00:00:06
a union official was executed in his
00:00:08
home not long after a strike by union
00:00:11
membership
00:00:12
no one in the neighborhood heard any
00:00:14
gunshots it would take
00:00:17
a forensic sound test an electron
00:00:20
microscope and a nightgown to explain
00:00:23
why
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[Music]
00:00:36
[Applause]
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[Music]
00:00:50
[Music]
00:00:52
thirty-nine-year-old joe doyle was an
00:00:54
official of the local afscme a union
00:00:56
representing government employees
00:01:00
it could be the most bitter cold day in
00:01:02
the world and if he thought you were
00:01:03
cold he'd take his shirt off and give it
00:01:05
to you even if he didn't know you
00:01:06
now
00:01:08
he also as big as he was he wasn't
00:01:10
afraid to tell you exactly what he
00:01:12
thought
00:01:13
he got into people's faces he was a
00:01:16
wonderful guy they either either loved
00:01:18
him
00:01:19
or they might have hated him joe and his
00:01:21
wife katie had been married for about
00:01:23
eight years
00:01:25
on july 30th 1998 the couple went to a
00:01:29
private club after work for drinks
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[Music]
00:01:34
early the next morning katie phoned
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police in a panic
00:01:39
[Music]
00:01:45
did you hear him fall or anything no
00:01:47
he's laying in bed on his stomach i went
00:01:49
in to wake him up for work you okay all
00:01:51
right we'll get somebody right there
00:01:53
don't touch anything all right
00:01:55
joe doyle had been shot at close range
00:01:58
it was an execution-style killing
00:02:02
when someone's dead with four
00:02:04
four gunshot wounds to the head
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the first question that anyone is going
00:02:08
to ask is did this person have enemies
00:02:10
because obviously it wasn't a friend
00:02:12
that did this
00:02:14
there was no sign of forced entry
00:02:17
and joe's empty money clip was on the
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floor which according to katie had
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contained approximately eighteen hundred
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dollars
00:02:25
the first suspect in a murder like this
00:02:27
is always the surviving spouse
00:02:31
katie's hands were tested for gunshot
00:02:33
residue which would have been present
00:02:35
had she fired a gun
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the test was negative
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katie told police that they got home
00:02:43
from the club around 8 30 had dinner
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then went to bed
00:02:48
around midnight katie said she went to
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sleep in an adjacent bedroom
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it was because of joe's really really
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really loud snoring that she couldn't
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take it she tried to get to sleep and
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she lay there for an hour or so but she
00:03:03
finally had to leave and go into this
00:03:04
next door bedroom because of the snoring
00:03:08
the next morning when katie went in to
00:03:10
wake her husband
00:03:11
she found him dead under the covers
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katie insisted she didn't hear any
00:03:18
gunshots
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neither did any of her neighbors
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one of the funniest things in the case
00:03:24
was that no one heard the gunshots no
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one we really did not have any good
00:03:28
evidence of any uh
00:03:30
any hearing of gunshots that night
00:03:34
it's possible a silencer could have been
00:03:36
used
00:03:37
it could be a professional type of
00:03:39
silencer that is affixed to the gun
00:03:42
police couldn't help but notice
00:03:44
the amount of dust in the doyle's home
00:03:47
and wondered whether this might help
00:03:49
track the killer's movements and
00:03:51
ultimately reveal his identity
00:03:54
[Music]
00:03:59
after the murder of 39 year old joe
00:04:01
doyle
00:04:02
friends and family told police that his
00:04:04
marriage to wife katie seemed solid
00:04:08
the couple were building an addition to
00:04:10
their house and planning for the future
00:04:13
katie is telling the police that joe was
00:04:15
the love of her life that she loved them
00:04:18
more than you could love anyone that
00:04:20
everything was perfect in their marriage
00:04:22
that they just had sex the night before
00:04:24
he was killed
00:04:28
and katie both worked at the same
00:04:30
hospital
00:04:31
and their co-workers gave police a
00:04:33
different picture of their relationship
00:04:39
kate was having a brazen brazen affair
00:04:42
with a co-worker
00:04:44
that she was basically flaunting that
00:04:46
relationship that she told people that
00:04:48
she was obsessed with jordan that she
00:04:49
wanted nothing to do with her husband
00:04:51
her husband was controlling that george
00:04:54
was the love of her life
00:04:56
george lewis was a groundskeeper at the
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hospital
00:05:00
and police found evidence the two were
00:05:02
more than just lovers
00:05:04
she purchases jewelry form she gives
00:05:06
them a thousand dollar down payment for
00:05:08
a vehicle she purchases clothing for him
00:05:11
she does everything for him really
00:05:15
katie admitted the affair but her lawyer
00:05:17
says it meant nothing
00:05:20
it was a fling it was not brief
00:05:24
but it was not a motive for murder
00:05:27
at the crime scene
00:05:29
police found a clue in the nightstand
00:05:32
next to the bed
00:05:34
in the nightstand was a lock box marks
00:05:38
in the dust indicated the box had
00:05:40
recently been moved but no fingerprints
00:05:42
were found
00:05:45
missing from the box was joe doyle's
00:05:47
nine millimeter makarov pistol
00:05:51
this is one of the four bullets
00:05:52
recovered from doyle's body deformed by
00:05:55
impact
00:05:58
when a handgun is fired
00:06:01
the bullet spins as it travels through
00:06:04
the barrel
00:06:06
the soft outer shell is scored by a
00:06:09
corkscrew line cut into the barrel
00:06:12
a process known
00:06:13
as rifling
00:06:15
it causes the bullet to rotate on its
00:06:17
longitudinal axis given an aerodynamic
00:06:20
stability while it's in flight
00:06:22
the line cut into the bullet is called a
00:06:25
groove the spaces between the grooves
00:06:28
are called
00:06:29
lands
00:06:31
these lands and grooves are different
00:06:33
for each make of gun
00:06:36
investigators wanted to know whether
00:06:38
this bullet was from a pistol like the
00:06:40
one owned by joe doyle
00:06:45
using a comparison microscope forensic
00:06:48
scientists compared the bullet from joe
00:06:50
doyle's body to one fired from a makarov
00:06:52
pistol
00:06:55
on the macro it has four lanes and
00:06:57
grooves with the right twist
00:06:59
and there are not many firearms that
00:07:02
have
00:07:03
that
00:07:04
those class characteristics
00:07:07
the results were clear
00:07:10
joe had been killed with the same model
00:07:12
nine millimeter pistol that he had once
00:07:15
owned but was now missing
00:07:19
the bullets were consistent with
00:07:22
being fired from this model
00:07:25
so that was the evidence with the gun
00:07:26
that's what they started with and on the
00:07:29
defense side we
00:07:30
established that
00:07:32
there were at least 3 000
00:07:35
other guns of this make and model alone
00:07:38
that existed in in our state about 14
00:07:41
000 in the country
00:07:44
police then
00:07:45
looked into joe's union ties
00:07:49
there recently had been a strike
00:07:51
with the union and the the victim was
00:07:54
involved in some of the activities
00:07:55
regarding that strike it was a strike by
00:07:59
state employees
00:08:02
joe had the potentially dangerous task
00:08:04
of repossessing the state-owned cars
00:08:07
driven by the striking members people
00:08:09
can be volatile tempers flare up during
00:08:13
a strike situation one person against
00:08:15
another
00:08:17
there could have been some problems
00:08:18
between him and one of the people whose
00:08:20
cars he repossessed joe in some sense
00:08:22
was viewed as this type of tyrant he had
00:08:26
to confiscate vehicles
00:08:28
uh tangents ran high
00:08:30
um
00:08:31
you know arguments occurred that sort of
00:08:33
thing and that's it's a typical union
00:08:36
scenario
00:08:38
at the same time
00:08:39
katie told investigators that her
00:08:41
husband was involved in project children
00:08:44
an organization which brings children
00:08:46
from northern ireland to the united
00:08:48
states for summer vacations
00:08:52
here's a guy who travels to another
00:08:54
country to a to a hot spot in the world
00:08:57
a a bed of terrorism a bed of strife
00:09:01
is this a i mean i i think anyone with
00:09:04
common sense would look into this and
00:09:06
and see if there's a connection here
00:09:08
well the fact that he was uh executed in
00:09:10
his own bed uh most likely at night
00:09:13
while he was sleeping and uh no one uh
00:09:16
seemed to have heard shots
00:09:18
uh let people believe geez they might
00:09:20
have used a silencer that you know it's
00:09:22
an execution this could be as a result
00:09:24
of his ties with the ira
00:09:26
if he had ties
00:09:29
the investigation took forensic
00:09:31
scientists from the united states all
00:09:33
the way to northern ireland but the real
00:09:36
evidence was right in joe doyle's
00:09:39
backyard
00:09:43
police investigating the murder of 39
00:09:46
year old union official joe doyle
00:09:48
pursued every possible lead looking into
00:09:52
his union activities over the past
00:09:54
several years as well as his involvement
00:09:56
with the charity in northern ireland
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[Music]
00:10:00
police couldn't identify anyone angry
00:10:03
enough with doyle to want him dead
00:10:06
[Music]
00:10:08
so they looked once again
00:10:09
at his wife katie and her lover
00:10:12
george lewis
00:10:16
research into katie's background found
00:10:18
evidence of substance abuse and
00:10:20
financial disagreements
00:10:23
joe was tough on katie
00:10:25
katie had a drug problem years before
00:10:29
joe carter joe didn't trust katie
00:10:32
anymore didn't trust her with the money
00:10:34
no relationships perfect
00:10:36
this one certainly wasn't a perfect
00:10:38
relationship
00:10:39
they're going to take a microscope and
00:10:41
examine
00:10:42
the spouse
00:10:44
their entire life and they're going to
00:10:46
try to dig up any piece of dirt possible
00:10:50
her boyfriend george lewis had an alibi
00:10:52
for the night of joe doyle's murder
00:10:55
george basically was a a real lover
00:10:59
he had other girlfriends besides katie
00:11:01
apparently
00:11:02
and so he was out with one of his
00:11:04
girlfriends that night two people
00:11:06
alibide him the first one
00:11:09
which would be for the earlier part of
00:11:11
the evening was with the other woman
00:11:13
with whom he was having an affair and
00:11:15
then for the later part of the evening
00:11:16
was with his wife
00:11:19
as for katie doyle she said that she had
00:11:22
sex with her husband that night and
00:11:24
later left to sleep in an adjacent
00:11:26
bedroom because of joe's snoring
00:11:30
the door was shut and the air
00:11:32
conditioner was running and she claimed
00:11:35
she never heard the shots
00:11:37
the head of her bed
00:11:40
would be resting against a wall
00:11:43
that wall is the same wall that
00:11:45
separates
00:11:46
her room
00:11:47
from the bedroom where the victim is
00:11:49
sleeping which puts them in extremely
00:11:52
close proximity to each other a matter
00:11:54
of feet
00:11:55
the distance was 15 feet
00:11:58
separated by a 5-inch wall and a closet
00:12:01
investigators brought in dr harry
00:12:03
holleen a forensic audio expert to test
00:12:07
katie's claims
00:12:10
on a shooting range pauline fired a
00:12:13
makarov nine millimeter pistol and
00:12:15
recorded the sounds
00:12:18
when you fire a gun you explode some
00:12:21
gunpowder in a cartridge in a barrel and
00:12:23
that
00:12:24
explosion is very rapid
00:12:27
so the acoustic signal coming out of the
00:12:29
barrel is the bullet comes out of the
00:12:31
barrel very rapidly
00:12:33
the acoustic signal also is is uh one
00:12:36
that's very abrupt
00:12:39
the makarov generated between 118 and
00:12:43
120 decibels of sound
00:12:46
and it would be comparable to a
00:12:48
motorcycle
00:12:50
a heavy bus close by uh power lawnmower
00:12:53
uh chainsaw things such as that
00:12:58
but the sound created by a gun is of
00:13:01
short duration
00:13:03
would katie doyle have heard it
00:13:06
to find out
00:13:07
holine used two adjacent bedrooms in his
00:13:11
house
00:13:12
he then put the recording he had made of
00:13:15
the makarov pistol in one bedroom
00:13:18
and the sound meter in the other bedroom
00:13:22
if the shot was 118 decibels 60 of that
00:13:26
sound approximately 70 decibels reached
00:13:29
the other bedroom
00:13:32
if you're asleep there's a very good
00:13:34
chance that it would wake you up
00:13:36
and forensic scientists found another
00:13:39
discrepancy in katie's story
00:13:43
katie said she left joe's bedroom around
00:13:46
midnight and that she found him dead at
00:13:49
6am
00:13:52
but forensic scientists found alcohol in
00:13:55
joe's stomach the alcohol he consumed at
00:13:57
the club would all have been absorbed in
00:14:00
his body had he been killed after
00:14:02
midnight
00:14:04
the medical examiner estimated the time
00:14:06
of death was closer to 10 p.m
00:14:10
this could easily explain
00:14:13
why neighbors didn't hear the shots the
00:14:16
ambient sounds of televisions radios and
00:14:19
stereos at that time of night could
00:14:21
easily have muffled them
00:14:24
next
00:14:25
investigators wanted to test katie's
00:14:27
nightgown that was found on the floor
00:14:30
next to joe's body
00:14:32
pulling the trigger creates a small
00:14:34
explosion when the primer ignites the
00:14:37
gunpowder which in turn propels the
00:14:39
bullet
00:14:41
gases from that explosion create a small
00:14:44
cloud about three to five feet in
00:14:46
diameter that usually wafts back over
00:14:49
the shooter the gases from the primer
00:14:52
escape from the firearm through any
00:14:54
available opening
00:14:56
in the form of a gas or a vapor
00:15:00
it then solidifies into tiny particles
00:15:02
which are deposited on the hands
00:15:05
clothing or the immediate proximity of
00:15:07
the discharge
00:15:09
using an aluminum disc with a permanent
00:15:12
adhesive
00:15:13
scientist skip schwabel lifted samples
00:15:16
from the surface of the nightgown
00:15:20
next he removed the stud from its
00:15:22
plastic holder and placed it inside a
00:15:24
scanning electron microscope
00:15:27
the particles are magnified and scanned
00:15:30
to reveal their chemical makeup
00:15:34
on katie doyle's gown with thousands of
00:15:37
particles seen here magnified
00:15:39
four thousand times
00:15:42
they were made up of lead antimony and
00:15:44
barium
00:15:45
the chemical components of gunpowder
00:15:49
it's not natural in the environment
00:15:52
when it's when those three particles are
00:15:54
fused together that's unique to gunshot
00:15:56
residue
00:15:58
schwabel also found gunshot residue on
00:16:00
the bedding next to the body
00:16:04
gunshot residue is going to get on the
00:16:05
bed
00:16:06
and on items on the bed
00:16:09
katie said that before she left that
00:16:11
room and went to the other room to go to
00:16:13
sleep she took her nightgown off
00:16:16
threw it on the bed she doesn't recall
00:16:18
where she threw it on the bed it was
00:16:20
dark
00:16:22
with no gunshot residue on katie's hands
00:16:26
and gunshot residue on the bedding as
00:16:28
well as her nightgown
00:16:30
prosecutors had no forensic evidence
00:16:32
katie doyle fired the pistol
00:16:35
and without forensic evidence
00:16:38
prosecutors had plenty of suspicions but
00:16:41
very little proof
00:16:43
[Music]
00:16:47
police believe katie doyle lied when she
00:16:50
told them her husband was alive when she
00:16:52
left his bedroom around midnight
00:16:57
an analysis of his stomach contents put
00:17:00
the murder closer to
00:17:01
10
00:17:02
p.m according to their home phone
00:17:05
records someone called for joe shortly
00:17:08
after 10 pm
00:17:09
and what katie told the caller
00:17:12
was revealing
00:17:14
she said that the victim couldn't come
00:17:15
to the phone because he was toast in
00:17:18
other words he was intoxicated
00:17:20
and that's why he couldn't talk on the
00:17:22
phone
00:17:23
there was no gunshot residue on katie's
00:17:26
hands
00:17:27
but her nightgown found on the floor did
00:17:30
test positive for gunshot residue
00:17:32
and so did the covers on the bed
00:17:36
so skip schwabel decided to analyze the
00:17:39
nightgown to study the exact
00:17:41
concentrations and placement of the
00:17:43
residue
00:17:45
20 years ago when we didn't have the
00:17:48
automated analysis by scanning electron
00:17:50
microscope
00:17:52
a sample could take
00:17:53
12-13 hours looking at it manually today
00:17:57
we're able to look at many thousands of
00:18:00
particles in a short period of time
00:18:03
those tests revealed
00:18:06
large amounts of residue on both the
00:18:08
right and left front chest area
00:18:10
consistent with where a gun would be
00:18:13
positioned
00:18:14
[Music]
00:18:15
that was all the evidence police needed
00:18:19
the significance of the gown
00:18:21
is the reason why i arrested
00:18:24
the victim's wife for the murder of her
00:18:26
husband prosecutors think they know
00:18:30
the motive for the murder
00:18:32
she was head over heels over the sky she
00:18:35
didn't want joe anymore i mean this is
00:18:37
your standard one spouse not wanting to
00:18:39
be married
00:18:41
the forensic evidence shows
00:18:43
that joe doyle was in bed sometime
00:18:46
before 10 p.m
00:18:48
prosecutors believe katie went into the
00:18:50
bedroom
00:18:52
took her husband's nine millimeter
00:18:54
pistol from the lock box
00:18:56
then
00:18:57
fired four shots into his head at close
00:19:00
range
00:19:04
the invisible gunshot vapor
00:19:07
drifted backwards towards her and
00:19:10
settled on her nightgown
00:19:13
katie took off her nightgown and threw
00:19:15
it on the floor to show police the two
00:19:18
had slept together
00:19:20
but it was proof of something else proof
00:19:23
that she had worn it while killing her
00:19:26
husband
00:19:28
katie had seven or eight hours to leave
00:19:30
home and get rid of the pistol
00:19:32
[Music]
00:19:34
the next morning
00:19:35
neighbors said katie's car was in a
00:19:37
different parking spot from where it was
00:19:39
the night before
00:19:40
[Music]
00:19:42
according to telephone records
00:19:44
katie called her boyfriend three times
00:19:46
on the night of the murder
00:19:49
prosecutors don't believe the boyfriend
00:19:51
was involved
00:19:53
if she even acknowledged and admitted
00:19:55
that she had gotten in touch with george
00:19:57
that night
00:19:58
if he had any role in it we have no
00:20:00
proof of it
00:20:01
katie doyle was convicted of first
00:20:04
degree murder and sentenced to life in
00:20:06
prison
00:20:08
her lawyer maintains katie is innocent
00:20:11
but he has no idea who killed joe doyle
00:20:15
why are we looking at kate because she's
00:20:17
the wife because the police don't want
00:20:19
to get outside the house because that's
00:20:21
their mode of investigation and they're
00:20:23
stuck there
00:20:25
and they're stuck there to this day
00:20:28
investigators say
00:20:30
science leaves no doubt about the
00:20:32
killer's identity
00:20:36
it's much harder to get away with a
00:20:38
crime today than it was years ago
00:20:42
we have instrumentation
00:20:44
preparation techniques
00:20:47
that are much more advanced now
00:20:50
we can do particle extractions from
00:20:52
clothing from hands
00:20:54
and it doesn't have to be specifically
00:20:57
gunshot residue if it wouldn't have been
00:20:59
again with
00:21:01
the work that skip schwabel did with the
00:21:04
micro particles that were found on the
00:21:06
uh the night shirt that she had been
00:21:08
wearing
00:21:09
uh the night that this uh this occurred
00:21:12
we probably would have never had enough
00:21:15
information to make an arrest
00:21:18
let alone to get a conviction i'd rather
00:21:20
rely on science in every case than on a
00:21:23
human being science especially when you
00:21:25
can get
00:21:26
different areas of science all pointing
00:21:28
to the same suspect
00:21:30
is key to any prosecution
00:21:33
[Music]
00:21:44
[Music]
00:21:58
[Music]
00:22:07
you
