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[Music] up next a killer seemingly gets away with murder it was probably the cleanest crime scene
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as a detective i'd ever been handed he took everything with him for years the case went cold
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then he struck again someone just left my house that wrecked me okay do you know who it
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was no he had selected me and planned it while the killer may have gone dormant science did not my jaw dropped
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when he told me the name i was floored i was just floored clearly dna made this case
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it not only identified the suspect in the case but it exonerated someone else [Music]
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when tammy tatum first met jim meadow in longmont colorado they were instantly attracted to one
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another it wasn't long before the two moved in together and decided to start a family
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she called me the moment she found out she was pregnant and was so excited and just
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knew that her dreams were coming true what tammy wanted most in life was to be a wife and a mother tammy gave birth to
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a healthy baby girl they named sadie but soon after the baby's arrival the couple's life took a downward turn
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jim meadow had a major substance abuse issue he would get drunk and get into scrapes
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he had numerous duis jim also got into a serious altercation at a local food store he was drinking he
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got into a fight with a customer at that store actually tried to choke the customer
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jim was charged with disorderly conduct and soon his violence was directed at tammy
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according to friends there was often abuse in the relationship uh jim meadow getting intoxicated and
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striking out at tammy there were actual reports also of him strangling her it was a very violent abusive
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relationship and you know she had confided in me and talked to me about this before
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my mother was aware of it my mother told me about it after his fourth dui arrest jim was
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sentenced to six months in a drug and alcohol treatment center that was within walking distance of
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their home it's a residential facility where folks can live and work and check in and just be in a
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structured environment and follow court orders jim had to live in the treatment center but tammy would
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pick him up every morning and take him to his auto mechanic job but one morning tammy didn't show up
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jim later told police he walked to their apartment to find out why found the door locked
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and kicked it in [Applause] my wife apartment number two this is now the kitchen area
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body is found on the bed her arms were above her head which is not a natural position
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especially when someone is is defending against a strangulation it really looked like the body had been
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posed after death the couple's baby was unharmed the medical examiner estimated that tammy
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had been strangled several hours before her body was discovered investigators had no doubt about the
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killer's motive this was a sexually motivated crime there was injuries around the breast
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area as well as the vaginal area but there wasn't any clear evidence of a sexual assault
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the cause of death provided a possible clue to the killer's identity the act of strangulation is a very
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personal crime we felt that whoever killed the victim probably knew the victim very well
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and that made jim meadow the primary suspect her friends had seen her with black eyes
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black eyes as soon as 30 days before the homicide when i heard that she had been murdered
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my first thought was she told him she was leaving and they got into a massive argument and it ended up in a murder
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one of jim's fellow inmates at the treatment center rudy gaetan told police he thought
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jim did it he said he would rip her heart out if he caught her cheating on him jim
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meadow would make statements to these other inmates about how he could just kill her
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or how he could just strangle her jim insisted he was at the treatment center when the
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murder occurred which the autopsy indicated was between 9 pm and 9 am records show that he signed
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back into the facility at 9 43 p.m jim and tammy's apartment was only a 15-minute walk from the treatment center
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which didn't help jim's alibi it was possible for him to commit the crime
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before leaving the apartment to head back to the halfway house but it was something else in that
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apartment that all but confirmed detective suspicions that jim was the killer tammy tatum's common-law husband jim
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meadow was the prime suspect in her murder he had hit her in the past and threatened to kill her
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letters found after tammy's murder made it clear she was terrified of him a lot of these
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letters talked about the violence in the relationship and how scared tammy was when he hit her
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and that the last time he hit her it scared her so much that she wanted to leave
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when james meadow knocked in the door heard the baby crying he allegedly kicked in the door
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another fact pointing to jim meadow was that the killer appeared to be comfortable in the apartment
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he took the time to use a towel found near tammy's body to clean her and the rest of the bedroom
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there was no evidence that tied anything or anyone to the crime scene it was probably the cleanest crime scene
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as a detective i'd ever been handed and tammy's killer had also taken the
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time to pose her body i thought the scene had been staged to look like a sexual assault
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it was a very strange crime scene but even though tammy's murder was sexually
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motivated and there were indications of sexual activity the medical examiner did not believe
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she'd been raped we find in the trash a used condom that had been tied shut dna from the condom matched jim meadow
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but meadow claimed they had consensual sex the night before and that when he left to return to the
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drug and alcohol treatment center tammy was alive investigators didn't buy it
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our thought was that after that they got into an argument and that may have been when he choked
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her to death finding this condom was consistent with jim meadow performing a sex act and killing tammy
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tatum but even though the killer had spent a lot of time cleaning the scene he missed something on tammy's bed
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amid numerous hairs from jim tammy and their baby was a single foreign hair and the medical examiner also found a
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tiny amount of skin and blood under tammy's fingernails unfortunately in 1993
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a larger sample was needed to generate a dna profile and scientists were worried if they
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tested these samples and were unsuccessful there would be nothing left to test later when dna testing improved
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it was very very frustrating to to spend as much time as we had spent and to come back with really nothing
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that would help us at all there was clearly probable cause to arrest jim meadow but there wasn't
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enough evidence to convict him although no other suspect surfaced prosecutors chose
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not to charge jim meadow with tammy's murder and the case went cold i thought he was
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getting away with murder um but i didn't think he'd get away with it forever
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then three years later just one mile away police received this 9-1-1 call someone just left my house that
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raped me okay do you know who it was no i didn't see any blindfold in my eyes with tape
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but he had my hands tied together too how did he get in i have no idea i woke up and he had a
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knife on my face he said don't open your eyes or i will cut you which he said quite a bit until he got
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the tape around um and then he started telling me don't make a noise or i will kill you
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the victim was renee delaney at one point decided that the best thing i could do was convince him that i was
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not going to call the police or anything that was the best chance i had for living
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renee's rapist spent a lot of time in her apartment making sure he left no evidence behind
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when he was finished he dumped water over me and then used a towel and wiped me off so he definitely was trying to
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clean up when the rapist actually left the residence he took everything with him he took the tape he
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took the knife he took the items that he brought with him so there wasn't a lot
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of evidence to be collected on the scene to investigators the mo of the rapist seemed similar to
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that of tammy tatum's killer was it possible the two crimes were connected renee delaney was sleeping in her
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apartment in longmont colorado when an intruder broke in before dawn and sexually assaulted her i was just trying
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to remember details about him for the police but you just have to kind of shut it out there's not a whole
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lot you can do you can't really absorb what's happening to you the attack happened shortly after
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renee's grandmother left for work around 5 a.m both renee and police were convinced the
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perpetrator had planned this attack carefully he had selected me and planned it and
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and watched to see what time my grandmother left in the mornings and came in knowing that she'd be gone
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the assault lasted for two hours even though renee was blindfolded she could tell
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her attacker was going back and forth to the bathroom to wet a towel and wipe down surfaces in
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the room i knew he was trying to not leave evidence and i was so afraid it was going to work
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but incredibly despite all these precautions renee's rape is still left biological
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evidence behind it looked like he had no knowledge of dna evidence but felt certain
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that law enforcement could get fingerprint evidence off of a body and that's why he wiped down
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rene delaney a dna profile was generated from the biological sample in renee's
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rape kit unfortunately it did not match any of the dna profiles in the colorado state database of known
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criminal offenders renee's former boyfriends and her co-workers and fellow students
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willingly submitted dna for comparison none matched this case goes cold no one is arrested no suspects are named
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you absolutely live in fear i mean you have this person who's told you that they were going to kill you and
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they've certainly shown you that they're capable of it it wasn't until 10 years later after
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colorado officials were able to input all of the dna samples from past criminal offenders
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into their statewide dna database that investigators finally got a break the dna
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from renee's case turned up a hit this was huge having an investigative lead
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developed nearly 10 years after the sex assault that hadn't happened before the d.a
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called me and asked me if i was sitting down and proceeded to tell me that they had arrested him and that if i
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would check my email there was an email with the photo the dna profile from renee delaney's
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rape kit matched rudy gaetan a 48 year old auto mechanic who was married with two
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children coincidentally he also lived in renee's apartment complex it was shocking upsetting um to find out
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that it was someone that had lived um right next door in fact renee had identified gaetan as a
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possible suspect the night of her rape i don't want to say this because i'm afraid i'll be
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wrong but it's one that sounds kind of like one of the people in the next building
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it might oh it did she have it off the awful side but renee always felt uncomfortable
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around gaytan he was the creepy neighbor that always tries to talk to you at the time police had no probable cause
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to search gatan's apartment or get a court-ordered sample of his dna but just two weeks after renee's rape
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kitan was involved in a serious car accident and there were consequences that went
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well beyond broken bones it's almost like instant karma rudy gaytan gets hooked on pain
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medications and that's what ultimately lands him in prison in the department of corrections
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in colorado is his falsification of these prescriptions since writing false prescriptions is a felony gaetan
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had to provide a dna sample upon his release from a three-year prison sentence had rudy gaetan not been involved in
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this motor vehicle accident chances are we would never have gotten his dna now police looked further into his past
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and were shocked by what they found i knew who rudy was i was floored i was just floored
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police recalled that rudy gaytan was the man who provided incriminating evidence against
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jim meadow during tammy tatum's murder investigation he was one of the witnesses that
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provided information about seeing tammy with bruises and the black eye and some of the violence that was
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involved between jim and tammy gaytan knew jim meadow since the two attended the same
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drug and alcohol rehab center was it possible that gaetan was involved in tami's murder
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[Music] ten years after renee delaney's sexual assault the dna testing identified rudy gaetan
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as her rapist surprisingly gaetan was also connected to the tami tatum murder case
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he was friends with both tammy tatum and her common-law husband jim meadow jim meadow had actually
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introduced rudy gaetan to tammy tatum but tammy told people she didn't like rudy gaetan
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she complained to her friends that she found rudy creepy and that he made her uncomfortable
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there were many similarities between tammy tatum's murder and renee delaney's rape there was a
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startling connection between the two cases the sex assault occurred in the early
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morning hours in addition to that there was no forced entry found there was use of water and a towel to
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wipe down renee's and tammy's body although there was no seamen in tammy's
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murder case investigators did find one foreign hair with the root intact when an analyst finds a bulb on a hair
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typically that means that the hair had been forcefully removed in 1993 it was difficult to get dna from
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that hair bulb but in 2006 it was there for the taking when the dna from the hair had been
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analyzed it produced a dna profile that was identified as rudy gayten guitarn's dna was also found on other
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items in tammy's apartment most significantly the towel that was used to wipe her body clearly dna made this case
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it not only identified the suspect in the case but it exonerated someone else after all of those years we were able to
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finally clear jim meadow when confronted with the dna evidence against him in the tami tatum murder gaetan
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confessed but police found parts of the confession unbelievable he claimed it was a consensual affair
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gone wrong but he was very clear on the murder you're saying i said a lot of it it is rage so i'm not
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expecting you to have a lot of detail but when you started to strangle her what did you have a pinned on the bed so
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you were on top of them and how long do you think you know i mean how long did she fight back before
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you know she wasn't fighting back anymore do you have any idea prosecutors believe that on the night of
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tammy's murder rudy waited until jim medal left the apartment and then knocked on the door
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tammy opened the door possibly in the belief it was her husband and gay tan forced his way in
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the two fought and during the struggle tammy pulled a single hair from his head rudy overpowered her then strangled her
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to death he knew jim was at the treatment facility and wasn't coming home so he had all the time he
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needed to clean the crime scene and his victim three years later he attacked renee
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delaney but despite his meticulous cleaning of that crime scene he still left biological evidence behind
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the dna from renee's rape kit and the single hair from tammy's bed ultimately tied him to both crimes
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rudy gaetan was convicted of second-degree murder in the death of tammy tatum and first degree sexual assault of renee
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delaney he chose to kill her and i got to live i feel responsible to make sure i you know live
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a good life because hers was taken from her gaetan was sentenced to a total of 72 years for both crimes
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and will not be eligible for parole until he's 103 years old forensic evidence and the emerging
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technology of dna was critical in the solving of this case without the dna evidence that was
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recovered from tammy tatum this case would have never been solved i always knew that the technology would
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catch up with the samples that they had i never gave up hope i never gave up hope
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this had to be done it had to be resolved and i knew it would be