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[music playing] NARRATOR: In the fall
of 1987, a mapmaker was surveying the
grounds of a Boy Scout
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ranch in eastern Missouri. Suddenly, something
strange caught his eye. At first, it looked
like a turtle shell,
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but it was a skull. A mystery now unfolded. To solve it, detectives
would have to put
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a face on the grisly discovery. [music playing] The S Bar F Boy
Scout Ranch covers
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5,400 acres of picturesque
countryside in rural Missouri. The mapmaker had
discovered the human skull
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in a remote area of the ranch. Teena Orling was his supervisor. He was a professional
mapmaker from Finland,
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and he saw the skull his-- within the first few days here. He did not say anything to
me or to anyone else about it
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because he was afraid. NARRATOR: But three months
later, just before he returned to Finland,
the mapmaker finally
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told Teena about the skull. Using a detailed
map of the ranch, and following the
mapmaker's directions,
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Teena and a scout ranger
searched for the skull. They found what they were
looking for in a sparsely
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wooded clearing. TEENA ORLING: The sun was
glinting off this white object. You could tell right
away it was a skull.
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And I thought to myself, oh,
boy, we finally found it. NARRATOR: Along with the skull,
searchers found a few strands
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of hair, a lower jaw,
and about 40 bones, including a pelvic bone,
a femur, and some ribs.
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My initial thought
was that it may possibly be an Indian
grave, until we saw the blue jean material.
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NARRATOR: Searchers unearthed
the tattered remains of a pair of jeans, pieces of
a flowered shirt,
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remnants of a plastic shopping
bag, and a metal button. To begin the task of
identifying the victim,
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the physical evidence was
sent to the forensic crime lab in Jefferson City, Missouri.
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They began their evaluation
with the tattered blue jeans. The outside seam was intact.
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This helped
criminalist Tom Grant determine the overall
height of the victim. From cuff to
waistband, the outside
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seem measured 37 inches. Based on that
outside measurement, the inside seam length would
probably been approximately 27
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to 28 inches, which is from
a short person who would have worn that pair of jeans.
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NARRATOR: Grant
estimated the victim's height to be about 5 feet. And scientists
discovered evidence
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of foul play in the dirt
itself when they analyzed a white substance which they
found mixed in with the soil
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at the grave. The trace section of our
laboratory analyzed those and determined the presence
of calcium carbonate,
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which is a-- could have been
a byproduct of calcium oxide, which is lime. People put lime
there to either stop
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the odor of the
decomposing body, or to actually cause
it to decompose faster. NARRATOR: Scientists
analyzed the hair
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found at the grave site. hair can be identified
as either Caucasoid, Negroid, or Mongoloid.
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But the hair was badly damaged. The only conclusion
scientists could reach was that it was not Negroid.
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THOMAS GRANT: The
hair on the left is the hair from the gravesite. The hair that's on the right is
a Negroid or African-American
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head hair. And its characteristics
differ considerably from that of at the gravesite.
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So I would determine that
the hair at the gravesite is not of
African-American origin.
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NARRATOR: The
preliminary information indicated that the victim
was a female Caucasian.
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She was short,
about 5 feet tall. Police sent this information
to the National Crime Center,
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a database of all missing
persons in the United States and Canada. And that was unsuccessful.
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We believed it to be murder. The problem was identifying
who the victim was. Really, the first
thought in my mind
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was, was this was
probably going to be one that we won't be able to solve. NARRATOR: But were investigators
even on the right track?
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One tiny piece of
evidence unearthed from the shallow grave
would change the course
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of the investigation and
take medical detectives halfway around the world. [music playing]
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Investigators believe
that the skeletal remains found in
the shallow grave had been there for
less than 8 years,
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and were those of a
petite, Caucasian female. One piece of evidence
had puzzled investigators
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from the start, the small metal
button found with the remains. THOMAS GRANT: Half
of it was somewhat
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rusted and deteriorated,
but the upper half had a logo that was stamped on it. The letters T-E-X-W-O-O-D
was present, Texwood.
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And in the O's, there
was a star-type pattern that was present. None of us at our
laboratory had ever seen
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or heard of that logo before. NARRATOR: But not
even the FBI had heard of a product or company
by the name of Texwood.
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So we began calling
all over the United States, Canada, and Mexico. Couldn't find it.
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So I called a friend of
mine with US Customs. NARRATOR: US Customs
Special Agent
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Timothy Quinn entered the
name Texwood in his computer. What he discovered
gave investigators
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the first crucial break they
needed to identify the victim. Checks of our computerized
importer files were negative.
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Then had to make a series of
phone calls, the last of which was to our national import
specialists in New York.
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And from the Office of the
National Import Specialist, we were able to determine
that the name Texwood is
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a make of jeans that was
manufactured strictly for consumption in Asia. The brand was not intended to be
exported to the United States.
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NARRATOR: This meant that either
the victim had traveled to Asia before her death and
purchased the jeans
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there, or was, in fact, Asian. To find out more, the bones were
sent first to anthropologists
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at the University of
Missouri, and later, to Colorado State University. NITA BITNER: If you
have the right bones,
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you can find out
everything you need. You don't need a
complete skeleton. The more you have, the more
complete picture you can have.
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NARRATOR: For instance, a skull
can tell an anthropologist about gender and race.
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The first step was to
determine whether the skull was Caucasoid, Negroid, or
Mongoloid, which includes
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Native Americans and Asians. A Mongoloid's skull usually
has broad, squared cheekbones.
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The anthropologist
confirmed police suspicions that the skull was Mongoloid. NITA BITNER: The
bridge of the nose,
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the squared
cheekbones, the overall smaller features
led me to believe that this was Mongoloid.
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NARRATOR: The anthropologist
confirmed that the victim was indeed female. Since the cranial sutures
were closed, and judging
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from the wear of her
teeth, the anthropologist estimated that she was young,
most likely in her mid 20s.
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The bones had smooth surfaces,
an indication that the victim was not particularly muscular.
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Anthropologists
estimated her weight to be approximately 120 pounds. And they learned something else
from examining her pelvic bone.
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When a woman has delivered
at least two children, the separating process
of the pelvic bones
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creates a groove like this one. Such a groove was found on the
pelvic bone at the gravesite.
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Investigators now knew
that the victim had given birth to at least two children.
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Still, they were at a dead end. It's very frustrating
because you cannot start
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the investigation of who
committed the crime until you determine who the victim is.
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And you-- you continually--
it's like spinning your wheels, not going anywhere, until
you can identify the victim.
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NARRATOR: With
little else to go on, the next step was to give the
unidentified skull a face.
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The skeletal remains told
authorities what they were looking for, an Asian
female who had given
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birth to at least two children. They knew she was petite,
standing about 5 feet tall
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and weighing about 120 pounds. But what did she look like? Police asked the
anthropologist to bring
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the skull to life
through the technique of facial reconstruction. First, the reconstructionist
makes a latex mold
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of the actual skull. Once the mold is made, the
skull can be returned to police to be used as evidence.
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Then, a plaster cast is
made from the latex mold. Using this plaster cast,
rubber pegs called landmarks
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are glued onto the cast. They represent
tissue thicknesses at various points on the face.
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Facial tissue thickness
differ from men and women and vary with race and age. Next, the landmarks
are connected
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with strips of clay following
the contours of the skull. NITA BITNER: Each individual
skull is like a blueprint
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or a fingerprint. No two are alike. We follow this blueprint,
then, to create our faces, following the
shape, the bends of each skull.
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NARRATOR: The spaces
between the clay strips are then filled in to
flesh out the face.
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Plastic brown eyes are carefully
aligned and set in the sockets and lids are molded.
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Final touches include
a nose and lips. And because the victim
was presumed to be Asian,
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the bust was given a black wig. The identity of the
victim was still unknown, but police now had an important
tool in their investigation,
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a face they hoped would
jar someone's memory. They sent photographs
of the bus to newspapers
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and television stations
in the nearby cities, hoping for a response. The wait lasted just three days.
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REPORTER: The skeletal remains
of a woman were found in-- NARRATOR: Wilaiporn
Cox was watching
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television when she saw the
bust on a local news program. Then I call my
husband, tell my husband
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what I saw in the TV. NARRATOR: Her husband,
Karmen, picked up a newspaper, looked at the bust, and thought
he recognized it as well.
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Call her back. I said, boy, it's awful close. I think we ought
to do something.
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NARRATOR: The Coxs said the bust
looked like their friend who lived in a nearby
town, 33-year-old Bun
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Chee Nyhuis, whom they hadn't
seen for the past five years. They told police that Bun Chee
had left her husband, Richard,
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and had returned home
to her native Thailand. When police questioned
Richard Nyhuis,
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he did not believe that the
skull found at the Boy Scout ranch 100 miles
away from his home
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was that of his wife, Bun Chee. Richard said Bun
Chee had told him that she missed her
family in Thailand
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and that she wanted
to divorce him. He said he personally
drove her to the St. Louis airport five years earlier
to take her flight to Thailand.
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He said that was the last time
he and his children saw her, and they never heard
from her again.
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And neighbors confirmed that
Bun Chee had, in fact, spoken of returning to Thailand.
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I knew she told me she
had gotten her pass-- her passport. She had gotten her
citizenship and her passport.
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So it wouldn't have
surprised me, you know, if she had done that. She mentioned to me, you
know, she's a not happy.
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She liked to go to
Thailand, visit family. NARRATOR: And if Bun Chee
was indeed the woman found
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in a shallow grave, why
hadn't her family in Thailand reported her missing
during the last five years?
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For the information
police needed, scientists once again looked
for answers in the bones.
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Had Bun Chee Nyhuis left
behind her two children and returned to Thailand as
her husband claimed, or were
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her remains those found
in the shallow grave at the Boy Scout ranch? The answer lay in the skull
and a technique called skull
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photograph superimposition. Police obtained this
photograph of Bun Chee from her husband,
Richard, and sent
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it to the anthropology
department at Colorado State University. Police also included
a photograph
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of another Asian woman who was
reported missing in Georgia. The photographic work was
done by the late Dr. Michael
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Charney, a world-renowned
forensic anthropologist at Colorado State University. Charney positioned the
skull in the same Pose
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as the photographs
of both women, then superimposed slides of
the skull over the photographs.
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The skull did not match
the woman from Georgia, but it did match the photo
of Bun Chee Nyhuis perfectly.
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Face is at an angle. She's clowning
around, making a face. We find that the jaw
line is within the chin,
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the top is within the top of
the head, the cheek is within, the eyes are in the
orbits, the nasal opening
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corresponds to the nose,
and the teeth match up very nicely to the jaw line here.
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In spite of the fact that
it's a very difficult angle to approximate, an
expression to approximate,
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we felt this was
a very good match. NARRATOR: Now armed with
a positive scientific
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identification, police
turned their attention to Richard Nyhuis. They suspected that he knew more
about his wife's disappearance
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than he was telling them. Her friends
indicated that they had a very volatile
relationship,
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that they argued quite a bit. NARRATOR: And
police also learned of a disturbing coincidence,
that Richard Nyhuis was a Boy
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Scout leader and often
camped at the Boy Scout ranch where police discovered
Bun Chee's grave.
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And I turned to my partner,
and we looked at each other, and we just couldn't believe it.
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That's when we knew we had
to formulate a game plan, and we'd have probably
just one shot at him.
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It all started fitting
together at that point. All the pieces started
coming into place.
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NARRATOR: When police
confronted Richard Nyhuis with the forensic
evidence, he confessed,
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although he gave
conflicting accounts of what actually happened. He said Bun Chee
fell during a scuffle
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and hit her head
accidentally, but admitted suffocating his wife. Bleeding real bad,
blood all over the place,
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and she was yelling, scared. So I put my hands over
her mouth, her nose, and suffocated her.
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NARRATOR: In light
of the confession, forensic pathologist Dr.
Mary Case examined the skull.
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She studied the small wound
on the back of the skull and concluded that it was not
the result of an accident,
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but rather, the result of
blunt trauma to the head. This is a very limited area.
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It's pushed inward,
and we tend to see this kind of a
depressed skull fracture
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when you strike the
head with something that has very forceful
impact over a very
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small striking surface. A hammer would be a good
example of something that could do that.
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It's a tool. It's meant to strike. And all of the force
is directed onto a very
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small striking service. NARRATOR: Based on the forensic
evidence and parts of Nyhuis's
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confession, prosecutors
believe that Richard and Bun Chee argued one night
in the basement of their home.
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We're not moving. We've been through this before. We are not moving, all right?
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NARRATOR: Bun Chee wanted
to move into a new house. Richard refused, saying
they couldn't afford it.
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And I'm taking the
boys and leaving. [music playing] NARRATOR: The blow to
her head was, not fatal,
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but while she lay
bleeding on the floor, Richard suffocated her. He used a service
merchandise bag
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to contain the bleeding wrapped
the body in a sheet of plastic, and placed her in the
freezer, where she remained
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for the next three months. Nyhuis fabricated the
story about driving bunchy to the St. Louis airport
for a flight to Thailand.
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When spring arrived
and the ground thawed, Richard took Bun Chee's
body to the Boy Scout ranch,
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a two-hour drive from his home. He chose a secluded area deep
in the woods for the burial,
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but made a number of mistakes. The lime he spread over
the body most likely aided decomposition, but the
grave was only 2 feet deep, not
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deep enough to keep burrowing
animals from bringing her bones to the surface. And Bun Chee was
buried in Texwood
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would jeans, which told a
story since they were made and sold exclusively in Asia.
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Nyhuis never anticipated
that his wife's remains would be discovered, and if they
were, that they would ever
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be successfully identified. Finding the Texwood button,
the pelvic bone that revealed
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the victim had at least
two children, the Mongoloid skull, the forensic sculpture,
and the photographic
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superimposition, all
were essential elements in the identification. During the trial,
Dr. Case testified
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that it takes between
three and five minutes to suffocate an individual. After a minute or
two, the person
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would only be unconscious. It was entirely
possible that Nyhuis put his wife into the freezer
while she was still alive.
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Richard Nyhuis was
convicted of murder and sentenced to life in
prison without the possibility
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of parole for 50 years. MARY CASE: It was
great forensic science, and, of course, that's
how it's supposed to work.
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You get a button,
you get a hair, and the expert in that
area can tell you. And if you look at the button
work, it took about a month.
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It was less than a month for
someone to look at that button and say, well, that's
only manufactured
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in that part of the world. Well, somebody had to
collect all that information. And I-- I admire that.
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I think that's wonderful. It took all the-- all
the different scientific and forensic people to
make this thing happen,
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any one piece of which could
have stopped the investigation. One of the unique
things about the case
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was actually having the
remains to do the trial. And Bun Chee Nyhuis actually
came alive in her own trial.
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[music playing] This was one of the few
cases where a prosecutor got to try a murder
case with the victim
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actually in the
courtroom with him. Speaking to the jury. [music playing]