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[Music]
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up next
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a suburban housewife is gunned down
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outside her
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church i've seen brazen murders in my
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career but i've never seen one
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this brazen the investigation reveals
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some long-held secrets
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you have a lesbian affair you have
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corruption
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you know you have murder a love triangle
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points in one direction
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the evidence points in another this had
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a lot of twists and turns what the hell
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else is going to go on here
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[Music]
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it was a cold october night in
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poughkeepsie new york
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jeff fassett a local policeman had the
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night off
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and was home watching tv with his two
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sons
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his wife susan was a church choir
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practice my mother was involved in her
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church pretty heavily
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she'd always loved it she'd been
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involved in the choir
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for most of her life around 7 30 p.m
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jeff fassett told his boys he was going
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down to police headquarters
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he did go out to the town of
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poughkeepsie to get his paycheck
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three miles west of his house sometime
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around 8 30 choir practice ended at the
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pleasant valley united methodist
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church and susan fassett walked to her
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car
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to drive home then
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shots rang out
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[Music]
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people ran to the car to see what had
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happened and they found susan fasted
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morally wounded
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witnesses saw a light-colored vehicle
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speeding from the scene
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no one indicated to us that they could
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see a driver or how many people for that
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matter were in the car
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in a search for suspects police
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immediately looked at
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susan's husband jeff jeff
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fassett they learned left the house
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during the time that susan was murdered
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there were rumors in the police force
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that there were problems in
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jeff and susan's marriage we were pretty
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comfortable that jeff fessett might be
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involved here
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shortly after jeff fassett returned home
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police converged on his house
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he begins to see cops across the street
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watching him
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so he's watching them watch him they
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look like they have
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you know shotguns and gear on and
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they're surrounding the house
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and they're going to come here and
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ambush this place
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jeff wanted to find out why this was
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happening
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he made several phone calls to his
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police department
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to the state police yeah this is facet
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there's a bunch of patrol cars
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outside my house what's going on nobody
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was coming right out and telling him
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susan's son jason had made a call to the
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church
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and had learned that his mother had been
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shot that's the only information he had
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dad has been shot not sure what to do
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jeff turned off all the lights looked as
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if he was
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barricading himself inside the house i
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remember sitting in the house
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in dark in silence for what seemed like
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a very very long time
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they don't know what he's going to do
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now if a man has killed his wife
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his children may be next and then he may
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kill himself
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two tense hours passed before jeff
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fassett and his two sons
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came out of the house they are led
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outside
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with their hands behind their head
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handcuffed
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and tossed on the ground face down like
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common criminals
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and i'm waiting to find out what
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happened to my mother who all i know
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she's been shot now all of a sudden
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we're all you know seemingly under
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arrest
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everyone's crying everyone's upset
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eventually
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even jason facette had to consider
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the unthinkable i remember sitting there
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thinking like
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could this be real am i going to have to
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face a reality where my father had done
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this
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susan fassett's murder looked like a
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professional hit
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the killer was apparently lying in
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weight
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and had planned a quick getaway from the
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scene i've seen
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brazen murders in my career but i've
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never seen one
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this brazen that just seemed to vanish
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all of susan's personal effects were
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found on the car indicating that it was
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not a robbery
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susan's husband jeff a 24-year veteran
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of the poughkeepsie police department
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denied any involvement in susan's murder
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although he didn't have an alibi
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we could not confirm where jeff was
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when it happened and jeff's car was
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similar to the vehicle seen
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speeding from the crime scene you look
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at his record and his record is blemish
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free i mean
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he had absolutely nothing in his record
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that would indicate that he would turn
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violent at all but jeff thought he knew
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who was responsible he even said to me
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put me under hot lights beat me with
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rubber hoses i don't care what you do to
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me but when you're all done with me
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go see fred andrews he is behind us fred
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andros was the superintendent for the
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town of poughkeepsie
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a man with a terrible reputation
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right out of the gate people had told us
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what a scumbag he was
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fred andros was a self-centered
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mean nasty prick fred andros and
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susan fassett bumped into each other
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apparently one day in the hallway in the
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town building they started a
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relationship
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just one month earlier jeff fassett
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learned his wife susan was having an
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affair with fred andros
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an affair which had gone on for the last
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three years
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jeff put some sort of tape recording
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device on his
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telephone unbeknownst to her
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in fact she did get caught receiving and
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making phone calls to fred andros
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when jeff fassett confronted his wife
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about the affair
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susan promised to end it things were
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really up in the air and then one day
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they just came to us
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and said that they were going to work on
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things they were going to fix things
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police wondered if fred andros might
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have been
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angry that susan ended their affair
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but fred andros had an airtight alibi
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for the night of susan's murder andros
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and his wife had friends over to dinner
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that night
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the alibi that fred had for us and
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having dinner with a police officer was
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corroborated with the police officer
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and in fact his wife so he was there he
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was not at our crime scene
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fred andros was despondent and upset he
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wanted to know i think he asked things
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like who would do such a thing
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and and he cared about her at the
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autopsy
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the medical examiner recovered five
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bullets from
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susan's body you're looking for a llama
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or a ruger manufactured
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45 caliber weapon we determined that
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andros didn't have a registered 45
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handgun nor did he have a vehicle that
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fit the description
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of the vehicle that was leaving the
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scene the victim's husband jeff fassett
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didn't own a 45 caliber weapon either
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but the medical examiner discovered one
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additional clue
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[Music]
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susan had intercourse within 48 hours of
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her murder
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when jeff fassett was questioned about
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this
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it was news to him they test that semen
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against jeff fassett's dna and it's not
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a match
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police asked fred andros if he'd had
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sexual relations with susan fassett
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before her murder
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and he said no he had told us that he
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hadn't seen her in a month
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and had never been intimate andros
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explained why he was unable to have
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sexual relations
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fred had said to us that he was unable
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to perform sexually due to the
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medication he was taking
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fred said he was impotent but that was
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clearly discounted by the
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numerous interviews with the prostitutes
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in the area that that was nothing but a
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hoax
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he was picking up prostitutes every day
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for crying out loud
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i had confirmed through his wife that he
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wasn't having relations with her
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but he was he was picking up hookers
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every day
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when asked to provide a dna sample
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andros refused
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they really have no legal reason
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to order a dna sample from fred andrews
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you have to have some evidence yeah
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and they have none to try and obtain a
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court order to go to a judge and say
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this guy was alibi not near the scene he
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doesn't have the type of weapon that was
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used he doesn't have the type of car
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that was used
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you know that that starts to detract
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from your from your real hard suspicion
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if susan fassett didn't have sex with
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her husband or
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fred andros then she was having an
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affair with someone else
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which opens up a whole new pool of
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suspects for the police
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susan fassett's autopsy revealed she'd
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had
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sexual relations within two days of her
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murder
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dna from that encounter did not match
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her husband jeff
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so who was it her former lover fred
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andros denied it was him although
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he refused to provide a dna sample
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we knew it wasn't jeff and we're
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thinking it had to be fred
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who else would it be because we
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absolutely could find nobody
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else that was involved with susan that
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would have had sex with her a couple of
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days before the murder
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so detective art boycott called andros
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and set a trap i told him i'd bring him
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up some lunch
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um he said sure that's great i uh
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brought him hamburger french fries and a
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drink
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and right after we got in the car and
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started talking i said here's your lunch
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fred here's your drink here's your
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your hamburger and fries but andro said
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he wasn't hungry
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and didn't touch anything he was in the
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middle of the day
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lunchtime the sun was coming in through
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the car he had a flannel jacket on
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i cranked up the heat hoping to uh
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kind of sweat it out of them the car got
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hotter and hotter
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but andro still wouldn't touch anything
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so i cranked up the heat more and so he
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went ahead and took a drink
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and once he took the sip out of that
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straw i knew i had what i wanted
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essentially fred is handing over his dna
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tests confirmed that fred andros's dna
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matched the dna taken during susan
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fassett's autopsy
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within 48 hours of her death he had had
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social relations with her
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he had told us that he hadn't seen her
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in a month
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that's a big lie it was like a bomb
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going off that was something that fred
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you know deliberately hid
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and we wanted to know the good reason
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why when
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faced with the forensic evidence andros
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had no choice but to admit he lied
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but he claimed he did it to protect the
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killer
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during the course of that interview
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after a time fred andrews had offered up
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the name dawn silvernail
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as a possibility of the one who had
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committed this murder
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fifty-year-old dawn silvernail was a
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state
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employee with no criminal record and was
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married with one grown son
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she's a housewife she's got a college
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education
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she works with the disabled she's got a
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great reputation she's never ever been
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in trouble
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andros told police he was having an
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affair with dawn silvernail
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at the same time he was having an affair
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with susan
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fassett in fact he said the three of
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them
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had five or six sexual encounters
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together
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i told him i'd never done anything like
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that before and
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i went to the house and she was there
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and he introduced me to her
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and we talked for a few minutes and then
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we went upstairs and we
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[Music]
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engaged in a three some with the three
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of us there that lasted maybe half an
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hour
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fred would videotape susan and dawn
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having sex
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and then fred would be involved in the
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threesome between them
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fred andros suspected that dawn
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silvernail and susan fassett
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started seeing one another alone and
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perhaps had a lover's quarrel
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dawn denied it i never had any contact
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with susan fassett unless fred
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called me and set it up and we met with
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fred in fred's presence
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i never had any independent contact of
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any type with susan ever
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dawn also denied having anything to do
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with susan's murder
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saying she had no motive to harm her
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she was so calm so cool so cooperative
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that
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we had to think geez maybe not maybe
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maybe she's not involved in this thing
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a background check showed dawn owned
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a 45-caliber handgun like the one used
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in susan's murder she also had a vehicle
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registered
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to her that fit the general description
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of the vehicle seen leaving the scene
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but ballistic tests reveal susan's gun
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did not match the striations in the
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bullets used
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in susan's murder it looked as if the
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gun
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had been tampered with up until that
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point my career
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i've never seen that where the rifling
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has been totally removed out of a weapon
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it was incapable of being compared to
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any projectiles that we had found at the
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scene
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if fred or dawn silvernail were involved
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in susan
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fassett's murder police still had no
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evidence to prove it
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dawn silvernail admitted she'd had
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sexual threesomes
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with susan fassett and fred andros but
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denied
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any involvement in susan's murder
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dawn's 45-caliber weapon didn't match
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the bullets used in susan's murder
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but her neighbors told police some
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interesting news
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they said that dawn and her husband
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would often fire their guns
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in the back of their property using the
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trees for
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target practice investigators
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immediately converged on the area
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looking for bullets we had to go back in
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time
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and find a bullet that had passed
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through that barrel
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before it had been destroyed they
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recovered dozens of damaged bullets
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one had distinct striations on the
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bottom
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i was able to make a match to the
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homicide projectiles from susan fassett
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for a positive identification that
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indeed dawn silvernails
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45 ruger was involved in this case
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dawn silvernail was confronted with the
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evidence
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she kind of hung her head and then said
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three times that i shot that poor woman
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i had rolled down the window
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[Music]
00:15:30
and when she reached up to face in her
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seat belt
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i pulled the gun up and i fired
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and i shot her
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but why dawn said
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fred andros wanted revenge against susan
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for ending their affair given fred's ego
00:15:53
nobody was going to say no to fred
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nobody would
00:15:57
break up with fred but why did dawn
00:16:00
silvernail do it
00:16:02
dawn says andros loaned her more than 15
00:16:05
000
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over the 20 years they'd known one
00:16:07
another instead
00:16:09
of paying him back andros asked her to
00:16:12
murder
00:16:12
susan to erase the debt
00:16:16
andros basically said she had no choice
00:16:21
he threatened my entire family and told
00:16:24
me
00:16:24
that if i wouldn't take care of this
00:16:25
problem with susan for him
00:16:27
that something would happen to somebody
00:16:29
that i loved
00:16:30
to find out if dawn silvernail's version
00:16:33
was true
00:16:34
investigators used a new tool called
00:16:37
webtas
00:16:38
webtas stands for the web-enabled
00:16:40
temporal analysis system
00:16:41
and it's a system developed specifically
00:16:43
for the military and department of
00:16:45
defense
00:16:46
to assist with information analysis
00:16:48
against their different databases
00:16:50
webtask collates information from cell
00:16:53
phones
00:16:54
pagers emails and easy pass trips
00:16:58
investigators compared all this data
00:17:01
from the three main people in this case
00:17:04
susan fassett dawn silvernail
00:17:07
and fred andros the majority of those
00:17:09
communications were from fred to dawn
00:17:11
and what that indicated to us was in
00:17:13
fact that fred was not only planning
00:17:15
some activity
00:17:16
but also preparing a conspiracy the
00:17:19
evidence
00:17:20
corroborated dawn's story
00:17:23
the records reveal that within 15 or 20
00:17:26
minutes of the time that she killed
00:17:28
susan she stopped at a pay phone and
00:17:31
paged
00:17:32
mr andros to signal him that it had been
00:17:34
done
00:17:35
if you accept what fred andrews says
00:17:37
that this is dawn silvernail with her
00:17:39
own motive
00:17:40
and her own motivation his story doesn't
00:17:42
make sense
00:17:43
that she would stop and of all people
00:17:46
simply dial a pay phone and page him
00:17:49
and signal him the only person
00:17:53
that she would do that for is a person
00:17:55
who was involved and new
00:17:58
at fred andros's direction dawn
00:18:02
went to the united methodist church on
00:18:04
the night of choir practice
00:18:07
she parked next to susan's car
00:18:10
and waited
00:18:21
when susan got into her car to go home
00:18:24
dawn fired
00:18:25
five shots
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and sped away
00:18:35
[Music]
00:18:41
dawn told investigators she left the
00:18:44
murder weapon and phony license plates
00:18:46
in a pre-arranged spot
00:18:49
computer forensics revealed that dawn
00:18:52
used a payphone to leave a message on
00:18:54
fred's pager
00:18:55
20 minutes after the murder to signal
00:18:58
the assignment was done
00:19:00
later fred collected the evidence
00:19:03
altered the gun's ballistics
00:19:05
and returned the gun to dawn
00:19:09
no one knows why susan fassett met with
00:19:11
fred andro
00:19:12
shortly before her murder but for fred
00:19:15
andros
00:19:16
his behavior was particularly appalling
00:19:20
he looked in her eyes knowing that she
00:19:22
was going to be dead within 48 hours
00:19:24
and that speaks to the character of fred
00:19:26
andrews he was
00:19:28
a mean-spirited prick if there is such
00:19:30
thing as a napoleonic complex
00:19:32
he had it when police went to arrest
00:19:35
fred andros
00:19:36
he was waiting for them and they go into
00:19:40
his house
00:19:41
investigators walking up the stairs and
00:19:42
pow here's a gun shot
00:19:45
but fred survived the self-inflicted
00:19:48
gunshot in his face
00:19:50
i think that it's fitting that he wasn't
00:19:52
able to do it that he
00:19:54
only deformed himself and in turn
00:19:57
was arrested and was forced to go to
00:20:01
trial
00:20:02
fred andros was tried and convicted of
00:20:05
second-degree
00:20:06
murder and first-class conspiracy
00:20:09
he was sentenced to 25 years to life in
00:20:12
prison
00:20:13
he died of a heart attack after serving
00:20:15
only a few
00:20:16
years of his sentence it's entirely
00:20:19
appropriate that
00:20:21
he died in prison and is burning in hell
00:20:23
dawn
00:20:24
silvernail was tried and convicted of
00:20:27
second-degree murder
00:20:29
and was sentenced to a minimum of 18
00:20:32
years in prison gullible
00:20:34
naive she falls for it believes it and
00:20:37
in the end
00:20:38
she's a murderer she's a convicted
00:20:40
murderer
00:20:41
scary person people look at me like i'm
00:20:44
a monster and
00:20:45
maybe i am i don't know maybe i am
00:20:48
but i'm a monster who's filled with
00:20:52
remorse
00:20:54
and i feel
00:20:58
for the people i hurt when i did allowed
00:21:00
this man to
00:21:01
manipulate me into doing what i did
00:21:04
everybody had a part in this and every
00:21:06
lead was just tenaciously followed
00:21:09
every item of evidence was collected and
00:21:10
tested and
00:21:12
it's just nice when the puzzle fits
00:21:13
together in the end
