00:00:07
for 12 long years the murder of a young
00:00:10
Hospital worker went
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unsolved police had their suspicions but
00:00:15
little proof but an old used tissue told
00:00:19
a story far better than any eyewitness
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[Music]
00:00:36
[Applause]
00:00:37
[Music]
00:00:49
[Music]
00:00:51
from the moment she was born Laura win
00:00:55
was fighting the
00:00:56
odds she weighed 1B and 14 o es 3 months
00:01:02
premature but she was so determined to
00:01:05
live that she made it and and they took
00:01:08
her home and she was blind in one eye
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from the incubator at that time and she
00:01:15
also had a Paralysis on her right side
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as Laura grew up in Popper Bluff
00:01:23
Missouri she slowly overcame these
00:01:26
physical challenges and emerged as a
00:01:29
gifted student
00:01:30
she worked that paralysis nearly
00:01:32
completely out and she never let that
00:01:36
disability blindness ever hold her back
00:01:39
from her desires of what she wanted to
00:01:41
be and what she wanted to do Laura's
00:01:45
dream was to work in health care to help
00:01:48
others as she had been helped and she
00:01:52
achieved that by becoming a Hospital
00:01:54
pharmacy technician oh she's a
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sweetheart the people that she
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associated with there were pretty much
00:02:02
her friends and as well as the her
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co-workers
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uh nice girl nice girl Laura's friends
00:02:12
looked out for her professionally and
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personally and when she didn't show up
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for work one morning they called her
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mother so her mother said well I'll go
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down and check and see you know so the
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land lady opened the door and let her in
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and when she went in she found
00:02:31
Laura Laura had been murdered on her bed
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strangled with her stocking Laura's
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eyeglasses were on the living room couch
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without them she was literally
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blind it appeared she'd been attacked in
00:02:47
her living room and murdered in her
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bedroom this was a crime of power and
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control and she was hit in the head on
00:02:57
her Blind Side at first the motive
00:03:00
appeared to be robbery we discovered
00:03:02
that there were several items missing
00:03:04
from the apartment her purse her some of
00:03:08
her underwear some shoes some clothing
00:03:12
but there was no sign of forced entry
00:03:16
did that mean Laura knew her killer and
00:03:18
let him in the apartment in retracing
00:03:22
Laura's steps on the night of her murder
00:03:25
investigators discovered that she left
00:03:26
her job at the hospital around 6:30 then
00:03:30
went to her usual hangout a local bar
00:03:33
where she had a few drinks and talked
00:03:35
with
00:03:37
friends Laura's neighbor recalled seeing
00:03:40
her get out of her car and walk into her
00:03:43
apartment around
00:03:46
11:15 and Laura's neighbor remembered
00:03:49
something else he said that a man walked
00:03:52
up to Laura as she unlocked her
00:03:54
apartment door and walked in with her
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well he told me that reason why he
00:04:00
didn't call the police because he
00:04:01
thought that maybe she was just sneaking
00:04:03
a boyfriend in her
00:04:05
apartment but according to laur's
00:04:08
friends she had no current
00:04:11
boyfriend the neighbor described the man
00:04:13
as white medium height around 160 lb but
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he didn't see the man's
00:04:21
face unfortunately the description
00:04:25
matched about half the population of
00:04:28
Popper Bluff Missouri
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[Music]
00:04:43
Laura wi's autopsy yielded several
00:04:46
surprises a 2 and 1/2 in contusion over
00:04:50
Laura's right ear indicated she'd been
00:04:53
hit hard enough to incapacitate her what
00:04:57
would have caused it it was blunt trauma
00:05:00
something that didn't lacerate the skin
00:05:04
so it was probably a smooth surfaced
00:05:07
hard object but the cause of death was
00:05:11
strangulation and the amount of force
00:05:14
was excessive the ligature itself would
00:05:17
have done the job over a period of a few
00:05:20
minutes uh if that was the
00:05:22
intent but that wasn't good enough uh
00:05:26
the emotions got high enough that he had
00:05:28
to lay his hands on her neck back and
00:05:30
and squeeze and
00:05:31
Crush two
00:05:34
cartilages she had also been sexually
00:05:38
assaulted investigators found no foreign
00:05:41
fingerprints in Laura's
00:05:43
apartment but underneath Laura's body
00:05:45
was a clue a used paper
00:05:49
tissue there looked to be biological
00:05:52
evidence on the tissue unfortunately at
00:05:55
the time the sample was too small for
00:05:58
DNA testing
00:06:01
investigators also found two foreign
00:06:04
hairs in Laura's living room these were
00:06:07
sent to the lab and found to be pubic
00:06:09
haes of an
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African-American but this didn't match
00:06:14
the description given by the eyewitness
00:06:16
who said a Caucasian followed Laura into
00:06:20
her apartment if you know anything about
00:06:22
hairs hairs fall off of people all over
00:06:24
their body every day she also had a
00:06:26
friend who was an African-American who'd
00:06:28
been in her apartment and it helped her
00:06:30
ready her apartment when she moved
00:06:32
in police interviewed Laura's
00:06:35
African-American friend and he had an
00:06:38
airtight Alibi he was with friends on
00:06:40
the night of the
00:06:42
murder with no solid leads police turned
00:06:45
their attention to the bar Laura visited
00:06:48
before she returned
00:06:53
home when investigators questioned
00:06:55
patrons of the bar they learned that
00:06:58
Laura got into an argument with Sam
00:07:00
Freeman a 26-year-old veteran of the US
00:07:03
Army Laura had accused him of of
00:07:06
hustling these two young men playing
00:07:07
pool whatever happened wasn't something
00:07:11
that came to blows but there was a
00:07:12
disagreement over a pool game and Laura
00:07:15
had confronted him Candice Shipman was
00:07:18
working the bar that night she said the
00:07:21
altercation was minor just got a little
00:07:24
loud then they quit and it seemed okay
00:07:28
you know normal stuff that would happen
00:07:30
in a bar several bar patrons said
00:07:33
Freeman left the bar about 20 minutes
00:07:35
before Laura
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did and his parents said he came home a
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short time later and stayed there the
00:07:43
rest of the night investigators also
00:07:47
discovered there was another man in the
00:07:49
bar that night Laura's ex-boyfriend
00:07:52
Robert
00:07:53
mcwain she loved him she was head over
00:07:56
heels in love with him she was just
00:07:59
spitten he could do no wrong you know
00:08:03
and it was an on again off again
00:08:05
relationship friend said Laura hoped to
00:08:08
marry Robert but he wasn't interested
00:08:11
main said he went directly home from the
00:08:14
bar on the night of the murder and
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family members backed up his Alibi he
00:08:19
stayed there at the house the rest of
00:08:21
the night never left and his mother and
00:08:24
sister were there also at that time
00:08:26
police now were at a dead end
00:08:30
no one else at the bar that night
00:08:32
matched the general description of the
00:08:34
man presumed to be the killer it was a
00:08:38
hurt
00:08:39
that there was just no closure to it
00:08:43
because we just kept thinking someone's
00:08:46
out there and we just don't know who it
00:08:48
is a and not only that but it was the
00:08:52
hurt of losing her and giving her up
00:08:55
when she was such a worthwhile person
00:08:58
and and she was so good good to
00:09:00
everybody and we just couldn't see any
00:09:03
sense in
00:09:04
it months passed then years and Laura's
00:09:09
family lost hope that her killer would
00:09:12
ever be brought to
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[Music]
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Justice when Clifford Maris turned in
00:09:24
his badge after a 35-year career one
00:09:28
case haunted him him the brutal murder
00:09:31
of Laura win that had gone unsolved for
00:09:35
12 years on his last day on the job he
00:09:39
handed the case File to one of his most
00:09:41
trusted colleagues detective Tim
00:09:44
Davis I asked him to look into it again
00:09:48
I know he's a good forensic man and told
00:09:52
him to go ahead and reinvestigate that
00:09:55
and see if he couldn't come up with
00:09:56
something and Davis did just that
00:09:59
looking for anything that could be
00:10:02
reinvestigated it was never a closed
00:10:04
case up to that point all the proper
00:10:08
things that needed to be done were done
00:10:11
detective Davis decided to go back and
00:10:14
rein everyone who was in the bar with
00:10:16
Laura win on the night she was
00:10:19
murdered and his interview with Candace
00:10:22
Shipman who was bartending that night
00:10:24
provided an important lead she informed
00:10:28
me some things then that she thought was
00:10:30
pertinent to the case that she wanted to
00:10:33
share Chipman said there was more going
00:10:36
on between Laura and Sam Freeman that
00:10:39
night than just an argument about the
00:10:41
pool game Sam flirted with Laura he
00:10:46
tried for her affections she just didn't
00:10:49
didn't seem interested at all in Sam so
00:10:52
I think there was little jealousy she
00:10:55
just put him in his
00:10:57
place and Shipman recalled something
00:11:00
else that night that she never forgot
00:11:04
she remembered that Sam Freeman was
00:11:06
drinking an Italian Lor
00:11:09
gallano he collected bottles odd-shaped
00:11:12
bottles when she poured the last shot of
00:11:14
gallano he asked her for the bottle
00:11:16
because it's a very unusually odd-shaped
00:11:18
bottle and she gave it to him thought
00:11:21
nothing of it and handed him the empty
00:11:24
bottle of gallano witnesses recalled
00:11:27
seeing Freeman leave the bar that night
00:11:29
night with the gallano
00:11:32
bottle this was significant because of
00:11:35
the wounds on Laura's head just a
00:11:38
pattern that was consistent with the
00:11:41
size and shape of that bottle and that
00:11:44
wasn't all 8 years after Laura's murder
00:11:49
there was another incident at the same
00:11:51
bar involving Sam Freeman and a gallano
00:11:56
bottle Candace Shipman was again the
00:12:00
bartender and Sam Freeman came in
00:12:03
ordered some gallano and chose a song
00:12:06
from the Juke Box he was sitting at the
00:12:10
bar and staring me right in the eyes
00:12:14
singing oh only you know and I know hair
00:12:17
stood up on my you know all over my
00:12:22
[Music]
00:12:24
body she was sure Freeman was trying to
00:12:28
tell her something with singing the song
00:12:32
Only You know and I know and staring me
00:12:34
down I was
00:12:36
convinced I was convinced that he had
00:12:38
gotten away with murder and and was
00:12:40
flaunting it in front of
00:12:42
me now 12 years later Freeman was
00:12:46
married with two children and worked as
00:12:48
a supply sergeant for the National Guard
00:12:51
he was even attempting to run for city
00:12:55
council I thought well that all was a
00:12:58
bit braz
00:13:00
with the way I felt and the things I
00:13:03
knew with a warrant investigators found
00:13:07
a gallano bottle in Freeman's home
00:13:10
Freeman said this bottle was a recent
00:13:13
addition to his collection not the one
00:13:15
given to him by the bartender on the
00:13:17
night Laura was murdered but police
00:13:21
confiscated It
00:13:23
Anyway apparently Freeman filled the
00:13:27
bottle with colored water for display
00:13:30
purposes but he didn't fill it to the
00:13:33
very
00:13:34
top A lab technician swabbed the entire
00:13:38
bottle and on the inside near the top
00:13:43
was a microscopic
00:13:44
stain a phenol phine test indicated this
00:13:49
was human blood but after 12 years it
00:13:53
had degraded there was not enough to do
00:13:56
a DNA profile on
00:13:59
but why was human blood inside the
00:14:04
bottle investigators were determined to
00:14:07
find
00:14:11
[Music]
00:14:16
out when human blood was discovered
00:14:19
inside the gallano bottle in Sam
00:14:21
Freeman's apartment investigators
00:14:24
suspected he was responsible for Laura
00:14:28
win's murder
00:14:31
according to Witnesses Sam Freeman and
00:14:34
Laura win argued on the night of her
00:14:37
murder Laura accused Sam of hustling
00:14:40
some young boys in a game of
00:14:42
pool afterwards Freeman had a few more
00:14:46
drinks and asked the bartender if he
00:14:48
could have the empty gallano bottle for
00:14:50
his
00:14:54
collection at
00:14:55
10:45 the bartender announced that it
00:14:58
was was the last call for drinks because
00:15:01
the bar was closing at 11:00 p.m.
00:15:04
according to Witnesses that's when Sam
00:15:07
Freeman left the bar with the gallano
00:15:09
bottle since he knew Laura would have to
00:15:11
leave at closing
00:15:14
time Laura lived only a short distance
00:15:17
from the bar and when she got home
00:15:19
around
00:15:20
11:15 prosecutors believe that it was
00:15:24
Freeman who forced her inside and struck
00:15:27
her in the head with the gallano
00:15:30
bottle he then took her into the bedroom
00:15:34
assaulted her then strangled her to
00:15:37
death with her own
00:15:39
[Music]
00:15:44
stocking the evidence suggests he used a
00:15:47
tissue to blow his nose but left it near
00:15:51
Laura's body he then stole some items
00:15:54
and
00:15:57
fled that was the prose ution Theory
00:16:00
anyway the problem was they had little
00:16:03
in the way of forensic evidence I'm a
00:16:06
worrier everybody that knows me I'll
00:16:08
tell you I worry about every single case
00:16:10
I never am a prosecutor who walks in and
00:16:13
says this is a sure thing slam dog so
00:16:16
investigators wanted to know whether any
00:16:18
of the evidence contained DNA that was
00:16:21
too small to be tested when the crime
00:16:23
occurred 12 years earlier there has to
00:16:27
be some type of skin cells embedded in
00:16:30
these nylons unless the suspect wore
00:16:34
gloves the knot was chosen as part of
00:16:38
the DNA analysis because I thought that
00:16:43
there could be a chance that he could
00:16:44
have touched the knot while he was tying
00:16:46
the
00:16:47
knot DNA specialist Jason woff swabbed
00:16:51
the stocking looking for any of those
00:16:54
skin cells the swabs were treated with a
00:16:58
solvent to free possible DNA and then
00:17:02
replicated so the sample was large
00:17:04
enough for DNA
00:17:06
testing just as they suspected they
00:17:09
found a DNA sample I noticed that the
00:17:13
profile was characteristic of a mixture
00:17:15
of at least two individuals and the
00:17:18
mixture had male and female gender
00:17:20
characteristics the female DNA was that
00:17:24
of Laura win the source of the M's DNA
00:17:27
was not yet known
00:17:30
woff analyzed the paper tissue found
00:17:34
underneath Laura's body with an
00:17:36
alternative light source which revealed
00:17:39
a bodily fluid possibly
00:17:43
mucus he then cut a tiny piece of tissue
00:17:47
and put it into a detergent that
00:17:49
dissolved everything but the complex
00:17:53
molecules a PCR DNA analysis once again
00:17:58
provided useful
00:18:00
information the majority of the DNA
00:18:02
appeared to have male gender
00:18:05
characteristics the last step was to
00:18:08
collect a DNA sample from Sam Freeman
00:18:11
when we first informed Mr Freeman of why
00:18:14
we were there and who we were it was
00:18:16
like at that instance he had just went
00:18:19
into shock I had a shocked look on his
00:18:22
face his
00:18:23
demeanor totally changed uh that I
00:18:27
couldn't describe only the other is U
00:18:30
maybe the face of fear before taking his
00:18:33
DNA sample investigators asked Freeman
00:18:36
if he had ever been inside Laura wi's
00:18:39
apartment did you ever date her had you
00:18:42
ever had sex with her had you ever
00:18:44
kissed her did you know where she lived
00:18:47
he stated no no no to all these
00:18:51
questions but the DNA from Sam Freeman's
00:18:55
saliva sample matched the skin cells on
00:18:58
on the ligature and the mucus on the
00:19:03
tissue I would expect the profile from
00:19:07
the tissue that had male gender
00:19:09
characteristics to show up once in every
00:19:11
6.131 quadrillion people tested in the
00:19:14
Caucasian population the only way
00:19:17
possible that Sam Freeman's DNA could
00:19:19
have been at the scene in the home was
00:19:22
the fact that Sam freman was there and
00:19:25
was the
00:19:27
killer after 12 long years in September
00:19:30
of
00:19:31
2005 Sam Freeman was arrested and
00:19:35
charged with Laura win's
00:19:38
murder prosecutors believed the motive
00:19:41
was clear here she is this woman small
00:19:44
woman dressing him down in front of all
00:19:46
these guys and here he is Mr military Mr
00:19:49
Macho Man he wasn't going to put up with
00:19:52
it I think he was
00:19:54
embarrassed uh humiliated rejected
00:19:57
spurned and that this was a crime of
00:20:00
power and control and he got the
00:20:02
ultimate last say with war win with this
00:20:05
crime during the trial Freeman's defense
00:20:09
attorney pointed to the two foreign
00:20:11
hairs in Laura's apartment as proof that
00:20:13
someone else killed Laura and also
00:20:17
reminded the jury that the eyewitness's
00:20:20
description didn't match Freeman either
00:20:24
I mean they argued Reasonable Doubt
00:20:25
which is was a smart argument to make
00:20:28
but prose computers maintained that the
00:20:30
DNA evidence was concrete proof I think
00:20:35
what happened here was that Sam Freeman
00:20:37
didn't realize in 1992 he could leave a
00:20:40
piece of himself at the scene other than
00:20:42
Sean blood or fingerprints but he
00:20:45
did in September of 2006 the jury found
00:20:50
Sam Freeman guilty of first deegree
00:20:54
murder he was sentenced to life in
00:20:57
prison without per
00:21:00
I want people to have hope and never
00:21:03
give up never give up on justice that
00:21:06
someday it'll come about if it had not
00:21:09
been for the proper collection and
00:21:11
preservation it doesn't matter how much
00:21:13
someone does 13 14 years later an
00:21:16
investigation if you don't have the
00:21:18
evidence you don't have a case
00:21:22
[Music]
00:21:30
more
00:21:32
[Music]
00:21:50
[Music]
