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[Music]
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the mother of two young children went
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missing from her suburban home
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[Music]
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a few days later her close friend and
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co-worker was killed in a mysterious
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accident
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some wondered if there was a connection
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20 years later a body was exhumed and
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forensic science uncovered
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the truth
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[Music]
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[Applause]
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[Music]
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[Music]
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it's winter in ohio
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charles mill lake is peaceful now
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but in the summer it's full of activity
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punctuated by the sounds of boats and
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children playing
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leroy and melody bruce remember those
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days fondly we used to go out on a
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pontoon boat and i remember laying on
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the front of the pontoon boat with my
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hands out catching leaves and bugs and
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seeing who could catch the most in the
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water
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melody's stepfather larry bruce worked
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as a driver for roadway trucking
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judy was a stay-at-home mom
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my mom was kind of introverted she
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did not really
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socialize a lot because of her speech
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impediment she had a hard time
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with people understanding what she was
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saying
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the speech impediment the result of a
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cleft palate made judy self-conscious
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but when she had corrective surgery her
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life changed
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well she got her driver's license she
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had a car she
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got a job at mansfield general hospital
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and housekeeping
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she was making friends there
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judy loved her job at the hospital but
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on the morning of november 2nd 1978 she
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was too sick to go to work
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she
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was sick the day before she was not
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feeling well
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and
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as i came out of my bedroom from getting
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dressed
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the door was cracked about six inches i
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looked into my parents room and i was
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able to see
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that she was laying there
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the children walked outside to the bus
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stop their father left with them to go
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to work
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when the children got home from school
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their mother wasn't there
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my brother was already home he asked me
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when i came in the door
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if i knew where mom was at if you look
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that way i look this way
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when larry got home from work he too was
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concerned and called police to report
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her missing
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it appeared that the only thing missing
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from the house was mrs bruce and the
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clothes she was wearing her car was
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still there her purse was still there
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her prescription drugs were still there
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and there were no signs of forced entry
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or any kind of struggle
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we called the office to see if maybe she
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was admitted to the hospital
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and or if she was showed up at work and
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nobody had seen her family friends
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nobody
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after searching all night
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police made an unfortunate discovery
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the police just kind of swarmed into our
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house and
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[Music]
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i was standing at this kitchen sink
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doing dishes
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and
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they had said that they had found
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they had found my mom
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but she was dead
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her body was discovered in a deserted
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campground along a creek just a few feet
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from a newly paved road
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she was in her pajamas and wrapped in a
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blanket feet were immaculately clean
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that was a significant thing that led us
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to believe that
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she wasn't murdered at that spot
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during police questioning larry bruce
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said that judy had planned to spend the
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day home in bed because she was sick
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he also said he had no idea where she
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might have gone
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the children provided larry with an
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alibi confirming that he had left the
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house with them that morning
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and larry's time sheets confirmed he had
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gone straight to work
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he pretty much kept his entire schedule
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that day nothing was out of order there
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had been no other time that he could
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have committed the homicide
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police noticed that larry's shoes had
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dirt on the soles
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and they wondered whether the dirt was
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from the area around judy's body
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so larry's shoes and a dirt sample from
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the campsite were sent to the fbi for
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analysis
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the results were inconclusive
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[Music]
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but judy's autopsy revealed several new
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clues
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and raised even more questions
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[Music]
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judy bruce's body was sent to the
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cuyahoga county coroner for an autopsy
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the medical examiner ruled the death a
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homicide
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the final coroner's report indicated
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cause of death was asphyxiation she was
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actually smothered to death
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the time of death is an inexact
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science but was estimated to be either
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shortly before or within a few hours
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after larry and the children left the
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house
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the autopsy also revealed that judy's
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bladder was empty
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when you consider a person who is dying
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of suffocation
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when they die that way
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their bladder evacuates
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involuntarily
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investigators found no significant urine
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sample near judy's body in the park
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this was another indication she was
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killed elsewhere
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interestingly
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judy's children told police
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their father had complained about some
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soiled bed sheets shortly after judy
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disappeared
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i can remember him came around and threw
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in a bed sheet into the trash
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and i was
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you know why you burning that he's like
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well the dog you know the dog urinated
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on it
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on hearing this news
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police immediately confiscated what
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remained of the bedding from the master
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bedroom there was some blood staining on
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one of the pillow cases and there were
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some unexplained stains on other
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blankets on the bed
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but the forensic tests at the time were
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unable to identify whose blood and urine
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it was
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back then the technology did not exist
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to detect whether it would have been
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animal human
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the only technology we had was to
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get a type of blood
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in fact you couldn't even get the blood
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typing because the sample was so small
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in the trunk of larry's car
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investigators found some oak leaves but
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little else they didn't have a lot of
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evidence and what little evidence they
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did have
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forensic science hadn't come a long way
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toward making it useful
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just a few days later
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there was another death in man's field
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one of judy's co-workers james isaac was
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killed in a traffic accident
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and larry bruce made a startling
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revelation
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he told police that isaac was having an
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affair with his wife and accused isaac
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of killing judy and then
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he may have killed himself bruce implied
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that isaac was somehow responsible for
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judy's death and killed himself due to
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his guilt over it
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but no one could corroborate larry's
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claims
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and the primary focus continued to be
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on larry bruce
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we ultimately made the decision not to
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press for the indictment at that time
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because everything we had at that time
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was circumstantial
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time passed
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and judy bruce's murder slowly drifted
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to the bottom of the unsolved case file
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i never forgot the case i would drive by
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their residence and we would even drive
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by roadway trucking i remember on an
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alarm off once talking to a dispatcher
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at the roadway trucking i said hey you
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know what what did larry ever
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you know say about this case because he
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worked there for several years after the
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homicide
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and it was
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the
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feedback i would get was that he was the
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kind of guy that was bragging about it
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he committed the perfect crime he got
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away with it
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about a year after judy's murder
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larry bruce got married again and the
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couple continued to live in the house in
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mansfield for the next 20 years
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the case went unsolved
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until a cold case unit delved deeper
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into the death of judy bruce
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by the year 2000 police in mansfield
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ohio had a total of 17 unsolved murder
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cases in their files and local officials
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started to grow
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impatient
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so prosecutors did what other
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communities were starting to do
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we approached the county commissioners
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for twenty five thousand dollars to set
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up a cold homicide unit to look at cases
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that were unsolved
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the first case they reviewed was the
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murder of judy bruce which by this time
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had gone unsolved for more than 20 years
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some in law enforcement suspected her
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husband larry had committed the crime
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but they couldn't prove it
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so the new cold case unit began their
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investigation with the oak leaves found
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20 years earlier in the trunk of larry
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bruce's car
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so it was our theory that when he opened
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the trunk to take the body out some of
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those oak leaves fell into the trunk of
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his cadillac
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and information presented in this very
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television series
00:11:00
suggested a new way to test them
00:11:04
i was watching a forensic files episode
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one night and they had a story about out
00:11:09
western arizona had done a plant dna
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case
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the crux of that investigation was a
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seed pod found in a suspect's truck
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which was later matched with plant dna
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to the palo verde tree next to the
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victim's body
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reinboat contacted the scientists who
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pioneered plant dna analysis and asked
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them to test the oakley found in larry's
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trunk to determine if it came from the
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oak tree near judy's body
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i did go out to the camp
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to see if black oaks and red oaks grew
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nearby and there were quite a few of
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them
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right up the
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short ways up the street there
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unfortunately
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too many years had passed and scientists
00:11:53
were unable to extract any dna from the
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leaf
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but to their credit
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police didn't give up
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investigators decided to retest the
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stains on the bedding from judy bruce's
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bedroom
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dna analysis which didn't exist in 1978
00:12:14
determined that they were semen
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one stain
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matched larry bruce's dna judy's husband
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the other did not
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when judy was murdered
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larry claimed that judy was having an
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affair with the co-worker james isaac
00:12:31
who died in a suspicious traffic
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accident days after judy's death to see
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if it was isaac's dna on the bedding
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investigators obtained a court order
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allowing them to exhume james isaac's
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body
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when the dna profile from isaac was
00:12:50
compared with the unidentified semen on
00:12:52
the electric blanket it was found to be
00:12:54
not a match so the semen on the electric
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blanket remains unidentified
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investigators found no evidence that
00:13:01
judy bruce and james isaac were anything
00:13:04
more than acquaintances
00:13:07
next investigators asked dick bisping
00:13:10
senior research microscopist at macron
00:13:12
associates to analyze the dirt on the
00:13:15
bottom of larry bruce's shoes which were
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still in evidence
00:13:21
to do this
00:13:22
bisping used a polarized light
00:13:25
microscope
00:13:28
it's like looking through polarized
00:13:29
sunglasses and by manipulating the light
00:13:32
we can see different optical properties
00:13:34
different optical features of each of
00:13:36
these mineral grains their appearance
00:13:39
their color their optical properties all
00:13:43
help us identify
00:13:45
the type of mineral
00:13:47
the dirt on larry's shoes did not match
00:13:50
the samples of dirt around judy's body
00:13:53
but the polarized light revealed an
00:13:55
important previously undetected clue
00:13:59
these brightly colored minerals the soil
00:14:03
from the shoes contain calcite
00:14:05
which is calcium carbonate
00:14:07
could be from limestone
00:14:09
and that type of material is often used
00:14:12
in roadways road beds
00:14:14
near judy's body was a roadway that had
00:14:17
been paved with new limestone gravel
00:14:20
just days before her body was dumped
00:14:22
there
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this was the first potential link
00:14:25
between larry bruce and where judy's
00:14:29
body was found
00:14:32
next
00:14:33
investigators sent the trunk liner from
00:14:35
larry's cadillac and the blanket judy
00:14:38
had been wrapped in to the cuyahoga
00:14:40
county coroner's office for forensic
00:14:43
analysis
00:14:44
we were trying to find any piece of
00:14:46
evidence that we could
00:14:48
that would put
00:14:50
mrs bruce's
00:14:52
body
00:14:53
or the moving pad that she was wrapped
00:14:55
in
00:14:56
into the trunk of bruce's car or inside
00:14:59
his car in any fashion
00:15:02
forensic scientist curtis jones used
00:15:05
tape to collect any loose fibers from
00:15:07
the blanket that covered judy's body
00:15:10
using a comparison microscope
00:15:13
jones compared the fibers to see if they
00:15:16
were similar
00:15:18
the three fibers three different fiber
00:15:21
types that made up the trunk liner
00:15:24
were also found on the moving blanket
00:15:28
but were the fibers in larry's trunk
00:15:31
an exact match to the fibers from the
00:15:33
blanket covering judy's body
00:15:36
to find out
00:15:37
jones used fourier transform infrared
00:15:40
spectroscopy a technology not available
00:15:44
in 1978.
00:15:46
the fdir
00:15:48
uses
00:15:49
infrared energy
00:15:51
and it passes that infrared energy
00:15:52
through the fiber or material that
00:15:55
you're examining
00:15:56
and the infrared energy is absorbed or
00:15:59
not absorbed by the chemical bonds of
00:16:01
the material and that produces a
00:16:02
spectrum of peaks and valleys that can
00:16:05
be
00:16:06
used to determine what
00:16:08
chemical bonds are present
00:16:10
and the result
00:16:12
the three fibers from the blanket were
00:16:15
synthetic rayon
00:16:17
and the three fibers found in the trunk
00:16:19
were also
00:16:21
synthetic rayon
00:16:23
the evidence doesn't lie
00:16:25
you know in cases there's both sides of
00:16:27
the story but the only real side that
00:16:29
doesn't ever lie is the evidence
00:16:32
more than two decades after judy's death
00:16:35
larry bruce was arrested and charged
00:16:38
with her murder
00:16:39
and prosecutors also learned
00:16:42
that judy was keeping a dark secret
00:16:46
something that larry bruce did not want
00:16:49
to come to light
00:16:50
[Music]
00:16:55
23 years after judy bruce's death her
00:16:58
husband larry went on trial for murder
00:17:02
prosecutors first witness was the
00:17:04
couple's son leroy
00:17:06
[Music]
00:17:09
on the morning of his mother's death he
00:17:10
recalled going into his parents bedroom
00:17:12
to get a permission slip signed for
00:17:14
school
00:17:16
i stood there as he signed that
00:17:19
permission slip that there was basically
00:17:22
no movement
00:17:23
you know i'm sure mom would at least
00:17:25
came to see what was going on
00:17:28
prosecutors believe judy was already
00:17:30
dead
00:17:33
after larry got the children off to
00:17:35
school
00:17:36
prosecutors say larry wrapped judy's
00:17:38
body in a blanket and put it in the
00:17:41
trunk of his car
00:17:44
as he left for work he waved to the
00:17:46
children at the bus stop hoping they
00:17:48
would be his alibi
00:17:50
then
00:17:51
he went directly to work to keep his
00:17:53
usual schedule
00:17:57
but after work
00:17:58
he stopped by the deserted camp
00:18:01
and dumped his wife's body
00:18:03
[Music]
00:18:07
the synthetic rayon fibers from larry's
00:18:09
trunk liner were transferred to the
00:18:12
blanket covering judy's body
00:18:15
and larry's shoes picked up the calcite
00:18:18
particles from the newly paved limestone
00:18:21
where they were discovered 20 years
00:18:24
later by alert forensic scientists
00:18:28
the prosecutors were able to put up a
00:18:29
good faith effort and tell them this is
00:18:32
everything we know using modern
00:18:33
forensics about the evidence that we do
00:18:35
have remaining to us and we pulled out
00:18:37
all the stops and here's what we know
00:18:39
prosecutor mayor saved his most
00:18:42
compelling witness for last
00:18:45
from the age of five until i was 14
00:18:49
larry was sexually molesting me if i
00:18:51
wanted to go do something
00:18:54
he would tell me i would have to do
00:18:56
something for him first
00:18:58
melody was larry's stepdaughter
00:19:01
she also presented evidence that her
00:19:03
mother knew what was going on
00:19:06
and that larry had the motive to silence
00:19:09
her
00:19:10
when she was a little girl before her
00:19:12
mother was murdered she was being
00:19:14
molested by her father in a bedroom
00:19:17
by chance
00:19:18
her mother judy bruce came into the
00:19:20
bedroom she witnessed the molestation
00:19:23
she was furious with her husband larry
00:19:26
bruce a vicious argument ensued
00:19:28
immediately after that very loud
00:19:30
profanities and then the defendant got
00:19:32
so worked up larry bruce that he took a
00:19:33
swing at his wife
00:19:35
and missed her and punched the wall and
00:19:37
broke a bone
00:19:38
in his arm
00:19:40
the defense presented no witnesses
00:19:42
arguing that the prosecution had
00:19:44
improved its case beyond the reasonable
00:19:46
doubts look at every angle of this and
00:19:49
you'll see that it's entirely
00:19:50
circumstantial case the jury deliberated
00:19:53
for less than two hours we the jury find
00:19:56
the defendant larry bruce guilty of the
00:19:58
crime of
00:20:01
[Music]
00:20:05
just can't believe murder all happening
00:20:07
larry bruce was sentenced to 15 years to
00:20:10
life in prison
00:20:12
i was glad that he was being convicted
00:20:14
but in the same time i didn't want to be
00:20:17
there
00:20:18
i didn't want to have to deal with it i
00:20:20
didn't want to
00:20:22
face the reality that this really did
00:20:24
happen
00:20:26
after more than 20 years
00:20:28
old-fashioned police work and modern
00:20:31
forensic science finally brought justice
00:20:35
for judy bruce's family
00:20:38
the forensic evidence was very important
00:20:40
to this case because without it
00:20:43
it's very likely that the jury would
00:20:46
have acquitted the defendant if
00:20:49
i could get into a time machine and go
00:20:51
back
00:20:52
to 1978 and tell those investigating
00:20:55
officers
00:20:56
the things that would be available today
00:20:59
i think it would be beyond their
00:21:01
imagination
00:21:03
[Music]
00:21:13
[Music]
00:21:24
so
00:21:26
[Applause]
00:21:32
[Music]
00:21:41
you
