Absent Witness | FULL EPISODE | The New Detectives

Georgia investigators are relieved to find no one home during a house fire, but forensic examiners know first impressions can be deceiving. In the dense woods of northern Tennessee, a hunter discovers the abandoned car of a missing woman. The

detectives

quickly realize that the scene raises more questions than it answers. Although investigators typically rely on first-hand accounts and physical evidence to gather clues, there are times when such clues are not evident. Science acts as eyes that guide law enforcement toward answers when forensic science takes the place of an

absent

witness

. in this

episode

some of the names have been changed the savannah river is both calm and powerful its waters run fast and deep beneath its surface lies a murky world

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of dark secrets august 15, 1998 the fire department of the richmond augusta county in augusta georgia responded to an urgent 9-1-1 call a home on elizabeth drive was on fire investigators arrived as heavy smoke consumed the home they rushed to control the fire as firefighters made their way through From the smoke they detected a faint smell of gasoline they rushed to find anyone who might be trapped inside there were indications that the fire started in the hallway although the bedroom was filled with smoke the fire caused little damage the firefighters were relieved Finding that no one was home, it was now up to arson investigators to determine. the cause of the fire neighbors told police that a man named al hamilton owned and lived in the home the richmond county sheriff's department began a routine investigation for investigator dwayne piper there were many unanswered questions mi Initial impression of the scene was that foul play was involved.

The fires did not appear to start in the walls themselves, they seemed to originate just outside the wall and, in my opinion, that suggested it was not an electrical fire. Later that afternoon, a woman named Donna Edwards arrived at the sheriff's department, she said. She was Al Hamilton's girlfriend and she was worried when he missed her date, she stopped by her house and panicked. Her house was on fire and they said she should come back. We have been to the house and I can assure you that she was not in the house. She was relieved to know that no one was hurt, but she was still worried.

I haven't even spoken to him since last night, the last time I saw him, it wasn't like him to leave without saying a word. Hamilton was very close to his family. He cared for his elderly mother and his disabled sister who lived in the city. Donna called them and they hadn't heard from him either. He had recently gotten divorced and was living at his mother's house. Donna told Piper that she and Hamilton were very happy because they were looking to buy land and build a house together Donna had plans with Hamilton to see the property that morning but he never showed up Donna told Detective Piper that Hamilton worked as a manager at A local bar was concerned about his long hours and said he didn't get off work until after 3 a.m.

She was sure something had happened to him, although she agreed to look into it. Investigator Piper explained to Donna that there was little she could do. Hamilton was a grown man and he could disappear if he wanted to. After two days there was still no word from Al Hamilton Piper and his fellow investigator Joanne Nutter was eager to read the arson report. The report indicated that there were two sources of origin. The fires were started using an accelerant at both the entrance and the entrance. bedroom although they suspected the accelerant was gasoline the results were inconclusive al hamilton was still missing and the report convinced investigators that something terrible had happened and they needed to find him 1012 1065 missing vehicle 1012 1065 missing vehicle a search warrant went out to the field officers to keep an eye out for Hamilton and his car.

Piper suspected there were more answers at the crime scene. Hello, I'm Investigator Piper from the sheriff's office. She called the Georgia Public Safety Office for help. Investigator Piper and GPS forensic expert Jerry Findley met at Hamilton's home. Findlay noticed a strange dent on the foot of the bed that looks like an impact of some kind. some object there somewhat rounded was consistent in size and shape with a baseball bat findlay also saw what appeared to be blood on the footrest the pattern looked like a hit stain a hit stain is when an object with blood on it comes into contact with a surface without blood and you can know the movement and direction which direction the blow is really going.

The stain traveled from left to right as she looked towards the foot of the bed and something else caught her eye. We found small clumps of hair in the blow that would be consistent with a head injury and a bleeding head that came into contact with the footboard in this area here, the location of the stains revealed to me that someone was hit very severely at the feet of the bed as they inspected the room for more clues they found more blood stains on the side of the room on the wall I noticed stains that matched discarded things and looking at them I think there had to be more there.

Do this very care

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y because we don't know how stable they are. Taking a closer look at the top, I grabbed a rag and started cleaning and discovered that the rest of the discarded stains were under the soot. I discovered that the soot had preserved the blood, this indicated that the fire started after the beating that someone had tried to cover up. a violent act to reconstruct the events findlay ran threads back from the blood spatters on the walls to the area of ​​origin of the blood a laser beam helped him determine the exact angles and trajectories of the spatters and that is where you need to go here I completed my analysis by first determining the directionality of the impact stains, calculated the angles at which they actually hit the wall, and threw the ropes back to where they intersected, which is the point of origin of the blood that would have to be the head. of the victim, okay, Dwayne, one thing I can tell you right now, the person was kneeling or sitting at the time he was hit, right in this area, this is the impact area of ​​these stains, right in this area, the dent in the running board.

He suggested the victim was hit with a blunt object using a baseball bat in the lab. Findlay replicated the debris splatters found on the bedroom walls. A debris blob is when the object rises. From that impact there is a certain amount of blood. on the instrument itself and that blood is actually coming off as it is, it is coming away from that instrument, whether it's a hand or a baseball bat or a brick or whatever it is, it's going to come off and be thrown up. and outside, usually through the ceiling if you're hitting directly so investigators knew something violent had happened at al hamilton's house but now the question was whether hamilton was the perpetrator or the victim the blood found at the crime scene was sent to the georgia bureau of investigation crime lab Al Hamilton recently underwent blood testing and his doctor provided him with a sample to compare to the blood found on the stirrup which they matched.

Al Hamilton was the victim. Chief Medical Examiner Chris Sperry analyzed photographs of the scene, the blood chest and the amount of debris. trajectories told a violent story based on the evidence that was illustrated in the photographs this was a crime that incorporated a lot of aggression of anger or perhaps even hate all the blows were directed at the head and probably also the face and there were blows repeated and basically what it indicated was that this man was hit in the head and in the face several times until he died the police were now working on a homicide al hamilton had not survived the cruel attack investigator piper retraced his last steps hello I'm the Investigator Piper with the Richmond County Sheriff's Office His first stop was at the bar where Hamilton worked as a manager His boss told investigators he was a model employee with no problems with any customers Other employees also said nothing out of the ordinary had happened at the bar that night and that Hamilton had locked up around 3 am Piper met up with Donna Edwards again I'm fine, yeah, I've been better.

He asked her if she could think of anyone who would want to hurt Hamilton. She did remember something that had happened a few months earlier. She and Hamilton had been returning from dinner one night when a large truck came out of nowhere and headed straight for him. He jumped out of the way but was almost run over. The truck looked like the one his ex-husband, Rodney Richardson, used at work. She said Richardson couldn't. She did not address the divorce and she was jealous of her relationship with Hamilton. Donna also told Piper Richardson that she had been abusive throughout her marriage and that she was afraid of him recently.

She had even stopped by her mother's house and confronted her about her relationship with Hamilton, but still, Donna did not believe that Richardson was capable of murder, and she also said that she had received a phone call from Rodney at 1 in the morning in his mother's house on the night of the murder, he told her he was in a phone booth across town to Investigator Piper Rodney Richardson had a motive for murdering Al Hamilton, but motive doesn't always determine a killer and Without a body it would be difficult to prove that the murder took place. Both Al Hamilton and his car disappeared.

A body can be dumped anywhere except It is almost impossible to hide a car and the only place large enough to hide it was the mighty Savannah River in Augusta, Georgia. Investigators discovered that the brutal murder of Al Hamilton took place. His murderer set fire to his house trying to cover up the crime. Donna Edwards. Hamilton's girlfriend was worried that his ex-husband, Rodney Richardson, was involved, but there was no evidence against him. Hamilton's body and his car were still nowhere to be found. Police believed the answer lay at the bottom of the Savannah River. Despite an exhaustive search, the investigator found nothing.

Dwayne Piper was frustrated by the case. There were many challenges we faced in the research. For starters, there were no bodies, so much of the evidence had been consumed in the fire or destroyed during firefighting. There were no eye

witness

es to the investigation. So there was no one we could talk to who could tell us what happened. Piper learned that Richardson stopped by Donna's mother's house the morning of the fire. He came in, but Donna wasn't home. She woke me up. Donna's mother remembered Richardson carrying two cloth bags. He asked if he could leave some things in Donna's room when he came out, he wasn't wearing his shoes and he didn't have the bags anymore, well they were there, they're great, he gave the items to the police, Piper sent the shoes to the forensic lab. for analysis contacted Donna and asked her why she never mentioned the bags.

She said she was afraid to say anything. She recognized the bags as belonging to Hamilton and did not want to believe that Richardson was involved in any way. Investigator Piper was certain that Rodney Richardson had killed Hamilton. Now she hoped the tennis shoes could locate him at the scene. In the laboratory, the technician examined the shoes for any remains or ashes on the treads and also performed tests to detect the presence. of gasoline, the bands were clean, traces of gas were found on the shoes, but the traces of gasoline were not enough. Richardson worked in construction and came into contact with him daily.

The researchers needed more, at least a few different ones. How are the phone records you sent? Yeah, here they are, Piper remembered Donna she said she got a call at 1 a.m. Richardson on the morning of the fire saying he was calling from a pay phone Piper wasn't so sure on a hunch that he got Al Hamilton's phone records on the night in question a call was made from Hamilton's house to Donna's house on the 1 am. Al Hamilton could not have made the call, he worked until 3 a.m., although circumstantial, the call suggested that Rodney Richardson was at Hamilton's house on the night of the murder, a moderate level so as not to drown out the conversation from the other side of the house. room, okay?

Once the police needed direct evidence to make an arrest and they asked Donna Edwards for help, she agreed and tried to record a confession. Donna recorded her conversations with Rodney over several nights and told him that she wanted to know what happened to Hamilton. so that she could move on with her life, what do you want me to give you? What do you want me to say? I just want you to tell me the truth. Tell me what happened. Just tell me what happened. Richardson eventually admitted to the crime. I killed him, he said he hadn't meant to kill Hamilton, he just wanted to scare him, it was an accident, but thenHe lost control, I mean the next thing he knew Hamilton was dead, can you treat me like that?

Richardson said he got rid of the body and he was sure the police would never find it and without a body he boasted that they would never be able to prosecute him if they tried he said he wouldn't go down without a fight the confession was enough to get an arrest warrant okay ? I killed him, how about it? I didn't mean for it to happen, but it did, given Richardson's history of violence. The investigators conspired with Donna to take him by surprise while Donna and Richardson were outside. The police hid inside his house. His plan worked.

Richardson was arrested without incident based on evidence. Investigators believe Rodney Richardson broke into Al Hamilton's home to ambush him, but his anger got the better of him and after repeated beatings, Hamilton was dead. Richardson hid the body in Hamilton's car and hid the car where no one would find it trying to cover up his crime. house on fire al hamilton's body was never found nor his car rodney richardson was found guilty of first degree murder he was sentenced to life in prison the importance of forensic science in this case was absolutely crucial without the work of blood patterns, the DNA work and the arson investigation this case would never have come to court there would never have been an arrest it was through these three investigative methods that we were able to make the arrest without a body and for the state in which we still mistakenly believed that rodney richardson without a body investigators couldn't make their case against him wrong in rural Tennessee authorities must piece together blood-stained clues to find missing woman dead or alive Stewart County, Tennessee, is a small rural community where even the police know everyone by name;

On average, only one violent crime is committed per year. On a Monday night in the late 1990s, a hunter saw a car partially hidden in trees that appeared to have left the road when he approached the car and noticed no one inside the hunter. wrote down the license plate number and contacted police the Stewart County Sheriff's Office received the call thanks to Stuart County 903 there was a report of an abandoned vehicle the dispatcher sent a patrol unit to investigate it I checked the license plate number and discovered that the car was registered to June Atkins that same day.

A woman was reported missing. Now police feared June Atkins was wandering the woods alone and injured in Tennessee. Stuart County Police were dispatched to an abandoned car that had left the road. On the road the car was registered to a missing woman named June Atkins. Police found the car wedged against a tree. The passenger side door was open and it looked as if someone had gotten out of the car. The police found little. They searched the area wondering if June had washed up. She went out and was injured somewhere nearby, they didn't find anything. Sheriff David Hicks questioned June's husband about his missing wife.

He said June went to visit her mother in a nearby town but never arrived. Atkins was worried if she didn't go to her mother's house. He does not. I don't know where he was we didn't start missing persons investigations this series this week sheriff hicks told atkins he found her car and believed she had been in some kind of accident june's car was impounded investigators were hoping it would provide some clues about Forensic examiners looked for fingerprints and anything else that might explain what happened to June, but all they found were the missing woman's fingerprints. Police needed to act quickly if June Atkins was injured and wandering into the woods she would need medical attention, a team of local and state law enforcement personnel along with dozens of community volunteers searched the woods where June's car was discovered.

We had received a tremendous amount of help from surrounding counties. Many people called to volunteer and wanted to help when they heard about it. June Atkins. was missing let's divide the two groups half will go on the right side half of you will go on the left side stay 15 20 feet from each other to get on everyone's good side while we do it while we go through the forest okay, let's go search party fanned out in different directions officers on horseback tackled the off-road terrain the Tennessee Highway Patrol provided helicopter surveillance and a point of contact from above the search lasted several hours police received a radio call something had been found nearby from the paris landing bridge rick stout of the tennessee bureau of investigation was part of the search team hey david a group of searchers have made a patchwork quilt it appeared to be stained with blood near the quilt there was a pair of work gloves from cotton for men the glove smelled like gasoline the investigation changed when searchers realized they could now be looking for a body.

Crime scene technicians joined the search that same afternoon, several miles from where the quilt was found. A woman's wallet was discovered. We found some content. from a purse, some of them we know belonged to June Atkins because her ID was in a wallet that was found, other contents were found that appear to have come from a purse, the search continued for several more hours and then there was more disturbing news, here take the camera. A large amount of blood had been found in the grass, the area was photographed and a blood sample was taken for analysis.

They collected anything that might be of help, including blood-soaked grass from under the grass. They found a woman's watch. Rick Stout believed the discovery suggested something horrible. it had happened to june atkins we have a car that was dumped in the woods we have her personal belongings we have a quilt that had blood on it which there has to be an explanation for that and when we found personal belongings dumped on the side of the road that she is not going to do that you know your driver's license or wallet and other personal items that tells us there is foul play involved rick you take there was blood but no body and investigators had questions at this point they had no idea what happened For June Atkins we did not find no evidence as to where June or her body could be.

We had some hope of finding June alive, but we didn't. I think the first thing we're going to do is have everything collected sent to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation crime lab, okay, forensic serologist Patty Choti examined the items for blood, I opened the quilt, spread it out, there was a stain on it. very big blood so the first thing I did was a color chemical test to see if it was blood and my color chemical test indicated that it was so the next thing I wanted to do was determine if it was human blood or not definitely blood , so I tested that and determined that it was indeed human blood.

Dirt on work gloves. Too dark to see blood there. Note that using an alternative light source, Chori examined the gloves and discovered several small stains that resembled blood, but they tested negative. The results were inconclusive. She then examined the sage herb from a different scene they had brought. some grass that had just been pulled up, so I looked at the grass and I actually found blood on the grass. Blood from the items was compared to a blood sample from June Atkins provided by her doctor. Researchers asked the blood match if she could determine if June was still alive.

The volume of blood that was on the quilt was a good amount of blood, but I mean, it could have been maybe from a non-lethal injury, but the fact that there were two or three areas of grass that had blood on it that was more indicative of someone who had bled out quite a bit and that was pretty indicative that she could have been fatally wounded June Atkins was dead look what we have I mean her killer was unknown if we had a body It would be better, we have duvets, we have and now police needed to find out who killed her and why police in Tennessee continued to investigate the brutal murder of June Atkins, even though no body was found.

The massive blood at the scene indicated that she could not have survived. Tell me if that's what June is seeing? June's husband recognized his wife's watch. He had given it to her as a Christmas gift. Sheriff Hicks broke the news of June's murder to her husband and asked her if she could think of anyone who would want to hurt her. June's husband remembered. A note he found in June's car several weeks before she disappeared was handwritten by a man asking her to meet him at the Dyers Creek boat ramp, that was all she knew. Deputies spoke to June's co-workers in hopes that her friends could identify the mysterious sheriff.

Gene's David Hicks Franz told us that June had been dating a man named Kenneth Pipkin and that they had been meeting at the dry cleaners. She was dating her husband's sister and he denied meeting her at the Dyers Creek boat ramp. Sheriff Hicks wasn't convinced that we needed to gather much more information from her before speaking to her again. Police canvassed the neighborhood around the boat ramp. An employee at a nearby convenience store. He knew June well and he also knew Kenneth Pipkin. He didn't have a good opinion of Pipkin. He described him as a womanizer obsessed with his truck, so obsessed that he kept a patchwork quilt on the seat to keep it clean.

One day he remembered seeing Pipkin and June talking. Outside he watched as June followed him out of the parking lot toward the Dyer's Creek boat ramp. The employee told police. Pipkin had come in looking for June. On more than one occasion her story did not match. Pipkins police had a break. A fisherman called. with new information he said the day she disappeared he was at the Dyers Creek boat ramp he saw a woman and a man in a pickup truck his description of the vehicles matched both pipkins and dunes they brought kenneth pipkin in for questioning and showed him photos of the bloody quilt I remember he had a blanket, he admitted it was similar to the one he used in his truck, Pipkin swore he had nothing to do with June's disappearance, he claimed he hadn't even seen her the day the police disappeared knew Kenneth Pipkin was lying but they needed more to prove he was a murderer now they needed to know why Tennessee police had a suspect in the murder of June Atkins.

Large amounts of her blood were found in the nearby forest but no body had been recovered. I probably have it. photos of her but we probably need to get them out there, suspect kenneth pipkin was seen with her shortly before her disappearance, a search warrant was issued for her truck and domestic crimes technicians processed the vehicle, they discovered small fabric fibers on the floor , were collected and sent to the crime lab. Several pairs of cotton work gloves were found in the house. They were the same size and style as those found at the crime scene. The evidence was sent back to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation.

Coroner Russ Davis assisted in the case I brushed the bedspread found at the crime scene picking up the loose fibers that became the problem. Can we connect the victim through this blanket to our suspect? That's where the fiber evidence comes from. The associative evidence of fiber. Fibers are the basic unit of all textiles, clothing, carpets, anything like that. The fibers will come off the very small portion that makes up the textile garment and that is what can be transferred. Davis then checks those samples for a match and then compares them to known samples from the vehicle;

In this case, they are then examined to determine if there were, in fact, fibers the same as those found on the blanket found inside the vehicle. Fibers from the bloody quilt matched fibers collected from Pipkin's truck. The report came out to deal with serological evidence that this quilt had, in fact, been bled by the victim. After the work on the fiber, he then said that this material in this sample of the quilt, in fact, there were fibers like those found in the suspect's vehicle that create a link between the suspect and the victim through this shot of the quilt .

Additionally, Brooks was afraid to take Pipkin to trial. The obvious challenge of the case was the lack of a body once we got to trial, with this issue being that not having a body ended up being reasonable to the jury, but the police were determined to bring Pipkin to justice and reviewed the evidence again. we have a pen that has his blood on it we know it was his blood that was on the quilt his blood at the crime scene and we can put the quilt in his truck we don't have two chances to try a crime casemurder they declare him innocent, that's all the prosecutor was not convinced that he could get a conviction and we know that that is very difficult to do in a murder case if it is totally circumstantial, you have to convince the jury beyond all reasonable doubt of that there has been a homicide and then it has been proven further.

There is a reasonable doubt who committed the homicide that left that day Sheriff Hicks knew June's body was out Two years later, on August 23, 1993, a fisherman made a gruesome discovery: the lower half of a woman's torso. emerged in the Tennessee River. Her family recognized the clothing and knew it was June Kenneth Pipkin was arrested and charged with murder Police believe June threatened to expose their relationship Pipkin killed her to ensure her silence But with the help of forensic science June's story was finally told for a murder in a small town there were probably as many expert witnesses as I have ever had on the case I had a forensic pathologist who did the autopsy you had fiber experts you had a TBI blood expert it was a fascinating case to put together as prosecutor Kenneth Pipkin He was found guilty of second degree murder He is now serving a 20 year sentence Some murderers do everything possible to keep their victims aware of some mystery without leaving bodies and only traces of the crime There was a time when justice was scarce for these perpetrators but today forensic science Arm law enforcement with the weapons necessary to convict by providing a witness where there is none.