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in 1988
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the body of a young woman was discovered
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in an ohio river
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under ice
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most of the evidence found at the crime
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scene hairs fibers and fingerprints had
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been washed away
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but the victim's six-year-old son
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unwittingly told investigators all they
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needed to know about the killer
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and he did it without saying a word
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the clue
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was in his genes
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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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a troop of boy scouts headed to possum
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run creek one saturday morning in
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january of 1988 their mission was to
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pick up aluminum cans for a recycling
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project
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look
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in the icy creek in rural ohio
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they spotted what appeared to be a
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mannequin
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they saw something just under the ice
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submerged
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it was the body of a young woman
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local police took every possible
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precaution to preserve trace evidence by
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wrapping the victim's body in a sheet
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before taking it to the morgue
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a check of missing persons reports
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identified the woman as 32 year old
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margie coffey
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the single mother of two young children
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she had been reported missing 10 days
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earlier
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the police had found her vehicle down
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off of park avenue east by a bar and she
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was a missing person by the time
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this body was located
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in the
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over by the mohican
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park
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the autopsy revealed that margie coffey
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had been strangled with her own scarf
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the coroner estimated she had been
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dumped in the creek 10 days earlier the
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same day she disappeared
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margie raymie was her maiden name
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she was one of six children who grew up
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in the heartlands of ohio on the
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outskirts of a town named butler
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and she was an outgoing girl personal
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well she was a robust girl
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and
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she loved life
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[Music]
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she worked on the farm
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and then she would help her mother on
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the farm
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they had a lot of cattle to take care of
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and she helped in that
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margie grew up in a loving religious
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home
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but in her teenage years as most kids do
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she yearned for independence
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began spending most of her time in
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mansfield a larger city about 15 miles
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northwest of butler
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she made friends with an unsavory crowd
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she got into some activities that were
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subject to prosecution by the law
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and
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they were mainly street crimes that type
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of thing that
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probably were very low level but
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that's how we got to be acquainted with
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her
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during our work on the street
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those street crimes allegedly included
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prostitution and illegal drug use
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eventually margie rejected that life she
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met a man named steve coffey the two
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married and had a daughter angie
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but the marriage soured and margie and
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steve divorced
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to support herself and her daughter
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margie worked as a waitress
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she also enrolled in college to study
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law enforcement
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and during this time margie had another
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child out of wedlock this time a son
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brandon
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police investigating her murder wondered
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if margie had returned to the streets to
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support her children
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well i know her family helped her some
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but she didn't make a lot of money and
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going to school
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no she didn't make a lot of money
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working in a restaurant
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as police knew from experience
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life on the streets meant special
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dangers and a large pool of potential
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suspects
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get away
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maybe there's somebody in her past that
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has a reason to want her dead
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maybe she's uh done something or not
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paid something uh
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maybe some street person
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has
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come to this conclusion they ought to
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kill her
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with no suspects or leads
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police hoped that the rushing water of
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possum run creek had not washed away
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evidence which could lead them to
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margie's killer
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[Music]
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when 32 year old margie coffey was found
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strangled in a frozen creek police
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wondered if her past had finally caught
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up with her
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in her particular case since she had a
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background of some activity that was
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certainly against the law
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we looked into
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into that possibility that she may have
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slipped back into that
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drug environment
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but friends said that wasn't the case
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margie had been focusing her attention
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on her family and her education
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they were just adamant that they had not
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seen her she hadn't been around and to
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their knowledge she had completely
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cleaned up
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all of her past activities
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margie was raising taking care of the
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children on her own and she loved her
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children she loved them she really loved
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them and i feel that margie was a good
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mother i really do
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she had also rediscovered religion
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i believe she wanted to be a christian
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lady from all that i could gather from
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her that's what she was striving for
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to
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do to be better to live better to act
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better
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and forget all about anything in the
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past
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police learned that margie had been
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actively dating since her divorce
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among the men she was seeing were two
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mansfield police officers
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both of whom were married
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one was robert lemon a veteran of the
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force
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he indicated us that it had ended
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sometime before that
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probably a year and a half
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minimum
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and that he had not had any contact with
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her and even spoken to her for any
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reason
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the other was lieutenant charles oswalt
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he too said his relationship with margie
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was over
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lieutenant oswald was
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very much in love with his wife
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oftentimes spoke about what they did on
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weekends and things like that
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he was a type of police officer that
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other police officers i would say would
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try to emulate
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lieutenant oswald furnished a police
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report indicating he had been on duty
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that night on a drug investigation
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the trail of margie's killer was growing
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cold
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we had no fingerprints we had no weapon
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we had to explore the other
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possibilities and those possibilities
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really were going to come from her
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margie coffey was last seen alive at
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this diner
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sitting in a booth with her school books
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open studying for a class
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detective david messmore interviewed the
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owner of the diner who said that
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lieutenant oswalt was in the diner the
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same time as margie
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[Music]
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the two weren't sitting together but
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they did acknowledge one another
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how are you
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it was a very distressing situation
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not only did i work with him
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i
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knew he was a very good policeman but
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i've been friends with him
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and
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it was just it was very upsetting to me
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to think that he might have been
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involved in a crime like that
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when confronted with this information
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lieutenant oswalt refused to comment
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[Music]
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margie's parents laid their daughter to
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rest
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an excruciating task few parents are
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prepared for
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marge's parents mr miserami suffered
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from that day on there was times that
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they would just break down and cry
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when they would see a picture of margie
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or
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when
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when mrs ramey would talk to me
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little did police realize
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that margie's own son would provide a
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tantalizing clue
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one that would lead them to the killer
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as the search for margie coffee's killer
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continued a mansfield police officer
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told homicide investigators about a
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suspicious incident that occurred the
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night margie was killed
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the officer said he saw lieutenant
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charles oswalt who had been linked
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romantically to margie on foot out of
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uniform and behaving strangely near the
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police station
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and he had a leather jacket on which
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would be
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unusual at that time of the night due to
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the fact that he was working this
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officer said what's going on how are you
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doing and he kind of ignored him
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and he continued on walking into the
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police department
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through the back way
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oswalt's behavior cast doubt on his
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claim that he was investigating a drug
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operation that night
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for him to be
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nervous and excited in that period of
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time was kind of unusual
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that kind of took the luster or the
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punch out of his alibi
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in the forensics lab
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margie coffey's clothing would soon tell
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a story of its own
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we had a scarf you had leg warmers you
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had a heavy coat
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once the clothing is dry basically it'll
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be hung on a hanger just like your
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clothing would be at home there'll be a
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piece of paper placed underneath in case
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anything naturally falls off and then
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the article is simply held and scraped
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with a spatula all the way down to help
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lift these articles off and let them
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fall onto the paper to be collected
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while most of the trace evidence had
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been washed away by the water a very
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small amount remained
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recovered a number of hairs and fibers
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in particular two fibers red in color
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the presence of these two fibers about a
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quarter of an inch in length and no more
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than twice the size of a human hair
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across
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were all we had to really work with
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while different fibers may look similar
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to the naked eye
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under a microscope they are very
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distinctive
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the foreign fibers on margie's coat and
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leg warmers were triangular in shape or
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trilobal
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from the side this trilobal shape gives
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the appearance of having a stripe
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running along the side
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tri-lobal carpet is usually found in
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high traffic areas like hotels and
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automobile interiors since it hides dirt
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tony tambasco took carpet samples from
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every location where margie had been in
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the days before her murder
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tabasco thought he found what he was
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looking for in the home of margie's
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parents
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at margie's parents house we
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found a floor mat that actually had red
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carpet the red carpet fibers in the
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floor mat look very similar to those
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that we had recovered from the victim
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but under a microscope that carpet was
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not similar to the fibers on margie's
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clothes
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since lieutenant oswalt was seen in the
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diner with margie on the night she
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disappeared
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tambasco wanted to examine the police
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cruiser oswalt had been driving that
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night
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most police vehicles are not carpeted
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because of heavy use and have rubber
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flooring instead
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but police records revealed that on the
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night in question lieutenant oswalt was
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the watch commander and the watch
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commander's vehicle was different from
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the others
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the unique thing about that particular
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cruiser cruiser number 306 was it was a
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supervisor's car it wasn't your standard
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police car that you buy every year with
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the fleet it was bought at a public
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auction
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the mansfield police had gone to an
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auction had purchased a chevy caprice
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classic
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a full-size car for their commanders and
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of course
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the
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upper echelon of the police department
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have a little nicer vehicle than
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the guys in the street
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the carpet in the watch commander's car
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was red
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tabasco took a small sample from the
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vehicle at first it looks similar to the
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carpet in margie's parents house
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but under a microscope
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the fibers told a different story and
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were similar in all respects to the
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fibers found on margie's clothing
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we looked at color you can see the
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colors the same we looked at diameter
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you can see the diameter is consistent
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we looked at the trilobal design and the
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pattern does show that
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chemical tests revealed that both sets
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of fibers had been dyed with the same
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chemicals
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but fiber evidence unlike dna or a
00:14:34
fingerprint is not definitive
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the presence of the fibers being
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consistent with the fibers in the
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vehicle
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is not an identification to the
00:14:42
exclusion of all others it's not an
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absolute there's no way anyone should to
00:14:47
come to court and there's no way anyone
00:14:49
can come to court and testify that that
00:14:51
fiber came from that carpet it's just
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not going to happen
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but even more damning evidence against
00:14:58
officer oswalt would come from margie's
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six-year-old son
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brandon
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[Music]
00:15:09
the circumstantial evidence in margie
00:15:12
coffee's murder all pointed to
00:15:14
lieutenant charles oswalt
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so did the forensic evidence the two red
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carpet fibers on margie's clothing were
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microscopically similar to the carpet in
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oswald's automobile
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[Music]
00:15:29
but the question haunting police was
00:15:32
motive
00:15:33
if oswald murdered margie coffey
00:15:37
why did he do it
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after margie had given birth to her
00:15:42
second child brandon she told social
00:15:45
services that she couldn't identify the
00:15:47
baby's father since the pregnancy was
00:15:49
the result of a rape
00:15:52
but later when she applied for financial
00:15:54
aid at college she was required to
00:15:57
identify brandon's father and explain
00:16:00
why she wasn't receiving child support
00:16:04
when she became a jehovah's witness and
00:16:06
they began to uh counsel with her they
00:16:09
found these details out they said look
00:16:13
you can't lie
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you tell the truth and
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she named
00:16:19
chuck oswalt as the father with this
00:16:22
news
00:16:23
prosecutors asked oswald to undergo a
00:16:26
paternity test
00:16:28
it revealed that the likelihood of
00:16:31
oswalt being brandon's father was
00:16:33
greater than 99
00:16:38
investigators also discovered that
00:16:40
oswald had refused to pay for child
00:16:43
support when margie asked possibly
00:16:46
because he didn't want his wife to find
00:16:48
out about his infidelity
00:16:51
lieutenant oswald was married i had
00:16:52
children
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in fact up until all of this broke his
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wife didn't know anything about margie
00:16:58
coffee did not know that he had a child
00:17:00
by another woman and so i'm sure that
00:17:03
her finding that out certainly was
00:17:06
motive for what happened
00:17:08
oswalt allegedly offered margie a few
00:17:11
thousand dollars from an insurance
00:17:12
settlement which margie refused as
00:17:15
insufficient
00:17:17
during charles oswalt's murder trial
00:17:19
prosecutors presented one more piece of
00:17:22
evidence against him
00:17:24
a woman who would once work for police
00:17:27
as a decoy in prostitution
00:17:29
investigations charlene dry sawyer
00:17:32
testified that she too had been having
00:17:35
an affair with oswalt
00:17:38
sawyer claimed that oswalt had not only
00:17:41
told her he murdered margie coffey he
00:17:44
also provided details of the crime
00:17:51
[Music]
00:17:55
sawyer said that after oswalt and margie
00:17:57
saw one another in the diner they went
00:18:00
to oswald's police car to talk
00:18:03
they discussed the child's support
00:18:05
matter and oswalt's offer of three
00:18:07
thousand dollars to end the dispute
00:18:12
no it's not enough with margie's refusal
00:18:15
the conversation grew heated and margie
00:18:17
threatened to disclose that oswald was
00:18:19
brandon's father i will file a lawsuit
00:18:22
and your wife and kids will find out
00:18:23
about this
00:18:26
margie slapped him
00:18:29
[Music]
00:18:31
oswalt responded by strangling her with
00:18:34
her own scarf
00:18:39
the forensic evidence reveals that
00:18:42
oswald put margie's lifeless body in the
00:18:45
back seat of his police car where her
00:18:47
coat and leg warmers picked up the tiny
00:18:50
red triangular shaped carpet fibers
00:18:56
later
00:18:57
prosecutors say oswalt drove to the
00:18:59
bridge over possum run creek and dumped
00:19:02
the body into the water in the mistaken
00:19:05
belief that any incriminating evidence
00:19:08
would be washed downstream
00:19:09
[Music]
00:19:21
you know when it's uh
00:19:23
when it waddles and it quacks it's
00:19:25
probably a duck and that's the case that
00:19:27
we had here
00:19:28
at his trial
00:19:30
lieutenant oswalt took the stand in his
00:19:32
own defense and denied killing margie
00:19:34
coffey
00:19:36
he repeated his claim that he had been
00:19:38
working alone that night on a drug
00:19:40
investigation and offered the type
00:19:42
police report to prove it
00:19:45
but prosecutors contended that the
00:19:48
report was bogus implying that oswalt
00:19:51
himself had typed the phony report after
00:19:54
the murder to give himself an alibi
00:19:58
[Music]
00:19:59
the jury found lieutenant charles oswalt
00:20:02
guilty of voluntary manslaughter and
00:20:05
abusing a corpse
00:20:08
he was sentenced to 10 to 25 years in
00:20:11
prison
00:20:14
to this day
00:20:16
oswalt insists he did not kill margie
00:20:19
coffee
00:20:20
[Music]
00:20:21
he may deny
00:20:23
and he may go to the grave denied it
00:20:27
i think
00:20:28
i think he is guilty now
00:20:31
if i'm wrong god forgive me
00:20:36
for residents of mansfield
00:20:38
the ultimate betrayal
00:20:41
is a policeman who commits murder
00:20:44
i mean it's bad enough to murder someone
00:20:46
but then when you supposed to be
00:20:49
uh
00:20:50
protecting people
00:20:52
and then using the office of authority
00:20:56
to kill someone then that's the lowest
00:21:00
murder that i can uh thank god
00:21:04
he will never ever ever admit that crime
00:21:07
i don't care if they keep him in jail
00:21:09
till he dies he will go to he will go to
00:21:12
his grave with that in his
00:21:14
in his mind he will never ever
00:21:17
and i really believe that
00:21:20
prosecutors say that it was solid police
00:21:23
work and some luck that helped seal the
00:21:26
case
00:21:28
the presence of these red fibers and
00:21:30
that carpet
00:21:31
was simply a shot in the dark
00:21:33
a police car in our own
00:21:35
backyard a police car in our fleet
00:21:38
the uniqueness of that police car being
00:21:39
bought at auction
00:21:41
the chance of that one in a million
00:21:44
and without the forensic evidence
00:21:47
lieutenant oswald might not have been
00:21:49
brought to justice
00:21:51
i'd say this was one of the key pieces
00:21:54
of evidence
00:21:55
and it would have been more difficult
00:21:57
for a jury to have convicted him if not
00:22:00
impossible
00:22:03
[Music]
00:22:16
[Music]
00:22:24
[Music]
00:22:33
you
