Lethal Encounter | FULL EPISODE | The New Detectives

In Tampa, Florida, women become prey to a sadistic killer and cemeteries are personal dumping grounds as the body count rises,

detectives

confront a serial killer who uses science as his only weapon in North Carolina. , A young mother disappears on her way home from work when her body is discovered, Detectives must expose a killer's hidden secrets if they want to find justice for his family In most homicides, police rely on motive to hunt down a killer, but when the killer is a stranger, the crime can go unsolved for years, a

full

arsenal of forensic techniques is needed.

To track a deadly

encounter

in this

episode

, some of the names have been changed Tampa, Florida, October 10, 1986 Detective Robert Parish received a disturbing call. A jogger had discovered the naked body of a young black woman in the central Spanish cemetery. Crime Scene Investigators were sent to the scene while setting up a perimeter, Parish Detectives questioned jogger Ron Denny said he ran through the cemetery every day, rarely seeing anyone, but this morning was different. The detective examined her body for injuries. We had a new black woman in an open cemetery here. We found no signs of any cuts or stabbings, there were no open wounds like that.

She had a fine mist of blood on the right side of her that appeared to be coming from her nasal area, indicating that she had died from blunt force trauma or asphyxiation to the side. The condition of the body looked like the victim had been murdered less than 12 hours earlier - more than enough time for the killer to get away. Detective Paris knew it would be a difficult case, they had to conduct an exhaustive search of the crime scene while photographing the victim. They noted that she was barefoot, interestingly, the soles of her feet were clean, the ground was wet, she could not have walked to this location and the investigators saw no evidence that she was dragged.

The victim's personal effects were scattered throughout the area. Each piece was numbered and catalogued. As potential evidence we found her panties, her blouse and her wig scattered everywhere when we did a search at the crime scene, the forensic team recovered a pair of women's shoes, there were also beer bottles and a packet of cigarettes, but no There was no wallet or driver's license to identify her. victim not far from the body investigators found fresh tire tracks detective parish assumed the victim had been murdered elsewhere and dumped in the cemetery the main object we found was nine feet from her head and in the soft dirt there was a footprint tire obviously made by a large tire, also, on 46th Street, here we had tire tracks coming in and what looked like tire tracks coming out of a large vehicle, a truck or an SUV made the tracks, the technicians made molds of the tread prints using plaster based on the condition of the body, investigators were sure that the vehicle had been involved in the crime, the plaster would harden in minutes, but it would take days to determine if the prints were significant.

After processing the crime scene, officers searched the neighborhood in hopes that someone had seen or heard something the night before, when was the last time? At the time of the autopsy, I'm not sure, no one had done it, the medical examiner noted pitula, a punctate hemorrhage in the victim's eyes, this, as well as linear abrasions on the collarbone and throat area, indicated that The victim had died from asphyxiation, several bones in his neck were also broken. The medical examiner determined that a large individual had used his hands to manually strangle the victim. Ligature marks on her wrists revealed that she had been tied up before being killed based on the degree of rigor mortis and the amount of insect activity.

The medical examiner concluded that he had been murdered less than 12 hours before locks of the victim's hair were collected in case a suspect emerged, it was possible that a lock of his hair was still in the suspect's vehicle to identify the victim. tampa police database within hours detective perish had a match the victim was 34 tamara jones after i found her identity i located her mother and gave her the news and i didn't get that much information you get all the information As much background information as you can on her habits, who was dating a steady boyfriend in the parish, Detective Tamara's mother learned a lot about the victim.

She had been an outgoing girl

full

of promise until the lure of crack cocaine reduced her to a life of painful addiction to pay for her habit tamara I became a prostitute, there were about four different bars in what we call the west Tampa area that she frequented and in my job as an investigator I had to go to the bars to find out who she knew, who she was dating and just do some good groundwork. You know, I found that everyone spoke pretty highly of her. Everyone I interviewed said she was a very good girl and a very good person.

Yes, but Tamara's life on the streets brought her into contact with many unpleasant characters. No. one the police spoke to was able to identify a suspect in the tamara parish murder

detectives

hit a dead end. She now searched for clues and other unsolved homicide cases not only in Tampa but also in Hillsboro County and surrounding cities. It took her a week to review two years. Homicide files looking for similarities In the end, Detective Parish was stunned by what he found. Detectives had been working on several reports of previous homicides and victims of similar types. We had other black women.

They were known prostitutes. They were found in cemeteries. They were new. They were all strangled, they had literature marks around their wrists meaning they had been tied up or a restraint device had been used on their wrists. Detectives from the Tampa Police Department and the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office pooled their resources along with other agencies in the area to form. a task force to find and apprehend a killer, but the lack of physical evidence found at each of the crime scenes and the lifestyle of the victims made the cases difficult to solve. Detective Parish was sure they were dealing with a serial killer somewhere in the Tampa area.

He was waiting to attack again and the police didn't have a single clue about her identity. Authorities in Tampa, Florida, were sure they were dealing with a serial killer. Two recent homicides bore striking similarities to a series of murders dating back more than two years. Detective Robert Parish They knew they needed a suspect, but none of the investigators working the case had a clue. All the other detectives were obviously involved in the other cases. They were at different stages, but no one really had anything concrete that we could say 100 for sure. Detectives had different leads that they were investigating and saving memories.

News reports about the latest victim caught the attention of a potential witness. A man named Adam Childs contacted police and told them he knew Tamara Jones from the Tampa bar scene. He had seen her that night. Before her body was found in the cemetery, a dark truck approached Tamara on the street, she spoke to the man inside her. The children had seen the vehicle in the neighborhood, but did not know who it belonged to, so investigators found the dark truck rang a bell and they searched. Again, eight months earlier, a prostitute claimed that a client in a dark truck had tried to kill her.

The woman was afraid to press charges, but she agreed to talk to police about the incident. What happened inside the truck, as she told investigators. A black man she knew as Big Mike tried to pick her up that night, they were talking about something about a prize for sex and then he grabbed her by the neck and started strangling her, she reached for the door handle and then he got out of the door. . She ran and screamed through the neighborhood they called the police and he had fled the sink. She gave investigators descriptions of Big Mike and the truck she was driving, but she again refused to press charges or testify against him.

Investigators reviewed her files. Big Mike was the nickname. of a tampa man named michael tyrone crump police went to crump's residence the suspect was not home but a dark truck matching the witness' description was parked in the driveway the officer photographed the vehicle detective parish then he asked adam childs to return to the station i made what is called a photo package. I took six different photographs of different trucks, including this individual who we now label as a suspect and the witness immediately picked out the truck. Tampa police believed that Michael Tyrone Crump had committed at least two crimes, but they did not have enough evidence to arrest him according to his two witnesses, they did have probable cause that these crimes were committed in his truck and the police have the authority to seize a vehicle if they believe it was used for illegal activities and may contain evidence of The Paris crime detective wanted to confiscate Trump's vehicle in a public place when it was on a public road, stopped the truck on the city street and informed the driver , who turned out to be Michael Tyrone Crump, which we needed his truck as proof of who he was. used in a recent contact with a crime when you finish processing your truck i will give you remained calm even when asked if he knew tamara jones he said they did not inform him that he was not under arrest and that he was free to go his truck was taken to the warehouse from the pinellas county sheriff's office where it was examined by trace evidence specialist timothy whitfield, as part of the search of the vehicle, we were tasked with finding any and all evidence that could be there, from things that are visible to things that might be invisible to the naked eye Investigators first processed the vehicle for visible evidence they found a woman's earring on the floor of the cabin they also found a wooden device with a piece of rope tied to it called a garat whitefield had no doubts about its purpose, it could be used to wrap victims' hands or feet and of course that is something unusual, not everyone has that in their vehicle and you would wonder: why do you need this?

What are you using it for if you're not using it? It was a clamping device hidden between the rubber mat and the tire wall. Investigators found another clue. It was a driver's license that belonged to Janet King. One of the young women murdered before Tamara Jones. Her body had also been found in a cemetery since King was a. prostitute and crump was a well-known john, the article itself could be explained, but to Whitfield the location of the license was incriminating, whether the suspect placed it there intentionally to hide it or perhaps the victim put it there in hopes of that in a few days If anyone would find anything of her in that vehicle, the team now focused on evidence invisible to the human eye.

They used a chemical called luminol to test for the presence of blood. A phosphorescent glow revealed a fine dew. The boss was familiar. It matched the blood. splashes from tamara jones's nose and face unfortunately the droplets were small, no bigger than pinpoints, there was no way to prove they belonged to the victim, there was nothing I could do due to the microscopic nature of the blood which, for Of course, it was before the days of DNA and a little more blood was needed to do complete tests, investigators vacuumed the inside of the truck looking for hair or fibers that could link the victims to the suspect.

One intriguing find was a long knife hidden behind the front seat of the truck. It's pretty cool, good surface, although I'll go ahead and secure this in the lab. Forensic examiners determined that the rope in the garat was the same diameter as the ligature marks found on the victims' wrists, perhaps one of the most important pieces of evidence was a long lock of hair, one that could not have come from the suspect. . Analysis of the root showed that it had not simply fallen off, but had been torn from the scalp. The lock of hair was compared to samples taken from Tamara.

Jones, the color and texture did not match when compared to Janet King's hair, however, they did match. Both were dyed with identical hair dyes. The technicians were sure they came from the same person, while the evidence from inside the truck was convincing. it was that janet king had been inside the vehicle now detectives needed to link michael tyrone crump's vehicle to the murders time was running out with no evidencesolid trump would remain free and more women could end up dead tampa florida authorities were sure they were dealing with a serial killer two recent homicides bore striking similarities to a series of murders dating back more than two years detective robert parish needed to connect the murder of Tamara Jones with the suspicion that the tire tracks on Michael Crump's truck left at the scene were his best hope, he sent the tire molds made at the crime scene along with the vehicle's tires to the department of Florida law enforcement there analyst Oral Woods studied the treads to see if Trump's truck had left the impressions found near Tamara Jones' body.

Woods was surprised that Crump's truck had three different types of tires two front tires had similar treads the rear tires had different tread designs two of the tread designs on Crump's tires matched the designs of treads and the molds made at the crime scene and I told Detective Paris that we are definitely at the stage that we could definitely do something with them that there were class characteristics present in the cast, as well as some individual characteristics, the characteristics Types such as tire size and tread design may indicate a specific manufacturer by carefully comparing photographs. Woods determined that the tire tracks at the crime scene had class characteristics identical to Crump's rear tires, then analyzed the molds and tires for individual characteristics, such as tread nicks or embedded pieces of gravel that they can make a tire print as unique as a fingerprint on the right rear tire, found what I was looking for, found an area on the tire that had some cuts and nicks which I was also able to find on the plaster that was poured at the scene crime I went one step further, made a plastic mold of that area and recorded the same individual characteristics.

Woods confirmed that the tire track found at the crime scene was made by the right rear tire of Feb. 7 suspect Michael Crump. He went to the Tampa Police Department to ask how to get his truck back, but first Detective Parrish had some important questions for him, like how a woman he had been seen with on October 9 was found dead the next day and why she was found dead. They found tire tracks several times. feet from her body crump again denied knowing tamara jones stated that he had been working in the area and had passed through the cemetery the night before the murder let me show you some of what was found in your truck you see that is his license and that it was found, but when the detective pulled out one more piece of evidence, janet king's driver's license, crump was shocked and felt like he had been caught, he's a big guy and he dropped down and looked down, which told me he had the license. that she wanted his license for him that I had touched a nerve admitted to picking up Tamara Jones on the night in question claimed they fought and that Tamara had tried to stab him admitted to strangling her but swore it was self-defense to Detective Trump's version of his death could not explain the restraint device and ligature marks left on the victim the evidence pointed to a well-planned mo that Crump had used before detectives questioned him about the murder of Janet King, he admitted to doing it once He picked her up but claimed she left him within minutes.

He said he didn't know anything about the other seven victims. They did not believe his explanations. Everything indicates that because the other black women presented a similar type of death, he was involved in the ones we did. They were able to link him one hundred percent to two of the homicides that were similar but there was not enough evidence for the others in separate trials. Trump was convicted of the murders of Tamara Jones and Janet King. He received two life sentences without possibility. parole the other murder cases remain officially unsolved michael tyrone crump attacked women he randomly selected from the streets but in north carolina an innocent

encounter

with a stranger ends in violence and death on august 8, 1990 a police officer raleigh north carolina police responded to a report of a suspicious minivan parked on a side street the officer punched in the license plate numbers the vehicle was registered to katie valoria, 24, an employee at a nearby hospital the night before Katie's husband had reported her missing.

The officer made a gruesome discovery inside the van. The new body of a young woman. As police cordoned off the area. The crime scene. Investigators arrived on the scene. Detective John Beasley examined the van. Indications they were looking at. through the windows there was a struggle inside the van due to the fact that his shoes were located in the front of the van his body is in the back of the van painting hoses were around his neck they had been tightened they were not knotted or nothing but they were still tight around her neck it was obvious that she had been strangled the victim's clothing and purse were missing, there was also evidence suggesting that sexual assault investigators searched the outside of the van for clues.

He called a canine team to assist the handler, gave the dog the scent and ordered it to track the dog. street and away from the van, the crime scene investigator, we, Hensley, were part of the search team, basically told us that whoever parked that van there so early in the morning, got out of the van on the driver's side and went up the street, to the employee parking lot. The hospital gate went through that gate and into an area where there was a parking space and that was significant, it seemed like the attack had started here.

Police searched the area but found no additional clues. The van was taken to the Raleigh Police impound lot where the body was removed for autopsy. I felt that by moving the van we would eliminate the entire crime scene with the body in it and move it to a location where it could be properly processed. Hensley did not want to lose any critical evidence of hair or fiber. Upon opening the van in less than ideal conditions, each crime scene tells a story, the time of day, the environmental conditions, who the victim was, what type of signature the suspect may have left, as far as the processing of the vehicle, we feel that the trail of evidence is hair fibers, things of that nature were going to be very important to the case, of course, the possibility of fingerprints or any other type of impressions that could be obtained is never ruled out.

They dusted it for fingerprints, but found only a few useless stains, the killer appeared. He had tried to cover his tracks before abandoning the vehicle. Whoever got into that vehicle left something of themselves there and then took part of that vehicle with them, so we were looking for any trace of those two criteria in the front seat. They found a couple. of the women's shoes were scuffed on both the heel and toe. A set of jumper cables was also found in the front seat. Jumper cables indicated that the victim was possibly in the process of helping someone with a vehicle problem, probably in the parking lot.

Much on the driver's floor mat investigators saw mud prints there was an impression on these mats that appeared to be that of a tennis shoe we thought it could possibly be of value to us but the mats had to be handled with extreme care what we had What to do What worries us most is that the mats are flexible if you bend them or move them a lot, you were actually going to distort the impression left in the mud, so we had to keep them perfectly flat, put them in boxes and tape them together so that that we could transport them without altering the impressions.

Technicians searched for traces of evidence. Any hair or fibers attached to the tape would be preserved and examined. They found some hair embedded in the roof of the truck. They didn't match the victim's hair, which meant they could. belonging to his killer, detectives theorized that the killer had climbed on top of the victim and rubbed his head against the roof of the truck. Investigator Hensley began to piece together a profile of the killer from all the indications that he was in the employee parking lot and therefore could be associated with the victims to some extent and they worked at the same location in the autopsy, the The medical examiner observed bruises on the victim's neck and determined that she had been strangled to death.

Locks of hair were removed and placed in an envelope. The hair went to crime. laboratory where analysts could compare them with other threads found during the investigation there was also evidence of sexual assault the examiner collected samples of biological fluids found on the victim a brutal rapist and violent murderer was loose on the streets of raleigh, north carolina, the Detectives had to find him before he could strike again in North Carolina Police investigated the violent rape and murder of a 24-year-old wife and mother with little information and no witnesses Detectives went to the hospital where Katie Valoria worked according to their colleagues Katie was well-liked and had no enemies the night of her death she left work just before 6 pm the co-worker described Katie as a devoted wife and mother she got along well with everyone in the workplace Katie's colleagues They said they couldn't imagine Katie having a single enemy in the world a colleague who left moments later didn't see her or any strange individuals in the parking lot without any witnesses investigators would have to try a new approach since the bag Katie was not in her car the killer could have stolen her credit cards Detective Beasley contacted her bank and learned that on the night of the murder someone used her cash card three times at the same ATM.

We took out dollars the first time he used it and that was all he could type at that time from an ATM, so one day it's 100, he came back, tried to use it again and then tried to use it a third time. Detectives recovered photos from the ATM's security camera, but they were too blurry to identify the man using the machine. Between the first and second transaction, another customer used the machine. The man told police that he vividly remembered the encounter: a young black man had just made a withdrawal when he arrived, but he did not appear to be finished with his business.

He was standing next to him when he took out the hundred dollars and then saw the The guy trying to use the card again said that he was acting suspicious because he was wondering why it was taking him so long. He had already seen him take out the money, so he knew he couldn't do it more than once and here it is. Up there, trying to use it again, the witness gave a police sketch artist information about the suspect's height, weight, color and facial features. Now armed with a detailed description, investigators went to the hospital. Someone recognized the face.

He looked like a man who worked in the hospital laundry. The laundry supervisor confirmed that the photo looked like 23-year-old Michael Sexton. His time sheet showed that he had been at work the day of Katie's murder, but he disappeared that afternoon. She said she returned around 6.30. He has been missing for about two hours and suddenly runs into the hospital and says that he has to go home, that he has been having car and book problems and doesn't show up to work on Thursdays and Fridays before the detectives. . Michael Sexton was acting like a man with something to hide. but they were still a long way from linking him to Katie's rape and murder.

Detectives went to the home Sexton shared with his girlfriend, who allowed them to search the residence. They collected some of his uniforms and pairs of sneakers according to We Hensley. We collected Three pairs of tennis shoes and took them all into our possession and of course they were marked as possible pieces of evidence and we took them to our laboratory to analyze possible matches. The suspect's shoes and muddy rugs were sent to the wake. county identification office there johnny leonard specializes in fingerprint analysis there is one thing about criminals: they can put on gloves, they can cover their faces with socks, but almost no one thinks about their feet because that's what you run, that's what you walk, like that I always believe that footprints are the most overlooked evidence at crime scenes.

Leonard studied the muddy tracks by first looking for class features like tread pattern, then looking for individual features like cuts or grooves, then studying the three pairs ofsneakers taken from the suspect's house and looked at the prints. I could easily tell that two sets of shoes didn't leave those prints because you can obviously look at them and see that the class characteristics weren't the same, but the third pair was a similar size and was made like the crime scene print. . Leonard dusted the sole of the shoe with magnetic powder and then, using a wide piece of tape, lifted the design from the sole and adhered it to a backing card.

The card was placed in a large chamber where it would be photographed and transferred to a transparency. Once it was developed, they could place the transparency over the photograph of the mat to make a comparison, but that would take time. They still needed to locate the sexton who hadn't been seen in days. North Carolina detectives worked around the clock investigating the brutal murder of a 24-year-old man. wife and mother katie viloria a man named michael sexton had been identified as a suspect but had not yet been located at the crime lab latent print examiner johnny leonard had extracted latent shoe prints from evidence taken from the crime scene placed a transparency of a suspicious sneaker print on a carpet transfer from the floor of the victim's car.

Leonard compared the individual features and finally found what he was looking for: there was a small cut in the arch of one of the tread designs that was also present on the known shoes, so without a doubt, we knew it was the same made with the same shoe. Investigators had evidence linking the perpetrator to the vehicle, but still had nothing that would put him in contact with the victim, while latent shoe prints are usually obtained from flat objects at the crime scene, even uneven surfaces. They may give an occasional clue. Leonard applied magnetic powder to the top sole and heel of the victim's shoe and, lo and behold, a very small portion of the shoe print appeared.

He placed the partial shoe print on a backing card and compared it to the complete one. size of suspect shoe print katie valoria's partial shoe print matched a portion of the suspect's shoe print no doubt the suspect had been in contact with the victim personally the police went to the home sexton shared with her girlfriend according to Detective Beasley Detectives located Michael Sexton. At that moment we told him that we were talking to people from the hospital and that it was his turn. Would he come and talk to us about what he agreed to do at the police department?

Sexton cooperated and agreed to give biological products. Samples for testing. Sexton swabbed the inside of his mouth to obtain a DNA sample and willingly allowed hairs to be taken. These two would be compared in the laboratory. Criminologist Tensley recognized the importance of the evidence we were dealing with and what we were feeling. We were dealing with it to the extent that the potential evidence in this particular vehicle was blood, bodily fluids, hair, fibers, clothing and those are the things we focused on using a comparison microscope. Examiners looked for similarities between two hair samples, with color, length and diameter being among the main characteristics.

The known sample taken from the victim at the autopsy was analyzed and the unknown sample from the victim's truck was compared side by side. Analysis confirmed that the victim was not the source of the hair found in the van, but when the hair from the victim's van was compared to the sample taken from the suspect it was practically a perfect match that it was not the only evidence that placed Michael Sexton in the back of Katie Valoria's truck to fully process the clothing taken from Sexton's house. Using clear tape, the technicians laid out the clothes on a wide table and combed every inch of fabric for hair and fibers.

The suspect's clothing was found in the victim's truck and fibers from the clothing were found in the truck. Investigators still needed to determine if the suspect's DNA matched biological fluids found on the victim. Certainly, the bodily fluids we found on the victim's body have the potential. for DNA analysis and are more or less a positive form of identification other than fingerprints, if you are unable to find fingerprints this is certainly one of the best forms of identification for analyzing the suspect's DNA samples. The scientists used a process called electrophoresis to separate specific samples. enzymes in each sample certain enzymes vary from person to person electrophoresis uses an electrical current to separate enzymes for analysis the sample is placed in a gel and a current is applied that causes the enzymes to move through the gel each enzyme is it moves a certain distance apart creating a banding pattern if two blood samples create the same pattern they are likely coming from the same source, in this case they coincided at the police station, detectives confronted Sexton with the evidence, he denied all as the interview progressed, he continued to investigate a little. a deeper hole for himself and denying that he knew her and I think he then started looking for something that would make him look his best.

The sexton told police he was having car trouble. He said the victim offered to drive. She asked her cousins ​​to get her some jumper cables and he told her that when he got there she agreed to have sex with him and then when they got in the back of the van she changed her mind and he knew that She had seen his name tag and everything she was going to report him to. The detectives knew there was more to the story. They believed that Sexton used her car problem as bait fueled by a criminal appetite. He took advantage of Katie's kindness and overpowered her. people of the state of north carolina were convicted michael sexton of first degree murder and rape received a death sentence and was executed in november 2001.

When a murderer and a victim do not share a personal history, detectives can find themselves working in the dark, but investigators committed to seeking justice have no proof. There is too little forensic science today to uncover a murder and uncover evidence of a

lethal

encounter.