00:00:00
[SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC] NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER):
Seabrook, Texas, 1983-- 20-year-old Susan
Eads, out with friends
00:00:18
after a long day at work. There was one man there that
kept asking her either to dance
00:00:26
or asking her something,
and she kept refusing. He left around the
same time Susan left.
00:00:33
I believe that he probably
attacked Susan in the parking lot of Jason's Club. NANCY GRACE
(VOICEOVER): Susan Eads
00:00:41
never makes it home that night. Her body was found
near the yacht basins there in Seabrook,
on NASA Road 1.
00:00:49
She put up a fight-- that it
was a struggle between her and the suspect in this case.
00:00:55
NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER):
Years passed, but Susan's killer is never caught. BRANDON BESS: Nobody
knew the suspect.
00:01:01
People became more
and more scared. Did they have a killer
running loose here that
00:01:06
was going to do this again? GLENN GREGORY: All logical
investigative leads had been exhausted, and this
was very much a true whodunit.
00:01:15
NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER):
Eventually, incredible advances in forensic science
emerged for investigators.
00:01:21
We were kind of
at a standstill. And we decided to
look into genealogy, to construct a family tree
to find who this person was.
00:01:32
NANCY GRACE: This is the story
of how incredible forensic science and advancements, along
with determined police work,
00:01:40
combined to solve a
37-year-old murder. I'm Nancy Grace. This is "Bloodline Detectives."
00:01:49
[THEME MUSIC] [SERENE MUSIC] NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER):
Seabrook, Texas, 1983-- a cozy town nestled
in Galveston Bay,
00:02:20
just 30 minutes
south of Houston. Traditionally, they call it a
sleepy little fishing village.
00:02:27
But it's just the
easiest thing to say. It's a community. It's one of the nicest,
friendliest communities
00:02:36
that's on the water, so it has
a little bit of everything. NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER):
But the seaside town
00:02:41
is not immune to danger. We get the same
crime as major cities, we just don't get the volume.
00:02:49
But we get-- you
know, bad guys travel, and so we-- we get a
little bit of everything.
00:02:55
NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER):
Susan Eads-- a vibrant, beautiful young woman
living and working in the area.
00:03:02
Susan was a young
20-year-old girl who lived with her family in Seabrook. They had moved just a few
years before to Seabrook,
00:03:11
and Susan was, you
know, a great girl. Everybody seemed to like her. DENNIS EADS: Susie was a little
bitty thing, but big as a lion.
00:03:24
She was ferocious. I was the oldest brother. And we didn't have a dad, so I
tried to cover the emergencies.
00:03:34
The times we had
fun as a as a family was probably going to the
pool at my uncle's house.
00:03:40
He had an almost an Olympic size
swimming pool and hobby airport. And so those are some
really great times
00:03:46
that I didn't have
to worry about fixing something or solving something. That's what I remember the
most, I, mean best interactions
00:03:55
I remember other than maybe
Christmas times and things like that. NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER): Susan
is diagnosed with scoliosis,
00:04:02
and that impacts her
life as she's growing up. It was a pretty severe
s-shaped curve in her back.
00:04:10
And you see a noticeable
height difference in her hips and the way she would stand.
00:04:18
I didn't realize
how self-conscious she was about it at the time. I think it was pretty scary
that the only medical solution
00:04:30
was a steel rod in your back. But that was a very
risky operation and an expensive operation.
00:04:38
So we were trying chiropractors. I had another uncle that
was helping with that.
00:04:43
But Susie was
trying to save money to correct it as much
as possible because it bothered her so much.
00:04:51
NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER):
August 30, 1983-- Susan Eads has a
long work day ahead.
00:04:57
After, she's looking forward
to meeting up with friends. WILL HASKETT: Susan
went to work that day.
00:05:03
She had several jobs. One of them was
at a place called The Prickly Pear Bar, where she
was a waitress, sometimes DJ.
00:05:11
She also, after her shift
at The Prickly Peark, she went to Charlie's, her
second job, where she worked
00:05:16
till about 12:30 that night. Then her and some of the other
employees from Charlie's went
00:05:21
to a place called
Jason's Club, where they were just going to go hang
out with each other after work.
00:05:27
From what everyone said,
that there was one man there that kept asking her either to
dance or asking her something,
00:05:36
and she kept refusing. But she left alone. When she left, most of the
ones that saw her leave
00:05:43
said she left alone. But a few minutes
afterwards, a person was seen leaving behind her.
00:05:53
NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER): Susan
never makes it home that night. Susan was last seen, you know,
in the very late night hours
00:06:01
of August the 30th into the
early morning hours of the 31st, maybe 1 o'clock in the morning
or so that she was last seen.
00:06:11
There was no cell phones
back then, that's number one. So she had a boyfriend, the one
only boyfriend I've ever really
00:06:20
known her to have, Bobby. And sometimes maybe
she wouldn't come home, maybe stay at Bobby's.
00:06:27
And so I don't think that was
extremely unusual so that it would alert my mother too much.
00:06:37
NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER): The
next day, a terrible discovery. WILL HASKETT: A call was made to
the Seabrook police department
00:06:44
by a group of younger
teenagers, thought they saw what they believed
at first was a mannequin.
00:06:51
And they got out
of their vehicle, went and checked, and saw that
it was a body, a human body.
00:06:59
NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER):
The horrified teens immediately called police. WILL HASKETT: They were
dispatched to a vacant lot
00:07:07
near a ditch right
off of NASA Road 1, at the corner of Elam
Street in Seabrook.
00:07:13
There's a boat sales building
right next to this lot. They found a car parked
near that building, found
00:07:20
a woman's shoe in the car. And a short distance
away in the field, they found the body of a
young woman, small in stature,
00:07:33
with no clothes on, laying face
down in the middle of the field. BRANDON BESS: Detectives would
have been called to the scene.
00:07:41
And they would come
out and do the best they could do with
what they have, and that would be
photograph, that
00:07:46
would be obviously collect
the body and anything they found around it. WILL HASKETT: They found
several of her clothing items
00:07:54
laying near her,
and saw that there was some sort of ligature
around her neck with a stick
00:08:00
intertwined in the ligature. NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER):
Detectives focus on a vehicle
00:08:05
parked near the body. They would process
the car, you know, trying to even
determine in those days
00:08:13
who this car belonged to. NONA HOLOMON: We ran the
license plate on the vehicle,
00:08:18
and it did come back
to Susan's mother. So we were pretty sure that
we were probably dealing
00:08:23
with one of the Eads family. A lieutenant went with
me, and on the way he kept telling me
how we should do this.
00:08:32
And there's no way that
you can plan in your mind that you're going to do this. You just have to pretty
well go with what happens.
00:08:41
[SOMBER MUSIC] Once we got there,
Susan's mother answered the door, Shirley,
AND she identified herself.
00:08:52
And we asked did she have a
daughter named Susan, which was traumatic to me because you
can't hardly speak at that time.
00:09:00
You're just-- you're
overwhelmed yourself. And she said, yes,
and she invited us in.
00:09:05
We went in and we had
to tell her that-- that her daughter was dead. She instantly started
saying, are you sure?
00:09:18
You know, is that my daughter? It can't be my daughter--
you know, that sort of thing.
00:09:21
Denial set in. And we assured her
that we were fairly certain that it was Susan, and
she just crumpled and cried.
00:09:29
[SOMBER MUSIC] DENNIS EADS: My phone
rang and it was my mother. And she was obviously
upset and crying,
00:09:41
and told me that the police
wanted to talk to me. I don't know which policeman--
it was a man, not a woman--
00:09:50
got on the line and told me
that Susie had been strangled. I didn't know how to take that.
00:10:00
What do you mean,
she's been strangled. Are you telling me
she's been killed? He said, yes.
00:10:08
And so immediately,
me and my wife, Karen, we packed up and drove
over to my mother's house.
00:10:17
Of course, when I
got there, it was-- it was chaos. My mother always sat
in her rocking chair,
00:10:24
and everybody was crying. I don't know how many
policemen that was there, but it was a bunch.
00:10:32
NONA HOLOMON: All we
could do is hug her and tell her that we were
going to do the best we
00:10:38
could do to find who did that. NANCY GRACE: The body of a
beautiful young woman is found,
00:10:46
a family's life is
changed forever, and a killer is on the loose. That's next on
"Bloodline Detectives."
00:10:54
[OMINOUS CHORDS] [OMINOUS CHORDS] [SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC] NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER):
August 31, 1983--
00:11:06
the cozy Gulf town of Seabrook,
Texas, is now a place of fear. A group of teens
discover a naked body--
00:11:15
the body of a
20-year-old waitress, Susan Eads, left
dumped in a vacant lot, her car parked nearby.
00:11:25
A murder investigation
commences. WILL HASKETT: Police
collected all the evidence.
00:11:32
They also collected
evidence from the car. They found multiple
clothing items. This was a piece of a bodysuit
they found on Susan's body.
00:11:43
The suspect used this
to tie around her neck and used the stick
to tighten it. And this was found
around her neck
00:11:51
when she was
discovered by police. Susan was a very
small young lady. She weighed under
100 pounds, according
00:11:59
to her brother and sister. This was her-- her dress. She wore at the
bar she worked at.
00:12:07
And she was wearing this
the night that-- that they found her body. It was found located in her car.
00:12:12
These were pantyhose
found near Susan's body. This bra was found in
the back of her car.
00:12:20
These pantyhose were also found
in the backseat of her car. We found two shoes from Susan.
00:12:26
One was found in the
back seat of her car. This shoe was found about
25 feet away from the car,
00:12:31
between where they
found Susan's body and-- and where her car was parked. NANCY GRACE
(VOICEOVER): Susan Eads'
00:12:41
body, brought in for autopsy. It's where the delicate
work would occur, not only to determine
how Susan died,
00:12:51
what caused her death, but also
the processing of her body. You are processing that
body the same way you would
00:12:58
a room that you come into. You're processing
it for fingerprints. You're processing it for damage.
00:13:04
You're processing it for
the what, why, and how. NONA HOLOMON: Her
autopsy told us
00:13:12
that she had been
dead for 12 hours, that she had been
sexually assaulted. And we assumed that she
was sexually assaulted,
00:13:20
but it told us that she was. And she also had
bruises, abrasions, you know, on different
parts of her body
00:13:28
that we didn't see because
the body was laying face down, and that she
endured quite a bit.
00:13:36
BRANDON BESS: They did
determine that Susan had died of asphyxia as a
result of the garrote that
00:13:41
was used on her. But she also had
extensive injuries, from bruises, defensive
wounds, offensive wounds.
00:13:49
You could tell that
she put up a fight, or the doctors were able to
tell us that she put up a fight,
00:13:53
that it was a
struggle between her and the suspect in this case. NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER): Shortly
after the murder, Susan's mother
00:14:04
begins getting
disturbing phone calls. They're from a man who
says his name is Bill.
00:14:28
She just didn't think
a whole lot about it, but they progressively
got worse. They would talk to her, tell
them they had pictures of Susan,
00:14:35
did she want to see them. They let her see them if
she'd meet them somewhere. BRANDON BESS: Miss
Eads was a tough lady.
00:14:58
She was described to me as,
you know, truly Susan's mom. She was that person that,
especially for her children,
00:15:06
she'd fight 10 bulldogs
at the same time. You know, she would do
anything to protect those kids.
00:15:12
So she winds up, you know,
playing along with this guy. This person is
calling and saying,
00:15:18
you know, terrible
things to her, and saying that he has certain
items that he wants to show her
00:15:24
or he wants to give
her or whatever. We also have to keep in
mind that her daughter
00:15:29
had been murdered by someone we
knew to be a male at this point. And is this the real
suspect that did it?
00:15:36
Why does he want to meet her? Why does he want
to meet her alone? What is that about?
00:15:40
My first thoughts are he's
trying to kill her too. He's trying to hurt
or assault her also.
00:15:44
But she plays along. There's some technology that was
put in place to record the phone
00:15:49
calls when they came in. There was actually a script that
was developed with her to be
00:15:56
able to converse with this
person that was calling to try to get more information.
00:16:00
Miss Eads played
along with that. NANCY GRACE
(VOICEOVER): Detectives cannot identify the mysterious
caller harassing Susan's mother.
00:16:10
NONA HOLOMON: And it was just so
heartbreaking because we could never get anything on this guy.
00:16:14
And he was gross. I mean, he was gross to call
this mother of this victim and say the things that he did.
00:16:21
You know, that
was just the way-- and the calls went
on for a long time. I think the last call
that we had-- that we
00:16:28
logged was in, like, 1985. And that was years after-- two years after, you
know, Susan's death.
00:16:37
NANCY GRACE: Remember,
in the 1980s, detectives do not
have the investigative tools they've got today.
00:16:43
Forensic science
is in its infancy, and surveillance cameras
simply are not widely in use.
00:16:51
Police are forced to rely
on old school police methods to try and catch
a vicious killer.
00:16:58
[SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC] WILL HASKETT: In 1983, they
didn't have the technology we have nowadays.
00:17:06
The tools they had
at their disposal were fingerprints, blood typing. There weren't
surveillance videos,
00:17:15
so they would have to
go canvas neighborhoods, talk to employees at businesses. In 1983, at the beginning
of the investigation,
00:17:24
police went and interviewed
all of Susan's coworkers that worked with her that
night at her two jobs
00:17:29
at Charlie's and Prickly Pear. They went interviewed employees
at Jason's Club, which
00:17:35
was the last place Susan
was seen that night, and any friend she was with who
had seen her at Jason's Club.
00:17:42
After talking to witnesses and
Susan's friends at Jason's Club, police learned that a man
with a beard and a cowboy hat
00:17:50
had asked Susan to dance
several times that night. Susan turned him down, did
not want to dance with him,
00:17:56
and he seemed to be
fairly annoyed with Susan. Police created the sketch
and put out the sketch
00:18:06
to the community, and
received several calls with different suspects. One of the calls they
received was for a man
00:18:15
named Travis Scoggins. NONA HOLOMON:
Travis Scoggins, he was described as being
in the vicinity where
00:18:23
Susan was when she was killed. He was described
as being at the bar that she worked, being at
Jason's, and being in the area.
00:18:34
WILL HASKETT: He had a beard
and wore a cowboy hat a lot, and he was also charged with
the sexual assault of a female
00:18:41
in a neighboring county. He had strangled his
victim in that case. BRANDON BESS: Travis Scoggins
did confess to the crime,
00:18:51
wrote a statement,
the whole nine yards. He did every bit of that. NONA HOLOMON: He wanted
to go around and show
00:18:57
us where the murder
had taken place and how it had taken place. They did the blood type
from the FEMA that they got.
00:19:06
He was not the blood type. That's eventually
why it was dropped. BRANDON BESS: I don't know
why he made the confession.
00:19:13
I don't know what he thought
he would get out of it. Obviously, there
was something there
00:19:17
that he thought was for him. But it was a long
time ago, and Travis died in prison eventually.
00:19:24
After police were ruled
out Travis Scoggins, the case went cold. NANCY GRACE: Believe it or
not, a murder confession
00:19:32
turns out to be a fake. That leaves a murder
investigation on its head, at a complete dead end.
00:19:41
34 long years go by until
an infamous serial killer emerges as a possible link. That's next on
"Bloodline Detectives."
00:19:53
[OMINOUS CHORDS] [OMINOUS CHORDS] [SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC] NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER): August
30, 1983, Seabrook, Texas--
00:20:08
20-year-old Susan
Eads, out with friends. Witnesses report
seeing her speaking with a man who is angered when
Susan refuses to dance with him.
00:20:19
The next day, her brutalized
body discovered in a ditch. After a false confession, the
case goes cold for decades.
00:20:29
Fast forward 34 years, now 2017. Detectives believe
an infamous serial killer from the 1980s may be
behind Susan's brutal murder.
00:20:45
DENNIS EADS: Anthony Allen
Shore is a Texas convict from the Houston area who
worked in the telephone
00:20:52
industry, a blue collar guy. He was convicted of numerous
sexual assaults and homicides,
00:21:01
and was eventually
sentenced to death and sent to Texas Death
Row in Huntsville.
00:21:05
So Anthony Allen Shore's
mode of operation was that he abducted young
women, very small women,
00:21:14
and would sexually assault
them, sexually abuse them, and then strangle them. WILL HASKETT: At the
time, he had killed three
00:21:22
women that police knew about. He was called the Tourniquet
Killer because he always wrapped
00:21:27
something around their
throat, similar to the way Susan was killed. NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER):
Investigators
00:21:34
are convinced serial
killer Anthony Shore is the new prime suspect. And now they need
evidence to prove it.
00:21:44
I would describe DNA as
a biological blueprint. It helps determine who we
are and what we look like.
00:21:53
About 99% of it is going to be
the same from each person, which is why our noses are where
they are, our ears and our eyes
00:21:59
are where they are. And that's something that we
can use in the forensic field to help identify people who've
left DNA behind at crime scenes.
00:22:09
NANCY GRACE: The
evidence from 1983 is reexamined 34 years later. Detectives have new and amazing
forensic science as a weapon.
00:22:20
First, they need a DNA
sample from the crime scene-- a sample they hope will
match their suspect.
00:22:27
On December 11, 2017,
I examined the bodysuit. And there is where I identified
a possible bloodstain
00:22:35
and a semen stain on the
crotch of the bodysuit. TANYA DEAN: In order to
identify sperm cells--
00:22:41
and we have to look at
them under a microscope-- we're going to take a
small cutting of that item.
00:22:46
We're going to put it in
some water for a little bit, spin down that cellular debris,
dry it on a microscope slide.
00:22:52
We have specific
staining that we use that helps us to
visualize those sperm cells under the microscope.
00:22:58
So on the bodysuit, Amanda Domer
was able to isolate and find one sperm cell on that bodysuit,
which indicated to us we have
00:23:09
the potential at this
point to get a male profile from that item of evidence. So that was-- that was
pretty exciting for us.
00:23:16
AMANDA DOMER: It
was very exciting. And at that point, we
didn't know whose that was
00:23:20
or if we were going to be able
to get a DNA profile because it was just one sperm cell.
00:23:26
Typically, we need
a couple dozen in order to obtain a DNA profile
with the technology that we use.
00:23:32
So I was hopeful,
but I did not want to hold my breath just yet until
we got the DNA results later on.
00:23:39
NANCY GRACE: Investigators
are fighting the clock. Anthony Shore is
scheduled to be executed.
00:23:45
Before that happens, detectives
must compare the DNA sample from Susan Eads' brutalized
body to Anthony Shore's DNA
00:23:55
to determine will
there be a DNA match. BRANDON BESS: We've got a guy
that potentially committed
00:24:02
a crime, committed
a horrendous crime, who's going to be executed. And getting an execution
stopped takes the act
00:24:10
of a governor at minimum. They just don't
stop those things. It is a really big deal.
00:24:15
It's a-- it is a legal process
that is way above a field Ranger who's doing a homicide
investigation.
00:24:23
So time was of the essence. TANYA DEAN: There was a
request to rush this case, because we spoke with the
Rangers and Seabrook PD
00:24:33
in November of 2017, and Anthony
Shore was scheduled to be executed in January of 2018.
00:24:39
So we wanted to see
if we could make any comparisons to Anthony
Shore before his execution date.
00:24:48
BRANDON BESS: I get his DNA and
I drive it straight to the crime lab, getting there, you
know, 8:30 or 9 o'clock is
00:24:55
my recollection, turning
that over to my partner, Tanya Dean, at the crime lab. I think she stayed up
processing that all night
00:25:03
long, which never happens. I'll never forget
meeting with Tanya, her walking out of the crime
lab looking very dejected,
00:25:13
dragging her feet
and saying, not him, he's not our guy, when we
were just absolutely convinced.
00:25:22
Where we went after
that was Anthony saying, well, you know, I basically
told y'all that it wasn't me.
00:25:28
But if you really want proof-- in this part is sickening
to even say this day-- but Anthony said, if you really
want proof, look at my victims.
00:25:36
Look at what my
victims looked like. I like children. I like the way
little girls look.
00:25:41
Susan was, though
a petite gal, she didn't look like what I like. I'm not turned on by
somebody like that.
00:25:48
And again, I say that to say
that's a very sick thing for me to even have to repeat.
00:25:54
After he said that and the
DNA, we knew he wasn't our guy. I saw the reason that the death
penalty exists in Anthony Allen
00:26:06
Shore's eyes, up to and
including walking Anthony Shore from his cell to
the death chamber
00:26:15
to be strapped
down and executed. Never once-- never one
sense of remorse, never
00:26:21
one sense of sadness,
not a sense of relief. NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER): Anthony
Shore, the so-called Tourniquet
00:26:30
Killer, is officially
ruled out as a suspect in Susan Eads' murder. The detectives try
a new approach.
00:26:40
They upload the DNA
from the murder scene into the CODIS database. WILL HASKETT:
CODIS, the Combined
00:26:51
Offender DNA Index System. It's used to store all DNA
profiles from everyone that goes
00:26:57
to prison, convicted felons. So anybody who
has ever committed a crime similar to this
and been caught, their DNA
00:27:06
would be in the system. Once we had our profile,
we ran it through CODIS and there was no match.
00:27:14
We were kind of at a standstill. TANYA DEAN: We were extremely
disappointed with not
00:27:19
being able to identify
who this DNA belonged to. BRANDON BESS: We
did a lot of things.
00:27:24
In this case to make
sure we had crossed all the T's and dotted all the
I's with CODIS, with everything
00:27:33
we had, to no avail. Another prime suspect ruled
out by that CODIS search, and investigators now
facing another dead end.
00:27:43
When we come back, will new
forensic science finally close the murder of Susan Eads?
00:27:51
[OMINOUS CHORDS] [OMINOUS CHORDS] [SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC] NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER): 2018,
Texas Rangers, Seabrook Police,
00:28:05
and the FBI reinvestigating
the 1983 rape and murder of 20-year-old Susan Eads. For 35 years, all the
promising leads are bust.
00:28:20
But now detectives
try new ground breaking forensic science. Forensic genetic genealogy
became our next step.
00:28:31
Who do we reach out to? How do we do that? What is forensic
genetic genealogy? Forensic genetic genealogy
is a method that has been
00:28:40
around for a very long time. Originally called
genetic genealogy, it was used by hobbyists,
by individuals who were
00:28:49
researching their family trees. And what it does is it
combines direct to consumer DNA
00:28:55
testing with more
traditional genealogy tools such as public
records, census records,
00:29:03
marriage licenses, obituaries. And you take the
DNA test, and when you upload it to the
database, you have
00:29:11
what we call genetic relatives. There are individuals in the
database who are matches,
00:29:16
who are somehow related to you. The database, through
its algorithm, will assign a predicted
relationship between individuals
00:29:26
who are related to each other. It could be a first cousin. It could be a second cousin.
00:29:31
It could be aunt, uncle,
different relationships. But by knowing that you match,
you are related to an individual
00:29:40
in the database, you can
take their information and you can start
searching public records
00:29:46
and see if you can find them
and merge the two pieces of data together to continue
to build family trees.
00:29:56
BRANDON BESS: Using GEDmatch,
using that law enforcement database from folks who have
voluntarily given their DNA
00:30:03
to build a family
tree, there are now databases that people
enter because they want to help solve crimes.
00:30:08
They-- literally people,
including myself, put their selves
in those databases to build other
databases stronger
00:30:17
that law enforcement can use to
help solve these violent crimes. So we did that in this case.
00:30:24
Three-- we didn't really
understand how it worked or how it was going
to work for us,
00:30:29
or even if it was going to be
legally accepted as a tool. Forensic genetic genealogy
is a tip that says,
00:30:37
here's a place to start. Let's start here. At the very end of 2018,
but primarily into 2019,
00:30:46
was when we really
started having activity with the
genetics part of the case. BRANDON BESS: We started
building that family tree using
00:30:56
GEDmatch, using the FBI, using
a lot of different people at the time to help
us build towards who
00:31:03
our suspect actually was. GLENN GREGORY: We took samples
from approximately eight
00:31:09
or nine different people to try
to narrow down the family tree. I can tell you, though, when
the genealogist would identify
00:31:17
potential people for us to
collect from in some instances, in one particular instance--
00:31:22
I think it was the first
lead that Brandon and I went on together-- the individual
let us know that they
00:31:27
had been born out of wedlock. So it was not going
to fit what we needed. They were happy to
give us a profile,
00:31:33
but we knew at that
point, OK, that happens. Sometimes when the genealogists
are looking at existing family
00:31:39
trees to try to see if
someone's a suitable sample, it won't indicate an adoption.
00:31:45
It won't indicate born out of
wedlock or something like that. So it can-- it can
make it challenging,
00:31:51
and sometimes we go
down sort of rabbit holes on some of
these leads to get to finally where we need to be.
00:31:57
But in this case,
it got narrowed down pretty quickly because-- really, because of the
work of the genealogists.
00:32:02
[SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC] NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER): After
months of tedious research, DNA genealogists
finally have a lead.
00:32:13
In 2020, the genealogy
company contacted the Rangers, who contacted us to
let us know that they
00:32:21
had a potential suspect named. BRANDON BESS: Arthur
Raymond Davis-- name had never
popped up anywhere,
00:32:30
never heard of this guy. Will, poring through
the case files over and over and
over again, had never
00:32:36
heard of this guy, nothing. He was absolutely a
person that was not on our radar, that
had been identified
00:32:43
through forensic
genetic genealogy. It's a person, to
date, that I haven't found anyone in Seabrook,
Texas, that knew who he was.
00:32:52
When I first saw a picture
of Arthur Davis and compared it to the sketch that was done in
the '80s, it was obvious that it
00:33:02
was a very, very close match. NONA HOLOMON: It was unreal. It was totally unreal
at the closeness of it.
00:33:10
And I looked at
it and I thought, oh, my gosh, this can't be. And I looked at it and I
thought, oh, no, come on.
00:33:16
Somebody just took a sketch
of this and then put it-- but it was for real. I mean, Davis was so
much like that composite.
00:33:25
NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER):
Bloodline detectives believe they finally
know who murdered
00:33:30
Susan Eads 37 years ago. That's until they run up
against another roadblock, next.
00:33:38
[OMINOUS CHORDS] [OMINOUS CHORDS] [SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC] NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER):
Seabrook, Texas, 2020--
00:33:50
37 years after the
brutal rape and murder of 20-year-old Susan Eads. But now, detectives
believe they've solved
00:34:00
the case until a bombshell. Frustrating news. We've all. homicide detectives have
cases that our suspect
00:34:11
dies at some point in time. However, for cold cases,
and one going back this far
00:34:17
being unusual to even be able to
get a solve with a team on it, we discovered that
Arthur Raymond
00:34:23
Davis had been killed in a car
wreck driving a stolen Corvette. About December time frame I
believe he was in the wreck,
00:34:31
stayed in the hospital
for quite some time, and eventually did pass
away in January of 1984.
00:34:38
And again, he was in a
stolen car, and I'm about 60% convinced that Arthur
Davis committed suicide.
00:34:48
Based on the accident
investigation, based on the small amount-- very
small information that we have,
00:34:54
there was nothing about
that wreck that was normal. I believe that Arthur Davis
killed himself via car wreck.
00:35:01
So the detectives that were
working the case in the day, number one, would have
had no reason to look
00:35:07
for this guy, and
number two, he was dead while they were still
working the case.
00:35:12
So even-- even more
difficult a case to try and solve-- an
unknown person who was dead
00:35:18
that you're trying to find. NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER):
Investigators are determined to confirm
Arthur Davis raped and murdered
00:35:27
Susan Eads in 1983. [SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC] Agent Gregory and the FBI were
able to reach out to contacts
00:35:37
and actually locate a
son of Arthur Raymond Davis, who was very
cooperative and submitted
00:35:43
a sample of his DNA. Within a day or two, we
had that sample delivered to Tanya Dean at our lab.
00:35:52
TANYA DEAN: Y-STR testing,
or paternal testing, is going to look at the Y
chromosome that is passed down
00:35:58
during the paternal lineage. So the son, the
father, the grandfather are all going to have the
same Y-STR profile, pending
00:36:06
any mutations or any
other biological processes that may interrupt that. So it's not as identifying
as the autosomal STR analysis
00:36:14
that we typically
perform, because it only points to a lineage. But it can be used for
exclusionary purposes.
00:36:21
And for this case, it at least
gave the investigators an idea that this was the
paternal lineage
00:36:27
that they needed to look at. They just needed to look
at the external factors, such as the location and
the timing of the events,
00:36:33
to see who may have
been in the area and who could have been
a suspect in this case.
00:36:40
We were able to confirm that
the Y-STR profile from the son was consistent with
the Y-STR profile
00:36:46
from our crime scene evidence. NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER): 37
years after Susan's murder,
00:36:52
investigators can
finally ID her killer. BRANDON BESS: April 24th
of 2020 is the day that
00:37:01
we had a solve in this case. And that is the day that we
had the confirmation based
00:37:08
on all the genealogy work
that had been done, based on the background work,
based on everything
00:37:14
that the FBI, Tanya Dean, the
DPS Crime Lab put together. Confirmation was
received on that date
00:37:20
that Arthur Raymond Davis would
have been the person that would have left that DNA on Susan's
clothing and the DNA that
00:37:27
was found on the
ligature garotte that was used to kill her. TANYA DEAN: Exhumation of
Arthur Ray Davis was a thought,
00:37:36
and it was discussed. DPS, the Rangers,
Seabrook PD, the district attorney's office all met.
00:37:43
And at that point, an
extensive amount of research had been done on Arthur
Davis, his whereabouts,
00:37:49
where he had lived, his life. And after everybody talked
everything through-- the DNA results, the genealogy
results, the criminal history,
00:37:57
all of those things-- everybody was quite certain and
confident that Arthur Davis was
00:38:02
the perpetrator in this
crime, and an exhumation was probably going to
cause more harm than good.
00:38:07
And they felt confident
closing the case at that point. The feeling in the
lab was that everybody
00:38:12
was just super excited. Again, these cases tend
to not be successful, and we tend to not get answers
the majority of the time.
00:38:21
So on the occasion
that we are successful with these cold cases, again,
it just kind of aligns us.
00:38:28
It reminds us why we're here,
reminds us what we're doing, and makes us feel really
good about the job
00:38:32
that we do every day. WILL HASKETT: The only reason
we were able to solve this case,
00:38:37
and I believe this
case never would have been solved without
forensic genetic genealogy.
00:38:44
BRANDON BESS: There's
never closure. When you lose a
loved one like that. There's not.
00:38:48
There's answers. We hope to provide an
explanation about why this may have happened.
00:38:55
Arthur Davis was actually
in the Coast Guard, served in Vietnam in a
patrol-type boat, patrolling
00:39:01
the shores of Vietnam. Vietnam did a lot of strange
things to a lot of veterans.
00:39:08
And I don't know
what he went through. I know his family's broke up. He had a broken family.
00:39:15
He had kids of his own. I can't imagine that he would
set out to go kill a girl,
00:39:20
but then you never know. Arthur Davis probably left the
bar, sat outside the bar waiting
00:39:26
on Susan to leave,
followed Susan, somehow got her to pull over-- flashed his lights,
did something,
00:39:33
got her to pull over-- assaulted, sexually assaulted,
and then killed her. NONA HOLOMON:
They're never going
00:39:41
to get over Susan's
death and the way she died or was murdered. But they have some
closure on who did it.
00:39:49
BRANDON BESS: Susan was
indeed a person who was-- she was that sister
you would want.
00:39:55
Dennis, her brother, described
her to me as a wildcat, as a tomcat, as a bulldog,
as just this person that
00:40:02
loved life, that loved people. Susan Eads was just
truly a good person. DENNIS EADS: You can dwell
on it, it can eat you up,
00:40:14
or you can try to
pick up the pieces and do the best with
the cards you're dealt.
00:40:20
I think that's
what I tried to do. NANCY GRACE: By the
time she's just 20, Susan Eads has already faced
the incredible challenge
00:40:33
of a potentially
crippling disease. But still, her incredible
outlook on life inspires her family
and her friends.
00:40:43
It's all the more tragic that
a senseless act of violence ends Susan's life so
early on, much too soon.
00:40:56
I'm Nancy Grace, and I want
to thank you for joining us here on "Bloodline Detectives."
00:41:03
[OMINOUS CHORDS] [OMINOUS CHORDS] [SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC]