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[theme music] NARRATOR: Greensboro
in North Carolina. Here, the cost of living
and real estate are below
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the United States
national average, making it a desirable
place to live for its population of 300,000.
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[dramatic music] - The city of Greensboro is
very, kind of fairly safe city to live in.
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The city itself has
a little bit of everything. One thing in particular
about Greensboro
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is that you were 15
minutes from anywhere. No matter where you
were in the city,
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you could get anywhere
in 15 minutes. But it was just
a beautiful place to live.
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NARRATOR: One family
who made their home there were the Boczkowskis. Self-made business-owners
Timothy and his wife, Elaine,
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and their three children. [dramatic music] - Timothy and Elaine
Boczkowski lived in the,
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I guess, the Northwest section
of the town, in an apartment complex called Yester
Oaks, probably the more
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affluent area of Greensboro. STEVE GOODE: They were
very nice apartments, a nice place to live, places
for the kids to run and play.
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So this part of the city
was really very quiet. [ominous music] NARRATOR: But in the early
hours of a November morning,
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Greensboro Police were
alerted to an incident in this quiet part of town. STEVE GOODE: We used to work
rotating shifts where
00:02:19
we would work different hours. By 4:00 in the morning,
you were ready to go home.
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On this particular
night, I remember I got a call, though, instead
to go to Wesley Long Hospital.
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There is a person coming that
has had an accident at home, and her name was Elaine.
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When I got
to the hospital, Elaine was in one of the emergency rooms. They were doing
resuscitative things to her,
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trying to get her back. They were doing all they
could to save her life, but she was gone.
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[ominous music] NARRATOR: Elaine's
husband, Tim, told them she had accidentally
drowned in the bathtub
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after drinking heavily. - There had been
a party at their church, St. Paul the Apostle
Catholic Church.
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This is kind of a small
group of friends, I want to say maybe
10 or 12 people. Elaine decided to stay behind
after the party was over
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and help clean
up at the church. So Timothy, her
husband, went on home. Elaine stayed
and got home later.
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And according to Mr.
Boczkowski, when she got home, she went into the bathroom
to take a bath.
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[water dripping] She was in the bathroom
for a long time. He got concerned
that she was in there
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so long
because according to him, she had had way too much
to drink and was intoxicated.
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[water dripping] - Alcohol is what we call
a central nervous system depressant, so it
depresses your reflexes.
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It makes you less
inhibited than normal. It makes your judgment
somewhat impaired
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and could cause an accidental
slip or fall, or even perhaps unconsciousness. And then you slip
into the water and drown.
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- After a while
he got concerned and knocked on the door. She wouldn't answer the door.
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He said that he took the door
off the hinges in order to get into the bathroom,
because the door was locked.
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When he got
into the bathroom, he found that she was
in the tub, and maybe hit her head
on the back of the tub,
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and appeared to have drowned. He said that he laid her
over the edge of the tub to try to give her
some form of first aid.
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[tense music] NARRATOR: After mouth
to mouth resuscitation failed, Tim Boczkowski told police
he called an ambulance,
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but it was too late. [water splashes] - Not all aquatic-related
scenes involve police divers.
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There are several
cases every year of people dying
or found deceased in their bathtub, pool,
hot tub, shower, any kind
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of confined water space. And these are just as important
to document thoroughly.
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However, these scenes
can be, in fact, more complex than others due
to the limited evidence and
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the limited information that
one can receive from the case. It's for this reason
that it's so important
00:05:47
to be attentive to all details,
to put all of the pieces together. NARRATOR: At the hospital,
police met Tim Boczkowski,
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Elaine's grieving husband. STEVE GOODE: Things were
chaotic and she had passed. At that time Tim
comes in, I meet him
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for the very first
time and begin to discuss things with him. There came a point in time
where I felt like something
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just didn't feel right. What struck me,
though, was how cold and just how
emotionless that he was.
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I was trying to give him
the benefit of the doubt because people
respond differently.
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[tense music] NARRATOR: But officers
investigating the scene
of the supposed drowning
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also made some
confusing discoveries. RANDY CARROLL:
Elaine was supposed to have drowned in the tub and
there was no water anywhere.
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Not a drop to be found. One of the Greensboro
officers said it was bone dry. [ominous music]
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[water splashes] - While water is considered
transient evidence as it can dry, which means
that evidence will deteriorate
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over time, in the time it
took investigators to arrive, there is no chance that
all aspects of the water
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would have been dried. Furthermore, it is very
difficult to remove a limp body from a full bathtub.
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In doing so, it would have
resulted in several puddles and areas of wetness around
the bathroom floor, which again
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were not present in this case. NARRATOR: Still
at the hospital, Officer Goode
called his colleague
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at the scene of the incident. - We were able to continually
communicate back and forth.
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I could communicate back what
Tim was saying and confirm or corroborate anything that
was happening on the scene.
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There are certain observations
that weren't adding up to what I was hearing from Tim.
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He said he had to break
into the bathroom. He literally had to force
his way into the bathroom
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and he did it with
a screwdriver. But there were no marks. There was nothing out
of the ordinary on the door.
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I knew how important
it was at this point. In the case that we get Tim
down to the police department
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and talk to him. He was not necessarily
eager to go at first. He seemed reluctant.
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I had to try to be empathetic. He just lost his
wife, and understand, I'm walking a fine line.
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I know how it can look
from the outside in. It could look like we were
being cold or callous,
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but we have
to investigate this. We have to know the truth. And he eventually agreed
to come-- with reluctance,
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but he came. [tense music] NARRATOR: Tim Boczkowski
was interviewed. By now, police had
compared his account
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against what was found
at the family's apartment, and statements from the friends
Elaine and her husband
00:09:12
had spent the evening with. STEVE GOODE: And he begins
to go through the way things unfolded.
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And that's when things
began to unravel over that next 45 minutes. The first thing he
said was that she
00:09:28
was submerged in water,
and somehow he was able to pull her
out of the bathtub to try to resuscitate
her, which would
00:09:34
have flung water everywhere. The only thing that we
found in the bathtub was a little bit of vomit,
and that's all that was there.
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The way he portrayed
Elaine to us, she must have been
a heavy drinker. - Her friends that
were at the party,
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in their statements
to the police, said that she was not
intoxicated at all, was not impaired when
she left the party.
00:10:04
So there was a little
conflict in the stories there. NARRATOR: An examination
of Elaine's body
00:10:10
would start to reveal more. - If this were an accident and,
say, someone slipped and fell
00:10:16
in a bathtub, they would
likely hit probably their head or some
part of their body,
00:10:21
but they would have
that one injury. In this case, there were
other injuries on the body,
00:10:27
other blunt force injuries. The husband stated that
this must have happened when he was providing CPR.
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Well, it is true
that, occasionally, we do have rib fractures
when providing CPR,
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but they are very specific. They're very specific ribs
and they're in very specific
00:10:43
locations on the body. These were not there. These were not rib
fractures from doing CPR.
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- On her abdomen,
there were some marks that corresponded to the track
marks on the shower door.
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And so that was very
suspicious as well. STEVE GOODE: Tim then told
us that he took Elaine and
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somehow tried to revive her. And then he draped her
over the bathtub rail, the bathtub itself,
and was pushing
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on her, trying to revive her,
at which time she got sick. All of the things that he said,
all of those particular facts
00:11:28
didn't line up. Every time I would almost have
him beginning to talk and say more, he would start
with these scripted,
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spontaneous utterances. He would just try
to sidetrack the conversation, but he would never, never
confess, and never would
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say exactly what he had done. JONI JOHNSTON: I think
one of the reasons that Tim tells different
versions of what happened
00:11:58
in terms of his
discovery of Elaine is, I'm not sure he had thought
through the exact scenario
00:12:05
of what he was
going to be telling. If you're trying
to concoct a scenario and you're being
asked questions
00:12:11
that you haven't
thought through, then it is much easier
for you to slip or begin telling different
versions of what
00:12:19
happened because you haven't
thought that part of the story out. NARRATOR: Tim Boczkowski's
story did not add up,
00:12:27
and police strongly
suspected foul play. But they would need more
than just the muddled account
00:12:33
of a grieving
husband if they were to prove he had a hand
in his own wife's death.
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[dramatic music] In Greensboro, North
Carolina, detectives are trying to piece together
how a mother of three,
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Elaine Boczkowski, could
have drowned in the bathtub at her family home. Her husband Tim's
account of events
00:13:00
doesn't match what they
found at the scene. STEVE GOODE: Tim
tried to tell us that somehow she had been
drunk in the bathroom
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and she had fallen or something
in the tub and hit her head. And he repeatedly said
that, that somehow she
00:13:17
had hit her head, and that had
caused her to be in the water. So he stuck to that story
over and over again.
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NARRATOR: Police hoped
the post-mortem would offer answers as to how Elaine died.
00:13:33
Meanwhile, they started looking
into the Boczkowski family. - Hey, Sandy. STEVE GOODE: Tim and Elaine
were really the apple
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pie family in so many words. - He and Elaine started a
little miniature golf ice cream
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place out north of Greensboro. And they became active in a
Catholic Church in Greensboro,
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and developed a little
group of friends who socialized together,
went to church together,
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and that sort of thing. [tense music] NARRATOR: Greensboro proved
an idyllic place for the couple
00:14:21
to raise their three
young children-- Randy, Sandy, and Todd. RANDY CARROLL: Elaine was very
well-liked, well-respected,
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a lot of her volunteering
and working, helping out took place at different
events through their church.
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STEVE GOODE: She
adored her kids. You can just see that they
were just a close knit, just
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a wonderful family. - What do you
have there, Randy? - A bicycle. - A bicycle? NARRATOR: But detectives
soon realized
00:14:57
this picture perfect couple
wasn't without its problems. - As we began to pull back
the layers of this marriage,
00:15:06
looking at the family
unit, what we found out was that both Tim and Elaine
were living a very
00:15:13
distant life from each other. They were getting ready
to end their marriage. They may have been living under
the same roof at this time,
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but they were not living
as husband and wife. They were just keeping
it from the kids
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because the kids were--
the children were all little. At the time, they didn't
want them to know.
00:15:37
But the marriage was
not, not in a good place. JONI JOHNSTON: There were some
practical reasons for the fact
00:15:46
that the two of them were still
living under the same roof. I know that they were
in the process of closing
00:15:51
Tim's business down. Elaine had been
raising the kids. She was a homemaker,
so they would
00:15:57
have been in a difficult
financial situation. STEVE GOODE: Their finances
were in shambles.
00:16:04
He had two failed
businesses at this point. They were just in a really,
really bad place.
00:16:11
It began to make us
look and think, OK, we need to maybe look
into the background
00:16:16
of insurance policies. We found one insurance
policy for $25,000. [tense music] NARRATOR: Meanwhile, friends
and associates had gathered
00:16:32
round to support the family. They included estate
attorney Kevin Rockford. - Boczkowski said
to Kevin Rockford, "can
00:16:43
I speak to you for a minute?" So they went
upstairs to get away from the rest of the folks.
00:16:48
And Boczkowski says,
"how do I collect the life insurance money?" And Kevin Rockford was
pretty much surprised
00:17:00
at being asked that because
here Boczkowski's wife had just died just a few hours before.
00:17:07
JONI JOHNSTON: Tim and Elaine
had met in the 1970s. And they met at a Catholic
singles function.
00:17:13
So they were pretty young
when they met, and they had been together for many years.
00:17:18
It's difficult to get
a business off the ground. And he was
struggling with that.
00:17:21
And I think that contributed
to some of the stress in the marriage. But I also think that
people change over time.
00:17:27
And when you get married
and you have three children, and as you get older, I
think it's pretty natural
00:17:32
to reevaluate
your marriage, but also to reevaluate who you are. And I think that
was something that
00:17:38
came out a lot about Elaine. [tense music] NARRATOR: By now, police had
the results of the post-mortem.
00:17:51
- Every death doesn't result
in an autopsy, you know, normal deaths where people
die from old age and
00:17:58
that sort of thing. Typically, autopsies are
performed in suspicious deaths. In this case,
the autopsy was performed
00:18:05
in Chapel Hill, which is
about an hour from Greensboro. - The autopsy showed
some immediate red flags.
00:18:14
MICHELLE DUPRE: One
of the important things is the toxicology
results and report.
00:18:20
In this case, blood was
taken and other fluids and toxicology was examined. There were no drugs and no
alcohol found in her body.
00:18:29
Contrary to what her husband
had said of her heavy drinking the night before. - We were just
told by a husband
00:18:36
that his wife was
literally about drunk and had been drinking all
night, been drinking wine,
00:18:42
and that she was just
falling down drunk. That was a lie. NARRATOR: The autopsy
also couldn't
00:18:52
conclusively show
whether Elaine had died by drowning that night. [water splashes]
00:19:02
- When we talk about
drowning, it could be any one of five manners of death. It could be accident,
suicide, homicide,
00:19:09
natural, or undetermined. We have to basically rule
out other causes of death when we're talking
about drowning.
00:19:18
It is a diagnosis
of exclusion, and it's often very difficult to prove. There was no water
in her lungs, which
00:19:28
is not totally
unusual because there is such a thing
as a dry drowning, where the larynx has a spasm.
00:19:34
It's called a laryngospasm,
and it prevents water from entering the lungs. But in this case,
the rest of the story
00:19:43
just didn't make sense. SARAH MORMINO:
The pathologist was able to determine the cause
of death as asphyxiation.
00:19:50
However, they were
unable to determine if that asphyxiation was due
to a drowning or other means,
00:19:56
leaving the manner of death
ruled as undetermined. [tense music] STEVE GOODE: When we saw
the results of the autopsy,
00:20:05
we could not pursue a case. NARRATOR: It was a serious
blow to the investigators,
00:20:13
who strongly suspected a murder
may have been committed. STEVE GOODE: We have
guidelines we have to follow.
00:20:20
We just can't make
things happen, regardless of what we know. Even if we know what
the truth really is,
00:20:27
there's nothing we can do. We knew that he had some
part in Elaine's death. We knew it, but we couldn't
unequivocally prove it.
00:20:38
We did not have
enough probable cause. The level of frustration
was out the roof,
00:20:44
because I only had
a limited amount of time to accomplish this. After speaking to him
for about 45 minutes,
00:20:52
the interview was interrupted
to allow him to leave. - Straight away, they looked
at it as a suspicious death
00:21:02
but couldn't charge him. - We were thinking, we
just let a killer go free. [ominous music]
00:21:15
- I can remember the first
time we went camping, and Mike and I-- NARRATOR: In North
Carolina, suspected murderer
00:21:22
Tim Boczkowski has walked
free, despite police suspicions that his wife Elaine's
death in the family bathtub
00:21:31
was no accident. RANDY CARROLL: After Elaine
Boczkowski was killed, the husband was not
charged with a murder.
00:21:44
The medical examiner was
not able to determine a cause of death, so the case
just kind of went on hold.
00:21:56
- Tim never came off the radar
of our Criminal Investigations Division at Greensboro.
00:22:03
No one had forgotten what
had happened to Elaine and that Tim was there. This case never really
went cold for us.
00:22:11
It's just that we
didn't have enough. NARRATOR: The following
year, Tim Boczkowski
00:22:23
left Greensboro, taking
his three children and returned to his home
state of Pennsylvania.
00:22:34
JONI JOHNSTON: I
think his decision to move back to Pennsylvania
was practical in the sense
00:22:37
that he's got
a support system there, he's got extended family there. He's got three young
kids now that he
00:22:43
has to raise as a single dad. And I also think that he
saw it as a fresh start. So I think to some
extent, maybe
00:22:49
there was a little bit
of erasing his past and starting over again. RANDY CARROLL: He started
attending a Catholic Church.
00:23:04
They had some kind of group
for young adults where they could come
and socialize, and
00:23:11
that's where he met Maryann. They developed a relationship. She got to know Randy,
Todd, and Sandy,
00:23:19
and was close to the children. And so their relationship
developed to the point to where they married.
00:23:30
STEVE GOODE: Let me
ask you this, too. What kind of man, after
his wife has been dead
00:23:36
for less than a year, starts
going to singles events and finding him another wife?
00:23:43
RANDY CARROLL:
To kind of compare Maryann and Elaine,
for starters, they looked a lot alike.
00:23:50
And everybody
commented on that, how he picked another
wife and got involved in a relationship with
another woman that looked
00:23:58
a whole lot like Elaine. So that was a little uncanny. Maryann was also well-liked.
00:24:06
It's really interesting
how the folks that knew Maryann in Pittsburgh
had a lot of the same things
00:24:11
to say about Maryann that
was said about Elaine, that she was involved
with the church,
00:24:15
that she was a good mother. JONI JOHNSTON: It's hard to
know what to make of the fact
00:24:21
that she is
so physically similar, and also their interests
are similar. I mean, the fact that
this happens so quickly
00:24:28
makes me think it's
a little bit more than that. That's not just that he's
picking somebody who's a type,
00:24:35
but that he's picking somebody
in a way that is a replacement. And that I wonder how
much his unresolved issues
00:24:45
around their marriage
and her death played into him
picking somebody who is so similar to Elaine.
00:24:55
I mean, one of the things
that does make things a little bit easier for the
kids is how strikingly similar
00:25:01
Maryann looks to Elaine. - Randy, Todd,
and Sandy loved her, saw that they had a chance
at having another mother.
00:25:14
STEVE GOODE:
But in the course of all that, we were at a standstill
about anything
00:25:18
we could do on this side. All we could do is watch
and hope that he behaved. [ominous music]
00:25:30
NARRATOR: But almost
four years to the day after Elaine's
death, detectives back in North Carolina received
an astonishing phone call.
00:25:41
- We were notified
by Pennsylvania of what had happened to his second wife. NARRATOR: Medics and police had
been called to the family home.
00:25:52
Yet again, it seemed tragedy
had struck Tim and his family. His second wife,
Maryann, was found dead
00:26:01
in their backyard hot tub. - That right there was
probably the darkest day in my law enforcement career.
00:26:10
RANDY CARROLL: That
evening, he and Maryann were in the hot tub. They had a hot tub
at the back of the house.
00:26:16
And he claimed that
Maryann had been drinking way too much beer. He said she must have
had something like 15
00:26:24
or 17 beers that night while
they were in the hot tub. He leaves her in the hot
tub by herself
00:26:29
while he goes inside
to take a shower. So he comes back
out after a while and supposedly finds
Maryann just in the water
00:26:39
in the hot tub, unconscious. So he gets her out
of the hot tub, somehow, calls 911, says he found
his wife in the hot tub,
00:26:49
that it appeared that she
had drowned after having too much to drink. [water splashes]
00:27:00
- When called to an
aquatic-related scene looking at a case
of an accidental drowning,
00:27:05
the victim is unlikely
to have any injuries, as a lot of the times that is
simply from someone dying from
00:27:12
being unable to swim in water,
becoming fatigued in water, or becoming unconscious in water.
00:27:19
In Maryann's case, things
were a little different. Upon examining her body,
she had several bruises
00:27:26
along her neck
and chest that led investigators to believe
that something else might have occurred.
00:27:34
It was reported that Maryann
had been in the hot tub for 15 or 20 minutes prior
to paramedics arrival.
00:27:41
A body that has been in such
a warm environment for so long would have had extreme
skin wrinkling, especially
00:27:48
in her fingers and toes. The presence or absence
of the skin wrinkling would have been a quick way
to determine if that part
00:27:57
of the story was true. STEVE GOODE:
The police department had the same
suspicions that we had
00:28:04
in Elaine's case
in Greensboro, but he wasn't able to cover
his tracks as much on this particular case,
and it started unraveling
00:28:14
a little bit quicker. There's a fascination
here with water. His next wife died
around the Jacuzzi.
00:28:25
He claimed that he
tried to do CPR, and the detectives
noticed he had one of those little
portable CPR masks.
00:28:34
We even carried them
back in police days. And he had somehow had a CPR
mask sitting around the house.
00:28:45
RANDY CARROLL: All
the paramedics and whatnot found that to be a very
unusual circumstance,
00:28:51
that a husband would
use a breathing device to resuscitate his wife. NARRATOR: Then police
made a connection
00:28:58
that would change the course
of this investigation. - Buck Boczkowski,
the father, gets there.
00:29:05
And one of the detectives
overhears Buck Boczkowski asking Timothy, the husband,
"do they know about
00:29:14
the first wife in Greensboro?" One of the detectives
overhears that and goes over to Timothy
and Buck Boczkowski and say,
00:29:22
"what are you talking about? Has he been married before?" "Yeah, he had a first
wife, who died
00:29:28
under similar circumstances
in Greensboro. Another accident." In addition, Timothy was
heard to say, "I hope they
00:29:36
don't try to pin this on me." That was another
statement that came out that sort of piqued
the curiosity
00:29:43
of the law enforcement there. NARRATOR: Pittsburgh Police
immediately contacted officers in Greensboro.
00:29:56
RANDY CARROLL: The detective in
Pittsburgh talks to Detective Ken Brady, the Greensboro
police detective,
00:30:02
and says, "do you have a file
on Timothy Boczkowski?" And Kim Brady
says, "got it right
00:30:08
here on the corner of my desk. It's been here for four years." - I began to think,
we let him--
00:30:21
we let him kill again. NARRATOR: In Pittsburgh,
Maryann's body was taken for an autopsy.
00:30:32
MICHELLE DUPRE:
Initially, it could be a very plausible
explanation that this was an accidental drowning.
00:30:38
But upon further
investigation, we noticed that there are injuries
to her back and to her legs.
00:30:43
These could possibly even be
defensive injuries, especially the ones on her legs.
00:30:48
Because when we try to defend
ourselves, we use everything we have. We use our arms and our legs.
00:30:53
Now we're starting to look
at a totally different story. In addition, small
punctate hemorrhages
00:31:00
were found on Maryann's skin. And basically, this is
going to lead us to thinking
00:31:04
that this was strangulation. The injuries would not come
from simply being in a hot tub.
00:31:12
RANDY CARROLL: There were
more physical findings that the pathologist was
able to make in connection
00:31:19
with Maryann's case. There were bruises
and scratch marks. STEVE GOODE: Tim did
have physical scratches,
00:31:27
defense marks, on his body
that he could not explain away. And the detectives
immediately picked up on that.
00:31:35
- The medical
examiner in Pittsburgh was able to conclude that
it was a violent death,
00:31:41
a homicidal death. NARRATOR: Police had now
charged Tim Boczkowski with Maryann's murder.
00:31:50
Next, they turn their attention
back to the death of his first wife, Elaine. RANDY CARROLL:
So looking at all
00:31:57
that, including physical
findings in both cases, Dr. Butz was willing
to take another look
00:32:02
at Elaine's autopsy. And then concluded that it was
a violent, intentional death.
00:32:09
And his opinion
as to the cause of death was positional asphyxiation. It basically means
a compressing of the diaphragm.
00:32:23
If the diaphragm can't
move up and down, you know, you can't get enough
oxygen in the lungs to survive.
00:32:29
And we believe that it
was over the bathtub because she had
the track marks and that he compressed
the diaphragm
00:32:34
long enough for her to die. STEVE GOODE: In both cases, the
MEs found little to no water
00:32:46
in both of their lungs. It had nothing to do with
water as their cause of death.
00:32:53
Once that happened, once
it was considered a murder, we were able to make our case.
00:32:59
[ominous music] NARRATOR: Tim Boczkowski
was arrested and charged with two
murders, leaving
00:33:10
his three children stunned. - When my father was
arrested, I was 10 years old, you know, I just lost my mom.
00:33:27
I lost my stepmom, and now
I'm losing my father. And it definitely, definitely
messes with someone's psyche.
00:33:34
Just the whole mental
aspect of it, you cannot wrap your head around. NARRATOR: For the officers
back in North Carolina who
00:33:43
had put the case
into Elaine's death on hold, news of Maryann's death
also had a profound impact.
00:33:50
- When he killed
Maryann, it did open the door for us
then to be able to make the case for Elaine.
00:33:57
If Maryann had
not died, I don't think we would have ever
been able to make the case
00:34:04
and bring Tim back
to North Carolina. The only word I can
come up with is bitter--
00:34:10
bittersweet, because we could
not stop that second murder. [ominous music] NARRATOR: In the US.
00:34:26
Timothy Boczkowski is awaiting
trial in two separate states. Police believe he has killed
not one wife, but two, using
00:34:36
almost identical methods. But it seems his
deeds may now finally be catching up with him.
00:34:44
- When you look
at the timeline here, Tim, on November the 4th
of 1990, he murdered
00:34:52
Elaine here in Greensboro. Less than two years later,
he kills the next wife. Two
00:35:04
- Stories that were
just eerily similar. Drinking too much
and drowning in the bathtub.
00:35:11
And then four years
later, almost exactly to the day, wife number two
has too much to drink and
00:35:16
drowns in the family hot tub. Boczkowski claimed that
both were accidental. I mean, I thought the odds
were one in a million
00:35:28
that that could be true. [water splashes] - Drownings are a difficult
diagnosis to make.
00:35:40
In Elaine's case,
we look at all of the injuries on her body. We look at the fact that there
were more than one head wound.
00:35:48
We look at the fact that
there were these track marks on her abdominal area. There is no other
explanation except this
00:35:56
was a violent death. This was a homicide. So in looking at all the
evidence from Maryann's case,
00:36:03
being in a hot tub with
similar circumstances involved, the injuries would not come
from simply being in a hot tub.
00:36:11
Something is amiss. Somebody is not telling
the truth in this case. - It's almost like
the fact that they
00:36:21
have no consequences for that
first murder emboldens them to think, now I
know how to do it,
00:36:28
and now I know how to murder
somebody and get away with it. And I think this is
a big motivator for them,
00:36:34
or at least a disinhibitor
to if they have the motive to do it again. NARRATOR: And in both
marriages,
00:36:43
things weren't what they
seemed on the surface. STEVE GOODE: We know he
killed his first wife.
00:36:49
A lot of questions are left
unanswered, such as what was the real motivation. After all, he did cash in on
the $25,000 insurance policy.
00:36:58
The marriage appeared
to have gone cold. There could have been jealousy
on Tim's part, we don't know.
00:37:07
But in the aftermath of it,
we find out that they really are not a couple. The marriage has just
dissolved and that they
00:37:18
no longer love each other. TODD BOCZKOWSKI:
And their marriage, that really changed a lot of things.
00:37:26
The ice cream store, it fell
apart financially and just wasn't a success
as they hoped for.
00:37:34
And that was another stress
point, another sticking point. He kind of got
bored and decided
00:37:42
to read my mom's
journal, and that's where he found information
that he did not like.
00:37:47
He found out that
she had written romantically about somebody
from church, from our church.
00:37:54
He didn't like that. And he felt betrayed. He felt angry. NARRATOR: But police thought
Boczkowski had another motive.
00:38:07
- Can money be
a motivation to murder? Can money be a motivation? RANDY CARROLL: In terms
of the amounts,
00:38:17
the life insurance policies, in
Elaine's case, it was 25 grand. And in Maryann's
case, it was $100,000.
00:38:26
So he learned how
to make it more lucrative and four times more lucrative. - I would really be interested
in knowing what story Tim told
00:38:34
himself about that
life insurance policy, because I would
think that he made up a very good story
to tell himself
00:38:43
about why he got that policy. I think he would have told
himself that, hey, we're
00:38:48
a family now, and if something
happens to Maryann, I'll need money to help
with the kids or whatever.
00:38:54
But I think he absolutely
knew deep down that the option for murder was there. He had done it once,
he would do it again.
00:39:09
NARRATOR: Detectives
also suspected his methods had evolved
across the two killings.
00:39:13
STEVE GOODE: He had
a CPR mask because he had learned from
the first time when he was doing CPR on Elaine,
he got chunks of vomit
00:39:23
in his mouth. And so in preparation,
he had bought a mask. He had learned something from
the first time he had killed.
00:39:34
That particular facts stuck
out to me about Mary's case. NARRATOR: But with two murder
trials in two different states,
00:39:47
bringing Boczkowski to justice
would be a complex task. STEVE GOODE: We
have two completely
00:39:53
different legal systems. Each case was handled
in its own way. They had to abide
by Pennsylvania laws and
00:40:02
then North Carolina the same. So what had to be decided was,
who was going to get him first.
00:40:07
And we ended up having
him extradited back and we were able to try
him here in North Carolina.
00:40:14
[ominous music] When we went to trial with
Tim here in Greensboro, all this information was
seared into our minds.
00:40:31
We were ready. We were confident in our case. RANDY CARROLL: You
think about everything
00:40:36
that you can present
in evidence that you can argue to the jury. Stuff like this is
a one in million chance
00:40:42
that that occurred. I have to have evidence
to support that. So it was very important
for me to get that evidence
00:40:48
from Pittsburgh,
so that I could then argue the possibility
that these two deaths could occur accidentally
in the same fashion
00:40:57
is astronomical. One of the things I like
to do when I argue to the jury is I'll get over
in front of the defendant
00:41:05
at his table and point at him. And so I'm looking
at him while-- I'm in his face, basically,
and he's not responding at all.
00:41:15
You get a lot of these guys
they'll even talk back to you in court. But, he was stoic,
non-compassionate.
00:41:26
He was just emotionless. STEVE GOODE: You would think
that being a part of a case
00:41:32
like this and finally seeing
it come to a conclusion would make you feel just-- I don't know, better?
00:41:40
Better? Well, the truth is, when
guilty, the guilty plea was read, we were all exhausted.
00:41:53
He was given the maximum
sentence for North Carolina for the murder charge. - I think he served
about 22 years.
00:42:02
I think he got paroled in 2018. I convicted him
in November of 1996. So, yeah, that's
about 22 years.
00:42:15
NARRATOR: The courts
hadn't finished with Boczkowski, though. STEVE GOODE: After he was
found guilty in North Carolina,
00:42:23
he was taken back
to Pennsylvania to stand trial, where he was found guilty
of that second murder.
00:42:31
[ominous music] He was initially given the
death penalty in Pennsylvania. There was some appeals
that happened happen
00:42:44
and it was reverted
back to a life sentence. RANDY CARROLL: It's a very
unfortunate case, primarily
00:42:52
because of the children. You've got these
three children who are going to have to live
the rest of their lives
00:42:59
without either moms, with
their dad being incarcerated. - Say, Randy,
what's in that box?
00:43:09
TODD BOCZKOWSKI:
I was a child, and it was almost as if our
relationship froze in time.
00:43:15
[happy chatter on video] I have all of these
things inside my head and my heart is being pulled
in two different directions.
00:43:22
And that's when I made the
decision to go visit my father. [ominous music] I wanted to confront him
in a way that I didn't before.
00:43:39
And so I came up with
this idea of pretty much giving him an ultimatum
of you either
00:43:46
tell me what really happened
or you will never see or hear from me ever again. And he was, instead, wanting to
hide behind his legal appeals.
00:43:57
And then I discovered a week
later that he had written a letter to my brother. And in that letter,
he took responsibility
00:44:09
for taking the life
of my birth mom, Elaine. [somber music] When it came
to my stepmom's death,
00:44:20
my father maintained
his innocence, which was just absolutely
mind-blowing, you know.
00:44:26
I mean, just the physical
evidence alone just makes it absolutely ridiculous. - I interviewed
the three children
00:44:34
before I tried my case. You wonder how it
affects those kids. I can tell you how
sad it is because I
00:44:44
lost my first wife and-- [emotional pause]
my daughters were 9 and 6. So I can only imagine.
00:45:05
- My relationship with
my father right now is nonexistent. I last had conversation
with him in 2018.
00:45:14
I wrote him a letter
and it was a final letter. It was more or less
a goodbye letter.
00:45:20
[happy chatter on video] Forgiveness is something
that I think a lot of people just misinterpret
or misunderstand.
00:45:29
Forgiveness is nothing
about the other person. It's a gift, and it's a gift
that you give yourself.
00:45:36
Just because I forgive him
doesn't mean that I need or want anything from him. The reality is is he took
someone's life, my mom, Elaine,
00:45:46
and then my stepmom, Maryann. He deserves to be
where he's at. Plain and simple.
00:45:53
[ominous music] [theme music]