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[SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC] NARRATOR: Renovating an old house in Philadelphia, construction workers are stunned to unearth 16
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tiny coffins in the basement. Many questions come through your mind. When were these bodies put there?
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Why were they put there? Who put them there? NARRATOR: Now, authorities are counting
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on forensic anthropologist Dr. Tom Crist and his wife Molly to get to the bottom
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of this mysterious burial. How did these children die? Why are they here, all buried together?
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We don't know where they came from or who they belong to, so that was what we had to find out.
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NARRATOR: Then detectives believe that this seemingly ordinary father of two may actually be a ruthless killer.
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He was very withdrawn, very quiet, never look you in the eye, always looked down.
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And Dr. Beth Murray is determined to give them the proof they need to make sure he stays behind bars.
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To think about a monster that can live and walk among us, that's really frightening to me.
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[CRYING BABY] NARRATOR: Philadelphia, a city steeped in rich history, where the present day seems to coexist
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peacefully with the past. But sometimes, the past reemerges in unexpected ways. In March 2004, construction workers
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are busy renovating a 19th century rowhouse on Carpenter Street in the city's renowned southside.
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Down in the basement, a worker is excavating the dirt to lower the level of the floor.
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And in doing so, he started to hit some wood. NARRATOR: He carefully scraped the dirt away with his shovel
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and uncovers a mysterious wooden box. Intrigued, the worker slowly opens it and is
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startled by what he sees. Inside are what would appear to be tiny bones. That's when the call out.
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If someone calls you and says, we just found a coffin in the basement where we were digging,
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you'd say, yeah, sure. So first, you're in denial. NARRATOR: But the developer, Tony Rufo,
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quickly realizes that this is no hoax. It was a coffin. NARRATOR: Shocked, he immediately calls 911.
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The question on everyone's mind, is this a homicide? When the medical examiner arrives,
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he studies the remains. They appear to be old bones. But how old he is unable to say for sure.
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For everyone involved, this mysterious discovery raises many pressing questions.
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Should it be or shouldn't it be here? You know, all these million thoughts go through your head.
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NARRATOR: To answer these questions, Tony Rufo calls forensic anthropologist Dr. Tom Crist,
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a professor at Utica College. He's an expert in bones and has extensive experience dealing
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with historical human remains. As a forensic anthropologist, my role is, really, to give a voice to people
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whose names we may not know but who have stories to tell us. And they're important stories about the past
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but also about how we got to be where we are today. NARRATOR: Dr. Crist arrives at the scene,
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determined to uncover what mystery lies inside this forgotten coffin. But he is not alone.
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What's a little unusual here is that I work with my wife. NARRATOR: Dr. Crist's wife, Molly Crist,
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is now a professor of physical therapy at Utica College. But she began her career as an anthropologist.
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The couple has been working together since 1993. What's going on? It's always the subject of taboo.
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Don't ever work with your spouse. But I think that it worked so well for us because our relationship started
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as a working relationship. NARRATOR: Though Dr. Crist's specialty is bones, he begins this case by studying something else, the coffin.
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That's a six sided coffin. That's a hexagonal coffin. NARRATOR: This distinctive style helps
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him narrow down a specific date range for the burial. These coffins were very common from the 1750s
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through the 1780s. NARRATOR: From this, Dr. Crist concludes that this coffin must
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have been buried here during the colonial period or slightly thereafter. For over two centuries, it stayed
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hidden in this dark, damp tomb, undisturbed until now. But this is about to change.
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Gently, Dr. Crist pries open the lid of the coffin. Everything just stopped at that point.
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NARRATOR: Nestled inside is a collection of tiny bones, human bones. I can see just a little tooth or two.
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And they're not even formed yet. They're down inside the jaws. Wow. That indicates a very, very young
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child and probably a newborn. We all just stood there and just looked at it and said, oh, wow.
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NARRATOR: But there is an even greater surprise in store for the Crists. We excavated around it, and we lifted it out and--
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Got it. And the next thing we knew, we found another. Oh, here's the edge. NARRATOR: The second coffin is the same shape
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and size as the first one and had been buried directly underneath it. And once again, the coffin houses the same grim treasure.
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Again, we were like, oh, little baby. Many questions come through your mind. When were these bodies put there?
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Why were they put there? Who put them there? This was really a mystery. NARRATOR: And where there are two coffins,
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there could be more. We really had no idea how many could have been buried underneath this house.
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There was no way to know it except digging up the basement floor. NARRATOR: But suddenly, disaster strikes.
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I believe we were in the middle of a monsoon. NARRATOR: Philadelphia is hit by a violent storm that pounds
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the city with torrential rain. It had been raining for three days, and it rained for the next three days.
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It was quite-- quite a mess. NARRATOR: The basement is soon flooded. The water itself could have destroyed
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the coffins and the human remains that were within them. NARRATOR: In a desperate race against the clock,
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Dr. Crist and Molly call on aid of their forensic students for help. I guess the sense of urgency was elevated.
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We also had no idea how many burials we were going to be dealing with. NARRATOR: As the team digs frantically
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over the course of five long days, the coffin count continues to rise. What we discovered were 16 infants and children
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in a single burial trench. Stacked on top of one another and side-by-side. So the mystery deepened.
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NARRATOR: Faced with 16 coffins and 16 skeletons, the questions multiply. How did these children die?
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Why are they here, all buried together? Is it an epidemic? Was it a fire? Was there any foul play involved?
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We didn't know what to think. NARRATOR: To get to the bottom of this mystery, Dr. Crist must bring the coffins back
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to his lab to carefully examine the bones inside each one. Coming up, Dr. Crist delves into Philadelphia's past,
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searching for clues that might identify these forgotten children. But what he uncovers will shock even this season scientist.
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Many of them never had a chance at all. It was almost a death sentence. NARRATOR: And then Dr. Beth Murray
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is determined to bring some sense of peace to the family of this young girl. My work is what I have to offer them.
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NARRATOR: When Skeleton Stories returns. NARRATOR: Forensic anthropologist Dr. Tom
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Crist just stepped back in time, back to colonial Philadelphia. He and his wife Molly are busy examining the remains of 16
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infants and children, recently excavated from the basement of a row house in that city's
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historic district. Just the fact that there are children involved and then so many buried all at once together really made this a highly
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unusual situation. We don't know where they came from or who they belong to, so that was what we had to find out.
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NARRATOR: As he opens the first coffin, Dr. Crist gets a good look at the bones,
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and he's surprised by what he sees. The skeletal remains are all here, and they really are in such great shape.
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Every single small bone, every tooth, was present and really very nicely preserved.
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NARRATOR: It is uncommon to find infant remains this well preserved because baby bones
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are soft and not fully formed. They're not really hard enough to resist the rigors of being
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underground for very long. NARRATOR: But the reason for this unusually good preservation is readily apparent.
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Each one was caked with a little bit of mud that had seeped into the coffins that protected them.
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NARRATOR: For five days, Dr. Crist and his wife meticulously sort and cleaned the bones.
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It is very hard to work with the remains of infants and children because you realize that their lives
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were snuffed out so early. NARRATOR: For Molly, their work is a way of giving something
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back to these unknown children. We try to think of it as giving them a place in history, putting the pieces
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together so that they can rest in peace. NARRATOR: The first step is to try and determine
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the age of each child. But here, Dr. Crist faces a particular challenge. What makes an infant's skeleton so
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different from an adult's is that it has many, many more parts to it. NARRATOR: A baby's born with over 300
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soft bones, many of which fuse together as the child grows older. This process continues into early adulthood,
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leaving the adult with 206 bones. So you may have 300 or 400 different skeletal elements to account for when you have a newborn.
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NARRATOR: Dr. Crist focuses on a few specific bones as a guide. For instance, we can look at the temporal bone,
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which is the bone that's actually underneath your earlobe. In the fetus, the temporal bone is
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in three separate pieces, which fuse together once the child is born. If we find a child whose temporal bones are in three
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different portions, they haven't fused together yet, we know that it's a premature infant.
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NARRATOR: Using this method, Doctor Crist can see right away that this particular child
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managed to survive its birth. If this was a child who had not yet been born, that ring wouldn't be attached, but it is.
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NARRATOR: But there is another method that can be used to determine age. The most accurate information we get,
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though, is looking at the teeth. What we look for is the level of development of each tooth,
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compare that to tables based on children of known age, and then we can estimate with very good accuracy, usually
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within months, if not weeks, how old that child is. NARRATOR: Using these various techniques,
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Doctor Crist is able to narrow down the age range of the 16 children. We had premature babies, newborns, and young infants.
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NARRATOR: But that's all they know, and many questions remain. What tragedy could have killed such a large group of infants?
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And how on earth did they wind up in the basement of this ordinary townhouse? Doctor Crist is anxious to know more about these children,
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more than the bones alone can tell him. You really have to become a history detective.
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NARRATOR: Leaving Molly to continue analyzing the remains, Doctor Crist visits Philadelphia's Archival
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Library for clues to this historical riddle. After several fruitless hours of research,
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he finally uncovers a map of Philadelphia, dating back to 1830. On this particular map, the location
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where we had discovered these coffins in the basement, there was a number five. And in the index of that map, number five
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went with the Philadelphia Almshouse Burial Ground. At that moment, we knew that it was an Almshouse Cemetery.
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NARRATOR: Dr. Crist now knows where these children came from. The first Philadelphia almshouse, or poorhouse,
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opened in 1732, Ostensibly, to care for the poor and the sick of the city. Life in the almshouses was not pleasant.
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Primarily, you're dealing with severe overcrowding. There weren't enough beds. There weren't enough rooms to go around for all the poor people
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that needed to be housed. They were cesspools of disease, places where the unwanted and the unclean of the city
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were shuttled off to be housed almost as prisoners. NARRATOR: Children made up a large part
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of the almshouse population. Historical records show that on an average day in colonial Philadelphia, 5 to 15
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newborns and infants were found abandoned on the streets of the city. Many of them would be delivered anonymously
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to the almshouse itself, hoping that, in some respects, care could be given to those children.
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But very, very few of them ever survived their stay at the almshouse. Their lives, really, were so short.
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They never had a chance to contribute at all or see the world around them. They simply never grew up.
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NARRATOR: As eerie as it might be to discover an old cemetery hidden under a rowhouse, it is not that surprising given
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Philadelphia's long history. There are numerous people buried underneath the streets
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of Philadelphia. NARRATOR: As the city's population grew, many cemeteries were paved over to allow for new construction.
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These rowhomes were built directly on top of them and didn't disturb them at all.
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NARRATOR: But with the children's identity revealed, some disturbing questions still remain.
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What could have caused their multiple deaths in such a short period of time? Why were they all buried together?
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Was it an epidemic? Was there any foul play involved? We had no idea. We really were at a loss at that point.
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NARRATOR: Coming up, Dr. Crist makes a chilling discovery. Here we go. As we were examining these bones,
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we could see several cut marks made by a very sharp, thin blade. NARRATOR: As Dr. Crist stumbled across a vicious murder
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over two centuries old? And later, Dr. Murray is stunned when she is forced to confront a killer.
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I would like to say I sat in the back of this police cruiser. But, in fact, I hid.
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NARRATOR: When Skeleton Stories returns. Forensic anthropologist, Dr. Tom Crist,
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is on a quest to uncover any evidence that might help explain why these 18th century
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children died. It's important that I be able to tell their stories as best I can for them so that we don't forget that those people were
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here, too. NARRATOR: In order for Dr. Crist to bring their stories to light, he must examine the bones for any indication
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of what might have killed them. Several the children did show some evidence of infection.
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NARRATOR: Signs of this infection are especially noticeable on the parietal lobe, the main side
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bone of the skull. You can see all this porous bone here which suggests some sort of infection
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of the covering of the brain. NARRATOR: When Dr. Crist compares this bone to the same bone from a healthy child,
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the contrast is striking. This one shows the healthy appearance, sort of just this brown color, very flat.
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And this one shows the bone growth all, in this area here, clearly there is an infection going on that's affecting
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the inner part of this bone. But it certainly would have had had impacts on the brain.
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NARRATOR: Consulting historical records, Dr. Crist begins to catalog the many diseases that killed people
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in 18th century Philadelphia. These 16 children could have died of tuberculosis,
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infectious diseases, diarrheal diseases that they got from very bad water, from contaminated food.
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It was almost a death sentence to be sent to the almshouse. [INAUDIBLE] NARRATOR: It's clear that several different communicable
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diseases could have caused the deadly markings on the inside of the skull. But just as the Crists are zeroing
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in on infection as the likely culprit, they make another unexpected discovery. The most mysterious aspect of this project
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wasn't what we found. It's what was missing. Three of the children were missing their heads.
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The three oldest children were missing their skulls, their jaws, and the first two vertebra of their neck.
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It's shocking to see it right in front of you. This really deepened the mystery.
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Is this foul play? Was there some sort of murder involved? Was there a serial killer in the almshouse?
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And what could account for these three children, missing their heads? NARRATOR: Dr. Crist takes a closer
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look at the severed neck bones of one of the three victims. We could see several cut marks in the third cervical vertebra
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in the middle of the neck. Two cut marks over here on this side, this flat area.
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These were cut marks made by a very sharp, thin blade like a scalpel. NARRATOR: This is a critical finding.
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The specific type of cut mark indicates that this is surgical in nature and not the result of violent trauma.
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This was not done in a violent way. There was no evidence of crushing to the bones of the neck.
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NARRATOR: But it's where this surgical cut was made on the spinal column that offers the biggest clue.
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We know that that's exactly the place you'd go in with a scalpel if you were going to remove
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an individual's head for anatomical study or for medical study. NARRATOR: This is a crucial piece of the jigsaw puzzle.
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And once again, the key to solving it lies in understanding the past. Back then, in the 1700s, students of medicine
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were responsible for finding their own cadavers, their own corpses to dissect, to learn the different parts
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of the body. Where the bodies came from was always questionable. They would first go to the bodies of criminals,
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and those were allowed to be used for dissection. As the medical schools increased in number,
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there were not enough hanged criminals to go around. NARRATOR: This high demand for corpses led to drastic
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and often illegal measures. Physicians and their students would raid the local cemeteries
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and burial grounds to recover the bodies of freshly dead individuals. They were body snatchers.
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NARRATOR: But robbing graves for bodies was both risky and insufficient. What physicians and their students needed
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was access to a steady supply of cadavers that no one would miss. Almshouses turned out to be the perfect solution.
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Infants, children, adults would die. And they would be wheeled over into the anatomical theater,
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where they would be dissected in front of medical students, who would pay for tickets to watch the autopsy or the dissection.
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The poor living alms houses had very little choice. And in many cases, they were terrified
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of dying in these almshouses because they knew. They knew that their bodies would be used in dissection.
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There was no one there to advocate for them. The poor really had no one to stand up for them.
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NARRATOR: Armed with this last piece of forensic evidence, Dr. Crist is now ready to reconstruct what
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he believes happened to these children in the Philadelphia almshouse. Sometime between 1750 and 1780, 16 children
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came to live together at the Philadelphia almshouse. They never had a chance at all in life.
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They were born to poor families, born to single mothers. NARRATOR: Plagued by overcrowding and lack
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of hygiene, the almshouse was a ripe environment for the spread of infection and disease.
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These children would have been especially vulnerable. It's very likely that these 16 children could have been one
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week's worth of the deceased. NARRATOR: The cadavers of three of the children almost probably handed over to physicians
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and their medical students. The heads of these three children were removed for study or for practice surgery.
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The rest of their bodies were put in their coffins, buried with the other newborns and infants in the grave
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under what later became the basement of this rowhome. NARRATOR: As a scientist and mother,
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Molly Crist has mixed feelings about what was done to these innocent children. Certainly, in the history of medicine,
00:23:09
children need to be studied. I mean, that's how we learn. But it's just different when it's a child,
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to think that, back at those times, someone would have actually had the intestinal fortitude
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to take the head off a newborn baby for study. I would like to think that it was done for only
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good purposes, that physician maybe did learn something or that his medical students did.
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NARRATOR: Authorities in Philadelphia have granted Dr. Crist three years to study and document
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the children's remains, after which time he will reenter them in a historic cemetery somewhere
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in the city. Tom, he's really incredible. There just aren't that many people out there that have the ability to do
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the things that he has done. The closure for me will be when we rebury them and give
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them rest, finally, in a place where, hopefully, they won't be disturbed again. I think they deserve that.
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NARRATOR: Up next, forensic anthropologist, Dr. Beth Murray, is shocked to learn where
00:24:19
the rest of this young girl's remains are buried. I didn't expect to pull up to a house
00:24:23
with a white picket fence. That really kind of blew my mind, I have to say. NARRATOR: When Skeleton Stories returns.
00:24:49
[STRUGGLING] NARRATOR: It's a peaceful day as a park ranger makes his rounds at a nature
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preserve in central Ohio. But the quiet of these woods is soon disrupted by a shocking discovery.
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At the foot of a tree, the ranger spots something white on the ground. It's a human skull.
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Shaken, he immediately calls in the county police. And there was no visible skin I could see on the skull.
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This skull was white in color. NARRATOR: David Steinbrunner and his fellow detectives
00:25:32
quickly search the surrounding park for more clues. But the only additional bones they have related
00:25:38
are a couple of vertebrae. DAVID STEINBRUNNER: All we knew at the time is we had a skull.
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We didn't know if it was ancient, maybe the 1800s from an old burial ground, or if it was current.
00:25:49
It's in the past few weeks. We just don't know at that time. NARRATOR: To figure out who this is
00:25:54
and how their skull got here, detectives enlist the expertise of a forensic anthropologist,
00:26:01
Dr. Elizabeth Murray. People think of the skeleton as something static, unchanging, that all skeletons are alike.
00:26:15
But in the hands of a forensic anthropologist, there's so much information there
00:26:20
that could otherwise be lost. NARRATOR: The investigators send the remains to Dr. Murray's lab at the College of Mount St. Joseph.
00:26:36
There are a couple of vertebrae from the very top portion of the neck that are associated with it,
00:26:44
a little bit of hair. There's some brain matter that's still kind of losing from the skull itself.
00:26:54
NARRATOR: The first crucial fact Dr. Murray attempts to gather from the skull is the rough date
00:26:59
of the victim's death. Decomposition has a clock of its own, and the time can be estimated by examining which
00:27:07
insects are helping break down the body's last remaining tissues. The flies come in first and have their own life cycle.
00:27:16
Beetles come in in a second wave, and there's a number of species of beetles involved as well.
00:27:21
The type of beetles that invest a corpse are called sarcophagic, sarco meaning flesh, phagic meaning eating.
00:27:29
They're literally flesh eating beetles. Given the presence of the beetles and the condition of the skull, where there's very little
00:27:37
soft tissue left, I would estimate the time since death on the order of maybe one to three months.
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NARRATOR: Now that Dr. Murray has determined that she's dealing with a recent death, she turns
00:27:48
her attention to the next pressing question, who could this be? To determine this person's key characteristics,
00:27:57
she needs to piece together a biological profile. But first, the skull must be cleaned.
00:28:16
Right away, the more delicate structuring of the skull and the subtle brow ridge
00:28:21
tells Dr. Murray the likely sex of the victim. And the anatomy of the facial skeleton suggests the ancestry.
00:28:29
Based on my analysis, The. Skull appears to be that of a Caucasian female. NARRATOR: A common means of reckoning age from the skull
00:28:38
is by examining the victim's teeth. The teeth were in beautiful shape. There is very little wear on the molars,
00:28:44
indicating a lifetime of chewing. I think this is most likely a young adult. NARRATOR: Now that investigators know this is most likely
00:28:56
a young Caucasian female, they can start hunting for the victim's identity. Various people did call in, family members
00:29:03
that were saying, oh my god, we've had a family member missing. Could this be the person?
00:29:08
And eventually, I got down to just one person, that one victim that matches her analysis, somebody that was
00:29:15
missing for two months, somebody who was a female Caucasian, who was young and had brown hair.
00:29:22
NARRATOR: The missing woman's name is Carrie Erickson, aged 23. Her friends haven't seen or heard from her since March.
00:29:31
As they continue their investigation, detectives learn more about Carrie's difficult upbringing.
00:29:37
Her life was no day in the park, so to speak. She was bouncing from foster home to foster home since the age of five.
00:29:44
And when she turned 18, she was kicked out of the foster program and turned to the streets.
00:29:49
Because of that, she became addicted to crack and started doing prostitution to pay for her habit.
00:29:54
A comparison with Carrie's dental records quickly confirms the skull belongs to Carrie Erickson.
00:30:02
After a lifetime of trouble, she has been reduced to a skull and a few vertebrae
00:30:07
in Beth Murray's lab. It saddens me to see how often those kind of women wind up in the morgue.
00:30:17
NARRATOR: Coming up, even after hundreds of gruesome cases, Dr. Murray is shocked by what she learns next.
00:30:24
To think about a monster that can live and walk among us, that's really frightening to me.
00:30:30
NARRATOR: When Skeleton Stories returns. NARRATOR: Forensic anthropologist Dr. Beth Murray
00:30:50
is busy examining the skull of Carrie Erickson, found in the park a few days earlier.
00:30:56
Investigators are counting on Dr. Murray to figure out how this 23-year-old met her tragic end.
00:31:06
Examining the base of the spinal column, Dr. Murray discovers what could be a vital clue.
00:31:12
The first two vertebrae, very high in the neck, that sit just behind the jaw bone,
00:31:17
were fairly badly fractured. They were not distinct. They were not sharp. They were kind of crushed fractures.
00:31:26
The fractures were suggestive of some kind of a blow, one or more blows, that decapitated the individual.
00:31:34
NARRATOR: Dr. Murray cannot be certain the fractures to the vertebrae killed Carrie.
00:31:38
But they do hold an important clue. The reason the perpetrator cut off the head of the victim
00:31:46
was a very real attempt to separate the head from the body, thinking that the head
00:31:51
had more recognizable features. NARRATOR: Based on Dr. Murray's experience, such drastic measures point to only one possibility--
00:32:00
homicide. She reports her findings to investigators. With this information, detective Steinbrunner begins
00:32:13
a manhunt for Carrie's killer. His lead to include an ex-boyfriend, who Carrie alleged had once abused her.
00:32:20
According to police records, she had filed two domestic violence reports against him.
00:32:26
The other suspect is a local pimp. According to police records, Carrie's sister reported that he once threatened to kill Carrie.
00:32:33
They had a lot of active suspects. Is it a John? Is it a family member? NARRATOR: For weeks investigators,
00:32:40
tirelessly follow up on numerous leads. But nothing really fit in. They all had good alibis.
00:32:48
NARRATOR: Carrie's ex-boyfriend and the pimp are both exonerated. But just when the case is going to go cold,
00:32:55
police come across an unlikely suspect who peak their suspicions. He is the married father of two small children
00:33:03
and a devout Catholic. His name is Danny Hobart. DAVID STEINBRUNNER: Danny Hobart, from all indication,
00:33:10
is a very educated, intelligent person. He was very religious, read scripture at the local church.
00:33:17
NARRATOR: But Hobart had his share of unsettling characteristics as well. His co-workers said that he was very withdrawn,
00:33:24
very quiet, never look you in the eye, always looked down. NARRATOR: Two months earlier, Hobart had been caught trying
00:33:31
to strangle another prostitute. Now, investigators wonder if he might be connected
00:33:37
to Carrie's death as well. By the grace of God, a park ranger happened to drive by,
00:33:44
sees the car. Something's not right. Finds this woman being strangled. The culprit, the man, strangling this woman is Mr. Hobart.
00:33:57
And at that time, Mr. Hobart is taken into custody. NARRATOR: He is placed in a neighboring county jail
00:34:03
while he awaits trial for attempted murder. Detective Steinbrunner puts Hobart at the top of his suspect list.
00:34:10
And the investigators soon learn something else that heightens their suspicions about Hobart.
00:34:15
He thought the problem in the world were prostitutes. He felt the world would be a better place if he
00:34:21
rid the world of prostitutes. NARRATOR: Investigators search Hobart's car. What they find convinces them they
00:34:35
might be on the right track. It was both fascinating to our case and both horrific
00:34:41
for the things that were found in that car. NARRATOR: According to police reports,
00:34:45
the following items were found in Hobart's car. There were two books, involving serial killers,
00:34:52
a [INAUDIBLE] with the wire. There was a syringe in the car, antifreeze found in the car
00:34:58
under the front seat. NARRATOR: But when the investigators opened the lid of the trunk, they find the most
00:35:05
horrific evidence of all-- a pool of coagulative blood. So that got us to wondering, could this be Carrie's blood?
00:35:15
NARRATOR: Investigators collect a sample of the blood and send it to the FBI laboratory for comparison
00:35:21
to Carrie Erickson's teeth. Two weeks later, DNA test results come back. It's a perfect match.
00:35:30
This blood belonged to Carrie Erickson. To think about a chameleon, a monster that can live and walk
00:35:38
among us yet have that side so successfully hidden, that's really frightening to me.
00:35:49
NARRATOR: Danny Hobart is charged with involuntary manslaughter for the death of Carrie Erickson.
00:35:55
The trial is set for March 7th, 1995. But three days before the trial begins, prosecutor Leon Daidone gets a phone call
00:36:04
from Hobart's lawyer. To avoid facing a trial, Hobart wants to negotiate a plea bargain.
00:36:11
Daidone since one paramount condition. We would not entertain or do any type of plea agreement
00:36:18
whatsoever unless we got him to show us where the body was so that we can return
00:36:26
her body back to her family. NARRATOR: Coming up, investigators turned to Dr. Murray again.
00:36:36
But this time, it means coming face-to-face with the killer. I didn't really want to see him,
00:36:42
and, even more importantly, I didn't want him to see me. NARRATOR: When Skeleton Stories returns.
00:37:02
NARRATOR: On March 15th, 1995, detectives removed Danny Hobart from his prison cell.
00:37:11
To avoid going to trial, Hobart has agreed to show police where he buried the body of Carrie Erickson, a prostitute
00:37:18
he strangled and decapitated. We wanted to get her body home. Her family needs closure.
00:37:29
NARRATOR: Investigators, again, turned to Dr. Murray for help. I got a call that said, today, we're
00:37:35
going to get him out of jail, and he's going to show us where, in his backyard, he buried the remains.
00:37:42
NARRATOR: It's a warm morning when the detectives pull up to Hobart's house. Forensic anthropologist, Dr. Elizabeth Murray,
00:37:49
is ready to do her part. You hear these things about this monster, I didn't expect to pull up to a house
00:37:56
with a white picket fence. And I know that he lived there with his wife and his two kids, that really kind of blew my mind,
00:38:02
I have to say. NARRATOR: Police lead Hobart around the yard as he tries to remember exactly where he buried
00:38:08
the rest of Carrie's body. And then he looks up to the sky, and he was handcuffed in the front.
00:38:14
And he said, Dear Lord, let this be the spot where I put her. NARRATOR: The detectives get ready to start
00:38:21
digging around the area. But Dr. Murray stops them. I said let's not waste our energy here.
00:38:28
I think that we could probably narrow down the exact location. And I remember thinking to myself,
00:38:34
they probably think that, you know, I'm goofy. But I knew Locard's principle. It's a principle of forensic science that says,
00:38:44
there's always evidence left behind, always. NARRATOR: Dr. Murray gets down on her hands and knees
00:38:49
to closely examine the soil surface because she knows the ground holds the evidence she's looking for,
00:38:56
a specific area of disturbed soil where the grave might be. It's very easy to feel on my hands and knees,
00:39:02
smooth as glass, bumpity, bumpity, bumpity, smooth as glass again. And I said, let's start here.
00:39:11
And they hit upon a little crest of something brown sticking out of the soil. And I said, stop, stop.
00:39:19
That's her. NARRATOR: Slowly, the small crest is exposed. Could this be Carrie? The prosecutor looked at me and he said, uh,
00:39:28
are you sure that's not a root? And I said, no, that's her. NARRATOR: Working with extreme care,
00:39:33
Dr. Murray begins to systematically excavate the remains. To be able to carve those remains out of the soil
00:39:42
and find a truncated neck and no skull present was certainly consistent with this being our victim,
00:39:50
Carrie. NARRATOR: After two long years, the rest of Carrie Erickson's remains have been found.
00:39:57
I have to say, I was very proud of that moment. I did not feel like I was disturbing her.
00:40:02
I felt like I was resurrecting her remains from a place where they should have never been to begin with.
00:40:10
NARRATOR: Detectives agree that, without Dr. Murray's expertise, locating the body and properly excavating the skeleton
00:40:17
would have been an extremely difficult task. We searched that field at least three times,
00:40:23
maybe four times. If Dr. Murray wasn't there, I'm sure it would have took quite a long time to find the remains.
00:40:30
NARRATOR: With all the evidence finally in hand, investigators can now put forward
00:40:35
their theory as to what happened in the last grim hours of Carrie's life. It's March 14th, 1993.
00:40:50
Danny Hobart gets in his car and drives to the street where Carrie Erickson is working as a prostitute.
00:40:56
He went looking for a victim, found Carrie, walking her normal street, offered her some money.
00:41:04
CARRIE ERICKSON: Hey, handsome, you want to know something? DAVID STEINBRUNNER: Then he drove her to our park.
00:41:11
They walked back into the wooded clearing. NARRATOR: Then, as she leads him deeper into the park,
00:41:16
Danny Hobart grabs her from behind. He quickly wraps a garrote or similar weapon tightly around her neck.
00:41:24
Almost immediately, it cuts off her airway, preventing oxygen from getting to her lungs
00:41:30
and into her blood stream. Within minutes, vital organs begin to shut down, and Carrie dies.
00:41:38
He may have panicked, severed the head from the torso. NARRATOR: This strike also crushes the first few vertebrae
00:41:46
in Carrie's neck. I think the reason he cut the head from the body was an attempt to thwart, or at least
00:41:52
delay, the identification. NARRATOR: Hobart leaves Carrie's skull in the woods and throws her body in the trunk.
00:42:01
He then drives to his home and buries her headless torso in his backyard, where she stays until Dr. Murray
00:42:08
excavates her two years later. He would have killed and killed until he got caught.
00:42:13
That's exactly what he would have done. NARRATOR: Danny Hobart is sentenced to a total of 25 to 56 years.
00:42:24
It is unlikely he will ever see the outside of a prison again. Police are grateful for Dr. Murray's contributions
00:42:33
to this long and difficult investigation. Her expertise she bought was invaluable to the case.
00:42:39
DAVID STEINBRUNNER: Dr. Murray was definitely Carrie's angel, her eyes, her ears,
00:42:44
her voice, so to speak. She spoke for Carrie. NARRATOR: The team that worked on the case
00:42:48
for so long has a sense of satisfaction, knowing they finally helped secure justice for Carrie.
00:42:55
DAVID STEINBRUNNER: Some people would say that the prostitute's life isn't worth anything.
00:43:00
The fact is that she was somebody's daughter, somebody's sister. She deserved every bit to live just like you do and I do.
00:43:09
NARRATOR: But most importantly, Dr. Murray takes comfort in knowing that she helped bring a measure of peace
00:43:14
to Carrie's family. I can't imagine the pain of her family losing a daughter, a sister.
00:43:22
My work is what I have to offer them, giving the best information I can help to bring this case to justice.