00:00:06
NARRATOR: Two eyewitnesses
said they saw a man in a pickup truck deliberately run
over another man-- not
00:00:12
once, but twice. Police could not
find the victim's body, or the pickup truck. And when police tried to
talk to the two eyewitnesses,
00:00:25
they had disappeared, too. All police could find were
some blood stains in the snow.
00:00:34
But would this be
enough to prove murder? [theme music] On January 29, 2001, a member
of a motorcycle gang in Duluth,
00:01:12
Minnesota called
police to report his roommate, 27-year-old
Erik Schrieffer, missing.
00:01:19
He said he hadn't
seen Schrieffer for the last four days,
and he was worried. -Usually that doesn't happen.
00:01:25
People that report
missing persons usually call in within the first
six to eight hours in a panic.
00:01:31
-Well great. I appreciate your assistance. Have a good day. NARRATOR: Officer Ryan Temple
was assigned to the case.
00:01:40
-Hi, this is Officer-- RYAN TEMPLE: I attempted to
contact all the area hospitals,
00:01:43
all the county
jails in the area, the Duluth
Detoxification Center. Also tried to contact
the victim's family--
00:01:50
his mother, his father. Also, his employer. NARRATOR: No one had heard
from Erik Schrieffer.
00:01:58
He worked as an apprentice for
the Boilermakers Union 647. -Erik was very
quiet and reserved.
00:02:08
Very good performance
on the job site. NARRATOR: But he hadn't
been to work, either.
00:02:15
Police found Schrieffer's
three automobiles still in his driveway. His wallet and winter coat
were inside his house.
00:02:25
Police discovered that
Schrieffer was last seen at a party in a
motorcycle club house.
00:02:34
Two motorcycle club members
who were at that party, Charlie Johnson and Herbert Zingle,
said that Schrieffer
00:02:41
got into an altercation
with Joseph Wehmanen, a member of a rival
motorcycle club.
00:02:47
-Who stuck you? [crashing and yelling] -Son of a bitch! [glass breaking]
-What's up?
00:03:01
Jesus! -What the fuck, man? Screw him. Take it outside. NARRATOR: The two were
separated and escorted outside--
00:03:13
-Get off me, man!
-It's all right. Just calm down. NARRATOR: -- where The witnesses say Wehmanen
easily won the fight.
00:03:46
While Schrieffer was
still on the ground, Wehmanen did the unthinkable. He got into his truck,
started the engine,
00:03:56
and intentionally
ran over Schrieffer. Amazingly, he wasn't killed. Wehmanen then put
his truck in reverse,
00:04:09
and ran over him a second time. Fearing for their own safety,
the witnesses ran back inside.
00:04:17
When they looked out again,
both the truck and Schrieffer were gone. -There was something
more to this story
00:04:25
than just a missing person. NARRATOR: The
witness is admitted they were drinking
heavily that night,
00:04:32
and weren't sure
of all the details. And the alleged fight took
place almost a week earlier.
00:04:37
And the inclement weather
complicated the investigation. -There was a four
day time lapse,
00:04:44
and we had received
approximately eight inches of slushy snow on--
in between time.
00:04:50
It made it a very
difficult crime scene. There was-- once
we got there, there wasn't a whole lot to
see, to start with.
00:04:59
NARRATOR: When police looked
into Joseph Wehmanen's background, they
discovered he had
00:05:04
never been in
trouble with the law. He was an ex-Marine, who had
served during the Gulf War,
00:05:09
and was a member of the
Thunderbird motorcycle gang, although not
an active member.
00:05:17
Investigators needed to
find some forensic evidence to corroborate the
witnesses' story.
00:05:28
Police wanted to find some way
to verify the claims of two eyewitnesses that Erik
Schrieffer was run over twice
00:05:37
by Joseph Wehmanen in his truck. -From the very beginning, we
had to try and put the case
00:05:42
together to understand
exactly what had happened, and then attempt to try
and locate where, possibly,
00:05:48
the body had gone to
after that period of time. So initially we were trying
to put the puzzle together
00:05:54
before we could find out where
the body may have gone to. NARRATOR: Police set up a
command post in the alley
00:05:59
where the fight
allegedly took place. Working in subzero
temperatures, officers uncovered the top
layer of new snow
00:06:08
in order to search for blood. They were successful. They discovered a blood trail
that led from the alley all
00:06:18
the way to the end of a parking
area, nearly 80 yards away. At the end of the
trail, police found
00:06:27
one very large pool
of blood in the snow. -Due to the amount of blood
that we found in that one spot,
00:06:36
and the fact that there was
no blood after that as we continued to excavate
the snow past that point,
00:06:43
we believe the body was
loaded into the truck. NARRATOR: Medical
examiner Dr. Donald
00:06:48
Kundel was called to the scene. -A person, to produce that much
blood in one localized area,
00:06:54
had to still have
their heart beating. They may have suffered
serious injuries, but their heart had to
still be beating in order
00:07:04
to produce that much
blood coming from a wound. NARRATOR: Once the
heart stops beating,
00:07:13
a body no longer bleeds. The blood evidence suggested
that the victim was lodged
00:07:20
under the truck, and
was dragged 80 yards. The pool of blood at
the end of the trail
00:07:30
indicated the victim
was still alive, and had been picked
up from the snow. However, Doctor
Kundel told police
00:07:41
that without immediate
medical attention, the victim would have
died within four hours.
00:07:48
To collect the blood evidence,
police used a standard coffee filter to separate the
blood from the snow.
00:07:56
The filter trapped the
red and white blood cells, and allowed plasma and
melting snow to drip
00:08:03
through, just as the filter
traps coffee grounds, not allowing them to
drip into the coffee.
00:08:12
Without a body, police
had another problem-- how to tell whether this was
the blood of Erik Schrieffer.
00:08:21
But police got a break. They learned that Schrieffer
had undergone hand surgery a few years earlier, when he
had accidentally shot himself.
00:08:33
The hospital saved
Schrieffer's tissue sample that had been sent to the
pathology lab for analysis.
00:08:41
The tissue was preserved
in paraffin, which halts the degenerative
process, preserving
00:08:46
the tissue indefinitely. The blood DNA found in
the snow was compared to the DNA from
Schrieffer's tissue sample.
00:08:56
It matched. Police canvassed area
hospitals, health clinics, and doctors' offices.
00:09:03
No one with the type of injuries
Schrieffer would have sustained had been treated.
00:09:10
Convinced that Erik Schrieffer
could not have survived without treatment,
the medical examiner
00:09:16
signed a death certificate. -Yes, we do have a homicide,
and one of the worst types
00:09:24
for a detective to have--
a homicide without a body. NARRATOR: The next
step was for police
00:09:31
to speak with the driver of
the truck, Joseph Wehmanen. But he was uncooperative.
00:09:37
-He started to shut
the door on me. At that point, I reached
over and grabbed him
00:09:43
by the shirt, informed him that
he was under arrest for murder. NARRATOR: Police impounded
Wehmanen's vehicle.
00:09:53
But a forensic analysis found
no evidence of an accident. They found no trace of blood,
body fluids, or hair anywhere
00:10:03
on the trunk, or underneath. -The crime lab is
well-respected by law enforcement agencies
in this state.
00:10:10
They've got the best equipment,
the most sophisticated gear. And if they couldn't find
any evidence in the truck,
00:10:15
then you started wondering,
well how could that be? How could somebody drive
a truck over somebody
00:10:20
twice, and there's no
hair, no blood, nothing? And that didn't
seem right to me.
00:10:27
NARRATOR: The lack
of forensic evidence wasn't the only problem. Witnesses' credibility
was another.
00:10:35
During police questioning,
both witnesses admitted they were
inebriated at the time
00:10:41
of the alleged accident. One said, quote,
"I don't remember who was at the
house, who came back.
00:10:50
We were sitting there drinking. I know there was
people in and out. Like I say, I'm drunk.
00:10:56
I stay drunk as I can." And Joseph Wehmanen
maintained his innocence. With two inebriated
eyewitnesses,
00:11:07
no forensic evidence
in Wehmanen's truck, and no body to prove
there had been a murder,
00:11:14
prosecutors knew
they didn't have enough evidence to go to trial. Investigators needed more
evidence in the Erik Schrieffer
00:11:26
case, and the search for
his body intensified. Police decided to find out how
their prime suspect, Joseph
00:11:36
Wehmanen, spent his leisure
time, and with whom? -I came across
one of his friends
00:11:42
and asked, when's the last time
you spent time with Wehmanen? Where was that that he
spent the time with him?
00:11:47
And it'd come to be that
within the week previous, he was ice fishing
with this friend.
00:11:53
NARRATOR: Police had a general
description of the ice house that Wehmanen and
his friend used,
00:11:59
but they weren't
sure where it was located on the vast
Saint Louis River. Nevertheless, police were
assigned to search the area.
00:12:11
SCOTT CAMPBELL: He came
across an ice house. We weren't quite sure
whether it was the one
00:12:14
that we were
necessary looking for. But as he was looking
into the ice house, he found a hole that was larger
than your normal ice fishing
00:12:21
hole, probably the size
of one that a human could be slipped into. NARRATOR: An underwater dive
team searched the frigid waters
00:12:30
of the Saint Louis River
for Schrieffer's body. Conditions were miserable. It was snowing with wind
gusts up to 30 miles per hour.
00:12:41
Divers could stay under the
freezing water for only 30 to 45 minutes before
suffering hypothermia.
00:12:50
After days of searching,
they found nothing. Then investigators
got more bad news.
00:12:59
Their case against Wehmanen
was based almost entirely on the testimony of two
eyewitnesses who claimed they
00:13:07
saw a fight between
Schrieffer and Wehmanen. But when police went to
question them further,
00:13:14
the two had vanished. SCOTT CAMPBELL: We have
actually documented testimony from family members
of the two witnesses
00:13:22
that the Thunderbirds were
approached by the Hells Angels, an in turn approached
the two witnesses
00:13:27
and asked them to
leave the community. Downright threatened them. NARRATOR: With no body,
no forensic evidence
00:13:35
against Wehmanen, and
now, no witnesses, the defense filed a motion
to dismiss the case.
00:13:43
The prosecution was in
a difficult position. -All the while, too, we're
looking for the body.
00:13:51
And we're looking for some
more physical evidence to tie Joe Wehmanen into this.
00:13:55
We were convinced
that he was the person responsible for the death,
but he wasn't saying anything.
00:14:02
The more police thought
about Wehmanen's truck and the eyewitness
testimony, the more they
00:14:08
realized how unlikely it
was that the undercarriage of his truck would be
so clean, especially
00:14:15
in the middle of winter. In the words of investigators,
it was almost too clean.
00:14:24
So nearly six months
after the murder, they examined the
truck once again. -We decided we would take the
truck apart piece by piece
00:14:35
until we were satisfied
that there was no evidence to be found, or we
actually found evidence.
00:14:45
And that's what we did. -We had a belief all along
that if the truck was used in transport of the
body, there always
00:14:53
has to be some type of forensic
evidence that's left behind. Or in any kind of crime
scene-- I strongly believe
00:14:59
that there's always
forensic evidence that's left behind in any crime scene. NARRATOR: They hoisted
Wehmanen's truck
00:15:06
up on a rack in the police
garage, and bolt by bolt, they took the truck apart. -I think I used the analogy
in one of my stories--
00:15:16
it was like they were cutting
their lawn with tweezers. They went over that
vehicle inch by inch.
00:15:23
NARRATOR: For over
two days, police searched every inch
of the vehicle. Finally, they found their
first piece of evidence--
00:15:33
a single strand of human
hair that was attached to the front spring
of the truck.
00:15:39
And when they removed the top
covering of the truck's cargo area, they found several small
blood stains in the crevices.
00:15:52
Police now suspected that
Wehmanen power sprayed his truck after the murder, and
the water pushed the victim's
00:16:00
blood into the tiny crevices
between the sheets of metal. But scientists still
needed to find out
00:16:09
who the blood and
hair belonged to. When police found blood
stains and a strand of hair
00:16:21
in the undercarriage of
Joseph Wehmanen's truck, they promptly informed
Wehmanen's attorney
00:16:28
that they would be sending the
materials for forensic testing. -Once the state could tie the
body to Mr. Wehmanen's truck,
00:16:39
the case changed dramatically. And I talked to Joe,
and I told him so. Ultimately it comes down to
the old Kenny Rogers song.
00:16:47
You've got to know when to hold
'em, and know when to fold 'em. And I felt it was-- when they
found that blood in the truck,
00:16:52
it was time to fold 'em. NARRATOR: Without even
waiting for the results of the forensic
testing, Wehmanen
00:17:00
agreed to lead police
to Schrieffer's body in return for a reduced charge
of unintentional second degree
00:17:08
murder. The prosecution agreed,
and Wehmanen confessed. -It's my opinion that
this forensic evidence
00:17:16
was so powerful that Mr.
Wehmanen knew what the outcome would be when we
sent it to the lab,
00:17:26
and just decided
to plead guilty. NARRATOR: In Wehmanen's
taped confession, his version differed
from the eyewitnesses'.
00:17:49
Wehmanen admitted running
over Schrieffer in the alley, but said it was an accident.
00:17:59
He also said he didn't
realize Schrieffer was stuck under the truck until he reached
the end of the parking lot.
00:18:10
Wehmanen said he put Schrieffer
in the back of his truck, and dumped him into
the river the next day.
00:18:23
He said the police had searched
the correct spot in the Saint Louis River, but the
body may have drifted.
00:18:33
When the divers returned
for a second search, they still couldn't
find the body.
00:18:39
A few weeks later, after the
plea agreement was signed, Schrieffer's body
surfaced by itself
00:18:47
on the Wisconsin
side of the river. The autopsy revealed
that the cause of death
00:18:53
was blunt force
trauma to the head. In Wehmanen's mother's garage,
police found a cinder block.
00:19:01
Its size and shape were
consistent with Schrieffer's head injury. Wehmanen didn't deny
striking Schrieffer
00:19:11
in the head with
the block, but said he did it after Schrieffer
was already dead.
00:19:18
Prosecutors were skeptical. MARK RUBIN: He says he
hit him with a block when he was wrapping up his
body at his mother's garage,
00:19:26
and hit him with a block of
cement just out of frustration, expressing anger
at Erik Schrieffer
00:19:32
for having caused
him to do this. Doesn't make a lot of sense. NARRATOR: Because of
the plea agreement,
00:19:40
Joseph Wehmanen was
sentenced to 12 and 1/2 years in prison for
Erik Schrieffer's death.
00:19:46
He'll be eligible for
parole after eight years. -12 years in prison for a murder
where you drive your vehicle
00:19:56
over a body one time,
then back over it again, if the witnesses
are to be believed--
00:20:02
to me, that's not justice. -The family wanted us to make
some type of negotiation,
00:20:09
compromise on the
amount of time, in return for
recovery of the body. And I remember even telling
Erik's mom and dad and brother
00:20:21
that Joe Wehmanen is
not going to get what he deserves for what
he did to Erik. I made that very clear to them.
00:20:28
And that's what I even told
the court at sentencing. But we were willing to
make a compromise in order
00:20:34
to recover the body and
put the case behind. NARRATOR: The other
reason for the deal
00:20:41
was the disappearance
of the two eyewitnesses. They are still
missing to this day.
00:20:48
-I hope they are OK. I hope nothing has
happened to them. And if we could find out
who is responsible for their
00:20:54
disappearance, for their being
conveniently absent at a time when we needed them,
for us having to reduce
00:21:01
the charge for murder
in the second degree intentional murder down to
unintentional, we want to know.
00:21:07
Then there'll be a little
bit of finality to this case. NARRATOR: The case was
solved by forensic evidence
00:21:14
Wehmanen couldn't
power wash away. Wehmanen knew that the blood
found in the metal crevices
00:21:23
and the single
strand of hair were Schrieffer's, and that forensic
testing would prove it.
00:21:30
-I strongly believe that there's
always forensic evidence that's left behind in any crime scene.
00:21:34
It's just a matter
of your human eye picking up and looking
in certain places, and using the
current technologies
00:21:40
to locate that
forensic evidence. -Forensic science
was remarkable, because without the
police department going
00:21:47
that extra distance and finding
that evidence in the truck, in the tailgate and
the undercarriage,
00:21:53
without the medical
examiner finding that blood sample with the matching DNA
at the end of that alley,
00:21:59
we would have been out of luck. [theme music]