00:00:03
[music playing] NARRATOR: "Medical
Detectives" is a hard-hitting
reality-based series.
00:00:23
It's about new
scientific technology and how it's cracking
cases and solving crimes like rape, murder,
and missing person cases.
00:00:32
So, my idea was always to have
a murder mystery format where the viewer would play
along, put themselves
00:00:40
in with the investigators. What they were seeing, what
they were learning from, what they were dismissing,
what wasn't important,
00:00:48
and that was the
whole idea of it. GARY LICO: I can remember
being out there in the earlier
00:00:53
days of pitching and
trying to explain to people that this was a new category. That, someone, was approaching
the subject of true crime
00:01:03
with really an obviously,
a cinematic touch, and a cinematic storytelling,
and a cinematic look.
00:01:11
No one had ever
gone to that degree to produce 22 minutes
of television, and no one still is.
00:01:23
[video playback] It's what you thought. NARRATOR: On a dark, rainy
day in the fall of 1986,
00:01:30
Helle Crafts learned from
a private investigator that her husband was
having an affair.
00:01:37
Is that your husband? Yes. [sobbing] That's Richard. [end playback] NARRATOR: Shortly
after this meeting,
00:01:46
Helle Crafts disappeared. This is the story of
how forensic science solved the puzzle.
00:01:53
When the show first
started, and people would say, oh, I work on a television show.
00:01:57
Oh, yeah, what's it called? "Medical detectives." Dozens of times, people
would say, wood chipper.
00:02:03
NARRATOR: Using his
chainsaw, Crafts dismembered Helle's
frozen body and put the pieces through the
chipper along with some wood.
00:02:13
Since the body was
frozen, it produced little, if any, blood splatter. Most of the debris
blew into the river.
00:02:21
Only a few pieces fell
short, landing on the bank. The male hella placed
in her nightshirt pocket
00:02:27
passed through the chipper
virtually untouched. PAUL DOWLING: The wood chipper
show, I knew that the network
00:02:34
would bite onto that. I knew that they would want
that as the pilot, and they did.
00:02:40
It was a terrible crime. It was hard to solve. There was a lot
of science in it.
00:02:49
It was an opportunity to get
people interested in science. The show is-- when it started,
there was a lull in science.
00:02:57
When I was growing
up, the space program interested people in science. By 1996, people were tired
of the space program,
00:03:06
and there was no science
on television really, and so forensic television was
a chance to interest people
00:03:14
in science for a
reason, to solve crime. NARRATOR: In November of
1999, Dr. John Schneeberger
00:03:23
went on trial in
Saskatchewan for the rape of his patient, Candy,
and his own stepdaughter.
00:03:32
On the witness stand,
Dr. Schneeberger admitted inserting a
plastic tube filled with blood from one of his
patients under the skin
00:03:41
into his left arm. This is why he
insisted that the blood be drawn from his left arm
rather than anywhere else.
00:03:53
I think the advantage
of forensic files was that I was an outlier. I didn't come from television.
00:04:00
I was a music major in college. I wasn't taught the
trade of television, so I didn't have
any rules to go by.
00:04:11
I set the rules that
made sense to me, and I wasn't afraid to break
the rules that I was told
00:04:19
that everyone should
follow because they didn't make any sense to me. So, Steve, I see you have
your breakfast of champions
00:04:27
there with you. NARRATOR: Janet
McDermott planned to stop by her office only
briefly on the morning
00:04:33
of October 15th, 1985. Have a nice day, Steve. NARRATOR: She had a number
of business appointments
00:04:39
around Salt Lake City that day. [thud] Moments later, an
explosion rocked the building, killing her
colleague who worked next door.
00:04:51
Science uncovered a tale of
forgery, fraud, and murder. PAUL DOWLING: It
made sense to me.
00:04:59
I thought it would make
sense to the viewer, and I did what I
thought was right.
00:05:02
And I did what I thought I
liked, and I said to myself, I'm going to do what I want.
00:05:08
If it works, it works. If it doesn't, it
doesn't, and that's it. But at least I'll
succeed, or I'll fail,
00:05:16
and I wasn't afraid to fail. I wasn't afraid to
succeed, either. NARRATOR: And the deception
turned a mild-mannered
00:05:24
documents dealer into a killer. I think Mark is probably
the most evil of all people
00:05:31
that I've worked with. Serial bombers, by and
large, are much more evil. They don't want
to just hurt you.
00:05:40
They want to continue
to hurt many people. NARRATOR: And how common is it
for a bomber to blow himself up
00:05:48
when handling one
of his own bombs? Not common enough. The storytelling means a lot.
00:05:56
That's the difference
between a successful program and an unsuccessful
program, whether it's
00:06:00
true crime, or a situation
comedy, or a family drama, it doesn't matter. It's got to have a good story.
00:06:08
One of the networks
used to have a slogan, tell us something about
what we think we know.
00:06:14
So a lot of the times, the
cases that were covered were not necessarily well-known
cases, but if they were,
00:06:22
it was always giving
you a different angle. I think what we had going
for us the most, it preceded
00:06:33
any production on this
show, was a growing interest in forensics,
and we tapped into it right at the moment.
00:06:40
NARRATOR: And the
hotel doorman said that Post introduced
himself by name before going out for his run.
00:06:47
Boss, are you
enjoying your stay? Yes, I am.
Thank you. My name is Ed Post. I'm going on a run this morning.
00:06:53
I'll be going about 30 minutes,
so watch out for me, please. Yes, I will.
Have a nice run.
00:06:57
Sure. He made it a point to say
good morning to the doorman at the hotel, say
who he was and what
00:07:03
room he was in, and that he
was going to go out and jog. I mean, you're like, it was
from the book of who cares?
00:07:07
And the doorman didn't care. Somebody would say, you know,
what do you do for a living?
00:07:11
And I work for
Medical Detectives, or I work for Forensic Files. I wouldn't bring up
the true-crime thing.
00:07:16
They would bring up the
true-crime thing, and then all of a sudden, you
get, how does this work?
00:07:19
Because there was clearly
an appetite for it. NARRATOR: Virginia
Ridley was found
00:07:24
dead in her bed, fully clothed. By the time medical personnel
arrived, rigor mortis
00:07:31
had set in, an indication
that she had been dead for at least eight hours. MATT HENSEL: It's kind
of like comfort food.
00:07:37
You know what's coming, but
it's just so good all the time, and you know like, OK,
after we've revealed all
00:07:45
of the forensic
evidence, you know that Peter is about to say,
prosecutors believe, and then,
00:07:50
boom, and then you're
into the re-enactments If you watch the show
over, and over, and over,
00:07:55
you compare notes, you
watch it clinically, we have a system there, and it
worked, and it worked great.
00:08:04
NARRATOR: Prosecutors
believe Janet gave Read Powell a
ride home from the bar, then went to her hotel.
00:08:14
MATT HENSEL: Peter
Thomas' voiceover starts two seconds after the bump. It ends two seconds
prior to the bump.
00:08:20
The bumps were
three seconds long. The opening line was usually
two or three sentences.
00:08:25
NARRATOR: Up next, a
well-known business owner is brutally attacked at work. There was a lot of blood
on the floor, on the walls,
00:08:33
on the door. NARRATOR: Is it the work
of a disgruntled employee? (VOICEOVER): No one trusted him.
00:08:38
He leaves due to stress. NARRATOR: Or a
robbery gone wrong? MATT HENSEL: The
thing about having
00:08:45
that system and having these,
I hated calling them rules. They were more like these are
the guidelines that we work on,
00:08:51
and once we understand that,
then we can bend the rules, but having that framework
takes the guesswork out,
00:08:57
which then gives us
time and the ability to go tell great stories because
we know that we could tell
00:09:01
a great story, we just have
to get great information and fit it into
our vehicle here.
00:09:06
And that's how-- that's,
I think, part of the magic that we were able to do it. We weren't reinventing
the wheel every episode.
00:09:11
We just had the ability
to make great stories out of, unfortunately, sad events.
00:09:16
NARRATOR: Then police
discovered another bizarre piece of information. A forensic analysis of
Maryann's coffee cup
00:09:24
found a large amount of a
prescription sleep medication, but Maryann hadn't been
prescribed this medication.
00:09:34
VINCE SHERRY: At that time,
nobody was making TV like that. I mean, I recognized
it right away.
00:09:39
I was like, this is something. This is, oh, light years
better than anything else that is on TV right now.
00:09:46
I mean, these people are
doing something different. And I was determined
to get on the show,
00:09:51
and it looks like
a feature film. And my wife is watching this
with me, and I'm like, honey,
00:09:56
I don't know what I have
to do to get on this show, but this thing is
a winner, and I'm
00:10:01
going to get my ass on this show
come hell or-- oh, I did it. You can ask her. I said, this thing
is going to take off,
00:10:07
and I got to get on
this rocket ship. [music playing] GARY LICO: It'd be irresponsible
to predict that a program can
00:10:20
last for 25 years and still be
at the peak of its performance. So, did I know? A little bit.
00:10:31
NARRATOR: Here's a
behind-the-scenes look at how "Forensic Files"
re-enacts the crimes.
00:10:38
(VOICEOVER): The
re-enactment for a show is basically a dramatization
of what really happened.
00:10:43
So we take the actual crime,
and we cast actors, we light it, we build sets, and we try
to match everything to a t.
00:10:53
NARRATOR: Prosecutors believe
Dale either knew or strongly suspected Bryan Ruff was
having an affair with his wife
00:11:00
Kristi and was afraid she
was going to leave him. The one thing I'll
take credit for is not
00:11:07
having any budget
for the recreations and making the priority to
be I want them to be good.
00:11:15
I didn't want
anybody to get hurt. We were blowing up things. We were crashing cars.
00:11:21
We were setting people on
fire with those fire suits. The rule for me was
nobody gets hurt.
00:11:29
And so I didn't care
what we spent on it, and that was coming
out of my pocket because the networks
weren't paying me
00:11:40
what the show cost to produce. There were one time, I think,
my deficit were in the millions,
00:11:49
and that was me. That was the house, you know. That was the car. That was the kid's
college education.
00:11:56
NARRATOR: He entered
his parent's home a little after 2:00
AM and deactivated the security system with a code
known only to family members.
00:12:10
Prosecutors say Christopher used
an ax to attack his parents. [screams] He struck his father 16 times
and his mother three times
00:12:25
and left them both for dead. MICHAEL JORDAN: Obviously,
the stories are true. So when the stories come to
us, you know, Vince and Paul
00:12:34
they write a great script. They make the story work out,
and then I get the script,
00:12:39
and I have to look at it. Well, how can we
visually make this work? And a lot of times,
it's figuring out what
00:12:47
actually happened in the crime. Sometimes the police say
it happened this way, but when we set up
our re-enactment
00:12:53
and we're doing it the
way the police said, sometimes we discover,
well, maybe it didn't
00:12:57
quite happen exactly like this. Maybe it happened like this. NARRATOR: Peter Porco regained
consciousness and walked
00:13:05
through the house
after the attack, even going outside
for the morning paper before he died in the foyer.
00:13:13
MICHAEL JORDAN: Not only do
we have crime scene pictures, later on, police were
taking video cameras there,
00:13:18
and they were taking
high-resolution video. So they would shoot
the entire crime scene,
00:13:23
and sometimes we would
have to show that and cut from that to our re-enactment. So it was all about the details.
00:13:30
You had to find out
all the details. We started building
sets to kind of match the locations because we want it
to be as seamless as possible.
00:13:37
You don't want the
audience to be jarred, going from a real crime scene
video to our re-enactment
00:13:42
because you don't want
them the first thing they say is, no, that's not real. NARRATOR: On a warm June
morning in Tampa, Florida,
00:13:51
authorities discovered
the bodies of three women floating in Tampa Bay. (VOICEOVER): They
knew that there
00:13:59
was foul play because
the women were tied up and had bricks around them. NARRATOR: The victims had
their mouths tape-shut,
00:14:10
were naked from the
waist down, and had been bound with yellow rope. MICHAEL JORDAN: So one of
my favorite episodes to film
00:14:18
was waterlogged. It happened on the Tampa Bay. The perp, Oba Chandler,
took these three women out
00:14:27
on the Bay for a sunset
cruise, tied them up, tied them to the cinder blocks,
and threw them into the water.
00:14:34
NARRATOR: Chandler took
them out on the water, where they were at his mercy. MICHAEL JORDAN:
When you're shooting
00:14:42
on land, once you
set everything, it's where it's supposed to be. When you set everything
on the water,
00:14:48
you are constantly moving. The camera is constantly
moving, and the actors are always moving.
00:14:54
NARRATOR: They had no
option but to comply. Lean on. Don't move. NARRATOR: They were found
dead and, presumably,
00:15:04
sexually assaulted. Later, he tied each one of
them to a concrete block and threw them over board.
00:15:20
MICHAEL JORDAN:
Horrible, horrible story, but it was really fun to shoot
because we were out on boats
00:15:26
on Tampa Bay at sunset, and it
just was a really great crew to work with, and the
actors were great,
00:15:34
and we had stunt doubles
going under the water. We shot underwater
footage, and the footage
00:15:40
came out looking great. NARRATOR: He called his wife
on the ship-to-shore radio to tell her his boat
had engine trouble
00:15:47
and that he'd be
late for dinner. MATT HENSEL: From day one,
I was struck by the quality
00:15:52
of the re-enactments, and from
my first day until my final day there, the quality of the
re-enactments always increased.
00:16:01
NARRATOR: After the
children left for school, John List put his
plan in motion. He shot his wife in the
head at point-blank range.
00:16:16
He then climbed two
flights of stairs and entered his
mother's apartment. John. [gunshot]
00:16:25
MATT HENSEL: And
that was one spot where the corners were never
cut, and it was always quality.
00:16:31
There was always
meeting, after meeting, after meeting before
Michael Jordan and his team
00:16:35
went and shot the re-enactments. The editors were a part of it. We tried to contribute,
saying, hey, yeah, OK.
00:16:40
We know this is
coming down the line. We know we can do this. Maybe we could do
some visual effects
00:16:45
here to kind of amplify what
you couldn't get out there. MICHAEL JORDAN: For the
episode fishing for the truth,
00:16:49
we had the challenge of
shooting a scene that took place in the middle
of the Gulf of Mexico
00:16:53
during a hurricane. We rented a airplane
hangar, which was very big high ceilings, and
we'd had a tank built for us,
00:17:00
and then we built a fake
boat that goes in the tank. So, not only did we have to
build the tank and the boat,
00:17:07
but we had to bring in the rest
of the atmosphere, which was we had to bring in
rain machines, we
00:17:11
brought in rain specialists
who work on a lot of major motion pictures. We had a giant wind machine we
brought in from New York City.
00:17:19
We brought in
lightning machines, special lightning machines. Once we put the actors on
the boat, made it rain,
00:17:24
made it wind, and
it looked like they were in the middle of the
Gulf of Mexico in a storm.
00:17:31
In the episode dark waters,
we had to have one speedboat jump over another boat.
00:17:36
It was a boat
accident that happened in the middle of a lake. NARRATOR: For reasons unknown,
Harry didn't tie up his boat,
00:17:44
so it drifted into the boating
lane without its running lights on. MICHAEL JORDAN: There
the challenge was, well,
00:17:53
how do we get the boat
to jump the other boat and make it look real? And the physics
of the real boats
00:17:58
and how they would react to
when one boat hit another boat. So there was a lot of variables
that could have happened.
00:18:05
So we had to take
that into account, whereas the shrimp boat, we
knew what was going to happen
00:18:09
because we controlled it. Even after 25 years, the
re-enactments for the show still stand up.
00:18:17
I believe the viewers really
enjoy our re-enactments because we always provide
them with the information,
00:18:25
action, and energy that
helps tell the story and drive it forward. NARRATOR: Radisitch decided
to use an assault rifle
00:18:36
with a homemade silencer
reinforced with tennis balls to further reduce the noise.
00:18:43
Dana gave Dale the house
keys, the alarm code and told him where his
father kept the box
00:18:50
of 9-millimeter ammunition. To establish his alibi,
Dana had dinner that night with his girlfriend
and her father,
00:18:58
who happened to be an FBI agent. MICHAEL JORDAN: One of the big
benefits of "Forensic Files"
00:19:05
is we're giving people pieces to
the puzzle throughout the show, and at the end, you put
those puzzle pieces together,
00:19:12
and that is unveiled in
the final re-enactment. And we treated every final
re-enactment like a mini-movie
00:19:20
in between Peter's voice,
the editing, our shooting, Paul's writing, and the music.
00:19:25
That is the magic recipe
that made our re-enactments what they were. NARRATOR: Dowling was back
in his boat on the lake
00:19:34
sometime around 2:00 PM,
when he reset the time on his video camera to 11:24. He never realized that
he was a human sundial.
00:19:48
His videotape told the story
of deceit, not innocence. All homes have a history, which
includes the memories, hopes,
00:20:01
and dreams of all
who have lived there, but this home in a quiet,
upscale neighborhood
00:20:07
in suburban New York
held something more. In a steel drum stored
in a crawl space
00:20:15
was a secret that someone had
hoped would last a lifetime. PAUL DOWLING:
Forensic television
00:20:27
was a chance to interest people
in science, for a reason, to solve crime. NARRATOR: Local police
transported the drum
00:20:35
to the Nassau County morgue,
where all of its contents were carefully removed
for forensic examination.
00:20:43
PAUL DOWLING: And I think
that hit with people, and I thought it
would be interesting,
00:20:47
and we were going
to take a moment and explain the science instead
of just blurting it out.
00:20:54
There was DNA. What is that? FORENSIC SCIENTIST: When
we're testing for paternity,
00:21:00
we look for shared DNA
bands between the child or the fetus and
the alleged father
00:21:08
at every region of
the DNA that we test. PAUL DOWLING: And so, that's
what the idea of the show
00:21:15
was based on. We're going to explain science. VINCE SHERRY: In
1997, even if they'd
00:21:20
watched the O.J. Simpson case
ad nauseam and said to somebody, what is luminol? NARRATOR: To find out whether
blood had been cleaned up,
00:21:28
detectives administered luminol,
a chemical which fluorescences when it comes into contact with
the iron component of blood,
00:21:37
even after it has been removed
with water and detergents. When you spray
luminol, it doesn't
00:21:42
really hurt the blood itself. It helps you find it. So it doesn't
compromise the evidence.
00:21:49
It just helps you
locate the evidence and helps you find a scenario,
as far as what happened.
00:21:56
It's a presumptive. It's not a conclusive, but
it's a tool that we use. NARRATOR: After
spraying the luminol,
00:22:03
the lights are extinguished, and
the camera with high-speed film captures the images.
00:22:12
FORENSIC SCIENTIST: It
was the largest glow of luminol I had
ever seen in my life.
00:22:15
It glowed like a Christmas tree. So when you look at the first
couple of seasons of the show,
00:22:20
luminol, a substance
that glows when in contact with
hemoglobin, over and over, and over, and over again.
00:22:25
Now, you just say luminol. NARRATOR: The room was
sprayed with luminol, and even seasoned crime
scene analysts couldn't
00:22:34
believe what they were seeing. VINCE SHERRY: Gas chromatograph
mass spectrometry, like people,
00:22:41
GC mass spec, they
know what that is now, especially the hard hardcore
viewers of this show.
00:22:45
NARRATOR: The tests
were conducted with a mass spectrometer,
which bombards chemical
00:22:49
molecules with ions,
shattering them into their molecular components. The fragmentation creates
a chemical fingerprint
00:22:58
that can be compared to
other chemical fingerprints to determine the
unknown's identity.
00:23:05
After weeks of testing
and hundreds of tests, scientists finally got a break. I looked over in one
corner, and in that one corner
00:23:14
was one piece of paper,
and on that piece of paper was a perfect mass spectra
of SUX and alkaline.
00:23:21
And that piece of paper
was identified to have come from Shannon's tissues. It's become part of
the common parlance,
00:23:30
and I would make a
case that this show is largely responsible
for that having happened.
00:23:36
NARRATOR: To identify
the blood, scientists needed a blood sample from
Shirley's father, Melvin,
00:23:41
for DNA testing. Since Shirley would get half
of her DNA from each parent, scientists found that the
blood in the car contained 50%
00:23:53
of Melvin Duguay's
genetic markers, meaning the blood was Shirley's. I don't think
people would know
00:24:01
forensics as well as they do if
it wasn't for "Forensic Files." MATT HENSEL: It's easier now
for me to talk about luminol
00:24:07
and blood spatter since
everybody is now watching true crime, and
listening to true crime,
00:24:11
and breathing true crime. Back when I started, it was a
little awkward when you wanted
00:24:15
to point out that maybe someone
didn't die a certain way because you noticed that the
blood splatter was farther
00:24:21
than it should have
been, or the husband's motive was a little suspicious. One of the things
we noticed early on
00:24:28
is that if your spouse
gets a $100,000 to $300,000 life insurance policy,
you're probably in trouble.
00:24:35
It's never over that because
they can't afford the premium, and it's never under that
because it's not worth it.
00:24:39
But between a 100 300,000
is usually the sweet spot to commit a crime. NARRATOR: On the headrest,
he found strands of hair,
00:24:48
but there were no
roots attached, so they couldn't be
used for DNA testing. Also in the car was
a tube of Chapstick,
00:24:58
presumably used by
Dr. Schneeberger. On the end of the Chapstick were
epithelial cells from the lips
00:25:06
of the last person who used it. GARY LICO: Now you've got
forensic psychiatrist,
00:25:12
forensic psychologist,
forensic chiropractors, forensic mystics,
forensic accountants,
00:25:17
that's my favorite, the
forensic accountant. NARRATOR: Now, police wanted to
know if Doug Beamish had worn
00:25:25
these shoes, so they turned to
a forensic podiatrist, Dr. Keith Battles. VINCE SHERRY: When we first
started out, DNA was sloppy,
00:25:36
and it was difficult
to deal with. Now there's touch DNA and
also security cameras.
00:25:40
I mean, in 1997, you're
not likely to get shot by a security camera. Now your average American gets
shot two dozen times a day.
00:25:47
I don't know how anybody--
they still do it, but how they can think they
can get away with murder
00:25:51
is almost beyond
my comprehension. NARRATOR: Prosecutors had
so much forensic evidence.
00:25:56
They had a hard
time deciding how to hold the jury's interest. We weren't certain
that the public at large
00:26:02
would be as interested in all
of this forensic evidence, and we were curious about how
the jury would receive it,
00:26:07
and ultimately we ultimately
set aside a week that we just referred to as forensic week.
00:26:12
We're shocked to see the jury
sat on the edge of their seats. It was campfire storytelling.
00:26:21
OK. I expected the producers to
come in and tell us a story, verbalize it, tell
us as a campfire,
00:26:32
what's the story about? NARRATOR: On a sweltering
Texas summer day in 1993, a work crew noticed
something unusual
00:26:43
off the side of the road. Under a thicket of thorn bushes
was the nude, decapitated body
00:26:51
of a young girl. PAUL DOWLING: And
I used to go home and tell the children and my
wife each story we were doing.
00:27:00
Not for them to
enjoy, but for me to learn how to tell a story. OK? If their eyes glazed over,
and they were looking out
00:27:11
the window instead of listening
to me, I used to say to myself, and I always used
to say to Vince
00:27:15
when I came into the next
day, we got a problem. The kids weren't
listening to this,
00:27:19
and they weren't terribly
interested in it. NARRATOR: Just 200 feet
away was another body,
00:27:24
a young, white male. Residents of this small town
wondered, who would brutally kill two young
people in this way,
00:27:33
and what was the
possible motive? If they were sitting on
the edge of their seats
00:27:39
saying, well, then
what happened? Well, then what happened
to the other suspect?
00:27:44
What happened to him? OK. Then I knew I was
on to something. It was great fun, actually.
00:27:50
NARRATOR: This is
the area where a road crew discovered the nude
body of an adolescent girl.
00:27:58
She had been shot,
stabbed, decapitated, and her hands removed. She also had extensive
wounds on her abdomen,
00:28:08
thighs, and genital area. Some of the scariest
criminals stick with you. NARRATOR: A couple
goes on vacation
00:28:16
and is never heard from again. They're not looking
for a missing person because adults don't go missing.
00:28:21
Adults leave a trail,
and there's no trail. OK. NARRATOR: Police find evidence
the couple may have been shot.
00:28:27
Hydra shock
brand of ammunition is specifically designed for
use against human beings.
00:28:33
NARRATOR: The last
place they were seen was at a well-known
nightclub in the resort town.
00:28:38
That was taken at
Secrets nightclub the last night that
they were alive. NARRATOR: But there
were other secrets
00:28:43
that night, like what really
happened to these two people. For me, it would
probably be Erika and BJ
00:28:51
Sifrit from the episode
dirty little secret. Here's two people that are
roughly my age that went out
00:28:59
to a bar to hunt, to
find a random victim, and the scary part is I
actually, I've been to that bar
00:29:08
around the same
time of the crime. So that could have been me. NARRATOR: Neither one had
ever been arrested before,
00:29:14
but inside their
car, police were surprised by what they found. VINCE SHERRY: BJ was a very
highly regarded Navy SEAL.
00:29:24
I mean, even within
the seal community, he was highly regarded. He falls in love
with this, and I
00:29:30
don't mean to be pejorative
here when I say this, this mouse of a woman
who runs a scrapbook
00:29:35
shop in Altoona, Pennsylvania. OK. So, we're talking
opposites of track here. Apparently, they run
into some sexual issues,
00:29:45
and the way they resolve these
sexual issues is by starting to commit minor crimes, and
as they commit minor crimes,
00:29:51
this is having a positive
effect on their sex life. NARRATOR: In the back
of the Sifrit's vehicle,
00:29:56
police found ski
masks and flex cuffs. VINCE SHERRY: But like
with most drug addictions,
00:30:02
you have to use more
drugs as you go on. So they ramp up, they
ramp up, they ramp up,
00:30:06
they ramp up until they're
in Ocean City, Maryland, and they meet this
couple that they
00:30:10
bring back to their hotel room. I think they shot her. I think they, I'm virtually
certain, I know for a fact,
00:30:16
they beheaded him. You should have seen
that recreation. Trying to make that accurate
and discreet at the same time
00:30:24
was no picnic. NARRATOR: Later, when Erika
brought some rags and detergent to clean up the
blood, she said BJ
00:30:34
was in the hot tub with the
heads of their two victims. She said BJ removed
the slug from Josh's
00:30:46
head to keep it as a trophy. I mean, it's really
disturbing stuff that really sticks with me.
00:30:54
I mean, especially
since I actually have the prop-severed head
of the victim in my garage.
00:31:01
So, once in a while, if I go out
to the garage to get something, there's the head in the
bin full of body parts.
00:31:08
So that one, it's
pretty disturbing. NARRATOR: This man, Ray Krone,
was known throughout Arizona
00:31:17
as the snaggletooth killer. An unusual bite-mark
on a murdered woman resulted in his conviction
and death sentence.
00:31:27
A forensic expert
told the jury that he was 100% certain that it was
Krone who bit the victim.
00:31:35
He knew he was wrong,
but he'd already committed, and his comment to me
was I'm in too deep.
00:31:40
Ray Krone episode,
once bitten, was my first episode
at "Forensic Files." Vince Sherry was my producer,
that's the first time Vince
00:31:48
and I ever worked together,
and we still stayed friends. NARRATOR: The evidence suggests
the killer grabbed a knife
00:31:58
from the kitchen, forced
Kim into the men's room, and stubbed her death. MATT HENSEL: It was definitely
a big learning curve for me.
00:32:07
I had to pick up quick,
and it was good to see. Like I thought I was going
into edit these things where
00:32:13
we were just going to
be convicting people, and the story's done. Hairs were found on
Kim Ancona's body.
00:32:19
They were black and not hers. It appeared that the killer had
bitten through Kim's tank top,
00:32:26
leaving a bite
impression on her skin. Two drinks were sitting
on the bar, apparently
00:32:32
poured after closing time. Forensic scientists found Kim's
fingerprints on one glass.
00:32:39
The other had prints not clear
enough for identification. Ray Krone's case is
an interesting case
00:32:44
because it's a case
that exemplifies how forensic science has
changed over the last 25 years.
00:32:52
He was convicted on
a faulty bite-mark. There's nobody that gets
convicted on a bite-mark,
00:32:58
no matter how good it is
anymore unless there's DNA in that bite mark. NARRATOR: Some of
the bar's employees
00:33:03
told police that
Kim had expressed a romantic interest in Krone. If the bite mark, the shoe
impression, and the hairs
00:33:12
could be tied to
him, police were sure they had their killer. He was convicted
twice, by the way.
00:33:20
He got a retrial and
was convicted twice. So he figured I'm never
getting out of jail,
00:33:26
but he was convicted
on a faulty bite-mark that the second analyst
knew was a faulty bite mark.
00:33:31
So he was in too deep
and couldn't get out. But Ray holds no ill
will toward anyone,
00:33:37
and he's the nicest guy
you'd ever want to meet. NARRATOR: That expert
was Dr. Raymond Rawson,
00:33:42
a forensic odontologist and also
a Senator in the Nevada State legislature. At the trial, Dr. Rawson used
this video in which photographs
00:33:53
of the bite wound
from Kim Ancona's body were superimposed on Ray
Krone's bite impressions.
00:34:01
Based on that
evidence, Ray Krone was convicted of
first-degree murder and was sentenced to death.
00:34:10
I didn't care if I was
going to be in prison for something I didn't do. You might as well kill me.
00:34:14
I mean, what was life?
My whole life. Everything I worked for. Everything I stood for,
35-year-old man was gone.
00:34:18
MATT HENSEL: It was interesting
to watch how they were able to reverse the
forensic bite-mark analysis
00:34:23
and find DNA evidence in
order to exonerate Ray. When I first viewed that
case, thought there were too
00:34:30
many inconsistencies for that
to be a positive comparison between the teeth of
Ray Krone, the suspect,
00:34:40
and the victim's wounds. NARRATOR: Dr. Sperber
told his colleague working for the Arizona prosecutors
that this evidence
00:34:47
was exceptionally weak. VINCE SHERRY: He's
a wonderful guy. He's one of the sweetest
people you'll ever meet.
00:34:52
It's kind of weird,
I should say. All the exoneration
cases we've done, you'd think if you spend 10,
12, 15, 20 years in prison
00:34:57
for a crime that
you didn't commit, you pretty much want
to kill the people that put you behind bars.
00:35:02
I would say invariably we find
these people have come to grips with it, and they're
just like it's OK,
00:35:08
which is inexplicable to me. NARRATOR: After serving
10 years and four months for a crime he didn't
commit, he walked out
00:35:16
of prison a free man. When I'd spent over
10 years in prison, I will never forget
that day I got out.
00:35:24
In fact, I commemorated it,
so I won't ever forget it. [music playing] NARRATOR: For 18
years, a mass murderer
00:35:46
successfully eluded the FBI. He was wanted for the
murder of his entire family. [religious music playing]
00:36:31
This is how art and
science led to his capture. Many say that the list murders
are their favorite episode,
00:36:38
and I think that's just because
people are weird because that is one of the saddest
and craziest episodes
00:36:44
where a man just
murders his family. As on the "Forensic File"
side and the production side,
00:36:49
that's considered one of
like the gold standards. And that's one that
everybody has to watch,
00:36:54
and everybody has to
understand why things were done the way they were
done, and that's
00:36:58
kind of like, that's the one
you watch when it's like, OK, what am I going to do here as
I'm editing "Forensic Files?"
00:37:03
Go watch the list murders. That's where you start. NARRATOR: What would he look
like almost 20 years later?
00:37:10
The John List murder
case would now enter the highly specialized
world of forensic sculpting.
00:37:16
But it's a dark episode. From a TV side of it, not
taking away the sadness of it,
00:37:25
they had great
access to footage. They had great
crime scene photos. There was the 3D-- the
model of John List head,
00:37:35
it has all the things that can
make a great television show. NARRATOR: In Denver,
Colorado, a family recognized
00:37:41
the face of a mass murderer. I found that the mistakes
criminals made were the most
00:37:49
entertaining sometimes. NARRATOR: Clay Daniels, an
unemployed automobile mechanic,
00:37:53
was just 24 years old. Surprisingly, not everyone
was sorry he was dead. (VOICEOVER): Absolutely,
he's a loser.
00:38:02
I've always felt that he was
not the best material for her. Right off the bat, anti-free
is everyone's favorite
00:38:10
one that it comes up. I checked the "Forensic
Files" fan pages, and I always see
anti-free comments.
00:38:15
That one is one of the best. NARRATOR: At the
same time, Stacey would routinely mispronounce
the word anti-freeze.
00:38:24
So maybe that's why he
had the anti-free idea. I'm really sure. (VOICEOVER): Stacy
Castor used the word
00:38:31
anti-free in the interview. The goddamn black shoes. NARRATOR: Ken remained
under the impression
00:38:38
her death would be
ruled an accident. During questioning, Ken
had difficulty playing
00:38:44
the role of bereaved husband. Goddamn black shoes. I still quote that
line in my daily life.
00:39:09
My girlfriend looks at me
like she has no idea what I'm talking about, and I
see her black shoes
00:39:14
sitting on the floor,
I'll trip over them. God damn black shoes. So then I saw on
the black shoes.
00:39:26
God damn black shoes. I think he had been
acting for that whole day. NARRATOR: But this was just
opinion, not proof of murder.
00:39:46
I remember it like yesterday,
cutting that together. I remember when we found
that clip of footage
00:39:50
it was like, oh, my God. We got to keep putting this in. We got a hammer this one home.
00:39:53
This is so great. Then I saw on the black shoes. God damn black shoes. The guy who took
the socks off his feet
00:40:08
to use as gloves on his
hands, but then walked around the crime scene barefoot
and stepped on a hamburger bun,
00:40:15
leaving a toe print on a bun. An unusual piece of
evidence at the crime scene. They had what looked like a
footprint in a hamburger bun
00:40:27
next to Christina's body. Investigators believed
it was made by the killer as he fled the scene.
00:40:34
In order to verify their
work, Iowa investigators took the bun and photographs
to Gene Czarnecki,
00:40:42
a certified print examiner
at the DCI crime lab in Des Moines, Iowa. Czarnecki not only confirmed
this was a right foot
00:40:52
in the soft bread but found
enough clear ridge detail to convince him that it was the
footprint of Carlos Robinson.
00:41:02
The running joke is that
nobody at "Forensic Files" has affairs on their
wives because they
00:41:05
know how you can end up dead. So-- NARRATOR: But
without proof, there was little police could do.
00:41:13
So Michelle conducted
her own investigation. Inside a silk plant,
Michelle and her girlfriend
00:41:22
hid a small video
camera in her kitchen with a clear view of the
kitchen countertop area.
00:41:31
MICHELLE BAKER: I was scared. I was afraid that
he would see it. NARRATOR: She then
invited Maynard to dinner.
00:41:39
As soon as he arrived, Michelle
said she was going outside to put the steaks on
the grill and asked
00:41:43
Maynard to prepare her a drink. The videotape clearly
revealed Maynard pouring an unknown substance
into Michelle's soft drink.
00:41:54
But cop's saying to me
one time he was complaining about the show a little bit. I mean, we have a lot of--
00:41:59
law enforcement
generally loves us. The guy's like, well, you
did a show about somebody
00:42:04
bleaching a crime scene. That teaches people how
to bleach a crime scene, and I said, well, what happened
at the end of the show?
00:42:10
He said, well, he
ended up in jail. And so, what's the
moral of the story? I mean, you know you can
try-- the moral of this show
00:42:17
is that you can try like hell,
and it ain't going to work. I mean, it's just,
you know, the bad guy
00:42:21
always gets it except for a
few exoneration cases we do. NARRATOR: Police brought Jason
Massey in for questioning.
00:42:29
(VOICEOVER): I
said, Jason, I said, I said I want you
to see something. And he looked at me enough,
and I threw down some photos
00:42:38
of the crime scene,
which showed Christina Benjamin and Brian King. And I said, Jason, I said,
I want you to look at her.
00:42:46
I said, tell me one thing. I said, is she as pretty
now in these photos as she was that night
that you had her.
00:42:52
And he looked down,
and he looked at me, and the next thing I know,
he's kind of bending over,
00:42:57
and he's gagging real, you
know, real big time, you know. And I knew I had hit a
soft spot in him, you know,
00:43:05
when he did that. I never will forget
that expression of him. The viewers learn a
few things, and so do we.
00:43:12
As I'm reconstructing
the crime scene, moving the actors
and the props around, demonstrating the mistakes
the perp made, I would always
00:43:19
say to myself, well, here,
if they would have just zigged instead of
zagged, they probably
00:43:24
would have got away with it. Now you do that a
couple hundred times, you start to catch on to things.
00:43:31
Is that to say, I could get
away with a perfect crime? No, of course not. NARRATOR: The motive
was robbery and revenge
00:43:42
for past abusive treatment. The luminol evidence suggests
that Hardin was bleeding
00:43:50
profusely in the
kitchen, and the body was dismembered in the bathtub. Nobody could get away
with a perfect crime.
00:44:08
Now, viewers at home who've
seen every single episode might say to
themselves, you know,
00:44:14
I think I would be able
to get away with murder. Well, it's easy to be an
armchair serial killer,
00:44:20
but once you actually put
yourself in that moment, and you're going to
take some missteps,
00:44:25
and the investigators are
going to catch up to you. So, at the end of the
day, there's no such thing
00:44:30
as a perfect crime. NARRATOR: Thanks for
watching "Forensic File." [music playing]
00:45:00
Aaw.