Killing Time | FULL EPISODE | The New Detectives

In a small town outside New York City, a woman goes missing, but whether she will ever return remains a mystery to both her family and the

detectives

fighting to find her. She wakes up in a New England hotel to reveal a body of hers. A senseless murder committed brutally. Any evidence is left behind. is scarce and investigators must discover clues that most cannot see. A killer may strike in the middle of the night and hide the clues well, but the police are always there, ready and working, and will never give up when on the trail of the criminals they decide. is

killing

time

in this

episode

some of the names have been changed In the foothills of the Catskill Mountains lies the town of Wurtzboro, New York, with a population of less than 1,300.

It's a quiet paradise just two hours, but a world away from New York City. August 27, 1999 at the New York State Police Station in Wurzboro received a call from out of state. The person she called was Tony Valentine in Lutz, Florida. She said she was worried about her sister. Tammy Karen usually calls me, like I said, once a week. Valentine hadn't. He was able to contact her sister within two months, which was very unusual. She was sure something was wrong. Hi Gail, how are you? I just want to know something about you. I just got off the phone.

State Police Investigator John Jones learned that Tony Valentine spoke for the last

time

. with her sister on June 27th she is concerned because she has not heard from her sister and she filed a missing persons report at that time and asked us to check on her sister's well-being. Investigators opened a missing person case and traveled to Carron's home. to see if they could find Tammy or her husband, it was possible that Tammy simply wouldn't return calls from her sister at home. They were greeted by Tammy's husband. I would like to talk to you. They told Hal Karen about him and Florida's call. he agreed to talk to them he said that tammy had left him how karen told me that he and his wife have been having some marital problems he said that tammy really liked to party he was giving her money regularly so she could go out and a point at which she no longer wanted to be with hal al told us that he had cut off her money she got upset he said that on June 27 they argued about her drinking and using drugs and he left the house to calm down he had left for several hours when he returned tammy was waiting for him in the kitchen with her bags packed, can tim at that moment she simply left the house in a small car that could not be described other than a small red vehicle and that she had no contact with she since then didn't see who was driving the car said she had done this before but this time he believed she wouldn't come back frankly i don't respect you sir for half the marriage ended as an adult tammy had every right to disappear however she still She had to be found because we had a missing persons case, although I had no authority as a police officer to force her to return home or contact anyone, it was my responsibility to find her and report that I had found her to her parents or her husband. family so they could have some closure.

Police conducted a background check on Tammy Karen. Principal investigator Tom Scalepi reviewed the findings. Checking the remains revealed that on several occasions there were reports of domestic violence in Karen's home and it was determined that Tammy was the aggressor in each and every one of those incidents. Very unusual, not your typical domestic violence scenario. Investigators discovered that Hal had an order of protection against his wife Tammy that he was under. the military in our special forces there was no violence on her part anywhere around there investigators contacted Tony Valentine to say hello. It seemed that his sister had left alone.

Talk to you, maybe about that, see if we can. Tammy had called Tony and told him that she was tired of married life and that she was leaving, but maybe she could get some money. Detectives did not want to leave anything unanswered so that the investigation could continue well. Thank you. There was a lot of work to do. Lots of background to do. about tammy the soldiers talked to everyone who knew tammy and followed up even the smallest clues that she used to work here during the process of interviewing tammy's coworkers at the restaurant, it was learned that tammy was very friendly with one of the cooks that everyone knew.

The two were close and several months before Tami disappeared, the cook moved back to Canada. She had told several people that the cook liked her and that he had asked her to go with him to Canada and that she was considering this as a possibility that it would be a good lead, but no one knew where the cook had gone with a citation. New York State Police obtained copies of Karen's phone records. They discovered a call to a Canadian number in April of that year. Investigators needed to locate that cook. We were able to contact him in Canada and we were able to put an end to that lead.

He claimed that she had asked him to come to Canada and that she said she could do it, but that she had not returned to Canada with him, state police. We distributed a missing persons flyer in the Worsboro area and also in Tampa, the most likely place Tammy would have gone. We had newspaper articles. We had television coverage, all of which generated leads. Unfortunately, all of them did not work. Investigators stayed in contact with Tammy's worried sister. As the lead began to run out, she explained to him that, with Tammy's lifestyle, there is a good chance that she would have simply upped and moved on, leaving her past behind.

Tony insisted that his sister would have called by now. I don't think so, but as time progressed and it got longer and longer during the Christmas seasons and birthdays and special occasions. It became more obvious to both Tony and me than something that happened to Terry. Investigators felt one of two things had happened to the missing woman. returned to a life of drug abuse or, worse yet, was no longer on anything to give us life, then on March 25, 2002, a man driving an all-terrain vehicle in a heavily wooded area near Wordsboro saw a trash can that was sealed with plastic, but something was spilling out it was bones went to look for the police the new york state troopers responded and sealed the scene they called the state police forensic identification unit at the head of that team was forensic investigator miles anthony our agency responded to the crime scene at the base of this large slope.

In the cliff area next to the west side of the road there was a trash can lying on its side that had apparently been there for quite some time. There was a black trash bag cinched at the top with a green string that was tied. with a knot that seemed quite specific, the knot had an elaborate locking loop at one end and then a cinch system at the back. It was not the standard knot. It appeared that the animals had broken through the bag and spread the contents throughout the other. At the scene we observed the remains of some clothing that had been on the body there was also an engagement ring there was a 20 inch gold necklace there that had a pendant of some kind and a watch everything appeared to be feminine there was some animal activity and they had removed some of the contents and there was a trail of skeletal remains leading away from the can.

All items were marked and collected. They hoped something there would help them identify the body, but investigators were beginning to believe that after almost three years of searching for Tammy Karen they could now stop and start searching for her killer. In the summer of 1999, the state police again York began searching for Tammy Caron reported missing by her sister two and a half years later, in the spring of 2002, they found a The body in Wartsborough Woods was discovered in a trash can that had been secured with an unusual knot. Investigators working on the Tammy Carran case believed their search was finally over.

The remains were found less than two miles from her home where she was last seen. a senior NYS police investigator of a military type, most appear to be there, we assumed it was Tammy due to proximity to Karen's residence, physical characteristics or what we could determine, hair, etc., fit the description of our victim, but We were not 100 sure that our main focus was identifying the remains in the trash can and its contents, in addition to the rope, and they were not removed in their entirety and sent to the forensic investigation center in Albany, there examiners tried to find material in the bones from which to extract viable DNA to compare with DNA taken from members of Tammy's family Karen, assistant director of biological sciences Julie Pisa, when you have skeletal remains, the DNA is It will degrade, so with a bone and a tooth we would actually take a drill and a drill.

In them to get to the marrow, which is where the DNA is, we would drill into the bone or drill into the tooth and extract a portion of the marrow and transfer it to a tube and then apply the chemicals that we use to separate the DNA. After several attempts they obtained enough marrow to create a DNA profile. In this case, what we are doing is a relational type of statistics where we compare the relationship of the known sample of the family member with the profile that we obtained from the remains that make up the complex. the statistics came up with a result and we found out that they were related and it was actually twenty five thousand five hundred and twenty times more likely that they were related than not for the researchers there was no doubt that tammy karen's remains had been thrown to the bottom of a cliff now the question was the one who put it there the forensic investigator miles anthony turned to the olive green cord that had secured the plastic covering the can the cord appeared to be military perhaps parachute cord the knot in the cord piqued the examiner's interest it seemed to be unique and I decided to keep the knot in its original condition.

New York State Police investigator Jackie Tambarello sent photos of the rope and not to the US military for inspection. There was an officer at West Point who immediately recognized that it was not Captain Mark Sheehan of The United States Army examined the rope, we looked at it and the first thing obviously was that it was what we labeled as 550 rope obviously initially would indicate that there is probably a military link, then secondly, we started looking at other things in the way it was designed. and that's when we picked up the knot, it looked like there was a bowline knot that indicated the killer was professionally trained, we have one singed end and we have a multi-knot setup that basically became some kind of tightening system and on my Tenga Keep in mind that at the time this was not something your average soldier would go out and do, obviously the person who manipulated this had extensive military experience and I figured they were currently serving in the special operations community or had probably served in them before When they were away, police knew that victim Hal Karen's husband had been in the Army Special Forces.

Investigators traced the cable to its manufacturer and discovered that it was only sent to a limited number of military bases at specific times. Investigator Tom Scalepi He had his team compare those times to Hal Karen's military assignment records. Coincidentally, Hal Karen was assigned to these particular military bases during that time and had access to this court at the time. Hal Karen had moved out of the house he once shared with Tammy with the current resident's permission. The forensic unit searched. There was nothing of evidentiary value inside the place, but outside, among the bushes, they found something.

Hey, Miles, do you want to come here for a minute. I think we might have something here. We located a piece of parachute cord behind the corner of the house where it was. Trash cans were stored, the court appeared to match the cord that was in the can, the cord was brought from the residence and the one found with the body to the Army Research and Development Center in Natick, Massachusetts, Senior Textile Technologist examined both, he said. They had a constant fade. Both had four strands, two light yellow, one green, and one white, completing one piece of the filament.

The technologist also noted that the ends of both pieces of cord had been heated over a flame. They had consistent, consistent torque qualities. charring and it was possible that they could have been one piece at a time, although he couldn't say for sure now investigators were hoping that clues in the trash can would identify his killer. Forensic investigator milesanthony couldn't find usable prints on the outside of the boat. But Anthony noticed that something the killer may not have had on the side of the trash can was a colored sticker showing the name of the sanitation company that would pick up that trash.

On the back of that decal is a sticker that someone had placed that decal. on the side of the can may have left a latent fingerprint on the adhesive side while they applied the label on the adhesive there was a single latent fingerprint, the police obtained copies of Hal Karen's inked fingerprints from the military and now they needed to find out if Tammy Her husband's fingerprint matched the one found in the garbage can that contained his bones. If they did, investigators believed they were finally closing in on her 2002 killer in Wurtzboro. New York State Police investigators found a trash can containing the remains of Tammy Karen, who had been missing.

A latent imprint of the label on the side of the can was recovered for three years. Investigators believed that if they could identify the footprint they would identify the killer. Forensic investigator Miles Anthony compared the print to that of Hal's husband Karen Tammy. I was able to compare the two of them and match the latent fingerprint I had obtained from the back of the sticker with the known inked prince it was a positive match it was an absolute match with hal karen finally district attorney stephen lundgen had enough for a warrant of arrest came this case together ultimately as a result of forensic evidence and his examination.fingerprint evidence fiber evidence dna evidence they decided to arrest the suspect away from his home in case he had weapons inside they knew that the former ranger of the army was trained to kill and wanted to avoid a volatile situation on august 6, 2002 new york state police officers took karan into custody without incident i know something at troop headquarters f investigators jon jones and jackie tambarello interviewed karen still I don't think you're telling us the whole truth first he denied any knowledge of his wife's death when faced with the evidence linking it to the body he changed his story in fact I think probably in his last story he describes coming home and finds Tammy Karen in the bathroom of her home sitting on a toilet with her head in the sink and who appeared to have died of an overdose.

He said there were vials of crack around her and he was worried that if he called the police they would arrest him for drugs, so he disposed of her body. Investigators needed to check the possibility of a drug overdose. We were very lucky in this case, we managed to find. What turned out to be her liver, the liver can tell us a lot of information about her blood chemistry and we were able to use it to determine her toxicological status. Toxicologists at the forensic investigation center reported slight traces of ecoline, a chemical byproduct of cocaine. but the quantities indicated infrequent use weeks or months before death, it was not an overdose.

I believe on June 27, 1999 the couple had argued as Hal Karen originally said, but during that argument he attacked her, probably strangled her, he knew she had to get rid of her body. He fit in the municipal garbage can, he could seal it with parachute cord and plastic garbage bags. He took her to the cliff a mile and a half away and threw her down. Hal Karen was convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to 25 years in prison. Life in New York Investigators had to navigate through lies and dead ends, revealing a brutal crime that at first seemed like no crime, but in Vermont things were not so subtle.

The town of Rutland is a small working class town located in a quiet valley. in the heart of the state it's the kind of place where everyone knows everyone and violent crimes are rare on april 19, 1998 ethel de moray walked into the rutland motel where her daughter jane worked and found her lying motionless on the floor, not her. touches her, oh no, it looked like someone had tried to burn Jane, she wasn't breathing, the motel owner called for help Vermont 9-1-1, the emergency operator immediately sent patrol officers and

detectives

five five four eight respond to Iran in the main street.

Although I couldn't believe it, Mrs. Demare knew her daughter was dead, Detective Chris Kiefer Chuffee responded to the probable homicide, something uncommon but not unheard of in the area, it just so happens that we are not immune to all the other types of crimes that occur in any other place. It just doesn't happen that often, which is what we're really grateful for. When Kiefer Chaffey arrived at the motel, other investigators had secured the scene, but this case would be like no other. The detective had found the victim, she was his and my friend. I was informed that the night employee had been murdered.

Her name is Jane Demeray and I know Jane. I have known Jane for years. What did she see? Investigators took preliminary statements regarding the discovery of the body. Mrs de Moray explained that she began to worry that same morning when she was unable to contact James in his face, she called the motel manager and then went to check on Jane on his chest, it was then that they discovered her daughter's body At the counter, you said my mother did, the motel owner confirmed the story and said Jane was alone. On duty the night before investigators moved in to begin processing the crime scene, it was immediately clear to Sergeant Rod Pulcifer that someone attempted to burn the body.

We arrive at the main lobby. She was lying face up on the floor. There were several canes scattered everywhere. her, which appeared to be chemicals that had been thrown at her and that appeared to have been ignited, there was a terrible smell in her ear due to the chemicals and the flesh that had been burned despite the gruesome nature of the scene and the victim that everyone knew. You had to concentrate, you have to be attentive, you know you're going to find the answer, you just have to listen to what your evidence tells you, so you want to finish photographing the general scene.

Yeah, okay, I started processing by photographing you. Always photograph this first after recording the location of the evidence, they began to collect it systematically. We had recovered some pieces of paper advertisements on which there was a bloody palm print and what is called the interdigital portion of the palm which was an important piece of evidence next to it. The body was a small stain of blood, probably from the victim. I noticed that Jane had a cut on her nose. The killer may have stained her hand with blood and then touched the paper. What will we do?

Well, split it into one hoping the killer is gone more. traces behind dusted nearby surfaces for latent fingerprints collected empty accelerator cans near the body all items normally found in the janitorial cupboard a can of linseed oil wood cleaner drain cleaner and paint remover were flammable but not combustible, so the fire did not last long. At the reception, detectives found signs of theft. It appears that these cash drawers had been opened. Some cabinet drawers in the back office area were all open. Also from the receipts they determined that approximately 500 were missing. It appeared that the fire was not the cause. death on the victim around the neckline there were marks that would lead us to believe she had been forced an autopsy would say that more traces of evidence could have been transferred to her gloves, so investigators also placed them in the body bag for doctors to forensics will review them.

Police also needed more details from the victim's mother despite the unimaginable horror she experienced that morning. Mrs de Moray did her best to answer all of the detective's questions. Jane's mother explained to us that she left her daughter there that night around 11 o'clock. The mother came in with Jane as she normally did. The other employee was ready to get off the boat and get paid. He reported a noise complaint. Nothing unusual. It was like any other night. Very routine as was his custom. Mother and daughter spoke for a while before Mrs Moray left around 11.30am. So what happened?

She said there was nothing that could explain such a horrible crime. Jane is a very docile, hard-working person, she led a very simple lifestyle for something like this to happen to someone there was simply no reason. For another visible reason besides the money that seemed to have been taken and she may be trying to stop them, but getting within range of the burning certainly baffled us. The autopsy was performed at the chief medical examiner's office in Burlington and confirmed that the victim had been doused with chemicals and set on fire. Minor hemorrhages on the neck and whites of the eyes revealed the cause of death according to Dr.

Paul Morrow. The cause of death was asphyxiation due to some form of strangulation. The examination revealed nothing. Specifically, it was unclear whether the attacker had used his hands or a ligature of some kind. In any case, it was a horrific crime for this quiet New England town. Investigators from the Rutland Police Department met to review the case and plan most of it. crimes in the area are solved quickly we are a small community and you know you are the good guys and you know the bad guys so automatically when something happens you just start running through your head a list of the people in town who have the possibility to do something like this, however, given the circumstances of this case with the strangulation and then the burning, no one came to mind, there were no suspects in sight and the first crucial hours of the investigation were passing, that's when everything It's fresh, everything is hot and that's when you get your best clues and gather your best evidence.

Rutland police methodically interviewed everyone at the motel. I'm not sure if you saw our patrols out front, they finally found two guests who had a promising relationship. leader, there was a couple that arrived around 11:30 that night to check in and spend the night when they arrived they told us that they saw a white man that was there in the lobby and that he had come over and sat on a bench to the other side. From the check-in counter they said he was wearing jeans, a jean coat and a white cap. They described him as being of average height, medium build and brown hair, but their encounter was brief and they were unable to describe specific facial features.

Rutland police immediately brought out the press. statement with the description asking anyone with information to call him. They had the bloody palm print and now a general description, but they always believed they would find the killer with the team we had working on this. I knew we were going to figure it out. it was just going to take some time the police in this small vermont town wouldn't give up on them it was personal they wouldn't stop until they found jane's brutal killer in 1998 night employee jane demare was found murdered in a rutland vermont motel she had been strangled She was then doused with chemicals and investigators believed her killer had tried to burn her.

Investigators had a vague description of a man seen in the motel lobby with Jane. A description was made public, but their best piece of evidence was a bloody palm print recovered from a piece of paper in the lobby, Rutland Detective Chris Kiefer Chaffey took the print to the lab specialist. Coroner John Creighton. The impression on the paper was the inner digital portion of the palm and the interdigital portion is located under the fingers of the palm and what we had hoped we could do with this is highlight the detail of the existing ridge that is there. and possibly develop more fingers from that print to develop invisible fingerprints.

Creighton sprayed the steering wheel with an inhydran spray and is used anhydrous on porous surfaces. articles and reacts to the secretions of the skin amino acids that are soaked in the fibers of the porous material and the anhydrous reacts to those amino acids and develops a visible imprint on that porous article. The introduction of heat and steam from a household iron causes the fingers to react. of the palm over the inner area were visibly developed I could clearly distinguish the four-fingered prince of a right hand but there was more on the middle finger I noticed an irregularity that seemed to be caused by a wart I thought it was the aberration in the tip of the finger It was a good additional item for identification purposes due to its uniqueness.

Someone could be eliminated relatively quickly simply by entering that area of ​​the finger. Now, with viable fingerprints, Detective Kiefer Chopin could eliminate suspects generated by the press. We had a lot of clues coming in and we were able to approach some of those people and explain to them. Look, we'd like to take your fingerprints. We had some friends on the scene. We would like to eliminate you as a suspectand they came voluntarily. gave us fingerprints, but checking the fingerprints of the people called, as well as those of all employees and guests, was a tedious process in 1998, we were not computerized, we did not have an afa system, which is an automated identification system of fingerprints, so all of our comparisons were done by eye, so we literally took hundreds of cards and compared them to what was found at the scene, despite spending dozens of hours of work checking the prince, None of them matched, it was a dead end, they needed to expand the search.

We had requested the computer database search on all states that were currently in an AFIS system. We also passed through Canada. We did them with the database search. We went through the FBI and asked them to do a database search, so we literally compared millions of fingerprints and we haven't found an answer, we haven't found an ID, which tells me that this person just never got caught. They've taken fingerprints before five days passed with nothing solid, then investigators discovered that the motel owner's son had a possible lead he came up with, Robert. white guy who had worked there, he only worked for about two, possibly three weeks, he had been fired from the motel for sleeping in the lobby when he was working, he wasn't really wearing proper work clothes, he was dressed a little poorly, that's how the son of the owner, you can just call us, it wasn't much, robert white was just a fired employee with no specific link to the crime, he, like everyone else, was put in the pot and, following our investigation methodology, was listed to be contacted and interviewed.

White was not home when officers searched his apartment several times, something that was not unusual with people on investigators' lists, but he began to distinguish himself from others on the list by not returning investigators' calls. We had gone to other places. The people who weren't home initially left messages and he contacted us right away and he was one of the ones who didn't and that raises an eyebrow. Rutland officers traveled to Mendon Vermont to the last motel where White was known to have worked. One of the employees there knew White but said he no longer worked there. she told the police that White had a bad temper and threatened her once, she said it had happened the year before I knew that the employee knew White was married, one day she confronted him about the women he often brought to the motel She said White became angry and even threatened to kill her if she ever said anything about it to anyone again.

The employee believed the threat was real. Investigators needed to learn more about Robert White. They received the results of a background check on White. He had been arrested in texas for driving under the influence although for some reason he had never been fingerprinted because database checks had come up empty. Rutland police believed they had never traced his murderer. Patrol officers returned to search for White. This time he was home. Do you know, sir? Are you Robert White? Yes, he fit the general. description of the man seen in the lobby the officers explained that they wanted to talk to him about the murder of jane demare you know, eyewitnesses we just want to interview robert white admitted that he had met jane samples that he liked se He felt very bad about what had happened and was willing to present fingerprints.

He agreed to go with him to the station to give them to the prince and talk to the detectives. He was following what everyone else was doing, being very cooperative and very willing to help us in any way he could. Detective John Kiefer Chaffee had eliminated countless prints. during the previous two weeks comparing them to the ridge pattern of the prints found at the crime scene because at this point, mind you, this pattern is how I see it everywhere, I mean these four fingers, I could tell you the ridge count , I could tell you. the pattern, I could tell you the ranking, I mean, it was like knowing second nature at this point because I looked at so many damn fingerprints and compared them all when she took white sprints, knowing her was worth it.

I recognized the second finger of this pattern. It was exactly the pattern of my latency since the crime scene, so of course now I'm moving finger number three. I found the wart on finger number three. She believed he was the one I knew. I knew there was a break in my voice. She knew it. My heartbeat at this point was, you know, going up pretty fast because I'm recognizing the patterns, but I had to hide the fact that I couldn't let him know that he was suspecting something while other detectives took White aside for an interview.

Kiefer Chuffee took a quick look. It looked good by comparison, what I needed to do now was take these fingerprints to John Creighton at the lab because he is a certified late impression examiner and I needed to finish this, so I called John to let him know I was on the way and he Did'nt dared. I left until I got there after eliminating over 100 suspects in the gruesome murder of Jane Demare. Police believe they have finally found her killer. Now they hoped forensic experts could confirm her suspicions and provide the evidence they needed to put him away for good, two weeks after the motel employee.

Jane de Moray was strangled and burned during a robbery Rutland, Vermont police took the fingerprints of former motel employee Robert White Detective Chris Kiefer Chaffey had personally removed more than 100 sets of prints in the case and believed he finally had the right game when I left the office I was 99 sure it was one of the same ones, but I'm not qualified to make it 100. Okay, I think this is our guy. She took the fingerprints to forensic laboratory specialist John Creighton at the Vermont State Crime Laboratory, who had developed the crime scene. He and Prince were able to make the ID, so at that point I called the station again and said we had a positive ID.

Rutland detectives received the good news while the interview was still in progress. Robert White was arrested and charged with the murder. by jane damaray you say the cannon will be used against you for a long time, yes that needs to write some money, he declined further interviews and requested a lawyer. They held him on 250,000 bail, they would have to go to court based primarily on one piece of evidence according to Sergeant Rod Pulcifer, which I would refer to as probably the crown jewel of the entire investigation, was the fingerprint in the blood, not only did the ridge detail of the fingerprints match the white, the wart on the middle finger was the same at trial.

Prosecutors told the jury what they believed the crime scene evidence proved had happened the night of April 18, 1998. There were no signs of a struggle. Jane Demare must have known the murderer when Robert White appeared; in fact, she wouldn't have worried. once covered in white when his cash drawer came up short, but if he took money from his drawer, Jane would have tried to stop him. Jane's body was found in the hallway. She must have confronted him there, although perhaps he didn't mean to kill Jane. I don't think I expected Jane to make such a fuss, that's Jane's personality, that's Jane inside and out, she's a wonderful woman and she was very protective of the people she worked for, at one point she slammed her against a desk causing his nose. to bleed and then strangled her, it would have taken Jane several horrible moments to die.

Her blood on her hand. White leaned on the steering wheel, leaving the mark. Frantic, he got the chemicals and dragged Jane out of sight of the front door trying to hide the crime. He then sprayed her upper body, no doubt trying to destroy the evidence, lit the fire and ran, but the fire was short-lived and burned the victim's face and hands and little else. Robert Lloyd White was found guilty of second-degree murder. He was sentenced to life in prison. in prison without the possibility of parole When the killers strike, they leave their mark, but the police are there to find it and make the criminals pay using hard-earned experience, fierce determination and forensic science investigators do everything they can. to find justice for the victim and loved one. those who leave behind