00:00:04
[Music] a car accident left one person dead and a family in mourning at first it looked like the driver's
00:00:14
alcohol consumption was the cause but a closer look revealed a common weed found in an uncommon place
00:00:23
leading investigators to wonders was it really an accident [Music] [Music] [Applause]
00:00:41
[Music] [Music] peter and patty walassic lived in the small town of guilford in upstate new
00:01:00
york guilford is a beautiful quiet community it's historic community just as a small
00:01:06
hamlet they have the lake is their main attraction a beautiful lake has a lot of
00:01:10
summer homes on it but we have a lot of hunting land for deer hunting the walasticks were well liked in
00:01:16
guilford peter owned one of the local bars patty worked as a nurse at a local hospital
00:01:23
she got a lot of joy from that gave her a great sense of worth the only trouble spot seemed to be
00:01:30
several citations patty received for driving while intoxicated on a scale one to ten she would be a
00:01:37
nine i mean her one downfall her one floor was alcoholism and that's it other than that she was
00:01:45
perfect she did her fair share of partying and she did have her problems but she was
00:01:51
big enough and a strong enough person to try to persevere from them by going to school and getting her you know degree
00:01:59
on april 3rd 2002 patty worked the hospital's 3 to 11 shift when she came home peter was there but
00:02:07
the children were not somehow that night my wife neglected or forgot to pick up our
00:02:15
children at the babysitter he described it as being a mistake or miscommunication obviously
00:02:21
when she got there she thought that mr wolasik was going to pick him up he thought she was
00:02:26
they got into their truck and headed for the babysitter's house along the way patty tried to throw her
00:02:34
cigarette out of the window the cigarette had come back into the cab of the truck
00:02:38
both their attention was distracted towards the window where the cigarette should have went
00:02:44
when they looked up there was a deer in the road paddy swerved lost control of the truck
00:02:50
and plunged into the lake peter said he was unable to get his wife out of the truck
00:03:00
i can't hold on to her a lot of days i wish i'd been a lot stronger i wish i could have got her up
00:03:06
to the top peter ran to a nearby home for help [Music] divers pulled paddy's body from the
00:03:15
bottom of the freezing cold lake and she was rushed by ambulance to the same hospital where she worked but doctors
00:03:23
were unable to resuscitate her i didn't want to live anymore myself i couldn't picture going on anymore in
00:03:29
life without her i couldn't and there's reasons you know that i like to think it was either her or god
00:03:36
speaking to me that you know i didn't go further with what i was planning i'm
00:03:40
joining her toxicology tests showed patty had a blood alcohol level of .05 which was
00:03:48
under the legal limit she had imbibed some alcoholic beverages and for a woman of her size probably two
00:03:55
or three drinks in the previous hour or two as with most fatal accidents local officials conducted an accident
00:04:04
investigation which raised more questions than it answered dr james terzian performed the autopsy
00:04:14
on thirty-five-year-old patti wolasik the day after the fatal accident she had a number of abrasions and
00:04:22
contusions which are scrapes and bruises on the face on the under surface of the upper lip
00:04:29
on the shoulder regions those were the superficial injuries she also had particular hemorrhages or
00:04:35
micro hemorrhages on the surfaces of her lungs these hemorrhages can result from
00:04:40
drowning but there was very little water in paddy's lungs one does not have to have water in the
00:04:46
lungs to drown and it's possible to have water in the lungs after one has been
00:04:51
deceased and placed in water lab tests confirmed that paddy had been drinking [Music]
00:04:58
in his preliminary report dr terzian identified the cause of death as probable drowning
00:05:04
i'm left with minor cutaneous injuries abrasions and contusions and a person pulled out of water so that's a
00:05:14
drowning until proved otherwise there was one other finding for some unexplained reason
00:05:22
there were seed pods in paddy's hair and on her clothing the pods were from a common weed called
00:05:30
burdock they have these little hooks on them which stick to animals or people and they travel around and then usually
00:05:38
get dumped somewhere and so the plant gets distributed around that way finds new waste places to grow
00:05:48
at the accident scene investigators found the truck took an unusual route into the water
00:05:54
most of the lake is covered by home fronts with garages and houses and then the area that doesn't have
00:06:00
houses or garages or residents has has guide rails to prevent somebody going into the
00:06:04
league the truck veered into the lake at one of the few places where there was an
00:06:11
unobstructed path from the road to the lake and investigators found no traces of
00:06:19
deer in the area it's not one where you would generally expect to find a deer and had they
00:06:23
swerved for deer you would expect to see some sort of evidence of that breaking swerving skidding tires
00:06:30
you know anything like that there were tire impressions from paddy's truck on the shoulder of the right-hand
00:06:37
lane and tire impressions on the opposite side of the road in the grass accident investigator richard cobb
00:06:46
connected these impressions plotted the angle of the turn and then estimated the
00:06:52
speed of the vehicle using a standardized formula it's called the critical curve speed
00:06:58
formula it takes into account the grade of the road the drag factor of the roadway surface and also the
00:07:06
path of the vehicle meaning the arc that it turned where you can figure out a speed at
00:07:11
which the vehicle either would have been able to make the turn or would have lost
00:07:15
control making that turn v equals velocity g is for gravity which is a constant 32.2
00:07:23
r is for the radius of the r the curve and the greek letter mu is for the coefficient of friction or the drag
00:07:31
factor of the road service this formula revealed that the speed of the relasix truck was less than 30 miles
00:07:39
per hour considerably slower than what peter described had the truck been going faster
00:07:46
the interior of the truck would have been damaged the interior you would expect to see
00:07:51
maybe damage to the dash the knee panels from occupants knees steering wheel damage damage to either windshield or
00:07:59
side windows quite often unrestrained passengers will hit the rear view mirror break that off
00:08:04
the windshield or crack the mirror itself there wasn't any of that present in the
00:08:09
vehicle either and the physical evidence revealed another contradiction peter said he exited the truck through
00:08:18
the passenger side door but when it was brought up from the lake the passenger side door was locked
00:08:25
he also said patty was driving and still in the truck when he exited but her body was found
00:08:32
outside of the truck at the bottom of the lake inconsistent with his story the last one
00:08:39
he saw her she was in the driver's side of the truck in the walassic's home
00:08:45
investigators found patty's diary and it revealed that patty and peter were living what some would call an
00:08:53
alternative sexual lifestyle i just want to push you to the limit sexually i wasn't able to do that by myself
00:09:02
so i'd hope to bring in a different person [Music] according to the diary patty invited her friend the children's
00:09:11
babysitter joyce worden into their bedroom my wife joyce and i were involved in a
00:09:18
um three-way relationship there was actually no need for the whole world to know that my wife had this tendency that
00:09:24
my wife had initiated this that you know it was our private life but patty's diary indicated there were
00:09:30
problems i'm the one who shared my fantasy never knowing i would be the one to play
00:09:36
the outsider never realizing you would like her personality better than mine i honestly never thought you would go
00:09:44
elsewhere patty was concerned that peter and joyce were meeting behind her back peter denies it
00:09:52
my wife had no reason to be jealous worried or whatever with patty dead the only way she could tell her story
00:10:01
was through the autopsy and the forensic evidence there was one thing that troubled the
00:10:11
medical examiner about patio lassic's autopsy why were their seed pods in her hair and
00:10:19
on her clothing well i was thinking that maybe they attached themselves to her hair and
00:10:25
her clothing as she was pulled out of the lake by the emergency personnel so i asked the police to please go back
00:10:32
to the scene look at the bank where she was removed from the water and also look
00:10:37
underneath the water to see if there was any evidence of this plant material these burdocks at the site
00:10:44
but investigators found no such vegetation anywhere around the lake what lady goes out to pick up her kids
00:10:51
at the babysitter with burdocks in her hair it just doesn't happen investigators asked biologist julian
00:10:58
shepherd where burdock plants usually grow typically you find them growing in old
00:11:04
barnyards around old buildings abandoned lots frequently along the edges where people
00:11:12
haven't quite mowed but where there's some open space and they'll grow up like
00:11:16
this dr shepard says the plant doesn't grow in water and there were no burdock plants in the
00:11:24
well-tended yards along gilford lake but investigators found all sorts of wild specimens on the walassix property
00:11:34
he has a has a yard that was mowed the yard i would classify as not being very well kept the officers who did the
00:11:40
first room said you know there's a lot of burdocks around his property investigators found one burdock plant in
00:11:46
the couple's backyard with a broken branch and there was something foreign on this
00:11:52
plant strands of brown hair dna tests revealed the hair was patti walassics once we
00:12:03
had the anatomical findings we had to go on and correlate them with the situation and the scene findings
00:12:10
a closer look at the truck revealed another interesting discovery strands of paddy's hair were found in
00:12:18
the back bed of the truck and so was her pager the truck also held several significant clues
00:12:27
the front grill showed no damage whatsoever but tests conducted by the michigan state police showed that a motor vehicle
00:12:37
plunging into lake water at 30 miles per hour caused significant damage to the grill
00:12:45
and these studies showed something else [Music] a vehicle the size of a van or truck
00:12:51
doesn't automatically sink it took this vehicle over a minute to sink others
00:12:58
up to four minutes that said to us to me that the average person if they were conscious after hitting the
00:13:06
water should be able to escape a vehicle prior to it being submerged and the more
00:13:11
we pried into a story the more we found out his story didn't match the physical
00:13:14
evidence [Music] the lake's temperature on the night of the accident was 40 degrees
00:13:21
medical experts said that if peter had been fully submerged in the water he would have suffered from acute
00:13:27
hypothermia april water in new york is not some place you want to be in and if you are
00:13:34
in it for an amount of time you know you're gonna you're gonna have signs of
00:13:38
it his body core body temperature from what i understand uh should have been a lot lower than it was when he when he
00:13:44
finally received medical treatment peter's body temperature at the hospital was only slightly below normal
00:13:53
when i saw him they didn't they weren't even running a thermometer in his mouth
00:13:58
and on peter's shoes with the same burdocks as those in paddy's hair and on her coat
00:14:06
all of this information combined with the cuts on the inside of paddy's lip and the peticule hemorrhages in her
00:14:13
lungs led the coroner to conclude that the cause of death was suffocation not browning
00:14:22
and when we put all of this together it became apparent that she was dead before
00:14:26
she went into the lake peter wolasik denied killing his wife and said he had evidence to prove it
00:14:33
it's all scientific and medical based on the forensic evidence prosecutors believe that patty wolasik
00:14:44
was murdered by her husband peter who tried to make it look like an accident the life insurance on paddy's life was
00:14:52
three hundred thousand dollars money was one of the strong motives for mr elastic murdering his wife especially
00:14:58
evidenced by the fact that he was on the phone less than eight hours later trying
00:15:03
to collect the insurance proceeds prosecutors believe that peter left the children with the babysitter so he could
00:15:10
be alone with patti when she came home from work peter had been home from his job at the
00:15:17
bar for an hour according to family members it would be normal for peter to pick the kids up and have them home at
00:15:22
that time i'm sure that was part of his plan to make sure the kids weren't at
00:15:26
the house when he knew that he was going to commit the homicide after paddy had an alcoholic beverage
00:15:35
peter coaxed her outside then attacked her while suffocating her there was the cross transfer of paddy's
00:15:49
hair onto the burdock plant and the seed pods into her hair [Applause] when dragging her body to the truck
00:15:59
paddy's coat picked up more seed pods and they also attached to peter's shoes
00:16:07
the forensic evidence suggests the body was placed in the truck bed tire impressions show that peter pulled
00:16:17
over onto the right side of the road slowly steered the truck through the spot without a guard rail
00:16:25
down into the lake but he left both doors locked [Music] and patty's body was discovered
00:16:36
outside the truck [Music] prosecutors say peter got into the water briefly just enough to get himself wet
00:16:48
before running to a nearby home for help i guess one of my impressions was just how
00:16:54
in a way uh how stupid the case was i'm afraid i mean he made all sorts of blunders
00:17:01
[Music] peter velasque was arrested and charged with murder at the trial wolasic took the stand in
00:17:11
his own defense and he changed his story i'm here for telling a lie if i didn't lie back then i wouldn't be
00:17:20
sitting here today he now admitted that his original story to investigators was a lie
00:17:27
his new story was that patty was too intoxicated to drive and that he ordered her to pull over to the side of the road
00:17:35
so that he could take the wheel told her turn around take the vehicle home turned around
00:17:43
was still arguing arguing arguing and in a fit of rage she lost control over it and put the vehicle in the lake it's
00:17:51
like a road rage but there was no evidence that the truck ever turned around and why turn the truck around when your
00:18:00
destination the babysitter's house was just down the road he was stuck with the evidence the way
00:18:06
it was and his story had to match with the physical evidence that we had does it make sense absolutely not does it
00:18:12
defy logic absolutely and there was no evidence the truck was traveling at a high speed
00:18:20
any type of acceleration along the grass should have left torn up grass the grass
00:18:24
pulled up by the roots burned grass had the rear wheels been on the blacktop or in the loose uh gravelly
00:18:31
part between the blacktop and the grass you would expect to see skid marks or you know gravel thrown up
00:18:37
that sort of thing and we weren't able to find any of that either between the reconstruction work and the
00:18:42
forensic it's what really made the case because obviously his first version we
00:18:46
were able to punch complete holes and there was nothing left of his first version and actually a
00:18:51
second version wasn't much better walasik claims that the burdocks in paddy's hair were not from his backyard
00:18:58
but from the lake and that a scuba diver he hired found proof knowing what the scuba diver said what
00:19:06
he found what is in his report my scuba diver i'm believing now that the burdocks were
00:19:11
in the bottom of the lake and that's how they got on her the prosecution's expert said
00:19:21
this was impossible if it ended up in the water would deteriorate and when it becomes
00:19:26
wet the i guess you want to call it the stickiness to your clothing it doesn't
00:19:30
stick like that once it's wet and deteriorating in water the idea that the burdocks had been got
00:19:36
from the water was just [Music] pretty preposterous prosecutors believe that peter wanted a
00:19:44
new life with his girlfriend sole custody of his two children and the three hundred thousand dollars worth of
00:19:52
life insurance [Music] the jury deliberated for only three hours guilty peter wolasik was sentenced to 25 years
00:20:08
to life in prisons he continues to maintain his innocence they say you're innocent until proven
00:20:16
guilty no you're guilty to prove an innocent and that still hinges on how much money you
00:20:20
have and everybody's expecting you to prove that you didn't do it the forensic evidence in this case
00:20:28
turned out to be uh confession every time mr velasque opened up his mouth he said something that contradicted what
00:20:35
the forensic evidence told us about the state of the accident scene the state of
00:20:39
the truck and the state of patti wallace's body of the entire investigation the presence of the
00:20:44
burdocks made this case because it made us look further to see if in fact she was dead before she went into the
00:20:53
water or not it was critical in this case it's a small piece of evidence and it's not
00:20:58
even actually part of the body but it's what comes along with the body and that
00:21:01
was key in this case [Music] so [Applause] [Music] you