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NARRATOR: In 1991,
a high school girl vanished after
attending a party. Her abandoned vehicle
was found in a school
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parking lot near her home. The prime suspect had not
one, but two alibi witnesses
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for the night she disappeared. A solid alibi can often overcome
much circumstantial evidence,
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but forensic evidence
is another matter. On a Saturday night
in November of 1991,
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17-year-old Crystal Faye
Todd was dropped off in a mall parking lot
after attending a party.
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Since Crystal didn't have
to be home for another hour, she said she was
going to get something
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to eat before heading home. It was the last time
Crystal was seen alive. When she wasn't home by 1:00
AM, her mother contacted police.
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-Horry County Police. May I help you? NARRATOR: She also called
Crystal's best friend,
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Ken Register, who said he
hadn't seen Crystal all night. -After I talked to Ken Register,
I called one of my friends,
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and he got up out
the bed and come. We went all over
Conway hunting her, to see if we could
find her car anywhere.
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NARRATOR: They found
her car the next morning in a nearby school parking lot. Her purse and coat were inside.
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-I don't know why-- I
mean, I had the feeling. Just something come over me
that somebody had Crystal.
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NARRATOR: 17-year-old
Crystal Faye Todd was a senior in high school
living in the small tobacco
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farming town of
Conway, South Carolina. -I was 39 when she was born. She was a miracle
to me, and I just
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couldn't believe I had her. I was proud of her, too. NARRATOR: Crystal's dad died
when she was very young.
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But she grew up as a happy
child-- active in her church, sun in the youth group choir,
and dreamt of going to college.
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-Shew as very lively,
good personality, good humor, very outgoing. She just loved to
be with her friends
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hanging out and
having a good time. NARRATOR: Just a few hours after
Crystal's abandoned car was
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found in a school parking lot,
two hunters in a remote field noticed a trail of blood.
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It led to a nearby ditch. There lay a woman's body,
with multiple stab wounds and partially disrobed.
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-It was brutal, and
it was, uh-- it's a scene that will be
with me for a long time.
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-It was sexual in nature. I mean, it wasn't a murder
just to murder someone. It was sexual gratification.
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NARRATOR: On the victim's
finger was a high school ring. Engraved on the inside
was the name Crystal Todd.
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-I just wish it could have
been me instead of her. I've lived a long time.
She hadn't lived no time.
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NARRATOR: Investigators
thought the perpetrator might have been from outside the area.
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But forensic evidence
at the crime scene pointed much closer to home. -Well, I don't really
have a life anymore.
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I just exist. I go from one day to the next. And I don't even get up out of
the bed and face another day.
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It's just hard, but it
don't get any better. NARRATOR: Residents of
Conway, South Carolina
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were appalled by Crystal
Faye Todd's senseless murder. Medical examiner Dr. Jamie
Downs performed the autopsy.
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-She did have the defense
injury to the left hand. Because we thought
that odd at the time.
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Why would someone have defended
themself with their left hand? She was right-handed.
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Why not use your right
hand or dominant hand? NARRATOR: The answer was
discovered soon enough.
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One of the stab wounds
penetrated the left side of her skull, which
would have immediately
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paralyzed her right side. -What does a defense
would tell you? It tells you the
victim was conscious.
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It tells you the
victim was not bound. It tells you the victim
was cognizant of danger.
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NARRATOR: Some of the wounds
didn't cause bleeding-- an indication they
were made after death.
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-The victim is completely dead. The victim is there is
no longer struggling, yet the offender
still had enough anger
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that he incised or cut
the body after death. NARRATOR: In all, she
was stabbed 31 times.
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-The term that we
use is overkill. That's more wounding
than is necessary to take
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someone's life. NARRATOR: When Dr. Downs
measured the wounds, he concluded that the murder
weapon was a three and a half
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inch knife-- the type with
a blade that locks in place. It would have had to
be a locking blade,
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or it couldn't have
penetrated the skull. Forensic evidence confirmed she
had been sexually assaulted,
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and that she was murdered
on one side of the road and the body dumped
on the other.
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-Well, what it told me
is that he was panicking and he simply wanted
to disassociate
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himself from the crime. It told me that he probably
had never killed before and he was inexperienced
in this type of crime.
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NARRATOR: In search
for suspects, investigators first
looked through Crystal's personal papers.
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On one of Crystal's school
notebooks was the name Andy Tyndall,
written on the cover.
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Friends say Crystal met Tyndall
through a mutual acquaintance. Tyndall was a 31-year-old
convicted thief,
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wanted in Alabama for
a parole violation. Police also
discovered that he had a taste for high school girls.
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-No doubt about it, we
thought we had our man. He fit what we were looking for. NARRATOR: Forensic scientists
evaluated the rape test kit
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from Crystal's autopsy and
discovered that the killer had Type-O blood with an
extremely rare blood
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subtype characterized
by the enzyme PGM. -It stands
phosphoglycerate mutase. That is an enzyme
that is stable in body
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fluids from individuals. The blood type, the secreter
status, and the PGM subtype
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made him approximately
2% of the popular. NARRATOR: And the DNA
profile of the perpetrator
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was highly unusual, as well. -We found that the profile
was, in fact, rare, and occurred with a
frequency of approximately 1
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in 250 million Caucasians and
one and 1.5 billion blacks. NARRATOR: Surprisingly,
this forensic information
00:08:23
exonerated their prime
suspect, Andy Tyndall. More than 1,000 people attended
Crystal Faye Todd's funeral.
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Crystal's best friend
served as her pallbearers. Her grieving mother and police
appealed to the community
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for any information
about the crime. In response, a
resident of Conway came forward to say he had
driven by the school parking
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lot on the night Crystal
disappeared, and saw Crystal's car with a man and a
woman standing beside it.
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Now police had another lead. A police sketch
of his description looked too many like
Crystal's mother
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Bonnie and her boyfriend. -There is no
question in my mind, as I sit here today, that
the individual in this sketch
00:09:22
was Bonnie Faye
Todd's boyfriend. NARRATOR: Police
wondered just how much Crystal's mother knew
about the murder.
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A witnesses told police that on
the night Crystal disappeared, he had seen two people
standing near Crystal's
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car in the parking lot. His description matched
Crystal's mother and her mother's boyfriend.
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But when questioned
further, the witness admitted he had been
drinking that night
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and may have seen
Crystal's mother on Sunday morning, when she and her
boyfriend found Crystal's car.
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-I thought it was
awful, that, much as I love my daughter, to even
try to blame it on me.
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NARRATOR: With Bonnie
no longer a suspect and their previous
suspect, Andy Tyndell,
00:10:19
exonerated by DNA
testing, investigators had no other leads. So police commissioned
a behavioral profile
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of the killer. -Well, criminal
behavior profiling is when you have
an unsolved case
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and you study the crime and
the behavior of the offender during the commission
of the crime,
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and you arrive at
characteristics. It's a subjective opinion. You arrive at
characteristics and traits
00:10:47
of the unidentified
offender, such as age, race, marital status, arrest
history, educational level--
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things of that nature. NARRATOR: The profile suggested
that Crystal's killer was
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a white male in his early 20s,
and was a friend of Crystal's who lived within three
miles of her home.
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The young man was angry, and
probably had a police record. He was physically strong.
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Above all, the profile
suggested that he was confident he would never
be considered a suspect.
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Since the profile suggested that
the killer was one of Crystal's friends, police asked her male
classmates and acquaintances
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to voluntarily give blood
samples for DNA testing. Despite the challenge to
their civil liberties,
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52 men complied. -It wasn't-- well,
anything's voluntary. But they still had
a pool of names
00:11:48
that they were pulling from. And then when they
pulled the name, then they would ask if you would
go down and give the DNA test--
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or give the specimen. And everybody volunteered. I haven't heard of
anybody not doing it.
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NARRATOR: Incredibly, one of
those DNA profiles matched the DNA of the perpetrator,
donor number 44.
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When investigators
asked Crystal's mother to name the one person she
would least expect to hurt
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her daughter, she
identified the same man. -He says who do
you trust her with, day or night, anytime,
anywhere, that she won't date?
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And I said Ken Register. NARRATOR: Ken Register
and Crystal Todd had known each other
since childhood.
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Their relationship
wasn't romantic. There was simply
very good friends. They spoke together
almost every day.
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And it was Ken who Mrs.
Todd first called for help on the night
Crystal disappeared.
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Ken has also been one of
Crystal's pallbearers. When police checked Ken
Register's background,
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they discovered two troubling
pieces of information. First, he had an
explosive temper,
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and he also had a
criminal record. Two months earlier, two
local college students
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accused Register
of exposing himself when he stopped to
ask for directions. -I'm lost.
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I'm looking for the library. Can you help me out here? -Ew, you asshole. -Ew!
What the hell?
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NARRATOR: Three years before
that, as a 15-year-old, Register was caught making
obscene telephone calls
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to this woman, in which he
described in detail how he wanted to assault
and murder her.
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-He said he would
slit me wide open, and many other
graphic descriptions. NARRATOR: The murder registered
described in these calls
00:14:06
was identical to the murder
of Crystal Faye Todd. -Exactly where were you the
night that Crystal died?
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NARRATOR: But Ken Register
was flabbergasted when told his blood DNA
matched Crystal's killer.
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He asked police, rhetorically,
why he would have agreed to a blood test if
he was the killer.
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When police search
Register's car, they could find no evidence
linking him to the crime scene.
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Register also had an alibi. His girlfriend said he was
with her at this go kart track
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that night, and his mother
said Ken was home by 12:30. -That alibi was about
as strong as you're
00:14:48
going to get-- very
surprising to me. And it's always
compelling evidence. -I know where I was
at, when I was at there
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that night-- right
here at my house. And I know when he came home. NARRATOR: Although
Ken Register's mother
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was his alibi witness, she
would later play a key role in solving Crystal
Todd's murder.
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Crystal Todd's best
friend, Ken Register, was now the prime
suspect in her murder.
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His DNA matched the DNA
found at the crime scene, but he insisted he was
innocent, and provided
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two alibi witnesses-- his
girlfriend and his mother. Ken had been a regular
guest in Crystal's home,
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but Mrs. Todd said
she knew nothing about his criminal past. -If I had known about indecent
exposure and threatening phone
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calls, Ken Register would never
have put his foot in my house. But I didn't find out about
it until it was too late.
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NARRATOR: And Mrs. Todd now
reveals something her daughter told her, which may
hint at the motive.
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-In the week and a half
before she was killed, she said, Mama, Ken's still
wanting me to date him.
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I said, well, he must
think a lot of you, having a girlfriend. And she said that's
all he wanted was sex.
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And I said, well, don't
go with him, then. -OK, Ken. Let's go over this again. NARRATOR: During
police questioning,
00:16:20
Ken Register denied any
involvement in the murder. But towards the end of a
six-hour interrogation,
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police told him his mother
had sent him a message. -Thank you. -Thank you. Ken, here's a note
from your mother.
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Your mother says to tell
us exactly what happened, and to be truthful about it. And if you do, your mother
says everything will be OK.
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NARRATOR: And with that,
Ken Register confessed. -I did it. NARRATOR: He said he saw Crystal
around midnight at a traffic
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light near the
school parking lot. -Hey, Crystal. -Hey.
-Hey, what's up? -Hey.
-How are you?
00:17:19
-Good.
-Hey, listen. You want to go hang out or do
something for a little bit? -Yeah, cool.
All right.
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Wait. Just let me go park. -All right.
I'll follow you. NARRATOR: Crystal
got into his car.
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They drove to a
deserted location, where Register said the
two had consensual sex.
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The forensic evidence suggests
it wasn't consensual at all. -What, no condom? What, are you stupid?
00:17:48
Oh my god. Look Ken, I'm telling you
right now-- if I get pregnant, I'm telling everybody
you raped me.
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Don't blow it off. I'm serious.
Asshole. NARRATOR: When she got out
of the car to get dressed,
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Register said he grabbed the
hunting knife from the car and killed her. Further sexual activity
took place after death.
00:18:27
-I don't think Crystal Faye
Todd did anything that night to cause her death,
other than the mere fact
00:18:33
she got in the car with him. NARRATOR: Prosecutors believe
that Register cleaned his car
00:18:40
sometime after the crime to
remove possible evidence. -The evidence had been
systematically destroyed
00:18:49
before we realized
that he was a suspect. NARRATOR: In Register's home,
police found an empty box--
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a box for a knife
with a locking blade. Forensic scientists determined
that the missing knife would
00:19:08
have been similar
to the weapon used to inflict Crystal's
stab wounds. Before the trial,
Register recanted
00:19:16
his confession,
saying it was coerced. He said police lied to
him about the contents
00:19:21
of his mother's note. But lying to a suspect
during a police interrogation is perfectly legal.
00:19:29
-There's no doubt in my mind
that Mr. register brutally and viciously killed
Crystal Faye Todd.
00:19:36
And there's also no doubt in my
mind that he enjoyed doing it. -I mean, there was just too
much time unaccounted for.
00:19:41
He had plenty, . Ample time to do everything
that he was accused of and still be home when
he said he got home.
00:19:49
NARRATOR: But why did Register
willingly give a blood sample for DNA testing if he
was the perpetrator?
00:19:58
Published reports say that when
police requested a DNA sample, Ken register asked, what is DNA?
00:20:06
At the time, DNA testing had
been used in criminal cases for about five years, but
Register was apparently
00:20:13
unfamiliar with it,
since it hadn't yet been used in the state
of South Carolina.
00:20:19
His case was the first. Ken register was
convicted of murder, kidnapping, and sexual assault.
00:20:28
He was sentenced to life
in prison plus 35 years. -They found him guilty. And I was glad they
found him guilty now.
00:20:38
I was proud of that. But I want him to get
the electric chair. -A mental job, psycho.
00:20:50
I don't know what's
wrong, but something's not clicking to where it's
supposed to be clicking.
00:20:57
NARRATOR: Ken Register
and his family still say he is innocent, but
several subsequent DNA tests
00:21:04
have all confirmed
the original findings. -I know what I know because
I know I was home that night,
00:21:11
and I know when he came home. I can't explain the DNA. I wish I could. There's so many questions in
this that you can't explain.
00:21:19
-Based on everything that
I know about the violence of this crime is that when he
left the scene of that murder,
00:21:26
he would have been
a bloody mess. -I think there's
a lot of covering up going on in that house.
00:21:33
She seen him covered
in blood all over, and I know he was covered
in blood all over.
00:21:36
He had to be. And she helped clean him up. She got Crystal's blood
on her hands, too.
00:21:47
NARRATOR: Bonne Faye Todd visits
Crystal's grave faithfully. And she thanks
science for bringing
00:21:54
Crystal's killer to justice. -I love you more than
I do my own life. -Without the DNA
and the blood, we
00:22:04
would have never
gotten to first base-- probably never even
made an arrest. INTERVIEWER: That's scary.
-Yeah.
00:22:10
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