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[music playing] NARRATOR: Sometime after
midnight in July of 1986, Stephanie Brown took some
friends home who lived
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in an unfamiliar part of town. Make sure you go I-5 North. Don't go south and get lost.
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NARRATOR: To get back
to her apartment, Brown was told to
take Interstate 5 North, a major
thoroughfare in California.
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I-5 North? OK. NARRATOR: Despite
the directions, Stephanie Brown
made the wrong turn.
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Bye, bye. NARRATOR: It took both
science and psychology to discover what happened next.
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[music playing] A fisherman walking down this
trail in a remote mountain area outside of
Sacramento, California
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discovered the semi-nude body
of a young woman lying face down in a flooded irrigation ditch.
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Around her neck, a band of
purple discoloration, the sign of ligature strangulation.
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It's a very isolated, desolate
area next to a cornfield, and there were no houses
or lights or civilization
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anywhere around. It's a very lonely spot
to have been driven to. And certainly, she was
conscious during the drive.
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We don't know how long
he toyed with her, we don't know how long he
assaulted her, how long
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it was before she was killed. NARRATOR: The autopsy
found traces of semen, but the samples were too badly
degraded for DNA testing.
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The victim was identified
as 19-year-old Stephanie Brown, who worked as a
teller in a Sacramento bank.
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Stephanie was a very
sensitive, loving, caring daughter who
wouldn't hurt anybody.
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Monday after work, she
came by and did laundry. She called a couple of
friends on the phone.
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And then, when she was
through, she came over and gave us a kiss goodbye. And I just remember her
walking out the family room,
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out the door waving, you
know, her hair in a ponytail, waving, bye, mom, I love you.
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NARRATOR: When police learned
that Stephanie's hair was long and in a ponytail the
day before she died,
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they realized that
her killer had cut it. Ray Biondi headed
Sacramento's homicide unit.
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First thought
came to my mind is we're dealing with somebody
with a very perverse fetish,
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cutting hair. And I had never seen
this before in hundreds of other murder investigations.
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Did this person cut
the hair and take it away as a trophy or a souvenir? We didn't really know.
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NARRATOR: Brown's car was found
20 miles away on Interstate 5 and was headed in the opposite
direction from her apartment.
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The car was full of
gas and operational. Brown was probably lost
and may have stopped
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to ask someone for directions. Just one month later,
there was another incident along Interstate 5.
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26-year-old Charmaine
Sabrah and her mother had been out to dinner
and were heading home
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when their car broke down
along a deserted stretch of Interstate 5. A man in a dark sports car
stopped and offered to help.
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Ladies having
trouble with your car? - Yes.
- Yeah. I heard a noise,
so I pulled over.
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Now, the car won't start. I'll be happy to give you a
ride, but I can only take one.
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This is only a two-seater. CHARMAINE SABRAH: I'll
be back as soon as I can. NARRATOR: That was the last
time her mother saw her.
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In the foothills of the Sierra
Nevada Mountains outside of Sacramento,
California, a hunter
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discovered the badly decomposed
remains of a White female. The remains had been
scattered by animals,
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but investigators
recovered the skull, torso, and some clothing,
which included a purple skirt, dark blouse, and
a pair of alligator heel shoes.
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The clothes were similar to
those worn by Charmaine Sabrah, who disappeared without a trace
after accepting a ride three
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months earlier on Interstate 5. Dental x-rays confirmed
that the remains were those of Charmaine Sabrah.
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The cause of death
was strangulation. The side seam from
Charmaine's blouse was cut and used as a
ligature around her neck,
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along with a piece
of yellow nylon cord. Her pantyhose had
been cut in two places
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and tied around her wrists. There were cuts made to the
victim's slip and the shoulder
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straps of her bra. Criminalist Jim Streeter
analyzed the clothing from the crime scene.
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I've never seen clothes
cutting like that. I've never seen any
cutting like that.
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Talking with other
investigators, they've never seen any
types of cutting like this.
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Cuttings would be for some
function in any other case that we had seen, but
in this particular case,
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it was so unusual that it
became his calling card. The initial cutting is what
he uses to arouse himself
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initially sexually
and then enables him to complete and perform the
rest of the-- of the offense.
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NARRATOR: Like Stephanie
Brown, Charmaine Sabrah's body was found over 50 miles
away from where her car
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broke down on Interstate 5. Charmaine's mother was
not able to provide a detailed description
of the driver
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since she did not
see him clearly. All she could say was that he
was a White male in his 40s
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with a large nose and pale skin. It's hard to imagine that he
would take Charmaine planning
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to kill her knowing that
he left his mother-- her mother as a witness behind. That makes no sense to me.
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NARRATOR: Bruce
Henderson described the sophistication
of this serial killer in his book, "Trace Evidence."
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And he was very good at
confounding the police. This killer didn't
leave behind easy clues.
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And he took his victims
great distances, and he left clean crime
scenes, meaning no fingerprints
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or anything that could
connect him to the crime or to the victim. NARRATOR: Two
weeks later, police
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were called to
another homicide 35 miles southeast of Sacramento. She was hogtied
with her own tank top,
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a victim of ligature
strangulation, wherein her arms were bent up behind her
back, and then the tank top
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was looped over her neck. NARRATOR: Her
halter top and socks had been cut in the
same non-functional way
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as the other victims. Dental records
identified the remains as 20-year-old Lora Heedick.
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The last time anyone
saw her was in an area frequented by prostitutes. Why don't you go with
this guy for a little while?
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NARRATOR: Lora was with her
boyfriend, James Driggers. OK. NARRATOR: They needed
money for drugs,
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and Driggers told police that
Lora agreed to prostitution. MAN: You ready? Yeah.
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I know a place to go. MAN: Hop in. NARRATOR: Lora left with
a customer in a white car.
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Driggers said he
never saw her again. But Driggers took a lie
detector test and failed.
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Is it the boyfriend or
is it not the boyfriend? The first people
you must eliminate
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are those all around the victim. NARRATOR: Police were
convinced that the murders
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were all related. But if Driggers had a
hand in his girlfriend's murder, what was his connection
to the other victims?
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A serial murderer was on the
loose in Central California, at first, abducting
women along Interstate 5,
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and later, prowling
for prostitutes in downtown Sacramento. Police decoys dressed as
prostitutes in an attempt
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to lure the killer
into their trap, and they also posed as
a motorists in distress
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along Interstate 5. Despite these efforts,
the murders continued. On Sunday, June 21, 1987, in
the remote woods of Deer Creek,
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Amador County, a
family on a hiking trip found blood on the trail. The victim was identified
as 25-year-old Karen Finch.
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She was divorced and the mother
of a two-year-old daughter. Her car was found near
Interstate 5 fully operational.
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Her sandals were
still in the car. If she walked barefoot, she
hadn't planned to walk far.
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RAY BIONDI: There
was a piece of-- a fragment of duct
tape in her hair, which light bulbs went
on at the time, thinking,
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this is what happened in
the Stephanie Brown case. That's why her hair was cut.
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NARRATOR: The killer used
duct tape to gag his victims and always cut it off
before leaving the scene.
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he may have known that
the sticky side of tape is a rich source
of fingerprints.
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But this time,
something went wrong. Karen Finch probably fought
back, and when she did,
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the killer used what he had
in his hand, the scissors, to stab her. The killer left the
scene without removing
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all of the tape. Unfortunately, there were
no fingerprints on the piece of tape he left behind.
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The bodies were
found some distance from where he would have been
able to park his vehicle.
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Some of these distances
were too far that he would have carried them. So we're certain that
they were made to walk.
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They may have had their
hands bound at that time. NARRATOR: A few weeks later,
police had yet another victim.
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The nude, decomposed body of
17-year-old Darcie Frackenpohl was found in a deserted area
off Highway 50 near Lake Tahoe.
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The cause of death
was strangulation. Her blouse was tied around
her neck with a wood garrote.
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Two pieces of rope were
found near her clothing. The rope was made of
nylon, and after checking
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with several ropes
suppliers, police discovered that it
was the type of rope used in parachute cords.
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Cutting the victim's
clothing was important to the killer for
some reason, so important
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that he did this in
all of his murders, so important he would
carry a pair of scissors
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to every crime to
carry out the ritual. I cried for all the victims. It was just so emotional after
a year and a half of working
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on all this physical evidence,
trying to link everyone together and trying to find
the person that did this
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so that wouldn't
happen again can just be overwhelming at times. NARRATOR: The killer
was experienced.
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He knew exactly
what he was doing. And he perfected his
technique with every case.
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[music playing] The only lead police
had in their search for the serial killer
was the way in which
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he carried out the murders. His signature characteristics
included the rope and the clothes cutting.
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A few months later,
an unrelated incident caught homicide's attention. Deborah Guffey was
a street prostitute
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in downtown Sacramento who told
police an interesting story. MAN: Hey, you working tonight?
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Been here waiting for you. MAN: Get in. We'll go for a ride. [music playing]
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NARRATOR: When he
parked the car, he turned violent,
smashing Guffey's head into the dashboard and
tried to handcuff her.
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Guffey managed to escape. A policeman who was driving
nearby saw the altercation
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and stopped to investigate. 48-year-old Roger Kibbe was
charged with the assault.
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He was the manager of a
public storage facility, married, and had a daughter
from an earlier marriage.
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A background check
on Roger Kibbe revealed an arrest 30 years
earlier at the age of 15
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for stealing women's underwear
off their clothes lines and cutting it in a random,
non-functional way with a pair
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of his mother's scissors. Kibbe told police at the time
he had a terrible relationship
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with his mother. Roger Kibbe was
also a parachutist, another coincidence, since
parachute rope had been found
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at one of the murder sites. Kibbe's brother was a
homicide detective in Nevada,
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another coincidence
since police suspected that the killer knew homicide
investigative techniques.
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Roger Kibbe owned
two different cars. One was similar to the car which
picked up Charmaine Sabrah.
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In the other, police
found some rope with the garrote tied to the
ends, a set of handcuffs,
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and scissors. We knew who our killer was. It was Roger Kibbe. But we lacked the evidence
to actually file any case,
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any murder charges against him. NARRATOR: Criminalist
Faye Springer is an expert in exchange
or trace evidence
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that can link a suspect or
victim to a crime scene. Springer pored
over the thousands
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of hairs, fibers,
and other materials found on the victim's clothing. She found two carpet fibers
on Darcie Frackenpohl's dress.
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They were blue, triangular
in shape, made of nylon, and were manufactured
by the DuPont Company.
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When she compared the
fibers to the carpet in Roger Kibbe's
automobile, she discovered
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that they were the
same color, size, shape, made of the
same polymer, and dyed with the same chemicals.
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And when Springer
looked closer, she saw something else on the fibers. FAYE SPRINGER: I noticed when
I was looking at the fibers
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microscopically that there
were some contaminants on the surface. It was a
football-shaped particle
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that turned out later to be
identified as a fungal spore. NARRATOR: The same
fungal spores were
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on the fibers from the
floor mat of Kibbe's car. The human hair found on
one of the victim's dress
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was microscopically
similar to hair taken from Roger Kibbe's inner thigh. When Springer turned her
attention to the panty hose
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used to tie Charmaine
Sabrah's wrists, she noticed something which
had previously been overlooked.
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The benefit of being
a woman caramelized and working sexual
assault type homicides
00:16:22
is that we know that when
the pantyhose come off, they come off inside out. Men just wouldn't
know that unless they
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actually had pantyhose on. NARRATOR: With the panty
hose turned the proper way, Springer discovered
several small fibers
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on the back of the leg area. When Springer compared
those fibers to the fibers on the seat of one of
Roger Kibbe's automobiles,
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they were
microscopically similar. Finally, Springer analyzed the
pieces of rope found in Kibbe's
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car and in his storage shed. At first glance, it appeared to
be identical to the rope found
00:17:01
near Darcie Frackenpohl's body. Both were made of
white nylon with six fibers running through the
cord and 32 threads per cord.
00:17:10
But Faye Springer
noticed something peculiar when she looked at
the rope under the microscope.
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FAYE SPRINGER: I
noticed that there was red paint on the cordage
and some black particles.
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Later, Kay Maulsby
said that she had some cordage from
an assault case that Kibbe was involved in.
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She brought that
out, I looked at it, I noticed the same particles
were on that cordage.
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This was a very
strong link to Roger Kibbe and Darcy Frackenpohl. NARRATOR: But the size
of the paint particles
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was tiny, about 6 microns, which
is 6 millionths of a meter. With the scanning
electron microscope,
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scientists performed
an elemental analysis of the inorganic
compounds of the paint.
00:17:58
They found 10 different elements
in the paint mixture common in the chemical formulation
of red acrylic paint,
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but they found two additional
elements in the paint which were not, sodium and chlorine.
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These were contaminants
in the air when the paint was sprayed near the rope. All three pieces of rope
had the same red paint
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and the same contaminants. The rope found near Darcie
Frackenpohl's body, the rope
00:18:29
found in Roger Kibbe's car
and in Kibbe's storage shed, all were in the same area
when someone was using a can
00:18:37
of red acrylic spray paint. The cordage was basically the
coup de grace of people's case.
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It was extremely unique. Commonality was the
red paint stains on each one of
these cords at those
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three scenes, which meant
Roger Kibbe was at the scenes. I said, he's boxed in,
ladies and gentlemen.
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We're gonna bury him. He's guilty. NARRATOR: Roger Kibbe was
charged with the murder
00:19:04
of Darcie Frackenpohl. On March 18, 1991, he was
found guilty of murder in the first degree and was
sentenced to 25 years to life.
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Kibbe still faces the
possibility of murder charges in the other deaths. RAY BIONDI: Roger is in
prison for only one murder.
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There has to be another trial. These other families need to
see some kind of reconciliation
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in court. NARRATOR: The police
and prosecution were unaware that Kibbe
confessed to his wife
00:19:38
shortly after his arrest. And I didn't know that
he had murdered anybody until that night
the police arranged
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for me to get in the back
seat of the cruiser with him. And he told me that he
had killed five people.
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Well, four. Excuse me, four. I cried, he cried. I asked him why. But when you're sobbing--
00:20:07
I mean, we were sobbing. He said he didn't know. JO-ALLYN BROWN: I came
away from there just
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feeling and overcoming
with the thought that this is not enough. This just is not enough.
00:20:32
My daughter's laying there, and
so are many, many other girls laying there. And this man, all he can say,
what is the big fuss about?
00:20:41
I killed a few girls. The horror that
Darcie and the fear that Darcie Frackenpohl
must have felt before going,
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Stephanie Brown, how-- how frightened she
must have been. I'm so sorry. [music playing]