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when a popular high school teacher was found dead of a gunshot wound investigators believed it was an
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accident but an audio tape recorded by the victim just three days before his death
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raised serious questions that required answers [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause]
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historic durham north carolina is both a big city and a small town best known as the home of duke
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university and its world-famous medical center but it is also a close-knit southern
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community where families stay for generations great place to raise a family you look
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around for communities throughout the country that have wonderful school systems great parks great recreational
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facilities for children and families and you'll find that here at durham high school russell steger was
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a popular baseball coach and driver's education teacher a man respected by faculty and students
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alike jennifer joyner was one of russ steger's students all the kids who needed advice or
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needed someone to talk with about their problems coach steger his door was always open and
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he just meant a lot to the kids there after college russ steger married his high school sweetheart joe lynn
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russ was a very gentle compassionate caring full of life human being he embraced life um he had a
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very tender heart unfortunately stiger wasn't as successful in his personal life as he
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was in his professional life after four years of marriage russ and joe lynn divorced
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less than a year later russ married a 31 year old widow barbara ford he adopted her two sons brian and
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jason he took in barbara's sons as his own he loved them he cared for them and treated him like like they were his
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own sons barbara worked as a secretary at duke university medical center russ continued to teach and coach
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he worked weekends in the national guard and with his new wife barbara taught sunday school in their church
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by all outward appearances russ and barbara steger lived a storybook life but all that changed in the early
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morning hours of february 1st 1988 just as the night shift was ending police got an emergency call of a
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shooting at the stager home russ steger was found sprawled on his bed with a bullet wound to the back of
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his head he died three hours later in the hospital she kept saying she kept making the
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comment i kept telling him about those damn guns i kept telling him about those damn guns
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[Music] barbara steger said that russ slept with a 25 caliber pistol under his pillow
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because of some recent burglaries in the neighborhood [Music] just before dawn barbara said she was awakened when one
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of her sons went into the bathroom barbara was worried that russ might mistake her son for a prowler
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so she tried to remove the pistol from underneath russ's pillow [Music] when she did the gun accidentally fired
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shooting russ in the back of the head the death was ruled an accidental shooting
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he was a mentor he was a baseball coach he was a likable guy to so many children
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at a durham high school and they felt a sense of loss they felt a sense of shock they felt a sense of
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disbelief what has happened to the guy that we loved when i first heard it i couldn't believe it i was like no not
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coach steger he was a great coach and everything learned wanted the news i felt sorry in
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my heart history had unfortunately repeated itself in a bizarre coincidence barbara's first husband had died in a
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shooting accident too he was cleaning his 25 caliber pistol when it accidentally went off shooting
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himself in the chest barbara steger was now a widow once more because of a shooting mishap
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[Music] a few hours after rustager's death detective rick buchanan went to the
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stagger home to ask some routine questions [Applause] when he got there barbara steger's father was removing the
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bloody sheets pillow and bed spread since the death had been ruled accidental the bedding was not
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considered evidence [Music] it was buchanan's first interview with barbara steger
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she was a little withdrawn perhaps but she was not overly friendly she was not boo hoo and all way through the
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interview barbara steger repeated her account of her husband's death saying the gun went
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off accidentally as she pulled it from under her husband's pillow she told buchanan that her nine years of
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marriage to russ had been happy that he was a great father to her two young boys
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something wasn't right i couldn't put my finger on it i didn't know exactly what it was
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but it still wasn't enough to to indicate anything other than accidental shooting
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the news of russ steger's death was particularly troubling to his first wife
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joe lynn my reaction was it was no accident and that's what i said to my parents
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and i remember my dad said you you can't know that it was no accident you can
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suspect but you can't know and i said no i know that it was no accident joe lynn wrote a letter to police
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because russ often confided in her russ told her that barbara removed large sums of money from their bank account
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and that he suspected barbara was having sexual affairs with other men he had once caught her kissing another
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man in a parking lot when investigators looked into barbara steger's background
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they learned some surprising information about her first marriage her first husband had died in bed
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and was killed at the business end of a 25 caliber pistol and so now we have um a lady
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who's had two husbands killed in bed with a 25 caliber gun and on both occasions she was present
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barbara's first husband larry ford had been cleaning his 25-caliber pistol when
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it accidentally discharged shooting him in the chest although the death of larry ford had
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been ruled an accident his family vigorously fought to have the case investigated as a possible murder
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but the ruling was never changed barbara inherited larry ford's entire estate
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and suspicions remained investigators now had another suspicious death and more questions about the same
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woman i desperately wanted to know that truth i wanted a full-blown investigation
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if it was accidental i wanted that to be known but if it was not accidental as i so
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suspected i wanted that to come out too 90 of what we do is common sense and then we apply the
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other ten percent to law and if it looks like a duck walks like quacks like a duck by god it's gonna be
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a duck was it possible that barbara steger was not unlucky at all but was in fact
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a serial killer the death of barbra stiger's first husband larry ford by an accidental
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self-inflicted gunshot wound to the chest had officially been declared an accident
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and after 10 years the case had long been forgotten but shortly before his death it had
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clearly been on the mind of russ staker barbara's second husband russ steger told his ex-wife joe lynn
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that he feared for his own life he also knew that her first husband had died under somewhat mysterious circumstances
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and so when he put all of that together i think he he was a little concerned for his safety
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but it would mostly he felt paranoid according to barbara steger the gun under her husband's pillow had
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gone off accidentally as she tried to remove it barbara said the gun had a hair trigger
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and that she had barely touched it before it went off firearms expert eugene bishop performed
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what's known as a trigger pull test on the gun weights are attached to the trigger in
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one pound increments to measure the force required to pull the trigger the gun had a four pound trigger pull
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which is no hair trigger deliberate force would be required to fire the gun a contradiction of barbara steger's
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story in the autopsy medical investigators discovered another discrepancy the trajectory of the fatal
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bullet was not consistent with barbara steger's account the bullet struck rustager's head in a
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downward angle barbara claimed that the gun fired as she pulled it from under the pillow
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which would have sent the bullet in an upward trajectory the angle of the trajectory
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would indicate that she was above and behind russ when the shot was fired so it was the autopsy was inconsistent
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with the story she was telling the spent shell casing was found just inches from the gun near russ steger's
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head eugene bishop test-fired the pistol and found that it ejected shell casings to
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the right and rear of the shooter which meant if barbara's version was correct
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the shell casing should have been found somewhere in the middle of the bed as far as the story concern was not what
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she was saying her story did not coincide with my findings looking at the crime scene pictures of
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the cartridge case itself where it was laying on the bed it could not have been fired as she said it was fired
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when any firearm is discharged dust oil and gunpowder are expelled from the barrel
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if barbara's version was correct powder burns would have been present on the
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sheets the sheets had been removed by barbara's father immediately after the shooting
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and had been laundered but powder residue can be identified even after fabrics have been washed
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when the sheets were examined scientists found no evidence of gunpowder residue with all of these contradictions
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detective rick buchanan asked barbara steger to demonstrate on videotape what happened on the morning of the accident
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oh i'm standing face-to-face with killer i know it but she don't know i know it
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with the detective playing the part of russ staker barbara steger recreates her version of the story and i don't know
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how it was in my hand i have no idea if i touched i don't know i don't know and
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almost immediately she realizes there are inconsistencies well wait a minute that one's quite long
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okay and then i start getting up okay that's how that's how it was to start getting
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up with it in my hand but i don't know how i had it in my hand okay she's repositioning the body
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in the bed with her trying to make it fit her story and she can't do it she's a lying ass [ __ ]
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and that was probably vocalized as i watched the video and replayed it and replayed it and
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replayed it there was no doubt at all that she intentionally shot and killed russ steiger
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no doubt whatsoever [Music] police also doubted that russ steger a member of the united states national
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guard with weapons training would have placed a loaded pistol under his pillow with the safety turned off and cocked
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with a round already in the chamber this along with barbara steger's videotape recreation was enough to
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convince investigators that russ stager's death was no accident but investigators were not prepared for
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the next clue in the case a message from the victim himself this is russ steger this is january 29th 1988
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10 minutes i started to get up to get it out from under there heard the noise shocked
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evidence was mounting that russ steger's death was not the accident claimed by
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his wife barbara but if she had killed him in cold blood as police suspected they needed to find the motive
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for that they looked into the couple's financial records though the staggers had a modest income
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russ was a school teacher barbara a secretary barbara was known for spending extravagantly
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and the couple was deeply in debt we learned that barber had become involved in some debt
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and this apparently was without russ's knowledge uh it appeared to be credit
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card debt among other things records of the stigers bank transactions were sent to forensic documents examiner
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derwood matheny he compared russ steger's known signatures to signatures found on that
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second bank loan as well as his will which had been revised only months before his death they brought to me a
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will they brought me some checks and other documents that were signed with the name russell
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steger that it was not his signature on the wheel i determined that it was a simulation of the signature other words
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someone trying to make it look like his signature if russ steger hadn't signed these
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documents who did there was actually forged checks where russ steger's account was being drawn
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upon and the money was being deposited in barbara steger's account so all the
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financial evidence tended to show that barbara was in debt and russ did not know about it
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the beneficiary of the forged life insurance policy with the payout of 170 thousand dollars was none other
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than his wife barbara steger [Music] the final piece of evidence in the case came from a most unlikely source
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at durham high school one of rustager's students was cleaning a gym locker when he came upon a
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cassette tape the voice on the tape was one he recognized immediately this is uh russ steger
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this is january 29th [Applause] 1988 10 minutes she stood there the tape was recorded
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just three days before rustager's death on the tape he confided his belief that his wife barbara
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was planning to kill him last few nights barbara has worked me up and gave me what she said was too
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aspirin she stood there to see if i took it i did not take it russ steger went on to question the
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allegedly accidental death of barbara's first husband the first one i don't know what happened but according
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to his parents there was some foul play going on he supposedly accidentally shot himself
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in their bedroom my question is did her husband larry ford accidentally shoot himself sometimes i
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wonder listening to that tape was surreal i had never ever experienced anything quite like that in
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prosecution where you try a case a person for homicide and yet the victim who you represent
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who has no voice in the courtroom is now telling you what he is feeling experiencing
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and worried about immediately prior to his execution so to speak investigators now had both evidence and
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motive barbara steger was arrested on a charge of first degree murder here these will help you sleep
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prosecutors believe that barbara steger had been planning her husband's death
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for weeks first with poison and when that was unsuccessful with the gun shortly before dawn
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prosecutors believe that barbara removed the 25 caliber handgun from its usual place in the dresser drawer
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walked over to her sleeping husband and fired into the back of his head the bullet entered at a downward angle
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she was also standing above the bed which explains the lack of powder burns on the bedding
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to stage the scene bob replaced the spent shell casing just inches from her husband's head which was
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a mistake if the gun went off as she pulled it from under the pillow as she claimed
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the shell casing would have ejected to the right towards the foot of the bed the angle of the bullet the placement of
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the shell casing the lack of powder burns the forged will and life insurance policy and
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most damning of all russ steger predicting his own murder on audio tape made a compelling case to drawers
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without the forensics of this case there would have been nothing but theory and speculation
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and you can't prosecute theory and speculation you've got to have physical evidence
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that's where the forensics came in barbara steger was found guilty of first degree murder and was sentenced to death
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her sentence was later reduced to life in prison after an appeal i think those of us who cared so deeply for us
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ran it and raved and felt this was so unfair to take someone so special and so kind
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and you there's there's never an answer to why there's there's never an answer to
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why evil wins sometimes prosecutors also suspect that barbara steger was responsible for her first
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husband's death but with her current life sentence they see no need for further prosecution
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this case was a terrible tragedy a good man not just one but two are gone and they're gone forever because of the
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criminal conduct of barbara steger and our court system worked it uncovered the truth
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a verdict was rendered and justice was done [Music] [Music] [Music] so [Music] you