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a twelve-year-old girl is murdered in
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her own home
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and the case stalls when investigators
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find little forensic evidence at the
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crime scene
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but scientists also know that criminals
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unknowingly take evidence with them as
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they leave a crime scene
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and in this case
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the killer left with the genetic
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fingerprint of his victim
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[Music]
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[Music]
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[Music]
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in between two of minnesota's ten
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thousand lakes is the small town of
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wasika a quiet community with virtually
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no violent crime
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not far from the shores of loon lake
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was the home of connie larson and her
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three daughters
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they're all like five and four years
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apart
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but they are very close you they were
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never apart and they just adored each
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other callie was
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definitely the baby of the family
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and she was daddy's little girl
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twelve-year-old kelly joe was in the
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seventh grade and loved gymnastics
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she was good i think because she just
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loved it and she put a lot of energy
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into it it was a wonderful place for her
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to be and with her energy and spirit she
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just
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she just really did well in gymnastics
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after school on april 20th 1999 kelly
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joe got off her school bus and walked
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down this path towards home
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just as she always did
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kelly joe was the first one home that
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day her mother and sister were expected
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later
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the rule of the family was everyone
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needed to be
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home
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and no visitors at five o'clock because
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that's when i arrived home and then we
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had our family time
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sixteen-year-old jamie was the next
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family member to arrive home
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when she opened the door she saw
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evidence of a burglary and something
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far worse
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jamie immediately called her mother at
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work and then police
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i realized that there was something
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wrong and she wasn't telling me
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coming around the corner and looking up
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the stairs was a difficult sight for
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everybody i mean there were 30-year
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investigators that were having a
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difficult time with that
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but it's just looking at who would do
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something like this upstairs
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kelly joe was dead
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the fatal stab wound was uh in the uh
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left chest area
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severed the or
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cut the ascending aorta and she bled to
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death internally
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still hard for me to
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think that she's gone i mean that means
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dead
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dead
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that just it just can't be
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i've got two kids of my own if somebody
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if this occurred to one of my children i
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don't know what i would do and i can't
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even imagine
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kelly joe's school books were near the
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front door
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an indication she may have surprised the
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intruder
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the point of entry was the basement door
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some cash silver certificates and the
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girl's cd collection of music were
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missing
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forensic scientists found blood on the
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stairs which was collected for analysis
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despite the clutter
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investigators also looked for
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fingerprints
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you kind of tend to focus on the areas
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where you're pretty sure that the
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perpetrator was
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and then you focus on areas where
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drawers were tossed and stuff has been
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you know taken out moved around there
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weren't too many surfaces left in that
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house that did not have some kind of
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fingerprint powder residue
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investigators vacuumed the carpeted
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floors for possible trace evidence
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they were convinced
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that the killer had left behind enough
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forensic evidence to catch him
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we had a lot of fingerprints there were
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hundreds of hairs
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in those vacuumings i initially thought
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that we were in good shape
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a forensic case is like a puzzle and you
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are trying to find different pieces of
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the puzzle that fit to give you the
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picture as to what happened in the case
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[Music]
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kelly joe larson's death set a sad
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precedent for waseca minnesota
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the small town had never had a homicide
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in its history
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it destroys the safety factor of
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everybody in this town
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everybody well i think a lot more people
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started locking their doors
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which sounds a little flippant but
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that's the reaction
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forensic scientists thought the blood on
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the steps near cali joe's body may have
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been the killers but forensic tests
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revealed
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it was cali joe's
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next investigators hoped the killer left
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his fingerprints in the home
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but this was another dead end
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when all the dust had settled so to
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speak all of the latent prints that we
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had taken out of the house were
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identified to
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family members and friends there were no
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unknowns left
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one of the fingerprints found on the
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bathroom sink was initially difficult to
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identify
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but later it was identified as cali joe
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larson's fingerprint
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over time
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peterson would come to easily recognize
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cali joe's unique pattern
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she had a loop pattern but it had
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another loop that was over the first
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loop
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and kind of came to a point on the other
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end that's unique you don't see that
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very often
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the only other physical evidence from
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the crime scene were two foreign hairs
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one found on cali joe's body the other
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on the carpet
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but until you know whose
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hairs to compare them to you've got
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nothing
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and the hairs didn't have any root
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material
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so they couldn't be sent for nuclear dna
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testing
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a neighbor reported seeing an unfamiliar
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man near the larson home around the time
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of the murder
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this is the composite sketch of the man
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another neighbor saw a black pickup
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truck in the area
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[Music]
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police searched their records for
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individuals matching this general
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description who also had a past history
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of burglary and sex offenses
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they found 12 potential suspects
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we call them the dirty dozen
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and
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because we had 12 suspects that we could
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not
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exclude from the investigation
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either you know by alibi or for whatever
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reason
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one of the so-called dirty dozen was a
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convicted sex offender donald bloom
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significant fact about blum was that he
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was also a suspect in the kidnapping and
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murder of 19 year old katie poyer a
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convenience store cashier in moose lake
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minnesota just a few hours drive away
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these are security camera pictures of
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that abduction
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unfortunately they weren't clear enough
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to identify the abductor
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police learned that blum made several
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trips to wasika around the time of cali
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joe's murder
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he also drove a black pickup truck like
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the one seen near larson's home
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i was being bombarded with so many
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truths that i didn't want to know
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so as i heard more about don blum
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i i suppose the more fascinated we
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became
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with the possibility
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that it could be
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[Music]
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blum denied any involvement in cali
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joe's death and said he had an alibi for
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the day of the murder
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as winter approached in wasika
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hope faded
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november december was a very bleak time
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everybody was very depressed
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despite more than 30 000 pages of
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reports and boxes of physical evidence
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investigators weren't any closer to
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solving the crime than the day it
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occurred
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and at that point
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we had absolutely nothing
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and i was really becoming concerned
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whether this case was ever going to be
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solved
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and soon
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police in wassega were faced with
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another crime problem
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there were a rash of home burglaries in
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wasika not far from the larsen home
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and the perpetrator left behind some
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evidence a shoe impression from an
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athletic shoe which had a distinctive
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zigzag pattern
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a lot of the burglaries had been
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happening on my shifts and it was
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becoming very personal
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on a routine patrol near the burglaries
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officer moccasin spotted a man walking
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along the sidewalk
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as moccasin drove past the man abruptly
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changed direction
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this didn't make a whole lot of sense
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just it just
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kind of rolls the rolls the hair up in
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the back of my neck
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so marcus and stopped the man to ask a
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few questions
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when he did
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he noticed
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something familiar and marcus and was
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able to look down and saw the shoe print
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in the snow and that looked like the
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shoe print that they'd been seeing from
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some of those burglaries
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and while patting him down
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found a large screwdriver and a
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flashlight
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in his pocket
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burglary tools there's no good reason
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for this guy to be walking in this
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neighborhood at eight o'clock at night
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with a screwdriver and flashlight in his
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pocket
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the man was identified as lorenzo
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sanchez
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an illegal immigrant from mexico
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in his home police found stolen property
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from several burglaries
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and police couldn't help but wonder
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whether lorenzo sanchez was also
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the man who had killed kelly joe larson
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not surprisingly with the arrest of
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lorenzo sanchez the wasika burglaries
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stopped
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in sanchez's home police found items
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stolen from the burglaries
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they also found many compact discs but
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not the ones stolen from cali joe
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larson's home
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in the bottom of sanchez's closet
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police found two cd cases on a hunch
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they were photographed and shown to
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connie larson
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officer came over with a picture of the
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cd cases
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and said they saw these and i just want
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you to look at them and just tell me if
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you recognize them and i took the
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picture and i said yes those are those
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are calories
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sanchez denied the cases were stolen and
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said they were his
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i bought those in the store
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it had been almost a year since cali
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joe's murder and investigators hope
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there may be some forensic evidence on
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the cd cases
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the first problem
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was that the outside cover
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was vinyl
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just getting the
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latent fingerprints off off them is
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slimmed in on to begin with
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if you do get one getting one that's a
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good usable identifiable blatant
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fingerprint is even slimmer
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nevertheless
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the cases were sent to dave peterson for
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analysis
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and i got to the second of the last page
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of the second cd case i opened it up and
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there was a blonde hair
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laying in between the sleeves
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now i got a little excited about that
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in fact my heart started racing just a
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hair
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i'm pardon the pun
00:12:52
that hair was sent for dna testing
00:12:55
next peterson wanted to see if there
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were any fingerprints on the plastic
00:13:00
sleeves which hold the individual cds
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for that he used a technique called
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super glue fuming
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i suspended these two cd cases from a
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rod and then
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fanned out these plastic sleeves that
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were on the inside
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and what happens the super glue
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fumes as they are emitted from the heat
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will adhere to the moisture left behind
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in the latent print
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and turn the ridge detail white
00:13:34
peterson found only one print
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on the very last sleeve of the second cd
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case
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the print had a distinctive overlapping
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loop
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one peterson immediately recognized
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the analysis confirmed that it was cali
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joe's right ring fingerprint
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and at that point i called bob bergen
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said i think i got something for you
00:14:01
i said you got to be me i knew
00:14:03
that it was our guy at that point i knew
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it was him we weren't finding the
00:14:08
suspect's fingerprint on something to
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put him at the scene
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we kind of did this in reverse we found
00:14:13
him in possession
00:14:15
with something
00:14:16
that
00:14:18
came from the scene
00:14:20
the blonde hair found in the cd case was
00:14:22
further confirmation
00:14:24
dna tests showed
00:14:26
it belonged to kelly joe
00:14:30
despite the evidence sanchez denied he
00:14:32
was involved in the murder all the
00:14:34
evidence proved was that sanchez was in
00:14:37
possession of a piece of stolen property
00:14:40
you killed cali joe larson
00:14:42
but police had one last piece of
00:14:44
evidence the two foreign hairs recovered
00:14:47
from the larsen crime scene
00:14:50
those hairs along with a hair sample
00:14:53
from lorenzo sanchez were sent to the
00:14:56
forensic lab for the newest dna test
00:14:59
available
00:15:00
mitochondrial dna is a specialized dna
00:15:03
test
00:15:04
if you cannot obtain results using
00:15:06
nuclear dna analysis you'll fall back on
00:15:09
mitochondrial dna testing
00:15:11
mitochondria live outside the cell
00:15:14
nucleus
00:15:15
[Music]
00:15:17
for the test
00:15:18
each hair sample is placed into a vial
00:15:21
where it changes form into a liquid
00:15:25
the impurities are extracted leaving
00:15:28
only purified dna
00:15:32
next millions of copies are made of just
00:15:35
the mitochondria portion and then
00:15:39
sequenced
00:15:41
when completed
00:15:42
dr holland could read the genetic code
00:15:45
of the hairs from the crime scene and so
00:15:48
this particular piece of the puzzle
00:15:49
suggested that those errors were in fact
00:15:51
from mr sanchez
00:15:53
the question was
00:15:55
which
00:15:56
mr sanchez
00:15:58
mitochondrial dna is passed from a
00:16:00
mother to her children all of whom will
00:16:03
therefore have the same mitochondrial
00:16:05
dna profile
00:16:07
in other words
00:16:09
the suspect lorenzo sanchez would have
00:16:11
the same mitochondrial dna as his six
00:16:14
brothers and sisters
00:16:17
[Music]
00:16:18
to complicate matters lorenzo's younger
00:16:21
brother miguel also had a police record
00:16:25
and
00:16:26
was in wasika at the time of the murder
00:16:30
the investigation into kelly joe's
00:16:32
murder
00:16:33
wasn't over yet
00:16:36
[Music]
00:16:39
so you know
00:16:40
i am innocent of that cause i did not
00:16:43
kill her it doesn't injustice what
00:16:45
they're doing with me
00:16:47
lorenzo sanchez continued to maintain
00:16:50
his innocence in the murder of cali joe
00:16:52
larson even though a cd case with cali
00:16:55
joe's fingerprint was discovered in
00:16:57
sanchez's home
00:16:59
and two hairs found at the crime scene
00:17:03
had the same mitochondrial dna profile
00:17:06
as lorenzo sanchez
00:17:09
mitochondrial dna is not positive
00:17:11
identification as nuclear dna is
00:17:14
since mitochondrial dna is passed from a
00:17:18
mother to her children all of the
00:17:20
sanchez siblings would have the same
00:17:22
mitochondrial dna profile
00:17:24
[Music]
00:17:26
two of lorenzo sanchez's brothers had
00:17:29
spent time in wasika a younger brother
00:17:32
miguel and an older half-brother pedro
00:17:36
pedro said he had an alibi that he was
00:17:38
in mexico on the day of cali joe's
00:17:40
murder which checked out
00:17:43
miguel sanchez was in wasika that day
00:17:46
but his timesheet showed that he was at
00:17:48
work at the time of cali joe's murder
00:17:53
lorenzo was the only sanchez brother
00:17:57
with no alibi
00:17:59
his work record showed that he was not
00:18:01
at work when the murder occurred
00:18:04
with that
00:18:05
lorenzo sanchez was charged with first
00:18:08
degree murder
00:18:10
he maintained his innocence until his
00:18:13
sister-in-law visited him in prison and
00:18:16
the two had a conversation that was
00:18:19
taped by prison officials
00:18:22
[Applause]
00:18:24
he specifically says in that
00:18:25
conversation you know the only thing
00:18:27
that they have
00:18:29
to link me
00:18:31
is the hair you understand the hair is
00:18:34
the only thing they've got
00:18:38
and sanchez asks his sister-in-law to
00:18:40
place the blame for cali joe's murder on
00:18:43
his half-brother pedro
00:18:45
she refused
00:18:48
there was some apparently some sibling
00:18:49
rivalry there and his brother pedro had
00:18:52
a record which included some violent
00:18:54
offenses
00:18:55
when lorenzo sanchez was confronted with
00:18:58
the tape of this conversation
00:19:00
he had few choices
00:19:03
he eventually pled guilty to first
00:19:05
degree murder and was convicted
00:19:18
when kelly jo walked into her home and
00:19:20
saw sanchez in the middle of a burglary
00:19:24
sanchez silenced the person he thought
00:19:26
was the only witness
00:19:30
but
00:19:31
there was another witness that day
00:19:34
forensic evidence
00:19:35
[Music]
00:19:37
the microscopic hair sanchez left behind
00:19:40
and cali joe's hair and fingerprint on
00:19:43
the cd case
00:19:44
told the story
00:19:47
at his sentencing
00:19:49
connie larson finally had her chance
00:19:52
to speak directly to her daughter's
00:19:55
killer
00:19:56
when his confession and then in his
00:19:58
statement after asked us to forgive him
00:20:01
can you
00:20:02
well um
00:20:06
you know that's a when you
00:20:09
haven't been
00:20:11
in this place
00:20:14
it's hard
00:20:16
to know what you would do
00:20:18
but being in this place
00:20:22
it hasn't been hard for me
00:20:26
honestly on that day i put it down
00:20:30
two years after the crime
00:20:32
lorenzo sanchez was sentenced to life in
00:20:36
prison
00:20:37
i know where to start today
00:20:40
connie larson works as a social worker
00:20:42
with families who've lived through
00:20:44
traumatic events
00:20:46
she's also become an advocate for better
00:20:48
databases to track criminals like
00:20:50
lorenzo sanchez who often slip through
00:20:54
the cracks
00:20:57
kelly joe
00:20:58
is never far from her thoughts
00:21:01
we talk about her constantly we tell
00:21:04
stories about her you read her notes
00:21:09
she is just a part of what we're doing
00:21:13
now today
00:21:15
without the forensics we had nothing
00:21:17
this case was
00:21:19
to live or die by the forensic evidence
00:21:23
well it was absolutely critical we would
00:21:25
have not had a case without that
00:21:26
forensic evidence
00:21:28
lorenzo sanchez would never have been
00:21:30
convicted of the murder of kelly larson
00:21:31
without it
00:21:34
[Music]
00:21:49
[Music]
00:22:11
you
