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[music playing] NARRATOR: Is it possible to
commit the perfect crime? A house fire in Oregon
came awfully close,
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until a microscopic
clue on a piece of pipe told investigators
what really happened.
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[theme music] NARRATOR: There's
usually only one reason why people move to
Gales Creek, Oregon.
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LARRY MCKINNEY (VOICEOVER):
Even though you're very close to Portland or within probably
a half an hour of Portland,
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you're out in the woods,
away from everybody. It's less populated. It's a chance to get away.
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NARRATOR: For Derrick
and Roxanne Duehren, Gales Creek provided
a much needed refuge
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from their stressful careers
in the computer industry. BARBARA CANNON (VOICEOVER):
When they bought that property
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in Gales Creek, that was
more than my sister would have ever have
dreamed of having.
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That was her dream come true. LARRY MCKINNEY: And
it also gave them enough room for
Roxanne's horse farm.
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BARBARA CANNON: She
loved her horses. They were her balance in life,
and she loved showing them.
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She loved spending
time with them. That was her downtime and
her stress relief, I'm sure.
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LARRY MCKINNEY: After living
there for several years, the Duehrens
started construction
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on a 1,500-square-foot
addition, but they would never see it completed. Late one Sunday
afternoon, neighbors
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saw a plume of smoke
rising from the property. LARRY MCKINNEY
(VOICEOVER): The fire
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was actually reported
by folks that lived more than a
quarter-mile away. The house was not visible
to any of the neighbors.
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[bell ringing] NARRATOR: It took
the volunteer fire department about 20
minutes to get there.
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S. WILLIAM BENCH (VOICEOVER):
When we come up to a fire and it's fully involved,
that means that we visually
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can see flames coming out of
every opening, door, window. That usually means that
it's been a period of time
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before we've gotten there. NARRATOR: Derrick
Duehren returned home from grocery shopping, and
when he saw Roxanne's car,
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he feared the worst. LARRY MCKINNEY (VOICEOVER):
Derrick ran up towards the fire
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and dropped to his knees
and screamed that he believed that his
wife was inside.
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-Well, that's the worse thing
that you can possibly hear, is that someone's inside.
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You still have the sense that
you want to try to get in there and possibly save their life.
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NARRATOR: It took
almost three hours to bring the fire under control. When they did, they found
Roxanne's charred remains.
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LARRY MCKINNEY
(VOICEOVER): The body had been burnt horrifically. ROBERT BLETKO
(VOICEOVER): Her remains
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were little more than 35 pounds. They were so limited
that the medical examiner was unable to determine
the cause of death.
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NARRATOR: Since dental
records were useless in making a positive identification,
the medical examiner used DNA.
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LARRY LEWMAN
(VOICEOVER): So what we did was take bone
marrow material, submit it to the laboratory.
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They got some samples
from the parents and proved her identity by DNA. NARRATOR: Roxanne Duehren
was only 34 years old.
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BARBARA CANNON (VOICEOVER):
From that moment on, you have a loss, and you're
frightened and you're scared.
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But it just seemed
from there, it went into a bad dream that
just turned into a nightmare.
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NARRATOR: And that nightmare got
worse when pieces of a handgun were discovered next
to Roxanne's body.
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Fire investigators
wanted to know what started the fire that
killed Roxanne Duehren.
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Roxanne's husband, Derrick,
had a possible explanation. LARRY MCKINNEY
(VOICEOVER): Derrick
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said it'd been a normal Sunday. They had awakened kind of
late and he had made breakfast
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for his wife, and it was
just a lazy sort of day. But there were frozen pipes
because of the weather.
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NARRATOR: To thaw
the pipes, Derrick said he turned on the
clothes dryer in the basement
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and left its door
open to heat the room, then left to buy groceries. The dryer, however,
used propane gas.
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ROBERT MILLS
(VOICEOVER): Propane is pretty dangerous like that. It lays down in the low areas
and you get a lot of people
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get hurt from that. NARRATOR: As a
matter of routine, police asked Derrick
for the store receipt
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to prove he was shopping,
and he willingly complied. ROBERT BLETKO (VOICEOVER):
There was a receipt that
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showed that he in fact
had been at the store on the day in question. NARRATOR: But
police were troubled
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by the scratch marks
Derrick had on his face. ROBERT BLETKO (VOICEOVER):
His explanation
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was that he was clearing debris
that had fallen during the ice storm across the road that
led up to his residence.
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The explanation is in
moving these branches, that he scratched
himself across the face.
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NARRATOR: The highly flammable
propane gas clothes dryer was one possible
cause of the fire.
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Another possibility focused on
the garage, where investigators found that the battery cable in
Roxanne's car was disconnected.
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LARRY MCKINNEY
(VOICEOVER): The car was brought up as a
possible origin of the fire,
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that somehow a battery
cable had caused a spark. NARRATOR: And the house
was being remodeled.
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Only the wall frames
were up, which meant the fire spread easily. LARRY MCKINNEY (VOICEOVER):
Forensic experts
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retained by the state to examine
the vehicle found no indication that would suggest to them that
there was any type of arcing
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that caused this fire to
occur or start in the vehicle and then spread into the house.
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NARRATOR: But investigators
thought the laundry room was the most likely source.
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And they found something
unusual-- small pellet-like material near the clothes dryer.
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-It all seemed to be
in a small little pile, right near the
origin of the fire. NARRATOR: At first, no
one knew what this was,
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or why it would be there. LARRY MCKINNEY
(VOICEOVER): I thought about this for about three days.
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And we had a cat at the
time, and it wasn't until I had to change the kitty
litter that I determined, hey,
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that's a type of kitty litter. NARRATOR: The Duehrens had
cats, but their cat litter box
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was nowhere near
the laundry room. Detective McKinney
kept asking himself, why would cat litter be
near the origin of the fire?
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LARRY MCKINNEY (VOICEOVER): I
went out and bought a bag of it and brought it
back to my office,
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and actually had it
sitting in my cubicle. And trying to figure out
why that would, you know,
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would be there. NARRATOR: As he pondered
this, a fellow detective took notice of the cat
litter in McKinney's office.
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LARRY MCKINNEY
(VOICEOVER): He walked by asked me if I was
going to start a fire.
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That detective
worked burglary cases and really didn't know what kind
of a case I was involved in.
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And I said, why would
you ask me that? NARRATOR: The detective,
a former Boy Scout,
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said soaking cat
litter with gasoline was an old trick to
help start campfires. LARRY MCKINNEY (VOICEOVER):
It was in an old "Boy's Life
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Magazine" that he
had learned about it. NARRATOR: A background check
revealed Derrick Duehren was
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an Eagle Scout in his
youth and might have known about this method
of starting fires.
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But investigators found no
clear evidence of arson. Arson dogs did not detect
the presence of accelerants
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anywhere in the house, including
in the burned cat litter. In terms of possible foul
play, Derrick and Roxanne
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had no known enemies and, by all
accounts, had a happy marriage. But the Duehrens
owned a handgun,
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which was found
near Roxanne's body. Police had to
consider if this could have been suicide or murder.
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The handgun found next to
Roxanne Duehren's charred remains raised new
questions about her death.
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The medical examiner
x-rayed the remains, but the body was
so badly burned, it was impossible to find
evidence of a gunshot wound.
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There was no ash or soot in
Roxanne's lungs and no carbon monoxide in her
blood, which meant--
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[bang] -She was not breathing
when the fire started. LARRY LEWMAN (VOICEOVER):
This, to me, is a homicide.
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There's no other
reasonable explanation as for why she is a
healthy young woman who's dead before a fire starts.
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NARRATOR: And there was
blood in Roxanne's airway. LARRY MCKINNEY (VOICEOVER):
She had obviously died
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by some sort of violent
means, because she had aspirated blood. And from my past experience,
people that aspirate blood
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means that there was some
sort of horrific injury to their face or head,
and their last breaths
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are taking in blood,
rather than air. ROBERT BLETKO (VOICEOVER):
Roxanne Duehren
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did not die in the
fire, which means somebody caused her death. NARRATOR: But how
had the fire started?
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Investigators turned to the
propane-powered clothes dryer. Derrick Duehren said he thought
the dryer started the fire,
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because when he left the
house, the dryer was running. But investigators discovered
that the propane gas line
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into the dryer was disconnected. Had firefighters done this
while extinguishing the blaze?
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BRUCE WONG (VOICEOVER):
Firefighters are not concerned about
destroying evidence.
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They're there to put the fire
out and to save human life. NARRATOR: Since the disconnected
hose had a threaded metal end,
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a forensic metallurgist
found no evidence that firemen created
the disconnection.
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BRUCE WONG (VOICEOVER): Because
if the threads-- once they lock in, in order
for them to thread,
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they'd have to strip
it to pull out. These threads did not
show that characteristic.
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NARRATOR: Using a
metallurgical microscope known as a metallograph, Bruce Wong
saw evidence of oxidation
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on the threads. BRUCE WONG (VOICEOVER):
What I see there tells me that this pipe was open
at the time of the fire,
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that it's sufficiently open
at the time of the fire so that the deposit could occur.
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NARRATOR: Also on the pipe,
Mr. Wong saw tiny brass beads sitting on top of the
oxide on the threads
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of the metal fitting. This formed when the brass
fixture melted and fell through the air,
forming these tiny beads
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before landing on the fitting. This was further
proof that the fitting was disconnected
during the fire.
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ROBERT BLETKO (VOICEOVER): It
indicated that the connection was open, which would
indicate that the fire
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was deliberately set. -Derrick told me that
the dryer was running, and it couldn't
have been running,
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because it was not
connected at the time. And that was a provable lie. NARRATOR: Fire
investigators now made
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their official determination. The fire at the Duehren
house was arson. LARRY MCKINNEY (VOICEOVER):
And all of a sudden, everything
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starts making sense, and you
fall into that-- that area that you can actually
follow what happens then.
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It makes sense and you can
forensically prove that. NARRATOR: But what
was the motive?
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Roxanne's family revealed the
couple argued about money, particularly the money Roxanne
was spending on her horses.
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LARRY MCKINNEY
(VOICEOVER): They had a horse barn built,
a riding arena. She was taking what's called
cutting lessons for-- I believe
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they would cost $300 per lesson. NARRATOR: Investigators also
learned that Derrick's job was
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going to be transferred
150 miles away. That would mean selling their
dream home and relocating,
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something Roxanne
did not want to do. BARBARA CANNON (VOICEOVER): I
think that Roxanne said to him,
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Derrick you go rent an apartment
or we'll buy you someplace up there, and then you
come back on weekends.
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I don't think my
sister wanted to move. I think that she voiced that
probably pretty clearly to him.
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And I don't think he liked it. NARRATOR: Investigators
say Roxanne's defiance was too
much for Derrick.
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It was at variance
with his vision of a perfect life and
a perfect marriage. LARRY MCKINNEY (VOICEOVER): In
talking to friends, coworkers,
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everyone that I could
possibly talk with, I could not establish
a specific motive.
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I had my suspicions that it was
probably because Roxanne was beginning to stand
up for herself.
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According to her
friends, she was starting to become more independent,
which Derrick would not like.
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BARBARA CANNON (VOICEOVER):
Derrick wasn't going to get his way, and
he was going to do
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whatever he had to
do to get his way. And there was nobody that was
going to stand in his way,
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and that included his wife. NARRATOR: When
questioned by police, Derrick denied setting
the fire and claimed
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he would never have
harmed his wife. Would this tiny spot on
his jeans prove otherwise?
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The medical examiner ruled
Roxanne Duehren's manner of death as homicide,
since she was
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dead before the fire started. What he didn't know, however,
was the cause of death.
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But the fatal fire was
determined to be arson, and Roxanne's husband,
Derrick, became
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a potential murder suspect. On the jeans he was wearing
the day of the fire, investigators
noticed a small spot.
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LARRY MCKINNEY (VOICEOVER):
I asked him specifically if it was blood, and he
told me no, it was mud.
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NARRATOR: A phenolphthalein
test proved Derrick wrong. The spot was blood, and
the subsequent DNA test
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proved it was Roxanne's blood. For police, this
made perfect sense. They never believed Derrick's
explanation for the scratches
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on his face. LARRY MCKINNEY (VOICEOVER): I
know what scratches from brush would look like, and this was
not a scratch from brush mark.
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This was-- this appeared more
to be fingernail scratches. ROBERT BLETKO (VOICEOVER):
Derrick Duehren
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had lied about how
this fire occurred, how the scratches on
his face occurred, how the blood on his
pants came to be there.
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NARRATOR: With proof of
arson, his wife's blood on his clothing, and the
apparent fingernail scratches
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on his face, Derrick
Duehren was arrested and charged with
arson and murder. But Derrick was convinced he'd
never spend a day in jail.
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ROBERT BLETKO (VOICEOVER):
Derrick Duehren thought he was smarter
than everyone else.
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He was sending emails to friends
of his, coworkers at Intel, updating them on the trial
as it was going along,
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talking about in terms
of being a chess match and his view of how that
chess game was going,
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and his expectation that
he would be acquitted. NARRATOR: Prosecutors believe
that Derrick and Roxanne got
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into an argument on the
afternoon of her death-- an argument that turned violent.
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-I'm not getting
rid of my horses. I'd rather get rid of you first. NARRATOR: Blows were
struck with enough force
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for Roxanne's blood to
land on Derrick's jeans. She tried to defend herself
and scratched his face.
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Prosecutors believe
he killed her, although they're not
sure exactly how. Realizing he needed
to cover up the crime,
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he decided to burn
down the house. I First, he went outside and
turned off the propane gas,
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then disconnected the
supply line to the dryer and set fire to the
gas-soaked kitty litter.
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When he went back outside
to open the propane valve, the gas would have produce
a blowtorch effect,
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burning hotter than
natural gas and immediately igniting the material
surrounding it.
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Prosecutors believe
that Derrick went shopping to establish an alibi. But not all of his
time was accounted for.
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ROBERT BLETKO (VOICEOVER):
There was a discrepancy in Derrick Duehren's timeline,
with respect to the receipts
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that he obtained at
the various stores. He could account
for about an hour to an hour and a
half of his time,
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and it would appear that he
would have had to have been gone well in excess of two hours
based upon his initial comments
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of when he left and
when he returned. NARRATOR: Since the fire
almost completely consumed
00:18:51
Roxanne's body, no one
knows exactly how she died. ROBERT BLETKO
(VOICEOVER): The jury
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was unable to make
a determination on the charge of murder,
unable to decide. They did not find Mr.
Duehren not guilty of murder.
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They simply said, we are
unable to come to a decision. NARRATOR: As a result,
Derrick was only
00:19:16
convicted of arson and
first-degree manslaughter. He was sentenced to
10 years in prison.
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ROBERT BLETKO
(VOICEOVER): Manslaughter in the first degree is
defined under Oregon law
00:19:27
as recklessly causing the
death of another human being under circumstances manifesting
extreme indifference
00:19:33
to the value of human life. -Did Derrick think he
get away with this? Absolutely.
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Absolutely. Derrick thought that he could
be smarter than all of them. His ego was that big.
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And those people
were beneath him. NARRATOR: Investigators say this
case proves that no matter what
00:19:54
someone does to
cover his tracks, something always remains behind. S. WILLIAM BENCH
(VOICEOVER): People
00:20:02
do think, when
they start a fire, that it's going to burn
up everything and destroy
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all evidence that they did it. And that's a fallacy that
we like people to believe,
00:20:11
because we go back
in as investigators and pretty well find out
what caused the fire.
00:20:17
ROBERT BLETKO
(VOICEOVER): The fire in this case was so severe that
it destroyed a lot of the type
00:20:23
of evidence that
you might normally find at a homicide scene. However, the fire
itself creates evidence.
00:20:32
And in this particular case, the
fire itself, and how it started and where it started,
became crucial evidence
00:20:39
in the prosecution. -They always get
caught in the end. Sometimes it takes a
while, but they get caught.
00:20:45
LARRY MCKINNEY
(VOICEOVER): This case was based almost exclusively on
forensics, even though I like
00:20:54
to think that I had
something to do with it. But in actuality,
in this case, it was forensics that
found him guilty.
00:21:03
[theme music] [music playing]