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[Music]
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a murder victim's son was the first to
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suspect that his mother's death was the
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work of a serial killer
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investigators hoped that cells found on
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a styrofoam cup marks on a water faucet
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and the clues left on a secret videotape
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would reveal the true identity of a man
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who had eluded police for over a decade
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[Music]
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[Music]
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by 1991
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42 year old nancy ludwig found what she
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was looking for in life a husband who
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adored her and a career in the airline
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business
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she always wanted to be a flight
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attendant from when she was a young girl
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very
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outgoing spontaneous adventuresome
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that's why she made such a good flight
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attendant
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during one of her out-of-town trips an
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airline employee called art ludwig with
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some bad news
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it was some woman explained to me that
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there had been a problem in detroit and
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i should get myself ready and get off
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the airport and they would meet me there
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and we would fly to detroit
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nancy ludwig was found dead in her hotel
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room near the detroit airport
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she had been stabbed to death
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the evidence revealed she fought
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valiantly against her attacker
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she had such extreme defense wounds on
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her hands
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you just couldn't help by
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getting a real feel for what she went
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through and that isn't really always the
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case at a crime scene
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nancy's hands had been bound with twine
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this particular kind of twine
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is
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most frequently used in
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gardening and landscaping
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biological evidence revealed that nancy
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had been sexually assaulted and there
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were signs the killer spent a
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considerable amount of time inside the
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hotel room
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we found a bloody
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washcloth by the basin
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and we could see that he had showered
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in the tub he could not have walked out
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of the hilton hotel in bloody clothing
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one of the most unusual aspects of the
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crime was that nancy's personal
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belongings were missing
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she arrived at the hotel with at least
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two suitcases and a purse all of her
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jewelry her watch earrings were all
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removed from the room including the
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trash can liner from the trash can
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on the night of the murder another guest
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at the hotel noticed a man carrying
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airline type luggage to his car
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right outside his window
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underneath the parking lot light was
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what appeared to be monte carlo with
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somebody
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carrying toward an open trunk what
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looked to be northwest uh gear
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suitcases and whatnot
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amazingly there were 2 800 monte carlo
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automobiles registered in the detroit
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area
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every one of those 2800 owners
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we ran lean to determine
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whether there were warrants or whether
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they had criminal records
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and tried to eliminate in that way
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investigators learned that a hotel
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employee's boyfriend owned a monte carlo
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when questioned the employee behaved
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suspiciously
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she was caught in a lie she claimed that
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a call had come in to nancy's room she
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claimed to have
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known nancy from previous trips actually
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was nancy's first trip into metro
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surprisingly enough so she couldn't
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possibly have known her from a previous
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trip there were no calls into her room
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there appeared to be very little
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security at the hotel
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the way they assigned rooms to flight
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people
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it was often done with keys just sitting
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there at the desk
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with names on little pieces of paper so
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you could come in and stand there
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and read names and rooms that had been
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assigned so you knew who hadn't come in
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yet
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i mean it was an absolute
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terrible system
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outside doors were left open at night
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it was more convenient for the guests
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but it certainly wasn't good security
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investigators generated a list of
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potential suspects that included
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everyone who had access to the hotel
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we ultimately had a list of over 22 000
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names
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on that list were 1700 tips
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people who flew into metro airport the
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night that nancy ludwig did people had
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flew out after nancy ludwig was killed
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the 2800 monte carlos
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a police artist developed this sketch of
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the man in the hotel's parking lot
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investigators hoped it would narrow the
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list of 22 000 names
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to one
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shortly after his wife was brutally
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murdered in a detroit hotel room art
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ludwig received a curious letter
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it was from a man who had read about
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nancy's murder in the newspaper and said
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her death sounded strikingly similar to
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his own mother's murder five years
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earlier
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and i read the letter and yes it did
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seem like there's some similarities and
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so far they were both women about the
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same size
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same appearance on and so forth
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the victim was 55 year old margaret eby
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a music professor living in flint
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michigan about an hour's drive from
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detroit
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she was found stabbed to death in the
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bedroom of her home
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by looking at the crime scene
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photographs
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it was amazing the body was positioned
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almost the same way the wounds were
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almost the same
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and security at her home was as laxed as
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nancy ludwig's hotel
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the gatehouse where she stayed at this
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beautiful estate it had its own entrance
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that was supposed to be gated but the
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gate was usually open
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no guard there
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there were no signs of forced entry and
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no valuables were
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missing margaret eby had a habit of
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leaving her doors unlocked
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and had no curtains on her windows
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the estate had a number of people who
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came on regularly to do work
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lawn care people electricians painters
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after her murder
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investigators found a partial
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fingerprint on her bathroom faucet but
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it didn't match any known criminal
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offenders in the michigan database
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investigators also found evidence of
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sexual assault
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but at the time dna testing was still in
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its infancy
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in 1986 we weren't even online our state
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was not doing dna testing although it
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was beginning to be done in other places
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there were only a few select
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laboratories that did it
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and
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it was a very very expensive process
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but by the time nancy ludwig was
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murdered
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dna testing was routine
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and to the surprise of investigators dna
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testing proved what margaret eby's son
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knew instinctively
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that the same man killed both women
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i thought we had her case off and he
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said well
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the good news is we matched your case
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the bad news we still don't
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can't give you a suspect
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the dna profile of their killer did not
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match any of the known criminal
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offenders in the national database
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the dna match didn't tell us who that
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person was that was our job to find him
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but it wouldn't be easy
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margaret eb's murder took place many
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years earlier
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and nancy ludwig was murdered in detroit
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over 75 miles away from flint
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but investigators suspected that the
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killer drove a monte carlo automobile
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and had access to twine used by
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landscapers
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the hotel employee's boyfriend who owned
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the monte carlo had an alibi for the
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night of nancy ludwig's murder and he
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was no longer considered a suspect
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most of the times killers are pretty
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stupid and we catch them for some pretty
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stupid reason
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he was very clever
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very clever and very thorough
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as the years passed
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all 22 000 leads in the case were
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tracked down in one way or another
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and all were dead ends
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margaret eby's family as well as nancy
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ludwigs were losing faith in the idea
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that the killer would be apprehended
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after 10 years i guess i thought we had
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done just about everything we could
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to this day remains a mystery to me why
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it didn't work
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after several years the cold case unit
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of the michigan state police decided to
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take a second look at the murders of
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margaret eby and nancy ludwig
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they thought that perhaps the original
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investigators might have missed
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something
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dna testing revealed the same man killed
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both women but they had no idea to whom
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the dna belonged
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so they concentrated on the partial
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fingerprint from the faucet in margaret
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eb's bathroom
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the crime lab was able to identify
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a small print
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on the
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faucet knob in the sink
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of that bathroom
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the faucet knot was actually taken off
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taken back to the crime lab
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where the fingerprint was photographed
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and the
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knob was stored as evidence
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back in 1986 flint police could only
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compare the prints to others in michigan
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and the search turned up no matches
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but improvements in computer technology
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led to the creation of an automated
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fingerprint identification system that
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compares thousands of fingerprints in
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seconds
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when the print from the water faucet was
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placed into the new nationwide
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fingerprint database
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the computer identified a matching print
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in florida
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it matched the right thumbprint
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of 39 year old jeffrey gorton
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who was now living in a suburb of flint
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michigan
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he was a married man
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wife and children
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would appear from all the outward signs
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to be perfectly normal your next door
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neighbor
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gordon lived just a short distance from
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margaret eby and owned a gold monte
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carlo automobile like the one a witness
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saw in the hotel parking lot on the
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night of nancy ludwig's murder
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and there was another surprise
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gordon worked for a water sprinkler
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company that serviced the sprinkler
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system in margaret eb's yard
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that same company had been to margaret
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eby's residence
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several days before her death
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in order for them to blow out the
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sprinkler lines for the season
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but that could have easily explained why
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his fingerprint would have been inside
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eb's home
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you're working with metal sprinkler
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equipment and maybe there's a sharp edge
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and you slice your finger
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you come in you wash your hands you
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leave a bloody fingerprint
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it's not a reason to go to jail you
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haven't done anything you just left a
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bloody fingerprint
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gorton's fingerprint was in the florida
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database because of numerous arrests for
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attacks on women
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he actually had assaulted several of
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them
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by walking up behind them knocking them
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physically to the ground and attempting
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to remove their slips from them while
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they were on the ground
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that's what happened to marie gagliano
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as she unloaded groceries from her car
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[Music]
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he had a snarly look on his face he
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threw me down
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he grabbed me by my ankles and he
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started dragging me
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he dragged me about 15 or 20 feet
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i was screaming i'm blood curling
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screams
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he ripped my slip off and then he
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started running
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after that assault police found
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hundreds of pieces of women's underwear
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in his home
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this is a dangerous guy
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he's knocking women down he's dragging
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them into bushes he's stealing their
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clothes he's breaking into their houses
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this is somebody who's pretty much out
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of control
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gorton served some prison time for these
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assaults in florida before moving back
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to michigan
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since both murder victims had been
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sexually assaulted and investigators had
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dna of the killer they wanted to know
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whether it was gorton's dna
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so they put gorton under 24-hour
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surveillance
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they followed him to a local roller
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skating rink where he took his children
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undercover officers watched gorton eat
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pizza
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and drink soda from a styrofoam cup
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when gorton left an officer rushed to
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the table confiscated gordon's cup and
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took it to the forensics lab
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the sample was tested immediately
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dna is like any other biological
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molecule
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subject to degradation one of the things
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that will degrade dna a little bit
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faster is a fair amount of heat
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there were more than enough epithelial
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cells on the cup for testing
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but this caused problems
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the initial dna analysis on the cup was
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a profile that showed a mixture
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meaning that more than one person had
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used the cup
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we had hoped that we would pick up dna
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just from the individual that drank out
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of the cup
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but there was some indications that
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there was dna from
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more than one person there
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but pcr dna testing showed a strong
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association between the dna on the cup
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and the biological evidence from the two
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crime scenes
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and that was enough to get a search
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warrant for jeffrey gorton's home
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there
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investigators found hundreds of women's
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undergarments panties and hoes
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they also found
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a disturbing videotape
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[Music]
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when investigators searched jeffrey
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gorton's home
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they found women's lingerie everywhere
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in boxes under his mattress
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many had labels with women's names and
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descriptions
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and they found a videotape
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which featured gordon modeling women's
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underwear as well as footage he took of
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women without their knowledge
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he was just very strange very strange
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kind of wonder what went wrong with him
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that made him behave like that
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when police brought gorton in for
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questioning they asked him what the
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penalty should be for murder
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i should probably go to jail
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gordon became increasingly nervous when
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left alone
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then the detectives asked him about his
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interest in stealing women's underwear
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is there one particular item of clothing
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that you are fond of is it be it hoes or
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bras or panties
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um
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sleepwear is there any one particular
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item that you're attracted to
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mostly just the hose i guess
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do you still
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feel the those strong fetish desires to
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this day i mean is that something that's
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yeah i've seen a psychiatrist for a
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little while when i was on my own
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gorton denied he had ever been inside
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margaret eb's home when he did
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investigators confronted him with the
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fingerprint evidence
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do you know where that fingerprint came
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from you know
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it came from
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the bathroom the upstairs bedroom
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where margaret evie was found
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the house that you said that you've
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never been in
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so right now jeff there's no question
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that you're the person that's
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responsible
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the question that needs to be answered
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is
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why and what can we do to help you
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well there isn't a why because i didn't
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do it so
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i just need to see the journey now
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because i know i didn't do anything
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when gordon asked for a lawyer at the
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interview stopped
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but not before they collected his dna
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sample
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dna testing confirmed what the first
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test suggested
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the jeffrey gorton had sexually
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assaulted and presumably killed nancy
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ludwig and margaret eby
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during jury selection
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jeffrey gorton showed particular
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interest in a juror who matched the
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physical description of the two murder
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victims
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he was staring at this woman the angle
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that she was sitting she's wearing a
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skirt
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he's just fixated on this woman and it's
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just a squirming in his seat
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it was the strangest thing i'd ever seen
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and i thought oh this is gonna be a fun
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try
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prosecutors think gorton
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entered margaret eby's home
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through an unlocked door
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and waited for her
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[Music]
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when she returned from a dinner party
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he attacked
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[Music]
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after the murder
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gordon washed in the bathroom
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and removed most of the evidence but
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left behind his right thumb print on the
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water faucet
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five years later
00:19:13
gorton struck again
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this time in detroit
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some think he had an obsession for
00:19:19
flight attendants
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[Music]
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he went to a hotel near the airport
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waited in the third floor stairwell
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and saw nancy ludwig walking towards her
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room
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[Music]
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after the murder
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he showered changed his clothes and
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stole nancy's belongings possibly
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as a trophy
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count one you did while the perpetration
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or attempted perpetration of criminal
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sexual conduct in the first degree
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jeffrey gorton was tried and convicted
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for the first degree murder of both
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nancy ludwig and margaret eby
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he will spend the rest of his life in
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prison
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i'm afraid of him i'm glad he's locked
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up for the rest of his life
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he is the absolute most frightening
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person that i've ever encountered
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because
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he was
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random because he was so secretive
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because he was so ordinary
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author tom henderson wrote about this
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case in blood justice
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and thinks there are other victims
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my feeling is that someday
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somebody's going to be running a dna
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sample that kicks up jeffrey gordon's
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name it may be more than one or two it
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might be
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quite a few
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it still took a fingerprint or something
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very basic and maybe less high tech if
00:20:48
you want to call it that
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than dna testing to solve the crime
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without science and the new technology
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that's available both these homicides
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would remain unsolved and probably
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remain unsolved forever
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[Music]
00:21:18
[Music]
00:21:24
so
00:21:32
[Music]
00:21:41
you
