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NARRATOR: In 1996, a
suspicious house fire destroyed the home of the
Seattle, Washington policeman.
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In a bizarre twist,
an ex-convict confessed to setting the fire,
then mysteriously disappeared.
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When investigators looked
carefully at the written confession, they
discovered clues
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of a more serious
crime than arson. They found evidence of murder. [theme music]
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Sergeant Matt Bachmeier was
a 25-year veteran of the King County Sheriff's
Department, a man well
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liked and respected
by his peers. DET. DENNY GULLA: This guy was
a police hero, you know?
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He had been involved in several
different types of shootouts, or real interesting type of
events, and had survived them.
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NARRATOR: On July 9, 1996,
at 1:30 in the morning, a fire broke out in Sergeant
Bachmeier's suburban home.
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Bachmeier was at a local bowling
alley when the fire broke out. By the time the fire
was extinguished,
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the home was almost
completely destroyed. The origin of the fire
appeared suspicious.
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And dogs specially trained
to recognize flammable liquids or accelerants were sent
to sniff through the rubble.
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The dogs identified
five different areas where accelerants were
used to set this fire.
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One was in the basement. A second in the dining room. There were two separate
areas in the attic.
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And the fifth was in the garage. In arson terms, this is
called a layering fire.
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On the outside wall of
Sargent Bachmeier's garage were spray painted messages
critical of police.
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One said, Rios lives. Guadalupe Rios was a man
Sergeant Bachmeier Meyer had shot and killed eight years
earlier in the line of duty.
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Bachmeier told colleagues
that he had received threats from Rios' friends
and relatives,
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but until now they
had only been threats. Captain Dave
Maehren was Sergeant Bachmeier's supervisor.
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CAPTAIN MAEHREN: We
were concerned any time a fellow officer's
home is-- is arsoned,
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that's a traumatic
event for them. And I talked to him what he
might need as a way of help
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and support and time off
to recover from that. NARRATOR: While the arson
investigation continued,
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Sergeant Bachmeier
himself uncovered some important information
about the fire. It happened when he
was called to break
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up a neighborhood fight. -Sir, are you OK? -Yeah, I'm all right. -Did anybody here
say what happened?
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-I saw most of it. NARRATOR: One of the men in
that fight was Brad Wren, who had a history of
mental problems and had
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some prior brushes with the law.
-Thank you. What happened? -Well, I can start off by
telling you two weeks ago
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he was shot in the leg. And now tonight, he
got in a fight with his brother's-- his
roommate's brother.
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-You doing OK? Is that leg all right? -Yeah, it's
certainly killing me, but I guess it's
gonna be all right.
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-All right, let's get down
to the police station. We can take your
statement there.
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NARRATOR: Sergeant
Bachmeier asked Wren to come to
the police station so that he could
take his statement.
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According to Sergeant
Bachmeier, during questioning Wren asked Bachmeier if
he was the cop whose home
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was destroyed by
the recent fire. -Are you the cop that had
his house burned down?
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-Yeah. why? NARRATOR: When
Bachmeier said yes, Wren allegedly told
Bachmeier that he
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knew the identity
of the arsonist. -He's a drug dealer
I met in a bar. Pepe Hernandez.
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NARRATOR: Pepe
Hernandez told Wren that a local cop had stolen
some drugs and money from him
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during a recent drug bust. -Hey man, this cop
busted me the other day. -Yeah? -He stole my dope and
my stash of money.
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-So what are you going to do? -I know where he lives and I
want to go get myself back.
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-You know, I'll give you
$500 if you come and help me. NARRATOR: The cop
Fernandez was talking about
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was none other than
Sergeant Bachmeier. -So I said, OK. -Then what happened? -We broke into your house
and Pepe tore the house up.
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He couldn't find the
drugs or the money. And so Pepe started
stealing things-- paintings and-- and statues.
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And I heard him say he was
going to burn your house down. And then he-- he just did it.
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-Where is he now? -If you think I'm going to help
you find him, you're crazy. He'll kill me.
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When I left, he was pissed
and I'm glad he's gone. NARRATOR: Sergeant
Bachmeier transcribed
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Wren's entire statement,
had Wren sign it, then released him from custody. But Bachmeier had a dilemma.
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The confession implicated him
in the theft of drugs and money. So he decided not to turn
it over to his superiors.
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At least, not yet. Brad Wren, the man who allegedly
confessed to taking part in the arson of Sergeant
Bachmeier's home,
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had a history of
mental problems. It all started when Brad
Wren was in the Air Force.
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He was in a severe
motorcycle accident and barely escaped
with his life. -He had massive brain injuries.
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They didn't know if
he went in a coma. They didn't know what
to tell us or anything
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until he come out of the coma. NARRATOR: Wren
eventually recovered, but he was never the
same after the accident.
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His personality changed. He was more aggressive. And for the first
time in his life,
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got into trouble with the law. Shortly after the
accident, he was convicted of a
sex-related offense
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and spent three
months in prison. More recently, Wren was
in a violent argument with his roommate, Emmet
Marcel, who shot him in the leg,
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shattering his tibia. -His roommate had a
mental problem, too. And if he didn't
take his medication,
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why, then he was just more
or less wacky, you know. And evidently he'd been off
his medication for awhile
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and him and Brad got into it. -They were doing some
kind of siding or roofing or something for a friend.
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And Brad hit Emmet's
finger with the hammer. And that's what Emmet
said he shot him for.
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NARRATOR: Unaware of Brad
Wren's alleged confession, arson investigator Becky Gibbs
was assigned to investigate
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the arson fire of
Sargent Bachmeier's home. She saw evidence that was
inconsistent with a fire set
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for revenge. -And typically, if
somebody's going to set a fire for revenge,
they may go to some trouble
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to set a fire, but
this particular way of setting a fire
takes some time. NARRATOR: The
debris from the fire
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was analyzed using gas
chromatography, which found traces of gasoline
in the debris.
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There was also evidence
that road flares were used to ignite
the gasoline. -These would be considered
a time-delay device.
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If you set the
road flare on fire, the fire doesn't
start right away. But once it reaches the point
where it's touching the gas
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container, then the fire--
the gas container would melt and the fire would start.
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NARRATOR: Most fires
set for revenge do not use time-delay devices. The flares would have given
Sergeant Bachmeier enough time
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to drive to the bowling
alley to establish his alibi before the gasoline
containers exploded.
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Investigators were
also suspicious because Bachmeier's artwork,
porcelain collection,
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and bowling trophies
were found undamaged in his backyard
shed after the fire. Sergeant Bachmeier
became the prime suspect.
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He adamantly denied
any involvement. But when asked to take a lie
detector test, he refused.
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Under increasing scrutiny,
Sergeant Bachmeier had no choice but to produce
Brad Wren's alleged confession,
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even though it
implicated Bachmeier in stealing from a
reputed drug dealer. When police tried to interview
Brad Wren to corroborate
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his confession, they
discovered he was missing. -There wasn't any of his
clothes, none of his shoes,
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nothing left in the house. -I knew Brad was dead. I knew it. I don't know how I knew it.
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But I knew my son was dead. We would have heard from him. He would have never went
off and left his dog
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with nobody taking care of him. He would have
never-- he would have just never let him like that.
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NARRATOR: Detective Denny
Gulla asked Matt Bachmeier if he knew anything about
Wren's alleged disappearance,
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since Bachmeier was the last
known person to see Wren alive. -He starts laughing.
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He goes, well, if you find
him dead with my business card nailed to his forehead,
you'll know to come talk to me.
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And he kind of laughs it
off, kind of jokingly. And, you know, I wrote that
down when he says that,
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because I'm going,
that's kind of bizarre. NARRATOR: Police could find
no arrest record for anyone
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by the name of Pepe Hernandez
and police officials say Bachmeier's handling of
Brad Wren's interrogation
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was improper. -It would be highly,
highly unusual for an experienced police
sergeant of 25 years
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to take a statement like
that alone for a suspect. And then certainly to
release him immediately
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afterwards would be
extremely, extremely rare. NARRATOR: Although Brad Wren's
family identified the signature
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on the bottom of the
alleged confession as Brad's, forensic
document examiners weren't entirely convinced.
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In Seattle, Washington,
police were conducting two simultaneous investigations. One into the fire
that destroyed police
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sergeant Matt Bachmeier's home. The other, a search for the
whereabouts of Brad Wren.
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They were connected, since
Brad Wren was last seen alive in the backseat of Sergeant
Bachmeier's patrol car.
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-That was the last
sighting we had and, uh, in police investigations, last
person seen with someone who's
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alive is-- is certainly going
to attract your interest. NARRATOR: The four and a
half page statement, in which
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Brad Wren allegedly
admitted to taking part in the arson of Sergeant
Bachmeier's home,
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was written by
Bachmeier then signed by Wren, which is
standard procedure. Brad Wren had signed the first
four pages of the confession,
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but for some unexplained reason,
did not sign the last page. -In our department
that's not normal.
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That's not a normal procedure. We would write the
whole statement. The very last page
would have that on it.
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NARRATOR: The
confession was subjected to a process known
as videospectography. To the naked eye, the
ink in Wren's confession
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all looked the same. But the videospectography
told a different story. Under various infrared
light sources,
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scientists could see
that the confession was written with three
different inks. All of Wren's signatures
and his initials
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were written in a black
ink with high luminescence. The entire first page
and the top of the second
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used a gray black ink
with medium luminescence. From then on, a third ink
was used, a black ink that
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shows no reaction to
the infrared light. And there were
other discrepancies. Wren's occupation was listed
as truck driver, which
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was incorrect, as well as
other vital information. -James Wren's birth date was
different on the second page.
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It's listed as 1971. And then on the third and
fourth page, it's 1961. And then the fifth page
doesn't even have a birth date.
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NARRATOR: In the confession,
Bachmeier incorrectly wrote the contraction you are as
y-o-u-r, the same mistake found
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in the threatening
message on Sergeant Bachmeier's garage
after the fire. Next, scientists check
Bachmeier's patrol car
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and found something unusual. -As they go through the backseat
of Bachmeier's patrol car,
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they find just very
faint traces of blood. And initially they thought,
well, that's a police car.
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It's not going to be unusual
to have faint traces of blood in the backseat of a police car.
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They open up the
seat and they find in the stitching several blood
stain patterns on the backside
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of the seat cover that had
soaked through the stitching. NARRATOR: Using a sample of
blood from Brad Wren's parents,
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a reverse paternity
DNA test was made. It proved conclusively that
the blood from the backseat
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of the patrol car was
that of Brad Wren. -Can anybody here
tell me what Happened
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NARRATOR: Bachmeier said
the blood was from Wren's bloody nose that occurred
in the fight Bachmeier
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was called to break up. Investigators decided to
test this hypothesis to see if the size of the
blood stain was
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consistent with a nose bleed. Forensic scientists use
identical rear seats from other patrol cars
to conduct their test.
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Using head sculptures
with wigs and weights to simulate a human
head, investigators
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poured different amounts of
blood onto the seat cushions. It took two quarts of blood
to produce a stain the size
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found in Bachmeier's patrol car. A loss of two quarts of blood
would be life threatening.
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Police also found
Brad Wren's blood on a pair of Sergeant
Bachmeier's work shoes.
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Investigators now believed that
Brad Wren died in the backseat of Sergeant
Bachmeier's patrol car.
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But where was Brad Wren's body? Seven months after Brad
Wren's disappearance, hikers in a restricted area of
Cougar Mountain Park outside
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of Seattle found
some bones and what appeared to be a human skull. The bones had been
scattered by animals.
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Fragments were found
over a quarter mile away. Only 20% of the
skeleton was recovered,
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but the size and
shape of the cranium told forensic anthropologists
that the victim was male.
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And that the
condition of the bones indicated that they had been
in the park less than a year.
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They also found a steel
rod in the lower leg bone, a surgical repair identical
to one performed on Brad Wren.
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And near some of the
bones in the park, searchers found a red,
white, and blue leg cast.
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-I need your name and address. NARRATOR: Witnesses said
Brad Wren was wearing an identical leg cast when he
left with Sergeant Bachmeier
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in his patrol car. The marrow in one of the
bones was tested for DNA and the results confirmed
what investigators
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already suspected. The bone was that of Brad Wren. -First thing it did
was start bawling.
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Cried my heart out. But I was glad in a lot
of ways they found him. It was hell, not
knowing where he was at.
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NARRATOR: The only remaining
question for investigators was the motive. -The story is so convoluted and
so sort of pathetically obvious
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in its fabrication that
it almost defies belief. I mean, I think it would be
rejected as a plot for a novel
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or a script for a
movie because it just seems so absurd and
outlandish and unnecessarily
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sort of complex
and contradictory. NARRATOR: Matt Bachmeier
was an avid bowler, and his dream was to compete on
the professional bowlers tour.
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Prosecutors believe Bachmeier
set fire to his own home using the time-delay device,
giving him time to get
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to the bowling alley
to establish his alibi. Bachmeier may have planned
to use the insurance money
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from the fire to
finance his entry onto the Pro Bowlers Tour. But removing his bowling
trophies and artwork
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from the home before the fire
was a classic arson mistake. When Bachmeier learned he
was a suspect in the arson,
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he looked for a scapegoat. Brad Wren was in the wrong
place at the wrong time. And there is no
evidence he ever made
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it to police headquarters
for questioning. Somewhere along the way,
Bachmeier stopped this car
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and forced or coerced
Wren into signing some blank police reports. -I'm not going to bother
taking you down to the station.
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I'll just strike the report from
what you've already told me. There'll be no charges.
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Just sign a couple of these
forms for me, would you? -Is this something
you normally do?
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-Yeah.
It's fine. Hey, do me a favor? In case your statement
goes on too long, could you sign a few
extra copies for me?
00:19:21
-Yeah.
Sure. NARRATOR: Then,
Bachmeier murdered him. Wren's blood seeped into
the rear seat cushions
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as Bachmeier made the
30-minute minute drive to Cougar Mountain
Park to dump the body.
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Some time later, Bachmeier
composed the phony confession, which forensic technology
revealed as bogus.
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-I'd never been so mad at
somebody in my whole life. There was a time or
two there that I just
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wanted to get a
hold of him so bad. I think I could have
ripped him limb by limb.
00:20:10
I was just furious
with that man. -I don't think
he's much of a man. I think the man must have a
mental problem or something,
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I don't know. I can't feature a police
officer, 25 years or so, doing something like
this, without having
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some kind of a problem. What-- what-- what was he going
to gain out of it, you know?
00:20:37
I don't know. NARRATOR: Sergeant
Matt Bachmeier was convicted of
first-degree murder.
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He was sentenced
to life in prison. Seattle prosecutors say it was
one of the most bizarre murder
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cases they had
ever encountered . -I can't pretend to, uh, to
tell you what sort of a person
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gets drawn into a web of
his own making to the extent that he's willing to
take a human life.
00:21:09
Uh, All I can say is
that we see this happen. And we rarely see it happen
with a law enforcement officer
00:21:17
with 25 years of service. But most murders
are fundamentally inexplicable, unreasonable,
irrational events.
00:21:28
-I think, um,
stupid would apply. But I think-- the thing
that comes to mind is just he really
underestimated the people
00:21:45
that worked around him. -One of our members was,
uh, talking not too long about someone writing
a book about this.
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And they said, um, I don't
think anybody will write a book about this because when you tell
the story, it's not believable.
00:22:01
Um, but it is interesting. And so I think there's still,
for-- for quite some time
00:22:07
to come, will be with our
department, unfortunately. [theme music]