00:00:08
a man is been killed in front of me how
00:00:10
is he being killed in front of you for
00:00:13
three terrifying weeks the eyes of the
00:00:16
world were on Virginia and Maryland a
00:00:19
Serial sniper terrorized the community
00:00:22
13 people were hit 10 of them
00:00:25
died this is how forensic science and
00:00:29
solid police work combined to solve the
00:00:32
case
00:00:35
[Music]
00:00:43
[Music]
00:01:03
on October 2nd 2002 police in Montgomery
00:01:07
County Maryland were investigating a
00:01:09
number of shooting
00:01:11
deaths 55-year-old James Martin was
00:01:14
felled by one bullet while putting
00:01:16
groceries into his
00:01:18
car 39-year-old Sunny Buchanan was
00:01:21
killed by a single gunshot while mowing
00:01:24
a lawn a 54-year-old cab driver was
00:01:27
gunned down while filling his car with
00:01:30
gas nothing like this has ever happened
00:01:32
in Montgomery County uh this is a very
00:01:35
safe Community uh our homicide rate just
00:01:39
increased by 25% in one
00:01:41
day all looked like the work of the same
00:01:46
perpetrator police knew each victim was
00:01:48
shot from 100 to 200 yards away but they
00:01:51
didn't know where the shooter was
00:01:55
located the FBI used television and film
00:01:58
animation software to build models of
00:02:00
the crime scenes to determine where the
00:02:03
shooter was
00:02:05
positioned and since the shooter got
00:02:07
away cleanly some believed that two
00:02:10
people were involved a spotter and a
00:02:13
shooter my theory was it was a driver
00:02:16
with him that that's how he was getting
00:02:17
away you kill one person you kill two
00:02:20
people I think that was a that would be
00:02:22
a pretty good day you know for a normal
00:02:24
Psychopathic murderer but now you go on
00:02:26
to the third to Fourth within two hours
00:02:29
so at that point I felt as though there
00:02:31
were two people the fourth victim was
00:02:34
34-year-old Sarah Ramos shot and killed
00:02:38
while sitting on a bench outside this
00:02:40
post office a 25-year-old Nanny was shot
00:02:44
at another gas station we at the corner
00:02:47
of M in Connecticut a woman was
00:02:49
vacuuming her car something blew up
00:02:51
she's unconscious she's got blood coming
00:02:52
out of her nose and her mouth and
00:02:55
72-year-old Pascal Charlo was shot and
00:02:58
killed while crossing a Washington DC
00:03:04
Street a witness reported seeing an
00:03:06
older model four-door Chevrolet leaving
00:03:09
the area of the shooting with its lights
00:03:12
off we feel like we probably have a
00:03:15
skilled shooter uh and and that does
00:03:18
heighten Our
00:03:19
concern and these last three shootings
00:03:22
provided police with their first
00:03:25
forensic
00:03:26
evidence bullet fragments removed from
00:03:29
the victim were large enough for
00:03:31
forensic analysis we do what was called
00:03:34
a fracture Parts match in an attempt to
00:03:36
see if the it's basically like trying to
00:03:39
assemble a jigsaw
00:03:42
puzzle as the bullet goes through the
00:03:45
barrel the lands and grooves inside Mark
00:03:48
each
00:03:50
bullet the sniper was using 223 caliber
00:03:54
bullets the marks on fragments from the
00:03:56
last three victims were all from the
00:03:58
same weapon
00:04:00
the bullets were hollow point bullets
00:04:03
designed to do considerable damage and
00:04:06
that's the idea behind the hollow point
00:04:08
bullet is to increase the frontal area
00:04:11
of the Bullet by opening up this goes
00:04:14
out at about 3400 ft per second when it
00:04:17
hits a body it traumatizes the body just
00:04:20
from the impact along with the then it
00:04:22
tumbles around in the
00:04:24
body the next day a 43-year-old woman
00:04:27
was shot in a shopping Center parking
00:04:29
lot this time farther south in
00:04:32
Spotsylvania County Virginia fortunately
00:04:35
she
00:04:38
survived some witnesses said they saw a
00:04:41
white van or truck in the vicinity of
00:04:43
the shootings but with few other leads
00:04:46
investigators hoped the new science of
00:04:48
geographical profiling would help
00:04:51
identify the Killer
00:04:54
[Music]
00:05:06
a Serial snipers had already shot seven
00:05:10
people in Virginia and Maryland and many
00:05:12
in the community were starting to panic
00:05:16
investigators had little physical
00:05:18
evidence so they turned to some newer
00:05:21
techniques of crime solving for years
00:05:24
the police Sciences have used stuff from
00:05:26
physics chemistry biology all the hard
00:05:29
Sciences now we're starting to see
00:05:31
development of tools for placing from
00:05:34
the the social and the soft Sciences
00:05:35
psychology criminology
00:05:38
sociology investigators asked Kim rosmo
00:05:41
to do a geographic profile of the Killer
00:05:45
rossmo is a former Canadian police
00:05:47
detective who invented the computer
00:05:49
software that's used sirel and stranger
00:05:53
crimes have a problem of information
00:05:54
overload too many suspects too many tips
00:05:58
it's not uncommon for these lists to be
00:06:00
in the hundreds and even thousands it's
00:06:03
like the classic needle and the Hy stack
00:06:05
problem they may be there but where do
00:06:06
you start rosmo believes that criminals
00:06:10
operate within a predictable distance
00:06:12
from where they live so he entered the
00:06:15
locations of all the shootings into his
00:06:18
computer program which contains
00:06:20
information gathered from thousands of
00:06:23
earlier case studies criminals are lazy
00:06:26
now criminals are also concerned about
00:06:28
committing crimes too close to their
00:06:30
home so there will be a bit of a buffer
00:06:32
zone around there but there's a point
00:06:34
where their desire to operate in their
00:06:36
comfort zone balances their desire for
00:06:39
anonymity the computer Maps where that
00:06:42
balance occurs and then the computer
00:06:45
system generates for us after a number
00:06:47
of calculations up to a million What's
00:06:50
called the Jeopardy surface
00:06:52
three-dimensional probability surface
00:06:54
showing us the most likely location of
00:06:56
offender
00:06:57
residence the crime scene are shown in
00:07:00
yellow or green the perpetrator's likely
00:07:04
home is shown in red or
00:07:07
orange police also asked the FBI for a
00:07:11
behavioral profile of the
00:07:13
sniper both the strength and weakness of
00:07:16
Behavioral profiling is that it's based
00:07:19
primarily on the study of individuals
00:07:21
who have committed past crimes and
00:07:24
identifies what is common among
00:07:27
them based on past criminal history
00:07:31
behavioral profilers say a spree killer
00:07:33
is usually a white male in his late 20s
00:07:36
to early 30s High School educated and is
00:07:40
most likely
00:07:41
divorced no profile can solve a crime
00:07:44
you need physical evidence and witness
00:07:47
or a confession to do that science is is
00:07:50
an asset science
00:07:52
helps but people talking to people
00:07:55
getting information from people is our
00:07:57
best ally but police were certain of one
00:08:00
thing the killer or killers were
00:08:04
watching the media it's common that they
00:08:07
follow it in the media they often may
00:08:10
interject themselves into the
00:08:12
investigation in some way um again that
00:08:16
that kind of feeds their ego so he may
00:08:19
have been watching when Chief moose
00:08:21
assured the public that area children
00:08:24
were safe Montgomery County officials
00:08:27
say tomorrow will be a normal school day
00:08:30
on October 7th the sniper shot and
00:08:33
wounded an eighth grader as he entered
00:08:36
his
00:08:37
school anxious parents questioned
00:08:40
whether their children were safe at all
00:08:43
I'm just happy that my dad came to get
00:08:45
me he said he's happy because I did come
00:08:49
to get him I came to pick him up all of
00:08:52
our victims have been innocent have been
00:08:56
defenseless but now we're Stepping Over
00:08:58
The Line because our children don't
00:09:01
deserve this the idea of moms taking
00:09:04
their kids to school and Sheltering them
00:09:06
from a potential sniper attack is is not
00:09:09
the American I know in a wooded area 150
00:09:13
yard from the school police found a
00:09:16
cover to a pen a shell casing and a
00:09:18
tarot card the kind used in fortune
00:09:22
telling the shell casing was a 223
00:09:25
caliber a very common round which can be
00:09:28
fired from many different
00:09:31
rifles the killer left the death card
00:09:35
inscribed with the words dear
00:09:39
policeman I am
00:09:41
God within days there were three more
00:09:46
shootings 53-year-old Dean Meyers was
00:09:49
killed at a gas station near Manasses
00:09:51
Virginia then Kenneth Bridges at a gas
00:09:54
station in Fredericksburg Virginia as a
00:09:57
policeman stood just 50 yard
00:10:01
away then female FBI analyst Linda
00:10:04
Franklin was killed in the parking lot
00:10:06
of a hardware store Witnesses continued
00:10:09
to report seeing a white van or truck in
00:10:12
the vicinity of the shootings I've
00:10:14
ordered the full resources of the
00:10:16
federal government to help local law
00:10:17
enforcement officials in their e in
00:10:19
their efforts to capture this
00:10:21
person one tool from the federal
00:10:23
government was a high-tech military
00:10:26
surveillance plane able to detect the
00:10:29
burst of flame made by a rifle when
00:10:32
fired but it didn't help the next
00:10:35
shooting happened far from the
00:10:37
surveillance area a man was shot and
00:10:39
wounded outside a steakhouse in Ashland
00:10:42
Virginia 90 mi from Washington he's
00:10:46
willing to change his Mo uh he listens
00:10:49
to the media that's one way we know that
00:10:51
he's careful in taking his notes and
00:10:54
doing his
00:10:56
reconnaissance in the woods next to the
00:10:58
restaurant
00:10:59
the sniper left another message with an
00:11:02
ominous
00:11:06
[Music]
00:11:11
warning after the 12th shooting in a
00:11:14
horrifying spree the sniper left another
00:11:17
note it was a four-page letter enclosed
00:11:20
in a plastic bag along with a shell
00:11:23
casing the letter demanded $10 million
00:11:27
to be transferred into a credit card
00:11:28
account belonging to an Arizona bus
00:11:31
driver whose wallet had been stolen
00:11:33
prior to the
00:11:34
attacks after 10 12 shootings he decides
00:11:38
he wants money now I think the money
00:11:40
aspect of it is an afterthought it's
00:11:42
just like uh you know I'm I'm in charge
00:11:44
everybody I got life and death in my
00:11:46
hand well want I to ask for $10 million
00:11:48
why I to ask for a billion dollars what
00:11:50
tends to get people in trouble is their
00:11:52
own narcissism the notion of you give
00:11:54
somebody enough rope and they eventually
00:11:56
hang themselves that people get to uh
00:12:01
cocki riddled with poor grammar and
00:12:04
misspellings the four-page letter
00:12:06
referred to us indicating more than one
00:12:09
person was
00:12:11
involved the note warned that if the
00:12:13
demands were not met more shootings
00:12:15
would
00:12:18
follow shot he's been L BL here sir
00:12:21
please hurry up please send some help
00:12:23
please I'm on the bus the next morning
00:12:27
35-year-old Conrad Johnson was killed as
00:12:29
he was stepping out of his bus a note
00:12:32
similar to the previous one was
00:12:34
discovered in a wooded area close to the
00:12:36
site the snipers also made repeated
00:12:39
attempts to make contact with
00:12:41
investigators through the sniper tip
00:12:43
line most were messages beginning with
00:12:47
call me
00:12:50
God but it was another piece of
00:12:53
communication that gave the killers
00:12:55
away the sniper called a Catholic priest
00:12:58
in ashin Virginia asking for forgiveness
00:13:01
for the sniper shootings and also
00:13:04
mentioned a murder he committed in
00:13:07
Montgomery
00:13:09
Alabama interestingly police in
00:13:11
Montgomery Alabama had an unsolved
00:13:15
murder a month earlier two employees of
00:13:18
a liquor store had been shot one fatally
00:13:22
while locking up the store for the
00:13:24
night Kelly Adams survived the shooting
00:13:28
but she didn't didn't see the shooter I
00:13:31
could have died I just don't take things
00:13:34
for granted
00:13:37
anymore Witnesses saw one of the
00:13:39
suspects drop a magazine while running
00:13:42
from the scene forensic experts in
00:13:45
Alabama tested the magazine for latent
00:13:48
fingerprints using a series of
00:13:49
techniques including magnetic powder and
00:13:53
the chemical ninhydrin
00:13:59
they also tried superglue
00:14:02
fuming in an airtight chamber a small
00:14:06
amount of superglue is heated which
00:14:08
vaporizes then attaches to biological
00:14:13
materials these techniques produce
00:14:15
several usable fingerprints which
00:14:17
federal authorities scanned into the
00:14:19
computer system called
00:14:21
aphys the aphis system is actually an
00:14:25
acronym for automated fingerprint
00:14:27
identification system
00:14:29
and what it is it's a computer that will
00:14:31
actually scan a pattern type of a latent
00:14:36
print the computer makes millions of
00:14:38
comparisons that would take a human
00:14:40
being years and uses numerous government
00:14:44
databases in the immigration database
00:14:47
investigators had a
00:14:49
match the fingerprints on the magazine
00:14:51
belonged to 17-year-old Lee Boyd Malvo
00:14:55
an immigrant from Jamaica police later
00:14:58
learned his nickname was sniper given to
00:15:02
him by a man who used to date malvo's
00:15:04
mother 41-year-old John
00:15:08
Muhammad Malvo and Muhammad had once
00:15:11
lived in this house in Tacoma Washington
00:15:14
neighbors said they often heard gunfire
00:15:16
from the home's backyard Lee Boyd Malvo
00:15:20
and John Muhammad were now the prime
00:15:23
suspects but where were they and could
00:15:26
they be found before they killed
00:15:32
[Music]
00:15:37
again a telephone call from the killer a
00:15:40
fingerprint from a magazine cover and
00:15:43
ballistic test had led police to two
00:15:46
suspects 17-year-old Lee Boyd Malvo and
00:15:50
41-year-old John
00:15:52
Muhammad a check of Motor Vehicle
00:15:55
registrations revealed Muhammad owned a
00:15:57
1990 Chevrolet Capri with New Jersey
00:16:00
license plates information that was
00:16:02
released to the
00:16:04
media the public is requested to call if
00:16:07
they have any information regarding
00:16:09
mohammed's whereabouts or any other
00:16:11
information that investigators could use
00:16:14
to to locate this
00:16:16
[Music]
00:16:18
individual just a few hours later an
00:16:21
alert truck driver noticed the car in a
00:16:24
highway rest stop police arrested Malvo
00:16:28
and Muhammad without
00:16:30
incident the two had been sleeping in
00:16:33
the
00:16:34
car in the trunk police found a
00:16:38
semi-automatic Bushmaster rifle with a
00:16:41
small tripod and a
00:16:44
scope also in the car was a laptop
00:16:47
computer and a global positioning
00:16:50
satellite receiver or
00:16:52
GPS satellites in space can instantly
00:16:56
locate a car with a GPS receiver and
00:16:59
provide maps of the area ensuring a
00:17:02
quick
00:17:03
getaway on the laptop computer were
00:17:07
drafts of letters with language similar
00:17:09
to previous Communications from the
00:17:12
snipers also in the computer were
00:17:14
directions to locations of the attacks
00:17:17
some marked by a skull and
00:17:20
crossbones and investigators found a
00:17:23
list entitled people to die later on it
00:17:27
were the names of the Ashlin Virginia
00:17:29
priest and someone at a local radio
00:17:32
station the rifle from Muhammad's car
00:17:35
was sent to ATF headquarters to
00:17:37
principal examiner Walter Dandridge the
00:17:41
investigators want this information uh
00:17:45
yesterday and the lands and grooves of
00:17:47
the rifle matched the bullet fragments
00:17:50
taken from the
00:17:52
victims the results of forensic testing
00:17:55
are that the weapon ceased from the
00:17:56
vehicle occupied by Muhammad
00:17:59
has been forensically determined to be
00:18:01
the murder
00:18:03
weapon the only fingerprints on the
00:18:05
rifle were those of Lee Boyd Malvo
00:18:09
however both suspects were found to be
00:18:11
sources of DNA lodged in The Ridges of
00:18:13
the rifle scope on the murder
00:18:16
weapon malvo's DNA was also found on the
00:18:19
pen casing found near the school
00:18:21
shooting Muhammad's DNA was discovered
00:18:24
on the plastic bag containing the letter
00:18:27
found in Ashlin
00:18:29
Virginia the car was modified to conceal
00:18:33
the sniper actions to illustrate how
00:18:36
Forensic Files obtained an identical car
00:18:40
and had its trunk and rear seat modified
00:18:42
in the same way as police found the
00:18:45
sniper
00:18:47
[Music]
00:18:48
car there was a 4-in hole cut in the
00:18:51
trunk and a portion of the back seat was
00:18:54
missing as this demonstration shows a
00:18:57
shooter could easily get in inside the
00:18:59
trunk and fire through the
00:19:01
[Music]
00:19:05
hole this is the view looking through
00:19:07
the scope of a rifle combined that with
00:19:10
the anonymity of shooting through a hole
00:19:12
in a car trunk and a driver leaving the
00:19:15
scene within seconds of the shooting and
00:19:18
it's easy to see how they could get away
00:19:20
so
00:19:21
cleanly even a policeman standing near
00:19:23
the car might not have noticed anything
00:19:27
suspicious any muzzle flash would have
00:19:29
been sheltered from aerial
00:19:32
surveillance Geographic profiling had
00:19:34
assumed the snipers lived near the first
00:19:37
group of victims in a way they did the
00:19:40
mobile bunker they called home allowed
00:19:43
them to reach the balanced year graphic
00:19:45
profiling counted on near to home but
00:19:48
also
00:19:50
Anonymous but there was still a question
00:19:52
of why killings occurred there's got to
00:19:55
be a motive people just don't go out and
00:19:57
kill people
00:19:59
Muhammad's ex-wife thinks she knows she
00:20:04
thinks the killings were a setup so that
00:20:06
when Muhammad killed her it would appear
00:20:09
to be a random killing by the
00:20:12
sniper Muhammad's wife lived in Maryland
00:20:16
near the Jeopardy area identified as the
00:20:19
Killer's Comfort Zone by the
00:20:21
geographical
00:20:23
profile forensic evidence is very
00:20:25
important to prosecute the case never
00:20:28
ever profile never Clairvoyant we don't
00:20:31
play that what you play is hard
00:20:33
detective work John Muhammad and Lee
00:20:36
Boyd Malvo were both tried and convicted
00:20:38
of two counts of capital murder Muhammad
00:20:42
was also convicted of conspiracy to
00:20:44
commit murder and of a Firearms
00:20:47
violation Muhammad was sentenced to
00:20:50
death Malvo was sentenced to life in
00:20:54
prison the courts more and more like to
00:20:57
see hard physical evidence and forensic
00:21:01
evidence and ballistics in particular
00:21:03
can provide that because there can
00:21:05
really be no question if a particular
00:21:08
bullet is matched to a particular
00:21:11
gun that can put the Smoking Gun into
00:21:14
somebody's stand
00:21:19
[Music]
00:21:27
[Music]
