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I'm Nancy Grace. And this is "Bloodline Detectives." You've heard the phrase, it takes
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a village to raise a child. I like to think it takes a community to solve a crime.
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When cases are tough, evidence is scarce, and there just doesn't seem to be a path toward closure,
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it can be easy to give up unless the community cares. That's the way it was in Ozaukee County, Wisconsin.
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Murders were not common here. When an 18-year-old girl is killed on a cold night in December 1984, people are scared.
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But it doesn't mean they look the other way, not then, and not for more than three decades
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when finally, their determination and the new forensic science of the bloodline detectives
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close a case that the community could not forget. December 1984, a resident of Ozaukee County, Wisconsin,
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makes a gruesome discovery in their own driveway. It's the dead body of a woman.
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BRYAN POLCYN: She is laying in the snow. Her clothes are mostly off. Her head is bloodied.
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There's blood spattered in the snow and on the trees. NANCY GRACE: The victim, it emerges, has been to a party.
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BRYAN POLCYN: Where she went after that and how she ended up in the driveway she did was the 35-year mystery.
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NANCY GRACE: Her murder sends shockwaves throughout the county. TARA KELLY: There was a severe fear among the community.
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And they wanted to know that this person wasn't walking the streets. NANCY GRACE: A major investigation
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is launched with hundreds of suspects eliminated. BRYAN POLCYN: M They had a lot of possible suspects.
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But one by one, blood typing alone was able to eliminate most of them. NANCY GRACE: In 2019, detectives,
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determined to find the killer, turn to a new groundbreaking DNA method. This is the story of Traci Hammerberg,
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her random and brutal killing, how the perpetrator evaded detection for decades, and how his identity
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was eventually uncovered by the bloodline detectives. JEFF TAYLOR: We were invested in this case from day one.
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And we're not going to let it go. [MUSIC PLAYING] NANCY GRACE: On December 15, 1984, Ozaukee County,
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Wisconsin sheriffs get an emergency call. JAMES JOHNSON: There was a resident on Maple Road
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in the town of Grafton that was on his way to get his early morning newspaper. And he came across the body of a young girl.
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BRYAN POLCYN: She is laying in the snow. Her clothes are mostly off. Her head is bloodied.
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There's blood spattered in the snow and on the trees. So he returned back to the home
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and then called the sheriff's office and notified us. After that, he went back and stayed with the body
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until the sheriff's office could arrive. NANCY GRACE: When police arrive at the scene,
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it's unclear if the young woman is still alive. But it is immediately apparent she has
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suffered a ferocious assault. JAMES JOHNSON: There was some talk by the resident who found her that he
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thought he heard breathing. So they did contact rescue and rescue attempts were made.
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But she was found to be dead. TARA KELLY: The victim was lying on her back, and her arms and legs were spread to the sides.
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And she was half naked from the waist down, apart from her socks, which had been partially removed.
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Her jacket, scarf, and sweater had been pulled up over her head, exposing her chest and breasts.
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SCOTT HELLER: She had blows to the right side of her skull. I mean, it was brutal.
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It was-- it was-- it was horrible. FREDERICK MEULLER: And I froze the scene and I called for help--
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other investigators and the state crime lab. NANCY GRACE: Backup teams and forensics arrive
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and start processing the scene. They are quick to find what appears to be evidence.
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JAMES JOHNSON: They located tire impressions in the snow. There was a fresh snowfall that occurred over the evening.
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And there was also blood splatters in the snow as well as in the trees. TARA KELLY: Police noticed that there was a packet of Marlboro
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cigarettes inches away from the victim. And that was bagged for evidence. She had a men's sapphire high school ring on her hand.
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And on one side, it said Bowdoin High 1983. And on the other, it said Glen '83. And her clothing had been thrown near her head.
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Her jeans, her shoes were all recovered at the scene. There's no murder weapon. There's nothing left behind to say this is what was used.
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But it was clear she was beaten, brutally to death. TARA KELLY: Her hands were bagged
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to preserve any evidence. And then her body was placed onto a bed sheet. And then it was taken on to the morgue.
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NANCY GRACE: Detectives attend the autopsy, which is conducted at 6 o'clock the same evening.
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TARA KELLY: The victim had reddish brown hair. She was about 5 foot 6, and she had an identifiable tattoo
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on her arm. She had numerous fractures to her skull that were overlapping. And whatever she had been hit with,
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it had been a rounded object. BRYAN POLCYN: It was a bludgeoning with what kind of tool-- police either
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didn't know or wouldn't say. It was some sort of a metal object. Could have been a tire iron.
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Could have been something else, but it was-- it was a metal object. TARA KELLY: She had severe bruising on her chest
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that was below her collarbone and consistent with a footprint, suggesting someone had stood on her.
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JAMES JOHNSON: The cause of death for autopsy was blunt trauma. But there was also petechiae, which
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would be indicative of manual strangulation. She had been sexually assaulted, raped, strangled.
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She had been bludgeoned to death. NANCY GRACE: Investigators do not have long to wait
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before the victims identified. The murder is covered on the local news. JEFF TAYLOR: Her parents did not report
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her missing to the police. She kind of had a lifestyle which she would come and go freely from-- from home.
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BRYAN POLCYN: Her half sister said she learned about it on the news. They saw a breaking-news cut in to "The Muppet
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Movie" that was on television and heard that this body had been found. And she said her mother immediately said, that's Traci.
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TARA KELLY: Judy Luebka phoned the police and said that her daughter had not come home.
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And she had heard on the news that a girl had been found. Said that her daughter had red dyed hair and a heart tattoo
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with a blue arrow through it and that she also had a ring on her that had been given to her by her boyfriend.
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She said her daughter was Traci Hammerberg and she was 18 years old. So officers immediately knew that this was the victim
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who had been discovered. NANCY GRACE: So who is Traci Hammerberg, and why would anyone want to kill her?
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It appears that Traci was no stranger to risk in her life. BRYAN POLCYN: She certainly didn't seem afraid to hang out
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with people who are dangerous and associated with people who are known to law enforcement and maybe had
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had some issues of their own, whether it was as juveniles or as young adults. They got in trouble themselves.
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They have their own issues. So the focus I think originally was with them. How She ended up in the driveway she
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did was the 35-year mystery. Years will go by. Detectives will change. The case will go cold.
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It is sad that time heals all wounds. But when it comes to science, time can be an ally, the time needed for new forensic science
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to finally bring closure to a decades old murder. In December 1984, the body of a young woman
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is found by a resident of Ozaukee County, Wisconsin. She's been beaten to death following
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a violent sexual assault. The victim is identified as 18-year-old Traci Hammerberg.
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Traci was a high school student who was friendly, well-liked, popular, seemed to have
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a lot of circles of friends. Traci lives at home with her younger half sister, and
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her mother, and her stepfather. She had a harder life than most for her age. But she liked the-- the same things a lot of us liked.
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She liked to go out and be with her friends and party and have a good time. And I think she was just a typical 18-year-old girl.
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JAMES JOHNSON: She liked to have fun, she drank, and she smoked some marijuana, which was probably
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quite common to the group of-- of people that she had associated with. NANCY GRACE: Traci's already known to police.
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TARA KELLY: Traci had a history of being a runaway. And she had been in and out of the house for some time.
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Traci had told friends that she had had a problem with her stepfather and that he had been making unwanted advances towards her.
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And this explained why she was running away from home so often. She had some difficulties when she was younger.
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She had finally gone on to the right path. She was going to move out of state and move
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with her boyfriend in North Dakota. But that was stopped by her killer. NANCY GRACE: It's unclear to investigators
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if Traci was killed where her body was found or whether the body had been placed there.
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But given the location, it's likely the killer knows the area. FREDERICK MEULLER: The place where she was found
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has not really known by too many people. That road is very isolated, you know. And especially the driveway is even more isolated.
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NANCY GRACE: As investigators gather more information, they began to piece together Traci's movements in the hours
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before her death. TARA KELLY: On Friday, December 14, Traci had been babysitting for a woman called Helen Michaels
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from about 7:20 to 9:45 PM. Traci had left the house. But before she did, she had a conversation with Helen,
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and she agreed to come back and babysit the next morning at 7:30. NANCY GRACE: After babysitting, Traci
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meets some of her friends. They go to a house on Garfield Road in the nearby town
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of Port Washington. JAMES JOHNSON: There, they played a drinking game called quarters and sort of hung out
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and smoked a little marijuana. TARA KELLY: Her friends then said, hey, why don't I give you a lift?
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But she declined. And instead, she left about 12:30 on foot. NANCY GRACE: Detectives are unclear about what
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happens next. BRYAN POLCYN: One of the biggest mysteries was, what happened when she left the house?
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Did she get a ride? Did she go this way? Did she go that way? There were a number of different stories
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that police were getting from the people at that party. The most reliable account they had
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was that Traci had walked home, or at least began to walk home from Port Washington to Saukville.
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If you look at the pictures from the crime scene, there's snow on the ground. It's December.
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It's cold. On a four-mile walk in the snow, it wouldn't have been unusual for Traci to have hitched a ride.
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JAMES JOHNSON: It was common for many people to hitchhike. My theory was that someone picked
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Traci up, took her to go party, maybe drink some more beer. And made advances towards her.
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She denied those advances. And then, the person killed her. NANCY GRACE: From witness accounts and interviews,
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police now begin to collate a list of suspects. TARA KELLY: Through speaking to friends and family,
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police figured out that Traci smoked menthol cigarettes. So the cigarettes that were found at the crime scene
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had likely belonged to the killer. SCOTT HELLER: There was a great focus on the party, the house
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that she was last seen. But after those people were eliminated, you just had to widen the circle.
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You know, who did she know? Who hung out with her? Who else might she have encountered that--
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that morning when she left? She seemed to be the kind of person that gave investigators
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a rich list of potential suspects, because of the people she associated with. NANCY GRACE: The circle of Traci's associates
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is very wide. SCOTT HELLER: She moved freely in all those groups. She was able to move about.
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And that caused problems really for the investigation, because it wasn't just one group we could focus on.
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We had to-- we had to focus on numerous groups. JAMES JOHNSON: We took a look at different circles of friends
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that Traci had, people she went to school with, people she hung out with, people in her neighborhood,
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people that are associated with other family members, other friends. We knew what had to be somebody that knew Traci.
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And somebody had to be familiar with the area where she was killed. Investigators pursued hundreds of suspects and witnesses.
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They looked at every different type of tip and lead. They used lots of different theories
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and different techniques to try and figure out who might have done this. But they were never successful.
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NANCY GRACE: Detectives are extremely concerned. Murders are incredibly rare in Ozaukee County.
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BRYAN POLCYN: In 1984, violent crime like this was virtually unheard of in Port Washington.
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This wasn't just a murder. This was a high school student. And so it was the buzz of the community.
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JAMES JOHNSON: Any time there's a homicide of a young girl and the killer is not known, there always
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is that apprehension in the community that the killer may strike again. NANCY GRACE: Then, horror does strike again.
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Another young woman, a friend of Traci's is discovered murdered. TARA KELLY: In July 1985, just six months after Traci had been
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brutally killed, a friend of hers, 18-year-old Wendy Smith, had been found beaten, raped, and murdered.
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She had been with friends, left their house, and was going to meet her mother who worked at a tavern.
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However, she never turned up. And 24 hours later, they found her body on top of a hillside.
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BRYAN POLCYN: Certainly for young women in the community, It was terrifying. Two young women had died.
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Was there a serial killer? They didn't know. And I think a lot of people were concerned who might be next.
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Just not knowing what-- what happened or who did that, who would do that, there was fear.
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There was concern. That's what would have made this all the more shocking. In close-knit, small communities, this kind of thing
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doesn't happen. The Ozaukee Sheriff's department and the Port Washington police, where Wendy's body was found
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started working together. They thought maybe there might be some links to these two murders.
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They shared acquaintances and friends, so obviously, police were thinking maybe it was someone who both of the girls had known.
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NANCY GRACE: Detectives try to develop a lead on a suspect using the assistance of the FBI.
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JAMES JOHNSON: There was an FBI profile made on the likely suspect. Part of the profile would-- would show that Traci most
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likely knew who her killer was. There were looking for a loner, someone who operated
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on the fringes of groups of friends who didn't have close friends, someone who was prone to violence.
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Somebody who had been involved in crimes, but not to the extent where they would appear on our radar.
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TARA KELLY: Investigators were able to determine that forensics did not match from the two different crimes.
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And they were able to show that these had been committed by two separate people.
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NANCY GRACE: Detectives send evidence collected from autopsy for testing. And from the analysis are able to eliminate suspects.
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TARA KELLY: The laboratory examined the vaginal swabs from the autopsy. And they discovered that semen was present.
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Further analysis was done. And they found that the individual had O blood type and two identifiable enzymes,
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one of which is only found in 3% of the US population. NANCY GRACE: By today's standards,
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this is fairly primitive information. BRYAN POLCYN: 1984, you didn't have the kind of DNA-matching technology we have now.
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They were able to test blood type. And that blood analysis could eliminate about 98%
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of the population. Old boyfriends, friends that people gave us tips on-- we would ask them to volunteer for a blood sample.
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And then, that blood was transferred over to the state crime lab for analysis. Sometimes, it would take weeks.
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There was also a back up at the crime lab. And sometimes, a month to get results back.
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They had a lot of possible suspects. But one by one, blood typing alone was able to eliminate most of them.
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We never had a match. And we did a lot of people. I-- I lost count. NANCY GRACE: Even though investigators
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exhaust every possibility, the killer continues to evade detection. And the case eventually goes cold.
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I know it was on the minds of people in Port Washington and never left their minds.
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People have always wanted to know, are we ever going to find out who killed Traci?
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We were invested in this case from day one. And we're not going to let it go sit on a shelf somewhere.
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We were going to continue to work this case until we solved it, or until there was
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no other rocks to turn over. And as we'll see next, the bloodline detectives will use every new forensic weapon they can,
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weapons that didn't exist to police who were first confronted with Traci Hammerberg's bloody murder.
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For three decades, Ozaukee County, Wisconsin police investigate the murder of 18-year-old Traci
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Hammerberg. Her body found beaten, sexually assaulted, and strangled in December 1984.
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The case runs up against a brick wall and goes cold. But detectives are not willing to let go.
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TARA KELLY: All the police officer who worked on this were really trying to solve this case.
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I mean, this was a woman who had been brutally murdered. And they wanted to bring her killer to justice.
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BRYAN POLCYN: The term "cold case" suggests it sat in a file somewhere and no one was working it,
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and they got a break years later or a tip. But if you look at the file, you see that over the years,
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they continued to work this methodically year after year after year, even through changes in personnel, people who
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retired, new people came in. It's remarkable the consistency they showed after all these years.
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NANCY GRACE: Investigators are also determined to keep the case in the public mind.
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BRYAN POLCYN: About 10 years ago, I got a phone call from Jeff Taylor at the Ozaukee County Sheriff's Office who
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said, we've got this cold case. And we'd really like to get some attention. Would you be willing to do a story on this case
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and help us maybe generate some leads? They opened up the metal cabinets, pulled out the case files, set them down and said, have at it.
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JAMES JOHNSON: Reading through the file is almost like a novel that as you read it, you're like well, here's a suspect.
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They have the murderer. Why am I still reading this? Why isn't it solved? But then, the person is cleared through forensics.
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SCOTT HELLER: The volumes of people they talk to, any little bit of information they followed up on,
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it was evident throughout that case file. And it was emotional roller coaster, even 20-- over
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20 years after the homicide. We put together a story and hoped maybe that would lead to someone coming
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forward with information that would finally solve this cold case. And you know, for another 9, 10 years, crickets.
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We didn't hear anything. NANCY GRACE: Between Traci's murder in 1984 and the early 1990s, forensic techniques
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come a long way. DNA profiling is revolutionizing crime fighting. And the National Database, CODIS, is expanding.
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TARA KELLY: In 1995, the state crime laboratory was able to create the first DNA profile.
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And that profile was uploaded onto CODIS. Unfortunately, there were no matches. We just continue to do our samples--
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to take our samples and whatever the newest evolution of DNA was, that's how we compared it.
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BRYAN POLCYN: They always wanted to have one DNA sample that they knew was off to the crime lab
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so that there was always that possibility they were going to get a match. So they'd go out and interview more people
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and get more samples just keep this case alive. And I think for nearly 35 years, they did.
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Each time we spoke with suspects or people that knew Traci, we'd ask for additional names,
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for other people that we could talk to that maybe knew Traci and maybe were on the fringes of these-- of these other friends.
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The state crime lab ran CODIS monthly for our case. We knew if we got the DNA from the suspect
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we would know who killed Traci. Because part of the evidence that-- that we didn't tell
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the general public was that in addition to the DNA from the semen that was found inside Traci's body,
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we also had the same DNA profile underneath Traci's fingernails. So it was evident to us that whoever raped Traci also killed
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Traci and that Traci had tried to defend herself by scratching her assailant. BRYAN POLCYN: More than 400 samples
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were tested, the most of any cold case in Wisconsin history, which I think demonstrates the commitment to the case.
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But as they kept striking out, you'd think at a certain point, are they gonna run out of people?
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And it wasn't until this whole new technique came along that they got the big break in the case.
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NANCY GRACE: Over 2,000 miles away in California, police announced their success in tracking down
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a notorious serial killer and rapist. TARA KELLY: April 2018, police in California
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held a news conference where they announced that they had apprehended the Golden State Killer.
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This was a man who committed over 50 rapes and at least 13 murders between 1974 and 1986.
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He had been tracked down by a new technique called forensic genealogy. And the Ozaukee Police Department
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thought maybe this was a technique they could apply to Traci Hammerberg's murder.
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There were actually a couple of us at the department who had recently done our own genealogy
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and thought if we could upload some of the DNA of our suspect into a genealogy tree, this would be fantastic.
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JAMES JOHNSON: One of our investigators was able to reach out to the FBI Forensic
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Genetic Genealogy team. We had conference calls with them and updates several times a day.
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It was-- I was impressed about their willingness to work with our team. What we know of as DNA analysis
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has often relied on the comparison between evidence and a database of criminals and their DNA profiles.
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This is now taking that genealogy DNA, the 23andMe, the ancestry.com, those consumer kits that are out there
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and comparing the evidence to that. So it's a much wider field, and it's a whole field of people
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who might never have had any other sort of law enforcement contact that would have required them to submit
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DNA to a criminal database. So it's like saying if you strike out over here, we've got a whole new field of opportunity
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for you to find a suspect in there, or at least someone who might help lead us to a suspect.
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Because it doesn't necessarily mean you're going to find the criminal in that public data.
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But you might find a relative, and a relative close enough that we can start to do traditional genealogy research
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and work our way down the family tree until we get to the suspect. For the bloodline detectives, could this incredible
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new crime-solving tool finally identify Traci Hammerberg's killer? We'll find out next.
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By early 2019, the bloodline detectives of the Ozaukee County Police Department are confident genetic genealogy can help them solve the 1984
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murder of Traci Hammerberg. Their only concern is that they may not have enough DNA
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to obtain a viable sample. BRYAN POLCYN: One of the first things they had to do--
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and this is the key to this kind of research-- is they had to go and find out if they still had raw DNA
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evidence, because whatever is in the CODIS database is not in the right format that can be compared
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to the open-source public DNA that we all might upload from our family research.
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So it's like apples and oranges. So they needed to go find the raw materials and build a geotype that could be compared to these databases.
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We didn't think we had enough. We thought we could use the entire sample. We scoured our property rooms.
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We looked in our refrigerators that hold our biological evidence and we were able to find some extracts from previous tests
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that we're able to develop the profile through. TARA KELLY: Those swabs were then shipped to a company
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in Texas called Gene by Gene. And they conducted analysis on them. On April 10, 2019 police were contacted by Gene by Gene, Ltd.
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And told that they were able to create a profile based on the swabs they had been sent.
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Once that was found, they were able to get that to the FBI, and it was able to get uploaded into a database
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that we could work with. NANCY GRACE: Initially, the search comes up with numerous hits.
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SCOTT HELLER: That profile gets submitted to the genealogy databases. From there, we get a list of people
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who share DNA with our suspect. TARA KELLY: Those relatives were in the second to fourth cousin
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range. So this was obviously huge, because they now had a family that they could identify.
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But it still involved going through hundreds of different people to identify who the suspect was.
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JEFF TAYLOR: It's like any genealogy database. They get thousands of names back with you know,
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this person is a closer relative than that person. So yeah, we had a lot to look at.
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From there, we just-- they told us how to build trees. We built-- we used the tools and the database.
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And we did it for 10 to 12 hours a day for probably two weeks. JAMES JOHNSON: We had to build back for generations.
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And then, we had to build back down to present day. And we were looking for males that
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would have been between the ages of 16 and 60 in 1984. I believe in the end, we had upwards of nearly 1,000 names
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that we had in our trees. NANCY GRACE: After all their hard work, investigators fear they have reached another dead end.
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JEFF TAYLOR: We had actually been kind of frustrated, because we had been working
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on it for quite a while. We had been building the family trees. And it just did not seem like we were getting any closer.
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And one of the FBI agents actually kind of took a second look and said, you know what.
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I think we're missing something. And went back and identified another potential tree that we
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started to build off of. And we were able to develop our suspect based on that. We're looking for someone--
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someone that had ties to our community. We started working in March of 2019. And finally came to two brothers that were from the area
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in September of 2019. NANCY GRACE: Almost 35 years after Traci Hammerberg is murdered, police finally close in on her killer.
00:30:14
TARA KELLY: The two brothers were identified as Eugene and Philip Cross. The Cross brothers had lived in the area of Port Washington
00:30:23
and Saukville in the '80s. NANCY GRACE: One of the Cross brothers is alive. The other dead.
00:30:30
To detectives, Philip Cross appears to be the most likely suspect. BRYAN POLCYN: Philip Cross was a loner.
00:30:38
He didn't have a lot of friends. And for all the suspects they had, Philip Cross was never on their radar.
00:30:46
Once we looked at his criminal history for our department, we said, you know, this is our guy.
00:30:50
It has to be our guy. Then we found out that he was-- he died of an overdose in 2012.
00:30:59
TARA KELLY: On August 21, 2012 Philip died of a drug overdose at the Diamond Inn in Milwaukee.
00:31:07
And because of that, there was an autopsy available. And that meant there was DNA from the /
00:31:14
I went down to the medical examiner's office, collected that card, and took it to the state crime lab, who
00:31:19
confirmed that that was the same DNA from the semen in Traci and the DNA taken from beneath her fingernails.
00:31:32
NANCY GRACE: Police now know for sure they've identified the killer. But why did he do it?
00:31:38
And how did he come to attack and murder Traci? JAMES JOHNSON: Philip Cross was a young man that had
00:31:45
a lot of trouble in his past. He was a good looking fellow, but he was a loner. He had a violent temper.
00:31:51
When things didn't go his way, he acted out violently. He was kind of the outcast that didn't seem that he really
00:32:00
along to any one social group. A lot of people knew of him. Not many would call him a friend.
00:32:08
Police learnt from talking to different witnesses that Cross had smoked Marlboro Reds, which of course,
00:32:14
tied in with the crime scene. Philip Cross had attended Port Washington High School.
00:32:19
He was a few years older than Traci. We found out that he did ride the same bus to middle school
00:32:24
with-- with Traci. NANCY GRACE: Police also discover Cross had numerous interactions with law enforcement.
00:32:33
TARA KELLY: Philip had quite a reputation from a young age. He was incarcerated a number of times.
00:32:39
He had stolen cars. He had called the bomb threat to his school. He was done for drugs.
00:32:45
He was convicted of a forgery charge and sent to prison in 1983 and was released from prison in 1984.
00:32:53
And came back to the community. At the time of the homicide, he was working at a factory.
00:32:58
He had a very volatile temper. His colleagues said, if things didn't go his way he would very much lash out.
00:33:04
So this was someone you didn't really want to cross. If his sexual advances were spurned,
00:33:09
he's the kind of guy who would have turned violent. At sometime after the murder of Traci Hammerberg,
00:33:14
there was a female who had told Sheboygan Police Department that he had been in a car with her.
00:33:20
And when she spurned his advances, he put a belt around her neck and attempted to strangle her.
00:33:29
JAMES JOHNSON: He said that if it wasn't for her getting away, she's sure that he would have killed her.
00:33:34
Police interviewed him about that. And he gave a different account and nothing came of it.
00:33:38
But there was sort of a signal out there that this is a guy who is prone to be violent with women.
00:33:47
It really struck me in doing the story that there were all these times that he was in custody after 1984,
00:33:53
and no one knew they had Traci Hammerberg's killer. They couldn't have known, because the crimes he committed
00:33:58
didn't require the submission of DNA. If they had, then, this would have been solved a long time ago.
00:34:07
NANCY GRACE: Finally, after 3 and 1/2 decades, the bloodline detectives are able to piece together
00:34:13
the events of the night Traci was murdered and catch her killer. It's 2019. Police in Ozaukee County, Wisconsin investigating
00:34:31
the 1984 rape and murder of 18-year-old Traci Hammerberg have identified her killer, Philip Cross using
00:34:40
revolutionary DNA techniques. It took 35 years, but investigators could finally understand how that fateful night played out.
00:34:51
JAMES JOHNSON: It was totally senseless. It was a crime of opportunity. He found Traci.
00:34:57
She was vulnerable. TARA KELLY: At the time when Cross had finished work, that would have been the same time that Traci was walking
00:35:04
home from the party that she had just been with with her friends. Traci would have accepted a lift from him,
00:35:10
because she knew him at school. And she knew him through her brother. So at that point, they may have wanted to have another drink
00:35:16
or take some more drugs. So she may have guided him to the [INAUDIBLE] driveway,
00:35:22
because she knew that location. It sounds like an absolutely brutal murder. Terrifying, first of all.
00:35:30
Who knows what it's like the moment you recognize that the person you're with, maybe you're
00:35:35
partying together, maybe you just think it's the guy giving you a lift-- he suddenly turns.
00:35:40
He's making sexual advances. You're trying to stop him. He's becoming violent. You're being sexually assaulted and violated
00:35:47
in a way you never imagined. Police believed that Cross had probably made sexual advances towards Traci.
00:35:55
And when she rejected him, he lost control. I think just the fact that he couldn't
00:36:00
get his way with something-- I don't think he could control himself. I think the violence was his way of coping.
00:36:08
FREDERICK MEULLER: One thing led to another, you know? And he probably got to a point of no return.
00:36:18
NANCY GRACE: It appears Traci had put up a tremendous struggle. SCOTT HELLER: DNA was recovered from
00:36:24
underneath her fingernails, indicating absolutely she fought back. She was fighting for her life.
00:36:30
JAMES JOHNSON: I believe she was strangled first, raped, and then bludgeoned to death.
00:36:36
It disgusted me that someone would treat another human being like this and a young girl.
00:36:41
And that they had got away without being caught for so long. NANCY GRACE: The fact that the Traci
00:36:50
Hammerberg case was brought to a conclusion is a story in itself. TARA KELLY: After three decades, police had
00:36:58
finally identified the killer. It was incredible. Everyone probably thought this case
00:37:03
was never going to be solved. When we did the story 10 years ago, I thought we were going to get a resolution.
00:37:09
I thought, you know what, someone's going to see this, they're going to get the lead they need,
00:37:12
they're going to get the match they need. And year after year went by and nothing happened.
00:37:16
And I started to believe, we're never going to know who killed Traci. So for this to finally be solved, it's a big deal.
00:37:24
NANCY GRACE: For the family of Philip Cross, there is also closure. But they must now live with the knowledge their relative took
00:37:32
the life of an innocent teen. SCOTT HELLER: They didn't do this, so I try and afford them the same respect that you know,
00:37:44
we did for Traci's family. I do think you know, they're caught in a situation that is hard-- going to be hard for them
00:37:52
as well. JAMES JOHNSON: I had mixed emotions. It was great that we found out who it was.
00:37:58
But I really wanted Philip Cross to be alive. I wanted him to face us, face Traci's family,
00:38:05
face the community for what he did. He stole Traci's life. He had the ability to live his own life however he wanted.
00:38:12
Traci didn't get that. He took that from her. I think all law enforcement officers take cases home.
00:38:22
There's those that stay with you. There's those that you want to help and make sure there's
00:38:27
closure for the family. And for Traci's case, there was-- we needed closure for the community.
00:38:34
NANCY GRACE: There are no winners in a case like this with tragedy and heartbreak at its center.
00:38:40
But the only positive to emerge is the overwhelming power of modern forensic technology.
00:38:47
JEFF TAYLOR: Well, we never would have solved the case without genealogy. And it probably kept some innocent people out of jail.
00:38:55
This case had so many people that were looked at so hard. And we were so sure that they were our-- our guy.
00:39:02
And had it not been for the science, we probably would have pursued a conviction
00:39:07
on some of these people that didn't have anything to do with it. JAMES JOHNSON: By the time we solved the case in 2019,
00:39:14
over 400 men had been eliminated from the case. Philip Cross's name wasn't in our case file.
00:39:21
He wasn't associated with this homicide at all. I think from television shows, we've always
00:39:26
been led to believe that murder always leaves a trace, that it's like the CSI effect.
00:39:31
Every murder can be solved with a little piece of hair or a fabric of carpet. And I didn't always believe that was true.
00:39:37
But this changes the game, because there's certainly the potential to solve almost any crime,
00:39:43
it would seem. NANCY GRACE: Alongside that technology and of equal importance is the dogged work
00:39:52
and the commitment of investigators, the bloodline detectives. BRYAN POLCYN: I admire how persistent they were.
00:40:01
I think it's hard not to have admiration for the kind of consistency they showed over the years.
00:40:06
Because again, this wasn't a case that was just shoved in a drawer. They kept it alive.
00:40:11
SCOTT HELLER: It was inspiring to see how as a team, law enforcement really can make a difference.
00:40:18
I mean, this was a team effort all around. So it kind of gives you hope. It shows the community that we're not gonna give up.
00:40:25
We have a task. And we're gonna find who killed Traci. We didn't stray from that.
00:40:30
And we saw it to its end, its rightful end. Blood in the snow, no murder weapon, and a case
00:40:40
that had been running cold for almost 35 long years. But would you ever give up on your loved one?
00:40:48
Traci Hammerberg fought, scratching, screaming, and kicking until the very end. And thanks to investigators persistence and the emergence
00:40:58
of genetic genealogy, police were finally able to identify her killer, Philip Cross.
00:41:06
Traci Hammerberg may have died 1984. But it was thanks to forensic genealogy that her case was finally closed,
00:41:15
one more triumph for science and for the bloodline detectives. [MUSIC PLAYING]