The Nurse Behind The Hog Trail Murders | The New Detectives | Real Responders

The search has begun for a serial killer who preys on young men. The investigators have a plan to catch him, but will you take the bait? At first it looked like a botched robbery, but Maryland

detectives

could see the motive was murder. To solve it, they must establish which one. The clues are

real

: Industrial parks in West Florida have become a dumping ground for murderers. How many more women will die before the authorities put him out of business? For some people, killing may be easy, but getting away with it rarely is, no matter how a murderer tries to cover up his crimes there will always be something left on the scene Charlotte County, Florida, April 17, 1996.

Two crime inspectors County roads took a break from their duties to set hog traps along a popular but isolated hunting

trail

, what they found were the remains of another person's brain. We are looking for a human skull They notified the Charlotte County Sheriff's Office It was up to the forensic team to gather the time and the animals had scattered through the woods In addition to more remains They looked for clothing, a weapon or anything else that could help them To determine the identity of the victim and how he got there, all investigators found was a single pink fiber near the skull, but it paled in comparison to what was discovered next. 50 meters from where the skull was found, an investigator saw a roll of The carpet padding inside was a male body, but it was not the body he expected to find.

This one had a head. He was a second victim, more recent than the first. He was probably killed in the last few days. Less compromised by the elements that this second victim provided. second chance to obtain usable clues fibers of rope hanging from a nearby tree and additional lengths of rope were found scattered in the woods a small piece of paint was lifted from the body according to Jim Myers of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement these murder scenarios are the most difficult The type of cases that have to be solved are not like a traditional crime where you know you are in a house or whatever and you have credit cards, you can find out who it is, you do neighborhood checks with associates and that kind of things.

It doesn't work that way when you simply pull out a body in the woods a few feet from the first victim's skull. Investigators found what remained of his torso; although the body was badly decomposed, they were able to discern an unusual tattoo on his shoulder. It was his only one in hopes of identifying him authorities relied on the help of the media that night the news broadcast the photo of the tattoo in hopes that someone would recognize it and identify the victim someone did it a woman called the police and said which looked similar to the tattoo his 25-year-old brother had.

Old Kenny Smith told the authorities that he had not heard from him for some time, although he lived much of the time on the streets. He had recently seen the dentist, who provided him with updated dental records. Investigators confirmed the remains found. in the woods where Kenny Smith investigators still had the other victim found in the carpet padding to identify him in the autopsy it was determined that the body was a white man in his twenties no one had reported anyone matching his description was missing in the county the body was vacuumed to collect stray fibers and other traces of evidence that might be attached to it, the body was then examined.

The ligature marks started in several places, mainly around the neck and genital region. He had been strangled to death with a rope after the killer removed his genitals with a scalpel. or sharp knife clearly the act of a twisted but methodical mine the victim had been dead for about a day and his fingerprints were still legible on them he was determined to be 21 years old richard montgomery montgomery and smith were not the first young white men found dead in the woods of southwest florida, it seems rick we have something here between 1994 and 1996, three others were found in the woods of charlotte and sarasota counties feared they were dealing with a serial killer.

Chief investigator rick hobbs called in a criminal profiler. reviewed the evidence we had and basically confirmed that he, in his opinion, felt that the same person was responsible for all of these

murders

and described the person as possibly a sexual sadist, someone was preying on male homeless people and, like some of his victims, he had no name because his last victims were found on the hog

trail

the press called him the hog trail killer to coordinate efforts across jurisdictions the florida department of law enforcement formed a task force with the charlotte county sheriff's department and northport police special agent jim myers led the task force they didn't have a minute to waste we're talking to a person who basically keeps killing unless we stop them and that's the main reason for getting a task force we have the situation we had we had to get as many people as we could involved to prevent this from happening again.

You know our main mission is to catch the bad guy, but what we also have to do is protect public safety. The mysterious serial

murders

received wide publicity and soon paid off. An inmate at a Florida state prison had seen a news report and told authorities that he could have been a potential victim of the killer. Perry said a man approached him in a park and offered him $150 to pose naked in the woods. He said the photographs would involve slavery, he would be tied to a tree, they would be Polaroids so he wouldn't have to worry about the negatives being sold. .

The man whose name was Dan seemed very nice and Perry needed the money, so he took the job. On the way to the forest, the car got stuck in the mud on a secluded road, some passersby helped them free it while Perry was driving. That's when Perry noticed that the boy Danny was preparing for the photo shoot, the ropes, the knife and the gloves made him afraid. for her life so soon When they freed the car, Mary hit the gas cups. She was the guy I saw on TV a few hours later. She was arrested for stealing it.

The scenario fit the profile closely enough for investigators to verify the theft report. Investigators learned that the theft report was filed by a man named Daniel Conahan and his father, the owner of the vehicle, the task force took the initiative and ran with him, they established surveillance on Conahan. The 43-year-old registered

nurse

lived with her parents in Charlotte County. her training in nursing recalled the clinical precision the killer used. to maim one of the victims, police photographed conahan talking to and following homeless people in his car, that was not a crime, however, he was suspicious and for the task force and opportunity, they sent an undercover officer to to pose as a decoy.

They met several times while the decoy was being built. conahan's confidence the detective used a body wire to record their conversations conahan eventually asked the detective to pose for photographs in the woods in hopes that conahan would open up and say more the undercover detective invited him to his camp in the woods that Already being watched by a SWAT team, the detective had his agenda to gather evidence, but Conahan was uncooperative as the detective continued to ask questions. Conahan lost interest. Investigators were left with only circumstantial evidence and nothing to justify an arrest. If Daniel Conahan was a sadistic serial killer, he was still free to stalk new prey last week on the 16th Florida police were on the trail of alleged serial killer Daniel Conahan but they had no

real

evidence in June two months after that the last two murders were discovered a fort myers police officer recalled a case from three years earlier was similar to an incident recently reported by an inmate named donald perry was once again a prisoner who had the key stanley burton was serving time in ohio He had a story to tell.

He remembers it had a familiar sound. He said he had met a man outside a hamburger restaurant in Fort Myers, who offered him money to be tied up in the woods and photographed. He said the guy's name was Dan, who needed the cash. Burton agreed and asked him to take off some of his clothes and then began tying him to a tree with a clothesline. he cut it with a pair of pliers the situation quickly got out of control once the load became immobilized dan began to tighten the ropes around his neck when they were tight enough dan left him and never returned the load was finally free he was able to describe the car of dan and most importantly he chose dan conahan's photo from a list of photographs based on this.

Investigators were able to arrest carnahan for the assault and attempted murder of stanley load. Basically, it was a big relief for us in the task force because we were able to get him off the street sooner. The crime that he committed against Burton and being able to proceed and put together our cases on the murders. Investigators were a long way from proving Conahan was the serial killer they were looking for, requiring more tangible evidence. They obtained a warrant to search the house. He shared with his parents. Forensic examiners collected fibers from carpets, bedding and furniture; each sample was carefully labeled, packaged and sent to the crime lab for analysis.

Conahan's car was also searched, in addition to a variety of carpet and upholstery fibers, technicians also collected a piece of paint. Because of the car's chipped exterior, they needed to compare it to the one found on Richard Montgomery's body. One of two young men found along the pig trail hoping to find more incriminating evidence against the suspects. Investigators subpoenaed Conahan's credit card records for the previous three. years to investigators the items listed in the statements suggested that conahan was stocking and replenishing a murder kit on april 16 we found where just before miss montgomery disappeared some of the items pliers knife and i believe he bought a tarp that afternoon the items were purchased at a store just down the street from where richard montgomery lived while credit card records were examined, fiber and paint samples were analyzed at the florida department of law enforcement laboratory, several fibers collected from Conahan's home matched fibers collected at the crime scene next to the A chip of paint from Conahan's car was analyzed to see if it matched the chip found attached to one of the victims.

A small piece of paint can contain large volumes of information. It is first looked at to determine how many layers of paint are present, their colors and their thickness. The car sample and the crime scene sample consisted of four coats of paint of matching colors and thicknesses. Microanalyst Jan Taylor needed to determine if the two chips were a chemical match by performing my microchemical examinations, taking small layers of each layer within the paint. sample and apply a solvent or reagent to see how the paint reacts to the solvent or reagent and I performed this on the question about the paint recovered from the victim as well as on known paint samples taken from the vehicle and in doing so, I determined that these paintings were actually equal to each other at this step of my examination and that got the

detectives

closer to making their case against Conahan, but still not close enough.

Taylor had more work to do. She used infrared radiation to analyze the chemical binders in the paint. The samples were then scanned by a scanning electron microscope to reveal the pigments in a process called energy-dispersive X-ray analysis. The samples are bombarded with X-rays, which causes them to release electrons. These electrons reveal the elements that the paint pigments are made of in all of these tests. The paint chips were consistent with the conclusion I came to after these tests was that the question: the paint chip removed from the victim originated from this vehicle. The paint chip found on Richard Montgomery's body came from Daniel Conahan's car.

Science had made its case against Conahan according to the evidence. conahan lured richard montgomery into the woods for a fake photo shoot once he had montgomery where he wanted to be tortured and killed the jury deliberated only about 20 minutes before sentencing pig trail killer to death daniel conahan sought out his victims and lured them to their deaths other killers are less meticulous they strike closer to home and kill on the spot 70 miles from baltimore hagerstown maryland is a typical american community and a good place to raise children a place where somePeople don't feel the need to close their doors at least for most of Valentine's Day 1995, Deborah and Tim Massey's twin sons would come home from school and find themselves locked outside, which was unusual.

Deborah was always home to greet her eight-year-old sons, they would go to the garage behind their house, where Father Tim Massey ran a tow truck company and her father was not there, so they asked an employee, Daryl Moser, if he had seen his mother. He took the children home and tried to knock, but got no response. Deborah, the broken window caused you some concern. let's go to grandma's house tim massey was working so moser took the kids to her grandma who lived nearby she called deborah's house still no answer feeling like something had to be wrong daryl mosher came back to the house and walked in and there he found debra messi collapsed on the living room floor she was not breathing he called the police city police reported that someone appeared to have broken in but the doors were still locked hagerstown police detective george brandt questioned that scenario they informed us that all the doors were locked, both the front door and the back door of the residence and we thought it was likely, that is, that someone would go ahead and murder someone and leave the residence and lock the doors with key.

Deborah Massey always left the doors open so her children could enter when they returned home from school. The closed doors were just the first of several strange clues that investigators found. The next clue was attached to the television where forensic scientist Jeff Kircheville found a strange note that said your husband is next i need money now here we have someone writing a note to a dead person, a person he had just killed, it would make more sense if they wrote the note to the husband to tell him you are next and give his name, for example, tim.Tim, you're next, I need money, but whoever wrote this strange note to a dead woman apparently didn't need that much money after all, he had ransacked the house but left her jewelry. the victim and even some cash.

This botched robbery looked more like a careless murder in disguise. Maryland investigators at the murder scene initially believed the motive was a robbery, but upon closer inspection it appeared that nothing of value had been taken along with fiber samples, Glass shards were collected from the broken window and a cigarette butt was collected. from a trash can Mrs. Massey was not a smoker the house had no ashtrays, lighters, matches or cigarettes. Investigators believe the killer must have left this cigarette butt behind Debra Massey, who had recently filed for divorce from her husband, Tim who lived in the house with her twins.

By all accounts, she was a devoted mother who remained active in her children's lives, although Tim Massey had moved into an apartment, he still operated the tow truck service in the backyard of the house while the scene was investigated. of crime. Detectives reviewed Daryl Mosher's statement, Moshe said. that tim massey came to work around 10 30 a.m. he stayed for about 10 minutes and then left around 11 45 Massey returned Moser saw him walking towards the house Moser said Massey returned a few minutes later they talked briefly and then Massey left again Moser left for lunch shortly after, Moser said He didn't see Deborah at all.

An examination of the property showed that the only way to get to the back door was to go through the garage. Mosier said he didn't see anyone pass by except Tim Massey, but Massey never stayed. any period of time then what i will do a verification of moser's statement established his whereabouts throughout the day and ruled him out as a suspect so what happened in the messy house occurred while moser was out for lunch at the killer's entry point , investigators found a toolbox inside a hammer with glass particles attached to it was likely used to break the window as the investigation of the home continued.

Tim Massey arrived and said his mother contacted him when Daryl Moser brought the kids in and said the house had been broken into. The police informed him of the murder of his wife and took him to the police station for questioning, as a husband was going through a bitter divorce. Tim Massey was automatically a suspect, especially since he was seen at the house that morning. He cooperated fully with the police. He handed over the contents of his pockets, which included pens, he gave them his clothes for forensic analysis it was standard procedure to prove someone's innocence tim massey acknowledged that the couple had a difficult relationship deborah had filed for divorce two weeks earlier and also had filed a protective order against tim he and his employees were not allowed in the house uh at seven o'clock what time did you go to bob's at seven?

Massey said he had been to the garage once that morning and went to see one of the twins who had been sick on The information helped Detective George Brandt piece together Massey's whereabouts that morning, so he was actually interested in for a boy to check on him and of course he found out when he got there and this was between 10 10 30 that morning his son had gone. in school and he was doing well, Mr. Massey, can you tell me where he told the police that Deborah had met him on the porch? Massey insisted that he had not been inside the house in weeks after leaving the house, he went to one of the police warehouses.

Massey called the police to report that someone had stolen the wheels from one of the cars he was storing for the police. The officer met him at the lot at 1 18. They were there until 1 50 when they both went to the police station. Massey was friendly with the police because he did a tow job for them. He said he wanted to go to the police station to say hello and I imagine he was here a good half hour maybe a little. Later, no longer just talking to people on the first floor, investigators had to consider that Deborah Massey was murdered at random by a stranger, according to Detective Bill Rourke.

Investigators hit the streets to see if anyone could report anything suspicious. We canvassed the neighborhood, anyone who saw anything. unusual was taken to police headquarters and statements were obtained from them uh all of Mr. Massey's employees were taken to police headquarters and statements were obtained from them we interviewed family members we interviewed anyone who was willing to talk to us and that she had any information about everything despite their efforts the police found nothing no one had any useful information to share no one had seen anything suspicious while the police were searching the neighborhoods deborah massey underwent an autopsy the examiners concluded that she was murdered somewhere moment between 11:15 am and 1:15 pm from the marks on her throat it was clear that she was manually strangled to death.

Forensic scientist Jeff Kircheville noticed something significant about the marks. He had investigated two other cases of manual strangulation in the past six months and in all of those cases there were small crescent-shaped abrasions on the surface. of the neck and the area of ​​the face where the individual had used his hands to strangle them, in this case with Debbie Massey, none of those marks were present and in the interview room with Mr. Massey I noticed that he bit his nails and had very, very short nail biting is not a punishable offense and it certainly does not prove that tim massey was the murderer mr massey, would you please stand up?

So investigators will look for every possible way to eliminate him as a suspect, but tim massey could not account for all of his movements during the time the murder occurred they felt there were too many unanswered questions about tim massey they hope to find answers in his apartment investigators They believe that Tim Messi could know more about the murder of his wife than he let on. When searching his apartment in the trash, investigators recovered a pair of pants, with small fragments of glass on the cuffs. This was the first incriminating evidence against Tim Massey when he arrived at the house, the agents kept him at a safe distance to avoid contamination.

At the crime scene it was unlikely that he came into contact with the porch glass at that time, but for the fragments found in his pants to be true physical evidence, it was necessary to analyze the fibers and compare the glass collected from the pants. samples taken from the crime scene matched the lab also analyzed the ink from the pens Massey handed out during his interview a manufacturer makes a new batch of ink they send a representative sample to the secret service at that particular time they had somewhere in the environment Of approximately 7,000 different inks in their reference library, the ink on the note did not match any of the samples in the database, suggesting it was a generic brand, the chances of it matching a specific pen were even lower than seven thousand to one and yet, One of Tim Massey's pens had exactly the same chemical characteristics as the ink on the note found at the scene, but the most indelible mark of Massey's guilt was the freshly smoked cigarette found In the crime scene.

It was Tim Massey's brand and, more precisely, his DNA. in it that conclusively placed him on the scene and caught him in a blatant lie. Mr. Massey continually denied that he was in the house during this day or for several weeks before that, if he had been placed in the house, that would not have been strange to us due to the fact that he used to be married to the lady, he They were divorcing and he had two children to live there, but he insisted that he had not been in the house and not only Tim Massey had been there that day.

He also killed there on September 20, 1995. Tim Massey was arrested for the murder of his wife Deborah, as far as police could determine. Massey, who was seeing another woman, realized that if Deborah divorced him, she would be entitled to half of her assets, including the towing business he owned. had built from scratch would mean selling the business and starting over Massey had a different plan sometime between noon and 1:00 p.m. Massey entered his wife's house through the open door and strangled her, then wrote the note and organized the robbery, he knew his children would come. He came back from school and didn't want them to find his mother's body, so he locked the door on his way out and broke the window to simulate a robbery.

More closed doors awaited Timothy Massey, who was convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced. to 30 years in prison tim massey tried to disguise his crime through a series of false clues other murderers spend their time trying to erase any trace of evidence at the scene but it is only a matter of time before the clues they leave reach them pinellas The county is a small southern peninsula jutting out from Florida's western flank. It is home to the Clearwater resort and fishing community. It was also the site of a series of gruesome murders. On October 20, 1995, a delivery driver discovered the naked body of a woman outside an industrial area.

Park police arrived at the scene and began gathering clues, but few were found. The victim's clothing and jewelry were missing and, although marks on her wrists and ankles suggested she had been tied up at some point, no rope was found. Bruises on her body indicated that she had been beaten but there were no signs of sexual assault. The lack of footprints and broken vegetation suggested she was killed elsewhere and her body hidden here. The ground had a tire track. Investigators had no guarantee that the killer's vehicle had arrived, but there was no chance. Not to be overlooked: plaster was poured over the impression to make a mold for further analysis at the autopsy.

The cause of death was determined to be strangulation. Animal hairs were recovered from her body. Some small synthetic fibers were also recovered. None of this would be of any importance. use unless a suspect came to light the victim's fingerprints were checked in the police database she was 42 years old wendy ann evans who had a drug record evans had come to Clearwater to be with her daughter the daughter of the victim told investigators that her mother had been going through some difficult times the victim's father had just died she had been trying to kick her drug addiction and believed her cancer was recurring a few days before her death She had even checked herself into a psychiatric facility to deal with the depression she desperately wanted to put her life back together, but her luck fatally worsened three weeks later, in another industrial area, another new female body was found as Wendy Ann Evans.

This victim had been tied up andbeaten and then abandoned again in a secluded place. There were no signs. of sexual assault the similarities between the two cases defied coincidence both were found in industrial areas within 10 miles of each other the last victim was identified by police records as peggy darnell, 40, a clearwater prostitute sergeant mike ring worked In the case we did not have physical evidence from that scene due to the decomposition of the body, we did not have hair or fibers or footprints or tire tracks that were of any value to the investigation, however, investigators suspected that the same person was responsible for both murders and These may not have been the killer's first victims.

A check of police records revealed a third victim. 15 months earlier. A prostitute named Landonna Stellar was found murdered. Except for the time lapse, the details were eerily familiar. The three women were white women. All of them had been murdered. been found naked with no jewelry or clothing on either body and the cause of death at least in stellar and evans was manual strangulation with some physical blows the only crime scene that provided potential forensic evidence was the murder of wendy ann evans detective tom Klein of the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office The department tried to make the most of the few clues that the tire tracks had been sent to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement for analysis.

The fibers were being analyzed at the fdle. We were constantly talking to prostitutes in the area and trying to make contact with their johns, so we were kept very busy and so was the killer. In January 1996, three months after Wendy Ann Evans was killed, Cindy's body was discovered. Pugh, 27, behind a dumpster, her location was halfway between where the other two victims were found and where she was naked and had been strangled. If there was any doubt about a serial killer, the murder of Cindy Pugh erased it. The sheets that authorities used to wrap the victims were sent to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement's crime lab in Tampa Bay, where they were carefully stored. swept up everything that fell off of them was collected on a corrugated sheet of butcher paper called debris fold microanalyst jerry cerino looked for traces of evidence among the debris when he used a stereoscopic microscope to sift through the debris, it is a slow process and requires a long time.

It was time well spent among the debris collected from the murder of Wendy Ann Evans. Sereno found four pink carpet fibers that matched the carpet fibers found on Cynthia's bench. More animal hairs were also found. They were sent for further analysis. Cynthia Pugh's body also had a small fragment. of cigarette filter paper attached to it, traces of evidence showed that the women were victims of the same killer, but this brought authorities no closer to discovering who that killer was. He was free to continue killing. Investigators formed a task force to alert potential victims and to monitor the area where the prostitutes worked.

Meanwhile, in another FDL department, senior analyst Oral Woods studied the tread lifted from the first crime scene and was searching for a tire. particularly with a similar tread design once I found that similar tread design on my tire In the guide I was able to determine that it was a Firestone Atx radial tire. A check with the manufacturer revealed that the tire was made for light trucks, but few were sold - in fact, they were gone. Doing so three years earlier, we asked them to make an inventory reflecting sales of this size and style of tire. in particular and were able to show that only one set of four tires was sold in the Tampa Bay metropolitan area in the previous year.

For three years, the manufacturer gave investigators the name of the dealer, who in turn told them who had purchased the tires. Someone named Terry Howard. Detectives began surveillance at Howard's home and discovered that she was a woman. Someone was killing women in Florida and investigators the only clue was a tire. The footprint led them to the home of a woman named Terry Jo Howard. She owned a truck like the one they were looking for, but it was primarily driven by a man who lived with her. We didn't have it identified. We had no idea who. he was his name he was not on any of the leases he was not on any of the phone or energy subscriptions he was put under separate surveillance and he was eventually identified as a window installer named james randall investigators' efforts began to bear fruit.

Once Randall had been identified, we began to investigate him in depth, discovering his previous arrests in Massachusetts, the fact that there were outstanding warrants for his arrest for violating his parole, the prior history that he was a suspect in a murder in Massachusetts, Randall certainly fit. A murder suspect's cast and surveillance revealed that the tires on his girlfriend's truck were the same type found at the crime scene, but investigators needed hard evidence and then had a break during surveillance. Randall walked into a tire store and took two of the truck's tires. The police got the old ones from the dealership, but it wasn't enough.

His tire expert needed all four to make the comparison with the crime scene model. The investigators came up with a plan, first buying a new set of tires to change. With those on Randall's truck, we asked the tire store manager to contact Terry Joe Howard and tell him that the two tires he put on his truck were defective and if he would take the time to bring his truck , he would give him four. free new tires couldn't come fast enough came in, changed the tires and now we had all four tires the tire expert determined that one of the tires on randall's truck was consistent with the impression left at the scene of wendy ann evans' murder Not only were the manufacturer's tread patterns the same but, more importantly, the nicks, abrasions and wear patterns also matched like a fingerprint.

These characteristics are unique to each tire which showed that the truck was there, but did not necessarily mean that it was there at the time. At the time of the murder, Randall could have driven his truck there days or just minutes before the crime occurred. Investigators needed proof, they needed physical evidence that linked him directly to the victims, but they still didn't have probable cause to obtain a search warrant for his home. Loose hairs on the bodies of Wendy Ann Evans and Cynthia Pugh were determined to be dog hair. Randall's girlfriend, Terry Jo Howard, was a dog owner.

The researchers needed a sample of her fur to make the comparison, but how did we come up with the idea of ​​using this female? The sergeant and one of our other detectives posed as mobile dog groomers. They made flyers to distribute and post throughout the neighborhood. They included a phone number and announced that they would go door-to-door offering their grooming service to make the rules legal. the police had to offer the same service to everyone in the neighborhood luckily no one else took them up on their offer they arrived at terry joe howard's house while james randall was at work terry joe welcomed them we can get her out things went better than expected There was a mauve rug on the floor, the possible source of the fibers found on the two bodies.

The officers washed the pet, used sterilized towels to dry it and collected samples of its fur. The analysis of the dog hairs indicated that they matched those from the scenes. of the crime now detectives had the tires and the dog hair to link james randall to the murdered man but prosecutors felt they still had no grounds for a warrant, it was time to pull out their ace in the hole living in florida randall was violating his probation in Massachusetts on June 26, 1996, eight months after the first murder, Pinellas County deputies went to arrest Randall so authorities could keep an eye on him while they built their murder case, but it wasn't so simple to the view of the agents.

Randall sped through a neighborhood before abandoning his truck and fleeing on foot. He managed to scale a fence and disappear into a densely wooded area. Authorities mounted a massive search, but Randall eluded them. They were sure he would try to contact his girlfriend. If you had heard or seen anything, I think he had read it. They went to Terry Jo Howard's house to test her knowledge of the crimes. It was the first time she was contacted directly when police informed her of Randall's criminal record. and she told him that he was a suspect, she cooperated by fully investigating the area to see if she had him, as did her dog.

One of the things they noticed was that Terry Jo Howard's dog was always attacking and spitting, and when he attacked and spit, there would be these pieces of paper, we found out later that this dog liked to eat cigarette butts out of the ashtray. Investigators recall that a small piece of cigarette filter paper was collected from Cynthia Pugh's body. Terry told the police that she was a smoker and agreed to give a blood sample so her DNA could be compared with that found at the crime scene. Cigarette paper. She also allowed investigators to take her mauve rug for analysis.

The carpet was analyzed and found to contain several types of fibers with the entire carpet at his disposal jerry serino was able to obtain a more complete forensic picture he compared the carpet with fibers taken from the victims pew and evans i was able to tell that those fibers could have come from this particular rug if they did not come from this particular rug they come from a rug that had exactly the same characteristics that had the opportunity to come into contact with both Cynthia Pugh and Wendy Evans in the language of forensic fiber analysis that is considered the closer to an exact match, but it was DNA.

The analysis that closed the case linked the piece of paper found on Cynthia Pugh to the cigarettes in the home of Terry Joe Howard and suspect James Randall. Randall, still at large, returned to the house four days after fleeing, but when he saw detectives there. He left again this time. Investigators believe that while Terry Joe Howard was out of town, he would pick up prostitutes, bring them home and kill him, but Randall was careful, except for the piece of cigarette paper, he left no DNA on his victims. Not necessary In April 1997, based on forensic evidence, James Randall was convicted of second-degree murder for the murders of Wendy Ann Evans and Cynthia Pugh.

He was given two life sentences. Some killers choose a remote location, others manipulate the location to hide his presence. and some try very hard to leave no trace of themselves in the end, it doesn't matter if the killer was there, forensics can find something they left at the scene.