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[Music]
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on june 21st 1978
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22 year old carla brown was found
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brutally murdered in the basement of her
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home
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[Music]
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it looked as if the killer had committed
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the perfect crime
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[Music]
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and police could find very little
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evidence
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but years later investigators noticed
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something on a crime scene photograph
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that had previously been overlooked
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the killer had left behind
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a clue
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[Music]
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twenty-two-year-old carla brown and her
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fiance a man we'll call mark hart had
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recently purchased a home together in
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wood river illinois
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although the couple had a rocky past
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friends and family saw this as the
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beginning of a new phase in their
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relationship
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carla brown was a beautiful little girl
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grew up into a beautiful young woman was
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very popular in her hometown in the wood
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river area i had taken some college
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classes had been a high school
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cheerleader was one of those girls that
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everybody knew girls liked her guys
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liked her
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she was just one of those people that
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was special and everybody recognized
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that
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on june 21st carla brown took the day
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off from work to unpack
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yes the house was great and spoke to one
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of her friends on the telephone maybe we
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can have you over for dinner they had
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talked for a few minutes in fact we even
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talked about getting together later on
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that afternoon wait a second i just
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heard something in the door and carla
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interrupted the conversation and said
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listen i'll have to call you back i'll
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see you later there's somebody at the
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door
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and that was the last that our friend
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ever talked to
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around 5 30 that afternoon
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carla's fiance and his friends stopped
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by the house after work
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when they walked into the basement
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they saw a horrible sight
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carla was lying face down
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in a bucket of water
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she had her hands tied behind her there
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was evidence of struggle a death
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struggle in the basement
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and a
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very strong suggestion of a sexual rape
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but investigators were confused about
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some of the things they saw
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there were two men's socks tied around
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carla's neck they were tied neatly
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inconsistent with what you would expect
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to see in a life and death struggle
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the white electrical cord used to tie
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the victim's hands was not tight enough
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to effectively restrain an individual
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during an assault there was too much
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length of cord
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behind her to where her hands could come
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up in front of her
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it would seem like to me that she would
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have access to the
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attacker
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given that much freedom
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with the length of rope that was tied
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between the two wrists
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she was found wearing a sweater her
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fiance said she would never wear in the
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summer
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the top button was fastened another
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inconsistency with a life-and-death
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struggle
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the socks around carla's neck were from
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inside the home
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the mate to one was found in her
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fiance's dresser the other was under the
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sofa in the adjacent room
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under the sofa was a puddle of water
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tinted with blood the sofa cushions were
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also wet and there were blood drops on
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the floor near the sofa
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in the rafters was a coffee carafe from
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the kitchen
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to homicide investigators it looked as
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if the coffee carafe had been used to
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rinse blood from the sofa cushions
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the attack occurred near the sofa and
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the body was later moved into an
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adjacent room and placed into the barrel
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of water
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the crime scene staging told
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investigators that the perpetrator spent
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a great deal of time inside the house
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after the murder but who knew that carla
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brown was home and alone on the day of
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the murder
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and who would have felt free to spend so
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much time in the home cleaning up and
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staging the scene
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police began their investigation with a
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close look at carla brown's fiancee
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the autopsy report on carla brown
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indicated death by strangulation
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although she was found nude from the
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waist down there were no signs of sexual
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assault investigators were convinced
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that the killer spent a great deal of
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time in the house after the murder
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staging the crime scene
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i didn't know mark
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very well although they had dated for a
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number of years
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off and on and there were times in their
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relationship that
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it wasn't great
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but
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she seemed to always be
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crazy about him
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anyway
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police also questioned two neighbors who
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had been sitting in the yard next door
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on the day carla and her fiance were
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moving in
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hey carla
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carla brown
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i'm john prante
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we went to school together remember me
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hi how are you
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[Music]
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both men had alibis as to where they
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were on the day of the murder and they
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both willingly took lie detector tests
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and passed
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with no other leads police asked the fbi
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for a psychological profile of the
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killer and turned to fbi behavioral
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analyst john douglas
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in my research we began to break down
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crimes by disorganize and organize
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disorganized means extremely
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sloppy carelessness on the part of the
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offender the crime could be very very
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impulsive organized means that there's a
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high degree high level of criminal
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sophistication on the part of the
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subject
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to douglas this crime scene was
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disorganized an indication that the
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killer was inexperienced and probably
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had never killed before
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he came to the home with no intention of
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committing murder but did so after some
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sort of confrontation or rejection
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since he spent so much time inside the
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home
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douglas believed that he was familiar
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with the victim and her routine and
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might be living in the neighborhood or
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very close by
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douglas said the killer was an unmarried
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white male in his mid to late twenties
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high school educated with a sloppy
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appearance
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the use of electrical cord to tie the
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victim's hands indicated the killer had
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taken shop classes or had vocational
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training
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douglas also told investigators that
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they may have already interviewed the
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murderer and that he was capable of
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passing a polygraph test
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and then it got kind of spooky i mean i
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was sitting there and i wasn't sure i
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was believing what he was saying after a
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certain point
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he started talking about
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how this individual would react
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and what kind of vehicle he'd be driving
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and
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he started talking about
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a volkswagen there was a high
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probability this guy would be a volt
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driving a volkswagen
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and that would be
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red or orange in color
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this led investigators to focus once
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again on the two men sitting next door
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on the day carla brown and her fiance
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were moving in
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but investigators needed more than just
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a psychological profile
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they needed
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hard evidence
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crime scene technician alva bush
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remained deeply troubled by the carla
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brown murder for one thing he and his
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colleagues could not determine what
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caused the wounds on carla brown's face
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and chin
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the first real break in the case
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occurred when bush attended a seminar on
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image enhancement at the university of
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new mexico
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dr homer campbell taught that seminar he
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worked for the state of new mexico as a
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medical investigator
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dr campbell was demonstrating a
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photographic technique that uses cameras
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monitors and computers to show details
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of crime scene photographs that cannot
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otherwise be seen
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this was a technique that had been used
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for
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several years both by engineers in
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non-destructive testing of materials and
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also by archaeologists
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looking at aerial photographs to find
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ancient ruins
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after the seminar bush told dr campbell
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about the carla brown case and i said
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doc do i have a case for you
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and i told them about the carla brown
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case and that
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we were never able to identify what type
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instrument hadn't damaged her face i
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asked him to please send me the
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photographs
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that they had
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of the
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deceased person
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and also to send me an autopsy report
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dr campbell used his image enhancement
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equipment to look more closely at the
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crime scene photos of carla brown
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the system not only improves the
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contrast of the photographs that can
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also create what appear to be
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three-dimensional views adding depth to
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the image
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when dr campbell was through
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he knew
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what caused the injuries to carla
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brown's face he tells me that maybe the
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tv tray may have been the instrument
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that she was hitting ahead with this tv
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tray was lying on the floor within three
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foot of the
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victim where she had probably been on
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the couch
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but i had missed it
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the tray tables were still in storage
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untouched in the two years since the
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murder
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in an extraordinary piece of luck
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dr campbell found microscopic traces of
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blood and hair still present on the tray
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table
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and what dr campbell said next was even
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more revealing
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he says what about the bite mark
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and i
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i said buy it mark why by mark what are
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you talking about
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when we looked at the photograph and
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went ahead and enhanced it and magnified
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it
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present on the shoulder was a bite
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injury on the shoulder and by looking at
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that bite injury you could actually pick
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out individual teeth all the way across
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i trade that for five eyewitnesses
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anytime so eyewitnesses can make
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mistakes things like fingerprints don't
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and it was my understanding that bite
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marks
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properly preserved
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with an identified defendant could give
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you the defendant as good as a
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fingerprint
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the killer had left behind a clue
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all investigators needed now
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was a suspect
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[Music]
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two years after the brutal murder of 22
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year old carla brown
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investigators got the break they needed
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when a photographic enhancement revealed
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a bite mark on carla's shoulder
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police now turned
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to the two men sitting in the yard next
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door when carla brown moved into her new
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home
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both matched the fbi's behavioral
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profile of the killer police checked
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their alibis again
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although both had passed the polygraph
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tests police discovered that john prante
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had spoken about the murder to others
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john prandty had mentioned to his
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friends that he had seen her body
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that day that he looked over the
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shoulder of some policemen while they
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were investigating in the basement and
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he described the condition of her body
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and he even mentioned that she had bite
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marks on her neck and collarbone
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the police were the only ones inside the
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house after carla brown's body was found
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and that was a shock to us
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as police officers because there's no
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way that he could have known that unless
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he put the bite mark there
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also the information about the location
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of the body the way the body was found
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the only way that that would have been
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known is either to have been there on
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the investigation
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or to put the body there yourself
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because we never release that
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information to the public or to the
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media
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since the bite marks were overlooked
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during the original autopsy
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investigators wanted to make sure
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nothing else was missed
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so carla brown's body was exhumed for a
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second autopsy
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this time it was performed by dr mary
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case the chief medical examiner for st
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louis county
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in the original autopsy
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there was the ligature strangulation and
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the body was examined and for some
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reason the head was not examined and so
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i opened the cranial cavity and there
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was bruising
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in the scalp somebody struck her on the
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head and question is whether or not for
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example this blow would cause loss of
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consciousness
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dr case thought that carla brown may
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have been alive when she was placed in
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the barrel of water because when she was
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found there was foam around her mouth
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because she was in water and she was
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producing that foam
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i
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feel like there may be some component of
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drowning that she was still
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even though she'd been strangled that
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she was still maybe to a minimal degree
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breathing because i believe that she may
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have breathed in some water
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during the autopsy more photographs were
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taken of the suspected bite wounds which
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were sent to the new york state police
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forensic unit for an independent
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evaluation
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prosecutors wanted to make sure that the
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mark on carla brown's neck was in fact a
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bite wound in my opinion the pattern
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injury
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on carla brown's neck had all the
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characteristics that a bite mark would
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have
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dr levine was asked to compare the bite
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wound to three different dental casts
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prosecutors sent along for analysis
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dr levine had no idea to whom the casts
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belonged
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after making wax impressions of the
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models
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dr levine concluded that two of the
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models were not consistent with the bite
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wound i took the third model
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and examined all the
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individual characteristics
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that those teeth would have caused
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compared
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those characteristics with the
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characteristics on the clarified
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photograph of carla brown's neck
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that i had
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and came to the opinion that only that
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model was consistent
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with having caused that pattern injury
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or that bite mark he measured the teeth
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he went back to the photograph
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he turned them different ways he held
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him up in the air
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finally
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he laid the dental impressions on the
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table and he pointed to him and he said
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that's your man
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model number three
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belonged to john prante
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interestingly prandi also matched john
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douglas's psychological profile
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he was in his late twenties had a
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history of troubled relationships with
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women he attended industrial art school
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and had a sloppy unkempt appearance
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franti spent a great deal of time in the
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neighborhood often visiting his friend
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who lived next door to carla brown
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and just as john douglas had predicted
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tranti had passed an earlier polygraph
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test
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the most unusual aspect of douglas's
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profile was the prediction that pranty
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would be driving a red volkswagen
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where that came from
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only john could say
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but in fact did turn out that the
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individual did have a volkswagen
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prosecutors believe that when carla
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brown's fiancee left for work
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john prante walked over and knocked on
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the door maybe we can have you over for
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dinner carla was talking on the
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telephone
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hello
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wait a second i just heard something in
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the door
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let me call you back
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[Music]
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what do you want need some help moving
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in
00:17:47
i want you to leave come on why don't we
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talk a little i want you to leave now
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there was some kind of argument or
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struggle possibly after she had rejected
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tranti's sexual advances he forced her
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into the basement and hit her with a
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tray table
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at some point he bitter on the shoulder
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and strangled her
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afterwards he staged the scene to make
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it appear to be a sexual assault
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but when he changed her clothes he made
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the mistake of fastening the top button
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the first clue that the scene had been
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staged
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he tied her hands with electrical cord
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wrapped the socks around her neck
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[Applause]
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and placed her into the water while she
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was unconscious but still alive
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pranty tried to remove the bloodstains
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on the sofa with water he carried from
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the kitchen in the coffee carafe which
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he left in the rafters above the sofa
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the clothes carla was wearing that day
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were never found
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pranty may have taken them as a trophy
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in july of 1983
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john prandty was tried and convicted of
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first degree murder and was sentenced to
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75 years in the state penitentiary
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after five long years
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carla brown's family finally had some
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closure
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i would like to tell him
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that he he took away a very wonderful
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person
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um who had a lot to offer and a and a
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family who cared
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very much about carla
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and
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that
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it was very
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very selfish of him
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to
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to not consider
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another person's life
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as as something as something that can
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just be thrown away
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on a particular day
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he got caught
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because
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the techniques of investigation in law
00:20:15
enforcement completely overpowered him
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he got away with the crime because he
00:20:20
was lucky he got caught because law
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enforcement changed his luck
00:20:26
don weber along with journalist charles
00:20:29
bosworth chronicled the many ups and
00:20:31
downs of this case in a best-selling
00:20:34
book silent witness
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carla's family was so intrigued by the
00:20:38
bite mark evidence
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that
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she
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embroidered a little tapestry that she
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presented to don weber as a token of her
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appreciation
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and it offers the slogan that don had
00:20:49
used that you can lie through your teeth
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but your teeth don't lie
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and around the border is the pattern of
00:20:57
rectangle space rectangle space triangle
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which is the bite mark pattern that don
00:21:02
had proved had been made by john prante
00:21:07
[Music]
00:21:30
[Applause]
00:21:33
[Music]
00:21:49
you
