00:00:04
[MUSIC PLAYING] NARRATOR: A witness too young to testify, a murder investigation crippled by circumstantial evidence.
00:00:26
Someone doesn't fall down and then cut a bone quite like this. NARRATOR: Can Dr. Murray tell how this young woman died
00:00:34
and give police what they need to arrest a killer? Then, the body of a depressed postal worker
00:00:44
turns up in the woods with a whiskey bottle and a shotgun. Can Dr. Murray confirm an open and shut case of suicide,
00:00:51
or is something more sinister at work? And even a grown man with a very long arm reach
00:00:56
would have a difficult time putting that shotgun up against the side of his head
00:01:00
and pulling the trigger. [THEME MUSIC] NARRATOR: On a scorching California afternoon,
00:01:44
a family dog comes running home after spending several hours in the nearby woods.
00:01:49
It's not the first day he's spent exploring the surrounding wilderness. But this time, he brings home a grisly trophy.
00:01:57
This is a rural remote area. There's a house probably 2 and 1/2 miles off the highway.
00:02:05
And the people that live there, they see their dog chewing on something. And they go up and look, and they're like, oh my god.
00:02:12
It's a human hand. NARRATOR: Local police search the area and soon uncover a cache of decomposing remains.
00:02:23
For Sergeant Rob White, the gruesome find may be the break he needs in a missing
00:02:27
person's case that's gone unsolved for months. That case began eight months earlier
00:02:33
when a 3-year-old boy wandered into a supermarket parking lot. Realizing that the toddler is alone,
00:02:45
a passerby approaches him and is shocked to see that his clothes are covered with blood.
00:02:51
She immediately notifies police. Sergeant White responds to the call. What we had was a 3-year-old boy wandering through
00:03:03
the parking lot, carrying $1. Where did you find this boy? NARRATOR: When police ask the boy his name
00:03:10
and where he's from, he simply repeats a chilling phrase. ROBERT WHITE: All he would say was Pedro killed Mom.
00:03:19
Mom's wrapped in a blanket. NARRATOR: Bob White now believes he's investigating a homicide.
00:03:27
Eventually, police are able to coax out the boy's name, Phillip Reyes. Checking local daycare services, police
00:03:37
learned that Phillip was the son of Nancy and Guillermo Reyes, owners of a local hair salon.
00:03:43
Police locate the boy's father quickly. But they can't find Phillip's mother, Nancy Reyes.
00:03:51
ROBERT WHITE: And then our next step was to take the child to a child psychologist.
00:03:58
NARRATOR: There, he reveals other details of the story. Can you tell me about what did Pedro do to Mommy?
00:04:07
NARRATOR: In a confusing mixture of English and Spanish, Phillip says that Pedro hit his mother
00:04:12
and that Pedro drives a gray car. According to the psychologists, the boy also claims Pedro hit his mother with a palo, the Spanish word
00:04:22
for stick. White then interviews the boy's father. ROBERT WHITE: He tells us that their marriage was perfect.
00:04:35
They had known each other since they were high school sweethearts. You know, they'd been together for 10 or 15 years.
00:04:41
You know, picture perfect marriage. NARRATOR: But as police dig deeper, they find that a great deal about Nancy
00:04:48
is far from perfect. For years, Nancy had been struggling to support Phillip and two other children in California
00:04:59
and her extended family in Ecuador. With money tight, she recently borrowed $5,000
00:05:07
from a childhood friend, who was now a reputed methamphetamine dealer. White's ears perk when he hears the drug
00:05:16
dealer's name, Pedro Nunes. Phillip's words ring in his mind-- Pedro hit Mom. White puts Nunes on a national wanted list,
00:05:31
and police eventually track him down in Phoenix. Just as little Phillip said, Nunes' car is gray.
00:05:42
A search of the car reveals evidence that White hopes will enable him to bring justice to Nancy Reyes.
00:05:50
ROBERT WHITE: Inside the vehicle, you can see dark stains that we think is blood.
00:05:55
It turns out later it is blood. And they're everywhere. NARRATOR: Using a DNA sample taken from Phillip,
00:06:04
the crime lab verifies that it is his mother's blood. White thinks it's damning evidence.
00:06:11
But Pedro offers up a reason for it to be there. He claims Nancy cut her wrists in a suicide attempt.
00:06:20
Nancy had attempted suicide in the past. Despite police suspicions, Pedro's story
00:06:28
has some credibility. Given Phillip's testimony, Sergeant White is ready to charge Nunes with murder, but the district
00:06:37
attorney isn't. I've been a prosecutor for 16 years. And I think what you learn over a course of a career
00:06:45
is that it is better to have all your ducks in a row, and don't jump in too quickly.
00:06:53
NARRATOR: Langer argues that there's not enough hard physical evidence and that Phillip's age makes
00:06:58
him a less than credible witness. ANNE LANGER: The three-year-old was still way too young to ever
00:07:05
testify, and to put him in front of Pedro in a courtroom, I really didn't think that he'd be
00:07:12
able to stand up under the pressure of direct or cross examinations. NARRATOR: It's a bitter pill for White to swallow.
00:07:20
Our whole case was circumstantial evidence. Although it was good circumstantial evidence,
00:07:25
it's still circumstantial. But without the person, without some kind of means or manner of death, you can't really do anything.
00:07:36
NARRATOR: White's investigation stalls, and with it, the only hope of finding justice for Nancy.
00:07:47
But now, with the discovery of the skeleton deep in the woods, a new chance for justice may be possible.
00:07:58
ROBERT WHITE: When you walk up to where it's at, the first thing you see is a rib cage and hip and partial leg.
00:08:07
About 10 or 15 feet away from there was a skull with some hair on it. NARRATOR: White takes another long hard look at the remains
00:08:19
and picks out one small detail that might help refuel the investigation. ROBERT WHITE: One thing I saw right away
00:08:26
was a ring laying in the dirt, and I have a picture of Nancy in our office. And that ring is on her finger on that picture.
00:08:38
We need to bag this up. Can we get an evidence bag over here for this please? NARRATOR: A comparison of Phillip's DNA with a sample
00:08:46
of mummified tissue taken from the remains provide Sergeant White with the hard evidence he
00:08:51
needs to confirm that this skeleton is Nancy Reyes. But Sergeant White still can't take the case back to the DA
00:09:05
yet. He first needs to know how Nancy died. Since the remains are nearly skeletonized,
00:09:15
a medical examiner cannot perform an autopsy. White turns to the one person who might be
00:09:21
able to answer this question-- forensic anthropologist Dr. Turhan Murad. I think a lot of people are surprised
00:09:31
and will continue to be surprised at what can we learned from bones. That's one of the reasons I like doing what it is that I do.
00:09:47
NARRATOR: Dr. Murad takes on the case with one condition-- that White tell him nothing but where he found the body.
00:09:55
I prefer that investigators, when they bring in something like these remains to us, that I not know too much
00:10:02
and give them what I feel is then my more objective opinion as to what the bones are saying.
00:10:08
NARRATOR: The day the remains arrive, Dr. Murad hears from White. ROBERT WHITE: I called Dr. Murad on the phone, explained to him,
00:10:15
you know, this is what I want. How did this person die? NARRATOR: Before Dr. Murad can begin unlocking the secrets
00:10:27
of these bones, he'll need to clean them of all remaining flesh. It's a task that involves one of the oddest tools
00:10:34
at Dr. Murad's disposal-- the bug box. Inside is a colony of domestic beetles. Their diet is decaying flesh.
00:10:45
TURHAN MURAD: The dermestid beetles will eat all the dried flesh off. They don't like feathers.
00:10:50
They don't eat hair. But they'll clean up a skeleton very, very clean without having to get our hands into a bunch of muck.
00:11:00
NARRATOR: It will take about four days for the beetles to do their work. Only when they are done can Dr. Murad
00:11:05
begin to shed light on the mysterious death of Nancy Reyes. Coming up, Murad discovers injuries,
00:11:17
but they may not be consistent with Phillip's story. Fractures to her head might have resulted from a fall
00:11:23
down the steps. NARRATOR: And later, if this man died in the woods, whose blood is in the bedroom?
00:11:30
We discovered blood on the frame rails, on the rug, and on the walls. NARRATOR: When "Skeleton Stories" continues.
00:11:51
Three-year-old Phillip Reyes is standing by his story that he saw his mother beaten to death by Pedro Nunes.
00:11:58
But so far, police have been unable to do anything about it because they have no physical proof
00:12:03
that she was murdered. Forensic anthropologist Dr. Turhan Murad is trying to find that truth
00:12:11
by examining Nancy's bones. As a first step, Dr. Murad removes the remains from the bug box.
00:12:23
Over the past four days, they have been cleaned by a colony of flesh eating beetles.
00:12:30
The bones are at last pristine and ready for him to examine. Next, Dr. Murad zeros in on Nancy's skull, where
00:12:41
he observes several fractures that could point to her cause of death. This skull needed to be reconstructed,
00:12:47
and that's what took the most time. There were lots of fragments. There were these fractures to the top of the head.
00:12:54
I reconstructed some of the bones that had been broken from her face. I glued them together, and I, in marking pen,
00:13:02
indicated where various of the fractures were. NARRATOR: With the fractures clearly marked,
00:13:07
Dr. Murad begins to see a telltale pattern. TURHAN MURAD: She had a fracture across the front of her face,
00:13:14
across the maximal, which contains the upper teeth, and underneath her nose. It's called a LeFort 1.
00:13:21
It's a type of fracture that occurs commonly in people if they're hit in the face.
00:13:29
NARRATOR: While this kind of the LeFort 1 fracture might have contributed to Nancy's death,
00:13:33
it's not proof of murder. TURHAN MURAD: People in an automobile accident if, in fact, they were to hit the steering
00:13:39
wheel with this portion of their face or maybe the dashboard, they might have a LeFort type fracture.
00:13:46
NARRATOR: But then Dr. Murad discovers another fracture, one that might provide the answers he's looking for.
00:13:53
There was a fracture that went around to the back of her head, almost completely around to the right side.
00:13:59
And then at the back, there was a fracture that radiated down and went underneath her skull.
00:14:04
This was a huge fracture. NARRATOR: Such a fracture would have certainly triggered massive cerebral hemorrhage,
00:14:10
causing the brain to swell. It's a condition that could easily have been fatal. Dr. Murad now suspects that Nancy suffered some sort
00:14:21
of trauma to the head at least twice and that one of those blows proved fatal. But he doesn't yet know what caused those fractures.
00:14:31
TURHAN MURAD: Fractures to her head might have resulted from a fall down the steps,
00:14:35
some kind of blunt force in any other fashion. NARRATOR: Without hard evidence that Nancy was murdered,
00:14:45
the DA will not bring charges against Pedro Nunes. Our whole case was circumstantial evidence.
00:14:52
So they really were knocking down my door, saying, come on. And I said, I can't just do that if I don't have the evidence.
00:15:01
So we're going to wait again until we get an answer from this forensic anthropologist.
00:15:09
NARRATOR: The skull has told Murad all it can, and now he must turn his attention
00:15:13
to the rest of Nancy's bones, hoping they will provide more clues to what caused her death.
00:15:23
He quickly discovers more injuries. Her ribs were broken as well. The fractures to her ribs even further suggested blunt force,
00:15:33
not just to her head, but also to her thorax and her chest. NARRATOR: The fractures in the ribs
00:15:40
confirm what Murad already knows, that Nancy received multiple blunt force trauma.
00:15:46
Still, they don't reveal what caused that trauma. But Dr. Murad's next discovery does.
00:15:56
This is a humerus proximal end with a very unique feature here. I found a cut mark that was really unusual.
00:16:04
And it was on her left humerus. Humerus is upper arm bone. NARRATOR: The humerus is the single bone
00:16:10
that makes up the upper arm. One of the major bones of the body, it averages two inches in diameter.
00:16:19
Nancy's humerus is cut in two. TURHAN MURAD: It was a lot of force that created that break.
00:16:24
On the lateral side of the humerus, there was a tiny radiating fracture going around the bone.
00:16:30
That suggested that this was done with a heavy instrument enough to crack the bone
00:16:35
in this hairline fracture. But most interesting is right before the fracture there
00:16:41
was a blunt edge about halfway through the bone, and it was straight. That suggested a cut of some type.
00:16:51
NARRATOR: For Dr. Murad, a cut mark is a significant find, because cuts can often bear impressions of the cutting implement itself.
00:17:00
TURHAN MURAD: When you cut a piece of wood or anything with a saw, there's some material that is removed,
00:17:05
and it creates a flat area at the bottom of the cut. That area is called the kerf.
00:17:12
NARRATOR: To uncover the secrets this kerf might hold, Dr. Murad must examine this bone under his microscope.
00:17:19
TURHAN MURAD: I can see that the bottom of the cut was wide. That says something about the width of the blade.
00:17:24
If it was V-shaped, you could suggest, well, it was a sharp blade. This was not sharp.
00:17:28
It was flat on the bottom, OK? It's a wide blade. NARRATOR: The tumblers of Dr. Murad's mind
00:17:34
suddenly clicked into place. A cut mark with a wide curve indicating a dull and unsharpened blade.
00:17:42
A blade that was weighted enough to have broken the bone when it struck. Repeated blunt force trauma to the head.
00:17:51
The bones have spoken. With this final clue, Dr. Murad thinks he now knows what killed Nancy Reyes.
00:17:58
[DRAMATIC MUSIC] All that's left to do is call Sgt. White and report his findings.
00:18:05
[DRAMATIC MUSIC] Coming up next, Dr. Murad presents his conclusions to Sgt. White.
00:18:15
TURHAN MURAD: There was this, kind of, silence for a moment. And then he said, you know, it's interesting you
00:18:21
should say that. NARRATOR: And later, what happened to this man's skull. BETH MURRAY: I received an assortment of skull fragments,
00:18:30
and over half of those were less than 2 by 2 inches. NARRATOR: That's next on Skeleton Stories.
00:18:36
[DRAMATIC MUSIC] For Nancy Reyes, murdered in front of her 3-year-old son, justice is long overdue.
00:18:57
But forensic anthropologist Dr. Turhan Murad is about to deliver it. [DRAMATIC MUSIC]
00:19:04
Dr. Murad has found evidence that Nancy died from blunt force trauma to the head.
00:19:11
Now after examining the base of a cut or kerf on Nancy's arm bone, he's ready to tell police exactly what he thinks
00:19:18
caused that fatal head trauma. [DRAMATIC MUSIC] --note first. I'll give you a call back, OK?
00:19:25
NARRATOR: Dr. Murad phones Sgt. Bob White and reports his scientific findings. Nancy Reyes was beaten to death, and the instrument used
00:19:34
was a shovel. NANCY REYES: What are you doing? Shut up! TURHAN MURAD: The cut suggested a wide, flat-edged instrument
00:19:40
of some type. And the kind of tool that comes immediately to mind is that it was a shovel.
00:19:46
And if in fact a shovel was present to create that cut in her left humerus, then these other blows
00:19:55
that were done to her head might have also been done with a shovel. NARRATOR: With the murder weapon revealed,
00:20:02
there was little doubt as to whether Nancy was murdered. TURHAN MURAD: This was not an accident.
00:20:06
Someone doesn't fall down, and do this kind of damage to their head, and then cut a bone quite like this.
00:20:14
So this suggests, certainly, homicide. [DRAMATIC MUSIC] NARRATOR: The detailed revelation is what Sgt.
00:20:20
White has been waiting for. ROBERT WHITE: One thing in any homicide case, you have to prove or you have to be able to show
00:20:28
how the person died. What Dr. Murad did was show that the injuries she sustained
00:20:35
to her head caused her death. [POLICE RADIO CHATTER] NARRATOR: But there is one problem, Philip told
00:20:42
police that his mother was hit in the head with a stick not a shovel. ROBERT WHITE: The little kid was saying Pedro used a "pala."
00:20:51
Our understanding, pala was stick. NARRATOR: But police soon realized they had been misinterpreting Philip's story all along.
00:21:00
TURHAN MURAD: Unfortunately or fortunately as the case might be, the word for "shovel" and the word for "club"
00:21:06
are a lot alike in Spanish. It's "pala" for a shovel, and "palo"-- ends in an O--
00:21:11
for a club. But now having said that there was a shovel present, it all fit together.
00:21:18
ROBERT WHITE: The information Dr. Murad gave us made the child's story credible,
00:21:25
and that final piece from Dr. Murad that sealed Pedro's fate right there. [DRAMATIC MUSIC]
00:21:36
--area's called the kerf. NARRATOR: With Murad's discovery and with what they've learned
00:21:40
from interviews in the field, investigators feel they can finally paint a portrait
00:21:45
of Nancy's tragic last hours. [DRAMATIC MUSIC] On the day of Nancy's disappearance,
00:21:59
Pedro Nunez picks her and Phillip up from the hair salon where she works. Investigators suspect the plan was for him to drive them
00:22:07
to the bank, where Nancy will give him an installment on the money she owes him.
00:22:12
[SPEAKING SPANISH] NARRATOR: But Pedro is not in good shape. [DRAMATIC MUSIC] ROBERT WHITE: Pedro is, by his own admission,
00:22:22
on a seven-day drug-binge of methamphetamine. NANCY REYES: What're you doing? ROBERT WHITE: He doesn't have any patience,
00:22:30
and he's very violent. [INTERPOSING VOICES] NARRATOR: He tells her that he knows
00:22:34
she has the cash from the salon's register and that he wants all his money now. No!
00:22:42
Get away from me! ROBERT WHITE: We suspect she told him "no," she wouldn't give him any money.
00:22:49
He does not take "no" for an answer and grabs whatever is available-- NANCY REYES: What're you doing?
00:22:56
ROBERT WHITE: --a shovel. Shut up! [DRAMATIC MUSIC] NANCY REYES: No! Get away from me!
00:23:02
PEDRO NUNEZ: Get out! NANCY REYES: Ow! PEDRO NUNEZ: Unh! NARRATOR: As little Phillip looks on helplessly,
00:23:09
Pedro begins viciously beating Nancy. [THWACK] One blow snaps Nancy's upper arm bone.
00:23:16
This is the injury that creates the telltale kerf. But Pedro doesn't stop there.
00:23:23
He swings again landing the shovel square on Nancy's face causing the Le Fort fracture.
00:23:32
A third blow contacts Nancy's head from the right side creating a second massive break.
00:23:38
Inside her skull, her badly-bruised brain swells creating intense pressure, which cuts off vital brain functions, and Nancy dies.
00:23:51
ROBERT WHITE: He grabs a blanket-- PHILLIP REYES: Mama! ROBERT WHITE: -rolls her up in the blanket,
00:23:57
and throws her in the back of the car. And then he drives off. And he has to do something with the kid,
00:24:05
so he drops him off the first place that he knows he will be found. And that's the grocery store.
00:24:11
[DRAMATIC MUSIC] NARRATOR: Thanks to Dr. Murad's findings, after 12 long months of investigation, prosecutors are finally able to file murder
00:24:24
charges against Pedro Nunez. ANNE LANGER: Murad's work gave me the physical evidence
00:24:28
that I needed to feel confident about taking this case to trial. [DRAMATIC MUSIC]
00:24:34
NARRATOR: But there's a final twist in the case. Nunez is being held in an Arizona prison
00:24:40
for assaulting a police officer when authorities track him down for questioning.
00:24:47
But just as the charges are ready to be filed for murder, guards discover Nunez in his cell, dead.
00:24:56
He has hanged himself. ROBERT WHITE: I was very disappointed, because I, personally, wanted him to stand
00:25:03
trial for what he did to Nancy, and to her son, and her whole family. It's very bittersweet.
00:25:11
I'm sad that we couldn't bring the case to justice, but at the same time I'm very happy for the family
00:25:17
that they didn't have to go through it. TURHAN MURAD: The fact is it all came together,
00:25:20
and all the authorities and the family were satisfied with the conclusions. So the pieces fit together.
00:25:26
Literally and figuratively, the pieces came together. [BELL TOLLS] NARRATOR: Coming up, what begins as a straightforward suicide
00:25:38
ends in a courtroom battle. This case was the first time I was ever called to testify at trial.
00:25:43
NARRATOR: When Skeleton Stories continues. [DRAMATIC MUSIC] 20 miles north of Harlan, Kentucky, a grim search is on.
00:26:11
Behind the neat bungalows of a quiet rural area, police are combing the shadows for a dead man.
00:26:18
[DRAMATIC MUSIC] Tom Westfall, a 35-year-old post office clerk, has been missing for three weeks.
00:26:27
According to friends, Tom was a fun-loving guy who loved to be outdoors. Friends affectionately called him Tomcat.
00:26:36
[DRAMATIC MUSIC] But according to his wife, Daisy, Tom had recently lost his zest for life
00:26:43
even though the couple was soon expecting their first child. He had been acting depressed and restless
00:26:49
for the past several months. He also began to drink and spend several nights away from home.
00:26:57
Then, Daisy tells police, Tom went hunting one day and never came back. [DRAMATIC MUSIC]
00:27:05
Daisy directs investigators to where Tom often hunted, a 15-acre patch of woods that begins right
00:27:10
behind the Westfalls' house. After just 20 minutes, police pick up a scent. It was a strong odor of decay, very nauseating.
00:27:22
Putrefying, almost. NARRATOR: Police followed the smell to its source, a collection of human remains.
00:27:29
[DRAMATIC MUSIC] It's a grisly scene, [DRAMATIC MUSIC] a decomposed torso surrounded by scattered arm and leg bones.
00:27:44
WAYNE EDWARDS: The temperature had been in the mid 90s for approximately two weeks, and there was
00:27:49
very little flesh on the body. NARRATOR: Near the body, they find two objects. WAYNE EDWARDS: What we saw there was an empty whiskey
00:27:57
bottle, and a 20-gauge shotgun, and we found fragments of the skull. [DRAMATIC MUSIC]
00:28:08
NARRATOR: And the skull was shattered to bits. JEFF ENGLAND: Literally, the skull was in 42 pieces.
00:28:14
So the only way that they could identify this as being his body was to have dental records brought in from him.
00:28:22
NARRATOR: The county coroner quickly compares the corpse's teeth to Tom Westfall's dental records.
00:28:28
He looks for cavities, fillings, tooth and jaw anomalies, anything that will link this skull to Tom.
00:28:36
It's a perfect match, and evidently, an open-and-shut case. [DRAMATIC MUSIC] For experienced detectives, a body, a bottle, and a shotgun
00:28:48
make for a puzzle with a simple solution, suicide. MARK HAYNES: Just the way the body laid,
00:28:55
it did give the appearance of maybe somebody that had been drinking and had shot themselves,
00:29:00
whether accidentally or intentionally. [DRAMATIC MUSIC] NARRATOR: It seems that Tom Westfall
00:29:05
had been even more depressed than his wife suspected. [DRAMATIC MUSIC] The state police fly the remains to Louisville,
00:29:15
where Kentucky's chief medical examiner is waiting to declare a cause of death and close the case.
00:29:22
He speculates that Tom Westfall shot himself in the forehead, right above the nose.
00:29:29
[DRAMATIC MUSIC] But because the skull is in so many pieces he can't be sure. GEORGE NICHOLS: Well, I cataloged and described
00:29:41
the bony fragments, but knew as soon as I enumerated them that this case needed the evaluation
00:29:47
of a forensic anthropologist. And at that point, I called Dr. Murray. [DRAMATIC MUSIC]
00:29:54
NARRATOR: Forensic anthropologist Dr. Beth Murray. My job is to figure out who and how.
00:30:02
To me, that is the job of the anthropologist. To take the unknown, put a face on that person.
00:30:11
[DRAMATIC MUSIC] NARRATOR: What's left of the skull is sent to Dr. Murray's laboratory
00:30:19
at the College of Mount St. Joseph. BETH MURRAY: I received an assortment of skull fragments.
00:30:27
There were approximately 42 reasonably-sized fragments and over half of those were less than 2 by 2 inches.
00:30:34
The medical examiner's office determined that it was a super nasal entry, meaning above the nose,
00:30:41
and a right temporal exit. NARRATOR: To confirm that Tom Westfall shot himself, Dr. Murray must put his skull back together.
00:30:48
Until the skull is reconstructed, you really can't be 100% positive as to what caused
00:30:54
this amount of fragmentation. [DRAMATIC MUSIC] NARRATOR: And so, Dr. Murray begins the painstaking
00:31:00
reassembling of Tom's skull. BETH MURRAY: I take the fragments, and I spread them out, get a good look at them,
00:31:06
and try to determine where in the skull they might have come from. If it has teeth in it, obviously it's from one of the jaws.
00:31:13
I got a-- a cranium-base region going here because we got foramen magnum going there.
00:31:18
But there are other areas of the skull that are kind of generic. So some matches are easy, some matches are more difficult.
00:31:25
I just look for edges that meet up. NARRATOR: Like a hobbyist picking through a jigsaw puzzle
00:31:32
on the dining room table, Dr. Murray looks for patterns in the edges of the different fragments.
00:31:40
BETH MURRAY: I can also use certain natural tracts on the skull like the sutures--
00:31:44
the joints between the skull bones or the vessel grooves inside the skull. And those can lead to a confident match.
00:31:53
Once I've made all of the matches that I think I can make, the next step is going to be to apply the glue.
00:32:00
NARRATOR: To make the most accurate reconstruction, Dr. Murray employs a tool so simple
00:32:05
it almost seems like child's play-- --play is around with some of this-- NARRATOR: --a sandbox.
00:32:10
The purpose of the sandbox is that I need something that will support the bones as they dry, I can press the bone into that
00:32:19
and it will give it some stability. NARRATOR: As she begins her work, she quickly sees that Tom Westfall's
00:32:25
skull appears to have been blown apart from the inside. Some of these pieces are warped to the point
00:32:32
that we're not going to be able to glue them together again. NARRATOR: Exactly the kind of damage often caused
00:32:38
by the blast of a shotgun when the barrel is pressed directly against the head. [DRAMATIC MUSIC]
00:32:44
These warped bones suggest a close-range shotgun blast, because a shotgun releases a burst
00:32:49
of gases along with pellets causing an explosion inside the skull. BETH MURRAY: And what happens is there's an actual explosion
00:32:57
of gases from the muzzle, inside of the skull, that heaves the skull out in many directions.
00:33:03
The skull can withstand a lot, but there's no way it can withstand that internal explosion that goes
00:33:09
on at the muzzle of a shotgun. [BOOM] NARRATOR: When the muzzle of a gun is pressed to the head,
00:33:18
it's called a contact wound. Many contact gunshot wounds are self-inflicted. This discovery seems to lend credence to the police's theory
00:33:28
that Tom killed himself with a shotgun. But as Dr. Murray puts the last few pieces of the skull
00:33:35
into place, she realizes that one key assumption about Tom Westfall's death is wrong.
00:33:42
It's a discovery that contradicts everything the investigators have suspected so far.
00:33:48
The original accounts delivered with the remains said super nasal entry, meaning above the nose.
00:33:55
But as I was able to reconstruct the face, there wasn't a thing wrong with the forehead.
00:34:01
NARRATOR: There's little doubt that a shotgun blew apart Tom Westfall's head. But now with Dr. Murray's discovery
00:34:08
that there is no entry wound in the forehead, the question is did Tom commit suicide after all?
00:34:15
JEFF ENGLAND: Normally, if someone's going to commit a suicide with a shotgun, they would have to do it in front of them.
00:34:20
He would have had to brace the shotgun up against his forehead, and either through a mechanism
00:34:25
or using his toe, pulled the trigger. NARRATOR: With the theory of suicide now thrown
00:34:30
into question, Dr. Murray will have to dig much deeper to unlock the secrets of these bones.
00:34:37
[DRAMATIC MUSIC] Coming up, Dr. Murray makes a shocking discovery that raises the question if Tom didn't shoot himself,
00:34:49
then who did? BETH MURRAY: The seeds of doubt were planted that this was a suicide.
00:34:56
[DRAMATIC MUSIC] NARRATOR: Forensic anthropologist Dr. Beth Murray has rebuilt the skull of 35-year-old postal worker Tom
00:35:14
Westfall. Everything was pointing to suicide until she discovered there was no entry wound in the forehead.
00:35:24
Now it's time for Dr. Murray to figure out exactly where Tom was shot. [DRAMATIC MUSIC]
00:35:30
A contact blast to the head will typically leave telltale marks around the edge of the entry wound.
00:35:36
JEFF ENGLAND: It will leave a powderous residue on the particular area where that discharge was.
00:35:42
NARRATOR: Dr. Murray finds exactly such powder marks. However, these marks are around a hole
00:35:48
in Tom Westfall's right temple, not in his forehead. A more thorough examination revealed a close-contact entry
00:35:58
wound to the right temple, where the powder burns were still evident. NARRATOR: Dr. Murray is now certain
00:36:05
that the pellets entered Tom's skull through his right temple exploding his head
00:36:10
into dozens of fragments. With the entry wound in the temple and not the forehead,
00:36:17
the theory of suicide is now looking very unlikely. Even a grown man with a very long arm-reach would have
00:36:25
a difficult time putting that shotgun up against the side of his head and pulling the trigger.
00:36:30
Then obviously, the next assumption is someone killed him. JEFF ENGLAND: I really don't think
00:36:35
we would've gotten anywhere had her examination and conclusions not pointed us to the fact that this did
00:36:43
not appear to be a suicide-- [DRAMATIC MUSIC] --it appeared to be a homicide. NARRATOR: Now that they suspect homicide,
00:36:49
they look to the one person who was able to direct them to Tom Westfall's body, his own wife, Daisy.
00:36:56
[DRAMATIC MUSIC] Detectives return to the Westfall home in eastern Kentucky for a closer search.
00:37:03
The house is deserted. Tom Westfall's wife, Daisy, pregnant with their first child
00:37:09
has gone to Florida to be with her family for the birth. The only thing that we noted of significance
00:37:14
was that the bedroom happened to be cleaner than the rest of the house. The house was dirty, it had a very unkempt appearance.
00:37:22
The bedroom, in comparison, was clean, and it was very obvious that the walls had been recently cleaned.
00:37:29
NARRATOR: Intrigued, the detectives begin to question the Westfall's neighbors. One of them remembered something he thinks the cops should know.
00:37:38
MARK HAYNES: Around the time of Mr. Westfall's disappearance, a mattress company had delivered a mattress
00:37:45
to the Westfall residence. And he thought this was real unusual in the fact that Ms. Westfall was in the process of going out of state.
00:37:54
NARRATOR: Using records of the Westfall family's credit cards, detectives track down the business where Daisy Westfall
00:38:01
bought her new mattress. We interviewed the delivery drivers, and they told us that they thought
00:38:07
it was odd, because there was no old mattress there to pick up. MARK HAYNES: Based on that information,
00:38:12
we began searching local dump sites that are known for people to dump trash and property.
00:38:19
Within about two miles of the Westfall home, we were able to find a mattress and box springs.
00:38:26
NARRATOR: The mattress and box spring are stained a deep brown. A stain all too familiar to detectives on the street,
00:38:34
it's blood. JEFF ENGLAND: They did DNA analysis on that, then determined that was the blood from the victim.
00:38:42
[DRAMATIC MUSIC] NARRATOR: Now police are finding puzzle pieces of their own, and the puzzle is starting to fit together.
00:38:54
Their next step is to return to Westfall's bedroom. WAYNE EDWARDS: The lab personnel were
00:38:59
able to use a chemical known as "luminol," which shows the presence of blood in a crime scene.
00:39:05
NARRATOR: Luminol is a compound that reacts with the iron in hemoglobin. Even if blood has been carefully scrubbed off of a crime scene,
00:39:15
luminol sprayed onto a surface can show traces of blood like glowing under a black light.
00:39:23
POLICEMAN (ON RADIO): Falsified object. NARRATOR: In late August 1996, police technicians
00:39:28
sprayed the Westfall bedroom with luminol. [DRAMATIC MUSIC] We then played a black light on the luminol,
00:39:34
and it showed a very large presence of blood in the bedroom. We discovered blood on the frame rails, on the rug,
00:39:42
and on the walls. NARRATOR: At last, the police can put all the pieces of the puzzle together.
00:39:47
POLICEWOMAN (ON RADIO): Stolen vehicle, incoherent juvenile. NARRATOR: They bring the dumped mattress
00:39:50
and box spring back into the bedroom and examine the blood spatters. [DRAMATIC MUSIC]
00:39:56
MARK HAYNES: And there was blood on the upper part of the mattress, box springs, and bed frame which
00:40:01
would indicate that someone was shot on the bed and that they lay there for a short time,
00:40:07
and blood actually dripped all the way down and caused a pool of blood on the floor.
00:40:12
[DRAMATIC MUSIC] NARRATOR: The turn-around in the Westfall case that started in Dr. Murray's lab has
00:40:23
reached its bloody conclusion. Police still don't know exactly what happened. But they know that Tom Westfall died in his bed
00:40:32
and did not die by his own hand. In September 1996, detectives from Kentucky State Police
00:40:41
fly to Orlando. They want to talk to Daisy Westfall about Tom's death. All right.
00:40:49
I mean, however I can help, you know? MARK HAYNES: She denied having anything to do with the crime.
00:40:55
At that time, we let her know that we had found the mattress and box springs, that we had evidence, that there
00:41:01
was blood in the bedroom. NARRATOR: As Daisy Westfall's defiance begins to falter,
00:41:07
detectives play their ace in the hole. Blow by blow, they detail Dr. Murray's findings.
00:41:13
The entry wound to the right temple, the powder residue, and the unlikelihood of such a wound
00:41:19
being self-inflicted. Her story started to change. She then started to speak of how abusive he was.
00:41:30
MARK HAYNES: And at that time, she did admit that she had shot him. NARRATOR: Daisy presents police with her scenario
00:41:36
of how she killed her husband. She states that Tom's shooting was an accident, an accident that occurred while she
00:41:45
was trying to defend herself. [HEARTBEAT] Her story was he had the gun, she pushed away,
00:41:50
and all of sudden, it went off and shot him. [GUNSHOT] NARRATOR: It's a gripping scenario,
00:41:56
but police believe that it doesn't add up with the forensic evidence. I mean we all know it couldn't happen.
00:42:03
The evidence Dr. Murray provided us with would indicate that he was shot in the temple at a close range
00:42:09
with the shotgun. NARRATOR: With Dr. Murray's evidence and Daisy's new admission, commonwealth attorney Jeff England brings
00:42:17
the case before a grand jury. On September 22, 1996, Daisy Westfall is indicted for murder.
00:42:26
[DRAMATIC MUSIC] Coming up, the surprises in this case are far from over. Some of the biggest shocks of all
00:42:36
will unfold at Daisy Westfall's trial. BETH MURRAY: What seemed so black and white to me
00:42:41
became so gray once it was in the courtroom. NARRATOR: That's next on Skeleton Stories.
00:42:48
[DRAMATIC MUSIC] Dr. Murray's findings have convinced police that Daisy Westfall shot her husband dead in an act
00:43:06
of cold-blooded murder. But when Daisy is confronted by Dr. Murray's evidence, she tells police that her abusive husband came after her
00:43:16
with the shotgun and that it went off by accident while she was trying to defend herself.
00:43:23
It's time for the jury to reach a verdict. [DRAMATIC MUSIC] In June 1998, Daisy Westfall goes on trial for the murder
00:43:36
of her husband, Tom. Early in the trial, commonwealth attorney Jeff England calls Dr. Murray to the stand to describe for the jury
00:43:45
her rebuilding of Westfall's skull. This case was the first time I was ever called to testify at trial.
00:43:52
JEFF ENGLAND: Dr. Murray presented as clear a case as she could on her examination.
00:43:57
[DRAMATIC MUSIC] BETH MURRAY: My job was to instruct the jury on what a 20-gauge shotgun at close range would do to a skull
00:44:11
Mr. Westfall's skull was actually given to me as I sat in the witness stand. That's pretty compelling to a jury,
00:44:20
to actually come face to face with the skull of the deceased. NARRATOR: Dr. Murray's testimony is simple,
00:44:28
because there is evidence of a close-contact wound, and because the entry wound was in the temple and not
00:44:33
the forehead it's highly questionable that this is a suicide or an accidental shooting.
00:44:40
On that fact, the State builds its case for premeditated and cold-blooded murder.
00:44:44
[DRAMATIC MUSIC] With testimony from police and other witnesses, England assembles for the jury his version of Tom Westfall's
00:44:52
death on July 25, 1996. [DRAMATIC MUSIC] According to the prosecution, Tom comes
00:45:08
home that night intoxicated. It isn't the first time. TOM WESTFALL: There's a lotta places that I'd
00:45:13
rather be than in this place. MARK HAYNES: He had told her that he had a girlfriend
00:45:17
and that he was going to be leaving her. NARRATOR: That night, she waits until her husband is asleep,
00:45:25
then she loads his shotgun and walks into the bedroom. She places the shotgun against her husband's right temple
00:45:33
and fires. [GUNSHOT] The blast releases a fury of shot pellets and expanding gases.
00:45:39
[GUNSHOT] The pellets punch a hole through Tom's skull. [GUNSHOT] Almost instantaneously--
00:45:45
[GUNSHOT] --the build up of gas bursts the skull into dozens of pieces. Death is immediate.
00:45:52
[DRAMATIC MUSIC] In the early morning hours, Daisy Westfall works desperately to cover her tracks.
00:45:59
Despite her advanced pregnancy, she drags her dead husband 100 yards through the woods.
00:46:05
MARK HAYNES: She attempted to make it appear as a suicide. She placed a shotgun and a whiskey bottle
00:46:12
next to the body of Mr. Westfall. NARRATOR: She returns to the house, discards the bloody mattress, and orders a new one.
00:46:22
Later, she begins telling friends and neighbors that she's worried Tom might be suicidal.
00:46:27
[DRAMATIC MUSIC] But now, it's the defense team's turn to present their version of what happened.
00:46:36
And it begins with the heart-rending tale of domestic abuse and misery. MARK HAYNES: Ms. Westfall's defense was the fact
00:46:45
that she was a battered spouse, and that she had been abused, and that Mr. Westfall was a terrifying man to her.
00:46:56
NARRATOR: Taking the stand, Daisy recounts years of abuse that culminate in a chaotic, violent night.
00:47:03
The jury gasps when she says that on July 25-- [SHOUTING AND FIGHTING] --a drunk and raging Tom Westfall
00:47:08
had raped her even though she was eight months pregnant. Then he held her at gunpoint.
00:47:15
TOM WESTFALL: Give me the gun! NARRATOR: When she pushed him away, husband and wife fell over and the gun discharged killing Tom.
00:47:24
BETH MURRAY: She alleged that it was over a struggle with the gun. I don't understand how a woman who is pregnant
00:47:31
can struggle with a grown man with a shotgun and manage to shoot him at close-contact range
00:47:36
in the temple. NARRATOR: Daisy admits that she scrubbed the walls, moved the body, dumped the mattress,
00:47:42
and tried to lead police astray, but only out of panic. Not out of guilt. After both versions of the story
00:47:51
are presented, it's time for the jury to reach a verdict. Very difficult decision for the jury.
00:47:57
In fact at one point, the jury came back deadlocked, and they were sent back out to deliberate further.
00:48:03
NARRATOR: But after two days of deliberations, the jury brings back their verdict, not guilty.
00:48:12
JEFF ENGLAND: They didn't like Mr. Westfall, they probably thought he was a bad person.
00:48:15
Here she was eight months pregnant, and he was out having an affair. NARRATOR: Daisy is convicted on the lesser
00:48:22
charge of tampering with physical evidence at the scene. The judge sentences her to five years of probation.
00:48:33
For investigators in the Westfall case, the acquittal remains a lingering disappointment.
00:48:40
And for Dr. Murray, the verdict was a useful reminder of the border between the hard realities of science
00:48:49
and the volatile ways of human affairs. BETH MURRAY: I was satisfied in my testimony,
00:48:54
I was satisfied in my work. If I just poke the case in the right direction, then you know,
00:48:59
I've done something good. [MUSIC PLAYING]