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[Applause]
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shortly after Thanksgiving in
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1987 an intruder broke into the Tucker
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residence in Arlington
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Virginia it might have been just another
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statistic but the crime committed that
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night launched a new era in police
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investigations
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[Music]
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this is how DNA evidence and
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psychological profiling helped catch a
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serial killer and set an innocent man
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free
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[Music]
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[Music]
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[Applause]
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everything about her was very gentle she
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was very
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softspoken um just had this amazing
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softness about her um this human quality
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44-year-old Susan Tucker was a
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Publications editor who worked for the
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United States forestry service she was
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spending the Thanksgiving holiday alone
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since her husband Reggie was out of the
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country in Wales on a business trip
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neither of us could put the phone
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down we kept saying I love you and we
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said this over and over again I don't
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know how many times but without
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explanation telephone calls went
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unanswered and neighbors noticed her
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bedroom window wide open in the cold
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November weather so they called police
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as they approached the front door they
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noticed it was a jar inside a woman's
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purse was lying on the foyer floor I
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arranged call on the Monday couldn't get
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an answer just just ran sucker I rang
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again I rang
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again I don't know how many times I
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around Susan Tucker's badly decomposed
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body was lying face down on the bed dead
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she had been dead for four or 5 days her
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hands were tied behind her back her feet
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were tied the head hanging over the side
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of the bed almost she had been strangled
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and possibly raped it appeared that the
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killer more than likely was was inside
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the home for for quite some time I mean
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it wasn't a just very you know quick in
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andout type of a situation uh you know
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many of the the drawers had been you
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know ransacked had been gone through
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when Reggie Tucker first first heard the
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news he was devastated she said sir I've
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got bad
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news and I knew it I just knew it at
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that
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point I just you know
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my my whole
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world just fell
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away Detective Joe horgus of the
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Arlington Police homicide unit was
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quickly assigned to the case his task
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wouldn't be easy for for one thing the
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killer had been careful he had worn
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gloves and left no fingerprints this has
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been White Plain it had been raining on
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the night of the murder and he
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meticulously cleaned the area around his
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point of entry he's smart enough uh to
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know that Footprints which is what we
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were we would have gotten from that
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would maybe come back to Hanam which
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kind of tells you maybe some past
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experience on burglaries police
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collected the sheets night gown and the
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large sleeping bag which covered Susan
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Tucker's body to look for possible blood
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and seon stains they found hairs on the
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bedding around Susan Tucker's body in
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the bathroom sink and on a washcloth
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discovered outside on the clothes line
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and they gathered shards of broken glass
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from the basement window everything was
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taken to the forensics lab for analysis
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but perhaps the most important clue was
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all also the most obvious the rope and
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Knots used to strangle Susan Tucker the
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police were convinced they had seen this
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Killer's work
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before 3 years earlier a 34-year-old
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lawyer named Carolyn ham had been raped
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and strangled in her home only four
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blocks away from Susan Tucker the killer
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entered the ham residence the same way
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through a basement window and tied his
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victim using the same knots and it's not
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a common occurrence not not common at
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all to see victims killed by using
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ligatures to strangle them uh ropes
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tying up victims um that's it's really
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quite rare but the H case was closed
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when this man David Vasquez confessed to
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her murder and was sentenced to 35 years
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in prison could he have had an
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accomplice Horus spoke to him for
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several hours and from the way he was
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talking and everything and answering my
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questions I didn't think he knew a damn
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thing about Carolin H's murder while
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detective horgus began his search for
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Susan Tucker's killer 100 miles away in
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the capital city of Richmond police
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there were investigating a series of
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murders shockingly similar the body of
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35-year-old Debbie Davis was found
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inside her South Richmond apartment
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she'd been raped and stranged in less
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than a month two young women had been
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raped and strangled in their homes just
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a few blocks from each other in each
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case there was a forced entry with the
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murderer entering by cutting the screens
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and entering through an open window each
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victim was strangled both victims were
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quite between the ages of 30 and 35
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years 2 weeks later he struck again this
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time a 15-year-old girl raped and
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strangled in her bedroom while her
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family was sleeping
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all three had been bound raped and
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strangled with rope the knots were
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identical to the ones used in the
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Arlington cases detective Horus
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suspected that the killer of Susan
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Tucker was the same man who murdered
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Carol and ham and the three women in
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Richmond if horgus was correct a Serial
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murderer was loose on a 100m killing
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spree
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detective horgus believed the man who
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raped and strangled Susan Tucker had
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also murdered Carolyn ham 3 years
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earlier horgus also believed the same
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man was responsible for the three rapes
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and murders in Richmond 100 miles away
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the Richmond police weren't so sure I
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mean they have three murders that were
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within a couple Miles Square radius I
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I'm guessing or maybe even
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less uh that you know and and now we're
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trying to say that a 100 miles away
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we're trying to link something to theirs
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it's like he get out of here I mean this
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thought a local guy horgus was a man of
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he was the perfect man for this case
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because he was obsessed
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he he was he knew something was wrong
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author Paul monz wrote a bestselling
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book entitled stalking Justice it
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profiles the rapes and murders of these
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five women and the history-making
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investigation which followed Joe horgus
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is motivated by by uh the uh the hunt
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he's not a guy who's obsessed by issues
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of right and wrong except for his own
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internal moral compass which tells him
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if there's an innocent man in prison I
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don't care if we got the guilty guy we
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got to get the innocent man out and he
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was determined to get this guy but if
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horgus was right that all of these
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murders were connected he needed proof
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for that he turned to to the forensics
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lab where scientists were examining the
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stains found on Susan Tucker's night
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gown and bedding I found four semen
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stains and when I analyzed the sleeping
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bag I found one very large semen stain I
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typed all of those stains the Sean came
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from an individual with type O blood and
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a pgm1 enzyme profile although this
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matched 133% of the population it also
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matched the seen found at the carollyn
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ham murder
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scene next they turned their attention
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to the hair found at the Tucker crime
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scene and there are characteristics
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microscopically that can classify hair
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into one of three racial categories
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which are Caucasian negroid or
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the hairs found at the Tucker
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crime scene appeared to be pubic and did
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not appear to be from the victim or her
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husband they were positively identified
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as negroid in origin this was another
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possible link to the Carolyn ham murder
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case 3 years earlier at the time of
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Ham's murder a black male wearing a mask
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had raped a number of women in the same
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neighborhood the masked rapist was never
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apprehended and horgus always suspected
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that there was a connection to the H
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murder actually the same day that
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Carolyn H's body was found another girl
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lady uh was in her house uh and this
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black male with a mask and a knife uh
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Bur regiz her PL house got her and
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actually uh he did some sexual activity
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with her the Richmond police and later
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the Arlington Police both sought help
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from the FBI's Behavioral Science unit
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in Quantico Virginia this unit has
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interviewed hundreds of serial killers
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to learn what similarities exist in
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their psychological makeup they were
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able to predict a number of important
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things about the killer we get in look
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at the uh the behavior that's that's uh
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uh left by the offender in the
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commission of his crime uh it's we
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believe that by looking
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at uh that behavior we can interpret the
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type of offender uh that may have
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committed the crime the fact that the
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Strangler attacked his victims in their
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homes suggested that he had stalked them
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first and knew precisely when to strike
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the FBI concluded that the perpetrator
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was between the age of 18 and 30 the
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quiet type a loner who held a menial job
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he probably had a troubled relationship
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with his mother and began his crimes
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free with arson historically many serial
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rapists and murderers begin with arson
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serial killers are usually white but
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could be any race he lived or worked
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close to where he committed his first
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crimes that's because
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criminals begin their crimes freeze in
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an area where they feel most
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comfortable he took sadistic pleasure in
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strangling his victims he would
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periodically release the bindings so he
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could hear his victim plead for her life
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it appeared that the perpetrator had
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intended the victim to suffer
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considerably in one case a shoe
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impression was found on the victim's
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back these w women were obviously first
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just terrified to the very bone and then
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were systematically sexually assaulted
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and um uh you know at the end and it's
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not clear whether they were dead when he
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did this or alive but he also
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masturbated on his victims and it was
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these Seaman samples which would prove
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to be extremely important pieces of
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evidence I can remember a prosecutor
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Helen fahe a couple days after the
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murder asking me if this was going to be
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a a DNA case and I'm kind of I don't
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know I we don't even know what we had
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got yet in 1987 when Susan Tucker was
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murdered DNA evidence was still in its
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infancy the first time DNA evidence was
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used in a criminal case was only a year
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earlier in England when DNA from a
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seaman sample was used to convict a
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bakery worker with the rape and murder
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of two 15-year-old girls horgus decided
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to to try this new DNA testing sending
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the seamen stains from Susan Tucker's
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night gown to the life codes laboratory
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in New York forensic scientists were
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concerned that the samples may have
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degraded or been
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contaminated you basically isolate the
00:13:16
DNA you cut it up you generate profiles
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or patterns and you then generate these
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patterns on a piece of X-ray film so
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it's like a picture of the DNA and when
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you then compare these pictures and the
00:13:27
components are the same and the the two
00:13:29
dnas that would indicate that they're
00:13:31
from the same Source the final results
00:13:33
from the DNA tests would take up to 10
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weeks but Detective horgus still didn't
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have a
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suspect detective horgus suspected that
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the same individual who raped and
00:13:48
murdered Susan Tucker and Carolyn Han 3
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years earlier was the Mas rapist who was
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committing crimes in the same area but
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was never caught so Horan drove out to
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an area of Arlington known as Green
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Valley the area where the masked rapist
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committed his first assaults the FBI
00:14:08
told horgus that rapists usually commit
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their first crime close to home if the
00:14:15
first rape was the first rape for this
00:14:19
guy then he would have lived around
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there and that was very crucial to me
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because I didn't I didn't know that and
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as he drove through Green Valley Horus
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tried to recall the names or es of
00:14:29
likely suspects young men he'd run
00:14:31
across over the years who came from that
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area and it just so happens that
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detective horgus uh started to focus on
00:14:38
this one juvenile he he had dealt with I
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remembered him he just couldn't place
00:14:42
the name and all I could remember was
00:14:44
Timmy I could see his face I remembered
00:14:47
the
00:14:48
approximate time period and everything
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that he that I remembered him from but I
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couldn't remember his last name so we
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running all these names to the computer
00:14:56
scene when they had been locked up and
00:14:58
released and suddenly he just came in
00:15:00
and he said Spencer Timothy Spencer
00:15:02
that's the name and I saw where he was
00:15:05
arrested in on January the 29th
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1984 which was four days after Carolyn H
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her body was found Spencer's history
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unfolded in trouble as a teenager he had
00:15:19
a string of burglary convictions and
00:15:22
even more surprising just as the FBI
00:15:25
predicted Spencer had first drawn police
00:15:29
attention for arson for setting fire to
00:15:32
his mother's car he was presently in a
00:15:35
halfway house in Richmond well that wow
00:15:39
that's exciting now Spencer was on
00:15:42
probation living in this halfway house
00:15:45
just a short distance from where the
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Richmond murders took place and
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according to House Records Spencer had
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been signed out during the Thanksgiving
00:15:54
holiday visiting his mother in Arlington
00:15:59
the week Susan Tucker was murdered the
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fact that he got out of prison two weeks
00:16:05
before the first murders down in
00:16:07
Richmond the fact that he was available
00:16:09
for every murder the fact that he came
00:16:11
to Arlington when he did for our murder
00:16:15
and the FBI was correct about another
00:16:17
important detail Spencer lived in the
00:16:20
area where the first rape was committed
00:16:24
and that happened over there and at the
00:16:26
time Timothy Spencer was living down
00:16:28
here over this hill Hill in his mother's
00:16:30
house barely a mile from the homes of
00:16:33
Carolyn ham and Susan
00:16:36
Tucker on January 20th 1988 police
00:16:40
arrested Timothy
00:16:42
Spencer within hours they had collected
00:16:46
a blood sample some of his hair and
00:16:49
confiscated his clothing for forensic
00:16:51
analysis the clothing was scraped down
00:16:56
for removing any debris in once that
00:16:59
debris was uh collected it was taken to
00:17:02
a microscope several dozen particles of
00:17:05
glass were removed from the debris that
00:17:06
was uh removed from his clothing the
00:17:09
glass fragments were of particular
00:17:12
interest to the
00:17:16
police after police recovered glass
00:17:19
particles from Spencer's clothing they
00:17:21
were examined forensically to see if
00:17:23
they matched glass from any of the
00:17:25
victim's homes one technique is called
00:17:28
glass GL refraction analysis by Shining
00:17:31
Light from different points on the
00:17:33
Spectrum through the particles the
00:17:35
characteristics of the glass can be
00:17:37
plotted on a graph in effect measuring
00:17:40
how the particles bend light if you
00:17:42
stick the pin into the water which is
00:17:44
more dense than the air it bends the
00:17:47
light what we're doing with the glass
00:17:49
particle basically is measuring how much
00:17:53
the light is bent in a refract and we
00:17:55
call it refractive index they compared
00:17:58
the glass fragments found on Spencer's
00:18:00
clothing to the glass particles taken
00:18:03
from the broken window at Susan Tucker's
00:18:05
home we were able to say that that glass
00:18:09
that was removed from Spencer's clothing
00:18:11
either came from that particular pain or
00:18:14
that particular source of glass or
00:18:16
another source of glass that had the
00:18:17
same Optical characteristics when
00:18:20
scientists completed the DNA analysis of
00:18:23
the Seaman stain found at the Susan
00:18:25
Tucker crime scene they made a chilling
00:18:29
Discovery and I remember pointing out an
00:18:31
x-ray film from the from the developer
00:18:34
and holding it up from these two
00:18:35
separate cases and being you know
00:18:38
bombarded immediately that the patterns
00:18:40
I'm seeing are the same I'm seeing the
00:18:41
same profile on this case from one
00:18:44
County versus this case from a second
00:18:45
County which says to me that same the
00:18:48
same person's involved in both of those
00:18:49
incidents really gave you chills up and
00:18:51
down your spine to see something like
00:18:52
that horgus was right all along the
00:18:55
Seaman sample from the individual who
00:18:57
raped and presumably murdered Susan
00:19:00
Tucker matched the Seaman stains from
00:19:03
the murders in Richmond there were seven
00:19:05
hairs there were consistent with his
00:19:07
there was a glass fragment that was
00:19:09
consistent with his his family couldn't
00:19:11
provide him with a complete Alibi for
00:19:12
the entire weekend and finally Timothy
00:19:16
Spencer's blood DNA was compared to the
00:19:19
Seaman samples from The Crime Victims
00:19:22
once we got a sample from uh Mr Spencer
00:19:24
to test uh we generated a profile that
00:19:27
was the same as the profile we got from
00:19:28
the evident samples we had a frequency
00:19:30
of occurrence of greater than one in a
00:19:32
million so that means that only one
00:19:34
person in a million in the population
00:19:35
would have that particular genetic
00:19:37
profile and starting with the first
00:19:40
result the blood
00:19:42
type it was a match it was a match it
00:19:45
was a match it was a match on July 11th
00:19:50
1988 Timothy Spencer went on trial for
00:19:53
his life it was the first time in the
00:19:56
United States where DNA evidence would
00:19:58
be used in a Serial murder case it took
00:20:02
the jury less than 7 hours to find
00:20:04
Timothy Spencer guilty of rape and
00:20:08
capital murder he was sentenced to death
00:20:11
I feel some kind of
00:20:13
relief uh but I'll never have my wife
00:20:17
back know that's that's really the
00:20:20
bottom line is I'll never really feel
00:20:24
happy I can't feel happy about
00:20:26
somebody being guilty of raping and
00:20:29
murdering my wife I can't feel happy
00:20:31
about that so whatever anger I feel I
00:20:35
will feel till I
00:20:37
[Music]
00:20:39
die death was pronounced by the
00:20:41
attending position at 1113 p.m. there
00:20:45
were no complications Mr Spencer did not
00:20:48
make a last statement thank you up until
00:20:51
his death I don't
00:20:54
think the Timothy Spencer made the
00:20:57
connection between Sean and
00:21:00
blood I don't think he knew that the
00:21:04
same DNA that's in your semon is in your
00:21:07
blood without DNA it would have been
00:21:09
impossible to convict Timothy Spencer he
00:21:13
if he had committed those murders a year
00:21:16
or two years earlier he could not have
00:21:19
been convicted in fact if this had been
00:21:23
1984 or
00:21:25
1985 we probably would not even have
00:21:28
arrested him some people ask the
00:21:30
question will DNA fingerprinting replace
00:21:32
detective work I don't think so Susan
00:21:35
Tucker left detective horgus the crime
00:21:38
scene and Timothy Spencer um left part
00:21:42
of himself at the crime
00:21:44
scene but his name would never have come
00:21:47
up if it wasn't for Detective horgus
00:21:50
[Music]
