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up next a man is gunned down just after dawn there was a bullet hole that was straight into the tile
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his wife is killed too there were three people in the johnson house two of them did not come out alive
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no one thought the couple had any enemies apparently they had quite a few that certainly was a mystery to us i
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could describe him as a very cocky arrogant young man and the crime scene told a story
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no one wanted to believe the evidence was yelling and screaming this is what happened
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[Music] nestled in the picturesque sawtooth mountains of central idaho is the town
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of bellevue a town that had not had a homicide in more than 10 years here the johnson family felt safe
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alan was a landscaper his wife diane worked as a tax collector alan was an avid hunter he's just a
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wonderful guy diane her passion was cooking she was always doing something wonderful in the
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kitchen on a september morning in 2003 the serenity of this small town ended abruptly
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[Music] when shots were fired in the johnson home 9-1-1 what is your emergency still been
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two gunshots okay where's shots coming from the daughter came over here and said that somebody shot her parents
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when police got there they found diane johnson shot to death in her bed apparently while she was still sleeping
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alan johnson was also dead on the floor next to the bed the shower was still going and i could
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see directly into the shower and there was a bullet hole that was straight on chest high straight into the tile
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the murder weapon a 264 caliber rifle was on the bedroom floor it was probably one of the most violent
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crime scenes that i had ever seen it's sarah the couple's 16-year-old daughter said she was asleep in her
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bedroom down the hall when she heard the first shot she immediately got up went through her
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parents bedroom door called her mother's name heard a second gun shot and then fled the residence out the
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front door to a neighbor's house unfortunately sarah didn't see the assailant
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at the foot of the victim's bed investigators found two knives that certainly was a mystery to us we have
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these two homicides and why are these knives placed in the manner that they are and what does that mean
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another knife was found in the bedroom of the family's 22 year old son matthew
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he was away at college since the doors to the house were never locked there was no forced entry
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nothing was stolen adjacent to the johnson's home was a guest house the family rented out
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inside on the bed police found the scope that belonged to the murder weapon the tenant was 45 year old mel spiegel
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and he was gone we found out that the murder weapon belonged to mel spiegel mel spiegel was now the prime suspect
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sheriff walt femling ordered his deputies to seal off the entire perimeter and to stop the nearby garbage
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truck from leaving the area i yelled at one of my deputies to run over there and stop him from doing what
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he was doing sir just leave the garbage at this truck that garbage truck was one house away
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and almost took this evidence in the trash can outside the johnson's home was evidence more valuable than
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anything they found inside alan and diane johnson were gunned down in the bedroom of their home in the
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early morning hours their sixteen-year-old daughter was in the house when the shooting occurred but
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unharmed in the garbage police found a wealth of evidence the outside trash can a pink bathrobe
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inside that bathrobe i found a brown leather glove a latex glove and 25 caliber ammunition
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this ammunition did not match the ammunition used in the murders however it looked like the killer threw the
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items in the trash before fleeing the scene the murder weapon a high-powered hunting
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rifle belonged to the johnson's tenant mel spiegel who had mysteriously disappeared
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mel spiegel had rented that guest house for years was a very close friend of allen and diane
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he works as an electrician within hours of the murders investigators found spiegel in boise
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idaho 150 miles away he said he'd been visiting family members all weekend an
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alibi that checked out spiegel claimed his hunting rifle was in his closet when he left for boise i
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directly asked mel spiegel who he thought we should be looking at and he's the one that told me about
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bruno santos santos was dating the johnson 16 year old daughter sarah bruno santos was a 19
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year old illegal immigrant he was a dropout associated in a number of small drug related crimes just kind of a guy
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that as a father you wouldn't necessarily aspire your daughter to uh to want to
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marry because he didn't seem to have much direction in life then investigators learned about a
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confrontation between alan johnson and bruno santos a few days before the murders
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sarah told her parents she was sleeping overnight at a girlfriend's house but
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they later learned she was spending the night with santos alan johnson was furious and he asked
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his brother-in-law jim vaivald to go with him to santos's home i said it's not worth getting in trouble
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going in there beating up the kid or anything like that you're not going to accomplish anything
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alan told santos to stay away from his daughter and took sarah home diana and i were in the kitchen and i
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asked her do they love each other and she said well she says that they do and i said well if they think they love each
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other you won't be able to keep them away from each other the johnsons also told santos that if he
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didn't stay away from their daughter they would file statutory rape charges against him any kind of arrest
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whatsoever would have sent bruno back to mexico i just gave him that much more motive to uh to take care of diane and
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alan investigators immediately took bruno santos in for questioning i could describe him as a very cocky arrogant
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young man somewhat confrontational at times pretty hard to deal with he told me that he had proposed to sarah or
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asked her to marry him which she said yes bruno and his mother claimed bruno was
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home asleep on the morning of the murders but no one else could verify his alibi
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he was cooperative with us at the time as we started pushing him a little harder in the interviews his demeanor
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certainly did change our first thought was bruno we figured he was angry with diane and
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allen he decided to get rid of him so that he and sarah could be together investigators also found evidence that
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santos defied the johnsons and continued to see sarah going so far as to have sexual relations with her in her own
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home we confirmed that by finding semen stains on sarah's sheets that match bruno so we knew that he had been in the
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house so he was a prime suspect based on the fact that this crime truly was committed by someone with knowledge
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access and opportunity [Music] the sheriff's got a warrant to search santos's home for evidence
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we took his clothing we took his shoes we took his dna took him to the hospital and scrapings of his hands and his hair
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and all those issues for dna samples investigators wanted to know just how far bruno santos was willing to go
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to continue seeing sarah johnson following the murders of alan and diane johnson
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investigators identified bruno santos as the prime suspect in the crime since santos was 19
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and sarah johnson was 16 the johnsons repeatedly warned santos not to see their daughter again
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but santos refused to try to rule bruno in or out we tested almost every piece of clothing that he was wearing that day
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and the following day that we when we arrested him we never found his dna fingerprints or anything in the crime
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scene and any of alan or diane's blood or dna on any of his clothing so bruno santos was eliminated as a
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suspect with no other possibilities authorities then began to focus on the johnson's daughter
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sarah no more what no more kids they learned that sarah was taking antidepressants
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and had a stormy relationship with her mother sarah's relatives thought she was being
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a normal teenager pushing against authority until they noticed her unusual behavior
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after the murders she did not seem to be going through any sort of grief at all she was not
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concerned about losing her mom and dad she wanted to see her friends she wanted to get her nails done
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i mean it was just really bizarre this led investigators to consider the unthinkable
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that sarah johnson acting alone had murdered her own parents i just could not imagine that a 16 year
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old girl could do this type of crime and that was probably the hardest thing in my mind is just trying to get through
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this idea that a young girl could do something so hate us investigators knew sarah had keys to the
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family guest house occupied by their tenant mel spiegel sarah would often clean the guest house
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for mail since she would clean the guest house we believe that she would have knowledge that the weapons would have
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been in that closet when the sheriff's interviewed sarah initially they noticed inconsistencies
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in her story she claimed she was asleep in her bedroom when she heard the first shot
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and that her bedroom door was closed we found traces of diane's blood and skull in sarah's room against her wall
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which was some probably 30 feet away sarah johnson's door was open also to allow the bone to go inside her bedroom
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because the back edge where the hinges are also had blood deposits on it so both of those doors
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were open and there's a hall in between we knew that her door had to be open
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which was inconsistent of what she said but this was only an inconsistency not evidence of murder
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this case was going to be very difficult to prove to a jury there was not one single piece of evidence necessarily
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that totally committed sarah to this crime and so we just had to build it piece by piece
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the piece they thought might prove most significant was the t-shirt and pajama bottom sarah
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was wearing on the morning of the murders police when they first approached her saw no blood on her
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clothing there was none there because we luminaled every inch of her pajamas top
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and bottom nothing analysts now turned to the pink bathrobe found in the garbage the morning of the
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murders family members said the robe belonged to sarah as rod englert examined it with a pro
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scope a high-powered microscope capable of 400 times magnification he was shocked to discover no blood spatter on
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the front of the robe but then he looked on the back he found hundreds of tiny specks of
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blood high velocity blood spatter the type that would be created by a high-powered rifle
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you get multiple multiple stains that are very very tiny like little pencil touches
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numerous even smaller than that that are just layered layer on layer especially when it's high energy
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dna testing showed the blood came from both diane and alan johnson this proved the killer wore the robe
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backwards the evidence was yelling and screaming this is what happened it was the only
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explanation but investigators needed to prove that sarah wore the robe on the morning of
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the murders to do that they had to analyze the shirt she had on that day sarah johnson had a blue cotton t-shirt
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with green paint smeared onto it so therefore i'm thinking well let's examine the blue shirt now and see if
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any of that cotton fiber could have transferred with the green paint onto the bathroom
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scientists took samples from the t-shirt and fibers from inside the bathrobe they used a scanning electron microscope
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to compare the similarities they found paint on both the t-shirt and the bathrobe with the same chemical
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makeup what i believed happened now there is a evidence transfer from the blue t-shirt
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deposited onto the pink bathroom this proved that sarah had worn the robe over the top of her t-shirt finally
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investigators analyzed the gloves found in the garbage when you handle an item and you leave
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behind the oils and residues from your skin that contains skin cells and we are oftentimes able to get dna from those
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samples scientists swabbed the inside of the gloves and found dna from only one person sarah was the source of the
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dna found on the latex glove all the clothing found in the garbage can was then checked for gunshot residue
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a gas created by gunfire that can adhere to the shooter we sent the robe we sent
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the leather glove and we sent the latex glove to a lab in chicago macron and associates they ultimately found gunshot
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residue on all three items but investigators had one final question why wasn't sarah's hair covered in blood
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when she went to her neighbor's house to report the murders did she wear some
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kind of hat if so where was it sarah did not have any blood on her that we could see with the
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naked eye soon they would find out why [Music] investigators learned that sarah johnson
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disagreed vehemently with her parents over her relationship with her 19-year-old boyfriend bruno santos
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sarah's parents threatened to file statutory rape charges against santos and have him deported unless the two
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stopped seeing one another instead prosecutors say sarah turned to violence in october of 2003 sarah johnson was
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charged as an adult sarah i have a warrant for your rest for the murder of your parents
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diane and alan johnson he's charged with two counts of murder and you're under arrest
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okay stand up it was a sad moment because it's a 16 year old that did this it's sad for everybody involved
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the trial of a teenaged girl killing her parents was a national sensation there were
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three people in the johnson house that morning when alan and diane were murdered two of
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them did not come out one person came out alive that person sits right there sarah marie johnson
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at trial prosecutors presented voluminous forensic and circumstantial evidence to prove
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that sarah murdered her parents she wanted the big rich things in her life she wanted to provide for her
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boyfriend they were going to get married and she asked him do you want to live in
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a big beautiful home with her parents life insurance and her inheritance she thought she'd be all set and she
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could live that happily ever after life that only a 16 year old probably envisions
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in a surprise turn of events sarah's boyfriend bruno santos testified for the prosecution
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primarily to show he had nothing to do with the murders he did testify that sarah had talked
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about hating her dad and about shooting him given the fact that he did not like their relationship
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prosecutors believe that sarah chose murder instead of ending her relationship with santos
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she knew that the man renting her parents guest house had a hunting rifle so she waited for him to leave for the
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weekend and stole it on the morning of the murders sarah put on her bathrobe backwards
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the gloves and the shower cap after hearing her father go into the shower she entered the bedroom and fired from
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close range at her mother [Music] the blood spatter landed in sarah's room contradicting her story that she was
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asleep with her bedroom door closed her father heard the shot he came running into the bedroom
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and sarah shot her father in the chest sarah attempted to mislead investigators by placing knives at the foot of her
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parents bed to make it appear that the murders were gang-related she flushed the shower cap down the
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toilet where plumbers found it several weeks later when it clogged the drain she threw the gloves and bathrobe into
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the trash then she ran next door to report her parents murders looking remarkably free of blood spatter
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but she left more than enough evidence behind had that garbage container been picked
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up you would have lost the robe and you'd lost gloves that had sarah johnson's dna
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sarah was just fascinated with crime stories and so we felt that based upon just this exposure from novels from
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television that sarah very likely would have understood evidence how to get rid of it and you know that's probably what
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led her to do some of the things she did sarah johnson was convicted of first degree murder and sentenced to
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two life terms without parole she will never be released from prison it was a mixed emotion
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i was glad that they found her guilty because in my heart i believe she was but it hurt
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to see some family member being in that situation what happened was hard for jurors and
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even investigators to believe forensic evidence left no doubt that sarah johnson murdered her parents
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without having the robe which contained the leather glove the latex glove and all the blood
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i do not believe we would have ever been able to prove this case beyond a reasonable doubt to a jury
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circumstantial evidence is too hard to convict people on circumstantial evidence
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alone you need that forensic evidence because this is a for first degree murder charge it makes me wonder
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what was going through sarah's head when when she committed this terrible crime of how she could do this
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to her to her parents you