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[Music]
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a family dog witnessed a brutal murder
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whoever entered knew the victim knew the
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dogs an animal expert finally got the
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dog to talk
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just not in the usual way
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[Music]
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[Music]
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um
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there are two sides to palm beach county
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florida
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it's home to some of the wealthiest
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people in the world
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but a few miles away lived people
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struggling just to pay their rent
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we have great neighborhoods and really
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bad neighborhoods
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a lot of crime
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for the for the size of the community we
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are we have a with an extensive amount
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of violent crime a lot of murders
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kathy and jeffrey lamb
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didn't live in one of the palm beach
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mansions
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jeff was a tow truck driver kathy worked
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for the walgreens drugstore chain
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i liked jeff he was a good kid he was
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good to kathy and the main thing was she
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loved him
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and therefore i loved him
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on june 15 2004
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jeff got home from work around 7pm
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but when he walked inside
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he found blood everywhere
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what's the problem there
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he was hysterical on the phone uh he was
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crying so much i think that 911
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dispatcher kept referring to him as a
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woman
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okay ma'am i need you to take some deep
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breaths take some deep breaths okay
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breathe in and breathe out
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okay now are you having an asthma attack
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no my wife my wife is on the
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the blood spatter was completely up the
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one wall where the side of her head was
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and then on the opposite wall behind her
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head which was a good five or six feet
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blood spatter was all over a desk and it
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flew underneath the desk to the wall
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through a chair
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it was a lot of blood and it was it was
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very gruesome
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when the ambulance crew arrived they
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pronounced kathy lamb
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dead at the scene
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she had been beaten to death
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this wasn't an injury that was caused by
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one blow or two blows there were
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multiple blows to the head this was
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something heavy that that made these
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that could create these injuries
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and between the first blow and what
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eventually killed her
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she had to have been suffering
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she was in pain
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and she had to have been thinking why
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the murder weapon wasn't found at the
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scene
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although it looked like it was a blunt
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object with a hexagon shape at the end
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two of the couple's three dogs were
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badly beaten too they were found
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unconscious nearby
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they were both euthanized because of the
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head injuries the severe head injuries
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the dogs had blood on their paws and
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mouths
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an indication they probably attacked the
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killer as he was striking kathy the pac
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thing would have kicked in and the two
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of them would have packed up on this one
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individual so you would have had in my
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opinion you would have had probably
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quite a bit of damage
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and the killer would be bleeding
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profusely from those wounds
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it was decided that we would go ahead
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and clip their nails and swab their
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mouths because
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again if this was a home invasion type
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situation there's a good chance that
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these dogs had scratched or bit the
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intruder
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the couple's third dog was found in a
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closed bedroom apparently
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unharmed
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it was a mystery why anybody would
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choose to go into this residence with
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the three dogs especially being large
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dogs
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whenever i talked to detective kim
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bradley
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she told me we will get justice for
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kathy
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we are going to find the person that did
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this
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with no clear suspects at least none
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that we're being told about the
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sheriff's department is turning to the
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neighborhood for help passing out these
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flyers with kathy lamb's picture on them
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and asking anyone who may have had any
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information about what happened here to
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give them a call
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kathy lamb's murder scene was stranger
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than any investigators had ever
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encountered
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at first they assumed the motive was
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robbery kathy's husband jeff said the
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only thing missing was a pair of kathy's
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gold diamond earrings
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the master bedroom all the drawers are
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pulled out
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nothing has been disturbed though the
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clothes sit in there still folded up and
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there's no there's lots of jewelry and
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items on top of the dresser the medical
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examiner estimated that kathy was
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murdered between 4 30 and 5 in the
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afternoon
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since jeff lamb found his wife's body he
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was naturally considered a suspect
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jeff lamb had a very good alibi he's at
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his employment and there's several
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people there that can vouch for his
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whereabouts at the time
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soon
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other suspects emerged
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while police processed the crime scene
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a woman named joey steidel arrived and
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introduced herself as
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jeff lamb's fiancee
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it's curious that the husband the
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grieving husband
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is now being
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consoled outside of the crime scene by
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his fiancee
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i think human nature would tell you when
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a guy is telling you he has a good
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relationship with his wife and a
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girlfriend or a fiancee shows up at the
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crime scene it's gonna
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start making you think something's going
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on here
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while jeff admitted he had an affair
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with joyce tydell he claimed their
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relationship was over
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jeffrey's story was that he had
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reconciled with his wife and that they
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were going to be permanently living
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together again
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and it was contradictory that joey
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stedel would come into it and say oh no
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we're moving over to this house in
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jupiter
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joyce steidel was now a suspect too
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but she had an alibi for the time of the
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murder she worked as a waitress at a
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nearby restaurant and dozens of
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customers saw her
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next jeff's cell phone records
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identified
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yet another suspect
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on the afternoon of the murder jeff lamb
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spoke with another female friend on the
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telephone
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the first phone call that was made after
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we believe the murder took place
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was made to lisa adzabel who turned out
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to be joey stedel's neighbor
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lisa adzerbelle was a married mother of
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two children
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when questioned by police lisa admitted
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she too had a relationship with jeff
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lamb
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in fact
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lisa's husband had caught them together
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in a compromising situation just a few
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weeks before kathy lamb's murder
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so i kicked my front door in and he was
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on my couch you know shirt on and he had
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shorts on her pants on or something no
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shirt inside shoes and grabbed it well i
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got mad at him and chased him out the
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backside glass door ray then said he
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called jeff on the phone
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and then i left him a message on the
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cell phone that if he came around my
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house or family again that you know i
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was mad you know said i would kill him
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you know i'll do anything protect my
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family and i don't want him around
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when we first learned that
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raymond had been so angry with jeff he
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was somebody that we were interested in
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we certainly had to
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investigate
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both ray and lisa adzerbel had an alibi
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for the day of kathy's murder and were
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eliminated as suspects
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but police were still troubled by lisa's
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telephone calls to jeff on the afternoon
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of the murder
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lisa said they were purely social
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phone records proved
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that lisa made these calls from home
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but jeff's cell phone records indicated
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jeff wasn't at work as he claimed
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we get the phone records which showed he
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is down by that house
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the phone towers are hitting off of
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phone towers closer to the house than
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they are where he claims to be
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and investigators found
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another contradiction
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jeff said his dog bandit was in a locked
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bedroom when he found his wife's body
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but investigators found
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bloody paw prints in the bedroom
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and the blood
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was kathy's
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this meant
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the killer put the dog in the bedroom
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after kathy's murder
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but why
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an unknown assailant
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not only attacked kathy lamb
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but also her two dogs nipper and dakota
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presumably with the same weapon
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kathy's friends and even mr lamb himself
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said that those dogs that were in that
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house would have torn apart a stranger
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but investigators couldn't understand
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why the dogs weren't all together
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why were her two smaller dogs
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beat so severely
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and yet the biggest dog of the group was
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never struck
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and the dog was also locked in a bedroom
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the third dog was a
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hybrid a wolf mix
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that was owned by
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the husband
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investigators thought the blood on the
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dog's mouths and paws had come from
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kathy's attacker
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but forensic testing disproved that
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the swaps and clippings that had been
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taken from the dogs came back negative
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for any human dna
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the couple's third dog bandit was
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initially believed to be unharmed but
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the humane society discovered he
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suffered injuries too but
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not from the killer
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we discovered that bandit actually had
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several puncture marks
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which had indicated that
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he had been in a fight and probably
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had been in a fight with the other two
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dogs so the dogs attacked one another
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but not the killer even while the killer
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was beating them
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and they stood there and they took their
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beatings and then they went and they hid
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to animal behavioralists the reason was
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clear
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and then a stranger wouldn't wouldn't
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have been able to beat those dogs
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brutally the way they were beaten
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without them fighting back somebody
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obviously
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knew the dogs so it had to be somebody
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that you know they weren't going to
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fight back
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it seemed pretty clear from the evidence
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that only one person could have done
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this crime but prosecutors had a problem
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the surviving dog banned it obviously
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couldn't tell police what happened
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so investigators had to dig deeper and
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started by looking into jeff lamb's
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finances
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a few years earlier
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jeff's former employer accused him of
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stealing almost thirty thousand dollars
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he returned the money and agreed to pay
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an additional 20 000 fine
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he wasn't a dumb man
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but you didn't think he was like real
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bright and was going to set the world on
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fire
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his current job as a tow truck driver
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didn't pay particularly well
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and these payments were a hardship
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twenty thousand dollars in a lot of
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money to most people but to some people
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it's it's like a million dollars
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police also discovered that jeff
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was the beneficiary of kathy's 29
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thousand dollar life insurance policy
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he was making restitution
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for prior criminal activity
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um
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i think he
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had was tired of making those payments
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uh it was a very small life insurance
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policy but i think to him
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it was the answer to
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what he needed and it didn't matter how
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he got it
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in a search for forensic evidence
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investigators had the presence of mind
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to confiscate the clothing jeff was
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wearing the day of the murder
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the clothes that we took from him at the
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scene
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was a t-shirt with
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the tasmanian devil on the front making
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an l shape like this and underneath the
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caption loser
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he was wearing a pair of dark blue jeans
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and black boots
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a forensic analysis found
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no blood on the shirt and boots
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but blood spatter expert
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stuart james
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examined the genes
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section by section
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under a stereo microscope
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well the dark color of the gene
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certainly made it more difficult to see
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blood but at 60 times magnification
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james could see things invisible to the
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naked eye
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deep within the fabric
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on the gene's
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left leg
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near the inside of the thigh
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james saw tiny specks of what appeared
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to be
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blood
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the suspected blood
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stains
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were actually down within the weave and
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between the weave of the
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fabric
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which indicated to me that
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these stains were not the result of
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transfer which would have just been on
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the top of the weave but rather
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down driven into the weave much more
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consistent with impact spatter
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the blood spatter was the same size and
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shape as one would expect to find after
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inflicting a beating with a blunt object
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dna testing of this blood revealed
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it was kathy lamb's blood
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we have impact spatters at the scene on
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the wall
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and we also have impact spatters
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on
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the left interior
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thigh area of the
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dark jeans of jeffrey lamb this was
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definitive proof
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jeffrey lamb struck the fatal blows
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the splatters were
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so deeply embedded in the fabric
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that it couldn't have just been an
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incidental contact that it had to be
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with force and
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you know thank god he didn't change his
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pants
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and blood spatter expert stuart james
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found one more thing
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he just happened to reach into one of
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the pockets just checking to see if
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there was anything in there and he found
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an earring a little diamond earring that
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belonged to kathy and jeff lammett told
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the police that those earrings were
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missing
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investigators now had everything they
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needed except
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the murder weapon
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two months after kathy lamb's murder a
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workman found a tire iron on the roof of
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his building
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he'd been on the roof because he'd been
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leaking over at the tow company
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and he'd found a tire tool
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that was used on one of their big big
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tow trucks
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it was the office building of the tow
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yard where jeff flam worked
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the tire iron had hexagonal heads for
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loosening and tightening nuts
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it was tested for dna
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we tried everything to test the tire
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iron but the problem is it's south
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florida and it rains all the time the
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tire arm was on the roof for two and a
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half months the sun would have
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evaporated any dna as well as the water
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washing it off
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but since it was so distinctive
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as were the wounds on kathy's body
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the tire iron was still a valuable piece
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of evidence
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the hexagonal head was placed over
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photographs of kathy's wounds
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and you look at the injuries on kathy's
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face like there's no way in the world
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anything other than this did it and it
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was so unusual i've never seen anything
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like it in your life jeffrey lamb was
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arrested and charged with first degree
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murder
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prosecutors believe
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jeff wanted out of his marriage
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he often told friends that kathy was a
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poor housekeeper but apparently jeff was
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no better
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you know he called her dirty and yet his
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truck was filthy i mean he had more
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garbage in his truck than you would
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throw out in the street i don't know if
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you call him a hypocrite or something
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but he didn't live
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a better lifestyle than his wife
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the couple separated for a few years but
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even after they reconciled jeff
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continued to have affairs
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kathy tolerated his infidelity but she
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didn't like it
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i felt very sorry for kathy i felt very
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bad because i knew that she loved him
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very much
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and i thought that she would be very
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hurt over that jeff was paying off a
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twenty thousand dollar fine for
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embezzlement
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and a divorce would have left him with
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even less money to make those payments
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jeff had a friend he had told him that
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i'm i'm not going to lose my stuff and
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i'm not going to give up her life
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insurance policy i'll kill her before
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she divorces me
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prosecutors believe
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jeff planned to use kathy's life
00:18:11
insurance proceeds to start a new life
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with his fiancee
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on the afternoon of the murder
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jeff was at work
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his fiancee's car was at the tow yard
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for repairs
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according to co-workers jeff said he was
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taking the car to get gasoline and left
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sometime between
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4 30 and 5 o'clock
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the evidence suggests he went home
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waited for kathy to return from work
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and when she did
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beat her to death with the tire iron
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in the process
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he got blood spatter on his jeans
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the dogs didn't attack him but in their
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agitation
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they attacked each other
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to separate them he hit kathy's dogs and
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took his dog bandit into the bedroom
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and closed the door
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[Music]
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he took kathy's diamond earrings to make
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it look like a robbery
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one of those earrings was later found in
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his pocket
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jeff changed his shirt and shoes
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but not his jeans
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he probably didn't see the blood on them
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jeff's friend lisa called him on his
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cell phone just after 5 pm
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the call bounced off a cell tower near
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jeff's home proving
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he wasn't at work as he claimed
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there's no evidence lisa knew anything
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about the murder
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when he returned to the tow yard
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he threw the murder weapon up onto the
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roof thinking
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no one would ever find it
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[Music]
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his co-worker did however two months
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later while repairing a leaking roof
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the blood spatter was supported by
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these cell phone records
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and it was further supported by
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the
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actions of the dogs
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it was planned
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he took
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my daughter
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from us
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her family and her friends
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for 29
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000
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in september of 2006
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jeffrey lamb was convicted
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of first degree murder
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he was sentenced to life in prison
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without parole
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we were confident going to trial
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because the case wasn't just based on
00:21:01
science it was based on common sense i
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don't believe he gets up one morning of
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one day and says
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how could i have done that to that human
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being
00:21:10
beside the fact that she was my wife
00:21:11
besides the fact that
00:21:14
i've known her since she was a teenager
00:21:16
his first mistake was not to change his
00:21:18
clothes after he'd killed his wife
00:21:21
the second mistake would be
00:21:24
throwing a tool up on a roof where it
00:21:25
doesn't belong and somebody may discover
00:21:28
it his clothing was the key to the case
00:21:31
if if the detectives had not asked him
00:21:33
to remove his clothing we could never
00:21:35
have convicted on the crime he would he
00:21:37
definitely would be walking free today
00:21:44
you
