00:00:07
NARRATOR: The last time
anyone saw Betty Lee alive, she was talking on a telephone.
00:00:13
The next day, her body was
found in the New Mexico desert. The forensic evidence revealed
there were two perpetrators who
00:00:23
left the scene and drove
off into the desert. A discarded cell
phone revealed why.
00:00:31
[theme music] These 25,000 square
miles of high desert are called the
Four Corners, where
00:01:05
Utah, Colorado, Arizona
and New Mexico meet. It's home to America's largest
Native American population,
00:01:15
including the Navajo, Hopi,
Ute, and the Jicarilla Apaches. There is some violent crime
in these parts, but not a lot.
00:01:28
So it was a surprise
in June of 2000 when an electrical
worker saw blood on a remote stretch of road.
00:01:37
A short distance
away in the bushes was the body of a young woman -It was quite obvious
when I saw the body
00:01:46
that we had a homicide. And a-- and a very
brutal one at that. NARRATOR: A knife
and a sledgehammer
00:01:53
were found in the brush nearby. The victim was identified
as 36-year-old Betty Lee
00:02:01
from Shiprock, New Mexico,
about 30 miles away. Betty was a Native
American, a Navajo,
00:02:08
divorced with five children. She had been going to
school to become a nurse. -My Aunt Betty was
a very happy person.
00:02:16
She loved everything about life. I mean, her kids were her number
one priority and then school.
00:02:22
And that was why she
was back in school was to make life
better for them. NARRATOR: Two years earlier,
another Native American, Donald
00:02:29
Tsosie, was found
stabbed and beaten to death in the desert
just 10 miles away. Police feared a serial
killer might be on the loose.
00:02:43
At Betty Lee's autopsy,
the medical examiner found numerous stab
wounds to her chest.
00:02:50
As well as blunt force
trauma to the head. -Death would be quick. Not necessarily instantaneous,
but it would be quickly.
00:02:59
NARRATOR: It appeared that the
sledgehammer and knife found near her body were
the murder weapons.
00:03:05
There were no signs
of sexual assault. Toxicology tests
showed some alcohol in her system, but not a lot.
00:03:12
-She had some alcohol on
board, but wouldn't necessarily be so impaired that
she couldn't defend
00:03:18
herself or do something else. NARRATOR: The alcohol
was a potential lead. A quick check of the
local bars indicated
00:03:27
Betty Lee spent her
last night in a place called The Turnaround. She was with two of her
friends, Tina and Gloria.
00:03:40
According to
witnesses, there were two men drinking with them. TYLER TRUBY: One was
named Johnny Miller.
00:03:46
And the second guy, we never
learned his first name; however, his last
name was Pretty Boy.
00:03:53
NARRATOR: Eventually, the two
man asked two of the women if they wanted to continue
the party somewhere else.
00:03:59
-Gloria and Tina decide to
leave the bar Johnny Miller and Pretty Boy and
go to a motel room.
00:04:05
And Betty-- at
this time, it made it Betty Lee almost
a third wheel. NARRATOR: Witnesses said Betty
pleaded with their friends
00:04:11
not to leave since she
didn't have a ride home. But the foursome left anyway
in a red pickup truck.
00:04:20
TYLER TRUBY: And they say
that Betty Lee was chasing after Johnny Miller's red Dually
pickup and screaming at them
00:04:25
and begging them not to
leave her at the bar. NARRATOR: From there, she
walked to a convenience store
00:04:31
and used the pay phone. TYLER TRUBY: Betty called the
Shiprock Dispatch Center where
00:04:36
she asked the dispatcher
to contact her brother, who is a Navajo Nation
police officer.
00:04:41
NARRATOR: But her call
didn't go through. A witness said she hung
up the phone and cried.
00:04:51
When the witness looked
again, Betty was gone. Investigators wanted to know
what happened from the time she
00:04:59
made that telephone call to when
she was murdered in the desert. While investigating the
murder of Betty Lee,
00:05:12
police search for two women
who were with Betty the night before at The Turnaround Bar
and had left with the two men.
00:05:20
Police were able to
corroborate their alibis. The foursome had checked
into a nearby motel, where
00:05:28
they had remained until morning. Investigators hoped forensic
evidence at Betty Lee's murder
00:05:37
scene would point them
in the right direction. TERRY EAGLE: I had been on some
homicide cases prior to this.
00:05:44
At this point in time,
this was the most extensive and the most
horrific I had seen.
00:05:52
NARRATOR: After dusting both
the sledgehammer and the knife, there were no fingerprints
on either one so
00:06:00
that was a dead end. Not far from Betty Lee's
body were some tire tracks and some
shoe impressions.
00:06:10
Both were revealing. The shoe impressions
told investigators there were two killers.
00:06:18
One wore men's boots, size 13. The other wore Converse brand
basketball shoes, size 10.
00:06:27
The third set of shoe prints
were the victim's sandals. The tire impressions
near the body
00:06:33
were the size found
on a car, not a truck. Yet, there were three
different tires.
00:06:40
-I've not seen a vehicle
with three kinds of treads like that before. It's the only one
I've ever seen.
00:06:45
It may happen, but
I haven't seen it. NARRATOR: The three different
tire impressions led away
00:06:51
from the crime scene down the
road a short distance, then turned off, heading
into the desert.
00:07:00
-I wanted to find out where
them tracks were leading, and why were they out there?
00:07:04
Because at times, you might have
more than one crime scene, too. There was always
that possibility.
00:07:11
There might have been another
crime scene out there. NARRATOR: Police decided
to follow the tracks,
00:07:18
having no idea where
they would lead. The trail went on and on, deeper
and deeper into the desert.
00:07:28
RICK DUNCAN: At times, we
noticed that the tracks crisscrossed each other, so we'd
have to take time and figure
00:07:33
out what direction
we wanted to go because they
overlapped each other. MATT WILCOX: We
weren't even 100%
00:07:39
positive that this
was a vehicle that was directly related
to this homicide. We were just
following tracks that
00:07:46
led out of the crime scene. NARRATOR: At times, it
was difficult to decipher. RICK DUNCAN: Where
are these tracks
00:07:51
leading, why are they here. Over the next three or four
hours, we followed tracks.
00:07:56
And when we lost them, we'd
get out, walk, look for them. Pick them up again, drive some
more until we lost them again.
00:08:06
NARRATOR: And this went on for
mile after mile after mile. And then, the trail stopped.
00:08:16
Nearby were tire
impressions from several different vehicles. Apparently, there had
been some sort of meeting.
00:08:25
RICK DUNCAN: It was obvious the
vegetation had been tore up. There was ruts in there.
00:08:30
The sand was tore up. And then I started picking
up several different shoe impressions.
00:08:35
One was a smooth sole. It might have been
a western boot. NARRATOR: About 20
yards away, they
00:08:41
found another extraordinary
piece of evidence. A cell phone. MATT WILCOX: I've lived in
the area my entire life.
00:08:49
That's something
that's very uncommon is coming across cellphones
out in the middle of nowhere.
00:08:53
RICK DUNCAN: The
cellphone looked fresh. I mean, there was no dust on it. There was no rain spatter
compared to the bottles
00:09:00
and trash that was in the area. NARRATOR: Was is it
possible that the cell phone belonged to the killer?
00:09:07
From the phone company,
police identified its owner as a tow truck driver,
Charlie Bergin.
00:09:14
-I got a call from the
sheriff's department asking me why my cell phone
was laying near this dead body,
00:09:20
you know, out there in
the middle of nowhere? You think, oh my gosh, I'm
going to be arrested for murder.
00:09:25
NARRATOR: Bergin insisted he
knew nothing about any murder. But he said he could explain
the four sets of tire tracks
00:09:32
in the sand. According to Bergin, a
car got stuck in the sand the night before. The owner called his father,
who arrived in a pickup truck,
00:09:45
and the pickup
truck got stuck too. They called for a tow
truck, and it got stuck.
00:09:51
Finally, the tow truck
driver called Charlie Bergin, and he pulled them all out.
00:09:58
CHARLIE BERGIN:
I've been doing this a long time, 17 years of it. And you see people do
some really stupid things.
00:10:06
People have weird ways. It's none of my
business what they do. I just go on and towed
them out and did my thing.
00:10:12
NARRATOR: Investigators
could hardly believe it. But what was Bergin's
phone doing in the sand?
00:10:20
-While I was pulling
them out, my phone rings. Cell phone reception
here is not very good.
00:10:30
Couldn't hear a word she
was saying, it was my wife. It kind of pisses me off, so
I just throw the phone away.
00:10:38
No big deal. NARRATOR: Investigators were
now faced with a dilemma. Either Charlie Bergin had
just told one of the biggest
00:10:48
lies they'd ever
heard, or he had come face-to-face with
Betty Lee's killers. 36-year-old Betty
Lee, the single mother
00:11:04
of five young children,
had been murdered in the New Mexico desert. The tire tracks found
at the crime scene
00:11:13
led police on a
journey several miles into the desert
where, apparently, the vehicle got stuck.
00:11:22
Charlie Bergin, a
tow truck driver, told police he was
called to the scene to pull the vehicles
from the sand
00:11:29
and was paid for his
services with a check. It was signed by 31-year-old
Bobby Fry, a construction
00:11:38
worker who had a police record. CHARLIE BERGIN:
He seemed nervous in a-- kind of a weird way.
00:11:49
Not really nervous, just
didn't want us in the vehicle, I guess you could say. I don't know why he didn't
want us in that vehicle.
00:11:58
I-- I don't understand that. NARRATOR: Bergin said Bobby
Fry was driving the car.
00:12:04
BOB MELTON: And we're headed
off to Bobby Fry's house. This is something that
needs immediate attention.
00:12:09
If there's any
evidence, we're going to-- we need to get to his
house and preservative it,
00:12:14
if there is any. NARRATOR: When questioned
about the incident, Bobby Fry confirmed that his
car got stuck in the desert
00:12:23
and that he called his
father to help pull him out. But he denied having anything
to do with Betty Lee's murder.
00:12:30
And he willingly allowed
police to search his home. -I remember walking in to Robert
Fry's bedroom and thinking,
00:12:37
oh my gosh, there's-- there was
an enormous pile of clothes. There was stuff
scattered everywhere.
00:12:42
The room was in total disarray. And I remember
thinking, I have to go through this entire room
with a fine tooth comb.
00:12:50
NARRATOR: In the
pile of clothes, investigators found
a black t-shirt and a pair of size 13 boots.
00:12:59
The same size as the impressions
found at the crime scene. Bobby Fry said his
friend, Les Engh,
00:13:07
was with him the night before. In Engh's home, police
confiscated his clothes and a pair of Converse brand
basketball shoes, size 10.
00:13:20
The same size as the impression
found at the crime scene. The clothing and
the murder weapons,
00:13:28
the knife and sledgehammer,
went to Rod Englert, an expert in blood spatter analysis.
00:13:36
He examined Bobby Fry's shirt. Under enhanced lighting, Englert
noticed tiny blood droplets.
00:13:45
The size and shape indicated
medium impact blood spatter. He found the same
size and shape blood
00:13:53
droplets on Bobby Fry's boots. To Englert, this told a story. ROD ENGLERT: It was consistent
with him being the one that
00:14:04
had the sledgehammer and
hitting Betty Lee with it as she lay on the ground. -There were no fingerprints
on either the sledgehammer
00:14:13
and the knife, who would tell
us who was actually handling the sledgehammer or who
was handling the knife.
00:14:18
NARRATOR: But Rod
Englert found another way to prove who was handling
the sledgehammer.
00:14:26
Under a microscope, Englert
discovered tiny traces of sand and blood
deeply embedded
00:14:34
in the shoulder of
Bobby Fry's shirt. Englert said there was only one
way this could have happened.
00:14:42
ROD ENGLERT: And that is
consistent with placing the sledgehammer with the handle
over one shoulder with the sand
00:14:47
and the blood, and carrying
that 10-pound weight on the shoulder. That is my opinion
as to what occurred
00:14:54
after she was hit
with the sledgehammer. That one casually
walks off carrying the hammer on the shoulder.
00:15:05
NARRATOR: As for Les Engh,
there was no blood whatsoever on his clothing, and no
blood spatter on his shoes.
00:15:12
But there was a blood
transfer pattern. It looked as if Les Engh
carried Betty Lee's body
00:15:20
into the brush, but he wasn't
nearby when she was killed. ROD ENGLERT: So you're able
to eliminate and exclude,
00:15:29
by the evidence, the
participation of Leslie Engh in the killing of Betty Lee. NARRATOR: DNA testing of the
blood on Bobby Fry's clothing
00:15:40
and shoes and Les
Engh's shoes confirmed that it was Betty Lee's blood. -We found Betty Lee's blood
in the vehicle itself.
00:15:51
And in fact, we found an
earring-- or the police found an earring in
Robert Fry's vehicle
00:15:58
that matched up to the
earring Betty Lee's body had after she was murdered. NARRATOR: And finally,
the tire impressions
00:16:07
found at the crime scene matched
the tires on Bobby Fry's car. Bobby Fry and Les Engh
were both arrested
00:16:16
and charged with
first-degree murder. But investigators still
didn't understand the motive.
00:16:29
When confronted with
the overwhelming amount of forensic evidence, Bobby
Fry denied he was involved.
00:16:36
But Les Engh confessed. -You guys, don't
leave me behind, here. How am I going to get home?
00:16:56
NARRATOR: On the
night of the murder, Betty Lee found herself
without a ride home
00:17:01
when her friends left
the bar with two men. And she wasn't able to find
anyone to give her a ride home.
00:17:10
According to Les Engh, Bobby
Fry was angry that night. He had gotten into
a bar fight earlier
00:17:17
and was looking for trouble. That's when they saw Betty
Lee crying near the pay phone.
00:17:31
[card door closes] NARRATOR: Along the way,
Fry stopped the car, pulled Betty out and
tried to rape her.
00:17:40
But Betty put up a fight. In anger, Fry stabbed her
repeatedly with his knife. Then took a sledgehammer from
the car and beat her to death.
00:17:54
Blood splatter landed on
Fry's shoes and shirt. Sand and blood on
Fry's shoulder proved
00:18:02
he disposed of the
sledgehammer after the murder. Both men carried Betty's
body into the bushes creating
00:18:12
the blood transfer pattern
on Les Engh's shoes. The two left the murder
weapons at the scene,
00:18:19
along with their
shoe and tire prints. Their trail led into the
desert, where they planned
00:18:26
to do some joyriding, but
they ran into trouble. In a colossal blunder, Fry's
car got stuck in the sand.
00:18:38
He called his father,
who also got stuck. They called a tow truck
and it got stuck too.
00:18:47
Ultimately, it was Charlie
Bergin who got them out. Had it not been for Charlie
Bergin's cell phone, that he
00:18:55
threw in anger when his wife
called while he was pulling the cars out of the
sand, police might
00:19:02
never have solved the case. CHARLIE BERGIN: You
know, when I got that call that day from my
wife, I thought, oh God,
00:19:08
what does she want this time? You know, just called me
up to bug me all the time.
00:19:12
But it was probably
the best phone call I'd ever got in my life. NARRATOR: Robert Fry
was tried and convicted
00:19:19
of first-degree murder
and sentenced to death. Les Engh testified
against him and received
00:19:27
a 40-year sentence. Bobby Fry was later convicted
of three other murders, including that of Donald Tsosie,
the Native American whose body
00:19:38
was discovered two years
earlier just 10 miles away from where Betty
Lee was murdered.
00:19:45
Betty Lee's family members are
grateful for the work of law enforcement and the
forensic evidence
00:19:53
that identified her killers. -We really appreciate
their efforts in bringing justice
to her murder.
00:20:00
-Betty Lee did not
deserve to die. And no one deserves
to die in such a horrible terrifying manner.
00:20:06
This was one of the worst
situations you can even imagine for a woman's last
moments on Earth.
00:20:14
It's-- it's horrible. NARRATOR: A memorial now sits on
the site of Betty Lee's murder.
00:20:21
A reminder not only
of a life senselessly lost, but the
scientific investigation
00:20:29
that put her
killers behind bars. -The evidence at the scene,
as well as the evidence
00:20:35
we recovered on follow-up made
the difference in this case. The physical evidence is always
the most important factor
00:20:43
in the trial process
if it's available. Physical evidence doesn't lie. -Forensic science was huge, the
way everything from the blood
00:20:51
spatter interpretation, the
DNA, the footwear evidence, the tire evidence, it was huge.
00:21:02
Forensic evidence
solved this case. [theme music]