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NARRATOR: In 1987, a mother
and her two young daughters were brutally murdered in their
apartment in Anchorage, Alaska.
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Microscopic clues from
inside the apartment identified a family relative
as a possible suspect.
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But how could investigators tell
whether the evidence was fresh or had been there since
long before the murders?
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[theme music] Anchorage, Alaska, is
considered one of the most scenic cities in
the United States.
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Bordered by the
Alaska mountain range on one side and the
Pacific Ocean on the other,
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it draws tens of thousands
of tourists each year. The life blood of the state
had been the oil business.
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But in the mid 1980s,
prices for crude oil crashed, forcing thousands
of workers off the job.
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John Newman was one of the
oil workers who lost his job. When he couldn't find
other work in Alaska,
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he left for California to take
classes to become a locksmith. His wife Nancy stayed
behind to care for their two
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young daughters
eight-year-old Melissa and three-year-old Angie. -Angie was a cherub,
beautiful blonde hair.
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Just cute, charming,
very charming. Melissa was at that stage where
she wasn't baby-cute anymore,
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but she had all the
potential to be beautiful. NARRATOR: Nancy
worked as a waitress
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at Gwennie's restaurant,
an Anchorage landmark. She was known for
never missing a day.
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And when she didn't come
to work one Sunday morning, her co-workers were concerned.
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-Nancy's sister Cheryl
worked for us as a hostess. And they were very, very close.
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And I said, Cheryl, you
know, you've got your car. Can you run over and check on
Nancy, see what's going on?
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NARRATOR: Cheryl
immediately drove over to her sister's apartment. Nancy Newman's front
door was locked,
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but inside was a scene
of horrific violence. Nancy was found in her bedroom. She had been sexually
assaulted and strangled
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to death with a pillowcase. Eight-year-old Melissa
had met the same fate. Three-year-old Angie
had bled to death
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after her throat was slashed. -We'd never had a crime like
that in town before, you know,
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a whole family basically
killed in, in their own house. That was very heinous
and definitely
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out of the ordinary
for Anchorage. NARRATOR: The coroner
underestimated the murders took
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place some time on
Saturday morning. None of the neighbors
saw or heard anything unusual
during that time.
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Although there were no
signs of forced entry, Nancy Newman's
camera and purse were
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missing from the apartment. A knife was also missing from
a butcher block in the kitchen.
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A cookie tin that normally
held Nancy's waitressing tips was empty on the kitchen table.
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A damp wash rag was found
in the bathroom sink. -He was in a comfort zone
inside that apartment.
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He knew this situation
of these victims enough to know that he wouldn't in
all likelihood be interrupted,
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that he could spend a
significant amount of time. And we could tell he spent a
significant amount of time.
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He had three different victims,
three different bedrooms, two of them sexually assaulted.
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And then we had the person
completely cleaning up. He was-- had to be
covered in blood.
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NARRATOR: John Newman was
attending school in California. Police could find no evidence
that he had returned to Alaska
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at the time of the murders, and
was not considered a suspect. But the killings
reflected a great rage
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on the part of the perpetrator. Police wondered if Nancy
Newman had made an enemy
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among co-workers or
customers of the restaurant. -It was a difficult
station that she worked.
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It was normally, you
know, single guys. And maybe they were hung over. Maybe they were
just being jerks.
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NARRATOR: As John Newman
returned home to bury his wife and two small
children, investigators
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wondered whether this was a
botched robbery attempt that had turned violent
or an act of revenge.
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After the murders
of Nancy Newman and her two daughters
Melissa and Angie, Anchorage residents
feared that a random sex
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killer was on the loose. -Why didn't somebody
hear Nancy's screams? I used to have dreams at night.
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I could hear a woman screaming. And it would be, you know,
when you first fall asleep,
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and I'd wake up and I'd
still hear the screams. But I didn't know what to do. I couldn't do anything.
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And for a while I didn't
know if it was dreams or if it was really happening. -Who in this community would
commit such a crime where they
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would actually kill two
young children like that? And if, if it wasn't
the husband, then who?
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And was he still out
there on the streets? And that had a lot of people
who were genuinely scared.
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NARRATOR: The lack of forced
entry and the time spent in the apartment
led investigators
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to believe the killer
had been there before. -Yeah, this is the worst
case that I've worked.
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I've had, I've been involved
in one form or another in over 200 homicide
investigations.
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And this would be the worst
as far as the victims go, the brutality, the age,
what was done to them.
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NARRATOR: At the crime
scene, investigators searched for fingerprints
using a technique
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called superglue fuming. When superglue is
heated, the fumes attach to the biological
material in finger oils.
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Then powder is used
to reveal the print. -Sometimes you'll be able to see
them, sometimes you will not.
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After the superglue fuming
process is completed. As a fingerprint examiner, once
those fingerprints are fixed,
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we either photograph them
as they develop or add different chemicals to that item
to try to make the fingerprints
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visible, so that we can
preserve them and compare them to suspects or
other individuals.
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NARRATOR: Kathy Monfreda
found over 100 fingerprints in the apartment,
many did not belong
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to anyone in the
immediate family. These prints were found on
the inside of the front door,
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on the cookie tin, where Nancy
Newman kept her waitressing tips, in the bathroom,
and in other areas.
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Investigators
identified the prints as those of Kirby Anthony, a
nephew of the Newman family.
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Anthony was a
23-year-old drifter who had recently moved
to Anchorage from Idaho.
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Since he needed a place
to stay, the Newmans allowed him to move
in temporarily.
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-Kirby had lived
there with them. They had let him stay there. That he was a relative,
they felt sorry for him.
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They knew he had
a troubled past. And so he had a
legitimate reason for being in there, which
means a lot to what we're
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going to discover
in trace evidence. -They put him up.
He stayed with them. And I think they got along OK,
although, we did hear later
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and learn that he
didn't get along real well with Melissa,
the eight-year-old. NARRATOR: Kirby Anthony
admitted that living
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in a small apartment with two
young children was difficult. And he told police he
moved out amicably,
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just two weeks
before the murders. Furthermore, Kirby Anthony
denied any knowledge
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of the attack and
said he had an alibi. He told police he was out
with friends on Friday
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night and spent
Saturday morning eating breakfast at a Burger
King restaurant. In addition to the
fingerprints, investigators
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found large amounts
of hair in almost every room of the
Newman's apartment. The hairs were Caucasian and
were not similar to anyone
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in the Newman family. Anchorage police sent the hairs
to the FBI in Washington, DC,
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hoping that they
could shed some light on the identity of the killer. At FBI Headquarters
in Washington, DC,
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analyst Doug Deedrick examined
all of the hairs and fibers collected from the
Newman's apartment.
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There were thousands
of hairs and fibers throughout the apartment,
which is not unusual.
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But Deedrick found
large numbers of hairs in the victims' bedrooms,
which were pubic.
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-It is very easy to
distinguish the differences between the head hair
and the pubic hair,
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differences being in
diameter, length, color, internal microscopic
characteristics,
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the appearance of the tip. Pubic hairs generally
have a pointed tip, whereas head hairs
are often cut.
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NARRATOR: His first task
was to compare the hairs to the victims and to their
prime suspect, Kirby Anthony.
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In Deedrick's opinion,
the pubic hairs were microscopically
similar to hair samples collected
from Kirby Anthony.
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But Anthony's hairs
in the apartment could be explained, since
he had been living there
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until 10 days
before the murders. The question was when were these
hairs left in the apartment?
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To find out, Doug Deedrick
devised a unique experiment. -I had to take a vacuum home.
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I had to vacuum the house. And I don't believe the house
has ever been any cleaner.
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But every, every
night for two weeks I vacuumed and, and, then,
compared afterwards to see
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what types of hairs I found
and how many hairs I found. NARRATOR: Deedrick discovered
that pubic hairs can
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travel, or migrate,
from room to room. And the way that
happens in a household is through what is called
"a secondary transfer."
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Pubic hairs travel from room
to room, primarily on socks. The Deedrick experiment
revealed that these transfers
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were limited. Very few pubic hairs
from an adult's bedroom migrate into a child's bedroom.
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How then to account for the
large number of Kirby Anthony's pubic hairs in the
children's rooms?
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One explanation was
that Anthony was in the girl's bedroom
nude or uncovered. In addition, all of the pubic
hairs found in these rooms
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were clean and moist. If the hairs had been there
since the time Anthony was living there, the
shafts would have
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been dry and collected dirt. -When a hair is deposited,
especially on the floor,
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in the carpet of a
residence, over time the hair can exhibit chew
marks from beetle larva
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that tend to eat on the hairs. The hairs will accumulate
dirt or debris on the surface.
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The hairs that were found
on the body of Melissa and on Angie, all
three of those hairs,
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pubic hairs, like
Kirby Anthony's did not have any dirt on them. And they had, actually,
what looked like fresh blood
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on the surface of the hairs. And that, I thought,
was very significant. NARRATOR: Next, Deedrick
examined the damp wash rag
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found in the Newman's
sink after the murders. On the wash rag were
some green wool fibers
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which matched the
pair of gloves found in Nancy Newman's bedroom. Also on the wash rag were
traces of the victims' blood.
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Finally, Deedrick made
a startling discovery. On the wash rag were pubic
hairs with partial egg casings
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from pubic lice-- an
extremely rare finding. The hairs were microscopically
similar to Kirby Anthony.
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And investigators
discovered that Anthony had recently been
treated for pubic lice.
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And there was more
evidence linking Kirby Anthony to the
Newman crime scene. One was the location of
Kirby Anthony's palm print
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in a particularly
unusual location. -Above Melissa's
bed on the wall, an entire left hand
print was developed.
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NARRATOR: Melissa had
been sexually assaulted. The print, only 10 inches
above her head, was telling.
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Anthony's fingerprints were
also found on the container that Nancy Newman
used to hold the cash
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tips from the restaurant. Kirby Anthony's
roommate told police that on the morning
of the murders
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Anthony had walked
into their apartment with blood on his
clothing and immediately
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washed everything
he was wearing. The roommate also revealed
that Anthony was counting
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a large amount of change
later that same day. Police were still missing
two important pieces
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of evidence-- the murder
weapon and a motive. As the investigation into
the murders of Nancy Newman
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and her two daughters continued,
more and more evidence pointed to the Newmans'
nephew Kirby Anthony.
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When the Anchorage police
searched for a motive, they learned that Kirby
Anthony's departure
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from the Newman
apartment was not as amicable as he
first admitted. -John, Kirby is making
me very uncomfortable.
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Now he's-- NARRATOR: John
Newman told police that his wife had called
him in California.
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She said Anthony was
behaving inappropriately, and, on at least one occasion,
had struck the children.
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-Kirby was acting inappropriate. He was starting to physically
discipline the girls,
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get angry at them. Um, it was very uncomfortable
for Nancy and the girls. And Nancy had relayed
this information to John.
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And John had told
Nancy to tell him to leave, get him
out of the apartment. NARRATOR: Police believe that it
was an angry Kirby Anthony who
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moved into this
dilapidated apartment just 10 days before the murders. Investigators had one last
piece of physical evidence
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to examine-- the
vacuum cleaner Nancy Newman used to
clean her apartment. A neighbor told police
Nancy Newman vacuumed
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her apartment shortly
before the murders. -I wouldn't call her
exactly a clean freak,
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not obsessively a clean freak,
but for somebody with two little kids-- and I
had two little kids--
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it was a very neat,
well-ordered place. NARRATOR: When Doug Deedrick
looked inside the vacuum
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cleaner bag, he saw many
separate layers of dirt, each layer was different. The top layer was the
most recent layer of dirt.
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In it, Deedrick
could find only one pubic hair from Kirby Anthony. The absence of Kirby Anthony's
pubic hairs in the top layer
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of dirt in the vacuum bag
along with the presence of a great deal of his pubic
hair at the murder scene
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indicated that Kirby Anthony
had been inside the apartment between the time it
was last vacuumed
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and the time of the murders. -If I saw Kirby today, I'd shoot
him, run over him with a car.
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Just whatever. And you know that that
would ruin my life. This man has scarred
so many people.
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What he did to Nancy and
the girls was unthinkable. NARRATOR: Prosecutors believe
that the microscopic trail
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of evidence Kirby Anthony
left behind clearly shows his path on the
morning of the murders.
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The theory was that
Anthony was angry after he was forced to
vacate the Newmans' apartment
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and sought revenge. The night before
the murders, friends said Kirby was using
cocaine and alcohol.
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GIRL: Mom, this meal stinks. NANCY NEWMAN: That's
enough, girls. NARRATOR: The next
morning, Anthony
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entered the Newmans' apartment. The children were
sent to their rooms. -John and I asked you to leave.
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You shouldn't even be here. You're not welcome. NARRATOR: At some point, Anthony
grabbed the kitchen knife
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and forced Nancy Newman
into her bedroom. [music playing] Wearing wool gloves he
found in the bedroom,
00:18:26
he raped and strangled Nancy
Newman with a pillowcase. Then, he entered
Melissa's bedroom,
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assaulting and killing
her too, leaving his palm print above her bed. The evidence suggests
Anthony cleaned himself
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in the bathroom, leaving
the damp washcloth complete with his pubic
hair lice, the green wool
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fibers, and the victims'
blood in the sink. He then killed three-year-old
Angie, the only remaining
00:19:05
person who could place
him at the scene. Anthony left his fingerprints
on the cookie tin
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as it took Nancy's tips. He also took Nancy's
purse, camera, and the knife he
used in the murders.
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The purse and the knife
were never recovered. The camera was later
found in his possession.
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-It was a crime of opportunity. Kirby was a very
disorganized killer. He just walked over there
for whatever reason,
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became out of
control, and continued down this path of destruction. NARRATOR: At the trial, Kirby
Anthony pleaded not guilty
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and acted as his own lawyer. His defense was that he
was framed by police, but he had no explanation
for the washcloth
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and the wealth of
evidence it contained. -The courtroom was packed
pretty much every day.
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While they were
waiting for the judge to come into the chambers, Kirby
Anthony turned and looked over
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at John Newman who was
in the gallery there, and he said, "You're
a fool, John."
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And I can remember our cameras
capturing John's reaction. He was crying.
He was in tears.
00:20:26
He was so angry. -I would say the stupidest
thing that Kirby Anthony did was to have himself
declared co-counsel
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and try and represent himself. And the other stupidest
thing is actually get on the witness stand.
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I'd say the other
stupidest thing he did was he turned around
to John Newman in court that was filled with
people and called him a fool.
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NARRATOR: After two
hours of deliberation, Kirby Anthony was found
guilty and sentenced
00:21:00
to 357 years in prison. Detective Mike Grimes
has difficulty forgetting the unspeakable violence that
took the lives of a loving
00:21:13
mother and her two
young children. -We can scenario this and try
and figure out why people do
00:21:20
things, you never can
get inside their head. There was a sexual
motivation there.
00:21:25
I have theories that the reason
he was asked to move out, I think, something
happened between him
00:21:30
and one of the little girls. I think he was very
resentful of it. Kirby was a drug abuser, you
know, particularly cocaine.
00:21:39
And I think knowing his
psychopathic personality fueled by cocaine, I think, he
went over there in a rage.
00:21:49
NARRATOR: Nancy Newman's
camera, the one found in Kirby Anthony's
possession after the murders,
00:21:56
contained family photos taken
during happier times, pictures of the lives destroyed by
a senseless act of revenge.
00:22:09
[theme music]