00:00:08
NARRATOR: A hit and
run driver tried to remove all
evidence of the crime. The vehicle was repaired,
washed, polished,
00:00:17
vacuumed, then sold
to a new owner. Was it possible that some
forensic evidence remained?
00:00:28
[theme music] It was late in the
evening on a hot summer night in Harrisburg,
Pennsylvania,
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the state capital. The streets were empty. As Artie Allen was driving
home, he saw something odd.
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There were sparks flying
over the top of a jeep. The brake lights went on. Then it sped away.
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Allen stopped and
on the sidewalk found a man unconscious
and bleeding profusely.
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The sparks he saw were
from the man's cigarette. A short time later,
paramedics declared
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the victim dead at the scene. CLIFFORD KARLSEN:
My first impression was that the pedestrian had
stepped out into traffic
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and was hit by a
vehicle that was traveling south
on Cameron Street. There really wasn't anything
that we could reconstruct
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to say how fast the
vehicle was traveling. NARRATOR: The victim was
42-year-old Kenneth Cains,
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a former Marine, who worked as
a day laborer and lived nearby. Cains was unmarried
and had no children.
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LOUIS CAINS: Well,
I was angry, upset. Because it was a hit and run,
we didn't know who did it.
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We didn't know-- I
didn't know if they would find out who did it. NARRATOR: The
witness, Artie Allen,
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said the hit and run
vehicle was a dark SUV, but he wasn't sure of its make,
model, or license plate number.
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The scene itself provided
very little evidence. CLIFFORD KARLSEN: We had
two scuff marks with blood
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in the right lane
of the roadway, as well as 20 plus pieces of
lens fragments from a vehicle.
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NARRATOR: Police collected the
pieces of glass and plastic at the scene and
took them to the lab.
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CLIFFORD KARLSEN:
Officer Lyda, who was one of the investigators
that responded to the scene.
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I gave him the task of piecing
together, if possible, the lens fragments that we
found at the scene.
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NARRATOR: Lyda resorted
to one of the oldest forensic techniques, what's
known as a physical fit.
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Like a puzzle,
using scotch tape, he connected pieces
that appeared to match. Some were no more than slivers.
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RAYMOND LYDA: It was tedious. There's numerous pieces and
just matching the lens pieces
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together was tedious,
but I was determined. NARRATOR: After three long
days, the pieces of broken lens
00:03:31
provided some
useful information. There was a Chrysler
car company logo along with the
manufacturer's code number.
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From that, he was able
to identify the vehicle. RAYMOND LYDA: The gentleman I
talked to was actually a parts
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manager and was able to narrow
down the vehicle to a '96 or a '97 Jeep Cherokee, Laredo,
or even a Grand Cherokee.
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NARRATOR: At the autopsy
the medical examiner found black paint chips on
Kenneth Cains' body, most
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likely from the vehicle
that killed him, and he also recovered glass
from Cains' elbow, which
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had gone through the windshield. The toxicology report showed
that Cains had been drinking.
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CHARLES THOMPSON:
Mr. Cains had a blood alcohol content of 0.17%. That state of
inebriation probably
00:04:27
contributed to this accident,
in the sense that he stumbled off the sidewalk
into the street.
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NARRATOR: To find the
driver, investigators had to quickly locate the
black 1996 or '97 jeep,
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but there were
thousands in the area. Otherwise, with
some body repairs, the driver could
cover up his crime.
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As with all hit
and run accidents, police began their investigation
by contacting local body shops
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to see if anyone had
brought in a black jeep that had front end body damage. CLIFFORD KARLSEN: We did get a
couple of garages that called
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in, and we would
go to the garages and look at the vehicle, and
none of the vehicles' damage
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matched the damages that
we were looking for. NARRATOR: Months passed
with no solid leads.
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There was only one
witness to the accident. No others came forward. Investigators began to
worry if they'd ever
00:05:31
find the person who
killed Kenneth Cains. CHARLES THOMPSON: This accident
had really fallen off the map,
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in terms of news
coverage in Harrisburg, very quickly after it occurred. It was just another
unfortunate traffic accident,
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in which somebody
had lost their life. CLIFFORD KARLSEN: It went cold. We stopped getting tips.
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We didn't get any calls
for many more repair shops, and at that time, which
was about a month later,
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we just put it on hold, and we
moved on to current accidents. NARRATOR: Then, about six months
later, police got an unsigned
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Christmas card
with a tantalizing piece of information. UNKNOWN WOMAN: To Whom It
May Concern, this past July
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a hit and run driver killed
a man on Cameron Street. I have heard that state
representative, Tom Druce,
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was out drinking that night. The representative traded
in his state-leased vehicle
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the next day. It was a black jeep. NARRATOR: 38-year-old
Thomas Druce was a four-term Republican
state representative.
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JOHN MICEK: He's tremendously
smart politically, had great political sense,
was a tremendous, effective
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legislator as well, for
somebody so relatively young. He was only all of 40, which,
of course, in political years,
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is still a pretty young
guy, and he just sort of had that aura about
him of a guy--
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and you can see that in
people-- of a guy on the rise. NARRATOR: The card was
postmarked from downtown
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Harrisburg, and
police thought that the handwriting
looked like a woman's. CLIFFORD KARLSEN: The
Christmas card, I believe,
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came from someone that works
close with Druce, possibly a secretary, and
perhaps a jilted lover.
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ED MARSICO: I was
somewhat suspicious. It's not uncommon to get
tips that prove to be false.
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NARRATOR: Investigators checked
with the Department of Motor Vehicles and discovered that
Tom Druce was driving a leased
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black jeep that
had been provided for him by the taxpayers
of Pennsylvania. ED MARSICO: I decided
to convene a team
00:07:37
or a task force
of investigators. I knew this was going
to be a different type of investigation.
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NARRATOR: When police
questioned Druce, he was cooperative and
denied any involvement
00:07:49
in the hit and run accident. On the night of
the fatal accident, Druce said he was
with several staff
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members having a few drinks. Afterwards, he said he
stopped by his office at the state capital,
picked up some files,
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then got onto the Pennsylvania
Turnpike to drive home. He admitted he was in a
minor traffic accident,
00:08:11
but said it happened on
the Pennsylvania Turnpike when he hit a traffic barrel
on the side of the highway.
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WILLIAM WENNER: He filed a
claim with his insurance company and told the insurance
carrier that he struck a sign
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on the Pennsylvania Turnpike
while he was in route home that particular evening.
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NARRATOR: The insurance company
paid $3,500 to fix Druce's SUV. It was repaired.
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Then Druce returned the vehicle
to the leasing company a week after the accident
and got a new vehicle.
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ED MARSICO: Initially
Druce said that it was time to get a new lease and that
the mileage on his lease
00:08:51
was getting high. NARRATOR: Then,
investigators realized there was a way to
substantiate his story.
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If Druce was telling the truth,
that the accident happened as he drove home on the
Pennsylvania Turnpike,
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then the security cameras at his
office building's parking lot would show there was no
body damage to his vehicle
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before he got onto the highway. CLIFFORD KARLSEN: The Capitol
Complex has its own police
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department, and the whole
complex is photographed, but it's kind of amazing
that, that night,
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that the gate that Druce
entered, that camera malfunctioned, and, in fact,
the capitol cop that was working
00:09:35
that gate retired right
after the Druce investigation became public. NARRATOR: A fascinating
coincidence.
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REPORTER: Are you
going to resign? NARRATOR: When the press learned
that state representative, Tom
00:09:52
Druce, had been driving a
vehicle similar to the one leaving the scene of a
fatal hit and run accident,
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there were all sorts of
questions and very few answers. BYSTANDER: Who wants somebody
like that for their rep?
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A murderer. That's what he is, a murderer. CHARLES THOMPSON:
From the start, there was a lot of concern
about a white politician,
00:10:12
from a wealthy area outside
of Philadelphia, getting special treatment from the
authorities at the expense
00:10:18
of this poor, down on his
luck African American. LOUIS CAINS: I thought
that Druce was getting
00:10:25
special treatment
because of who he was. NARRATOR: After the accident,
had the jeep prepared,
00:10:32
then returned it to the leasing
company, who, in turn, sold it at a car auction, where it was
purchased by a New York State
00:10:39
car dealership and then
sold to another customer as a used vehicle. And six months had passed
since the accident.
00:10:49
Even if investigators
found the jeep, would it reveal anything
useful after all this time?
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RAYMOND LYDA: I didn't think
we were going to find anything from the road grime
and dirt, water,
00:11:02
and everything getting in there. ED MARSICO: We had
no eye witnesses who could put Tom Druce
behind the wheel of a car,
00:11:08
driving at that
location, at that time. So it was going to be kind
of imperative that there be
00:11:14
some type of physical
evidence to connect him with the crime scene. NARRATOR: With the help of
New York State officials,
00:11:21
investigators found
the jeep's new owner and impounded the vehicle. CLIFFORD KARLSEN: We took the
vehicle up to the state police
00:11:29
mechanical garage up
on [inaudible] Street, and with the assistance
of state police,
00:11:33
dismantled the passenger
front end of the vehicle to gather evidence. NARRATOR: First, they measured
the height of the passenger
00:11:40
side mirror and compared
it to the severe bruise on the left side of Cains' body.
00:11:48
The height and size
were identical. And they also found what
looked like a human hair.
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ROBERT CLARK: It was
caught in the seam, on the right side mirror,
where it's spring loaded,
00:12:02
so that if there's impact there,
it flexes back and then comes closed again. NARRATOR: Next, they
disassembled the vehicle.
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ROBERT CLARK: You basically
break the car down into a grid, and you start at one
spot and work your way
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all the way through, and then
you come back and do it again. By putting an extreme amount
of light onto a surface area,
00:12:24
very small dust particles,
hair, fibers, stuff, and also by using
an oblique lighting
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or a side-lighting
technique, a lot of times you'll see materials
that you would
00:12:33
not see with the naked eye. NARRATOR: And with
this technique, he found some blue fibers still
present on the right front
00:12:43
tire, and there were
shards of broken glass in the crevice with
the windshield wipers.
00:12:51
Was it possible
these shards were from the broken windshield? ROBERT CLARK: If you're going
to search everything, you search
00:12:58
every pocket, crevice, nook,
cranny that you can find. NARRATOR: The glass,
fiber, and hair
00:13:05
were sent to the
forensics lab for testing. To see if the shards of
glass matched the glass taken
00:13:12
from the victim's
elbow, scientists tested its refractive index. PAUL DAUBE: An
example of this is
00:13:19
if you look at a glass of
water with a spoon or a knife or a fork in it, you'll see
that the knife or fork appears
00:13:26
to be going in a straight line
and, once it hits the water, it looks like it's offset.
00:13:31
NARRATOR: The shards were
ground into tiny pieces, placed in an oil solution, then heated.
00:13:39
PAUL DAUBE: So what
you're trying to do is to get the
liquid and the glass to be at the exact
same refractive
00:13:45
index at the same time,
and, when that happens, the glass becomes invisible. NARRATOR: The glass from
Kenneth Cains' elbow
00:13:54
had the same refractive index
as the broken windshield pieces found in Tom Druce's SUV.
00:14:03
Next, scientists took
some paint from the jeep and compared it to paint
found on Kenneth Cains' body.
00:14:11
The samples were heated
to 700 degrees centigrade. PAUL DAUBE: That intense
heat blows the sample apart,
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but the sample blows apart the
same way every time because of the heat, the amount of
heat and the amount of time
00:14:26
that it's applied. NARRATOR: Both paint samples
had identical reactions, but the paint and glass
found on the victim
00:14:35
could have come from
thousands of other jeeps, not just the hit and run vehicle.
00:14:41
So investigators tested
their last two pieces of evidence, the fibers
and the human hair.
00:14:50
Fibers from Kenneth Cains' jeans
were compared to the fibers found in the wheel well
of Tom Druce's jeep.
00:14:57
Both were cotton and
identical in shape and color, but the most telling
was the human hair.
00:15:07
Its shape and thickness
told investigators it was an arm hair. Under a comparison microscope,
the hair from the jeep
00:15:16
was compared to an arm hair
from the victim, Kenneth Cains. PAUL DAUBE: You would look
for, first of all, the size
00:15:24
and the shape of the hair,
the color and the shading. You'd look for pigmentation
granules and the size of those
00:15:31
and the distribution of
those, and any other physical characteristics that
would appear on the hair.
00:15:37
Forensic analysts concluded
that the single human hair found lodged in the hinge of
the passenger side mirror
00:15:44
was microscopically consistent
with Kenneth Cains' hair. After all this time,
it was still there.
00:15:54
ED MARSICO: I firmly believe Tom
Druce washed that car the night of the incident or
shortly thereafter.
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The car was then
traded in, resold, I'm sure had been washed
many times in the interim
00:16:08
before we recovered it, and to
recover that type of evidence, linking someone to a
crime, is really amazing.
00:16:19
NARRATOR: Seven months
after the accident, Thomas Druce was
charged with homicide
00:16:25
by vehicle in the hit and
run death of Kenneth Cains. He was also charged
with insurance fraud,
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leaving the scene
of an accident, and tampering with evidence. ED MARSICO: Druce did try
and cover up the accident.
00:16:39
From the minute the
accident occurred, he took deceptive step
after deceptive step
00:16:46
to throw investigators
off the scent of him being involved in this
particular crash.
00:16:53
CHARLES THOMPSON: He
was never admitting that he had hit Mr. Cains. He admitted that
he had an accident,
00:16:59
and he admitted some uncertainty
as to what he may have hit. He claimed that he
thought he had hit a sign,
00:17:06
but, obviously, he never stuck
around to report the accident and find out. NARRATOR: But the evidence
told another story.
00:17:15
By his own admission, Tom Druce
was drinking with some staff members on the night
of the fatal accident.
00:17:23
No one knows whether
he was intoxicated. Kenneth Cains had also
been drinking that night
00:17:31
and was walking
along Cameron Street, presumably on his way home. The witness said Druce applied
his brakes, but kept going.
00:17:47
Prosecutors believe
Druce knew immediately he had hit someone or something. The broken windshield
alone indicated this.
00:17:58
Druce said he
drove to his office a few blocks away, possibly
to survey the damage.
00:18:04
Why the security cameras
in the parking lot malfunctioned that night
is still a mystery.
00:18:13
The next day prosecutors think
Druce continued the cover up by washing the jeep, then
taking it in for repairs.
00:18:22
He filed an inaccurate
insurance claim, when he lied about where
the accident occurred.
00:18:30
LOUIS CAINS: He was just
worried about himself. He was worried about his career.
00:18:33
He's concerned about his career. He's concerned about himself. I don't think he would have
cared who it would have been,
00:18:40
had it been a poor white
person, a poor Hispanic, whoever it was. He was concerned about himself.
00:18:47
ED MARSICO: If Druce
had just stopped at the scene of the accident, I
wouldn't be sitting here today
00:18:51
talking about the
Tom Druce case. He would have not been
charged with hit and run.
00:18:57
He would not have
tampered with the vehicle, tampering with evidence,
and he would not
00:19:01
have lied or committed
insurance fraud. NARRATOR: Six months later,
after the jeep had been
00:19:07
repaired, washed, waxed,
vacuumed, and sold to a new owner, there was
still a substantial amount
00:19:15
of evidence remaining
on the vehicle, which linked it to Kenneth
Cain's death. Glass from the
windshield matched
00:19:25
the glass in Cains'
elbow and arm hair, consistent with
Kenneth Cains', was in the passenger side mirror.
00:19:37
Fibers consistent with
the victim's jeans, were found in the
jeep's wheel well, and paint, like that
from Tom Druce's jeep,
00:19:47
was found on
Kenneth Cains' body. WILLIAM WENNER: But
I can only imagine that he had to be
devastated beyond belief
00:19:55
to know that we
recovered that vehicle and we're going to obviously
process that forensically.
00:20:00
LOUIS CAINS: When they
found the automobile, I thought, yes, they
would find evidence.
00:20:06
I didn't think that he
could wash all of that away. JOHN MICEK: It really sort
of is a Greek You know,
00:20:11
you have the young hero,
who's close to having all of his dreams realized. You can torture the
metaphor even more
00:20:18
and say he got a little
bit too close to the sun and fell very far, very fast. NARRATOR: In September of
2000, avoiding a public trial,
00:20:29
Thomas Druce accepted
a plea bargain. He pled guilty to leaving the
scene of an accident, evidence
00:20:36
tampering, and insurance fraud. He served two years in
prison, paid a civil fine
00:20:43
to Kenneth Cains' family
in the amount of $100,000, and resigned his position
as state representative.
00:20:52
CLIFFORD KARLSEN:
Sometimes it astonishes me what you can come up with,
with the smallest things.
00:20:57
It just goes to show you that
every little piece that you collect has a very important
role in your investigation.
00:21:04
[theme music]