00:00:16
Yo, come here. NARRATOR: A female skull found in a field that scientists can't identify.
00:00:21
It's very disappointing knowing that this case may never be resolved. NARRATOR: Another woman who vanishes without a trace.
00:00:28
The family wanted to believe that she was alive, but my particular instinct was she was not alive.
00:00:34
NARRATOR: And one year later-- the remains of a third woman found on a farm. That's when I knew something happened to my mother.
00:00:41
NARRATOR: Could these three seemingly unrelated cases be linked? We're believing we have a real serial killer on our hands.
00:00:48
NARRATOR: Investigators hope Forensic Anthropologist David Glassman can help them put the pieces of the puzzle
00:00:54
together. This has never happened to me before. We're talking about cases that span four, five years.
00:01:02
[THEME MUSIC] [DISHES CLATTERING] [DISTORTED BREATHING] NARRATOR: A game of catch in an overgrown
00:01:39
field, a typical sight in any American city. But in this field in Bay City, Texas,
00:01:50
the typical becomes the terrifying-- Yo, come here. NARRATOR: --when two young brothers
00:01:55
make a grisly discovery. ROBERT MERRILL: A couple of boys were out playing, and they came across a skull in the field next to the house.
00:02:09
So they brought it to the attention of their grandmother, who called the police.
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NARRATOR: The police immediately search the field, but they don't find much. The remains have been in the open for so long
00:02:24
that animals have scattered the bones. Investigators wonder if it's the body of a drifter
00:02:30
or a victim of foul play. Have the bones been here for years or merely weeks? Finding the threads of truth in this tangle of unknowns
00:02:40
will take the skills of a top forensic anthropologist, a specialist in the stories bones can tell.
00:02:51
They turn to Dr. David Glassman. I don't see death when I'm doing my work. The question of how do I deal with death every day
00:02:59
is I don't see it every day. What I work with is the living evidence, even though the living evidence lies on dead materials.
00:03:14
NARRATOR: Investigators deliver the bones to Dr. Glassman's lab at the University of Southern Indiana.
00:03:21
They need quick answers to two pressing questions-- who is this and how did they die?
00:03:27
My hope always is to take the last remaining aspects of this individual and to create
00:03:34
enough information that we can answer those two essential questions-- who is the person and what is the manner
00:03:43
and cause of their death? NARRATOR: Thanks to the intact skull, it takes Dr. Glassman only moments to find clues
00:03:50
about how this person died. The injury that we see on the side of the skull here
00:03:55
is very, very severe. [GRUNTS] Some kind of implement must have been used. It had to have enough force to not only impact the skull,
00:04:04
but to break it cleanly all the way through into the brain cavity. This was a really hard hit.
00:04:11
NARRATOR: A fatal blow of incredible force, a skull literally caved in. His experience tells him that damage of this sort
00:04:19
would be highly unlikely two result from a fall or a freak accident. Dr. Glassman concludes right away that they
00:04:26
are dealing with a homicide. But who is this? Now Dr. Glassman must try to put a face on this battered skull.
00:04:37
My next step is starting the biological profile. This is the determination of the sex, the ancestry,
00:04:44
the age at death, and the stature of the individual. It provides a picture of who that individual may have been.
00:04:51
What you want from Dr. Glassman is something that can maybe narrow it down so you can narrow your search for a missing person.
00:04:58
NARRATOR: First Dr. Glassman examines the skull to determine the victim's sex. A male's brow ridge or the bone above
00:05:06
the eye is sharper and more defined than a female's. On this particular skull, the pattern that I saw
00:05:14
aligned it with females. There is very little brow ridge area right here. NARRATOR: And this skull has other secrets to reveal.
00:05:23
Dr. Glassman inspects the sutures on the top of the skull to determine the woman's age.
00:05:29
The main sutures are all fused. They're completely closed, suggesting that this person
00:05:34
was older than 35 years. NARRATOR: For a seasoned forensic anthropologist, bones can also speak volumes about a person's ethnicity.
00:05:44
Information concerning the ancestry of the individual is best seen in the facial region right here.
00:05:51
NARRATOR: The positioning of the eye sockets and cheek structure suggest that the woman may have been Latin American.
00:05:57
And her profile also hints at European or Latino descent. If I hold the skull up in anatomical position
00:06:05
and place a pencil on the forehead, you can see that this is pretty straight up and down.
00:06:12
And this is indicative of individuals who are European or more Hispanic ancestry.
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NARRATOR: From the one arm bone found in the field, Dr. Glassman estimates the dead woman's height.
00:06:26
From the biological profile, I came to the conclusion that the remains best represent a female of age
00:06:34
over 35 years, possibly Hispanic, somewhere between 4 foot 10" and 5 foot 2 inches.
00:06:42
NARRATOR: Dr. Glassman now reports his findings to investigators. Once you get this profile, you try
00:06:52
to search any database you can to see if a missing person fits that information.
00:07:00
NARRATOR: Investigators comb through thousands of missing persons reports but find no one
00:07:05
who matches this profile. So the remains were stored and the case was left open.
00:07:12
It was simply a missing person and identified remains. NARRATOR: Without new information,
00:07:17
her death will be forever unexplained, her murderer unpunished. That's very disappointing to us knowing that this case may
00:07:25
never be resolved. At this point our case went cold. NARRATOR: But three years later, an incident
00:07:33
occurs that will eventually shed light on this mysterious skeleton. In December 2000, Linda Sandoval receives
00:07:46
an anonymous phone call. Her mother is in danger. And I'm like, what? You know, what is it that you're talking about?
00:07:53
NARRATOR: Linda and a cousin immediately race to her mother's house a few miles away.
00:07:59
The door is locked, and her car was in the carport. Mom? [KNOCKING] So my cousin came in through the window
00:08:08
and opened up the door for us. And I walked in through the door. They found that her keys and her purse were inside.
00:08:15
And then they found a wet spot on the carpet. The carpet's wet. And, you know, I'm like, oh my god, you know?
00:08:22
I'm just, like, not even thinking anything bad or anything. I knew it wasn't good.
00:08:27
But I just, you know, just-- NARRATOR: Linda calls the police. Officers confirm that the wet spot on the carpet
00:08:35
is the result of a hasty attempted cleanup, and what was being cleaned up was blood.
00:08:41
In the driveway, the police find a ring belonging to Lucinda. It too was bloodstained.
00:08:46
That's when I knew. And I said something happened to my mother. He said yes. I said it's not good.
00:08:54
He says no. NARRATOR: Investigators learned through interviews with friends and neighbors that Lucinda Hernandez is a devoted mother
00:09:02
who is highly respected in the community with no history of any kind of trouble.
00:09:08
She was a very beautiful lady, very sympathetic to people who were having problems in their lives.
00:09:18
NARRATOR: One woman brutally slain and left in a rural field, a second woman vanished without a trace.
00:09:26
Coming up, Dr. Glassman identifies the nameless skeleton and investigators find a clue that
00:09:31
links these two women together, when "Skeleton Stories" returns. Lucinda Hernandez has mysteriously
00:09:53
vanished from her home. Police question family members and search her house for clues that might explain
00:10:00
her sudden disappearance. In talking to the family members, I try to find out who is in her life at this particular point.
00:10:09
And Detective Merrill questions me about, you know, my dad, anybody that my mom was seeing.
00:10:17
NARRATOR: Linda tells investigators that her parents had recently divorced and her mother was dating a new guy.
00:10:24
I did give him the name. But I couldn't give him a last name. And nobody seems to know his full name,
00:10:30
all they know is Ernesto itself. NARRATOR: Though Linda has met Ernesto only a few times,
00:10:36
she knows she doesn't like him. One time I called and my mom answered the phone and I heard someone in the background.
00:10:46
I said, mom, who's there? And she said, it's Ernesto. I said, why is he in your house yelling?
00:10:53
What is going on? And she goes, nothing, don't worry about it, everything is fine.
00:11:00
Investigators now wonder if Ernesto could be linked to Lucinda's disappearance. We're trying to see if we can find any evidence that
00:11:07
will tie his name to a face. Because we don't really know what he looks like. NARRATOR: As they comb through Lucinda's house,
00:11:15
the detectives catch the break they need. I find this envelope that had a return address in Mexico
00:11:23
to Ernesto. And inside that envelope there was a photograph. And it had his name on the back of the photograph.
00:11:30
NARRATOR: Now investigators have put a face with a name-- Ernesto Nevez. The family makes copies of that photo
00:11:38
and places it on flyers. The family goes out and spreads it out all over town, trying to get more information on Ernesto.
00:11:47
NARRATOR: Police soon get a call about a man who was pulling down fliers in the neighborhood.
00:11:52
They suspect it's Ernesto. A couple of detectives found him in an alley just a couple
00:12:01
of blocks from where the call had come from. And he was taken down to the police station for questioning.
00:12:09
You know why we called you in here. NARRATOR: There, they find evidence directly linking--
00:12:12
No. NARRATOR: --him to Lucinda's disappearance. Lucinda Garcia. Just show me what's in your pockets.
00:12:18
NARRATOR: He has her house key. What does this key go to? Whoever left that house for the last time locked the door.
00:12:28
And he had the only key in the pocket that could have done that. NARRATOR: Even more sinister are the statements
00:12:35
Ernesto makes when police ask him to help find Lucinda. [SPEAKS SPANISH] During the interview, he makes some statements
00:12:42
along the lines of "if I tell you where she's at, you'll sink me." Another major problem that we had
00:12:48
is that he was talking about Lucinda in the past tense instead of the present tense.
00:12:54
My gut reaction was Lucinda is not alive. The family wanted to believe that she was alive,
00:13:00
but my particular instinct was she was not alive. NARRATOR: Police strongly suspect
00:13:06
that Ernesto had something to do with Lucinda's disappearance. But without a body, they could not charge him with murder.
00:13:15
Instead, they arraign him on charges of kidnapping. You are under arrest. NARRATOR: Prosecutors then persuade the judge to set
00:13:21
bail at half a million dollars. That gave us enough time to investigate him. A big part of it was the flight risk issue.
00:13:29
I mean, he was an illegal alien who very easily could just slip back across the border.
00:13:37
NARRATOR: With Ernesto locked safely away, it is the investigators who look across the border to Mexico
00:13:43
where Ernesto's murky past gradually comes to light. Ernesto Nevez, detectives learn, is
00:13:49
an ex con who did time for manslaughter in Mexico City. From every one we interviewed, Ernesto's personality
00:13:57
was described as volatile. Could be charming at times, but could turn violent fairly quickly.
00:14:06
NARRATOR: Police quickly discover that Ernesto had been involved with another woman who
00:14:10
also disappeared. Her name is Bertha Angelo. She met Ernesto in Mexico while working at the prison
00:14:19
where he was serving time. He had apparently courted her. And when he got out of prison, they were married.
00:14:27
NARRATOR: Shortly after the wedding, Ernesto crossed the border illegally and settled in Bay City.
00:14:32
Bertha soon followed him. Once she got here and found him, she moved in with him.
00:14:39
And she would write letters home, you know, telling the family back home that she's living with him.
00:14:44
And then all of a sudden, all contact stopped. They just didn't know what happened.
00:14:50
They had been unable to locate her. NARRATOR: Now the detectives have linked Ernesto to two missing women--
00:14:57
Lucinda Hernandez-- At this point, we knew that Ernesto was last seen with Lucinda.
00:15:04
He had her key. He had been in her house. NARRATOR: --and Bertha Angelo. We knew that Bertha came up here from Mexico,
00:15:13
had lived with him, and not been heard of in some time. NARRATOR: Police follow Ernesto and Bertha's
00:15:19
trail all the way to the apartment they rented in Bay City. The couple's former neighbors have a chilling
00:15:25
story for the detectives. The last time they had seen the woman that lived with him alive had been the evening
00:15:32
before he moved out. NARRATOR: But even more chilling is the building's location.
00:15:38
The house where Ernesto lived with Bertha is right next to the field where the anonymous remains
00:15:43
of a murdered woman were found three years earlier. At this point, the police began
00:15:49
to suspect that those remains were probably Bertha and that he had something to do with it.
00:15:58
NARRATOR: Investigators asked Dr. Glassman to reexamine the anonymous bones he first analyzed three years ago.
00:16:05
They want to know if these remains could be Bertha. Looking at all of the characteristics of the skull
00:16:11
has led me to the conclusion that this skull belongs to a female of at least 35 years of age
00:16:18
and most likely Hispanic. NARRATOR: Dr. Glassman's biological profile is a perfect match.
00:16:25
Bertha Angelo was a 43-year-old Hispanic woman who stood just five feet tall. But investigators need absolute proof
00:16:34
that these bones are Bertha's. OK. So we ended up having to contact her family down in Mexico.
00:16:39
And they sent in some on envelopes from letters that she had sent home. We realized we may have DNA on those letters.
00:16:46
And ultimately, the match to her remains was made by testing the saliva from the flap on an envelope
00:16:53
that she had licked and mailed home to the family. And it did match up to be Bertha.
00:16:59
NARRATOR: Now finally after three years, the mystery of the unidentified skull is solved.
00:17:05
It is Bertha Angelo. Based on interviews with neighbors and information provided by Dr. Glassman, investigators speculate
00:17:21
on Bertha's last moments. One May night shortly after Ernesto arrives home from work,
00:17:29
neighbors hear screams from their apartment. That evening, they had heard a fight
00:17:34
occur between him and her. [YELLING IN SPANISH] NARRATOR: Given the fractures Dr. Glassman found on Bertha's
00:17:45
skull, he believes Ernesto then grabs a wrench or a similar object and smashes her over the head with it, fracturing
00:17:52
the side of her skull. Such blunt force trauma to her head causes the brain to bleed and swell.
00:17:59
In minutes, Bertha's vital organs begin to shut down and she dies on the floor of her home.
00:18:06
And the next day, he moved out and said that she had left him for another man. NARRATOR: Coming up, as the police are cementing the links
00:18:17
to Bertha and Lucinda, they find a clue pointing to a third missing woman. In the middle of this investigation,
00:18:23
we discovered that he had reported another girlfriend missing. NARRATOR: Next on "Skeleton Stories."
00:18:44
Police believe Ernesto Nevez is responsible for the death of Bertha Angelo, whose remains were found
00:18:50
in the woods in 1997, and Lucinda Hernandez, who disappeared in 2000. They then discovered that a third woman connected
00:18:59
to Ernesto has disappeared-- Susanna Elias, a mother of two young children. Police soon learn that in November 1998,
00:19:10
Susanna met Ernesto on her way to work and they began dating. He moved in with her, and they lived
00:19:16
together for several months before she disappeared. NARRATOR: Ironically, it was Ernesto
00:19:22
who filed the missing persons report on Susanna earlier that year. Detectives tracked down Susanna's daughter
00:19:32
who tells them the last time she saw her mom was on March 5, 2000, when Susanna left
00:19:38
with Ernesto to go to work. When time came for her mother to come home, she didn't come home.
00:19:44
So now he was last seen walking away with her, and she's missing. NARRATOR: Susanna's daughter tells investigators
00:19:51
that late in the evening, she heard the door open and was surprised when Ernesto walked in alone.
00:19:57
Ernesto came home intoxicated. She confronted him wanting to know what happened to her mother.
00:20:02
And he laughed at her and said that she was never gonna see her mother again. NARRATOR: A clear pattern is emerging.
00:20:09
Bertha and Lucinda were also involved with Ernesto. One is dead, the other has vanished.
00:20:17
Investigators suspect Ernesto has killed all three women. We're believing we have a real serial killer on our hands.
00:20:24
And we sure don't want him out of jail at this point. We felt that the most appropriate thing to do
00:20:29
was seek a charge of capital murder against him, alleging all three murders under the serial killer
00:20:35
statute. NARRATOR: But Cox and his team face a daunting challenge. Under the serial killer statute, they now
00:20:42
must prove that Ernesto killed all three women at different times and that the murders were committed
00:20:47
with a common pattern. If they are successful, Ernesto will face life in prison or the death penalty.
00:20:56
If not, Ernesto's sentence could be as little as five years. But the prosecutors don't even have two of the three bodies,
00:21:04
those of Lucinda and Susanna, let alone proof that Ernesto caused their deaths or how.
00:21:11
We're obviously very concerned about going to trial without only a partial set of remains from one victim.
00:21:18
We were concerned about how the trial would go if that were the status of the case.
00:21:23
NARRATOR: Investigators turn to Lucinda's family for help. Together they search the city and its outskirts
00:21:28
for her remains. We'd have 40, 50 people, just family members there to help us out.
00:21:36
They would come home with-- you know, when I say they, my family members and my cousins
00:21:41
and my husband and my dad, wet and dirty because they were searching. They were looking for her.
00:21:50
And they did that, they did it for days. NARRATOR: Then, in November 2001, as the investigation grinds on, a call comes in to the police.
00:22:01
A rancher who was out checking his fences after some bulldozer work had been down on his property
00:22:08
discovered what he recognized to be human bones. We better called the police. I don't think this is cattle bone.
00:22:16
Bones all over here. Don't mess with it too much. I'll be right back. All right, hurry up.
00:22:23
The actual location where they were found was probably 50 yards from the place where Ernesto worked at one time or another.
00:22:33
NARRATOR: Investigators find a shattered skull, teeth, and a few bones scattered on the ground.
00:22:46
The remains are rushed to the lab where DNA is extracted from the teeth and compared with samples taken
00:22:52
from the next of kin of both victims, Lucinda Hernandez and Susanna Elias. Then investigators and family members anxiously
00:23:00
await the lab results. One week later, DNA tests confirm this is Lucinda Hernandez.
00:23:09
Detective Merrill immediately calls Lucinda's daughter. I knew I was going to have to deal with that she really is,
00:23:18
you know-- she's really-- she's really not here. NARRATOR: Now detectives need proof that Lucinda was killed
00:23:24
in the same manner as Bertha-- blunt force trauma to the head. Without that evidence, they may not
00:23:32
be able to bring serial killer charges against Ernesto, leaving open the prospect of a much
00:23:37
lighter jail sentence, possibly as little as five years. Investigators send Lucinda's bones to Dr. Glassman.
00:23:52
And we're hoping he can tell us what happened. We're hoping we have enough to piece
00:23:57
together to tell us a story. He had done such a good job with the first set that he had examined in this case
00:24:05
that we kept him involved in the rest of the case. NARRATOR: But Prosecutor Greg Cox deliberately
00:24:11
doesn't tell Dr. Glassman that this body has any connection to Bertha. His reason, to keep the evidence as strong as possible.
00:24:21
If Dr. Glassman finds a link between Lucinda and Bertha's deaths, that connection will be more persuasive in court
00:24:28
if he finds it without a single hint from the police. The first thought I had when I received those remains
00:24:34
and looked in that paper bag is, boy, do I have my work cut out for me. It appears that they're mostly cranial fragments,
00:24:42
maybe-- maybe they're all from the skull. Let's see as we take them out. NARRATOR: In order to examine the skull,
00:24:51
Dr. Glassman must first reassemble it. It's a tedious job, and it's one that takes a long period of time.
00:25:01
Because you know you're constructing a puzzle that's three dimensional and also that many of the pieces
00:25:06
that you need to deal with may not be present. Well, I've been working on the skull for about four hours now.
00:25:13
And it's pretty much coming together. I'm, in fact, pretty surprised that so much of it
00:25:18
really was recovered. NARRATOR: And it's only when Dr. Glassman assembles the last piece in the puzzle that the shocking truth becomes
00:25:25
apparent. In the back of the skull, there's a small entrance wound that would have
00:25:30
been associated with a gunshot. The exit of that would have come through, it appears,
00:25:35
through the eye on the left side of the face. NARRATOR: The bones don't lie. Lucinda's face was blown apart by a gunshot
00:25:43
through the back of her head. Coming up, ironically, Dr. Glassman's discovery could derail the prosecution's serial murder
00:25:53
case against Ernesto. We were concerned about how the trial would go. NARRATOR: Next, on "Skeleton Stories."
00:26:14
Dr. Glassman has just made a discovery that may be damaging to the prosecution's
00:26:19
case against Ernesto Nevez. He has found a bullet wound to Lucinda's skull, but the wounds he found on Bertha's skull
00:26:28
were blunt force trauma. Without a common pattern connecting the way Lucinda and Bertha were killed, the prosecutors cannot prove that
00:26:36
Ernesto is a serial killer. You can't charge a person with being a serial killer
00:26:43
if they just go around and commit several different murders unless you're able to connect those murders together
00:26:49
through some sort of common practice involved in the course of the murder. That's a DA's nightmare trying to put that together
00:26:58
to present a case to a jury. NARRATOR: But what Dr. Glassman finds next raises doubts as to whether the bullet actually
00:27:11
caused Lucinda's death. There are so many fractures, some are going from forward to back, some
00:27:19
are going from side to side. Some of them are very short, others are very, very long.
00:27:24
NARRATOR: At two points, in particular, he finds evidence of massive blunt force trauma.
00:27:31
There are two areas-- one above the eye right here and the other on the forehead
00:27:37
that indicates that there were two substantial blows. NARRATOR: These fractures also reveal
00:27:43
the order in which this violence was done to Lucinda Hernandez. Since the fractures extend into and even across the fragments
00:27:52
that were torn away by the bullet, he concludes the fractures must have happened first.
00:27:58
The evidence showed that the exit wound from the bullet went through areas that had already been fractured
00:28:03
from a blow to the face. I can't really say what the need of the last gunshot was,
00:28:09
maybe it was just a final ending of this situation. NARRATOR: Based on Dr. Glassman's findings
00:28:16
and interviews with Lucinda's family, investigators believe they now know what happened to Lucinda
00:28:21
Hernandez on her final day. In the wake of her divorce after 36 years of marriage,
00:28:34
Lucinda is upset and vulnerable. She was really at the lowest point, I really feel,
00:28:41
in her life and really upset about she and my dad not being together. And that year was really a hard year for her.
00:28:50
NARRATOR: During this time, Lucinda gets involved with Ernesto Nevez. People like Ernesto are able to get the confidence
00:28:58
of people really easy. I mean, that's what makes them so good at what they do. NARRATOR: But Lucinda soon learns that Ernesto
00:29:06
has a volatile temper. Some of the family members that the police interviewed were very concerned about her relationship
00:29:13
with Ernesto because she had explained that he was very jealous. And they were concerned for her safety.
00:29:18
NARRATOR: On December 12, 2000, Lucinda tells Ernesto she is leaving him. He begs her to stay.
00:29:26
What are you doing? What are you thinking? NARRATOR: But she refuses. No, I don't think so. You're staying here.
00:29:31
- No, I'm not. - I didn't say you could-- - Did you do this to me? - That's nothing.
00:29:33
I don't care. That's nothing. You're leaving, but not the way you think. NARRATOR: He then grabs her and beats her
00:29:40
to death with two ferocious blows from a wrench or some other heavy tool. The blunt force trauma is so severe that it causes
00:29:50
her brain to bruise and swell. Soon all normal brain functions cease and Lucinda dies.
00:29:57
It was a severe, severe beating. NARRATOR: Then Ernesto hauls her body to the ranch near his old job site,
00:30:04
and after a single gunshot to the back of her head, he dumps her over the fence.
00:30:13
With Dr. Glassman's newest evidence, investigators can now connect Lucinda's death with Bertha's.
00:30:20
This was another victim of Ernesto's. The fact that, again, we were dealing with a Hispanic female who died from a blow to the head.
00:30:28
NARRATOR: These grisly signposts provided by Dr. Glassman convinced police that they can establish a consistent pattern
00:30:35
in Ernesto's behavior. But they're still not sure if it's enough to bring the much heavier charge of serial murder.
00:30:43
As prosecutors prepare for their case, they're still missing one major element. We were very close to trial at this point.
00:30:49
And we're still headed toward a trial with a missing body. Bye-bye. NARRATOR: Susanna Elias, the third alleged victim,
00:30:56
has not been found. Coming up, without the third body the prosecution is hoping Dr. Glassman's findings will be enough to make
00:31:09
the case for serial murder. I was worried about what I'd be able to say. NARRATOR: When "Skeleton Stories" returns.
00:31:16
[SCREAMS] Three women associated with this man, Ernesto Nevez, have vanished. Two have been found with their skulls battered in.
00:31:40
But a third woman, Susanna Elias, is still missing. To strengthen their serial killer case against Ernesto,
00:31:48
prosecutors need her body, but they cannot delay the trial any longer. Then just three months before the trial is set to begin,
00:32:02
a Bay City resident walking his dog makes a gruesome find. The dog ran up in the direction of a tent that
00:32:09
was part of a homeless camp. Whatcha got there? When he went up to retrieve his dog,
00:32:20
he saw what he believed to be a human skull in the leaves on the ground. He calls the police.
00:32:27
The police respond and began their investigation at that point. Did you find the bones back in here?
00:32:34
- Yeah. - OK, and you're closing it? [INAUDIBLE] NARRATOR: Investigators confirm that these
00:32:39
are human remains and meticulously recover every bone. They didn't know if it was someone who
00:32:52
had died at the homeless camp that was nearby or if it was something that was a result of foul play.
00:32:59
NARRATOR: But detectives on the Ernesto Nevez case hope this is the lucky break they've been waiting for.
00:33:06
They immediately compare the teeth in the skull with Susanna's dental records. They were the remains of Susanna Elias.
00:33:15
NARRATOR: Now that they have found the three bodies of the women who were involved with Ernesto Nevez,
00:33:20
the next step is to prove that Susanna was murdered in a similar manner to Bertha
00:33:25
Angelo and Lucinda Hernandez. That is the key piece of evidence prosecutors need to try Ernesto as a serial killer.
00:33:33
They felt it was wise to bring Dr. Glassman in again. Hello. No, impossible. They are continually asking me questions.
00:33:48
And what I tried to tell them is, we're not going to say anything till we get a good look at these remains and we do it systematically.
00:33:56
And then we'll be able to come with some decisions. NARRATOR: Again, the prosecutors carefully hide their suspicion
00:34:03
from Dr. Glassman that these bones are linked to the earlier cases. As Dr. Glassman examines the skull,
00:34:13
he immediately finds unusual depressive fractures all over it. Many of these areas of impact have
00:34:20
a very distinctive marking, a circular marking about the same size. And this is consistent with some type of blunt trauma
00:34:29
with a circular kind of tool, something like a hammer. It appears that one went through right here as well.
00:34:35
The blow was strong enough that it went all the way through into the brain cavity.
00:34:41
This can cause trauma to the brain. No! The brain can swell. The brain can be bruised, it can hemorrhage and bleed.
00:34:47
It certainly can be fatal. To me this was a crime of hatred and violence. NARRATOR: Dr. Glassman reports his findings
00:34:56
to the investigators. With this and what they've learned from Susanna's family and friends, they piece together the chain of events
00:35:04
leading up to Susanna's death. Ernesto and Susanna had been dating for six months.
00:35:18
Ernesto had become very jealous because he thought that she was seeing someone else.
00:35:23
Everybody that we talked to told us how much of a jealous person he was, that once he got his hands on a female,
00:35:30
he didn't want any other man to see her, talk to her, anything. Susanna got up to leave for work one morning,
00:35:38
and very unlike the normal routine, Ernesto left with her. NARRATOR: Susanna gets nervous when she sees
00:35:47
that he is acting strangely. She tries to get away, but he chases her and smashes her
00:36:03
over the head with a hammer. The repeated blunt force causes her brain to swell.
00:36:09
Soon the swelling becomes so severe, her brain stops functioning and Susanna dies.
00:36:16
Then Ernesto leaves her body in the forest. This was a severe attack. Susanna's murder was more calculated,
00:36:25
but it was still pursuant to the same scheme. NARRATOR: Prosecutors now believe they have enough evidence for a serial killer
00:36:35
case against Ernesto, but it won't be easy. All the evidence they have is completely circumstantial.
00:36:43
They have no murder weapons or hard scientific evidence linking Ernesto to any of the crimes.
00:36:49
Tying these cases together was very important because the jury had to see the whole picture and the common behavior
00:36:57
to really be able to be convinced beyond a reasonable doubt that he was responsible.
00:37:01
NARRATOR: Investigators once again enlist the help of Dr. Glassman, this time to testify about the three bodies he has analyzed
00:37:08
over the past five years. I received a phone call from Detective Merrill. And Detective Merrill told me that we're
00:37:16
planning on going to court. NARRATOR: After years of intentionally hiding the details of Ernesto's story from him,
00:37:22
Detective Merrill now lifts the veil of secrecy. And I asked him, well, what case
00:37:27
are we going to court on, as I've worked for many, many cases for Detective Merrill.
00:37:31
The most unusual thing is he just kept reading off my case numbers, case number this, then case number that, then
00:37:38
case number this. This has never happened to me before. We're talking about cases that span four or five years
00:37:46
found in different counties. It just has never happened like that. NARRATOR: Now Dr. Glassman compares the three
00:37:53
skulls for the first time. For all three of the victims, an implement had been used
00:37:59
in order to create the defect. And for all three of them, fractures were complete,
00:38:07
went all the way through into the brain case, very violent acts on all three of these women.
00:38:17
It makes you wonder whether or not Ernesto has other women in the past that we have not recovered their bodies.
00:38:23
And this is just a long list of violence covering a great number of years. NARRATOR: Coming up, will Dr. Glassman's testimony
00:38:35
be enough to convince a jury that Ernesto Nevez is guilty of serial murder? You got juries, 12 people that you
00:38:43
have no clue what they think. NARRATOR: Next on "Skeleton Stories." Police are convinced that Ernesto
00:39:04
Nevez killed three women-- his wife Bertha Angelo in 1996, his girlfriend Susanna Elias
00:39:12
in March 2000, and his next girlfriend Lucinda Hernandez nine months later. As they start the trial, prosecutors
00:39:21
hope that Dr. Glassman's findings along with the evidence they've gathered will convince a jury that Ernesto Nevez
00:39:27
is guilty of serial murder. I don't know that I'm ever confident when we go into a trial that we're absolutely going to win.
00:39:36
You've got juries that 12 people that you have no clue what they think. NARRATOR: The prosecution begins by depicting
00:39:45
Ernesto Nevez' pattern of behavior with all three women. He would lure them with his charm, but then turn brutal.
00:39:54
So one factor that was present in every relationship that Ernesto had and in all of these murders was jealousy.
00:40:02
If the relationship was about to break up, if the woman was about to leave him, he was going to kill her so that no one
00:40:07
else could have her. Rather than walk away from a relationship, his deal was to kill 'em instead.
00:40:14
NARRATOR: The prosecution then asked Dr. Glassman to take the stand. I knew my testimony was important
00:40:20
because what I was going to show was that each of these victims were not only killed, but they were killed very violently
00:40:29
and very deliberately. Oh, no! And that there was also commonalities between each one of the three victims
00:40:37
and how they met their death. NARRATOR: Dr. Glassman must convince the jury that all three women were killed the same way.
00:40:46
If he fails, the serial murder charge may fall apart and Ernesto Nevez could go free.
00:40:52
For each one of the victims, I showed photographic illustrations of what the damage was
00:40:58
to the skull and took them through fracture by fracture, impact by impact, what I had seen on these skulls.
00:41:07
Probably some of the closest attention they paid in the whole trial was when we showed the photographs of the skulls
00:41:13
and the similarities between the injuries. They were completely wrapped up in that.
00:41:19
I mean, really just sent it home that these were very violent actions that happened to these poor victims.
00:41:26
NARRATOR: The jury retires on October 12, 2001. Four hours later, word comes that they
00:41:32
have reached a verdict-- guilty. They did find him responsible for all three murders.
00:41:38
And they did find that they were part of a common scheme. NARRATOR: The guilty verdict is a victory
00:41:43
for the investigation team. Prosecutors press for the death penalty. The defense argues that Ernesto's
00:41:49
impoverished childhood and mental deficiency are cause for leniency. The jury comes back with their sentence--
00:41:56
life in prison. Ernesto Nevez will be eligible for parole in 2045 when he's 89. Until then, his routine of charm, courtship, and murder
00:42:08
has been stopped cold. I was pleased with the verdict. Ernesto was a truly evil man.
00:42:15
There was no justification for what he did to these three women. NARRATOR: The prosecutors and victim's families
00:42:21
are grateful to Dr. Glassman for his meticulous work. Without Dr. Glassman's testimony,
00:42:27
we could not have had tied these cases together and pursued this case as a capital murder.
00:42:32
It makes it a lot easier when you have people like Dr. Glassman and his caliber of expertise
00:42:40
to be able to come in and piece everything together for you. Those three women died.
00:42:47
And this man needed to pay for that. And Dr. Glassman helped us make sure that that occurred.
00:42:53
I really believe if it weren't for Dr. Glassman and the other forensics that Ernesto would be free.
00:43:03
And there wouldn't be any justice for my mother or any of the other women. NARRATOR: And Dr. Glassman himself
00:43:12
is proud of the contributions he made to the case. In all cases, I feel a strong responsibility to the victim.
00:43:19
But this was especially important, because here I was dealing with three individuals, three individuals that suffered
00:43:26
a pretty heinous death. And it was very very important to me to do the best job that I could.