In The Camera's Eye | FULL EPISODE | The New Detectives

A store employee is killed during a robbery in Tennessee when the suspect claims it was an accident. Police turned to forensic examiners to prove cold-blooded murder. Two people are found brutally murdered in a boarding house in Albany, New York, in order to capture the killer investigators trust. technology of the century in Louisiana a fisherman discovers the body of a murdered woman a footprint left in blood is the investigators' only clue to the identity of her killer when there are no witnesses to a murder the police must find other ways to solve her case but unseen no longer means unobserved and The Killers find themselves caught in the eye of the

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Some of the names have been changed in the early morning hours of July 2, 1995. Police in Chattanooga, Tennessee, received a 9-1-1 call. A man had discovered the bullet-riddled body of a store clerk inside a local gas station, investigators and forensic technicians from the Chattanooga Police Department responded to the scene in the back warehouse. Detectives located the male victim, the manager later identified him as employee Lenny King, 34, who had been shot. in the arm and twice in the chest with a large-caliber weapon that had been fired at close range, investigators found handcuffs locked in the sink next to the victim's body as technicians began processing the scene for evidence, found blood stains on the outside of the door leading into the storage room, examiners determined the blood came from the victim.

The team then headed to the service area of ​​the store. The cash register and safe had been cleaned. The homicide appeared to be the result of a robbery gone wrong. The murderer. He had taken more than two thousand dollars, but technicians could not locate any fingerprints left by the thief. Investigators hope the store's security

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s can provide some clues when the manager played the surveillance tape. Investigators realized the suspect had been caught on video entering. In the store and while the manager saw images of the cash register and the safe being cleaned, he thought he recognized the thief.

He looked like a former employee named Jason Rhodes. The manager pulled out his files looking for more information based on the 22-year-old's employment records. He only worked at the store for a few weeks and had been trained by the victim, Lenny King, according to the manager. Lenny King was a well-liked and valued employee who treated everyone with kindness, but King had complained that Jason Rhodes was lazy and inattentive and Jason did not take the job very seriously after his training period ended, Jason He only showed up for work once and then resigned from the police station.

Detectives reviewed the surveillance video again, the tape consisting of a series of photographs taken every two seconds displayed images simultaneously. From the store's two security cameras, as they watched the frame-by-frame footage, they noticed that the suspect was brandishing what appeared to be a .357 revolver as he entered the store, but a date and time stamp on the video obscured the image. of the victim being The gunman approached the gunman and forced him into the storage room and the room where the victim was killed was out of camera range. Investigators were able to print a clear image of the gunman to confirm the killer's identity.

Police showed a photo of the suspect to Jason Rhodes. The father, heartbroken by what he saw, Mr. Rhodes positively identified the man in the photo as his son when asked if he knew the current whereabouts of his son. The father said Jason and his girlfriend Sonja Altman had left town the same day Lenny King was found murdered. Jason Hadn. He did not tell his father why he was leaving, but he did say that he probably would not return home. Mr. Rhodes gave investigators a description of his son's truck. The police had positively identified Lenny King's killer and, based on the senselessness of the murder, Sergeant Rodney Bowman knew it.

They needed to stop Jason Rhodes quickly. Well, we are looking for a young man who definitely had no value in life. We really had no idea at that time if he could have been drug-induced or what his behavior was. All we knew is. that this was a deliberate act it seemed to be a deliberate act and we needed to get this man off the street

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theorized that the suspect and his girlfriend would eventually contact their loved ones they began tracking all calls made to members of their families within hours That the tactic paid off, Jason's girlfriend, Sonya Altman, had contacted his grandmother and the call was traced to a hotel in Nashville, Tennessee.

Descriptions of the suspect, his girlfriend and the vehicle they were traveling in were sent to Nashville police on the night of July 3. authorities saw jason road's truck stopping at a gas station while the suspect got out of his vehicle to fill up the tank

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moved in jason rhodes was placed under arrest on suspicion of aggravated robbery and murder, get out, come on, get out right now Investigators began searching the suspect's vehicle in the front seat. Police found a bag of money containing several hundred dollars in cash. Detectives also found a box of ammunition for a .357 pistol. same type as the one used to murder Lenny King the following The day Chattanooga police traveled to Nashville to question Jason Rhodes about the homicide, he at first denied any knowledge of the crime, but when confronted with the evidence in his contra decided to cooperate.

Jason admitted to killing Lenny King, but said it was a horrible accident. He intended to harm his former co-worker; according to Jason, he entered the store with the intention of committing a robbery. He claimed that he took the victim to the warehouse to handcuff him to the sink so that he could not activate any alarm devices. But when he tried to put the handcuffs around Lenny King's wrist, the store employee defended himself by grabbing the gun, he fell to the ground, several shots were fired and Jason realized that Lenny had been hit, he didn't know what was going on. to pass, he panicked, grabbed the money and fled the scene, even though Jason Rhodes had confessed to killing Lenny King inside the warehouse.

Investigators didn't believe the story. Blood found on the outside of the door frame suggested that the victim had been shot long before the two entered the room and struggled, but unless investigators could prove that Jason Rhodes was lying, he would likely be tried for a lesser charge of involuntary manslaughter. Detectives were convinced that Jason Rhodes was a cold-blooded killer, now they needed to find evidence to ensure the young man would never be free to kill. Police in Chattanooga, Tennessee, have once again arrested the man responsible for the murder of store clerk Lenny King, 34, who was shot and killed during the commission of a robbery after being caught on surveillance video. the store.

Jason Rhodes admitted to the murder, but claimed that his gun had accidentally discharged while he and the victim were fighting in the storage room. Detectives examined the video frame by frame looking for evidence that Jason Rhodes was lying and that the murder had been premeditated, and then, in one of the frames, they noticed that the victim's knees appeared to buckle. and grabbed his arm shortly after Jason Rhodes entered the store, Homicide Detective Sergeant Tim Carroll theorized that the suspect began shooting as soon as he entered once we slowed down the video where we could see him Sergeant Rodney Bowman and I We both agreed that Jason Rose came into the store and shot from the beginning, it wasn't just going to the back of the store and fighting around the gun that went off.

Investigators knew if they could prove that Jason Rhodes fired the shot as soon as he entered the store. The store could charge him with first-degree premeditated murder, but that wouldn't be easy. Where Jason wrote the position of him in the video. He's underneath this whole date and time. We can't see any flashes. We can't see the gun. so our theory is that we need to improve this video where we can remove the wording or we can see a mouth flash. The researchers turned to scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory, where Ken Tobin heads the image science and computer vision group.

His expertise lies in analyzing video images to extract data that cannot be found. are easily visible agreed to work on the case the tape we received from the Chattanooga Police Department was typically low quality it had a split screen feature which meant there were two video cameras that were in the actual store where the robbery took place, both were displayed simultaneously on camera, but the camera that actually captured the shooting of the store owner had it very far away, was obscured by time, and Date stamp that was posted in the upper left quadrant of the image and didn't look very Nothing new could be seen to confirm investigators' suspicions that Lenny King was shot before entering the back room.

Tobin needed a clear picture first. he would have to remove the date and time from the video to do so. He applied computer software to the images as part of a process known as subtraction analysis. The analysis works by comparing each frame of the video with the next and then removing images that remain constant and unchanged at all times, so the subtraction process in this case the goal is to remove everything that is constant in the scene, the shells, the coffee pot, the date and time stamp that was superimposed over part of the image and leaving nothing more than, for example, on this.

In the case of the muzzle flash itself and body recoil, the person holding the gun as it was fired using subtraction analysis, Tobin was able to capture a signal on the video that was previously obscured by the date and time stamp and appeared to be the Jason Road Gun Flash Tobin's analysis had brought investigators one step closer to proving that Jason Rhodes had entered the store with the intention of killing Lenny King, but to earn a murder conviction in first grade needed to be sure that the flash discovered by Tobin's shot The analysis was in fact a muzzle flash and not an error in the video itself to discover that the detectives returned to the store to conduct their own experiment using the same 357 Magnum revolver used in the murder.

They fired the gun at old phone books making sure to be in view of the store's surveillance cameras which we shot at like a couple of old city directories on that same corner, but not in the same area where this mark of time so we fired several rounds and of course we recorded it on the store surveillance film and then our crime scene people also recorded it on video and this is probably consistent. Video of the reconstruction was sent to Ken Tobin to compare with that taken during the actual crime. Now we have the shot here when he compared the sergeant's muzzle flash.

Carol's gun in the video taken at the time of the murder concluded that they were consistent in shape and intensity. Investigators now had the evidence they needed to prove that Jason Rhodes' story was a lie and that a single frame of the video had made the difference. In proven first degree murder, we pulled the trigger. I would compare what the Oak Ridge National Laboratory did in this small section of the video to a drop or a hair of DNA. It was so crucial that without what they did we didn't have what I would consider the dna video for this case to avoid the death penalty jason rhodes, on the advice of his attorney, pleaded guilty to first degree murder and aggravated murder, Police believe Jason Rhodes entered the store knowing he would kill the employee who could identify him after shooting him in the arm while he was walking in Rhodes forced Lenny King into the storage room after a struggle over the gun, Jason shot the victim twice more in the chest at close range, left the back room and proceeded to rob the store of two thousand dollars in cash.

He was sentenced to life in prison his girlfriend Sonya Altman was found guilty of being an accessory to the fact and sentenced to two years in prison Jason Rhodes The crime was exposed through cutting-edge technology but to solve a double murder in Albany New York Investigators must trust in a 19th century invention. On the morning of July 3, 1994, Gary Lang went to see his mother-in-law at a boarding house she owned and managed. When he arrived, he noticed her stereo on the steps the mail had left. It hadn't been picked up and the back door was wide open.

The interior of the house was inruins. Then, lying on the kitchen floor, he discovered the brutally beaten bodies of his mother-in-law Josephine Zurich, 86, and a tenant, Walter Peskowski. Albany Police Investigators. The department rushed to the house. Police technicians care

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y documented the entire house. There was blood and debris everywhere. Detective Anthony Bruno was shocked by what he saw. The house literally looked like someone had picked it up, shook it, and put it back down, I don't think. apart from the kitchen table there was a piece of furniture that had not been turned over there was not a drawer that had not been taken out and emptied lying on the floor the kitchen itself was covered in blood there was nowhere to walk on the kitchen floor without stepping on blood , the bloodstain patterns found throughout the kitchen were consistent with having been caused by blunt traumatic injuries and a cane with a bloody handle found on the floor was likely the weapon used to beat elderly victims like Los Investigators struggled to find evidence that could point them to the killer.

They discovered another possible weapon on the kitchen table. They found a pot dented and stained with blood. To investigators, all the evidence suggested that the two victims had unknowingly stumbled upon a robbery. Autopsies confirmed that both victims had died as a result of massive blunt force trauma to the head. Walter Paskowski, 55, had also been murdered. Strangled, each of the victims had been hit dozens of times and the injuries were consistent with having been caused by both the cane and the pot found in the kitchen. The medical examiner determined that the murders had probably occurred between 10 and 11 p.m. the night before.

That evidence recovered from the crime scene might provide some clue to the killer's identity, detectives took it to the Albany police crime lab while processing the bloody container believed to have been used as a weapon. Detective Dean Halperin noticed what appeared to be a fingerprint on the interior wall and if it was in fact a recovering print, it wouldn't be easy. The material that the flower pot is made of is not something we have had good results with because it has pockmarked depressions and is also very deformed due to being slammed against the victims, but after it was processed with the powder, we were able seeing that we had something there, we had a print, but the excitement was short-lived, although investigators had found evidence that could place a suspect at the scene.

Not positioning the camera to get a detailed image, otherwise they wouldn't be able to compare it to a suspicious print if one emerged. The boat is small. It is difficult to place a camera and get a good photo. Numerous attempts were made. By doing that we had photographs of the print, but they were not of the quality necessary to make an identification. Examiners concluded that any attempt to lift the footprint with adhesive would likely destroy it and that dismantling the murder weapon was not an option investigators would have had. To find another way to identify the killer, police turned to Josephine Zurich's son-in-law, Gary Lange, for help.

After hearing him describe his mother-in-law, police couldn't imagine why anyone would have wanted to harm her. Josephine Zurich was An 86-year-old Polish immigrant who had lived in that house raised her family there since immigrating to the United States. She was a law-abiding citizen. Everyone in her neighborhood knew her. She was known for baking pies for people in the neighborhood. The son-in-law added that Walter Paskowski, a tenant of the house, had also become close to Josephine and the family. Gary said he and his wife stopped by the boarding house regularly, bringing food and offered to help as often as they could.

He remembered that Josephine had recently had problems with one of the younger tenants renting the basement apartment. In fact, she had initiated legal eviction proceedings against him when she suddenly moved out of the building. The son-in-law provided investigators with the name of the former tenant. A records check revealed that the man was currently working as a cook at a hotel restaurant in Albany's capital district, believing they had identified a suspect in the murders. Investigators quickly contacted the former tenant and agreed to speak with him. At first he seemed apprehensive and reluctant. to answer any questions, but when the police informed him about the murders, he decided to cooperate, admitted that he moved out after having confrontations with josephine and walter, but insisted that he would never harm either of them on the night of the murders, He claimed that he had been working late at the restaurant.

Homicide detective Bernard Santandrea began digging deeper into the background of the former tenants, but nothing he discovered indicated that the young man could be involved in such a brutal double homicide. This was a horrible act of violence that we simply did not feel. This man had this in his nature to do it now that being said we also verified his whereabouts and his place of work and it was verified that during the time we felt the homicides occurred this individual was working the investigation returned to the starting point with no suspects In the savage double murders, the case was threatening to go cold and that meant a violent killer was still loose on the streets of Albany.

Police in Albany, New York, were struggling to solve a brutal double homicide at a boarding house that had claimed the life of the owner. Josephine Zurich, one year old, and Walter Paskowski, a 55-year-old tenant, although forensic examiners had located a suspect's fingerprint on a pot used to beat the victims, attempts to recover it had been unsuccessful. Homicide Detective Anthony Bruno struggled to identify the killer, we truly had a whodunit. The people had no connections to any crime or were not criminal elements. It was difficult to determine who would have a motive to savagely beat these two people to death, other than the robbery we believed had occurred.

The police went to the public for help for two days. After the murders, a woman contacted detectives after reading details of the crime in the local newspaper. She believed her ex-boyfriend might be involved in the homicide. Around midnight on the night of the murders, the woman's ex-boyfriend, Johnny Blanchard, had stopped by. Apartment without warning seemed agitated, he was sweating and out of breath, but when she took off her bloody clothes there were no visible wounds on her body, she refused to answer any more questions and left. She hadn't heard from him since Johnny Blanchard. He was well known to Homicide Detective Sergeant Bernard Santandrea He had an extensive criminal history that included drug charges and violent assaults Johnny Blanchard was familiar to me and other investigators in the office We knew him over the years We knew he had a propensity for violence that he would be the type of personality who could commit such a crime.

Blanchard's records revealed that he had grown up in a house near where the murders occurred and it was rumored that he was currently squatting in an abandoned house located next to the victim's residence. Police believe they had finally identified a suspect in the murders, now they needed to find Johnny Blanchard. His photograph was distributed to all patrol officers in the area the following night. Albany police spotted Johnny Blanchard loitering near a downtown alley. They arrested him and took him away. spoke to homicide detectives during interrogation Blanchard was arrogant and uncooperative denied knowing the victims and insisted he had no information about the murders after requesting that an attorney be present asked to make a phone call after a few hours of interrogation johnny finally He asked if he could call his ex-girlfriend on the phone and wanted to talk to her before continuing to talk to us.

Blanchard wanted to know what his ex-girlfriend had told the police, but while he was on the phone he was heard admitting that he had stolen. a television and some jewelry from the boarding house when police confronted the suspect with information shown to him by his attorney and refused to allow his client to answer further questions, even though police had heard a partial confession that they knew would never be allowed into evidence. . In a murder trial, he still gave them a chance: the owner of the empty house where Blanchard had been squatting allowed investigators to search the property.

There they recovered a television and some jewelry that was later identified as belonging to the victim Josephine Zurich, although they were convinced it was Johnny. The investigators of Blanchard's guilt knew that his case was still only circumstantial to prove the murder, they needed strong evidence that could place the suspect at the crime scene, although a fingerprint had been located on one of the murder weapons, the police The fingerprint investigators turned to forensic experts at the Connecticut State Police Crime Laboratory. There, specialist Paul Penders agreed to work on the case after examining the print inside the boat and realized there would only be one way to get Albany police the evidence they needed to make their case.

We knew that there were some difficulties in lifting the print, as it was a blood print, etc., and it would have to be done practically outside the photograph, the comparison would have to be with a photograph, but it was easier said than done. We would need to find a way to precisely place a camera inside the pot to generate a clear image of the evidence that this print is inside the pot on the side of the pot and we would need to get a photograph of it directly from 90 degrees. To produce a life-size photograph a conventional camera was not available, so Penders had an idea, although modern cameras could not be manipulated into the necessary position.

Older cameras, could you decide to use a 19th century bellows camera built from what is used? Called a sliding rail system, the sliding rail allows the lens to be moved or slid into place separate from the camera body. The system allows greater access to images that are in hard-to-reach places. Penders was able to slide his lens directly over the latent fingerprint. Film is another key component of the process. Each frame of film is four inches by five inches, much larger than the standard 35 millimeter width. The main advantage of the 4x5 camera is that you photograph the object already in its exact size, so it already has life. size there is no question of enlarging or reducing it and the amount of information in that big piece of film to shoot exceeds what a 35 millimeter frame can give you.

The procedure was successful using his bellows chamber with the sliding rail system that Paul Penders was able to obtain. A high contrast photograph of the fingerprint inside the pot Now examiners sought evidence to prove that Johnny Blanchard had carried out the murders when the print photographed from inside the pot was compared to known fingerprints taken from Blanchard . Examiners concluded that they were identical and that I There, Johnny Blanchard was later charged with two counts of murder based on evidence that investigators believe Johnny Blanchard broke into the boarding house with the intention of robbing the place, but when Josephine Zurich, of 86 years old, and Walter Paskowski, 55, interrupted the robbery, Blanchard reacted.

By savagely beating him to death, Johnny Blanchard was found guilty of two counts of murder, depraved indifference and robbery, and he was sentenced to 60 years to life in prison. Suspects with no obvious connections to their victims are difficult to identify, but murders are often carried out by people closest to the victim just across the Mississippi state line. The Pearl River in southeastern Louisiana is known for sport fishermen as a refuge for largemouth bass on May 21, 1996 a man headed toward the river in search of a perfect spot to fish as he made his way through a small When cleaning up he discovered a decomposing human body, the fisherman quickly called the police, within minutes, officers and forensic technicians from the Saint Tammany Parish Sheriff's Department arrived on the scene before they began processing the scene, however, crime scene photographers documented They thoroughly searched the entire area and it was a disaster for the researchers.

Dozens of personal documents and letters were found scattered over a wide area. An empty backpack lay nearby. The victim had been beaten and stabbed once in the neck. Officers combed the area for clues to the victim's identity, but other than the letters, they found nothing. The woman wastransported to the coroner's office for an autopsy, although the body had decomposed beyond recognition. The medical examiner determined the victim was a Caucasian female approximately five feet, seven inches tall and likely between 35 and 45 years old. She had been dead less than a week. Last week, her cause of death was a single stab wound to the neck that resulted in a laceration of the right carotid artery.

Detectives with the Saint Tammany Parish Sheriff's Department began the process of trying to identify the murder victim. Captain David Hall didn't have much information to work with. The first thing we did was basically take a body measurement and try to get an idea of ​​what this individual looked like in a state of life. We checked the missing persons files for the Mississippi and Louisiana area and found nothing that fit. This young lady's script investigators began examining the papers for clues all of the correspondence was addressed to a woman named liz and all were signed by michael packer her return address was located less than 100 miles away in biloxi mississippi Biloxi police were contacted and sent to the address where the letters originated Michael Packer was not there according to his roommate Packer had left several days earlier to work somewhere in Alabama when questioned further he said he knew to a woman named liz, her

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name was elizabeth herdman and until recently, she and michael packer had been romantically involved, the roommate said that liz and michael were constantly fighting mainly about money, in fact, a few weeks before a of their arguments threatened to turn violent, prompting the roommate to call the police, but instead suffered violently. relationship liz packed her belongings into a backpack and left the roommate who believed liz was currently homeless but had seen her less than a week ago looking for work at a local employment agency in hopes of confirming the identity of the victim .

Louisiana police conducted a records check on Elizabeth Herdman. Investigators learned that the 39-year-old woman had been arrested on minor charges several years earlier in Florida and her fingerprints were on file when compared to those of the prince taken from the victim. The police found a perfect match. Police had identified the woman found murdered in the street. banks of the Pearl River and her ex-boyfriend, who left town at the time of her murder, was her prime suspect, now investigators needed to find him. Police in Saint Tammany Parish, Louisiana, had identified a woman found murdered near the riverbank as a 39-year-old woman. elizabeth herdman to find her killer investigators began tracking her movements in the days before the murder louisiana police traveled to the employment agency in nearby biloxi mississippi where the homeless woman was last seen alive the manager confirmed that liz herdman had been looking for work on may 18 three days before her body was discovered and liz had not arrived alone that day according to the records she had. she had registered with two men, arthur cyber and alfred huntsman, and a woman named felice fisher, the manager had seen the group together before and knew they were friends, the manager also confirmed that michael packer, liz herdman's ex-boyfriend and the main suspect in her murder.

He had signed that same day, but when Liz and her friends arrived, he had already gone to work in Mobile Alabama. Investigators were able to confirm that Packer was several hundred miles away when the murder occurred, as Liz Herdman was homeless there. At the time of his death, identifying a suspect would not be easy. She lives on the street. Anyone could be the suspect. She encounters people capable of committing homicides on a daily basis. Captain Hall began tracking down Liz's three friends in hopes that they could provide information but a background check. He revealed that two of those friends, Alfred Huntsman and Arthur Cyber, had extensive criminal records that included robbery and assault charges.

Detectives traveled to a nearby motel where Arthur Cyber ​​had recently been staying, although he was no longer there. An employee at the motel well remembered Cyber ​​where he had been staying. In a room with two women and another man, one of the women matched Liz Herdman's description, the employee recalled that after the group left, she cleaned her room, it appeared there had been a violent fight, the window was had torn and there were stains on the bedspread that appeared to be blood the motel employee had not seen anyone from that group since and they had not left the forwarding address the information led investigators to now believe that liz herdman's friends were involved in his murder an arrest warrant was immediately issued for the three individuals and the car they were believed to be driving we wanted to alert the nation that we were looking for arthur cyber and alfred huntsman and felice fisher for questioning in reference to this homicide a few days later Police spotted him several hundred miles away in Hutchins, Texas.

The three suspects were detained and transported to Louisiana for questioning. Police searched his vehicle and collected its contents, including six pairs of shoes, some papers and some articles of clothing. Under questioning, Alfred Huntsman admitted that he had information about the murder. Huntsman said that while the four friends were staying at the motel, Liz Herdman and Arthur Cyber ​​had gotten into an argument. Liz had recently gotten a job and Cyber ​​wanted some of her money to buy drugs and alcohol when she refused. Cyber ​​broke the window and eventually became physically abusive. Things calmed down and a short time later Cyber ​​suggested they all go into town, but according to Huntsman Cyber ​​took the group to a secluded spot on the Pearl River and said he wanted to go for a walk with Liz to privately apologize for His behavior at the motel, several minutes later, Arthur Cyber ​​emerged from the woods alone and covered in blood.

He had murdered Liz and the motive was robbery. Cyber ​​threatened to kill him and Felice Fisher if they went to the authorities. The hunter insisted that he and Felice never left the vehicle when confronted. In his statement, Arthur Cyber ​​denied the accusation, although he had been present at the river when the murder occurred. He said that it was Alfred Huntsman and Felice Fisher who carried out the murder. the homicide. Elizabeth immediately, one began to give up and the other pointed the finger that at least lets us know that we have the three parties responsible and from there you begin to meticulously break down the lies that they are telling you and finally you end up with the truth as an answer.

Investigators sent all the evidence to forensic examiners at the Louisiana State Police Crime Lab. It was now up to them to find a way to prove which of the suspects had brutally killed Elizabeth Herdman. Police in Saint Tammany Parish, Louisiana, had three suspects in custody for the murder of Elizabeth Herdman, 39, but with the suspects targeting each other investigators needed to find a way to expose the killer's identity. Louisiana State Police Crime Laboratory Examiners. There, forensic scientist George Shiro began to scrutinize the evidence collected from the crime scene. He focused his attention on a yellow piece of paper stained with the victim's blood.

As he examined it more closely, he noticed a shoe print of its own and realized. He realized that the fingerprint would not be enough to establish the identity of the murderer, although all three suspects admitted to being in the Pearl River and each denied being near the victim when the murder occurred. To determine who was lying, Shiro first needed to know where the victim was located. evidence in relation to the victim's body, for that he went to the photographs of the crime scene. In the photos, he observed several yellow pieces of paper, but after digitizing and enlarging the photographs, he saw that only one was stained with blood and was located a few steps away. inches from the victim's head now Shiro looked to determine which of the suspects had left the footprint began by comparing the shoes recovered from the suspect's vehicle to the shoe A footprint was found inches from Liz Herdman's body.

He quickly removed five of the six pairs, but the print on the remaining pair appeared to be similar to the print from the crime scene, so I examined that shoe more carefully and what we look for when we are. When examining shoe prints, we look for random marks on the soles of the shoes that give these shoes their individuality. Shiro generated an impression of the shoe print found in the suspect's car on a sheet of transparent acetate paper when he superimposed it on it. The bloody print recovered from the crime scene found one consistency after another, it's an aha moment, that's when we say okay, we have a match here, we have enough marks to individualize this shoe print for this shoe.

Police determined that the shoe print he left belonged to Alfred Huntsman and Shiro's findings showed that he was inches from the victim when his blood was spilled, something he had previously denied. When confronted with the evidence, Huntsman confessed to participating in the crime, but insisted that he had not worked alone. He said that Arthur Cyber ​​and Felice Fisher had taken Elizabeth Herdman to the remote road clearing near the river with the intention of robbing her, but the robbery got out of control and when Liz fought back, Arthur Cyber ​​stabbed her in the neck. . He admitted that he hit the victim while Cyber ​​killed her.

Polygraph tests later confirmed that all three suspects had participated in the murder of Elizabeth Herdman. Arthur Cyber ​​was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison. Alfred Huntsman received the same sentence to which Felice Fisher pleaded guilty. accessory after the fact for first-degree murder and second-degree kidnapping was sentenced to 25 years in prison most killers seek to strike when their targets are isolated or far from potential witnesses when investigators struggle to identify a suspect they turn to forensic examiners who can expose the guilt of a murderer caught by the camera's eye