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[Music]
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she worked behind the scenes in a
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television newsroom
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but one day instead of covering the news
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she became the news
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where you live this is nbc 12 news first
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at 4.
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the crime scene told a terrible tale of
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violence
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but it would take dna a behavioral
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profile and a computer
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to solve the case
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[Music]
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[Music]
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in july 1994
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22 year old hope denise hall and her
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three-year-old son robert lived in a
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suburb of richmond virginia in this
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apartment complex
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hope had just graduated from virginia
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state university at the top of her class
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her focus was journalism and she wanted
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to work in the highly competitive
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television news industry
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her big break came at the nbc affiliate
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in richmond
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she was very eager she was very focused
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she was very mature for her age hope
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really wanted to be an honor reporter
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and an anchor at the time she was
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working for us she was editing tape and
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so she pretty much gathered the material
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for the broadcast and put it together
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hope gained her maturity through
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adversity
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at age nine she was diagnosed with
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advanced kidney cancer
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after five years of treatment hope was
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cured
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at the age of 19 hope became pregnant
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while still in college she and the
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baby's father shared custody of their
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son but decided marriage would have been
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a mistake
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i think we realized that we needed a lot
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of growing up we had to grow up in order
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to really take on that whole
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responsibility of of marriage
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and i think
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that was the bottom line
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by all accounts hope was a devoted
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mother and a determined career woman
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that's why on the afternoon of july 11
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1994
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co-workers in the newsroom became
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alarmed when she did not report to work
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calls to hope's home went unanswered
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we had a crew in the area so we sent
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them by to find out what might be going
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on and did knock on our door
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they went in and when they got there
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there was police tape set up around the
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apartment complex
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you could actually
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smell
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death if that's something that you can
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imagine
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when you walked in you could see the
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blood on the door
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hope was found dead on the bedroom floor
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she had been stabbed to death
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it was one of the worst crime scenes
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i've ever saw because it was blood
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everywhere
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[Music]
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hope's apartment door had been locked
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and showed no sign of forced entry
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no valuables were missing
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there was a bloody handprint near the
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door but it was too smudged for analysis
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[Music]
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kitchen knives from hope's apartment
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were used as the murder weapons
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[Music]
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two bent knives were on the kitchen
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counter a third knife lay on the bed a
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fourth was on the bathroom sink with
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water still running
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in the kitchen police found a broken
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blood stained drinking glass
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dried blood droplets formed a trail from
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the kitchen to the bedroom
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the phone was on the bedroom floor
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ripped from the wall
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hope didn't deserve this no human being
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deserved this
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as officers combed the crime scene
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they realized one key item was
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conspicuously absent
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her child
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[Music]
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as police rushed to find the child and
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the killer hope's co-workers rushed to
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put her story on the air
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a young woman involved in producing the
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news was now
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the central figure in the day's top
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story
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[Music]
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investigators had two mysteries to solve
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who killed hope hall and where was her
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three-year-old son
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police contacted the baby's father
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robert kinney
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i remember i was
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at home at my mom's house
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and i just walked in the door
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and
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a mommy told me that a detective had
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called
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kenny told police that their son young
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robert was with him in northern virginia
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about a two hours drive away
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the child was spending the summer there
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police asked kinney to come in for
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questioning
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my father rolled down with me i couldn't
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feel anything i i
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i just
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i was in a zombie-like stage
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police believed hope knew her killer
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because her front door was found locked
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somebody had a key the only way they
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could have locked that deadbolt was to
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have a key on the outside and lock it
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we have to find this person no one can
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stab someone repeatedly and cut their
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throat three times and
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leave them to rot on the floor
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without them hitting again
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this crime was eerily similar to the
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ones committed by richmond's south side
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strangler who raped and murdered five
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women in their homes
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that was a case that terrified
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absolutely terrified the community
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people were boarding up windows and just
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changing their life plans
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the south side strangler timothy spencer
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was executed for those crimes shortly
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before hope paul's murder
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spencer's case made history
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he was the first person put to death in
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the united states based on dna evidence
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timothy spencer's case
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brought awareness to law enforcement
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certainly in this area to what dna can
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do
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spencer's case prompted virginia
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lawmakers to establish the country's
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first dna data bank
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which put the dna profiles of all
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convicted felons of virginia's prisons
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into a computer
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so many felons
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have a tendency to commit crimes again
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once they are released from the from the
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system
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back at hope paul's apartment
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scientists found unidentified blood
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presumably the killers on the broken
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drinking glass in the kitchen
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the knife on the bathroom sink also had
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the killer's blood
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testing also found signs of sexual
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assault
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from the crime scene evidence
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forensic scientists performed a dq alpha
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and poly marker dna analysis
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polymarker consisted of five different
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areas of the dna dq alpha was a sixth
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area of the dna so these were just six
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areas of the dna that we were looking at
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for differences between individuals
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when scientists entered the dna of hope
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paul's killer into their database
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they could find no match
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so investigators looked elsewhere
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most homicides are committed by people
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where there is some
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level of relationship
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it can be very close or it can be
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not very close at all
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police spoke with the baby's father
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robert kinney he had an alibi he was at
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his home over a two-hour drive away at
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the time of the murder
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even with this alibi
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kinney voluntarily submitted a blood
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sample for dna testing
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i was you know more than happy to assist
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them in any way i can to you know
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eliminate me so that they can focus on
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whoever is responsible
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um so
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that didn't bother me
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but his dna did not match blood found at
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the crime scene so kinney was cleared
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relieved
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knowing one thing in scientific data
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proving another is two different things
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my gut said he did not do this
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next investigators looked into hope's
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lifestyle for possible clues
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i knew how careful she was
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about her own safety
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i just couldn't believe that she would
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be anywhere where she'd be at risk
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for being murdered
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we didn't see anything that indicated
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that she was out running around
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or anything else it would make us say oh
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maybe she ran into somebody in a bar or
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something like that that
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she could have brought home
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but investigators found two potential
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witnesses
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two neighbors saw a man without a shirt
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running from hope's apartment building
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on the night of her murder
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they said he had a tattoo on his arm and
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chest which looked like greek symbols
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the brand was of the shape of a
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horseshoe with a lightning bolt
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going through which is the emblem of the
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omega sapphire
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[Music]
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omega sci-fi was a local college
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fraternity
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hope's friends and co-workers told
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police that this description sounded
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like a man hope recently dated
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hope allegedly told friends the man got
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abusive when she tried to end their
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relationship
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the ex-boyfriend's name was leroy quick
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police discovered he too had an omega
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sci-fi tattoo on his arm and chest
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both witnesses identified quick in a
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police lineup as the man they saw
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running from hope's apartment
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police were convinced they had their
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killer
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but they were shocked when they got the
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results of kwik's dna test
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[Music]
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in the search for hope hall's killer
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police turned their attention to hope's
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ex-boyfriend 29 year old leroy quick
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witnesses claimed they saw him running
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from hope's apartment building on the
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night of the murder
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this is nbc 12 news first at 4.
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police made a break in this case just
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before sunrise around 6 a.m they
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arrested 29 year old leroy d quick iii
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all of us were surprised because it was
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someone that she had not even mentioned
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to us
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hope's co-workers told police the couple
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met that summer
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quick denied having a key to hope's
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apartment he denied being at hope's
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apartment the night of her murder and he
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denied any involvement in the crime
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it was a roller coaster we felt that
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everything was about to come to an end
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we're about to find out
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exactly what happened
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and
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that wasn't the case
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[Music]
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investigators were dumbfounded when they
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heard that leroy quick's dna did not
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match the crime scene evidence
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i was somewhat surprised we have the
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witnesses that identified him
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coming out of the apartment
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running
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without a shirt on
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jumping in a car
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taking off in a brisk motion
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god help leroy quick if it hadn't been
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for the dna
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because they'd they'd have made a case
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on him
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police re-interviewed hundreds of hope's
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neighbors friends and family to see if
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any clue had been missed
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nothing
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nothing at all
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and believe me when i say we interviewed
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a lot of people
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i think i can go on record to say we
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practically interview everybody in how
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commander apartments
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now nearly a year after her murder
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the trail of hope paul's killer grew
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cold
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but hope's parents refused to give up
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they maintained constant contact with
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police and wrote to dozens of lawmakers
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pleading for help in finding their
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daughter's killer
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not just because he had murdered hope
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but because he was a threat and a menace
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it was very frustrating for everyone it
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was very heartbreaking for her mother
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and we saw the anguish that her mother
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was going through
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as she tried to find an answer to this
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after clearing the two most obvious
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suspects
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forensic scientists performed a second
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more discriminating dna test of the
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killer's dna
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using
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rflp
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restriction fragment length polymorphism
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at the time
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rflp was the most discriminating dna
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test available
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rflp measured various sections of the
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killer's dna to determine the lengths
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unique to that individual
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means that there is a much better chance
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of
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telling
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my dna apart from yours
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this newer more complete dna profile of
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hope paul's killer was once again
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entered into the virginia dna data bank
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the computer compares the unidentified
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dna profile to the dna of 8 000
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convicted felons
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i'd been working on it for a long time
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so it had become like my case you know
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of all the cases that i'd worked on this
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was the one that i really wanted to get
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a hit on two years earlier there had
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been no match but this time
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was different
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the blood and semen evidence in hope
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hall's apartment matched that of
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shermaine johnson
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his dna profile was put into the
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database because of his recent
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conviction for two other rapes
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johnson lived in hope hole's apartment
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complex and was just 16 years old at the
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time of her murder
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and it was a big eye-opener for me i
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always thought criminals had scars and
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and looked like criminals
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this guy did not look at all like a
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criminal
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this was the data bank's first cold hit
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in a homicide case
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an innocent face like cheraine johnson
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you would think someone that innocent
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looking that young would not have
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committed this type of crime but he did
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investigators thought they finally had
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the break they desperately needed
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but if sherman johnson was hope's killer
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why had witnesses identified hope's
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ex-boyfriend
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as the man running from hope's apartment
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[Music]
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a computer database identified shermaine
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johnson as pope paul's rapist and
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murderer
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jermaine johnson's dna was in virginia's
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database because of two convictions for
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rapes that were strikingly similar to
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hope paul's case
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when questioned by police johnson
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claimed he was innocent
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he admitted knocking on hope's apartment
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door and asking her for a drink of water
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but johnson said another man opened the
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front door with the key
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pulled out a knife and ordered johnson
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to leave
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this was consistent with the
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eyewitnesses who saw not charmaine
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johnson but another man running from
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hope's apartment later that same night
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was it possible
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chermaine johnson wasn't the killer
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investigators asked fbi behavioral
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profiler mark safric to compare
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johnson's past criminal behavior to the
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hope paul case
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i mean is he relatively
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criminally unsophisticated yes that's
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not uncommon with younger offenders but
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my job wasn't to look at germaine i
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wasn't asked to look at germain i wasn't
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even asked to consider the offender i
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was simply asked to look at behavior
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safric went to hope hall's apartment to
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better understand the crime scene
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he also examined photos and reports from
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additional rapes johnson was suspected
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of committing
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suffrage found many behavioral links in
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all five crimes
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all of the victims were young and lived
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close to shamane johnson's home
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there is a dynamic that connects all of
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them contrary to many sexual assaults
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where the offender
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assault contacts
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and captures and assaults the victim all
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in the same area here we have a guy who
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wants to capture and then subsequently
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move all of his victims to another
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location to engage in the sexual assault
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in each case johnson used some kind of
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rules to gain entrance to the victim's
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home
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and once inside threatened the victims
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with one of their own kitchen knives
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when he has the option for lots of
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different knives even larger more
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threatening knives butcher knives longer
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bladed knives he he chooses a shorter
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bladed knife he's more comfortable with
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that type of weapon
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prosecutors were now convinced that
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johnson went to hope's apartment that
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night asking for a drink of water
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i hope it's cold enough
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once inside there was a struggle the
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glass fell to the floor
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johnson grabbed a knife
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the trail of blood indicated the attack
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started in the kitchen then led to the
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bedroom
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johnson returned to the kitchen numerous
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times for other knives after each was
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damaged
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at some point he picked up the broken
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pieces of glass cutting his finger and
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leaving his dna behind
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after the murder
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the evidence shows johnson washed his
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hands in the bathroom sink but he didn't
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remove all of his own blood
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he was trying to clean up he may have
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been injured maybe that's why the water
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was left running in the bathroom or it
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may have just been that he was just
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trying to clean the knife he just didn't
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clean up good
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enough but one nagging question remained
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if the witnesses were correct in their
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identification
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why was leroy quick running from hope's
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apartment that night
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prosecutors don't believe quick had
00:19:52
anything to do with the murder
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but there is speculation that crick may
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have gone to hope's apartment that night
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used a key to get in and found hope dead
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then fled fearing he would be blamed and
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locked the apartment door behind him
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quick however
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denies this
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regardless germain johnson was tried and
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convicted of hope paul's murder and this
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time was sentenced to death
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i think the guy is an animal
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i don't know whether i want to push the
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needle but i certainly would like to
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witness the
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pushing of the needle
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and if
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nobody else would do it i would
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certainly do it
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investigators say
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it was the confluence of dna evidence
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computer technology and the foresight to
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collect and catalog the dna profiles of
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all convicted felons that brought
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tremaine johnson to justice
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we interviewed everybody in that
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apartment complex and charmaine
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johnson's name never came up without um
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the dna data bank without that forensic
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evidence
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i unfortunately i would say that this
00:21:06
case would not have been solved
00:21:09
we are trying to push international debt
00:21:11
databasing we feel very very strongly
00:21:14
that criminals don't stay put they move
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from city to city state to state
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countries to countries
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and we want to make sure
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that the clear message is sent out that
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no matter where you go no matter what
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you think you've gotten away with your
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dna and law enforcement will be waiting
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for you
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[Music]
00:21:48
[Music]
00:22:07
you
