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portageville missouri
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1998 police respond to the murder of a
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young mother and her 14 year old
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daughter
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police soon learn of similar attacks
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the linking of all these cases was
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gathering more and more information
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about this perpetrator and who he might
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possibly be
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but the case goes cold until police use
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a ground-breaking forensic weapon
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genetic genealogy
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they had looked at hundreds of
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individuals over the years and all of
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the leads went nowhere
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i believe without genetic genealogy we
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would not have solved this case
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this is the story of a series of brutal
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murders and sex attacks throughout the
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1990s the evil man behind them and high
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police finally get their man after 20
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long years
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i'm nancy grace this is bloodline
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detectives
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[Music]
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[Applause]
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[Music]
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march 28 1998 portageville missouri
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police get a call from a local farmer
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tony shearer
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tony shearer that called 9-1-1
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i was at my house i received a call from
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my boss
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telling me that there had been a double
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murder reported in
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portersville before police enter the
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home tony shares outside he tells cops
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how he discovered his wife sherry and
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his daughter megan dead
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when they arrived home they arrived to a
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horrible scene there in their house
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stephen goes in first
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the mother is in plain view as well as
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the daughter
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and i think at 14 years old
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there's just no way that his mind could
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comprehend what he was seeing
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yelled out to his to his father dad
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mom and megan are dead
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and that's when tony came around that
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same corner and
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then saw his his wife and his daughter
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[Music]
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police enter the home turned crime scene
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well i think the scene was
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staged
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and so
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as soon as you walk in and saw it it was
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horrific
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and i think that's what the killer
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intended on
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sherry
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had been shot several times in back of
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the head
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and that she laid in the living room
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floor close to
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megan
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who had been laid over
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a footstool or ottoman
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and that she also had a
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gunshot wound to the head she was gagged
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and her arms had been tied behind her
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back
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with an extension cord
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and that it was obvious that she had
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been raped
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there wasn't signs of a struggle or a
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fight in the house
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we believe that
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the suspect used megan as a tool to
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convince sherry to follow his directions
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we know he had a gun at the scene
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and if he had been holding a gun to
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megan's head that sherry would have
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followed his directions
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police comb the crime scene for clues
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we were early early stages of dna
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so we knew
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enough to take a lot of stuff we just
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didn't know what
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was going to turn out to be
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usable evidence
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so we took all the
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normal stuff that anybody would in an
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investigation like the bindings any type
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of blood swabs and
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just different things like that
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but we also took some swabs from
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uh megan's body we swabbed several areas
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but
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her breasts is where we were able to
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develop our dna profile
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the bodies of this young mother and her
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little girl are taken away by the
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coroner
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sergeant windham from the highway patrol
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was one of the officers that attended
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the autopsy and he was responsible for
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collecting any evidence from the bodies
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or from the autopsy that would have been
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submitted to the crime lab such as
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ballistic evidence and
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sexual assault evidence and
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dna swabs
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they did not have any significant
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defensive wounds you know it appeared
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that the suspect took control of them
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very quickly there were a number of
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hairs and other trace evidence seized
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from on and around their bodies
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particularly megan's she also had a
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bite mark on her back right
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buttocks cheek that was also very faint
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uh and it was faint to the point that
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the doc
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that did the uh
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the autopsies didn't say anything about
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it
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and so when when i talked to him i was
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like
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did you not think those were bite marks
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and he said i i didn't see anything
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so when i sent him pictures from the
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crime scene that were taken a couple
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hours after
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he was like absolutely those are bite
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marks
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and it's a good thing that you swabbed
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where you did because it's probably your
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best chance of getting dna
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the cause of death was the gunshot
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wounds to the head
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on megan and sherry shearer
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now the community has to face up to the
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loss of two popular and beloved people a
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mother and daughter
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megan cher was a delightful very bright
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very happy little girl who really looked
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forward to living life every day
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and that shari shear
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was a loving and doting mother who liked
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nothing more than raising her children
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and loving her family
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portageville police launched a
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full-scale investigation into the brutal
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attacks of sherry shearer and her teen
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girl megan
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they want to know what kind of a monster
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could commit such a horrible crime
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that's next on bloodline detectives
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[Music]
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march 1998 portageville missouri a
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manhunt is underway for a vicious killer
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who murders and sex assaults a mother
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and daughter in their own home
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very soon investigators learn of yet
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another attack this time in dire county
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just across the mississippi river in
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tennessee
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about three hours after our homicide
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lady and her three children were at home
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in a small
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a rural area of tennessee just outside
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dyersburg
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she had just got home from grocery
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shopping and she was carrying groceries
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into the house as her kids were playing
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in the yard
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and that a
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white male in a van had pulled up
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and was asking directions to a jeremy
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taylor's residence and
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she said she didn't know a jeremy taylor
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but her brother knew everybody she could
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go inside and call him
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she immediately gets
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a weird sense of feeling like that this
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is not
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there's something wrong with this guy
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there's something wrong with this
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situation
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and
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she says that
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she was standing on the porch and if she
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had went in and called dyer county
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sheriff's department
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that they could have got there in the
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time that it took him to get out of the
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van and come back into the house
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but the strange man is not looking for
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directions
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she said he later gets out of the van
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and walks back up there to her
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and says i didn't find a map but i found
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this
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and he pulls a pistol out
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the adult female and our suspect
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struggled over the gun
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the man's intended victim moves quickly
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to try and protect herself
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she was able to get back into her
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trailer
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they were
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still wrestling over the guns she was
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trying to lean against the door and
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close the door his hands were inside the
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trailer
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she yelled at her 12 year old daughter
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to get the gun off the wall
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the father's deer rifle was was hanging
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on the wall
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so they come running into the living
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room to the front door to give her the
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gun
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and he sees this
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so
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through the window in the door
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and
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he pulls the gun out of the door and
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fires a shot just above the door knob
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and it strikes her in the in the arm
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and then he leaves
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she had non-life-threatening injuries
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and survived the attack
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i can't imagine being in that situation
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and having to protect myself and my
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children
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police interview the victim about the
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attack and she is able to give crucial
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details to investigators
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she said he was a small
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small man small framed 30 to 50 years
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old
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salt and pepper hair
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glasses she thought
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may or may not have been wearing a ball
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cap 150 pounds
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police can now link this incident to the
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attack on the sharer family
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we subsequently
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connected the crime in dyersburg
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tennessee or dyer county tennessee to
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our homicide through the use of
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ballistics
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it was a few days but we were able to
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confirm that the gun used to shoot her
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was the same gun that killed megan and
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sherry shearer in missouri
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striations on the bullet as it goes
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through the barrel of the gun and that
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is
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as unique as a fingerprint
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and so
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knowing that dyersburg tennessee which
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was about 45 minutes away it gives you
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hope
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so now
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we know
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what the guy looks like
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we knew who he'd asked for
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we knew
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what he had said to that lady
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what ruse he had used
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so we figured
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that it just worked with sherry so it's
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probably the same thing that he said to
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her
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investigators have multiple clues to
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help track down the wanted suspect
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now they use another investigative tool
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they turn to the media and the public
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desperate for help
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we used the fbi's vicap system to to put
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to share our case information to look
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for similar cases and we suspected if we
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could connect him to other crimes we
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would have a better chance of solving
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ours
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we used inlet messages which are
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messages that go to other law
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enforcement agencies describing our
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crime and asking for input about similar
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cases
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this case
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aired on a television show a national
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television show a number of times we
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went on america's most wanted and went
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out to
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their live filming
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in washington dc and we had crews
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of policemen here
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waiting for the tips to start coming in
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we received
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thousands of leads
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of people calling in on the tip line
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i'm not sure
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i would have made that decision
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again because all we had was a composite
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drawing
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a likeness of someone
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so out of about 4 000 leads
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it got pretty daunting to go through
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each and every one
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and trying to figure out
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which ones we could actually follow up
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which ones were worth following up
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it was a pretty big task
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in an investigation like this one the
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hard work of detectives can bring both
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results and frustration
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the results in this case are a huge
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amount of material to review the
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frustrations
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much of that material is irrelevant
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it becomes a game of triage some of the
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leads were so obscure such as i think i
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saw the man depicted in the composite in
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a walmart in oklahoma six years ago well
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there's really not anywhere to go with
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those kind of leads so there's no
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follow-up investigation to be done
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if there's an individual that's named
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those are the leads that you try to
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follow up on and and see if they even
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had the opportunity to commit that crime
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many of those folks we got leads on were
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in institutions at the time our crime
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was committed
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in the 1990s dna forensic sciences still
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in its infancy the portageville police
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used the forensic tools they do have and
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they tried to create a dna profile of
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the killer
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we had sent
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our swabs off to
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a private lab
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to get a dna
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profile
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and they were only able to give us
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about three
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loci
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and it takes 13
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to be able to enter it into the national
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database
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and then they'd called back and said
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that of the dna they had left they would
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be able to
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do mitochondrial dna
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we were able to obtain mitochondrial dna
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from the hair that was found on megan's
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body
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and we were going around in and
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obtaining hair samples from
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suspects
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and sending them to the lab
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to check against this mitochondrial dna
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but there is no match for the dna
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it was very frustrating
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it was frustrating
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because one we were trying to bring
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justice
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to megan and cherry sheer
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and two we knew that the type of person
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that committed this crime
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wasn't going to stop that there would be
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more victims
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police cannot find the killer the case
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goes cold but then in 2006 investigators
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look for a game changer they go to ruth
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montgomery the forensic scientist at the
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missouri highway patrol labs
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[Music]
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there had been technological advances in
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dna we had our evidence reworked and
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developed a
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ruth montgomery developed a full dna
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profile that was subsequently entered in
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codis
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codis the profile that i developed from
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megan share
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went into codis in march of
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2006
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and it was searched locally within the
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state of missouri and then nationally
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there was a hit to a profile developed
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from a homicide in greenville south
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carolina
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it took us back
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eight years before
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sherry and megan's murders
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and the rape and murder of a young woman
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named genevieve zatriki
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in her apartment
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in greenville
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eight years after the first homicides
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investigators are now able to connect
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not one not two but three cases the
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first two connected by ballistics and
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the last case connected by dna profiling
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as we see next on bloodline detectives
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they are closing in
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on a killer
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[Music]
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2006 portageville missouri police are on
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the hunt for a vicious killer who
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murders a mother and her daughter during
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a horrible home invasion 1998
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thanks to dna profiling investigators
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can link the perpetrator to another
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violent murder two years later in
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greenville south carolina
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they wanted to go
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to south carolina and meet with the
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investigators there and have a
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group meeting between the two missouri
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and south carolina
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to discuss the cases to determine what
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the commonalities were and to ensure
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that the
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dna evidence was actually from
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the perpetrator of the crime
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we were on a plane the next day
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they had a
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a crew of hard-working
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officers out there and
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we took a crew of about nine of us
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out there
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so
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yeah it was uh certainly
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a breath of life that was breathed into
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the case because
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we had new information
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it was strange information
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their case was polar opposite of our
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case and without the dna you would have
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argued that they had nothing to do with
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one another
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portersville police learn more about the
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death of genevieve's a tricky
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we were surprised that that it was
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connected to a murder that was
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so far away
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we had learned that genevieve zatricki
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had failed to show up for work for a
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couple of days
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and they sent the
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handyman
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over to her apartment to try to make
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contact with her
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when he entered into the apartment
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he had located genevieve in the bathtub
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with the bathtub still running
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and she was obviously deceased
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it appeared to investigators in
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greenville who we worked extensively
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with
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that jenny was asleep in her bed when
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the perpetrator broke in to her
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apartment through the sliding glass door
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attacked her
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in a blitzkrieg style that while she was
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still asleep he just started
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hitting her in the head with a
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very hard long object that created a lot
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of blood spatter
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and then once
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he had hit her
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numerous times
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causing her death
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he pulled her off the bed
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and
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had sex with her
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and they were able to tell that by the
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blood pooling on the floor
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and then drug her into the bathroom
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and put her in the tub
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on her back
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with her bottom
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all the way up under the faucet and the
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fossil was turned on hot
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so the police department at the time
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had located in her bedroom where it had
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been ransacked there was clothes strong
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all throughout the bedroom
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all the drawers on the dresser were
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pulled out there was a message written
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in black marker on the mirror in jenny's
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bedroom that said
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don't
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f with my family
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to this day we're not certain
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if there is some significance to that or
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if that was merely put there to throw
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off investigators
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the the perpetrator
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took some steps to conceal evidence by
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placing the contents of jenny's purse in
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the sink under running water and
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actually placing jenny under running
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water to try to destroy evidence
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he had tied
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a double a knot and then another knot
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where the first knot was sufficient it
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was overkill that you could tell he was
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really making sure that she was dead
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both the missouri murders and
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genevieve's the trickiest killing are
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incredibly violent but it
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doesn't appear
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they were committed by the same person
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if it wasn't for dna we wouldn't be
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having that talk because
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the crime scenes are so polar opposite
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my thoughts being that he staged our
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crime scene
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so i thought the stuff he wrote on the
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mirror was a ruse that it was just a red
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herring based on our crime scene
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and what the lady told us from dyersburg
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that this guy had really graduated
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he'd gone from
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no social skills where he could talk to
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these women
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he had to
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start beating her while she was asleep
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to talking his way into the house
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at the shear house
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and nearly getting into the house and in
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dyersburg
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so who is genevieve zatriki and does her
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murder give police any new leads
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she lived alone and had formerly been
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married her former husband was looked at
00:22:59
as a suspect but he was eliminated as a
00:23:01
suspect as well the dna profile from the
00:23:05
zitricki case was developed from
00:23:08
a vaginal swab
00:23:10
they had looked at hundreds of
00:23:12
individuals over the years and all of
00:23:15
the leads went nowhere
00:23:18
investigators now so frustrated there
00:23:22
seems to be no link between the
00:23:25
genevieves the tricky case and the other
00:23:28
murders but then 2017
00:23:31
the suspect's dna is entered into codis
00:23:35
again
00:23:37
we received a call from our crime lab
00:23:40
where
00:23:41
there was a case from memphis tennessee
00:23:44
that had entered dna in dakotas and and
00:23:47
it had matched our suspect dna
00:23:51
we contacted memphis and learned that
00:23:54
it was a rape of a 14 year old girl in
00:24:00
1997
00:24:02
two adult females and their children had
00:24:04
just returned home from a funeral
00:24:06
our suspect talked his way into their
00:24:08
house through a ruse indicating he was
00:24:10
running from the police
00:24:12
they too talked about they didn't feel
00:24:16
real comfortable around this this man
00:24:19
they tried to brush him off and shut the
00:24:21
door
00:24:22
he had pushed his way into the house
00:24:24
and he had
00:24:26
told the women
00:24:27
that
00:24:28
the police are after him he's just
00:24:30
trying to get away he's just trying to
00:24:31
get a
00:24:32
car
00:24:33
and he needed to get away
00:24:35
the ladies had told him that the car out
00:24:37
in the drive has the keys in it just
00:24:39
take the car
00:24:42
and
00:24:43
he had brought with him
00:24:47
some duct tape and
00:24:49
a pistol
00:24:51
he had used
00:24:53
telephone wire that he had found in the
00:24:55
house to tie the the women up
00:24:58
and he focused on the 14 year old that
00:25:01
he raped there in the living room
00:25:05
this perpetrator looks like the one in
00:25:08
the dyersburg case
00:25:11
they actually found a composite
00:25:14
that
00:25:15
was or a sketch
00:25:17
that was drawn up
00:25:19
back in 1997
00:25:22
and when you set it next to
00:25:25
our composites that we had they were
00:25:27
very similar the only difference was the
00:25:30
the glasses on the their suspect
00:25:33
was tinted where ours didn't have any
00:25:36
tent but they had run out of leads
00:25:38
early on in that investigation
00:25:41
and
00:25:42
they they weren't able to locate anybody
00:25:46
detectives frustrated yet again
00:25:50
but they don't give up
00:25:51
they know they are this close to solving
00:25:54
the case so now
00:25:56
they begin to search for different
00:25:58
forensic tools
00:26:00
there's a company that produces
00:26:02
composites
00:26:03
based on a dna profile you know an image
00:26:07
of this perpetrator based on their dna
00:26:09
it was initially discussed that maybe
00:26:11
that would be a good idea in this case
00:26:14
however
00:26:15
the final outcome of that conference
00:26:17
call was it would be much better to do
00:26:19
genealogy genetic genealogy and attempt
00:26:22
to identify at least a perpetrator's
00:26:25
family that that would be a good solid
00:26:29
lead to closure of these cases
00:26:32
the samples are brought to parabon nano
00:26:34
labs
00:26:36
parabon works in conjunction with other
00:26:38
laboratories to
00:26:41
develop a
00:26:42
short nucleotide polymorphism profile or
00:26:47
a snip profile
00:26:48
that goes into a different database than
00:26:51
codis and is searched differently
00:26:54
so the scientific bench work would have
00:26:57
been done in collaboration with
00:27:00
parabon
00:27:02
and another lab
00:27:04
we're looking at over 800 000 genetic
00:27:07
markers across the genome and that's
00:27:09
what allows us to have this power to
00:27:12
detect distant relatives
00:27:14
so that dna sample needs to go to the
00:27:17
lab and go through a process called snip
00:27:20
genotyping you can also use whole genome
00:27:23
sequencing but in this case we did snip
00:27:25
genotyping at the lab and that extracted
00:27:28
those 850 000 snips
00:27:31
then the bioinformatics team our
00:27:33
scientists at parabon
00:27:35
create a file from that and that file
00:27:38
needs to be similar to what you would
00:27:40
get if you tested at one of the
00:27:41
commercial dna testing companies like
00:27:43
say ancestrydna or 23andme so that's
00:27:46
what we needed to do with this dna was
00:27:49
ultimately create a file that would be
00:27:52
accepted for upload to gedmatch and
00:27:54
compare it against the other people
00:27:55
participating in that database
00:27:58
investigators wait patiently for the
00:28:01
outcome from cece moore the genetic
00:28:03
genealogist at parabon
00:28:06
it was
00:28:07
a couple months later
00:28:10
when all the investigators
00:28:12
were on a conference call the missouri
00:28:15
investigators the memphis investigators
00:28:18
and the greenville south carolina
00:28:19
investigators
00:28:22
when they called they put cece moore on
00:28:24
the phone
00:28:26
who explained the family tree that she
00:28:29
developed
00:28:30
and she walked us through the family
00:28:33
tree
00:28:34
and
00:28:35
showed us how she come up with the
00:28:38
suspect
00:28:40
this guy was
00:28:42
at or near the proximity of each of our
00:28:45
crime scenes
00:28:47
he was five five
00:28:49
150 pounds wore glasses
00:28:54
cece moore's determined forensic work
00:28:57
id's a man his name
00:29:00
robert eugene brashears
00:29:04
the amazing work that she had done
00:29:07
the
00:29:08
was just near magical
00:29:12
all the things that she did and covered
00:29:15
every possible angle
00:29:18
uh
00:29:19
it was
00:29:21
now that was near
00:29:23
near
00:29:24
terry moment then because you knew
00:29:28
that
00:29:29
your journey is near over
00:29:33
the bloodline detectives now have a
00:29:35
suspect and a solid link to crimes they
00:29:38
believe he is committed now they've just
00:29:41
got to catch him that's next on
00:29:43
bloodline detectives
00:29:45
[Music]
00:29:53
2017
00:29:54
detectives from three states are using a
00:29:58
revolutionary new dna forensic
00:30:00
technology called genetic genealogy to
00:30:04
identify a suspect named robert eugene
00:30:08
brashears
00:30:09
they believe he's responsible for a
00:30:11
whole series of brutal murders and sex
00:30:15
attacks beginning all the way back in
00:30:18
the 1990s and stretching from missouri
00:30:21
to tennessee to south carolina but now
00:30:25
they need to track him down
00:30:28
robert beshears was born in newport news
00:30:31
virginia
00:30:33
he grew up in huntsville alabama
00:30:37
and he entered the u.s navy
00:30:40
and was discharged within eight months
00:30:44
and when he was discharged he was
00:30:46
discharged in memphis tennessee
00:30:48
but he had also
00:30:51
done part of his navy time in florida
00:30:55
robert brashears seemingly has a very
00:30:59
dark past
00:31:00
in
00:31:01
1985 robert brashears
00:31:04
had
00:31:06
picked up a young lady and attempted to
00:31:08
rape her and when she fought him he shot
00:31:12
her and attempted to kill her but she
00:31:15
got away from him and got to authorities
00:31:18
in
00:31:19
1986 robert brashears was sentenced to
00:31:21
15 years in prison for the attempted
00:31:24
homicide in florida he did not serve 15
00:31:27
years he was released from prison in
00:31:30
march of 1989.
00:31:33
when he got out of prison he moved to
00:31:35
greenville south carolina
00:31:37
and his address was within a mile of
00:31:41
genevieve zatriki's
00:31:43
apartment we know throughout 90 to 97
00:31:48
he was in prison in several different
00:31:51
states
00:31:52
for several different crimes and that in
00:31:55
97 i believe
00:31:58
he picks his family up from alabama
00:32:01
and takes them to jonesboro arkansas
00:32:04
which is in very close proximity to
00:32:07
portageville
00:32:08
police now believe they've got their man
00:32:12
but the investigation hits a new wall
00:32:15
when they make their next discovery
00:32:18
robert beshears was found in a hotel
00:32:21
room
00:32:22
in in southeastern missouri
00:32:25
because they had found a car parked in
00:32:28
the parking lot that had
00:32:31
unregistered license plates
00:32:33
and
00:32:34
they went into
00:32:36
the hotel or motel to determine who the
00:32:39
owner of the car was
00:32:41
and the clerk sent them to a specific
00:32:45
room and when the investigators went to
00:32:47
that room a lady answered the door and
00:32:50
said that there was no man there that he
00:32:52
had left
00:32:54
but an investigator observed someone
00:32:56
moving underneath the bed
00:32:59
and when they
00:33:00
um
00:33:01
asked him to get out then there became a
00:33:03
standoff with the police
00:33:07
he thought that when the police came
00:33:09
there that they knew
00:33:12
all of his terrible past history
00:33:15
when in fact they were there to talk to
00:33:17
him about his own license plate
00:33:20
he had his wife
00:33:23
and a couple daughters
00:33:25
with him
00:33:26
the police had to stand off they're able
00:33:28
to talk
00:33:30
him into letting the family go
00:33:32
i think at one point they even talked
00:33:34
him out of
00:33:36
a gun
00:33:38
and he gave up
00:33:40
his gun which turns out he had a second
00:33:43
gun and ended up taking his own life
00:33:50
the day he killed himself
00:33:52
he thought his world had came crashing
00:33:54
down and that was the end of the line
00:33:56
for him
00:33:57
it just exemplifies what a coward he was
00:34:01
and
00:34:02
what type of person he was
00:34:05
he wasn't going to be man enough to
00:34:08
to stand up and answer for what he had
00:34:10
done
00:34:13
robert brashears is dead
00:34:15
but as we see next the bloodline
00:34:18
detectives still want answers for the
00:34:21
victims their relatives and closure for
00:34:24
the hard work of the investigators on
00:34:27
this case before them
00:34:30
[Music]
00:34:38
2017 detectives from three states are
00:34:42
convinced they know robert brashears is
00:34:45
the suspect who committed a series of
00:34:48
murders and sex assaults the problem
00:34:51
robert breast years is dead and buried
00:34:54
he killed himself to avoid being
00:34:56
captured alive
00:34:58
we went to alabama where we interviewed
00:35:00
his daughter and
00:35:03
we obtained a dna sample from her
00:35:06
and that was sent to the lab
00:35:09
and
00:35:10
we
00:35:11
knew then
00:35:12
that robert bratcher was our suspect
00:35:17
robert brazier's daughter cooperates
00:35:20
with missouri police
00:35:22
she had a lot of questions for us
00:35:24
because she was i believe seven years
00:35:26
old
00:35:27
when he committed suicide in the hotel
00:35:30
she was actually there at the hotel
00:35:33
when law enforcement arrived
00:35:36
in 99
00:35:38
she did believe
00:35:40
from the stories that she had heard from
00:35:42
her family
00:35:43
about
00:35:45
robert bradshaw's behavior
00:35:47
and his criminal conduct
00:35:50
that he was capable
00:35:52
of doing something similar
00:35:55
detectives used the dna obtained from
00:35:58
robert brashear's daughter to get a
00:36:01
warrant
00:36:02
then they exhume or dig up his body
00:36:06
we collaborated with the arkansas state
00:36:09
police who were very helpful
00:36:10
in obtaining the proper court orders
00:36:12
where he was interred in arkansas to
00:36:14
have him exhumed
00:36:15
so representatives from the south
00:36:17
carolina
00:36:19
south carolina law enforcement were on
00:36:20
scene
00:36:22
as were we
00:36:24
dna samples from the exhumed body
00:36:26
were immediately submitted to both crime
00:36:29
labs and within about a day we had it
00:36:31
confirmed by both crime labs that robert
00:36:34
eugene brasher was our murderer
00:36:37
robert brashears is dead but
00:36:40
investigators are able to link him
00:36:43
to a series of horrible crimes
00:36:46
but now the bloodline detectives want
00:36:49
even more
00:36:50
a portrait of the killer
00:36:54
how do you
00:36:55
describe a psychopath um
00:36:57
[Music]
00:36:59
i'm not sure what to think about him i
00:37:01
think often
00:37:03
how
00:37:04
is a human being capable of this kind of
00:37:08
violence against another human being
00:37:10
and
00:37:11
what
00:37:12
kind of mind did that individual have
00:37:16
the motive for robert beshears was
00:37:18
pedophilia
00:37:20
i think he was a pedophile that wanted
00:37:22
to have sex with these young girls
00:37:25
and he didn't mind the kill to do it
00:37:29
he is a serial killer
00:37:31
by definition
00:37:33
and
00:37:34
he he preyed on
00:37:36
young girls and and women
00:37:39
and we believe there's several other
00:37:41
victims
00:37:42
between 90 and 99.
00:37:46
robert brashear's crimes may go back
00:37:49
over 20 years
00:37:51
after all that time the bloodline
00:37:53
detectives wonder
00:37:55
can there be
00:37:57
final answers for the victims and their
00:38:00
families
00:38:01
ready to move on to the next stage in
00:38:04
their lives
00:38:05
[Laughter]
00:38:06
my heart goes out to a young lady in
00:38:08
florida who had to live
00:38:10
with the consequences
00:38:12
of robert beshear's actions
00:38:15
and
00:38:17
she must have great strength and stamina
00:38:21
in order to
00:38:23
live with the history of that crime
00:38:25
i don't know that you ever
00:38:27
get over
00:38:29
something like
00:38:30
being raped at the age of 14. and i am
00:38:33
sure
00:38:34
that that young lady
00:38:36
carries scars and the consequences of
00:38:38
robert beshear's actions with her today
00:38:41
and it probably still affects how she
00:38:44
lives her life every single day and who
00:38:46
she is
00:38:48
as a woman
00:38:50
as you can imagine a bitter sweet we
00:38:53
solved it you got closure for it
00:38:57
you feel kind of cheated because god
00:38:59
killed himself
00:39:01
he wasn't going to get justice
00:39:04
but
00:39:06
maybe that special place in hell was the
00:39:08
justice that we got
00:39:10
[Music]
00:39:12
the idea of closure in a 20-year old
00:39:16
murder and rape case
00:39:18
may be in question
00:39:20
but not the value of genetic genealogy
00:39:22
and solving the crimes
00:39:25
sergeant don windham
00:39:28
of the highway patrol if he hadn't had
00:39:32
obtained that
00:39:34
dna swab from megan's breast
00:39:37
we wouldn't have been able to get a full
00:39:39
strand of dna to enter into codis
00:39:43
and at the time the technology was not
00:39:45
there to run
00:39:47
that sample
00:39:49
that sample just set in evidence for
00:39:51
several years
00:39:53
until technology caught up with us
00:39:58
[Music]
00:39:59
forensic genetic genealogy was extremely
00:40:02
important in this case because mr
00:40:04
broshears was dead it would not have
00:40:06
been solved without it it solved the
00:40:09
case
00:40:11
we'd still be chasing him around
00:40:14
and i'm very excited for the technology
00:40:16
and what genetic genealogy brings to
00:40:19
this forensic science field and the
00:40:21
potential that it holds in solving
00:40:24
crimes where
00:40:26
the perpetrators do not have their dna
00:40:29
in the codis system
00:40:32
who would ever have thought that when
00:40:34
robert brashears began committing his
00:40:37
series of horrible violent crimes in the
00:40:40
1990s when cases looked so cold would
00:40:44
ever be solved
00:40:46
certainly not robert bresciars or
00:40:49
serial killers like him who before the
00:40:51
use of forensic science like genetic
00:40:53
genealogy would never have been caught
00:40:57
i'm nancy grace thanks for joining us to
00:41:00
witness these incredible stories on
00:41:02
bloodline detectives
00:41:06
[Music]
00:41:15
[Music]
00:41:17
[Applause]
00:41:19
[Music]
00:41:35
[Music]
00:41:48
you
