Blood Money | FULL EPISODE | The New Detectives

a quiet suburban house becomes the scene of a gruesome murder

detectives

run out of suspects and clues to a motive to solve it could be anywhere or nowhere investigators suspect a woman's fatal fall was no accident now they must prove it step by step when a murder exposes a family secret and a cast of shady characters the

detectives

don't know who to believe the murderers have their own twisted reasons for murder some kill for love some seek revenge and others hope to fill their pockets with

blood

money

in In this case the names of the victim and his family changed on December 16, 1994.

Len Gruber of Oklahoma City returned home to spend lunchtime with his wife Carla. Christmas was less than two weeks away and there was a lot to do in In an instant the pleasant launch I had planned turned into pure horror Carla was lying dead between the kitchen and the dining room she was naked except for a sock a pair of pinking shears protruding from her chest the police department it's an emergency my wife was stabbed the police processed the scene so it appeared the victim had put up a mighty fight with her attacker there was no evidence of sexual assault, although signs of a struggle were found throughout the house the epicenter appeared to be the kitchen drawers were attached and the killer had apparently tried several weapons before choosing the pinking shears the counter carried a new knife He hit a broken knife and a

blood

y barbecue fork lay on the floor.

Detective Bob Bemo of the Oklahoma City Police Department didn't know what to do with so much rampant violence, but he knew where to start. Both my partner and I realized that we had hell. of a situation because this was what we could call a police homicide, although we immediately suspected that the husband len gruber gave the police a statement carla and len were active in their church and were married for 30 years len told the police officer who had last seen his wife alive that morning had taken the day off to do some last minute Christmas shopping good morning honey, len had planned to come home for lunch and help decorate and wrap the presents, he He went to the office as he normally did and returned home a few hours later. to find his wife dead, he didn't know who could have done this, he answered all the questions and was very deliberate in his answers and very calm and collected, which is considered very unusual with a spouse after finding his wife horribly murdered, I would have expected it. more emotion coming from him or him to break down or cry, this is basically why he became a suspect, but investigations are based on facts, not feelings.

Gruber's co-workers told police he had been at the office all morning, his wife's estimated time. The death indicated that he could not have killed her before leaving for work and she passed a polygraph. Glenn Gruber was off the suspect list and that meant there were no suspects because there were no signs of forced entry. The police assumed that the killer might have been Someone the victim had met asked him some questions. Police brought Gruber in for questioning on a normal morning, hoping he would provide them with some detail, some clue they might have missed that would reveal a possible suspect.

Like I said, I saw her even though he knew who she was. the unlikely gruber provided the names of the people in his prayer group one more morning i said breakfast i couldn't think of anyone else his wife might have been in contact during lunch the victim kept an immaculate home so fingerprints were few and far between distant among those found at the entry point belongs to the groupers or their neighbors, except for a single fingerprint taken from the storm door, to whom it belonged, no one knows. The forensic investigation continued in the hallway between the bedroom and the kitchen, they examined the carpet and found faint blood stains.

To make the blood easier to see, they used a chemical called luminol that glows when it comes into contact with blood. He revealed that the attack had occurred from the bedroom door and down the hallway. In one place, the luminol revealed boot prints. Detectives weren't sure if they were useful—the star pattern resembled the tread on boots worn by police officers—they feared the scene had been contaminated. The detective had to be sure before ruling out this possible lead. He had quite a few of our officers on the scene. I lifted his boots so we could photograph the soles of his boots to compare to this print.

None of them matched the print. He provided further evidence against an unknown assailant. Investigators had collected utensils and blood samples from throughout the house in hopes of finding even more agreement. According to forensic chemist Elaine Taylor, they had no way of knowing what might be important. Many times a lot of strange evidence can be collected that as time goes by you eventually find out that it had absolutely nothing to do with the crime scene but was collected anyway the house yielded a huge amount of evidence it would take days to solve. All in all, the most convincing thing was a single drop of blood that did not appear to belong to the victim, it was collected from a corner of the kitchen far from where Carla Gruber had fought for her life.

My first impression was that there was no way the victim could have Being able to get to that area where the blood was on the chair I felt very confident about all the blood stains that were collected at the crime scene that that In my opinion, I was going to be one of the most important investigators needed to see if this blood matched the victim's blood. They used a process called electrophoresis to separate specific enzymes from each sample. Certain enzymes vary from person to person. Electrophoresis uses an electrical current to separate the enzymes for analysis. The sample is placed on a gel and a current is applied that causes the enzymes to move through the gel.

Each enzyme moves a certain distance, creating a pattern of bands. If two blood samples create the same pattern, they probably come from the same source. In this case, the blood bands from the victim and the blood on the chair did not match. The blood was not the victim's. Blood samples from Gruber's friends. , relatives and neighbors were also collected for testing. They do not match either. Investigators were sure that whoever shed this truck had killed the victim but they still had no idea who that person was as investigators gathered clues about Karla's murder. gruber the victim's husband glenn organized his thoughts according to detective bob bemo his memory helped fuel the investigation he had remembered a subject by the name of eric patton, who had worked for him and had painted some paintings at his residence during the months of During the summer of June and July, Len had met Patton at the telemarketing company where he worked.

The grubers knew he had a criminal record, but they weren't. He didn't care that they believed he deserved another chance. They hadn't seen him since he finished painting six months earlier. He told police he had served time in California for petty theft. He confirmed that he had not been at the Gruber's house. Since the summer after he left the station, detectives investigated him and learned that he had requested that his parolee be moved to Oklahoma so he could be with his family and his girlfriend. Detective Bemo contacted his probation officer to verify his story. I discovered that he had been involved in several armed robberies in which he used a knife and a pair of scissors, the scissors quickly caught my attention and my partner and I felt we were on to something here on December 22, six days after the murder , carla gruber was Investigators took the opportunity to search for potential suspects by photographing attendees.

The main reason these people are photographed is to find out if someone who has been named is there and someone who has not been named is also there. You want to know who they are you never know it's unusual but in some cases you know that the suspect attended the funeral this was one of those cases where the suspect eric patton was there len gruber identified him from photographs taken at the funeral because he barely knew the victim his attendance raised suspicion but provided no actual evidence of guilt the best evidence would likely come from physical evidence the oklahoma city police forensic laboratory classified items collected from the crime scene attention was focused on a Bloody barbecue fork recovered from kitchen Investigators wondered if the killer's fingerprints were etched in Carla Gruber's blood after photographing the fork to document it.

The technicians illuminated with an alternative light source. The tracks are too faint to be seen in normal light and can often be revealed through light of a different wavelength. None appeared, but yes. That means there were none there, the next step was treatment with a chemical called diametric benzidine, which reacts with blood proteins that stick to them and turns them brownish-red. The chemical was applied and then developed, revealing a single clear print that matched the print from Eric Patton's previous arrest. report, so did the print on Gruber's storm door, who's the one who sees it, Eric's Patton, yes sir, I have a guarantee arrest right here, one time, on my red dash, police boots were found that matched the tread pattern photographed at the crime scene, they also belonged to Patton.

Two weeks later, DNA tests showed that the drop of blood on the kitchen chair was his, that was all they needed. The significance of the blood at the scene was foreign to the victim but consistent with the suspect. Mr. Patton linked him to the crime scene in the face of overwhelming evidence Eric Patton confessed He told authorities he needed

money

for drugs He thought he would find something at Gruber's house He didn't expect anyone to be there When he saw Carla Gruber was in house modified her plan she invited him in I need to borrow some money when he asked her for money, she went to get some, although she told him that she had nothing in the house, but Patton was desperate and committed a desperate act because of the heinous nature of his crime.

Eric Patton received the death penalty. They are often not as they seem at first glance, a killer might visit you disguised as a friendly acquaintance, and an accident might not be an accident. On June 7, 1988, Tyler, Texas paramedics were called to the home of Betty Lucas, 66 years old, his son. Stephen reported that he had fallen down the stairs while he was visiting, he had critical head injuries and his vital signs were weakened. Paramedics stabilized her for transport to the hospital. There Betty Lucas's condition continued to worsen the next day. Stephen Lucas made the difficult decision to have his mother taken off life support.

Two days later, the Tyler Police Department received an anonymous call warning them to investigate her death, which appeared to be an accident. The caller said it could actually be be a murder the caller suggested taking a closer look at Stephen Lucas the information was forwarded to Detective Danny Alexander, not sure what to do with the information, he began investigating the facts of Betty Lucas's death, he knew the victim had been very well known and loved, betty lucas was a very wealthy and influential person in this community, her husband had been the mayor of the city of tyler at one time he owned a business here in tyler a real estate business that had a lot success before her death the accusation that Betty's son intentionally murdered her seemed absurd but the police were forced to follow the example that began the investigation in At the hospital, the treating doctor told the police that Betty Lucas had died due to irreparable brain damage.

Her injuries were confined to her head. They seemed inconsistent with the type of fall her son described. Investigators now had to wonder if there was any truth to the anonymous tip, but investigators. She had wasted valuable time under Texas law. Authorities must be notified of any unnatural death that occurs within 24 hours of admission to a hospital. Betty Lucas's death fell into this category, but her doctor was unaware of her rule and had discharged her for her burial at that location. At the point where we were behind in the game, the evidence had possibly been lost or was no longer available to us and the fact is that a couple of hours after our notification, she was going to be buried when the police began his investigation, his body was no longer there.

Alexander learned from The Doctor that Stephen Lucas had been acting strangely while hismother was in the hospital, had been unwilling to provide details about the accident, and demanded that she be buried as soon as possible once she was declared dead. Stephen had not notified Betty's family in South Carolina. being admitted to the hospital nor did he notify them that she had died and was buried it was time to talk to stephen lucas investigators met with him and his daughter stephanie at the victim's home to hear their account of the accident stephen told them that he and Stephanie had stopped around dinner time to return the video to Betty.

He said Betty was angry with him because she didn't want to attend an upcoming charity event. She then accused him of breaking her VCO and demanded it back. Give me the video. Steven didn't. He wanted her to carry the heavy machine herself, but she refused her help after a tug-of-war over the top, up and up on her shoulder. The next thing Steven knew, his mother had fallen over the railing and rolled down the stairs, are you okay, Steve? indicated that when he reached the stairwell he began to slide down this stairwell, his head bouncing off each step as he went down and that when he reached the bottom of the stairwell he was in the lobby area which he set up briefly and then fell backwards hitting his head last. once on the last step of the ladder.

Stevens said he immediately ran to the bottom of the stairs and moved her mother's head from the top step to the marble floor. He then sent Stephanie to get help from a neighbor. While calling an ambulance Stephanie said that she saw her father and grandmother fighting but since they always fought she was not alarmed the detective did not get much more information out of the young woman and she was screamingWhen you asked her about a question and you tried to include it in a specific story, she was very evasive and finally said: I'm not sure. The next thing I knew, Stephen was asked to walk around the scene and recreate what had happened.

When he and Stephanie were separately asked where Betty was before the fall, they identified places at least 20 feet away from the police. found no evidence of a struggle at any of the points. There was another disconcerting detail that a neighbor told police that Stephen Lucas and his daughter Stephanie did not accompany Betty to the hospital immediately after the accident, but rather stayed behind to clean up the blood from the floor, was not only strange behavior for concerned relatives, but it eliminated a vital source of evidence after questioning witnesses and examining the scene by police. They still had no clear idea of ​​how the victim fell, they had no way to corroborate Lucas's vague stories and no way to prove they were lying.

Many unanswered questions were buried along with Betty Lucas. With each passing day, Betty Lucas's body would have been buried. There is less and less information to disclose if the police want to get to the bottom of this case, they need to get to the bottom of his grave. Investigators hope that an examination of the victim's remains will clarify some of the discrepancies between Lucas' account and suspicions. that revolved around her a week after her death a court ordered betty lucas exum for an autopsy the autopsy began with a visual inspection in severe falls one typically sees large bruises scraped skin and most notably broken bones especially in a 66 year old woman , but x-rays found no broken bones or dislocated joints.

The pathologist Virgilio González could not find signs of a fall and if she hit the ladder there will be a type of abrasion on the skin due to the carpet, a burn on the skin, but there are no scratches or friction. type of injuries anywhere on Mrs. Lucas's body all injuries were limited to the head and scalp gonzalez discovered a significant discrepancy in steven lucas's account the shaving revealed seven clean lacerations on the top of her head yes, As steven said, he had received his injuries from sliding down the stairs only the back of his head would have been injured by these seven lacerations gonzales could only draw one conclusion betty lucas it is not an accident of death it is a homicide no matching weapon was found But investigators were certain that Betty Lucas' injuries could not have come from a fall.

After the autopsy police spoke with Stephanie a second time, her comments made it clear that she did not see the fatal fall and that she was not directly involved. involved based on autopsy findings and inconsistent stories from the family, according to police. classified betty lucas' death as a homicide and stephen lucas was their main suspect investigators returned to betty lucas' home to build their case good shots in this area they didn't have much to go on there were no signs of damage on or near the railing of the second floor where the fight had supposedly occurred as many as they could Investigators were unable to find clues to trace the victim's path down the stairs.

No evidence was found at the top of the stairs, but the staircase was not spotless for half of the stairs. stairs Investigators found indentations dents and scratches in the wall and molding a painting was torn from the wall as if someone had held on to it for balance sharp cuts marked the railing the victim's maid confirmed the damage was fresh blood found on the balusters at the base of the Stair investigators have found a spot that Stephen and Stephanie's cleaning had missed in that area, we also found very small amounts of blood, which would indicate to us that at some point the Betty Lucas's head had rested on that step or something had happened to cause blood to come out on that step. area as the investigation progressed, police searched for a motive, investigators discovered that Stephen and Betty's relationship had soured after Stephen failed to repay her a 350,000 loan.

Things had recently gone from bad to worse when she refused to give him another 50,000 with dead Betty's debt. would be relieved and he would inherit even more money from her estate, she controlled the family money and he was in financial trouble and needed that money and many discussions, especially right before her death, centered on him wanting to borrow money and get more. money from her on November 10, 1988, armed with a motive and forensic analysis that seemed to disprove Stephen Lucas's account, police arrested him. Lucas was tried in May, but after six weeks in court and 22 hours of deliberation, he ended up with a hung jury when he polled the jurors.

They were not convinced by the forensic analysis. Investigators had to start over. Stephen Lucas's first trial ended in a hung jury. The weight of the evidence had failed to tip the balance towards accident or murder. If the prosecution had any hope of to convict stephen lucas in the murder of his mother betty they needed to strengthen and clarify their forensic case the state hired alan weckerling an accident reconstruction specialist to review the evidence years had passed since betty lucas' death her house had been sold and the staircase repaired but some items from the crime scene had been saved.

The evidence we were interested in seeing was the stair molding and the stair railing to see if the VCR had actually flown down the stairwell, hit the railing, and then bounced off. The weckerling on the wall began by testing Steven's claim that his mother had fallen from the top of the stairs. A series of deep indentations marked the top of the wood molding. Weckerling had to confirm that they were caused by the fall. The trim and video were examined under a microscope. Paint marks from a microscope on the VCR matched the trim, proving that was the source of the damage, but while studying the trim, Weckerling made a crucial discovery.

I was able to look at the wood under the microscope and actually based it on some very simple scientific principles. when you are painting a wall with a roller and small drops of paint appear, gravity drags them down, the drops of paint show that until now the molding had been analyzed upside down, the damage was actually at the bottom and could not have appeared. of a falling VCR, as Steven had claimed that these cuts were made with an intentional upward blow damaging the molding from below and undermining Steven's story about his mother's accidental fall, the next step was to refute the defense's claim that Betty Lucas could have fallen over the railing and Down the Stairs, the defense in the first trial used a series of complex calculations to create a computer animation similar to this one demonstrating Stephen's account of his mother's fall.

The prosecution hired physicist Mike Andrews to take a closer look at the animation and defense calculations he found. that the trajectory they presented was physically impossible, what you should see is that she would just start going over the railing and just go down and land underneath it. What we found was that the initial step would go over the railing instead of over it. she then she would come back and then she would do a little loop and then she would go through it again and then she would fall under. Andrews had the house measured again and used these measurements to refute the defense scenario that Betty Lucas could not have fallen from. at the top of the stairs, as her son Stephen had said, the police assumed that Betty Lucas had an argument with her son in the middle of the stairs, they struggled creating damage to the molding and the staircase, Betty fell and Stephen Lucas beat her almost to death with an unknown weapon. lucas was tried again this time the forensic evidence showed that betty lucas could not have accidentally fallen the impeccable detective work had stopped a cunning killer from getting away with a near perfect murder there were no eye witnesses just the suspect and the victim yes Had it not been for the evidence uncovered by the use of forensic science, Steve would have abandoned Steven's plan.

Lucas was completed when he authorized the hospital to take his mother off life support. Stephen was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to 35 years. stephen lucas tried to get away with murder by making his mother's death look like an accident others are not as thorough in hiding their crime in this case the names of the victim and his family have been changed in the early morning hours of 19 february 1988 a motorist arrived in lincoln nebraska In what appeared to be a car accident inside the victim, a woman was dead apparently from a head injury. The Lancaster County Sheriff's Department along with the coroner's office arrived on scene and were able to say that the situation was not what it seemed, although the victim suffered serious injuries the damage to the car was minimal there were no skid marks the gear was Part of the car keys were missing, as was the victim's ID, and the driver's side door had a recent puncture mark.

The scene showed every indication that it was not an accident. Sergeant Larry Russell led the investigation. The injuries were not. that type of injury that would be compared to a traffic death that you would normally see the trauma by looking at the individual more closely, they were actually found to be bullet holes that, uh, some sort of projectile that had entered the head. Initially, a search around the crime scene turned up no weapons or other apparent clues. In fact, all that was found was a packet of cigarettes opened at the bottom and two pairs of house slippers, one a man's.

One pair and one female pair were picked up, so they did not appear relevant based on the vehicle registration, the sheriff's department tentatively identified the victim as 25-year-old Jane Leary. Her identification was confirmed at the autopsy, where her fingerprints were taken and compared to police records. she had a criminal record from another state the autopsy also confirmed that she was murdered by two gunshot wounds to the head she had no other injuries investigators contacted the victim's husband they brought him in for questioning to talk to you about last night jack leary no You seem terribly surprised because of last night's news with your wife.

The police asked him to recount the events of the previous day. You didn't know why you cleaned this place. Leary told police that he and Jane had been fighting, nothing serious, just a typical fight. domestic dispute as usual jane took the kids to her mother's house and then left he didn't really care about her a few hours later two acquaintances of the victim showed up at the suspicious house herman buckman and his girlfriend goldie fisher leary admitted told police that Jane was selling drugs, he said Buckman and Fischer went there to exchange a handful. She left when she told the couple that her wife was not home, they left to go look for her.

Leary suspected that his wife had been murdered. That wasn't how it sounded. Detective Russell, my first impressioninitial is that the husband definitely knew more than he was telling, it just didn't seem likely that, gosh, you show up at a guy's house and say, "Hey, your wife just got shot and the guy comes up with it." Well, oh yeah, there were some people here the night before and they wanted to sell a gun to buy drugs and at first it didn't seem very believable, mainly because of his behavior while Jack Leary was giving his statement, his wife's car was being searched.

Clues Investigators found little more than cigarette butts, they managed to lift some latent prints, but those that could be read matched only those of the victim. The cigarette butts in the car were sent to the laboratory for analysis to see if they could reveal any clues. A test called immunoglobulin. Allotyping was performed on saliva traces on the filter. The test analyzes the presence of specific proteins found in body fluids. These proteins are genetic markers that vary to some extent from individual to individual according to serologist Reno Roy, formerly of the Nebraska State Patrol Laboratory. The results were read aloud to the majority of the population, but indicated that whoever smoked the cigarettes was probably African American. 95 percent of the African-American population was excluded as cigarette butt saliva donors, as were 99.3 percent of the Caucasian population.

The results suggested that the victim, a Caucasian, was not the one smoking the cigarettes found at the scene. The killer possibly had. Police were now searching for an African-American suspect. Jack Leary was off the list of suspects and there were no other leads for detectives to follow. The Unlikely Story of Jack Leary was investigated by Herman Buckman and Goldie Fisher. Both had prior convictions for robbery and assault with narcotics. They called Buckman for an interview. He was not the most cooperative of subjects. He said he didn't need a lawyer when Herman. I walked into the room, initially read him his rights and he practically told me to go hit sand.

I am not going to tell you anything. He was not there. A few other words were sad and then he asked me for a cigarette. Buckman refused the accompanying cigarette. and he said he only smoked a certain brand, Mr. Buckman, we'd like to ask you some questions, uh, uh, as you know, understand that they brought the package to him, he opened it from the bottom, it was a habit he picked up in prison to keep it. The filters are clean, you know, it's like a light bulb goes on. I've seen this pack of cigarettes before somewhere and then of course at the crime scene there was a pack of cigarettes with the same kind of tear.

The interview concluded and Buckman left, leaving two behind. Cigarette butts were collected and sent to the laboratory to see if the saliva on the filters matched the saliva collected at the crime scene. The same immunoglobulin halotype test was performed on these filters and the results were then compared to the genetic markers on the filters. The characteristics of the saliva were common to five percent of the African American population the margin of error was too wide plus the cigarette only proved that the smoker had recently been in the victim's car it did not prove that he was the killer the butts could have been in the For weeks, investigators reviewed everything they had about Buckland trying to find holes in his story.

He had told detectives that he spent the entire night with his girlfriend. Goldie Fisher in her interview. Goldie Fisher told police that on the night of the murder she was out of it. friends of hers and she went to see her mother when that was the last time he saw her. She confirmed that Herman Buckman was with her the entire time to check her alibi. Investigators visited Goldie Fisher's mother. She did not know about the crime nor that her daughter might be under suspicion; she simply told the police that Goldie had not been to see her in at least four days, but Jane Leary's murder occurred only one day earlier.

Well, thanks for having us at her house. Goldie's alibi was starting to get clouded in Lincoln, Nebraska. The investigation into the murder of Jane Leary led detectives to the bar that suspects Hermann Buckman and Goldie Fisher frequented. Some customers said they saw the couple there the night of the murder. Buckman had a gun with him. Know? There is something? Detective Russell learned something. Another thing about the couple as well is that one of the things that Herman Bugman and Doorman Fisher did was that they dressed quite nicely for a night out, but they had something very unusual: they were both wearing slippers, which is not common in my estimations. . in slippers the slippers found at the crime scene were once considered insignificant now they were analyzed more closely drops of blood were found on them the blood matched the victims linking the slippers to the victim but not necessarily to the suspects investigators needed When news of the crime spread, a potential witness realized that he had been near the crime scene shortly after the crime occurred.

He had picked up a hitchhiker. It was around 2 a.m. On the day of the murder the woman he picked up was acting very strange, she was not wearing shoes and seemed to be in a hurry, the driver dropped her off in a nearby neighborhood, Goldie Fisher's neighborhood, the witness selected Fisher's photo from a series of photographs that placed Fisher at the crime scene where he had apparently also lost. His sneakers and his alibi Investigators now had enough to arrest Fisher and Buckman on suspicion of murder. With both suspects in custody, it was a matter of securing the case against them.

Investigators set out to find evidence that would place Fisher and Buckman at the scene. searched Buckman's car. Ski masks, a crowbar and other burglary tools were found in the trunk, but nothing that matched the murder weapon. A search warrant also allowed investigators to collect clothing the victim's husband described the couple wearing on the night of the murder. Traces of blood. found on the lining of Buckman's jacket and on his sweater was the victim's blood with all the pieces in place. Investigators were able to surmise the events leading up to Jane Leary Buckman's death and Fisher knew where Jane used to sell her drugs that they captured.

They met her hoping to trade her gun for some drugs when she refused, they killed her for her drugs, any money she had, then pushed the car into the ditch, in addition to receiving 20 to 60 years for possession of gun, Herman Buckman was sentenced to life in prison Goldie. Fisher charged with robbery and accessory to murder received 15 to 30 years in prison for manslaughter is the ultimate selfish act. Solving it is the opposite. Only through close interaction between scientists and investigators can the murderers be caught and justice served.