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a murder in australia had everyone
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baffled especially police
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but in a bizarre twist
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a device in the victim's body recorded
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vital information that made forensic
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history
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[Music]
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[Music]
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so
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[Music]
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tasmania is a tiny island off the coast
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of australia considered to be one of the
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most unspoiled and remote spots in the
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world
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[Music]
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in the city of la froy for example there
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are only a handful of residents
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the people that live in froy are sort of
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people that i think just want to be left
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alone to some degree
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they're not employed most of them i
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would guess that probably
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20 25 people at the most would probably
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live in lafroy and that includes small
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children
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early on the morning of october 9 2000
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ivan jones went to his cousin's house to
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ask for a ride
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while his cousin got dressed jones took
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his dog for a walk
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and found
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one of the neighbors dead
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the victim was identified as 72 year old
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david crawford a retired veteran of the
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royal australian navy
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the way that mr crawford was dressed was
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a fair indication that he had been in
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bed he was wearing pajamas and had been
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awoken at night
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and had left the house to
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see
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whatever confrontation it was that awoke
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forensic pathologist dr robert kelso
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went to the crime scene and tried to
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determine when crawford was killed
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the time of death is actually quite
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tricky but at the time
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i measured the body temperature
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and
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noted the ambient temperature
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dr kelsey estimated the murder took
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place sometime between 4 and 7 30 in the
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morning when the body was discovered
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but there was no way to tell anything
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more conclusive
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this window is quite difficult to work
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out mainly because of the
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vagaries of determining the time of
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death from the body temperature
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neighbors told police they heard dogs
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barking just before dawn
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but that wasn't unusual
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with the wildlife around the town
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it may be that it was kangaroos that
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spooked the dogs or maybe the dogs
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smelled
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a person
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police found no signs of forced entry
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but crawford's wallet was missing from
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his bedroom
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there were no signs of a struggle inside
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the house and no foreign fingerprints
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either
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in the front yard
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investigators found what looked like
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a blood stain
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they waited for nightfall then sprayed
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the area with luminol
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seconds later a clear unmistakable image
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appeared
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you see this
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axe head appear
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at night with the luminol yes it was
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it was pretty amazing
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the image was so clear
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investigators could determine what type
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of axe it was
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a particular type of acts called a
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canadian axe
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where the head goes down and forms the
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bottom edge as a point and then there's
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quite a definite arc
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of the bottom of the head and you can
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see that quite clearly in the luminal it
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was amazing
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with only a few dozen people in town the
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killer was probably someone crawford
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knew
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really i mean every able-bodied man who
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could swing an axe or woman who could
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swing an axe
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in the town could have been
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a suspect at some stage
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david crawford's death was a blow to
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everyone in lafroy tasmania who knew him
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to be a kind and generous man
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he helped people out in the township
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before the elderly people he used to
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take them out and about and shopping
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into doctors and things like that but he
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wasn't one that had had parties or have
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heaps of people in he was quite happy
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with himself going to see his
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grandchildren he was quite happy doing
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things like that that was his life
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the blood stain discovered on david
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crawford's lawn was unmistakably the
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outline of an axe
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the forensic pathologist believed that
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an axe was most likely the murder weapon
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dna testing revealed the blood
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was crawford's
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the axe however was gone
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obviously a little town like lefrey
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would have a few axes around but if we
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were able to find the axe with blood on
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it and match it up then we were well on
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the way to getting a conviction
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as a former mining town
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lafroy was riddled with mine shafts many
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of which were underwater
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they were perfect places to hide a
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murder weapon
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this is an actual police video of those
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searches
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there's a lot of shafts and
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we used underwater cameras in some
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fairly derelict old shafts and we
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drained a substantial dam
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on the township and
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just with the hope of locating the
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expert again
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to we had no luck or no joy with those
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searches
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with crawford's wallet missing police
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assumed the motive was robbery
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historically tasmania has had very
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little crime
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but many retirees kept a lot of cash on
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hand
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in tasmania the people
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especially elderly people keep money in
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their homes and that rumor if you live
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in a small town that room assume gets
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around that yeah such and such got a lot
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of money they keep it under the mattress
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or in a jar or something and this goes
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on
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then police learned of another
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interesting coincidence
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the man who found crawford's body 19
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year old ivan jones reported seeing a
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suspicious man casing the neighborhood
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jones had
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claimed he had told mr crawford that
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someone was stalking him that someone
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had been seen by jones
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with a torch around the house on an
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evening
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before or several evenings before the
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murder
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jones told police what he initially told
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crawford
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that he did not recognize the man
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lurking in the neighborhood
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on a hunch
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investigators asked jones where he was
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at the time of crawford's murder
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jones said he was home with a sister and
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her
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boyfriend his alibi was that he was
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asleep in his sister's house he was
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asserting that he had been asleep
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between the hours of
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one o'clock and
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six
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which covered the period of the murder
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jones sister confirmed his alibi and
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said as far as she knew he never left
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the house
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next police interviewed jones cousin
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darcy mclean who found crawford's body
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along with jones
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maclean said he was asleep in his home
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around the time of the murder
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but since he lived alone
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there was no way to corroborate it
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then darcy gave police two
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very useful pieces of information
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first he claimed that someone had stolen
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an axe from his home
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second he said that his cousin ivan
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jones behaved
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suspiciously on the morning of david
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crawford's murder
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from darcy mclean we were led to believe
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that it was unusual for ivan jones to go
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to his house at 7 30 in the morning and
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ask for a lift to his parents place i
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understand he'd never asked darcy mclean
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to do that before
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so yes it was unusual in that respect
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but ivan jones had an alibi
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darcy mclean didn't
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david crawford's autopsy took place in
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the royal hobart hospital the day after
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his body was discovered
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the cause of death was blunt force
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trauma to the head
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most likely caused by an axe or similar
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implement
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crawford had been a healthy 72 year old
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man except for some heart trouble
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he had a condition called cardiomyopathy
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which simply means that he had some had
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heart disease of unknown cause
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then dr kelso made a discovery that
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would change the course of the
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investigation
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he found that crawford had a heart
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pacemaker implanted in his chest
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a pacemaker is a way of stimulating the
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heart it delivers anything from about
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two to five volts into the heart to make
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it pace that is contract i was vaguely
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aware that pacemakers have a recording
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unit inside them
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if so
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crawford's pacemaker might reveal the
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exact time of his murder
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unfortunately pacemakers hold
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information for only a short time before
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it's recorded over
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the autopsy took place
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almost 30 hours after the murder which
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meant
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the pacemaker memory might have already
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been erased
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we knew that we didn't have a great deal
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of time that we were running out of time
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i recall being a little bit
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nervous a little bit worried that we
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might get a reading
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the hospital's pacemaker specialist
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quickly scanned it to gather the
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pacemaker data and load it onto a
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computer
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in an unbelievable turn of events
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this particular pacemaker had something
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very few pacemakers had at the time
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a computer chip
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that had what's called
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an event memory
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this is unique to this product
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and
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is in fact uh was hardly ever used
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and by sheer chance the pacemaker
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technician involved
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recognized that if there was going to be
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any information
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it would have been on the event record
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the software produced a detailed graph
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that yielded a spectacular array of
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information
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the interesting part that we could work
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out is that we could tell exactly when
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the patient awoke
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when the patient went outside and was
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being assaulted and finally
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when the patient had died in between
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that time there was a period when the
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patient was unconscious and bleeding to
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death and at that point the pacemaker
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went back to its dormant state
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the event record showed
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that david crawford went to sleep
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shortly after 10 o'clock
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at 4 46
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he woke up
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at 4 54
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his heart was beating well over 100
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beats per minute which is when
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he was attacked
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the confrontation was over at 504
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and david crawford lay bleeding until
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his heart stopped pumping
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at exactly
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5 34 a.m
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scientists retrieved this information
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with only hours to spare
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it was about to be wiped
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within an hour or maybe two hours that
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information would disappear and
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investigators discovered why crawford
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would have gotten out of bed
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crawford's neighbor who lived across the
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street was in the hospital and had asked
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crawford to keep an eye on his house
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until he was released
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everyone knew that he would be in
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hospital the neighbor was presumed to
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have money in his house as well
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according to his son he was that sort of
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person that if you heard a noise he
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would get up and investigate the noise
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all police had to do now
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was find out
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who
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didn't have an alibi
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for 5 34 that morning
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it reminded me of a quote of eleanor
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roosevelt who said that many people will
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walk in and out of your life
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but only true friends will leave
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footprints in your heart
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in this case we left a pacemaker
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thanks to dr robert kelso and his quick
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response to the readings on the
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pacemaker found during david crawford's
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autopsy
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investigators now knew the exact time of
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crawford's death
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5 34
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in the morning
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having
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these timelines we have the perfect
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witness
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there's no way that that in court
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could be discredited
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ivan jones and darcy mclean the two
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cousins who found crawford's body were
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the prime suspects
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but
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if one of them did it
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he made a colossal blunder
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had he waited just a couple of hours
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longer before calling police
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crawford's pacemaker memory
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would have been erased
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had he laying there for any length of
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time longer than he did without being
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discovered then we would have lost the
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time in the pacemaker
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but who
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was the killer
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[Music]
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darcy maclean said he was sleeping at 5
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34 on the night of the murder he lived
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alone
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so there was no way to corroborate his
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alibi
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he also claimed that an axe was missing
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from his home
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a search of his house revealed nothing
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ivan jones said he was asleep in his
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sister's home until he woke up at 6 00
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a.m
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but joan's sister provided a slightly
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different timeline
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she said she last saw ivan at 3 a.m when
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he asked her for a cigarette and then
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not again until 6 a.m
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when she heard him in the shower
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so no one could confirm his alibi
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between 3 and 6 a.m
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and police believed that ivan's 6 a.m
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shower
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was no coincidence
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a man who's been involved in a violent
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murder mum would also expect there to be
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blood on his body and of course
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the investigation found that he had a
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shower almost a bath
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by six o'clock and that his clothes had
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been washed and that bleach had been
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used in the washing machine where he
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washed his clothing
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in a search of ivan's home
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investigators found a possible link to
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the murder
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one of our detectives
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located a torch
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in a hole in the foundation of that
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residence
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it was very clean it was not covered in
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dust so
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it certainly hadn't been there for any
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great length of time to put a flashlight
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under the house is just something that
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way out of the ordinary not something
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anybody would do unless they had
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something to hide there were no
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fingerprints on the flashlight
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so forensic analyst debbie mccool looked
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for possible dna evidence
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i didn't find any obvious blood stains i
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took a swab from the outer surface of
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the torch i removed the batteries and
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swapped those as well
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and she made sure to swab the one place
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that's easy to overlook
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the area underneath the on off switch
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hoping to find
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dead skin cells
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well dna can get onto an object just by
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handling it
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by swabbing the item
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we can often
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obtain a dna profile
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amazingly
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there were enough skin cells to develop
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a dna profile
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the skin cells in the crevices of the on
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off switch were not ivan jones or darcy
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mcleans
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they were the skin cells of the murder
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victim
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david crawford proving
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it was his flashlight
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mr jones i don't think was a person of
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high intelligence first of all he
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committed a gruesome murder that's bad
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enough but then to keep the torch with
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the dna
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at his home
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just shows the mindset of a person
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investigators believe that jones planned
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to burglarize the empty house across the
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street from david crawford
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to break in
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jones stole the axe from darcy mclean's
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home
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[Music]
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but when he got to the house
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a neighborhood dog started barking and
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woke david crawford
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he got up and grabbed his flashlight to
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investigate
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crawford saw jones
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[Music]
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and that's when jones attacked
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crawford lay bleeding from his wounds
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yet was still alive
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jones dropped the axe went into
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crawford's home
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and stole his wallet then he picked up
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the axe and crawford's flashlight and
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fled
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david crawford's heart stopped beating
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at 5 34 am
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jones disposed of the axe and crawford's
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wallet
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but for some reason
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kept the flashlight
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to establish an alibi
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jones made sure his sister and her
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boyfriend heard him taking a shower
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around 6 a.m
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in an attempt to further shore up his
00:19:08
alibi jones went to his cousin's house
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at 7 30 that morning
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and he arranged to find crawford's body
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with his cousin there as a witness
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hoping
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the discovery would eliminate him
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as a suspect
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but jones didn't know about the
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pacemaker
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had he waited to call police just a
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little while longer
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the pacemaker's memory would have been
00:19:34
lost
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long before the autopsy
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had an excellent alibi it is possible
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that in the court of law he may have
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been found not guilty
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in that there was insufficient evidence
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this was the absolute perfect evidence
00:19:52
to put away this man
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this case
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marked the first time in the world that
00:19:59
data from a pacemaker was used in a
00:20:01
murder trial
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in october of 2001
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ivan jones was convicted of murder and
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sentenced to 20 years in prison
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[Music]
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the pacemaker was a silent witness
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but it told the jury
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all they needed to know i'll carry with
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me for the rest of my career and i
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encourage other investigators to uh to
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give that consideration to pacemakers
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because
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you know
00:20:29
time of death is not known you never
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know what you'll get out of the data
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from a pacemaker these things were never
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heard of years ago in solving crimes
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like this and i think it's
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marvelous that something like that
00:20:41
technology
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and that was able to do that
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seems very ironic that this man had a
00:20:47
pacemaker
00:20:48
which actually outlived him
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because it was designed to keep him
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alive of course but
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nevertheless acted as a
00:20:57
a real witness to what's happened
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an external
00:21:01
machine if you like
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which saw what was happening when nobody
00:21:04
else did
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[Music]
00:21:31
[Music]
00:21:41
you
