00:00:00
[Music]
00:00:04
up next
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a home invasion and murder the injuries
00:00:08
that she sustained are
00:00:09
unimaginable it was what they call a
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signature killing
00:00:12
was a family member involved allegations
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of mafia
00:00:16
involvement the relative is frankie the
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fireman porco
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the press says the police can't solve it
00:00:22
every day on the news
00:00:23
talking about they've botched this
00:00:25
investigation they can't do anything
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right
00:00:27
but the police are one step ahead of the
00:00:30
press
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and the killer
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[Music]
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working for the supreme court of new
00:00:43
york state is a prestigious job
00:00:47
for 52-year-old peter porco a clerk for
00:00:50
an appeals judge
00:00:51
it was the perfect way to end his legal
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career
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until one day everything
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changed it started off as any other day
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until peter porco didn't show up for
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work
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and people began to get worried because
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that wasn't like him
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a court officer went to the parcco's
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home and immediately saw signs of
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trouble he walked up to the front of the
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house
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and in the door he saw a key a key by
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itself
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in the door lock the door was ajar he
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looks down and he sees on the cement
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steps some drops of blood
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inside was a bloodbath he
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looked over to his right and he saw a
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body laying there
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whom he recognizes peter parkou
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peter porco had been bludgeoned to death
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it was a scene of shocking horror
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something that
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most people who saw it find it difficult
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to talk about
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upstairs in the master bedroom was his
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wife joan
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who was still alive but just barely a
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three-foot axe
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was next to her investigators could see
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her brain
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while they were trying to save her life
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she was also hit with the axe along her
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arms
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to give oxygen they're supposed to put a
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bag over her mouth and
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they couldn't figure out where her mouth
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was
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joan was rushed to the hospital her life
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hanging
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in the balance blood spatter analysis
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showed
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that joan porco was struck three times
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in the head with the axe while sleeping
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peter parkout had been struck 16 times
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in the head
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but why was peter's body found
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downstairs
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apparently sometime after the attack
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peter regained
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consciousness and started to go about
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his morning tasks
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he had actually pulled on some clothes
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over the top of some wounds
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and began walking around the house
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that's because
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the top part of peter's brain the
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neocortex which controls higher
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functions like
00:02:56
thought language and reasoning was
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severely
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damaged in the attack the autopsy
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revealed
00:03:04
his paleocortex underneath was intact
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this controls his primal instincts and
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second nature habits
00:03:14
this explains why he got up went
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downstairs
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made breakfast performed the same tasks
00:03:21
he did
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each and every morning unaware
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he was mortally wounded the blood
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evidence shows
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he even went out to get the morning
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newspaper
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and that the front door locked behind
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him
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he used the house key hidden in the
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flower pot to open it
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then lost consciousness due to blood
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loss
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and died
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i am surprised that he was able to move
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around the residents as he did
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before joan porco went into surgery an
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alert investigator who was also
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a friend of the family asked joan a key
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question
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while she was still conscious i said to
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her can you hear me and she shook her
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head visibly
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up and down in the yes notion that she
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could the officer asked her
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if she knew who attacked her she shook
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her head again
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in the yes notion up and down i asked
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her did christopher do this to you
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and she clearly again sh nod her head up
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and down
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yes christopher was her 21 year old son
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[Music]
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the medical examiner concluded that
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peter porco
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was the intended target of the brutal
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axe attack in his home
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since he was struck 16 times in the head
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joan was hit three times
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nothing was missing from the porco's
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home either which pointed to only
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one conclusion leads them to believe
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that maybe this is someone who
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was angry with someone in the family
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that there was something more to this
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peter and joan porco had two children 23
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year old jonathan was a lieutenant in
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the u.s
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navy serving on a nuclear submarine
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hundreds of miles away
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21 year old christopher attended the
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university of rochester
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a three-hour drive away
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both had alibis for the night of the
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attack
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but why did joan parco tell police her
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son
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christopher was responsible your mother
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is communicating
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she's saying you were there i don't know
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why she said
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she knows i hope she does i was not
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there
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he was cooperating he let them take a
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dna sample
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he let them look at his body to make
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sure that there weren't marks or signs
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of a struggle like bruises
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three weeks after the attack joan porco
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regained
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consciousness everybody was very
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surprised it was a miracle
00:06:00
she obviously had a strong will to to
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live
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and the doctors just did an amazing job
00:06:08
and joan now told police that
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christopher
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had nothing to do with the attack she
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said
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it couldn't have been christopher leave
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my son alone
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joan also made a public statement
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supporting her son
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i am absolutely positive that my son was
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in no way
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involved in this heinous crime i implore
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the district attorney's office to leave
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my son alone and to search for peter's
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real killer
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and the forensic evidence or lack of it
00:06:37
corroborated
00:06:38
christopher's story investigators found
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nothing in christopher's jeep the yellow
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jeep was searched for
00:06:46
blood and or bloody clothing any type of
00:06:49
blood transfer whatsoever which would be
00:06:50
indicative of the attack
00:06:52
there was no no blood located in the
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vehicle whatsoever
00:06:56
police also found no evidence that
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christopher had been
00:06:59
on the highway between his school and
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his home
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there was no recording of his easy pass
00:07:05
going through the tolls that night
00:07:08
forensic analysts found no fingerprints
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or blood
00:07:11
other than the victims on the axe
00:07:15
then police learned that peter parker
00:07:18
had once received a death threat
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it was from a man who lost custody of
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his children
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in a case before the new york state
00:07:27
supreme court
00:07:28
the man had vowed revenge
00:07:32
the man told him he was going to get a
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gun and he was going to come
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and kill the judge and peter porco
00:07:39
but that man had an alibi for the night
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of the murder
00:07:44
then there was an anonymous letter sent
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to the local newspaper from someone
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claiming to be peter porco's killer
00:07:53
peter porca was not even a challenge
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once i got inside
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i repeatedly hit him in the head and
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neck with a small axe i brought with me
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i ignored all his pleading screams also
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i beat
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joan porco but unfortunately she
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survived
00:08:10
the writer took credit for another local
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murder and warned
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he'd kill again if you ever want to find
00:08:17
me
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you might want to stop going after easy
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suspects
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show me some respect i deserve catch me
00:08:23
if you can
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police found no fingerprints on the
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letter
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and they needed to find out who wrote it
00:08:37
while searching for the person
00:08:38
responsible for the brutal acts attack
00:08:41
investigators first tried to uncover the
00:08:44
motive
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we don't have ax murders here it was
00:08:48
just an alarming
00:08:49
tremendously alarming case police
00:08:52
learned that peter parker
00:08:54
had a relative and organized crime who'd
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been in trouble with the law
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the relative is frank porco known as
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frankie the fireman
00:09:02
porco frankie porco was serving time in
00:09:05
federal prison for loan sharking
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there were rumors that frankie parker
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would turn state's evidence
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and provide information in return for a
00:09:15
lighter sentence
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it was what they call a signature
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killing you know that the mob would do
00:09:21
and it was the fireman's act because it
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was retaliation for frankie the firemen
00:09:25
but a background check on frankie the
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firemen cast doubt on this theory
00:09:30
he was in prison because he wasn't a
00:09:32
snitch you know
00:09:33
he had been made the offers to cooperate
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with the authorities
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to avoid prison and he didn't so he
00:09:39
ended up in prison
00:09:42
then investigators learned that peter
00:09:44
and joan porco had life insurance
00:09:47
policies totaling
00:09:48
one million dollars investigators also
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learned
00:09:53
that christopher parker asked for
00:09:56
investment advice
00:09:58
before the murder christopher had gone
00:10:00
to
00:10:01
a financial counselor and asked him to
00:10:03
write up a portfolio for him
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he told him he was receiving millions of
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dollars from a relative
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and before his father's death
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christopher emailed him
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asking for all sorts of personal
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financial information
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yo pops if i could have you and mom's
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social security numbers and your new
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york state driver's license numbers
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i need them for paperwork related to
00:10:26
financial info for next semester
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hope you're having a good day love chris
00:10:33
then investigators checked the code
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numbers used
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to deactivate the porco's home security
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system
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on the night of the attack
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[Music]
00:10:44
the security system's computer showed
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that whoever
00:10:47
deactivated the alarm and presumably
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cut the phone lines was someone known
00:10:54
by the family the alarm had been
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disarmed
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at approximately two o'clock in the
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morning so this was the master code that
00:11:02
was used
00:11:03
um which was the code the family had as
00:11:06
well as possible possibly one or two
00:11:08
other people
00:11:09
so despite joan porco's claim that her
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son christopher
00:11:13
wasn't responsible for the attack
00:11:16
investigators took a fresh look
00:11:18
at where he was on the night of the
00:11:20
crime
00:11:22
christopher claimed he was in his dorm
00:11:24
room 220 miles away
00:11:27
investigators obtained security video
00:11:30
from the university of rochester campus
00:11:32
and from all the major highways and toll
00:11:35
booths in between the parco's home
00:11:38
and the campus they screened all of it
00:11:41
looking for christopher's yellow jeep
00:11:44
the average person is videotaped 18 to
00:11:47
22 times a day
00:11:49
so there's a tremendous amount of media
00:11:51
that's available to the
00:11:52
to law enforcement at 10 30 p.m
00:11:55
they saw a yellow jeep leaving the
00:11:58
university campus
00:12:00
the security alarm at the porco's home
00:12:03
was deactivated
00:12:04
a little more than three and a half
00:12:06
hours later at 2
00:12:08
14 a.m the porco's phone line was cut
00:12:12
at 4 59 a.m and the same
00:12:16
yellow jeep returned to the campus three
00:12:19
and a half hours later
00:12:21
at 8 30 in the morning the timeline
00:12:25
fit perfectly but was this
00:12:29
christopher's jeep there are actually
00:12:32
more yellow jeeps than you might imagine
00:12:34
in the state of new york there are
00:12:36
thousands of yellow jeeps
00:12:39
video analyst james kennedy ran the
00:12:41
security camera images through
00:12:43
a computer filter so it's not like our
00:12:46
filtering software
00:12:48
all of a sudden makes this stuff appear
00:12:50
what it does it provides us
00:12:52
with in some cases subtle in some cases
00:12:54
dramatic
00:12:55
clarifications kennedy found
00:12:58
specific details on the jeep like mud on
00:13:01
the passenger side door
00:13:04
the passenger side window had a torn
00:13:06
parking sticker
00:13:08
and there was a political sticker on the
00:13:10
back tire cover
00:13:12
those were compared to photographs of
00:13:15
christopher's jeep taken by police
00:13:17
the day of the murder we were able to
00:13:20
conclude that it was in fact
00:13:23
the suspect's jeep unfortunately
00:13:26
the photographic analysis couldn't
00:13:28
identify who
00:13:30
was driving was it christopher
00:13:34
or someone else
00:13:38
through forensic analysis investigators
00:13:41
now knew
00:13:42
that christopher parkou's jeep left the
00:13:44
university of rochester
00:13:46
four hours before the axe attack on his
00:13:49
parents
00:13:49
[Music]
00:13:54
and returned to the campus ten hours
00:13:56
later
00:13:58
it was possible for him to get down to
00:14:00
albany
00:14:01
do what happened at the house
00:14:04
and then make it back up to the campus
00:14:07
in the morning
00:14:08
for him to make it in that time he would
00:14:10
have had to use the new york state
00:14:10
throughway
00:14:12
but investigators had no proof that
00:14:14
christopher porco's
00:14:16
jeep was on the throughway that night or
00:14:19
if it was christopher who was driving
00:14:22
there were no easy pass records of
00:14:23
christopher coming home that night
00:14:25
but investigators found christopher's
00:14:28
easy pass tag on the floor
00:14:30
of his jeep on the morning of the attack
00:14:32
they tell me if you take it off the
00:14:34
windshield
00:14:35
and you get it down on the floor and or
00:14:38
you know
00:14:38
put it away somewheres it won't register
00:14:41
was it possible
00:14:43
christopher paid the highway tolls with
00:14:45
cash
00:14:46
to avoid leaving a trail i don't believe
00:14:50
that those lanes are
00:14:51
surveilled with video cameras
00:14:53
investigators asked the toll collectors
00:14:56
if they recalled seeing a yellow jeep
00:14:59
that night
00:15:00
one toll collector said she remembered a
00:15:02
yellow jeep driving through
00:15:04
right before quitting time around 11 pm
00:15:07
but she couldn't remember anything about
00:15:10
the driver
00:15:11
when they hand you the ticket it's
00:15:13
stamped it's got the time on
00:15:16
only a dozen cars went through that
00:15:18
tollbooth around that time
00:15:20
investigators sent those 12 toll tickets
00:15:23
to the forensic lab for testing
00:15:26
what we were looking for were any kind
00:15:28
of skin cells if your hands
00:15:30
are sweaty and you touch a toe ticket
00:15:32
there's a possibility that
00:15:34
dna sources such as epithelial cells
00:15:37
may be transferred onto these toll
00:15:38
tickets scientists found
00:15:41
skin cells on several tickets
00:15:44
they performed mitochondrial dna testing
00:15:48
on those skin cells
00:15:49
and compared those dna profiles
00:15:52
to christopher parco's dna profile
00:15:57
one ticket contained christopher porco's
00:16:00
dna
00:16:03
we have a toll ticket that ultimately
00:16:05
has christopher's dna on it
00:16:06
when that dna came in that was the top
00:16:09
of the mountain
00:16:10
it was what i considered a mountain of
00:16:11
circumstantial evidence
00:16:14
the possibility that the dna on the toll
00:16:16
ticket belonged to someone other than
00:16:18
christopher porco
00:16:20
was very small you would expect to see
00:16:23
that sequence and 0.04 percent of the
00:16:25
population
00:16:27
prosecutors believe the motive was money
00:16:31
investigators found evidence that
00:16:33
christopher had forged his parents
00:16:34
signatures
00:16:35
on bank loan documents and borrowed 31
00:16:39
000
00:16:40
without their permission they also found
00:16:43
evidence
00:16:44
that peter and joan porco knew about the
00:16:47
forgery
00:16:48
chris i want you to know that if you
00:16:50
abuse my credit again
00:16:52
i will be forced to file forgery
00:16:54
affidavits in order to disclaim
00:16:55
liability
00:16:56
you should come home so we can talk we
00:16:59
may be disappointed in you
00:17:00
but your mother and i still love you and
00:17:02
care about your future
00:17:05
christopher was not only spending huge
00:17:07
sums of money on luxury items like his
00:17:09
jeep
00:17:09
but he was also failing his college
00:17:12
courses
00:17:14
his world was crumbling around him a
00:17:16
world he had created a persona he'd
00:17:18
created a lifestyle he'd created
00:17:21
and he had to do something to try to
00:17:23
salvage it
00:17:25
prosecutors believe christopher was
00:17:28
desperate for money after his father had
00:17:30
cut off his funds
00:17:32
so christopher chose to murder his
00:17:34
parents
00:17:35
for their life insurance money
00:17:39
surveillance video shows christopher
00:17:41
left his college campus around 10
00:17:44
30.
00:17:49
[Music]
00:17:50
he removed the easy pass tag from his
00:17:53
car because he knew
00:17:54
this would leave a trail of his
00:17:56
movements
00:17:58
so he paid cash for the tolls and left
00:18:02
his dna on a ticket
00:18:03
[Music]
00:18:10
he entered his parents home a little
00:18:12
after 2 a.m
00:18:14
and deactivated the security system with
00:18:17
a code
00:18:18
known only to family members
00:18:25
prosecutors say christopher used an
00:18:28
axe to attack his parents
00:18:33
[Music]
00:18:35
he struck his father 16 times and his
00:18:38
mother
00:18:39
three times and left them both for dead
00:18:44
christopher smashed the security system
00:18:46
panel
00:18:47
thinking this would destroy the evidence
00:18:49
that he used the master code
00:18:51
but that information was stored
00:18:53
elsewhere
00:18:55
he cut the phone lines into the house at
00:18:57
4 59
00:18:59
then drove back to the campus
00:19:02
in full view of the cameras at 8
00:19:05
30 a.m
00:19:08
perhaps the most unsettling aspect of
00:19:11
the case
00:19:12
was that peter porco regained
00:19:14
consciousness
00:19:15
and walked through the house after the
00:19:18
attack
00:19:18
even going outside for the morning paper
00:19:22
before he died in the foyer
00:19:26
there still remain unanswered questions
00:19:30
i think one of the main questions that
00:19:31
we just don't have the answer to is
00:19:34
where are the bloody clothes and why did
00:19:38
joan porco
00:19:39
implicate christopher on the morning of
00:19:41
the attack but had no recollection of it
00:19:44
following surgery it's not uncommon
00:19:47
when you have a head injury to lose
00:19:49
memory in the time surrounding the event
00:19:52
a year after the attack christopher
00:19:55
porco went on trial for the murder of
00:19:58
his father
00:19:59
and the attempted murder of his mother
00:20:02
with their face surgically repaired joan
00:20:05
parco stood by her son during the entire
00:20:08
trial
00:20:09
steadfastly maintaining his innocence
00:20:13
it was going to take a lot to convince a
00:20:15
jury ultimately that the kid in front of
00:20:17
them
00:20:18
could have taken an axe to his parents
00:20:21
but the evidence
00:20:22
was simply overwhelming the jury found
00:20:25
christopher parker guilty and he was
00:20:28
sentenced to a minimum
00:20:30
of 50 years in prison we really wanted
00:20:33
to find
00:20:34
something that made him innocent you
00:20:36
know and that we could say that no the
00:20:38
prosecution's evidence just doesn't add
00:20:39
up it doesn't match up
00:20:41
he didn't do this to his parents thank
00:20:42
god but we didn't find that that's not
00:20:45
how we found our verdict to this day
00:20:48
his mother believes he's innocent
00:20:52
i spoke with her immediately after that
00:20:54
verdict she was stunned
00:20:56
and shocked and that's all she really
00:20:58
had to say at that point
00:20:59
she hasn't really spoken with anyone
00:21:01
since i've never seen a case like this
00:21:04
before this and i hope to never see
00:21:06
a case like this after this
