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[Music]
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between 1985 and
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1988 18 transiens hitchhikers and
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prostitutes were choked sexually
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molested and left for dead in the desert
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mountains of
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California the only Witnesses the
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insects of the desert and they also
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turned out to be extremely important
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pieces of evidence
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[Music]
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[Music]
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the women who had been choked
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unconscious and sexually molested were
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all dumped and left for dead in the high
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desert mountains near San Diego
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California not all of the victims died
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and those who survived all described the
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same scenario several of them had their
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pants undone and pulled down bras were
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moved moved up exposing their breasts
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one lady had a nipple ring removed so we
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thought there would been there had been
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some sort of sexual activity but because
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they were unconscious we had no proof of
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it Betty bass was one of the victims see
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you to byebye she's had a history of
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mental problems and is currently
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homeless but she can vividly recall the
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night 8 years ago when she accepted a
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ride from a
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stranger after leaving this Motel on
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elone Boulevard hard she looked for a
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ride going towards Ramona
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California a man in a silver car pulled
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up and offered to take her part way I
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take you as far as El Centro good enough
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he had a clean car so I thought you know
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that's a pretty good guy pretty nice guy
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you know I just thought he was okay as
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they drove over the mountains the driver
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said he needed to pull off the highway
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to take a bathroom break
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a when the driver walked around the car
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he asked Betty to grabed something from
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the back seat as she did he wrapped his
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arm around her neck and choked her the
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last thing she remembers was losing
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Consciousness when she woke up she
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walked up this hill looking for help so
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I walked and I walked and I walked well
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I finally um crawl over this fence I
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crawled to the other side of the street
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some family came by and put me in there
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at mot home and ate me up a little bit
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and then they took me to the hospital
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the scene of the attack is right here in
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the dirt right by this little
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null the car tire track stopped back
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here a few feet and then you could see
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Footprints up into this area her
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clothing some of her clothing was found
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here police photographed the shoe and
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tire Prince and also recovered two
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Marlboro cigarette butts on Betty bass's
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shirt detectives noticed a tiny red
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carpet fiber this attack sounded
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identical to another in the same
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vicinity just one month earlier two
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young girls were hitchhiking together at
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a restaurant near the interstate
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highway a silver compact automobile
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pulled up and the middle-aged man
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offered them a
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ride where you girls gone we're heading
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to Tucson take you as far as El Centro
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sounds good me hey hop
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in it was a ride they'll never forget
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[Music]
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[Music]
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this is Sheriff's it was my friend he
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straggled her do you have any idea who
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he is the guy who picked this up his
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hiking this girl was fortunate she
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survived her attack and her friend whom
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she feared was dead was later found in
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the desert frightened but alive the
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victims all provided a similar
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description of their attacker he was
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about early 40s short hair blondish
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grayish color glasses that's how they
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all described him obviously these were
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people who were going to take rides from
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anyone but they many of them told us
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that they felt comfortable getting in
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the car with him and there were other
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similarities with all of these attacks
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the things he said to these women it was
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almost uh like he had a script it was
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almost the same type of scenario I can
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only take you 40 miles I'm only going to
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El Centro the type of people he was
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victimizing were the vulnerable people
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in society some people who were having
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mental problems uh drug addicts Street
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people hitchhikers police had a
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description of the suspect some tire
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tracks and shoe print evidence but
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little else a sexual predator was loose
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in the mountains of
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California San Diego's eloh home
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Boulevard where prostitutes run ways and
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transients have congregated for years
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the reason location it's close to a
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highway Entrance Ramp convenient for
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hitchhikers looking for a
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ride and it was here where many of the
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victims were picked up we had a series
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of live victims and we also had dead
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victims out there who we thought were
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part of the pattern we had what we
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thought was a pretty consistent pattern
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common Footprints common tire tracks
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same type of victims being victimized
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and certainly the same area where
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they're being picked up and jumped when
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detectives were called to sheep's head
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Mountain on July 21st 1988 they feared
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another in the series of Choke and dump
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cases this time the victim was dead and
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nuded from the waist down she was found
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laying on the road here this was more
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dug out at the time the the greaters
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come in here through every so often and
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she was in the more in the ditch type of
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thing the victim had been dead for quite
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some time her skin was brown and
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blistered from the Sun her legs and feet
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were covered with blood it appeared the
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victim was alive before falling into the
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ditch because impressions of her arms
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flailing were found in the dirt
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detectives noticed a blood trail and her
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bare Footprints leading almost a mile up
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the mountain at the top of the mountain
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detectives found a pair of shoes some
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clothing two sets of footprints and
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signs of a struggle the footprints LED
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detectives to a parking area where they
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noticed a tire track it looked as if a
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car had turned around before leaving the
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scene the victim's bare Footprints LED
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from the clearing into the brush somehow
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she gets herself out of this area and
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then comes back up and then finds her
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way down the main road on the body
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investigators discovered some tiny
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Clues hundreds of live wormlike
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creatures they were carefully collected
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and preserved then taken to the
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forensics lab for
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analysis was it possible these tiny
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insects could tell forensic scientists
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something about the victim's last
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moments alive or even when she was
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killed the autopsy revealed that the
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victim had probably been choked but
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strangulation wasn't the cause of death
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the cause of death was actually a
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laceration of the vagina uh the
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mechanism would have been blood loss
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from that laceration the victim was
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identified as Sandra swick a 43-year-old
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transient from Florida swick's body was
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found in the same general vicinity as
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many of the other choke and dump victims
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all were found the same distance from
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the interstate highway usually near a v
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in the road where the attacker could
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park without being seen by others
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detectives still didn't have a suspect
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but 3 months after swick's murder
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detectives got an unexpected break while
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patrolling in the mountains sheriff's
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deputy Larry Daly noticed a car driving
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out of a deserted Side Road and as I
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came around the bend here I could
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see the the car coming out daily turned
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onto the side road and saw a woman lying
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in the dirt unconscious but still alive
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I saw the victim uh laying on the ground
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pants down past her knees her shirt
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pulled up to her neck as if someone had
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choked her daily immediately called for
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an ambulance and put out a description
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of the car he saw driving from the scene
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after 3 years of frustration could this
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be the break investigators were hoping
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for
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after finding the body of an unconscious
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woman in the desert sheriff's deputy
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Larry Daly rushed to his vehicle and
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called for help I also called out the
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description of the vehicle that I saw
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coming down the road towards me a short
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time later this silver Honda was stopped
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by an officer who heard the call what I
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wanted to see was I wanted to see a
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monster I wanted to see this monstrous
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man maybe someone with three arms who
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came out and was abducting women and and
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and strangling them the driver was
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41-year-old Ronald Porter an automotive
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mechanic with a history of sexual
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offenses the woman found unconscious in
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the desert survived her attack and was
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able to identify Porter as her attacker
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Porter confessed to the attack but would
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not admit to any of the other attacks
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over the past 3 years investigators
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believed Porter was responsible and they
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also suspected that Porter had murdered
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Sandra swick 3 months earlier to find
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out if all these crimes were the work of
00:11:05
one individual San Diego authorities
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sought help from the FBI and their unit
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which specializes in studying serial
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murderers that another offender would
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choose to abduct the same type of victim
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bring it to the same type of location do
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the same types of Acts with them in the
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same locations almost exact locations it
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became pretty pretty evident to us that
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the probabilities favored it being one
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one person Larry anram identified the
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remote desert dump sites as the
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signature element of all of the
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crimes the attacker invested lots of
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time and effort into finding these
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remote
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locations another signature element was
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the type of women he chose he's making
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an assessment before he decides he's
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going to go ahead and ask her if she
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needs a ride and and when he's made that
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initial impression then once he's
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decided yeah I can control this victim
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um then she gets in the car and then it
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becomes somewhat of a game with him to
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get her where he wants wants to go the
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FBI was convinced that all of these
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crimes were indeed the work of the same
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individual The Next Step was for San
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Diego authorities to prove that Ronald
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Porter committed these crimes the carpet
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fibers in Porter's car were
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microscopically similar to the red
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carpet fiber found on the blouse of
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Betty bass tire tracks found at some of
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the crime scenes were similar to the
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print on the spare Michelin tire found
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in the trunk of Porter's car and when
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searching Porter's apartment police
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found shoes and boots with treadmarks
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consistent with those found at some of
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the choke and dump crime scenes a
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walkie-talkie discovered in Porter's
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storage shed belonged to a woman who was
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choked and dumped in the desert
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mountains a few years earlier and the
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blouse worn by that same victim
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contained a Seaman stain a DNA analysis
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of Ronald Porter's blood matched the
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Seaman stain from the blouse but despite
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all of this evidence prosecutors faced a
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major legal Problem by the time police
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arrested Ronald Porter the statute of
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limitations on most of these assault
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cases had run out if prosecutors were
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going to send Porter to jail for any
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length of time it would have to be for
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the murder of Sandra swick but the swick
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murder murder was their weakest case
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investigators found no seen no blood no
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hair or clothing fibers which could link
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Ronald Porter to the swick crime scene a
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tire track found at the Sandra swick
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attack site was too faint for analysis
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however some of the tennis shoe prints
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found at the swick crime scene were
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similar to a pair of tennis shoes found
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in Ronald Porter's apartment but
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Porter's attorney says a similar and a
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shoe print is inconclusive but 5 million
00:14:01
other people with similar shoes with
00:14:04
similar Treads could also have made the
00:14:06
print and the prosecution faced another
00:14:09
problem they weren't exactly sure when
00:14:12
Sandra swick was murdered time of death
00:14:15
determination by pathologist is a very
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inexact science if it's a science at all
00:14:20
um there are certain changes the body
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under goes and we can predict General
00:14:25
time frames for those but there's a lot
00:14:26
of different variables that uh affect it
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if prosecutors wanted to convict Ronald
00:14:33
Porter of murder they needed more could
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the tiny insects found on swick's body
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tell forensic scientists when Sandra
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swick died and tie Ronald Porter to her
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murder when detectives found Sandra
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swick's body on sheep's head Mountain it
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was badly
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decomposed the hot desert air and Sun
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had taken its toll and hundreds of tiny
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wormlike creatures were feeding on her
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decomposing flesh investigators wondered
00:15:06
if these tiny creatures might offer some
00:15:09
clues about when Sandra swick died
00:15:12
detectives collected about a hundred of
00:15:14
these creatures and sent them to the
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laboratory of David Faulkner he's a
00:15:19
forensic entomologist an expert on
00:15:21
insect activity on dead bodies they can
00:15:24
tell you lots about where they've been
00:15:27
where the victims been uh how old the
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victim is conditions of the body
00:15:31
following death and those are the things
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that are interesting fauler first task
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was to determine the age of these
00:15:38
creatures or maggots as they're called
00:15:41
so he preserved some in alcohol at the
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exact stage of development as when they
00:15:47
were found eventually the maggots would
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shrink and develop a hard shell and a
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week later emerge as a winged adult once
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fauler had an adult he could compare it
00:16:00
to the hundreds of different flies which
00:16:02
inhabit the California desert where
00:16:05
swick's body was
00:16:07
found after hours of study and Analysis
00:16:11
fauler identified them the Flies were
00:16:15
sarcophaga also known as flesh flies
00:16:19
other things this particular group of
00:16:21
flies uh will do is they'll fly in very
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bad weather so if it's foggy or rainy or
00:16:26
overcast they'll be active and they'll
00:16:29
be searching out a potential host uh
00:16:31
whereas other flies will probably settle
00:16:33
and wait until the sun comes out or till
00:16:35
it gets warmer once Faulkner knew they
00:16:38
were sarcophaga he could study the exact
00:16:41
time frame of their life cycle the
00:16:43
preserved specimens were in their third
00:16:45
or final stage of laral development once
00:16:48
you have them identified you know what
00:16:49
stage in development the most developed
00:16:51
ones are then you go backwards and say
00:16:54
okay this was the temperature regime at
00:16:56
that time this is how long this
00:16:58
particular insect takes to develop to
00:17:00
this stage therefore that body was
00:17:02
available to these insects for this
00:17:05
amount of time
00:17:07
usually that indicates how long the
00:17:09
person's been dead in normal weather
00:17:12
conditions it takes a week for the baby
00:17:14
maggots to develop to their third stage
00:17:17
but the weather conditions in the desert
00:17:19
are far from normal during the week
00:17:22
Sandra swick's body was discovered the
00:17:24
daytime temperatures average
00:17:26
92° in 92° weather it would take only 3
00:17:31
and A2 days for the freshly laid maggots
00:17:34
to develop to their third and final
00:17:36
stage and Faulkner was able to tell
00:17:40
investigators something else the
00:17:42
sarcophaga never deposit their maggots
00:17:45
in the dark they only do so in daylight
00:17:50
I'm going to Florida this meant that
00:17:52
Sandra swick was still alive when the
00:17:55
sun set on Sunday evening July 17th
00:17:59
but she was dead by Daybreak on Monday
00:18:01
morning July 18th at the first sign of
00:18:05
light these flesh flies were attracted
00:18:08
to the chemical scent of swick's
00:18:10
decomposing flesh and immediately laid
00:18:13
their maggots the maggots would not have
00:18:15
been as developed if she had been alive
00:18:17
longer if she had been alive Monday
00:18:20
afternoon uh Monday evening there's no
00:18:22
way that these flies under those
00:18:24
temperature conditions could have
00:18:26
developed to that stage Faulkner's
00:18:28
conclusions provided police with a
00:18:31
scientific time frame for swick's murder
00:18:34
now detectives could investigate Ronald
00:18:37
Porter's whereabouts during the time of
00:18:39
swick's death Porter worked as a
00:18:41
mechanic at this Automotive chain store
00:18:43
when his time sheets were subpoenaed
00:18:46
they revealed he was not at work on
00:18:47
Sunday July 17th in addition Porter
00:18:51
provided no alibi regarding his
00:18:54
whereabouts on that day and it matched
00:18:56
up uh we had a time period where Ron
00:18:59
Porter was available to drive from North
00:19:02
part of the County Down to pick up
00:19:04
Sandra swick and transporter to East
00:19:06
East County based on the insect Clues
00:19:09
and the similarities between the swick
00:19:11
murder and the other cases Ronald Porter
00:19:14
was charged in the murder of Sandra
00:19:16
swick prosecutors believe Ronald Porter
00:19:19
picked up swick as she hitch tied
00:19:21
somewhere near an entrance ramp to
00:19:23
Interstate
00:19:24
8 I'm going to Florida jump in I can
00:19:28
take you about 40 miles to El Centra
00:19:30
that'd be great how you doing good as
00:19:34
the car traveled East into the mountains
00:19:36
Porter pulled off the main Highway onto
00:19:39
a dark deserted
00:19:41
Road he may have used some excuse as he
00:19:44
did in other cases possibly the need to
00:19:46
take a bathroom break as he walked
00:19:48
around the back of the car he surprised
00:19:51
swick from
00:19:52
behind grabbing her around the neck in a
00:19:55
military type choke hold he pulled her
00:19:57
from the car and choked her until she
00:19:59
was
00:20:01
[Music]
00:20:05
unconscious he threw her to the ground
00:20:07
removed her clothes and sexually
00:20:10
assaulted her with his
00:20:11
[Music]
00:20:18
[Music]
00:20:24
hand he then returned to his car and
00:20:27
fled
00:20:32
sometime later swick regained
00:20:37
Consciousness dizzy disoriented and
00:20:40
bleeding heavily from the attack swick
00:20:43
walked Barefoot down the dark deserted
00:20:46
road walking almost a mile before
00:20:50
collapsing the blood trail was almost 1
00:20:53
mile long and she bled to death from
00:20:56
laceration suffered during the assault
00:20:59
her death had to be a tough one very
00:21:01
difficult long dying process that she
00:21:04
went through and the insect Clues were
00:21:07
able to provide detectives with the time
00:21:10
of death something they were unable to
00:21:13
determine by any other means find a
00:21:16
defendant Ronald Elliot Porter guilty of
00:21:20
the crime of murder Ronald Porter was
00:21:23
convicted of second deegree murder in
00:21:25
the death of Sandra swick and was
00:21:28
sentenced to 28 years to life in
00:21:31
prison Ronald Porter continues to
00:21:33
maintain his innocence the insect Clues
00:21:37
were an important element in their case
00:21:39
against Ronald Porter and they told
00:21:42
David Faulkner all he needed to know
00:21:45
about Sandra swick's brutal attack and
00:21:48
murder you get a lot of information from
00:21:50
him whether a body's been moved uh how
00:21:53
long the person's been dead or how long
00:21:55
the body has been available to Insects
00:21:58
uh whether the body's been buried
00:22:00
whether the person took drugs whether
00:22:02
they had been poisoned all these
00:22:03
different sorts of things uh uh could be
00:22:07
U uh in the insects that are collected
00:22:09
or removed from the body
00:22:12
[Music]
00:22:28
a
00:22:29
[Music]
