00:00:04
before
00:00:07
scott was a ladies man
00:00:09
and while it wasn't unusual for him to
00:00:11
be seeing a number of women at the same
00:00:14
time
00:00:15
his date on this night raised more than
00:00:17
a few eyebrows
00:00:22
hey everybody
00:00:24
this is my lady
00:00:27
sometime during the party scott became
00:00:30
ill
00:00:31
so sick he was unable to drive home
00:00:35
a few days later
00:00:36
scott dunn disappeared
00:00:39
and was never seen again
00:00:42
[Music]
00:00:56
so
00:01:08
24 year old scott dunn was a fun loving
00:01:10
young man who enjoyed life to the
00:01:12
fullest
00:01:14
scott lived in lubbock texas settling
00:01:16
there after serving in the u.s military
00:01:20
he worked for mgm electronics in a job
00:01:22
he loved installing custom sound systems
00:01:26
in automobiles
00:01:27
[Music]
00:01:29
the last time friend saw scott was on
00:01:32
may 13 1991 at a party after work
00:01:38
[Music]
00:01:39
scott was a prankster and decided to add
00:01:42
a little excitement to the festivities
00:01:45
[Music]
00:01:49
his date that night wasn't a she at all
00:01:53
she was really a he
00:01:56
a transvestite
00:01:57
before the night was through scott's
00:01:59
friends eventually found out and weren't
00:02:02
amused
00:02:04
later while still at the party scott
00:02:07
became ill he was so sick he couldn't
00:02:10
drive home and stayed overnight on the
00:02:12
sofa
00:02:14
the next day his live-in girlfriend
00:02:16
lisha hamilton drove over to pick him up
00:02:19
he looked like crap he couldn't hardly
00:02:21
walk
00:02:25
i mean you could tell he'd been in bed
00:02:26
all day he wasn't showered he wasn't
00:02:28
clean
00:02:29
clothes on all awkwardly couldn't get
00:02:32
dressed by himself
00:02:34
after spending another full day in bed
00:02:37
scott told lisha he finally felt well
00:02:39
enough to return to work
00:02:41
i woke up that morning he was in bed
00:02:43
with me by then um
00:02:45
asked him how he felt i asked him did he
00:02:47
need a ride to work because he didn't
00:02:48
have his cars there he said no his
00:02:50
friend was coming for him
00:02:52
and just asked me to get him a glass of
00:02:54
water and
00:02:55
some sinus medicine which i did brought
00:02:57
it to him and then i left
00:02:59
when i came home
00:03:01
he was gone
00:03:03
when scott's friend stopped by the
00:03:05
apartment to pick him up
00:03:06
there was no answer
00:03:10
no one ever would answer so
00:03:12
um
00:03:14
just never heard from him
00:03:16
two days later lisa called scott's
00:03:18
father in pennsylvania to see if he had
00:03:21
heard from scott and it's a young
00:03:23
woman's voice and
00:03:26
she goes into i don't know if i'm
00:03:28
talking to who i'm talking to but i
00:03:30
assume you're scott's father because i
00:03:31
found the telephone number
00:03:34
on the telephone bill and i said well
00:03:36
that's right i'm scott's father but who
00:03:37
are you
00:03:38
she said well i've been living with
00:03:40
scott for a couple of months now and
00:03:42
sometimes we've been together for some
00:03:44
time
00:03:45
and i said well i don't know really know
00:03:46
who you are jim dunn filed a missing
00:03:49
persons report with the lubbock police
00:03:51
department what was he wearing last we
00:03:53
saw him
00:03:55
police wondered whether scott dunn's
00:03:58
personal life held some clues
00:04:01
to his disappearance
00:04:07
when scott dunn disappeared from lubbock
00:04:09
texas without a trace his friends told
00:04:12
police this was out of character the way
00:04:15
scott was he would he would have called
00:04:17
at least and said hey guys you know look
00:04:20
i'm out here in mexico
00:04:23
hanging out partying is something
00:04:25
scott's live-in girlfriend lisa hamilton
00:04:28
told police that when she returned from
00:04:30
work scott was gone she also said that a
00:04:33
large piece of carpet was missing from
00:04:36
under the sofa
00:04:38
when police searched the bedroom
00:04:40
they discovered that another piece of
00:04:42
carpet in the bedroom had also been
00:04:45
removed and replaced with the carpet
00:04:47
from under the sofa
00:04:50
along the edge were some rust-colored
00:04:53
stains
00:04:54
the staining along the edge of that
00:04:56
patch in the original carpet was very
00:04:58
evident to anybody that's been doing
00:05:00
this for any length of time it was blood
00:05:03
when the carpet patch was lifted police
00:05:05
noticed it was held together with duct
00:05:07
tape on the underpadding was another
00:05:10
large stain which also appeared to be
00:05:12
blood in one spot it had soaked through
00:05:14
a hole in the padding to the cement
00:05:16
floor underneath
00:05:17
and it looked as if someone had washed
00:05:19
blood from the baseboard
00:05:22
to find out
00:05:23
investigators used a chemical called
00:05:25
luminol which can detect areas where
00:05:28
blood has been cleaned up with water and
00:05:30
detergents
00:05:32
the luminol revealed a scene
00:05:35
of horrific violence
00:05:45
you can actually see the pattern you can
00:05:46
see where blood had been
00:05:48
and my initial reaction was that
00:05:50
something had occurred in that apartment
00:06:01
it was stark
00:06:03
somebody had very obviously tried to
00:06:05
clean the whole thing up and had done a
00:06:07
fairly good job of it i just knew that
00:06:09
he was dead
00:06:11
i felt very confident that he was was
00:06:13
dead
00:06:15
it was probably the
00:06:17
longest day of my life and it was the
00:06:18
most devastating thing that ever
00:06:20
happened to me
00:06:21
but who would want to kill scott dunn
00:06:25
and why
00:06:26
dunn had a previous arrest and
00:06:28
conviction for possession of cocaine but
00:06:30
the theory that this was somehow drug
00:06:33
related was inconsistent with the crime
00:06:35
scene
00:06:36
if it was a drug hit they probably would
00:06:38
have left the person there
00:06:40
wanting everybody in the world to see so
00:06:42
that nobody else would cross them
00:06:44
and this this crime scene was covered up
00:06:46
and the only reason it was covered up
00:06:48
was because it was trying to be hidden
00:06:51
police also discovered scott dunn was
00:06:54
leading a secret life
00:06:56
while living with lisha hamilton he
00:06:59
continued to date numerous other women
00:07:01
he was wild
00:07:04
he played the field he had
00:07:06
in my opinion he had a history of of
00:07:09
using women
00:07:11
for his own purposes in fact
00:07:14
he was engaged to be married to a young
00:07:15
lady in the metroplex
00:07:17
while he was living with alicia hamilton
00:07:21
lisha hamilton learned about scott's
00:07:23
engagement just one month earlier he's
00:07:26
calling
00:07:29
his fiancee
00:07:30
[Music]
00:07:32
yeah i'll be sure to tell you called
00:07:36
and i think at the point where that
00:07:38
telephone call came is when alicia
00:07:40
realized she had been had by scott
00:07:42
and
00:07:43
alicia herself was a user and when it
00:07:45
became apparent to her that she in this
00:07:48
situation was not the user but was in
00:07:50
fact the uz she became enraged
00:07:53
but was that sufficient motive for lisha
00:07:56
hamilton to murder scott dunn
00:07:59
and if so
00:08:01
where was the body
00:08:07
alicia hamilton continued to call jim
00:08:10
dunn from texas keeping him informed of
00:08:13
the investigation into scott's
00:08:14
disappearance
00:08:16
but she asked for something in return
00:08:19
she wanted scott's yellow sports car
00:08:22
jim dunn
00:08:24
taped those telephone conversations you
00:08:27
just seem to want the car and i have
00:08:29
promised you the car
00:08:31
when this is all over but you don't seem
00:08:32
to want to wait
00:08:34
actually i don't i don't i don't need it
00:08:37
it is the want right now okay the only
00:08:39
thing i want is this car
00:08:41
that's the only thing i've wanted from
00:08:42
the start
00:08:44
that's the only thing i want now
00:08:46
a background check by lubbock police
00:08:48
revealed that lisha hamilton
00:08:51
had a past arrest in new mexico for
00:08:53
embezzlement
00:08:55
but if lisha was involved in scott's
00:08:57
disappearance why had she helped police
00:09:00
by pointing out the missing carpet in
00:09:02
their apartment
00:09:04
lisa told scott's father that she
00:09:07
thought a man named tim smith had
00:09:09
something to do with scott's
00:09:11
disappearance
00:09:12
tim smith was a guy that lived in the
00:09:14
apartment near alicia
00:09:16
he had been brought up in a very strict
00:09:18
very religious environment
00:09:20
my theory was that this was the first
00:09:22
real contact he'd ever had with a
00:09:24
worldly woman and that he became
00:09:26
enamored with her
00:09:27
and the way she made him feel and he
00:09:29
just fed him fell head over heels in
00:09:31
love with her
00:09:33
police discovered that smith did not
00:09:35
show up for work on the day scott dunn
00:09:37
disappeared
00:09:45
tim smith
00:09:47
police department
00:09:49
when police visited tim smith's
00:09:51
apartment to ask a few questions
00:09:54
they noticed he was packing to move
00:09:57
we're investigating the disappearance of
00:09:59
scott dunn
00:10:03
whatever i can do to help
00:10:05
mind if we take a look around
00:10:08
sure go ahead
00:10:11
[Music]
00:10:22
when they walked back into the living
00:10:23
room they noticed that something that
00:10:25
had been sitting on the bookshelf
00:10:28
disappeared
00:10:29
where's the roll of tape what table
00:10:32
the duct tape was there on the shelf i
00:10:34
don't know what you're talking about
00:10:36
but behind some books on another shelf
00:10:39
police found what they were looking for
00:10:41
the duct tape that was on the shelf just
00:10:44
a few minutes earlier
00:10:48
that was a stroke of luck but it's also
00:10:50
good investigative work i mean how many
00:10:52
times you walk into a place where a guy
00:10:54
is moving and see a roller duct tape and
00:10:56
think nothing of it
00:10:57
the duct tape was sent to the forensic
00:11:00
laboratory for analysis
00:11:02
the tape in smith's apartment looked
00:11:04
very similar to the tape on the carpet
00:11:07
patch in dunn's apartment
00:11:11
the samples were analyzed using
00:11:13
infraspectral photometry where infrared
00:11:16
light is passed through the duct tape
00:11:19
and the detector
00:11:22
will determine how much wavelength of
00:11:24
light is being absorbed at different
00:11:25
wavelengths
00:11:26
the results are then printed out in a
00:11:29
chart in the case of roger scott dunn
00:11:31
the duct tape we separated out into its
00:11:33
components
00:11:35
the fibers that run long in the duct
00:11:37
tape
00:11:38
the backing of the duct tape
00:11:40
and the adhesive of the duct tape
00:11:43
as you can see
00:11:44
the infrared spectrum from the roll of
00:11:46
duct tape found at the
00:11:48
suspect's house
00:11:50
and the duct tape found at the seam are
00:11:52
consistent
00:11:53
in the fibers
00:11:55
component
00:11:56
the backing component
00:11:58
and the adhesive component
00:12:00
and the roll of tape held even more
00:12:02
clues
00:12:04
on the side of the roll were green nylon
00:12:07
fibers tri-lobal or triangular in shape
00:12:12
they were the same size and shape and
00:12:15
made of the same polymers and dyed the
00:12:18
same color
00:12:19
as the carpet in scott dunn's bedroom
00:12:23
i feel confident that the fibers on the
00:12:25
side of the duct tape came from the
00:12:27
apartment and that the
00:12:29
duct tape underneath the carpet came
00:12:31
from the roll of duct tape
00:12:32
but without a body
00:12:34
authorities were hesitant to conclude
00:12:36
homicide a lot of it had to do with the
00:12:39
body
00:12:40
we had no body
00:12:42
and
00:12:43
the district attorney's office at that
00:12:45
time was very apprehensive to try to
00:12:47
take something to trial
00:12:48
where you had no
00:12:50
no corpus delictis what they say
00:12:54
a full year passed
00:12:56
and jim dunn decided to take matters
00:12:58
into his own hands he heard about a
00:13:00
group of international forensic experts
00:13:03
who meet several times a year in
00:13:05
philadelphia to study unsolved murders
00:13:08
the group of 82 members is called the
00:13:11
vidoc society named after eugene
00:13:14
francoise vidak an 18th century french
00:13:17
detective considered to be the father of
00:13:20
modern criminal investigation
00:13:23
one of the co-founders of the vedoc
00:13:25
society richard walter agreed to listen
00:13:28
to mr dunn's story
00:13:30
well after about an hour and a half of
00:13:31
me presenting
00:13:32
showing pictures and
00:13:34
listening to some tape recordings and
00:13:36
things i had he looked me straight in
00:13:38
the eye
00:13:39
and said
00:13:40
jim aren't you tired of being the
00:13:42
grieving father
00:13:43
and he looked at me and he said i
00:13:45
thought i was supposed to be
00:13:47
and i said no you're supposed to be god
00:13:49
damn mad
00:13:50
let's go after that [ __ ]
00:13:53
richard walter was convinced that lisha
00:13:55
hamilton held the key to scott dunn's
00:13:57
disappearance
00:13:59
walter sent the crime scene photos to dr
00:14:01
richard shepherd a forensic pathologist
00:14:04
at scotland yard in london
00:14:06
after reviewing the information dr
00:14:08
shepard concluded that scott dunn had
00:14:11
been murdered in the corner of his
00:14:12
bedroom the result of multiple blunt
00:14:15
trauma injuries
00:14:17
but at the time under texas law without
00:14:20
a body there was no homicide
00:14:23
armed with dr shepard's forensic
00:14:25
analysis richard walter pleaded the case
00:14:28
to the district attorney arguing that
00:14:30
they had a body part he said what part
00:14:33
of the body is that i said blood's
00:14:35
connective tissue
00:14:36
he said he looked give me a long look
00:14:39
and he said all right you got her murder
00:14:43
prosecutors brought in their own blood
00:14:45
spatter expert tom bevel to confirm the
00:14:48
findings of dr shepard
00:14:51
according to bevel
00:14:52
the blood spatter pattern on the walls
00:14:54
indicated three distinct lines of cast
00:14:58
off blood from a weapon
00:15:00
for example if we had three cast off
00:15:03
stains that were going in three
00:15:04
directions that would be
00:15:05
consistent with three blows plus the one
00:15:08
to create the blood in the first place
00:15:10
so in this case we'd say there was a
00:15:11
minimum of four blows that was delivered
00:15:14
to find out how much blood scott dunn
00:15:16
lost during the assault bevel conducted
00:15:19
a blood saturation test
00:15:22
by pouring human blood onto a test piece
00:15:24
of carpet bevel created the same size
00:15:27
stain found in the bedroom in this case
00:15:31
266 square inches
00:15:34
it took just under two units of blood to
00:15:36
create the stain and soak through to the
00:15:39
padding underneath
00:15:41
if you take that in consideration with
00:15:43
all the other physical evidence there
00:15:44
such as the blood cleanup cutting out of
00:15:46
the carpet the blood spatter the cast
00:15:48
off that's to the wall and also to the
00:15:51
ceiling
00:15:52
along with that blood volume uh it
00:15:54
certainly is a high suspicion that
00:15:56
somebody in fact is dead
00:15:58
[Music]
00:15:59
authorities were now convinced
00:16:02
that scott dunn
00:16:04
had been murdered in his bedroom
00:16:11
lubbock police suspected that both lisa
00:16:13
hamilton and tim smith were somehow
00:16:15
involved in scott dunn's murder but they
00:16:18
had no evidence linking lisha to the
00:16:20
crime and the only link to smith was the
00:16:23
duct tape
00:16:24
until richard walter discovered
00:16:26
something that was previously overlooked
00:16:29
walter learned that several strands of
00:16:31
unidentified hair had been found on the
00:16:34
duct tape in scott dunn's bedroom
00:16:36
he suggested the hair be sent for
00:16:38
forensic analysis
00:16:41
at the fbi lab in washington dc the hair
00:16:44
from the duct tape underneath the carpet
00:16:46
was compared to hair samples from lisha
00:16:48
hamilton and tim smith
00:16:51
no scott dunn hairs were found on that
00:16:53
tape but both the hairs of lisha
00:16:55
hamilton and tim smith were found on
00:16:58
that duct tape holding it in which means
00:17:00
when that duct tape was put down and
00:17:01
that patch put in place they were there
00:17:05
five and a half years after scott dunn's
00:17:07
disappearance
00:17:09
lisha hamilton and tim smith were
00:17:11
arrested and charged with murder
00:17:14
prosecutors believe that lisia's motive
00:17:17
was revenge that she was angry when she
00:17:19
learned that scott was engaged to
00:17:21
another woman
00:17:23
she's hard as rocks
00:17:25
bright
00:17:26
aggressive
00:17:28
works smart
00:17:31
um
00:17:33
but has his insatiable appetite for
00:17:36
power control
00:17:38
crushing
00:17:39
people
00:17:41
she dismisses you you don't dismiss her
00:17:44
alicia hamilton was the absolute
00:17:46
instigator ringleader and she was the
00:17:48
wicked witch of the west who contrived
00:17:51
developed lead and covered up this whole
00:17:54
thing
00:17:57
prosecutors believe that scott dunn was
00:18:00
murdered in the early morning hours of
00:18:03
may 16 1991.
00:18:08
he was asleep in the bedroom
00:18:10
and struck at least four times with a
00:18:13
blunt object
00:18:19
about two units of scott's blood was
00:18:21
lost in the attack
00:18:24
[Music]
00:18:31
as scott's body was removed from the
00:18:33
apartment his blood was transferred onto
00:18:36
the bedroom doorknob
00:18:39
the location of the body is still
00:18:42
unknown
00:18:44
[Music]
00:18:49
the cover-up failed because the water
00:18:52
and detergents could not remove the
00:18:53
hemoglobin components of the blood which
00:18:56
later fluoresced when sprayed with the
00:18:59
chemical luminol
00:19:02
a piece of carpet from under the sofa in
00:19:04
the living room was used to patch the
00:19:06
blood-stained carpet in the bedroom
00:19:11
the duct tape used to patch the carpet
00:19:13
together contained strands of hair
00:19:17
consistent with hair samples from both
00:19:19
lisa hamilton
00:19:21
and tim smith
00:19:23
and the side of the duct tape picked up
00:19:25
some stray carpet fibers
00:19:28
the roll was later found in tim smith's
00:19:31
apartment
00:19:33
lisha hamilton and tim smith were tried
00:19:35
separately and both were convicted of
00:19:38
murder
00:19:40
lisa hamilton was sentenced to 20 years
00:19:44
tim smith received a 10-year probation
00:19:48
the jury i think believed that perhaps
00:19:50
he had a great deal to do with disposing
00:19:53
of the body but they didn't believe he
00:19:54
was actually there when the murder took
00:19:56
place and i think for that reason they
00:19:58
recommended the judge imposed probation
00:19:59
instead of
00:20:01
sentencing him to a term in the
00:20:02
penitentiary which would be carried out
00:20:05
although the body of scott dunn has
00:20:07
never been found
00:20:09
a headstone waits
00:20:11
and the father still mourns
00:20:14
i'm just hopeful that at some point
00:20:17
somebody will talk and that we can
00:20:19
recover his remains and still we can
00:20:21
have a decent burial and a decent
00:20:25
ceremony that we can put him to rest and
00:20:27
i'd feel totally
00:20:29
absolved at that point that i'd done
00:20:30
everything i could do if i could ever
00:20:32
reach that point i haven't quite reached
00:20:34
that yet and i still crosses my mind
00:20:37
what else i can do but
00:20:39
at this point i'm going to let it go and
00:20:40
hope that somebody
00:20:42
the good lord or somebody will give us
00:20:44
some direction i'll know what that
00:20:45
actually means in my life at some point
00:20:48
[Music]
00:21:11
[Applause]
00:21:13
[Music]
00:21:50
you
