00:00:03
[MUSIC PLAYING] - What is it? - It looks like a skull. ANDY WILLIS (VOICEOVER): We realize it
00:00:21
still had brain matter in it. It's obvious this isn't a prank. This is real.
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NARRATOR: A suspected hoax turns into a crime beyond rational explanation. As I was there alone in my laboratory,
00:00:32
I literally got chills, because it was one tiny cut mark after another. I remember just being in disbelief thinking,
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am I seeing what I'm seeing? Who could do this? NARRATOR: Can Dr. Beth Murray solve
00:00:47
a homicide from just a skull? When a ranch hand disappears, suspicion of murder hangs in the air.
00:00:59
I thought it was strange that Tommy would just take off. He should've have said, you know, goodbye.
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NARRATOR: Now, it falls to Dr. Murad to literally piece together the fragments of a puzzle
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and prove how a young man died. I don't know that anybody could be prepared or expect
00:01:16
what we found there that day. NARRATOR: On the outskirts of a small Midwestern town,
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two boys head to an isolated lake for a day of fishing. Look. What's that? NARRATOR: But what begins as a day of fun
00:02:13
is abruptly cut short by a grizzly discovery. It's a human skull. Look at it.
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Oh my god. Is it real? It looks real. Let's go. NARRATOR: Initially, police are skeptical of the boy's
00:02:33
discovery. At first, we thought that it possibly might have been a discarded skull from the school, which
00:02:40
is on the other side of the lake and the kids were just pulling a prank. NARRATOR: They soon see that it's anything but a prank.
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ANDY WILLIS (VOICEOVER): We realized it still had brain matter in it. It's obvious this isn't a prank.
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This is real. NARRATOR: Homicide detectives rush to the scene, to look for additional remains.
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But after a thorough search of the surrounding area, they come up empty handed. In my 33 years of police work, this
00:03:08
is the first case involving this skull by itself appearing from the waterways. NARRATOR: All signs point to foul play.
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But first, Detective Nugent needs to figure out who this skull belongs to. I returned to that police department,
00:03:28
started searching through our missing persons reports. NARRATOR: He finds four missing persons from the area,
00:03:35
three men and one woman. Investigators then turn to the only expert they know who could help identify the remains,
00:03:44
forensic anthropologist Dr. Beth Murray. Each victim is a witness to their own death.
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I'm merely there to speak for this person who can't speak for themselves anymore.
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NARRATOR: Investigators deliver the skull to Dr. Murray's lab at the College
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of Mount St. Joseph in Ohio. DR. BETH MURRAY (VOICEOVER): You never really know what's
00:04:15
at stake when you start a case. NARRATOR: But Dr. Murray does know where to start,
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with a biological profile. A biological profile is basically a description of who, scientifically,
00:04:30
the individual is in question. NARRATOR: Though she has only the skull to work from,
00:04:36
Dr. Murray is hopeful it will help her identify this unknown person. If you get only one part of the body in a case,
00:04:44
I would hope it's the skull. A skull provides critical information that can be used to assess the sex of the person
00:04:53
and the ethnicity of the person. NARRATOR: That critical information can be learned by measuring the skull's key features.
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There are a lot of landmarks on the skull from which we take measurements, the length of the skull,
00:05:07
the breadth of the skull, the size of the eye orbits, the height and width of the nasal aperture.
00:05:14
All of these landmarks are measured. NARRATOR: Then, she inputs these measurements
00:05:20
into a computer program. The individual measurements are compared to the skeletal measurements in a databank
00:05:26
of known individuals. And the result will be a probability of whether this person is male or female, whether this person
00:05:34
has African-American ancestry, European-American ancestry, for example. NARRATOR: Within a day of receiving the skull,
00:05:41
Dr. Murray makes her first conclusions. The measurements suggested that the skull
00:05:47
was that of a female and that she was very likely Caucasian. NARRATOR: Her findings mobilize the investigation.
00:05:55
This information she supplied us gave us some place to start. NARRATOR: Since only one person from the area is female,
00:06:04
police focused the search around her. The missing person was a young woman named Tracy Stark who was
00:06:11
21 years of age, who left for work one day, leaving her mother-in-law in charge of babysitting her child.
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NARRATOR: As police learn about Tracy, they uncover a heartbreaking story of abuse and neglect.
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Tracy never knew her real father. And her mother was committed to a mental facility
00:06:32
during Tracy's adolescence. When Tracy was 14, her stepfather sexually abused her
00:06:39
and was sent to prison. But Tracy was resilient. And by the time she turned 21, she was already
00:06:47
getting her life on track. She started work at a local grocery store to help pay her way through college.
00:06:57
She was also the proud mother of a beautiful 18-month-old daughter, Alisha, and lived with common law husband Rob Venton.
00:07:05
She was a beautiful young lady, a beautiful smile, kind of long, darkish hair. And she looked vibrant.
00:07:13
And I mean, she just looked like a fun person to be around, full of life. NARRATOR: But then, on June 4th, 1996, Tracy disappeared.
00:07:26
Rob's mother filed a missing persons report. Nugent learns that, at the time, her husband Rob told police
00:07:34
Tracy had simply abandoned him and their daughter. But now that a skull matching Tracy's biological profile
00:07:42
has been found nearby, Detective Nugent suspects that there may be more to his story.
00:07:49
He brings Rob in for further questioning. I'm listening, Rob. Tell me something. DET.
00:07:54
JAMES NUGENT (VOICEOVER): During the course of this interview, I could read that he was being evasive and untruthful
00:07:59
in our conversation. His body language, his blood pressure, and his heartbeat increased in his nervousness in the chair.
00:08:08
But he stuck to his story that she left and returned to where she was originally from and left him and the baby.
00:08:16
She left behind an 18-month-old baby. That also is highly unusual. If a woman is going to take off, she is going
00:08:26
to take an 18-month-old baby. NARRATOR: And interviews with Tracy's friends reveal that Rob was not always the caring husband
00:08:37
he seemed to be. He had a very quick flash point. He did have a temper. He was very easy to set off.
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NARRATOR: Rob quickly emerges as a suspect in his wife's disappearance. But investigators still face many unanswered questions.
00:08:52
Although certain activity might seem suspicious or not natural, that doesn't give us a crime.
00:08:59
We still didn't know who this person was. And that's where we, again, had to turn to Dr. Murray.
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NARRATOR: They are now counting on Dr. Murray, more than ever, to tell them if this skull
00:09:15
belongs to Tracy Stark. People are often identified by matching their teeth to dental records.
00:09:22
But that won't be possible in this case. Except for two wisdom teeth, all the teeth
00:09:29
are missing, which is odd. Teeth do fall out after death. But the molars typically don't.
00:09:37
The molars on top have three roots that hold them in pretty tightly. But the molars are gone.
00:09:43
And Dr. Murray notices something alarming about the missing teeth. DR. BETH MURRAY (VOICEOVER): There's a lot
00:09:49
of breakage of the bone here. You can see just the fractured tip of a root. Teeth fall out all the time.
00:09:56
But they don't leave their roots behind. NARRATOR: The broken root suggests that the victim's teeth didn't naturally fall out after death.
00:10:05
Someone removed them, by force. I could actually see the plier bites from needle nose player marks.
00:10:15
It appeared the teeth were snapped out, you know, in this kind of motion. And I'm turning turning this over in my lab
00:10:21
and I'm thinking, you know, I can't believe what I'm seeing. NARRATOR: And Dr. Murray thinks she knows why this was done.
00:10:30
It's commonly known that teeth are used in identification. So that somebody was going to extreme lengths
00:10:37
to disfigure this person, so that they couldn't be identified. NARRATOR: Surprisingly, Dr. Murray
00:10:44
discovers that two of the victim's teeth do remain. The only teeth that were still there were the wisdom teeth.
00:10:52
They were unerupted. NARRATOR: Wisdom teeth typically erupted between the ages of 17 and 25.
00:10:58
In some people, the teeth never emerge. When that person was alive, when they were fleshed,
00:11:05
those teeth would've been hidden underneath the gums. He or she only removed the teeth that they could see.
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NARRATOR: But the forced removal of teeth is only the beginning. As Dr. Murray examines the skull more closely,
00:11:24
she discovers the killer has gone to even more extreme lengths to disguise the victim's identity.
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DR. BETH MURRAY (VOICEOVER): As I was there alone in my laboratory and began turning this over,
00:11:35
I literally got chills, because it was one tiny cut mark after another, all types of tiny little insults,
00:11:43
tiny little wounds to that skull. And I thought, you know, am I seeing things? NARRATOR: The more Dr. Murray looks,
00:11:51
the more marks she sees on the skull. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. It was literally hundreds of tool marks.
00:11:59
There's serrated blade marks, where it looks like somebody's drug a blade down the side of the skull,
00:12:04
like in an attempt to deflesh it. This is just mutilation. This is just something bizarre.
00:12:10
This is a person who is obsessed and is just clinically, methodically, painstakingly
00:12:15
taking apart another human being. NARRATOR: If this is Tracy Stark, it appears her killer took her face apart, deflshing it,
00:12:27
to make sure that no one would ever be able identify her. ROBIN PIPER (VOICEOVER): You just cringe.
00:12:32
You can't believe [INAUDIBLE] the type of crime that has been committed. It just sickened me to think about the person that could
00:12:39
do that to another person. NARRATOR: But despite the well-defined pattern of injuries and a clear biological profile,
00:12:52
there is still no concrete evidence that this is Tracy's skull. Without a positive ID, the case can go no further.
00:13:01
DR. BETH MURRAY (VOICEOVER): I knew there was a lot at stake, that this wasn't a run of the mill case.
00:13:05
This was the most grisly case I had ever worked in my career. NARRATOR: Coming up, Dr. Murray hopes a DNA test will give
00:13:15
her the positive ID she needs. But can she find the clean genetic material for the test?
00:13:36
Forensic anthropologist Dr. Beth Murray is examining a skull found on the muddy banks of a lake.
00:13:43
Police believe it may be all that's left of 21-year-old mother Tracy Stark, who police
00:13:49
now suspect was murdered. And from what Dr. Murray has already discovered, it was a bizarre and chilling crime.
00:13:58
I was seeing evidence that somebody had painstakingly taken all of the flesh off of this skull.
00:14:06
And I remember just being in disbelief, thinking, am I seeing what I'm seeing?
00:14:12
Who could do this? NARRATOR: One person who police suspect could've done it is Tracy's own husband.
00:14:19
But they're unable to pursue any suspect [INAUDIBLE],, because there is still no proof positive
00:14:24
that this disfigured skull belonged to Tracy in the first place. It's now up to Dr. Murray to give them that proof.
00:14:36
I could see the history of the dismemberment or the defleshing of this person, who had a face, you know, had a scalp,
00:14:47
had hair. It just sickened me. NARRATOR: Though Dr. Beth Murray has been unable to determine
00:14:54
if the skull in her lab belongs to missing person Tracy Stark, the mutilation is nothing short of shocking.
00:15:02
But she knows from experience that emotion has no place in the forensics lab. I try to step back and say, yes, this was a person,
00:15:13
but my job right now is to stay focused, not get emotional, not get involved, not get teary eyed.
00:15:19
How would my tears help this person? NARRATOR: The only way she can help the victim
00:15:24
now is by verifying her identity. The killer has gone to great lengths to destroy all recognizable characteristics,
00:15:34
including pulling out her teeth. But he made one critical mistake. Two wisdom teeth escaped removal,
00:15:41
because they were unerupted, lying hidden under the gums. I believe they were still there,
00:15:47
because the perpetrator didn't know that they were underneath the flesh. NARRATOR: And the teeth may contain
00:15:52
the precious piece of information needed to ID the skull, DNA. DNA can be obtained, typically,
00:16:01
from basically the guts or the inside of a tooth. The pulp cavity of a tooth contains
00:16:10
enough living, organic tissue that would have cells that would contain DNA. NARRATOR: But even if Dr. Murray can obtain a DNA sample
00:16:19
from the molars, it needs to be matched from a sample from one of Tracy's blood relatives.
00:16:26
This time, luck is on Dr. Murray's side. She did have a child. And from the child, we could get blood
00:16:33
and we could compare it to the DNA within those teeth and hope for a match. Detective Nugent came to the prosecutor's office and we
00:16:41
assisted him in getting a court order for a blood sample from the 18-month-old baby.
00:16:51
NARRATOR: But the results from the first DNA test are disappointing. When the DNA results came back from the lab,
00:16:58
they were inconclusive, because that skull had been in a lake environment with a lot of other small living
00:17:06
organisms whose DNA can contaminate the specimen. NARRATOR: The lack of a positive DNA match
00:17:13
is devastating to investigators. The investigators and I were, initially, disappointed,
00:17:19
obviously, in the DNA results. And I think that some of the detectives thought that this might be the end.
00:17:26
What are we gonna do? NARRATOR: Things are looking bleak. But Dr. Murray has one last trick up his sleeve.
00:17:33
Most people think of the skeleton as a static thing. But bone is alive. NARRATOR: Bones, like teeth, are living tissue.
00:17:43
And living tissue is comprised of cells that contain DNA. And I said, you know, I think that we could
00:17:50
get some core bone samples that might be able to give us some DNA, despite the lake water, some deep areas
00:17:56
of thick, dense bone that may have been protected from the contamination. NARRATOR: The back of the skull, the thickest, densest part,
00:18:05
offers the best hope of a clean DNA sample. I take my drill, I put the surgical core on it,
00:18:11
I core into it, under sterile technique, take out the samples, put them in a sterile container,
00:18:17
ship them off to the lab for DNA analysis. NARRATOR: As Dr. Murray anxiously await the results,
00:18:23
police continue their investigation of their prime suspect, Rob Venton. We found out that she had a bank account.
00:18:32
Money had been taken out of her account after she was reported missing. And they came up with a photograph of Rob
00:18:39
taking money out of an ATM machine. NARRATOR: All clues suggested Rob Venton killed his wife.
00:18:47
But Rob is sticking with his story that Tracy simply left town. And investigators have little else to go on.
00:18:55
If the DNA of the skull doesn't match, then that case will go cold. When you hear how horrific it was,
00:19:03
you hunger to solve the case. You have to have closure in such a horrific case. NARRATOR: Two months later, Dr. Murray's
00:19:16
efforts bring police one step closer to the closure they need. The DNA results concluded that this was in fact Tracy Stark.
00:19:25
NARRATOR: The test is conclusive. This skull is Tracy. Despite the killer's extreme efforts
00:19:32
to destroy all traces of the victim's identity, Dr. Murray has outwitted him.
00:19:38
But even though she has confirmed that this skull belongs to Tracy, investigators still have no evidence
00:19:45
against her husband. Their only hope is to get help from the most unlikely of sources, the suspected killer himself.
00:19:58
Coming up, Dr. Murray's findings are put to the ultimate test, when they are used to confront
00:20:04
the suspected killer. Maybe we're gonna finally be able to put the pieces of Tracy
00:20:09
Stark back together, literally. NARRATOR: Later, what could've happened to a farm hand
00:20:17
with a hidden past? BOB HAMMETT (VOICEOVER): Tommy would do anything for you/ great help for me around here.
00:20:22
He was like a son to me. NARRATOR: When "Skeleton Stories" returns. Dr. Murray has proven that this skull is Tracy Stark's
00:20:45
and that it has been systematically defleshed, her killer's futile attempt to hide her identity.
00:20:53
But that wasn't the end of the story. NARRATOR: Police are eager to confront
00:20:56
their prime murder suspect, Tracy's common law husband Rob Venton. But before they can, they'll need
00:21:04
to know every detail of what was done to Tracy Stark. They again turn to Dr. Murray.
00:21:13
It's my job to create a scenario of a sequence of events. Then, law enforcement can take that sequence of events,
00:21:22
presenting the suspect with the information. NARRATOR: Scrutinizing this grisly patchwork of wounds,
00:21:28
Dr. Murray catalogs the cutting tools and the manner in which they were used. There's at least four different tool mark classes
00:21:36
here, a serrated blade, and then something like a large machete or a meat cleaver, and then a little tiny pocket
00:21:43
knife-sized knife perhaps. NARRATOR: As soon as Dr. Murray completes the horrific forensic narrative, police are ready to confront
00:21:53
suspect Rob Venton. We made the joint decision, yes, pull him in, find out what he has to say.
00:22:01
NARRATOR: Police immediately hit him with a barrage of damning details, details that Rob thought only could know.
00:22:09
We know this, this, and this. We know you pulled her teeth out with needle nose pliers.
00:22:14
We know that you dragged a serrated blade down the skull and defleshed her. That's often enough to get somebody to kind of crumble,
00:22:21
if you will. NARRATOR: At first, Rob refuses to budge. But as he's confronted, blow by blow
00:22:28
with Dr. Murray's findings, eventually, he crumbles. A year after her disappearance, Rob Venton
00:22:36
confesses to the brutal murder of his wife. The investigators are stunned as he recounts
00:22:44
the grisly story of how he killed and defleshed his wife, Tracy. It's the first Friday night that Tracy
00:22:58
has had off in three months. And she's decided to leave the baby with Rob's mother,
00:23:03
so she and Rob could have some fun alone together. They start the evening with some cards,
00:23:10
a simple game of Gin Rummy. But things soon get out of hand. I don't need to cheat to win at card with you.
00:23:18
He stated that he and his wife Tracy got into a vocal argument. NARRATOR: Rob accuses Tracy of cheating
00:23:27
and the situation quickly escalates. Tracy Starks flees into the bathroom to escape
00:23:34
her husband's violent temper. DET. JAMES NUGENT (VOICEOVER): He had a filet knife in his hand
00:23:43
and but her throat. She started bleeding. He panicked, ran from the house. NARRATOR: Fatally wounded by the man who claims to love her,
00:23:55
Tracy bleeds to death, most likely the result of a severed jugular, the primary vein that
00:24:02
drains blood from the brain. She spends her last moments alone. DET. JAMES NUGENT (VOICEOVER): After a short period of time,
00:24:13
he returned to the house, found her laying in the bathtub, dead. He started disassembling her, cutting her up in pieces.
00:24:27
He told us how he defleshed her bones, how he carved her skull. It goes hand-in-hand with what Dr. Murray said,
00:24:39
as far as the blade striking the skull. He also told us how he extracted her teeth
00:24:46
using needle nose pliers, which is consistent with what Dr. Murray told us. NARRATOR: He then puts her body parts
00:24:57
in two large garbage bags. He buries them near the local sewage plant and disposes of the skull in the lake on the outskirts of town.
00:25:12
With a confession secured, using Dr. Murray's findings, Rob is charged with voluntary manslaughter
00:25:18
and abuse of a corpse. He receives a 10 to 25-year sentence and is still in prison.
00:25:26
His mother is currently raising his and Tracy's daughter. The murder, the dismemberment, the fact
00:25:34
that he used her credit cards after he had done all this, he went to such extreme measures and treated
00:25:41
with such callousness, a woman that he loved and had a child with, I can't understand
00:25:48
those sorts of things. So I don't try. I just don't even try. NARRATOR: Detective James Nugent and prosecutor Robin Piper
00:25:57
are forever grateful to Dr. Murray for helping them solve this gruesome case. The information that Dr. Murray
00:26:04
supplied us made the case. Without Dr. Murray, we wouldn't have developed the identity of the victim.
00:26:12
We wouldn't have developed the suspect. We wouldn't have closure. I guess I'd like to think that, if justice is served
00:26:21
and if I was a part of that, then people can move on with their lives, as best they can.
00:26:27
NARRATOR: Rob's mother buried Tracy's remains in a local cemetery. From time to time, Detective Nugent still visits her grave.
00:26:35
DET. JAMES NUGENT (VOICEOVER): She had a rough life. This is my way of recognizing her,
00:26:40
letting her know that someone does care about her. NARRATOR: Coming up, a remote chicken ranch is littered
00:26:51
with hundreds of bones. Unless Dr. Murad can determine which bones belong to a young ranch hand, a murder may go unsolved.
00:27:00
There were bones scattered all over the place, all kinds of beef rib bones and turkey bones, all of which
00:27:06
had to be identified and analyzed. That was my job. NARRATOR: That's next on "Skeleton Stories."
00:27:43
It's 5:00 AM on a Western Nevada ranch. While stacking lumber, the ranch's caretakers
00:27:49
find what looks to them like human bone, partially visible beneath the woodpile.
00:27:55
Alarmed, they phoned the ranch owner, Bob Hammett. BOB HAMMETT (VOICEOVER): Came as a big shock.
00:28:02
In disbelief, I thought, no. It's got to be cow bones. It's got to be coyote bones or something.
00:28:07
You know, I had-- you know, human? No, no, no. NARRATOR: Hammett immediately summons the police.
00:28:13
The ranch hands direct them to a stack of old lumber near the chicken coop. As the police pull logs off the stack,
00:28:21
they discover part of a skull and a set of rib bones inside a torn flannel shirt.
00:28:30
They also find a clump of red hair. Ranch owner Bob Hammett isn't skeptical any longer.
00:28:39
In fact, he claims he knows whose body it is, a young red-haired laborer named Tommy Bledsoe, who came to work
00:28:48
on the ranch two years earlier. You know, I really miss Tommy. He was a sweetheart of a guy.
00:28:54
He was a younger fella. NARRATOR: Tommy grew up in Texas, dreaming of becoming a pro rodeo star,
00:29:00
until a back injury dashed his hopes. Since then, he drank too much and spent his share
00:29:06
of nights behind bars. But things changed when he showed up looking for work on the Hammett ranch.
00:29:16
Tommy, I met and he needed work. There was always stuff to do around here, you know, burning firewood or cutting firewood.
00:29:25
NARRATOR: Tommy took to the work and to ranch owner Bob Hammett. BOB HAMMETT (VOICEOVER): Tommy would do anything for you.
00:29:32
He was great help for me around here. He was like a son to me. NARRATOR: But after a month, Tommy's new life took
00:29:40
a tragic turn for the worse. His girlfriend of over two years was suddenly killed in a car accident.
00:29:49
Her death sent Tommy into a deep depression. Tommy had gotten very, very despondent, withdrawn.
00:29:56
Basically, his personality changed. He felt somewhat responsible for her death. As a result of that, he talked suicide.
00:30:05
NARRATOR: Then, one morning, Tommy disappeared. I thought it was strange that Tommy
00:30:12
would just take off and leave. I thought it was strange, because he should've said goodbye, or tell us if he's coming back.
00:30:20
NARRATOR: If this pile of bones is the last of Tommy Bledsoe, then Bob Hammett's lingering questions will be answered
00:30:27
and police can begin a real investigation. But is it? Any time we have human remains in skeletal form, that's
00:30:35
when we contact Dr. Murad. NARRATOR: Police turn the Dr. Turhon Murad. Bones do have a story to tell.
00:30:44
I like to think that I can help tell the story from bones. It's what I do. NARRATOR: Dr. Murad immediately heads to the Hammett ranch.
00:31:00
The property itself is over 10,000 acres of brush and wilderness. At it's center are the run down farm buildings where
00:31:08
the remains were discovered. TONY BURDINE (VOICEOVER): We're lucky in this county.
00:31:13
We have Dr. Murad right here, which gives us the advantage of having him coming out to the scene.
00:31:17
I'd never been to a place like this before. It was very strange, almost surrealistic.
00:31:23
I don't know that anybody could be prepared or expect what we found there that day.
00:31:28
NARRATOR: For Dr. Murad, the first step to learning whether these remains are Tommy's is to sort and collect all
00:31:34
the human bones at the scene. But as he surveys the ground, it becomes clear that this will be a tall order.
00:31:40
DR. TURHON MURAD (VOICEOVER): This is not what I thought I was getting into. There were bones scattered all over the place.
00:31:45
And I don't mean just human bones. Human bones are what I do. It's what I'm there to help them with.
00:31:50
But there were all kinds of beef rib bones and turkey bones and just everything lying around this place, all of which
00:31:57
had to be inventoried, identified, and analyzed before it was even picked up. And that was my job.
00:32:05
NARRATOR: Bird bones are easily distinguished from human. They are thin walled and hollow, which makes them lighter
00:32:11
and easier to keep airborne. But bones from mammals, like sheep and cows, require closer scrutiny.
00:32:19
Piece by piece, Dr. Murad separates man from beast and identifies a growing stack of human bones.
00:32:27
DR. TURHON MURAD (VOICEOVER): There was a skull. And it wasn't complete. It was broken up.
00:32:31
And in the firepit itself, there were portions of a human vertebra that had been burned.
00:32:35
So unbeknownst to whoever did it, they were cooking their meal over burned human bone.
00:32:43
Bizarre to say the least. NARRATOR: Seven grueling hours later, Dr. Murad and investigators have collected more than 100
00:32:52
human bones and fragments. Now, he must rely on these bones to answer the two questions at the forefront of detectives' minds.
00:33:03
Is this Tommy Bledsoe? And how did he die? Because there was no flesh, the pathologist
00:33:10
couldn't perform an autopsy. They wanted answers to both of those questions.
00:33:13
Who might this be and how might they have died? NARRATOR: To shed light on these mysteries,
00:33:22
Dr. Murad brings the bones back to his laboratory, the Physical Anthropology Human Identification
00:33:29
Lab at the California State University. Here, he can examine the bones more closely.
00:33:36
One of the most accurate ways to verify whether this is or isn't Tommy is to compare Tommy's dental records
00:33:43
with the placement of the teeth found in the skull. If they match, it's as good as a fingerprint.
00:33:50
But in this case, there's one glaring challenge. Both the skull and the jaw are in pieces.
00:34:05
DR. TURHON MURAD (VOICEOVER): There were lots of fragments. The face, essentially, was missing.
00:34:08
The mandible was broken. There were these fractures to the top of the head. NARRATOR: Without the skull in one piece,
00:34:14
there is literally nothing to match the dental records to. Dr. Murad must put it back together.
00:34:21
He'll first need to learn which of the hundreds of bone fragments lying before him belong to the skull.
00:34:30
One set of clues that guides him is the unique patterns made by veins on the inside of the skull,
00:34:36
the menengial arteries. DR. TURHON MURAD (VOICEOVER): And you can see, very subtly,
00:34:39
there's some grooves in there. Those are what [INAUDIBLE] from the menengial arteries.
00:34:43
OK? The menengial arteries are the coverings of the brain. By virtue of this kind of surface, on that bone,
00:34:49
I know that this is a cranial bone. It doesn't-- it's not like from an arm
00:34:52
or a leg or anything like that. This is from the skull. NARRATOR: Much like assembling a jigsaw puzzle piece
00:34:57
by tiny piece, Dr. Murad painstakingly tries to put the skull back together. DR. TURHON MURAD (VOICEOVER): So if I have a pretty good idea
00:35:05
as to where this might fit, then I'm gonna set it aside and I'm gonna look for other fragments that I can identify.
00:35:11
Once I have those identified, then I will try to literally fit them together. And if there is a good fit, then I will glue them together.
00:35:22
NARRATOR: Six hours later, the skull is in one piece. MICHAEL L. RAMSEY (VOICEOVER): It
00:35:26
was the forensic anthropologist that put that skull back together. Then, it got to a forensic dentist
00:35:32
that was then able to establish this was the victim. NARRATOR: The forensic dentist confirms
00:35:39
that this was Tommy Bledsoe. But now, they need Dr. Murad to answer a question with much graver consequences.
00:35:49
How did Tommy die? And was he murdered? There are only four ways a person can die,
00:35:58
homicide, suicide, natural causes, and accident. MICHAEL L. RAMSEY (VOICEOVER): Was there a crime here?
00:36:05
Or was there a person that had just died, been thrown under a lumber pile, and we
00:36:11
had no crime other than perhaps burying a body without a permit? NARRATOR: Coming up, Dr. Murad finds
00:36:22
vital clues in the fragments of the young man's face. In this case, the bones are talking to me.
00:36:27
They're telling me things. NARRATOR: Thanks to the work of forensic anthropologist Dr.
00:36:45
Turhon Murad, investigators have confirmed that a skeleton found on a remote Nevada chicken ranch was once
00:36:52
Tommy Bledsoe, a farmhand who had disappeared two years prior. Police returned to the crime scene
00:37:02
to question ranch owner Bob Hammett, hoping he can provide clues to Tommy's death.
00:37:08
The detectives came to me after they talked with the anthropologist and asked me
00:37:12
who had been on this ranch in this time period. NARRATOR: Hammett tells detectives
00:37:16
of another man who worked on the ranch around the same time as Tommy. His name is Hubert Wilkins.
00:37:25
Hubert and Tommy, they were friends. They were very dissimilar. Tommy was a smaller individual.
00:37:32
He was only about 5 foot 9, maybe 150 pounds thereabouts, a very outgoing person.
00:37:40
On the other hand, Hubert was a very large individual, in excess of six foot and extremely muscular,
00:37:47
and an introverted type, somewhat of a loner, had very few friends, and pretty much kept to himself.
00:37:53
NARRATOR: When Tommy suddenly disappeared from the ranch in the summer of 1994, it was Hubert who
00:37:59
claimed to know what happened. BOB HAMMETT (VOICEOVER): And I asked where Tommy went.
00:38:04
And he says, I think he went back to Arizona. And I said, ah, he wouldn't have done that without coming
00:38:10
and saying goodbye to me. NARRATOR: A few weeks later, Hubert took a cue from Tommy and vanished.
00:38:18
BOB HAMMETT (VOICEOVER): He wanted me to take him to town to do his laundry. He just never came back.
00:38:22
There was nowhere to be found. He just disappeared. Hubert's gone, in the wind, not to be seen again
00:38:29
We have Tommy, who two years after Huber's disappearance is found underneath the woodpile.
00:38:34
So there's a strong finger of suspicion pointed at Hubert. NARRATOR: Did Hubert Wilkins to Tommy Bledsoe?
00:38:42
Police now suspect he could have. But before they could move forward, they need one more key piece of information
00:38:50
that only Dr. Murad can provide them. Was Tommy murdered? Even though the skull found under the wood pile
00:39:04
was fractured, this doesn't necessarily go to a homicide. It might have been an accident.
00:39:10
I mean, for all we know, perhaps a wood structure fell down on him and he died as a result
00:39:15
of that blunt force trauma from some cave in of some type. NARRATOR: Before Dr. Murad can tell if Tommy was murdered,
00:39:22
he must determine whether his skull fracture caused his death or occurred after he died, the result of scavenging animals
00:39:31
or the weight of the wood pile. To answer the question of when Tommy's skull was damaged,
00:39:37
Dr. Murad must examine the edges of the skull fragments themselves. On close inspection, he sees that the fractures
00:39:45
are not crisp and even, but ragged and bent. This suggests that at the time of breaking,
00:39:51
the bone was moist and pliable. DR. TURHON MURAD (VOICEOVER): Bone responds differently after it's dried out than it
00:39:57
does when it's fresh or green. Many of the fractures to this guy's face suggested that he was--
00:40:05
this was near the time of death, the bone was still fresh. It had a lot of organic material in.
00:40:09
It hadn't dried out. NARRATOR: In other words, whatever broke Tommy's skull,
00:40:13
broke it when he was lying. Next, Dr. Murad must determine if Tommy's injuries could have been fatal.
00:40:22
To answer that question, he maps the fractures, so he can decipher their severity.
00:40:29
DR. TURHON MURAD (VOICEOVER): They're fractures radiating, moving away from this area.
00:40:33
I'm inclined to think that the major force was right here. NARRATOR: He concludes that a massive blow to the glabella,
00:40:39
the midsection of the brow ridge, split Tommy's forehead, literally, into pieces.
00:40:46
The broken bone itself would not have killed him. But the shock to the brain underneath,
00:40:52
unquestionably, would have. DR. TURHON MURAD (VOICEOVER): This blow to his head was more than sufficient to have caused
00:40:57
the cerebral hemorrhage and pressure on his brain, his brain to swell, and to have caused his death.
00:41:03
NARRATOR: Now, he must make the final and most difficult determination. Are Tommy's fatal injuries proof of murder?
00:41:12
Again, Dr. Murad turns to the fractured skull for answers. DR. TURHON MURAD (VOICEOVER): In this case,
00:41:17
the bones are talking to me. They're telling me things. And I enjoy listening.
00:41:22
Here's his left zygomatic, or cheekbone, that was fractured. There's a fracture coming down into his left eye.
00:41:30
The mandible, when it was recovered, was fractured here. He was hit at least a couple of times.
00:41:35
I can't tell you exactly how many times, but probably two or more. NARRATOR: This pattern of multiple fractures
00:41:42
is not at all consistent with a fall or an accidental impact to the head. Dr. Murad has finally found the evidence
00:41:49
investigators are waiting for. Tommy Bledsoe suffered not just one single blow, but a number of successive blows that
00:41:57
ultimately shattered his skull. He was almost certainly murdered. DR. TURHON MURAD (VOICEOVER): This, at one time,
00:42:03
was a young man. He laughed, had family, cried, was known by people. He was a person.
00:42:10
And he didn't deserve to die this way. NARRATOR: The news galvanizes the investigators.
00:42:16
The hunt for Hubert Wilkins begins. They track him down and learn that he is working at a donut shop at Gallup, New Mexico.
00:42:24
Police decide that it's time to go pay Hubert a visit. Coming up, Hubert Wilkins goes toe to toe with Sheriff Reniff
00:42:36
and Dr. Murad's findings. I says, Hubert, we both know that Tommy never left the property.
00:42:41
NARRATOR: That's next, when "Skeleton Stories" continues. Dr. Murad has provided police with detailed skeletal proof
00:43:03
said Tommy Bledsoe was bludgeoned to death. Now, armed with Murad's findings,
00:43:09
police prepare to confront their chief suspect, Hubert Wilkins, a drifter who once worked on the isolated ranch
00:43:16
where Tommy's body was found. Investigators question Hubert Wilkins at the donut shop
00:43:25
in New Mexico where he works. Remember, Tommy? You worked with him a couple of years ago?
00:43:30
That was a long time ago. Can we talk to you back in private here please? PERRY RENIFF (VOICEOVER): We spoke to him at length
00:43:34
for about two to three hours. He kept telling us how Tommy had left the property
00:43:38
and he never come back. And that was the story that he was maintaining. NARRATOR: The detectives are convinced
00:43:44
that Wilkins is lying. And thanks to Dr. Murad's findings, they are able to turn up the heat in the interview.
00:43:52
Having a pretty good idea of what happened, forensically, was vital, so that you
00:43:57
know when a suspect is lying. You can call him on it. Then, Sergeant Reniff hit him with the evidence and said,
00:44:05
we know you're lying. Here's what the physical evidence is. Now, we found the bones over here, didn't we?
00:44:11
NARRATOR: The investigators proceed to replay for Hubert the exact circumstances of Tommy Bledsoe's death,
00:44:18
from the shot to the fractured cheekbone. He's finding out the investigator knows more detail than I thought could ever be revealed.
00:44:28
You worked with Tommy Bledsoe. We found his bones this week. And finally, I told him, I says,
00:44:33
Hubert, we both know that Tommy never left the property. Now, do you want to continue the interview here
00:44:41
or do you want to go downtown and do it? The man kind of stopped and said, OK, well, here's
00:44:47
what happened and then gave the truth. NARRATOR: Nine months after discovering a pile of human bones on Bob Hammett's ranch,
00:44:55
Hubert Wilkins confesses to the murder of Tommy Bledsoe. It all came together. NARRATOR: With Hubert's confession and Dr. Murad's
00:45:03
findings, authorities could finally piece together the last few moments of Tommy's life.
00:45:15
As Hubert tells it, he began his friendship with Tommy Bledsoe in 1991. Both men are ex-convicts and drifters.
00:45:24
They get along well, until Tommy's girlfriend dies in a car crash in July of 1994.
00:45:31
Tommy becomes depressed. He was not the outgoing person that-- that Hubert was used to.
00:45:36
It basically was getting on his nerves. NARRATOR: One afternoon, Hubert decides to head to Reno weekend
00:45:43
on the town, without Tommy. The Reno rodeo was coming up. Hubert wanted to go to that rodeo
00:45:51
and Tommy wanted to go with him. I guess that's why they got in a fight. Well, at this point, Tommy threatened
00:45:57
to turn in Hubert, who was wanted on a parole violation. That was the straw that broke the-- the back.
00:46:04
PERRY RENIFF (VOICEOVER): He just exploded. Picked up the splitting [INAUDIBLE] and hit him, as he put it, between the running lights.
00:46:10
NARRATOR: Hubert pounds Tommy's head with the blunt end of the [INAUDIBLE]. The blows are swift and ruthless.
00:46:18
[INAUDIBLE] are precisely as Dr. Murad has described. One blow splits Tommy's cranium.
00:46:26
Another cracks his face's frontal bone and eye socket. A third breaks apart his zygomatic arch,
00:46:33
Tommy's cheekbone. By the end of the beating, Tommy is dead and panic grips Hubert.
00:46:43
He kind of fell apart and didn't know what to do with the body. Initially, he hid the body in the bathtub in the trailer.
00:46:50
That night, he went from place to place trying to figure out where to get rid of the body.
00:46:55
And finally, he decided, well, I'll put it next to the chicken coop and pile the lumber over it.
00:47:01
NARRATOR: He sticks around for a few weeks, until questions of Tommy's whereabouts subside.
00:47:07
Then, he moves on. In March of 1997, Hubert Wilkins is extradited back to Nevada to face charges
00:47:16
in the death of Tommy Bledsoe. Wilkins pleads guilty to voluntary manslaughter, but tries for the lightest sentence possible.
00:47:25
The defense was trying to say, well, it's just kind of one blow. I mean, it's just--
00:47:30
you know, it's just one of those things. NARRATOR: But Dr. Murad has the proof.
00:47:33
The beating may have been unplanned, but it was brutal. Hubert didn't just kill Tommy.
00:47:41
He battered him again and again. We were able to say, no, you know, we have multiple separate blows.
00:47:49
Because of the forensics that were involved here, we were able to convince and judge
00:47:53
for the upper term for the voluntary manslaughter, 11 years in the state's prison.
00:48:02
NARRATOR: From the first hours of the investigation to the final sentencing, Murad's skill made the investigation
00:48:10
and prosecution possible. Without him, there would have been no justice at all for Tommy Bledsoe.
00:48:18
DR. TURHON MURAD (VOICEOVER): Sometimes it works out well and other times it doesn't.
00:48:22
Perpetrator was captured, the decedent was identified and the family notified so that there could be some closure
00:48:29
on the family's part. Without the physical evidence, they would've never gotten the confession.
00:48:33
They would've have never solved this particular crime. DR. TURHON MURAD (VOICEOVER): Bones have a story to tell.
00:48:39
I get a great deal pleasure out of interpreting what those bones can say. Sometimes it's very obvious.
00:48:47
Other times, it's not so obvious. It's a challenge to try to learn as much as I can
00:48:52
about the person from the hard parts of their body.