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[Music] on memorial day weekend in 1984 someone placed a body in a cardboard box
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and slid it down an embankment the cause of death was homicide but investigators had no idea when the
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murder occurred but science uncovered an important detail of the victims last night alive
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would it be enough to identify the killer [Music] so [Music] on a sunday morning a fisherman enjoying
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the juniata river in central pennsylvania saw a large cardboard box at the river's edge
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[Music] inside was a garbage bag he pulled back a piece of plastic a little bit and discovered that it was
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the part uh of a person didn't know male female the torso was later identified as female
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the rest was a mystery there was no indicator as to how she met her death above the box on the side of the hill
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the underbrush had been tamped down indicating the box had slid down the embankment from the road above
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the box had been slid down after the dew had settled and been wiped off by the passage of the box
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and that was important to developing a timeline in this in this case investigators noticed
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a grease stained puncture hole in the box and in the grease were small pieces of
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styrofoam whoever pulled that out of the trunk when they were lifting it out caught the
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box on the latch that's what i believe it was from someone had gone to great lengths to
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conceal the victim's identity by removing the head arms and legs to do this the killer needed time
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and privacy the part that didn't make sense to me about that was if someone could make
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a person's head arms and legs disappear from that day until this day they could
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easily make the rest of the body disappear so there was some reason for the body to
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be discovered the body had three large moles and a scar on the abdomen blue jeans and a belt with the zodiac
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buckle were the only other keys to the victim's identity at the autopsy the pathologist found
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evidence of insect activity which was sent to a forensic entomologist for analysis
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an entomologist is an expert in the study of insects he identified the eggs as those of the
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blue bottle fly and the black blowfly both common in many areas of the united states
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the weather conditions around the time the body was discovered and the stage of the egg and larvae development allowed
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the entomologist to provide a rough estimate of the time of death it was roughly two days
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prior to our finding the torso this meant that the victim died sometime late friday night or early saturday
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morning the autopsy was not able to identify the cause of death the pathologist found semen present
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during the autopsy but there was no evidence of rape and there was no way to identify the man since this was before
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dna testing police knew that in order to identify possible suspects they first had to
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identify the victim we said from the very beginning if we if we find out who she is we'll find out
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who who killed her missing persons reports were checked but no one fit the description of the torso
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seven months later she was buried still unidentified in an unmarked grave and soon forgotten
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one year later a telephone call changed that one year after jane doe the unidentified
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murder victim was buried in a pauper's grave in pennsylvania police received
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what at first was a routine telephone call a woman told police that her ex-sister-in-law edna posey had been
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missing for a year she was able to provide police with a detailed physical description
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she started explaining how retina would say oh i can't wear a bikini because of my molds
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this sounded strikingly similar to the birthmarks found on the body their jane doe of a year earlier
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the caller also said edna posey always wore a belt with a zodiac buckle edna posey was a 31 year old single
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mother of an 11 year old boy randy and she was no stranger to the seedy side of life in the nearby city of
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harrisburg she was would generally be perceived as a [ __ ] unstable relationships
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term problems with alcohol and not having a stable home environment for randy among other things
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edna was not your i shouldn't say nicest person but was uh sort of wild edna's wild streak usually involved men
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and alcohol she would meet men in bars quickly move in with them and just as quickly move
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out only to repeat the same pattern again and again and she would sometimes disappear for
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months at a time without saying a word to anyone edna was able to admit that her
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life was out of control and had asked donald ruby her son randy's boy scout leader if randy could move in with him
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donald ruby had a boy scout group that was comprised largely of of boys who had problems in their lives most of them
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were in families with with mothers only the boys had been into trouble and donald took this group of boys and
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formed his own troop with it randy moved in with donald ruby and his wife and lived with them as if he were
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their own son 42 year old ruby worked as a machinist and had no children of his own
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while many applauded him for his efforts with troubled youngsters some questioned his motives
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well it's in the eye of the beholder he did some things that that i would winced at
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myself such as the kissing on the lips and so forth i i i was never that way even with my own children
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edna moved 150 miles away to virginia where she took a job as a dental technician while trying to get her life
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back on track this is edna's co-worker who asked not to be identified for fear of her safety
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she was saving her money and sometimes in that particular time period she met a young soldier in the army band in
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virginia and they became quite closed and was going to move in together and bring randy down
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to be with them and police believe that donald ruby was threatened by the loss of randy
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the evidence was that she intended to take randy back with her we believed and argued that donald did
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not want to give up randy as his son did this mean that donald ruby had a motive to kill edna posey
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ruby told police that edna posey had come to their home to visit randy on friday night and planned to stay for the
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entire memorial day weekend the next day ruby and his wife said they took edna shopping and dropped her off
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downtown yeah actually just go to the corner we'll see you back here like 5 5 30
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right okay when they returned later to pick her up edna never showed up given the lifestyle that edna lived for
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decades you could sell it very easily that she just decided to disappear off the face of the earth
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but edna's son randy told police a slightly different story he said he last saw his mother on friday
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night when she kissed him good night i love you see you tomorrow a short time later
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he said he heard a loud noise coming from the bedroom where his mother was sleeping
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i think he described it as if somebody fallen out of bed he said when he woke up the next day
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his mother was gone if the forensic entomologist was correct in his estimate of the time of edna's
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death the noise randy heard on friday night may have been his mother's murder
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when police searched donald ruby's trunk they found the same type of grease that
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was found on the box holding edna posey's torso and they discovered the hole in the box was the same size
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and shape as the trunk latch in ruby's car prosecutors now believed that donald
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ruby murdered edna posey on friday evening when donald ruby was charged with the
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murder of edna posey police heard some unsettling news about his life with edna's son
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randy we had testimony that when they would come home from camping trips he would physically
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touch randy's private parts allegedly to feel for ticks so yes there was some direct evidence of
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pedophilia he was looking for ticks but he would examine the around the crotch and
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the rear end a little bit more than that a parent probably would would explore prosecutors said that was evidence of
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pedophilia that ruby had a sexual fixation with randy and killed edna to keep her from
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regaining custody of her son they said that the grease and styrofoam evidence on the box containing edna's
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body though circumstantial tied ruby to the crime three years after edna posey's
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disappearance donald ruby was convicted of her murder and sentenced to life in prison
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edna's family and friends believed that a cold-blooded killer had gotten justice
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how could you do this how could you do this to another person i mean it wasn't a like he just shot her
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and you know there was no pain and jesus died it was the cruel cruel way that he
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killed her and uh it was just almost unbelievable to me that you could do that to another human being
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from behind bars donald ruby maintained his innocence he said edna had countless
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low-life lovers and any one of them could have committed the crime his lawyers petitioned the court for a
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retrial they claimed there was no proof donald ruby was a pedophile and that his rights
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were violated when jurors heard that testimony ruby's defense attorneys also decided to
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have the forensic evidence re-examined so they called dr neal haskell one of the country's premier forensic
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entomologists dr haskell analyzed the eggs and larvae from edna posey's body
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flies lay eggs which develop into larvae and then into flies but in reading the medical examiner's
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report dr haskell noticed an inconsistency at the autopsy the medical examiner said
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he found eggs but not larvae and he noticed something else at the original autopsy the eggs were
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scraped from the body and placed in a petri dish the scrapings also contained bits of
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flesh and blood this meant that the eggs had three additional days to feed on the flesh and
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develop before they were analyzed i'm trying to avoid saying the copper is screwed up trying to be professional and
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diplomatic dr haskell analyzed some of the eggs found on edna posey's body after three years they were so dry
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they were almost dust [Music] they were then placed in a saline solution to rehydrate them
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dr haskell believes these eggs were on edna posey's body for only a short time
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meaning that edna posey was killed sometime late saturday night or early sunday morning not friday night as the
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original entomologist estimated scientific entomological evidence that was presented in this case
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uh clearly showed that the time when the death of this individual had taken place
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had to be much shorter than what the prosecution was alleging the meteorological evidence also pointed
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to early sunday morning when the fisherman found the body on sunday morning he said there was no due
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or condensation along the path the box traveled down the embankment and another factor supporting this time
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frame was the autopsy report the medical examiner said there was motile or moving sperm in edna's body at
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the autopsy sperm remains motile in a deceased person for only 24 hours after death
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donald ruby had an alibi for all day saturday and saturday night after six years in prison
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donald ruby was granted a new trial and ruby's new defense team had a surprise piece of evidence
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new dna testing of the semen found during edna posey's autopsy uncovered a tantalizing clue
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about her last night alive eight years after edna posey's death forensic scientists analyzed the semen
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recovered during her autopsy this time using new dna technology which wasn't available at donald ruby's first
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trial in a shocking development dna testing revealed there was semen from three different men
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and donald ruby's dna was not among them the autopsy notes revealed that the
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semen contained multiple sperm at the time of the autopsy sperm remained motile in a dead person
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for only 24 hours we had at least three people by the evidence who were with her
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and had sex with her less than 24 hours before her body was discovered we were able to exploit that in the trial by
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planting the suggestion that that edna true to form had gotten on the wild side when she was
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dropped off in middletown by don at donald ruby's second trial his defense was the same as the first
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trial that he and his wife dropped edna off on saturday morning to go shopping but this time
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new forensic evidence helped bolster his story his attorneys implied that one or more
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of the unidentified men who had sex with her on saturday night may have been the
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killer oh that was clearly defense insinuation the defense clearly insinuated that somebody that edna was picked up by
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might have committed this murder the other new piece of forensic evidence was dr haskell's testimony with
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his view that the original time of death was inaccurate he testified that improper preservation
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of the entomological evidence caused an inaccurate estimation of the time of death
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he told the jury that edna posey died late saturday night or early sunday morning not on friday night as
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originally claimed further helping ruby's case was edna's son randy at the original trial randy said he
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heard a loud thump from his mother's bedroom late on friday night but eight years later randy now 21 years
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old recalled nothing about that randy clearly did not remember hearing a thump we asked him about it he said he had no
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independent recollection of it and thus we did not have the thump in the night to use his testimony
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the defense also claimed that the hole in the carton carrying edna's body could
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have been made by thousands of vehicles with the same type of hood latch and grease as was in ruby's car
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after a nine-day trial and six hours of deliberation the jury found donald ruby not guilty
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a verdict which baffled edna's friends and family just a total state of shock they could
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not believe this they'd proven a case and then to have it thrown out like that
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and a murderer walking the streets i think it was a concern to a lot of people in the air especially people who
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had testified against him just some ducks along the highway that like i said you learn to appreciate
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things better when you lose them you don't have them for a while you learn through experience never try
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to figure out a jury never never try to figure out a jury and i don't know what the jury thought but
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they made their decision and i'll live with it and the case while officially closed
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remains open in the minds of those involved who should be scared of mr ruby virtually anyone with children
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i don't propose to be an expert in pedophilia but certainly be my uh lay opinion the leopard doesn't change
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its spots i'm convinced that don did not kill edna he might have had reason to
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but he did not do it who did kill her i i have no clue i i just don't i know it's not don
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donald ruby left town soon after the trial and no one not even his own lawyers know
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where he is today i have had a letter uh that he sent me later that year it basically thanked me for testifying
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on his behalf and that he was going to have a certain places in his heart for the welfare of the flies in the
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