00:00:06
NARRATOR: A man
sleeping in his bed was brutally murdered
by an intruder. The victim lived alone,
but with three ex-wives,
00:00:14
there was no
shortage of suspects. A muddy footprint, an
electrically charged blood
00:00:20
sample, and a blood
spatter recreation were all that was needed
to solve the case.
00:00:27
[theme music] 47-year-old Bill Lowes
rarely missed work. His employer considered
Bill to be one of their most
00:01:00
reliable and conscientious
truck drivers. So when Bill didn't show up
for work for two straight days,
00:01:06
the supervisor called his
family to find out why. -I told my wife that, well,
I'll run by where he lived
00:01:14
because my place of
employment is just down the street from
where Bill-- Bill lives.
00:01:20
So I went to-- to his house. NARRATOR: Bill's car was outside
and his front door was open.
00:01:27
Inside, Joe found his brother. He said he'd never
seen anything like it. -In there where he was
laying in bed, and blood all
00:01:36
over the floor, blood
all over the walls. It was just like I
went through hell. -The officers told
me they had never
00:01:44
seen quite so much blood
on a ceiling before. NARRATOR: Bill's body
was under the bed sheets.
00:01:50
His body was cold, indicating
he'd been dead for some time. -You wouldn't think
it would happen
00:01:57
to you, or to your family. NARRATOR: In a small town
like Cape Girardeau, Missouri,
00:02:03
police and sheriff officers
all knew Bill Lowes. They said he was an easygoing
man who never finished
00:02:10
high school, but
was a hard worker. He spent his free time
playing pool at a local bar.
00:02:16
SHERIFF JOHN JORDAN: He had
a history of some drinking, but that was it. There was no indication that
William Lowes was involved
00:02:21
in any kind of drugs or
gangs or any kind of activity or illegal activity like that.
00:02:27
NARRATOR: Police found
no signs of forced entry, but Lowes had a habit of
leaving his doors unlocked.
00:02:32
A habit his friends and
family would have known. -Whoever committed this crime
either knew that there was
00:02:38
a certain door would
be left unlocked, or they had a set of keys. So it was someone close to him.
LT.
00:02:44
TRACY LEMONDS: The fact that we
found his wallet in his pants pocket undisturbed
indicates to me that robbery
00:02:50
was not a motive in this case. -It has long been a rule
of thumb in homicide investigations that 75%
of the time, the victim
00:02:59
knew his killer or was
related to his killer. That it's either a friend
or a family member.
00:03:04
NARRATOR: Forensic
pathologist Dr. Mary Case performed the
autopsy and quickly concluded this was a homicide.
00:03:11
-He had four very large
wounds above and slightly behind the ear, then going
towards the back of the head.
00:03:18
NARRATOR: And Dr. Case found
proof that Bill Lowes was asleep when he was attacked
and never heard the killer.
00:03:25
-There were no
defensive wounds, which are wounds that we sometimes see
when people are trying to ward
00:03:31
off an injury, hold up their
hand, hold up their arm. And then you would see
injuries to those surfaces.
00:03:37
There were no other
wounds to his body. MORLEY SWINGLE: Bill Lowes
was virtually totally deaf
00:03:42
in one ear, and partially
deaf in another, which also explained why he could
be sleeping in bed
00:03:47
and not hear the killer
come into the house. SHERIFF JOHN JORDAN: It
was a very vicious attack.
00:03:52
You have a man who
is asleep in bed, and from the blood
spatter evidence, you cant tell that he
never moved at all.
00:04:01
NARRATOR: Police didn't find
the murder weapon at the crime scene, but Dr. Case suspected
it was a long linear object.
00:04:10
-You could think of things like
crowbars, or a baseball bat. NARRATOR: Investigators
found no foreign fingerprints
00:04:20
inside Bill's home. Outside, however, they
found their first piece of forensic evidence.
00:04:28
A shoe impression in the mud. -It had rained in
Cape Girardeau, and so if that shoe print
had been left over from days
00:04:38
or weeks before, it
would've-- it would've not still been there
from the weather.
00:04:43
NARRATOR: Crime
technicians poured plaster into the shoe impression,
a forensic technique that's
00:04:50
been done the same way
for more than 200 years. When the plaster
hardened, investigators
00:04:58
had a clear shoe impression. -And if we could find the person
that was wearing that tennis
00:05:04
shoes, we could at least
put them at the crime scene within the period
of time that we
00:05:11
felt that the
murder had occurred. NARRATOR: And to find a
suspect, investigators
00:05:16
had to figure out who
wanted Bill Lowes dead. JOE LOWES: After the I don't know how many
different people came to me
00:05:30
and said that Bill
had helped him out or gave me a room to
stay, or gave me food,
00:05:36
I didn't have anything. Bill was that--
Bill was that way. I mean, that-- that was Bill.
00:05:41
For him to die like this, you
know, it's just not right. NARRATOR: In the search
for Bill Lowes' killer,
00:05:49
investigators began by
looking at the usual suspects. -You look at his
coworkers and see
00:05:55
is there a coworker that
might be mad at him. Was he having an affair
with another female coworker
00:06:00
that-- that might have triggered
animosity from a spouse. NARRATOR: Although Bill
Lowes wasn't married
00:06:06
at the time of his murder,
he had three ex-wives. SHERIFF JOHN JORDAN:
80% percent of homicides
00:06:11
that occur are considered
love-hate killings. You had to love
the person enough to kill them, or hate
him enough to kill him.
00:06:19
And to do that, you have
to be close to that person. JOE LOWES: Him
and his first wife
00:06:23
were still on good
speaking terms because they had
a child together. His second marriage, I think
they were still on good terms,
00:06:31
but it just didn't work out. NARRATOR: Ex-wife number
one and ex-wife number two both had alibis for
the night of the murder.
00:06:38
JOE LOWES: And then, of
course, the third marriage, that's a different story. NARRATOR: 39-year-old
Wanda Kay Knupp
00:06:44
was married to Bill Lowes
for about two years. -I thought Bill when I first met
him was a gentle kind person.
00:06:52
Bill's family wouldn't accept
me because there's an old saying in southern Illinois, you
don't come from the right side
00:06:59
of the railroad tracks,
you're the wrong type. And I came from the poor side. NARRATOR: Bill was
Wanda's sixth husband,
00:07:07
and she was convinced he would
be a wonderful stepfather to her 17-year-old son, Bryan.
00:07:14
-He was a great man, you know. I enjoyed going out and
doing things with him. The job he had, I used to go
with him all the way to St.
00:07:25
Louis and back
helping him and stuff. NARRATOR: Wanda and Bill both
drank heavily, ran up debts,
00:07:31
and their fights were
occasionally physical. -When he started drinking,
it went to [beep].
00:07:37
I loved him at one time,
he was a great stepfather. But when he was drinking,
he was a piece of [beep].
00:07:45
WANDA KNUPPS: What caused
us to decide to separate is when I took one
severe beating from him.
00:07:51
-Bill was not an
abusive individual as certain people try
to portray him as. No, he was not.
00:07:58
NARRATOR: Wanda
and Bill divorced a year before he was killed. But investigators were surprised
to learn that Wanda was still
00:08:06
the beneficiary of Bill's
$20,000 life insurance policy. MORLEY SWINGLE: Here
she has 20,000 motives
00:08:13
to have him killed when she's
no longer married to him and she's having
financial trouble.
00:08:18
So it was a red flag
that the officers felt like they definitely
needed to look into.
00:08:22
NARRATOR: Wanda
vehemently denied any involvement
in Bill's murder. WANDA KNUPPS: The police asked
me about the life insurance,
00:08:30
and I told the police I
didn't know nothing about it. NARRATOR: And
Wanda had an alibi.
00:08:36
On the night of
the murder, she was in a bar with her new
boyfriend, and there were plenty of witnesses.
00:08:42
-And so they were able
to rule out that the fact that she had had
anything to do with it.
00:08:46
NARRATOR: Her son, Bryan,
also had a solid alibi. He was camping with
his friend Mike Hale.
00:08:54
-I got the receipts. SHERIFF JOHN JORDAN: Michael
Hale backed up the alibi. They went fishing.
00:08:59
He could produce receipts of
where they went and bought the camping supplies and the
food for the camping outing.
00:09:06
NARRATOR: No one seemed
to have a motive, and the investigation
quickly turned cold.
00:09:18
Bryan Crews had an
alibi for the night of his stepfather's murder. He said he was camping with
his best friend, Mike Hale,
00:09:24
and Hale corroborated his story. The police interview with
Bryan Crews was routine.
00:09:33
Crews had no financial
motive in the murder and claimed his relationship
with Bill Lowes was a good one.
00:09:40
-He was the dad I always
wanted and never had. We had great times as a family,
something that I'd never
00:09:51
had for real as-- all
through my childhood. NARRATOR: While
they were talking, the sheriff noticed Crews was
wearing athletic shoes that
00:10:02
looked similar to the
shoe impression found at the crime scene. -Could I see the bottom
of your sneakers?
00:10:09
SHERIFF JOHN JORDAN: I asked
to see the soles of his shoes. And when he showed me, from
just seeing the shoe prints
00:10:16
at the scene, I
knew the shoe was very close to what
they had found. NARRATOR: Investigators
sent Bryan's shoes
00:10:23
to analyst Dave Warren. -When we get the
shoe out, we compare it directly with the plaster
cast because the plaster cast
00:10:29
is a positive impression
of the outsole. So we're able to compare
those with each other.
00:10:34
NARRATOR: The shoe
impression was not the best in
terms of quality. Occasionally, a shoe slips
when someone walks through mud.
00:10:42
The plaster cast
showed the size, make, and model of the shoe. And just enough of the tread
pattern to permit a comparison.
00:10:51
-The wear patterns that were
present in the 3-dimensional plaster casts were consistent
with the wear patterns
00:10:57
that were on the
suspect's shoes. -It was a got you type piece
of information, like, you know,
00:11:02
we found these shoe
prints and they-- they look like they match your shoes. And so, you know, a part of
you is sitting there thinking,
00:11:10
kind of like a chess game,
what's his next move? And you know he's
sitting across the table
00:11:15
and he's sitting there
thinking, oh my gosh, you know, they've got my
shoe prints at the scene now.
00:11:19
Oh crap, you know, what
am I going to say next? NARRATOR: But Bryan Crews
had a simple explanation.
00:11:27
He said he went to Bill's home
a few days before the murder to get some of his mother's
personal belongings.
00:11:33
He said he left the shoe
impression at that time. So police needed to
make sure Bryan's alibi
00:11:42
for the night of the
murder was air-tight. And the alibi started to
crumble when police discovered
00:11:50
that Bryan's friend,
31-year-old Mike Hale had a prior conviction
for robbery. SHERIFF JOHN JORDAN: Michael
Hale had been to prison
00:11:58
already, so he knew that
the stakes were high. NARRATOR: Initially, Mike Hale
corroborated Bryan's alibi.
00:12:08
But under pressure, Hale
started to change his story. SHERIFF JOHN JORDAN: When
it got to a certain point,
00:12:14
it was just like, I'm going
to tell you what I know. And so then, Bryan Crews' alibi
then began to be torn down.
00:12:23
NARRATOR: Mike Hale admitted
he was with Bryan Crews on the night of
the murder and said
00:12:27
they stopped by
Bill Lowes' home. Hale said he waited
outside while Bryan went in to speak with his stepfather.
00:12:42
He said Bryan came out a few
minutes later, covered in blood and carrying an axe handle.
00:12:49
SHERIFF JOHN JORDAN: And,
of course, at that time, Hale was like, whoa,
you know, what happened?
00:12:53
And Crews then told
him, he said, well, Bill Lowes will never
bother my mother again.
00:12:59
NARRATOR: Hale said they
walked to a nearby office park where Bryan threw the
axe handle onto the roof
00:13:04
of a vacant office building. Police found a wooden
axe handle just where Mike said it would be.
00:13:14
Investigators found
no fingerprints, but there were several human
hairs and some dried blood.
00:13:22
The hair was microscopically
similar to that of Bill Lowes. -The expert was able to say
that the hair that he found,
00:13:30
only about 1 in 4,500
people would be expected to have those same
characteristics.
00:13:36
NARRATOR: The
blood on the handle was type A, consistent with
Bill Lowes' blood type.
00:13:42
Since this was
before DNA testing, investigators used
a process called electrophoresis to
analyze the blood.
00:13:51
They exposed a sample to
electricity, which enabled them to separate then
chart the enzymes.
00:13:58
The results were clear. This was the victim's blood. -Only 3 in 100 people would
have this same combination
00:14:08
of enzymes. And-- and Bill Lowes
was one of them. -So we had a murder weapon
that we could relate positively
00:14:17
back to William Lowes as
it being the murder weapon. NARRATOR: But investigators
still needed proof
00:14:24
that Bryan Crews was the killer. Or was the real
killer Mike Hale? Forensic testing proved that
Bill Lowes was beaten to death
00:14:40
with the wooden axe handle
found several blocks from the crime scene. But there were no fingerprints
found on the handle,
00:14:48
so investigators weren't
sure who had used the weapon. Mike Hale said Bryan
Crews was the killer.
00:14:58
But when told of Hale's
statement, Crews denied it. -I can look you in the
eye, you can hook me up
00:15:05
to a lie detector test, and
I can tell you point blank, I did not kill Bill Lowes.
00:15:09
I did not conspire
to kill Bill Lowes and I'll take any test you want. NARRATOR: Crews claimed
that his accuser, Mike Hale,
00:15:18
was the real killer, so
investigators confiscated the clothing each
man was wearing
00:15:24
on the night of the murder. After a careful evaluation,
investigators found no blood
00:15:31
spatter on Mike Hale's clothing. If Hale had been
involved in the murder, he would have had at least
some blood on his clothing.
00:15:39
But on Bryan Crews' black
sweat shirt and his jeans, investigators found tiny
specks of blood spatter,
00:15:50
consistent with the type
created in a beating. the blood was Bill Lowes. -The blood on the
sweatshirt by itself
00:15:59
shows that our victim and
suspect were at one time together when the
victim was bleeding.
00:16:09
That's-- that's
pretty powerful stuff. NARRATOR: Crews then admitted he
was at Bill's home on the night
00:16:16
of the murder, but
claimed self-defense. BRYAN CREWS: What happened
with me that night?
00:16:24
Basically, there was some of
my stuff still in the house and I went over there to get it.
00:16:31
He swung at me
with the axe handle and I took it away and hit
him in the head with it.
00:16:37
I know I hit him, but I
know I didn't kill him. I know that. He was breathing when
I put him in his bed.
00:16:49
I know he was alive
when I left that house. NARRATOR: Crews said that Mike
Hale returned to the house
00:16:54
later and killed Lowes. But the forensic evidence
contradicted that. There was no evidence that
there was any kind of attack
00:17:05
in the kitchen,
as Crews claimed. -Had he been struck any of
these blows in the kitchen,
00:17:11
he would have shed blood. And there was no blood there. NARRATOR: And there were
other discrepancies.
00:17:17
-From his voice, I could
tell he'd been drinking. NARRATOR: A toxicology
test revealed
00:17:22
Lowes' blood alcohol
level was zero. -So those are points
of dishonesty there, they're not true.
00:17:31
And when you have somebody that
is telling an untrue story, you have to say, why would you
tell a story that's not true
00:17:39
unless they have
something to hide. And something that
is so obviously untrue as he was drunk.
00:17:47
Well, he's obviously not drunk. Just that one point
alone would make you think this person truly
has something to hide.
00:17:56
NARRATOR: Bryan Crews
was arrested and charged with his stepfather's murder. Prosecutors believe
the motive was money,
00:18:04
that Bryan Crews wanted to kill
his stepfather before he had a chance to remove his
mother as beneficiary
00:18:10
of his life insurance policy. According to the
forensic evidence, Bryan snuck up to Bill's home
and looked into his bedroom
00:18:23
window to make
sure he was asleep. That's where he left
his shoe impression. Crews then entered
Bill's home, picked up
00:18:37
the axe handle Bill had put
there to defend himself, and beat him to death. The blood spatter
on Bryan's clothes,
00:18:46
on the bedroom
walls and ceiling, proved he killed Bill Lowes. And he did it in the bedroom.
00:18:57
He later disposed
of the murder weapon by throwing it onto the
roof of a vacant building.
00:19:05
But, he did so in
front of a witness. -The police made a
bargain with Mike Hale.
00:19:15
Mike Hale turned snitch, rat,
whatever you want to call it. NARRATOR: The jury
deliberated for just one hour
00:19:25
before finding Bryan Crews
guilty of first degree murder. He was sentenced to life
in prison without parole.
00:19:36
For his part in the
crime, Mike Hale was convicted of
hindering the prosecution,
00:19:42
served one month in
jail, and was released. Prosecutors have no
proof that Bryan's mother
00:19:49
had anything to
do with the crime. -My mom had nothing
to do with it. NARRATOR: During our interview,
Bryan threatened Mike Hale's
00:19:58
life if he ever
got out of prison. -If there's justice,
Mike Hale will get his. All I know is one day, I
should get out of here one day.
00:20:16
If there's any justice in this
world, I'll get out one day. May come right back
to prison, but it
00:20:22
would be justified this time. NARRATOR: Prosecutors say
it's that kind of thinking
00:20:29
that landed Bryan Crews
in jail, and they're grateful for the science
that put him there.
00:20:36
MORLEY SWINGLE: You started out
with a body lying in a bedroom, and it's a complete
mystery as to who did it.
00:20:42
And you end up that it was the
stepson who had nursed a grudge against this man for some
time and now saw dollar signs
00:20:50
of a chance to kill
him so his mother could get some extra money. -While Bryan's story lied, and
we could tell it was lying,
00:20:58
the evidence at
the crime scene was telling us a different story. And it doesn't lie.
00:21:03
[theme music]