Murder by Numbers | FULL EPISODE | The New Detectives

A serial killer is delivering death door to door Investigators search for a common denominator and find a pattern of uncommon cruelty for years A deadly predator has outwitted police as he rounds up victim after victim With each

murder

he grows bolder as authorities They become more desperate to catch him in series. The

murder

ers do not stop on their own as the body count increases. Investigators must use all their resources to put an end to his murder by

numbers

. Some of the names in this

episode

have been changed. January 12, 1990 was another beautiful day in San Diego, but Chris Burns wasn't enjoying it.

He was becoming increasingly concerned about the whereabouts of his fiancée when his roommates arrived home. Burns asked if they had seen Tiffany Schultz, who also shared the apartment. No, I haven't seen her all day. Because? Because her car is downstairs her car was in the parking lot but in the several hours that Burns was home she had not shown up the other roommates had not seen her either so they opened the door to a nightmare Schultz lay dead partially naked and covered in blood . guys call the police get someone here it's okay vern stayed with her while her roommates called the police while

detectives

interviewed burns and her roommates san diego homicide investigators inspected the crime scene One of the first things they noticed was that the body was posed with its arms outstretched and the bruises on the legs indicated that the victim had fought fiercely for his life.

She had been stabbed several times in the chest. There were no signs of sexual assault. The answering machine tape was taken to check for suspicious messages while technicians continued working. Chris Burns told his story to

detectives

. I put my hands under her head like this, they noticed that her hands and pants were marked with blood. The situation gave Sergeant Ed Patrick of the San Diego police homicide unit serious doubts about the burns. It seemed very strange to anyone that it was a guy who comes home, the house is open, his girlfriend is nowhere to be found but her keys are there, her car is there, her bag is there but she is nowhere to be found and there is the front door. roommate's bedroom that is locked, which is usually never locked and he never bothers to touch or open it burns he was taken to the police station to be questioned about the murder of his fiancée he admitted that he and schultz were having problems the gruesome murder occurred at a time when they were supposedly trying to save their relationship lately they couldn't get along now schultz was dead and burns seemed like the prime suspect.

The blood on her clothing told police all they needed to know, but Burns claimed the stain on her shirt was because he had touched Schultz after he discovered her dead. He believed the blood on his pants was his. a recent accident at the construction site where he worked the story seemed contrived chris burns was arrested and charged with the murder of tiffany schultz i can do that schultz's autopsy revealed that she was stabbed nearly 60 times while investigating this brutal homicide case the police He found out that the victim was paying for his university studies by dancing in a nightclub.

The manager confirmed that Schultz's relationship with Burns was tumultuous. The answering machine tape contained an apology from Burns for the bad time he gave his fiancée about his work. The police wondered if he had lost his temper and control for the last time. Only careful forensic analysis of the evidence could determine whether Schultz was the victim of Burns's rage. Burns's shirt and pants were sent to the lab to determine whose blood it was to better see the bloodstains. The genes were flipped when the results were positive the blood type was done the blood on the shirt matched schultz's ab blood type but I'm sure we should do it but the blood on the pants was type O Burns, his own type.

Serologist Larry Turner of the Jackson Police Department Crime Lab performed the analysis based on what I found. I was able to determine the story that Chris Burns had been telling. It was possible that it was true that the blood on her clothes matched his and not Tiffany Schultz's and on her shirt where she said he had reached down to touch her and possibly had gotten some of her blood on the shirt that was also Correct Burns' story, as strange as it may seem, could be true. The police had no other evidence with which to hold him.

He was released, although still considered the prime suspect, but police would soon regret releasing him on February 16, 1990, a month after Tiffany Schultz was found. the murdered police received another call to the same apartment complex take a deep breath another the partially naked body of janine weinhold a student at san diego state university was discovered by her roommate she had been stabbed several times as in the schultz case the killer too posed this body with legs outstretched police feared they were dealing with a serial killer there was simply no doubt in our minds it had to be the same suspect just the position of the body the stab wounds to the chest looked the same murder basically in a different room this murder occurred only about 100 meters from the apartment where the first victim was killed blood stained clothes were found on the floor next to the bed the murderer left the murder weapon a carving knife in the sink but he left something More even more important seminal fluid was found in the quilt.

He provided evidence that the victim had been raped. He also gave police their best hope for learning the identity of the killer in the lab. Larry Turner tested the evidence in the early 90s. DNA testing was beyond the reach of most labs. Turner would have to rely on older, less accurate blood typing tests. He discovered that all blood and body fluids tested positive for type o. The blood evidence cast further suspicion on Chris Burns, the main suspect who had blood type o. of the material to be sure Larry Turner analyzed genetic markers within Burns' blood and in fluid samples found at the crime scene.

Genetic markers are inherited proteins that vary from one individual to another, while people may share some of the same markers. Certain markers are rarer. and can be used to make an identification. Genetic marker tests are reliable, but not as accurate as DNA tests. Turner discovered that suspect Chris Burns' genetic markers did not match those taken at the scene of the second crime that left investigators with two murders and no suspects. They returned to the apartment complex and interviewed residents to see if they had seen anyone. suspicious. Police feared these two victims were just the beginning. 3,400 Claremont Drive detectives created a list of more than 1,000 suspects from clues they gathered from the victim's friends and acquaintances.

With two unsolved murders, police were casting a wide net trying to find their man before he returned. to kill, unfortunately that did not happen On April 3, 1990, two months after Weinhold's murder, the police received an urgent call, they had found a woman. brutally stabbed sir, you need to calm down for me if you can okay, where is the suspect? A witness saw a man with a knife fleeing the scene with his face covered by a T-shirt. The police were quick to respond. They met up with Tommy Ho, who returned from the apartment. pool and found her friend Holly Tarr mortally wounded with a single stab wound to the heart Holly Tarr's murder occurred in the same apartment building where the second victim, Janine Weinhold, was murdered outside, police discovered the knife and T-shirt she The killer was holding him while they fled the scene and also found a shoe print in the mud that they thought belonged to the suspect.

Unfortunately, witnesses were unable to identify him. The girlfriend, Tammy, basically couldn't give any description, just that she was a man. It happened quickly, she was unable to help in that area, we had a second witness who at least identified the suspect's race as a black man, the knife and t-shirt were clean of fingerprints or hair samples after three murders. The only thing investigators knew for sure was that the victims were all white women between 18 and 21 years old, half-naked, with their legs extended and stabbed in the heart. All they knew about the killer was that he might be African American because the murders took place in the area of ​​San Diego known as Claremont.

The killer was nicknamed the Clermont Killer. A deadly predator. A serial killer was on the loose. The police looked at their list of more. of a thousand suspects and of them he reinterviewed all of his African American suspects again hundreds of blood and saliva samples were voluntarily obtained while the samples were analyzed the murder continued on May 22, 1990 another woman was murdered in her apartment in downtown the city of san diego the pattern of stab wounds was similar to the previous three murders the claremont killer was on the move four months later pamela clark, 43, and her daughter amber, 18, were found murdered in their home from San Diego.

Both partially naked bodies had stab wounds around the heart and were posed like the previous victims there. There was no doubt that after the Clarks double murder things really heated up, we had politicians showing up at the mobile command post, I had detectives who hadn't had a day off in 40 days, which wasn't a problem, since You know, we just had to catch this guy, but we were back to square one. Police had a terrifying killer on the loose with few clues and no idea where he might strike next. Every day he ran freely. More women were in danger.

The Claremont killer went unnoticed. five months leaving San Diego investigators with nothing to follow the trail heated up again on February 3, 1991, more than a year after she committed her first murder, 23-year-old Linda Parker was about to take a shower when he heard noises at the door of his house. He looked through the crowd and saw a man trying to open the lock. Linda Parker fled through the back door. She went to a neighbor's apartment and together they confronted the intruders. Parker's neighbor noticed the make and model of the man's car. Meanwhile, Parker called. to police reporting possible encounter with Claremont killer Parker suspected the man at her door had stalked her from a nearby gym a previous victim pamela clark had worked out at the same gym just before her murder perhaps this was the place The next day, officers handed out flyers and asked people at the gym if they had seen the man or the vehicle Parker described.

They received a call. Someone had seen the man on the flyers sitting in his car outside the gym. The police detained the suspect. His name was Prince. The police had interviewed him. Months earlier he had refused to provide a blood sample. Police needed a sample if they hoped to compare the prince's DNA with crime scene evidence to obtain his consent. They did not let on that he was a murder suspect. They told him he had been arrested for the attempt. burglary at linda parker's house the day before investigators checked her credit cards, each one had marks of having been used to open door locks.

The prince cooperated and provided a blood sample without detectives having to resort to a court order, until the DNA results came in, the police did not have enough evidence to hold him. The prince was released but kept under close surveillance. The blood sample was quickly analyzed if successful. DNA would provide stronger evidence than genetic markers. The problem was that in the early 90's the technology was new and it could be a year before the results came back with nothing stopping the suspect, he would be free to kill again with time running against him. Investigators relied on a less comprehensive but quicker test: it would compare similarities between the sample and DNA from the crime scene.

If there were similarities, investigators could assume they were on the right track. If the DNA bore no superficial resemblance, they had to. wrong man within a month the results came back the test indicated a coincidence we were almost crying it was just incredible the emotion involved working with something and dealing with the families and all those crime scenes and it was over, the prince was located and the police arrested was now able to gather more evidence and buy more time to carry outcomplete DNA evidence in the prince's possession. There were two rings that belonged to one of the victims, the police also found shoes with souls that matched the footprint left at the crime scene.

Hey, what's going on? Although the police would never know what triggered his homicidal rage, they had a good idea of ​​how his crimes evolved after he honed his craft as a thief, expanded his repertoire to include assault, rape and murder, caught his victims in the gym and pool knowing that shortly after entering their apartments they would be vulnerable while they showered, the prince would break into their apartment, assault them, and stab them. based on evidence gathered at the scenes the prince was found guilty of six murders awaiting execution in san quentin cleofas the prince actively sought out his victims other serial killers wait for their prey to come to them on may 3, 1983 in san francisco Two 55-gallon barrels were found In Golden Gate Park, police were called to the scene by two hikers who reported a foul odor coming from the barrels.

Police suspected they might contain human remains. They wrapped them in plastic and sealed the lids with cement, but one of them was leaking. They were taken to police headquarters. where an x-ray was taken before opening them so as not to alter any evidence within the x-rays were sent to doctor boyd stevens, chief medical examiner for the city and county of san francisco, one of the barrels had two bodies and that was evident by two complete skeletons, including skulls and vertebral columns, etc. One of the barrels had a body. We couldn't tell the sex at that time, but we could see that there were dental fillings, metallic material consistent with bullet fragments or jackets. in addition to identifying personal items such as rings or earrings, etc.

Now that they knew there were human remains inside the barrels, investigators had to determine how they got there. Technicians took their time looking for any clues the killer might have left. Kenneth Moses. An inspector from the San Francisco crime lab began by examining the outside of the barrels. I expected You might find some type of printing on the packaging or the tape, but cleaning fingerprints from the tape can be tricky. Powder won't work because it sticks to everything and most fingerprint chemicals dissolve the adhesive and destroy the print. Moisés tried an experiment combining a dark blue. dyeing an antibiotic and water prepared a dye called crystal violet.

He hoped that when the tape was dipped in the solution, the antibiotic would adhere to the protein left in a fingerprint, staining it purple after 14 hours of work slowly processing each strip of tape as it went. It came off, we finally went down about 15 or 20 layers of tape to the last layer, now there are no prints, none of those hundreds of meters of tape we finally removed the last piece of tape, placed it on the purple glass and poof! This beautiful one comes. A simple magnifying glass revealed another crucial discovery: the killer presumably left a clear fingerprint in the fresh cement while he sealed one of the barrels.

A synthetic polymer was mixed and care

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y spread over the print, when it dried it formed a near perfect mold which was then used to make a record of the impression on paper, after four days of gathering everything they could from the outside of the barrel, The researchers were ready to open them. One of them found the bodies of two naked women who had been tied together. The women were later identified through their fingerprints as Glenda Wheatley and Paula Rodriguez Two prostitutes Rodriguez worked for Thomas Michaels Identified as the male victim dressed in the other barrel Each had been shot in the head The victims had been identified but The identity of his killer remained a mystery.

Police spoke to friends of the victims, but none could shed light on who could have done this. Investigators also searched for the prince but found no matches three months after the barrels were found. A man driving down a rural road in San Mateo County, California, just outside San Francisco made an equally gruesome discovery. He immediately called the police. He led them to a bound female body with what appeared to be a gunshot wound to the head. A shadowy trail of torn clothing marked the horrible scene. Detective Sergeant Robert Morse deduced what it meant she had nylon.

A rope extended from both ankles and it looked like she had been drugged along the way and then we measured the distance and she had actually been dragged for 1.9 miles. The entire area was secured and each piece of evidence care

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y scored a garbage bag. she was found near the probable starting point of the brutal dragon the first task after collecting all the evidence was to identify the victim the detectives checked her fingerprints she was identified as marsha geary a prostitute from oakland california now the police knew her name the next day The question was how he died.

The autopsy revealed that she had been shot in the back of the head. The trajectory was downward approximately 45 degrees. The entry wound had an oblong shape, which is a bit unusual. The nylon-coated .38 caliber bullet was recovered from the victim. It was also unusual that he did not have any of the lands and grooves that a gun barrel usually etchs into a bullet as it passes through. Police were baffled by what type of gun could have fired the fatal shot. The trash bag from the crime scene was closely examined for fingerprints. and other traces of evidence the bag was tested with cyanoacrylate or super glue when heated the chemical fumes adhere to the prints making them visible a latent print was discovered that was too large to belong to the victim all investigators needed was a suspect to compare the print to thank him, the police questioned marsha geary's friends and family to find out where she had been and with whom, her father said that the last time he saw her she would ask him for money, he told him that she was trying to find a job and I ask. would he help her get a car the police also found out from her friends that she was planning to spend the weekend with a man thank you thank you for now her identity remained a mystery the day after marsha geary's body was found catherine barrett was discovered in a san francisco pool dive she had been tortured and stabbed to death her body was wrapped in plastic metal shavings were recovered from the wrapping while police were investigating this latest murder they received a tip from a man named raleigh hill, The owner of Marsha Geary's Apartment Hill told police that Geary was planning to see a man named Jack over the weekend.

Hill didn't know Jack's last name but he knew that he lived in a warehouse. What did he tell you about Jack? Only he was going to see it. He said that on two occasions he left Geary there for dates. Hill gave police the address which was 20 miles from where Geary's body was found, where Jack lives, yeah okay get there and where okay take your team members, the warehouse served as offices of anthony electric an electrical contracting company owned by a former police officer named anthony john sullivan we have explained that you already better known as jack do you have any other questions about this?

Well, investigators also learned that Catherine Barrett's friends are the most recent. The victim told them the day before her body was found that she was going to Anthony Electric. The news piqued their interest. The information gave them enough for a search warrant for the warehouse they were about to discover the shocking truth about jack sully a homicide investigation led to an electrical contractor's warehouse where two murdered prostitutes were last reported to have been a woman dressed in a tutu greeted the police at the door led them to a small apartment in the back of the warehouse among the trash of drug paraphernalia the police confronted a partially disoriented jack sully dressed as they explored the room the strange scene turned grotesque cocaine well, at the same time Entering this apartment one has the feeling that it is almost like a torture chamber.

He had a hook in the ceiling. Can you explain these things? He had several ropes around him. It had video tapes of pornography and sadism and you just had the feeling that it was a horrible place. In a preliminary search of the apartment and surrounding warehouse, police found several important pieces of evidence, including a gun with the barrel removed that contained nylon-coated bullets. like the one who killed marsha gear, if this man needs to be arrested, a gun without a barrel could explain the strange oblong shape of the victim's uterus, since a bullet fired from there would tend to be unstable and fall instead of going straight Yes We can't afford to have Jack Sully arrested and charged with the murder of Marsha Geary.

The warehouse was now a crime scene and, subject to a full-blown forensic investigation, we photographed virtually every inch, we covered every inch and we're happy we did it because we got a lot of evidence of it. Anything in here, among their fines, were metal shavings and nylon ropes like those found at crime scenes. Investigators also found a lot of blood. The warehouse seemed to be a grim chamber of horrors. inner sanctum for unspeakable acts of torture and cruelty with jack sully behind bars the police began asking his acquaintances what they knew about him and learned that he had bragged about killing three people, putting them in barrels and dumping them in the park golden gate now that a suspect was finally in custody investigators were able to compare his prints to those taken from the barrels of the unsolved triple murder as soon as he received samples from prince kenneth moses de sully knew the results i took a look at the prince and believe me, i knew those princes by heart the moment i saw sally's prince i knew this was the guy sully was accused of the murders of the victims found in golden gate park the police also got his prints and they compared them to the print removed from the garbage bag found where marsha geary's body had been dragged the prince in the end an insurmountable pile of forensic evidence was found against jack sully metal shavings found in his warehouse matching shavings found on the body of his second victim the sheet of plastic found around the man's body sealed in one of the 55 gallon barrels matched the sheets found in Jack Sully's truck during the investigation.

Sully's pattern of violence became evident under the influence of free cocaine. He picked up prostitutes when they arrived at his warehouse. He subjected them to prolonged periods of beatings and sexual abuse. he finally murdered them. Forensics linked him to five victims, but other evidence showed that he had killed six on June 3, 1986. Anthony John Sully was convicted of six counts of murder and sentenced to death in California. Serial killers follow no apparent rules except one to blend in with everyone else On June 28, 1989 in Riverside, California, two construction workers stopped on the side of the road to have lunch, but then noticed the body of a woman which lay at the bottom of an embankment.

Officers and forensic technicians from the Riverside County Sheriff's Office responded to their call. The victim was dressed in shorts and a Western-style men's shirt. A towel covered her body. She had no identification. The autopsy revealed that the woman was strangled to the point of death. Death, a search of the fingerprint file identified her as Tara Biggs, a 28-year-old prostitute. Evidence What was collected from the crime scene was sent to the crime laboratory of the California Department of Justice. The researchers found little more than a few assorted fibers. Whoever killed this woman didn't leave much evidence on December 13, 1989 in Riverside, California another female victim, Pamela Martin, was discovered on a rural road she appeared to have been murdered elsewhere repaired and left there like the woman found six months before she was also a prostitute there were other similarities the police found fibers similar to those found on the first victim they also found tire tracks photographs were taken for examination in the laboratory the photographs were enlarged to actual size the tread pattern and the Scuff marks would be unique to the killer's vehicle.

Criminalists identified two different brands of tires and determined that the killer was likely driving a truck or van with an alignment problem that caused the front tires to wear out faster than the rear tires. Similarities between the crime scenes linked the two murders to a single killer and it wasn't over yet. In the 16 monthsFollowing the discovery of the first victim, six more prostitutes were found murdered in and around Riverside. The tire information proved invaluable according to Steve Sakovsky of the California Department of Justice crime lab, as subsequent victims were found, we were armed with the information of what type of tire tracks we would be looking for and that would be one of the first things .

We were able to see if this is actually another series in the series that was developing when area police departments got together to compare forensic evidence and realized that along with tire tracks, hair and fiber evidence was consistent , gray and red fibers, threads and pieces of gold. Ropes were found on most of the bodies, these fibers raised from the victims literally tying the murders together. We were able to determine that, in fact, it seemed that we had the same suspicious environment from one victim to the next and really what that meant for the investigation was that it seemed that we did in fact have a serial killer with each new murder the killer became bolder and more sadistic police found the body of another prostitute laura mills in a grove stabbed and strangled a peeled and partially eaten grapefruit lay near this The strange details gave police an idea of ​​the type of monster they were dealing with, according to the lead investigator Bob Creed, to what extent could he have murdered this person, strangled this person, stabbed this person and then stood here and ate a grapefruit, we felt like this was telling you.

We tell something about the emotional makeup of this person we were looking for. The police seemed no closer to finding it in 1991. 10 prostitutes had been murdered and several had been repaired and abandoned in rural areas. The only clues to the killer's identity were the fibers, the hairs and the tire. The footprints he left behind, but no suspects, this evidence was of no use, since the victims were prostitutes and drug users. Police questioned the women who worked in the red light districts of Riverside and Elsinore. Men who frequented these areas were investigated as possible suspects. A woman provided a description of a man who had abused her.

A sketch was made from her description. It was distributed but no leads emerged. Investigators hoped to have better luck focusing on the killer's vehicle. The tires left their unique tracks at each scene. crime and the interior may have provided the fibers found on the victims, if investigators could find his vehicle they could find the killer, so we advise investigators to look for a vehicle with a certain type of tires. We advised them that they may be looking for a vehicle that had gray interior carpet. find some rope fibers, they could also find other things in the van that had gold fibers because we found a predominance of gold type fibers, maybe some blanket type sleeping bag in that line because of the type of fibers we found in many of the victims.

At the scene of a previous crime, police found the prince's tread of a popular tennis shoe near the victim. As the killing spree continued, forensic technicians began to see the same prince as the tread of the sneakers tennis shoes continued to rise, the tread showed increasing wear, as did the tire tracks found. As scenes changed as individual tires wore unevenly and had to be replaced in January 1991, detectives from several area agencies met to create a task force in July, with no end in sight, A behavioral scientist was brought in to study the crimes and create a profile. of the killer since serial killers rarely kill Outside of his race, the profile described a white man between 35 and 40 years old.

The police profile and other news of the serial murders filled the newspapers. It appeared that the suspect himself was following up on the report, as the next victim was Tracy O'Donnell. who had been stabbed, strangled, posed and mutilated, although she shared these similarities with most of the other victims, one thing made her unique: she was African American, she read in the newspaper that the serial killer remains within her own race and, without However, it came out. and he found this black prostitute and killed her, it seemed like he did it just to show us that we were wrong and that maybe he selects his victims, that he is in control here, the killer was maintaining his anonymity and was becoming more defiant at the end .

In 1991, his victims were being found at a terrifying rate of one a month. Nineteen prostitutes had been discovered dead, and no doubt there would be more investigators in Riverside, California, on the trail of a brutal serial killer. He finally got a break on January 9, 1992, an officer. patrolling the red light district of elsinore he saw a man talking to a prostitute from his truck the man left turning right without signaling the officer stopped the truck the driver's name was william the officer thought his truck fit the description of the The alleged serial killer's vehicle noticed that the tires did not match and each one showed a different wear pattern.

William Suff was arrested. His van was impounded at the police station and upon close inspection, police found a gold pillow and a sleeping bag. A knife stained with blood. It was wedged ominously between the driver's seat and the console. Investigators also found a piece of rope that matched rope fibers found on the victims, while the knife and other evidence from the van went to the lab. Investigators obtained a warrant to search Suff's home. There they found a pair of worn sneakers that matched the footprints found near several of the previous victims. Officers also found Western-style shirts like the one found on the first victim and a stack of vehicle maintenance receipts in the lab.

DNA tests were performed on the knife found. in suff's van the results matched the blood of the last victim william suff's blood saliva and other body fluids were analyzed to establish his DNA profile to compare it with fluid evidence found in some of the victims in many cases It was a matching fiber from the gold pillow and sleeping bag along with samples of Suff's hair. They also matched the evidence found at the crime scenes. The tire marks on Suff's truck were consistent with footprints photographed at several locations. The records. Vehicle maintenance records were also helpful in establishing when Suff's tires were rotated or changed.

The police kept their own records of tire positions at each crime scene. When they compared Suff's records with their own notes, they found an exact match. police were able to surmise william suff's murderous pattern he would tour the red light districts when he chose a prostitute to invite his truck and drove to a secluded place he subdued his victims by tying them up so he could torture and rape them, then he killed them by stabbing or strangling occasionally dressed the victims with pieces of their own clothing so they could move them without getting blood on them. van made no effort to conceal the remains on july 19, 1995 william suff was found guilty of multiple murders was sentenced to death 12 times a serial killer's compulsion to murder never stops once he finds a pattern that works, Time and again will sustain it, but the pattern that provides its success also establishes a trail for those who have sworn to track it.