00:00:18
NARRATOR: When a long-time missing person turns up dead, a family is thrown into turmoil.
00:00:23
Me and my sister were close. We were best friends. When they took her, they took a part of me.
00:00:28
NARRATOR: Can Dr. David Glassman figure out what happened to this little girl in her final hours?
00:00:33
Any time you're working with children, it becomes a very, very important case to all of us.
00:00:39
NARRATOR: Then when a skull is found in the woods, detectives wonder if these could be
00:00:43
the remains of a young woman they've been trying to track down for the past year.
00:00:47
There was evidence that somebody could have been killed or they were hurt very bad.
00:00:52
NARRATOR: With just a skull, an arm bones, and two ribs to go on, they are counting on Dr. Michael Warren
00:00:57
to figure out who this person is. And in cases where we have just a few bones, it's even a more intense hunt.
00:01:04
[MUSIC PLAYING] --you do! Oh my-- [GROANS] What did you do? NARRATOR: Sunday morning in Dallas, Texas, two boys
00:01:54
are on their way to play ball, until something grabs their attention. Hey, Jason, look.
00:02:04
NARRATOR: It's a human skeleton. The boys rush home and phone the local police department.
00:02:13
I believe that was on a Sunday morning right after 10:00 AM. I was in church. They said they had found a body.
00:02:21
NARRATOR: The discovery means church is over and a homicide investigation begins.
00:02:25
At first, Detective Hinojosa expects this to be a typical case of a drifter or petty criminal
00:02:32
killed after a drug dispute. Somebody that got stabbed or shot last night got dumped in the creek bottom, that's what I was thinking.
00:02:39
NARRATOR: But a closer inspection reveals something that makes the case even more tragic and heartbreaking.
00:02:44
But it was the remains of a small child. [SCREAMING] I knew it wasn't an adult by the size.
00:02:52
NARRATOR: Police believe the bones may be the remains of missing 9-year-old Trini Gonzalez who
00:02:58
mysteriously vanished almost two years earlier. Since then she's remained in the forefront of every local police
00:03:05
officer's mind. She'd been missing one year, nine months, 13 days, 11 hours. I said it possibly could be Trini.
00:03:14
Because Trini had become so personal to us, the reality hit us that much harder.
00:03:21
NARRATOR: Police are unsure if this is Trini, but the child-sized skeleton brings to mind the missing girl
00:03:27
they grew to know so well from the loving portrait others painted of her. Trini was so beautiful and she loved
00:03:36
to sing and be outside jumping rope and play with her dolls, just a very good little granddaughter.
00:03:46
My sister is a very outgoing person. She loved people. She would just go up to people just
00:03:52
say hi and how are you doing. My sister loved everybody. She was a happy person.
00:04:00
NARRATOR: At the time of her disappearance, Trini was being raised by her great aunt Frances Smithwick.
00:04:05
She was the only mother Trini ever knew. And one morning 22 months ago, Frances awoke to every mother's
00:04:13
worst nightmare. Trini's great aunt explained that Trini had gone to bed the night before.
00:04:21
The next morning, she wasn't in her bed. She told the officer that somebody might have
00:04:26
taken her from the house when everybody was asleep during the night. NARRATOR: Police mobilize every officer on the force
00:04:31
determined to track down Trini. They know the chances of finding a kidnapping victim alive dwindle with every hour and day that passes.
00:04:41
Trini's disappearance also brings together members of the community. Local parents realize Trini could
00:04:46
just as easily be their child. People were searching neighborhoods and fields and, you know, every place that you can imagine.
00:04:54
NARRATOR: Months pass and police continue their relentless search for Trini. Leads pour in every day, prompting
00:04:59
detectives to gradually expand their search area. It extended well beyond the Rio Grande Valley.
00:05:06
There were Trini sightings all over the place. All of those leads had to be pursued.
00:05:11
And we looked at each one very thoroughly and tried to leave no stone unturned. NARRATOR: Investigators interview over 100 people.
00:05:20
The FBI offers a $15,000 reward. But after nearly two years, there is no sign of the missing little girl, and the trail grows cold.
00:05:31
We didn't have any leads. They was all just dead ends. NARRATOR: But now the discovery of a child-sized skeleton
00:05:40
could make this case red hot again if this is Trini. The best shot police have for a quick identification
00:05:47
are the teeth that are still in the skull. They immediately rush the remains to the county
00:05:52
medical examiner's office. There a forensic pathologist compares the skulls teeth
00:05:57
to Trini's dental records. It's an exact match. At last, police have found the little girl
00:06:05
they spent nearly two heartbreaking years looking for. Now a new search begins, a search for justice.
00:06:13
Now I know we had a murder case on our hands. We had to look for the person responsible for the murder
00:06:18
of Trini Gonzalez. NARRATOR: Trini could never tell the story of how she met her tragic fate.
00:06:24
But clues contained in her bones may reveal what happened to her and ultimately help catch a killer.
00:06:31
But reading with the bones have to say requires a specialist. So police turned to forensic anthropologist
00:06:37
Dr. David Glassman at the University of Southern Indiana. Becoming a forensic anthropologist
00:06:45
opened up a new world of the skeleton and what the skeleton tells us. Our job is to find not just the big things,
00:06:54
but the minute things that tell us the whole story. NARRATOR: The whole story is exactly
00:07:02
what police need to know. We wanted Dr. Glassman to tell us everything. We wanted to know time of death, how she died,
00:07:12
how long she'd been out there. We wanted to know everything he could possibly tell us.
00:07:17
Because this case was important, and every clue was going to make a big difference in the case.
00:07:23
NARRATOR: Police sent Trini's skeletal remains to Dr. Glassman's lab. Let's see what we've got here.
00:07:29
NARRATOR: Forensic anthropologists try to remain objective and detached in every investigation.
00:07:35
But in the case of 9-year-old Trini, it's impossible. One of the first things that I recognized
00:07:40
as I started taking the remains out was that they were of a child. These are individuals that have not had the opportunity
00:07:48
to enjoy their life. And it becomes a very different type of case. NARRATOR: As Dr. Glassman begins his examination
00:07:55
of Trini's bones, police continue their criminal investigation. They take a fresh look at where Trini lived
00:08:03
and those who had contact with her. Neighbor's soon come forward with new details
00:08:08
about illicit activity in the house where Trini lived. There were allegations of drug use, drug debts, which
00:08:18
brought up possibilities of this being somehow narcotics related. If you knew what was going on in that house,
00:08:25
I would have gone in there and got her out, but I never knew. NARRATOR: If drugs were being dealt out of the house,
00:08:33
Trini could have had contact with addicts and criminals. And with the background that we knew from the house,
00:08:38
we started looking into all the players that came in and out of that house. NARRATOR: Nobody knows what went on in the house better
00:08:46
than the woman who her mothered Trini, her Aunt Frances, but Frances can't think of anyone who would harm Trini.
00:08:53
Police seem to have hit the same dead end they hit when they first investigated Trini's disappearance.
00:08:59
But now they have a new witness-- Trini's skeleton. And they have Dr. Glassman to question the bones
00:09:06
and learn the story they have to tell. Coming up, Dr. Glassman discovers shocking evidence of brutality no little girl
00:09:17
should ever have to endure. These three fractures, these are indicative, all three
00:09:22
of them, of a pretty powerful blow that took place to this part of the head. NARRATOR: And later when Dr. Warren examines a skull,
00:09:31
he struggles to keep his emotions from getting the best of him. I've seen a lot of death and a lot of tragedy.
00:09:37
I try not to pile on myself. I would rather just sort of try to keep my distance.
00:09:42
NARRATOR: When "Skeleton Stories" returns. Police need forensic anthropologist Dr. David
00:10:01
Glassman to answer one question-- how did 9-year-old Trini Gonzalez die? As he begins his forensic examination of the bones,
00:10:16
police re-interviewed Trini's little sister Velia. She reveals something new about her aunt Frances, the woman who
00:10:23
mothered Trini since infancy. My aunt was very-- she was very quiet to herself, but she
00:10:34
would always hit my sister. If my sister did anything little wrong, she would hit her.
00:10:41
My sister used to hide in her closet. And she would fall asleep in her closet. [SCREAMS]
00:10:47
A scenario started developing dealing with the abuse of a child. And then the focus went a different way,
00:10:53
away from kidnapping, and looking at all the abuse this child had endured. Sorry, I'm not gonna do it again.
00:11:01
What did you do? I can't believe you did that! NARRATOR: Detectives now believed
00:11:04
the very person who was caring for Trini could be involved in her murder. But Frances adamantly denies abusing the child.
00:11:11
I don't know what to tell you. I've already given you the whole story like 200 times.
00:11:15
NARRATOR: Police begin interviewing those who knew Frances best. They start with her live-in boyfriend Roger Yarborough.
00:11:23
It isn't long before detectives grow suspicious of him as well. My gut instinct was something was wrong,
00:11:29
something happened, something was trying to be covered up to throw us off track.
00:11:36
NARRATOR: But to pin their evasive suspects down, police need facts, facts that only Trini's skeleton
00:11:42
and Dr. Glassman can provide. The first thing they need to know is how Trini died.
00:11:48
Dr. Glassman looks for clues in Trini's skull. The skull is one of the most important
00:12:02
parts of the skeleton. It's also in the area that is often involved in the death of an individual, either through gunshot
00:12:09
or through blunt trauma. NARRATOR: Right away, Dr. Glassman sees signs that Trini
00:12:14
endured severe head trauma. The facial area right here shows two fractures, one right
00:12:21
on the right cheek right here that's caused some separation of the bones right in between my thumbs right here.
00:12:27
On the other side of the face near the eye right over here, we have a crack in the bone, a small fracture.
00:12:36
And here we have also a little bit of separation. These bones should be touching each other, but in this case
00:12:42
they're separated. We also see trauma that's taken place to the cheek and right above the cheek.
00:12:49
NARRATOR: Then Dr. Glassman discovers a third fracture. Starting right there, there's a fracture
00:12:54
that's going a little bit at an angle, a little bit curved, and then goes straight up almost to the top of the skull.
00:13:03
NARRATOR: In court, a defense attorney might try to argue that the injuries were
00:13:07
the result of a fall or accident of some sort, but Dr. Glassman believes the multiple fractures
00:13:14
are evidence of at least two separate blows to the head. The fractures would not be a typical type of fracture
00:13:20
that you would see in an accident such as falling down or hitting their head on the sidewalk because
00:13:26
of the nature of them and being found on both sides and in three different areas, it appears that something
00:13:33
more was involved. Sorry. I can't believe you did that. That's all my money! All my--
00:13:39
NARRATOR: To Dr. Glassman, this unique pattern of fractures point to a very specific cause of death.
00:13:45
These three main areas of fractures are indicative, all three of them, of a pretty powerful blow that took
00:13:52
place to this part of the head. I can't believe you did that! If the child was pushed or taken violently
00:13:59
against a flat surface, such as a wall, and that the face was pushed into that wall,
00:14:05
this could have caused the damage to the cheek, damage to the side of the head, as well as pushed away the bones
00:14:13
from each on the other side. That could, in fact, have caused death to the individual. .
00:14:20
NARRATOR: But there's an alternate scenario that could send Dr. Glassman back to square one.
00:14:25
It's possible that the skull had been fractured long after Trini's death, while the skeleton spent almost two
00:14:31
years exposed to the elements. Dr. Glassman examines the inside of the skull to see if he can determine the exact time the break occurred.
00:14:40
And when you look at the fractures from inside the fracture itself, you can notice that the coloration is
00:14:48
the same on the inside of the fracture as the surrounding area of bone. NARRATOR: That means they've been exposed to the elements
00:14:55
for the same amount of time. And this suggests to me that that fracture has taken place
00:15:01
very recent to the time of death of the individual, as opposed to something that may have happened postmortem.
00:15:08
NARRATOR: Dr. Glassman immediately reports his findings to investigators. Dr. Glassman's evaluation of the case, the trauma
00:15:16
to the head could have been the cause of death or fatal to the child. NARRATOR: Based on the forensic findings,
00:15:23
police now have evidence of how Trini was murdered. Now they're ready to confront their prime suspects--
00:15:30
Trini's Aunt Frances and her boyfriend Roger Yarborough. Detectives question Roger first because they believe
00:15:37
he'll be easier to crack. You know, Frances had lots of defenses up. And we really felt like if we were gonna get a break,
00:15:44
it would be through Roger. NARRATOR: Coming up, will the cracks Dr. Glassman found in Trini's skull be enough to make Roger Yarborough crack?
00:15:59
We told him we have more information of what might have happened that night. NARRATOR: And later, detectives are counting on Dr. Warren
00:16:09
to provide enough evidence to convict the suspected killer. You don't want him getting away with it.
00:16:13
You just don't want someone like that loose. NARRATOR: When "Skeleton Stories" returns.
00:16:33
Police suspect Frances Smithwick of killing her 9-year-old niece Trini. But detectives can't tie Aunt Frances to the crime,
00:16:41
despite allegations that she abused Trini in the past. So they turned to the one person they
00:16:46
feel knows more than he's letting on, Frances' boyfriend Roger. The information is gonna be crucial,
00:16:56
a lot hanging on Roger's statements and the forensic evidence that we had. We told him we have good reason
00:17:06
to believe that you're involved with the murder of Trini Gonzales. NARRATOR: Police then describe the unique pattern of injuries
00:17:13
Dr. Glassman found on Trini's skull and their theory as to how she was killed. It's at that point that Roger begins to crack.
00:17:24
That's when he opened and he confessed. NARRATOR: After two long years, the shocking details
00:17:29
of what happened on the last night of Trini's short life are finally revealed. December 14, 1992, Frances and Roger are
00:17:45
about to snort some cocaine. Roger leaves to go get a beer from the kitchen. Her Great Aunt Frances was cutting
00:17:56
some cocaine on a table. And Trini was looking for some attention as a 9-year-old, obviously, would do.
00:18:03
And Frances was not paying any attention to her. NARRATOR: When Trini accidentally
00:18:09
knocks the drugs to the floor, Frances is enraged. What did you do? I can't believe you did that!
00:18:15
Oh my God! --spent on that stuff! I can't believe you did that. NARRATOR: She strikes Trini so hard on the left side
00:18:22
of the face that it fractures the skull above the ear. The blow was so powerful that it sends the right side of Trini's
00:18:29
head slamming into the wall. The results are two more fractures to Trini's skull, exactly how Dr. Glassman described.
00:18:37
Hearing the commotion, Roger rushes back into the room. When he came back to the room with the drinks,
00:18:43
Trini was on the floor. And she's convulsing and blood is coming from her head. NARRATOR: But Trini is still alive, just barely breathing.
00:18:54
Frances then gave a pillow to her boyfriend and said finish the-- finish the job. - Do it!
00:18:59
Do it! Roger got the pillow and put it on Trini's face and suffocated her. I don't care what you wanna do.
00:19:06
I don't want to go to jail. Hurry up. After that, he went into the bathroom and threw up.
00:19:15
OK, with all the cocaine on the floor? I don't think so. NARRATOR: Frances and Roger drag Trini's dead body
00:19:21
into an isolated section of woods. They then concoct a phony kidnapping story to explain her disappearance.
00:19:31
The confession backed up by the detailed forensic evidence is enough for police to finally charge Frances with the murder
00:19:38
of 9-year-old Trini Gonzalez. Roger is also charged. In court, Dr. Glassman takes the stand to help make
00:19:47
sure there's justice for Trini. When you're holding their skull and you're leading a jury through these
00:19:53
are the fractures that happened to this human being, that happened to this individual, it's very, very powerful.
00:20:00
NARRATOR: The jury listens to Dr. Glassman in rapt attention as he corroborates Roger Yarborough's confession.
00:20:06
Glassman was our silver bullet in this case. I mean, he confirmed what Yarborough was saying.
00:20:14
And that made the case for us. NARRATOR: The jury deliberates for less than an hour
00:20:18
before they deliver their verdict-- guilty. Frances gets 99 years in prison and Roger, who plead guilty,
00:20:25
gets 45. Frances appeals her conviction, and her appeal is denied. The verdict brings a sense of closure to Trini's family,
00:20:36
but nothing will ever take away the pain of losing her. My granddaughter did not hurting anybody.
00:20:42
She was a little angel. We're supposed to be family. You're not supposed to hurt family.
00:20:50
She took my best friend away from me. She took my sister. It just hurt me so much.
00:21:03
NARRATOR: Justice for little Trini may never have been found without the forensic expertise
00:21:07
of Dr. Glassman. Dr. Glassman's work in this case just meshed everything together.
00:21:15
He brought science into a case, and he played a tremendous part in helping put Trini's killer behind bars.
00:21:28
I am so pleased that Trini was found and identified and the people who committed the crime have
00:21:36
been sentenced and put away. At the same time, Trini herself is not better off and never will be.
00:21:44
And so I'm not sure that I can find any solace in that. She's not gonna return. Very sad.
00:22:03
NARRATOR: Coming up, in hopes of giving investigators the evidence they so desperately need,
00:22:08
Dr. Warren turns to his last resort. So what we're left with in this case, then, is a non-conventional way of looking at identification.
00:22:16
But that's all we had in this case, so we went with it. NARRATOR: That's next on "Skeleton Stories."
00:22:47
On a warm, sunny Florida afternoon, Detective Jeffrey Raker and his team comb through the woods on a painstaking search.
00:22:56
Earlier in the day, they received an anonymous tip that a human skull had been spotted
00:23:00
somewhere in this remote stretch of forest. But after several hours of searching,
00:23:05
police are beginning to believe that the call might have been a hoax. Then they stumble onto a grisly scene that
00:23:11
proves the call was no joke. And there was a skull with the lower jaw bone in the middle of this field.
00:23:17
NARRATOR: It's clear right away that the skull is human. The search team methodically scours the surrounding woods
00:23:23
for more remains, but their search turns up only a few more bones-- an arm and two ribs.
00:23:29
They have a theory on why they may be unable to find a more complete skeleton. A lot of animals in that area have been eating on the body.
00:23:38
NARRATOR: The hours long search will now become part of a much longer investigation that could
00:23:42
last weeks, months, or years. Anytime you find a skull or body part or bones, you need to positively identify who they are.
00:23:52
NARRATOR: Police believe the skull and bones may contain clues to the victim's identity
00:23:57
and how that person died. But they need an expert to unlock the story. No skeleton is boring.
00:24:10
NARRATOR: They turn to forensic anthropologist Dr. Michael Warren of the University of Florida.
00:24:16
There's always a fascinating story attached to each of these cases. And every skeleton that I've seen
00:24:22
has had something about it that's fascinating. And that's the great thing about my job.
00:24:32
NARRATOR: But Dr. Warren will have to do this particular job with just the victim's
00:24:35
skull, arm bone, and two ribs. Even in cases where you only have a few of the bones of the skeleton,
00:24:41
you still would do your normal analyses, determining the biological profile of that individual, male or female, ancestry,
00:24:49
stature, and age at death. NARRATOR: First he examines the skull. The eyebrow region can tell him whether the person
00:24:56
is male or female. In the male, if we put him sideways, we see that he has these very distinct brow ridges.
00:25:04
NARRATOR: But the skull found in the woods has no distinctive brow ridges. Dr. Warren believes this person is female.
00:25:10
If you look at most females, it's very, very smooth. So when we look at this one, she has some very slight
00:25:16
raised areas above her eyes, but they certainly don't protrude. NARRATOR: Next, Dr. Warren examines the teeth, which
00:25:23
can help them determine whether the person is a child or an adult. All of the teeth are completely developed.
00:25:29
That tells us that this person is an adult. NARRATOR: Then Dr. Warren examines the skull's nasal cavity which helps them identify her race.
00:25:37
Europeans tend to have this nasal sill that's very prominent where you can actually take a pen
00:25:43
and put it on the nose and it'll stay there. And if that nose was guttered liked
00:25:48
on African-American's nose, that pen would not stay there. NARRATOR: Now Dr. Warren knows the remains are
00:25:54
that of a white adult female. But he isn't finished yet. He measures the arm bone to estimate the person's height.
00:26:03
He discovers she was short for an adult female, no more than 5 feet 3 inches tall.
00:26:08
So we were still able to get the four biological profile components that forensic anthropologists normally
00:26:14
try to get. NARRATOR: Upon receiving Dr. Warren's profile, detective Raker doesn't even have to search
00:26:20
the missing persons database. He spent the past year investigating the disappearance of a petite white woman
00:26:26
named Olivia Pearson. Olivia fits Dr. Warren's description to a T. If the remains are indeed hers, it
00:26:34
would be a tragic end for a woman who was just 35 years old. Olivia was an outgoing, hardworking woman who owned
00:26:42
a small housekeeping business. Those who knew her had only nice things to say about her.
00:26:48
From what I can gather with the neighbors and friends of hers, she's a very likable person.
00:26:55
NARRATOR: Why would someone like Olivia disappear so suddenly. Detective Raker believes the answers were there
00:27:01
when he first began his investigation into Olivia's disappearance a year ago. July 23, 1986, Detective Raker responds to a frantic phone
00:27:15
call from a woman named Ellen Fields. Ellen tells him that she and her best friend Olivia Pearson
00:27:21
had plans to go out to lunch. But when Ellen arrived at Olivia's house, there was no answer.
00:27:27
Instead she saw something shocking inside. Right away, Detective Raker suspects that something is wrong.
00:27:39
There's what appeared to be blood smears on the door. It's on the carpet. You can tell there had been quite a bit of blood
00:27:47
on the floor, and somebody had attempted to scrub it up and do a cleanup job. NARRATOR: But few cleanup jobs are good enough
00:27:54
to stand up to a luminol test. When the luminol spray makes contact with even trace amounts of blood,
00:28:00
it emits a fluorescent glow under black light. And Olivia's home begins to glow with signs that something
00:28:06
horrific happened there. You could see the small hand prints on the carpet. And you can see the blood and the hand smears.
00:28:13
[SCREAMING] NARRATOR: To detectives the amount of blood and the attempt to conceal point to a grim scenario.
00:28:20
There was evidence that somebody could have been killed or they were hurt very bad.
00:28:26
NARRATOR: Assuming Olivia or someone was assaulted in the house, police begin searching for suspects.
00:28:32
Neighbors and friends immediately tell police about the man who shared the house with Olivia,
00:28:36
her boyfriend Jesse Stanton. And according to neighbors, Jesse had a history of violence.
00:28:43
She's in a domestic violent type relationship where she has been hurt. I expect to have my dinner ready.
00:28:50
Gone from a simple pull of the hair or a push, to being punched. He actually broke her collarbone.
00:28:58
NARRATOR: In June 1986, Olivia pressed charges against Jesse, and he was convicted and jailed for domestic abuse.
00:29:05
Friends hoped that would be the end of their relationship, but Olivia had other ideas.
00:29:09
She let him back on a trial basis. Detective Raker hauled Jesse in for questioning.
00:29:17
And the story he tells police is suspicious. His story is that he didn't hear anything.
00:29:22
He's a hard sleeper. NARRATOR: Detective Raker strongly suspects that Jesse is somehow linked
00:29:28
to Olivia's disappearance. But the presence of blood alone is not enough. Without a body, police cannot arrest him for murder.
00:29:35
In order to prosecute a murder, you have to have a victim. There had been, at that time, two,
00:29:41
maybe three times in the United States that they were actually able to successfully
00:29:48
prosecute someone for a murder and did not have the body. NARRATOR: Detective Raker and his team
00:29:55
search a 20-mile radius, but find no trace of Olivia. A year passes and the case grows ice cold.
00:30:03
The police were concerned that they would never uncover the remains and perhaps this case would
00:30:09
ultimately not be prosecutable. NARRATOR: Now with the discovery of the skull and bones in the woods, police may finally have the evidence
00:30:18
they need to make an arrest. But even though Dr. Warren has provided a biological profile,
00:30:26
authorities need proof that the partial skeleton in the woods is actually Olivia.
00:30:31
The easiest way to identify a skull is to compare its teeth to dental x-rays, but again, police hit a dead end.
00:30:38
In this case, there were no dental records to be found. NARRATOR: These bones and this entire case
00:30:44
will be filed away on a shelf if Detective Raker can't find a way to connect the remains to Olivia Pearson.
00:30:54
Coming up, investigators turn to Dr. Warren for answers, but the bones are offering up few clues.
00:31:00
Of course, the less bones that you have, the more likely it is that you won't find any evidence.
00:31:05
NARRATOR: When "Skeleton Stories" continues. Authorities are counting on Dr. Warren
00:31:24
to tie the remains found in the Florida woods to missing person Olivia Pearson. Without this positive ID, they will not
00:31:32
have enough evidence to build a case against her suspected killer Jesse Stanton.
00:31:38
You don't want him getting away with it. You just don't want someone like that loose.
00:31:46
NARRATOR: As a next step, Dr. Warren probes investigators on the details of Olivia
00:31:50
and Jesse's relationship. There was strong reason to believe that this disappeared woman had suffered
00:31:57
some trauma in that home. NARRATOR: The reports of domestic abuse give Dr. Warren an idea.
00:32:04
If he can track down medical records from previous hospital visits, he may be able to match them to the remains found
00:32:10
in the woods. By comparing a skull sinus cavity side by side with an X-ray, a forensic anthropologist
00:32:16
can easily make a positive ID. Frontal sinuses are unique to each individual, their shape,
00:32:21
their outline is considered a forensic fingerprint. NARRATOR: But Dr. Warren has dealt another setback.
00:32:27
Those medical records were not available probably because she never sought treatment
00:32:30
for those traumatic injuries. In many cases where someone's being abused, they're not permitted to go to the hospital for treatment
00:32:40
by the person that's beating them. NARRATOR: Without dental records or x-rays, the investigation looks like it might grind to a halt,
00:32:47
but Dr. Warren has one more unorthodox trick up his sleeve. So what we're left with in this case then is
00:32:53
a non-conventional way of looking at identification, a technique called video superimposition.
00:32:59
Video superimposition is a method which you take your specimen which is a skull, and you
00:33:04
superimpose a photograph of someone who is believed to be that decedent. It's truly an art and a science.
00:33:12
NARRATOR: If the video images of the skull and photos sync up along a series of matching points,
00:33:17
Dr. Warren can make a positive identification, but first he must obtain just the right still
00:33:23
photograph of Olivia. We had to send a picture, a frontal face picture of the victim to Dr. Warren.
00:33:31
It really puts a personal face on the case. Then you get to see what that person looked like.
00:33:36
And that's emotional when you really now then connect your work with the actual personal tragedy
00:33:44
that's involved. NARRATOR: But Dr. Warren knows he can't let his emotions get in the way of the task at hand.
00:33:50
I've seen a lot of death and a lot of tragedy. I think we're pretty good at catching ourselves
00:33:54
before we get too much emotionally invested in it. NARRATOR: The video superimposition process
00:33:59
requires two video cameras. Dr. Warren focuses one camera on the photo of Olivia.
00:34:06
The other is focused on the skull. The images are then fed into a video mixer which allows them to be blended to see if there is a fit.
00:34:16
The key is to make sure the angle of the skull exactly matches the angle of Olivia's face in the photo.
00:34:24
Yeah, Laurel is putting dowels into the ear holes. And that gives us an axis of how to orient
00:34:30
the skull to the photograph. NARRATOR: Once Dr. Warren has the proportions matched,
00:34:35
he compares key features on Olivia's face to the skull. The jaw bone, the width of the eyes,
00:34:44
the height of the forehead, the cheekbones, and the teeth. It's a very long process of trying
00:34:50
to evaluate the photograph and look at the position of the head in that photo and approximating that by manipulating the skull
00:34:58
under the other camera. NARRATOR: After a painstaking examination, Dr. Warren sees haunting evidence
00:35:04
that Olivia's facial features fit the skull perfectly. In fact, Olivia's photo almost seems
00:35:10
to bring the skull to life. The job Dr. Warren's team did with the picture and the skull
00:35:16
and put it all together to say that, yes, we've identified the victim. They sent a report back saying that they
00:35:23
believed that this was her. NARRATOR: Prosecutors now believe they have enough evidence to convince a jury
00:35:28
that this is Olivia. But now they want to know if the skull holds any clues to how she died.
00:35:42
Cause of death is an issue in any homicide that you're prosecuting. NARRATOR: This challenge once again
00:35:49
falls to Dr. Warren, who focuses on the network of fractures on Olivia's skull. It had a fracture of her maxilla
00:35:56
which is this area that extends from her left eye socket. She had nasal bone fractures on both sides.
00:36:03
She also had a fracture that extends down through what's called the infraorbital foramen which provides the feeling
00:36:09
for the left side of your face. That must have been very painful. NARRATOR: But the fractures are in various stages of healing,
00:36:15
some years old, some more recent. This healing process indicates that they were not
00:36:20
caused at the time of death. You never have dinner ready. You never have my dinner ready.
00:36:25
NARRATOR: All Dr. Warren can conclude is that the fractures fit the pattern of the many cases of domestic violence
00:36:32
that ultimately result in homicide. We have a lot of cases where people have been abused their whole life, and that's evident.
00:36:39
Their bones tell that life history. And they are at risk to end up in our laboratory.
00:36:44
NARRATOR: But without a specific cause of death the problem will lie in proving beyond a reasonable doubt
00:36:50
that Olivia was murdered and that Jesse killed her. Despite this obstacle, prosecutors
00:36:55
hope a jury will take into consideration the history of abuse and connect the violent dots.
00:37:01
When you put everything together, you're looking at the blood in the house, a violent history of the past.
00:37:10
You never have my dinner ready. What we're finding with the skull, the totality of the whole thing-- she was beat to death.
00:37:19
NARRATOR: Prosecutors may never know exactly what happened to Olivia in her final hours, but based on Dr. Warren's
00:37:24
forensic evidence and a year-long police investigation, they develop a theory. On the night of her death, Olivia
00:37:37
returns home late after an evening out with friends. And he had been waiting at home.
00:37:43
And they got into an argument over her being with her friends. Where do you think you're going?
00:37:51
Don't worry about it. I'm just going to bed. No, you're not! NARRATOR: Investigators believe that a fight breaks out
00:37:56
and Jesse begins to beat her. She bleeds profusely. [SCREAMING] But the attack leaves no evidence on the bones.
00:38:11
It's perfectly plausible that she died of some type of closed head injury. She may have been knocked unconscious
00:38:19
and her airway occluded. There's so many different scenarios that you can think of that would have resulted in her death
00:38:24
without marking the bone. NARRATOR: That night Jesse tries to clean up the blood,
00:38:30
then drives to a remote area where he dumps Olivia's body. And he just left her out to be eaten by animals.
00:38:38
NARRATOR: For the next 12 months, he gets away with murder. As long as Olivia's body isn't found,
00:38:43
Jesse knows that authorities can't arrest him. He thought he was able to outsmart us.
00:38:48
To him it was just a game, see how long he could get away with it. NARRATOR: Coming up, investigators
00:38:57
are ready to charge Jesse Stanton with Olivia's murder. But will Dr. Warren's evidence hold up in court?
00:39:03
If the jury comes back and just a little doubt is in their mind, we cannot go back and recharge him.
00:39:09
NARRATOR: When "Skeleton Stories" returns. On the strength of Dr. Warren's findings,
00:39:29
Detective Raker heads out to arrest Jesse Stanton for the murder of his ex-girlfriend Olivia
00:39:33
Pearson. We went to one house. And they said, he knows you're looking for him. He's waiting on a ride.
00:39:44
So I went down there, and sure enough, he was back in the shadows waiting on his ride.
00:39:49
So we picked him up and I arrested him. Under interrogation, Jesse tries to play
00:39:54
the same games he's played with detectives in the past. But Jesse is about to learn that it's a whole new playing field.
00:40:00
When Detective Sowder told him, he says, well, we have found her. He just clammed up and said he wanted
00:40:05
his attorney at that point. He knew it was over, and he just shut up. NARRATOR: As the case goes to court,
00:40:10
prosecutors are faced with a challenging case. Without a murder weapon, a positive ID, a confession,
00:40:17
or an exact cause of death, it will not be easy to convince a jury beyond a reasonable doubt
00:40:24
that Jesse murdered Olivia. If a jury comes back and just a little doubt is in their mind
00:40:30
and they don't convict him, we cannot go back and recharge him. It's a double jeopardy rule.
00:40:36
NARRATOR: The trial begins on February 10, 1988. Prosecutor Moore's first challenge
00:40:41
is to convince the jury that the remains found in the woods are those of Olivia Pearson.
00:40:47
The highlight of Dr. Warren's testimony is showing the jury the video superimposition process.
00:40:53
Then all of a sudden this picture comes up right there over the skull of the victim.
00:41:00
I think the old saying is that a picture is worth a thousand words. NARRATOR: His analysis provides strong evidence
00:41:05
that the skull belongs to Olivia Pearson, but it also goes a step further. It really personalizes that victim
00:41:12
and reminds everyone on the jury that we're talking about a person. And to superimpose that photograph
00:41:17
from the top of a skull really drives the point home that that person is no longer here.
00:41:22
NARRATOR: The jury sees Olivia Pearson smiling back at them bringing her skull to life.
00:41:27
And it's her skull that Dr. Warren uses to tell the jury about the pattern of brutal abuse Olivia endured during her final months.
00:41:38
They also were able to show us where her nose had been broken from the skull. And a cheek bone had been broken and had healed.
00:41:47
So she had several healed fractures of the face that were consistent with the beatings.
00:41:53
NARRATOR: Prosecutors also point out that the defendant Jesse Stanton had been convicted of brutally abusing Olivia
00:42:00
and had recently been released from jail. During closing arguments, the prosecution
00:42:04
asked the jury to connect the dots of evidence, the video superimposition, Jesse Stanton's history of violence--
00:42:11
You never have my dinner ready! NARRATOR: --crime scene photos of blood throughout the house,
00:42:17
and Jesse's suspicious story about the night Olivia disappeared. After deliberating for just three hours,
00:42:24
the jury reaches a verdict-- guilty of first degree murder. Jesse is sentenced to life without parole for the murder
00:42:34
of Olivia Pearson. His appeal has been denied. It's always gratifying to the prosecutor
00:42:42
and to the family and the police when a case like this gets solved and someone is prosecuted and convicted
00:42:48
and punished for the crime. NARRATOR: But without Dr. Warren's work, Jesse might never have even been arrested.
00:42:54
Dr. Warren's role in this investigation is he really brought that victim to life in the courtroom.
00:43:02
NARRATOR: Olivia's family also finds some solace knowing that justice has finally been served.
00:43:09
I think the family was very gratified the killer of their loved one was actually found guilty by a jury
00:43:15
and serving a life sentence. NARRATOR: For Dr. Warren, there is nothing more gratifying than making sure Jesse Stanton will never abuse
00:43:23
or murder another woman again. When my analysis plays a major role in the prosecution of a killer, then that
00:43:32
gives me great satisfaction.