00:00:04
[music playing]
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[gun firing]
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NARRATOR: Two friends spent
a summer afternoon skeet
00:00:11
shooting in rural Pennsylvania.
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[gun firing]
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Only one returned home.
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The other died of what was
determined to be an accident.
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What happened that day sent
shockwaves through a small town
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and launched a mystery that
would take 20 years to solve.
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[music playing]
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Montrose is a quiet rural area
in the northeastern corner
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of Pennsylvania.
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It's a small, close-knit
community with stately homes,
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one traffic light,
and the courthouse
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that dominates the town square.
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In 1976, Montrose was
home to 30-year-old
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Martin Dillon, his wife, Pat,
and their two young children.
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Marty Dillon was a
very popular man in town
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and his father was
the local mayor.
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I mean, everybody knew
him and really liked him.
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NARRATOR: On June 2, 1976,
Martin Dillon left work early
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to go skeet shooting at
his family's hunting camp,
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a secluded place
called Gunsmoke.
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His good friend, Dr.
Stephen Scher went along.
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Stephen Scher was one
of the town's doctors
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and a close personal
friend of the Dillons.
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Martin asked some other friends
to go with him that day,
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but they all had other plans.
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And I said, Marty, I can't go.
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I said, I got just so much
going on I just can't get away.
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And he-- I just didn't go.
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NARRATOR: A few hours later,
Martin Dillon lay dead.
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FRANK ZANIN: Martin Dillon
was laying on his back
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with his arms outstretched, his
clay pigeons under the one arm.
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The wound itself was dead
center into the chest,
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right into the heart.
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There was no mistaking that it
went straight into the heart.
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NARRATOR: Dillon's
ear protectors
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and sunglasses were lying
on the ground near his body.
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The shoelace of his
right boot was untied.
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Dr. Scher told police that
he and Dillon were headed
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towards the cabin when
Dillon spotted a porcupine,
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grabbed Scher's loaded
shotgun, and ran to shoot it.
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[gun firing]
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Scher said Dillon apparently
tripped over his shoelace
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and fell on his gun, which
went off accidentally,
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blasting a hole into his chest.
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Scher attempted to
perform CPR, then went
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next door to get a neighbor.
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STEPHEN SCHER: Saw a porcupine,
and he grabbed my gun.
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He ran into the--
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NARRATOR: He smashed the
shotgun against a tree
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in a fit of rage, saying the gun
would never kill anyone again.
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State policeman Frank Zanin took
the photographs of the scene.
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And I says, wait he
was running from where?
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He said, down the path.
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He ran up the path
here after a porcupine.
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I said, well, this doesn't make
sense because his bootlaces are
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untied.
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Says, yeah that's
what he tripped over.
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I says, no, take another look.
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I said the boot itself
is tight to the leg.
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I said, if he had been
running, that boot
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would have been wide open.
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NARRATOR: And Zanin was
concerned about another part
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of the story.
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Well, he said he rolled him
over, he tried to perform CPR.
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I said, CPR?
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There's a hole right
through his heart.
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I said, it's dead
center in the chest.
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I says, he's a doctor.
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He didn't give him no CPR.
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He's dead.
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NARRATOR: Martin
Dillon's body was
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taken to the county
morgue in the basement
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of a funeral home in Montrose.
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On the death
certificate, the coroner,
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who was a political
appointee, ruled the manner
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of death an accident.
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The funeral took place
in the same church
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where Martin Dillon was married.
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Dr. Scher was one
of his pallbearers.
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For Martin Dillon's
father, Larry,
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sadness was overshadowed
by suspicion and doubt.
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He did not believe his only
son's death was an accident.
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A few months after the shooting
death of Martin Dillon,
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Dr. Stephen Scher
divorced his wife, Anne.
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Some said it was the stress of
the death of his best friend,
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others said trouble had
been brewing between Scher
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and his wife for some time.
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Either way, Stephen Scher
moved from the small town
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of Montrose, Pennsylvania,
and eventually
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settled in North Carolina.
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A year and a half later,
Stephen Scher remarried.
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His new wife?
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Pat Dillon, the widow of his
best friend, Martin Dillon.
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When Larry Dillon learned that
his daughter-in-law and his two
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grandchildren were moving
in with the only witness
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to his son's death, he grew
increasingly suspicious.
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He questioned the conclusions
of his son's autopsy, which
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was done by a family
doctor who was not
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trained in forensic medicine.
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So Larry Dillon went to visit
this man, Stu Bennett, a friend
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of his son's and the
former police officer
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who was running a small company
in Montrose specializing
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in accident reconstruction.
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He felt that he was murdered.
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He did not tell me specifically
why, or he couldn't.
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He just felt in his heart
that it was not the way
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it was reported was correct.
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NARRATOR: Bennett studied
the autopsy photos
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and read the report.
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The first thing he noticed
was that Dillon's wound was
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1 inch by 1 and
1/2 inches in size,
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but the internal diameter
of a 16-gauge shotgun
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is 5/8 of an inch.
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A contact wound made by that
gun would be the same size, 5/8
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of an inch and not any larger.
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To find out for
sure, Stu Bennett
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conducted an experiment.
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He stretched some
pigskin over a mannequin
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and used the same make
and model 16-gauge shotgun
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with the same ammunition
used in the accident.
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In order to create a
wound the same size,
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the gun had to be 3 to 5
feet away from the pigskin.
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Now, when I say the
firearm is 3 to 5 feet away,
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I'm talking about
the end of the barrel
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where the shell
actually comes out.
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Now, you have another 40
inches, 36 to 40 inches
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to the trigger housing itself.
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So now, you're up to 6 feet
away, between 5 and 6 feet
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away from the trigger housing
to discharge the firearm, which
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means that you'd have to employ
a stick or some other type
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of string or--
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to have the gun discharge.
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NARRATOR: And there was
no gunpowder residue
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on Dillon's shirt, which
would have been present
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if it had been a contact wound.
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And there was no
blood from the wound
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found on the shotgun barrel.
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Stu Bennett suspected
homicide and shared
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his feelings with Larry Dillon.
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It didn't surprise him.
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In fact, the family
broke down and cried.
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NARRATOR: And the Dillons,
like others in the small town
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of Montrose, began
to hear rumors
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that Dr. Scher and
Martin Dillon's
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wife, Pat, were having a sexual
affair before Martin's death.
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Pat Dillon had been
a nurse at Montrose
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General Hospital,
the same hospital
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where Dr. Scher practiced.
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There were rumors
going on by employees
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in the hospital
of open caressing,
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that sort of thing going on.
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NARRATOR: Maria
Eftimiades described
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this clandestine relationship
in her book, "Secrets
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from the Grave."
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They just didn't seem to care.
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They didn't care if anyone
knew, if anyone saw them.
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When they were caught,
they just sort of just
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went back to their
work, and, you know,
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it would just happen again.
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NARRATOR: Seasons
passed, then years.
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And, in time, law
enforcement agencies
00:08:50
moved on to other cases.
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But questions remained.
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What really happened at Gunsmoke
that day in June of 1976?
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For almost 20 years, those
questions remained unanswered.
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Martin Dillon's
parents never gave up
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their fight to have their
son's death reinvestigated.
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They were convinced that
the autopsy was incomplete
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and the manner of
death incorrect.
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The state policeman who
photographed the accident scene
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agreed with the
Dillons and was never
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convinced it was an accident.
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It's very frustrating when
people don't want to listen
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and you know something's wrong.
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And see, back then,
the state police--
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I mean I love the state police.
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I was with them for 20
years, but they have--
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back then, especially--
a philosophy
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whereas if you have less time
on the job than another man,
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you don't know
anything, all right?
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Senior men always ruled.
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NARRATOR: In 1991, 14 years
after the accident, Frank Zanin
00:10:05
and others helped
convince the state
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police to send the evidence to
the FBI lab in Washington DC.
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And they also sent the evidence
to this man, Herbert MacDonnell
00:10:17
an expert in blood spatter.
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The first thing he analyzed were
the boots Dr. Scher was wearing
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on the day of the accident.
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Dr. Scher said he was 150 feet
away from where Dillon tripped,
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fell, and accidentally
shot himself in the chest.
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But on Dr. Scher's
boots McDonald
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discovered a very
fine mist of blood,
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which she identified as
high-velocity impact spatter.
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High-velocity impact spatter
results when something,
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such as a bullet or
shotgun pellet, strikes
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a source of blood, like a body.
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As a result, the energy breaks
up blood into very small spots.
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The little droplets are
almost atomized or vaporized.
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NARRATOR: High velocity
impact spatter was also
00:11:12
found on the side of the tree
stump closest to Dillon's body
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and on the instep of
Martin Dillon's left shoe.
00:11:20
This indicated that Dillon was
squatting near the tree stump
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when he was shot, not
running after a porcupine.
00:11:30
Forensic pathologist Dr.
Isidore Mihalakis was also
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asked to look at the evidence.
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He noticed another
inconsistency in the photograph
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of Dillon's body.
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The legs of his trousers were
pulled up, exposing his socks.
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Indicating that somehow, he
had been either in a seated
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or in a squatting
position, otherwise,
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why would the cuffs ride up?
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NARRATOR: Dr.
Mihalakis also noticed
00:11:57
what is called scalloping
on the edges of the gunshot
00:12:01
wound, evidence that the
shot pellets had started
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to spread as they
traveled through the air
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before striking the skin.
00:12:10
Scalloping does not occur
around a contact wound.
00:12:15
Once the Dillons heard
of this new information,
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they filed a petition
to exhume their son's
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body for a second autopsy.
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This time, Dr. Mihalakis
performed the autopsy.
00:12:30
Dr. Mihalakis discovered
that the direction
00:12:34
of the wound track was
in a downward direction,
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at a 45-degree angle.
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The shot came from the
right of Martin Dillon
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and went through Dillon's
heart and left lung.
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ISIDORE MIHALAKIS: The
wound track is wrong.
00:12:48
If the gun had dropped
and then shot him
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it would either have
it perfectly backward
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or an upward wound track.
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Here, this was a sharply
downward and very
00:13:00
angulated from right to left.
00:13:03
NARRATOR: Authorities could
no longer ignore the evidence,
00:13:06
and on June 26, 1995,
Martin Dillon's death was
00:13:12
formally declared a homicide.
00:13:15
The next day, Dr. Stephen
Scher and his wife,
00:13:19
Pat, returned to Pennsylvania
to hold a news conference.
00:13:23
Scher told reporters he was
innocent and still maintained
00:13:27
that Dillon was chasing
a porcupine and fell,
00:13:30
accidentally shooting
himself in the chest.
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The last I saw
Marty Dillon alive,
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life he was moving
away from me up the end
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of this trail towards
where we had just been.
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And I just waited there
for him to come back
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or to tell me to
do something else.
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I heard a click and
a shotgun blast,
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and I think I yelled
out, you couldn't
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hit the broad side of a barn,
teasingly, and then nothing.
00:14:06
Steve is not capable of the
things they've accused him of.
00:14:09
I've known him and lived
with him for 17 years.
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He's not capable of this.
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REPORTER: Is it true that
you two had an affair?
00:14:18
Absolutely not.
00:14:21
Absolutely not.
00:14:24
Claim that they've
got a murder case.
00:14:26
They've had 19 years
to investigate it.
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They've had investigators,
all the state police,
00:14:32
they've had their autopsy
and everything else.
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Their move next, and
we challenge them.
00:14:38
NARRATOR: The
challenge was accepted.
00:14:42
Dr. Stephen Scher was arrested
and charged with the murder
00:14:45
of Martin Dillon.
00:14:48
Two decades after his
death, Martin Dillon would
00:14:53
finally get his day in court.
00:14:59
21 years after the shooting
death of Martin Dillon,
00:15:03
Stephen Scher sat in
a courtroom on trial
00:15:06
for the murder of
his former friend.
00:15:09
According to the
prosecution, Martin Dillon
00:15:12
knew that Scher was having
an affair with his wife
00:15:15
and told him that day while
skeet shooting that he had
00:15:18
talked it over
with his wife, Pat,
00:15:20
and that she agreed to
end her affair with Scher.
00:15:24
Scher would not accept this.
00:15:26
Scher was obsessed.
00:15:28
And he said to himself,
it's not gonna be this way.
00:15:32
It's not gonna be this way.
00:15:33
I'm gonna get what I
want one way or another,
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and you have to die.
00:15:43
[gun firing]
00:15:47
Nice shot, man.
00:15:50
Yeah, I've still got it.
00:15:55
NARRATOR: While Martin Dillon
was reloading the machine
00:15:59
with clay pigeons, Stephen Scher
placed a special ammunition
00:16:04
into his gun, moved
to within 5 feet,
00:16:13
and fired a single shot into
the center of his chest.
00:16:18
The shot entered Dillon's
chest at a 45 degree
00:16:21
downward angle directly
into his heart.
00:16:25
The blast caused
high-velocity impact spatter
00:16:28
to land on Scher's boots and
onto the side of the tree stump
00:16:33
nearest to Dillon's body.
00:16:37
Scher then removed Dillon's
ear protectors and sunglasses
00:16:41
and untied his shoelace,
making it appear
00:16:45
that Dillon tripped and fell.
00:16:48
Scher then invented the
story about Dillon running
00:16:51
after a porcupine with his gun.
00:16:54
Right here.
00:16:56
NARRATOR: When Scher returned
to the scene with the neighbor,
00:16:59
he picked up the gun and
smashed it against a tree
00:17:02
in a public display of grief.
00:17:05
In court, when Dr. Scher
learned of the forensic evidence
00:17:10
against him, he changed
his 21-year-old story.
00:17:15
He finally admitted
that he had been
00:17:18
having an affair with
Dillon's wife, Pat,
00:17:20
at the time of the accident.
00:17:23
He also admitted fabricating
the porcupine story.
00:17:27
But he still claimed
Martin Dillon's
00:17:30
death had been an accident.
00:17:32
Scher said he and Martin
argued over the affair.
00:17:36
There was a scuffle, and the
gun went off accidentally.
00:17:40
Scher said he didn't think
anyone would believe him,
00:17:43
so he staged the
accident scene and made
00:17:46
up a story about the porcupine.
00:17:49
But prosecutors didn't believe
this new version either.
00:17:54
The only reason he put himself
in proximity to the deceased
00:18:01
at the time was because of
the overwhelming evidence
00:18:04
we had of the blood
spatter on his boots.
00:18:09
NARRATOR: The angle and
direction of the wound track,
00:18:12
the hiked up trousers
with the sock showing,
00:18:14
and the size and location
of the blood spatter
00:18:18
all pointed to only
one conclusion,
00:18:22
that Martin Dillon, while
kneeling near the tree
00:18:25
stump from approximately
5 feet away,
00:18:29
was murdered by Stephen Scher.
00:18:32
The motive, Stephen Scher wanted
Pat Dillon all to himself.
00:18:40
He had essentially
been dumped.
00:18:41
Pat Dillon said, no, I'm--
00:18:43
I'm staying with my husband.
00:18:44
I'm not leaving him.
00:18:45
I'm not divorcing him.
00:18:46
NARRATOR: Martin Dillon's
children, whom Dr. Scher had
00:18:49
raised since they were
small, stood solidly
00:18:52
behind their stepfather
during the trial,
00:18:54
even contributing a part of
their father's life insurance
00:18:58
proceeds for his defense.
00:19:00
But the forensic
evidence was too great.
00:19:04
The jury convicted Dr. Stephen
Scher of first degree murder
00:19:09
and he was sentenced to life
in prison without parole.
00:19:14
ISIDORE MIHALAKIS: It's a case
in which originally somebody
00:19:18
took somebody's word and
believed it and did not look
00:19:22
any further, and there was
no no in-depth investigation
00:19:27
done at that particular time.
00:19:29
The Dillons had some peace of
mind is what, really, I wanted
00:19:34
to see, was the Dillons relieved
of the burden that had been
00:19:38
hanging on their shoulders
for all those years,
00:19:42
and I was happy for them.
00:19:47
NARRATOR: The verdict was a long
fought victory for the parents
00:19:51
of Martin Dillon.
00:19:53
REPORTER: Larry, what kind of
thoughts went through your mind
00:19:55
when the first degree
verdict came back?
00:19:57
Were you thinking of Marty?
00:19:59
Yes.
00:20:00
REPORTER: What thoughts were
going through your mind?
00:20:03
Well, I really did it for him.
00:20:10
REPORTER: Did you ever
think this day would come?
00:20:12
I've been praying for it.
00:20:15
NARRATOR: After Dr. Scher
spent 20 months in prison,
00:20:18
the Pennsylvania superior court
overturned his conviction.
00:20:22
A judge said the state's
20-year pre-arrest delay
00:20:26
caused substantial prejudice
to his right to a fair trial.
00:20:29
In 2002, that decision
was overturned.
00:20:33
Dr. Scher was retried
in March of 2008.
00:20:37
A jury deliberated just
two hours before finding
00:20:41
him guilty yet again.
00:20:44
He will spend the rest
of his life behind bars.
00:20:48
[music playing]
