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i love you
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a 13 year old girl went missing from her
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colorado home
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with little evidence to explain
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what happened
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the investigation dragged on for two
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long years until an alert fingerprint
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examiner found
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a serious flaw in the system
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[Music]
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[Music]
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[Music]
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september 7 1991 was like most other
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days for the church family
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diane church got the kids off to school
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ran errands went grocery shopping and
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planned to spend a quiet evening with
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her family
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the plans for that night originally was
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to be at home and just do whatever we do
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probably read them stories and and that
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kind of stuff that moms do
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then diane remembered her older sons had
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a boy scout meeting that night
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diane's other children five-year-old
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sage and 13-year-old heather wanted to
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stay home
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heather didn't want to go and hang out
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with all those crazy boys and so she
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asked if she could babysit that night
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and um and so we said sure fine whatever
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and um
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and we took off and went to the cub
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scout meeting
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heather had taken babysitting classes so
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diane had no qualms about leaving her in
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charge
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later that night diane called home to
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check in
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[Music]
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i guess it was right before 8 30 and
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i heard the tv on in the background and
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i said oh what's going on and she goes
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oh mom i just let him stay up a little
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bit i'll put him to bed
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diane and the two boys returned home
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around 10 o'clock
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the house was dark
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and for some reason
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the front door was unlocked
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she assumed
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heather and sage were asleep
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sage was in bed
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but heather was not
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she was so little and she had such a big
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fluffy comforter that i just figured she
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was under the comforter so i said what
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go look again
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so uh he goes and looks again and comes
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back and goes no she's not in there so
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i went and looked and and
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and she wasn't in there and
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and then that's when
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it all fell apart
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diane and her children searched the
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house and their five-acre property they
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found
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no sign of heather
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so diane called police
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and they said well 98 of these calls
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turn out to be runaways and i just said
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oh well this is the other two percent
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when investigators arrived
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they found the property full of friends
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and relatives
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for forensic technicians
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this was a potential problem
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when there's a multitude of people that
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have been there for a prolonged period
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of time
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pretty much everything and anything that
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could be touched has been touched
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footwear impressions
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tire tracks anything at all that might
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be unusual is more difficult to identify
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there was no apparent sign of forced
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entry or foul play or even of a struggle
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the only thing taken or person taken was
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heather
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she was the only thing missing from the
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scene that we could identify the search
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continued throughout the night
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and still
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there was no sign of heather
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the next morning
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diane church noticed that the screen on
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her bedroom window was a skew
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evidence technicians found
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three fingerprints on the outside of the
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screen's frame
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the prints themselves were very fresh in
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this particular case on that particular
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screen
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they were very distinct prints
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but these fingerprints could have been
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left by anyone dozens of people had been
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in and around the house
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but this was a busy household just like
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many of our households there were
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hundreds of prints throughout the entire
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house it was a process that would take
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days perhaps weeks
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and they were no closer to finding
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heather
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what happened ahem don church became the
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mystery for this entire region people
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were talking about it people were
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worried people were scared
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what's your favorite violin song to play
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the devil's dream yeah that's a good one
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i like that one the possible abduction
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of 13 year old heather church was
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unusual for colorado springs colorado a
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community with very little crime
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i think it heightened all the concern
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about taking safety measures with your
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children and making sure they understood
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about you know stranger danger concerns
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and things like that
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diane church and her family lived in a
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sparsely populated area which meant a
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kidnapper could have abducted heather
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without drawing much attention
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it was this 13 year old girl who was
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home and
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yet her
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brother was
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left behind she disappeared and her
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brother was just still sleeping in his
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bed
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it all was a very suspicious situation
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right off the bat
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an fbi profiler agreed
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since there was nothing missing from the
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home and no signs of violence
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the profiler suggested heather's
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abductor might be someone familiar with
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the family and their routines it's a
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very high percentage of crimes of that
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nature that family members are involved
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so you always look at the parents you
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always try to check out their alibi
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or check out their motive and
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if there's any evidence of bad character
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at all the first suspect on the list
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was heather's father
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at the time he was separated from diane
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church and living on his own
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the fbi wanted to talk to me and for
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about four hours i had the i could see
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in the movie the good guy bad guy
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scenario
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fbi agents asking me all these
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questions that
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[Music]
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some of them were
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really hard to imagine
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they were very very personal
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things that
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how i felt about my daughter
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but mike church said he had an alibi for
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the time heather went missing
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he attended a support group meeting for
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divorcees with plenty of witnesses
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he left the meeting at 9 30.
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there was a short time gap from the time
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he left the workshop to the time he was
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called at his residence that gap had to
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be filled in he also passed a polygraph
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test
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one of the detectives did come to my
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work and he asked to see me at that time
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i said am i still considered a suspect
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and he says mr church yes you are
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and i said well
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i think that you need
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to look somewhere else
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diane church was also considered a
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suspect
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they gave me a lie detector test a
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horrible thing to go through to you know
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go to the police station and
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be fingerprinted and lie detector test
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and all this kind of stuff
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the only potential evidence at the scene
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was the fingerprints on the bedroom
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screen
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the prints were compared with those in
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the database of the colorado state
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bureau of investigation
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there was no match
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next the sheriff's office sent the
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prints to the fbi and their automated
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fingerprint identification system or
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aphis
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it's one of the largest fingerprint
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databases in the world at the time
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containing over 45 million prints
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our impression at that time was
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that if we submitted those fingerprints
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to the federal aphid system
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that we were covering the broadest
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spectrum that could be accessed
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again
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there was no match
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as a father i felt like i should have
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been there
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and i wasn't
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so uh
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i went through i was going through a
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failed marriage and then i wasn't i
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wasn't there as a father for my children
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so i blamed a lot of that on myself why
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why wasn't i there
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my biggest wish was that
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somebody had taken her who had
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lost a kid
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of their own
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and that was what i clung to
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[Music]
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the investigation into heather church's
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disappearance dragged on for months
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then
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years
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the fingerprints found on the bedroom
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window screen
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didn't match any in the state or
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national databases
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despite this
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the family never lost hope
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i think that's what got me from one day
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to the next
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and then i have those days that
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i would
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see her
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up in the mountains somewhere
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alone
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and calling for me
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it was agonizing
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so i had to put my myself in a right
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frame of mind and i
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tried to get out of those type of
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situations
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exactly two years after heather went
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missing
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the family was told
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that a hiker had found
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a human skull
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near pikes peak just 15 miles from their
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home
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the skull was recovered in a pretty
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remote area
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of el paso county off rampart range road
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about seven
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over seven miles from town
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by a hiker in a pretty steep ravine
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about a 400 foot ravine
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the skull
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was that of a young caucasian female
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the news came on and the reporter was
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holding
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the skull and
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was saying
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this body has been found yadda yadda and
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all the details
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and
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about
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and this happened this had happened to
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me so many times since she went missing
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it's amazing how many bodies are found
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dental records identified the victim
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it was
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heather church
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at the beginning i didn't want to hear
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it
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like 24 hours i kept on saying are you
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sure
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i must have said that a hundred times
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the autopsy revealed the manner of death
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was homicide
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the medical examiner was able to
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conclude that heather died of blunt
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force trauma to the right rear of the
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head
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in the area where the skull was found
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investigators discovered a pair of girls
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pajamas but surprisingly her mother said
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they weren't heathers
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with no other clues
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it looked like the case might go cold
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again
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but before that could happen
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the newly elected sheriff of el paso
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county made the heather church case his
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first priority
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and one of his main topics that he
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wanted to
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work was the heather dawn church case
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and he asked me if i would look into it
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when lou said he was going to open the
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case up i said i thought to myself
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what good is this going to do
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you know
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what are you going to find out
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that these other
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police officers and detectives
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didn't know
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detective lou smith
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turned to the only possible clue to the
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killer's identity
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the three fingerprints found on the
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bedroom window screen at the church's
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house
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at the same time
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layton print examiner tom carney took a
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fresh look at these prints too
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he was new to the el paso county crime
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laboratory
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he came from miami where he learned
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something not many others knew
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the fbi's fingerprint database did not
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contain the prince of everyone in the
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united states who was convicted of a
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crime
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i knew right away that they had not all
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these atheist systems out there had not
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been searched to the best of my
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knowledge only two aficio systems had
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been searched
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i just assumed that it was a centralized
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network
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and uh tom carney uh
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was the one that really opened our eyes
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on that
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generally the fbi stores only the
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fingerprints of criminals convicted of
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major crimes not those convicted of
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minor crimes like burglary or theft
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so kearney needed to identify
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every database that had fingerprints
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which were not on file with the fbi
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i just contacted every state and try and
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track down every system in every state
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including canada and even mexico carney
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identified
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92 fingerprint databases in north
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america that hadn't been searched for
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the prints from the heather church case
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i
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left a note for our photographic lab
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saying please make 92 sets of the
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heather dawn church crime scene latents
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and i'm going to mail them out and
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that's what i did
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four weeks later
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tom carney got a surprise
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[Music]
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finally
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after two long years
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colorado law enforcement officials got
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the break they'd been hoping for
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they compared the fingerprints from the
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heather church case with 92 databases
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not connected to the fbi's aphis
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registry
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and their efforts
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were richly rewarded
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actually was my wife we're standing at
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home and the phone rang and it was the
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department saying that they had just
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made a match
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the fingerprints matched
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42 year old
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robert brown
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who'd been arrested in both louisiana
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and california and served time in prison
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for car theft
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he had a criminal history in both of
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those states had nothing for murder
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but we knew he was a felon brown's
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fingerprints didn't make it into the
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fbi's database because his offense was
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comparatively minor
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when louisiana notified us that they had
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matched a prince to a subject named
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robert brown we immediately went into
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our files and our databases to find out
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where robert brown lived and we found
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that he lived just a quarter mile away
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from heather church
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brown worked as a tree farmer and was
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married with one grown son
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colorado officials put brown under
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surveillance
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and arrested him walking out of an art
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supply store
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based on what i saw he's pretty calm he
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didn't really have a reaction didn't
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look surprised didn't overreact you
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could just see in his face like you know
00:16:01
you got me
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when questioned brown denied any
00:16:06
involvement in heather's murder why are
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your fingerprints out there robert
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my fingerprints aren't happy i'm
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guaranteeing you that i ain't lying to
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you your fingerprints are there
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do you want me to show you the
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the document that
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as your friend what i want you to do is
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fingerprint me again and have somebody
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who knows what to do and compare
00:16:27
we've had four people
00:16:29
that know what they're doing compare
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people they need to do it again i mean
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you know i've got the same thing friends
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i've had all my life prosecutors believe
00:16:38
brown's motive was burglary
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on the night of the crime
00:16:47
heather church was babysitting her
00:16:48
brother sage her mother called at 8 30
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to check on them
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after her mother called
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heather put her brother to bed
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turned out the lights
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and went to sleep herself
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brown arrived at the church's home
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sometime after 8 30.
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the house lights were off and there was
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no car in the garage so we probably
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thought
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no one was home
00:17:30
brown entered the home through a window
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into one of the empty bedrooms
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he most likely wore gloves
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but when he had difficulty removing the
00:17:40
screen
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he took them off
00:17:43
and inadvertently left three prince
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behind
00:17:49
prosecutors believe
00:17:50
heather heard the noise and went to
00:17:53
investigate
00:17:55
when brown saw her he realized heather
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could identify him so he struck her in
00:18:01
the head with a blunt object
00:18:04
killing her instantly
00:18:06
he carried heather's body out through
00:18:09
the front door which he left unlocked
00:18:12
loaded her into his vehicle
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and drove to the mountains
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where he dumped her body in a ravine
00:18:20
[Music]
00:18:23
to avoid the death penalty
00:18:25
brown pleaded guilty to kidnapping and
00:18:28
murder and was sentenced to life in
00:18:30
prison with no chance of parole
00:18:34
it's just
00:18:35
i think
00:18:37
just a scary prospect to all of us that
00:18:38
people can do these things and
00:18:41
at least for a while get away with it
00:18:44
had it not been for an alert fingerprint
00:18:47
examiner brown's print might never have
00:18:50
been matched
00:18:52
the aphis systems have to be organized
00:18:54
into one central location
00:18:57
where all fingerprint files are kept
00:19:00
so that you don't have to go through
00:19:03
so many different agencies in order to
00:19:05
find out the answers sometime
00:19:08
once in prison robert brown made a
00:19:11
shocking revelation he admitted that
00:19:14
heather church
00:19:15
wasn't his first murder victim
00:19:18
he said he killed another colorado
00:19:20
springs woman named rocio sperry
00:19:24
who'd been reported missing in 1987
00:19:28
he said he put her body
00:19:30
in a trash dumpster
00:19:32
the the sperry case was a classic cold
00:19:35
case it was a missing person
00:19:37
wasn't really investigated as a homicide
00:19:40
investigators weren't entirely surprised
00:19:42
by brown's revelation
00:19:45
the unidentified pajamas found near
00:19:47
heather's body
00:19:49
led them to suspect
00:19:51
there were other victims
00:19:53
it wasn't surprising to me that he had
00:19:55
done other killings i knew from the
00:19:56
beginning once we made the arrest that
00:19:59
he was a serial killer i mean i think
00:20:00
that was pretty common among
00:20:02
investigators that this wasn't his first
00:20:04
time
00:20:04
eventually brown confessed to 48 murders
00:20:08
including one he committed while serving
00:20:11
in the u.s military in south korea
00:20:14
there have been serial killers through
00:20:16
here before
00:20:18
you know you hate to think that there
00:20:19
are others but
00:20:21
apparently he was one robert brown was
00:20:22
one
00:20:25
investigators around the country are
00:20:27
still trying to corroborate brown's
00:20:29
claims
00:20:30
if true
00:20:32
brown may be one of the most prolific
00:20:34
serial killers
00:20:36
in american history
00:20:38
and he might still be free
00:20:41
if it weren't for the local fingerprint
00:20:43
databases in louisiana and california
00:20:47
and the investigators who knew
00:20:50
where to look
00:20:52
what i hope the episode shows is number
00:20:54
one is you don't give up because it's a
00:20:55
cold case keep trying and obviously
00:20:58
technological communication is important
00:21:00
one department didn't talk to another
00:21:01
one system wasn't connected to another
00:21:03
it's very important to have that
00:21:04
communication both from a technological
00:21:06
standpoint and a personal standpoint you
00:21:08
just don't know sometime how just a
00:21:10
little clue just a little fingerprint
00:21:13
and
00:21:15
will will lead you right directly to the
00:21:17
killer they wouldn't have been able to
00:21:19
find brown without those forensics
00:21:21
that fingerprint was
00:21:23
was the thing that i nailed the
00:21:26
the nail in the coffin for him
00:21:29
and without that
00:21:31
after
00:21:32
over a year
00:21:34
i don't know how that could have
00:21:36
had anything could have evolved out of
00:21:37
that
