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[Music] police in illinois searched for a killer who was careful enough not to leave
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fingerprints but who didn't bother to mask his identity this is how a forensic scientist with
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some fancy footwork identified a perpetrator when not one but two eyewitnesses could not
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[Music] [Music] july 19 1991 was typically hot and humid in peoria illinois once the sun set and the temperature
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subsided it was a perfect night for a cookout it was hot very hot and we had the windows open and
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the back door was open casey johnson and her roommate jennifer logsdon spent the
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evening with jennifer's fiancee tommy smith after we ate dinner we went up to the
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grocery store and got stuff to make blizzards and came back and we moved the coffee
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table out of the way and pulled our mattress out into the living room so we could all three lay down and watch tv
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they all watched a stephen king horror movie and less than 15 minutes later jennifer fell asleep
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[Music] she awoke to sounds that didn't come from the television i could hear
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screaming she turned and saw tommy fighting an intruder who was armed with a knife casey ran to the phone to call
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police before police arrived the intruder wounded tommy then he went after jennifer i just kept
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screaming as loud as i could he just kept stabbing me all over what's going on
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incredibly jennifer grabbed the knife from her assailant i fought as hard as i could it was hitting him and kicking but
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her actions only fueled his anger the intruder got the knife back and attacked again that's when he cut me twice and
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just left me for dead this person that broke into your house if you have any weapons
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hello he then found casey in the bedroom on the phone with the police [Music] jennifer managed to run to a neighbor's
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home for help i can't move my my throat is split when the police arrived the intruder was gone
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i told the police i knew i was dying but go and save tommy and casey but it was too late for 21 year old
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tommy smith he was pronounced dead at the scene jennifer and casey were rushed to saint
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francis medical center my father came to get me at work and he told me that uh tommy had been killed
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and i immediately freaked out in in disbelief you know no it wasn't him you know not
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tommy and uh it wasn't soon after that that it finally sunk in that you know he was
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he was killed tommy smith's actually worked quite heroic he took it upon himself to apprehend the
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suspect and put him in a chair and stand over top of him hold him there until police arrived
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and in doing so he sacrificed his life i don't think tommy could have ever lived with one of them getting killed
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especially jennifer police hoped the two girls would be able to identify their attacker
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[Music] connie smith had to do what every parent dreads plan the funeral of a child
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he was the neatest kid a mother could have he was best baby best little boy most
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loving young man even if he got mad he never stayed mad long he would have made a great dad
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he would have made a great husband because i know he was a great son [Music] tommy's fiance jennifer was in the
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intensive care unit near death she had sustained multiple stab wounds a cut throat and a punctured lung
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if tommy smith wouldn't have been in that house those those two young ladies wouldn't be
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here today they'd be dead and i i believe that [Music] the crime scene gave mute testimony to
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the girl's intense will to survive he really did a number on both of the young ladies
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they both exhibited a great deal of courage they had very strong constitution they
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had a very strong will to live gradually their conditions improved but when they spoke to police
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they could remember very little he just kept stabbing me all over and nothing hurt
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but and i didn't see any blood either she did to state that a black male had
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entered the home she wasn't sure how and i can't remember what he looked like
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investigators would have to rely on the crime scene for clues they quickly concentrated their
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attention on the assailant's point of entry a bedroom window the outside screen was jarred and out of
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place and uh and cut investigators were shocked by the amount of blood found in the home
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i think once he started cutting he went into a frenzy and at that point he felt the only way
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that he could prevent the police from finding out who did this to these kids was to kill
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all three of them in one of the bedrooms amid the clutter police found the wooden handle of the
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murder weapon when the handle of the knife was located at the crime scene it speaks
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of our suspect's panic and his hurry to flee the scene mrs johnson we had grabbed the blade of
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the knife and was able to break it loose from the handle unfortunately there were no fingerprints
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on it police found a party invitation on the floor near the point of entry police used black magnetic powder to see
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if the killer may have knocked it to the floor during the struggle they were looking for the friction
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ridges of a fingerprint on top of the friction ridges are pores and that's where the perspiration comes
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from when the person sweats and when they touch an item they may or may not leave their identification through those
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unique characteristics on the invitation gary siebenthal found what appeared to be a partial palm print
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a print that did not belong to tommy jennifer or casey [Music] while interviewing neighbors
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police were surprised to learn that despite the girl's screams no one saw the killer leave the crime scene
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police thought they had solved the case when they found blood on the screen door
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of a neighbor's home gene brown and he explained that he had cut himself on the
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on the lower leg carrying the garbage out earlier in the night test revealed the blood was browns
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and investigators found broken glass in his trash can which brown said had caused the cut
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brown's palm print did not match the print on the party invitation at the crime scene
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and neither jennifer nor casey identified their next-door neighbor as the assailant
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police suspected the killer lived nearby since he fled the scene on foot and it was the foot
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which would lead police to the killer gary siebenhall refused to give up in the search for tommy smith's killer
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in reviewing the case siebenthal recalled something jennifer and casey had both remembered about the intruder
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i ended up taking the knife away from him because he had socks wrapped around his hand
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she did describe him as wearing she thought khaki shorts he was also described as being a black
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male approximately six foot six foot one slim build with a mustache and the girls remembered something else
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the intruder was barefoot why would a killer enter a home wearing socks on his hands
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but nothing on his feet and if the killer lived nearby why didn't he cover his face
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he's breaking into a home where people can recognize and will certainly recognize him
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and i think by the fact that he went in there quietly armed with a knife that his intention all along was to do
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great harm to both the young ladies living there but the fact that he was barefoot
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quickly became the central focus of the investigation that led a little insight into what the
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strange print was on the card because it didn't look like a palm print to the crime scene investigators it was
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something strange that they really hadn't hadn't seen before suddenly it occurred to c benthal that
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the print on the party invitation might not be a palm print at all if you look at certain parts of the palm
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they they can mimic parts of the foot because they have the same characteristics they have
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dots short ridges and bifurcations and triforcations was it possible that the perpetrator knocked the party
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invitation to the floor and then stepped on it if so the hot muggy july night created the
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perfect conditions for leaving a print behind how he does that is is is through the uh to the moisture
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that the individual leaves in his fingerprints and his palm prints siebenthal began the painstaking task of
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identifying the print using a microscope and the pointer he examined the friction ridges
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every bifurcation and trifurcation which are points where one line divides into two or three
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police have a fingerprint database they can refer to but they don't collect footprints
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on a hunch police asked the girl's next-door neighbor gene brown for his we took his footprints through a search
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warrant but taking footprints is something that the average person doesn't have to do
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when they're taken into custody sibenthal compared brown's footprints to
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the print on the party invitation you have to look for the uniqueness of those points
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of identification and we found it on the outside left heel printed gene autry brown
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gary siebenthal had a match and it was the first time in the history of the peoria police department that a
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footprint had been recovered from a crime scene while he had no shoes on i'll have no
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idea but uh it wasn't very smart it wasn't the smartest thing you can do the average
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person doesn't realize that their footprints in fact are inherent to that particular person
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they are as individualistic as fingerprints are so you know he would have been as well off to leave the socks on his
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feet and put another pair on his hands in a search of brown's home police discovered a set of knives which
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were identical to the murder weapon and they also found casey johnson's purse police found bloody socks with the
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broken blade of the murder weapon inside and in one of the socks was jean brown's wedding ring
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finally investigators found tiny traces of blood in brown's hair he must have had a great deal of blood
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on him when he left [Music] the house after attacking the three individuals and he had still had blood on his body
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dna tests of the blood sample showed it was from all three victims tommy jennifer and casey
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gene brown was arrested and charged with murder he had a wife he had a cute little boy
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he had a family that cared for him you know and because he chose drugs he took my
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son away from me when you entered the house and started across the bedroom towards
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the door i didn't see anyone until i got in the living room by that time the guy
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dumped me grabbed me [Music] do you understand that you have the right to remain silent and you do not
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have to talk to me or answer any questions unless you voluntarily choose to do so correct
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when police confronted gene brown with the mountain of evidence against him for the murder of 21 year old tommy smith
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and the attacks on jennifer logsdon and casey johnson he confessed did you stab him with the knife
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i can't say i stabbed him so i don't know i don't know he was struggling
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it was more or less he was trying to get the knife and i was trying to keep the knife but at the same time
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he was being cut did you and he struggle for any length of time i'd say about 45
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seconds what ended the struggle he walked away fell to the floor brown admitted using crack cocaine on
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the day of the attack after having dinner with his wife and infant son brown said he needed money to
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buy more cocaine went to bed got up put my clothes on went next door he removed his shoes
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so he could walk quietly and used his socks to cover his hands to make sure he didn't leave any fingerprints
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he entered the victim's home through an open window by removing the screen but he never realized his feet could
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leave the very same prince as his fingers just as distinctive just as incriminating
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tommy smith fought valiantly but was no match for brown's knife [Music] jennifer slipped out of the house when
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brown was in the other room casey survived by playing dead after she was attacked
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prompt medical attention save them both [Music] tommy smith's best friend still struggles with the absurdity of it
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all it disgusted me that somebody would take a life like that for a dollar so he could go uh get high
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it it was very very senseless a very senseless act you know losing him so early what made it
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bearable was he had 20 years and he enjoyed every one of them he knew how to enjoy life
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despite his confession there are still parts of brown's story detectives don't believe
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[Music] jennifer and casey live next door to brown police think that brown broke in with
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the intent to rape and kill the two girls and didn't realize that tommy smith had stayed over that night
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he deliberately went to barefooted just to stop it to hold the noise down he wore gloves to avoid leaving
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fingerprints he took a knife with him that was still encased in a cardboard sheath so that he would not
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injure himself [Music] he took no it made no effort whatsoever to cover his face
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and he's going into the home next door it takes a it takes a bit of an evil individual
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to take a life hand to hand let alone attempt to take three he went from a sneak thief to a murderer
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within moments in exchange for his guilty plea gene brown was sentenced to life in
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prison for the murder of tommy smith and 30 years for each count of attempted murder
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he did this in order to escape the chants facing the death penalty in a trial it was a capital case and
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i think probably it was a good move on his part little did gene brown know that tommy smith's mother would not have
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pushed for the death penalty i could not stand the thought of another mother standing over a casket
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with her son so cold and another family going through what this family's went through
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you know having a son in prison for the rest of his life is bad but nothing is worse than burying one
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[Music] i don't really know where to begin i don't know why it just happened
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but it did and all the time i've been sitting there talking to you guys i wish there was a
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way that i could take it back but it's done he would express remorse and state how sorry he was that this
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thing had happened but at the same time he would protect himself but not being able to recall
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just what had occurred did it happen and i'm still asking myself why i don't
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i don't know why jennifer logsdon is now married with children but she still lives with emotional and
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physical scars from that attack said he was sorry he didn't mean to to do it
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[Music] and i can't forgive him yet yeah i think he got what he deserved you get caught doing something you say
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i'm sorry would you say you're sorry if you didn't get caught i'd say i don't i don't know i don't
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believe that if gene brown hadn't gone barefoot that night investigators wouldn't have recovered
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the valuable footprint that placed him at the crime scene well i think it's the greatest army of
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all to be so smart and get caught she goes to show you the best laid plans of mice or men you know he
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he in fact tried to go in barefoot so that he would be quiet and be able to move through the house quietly and in
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fact left behind you know tremendous piece of evidence when you're able to point out
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to your suspect that they in fact are the best witness that we have against themselves
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and in the case of this particular footprint that was left he did seal his own fate
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[Music] [Music] you