00:00:08
[yelling] NARRATOR: On a hot
summer evening in 1992, neighbors heard the familiar
sound of an argument coming
00:00:18
from the Campano residence. [yelling] According to
Christopher Campano, his wife left the house
shortly after their argument
00:00:32
to calm down. [yelling] Caren Campano was
never seen again. [music playing] Caren Campano was just two
weeks shy of her 43rd birthday
00:01:18
when she disappeared. She had just come
back to Oklahoma City after visiting her three
children, who were living
00:01:25
in New York, back to
the home she shared with her third husband, Chris. CHRIS CAMPANO: She come
back from New York,
00:01:33
and she went to talking about
moving back because of family, and she's upset. NARRATOR: Chris
and Caren Campano
00:01:43
were married in
December of 1987. Friends described
them as an odd couple. She was 15 years
older than Chris,
00:01:52
and it was her third
marriage, his first. They were introduced
to one another by Caren's best friend, who also
happened to be Chris's mother.
00:02:03
Chris was a drifter,
worked construction jobs, and spent some time in
jail for petty theft.
00:02:10
Caren was the main
wage earner, working as a bill collector
for this credit adjustment company in town.
00:02:17
On the evening of July
1, 1992, Chris and Caren had one of their frequent
arguments, this time
00:02:24
over his use of drugs. CHRIS CAMPANO: And
I was into drugs, and she was nagging at me
and trying to get me in drug
00:02:35
programs, just trying to help. NARRATOR: It was loud enough
for the neighbors to hear.
00:02:40
I could hear Caren
screaming, No, please, please, and don't do that. And I couldn't make out a
lot of what was being said,
00:02:48
just a lot of screaming. NARRATOR: According to
Chris, after the argument Caren left the house for a
walk headed to the Buy For Less
00:02:55
convenience store for
some personal items a few blocks away. Chris left too, driving to a
local bar for a few drinks,
00:03:04
staying until about midnight. The next morning Chris
called Caren's office to see
00:03:09
if she had reported to work. Her supervisor said she hadn't
shown up or even called in.
00:03:16
Chris then phoned the police
to report her missing. When the police arrived
to take Chris's statement,
00:03:22
they looked around
briefly and reported seeing no evidence of
foul play or anything
00:03:28
out of place or unusual. JOHNNY KUHLMAN: If a person
is going to run away or leave
00:03:33
her husband, she's not
just going to walk away and leave everything behind. She's going to take the
things that mean the most her.
00:03:39
Especially when you're
dealing with a woman, things of toiletries, makeup
and that kind of thing.
00:03:45
And of course, we
found all those things intact in the bedroom
and in the bathroom.
00:03:50
And it was if she
just disappeared off the face of the
earth without taking anything with her.
00:03:55
NARRATOR: While the
police were there, Chris mentioned that the house
had been burglarized the night
00:04:00
before while he
was out drinking, and that some
items were missing. Police asked Chris
to sign a waiver
00:04:06
to allow a search of the house. Then he agreed to do so and
thought that would be good
00:04:12
and even commented that
he hoped that we found something in the
house that would
00:04:16
help us with the investigation. JOHNNY KUHLMAN: The
first thing I recall seeing is the bed was
against the south wall,
00:04:23
in right next to the bed
was a large white trash bag, and underneath that trash
bag I could see it a very
00:04:29
large brownish colored stain. Of course the next
thing we did was went and got some
hemosticks, which
00:04:34
we carried in our vehicle. NARRATOR: A hemostick
is a chemical strip that can immediately
tell whether or not
00:04:40
blood is present. JOHNNY KUHLMAN: Take
the dry hemostick and with your finger
just lightly smeared
00:04:47
on the suspect
stain for some of it to transferred
onto the hemostick. Take a drop of distilled water.
00:04:57
There goes the hemostick. Flick off the excess water
and you have a dark green which is a positive presumptive
test for the presence of blood.
00:05:05
NARRATOR: The
stain on the carpet was indeed blood,
but was it human? And if so, whose was it?
00:05:11
The first day we were in the
house I put on a pair of gloves and that spot on that
carpet was still moist.
00:05:17
This piece of carpet
and padding was completely soaked with blood. It was such a massive
amount of blood
00:05:24
that there was still
actual moisture involved. It was not completely dry. NARRATOR: The carpet was
removed and delivered
00:05:30
to the Oklahoma City
Police Department's forensic chemistry lab. JOYCE GILCHRIST: I went on
to do a Ouchterlony test,
00:05:37
it's a specie determination
test to determine as to whether or not that blood
came from a human or an animal
00:05:44
source. NARRATOR: It was human blood. JOHNNY KUHLMAN: That
was enough to convince
00:05:48
me that we weren't dealing with
a routine missing persons case. NARRATOR: The police
needed more to go on
00:05:53
and felt the answers lay
inside the Campano's house. When police discovered human
blood inside the Campano's
00:06:03
bedroom, they suspected
the bloodstain might belong to Caren Campano. They also suspected
that Chris knew
00:06:10
more about her disappearance
than he was admitting. She left at 7:30. INTERROGATOR: And
what did you do then?
00:06:18
NARRATOR: Under
police questioning, Chris maintained
that he knew nothing about his wife's whereabouts,
but his alibi was weak.
00:06:25
The bartender didn't
recall seeing Chris Campano on the night of July 1st, and
police discovered that Chris
00:06:32
had pawned some
of Caren's jewelry the morning after
her disappearance. Without a body, the only thing
left for the police to do
00:06:41
was run more tests
inside the house. There weren't any
visible signs of violence
00:06:47
besides the bloodstain
they found in the bedroom. DR. FRED JORDAN: We saw a
typical little frame house
00:06:52
for Central Oklahoma City
that as you went inside looked quite clean, quite neat.
00:06:56
Things have been
cleaned out of it. Walls looked clean. Ceiling looked clean. The floor looked clean.
00:07:01
So there wasn't
much to see at all. NARRATOR: So they
decided to look for blood which may have been
cleaned up or wasn't
00:07:07
visible to the naked eye. To do so, investigators used
a special chemical solution
00:07:13
called luminol, an extremely
sensitive test which can detect blood which has been
removed by water
00:07:19
or even detergents and bleach. JOYCE GILCHRIST: Luminol is
a fluorescence type chemical.
00:07:23
Spray it on a substance that
contained-- that may contain blood, it reacts with the hemo
group in the blood itself,
00:07:28
the iron portions will
luminesce or fluoresce. NARRATOR: To do
the luminol test,
00:07:34
investigators needed
complete darkness, so they waited until nightfall. They began their chemical
dragnet in the bedroom,
00:07:45
where they discovered
the stain on the carpet a few days earlier. First they took photographs
of the room the way
00:07:52
it looked to the naked eye,
then they sprayed the luminol. The results were astonishing.
00:08:01
There were some instances in
that house where it glowed so brightly that you
could actually see
00:08:05
the person standing
next to you, there was so much blood in there. NARRATOR: The luminol
told a horrific tale.
00:08:12
Blood had been everywhere-- on the walls, the
ceiling, on the doors. CAPT. TOM BEVEL: It
looked like a blood
00:08:20
bath had occurred there,
something from a horror movie. NARRATOR: Even more telling
was the blood spatter, which
00:08:28
is the placement of the stains. Where they were located,
the size of the drops and the trails of
blood all told a story.
00:08:38
Someone had been beaten in the
bedroom with a blunt object. They were in two trails, what
we refer to as cast off trails,
00:08:48
so if you had an object
for example, in your hand, and that object
was blood covered,
00:08:53
and if you were swinging
that object overhead, the centrifugal force of
pulling the blood down
00:08:59
to the end of the object will
cast the blood in the direction the object is being
swung, and in this case
00:09:04
it's going to the ceiling. There are two distinct
trails, and you can tell that there's
at least two swings
00:09:15
with the blood covered object. NARRATOR: Luminol
was then applied to the rest of the house and
even to the outside steps
00:09:21
and walkways. JOHNNY KUHLMAN: At one point,
there's a swipe of blood that was on the kitchen door
leading into the utility
00:09:29
room that would have
been about head level if you were carrying
a body and had to turn the body sideways to
get it through a normal door.
00:09:39
And then at that point, it
appeared that the body was laid down on the ground and then
drug from the utility room
00:09:46
down the back steps. DR. FRED JORDAN: And you
could see pooled luminescence on each step and then drag
marks that were luminescent all
00:09:53
the way down the walkway
until you get to the point that you're at the driveway.
00:09:57
And at that point,
they disappeared. Very, very dramatic
presentation. NARRATOR: The house
was telling its story.
00:10:05
One of an apparently
gruesome attack. But there were still
unanswered questions.
00:10:13
Where was the body,
and the weapon? And was the blood
Caren Campano's? Police still couldn't prove
a murder had been committed.
00:10:28
Although the police knew
someone was violently attacked inside the Campano
residence, they
00:10:33
couldn't be sure a homicide
had been committed. Was there enough blood
in the Campano house
00:10:40
to prove that someone
was dead, and was that someone Caren Campano? The investigators
at a later time
00:10:48
decided that we'd go back
and try to do a measurement test to see how much blood had
been let out on that carpet
00:10:55
to make that size of a stain. NARRATOR: Police
made sure their test was as accurate as possible.
00:11:01
They used a piece of
the original carpet as well as a weight to
simulate a human head.
00:11:07
Next they poured human
blood around the weight until they created a stain
measuring 887 square inches,
00:11:16
the same size stain they
originally discovered. Statistically one could
say that between 1,300
00:11:22
and 1,400 cc's of blood
would create that stain. NARRATOR: That's more than 40%
of the blood volume of a woman
00:11:32
Caren Campano's size. No one could survive with
that amount of blood loss. So at that point it
became pretty apparent to me
00:11:40
that if this lady was
missing, and if this lady was dead, that
this lady probably
00:11:46
was killed right there. NARRATOR: The authorities
now knew a homicide had been committed in the house, and that
someone had died in the bedroom
00:11:55
in a pool of blood. But was the victim
Caren Campano? Police didn't have a sample
of Caren Campano's blood
00:12:03
to compare to the bloodstain. If Caren's mother and
father were still living, it would have been
a simple matter
00:12:10
to examine their DNA,
since Caren would have received half of her DNA
from her mother and half
00:12:16
from her father. But Caren's father was deceased. The Oklahoma City
Police Department
00:12:23
asked the FBI to get involved
to see if there was any way they could figure out whether
the blood found in the house
00:12:30
belonged to Caren Campano. The police obtained
blood samples from Caren's mother, her two
sisters, her three children,
00:12:38
and one of her ex-husbands. So in this particular case,
the object of the examination
00:12:42
was to see if this DNA from the
bloodstain of unknown origin was matching-- at least half of the DNA was
matching to the relatives
00:12:53
from Caren Campano. Hal Deadman of the
FBI's DNA analysis unit conducted what is
called RFLP analysis,
00:13:01
analyzing pieces of DNA from
four different chromosomes. This is the DNA profile
of Caren Campano's mother,
00:13:10
and next to it on either side
are two of her daughters, Caren Campano's sisters.
00:13:16
Both daughters share half of
their DNA with their mother. This lane shows a
DNA sample from one
00:13:22
of Caren Campano's ex-husbands. The next lane shows a
sample from his son, whose mother was Caren Campano.
00:13:30
The father and son both
share the upper band. The son would have
received the lower band
00:13:36
from his mother, which matches
the band from his grandmother, Caren's mother. The next autorad
compares the family
00:13:43
member's DNA to the
unknown bloodstain found in the Campano home. The top marker matches
the genetic profile
00:13:51
from the first of Caren
Campano's children, and the markers
from the bloodstain also match the bands from Caren
Campano's two other children
00:14:00
from another marriage. Results were fairly
straightforward. They were totally
consistent with the blood
00:14:07
coming from Caren Campano. Eight months after the
disappearance of Caren Campano,
00:14:13
police concluded that
Christopher Campano murdered his wife and was arrested. All of the evidence pointed
towards Chris Campano.
00:14:23
The forensic evidence,
the argument neighbors heard on the night of
Caren's disappearance,
00:14:28
Chris's lack of an alibi
for the entire evening, and the fact that he
pawned some of her things.
00:14:35
The prosecution believed
that Caren Campano never left her house for a walk
as her husband had suggested.
00:14:45
Neighbors heard Caren and
Chris arguing that night, and the forensic
evidence suggests
00:14:49
that the argument
moved to their bedroom where it escalated
and turned violent. [thump]
00:15:00
[thuds] As Chris stood near the window,
he struck Caren in the head with a blunt object at least
three times, possibly more,
00:15:19
producing the
castoff blood trails on the ceiling and the walls. Caren fell to the floor, her
head striking the bedpost
00:15:28
where her blood was also found. As Caren lay bleeding from
her massive head injuries,
00:15:33
Chris left and went
to a local bar. He needed to wait
until the neighbors were asleep before
removing Caren's body.
00:15:42
When he returned home,
he wrapped Caren's body in a sheet with a telephone
wire and carried her
00:15:48
through the house. Luminol tests showed
that Karen's head brushed against the door,
leaving a blood smear
00:15:55
later cleaned with detergent. Chris then dropped the
body onto the floor and dragged it through the side
door and out towards the car.
00:16:15
He probably disposed of
her body late that night in a deserted location. After returning home, Chris
removed all visible traces
00:16:29
of blood both inside and out. The DNA analysis showed the
blood found on the carpet
00:16:36
belonged to Caren Campano. And the medical examiner would
testify that Caren Campano
00:16:43
suffered horrendous head
injuries during the attack which no one could survive. Prosecutors were
confident of a conviction,
00:16:52
even though they didn't have
a body or a murder weapon. I thought it was very
likely we might never
00:16:58
find the body of the victim. NARRATOR: But just as
the preliminary hearing was set to get underway,
everything changed.
00:17:07
The police found Caren Campano. DETECTIVE: This part right
here wasn't quite so grown up
00:17:19
with all this ivy,
and she was laying right down there by that
large cottonwood tree,
00:17:24
north to south. And there were some
blankets around her. There was no greenery
at that time.
00:17:29
If there had been
greenery at that time, you'd never know she was there. NARRATOR: The body
lay in a remote area
00:17:35
off a major interstate highway
until some youngsters on dirt bikes stumbled across it.
00:17:42
DETECTIVE: All we
knew was that we had a female's body out there. We had no idea who it was.
00:17:49
Of course, we were hoping it
was Caren, but we didn't know. NARRATOR: There was
another important find.
00:17:55
Police discovered a piece of
a check underneath the body. Although they couldn't determine
to whom the check was issued,
00:18:03
it was from the
Shell Oil Company and mailed to
someone in New York. The check was for $83.34.
00:18:12
Caren Campano was from
New York, and her family had a part interest in
a gas station there.
00:18:18
JOHNNY KUHLMAN: This was
the first definitive piece that we had that we
knew at that point
00:18:26
there was a great possibility
that it was Karen. And, of course, we
wouldn't know for sure
00:18:29
until they made identification
through dental records and DNA. NARRATOR: Dr. Tom Glass
heads the Forensic
00:18:35
Odontology Department at
the University of Oklahoma. With the help of Caren
Campano's dental records
00:18:42
and an almost
complete set of teeth found in the skull of the
body, Dr. Glass's task
00:18:47
was fairly easy. DR. TOM GLASS: What I do in
making the comparison then is simply go frame by frame
by frame of the patient's
00:18:57
antimortem dental x-rays, the
x-rays made by the dentist, with the frames of
the same areas made
00:19:05
on the skeletonized remains. She had a very thorough
dentist who documented what he had done, and
that documentation allowed
00:19:14
the identification
in Caren Campano's case to be very profound. NARRATOR: And the DNA
analysis of the bone marrow
00:19:21
confirmed it. The last doubts
had been removed. JOHNNY KUHLMAN:
Personally I'm glad
00:19:27
she was eventually found because
of the family back in New York. I talked to them at
length over the phone.
00:19:35
Later on during the
investigation I met them. They're really great people,
and I really had strong feelings
00:19:42
for them hoping one
day she would be found so they could put
their own fears to rest
00:19:47
and give her a decent burial. NARRATOR: And Christopher
Campano confessed. The remarkable thing
about it, the autopsy
00:19:55
confirmed the prosecution's
theory of how Caren died. And that theory,
remember, was based only
00:20:04
on the luminol, the
blood spatter analysis, and the blood volume tests. The maxilla were fractured,
the mandibles were fractured,
00:20:12
the nose was fractured,
the sinuses were fractured, the skull was
extensively fractured.
00:20:16
Yet the cervical
spine was intact, and there were only three
fractures in the ribs.
00:20:19
So this is not the
hallmark of somebody who's been run over by a car
or somebody who's at a train
00:20:24
wreck or something like that. This is the hallmark
of someone who has sustained a severe beating
about the head and face.
00:20:31
So it was obvious that
this was an assault. NARRATOR: Police
and forensic science
00:20:36
had solved a difficult puzzle. JOY NEILSON: It
all what a story. It was just more of the pieces
of the puzzle coming together,
00:20:43
even all the way to the end when
the body was actually found. It's like we've got most
of the puzzle there.
00:20:50
You know what it is even
with some missing pieces, you know what it is. But then what that body
found it was like that
00:20:56
was the very last piece, then. That just fit in there. NARRATOR: In January of
1994, a year and a half
00:21:04
after Caren was killed,
Christopher Campano went on trial for his life. His defense attorney couldn't
refute the forensic findings.
00:21:14
They were just too strong. Once I had decided
to make that leap and embrace the evidence,
then my task became easier.
00:21:22
It was a matter then of looking
at the psychological aspects of the case rather than the
hard forensics of the case.
00:21:29
I suggested to the
judge and jury, if it was going to be
deliberately planned out
00:21:33
and methodical, that kind
of blood wouldn't be there. There would be none in
the house, probably.
00:21:39
The homicide would have
occurred elsewhere if it had been a cold blooded killing.
00:21:44
NARRATOR: The jury bought at
least part of the argument. It found Campano
guilty of manslaughter,
00:21:50
not the first degree murder
charge the state was seeking. CHRIS CAMPANO: I feel sorry her.
00:21:55
I feel sorry for
what I did to her. I can't bring her back. I just gotta pay
for what I've done.
00:22:03
NARRATOR: Christopher
Campano was sentenced to 1,000 years in prison. [door locking]