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[Music]
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up next
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a woman is murdered in broad daylight
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this is the monster jumping out of the
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bushes and grabbing you and killing you
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cell phone records and search dogs
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provided some leaves
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they were able to track a scent trail to
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a residential area that was very close
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to the canal trail
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but if not for some crafty police work
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and a chance encounter the entire
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investigation could have gone up in
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smoke
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we have an individual that's still out
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talking about who can do this again
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i don't know how much scarier can get
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during her lunch break in concord
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california
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kathy loreck went for a walk as she
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often did along a jogging trail near her
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office
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that was something that she just kind of
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did on her own as her own kind of a
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meditation throughout the day
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i know that sometimes she would use that
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opportunity to uh you know make some
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personal phone calls
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kathy was an executive secretary married
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with children
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on this day she spoke with her husband
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who was in europe
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on a business trip
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her husband reported that suddenly
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she made a loud uh a groan or a gasp
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and the phone went dead kathy's husband
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knew immediately something was wrong
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and called her co-workers and asked them
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to look for her
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they couldn't find her they came back
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and
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they called the police and the police
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got there within minutes
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about 20 minutes later a police officer
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saw what looked like
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streaks of blood the blood was like
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somebody taken a paint brush
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with red paint and simply drawn lines on
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the ground
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like you see somebody just dripping
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paint and drying with a paintbrush on a
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concrete
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the officer followed the blood trail
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down an embankment
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to a heavily wooded area where he found
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kathy lauric barely alive in a pool of
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blood
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he recognized that with the way her
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clothes were
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arranged and disheveled that she'd most
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likely been sexually assaulted
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and that she needed immediate medical
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attention
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kathy was rushed to the hospital but she
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died on route
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kathy had several major lacerations on
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her head
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what we believe to be the weapon was
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found um near kathy's body
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the weapon was a fence post was
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approximately two to two and a half feet
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long from what i leave
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[Music]
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detective finney came onto the phone and
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told me that
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my mom had died
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next thing i remember i kind of lost
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control
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and i think i yelled at uh
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detective finney for a little bit
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although
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kathy was using her cell phone when the
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attack occurred
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investigators couldn't find it anywhere
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in the area near her body
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when police checked her cell phone
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records they discovered
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someone had used her cell phone after
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her murder
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one of the numbers called when a person
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told us that a subject
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juan sanchez had called them
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investigators tracked 23-year-old juan
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sanchez to his residence
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and there they found kathy's cell phone
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in his possession but sanchez claimed
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he found the phone on the jogging path
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he explained to us that he was riding
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his
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bike on the canal trail and while he was
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riding his bike he found the cell phone
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he decided to use it for his personal
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use sanchez
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showed police exactly where he found the
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phone
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remarkably it was just 50 feet from
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kathy's body
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there was only one individual in our
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minds who could have had that cell phone
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and that would have been the individual
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who attacked kathy
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but sanchez denied he was the killer and
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denied seeing the blood on the trail
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near the cell phone
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investigators knew right away this would
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not be
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a routine murder investigation
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this was shocking we're talking about a
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woman close to her office
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going for a walk on a trail frequented
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by many people in broad daylight
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and have this kind of thing happen to
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her it would be like being struck by
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lightning
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family friends and even police were
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stunned
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by the sheer audacity of kathy lauric's
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murder
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i was shocked that something like that
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happened because
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i've never seen any sign of anything
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like this going on you know
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i still want to walk you know i don't
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want to be intimidated to stop and
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change
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my routine for this attack to occur on a
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beautiful sunny day
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with a lot of people who realistically
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could have been around
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the incident at the time it occurred
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it's pretty brazen
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and you know pretty bold on the part of
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the suspect
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an encampment of several dozen homeless
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people
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just a quarter mile from the trail meant
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a random attack
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was a real possibility there'd been
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concerns about
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transients and homeless people on that
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trail previously
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and a lot of folks felt it just wasn't
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safe to go out on that trail
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but that wasn't the only possibility
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there are numerous access and exit
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points to this canal trail
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either by the public roadways by
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individuals using adjacent fields
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and access gaze
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the murder weapon was a broken piece of
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metal fencing
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this perpetrator actually broke off a
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piece of metal
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fence post and it appears that they
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waited for her to
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return from her walk and then dragged
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her off the trail
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there was blood but no prince on the
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murder weapon
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kathy's autopsy confirmed that she'd
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been
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sexually assaulted the dna profile from
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kathy loryx rape kit didn't match any in
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the statewide dna database
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of known criminal offenders
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it didn't match juan sanchez the man who
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found kathy's cell phone either
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he appeared to be very truthful to us he
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didn't have any trouble answering our
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questions
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and he volunteered to take a voice
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stress analyzer test
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which he took and and passed it was very
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disheartening
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to find out that the cell phone didn't
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lead to any place in particular
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in a search for suspects police rounded
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up everyone who was on or near the trail
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at the time of the murder
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some were homeless people others were
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joggers and bikers
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about a half dozen of them told a story
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that was remarkably consistent
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they had seen a male standing at the
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fence line looking into the canal and
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talking about the little fishes in the
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canal
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and drawing this the attention of people
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that were walking by
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and this person seemed like they were
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out of place
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he was a white male maybe six feet tall
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maybe early 30s
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a kind of heavy set not muscular but
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maybe a little bit overweight
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brownish blonde hair and disheveled some
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of the people described him as possibly
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transcender homeless
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two of these potential witnesses were
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sent to police sketch artist
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gil zamora i asked him the question if
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you saw him again would you
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recognize him they say yes
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then i i know that i can draw the sketch
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with each witness zamora tried to induce
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a state of deep relaxation
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and then had them describe what they saw
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i asked them to kind of tell me what
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they were doing right before they met
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the person
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and then kind of go through the entire
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process of the meeting or the event
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and then up until police get involved
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eventually these two drawings emerged
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from witnesses who had never spoken with
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each other
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except for the sunglasses the sketches
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were virtually
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identical they were two independent
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witnesses
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and they did not know each other i think
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these witnesses both saw the same person
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then police got a huge break
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investigators using k-9 teams
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identified a potential lead they were
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able to track a scent trail to a
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residential area in concord
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that was very close to the the canal
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trail a background check revealed a man
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living in this neighborhood had a
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criminal history
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he also looked similar to the composite
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drawings
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his name was mark fisher he was known to
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be
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violent violent to his relatives violent
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to police officers and to other public
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officials
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witnesses in the park were shown a photo
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lineup which
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included fisher's picture at least
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three of the witnesses were positive
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that
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the photo of mr fisher was the subject
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they had seen on the trail
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but when investigators went to fisher's
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house
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they got some shocking news the police
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were met by a relative who told them
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you haven't heard my brother mr fischer
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just killed himself jumped off the
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golden gate bridge committed suicide
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mark fisher killed himself less than 24
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hours
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after kathy's murder this person now
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kills himself
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a day after this type of crime
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there are no coincidences like that you
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know it just doesn't happen in my
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experience
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it was our belief that after the assault
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that he felt remorse that he felt guilt
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and he just couldn't live with what he
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had done a search of fisher's room
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seemed to confirm his role in the murder
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we found a pair of sunglasses similar to
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the type of sunglasses
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seen in the sketch they seized some
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clothing
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that appeared to have blood stains on it
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and noticed that a newspaper
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in the house was open to an article
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about the murder
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and a picture of the suspect's sketch
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was there as well
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the circumstantial evidence clearly
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pointed to mark fisher
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as the killer but would the forensic
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evidence agree
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[Music]
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police were certain mark fisher was the
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man who sexually assaulted and
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murdered kathy lorick along the jogging
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trail
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police sniffer dogs tracked the killer's
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trail right to his front door
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several eyewitnesses chose his picture
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from a photo lineup
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and it appeared he committed suicide
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just as
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police were about to arrest him
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after fischer's suicide scientists took
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a dna sample in the morgue
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and compared fischer's dna profile to
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the biological evidence
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from kathy lorich's rape test kit
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shockingly it didn't match
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we strongly believe that mark fisher was
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responsible for kathy's death
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all of a sudden he's not what that means
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to us is that we have an individual
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that's still out walking about who can
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do this again
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that this individual is free it
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basically put us back to
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ground zero and we had to start over
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again with a killer still
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on the loose investigators instituted
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a dna dragnet of all the homeless men
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in the area who had a violent criminal
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history
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we began contacting everybody that used
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the trail all the transients that we
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knew
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a total of 42 dna profiles were tested
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against the killer's dna this was
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actually in fact the most reference
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samples that i had ever tested that the
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laboratory had ever tested
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but there were no hits then
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nine days after the murder investigators
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got a potential break
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a mountain biker called police to say he
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recognized the man in the composite
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sketch he'd seen him on the jogging
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trail
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on the day of cathy's murder
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hey dude he said the man asked him for a
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cigarette
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and they had a short chat although he
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didn't know his name
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mountain biker smoked one cigarette and
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this other man
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who he was talking to smoke two
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cigarettes
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investigators asked the mountain biker
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to show them
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where this happened it was within maybe
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200 yards of the crime scene
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and he pointed right to the ground and
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said those are the cigarettes that we
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were smoking
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but nine days had passed and analysts
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were skeptical about
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getting dna certainly if it's been
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sitting outside if it's been exposed to
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uv light
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or rain or mud or dirt the longer it's
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been sitting out in the
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elements the harder it would be to
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develop a dna profile
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but the cyclist did provide an important
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piece of information
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he said the man told him he worked as a
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telemarketer in nearby walnut creek
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a background check revealed there was
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only one telemarketing firm in walnut
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creek
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the manager immediately told me that
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you're looking for robert frazier
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he'd gotten into some trouble he had
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committed some robberies
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he had spent time in prison he had
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committed some very violent assaults in
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prison
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and out on the street he was
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a drifter may have spent time in the
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chicago area in indiana as well
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as well as contra costa county in
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california
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frazier's co-worker said he looked like
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the composite sketch
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however they said he'd quit his job
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around the time of kathleen lorich's
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murder
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police visited frasier's last known
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address and found
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his ex-girlfriend she said frazier left
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town and she hadn't seen him since i
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think he left town
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but frazier's girlfriend had a parting
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gift for police
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frazier's toothbrush they hoped it would
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be
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the forensic answer they were looking
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for
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[Music]
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police now had a suspect in the sexual
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assault and murder of kathy lorick
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robert frazier but he'd left the area
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shortly after the murder
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and they had no idea where he'd gone
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investigators had cigarette butts that
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they thought were used by frasier
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while on the jogging trail the day of
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the murder
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but they'd been exposed to the elements
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for nine days
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before police recovered them i really
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felt that if that could happen to this
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victim that could happen to anyone
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so i felt that i really wanted to do my
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best
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in working hard on this case to help
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catch this individual
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fortunately for the scientists it hadn't
00:15:52
rained on the cigarette butts
00:15:54
and they were able to generate a dna
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profile and compare it
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to kathy's rape test kit the person who
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had smoked the cigarettes was kathy's
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killer
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scientists then compared the dna on the
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cigarettes
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to the dna on frasier's toothbrush
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unfortunately the toothbrush actually
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contained dna from
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at least three individuals male and
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female dna
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once i was able to actually see that
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within that mixture fraser's dna was on
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there
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you know of course i was excited perhaps
00:16:26
most important scientists also
00:16:29
discovered
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frasier's dna from skin cells on the
00:16:33
bloody fence post
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found near kathy's body finding robert's
00:16:38
dna
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on that fence post which was the murder
00:16:41
weapon
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was very important it showed that robert
00:16:45
was the one responsible for kathy's
00:16:46
death
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the dna evidence established a credible
00:16:50
eyewitness
00:16:51
who saw the murderer in person on the
00:16:54
day of the crime at the location of the
00:16:56
crime scene
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but where was robert frazier
00:17:02
well you know murder investigations
00:17:04
typically don't proceed in a linear
00:17:06
fashion
00:17:07
police subsequently entered mr frazier's
00:17:09
name
00:17:10
into the national criminal offender
00:17:14
database known as ncic and discovered
00:17:17
that he
00:17:18
was being held on a criminal charge in
00:17:20
the state of indiana
00:17:22
he was actually arrested for some sort
00:17:23
of traffic infraction
00:17:25
and it was learned that he was on
00:17:27
probation and that his probation officer
00:17:30
was looking for him california police
00:17:33
immediately flew to indiana to question
00:17:35
frazier
00:17:37
he seemed to be very cooperative not
00:17:39
nervous at all like
00:17:40
you would expect somebody in that
00:17:41
circumstance he talked about being
00:17:43
religious of some sort in in some sort
00:17:46
of way frazier admitted
00:17:48
he heard about kathy lauric's murder on
00:17:50
television
00:17:51
you've ever seen her picture on tv yeah
00:17:54
what does she look like you remember
00:17:56
but frazier slipped revealing a
00:18:00
piece of information only the killer
00:18:02
would know
00:18:04
she had long hair it looked like it was
00:18:06
brown
00:18:07
[Music]
00:18:10
i don't know how did you know she had
00:18:13
freckles
00:18:14
because i could see it on the tv it's
00:18:16
got a 43 inch screen
00:18:20
i'm wearing makeup you can see it on the
00:18:23
picture
00:18:25
yeah yes you can as you can
00:18:30
it wasn't until investigators told
00:18:32
frazier
00:18:34
they found his dna on the murder weapon
00:18:37
and on kathy lorich's rape test kit
00:18:40
that frazier changed his story
00:18:44
the only thing robert was able to come
00:18:45
up with is well maybe he was down there
00:18:46
in the tree line area where kathy's body
00:18:48
was found
00:18:49
previously and that he had urinated in
00:18:51
the area and that would be the only way
00:18:56
prosecutors believe kathy was walking
00:18:59
along the jogging path
00:19:01
talking to her husband on her cell phone
00:19:04
when frazier first
00:19:05
saw her
00:19:09
prosecutors think frazier chose kathy as
00:19:12
his victim because
00:19:13
he saw no one nearby in either direction
00:19:20
then he struck her with a piece
00:19:23
of a metal fence post
00:19:26
[Music]
00:19:27
he quickly dragged her from the jogging
00:19:30
trail
00:19:31
down the ravine where he sexually
00:19:34
assaulted her
00:19:39
afterwards he struck her several more
00:19:42
times in the head
00:19:43
and left her for dead
00:19:49
thanks to the incredible accuracy of the
00:19:52
eyewitness accounts
00:19:54
a superb composite drawing and
00:19:57
the chance meeting with the cyclist
00:20:00
frazier left
00:20:01
plenty of forensic evidence behind
00:20:04
i still don't understand why it happened
00:20:06
there really hasn't been
00:20:08
a why he never showed any remorse
00:20:11
and that that's a real sense of
00:20:13
frustration and anger that
00:20:15
you know that this person just didn't
00:20:17
care about another human being
00:20:20
and you wonder how anybody could be that
00:20:22
way
00:20:23
robert frazier was tried and convicted
00:20:27
of first degree murder and rape
00:20:30
he was sentenced to death
00:20:33
in my opinion he's the lowest person in
00:20:36
that you can be
00:20:37
he is a
00:20:40
he doesn't deserve to breathe another
00:20:43
breath
00:20:44
in this life he doesn't
00:20:47
he took so much away from us and he
00:20:49
needs to pay
00:20:50
i think robert ward fraser for a lack of
00:20:53
a better term is a monster
00:20:55
i don't know how he became a monster and
00:20:58
frankly i
00:20:59
it doesn't matter to me how he became a
00:21:01
monster
00:21:02
and the dna is what solved this crime if
00:21:05
this crime had happened
00:21:07
30 years ago robert frazier would have
00:21:09
gotten away with it
