Enough of a husband who by all accounts had become a serial philanderer. Towards the end, she was
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like, "You know, I I think I've counted 17 affairs he's had. The first one that she was aware of was
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um her midwife and he were sleeping together while she was pregnant. And so why would she stay with him then? She
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loved him. He's just very charming. You know, he will tell a woman exactly what she wants to hear. He could
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be a bad guy from a morality standpoint, if you will, but that doesn't reflect a motive to kill
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Carol. Do you think you can make Steven look like a likable guy to the jury? >> Um what you may think about him as a
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good guy or a bad guy have nothing to do with this case. >> [music] >> Caught in the middle are the couple's
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two daughters who are called to testify. They have lost a mother, but believe in
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their father's innocence. It was the first time the full family had been together in a while and it was after the
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divorce had been finalized and it was actually very pleasant. Katie tells the court about the last time she saw her
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mother as the family gathered at the airport to see her off on a trip abroad four days before the murder. It was very
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emotional. There was just nothing but expressions of love and gratitude and happiness and I looked back and my dad
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had his arm around my mom and my mom had her arm around my sister and they were all waving to me.
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So that was the last memory I have of my mother. And Charlotte talked about the last text
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she and her mother exchanged on the day her mother died. I had just gotten a new
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job and she was asking me how my training was. Do you remember what the last text message you got back from your
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mother was? I do. I love you in all capitals. Have they been supportive of Steven? Oh,
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incredibly supportive. Unanimously supportive. >> Over the last 23 months since your
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mother died, has has your relationship with your father changed in any particular way?
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Um I mean it's difficult to stay as close when you can't hug your dad, but uh we've remained as close as possible.
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The jury would have to decide if the man described as a loving father could have
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killed the mother of his children. Defense attorney John Sears tells the court the state has [music] no case.
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It's always the husband. If it's not him, who else is it? They jump to that conclusion.
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Is there any physical evidence, DNA, blood, hair, fibers, anything that matches Steven DeMocker? There's no DNA
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of Steve DeMocker anywhere in that house. But there is DNA under Carol's fingernails that belongs to someone
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else, a man whose identity remains a mystery. If he was the attacker, should have been his DNA, and it was not.
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Still, Joe Butner of the Yavapai County Attorney's Office is emphatic that DeMocker was the only one who had the
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means, the motive, and the opportunity to kill Carol. The evidence will show that while Mr.
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DeMocker was on his bike ride, his cell phone was off. By the way, his phone is dead. Battery's
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dead. Okay? All of a sudden, he's out of the grid. Most people say you go out of the grid,
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there's a reason why you're out of the grid. >> Within miles of the serene beauty of the
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Arizona red rocks, Carol Kennedy's life had come to a violent [music] end. And many in the town of Prescott
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believed her ex-husband, [music] Steve, was her killer. I think he took everything from her including her life.
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Everything. >> [music] >> The autopsy concluded that Carol had suffered seven major skull fractures
00:14:03
from a blunt force object, possibly a golf club. Tell me here, and I don't know who it
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wasn't you right now. Investigators searched DeMocker's home immediately. They found a bag of golf
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clubs, but one was missing. A Big Bertha 7-wood like this one. Well, authorities may have strongly
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suspected the missing club could be the murder weapon, they were never able to find it. Obviously, the number one
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suspect is the husband, but they certainly had just cause to suspect him. Neither the prosecutor nor the sheriff
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has ever been willing to speak to the news media about Carol Kennedy's murder. So, we asked private investigator and
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CBS News consultant Joe Mora to outline the case against Steven DeMocker. He's got some problems with his uh story.
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June left on June 5th. One of the biggest problems, DeMocker was unreachable for 5 hours the evening
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Carol was murdered. He always had a phone on and charged so that his daughters could reach him
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anytime, day or night. Except that night when according to DeMocker, his cell phone battery had died. That becomes a
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very strong point for the police and certainly puts the suspicions on Steve DeMarco. On a crime, you're looking for
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the motive, but you're also looking, was there time to do these things? You're looking for that window.
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And DeMarco himself admits he went for a bike ride on a trail near his ex-wife's
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home. Now, the situation is is he lives 8 miles away from here. So, why that particular
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day he decides he's going to drive 8 miles to go bike riding. And and like I said, the proximity of where the trail
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is. I know. We were riding. Wish I had chosen a different trail. I wish you had chosen a different trail,
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also. And he came back with very visible scratches. >> And he got a lot of scratches. I was
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watching your legs. You got You got there. You got there. His alibi remembers that he's out riding a
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bicycle, and he gets flat tire. So, that means he's got to walk the bike back. So, it's very possible he could have
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scratched himself in the trail. But, his problem was things were happening at the
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wrong time, at the wrong place. Investigators found shoe prints and bike tracks directly behind Carol Kennedy's
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house that they say incriminate Steve DeMarco. There was multiple prints in that area. It was uh very leafy, and
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sticks were there, but you could tell someone had been there. An FBI expert determined that those impressions came
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from a specific kind of shoe, a brand called La Sportiva. Did you find any shoes that seem to be comparable to the
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impressions that you observed in these photos from the crime scene? Yes, I found one shoe that could have made
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those impressions. And a receipt showed that DeMarco had purchased a pair back in 2006.
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But, investigators could not find them when they searched his home. Basically, all they really have is a footprint that
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may or may not look similar to some shoes that he may or may not have owned. Prosecutors tell the jury another set of
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impressions found near Carol's house are from tires that have a tread just like those on DeMocker's bike.
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>> Did you find any dissimilar characteristics between those? I don't think I know.
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Now, we know it's a very common tire. So, 90% of the people around here probably have the same tire.
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Um but then do 90% of the people wear the same type of shoe that left that partial print? And perhaps most
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damaging, after DeMocker's arrest, investigators discovered that Carol's ex-husband had conducted some rather
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interesting internet searches on his computer. Including how to kill someone and make
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it look like a suicide. That doesn't look good. Yeah, no, it doesn't look good. His position is he was doing
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research to write a novel. His sister, Sharon, insists it's true. Steve's been interested in writing for a long time.
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He's actually a really good writer. And he's been working on a manuscript for a long time, long before the murder. I've
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been doing a lot of the editing for him. He's talked with a number of us about it.
00:18:21
But the big question remains, why? Why would Steve DeMocker kill his ex-wife? The divorce was settled on May
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27th. Murder occurred on July 2nd. They were just resolving the last little details about that divorce settlement.
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Everything had been decided. Still, the prosecution was convinced the motive was money. After the Dow dropped
00:18:47
18% last week, it was 2008, and the economy was tanking, especially in the world of finance. Steve liked to spend
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money. He liked his things. He liked nice hotels. He liked first class everything.
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Steve DeMocker had a mountain of expenses, and now he owed Carol $6,000 a month in alimony. But it did become
00:19:12
clear that he was in significant debt, >> [music] >> what to most of us would seem
00:19:17
insurmountable. While his family admits that he did borrow money from them to make ends meet, they are adamant it was
00:19:24
not a motive for murder. He took hits, but his career was solid. He had great earning capacity, and he would have
00:19:32
rebounded and as did everybody else. Still, Carol's death would be a windfall. And was there a life insurance
00:19:40
policy involved that he would have benefited from? There also was a life insurance policy that he had no interest
00:19:46
in and hasn't benefited from. There were, in fact, two life insurance policies [music] totaling $750,000,
00:19:54
both payable to Steve DeMocker. But, the defense claims not only is money not the motive, there is another
00:20:03
suspect. This man. From the moment Steve DeMocker was charged with his ex-wife's murder, his
00:20:21
family not only felt a profound [music] loss. It's like, okay, we lost Carol. Now, we
00:20:27
lost Steve. His parents also lived with the fear of having their son put to death.
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I kept going over the moment. And I could picture a clock at a quarter of 12. And 10 of 12.
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And 5 of 12. Counting down, knowing now he's going down the corridor. Now, they're putting him on a gurney.
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Now, they're starting an IV that will pour poison into his system. And that was what I went to sleep with at night.
00:21:08
The death penalty was taken off the table before the trial began, but Steve DeMocker still faced life in prison.
00:21:16
Adding to his family's pain was their belief that authorities missed a key suspect, Jim Knapp. Knapp was a friend
00:21:24
of Carol's who was living at her guest house. It was a newly divorced Knapp was quick to arrive at the crime scene and
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investigators recorded their conversation with him as he pointed a finger directly at Steve DeMocker. My
00:21:39
intuitive taking the guy comes off to me as a very sneaky manipulative man. And the first thing he
00:21:47
said is, you know, she's got this crazy ex-husband and I I have a feeling it was
00:21:52
probably him. Jim Knapp might have had a reason to disparage Steve. Sharon DeMocker says there was a rumor around
00:21:59
town that Jim Knapp wanted to be more than just friends with Carol. What concerned us was that he was very
00:22:08
enamored of Carol. That's why DeMocker's defense team wants to know why investigators didn't take
00:22:15
Knapp in for questioning or search his residence. He wasn't looked at at all that night. They never looked at his
00:22:23
clothing. They never really inspected his truck. Authorities had a good reason not to suspect Jim Knapp. Unlike Steve
00:22:30
DeMocker, Knapp had an alibi. They realized that Knapp's alibi was he was babysitting his son at his former wife's
00:22:38
house. But even if investigators had wanted to question [music] Knapp again, they wouldn't get the chance.
00:22:46
In a bizarre twist, Knapp was found dead 5 months after Carol's murder. His death
00:22:53
was ruled a suicide. Some people would say because Knapp committed a suicide that it was a conscious of guilt in
00:22:59
reference to his participation in being the murderer of Carol. Unfortunately, he's not alive. We can't ask him that
00:23:06
question. Two weeks into the prosecution's case, there is a stunning development. Steve
00:23:13
DeMocker's trial comes to an abrupt halt when Judge Thomas B. Limbaugh collapses
00:23:19
in his chambers from a brain tumor. During the delay, DeMocker's girlfriend Renee Girard has a surprising change of
00:23:29
heart and ends their two-year relationship. You know, I always wanted to believe that Steve had nothing to do
00:23:35
with this. And I always felt conflicted about that, about whether he had done it or not.
00:23:42
Girard is having second thoughts about her boyfriend's behavior on the night of Carol's murder. His break with routine,
00:23:51
being out without a charged battery for his phone, being out without a flat tire kit to
00:23:58
change his tire when he was a master of preparation for any outdoor adventure. Thanks to new information from Renee,
00:24:06
investigators literally unearth a crucial piece of evidence. What they say is a go bag stashed in a field outside
00:24:15
Steve's house. Renee says he had packed it just in case he had a chance to make a run for it. He was very constantly
00:24:24
gripped with fear, fear of being arrested. He was obsessed with plans to flee, saying, "I'm afraid I'm going to
00:24:31
be arrested for crime I didn't commit." And then came more damaging information from Renee. [music] Remember what
00:24:38
DeMocker's attorney told us? Was there a life insurance policy involved that he would have benefited from? There also
00:24:45
was a life insurance policy that he had no interest in and hasn't benefited from. Well, not exactly.
00:24:51
>> [music] >> Renee told investigators that was a lie. Even though Steve DeMocker, charged
00:24:57
[music] with Carol's murder, could not directly receive the $750,000, he gave instructions to his daughters to
00:25:05
transfer all of it to his defense attorneys. Everybody along the way said, "Yes, it's okay to release money
00:25:13
to the girls." Um what they didn't know, and none of the officials knew, was that
00:25:17
the money would be used for Steve's defense. [music] Based on this information from Renee,
00:25:22
authorities reviewed Steve DeMocker's jailhouse phone calls. You need to understand.
00:25:27
>> I am understanding. Sweetie, you can't hold aside anything. They learned that older daughter Katie,
00:25:35
in fact, had argued with her father to save some of those funds for her younger sister Charlotte's education. If it all
00:25:43
needs to be used for defense, it all has to go to defense. My life is in the balance, and it's more important than
00:25:48
Charlotte's college. But Renee's biggest revelation is about an anonymous email that would have a dramatic impact on
00:25:56
Steve DeMocker's defense when the trial finally resumes. He called a few days before visitation, and said
00:26:05
that he had found out some information about how Carol had been killed. During a jailhouse visit, Steve told Renee and
00:26:13
his daughter Charlotte that a mystery voice he could hear through a vent in his cell told him who was really
00:26:21
involved with Carol's murder. What had the voice told him? People were looking for Jim Knapp because Jim Knapp was
00:26:27
involved in some kind of a prescription drug ring, and that these people were coming to look for him either to collect
00:26:34
money or get something, and that they had gone into the house and and encountered Carol instead of Jim Knapp.
00:26:41
Steve wrote down the details he had heard and showed his visitors this note. DeMocker then asked if one of them would
00:26:49
drive 100 miles south to Phoenix to send an anonymous email with the new information to both the defense and the
00:26:57
prosecution. We interviewed Steve DeMocker in prison by phone. Why would you involve
00:27:05
Charlotte then? That that's just really baffling from a parent's standpoint. >> As a parent in retrospect, I am appalled
00:27:14
that I did that, but I was terrified. We were terrified. All I can say is I was in jail accused of a crime that someone
00:27:23
else had committed. The police were bungling it. DeMocker insists that he absolutely heard a voice in the vent
00:27:32
telling him why Carol was killed. >> Here come these accounts of Mr. Nat's role in Carol's murder, and I don't know
00:27:39
if they're true, but I certainly want them investigated. Do you believe that he really heard a voice through the
00:27:44
vent? Yes. You do? Yeah, I think there was enough information there. That I mean, I
00:27:50
I really have no It's just more of a a gut feeling. There's a lot of chatter that goes on in the jails and for lots
00:27:57
of different reasons. Charlotte carried out her father's wishes, but when it's revealed that Steve DeMocker was behind
00:28:04
the not-so-anonymous email sent by his daughter, a mistrial is declared on November 12th,
00:28:11
2010. It would take another 3 years to get this case back in front of a jury. I don't think anybody involved in this
00:28:20
case could have anticipated all the twists and turns that this case has taken. Five years and one mistrial later, Steve
00:28:42
DeMocker remains behind bars, more than ready for his new day in court. And he's
00:28:49
kept a good attitude. He's He's kept hope. With the new trial comes a new defense
00:28:54
attorney, court-appointed Craig Williams. They cannot put him in the house. And I
00:29:01
felt good about that because I firmly believe he didn't kill her. And I felt that a reasonable jury would say, "Well,
00:29:09
you can't put him in the house with this much blood." For years, there was forensic evidence
00:29:15
that seemed to strongly suggest there might be another suspect in the murder of Carol Kennedy. Remember that mystery
00:29:22
DNA found under her fingernails? By the time the second trial begins, the state has finally determined it belongs to
00:29:31
68-year-old Ronald Berman. But how are Berman and Carol connected? Berman's autopsy was
00:29:39
performed on the same day, on the same table, as Carol's. The DNA under Carol's fingernails
00:29:48
belonged to the person who they did an autopsy on an hour and a half before Carol's autopsy. Are you kidding? Did
00:29:55
they not wipe the table down afterwards? This is a homicide investigation. The defense claims Carol's real killer
00:30:04
may never be found because the crime scene was so badly compromised. There's a photograph of the deputies
00:30:11
standing down the hall and the dog is right there with them. They tramped through that crime scene without any
00:30:18
care about what they're preserving. Why didn't they seal that whole thing off? With no physical evidence to convict or
00:30:26
exonerate Steve DeMocker, That's what happens when you run out of money. The prosecution points to his alleged
00:30:32
motive, money. Emails between the former couple show they were still arguing over
00:30:38
money, despite [music] defense claims that the divorce had been settled. >> Email on June 15th.
00:30:45
I will not be pushed any further, Carol. You have extracted all you will extract
00:30:50
from me. You get to start clean while I dig out of a staggering hole. Carol's friend Jan Wheeler believes
00:30:58
Steve was trying to solve his money problems by manipulating his ex-wife. He would play these reeling in games
00:31:06
with her. One of the very last conversations I had with Carol, she was just absolutely in tears. I mean, just
00:31:14
sobbing. I was like, Carol, now what? And she said, now that the divorce is final,
00:31:23
he has come to me last night and said, let's put this marriage back together. And he just wouldn't go away. Wouldn't
00:31:29
go away. Everyone is present. You may call your next witness. Barbara Onan. Steve's
00:31:34
attempts to insert himself back into Carol's life seemed to be confirmed by yet another woman. His long-time
00:31:42
business partner and lover, Barbara Onan. Onan testified that she spent the night
00:31:48
with Steve in a Phoenix hotel room just 5 days before Carol's murder. He was texting with Carol because Katie was
00:31:58
flying out to Africa that day. And they were going to spend the day shopping. That was news to you? That was news to
00:32:07
me. I felt as though I had been had one more time. Um been fooled one more time.
00:32:15
That um there they were still back together. It seemed like the theme of the second
00:32:21
case was to dirty up Steve enough that they would jurors would believe that he could have killed her.
00:32:29
They had to bring all of these things in that made him uh look like a bad guy. He kind of was a bad guy, though.
00:32:35
believe. >> But again, none of that there's no there's no violence in his history.
00:32:40
In the court of public opinion, people say you know, he cheated on her an awful lot, and that speaks to their moral
00:32:48
character. What do you have to say in response to that? I guess all I can say is if every spouse who cheated wound up
00:32:55
accused of murder, we'd have a problem. I regret the mistakes I made during my marriage, and has nothing to do with any
00:33:04
capacity for murder. Did you ever see any violence? No. As she testifies at the second trial,
00:33:12
daughter Charlotte suggests her mother was the one with the temper. And did you ever see anybody
00:33:20
throwing anything or doing anything like that? I very vaguely remember my my mom
00:33:26
actually throwing something at him. I don't recall what it was. Um I think it was something heavy, but
00:33:32
that was the only argument that there was ever anything physical. Democker's attorneys insist that Carol's
00:33:38
tenant, Jim Knap, could be the killer. That he is the one with a history of intimidating women. A next girlfriend of
00:33:45
Knap's, Julie Corwin, testifies that she became afraid of Knap after their breakup. The last words in one of his
00:33:54
emails was quote unquote, "You're not getting off that easy." It just left me hanging. I felt scared.
00:34:03
I didn't know if he was going to come up and shoot me. The evidence is way, way,
00:34:09
way stronger against Jim Knap than it is against Steve Democker. This is a left-handed club. Finally,
00:34:17
after nearly two million dollars spent in taxpayers' money, the jury is about to get the case. That's what happened to
00:34:26
Carol. Her skull was shattered like an egg shell. This is a beating murder by someone who
00:34:34
had everything in the world to gain by getting rid of her. Absence evidence is not evidence. If you
00:34:39
cannot put him at the scene, if you cannot make sure that you have DNA, blood, hair, something to tie Mr.
00:34:46
DeMocker to the murder of Carol Kennedy, you got no case. I know I wasn't at her
00:34:51
house that night and I'm innocent. >> [music] >> As the jury deliberates and the hours
00:35:09
turn into days, it is now a waiting game. Kathy Ray and Trisha Greer were on the
00:35:15
jury. There were questions in the jury room. A couple of the jurors wanted to talk
00:35:23
about alternate scenarios. They just had to be convinced that there was nobody else
00:35:29
because the girls had already lost so much. After 3 days, on October 4th, 2013, word of a verdict has family and friends
00:35:39
returning to court. For Carol's mom, Ruth Kennedy, justice would be seeing her former son-in-law spend the rest of
00:35:46
his life in prison. For Steve DeMocker's family, it would be seeing him walk free. Division 1 is the
00:35:53
second. Has the jury reached verdict in this case? Yes, your honor. Would you hand the
00:36:01
verdict form, please? On the charge of second-degree murder, guilty. Guilty. Steve DeMocker is convicted in
00:36:11
the murder of his ex-wife, Carol Kennedy. To hear the words guilty, I just I simply couldn't believe
00:36:19
it. And then my thoughts went to the girls. And I'm like, "Oh my god, this is this
00:36:25
is just we thought this was going to be the end of the nightmare and it's just the beginning. When they said guilty,
00:36:32
Steve turned around and for a moment we were looking right at each other. What did you say to him?
00:36:41
We'll keep fighting. We'll keep fighting. >> We'll keep fighting. To this day, Steve DeMocker says he is
00:36:49
baffled at how he could be accused, let alone convicted of killing his ex-wife. If you did not kill her, sir, then why
00:36:58
do you think you are in jail right now? That's the million-dollar question. It was so difficult to imagine
00:37:06
that 12 people could look at that evidence and come up with a a verdict beyond a reasonable doubt.
00:37:15
The pieces of evidence that started to sway me was definitely the shoe prints because that [music] type of shoe was
00:37:22
very rare. His phone was turned off, which was very unusual for [music] him. The scratches
00:37:29
concerned me. We heard about the internet searches that he had done on how to make a homicide look like a
00:37:37
suicide. Nowhere in the testimony did we see anything that would convince us that he
00:37:43
was trying to write a book. And if pointing the finger at Jim Knapp was supposed to raise reasonable doubt with
00:37:49
the jurors, I didn't know if he was going to come up and shoot me. It didn't work. We went
00:37:56
through Mr. Knapp's timeline carefully and we just could not make that work. Mr. Knapp did not kill
00:38:05
Carol Kennedy. On January 24th, 2014, Steve DeMocker is back in court for sentencing. The
00:38:15
business suit is gone. This time he's wearing the chains of a a [music] killer. If you want us to abandon Steve, you
00:38:25
need to show us a drop of DNA in that in that house. A drop of Carol's blood anywhere on his body, his bike,
00:38:32
his car, his home, a witness, a video, something before we'll even begin to think that this is
00:38:39
anything less than the conviction of an innocent man. Steve [clears throat] DeMocker addresses
00:38:44
the court for the first time and refuses to accept the jury's verdict. I did not kill Carol. We loved each
00:38:53
other for more than 20 years and to believe me capable of violence against her >> [snorts]
00:39:03
>> I would no more have harmed her than I would harm my daughters by taking her from them.
00:39:11
I'd like to thank my family and I'd like my daughters in particular to know how proud I am
00:39:21
of the strength and the grace with which they have faced both the loss of their mother
00:39:29
and the loss of their father. I love you both. The girls' love for their father is
00:39:36
evident when they beg the judge for mercy. So much of what I strongly value in myself, I learned from that man.
00:39:45
This is the same man who's asserted today accused of killing my mother. Frankly, the lack of facts and the lack
00:39:51
of evidence in this case do not meet do not permit me the luxury of drawing such
00:39:56
conclusions. You are faced with the question of whether or not to give my father the possibility of parole in 25
00:40:02
years. And I ask you that you do. I ask that you not force the permanent loss of a second loved one
00:40:09
but rather allow us to look forward to a time when our pain may slightly diminish
00:40:14
and when we may heal together again. But the prosecutor will have none of it. This defendant is a murdering, lying
00:40:24
thief. No matter what anybody else is going to say about him here today, he deserves the maximum sentence.
00:40:32
As the judge announces the sentence, he has some harsh words for Democker. The thing that I can't get by
00:40:40
is this horrific crime scene. I saw these pictures, and I'm not sure I'm ever going to be able to erase those pictures
00:40:47
from my mind. It was brutal murder, and from all appearances, the motive was money.
00:40:54
The sentence I'm going to impose is natural life in prison. Steve Democker will spend the rest of
00:41:00
his life in prison with no chance of parole. For his two daughters, it is a double
00:41:08
tragedy. They've lost a lot, and they have just shown so much strength and grace
00:41:16
through all of this. And they will do well just because of who they are. As for me, I can promise that I will
00:41:25
never forget the memory of my mother. She lives in me every day and will for the rest of my life. She loved people to
00:41:32
a fault and saw the best in everyone, always. >> [music] >> She forgave easily, sometimes too
00:41:38
easily. The world was a better place for the life that she shared with it, and I am a
00:41:43
better person for having been loved and cared for by [music] her. >> [music] [music]
00:42:11
[music] [music] >> Come spend some time with a sweet blonde. If you're looking to get away
00:42:41
or want to relax, give me a call. I got a call a little bit after [music] midnight.
00:42:53
He said, "How much is it?" I told him, you know, "200 for the hour." He said, "Okay."
00:43:03
Philip Markoff is a 23-year-old Boston University medical student. Tall, blonde, good-looking gentleman.
00:43:12
Look nice. He's by all accounts but we would consider a good citizen. I just said, "Hi, how are you?" and he
00:43:20
said, "Good." I said, "All right, come on." and motioned him to follow me into the room.
00:43:25
He has no criminal record. He has a fiance. He seems to be an ambitious, intelligent man who had a future ahead
00:43:32
of him. I shut the door. I turned around and I locked it. That's when he pulled out the
00:43:37
gun. He's very calm. Like he's like he's done it before. My name is Trisha Lafferty and I was
00:43:46
attacked by the Craigslist killer. Craigslist in the prostitution game today is the old yellow pages. It's
00:43:56
easier for aspiring predators to find prey. >> [music] >> Click on the site and you've got your victim for the
00:44:03
night. Julissa was 25 when she died. She was young and she was beautiful. But unfortunately, I think [music] she
00:44:15
went down a very troubled path. Her services are advertised as massages. Massages of a more sexual nature.
00:44:26
Julissa was a fighter. She wouldn't let anybody rob her or take her money. She fought back.
00:44:33
Her killer, who police have identified as Philip Markoff, smashed her over the head with the gun.
00:44:38
And then shot her three times. Striking her in the heart. Boston police say the Craigslist killer
00:44:45
is a 22-year-old pre-med student at Boston University. I discovered that Philip Markoff did
00:44:53
have a [music] secret life. A side of him that his family and friends had no idea existed.
00:45:02
He was participating in these sexual websites. He posted photos of his naked torso.
00:45:10
It revealed a whole new layer to the story. This wasn't simply a robbery gone wrong anymore. I think Philip Markoff
00:45:16
gave in to his demons. He completely gave in to his dark side. Efforts to revive him were unsuccessful.
00:45:30
Mr. Markoff died at his own hand. The day that he committed suicide, that was one day after what would have been
00:45:38
his one-year wedding anniversary. It's no coincidence whatsoever, especially when you
00:45:45
>> [music] >> you know, you you hear about what was written on his cell wall. 7 Days of Rage, The Craigslist Killer,
00:45:58
the final chapter. Tonight's 48 Hours Mystery. >> [music] >> In the spring of 2009,
00:46:39
Boston was a city at peace. But then, on April 10th, everything changed. The Craigslist Killer began his 7-day
00:46:54
crime spree. And his first victim was a woman from Las Vegas who was fleeing that city's
00:47:01
crackdown on vice. How did you end up in Boston, Massachusetts? I just picked a city and went to it. I've been
00:47:11
doing it for the past 2 years. What were you doing? What was your line of work? I
00:47:15
was escorting. In this case, a traveling escort. 29-year-old Trisha Lefler checked
00:47:25
herself into the Westin Copley Hotel. No surprise, Trisha went right to where the money is. The Back Bay area is known
00:47:36
for its fancy hotels, exclusive boutiques, and hip restaurants. And how much money can you make in this
00:47:43
field? >> Oh, it's lucrative. A lot of money. Thousands a week? Oh, yeah. She immediately went online to
00:47:51
Craigslist, the web bulletin board, and placed an ad in the erotic services section. What was your headline that you
00:47:59
put in? >> It was something along the lines of sweet blonde come and relax with me.
00:48:10
How long before you start getting phone calls? Right away. Right away? Mhm. This is so easy, isn't it? Very easy.
00:48:19
What Craigslist does is basically provide services. And these prostitutes have been
00:48:25
providing services for years. You know, if it's not the yellow pages, it's going
00:48:28
to be Craigslist. They find a means to advertise their services. Joe Mora, a Boston-based private investigator and 48
00:48:36
Hours consultant, says that by acting as her own boss, Trisha was increasing her
00:48:42
risk. There's a street prostitute, she's going to have a pimp down the street or across
00:48:47
the street or on the corner who's protecting her. Somebody using Craigslist, you know, getting a fancy hotel in
00:48:53
Boston, she's on her own. But that April night, when Trisha saw the man who answered her ad, she felt
00:49:01
perfectly safe. He looked nice. [music] He looked young, good-looking, obviously.
00:49:09
But once the door was closed, this good-looking young man pulled out a very dangerous-looking gun.
00:49:17
I backed up a little bit. He just said, you know, if you do everything you're asked, no harm's going to come to you.
00:49:23
And [music] he said, "Lay down, put your hands behind your back." And then when he
00:49:27
started to walk towards me, he put the gun back in his pocket. The man put on some black leather gloves and took out
00:49:34
some plastic zip ties like these. [music] He knelt down with one knee in between
00:49:39
my legs and took my wrist [music] and put the tie around one of them first, and then
00:49:46
he tied the other one. What are you thinking as he's as he's doing that, essentially putting handcuffs on you?
00:49:52
I'm thinking like what does he want? I'm shaking. I'm you know, I'm scared. It dawned on me later that he could have
00:50:02
very well killed me. I had about $800 in cash. He grabbed that, [music] put that in his pocket. As
00:50:08
he took her credit and debit cards, he made no attempt to disguise his face. But he was intent on getting his phone
00:50:16
number off her cell phone. >> [music] >> Was he wearing his gloves when he did that? No.
00:50:23
How dumb is that? Dumb. >> [music] >> Dumb, and as it turned out, he was more than a little weird. He picked up
00:50:33
[music] a pair of my underwear that were on the floor and put them in his pocket.
00:50:39
What did you think to yourself? If he would have looked at my face, it would have been like, what the hell are
00:50:45
you doing? At that point, the gunman began walking around the hotel room looking for
00:50:52
something. And he said come here, and I went into [music] the bathroom, and he basically tied me to the doorknob.
00:51:00
I got really scared. He took a knife out of his pocket and cut the phone lines. He came back over to me and taped my
00:51:11
mouth. He put three pieces of tape over my mouth. Trisha noticed that he had yet to put
00:51:17
the gloves back on, meaning that his fingerprints were all over that tape. After he leaves, what do you do?
00:51:27
Within 20 to 30 seconds, I was out of my ties. Are you worried he's on the other
00:51:31
side of the door still? >> Yes, I'm worried he's listening through the door. Um, I look out the peephole.
00:51:36
There's the nothing There's nobody out there. I opened the door very slowly, stuck my
00:51:42
head out, looked both ways. Nobody was in the hallway. I crept down the hall to see if he was
00:51:47
maybe standing by the elevator. Nobody by the elevator. I'm still shaking. I'm still nervous.
00:51:53
[music] So, I went back to the room, grabbed my room key, shut the door, and went and knocked on
00:51:59
the on the next-door neighbor's door and I said, "You know, can I call security?
00:52:03
I've just been robbed at gunpoint." The next day when I went down to the [music] police station to look through
00:52:10
some photos, they had a surveillance photo of the man [music] that I described. A photo taken at the hotel?
00:52:17
Yes. These stills taken from a hotel security camera were the first shots of the man who became known as the [music]
00:52:25
Craigslist Killer. You could tell it was him? Yes, I could tell it was him. Wasn't he [music] aware that there were
00:52:32
security cameras that people could track him down if something did go wrong? Sometimes, because there's security
00:52:38
cameras everywhere, it's almost like they're not there. He figured that the crime was simple. He was going to do the
00:52:44
robbery. He was going to walk out. She's not reporting it. Nobody's going to be checking video if he was here or not. He
00:52:49
figures it's a clean, clear-cut case. He's out of here. Trisha remained in Boston waiting for
00:52:55
the police to release her cell phone when, on April 15th, they called. And they said, "We need to talk to you.
00:53:03
It's really important." 5 minutes later, knock at the door. And then they handed
00:53:07
me a photograph. And I said, "Wow, this is a really good picture of him. Where did you get it
00:53:12
from?" And they just stopped and looked at me and they were like, "Is that him?" I said, "Yeah, this is
00:53:18
him." Was this before he came up to my room? They said, "No, this is taken [music] from a different hotel."
00:53:23
And they said he murdered another girl last night. >> I've been working [music] at the Boston
00:53:49
Globe for 5 years. I've been doing this beat specifically for about 2 years. Reporter Maria [music] Cramer covers the
00:53:55
crime and police beat. She is also a 48 Hours consultant. You have some good contacts? In the
00:54:03
police department? I probably shouldn't say that. >> [laughter] >> I I get by. In the spring of 2009, Maria found
00:54:14
herself at the center of a white-hot story. I got a call from my editor on April 15th telling me that there was a
00:54:22
report of a woman shot at the Copley Marriott in Boston. The dead woman was 25-year-old Julissa
00:54:30
Brisman, an aspiring [music] model from New York City. I knew immediately it was going to be a
00:54:36
big story [music] and as more information began coming down the pipe, it was it was just getting
00:54:42
bigger and bigger. That's because the police had connected Julissa's murder to the robbery of
00:54:48
Trisha Leffler just days before. Both women had advertised in the erotic services section of Craigslist, [music]
00:54:57
had been restrained with plastic ties, and once again, stills from the Marriott showed this tall, blonde,
00:55:05
>> [music] >> preppy-looking man leaving the scene of the crime. What frightened a lot of people is these
00:55:11
pictures of a person that doesn't seem to have a care in the world. The media labeled him the Craigslist
00:55:18
killer. >> [music] >> The case really began to take on a life of its own. And now, all eyes were focused on the
00:55:26
20th-floor hotel room [music] of Julissa Brisman. What do police believe happened in that
00:55:32
room? Police believe that the attacker immediately pulled a gun on her. He got at least one plastic tie on her wrist.
00:55:39
At that point, she fought back. 48 Hours producer Paul LaRosa, along with Maria Cramer, has written a new
00:55:47
book about the case called Seven Days of Rage. It is published by Simon & Schuster, a division of CBS. Her killer
00:55:56
shot her right at the front of her room. When he opened the door to flee, she fell outside the room.
00:56:05
A guest from New York City was staying in a room just down the hall from Julissa.
00:56:11
This witness, who we'll call Jill, told LaRosa what she saw and heard. Jill was in her room
00:56:20
reading a mystery novel. And all of a sudden, she starts hearing like a commotion down the hall.
00:56:27
And eventually, she poked her head out the door. And what she saw down the hall was a woman who was half in and half out
00:56:34
of the >> [music] >> of the doorway. She wasn't moving. Jill decided at that point she was going to call security.
00:56:43
The guard bent over, started moving the hair away from the woman on the floor, and he saw a lot of blood. And once he
00:56:51
saw the blood, the guard said, "Get in your room." He said to Jill. She stayed in the hallway and watched to
00:56:56
see what was happening. And uh he immediately, you know, started talking into his walkie-talkie. He said, "This
00:57:02
is an emergency. We need paramedics." Less [screaming] than an hour later, Julissa Brisman, only a week away from
00:57:10
her 26th birthday, was pronounced dead at Boston Medical Center. Later that night, cops called her mother
00:57:18
Carmen in New York City. And Carmen called [music] Mark Pines, a photographer who was helping Julissa in
00:57:26
her career, and also was a family friend. She just told me that Julissa [music] died.
00:57:34
You can't go back from a statement like that. It's definitive. And we just started crying. [music]
00:57:39
More than words, we needed to share feelings at that point. The details, I didn't care about the details at that
00:57:44
point. My heart was so broken that, you know, all I could do was cry. [music] For her family and Julissa's many
00:57:53
friends, her murder was a tragic [music] end to a life just beginning to turn around. What we know about Julissa
00:58:01
before this is that she was a party girl. You know, she was living the high life in New York. I mean, she was a
00:58:07
young, beautiful girl in New York City and she took full advantage of of of her youth and her beauty to, you know, to
00:58:13
live it up. But at the time of her death, Julissa had stopped drinking and had radically changed her appearance.
00:58:21
Her friend, Mark Pines, says she was happy. >> [music] >> She would smile with her whole face.
00:58:27
She'd smile with her mouth and her eyebrows at the same time and she had eyes that were like just this amazingly
00:58:34
positive, optimistic saying in her eyes. Action. Pines featured Julissa in this video about cell phones. Go ahead, try
00:58:44
calling me. You're not going to reach me. He also wrote a song about her. >> [music]
00:58:55
>> Julissa was trying to get her modeling and acting career going. But in the meantime, there were bills to be paid.
00:59:02
>> [music] >> So, she began to offer what's known in the trade as sensual or erotic massages.
00:59:10
Was Julissa a prostitute? No, not from what I'm told. She was disgusted by it. That said, she was definitely operating
00:59:17
in a [music] world that could become dangerous. With two victims plucked off Craigslist,
00:59:24
one dead and one terrorized, critics blasted the site as a virtual bordello filled with all too real [music]
00:59:32
prostitutes. Sex and crime are always around even before the internet, but the internet
00:59:38
[music] makes it just so much easier. The Craigslist Killer knew that all too well.
00:59:46
Just 2 days after Julissa's murder, he dipped into Craigslist yet again to find his next victim.
01:00:11
If you had [music] somebody targeting women in nice hotels in a busy part of the city where a lot of tourists hang
01:00:18
out, that was a huge concern for police. [music] In Boston, the police kept watch on the
01:00:26
city's downtown core determined to find [music] the killer who was choosing his victims off
01:00:33
Craigslist. Then, just 2 days after Julissa Brisman's murder, >> [music] >> the Craigslist Killer found a new target
01:00:43
60 miles from Boston at a Holiday Inn in Warwick, Rhode Island. His victim was a stripper from Las Vegas
01:01:00
who asked that we not use her real name, so we'll refer to her as Amber. She was
01:01:06
dancing [music] at a local strip club in Providence. Amber would not do an on-camera
01:01:11
interview, but did talk to authors Paul LaRosa and Maria Cramer. She goes there often with her husband. She dances at
01:01:20
the Cadillac Lounge. During her downtime, Amber advertised on Craigslist offering
01:01:31
private lap dances in her hotel room. >> [music] >> One of these people matched the
01:01:38
description of the man who attacked the two women in Boston. For the third time in 7 days, a woman
01:01:48
willingly opened her door to this clean-cut young man. She turns around in the room. She turns back to
01:01:55
this guy. What happens? The guy had a gun and he was pointing it at her. She said he was nervous and his hand was
01:02:01
actually shaking, the gun hand. And he said, "I'm broke. I don't want to kill you. I just need cards and money."
01:02:08
What does she do? Well, she was scared. She said, "I'll give you whatever you want."
01:02:13
He immediately tied her up with these plastic handcuffs, laid her on the ground, and started looking through her
01:02:20
room. Same kind of zip ties that had been used in Boston. Exactly. At that point, her cell phone started to
01:02:30
ring and the gunman got very nervous when the phone kept ringing and ringing. He said, "Who's calling you? Why are
01:02:36
they calling now?" The caller was Amber's husband and her business manager. He was in the hotel lobby waiting for a
01:02:48
signal from Amber that everything was okay. When he did not get it, he began calling
01:02:54
and headed up to his wife's room. Suddenly, there was a man coming through the door because her husband had the key
01:03:02
to the room. The gunman pointed the gun at Amber's husband. Amber's husband took off down the hall
01:03:08
one way. The attacker took off the other way. The gunman escaped, although security
01:03:16
cameras captured his image in the stairwell and lobby. How dumb is it to show your face to
01:03:23
these people? What we might think of stupidity police are I are more inclined to call arrogance.
01:03:28
A person who just thinks he's smarter than everybody else. Didn't expect to get caught.
01:03:34
But over these seven days of rage, the Craigslist killer made several crucial [music] mistakes.
01:03:42
Showing his face to his victims. Allowing his image to be captured by security cameras.
01:03:50
But his [music] biggest blunder was unwittingly handing investigators a road map to his front [music] door.
01:03:57
One of Julissa's friends found the emails between her and her 10:00 p.m. [music] appointment, the man that she
01:04:03
met at 10:00 p.m. the night that she died, and then called Boston police to tell them, I have these emails. That
01:04:09
means I have his IP address. An IP or internet [music] protocol address is unique to each computer that
01:04:19
sends email. That was a huge break in the investigation. Investigator Joe Mora. That was like leaving the gun at
01:04:27
the scene with your fingerprints on the gun. It's the same exact thing. Detectives began tracing that virtual IP
01:04:36
address and it led them to a suburb just outside Boston. That address led police
01:04:42
to an apartment in Quincy. Specifically to an apartment belonging to Philip Markoff.
01:04:50
Philip Markoff, for the first time investigators could match a name to a suspect and they were shocked to
01:04:58
discover this 23-year-old was a second-year medical student at Boston University. Philip Markoff is a
01:05:06
brilliant student. We know he has an uncommon mind. When they got Philip Markoff's name,
01:05:16
they still weren't convinced. Officers from Boston's elite fugitive squad began an around-the-clock
01:05:23
stakeout. [music] They began their stakeout late Saturday night, early Sunday morning,
01:05:28
>> [music] >> waiting for somebody to come out that would look like the man in these uh
01:05:31
video surveillance photos. And when he did, they realized, "Okay, we've got somebody who looks a lot like
01:05:37
these photos." >> [music] >> One sergeant basically called the the the investigators after watching him all
01:05:41
day and said, "I like him. I like him a lot." But before cops brought him in for
01:05:47
questioning, the DA wanted a positive ID. They reached out to the Craigslist killer's first target, Trisha Leffler. I
01:05:57
got a call that morning. [music] It was the assistant DA in Boston, and she said, "We have a photo lineup for you.
01:06:04
Are you still in Boston?" I said, "No, I'm in New York. I just left yesterday." It was now 1 week after Julissa's
01:06:11
murder, and the methodical Craigslist investigation suddenly turned frantic. Markoff, along with his fiancee, Megan
01:06:20
McAllister, was on the move. They come out carrying a small suitcase and an over-the-shoulder knapsack,
01:06:27
>> [music] >> get into the car, and start heading down Route 95 South. The couple was heading to Foxwoods
01:06:33
Casino in Connecticut. The race was on. Boston authorities were intent on making
01:06:40
sure Markoff did not set foot over the state line. Once that car crosses the state line,
01:06:48
>> they're out of their jurisdiction. So, they were they they were going to have
01:06:51
to make a quick decision. The Boston DA rushed a New York detective over to Trisha's Manhattan
01:06:59
hotel room with a photo array that included Markoff. I went through them one by one.
01:07:09
When I hit number five, I just started shaking. And I said, "This is him." Boston police very excitedly got on the
01:07:18
phone with the fugitive unit and said, "Get him." Back on I-95, the police cars surrounded
01:07:27
Markoff. They pulled him over. They said, "We have a warrant for this automobile. We need to take it back to
01:07:33
Boston. You need to come with us." The police immediately informed him that he was under arrest for kidnapping,
01:07:42
armed robbery, and murder. When Megan was told the news of Philip's arrest, she broke down and cried.
01:07:52
Detectives saw no reason to hold her, and she was allowed to fly to her parents' home in New Jersey
01:07:58
while Markoff went off to jail. As soon as they told me they had him in custody, I just started crying.
01:08:09
I was very, very happy. It was like a [music] weight had been lifted off my chest
01:08:15
to know that he had finally been caught and he can't hurt anybody else. But with Philip [music] Markoff in
01:08:21
custody, the questions were only just beginning. When we come back, correspondent Richard
01:08:29
Schlesinger investigates the two sides of Philip Markoff. I don't really believe in split
01:08:37
personalities. Yet, there were two very just incredibly different people. >> [music]
01:08:42
>> And and they were almost living separate lives. We will do everything we can to hold him
01:08:58
accountable for these terrible crimes. There were plenty of reasons for people to be shocked when Philip Markoff was
01:09:07
arrested. He sure didn't look the part. Handsome young medical students seldom end
01:09:13
[music] up shackled and cuffed and facing the judge in a notorious case of homicide.
01:09:19
>> This is the sort of person you would never expect to be involved in these sorts of crimes and he counted on that.
01:09:24
>> Because he thought what he was sort of hiding in plain sight. He Here he was the boy next door. Exactly. Casey Jordan
01:09:31
is an attorney and a psychologist who specializes in criminal behavior. He presented a virtual identity to
01:09:40
society which everyone could buy into. The guy next door, tall and blonde and handsome, a medical student engaged to a
01:09:46
beautiful girl. So, the last thing his friends expected was this. It was shocking. I went to shock.
01:10:01
Morgan Houston was Markoff's friend and [music] study partner at the State University of New York at Albany.
01:10:07
They were both pre-med. He was dorky, but so many of us are. I mean, I can be a big dork, too.
01:10:16
He might have been a dork, but Markoff was also a star student. In fact, he finished college in just 3
01:10:25
years, graduated summa laude, and was accepted to medical school at top-ranked Boston University.
01:10:33
By 2009, Markoff was a second-year med student and was planning a wedding to Megan McAllister, his college
01:10:41
girlfriend. It was supposed to be a lavish sunset ceremony at this beach resort in New
01:10:49
Jersey. Instead, Markoff ended up in jail and Megan holed up here at her parents'
01:10:56
house in Little Silver, New Jersey. The press pursued her, but she stayed mostly out of sight.
01:11:04
Still, Megan, who had been dating Markoff for 3 years, came quickly to his defense after his arrest, writing
01:11:12
reporters, [music] "Philip is a beautiful man inside and out and would not hurt a fly."
01:11:19
Can you tell us how your daughter's doing? Uh as expected, not well. Megan's father, Jim McAllister, spoke to
01:11:26
reporters in front of the family home 2 days after Markoff's arrest. She's still confident in Phil,
01:11:34
but uh other than that, uh we're saying a lot of prayers. But police were making it more difficult
01:11:43
for people to remain confident in Markoff. They say they found the gun that killed Julissa Brisman in his
01:11:49
apartment. It was like something out of a corny detective novel. The gun, similar to this one, was found hidden
01:11:56
inside a hollowed-out book. It was, of all things, a copy of Gray's Anatomy, like this one, the basic reference book
01:12:05
for all doctors and medical students. They found the gun in a book, and if they show that that gun was the gun that
01:12:12
was involved in the shooting, you got a case closed situation. See you later, he's gone.
01:12:18
And that wasn't all the police found. Remember Trisha Lefler's stolen underwear?
01:12:24
The Boston detective called me from his apartment. He said, "We did find both pairs of your underwear." And police
01:12:31
report finding two more pairs of women's underwear hidden under Markoff's mattress,
01:12:36
though they haven't said whose. But if Markoff was keeping underwear from his victims as trophies, it was
01:12:44
beginning to look like these were more than just simple [music] robberies gone wrong.
01:12:50
It wasn't just about the money. It was if I'm going to get the money, how can I get it and fulfill this
01:12:56
personal need for thrill? Jordan thinks Markoff gets his thrills from a frightening mixture of power,
01:13:04
sex, and control. [music] And one night back in college, after more than a few drinks, Morgan Houston
01:13:12
may have caught a glimpse of Philip Markoff's thrill-seeking. Going up into the tower where I lived,
01:13:20
he cornered me and pushed me up against the wall and was trying to kiss me. And I was saying, "No, Phil, we're just
01:13:28
friends. What are you trying to do?" And I was trying to push him away, and he was being forceful, and I couldn't
01:13:35
I couldn't physically get him off me. And thankfully, one of my very close friends had come along, and he was able
01:13:42
to pull him off me, and I was able to escape upstairs. Were you scared? Yeah. Of course. I've I had no control. He
01:13:51
wasn't listening to me when I was saying no. It wasn't the Phil I knew, but I chalked
01:13:55
it up to the alcohol. Maybe it was the alcohol, or maybe it was a hint of what the real Philip
01:14:03
Markoff was like. The day after Markoff's arrest, a report surfaced that he had traded emails with
01:14:11
a transvestite [music] advertising on Craigslist. It appeared that he was interested in
01:14:17
homosexual sadomasochism, and he was interested in being the submissive partner.
01:14:22
Steve Huff is a crime blogger and a contributor to the True Crime Report. Following up on the email address
01:14:28
Markoff reportedly used, sexaddict5385, Huff made a startling discovery. I received a tip that if you added another
01:14:39
eight to that address, there were secondary profiles that nobody knew about yet.
01:14:45
And here is one of the profiles Huff found for sex [music] addict 53885, believed to be Markoff, on alt.com,
01:14:56
a personals website for the very adventurous. It lists these among his interests:
01:15:02
chains, collars, leashes, [music] and experimentation with transvestites, among others. How certain are you that
01:15:11
the the fellow you're reading about on that website is Philip Markoff? >> Oh, I'm certain. I'm certain.
01:15:17
>> can you be sure? The All the evidence points to the person posting uh had the same birth date as Markoff.
01:15:25
Uh he had the Of course, he had the similar handles, the sex addict handle. There's also this.
01:15:34
Boston police have confirmed the torso shot seen here was found on Markoff's laptop.
01:15:43
These secret profiles and his alleged solicitation of a transvestite suggest to psychologist Casey Jordan that
01:15:51
Markoff's [music] public persona was at war with his deeper desires. He really did have this other double
01:16:01
life. Now, that in and of itself doesn't cause people to rob or to kill. But, what it does is very often cause what we
01:16:07
call in criminology a fractured identity. That conflict can actually result in violence.
01:16:13
Police say in February Markoff used a fake ID to buy a gun in New Hampshire, the same gun police report finding in
01:16:22
his apartment. He had the gun. He was willing to use it. And he wasn't afraid of killing at
01:16:28
this point. In fact, as the final chapter unfolds, Markoff shows everyone just how violent
01:16:35
he could be. >> With Philip Markoff behind bars, there is a possibility that Philip Markoff has
01:16:54
done this before. District Attorney Dan Conley made a public plea to other possible victims.
01:17:02
If you have been a victim like these victims have been, please come forward. And for the first time
01:17:09
since Markoff's arrest A short time ago, Philip Markoff's parents left. His father, Dr. Richard Markoff, and his
01:17:17
mother, Susan Haynes, visited him in jail. Do you still believe in your son's innocence?
01:17:23
Markoff's older brother also visited him. His brother John and his wife Deanna And soon after, reports began to
01:17:31
circulate that a distraught Markoff told his brother to forget about it and move
01:17:36
to California because even more damning information would be revealed. It was yet another shock for Markoff's
01:17:44
[music] family who live in upstate New York. His mother worked at a casino. His father was a dentist. Um and by all
01:17:54
accounts, he had a normal, happy upbringing. But by last summer, those happy days
01:18:01
were done. A Boston grand jury indicted Markoff on first-degree murder for killing Julissa
01:18:08
Brisman and the kidnapping and armed robbery of Trisha Lafferty. Markoff was required to appear in
01:18:17
[music] court to answer those charges and for the first time since the case catapulted into the
01:18:24
headlines, the public would get a chance to hear the man at the center of this media hurricane. How do you plead to
01:18:31
this indictment, sir? Not guilty. Not guilty. Markoff sounded confident in his innocence, but he and his lawyer are
01:18:40
in a distinct minority. The police have incredibly strong evidence against Philip Markoff.
01:18:49
The damning security camera stills, Trisha's eyewitness identification, Markov's fingerprints allegedly found on
01:18:57
the duct tape used on Trisha, and >> Most devastating, the 9 mm gun in the hollowed out copy of
01:19:07
Grey's Anatomy. Has a ballistics test been run on that weapon? >> Yes, a ballistics test has been run on
01:19:13
the weapon and has shown that there is a match between the gun and the bullets that killed Julissa Brisman.
01:19:23
But what about [music] Markov's fiance, Megan McAllister, who lived with him inside that Quincy apartment? Is there
01:19:31
any evidence that Megan knew anything [music] of Philip's secret life? >> None. She knew nothing about his bizarre
01:19:37
sex life? No. No, she she she didn't know any of this. Megan, do you have a comment? I know this must be a real hard
01:19:44
time for you right now, Megan. Megan visited Markov twice in jail and told him face-to-face that the wedding was
01:19:52
off. Megan, will you ever see him again? Do you think you'll ever see him again?
01:19:56
That question was answered this past week in a shocking development. The so-called Craigslist killer commits
01:20:03
[music] suicide in jail. The initial reports were that Philip Markoff had killed himself in his own cell
01:20:10
at the Nashua Street Jail, where he was being held and where he was awaiting trial. [music]
01:20:14
He had put a plastic bag over his head in a apparent attempt to asphyxiate himself,
01:20:19
and he had also cut some major arteries. It was left to DA Conley to lay out precisely how Markov committed suicide.
01:20:28
Using a primitive scalpel fashioned from a pen and a sharp piece of metal, he inflicted a series of small puncture
01:20:37
wounds and incisions on his body, including his neck, arms, wrist, and ankles. He hit several veins and the carotid
01:20:47
artery in his neck. All of these wounds are consistent with suicide. >> [music] >> These photos, taken inside Markov's
01:20:58
cell, show that handmade scalpel [music] and the plastic bag he put over his head.
01:21:03
How these photos were leaked to a local Boston television station [music] is under investigation, as is Markov's
01:21:11
suicide. Markov had tried to kill himself at least once before, [music] hours after his arrest, but a
01:21:19
psychiatrist later took him off suicide watch. The way that he did this, um, really
01:21:26
almost virtually guaranteed that he he would die, um, before anybody could find him.
01:21:33
Seems as though he took great pains to make sure he wouldn't [music] be found alive.
01:21:39
If there was a suicide note, it has not been revealed. However, before [music] he died, Markov, a known gambler, played
01:21:47
one last card. In a small space above the door, um, he had written two words in what
01:21:55
appeared to be his blood. And uh, the first word was Megan, and underneath it the word pocket. In this photo, it's
01:22:02
difficult to make out the words, but it's clear that Markov never got over Megan.
01:22:09
Almost to the day, 1 year ago, they were to have wed on this beach. And even as he was living out his final moments,
01:22:17
>> [music] >> he thought of her. The word pocket reportedly refers to a pet name the two had [music] for for
01:22:25
other. And there were several photos of Megan adorning Markov's cell wall. We don't
01:22:31
know what kind of person he is emotionally and and I think that forensic psychologist could have a
01:22:36
fascinating time trying to analyze the significance of that day. The day after Markov's
01:22:44
suicide, Philip's brother John posted a message on Facebook. Rest in peace, Phil. I will always love
01:22:52
you. Those familiar with the case believe Markov was trying to spare his fiance,
01:22:58
who most likely would have been called to testify, the agony of a trial. A fact that does not sit well with the district
01:23:06
attorney. With Philip Markov's final actions, the Brisman family has been deprived of an
01:23:13
opportunity to hear a verdict rendered, to see justice pronounced, and even the chance to tell the court and Mr. Markov,
01:23:21
face-to-face, what Julissa meant to them, and the immeasurable pain and loss inflicted upon them.
01:23:31
I ask you all again to keep Julissa Brisman and her family and her friends in your thoughts and prayers.
01:23:42
Julissa's mother, Carmen, >> [music] >> is heartbroken and cannot bear to speak publicly about her dead daughter or
01:23:50
Markov's suicide. Maybe they would have had some sort of understanding [music] of why their daughter had to die, and
01:23:56
that's been taken away from them. So, that's where [music] the disappointment comes from.
01:24:01
All she has left are her memories and Julissa's dog, Coco, who many said was her best friend.
01:24:10
I think that that's one of the most tragic things is that he went after somebody so vulnerable.
01:24:14
Somebody like Julissa Brisman is easily forgotten, but [music] she was a real person who meant a lot to to quite a few
01:24:20
people. >> [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] >> It was early evening of August 31st,
01:25:26
2012 when Yancy Noll left work and headed home. He started driving his battered old
01:25:36
Subaru up Interstate 5. At some point, he encountered a man in a BMW. He had no way of knowing that he was
01:25:49
going to be dead in 10 minutes. Yancy Noll was just a guy who lived in North Seattle, had a girlfriend and a
01:26:01
dog, liked to climb mountains. He was one of us. When you prosecute murder cases for as
01:26:07
long as we have, the random nature of death is what gets in your head. He was my best friend for 22 years.
01:26:16
He was my touchstone. He was the guy who kept me grounded. People adored him. The last few moments of Yancy Knowles'
01:26:29
life were pulling up at a stoplight. The BMW pulled up next to Yancy's Subaru. >> [music]
01:26:40
>> Yancy turned and saw this car and this man next to him. He saw the gun pointed at his head and
01:26:50
he saw the bullet that shattered the window and tore apart his face. And then he turned and was shot three
01:27:00
more times in the head. >> [music] >> The witnesses really didn't know what had happened. They heard the shots.
01:27:15
And then they saw the BMW pull into oncoming traffic, screeched out leaving tire marks, going so fast that when the
01:27:23
car hit a hill it took air and then sped out of sight. >> [bell] >> When I arrived that day at the murder
01:27:33
scene, it was dusk. They had yellow crime scene tape around Yancy Knowles' Subaru. There was blood outside the
01:27:42
driver's door. The driver's seat was saturated with blood. When police respond to a murder, they're
01:27:53
looking for a reason. Was anybody mad at Yancy? Did Yancy have any enemies? There
01:27:58
might have been some kind of road incident, some kind of traffic incident. And what are people thinking? That
01:28:04
there's a killer on the loose? There was a killer on the loose. >> [music] >> Anybody could have been the next target.
01:28:14
Police didn't know they were looking for a student of murder. Someone who would kill
01:28:22
just to kill. I'm [music] Peter Van Sant. Tonight on 48 Hours, Student of Murder.
01:28:43
>> [music] >> This case is about the presence of evil in our world. It was like a bomb had
01:29:09
dropped. None of us is ever safe. Any of us could have been Yancy Noll. Prosecutors Adrian McCoy and Kristin
01:29:21
Richardson say the murder of Yancy Noll in 2012, shot to death in his car while stopped at a red light, put the city of
01:29:29
Seattle on edge. The police went all out. They took it very seriously. >> [music]
01:29:37
>> Police are still looking for the suspect. >> Yancy Noll was shot and killed 1 week
01:29:41
ago tonight. >> Right now, the shooter is on the loose. How big a story was this? This was a
01:29:46
very big story. Alison Grande is a reporter for Cairo 7, a CBS News affiliate. We have shootings in Seattle.
01:29:54
We don't necessarily have many shootings in that area of Seattle, that time of day, and that type of victim. What were
01:30:01
you hearing? Did Yancy Noll have any enemies? From talking to his friends, Yancy didn't any enemies. He was an
01:30:09
outdoorsy guy who enjoyed fine wine, loved what he did working as a wine steward at QFC. Hey, what's your name?
01:30:16
Yancy. Bottom line, 42-year-old Yancy Noll was a good-hearted, happy-go-lucky guy.
01:30:25
OH, YEAH. OH, YEAH. And friends say the idea that Yancy exploded into a road rage battle
01:30:35
is ridiculous. He drove like a grandma. He was very, very careful. Longtime friend Brad Kenny. He had a Subaru
01:30:43
wagon, not known for its speed. Was he an angry man? No. Was he impulsive? >> No. Reckless?
01:30:51
>> Never. Verbally abusive? God, no. Not even close. He was so careful and mindful
01:30:59
with how he interacted with people. Investigators suspect Yancy and his killer crossed paths around [music] 7:00
01:31:06
p.m. on Interstate 5, just north of Seattle. It's possible that there was some sort of
01:31:14
confrontation. And Yancy pulled up to the intersection, thinking nothing of it. Do you think he ever knew what hit him?
01:31:24
Never. He was killed instantly, thank God. He had no idea what happened. The details of the shooting were
01:31:33
curious, to say the least. Right here, five shots were fired with remarkable accuracy. It was at about this time of
01:31:42
day, and the shooter killed Yancy Noll just a few feet from other motorists. I heard five rapid shots. They're kind of
01:31:50
like a pop pop pop pop pop. Friends Kevin Watts and Angelo Rama were driving together when they heard those five pops
01:31:58
behind them. The next thing they saw was a car speed away into oncoming traffic.
01:32:05
I drove by and I was like, that's kind of weird that someone wouldn't wait for a red light. Upset that the driver had
01:32:11
run the red light, the two friends hit the gas and gave chase. We couldn't catch up to him. How fast
01:32:20
did that vehicle peel out of here? Zero to 60 in like two, three seconds. He was
01:32:24
gone. Rama and Watts gave up the chase and returned to the scene where a Subaru was
01:32:32
still at the curb with its motor running. The friends had a sinking feeling that those pops they'd heard
01:32:39
likely were gunshots. I saw a lot of blood. I saw where the bullet holes were and I
01:32:46
realized that there was just there's absolutely nothing I could do. The shooter's bullets had hit Yancy four
01:32:52
times in the head. The case was about to consume detectives Frank Clark and Dana
01:32:58
Duffy for the next two years. Yancy had no criminal history, no history of being
01:33:04
a hothead. We really didn't have a lot to go on. >> [music] >> After closely inspecting the crime
01:33:11
scene, the detectives realized Yancy's window was down and the shooter had fired those five shots right through his
01:33:19
own passenger side window. That's so strange to me. The shooter would shoot through the passenger side window of his
01:33:27
car at someone else? Have you ever heard of such a thing? No, it it was strange to
01:33:33
us as well. That was a huge piece of evidence. The police now knew the shooter's car had a
01:33:40
broken passenger side window and there was more. Even though witness Angelo Rama had only glimpsed the fleeing car
01:33:48
for a split second, something registered. My first guess was an M4. It's a BMW car. The one that I saw was a
01:33:57
convertible. It was silver. Was the top up or down? It was down. And when he was
01:34:03
driving by, I noticed it had really, really nice silver rims. Armed with his detailed description, the police advised
01:34:11
the public to be on the lookout for that BMW model with that broken passenger side window.
01:34:20
As for the driver, I looked at the person who was driving the car cuz I'm really good with faces. Kevin Watts
01:34:27
helped a police artist come up with this remarkably detailed sketch of the shooter.
01:34:35
Within a week, the sketch was released to the public along with grainy still photos of the car from a nearby security
01:34:42
camera. We knew that police in Seattle were looking for a silver BMW and they were pulling them over. All over the
01:34:49
city? >> Yes. Yes. Police were desperate to stop the killer from striking again, not knowing if or
01:34:59
when he would. Two weeks went by and then a suspect surfaced who surprised everyone. When you see something like
01:35:12
this from somebody who has it all together, he's not crazy. He's just evil. >> [music]
01:35:28
>> Police are still looking for the who was driving a silver in his 20s or 30s. >> Did witnesses say plea for anyone with
01:35:35
information. In the two weeks that followed [music] Yancy Noll's brutal execution, cops
01:35:41
received hundreds of tips about that dark-haired suspect in a silver sports car.
01:35:48
It seemed at that time like everybody in the city of Seattle was driving a BMW Z4
01:35:52
or Z3. Then, on September 14th, a woman calls in an anonymous tip. For the first time, this mysterious man has
01:36:04
a name. And she provides a name of Din Bowman and his address, which is less than 10 blocks from the
01:36:14
shooting site. When we pulled up a photo of him, matched the description of our sketch.
01:36:23
Did his hairstyle match? >> Yes, and the age description matched. And yet, the 29-year-old Din Bowman
01:36:31
appears to be the most unlikely of potential suspects. He's a dazzling engineer with an inventive imagination.
01:36:40
>> The golf ball hits the lever of this press, which drives the drill, which spins the wire, which spins
01:36:44
>> Like this Rube Goldberg contraption he created just for fun. It swings over and
01:36:49
hits this water bottle. The bottom of the water bottle is a magnetic plunger. The people that we've spoken to have
01:36:55
described him as brilliant. A genius? Others have titled him as a genius. >> Which then triggers this flamethrower.
01:37:06
Bowman was only a 12-year-old when he entered college. In his 20s, Bowman opened his own business, a boutique
01:37:14
engineering company called Vague Industries that specialized in robotics. And then, in 2007, Bowman met Jennifer
01:37:24
Palm, a successful dentist at an education seminar. >> [music] >> They were married a year later. I
01:37:31
thought they were what I considered to be a power couple, very, very sophisticated. Jason Matta was a friend
01:37:37
of the Bowmans. What were they like as a couple? Loving. The both of them, I think, understood
01:37:43
one another. But it was up to detectives Duffy and Clark to figure out Din Bowman, and they
01:37:52
quickly learned that he had owned a BMW. We wanted to know, does he still have that BMW? Is it still at his house? And
01:38:01
immediately we came up with a plan that we're going to set up a surveillance on his residence, a stakeout. A stakeout.
01:38:10
A tense week went by with no sign of the BMW coming or going. But then the garage
01:38:17
door opens up just enough for the detectives to spot a silver sports car. Based on that information, we're able to
01:38:25
obtain a search warrant. Before dawn on September 21st, 2012, as Din and Jennifer were leaving for work,
01:38:34
[music] police swooped in to arrest Din Bowman. Din was placed in handcuffs and transported down to our office.
01:38:46
So that you know, this is a police facility and everything's being recorded, okay? I just want you to know
01:38:51
that. Bowman has to wait 2 hours for detectives to arrive to question him. While he's killing time, Bowman doesn't
01:39:00
appear to be concerned. He enjoys some snacks and a cup of coffee. Exasperated, Bowman complains his precious time is
01:39:10
being wasted. What do you want, again? Yes, sir. Yes. Uh so kind of getting a little annoyed at how
01:39:20
long this is taking. Do I need to like um I'm sorry, this it it has to take as long as it takes, okay? We
01:39:27
>> He was pretty confused about the whole thing. It was kind of weird. Bowman also
01:39:31
didn't realize that in another room, his wife, Jennifer, had agreed to answer questions from detectives Clark and
01:39:39
Duffy. Have you heard of any murders like within a few blocks of your house in the last few weeks? I'm not sure.
01:39:46
You're not sure? It's a yes or no question. I'm not sure. We call it the I'm not sure interview.
01:39:55
I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. Because her responses were overwhelmingly I'm not sure. So, your
01:40:02
honesty right now is paramount. >> I understand. I'm not sure what I can tell you.
01:40:10
Jennifer didn't know that the detectives had already inspected Din's BMW and had
01:40:16
discovered from these markings that the passenger side window had been replaced.
01:40:21
Remember, investigators were certain the killer had fired through that glass. The first thing we did was open the
01:40:29
passenger door and you could see glass shards in the well of the door jamb. Also, within the garage, there was this
01:40:39
fresh smell of paint. >> [music] >> That's because the BMW's silver rims had been painted black.
01:40:51
What about the paint smell that we're smelling in there? I'm not sure. Do you know anything that goes on in
01:40:59
your house? For nearly 4 hours He bled all over the freaking streets of Seattle, okay? investigators hammered
01:41:06
Jennifer for answers. >> And I'm tired of you sitting there playing dumb. While the interview was
01:41:11
going on investigators entered the Bowmans' house, which was surprisingly bare. We knew that Jennifer was the primary
01:41:21
breadwinner in that household and we knew from serving some of our search warrants that she made probably $250,000
01:41:29
a year. But when we got into the home, she had hardly any bedroom furniture. Her mattress laid on the floor. As they
01:41:36
went room to room, investigators discovered a small arsenal of weapons and ammunition.
01:41:43
Everything except the suspected murder weapon, a 9 mm Glock. When detectives finally got to Bowman,
01:41:54
they hoped he would answer a few questions, but Bowman was smart enough to shut down the interview. You want to
01:42:00
talk to a lawyer or you want to talk to us first? Well, I guess I'd like to talk to a
01:42:04
lawyer. Bowman might have been done with the detectives, but they were far from finished with him.
01:42:11
You're going to be charged with a crime. Of what? Murder. Of what? Of who? Murder of a human
01:42:22
being. Okay. >> [music] >> It was something to see. At least 45 friends of murder victim Yancy Noll
01:42:45
packed a Raymond court this morning [music] to get a look at this man. You watch this man walk in and you see this
01:42:52
unassuming person and you go, "Why? Why would you Why would you do this?" Dean Bowman has been in custody for 4
01:43:01
months for the murder of Yancy Noll and at this hearing, Bowman learns his bail is set at a stunning $10 million,
01:43:09
a sum he cannot make. He hasn't shown any sign of guilt or even fear. Brad Kenny is [music] desperate for answers.
01:43:19
It just fills you with so much anger. While Bowman appears stoic in court, prosecutors say the alleged killer has a
01:43:27
quirky side that emerges in hundreds of recorded jailhouse phone calls with his wife, Jennifer. They had pet names. Din
01:43:36
was Bunny. And Mrs. Bowman, Jennifer, was Snuggles. Bunny and Snuggles. >> Bunny and Snuggles. When they talk to
01:43:44
each other, they talk in baby talk. Hi Bunny, how are you? I'm doing good. How's my little snuggle cake?
01:43:51
I just wrote you an email. >> Yay! It's very strange. Very strange. I miss so many things right
01:44:00
I know. I don't have a Snuggles. You don't have a Snuggles on next to you. Everyone warned us, don't listen to
01:44:09
the jail calls. Don't listen to the jail calls, you'll want to throw up. I was just going to say laugh laugh laugh
01:44:14
laugh laugh Meanwhile, back among the grown-ups, detectives Frank Clark and Dana Duffey
01:44:25
were methodically building their homicide case against Bowman. They discovered that for years, the
01:44:32
tech-savvy genius had been downloading these books, articles, and videos to his computer on the subject of death and
01:44:40
murder. It's not that he just had a little bit of it. He had tons of it. And then, there was Bowman's obsession
01:44:51
with this man. Bond. James Bond. And it showed in Bowman's computer videos. That's Din Bowman driving a car at high
01:45:05
speeds [music] around an obstacle course. And here, he is blasting away in shooting demonstrations where he proved
01:45:14
[music] he was an expert marksman with either hand. I don't believe that Din Bowman
01:45:20
got up that morning thinking, "Today's the day that I'm going to shoot somebody." This
01:45:25
situation presented itself somehow. But once it did, then all his self-training and research
01:45:33
kicked in. We're going to talk about shooting through glass. And one of Bowman's videos made by a firearms
01:45:39
expert really shocked police. I've come into a situation where I feel threatened
01:45:45
by somebody off to my passenger side. It was a play-by-play of Nancy's murder. Of course I
01:45:52
recognize, I come down, I grip, I cross parallel, extend, touch, press. If you want to know how to shoot
01:46:02
somebody in traffic from your very fancy sports car, it was an awfully helpful video. He
01:46:10
didn't even have to roll down his window. Prosecutors came to believe Bowman wanted to kill someone just for the
01:46:20
thrill of it. Why would he commit this murder in broad daylight where there are witnesses around who could see his car,
01:46:29
perhaps see him? What's the fun of it if there's no challenge, if there's no witnesses, if there's no need to get
01:46:36
away, to speed off, and fly through neighborhood streets, and hide your car in your garage? That was the fun for
01:46:43
him. Soon after the murder, police say that Bowman went to his computer where he had
01:46:51
his vast library of murder-related books, including "Arrest Proof Yourself". How to cover up a murder,
01:47:00
how to get rid of a gun, how to get rid of gunshot residue. And police say Bowman now had an accomplice,
01:47:09
Jennifer Bowman, aka Snuggles. Do you understand how serious this is right now, Jennifer? Jennifer to me seemed
01:47:17
very, very nervous. Tell us the truth. Poor eye contact, I could see that she was shaky. Tell me the truth right now.
01:47:26
I have told you the truth. Jennifer never asked for a lawyer and handed over her purse where police found
01:47:32
receipts that aided the investigation. Do either of you have the belief that Jennifer had prior knowledge of this
01:47:40
attack? I don't think she had prior knowledge, but I believe that at some point Dan told her what happened. She
01:47:48
had to know something because the next day she went to Portland with him. Why'd you go to Portland?
01:47:55
It was just a little day trip, a little road trip. A trip that led to this auto glass shop where police say Bowman began
01:48:03
to cover up his crime, [music] his wife by his side. She was very standoffish. She didn't say much. Repairman Jeff
01:48:11
Shields. He just seemed like he needed a window right away. Bowman told Shields the BMW window had been shattered by a
01:48:18
thief while he and Jennifer were eating in Portland. What time of day was the window broken? Um we found it um in the
01:48:27
afternoon. >> And approximately what time? It was right after we ate lunch. But detectives
01:48:32
say a restaurant [music] receipt from Jennifer's purse told a different story. They were never there for lunch. They
01:48:39
went there at at dinner time. >> [music] >> Three weeks later, the Bowmans visited a
01:48:46
tire store in northern Seattle. Manager Doug Haskett says Bowman used the name Peter while his wife avoided eye
01:48:54
contact. She was a blonde and she just kind of looked at the ground. She really wouldn't talk to anybody. Bowman bought
01:49:01
four cheaper tires to replace the expensive BMW tires. How would he get new tires? Because during our
01:49:09
investigation, the media released that there were tire tread tracks left at the scene. Why did he get new tires?
01:49:18
I'm not sure. I >> Were the old ones Were the other ones worn out? I'm not sure. What if we put you on a
01:49:24
polygraph test today? You'd fail it like a sack of potatoes. I mean, I can tell you're lying just
01:49:31
looking at you. Police say they later found the set of expensive, practically new BMW tires
01:49:40
inside Bowman's workshop at Vague Industries. The murder weapon was never recovered, but prosecutors felt they had
01:49:48
enough evidence to try Dinh Bowman for first-degree murder. Please raise And he would soon take the stand and tell a
01:49:57
story he had long kept secret. If I didn't do something right then, I was going to die.
01:50:17
Frank, what do we have here? Peter, we're in the evidence warehouse of the Seattle Police Department. Two
01:50:25
vehicles, side by side, once again, just as they were on that summer evening in August 2012.
01:50:33
>> This is Dinh Bowman's BMW roadster Z4 and Yancy Noll's Subaru. What brought them together is unclear.
01:50:43
The result of their encounter is not. What goes through your mind when you look inside
01:50:54
this car? Sadness, devastation for Yancy. His family lost a a loving member. Murder is is very ugly. It's
01:51:04
never pretty. And now, on November 19th, 2014, two years after Yancy Noll was [music]
01:51:14
savagely gunned down, his alleged killer enters the courtroom to face the charge
01:51:19
of first-degree murder. Please rise. Court is now in session. >> By the time of trial, he looked like he
01:51:27
was 13. Din Bowman is transformed. Gone is the confident, cocky young man who first met with detectives.
01:51:37
Do you want to talk to a lawyer or you want to talk to us first? Well, I guess I'd like to talk to a
01:51:41
lawyer. And in his place is what appears to be a clean-cut college student. This
01:51:47
guy doesn't look like a killer, and that's not at all uncommon for defendants to change their appearance in
01:51:54
order to appeal to the jury. Bowman's mother, a native of Vietnam, and his father, a Boeing engineer, are in court
01:52:02
every day to support their only child. But his cooing wife, Jennifer, his Snuggles, is nowhere to be seen.
01:52:12
We are ready to begin opening statements. Prosecutor Adrienne McCoy tells jurors that the motive for murder
01:52:20
wasn't greed or jealousy. This was a fulfillment of a quest. But something far more macabre. A quest
01:52:29
to know what it would be like to kill someone. McCoy attempts to take the jury inside
01:52:42
Bowman's mind by showing these training videos recovered from his computer. We're going to talk about shooting
01:52:51
through glass. From video to thousands of pages of research on killing another [music]
01:52:58
person, prosecutors paint a portrait of a premeditated murder. It was the equivalent of the Library of Congress on
01:53:07
death. Have you ever seen anything like this before in your career? Not even close.
01:53:11
Why was all that stuff on his computer? >> He hoarded [snorts] information. He had
01:53:15
a lot of things on his computer that are totally bizarre. Having possession of it
01:53:21
doesn't mean anything. Mr. Bowman was actually trying to create a library of basically everything. Bowman's lawyer,
01:53:27
prominent defense attorney John Henry Brown, whose former clients include serial killer Ted Bundy, says there's no
01:53:35
evidence that Bowman ever read or watched any of these materials. There were thousands, if not hundreds of thousands
01:53:42
of pages about engineering techniques, but also there was all this bizarre stuff
01:53:48
that the prosecutors used in order to make up their motive. As the defense presents its case, Brown
01:53:58
[music] takes a big gamble. You swear or affirm under penalty He puts Din Bowman on the stand.
01:54:08
I felt like it was just this crazy bad dream and like I was just run like I was running
01:54:14
from a monster. And Brown knows he's risking it all on Bowman's ability to sway jurors and convince them that he
01:54:22
was the victim of road rage. If I didn't do something right then, I was going to
01:54:28
die. Bowman explains that it all began when he accidentally cut off Yancy Noll on the Interstate.
01:54:36
>> There was sort of a a stream of swearing. I think the the the phrase that caught my attention was
01:54:46
um "You better learn how to drive that fancy car, boy, or you're going to get yourself
01:54:52
up." Bowman says Yancy closely followed him off the Interstate to this traffic light
01:55:01
where they both stopped. And it was that point when I got wham. Yeah. That wham, Bowman says, was a wine
01:55:11
bottle thrown by Yancy that hit him in the head. He's an absolute liar. That's sacrilegious to Yancy. He would never
01:55:17
throw and waste wine on somebody like that. I remember seeing his eyes really like bulging
01:55:26
and like as he was kind of as he was yelling, I would describe it as just like violent hatred that you would
01:55:37
I'd only seen in the movies. Did you think it was possibly a gun? Yeah. Yeah. I was scared.
01:55:44
Fearing for his life, Bowman says he pulled out his 9 mm Glock, pointed it at Yancy, and fired.
01:55:53
You intentionally shot him. Yes. Was it your intent to kill him? No. Road rage is by definition not
01:56:01
premeditation. And Bowman says he shot Yancy Knoll in self-defense. >> I remember opening my eyes, seeing that
01:56:10
I had the gun in my hand, and I had just dropped the gun and stepped on the gas. Though Bowman claims
01:56:19
he was the victim, he didn't call the police. Panicked, Bowman says he collected evidence from his car,
01:56:26
including the wine bottle and the gun, and threw it all away. Throwing away of the evidence that would support his own
01:56:33
story. This is a guy who's genius-level IQ, right? Well, well, yeah, but a lot of geniuses
01:56:40
I know don't have a lot of common sense. >> You threw away the evidence that you
01:56:44
could show the police to prove you were not a criminal. Right? I didn't think they would even believe
01:56:51
me. But prosecutor Kristen Richardson isn't buying a word of Bowman's story. You think that most husbands would go
01:56:59
home to their wives and say, "Oh my god, I almost got killed." I figured the more
01:57:04
that he talked, the worse it was going to get for him. You're an expert, shooter.
01:57:11
What was your target? I There was no aiming involved in this. Okay, well you did a pretty good job,
01:57:17
didn't you? Cuz you hit him four times in the head, including the temple, right?
01:57:22
Um that surprised me. For 3 days, Richardson hammers away at Bowman. You lied to your parents. You lied to your
01:57:30
wife, right? >> Is that a question? But he never loses his composure. Mr. Bowman, you have no
01:57:36
trouble answering yes or no to Mr. Brown. Is there something wrong with the way I ask questions of you?
01:57:44
No. It seemed like a strange question. Okay, well that's the first no I think I've
01:57:51
gotten from you, so I guess the point's been made. I have nothing else. Thank you.
01:57:55
You missed the point, don't you think? As Jim Bowman steps down, the question is, did he convince the jury that he
01:58:02
killed Yancy Noll >> [music] >> to save his life? But I think Jim deeply believed that the jury would see that.
01:58:08
Self-defense is justifiable homicide. Or simply for the thrill. Is he guilty of murder in the first degree?
01:58:21
Yes. >> [music] >> I will never forget Yancy. Every time he hikes this trail, Brad
01:58:49
Kenny thinks of his friend Yancy Noll. I really miss him. It's just never going to be over. And I'll always miss him.
01:58:57
I mean, it's good to be here, but it's um it's really difficult. Please rise. After 3 weeks and 31
01:59:08
witnesses, Din [music] Bowman's murder trial is coming to a close. He hasn't shown one iota of remorse. He's just
01:59:15
completely stoic. I think we're ready for the jurors. On December 9th, 2014, more than 2 years after Yancy Noll's
01:59:27
murder, and coincidentally Din Bowman's 32nd birthday, jurors begin deliberations.
01:59:34
>> It's the worst part of the job, waiting for a verdict. But, it's just the nature
01:59:39
of it. You always doubt yourself. One person not doubting [clears throat] himself is Din Bowman, as he confides to
01:59:46
his wife, Jennifer, in recorded jailhouse phone calls. We should chastise the jurors if they take longer
01:59:54
than tomorrow. Jennifer has not appeared a single day of Bowman's trial, but she
01:59:59
stays in constant contact, and has no doubt whatsoever of his innocence. This is obvious. They need to acquit. I tell
02:00:09
could they consider anything else? You have to be completely irrational to believe anything else. Be seated,
02:00:15
please. On day three, the jury returns. I understand the jury has reached a verdict.
02:00:25
I will read the verdict form. We, the jury, find the defendant, Thomas Ben Bowman,
02:00:36
guilty of the crime of murder in the first degree as charged. Guilty. The jury didn't buy Din Bowman's claim
02:00:43
>> he killed Noll, but says it was First degree murder required premeditation. It's a total surprise to Bowman, but
02:00:49
sweet relief to Yancy's girlfriend and his supporters. The verdict is read. What was that moment like for Din? Well,
02:00:57
he was so emotionally upset. He said, "I can't believe it. I can't believe it. I
02:01:00
can't believe it." Three weeks later, a very different-looking Din Bowman is back in
02:01:07
court for sentencing. Mr. Bowman made some bad decisions. The once-cocky boy genius is gone [music]
02:01:15
as the reality of the guilty verdict sinks in. And his parents step forward to beg the
02:01:21
judge for mercy. I know this is my fault. >> [snorts] >> Defense attorney Brown must finish
02:01:34
reading her statement. >> Our son's acts are our faults. My husband and I, we provided and
02:01:43
allowed him to learn a gun for self-protection. Brown, a seasoned trial lawyer, can't help but
02:01:50
show emotion as Din's mother asks the judge to send her to prison in place of her only child. I please ask you to
02:01:59
allow myself to substitute any punishment by placing myself in Din's role. It was heartbreaking to watch his mother
02:02:09
at sentencing for her to offer herself in his place to do his punishment for him.
02:02:17
That's real. Moments later, it's Bowman's turn. Din, are you able to speak? But Yancy's girlfriend and his
02:02:26
supporters refuse to listen. I'm disappointed that the jurors didn't believe me.
02:02:35
And the first words out of Din's mouth when he's asked to make a statement at sentencing it not about his parents or
02:02:43
his heartbroken mother or Yancy's friends or family. It's I can't believe the jury didn't believe me.
02:02:51
That's his focus. I don't envy your task of having to make the burden of deciding my fate. It's
02:03:03
and I'm sorry for placing you in that situation. >> [panting and laughter] >> And all I can ask
02:03:10
is for your mercy and for your help. >> [laughter] >> As the judge is about to deliver
02:03:18
Bowman's sentence, he has something he feels compelled to say. I feel very sorry
02:03:26
for your parents, Mr. Bowman, and I want to tell them that it is not their fault.
02:03:35
Mr. Bowman is responsible for his own actions. Bowman gets 29 years and 1 [music]
02:03:43
month, slightly less than the maximum. The case against Dean Bowman is over, >> [music]
02:03:49
>> but the police feel there's unfinished business. Was Jennifer >> [music] >> misleading or dishonest or lying at any
02:03:58
point during this questioning? Yes, she was. I would very much like her to be charged
02:04:02
with a crime. The crime of helping her husband cover up Yancy's murder. Frank, would you like her to be charged with a
02:04:08
crime? Yes, I would. Jennifer today has changed her name and her job. She opened
02:04:15
the door, but we tracked her down in Seattle. Hey Jennifer. Peter Van Sant, 48 Hours. Why did you
02:04:22
lie to detectives? Why did you help your husband cover up a murder? You can talk to us.
02:04:33
No answers still. Ultimately, the state attorney chose not to bring charges against Jennifer, and
02:04:40
she in turn has cut off all ties with the man she once endearingly called her bunny.
02:04:51
Today, the house the couple lived in sits empty. The two cars at the heart of this case remain in a police warehouse.
02:05:01
But, the memories of Yancy Noll remain as alive as ever. Ready first. Ready? Ready? Ready? Get it.
02:05:29
>> [music] [music] [music] [music]