Forsaken Trust | FULL EPISODE | The New Detectives

A family vacation turns tragic when a pleasure yacht catches fire near the southern Alaska Islands as the fire rages A mother and daughter are missing as remains surface Evidence suggests the fire was not an accident in Alabama A young single mother suddenly disappears and her son is left behind while investigators look for signs of foul play. Guilt patterns emerge when murderers meet their victims. They rely on their intimate knowledge to carry out the perfect crime. Even the best-laid plans leave traces of abandoned

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between the Tongus National Forest and the Pacific. Ocean Sitka Alaska is a picturesque fishing town in the southeastern part of the state.

Its 9,000 residents enjoy a quiet life in a safe and quiet coastal community, where crime is the last thing on their minds. The air station is sick, if you have any strength, we can help. you, On June 4, 1996, business owner Robert Meyer called the U.S. Coast Guard to report an accident. His 50-foot pleasure yacht had caught fire. His wife and daughter were missing. He now connects the red helicopter. Prepare online. In a matter of minutes, a search and rescue operation. was launched the yacht was completely engulfed in flames and was sinking even in june alaska waters are cold rescue workers had to act quickly if they hoped to rescue diana and chrissy meyer coast guard officials in june notified the police department From Sitka about the accident and that the mother and daughter were missing, Sergeant Daryl Rice went to the Meyer residence in hopes of gathering information to assist in the rescue efforts.

Robert Meyer had returned home shortly after calling the coast guard. He was exhausted and distraught, he told the officer. He had taken his family on a cruise to the islands just north of the city, they left two days earlier, it was supposed to be their last outing together before his daughter Chrissy left for college. Sergeant Rice asked him about the trip and he responded that this was the most perfect weekend and it couldn't have been better, we were having a great time. Meyer said that sometime around dawn he smelled smoke coming from the console and that the floor above the engine room felt hot thinking the ship was on fire Meyer said he rushed to get his family onto the small boat and away from the flames, realizing the family dog ​​was still inside, Chrissy begged him to come back and rescue her when he returned, his wife and daughter were gone.

Meyer went on to say that there were two or three of them. his feet swelled in the waters he thought his wife and daughter fell trying to get into the skiff sergeant rice asked him if he needed medical attention meyer said he had noticed a scratch on his leg he must have gotten it when he left the boat the search for the missing women continued search and rescue captain don clooting organized members of the sitka fire department we had a lot of coverage we had air coverage provided by the coast guard we had water coverage provided by the search and rescue teams of the sika fire department as well as Boats Privates in the area followed the flow searching the water and shoreline for any sign of Diana or Chrissy, but with each passing hour the rescue workers grew more, if you are worried you can go ahead and head east, conduct a search on the coast towards the inlet. here, cover the box pretty well, we need to get it, we're calling, we're using the draw, as well as looking for the number one objective, you know, locating the Diana Christie players, which is always our number one objective that we were on. you know, search and rescue mode, we were doing a type 2 search, which is pretty exhaustive, we're looking for, you know, any kind of evidence, things like that, besides people on the beach, the rescue workers saw a red object floating in the water, they recovered the empty gasoline container, they noticed that its lid was missing, the search continued for hours, but by mid-afternoon the rescue workers were running out of options, we searched the beaches, around where the boat sank , we also search the coast, you know? from the ship we covered and recovered the areas again and again we completely exhausted the search areas the search for diana and chrissy meyer lasted more than 24 hours the rescue mission was now a recovery operation the determination was made, you know, to suspend the mission pending Later, the authorities continued combing the coasts, but now they were looking for bodies.

They were also searching for the remains of the burned yacht, most of which was now at the bottom of the ocean. Alaska State Trooper Randy Mcferrin was called from Ketchikan to lead an investigation. about the fatal accident at a briefing, mcferrin watched a tape of the burning yacht provided by the coast guard according to robert meyer there was three feet of sea in the water when his wife and daughter went from the yacht to the skiff, but in the video the The water appeared five feet while you are calm, look here in the video, the seas are relatively calm.

Okay, sounds like it's taking off from Sitka on Sunday. He was also informed about Meyer's weekend route the day before the fire instead of taking a safer route inland. his family in rougher seas, lots of open water here, rough waters, so why would anyone go out here where it's rough when they can stop by here when it's nice and smooth? I don't know, okay, that's a question like the other officers brought up. brought him up to date on the investigation mcferron noticed some inconsistencies in robert meyer's statements before they could continue a

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set of transcripts of all interviews were ordered to compare sergeant daryl rice returned to robert myers' home with the hoping to shed some light on how and why the fire started since Meyer had told him he was the first to smell the smoke.

Sergeant Rice asked to see his clothes. He was looking for any clues about the origin of the fire. We were invited into the kitchen and there is a little room adjacent. laundry room that had his clothes inside a washing machine and reeked of diesel fumes. Meyer explained that after discovering the fire he ran directly to the engine room where some fuel got on his clothes. The officer also asked to examine the 24 foot skiff, the boat was recovered from the beach near Myers Marina and taken to a Coast Guard hangar at the state crime lab. Criminologist Walter Mcfarland examined the clothing.

He used ultraviolet light to detect evidence of hair or fibers, but found nothing significant. There was a strong smell. of a summer or fuel present and our main objective at that time was to put them in containers and protect them to store that type of evidence, the clothing was preserved until they could be examined for the presence of accelerants or solvents sergeant randy mcferrin and daryl rice Examined transcripts and discovered several inconsistencies in Meyer's statements. In an interview, he described how the power went out, then an engine, then another engine, and then he felt fire below deck.

In another interview, he said the engine stopped and then the power went out in one. In the interview he said that his wife and his daughter were asleep when the boat broke down. In other interviews he said they were awake the next day. Mcferron hoped to clear up some of the discrepancies by speaking to Meyer personally. Hi, I'm a police sergeant, yes, but Meyers suddenly became uncooperative and did not speak to the investigator. He refused to speak to us unless his attorney was present. We agreed to do it later that afternoon. We did a brief interview of about half an hour with him and the lawyer present before the lawyer finished the process. interview and he told us to leave without further cooperation from the Meyer investigators headed to an examination of his boat.

Meyer's 24-foot Carolina skiff was photographed and examined for possible damage, trace evidence, and blood stains just below the windshield in the cockpit. She noticed a small red spot. the stain was cleaned and a presumptive blood test was performed the sample came back positive they found blood preliminary forensic tests revealed that the blood was of human origin now they needed to find out whose blood it was the investigators were baffled they had two women missing and nothing more and Although there was very little evidence to suggest this was anything more than an accident, the only person who could provide answers now refused to talk, the only other place to look was on the yacht and that was at the bottom of the ocean, investigators In Sitka, Alaska, they began suspecting foul play in a boating accident Diana and Chrissy Meyer were presumed dead but they had no bodies and little forensic evidence Businessman Robert Meyer still refused to talk to police or help in the investigation into the disappearance of his wife and daughter Efforts to locate and extract the sunken yacht also ran into repeated obstacles, while the sunken ship was initially thought to have landed on a ledge.

Divers and underwater cameras were unable to locate most of the missing ship's remains. News of the accident spread through the small town of Sitka. Robert Myers did not want to talk to the police, they soon discovered that many would do so at the Sitka police station. Advice and additional information began to arrive. There is a life insurance policy on Meyer's wife and daughter. Well, two days after the fire's lead investigator, Randy Mcferrin, found out about the insurance policies. Meyer had taken it out on his wife and his daughter, again for five hundred thousand dollars each. It's a little fishy, ​​you know, number one, why would you insure a teenager for five hundred thousand dollars?

I mean, she's not a salaryman. They are dead and now. You're looking to get a million dollars. Meyer also had

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replacement insurance on his 50-foot yacht listed on the policy as Hatteras, a boat valued at two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. Mcferron needed to learn everything he could about the Meyer family. Tell me what her relationship with her parents was like, it seemed fine, she was very close with her mother, one of Chrissy's friends told her that she wasn't aware of any family problems and that, as far as she knew, the Meyer family was close. especially Chrissy and her mother.

Do you know if Christine knew how to swim? When asked if Chrissy was a good swimmer, she said that Chrissy had taken lessons at school, contrary to Meyer's claims. Her daughter not only knew how to swim but she completed an advanced course. Christine, after all, this is a certificate from The Mcferron School then spoke with a temporary employee at Meyer's business. The employee said Robert Meyer was acting strange in the days after Diana and Chrissy disappeared. He did not seem upset and he had little involvement in his family's arrangements. She commented that Meyer. He had a bad temper and often yelled and criticized employees.

She had seen him fire and rehire employees several times during the four summers she worked for him. There were rumors of an affair between Meyer and one of his employees, a neighbor told the investigator. He saw an employee come to the Myers residence several times when Diana and Chrissy were out of town. He said the woman often stayed until morning. Another curious piece of information came from a repairman who regularly worked on Meyer's yacht. The repairman told the investigator that the yacht was not a hatteras as Meyer claimed, but rather a less expensive Meridian yacht, difficult to distinguish and not in the best condition.

This is the initial survey with rumors of an affair and indications of possible insurance fraud. Circumstantial evidence surrounding Robert. Meyer was rising rapidly, but without anything concrete, investigators knew it would be difficult to prove his case. They believed the forensic evidence they needed was buried deep in the submerged wreckage two weeks after the fatal fire. Meyer's clothing and the empty gas can were tested at the state. Crime lab in Anchorage, criminologist Chris Beiheim tested the clothing by placing a small strip of activated carbon on the lid of each can. The charcoal would absorb any flammable liquid.

The cans were then placed in an oven and heated to speed up the process once it was completed. Baeheim used a gas chromatograph mass spectrometer to separate the components and break down the complex mixtures. Petroleum distillates create a bell-shaped graph that can be read and analyzed. Baeheim concluded that the solvent in the empty gas canister discovered at the fire scene was the Same as that found in Meyer's clothing, there were five articles of clothing present in this case and in four of the articles of clothing he detected the presence of fuel oil, something similar to kerosene or diesel fuel.

The petroleum products I detected in the Meyer case were all heavier. Nature is not sovolatile like, for example, gasoline or lighter fluid, so they would tend to stay longer and not evaporate as quickly from the surface. Evidence was beginning to pile up against Robert Meyer, but investigators believe the strongest physical evidence still remained hidden somewhere on the ocean floor unless the remains could be found and recovered. Researchers knew there was little chance of recovery. Prove their case Detectives in Sitka, Alaska, struggled to uncover the truth behind a deadly fire that appeared to have claimed the lives of two women, circumstantial evidence suggested foul play and Robert Meyer was emerging as a suspect.

Unsuccessful attempts to locate the burned yacht left investigators without solid physical evidence and the small town of Sitka lacked the resources necessary for a successful recovery. Two months after the investigation began, State Trooper Randy McFerrin received a fax from Authority Alaska Fish and Game, we found out that a mini submarine was going to be in the area doing research work, we contacted them and asked if they could work with us for a day and they did after an hour. Searching the murky waters at a depth of 500 feet, McFerrin found what he was looking for: the superstructure and main deck had been completely consumed by the fire, but the engine room and most of the swim step appeared intact to try to save the wreck.

He contacted the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and hired the services of certified fire investigator George Barnes, based on images taken from the submarine. Barnes concluded that the best and perhaps only chance to save the ship would be to try to lift it with its two diesel engines, but they had to wait until early spring, the salvage operation was too difficult to attempt during an Alaskan winter. The operation was planned for March of the following year using a crane barge from a company in Sitka and a remotely operated vehicle supplied by the US Navy. The remains of Meyer's ship began to surface.

Extensive corrosion and water damage had taken its toll on the yacht. The ship was so damaged that we could not lift it off the bottom. There was nothing difficult to grasp. It's like picking up a stick of warm butter. George Barnes was As for the engines, the salvage crew had something to hold onto to facilitate lifting and, contrary to Myers' theory, the engines were intact. His story was that the fire started as an engine room fire and progressed to eventually involving the entire vessel when we recovered the engines. We noticed there were still considerable amounts of paint on the engines.

We also noticed that there were some holes in the hose connections and insulation in the electrical wiring that was recovered based on those observations. We conclude that the fire could not have started in the engine. room, as mr. meyer had alleged, investigator barnes examined three pieces of a swim step that were recovered and believed they would prove his theory that the fire started somewhere other than the engine room the wood appeared to be teak and had irregular burning patterns to the right or left The starboard side of the swim step was severely damaged by fire and the area closest to the ship was severely damaged by fire, but the ship itself was not damaged in that area area if he was right and the wood was teak.

Graneros knew it would have been difficult to burn it. If the fire had started in the engine room, the distance between it and the swim step made the severe burn patterns found in the wood virtually impossible because the teak wood burned very slowly when the fire reached the swim step. , the swim step would have been submerged and the damage would be minimal randy mcferrin had the wood analyzed to determine its type barnes was right the wood had teeth to test his theory george barnes conducted an experiment not only was it difficult to burn the wood as he suspected But the location of the Meyer swim pass was only six inches above the water in calm conditions.

Mr. Myers had stated that the sea level was between three and four feet at the time of the fire and we found this quite surprising, if not impossible, that this swimming passage would have exhibited this type of fire damage that was constantly submerged in seawater, eh, during these waves, the investigators also knew that without the bodies it would be difficult to determine the truth about the deaths of the women at the state crime lab in Anchorage, Hayne Hamilton attempted to extract DNA from a small blood stain found on Myers' skiff to To do this, scientists tested a new technology at the time called polymerase chain reaction, or PCR.

The previous DNA analysis required a coin-sized stain. The new PCR or polymerase chain reaction that we used required only the period at the end. In a sentence, the sample is mixed with chemicals and heated and then cooled in an instrument to break down, separate and copy the DNA double helices after 32 cycles of heating and cooling, the chain reaction of new and copied DNA multiplied from a few to billions, all with unique genetic marks. Once the process was complete, Hamilton compared the genetic marks and was able to conclude that the blood could not have belonged to Robert Meyer or his daughter, but the researchers had no way to obtain a blood sample from his wife Diana using blood provided by her biological mother. the parents hamilton was able to perform a reverse paternity test the probability that the blood in the skiff was target was greater than 99 percent in one of his first statements bob meyer said that if there was blood in the skiff it would have been his and stated that He cut himself getting on the skiff because it had an external gas tank and he cut his leg and that blood would have been his.

Mcferron believed this was the evidence he needed to arrest Robert Meyer, although the bodies had not been recovered. Investigators now believe Meyer had murdered his wife and daughter at some point during their weekend together, then doused their yacht with gasoline and set it on fire deliberately to make it look like an accident, but days before Robert Meyer was scheduled to appear before a grand juror, was suddenly injured in a car accident. He broke his neck and was paralyzed from the neck down when this occurred. We were making plans to take this case to the grand jury here in Sitka and we basically put everything on hold.

We are just waiting to see if he would survive his injuries or if he did not survive he returned to sitka to face the hearing confined to a wheelchair the grand jury returned indictments charging meyer with two counts of first degree murder two counts of second degree murder degree arson tampering with physical evidence and two counts of a scheme to defraud, but Meyer would never face a criminal trial just months before his court appearance. Robert Meyer's body was discovered in shallow water at the end of a pier after an extensive investigation, investigators concluded that he had taken his own life.

He successfully planned and executed the murders of his wife and daughter, but in the end hidden forensic evidence proved his guilt in Alabama. Investigators were faced with a very different crime scene that left many clues but few possible suspects. Birmingham, the state's largest metropolitan city, prides itself on its blend of modern sophistication and traditional Southern hospitality on the morning of May 19, 1992, a homeowner stopped by one of his rental properties his plan was to repair the broken fence of Her tenant Candace Brown had just arrived when she saw a broken window glass. He also noticed a cut in the phone line.

Concerned for the safety of the young single mother, the landlord went to the front door to check on her, but no one seemed to be there. at home. Candace, the owner immediately went to a neighbor's house and called the police when officers arrived they discovered a two year old boy sitting alone in a bedroom there was no sign of Candace fearing she may have been the victim of a kidnapping or worse Even though officers knew they had to find her as quickly as possible,

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and volunteers set out to search the In the nearby woods neighborhood, the canine unit was brought in to help find the young mother as the search continued.

Candace's home was searched for clues, although the phone line was cut and the window broken, there was nothing inside to suggest a burglary and there were no visible signs of a struggle. this baffled veteran homicide detective steve corvin inside the house we found very little evidence nothing was disturbed the house was not ransacked nothing appeared to be missing outside forensic investigators photographed and bagged the broken pieces of glass the broken window was the entry point and There was another potential lead, a detective, I think we have something here. A shoe print discovered on one of the glass pieces showed visible and distinct marks.

The newly cut phone line was also removed and taken into evidence as investigators continued their search. from the house Candace Brown's parents arrived to take the little boy they had no idea what could have happened to their daughter they had just seen her the night before Candace left her son at home while she went out for a few hours when she arrived at pick him up she asked if they would follow her home her parents said she had been nervous lately her house was burglarized a week before and she was afraid to go into a dark house alone with her son, but after turning on the lights she smiled and Candace's parents They waved them off and told

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that their daughter was outgoing and volunteered at a church ministry.

She regularly visited a local minimum-security prison known as an honor farm, where she counseled residents while officials attempted to contact the ministry. Detective Corvin talked to his neighbors once. The neighbor said she saw something suspicious. She looked out the window the night before and noticed a man in an unknown vehicle parked outside Candace's house. Although she couldn't get a good look at the driver, she described the car as a white Honda Accord. Several hours had passed. passed and searchers had not yet found candice to obtain more precise information about the shoe print found outside candace brown's house the glass was sent to the state department of forensic sciences laboratory forensic examiners analyzed the print to try to Determine the size and brand of the pieces of the cut telephone line were also examined, the technicians hoped that the particular cut in the line would help them identify the type of tool used to cut the cable and the results were still inconclusive.

Detective Corvin visited the honor farm. Candace's parents gave the detective the information. name of an inmate who was an old friend of his, the friend told the detective that he and Candace went to high school together absolutely absolutely, I mean, when that's where they met, Candace regularly came to the honor farm to visit him , the friend also said he introduced Candace to another resident. Michael Land attended two or three meetings with Candice and seemed interested in her ministry and her desire to help him get back on track. He went on to say that since Michael Land had already been released, he had asked him. to go investigate candace for him i just hope he can figure it out because detective corvin did a ground background search and found out that he had been incarcerated before with candace brown still missing and time was running out the detectives felt like they now had a potential lead and set out to find michael land detectives in birmingham alabama were investigating the suspicious disappearance of candace brown more than two days had passed and with each hour that passed the hopes of finding the young mother alive faded until now the More promising lead was a known criminal named Michael Land who Candice advised in prison Detective Steve Corvin tracked down Land who worked for a local construction company.

We told him that Candace Brown was missing and that we would like to talk to him about her disappearance. He didn't say we suspected him. Whatever it was, we just thought he might be healthy, Michael Land volunteered to go with the detective to the police station while he was being recorded. Michael Land explained to the detective how he met Candace Brown at the Honor Farm. He said they were introduced through a mutual friend. and he had developed a friendship, he also said that he went to visit her after he was released and we did it out of friendship with the film still rolling.

Michael Land denied having any knowledge of Candace's whereabouts. Well, she would come the night of her disappearance. The land claimed to have been in his girlfriend's house, he said.that he slept in his car outside his house that night and was not near Candace's, but at one point during the interview the detective noticed something suspicious while Land was talking, he crossed his legs and the footprint on the bottom of his shoes They resembled the fingerprint found on the piece of broken glass to rule out Land as a suspect. The detective asked if he could examine the rest of his clothes while Michael Land changed into jail clothes.

The detective had his history reviewed. A police officer went. Visiting Land's girlfriend at her house, he claimed that he had not seen Michael Land at all the day before and that, as far as she knew, he had not slept in his car outside her house. The shoes and clothing were sent to the police laboratory where they were examined. The clothing provided no clues, but forensic scientist Phyllis Roland found several stains around the toe of the tennis shoe that looked like blood. When looking for stains and identifying them as blood stains, I will visually examine the evidence item for primarily reddish-brown stains or stains. that might look like blood and remove a very small amount of those stains and use a chemical test to determine if they give a reaction that is indicative of blood.

The blood found on the shoes was human. Detective Corvin confronted Michael Land and Land asked the detective. to turn off the recorder he wanted to clear the air he admitted to breaking into her house a week earlier but claimed he didn't take anything and then said that the night of Candace's disappearance he ran into two guys named Tony and Edward Tony and Edward wanted to know if He knew some easy place to rob and land told him about Candace. He said he went with them but the two guys started getting rough with Candace. He confessed that the blood on his shoes happened when one of the boys gave Candace a bloody nose, but after things started to get violent, he got scared and left.

He had an answer for everything until we started showing that there were inconsistencies with what he was telling, then he would make up something to cover that up. She said one of the guys slapped her on the floor and made her nose bleed and we said, well, we didn't find any blood on the floor, there was still some hope that Candice was alive. Investigators asked Land for the keys to his car without knowing what. They may discover that the officers obtained verbal authority from the district attorney to open the trunk and were still at the police station.

The detective went to examine the car inside the trunk. They found a pair of wire cutters and a .45 caliber pistol, but there was no sign of Candice. the car was impounded while they waited for an official warrant the detective had enough to hold michael land for 48 hours while the evidence could be processed and an arrest warrant was issued they still didn't know what had happened to candace but they feared the worst because of what we had past concluded that she was probably dead, but we had no idea where to look. He didn't admit to hurting her in any way and his only connection to that was that he was there with two men the next morning.

They skipped school and were walking near a quarry on Ruger Mountain, they made a shocking discovery, partially hidden among some trees, there was the body of a dead woman. Detectives were called to the scene and photographed her body. Detective Corbin recognized the body as Candace Brown. She had been shot. Once in the head and there was evidence of a possible sexual assault after days of searching, the detectives confirmed the worst fears: a young mother was dead and all the evidence seemed to point directly to Michael Land and now the detectives needed proof. Police in Birmingham, Alabama were investigating a Homicide.

The body of Candace Brown, a young mother, was found in the nearby woods and all evidence pointed to Michael Land and detectives now needed to prove that she was a murderer. An autopsy confirmed that Candace had died as a result of a single gunshot wound. wound to the head the bullet was removed and sent to the ballistics laboratory there was also evidence of sexual assault although michael land admitted that he broke into the house he kept two other individuals attacked candace land he referred to them only as tony and edward detective steve corvin suspect could be lying, to begin with, we didn't believe these men were real when someone gives you a real generic name and you just met them and that kind of thing, you know, they're pretty fictional.

Forensic examiners made a The imprint of Land's shoes was compared to the imprint found on the glass and concluded that there was only one perpetrator in the house and the prince at the crime scene matched the shoes worn by Land at the state forensic laboratory. Phyllis Rowland examined the clothes Candace was wearing. using to try to determine where she was murdered, I recovered the shirt that was identified as Candace Brown's and looked at the blood stained patterns that were present on it and determined that she was shot at the location where she was found and in doing so I looked at her back . of the shirt and found a biological stain there that was actually a semen stain, the stain was removed and tested for DNA using the available DNA fingerprinting method, Phyllis Roland was able to match the blood found on the shoe of Land with Candace Brown, she also matched the semen stain.

According to Michael Land's DNA, the only thing left to do was confirm that the .45 caliber gun found in the trunk of Land's car was the actual gun used to murder Candace. Ballistics experts conducted tests using Lands 45. The spent bullet was matched to the one taken from Candace. body there was a match armed with overwhelming evidence michael land was arrested detectives determined that land acted alone that night after cutting the phone line michael land broke the window and entered the house then kidnapped candace brown leaving her two-year-old son still. sleeping because the murder was committed during a kidnapping and robbery michael jeffrey land was convicted of two counts of capital murder and sentenced to death when killers strike those they know break ties of

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, but for detectives and forensic investigators it is often be the evidence of that abandoned trust that helps bring the murderers to justice.