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it was one of the strangest cases in
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canadian history
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a squashed piece of fruit and a tiny
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pinpoint reflection in a picture was the
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only evidence
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but was it enough
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to catch a killer
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[Music]
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[Music]
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on june 19 1989
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there was a thunderstorm in collingwood
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ontario
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but the rain didn't stop 33 year old
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debbie timlock from venturing out that
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night
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she was a pretty vivacious woman that
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loved to ski and i had a sailboat in the
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harbor she liked to sail and
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she liked people
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debbie a single mother left her
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six-year-old daughter lacey at her
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parents home for the night
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debbie and a few of her friends went to
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a local restaurant where they visited
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with each other and it was later in the
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evening when debbie and her friends said
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goodbye to each other in the parking lot
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her friend said debbie left alone and
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presumably went straight home
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at 3 25 in the morning however
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she phoned police to report she had been
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attacked
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she indicated she had been assaulted i
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don't believe she was in total
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understanding of what had occurred she
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was struggling to stay conscious
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but by the time police arrived
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it was too late
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when i entered through the door of the
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apartment i could see that there was an
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unclosed female body laying on her back
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next to the couch
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beside her left arm which was
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outstretched was the handset of a
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telephone there was a great deal of
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blood on the floor
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it was like something like this couldn't
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happen you know it's a small town
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and why you know
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investigators followed the trail of
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blood through the hallway
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and found a pair of metal frame
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eyeglasses and a woman's shoe
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both covered in blood
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upon entering debbie timlock's bedroom
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we noticed
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blood on the waterbed blood on different
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articles of clothing and sheets as well
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as a comforter that were either on the
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bed or on the floor
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there was also blood stains and some
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blood spatter on a headboard of the bed
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investigators also found evidence of
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activity in the kitchen
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the kitchen was disheveled it appeared
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the entry was through the kitchen window
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which was a ground level apartment there
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had been some disturbing of dishes and
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and that type of thing that had been in
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the kitchen sink
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outside the kitchen window was an area
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partially hidden behind some greenery
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on the ground investigators noticed
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a tomato
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debbie timlock had a tomato on her
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windowsill ripening and the tomato had
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likely been dragged out onto the ground
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when the suspect had pulled the blinds
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out of the window when we noticed the
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tomato was quite obvious that there was
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a partial footwear impression on the
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tomato itself
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they photographed the tomato then put it
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in debbie's refrigerator to preserve it
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police found no foreign fingerprints in
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the apartment
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and there were no valuables missing
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so investigators had to ask
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who would have wanted debbie dead
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that question produced a few
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troubling answers
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[Music]
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at debbie timlock's autopsy
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the medical examiner found she had been
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sexually assaulted and stabbed to death
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she died of a stab wound to the heart he
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also found that
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there was a stab wound to the back which
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penetrated her spinal cord
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the pathologist concluded that debbie
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was paralyzed from the waist down when
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she crawled to the telephone to call
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police
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i believe when debbie is told by the
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ambulance help is on the way
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she responds thank you and i believe at
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that point she died
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in a search for debbie's killer
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investigators found a possible lead
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four years earlier debbie lived with a
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man named ron osborne who had been
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involved in a drug smuggling ring
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1985 10 persons were investigated for
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attempting to smuggle drugs from united
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states into canada
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authorities had evidence that osborne
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transported illegal drugs in a boat from
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jamaica to florida
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at osborne's trial
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debbie reluctantly testified against him
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debbie testified that ron osborne had
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told her that he had been on a boat for
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a two-month period this boat is the one
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that was subsequently found to have
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storage compartments where the drugs had
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been stored
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osborne was in prison at the time of
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debbie's murder
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but investigators checked to see whether
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any of the other defendants might have
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killed her
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transcripts of the drug smuggling case
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were reviewed along with interviews of
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the investigating officers to determine
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where all the players actually were and
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how the entire investigation unfolded
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detectives concluded there was no
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connection to debbie's murder
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to us it made no sense that a small
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player like debbie timlock would be
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murdered in this drug investigation
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because she really had very little to do
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with it
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as a matter of routine police also
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interviewed debbie's ex-husband the
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couple had been divorced for four years
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and shared custody of six-year-old lacey
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he was a good guy and it just happens
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that they don't
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you know some people just don't get
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along together it was a reneable divorce
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both parties had got on with their lives
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and gone in different directions and the
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ex-husband of debbie was alibi up he was
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at home that night
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so investigators focused on the evidence
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left at the scene
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the pair of eyeglasses and the tomato
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with the foot impression
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we knew right away that we had a pattern
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in the tomato and we knew right away
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that it was a herringbone pattern
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when the film was developed and analyzed
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the flesh in the photo created
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distinct shadows
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we could see that along with the
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herringbone pattern was a second pattern
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or more detail than we had first been
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able to see which was an s shape that
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came through the herringbone pattern
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next investigators analyzed the
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eyeglasses
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they found debbie's blood on the glasses
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which told a story
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both of the arms were folded
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which to us we we believe had fallen out
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of someone's pocket
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debbie had dragged herself to the phone
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from the bedroom and had actually
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dragged herself over those glasses
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since debbie didn't wear glasses
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investigators assumed they belonged to
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the killer
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the pair was inexpensive and the lenses
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didn't fit properly in the frame
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the lens itself didn't exactly
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match the contour of the metal piece at
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the top
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so creating a sort of a gap in the
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appearance of the lenses
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it was clear they'd been worn for some
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time and there was a size discrepancy
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between the two lenses
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it was as if a
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portion of the lens had been
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ground off
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so that they just weren't the same shape
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which is is highly unusual
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then
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investigators got an important lead
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they learned that debbie's former
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next-door neighbor was 23-year-old james
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brown
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a one-time olympic hopeful
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brown had had some success in the sport
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of wrestling and had actually been to
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japan where he'd hoped to further that
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and maybe have a shot at an olympic
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spot on the team
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debbie told friends that brown had made
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advances towards her
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he did have a criminal record he had
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been convicted of a number of fences in
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the past mainly for assaults thefts and
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breaking enters
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that is why brown came on the radar
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screen quite rapidly he had done some
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time in jail but never more than three
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months
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when questioned brown denied any
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involvement in debbie's murder and said
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he was out of town on the night of the
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crime
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he indicated that he had been at a hotel
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where he was assaulted by persons
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unknown and as a result of that he went
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to the ground and he woke up on the side
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of the road several miles away
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brown had scratches on his face which he
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said came from the assault
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given his size detectives were skeptical
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of his story
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he was a man some six foot three in
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height
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large structure
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about 350 some pounds
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wide shoulders
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extremely wide fists
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and detectives noticed something else
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in his mug shots from a previous arrest
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brown
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was wearing glasses
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[Music]
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the prime suspect in debbie timlock's
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murder was her former next door neighbor
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a convicted criminal jim brown
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during questioning he wasn't wearing
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glasses although he admitted owning a
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pair for reading but claimed he lost
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them
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this gave detectives an opportunity to
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tie brown to the glasses found at the
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murder site
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they removed debbie's blood from the
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glasses
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and had an officer pose as a nurse and
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offer them to brown
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no they're not
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jim smelled a rat
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he looked at the glasses and said they
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were not his
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it doesn't mean they're not his
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it just means that we haven't got that
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connectivity yet
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police searched brown's apartment
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and his car
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we found a pair of blue canvas running
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shoes on the
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floor of the rear right passenger side
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of the vehicle
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we believe they were manufactured in
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czechoslovakia and were actually
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purchased by the ontario government and
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were provided to inmates in the
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provincial system
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who were doing time
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they also appeared to have the same
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distinctive tread pattern
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as the print on the tomato outside
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debbie's window
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there's a specific part of a design
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which i'll refer to here as either an s
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shape or a stylized seven that became
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very apparent in the photograph that
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really piqued my interest
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but forensic investigator jerry webb had
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a problem
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he needed to know if the weight of a
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350-pound man created a different kind
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of shoe impression on a tomato than one
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you'd get by copying the shoe impression
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on paper or a transparency
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so webb designed an experiment
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i had a person that wore size 13 shoes
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put on a bomb suit and i added weights
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to the bomb suit in trying to increase
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the weight of this person to be more
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close to the weight of the suspect in
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this case jim brown
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webb sprayed water on tomatoes to
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simulate the rainstorm on the night of
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the murder
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then
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had his
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350-pound model step on each one wearing
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the suspect's shoes
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[Music]
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webb discovered that the test impression
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on the tomato was virtually the same as
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the one taken directly from the shoe and
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the photo taken at the crime scene
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i was able to take those two overlays
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and put them over top of a photograph of
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the tomato itself and be able to
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illustrate that in fact that the pattern
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matched up
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on the tomato impression
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although the size of brown shoe and the
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tread pattern was the same as the shoe
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impression left at the crime scene
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there was no way to tell if this was the
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actual shoe
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the impression on the tomato could have
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been made by the left shoe of jim brown
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or it could have been made by another
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left shoe that had the same specific
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design and size
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since the shoes were prison issued
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they were unusual although
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not uncommon
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i feel that we need much more evidence
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to convict the person responsible for
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debbie timlock's senseless murder
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so they turned to the eyeglasses found
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at the crime scene
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dr graham strong a professor of
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optometry at waterloo university was
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asked to determine whether the crime
00:14:21
scene glasses were the same as those
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worn by jim brown in a police mug shot
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taken several years earlier
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the problem we had with the mug shots is
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that they really weren't a frontal
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mug shot
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he was angled relative to the plane of
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the film
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to solve the problem
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dr strong mounted the glasses on a
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styrofoam head
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and tried to approximate the angle in
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the mug shots
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we didn't get it quite right it was
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compelling but it didn't rise to a level
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that was significant in our mind
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then
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dr strong enlarged the mug shot
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photographs and noticed something
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important
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[Music]
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tiny white dots
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reflections from the photographer's
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flash in brown's corneas
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you actually use the reflection from the
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front surface of the eye to make a very
00:15:19
standard measurement when you make a
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pair of glasses
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namely the distance between the two eyes
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so that what you do is you measure the
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difference between the the reflection
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from the right eye to the left eye and
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that's the interpupillary distance
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from medical records dr strong knew that
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the distance between brown's pupils was
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72 millimeters so now he had a scale by
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which he could measure the exact size of
00:15:48
the frames and the lenses for comparison
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to the glasses from the crime scene
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we're getting 20 odd identical
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measurements and observations related to
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the glasses so there's a bit of a eureka
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moment when that happens
00:16:03
bottom line was the glasses in evidence
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belong to the accused and in fact were
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the ones that were worn in both of the
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mug shots that we analyzed
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we believe we have brown's glasses
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covered with blood in debbie's apartment
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but if that were true
00:16:20
why were the frames in the mug shots
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gold
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and the frames analyzed by the expert
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brown
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after thousands of hours of police and
00:16:33
forensic investigation
00:16:35
prosecutors now knew
00:16:37
what happened in debbie timlock's
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apartment on the night she was murdered
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it was a very warm night
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and the evidence shows that when debbie
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returned from an evening with friends
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she opened the kitchen window to help
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cool her apartment
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then she went to sleep
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[Music]
00:17:05
it was a ground floor apartment the
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kitchen window was low the motive was
00:17:10
unclear but the evidence shows
00:17:13
james brown entered debbie's apartment
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and knocked the tomato off the
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windowsill then stepped on it leaving
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the impression of his prison shoes
00:17:24
brown attacked debbie in the bedroom
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assaulted her stabbed her twice with a
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knife
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and left her for dead
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on his way out
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he dropped his glasses in the hallway
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debbie most likely paralyzed from the
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waist down from the stab wound crawled
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over those glasses on her way to call
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police
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she died
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before she could identify her attacker
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but her blood on brown's glasses
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did it for her
00:18:03
i believe debbie died on the telephone
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knowing she had done her job
00:18:07
i recall the day that dr strong came to
00:18:10
our office in barrie like it was
00:18:12
yesterday
00:18:13
this was
00:18:14
months after the initial investigation
00:18:16
it was a piece of evidence that was
00:18:19
individual
00:18:20
and it truly was a high five
00:18:23
yahoo moment
00:18:25
because now
00:18:26
we were able to speak for debbie tim
00:18:28
lock
00:18:29
yeah i was surprised at what they came
00:18:31
up with so in involved it was it was so
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many
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um little
00:18:37
clues
00:18:38
to uh
00:18:40
to have it together and put together a
00:18:41
case
00:18:43
the final hurdle for prosecutors was to
00:18:46
explain why jim brown's glasses were
00:18:49
gold in the mug shots
00:18:52
but dark brown when shown to the jury a
00:18:56
decision had been made by the
00:18:57
investigators to
00:19:00
deliver jim brown's glasses to him at
00:19:03
the jail prior to doing that they wanted
00:19:06
them cleaned of the blood that was on
00:19:08
them
00:19:08
the glasses were photographed in the
00:19:10
studio they were then cleaned of the
00:19:12
blood
00:19:14
and in that process of cleaning the
00:19:16
blood part of the laminate from the
00:19:18
temples of the glasses was rubbed off
00:19:22
in january of 1992
00:19:25
two and a half years after debbie
00:19:27
timlock was killed
00:19:29
james brown went on trial for murder
00:19:33
the trial lasted two and a half weeks
00:19:36
and relied on the shoe print left on a
00:19:38
tomato
00:19:40
and mathematical calculations from the
00:19:42
reflection of a flash bulb
00:19:46
the jury deliberated for six hours and
00:19:50
came back
00:19:51
with a finding of first-degree murder
00:19:54
in canada a first-degree murder
00:19:56
conviction carries
00:19:58
an automatic life sentence with no
00:20:00
chance of parole for 25 years
00:20:03
this case ranks among the most unusual
00:20:07
in forensic history
00:20:09
it was unique
00:20:10
in fact to this day and i've i've been
00:20:12
policing now for 28 years and 20 years
00:20:14
in the forensic business
00:20:16
i've never before or never again had an
00:20:18
impression in a tomato
00:20:20
it was amazing how dr strong
00:20:23
based on a
00:20:24
grainy
00:20:26
mug shot of not great quality was able
00:20:28
to determine
00:20:30
all the nuances of these glasses and
00:20:33
able to
00:20:34
mathematically determine the chances of
00:20:37
being another pair like that in this
00:20:40
world when i first entered into the
00:20:41
forensics field i attended coroner's
00:20:44
court
00:20:45
in
00:20:46
toronto and there is a sign that is on
00:20:49
their wall that says that we speak for
00:20:52
the dead
00:20:54
i've made that my motto over the last 20
00:20:56
years
00:20:57
recognizing that that crime scene is now
00:21:00
the voice
00:21:01
for the dead
00:21:04
[Music]
00:21:14
[Music]
00:21:23
so
00:21:28
[Music]
00:21:35
[Music]
00:21:41
you
