00:00:04
[Music]
00:00:09
two different men called police to
00:00:11
report the same murder
00:00:18
apparently neither one knew that the
00:00:20
other had called
00:00:22
the investigation uncovered even more
00:00:25
unusual circumstances
00:00:28
but a few tiny seeds and a discarded
00:00:31
candy wrapper were more than just
00:00:33
insignificant clues
00:00:36
they told a story of revenge
00:00:41
[Music]
00:00:48
[Music]
00:00:52
[Applause]
00:00:54
[Music]
00:01:06
[Music]
00:01:08
like many divorced people pamela sweeney
00:01:10
hoped she'd find someone to share her
00:01:12
life with
00:01:13
construction worker larry fleck was the
00:01:16
man she set her sights on
00:01:18
we were planning on getting married
00:01:20
we're talking about probably moving out
00:01:22
of minneapolis at one time
00:01:25
i don't know we're just
00:01:26
just having a good time the two of us
00:01:29
she was a little kid full of life
00:01:32
and uh
00:01:35
i don't know how really how to explain
00:01:37
it she just
00:01:39
made the house light up
00:01:42
pamela worked as a secretary for a
00:01:44
computer company outside minneapolis
00:01:47
the most important thing in her life was
00:01:49
her five-year-old son tony
00:01:53
on the friday before memorial day in
00:01:55
1991
00:01:57
pam told her parents she wasn't feeling
00:01:59
well and asked if they could take care
00:02:02
of her son overnight
00:02:04
she told them she was just going to take
00:02:06
a bath and go to bed but before she did
00:02:08
she spoke with her boyfriend
00:02:11
she says what time are you getting off
00:02:12
tonight
00:02:13
i was well i got to work pretty late
00:02:14
it's going to be late she says well i
00:02:15
want you to come over
00:02:17
i said it's going to be really late
00:02:20
she says i want you to come over tonight
00:02:24
flex says he arrived at pam's house
00:02:26
around three o'clock in the morning
00:02:29
when he looked into pam's bedroom he
00:02:31
knew something was terribly wrong
00:02:34
i seen
00:02:37
[Music]
00:02:39
spot of blood
00:02:40
up on the headboard
00:02:43
uh oh my goodness and
00:02:45
and the bed she was laying across the
00:02:47
crossways all wrapped up rolled up in a
00:02:50
blanket
00:02:51
i didn't want to do it but i took the
00:02:52
covers
00:02:54
i rolled him back and there she was
00:02:56
laying
00:02:58
fleck ran to a neighbor's house to call
00:03:00
police
00:03:04
she's cut all the hell
00:03:06
okay hold on just a second
00:03:10
less than two minutes later as police
00:03:12
were on their way they got another
00:03:14
telephone call
00:03:16
this one from one of pam's co-workers
00:03:19
patrick walsh
00:03:23
okay what's the problem
00:03:25
[Music]
00:03:26
[Applause]
00:03:27
[Music]
00:03:28
[Applause]
00:03:30
[Music]
00:03:32
we had two males calling in stating that
00:03:35
a female they had known
00:03:37
something terrible had happened to her
00:03:39
and they needed the police
00:03:40
when questioned both men had unusual
00:03:43
stories to tell
00:03:45
larry fleck said pam invited him and
00:03:48
that he ran from her house because he
00:03:50
thought the killer was still inside
00:03:54
[Music]
00:03:55
patrick walsh said he drove by pam's
00:03:57
house on his way home from a local bar
00:04:00
he said the lights were on and he wanted
00:04:02
to check on her because she had been out
00:04:04
sick that day at work
00:04:07
police now had a dead woman and two men
00:04:10
at the house at three o'clock in the
00:04:13
morning
00:04:13
[Music]
00:04:15
investigators hope forensic evidence
00:04:17
would sort through what was to become
00:04:20
a very complicated tale
00:04:25
when pam sweeney was found murdered in
00:04:28
her own bed
00:04:29
police had to deal with a highly unusual
00:04:31
situation
00:04:33
two men were at the scene they didn't
00:04:35
know each other but both knew the victim
00:04:38
everybody's a suspect and when they got
00:04:40
out there they had patrick walsh he's a
00:04:42
suspect he's secured he's handcuffed
00:04:44
they processed the scene larry fleck was
00:04:47
at the neighbor's house another officer
00:04:48
went there to secure him
00:04:51
pam sweeney had been shot four times
00:04:54
stabbed four times
00:04:56
and her clothing had been partially
00:04:58
removed
00:05:00
you go numb you just
00:05:02
you a thug like your heart hits the
00:05:04
bottom your stomach and you don't know
00:05:06
what's
00:05:07
you it's just like there's a humming
00:05:08
going on in your head you don't know
00:05:09
what's going on around you
00:05:11
pam's parents were asked who they
00:05:13
thought might have killed their daughter
00:05:16
and they had a ready answer
00:05:18
you know i thought her ex-husband was
00:05:19
the one that done it
00:05:20
he had 30-something weapons in the house
00:05:25
he tried to he tried to be a big gun
00:05:27
collector and he had some big guns
00:05:30
so we
00:05:32
i
00:05:32
first thing i thought was well since
00:05:34
it's pam it's got to be mike
00:05:37
at pam's home there were no signs of
00:05:39
forced entry
00:05:40
and there was another clue
00:05:42
that pam knew her killer
00:05:45
we believe after he completed the final
00:05:47
blow and she was dead and he saw the
00:05:48
dead body he in an act of contrition
00:05:51
covered the body completely it was
00:05:52
completely covered we think he did that
00:05:55
so as
00:05:56
not to see what he did to cover it up
00:05:58
out of sight out of mind
00:06:00
the murder weapons could not be found in
00:06:02
the house
00:06:04
but as the sun rose investigators saw a
00:06:07
path in the dew that had settled on the
00:06:10
lawn
00:06:11
it led to a wooded area behind the house
00:06:14
officers got on their hands and knees
00:06:16
and went through that backwoods inch by
00:06:18
inch
00:06:19
back there was found a knife which had
00:06:20
been stuck into the ground right to the
00:06:22
handle
00:06:23
and a small revolver was found lodged
00:06:27
under some loose boards that were laying
00:06:28
behind the shed
00:06:31
the knife matched a set of kitchen
00:06:33
knives inside the house
00:06:35
the pistol was the same caliber as the
00:06:38
one used in the crime
00:06:40
both had been wiped clean of blood and
00:06:43
fingerprints
00:06:44
in front of pam's home
00:06:47
investigators found the clue first
00:06:48
thought to be
00:06:50
insignificant
00:06:52
in patrick walsh's truck
00:06:54
police found a candy wrapper the same
00:06:57
candy was found in pam sweeney's kitchen
00:07:01
but this brand of candy had a lot number
00:07:04
on the wrapper
00:07:05
when police compared the lot number on
00:07:07
the candy and pam's house with the
00:07:09
rapper in walsh's truck
00:07:11
it was a match
00:07:13
so we drew an inference from that that
00:07:15
this guy while he was there was calm
00:07:17
enough actually to take one of those
00:07:18
bags of candy out of the drawer needed
00:07:22
but this was inconsistent with walsh's
00:07:24
story
00:07:25
he said after he found pam's body he
00:07:28
called police then ran outside to his
00:07:30
car to try to get help
00:07:32
if this were true
00:07:34
would he have stopped on his way out of
00:07:36
the house to grab a piece of candy
00:07:39
[Music]
00:07:40
perhaps the most bizarre incident in the
00:07:43
case was that walsh's car was stuck in a
00:07:45
ditch next to pam's driveway walt said
00:07:48
he accidentally drove into the ditch
00:07:50
when going for help
00:07:54
both patrick walsh and pam's boyfriend
00:07:57
fleck had what appeared to be
00:07:59
bloodstains on their trousers
00:08:02
and they both had plausible explanations
00:08:05
both men said they were close to pam's
00:08:08
body when each discovered she was dead
00:08:11
but walsh's clothing held a possible
00:08:14
clue
00:08:16
during the time that patrick walsh was
00:08:18
being processed at the jail they of
00:08:20
course removed all of his clothing and
00:08:22
his shoes and socks and we
00:08:24
on the back of his shirt
00:08:26
located a leaf
00:08:28
and in his shoes we located a number of
00:08:31
different types of vegetation
00:08:33
investigators wondered whether this
00:08:36
vegetation was enough
00:08:38
to identify a killer
00:08:44
while investigating the murder of 35
00:08:46
year old pamela sweeney police had three
00:08:49
suspects
00:08:51
pam's ex-husband her boyfriend and her
00:08:54
co-worker
00:08:56
police learned that pam's ex-husband was
00:08:59
with friends on the night of the murder
00:09:01
and was eliminated as a suspect
00:09:04
pam's boyfriend also denied any
00:09:06
involvement they asked questions like
00:09:09
how long i knew her
00:09:12
if i always come over there that time of
00:09:13
night you know why so late in the
00:09:15
evening i show up this person's house
00:09:19
and basically asked me if i did and i
00:09:21
said no you know i'm in love with this
00:09:23
person why would anybody want to do
00:09:24
something like that to someone you know
00:09:27
[Music]
00:09:29
when patrick walsh's name came up as a
00:09:31
suspect in pam's murder
00:09:33
her family and friends said they weren't
00:09:36
surprised
00:09:37
he did harass her on the job he harassed
00:09:40
her on the telephone for six months
00:09:42
night and day she did call the police
00:09:44
but there was nothing they could do
00:09:46
her pastor thomas braun
00:09:49
got a call from her a few months before
00:09:51
the murder
00:09:52
there was great amount of fear in her
00:09:55
voice
00:09:56
she was she was beyond herself she
00:09:58
couldn't think straight um emotionally
00:10:02
physically she was she was a wreck
00:10:05
walsh was married and worked as a
00:10:06
supervisor in the same company as pam
00:10:09
she told friends that walsh asked her
00:10:12
out on numerous occasions and wouldn't
00:10:14
take no for an answer
00:10:17
he also stopped by her home unannounced
00:10:20
and performed various household chores
00:10:22
without being asked in an attempt to win
00:10:24
her affections he had been stalking her
00:10:27
for months
00:10:28
obsessed with her physically and in his
00:10:31
mind and his entire being
00:10:34
she's never talked to me about she's
00:10:36
never said
00:10:37
somebody was taunting her following her
00:10:40
things like that she'd never said a word
00:10:41
to me
00:10:43
pam did however go to the police but
00:10:46
they told her walsh hadn't broken the
00:10:48
law
00:10:49
and there was nothing they could do
00:10:52
in their search for evidence
00:10:54
investigators focused on the vegetation
00:10:56
found on walsh's clothes and shoes
00:11:01
walsh said it probably got there when he
00:11:03
walked across pam's front lawn towards
00:11:04
his car
00:11:06
this gave police an idea
00:11:08
we did something i had never done before
00:11:10
we contacted the university of minnesota
00:11:12
and we asked for a
00:11:14
taxonomist a forensic taxonomist
00:11:18
a taxonomist is an expert in living
00:11:20
organisms
00:11:22
dr anita chalowa examined the various
00:11:26
bits of leaves grass and other
00:11:28
vegetation from walsh's clothing
00:11:30
there was lawn grass there was crab
00:11:32
grass
00:11:34
and the oddball things
00:11:36
there were some seeds of quackgrass
00:11:40
quackgrass is a common weed and it
00:11:42
rarely produces seed since people
00:11:44
usually mow it before it gets to the
00:11:46
flowering stage
00:11:49
this meant that the cracked grass seeds
00:11:51
on walsh's clothing were rare and
00:11:54
unusual
00:11:55
dr challawa also discovered another
00:11:58
species on walsh's clothes seeds from an
00:12:02
aspen tree which are called bracts
00:12:05
aspen is fairly common in minnesota but
00:12:08
it's not the sort of thing that you'd
00:12:10
see in someone's backyard
00:12:12
the combination of an aspen seed and
00:12:14
quack grass told dr chalawa that patrick
00:12:17
walsh had been in a wooded area with
00:12:20
high weeds
00:12:22
dr chalawood didn't find any quack grass
00:12:25
or aspen bracks around walsh's home
00:12:29
[Music]
00:12:34
dr chalowa discovered an area behind
00:12:37
pamela's shed that was untended and
00:12:40
overgrown
00:12:42
there was a lot of quack grass in there
00:12:44
a number of other things too but
00:12:46
the quack grass was
00:12:48
and it had clearly been flowering and
00:12:50
fruiting in that woodlot
00:12:52
she also found numerous aspen brats
00:12:56
the area dr chalua identified was the
00:13:00
exact spot where investigators found the
00:13:03
murder weapons
00:13:04
[Music]
00:13:05
she was convinced the specimens on
00:13:07
washer's clothing were relatively fresh
00:13:11
it wouldn't have attached itself to him
00:13:12
for long periods of time that it had to
00:13:14
be something
00:13:16
real recent in order to still be
00:13:18
attached to his pants and stuck in his
00:13:19
shoes
00:13:21
but this was far from conclusive
00:13:24
evidence
00:13:25
so police turned to a more traditional
00:13:27
crime science they analyzed the blood
00:13:30
spatter at the crime scene
00:13:34
walsh said he briefly shook pam's body
00:13:36
to see if she was alive before he ran
00:13:39
from her room
00:13:42
but the blood on his clothing told a
00:13:44
different story
00:13:46
the staining was consistent with him
00:13:49
coming in contact with a large amount of
00:13:51
her blood on his pants leg and stains
00:13:54
consistent with spatter being found on
00:13:57
him which would indicate that he had
00:13:58
been in close proximity when she was
00:14:00
being stabbed
00:14:02
and the size and shape of the spatter
00:14:05
indicated the blood hit walsh's pants
00:14:07
from a blood-covered object that had
00:14:09
been in motion
00:14:11
investigators found similar blood
00:14:13
spatter on the ceiling above the bed
00:14:16
these were perfectly circular indicating
00:14:19
the blood went straight up from the
00:14:21
impact site
00:14:23
the blood spatters give us a fairly good
00:14:25
idea of where she may have been and also
00:14:27
the nature of the tank and how violent
00:14:29
it was how brutal it was and how the
00:14:31
knife was wielded i could look at the
00:14:33
blood stain patterns on the walls and
00:14:36
determine the site where
00:14:39
this impact took place and this was
00:14:42
right on the bed where she was found and
00:14:44
it indicated that that's exactly where
00:14:46
she was attacked
00:14:48
on the bed
00:14:50
she was stabbed in the bedroom
00:14:53
but shot elsewhere
00:14:56
there was a blood trail leading to the
00:14:58
bedroom from the foyer and bullets were
00:15:01
found in the floor
00:15:03
this was where pam sweeney was shot
00:15:06
we believe she was probably shot first
00:15:09
in the lower levels of the house and
00:15:11
dragged her carried upstairs
00:15:13
and then stabbed in her bedroom
00:15:16
and died most likely from from the stab
00:15:19
wounds not the gunshot wounds
00:15:21
a blood stain on walsh's pants was
00:15:24
consistent with carrying a bleeding
00:15:26
person
00:15:27
the forensic evidence also explained why
00:15:30
patrick walsh called police to report
00:15:33
the murder
00:15:34
patrick walsh in a panic attempting to
00:15:36
leave the scene of this
00:15:39
killing got in his pickup truck
00:15:41
miscalculated the driveway and drove
00:15:43
into the ditch
00:15:44
it's now three o'clock in the morning he
00:15:47
just murdered a young woman and his
00:15:48
pickup truck is hopelessly stuck in a
00:15:51
ditch what do you do
00:15:57
a week before her death
00:15:59
pam sweeney told her family she couldn't
00:16:01
find a set of house keys and was
00:16:03
considering changing her locks
00:16:06
on the day of her murder
00:16:08
the keys resurfaced
00:16:11
in the front seat of patrick walsh's
00:16:13
black pickup truck lo and behold was
00:16:15
pamela sweeney's stolen keys so there
00:16:18
was a direct connection he never really
00:16:20
explained how it got there police
00:16:22
believe walsh stole the keys while he
00:16:25
and pam were at work proof they said
00:16:28
that he planned the attack
00:16:30
about a week before the killing
00:16:32
he had called up an ex-girlfriend and
00:16:35
wanted to get his 22 caliber handgun
00:16:37
returned
00:16:38
he had loaned it to her earlier he
00:16:40
wanted it back
00:16:41
he claimed it was for an elk hunting
00:16:43
trip he was going to make but that was
00:16:45
we found out later not planned for eight
00:16:47
months down the road
00:16:48
so we believe he was actively engaged in
00:16:52
planning this
00:16:53
well before
00:16:55
the day of the killing
00:16:56
[Applause]
00:16:58
inside walsh's home
00:17:00
police found a number of 22-caliber
00:17:02
shells
00:17:03
those were sent to the fbi laboratory
00:17:06
for neutron activation analysis
00:17:09
they were able to identify that the lead
00:17:11
compositions in the lead fragments that
00:17:14
we found in
00:17:15
miss wiene's skull matched the lead
00:17:17
compositions that were in the shells
00:17:19
found
00:17:20
in mr walsh's apartment
00:17:23
a few years earlier
00:17:24
walsh was allegedly involved in eight
00:17:27
assault cases with other women
00:17:29
and was a suspect in a previous murder
00:17:32
[Applause]
00:17:32
[Music]
00:17:34
prosecutors believe when pam sweeney
00:17:37
rejected walsh's advances
00:17:39
he sought revenge
00:17:41
our belief was that that just infuriated
00:17:43
him i think he took the view in his sick
00:17:46
twisted psychotic mind
00:17:48
how dare you reject me when i have been
00:17:51
doing all of these overtly kind acts for
00:17:54
you how dare you
00:17:57
the evidence suggests walsh entered
00:17:59
pam's home around 11 pm
00:18:02
while pam was asleep
00:18:04
but she must have heard someone inside
00:18:06
and made her way to the hallway
00:18:09
where she confronted walsh there was an
00:18:11
argument
00:18:15
walsh fired twice into the floor
00:18:17
possibly to scare her
00:18:20
the next four shots
00:18:22
hit pamela
00:18:26
sweeney walsh carried her to the bedroom
00:18:30
then stabbed her to death
00:18:32
causing the blood spatter on the ceiling
00:18:35
and on his clothes then
00:18:37
covered the body
00:18:39
a tell-tale clue that the killer was
00:18:41
someone pam knew
00:18:45
the evidence suggests walsh stayed long
00:18:47
enough to have a can of soda and grab a
00:18:49
piece of candy
00:18:54
and when he went to his car
00:18:56
he left the candy wrapper on the seat
00:18:58
beside him
00:19:00
but he accidentally drove his car into a
00:19:02
ravine on the side of the driveway and
00:19:05
couldn't get it out
00:19:09
walsh then went back inside the house in
00:19:11
the basement to look for something to
00:19:13
get his car free
00:19:16
then a surprise
00:19:18
[Music]
00:19:21
pam's boyfriend larry fleck arrived
00:19:24
after work
00:19:26
when fleck discovered the murder he ran
00:19:28
to a neighbor's home for help
00:19:31
[Music]
00:19:35
walsh had to act quickly he tried again
00:19:37
to move his car but couldn't so he had
00:19:40
to remove the evidence
00:19:43
the botanical evidence on his pants
00:19:45
proved walsh ran into the high grass and
00:19:48
woods behind pam's home to dump the
00:19:50
murder weapons
00:19:52
when he returned and knowing police
00:19:54
would find his car walsh had no choice
00:19:57
but to call police himself to make it
00:20:00
appear as if he too had driven by and
00:20:02
found pam dead
00:20:05
it was clear to me that the suspect had
00:20:08
been in that woodlot i don't see how he
00:20:11
could have acquired that material
00:20:13
any other way
00:20:15
based on what the investigating officers
00:20:17
knew of where he had been at the time of
00:20:20
the crime and the previous
00:20:22
24 hours i guess the irony of it is in
00:20:25
going to that location and and picking
00:20:28
up those soil samples and the seeds from
00:20:30
the local trees he did put himself right
00:20:32
at the very spot he was trying to hide
00:20:34
evidence that he didn't want to be
00:20:35
connected to so
00:20:37
i think that's that's fairly significant
00:20:40
seven months after pamela sweeney's
00:20:42
death
00:20:43
patrick walsh went to trial for first
00:20:45
degree murder
00:20:48
the sheer volume of forensic evidence
00:20:50
against him
00:20:51
was overwhelming
00:20:53
it's amazing when you're prosecuting a
00:20:55
first-degree murder case and you have a
00:20:57
thousand puzzles and you're convinced
00:20:59
that you have the right person it is
00:21:01
amazing how those pieces of the puzzle
00:21:04
start to fall together
00:21:05
fitting perfectly
00:21:08
patrick walsh was found guilty and
00:21:10
sentenced to life in prison
00:21:13
patrick walsh is a psychopath
00:21:16
and perhaps the most dangerous man i
00:21:20
have ever seen
00:21:21
i favor the death penalty
00:21:24
but then again from what i hear what's
00:21:26
happening to him once in a while in
00:21:28
prison
00:21:28
[Music]
00:21:29
i think he's probably got a harder time
00:21:31
right now being alive
00:21:34
than being dead
00:21:36
[Music]
00:21:58
[Music]
00:22:07
you
