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up next a young woman makes a desperate plea for help she was very shooked up before vanishing without a trace we knew
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then something rotten had happened police think they've solved the case until it takes a turn no one expected it
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was just hard for a lot of people to believe i almost got sick it was the ultimate
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betrayal oh my god he was a monster in disguise she got murdered for obeying the law
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customers at the men's club in charlotte north carolina could occasionally get a
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little raucous but the employees were trained to handle those situations [Music]
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26 year old kim medlen worked there as a waitress the money was good she knew how to handle people she could
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defuse the situation very quickly she was beautiful but she was smart about it late one night as kim drove home from
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work she encountered a road rage incident with an angry motorist they started passing her driving closely
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behind her blowing the horn at her things like that kim was afraid these men had followed
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her from work so she went to the police for help she was very shook up it took a while
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for the police officer to calm her down she also told them that hey i traveled this road
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these nights and i'm along here about this time the captain placed a radio broadcast to the other officers that
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were working on his shift to be on the lookout for this red jeep and to look out for her if they saw her on the
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roadway unfortunately this didn't help two weeks later police found kim's
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abandoned jeep on the side of the road the engine was running and the lights were on
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everything was working condition we knew then there was something something rotten had happened
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kim's purse sender money were still in the jeep but strangely her driver's
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license was missing there was certainly no logical explanation as to why miss meddling had left her vehicle the first
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thing we attempted to do was to determine if in fact a crime had occurred the next day
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a search team found kim's body a mile and a half from her car hidden under some debris
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we watched the news and my wife looked at me and she says i've seen enough it's her
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so we turned off the tv and unplugged all the phones and just went to bed this was not a robbery her wedding band
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wedding ring it was a necklace still in place around her neck those items that would have potential
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value were still present on her the autopsy revealed kim had been beaten kicked and strangled
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but there were no signs of sexual assault there were several blows on the back of
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her head and neck and her back area that would have been consistent with blunt force trauma
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our theory is that she was knocked down from behind she was stomped on her back and she was had something pressed up
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against the front of her neck and there was evidence that kim's wrists had been bound
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but the bindings were missing typically if the killer takes the time to tie them
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restrain them tape them i've seen duct tape different things i've never seen it
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removed it was very unusual and the murder took place on a deserted road outside of town
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by this time the killer could be long gone to find kim medlen's killer investigators needed to retrace her
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steps in the hours before her murder kim left her job at the men's club around 2 a.m
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her cell phone records indicated she called her husband bridger at 2 15 while driving home
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which was their custom she would call her husband let him know that she was on her way
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bridger medlin told police he went to sleep right after kim called but a local police officer contradicted
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his story he claimed he saw bridger's black pickup truck driving through town around the
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time of his wife's abduction monroe police officer was confident that he observed mr midland traveled through
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monroe at 2 30 in the morning the concern was that perhaps he wasn't being completely truthful about where he
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was bridger was outraged i said something is rotten here something is wrong he thought police should spend more time
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investigating themselves kim's street smart the only reason she pulled over was because of
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some figure of authority had demanded her to pull over was it possible that bridger was correct
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that a policeman or someone in authority had pulled kim over based upon the position of the jeep the
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fact that the driver's license appeared to be missing one of the investigators early on
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believed that this could be a blue light bandit or perhaps even a police officer
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involved in the stop of the vehicle a blue light bandit is someone who mounts a police light on his vehicle and
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uses it to prey on innocent people this theory was bolstered by the fact that kim's driver's side window was down
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if you logically looked at it it really narrowed down the reason she pulled over
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and it didn't take long before a witness came forward to corroborate this theory
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a motorist said he was driving behind a red jeep presumably kim's on the night
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of the murder he claimed the woman driving the jeep did nothing wrong but a police officer turned his lights
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on and pulled her over he was driving on a revoked driver's license and so he of course was very
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concerned when he saw the patrol car turn in front of him so he fell back obviously not wanting to get too close
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and draw attention to himself this explained the bruises on kim's wrists the possibility that they were
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caused by handcuffs but police needed to find out the jurisdiction of the police car
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so we actually used that same witness and we did what we called a police car lineup
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the witness identified the police car as one from the city of monroe but that police department had a 110-man
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force and it could have been any one of them since they can use their vehicles while
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off-duty so investigators tried to find some way to narrow it down and latent evidence
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expert ricky navarro looked for clues on kim medlen's clothing that's when he noticed a print on her
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sweatshirt at that point in time i could not determine whether i was looking at a
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footwear impression or some other type of object that left that impression on the sweatshirt
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using alternate light sources and high-speed cameras navarro concluded he was looking at the heel of a shoe
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it was a type of shoe that was not flat from toe all the way back to the heel it
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had a distinct heel in it which like some of your hard soul shoes would have not like your athletic shoes
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would have and there was a distinct v or chevron pattern across the print at first
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navarro's search yielded no results the chevron pattern i had not found in any other footwear manufacturing
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companies that i looked at but with a little more research navarro discovered the shoe was made by
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the theragood company in wisconsin they made quite a few different styles i believe approximately 17 different
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styles of uniform shoes many of these shoe styles were worn by police officers this particular shoe was 831 style
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dash 6114 and that was the only shoe that thor good put that sole design on at that
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time all the other shoes had a diff completely different soul design from that one
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navarro measured the print on kim's sweatshirt and determined that the killer wore a size eight eight and a
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half or nine theragood shoe the question now was to find the monroe police officer
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wearing them investigators now suspected that kim medlen's killer was a monroe policeman
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and they no longer believed that her husband bridger medlin had anything to do with her murder
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they also discovered that bridger was not driving his pickup truck through town after midnight as one of the police
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officers claimed that particular intersection was being videotaped through a atm machine from a
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wachovia bank and it actually picked up the image of my truck coming through that intersection after 4 am
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this was after bridger was notified by police and was headed to the scene of kim's abandoned car
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that was the first and the strongest uh rock solid evidence that i was where i said it was
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investigators were also sure that the killer war size eight eight and a half or nine theragood brand shoes
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police personnel records showed that only three members of the monroe police department wore this make and model of
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shoe in that shoe size range of the three one was working at the fire department
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on the night of kim's murder he was assigned to sort of a stationary duty that evening where he couldn't just
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get in the car and drive around he had to sort of be there at the department the second officer was on duty
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responding to a burglary that night and was in constant radio contact with headquarters
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the third josh griffin worked that night until 10 pm then went off duty off the refill told investigators he had
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not seen kim medlen that night he had not stopped the car he did not see the jeep in any way shape or form and he
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basically said he had gone home and had gone to bed before this jeep before the jeep would have been
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discovered officer griffin was 24 years old he'd been a member of the police force for
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just over a year when investigators searched griffin's police car they found nothing suspicious
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his car was absolutely almost spotless which if you knew josh he was kind of known around the
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department of having the dirtiest car in the fleet with a warrant police searched griffin's
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house but they couldn't find his pair of police issued work shoes mr griffin told me that he had thrown
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those shoes away because they were damaged on an accident scene investigation police questioned employees of the men's
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club where kim medlen worked to see whether josh griffin was there on the night of the murder and perhaps followed
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her home but no one recalled seeing him but a check of griffin's cell phone records contradicted his alibi that he
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was home sleeping that night records show that griffin made a cell phone call around 2 a.m to a tow truck
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company when confronted by his superiors griffin changed his story he said he was sitting in his police car
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in uniform at baker's intersection in a restaurant parking lot after his shift
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ended reading a book he claimed to be sitting in that parking lot reading his law book at that restaurant
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that was closed and the motorist asked him to call for a tow truck because his car broke down
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nearby this put officer griffin on baker's intersection just a half hour to 45 minutes before
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kim medlen drove by on old charlotte highway josh griffin denied any involvement in
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kim's murder but soon his fellow officers turned against him apparently everything started when kim told police
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she feared driving home alone at night along the dark country roads and was concerned that a customer of the men's
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club was following her in an effort to help police broadcast an announcement asking officers to keep an
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eye out for kim's car to make sure nothing happened to her and we know from the investigation after
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the fact that mr griffin was in fact out and listening to that broadcast that evening
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the evidence shows officer josh griffin took an inappropriate interest in kim medlen
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and investigators learned that griffin told fellow police officers about it he saw her jeep running up and down through
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town and would call and with two other policemen and make comments about the pretty blond-haired girl in the jeep
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uh that she's coming through when he was trying to figure out a way to meet her
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that was really alarming too as i had other officers that knew about this pattern of behavior but he'd say
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anything didn't come forward and we could address it correctly and after kim's murder several women
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came forward to say griffin had been harassing them too they tell you how sick this guy actually
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was this came out in the trial there was a girl that was being stalked this girl
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has an unlisted number she gets a call that says i know that you're at home i'm coming to see you
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what does she do in a panic she calls the police she calls 9-1-1 who's working who responds to the call
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josh griffin but for a murder conviction prosecutors needed more than circumstantial evidence
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could they find anything stronger prosecutors say that kim medlen's abduction and murder was the ultimate
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betrayal perpetrated by a police officer hired to protect and serve not abuse and suppress
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i think it was just hard for a lot of people to believe that a local guy a nice young on the surface young man who
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was an all-american kid could have committed a violent crime of this type on the night of the crime
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griffin ended his shift around 10 pm but instead of going home while still in uniform he drove his police car to
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baker's intersection and parked at ron's restaurant which was closed around 2 a.m
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a motorist stopped and asked for help telling griffin he had some car trouble griffin called for a tow truck using his
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personal cell phone which placed him near the crime scene about 30 to 45 minutes later
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prosecutors believe griffin saw kim medlen drive by and as planned decided to pull her over for a traffic
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violation as a ruse to introduce himself a witness saw the policeman pull kim's red jeep
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over and saw that kim had done nothing wrong prosecutors believe griffin asked kim for her driver's
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license then asked her to join him in his patrol car while he ran her license plate number
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[Music] griffin may have made a sexual advance and kim objected griffin knew then that
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he had gone too far he panicked handcuffed her and drove off griffin turned off old charlotte highway
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and kim knew it was a dead end street her injuries suggest she jumped from the moving car
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[Music] griffin caught up with her struck her on the back of the head stomped on her back
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breaking her neck and leaving the distinctive foot impression he then strangled her to death probably with his
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police flashlight before he left he removed the handcuffs and covered her body with debris
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i still can't imagine what happened and what transpired in those few minutes the
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last few minutes of kim's life if i had an officer that was doing this i didn't care who it was
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it shouldn't happen nobody should should suffer and die the way kim medley did
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but to get a conviction prosecutors needed to prove josh griffin was the killer with not having any dna
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they actually had to build their case around that footprint according to personnel records griffin
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was the only officer to wear a size eight and a half clarino style thera-good shoe
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so ricky navarro took a new pair of these shoes made an inked impression and compared it to the shoe print on the
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back of kim meddling sweatshirt navarro believes it was the only one that could have created that impression
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my job is not necessarily to positively identify everything that comes in here my job was to just render an opinion
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and at that point in time it just had to go where it had to go none of us ever want to believe a police
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officer do something like that especially one that you work with every day and every night
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your life just depended on in february of 1998 officer josh griffin went on trial for
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first degree kidnapping and first degree murder he pled not guilty but the evidence was clear and he was
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convicted of both charges and sentenced to life in prison [Music] three years later griffin asked to speak
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with investigators and on tape he finally confessed i don't know what his motivation was but
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i just know what he said he admitted stomping on her back he admitted choking her with a flashlight
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he admitted handcuffing her he admitted cutting her driver's license up into a
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million pieces and flushing it down the toilet of course he admitted to all the lies
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he told me that he actually disposed of those shoes right after this happened he said he
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threw him in a dumpster behind the local kmart because of incidents like this officials now caution motorists to be
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suspicious of any vehicle with flashing lights particularly if driving on a dark
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deserted road at night you put a signal on as if you're going to turn and you wait until you get to a
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well-lit area that's a public place where there are other people i've done
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that since this case and i'm married to a police officer but i don't take my
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safety for granted and i hope that no one else does either in a case without much evidence
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a partial shoe impression on a sweatshirt was all that was needed without the footwear impression i doubt
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we would have obtained the conviction that we did i mean in essence that footwear
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impression was the signature of the murder weapon you've got to have something
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or something in this case and one of the big somethings in this case was her sweatshirt
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with the evidence of her murder on her back and of course one of the murder weapons
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in this case was mr griffin's foot as strange as that may sound the real clincher was the shoe print that led a
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piece of evidence that that you cannot deny it's there in black and white you