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he was obsessed with an exotic dancer he indicated that he spent approximately a
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hundred thousand dollars over the course of several months it must have been pretty bad that he had to buy love but
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the money couldn't last forever thus he hatched a plot and he didn't care what
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price he paid to get it when i said did you plan to kill him oh yeah oh yeah i planned to kill him but i
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wasn't going to let them know that he just wanted to see what it felt like to kill someone
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[Music] residential real estate in medford oregon is an extremely competitive business
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so when roxanne ellis got a last-minute appointment to show a vacant apartment she was happy to oblige
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i did not know who she was showing the property to she just wrote 11 o'clock and then the
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address usually our routine would be to write down you know who it's with the
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phone number and the address but that day it just it didn't get done a few hours later
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roxanne called her business partner michelle abdel and asked her to come pick her up she said her car battery was
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dead in response to to the call and not knowing exactly what was said but i'm sure
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you know something the fact that i need you and that's all it took and she was on her way
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no one heard from either woman after that call i probably called 30 times on her cell
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phone she had a cell phone and a pager and i paged her probably about the same amount of times
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friends and family called police to report the two women missing police found michelle abdel's car in the
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parking lot of the apartment complex where she went to pick up roxanne i knew something awful had happened
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she always locked her car and to have it open and a nice leather coat laying there on the seat you know camcorder in
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the car repurse i knew something something was definitely wrong the whole thing just stunk it stunk big
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time and we actually put detectives on this case that night roxanne ellis's vehicle a silver toyota
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pickup truck was nowhere to be found inside the rental property police found no signs of a struggle and no evidence
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of violence there was no biological evidence there was no blood there wasn't anything to
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the visible eye that we really had to go on several days passed without any word
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from either woman their church held a vigil to keep attention focused on the case
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it all started to be almost surreal they were gone very unlike them so it was panic i
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guess you know it started to feel a little bit panicky to know where they were they're out there somewhere
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if they're out there and they're safe somebody to call and let us know you know we don't know
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where they are the two women were not just business partners roxanne ellis and michelle abdel also
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had a personal relationship which led police to consider another possibility they were domestic partners they were
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outspoken about gay issues they were active in that area trying to make changes that would positively impact
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gay rights issues was it possible that their disappearance had something to do with their lifestyle
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or political views three days after they went missing a cable tv repairman found roxanne ellis's
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truck in a parking lot about three miles from the rental property when i went on my first service call at
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mariposa on state street i just happened to see the vehicle we realized that there was
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blood dripping out of the bottom of the undercarriage of the vehicle we could see a head of one of the victims up near
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the front cab area of the pickup bed the bodies of both women were found inside covered with some cardboard boxes
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it was an extremely brutal way to die they both had two gunshot wounds to the head
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they both were bound and gagged and hog-tied their eyes were covered their mouths were covered their hands were
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duct taped behind their backs and their ankles were duct taped but who would not only kill these two
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women but execute them and what message was the killer sending [Music] no one knew why roxanne ellis and
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michelle abdill were murdered the motive didn't appear to be robbery blood patterns indicated the women had
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been shot inside the truck four shell casings from a 25 caliber pistol were found near the bodies there
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were no foreign fingerprints in the truck but there were several overlapping shoe
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prints from a man's shoe this was on a kind of a chrome-plated bumper area that had kind of a a dirty
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grime kind of oxidized layer on it and when the individual stepped on the bumper he left a negative impression
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the autopsies revealed the women were killed the day they went missing and there were no signs of sexual
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assault the medical examiner found bluish green polyester fibers in and around the fatal
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wounds either the gun was fired through an item like a blanket or some intermediate
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object or an intermediate target and then fired into the victim's heads and there was a gash
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in roxanne's calf near the tape bindings which suggested the killer bound the
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women inside the apartment led them down to the garage then cut the binding so they could get into
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the truck this really was something really out of the ordinary this really was something
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that that we didn't know the whole story yet but now we're thinking you know we're thinking this was
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kidnapped this was almost torture-like this was something really out there on the day of the murders roxanne ellis
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had an 11 a.m appointment to show a rental property to a man whose name was not listed in her appointment book
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residents of the building saw a man going in and out of the vacant apartment and were able to provide a general
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description detailed enough for police to create a composite sketch incredibly the sketch resembled the man who found
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roxanne's truck when we started interviewing the cable man and we had seen the composite sketch
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all of us started talking you know this guy looks a lot like the composite investigators suspected that the killer
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might have left fingerprints on the duct tape he used to bind the murder victims
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it's difficult to handle tape without touching the sticky side so analysts treated the tape with
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genetician violet a chemical dye when the tape is immersed in the genetician violet the
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dead skin cells that are pulled from the fingers or palms of and will then react with the genetician violet and
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you'll get a nice dark image of the layton prince just as they suspected the killer left behind
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two clear prints when he was binding the ladies he was touching the sticky side of the
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tape the prince did not match the cable repairman and he was eliminated as a suspect
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next investigators tried to identify roxanne's 11am appointment they checked the caller log on her
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office phone and traced the call to the tiki lodge a low rent motel in downtown medford
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oregon i entertained the thought that maybe one of the tenants could be in town looking
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for an apartment to rent or something like that but finding that tenant would be a problem
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they couldn't track the room calls at this time because they were having problems with their phone
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equipment so i've got a phone call from the tiki lodge i can't identify what
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room it came from the motel had 30 rooms almost all were occupied on the day of the murders
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detectives began the painstaking task of trying to identify all of the tenants for the most part it was people just
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passing through the the registration cards didn't have data bursts so you know you're looking at very common
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names and most of the hotel guests paid in cash another dead end so investigators had to return to the
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scene of the crime in the hopes they might have missed something [Music] based on the evidence
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police suspected that their killer called real estate agent roxanne alice from the tiki lodge motel
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and asked her to show him the vacant unit at the sheraton court apartments this meant the killer was familiar with
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the building and knew the apartment was vacant he didn't give his name and roxanne either knew him or didn't
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ask for it around 11 a.m roxanne showed the apartment to the killer what happened during that time was
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unclear but roxanne was still alive at 5 p.m when she called her domestic partner
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michelle abdel probably at gunpoint with the false story that her car battery was
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dead and that she needed a ride home both women were probably in the apartment where they were bound with
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duct tape the killer left his prince on the sticky side of the tape the garage was attached to the living
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area so the killer could have put them into the truck without being seen there was a gash on the calf of roxanne
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ellis's leg suggesting the killer cut her binding so she could get into the truck
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he most likely killed them in the garage with a 25 caliber weapon using something
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with bluish green fibers as a silencer he also left his shoe impressions on the bumper
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he left roxanne's truck in a parking lot about three miles away and it wasn't found until three days
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later all police had with the killer's fingerprints his shoe impression and the
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composite sketch several days passed with no leads then a woman called police to say the
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composite sketch looked remarkably similar to her son it makes me ill and i can't believe my son would do
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anything like this she makes the call we get that information she's got an address that is very close
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to where the truck was recovered so we're convinced that she's not she's not leading us down the wrong road
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the woman's 29 year old son robert acromont had just moved to oregon she said her son was familiar with the
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vacant department where the murders took place she had been to that sheraton court
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address previously with her son and that was shown to them by roxanne ellis and there was another possible
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connection to the murders robert achraman's brother was the manager of the tiki lodge motel
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the call made to roxanne ellis before her murder originated from the tiki lodge however
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robert achramont had no motive to kill roxanne ellis or her partner michelle and he had no criminal record
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he'd never been charged with any criminal activity in fact he ended up going into the air force he served
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honorably in the air force he went on to get a master's degree and he had a good job really working for
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roadway trucking in california a credit card check revealed that acromont had been spending a lot of time
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and money at a strip club in las vegas he had some money he headed to vegas and fell for the stripper who he envisioned
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as his girlfriend he had run himself into debt obviously had an addiction to her into that lifestyle
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the stripper's stage name was ecstasy she said that he was spending up to 3 000 bucks on a weekend he ended up
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running through i think it was about 80 000 worth of credit card debt he had a retirement
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fund that he managed to max out so he spent a ton of money on that woman the stripper said acromont was obsessed with
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her and insisted on calling her his girlfriend his family reportedly encouraged him to
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break off this relationship because they felt that that he was being used eventually
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the money ran out well then she dumps them you can't pay for what you're asking me to do and
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therefore we're done but robbery didn't appear to be the motive in roxanne ellis and michelle
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abdill's murders robert acrimon's mother said he left oregon after the murders and was
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headed to california but she didn't know where fortunately police knew exactly how to
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find out the prime suspect in the murders of real estate agents roxanne ellis and michelle
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abdill was 29 year old robert pakrimont whose own mother called police to say he resembled the composite drawing of
00:15:05
the killer i'm so sorry that's all i can say i'm so sorry she probably had made the
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hardest phone call a person can make in their life because she suspected that he
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was involved in these horrible crimes and i believe it really took some moral fiber for her
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in order to step up and make that phone call lieutenant tim doney left oregon and followed bob achramont through his
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credit card activity to stockton california we felt he was desperate we felt that
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his behavior was escalating and we thought he was a danger to the public a swat team
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apprehended accremont in a motel room in stockton without incident in the motel room he had a canvas bag
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with books about murder a taser handcuffs a roll of duct tape and a 25 caliber handgun with the homemade
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silencer with bluish green fibers like those found on roxanne and michelle there was blood on the interior portion
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of it right at the muzzle end of where the bullet would come out heavily kicked blood
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dna analysis showed this was a combination of blood from both roxanne ellis and michelle abdel
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eckremont's fingerprints matched the fingerprints on the duct tape used to bind the victims
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his shoes were compared to the impressions found on the bumper of roxanne's truck
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and were consistent we had the eyewitness evidence placing him at the scene we clearly felt that we had plenty of
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evidence to try this case a very solid case as soon as i got caught i knew with all the evidence they got
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any we're fighting this one [Music] it's over game done acromont not only confessed to the
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murders but he confirmed that the motive was robbery he said he spent all of his money on the
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las vegas stripper and needed more and thus he hatched a plot to obtain more money
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so he could have that contact again this was so ridiculous that i mean it must have been pretty bad
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that he had to buy love you know it's too bad for him that he didn't ever experience a love that my
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mom had you know he said he met roxanne ellis a few days before the murders when roxanne showed
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his mother the sheridan court apartment acromon said he planned to force roxanne
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to write him a business check for fifty thousand dollars he had roxanne lure her partner michelle
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abdul over to the apartment too because a business check that size requires both of their signatures
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[Music] eventually acromont realized that he wouldn't get away with it and didn't go
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to the bank he didn't really have a very good plan you walk in with a check for fifty
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thousand dollars yeah i think the bank teller is going to be a little the few flags are going to go up robert's trying
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to rectify and fix the situation that's just getting worse and worse and worse
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[Music] hates a lot of things he hates a lot of people he i think he hates himself and i
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think that's about as close to the devil as you're going to get as bob ackerman
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while talking to police ecremont also admitted killing a friend of his scott george
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seven weeks earlier what he said about that was that he just wanted to see what it felt like to kill
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someone i'm not a psychotic in any means maybe a sociopath i would admit that 100
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during our interviews he he would joke he would laugh in reference to his victims
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and really showed no sense of feeling sorry or remorseful for what he had done i think probably the only thing he was
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sorry for is the fact he got caught he also confessed during a telephone interview with reporter libby dowsett
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it was an experience i'll never forget that's for sure he came off like he was
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talking about a football game because i told him i never told him about the intent to
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kill him i see the perfect murder has no bodies no evidence that i got all fouled up because
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michelle told a co-worker where she was going so that's why i left the bodies
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otherwise they'd be down that mine shaft with that other guy down here you know just
00:20:01
laughing and joking and talking about you know when i said did you plan to kill him oh yeah oh yeah i
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planned to kill him but i wasn't going to let them know that i just told him i
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was after the money and i was going to leave him both tied up and in a day or two and somebody would have
00:20:17
found him there at the apartment he was disturbing just to sit in the audio booth alone
00:20:23
talking to him was frightening in october of 1997 robert achramat was convicted of two
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counts of aggravated murder first degree kidnapping and robbery and was sentenced to death
00:20:38
you better believe when he gets that needle put in his arm i'm going to be right there
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the forensic evidence in this case was important in securing his identity and and making this case and the forensic
00:20:53
evidence also helped us prove the enormity of the horrible crimes that he committed
00:21:01
robert ackerman still sits on death row but apparently drew impatient for that day to come
00:21:09
he didn't settle down once he got to jail tried to kill himself they found a
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weapon under his mattress he had to be cut down when he had a sheet around his neck
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well one of the jurors that heard the case spoke to the medford paper after the after the trial was done and
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he said that he thought ackerman was the personification of evil and that really
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struck home to me in a nutshell you