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[music playing] NARRATOR: The dean of a
prestigious university had a secret life that
may have led to his death.
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A tiny piece of a latex
glove and some broken glass where the only clues. To solve the mystery,
investigators
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needed to know what he was
doing with an 18-year-old girl. [theme music] NARRATOR: For 12 years, students
and faculty at Texas Tech
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University could
set their watches by Douglas Miller's schedule. As the Associate
Dean of Libraries,
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he would arrive
promptly by 8:00 AM. A schedule that never
varied, until one day,
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he just didn't show up. LIZ APPLIN: If he was
ill he would call in, and that sort of thing.
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So we were aware that
things weren't exactly the way they were
supposed to be. NARRATOR: Police found his car
in a drainage ditch in Canyon
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Lake State Park, just five
miles from the university. 53-year-old Doug Miller
was dead in the backseat.
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And there was an 18-year-old
woman, Viola McVade, found dead in the
front passenger seat.
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Both were shot with a
.380 caliber pistol. AARON FULLERTON: There were six
bullets recovered at the scene,
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that all six were
able to be able to be identified as .380 auto caliber. And they were all fired
from the same firearm.
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NARRATOR: Gunfire had broken
both of the car side windows. But there was no broken glass in
the drainage ditch, which meant
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the murder took place elsewhere. ASHLEY RODRIQUEZ: It
took hours for them to check the ground and
the sticks and everything
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possible around the car,
before they could even pull the card out of the gully. And after that, they would
remove the bodies out.
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NARRATOR: The car was
dusted for fingerprints. And the only ones found
belonged to Doug and Viola.
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And investigators
soon discovered why. They found what appeared
to be a small piece
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of a latex glove beneath
Doug Miller's body. MATT POWELL: It was the tip
of a finger, is what was.
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It was less of a half an inch. NARRATOR: If the killer
was wearing rubber gloves,
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this was a clear indication
the murders were premeditated. ASHLEY RODRIQUEZ: You
wondered right away,
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why is 53-year-old male in the
car with an 18-year-old female? You know, what's
that connection?
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Which of course,
we were all asking. NARRATOR: Investigators
learned that Doug Miller met
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Viola McVade for
the first time just a few hours before the murders. A known prostitute, Teresa
Williams had introduced them.
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Doug Miller called Teresa
Williams looking for a date. [phone ringing] And Williams suggested
her friend, Viola McVade.
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-He would take out a young
woman on a date several times and see where it would go.
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That it was not a
situation he asking for someone to sleep with him. Not real common, but it happens.
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Not that uncommon, either. As far as I know, this might
have been a lonely man that
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just enjoyed the company
of these young girls. And maybe that's the naivety in
me, you know, that says that.
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NARRATOR: Doug Miller
was a divorced father of two grown children. Viola was an aspiring
model, and hadn't
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yet graduated from high school. TERREMY BEAVER: Words
can't describe how I felt.
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I loved her, but the way
I truly felt for her, you can't-- I can't
explain it to you.
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NARRATOR: Her fiance,
Terremy Beaver, knew nothing about
this paid date, but wasn't entirely surprised.
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TERREMY BEAVER: She
loved money, I know that. Whatever it would
have took for her to,
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you know, to get, to provide
for her and her family, that's what she was going to do.
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She didn't care what it was, or
how she had to go and get it. She just had that mentality.
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NARRATOR: Investigators
knew Beaver had nothing to do with the
crime, because he was
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in jail that night
on a drug charge. I always tell folks,
it's almost impossible
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to killed in Lubbock, unless
you're doing something you shouldn't be
doing, unless you're
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some place you shouldn't be. NARRATOR: The double
homicide of a college dean and a teenage girl was going
to be difficult to solve,
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since Doug Miller and Viola
McVade were barely acquainted, and each have different
backgrounds to look into.
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When questioned by police,
Doug Miller's friends said, he had no known enemies. ASHLEY RODRIQUEZ: Everyone
we asked, his friends,
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his co-workers were
completely shocked. They had no idea why he would
have been in this part of town,
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or with this person. NARRATOR: In fact, Doug
Miller had a reputation as one of the most private
and generous people
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at the university
where he worked. LIZ APPLIN: He anonymously
set up a scholarship
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for a student assistant
in the library. Now they all knew that a
scholarship was available,
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but they didn't
know who funded it. And I just always thought that
was very interesting, that he
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had every opportunity to say,
you know, put his name on it, or say, I did this. But he never did
that kind of thing.
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NARRATOR: The crime scene
suggested that Doug Miller may not have been the
primary target,
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but that Viola McVade was. MATT POWELL: I think
she had three gunshot wounds to the head, very close.
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She had stippling
that was, you know, gunpowder burns, that
we're very close. Almost close contact
wounds to her head.
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NARRATOR: High
impact blood spatter inside the car on
the driver's side proved that Doug Miller
was shot in the front seat,
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and then moved to the backseat. -With the amount of blood
that was in the seat, and it being all
smeared, would indicate
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that after he was
removed from that seat, that someone had to
sit down in that blood,
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and transfer that blood from
the seat to their person. NARRATOR: Both victims
still had their wallets,
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jewelry, and other
personal items. So robbery was not
considered a motive. The bodies were in Doug's car in
a ravine in Canyon Lakes Park.
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There was no glass on the
ground from the broken windows-- an indication the murders
took place elsewhere.
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But where was the murder scene? Police records revealed
a potential clue. Around 10:00 PM on the
night before the bodies were
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discovered, several people
called police headquarters to report gunfire
in a dark alley.
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-I think the reason
nobody saw anything is because nobody
wanted to see anything.
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I think this from
an area of town where you don't want to be
involved in telling what you
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may or may not
have seen or heard. NARRATOR: A close
inspection of the alley revealed shattered
glass, which was sent
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to the forensics
lab for testing. Analysts tested the
glass for what's known as its refractive index.
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RUSTY WHITE: Refractive index
is the measure of the speed of light as it passes
through a substance.
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It's the reason that,
when you put a straw in a glass of water, it
looks like the straw bends.
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NARRATOR: The sample is
crushed into small pieces and placed in a drop
of oil, then heated.
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When the oil and the glass
reach the same refractive index, the glass disappears.
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RUSTY WHITE: We change
the temperature of the oil until we see that
glass disappear,
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and then we know,
at that temperature, the oil is this
refractive index, therefore, the glass is
that same refractive index.
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NARRATOR: The refractive index
of the glass in the alleyway was similar to the glass
from Doug Miller's car.
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To be absolutely certain,
scientists heated the glass with an argon plasma torch to
identify its chemical makeup.
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RUSTY WHITE: If the levels
of all nine of those elements from the question sample
fall within the range
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of those same levels
for the known, then we say that's a
positive association. NARRATOR: And this proved
the class in the alleyway
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was from Doug Miller's car. -That definitely was our
first, I guess, link saying,
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those two scenes are connected. MATT POWELL: We knew
where the crime scene was. We were able to determine
that the glass that was found
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in the alley came from
the victim's vehicle. NARRATOR: Next,
investigators wanted
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to know where Doug
Miller and Viola McVade were before
they were killed. In Doug Miller's
home, investigators
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found a lipstick-stained
cigarette butt. JIM THOMAS: DNA
testing was performed on that cigarette butt.
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And that was actually determined
to be consistent with the DNA profile of the female victim.
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NARRATOR: Next, investigators
checked Doug Miller's telephone records and found
something interesting.
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Someone, presumably
Viola, used Doug Miller's phone to call her sister, Liza. But Liza's boyfriend, Vaughn
Ross, answered the phone.
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SHONDA JOHNSON: They
didn't get along. They never got along. Not even from the first
day that they actually met.
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They never got along. She always said there
was something about him. -Those are just rumors of me.
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What the hell you talking about? NARRATOR: According
to Liza McVade, she never got to speak
with Viola that night.
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She said that Vaughn
and Viola argued, and that Vaughn hung up on her.
-Hello? NARRATOR: Perhaps the most
telling piece of information
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was that Vaughn Ross' apartment
was just 15 feet from the alley where Viola and
Doug were murdered.
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But he wasn't the only person
who lived near the alley. So too did Teresa
Williams, who admitted
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she was with the couple
earlier in the evening. RENE MARTINEZ: At
that point, she
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became a very likely suspect,
or someone who possibly had more information than what
she had relayed to us.
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-Well, everybody that has
contact with the victims at that night is
considered a suspect.
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NARRATOR: Police had a number of
suspects in the double homicide to Viola McVade and Doug Miller.
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One was Teresa Williams, a
prostitute who introduced the two on the night
of the murders.
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MATT POWELL: We knew what type
of business that Teresa was in. We knew what type of
things that everybody
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else that kind of ran
in the circle did. And so we made our presumptions,
as far as that was concerned.
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NARRATOR: Others included
Viola's sister, Liza McVade and her boyfriend Vaughn Ross.
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Coincidentally, Ross was a
masters student at Texas Tech University studying
architecture,
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the same university
where Doug Miller worked. But police found no evidence
the two knew one another.
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When questioned by police,
Vaughn Ross and Liza McVade confirmed that Viola
called them about an hour
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before the murder. -I have nothing to say to you. NARRATOR: They admitted
there was an argument,
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and that Vaughn hung up on her. -Why would you hang
up on my sister? -'Cause your sister's strange.
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-Well, y'all can
be like a kid now. NARRATOR: But both
Liza and Vaughn Ross insisted that they weren't
home when neighbors heard
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gunfire in the
alley an hour later. Liza said she left
Vaughn's apartment and went home
after Viola called.
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MATT POWELL: She
decided, well, I'm just going to walk over
to my dad's house. She didn't have a vehicle.
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And so her dad
didn't live too far away from where
his apartment was. It was sometime around
9:00, 9:30, I think,
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is what she said. NARRATOR: Vaughn said, he
too left his apartment just after Liza did, to
run some errands.
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A background check revealed
some troubling information. Vaughn Ross had a
history of violence.
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As a minor, he
had been convicted of stabbing a former girlfriend. MATT POWELL: That was a very
violent act that he had done.
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He had, basically, cut a girl,
I think eight or nine times, in a very deep laceration
to her throat, you know,
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to her neck area. NARRATOR: A search of
Vaughn Ross' apartment turned up nothing.
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There were no bloody
clothes, no bloody shoes. There was no gun or ammunition. Nothing that would link
him to the murders.
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The only forensic
evidence at the scene was the fingertip
of a latex glove found inside Doug Miller's car.
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The lab technician swabbed,
what appeared to be, a speck of blood on the
outside of the latex.
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A phenolphthalein test
proved it was human blood. And a DNA test showed
it was Douglas Miller's.
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Now investigators were
interested in what was on the inside
of the fingertip. -So that would tend to
contain more DNA evidence
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from the cellular
material from the hands. So the sweat
actually, potentially, would release more
DNA from the hand.
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NARRATOR: Just as
they suspected, the swab from the
inside of the tip did show some cells,
but a very small amount.
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Just a few years
ago, this sample wouldn't have been large
enough for DNA testing.
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But now, polymerase
chain reaction increases the sample
size by replicating it. So a DNA analysis was possible.
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And the results
were astonishing. -I remember getting the
phone call, and going, wow!
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This is awesome. Because to me, that just
summed it up for us. And that's what was able to--
that kind of sealed the deal.
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NARRATOR: The
microscopic skin cells on the inside of the
ripped latex glove yielded some surprising news.
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It had DNA from not
one person, but two. JIM THOMAS: The DNA profile
from the inside swabbing
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of the latex glove was
consistent with a mixture of the male victim and
the suspect, Vaughn Ross.
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With that small piece of
the tip of the latex glove, we were able to place
the suspect, Vaughn Ross,
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in that vehicle. -If that match
had not been made, somebody would have had
to have made a decision
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whether to let us go
ahead with what we had, or let it be an unsolved case. NARRATOR: Vaughn Ross
was arrested and charged
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with two counts of
first-degree murder, for shooting deaths of Viola
McVade and Doug Miller.
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As Ross was led to
the police station, investigators noticed he
was wearing a sweatshirt.
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On a hunch, they
confiscated the sweatshirt and sent to the forensics lab. GARLAND TIMMS:
Days later, I began
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examining that sweatshirt, and
found a stain of blood right on the front, right in the
chest area of that shirt.
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It was transferred blood. It was just a small stain, where
you could tell that that shirt
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had come into contact
with a bloody source. NARRATOR: DNA testing confirmed
the blood was Doug Miller's.
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Somehow Ross transferred a
small amount of Miller's blood onto his shirt. Based on the forensic
evidence, prosecutors
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believe they know what happened
on the night of the murders. Doug Miller wanted
company that night,
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so he asked an acquaintance,
Teresa Williams, if she knew anyone who was free? Williams introduced Doug Miller
to 18-year-old Viola McVade.
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-Hi, how are you? -Good.
Uh, good. NARRATOR: DNA testing
of a cigarette butt revealed Doug and Viola
spent part of that evening
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in Doug's home. [phone ringing] Telephone records indicate Viola
called Vaughn Ross' apartment
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and asked to speak
with her sister, Liza. Ross refused. Viola may have suspected that
Vaughn was physically abusing
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her sister, and told him she was
coming over to check up on her. -No. I'm going to come over there
and speak with her personally.
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-What did you hang
up on my sister for? -'Cause your sister is strange. -Well, y'all can
be like a kid now.
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NARRATOR: But Liza left
before Viola arrived. MATT POWELL: I
don't think she ever
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thought, in a million
years, that this was what was going to happen. I think she was
just tired of him.
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And she just left. I think, clearly, he
did the act on his own. NARRATOR: Prosecutors believe
Ross put on a pair of latex
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gloves, grabbed a
semiautomatic pistol, and waited for Viola to arrive. When Doug Miller drove into
the alley to drop Viola off,
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he walked into an ambush. Ross shot Viola three
times in her head. Then he killed Doug Miller.
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Glass from Miller's
car fell to the street. Forensic testing proved
this was the crime scene.
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As Ross moved Doug's
body to the back seat, a tiny piece of the
rubber glove ripped.
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Inside was enough DNA to link
Vaughn Ross to the crime. Ross drove five miles
to Canyon Lakes Park,
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and dumped the car in a
ravine, then ran home. Investigators believe,
Ross the gloves
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and the murder weapon in
a trash bin along the way. He never realized
he left the most
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incriminating evidence
inside the car. JIM THOMAS: And I believe
the tip of this latex glove
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was like the nail in
the coffin on this case. NARRATOR: Ross had a previous
conviction for assaulting
00:19:00
a previous girlfriend, so he
was no stranger to violence. Prosecutors think, in this
case, that Ross' animosity
00:19:07
towards Viola McVade
was what set him off. -I have no doubt it mind,
sitting here in front of you
00:19:13
today, that that's the
reason that she was killed, is because of this hatred
and this ongoing feud.
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NARRATOR: Despite the
forensic evidence, Vaughn Ross insisted
he was innocent. But this telephone
call, recorded in prison
00:19:27
before the trial, between
Ross and his mother, clearly contradicted that. MATT POWELL: That's
about as close-- he
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just couldn't lie to his mom. You know, an innocent person
just is going to say, come on!
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Of course not! Or no. But it was a long
pause, and I might have. I mean, to me, that's as close
a confession as you could get.
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NARRATOR: After
a two week trial, Vaughn Ross was convicted
of capital murder and sentenced to death.
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-That let's you
know, there's not a such thing as a perfect crime. There's some kind of
evidence somewhere,
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you just have to look
deeper to find it. The slightest little thing
can give a person away.
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NARRATOR: Ross took every
precaution he knew about, but it simply wasn't enough.
00:20:35
AARON FULLERTON: Finding
the tip of the latex glove is what conclusively
put him as the shooter.
00:20:39
So without the
science, I don't think he might have even been caught. ASHLEY RODRIQUEZ: I don't know
where this case would have gone
00:20:45
without finding the
tip of that glove, because there were so many
people involved that didn't
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tell the whole truth, that
you could tell were holding something back,
that may have wanted
00:20:56
to cover up for someone else. -One of my favorite quotes is
that, when man commits a crime,
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God will find a witness. [theme music]