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[Music] For more than a year, angry, hateful letters were sent to a first grade school teacher in a small mountain
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village in Pennsylvania. Many were sexual in nature. Some threatened violence. When scientists analyzed the letters,
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they found evidence that the stalker knew a lot about the victim, more than anyone could possibly imagine.
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[Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] In 1993, some hate mail began to arrive at the
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Cool Ball Learning Center, a public elementary school in the Pocono Mountains in Eastern Pennsylvania.
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The letters were unsigned and sent to the principal making serious allegations against a first grade reading teacher,
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Joanne Chambers. She had been teaching in the school district for the past 8 years.
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>> Chambers brought pot into school and then showed it in the faculty room just
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like it was a big joke. >> I thought it was just somebody a disgruntled employee. I
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just wanted to know who it was and I thought it was a thing that you could, you know, sit down with that person,
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talk it out and fix it. >> Soon, letters were sent to Joanne Chambers herself at both home and at
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school. >> I can get you in one try. No one will ever prove it. They may not think so,
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but I'm smarter than all of you. You stupid [ __ ] >> Joanne Chambers was popular with
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students and was an unlikely target of a hate campaign. She was married with a 10-year-old son and had no known
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enemies. >> I can speak with uh assurance about Joannne's teaching abilities. Uh she's
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highly recommended by uh other teachers in the district. Uh she was also highly respected by parents. Uh she was an
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outstanding teacher. All her recommendations show that. >> It appeared that someone had a grudge
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against her. >> Look in Chambers's desk. She seems to like Jack Daniels.
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Chambers found the whiskey bottle in her desk drawer and said personal items were
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missing. >> There were things missing from my drawers. The picture of my child and
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myself and my friend and her daughter was taken from my desk. >> The police suspected that a fellow
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teacher or school employee was sending the letters since they often alluded to activities going on inside the school.
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One of the letters contained an interesting clue. It was a snide reference to the school superintendent
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as Colonel Clink, a character in the Hogan's Heroes television series. A teacher in the school was once overheard
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referring to the superintendent in this way. Her name was Paula Noraki. Like Joanne Chambers, Noraki also taught
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first grade and had worked in the school district for 18 years. >> I was totally surprised. I was positive
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that it wasn't anybody in the building that it could be explained in some other
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way. >> The letters continued, but soon there were other incidents. The first was
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something Joanne Chambers found under her desk. I went to start my lesson with my children and sat down in a chair and
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had a dress on and put my hand underneath to straighten the dress out and I was covered with feces
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and I couldn't even tell you what I felt like. I felt sick to my stomach. I felt
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horing. It was like this could not happen. Just a few days later, a hidden camera
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captured several teachers entering Joanne Chambers vacant classroom. One removed Chambers coffee cup from her
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desk. It was Paula Naraki. The photograph of Joanne Chambers, stolen from her desk, was pasted onto a
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nude picture, photocopied and distributed throughout the schoolyard, mailed to parents' homes, and a copy was
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taped to the door of a local store. >> There were phone calls to parents saying
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that I was a lesbian, that um I had AIDS, that you know, that I shouldn't be
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teaching their children. The FBI suggested that Joanne Chambers be given a lie detector test to validate her
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various claims. Paul and Noraki also volunteered to take a lie detector test, hoping to clear her name after
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suspicions arose from the Colonel Clink reference and the coffee cup incident. One of the two failed on the most
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crucial question of all. [Music] After 10 months of threatening letters, x-rated pictures, and hidden video
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surveillance, police believe they had a break in the stalking case. Joanne Chambers and Paul and Iraqi both
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took lie detector tests about their knowledge of the threatening letters. Each was asked whether they were
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involved in making or sending any of the harassing letters. One passed, the other failed.
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>> I was told that I failed my polygraph. >> Paula Noraki became the primary suspect.
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>> I was very upset. I I couldn't believe that it was making things worse instead
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of better. Noraki said she was videotaped taking Joanne Chambers coffee cup because Chambers had asked Paula to
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get it for her. The surveillance video tape shows that Joanne Chambers and Paula Noraki were both in the classroom
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and left together just moments before Paula returned for the coffee cup. Police asked Noraki if they could search
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her home and once again she voluntarily complied. They took with them an old typewriter that we had. They took um
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different kinds of paper and different envelopes. The analysis of Naraki's typewriter revealed that it was not the
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one used to type the threatening letters. The paper and envelopes from Narra's home did not match those used in
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the threatening letters either. Noraki's reputation as a by the book teacher and
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strict disciplinarian was in sharp contrast to Joanne Chambers's loose and funloving classroom style. The way the
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police saw it, Paula was jealous of Joanne Chambers unconventional teaching style and the popularity that she gained
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from that style. Uh Paul Naraki was more of a buy the book conservative teacher who favored traditional teaching methods
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whereas Joanne Chambers would show up in the classroom wearing jeans and a Mickey
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Mouse t-shirt and she would do things like stage water fights with the school administrators which uh the police
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believe angered Paul Iraqi. >> As the investigation continued, so did the threatening letters.
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>> Letters went out to parents to parents saying that I was molesting their
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children. I thought my career was gone. I thought I was going to be in jail. I thought I didn't know what was going to
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happen. >> By the fall of 1994, the letters included death threats. >> You die.
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>> For her own protection, Joanne Chambers was transferred to another school.
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Shortly after her transfer, a box in pink wrapping paper was found at the front door of the school.
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Inside was a Barbie doll. The throat slashed with the razor blade and covered with paint the color of blood. The dress
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was identical to one often worn by Joanne Chambers. The hair was cut and styled like Chambers as well.
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>> I said goodbye to my husband. Like I wanted him to remember me saying goodbye. I
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lived every day thinking that it was truly possible that it could be my last. >> In November of 1994,
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Chambers said a car tried to run her off the highway. She said she saw the face of the driver.
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>> I go off the road. I pull over. I look, she's looking right at me. I will never
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forget that look. Never. I will never forget it. She looked right at me. >> She said the face she saw was a face she
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knew. [Music] [Applause] When Joanne Chambers called police to report that a car forced her off the
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highway, she said she recognized the face of the other driver. >> I saw her. She looked at me.
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I know that Paul Rocki was driving that car. >> Paula Norraki denied the allegation, but
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was arrested and charged with harassment, stalking, simple and aggravated assault, making terroristic
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threats, and recklessly endangering the life of Joanne Chambers. Over 100 counts
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in all, >> I was finding out that I was charged with many, many horrendous things I had
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never heard about before. The school district suspended her from her teaching position with pay. If convicted, she
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could serve 5 years in jail. After Noraki's arrest, the letters, threats, and mailings stopped. Noraki maintained
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her innocence and hired both an attorney and private investigator to help. The investigator was a former state
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policeman, and even he admitted that Paula's situation did not look good. My
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first thought was, well, she's probably guilty. It it just looked overwhelming
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when you looked at the at at the whole complaint. >> The FBI found some partial fingerprints
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on the threatening letters, but they did not match Paula or Rocky's. The defense
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team wanted to see if any DNA was present on the threatening letters. The prosecutor would allow DNA testing by
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the defense only if the results were fully disclosed, regardless of the outcome. Paula's defense team wanted to
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make sure she understood the ramifications of such an agreement. >> He asked, "Would there be any possible
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reason that any of my DNA should be on any of it, any possibility whatsoever?"
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And I I said, "No, >> Paula, if we do this testing and your DNA is found on these stamps or or
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envelope flaps, your chances you're going to jail." >> The cost of the DNA testing,
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approximately $7,000, would have to be paid by Paula Noraki. Blood samples from both Paula and her husband were sent to
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a local DNA lab along with the threatening letters and the envelopes. The amount of DNA that would wind up on
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the back of a stamp or an envelope flap depends on how hard you lick the envelope, how much cells that you shed
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from the inside of your mouth. They're variables that it's hard to predict
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exactly what the value would be, but it is there. In some cases, there's more
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DNA than others. >> First, scientists use steam to gently remove the stamps from the envelopes.
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The back of each stamp and envelope flap was swabbed for epithelial cells which come from saliva.
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DNA was found on the back of one set of stamps and on one envelope flap. The number of cells recovered was so small
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that forensic scientists performed a process called polymerase chain reaction or PCR which amplifies or copies the DNA
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in those few cells to make enough for testing. >> What we're looking for to see is how
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does um this DNA that we've extracted compared to somebody else's DNA. Now, if
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the DNA is from a similar source, you'll get the same pattern of blue dots on a
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white strip. >> This is the genetic profile of the individual who licked the stamps. When
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the DNA profile of Paula Rocki and her husband were compared to the DNA from the back of the stamps,
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there was no match. >> For example, Paula Rocki has two dots here and um the DNA from the back of the
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post stamp only has one. So therefore, right away we can exclude Paul and Iraqi with just this one genetic marker. We
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looked at five different genetic markers and four out of five can exclude Paula Iraqi.
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>> DNA was found and it did not match Paula and it did not match Len Moraki
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which meant that someone licked that those stamps and it wasn't Leonard Paul.
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>> We thought it was going to blow apart the whole case. We thought we thought we
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were done. >> Now armed with the DNA profile of the stalker, the manhunt had just begun.
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[Music] When DNA testing of the stamps and envelope flap did not match Paul Rocky
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or her husband, the defense team went one step further. They wanted to find the individual whose DNA was on the
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threatening letters. >> If Paula didn't do it, there's only one other person that could have done it
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because there's only one other person that knew the circumstances of all these
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letters that knew everything that was going on. That was Joan Chambers. >> Was it possible that the alleged victim
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wrote the threatening letters and mailed them to herself? The defense uncovered some information
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which pointed in that very direction. Police in the neighboring town of Carbondale, Pennsylvania, told defense
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investigators that Chambers had a history of reporting suspicious incidents from burglaries to fires.
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>> They said every crime that she's been a victim of is has some weirdness attached
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to it. and just off the top of their heads, they started relating different uh crimes that supposedly she's been a
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victim of. When Anderson researched Chambers employment history, he learned that Chambers reported similar
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threatening letters and also reported finding feces on her classroom chair while in another school district years
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earlier. To find out if it was Joanne Chambers DNA on the threatening letters, Jim Anderson needed her DNA profile. For
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that, he looked in her trash. Once trash is placed at the curbside, the owner gives up all legal rights to what's
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inside. >> One plastic drinking straw, one used looks like toilet tissue. Plastic
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straws, used tissues, and a cotton swab with ear wax. All items with possible genetic material were sent to the DNA
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lab for testing. Dr. Liken Walner identified two different DNA profiles from the mucus, saliva, and ear wax
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samples from the chamber's trash. >> The DNA from the uh one of the household
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members was similar to the uh DNA on the back of the stamps in the envelope. With
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these DNA results, the defense team demanded that all charges against Paul and Oraki be dropped. The prosecution
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refused and Joanne Chambers provided a blood sample for further DNA testing. Once again, Joanne Chambers blood DNA
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matched the DNA from the stamps and the envelope flap. You can see how all five genetic markers line up perfectly
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between the DNA of Joanne Chambers and the DNA from the back of the postage stamps. The odds of someone in the
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random US population having the same combination of five genotypes tested was 1 in4,925.
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>> The match was fairly significant in that, you know, that's a small community
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there. So, it's unlikely that too many people are going to be walking around
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with a similar DNA pattern. >> Despite this second DNA test, the prosecution refused once again to drop
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their case against Paul and Iraqi. During the trial, the prosecution presented the circumstantial evidence
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against Paula Norraki, including the coffee cup incident and the Colonel Clink reference in one of the
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threatening letters. For the defense, teachers from Joanne Chambers former school district testified that she made
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similar claims of harassment years earlier. But it was the DNA evidence that stunned most courtroom observers.
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The DNA was definitely a bombshell. Um, to hear that uh Joanne Chambers saliva was found on the stamps of one of the
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the threatening letters and the flap of another envelope. It was just unbelievable.
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>> But on the witness stand under oath, Joanne Chambers had an explanation. She
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said the prosecutor left her alone with the evidence and the stamps fell off one
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of the envelopes. She said she licked the stamps to reattach them and when that didn't work, used a glue stick.
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>> At the very least, she showed poor judgment and at the most she tampered
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with uh important evidence. >> Dr. Liken Walner testified that she saw no glue stick residue on the stamps when
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she removed them for DNA testing. As a lifelong stamp collector, she has experience distinguishing glue stick
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residue from regular stamp adhesive. >> I know gum from knowing stamps, and it
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would looked to me just like the gum on recent US stamps, and it's smooth and
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glistening, and it looked just like that. There was no outward evidence that a glue stick had been used.
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>> The trial lasted 5 days, and it took the jury less than 2 hours to reach a
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verdict. They found Paula Nor Rocky not guilty. >> Reaction after the verdict was the most
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amazing thing I've ever seen. The alleged victim was being treated as the defendant and the defendant was being
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treated as the victim. In the hallway, jurors sought out Paulie and hugged her and told her how much they loved her
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while Joanne Chambers left the courthouse uh virtually ignored. Joanne Chambers denies that she created the
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campaign of threats against her. >> I could never ever do this stuff to myself. I don't think that I could be
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functioning in a world as a parent, as a teacher, as a wife. If I were that sick to do that to
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myself, >> I think Joanne Chambers did it herself. Yes. I think she sent the Barbie doll. I
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think uh this was all a stage for Joanne. >> I hope the lesson that people could
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learn from this is that you really are supposed to be innocent until proven guilty and you aren't supposed to be
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guilty until proven innocent. >> I've never seen anything like this. And
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if I cover cases for another 40 years, I think I'll give you that same answer
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still. [Music] No, [Music] one Heat. Heat. [Music] [Applause] [Music]