00:00:00
[MUSIC PLAYING] NANCY GRACE: Boone
County, Kentucky, 1976. A passerby discovers the
body of a girl on a roadside.
00:00:22
As a police officer,
there are many times where you get called to a scene
where there are dead bodies.
00:00:28
Thankfully, fewer of
them involve children. NANCY GRACE: But
this case involves a teenager, a teenager who
has been raped and murdered.
00:00:39
Our female victim
was partially clothed with a bra and a shirt. And additionally, there was
some jewelry located on her
00:00:47
that was taken from
the scene as well. NANCY GRACE: The murder
leaves the victim's
00:00:52
family struggling for answers. Who in their right mind
is with someone and decides,
00:01:01
tonight, I'm going to
take this person's life. That's just beyond
my comprehension.
00:01:08
NANCY GRACE: The
investigation that follows lasts over 40 years,
until the emergence
00:01:14
of a revolutionary
forensic technique. This would not have been
solved without that science.
00:01:20
It completely changed
the investigation here. And I'm very excited
about the possibilities
00:01:25
that it could lead
in the future. Will this case ever be closed,
even with cutting-edge science
00:01:33
and determined investigators? I'm Nancy Grace. This is "Bloodline Detectives." [THEME MUSIC]
00:02:04
Boone County, Kentucky,
a quiet rural community just across the state line
from Cincinnati, Ohio.
00:02:12
We moved here in 1965. It was very, very different
then than what it's like now.
00:02:20
It's overpopulated. It's grown. There's hardly any, you
know, woodlands left. There's apartments
and stores everywhere.
00:02:30
I liked it the old way,
but, you know, you have to go with what's going on. We don't have a
lot of murders here,
00:02:38
but when we do have murders,
they tend to be the scratch your head, who done
it kind of murders.
00:02:46
NANCY GRACE: On the
morning of June 5, 1976, a local driving to work
makes a horrific discovery.
00:02:56
As he was making his
way across Chambers Road, he saw what he believed
to be a body laying there.
00:03:03
And then, as he got out of
the vehicle and looked at it, he realized that this
was a young female,
00:03:08
and was partially clothed. She obviously was deceased. And that was the phone call
that he made to the Kentucky
00:03:14
State Police post. NANCY GRACE: The first
officer on the scene, Trooper Jan Hotchner.
00:03:21
Very soon, more police follow. COY COX: There was a
young white female. Appeared to be about
16, 17 years of age.
00:03:31
She was only wearing her
bra and a white blouse, and then, she was unclothed
the rest of her body.
00:03:39
There was a lot of blood. You could see there had
been trauma to her head. NANCY GRACE: Investigators
searched the area
00:03:46
for any tangible
evidence hoping for clues left behind by the killer. Our female victim
was partially
00:03:54
clothed with a bra and a shirt. And that was really,
at least, initially, sort of the big evidence.
00:04:02
And additionally,
there was some jewelry that was located on her that was
taken from the scene as well.
00:04:08
COY COX: On those
items specifically, there were also hairs that
were taken as evidence.
00:04:18
The body was removed from
the scene on Chambers Road to the office in
Florence, Kentucky,
00:04:24
at Stith Funeral Home. It is so often the case
that, at the very early stages in a homicide, police
have a body, yes, they
00:04:35
have some evidence, yes,
but what they don't have is an identity of the victim. They still don't have a name.
00:04:46
Detective Keith
started working his case throughout the day, and
as the night wore on,
00:04:52
then Mrs. Reneker
had called to report her daughter was missing. She hadn't come home.
00:04:58
She'd been gone all night. And Detective Jerry Keith
went to the residence. He had described the
necklace that he had found,
00:05:12
the two necklaces
and the earring. And when he described
that, Betty said, yes, that's Carol's.
00:05:20
He felt sure then that,
hey, this was her daughter. To make positive identification,
there has to be a viewing.
00:05:31
DEBBIE PONDER:
They needed someone to come and identify the body. So Thomas, her older
brother, who was 18,
00:05:38
he stepped up, and identified
that it was Carol Sue. NANCY GRACE: An
autopsy reveals how
00:05:46
Carol Sue Klaber was murdered. COY COX: The result
of it was the death was caused by blunt
force trauma to the head.
00:05:55
She was hit many, many
times in the head. And that was the cause of death. But there was also
attempted strangulation
00:06:03
with the necklaces
that she was wearing. DEBBIE PONDER:
And it was assumed a tire iron that he used to
bash her head, seven injuries.
00:06:13
And head wounds bleed, you know? You can have a small
scratch, and you know that it will bleed.
00:06:21
I cannot imagine the-- the crime scene. It had to be horrendous. NANCY GRACE: Carol's cousin
hears the awful news.
00:06:35
DEBBIE PONDER: I doubted myself,
to be quite honest with you. It was such a shock.
00:06:39
I looked at my mom and
I said, mom, you know, is it Carol Sue Klaber? Right? Our cousin?
00:06:47
Yes. Oh, mom, you know,
she was murdered. So my mother, of course,
became very upset.
00:06:58
And at that time, we
didn't have cell phones, and the only phone was
a payphone at the dock.
00:07:03
So she took off out of the cabin
and went to the dock and called home, and I'm certain she
called my great grandmother,
00:07:09
her grandmother. A beautiful teen girl,
brutally raped and murdered. Only a few clues left behind in
a quiet, neighborly community
00:07:20
that's in shock. Will the killer of teen girl
Carol Klaber ever be found? Next, on "Bloodline Detectives."
00:07:29
[MUSIC PLAYING] Walton, Kentucky, June, 1976. The body of a beautiful
teen girl, Carol Klaber,
00:07:46
found dumped by the roadside. Carol had been raped,
and then struck repeatedly with blunt force.
00:07:54
Investigators have
very little to go on as they piece
together clues found there in this remote location.
00:08:04
COY COX: We have
had several bodies over the years that
are dumped immediately close to Interstate 75.
00:08:12
m where her body was found, it
would have taken quite a while for the person to drive to that
location and to dump her body.
00:08:21
So the actual location she
was in, it was really unusual. For local investigators,
everything so far seems
00:08:30
very unusual about the case. Adding to that, the brutality
of what happened to Carol
00:08:37
is frightening an
entire community. It takes what is otherwise
a very safe community
00:08:43
and it makes them afraid,
especially for it to happen at a place like
Devou Park, a place
00:08:48
you feel safe, that
families go to routinely, that people can walk. There was fear.
00:08:55
There was a lot of fear in a
lot of the girls at school. Myself and our
friends, we made
00:09:02
a basic constant social
rule, if we arrived together, and we go somewhere together,
we all leave together.
00:09:09
It just made you more aware of
what could happen, that loss of innocence, so to speak.
00:09:16
When investigators
chase down possible clues from the crime scene, they
also focus on another angle.
00:09:23
Who is Carol Klaber? Is it possible she
knew her killer? BRIAN OXMAN: Carol was a
16-year-old young high school
00:09:33
girl. She went to Dixie High
School in Kentucky. Her family was well-to-do. Her father was an engineer
in the oil industry,
00:09:44
and he brought up a
daughter that he was going to cherish his whole life. She played the piano.
00:09:52
She played lawn darts, and
she would play croquet. DEBBIE PONDER: She was
vivacious, but not gregarious.
00:10:01
Fun, intelligent, very
smart, very athletic, very comfortable to be around. More taking almost a leadership
role in social situations.
00:10:13
Dependable. You know, you knew
she was a friend. She was that type of person. You just knew she was--
she was the personality
00:10:19
that would be a friend. Carol was a Girl Scout,
and she was a Brownie. Now, in Kentucky, this
was middle America,
00:10:30
where there were values
about growing up and being a part of the community. And that was Carol.
00:10:36
Because her father felt that. Her father died in 1970. It was a terrible
impact upon her.
00:10:43
And she wanted to fulfill
what her dad wanted, and that was to be
someone who cared.
00:10:50
Because when you are a part
of the Girl Scouts of America, you have a value of
caring for people.
00:10:58
And in return, those
people care about you. MYRNA SHERMAN: Easy
to make friends with, real easy to talk to.
00:11:08
But she also was kind of quiet. And it kind of took her
a while, to you know, to come to get to know people.
00:11:19
But once she got to
know you, she was like-- and if she was a friend to
you, that's what she was.
00:11:26
DEBBIE PONDER: She was a
success story in the works. Her talent, her intelligence,
her willingness to reach out
00:11:34
to other people was very rare. She was-- she was a gift. She was a beautiful person.
00:11:42
NANCY GRACE: Details
begin to emerge about the teen girl's movements
the day of her murder.
00:11:48
DEBBIE PONDER: At that
time, some details were shared with my mother that
she had been riding her bike
00:11:57
and came home and
said that she was going out to dinner with a man. COY COX: They.
00:12:04
Placed her bicycle in
the trunk of the car. She got into the car
with him and drove back
00:12:12
to her house, which is
a very strong indication that that was someone
that she knew.
00:12:18
When they got back
to the house, she took the bike out of the
car, put it in the garage,
00:12:23
went upstairs. Her mom heard her. She said she was
headed out to go to Zeno's, which was a
restaurant, with some friends.
00:12:32
And so as she goes out the door,
mom didn't actually see her eye to eye, and she
looks out the window,
00:12:39
and she had changed her purple
blouse to a white blouse and got into the vehicle
with a gentleman.
00:12:46
The vehicle was described
by a lady across the street being a newer model
Pontiac Grand Prix
00:12:53
or Chevy Monte Carlo. And she gave a description,
an amazing description of the individual as being
5' 10", slender build,
00:13:01
approximately 150 pounds. Real light blond hair. Detective Keith had looked at
some other cases in the area
00:13:11
that were unsolved, and
there was a sketch in one of those cases he would
have considered at that time
00:13:16
a companion case that he
thought was related to this one. So there was a sketch that
eventually, in the Klaber case,
00:13:23
was kind of put out, if
anyone recognizes this, because he believed at the time
that the same person who did
00:13:31
a rape case in Park
Hills, Kentucky, was the same person
who would have done Carol Klaber's rape and murder.
00:13:41
NANCY GRACE:
Investigators in 1976 feel they're beginning
to make progress. They've got a decent
description of the suspect
00:13:49
and a possible link
to another rape case. COY COX: There
were several girls that had been raped and murdered
in the greater Cincinnati
00:14:00
area during that time period,
so much so that Detective Keith met with other police
agencies to, you know,
00:14:07
kind of have a little think tank
and see the commonality and all of those kinds of things.
00:14:11
And out of those
type of meetings was where he decided
that the Park Hills case was really close.
00:14:18
There were a lot of
similarities in the two cases, cigarette burns on the body,
attempted strangulation.
00:14:25
And honestly, when we went
back and reviewed the case, we really saw his point,
so much so that we ended up
00:14:32
going all the way down
that road to the suspect that he had originally
identified in that case.
00:14:41
Investigators in
Boone County, Kentucky, have come so close to finding
the vicious rapist and killer
00:14:48
that preyed on a
young teen girl, but close is not good enough. As we see next on
"Bloodline Detectives,"
00:14:58
it may take 40 years and
groundbreaking science for "Bloodline
Detectives" to try
00:15:06
their best to close this case. [MUSIC PLAYING] It's been 40 long years
since the brutal rape
00:15:21
and murder of teen
girl Carol Klaber in Boone County, Kentucky. Now, 2017, there's a new
generation of detectives
00:15:31
who reopen the investigation. Over the years, we
always thought about her. Myself, and I know
some of her friends,
00:15:41
she would be on people's minds. I would drive past
the Sheriff's Office and think about her every time.
00:15:49
Did they ever solve that? Why did we never hear
anything more about that? Who was that person
that took her life?
00:15:56
So she never leaves your mind. NANCY GRACE: The new
cold case investigators pour over case files from
Carol Klaber's murder.
00:16:06
Their hope? That advances in
forensic DNA technology will lead them to the man who
so cruelly took this teen girl's
00:16:16
life back in 1976. We went to Park Hills
Police Department. There were no police
officers still
00:16:26
at Park Hills PD from 1976. So everyone there was
a different group, from chief on down.
00:16:34
It's a smaller department. They had nothing to do with
the original investigation.
00:16:39
So when we went there, we asked
if we could look at the case and make a copy of it.
00:16:45
And the chief, who I admire
him for this, he said, hey, we will sign the case
over to you if you want,
00:16:53
because it is
simply sitting there because we have to
keep it, and no one will ever look at it again.
00:17:01
There were two very strong
suspects in this case, one of which was somebody who was
incarcerated and is presently
00:17:10
incarcerated on charges
unrelated to this murder, and then, there was another
suspect that was just outright
00:17:17
exonerated through evidence
related to this case through a DNA analysis. So we had two strong suspects.
00:17:26
And in any case,
to have a suspect, let alone the
possibility of two, and when those two don't pan
out, that can be deflating.
00:17:35
And you really have to
start back at square one as an agency, as a
group of investigators.
00:17:43
We have to then refocus on,
OK, what do we have left? We worked pretty closely
with our cold case unit.
00:17:52
Whenever they have
something come up, they usually bring it
to us and ask us kind
00:17:57
of what the potential
is, and what's the best way to go about testing. So in this particular
circumstance,
00:18:04
the cold case unit
had come across a hair that they thought could
be of potential value that
00:18:10
was never fully exploited
with modern technology. So they brought that to
the criminal forensic unit,
00:18:16
and we took a look at it and
proposed a plan for going forward with the testing.
00:18:23
Initially, we gave it to
the Kentucky State Police. The Kentucky State Police
for us is the laboratory
00:18:30
that handles all of our
DNA testing, at least, for the first round. They had inconclusive results.
00:18:38
NANCY GRACE: The failure
to extract a DNA profile is a huge disappointment
to investigators,
00:18:44
but they don't give up. Whenever we have
something, and particularly, in a cold case, where we
have an item of evidence that
00:18:52
was brought to light by really
good cold case investigators, we really have
high hopes when we
00:18:59
see things like that that
this could be the key. This could be the thing. And initial reports from the
state police were like, hey,
00:19:07
I think we can maybe get
something out of this. So it was positive
in the beginning.
00:19:13
So when we got the
inconclusive results, it was-- it was a setback. So often, there is a familiar
pattern in cases like this.
00:19:25
First, a breakthrough. Then, a dead end. Then, another
breakthrough, and that is exactly what happens in
Carol Klaber's case, when
00:19:35
Othram Laboratories
out of Texas, the world's leaders in
forensic genetic genealogy,
00:19:42
reach out to Boone
County investigators. COY COX: I started getting
a lot of phone calls
00:19:50
from a representative from
Othram, and most of that went along the lines
of, hey, we are a lab.
00:19:57
We do genealogy. We want to help solve crimes. If you have cases
with unknown DNA
00:20:05
profiles in the
national CODIS database, then we want to help you. NANCY GRACE: Othram's
work is expensive.
00:20:17
So Boone County detectives
first need to find funding. COY COX: They had shared
with us the information
00:20:24
about Season of Justice. The way they explained it
was, look, if you talk to them
00:20:30
and apply for a grant, and
your case meets this criteria, there's a really good
chance they're going
00:20:39
to provide the funding for you. And again, it's like, yeah, this
is too good to be true, but OK.
00:20:43
Let's do it. We received from the agency
evidence of the assault. From that evidence, the
agency had identified
00:20:50
an unknown male contributor. So there was male
DNA that was found, and they thought that
this male DNA came
00:20:57
from the person
that had essentially assaulted and murdered her. The state lab created the DNA
profile for STR testing first,
00:21:06
and then, that DNA was
sent to us in a tube. NANCY GRACE: Short Tandem
Repeat, STR analysis for short,
00:21:15
is a method that creates
a person's DNA profile by counting the number
of times a small DNA
00:21:23
sequence is repeated at a
specific chromosomal location. Hair has very different DNA
parameters than other types
00:21:34
of inputs, for sure, and
would be something that would be difficult to run
through a standard medical test
00:21:41
or consumer test assay. And I think that's why this
case had failed previously in other laboratories.
00:21:47
We were able to assess the
characteristics of that DNA extract and figure out what the
best way to go about creating
00:21:56
the best and most
robust DNA profile would be that we
could use to identify who that perpetrator was.
00:22:03
BRIAN COCHRAN: Forensic
genetic genealogy kind of has, in my mind, two prongs. There is one prong that is
scientific, where we look
00:22:11
at DNA and genetics
and relations between people over time,
and we use that angle.
00:22:18
Also included in that would
be Y chromosomal testing, where we just look at the
male side of the family.
00:22:24
And then, there's
a whole other prong that goes through very
traditional genealogy research,
00:22:29
like family tree sort of
stuff that most folks are familiar with that you
couple with that scientific
00:22:35
information in this day and age. And, hopefully, it gets us
to an investigative lead.
00:22:42
KRISTEN MITTELMAN: That DNA
is uploaded to genealogical databases consented for
law enforcement use,
00:22:48
and when they're uploaded,
you end up getting really, really distant matches. So instead of just being able
to confirm someone's identity,
00:22:57
you can now figure out
that someone is related to this person as a
sixth cousin match,
00:23:02
and this person is a
fifth cousin match, and this person is a
third cousin match.
00:23:06
And you can figure out
how far away each match is from the person that left
the DNA at the crime scene,
00:23:12
and then, you can
infer where the person that left the DNA at the crime
scene belongs in a family tree.
00:23:18
And in doing
that, we were then able to derive enough matches,
enough people that shared
00:23:23
at least some similarity in the
markers to which we could then piece together a family tree.
00:23:28
And in building
that family tree, we were able to hone in
on leads that directed law
00:23:34
enforcement to where we
thought the person might sit on that tree. I was a little skeptical.
00:23:40
However, when Othram said
that they had a good profile, and they thought
that it was something
00:23:45
that they could do
something with early on, then I was extremely hopeful. It's been 46 years since
teen girl Carol Klaber's
00:23:56
horrific sex attack and murder. And now, investigators
finally have a powerful scientific weapon
that may identify her killer.
00:24:07
That's next on
"Bloodline Detectives." [MUSIC PLAYING] Boone County, Kentucky, 2022.
00:24:22
Detectives on the
cusp of discovering who killed teen
girl Carol Klaber all the way back in 1976.
00:24:31
Investigators have provided
Othram Labs with a hair sample that was found at the
crime scene 46 years ago.
00:24:41
That hair sample
hits a home run. It rules out the existing
persons of interest,
00:24:49
but crucially, it
points to a new name and a new prime suspect. Because they had
an STR profile,
00:24:58
they were able to do
one-to-one comparisons to exclude suspects. And I think there was two people
early on that were identified
00:25:06
and ruled out because
their STR profiles did not match at all the STR
profile of the crime scene.
00:25:12
And so even though
there was an early hope for success when they had
identified these suspects,
00:25:17
both were excluded. And so after the process we went
through at Othram to build up
00:25:22
the big profile and
develop the leads, we came across, you know,
eventually the person
00:25:27
that they honed in on. His name was Thomas Dunaway. It was very exciting to be
able to share that with them
00:25:33
because they had a new
suspect in the case. 40 years after the brutal
sex assault and murder
00:25:42
of Carol Klaber,
a prime suspect is revealed thanks to
investigative genetic genealogy.
00:25:49
The perp's name? Thomas Dunaway, last
known to be a resident of Park Hills, Kentucky.
00:25:56
And like the murder
victim, Carol Klaber, Dunaway is a teen at
the time of the murder.
00:26:02
When detectives
zero in on Dunaway, they discover he's got
an extensive and violent
00:26:09
criminal history, including
arson and possession of an illegal firearm. When they dig deeper,
investigators find out
00:26:18
Thomas Dunaway is dead. He died from a heart
attack in 1990. Detectives are denied the
chance to ever question him.
00:26:27
But news from Othram Labs
confirms he's guilty. The news that we got back
was this was a 100% match.
00:26:39
Thomas Dunaway is your guy
that committed the crime. Thomas Dunaway is who we,
through the DNA profile,
00:26:46
identified as Carol
Klaber's murderer. After 47 years, finally
tracking down the killer,
00:26:54
finally identifying Mr.
Dunaway as the killer was an extremely, extremely
gratifying experience.
00:27:03
We wanted to have something
in writing formally, both for the family
and for the community,
00:27:08
to say that Detectives
Cox and Adams had found and identified the killer. And so we sent them a
letter basically stating,
00:27:19
that while we cannot do
a posthumous indictment, it was my opinion that they
had identified the killer,
00:27:24
that there was proof beyond a
reasonable doubt that Thomas Dunaway had murdered
Carol Sue Klaber,
00:27:29
and that had he
been alive, we would seek an indictment
and would seek to prosecute him for a murder.
00:27:35
NANCY GRACE: Cold
case detectives discover that nine days
after Klaber's body is found,
00:27:41
Thomas Dunaway enlists
in the US Army. He goes AWOL. Then, he murders 19-year-old
Ronald Townson in Boone County
00:27:51
just six months after the
death of Carole Klaber. We believe that there's
a really good chance
00:28:01
that Dunaway knew Carol
Klaber from the time they were much younger. LOUIS KELLY: Northern
Kentucky right now, it's
00:28:08
a small community in
the sense that it's not hard to know everyone
here, but it was a much
00:28:13
smaller community in 1976. So I think it is certainly
plausible, if not likely, that he knew her
and sought her out.
00:28:21
In fact, I think it would be
unlikely to say that he didn't. DEBBIE PONDER: Knowing
how generous she was
00:28:28
and how friendly she was, I
imagined that she invited him to go to dinner with everybody.
00:28:34
Her friends were
all going to Zeno's. And I imagine she said,
come on, let's go.
00:28:38
You know, you can go with me. And probably said,
well, hey, I'll drive. Because when you met somebody
and you were friends,
00:28:43
you were always inviting them. Come on, let's go as a group. Let's go. I think that's what happened.
00:28:49
BRIAN OXMAN: Social
scientists tell us that crimes of violence and
sex crimes are not about sex.
00:28:58
It's hard to understand that. We think that this is
a sexual predator who wants to have a sexual thrill.
00:29:07
The social scientists
tell us, no, no, no. That's not what it is. The crime of violence is an
issue of dominance, the issue
00:29:17
of taking this
predator's personality and imposing it on someone
who is weaker and unable
00:29:27
to defend themselves. That is usually the motive,
not some sexual thrill. Well, we don't know.
00:29:36
We weren't there
for Carol's murder. We can't say for certain. But what we can say
is, generally speaking,
00:29:45
these sexual crimes
are crimes to dominate and to humiliate a woman. And where that comes from, only
the good Lord seems to know.
00:30:00
NANCY GRACE: Boone County
Law Enforcement goes public with the news, in part,
to tell the community
00:30:05
this case is finally solved. But they're also
looking for any help in linking Dunaway to other
crimes in Kentucky and beyond.
00:30:16
In this case, we
did a press conference because of the nature of
us solving a cold case
00:30:24
that was nearly 50 years old. But also, given the
implications with this case, and the strong
belief that he may
00:30:32
be responsible for other crimes,
possibly outside of the state of Kentucky, is also one of the
central focuses of what I had
00:30:41
to do in relaying a
message to the public that was understandable
and that people could
00:30:47
then take and absorb
so that it may benefit our case as a whole. The initial cause of
death was blunt force
00:30:55
trauma, with also
evidence of sexual assault and strangulation. It was a bit
shocking, actually.
00:31:02
I was working from home, and
I have multiple computers, and it came into my news feed.
00:31:08
And of course, name. I'm sitting at home by myself,
and I just, oh my gosh. They found him.
00:31:18
And I saw the picture. That's the picture that they
used in the news of her. You know, so I knew
there was no mistake.
00:31:25
This was not a spam,
a made up thing. I immediately
picked up the phone and called the Sheriff's
Department and thanked them.
00:31:34
It was-- I'm very grateful. Very grateful that they followed
up and they solved the crime.
00:31:45
Thomas Dunaway was
definitely in Boone County around that period
of time, because he
00:31:51
was arrested for a murder
in December of 1976. So Carol went missing and
was found raped and murdered
00:32:01
on June the 5th, 1976, and six
months later, now, this person that has been identified
that, hey, this is someone you
00:32:10
definitely should look at
committed a murder in Boone County six months later. I was literally floored.
00:32:19
Because he had
murdered someone else, dumped them in near
about the same place, and received a life
sentence in prison,
00:32:29
I believe, and he
only served 7 and 1/2 years of his prison sentence. And it's like, once a
liar, always a liar.
00:32:39
Once a thief, always a thief. Once a killer, always
a killer, you know? It's not going to stop.
00:32:46
If this were in Kentucky,
in my circuit right now, I would have a hard
time believing someone
00:32:52
who committed an
intentional murder would be out after seven years. There's no way in the world
you can make any sense of it.
00:32:59
When I read the report
from the parole officer-- so he got out on good
behavior at 7 and 1/2
00:33:08
years on a life sentence. But what was documented in
the report was enough to-- even if they needed
more than the fact
00:33:16
that he had killed someone,
they articulated all kinds of infractions while
he was in there,
00:33:20
which you would think, like,
yeah, you're not getting out. I have-- I have no explanation.
00:33:26
It's, in my opinion, a complete
failure on the justice system. He should have not been out.
00:33:36
How do you tell how? Do you tell that that person
has the capacity to do this when you meet someone?
00:33:42
That was the first
thing that came to mind. Were there clues
of his personality?
00:33:48
COY COX: He was where
he should have been, especially now that we know
that he not only did one murder,
00:33:53
but he did two
murders and a rape. And what we believe to be more
across the Southern United
00:33:59
States. Because three would make
him a serial killer. I just wish justice
had sent him there.
00:34:06
But that's not mine to judge. I'm not a judge,
and I'm not God. NANCY GRACE:
"Bloodline Detectives"
00:34:15
nail the identity of teen
girl Carol Klaber's killer. It's Thomas Dunaway. But investigators now believe
Dunaway is responsible for even
00:34:27
more murders. Next, on "Bloodline Detectives." [MUSIC PLAYING] Boone County, Kentucky, 2022.
00:34:43
Amazing forensic work by
"Bloodline Detectives" solves the 46-year-old
sex assault
00:34:49
and murder of a beautiful
young girl, Carol Klaber. Her killer, Thomas Dunaway,
also convicted of another murder
00:34:59
before he himself dies in 1990. Since there was a seven-year
period between his release
00:35:06
from jail from the murder
of the second victim and Dunaway's own
death, investigators
00:35:12
believe he very well may have
committed even more murders. Due to some information
developed by cold case
00:35:20
detectives, there was the
potential that he could have been involved in others. And the best way to help the
other agencies that may have
00:35:27
had him as a suspect is to
acquire a solid DNA sample from Mr. Dunaway himself. Since Mr. Dunaway had
been dead for 33 years,
00:35:38
that meant that we had
to exhume the body. And the bone that was
requested in this case
00:35:44
was ribs and molars. Those held the best potential
for the DNA evidence. So myself and Detective
Goodman suited up, full Tyvek,
00:35:54
and anticipated getting into
the grave, recovering that bone, and being done. That is, unfortunately,
not what happened at all.
00:36:06
In this particular
circumstance, after 33 years, Mr. Dunaway looked like he
had been put in the ground
00:36:13
yesterday. So what that meant was that
with a fully preserved body, we had to climb into the grave,
remove the teeth and rib bones.
00:36:25
We have solved our crime, but
the exhumation and everything else was for the sole
function of seeing if we
00:36:31
could solve somebody else's. NANCY GRACE: Kentucky
State Police, currently working on
samples in the hopes
00:36:39
of linking Thomas Dunaway to
even more unsolved murders. While his untimely death
means he cheated justice,
00:36:49
credit still goes
to Boone County sheriffs who persisted for four
decades in this investigation.
00:36:57
DEBBIE PONDER: I'm very
thankful to the Boone County Sheriff's Department
for not letting this go.
00:37:03
It would have been easy just
to say that's a cold case and we have other things
that are more pressing,
00:37:09
which you will hear that
in the judicial system. We have other cases
that are bigger.
00:37:13
We have things that are larger. We have things that affect now. And that they didn't
walk away from her,
00:37:20
I'm very impressed
and very grateful. BRIAN COCHRAN:
One of the reasons that we do this job is
to speak for victims.
00:37:29
That's why we do this,
is to do the right thing. And in this particular
circumstance,
00:37:34
we got to do that. And Miss Klaber
still had family that was very, very much interested
in what had happened to her.
00:37:44
And we were able to give them
that little peace of mind. NANCY GRACE: Carol
Klaber's killer
00:37:51
is identified thanks to
investigative genetic genealogy, a powerful
new investigative tool
00:38:00
Othram Labs is using
to solve cold cases all across our country. Even if Season of Justice
had said, you know what?
00:38:09
For whatever reason, we're
not going to fund it. They would have found a way. Othram was committed.
00:38:14
And I've learned that
from dealing with them over this period of time. They would have found a way to
make sure that it got funded.
00:38:22
We wouldn't be sitting here
today talking about solving Carol Klaber's case if
it wasn't for Othram
00:38:28
and Season of Justice. I think if they realized that
they were going to get caught,
00:38:33
and that it's a matter of
time, that less crime would be committed in the future.
00:38:39
But I also believe that
maybe more people will start coming forward and confessing.
00:38:46
The times, they
are a changing. And as a result of that,
there's new techniques.
00:38:53
Therefore, you are duty bound
as law enforcement, as Boone County law enforcement
recognized,
00:39:01
and I give them high
marks for doing that. LOUIS KELLY: It completely
changed the investigation here,
00:39:08
and I'm very excited
about the possibilities that it could lead
in the future, for future investigations,
and, potentially,
00:39:15
resolving other cold cases
we have in this community. When you have breakthroughs
in science, and then,
00:39:22
that science is used for the
greater good, in any case, whether it's a cold
case, or a more active,
00:39:29
ongoing murder investigation,
sexual assault, whatever it may
be, that's really a game-changer and
something that the community
00:39:38
should really embrace. NANCY GRACE: After
more than 40 years, the murder of 16-year-old
Carol Klaber, finally
00:39:48
solved, thanks to law
enforcement who never gave up, and to the power of
forensic science.
00:39:57
DEBBIE PONDER:
After all this time, somebody valued her
as a person enough to put their energy
into this on her behalf.
00:40:06
She's not here. She can't hold them accountable. She can't hold the Boone County
or the Kentucky State Police
00:40:15
accountable for what happens
in solving the murder. They did this on their own. And that's an honor
to her, in my opinion.
00:40:24
I don't think you ever
can get back your loved one, or justice can take back
what happened to you
00:40:31
or to someone you cared about. But I think that the truth
can allow you to move forward.
00:40:40
Groundbreaking science and
great police work, each one amazing in their own right.
00:40:48
But when they are combined, even
46-year-old cases like Carol Klaber's murder can be solved.
00:40:58
I'm Nancy Grace. Thanks for joining us here
on "Bloodline Detectives." [MUSIC PLAYING]
00:41:11
[THEME MUSIC]