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for years criminals used women's hosiery
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as a mask to hide their identities
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but today to a forensic scientist
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hosiery can be as valuable as a
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fingerprint
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because of its signature characteristics
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and textile science identified a killer
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when an eyewitness couldn't
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[Music]
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in the small midwestern town of heron
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illinois murder was like a virtual
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stranger
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it's so rare that police thought this
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9-1-1 call was a prank 9-1-1 emergency
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[Applause]
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police traced the call to a pay phone
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near the center of town
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just up the street
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was a dry cleaning store
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the front door was open
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and no one was there
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behind the counter was a purse with its
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content scattered all over the floor
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right at that moments when we
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thought there's something serious here
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in the back room
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behind a water heater
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police found a woman's body
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she had been beaten apparently
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with the bloody mop ringer nearby
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i checked her for a pulse she did not
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have one that i could locate
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the victim was identified as a store
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employee 40-year-old kathy woodhouse
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she was a married mother of three
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children
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she was my mom and you know she
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disciplined me and all those things but
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she was also my friend
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sorry
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i'm sorry guys
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outside the store police found a piece
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of pantyhose which the killer may have
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used as a disguise
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investigators wondered whether the man
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who made the 9-1-1 call was somehow
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involved we listened to this 9-1-1 call
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could he be a witness
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or
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was he the actual assailant of kathy
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woodhouse
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at a certain point in the investigation
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we were relatively certain that it was
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probably the killer
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a gas station attendant saw the man who
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made the call and described him as a
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caucasian about six feet tall
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police took the phone receiver to the
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forensics lab for testing
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at the dry cleaning store on the counter
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investigators found a check made out to
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the store in the amount of 14.30
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signed by one of the store's customers
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when police contacted the woman she said
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she was in the store that morning
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but no one was there
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she found her clothes wrote a check for
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the amount she owed and was about to
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leave when a man came out of the back
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room and asked if she needed help
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she told him at that point that she was
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there to get her cleaning she assumed
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that he was an employee there she had no
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reason to believe otherwise
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the witness described the man as 30 to
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35 years old six foot two inches tall
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and weighing over 200 pounds
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the police realized that she had come
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face to face with the killer
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[Music]
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a customer of the dry cleaning store
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said
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she got a good look at the man who was
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most likely
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kathy woodhouse's killer we were very
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excited in that we thought we did have a
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potential witness as to who the
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perpetrator may have been i also thought
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she very well may have been extremely
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lucky that things happened the way they
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did and she was not killed at that point
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in time
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police used her description to create a
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sketch
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which was distributed to the local media
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an autopsy revealed
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that kathy woodhouse died from blunt
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force trauma to the head
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she received three blows to the left
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side of her head because there was three
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separate lacerations to the left side of
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the head so that the
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mop ringer fit the bill as far as its
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weight its mass
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of the variety of surfaces and when you
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look at the mop ringer itself there was
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at least one part of the mop ringer
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metals which was bent
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she had also been sexually assaulted
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on unfortunately
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biological material collected from the
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rape test kit could not identify the
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killer's blood type because he was
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what's known as a non-secretor
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a non-secretor does not secrete their
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blood type into their secretions and
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approximately 20 percent of the
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population would fall into that class of
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being a non-secretor
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[Music]
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with little else to go on police turned
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their attention to the phone receiver
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used to make the 911 call
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the brushes that apply fingerprint
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powder
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can sometimes remove some of the
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fingerprint
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so technicians wanted to stabilize any
00:05:51
possible prince by using super glue
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fuming
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it's a little like putting chocolate
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over ice cream it creates a protective
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shell over any print
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the heated super glue adheres to any
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amino acids present
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then fingerprint powder is applied
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to better visualize the print
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technicians used a dye called aardrox
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the prints that have soaked up the
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ardrock's will appear a yellowish color
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and then we can photograph those using
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specialized
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film and
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the end result is we have a print
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potentially that we would not have
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without using that dye stain
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and under an ultraviolet light
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investigators found what they were
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looking for
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a clear print once i told them the news
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i could hear
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other officers in the background and
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there was definitely a level of
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excitement that
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he hadn't heard for a while with this
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case
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but was this the print of the killer
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after all in any given week
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hundreds of people use a pay phone
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unfortunately the print did not match
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any known criminal offenders who had
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prints on file there were times that we
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became frustrated yes
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but we still weren't going to give up in
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the event that this individual was still
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here because we had to get him off the
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street so he wouldn't strike again
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then police got a valuable tip
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a friend of the murder victim came
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forward with a startling piece of
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information the day before kathy was
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killed she received a telephone call
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from someone wanting to know what color
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of toenail polish that she wore
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and when the police got the lead
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they went and got all the telephone
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records uh
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from the calls coming into the cleaners
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on that day
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according to the phone records there
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were only a few calls made to the store
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that night
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one came from a man who lived in the
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town of ziegler several miles away
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officers thought at that time with it
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being a sex crime the type of call that
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they made that
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this is this is probably our guy
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the man a 25 year old construction
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worker at first denied making the call
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we confronted him with a statement
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concerning the
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color of the toenails and
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he immediately you could tell on his
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expression that he was the one who made
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the calls
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the man eventually admitted that he
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called kathy woodhouse but said he meant
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no harm
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he stated that he did those type of
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calls a couple times a month he was very
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nervous about that which is
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understandable
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he said he knew kathy because he was a
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customer of the dry cleaning store but
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insisted he had nothing to do with her
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murder
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but investigators weren't so sure
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police investigating the murder of kathy
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woodhouse were worried
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it looked like the attack was random
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something that just it literally scares
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people to death they're not accustomed
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to this type of crime
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we truly feared that he would
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possibly strike again and kill another
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woman
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and it was basically a race against time
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police thought they had their killer
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when they found a construction worker
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who made an obscene telephone call to
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kathy woodhouse on the night before the
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murder
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but he said he had an alibi that he was
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teaching a class at a local community
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college on the morning of the murder
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we were able to confirm his alibi for
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where he was at that followed the
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morning of the homicide
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and was able to rule him out
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then
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police got another tip the police
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received an anonymous telephone call
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that they should check out a paul taylor
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who lived on 16th street in herron as a
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possible suspect in the kathy woodhouse
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murder and rape he had recently in
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december just been released from
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louisiana prison for aggravated sexual
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assault
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that's all the callers said and they
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hung up
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taylor
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only 20 years old
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lived with his mother just two blocks
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from where the murder took place
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and police learned that taylor worked at
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a fast food restaurant that used the dry
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cleaner to launder the employees
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uniforms
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investigators called the manager and
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asked if taylor was the one who took the
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clothes to the dry cleaners they said no
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paul taylor would not have brought the
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clothing over there however
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he just he just quit his job 15 minutes
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going planning on going to louisiana
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police rushed to paul taylor's house
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and when they arrived paul taylor told
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them that
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he had just gotten home from work
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one of the officers confronted him with
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the fact that
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you didn't just get home from work
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manager just told us you went over there
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and quit your job that you were going
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back to louisiana
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when questioned
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taylor denied any involvement in the
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murder
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taylor's grandmother provided an alibi
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she said
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paul was at home that morning
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and taylor bore no resemblance to the
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description given by the eyewitness he
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came across very believable
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when asked questions like
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what should happen to someone that
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killed kathy woodhouse his response was
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brian
00:11:39
do you think that individual should get
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a second chance
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his response to that was no there should
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be no second chance
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on a hunch police asked taylor if they
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could search his home
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he agreed
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while doing the search i lifted up the
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mattress on his bed
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and immediately saw a pair of women's
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pantyhose with one leg missing laying on
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top of two pornographic magazines
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then police remembered
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the piece of pantyhose they found on the
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ground outside the dry-cleaning store
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was it possible it was cut from the pier
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found
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in taylor's home
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it really raised my curiosity because
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now i've seen some physical evidence
00:12:24
that may connect him with the crime
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scene
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police sent both pieces to forensic
00:12:29
microscopist glenn shubert the first
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exam i did physically then was to try
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and match up the edges in what we call a
00:12:37
physical match
00:12:39
but the ends were too frayed for any
00:12:41
sort of comparison
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but under a microscope
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schubert was able to find
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similarities
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i was able to determine that they were
00:12:51
both a similar knit
00:12:53
jersey stitch knit pattern
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next using high magnification schubert
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found another striking similarity
00:13:02
both pieces contained some unique
00:13:05
chemical properties
00:13:07
the titanium dioxide is the small little
00:13:09
dots that appeared in the microscope
00:13:12
those are just particles they put in
00:13:14
synthetic fibers to keep them from being
00:13:17
too shiny and in this particular case
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there was a moderate amount of the
00:13:21
titanium dioxide delusion particles in
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both samples
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to see if the colors were the same
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schubert turned to micro spectral
00:13:33
the spectra that i observed from these
00:13:36
fibers was very unique it had several
00:13:38
peaks which is a little unusual in
00:13:41
colored fibers so the fact that it had
00:13:44
several peaks that was very consistent
00:13:46
between two samples made this color
00:13:49
comparison very unique
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since they were both dyed the same color
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had the same amount of titanium dioxide
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and were the same knit pattern
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schubert made a definitive assessment we
00:14:04
knew that night that we had enough
00:14:06
evidence that would lead to his arrest
00:14:09
warrant
00:14:10
with our cutting edge technology here we
00:14:12
were able to come up with the results
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that prove that he was likely the
00:14:17
perpetrator of this crime
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finally
00:14:21
investigators compared taylor's
00:14:23
fingerprints to the print found on the
00:14:26
payphone
00:14:28
it was a match
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and the fingerprint evidence revealed
00:14:32
something else
00:14:34
investigators found paul taylor's left
00:14:37
palm print on a plastic garbage bag
00:14:40
found near kathy woodhouse's body
00:14:43
proof
00:14:44
he was in the back room of the dry
00:14:46
cleaning store on the day of the murder
00:14:50
forensic science proved what the
00:14:52
eyewitnesses couldn't
00:14:54
that paul taylor
00:14:56
had killed kathy woodhouse
00:15:00
as it turns out the witness was wrong in
00:15:02
all instances but one and that was the
00:15:05
height she had said the person was 30 to
00:15:08
35 years old ends up that he was 20.
00:15:11
she indicated he weighed 220 pounds
00:15:14
and he only weighed 170. but the truth
00:15:17
of the matter is that positive
00:15:19
identification
00:15:21
is oftentimes wrong
00:15:23
paul taylor was arrested as he was
00:15:26
leaving a rock concert with some friends
00:15:28
i have a funny feeling he knows it's
00:15:30
coming down
00:15:31
he's waving to us so
00:15:33
he's still in a good frame of mind
00:15:35
one finger though
00:15:38
police found his nonchalance alarming he
00:15:41
knew we were following him and he just
00:15:43
sort of made light of it uh he he was
00:15:45
not concerned did not seem very
00:15:47
concerned about it uh it was sort of a
00:15:50
big joke to him uh was the way it came
00:15:52
across to us
00:15:56
prosecutors are unsure whether paul
00:15:59
taylor walked into the dry-cleaning
00:16:01
store to commit robbery sexual assault
00:16:05
murder
00:16:06
or all of the above
00:16:08
it would be speculation on our part as
00:16:10
to whether he'd actually planned on
00:16:11
killing her or not
00:16:13
he didn't bring a weapon with him
00:16:15
however he did have
00:16:17
he did apparently have the stocking with
00:16:19
him
00:16:21
the evidence suggests taylor wore the
00:16:23
pantyhose over his head
00:16:25
as a disguise
00:16:27
he forced kathy woodhouse to the back
00:16:29
room of the store
00:16:31
and sexually assaulted her
00:16:34
[Music]
00:16:36
then he heard someone enter the store
00:16:41
it was a customer who found her dry
00:16:43
cleaning and wrote a check for the
00:16:45
amount she owed
00:16:50
taylor needed to make sure she didn't
00:16:51
look in the back room
00:16:54
so he removed the disguise walked out
00:16:56
and asked her if she needed help
00:16:59
afterwards
00:17:01
he may have realized kathy woodhouse
00:17:03
could identify him
00:17:05
so he killed her with the mop ringer
00:17:08
[Music]
00:17:14
he left his left palm print on a plastic
00:17:17
garbage bag
00:17:18
in the back room
00:17:20
then he took three dollars from kathy's
00:17:23
purse and left the store but
00:17:26
dropped the pantyhose outside
00:17:28
a few blocks away he called 9-1-1 and
00:17:32
left his fingerprint on the receiver
00:17:35
i can't tell you why paul taylor made
00:17:37
the 9-1-1 call
00:17:39
sometimes they'll do it to taunt the
00:17:40
police
00:17:41
to try to show them they can get by with
00:17:44
something
00:17:45
for the reaction that they may get
00:17:48
when faced with the forensic evidence
00:17:50
against him
00:17:52
paul taylor confessed
00:17:54
he did not hesitate much about telling
00:17:57
us that he did kill her he told her that
00:17:59
he was going to rob her
00:18:01
he stated that he did take three dollars
00:18:03
from her purse
00:18:05
but he first he denied having sexually
00:18:08
assaulted her
00:18:10
investigators discovered taylor was a
00:18:12
non-secretor
00:18:14
consistent with the biological samples
00:18:17
from the rape test kit
00:18:19
and they told taylor
00:18:21
they didn't believe him
00:18:23
at which point he looked down at the
00:18:24
floor for several seconds and then he
00:18:26
looked directly at me again and he said
00:18:27
i raped her
00:18:29
maybe he thought that murder was okay
00:18:31
but sexually sexual assault was not
00:18:35
i think he just tried to lessen the
00:18:37
severity of it when he first told us
00:18:39
that he'd murdered her
00:18:41
paul taylor was convicted of
00:18:43
first-degree murder and sentenced to
00:18:46
life in prison with no possibility of
00:18:49
parole
00:18:50
i'm glad to know he's going to be in
00:18:52
prison never going to get out and walk
00:18:54
the streets
00:18:56
and do something like this someone else
00:18:59
however i felt like he should have been
00:19:00
put to death for what he did
00:19:03
after the trial taylor has spoke to the
00:19:05
media about the crime
00:19:08
as far as
00:19:10
murdering her herself
00:19:13
i don't have any remorse
00:19:15
but
00:19:17
going along with her children
00:19:20
now i
00:19:21
i feel sorry about that you know but
00:19:23
that's all i can say you know i can't do
00:19:24
anything more
00:19:28
at the time like i said i wasn't
00:19:29
thinking about murder
00:19:31
so i i didn't think if she had children
00:19:34
i didn't know if she was married i
00:19:35
didn't know anything about that
00:19:37
to be honest i don't think about paul
00:19:39
taylor very much
00:19:40
[Music]
00:19:43
because i don't focus on my mom's death
00:19:45
i focus on her life more
00:19:48
and
00:19:50
so i guess the hardest part is just
00:19:52
being without her not being able to go
00:19:54
to the phone
00:19:55
you know tell her what's going on
00:19:58
not being able to come home to illinois
00:20:00
and
00:20:01
see her and you know just
00:20:04
all the fun things that we did and
00:20:05
enjoyed before
00:20:09
this was a case
00:20:10
where an eyewitness's description wasn't
00:20:13
nearly as accurate
00:20:15
as the forensic evidence
00:20:17
the forensic evidence in this case was
00:20:20
extremely important
00:20:21
without that i don't believe we would
00:20:23
have made it been able to make an arrest
00:20:25
on taylor
00:20:26
i doubt we would have got a confession
00:20:28
from him this case
00:20:30
is a classic example of
00:20:33
all the law enforcement community
00:20:35
working together from from from the
00:20:37
local police departments to the
00:20:38
sheriff's department to the state's
00:20:40
attorney's office to the crime lab i
00:20:43
think in my 20 years this is the most
00:20:45
obvious case of a situation where
00:20:48
without the forensic evidence we would
00:20:51
not have had the probable cause to
00:20:53
arrest paul taylor he very probably
00:20:56
would still be walking the streets and
00:20:58
there's absolutely no doubt in my mind
00:21:00
that he would have killed again
00:21:03
[Music]
00:21:13
[Music]
00:21:32
[Music]
00:21:41
you
