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in 1990
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the killer of a 22 year old girl
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left an almost
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indistinguishable mark in a blood stain
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at the crime scene
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but a new computer forensic technology
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found distinguishing characteristics in
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the smear
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evidence that would lead directly to the
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perpetrator
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[Music]
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[Applause]
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[Music]
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[Applause]
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[Music]
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richmond virginia is a city steeped in
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history
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as the former capital of the confederacy
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richmond keeps close ties to its past
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and a watchful eye on the future
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[Music]
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with six colleges and universities
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thousands of young people move here each
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fall to go to school
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22 year old dawn bruce had attended
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virginia commonwealth university
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dawn was a musician she joined the vcu
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win symphony after she was accepted
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through auditions
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that's what kept her there for as long
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as she was there but dawn was anxious to
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find out what was out in the real world
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and how she could do and what she could
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do
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after college dawn worked as a phone
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operator by day and a waitress by night
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despite the long hours she enjoyed the
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freedom of living on her own
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dawn was a fun-loving kind of person
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thought she could do anything and
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everything and
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and didn't care what other people said
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about
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her trying to to do things that weren't
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the norm
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on december 19 1990
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dawn's mother went to her daughter's
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apartment since she hadn't heard from
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her in a few days
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she found dawn
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in a pool of blood
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the medical examiner found evidence she
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had been raped sodomized and stabbed in
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the heart
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the knife was was rammed in her heart
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and
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the subject held dawn down
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until she bled to death which
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from what i understand could have been
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eight to ten minutes or longer
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and she was defiled as in the process of
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this
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uh i don't know how much vile violence
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is needed but that's only my opinion i
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think it was a very very bad case
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first impression i had was what a
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horrible horrible crime
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and and what somebody had done to really
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an innocent young lady who
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who absolutely didn't deserve what
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happened to her in any sense of the word
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it was a young 22 year old female who
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was working minding her own business had
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a future ahead of her
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had had children ahead of her marriage
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everything that we all
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enjoy
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and she was brutally attacked while she
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was sleeping
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investigators discovered that the killer
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entered the apartment through a window
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which had been pried open
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but there was no evidence of burglary
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nothing had been disturbed or broken
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they found no foreign fingerprints
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inside the apartment
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when i left there i i didn't have very
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good feelings at all because
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i think everything that i carried out
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there out of the scene was in one large
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bag and that consisted mostly of the
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items on the bed the bed sheets and the
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pullers and
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the blankets and so forth
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dawn bruce was last seen at tommy's
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restaurant two nights earlier where she
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worked the night shift as a waitress
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dawn met many people through her job
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which only added to the large pool of
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potential suspects
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investigators tom tiller and jim dorton
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interviewed dawn's neighbors in the
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apartment complex
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several neighbors were suspicious right
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from the start a subject who lived
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directly beside victim
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was on active parole
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and he was
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on parole for burglary and attempted
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rape while armed with a knife
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so uh immediately we felt that he was a
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good suspect
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there was very little evidence and
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there's one of these cases that when you
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left there that
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you just thought well this is going to
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be a hard one to
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to clear because of the lack of evidence
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[Music]
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with no murder weapon no witnesses and
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few leads
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it was going to be a difficult
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investigation
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[Music]
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she wanted to be a firefighter
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and she had passed her firefighter one
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and two and was volunteering as a
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firefighter
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so don was
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was just a happy person
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don wanted as much out of life as she
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could get into every minute of it
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she at some point in time would have had
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a family wanted children
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but that was not to be
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shortly after the rape and murder of 22
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year old dawn bruce
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john alderman was assigned to prosecute
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the case when you get a crime like this
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that really violates
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a person
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you get a sense of indignation that
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that's impossible to escape
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a sense of indignation that
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someone being used and abused
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like that
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investigators began focusing their
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attention on the few bits of physical
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evidence they had
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forensic experts discovered that the
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fatal injury was a single stab wound in
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the heart
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in the forensics lab
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scientists found two linear impressions
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on the pillowcase that were consistent
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with the blade of a knife
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the serrated edges appeared to be those
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of a hunting knife
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also on the pillowcase
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they found what appeared to be
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a partial fingerprint in dawn's blood
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but the fabric was textured which made
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any kind of fingerprint analysis
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impossible
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the print
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was almost invisible
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even to a trained eye the ridge detail
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was very faint and we had to really
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study it because as we studied it under
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magnification you enlarged the fabric
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weave which
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had a tendency to
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totally eradicate the rich detail so at
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that point in time i did not have a
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whole lot of hope for that fingerprint
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there was rich detail on the print but
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in my opinion at the time i didn't think
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it was very much
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i knew if that's all that we would ever
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have and it could not be
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enhanced in any way then we wouldn't
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have much of a case unless we got a lot
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more evidence coming in that we didn't
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think we would get
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traces of semen also were found at the
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scene
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serology tests indicated the killer had
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type a blood
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this eliminated dawn's boyfriend as well
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as dawn's neighbor who was on parole for
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rape and burglary
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dawn had another neighbor
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robert knight
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who had some prior arrest for drug
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possession
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robert knight had made comments to the
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victim
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as she was outside washing her car or
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going to and from her automobile to her
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apartment this subject would make
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comments to her in a
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sexual suggestive nature
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and
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he became a suspect
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robert knight had type a blood
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consistent with the semen sample from
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the crime scene
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but he had an alibi for the night of the
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murder
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he said he was with his girlfriend at
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the time
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and the fingerprint on the pillowcase
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did not appear to match the fingerprints
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on file for robert knight
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we tried traditional photography
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everything that we knew at that point in
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time also to develop some contrast
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between the ridges and the fabric
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but basically those techniques were not
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satisfactory at that point in time we
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couldn't get it to a point where we felt
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like we had an identifiable print
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scientists tried various chemical
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processes to improve the print on the
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pillowcase
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but every time they enhanced it
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they also enhanced the threads of the
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pillowcase
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investigators were no closer to
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identifying the print on the pillowcase
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than they were the day after the murder
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the fingerprint was something that we
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knew we had
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clearly was observed it clearly was seen
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but
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no one knew what to do with it because
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it was in a medium
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in blood on a medium on a pillow case
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against a pattern of the pillow case
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that made it unreadable
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and if there was some way to make that
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print readable it could take on
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as vibrant a forensic
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persuader as dna evidence and maybe some
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more
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then investigators got a break
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every year we have a late and print
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conference which encompasses all the
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late and print examiners in virginia
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it's a training seminar basically and
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the imaging people there one of the
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vendors brought their imaging system
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there i was highly skeptical of it had
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never seen it used in a
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forensic case but since we had nothing
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else other than this very faint print on
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fabric we thought it was worth a try
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the new system was called image
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enhancement technology
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image enhancement uses a computer to
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identify patterns like those woven into
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the pillowcase
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once the pattern was identified it was
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subtracted from the image leaving only
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the ridge patterns of the fingerprint
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behind
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after 10 hours of testing
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the fabric pattern was subtracted
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and what began to emerge
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was a partial thumbprint of the killer
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[Music]
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investigators knew that they had to
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identify the fingerprint on the
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pillowcase in order to solve
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dawn bruce's murder
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the primary suspect in this case was one
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of dawn's neighbors robert knight who
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had a history of drug abuse
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knight said he had an alibi that he was
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with his girlfriend on the night of the
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murder
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but his girlfriend said
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knight wasn't with her for the entire
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evening
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the evidence indicated the crime
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occurred about between three and four
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roughly that saturday morning he claimed
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to be with his girlfriend all night but
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his girlfriend said no he was not with
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me for about that period of time between
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three and four
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the fingerprints on file for robert
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knight did not have enough ridge detail
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to determine if they matched the print
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on the pillowcase
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knight voluntarily gave a second set of
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prints but again there was not enough
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ridge detail to make a comparison
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each time that we would would show our
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presence around him he got a little bit
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more uh stand standoffish and
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not as cooperative and accused of
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accused us of harassing him and
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he just he's changed entirely his
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personality and his uh
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willingness to help he he did not want
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us to come around anymore
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now the prosecution was in a difficult
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position
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if they could not identify the
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fingerprint as nights
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the defense attorney would use that
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against the prosecution at a trial
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the defense attorneys would have said
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whose fingerprint is it we don't know
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we'll never know and that fingerprint is
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a killer and it's not his fingerprint or
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it can't be proved to be his fingerprint
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so in our line of work you really need
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to answer all the questions and if you
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don't
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the defense attorney asked those
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questions at closing arguments
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but prosecutors gambled they arrested
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knight for dawn's murder
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pinning their hopes on the new
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fingerprint technology and the
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scientists ability to match knight's
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fingerprints
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after night's arrest
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norm tiller kept a close eye on the
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technique police used to fingerprint him
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making certain that each finger was
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carefully rolled from nail to nail for
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the clearest set of prints possible as
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soon as i
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saw a good suitable roll print
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i took that straight back to my office
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and began that examination
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but tiller did not rush to judgment he
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took his time after one month of
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analysis and retesting
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norm tiller found
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what he was looking for
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the print on the pillowcase
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was a left thumb print
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matched the outside of robert knight's
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left thumb
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i spent additional time doing comparison
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work and just analyzing the print from
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every angle so to speak before we
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actually affected the identification and
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even then i had another
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examiner go behind me and take a look at
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everything that i had done to make sure
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there were no errors made in the process
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but there was one more hurdle the image
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enhancement technology was so new
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it had never been accepted as evidence
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in court
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i was concerned at that point in time
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that the evidence may not be accepted
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within the scientific community
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as a good science this was the first
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time that anybody had used it take it
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into court
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into a courtroom where it was going to
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be actually challenged
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and it was going to be fought
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a hearing was held to determine whether
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forensic evidence from this new
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fingerprinting technology should be
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admitted
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the defense argued that it was
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hocus-pocus technology which manipulated
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and changed the image of the fingerprint
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pam ringer was the expert who testified
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for the prosecution explaining that the
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human eye can distinguish between 16 and
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32 shades of grey
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but a computer can distinguish
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256 shades
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ringer said the image enhancement
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technology simply eliminated the fabric
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patterns
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then made the dark areas of the
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fingerprint darker and the light areas
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between the ridges lighter
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if somebody as dumb as i am can
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understand this when i got done with her
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over the course of a day
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and doing some studying afterwards
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i think the explanation becomes one that
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anyone can understand this imaging
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enhancing doesn't change the
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the data at all what we had was a
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photograph of the fingerprint and
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pam ringer said i went ahead and did it
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that day
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on march the 27th i could do it again
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today i can show you i can replicate it
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100 times if i need to she did it in
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stages she took the the first the
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pattern out then she took the weave out
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and as you watch it you can see the
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print didn't change the print didn't
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move the lines of of the lands and
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grooves of the the print didn't change
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at all and i think that graphically was
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the best persuader for for judge culp in
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the case
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the judge was convinced he did not
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believe
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that the computer enhancements altered
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the bloody fingerprint
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a legal precedent had been set
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but prosecutors wanted more than the
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fingerprint before heading to trial
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[Music]
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robert douglas knight was charged with
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the capital murder of 22 year old dawn
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bruce
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but police still didn't have the murder
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weapon
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a faint fingerprint
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left on a flimsy pillowcase would be
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considered firm evidence in court
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and prosecutors soon had a lead on the
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murder weapon
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six months after the murder
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a maintenance man working in night's old
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apartment discovered something behind an
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access panel in knight's old bedroom
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i don't know what possessed him to do
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that i think there was a plumbing
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problem that caused him to take it off
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when he did he looked in and found a
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hunting knife in a sheath
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in the forensics lab
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scientists performed a simple test to
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determine if this was the weapon used in
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the murder
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using photographic overlays the pattern
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of the knife was compared to the knife
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impressions found on dawn bruce's
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pillowcase
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they matched
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the final piece of evidence was the dna
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testing of the semen found at the crime
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scene
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it matched the dna profile of robert
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knight
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[Music]
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prosecutors believe that dawn bruce
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arrived home from work around 1am and
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went right to bed
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[Music]
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sometime around four o'clock
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robert knight went to the front window
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of dawn's apartment pried it open
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and crept upstairs
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[Music]
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he stabbed dawn in the heart
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then
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sexually assaulted her
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as she bled to death
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but knight made mistakes
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he wiped the knife on the pillowcase
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leaving the impression of the murder
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weapon later matched to the knife found
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in knight's apartment
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he also left the partial bloody
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fingerprint on the pillowcase matched
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with the latest in computer technology
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facing an overwhelming amount of
00:19:57
physical evidence and in an effort to
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avoid the death penalty
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robert douglas knight pled guilty
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he was sentenced to four life terms in
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prison
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i'm very disappointed that
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robert knight didn't get the death
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penalty i think he deserved the death
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penalty i think the forensic science
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played a major part in solving the case
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um
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some cases are solved just by by pure
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interviewing without any evidence and
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they are solved but i think this is one
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of those cases that would not have been
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solved
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had it not been for the uh forensic
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evidence
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that was that was at the scene
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when we arrested knight we had
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a bare circumstantial case that's all we
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had
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and it went to being the absolutely
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strongest forensic case i've ever
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prosecuted in 24 years the only thing
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that stands out with me personally is
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that i
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i believe robert knight deserved and
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should have received the death penalty
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i don't believe he
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deserves to be breathing
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eating
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sleeping laughing whatever emotions he
00:21:06
may experience
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i know one of these days he'll probably
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be walking the street again
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but it will be a long time and
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even though justice was served i think
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he was deserving of the death penalty
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i told my other daughter
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one day when we were talking
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about life and about her plans
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for family when she said that she didn't
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think she was going to have children
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because she didn't know that
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she could go through
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what i had gone through
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and i told her if i knew ahead of time
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that dawn was going to be murdered
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i would still have had dawn because she
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brought such joy
00:21:51
to us as her family
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not to ever not have children
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for fear of loss
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because life is not a guarantee
00:22:03
[Music]
00:22:14
[Music]
00:22:27
[Applause]
00:22:29
[Music]
00:22:34
you
