00:00:06
criminals usually leave some kind of
00:00:08
trace evidence at the crime scene the
00:00:10
trick is to find it
00:00:12
scientists used some aurora pink powder
00:00:16
cyanoacrylate fumes and a computer
00:00:19
database to identify a suspect in the
00:00:21
midst of a senseless crime spree
00:00:26
[Applause]
00:00:26
[Music]
00:00:38
[Applause]
00:00:40
[Music]
00:00:46
[Applause]
00:00:51
[Music]
00:00:53
it was 4 am on an october morning and
00:00:56
kim miller was manning the police
00:00:58
switchboard
00:01:00
i was working night shift i think i'd
00:01:02
only worked there like around six months
00:01:05
so i hadn't been
00:01:07
trained at that particular position very
00:01:09
long
00:01:10
there isn't much crime in lansing
00:01:12
michigan it's usually quiet
00:01:15
but this night was different
00:01:18
all of a sudden i took this call and
00:01:20
this lady said that someone was breaking
00:01:21
into my house
00:01:24
someone broke into my house i learned
00:01:26
four two one frightened
00:01:31
[Music]
00:01:35
the line went dead
00:01:37
so i knew something was very wrong
00:01:39
police were dispatched immediately it
00:01:42
took less than four minutes to get there
00:01:45
at first glance everything looked fine
00:01:48
but behind the house was clear evidence
00:01:51
of a break-in
00:01:52
the door had been kicked in and kicked
00:01:54
in violently
00:01:56
the door was actually off of the frame
00:01:59
and there's glass from the door outside
00:02:01
on the front porch as well as on the
00:02:03
inside entrance way from the door
00:02:07
inside down the hallway police found the
00:02:10
bathroom door had also been knocked off
00:02:12
its hinges
00:02:14
on the floor
00:02:16
was the body of 67 year old audrey
00:02:19
nichols
00:02:20
she had been shot in the head at close
00:02:22
range with a 32 caliber bullet
00:02:26
the phone that they believe that she was
00:02:27
using was found right in that area i
00:02:31
believe in the hallway
00:02:32
just outside the bathroom
00:02:34
the police officers knew mrs nichols she
00:02:37
had worked for the michigan state police
00:02:39
for 17 years analyzing traffic accidents
00:02:43
she had retired just four months earlier
00:02:46
and lived alone her three children were
00:02:48
grown and living elsewhere
00:02:51
we all felt violated by it just because
00:02:54
so many of us were alone it was very
00:02:56
shocking to us it was
00:02:58
numbing
00:02:59
and there was a lot of anger an awful
00:03:01
lot of anger
00:03:02
since police arrived within five minutes
00:03:04
of the call
00:03:05
the killer wasn't inside the house long
00:03:10
none of the drawers or closets had been
00:03:11
ransacked but audrey's purse was missing
00:03:15
looked like the house had been selected
00:03:18
for a break in
00:03:20
so that somebody could go in and find
00:03:22
something of value probably to purchase
00:03:23
for drugs a preliminary look at the
00:03:26
evidence left no doubt about what had
00:03:29
happened
00:03:34
audrey heard the intruder kick in the
00:03:36
back door she grabbed the portable phone
00:03:39
ran to the bathroom and locked herself
00:03:41
in
00:03:42
[Music]
00:03:44
but apparently
00:03:45
he heard her on the phone
00:03:54
then grabbed her purse and left
00:03:58
here was a woman that was huddled on the
00:04:00
floor of her bathroom on 9-1-1 who
00:04:03
at least in the opinion of the forensic
00:04:06
pathologist turned her head
00:04:08
to avoid what she saw was coming the
00:04:11
fatal gunshot
00:04:12
it doesn't get worse than that
00:04:14
unfortunately police could find
00:04:17
no witnesses
00:04:18
we didn't have any neighbors or anything
00:04:20
that saw or heard anybody in the
00:04:22
neighborhood that could give us any type
00:04:24
of physical description he has no regard
00:04:27
for human life
00:04:28
and our concern was at that point we
00:04:30
needed to find this guy and put him away
00:04:36
police and forensic experts searched
00:04:38
audrey nicholls home hoping to find
00:04:40
evidence left by the person who killed
00:04:43
her the victim was in the bathroom dead
00:04:46
so we determine a pathway from the
00:04:48
entrance way
00:04:49
to the bathroom
00:04:51
and so everything in between
00:04:53
has to be processed
00:04:55
and then there was no other way out of
00:04:57
the house but out of the door that the
00:04:59
suspect came in
00:05:00
in the kitchen
00:05:01
police found one foreign fingerprint
00:05:04
although it was badly smudged
00:05:07
there were shards of glass spread over
00:05:09
the linoleum floor of the kitchen
00:05:15
was it possible that the killer stepped
00:05:17
on a shard of glass leaving his shoe
00:05:19
impression
00:05:21
the theory of any crime scene
00:05:22
investigation is that the suspect is
00:05:25
always going to leave something of
00:05:27
themselves at the scene
00:05:28
or take something away that's going to
00:05:30
link them to the crime
00:05:32
the shards were collected and sent to
00:05:34
the forensics lab
00:05:36
glass is such a smooth perfect surface
00:05:38
that it's really really the best surface
00:05:40
we can possibly hope for to get a
00:05:42
footwear impression on
00:05:44
the linoleum floor was dusted with a
00:05:46
powder called aurora pink that sticks to
00:05:50
any moisture present
00:05:52
then
00:05:53
using what is called an alternate light
00:05:56
source any powder that clings to the
00:05:58
moisture will fluoresce if you have a
00:06:01
patterned linoleum or something where
00:06:03
the background is interfering with the
00:06:06
the impression you can usually use your
00:06:08
alternative light source to
00:06:10
eliminate the background and then the
00:06:12
fluorescent powder that you use to dust
00:06:14
up the impression is very bright and so
00:06:16
it makes a very good contrast
00:06:19
it was successful
00:06:21
they saw one clear print
00:06:23
the heel portion of the killer's left
00:06:26
shoe
00:06:27
it appeared to be an athletic shoe
00:06:29
most of the prints you see are partial
00:06:32
prints you may sometimes get some full
00:06:34
footwear impressions but with people
00:06:37
walking over on top of them it can
00:06:39
destroy the prints and many times you
00:06:41
only get partial prints back in the
00:06:43
forensics lab
00:06:45
scientists saw what looked to be
00:06:47
another shoe impression on a shard of
00:06:49
broken glass
00:06:51
so
00:06:52
they placed it in a tank filled with
00:06:54
heated super glue
00:06:57
the fumes create a permanent image of
00:06:59
the print
00:07:01
and it looked like the toe area of the
00:07:03
killer's right shoe
00:07:06
because we had a toe area on the glass
00:07:08
and a heel area on the linoleum we
00:07:10
basically almost had an entire entire
00:07:13
shoe impression so we did have a very
00:07:15
good idea what the entire tread pattern
00:07:17
looked like i remember looking at the
00:07:19
glass and saying we have some really
00:07:21
good footwear impressions here
00:07:23
today forensic analysts have access to
00:07:26
sophisticated databases of all kinds of
00:07:28
shoe impressions
00:07:30
it includes men's women's even
00:07:33
children's shoes both dress and leisure
00:07:35
from all over the world
00:07:37
this database is called
00:07:39
soul mate
00:07:41
elements of the shoot patterns will be
00:07:43
entered in by the operator so if it has
00:07:46
squares
00:07:47
in the ball area of the shoe or the toe
00:07:49
area of the shoe you would enter that in
00:07:52
and then the computer comes back with a
00:07:54
list of possible shoe treads and you can
00:07:56
pull those up and look at them to
00:07:58
determine you know if any of those are
00:08:00
the shoe you're actually looking for
00:08:02
checking and cross-checking finally gave
00:08:04
investigators their first solid piece of
00:08:07
information
00:08:08
the footwear impressions were consistent
00:08:10
with having been made by a spalding
00:08:12
tennis shoe
00:08:13
unfortunately the print wasn't complete
00:08:16
so some details were unclear
00:08:19
the fact that he's wearing tennis shoes
00:08:21
was about the only given that we had
00:08:24
a month after audrey's death
00:08:26
a pedestrian found her purse in a field
00:08:29
about a mile from her home
00:08:32
her identification was inside
00:08:34
but all the money was gone
00:08:36
this proved robbery was a motive but
00:08:39
why
00:08:40
murder
00:08:41
it was an unanswered question for all of
00:08:43
us it was like who would do this why
00:08:45
would they do it
00:08:46
and how how did they choose her how did
00:08:49
they choose her it wasn't like she was a
00:08:50
rich woman
00:08:52
it wasn't like she was flashy at all
00:08:55
research shows criminals often commit
00:08:57
their crimes close to where they live
00:09:00
so police focused their search in the
00:09:02
surrounding areas
00:09:04
but got no leads you always
00:09:07
fear that this might be one of those
00:09:08
cold cases that might end up on the
00:09:10
shelf
00:09:11
and this was a very very serious case so
00:09:14
we had this concern that we hope this
00:09:17
one doesn't go cold
00:09:19
then
00:09:20
six weeks after audrey's murder
00:09:22
police got a break
00:09:25
police apprehended a man
00:09:28
breaking into a home just down the
00:09:30
street from audrey's
00:09:33
irony of ironies they end up with a home
00:09:36
nearby
00:09:37
audrey's that was broken into
00:09:39
and the guy's wearing sneakers
00:09:42
not only is he wearing sneakers but he's
00:09:43
wearing spalding sneakers
00:09:46
there were glass fragments embedded
00:09:48
right in the shoes of the of the first
00:09:49
suspect's shoes it's like whoa is this
00:09:52
the guy
00:09:53
and glimmers of hope that
00:09:55
maybe there have been a solution to the
00:09:57
audrey slain
00:09:58
but it didn't turn out to be
00:10:01
that simple
00:10:04
[Music]
00:10:07
two partial impressions from a pair of
00:10:09
spalding tennis shoes were the best
00:10:11
clues found in audrey nichols home
00:10:14
following her murder
00:10:16
police also found a partial fingerprint
00:10:19
but weren't sure if it was left by the
00:10:22
killer
00:10:23
the suspect was in and out of the house
00:10:25
so quickly that there really wasn't a
00:10:26
lot of other
00:10:27
forensic evidence if if any
00:10:30
so this particular case really hinged on
00:10:32
those footwear impressions
00:10:35
six weeks after the murder police
00:10:37
arrested a man attempting to rob a home
00:10:39
not far from where audrey nichols lived
00:10:44
he was 25 year old kent embry who had
00:10:47
prior arrests for petty theft and
00:10:49
burglary
00:10:52
the suspect happened to be wearing
00:10:53
spalding tennis shoes just like we had
00:10:55
told the investigators they were looking
00:10:57
for since these are spaldings and we
00:10:59
already know that we need spaldings we
00:11:02
needed to have these analyzed right away
00:11:04
because this could be the big break in
00:11:06
audrey's shooting
00:11:08
police sent the shoes to the forensics
00:11:10
lab where they were inked
00:11:12
and printed
00:11:14
using transparent overlays
00:11:16
amy nishod compared them to the two
00:11:19
partial prints found in audrey nichols
00:11:21
home
00:11:22
that was compared directly to the
00:11:25
photograph of the footwear impression
00:11:26
and the linoleum and then directly to
00:11:28
the glass michaud was looking for two
00:11:31
things
00:11:32
class characteristics which result from
00:11:34
how the shoe is made
00:11:36
and
00:11:37
accidental characteristics which result
00:11:40
from how it's worn just the random wear
00:11:43
that occurs to the bottom of the shoes
00:11:45
through ordinary
00:11:46
activities every day
00:11:48
it produces cuts and scratches and nicks
00:11:51
on the bottoms of your shoes which make
00:11:52
it unique to all other shoes
00:11:55
and so it's those scratches that we
00:11:57
really look for
00:11:59
after extensive comparisons michoad
00:12:02
called investigators with some bad news
00:12:05
the sizes were slightly off
00:12:07
things just didn't line up correctly and
00:12:09
then we were absolutely positive that
00:12:10
those weren't the shoes that made the
00:12:11
impressions left at the crime scene
00:12:14
what we had hoped would be good evidence
00:12:16
turns out to be absolutely useless and
00:12:19
unrelated it wasn't that break that we
00:12:21
were looking for
00:12:23
now we had to
00:12:24
basically start from zero again and move
00:12:27
forward
00:12:28
investigators went back to canvassing
00:12:30
the neighborhood
00:12:32
but feared audrey's murder would go
00:12:35
unsolved
00:12:37
then almost four months after audrey's
00:12:40
murder
00:12:41
the local district attorney received a
00:12:43
letter from a man in prison
00:12:46
do you remember the retired state police
00:12:48
lady that was killed in lansing i can
00:12:50
give up the killer for a deal with the
00:12:52
prosecutor he said he found her in the
00:12:54
bathroom she was calling for help so he
00:12:56
knocked the phone from her hand and
00:12:58
stomped on it when he looked up she was
00:13:00
looking at his face so he shot her in
00:13:03
the head with a 32 caliber
00:13:06
see what you can do
00:13:08
the letter was from a prisoner named
00:13:11
carl headley
00:13:14
headley said he heard about the murder
00:13:16
from a cellmate who was awaiting trial
00:13:18
for shooting and robbing a truck driver
00:13:21
it had to be checked out because
00:13:23
obviously sometimes in these jailhouse
00:13:25
settings things get exaggerated or they
00:13:28
pick up information that they think they
00:13:30
can
00:13:30
sell or trade off and
00:13:32
and so that always has to be taken with
00:13:34
a degree of skepticism but the details
00:13:37
of the letter were all accurate
00:13:40
he had details that we had not released
00:13:43
to the public there's only one way he
00:13:45
could have come into
00:13:47
that type of information he was either
00:13:49
there or he got it from somebody who was
00:13:54
the man's name was john skinner 22 years
00:13:57
old
00:14:00
homicide investigators questioned
00:14:02
skinner about the murder but he denied
00:14:04
it and like everybody else that we
00:14:06
interview
00:14:08
is accused of a murder they never had
00:14:10
anything to do with them weren't there
00:14:11
you know i don't remember where i was
00:14:13
that night but i wasn't there
00:14:15
skinner's fingerprints did not match the
00:14:17
unidentified print found in audrey
00:14:19
nichols kitchen
00:14:21
and there were no spalding tennis shoes
00:14:23
in the prison storage unit or at the
00:14:26
local county jail where skinner was
00:14:28
first processed it was a tough situation
00:14:31
because of the fact that
00:14:33
the homicide occurred approximately a
00:14:35
month earlier and we were no closer to
00:14:37
finding this
00:14:40
horrific person out running around
00:14:42
possibly killing people again
00:14:45
the investigation faced a crisis
00:14:48
without a fingerprint match
00:14:50
and with no spalding tennis shoes
00:14:53
investigators had reached a dead end
00:15:00
22 year old john skinner was the prime
00:15:03
suspect in audrey nicholls murder
00:15:06
he was in prison awaiting trial for an
00:15:08
unrelated crime when he allegedly
00:15:10
bragged to a cellmate that he had killed
00:15:13
audrey nichols and gotten away with it
00:15:16
but police couldn't find any evidence
00:15:18
that skinner even owned a pair of
00:15:20
spalding brand tennis shoes similar to
00:15:23
the prints found at the crime scene we
00:15:25
had the information from the jailhouse
00:15:28
informant
00:15:30
we knew that we had to have something
00:15:31
else it was imperative to get the shoes
00:15:34
to do the comparison work and the longer
00:15:37
you wait
00:15:39
the chances of getting the shoes lessons
00:15:41
and the chances of
00:15:43
more damage occurring to the shoes
00:15:46
if somebody's wearing them
00:15:47
that lessens the chance of an
00:15:49
identification
00:15:51
as a last resort
00:15:53
police spoke with everyone working in
00:15:55
the prisoner processing area of the
00:15:57
county jail
00:15:58
and they got a break
00:16:00
skinner's prison file indicated that his
00:16:03
mother picked up her son's personal
00:16:05
belongings after he was incarcerated
00:16:09
investigators rushed to her home which
00:16:12
was less than a mile from the murder
00:16:14
scene
00:16:15
so those sneakers were absolutely
00:16:17
essential the mother could have taken
00:16:18
him and thrown him in a trash can
00:16:20
or he could have called her and said get
00:16:23
rid of them and that could have been
00:16:25
very damaging
00:16:27
but police found
00:16:28
a worn pair of spalding tennis shoes in
00:16:32
john skinner's bedroom
00:16:34
we got pretty excited that this might be
00:16:36
the person who committed the breaking
00:16:38
and entering the murder of the victim
00:16:40
again
00:16:41
amy michaud compared skinner's pair to
00:16:44
the transparent overlays of the partial
00:16:47
prince found at the murder scene the
00:16:50
partials were a toe from the right shoe
00:16:54
and the heel
00:16:55
from the left
00:16:56
on both of the impressions the one from
00:16:59
the linoleum and the one from the glass
00:17:01
there were enough accidental markings
00:17:03
and and characteristics that were
00:17:04
visible in the impression that lined up
00:17:07
with the the known shoes
00:17:09
that we were able to say without a doubt
00:17:11
that these are the shoes that made those
00:17:13
impressions how's he going to dispute
00:17:15
that his tennis shoes were found at that
00:17:18
crime scene what possible explanation
00:17:20
can he give there's no way he could ever
00:17:23
explain
00:17:24
his
00:17:25
presence in that house other than
00:17:27
he went there to rob and ended up
00:17:30
killing based on the forensic evidence
00:17:34
prosecutors say skinner kicked in the
00:17:37
back door and broke the glass
00:17:40
as he stepped into the room his sneaker
00:17:42
left a partial print on a broken shard
00:17:45
his other shoe left the partial print on
00:17:48
the linoleum floor
00:17:50
audrey heard the commotion grabbed her
00:17:52
telephone ran into the bathroom locked
00:17:55
the door and called police
00:18:01
when skinner heard this he kicked open
00:18:03
the bathroom door
00:18:05
and killed her
00:18:06
[Music]
00:18:09
police arrived within five minutes but
00:18:12
skinner had already fled with audrey's
00:18:14
purse
00:18:16
inside was all of a hundred dollars in
00:18:19
cash
00:18:20
his drive to get money was more
00:18:22
important than a human life his downfall
00:18:24
was the fact that he was wearing those
00:18:26
spaldings there's no reason for his
00:18:28
footwear impressions to be there because
00:18:30
he did not know the victim the victim
00:18:32
did not know him
00:18:35
police questioned skinner one last time
00:18:38
he asked about the evidence against him
00:18:42
after denying the fact that he was there
00:18:45
his main question to me was is do you
00:18:47
have my prince in the house
00:18:50
and my response to that is yes i do john
00:18:53
i have your prince so i need to know
00:18:55
whether or not you plan this killing or
00:18:56
whether or not it was a random act
00:19:00
skinner then realized the investigation
00:19:03
was over
00:19:04
he confessed to the crime and said he
00:19:06
chose the house at random that all he
00:19:09
planned to do was to steal some money
00:19:11
for drugs
00:19:12
he said he didn't go there with the
00:19:14
intent to kill her or anything like that
00:19:17
that he heard her talking on the phone
00:19:19
and only wanted to
00:19:21
make her stop talking on the phone and
00:19:23
somehow the gun went off accidentally
00:19:26
which we thought was a bunch of bull
00:19:28
crap we never did it identify him with
00:19:30
layton prince and i don't know if he was
00:19:31
wearing gloves or not wearing gloves at
00:19:33
the time after he expressed we talked to
00:19:36
him about where the gun was because our
00:19:38
main goal was to get the gun back so it
00:19:39
couldn't be used in any other crimes
00:19:41
he had indicated that we would never
00:19:43
find a gun that it was throwing down a
00:19:46
sewer
00:19:47
and then later on he recanted that story
00:19:49
indicating that someone else had the gun
00:19:52
and we would never find it
00:19:54
john skinner pled guilty to
00:19:57
second-degree murder
00:19:59
he was sentenced to life in prison
00:20:03
i'm glad for the forensic sciences that
00:20:06
they were able to close this case that
00:20:08
they were able to get the person who did
00:20:09
it
00:20:10
for her family and her friends so that
00:20:12
there would be some kind of closure and
00:20:15
personally i think that audrey rests
00:20:17
better
00:20:18
you know knowing that her kids don't
00:20:20
have to wonder what happened and her
00:20:22
friends don't have to wonder what
00:20:23
happened
00:20:25
while investigating homicides the first
00:20:27
line of defense is forensic sciences a
00:20:30
person coming in and fuming the floors
00:20:33
obtaining fingerprints
00:20:35
without them would half of the crimes be
00:20:37
solved probably not
00:20:39
as technology progresses i hope forensic
00:20:42
science does
00:20:44
in this case forensic science was at the
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very heart of this case
00:20:50
being solved and being successfully
00:20:52
prosecuted without it who knows we might
00:20:55
have a cold case on the shelf plain and
00:20:58
simple but with the forensics everything
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came together
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[Music]
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[Music]
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[Music]
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you
