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[EERIE MUSIC] NARRATOR: A grisly discovery in a century old farmhouse-- I knew almost immediately that we were
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dealing with human remains. NARRATOR: --a stepfather with a checkered past-- ANTHONY PECORA: He was a drifter.
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He lived with different women. He had kids in a few different states. NARRATOR: --and the mysterious disappearance of a young girl.
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One day she just didn't show up for the bus. She just disappeared. NARRATOR: But a shocking discovery by Dr. Dirkmaat
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turns the investigation upside down. We got kind of a bum steer. I thought that this might never be solved.
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NARRATOR: Can a few pieces of skeletal remains help expose a decades old family secret?
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DENNIS DIRKMAAT: People's lives are sort of in the balance-- you know, whether they go to jail or not,
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whether we find out who did this to this particular individual. [THEME MUSIC] [DRAMATIC MUSIC]
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[CLANGING] [SHRIEK] NARRATOR: A beautiful 19th century farmhouse, hundreds of years old.
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Bob Galet and his wife Linda have spent years fixing it up one room at a time. Now, the only renovation that remains is the basement.
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BOB GALET: The basement was basically untouched. Half of it was still dark. It was always kind of damp and musty down there.
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NARRATOR: As part of the overhaul, they plan to install a new furnace. But to do it, they need to dig a six-inch trench.
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BOB GALET: I started digging where I left off the night before. And my wife went to the back of the room.
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NARRATOR: After a few minutes of digging, Linda feels her shovel hit something in the dirt.
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BOB GALET: She uncovered a length of clothesline cord. So I came over. And I started pulling on the cord.
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And I pulled out about eight foot of loose cord. NARRATOR: But the cord is attached
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to something under the dirt, something heavy and large. Then we started digging again, scraping actually,
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when we scraped about an eight-inch section of what looked to be bone. [DRAMATIC MUSIC]
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NARRATOR: The Galets immediately phoned the local police department. Detective Richard Kranitz has received similar calls before.
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There's a lot of times people find bones that might look like human remains. But it ends up being an animal.
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NARRATOR: Kranitz heads to the Galets' farmhouse, assuming they have made this common mistake.
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But when he arrives and sees the remains for himself, he knows right away these are not the bones of an animal.
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RICHARD KRANITZ: At that point, I knew almost immediately that we were dealing with human remains.
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It was the right leg of a body sticking up out of the dirt. [DRAMATIC MUSIC] NARRATOR: By 10:00 PM that night,
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the Galet house is swarming with police. They determined that they were going to treat it as a crime scene.
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They put the police tape all along the road in front of our property. NARRATOR: But just because there's a body in the basement
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doesn't mean someone was murdered. RICHARD KRANITZ: Every scene like this we have to treat as a homicide in case it is a homicide.
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But I knew that the house was over 100 years old. In the back of my mind, I was thinking
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it could have been an accidental death, maybe a farm accident, maybe a natural death and they-- that just
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didn't receive a proper burial. NARRATOR: Whether this is the beginning of a murder investigation or not,
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Detective Kranitz's next step is to gather as much information he can about the history of this farmhouse.
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BOB GALET: They sat us down and asked us history of the house, how long we had lived here, who we purchased it from,
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who lived in it before we had. NARRATOR: But the Galets know little about the house's history.
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So police turned to neighbors who have lived nearby for decades. RICHARD KRANITZ: Immediately across the street
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was a neighbor who told us that at some point in the early '80s, there was a family who lived in that house
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that rented the house. He said that the family was a man, a woman, and a young girl.
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And he described the family as odd. NARRATOR: Police soon learned the father's name, Travis Boyd.
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And neighbors go on to say that he was very controlling of his wife and stepdaughter.
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RICHARD KRANITZ: And he told us that every day while he was doing his farming duties, he would see
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them working in their garden. NARRATOR: Boyd's wife was Alice Khan. They'd been married less than a year when they moved
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in, according to the neighbor. The girl, Katie, was Alice's 16-year-old daughter
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from a previous marriage. And it's what the neighbor remembers about Katie that makes Detective Kranitz
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suspicious of Travis Boyd. Katie wanted to marry her high school boyfriend after graduation.
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But Travis wouldn't let her. RICHARD KRANITZ: He was trying to stop the wedding.
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He was trying to prevent her from graduating. NARRATOR: Then, the neighbor says, on a spring day in 1980,
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Katie stopped going to school. One day, she just didn't show up for the bus. And she just disappeared.
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NARRATOR: At the time, the neighbor heard that Katie ran away with her boyfriend.
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But now the discovery of a body in the basement of the farmhouse raises murderous suspicions.
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Police wonder if Travis Boyd could have murdered his stepdaughter 20 years ago and buried
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her body in the basement. [DRAMATIC MUSIC] The unearthed remains hold the secret to so many questions--
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who the bones belong to, how they died, and when. To solve these mysteries, police turned
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to forensic anthropologist Dr. Dennis Dirkmaat. DENNIS DIRKMAAT: Our job is to examine the site, to examine
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the remains, and come up with the story of who this person is, how long that body's been there,
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and what happened at that scene. NARRATOR: A few days after the initial call to police, Dr.
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Dirkmaat and his team arrive at the Galet home, ready to start their work. DENNIS DIRKMAAT: What I want to do
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is reconstruct that moment in time that the perpetrators put the body into the grave.
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And then before that first shovel load of dirt went back over the body, I want to recreate that point.
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NARRATOR: But before Dr. Dirkmaat can make any judgments as to whether it's Katie lying below,
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he'll need to properly excavate the body. DENNIS DIRKMAAT: So there's a particular way to excavate.
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And it's not just take a shovel and put it into the bucket. Evidence bag. DENNIS DIRKMAAT: We want to make sure
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that we don't disturb anything within the soil and understand where it's coming from.
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NARRATOR: Prior to beginning his excavation, Dr. Dirkmaat must first take stock of the exposed remains.
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DENNIS DIRKMAAT: There were shoes. There was a rope that was-- appeared to be wrapped around the legs.
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NARRATOR: Then he begins to trace the outline of the grave. He does this by listening.
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DENNIS DIRKMAAT: So at this point, we're trying to find the boundary between the disturbed
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and the undisturbed. NARRATOR: The disturbed soil, or the soil inside the grave,
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is different from the undisturbed, or the soil outside of the grave. DENNIS DIRKMAAT: So some of the ways that we're
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going to figure it out is to listen to the sound in the undisturbed area. So it'll be less solid, more of a hollow sound
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over this disturbed area. So it feels like-- sounds like something over here. NARRATOR: With his ear providing a rough outline,
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he begins a more exacting test with a brush and a trowel. DENNIS DIRKMAAT: What we do is just scrape
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down a few centimeters of dirt. And what happens is that the fill within the grave
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is a different color. In this case, the dirt had been taken out to dig the hole, put back in the hole.
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And when we scraped down, you can see it was very distinctively yellow, whereas when you got
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to the edge of the grave, it had dark and light-colored soil as well as being less compact.
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NARRATOR: Then, as Dr. Dirkmaat marks the grave's edge, he notices something odd.
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DENNIS DIRKMAAT: On the edges of the burial pit, as you dig a shovel into the ground, you leave an impression
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of the back end of that shovel. In this case, there were some scalloped edges that told us that a spade was used
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rather than a straight shovel. NARRATOR: If this is, in fact, Katie, she might actually have been buried with one
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of the spaded shovels she herself used in the yard almost every day. With the outline of the burial feature clearly marked,
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Dr. Dirkmaat creates a grid using twine and posts. DENNIS DIRKMAAT: What I'm going to need is--
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pick an edge there and get a measurement from the line. So give me north first, OK?
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NARRATOR: These reference points allow team members to sketch out a detailed map of the grave.
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DENNIS DIRKMAAT: And in that way we have an understanding of where things are located.
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If we come across something, we'll see it still in its original position. NARRATOR: Documenting as they go is
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essential for preserving and analyzing any trace evidence that might be recovered.
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As we excavate it, we're destroying the context. So it's critical that we document it as we go along.
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NARRATOR: While accurate, the method is slow. Dr. Dirkmaat estimates that it will take at least 18 hours
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to uncover the body below. Only then can he begin his examination and learn whether or not this is the body of Katie Khan.
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[DRAMATIC MUSIC] Coming up, as the excavation continues, Dr. Dirkmaat's team encounters an unforeseen obstacle--
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DENNIS DIRKMAAT: As we dug around the body, we could see some of the ground surface water
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coming up around it. NARRATOR: --when "Skeleton Stories" continues. [EERIE MUSIC]
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Police believe that human remains found in the basement of a West Virginia farmhouse could belong to Katie Khan,
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a high school girl who lived in the house 20 years ago and who may have been murdered by her stepfather.
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To determine if this is Katie, Dr. Dirkmaat must first exhume the body then analyze the remains.
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[DRAMATIC MUSIC] For 11 long hours, Dr. Dirkmaat and his team carefully remove the dirt and debris.
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We're getting pretty close. NARRATOR: It's then that he finds something unexpected.
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DENNIS DIRKMAAT: As we dug around the body, we could see some of the ground surface water
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coming up around it. NARRATOR: Water can affect many aspects of decomposition. And Dr. Dirkmaat soon sees what effect it's had on this body.
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The fatty tissue in the body, if it's exposed to water for extended periods of time, will often
00:12:03
turn into this waxy substance. NARRATOR: This substance is known as grave wax or mortuary fat.
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Its scientific name is adipocere. And its presence in this case gives Dr. Dirkmaat his first clue about when the body was buried.
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The formation of adipocere doesn't take a week or even a year. We don't know the specifics of how long that takes.
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But it usually takes an extended period of time in remains that are exposed to water.
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The groundwater came up and was enveloping the body for long periods of time. NARRATOR: From the state of the remains,
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Dr. Dirkmaat estimates this body has been here for 10 to 20 years. Katie has been missing for 20.
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But Dr. Dirkmaat cannot yet be sure that this is her. [DRAMATIC MUSIC] After a painstaking day and a half of work,
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enough dirt is finally removed to fully expose the body. DENNIS DIRKMAAT: The final product
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that we have here is the original shape, contour, and even details of the grave as it was dug.
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NARRATOR: Dr. Dirkmaat takes time to know details of the position and clothes. DENNIS DIRKMAAT: We mapped in the remains of the shirt being
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pulled up around the chest area as well as the pant legs pulled up to the knees.
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NARRATOR: From this, he draws a disturbing conclusion. That bit of evidence gives us a clue
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that the body was probably dragged from the feet end. They had to drag the body over the ground.
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And as they did that, the shirt came up and the pant legs came up. And then they deposited it in the grave.
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He was detailing all of this as he exhumed the body. NARRATOR: To investigators, this discovery
00:14:05
paints a sinister picture. If this is Katie Khan, it would add more weight to the theory
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that she was murdered and then dragged down into the basement. [DRAMATIC MUSIC] Dr. Dirkmaat has learned all he can from the body
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as it lies in the grave. He must now remove it and take it to his laboratory where he can examine the remains more closely.
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DENNIS DIRKMAAT: What we do at the scene is not just pick up bones and pick up parts of the body
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and throw it in a body bag. As best we can, we want to take it up in one lump mass
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and put it into a body bag. At no point do we try to remove the clothing or reach in the pocket to get a wallet.
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Our job is to recover those remains, take it to the morgue, and it's there where those relationships
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of the clothing and the wallet relative to the body are explored. NARRATOR: Dr. Dirkmaat's team brings the body back
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to their lab at Mercyhurst College. Here, he will try to answer the investigators'
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most pressing question-- is this the body of Katie Khan? Coming up-- [KNOCKING] --investigators try to track down the suspected killer.
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But Travis Boyd is a hard man to find. ANTHONY PECORA: He was a drifter. He lived with different women.
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He had kids in a few different states. NARRATOR: When "Skeleton Stories" returns.
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[SOFT MUSIC] Investigators are counting on forensic anthropologist Dennis Dirkmaat to tell them if the body he's just excavated
00:15:54
from the basement of an old farmhouse is Katie Khan, a teenage girl who disappeared 20 years ago.
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They suspect she may have been murdered by her own stepfather, Travis Boyd. But before they can answer that question,
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they must first find hard evidence that this is Katie. [DRAMATIC MUSIC] When we're in the laboratory, it's the bones and what
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are the bones telling us. NARRATOR: In order for Dr. Dirkmaat to tell anything more from the bones,
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he must first cut away the adipocere, a waxy substance that clings to the bone, and then he must clean them.
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So that involves what we call macerating the remains. NARRATOR: It's a gentle process of soaking
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the bones in a large metal pot filled with warm, almost simmering water. Essentially immersing it in hot water until the flesh
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is removed. NARRATOR: Regulating the water temperature is critical. If the bones get too hot, they can burn.
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And all the evidence will be damaged. Once that's done, then we create an inventory
00:17:03
and see that we have all the bones. NARRATOR: During this process, Dr. Dirkmaat notes that he's missing one of the most critical body parts
00:17:11
used to identify remains-- the teeth. We don't have any teeth to compare. So there's no real dental records to compare.
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And so in this case, it was a little difficult. NARRATOR: This discovery also raises the question,
00:17:25
what happened to the teeth? If Travis Boyd murdered his own stepdaughter, did he try to hide her identity by removing her teeth?
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If somebody were to pull out the teeth of an individual, you'd pull off the roots as well.
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And you'd be left with the holes in the bone. NARRATOR: But Dr. Dirkmaat does not
00:17:44
find any holes in the jawbones, leading him to conclude that this is not what happened here.
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If the individual's still living, the bone will try to heal itself and get rid of those holes.
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And so you'll see a process of what we call resorption around those areas. NARRATOR: And resorption clearly took place
00:18:02
with this skull, which means that the teeth were removed before death, not after.
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Dr. Dirkmaat comes up with a theory. When somebody has their teeth removed for dentures,
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all of the bone is resorbed in that area. And then it sort of leaves a straight line
00:18:17
where the denture is housed. So we could tell that for this individual. NARRATOR: This finding leads Dr. Dirkmaat
00:18:25
to a surprising conclusion. This person wore dentures, an extremely strange finding
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if this is indeed 16-year-old Katie Khan. Police are stunned to learn that they've been following
00:18:40
the wrong scent all along. And this new finding could put them back at square one.
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RICHARD KRANITZ: We got kind of a bum steer. I thought this might never be solved.
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NARRATOR: Now more than ever, the entire mystery depends on what Dr. Dirkmaat is able to learn from the bones.
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Investigators are counting on him to figure out who this is. It's very difficult to solve a crime
00:19:03
if we don't first know who the victim is. And we didn't know at this point whether we
00:19:07
had a female, a male, an old person, a young person. NARRATOR: To answer these questions,
00:19:14
Dr. Dirkmaat needs to create a biological profile-- a detailed description of this person's sex,
00:19:21
age, height, weight, and other descriptors based on what he can tell from the bones.
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[DRAMATIC MUSIC] First, he examines the pelvic bone for clues to the person's sex.
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DENNIS DIRKMAAT: In females, it tends to be thinner and a little wider here in the body.
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We could tell then very definitively that we have a male individual. NARRATOR: The next step is to get an idea
00:19:49
of how old this man was. Dr. Dirkmaat again looks at the pelvis, which is also commonly used to assess age.
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Dr. Dirkmaat knows that the bones are worn down and the surface is porous, telltale signs of age.
00:20:04
In this particular case, one area is called the pubic symphysis where the two bones
00:20:09
of the pelvis come together. That area of the skeleton has been researched very well
00:20:15
in modern populations. So we're able to look at this individual and come up with a determination that they
00:20:21
were anywhere from 30 to 60. We can look at the ends of the bones. NARRATOR: Dr. Dirkmaat then turns his attention to
00:20:27
the bones of the arms and legs. From these, he hopes to get an idea of how tall this person was.
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DENNIS DIRKMAAT: Once we figured out the age and the sex, we also determined the stature of the individual
00:20:38
by looking at the long bones and measuring them. And there are formula out there that correlate the length
00:20:45
of a particular bone to the stature or the height of an individual. NARRATOR: After a detailed analysis,
00:20:52
the bones have spoken. And they have revealed this is a six foot tall male in the range
00:20:58
of 30 to 60 years old who wore dentures, certainly not the profile of 16-year-old Katie Khan.
00:21:07
Detective Kranitz wonders if this could be a farmhand who couldn't afford a proper burial
00:21:12
as he had originally thought. He then comes to a stunning realization. The description of the person buried in the basement
00:21:21
fits someone else he's been looking for in connection to the case-- Katie's stepfather, Travis Boyd.
00:21:28
In what could be one of the sharpest investigative 180s of his life, Detective Kranitz now
00:21:33
wonders if the man he suspected of murder was, in fact, murdered himself. [DRAMATIC MUSIC]
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[SIRENS] Coming up, detectives track down the Boyd family and get a surprising and different impression of Travis.
00:21:50
He was just a really good person. I can't ever remember him being angry at anybody.
00:21:58
NARRATOR: That's next on "Skeleton Stories." [DRAMATIC MUSIC] Police have just learned that they've
00:22:16
been following the wrong trail. Until today, they suspected that Travis Boyd murdered his stepdaughter and buried her in the basement
00:22:25
of an old farmhouse. But forensic anthropologist Dennis Dirkmaat has just determined that the skeleton found in the basement
00:22:33
is a tall older man who wore dentures, not a young woman. In a complete about face, investigators now
00:22:42
wonder if Boyd was the one buried in the basement. Eager to gather more information,
00:22:50
they revisit neighbors who recount again how severe and restrictive Travis was with his 16-year-old stepdaughter Katie.
00:22:58
More striking are neighbors descriptions of Travis's physical characteristics. They sound eerily familiar to Dr. Dirkmaat's report
00:23:07
on the skeleton found in the basement. ANTHONY PECORA: These witnesses told us how he dressed
00:23:11
and how he walked and didn't have no teeth and he didn't wear his teeth. And I mean, it just was--
00:23:17
100% what he told us, these people matched it right up. NARRATOR: If the skeleton in the basement is indeed Travis,
00:23:25
that would explain why police have been unable to locate him despite an exhaustive search
00:23:30
the entire past week. But they have finally located two of his nieces, who provide a strikingly different impression of Travis
00:23:39
than his neighbors. CRYSTAL MARTIN: He just was a good person. He was good hearted.
00:23:43
I can remember my aunt's car had broke down. And he said, just come up and borrow one of mine.
00:23:49
He'd do anything for anybody. KATHY DVRAR: I mean, he just made sure that my mom and my grandmother had everything.
00:23:55
He even bought my grandmother a rocking chair. She just thought that was the greatest thing ever.
00:23:59
CRYSTAL MARTIN: He was more like a father figure I looked up to. He was just a really good person.
00:24:05
He just loved everybody. NARRATOR: But Travis's neighbors and family all agree on one important fact.
00:24:13
No one has seen him since 1980. At the time of his disappearance, his nieces had just assumed he left his wife
00:24:21
and ran off with a new girlfriend. KATHY DVRAR: He was a ladies' man. He loved women.
00:24:26
He really did love them. I mean, he loved them all. Not just one, but all. You just didn't know who he was coming in with.
00:24:34
It would be this one, and then maybe two weeks later it would be somebody else. NARRATOR: In fact, investigators learned that Travis Boyd
00:24:41
had at least 12 children from two previous relationships and was known to move frequently from one place to the other.
00:24:48
ANTHONY PECORA: He was married several times. He lived with different women throughout this part
00:24:53
of the United States. He had kids in a few different states. NARRATOR: His nieces were sad to lose touch with him,
00:25:01
but felt it had everything to do with his drifter lifestyle. Our police department never received
00:25:06
any missing persons report from any of the family members anywhere. NARRATOR: Based on Travis's sudden disappearance
00:25:14
and the fact that Dr. Dirkmaat's description of the body matches his profile, investigators are now
00:25:20
more convinced than ever that the bones in the basement belong to Travis Boyd. But they now need to figure out exactly how
00:25:30
he ended up in his basement. Was it a natural or accidental death followed by a makeshift burial?
00:25:37
Or was something more sinister at work? It's a mystery only Dr. Dirkmaat can help solve.
00:25:43
Unraveling it means finding the answer to one key question. We're hoping he can tell us all he could tell us--
00:25:50
cause of death, how he died. [DRAMATIC MUSIC] NARRATOR: Back in his lab, Dr. Dirkmaat
00:26:01
is counting on Travis's bones to reveal the answer to that pressing question. What we want to try to do is make
00:26:07
it a scientific determination. NARRATOR: He meticulously examines the skeleton bone by bone and soon notices
00:26:15
a telltale sign of violence-- nicks and breakage on the shoulder blade. DENNIS DIRKMAAT: What I determined
00:26:22
is that the individual had a number of defects of the shoulder blade or scapula.
00:26:28
Those defects took the form of what we could describe as a knife wound. NARRATOR: As he looks more closely,
00:26:36
Dr. Dirkmaat realizes the damage is quite extensive. It wasn't just one defect. There was four to 10 of them.
00:26:46
Also, I noted that the underlying ribs lying underneath the scapula were also damaged.
00:26:54
Some of them were completely broken in half. NARRATOR: Based on the damage to Travis's shoulder
00:27:00
blade and ribs, Dr. Dirkmaat comes to a disturbing conclusion. Somebody had to have stabbed him multiple times
00:27:08
throughout his back and upper torso. DENNIS DIRKMAAT: The amount of force that was used to drive in this weapon
00:27:15
was enough to break not only the scapula, but the underlying ribs. NARRATOR: He's stunned by the severity of the stab wounds.
00:27:22
DENNIS DIRKMAAT: It was a pretty significant and traumatic force that was used to create those stab wounds.
00:27:28
NARRATOR: But he's still not sure if these particular wounds alone would have been
00:27:32
enough to kill Travis Boyd. He needs more hard evidence. Coming up, Dr. Dirkmaat is now determined
00:27:43
to give investigators the answers they need to figure out who committed this heinous crime.
00:27:49
People's lives are sort of in the balance-- you know, whether they go to jail or not,
00:27:53
that-- whether we find out who did this to this particular individual. NARRATOR: When "Skeleton Stories" returns.
00:28:01
[DRAMATIC MUSIC] Dr. Dennis Dirkmaat has just found evidence that Travis Boyd was brutally stabbed many times
00:28:20
in his back and upper torso. His next discovery paints a picture of an even more
00:28:27
brutal scenario. He finds pellets embedded in the fatty tissue and bones of Travis's torso, pellets consistent
00:28:36
with a shotgun used to hunt quail. RICHARD KRANITZ: There might be hundreds of these pellets
00:28:41
in a shotgun shell. It wasn't a slug. It wasn't buckshot. It was these tiny BBs, maybe a 6 shot, which is commonly
00:28:50
used to shoot flying birds. DENNIS DIRKMAAT: We know that in shotgun pellets, they throw out a number of pellets in a cone shape
00:28:56
away from the shotgun. NARRATOR: In all, Dr. Dirkmaat finds 49 pellets in Travis's body.
00:29:04
DENNIS DIRKMAAT: Some were located in the hyoid bone, which is a small bone up in the neck region.
00:29:11
Some were in the upper arm. And then another bunch of them were located in other vertebral elements.
00:29:18
NARRATOR: To help determine if these pellets could have killed Travis and to prove that the shooting was most likely
00:29:24
premeditated, Dr. Dirkmaat must first figure out how close the shooter was to him when the gun was fired.
00:29:32
That's because this type of hunting rifle would only be fatal to a human being if shot at close range.
00:29:39
From a distance, it would inflict superficial wounds. It's those little pellets that are propelled at the target.
00:29:46
And as they go out, they spread out. Depending on where it impacts the object, you have an idea of how far away the end of the shotgun
00:29:54
was relative to the target. NARRATOR: Dr. Dirkmaat draws the pattern of the birdshot found on Travis's torso
00:30:03
onto a skeletal diagram. This will help him determine how far the pellets scattered inside Travis's body.
00:30:10
A wide radius would indicate a shot from afar. A smaller radius would reveal that the victim
00:30:17
was shot at close range. DENNIS DIRKMAAT: And so you draw a circle around that, you have
00:30:22
an idea of the distance away. NARRATOR: Dr. Dirkmaat notes the tight grouping of pellets all contained within a small radius.
00:30:32
This proves that Travis was shot at point blank range. [DRAMATIC MUSIC] Dr. Dirkmaat reports his findings to investigators.
00:30:44
Travis Boyd was repeatedly stabbed and then shot at close range in the neck with a shotgun.
00:30:50
It's irrefutable proof that he was murdered. With this new evidence, investigators now
00:31:00
have to find justice for a murder victim killed 20 years earlier. One life's not more important than another life.
00:31:08
So the fact that he was somewhat transient and the fact that it went unsolved for a long time
00:31:15
doesn't mean that it became less important. DENNIS DIRKMAAT: People's lives are sort of in the balance--
00:31:21
you know, whether they go to jail or not, that-- whether we find out who did this to this particular individual.
00:31:28
NARRATOR: Investigators recall the stories Travis's neighbors told them, how controlling he
00:31:33
was with his stepdaughter Katie, and how he had forbidden her to marry her high school sweetheart.
00:31:41
They wonder now if she was the one who stabbed and shot him. Though difficult to find, investigators
00:31:49
finally track Katie down. The woman they once thought was buried in the basement
00:31:55
is alive and well and married to the man Travis forbid her to date. Investigators bring her in for questioning.
00:32:02
[INAUDIBLE] you know why you're here and why I'm here. Detective Pecora and I told her
00:32:08
that we would like to talk to her about an incident which probably happened years ago.
00:32:14
She then began to shake. And she told us, you found him in the basement, didn't you?
00:32:22
NARRATOR: Katie immediately confesses to playing a role in the murder. But she claims her mother Alice was the real mastermind.
00:32:30
Investigators then learned that Katie's wedding plans were not the sole motive for murder.
00:32:35
She tells them how her mother and stepfather battled to maintain strict control over the family
00:32:41
and the finances. And you and your mom both buried him? You could tell she was very controlling.
00:32:45
It was all about her and her daughter. I just think he didn't let her have the control over the money
00:32:50
that she wanted. NARRATOR: As soon as Katie finishes her long account of events, detectives drive directly to Alice's house
00:32:58
three hours away. Sheriff's office. [KNOCKING] ANTHONY PECORA: We were met by the mother at the door.
00:33:08
And we explained to her what we were there for and so forth. And we have an arrest warrant for her.
00:33:13
Travis? I haven't seen Travis in years. ANTHONY PECORA: At the time, she first started out saying
00:33:17
that she divorced her husband. And she divorced him up in Michigan. I have the divorce papers. I'll get them.
00:33:22
Sure. [INAUDIBLE] ANTHONY PECORA: And she had this story that she must have had in her head that she made up
00:33:26
for if this would ever happen. NARRATOR: This interrogation is more difficult than anticipated.
00:33:32
And this time they must rely on Dr. Dirkmaat's findings if they hope to score a confession.
00:33:38
We wanted her to know that we believed we knew exactly what happened. So we told her some particulars.
00:33:45
NARRATOR: Upon relaying the chain of events as laid out by Dr. Dirkmaat, Alice begins to break down.
00:33:51
ANTHONY PECORA: And that's when she knew that her story about being divorced back in '85
00:33:57
wasn't going to work. And then she gave us a full taped statement. NARRATOR: Based on evidence provided by Dr. Dirkmaat
00:34:07
combined with confessions from Katie and her mother Alice, investigators can finally piece together
00:34:13
a grim picture of what happened to Travis Boyd on the day he was murdered. [DRAMATIC MUSIC]
00:34:25
Soon after marrying Travis, Alice schemes to get out of the relationship. But instead of divorcing him, she decides
00:34:34
her only way out is murder. So she thought about this for a long time. And I guess this is all she knew what to do.
00:34:41
I guess she felt she couldn't get rid of him no other way. NARRATOR: And she convinces her daughter to help.
00:34:46
Then it all comes down to one moment while Travis is getting dressed. Alice simply tells her teenage daughter, it's time.
00:34:57
She used her favorite knife. And she had a name for it, which was Pearl. And the daughter had the 12-inch switchblade.
00:35:06
And they attacked him. NARRATOR: Alice strikes first-- [GRUNTING AND YELLING] --stabbing Travis eight times.
00:35:21
Katie strikes twice. Travis slumps to his knees. But he's not dead yet. Then, Alice goes for the shotgun.
00:35:31
She finishes the job-- [GUNSHOT] --with one close-range blast, a blast that Dr. Dirkmaat believes is the ultimate cause of death.
00:35:41
Shotgun pellets very likely rip through a major artery in Travis's neck, causing him to bleed to death.
00:35:49
Katie, get a sheet! come on! NARRATOR: According to Katie, her mother is determined to hide the deed.
00:35:54
What are we going to do with him? Oh my god. I can't believe it. RICHARD KRANITZ: The daughter said that the mother
00:36:00
proceeded to drag the victim from the upstairs down into the basement. NARRATOR: Hours later, the mother-daughter team
00:36:08
uses a garden spade to dig a grave in the basement. They dump Travis's body into it.
00:36:15
That evening, Katie goes on a date with her boyfriend while Alice stays home to clean up the blood
00:36:21
and finished burying the body in the basement. Yes, I'm sorry. Could you please take these off?
00:36:28
NARRATOR: 20 years after the murder of Travis Boyd, Detectives Kranitz and Pecora arrest
00:36:33
Alice and her daughter Katie. Now, it will be up to a jury to decide their sentences.
00:36:40
The investigators and district attorney begin to prepare for the sentencing. They hope that in the courtroom, Travis Boyd
00:36:47
will finally get the justice he's been denied for two decades. [DRAMATIC MUSIC] Coming up, Alice Khan shocks the prosecution
00:37:00
with a stunning turn of events-- She was like a block of ice. She didn't show no emotions whatsoever.
00:37:06
NARRATOR: --when "Skeleton Stories" returns. [DRAMATIC MUSIC] 20 years ago, Travis Boyd was savagely
00:37:25
murdered and then buried in the basement of an old farmhouse. Thanks to the work of forensic anthropologist Dennis Dirkmaat,
00:37:33
Travis's wife Alice and stepdaughter Katie have finally been charged with the crime.
00:37:39
As the trial approaches, the district attorney asked Dr. Dirkmaat to play yet another critical role
00:37:45
in the case-- to be a key witness for the prosecution. He knows he must be well prepared.
00:37:52
And his reports must be flawless. DENNIS DIRKMAAT: Savvy defense attorneys will jump on you.
00:37:58
And the last thing you need is for the reports to be critically analyzed and come up with mistakes.
00:38:06
NARRATOR: The credibility of Dr. Dirkmaat and his work could determine the fate of the two women
00:38:11
and whether justice will be found for the victim. We look at every sentence, every word
00:38:16
that we present in there so that the case isn't dismissed because of the things that we do.
00:38:22
[DRAMATIC MUSIC] NARRATOR: With confessions from both suspects, it seems that Dr. Dirkmaat's testimony may
00:38:33
be a mere formality to corroborate the defendant's sworn statements. But in court, Alice Khan drops a bombshell.
00:38:41
She pleads not guilty and claims she only confessed to save her daughter. Katie is shocked.
00:38:48
She pleads guilty to third-degree murder and agrees to testify against her own mother.
00:38:53
When she finally takes the stand, she insists the murder was her mother's idea and she was forced into it.
00:39:00
I did feel a little bit sorry for her daughter, because she was such a young child.
00:39:03
It was kind of hard for her to go against her mother. Like I said, her mother was controlling.
00:39:10
NARRATOR: A shaken Katie tells the jury how her mother had been scheming to kill Travis for several months
00:39:16
for a variety of reasons. Because he was mean, lazy, and controlling, she couldn't take living with him anymore.
00:39:25
She should have divorced him or left him. Should have never took a life. Nobody has the right to take anybody's life.
00:39:31
Nobody. So that was wrong. NARRATOR: According to Katie, Alice saw in her young, impressionable teenage daughter
00:39:39
a perfect accomplice, one who would also benefit from having Travis out of her life.
00:39:45
She'd then be free to keep dating her boyfriend and even marry him. Katie describes how her mother's first plan to kill Travis
00:39:53
involved replacing his heart medication with methamphetamine-- speed. She asked Katie to procure the illegal drug.
00:40:01
RICHARD KRANITZ: She had obtained some speed from another student in high school
00:40:06
and gave it to her mother, but it didn't work. NARRATOR: Alice then settles on a more direct method
00:40:13
involving knives and a shotgun. Katie explains that her mother even bought her a knife at a flea market for the day
00:40:20
they would put their dark plan into action. You! NARRATOR: Katie then tells the jury
00:40:26
how she helped her mother murder Travis and dispose of the body. So far, it's just been Katie's word against her mother's
00:40:33
sudden claim of innocence. But now, Dr. Dirkmaat takes the stand. DENNIS DIRKMAAT: Our role is to provide a way for the jury
00:40:42
to sift through this evidence and sift through this testimony and see who's telling the truth and who may be making it up.
00:40:51
NARRATOR: Blow by blow, he methodically presents his forensic analysis, which corroborates Katie's story.
00:40:58
I describe the stabbing with a sharp instrument, likely a knife to the back that impacted
00:41:04
both the scapula and the ribs, and then some of the impact from the shotgun. NARRATOR: After a five-day-long trial,
00:41:14
Dr. Dirkmaat's testimony combined with Katie's story gives jurors a clear picture of what happened
00:41:20
on that day 20 years ago. RICHARD KRANITZ: It was very helpful to have Dr. Dirkmaat there at trial.
00:41:26
NARRATOR: On February 21, 2001, the jury convicts Alice of first-degree murder and criminal conspiracy.
00:41:35
According to those at the trial, she handles the verdict with the same coldness she used to kill her husband.
00:41:43
She acted like she didn't care. She was writing a book. And she was telling the story is how her testimony sounded.
00:41:50
She never once said that she was sorry to us. She never said that she was sorry that she'd done it.
00:41:55
It was heartbreaking to know that somebody that you're supposed to love-- you know, she took vows that she was-- that she loved him.
00:42:03
And then she took his life. KATHY DVRAR: She was like a block of ice. She didn't show no emotions whatsoever,
00:42:10
never changed her face expressions of anything. You know, she looked like it-- oh well, you know.
00:42:16
I did it and you all have to suffer for it. You know, she-- nothing. Nothing at all.
00:42:22
NARRATOR: Alice Khan is sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
00:42:26
She appealed, but was unsuccessful. Katie is convicted of third-degree murder and given a sentence of 7 to 20 years.
00:42:35
Though justice is finally done, surviving family members continue to feel the pain of their loss.
00:42:41
CRYSTAL MARTIN: I wish my kids would have got the opportunity to see what a good person he was.
00:42:47
I thank him for being there for me when my father wasn't. I really miss him. And I wish he was here today.
00:42:54
NARRATOR: But Dr. Dirkmaat's findings have helped the Boyd family find some closure
00:42:58
and spiritual peace. He did a wonderful, wonderful job. And I really appreciate it.
00:43:03
RICHARD KRANITZ: I think justice was served, because two people carried out a very violent murder.
00:43:08
They were convicted and now are paying the price for their crime. NARRATOR: For Dr. Dirkmaat, science
00:43:15
always uncovers the real story. DENNIS DIRKMAAT: We're looking at the evidence scientifically
00:43:21
and trying to get at the truth. The truth is ultimately important, whether that exonerates a bad guy or convicts somebody
00:43:31
who did it out of desperation.