00:00:00
[MUSIC PLAYING] NANCY GRACE: December
1987, Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio the naked body
of a young woman
00:00:19
found close to a
local music center. RANDY TLUMAC: The only
thing present on the body
00:00:24
was a Erieview Catholic
High School ring. NANCY GRACE: The victim is
17-year-old Barbara Blatnik
00:00:33
from nearby Garfield Heights. Barbara, brutally
raped and murdered. Her body dumped like
trash off a country road.
00:00:45
JACK DAVIS: Think early on,
they believe that this occurred somewhere else, and
this was probably just
00:00:50
where the body was disposed of. NANCY GRACE: Police
run out of leads. Barbara's case goes cold.
00:00:56
STEPHANIE WARSMITH: The
torch was passed from one set of detectives to the other.
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They don't have that many
murders in the Falls. And so, the ones
that are unsolved,
00:01:04
they want to solve them. NANCY GRACE: But a revolutionary
new crime-fighting tool will
00:01:09
ultimately make a difference. MALACHI HURSH: We've had
others where DNA was used
00:01:14
and things like this. But for it to be as old
of a case as it was, was eye opening.
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NANCY GRACE: This is
the story of the murder of beautiful, young
Barbara Blatnik,
00:01:25
and how, after 35 long
years, advanced science of genetic genealogy
finally leads investigators
00:01:34
to Barbara's killer. I'm Nancy Grace. This is "Bloodline Detectives." [MUSIC PLAYING]
00:02:05
NANCY GRACE: December 1987, just
five days before Christmas-- Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio
is just north of Akron.
00:02:14
People all over
the state getting ready for Christmas holidays
when an oil worker makes
00:02:20
a gruesome Christmas discovery. MALACHI HURSH: Someone had
discovered a new body that was
00:02:27
dumped at Blossom Music Center. It was off of a access
road, O'Neil Road. RANDY TLUMAC: An oil worker
by the name of Rodney Cline
00:02:34
was checking gas well heads. JAMES RENNER: He comes
across this nude woman's body
00:02:40
lying face down, and gets
out to see what's going on. Saw the body of a young
girl, lifeless at the time.
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Fortunately called the
police, and the officers went out there to investigate. NANCY GRACE: Police
raced to the scene
00:03:01
and launched their
investigation. JACK DAVIS: First thing
they would have done was probably secure
the scene and make
00:03:06
sure that there
wasn't a lot of people trampling around out there. They would have taken
steps again to preserve
00:03:11
the body and any
evidence that might have been found on the body. JAMES RENNER: DNA was
in their minds in 1987,
00:03:20
but it was still kind of new. And the first case to use DNA
to lead to a criminal conviction
00:03:29
was actually that year. RANDY TLUMAC: It did not appear
that she had been dragged
00:03:37
from the road, but
rather carried and placed there in that position. JACK DAVIS: They
interviewed the person
00:03:44
that found him, trying
to find out, you know, how the last time he had been
out there, when did he see it,
00:03:50
did he see any vehicles,
did he hear anything. Then they would have
canvased the area.
00:03:55
It's a pretty rural area. Not a lot of homes
and stuff in the area. NANCY GRACE: Police
also searched the area
00:04:01
where Barbara's body
is found for clues. MALACHI HURSH: They walked
the entirety of O'Neil Road
00:04:08
in the woods where
she was located, and didn't find any clothing
whatsoever in that search.
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JAMES RENNER: They would have
been looking for tire prints. This is not someplace that you
could have just wandered to.
00:04:21
Somebody had to dump her body. The coroner, Dr.
Cox, arrived on scene. He examined the body.
00:04:27
And he pointed out that
she appeared to have ligature marks around her neck. MALACHI HURSH: Looked like
she was struck in the head.
00:04:34
There was blood around her
vagina in that area, as well. So they assume that there
was a sexual assault.
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RANDY TLUMAC: The
victim was wearing long, dangly earrings in her ear
with a turquoise-colored stone.
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She has earrings on one ear. The other ear, it's torn
as if perhaps someone has torn the earring out.
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She has a tattoo
on her shoulder. RANDY TLUMAC: Other than
earrings, the only thing
00:04:57
present on the
body was a Erieview Catholic High School ring. JAMES RENNER: The
ring was important
00:05:03
because that's how they
were able to quickly figure out who this woman
was, because the ring was
00:05:10
a school ring. When the ring was
removed, they found an inscription on the inside--
00:05:17
the name, Barb Blatnik. NANCY GRACE: Soon, police
identify the victim as teen girl, Barbara Blatnik.
00:05:26
She lives in Garfield
Heights, just 30 miles away from where her body is found. JAMES RENNER: Barbara
was a free spirit.
00:05:34
She was not getting along
with her parents so well. She was a rebel,
and she always was.
00:05:43
She had lived in
two worlds, however. She had her friends from
high school, her girlfriends.
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But then, she had
an older crowd. MALACHI HURSH: Not
uncommon for her not to be home or be heard
for a little bit of time.
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She liked to go out and
hang out with friends and go to parties
and things like that.
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NANCY GRACE: When the crime
scene investigation concludes, Barbara Blatnik's body removed
by the local medical examiner.
00:06:09
The autopsy reveals material
under Barbara's fingernails. JAMES RENNER: The fingernails
seem to have material in them
00:06:20
as if she fought back
against her attacker, which a lot of victims in
that situation will do.
00:06:27
RANDY TLUMAC: Dr.
Cox collected anal and vaginal and oral swabs. He sent two of those out
to a lab that was doing DNA
00:06:36
testing, which was in
its infancy at the time. However, the results came
back that one of the samples
00:06:42
was packaged wrong
and was unusable. And the other sample
did not have enough DNA
00:06:48
molecular weight for analysis. JACK DAVIS: The medical
examiner at the time wanted to try to find out
more evidence from her hand.
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There was some
writing on her hand, so they had actually
severed her hand and sent it off to
be investigated.
00:07:03
RANDY TLUMAC: You could
just see light ink dots. But the photograph and the
methods they used there,
00:07:11
they were able to discern
some numbers and some words. Through investigation,
we determined
00:07:19
it was most likely Barb
writing down the phone number for the taxi service. And then, there were
three names that
00:07:28
appear to be names of movies-- Alien, raw, and
natural were written on the bottom of her palm.
00:07:35
But again, we can't be sure
as to what the significance of any of that was. NANCY GRACE: Police arrive
at Barbara's family home
00:07:44
to break the horrible news
to the Blatnik family. They contacted John Blatnik,
who was Barb's father.
00:07:53
He did identify the
body as his daughter. And then, from that
point, our detectives
00:07:58
escorted him back
home where they broke the news to the
remaining family members.
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MALACHI HURSH: Death
notifications is one of the harder parts of the job. It's not easy to sit down,
especially with a parent, let
00:08:13
alone any other family
member, and tell them a loved one has died. NANCY GRACE: Investigators
know they've got
00:08:19
a vicious killer on the loose. As we see next on
"Bloodline Detectives," they've got to work fast
to track this guy down.
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[MUSIC PLAYING] NANCY GRACE: December
1987, Summit County, Ohio-- police desperately
trying to track down
00:08:41
the killer of a teen
girl, Barbara Blatnik. Her naked body found a few days
earlier near Cuyahoga Falls.
00:08:49
Barbara had been
raped and strangled. Police must find out
more about her, Barbara,
00:08:56
and establish what happened
the night she was murdered. The first thing that the
detectives would have done
00:09:03
is to try to retrace Barbara's
steps up to how she ended up at Blossom Music Center.
00:09:11
NANCY GRACE: Teen
girl, Barbara Blatnik, had been dating a man
named Jerry Stean.
00:09:17
His behavior towards Barbara
had been very disturbing for Barbara's family. They went back and
looked at the night before.
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They tracked down friends to
find out who she was with-- who she was partying with--
00:09:29
and her boyfriend at the
time, this guy, Jerry. We talked with all
Barb's closest friends.
00:09:37
They talked with Jerry, his
parents, Barb's parents. They went around to
each of the locations
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where Barb was at, because
she was kind of party hopping, I would say, that night going
from different place to place.
00:09:47
So they went out and spoke with
all the people that were there. While she was out at one
of the parties, a girlfriend
00:10:53
of hers by the name
of Sheila, overheard Barb talking about an older
man that she had been dating.
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He was 23 years old at the time. And Sheila spoke up and said,
why are you so interested
00:11:06
in hanging with Jerry. He was talking behind your back. He said some disparaging
things about her.
00:11:13
And her friends told us
that, from that point on, she was trying to contact
Jerry using the payphones,
00:11:21
trying to contact
him without success. RANDY TLUMAC: When
the bar closed, she and two girlfriends
and two guys
00:11:50
from the bar that
her girlfriends knew, gave Barbara rides. She wanted to dropped
off near Jerry's house.
00:11:56
She wanted to go talk to him
about the mean thing she had heard he was saying about her.
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NANCY GRACE: Barbara Blatnik
dropped off by her friends, close to her boyfriend's home.
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RANDY TLUMAC: Right
there at the corner, there used to be a bar there
called the Penny Arcade.
00:13:19
Barbara's last seen
around 2:30-3:30 AM. Her body was discovered
around 8:00 AM.
00:13:27
And Dr. Cox, who was the coroner
that came out to the scene, estimated that her body was
dumped two to three hours prior
00:13:33
to her being found, and then
two to three hours prior to that is when the death occurred.
00:13:39
NANCY GRACE: It's SOP-- standard-operating procedure
in a case like this-- that teen girl, Barbara
Blatnik's on-and-off boyfriend,
00:13:47
Jerry Stean is an obvious
person of interest. The way he treated
Barbara in the past
00:13:53
already raises red flags
with Barbara's family. RANDY TLUMAC: Barb's dad told
us of an incident at one time
00:14:00
where Jerry pulled up with Barb,
and Barb got out of the car and went in the house.
00:14:07
And he threw her purse
out the window in the yard and yelled something and left.
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MALACHI HURSH: Typically,
in homicides and murders and these type of
investigations,
00:14:18
the overwhelming majority is
the person knows their killer. RANDY TLUMAC: He
went to the Garfield
00:14:25
Heights Police Station, where
our detectives interviewed him. He voluntarily let
them search his car.
00:14:32
JAMES RENNER: The boyfriend says
he never saw her that night. If she did arrive, he was
sleeping and she tried to knock
00:14:39
and he didn't hear. They also had talked to some
people who said that Jerry was jealous that he
saw Barb in a car
00:14:46
with a male friend giving
her a ride home from school. And he became angry
at her for that.
00:14:54
NANCY GRACE: But Jerry Stean is
quickly ruled out as a suspect. RANDY TLUMAC: It was determined
through talking to Jerry's mom
00:15:00
and dad and his brother that
Jerry was home by about 11:30, and was in bed by midnight.
00:15:09
Jerry's dad said that the
telephone rang about 4:00 in the morning. And it was a girl asking for
Jerry, and he just hung up.
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And a couple of minutes later,
it rang again a few times, but nobody answered it.
00:15:23
NANCY GRACE: Investigators
working hard, but all their leads dry up. The case goes cold.
00:15:31
JACK DAVIS: Back
in the late '80s when they were
investigating this, they had done the interviews.
00:15:36
They had found alibis. They kind of ruled out
all their main suspects. They didn't really have
anything much more to go on.
00:15:44
You get exhausted. You've just done
everything that you can do on this particular case.
00:15:49
And then, you just hope that
there's some new information that comes out. NANCY GRACE: Teen girl,
Barbara Blatnik's killer
00:15:56
remains at large on the loose. But new developments
in DNA forensics can catch up with him.
00:16:03
That's next on
"Bloodline Detectives." [MUSIC PLAYING] NANCY GRACE: 2004,
Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio--
00:16:17
police reopen the cold case
of teen girl, Barbara Blatnik. Barbara was raped and
murdered December 1987.
00:16:27
Her naked body thrown
away like trash near a local music center. Detective Randy Tlumac of the
Cuyahoga Police Department
00:16:36
leads the new investigation. My partner and I got the
OK to reinvestigate the case
00:16:44
basically from the beginning. MALACHI HURSH: I didn't
know much about the case when I first got involved--
00:16:49
just that there was a cold
case that they were going to be getting some new tips on.
00:16:56
NANCY GRACE: The
team's first job is to re-examine all the
evidence dating back to 1987.
00:17:03
RANDY TLUMAC: I went and
reviewed our evidence files to see what we had in evidence,
what testing had been done,
00:17:10
and if any new testing
could be redone. And we went down through the
boxes of evidence in this case.
00:17:17
And we were able to
locate every single item except for the biological
samples that had been collected
00:17:25
by Dr. Cox at the autopsy, which
would have included a blood sample, a hair sample from
Barb, fingernail clippings
00:17:34
and scrapings. We searched all the other
boxes from different cases, in case something
had been misplaced.
00:17:42
NANCY GRACE: The cold case team
now has a very big problem. Some of the most crucial
evidence from 1987
00:17:49
has gone missing. Detectives now must rely on
tips and anonymous leads. Well, that's a bad start.
00:18:00
JAMES RENNER: As a
journalist living in Northeast Ohio,
every other year, you would see a story
about Barbara Blatnik.
00:18:07
STEPHANIE WARSMITH: They
still wanted to solve it. And every now and
then, they would
00:18:11
brush it off and
take another look, see if there was a new approach. NANCY GRACE: In
2014, the cold case
00:18:19
team gets a very lucky break. RANDY TLUMAC: I was asked to
help the property clerk move
00:18:25
some heavy items as the property
room was full and expanding, and they would be moving
to a bigger location.
00:18:34
In the very back of the room,
there was an old refrigerator that the department
used to keep rape
00:18:42
evidence collection kits in. And the refrigerator was
in a corner of the room, and it was blocked by
a large shelving unit.
00:18:49
You couldn't even open the door. When we got it cleaned
out, I opened the door and the refrigerator was empty.
00:18:55
The second crisper
drawer I opened, there was a brown,
grocery-type bag in there
00:19:00
with an evidence tag on
and the name, Blatnik. NANCY GRACE:
Detectives hope this
00:19:06
may be the crucial evidence
from nearly 30 years ago. RANDY TLUMAC: When
I opened it up
00:19:12
and I saw that all the
individual items were in there, sealed up by Dr. Cox in
their original packages
00:19:19
from the autopsy, I was
like, this is great. This is going to be
our best chance to come
00:19:25
to a conclusion with this case. NANCY GRACE:
Investigators now apply 21st century forensic science
to a 30-year-old case.
00:19:37
RANDY TLUMAC: I submitted
it to the Ohio BCI, and I was informed that they've
got an unknown male DNA profile
00:19:45
from under Barb's fingernails. NANCY GRACE: The unknown male
DNA found under teen girl,
00:19:53
Barbara Blatnik's fingernails
is submitted to CODIS, the national DNA databank. Detectives hope and
pray for a match.
00:20:04
RANDY TLUMAC: Within
a week or two, I was informed that
there was no match. NANCY GRACE: CODIS
is the FBI database.
00:20:13
It contains thousands and
thousands of DNA profiles. If the DNA found under
Barbara Blatnik's fingernails
00:20:21
belongs to someone in
CODIS, there's a good chance investigators will get a match.
00:20:27
But it's only a chance. CODIS is great. But it's very limited
on any sort of matches
00:20:36
you can get because the
killer, the offender, has to have been
incarcerated before,
00:20:43
or arrested for a felony. JACK DAVIS: So once again,
it kind of led to a dead end.
00:20:48
But now, at least
the profile was out there in case
something would hit CODIS and would match.
00:20:54
NANCY GRACE: Detectives
still frustrated. But there's one positive
outcome in the case,
00:20:59
thanks to the new DNA evidence. RANDY TLUMAC: At
that time, by 2014, I learned that Jerry had
passed away of natural causes.
00:21:08
I did submit the
DNA sample I had collected from
him years earlier, and learned that
that was not a match.
00:21:17
I think that it would have
been really, really difficult knowing that he was
one of the suspects
00:21:25
that they looked at initially,
and that there would always be that question
and that kind of cloud
00:21:29
hanging over them. NANCY GRACE: Then, in
2018, investigators get unexpected help
from a new source.
00:21:39
JACK DAVIS: I had gotten the
email from the retired Garfield Heights chief. And he was working
with James Renner
00:21:47
at a project called
Porchlight Project. And he had asked if we would
have any interest in using
00:21:55
this technology for
Barbara Blatnik's case, because obviously, Barbara,
being from Garfield Heights,
00:22:02
you know, I'm sure this
chief wanted to see it solved as much as we did. The world changed in 2018
with the arrest and capture
00:22:11
of the Golden State Killer. And I remember watching
this play out on TV and realizing that this is big.
00:22:20
This is a game changer-- in fact, genetic genealogy. It's the first new
tool that police
00:22:26
have had since the
discovery of how to use DNA in a criminal case in 1987. I looked up Porchlight
Project to see what it was.
00:22:37
And then, I talked to my
lieutenant that was running my detective bureau at the
time, and said, why don't
00:22:42
we reach out and
I mean, let's look into this a little bit more. Jack Davis called
me in for a meeting,
00:22:47
and Alexa and I went
and kind of walk them through what we thought
we could accomplish
00:22:54
with genetic genealogy, and
explain to them how it worked and the labs that we
would use, and then,
00:23:00
the genetic genealogist
and her background. I think at that point,
you know, they really
00:23:04
didn't have anything to lose. And the fact that we
were funding everything meant that they
weren't out of pocket.
00:23:10
So they decided
to roll the dice. NANCY GRACE: NANCY GRACE: Using
genetic genealogy
00:23:17
requires very carefully
preserved samples. And in this case, those samples
are from the original autopsy.
00:23:26
Detectives hold their
breath while they wait to see if the samples
will work after 33 long years.
00:23:37
When we get DNA
from an agency, either related to a violent
offense or a John or Jane Doe,
00:23:43
we send it to the lab. And the lab makes an
electronic copy of the DNA. And then, once
they have that, we
00:23:51
pick out the markers we need
to make what we call a kit or a database for GEDmatch.
00:23:59
JAMES RENNER: Over the
years, people wanting to connect with distant
family members, and people
00:24:03
interested in general
genealogy, have amassed these great databases
where you can upload your DNA.
00:24:11
And the algorithm
will do its magic and point you to somebody that's
likely your second cousin.
00:24:19
So if you happen to find
somebody in the database that shares 50% of the DNA
with your unknown person,
00:24:26
they have to be a parent or
a child, maybe a sibling. So once you know that, you
can look at who they are
00:24:34
and then you can solve the case. That would be the
ideal situation. NANCY GRACE: The sample
detectives have is not ideal.
00:24:42
Why? Because the sample
is actually a mixture of Barbara Blatnik's DNA, along
with the DNA of her killer.
00:24:53
JAMES RENNER: They got DNA
samples from Barb's sister and from her father. And with all that extra
data, essentially,
00:25:00
what they were able to
do is on the data points that matched Barb, they
were able to filter out.
00:25:06
And what remained was all
this data that lines up with the killer's DNA. COLLEEN FITZPATRICK:
So what we had to do
00:25:13
is also process Barbara's
reference sample, take an electronic copy of
her DNA, and in software,
00:25:20
subtract them to get
the genealogy data just for the killer. NANCY GRACE: An incredible
forensic breakthrough--
00:25:27
Barbara Blatnik's
DNA was separated from her killer's DNA. But now, detectives
must find a match.
00:25:37
If we find a
brother and sister, there's only one way that
that brother and sister
00:25:42
can be related to our unknown. If we find a first
cousin, there's two ways. It could be on mom's
side or dad's side.
00:25:49
If we find a second
cousin, there's four ways. It could be a mom-mom,
mom-dad, dad-mom, dad-dad side.
00:25:57
So we're coming up with
even third cousins. So what we did-- we built those trees out.
00:26:03
We saw where they connected. We built them back
to the present. RANDY TLUMAC: Our
most likely suspect
00:26:09
was one of four brothers
of Zastawnik family from the Cleveland area. MALACHI HURSH: They live right
across the street from Barb's
00:26:17
boyfriend at the time. Some of the brothers
in the Zastawnik family were friends with the Steans.
00:26:25
They kind of ran in the
same circles at that time-- you know, everyone knew
everyone, kind of a thing.
00:26:29
It was a little bit
different than it is now. NANCY GRACE: Detectives narrow
the possible suspects down
00:26:36
to four brothers-- their last name, Zastawnik. RANDY TLUMAC: We learned
that one of the brothers
00:26:44
was deceased. He had been in prison on a
charge of kidnapping and rape. His DNA was on file
in the CODIS database,
00:26:54
so we knew right away,
he wasn't our man because it was not a match. We would have gotten a hit.
00:27:00
Another brother was
living in Indiana. MALACHI HURSH: He had a
history of sexual assault.
00:27:06
He was a convicted
child molester. MALACHI HURSH: So
he, in my mind, became the primary
suspect who I thought
00:27:15
would be most likely to
commit the death of Barb. The next brother we
looked into was James.
00:27:23
We saw that James did have a
criminal history with some type of indecent exposure and
things like that-- so
00:27:29
of a sexual nature in itself. But his DNA was not in
CODIS that we found. NANCY GRACE: Detectives
are also highly suspicious,
00:27:38
because the youngest
brother disappears the same date as Barbara's
disappearance, December 19.
00:27:47
He went missing
on the anniversary date of our girl's death. MALACHI HURSH:
Piqued our interest.
00:27:53
Seemed a little strange
that he just went missing. And his DNA wasn't on file. We didn't find much of a
criminal history for him.
00:28:00
RANDY TLUMAC: We
spoke to his wife, and it was learned that she
went to work and came home,
00:28:05
and his ID, car keys, medication
were left on the table. And he was never seen
or heard from again.
00:28:14
NANCY GRACE:
Investigators ID the four Zastawnik brothers as prime
suspects in Barbara's murder.
00:28:20
But now, they must obtain
each brother's DNA samples-- that's, from the three
brothers that are still alive.
00:28:30
RANDY TLUMAC: We managed
to get a DNA sample from the missing brother. He had a partial dental
plate that he left.
00:28:38
And she had kept it in
the case that he kept it in ever since he went missing. She gave us.
00:28:43
That we did get a DNA
profile off of that for him. NANCY GRACE: Detectives
get a search warrant.
00:28:50
And then, they visit
one of the brothers, James Zastawnik,
who, like Barbara, lives in Garfield Heights.
00:29:00
MALACHI HURSH: Tlumac
and I went to his address in the Cleveland area, and
spoke with James there.
00:29:06
We kind of ran everything
by him about Barb. We asked him if he
knew or remembered
00:29:11
anything about this case. JACK DAVIS: Had no clue
who Barbara Blatnik was. Seemed to vaguely remember
something about the case,
00:29:19
you know, being from the area. But really had no
admissions to anything. Nothing to hide.
00:29:25
RANDY TLUMAC: A lot
of people that we interviewed said that this
was a big deal in Garfield
00:29:29
Heights at the time. Unsolved homicide
posters put up. Crime Stoppers had posters put
up in every bar, storefront.
00:29:38
It was on the news. It was in all the local papers. Tlumac and I talked. We thought it was a very
strange interaction, no emotion,
00:29:46
and with him saying he didn't
know much about the case. He wasn't going to come down
without an attorney, which
00:29:52
any attorney worth
his salt wouldn't let anybody suspected of a
homicide answer any questions.
00:29:58
And we knew that. So we took our DNA sample,
and at that time we left. NANCY GRACE: Investigators
closing in on a killer.
00:30:08
The DNA samples from all
three living brothers, named Zastawnik,
now being tested,
00:30:13
compared to scrapings found
under Barbara's fingernails. That's next on
"Bloodline Detectives."
00:30:20
[MUSIC PLAYING] 2018, Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio-- police closing in on the
killer of a teen girl,
00:30:36
Barbara Blatnik. Barbara's unsolved
rape and murder-- December 1987-- still
haunts the city.
00:30:45
Investigators have
honed in on suspects, now to one of four brothers--
last name, Zastawnik.
00:30:56
The oldest brother
that we got in the list of four that fit the criteria-- his DNA was already in CODIS.
00:31:02
And with the DNA being
put in CODIS in 2016, we didn't receive a match. So we knew he wasn't
a match for the DNA.
00:31:09
RANDY TLUMAC: Another brother
was living in Indiana. He was a convicted
child molester.
00:31:16
Another brother was
living in Cleveland. He had been arrested
a couple of times for exposing himself
and masturbating
00:31:23
to women in public. Fourth brother was entered
as a missing person Since he was
missing, we couldn't
00:31:33
get the physical DNA from him. But we spoke with his wife,
and she was able to provide us
00:31:38
with a dental plate
and a pair of glasses, which would have been sufficient
to get the DNA off of.
00:31:44
NANCY GRACE: The mystery
finally solved with a phone call from the DNA lab. She said it was a
match to James Zastawnik.
00:31:55
NANCY GRACE: Investigators
now want to know much more about James Zastawnik. RANDY TLUMAC: Back in 1987,
he was living literally
00:32:03
around the corner from
where Barb was dropped off in front of the Penny Arcade. NANCY GRACE: Police
secure warrants
00:32:12
and move to arrest James
Zastawnik in Garfield Heights. RANDY TLUMAC: We
asked him, why would
00:32:20
we find, on her body, your DNA? MALACHI HURSH: If you can
imagine two detectives standing
00:32:25
on your front
porch in your house in a residential
neighborhood, telling you you're a murderer and a rapist.
00:32:30
And you know, we spoke loudly to
where the neighbors could hear. And just, no reaction
whatsoever from him.
00:32:36
Just stone-faced. No, wasn't me. Couldn't have been me. NANCY GRACE: James
Zastawnik remains
00:32:44
cool, calm under
questioning, and continues to plead his innocence. RANDY TLUMAC: And
finally at the point
00:32:53
where he saw where
this was going, he said, so, do I have
to call an attorney? Am I under arrest or what?
00:33:00
And I looked at Detective
Hursh, and I told him-- I said, yeah, open
the door-- because he
00:33:06
had the screen door locked. And he turned and
said, oh, wait. I need to go back in
the house to lock it up.
00:33:12
And we told him-- we
like, stop right there. And I told him he was
under arrest for the murder
00:33:17
of Barbara Blatnik. NANCY GRACE: Police now
charged James Zastawnik with Barbara Blatnik's murder.
00:33:26
MALACHI HURSH:
Once we brought him back to the police department,
all the interviews were done.
00:33:30
He was just brought
down to our booking, ran through our booking,
fingerprint, DNA--
00:33:34
things like that, we collected. Then, he was transported
to the Summit County Jail.
00:33:39
NANCY GRACE: Then, James
Zastawnik does something that takes everyone by surprise.
00:33:45
JAMES RENNER: James ends up in
jail, and he calls his sister. And he tells his sister a
very different story than he
00:33:52
told the police that day. He says that he was
with Barbara the night that she was murdered,
that he saw her
00:34:01
on the corner of Warner
and Grand Division, where she was dropped off. So he had that piece.
00:34:06
He knew where she was. And in his version,
he says he stopped to see if she needed a ride.
00:34:12
And she asked him
if he lived nearby-- and he did at the time-- and if she could come
over and use the phone.
00:34:21
She came over, used the phone. He says, got into an
angry conversation and slammed the phone down,
which I believe is a lie--
00:34:31
an outright lie-- because nobody
heard from her that night. And then, he tells his
sister that, well, one thing
00:34:39
led to another, and we had sex. The fact that she was
upset that she couldn't get
00:34:45
a hold of Jerry and was crying,
and then would jump into bed and have sex with
this older man--
00:34:52
I don't think that is
a reasonable storyline of what happened. I think the first part
of James Zastawnik's story
00:35:04
is probably accurate. I bet he stopped and
offered her a ride. It was around the time, I
think, that he got off work.
00:35:10
RANDY TLUMAC: I think that
James tried to come on to her. And she's the woman
that slapped him.
00:35:17
And he just lost
it at that point. JAMES RENNER: James
Zastawnik essentially confessed to the killing
on that jailhouse phone.
00:35:26
He puts himself with
Barb, explains the DNA, and then he picked her up. That, to me, would be
good enough for any jury.
00:35:33
Shortly after he made
that statement, his sister-- I believe it was-- in the conversation said,
well, don't say anything else.
00:35:41
Don't tell me any more stories. You can tell me all about it
when we see each other again.
00:35:46
NANCY GRACE: Finally, after
35 long, agonizing years, Barbara Blatnik's
family gets the phone
00:35:54
call they've been waiting for. MALACHI HURSH: Tlumac made
the calls to Barr's family.
00:36:00
Over the time that he was
working on the investigation, he knew Donna pretty well.
00:36:04
So he was the one that called. RANDY TLUMAC: She asked
to be notified first, because her father
was in poor health.
00:36:11
So I called her and I told her-- I said, yes, we made an arrest. And I could just hear her
sobbing on the other end.
00:36:19
This really just
destroyed their family. They were devastated by it. JAMES RENNER: At the
time, she had been
00:36:27
waiting 33 years for an answer. Her father was getting older. And she was able to
finally give him the answer
00:36:36
that he was waiting
for all these years-- who killed his daughter. It finally looks like
investigators have cornered
00:36:44
Barbara Blatnik's killer. They have an arrest and a
solid DNA match to the victim.
00:36:49
But as we see next on
"Bloodline Detectives," that whole scenario is
about to come crashing down.
00:36:57
[MUSIC PLAYING] 2019, Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio-- investigators arrest and jail
suspect, James Zastawnik,
00:37:14
in the murder and rape of
teen girl, Barbara Blatnik, 33 years earlier. But their case suddenly
takes a very unexpected turn
00:37:26
because of the COVID epidemic. James Zastawnik released from
jail on just $35,000 bail!
00:37:35
JAMES RENNER: In Ohio,
we have a ticking clock. If somebody is in jail
and can't get out on bond,
00:37:43
you have to bring them to
trial within a certain length of time. And they knew because of
COVID, that they wouldn't
00:37:51
be able to reach that deadline. So in order to keep the
case from falling apart,
00:37:57
they had to essentially
give James Zastawnik the ability to get out of jail. He had cancer.
00:38:04
And when he was out-- and
when he was out on bond, he lived with his brother. We were notified that he
had go to the hospital,
00:38:11
because he was on GPS monitor
and things of this nature. NANCY GRACE: Two years
go by while James
00:38:18
Zastawnik is out on bail. August 24, 2021, cops get a
call they have been fearing.
00:38:28
The detectives were still
working with the prosecutors on making sure the
case and the way
00:38:32
they were going to present it
and everything was being done. And then, we were notified
that he had passed away.
00:38:38
JAMES RENNER: We were
cheated from the right ending to this story, where James
Zastawnik would be found
00:38:47
guilty, handcuffed,
and led to prison for the rest of his short life. NANCY GRACE: The
news comes as a blow
00:38:54
to Barbara Blatnik's relatives. JAMES RENNER: I know that Donna
wanted him to go to trial.
00:39:02
I know that she
wanted the opportunity to look at him in
court and to tell him the impact that his actions
have had on her life
00:39:10
and her family's life. And that's something
that she didn't get. NANCY GRACE: Barbara
Blatnik's family,
00:39:17
along with
investigators, wonder, can there ever be justice
now that James Zastawnik
00:39:23
will never face a trial? JAMES RENNER: There's
not a doubt in my mind he's responsible for the murder.
00:39:30
And he got to spend the
remaining year and a half of his life knowing
that he was caught,
00:39:37
and that couldn't
have been pleasant. So in a way, he got
justice in the end. And I think it--
00:39:45
I think there's a certain
amount of closure to that. NANCY GRACE: Barbara
Blatnik's murder would never
00:39:51
have been solved without the
perseverance of Cuyahoga Falls detectives, and
without the timely help
00:39:58
of the Porchlight Foundation. Listening to them explain it,
and the steps that they take--
00:40:06
it was fascinating to me. I mean, I'm super impressed
by the work that they did.
00:40:12
STEPHANIE WARSMITH: I think
that forensic genealogy was the key to this case. And if it hadn't been for it,
then it might still remain
00:40:20
one of those unsolved murders. NANCY GRACE: The
investigation into teen girl, Barbara Blatnik's
rape and murder
00:40:30
needed and found an incredible
forensic science weapon-- genetic genealogy. That weapon brought science
to a whole new level.
00:40:42
The Bloodline
Detectives found the key to unlock a mixed DNA
sample, like the sample found
00:40:51
under Barbara's fingernails. In the future, investigators can
now solve even more cases, even
00:40:59
cases that stretch 35
years back into time, even cases whose only
clue is mixed DNA.
00:41:11
I'm Nancy Grace. Thank you for joining us here
on "Bloodline Detectives." [MUSIC PLAYING]
00:41:24
[MUSIC PLAYING]