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[MUSIC PLAYING] Tonight, a young woman on her way home, raped and stabbed multiple times.
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Leads are sparse. But can the latest techniques in forensic science bring her family answers and catch the killer?
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It's January 1980, Englewood, Colorado. A young woman goes missing on her way home from work.
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They were very worried that something bad happened because it was so uncharacteristic of Helene
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to-- to not come home. NANCY GRACE: Her body is soon discovered. She has been the victim of a terrifying and brutal ordeal.
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She was found naked from the waist down and sexually assaulted. The sheer brutality of this event, the kidnapping,
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the sexual assault, and then ultimately a murder, was a shock. NANCY GRACE: Detectives are concerned the murder is linked
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to other assaults in the area. There had been a number of other sexual assaults on young women in that area of about a five block area off
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of Broadway. Obviously people were concerned. Someone had been abducted from a bus
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stop in a major suburban area, and ended up stabbed to death. NANCY GRACE: A major investigation launches,
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with investigators using every tool at their disposal, and reviewing the evidence routinely.
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Frustratingly, the case remains unsolved almost 40 years. Detectives at the time had exhausted all the leads
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that they had within the first few weeks, a few months of the investigation. And it went cold.
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We waited. And about every six months, we would check with CODIS. And we didn't have any hits.
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This is the story of Helene Pruszynski, the extensive and decades-long investigation into her murder,
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and how a new breed of investigators, armed with the latest forensic science, solve a case
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that seems to be unsolvable. I'm Nancy Grace. And this is "Bloodline Detectives."
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[THEME MUSIC] January 16, 1980, the police in the city of Englewood, Colorado, received an emergency call.
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21-year-old Helene Pruszynski has not returned home after work, and her aunt and friend are deeply
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concerned for her safety. When Miss Pruszynski failed to show up for some time, they went to go look for her.
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They went up and down the Broadway Corridor, and-- and looked at the bus stops, and could not locate Helene.
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So they phoned the Englewood Police Department and filed the missing person report.
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Miss Pruszynski had been doing an internship at KHOW radio station. She was here from Boston.
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She went to Wheaton College. JOHN KELLNER: She was really a very punctual young lady.
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She always took the same route. She arrived at home on time. She wasn't going out late at night.
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So when she didn't show up that night, her aunt was very concerned. SHANNON JENSEN: She was due home around 6:30, between 6:30
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and 6:45 PM on January 16. When she didn't arrive, that alarmed Miss Blixt and Kitsey
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Snow, her friend who was also here on an internship from Boston. They were scared.
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This wasn't like her. It was very uncharacteristic. They were very worried something bad happened
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because it was so uncharacteristic of Helene to-- to not come home. NANCY GRACE: With Miss Blixt clearly distraught,
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the case is immediately escalated to a missing persons investigation. The Englewood Police Department mobilized pretty
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quickly to look into this case. Because, you know, when somebody calls and they m this is not
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normal behavior for someone, police generally stand up and-- and listen. Now, they were concerned about where she might be.
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But they also knew to get some more information, information from her co-workers, information about what bus routes she took.
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So they tried to work backwards and recreate, OK, when did she get on the bus, leaving work?
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What time would she have arrived? And where would that be? They also had to look into whether or not
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she had an unknown boyfriend or other people that she liked to hang out with. And really quickly they realized that just wasn't the case.
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TONY SPURLOCK: In those days, it was like, well, could she have gone here, could she have gone there?
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And unfortunately, where she was supposed to get off on the bus and where she got on the bus, they
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were in the same jurisdiction. That was a pretty populated, you know, urban area.
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And the Englewood Police Department did what they would normally do. And that is search the general area, search the bus stops,
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any restaurants that she might have gone to with information from the family and friends.
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And then obviously she was nowhere to be found. NANCY GRACE: While officers are following up
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on all possible leads, they get a call. A body's been found. ATTILA DENES: She was found naked from the waist down
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and sexually assaulted off of Daniels Park Road, which at that time, was a very rural dirt road.
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The area was a-- um, a rural field, essentially. It was a cold day. She was found off the west side of the roadway,
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fairly considerable distance, a couple of hundred feet. SHANNON JENSEN: It was a cold morning in January.
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And a woman had located what she thought was a body in a-- an open field in Douglas County,
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which is now Highlands Ranch. A lady was driving by and saw something in the field,
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and contacted a road worker, who went into the field and verified there was a body out there.
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NANCY GRACE: Homicide detectives and forensic experts go to the crime scene. At the time, we were very small.
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We used a combination of our staff and the Colorado Bureau of Investigation to conduct the investigation.
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THOMAS BORELLA: The only thing that she had on below her waist was a pair of socks.
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She had a jacket on. Her blouse was, uh, pulled up. Her breasts were exposed. It looked like there was some rope or something
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around her neck area. And her hands were tied behind her back. She was looking up in the sky.
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She was stabbed. And she had a type of material around her neck that was believed to have been used as a partial gag.
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She was wearing a white turtleneck, green pullover sweater. And she had knee socks on, green as well.
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They couldn't determine, at the time, that she was sexually assaulted. But that was a presumption based on the way her body was found.
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The Douglas County Sheriff's Office crime scene investigators took a plaster, um, cast of a suspect boots,
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or a cowboy boot. It was between a size nine and 11, and kind of set that aside for later investigation.
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There was semen also collected from Miss Pruszynski and her clothing. News of the horrific murder quickly spreads
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throughout the small community. ATTILA DENES: This case garnered quite a bit of news media attention.
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And obviously people were concerned. Someone had been abducted from a bus stop in a major suburban area, and ended up
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stabbed to death on a rural roadway in Douglas County. There was obviously concern in the community about that.
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The sheer brutality of this event, the kidnapping, sexual assault, and then ultimately a murder,
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was a shock. NANCY GRACE: Englewood Police began a major crime investigation, determined to find the killer
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before he strikes again. There had been a number of other sexual assaults on young women in that area of about a five block area off
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of Broadway. MITCH MORRISSEY: There's one actually, the body was found in Denver.
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It was the same thing, a young woman got off a bus. But the last time she was seen was in basically the same area.
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And then there's another case where there was a fairly well known car dealer whose granddaughter
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was walking down a road. She'd gotten off the bus. And she was found murdered. So they were interviewing a lot of people that rode buses, bus
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drivers, those kinds of things. There were some of them that were attempts, attacks.
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There were others that were sexual assaults. And there was one, specifically, where a knife was displayed.
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And of course, in Helene's case, all three of those things occurred. There were a lot of different people
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whose names came up that they interviewed. There was a lot of gumshoe, old school work being done on it.
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And they were hitting up every known sex offender, every known burglar in the area, and, uh,
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interviewing them, trying to see if they can identify who the killer was. It was unclear if this was somebody who knew her,
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or if it was a stranger. And I think the investigators were looking at anybody and everybody they could to solve this crime.
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Investigators must first determine if the attacks are linked and if the killer may
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be living among the victims. So many of the other attacks are similar. Could they be related?
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That's next on "Bloodline Detectives." [MUSIC PLAYING] It's January 1980. And Englewood Colorado Police launched an investigation
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into the brutal rape and murder of 21-year-old Helene Pruszynski. On her way home from work, she's assaulted,
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stabbed, and bleeds to death. Police are keeping their investigation wide to generate
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as many leads as possible. It was just a truly random violent act. And this was a young woman who deserved justice.
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It was unclear if this was somebody who knew her or if it was a stranger. And I think the investigators were
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looking at anybody and everybody they could to solve this crime. NANCY GRACE: A number of witnesses have come forward.
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And detectives are piecing together Helene's last movements. She had worked that day.
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I believe she had a milkshake and a salad, uh, for lunch. She left KHOW radio, uh, a little before 6:00.
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She was seen in the elevator, and then exiting the elevator. And investigators were able to establish that there were
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a couple of riders that rode the bus with her from Denver to Englewood. She got on the bus, was coming home.
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And was going to get off the bus, and then walk seven or eight blocks home from the bus stop,
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and then turn and go up to her aunt and uncle's house, like she did for the last week, and only had a couple
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more weeks left in her internship. They were casting a very wide net because clues
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were few and far between. They were lucky enough to have a good Samaritan who thought
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they'd seen somebody in that field on January 16 around 10:00 PM. And that person did a suspect composite sketch.
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But leads really didn't generate from that. And of course, this is really pre-DNA, pre advanced
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forensic sciences, pre things like, you know, our national databases where you could search for suspects.
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So it was a lot of shoe leather detective work back then, asking people, neighbors door
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to door, had they seen anyone. They certainly looked at other possible suspects in and around the country.
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There were people that had confessed to this crime over the years that clearly did
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not commit the crime itself. But each and every single one of them was looked at.
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NANCY GRACE: The autopsy reveals all the details of the brutal attack. SHANNON JENSEN: Dr. Galloway had done the autopsy down
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in Castle Rock. It was determined that she was sexually assaulted. She had been stabbed nine times in the back.
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She died of exsanguination, which is blood loss. NANCY GRACE: Helene's family and friends
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are devastated at her loss, and at knowing how much she suffered. Helene was a remarkable young woman.
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Um, I think it was evident to everybody and anybody who ever read this case, or had any kind of connection
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to this case in any way, that she was a very kind soul. She was brilliant. She was a leader.
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She was talented, intelligent. She had all the qualities of a human being that you would want your own child to have.
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JOHN KELLNER: I can only imagine the pain that her family went through. Police were in contact with her family.
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They did tell her family about some of the things that they knew. Police naturally, though, in these investigations,
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try to withhold some information because they can use this as a way to determine whether or not somebody is truthfully
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confessing to a crime because they know evidence or information that other people might not.
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NANCY GRACE: Detectives now go to extraordinary lengths, even hypnotizing a witness in the hope
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of getting a more detailed description of the killer. It was a sketch that was done by a witness,
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Miss Frizé, or "Freeze." They had gotten the description of the suspect using hypnosis.
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A white male, mustache. I believe the Adam's apple was pretty distinct in the photo,
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um, in the composite drawing. A full head of hair, mustache at a very distinct angle going on it, wearing, I believe, jeans.
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But in many ways, a fairly common face, especially with, you know, facial hair being what it was back then.
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Nothing resulted from that, uh, composite sketch at the time. NANCY GRACE: Despite using all the tools available to them,
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detectives run out of leads. And the case goes cold. They recovered the DNA, which in 1980, nobody really
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understood DNA like we do now. And, uh, kept that preserved for all these years.
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Detectives at the time had exhausted all the leads that they had within the first few weeks, a few months,
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of the investigation. And it went cold really until about 1998, when there were some advancements in DNA technology.
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Well, in 1998, if you-- if you think about the OJ Simpson trial that had happened a few years earlier,
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DNA was really becoming developed as a forensic science tool. And so of course, most of the people in law enforcement
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knew that in 1998, this is a time for us to start looking at some of these old cases and try to revive them,
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try to find a new way to investigate it. They were fortunate they were able to actually get a DNA
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profile, using an old DNA method now, in 1998, that would then go into CODIS, which is a combined DNA system that is run
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by the FBI, and then searches on a periodic basis to see if any other suspects or any other potential
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suspects in other cases matched the DNA profile from Helene. ATTILA DENES: It was put into CODIS.
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And there were no matches found. And there was a certain amount of frustration, undoubtedly, among the investigators
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who were working the case. There was always some hope that the perpetrator perhaps
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had left DNA behind at other crime scenes, or had been identified through a buccal swab
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at the time of arrest. But there were no matches in CODIS. We waited. And about every six months, we would check with CODIS.
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And at the time, that program was-- it was developing itself. So I think on a couple of occasions we reloaded the data
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into CODIS to look for any hits from anyone that might have been put in there by other criminal behavior.
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And we didn't have any hits. Having reached another dead end, the case goes cold again until 2013, when Sheriff Spurlock
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creates another task force. Douglas County dedicated an investigator full time to reviewing their cases within the jurisdiction.
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ATTILA DENES: Sheriff Spurlock was instrumental in forming the Cold Case squad, which was a collaborative effort of not
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only Sheriff's office employees, but also community volunteers with specialized expertise
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who came forward to assist. I put together a cold case review team. And this was a group of multidisciplinary folks
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with police officers, attorneys, a doctor, business professionals. All of these are people that I knew
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in the community, that were dedicated to being a part of trying to do better. They all have different perspectives
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that aren't identical to how law enforcement thinks. JOHN KELLNER: And what that enabled us to do
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was work together, not just from the investigative side, but from the legal side, to try and find a way that we could
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take everything we knew, and use it to identify and prosecute a suspect. We looked at all those unsolved sexual assaults
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in the Englewood area, trying to find some thread between them that we could find suspects.
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And we searched different people. We found possible suspects, some of whom had been deceased.
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We got blood cards from places in California to look at possible suspects. But we kept on hitting a dead end.
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We never found our suspect. NANCY GRACE: At this stage, Colorado investigators are beginning to wonder if they'll
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ever find the person responsible for killing Helene Pruszynski. One wasn't going to do it.
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The DNA would help, but you would still need to do some good police work. And good police work wouldn't do it itself,
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you were still going to need some DNA. NANCY GRACE: An unsolved murder from 1980, a determined sheriff
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who reopens the cold case in 2013, but still no breakthrough until the very latest forensic weapon
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comes into play. That's next on "Bloodline Detectives." [MUSIC PLAYING] 2019, Englewood, Colorado, detectives investigate the 1980
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murder a 21-year-old Helene Pruszynski, almost giving up after hitting numerous dead ends
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over three decades. But now they're about to try out the latest forensic science.
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In 2019, investigators learn of a ground breaking new crime-fighting tool, genetic genealogy.
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MITCH MORRISSEY: They retained Parabon. And they were selling a product that produced a composite.
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So they had sequenced the DNA. And really, all they had to do then, was put that in GEDmatch,
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and see, with a genealogist, if they could solve those cases. I make it sound simple, but it's-- it's not simple.
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What they did is gave us a whole new avenue to look at in regards to looking for suspects when we have DNA.
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Simplistically put, a DNA tree has many, many vines off of it. You just keep narrowing it down to looking for someone who
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might be a second cousin or a first cousin, and then get it into the family where you can get
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closer into the family tree. NANCY GRACE: Despite there being no match to the suspect,
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a number of his potential relatives are identified. MITCH MORRISSEY: Well, they were going down a family tree.
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And the genealogy and the DNA really looked like this woman was potentially the mother of the person that was responsible for this.
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They assumed, based on a very common name, that this individual in Arizona was the person.
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Parabon had given the detective at the time a possible name. And we all hopped on a plane and went to Arizona.
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I think there were eight of us. And we conducted some surveillance. THOMAS BORELLA: One day, on a Saturday,
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he went to this store, and went to a couple different places. And we followed him around.
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And when we looked in the car, he had a water bottle, a Poland Spring water bottle.
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I believe it was seltzer. That Saturday night, he went to pick up pizza. And, uh, Detective Jensen was sitting
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in the car with her partner at the time, and saw him get out and lean back, and like make a drinking motion, and throw
00:22:04
something in the garbage. So, uh, the rest of the group jumped in our cars, continued to follow him.
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They went up, and sure enough, that water bottle that we saw in the car was laying right on top.
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So we grabbed it. We were hopeful. We flew back the next day with it. Everybody came home.
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So the work in Arizona, which we thought was a suspect, was not a match to our DNA that we could connect to genealogy.
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NANCY GRACE: At this stage, Metro Denver Crime Stoppers get involved and fund the investigation.
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Mitch Morrissey had really pioneered the use of DNA to solve many crimes in the Denver area.
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And so when his company had a possible new suspect, or a way to look at this DNA evidence and find
00:22:52
a different part of the family tree, we were all in to try again. I had done my digging, my police work digging,
00:23:00
and came up with some possible relatives of the mother, June Estes. And I interviewed her half sister.
00:23:06
And got a little bit of information. She had remembered that June did have two boys with a husband.
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She couldn't remember his name. And she didn't know what happened to the boys. They were abandoned, left with an uncle.
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The uncle then abandoned them a little later on in their lives. They were raised by some people they weren't
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even related to for a while. THOMAS BORELLA: They got put in a foster home. And, uh, there was a teenage son there.
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Him and his brother was there too, and some other kids. And that-- that kid was a pedophile.
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He was a sex offender pedophile. And all the kids were assaulted by-- including him-- by this--
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this person in that house. So he just grew up a very angry, non trusting of women kid.
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I ran both brothers. Um, and yes, they both had criminal histories. William White, he had been charged and/or convicted
00:24:02
of all kinds of things, property crimes, burglary, theft, also criminal sex acts.
00:24:09
He had just been convicted in California of attempting to lure a child for the purposes of sex.
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I believe that's how the statute's written. William White was in CODIS. So we knew he wasn't our guy.
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I ultimately could never put William in Colorado. But I did put Curtis in Colorado.
00:24:28
In fact, I put him in, um, Douglas County during the time of Helene's murder. I was elated.
00:24:35
I mean, when I ran his criminal history, I saw the-- the rape conviction from Arkansas.
00:24:39
And it was rape by knifepoint. Then when I put him in Douglas County, he'd been paroled out here in 1979.
00:24:47
And he had been out here for almost two years. And he was here during Helene's murder.
00:24:50
It was-- it was exhilarating. The next day I come to work, and Shannon's like, I know-- know who it is.
00:24:59
I'm like, no, you don't. And she's like, I do. I'm like, are you sure sure? She's like, I'm sure.
00:25:06
I'm like, how can you be sure? She gave the rundown. And I was like, oh, my God, I--
00:25:11
I think we have the guy. Uh, we need to go talk to the Sheriff. When doing further background checks,
00:25:19
detectives learned that the man named Curtis is in the database and has changed his name.
00:25:27
And they get more detailed accounts of the crimes he's committed. SHANNON JENSEN: He was born Curtis Allen White.
00:25:35
He moved to Florida, where he assumed the identity of James Curtis Clanton. He had changed his birth date and his social security number
00:25:43
as well. He just assumed this whole new person. In Arkansas in 1975, Mr. Clanton entered a home
00:25:51
without permission. He violently raped a woman at knifepoint, and then took her with him.
00:25:59
He asked her to, uh, drive him to a bus station. And, uh, he was apprehended shortly thereafter
00:26:05
because the victim reported the crime while he was still at the bus station. So from there, he was convicted of rape
00:26:12
and was sentenced to the Department of Corrections in Arkansas, to a 20 year sentence.
00:26:17
While he was in jail, there was a pastor that was kind of mentoring him. His name was Darryl.
00:26:24
SHANNON JENSEN: That counselor had convinced the court that he could provide a stable and healthy home for him,
00:26:29
and that he would benefit from it, and-- and be able to change his life. And so the parole board agreed to parole,
00:26:36
um, Curtis White out here to that home, to live with that family. He was released four years into his sentence,
00:26:42
paroled at four years. Four years for a violent crime like that is incredibly shocking.
00:26:50
And not just shocking, it's unjust. And it puts more people at risk. It put Helene Pruszynski in the path of a murderer.
00:26:58
The laws in Colorado and throughout the country were not as robust as they are today.
00:27:03
Um, and that's just the fact that we have to deal with. The fact that he was paroled from prison in Arkansas
00:27:10
to Colorado, of course, opened up the opportunity for this crime to have occurred.
00:27:14
Uh, and that's certainly upsetting to those of us in the Douglas County community.
00:27:21
I had had a number of-- of cases where people were bringing stuff to me, and it didn't work.
00:27:27
And then all of a sudden, we started with genealogy. And we started to get more and more.
00:27:31
And yes, when I-- I had hopes, and then when they brought me the file, um-- I remember it to this day.
00:27:39
I was in my office. And it was at the end of the day. And they brought me the file.
00:27:42
And we said, we have the suspect. We know it's him. And we sent down a team of detectives to, one, locate him.
00:27:50
And then once they located him, we sent down a second team of detectives with a ruse to contact him.
00:27:58
JOHN KELLNER: We would surveil him, see what his normal patterns were, and try to approach him,
00:28:03
and ask him questions to see if he could affirm whether or not he was actually in Colorado in 1980,
00:28:10
and if he knew Helene Pruszynski. NANCY GRACE: After almost 40 years, can Colorado investigators finally identify
00:28:18
Helene Pruszynski's killer? You know, it was hopeful again. You get your hopes up again.
00:28:24
But you're guarded now, you know, because you've been hurt in a-- in a weird way.
00:28:27
And, uh-- but you have to press on. When I found out that he was still living, and he was alive and well and living in Florida,
00:28:35
that was very exciting for me. NANCY GRACE: Next, almost 40 years after 21-year-old Helene
00:28:43
Pruszynski's brutally raped and murdered, the bloodline detectives head 2,000 miles
00:28:51
to surprise a previously undetected killer and bring him to light and to justice.
00:28:58
[MUSIC PLAYING] December 2019, detectives from Englewood, Colorado, fly to Florida to track the suspected killer of Helene
00:29:18
Pruszynski, a 21-year-old woman, raped and murdered in a vicious assault in 1980.
00:29:26
A team of detectives went down there that were assigned to the surveillance. And in one case, they--
00:29:32
they followed him to a gas station, where he would go in and get, um, have a-- a milk
00:29:38
and buy something else. And so Mr. Clanton got back in his truck and drove to a lot
00:29:43
where he, um, discarded the milk into a trash bin. The detective looked in the dumpster
00:29:50
and saw a milk bottle on top. Wasn't sure if it was Mr. Clanton's because it had been dark.
00:29:55
It was early morning. And, um, he retrieved that milk bottle, and sent it-- sent it back to me.
00:30:00
And I shipped it up to CBI. And they had it analyzed. And it was not a match to the unknown suspect DNA
00:30:06
left at the scene. They were asked to stay down there a few days longer to see if they could get another sample.
00:30:11
And on a Sunday afternoon, I believe, they went into a local bar at Lake-- in Lake Butler,
00:30:15
where Mr. Clanton was drinking. He had been drinking out of a beer mug. One of the detectives that was in the bar
00:30:22
was sitting there and-- and watched those beer mugs like a hawk. I called a local Sheriff down there that we knew was friends
00:30:31
with the owner of this bar, and said, hey, you know, we need a favor. Uh, you know, we don't want to blow our cover,
00:30:36
but we need to get this glass. The owner was close by, came in, sent the bartender away, grabbed the glasses,
00:30:45
put them in the back for us. And, uh, they flew them home. We didn't want them leaving their sight.
00:30:51
Out of the three beer mugs, the first one was not a match. It had a couple of samples on it,
00:30:56
a couple donors, DNA donors. But it was not a match. The second-- the second beer mug, um,
00:31:03
was not a match either. And the third-- the third mug, um, had several-- I think three or four different DNA samples on it,
00:31:12
and one of them was a match. NANCY GRACE: Investigators finally get the news they've been waiting for decades to hear.
00:31:21
TONY SPURLOCK: So it took a couple of days. And then we got the phone call that we had a match.
00:31:26
What the lab said is, is that what you need to do now is you need to get his DNA, and that would be 100% positive.
00:31:35
THOMAS BORELLA: I was like, holy crap, no freaking way. And-- and Shannon's like, I knew it was him.
00:31:40
I knew it was him. And I'm-- I'm glad she knew it was him. But it still didn't sink in yet with me
00:31:46
because I was so worried, like, what if this isn't him? So we coordinated to have a plane
00:31:52
from the state of Colorado to fly him back as soon as he was willing. ATTILA DENES: We came up with a ruse, which
00:32:01
was that we were investigating a securities fraud crime that had occurred in Colorado, in which someone had used his name,
00:32:10
date of birth, and social security number in the commission of a financial crime,
00:32:15
and that in investigating this financial crime, we had been unable to find a direct connection between Mr.
00:32:20
Clanton and Colorado. We had no records of his having lived here, worked here, those types of things.
00:32:28
Detectives finally get a chance to interrogate Helene's killer. I asked if he had ever been in Colorado,
00:32:38
had ever done business in Colorado, lived in Colorado. And he admitted right away that he
00:32:43
had been paroled from prison in Arkansas to Colorado in 1979. And I said, oh, paroled?
00:32:50
Do you mind if I ask what you were paroled for? And he leaned forward and said, rape.
00:32:55
That just blew my mind. I was very surprised that he was willing to admit that. JOHN KELLNER: So the conversation was winding
00:33:03
in so many different ways. And I was anxious. I was wanting them to get to the point
00:33:08
because I was worried that he would shut down this interview before we asked the all important question.
00:33:14
Finally, they did it. They slid the picture of Helene across the table, and asked him, do you know this woman?
00:33:20
Had you ever seen her before? THOMAS BORELLA: His demeanor completely changed. He knew something was up for sure.
00:33:28
And he looked at it and he said, I don't know who that is, but if I think you're accusing me of what I think
00:33:33
you're accusing me of, then I-- I want an attorney. I'm done talking. And I said, however, I do need to advise you of something.
00:33:42
And he said, I know, I'm under arrest. And I said, yes, as a matter of fact, um,
00:33:47
we have a warrant for your arrest for the kidnapping, rape, and murder of Helene Pruszynski.
00:33:52
And he said, for what? And I said, the kidnapping and murder of Helene Pruszynski.
00:33:58
And he said, you've got the wrong guy. And I said, well, we have your DNA in her and on her.
00:34:05
To which he said, OK. We were able to secure the use of a Colorado State Patrol twin engine turbo prop aircraft.
00:34:15
He was coming back from his, uh, meeting with his parole officer, that he said, you're going to get your ass thrown back
00:34:20
in jail if you don't knock off this love triangle with Darryl and Gale. He had learned that anger masks pain.
00:34:55
He just kind of came at an angle and met her. And as he was coming toward her, he showed her
00:35:00
the knife in his hand. And, uh, he went up and put his arm around her, and said,
00:35:04
I have a knife. She said, I saw it. And he goes, come with me. And she said, I'll go.
00:35:08
Took her to an area where he, uh, raped her. And then he took her to the field and killed her.
00:35:16
When you stabbed her, did she ask you why or did she just-- I don't think she expected me to.
00:35:20
But I told her, to get down on her knees. And I told her-- I said, don't get up until you know I'm gone.
00:35:29
And that's when everything else went a totally different way. Before he stabbed her, she said, I just want to go home.
00:35:36
And he said, you will, but you're going to have to walk from here. Get on your knees.
00:35:40
And then when he stabbed her, she just gurgled. The incredible science behind genetic genealogy
00:35:48
allows the bloodline detectives to catch predators and killers who have long evaded justice, and to close
00:35:56
cases that are decades old. But the groundbreaking science does not explain the psychology of the killer,
00:36:04
the why of the crime. As we see next, that's still left for the human mind to answer.
00:36:10
[MUSIC PLAYING] February 21, 2020, the trial of James Curtis Clanton in the murder of Helene Pruszynski
00:36:26
begins in Douglas County, Colorado. It's a 40-year-old case that's only been solved now because of a forensic science breakthrough
00:36:35
called genetic genealogy. He stated from the very beginning that he wanted to plead guilty.
00:36:42
And he-- he-- he did so. And-- and that was the right thing to do. He-- he felt that that was the right thing to do.
00:36:50
He didn't want to drag Helene's family and friends through the experience again.
00:36:56
I wasn't expecting to see, uh, much remorse. Uh, but Mr. Clanton cried quite a lot.
00:37:03
And my perspective on it was that he was genuinely grieving. SHANNON JENSEN: He did have remorse during the sentencing
00:37:11
when several people, including Helene's sister, Janet Pruszynski, was-- they were reading their victim impact statements.
00:37:17
It was extremely moving. And you could see, um, on the camera that Mr. Clanton had been emo-- he was also emotional.
00:37:25
He had used a tissue to wipe his nose. He appeared to be crying. I think that once the cuffs were on him,
00:37:31
he became remorseful. I don't believe he was remorseful until that time. SHANNON JENSEN: He was sentenced to life in prison
00:37:40
with the possibility of parole at 20 years. It's very gratifying. He's 62 years old.
00:37:46
And he'll probably die in prison. To know that we found justice for Helene. ATTILA DENES: I was on the Zoom for the sentencing.
00:37:54
There were several witnesses who testified, uh, about the impact that this crime had had on them, friends and family of Helene.
00:38:03
And they were very heartfelt, very emotional testimony. And after the witnesses presented their impact
00:38:11
statements, Mr. Clanton was asked if he wished to make a statement. He said that he didn't.
00:38:16
And the judge pronounced sentence of life in prison. JOHN KELLNER: I think the 40 years he got to spend living
00:38:24
his life was an injustice. This is a person who cruelly kidnapped, raped, and murdered a young lady who had
00:38:32
her entire life ahead of her. And he took all those possibilities away from her, marriage, kids, a career, happiness.
00:38:43
And he got to have all those things. I think the overarching theme about Helene was that she was
00:38:51
a very loving, um, energetic person, who was well-liked, charismatic, just a salt
00:39:00
of the Earth kind of person. And her loss has been felt, uh, very viscerally for 40 years.
00:39:11
Absolutely he deserves the death penalty if we had one. Absolutely. No doubt about it.
00:39:15
You-- you-- you murdered an innocent, young little girl for no reason, other than your selfish anger.
00:39:22
Is it possible that he was involved in other crimes? Absolutely. And is that something we're still on the lookout for?
00:39:28
Absolutely. He felt that he needed to find a woman to punish because he felt like women were at the root of all of his life problems
00:39:40
that he had had, starting from his being given up shortly after his birth by his mother, um, and all the problems,
00:39:47
legal problems and otherwise that he had had throughout his life, he-- he blamed on women.
00:39:51
And so he felt that he needed to punish women. NANCY GRACE: Helene's case would likely
00:39:57
have remained unsolved if it was not for genetic genealogy. We have a number of other unsolved murders.
00:40:08
And we received a number of phone calls from their loved ones who said, hey, are you doing that in our case?
00:40:15
So it gave hope. JOHN KELLNER: I can say with confidence, this case wouldn't have been solved
00:40:22
without genetic genealogy. And it's going to continue to be the key that brings justice for more cold case
00:40:28
victims and their families. NANCY GRACE: Helene's life was cut short. And there is an irreparable hole in the hearts
00:40:37
of her friends, her family. But bringing the killer to justice offers, at least, some answers.
00:40:45
Helene's death, and so many others like hers, are tragedies, devastating murders shrouded in mystery.
00:40:54
Genetic genealogy is only one of the latest tools available for investigators today to help bring people
00:41:02
like James Curtis Clanton to justice and give clarity to those that have lost their loved ones.
00:41:11
I'm Nancy Grace. This has been "Bloodline Detectives." [THEME MUSIC]