00:00:03
[MUSIC PLAYING]
00:00:17
NARRATOR: When love turns to rage,
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the victims of two different domestic violence cases
00:00:22
end up in the morgue.
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In the first, the body of a man is found inside a car
00:00:29
with a knife stuck in his chest.
00:00:31
The scene was very gruesome.
00:00:33
The entire front windshield was just covered in blood.
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NARRATOR: Discovered in the back seat,
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the body of a second victim, a woman.
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This was the first time I've seen that.
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That actually raises the hairs on your back of the head
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of what really happened here.
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In another domestic abuse case, police respond to a 911 call
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and find an unexpected victim.
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She feared for her life.
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And she shot him.
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Was the shooter a battered woman pushed to the brink
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or a cunning killer?
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Well, right there I can tell you, that's not true.
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That just couldn't have happened.
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NARRATOR: Altered lives, baffling medical mysteries,
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shocking revelations, these are the everyday cases of Dr. G,
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Medical Examiner.
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[MUSIC PLAYING]
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In
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NARRATOR: The morgue of Dr. Jan Garavaglia, better known
00:01:32
as Dr. G, the average autopsy usually takes
00:01:36
about 45 minutes to complete.
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And it's her job as a forensic pathologist to make
00:01:41
sure every minute counts.
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DR GARAVAGLIA: You want to answer all the questions
00:01:45
during the autopsy.
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You only have one chance at that body before it gets buried.
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NARRATOR: And in the case of a violent homicide,
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that means Dr. G often gets just one chance
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to identify and catch a killer.
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Each year nearly 1 million husbands,
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wives, friends and family members
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attack each other in violent, domestic disputes.
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Tragically, about 1,600 will end up in the morning.
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The task of determining whether these deaths are accidental,
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self-defense, or intentional murder, often
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falls to the medical examiner.
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I got a lot of work to do.
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NARRATOR: One such case took place
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when Dr. G worked at the Bexar County morgue
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in San Antonio, Texas.
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It's the middle of February in San Antonio, Texas.
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In a church parking lot, a man getting ready for a field trip
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makes a horrific discovery--
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a blood spattered vehicle with a man's body inside.
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OFFICER ODOMS: Very, very gruesome.
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There was blood all on the windshield.
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The entire front windshield was just covered in blood.
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So it was a very violent scene.
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NARRATOR: When EMS arrive, they immediately
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enter the vehicle to determine if the victim is deceased.
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But obviously he is.
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Protruding from his chest is a large knife.
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That was probably the worst I've seen here so far.
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NARRATOR: Then EMS makes another horrendous discovery.
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EMS: Ma'am, are you OK?
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NARRATOR: There was a second victim in the car, a woman.
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She too appears to have been fatally stabbed.
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We found the female lying face down in the backseat, pinned
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between the back seat and the front bucket seats
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on the floorboard face down.
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[MUSIC PLAYING]
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NARRATOR: From a passport and driver's license,
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the victims are identified as 30-year-old Andre Tarlev,
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an army officer from Eastern Europe,
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and Loreen Behner, a 35-year-old San Antonio resident.
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Her family is the first to receive
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the unimaginable news about the death
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of one of their eight children.
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NANCY: My daughter Cindy had been notified.
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And she told me, I'm sorry, mom.
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She said, I'm sorry, Loreen's dead.
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DAVID: There was all just disbelief.
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No one could believe that someone
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could hurt someone that was so generous
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and to me was an angel.
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And everybody described her that way.
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I mean it was just beyond belief that someone could hurt her.
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I guess I was just in a state of denial.
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I mean it was a very difficult ordeal for me to hear.
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[MUSIC PLAYING]
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NARRATOR: By 11:00 AM, the bodies of Loreen Behner
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and Andre Tarlev arrive at the morgue
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as Dr. G is briefed by her medical investigator.
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DR GARAVAGLIA: He reports to us that there's two--
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there's a man and a woman found dead in a car.
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She is face down on the floorboard in the back seat.
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And he's dead in the front seat.
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And they appear to have certainly
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significant trauma, a lot of blood,
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pulled head hair of hers.
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SGT EVANS: We have no witnesses, and we
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have no one alive that can really tell us
00:05:35
what transpired that evening.
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All we have is the physical evidence.
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NARRATOR: With little to go on, Dr. G
00:05:41
faces a formidable challenge-- determine
00:05:44
exactly how the victims died and who killed them.
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DR GARAVAGLIA: In this case, my job is to try to kind of sort
00:05:51
out what happened.
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How long could they have lived?
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Can we recreate what went on here?
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Was it a spur of the moment thing?
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Was it thought out and planned?
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And you never, ever know what other information
00:06:07
is going to be gathered.
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You just don't know what's going to be developed.
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NARRATOR: Sure enough, homicide detectives pursuing the case
00:06:17
in the field soon obtain more information
00:06:19
about the two victims.
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According to family and friends, Loreen Behner
00:06:24
was a competitive dancer who was recently divorced
00:06:27
after an 8-year marriage.
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At age 35, she was pursuing a graduate degree in biology.
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And she was not involved in any serious relationships.
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DAVID: Loreen was going through a phase
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where she liked going out with a lot of different people.
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And she usually made it very clear upfront she wasn't
00:06:44
interested in a relationship.
00:06:45
NARRATOR: Only two months earlier,
00:06:47
she and the male victim, Andre Tarlev,
00:06:50
met at a Christmas party on a nearby Air Force base.
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I know that he was nice to her.
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They did do a lot of things together.
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I know they took a couple of trips together.
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SGT EVANS: He was very educated.
00:07:01
I believe his rank was that equal to a captain
00:07:03
in our military.
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So he was a supervisory officer.
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So he was obviously a man that had
00:07:09
some prestige in his military.
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NARRATOR: Detectives also learned from military personnel
00:07:15
that Officer Tarlev planned to return
00:07:17
home to his family in Eastern Europe in only two days.
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As she does with all stabbing victims,
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Dr. G begins her hunt for a killer
00:07:31
by having her assistants X-ray each body from head to toe.
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Stabbings are often difficult forensic cases.
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Dr. G will need every piece of evidence that can be found.
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DR GARAVAGLIA: Forensically, there's
00:07:42
not a whole lot you can tell, honestly, about some
00:07:45
of these knife wounds.
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Some of the things you can't do I've seen on TV.
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I mean you can't put latex in the wound
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and then get the shape of the knife.
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I mean that's just ludicrous.
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NARRATOR: Because there are two victims,
00:07:58
Dr. G will supervise one autopsy and perform the other.
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Loreen Behner is the first to be examined.
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DR GARAVAGLIA: On her, we would look for any foreign material
00:08:09
on her, maybe give us an idea where she'd been,
00:08:12
if they'd been somewhere else, leaves or things like that.
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NARRATOR: As the morgue buckles down
00:08:18
for what promises to be a difficult day,
00:08:20
one question weighs heavily on Dr. G--
00:08:23
what tragic story will these bodies tell?
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And I've had cases where they have terrible external trauma
00:08:30
and it ends up they're not dying from that.
00:08:32
You can always be surprised.
00:08:33
NARRATOR: Coming up next, clues mount
00:08:36
and evidence begins to point to a possible killer and a motive.
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All he ever talked about was the girl
00:08:41
that he was seeing, that he was totally in love with her.
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DR GARAVAGLIA: That actually raises
00:08:46
the hairs on your back of the head
00:08:47
of what really happened here.
00:08:48
NARRATOR: When "Dr. G, Medical Examiner" continues.
00:08:52
[MUSIC PLAYING]
00:09:05
Some dried blood, we'll have to get that off so we can see.
00:09:08
NARRATOR: The autopsy of stabbing
00:09:09
victim Loreen Behner begins with an exhaustive
00:09:12
external examination.
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DR GARAVAGLIA: We need to document the wounds,
00:09:16
kind of give a picture of maybe how long it took her to die.
00:09:20
NARRATOR: Loreen Behner and Andre Tarlev
00:09:23
were found early in the morning, dead in a church parking lot.
00:09:29
Although it's obvious that they were stabbed,
00:09:31
it's not yet clear who killed them and why.
00:09:41
As Loreen's wounds are examined, one thing
00:09:44
becomes immediately clear.
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Loreen's attack was ferocious.
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DR GARAVAGLIA: She has five stab wounds to the chest region.
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She has a stab wound to the back of the right arm, which
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actually goes in towards the elbow
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and extends completely through the arm.
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And she's got a stab wound to the upper left arm.
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NARRATOR: In total, Loreen sustained over 18 knife wounds.
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And the location and nature of some of the injuries
00:10:12
tell Dr. G something else about Loreen's attack.
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She was fighting for her life.
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DR GARAVAGLIA: When we start seeing wounds, in her case,
00:10:23
knife wounds on her chest or on her head,
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and then she's got more superficial wounds or non-life
00:10:29
threatening wounds across the fingers, across the wrist,
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to the elbow, that means she's using her arms and hands
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to try to protect herself--
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protect herself from the knife, in this case,
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hitting her chest or head.
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DAVID: She was not a very large person.
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But for her size, she was quite strong.
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And I'm sure she fought very much to try and to stay alive.
00:11:00
NARRATOR: When the external exam is complete,
00:11:02
Loreen's body is opened with a y incision.
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Internally, the parts of the stabbing injuries are traced.
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The damage is found to be significant.
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One stab wound fractures a rib and penetrates the lower
00:11:16
lobe of Loreen's right lung.
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Another penetrates nearly 6 inches into her abdomen,
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transacting her diaphragm and perforating her liver.
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Then Dr. G discovers a single knife wound
00:11:30
near the center of her chest.
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She can see that it passed through the sternum then
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pierced her left pulmonary vein, one
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of four major blood vessels leading from the lung
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to the heart.
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This is the injury that was lethal,
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a single wound that ended Loreen's life.
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DR GARAVAGLIA: The one that went into her pulmonary vein
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would be the one that would be the most deadly.
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They came that close.
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NARRATOR: Dr. G can now tell investigators not only
00:11:58
how Loreen Behner died, she can also tell
00:12:01
them the nature of her murder.
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DR GARAVAGLIA: When you actually look at her,
00:12:08
she's obviously a homicide with the multiple stab
00:12:10
wounds to the chest, the defense rose to the hand.
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You know, when we see knife wounds,
00:12:14
we see a lot of knife wounds, it's correlated
00:12:16
with a lot of passion.
00:12:20
NARRATOR: In other words, Loreen's murder
00:12:22
was not an anonymous crime of opportunity.
00:12:26
Her killing was a crime of passion.
00:12:31
DR GARAVAGLIA: It's very personal death.
00:12:34
Two guys fighting, you know, two guys in a knife fight,
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you only usually see one or two that really go in,
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a couple of slashes often.
00:12:43
But when you see multiple, you know, 4, 5, 6, 7, you know,
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I've had them where they've had 20, 30, 40, 50 stab
00:12:51
wounds, it's usually passion.
00:12:55
NARRATOR: The unsettling conclusion,
00:12:57
Loreen Behner's killer was likely someone
00:12:59
who was infatuated with her.
00:13:05
Unfortunately, it is not unusual for a female victim
00:13:08
to know her attacker.
00:13:12
Statistically, female murder victims
00:13:14
are significantly more likely than men to be
00:13:16
killed by an intimate partner--
00:13:18
a spouse, ex-spouse, boyfriend, or girlfriend.
00:13:23
And because Loreen most likely knew her killer,
00:13:26
her death is classified as a crime of domestic violence,
00:13:29
a type of homicide that kills more than 1,200
00:13:32
women every year in the US.
00:13:41
Hi, Tammy.
00:13:42
Welcome to the family, I hope my brother
00:13:43
Scott-la-la-lottle doesn't treat you the way he did with me--
00:13:48
DR GARAVAGLIA: Domestic violence is
00:13:49
unfortunately all too common.
00:13:53
They're tragic.
00:13:55
We wish you both the best of what life can bring.
00:13:59
Bye.
00:14:00
That's all.
00:14:01
I walk out of the picture.
00:14:03
NARRATOR: But the question still remains.
00:14:06
Who could the killer be?
00:14:08
DAVID: She liked going out with a lot of different people.
00:14:11
And quite often, she'd go and meet someone.
00:14:13
And they were saying friends originally.
00:14:15
But after three or four weeks, they
00:14:17
were wanting a relationship.
00:14:18
And then she had to somehow break that off.
00:14:20
And that was always a difficult thing to do.
00:14:23
A lot of times the guys would want more from her
00:14:25
even though she had told him that she
00:14:26
was interested in a serious relationship.
00:14:30
[BUZZING]
00:14:34
NARRATOR: Loreen's autopsy reveals only part of the story.
00:14:38
Dr. G hopes the body of the second victim, Andre Tarlev,
00:14:42
will tell her more.
00:14:44
Coming up next, the autopsy of Andre Tarlev
00:14:48
has scarcely begun before Dr. G draws a disturbing conclusion.
00:14:53
DR GARAVAGLIA: When you look at her,
00:14:54
you don't know for sure what happened.
00:14:56
I think when you look closely at him,
00:14:58
it puts the whole story together.
00:15:00
NARRATOR: When "Dr. G, Medical Examiner" continues.
00:15:04
[MUSIC PLAYING]
00:15:16
NARRATOR: Stabbing victim Andre Tarlev
00:15:18
is stripped and photographed.
00:15:21
Then his wounds are counted and examined.
00:15:24
DR GARAVAGLIA: You look at him, initially
00:15:26
he has a stab wound with a knife still sticking out
00:15:29
of his chest.
00:15:32
NARRATOR: Dr. G has already determined
00:15:34
that Loreen Behner, the woman discovered
00:15:37
in the vehicle with Andre, was murdered in a crime of passion
00:15:41
and that she knew her killer.
00:15:43
But no one yet knows for certain who that person is
00:15:47
or why he took the lives of both victims.
00:15:50
The last remaining place to find answers
00:15:52
is the body of Andre Tarlev.
00:15:54
[MUSIC PLAYING]
00:16:02
Pretty much--
00:16:03
NARRATOR: When Dr. G carefully analyzes
00:16:05
the wound in Andre's chest, she discovers something odd.
00:16:12
The weapon was thrust into Andre's
00:16:14
heart, not once, but four separate times through only one
00:16:19
opening.
00:16:21
DR GARAVAGLIA: You could see the pericardial sac,
00:16:22
or the sac around the heart, had four separate defects to it.
00:16:28
And then the heart was sliced along the lateral ventricle.
00:16:31
And it completely went through the heart
00:16:34
in at least two areas.
00:16:38
NARRATOR: The heart wounds enable
00:16:39
Dr. G to quickly determine the cause of Andre's death.
00:16:42
He had massive internal bleeding.
00:16:45
So he definitely died from the stab wounds to the heart.
00:16:51
NARRATOR: And Dr. G believes the rest of Andre's tragic story,
00:16:54
including the identity of his killer is carved upon his arm.
00:17:00
DR GARAVAGLIA: He has not just the stab wound to the chest,
00:17:04
but has incised wounds down his arm, 11
00:17:08
parallel horizontal incisions that sequentially cut
00:17:13
the muscles down the forearm.
00:17:16
You can see it as if you're cutting a loaf of bread,
00:17:19
slicing the artery and vein along the way
00:17:22
very neatly down to the bone.
00:17:25
NARRATOR: For Dr. G, the 11 wounds
00:17:28
raise immediate red flags.
00:17:30
They are unlike any of the injuries
00:17:32
found on Loreen Behner.
00:17:34
DR GARAVAGLIA: These are quite different than defense wounds
00:17:36
like she has.
00:17:37
She has the defense wounds on the tips of her fingers
00:17:40
from trying to grab the knife.
00:17:42
NARRATOR: But that's not all.
00:17:44
DR GARAVAGLIA: You look closely at the knife
00:17:45
and it's got her hair on it.
00:17:47
He's got her hair tangled up in his hands.
00:17:51
So when you look at her, you don't
00:17:52
know for sure what happened.
00:17:54
I think when you look closely at him,
00:17:56
it puts the whole story together.
00:17:59
NARRATOR: The evidence found on Andre's body is overwhelming.
00:18:02
The absence of any defense wounds,
00:18:05
the uniform series of slashes down his arm,
00:18:08
and the clump of Loreen's hair tangled in his fingers
00:18:11
all lead to one stunning conclusion.
00:18:14
The killer of Andre Tarlev and Loreen Behner is Andre himself.
00:18:22
DR GARAVAGLIA: The pattern of the wounds
00:18:23
are suggestive and certainly look like this
00:18:26
is a homicide-suicide.
00:18:29
But then you build the case.
00:18:30
That's why we have an investigator.
00:18:32
That's why we have the police.
00:18:34
Does that make sense with what I'm finding at autopsy?
00:18:39
NARRATOR: And Dr. G's conclusion is corroborated
00:18:42
by additional information that detectives
00:18:44
turn up on Andre Tarlev.
00:18:47
SGT EVANS: Co-workers said that really for the last three weeks
00:18:50
he had been changed.
00:18:51
All he ever talked about was the love he had for the girl.
00:18:55
He didn't want to leave.
00:18:57
He wanted to marry her.
00:18:58
She was the love of his life.
00:19:00
And that it was really upsetting that he really
00:19:03
couldn't live without her.
00:19:04
And those are the things that we determined
00:19:07
in our investigation that helped cement
00:19:09
the murder-suicide theory.
00:19:11
NARRATOR: Based on the autopsy findings and information
00:19:14
gathered from the homicide investigation,
00:19:16
Dr. G can now piece together the circumstance that
00:19:20
led to Loreen Behner's tragic murder and the violent suicide
00:19:24
of Andre Tarlev.
00:19:30
While at a Christmas party on a nearby Air Force Base,
00:19:33
Loreen Behner meets officer Andre Tarlev.
00:19:37
SGT EVANS: He's visiting from overseas
00:19:38
attending this language school.
00:19:40
They had a relationship.
00:19:41
She thought it was just social.
00:19:44
He took it a step further.
00:19:45
He fell in love with her.
00:19:47
His tour was up at the language school.
00:19:49
It was time for him to go back.
00:19:51
And he had told several of his co-workers and subordinates
00:19:54
that he didn't want this relationship to end.
00:19:57
[CAR STARTS]
00:19:58
NARRATOR: Only two days before Andre's visa is set to expire
00:20:01
and he has to leave the United States,
00:20:04
he invites Loreen out on a farewell date.
00:20:07
SGT EVANS: We hypothesize he professed his love for her,
00:20:11
and she told him that she just wanted to be friends
00:20:14
and that she wasn't willing to marry him at this time
00:20:18
nor go overseas.
00:20:20
And I think this caused him to go into a rage.
00:20:23
[POUNDING]
00:20:28
[MUSIC PLAYING]
00:20:33
DR GARAVAGLIA: She has the defense
00:20:34
wounds on the tips of her fingers
00:20:36
trying to grab the knife.
00:20:37
Five stab wounds to the chest.
00:20:40
One on the upper left chest ends up
00:20:43
going into her pericardial sac and hitting her pulmonary vein.
00:20:50
NARRATOR: Loreen is still alive and bleeding to death when
00:20:54
Andre moves her body from the front seat
00:20:56
and shoves her down onto the backseat floor.
00:20:59
Detectives believe that the trash bags found near her body
00:21:03
suggest that Andre may have been planning
00:21:05
to dispose of Loreen's body.
00:21:08
SGT EVANS: When he placed her in the back seat,
00:21:10
she was obviously bleeding.
00:21:11
There's transfer blood in the back seat.
00:21:14
There's smearing in the back seat.
00:21:17
I was wonder, you know, what's that time
00:21:18
period between after killing somebody
00:21:21
and killing themselves.
00:21:24
And what was he thinking afterwards?
00:21:26
You know, you kind of wonder what's going through his head.
00:21:30
NARRATOR: Whether Andre was considering
00:21:31
hiding Loreen's body and fleeing, no one will ever know.
00:21:35
But Dr. G's forensic evidence shows without question
00:21:39
what he did next.
00:21:41
Andre goes into a suicidal frenzy.
00:21:44
He's slicing his arm 11 times in a row parallel
00:21:49
down his anterior forearm.
00:21:54
That obviously wasn't killing him fast enough.
00:21:57
So he sticks the knife into his heart.
00:22:02
[CLAPPING]
00:22:08
She is deeply loved.
00:22:09
And like it says on her gravestone, our angel.
00:22:21
DAVID: If I could tell Loreen anything now,
00:22:24
I'd tell her I loved her more than anything.
00:22:26
I would have given my life for hers
00:22:30
DR GARAVAGLIA: You know domestic violence happens.
00:22:33
And sometimes it's hard to predict
00:22:34
when it's going to happen.
00:22:36
I mean, I think she might have felt something.
00:22:38
I mean, she might have had some forewarning
00:22:40
that he was the jealous type, that he
00:22:43
maybe was a little prone to some bizarre behavior that way.
00:22:47
And, you know, trust your instincts.
00:22:58
NARRATOR: Coming up next, Dr. G gets
00:23:01
another deadly domestic abuse case.
00:23:03
But this time it appears a woman has turned
00:23:06
the tables on a violent man.
00:23:08
They go outside.
00:23:09
She goes down the steps.
00:23:11
He's coming at her with his gun, and she shoots him.
00:23:14
NARRATOR: When "Dr. G, Medical Examiner" continues.
00:23:18
[MUSIC PLAYING]
00:23:30
NARRATOR: Women like Loreen Behner
00:23:32
die at the hands of aggressive males
00:23:34
with little warning and often no defense.
00:23:38
But occasionally the tables are turned
00:23:41
and the victim fights back.
00:23:45
But for the medical examiner, determining
00:23:47
the truth in these instances is never cut and dried.
00:23:53
In his 19 years as a deputy sheriff in San
00:23:56
Antonio, Texas, Roberto Valadez has seen his share
00:24:00
of abusive relationships.
00:24:02
Recently, he may have slid into one of his own.
00:24:06
Thelma Jean Smith is his girlfriend of three months.
00:24:09
During that time, they frequently quarreled.
00:24:12
Police records show they even threatened
00:24:15
each other with guns.
00:24:17
Now, the relationship has reached a flashpoint.
00:24:21
JODEE: My father finally decided after several confrontations
00:24:24
with her that this was not the woman he wanted to be with.
00:24:30
NARRATOR: Late one Saturday night,
00:24:32
Thelma is at Roberto's apartment packing up her belongings.
00:24:37
According to her, there's one last argument.
00:24:41
And again, the guns come out.
00:24:43
His Glock duty weapon and her 38 revolver.
00:24:47
Two shots are fired.
00:24:49
[GUN SHOTS] A call to 9-1-1 alerts the police.
00:24:58
JOE MORRIS: They notified my office that they had a shooting
00:25:01
with one individual shot.
00:25:04
So I drove to the scene.
00:25:06
NARRATOR: Detectives arrive at 2:00 AM.
00:25:10
Thelma is waiting for them scared, but unscathed.
00:25:15
The same can't be said for Roberto.
00:25:19
JOE MORRIS: The victim was lying at the bottom of some stairs.
00:25:22
These were outside stairs.
00:25:24
He had apparently fallen violently down the stairs.
00:25:29
NARRATOR: Thelma then tells the story she would stand by.
00:25:33
JOE MORRIS: She said that he had been drinking,
00:25:35
and he was brandishing his duty weapon,
00:25:38
threatening to shoot her.
00:25:40
NARRATOR: Thelma admits that she fired first,
00:25:43
a warning shot that struck the front door
00:25:45
jamb of the apartment.
00:25:47
She claims she then ran out the door and down the stairs.
00:25:51
But Roberto was not far behind.
00:25:53
Once again, she says, he threatened to kill her.
00:25:56
There was only one way to save herself.
00:26:00
She feared for her life and she shot him.
00:26:04
NARRATOR: Thelma's second shot struck Roberto in the head.
00:26:07
He tumbled down the stairs and, according to her,
00:26:10
landed on his back.
00:26:13
When paramedics arrived, Roberto was loaded into an ambulance,
00:26:20
but dies en route to the hospital.
00:26:26
To the police, Thelma's story seems credible,
00:26:30
a victim of domestic violence turning
00:26:32
the tables on her oppressor.
00:26:37
Roberto's children, however, say their dad
00:26:40
just didn't fit the profile.
00:26:43
JODEE: We grew up in a home where there was--
00:26:45
I mean, there was no abuse whatsoever to be spoken of.
00:26:50
And my father was never a violent person.
00:26:52
Anybody who knew my father knew right away that this was just,
00:26:56
you know--
00:26:56
this was a lie.
00:27:07
NARRATOR: Roberto's body is transported to the Bexar County
00:27:09
Medical Examiner's Office, there Dr. G
00:27:13
begins her investigation by going
00:27:15
over the crime scene paperwork.
00:27:19
On the initial investigative report
00:27:21
I'm told that we have a gentleman in the morgue
00:27:24
that has got a gunshot wound.
00:27:26
Our investigator states that he had been
00:27:28
living with his girlfriend.
00:27:29
It sounded likes a bit of a rocky relationship.
00:27:32
She claims that they were drunk.
00:27:34
He was fighting.
00:27:35
And she wanted out of there.
00:27:37
And he had his gun.
00:27:38
And, of course, she has a gun.
00:27:40
And they go outside.
00:27:42
She goes down the steps.
00:27:43
He's coming at her with his gun, and she shoots him.
00:27:47
He's up on the stairs.
00:27:48
And she's shooting up at him, according to her story.
00:27:51
NARRATOR: Thelma also said that Roberto fell down the steps,
00:27:54
landing face up, and that no one touched the body
00:27:59
until the police arrived.
00:28:01
In the overwhelming majority of fatal domestic disputes,
00:28:05
men are the killers and women the victims.
00:28:08
Of the approximately 1,600 domestic deaths
00:28:11
occurring each year in the US, 74% of them are women.
00:28:17
Thelma claims that if she hadn't acted,
00:28:19
she would have been added to the list.
00:28:22
Will Dr. G's findings back her up?
00:28:26
The central question in a case like this
00:28:29
is, can we confirm her story?
00:28:32
Does the angle of the bullet, does where he shot all
00:28:35
confirm what she has to say?
00:28:37
[MUSIC PLAYING]
00:28:48
NARRATOR: Dr. G begins the external exam
00:28:50
checking to see whether any visible trauma
00:28:52
supports Thelma's version.
00:28:56
Roberto was found on his back.
00:28:58
She's looking to find injuries consistent with such a fall.
00:29:03
Strangely, there are none.
00:29:06
I'd expect bruises on his back.
00:29:08
I'd expect a nice bump on the back of the head.
00:29:12
NARRATOR: Dr. G Now examines the front of the body
00:29:16
and is surprised to find trauma there.
00:29:19
What I see is a kind of a pattern
00:29:22
abrasion across his chest.
00:29:24
Mm, that one little acute don't look good.
00:29:27
DR GARAVAGLIA: His gum is torn.
00:29:29
His lip is tore.
00:29:30
His chips his partial plate off.
00:29:32
No question, he takes a hard fall.
00:29:36
NARRATOR: For a man who supposedly fell backwards,
00:29:39
he has taken a lot of punishment to his face and chest.
00:29:43
But all those are minor injuries compared with the gunshot
00:29:46
to the head, which consists of two wounds, a small hole
00:29:50
and a slit below it.
00:29:52
Probably where I looked at it look like the entrance,
00:29:54
it looks like he's got a little bit of an exit
00:29:56
just above the eyebrow, about an inch above the eyebrow
00:30:00
and a little bit more to the right.
00:30:03
So it looks like, hm, entrance, exit.
00:30:07
NARRATOR: Finding a bullet's entrance
00:30:09
and exit points so close together is unusual.
00:30:14
On further examination, Dr. G also finds evidence
00:30:17
of a second gunshot injury.
00:30:19
DR GARAVAGLIA: And then he's got a graze type, very superficial,
00:30:23
on the inner aspect of his left calf.
00:30:28
NARRATOR: Since the first bullet hit
00:30:30
a doorjamb inside the house, and the second struck
00:30:33
the man's head, the question is, which bullet caused this wound?
00:30:39
A good forensic pathologist has to be open minded to all
00:30:41
the possibilities.
00:30:43
If you start being closed minded,
00:30:44
you're going to miss things.
00:30:47
NARRATOR: Coming up next, Dr. G's scalpel
00:30:50
comes out and cuts more holes in the killer's story.
00:30:53
Well, right there, I can tell you that's not true.
00:30:58
That just couldn't have happened.
00:31:00
NARRATOR: When "Dr. G, Medical Examiner" continues.
00:31:03
[MUSIC PLAYING]
00:31:21
NARRATOR: At the Bexar County morgue,
00:31:23
Dr. G begins the critical phase of Roberto Valadez's autopsy--
00:31:28
the internal exam.
00:31:33
The deputy Sheriff has been shot dead by his girlfriend,
00:31:36
allegedly in self-defense.
00:31:40
According to her story, he's on the eighth step,
00:31:43
coming down.
00:31:44
If you count eight up, that's where he is.
00:31:47
She's on about the second step.
00:31:49
And he's coming at her.
00:31:51
And so she's shooting him in fear of her life.
00:31:55
[MUSIC PLAYING]
00:31:59
OK, scalpel.
00:32:01
I'll make the initial one.
00:32:02
We're ready to go, right?
00:32:04
NARRATOR: Dr. G makes the usual y incision in the chest.
00:32:08
But even before she gets to the internal organs,
00:32:12
she finds something.
00:32:13
One of the ribs has been broken.
00:32:17
And she soon discovers that's not the only thing
00:32:20
that's been fractured.
00:32:23
Lo and behold, he's even broken
00:32:24
his neck with that hard fall.
00:32:25
So he really hits that face going down.
00:32:28
So he goes down like a ton of bricks.
00:32:30
I don't like the broken neck aspect.
00:32:32
He's out already, because he's not protecting--
00:32:36
when you fall, you protect your face.
00:32:38
You put your hands out.
00:32:39
He can't put his hands out.
00:32:41
He's got a bullet in his head.
00:32:44
NARRATOR: The evidence is clear, Roberto Valadez fell face down,
00:32:49
which raises a critical question.
00:32:51
How did he end up on his back where police found him?
00:32:55
Dr. G now suspects someone rolled
00:32:57
him over after he had fallen.
00:33:00
And since the police determined there was no one else present,
00:33:04
that someone could only be Thelma.
00:33:09
Let's check.
00:33:10
NARRATOR: But Roberto's injuries have only
00:33:12
begun to tell their story of what
00:33:14
happened in the final moments of his life.
00:33:18
Dr. G now zeros in on the head wound
00:33:21
to see what it might reveal.
00:33:25
Earlier, the external examine had
00:33:27
revealed that the head wound had a small round hole and a slit
00:33:30
below.
00:33:31
Now that the skull itself is exposed, she learns why.
00:33:35
DR GARAVAGLIA: We get to the head.
00:33:37
We get to the gunshot wound.
00:33:38
And it's one of my favorite wounds, the keyhole--
00:33:40
the keyhole defect in the skull, because it looks
00:33:43
like a keyhole on the bone.
00:33:45
NARRATOR: A keyhole wound as unusual,
00:33:47
occurring only when a bullet strikes
00:33:49
the skull at a steep angle.
00:33:52
The bullet penetrates the bone, leaving a round hole.
00:33:55
A fragment breaks off the bullet and then
00:33:57
chips away part of the entrance wound as it is exiting.
00:34:01
What makes such a wound significant is that the round
00:34:04
part of the keyhole always faces the gun and the chip bone,
00:34:09
the direction the bullet is traveling.
00:34:11
In this case, the chip is at the lower left edge of the wound.
00:34:16
So what's that means is that the bullet's
00:34:18
coming in on that left side very sharply downward.
00:34:23
NARRATOR: The finding appears to indicate that Thelma was not
00:34:26
standing below Roberto as she claimed, but above him
00:34:30
and firing at a steep angle downward.
00:34:33
Still, it's too early to jump to conclusions.
00:34:36
Dr. G must explore the entire range of possibilities.
00:34:41
Hm, well, maybe he's bent down.
00:34:45
Maybe he's going down.
00:34:47
Or he's somehow inverted.
00:34:49
NARRATOR: If Roberto was bent over trying to duck a bullet,
00:34:52
the wound could have been caused by a shot from below.
00:34:56
This possibility is the one remaining chance
00:34:59
that Thelma's story is true.
00:35:04
Coming up, did Thelma act in self-defense?
00:35:08
Or is she a ruthless killer?
00:35:10
An unlikely clue in a flesh wound
00:35:12
may hold the key to the mystery.
00:35:14
I don't always get the answer.
00:35:17
I don't.
00:35:17
But I love it when I do.
00:35:20
NARRATOR: When "Dr. G, Medical Examiner" continues.
00:35:24
[MUSIC PLAYING]
00:35:38
NARRATOR: The autopsy of gunshot victim Roberto Valadez
00:35:41
draws to a close.
00:35:43
As a dark cloud of suspicion grows over his girlfriend,
00:35:47
Dr. G has found a so-called keyhole wound in Roberto skull
00:35:51
that indicates the direction the shot was fired
00:35:55
and seems to contradict Thelma Jean Smith's account.
00:35:59
But there's one scenario that needs to be eliminated.
00:36:03
If Roberto was confronted in a bent over position
00:36:05
when Thelma fired, the head wound
00:36:08
could be consistent with her story and her claim
00:36:11
that she acted in self-defense.
00:36:15
Dr. G needs to find a way to prove whether Roberto was
00:36:18
standing straight up or not.
00:36:22
Meanwhile, outside the morgue, a parallel investigation is
00:36:25
being conducted by detectives.
00:36:28
And they are uncovering provocative information
00:36:30
about Thelma Jean Smith.
00:36:32
According to Roberto's family, Thelma
00:36:35
was anything but the battered woman she claimed to be.
00:36:38
JODEE: She had been stalking him and constantly calling him.
00:36:43
NARRATOR: Thelma said that she had broken up with Roberto.
00:36:46
But Roberto's daughter believes it was the other way around.
00:36:50
Her reaction was if I can't have Robert,
00:36:55
then no one else can.
00:36:57
I would rather see him dead than have anybody else with him.
00:37:04
NARRATOR: Back at the morgue, Dr. G has almost
00:37:07
all the pieces of the puzzle necessary pointing to murder,
00:37:10
except one.
00:37:13
The keyhole wound in Roberto skull
00:37:15
indicates that the gun was fired downwards,
00:37:18
but only if his face was in an upright position.
00:37:22
What if he had been bent over during the time
00:37:24
of the shooting?
00:37:25
Ironically, the answer to the question
00:37:28
may be found in another gunshot wound, one caused by a bullet
00:37:32
that grazed Roberto's calf.
00:37:35
The entrance wound was atypical, very irregular,
00:37:38
and was consistent with not a typical intact bullet,
00:37:43
was consistent with just a piece of that bullet coming at him.
00:37:47
NARRATOR: Dr. G knows that the first bullet
00:37:49
ended up hole in the doorjamb.
00:37:52
So it could not have caused the leg world.
00:37:55
If Dr. G can show that a bullet fragment from the keyhole wound
00:37:58
struck Roberto's leg, she can establish his posture
00:38:02
at the time of death and finally settle the question of
00:38:05
whether or not Thelma is lying.
00:38:07
If you looked at the calf, it be like in the 11 to 5
00:38:10
o'clock position.
00:38:14
NARRATOR: She re-examines the leg entry wound looking
00:38:17
for something called skin tags.
00:38:20
A skin tag is how the bullet then tears the skin
00:38:25
as it's going across the skin.
00:38:29
It forms tears and in between the tears a little tag a skin.
00:38:34
The tag of skin points to where the bullet's coming from.
00:38:41
NARRATOR: The skin tags are pointing sharply upwards.
00:38:44
This is a critical discovery.
00:38:46
It proves beyond doubt that Roberto had to have been
00:38:49
standing up when he was shot.
00:38:52
Using the head and leg wounds as signposts,
00:38:55
Dr. G can now trace the actual path of the bullet.
00:39:00
Thelma is standing above Roberto and fires.
00:39:03
The bullet crashes downward through the head,
00:39:06
a piece of it splintering off into the left calf.
00:39:10
This exposes Thelma's story to police for what it is.
00:39:14
My final conclusion is she's telling a pack of lies.
00:39:18
[MUSIC PLAYING]
00:39:27
NARRATOR: With her findings complete,
00:39:29
Dr. G can now give her theory about what
00:39:31
happened to Roberto Valadez on the night of his death.
00:39:37
It's 2:00 AM at Roberto's apartment,
00:39:40
and he's told Thelma to vacate the premises.
00:39:46
JODEE: This woman had written several letters
00:39:47
that we found in my dad's apartment that had
00:39:49
made threats, physical threats.
00:39:52
NARRATOR: Thelma carries her belongings to her car.
00:39:56
But leaving is the last thing on her mind.
00:40:00
She returns to the apartment, armed with her loaded 38.
00:40:04
When she enters, Roberto was unarmed and has
00:40:07
no idea what's about to happen.
00:40:11
Frankly, what it looked like is she
00:40:13
fired one shot and missed him.
00:40:15
NARRATOR: The first bullet hits the doorjamb.
00:40:18
He started running down the stairs, running for his life.
00:40:21
NARRATOR: He just can't run fast enough.
00:40:23
And she stood at the top of the stairs and executed him.
00:40:28
[GUN SHOT]
00:40:32
NARRATOR: The keyhole wound is the first clue
00:40:34
that Thelma fired from above.
00:40:36
She's shooting down at him.
00:40:39
NARRATOR: The telltale skin tags of Roberto's leg confirm it.
00:40:43
Thelma fires the bullet downward from atop the stairwell, not
00:40:47
the bottom.
00:40:48
As it enters the brain, the damage is catastrophic.
00:40:52
He fell face down like a ton of bricks.
00:40:55
He can't put his hands out.
00:40:56
He's got a bullet in his head.
00:40:59
NARRATOR: Roberto falls through space,
00:41:01
impacting face first on the concrete stairs,
00:41:05
breaking a rib and his neck.
00:41:11
Then, to make the shooting seem like self-defense,
00:41:15
she turns him over and places his gun in his hand.
00:41:24
This deadly domestic dispute wasn't self-defense after all.
00:41:28
It was a vicious murder.
00:41:32
On the trip to the hospital, Roberto
00:41:34
succumbs to his injuries.
00:41:37
On the death certificate--
00:41:38
NARRATOR: Confronted with the evidence from the autopsy,
00:41:42
Thelma comes clean.
00:41:43
JOE MORRIS: Later in the morning,
00:41:45
she did confess to having shot him
00:41:48
and then put the gun in his hand.
00:41:50
NARRATOR: Thelma Jean Smith is charged with the murder
00:41:53
of Roberto Valadez.
00:41:55
A judge allows her to post bail.
00:41:58
But she immediately skips town becoming a fugitive.
00:42:01
For three long years, she lives on the lamb
00:42:04
until she makes a mistake and files for unemployment
00:42:08
in Kansas City.
00:42:10
[MUSIC PLAYING]
00:42:15
NARRATOR: When domestic violence results in death,
00:42:18
the vast majority of victims are women.
00:42:21
But Roberto's death is a tragic exception to the rule.
00:42:26
In 2000, 440 men died at the hands
00:42:30
of their intimate partners, about 1/4
00:42:33
of all the domestic violence fatalities.
00:42:35
Unfortunately, there are a lot of domestic violence cases
00:42:39
that we see.
00:42:41
In my rule of thumb in living, I tell people that you better
00:42:46
know who you're dating and who you end up marrying
00:42:49
and early know that person well, because so many of our I
00:42:53
see down here dead, one way or the other.
00:42:57
NARRATOR: Roberto learned the lesson too late.
00:43:02
But his family has received a measure of justice.
00:43:06
Thelma Jean Smith is now in prison, serving
00:43:09
a 30-year sentence for murder.
00:43:11
She had played the card of abuse victim,
00:43:14
only to be trumped by Dr. G.
00:43:17
When the victim is, you know, six feet under and can't speak
00:43:20
for themselves, it just does a family wonders
00:43:23
to know that there is someone like Dr. G who is out there
00:43:26
and willing to investigate.
00:43:28
It's great when you can really say
00:43:29
definitively this is what happened
00:43:31
and I'm going to stick with it.
00:43:33
Yeah, you put the mystery together.
00:43:35
You get an answer.
00:43:36
I don't always get the answer.
00:43:38
I don't know.
00:43:39
But I love it when I do.
00:43:42
[MUSIC PLAYING]
