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a young woman vanished from her home on
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an island in rural canada
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thousands of police army and local
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residents spent months searching for her
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this is the story of how one tiny white
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hair solved the mystery of her
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disappearance while adding a new chapter
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to the history of forensic science
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[Music]
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[Music]
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bye
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[Music]
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prince edward island
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canada's smallest province a 2100 square
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mile vacation destination in the summer
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cold and desolate in the winter
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[Music]
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father elwa arsenau has ministered to
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the islanders for almost 30 years
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we're not used to big violent things
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going on because people are very much
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down toward and everybody knows everyone
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because we're a small community there's
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not a very large population on the
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island you know
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on october 7 1994
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a woman called police to report
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an abandoned car in a field near her
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house
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the license plates were missing
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and when police looked inside
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they saw what looked to be
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a crime scene
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there were blood stains small specks of
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blood on the windshield on the inside of
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the windshield on the side windows of
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the vehicle inside
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these dots indicate the location of
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blood inside the car
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forensic scientists identified the blood
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as medium impact blood spatter the type
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caused when someone is hit with an
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object like a fist
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the serial number of the vehicle
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identified the owner as a local woman 32
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year old shirley duguay
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shirley was a stay-at-home mother of
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five children the oldest fifteen the
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youngest eight-year-old twins
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shirley and her children were living in
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this home now abandoned in the small
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town of richmond
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her father melvin had been watching the
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children since shirley disappeared four
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days earlier
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well we found it very odd that no one
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had reported her missing initially and
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of course it
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raised some suspicion with us shirley
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duggay had been known in the past to
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take off for a couple of days and not
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tell anyone where she had gone and then
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returned
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police suspected it was shirley's blood
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in the car
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[Music]
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the pillow she sat on while driving was
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found nearby soaked in blood
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she was a very small diminutive person 4
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feet 9 inches tall less than 100 pounds
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so very
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very frail looking
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individual
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[Music]
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other than that we didn't know too much
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about her
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to identify the blood
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scientists needed a blood sample from
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shirley's father melvin for dna testing
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since shirley would get half of her dna
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from each parent
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scientists found that the blood in the
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car contained 50 percent of melvin
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dugay's genetic markers
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meaning
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the blood was shirley's
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while examining the blood forensic
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scientists found
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something else
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blood that did not come from shirley du
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gaye
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was this the blood of another victim
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or possibly
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the blood of a killer
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[Music]
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after shirley duguay's car was found
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abandoned and spattered with blood the
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royal canadian mounted police began one
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of the largest searches in the history
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of prince edward island
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they checked hundreds of square miles
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and every waterway in the area
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we used psychics we use hypnosis
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anything that we could put our hands on
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or could think of we used
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some of the revelations were very
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unusual
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psychics have even told us that she was
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buried near water or pine trees shallow
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grave but where
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you know you just you just don't know
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where to start
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[Music]
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about a half mile away from shirley's
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car
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police found a shovel with two long
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black hairs attached
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when scientists compared that hair to
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hair taken from shirley duguay's
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hairbrush
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they were microscopically similar
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the search for shirley's body lasted for
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weeks then
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investigators came upon a possible clue
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15 miles from shirley's car police found
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a plastic bag with a pair of sneakers
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and the blood-stained leather jacket
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inside
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the blood on the leather jacket matched
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shirley duguay's dna profile
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but the jacket was a man's size much too
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big to belong to shirley
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when police asked melvin duguay who
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might have wanted to harm his daughter
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his response was startling
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i would have killed him
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i would have killed that guy he was
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talking about shirley's estranged
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husband doug beamish a demolition worker
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who had been separated from shirley for
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the past 18 months
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i think i would have did a good deed if
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i had shot him killed him
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because she'd be alive today
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i'd be in jail but she'd be alive
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during the couple's on-again off-again
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15-year relationship police learned that
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bemish had physically abused shirley
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every woman that lives with an abusive
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husband or boyfriend or whatever
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and end up murdered
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react in the same way
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people advise them to
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not go with them or live with them
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but for some reason they do
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having any issues or problems
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during police questioning beemish denied
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any involvement in shirley's
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disappearance where were you on october
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the 3rd
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then investigators asked him what size
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shoes he wore
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the same size as the sneakers found with
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the bloody leather jacket
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[Music]
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now police wanted to know if doug
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beamish had worn these shoes
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so they turned to a forensic podiatrist
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dr keith bettles
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everyone wears shoes differently
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mostly because of the variations in size
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shape and mechanics of their feet
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each individual has a unique way of
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walking this ultimately is transmitted
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to the sole of the feet
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which again is transmitted to the inner
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sole of the shoe and again onto the
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outside of the shoe
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as to where the walking to the wear on
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that individual's shoe
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with a warrant
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police cast beamish's feet by placing
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them in styrofoam molds then poured
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plaster of paris inside
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[Music]
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once hardened the molds can be compared
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to the wear patterns in a pair of shoes
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this computer-generated image shows how
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these wear patterns are created
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the different colors indicate the amount
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of pressure made by each part of the
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foot as it touches the inside of the
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shoe
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the feet create marks called pressure
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points and are unique to each person
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mr beamish's toe was hyper flexed that
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means it just turned up a little bit at
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the end the nails would be chaffing away
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and rubbing at the inner lining of the
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shoe
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and beamish's feet were pronated meaning
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they turned inward
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when dr bettles cut open the sneakers he
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found wear patterns caused by pronated
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feet and chafing marks in the top of the
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shoe like those caused by hyperflex toes
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after
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i'd done the examination of the sneakers
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i was quite satisfied that these shoes
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had been worn
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at the time by mr beamish
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but doug beamish denied the sneakers
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were his
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he also denied owning the leather jacket
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found with the shoes
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inside the jacket
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investigators discovered even more
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evidence
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20 brittle
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white hairs
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under a microscope the hairs did not
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appear to be human
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human hairs have thin medullas
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the cord that runs through the center of
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the hair
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these hairs had thick medullas meaning
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they were animal hairs
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but what animal
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constable roger savoy thought he had an
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answer he remembered something from his
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interview with doug
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beamish
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it was the type of observation we make
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hundreds of times each day but usually
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forget
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almost there
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savoy recalled that he saw a cat in doug
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beamish's home
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but it wasn't just any cat
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it was a pure white one
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a cat beamish called
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snowball
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savoy also recalled that the cat rubbed
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up against his leg during his visit
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leaving a number of white hairs on his
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trousers
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hairs that looked identical to the ones
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found in the bloody leather jacket
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investigators now wondered whether there
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was any way to prove scientifically
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whether the cat hairs on the leather
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jacket
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belong to snowball
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33 year old shirley duguay was still
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missing
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but a leather jacket stained with her
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blood was found 15 miles from her
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abandoned car police believe the leather
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jacket was the key to her disappearance
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the person involved in shirley's death
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was likely wearing that jacket because
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it was not shirley's jacket
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so
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we had to put the jacket on somebody we
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had to prove that jacket
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belonged to someone
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[Music]
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inside the jacket were several brittle
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white hairs which were suspected to be
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from doug beamish's cat
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if we could prove that it was this
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particular cat's hair
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then we would be able to say well this
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belonged to mr beamish the the jacket
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and the job was to find someone that
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would do this this type of testing
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savoy made hundreds of telephone calls
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and found to his surprise
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that forensic testing on cat hair had
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never been done before anywhere in the
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world
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for us
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but he was fortunate enough to come
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across dr stephen o'brien
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a geneticist at the national cancer
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institute in the united states who had
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spent decades studying hereditary
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illness in cats
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the constable said to me on the phone dr
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o'brien i've looked all over the country
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in fact all over the world for an expert
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in cat dna technology
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because i would like very much
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to know whether or not the hairs that
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were in the lining of the jacket
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which are tied to the scene of the crime
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because the jacket was covered with the
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victim's blood
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are those hairs from snowball
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dr o'brien asked canadian police for a
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blood sample from mr beamish's cat but
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this was more difficult than expected
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snowball wasn't at all cooperative
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it took approximately half an hour from
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chasing the cat from under the beds to
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every room in the house until it was
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almost like the cat knew that we were
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taking him in
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roger savoy told me he went down to the
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house and
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read out the rights
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the cat's rights to the parents
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and i said to roger what did the cat say
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and he said meow
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there's an old saying with the rcmp we
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always get our man but this case we had
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to go to say we always get our cat
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after finally capturing the cat snowball
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was taken to a local veterinarian's
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office for the necessary blood sample
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[Music]
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dr jane bond drew the blood as two
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canadian officers stood by to take
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custody of the sample in order to
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preserve the chain of evidence
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snowballs blood and cat hairs taken from
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the leather jacket were delivered in
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person to dr o'brien
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and his team
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[Music]
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one of the hairs contained a root which
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was cut into pieces and put into a
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buffer solution which dissolved
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everything except the dna
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it was then amplified or photocopied so
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scientists had enough for their tests
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[Music]
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the dna profile of the hair found in the
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leather jacket was then compared to the
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dna from snowball's blood
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we got a very clear match between the
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genotype of each of the markers in the
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hair to each of the same markers in
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snowball in the only way that that could
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have happened is that they came from the
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same cat
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but prince edward island is isolated and
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there are thousands of cats there
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was it possible because of inbreeding
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isolation or just plain feline
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promiscuity
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that another cat on the island had the
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same genetic profile as snowball
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if so
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the dna match would be useless
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you need to know that some other cat on
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prince edward island couldn't have
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contributed that
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that hair what if 25 percent of the cats
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on prince edward island had the same dna
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profile or 10 percent or even
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100 cats
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so that's the next question you have to
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ask what is the
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frequency of that profile
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blood samples were taken from 20 cats on
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prince edward island and sent to dr
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o'brien and his team
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the dna profiles of these 20 cats showed
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a rich genetic diversity
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the chance that the cat hair found on
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the leather jacket belonged to a cat
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other than snowball was estimated to be
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one in 70 million
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this was the break canadian
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investigators had been hoping for
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[Music]
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and then
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after seven months of searching
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a fisherman found the last piece of
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evidence
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[Music]
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28 weeks into shirley duguay's
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disappearance a fisherman along canada's
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armoire river saw a pile of brush on the
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riverbank that looked out of place
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as he moved the brush away
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he saw what appeared to be
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a human body
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it was a very shallow grave dug just
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deep enough to cover the body the person
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was a very tiny person we knew shirley
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dugay was less than five feet tall less
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than 100 pounds
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obviously we were
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we expected it was surely due gain
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i was alone by myself and it started to
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snow it was a freak snow storm because
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and i recall all i had on was a rain
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jacket and i felt bad because the body
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was partly uncovered so i took my rain
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jacket which was all i had to keep warm
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and put it on top of the grave to keep
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the snow off her
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ironically
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shirley's body was buried in a spot
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nearly identical to what the police
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psychic predicted
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near the water
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under pine trees
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it was just lucky that they found her
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when they did because the police told me
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that within
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two or three weeks more
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and
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they would have had a hard time to
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identify her because
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the ground was thawing out and
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[Music]
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they knew that there was very little
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hope of finding her alive and when they
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found her they were very
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um
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they were very relieved in the sense
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that they knew at least that they could
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uh
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have a service for her and pray and get
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together and it they could sort of bring
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a closure to it
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at the autopsy the cause of death was
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determined to be blunt force trauma
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just as the blood spatter in her car
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suggested shirley's nose was broken and
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her jaw broken in three places
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one of her front teeth was found
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embedded in her lung
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doug beamish was arrested and charged
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with murder
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scientists discovered
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that it was his blood mixed with
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shirley's inside her abandoned car
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but what was his motive
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police discovered beamish had written
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shirley a letter threatening to kill her
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before he'd allow her to get custody of
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their children
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the whole letter was written in blood
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it was just one page mind you
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but it was written in blood
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although beamish denied owning the
00:19:20
leather jacket stain with shirley's
00:19:22
blood police found this photograph taken
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the day before shirley's disappearance
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in it
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he is wearing a jacket identical to the
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one found at the crime scene well
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actually he has no defense at all
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except to say i didn't do it
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but i think if you interviewed all the
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prisoners in the prisons in canada
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they'd all say i didn't do it
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that's pretty well
00:19:50
they've always got someone else to blame
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on you know criminals do that they
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always blame someone else for their
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problems
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you they will certainly you never see a
00:19:59
criminal going card and say i did it
00:20:01
judge
00:20:04
after going to great lengths to cover up
00:20:07
the crime
00:20:08
beamish never realized that petting his
00:20:11
cat before the murder
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would be his downfall
00:20:16
one in three criminals have cats and
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maybe one in four have a dog
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so when you go to the scene of the crime
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and if there's a trace of dna there it's
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like leaving your
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your name your rank and social security
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number which can be can be used and
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failing to have the individuals if they
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leave their pets uh parts there that can
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implicate them too this is what happened
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with mr beamish his pet cat implicated
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him
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doug beamish was tried and convicted of
00:20:46
shirley duguay's murder and sentenced to
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18 years in prison
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the case is among the most celebrated in
00:20:56
forensic history because it is the first
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time that animal dna was used to convict
00:21:03
the murderer
00:21:04
since then we've received calls from
00:21:07
after the investigation from all over
00:21:08
the world literally i received calls
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from japan asking us how
00:21:13
this worked how did the animal dna work
00:21:15
i mean i was actually surprised once the
00:21:17
snowball case became well known among
00:21:19
the forensic community
00:21:22
i would say about once every two weeks i
00:21:23
would receive a phone call from a
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police department that was investigating
00:21:27
a crime where a
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animal hair had been left behind and
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they were asking us to help them
00:21:34
t.s eliot penned these lines in his old
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possum's book of practical cats
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you now have learned enough to see
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that cats
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are much like you and me
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we've learned that applies to their dna
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too
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and doug beamish now wishes
00:21:57
that this wasn't true
00:22:02
[Music]
00:22:12
[Music]
00:22:36
you
