00:00:06
when a person is cremated the heat
00:00:08
usually destroys any evidence of foul
00:00:11
play at least that was the theory until
00:00:14
a scientist in texas found a way to test
00:00:18
cremated remains and in so doing made
00:00:22
forensic history
00:00:25
[Music]
00:00:32
[Music]
00:00:36
so
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[Music]
00:00:49
[Music]
00:00:51
san angelo texas
00:00:53
known for its oil cotton fields and
00:00:56
extremely hot weather
00:00:58
it's great country there's a lot of
00:01:00
rural area to it of course the biggest
00:01:02
problem they have out there is you don't
00:01:03
get a whole lot of rain
00:01:05
olgie and lita nobles ran the town's air
00:01:08
conditioning business and they had no
00:01:11
shortage of customers
00:01:15
perhaps it was the strain of both living
00:01:18
and working together but the two didn't
00:01:20
always see eye to eye
00:01:22
it was that kind of different
00:01:24
relationship where there was love
00:01:25
involved but
00:01:26
you couldn't tell it from the outside
00:01:29
mr nobles had a real drinking problem
00:01:32
and they argued like cats and dogs
00:01:35
at the age of 70
00:01:37
olgi died after a lengthy illness
00:01:41
shortly after the funeral his wife lita
00:01:43
checked herself into a hospital she
00:01:45
hadn't been feeling well for weeks
00:01:47
i just sick just vomiting over time
00:01:51
just
00:01:52
deathly sick at my stomach and i just
00:01:54
get weaker and weaker
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and get to where i couldn't walk
00:01:59
leeda blamed the stress of her husband's
00:02:01
death for her illness but doctors found
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nothing wrong and released
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her within days the nausea and vomiting
00:02:10
returned
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and lita developed another symptom
00:02:14
numbness in her fingers and toes
00:02:18
i woke up one night and i was so sick
00:02:20
and i got up
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trying to get in the chair
00:02:24
and of course my legs didn't hold me and
00:02:26
i just went down the floor
00:02:30
leta went to the hospital once again
00:02:33
this time doctors performed a whole
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battery of tests and found the problem
00:02:39
lita had been poisoned
00:02:42
the level of arsenic in her system was
00:02:44
three times higher than a lethal dose
00:02:48
it made you wonder who in the world it
00:02:50
could be that was doing it
00:02:53
arsenic is a tasteless odorless element
00:02:56
used in rat poison
00:02:58
lita could think of only one person who
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could have done this
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her husband olgie they loved each other
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but it's one of those
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marriages that that stayed rocky all the
00:03:09
time you know they just fought back and
00:03:11
forth all the time and she did say that
00:03:13
he's probably the one who did it
00:03:15
was it possible that olgie poisoned his
00:03:18
wife before he died
00:03:20
i didn't think he had the nerve i really
00:03:22
didn't think the man had the nerve to do
00:03:25
a thing like that
00:03:27
to find out
00:03:29
scientists looked for evidence in her
00:03:31
hair
00:03:32
it turns out that hair and in some case
00:03:35
toenails or fingernails are good
00:03:38
indicators of body loads of certain
00:03:40
elements in particular in the case of
00:03:42
arsenic it's often used as hair where
00:03:44
it's concentrated in the hair
00:03:47
since hair grows approximately one half
00:03:50
inch per month and lita's hair was three
00:03:52
inches long this gave scientists a
00:03:55
six-month timeline to see when lita was
00:03:58
poisoned
00:04:00
each half inch piece of hair was tested
00:04:03
with neutron activation analysis
00:04:06
neutron activation has some advantages
00:04:09
and one is that it is considered to be
00:04:12
non-destructive that is solid samples
00:04:14
can be irradiated directly without
00:04:16
having to dissolve the sample in any way
00:04:20
the results were surprising
00:04:22
lita ingested a massive dose of arsenic
00:04:25
in the month before og died but she
00:04:28
ingested a second large dose in the
00:04:30
month after his death
00:04:33
they were able to conclude that she had
00:04:35
had a large dose of arsenic in the time
00:04:37
frame since her husband had been dead
00:04:39
and he couldn't have possibly
00:04:40
administered it
00:04:42
now investigators questioned whether
00:04:44
og-2 had been poisoned
00:04:50
[Music]
00:04:52
tests on leda noble's hair indicated she
00:04:55
ingested large doses of arsenic in the
00:04:57
month before and month after her
00:05:00
husband's death
00:05:02
at one time arsenic was an ingredient in
00:05:04
rat poison but it's no longer used for
00:05:06
that purpose
00:05:12
investigators looked in and around the
00:05:15
noble's home for clues
00:05:17
[Music]
00:05:18
we took samples of the water we took
00:05:20
samples from the septic tank system and
00:05:23
we tested all different different things
00:05:25
in the house to be sure that we could
00:05:27
positively prove that they didn't get
00:05:29
the poisoning from something that was in
00:05:31
the house accidentally
00:05:34
we did find arsenic in one item was an
00:05:37
antacid the actual concentration
00:05:41
in there was a sub-lethal but it
00:05:43
certainly would be toxic
00:05:46
with leta's permission
00:05:48
investigators exhumed her husband's body
00:05:51
five months after he died
00:05:55
his autopsy revealed
00:05:57
lethal doses of arsenic in all of his
00:06:00
major organs
00:06:03
olgie noble's death was now ruled a
00:06:06
homicide
00:06:08
my first thought is that there's
00:06:09
somebody that's real close to the noble
00:06:11
that needs them dead for some reason
00:06:15
only two people had access to the food
00:06:17
in the noble's home
00:06:20
they had a son who was disabled who
00:06:22
lived in the house who of course had to
00:06:24
be a little suspect
00:06:26
and it was telling too that the noble
00:06:28
son showed no signs of arsenic poisoning
00:06:32
the other person was the man who bought
00:06:35
the noble's air conditioning business
00:06:37
timothy scoggin
00:06:39
but lita refused to believe either one
00:06:42
was responsible she had an excellent
00:06:44
relationship with her son and tim
00:06:47
scoggin was like a member of the family
00:06:50
i didn't know what to think
00:06:52
because i just
00:06:53
i just couldn't you know believe it
00:06:56
lena noble and she'll look you right in
00:06:58
high and tell you exactly what she
00:06:59
thinks and that's what she did she
00:07:01
looked us right now and told us tim
00:07:02
scoggins wasn't doing that we were on
00:07:04
the wrong track
00:07:05
and that he'd never do that she trusted
00:07:07
him completely
00:07:09
tim scoggin was 33 years old single and
00:07:12
had a close personal relationship with
00:07:15
the nobles
00:07:17
but a background check revealed an
00:07:19
unusual past
00:07:22
before buying the noble's business
00:07:24
scoggin lived in llano texas about 130
00:07:28
miles away
00:07:30
while there
00:07:32
he met two elderly sisters catherine and
00:07:35
cordelia norton
00:07:37
the last surviving members of an old
00:07:39
texas family that made millions mining
00:07:42
granite
00:07:44
the two sisters never married and lived
00:07:47
in a large mansion while running
00:07:49
separate businesses
00:07:51
seventy-five-year-old catherine was the
00:07:54
younger of the two
00:07:55
her nickname was gurley she was very
00:07:57
frilly very ladylike
00:08:00
catherine ran a flower shop and met tim
00:08:02
scoggin while he was working for a local
00:08:05
funeral home
00:08:07
83 year old cordelia was a beer
00:08:10
distributor and a cattle rancher
00:08:12
she was rough
00:08:14
she had a man style haircut she wore
00:08:16
khaki clothes and she could cuss better
00:08:19
than any sailor you ever saw
00:08:23
as scoggin got to know the sisters he
00:08:26
spent increasing amounts of time doing
00:08:28
their chores cooking for them he acted
00:08:30
as their driver and helped them with
00:08:32
their medications
00:08:35
they were lonely they needed someone to
00:08:38
talk to them they needed someone to care
00:08:39
for them
00:08:40
and that's what he did and they trusted
00:08:42
him just like a son he was at their
00:08:44
making call he would drive them anywhere
00:08:46
take them to the doctors they would
00:08:48
often go to university of texas football
00:08:51
games
00:08:52
not surprisingly the sisters appreciated
00:08:55
scoggins help and apparently led him to
00:08:58
believe his generosity would be rewarded
00:09:01
he knew the ladies had a lot of money
00:09:03
and he was going to befriend them and
00:09:06
he said that catherine and cordelia had
00:09:08
told him that they were going to
00:09:10
remembering in the will so he was really
00:09:13
thinking he was going to make a lot of
00:09:14
money he bragged that he was wealthy or
00:09:17
that he was going to be an heir or
00:09:19
already was an heir
00:09:21
of a wealthy family that
00:09:23
and i believe he said he was related to
00:09:25
the norton sisters rather than just a
00:09:27
friend
00:09:29
then all of a sudden
00:09:31
the two sisters died within a day of one
00:09:34
another the doctor signed off and said
00:09:37
death
00:09:38
heart attack old age and no one really
00:09:40
knew anything about it or thought a
00:09:42
whole lot about it they were buried
00:09:43
everyone went about their business
00:09:45
[Music]
00:09:48
the sisters estate was estimated to be
00:09:50
approximately 5 million
00:09:54
when investigators learned that olgi
00:09:56
nobles had been poisoned
00:09:59
the deaths of the norton sisters
00:10:01
appeared suspicious
00:10:03
right away i thought well we need to
00:10:05
exhume the bodies of the norton girl
00:10:08
but they hit a dead end
00:10:10
both norton sisters had been cremated
00:10:14
so i was afraid we'd lost everything
00:10:17
if tim scoggin killed the norton sisters
00:10:20
for their money and murdered olgi nobles
00:10:23
too
00:10:24
he had committed the perfect crime
00:10:28
three times
00:10:30
you can't be
00:10:31
around
00:10:32
uh three deaths and one near death under
00:10:35
very similar circumstances and just say
00:10:38
it's a coincidence
00:10:40
but without forensic evidence
00:10:43
there was no way to prove it
00:10:50
when investigators looked at tim scoggin
00:10:52
they had to wonder did he simply have
00:10:54
bad luck or was he a cold-blooded serial
00:10:58
killer
00:10:59
[Music]
00:11:01
within a 12-month period scoggin's two
00:11:04
closest friends lita and olgi nobles
00:11:07
were both poisoned with arsenic
00:11:10
and his friends catherine and cordelia
00:11:12
norton also died suspicious deaths
00:11:15
within a day of one another
00:11:18
he was the last person along with
00:11:19
cordelia and he was the last person
00:11:21
alone with catherine he wanted money he
00:11:23
wanted reaches and he liked the lavish
00:11:25
lifestyle of particularly the norton i
00:11:27
mean the norton's traveled all over the
00:11:28
world they had friends from all over the
00:11:30
world come visit them and he was
00:11:32
included in that circle
00:11:34
if scoggin poisoned the norton sisters
00:11:38
no one could prove it
00:11:41
they had both been cremated
00:11:44
all that remained were their ashes
00:11:47
he believed he could burn up the
00:11:48
evidence and he'd be safe
00:11:50
in the average cremation
00:11:52
the body is subjected to temperatures of
00:11:55
more than two thousand degrees
00:11:56
fahrenheit for up to three hours
00:11:59
virtually
00:12:01
nothing remains
00:12:03
it takes a lot of temperature
00:12:05
to reduce a body to nothing but a little
00:12:07
pile of ashes
00:12:09
investigators called laboratories and
00:12:11
universities around the country but no
00:12:14
one knew of any way to test cremated
00:12:16
remains for forensic evidence
00:12:19
i knew we had to try and course when we
00:12:21
went to the
00:12:22
laboratory our lab people
00:12:25
were pretty negative that we didn't have
00:12:27
anything and they kind of had the same
00:12:30
idea it had been burned up
00:12:33
but rod mccutchen a toxicologist at the
00:12:36
texas department of public safety crime
00:12:38
lab was willing to try
00:12:41
so i started thinking about the
00:12:43
possibility of detecting arsenic in a
00:12:45
cremated remain sample
00:12:47
and
00:12:48
decided it might be possible there were
00:12:50
a lot of things to consider
00:12:53
mccutchen knew that arsenic is actually
00:12:56
a metal and some metal survive fire and
00:12:59
intense heat you may change its form
00:13:02
from a solid to a gas but you aren't
00:13:04
going to destroy the arsenic itself
00:13:07
so he took the sister's ashes and added
00:13:11
an acid solution to dissolve all of the
00:13:14
organic material
00:13:19
what was left was primarily
00:13:22
sulfuric acid
00:13:24
in a process called colorimetric testing
00:13:27
he added hydrochloric acid and zinc to
00:13:30
the mix
00:13:32
as it bubbles through this device
00:13:35
the arsenic will react and form if it's
00:13:37
present a
00:13:39
purplish violet color
00:13:41
the more arsenic present the
00:13:44
stronger the more purple the color is
00:13:47
mccutchen's chemical cocktail made
00:13:50
forensic history
00:13:52
the solution turned
00:13:54
a deep purple
00:13:56
conclusive proof
00:13:58
of the presence of arsenic
00:14:00
theoretically it could be done but when
00:14:02
it happened that was
00:14:04
that was a surprise
00:14:06
i was elated when i found the results to
00:14:08
tell you the truth i couldn't i couldn't
00:14:10
believe it
00:14:11
the depth of color in the reaction
00:14:13
showed that cordelia norton ingested a
00:14:16
massive amount of arsenic
00:14:19
the test results on catherine's ashes
00:14:21
were inconclusive
00:14:23
nevertheless
00:14:24
their deaths were ruled homicides and it
00:14:27
appeared the sisters got the last laugh
00:14:32
they died
00:14:33
before changing their will
00:14:36
when they read the will he found he got
00:14:38
nothing
00:14:39
that they said he was very distraught
00:14:41
very angry
00:14:42
when he left
00:14:48
tim scoggin was the prime suspect in the
00:14:50
murders of cordelia and catherine norton
00:14:53
olgi nobles and the attempted murder of
00:14:57
lita nobles
00:14:59
mr scoggin had no criminal record he
00:15:02
certainly didn't appear like any kind of
00:15:04
tv crook in fact he was the proverbial
00:15:09
wolf in sheep's clothing he appeared to
00:15:11
be
00:15:12
completely non-threatening and
00:15:15
and
00:15:16
a loving friend to
00:15:19
all his victims
00:15:23
investigators found arsenic in some
00:15:25
antacids in lita's home but couldn't
00:15:28
find out where it came from
00:15:31
until the owner of a local supermarket
00:15:34
called to offer some information
00:15:37
he said when he saw scoggins picture in
00:15:39
the newspaper he remembered selling him
00:15:42
a large amount of rat poison
00:15:45
he even remembered the brand
00:15:47
cowley's original rat and mouse poison
00:15:51
he remembered mr scoggins coming in
00:15:54
looking for some sort of
00:15:57
poison to kill
00:15:59
varmints of some kind i think he didn't
00:16:02
buy it that day but he came back several
00:16:04
days later and bought more than one
00:16:06
bottle i don't recall how many
00:16:09
forensic document examiners analyzed the
00:16:12
cremation request orders signed by the
00:16:14
norton sisters and the thirty thousand
00:16:17
dollar check the sisters made out to
00:16:19
scoggin shortly before their death
00:16:23
they concluded the documents were
00:16:25
forgeries
00:16:26
it was written during the time of the
00:16:28
death which
00:16:29
baited even more suspicious because the
00:16:31
ladies were extremely ill at this time
00:16:33
and they wasn't in the stage of just
00:16:35
giving away thirty thousand dollars
00:16:36
because they were deathly ill
00:16:40
prosecutors believe that scoggin set his
00:16:43
sights on the norton sisters almost from
00:16:45
the minute he met them
00:16:48
the norton sisters likes gagan and he
00:16:51
would often eat meals and stay overnight
00:16:53
in their hillside mansion
00:16:56
prosecutors think scoggin poisoned them
00:16:59
after he learned the sisters plan to
00:17:01
include him in their will
00:17:05
as a mortician scoggin had access to the
00:17:08
necessary paperwork to forge the sisters
00:17:11
names on cremation papers
00:17:14
[Music]
00:17:15
but in a forensic first
00:17:18
scientists found a huge amount of
00:17:20
arsenic in the ashes
00:17:23
when scoggin learned the sisters had
00:17:25
left him out of their will he was angry
00:17:28
but undeterred
00:17:31
for his troubles scoggin forged a check
00:17:34
on the sister's account for 30 000
00:17:37
discovered later by forensic experts
00:17:42
scoggin then moved 130 miles away to san
00:17:45
angelo where he met the nobles
00:17:48
they lent scoggins the money to buy
00:17:50
their air conditioning business he was
00:17:52
to repay them in monthly installments
00:17:55
[Music]
00:17:57
prosecutors believe he poisoned the
00:18:00
couple so
00:18:01
he could avoid making those payments
00:18:08
olgi nobles died from the poison but 69
00:18:11
year old lita built up resistance to it
00:18:14
this lady was so tough her inner
00:18:17
strength was so strong her will to live
00:18:20
was so strong and her body was able to
00:18:23
absorb this and build up a tolerance to
00:18:25
it but probably
00:18:27
if you had 10 people out there you know
00:18:30
nine of those 10 would probably die from
00:18:32
it
00:18:33
had lita died
00:18:35
police would never have questioned the
00:18:38
cause of her death or her husband's
00:18:41
so they would never have made the
00:18:43
connection
00:18:44
to the norton sisters
00:18:46
the big mistake he did he didn't finish
00:18:48
out leeda or he would have got away
00:18:50
scott clean and never nobody would ever
00:18:53
know the difference
00:18:54
tim scoggin was arrested and charged
00:18:56
with murder and intent to commit murder
00:19:00
he's a very effeminate kind of a man in
00:19:03
fact when he talked on the phone people
00:19:05
thought he was a woman and he passed
00:19:06
himself off as secretary sometimes and
00:19:08
called himself kim by his voice you
00:19:11
couldn't tell the difference
00:19:12
[Music]
00:19:15
he had to be a cold
00:19:16
calculating individual i've talked to a
00:19:19
lot of serial killers but this guy here
00:19:22
was the cold bloodiest most ruthless
00:19:25
killer that i dealt with
00:19:28
scoggin was convicted and sentenced to
00:19:31
two life sentences
00:19:34
people kill for money
00:19:36
at the root of all evil
00:19:42
it really is that is absolutely true
00:19:47
that's all he done it for was money
00:19:51
lita nobles still suffers from the
00:19:53
poisoning
00:19:55
to this day she has trouble walking
00:19:58
yes i get angry sometimes i get to
00:20:00
thinking about it and it's the first i
00:20:03
couldn't talk about it it just i just
00:20:05
don't cry
00:20:06
i just couldn't talk about it
00:20:09
now scientists all over the world can
00:20:12
test cremated remains for various
00:20:15
substances thanks to the hard work and
00:20:19
dedication of the scientists involved in
00:20:22
this case
00:20:24
people sit around trying to think of the
00:20:26
perfect crime
00:20:27
and
00:20:28
one could say that he nearly
00:20:31
did commit for nearly perfect crimes and
00:20:34
there were just a few
00:20:39
mistakes i'm not a chemistry major but
00:20:42
i just felt like i hate to i hate to
00:20:45
lose and i hate to see someone get away
00:20:46
with a crime and so it just happened to
00:20:49
work out and i was very
00:20:51
blessed that it did even though that in
00:20:53
this case the perpetrator had gone out
00:20:55
of his way to try to destroy the
00:20:57
evidence
00:20:58
the evidence was persistent and it was
00:21:00
still there even after cremation
00:21:03
[Music]
00:21:14
[Music]
00:21:32
[Music]
00:21:41
you
