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[Music] at one time tourists in south florida were a favorite target for criminals
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hundreds of visitors were robbed some were assaulted and eight were murdered it was an out-of-town journalist who
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made an unexpected journey from tourist to victim to advocate [Music] [Music] [Applause]
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[Music] [Music] in september of 1993 oovy wilhelm rockabrand and his wife flew from germany to florida to spend
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their honeymoon they rented a car for the short trip to their hotel the two german tourists were less than
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five minutes from the airport just time enough to read safety precautions in a visitor's guide when they became the
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newest victims a band pulled behind them and ran their car the couple knew this wasn't an accident but a ploy
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robbers use to get drivers to stop their cars they call it bump and rob but the rocker
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bronze did what they were supposed to do and did not stop then the gunman pulled
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alongside and fired a single shot [Music] thirty-three-year-old uve wilhelm was killed instantly his 27 year old bride
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catherine was unharmed by the end of the year there were eight tourist murders in
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south florida hundreds more were robbed and many more seriously injured tourists were easy targets
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you can't change people's behavior the lost tourists looking at street signs a holding up of
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maps the camera bags the luggage in the back seat you know it's not too hard to identify a
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tourist especially around the airport and they have what criminals want cameras jewelry video equipment laptop
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computers and they usually carry plenty of cash helga loose covered these tourists
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crimes as a journalist for german television i was working on a piece that was focused on the rash of crime that had
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taken place in the united states specifically tourist directed crime in florida and during the course of that
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piece we talked about safety tips for german tourists that would be traveling to the united states
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elga and her mother had scheduled their own florida vacation before the crime spree started
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we decided to keep our plans of flying into miami and then going on to the florida keys just for four days very
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brief stay but particularly because i had just done this piece about safety tips
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and felt that my awareness was you know pretty strong at that point their vacation was relaxing and
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uneventful their return to the airport was not [Music] they got lost looking for the airport
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rental car area [Music] helga drove onto a side street to turn around she soon realized someone was following
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her [Music] the man reached through the window put the car into park disconnected the horn
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and assaulted the two my mother said take whatever you want but please don't hurt us
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the passenger from their vehicle said shut up [ __ ] we're going to kill you
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both of the perpetrators were coming taking turns beating me through my window and
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you know every punch that i took weakened me the attackers tried desperately to grab
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the car keys i was able to get in a good couple of blows myself [Music] somehow helga got the car into gear and
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drove away to try to stop her the attacker bit her arm i hit the driver from their car with the
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front of our car after a short distance the man was forced to let go i had tremendous injuries to my head
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my neck my back dislocated jaw lost the feeling in my left side of my face which i've never
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regained um and the bite wound was very painful the bite wound was deep it went through the muscle
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even animals don't do what he did the way he did it even animals don't do that there's no
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need for that to punch somebody almost killing paralyzing her and biting her and
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destroying her life there's no need for that at all helga described the attackers as young
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men approximately 25 years old they were driving a large dark colored car with tinted windows
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most crimes happen and take place in less than two minutes it's a hit it's a
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theft it's a it's an assault and it happens in a matter of just seconds so a positive identification of a
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suspect might be difficult with no other witnesses or leads police hoped helga's car would contain
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the forensic evidence they needed in 1993 24 year old helga loose barely escaped
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with her life after a harrowing encounter with two men who attempted to overpower her
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two veteran detectives bassam fidel and laura lafave with the hialeah florida robbery squad were
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assigned to the case this particular robbery happened about 10 blocks north of the airport into
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hialeah into a mixed residential commercial neighborhood that neighborhood surrounds lejeune road
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the only exit or entrance to the airport here criminals often lie in wait for their victims
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it's the main artery it's easy to hide it's easy to follow one way in and one way out of miami
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international airport they're hunters they're hunting for robbery victims it could have been your
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family it could have been anybody in the community i'm sure as they followed her
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and they tailed her and targeted her the discussion was how were they going to do it and when were they going to do
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it in what manner at the time rental cars were easily identified with stickers of the rental company and
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special license plates beginning with the letter y or z despite the increase in tourist crimes
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south florida's overall crime rate was less than the previous year nevertheless the press coverage had an
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impact [Music] miami was being hit with tourist robbery cases almost on a daily basis this was a
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city that they viewed as a violent city and they had no interest in coming back here
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european governments discouraged traveled to florida and hotel reservations dropped by 25
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ending the crime spree was difficult victims were often unwilling to return to florida for court hearings and trials
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this kept criminals on the streets [Music] most of the crimes were bump and robbed
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leaving behind little forensic evidence but helga's robbery had been unusually
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violent she had a bite mark located on her upper arm and it was rather clear i have a sexual battery background
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and know that they were developing bite mark comparison techniques and the state-of-the-art place to process her
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was the photo lab at the medical examiner's office she was very sharp to immediately
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address that before the victim left or before that victim saw treatment perhaps sutures or
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other miracle treatment which can damage or alter the bite marks on the victim's
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arm helga agreed to have a forensic photographer take pictures of the wound it's not enough just to take a
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photograph it has to be measured properly it has to be put into perspective it has to be documented
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properly it's important to get it done as quickly as you can things change very
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rapidly skin tends to discolor bruising tends to set in in every picture forensic protocol requires the use of a
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ruler to provide scale it's an l ruler it has three circles on it that allows
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us to make sure that our camera is perpendicular to our subject and that will also give us a
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sense of scale so we take the flash and we hold it off to an angle where we can emphasize the
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surface texture of the skin and forensic photographers take pictures under many different light sources
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conventional light ultraviolet infrared and fluorescent these show detail and texture not
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revealed by light in the visible spectrum many times there's something there that you can't
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see with the naked eye afterwards investigators examined the rental car hoping to find fingerprints
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but unfortunately the weather was against us processing the outside of the vehicle
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was impossible the car was wet because helga had driven through a thunderstorm on the way to the
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airport the interior material was textured which yielded no usable prints no fingerprints no witnesses
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and no suspects helga and her mother left miami not knowing whether the crime would ever be
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solved and maybe it wouldn't have been had the perpetrator not left behind a piece of forensic evidence
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[Music] three weeks after helga loose's assault she was asked to return to florida to
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look through stacks of mug shots she didn't see her attacker [Music] then the detective showed her a photo
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array of six suspects i'll go look at the lineup and then she would look at each picture carefully
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once she got to his picture to stanley cornell's picture and he seen immediate
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reaction in her physically and immediate reaction when i saw the defendant's
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face it was a very very weird mix of emotions one of joy because i found him and one of complete terror
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because it was the first time i had seen that face since it was locked on my arm biting
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through the muscle 24 year old stanley cornett was a factory worker with a long criminal
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history since the tourist attacks happened in different jurisdictions near the airport
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police formed a task force to exchange information that's how lafayette first learned about
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stanley cornett he was arrested a few days after helga's attack for a nearly identical crime
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[Music] he allegedly stopped an elderly man in a rental car and robbed him at gunpoint
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but he picked on the wrong man the victim's son was a miami policeman who lived just across the street
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he called for his son and he came running out of the house well struggle ensued and the victim tried to hold back
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the robber while he was calling for his son and the robber at that time bit him bit him in the upper arm
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the similarities in the crimes were striking but despite the identification cornet
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denied he assaulted helga loost i had tried a number of these cases previously and the issue was always whether the
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identification was enough to pass muster with a jury especially on a on a case where all you have is a
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single id and a robbery case where where it took no longer than 20 30 seconds so investigators wanted to know if there
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was any way to tell whether cornett was the man who bit helga's arm to find out police went to the same
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forensic expert who matched a bite wound to the notorious serial killer ted bundy
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from a bite mark if it's a good one you can actually get a dental profile of the
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suspect for instance an outline of what his teeth look like if there's a gap or
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crooked teeth or whatever that profile can exclude a suspect or increase the likelihood that he made the
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bite mark dr souveron had the photos of helga's bite wound but he needed cornet's dental impression
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for comparison cornet refused to cooperate you're not going to touch me basically
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what he said just basically you know you're not getting anything out of my mouth
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except maybe the swear words they left empty-handed but returned later with the court order specifying
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the use of force if necessary at which time he reiterated that he didn't want to cooperate he wasn't going
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to open his mouth and dr snooveron very casually brought out what's called a jaw
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jack for opening the jaws of cadavers that are in full rigger mortis you put it in a jaw
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and you ratchet on this thing and it'll open any it'll break your jaw if you're
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trying to resist hard enough when stanley was shown the jaw jack stanley decided he wanted to cooperate and
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supplies with dental impressions and so we obtained our dental impressions from stanley cornet
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from those impressions dr seuveron made these plaster models which allowed him to duplicate the bite patterns
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test bites are made either in wax or in styrofoam to be able to analyze the patterns that these teeth are going to
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leave for further evaluation the biting edges of the plaster teeth are blackened and the pattern copied
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onto a clear acetate for easy comparison with the photographs odontologists use a number of different
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techniques because there's no way to accurately estimate the elasticity of the victim's skin
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the teeth have variables the skin has variables and when this lady was bitten she didn't just sit there and let this
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man you know bite her as hard as he could we're showing this is a dynamic bite with movement going on in teeth
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numbers 24 and 25 made the marks that these arrows pointed to and then as the bite moved the 26
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tooth can make that mark there is no such thing as a bite impression match all experts can say is whether a bite
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wound is consistent with a person's teeth even if they are it's still not a
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hundred percent certain but with the model wax impression acetates and precision photographs
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dr seuveron zeroed in on three lower teeth in the bite mark which were slightly crooked and overlapping
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and there was a deep mark made by an upper tooth [Music] even to untrained eyes it looked like
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cornett's teeth caused the bite wound in the photographs dr seuveron was confident in his
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assessment his teeth were consistent with that bite and there was nothing there that could
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exclude him stanley cornett was charged with attempted robbery and aggravated battery
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but cornett said he was innocent and that he had an alibi a jury would have to decide
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which side they believed the alibi or the bite impression evidence [Music] the ironic situation of having done a
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news piece about safety tips and then going to florida and becoming part of the crime statistics
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even when you think you have all the tools at your disposal to keep yourself safe
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if you're at the wrong place at the wrong time anything can happen as the trial approach for the brutal
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assault of helga loose stanley cornett claimed he had an alibi that he had been at work at the time of the crime
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his work record showed that he was indeed at work that day but coronet's co-worker said he didn't
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always punch the time clock when leaving for a break and he worked just 10 minutes away from where helga was
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attacked his supervisor remembers that day in particular and remembered he left and
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never came back he was soon after let go of that job because of that so that melted that alibi it's incredible that
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an individual would punch a time card go to work like we all do in the morning and he he would leave during his break
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and go commit a violent crime against a tourist but that's precisely what stanley
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cornett did through various legal tactics cornett kept delaying his trial if my victim doesn't want to cooperate
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then i have no case and that's what these criminals count on that's why they target the tourists
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and in this case they picked the wrong tourist and stanley coronette was relying on wearing helga loose down to
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the point where she just gave up he underestimated helk she wasn't going to wear down she came
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back for every trial date every appointment she flew back for at the trial helga again identified cornette as the
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man who attacked her facing stanley cornett in court was one of the hardest things i've ever had to
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do through all of my testimony the defendant had a smirk on his face so i tried really hard not to focus on
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him and focus on the prosecutor and the jury and the judge and the people that were
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there to embrace justice the clarity of the bite impression photographs taken by a qualified
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forensic photographer alongside the cast of coronet's teeth were what ultimately convinced the jury
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stanley cornett was found guilty of attempted robbery and aggravated battery because he was a repeat offender he was
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sentenced to life in prison i tell the detectives if you have a bite mark case you don't tell the defendant
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that you have a bite because they certainly can alter their teeth it happened to me two weeks ago where the
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defendant when i saw him had had all of his upper and lower front teeth pulled while he was in prison he told me he had
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a toothache and they pulled his teeth as a prosecutor at the time if it was somewhat new to me imagine
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how new it was to a jury they had certainly never heard of anything remotely similar to bite mark evidence
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the bite mark evidence i think sealed this case it put the final nail in stanley
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coronet's coffin as far as the jury is concerned i think it was our strongest
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piece of evidence cornet's accomplice in the crime was never identified by the end of 1993 the crimes against
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vacation travelers in south florida stopped why police increased their surveillance of
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the rental car areas rental agencies removed their stickers from the cars and ended the practice of
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identifiable license plates [Music] after her ordeal helga formed an advocacy group for
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victims of crime called witness justice she can meet them on a totally different
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level than a police officer can and she can advocate for them she can be their voice when sometimes
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they can't find their voice maybe it'll be the helgas of this world that make more victims come back to
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court and get more convictions [Music] [Music] [Music] you