00:00:06
even though hunters wear bright orange
00:00:08
vests and hats
00:00:09
accidents still happen
00:00:12
the problem is trying to figure out
00:00:14
which shootings are accidents and which
00:00:16
are not
00:00:17
[Music]
00:00:19
in colorado investigators used forensic
00:00:22
metallurgy a piece of string and geology
00:00:25
to see whether one man's death was an
00:00:28
accident or murder
00:00:30
[Music]
00:00:39
[Music]
00:00:43
[Applause]
00:00:43
[Music]
00:00:57
[Music]
00:00:58
each year thousands of big game hunters
00:01:01
flocked to the ancampagre national park
00:01:03
in western colorado
00:01:06
elk
00:01:07
deer bear mountain lion
00:01:09
up in that area so it's it's kind of a
00:01:11
pretty area
00:01:13
very remote
00:01:15
on the second day of hunting season in
00:01:17
1995
00:01:20
doug kyle was relaxing in his camp when
00:01:22
he heard a woman screaming
00:01:25
she said she found her husband lying on
00:01:27
the ground near their camp he had been
00:01:30
shot in the chest
00:01:37
[Applause]
00:01:42
i could tell that you know he was
00:01:44
deceased and i looked at her and told
00:01:45
her i said ma'am i'm sorry i said but he
00:01:47
he's gone
00:01:48
the victim was 48 year old bruce dodson
00:01:53
his wife janiece said she went looking
00:01:55
for him when he didn't return to their
00:01:57
camp
00:01:58
right after this happened i was being
00:02:00
told anyway that it was a hunting
00:02:02
accident
00:02:02
[Music]
00:02:04
he's a man walking upright through grass
00:02:07
four inches tall
00:02:09
he's got a hunter orange cap on he's
00:02:11
carrying a rifle
00:02:13
the only thing that could have happened
00:02:16
in this world would have been a one in a
00:02:18
million chance
00:02:19
of somebody a canyon over shooting
00:02:23
at an animal and a stray bullet hitting
00:02:25
him
00:02:26
bruce's body was sent to the medical
00:02:28
examiner dr tom canfield for an autopsy
00:02:32
bruce worked for me he was a medical
00:02:34
technologist in the delta hospital and i
00:02:38
knew him very well both on a
00:02:39
professional and a personal level
00:02:42
the autopsy results were startling
00:02:45
bruce hadn't been shot once
00:02:48
but three times
00:02:50
well i was able to determine one that
00:02:51
they were distant ranged gunshot wounds
00:02:53
that is they were fired from a
00:02:55
significant distance
00:02:57
one shot was a superficial wound that
00:03:00
went through his hunting vest and grazed
00:03:03
his back
00:03:04
the wound that
00:03:06
went through his vest but did not cause
00:03:09
significant damage to him
00:03:12
probably was the
00:03:13
first shot
00:03:15
i believe he then took the vest off to
00:03:18
see what had happened
00:03:20
he would have turned in that direction
00:03:21
and probably yelled out of fear hey i'm
00:03:24
not a deer you know i'm not an elk hey
00:03:26
i'm over here yelling you know don't
00:03:28
shoot
00:03:29
bruce was shot a second time while
00:03:31
waving his vest in the air it entered
00:03:34
his chest and exited under his right arm
00:03:38
mr dawson may have tried to crawl away
00:03:42
when the last shot was fired
00:03:44
the third and fatal shot entered his
00:03:46
back in an upward trajectory and was
00:03:49
found in bruce's lung
00:03:51
it was badly deformed but by its size
00:03:54
identified as a 243 caliber round
00:03:59
the only landmark we really
00:04:02
had to go on was the base design
00:04:05
janiece dodson had been hunting on this
00:04:08
trip too
00:04:09
but this bullet did not come from her
00:04:11
rifle or bruce's
00:04:14
so it couldn't have been bruce's rifle
00:04:16
that killed him couldn't have been
00:04:17
denise's rifle that killed bruce dodson
00:04:21
but dr canfield was convinced the
00:04:23
shooting was no accident
00:04:26
i was able to conclude beyond a
00:04:28
reasonable doubt and with reasonable
00:04:29
medical certainty that bruce died from
00:04:31
multiple gunshot wounds and it was
00:04:33
clearly a homicide
00:04:39
the autopsy revealed
00:04:41
bruce dodson had been hit with three
00:04:43
shots
00:04:44
we didn't know if maybe we had
00:04:47
some maniac in the woods with a rifle
00:04:51
just randomly shooting someone
00:04:53
investigators found a clue in a fence
00:04:56
post near bruce's body
00:04:58
it was a fresh bullet hole
00:05:02
so they used a string to perform a
00:05:05
trajectory analysis
00:05:07
we began where the victim was located
00:05:10
at the approximate height of the wounds
00:05:13
and went back to the fence post
00:05:16
[Music]
00:05:19
and then continued
00:05:21
to
00:05:22
string that back toward the area that
00:05:24
the shot was fired
00:05:26
in a clump of bushes 80 yards in front
00:05:29
of the fence post
00:05:31
investigators found a 308 caliber shell
00:05:34
casing
00:05:37
to find the bullet that went through
00:05:39
bruce's chest
00:05:40
investigators searched the area in the
00:05:43
straight line path beyond where bruce
00:05:45
was standing
00:05:47
[Music]
00:05:49
with the metal detector
00:05:51
miraculously they found a 308 caliber
00:05:54
round
00:05:56
at the end of that string
00:05:58
was the bullet i mean it was a
00:06:02
stroke of luck
00:06:03
stroke a lock
00:06:05
this raised the possibility that there
00:06:08
were two shooters
00:06:10
since a 308 caliber round passed through
00:06:13
bruce's body and the 243 caliber round
00:06:16
killed him none of that forensic
00:06:18
evidence added up the analysis of the
00:06:20
bullet in bruce's body didn't match any
00:06:22
of the evidence that we had picked up at
00:06:24
the scene so far
00:06:25
neither bruce nor his wife janiece owned
00:06:28
a rifle capable of firing either caliber
00:06:31
round
00:06:33
a look into the victim's background
00:06:35
revealed that bruce dodson and janiece
00:06:37
had been married for only three months
00:06:41
bruce said that janiece
00:06:43
wanted to go on this hunting trip he
00:06:45
didn't really want to go
00:06:46
but to make her happy he
00:06:49
he agreed to go
00:06:51
family members were appalled at the way
00:06:53
janice behaved after bruce's death
00:06:57
she threw everything that my brother
00:06:58
owned away
00:07:00
had his dog put to sleep sold his horse
00:07:04
took his name off the mailbox like the
00:07:06
next day
00:07:08
even more alarming
00:07:10
was the fact that janiece's ex-husband
00:07:12
j.c lee was camping less than a mile
00:07:15
away from bruce and janiece at the time
00:07:18
of the murder
00:07:19
he was camped three quarters of a mile
00:07:22
from
00:07:22
the datsun camp where
00:07:25
john bruce dotson was murdered so he was
00:07:27
quite suspicious to us and we thought at
00:07:29
that point hey we need to look into this
00:07:31
guy
00:07:33
when interviewed lee said he owned a 308
00:07:37
caliber rifle that was stolen from his
00:07:39
camp the night before bruce was killed
00:07:42
so that was really suspicious to us is
00:07:45
uh you know the fact that
00:07:47
all of a sudden you know this man says i
00:07:49
had a 308 rifle stolen from my camp
00:07:52
while i was up there
00:07:54
but i didn't know it was stolen until i
00:07:56
got back to my apartment in utah
00:07:58
lee reported that some of his nosler
00:08:00
brand 308 caliber ammunition was also
00:08:03
stolen the same brand as the shell
00:08:05
casing found at the crime scene
00:08:08
so a lot of things started pointing
00:08:10
towards this guy j.c lee
00:08:13
jc lee and janiece had divorced because
00:08:16
lee started dating a friend of their
00:08:18
daughters
00:08:20
we thought that
00:08:22
j.c lee may have been jealous of janiece
00:08:24
recently marrying
00:08:26
bruce dodson maybe he wanted to get back
00:08:28
at janiece we couldn't link jc lee
00:08:32
to the datsun murder scene and we
00:08:34
couldn't link janiece dotson
00:08:37
to the ex-husband's camp three quarters
00:08:39
of a mile away
00:08:40
also suspicious
00:08:42
janiece had purchased three life
00:08:44
insurance policies on bruce shortly
00:08:47
before his death
00:08:49
she stood to gain almost 500 000 so
00:08:53
it's a lot of motive
00:08:56
and after the funeral
00:08:58
junice's behavior was
00:09:00
bizarre to say the least
00:09:03
one of his last requests was to be
00:09:05
cremated and to have his ashes scattered
00:09:07
in leadville colorado janiece had taken
00:09:11
bruce's
00:09:12
ashes
00:09:13
and as they approached leadville she
00:09:16
dumped him on the side of the road
00:09:18
and janiece told investigators she was
00:09:21
going to her cousin's home in east texas
00:09:23
to grieve
00:09:25
but investigators discovered she was
00:09:28
doing no such thing
00:09:29
we did a financial investigation on her
00:09:32
and we found that
00:09:34
several times
00:09:36
janice dodson's atm card was used
00:09:40
in lake charles louisiana at a casino
00:09:43
players club
00:09:44
so we're thinking well how can she be in
00:09:46
east texas grieving
00:09:47
and her atm cards being used in
00:09:49
louisiana at a gambling casino
00:09:52
and even more bizarre
00:09:54
not long after bruce was killed
00:09:56
janiece married husband number three
00:09:59
bart hall
00:10:01
bart hall nice guy
00:10:03
he said i felt so strong for janiece and
00:10:06
for her welfare
00:10:08
that after we got married i took out a
00:10:10
hundred thousand dollar life insurance
00:10:12
policy on myself
00:10:13
just to make sure if something happened
00:10:15
to me she was well taken care of with
00:10:17
that dave says you don't hunt do you
00:10:20
[Music]
00:10:24
denise dodson denied any involvement in
00:10:27
her husband bruce's murder
00:10:30
so did her ex-husband j.c lee who had an
00:10:34
alibi
00:10:35
his girlfriend and a co-worker confirmed
00:10:38
he was hunting with them at the time of
00:10:40
the murder
00:10:42
investigators searched the fields and
00:10:44
forests neared the crime scene for the
00:10:46
308 caliber rifle used in the murder but
00:10:50
found nothing we even cut down
00:10:52
vegetation in the area sagebrush
00:10:55
cleared a large area and looked visually
00:10:59
as well as with
00:11:00
metal detectors
00:11:02
they were hindered in their search
00:11:04
because the area is covered in snow for
00:11:07
almost half the year
00:11:09
for the next three summers
00:11:11
bill booth his partner dave martinez and
00:11:14
others camped in the uncompagre national
00:11:17
park and looked for the 308 rifle
00:11:21
on one of their trips booth and martinez
00:11:24
took along a member of necro search
00:11:27
international an organization of
00:11:29
volunteers who use new technologies to
00:11:32
find missing people and in this case
00:11:34
missing weapons
00:11:37
they were searching for the rifle in a
00:11:39
pond near jc lee's campsite
00:11:42
and it was at that time that we were at
00:11:45
the pond
00:11:46
near the ex-husband's camp
00:11:49
when
00:11:50
an individual from necrosearch
00:11:52
international
00:11:53
identified the lining
00:11:55
of this pond stock pond to be bent night
00:11:59
clay and he said boy that's very unusual
00:12:02
to have bent night clay
00:12:04
in the middle of the young compadre
00:12:05
national forest in a stock pond
00:12:08
and this
00:12:09
jogged their memory
00:12:11
they remembered that janiece dodson's
00:12:14
clothes had been covered in mud on the
00:12:17
day of her husband's murder
00:12:20
janiece's muddy clothing had been kept
00:12:22
in evidence for the past three years
00:12:25
[Music]
00:12:26
jacqueline battle scraped some of the
00:12:28
mud from the clothing
00:12:30
and ground it to a fine powder
00:12:35
battle sifted and weighed the samples
00:12:38
and then examined them under a
00:12:40
polarizing microscope
00:12:43
the mud from janiece's clothing
00:12:45
contained bentonite
00:12:48
bentonite is a clay-like material
00:12:51
comprised of minerals of aluminum
00:12:54
silicates
00:12:56
magnesium and iron oxides ranchers would
00:12:59
add bentonite as a sealant so that the
00:13:02
water would be retained in the watering
00:13:04
hole versus seeping through into the
00:13:07
ground
00:13:08
the bentonite on genesis clothing was
00:13:10
identical to the sample from the pond
00:13:13
behind her ex-husband's camp
00:13:17
battles examined mud samples from other
00:13:19
ponds in the national park but none
00:13:21
matched the mud from genesis clothing
00:13:25
so out of the samples that were
00:13:27
submitted from the three ponds and the
00:13:29
bog that night might not be common but
00:13:31
in this case
00:13:33
it was unique in that it was in only one
00:13:35
of the ponds that matched back up to the
00:13:38
soil that was recovered from her boots
00:13:41
we were ecstatic
00:13:42
because we're now able to show that she
00:13:44
was lying and we're now now able to show
00:13:46
her
00:13:47
in an area where the murder weapon was
00:13:49
stolen
00:13:51
to investigators
00:13:53
this was proof that janiece had stolen
00:13:56
her ex-husband's gun possibly in an
00:13:59
attempt to frame him
00:14:01
we were able to put
00:14:03
janiece dawson
00:14:05
at her ex-husband's camp
00:14:07
we couldn't put the ex-husband
00:14:09
at her camp
00:14:10
perhaps janiece
00:14:12
killed two birds with one stone jc lee
00:14:15
and john bruce dodson
00:14:18
we have no way of knowing what she had
00:14:20
planned for jc lee
00:14:22
personally i feel that
00:14:24
jc lee was going to be
00:14:26
the fall guy a patsy for janiece
00:14:29
investigators still had one question to
00:14:32
answer
00:14:34
they knew a 308 caliber round went
00:14:36
through bruce's body but a 243 caliber
00:14:40
round was found in his lung
00:14:43
where did this 243 caliber round come
00:14:46
from
00:14:48
this case is more twists and turns than
00:14:49
a snake
00:14:51
and it was just one thing after another
00:14:57
three years after bruce dodson's murder
00:15:00
investigators still didn't know why a
00:15:03
243 caliber round was found in his lung
00:15:06
when it appeared that a 308 caliber
00:15:09
rifle was used in the murder
00:15:12
while reading a gun and ammunition
00:15:15
magazine
00:15:16
bill booth discovered the answer
00:15:20
he saw an ad for the nostler brand 308
00:15:22
caliber bullet
00:15:25
it showed a picture of the small inner
00:15:27
core of the bullet
00:15:29
which looks surprisingly similar to the
00:15:31
bullet found in bruce dodson's lung
00:15:35
when i looked at the photograph of the
00:15:37
cutaway and remembering the
00:15:41
core that we had removed from bruce
00:15:43
dodson's lawn
00:15:44
it was the same
00:15:46
very similar the projectile that entered
00:15:49
the body was the bullet core
00:15:52
passing through an intervening object
00:15:55
very likely would have stripped off the
00:15:58
copper jacket
00:16:00
and only the core would have proceeded
00:16:02
from that area he has an epiphany i
00:16:04
think he said that's it he got up and
00:16:07
went down to a sporting goods store and
00:16:09
bought some of those bullets went home
00:16:11
took one out cut it open in his garage
00:16:14
and
00:16:15
that's got to be it
00:16:16
most lead bullets are made from recycled
00:16:19
car batteries which have numerous trace
00:16:21
elements
00:16:23
a forensic metallurgist at the fbi
00:16:26
analyzed the lead inner core of the
00:16:28
bullet from bruce dodson's body using
00:16:31
plasma atomic emission spectroscopy
00:16:35
it was compared to the 308 caliber round
00:16:39
found at the scene
00:16:41
so she tested for a certain number of i
00:16:43
think six or eight trace elements and
00:16:45
when you compare them
00:16:47
there was a match
00:16:49
which meant
00:16:50
both bullets were from the same batch
00:16:54
the odds
00:16:55
of a bullet from the same batch being in
00:16:57
the victim and being in the hillside
00:17:00
of not being fired at the same sequence
00:17:03
of shots the odds against that were just
00:17:05
astounding
00:17:07
prosecutors believe janiece dodson
00:17:10
planned her husband's murder almost from
00:17:12
the day they got married
00:17:15
and she chose a campsite just a short
00:17:18
distance away from where she knew her
00:17:21
ex-husband had camped every year for the
00:17:24
past 20 years
00:17:27
at some point
00:17:29
prosecutors say janiece quietly made her
00:17:32
way over to her ex-husband's campsite
00:17:35
wading through the mud in the pond so
00:17:38
she wouldn't be seen
00:17:41
while her ex-husband was away
00:17:43
she stole his remington 308 caliber
00:17:46
rifle and ammunition
00:17:49
but she never realized that the mud on
00:17:52
her boots and coveralls could tie her to
00:17:54
the robbery
00:17:57
the next day
00:17:59
janiece went hunting alone
00:18:01
and her husband was the prey
00:18:05
she hid in the bushes waiting for bruce
00:18:08
to walk by
00:18:10
and then she fired
00:18:13
the first shot only grazed him
00:18:16
in a panic bruce took off his vest and
00:18:18
waved to the shooter
00:18:20
the second shot entered his chest and
00:18:22
came out under his right arm and he fell
00:18:24
to the ground
00:18:25
the third shot struck the fence post
00:18:28
shearing off the outer core before it
00:18:30
hit and killed him
00:18:34
janiece inadvertently left one of the
00:18:36
308 shell casings behind
00:18:40
she got rid of the rifle somewhere in
00:18:42
the colorado wilderness before calling
00:18:45
for help
00:18:46
where she disposed of it
00:18:48
remains a mystery
00:18:50
if the suspect would have been a better
00:18:52
shot
00:18:54
and mr dodson would have been killed
00:18:56
with a single shot
00:18:58
it's possible that
00:19:00
this would never been investigated as a
00:19:02
homicide we wouldn't have been looking
00:19:04
for bullet fragments
00:19:07
we wouldn't have been looking for mud
00:19:08
analysis
00:19:10
prosecutors believe the motive was greed
00:19:14
i believe she married him with the
00:19:16
intent to beef up his finances and kill
00:19:18
him
00:19:20
that's about as cold-blooded as you can
00:19:22
get so she would have got revenge she
00:19:23
would have got rid of bruce dodson
00:19:25
obtained approximately five hundred
00:19:27
thousand dollars in worth
00:19:29
and also uh put pin the wrap on jc lee
00:19:33
to get even with him for leaving with
00:19:34
her daughter's girlfriend i think it was
00:19:36
a
00:19:37
excellent plan
00:19:39
that didn't work
00:19:41
five years after the death of her
00:19:43
husband
00:19:44
janiece dodson went on trial for his
00:19:47
murder we had forensic firearms evidence
00:19:50
forensic metallurgists
00:19:51
this case was built on forensics
00:19:54
the jury deliberated for three and a
00:19:56
half days
00:19:57
then found janiece dodson
00:20:00
guilty of first degree murder
00:20:03
she was sentenced to life in prison
00:20:05
without the possibility of parole when
00:20:07
the verdict came in in the courtroom my
00:20:09
legs turned a rubber
00:20:11
and all i can do today is and i never
00:20:13
got a chance
00:20:15
i wanted to thank the jury for all the
00:20:17
work they did
00:20:19
investigators and the forensic experts
00:20:22
who worked on the case
00:20:24
janice dodson was one step away from
00:20:27
committing
00:20:28
the perfect crime
00:20:31
denise
00:20:32
probably never thought that where she
00:20:34
walked
00:20:35
and picked up
00:20:37
soil on her boots and her clothing might
00:20:40
have played a key part in convicting her
00:20:42
bruce was never far from our thoughts
00:20:44
during this whole investigation
00:20:47
and i think he got some justice
00:20:51
it wasn't for forensics i could tell you
00:20:52
right now jenny stockson would be
00:20:54
walking the street she assassinated
00:20:56
bruce dodson he didn't have a chance i
00:20:58
wouldn't even call her a black widow
00:21:00
i would call her just a greedy assassin
00:21:03
[Music]
00:21:14
[Music]
00:21:26
[Applause]
00:21:32
[Music]
00:21:41
you
