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[Music] two different men called police to report the same murder apparently neither one knew that the
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other had called the investigation uncovered even more unusual circumstances but a few tiny seeds and a discarded
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candy wrapper were more than just insignificant clues they told a story of revenge
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[Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] like many divorced people pamela sweeney
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hoped she'd find someone to share her life with construction worker larry fleck was the
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man she set her sights on we were planning on getting married we're talking about probably moving out
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of minneapolis at one time i don't know we're just just having a good time the two of us
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she was a little kid full of life and uh i don't know how really how to explain
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it she just made the house light up pamela worked as a secretary for a computer company outside minneapolis
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the most important thing in her life was her five-year-old son tony on the friday before memorial day in
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1991 pam told her parents she wasn't feeling well and asked if they could take care
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of her son overnight she told them she was just going to take a bath and go to bed but before she did
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she spoke with her boyfriend she says what time are you getting off tonight i was well i got to work pretty late
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it's going to be late she says well i want you to come over i said it's going to be really late
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she says i want you to come over tonight flex says he arrived at pam's house
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around three o'clock in the morning when he looked into pam's bedroom he
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knew something was terribly wrong i seen [Music] spot of blood up on the headboard
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uh oh my goodness and and the bed she was laying across the crossways all wrapped up rolled up in a
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blanket i didn't want to do it but i took the covers i rolled him back and there she was
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laying fleck ran to a neighbor's house to call police she's cut all the hell
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okay hold on just a second less than two minutes later as police were on their way they got another
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telephone call this one from one of pam's co-workers patrick walsh okay what's the problem
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[Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] we had two males calling in stating that
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a female they had known something terrible had happened to her and they needed the police
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when questioned both men had unusual stories to tell larry fleck said pam invited him and
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that he ran from her house because he thought the killer was still inside [Music]
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patrick walsh said he drove by pam's house on his way home from a local bar he said the lights were on and he wanted
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to check on her because she had been out sick that day at work police now had a dead woman and two men
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at the house at three o'clock in the morning [Music] investigators hope forensic evidence
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would sort through what was to become a very complicated tale when pam sweeney was found murdered in
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her own bed police had to deal with a highly unusual situation two men were at the scene they didn't
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know each other but both knew the victim everybody's a suspect and when they got
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out there they had patrick walsh he's a suspect he's secured he's handcuffed
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they processed the scene larry fleck was at the neighbor's house another officer
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went there to secure him pam sweeney had been shot four times stabbed four times
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and her clothing had been partially removed you go numb you just you a thug like your heart hits the
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bottom your stomach and you don't know what's you it's just like there's a humming
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going on in your head you don't know what's going on around you pam's parents were asked who they
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thought might have killed their daughter and they had a ready answer you know i thought her ex-husband was
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the one that done it he had 30-something weapons in the house he tried to he tried to be a big gun
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collector and he had some big guns so we i first thing i thought was well since it's pam it's got to be mike
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at pam's home there were no signs of forced entry and there was another clue
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that pam knew her killer we believe after he completed the final blow and she was dead and he saw the
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dead body he in an act of contrition covered the body completely it was completely covered we think he did that
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so as not to see what he did to cover it up out of sight out of mind the murder weapons could not be found in
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the house but as the sun rose investigators saw a path in the dew that had settled on the
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lawn it led to a wooded area behind the house officers got on their hands and knees
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and went through that backwoods inch by inch back there was found a knife which had
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been stuck into the ground right to the handle and a small revolver was found lodged
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under some loose boards that were laying behind the shed the knife matched a set of kitchen
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knives inside the house the pistol was the same caliber as the one used in the crime
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both had been wiped clean of blood and fingerprints in front of pam's home investigators found the clue first
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thought to be insignificant in patrick walsh's truck police found a candy wrapper the same
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candy was found in pam sweeney's kitchen but this brand of candy had a lot number
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on the wrapper when police compared the lot number on the candy and pam's house with the
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rapper in walsh's truck it was a match so we drew an inference from that that
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this guy while he was there was calm enough actually to take one of those bags of candy out of the drawer needed
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but this was inconsistent with walsh's story he said after he found pam's body he
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called police then ran outside to his car to try to get help if this were true would he have stopped on his way out of
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the house to grab a piece of candy [Music] perhaps the most bizarre incident in the
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case was that walsh's car was stuck in a ditch next to pam's driveway walt said
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he accidentally drove into the ditch when going for help both patrick walsh and pam's boyfriend
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fleck had what appeared to be bloodstains on their trousers and they both had plausible explanations
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both men said they were close to pam's body when each discovered she was dead
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but walsh's clothing held a possible clue during the time that patrick walsh was
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being processed at the jail they of course removed all of his clothing and his shoes and socks and we
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on the back of his shirt located a leaf and in his shoes we located a number of different types of vegetation
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investigators wondered whether this vegetation was enough to identify a killer while investigating the murder of 35
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year old pamela sweeney police had three suspects pam's ex-husband her boyfriend and her
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co-worker police learned that pam's ex-husband was with friends on the night of the murder
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and was eliminated as a suspect pam's boyfriend also denied any involvement they asked questions like
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how long i knew her if i always come over there that time of night you know why so late in the
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evening i show up this person's house and basically asked me if i did and i said no you know i'm in love with this
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person why would anybody want to do something like that to someone you know [Music]
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when patrick walsh's name came up as a suspect in pam's murder her family and friends said they weren't
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surprised he did harass her on the job he harassed her on the telephone for six months
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night and day she did call the police but there was nothing they could do her pastor thomas braun
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got a call from her a few months before the murder there was great amount of fear in her
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voice she was she was beyond herself she couldn't think straight um emotionally
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physically she was she was a wreck walsh was married and worked as a supervisor in the same company as pam
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she told friends that walsh asked her out on numerous occasions and wouldn't
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take no for an answer he also stopped by her home unannounced and performed various household chores
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without being asked in an attempt to win her affections he had been stalking her
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for months obsessed with her physically and in his mind and his entire being she's never talked to me about she's
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never said somebody was taunting her following her things like that she'd never said a word
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to me pam did however go to the police but they told her walsh hadn't broken the
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law and there was nothing they could do in their search for evidence investigators focused on the vegetation
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found on walsh's clothes and shoes walsh said it probably got there when he walked across pam's front lawn towards
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his car this gave police an idea we did something i had never done before we contacted the university of minnesota
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and we asked for a taxonomist a forensic taxonomist a taxonomist is an expert in living
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organisms dr anita chalowa examined the various bits of leaves grass and other vegetation from walsh's clothing
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there was lawn grass there was crab grass and the oddball things there were some seeds of quackgrass
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quackgrass is a common weed and it rarely produces seed since people usually mow it before it gets to the
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flowering stage this meant that the cracked grass seeds on walsh's clothing were rare and
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unusual dr challawa also discovered another species on walsh's clothes seeds from an
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aspen tree which are called bracts aspen is fairly common in minnesota but it's not the sort of thing that you'd
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see in someone's backyard the combination of an aspen seed and quack grass told dr chalawa that patrick
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walsh had been in a wooded area with high weeds dr chalawood didn't find any quack grass
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or aspen bracks around walsh's home [Music] dr chalowa discovered an area behind
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pamela's shed that was untended and overgrown there was a lot of quack grass in there
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a number of other things too but the quack grass was and it had clearly been flowering and
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fruiting in that woodlot she also found numerous aspen brats the area dr chalua identified was the
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exact spot where investigators found the murder weapons [Music] she was convinced the specimens on
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washer's clothing were relatively fresh it wouldn't have attached itself to him
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for long periods of time that it had to be something real recent in order to still be
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attached to his pants and stuck in his shoes but this was far from conclusive evidence
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so police turned to a more traditional crime science they analyzed the blood spatter at the crime scene
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walsh said he briefly shook pam's body to see if she was alive before he ran
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from her room but the blood on his clothing told a different story the staining was consistent with him
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coming in contact with a large amount of her blood on his pants leg and stains consistent with spatter being found on
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him which would indicate that he had been in close proximity when she was being stabbed
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and the size and shape of the spatter indicated the blood hit walsh's pants from a blood-covered object that had
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been in motion investigators found similar blood spatter on the ceiling above the bed
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these were perfectly circular indicating the blood went straight up from the impact site
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the blood spatters give us a fairly good idea of where she may have been and also
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the nature of the tank and how violent it was how brutal it was and how the knife was wielded i could look at the
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blood stain patterns on the walls and determine the site where this impact took place and this was
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right on the bed where she was found and it indicated that that's exactly where
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she was attacked on the bed she was stabbed in the bedroom but shot elsewhere there was a blood trail leading to the
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bedroom from the foyer and bullets were found in the floor this was where pam sweeney was shot
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we believe she was probably shot first in the lower levels of the house and dragged her carried upstairs
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and then stabbed in her bedroom and died most likely from from the stab wounds not the gunshot wounds
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a blood stain on walsh's pants was consistent with carrying a bleeding person
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the forensic evidence also explained why patrick walsh called police to report the murder
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patrick walsh in a panic attempting to leave the scene of this killing got in his pickup truck
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miscalculated the driveway and drove into the ditch it's now three o'clock in the morning he
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just murdered a young woman and his pickup truck is hopelessly stuck in a ditch what do you do
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a week before her death pam sweeney told her family she couldn't find a set of house keys and was
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considering changing her locks on the day of her murder the keys resurfaced in the front seat of patrick walsh's
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black pickup truck lo and behold was pamela sweeney's stolen keys so there was a direct connection he never really
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explained how it got there police believe walsh stole the keys while he and pam were at work proof they said
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that he planned the attack about a week before the killing he had called up an ex-girlfriend and
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wanted to get his 22 caliber handgun returned he had loaned it to her earlier he
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wanted it back he claimed it was for an elk hunting trip he was going to make but that was
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we found out later not planned for eight months down the road so we believe he was actively engaged in
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planning this well before the day of the killing [Applause] inside walsh's home
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police found a number of 22-caliber shells those were sent to the fbi laboratory
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for neutron activation analysis they were able to identify that the lead compositions in the lead fragments that
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we found in miss wiene's skull matched the lead compositions that were in the shells
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found in mr walsh's apartment a few years earlier walsh was allegedly involved in eight
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assault cases with other women and was a suspect in a previous murder [Applause]
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[Music] prosecutors believe when pam sweeney rejected walsh's advances he sought revenge
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our belief was that that just infuriated him i think he took the view in his sick
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twisted psychotic mind how dare you reject me when i have been doing all of these overtly kind acts for
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you how dare you the evidence suggests walsh entered pam's home around 11 pm
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while pam was asleep but she must have heard someone inside and made her way to the hallway
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where she confronted walsh there was an argument walsh fired twice into the floor
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possibly to scare her the next four shots hit pamela sweeney walsh carried her to the bedroom
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then stabbed her to death causing the blood spatter on the ceiling and on his clothes then
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covered the body a tell-tale clue that the killer was someone pam knew the evidence suggests walsh stayed long
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enough to have a can of soda and grab a piece of candy and when he went to his car
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he left the candy wrapper on the seat beside him but he accidentally drove his car into a
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ravine on the side of the driveway and couldn't get it out walsh then went back inside the house in
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the basement to look for something to get his car free then a surprise [Music] pam's boyfriend larry fleck arrived
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after work when fleck discovered the murder he ran to a neighbor's home for help
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[Music] walsh had to act quickly he tried again to move his car but couldn't so he had
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to remove the evidence the botanical evidence on his pants proved walsh ran into the high grass and
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woods behind pam's home to dump the murder weapons when he returned and knowing police
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would find his car walsh had no choice but to call police himself to make it appear as if he too had driven by and
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found pam dead it was clear to me that the suspect had been in that woodlot i don't see how he
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could have acquired that material any other way based on what the investigating officers
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knew of where he had been at the time of the crime and the previous 24 hours i guess the irony of it is in
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going to that location and and picking up those soil samples and the seeds from the local trees he did put himself right
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at the very spot he was trying to hide evidence that he didn't want to be connected to so
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i think that's that's fairly significant seven months after pamela sweeney's
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death patrick walsh went to trial for first degree murder the sheer volume of forensic evidence
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against him was overwhelming it's amazing when you're prosecuting a first-degree murder case and you have a
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thousand puzzles and you're convinced that you have the right person it is amazing how those pieces of the puzzle
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start to fall together fitting perfectly patrick walsh was found guilty and sentenced to life in prison
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patrick walsh is a psychopath and perhaps the most dangerous man i have ever seen
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i favor the death penalty but then again from what i hear what's happening to him once in a while in
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prison [Music] i think he's probably got a harder time right now being alive
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than being dead [Music] [Music] you