00:00:05
up next
00:00:06
a man is gunned down just after dawn
00:00:11
there was a bullet hole that was
00:00:13
straight into the tile
00:00:15
his wife is killed too there were three
00:00:17
people in the johnson house two of them
00:00:20
did not come out alive
00:00:22
no one thought the couple had any
00:00:23
enemies apparently they had quite a few
00:00:26
that certainly was a mystery to us i
00:00:28
could describe him as a very cocky
00:00:31
arrogant young man and the crime scene
00:00:33
told a story
00:00:35
no one wanted to believe the evidence
00:00:37
was yelling and screaming
00:00:40
this is what happened
00:00:48
[Music]
00:00:50
nestled in the picturesque sawtooth
00:00:52
mountains of central idaho is the town
00:00:54
of bellevue
00:00:56
a town that had not had a homicide in
00:00:59
more than 10 years
00:01:01
here the johnson family felt safe
00:01:05
alan was a landscaper his wife diane
00:01:08
worked as a tax collector
00:01:10
alan was an avid hunter he's just a
00:01:13
wonderful guy
00:01:14
diane her passion was cooking she was
00:01:18
always doing something wonderful in the
00:01:19
kitchen
00:01:20
on a september morning in 2003
00:01:23
the serenity of this small town
00:01:26
ended abruptly
00:01:29
[Music]
00:01:30
when shots were fired in the johnson
00:01:32
home
00:01:34
9-1-1 what is your emergency still been
00:01:36
two gunshots okay where's shots coming
00:01:39
from the daughter came over here and
00:01:41
said that somebody shot her parents
00:01:44
when police got there they found diane
00:01:47
johnson shot to death in her bed
00:01:50
apparently while she was still sleeping
00:01:54
alan johnson was also dead on the floor
00:01:57
next to the bed
00:01:58
the shower was still going and i could
00:02:01
see directly into the shower and there
00:02:03
was a bullet hole that was straight on
00:02:06
chest high straight into the tile
00:02:09
the murder weapon a 264 caliber rifle
00:02:13
was on the bedroom floor
00:02:15
it was probably one of the most violent
00:02:18
crime scenes that i had ever seen
00:02:21
it's sarah the couple's 16-year-old
00:02:23
daughter said she was asleep in her
00:02:25
bedroom down the hall when she heard the
00:02:26
first shot
00:02:29
she immediately got up went through her
00:02:31
parents bedroom door called her mother's
00:02:33
name heard a second gun shot
00:02:35
and then fled the residence out the
00:02:37
front door to a neighbor's house
00:02:39
unfortunately sarah didn't see the
00:02:41
assailant
00:02:42
at the foot of the victim's bed
00:02:44
investigators found two knives that
00:02:47
certainly was a mystery to us we have
00:02:49
these two homicides and why are these
00:02:51
knives placed in the manner that they
00:02:54
are
00:02:54
and what does that mean
00:02:56
another knife was found in the bedroom
00:02:58
of the family's 22 year old son matthew
00:03:01
he was away at college
00:03:03
since the doors to the house were never
00:03:05
locked there was no forced entry
00:03:07
nothing was stolen
00:03:09
adjacent to the johnson's home was a
00:03:12
guest house the family rented out
00:03:15
inside on the bed police found the scope
00:03:18
that belonged to the murder weapon
00:03:21
the tenant was 45 year old mel spiegel
00:03:24
and he was gone we found out that the
00:03:26
murder weapon belonged to mel spiegel
00:03:29
mel spiegel was now the prime suspect
00:03:34
sheriff walt femling ordered his
00:03:36
deputies to seal off the entire
00:03:38
perimeter and to stop the nearby garbage
00:03:40
truck from leaving the area
00:03:42
i yelled at one of my deputies to run
00:03:44
over there and stop him from doing what
00:03:46
he was doing
00:03:47
sir just leave the garbage at this truck
00:03:48
that garbage truck was one house away
00:03:51
and almost took this evidence
00:03:55
in the trash can outside the johnson's
00:03:58
home was evidence more valuable than
00:04:01
anything they found inside
00:04:07
alan and diane johnson were gunned down
00:04:10
in the bedroom of their home in the
00:04:12
early morning hours
00:04:17
their sixteen-year-old daughter was in
00:04:18
the house when the shooting occurred but
00:04:21
unharmed
00:04:23
in the garbage police found a wealth of
00:04:25
evidence
00:04:26
the outside trash can a pink bathrobe
00:04:29
inside that bathrobe i found a brown
00:04:32
leather glove a latex glove
00:04:34
and 25 caliber ammunition
00:04:37
this ammunition did not match the
00:04:39
ammunition used in the murders however
00:04:42
it looked like the killer threw the
00:04:44
items in the trash before fleeing the
00:04:46
scene
00:04:48
the murder weapon a high-powered hunting
00:04:50
rifle belonged to the johnson's tenant
00:04:53
mel spiegel who had mysteriously
00:04:56
disappeared
00:04:57
mel spiegel had rented that guest house
00:05:00
for years was a very close friend
00:05:03
of
00:05:04
allen and diane
00:05:06
he works as an electrician
00:05:08
within hours of the murders
00:05:10
investigators found spiegel in boise
00:05:12
idaho 150 miles away he said he'd been
00:05:15
visiting family members all weekend an
00:05:18
alibi that checked out
00:05:21
spiegel claimed his hunting rifle was in
00:05:24
his closet when he left for boise i
00:05:26
directly asked mel spiegel who he
00:05:28
thought we should be looking at
00:05:30
and he's the one that told me about
00:05:32
bruno santos
00:05:34
santos was dating the johnson 16 year
00:05:36
old daughter sarah bruno santos was a 19
00:05:40
year old illegal immigrant he was a
00:05:42
dropout associated in a number of small
00:05:45
drug related crimes just kind of a guy
00:05:47
that as a father you wouldn't
00:05:48
necessarily
00:05:50
aspire your daughter to uh to want to
00:05:52
marry because he didn't seem to have
00:05:53
much direction in life
00:05:55
then investigators learned about a
00:05:57
confrontation between alan johnson and
00:06:00
bruno santos a few days before the
00:06:03
murders
00:06:04
sarah told her parents she was sleeping
00:06:06
overnight at a girlfriend's house but
00:06:09
they later learned she was spending the
00:06:11
night with santos
00:06:14
alan johnson was furious and he asked
00:06:16
his brother-in-law jim vaivald to go
00:06:18
with him to santos's home
00:06:21
i said it's not worth getting in trouble
00:06:22
going in there beating up the kid or
00:06:24
anything like that you're not going to
00:06:25
accomplish anything
00:06:27
alan told santos to stay away from his
00:06:30
daughter and took sarah home
00:06:33
diana and i were in the kitchen and i
00:06:35
asked her do they love each other and
00:06:37
she said well she says that they do and
00:06:39
i said well if they think they love each
00:06:41
other you won't be able to keep them
00:06:43
away from each other
00:06:45
the johnsons also told santos that if he
00:06:47
didn't stay away from their daughter
00:06:49
they would file statutory rape charges
00:06:51
against him any kind of arrest
00:06:54
whatsoever would have sent bruno back to
00:06:56
mexico i just gave him that much more
00:06:59
motive to uh to take care of diane and
00:07:02
alan
00:07:04
investigators immediately took bruno
00:07:06
santos in for questioning i could
00:07:09
describe him as a very cocky arrogant
00:07:11
young man somewhat confrontational at
00:07:13
times pretty hard to deal with he told
00:07:16
me that he had proposed to sarah or
00:07:18
asked her to marry him
00:07:20
which she said yes
00:07:22
bruno and his mother claimed bruno was
00:07:25
home asleep on the morning of the
00:07:27
murders but no one else could verify his
00:07:30
alibi
00:07:31
he was cooperative with us at the time
00:07:33
as we started pushing him a little
00:07:35
harder in the interviews his demeanor
00:07:38
certainly did change
00:07:39
our first thought was bruno
00:07:41
we figured he was angry with diane and
00:07:43
allen he decided to get rid of him so
00:07:46
that he and sarah could be together
00:07:49
investigators also found evidence that
00:07:51
santos defied the johnsons and continued
00:07:54
to see sarah going so far as to have
00:07:57
sexual relations with her in her own
00:08:00
home
00:08:01
we confirmed that by finding semen
00:08:03
stains on sarah's sheets that match
00:08:06
bruno so we knew that he had been in the
00:08:08
house so he was a prime suspect based on
00:08:10
the fact that this crime truly was
00:08:13
committed by someone with knowledge
00:08:14
access and opportunity
00:08:16
[Music]
00:08:17
the sheriff's got a warrant to search
00:08:19
santos's home for evidence
00:08:22
we took his clothing we took his shoes
00:08:24
we took his dna took him to the hospital
00:08:27
and scrapings of his hands and his hair
00:08:30
and all those issues for dna samples
00:08:34
investigators wanted to know just how
00:08:37
far bruno santos was willing to go
00:08:40
to continue seeing sarah johnson
00:08:47
following the murders of alan and diane
00:08:49
johnson
00:08:50
investigators identified bruno santos as
00:08:53
the prime suspect in the crime since
00:08:56
santos was 19
00:08:58
and sarah johnson was 16 the johnsons
00:09:01
repeatedly warned santos not to see
00:09:04
their daughter again
00:09:06
but santos refused to try to rule bruno
00:09:09
in or out we tested almost every piece
00:09:12
of clothing that he was wearing that day
00:09:14
and the following day that we when we
00:09:16
arrested him we never found his dna
00:09:19
fingerprints or anything in the crime
00:09:21
scene and any of
00:09:23
alan or diane's
00:09:25
blood or dna on any of his clothing
00:09:29
so bruno santos was eliminated as a
00:09:32
suspect
00:09:34
with no other possibilities
00:09:36
authorities then
00:09:38
began to focus on the johnson's daughter
00:09:41
sarah no more what
00:09:43
no more kids
00:09:45
they learned that sarah was taking
00:09:47
antidepressants
00:09:48
and had a stormy relationship with her
00:09:51
mother
00:09:52
sarah's relatives thought she was being
00:09:54
a normal teenager pushing against
00:09:56
authority
00:09:58
until they noticed her unusual behavior
00:10:01
after the murders
00:10:03
she did not seem to be going through any
00:10:06
sort of grief at all she was not
00:10:09
concerned about
00:10:11
losing her mom and dad
00:10:13
she wanted to see her friends she wanted
00:10:15
to get her nails done
00:10:17
i mean it was just really bizarre
00:10:20
this led investigators to consider the
00:10:23
unthinkable
00:10:25
that sarah johnson
00:10:27
acting alone
00:10:28
had murdered her own parents
00:10:31
i just could not imagine that a 16 year
00:10:34
old girl could do this type of crime and
00:10:37
that was probably the hardest thing in
00:10:38
my mind is just trying to get through
00:10:40
this idea that a
00:10:43
young girl could do something so hate us
00:10:47
investigators knew sarah had keys to the
00:10:49
family guest house occupied by their
00:10:51
tenant mel spiegel
00:10:53
sarah would often clean the guest house
00:10:55
for mail since she would clean the guest
00:10:57
house we believe that she would have
00:10:59
knowledge that the weapons would have
00:11:01
been in that closet
00:11:03
when the sheriff's interviewed sarah
00:11:04
initially they noticed inconsistencies
00:11:07
in her story
00:11:09
she claimed she was asleep in her
00:11:11
bedroom when she heard the first shot
00:11:15
and that her bedroom door was closed
00:11:18
we found traces of diane's blood and
00:11:21
skull in sarah's room against her wall
00:11:24
which was some probably 30 feet away
00:11:27
sarah johnson's door was open also to
00:11:29
allow the bone to go inside her bedroom
00:11:32
because the back edge where the hinges
00:11:34
are also had blood
00:11:35
deposits on it so both of those doors
00:11:38
were open and there's a hall in between
00:11:40
we knew that her door had to be open
00:11:42
which was inconsistent of what she said
00:11:45
but this was only an inconsistency not
00:11:48
evidence of murder
00:11:50
this case was going to be very difficult
00:11:52
to prove to a jury there was not one
00:11:54
single piece of evidence necessarily
00:11:57
that totally committed sarah to this
00:11:59
crime and so we just had to build it
00:12:02
piece by piece
00:12:03
the piece they thought might prove most
00:12:06
significant
00:12:07
was the t-shirt and pajama bottom sarah
00:12:10
was wearing on the morning of the
00:12:12
murders police when they first
00:12:14
approached her saw no blood on her
00:12:15
clothing
00:12:17
there was none there because we
00:12:18
luminaled every inch of her pajamas top
00:12:21
and bottom
00:12:22
nothing
00:12:24
analysts now turned to the pink bathrobe
00:12:27
found in the garbage the morning of the
00:12:30
murders
00:12:31
family members said the robe belonged to
00:12:34
sarah
00:12:35
as rod englert examined it with a pro
00:12:38
scope a high-powered microscope capable
00:12:41
of 400 times magnification he was
00:12:44
shocked to discover no blood spatter on
00:12:46
the front of the robe
00:12:49
but then he looked on the back
00:12:51
he found hundreds of tiny specks of
00:12:54
blood
00:12:55
high velocity blood spatter the type
00:12:58
that would be created
00:12:59
by a high-powered rifle
00:13:01
you get multiple multiple stains that
00:13:04
are very very tiny like little pencil
00:13:07
touches
00:13:08
numerous even smaller than that
00:13:10
that are just layered layer on layer
00:13:14
especially when it's high energy
00:13:16
dna testing showed the blood came from
00:13:19
both diane
00:13:20
and alan johnson
00:13:24
this proved the killer wore the robe
00:13:26
backwards
00:13:28
the evidence was yelling and screaming
00:13:30
this is what happened it was the only
00:13:32
explanation
00:13:34
but investigators needed to prove that
00:13:36
sarah wore the robe on the morning of
00:13:38
the murders
00:13:40
to do that they had to analyze the shirt
00:13:42
she had on that day
00:13:45
sarah johnson had a blue cotton t-shirt
00:13:47
with green paint smeared onto it so
00:13:49
therefore i'm thinking well let's
00:13:51
examine the blue shirt now and see if
00:13:53
any of that cotton fiber could have
00:13:54
transferred with the green paint onto
00:13:56
the bathroom
00:13:57
scientists took samples from the t-shirt
00:14:00
and fibers from inside the bathrobe
00:14:03
they used a scanning electron microscope
00:14:06
to compare the similarities
00:14:09
they found paint on both the t-shirt and
00:14:12
the bathrobe with the same chemical
00:14:15
makeup
00:14:16
what i believed happened now there is a
00:14:18
evidence transfer from the blue t-shirt
00:14:20
deposited onto the
00:14:22
pink bathroom
00:14:24
this proved that sarah had worn the robe
00:14:27
over the top of her t-shirt finally
00:14:30
investigators analyzed the gloves found
00:14:33
in the garbage
00:14:34
when you handle an item and you leave
00:14:36
behind the oils and residues from your
00:14:39
skin that contains skin cells and we are
00:14:43
oftentimes able to get dna from those
00:14:45
samples
00:14:47
scientists swabbed the inside of the
00:14:49
gloves and found dna from only
00:14:53
one person sarah was the source of the
00:14:56
dna found on the latex glove
00:14:59
all the clothing found in the garbage
00:15:01
can was then checked for gunshot residue
00:15:05
a gas created by gunfire that can adhere
00:15:08
to the shooter we sent the robe we sent
00:15:12
the leather glove and we sent the latex
00:15:14
glove to a lab in chicago macron and
00:15:18
associates they ultimately found gunshot
00:15:20
residue on all three items
00:15:23
but
00:15:24
investigators had one final question
00:15:29
why wasn't sarah's hair covered in blood
00:15:32
when she went to her neighbor's house to
00:15:34
report the murders did she wear some
00:15:36
kind of hat if so
00:15:39
where was it sarah did not have any
00:15:41
blood on her that we could see with the
00:15:43
naked eye
00:15:44
soon
00:15:45
they would find out why
00:15:48
[Music]
00:15:52
investigators learned that sarah johnson
00:15:54
disagreed vehemently with her parents
00:15:57
over her relationship with her
00:15:58
19-year-old boyfriend bruno santos
00:16:02
sarah's parents threatened to file
00:16:04
statutory rape charges against santos
00:16:06
and have him deported unless the two
00:16:09
stopped seeing one another
00:16:12
instead
00:16:14
prosecutors say sarah turned to violence
00:16:19
in october of 2003 sarah johnson was
00:16:23
charged
00:16:24
as an adult
00:16:25
sarah i have a warrant for your rest
00:16:29
for the murder
00:16:31
of your parents
00:16:32
diane and alan
00:16:34
johnson he's charged with two counts of
00:16:37
murder
00:16:39
and you're under arrest
00:16:43
okay
00:16:44
stand up
00:16:48
it was a sad moment because it's a 16
00:16:51
year old that did this
00:16:53
it's sad for everybody involved
00:16:56
the trial of a teenaged girl killing her
00:16:59
parents
00:17:00
was a national sensation there were
00:17:03
three people in the johnson house
00:17:05
that morning
00:17:07
when alan and diane were murdered two of
00:17:09
them did not come out one person came
00:17:13
out alive
00:17:15
that person
00:17:16
sits right there
00:17:18
sarah marie johnson
00:17:21
at trial prosecutors presented
00:17:24
voluminous forensic and circumstantial
00:17:26
evidence to prove
00:17:28
that sarah
00:17:29
murdered her parents
00:17:31
she wanted the big rich things in her
00:17:34
life she wanted to provide for her
00:17:37
boyfriend they were going to get married
00:17:38
and she asked him do you want to live in
00:17:40
a big beautiful home
00:17:42
with her parents life insurance and her
00:17:45
inheritance
00:17:46
she thought she'd be all set and she
00:17:48
could
00:17:49
live that happily ever after life that
00:17:53
only a 16 year old probably envisions
00:17:56
in a surprise turn of events
00:17:59
sarah's boyfriend bruno santos testified
00:18:02
for the prosecution
00:18:04
primarily to show he had nothing to do
00:18:06
with the murders
00:18:08
he did testify that sarah had talked
00:18:11
about hating her dad
00:18:12
and about shooting him
00:18:15
given the fact that he did not like
00:18:17
their relationship
00:18:19
prosecutors believe that sarah chose
00:18:21
murder instead of ending her
00:18:23
relationship with santos
00:18:26
she knew that the man renting her
00:18:28
parents guest house had a hunting rifle
00:18:31
so
00:18:32
she waited for him to leave for the
00:18:34
weekend
00:18:35
and stole it
00:18:41
on the morning of the murders
00:18:43
sarah put on her bathrobe backwards
00:18:46
the gloves
00:18:47
and the shower cap
00:18:51
after hearing her father go into the
00:18:53
shower
00:18:54
she entered the bedroom and fired from
00:18:56
close range at her mother
00:18:58
[Music]
00:19:03
the blood spatter landed in sarah's room
00:19:06
contradicting her story that she was
00:19:08
asleep with her bedroom door closed
00:19:12
her father heard the shot
00:19:14
he came running into the bedroom
00:19:17
and sarah
00:19:19
shot her father in the chest
00:19:23
sarah attempted to mislead investigators
00:19:26
by placing knives at the foot of her
00:19:28
parents bed to make it appear that the
00:19:31
murders were gang-related
00:19:35
she flushed the shower cap down the
00:19:37
toilet where plumbers found it several
00:19:39
weeks later when it clogged the drain
00:19:42
she threw the gloves and bathrobe into
00:19:45
the trash then she ran next door to
00:19:48
report her parents murders
00:19:50
looking remarkably free of blood spatter
00:19:54
but she left more than enough evidence
00:19:56
behind
00:20:00
had that garbage container been picked
00:20:01
up you would have lost the robe and
00:20:03
you'd lost gloves that had sarah
00:20:05
johnson's dna
00:20:07
sarah was just fascinated with crime
00:20:09
stories and so we felt that based upon
00:20:12
just this exposure from novels from
00:20:14
television that sarah very likely would
00:20:17
have understood evidence how to get rid
00:20:19
of it and you know that's probably what
00:20:21
led her to do some of the things she did
00:20:25
sarah johnson was convicted of first
00:20:28
degree murder and sentenced to
00:20:30
two life terms without parole
00:20:34
she will never be released from prison
00:20:37
it was a mixed emotion
00:20:39
i was glad that they found her guilty
00:20:40
because in my heart i believe she was
00:20:42
but it hurt
00:20:43
to see some family member
00:20:46
being in that situation
00:20:49
what happened was hard for jurors and
00:20:51
even investigators to believe
00:20:55
forensic evidence
00:20:57
left no doubt
00:21:00
that sarah johnson murdered her parents
00:21:04
without having the robe which contained
00:21:06
the leather glove the latex glove and
00:21:08
all the blood
00:21:09
i do not believe we would have ever been
00:21:11
able to prove this case beyond a
00:21:12
reasonable doubt to a jury
00:21:14
circumstantial evidence is too hard to
00:21:16
convict
00:21:18
people on circumstantial evidence
00:21:21
alone you need that forensic evidence
00:21:24
because this is a for first degree
00:21:27
murder charge it makes me wonder
00:21:30
what was going through sarah's head when
00:21:33
when she committed this
00:21:35
terrible crime of how she could do this
00:21:37
to her to her parents
00:21:44
you
