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[Music]
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two young women were brutally murdered
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on halloween but the killer left behind
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his dna
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and a groundbreaking new test identified
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his eye color his hair and even the
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color of his skin
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but knowing what he looked like was one
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thing
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finding him was another
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[Music]
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[Music]
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my
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[Music]
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it was close to midnight on halloween
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in napa california
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trick-or-treat had been over for hours
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and 26 year old lauren minza went to bed
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around 11 pm
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her dog chloe slept in her room
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[Music]
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at two in the morning the dog started to
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growl
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and lauren heard noises at first she
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thought one of her roommates came home
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with a boyfriend
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but then she heard a fight
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and screams
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when she looked out she saw a man run
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down the stairs and jump out of an open
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front window but she didn't see his face
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[Music]
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when she went upstairs
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lauren found her two roommates both had
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been stabbed repeatedly
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in an emergency what are you recording
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oh my god we've got attack and please
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help
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you i don't know my roommates are
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upstairs i think they're dying
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when police arrived they found 26 year
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old adrian insonya and 25 year old
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leslie mazzara dead
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it was a very very bloody crime scene
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it's the most bloody crime scene i've
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seen in my career
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leslie mazzara was a former beauty queen
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who worked in the sales department of a
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local
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winery at the university of
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georgia miss williamson
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adrian insonya was a civil engineer
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it was horrible there aren't any words
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really to describe that
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it's almost as if
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you just go completely cold
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blood stains in the house provided
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investigators with critical information
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he had gone into the house up the stairs
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into leslie's bedroom first where he
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attacked her apparently the commotion
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woke adrian up in her bedroom
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and she turned on the light
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and he proceeded to her bedroom
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and then
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attacked adrian
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she had reading glasses either in her
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hand or on her face that were cut with
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the knife she fought hard
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she fought for her life
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the blood trail led to the front window
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and continued on
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to the aluminum siding on the outside of
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the house
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investigators found
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three cigarette butts two at the front
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of the house the other in the backyard
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anytime i see cigarette butts at a crime
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scene i will collect them because they
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are an excellent source for obtaining
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dna
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all of the blood evidence was collected
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for analysis
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we received 71 pieces of evidence one or
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two is average up to four or five
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possibly
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this particular case
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really surpassed most of what we see
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in the laboratory
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police searched for motive and found one
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when they discovered some plastic zip
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ties underneath the front window
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in police work we use the same type of
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ties to hold prisoners especially like
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in riot situations or crowd control it
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appeared to us that this person had come
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in
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with a plan when they came in
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and that part of that plan would have
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been to bind
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these girls
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the next morning
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napa valley residents awoke to the news
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of this horrible crime
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and the terrible possibility that a
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serial killer
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might be in their midst
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this was a violent crime i felt real
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uneasy we have never had a serial killer
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in the city of napa and this was my
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first taste of a possibility that we
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were dealing with a serial
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killer three young women lived together
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in this house in napa california until
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halloween night
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when an unknown assailant broke in and
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murdered two of the three roommates
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hearing those calls
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my heart really went out to lauren for
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what she had
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been through i could hear the panic
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the fear
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the grief in her voice
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as she you know tried to relate that
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something horrible had happened to her
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friends
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the surviving roommate lauren minza told
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investigators she had no idea who would
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have done this
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nothing was stolen and lauren didn't
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think either victim had any enemies or
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at least none she knew about
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it appeared that leslie masara was
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attacked first
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it wasn't clear whether this was because
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her room was closest to the stairs or
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whether she was the intended target
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the evidence in her room indicated that
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she had been in bed when the attack
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happened and so it appears like she was
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probably asleep at the time the attack
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occurred and didn't have a chance to
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even understand what was happening to
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her or defend herself
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a background check revealed leslie was
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being pestered by the father of one of
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her ex-boyfriends
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it was leslie's last full-time boyfriend
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that she had before she moved out here
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to california
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and her ex-boyfriend's father
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continued to call her
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even after she moved to california
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we looked at phone records for the house
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and cell phone records and we learned
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that leslie had received several phone
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calls from the father of her
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ex-boyfriend
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that that that night on halloween
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leslie's ex-boyfriend and his father had
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alibis for the night of the murder they
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were both in south carolina thousands of
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miles away and witnesses confirmed it
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another potential suspect was a handyman
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who had worked in the house on the day
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of the murders but he too had an alibi
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in all police interviewed more than 200
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potential suspects and came up with
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nothing
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there was no information coming up after
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the murders no one was saying anything
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we all thought that it was someone who
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had hightailed it out of here
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immediately after the
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crime two weeks after the murders
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friends organized a candlelight vigil to
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keep attention focused on the case
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the majority of people we looked at
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early were ex-boyfriends current
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boyfriends
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co-workers that were very close to the
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girls
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who would have had that type of ongoing
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relationship
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then police got a break
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dna testing found blood at the crime
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scene that wasn't from the victims
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there was an x and y peak detected for
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those particular samples so we knew that
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we were dealing with male blood on the
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outside of the house
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it appeared the killer cut himself while
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stabbing the girls when the knife
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slipped in his hand
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he probably had the knife in his right
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hand and when he hit the wall the blood
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that was on his right hand and on the
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knife was cast off onto the wall
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investigators now turn to the three
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cigarette butts found at the scene
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two were in front of the house
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the other
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in the backyard
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dna from the saliva on two of the
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cigarette butts matched dna from the
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blood on the stairs
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it also matched dna from skin cells
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found on the rubber band holding the
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plastic zip ties
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the rubber band was a good dna source
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because it's made of porous material the
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perspiration or whatever it was that
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left the dna behind was absorbed into
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the rubber band
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and preserved
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the dna profile was entered into a
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national database of 4 million known
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offenders
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there was no match
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again police had to consider the
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unthinkable that they were dealing with
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a serial killer
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who had successfully eluded them
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that's the worst kind of crime to try to
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investigate because there's no known
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link to the girls
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and so then you have a larger pool of
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potential suspects obviously
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however a second look at the cigarette
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butts provided a possible lead
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on the white part of the cigarette there
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was a gold pattern that kind of looked
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like little gold birds kind of drawings
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all the way around no name no words
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so we had no idea what the brand was
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investigators did some research and
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learned the cigarettes were a brand
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known as camel turkish gold they were
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relatively new and had only been on the
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market for a very short time
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not every store even carried them and
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the stores that we talked to they would
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let us know maybe they sold one or two
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packs a week
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investigators asked the surviving
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roommate lauren minza for a list of
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everyone she knew who smoked cigarettes
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perhaps one of them
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was the killer
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[Music]
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solving the double homicide of adrian
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and sonya and leslie mazzara proved to
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be far more difficult than police ever
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imagined
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it was
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like
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trying to find a needle in a haystack
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and we wanted to find out who did this
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and we wanted to put them and where they
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belonged and that's why the community
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came together with a hundred thousand
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dollar reward
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but investigators knew something about
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their killer
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blood stains on the stairway wall were
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on the right side indicating he was
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probably right-handed
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and he smoked camel turkish gold
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cigarettes
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to find out more
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investigators asked dr tony fridaykas if
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the killer's dna could provide any
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information useful to their
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investigation
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and dr fudegas told them about a new
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forensic technique he developed that
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could determine the killer's physical
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characteristics
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it's really important that you be able
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to narrow down your focus because
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otherwise you have no information with
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which to work and you're
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sort of flailing around
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since
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99.9 percent of all human dna is alike
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dr frudakis focuses his attention on the
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remaining one-tenth of one percent and
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compares these polymorphisms to the dna
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of citizens from other countries
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this can identify the killer's ethnic
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identity
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the donor was primarily of northwestern
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european
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ancestry very small amount of
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southeastern european ancestry and no
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middle eastern or south asian admixtures
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so you knew for example he wasn't
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hispanic he wasn't african american so
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that certainly narrowed down the focus
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of the investigation in terms of who
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they should be looking at and dr
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frudaykas found a marker in one of the
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killer's jeans that indicated he'd have
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blue or green eyes and most likely
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light-colored hair
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i was glad they had done it it made me
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more
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hopeful that eventually they would be
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able to determine who the perpetrator
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was
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police released this new information to
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the public hoping someone in the
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community would recognize him
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tonight there's a new development in the
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murders of two napol women
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and there was a man
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living just two miles away from the
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murder scene
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who was listening to every word
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they say he's white has blondish hair
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and most likely has green eyes he now
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knew two things
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that he made too many mistakes and the
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dna technology had advanced far beyond
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anything he could ever have imagined
00:13:22
at the same time
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police asked their surviving roommate
00:13:26
lauren minza if she knew anyone who
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smoked this brand of cigarettes
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she had let us know
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well the only smoker i can think of at
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this point is
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eric koppel
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twenty-five-year-old eric koppel
00:13:42
was a land surveyor and a friend of one
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of the victims
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but before police could question him
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koppel walked into police headquarters
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and confessed
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i'm just getting done with dinner and i
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get a phone call at home
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someone's here at the police department
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and they want to confess
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couples said he knew adrian and sonya
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it was that cold feeling that came over
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me
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i didn't know what to feel or at that
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moment i really didn't know
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we want to make sure that he knows
00:14:16
details about the crime and the things
00:14:18
he's telling us match up with what we
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already know about the crime scene i
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want to make sure that it's information
00:14:23
that hasn't been released to the media
00:14:25
although eric koppel confessed
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he wouldn't tell police why he did it
00:14:31
he always claimed he didn't know what he
00:14:33
did with the murder weapon which again
00:14:35
to me always suggested to me
00:14:37
that he wasn't telling the truth because
00:14:39
it would seem to me that that would be
00:14:40
something he'd be able to tell us
00:14:43
eric was very elusive as far as a
00:14:45
question of why the crime happened
00:14:47
we could never get him to say i did this
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because of x y and z
00:14:56
25 year eric koppel walked into police
00:14:59
headquarters and confessed to the
00:15:01
murders of adrian and sonya and leslie
00:15:04
mazzara
00:15:05
he knew from the genetic testing that it
00:15:08
was only a matter of time
00:15:12
he knew he was just getting circled in
00:15:14
he had to do it and he was going to
00:15:16
commit suicide he was going to do
00:15:17
whatever and he saw that stuff and he
00:15:20
says i can't take it and he came in and
00:15:22
he confessed
00:15:23
dna tests confirmed that eric coppel's
00:15:27
blood was at the crime scene and that
00:15:30
his saliva was on the cigarette butts
00:15:33
found outside
00:15:35
i don't know if i exactly remembered the
00:15:37
moment when i got the news i just knew i
00:15:39
was elated i was
00:15:41
very happy to find out that
00:15:44
on a rare piece of evidence that we had
00:15:46
we had the suspect's dna
00:15:49
koppel was arrested and charged with two
00:15:52
counts of first degree murder
00:15:54
investigators learned that koppel blamed
00:15:57
adrian and sonya for the breakup of his
00:16:00
engagement to lily prudhomme
00:16:03
it appeared that some people and
00:16:04
possibly adrian were telling lily that
00:16:06
she could do better and that uh
00:16:10
she shouldn't be any longer involved in
00:16:12
this relationship with eric coppoll that
00:16:14
he wasn't good enough for her or right
00:16:16
for her
00:16:17
she must have seen something and she was
00:16:19
just trying to warn lily
00:16:21
and unfortunately she was just
00:16:23
absolutely
00:16:27
a victim of something that never
00:16:29
should have ever happened such a
00:16:30
wonderful person
00:16:33
on the night of the murders
00:16:35
couple went to a halloween party and ran
00:16:38
into his ex-fiance
00:16:39
lily prudhomme according to witnesses
00:16:42
the two argued couple wanted to set a
00:16:45
new date for their wedding but lily
00:16:47
wasn't interested can you just leave me
00:16:49
alone for the rest of the night please
00:16:59
after the party
00:17:00
couple returned home
00:17:02
he admitted to police that he was drunk
00:17:04
the fight with his ex-fiance only added
00:17:07
to the anger and bitterness he felt
00:17:10
towards adrian insonya
00:17:12
so
00:17:13
he took revenge
00:17:16
prosecutors believe couples stood
00:17:18
outside the house where adrian lived
00:17:21
with her two roommates casing the place
00:17:25
and smoking cigarettes
00:17:31
[Music]
00:17:33
he used a knife to pry open the window
00:17:36
and accidentally dropped the packet of
00:17:38
zip ties on the floor with his dna
00:17:43
leslie's bedroom was the first room at
00:17:46
the top of the stairs
00:17:48
and he killed her first
00:17:54
he then went across the hall to adrian's
00:17:57
room she fought back aggressively
00:18:00
at some point he cut his hand and bled
00:18:03
profusely as he rushed out of the house
00:18:09
at that point based on what he's told us
00:18:11
at least that he took his clothing and
00:18:13
burned them in a fire pit that he had in
00:18:14
his backyard
00:18:16
went back to sleep and then
00:18:18
the next day
00:18:19
went to lily's house to console her
00:18:22
after lily called him to tell him that
00:18:24
adrian had been attacked
00:18:26
no one knows why couples spared lauren
00:18:29
minza
00:18:30
some think he didn't know about the
00:18:32
downstairs bedroom
00:18:34
i don't know whether or not koppel knew
00:18:37
that there was a room there and i don't
00:18:39
know whether or not he knew that there
00:18:40
was a person in there i just had
00:18:43
a reckoning with myself
00:18:45
and really understood that adrian was
00:18:48
the target and somebody really wanted my
00:18:51
child dead
00:18:52
[Music]
00:18:55
and then i thought how stupid was i of
00:18:58
course adrian was the target of course
00:19:00
we all know it's someone in the inner
00:19:01
circle so if we had known those kind of
00:19:03
circumstances earlier investigation i'm
00:19:05
sure
00:19:06
he would have come into our radar sooner
00:19:09
but
00:19:10
again we can always look back and wish
00:19:12
we would have done things differently
00:19:14
a few months before he confessed
00:19:17
eric koppel patched things up with lily
00:19:19
prudhomme
00:19:20
and the two married
00:19:23
in a bitter irony
00:19:25
the couple asked arlene allen
00:19:28
adrian insonya's mother to be part of
00:19:32
the wedding ceremony
00:19:34
and so it was really a remarkable moment
00:19:36
and then
00:19:37
and my guest
00:19:38
at the wedding was my daughter lexi so
00:19:42
we were both there at eric and lily's
00:19:44
wedding
00:19:45
lily claims
00:19:47
she never suspected eric was the killer
00:19:52
in december of 2006
00:19:55
eric koppel pleaded guilty to two counts
00:19:58
of first degree murder
00:20:00
he was sentenced to life in prison
00:20:03
without parole
00:20:04
had he not pled guilty
00:20:07
couple would have been eligible for the
00:20:09
death penalty
00:20:10
and i think that was a very real
00:20:12
possibility accepting a life without
00:20:14
possibility of parole plea was probably
00:20:16
the best deal he was going to get
00:20:18
i never in my life thought that the
00:20:20
police would not solve this crime
00:20:22
i always believed they would
00:20:24
were it not for a few drops of blood
00:20:27
two cigarette butts and some skin cells
00:20:30
on a rubber band eric couple might have
00:20:33
gotten away with murder
00:20:35
but ever advancing dna technology
00:20:38
provided a profile so accurate
00:20:41
it was only a matter of time
00:20:43
before he was exposed as the killer
00:20:47
this case turned on those cigarette
00:20:49
butts primarily because it was the dna
00:20:52
on cigarette butts that told us a little
00:20:54
bit about the killer
00:20:56
things that would have been not even
00:20:57
considered 20 years ago
00:20:59
as
00:21:00
evidence are very crucial to cases
00:21:02
nowadays
00:21:03
and again the sensitivity of these
00:21:04
testing and testing analysis and dna
00:21:08
it's just incredible we can find
00:21:10
in in crime scenes now every homicide
00:21:12
that you see
00:21:13
there's always a twist to the case
00:21:16
that's a little bit different from the
00:21:17
next case and so that's sort of what
00:21:19
makes this work so interesting and so
00:21:21
challenging it was the dna it was the
00:21:24
cigarette butts
00:21:26
so once again at any crime scene it's
00:21:28
very crucial very crucial to do a good
00:21:31
job and collect all the evidence
00:21:34
and
00:21:35
most crimes
00:21:36
most crimes are solved by the physical
00:21:38
evidence
00:21:44
you
