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[Music]
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hi hi
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awful weather out
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there you want want to go inside the
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diner no uh I don't want anyone to see
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me like
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this you're not going to like
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these it's what you
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thought on a dark rainy day in the fall
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of
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1986 hel crafts learn from a private
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investigator
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that her husband was having an
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affair is that your husband
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yes that's
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Richard shortly after this meeting helic
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crafts
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disappeared this is the story of how
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forensic science solved the puzzle
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[Music]
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[Music]
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I first met hellocrafts in uh the fall
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of
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1986 uh she came in to see me and was
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discussing the possibility of a divorce
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from her husband she was very concerned
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about what was happening at that time
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she was also concerned um about um
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potential violence shall we say by all
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accounts 39-year-old hel crafts was a
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caring mother of three young children in
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an unhappy marriage she strongly
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suspected the affair she uh felt she
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knew who the individual was but she
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really wanted some confirmation so we
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talked about hiring a det itive to prove
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that in fact yes he was involved with
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another woman at that time it was a
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typical scenario of husband is never
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home constantly lying about his
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whereabouts and she had had enough when
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hel crafts hired detective Keith Mayo
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she provided an important lead a
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longdistance number she saw on the phone
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bills but didn't recognize I met with
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her uh several days after
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uh we had caught uh Richard with his
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girlfriend and there were many photos of
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uh affection between the two of them her
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uh kissing him and holding his hand and
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rubbing his back those types of
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photos Rich she just broke
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down she cried for at least 5 or 10
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minutes just
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sobbing Hela and Richard crafts had been
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married for 12 years
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they both work for the airlines Hela as
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a flight attendant for PanAm Richard a
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pilot for Eastern Airlines he was also a
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part-time policeman I would describe him
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as uh he was very cold you know when he
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looked at you he had a very cold stare
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their relationship was not a close one
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and friends say Richard sometimes hit
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Hela dearest mother here I am again in
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London I have said to Richard I want to
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be divorced I no longer trust in Richard
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hugs
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Hela after Hela filed for divorce she
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confided in friends on her flight crew I
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want to tell you something I told my
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lawyer if anything ever happens to me
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don't think it was an accident was an
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accident and that's an unusual comment
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to get from a client on November 18th
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1986 Hela returned from a European
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flight assignment and was dropped off at
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home by her best friend it was the last
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time anyone saw
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her a few days later Hela missed her
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next flight assignment she didn't call
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in so friends called the crafts home
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Richard said she went to Denmark to
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visit her sick mother later he told a
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different story that Hela was on
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vacation with a friend all which proved
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not to be true and when this all came
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together one started talking to the next
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to the next there was a collective sense
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of panic
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in short time the friends were basically
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telling me that she had disappeared and
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uh that uh she was not the type of
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individual who would do this she had
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three small children so I called Keith
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Mayo I immediately told Diane that I
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thought we should go over to the New
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Town Police Department to report her
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missing and they just turned a deaf ear
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on us so Mayo launched his own
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investigation in this home video the
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crafts live in nanny talks about some
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mysterious dark stain she noticed on the
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carpet shortly after Hela disappeared in
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the inside the bedroom door was a spot a
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black spot yeah how big would you say it
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was
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that how about that big yeah did it look
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like a stain it looked like it was stay
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but it hadn't been there before the fact
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that there was new carpet in the bed
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master bedroom and Richard ripped up the
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carpet and wouldn't give the nanny an
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explanation as to why also suspicious
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a large freezer missing from the garage
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and credit card receipt showed that
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Richard had rented a commercial wood
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chipper right after Hela
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disappeared had something happened to
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Hela inside the house and was her
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husband
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involved police asked Richard crafts to
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take a lie detector test did you kill
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your wife
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no do you know your wife's
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whereabouts no
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did you have anyone kill your wife no
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showed very little reaction at all there
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was nothing that either my partner saw
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or I saw that indicated that he was
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lying with helicraft still missing and
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no leads Connecticut State Police called
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in their secret weapon forensic expert
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Dr Henry
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[Music]
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Lee Dr Henry Lee is the director of the
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Connecticut State Police forensics
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laboratory and one of the world most
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respected forensic experts he
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accompanied police as they searched the
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Craft's home we star exam some piece of
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physical evidence and uh found some uh
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uh tiny clue on the mattress doly
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discovered five tiny stains so small
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they could barely be seen could they
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hold the key to The Disappearance of
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hellocrafts an orthotolidine Solution on
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the mattress fibers turned blue it was
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blood a species test proved it was human
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blood but was it helis an antigen test
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revealed type O positive the same type
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as hel crafts and microscopic analysis
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revealed it was circulation blood and
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not menstrual if a circulation blood now
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which means a blood vessel has to be
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injured to create such a pattern Dr Lee
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studied the angle and intensity of the
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blood's impact he concluded the blood
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hit the mattress at an angle of 10°
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meaning it came from an individual
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leaning over the bed or
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kneeling the blood was moving through
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the air at medium velocity consistent
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with an injury caused by a blunt object
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and there was a 6in blood smear on the
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side of the
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mattress the bathroom towels had been
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washed recently
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but Dr Lee tested them with an
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orthotolidine solution the blue areas
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proved the towels had been soaked with
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blood the next issue of course a human
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body cannot just vanish in the
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air a body has to be
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someplace but there was no body no
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weapon and no Witnesses police needed
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more to go on so they looked for any
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unusual events that might somehow be
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connected to hel Craft's disappearance
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it led to an important break it snowed
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the week of hela's disappearance a
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snowplow driver reported seeing a wood
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chipper on a bridge about 3:30 in the
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morning a man briefly appeared wearing
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an orange Poncho he saw the same wood
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chipper again on River Road about an
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hour later I said well take this man to
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the location to the exact location where
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he saw the wood chipper it was here
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where the honic river runs into Lake
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Zoar police searched the riverbank all
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they found were a few mounds of wood
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chips but when they took a closer look
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they found a piece of an envelope it was
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mail addressed to miss hel L
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crafts they were just laying there you
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know and I thought
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good Lord you know we didn't I didn't
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even think too much about the how the
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chipper came to came into play at that
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point until we uh until we started
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finding a lot of a lot of hair that was
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when I remarked to my boss you know I
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said you know if he did what I think he
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did it's time for me to retire police
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spent days sifting through the dirt and
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debris along the riverbank in addition
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to the letter and blonde hair they also
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discovered a few blue fibers a gray
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piece of metal what looked to be some
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Tiny Bone fragments and another piece of
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evidence which just appeared the sun had
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melted the snow away from this
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wall and uh right against the wall
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laying right on top of the leaves a
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painted
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fingernail divers explored the bottom of
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the river and found pieces of a chainsaw
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even more unusual the serial number had
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been scratched off everything was taken
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to the state police forensic laboratory
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in Meridan Connecticut because any
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investigation involves so many specialty
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area that's why we start calling in
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forign
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16 by now the story was Front Page News
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around the world Richard crafts was a
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suspect but he maintained his innocence
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saying he didn't kill his wife he didn't
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know her whereabouts and that he had
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passed a lie detector test but the
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forensics might tell a different
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story when Dr Lee convened the first
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meeting of his forensic team he knew
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they faced a difficult task they need
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either that piece of paper from me that
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says somebody's
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dead or occasionally a huge pile of
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evidence to convince them to identify
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the individual become a scientific
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challenge they began by examining every
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Notch of the chainsaw and found some
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human hair tissue and the minute piece
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of fiber in eyes it was barely visible
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with the naked eye on The Cutting Edge
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of the chain the fiber was a bluish
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green cotton the same color as hela's
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favorite cotton night shirt and it
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matched other blue fibers found at the
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river but since the serial number was
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scratched away it was impossible to tell
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who owned the
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chainsaw or was it by using particular
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chemical solution that will eat away the
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upper layers of the metal that have been
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altered by the water or by some physical
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attempts to alter the serial number it
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worked the serial number on the
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chainsaw 5 9 2 1 6 1 6 it matched the
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warranty card sent in by Richard B
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crafts next forensic experts wanted to
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find out whose hair was on the chainsaw
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and at the river every one of the
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2,660 hairs was examined under a
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microscope a lot of the hairs had been
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cut but not cut with a scissors did it
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belong to hella crafts so we have to
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find some no hair to
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compare basically we use her hairbrush
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there was a characteristics that that is
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somewhat unusual for head hair and
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that's a ridge that was present in the
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head hairs they concluded that the hairs
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found on the chainsaw and at the river
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were microscopically similar to the hair
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from hela's hairbrush next they turned
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their attention to the fingernail with
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the bright red nail polish a chemist
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compared it to a bottle of hela's
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fingernail polish found in her home
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analyzing the various organic compounds
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these graphs show that the Polish on the
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fingernail found at the river is the
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same as polish taken from the bottle
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found on hel's nightstand good forensic
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work determined that the fingernail
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polish and the hair were both similar to
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hela's but they couldn't prove she was
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dead I received a phone call from uh Dr
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Lee uh asking me if I would come and uh
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take a look at uh these little pieces
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of what he thought to be a bone and he
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wanted me to to see if I could uh
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identify them in any way Dr Lee
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suspected that the bones found that the
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river had gone through the wood chipper
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crafts had rented so Dr Lee got the same
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machine and ran a test this is actual
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footage a pig was put through the chip
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chipper since their skin and bones are
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similar to humans Dr Lee noticed that
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the chipper produced a unique signature
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type of cut one that matched The Cutting
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pattern on the debris found at the river
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what I was presented with were these
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very very tiny uh literally millimeter
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size fragments of um bone and in amongst
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some of these fragments it was possible
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to uh see that some of the fragments uh
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indeed came from a human under a
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spectrograph Dr Harper noticed tiny
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grooves in the bones the grooves told a
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story they were formed by blood vessels
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inside the top of the skull something
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only humans have they also identified
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skull fragments from the side of the
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head and these were the most important
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from a forensic point of view so if the
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fracture is beveling outwards another
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the force came from the inside we know
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it was a whole lot of force so we don't
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know if that's what killed
00:16:08
her we don't know if she was dead before
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it happened but we certainly knew she
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was dead
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afterwards okay so now we know a human
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being is
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dead the next question is who Dr Harper
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froze some of the bone fragments with
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liquid nitrogen then ground them to a
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fine powder
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tests revealed the bones came from an
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individual with type O positive blood
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hel Craft's blood type finally Dr Lee
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turned his attention to the gray piece
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of metal believed to be a crown to a
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tooth but there was no human remains on
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that Crown so that couldn't be used as a
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form of identification they needed more
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so Dr Lee asked Dr karazulas himself to
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go to the river where he searched for 5
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days then a break i' been at the crime
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scene for maybe eight hours I slipped
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and fell into the Brook and I had a pale
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and I was picking evidence up and I
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cleaned my hand off in this pale that I
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was collecting evidence in when I came
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into the tent I put all the contents of
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the pale down I washed my hand and I
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looked down and there was the Tooth but
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was it hella crafts and I was able to
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match all the years of different X-rays
00:17:26
I imagine it was from 1986 back to
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1982 so I had no doubt in my mind that
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the tooth I found came from hel Craft's
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mouth finally the forensic team had an
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actual match and they say hel Craft's
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teeth are in this
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pile and they were knocked out of her
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head violently and we have a human head
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going through violent injury in the same
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pile so we said that means hel craft is
00:17:55
Dead period based on the forensic
00:17:58
evidence
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Richard crafts was arrested and charged
00:18:02
in the murder of his
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wife what happened to hel crafts based
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on the forensic evidence a reasonable
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scenario can be pieced
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together hey thanks for the ride on
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November 18th hel crafts returned from
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her flight to Germany around 700 p.m.
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she put the children to bed around 8 The
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Nanny had the night off and was wasn't
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expected home until midnight before
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going to bed Hela changed into her
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favorite blue night shirt looked through
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her mail stuffed it into her pocket to
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believe and began Chang I don't believe
00:18:42
you you know I can't take this anymore
00:18:44
why don't you just get out no you get
00:18:46
out you get out leave me alone then it
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happened quickly
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using a police flashlight the first blow
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knocked her to the ground the second
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produced the blood splatter hitting the
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mattress at a 10° angle while falling
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her head grazed the side of the mattress
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leaving the blood
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smear he wrapped the body in the bed B
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covers carried her through the house
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into the
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garage and placed the body into a
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[Music]
00:19:45
freezer Richard tried to clean up the
00:19:47
blood with some towels which were later
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washed but traces of blood remained on
00:19:51
the towels later discovered by Dr Lee
00:19:55
Marie Thomas the nanny arrived home
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around 2:00 a.m. and went right to
00:20:01
bed at Daybreak crafts took the children
00:20:04
and the nanny to his sister's house
00:20:06
saying their mother had left
00:20:08
earlier Marie hurry up he then rented
00:20:12
the largest commercial wood chipper he
00:20:14
could find and a U-Haul truck using his
00:20:18
credit card by Night Time hel's body was
00:20:21
completely Frozen crafts transported The
00:20:25
Remains along with a chainsaw and some
00:20:28
wood to the
00:20:30
river the snowplow driver spotted the
00:20:33
wood chipper on a bridge around 3:30 in
00:20:36
the morning and again near the river an
00:20:39
hour
00:20:41
later using his chainsaw crafts
00:20:44
dismembered hela's frozen body and put
00:20:47
the pieces through the chipper along
00:20:49
with some wood since the body was frozen
00:20:53
It produced little if any blood splatter
00:20:56
most of the debris blew into the river
00:20:59
only a few pieces fell short landing on
00:21:02
the bank the male hel placed in her
00:21:05
night shirt pocket pass through the
00:21:07
chipper virtually
00:21:09
untouched before leaving crafts took
00:21:12
apart the
00:21:13
chainsaw scratched the serial number off
00:21:17
and threw the pieces into the
00:21:20
river how close was the brutal murder of
00:21:23
hel crabs to the Perfect
00:21:26
Crime boy
00:21:28
damn
00:21:30
close damn close if that person truly
00:21:33
believes they're not going to be caught
00:21:35
and there's no fear or threat to them
00:21:37
they could get by a polygraph test the
00:21:40
key solving this case so called
00:21:44
teamwork assemble a good tee and work
00:21:48
together amazing you the human body
00:21:52
writes so much of its history in itself
00:21:56
[Music]
00:22:22
oh
00:22:25
[Music]
00:22:28
a
00:22:29
[Music]
