00:00:01
[TENSE MUSIC] NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER):
Ventura, California, 1991. The body of a 42-year-old
mom, Danielle Clause,
00:00:18
discovered downtown Ventura. Her face was almost
unrecognizable. It had been smashed in, her
face, her head with some sort
00:00:29
of blunt instrument. And there was a bloody
rock located nearby. She did everything she could.
00:00:35
She might have been taken
by surprise as well. NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER):
The grisly crime
00:00:39
deeply disturbs investigators
and the entire community. It was good
old-fashioned police work--
00:00:47
interviewing witnesses,
following up on leads, doing whatever detectives could. And in this case,
detectives worked
00:00:54
incredibly hard to
attempt to bring closure to this case in 1991. I was right along
with the investigation.
00:01:02
And they were so good about
talking to me with it. Unfortunately, it turned cold
three or four, five years later.
00:01:11
And it stayed that
way for years. NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER):
The case goes cold. Decades later, investigators
turn to new and groundbreaking
00:01:22
forensic science. This is what law enforcement
and prosecution is all about, seeking justice, being dogged
and unrelenting in that pursuit,
00:01:35
and getting to a
conclusion, some finality. NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER): This
is the story of a 32-year-long
00:01:44
search for a vicious
killer and two brothers who might fit that description. I'm Nancy Grace.
00:01:51
This is "Bloodline Detectives." [THEME MUSIC] Ventura, California, 1991. A coastal city north
of LA, renowned
00:02:24
for beaches, watersports, and
a flourishing cultural scene. It's a beautiful county.
00:02:31
It's a suburban community. Obviously, with beautiful
coasts, beautiful mountains,
00:02:36
varied terrain. It's a great place
to raise a family. There was more crime,
particularly more
00:02:43
of what we would
identify as stranger sexual assaults in 1991,
than what we see today.
00:02:51
We have a number of
biotech companies here. We also have a tech giant
here in the city of Ventura,
00:02:57
known as the Trade Desk. It's also the home of
the worldwide apparel giant, Patagonia.
00:03:04
NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER):
Danielle Clause, a 42-year-old mom from
Ventura, is passionate
00:03:09
about art and poetry. We were close as-- as young girls
because she was only-- she was only a year and
a month older than me.
00:03:23
So we were around the same age. She was very smart. She was very sensitive. But not cold.
00:03:34
She had a good sense of humor. She was a loyal friend. I remember she had a
lot of friends that
00:03:41
had a lot of respect for her. All she ever wanted was
to be a mother and a wife.
00:03:49
So, I mean, that was,
like, her goal in life was to be a wife and a mother,
and she was able to do that.
00:03:59
NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER):
Sadly, Danielle struggles with addiction. Danielle was not
someone who regularly
00:04:08
worked as a prostitute. She was someone who chose that
out of an act of desperation.
00:04:13
And in this case,
it was the need to get funds to buy narcotics. And that's when she would
engage in acts of prostitution,
00:04:21
when she had no other avenue to
get money to purchase narcotics. NANCY GRACE
(VOICEOVER): July 15,
00:04:28
1991 Danielle goes
out with a friend, and she never returns home. I was living on Kalorama
Street in Ventura.
00:04:38
And I remember that night,
Danielle coming up our alley and honking the
horn, telling me hi,
00:04:46
and asking me what I was doing. I don't know, we just talked. And then her driving away.
00:04:54
And the next morning, her
friend was driving her car. And her friend came
up the same alley.
00:05:03
And my sister wasn't
with her or her car. That really upset me. Well, where's my sister?
00:05:11
They went looking for her. They searched different
locations that she would be. And still, they were
unable to find her.
00:05:19
At that point, the
next morning, they reached out to the
victim's sister as well as the victim's husband
to see if she had gone home
00:05:27
or maybe gone to
her sister's house. And at that point, she
still hadn't turned up.
00:05:31
The people that
she was with, they were very worried because this
was not usual behavior for her.
00:05:39
The next day, a
gruesome discovery on a hillside near
downtown Ventura. Around 10 o'clock in
the morning up on Tioga,
00:05:49
which is kind of
an isolated area, there was a landscaping
crew out there. One of the young men headed down
the hill to use the restroom.
00:05:59
And when he went to
go use the restroom, he observed her naked body
there on the hillside.
00:06:05
And they called 911 right away. There were two patrol
officers who responded first,
00:06:11
and really thinking ahead of
their time, marked a very narrow path down to the
body, using things
00:06:17
that they were carrying
on their person, such as their batons and
gloves, marking that path so
00:06:23
that additional
personnel who responded would take the same path
and limit contamination
00:06:27
of the crime scene. They walked up, confirmed that
what actually was reported was,
00:06:35
in fact, the case of what--
and what was happening. So at that point, once they
confirmed that there was a body
00:06:42
there and the
person was deceased, they backed away and
notified the proper channels
00:06:48
because it was gonna
very quickly escalate. That case would go
up to the detectives
00:06:53
and be worked from there. [TENSE MUSIC] The body was face down. It was the body of a female.
00:07:02
She was nude. Her shirt, black shirt, had been
pulled up to the top portion of her torso.
00:07:09
She had a red pair of panties
that was around one of her legs. Her jeans were off and nearby.
00:07:16
She was wearing
one shoe and socks. The other shoe
was never located. [TENSE MUSIC]
00:07:25
You might not
see so obviously, like, shoe wear impressions,
possibly a blood trail,
00:07:30
possibly, you know, any
kind of other fluid, bodily fluid, anything else that might
be around the scene as well.
00:07:39
So we're not allowed to
do anything with the body until the medical examiner
has arrived and actually
00:07:46
gone over it himself. And then we have permission
to start taking photographs. At that scene, they identified
multiple items around her body
00:07:56
because at that
point, you really don't know what's of importance
and what's not of importance.
00:08:00
So I know a lighter
was collected. Cigarette butts were collected. There was AAA Auto
Club membership
00:08:06
card that was collected. And then, of course,
moving closer to the body, we had different
forms of paperwork,
00:08:13
plastic bags, her clothing,
which we're assuming is her clothing,
the pair of jeans.
00:08:18
That lone tennis shoe,
that was collected. But there was one key piece
of evidence that was nearby,
00:08:24
and that was that rock. And that rock had a large
amount of blood on it. And so looking at her injuries,
that her face looked cave in
00:08:33
and that rock right there. So that was a key piece of
evidence that was collected.
00:08:39
At that point, they
would have also called the medical examiner, which I
know the medical examiner did
00:08:44
respond. When they get there, they're
observing her trauma, and there was a lot of
blood around her head.
00:08:51
But they still need to
identify, see her face. So at that point, I know that
they flipped the body over,
00:08:56
and they could see that
there was more visible trauma to the front of her face At that point, because
of the severity,
00:09:02
she was unrecognizable. She had no ID on her. They would have searched
around the area,
00:09:08
maybe in the jean pockets,
and nothing came up. So at that point,
once they're done,
00:09:13
they would have
removed the body. And they took her down to the
medical examiner's office.
00:09:18
At that point, they went
back to good old-fashioned fingerprinting, took
her fingerprints,
00:09:23
and ran them through the system. At that point, since she's had
a criminal record in the past,
00:09:29
she was able to be ID'd
through her fingerprints. NANCY GRACE
(VOICEOVER): The woman,
00:09:33
ID'd as a 42-year-old mother
of one, it's Danielle Clause. My brother came in and
told me, turn off the TV,
00:09:44
because, you know, I just
thought he was visiting. And I'd been watching,
ironically, crime shows,
00:09:51
you know? And so he said, turn the TV off. And I said, well, why can't
I watch the end of this
00:09:59
and see who did it? He said, no, turn your TV off. I have something to tell you.
00:10:05
I thought my mother
had passed away. And he said they found
Danielle murdered. My mother just dropped to
her knees and-- and screamed.
00:10:16
It was a horrible thing for her. If any of us changed, it-- I would say that my
mother changed the most.
00:10:25
I always wanted her
to know who did this. And she always wanted
to know who did it.
00:10:35
NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER): A
mother, sister, and daughter murdered in cold blood. Can Ventura police track
down a ruthless killer
00:10:45
before he strikes again? That's next on
"Bloodline Detectives." [TENSE MUSIC] NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER):
July 15, 1991.
00:11:02
A 42-year-old mom of one,
Danielle Clause, goes missing in Ventura, California. The very next day,
her half naked body
00:11:12
discovered on the
top of Tioga Drive. She has been sex assaulted and
severely beaten with a rock,
00:11:21
her body taken for autopsy. There are so many
key pieces of evidence that the body holds onto.
00:11:28
You enter, and you
leave something behind. When you move, you take
something with you.
00:11:33
So knowing where she was at and
the-- the position of her body and the removal of
her clothes, you
00:11:40
know that there was some sort of
possible struggle that happened. She came into close
contact with their suspect.
00:11:47
So at that point, you're
working with the pathologist, the forensic pathologist, and
they're very focused in how
00:11:54
she died, the manner of death. But as a crime
scene investigator, as in forensics, you're--
00:12:00
you're focused on what small
piece of minute evidence is on that body that
will tell a greater tale.
00:12:07
Fingernail scrapings are one
of the biggest things that is-- it's very important, especially
in a physical attack like this.
00:12:15
If you think about
it, the victim is likely trying to fight
back and defend themselves.
00:12:20
And it's very likely that
fingernails in the process of defending
oneself, you're gonna
00:12:27
put your hands on the person
that's trying to hurt you. And there's a good
chance that you're
00:12:33
gonna get some kind of
transfer, biological transfer, under the fingernails. Just based on the
manner that she's found,
00:12:41
partially clothed with her pants
off and her underwear partially removed, it's
indicative that there
00:12:49
was likely a sexual
assault involved. So a sexual assault
kit was taken. They take different
swabs of the body
00:12:59
in key different areas-- around the mouth, the
neck, the genitalia, anything that would
have been manipulated
00:13:05
or there may be some sort
of DNA sample deposited. So there were hairs that
were found on her body.
00:13:11
At that point, they would
have been photographed, and they were collected. I know throughout this case that
there were many hair samples
00:13:20
taken from possible
suspects to compare against those foreign
hairs found on her body.
00:13:24
They were found
on her torso area as well as the genitalia area. One of the most significant
pieces was a softball-sized
00:13:32
rock that was there nearby. It was obviously
used in the crime because there was blood
on it, significant amount
00:13:41
of blood on it. The manner and
cause of death was blunt force trauma to the head.
00:13:47
She had multiple skull
fractures located on the front of her head. That would have been
her cause of death.
00:13:55
NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER):
Danielle Clause's family devastated by the
gruesome crime.
00:14:00
My sister was unrecognizable. She was unrecognizable. And when my mother went to
see her in the funeral home,
00:14:10
she looked at her and said,
that's not my daughter. And that really got to me. I only recognized her hands
because she was beaten so bad.
00:14:22
My mom just said,
that's not my daughter. My daughter's not there. And she was right.
00:14:29
It was just, you know, where
her spirit dwelled, I guess. NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER):
Ventura police
00:14:39
began to interview Danielle's
friends and acquaintances. They did consider the husband
to be a person of interest,
00:14:47
not because of any specific
information they had, but it's just common
to examine the husband
00:14:54
to see if that's a potential
suspect in this case. He was cooperative
with the investigation
00:14:59
from the very beginning. He told investigators that
his wife had been addicted to drugs for a number of years.
00:15:06
The day before, she had
traveled to the city of Ventura to meet up with a
friend and that that was
00:15:13
the last time he had seen her. It seemed that he thought he
had no choice in this matter,
00:15:19
that he would from time to
time give his wife money. But he didn't want
her to use narcotics.
00:15:26
He also claimed to
not want her to engage in acts of prostitution. He seemed, in some way, just
putting up with the situation
00:15:34
because he loved her. NANCY GRACE
(VOICEOVER): Detectives began to piece together
Danielle's last known movements.
00:15:45
Danielle met up with a sex
purchaser, engaged in a sex act, returned with money.
00:15:51
She and the friend returned to
Oxnard, where they engaged-- where they purchased narcotics
and ingested narcotics.
00:15:57
They returned to Ventura on July
15, 1991, just prior to 9:00 PM. Danielle said to her friend,
let's just try one more time
00:16:10
before the night's over. So her friend agreed to it. So her friend was able
to show that and tell
00:16:18
the story that Danielle
was downtown Ventura, walking on the street. She sees her approach
a small white truck
00:16:26
driven by a white
male with blonde hair. She sees Danielle lean into
the truck to talk to the guy.
00:16:34
At that point, she turns
around, loses sight of Danielle for 30 seconds. And when she turns back
around, Danielle is gone.
00:16:43
And so is the white truck. So at that point, she's unclear. Did she turn a corner?
00:16:48
Did the white truck leave? Or did she get into
that white truck and go with that gentleman
to perform one last trick?
00:16:56
So at that time, detectives,
they interviewed the friend. She gave an amazing description
of the type of truck
00:17:02
that Danielle was
seen leaning into. They made a sketch of the truck. They gave all the
details, and then
00:17:08
they started
passing those flyers out to local law enforcement. They even went as
far as to understand
00:17:14
that it was a small truck. It was a mini-truck. And at that time, the
mini-truck culture was huge.
00:17:20
So they're looking
at, like, car shows. They're looking at DMV records. They're trying to find
any sort of existence
00:17:27
of a small white
truck in-- you know, registered within
Ventura County. NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER): The tip
about the white truck becomes
00:17:36
a dead end for investigators. Ventura police turn
their attention to local sex workers and their
clientele in the same area.
00:17:47
Once they started talking
to other prostitutes in the area that were familiar
with Danielle, that worked
00:17:51
the same streets, they
were able to start picking up on
certain individuals that were frequent customers.
00:17:57
And these frequent
customers were keyed in on because they either
displayed tendencies
00:18:01
of being violent with girls
or rough with the girls. And so detectives were actually
able to track down these men
00:18:08
and interview them and
actually collect samples-- blood samples, hair samples. They looked at her past
boyfriends and relationships
00:18:15
she had with other
men, and it appeared that everybody
that they contacted was willingly giving information
about their whereabouts
00:18:23
and their relationship with
Danielle and the last time that they even touched
base with Danielle.
00:18:28
There were also people
mentioned in the file that they had looked at that
were convicted killers or people
00:18:34
that were currently awaiting
trial because of their role in killing a prostitute or
a female very violently.
00:18:42
So they really threw
their net out wide and gathered information on a
wide variety of individuals.
00:18:49
NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER):
One by one, all leads in Danielle's murder dry up. There are reports from
four years after the crime.
00:18:59
So I wouldn't say there's a
date that it actually went cold. It was constantly being worked.
00:19:05
And it's-- it's difficult and
especially an agency this size. It's a smaller agency.
00:19:11
And there's a small handful of
detectives that are working it. And you work cases as
much as you can work
00:19:18
them until they're complete. These cases are a year-plus old. And so unfortunately, it comes
down to an issue of manpower.
00:19:29
There's not a date that things
go cold, but at some point, you work something until
all the leads are exhausted.
00:19:38
NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER):
For 30 long years, Danielle Clause's
murder stays cold.
00:19:43
But then a new team
of investigators, armed with the very latest
forensic science, takes over.
00:19:50
That's next on
"Bloodline Detectives." [TENSE MUSIC] NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER):
Ventura, California, 2021.
00:20:04
After 30 years, police reopen
the murder of Danielle Clause. The 42-year-old mom of
one, Danielle, found dumped
00:20:15
like trash on a roadside, 1991. She was sex assaulted and
beaten dead with a rock.
00:20:23
Ventura detectives turn
to new forensic science to try and crack her case. In 2001, there
was a new tool that
00:20:33
had become available to
law enforcement, known as CODIS or the Combined
DNA Index System.
00:20:39
And what was done at that time
is the profile that was believed to belong to the suspect that
was developed from Danielle's
00:20:48
sexual assault kit was
uploaded to this new database to see if it would match
any known offenders
00:20:55
contained within CODIS. NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER):
Unfortunately, there is not a single hit
in the CODIS database.
00:21:03
Their hands were tied. They couldn't do anything. And I always thought, well,
you have to keep trying.
00:21:13
So the case did go
cold again in 2001, and it wasn't until 2021
when Detective Tyler Buck
00:21:21
was reviewing cold cases because
of the Golden State Killer case. It kind of reignited the fire.
00:21:27
He looked at that case. And that's when he tapped me
and my partner on the shoulder
00:21:32
and said, girls, there
is an amazing case, Danielle Clause, 1991. Look at it. Well, at the time that
this case was reopened,
00:21:46
I was in major crimes. I was a detective. I started in 2017. And I started looking
into this right
00:21:55
after the Golden
State Killer case. [TENSE MUSIC] After he got
identified, I was asked
00:22:03
to go through a lot of
old reports and calls for service around that time. And I came across this
one, and it was 2018.
00:22:17
And they asked for a
picture, a recent picture or a picture of my
sister, so I gave them
00:22:22
a better picture than they had. They said, well, we're
gonna reopen cold cases. Well, I thought
that was something.
00:22:31
You know, it wasn't like what I
was being told all these years, that they just didn't
have any leads.
00:22:39
But now they were
gonna reopen it. And I knew that things had
been solved in the past
00:22:45
from reopening
cases and relooking at people and places, things. And so my prayers became
more, and then I began keeping
00:22:58
in touch with them more. I talked to Gabby. And I said, hey,
Gabby, like, we could
00:23:05
potentially work this case. There's stuff to
be done with it. Let's-- let's jump into it.
00:23:11
And so the first
thing I know we did is we went and just confirmed
what evidence we had.
00:23:17
And we realized pretty
quickly that the rock and her fingernail clippings
hadn't been tested.
00:23:25
So we knew that that was
one of the first things that we needed to do. Right here, this is Danielle's
sexual assault kit that was
00:23:34
collected during the autopsy. The key piece of
evidence in this case, it displayed the
semen on the slides.
00:23:43
And it gave us the DNA profile. So initially, this
was the only item that was tested and put into CODIS.
00:23:53
This item yielded an
unknown male DNA profile. So we knew that this
probably was the killer's
00:24:00
DNA profile in the hair. But then realizing that the rock
had never been properly tested
00:24:05
or the fingernail clippings
hadn't been tested, we knew we had work ahead of us.
00:24:10
At that point, the next thing
to be analyzed was the rock. Within two months,
the data came back
00:24:16
and showed that there
was an identical profile to this profile in here. The next thing were the
fingernail clippings, just
00:24:23
reassuring that an
identical profile developed on the fingernail clippings
was the same profile that
00:24:28
was on the rock and the
same profile that was here in the sexual assault.
This was, like,
00:24:32
the triangulation that
locked in and gave us beyond a reasonable doubt
that this was our suspect's
00:24:39
DNA that we were looking for. This was the
individual right here. NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER):
By September 2021,
00:24:46
all the DNA results match
a single unknown suspect. The sample is now
ready for investigative
00:24:54
genetic genealogy analysis. But before that can
happen, Ventura police need additional money to pay for
this very expensive research.
00:25:06
Season of Justice, it is an
amazing nonprofit agency that provides funding to
agencies and families
00:25:13
that help solve
cold cases through-- in violent crimes
and missing persons. They are absolutely amazing.
00:25:20
So I went on their website. I filled out an application. I gave them, like, a
synopsis of the crime
00:25:27
and why we feel it's
so important to be able to move forward and
the money that we need
00:25:32
to be able to move forward. And I think it was
about a week later, I heard back from one of
their representatives.
00:25:38
And they said, hi, Gabrielle,
we absolutely love your case, and we would love to fund it.
00:25:42
Just please send us
how much you need, and we'll get funding
right over to you. And that was it.
00:25:48
I have funding to
pay for everything-- for the genealogists,
for the testing, for the DNA application.
00:25:54
Like, let's go. NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER): Ventura
police contact Identifinders International, a
company specializing
00:26:03
in investigative
genetic genealogy. Its founder and president,
Dr. Colleen Fitzpatrick.
00:26:10
We got involved in this
case when Gabriel Wymore up in Ventura County
contacted us, filled out
00:26:17
a form on our website, and
we discussed it with her, and she decided to go with
us, go forward with us.
00:26:23
And she basically
told us the outline, that there was a young
woman, Danielle Clause, who
00:26:29
was murdered up
in Ventura County, you know, near a drainage ditch. I mean, she told us the basics.
00:26:35
Well, initially, they
had done the DNA analysis on the sexual assault kit. And in that sexual
assault kit, usually
00:26:44
you get more female than male. You get a little bit
male, tons of female, which is not good for us.
00:26:51
So the lab in general
does what's called a differential extraction. They wash the female out.
00:26:56
They're left with the
sperms, which generally have really hard shells. And so once you have that, you
can get the DNA of the male-only
00:27:04
because that's all that's left. So that's what we got. The DNA from the differential
extraction that was all-male.
00:27:11
So we sent it off
to Gene By Gene. And the process they
use is they have a chip,
00:27:15
and they tune the chip to the
markers, the SNPs, that we need. So basically, in--
in common language,
00:27:24
they put it in the microwave
oven, they bake it, and it comes out, and we
have the data we need.
00:27:28
When we get the data
back, it's a SNP file, and we upload the data. I was able to build out
their family trees, looking
00:27:37
for intersections to identify
who our unknown sample would belong to. I had come across a line that
was of interest because there
00:27:46
were intersections between
the various matches that I was working on. And I had noticed that one
female in this particular tree,
00:27:53
she had her own family tree. She seemed to be
interested in genealogy. And I needed to get
just a little bit
00:27:59
more information genetically
to form my hypothesis. So I approached the
police department
00:28:05
about reaching out
to her to see if she would like to contribute her DNA
to help with our investigation.
00:28:12
NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER):
Ventura police contact the woman and ask about her family tree.
00:28:19
She, at first, was
a little in shock. But she let them in. And she said, oh,
yeah, let me tell
00:28:24
you about my family history. But they told her, we're
looking at this individual.
00:28:30
You are connected
to this family name. Can you please tell
us about your family?
00:28:35
And she did. She gave them the whole
breakdown of her family tree. And at the end of it,
they said, would you
00:28:40
be willing to
provide your own DNA sample that may help us
get a little bit further
00:28:45
in the investigation? She said, absolutely. So detectives ran that
DNA sample back up to us
00:28:52
here at Ventura. So we got that out
within two weeks. The DNA sample was sent
out to the private lab.
00:29:00
They sent over the
results to Misty, and it was like on
a Thursday morning. She texted me at 7:00 AM,
and I give her a call.
00:29:08
I said, what do you got? And she's like, that lady
in Southern California is first cousins
with our suspect.
00:29:15
At that point, you
know, I'm excited. I'm jumping. We're both going, ee. We're just thrilled.
00:29:22
We got the names of
the two first cousins. And I ran straight up,
not to my sergeant,
00:29:26
but I ran straight up
to Detective Tyler Buck. I said, chief, I think we
found out who killed Danielle.
00:29:33
He's like, slow down. I was like, we got
two first cousins. They're-- they're
a set of brothers.
00:29:37
One's dead, one's alive. But I think we have it. We have it. Investigators narrow their
search for Danielle's killer
00:29:45
to one of two brothers,
last name, Welch. But which brother is it? That's next on
"Bloodline Detectives."
00:29:54
[TENSE MUSIC] NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER):
Ventura, California, 2023. Investigators believe
one of two brothers
00:30:10
murdered Danielle Clause. The body of the 42-year-old
mom of one found on a Ventura
00:30:16
hillside back in 1991. Danielle was beaten
dead with a rock. The case goes cold until
new forensic science points
00:30:26
to the two brothers,
last name, Welch. So it turns out that
both brothers had very
00:30:35
different appearances to them. One brother was dark
hair with hazel eyes, and the other brother was
blonde with blue eyes.
00:30:41
And we couldn't really tell
genetically which brother could be the viable lead. So Gabriella had
approached me and asked
00:30:49
if we offered
phenotyping services, and I had let her know
that Parabon does. And so we had the file
that was submitted
00:30:55
for genetic genealogy
sent to Parabon for their phenotype
snapshot services. Phenotyping means you
can look at your DNA,
00:31:05
and there's certain of those
SNP markers that indicate hair color and eye color.
00:31:09
So they looked at those
particular markers, and they came up with the
image that that generated
00:31:16
of the hair color, eye
color, and skin tone that that generated. And the snapshot that came
back, the phenotype prediction,
00:31:24
was for a man with dark hair
and hazel or brown eyes. NANCY GRACE
(VOICEOVER): The brother
00:31:28
who matches these features
is Larry Devon Welch. He dies, aged 50, 1999. Now detectives must track
down his surviving brother.
00:31:42
The DA's office actually
helped with that as well. We found out where he died,
the county in which he died in.
00:31:48
And then from there,
we were able to contact their coroner's office. And the coroner's office gave
us the information on the case
00:31:55
and his manner of death and
what happened to his body. So it was learned that he died
from a potential drug overdose,
00:32:04
and he was cremated. So at that point,
we knew that we weren't gonna have the
opportunity to exhume a body.
00:32:12
Historically, law enforcement
in these types of cases will have to look to a half-eaten
pizza or a coffee cup or maybe
00:32:20
a straw from a fast
food restaurant to retrieve and collect a DNA
sample of the potential suspect.
00:32:27
Here, while there was
some initial surveillance, we were able to
obtain the cooperation
00:32:32
and assistance of the
living brother in Virginia. He met with our investigator. He met with a member of
the Virginia State Police,
00:32:41
talked to both of them,
shared crucial information about his deceased brother, and
voluntarily gave a DNA sample.
00:32:50
And they wanted
to know everything. Like, who Larry was. What was his childhood like?
00:32:55
Where did he live? Everything and anything
that they could find out about who our individual was.
00:33:01
So I believe they had a
very open and free-flowing conversation with the brother.
00:33:08
Larry Welch was
someone who had a deep addiction to narcotics. We also learned that he
lived in Ventura County,
00:33:18
that, at one point, he had
a sailboat in the Oxnard or Channel Islands Harbor
here in Ventura County,
00:33:24
that he had a violent temper. His brother talked
about a situation where he attacked their
father and broke some property
00:33:32
inside of a residence. He also told a disturbing
story that Larry had shared with him that was
disturbingly similar to what
00:33:41
happened to Danielle. Larry had told him a
story prior to his death that Larry had been in an
argument in a bar in the desert,
00:33:51
that Larry and the man
he was arguing with went outside of the bar
to settle their fight.
00:33:58
And Larry told the living
brother that Larry smashed this man's head in with a rock.
00:34:04
Now, we checked in the
jurisdictions where Larry lived. There's no report of
a homicide like that.
00:34:11
And so what we believe is
that that was Larry's way of telling what he had done
to Danielle in a way that
00:34:19
was more palatable. Hearing that gave us chills. We also learned that he
drove a white pickup truck.
00:34:28
Furthermore, to place
him in Ventura County, we learned that he lived at
the Channel Islands Marina
00:34:36
in the city of Oxnard. He also made a revelation that
he had molested a family member.
00:34:41
So we had, from hindsight,
the profile of somebody who had a very deep
and troubled history,
00:34:52
who had a violent and
very savage streak. So when this all came together,
it was not surprising to us
00:35:01
that this is somebody who
could have taken the life and killed Danielle. NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER): To
confirm the identity of Danielle
00:35:09
Clause's killer, all
police need is a DNA sample from the surviving brother. Will it be a match?
00:35:16
We find out next on
"Bloodline Detectives." [TENSE MUSIC] NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER):
Ventura, California, 2023.
00:35:32
After 32 years, detectives
are just one step away from confirming the killer of
Danielle Clause back in 1991.
00:35:43
The main suspect is dead. But his brother is
still alive, and a match will finally close the case.
00:35:51
So in this case, the Virginia
State Police had what's known as a rapid DNA machine.
00:35:56
So they collected the DNA
samples from the living brother. They brought them immediately
back to the department,
00:36:03
and they were able to test
the samples that same day. And the results that were
returned were astounding.
00:36:11
First, they
eliminated the living brother as the contributor
of the suspect DNA.
00:36:16
That let us know that the
living brother was not the person who killed Danielle.
00:36:21
Further, what the result said
was that the living brother was related within the first
degree to the contributor
00:36:30
of the offender DNA recovered
from Danielle's body and from the rock with
a certainty of 99.99%.
00:36:38
It was a full sibling match. Motive is always
speculative, but I will share with you that this
is somebody who sought sex.
00:36:52
For whatever reason,
something happened. And he went into a rageful,
savage, and sadistic mode, which
00:37:01
cost the life of Danielle. He likely took her to
this remote location for sexual activity.
00:37:08
Something happened. He grabbed a rock and bludgeoned
her and bludgeoned her to death.
00:37:17
NANCY GRACE
(VOICEOVER): Detectives go to Danielle Clause's sister,
Marcy, to give her the news.
00:37:24
So meeting with her and
bringing Detective Tyler Buck, my partner at the time,
Kimberly Jung, who started
00:37:31
this investigation with us. We had to take a moment because
this is big information for her,
00:37:36
and she needed to take a moment. And there was some
small, like, chit-chat. And I said, OK, are you
ready for us to tell you
00:37:43
about everything that we found? And she said, yes. So we presented who
Larry Welch was to her.
00:37:51
And at that point, she
just had to take a moment. And then it's like,
the flood of tears.
00:37:56
It's just an overwhelming
sensation for her. She was apologizing,
and we said, no.
00:38:03
And then, of course,
I started crying. I couldn't-- it was
just so much emotion,
00:38:08
so much build-up and tension
because it's big news, you know? Not just for us, for her.
00:38:14
I can't even fathom what she
was feeling at that moment. It's just amazing that
they could do what they did
00:38:23
and that the people
involved could be so patient and work so hard and so long
until they got the person they
00:38:35
were looking for. And as far as justice for
Larry Welch, just the fact that I had a face and a person
and a name to go with her murder
00:38:49
and know for a fact that
that's who is guilty, I just didn't want to
pass away without knowing
00:38:57
who did this, who took
my sister away from us. And that's what I prayed for. And that's what I wished for.
00:39:06
And that's what I got. The lesson that I
take away from this case is the importance of
preserving the evidence.
00:39:18
We can't fathom today
what we'll be able to do forensically tomorrow. Just like the
investigators in 1991
00:39:26
couldn't possibly
have fathomed that we would use genetic genealogy
to solve this case.
00:39:35
I think it's going to
be a very important tool. I see a lot of
funding being made
00:39:39
available for genetic
genealogy now in law enforcement investigations. And I do see the signs
trending to a better results
00:39:47
with mixtures, better
results with degradation. So I really think it's going to
be a more powerful tool the more
00:39:52
in time it goes. I felt very honored that
I could use a skill set that I have to be able to
help police departments
00:40:00
and help society
not only provide resolution to these cases, but
keep society safer, in a sense.
00:40:08
Victims of crimes
are daughters. They're brothers. They're sons. They're sisters.
00:40:16
They are people. They are human beings. And her life was taken
from her way too soon.
00:40:25
I just want everyone
to know, and if Danielle's listening, to
know we never gave up on you.
00:40:32
We wanted this
case to be solved. And we found the
person who did this. NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER):
For Bloodline Detectives,
00:40:40
the tragic murder of mom
of one, Danielle Clause, gives added meaning
to the Bible phrase,
00:40:46
am I my brother's keeper? Thanks to one innocent
brother, justice is finally served on a guilty
brother after 32 years.
00:40:57
I'm Nancy Grace. Thank you for being with us
here on "Bloodline Detectives." [TENSE MUSIC]