00:00:05
NARRATOR: An insurance adjuster
disappeared while inspecting property damage
after a severe storm.
00:00:11
The water currents of a nearby
river provided some answers. And the forensic evidence on
a motorcycle part and bank
00:00:20
envelope explained the motive. [music playing] NARRATOR: In the summer of
2004, there were four hurricanes
00:00:55
in Florida within six weeks
causing more than $1 billion worth of damage. Thousands were left homeless.
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ROD CARTER: A lot of people
had a lot of hurricane damage. I mean for months,
and months, and months
00:01:07
after the storms hit, you
could see blue tarps on roofs throughout the state of Florida.
00:01:13
NARRATOR: All across the state,
insurance companies dispatched their adjusters to
assess the damage claims.
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One of them was 25-year-old
Katie Froeschle. It was her first job after
graduating from college.
00:01:27
JEFF FROESCHLE: We got hit with
the first, and then the second, and the third, and then
the fourth hurricane
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in such a short time. They were absolutely
overwhelmed. NARRATOR: One Friday night,
after a grueling week of work,
00:01:40
Katie was supposed to
meet a group of friends at a local restaurant. But she never showed up.
00:01:47
In fact, none of her
family and friends heard from her all weekend. JEFF FROESCHLE: My wife just
kept calling Kate periodically,
00:01:56
and saying she can't
get hold of her and she just doesn't
understand where she could be.
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LEO FROESCHLE: She had had
a four year relationship with a guy, and had
broken up with him,
00:02:07
and was living independently. And for the first
time in her life was making her own decisions.
00:02:13
NARRATOR: Katie's
best friend, Amy, had a key to Katie's apartment
and let herself inside.
00:02:21
Everything was in perfect
order, although the cat hadn't been fed. And Katie wasn't there.
LEO FROESCHLE: She knew.
00:02:30
She knew something
was really wrong. And so she called and she said
I don't want to alarm you,
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but I'm worried about Katie. I don't know where she
is, and I can't find her. NARRATOR: Police
put out a bulletin
00:02:41
for Katie's car, a maroon
colored Chevy Impala. Katie's employer said her last
appointment on Friday afternoon
00:02:50
was to check on an insurance
claim of a leaking roof at a home in Tampa,
Sulphur Springs section.
00:02:57
LEO FROESCHLE: I knew the
kind of neighborhood it was. It was an extremely
bad neighborhood.
00:03:00
JEFF FROESCHLE: Katie,
for some reason, was having trouble finding it. And Amy was back at the
office, on I think, Map Quest,
00:03:09
and was directing
Katie to the property. NARRATOR: According
to Katie's co-worker,
00:03:14
she finally found the property. Someone walks up. She goes oh I think
I found it, someone's
00:03:19
walking up to the car. I'll talk to you later. JEFF FROESCHLE: And that's
the last anyone talked to her.
00:03:26
NARRATOR: Katie's
parents drove out to the home at 1503
Mulberry Street, and spoke to the occupants,
Jason Funk and Pamela Hintz
00:03:36
A young couple
who had just moved into the rental property
three days earlier. JASON FUNK: We moved in, and
now we have strangers knocking
00:03:44
on our door asking hey have you
seen Katrina Froeschle here? And then people asking well
have you seen an insurance car?
00:03:54
NARRATOR: Jason and Pamela told
the Froeschle's they didn't see Katie on Friday because
they weren't there.
00:04:00
And there was something else. They said there was no leak
in the roof that they knew of.
00:04:06
And that the landlord
said nothing to them about an insurance adjuster
coming by to look at it.
00:04:13
Just a mile away, in the
parking lot of the local bar, Katie's parents found
her abandoned car
00:04:19
and called police. It was unlocked, with
Katie's keys still inside. LEO FROESCHLE: My first thought
was she was in the trunk.
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JEFF FROESCHLE: You
wanted them to open it, but you didn't want
it-- to open it.
00:04:33
You just didn't. LEO FROESCHLE: When
they opened that trunk, it was dead silence.
00:04:42
NARRATOR: In the locked trunk
of Katie Froeschle's car, investigators feared that
they'd find her body.
00:04:49
But they did not. The only thing there
was Katie's purse. Her money and credit
cards were missing.
00:04:56
JEFF FROESCHLE:
You were relieved because she wasn't just there. But she wasn't there, so
you were still looking
00:05:03
and you didn't
know where to look. NARRATOR: Forensic
scientists searched for evidence inside the car.
00:05:10
They didn't find any
blood or fingerprints, but they did find skin
cells on the steering wheel.
00:05:18
LESLIE NIXON: Swabbings from the
steering wheel of Katie's car were submitted to
the laboratory,
00:05:23
and DNA testing was
performed on these samples. We found a mixture of DNA of
at least two contributors.
00:05:32
NARRATOR: One was
Katie Froeschle's. The other DNA profile was
presumably the killer's.
00:05:41
Other than an empty bank
envelope inside the car, investigators
found nothing else.
00:05:48
KIM SEACE: It was obvious,
whatever happened to Katie, didn't happen
inside of that car.
00:05:53
NARRATOR: Police interviewed
residents and workers in the area. And found a janitor who
said a man left the car
00:06:01
in the parking lot
the day before. CHUCK MASSUCCI: A
witness had seen a white male, approximately
six foot two, six foot three,
00:06:09
walking away from the car. JEFF FROESCHLE: He
had driven the car up, and had gotten out of the car,
and had started walking away,
00:06:16
and had just dropped the keys
in the car and left it unlocked. NARRATOR: Investigators searched
the area between Katie's
00:06:24
last scheduled appointment and
where her car was discovered, roughly a mile away.
00:06:33
On a hunch, Detective
Massucci searched the shores of the Hillsborough River,
and eventually got a break.
00:06:40
CHUCK MASSUCCI: As I
was scanning the water with my flashlight, I
caught a glimpse of white,
00:06:47
and I went back to it. And it took me several minutes
to recognize what it was, but eventually it appeared
to me to be a bra.
00:06:55
I could see a little
bit of a bra strap. I realized that we
were beyond red flags,
00:07:03
that we have something
potentially tragic here. NARRATOR: Soon, everyone's
worst fears were confirmed.
00:07:10
It was Katie Froeschle. LEO FROESCHLE: I just fell down. I remember just like somebody
punched me in the stomach.
00:07:22
I just doubled up and just
fell down to the ground. I just couldn't believe it. NARRATOR: She had
been in the water
00:07:34
for approximately 30 hours. It appeared that she'd also
been sexually assaulted.
00:07:41
JEFF FROESCHLE: This doesn't
happen to people like us. This happens to other people.
00:07:47
We read about in the papers,
we see about it on TV, but this doesn't happen to us.
00:07:52
NARRATOR: The autopsy
revealed blunt force injuries to the back of Katie's head.
00:07:58
JOYCE DEJONG: It
was very apparent that this was not a drowning. But in fact she was
probably murdered
00:08:03
and then put into the water. There certainly
remains the possibility that she might have been alive
when she was put in the water.
00:08:09
I don't know that
that can be ruled out. NARRATOR: But the
medical examiner found distinct marks
on Katie's skull.
00:08:17
Marks known as pattern injuries. JOYCE DEJONG: There
was a mark left behind by the weapon that was
very characteristics.
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There was a circular
mark that was 1.2 centimeters, is I
think how big it was. NARRATOR: The medical
examiner told investigators
00:08:34
that the wounds might be
matched to the murder weapon, if it could be found. JOYCE DEJONG: If you
detect a pattern injury,
00:08:42
and then you could in fact,
find the weapon, that's a huge help to
the investigation.
00:08:48
NARRATOR: A rape test
kit was inconclusive. Investigators' next task was to
find out how far Katie's body
00:08:57
traveled in the Hillsborough
River before police found her. This could potentially
identify the crime scene.
00:09:08
It's a relatively
simple formula. From the length of time
a body's in the water,
00:09:14
you can figure out the
distance the body travelled, if you know the speed
of the currents.
00:09:22
Investigators got a huge
break when they learned there was a dam a
few miles upstream.
00:09:28
When it opens, it significantly
increases the water current. CHUCK MASSUCCI: In the 28
hour period between the time
00:09:35
we believe Katie was
put into the river, to the time I found her, the
dams had been closed off.
00:09:42
NARRATOR: That meant that
Katie's body entered the river, pretty much where she was found.
00:09:51
From the moment Katie
Froeschle's body was found in the
Hillsborough River, police considered the home
at 1503 East Mulberry Street
00:10:00
as a possible crime scene. It was just 100 feet from where
Katie's body was discovered.
00:10:09
The young couple living there
were shocked by what happened. They insisted they weren't
home on the Friday afternoon
00:10:15
the murder took place. CHUCK MASSUCCI: These people
are oblivious to what could have
00:10:20
potentially happened
at their house. JASON FUNK: You know, I'm
kind of drawing a blank
00:10:24
on my emotional
state at that time. But I know I wasn't nearly as
anxious as my girlfriend is.
00:10:33
I'm more of a realist person. Just whatever is going to
happen is out of my control,
00:10:38
out of her control. Just relax and let
it take its course. NARRATOR: The home was a rental,
and it was the landlord who
00:10:45
told Katie's insurance company
about the leaking roof. Taking matters
into his own hands,
00:10:53
Katie's father, Jeff
Froeschle, interviewed the landlord himself. LEO FROESCHLE: He said
that he had sent her there,
00:11:02
but he had never seen
or talked to her. And he acted, they thought,
in a suspicious manner.
00:11:08
But the landlord
provided an alibi. CHUCK MASSUCCI: He
had a worker with him, through the majority of
the day of the 12th, when
00:11:16
Katie was known to
have gone missing. It's KIM SEACE: It's our belief that
the landlord probably did not
00:11:22
tell the renters that
Katie, or anybody else, would be coming that day. NARRATOR: In a
search for suspects,
00:11:30
investigators decided to check
Katie's credit card records to see if anyone used
them after her murder.
00:11:38
Admittedly, it was a long
shot since few criminals are that inept. KIM SEACE: Sure enough, they
were, at least four attempts.
00:11:46
And of the four
attempts, I think one was actually successful. And that led to a whole new
avenue of evidence for us.
00:11:55
NARRATOR: Investigators
went to every location where Katie's credit
cards had been used.
00:12:01
One was a grocery store,
and its surveillance video showed a white male
about six feet tall
00:12:08
using Katie's debit card. According to the
clerk, the customer said the card belonged
to his girlfriend.
00:12:16
But instead of signing Katie's
name, he signed his own. It was Jason Funk. The man renting the
home on Mulberry Street.
00:12:30
CHUCK MASSUCCI: We were almost
shocked at his stupidity. I can't even recollect
what he was thinking.
00:12:35
Or how he thought
he could get away with something so
obviously stupid. NARRATOR: In Jason's
backyard, the investigators
00:12:47
found what looked
like a fire pit. There they found burnt hunks of
carpet and a burnt belt buckle.
00:12:56
KIM SEACE: It most certainly
was consistent with style and the size belt
that Katie would
00:13:02
have had on that particular day. NARRATOR: Investigators
moved inside the house.
00:13:08
They noticed what looked
like a blood stain on the rear door frame. And on the living room ceiling,
there was blood spatter.
00:13:16
KIM SEACE: And the
realization that hit me, as I was
doing that, was I really felt I was standing
exactly in the spot where Katie
00:13:24
Froeschle had died in order
for that blood to get up there. NARRATOR: Investigators also
found a prepaid highway toll
00:13:33
device with the serial
number registered to Katie, and her business card was
on a shelf above the oven.
00:13:41
JEFF FROESCHLE: And then you're
claiming you've never met her before, you've never
seen her before.
00:13:45
And her business card
is in your house. I mean, its almost like
leaving bread crumbs,
00:13:49
I mean for heaven's sakes. NARRATOR: Finally, investigators
took the medical examiner's
00:13:55
advice, and looked for
an item in the home that could have been
the murder weapon.
00:14:01
And in the living
room, they found it. A four foot long
motorcycle muffler. It was sanitized to
the point there were
00:14:11
no discernible fingerprints and
no attainable blood evidence. On the end of the muffler, was
a circular mounting bracket.
00:14:20
JOYCE DEJONG: You would
use this mounting bracket to attach the muffler
onto a motorcycle.
00:14:25
NARRATOR: The mounting
bracket was measured, and then laid over photographs
of Katie's fatal wounds.
00:14:34
The round outer
edge of the bracket was the exact size of the blunt
force injuries on Katie's head.
00:14:42
JOYCE DEJONG: The circular
portion on the muffler, was the exact same size as
the injury on her scalp,
00:14:48
and gave a lot of credibility
to that being the murder weapon. NARRATOR: And during
the interrogation,
00:14:56
detectives noticed something
on Jason's Nike sneakers. KIM SEACE: When detectives were
actually interviewing Funk,
00:15:04
they noticed what appeared to
be blood droplets on his Nike's. NARRATOR: A presumptive test
indicated this was human blood.
00:15:17
Then investigators remembered
the bank envelop found in Katie's car, so they sprayed
it with the chemical Ninhydrin,
00:15:24
which revealed an almost
perfect set of prints. Katie's fingerprints
were on the envelope,
00:15:33
and so we're Jason Funk's. CHUCK MASSUCCI: That told us,
scientifically, the Jason Funk
00:15:40
had been in Katrina
Froeschle's vehicle. NARRATOR: Jason Funk
continued to deny he was in any way involved.
00:15:48
He claimed he was on
a jet ski in the river at the time of the murder. JASON FUNK: If I would
have been home that day,
00:15:55
instead of out on my
jet ski, who's to say I couldn't have prevented this
whole thing from happening.
00:16:03
JEFF FROESCHLE: There's
nothing-- no part of my life that hasn't been
touched by losing her.
00:16:10
Nothing. Work, vacations, sports,
fun, leisure time. It leaves a huge
hole in your life.
00:16:20
And Katie was such a bright
happy hard headed sweetheart. Just irreplaceable. They all are, but
she was for me.
00:16:34
NARRATOR: Prosecutors said
they had conclusive proof that Jason Funk murdered
Katie Froeschle.
00:16:40
As for motive, Jason
had prior convictions for assaulting women. And two days before Katie's
murder, Jason had lost his job.
00:16:52
CHUCK MASSUCCI: They were
having money problems. They had spent most
of their savings
00:16:56
on the security deposit
for this residence. So I think he was
motivated by greed.
00:17:01
That's my belief. NARRATOR: Investigators know
that Katie arrived at Funk's home, because she told
her coworker on the phone
00:17:17
that she found it. They believe it was
Jason who approached her. When she went inside to
inspect the roof damage,
00:17:35
Jason was home alone. His girlfriend,
Pam, was at work. Prosecutors think Jason might
have made a sexual advance.
00:17:43
No one knows. What the evidence shows, is
that he picked up the motorcycle muffler and struck Katie
on the back of her head.
00:17:56
This left the blood
spatter on the ceiling, and on his sneakers. As he exited the
house with the body,
00:18:04
Katie's blood stained
the back door frame. The house was concealed enough
that Jason could dump the body
00:18:11
in the river without being seen. He abandoned Katie's
car near a bar a mile away, handled the bank
envelope looking for money,
00:18:35
and took her cash
and credit cards. He burned the bloodstained
living room carpet, and Katie's
00:18:46
clothing, in order to
remove the evidence. He also cleaned
the murder weapon. But he left so much
other evidence,
00:18:56
his efforts were
hardly worth it. Using her credit card,
and signing his own name
00:19:05
was a classic. CHUCK MASSUCCI: She was,
absolutely, at the wrong place at the wrong time, and
fell victim to something
00:19:13
that she should never
have been victim of. ROD CARTER: When you hear
about cases like this,
00:19:20
you want to think--
personally, I want to think the
best of everyone. But it's difficult
sometimes to do that when
00:19:26
you see these things
that have happened. NARRATOR: Six months
after the murder, the forensic lab
finished the DNA testing.
00:19:35
The blood in Jason's
home and on his sneakers was Katie Froeschle's. The skin cells on
the steering wheel
00:19:44
of Katie's car were Jason's. LESLIE NIXON: We put
a piece of the puzzle together for the agency.
00:19:50
We were able to match DNA from
the victim, to the crime scene. We were able to match
the DNA from the victim
00:19:59
to the perpetrators clothing. NARRATOR: Faced with a
possible death sentence, Jason Funk agreed to plead
guilty to the murder.
00:20:08
And in return, was given a
life sentence without parole. LEO FROESCHLE: I think it's
a tragedy all the way around.
00:20:15
It's a tragedy for him. It's a tragedy for our daughter. And a tragedy for
us and his family.
00:20:24
NARRATOR: Jason
Funk still maintains he had nothing to
do with the murder. He claims he only plead guilty
to avoid the death sentence.
00:20:33
But forensic evidence
says otherwise. JEFF FROESCHLE: The
forensics in this case,
00:20:39
it was key to bringing
the murderer to justice. They all did just
a tremendous job.
00:20:49
We are forever grateful
for the job that they did. His denial of it was steadfast
throughout the whole thing,
00:20:57
and I don't believe
without forensics-- I'm not sure we would have
been able to convict
00:21:02
[music playing]