Scent Of The Kill | FULL EPISODE | The New Detectives

In Texas, a devastating fire turns a couple's home into a death chamber. Investigators believe it was arson, but they'll need an expert to uncover the truth after a student in Illinois goes missing. The police fear she is the victim of a murder. The crime scene may be gone. It's cold, but at least one tracker is still on the trail. Tennessee

detectives

suspect a missing person case has turned into a homicide. To plead their case, they must rely on canine

detectives

to unearth the truth when they plan a murder that a clever

kill

er will do. Anything to cover their tracks, but not all clues can be hidden when investigators lose sight of their prey, it's up to a special breed of dog to catch the

scent

of death on June 8, 1994, around 3:00 a.m. 15 a.m. m., a pizza delivery man in a rural area.

Belleville, Texas community was on his way home after working the late shift, he saw a man pulling out of the driveway of a burning house, the driver called the delivery man, he identified himself as Charles Fitz Fitz said His wife was trapped inside their burning house. He begged the delivery driver to call 9-1-1 when the firefighters arrived, the intense flames and heat consumed the house while the fire was out of control, the firefighters were only able to fight the fire from the outside, inside Francis Fitz's chances of survival. He disappeared with the rest of the couple's house.

Emergency medical technicians arrived to treat a disoriented and upset Charles Fitz, who blamed the fire on cheap wiring running through his home as he struggled to breathe. Fitz was transported to the hospital to be treated for smoke inhalation. When the flames were extinguished about three hours later, the house was reduced to a pile of smoldering rubble. Somewhere inside was the body of Francis Fitz. Detectives began their routine investigation. about the cause and origin of the deadly fire that began with a visit to Charles Fitz who was recovering. At the hospital Fitz told him that he had fallen asleep that night on the couch.

Early in the morning he woke up in a smoke-filled house. He tried to reach the bedroom to save Francis, his 17-year-old wife, but the smoke and flames were too intense. He had repeatedly tried to return to the house, breaking several windows in the process, but all his rescue attempts failed. It was a heartbreaking story but to Austin County Sheriff's Department investigators the story was at odds with Fitz's physical condition. Condition, Sheriff's Deputy Richard Holloman explains that, based on what he was telling us, there should have been, you know , some burn marks on her arms, her face and she should have her hair up, but she didn't.

The next morning, investigators proceeded to the fire scene. Francis Fitz was found in what used to be the couple's bedroom. His charred remains were transported to the morgue. The medical examiner would later confirm that the cause of death was smoke inhalation. Investigators began processing the burned remains seeking to confirm the story. Fitz's team looked for signs of faulty wiring, but there was no evidence of an electrical source to the fire, neither the gas main nor the water heater had malfunctioned and obvious accidental causes were ruled out, a possibility remained that the fire had occurred. been intentionally provoked.

Investigators began looking for signs of arson, which is why During their search, investigators found debris with alligator-like patterns on the surface. Wood rarely burns this way unless it is sprayed with an accelerant such as gasoline or lighter fluid. Finding traces of the liquid would be the first step in testing for arsenic. However, it appeared that the fire had burned that evidence, but investigators had another tool in their arsenal. Canines can be trained to detect traces of arson that would otherwise go undetected by humans. George Cavett of the Houston Police Department teaches dogs to look for flammable liquids called hydrocarbons.

It could be gasoline alcohol. distilled liquor brake fluid anything of that nature fuel coleman charcoal lighter fluid just a big list of things that give off the same odor that dogs can detect okay good girl we got that good girl let's check the dogs started looking among the remains of Fitz's house Back here, for me, hours of searching passed with no signs of a hit, but then they found something and the place was just inches from where Francis Fitz's body was discovered and he worked on all the areas of the bedroom and returned directly to the floor where the victim was.

He was lying on top and he gave me an alert and right next to him and on the springs of the bed in that entire segment the samples were placed in sealed cans to preserve any remaining vapors and sent to the laboratory with suspicions raised. Investigators then took the dogs. to the police depot where Charles Fitz's truck had been towed, the dogs were ordered to look for traces of accelerator again. The dogs alerted the police about the presence of hydrocarbons on the accelerator and brake pedals, they were collected along with the other samples and sent to the laboratory for analysis with the help of their canine detectives the investigators had recovered enough evidence for forensic examiners to carry out a thorough analysis in the laboratory a piece of charcoal is inserted into each paint can containing the evidence removed from the seam and then the can is heated to just below boiling point for up to 18 hours, during which time the carbon absorbs the hydrocarbon vapors, then any potential hydrocarbons are removed from the coal with the solvent carbon disulfide, The resulting liquid is then analyzed using a gas chromatograph breaking down the substance.

In its various components, the gas chromatograph produces a pattern of peaks and valleys, in this case the known pattern of gasoline appeared in three of the 13 samples, two from the interior of Charles Fitz's truck and one from the bedroom where it was found. the body thanks To the accelerator detection dogs, the deadly fire had been exposed as a deliberate act of arson and homicide and Charles Fitz, the only other person in the house, was the most likely suspect in his wife's death. Police in Belleville, Texas, were investigating the death of Francis Fitz. in a house fire they believed they had discovered a murder since he was the only other person in the house francis charles husband was the main suspect travis kane the austin county district attorney began to delve into charles background fitz francis fitz's family told us that charles fitz was a boastful wilson who never really had a job, he was someone who wore flashy jewelry, someone who wore big hats and big boots, who boasted a lot and made a lot of noise about what he did. was going to do, but he never did anything through the family.

Members of the police learned that Francis, a secretary, was the breadwinner for the family even though she battled debilitating arthritis, was dedicated to caring for Charles and never spoke ill of him, although Charles rarely gave anything back. of himself in return, the marriage seemed solid to outside observers. Having found no obvious marital problems, the police struggled to find a motive for the deadly fire, perhaps in one of Charles's many failed businesses, he had made enemies, someone seeking revenge against him could have started the fire. Detectives decided to take a closer look at some of his former partners as investigators continued to search for answers.

Francis' relatives combed through the rubble for mementos of their lost loved one during their search. They found some documents that had survived the fire, among the Among the documents found was a list of foreign telephone numbers and several insurance policies. about francis listing charles when beneficiary investigators immediately contacted the insurance agent, they learned that charles fitz had recently made policy changes in the months leading up to the fire, had increased the amount of francis's life insurance and the house, the agent told investigators that Charles Fitz was set to earn $824,000 for the deadly fire, although the timing of the policy changes was suspicious, it was not evidence of murder and investigators had yet to rule out the possibility that someone who Had it not been Charles Fitz would have committed the crime, but all of Charles' former business partners had been ruled out as possible suspects.

Now investigators had to determine why Charles Fitz would want his devoted and supportive wife dead. For answers, they turned to the only other piece of evidence that survived the fire: one of the overseas phone numbers it led to investigators. a young English woman named tracy muns who lived in the philippines tracy reluctantly told investigators that she had had an affair with charles fitz while attending college in texas and claimed that they planned to marry after she graduated charles had agreed to leave his wife but Tracy became frustrated when Charles didn't keep his end of the deal.

She moved to the Philippines and tried to cut ties. Charles didn't let it go. Then in June of '94, he called her and told her my wife was gone. I am free. to approach you and she said no, I don't want anything to do with you and that was the last time she talked to charles fitz

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ing his wife. Investigators believe Charles Fitz was clearing the way to be with his lover, the insurance payout would give him enough money to start a new life abroad, although Tracy Moons had provided investigators with a possible motive they needed to find evidence of that fitz had planned the murder of his wife, spilling over the suspect's financial records, investigators discovered that charles fitz had sold his second car, a mercedes, shortly after the fire, although it didn't seem like much of a lead, they tracked down the classified ad and the man who bought the car from investigators, the ad's language said it read: "1983 Mercedes must be sold to leave the country." The man who bought the car said that during the sale Fitz told him he was not married.

The ad and the information about the buyer of the car plus the arson discovered by the accelerator detection dogs was enough for investigators to arrest Charles Fitz for murder. , the detectives theorized that Charles Fitz believed he had a lot to gain by burning down his house and killing his wife, not only would it give him a huge amount of money, it would open the way for him to be with his young lover, but he would also be disappointed for a week. after death. fire fitz proposed to tracy only to discover that she had already married someone else on february 2, 1996 charles fitz was convicted of capital murder was sentenced to life in prison for detecting the

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of arson dogs in texas led to a murderer brought to justice but in the Midwest police could not prove a murder had been committed until they got help finding the victim on March 5, 1987 a distraught father contacted the Champaign Illinois Police Department Ludwig Warner believed his 22-year-old daughter Karen was missing.

It was Thursday. and he hadn't seen her or her car since Monday morning. Her purse, wallet and glasses were also missing. Her daughter frequently spent the night at friends' houses, but she had never been away for so long without checking in the next day. Detectives questioned Karen Warner. Friends like the young woman's father, none of them had seen her in four days. A close friend told investigators that over the past week she had not noticed anything unusual in Karen's behavior. Although Karen had recently lost her job, she was looking forward to resuming her college studies. Race in the Fall Karen hadn't mentioned any plans to travel, but that didn't mean he hadn't made an unexpected trip;

In fact, Karen had recently been receiving calls from an ex-boyfriend named Curly B Lee, he wanted to rekindle the relationship. romance but Karen planned to tell him in person that she was not interested Curly had become overly possessive and physically abusive but it was possible that Karen had changed her mind during their time as a couple Karen and Curly frequently took unplanned vacations investigators at the police department Champaign believed there was a reasonable explanation for Karen's disappearance. Sergeant Jim Luking explains that she was gone, he was gone and so was her car. It's very possible that they decided to leave together, which wouldn't be that unusual. that two people decided to do that only to discover that investigators visited Curley Lee when they were taken to his boarding house, they discovered that Curley and his clothes were missing and nothing seemed out of the ordinary, but the familyKaren didn't believe it.

Desperate for answers, they urged the media to get involved in the hopes of generating a lead. Photos of Karen in her car and of Curly were published in area newspapers along with details of her disappearance. No one answered about karen, but someone had seen curly. His caller reported that a friend of his had driven Curly to the bus station two days after Karen disappeared and said he was headed south to his mother's house in Hughes, Arkansas. Champaign police contacted police in Arkansas and asked them to talk to Curly like the rest of Karen's friends. Curly said he had no idea where his ex-girlfriend might be said they had spoken briefly before dropping off champagne but that was just to say goodbye while investigators struggled to find answers the family's advertising campaign paid off a man in danville illinois a 30 Miles of Champagne recognized the photograph of Karen's car and believed that the same car was abandoned in the parking lot of her church.

A license plate check confirmed it was the vehicle registered to the missing woman. If there was any question left about Karen Warner's fate, the discovery of her abandoned car was erased from her. them that was the first physical evidence that something was wrong, it would be unusual for her to be there for her car to be there, especially investigators took the car to the police station for further forensic examination, but the initial search of the vehicle indicated there were no obvious signs of struggle, the car was thoroughly dusted for fingerprints, technicians collected blue and red fibers found on the floor mats and in the trunk, the items were sent to the crime laboratory for further analysis.

The analysis I was hoping someone had seen how the car ended up in Danville. The police again asked the public for help and again the strategy paid off. A woman called the police to tell them that she may have seen the car the police brought her to identify the woman's vehicle. Her name was Rhonda and, like Karen, she was also a curly leaf ex-girlfriend. She recognized the car immediately, the police questioned her. Additionally, Ronda admitted that she had been driving the car at the time Karen was reported missing, but she had no idea who the car belonged to.

Karen Warner told investigators that Curly had called her one night asking for a favor she needed to return a car to a friend in Danville and asked her to take it because she didn't have a license. Detective Mike Smith Curley's behavior sounded suspicious. she asked him whose car it was and he never answered he never answered and he told her to avoid certain streets and drive fast rhonda said curly then dropped her off at a bar in danville she remembered he had a shopping bag with him in The car but she never saw what was in it.

Curly explained that she had some errands to run and told her to wait for him at the bar. He gave Ronda some money for a drink and left about 15 minutes later. Curly returned to the bar Pie said he didn't have a valid ticket Later that night he had some friends give them a ride back to Champaign Rhonda had not heard from Curley as investigators suspected that in the 15 minutes Curley had left Rhonda alone would have had time to dispose of Karen's body, which was probably hidden in the trunk, they believed that he then abandoned the car in the church parking lot located a few blocks away and then returned to the bar on foot, now they focused their attention on They found Karen Warner's body and they believed she was in the wooded area behind the bar, she was only gone long enough that she couldn't have gone far to place the body anywhere else, so she had to be down there, In our opinion, it had to be there in the brush or in the brush or in the river, but finding a body in this densely wooded area would be difficult, there were no obvious graves and in the cold air any smell of decomposition had been hindered. .

After two days of searching, the team had reached its limits, but investigators had One more option, they turned to the experience of Joyce Fares, a dog trainer from nearby urban Illinois for more than 15 years at fairs and Their dogs have volunteered their services to local police and sheriff's departments. Bloodhounds like hers are bred to distinguish the vaguest sense the handler has. To start with a shipped item, it can be any object the victim has come into contact with. In this case, investigators got a T-shirt and a pillowcase from Karen Warner's bedroom and sealed them in a plastic bag to preserve the smell and then gave them to the dog.

The search command let her know that her job is to find the source of that same smell. check it out. The hound took passages on a crooked route three times he brought her near the river as if someone had carried Karen's body looking for a place to hide her and then decided not to so the dog led the fairs to a deep ravine but it would have been difficult to anyone cross this gorge carrying a body the investigators knew the body had to be nearby within 15 minutes the dog approached an area of ​​At first, Joyce thought he had lost the scent, but then, in a slight depression covered by the brush , he glimpsed a red sweater and a human hand.

Investigators in Champaign Illinois struggled to solve the disappearance of 22-year-old Karen Warner hiding in a remote wooded area Joyce Faires and her bloodhound believed they had finally found her and then I could see her hand on the back of her right hand and it was so when i yelled to jim that i wanted to come, i think that would find his body after removing the body, the investigators began. Scouring the area for clues, nearby investigators recovered a blue blanket 100 yards from where the body was found, discovering a grocery bag like the one Rhonda describes inside. Investigators found shoes, glasses and a purse.

All items were collected and sent to the crime lab. joyce fares and her dog had discovered a homicide and investigators had little doubt that they had found karen warner using dental records the medical examiner confirmed that the remains were those of karen warner and a fracture in one of the bones in her throat told him that the young woman had been strangled to death the lack of defensive wounds and other injuries suggested that karen had been caught off guard now investigators had to file a murder case and karen's ex-boyfriend, curly b lee, was her The main suspect, they went to the crime lab to Help examiners confirmed that the blue fibers recovered from the victim's clothing match the fibers of the blue blanket found near the body, then the blue fibers from the crime scene and the red fibers taken from Karen's sweater were compared to the blue and red fibers found in Karen's car trunk all the fibers matched the examiners had shown that Karen Warner had been wrapped in a blanket and then placed in the trunk of her car and the last person known to have driven the vehicle was curly b lee illinois police now had enough evidence to arrest him.

They charged him with murder, but as they headed to southern arkansas to pick him up, they learned from authorities that curly had fled again, but this time the police quickly located him by visiting the bus stations. Police in Arkansas learned that Curley had just purchased a ticket for investigators in Palm Beach, Florida. They contacted police in Palm Beach They staked out the bus station waiting for the unsuspecting fugitive to arrive Curly was arrested and extradited to Illinois in Champaign Investigators confronted Curley with the case they had built against him He admitted to killing Karen but claimed it was a accident all the evidence suggested otherwise the police theorized that curley had tried to rekindle his romance with karen but when karen rejected his advances he burst into anger, he didn't like losing anything and decided he was going to teach her a lesson.

Now, I don't know if he intended to kill her or accidentally killed her, but I think if you strangle someone you intend to kill them after you kill them. Curly struggled to come up with a plan to cover up his crime. He gathered Karen's belongings into a shopping bag and then found a blanket to wrap the body before carrying her to the trunk. Later that night, after dropping Rhonda off at the bar, he drove behind the property and looked for a place to get rid of. of his victim in an effort to make it look like Karen had simply left, he drove his car to a nearby church and abandoned it two days later, packed up his belongings and fled to Arkansas, but with Joyce Fares and her bloodhound on his trail, Curley's career quickly came to an end. b lee was found guilty of murder and concealment of a homicide he was sentenced to 35 years in prison in the karen warner case the dog had to follow a trail that was seven days old to solve a murder in tennessee another canine will have to track the buried ascent during Almost a year ago, in June 1996, Ray and Flita Holiday went to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation for help finding their 39-year-old daughter, Kathy Beedle, so tell me what you found out.

In April they said they received a letter from her saying she discovered she had cancer and was directed to a clinic in Toronto to receive experimental treatment. She said that she did not want any direct contact with them during therapy from that point on. Kathy communicated only through facts. The written messages were brief and impersonal, completely out of place. for her daughter, fearing that kathy might be going through some kind of emotional crisis, ray went to toronto to find her daughter. She got the address from a Father's Day card Kathy had sent her the month before.

As she approached the front of the treatment center, she panicked. At the address, it belonged to a rundown and abandoned building, there was no cancer treatment center and there was no clue about her daughter's whereabouts. Flita Vacation added that just before her daughter disappeared, Kathy was considering leaving her husband Tony Vic. but kathy had two children from a previous marriage to think about her first husband had died tragically in a plane crash as part of the insurance settlement kathy received eight thousand dollars a month although she had become rich as a result she wanted her children to have a father figure but kathy seemed to have fallen because she was in love with tony and although he tried his best to get her to like him again, kathy didn't want to talk to him, she told her mother that she might need some time to herself in the near future to fix things without evidence. suggesting that a crime had been committed, Tennessee Bureau of Investigation investigators believe that Kathy had simply kept her word, but Kathy's parents knew that her daughter would not leave her two children behind her. and would disappear without a trace.

Desperate for answers, they mounted their own advertising campaign plastering Kathy's image. Image throughout Tennessee but the family never heard a word In February 1997, almost a year since Kathy had disappeared, Ray and Fleeta Holliday made one last attempt to get the police involved. They contacted the Knox County Sheriff's Office. They told investigators that a few months ago. Kathy's husband, Tony Vick, had also disappeared, claiming that he was going to find his wife. He left the children and the couple's home for the holidays. They hadn't heard from Tony since the resulting financial strain forced Rey and Fleeta to sell their daughter's house, but before they wanted to be absolutely sure there weren't any overlooked clues in the house?

Sheriff Tim Hutchinson took the case once we learned that all the events that had occurred before we were notified that, first, she was missing from our jurisdiction and, second, it has been a long period of time that It's difficult to follow and start an investigation when so much time has passed, investigators processed the empty house for clues that could help them determine Kathy Beedle's fate, but since the house had been put on the market. A large amount of potential evidence had been destroyed, furniture and belongings had been removed, the floors had been mopped, the walls had been painted for Investigator Terry Lee of the Knox County Sheriff's Office, working on a clean crime scene.

It means looking beyond the obvious, for example, in this situation, the rug. It had been vacuumed and good forensic evidence was collected, such as hair fiber samples, etc., which we would normally collect, so we have to look a little deeper. Investigators examined every inch of the home and processed every sink drain in the home using luminol. a chemical substance that glows in the presence of blood Traces of blood were found in three separate sink traps, the trapsThey were removed and sent to the crime laboratory. Investigators determined that the blood found in the sink was human, but the samples were too deteriorated for further evaluation.

The analysis of the presence of so much blood led detectives to suspect that something violent had happened in the couple's home. Investigators in Tennessee struggled to solve the mysterious disappearance of Kathy Beedle, a 39-year-old mother of two, missing for more than a year after searching for her and her husband. Empty house investigators believe they had uncovered evidence of foul play, they decided to take a closer look at Kathy's husband Tony Vick, what they found was not encouraging and then we learned that Tony Vick's first wife died suspiciously . Some say she slipped, fell, and drowned in a Others said Tony had murdered her, but instead of being charged, the victim profited by getting life insurance payouts that amounted to more than six hundred thousand dollars.

Investigators now feared that Kathy Beedle would suffer a similar fate and believed that money was the motive for the murder, but investigators were far from presenting their case, they did not have a body and their main suspect, Tony Vick, had also disappeared in hope to generate a track. Details of the case were published in area newspapers. The tactic worked. The owner of a local consignment store called the police and recognized Tony Vick. The woman claimed that a few months ago a man left her a bunch of expensive clothes. She seemed sad and told him that her girlfriend had just died of cancer.

She told the owner that she would return for the check once the clothes had been sold. Was the check made out to Tony Vick unclaimed by investigators? Tony's statements to the consignment store owner had a very clear meaning that tells us that you know that she is definitely deceased, we just have to keep digging, we have to keep searching until we can find her body. To build their case against Tony, Vick Knox County sheriffs needed to know his every move before her disappearance. Investigators located the babysitter who was caring for her and Kathy's children. She had not observed any violence between Kathy and Tony nor noticed any signs. of fighting in the home after Kathy disappeared, but she was able to offer investigators unusual information: She recalled that after Kathy disappeared, the victim scolded her and the children for playing in the backyard, investigators suspected that There was another reason for his outburst than they now believe. that kathy beedle was buried somewhere in her own backyard a team of forensic investigators returned to tony and kathy's empty house they were now searching for a clandestine grave that had been dug a year earlier but after hours of searching they could find no evidence of a burial site Unless investigators could find Kathy's body it would be difficult to bring a murder case against Tony Vick and they were running out of ways to accomplish that goal in Tennessee.

Investigators with the Knox County Sheriff's Department believed her missing person, Kathy Beedle, had been murdered and believed her body had been buried somewhere in her backyard, but hours of exhaustive searching did not result. They dropped clues. Investigators had one more option in the Knox County canine unit. The dogs are trained to search for a variety of scents, from narcotics to explosives to fugitives. Working with dogs since 1994, Sergeant Robert Spangler has come to appreciate the animal's ability to pick up where the human senses leave off; Their sense of smell is 200,000 times a hundred thousand times greater than a human's and that's basically what they're good for and if there's any kind of smell there, human or non-human, they'll detect it where a human can't even look. , but even Sergeant Spangler had doubts about whether the dog was able to detect the body after it had been buried for a year in March 1997.

He and his dog were taken to the victim's backyard, where he gave his partner the order to search for a human scent. As they approached a pile of wood, he noticed the signs. From an alert, the dog was telling them to dig under the woodpile shortly after they started digging, the investigators found a layer of concrete knowing the evidence could be anywhere, they care

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y sifted the soil as they dug further with the hands trying not to break the concrete they found. They realized that the dog had discovered a grave in the concrete they could see the outline of a body once they care

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y removed the cement they could see the body of a woman wrapped in a sleeping bag and a layer of plastic the body was sent to the medical examiner's office for the autopsy the medical examiner confirmed through dental records that this was the body of Kathy Beedle.

Broken cartilage in her neck told him she died from strangulation. Someone had killed her with her own hands. Investigators believed it was her husband Tony Vic. The sheriff's department finally had the evidence they needed to obtain an arrest warrant for Tony Vick, but they still didn't know where she was. His photograph and description were entered into the ncic, a database that connects law enforcement agencies across the country, a few days later. The county sheriffs received a call. Tony Vick was arrested for stealing a 100 suit from a store outside Atlantic City, New Jersey, when police ran his name in their database and discovered he was wanted for much more than shoplifting.

Detectives theorized that shortly after his death. From his first wife, the victim had his eye on Kathy not for her love or companionship, but strictly for her money, the man Kathy came to trust and Love soon began plotting her murder a year before Kathy disappeared. , Tony gave Rey and Fleeta Holiday a fax machine he knew. that in order to collect the eight thousand dollars a month that Kathy received for the death of her first husband, she would have to appear as if she were alive in April 1996, after all the elements of her plan were in place. place of her.

Tony Vick carried out the murder in In the couple's home after strangling her, he dug a grave and then covered it with concrete thinking that this would hide his guilt from the world. He then sent faxes to the family on Kathy's behalf assuring them that her daughter was alive, but Sergeant Spangler's dog Tony Vick discovered the truth. He was convicted of the first degree murder of Kathy Beadle and sentenced to life in prison. He was later convicted of killing his first wife. He received an additional life sentence. human senses reach their limit. Man's best friend can become a detective's greatest asset, whether they make it.

We are used to detecting an arson attack, tracking down a missing person or discovering a hidden grave. No rival can beat the dog when it comes to finding the scent of what you killed.