00:00:06
a popular high school gym teacher
00:00:08
mysteriously left town without saying
00:00:11
goodbye to anyone
00:00:13
he later sent letters to explain why
00:00:16
but a closer forensic look at those
00:00:18
letters and the microscopic piece of
00:00:21
tissue
00:00:22
gave investigators an entirely different
00:00:25
explanation for where he went
00:00:28
and why
00:00:31
[Music]
00:00:42
[Applause]
00:00:44
[Music]
00:00:58
west yellowstone montana is primarily a
00:01:02
resort town only 1 000 residents live
00:01:05
here year round
00:01:09
but in season the beauty of the national
00:01:12
forest lands and yellowstone national
00:01:15
park are the main draw
00:01:18
west yellowstone is basically the
00:01:20
gateway to yellowstone national park
00:01:22
there's a million plus visitors that
00:01:24
come through here every year so it's a
00:01:25
service oriented town
00:01:28
rini and brad brisbane owned a
00:01:30
restaurant in town
00:01:32
brad also worked as a gym teacher at the
00:01:34
local high school
00:01:36
brad was fun loving enjoyed life he
00:01:40
loved to play practical jokes on people
00:01:43
brad was a very loyal
00:01:46
honest trustworthy friend
00:01:48
who would do anything including giving
00:01:50
you the shirt off his back to help you
00:01:55
friday november 9 1990 started like most
00:01:58
days
00:01:59
until brad got a telephone call at work
00:02:01
and left class unexpectedly
00:02:04
i actually met him in the hall he had
00:02:05
his jacket on he was getting ready to
00:02:06
leave i asked him where he was going he
00:02:08
just
00:02:09
said to help out a friend
00:02:10
and they had brought in a substitute
00:02:13
from pe class he said he'd see me at
00:02:14
dinner later on that night
00:02:17
brad said he was going to belgrade about
00:02:19
90 miles away to pick up his friend
00:02:21
larry moore who needed a ride
00:02:24
it was odd i mean he doesn't leave
00:02:26
the you know his teacher's job for very
00:02:28
much
00:02:30
so yeah it was odd
00:02:33
what made it even more bizarre brad
00:02:36
never returned home
00:02:38
that's when
00:02:39
we knew something i mean we knew
00:02:42
something was already wrong because brad
00:02:43
hadn't come home and that wasn't his
00:02:45
nature that wasn't the way brad brisbane
00:02:47
was
00:02:49
when police interviewed larry moore
00:02:52
he said he met brad at the diner as
00:02:54
planned
00:02:56
but he said brad was depressed and
00:02:58
inebriated
00:03:00
brad told larry that he was tired of
00:03:02
life tired of his wife tired of the
00:03:04
restaurant was going to leave borrowed
00:03:06
some money from him
00:03:08
left the restaurant
00:03:10
[Music]
00:03:12
moore said brad left the diner
00:03:15
got into a red car with washington
00:03:17
plates and drove off
00:03:19
moore said the driver was a woman
00:03:21
and that he didn't recognize her
00:03:24
fred's car was still in the diners
00:03:26
parking lot and there were no signs of
00:03:28
foul play
00:03:30
he loved his family there was no problem
00:03:32
and there was never any any indication
00:03:34
that there was anything in his mind
00:03:38
remotely related to leaving his family
00:03:41
i knew that they didn't know our family
00:03:43
the dynamics of the family and
00:03:46
and
00:03:48
just to hear people saying well you know
00:03:50
maybe he did just run off they didn't
00:03:51
know him
00:03:53
the brisbane and more families had been
00:03:55
friends for years
00:03:57
larry's wife shelley worked with brad
00:04:00
shelley coached the girls high school
00:04:02
basketball team and brad coached the
00:04:04
boys
00:04:06
investigators heard rumors that brad and
00:04:09
shelly were having an affair
00:04:11
i don't believe so we talked to rini she
00:04:14
didn't think there was an affair we
00:04:15
talked to shelley and she denied one
00:04:18
the only other person that could really
00:04:20
say was missing
00:04:23
coincidentally
00:04:25
shelley and larry moore separated just
00:04:27
two days before brad disappeared
00:04:31
shelley said her alleged affair with
00:04:33
brad was a figment of larry's
00:04:35
imagination
00:04:37
i truly believe he thought we were
00:04:38
having an affair
00:04:39
she actually
00:04:41
pointed to larry as as possibly having
00:04:44
done something to brad because of
00:04:47
some of the domestic violence against
00:04:49
her and the fact that he had accused her
00:04:52
of having an affair with brett
00:04:55
a few weeks after brad's disappearance a
00:04:58
letter from brad arrived at police
00:05:00
headquarters
00:05:02
he said he was alive and well and living
00:05:05
in washington state
00:05:07
but after seeing the letter
00:05:09
police weren't too sure
00:05:15
the last known person to see brad
00:05:17
brisman alive was his friend larry moore
00:05:22
police started their investigation
00:05:24
by carefully examining larry moore's
00:05:26
truck
00:05:28
he allowed me to search the pickup and
00:05:29
it was immaculate when i went around to
00:05:31
the camper i noticed that he was
00:05:32
patching holes in it with a putty knife
00:05:35
inside the camper
00:05:36
investigators found bullet holes in the
00:05:39
floor and in the liner underneath
00:05:41
[Music]
00:05:42
they also found a bullet fragment from a
00:05:45
357 magnum pistol
00:05:49
larry told police he once tried shooting
00:05:51
a mouse in the camper while on a hunting
00:05:53
trip
00:05:53
[Music]
00:05:56
but something caught the eye of
00:05:58
investigators
00:06:00
a small piece of what appeared to be
00:06:03
tissue on a window curtain about the
00:06:06
size of a quarter there's no way to
00:06:08
describe it other than it looked like a
00:06:09
piece of
00:06:11
of chicken
00:06:13
skin or something like that being unsure
00:06:16
what it might be he took that
00:06:19
the entire curtain with the the tissue
00:06:21
on it
00:06:22
and we got it sent up to the missoula
00:06:25
state crime lab
00:06:28
an octalony test identified the tissue
00:06:32
as human
00:06:33
and the striations meant
00:06:35
it was muscle
00:06:37
but that doesn't show you that the
00:06:39
person's dead
00:06:40
we can all deposit muscle tissue and
00:06:43
still be very much alive
00:06:45
but before police could question larry
00:06:48
moore about this forensic discovery a
00:06:50
letter arrived postmarked from spokane
00:06:52
washington
00:06:54
it was from brad brisbane
00:06:56
in it he apologized for creating what he
00:06:59
called a real strain on everyone
00:07:02
involved
00:07:03
i've decided to start a new life for
00:07:05
myself i had to make a clean break from
00:07:07
everyone and everything to make this
00:07:09
work
00:07:10
it just seemed to be the only way out
00:07:12
for me
00:07:13
fortunately i have a wonderful woman to
00:07:15
help me
00:07:16
a few days later larry moore received a
00:07:19
similar letter
00:07:21
in this one brad wanted to make sure his
00:07:23
wife rini was taken care of
00:07:26
all personal property we own i want her
00:07:29
to have everything
00:07:30
i'm starting a new life with a new
00:07:32
person
00:07:34
but investigators noticed a slight
00:07:36
problem
00:07:37
the name of brad's wife rini
00:07:40
was misspelled
00:07:42
the letter to the sheriff had
00:07:43
congratulated him to his appointment and
00:07:46
the sheriff is an elected position so
00:07:48
they were huge mistakes they were they
00:07:50
were just huge red flags
00:07:53
investigators tested the letters with
00:07:55
ninhydrin a chemical solution that
00:07:58
reacts with the amino acids in
00:08:00
fingerprints
00:08:01
after it was applied
00:08:03
the documents were dried thoroughly
00:08:07
scientists found numerous fingerprints
00:08:09
on the two documents but none match brad
00:08:11
brisbane
00:08:13
they weren't larry moore's fingerprints
00:08:15
either
00:08:17
[Music]
00:08:20
next the letters were analyzed by a
00:08:22
forensic document examiner
00:08:25
both letters were typed with the same
00:08:27
typewriter the paper was inexpensive the
00:08:30
kind often used in high schools
00:08:35
the type showed no defects making it
00:08:38
difficult to identify the typewriter
00:08:40
used to create them
00:08:45
and only the signature was handwritten
00:08:49
the signature itself is a full cursive
00:08:51
signature
00:08:53
it is full
00:08:55
of tremor it looks
00:08:57
labored and it looks slow
00:08:59
and it does not look like it is the the
00:09:02
product of habitual movement
00:09:05
could be disease could be drugs could
00:09:07
even be stress
00:09:08
and you get that tremor
00:09:10
when somebody sits down and tries to
00:09:12
duplicate the handwriting of another
00:09:14
person
00:09:16
experts compared this question signature
00:09:19
to several documents brad signed shortly
00:09:22
before his disappearance
00:09:24
the handwriting sample i saw for brad
00:09:26
brisbane
00:09:28
was a greeting card
00:09:30
and he wrote a short note at the bottom
00:09:32
and signed bread his handwriting was
00:09:35
done all in uppercase
00:09:38
capitals it was printed in essence
00:09:41
all the printed capitals were connected
00:09:43
it was sort of
00:09:44
printed capitals and cursive mixed
00:09:47
together it's a very high level spirited
00:09:51
handwriting very bold handwriting
00:09:54
fast fluid very very much from the hip
00:09:58
but the question signature was quite
00:10:00
different
00:10:02
the
00:10:03
uppercase b
00:10:04
in the name brad was actually
00:10:06
constructed in three pieces there is a a
00:10:09
break
00:10:10
it has the up and down spine on the left
00:10:12
side of the letter but between the top
00:10:14
and the bottom of the letter there's a
00:10:15
break
00:10:16
interesting at the break is in a place
00:10:19
where you would naturally
00:10:21
stop if you wanted to look to see how
00:10:22
you were doing and continue writing
00:10:25
[Music]
00:10:26
police suspected larry moore may have
00:10:28
written the letters but it was difficult
00:10:31
to tell since the question signature
00:10:33
wasn't actually handwriting
00:10:36
this is a drawing of somebody's
00:10:38
signature
00:10:39
it's not handwriting at all and it's
00:10:41
very difficult sometimes to actually
00:10:44
determine who it was that made the
00:10:46
drawing
00:10:47
although document examiners were unable
00:10:50
to tell conclusively who signed the
00:10:52
letter
00:10:53
they were certain it wasn't brad
00:10:55
brisbane
00:10:56
i knew that the letter was
00:10:58
completely false
00:11:00
there's
00:11:01
absolutely no way
00:11:04
that my father would
00:11:07
just up and leave
00:11:09
investigators still had no idea where
00:11:12
brad brisbane was or what may have
00:11:14
happened to him
00:11:18
[Music]
00:11:20
police now knew
00:11:22
that the letters mailed from spokane
00:11:24
washington
00:11:26
weren't written by brad brisbane
00:11:28
they strongly suspected
00:11:30
larry moore may have been involved in
00:11:32
brad's disappearance
00:11:35
on the step of moore's camper
00:11:37
police noticed what looked like blood
00:11:39
spatter
00:11:44
under a microscope
00:11:45
scientists found it was more than just
00:11:48
blood
00:11:49
it was tissue
00:11:51
[Music]
00:11:54
this was identified as human
00:11:58
and the sample had both small granular
00:12:01
cells and larger purkinja cells
00:12:05
this meant only one thing
00:12:08
this was muscle
00:12:11
but they wanted a second opinion
00:12:14
so they sent this tissue to a fella
00:12:16
named mark colin who's a
00:12:17
neuropathologist in ohio he looked at it
00:12:20
and said yeah it's mammal and it's it's
00:12:23
cerebellum it's the brain stem
00:12:26
the cerebellum sits at the base of the
00:12:28
brain
00:12:30
and is primarily responsible for memory
00:12:32
and motor movement
00:12:34
since the cerebellum controls the heart
00:12:37
muscle no human can survive without it
00:12:42
a ballistics expert compared the
00:12:44
location of the brain tissue in the
00:12:45
camper with the bullet holes
00:12:49
using a two-point laser he marked the
00:12:51
center of the bullet hole and then
00:12:53
followed the bullet's path
00:12:56
it showed that the shooter was firing
00:12:58
from a standing position
00:13:01
clearly a few people shoot holding the
00:13:02
gun up over their head and if you
00:13:04
realize that a body was interposed in
00:13:06
between that
00:13:08
we've only got a few feet to deal with
00:13:10
so it can't be a standing man for
00:13:11
example
00:13:12
it could be a collapsed man or a person
00:13:15
nearly down on the floor
00:13:18
next ballistic experts examined the
00:13:21
bullet fragment found in the floor of
00:13:23
the camper and discovered what is called
00:13:26
soft damage
00:13:28
it deforms in a very different way than
00:13:30
it would if it hit wood
00:13:32
concrete drywall
00:13:34
metal
00:13:35
and it slows down
00:13:37
the longer the path through a victim or
00:13:40
tissue or a tissue similar
00:13:42
the more velocity is lost
00:13:44
to find out whose brain tissue was in
00:13:47
the camper
00:13:48
investigators sent the sample for dna
00:13:50
testing
00:13:51
but they didn't have the body to compare
00:13:53
it to
00:13:54
we can help you to determine whether
00:13:57
this tissue
00:13:58
is from the missing person
00:14:01
by comparing the dna from the tissue
00:14:04
to the family members and the children
00:14:07
and the mother of the person who's
00:14:09
missing
00:14:11
children get half of their dna from the
00:14:13
mother and half from the father
00:14:15
by taking a dna sample from brad's wife
00:14:18
his four children and his mother
00:14:20
scientists could isolate brad's dna
00:14:23
profile through a process of elimination
00:14:27
for this
00:14:28
scientists used an rflp test at the time
00:14:32
the most sophisticated dna test
00:14:34
available
00:14:36
whose ever tissue sample that was
00:14:38
was completely consistent with being the
00:14:41
father of both sets of children
00:14:44
and consistent with being the son
00:14:47
of the mother of the missing person
00:14:50
next
00:14:51
scientists tested the tiny fragment of
00:14:53
brain tissue
00:14:55
it was too small for rflp testing since
00:14:58
it was about the size of a pinhead
00:15:02
so scientists amplified it
00:15:04
using pcr a process that duplicates a
00:15:08
small sample to make it large enough to
00:15:10
test
00:15:12
the pcr dna tests revealed that the
00:15:15
brain tissue in larry moore's camper
00:15:18
was brad brisbane's
00:15:20
i knew it was going to be a match
00:15:22
the official confirmation that the blood
00:15:24
matched was huge it made
00:15:27
never felt anything like that before
00:15:31
with this discovery
00:15:33
the medical examiner ruled brad
00:15:35
brisbane's death a homicide
00:15:38
larry moore was arrested and charged
00:15:40
with murder
00:15:42
but prosecutors knew their case would be
00:15:44
difficult to prove
00:15:46
without a body
00:15:50
[Music]
00:15:52
prosecutors believe that the motive for
00:15:54
brad brisbane's murder was jealousy
00:15:56
larry moore suspected brad was having an
00:15:58
affair with his wife
00:16:00
[Music]
00:16:02
moore admitted he called brad at work to
00:16:03
ask for a ride
00:16:07
the forensic evidence suggests the two
00:16:09
met at the diner and moore somehow lured
00:16:12
brad into the back of his camper
00:16:15
[Music]
00:16:21
once inside
00:16:22
brad was ambushed i'll show you in a
00:16:24
second can you give me those pliers down
00:16:26
there
00:16:27
brad was on the floor when moore shot
00:16:29
from a standing position numerous times
00:16:38
one shot hit brad's shoulder leaving a
00:16:41
piece of muscle another struck brad in
00:16:43
the head
00:16:45
no one heard the shots because it was a
00:16:47
busy truck stop with lots of traffic
00:16:51
authorities had no way to tell
00:16:54
where moore took the body
00:16:56
he knows it he's got equipment in west
00:16:58
yellowstone he owned an excavating
00:17:00
company so he had backhoes that kind of
00:17:02
thing so he could get rid of a body
00:17:04
pretty easy
00:17:06
prosecutors believe more steam cleaned
00:17:08
the camper and removed the carpet to
00:17:10
hide the forensic evidence
00:17:14
but the bullet holes and the tiny specks
00:17:16
of muscle and brain tissue convinced
00:17:18
medical experts
00:17:20
that brad was dead
00:17:22
all prosecutors had to do
00:17:24
was convince a jury of that
00:17:27
as a prosecutor clearly you want to make
00:17:30
damn sure
00:17:31
that this is the right guy and there has
00:17:33
been a murder i can't think of anything
00:17:34
worse
00:17:36
than being in a position of finding out
00:17:37
you've convicted the wrong person
00:17:41
larry moore denied killing brad brisbane
00:17:44
and pleaded not guilty
00:17:50
prosecutors argued that larry moore
00:17:52
killed brad brisbane in a jealous rage
00:17:55
convinced brad was sleeping with his
00:17:56
wife shelley
00:17:59
to throw investigators off the trail
00:18:02
moore forged brad's name on several
00:18:04
letters
00:18:06
the forensic evidence convinced the
00:18:08
jurors of two things
00:18:10
one
00:18:11
that brad brisbane was dead
00:18:14
and two
00:18:16
that larry moore was his killer
00:18:19
we the jury find the defendant guilty of
00:18:22
the offense
00:18:22
[Applause]
00:18:25
moore was sentenced to 60 years in
00:18:27
prison
00:18:29
it was the first murder case in montana
00:18:31
to be tried without a body
00:18:35
and it was also the first time in the
00:18:37
state that dna was used in a criminal
00:18:40
case
00:18:42
just two years after his conviction
00:18:45
larry moore made headlines again
00:18:48
he was charged with conspiring to build
00:18:50
a bomb in prison
00:18:53
to avoid federal charges moore agreed to
00:18:56
lead authorities to brad brisbane's body
00:19:00
moore directed officials to a campground
00:19:04
where he hid the 357 magnum pistol he
00:19:06
used in the murder
00:19:08
it was found at the base of a tree
00:19:11
in one of the campgrounds in galen
00:19:14
canyon
00:19:15
moore also led police to a gravel pit a
00:19:18
few miles outside of west yellowstone
00:19:21
where they unearthed brad's body
00:19:24
he didn't tell us anything about the
00:19:26
homicide
00:19:27
when we did find brad's body
00:19:30
larry did turn a little pale and go and
00:19:33
sit in a vehicle
00:19:35
but he never did tell us
00:19:37
the real reason or the story behind how
00:19:40
it actually happened
00:19:43
a forensic examination of brad's body
00:19:46
confirmed what forensic scientists had
00:19:48
told the jury in court two years earlier
00:19:52
the determined cause of death was
00:19:54
multiple gunshot wounds to the head
00:19:57
and upper thoractic region in other
00:19:59
words the chest area or the back
00:20:03
even though more led police to the body
00:20:05
and the murder weapon
00:20:07
he never confessed
00:20:09
until now
00:20:10
[Music]
00:20:11
in an exclusive letter to the producers
00:20:13
of this program
00:20:15
he admitted his guilt
00:20:17
i am guilty as charged and am thankful
00:20:19
that the truth finally came out with the
00:20:21
help from modern technology
00:20:23
i have learned that tell me the truth is
00:20:25
the only answer
00:20:28
his words
00:20:29
bring little comfort to the brisbane
00:20:31
family
00:20:32
i think the hardest part has been the
00:20:34
kids it's not right to have to grow up
00:20:36
without a father
00:20:39
i would love to be in the same room with
00:20:40
her anymore
00:20:42
and ask him why
00:20:44
and get a straight honest answer about
00:20:47
why he killed my dad
00:20:50
because i think he owes it
00:20:52
i think that's the least he could do to
00:20:54
this family
00:20:57
as a teenager i was
00:20:59
completely correct your world even if
00:21:02
not
00:21:05
someone doing that
00:21:09
each forensic test was a piece of the
00:21:12
mosaic and when put together showed
00:21:15
clearly what occurred
00:21:17
during brad brisbane's last moments
00:21:20
alive
00:21:21
without it we couldn't we couldn't
00:21:23
approve that brad was even dead he would
00:21:26
still be a missing person
00:21:29
[Music]
00:21:38
[Music]
00:22:07
you
