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NARRATOR: A bomb explosion
often destroys the evidence of where and how the
explosive was made.
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But microscopic
elements do survive. These tiny fragments
often tell a story, and sometimes can
identify the perpetrator.
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[theme music] NARRATOR: On a warm
humid night in 1993, Kurt Simon and his
fiancee, Kem Wenger,
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returned home from a
surprise engagement shower. They wanted to unpack the
car quickly and get to bed
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since they both
had busy schedules for the following day. -I had felt the concussion of
this thing hit me in waves.
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I had looked down and I
had noticed a pair of legs. Then it all of a sudden occurred
to me that this was Kem,
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and, yeah, she was
obviously-- obviously dead. And the neighbors were
all starting to come over,
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and I had screamed
to them to call 911. NARRATOR: Investigators
noticed pieces of metal
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in Kem's left hand, an
indication that the bomb was detonated with a
motion sensor device.
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-There was something
in the foyer there that she knew
was out of place. And she bent over to either
move it or pick it up,
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and that's when it detonated. -There was evidence
that it was a pipe bomb. By the pipe bomb
fragments, there
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was also added
shrapnel to the bomb. They found ball
bearings, were later determined to be hunting shot.
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NARRATOR: Investigators
found a hole in the foyer floor almost a
foot wide and deep.
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Metal fragments were embedded
in the walls and ceiling. -There was shrapnel as far
away as across the street,
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into various segments of the
house, blown both backwards and forwards into
the kitchen, which
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is in a straight
line from the foyer. NARRATOR: In the
basement, investigators found wires, gunpowder,
and fuses-- proof
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that the bomb had been
made in this house. -The bomber obviously
left all that material
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down there thinking
that, you know, the house may be destroyed. Nobody would ever find it.
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Nobody would ever see him
come and go from the house. -In the kitchen were
battery wrappers.
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Batteries were used in the bomb. But most importantly,
a pair of gloves. So the speculation was
the bomb construction
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was finalized at the house,
the person threw the paper debris and the gloves in
the garbage, and then left.
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NARRATOR: It was clear
that the perpetrator was someone who had
access to the house.
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-Kurt Simon could
have placed the bomb in the foyer prior
to Kem coming in. -By going in the house first, he
could have taken something out
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of a suitcase, and set it on
the floor, and walked back out. Could have. -Wait a minute.
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Wait a minute. You're thinking I had
something to do with this? NARRATOR: Kurt was unable
to provide any information
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about the bombing
because he said he didn't see
anything suspicious. -The next thing I
remembered was being
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grabbed by a couple of
police officers, handcuffed, pulled to the
front of the house,
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and paraded in front
of this crowd of people into a police car. NARRATOR: Kurt had
his own suspicions
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about who killed his fiancee. He pointed the finger at
Kem's mother, Cricket. -If you take every kind of
evil, roll it up into a ball,
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there you have Cricket Lewis. Cricket was just
depraved, and evil, terribly, terribly
self-centered.
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What I do know is, does
Cricket have the capabilities and the depravity to
do something like that?
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Absolutely. Absolutely. -Cricket-- hope I'm not
shot for this-- but I mean, Cricket made her
money on her back.
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I mean, yes, she had a bar. But I think that
the bar that she had was bought from the
inheritance of an old lady
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that she took care that, of
course, died under her care. NARRATOR: Investigators
had suspects.
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All they needed now
was some hard evidence. 29-year-old Kem Wenger was
killed when a pipe bomb
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exploded in her
Bloomington, Illinois, home. Kem was divorced
with two children,
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and worked both as a
hairdresser and occasionally a house cleaner. -It was creepy because here's
this decent person, who has not
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done anything to
deserve anything like this, murdered
in a very heinous way. -She's the type that she would
sit down with a bowl of popcorn
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and soda, and watch
a good scary movie. That was her Saturday night. She loved it.
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She was so much fun. And yes, I miss her terribly. NARRATOR: At the
time of her death,
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Kem was engaged to Kurt Simon,
a Presbyterian minister who was now a suspect in her murder.
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-Just the thought
that somebody would kill her was just beyond belief. NARRATOR: The other
suspect in Kem's murder
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was her own mother,
Cricket Lewis. Kem had a strained
relationship with her mother.
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They barely spoke
to one another. And witnesses said
Cricket behaved badly at her daughter's funeral.
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-While everybody else
was crying, and reliving Kem's memory, and just
basically not able
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to do much because
everybody was so distraught, Cricket just kept complaining
that Kem let her life insurance
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policy lapse, and
that nobody's going to get any money out of this. -You can't judge by reactions
at the funeral though.
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You just-- because
people express loss in very different ways. I mean, some people laugh at
funerals and some people cry
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at funerals. NARRATOR: Like Kurt
Simon, Cricket Lewis denied any involvement
in her daughter's murder.
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When all of the bomb
fragments were recovered, investigators found some
distinctive features.
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The explosive charge had
been wrapped with metal ball bearings, or BBs, which
increased its killing power.
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-When the bomb
explodes, they would be traveling at very
high rate of speed. There'll be several hundred
pieces of either metal
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or, in this case,
metal and BBs, would be projected towards
its intended victim.
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NARRATOR: Gas
chromatography testing revealed that two different
types of gunpowder
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had been used. We won't reveal the
specific components except to say there may have
been a motive for the mixture.
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-It would create a more
powerful explosion, yes. NARRATOR: The sheer
power of the device
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indicated that
Kem's fiance, Kurt, may have been a target as well. -This bomb was strong enough
to kill several people.
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I do believe that Kem
was the intended target. But I also believe that, you
know, had I been standing
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in the room and
killed by this thing, that that would have just
been considered a bonus.
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NARRATOR: Investigators
didn't think Kurt knew how to build a bomb,
let alone one with a motion
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sensor device and so much power. -One of the end
caps had two holes drilled in it, which
was very unique.
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At the time of my
evaluation of the evidence, there were more than a
handful of pipe bombs
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involving an end cap with
multiple holes drilled in, and over 20,000 entries
in our database.
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So it made it very unique. -I don't think Kurt
Simon could make a bomb if his life
depended on it.
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NARRATOR: For the same
reason, Kem's mother, Cricket, was eliminated as a suspect.
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-We didn't feel she
had the ability, the mentality, to
build such a device. I think she was preoccupied
by her own personal problems.
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NARRATOR: The next
logical suspect was Kem's ex-husband, Paul. He lived only two miles away,
and he knew Kem's schedule
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because they shared
custody of their daughter. -Anytime someone's
divorced, and you're
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going to look and see who
would have the motive. Who would be motivated
to hurt someone else?
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You know?
What's the past history there? -There was a little
dispute as far as custody,
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and some support that was
being given to Kem financially. So there was some potential
there for a motive.
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NARRATOR: Paul said he was
with his friends and daughter for the entire weekend.
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And they all
corroborated his alibi. Next, investigators learn that
one of Kem's former coworkers,
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Phil Hartman, may
have had the motive. Kem had filed a sexual
harassment complaint
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against Hartman, alleging
that he continued to make sexual advances
towards her even
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after management
ordered him to stop. Hartman was fired and
promised to get even.
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-He did make some statements
about, I'll get you for this, I'll get back at you,
something like that.
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So he became a person
of interest right away. NARRATOR: But Hartman
was in another state
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when Kem was murdered. And he had an airtight alibi. -He was actually working at
the time of the explosion.
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And he had several
witnesses, several people, who could testify the fact that
he was there, not in the area,
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had not left the area
for several months. NARRATOR: Now, investigators
were baffled and realized
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they would have to
look deeper to find out who wanted Kem Wenger
and Kurt Simon dead.
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-I would characterize this
as one of the coldest, calculated murders that I've
ever been involved with.
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NARRATOR: In the search
for Kem Wenger's killer, investigators had one last
suspect to interview--
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Dale Fosdick, a former
boyfriend and the father of Kem's youngest child. -The relationship
between Dale and Kem
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seemed to be fraught
with acrimony. There was disputes over child
visitation and child support.
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NARRATOR: Friends said
that Fosdick didn't always behave as a responsible father.
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He often failed to
pay child support. And when he did, it
was usually late. -It just got crazy.
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She couldn't get a hold
of him for days at a time. He wouldn't acknowledge her. He wouldn't-- wouldn't
answer her phone calls.
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NARRATOR: Kurt Simon had offered
to adopt the child in order to provide a stable home life.
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-If he's finding having a son to
be a real nuisance, if he's not wanting to take care
of him, if he's not
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wanting to be part of
his life, let me do it. I'll do it with
open arms and more--
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be more than happy to do it. NARRATOR: Investigators
discovered that this made Fosdick angry.
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-Dale starts getting pushed
out of Kemberly Wenger's life. And he has to sit there
and watch her new love,
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or imagine, her new love
while he's being pushed aside, and living in his
lonely little apartment
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on the east side of Bloomington. NARRATOR: Also
suspicious, Fosdick worked as a machinist at a
nearby Caterpillar plant.
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Obviously, he was
mechanically inclined. -He had some electrical skills. He was an airplane
model hobbyist.
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He put together model
airplanes from scratch, including the engine. NARRATOR: Armed with a
warrant, investigators
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searched Fosdick's home. And in the basement was
every possible component to make model airplanes,
or possibly a bomb.
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-All kind of
electrical components, microswitches, batteries,
wire cutters, wire strippers,
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wrenches, screwdrivers,
everything that you could imagine. NARRATOR: In the
kitchen, Fosdick
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issued what appeared
to be a challenge. -He had lined up a series of
tools on the kitchen table.
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And right next to
these tools was a newspaper with Kem
Wenger's obituary. To me, that was sending
a very clear message.
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The message was, hey, I did it. Now you prove it. NARRATOR: Investigators
collected the tools
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on the kitchen
table for analysis. They also reviewed
Fosdick's credit card receipts for the
past six months.
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And one item stood out. -Dale Fosdick had
purchased several packets of the slingshot BB ammunition
in early February and March.
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Which was significant
because this is the same type of slingshot ammunition
that was used
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in the manufacture of the bomb. -And the handwriting analyst
concluded that the signatures
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on the credit card receipts were
indeed those of Mr. Fosdick. NARRATOR: Investigators
found some of those BBs
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in Fosdick's basement,
and they were compared to the ones found
at the bomb site.
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Each one was carefully
weighed and measured. -There has to be more
to tie this together.
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The size and shape of the
shot isn't specific enough to be a direct link between
the suspect and the bombing.
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It's just
circumstantial evidence. NARRATOR: Then investigators
remembered the shreds
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of wire found at the bomb site. -I could see tears in
the installation, which means that the blade did not
come completely together.
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So that the installation
had to be ripped in places. NARRATOR: And they also
had a pair of wire cutters
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from Fosdick's kitchen table. Tool mark examiner,
John O'Neil noticed that the blades were
slightly offset.
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This gave him hope
that he could identify the tiny imperfections
on the blade of the tool.
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-Every tool has a unique mark. Even if they're
manufactured the same, they will still have
a different mark
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left when they cut an item. And certainly as one's
usage of the item continues, it will become more
and more obvious.
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-We have a manufacturing
process that has to sharpen these blades. And then the use of them
and the abuse of them
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adds accidental marks,
which further separate them from their brothers
in manufacturing.
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NARRATOR: O'Neil used
Fosdick's wire cutters to strip the insulation
from a sample piece of wire.
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Then wrapped the
ends in silver foil to improve the visibility
under the microscope.
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He then compared the
test wire to the wire recovered from the bomb site. At 50 times
magnification, O'Neil
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could see that the microscopic
striations in the rubber insulation lined up perfectly
across both samples.
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Clear proof that
Fosdick's wire cutters had been used in
making the bomb. -To me, this evidence
is the strength
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to say that that
tool and whoever held it was the person
who manufactured the device that killed
an innocent person.
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-Certain cutting
tools he owned were used to cut the wire that
was involved in the bomb.
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And the wire was at
his house as well. So without saying Dale
Fosdick built the bomb,
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Dale Fosdick built the bomb. -That was our smoking gun. That was our fingerprint.
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NARRATOR: Despite his
denials, Dale Fosdick was arrested and charged
with first degree murder.
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-We knew we had our man. NARRATOR: What was
the motive for killing 29-year-old Kem Wenger?
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Prosecutors believed Dale
Fosdick was angry with Kem for ending their
relationship, especially
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since they had a child together. Fosdick was also
troubled by Kem's desire to gain full custody by having
her new fiance, Kurt Simon,
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adopt the child. The evidence shows Fosdick
designed a pipe bomb with extraordinary
power, and took
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every precaution
to avoid detection. But he inadvertently
signed his name to his work
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by leaving those tool marks
on a single piece of wire. He put together most of
the bomb at his house.
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But to make sure he didn't blow
himself up while transporting it, he did the final
assembly in Kem's basement.
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He carefully placed the bomb on
the foyer floor near a table, where he usually left his
child support payments.
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And Fosdick may have
suspected both Kem and Kurt would enter the house together.
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Or perhaps he didn't
care which one he killed. Kurt apparently walked right by
the device without noticing it.
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But something about the
packaging caught Kem's eye. -That's the mother
of his own child.
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That's a brutal murder. NARRATOR: When Fosdick learned
that investigators planned
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to search his home, he
placed his bomb-making tools on the kitchen table,
next to Kem's obituary.
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In so doing, he
provided investigators with the smoking gun
and never realized it.
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-You think of a bomb
exploding, and you think of evidence evaporating. But in fact, you leave a
good deal of evidence behind.
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-We were just able to
determine that it, A, it was functioned electrically. B, it functioned by motion.
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And C, it involved a minimum
of two microswitches. NARRATOR: Throughout
the trial, Fosdick
00:19:28
maintained his innocence. But the jury found
the tool mark evidence too strong to overlook.
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-The jury looked at that. And I could see a
light bulb going off in each one of their heads,
saying, I can see it.
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I know what they're
talking about. At that point, I
saw most of them turn and stare at Dale Fosdick.
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And I knew at that point, they
had made the determination that in fact, Dale
Fosdick was guilty.
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-I had watched the slides
from the electron microscope, and watched to see how he
had lined everything up,
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and had done this work in
this painstaking, unbelievably difficult work. And was able to pin the
hard evidence to this bomb,
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to this killer. And I thought, I've got
some new heroes now. These guys did a fantastic job.
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And I was very, very impressed. NARRATOR: Dale Fosdick was
convicted of first degree
00:20:27
murder, and was sentenced
to 55 years in prison. -Just the fact that he thought
he could get away with it,
00:20:34
and they got him. That's what's so great. You can't outsmart science. That's for sure.
00:20:40
-I guess he's not quite as
bright as he thought he was. NARRATOR: Fosdick narrowly
escaped the death penalty
00:20:48
because a single juror
voted against it. -This is a very
dangerous human being. He never gave any kind of
indication that he was sorry.
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I think the only thing
that he was sorry about was that he got caught. [theme music]