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[music playing] NARRATOR: It was a case
unlike most others. Forensic evidence proved
the perpetrator broke out
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of the crime scene
rather than breaking in. No one knew why, until some
evidence on the victim's hands
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provided the answer. [theme music] NARRATOR: Retirees
often face hard choices. Many find it difficult
to live alone, or grow
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tired of maintaining
their own home. But 82-year-old Kathryn
Bishop wasn't one of them.
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JANET SEITZ: She was a quiet
person, but she was feisty. She trusted everybody. And she was my mother.
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NARRATOR: Kathryn's home was in
Hummelstown, Pennsylvania, just outside the state
capital of Harrisburg.
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One morning, a city employee
saw Kathryn's side door had broken into,
and called police.
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JANET SEITZ: The ambulance
was in the driveway. And I kept saying,
where's my mother?
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Where's my mother? (WEEPING) And a man appeared,
and he said, your-- I'm sorry. He said, your mother is dead.
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And I just went limp. NARRATOR: Kathryn Bishop
had been beaten to death. SGT. GEORGE KEGERREIS, JR:
The scene was a violent scene.
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The victim had been
beaten severely. There was a pool of
blood around her head that she had,
literally, bled out.
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HETRICK: I believe
there are defense wounds on the arms that were observed. And we had a broken
fingernail, also.
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So there were signs there
that she-- she probably did try to fight off her
attacker or attackers.
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NARRATOR: There was a
half-finished crossword puzzle in the living room. And in Kathryn's
hand, a broken pen.
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It appeared she was awake
when the break-in occurred. JANET SEITZ: When you
get to be that age,
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you have to expect
death to happen. But not the way my mother died. And that's-- that's what
really, really bothers me.
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NARRATOR: Strangest
of all, there appeared to be nothing missing. -According to the
family, everything
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appeared normal as it was. That there was no ransacking
through the house. That there was no
signs that they
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were looking for
anything, in particular. NARRATOR: Through body
temperature and the degree
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of rigor mortis,
the medical examiner estimated that Kathryn had
been killed the night before.
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-The death occurred between
9:00 and 10:30 in the evening. NARRATOR: At first,
the side door
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looked like the point of entry. But the broken glass
was outside, not inside. SGT. GEORGE KEGERREIS,
JR: Very unusual.
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Majority of the time,
I've seen break-ins, the glass is always into
the inside of the house,
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because people are breaking
in, not breaking out. NARRATOR: Police canvassed
the neighborhood for leads.
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CPL. MULL: Anytime you have an
investigation where you have no witnesses, and
you have no evidence,
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there is a strong
likelihood that the case will never be solved. NARRATOR: One of
the neighbors said,
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she was walking her dog the
night before, around 10:30 and heard some kind of noise.
CPL.
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MULL: She turned around. She saw a shadowy figure
running from Mrs. Bishop's home.
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She was only able to see this
figure for a very brief time period, maybe 10, 15 seconds.
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-And that, along with
the medical evidence allowed us to establish
the time of the crime.
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NARRATOR: If this
was the killer, he left through the
side door, which explains why the
glass was outside.
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If so, how did he
enter the house? And what was his motive? -It was a crime that caused
a lot of community concern.
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And, of course,
doubled our motivation to find who was responsible. NARRATOR: Because of
the nature of the crime,
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investigators were certain that
Kathryn Bishop's autopsy would reveal evidence to
help their case.
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The medical examiner
concluded that Kathryn was hit over 60 times. The cause of death wasn't
difficult to determine.
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HETRICK: It was the
breaking of the ribs on both sides of the
body, bilaterally,
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preventing her from expanding
and contracting her chest. And she died of suffocation.
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NARRATOR: As a
matter of routine, the medical examiner
used clear tape to pick up any
potential trace evidence
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on Kathryn's body and clothing. And this technique identified
something potentially valuable.
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HETRICK: It was a fiber. And it was a fiber that
wasn't consistent with what she was wearing.
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But where she picked it up
from, that we can't say. NARRATOR: Also on the tape
lift from Kathryn's hand
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was a small chip of white paint. Forensic analyst John Evans
noticed that the paint chip
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contained several layers,
each a different color. He then compared
it to paint samples
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from the exterior
of Kathryn's home. And it matched only
one area-- the paint around her basement window.
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-We looked at the layer
structures and the colors of the layers that were present.
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In the paint chip from
the basement window, I became three layers--
a top white layer,
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a middle yellow layer,
and a bottom tanish layer. CPL. MULL: The window
was located about 4
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and 1/2 feet above ground level. And on the exterior of
the home, on the siding,
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there were black marks. It appeared that someone had
actually crawled up the siding,
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and used the siding to help
them go through the window. NARRATOR: Police found marks on
the top of the washing machine
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that looked like
fabric impressions. SGT. GEORGE KEGERREIS,
JR: The impression had the striated lines.
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It had the appearance
of a pair of denim jeans, what it would look like. NARRATOR: Technicians
dusted the area
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and found some partial
finger and palm prints, but they were too badly
smudged to be useful.
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In their search for
suspects, investigators made a list of everyone who
had been in Kathryn's home
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over the past several weeks.
CPL. MULL: We found utility bills
on the kitchen table, which
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indicated that she had
a fuel oil delivery. NARRATOR: The oil company
indicated they delivered
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three days before
Kathryn's murder. CPL. MULL: Our
investigators went out, contacted each of these people.
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We found out that a fuel oil man
did not even come in the home. NARRATOR: And the
oil deliverymen
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had solid alibis for
the night of the murder. Police also found a receipt
for a chimney cleaning service.
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Two men cleaned
Kathryn's chimney on the afternoon of her murder. Kathryn's daughter visited
her mother that day,
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and spoke with the
two chimney cleaners. JANET SEITZ: It was three
hundred and some dollars.
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And I remember saying, to
have your chimney cleaned, it's that much? NARRATOR: The two men were
identified as 27-year-old Tim
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McEnany and his cousin
20-year-old Andrew Reichman. CHARDO: McEnany,
who was apparently
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part of this guild
of chimney sweeps, it's my understanding
that it was Tim McEnany that was
the boss of the company.
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NARRATOR: McEnany and
Reichman told police, they finished at Kathryn's
house around 6:30.
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Then went to a nearby bar, where
they stayed until after 1:00 in the morning. Several bar patrons
confirmed their alibi.
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Then Kathryn's daughter
remembered something. When she was in her mother's
home on the afternoon
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of her murder, she saw
three rolls of cash in a basket on the
dining room table,
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money Kathryn used when
shopping for groceries. JANET SEITZ: And
I remember saying,
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Mother, put that money away. You shouldn't have that out
with strangers in the house.
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I really felt uncomfortable
because of that, with them in the house. And there she had this money.
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NARRATOR: When police
searched Kathryn's home, they found the basket, but
not the three rolls of cash.
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SHELLEM: I think it was Mrs.
Bishop's daughter was saying there was about
$6,000 cash-- I think.
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NARRATOR: Then a confidential
source told journalist Pete Shellem that Tim McEnany
and Andrew Reichman made
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a little side trip in the early
morning hours after the murder. SHELLEM: The robbery
occurred around 10:00 PM.
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Sources have told me
that Tim and his cousin went to Atlantic City. NARRATOR: Which is
where the casinos are,
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a perfect place to spend $6,000. The medical examiner
estimated that Kathryn Bishop
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was murdered sometime
between 9:00 and 10:30 PM. The only people who were
in Kathryn's home that day,
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besides her daughter,
were two chimney sweepers who said they left around
6:30 and went to a nearby bar.
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CPL. MULL: Both bartenders were
attractive young women. The chimney service men
were engaging in small talk,
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and commenting to these
bartenders all the time they were there
and having beers.
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NARRATOR: The men claimed
they were in the bar all night, until closing time. But the bartenders
disputed that.
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CPL. MULL: The first
bartender actually sat next to one of the chairs
that the chimney sweeps sat
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in, when she was done her shift. And when we interviewed
the second bartender, they were in an entirely
different location at the bar,
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two different chairs later on. NARRATOR: Kathryn's
home was only a few miles away from the bar.
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CHARDO: A 30 minute window would
have been sufficient to have left the bar, committed the
crime, and to have returned.
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NARRATOR: So with
a warrant police searched the chimney
cleaners' homes, and confiscated the
clothes they were
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seen wearing that
night at the bar. The Pennsylvania State
Police forensic team concluded that the fibers
from McEnany black t-shirt
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were identical to the one
found on Kathryn's body. But Tim McEnany's lawyers were
convinced that was a mistake.
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So they hired their own trace
evidence expert, Skip Palenik. CHARDO: Skip Palenik is highly
respected in many quarters.
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And so it was obviously
of great concern when he's going to be
testifying for the defense.
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NARRATOR: Palenik first
examined the fibers from McEnany's t-shirt
under a microscope.
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PALENIK: Well, first of
all, that there appeared to be both synthetic
black fibers
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and natural black fibers. NARRATOR: Next, Palenik
compared the fibers from McEnany's
t-shirt to those taken
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from Kathryn Bishop's body. PALENIK: And I just,
basically, joined them up with a
line between them.
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You can see, are the
diameters the same? Are the colors really the same? NARRATOR: Tim McEnany
and his lawyers
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hoped that Skip
Palenik would disagree with the State Police
forensics expert. But he didn't.
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PALENIK: What we
found in this case, though, when we compared the
cotton fibers, and the tape
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of the cotton fibers
from the shirt, everything looked the same. When we compared the polyester
fibers from the tapes,
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with the polyester fibers
from the shirt, again, everything looked the same. We could not see
any differences.
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NARRATOR: This was
hardly the conclusion Tim McEnany and
his lawyers wanted. PALENIK: The defense
attorney gets satisfaction
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from seeing his client, who
he believes to be innocent, found innocent. Our role is entirely
different than theirs.
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Our role is to be objective
seekers of scientific truth. And that's what we do. -There is a certain
irony in the fact
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that they're spending a
great deal of money, trying to get the bit
hitter to come in.
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When you've got someone
of that stature, they're going to concede
what they must concede.
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NARRATOR: But McEnany insisted
the fibers proved nothing. He said he was working
inside Kathryn's home
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on the afternoon of her
murder, so naturally he would've shed some shirt
fibers along the way.
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So the state's forensic
analyst, John Evans, examined the rest of
McEnany's clothing,
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and found another
tantalizing clue. EVANS: I was given the jacket
to examine for trace evidence.
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On inspection of
the inside pockets, I discovered on the left-hand
side, a paint chip that looked
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like it could have
come from a house. NARRATOR: Evans discovered that
the paint chip contained three
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separate layers of paint-- white
on top, yellow in the middle, and tan on the bottom.
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With a scalpel, Evans
separated the layers, and subjected each
to infrared light.
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Different paint reacts
to the infrared light in different ways, revealing
its chemical makeup.
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And paint consists of
many chemical compounds. EVANS: We found that the top
layers of all three samples
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were consistent with each
other in the infrared region. NARRATOR: Evans then
tested the bottom layer
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of the tan paint of the samples. And they, too, have the
same chemical make up. CHARDO: The state police took
samples from all of that house.
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And the other
samples didn't match. It was the sample from
the basement window, the point of entry, that
matched the chip found
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in the defendant's pocket
and Mrs. Bishop's hand. NARRATOR: The paint and fiber
on Kathryn's body clearly
00:15:10
linked Tim McEnany
to the murder. But there was no
forensic evidence linking Andrew Reichman.
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JANET SEITZ: The theory was
that Reichman bargained to be part of a burglary, but
not part of a murder.
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And when he saw what McEnany
was doing to Mrs. Bishop, it was then that he
hightailed it out of there.
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NARRATOR: Unfortunately,
the neighbor walking her dog couldn't identify Reichman as
the man running from the scene.
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So only Tim McEnany was charged
with Kathryn Bishop's murder. To cement the
case, investigators
00:15:50
decided to check one last
thing-- Tim McEnany's cell phone calls on the
night of the murder.
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And the information in those
records explained everything. As prosecutors prepared
their murder case against Tim
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McEnany, they had the
paint and fiber evidence, but wanted to make sure they
had enough to convict him.
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So investigators subpoenaed
McEnany's cell phone records for the night of
Kathryn's murder.
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CPL. MULL: We took the
phone into the lab, and we sequenced the
phone to the last number
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called, whatever that would be. And it turned out to be
Mrs. Bishop's phone number.
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NARRATOR: McEnany's
phone records showed he made two calls
to Kathryn Bishop's home
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that night. One at 10:07 PM. And the second call,
a minute later. CPL. MULL: The calls were
short in duration--
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20 seconds, 10 seconds. There appeared to be no
connection with the home phone. And the calls were made from
Mr. McEnany's cell phone.
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NARRATOR: But if Kathryn
was home, why didn't she pick up the phone? JANET SEITZ: She
was hard of hearing.
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I would call her
and it would ring, sometimes it rang as
high as 15 to 20 times,
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and she never answered. NARRATOR: Prosecutors believe
McEnany saw the rolls of cash
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on Kathryn's dining
room table while he and Reichman were
cleaning her chimney. Later at the bar, he probably
made the decision to steal it.
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McEnany called Kathryn's
home shortly after 10:00 PM. And again a minute later. [phone ringing]
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NARRATOR: When
there was no answer, he assumed Kathryn was
either asleep, or out.
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The evidence shows that
McEnany entered Kathryn's home through the basement
window, and inadvertently
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collected the tiny
chips of paint. Once inside, McEnany discovered
that Kathryn was awake,
00:18:10
and made a split-second
decision to kill her. Kathryn fought back,
grabbing the shirt
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fibers, as well
as the paint chip. McEnany kicked
her over 60 times. Prosecutors believe McEnany's
accomplice ran from Kathryn's
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home, breaking the
back door window. [glass breaking] But the neighborhood couldn't
identify if it was Reichman,
00:18:37
because she never saw his face. Later, McEnany and Reichman
returned to the bar to establish an alibi.
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According to an informant,
McEnany and Reichman then drove to an Atlantic
City Casino to gamble,
00:18:55
presumably with Kathryn's money. But this was never corroborated. During the police
interrogation, McEnany
00:19:03
refused to identify
Reichman as his accomplice, but virtually
confessed to the crime.
00:19:10
CHARDO: And without any
solicitation he said, it's that f-ing bear. Every time I drink,
I get in trouble.
00:19:17
NARRATOR: Tim McEnany
was tried and convicted of second-degree murder,
robbery, and conspiracy.
00:19:25
But before he was sentenced,
McEnany run towards the window and tried to jump out.
00:19:32
A assistant public
defender and the Sheriff were able to grab him
and pull him back in.
00:19:36
And at that point, his family,
who were in the court room, were screaming and yelling.
00:19:40
The defendant was
screaming, "you've convicted an innocent man." It was-- it was bedlam.
00:19:45
EVANS: McEnany stayed long
enough to hear his sentence-- life in prison,
and was taken away.
00:19:54
Andrew Reichman was never
charged in this case. His lawyers maintained
there was no evidence
00:20:00
that he participated
in the crime. Prosecutors reluctantly agreed. CHARDO: The difference
between McEnany and Reichman,
00:20:10
aside from the fact
that, I believe, that McEnany was the principle,
but the forensic evidence was
00:20:14
against McEnany. We didn't have any forensic
evidence against Reichman. NARRATOR: Investigators say this
was a classic example of barely
00:20:24
visible evidence leading
directly to a killer. SGT. GEORGE KEGERREIS, JR: The
general principle of forensics
00:20:31
is, when you go somewhere
you do one of two things. You either leave evidence, or
you take evidence with you.
00:20:38
CPL. MULL: It was easy for the jury
to see something like that. Juries like that.
00:20:46
They can put the
puzzle together. And we just provide
them with the pieces and let them go with
it, wherever it goes.
00:20:54
-I'm thankful, yes, that there
are experts in their field, and they were able to find
the evidence that they got.
00:21:05
[theme music]