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a man was dead in a michigan junkyard [Music] and there were no clues or forensic
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evidence at the scene but computer forensic experts found evidence of a crime that had everything
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sex lies and a videotape [Music] [Music] on november 8 1999 chuck miller got a frantic call from his sister-in-law his
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brother bruce was missing bruce hadn't come home for dinner and he wasn't answering his telephone at work
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chuck drove out to his brother's junkyard to look for him the door was shut open the door and
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walked in and hollered his name he wouldn't answer and we walked around the corner of the desk and he was laying on
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the floor bruce miller was dead of a gunshot wound to his chest the telephone receiver was near his head
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bruce normally kept around two thousand dollars in his front shirt pocket to make change for his customers that money
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was missing the motive appeared to be robbery two thousand dollars cash in the pocket
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would look good to a lot of people in the area we just thought it was just a random someone just walked in and shot
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him because he always kept money in his front pocket and took that money it just appeared to be another robbery
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another day in flint criminalists from the michigan crime lab used one-sided tape to collect possible
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evidence from bruce's shirt the tape lift that i took from this particular victim
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only had his his own head here on it there was nothing foreign that was determined on the tape left
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and there were other signs that this crime scene was a little too clean we're talking about a business that
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hadn't been cleaned and probably since it opened we're talking grease oil
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everything that leaves a good latent print a good boot impression so he knew what to touch what not to
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touch and might have even taken other protective measures in order for him not to be found it was also troubling that
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bruce was on the phone when killed but to whom was he speaking no one's called and said i was on the
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phone with bruce miller and i heard a gunshot there's no latent prints that were no
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bloody prints no money fallen where they were in a hurry to get it out why the pocket wasn't
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ripped when they're taking the money out bruce miller was 48 years old six months earlier he married 28 year
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old cherie and he was about to adopt her three children by all accounts seem to be a very
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hard-working kind of mellow guy who you know took a chance with marrying sherry miller and her kids and
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taking on that load as well as having two jobs working at general motors as well as running a
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junkyard according to friends and family it was a happy marriage she would talk to them in length about
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bruce miller how is the best thing that ever happened to her how he was a good lover
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how her kids endeared him this was an older gentleman that caught the young woman and he
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treated her like a princess cherie had been at home all day with her children and several friends and wasn't
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considered a suspect but she had a pretty good idea of who might be responsible she told detectives that one of her
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former boyfriends john hutchinson owed her husband several thousand dollars bruce had run-ins with
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john in the past arguing over him stealing auto parts from the business late at night and they argued just
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recently over a sale of a twenty dollar tire to john hutchinson's stepson hutchinson claimed he was at home alone
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at the time of the murder it was an alibi that couldn't be corroborated it would take a second death
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before detectives would get to the truth [Music] john hutchinson emerged as the key
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suspect in junkyard owner bruce miller's murder hutchinson agreed to take a lie detector
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test he collapsed during the examination john hutchinson had some kind of episode
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where he ended up going to the hospital but apparently he was pretty stressed out by this polygraph which he
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did not pass but police needed more evidence than a polygraph the autopsy revealed bruce had been
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killed with a 20-gauge shotgun in a search of hutchinson's home police didn't find a 20-gauge shotgun bloody
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clothing or the missing money the feeling was he had probably done it we've exhausted all of our leads this is
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our best prime suspect what aren't we doing what can we do differently to make it work so we can
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get the truth weeks went by then months there had been no new leads in the case but something unusual happened 700 miles
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away in kansas city missouri a former homicide investigator named jerry cassaday was found dead in his
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home his gun still in his hand there was a bible in his lap divorce papers were on his desk and a report
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showing he had recently been treated for depression [Music] in a trash can outside the home
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police found a videotape marked for jerry's eyes only it appeared to be a home video of a
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woman dancing seductively definitely a seductive tool something you would send a guy
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that you're trying to seduce friends told police they thought the woman on the tape was jerry's girlfriend
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who lived in flint michigan and that her name was cheree when investigators called police in
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flint they knew just who they were talking about it was like getting hit upside they had
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a sudden shack it's like you know i can't believe it she duped me sheree miller was brought into police
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headquarters for questioning she claimed that she did not even know jerry cassidy
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this is an audio recording of the actual interrogation did you ever send naked pictures of
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yourself to jerry no did you up some jerry [Music] when we showed her that we had this
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videotape of her for jerry cassidy written right on the tape for jerry's eyes only so she
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went from not knowing jerry cassidy to turn around i know him but he's crazy
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isn't it true that you were having a physical relationship with your maybe i'm mine no i'm talking
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in person cherie said she met jerry cassaday in a computer chat room i mean i mess around online all the time
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just to figure out something new to do i mean everybody does it computer forensic experts confiscated
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cherie's computer as well as jerry cassadays and what they discovered inside
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answered some important questions but raised many others this is one of the most bizarre cases
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i've handled in the 10 years i've been dealing with this subject matter there
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was deception there was a love triangle whenever there's an internet connectivity issue that relates to a
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murder case of course it's going to be sexy things were starting to get interesting
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[Music] police sent cherie miller's computer and the one used by her suspected lover
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jerry cassaday to an expert in the new field of computer forensics i get the stuff that's been deleted i
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get the space that's unused by the computer i get everything and that's what i examine as a computer forensic
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specialist sergeant petrovka was able to mirror the hard drive which means he kept the hard
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drive in its original format but makes a mirror image of it that we as investigators can use to download
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the information on there without ever tampering with the original best evidence forensic computer specialists can also
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gain access to password protected accounts on a hard drive passwords lock documents away from
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anyone except the owner investigators easily made their way into jerry's and cherie's private files
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i believe we have like three four hundred bookmarks fragments that i had found that
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were relevant there were probably thousands of hits on her name on the just a cherie 1013.
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investigators found incriminating evidence on jerry's computer and in his private papers
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it was an instant message conversation in which jerry and cherie discussed murder i'll call bruce at 5 p.m and tell
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him to call when he's leaving jerry i'm scared is the gun loud it's deer hunting season here inside would be
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fast muffled pull up to the left of the building right to the door he'll stay at
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the desk inside take his wallet take the whole thing there was discussion about pull the car
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up i believe it was to the right side of the door of the office to the auto parts
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place because then when you open up the driver's side door of the car it would help hide a gun in your hand as
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you stepped out and went towards the front door of the business police confronted cherie with this
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computer message i'm telling you here i have an email that lays it out right here in front of
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me about how you and jerry cassidy planned his murder that's fine okay why would jury even
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think about changing that i don't know it doesn't make sense does it i don't
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have a clue maybe because he was mad because i wouldn't have nothing to do with him
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cherie said the instant messages were forged officials at aol confirmed that this was
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a possibility we first informed the prosecutors and investigators that this is an instant
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message that may not be authentic it possibly could have been edited but i couldn't say in fact it was authentic
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and did come through the american online service in its exact form it was very important for us to
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forensically back up this instant message and show that there was a relationship
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and show how she got jerry cassidy to kill her husband under court order aol released
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information regarding cassadays and cherie's computer activity aol verified the jerry and sheree were
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both signed onto the aol service on the same day at the same time and for the same length of time
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as the instant message indicated sheree also took steps to cover her tracks a day and a half after the killing of
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her husband she calls america online to change her first and last name to change her street
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address city state and zip code after she learned of the suicide of jerry cassaday she did the same thing
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and jerry's home computer showed hundreds of emails from the screen name cherie 1013 that had been deleted
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the data is still there until such time as the computer needs to write something new and the
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computer says oh that spot's open i'll write it there now and so the data resides
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on the card drive until it's overridden among a stack of papers on cherie's
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computer desk investigators found the name john o'connor which was misspelled and a
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telephone number in cherie's handwriting in the instant message which cherie
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claimed was a fabrication jerry wrote if anything happens to me call him john o'connor
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with the same misspelling and his telephone number which was also incorrect certainly corroborates the fact that
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they had been communicating in that instant message it was one in two quintillion
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chances that that alone could have happened by coincidence that's nineteen zeros after the two
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the forensic computer analysis also revealed the motive for the murder in a moment
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how cherie miller managed to fool a seasoned homicide investigator [Music] forensic computer experts found proof
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that cherry miller and jerry cassaday conspired to kill cherie's husband bruce
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it was like reading a diary of the relationship and it showed her saying things to this guy to really
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kind of bring his blood to both a sexual and emotional boil to really bring him in to her and her world
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as she was showing it to him only a month after cherie's marriage to bruce miller she met jerry cassaday in
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an america online chat room the two struck up a friendship jerry was going through a divorce cherie said she
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was unhappy too [Music] eventually they met face to face and became lovers [Music]
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when the two were apart cherie kept the spark in their relationship by sending jerry erotic
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pictures of herself through email she also recorded the videotape later found by investigators in jerry's
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trash [Music] at one point cherie told jerry she was pregnant with twins and the jury was the
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father although she had had her tubes tied years earlier cherie emailed a picture of a positive
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pregnancy test she had taken from a friend and sonograms of the fetus which were actually taken five years earlier
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of her son shuri claimed her husband bruce was a member of organized crime a drug dealer
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and was physically abusive towards her there was no evidence that any of this was true
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she claimed bruce had beaten her so badly that she miscarried jerry's unborn twins
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cherie emailed jerry pictures of her bruised and battered body a feat she accomplished with makeup
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this was a situation where a woman very plottingly and purposefully created an artificial universe to cause
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this guy to believe that he would be doing the quote unquote right thing to come and murder bruce miller
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he couldn't see what the truth was anymore and what was a lie he was going to be the white
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knight for sheree miller he was going to kill the dragon and claim his property in an instant message
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jerry and cherie made plans for the murder [Music] cherie said she would keep her husband
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on the phone while jerry went in to kill him telephone records confirmed this is precisely what happened
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[Music] jerry's experience as a homicide detective meant he could commit the
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crime while leaving no forensic evidence behind [Music] just a few weeks after bruce's murder
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cherie double-crossed jury she stopped answering his calls and emails and she found another boyfriend
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i think he was grief stricken what have i done what has she led me to do and for what she didn't
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give a darn about me among jerry's personal papers was a suicide note addressed to his
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parents it was painfully obvious jerry still believed most of cherie's lies he beat the crap out of her and killed
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my baby i'm sorry mom these were my babies i loved them i wanted them i drove there and killed him
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but jerry finally realized he had been used i was so blind and so stupid and so much
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in love little did i know she never meant any of it she just wanted all her money and no more husband
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sheree was involved and helped set it up i have all the proof she'll get what's coming
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there was no doubt you know jerry said he did it jerry did it you know there was no
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making it up you know jerry yeah it wasn't that type of individual that he'd
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pull somebody's leg like that especially in a situation like this he wasn't going
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to shoot himself and then leave this for somebody if it wasn't true in december 2000 cherie went on trial
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for murder and conspiracy the forensic computer analysis was the state's primary evidence
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did you kill your husband bruce miller no i did not did you help anybody kill your husband
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no i did not did you love your husband yes i did [Music] cherie continued to maintain the instant
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messages were a forgery she claimed jerry was the spurned lover and did this in an attempt to frame her
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so are you saying this entire instant message is fake yes i am so when they talk about the
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discs and the pictures on your back and legs and whatnot and the bruises it has you never had that conversation
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no i did not but the forensic computer analysis proved otherwise and provided a possible motive for the
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murder money from bruce's life insurance policies and the sale of his junkyard
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business i told my wife that uh i think cherie is grinning from here here thinking the
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money she's gonna get from this right here that was my thought the night he got killed
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because she was that kind of person just a money hungry person right after the homicide she redid the house
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she spent a lot of money even bruce's mother bought her car with some of the money that was left to her
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so money may have been a motive we don't know prosecutors do not believe john
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hutchinson had anything to do with bruce miller's murder in december of 2000
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sheree miller was found guilty of second-degree murder and conspiracy to commit first-degree murder
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she was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole she had no respect for the man she she
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married she had no respect for my brother she had no respect for her own kids put them through this
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she got what she deserved i've seen gunshot wounds i've seen knife wounds
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i've seen dismemberment i've seen ax murders i've seen people who've drugged
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people by cars killed by autos but i've never seen anyone killed by a computer
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for investigators the verdict was a triumph of high-tech detective work and old-fashioned gum shoe investigation
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if we had been unable to find hard evidence to back up the printouts the emails the instant messages
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we would not have had a case by doing the computer forensics we showed that manipulation of jerry cassidy and what
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brought him to killing bruce miller and then taking his own life she thought she had beaten the system
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she thought she planned the perfect murder she thought those those things that she typed in would never ever come
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back to haunt her but she was wrong [Music] [Music] [Music] you