The Young and The Old Murdered | DOUBLE EPISODE | The New Detectives

A motel employee disappears leaving a trail of blood. Investigators have their suspect, but without a victim, what can they charge him with in a shooting? It is reported, but investigators have no proof that it really happened at the business until they can separate fact from fiction. I don't have a case: a lost sofa, the key to a woman's disappearance. The prosecution can't rest until it makes sense of a series of strange clues. Murder is usually the most obvious of crimes. The bodies of the victims silence the witnesses of violence, but their testimony is silent. they can go unnoticed when they disappear Without a trace Memphis Tennessee a prosperous southern city Beale Street the Blues Elvis Presley but in 1997 it was home to a deadly mystery in the early morning hours of February 8 a man arrived at a Memphis motel and found himself worried when calls to reception received no answer went to check hello the employee seemed to be missing hello he didn't see anyone in the lobby but there was blood on the counter the security door to the office was open and he noticed more blood on the frame convinced that something was wrong, he left and called the police when Memphis police arrived, they discovered blood outside the motel entrance, stains indicated that something had been dragged across the paper, they found more clues inside, while the office showed no signs of forced entry, the cash register was open and empty. but a bag that was nearby caught his attention.

They didn't believe a woman would willingly leave him behind. The wallet inside still contained money, as well as a checkbook, credit cards and driver's license in the name of Ricky Ellsworth referred to by police. The motel manager arrived. and confirmed that Ricky Ellsworth was the employee on shift, said Ricky lived nearby with her husband Don and two children, a trustworthy and reliable employee, she was not the type to just leave in the middle of her shift, the circumstances of the crime They suggested more than a robbery, police. suspected that the employee had been kidnapped while police processed the scene other important details began to emerge: the office security door was equipped with a keypad, but it was open and showed no signs of tampering, or someone knew the code or the employee had opened the door for Investigators suggested that Ricky Ellsworth might have known his kidnapper, although police had begun to suspect foul play.

Nothing prepared them for what they found in an adjacent bathroom there were signs of a desperate struggle, much more blood, the open sink contained a small flashlight and the toilet seat. The wet, blood stained sheets had been torn from their hinges, indicating that someone had tried to clean the room, not only was Ricky Ellsworth missing but now she looked like she had been seriously injured. Captain RG Moore, who led the crime scene unit, feared the worst when we don't have a body and don't know exactly what happened, we would handle it as if it were a homicide case.

Here we process the same thing, we take our blood sample, we collect all the evidence we can find of it and just hold it until we see what we have investigators hope the evidence leads them to Ricky a patrol car brought the victim's husband, Don Ellsworth , to the motel said he and Ricky were happily married told police his wife was a kind person who worked for the Christian Prison Ministry in her spare time every Christmas she baked cakes for The Preserves but Ellsworth said her Marriage had not always been so smooth that once they separated for two years and she became involved with a man who assaulted her and left. to prison for it Ellsworth said the man's name was Michael Rimmer after ending up at the scene investigators returned to the station to perform a background check on Michael Rimmer what they found in the files was chilling Rimmer was a high school dropout high school for his history of drug problems and violence in 1989 he was convicted of robbing and brutally assaulting Ricky Ellsworth details of rimmer's previous assault on detective Ricky Rey detective Robert Shamwell's suspicions his actions in that crime basically mirrored what was happening here at the motel with cleaning our attempt to clean We immediately began searching for Michael Rimmer, as

detectives

narrowed down the time period for Ricky's disappearance, they found a couple who had checked in with her at 1:15 a.m., but when two others tried to check around 2:30, she was not there,

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located her. a witness who said she arrived at the motel at approximately 2:15 hoping to rent a room, but saw a man with bloody knuckles behind the counter and left without checking in.

He also noticed a brown four-door car backed onto the curb, shrunk and doors open. Based on his description, police put together a composite of the man at the motel using an identity kit, a collection of facial parts and features that can be assembled as needed. necessary the suspect's face came together looked like Michael Rimmer Detectives then asked the witness to look through an album of more than 50 mugshots, including rumors, their hopes were dashed when he could not positively identify Rimmer as the man After bloody knuckles, detectives learned from a co-worker that Ricky had recently received a birthday card from a Michael in Mississippi.

She took the card to the back office to read it, but got angry and threw it away, making it clear to the detectives that if they wanted to find Ricky Ellsworth, Grimmer would start at the auto repair shop where he worked; no one had seen him since Friday. the previous day. Ricky disappeared, leaving his tools and payload behind him. A more critical fact emerged when we started talking to employees there. This same brown four-door vehicle was described as Michael Rimmer's car, so we decided we had to track it down to find out where. Michael Rimmer got this brown four-door vehicle that was not registered to Rimmer, otherwise his detectives wondered where he got it from.

His co-workers sent detectives to another friend of Rimmers who told them that his own brown four-door vehicle. four-door The car had been stolen a month earlier, shortly after Rimmer had last been seen, after four days, Ricky Ellsworth was still missing and Michael Rimmer was also waiting for a clue to his whereabouts. The police questioned his brother. Richard Rimmer said he had last seen Michael on the morning of February 9, just a few hours after Ricky Ellsworth disappeared, Michael seemed exhausted when he arrived in the brown car around 9:30 a.m. m., he asked Richard if he knew how to remove a blood stain from the back seat and then Michael pulled a muddy shovel out of the car.

Richard also told the police that if Michael claimed that Ricky bought her the car, she had visited Rimmer in prison after he claimed he had found God and Richard knew that the two met. They had met after their release, but at some point Friendship had already passed two weeks and still no one had seen or heard anything from Ricky Ellsworth. Detectives had long given up hope of finding her and her prime suspect, Michael Rimmer, still eluded them. They would have to find him in the stolen car if they had any chance. To prove murder, I issued an arrest warrant for theft of property, um, oh, Michael Rimmer, and indicated in that warrant that when or if that vehicle was located, it would be held by the Memphis homicide unit and the detectives. defendants obtained a promising lead from one. of Rimmer's former cellmates, said that Rimmer talked about killing Ricky and burying her in Mississippi after he got out of prison.

Rimmer's ex-girlfriend told detectives that a wooded area called Plantation Point near ARCA Butler Lake in Mississippi was 45 minutes from Memphis, Rimmer said. They liked to go there, the detectives headed to Plantation Point, combed the area on foot but found nothing, then called in Black Water divers from the Shelby County Search and Rescue unit, specially trained to operate by touch in Black Water, dark and murky, divers. They searched the lake and found nothing either. The detectives were completely frustrated. They pursued all the witnesses and Lead, but were no closer to solving the case or finding Ricky Ellsworth or Michael Rimmer.

Now they were out of options in Memphis. Nearly a month had passed with no progress in the possible homicide case. In early March, detectives received a phone call from Johnson County, Indiana, a sheriff's deputy had stopped the abandoned car for speeding when he checked the license plate. and discovered the car was stolen and there was a warrant. Detectives flew to Indiana prepared to finally question Rimmer and examine the tar for evidence after obtaining a warrant. Forensic investigators from the Johnson County crime unit searched the scene. car they expected solid evidence but never expected to find what they did numerous receipts hotel receipts pawn shop receipts restaurant receipts showing microphones at every step from the day Ricky disappeared until his actual apprehension investigators examined the stained back seat for of human blood the results were positive was his first physical evidence that suggested a connection between the rumor and the crime.

Memphis detectives questioned Michael Rimmer over the next two days. He denied stealing the car or having anything to do with Ricky's disappearance. Until now all his evidence was circumstantial. His body was alone. a way to link rimmer to his murder the blood from the back of the vehicle michael rimmer was busy at the scene the blood matched we had a problem although we had to determine or prove in some way that that blood was ricky plus it was bloody they had One opportunity for a reverse paternity DNA test that uses the combined DNA traits passed down by parents to determine the DNA characteristics of their children.

Forensic scientists compared Ricky's mother's blood to samples from the crime scene and the brown car they compared the test put a 16 million chance figure that the blood in the car and motel came from a son. of Ricky's mother was the final link police needed to prove murder Michael Rimmer's guilt was written in blood based on evidence police believe they know what happened on February 8 Michael Rimmer drove to the motel at some point around 1:30 a.m. m., knowing that Ricky Ellsworth would be alone when she arrived, she took him to the office, there Rimmer exploded with violence attacking her and then wrapping her body in sheets, he then tried to clean the room, but gave up and left the sink running and dragging.

Ricky escaped from his car, Rimmer, although his body was never found. Police believe Ricky Ellsworth is buried somewhere near ARCA Butler Lake. Michael rimmer was convicted of first degree murder and sentenced to death, while no one was ever found in the rimmer case. The police used blood. evidence to prove murder, but in Cleveland, Ohio, police would have to build a case with even less. On Saturday December 15, 1984, Cleveland police were called to the home of Ernestine Campbell, she reported that her brother Henry was missing, but feared for his life because she had already been shot and her body was hidden in a alley.

She told police that she had last seen Henry the night before, when he had left her house to go somewhere nearby after work hours. The officers searched the alley but took the body, in fact they did not. They found signs of foul play, they drove around the neighborhood but saw nothing unusual, they found no signs of Henry Campbell and nothing to indicate a violent crime had occurred. Officers canvassed the area talking to residents who might have seen or heard something the night before. one witness stated that she heard gunshots and saw men running near the club, another recalled hearing gunshots but could not provide any other details, and others confirmed that shots were fired, but no one admitted to seeing anything.

The police were frustrated because they had reports of shots fired and a murder, but they couldn't. Finding the alleged victim Homicide Detective John Qualey, the lead investigator, recalls the strange circumstances of the case. Typically we are called to a homicide scene where we have a victim lying on the street or in a house, but we have one victim and many times we will be able to use the weapon in a crime with this incident. A murder was reported. We went to the scene. We didn't have a body. We couldn't find the body. We couldn't find any evidence. of blood orWe didn't have a gun, it was like starting with nothing to work with the police.

They needed more information, so they returned to the Campbell house. Ernestine gave them a photo of Henry and more details that she had heard some people claim that she had seen Clarence Barnes shoot his brother in the back. She said that Barnes ran the nightclub out of his house and that she had bad blood between him and Henry. Hello, Miss Richardson, sorry at the station. The people who had been in the club that night started. Moving forward, a woman named Jacqueline Richardson told investigators that she saw Campbell at the club and that he argued with Barnes because he had to be like that to get out of here now.

When Campbell dropped off Barnes, who followed him with a gun outside, he said the two men were joined by a third and out of sight shortly after, a woman ran into the club screaming that there had been a shooting and Henry Campbell was wounded. . Richardson went outside where a passerby told her that some men were chasing and shooting another, she said no. She saw nothing and returned to the club. Barnes was already there asking everyone to leave while he continued his search for murder evidence. Victor Santiago told police what he knew was the third man Jacqueline Richardson described, and her story picked up where he left off with hers.

He said he had seen the two men arguing outside the club and heard Barnes order Campbell to leave, according to Santiago Campbell caught up with him a few moments later as they were walking down the street, he heard a gunshot and Campbell fell forward. Santiago said he took cover. I then saw Barnes fire three more shots at the prostrate Campbell. Police now had two witness accounts but still no evidence of a homicide. Henry Campbell was missing and detectives had two witness accounts of the murder, but no body or evidence, several residents claimed. Barnes boasted that he had burned Campbell's body and that no one would ever find it.

Investigators brought Barns to the station for questioning. Let's take the chair to the left of him. He admitted to talking to Campbell and asking him to leave, but he said he didn't know what. What happened after that, he denied having anything to do with Campbell's disappearance. When police asked Barnes what he did for a living, he told them he worked at a local university's animal resource center, which immediately rang a bell. in Qualey's mind and called Barnes' supervisor. I asked him if he had an incinerator at the school and he said oh yeah and we asked him how big it was, he said it was big enough to cremate a steer so we told him we were investigating a homicide and that possibly there may be human remains in there. the incinerator and asked if he would seal the room.

He did it the next morning. Detectives and a team of forensic investigators went to the animal resource center believing they could find Henry Campbell's remains while the facility's director arranged access to the incinerator, the head of security showed them surveillance video from the night. when Campbell disappeared. It showed Barnes arriving around 3:30 a.m. m., he backed into the reception area, which was approximately 15 feet from the incinerator entrance. The police could see him carrying something towards the incinerator room, but they couldn't. I didn't identify what the image was, then it jumped and came back and then the next image was the incinerator door open and Clarence pushing a card in there, you couldn't see what was on the carpet, we knew it was in the incinerator room at that time. hour.

When researchers saw the incinerator, they knew they were in for a long and complicated task. Cuyahoga County Coroner Dr. Elizabeth Balraj remembers the challenge that there were 100 gallons of ashes cremated or containing remains of various animals and we had to examine them and find a very small amount of human bones, if any. human bones, the team began the painstaking process of sifting the contents of the incinerator using fine mesh. They collected bone fragments and other unburned debris, although most of the fragments were small and loaded. some appeared to be human, including a vertebra, jaw and part of a pelvis.

They also found a piece of melted lead. Its size and mass were consistent with a .38 caliber bullet. It was the first solid evidence of murder, although investigators believed they had found Henry Campbell. Their case would fall apart if they couldn't prove it, they turned to Dr. C Owen Lovejoy, a biological anthropologist at Kent State University and an expert in identifying altered or damaged remains. He applied his skills to make a positive identification from incomplete and severely damaged bone fragments. Lovejoy agreed with Dr. Balraj that approximately 160 of the recovered bones were human. The next step was to determine if they came from a person and if that person was Henry Campbell.

The process would be complicated by his condition. Here are the bone pieces. All the edges of the puzzle had frayed, as will happen with the cremation process, so none of the pieces fit together and we had to look at them in an isolated state after a thorough inventory of the fragments. Lovejoy determined that parts of a complete skeleton were present, there were no duplicate bones, so he told Lovejoy that the remains came from a single individual, but was Henry Campbell next? He would attempt to establish details about the individual. The researchers had recovered part of the pelvis, which is diagnostic for both sex and age.

Lovejoy concluded that the remains belonged. to a man about Henry Campbell's age, as detectives got closer to proving they had found Campbell, they needed positive identification, but Lovejoy was unable to give it to them, not without more information every time we have a candidate individual we believe the skeletal remains could match. What we do is try to obtain a pre-mortem x-ray. Investigators handed over existing x-rays of Henry Campbell to Dr. Lovejoy. Could they help him prove murder as Cleveland detectives sought to identify bones found in the incinerator? Dr. Owen Lovejoy compared the post. -mortem x-rays and bone fragments with Campbell's x-rays, focused on the skull, hand and jaw.

A recovered skull fragment had an embedded ball that matched an x-ray taken when Henry Campbell had been accidentally shot years earlier. Lovejoy also identified shared characteristics. between Campbell's other teeth before. until death, they were all configured in such a way as to indicate that this was a positive identification, since the jaw featured so prominently in that identification. Dr. Elizabeth Robinson, the team's forensic odontologist, reviewed Lovejoy's conclusions and, in her opinion, two important findings reinforced her analysis at the end of The jaw was flat, a unique defect present in Henry Campbell's work, a second anomaly, an area of ​​intense calcification confirmed the identification and was not exactly the same area that was in the autopsy as in the antimony, also only five millimeters in size in In other words, exactly the same size, the same area and in both X-rays with positive identification, investigators have literally extracted evidence of a homicide from From the Ashes on December 21, less than a week after Henry Campbell was reported missing.

Barnes was officially charged with murder based on evidence that police believe Barnes followed Campbell from the nightclub to shoot him and then beat his body that same night. Barnes took Campbell's body to the Animal Resource Center where he cremated it in April 1985. Clarence Barnes pleaded guilty to the murder of Henry Campbell. received 15 years to life in prison for aggravated murder in Cleveland Police had to separate his case from a pile of ashes in Maryland Investigators followed a winding trail of clues to capture a killer Rockville Maryland August 10, 1988 Kai Lau, Seventeen years old, he returned early from a California vacation at the behest of a family friend to check on his mother Lisa as well, he hadn't heard from her in almost a month and was told by others that they hadn't heard from her either, That was not like his mother when he and his mother's friend found no sign of Lisa in the house, they contacted the police, they went to the special investigations office of the Montgomery County Police Department to report her missing.

Detective Turner High informed officers that no one had seen or heard from her mother for a month, the reason. I called him and he said his stepfather Gregory might also know more, but he was abroad on business and I didn't know how to contact him before Gregory left. He told his friends that Lisa had flown to San Francisco to visit a friend at Kai Hospital. He said it was unusual for his mother to leave without telling anyone except Gregory. The police promised to investigate. They started by contacting the airlines. Records confirmed that a one-way ticket for ll2 had been purchased on July 13.

The destination was San Francisco via a connecting flight. In Los Angeles, the ticket to Los Angeles was used but not the one to San Francisco. Apparently Lisa was not planning to return either, this is the one she was entitled to but the detectives needed to make one more call, they contacted the friend. Lisa was supposed to be visiting San Francisco. , said he hadn't been to the hospital, wasn't expecting Lisa, and had spoken to her in months. Now detectives began to consider whether Lisa also intended to disappear or whether there might be something more sinister going on. explanation, Detective Roger Thompson worked the case, it was not the normal missing person case where we know someone is missing for a particular reason, they may not contact family members but sooner or later We found them, this had some mystery, to discover more detectives.

I spoke to several of Lisa's friends and learned that the two had been married for almost 10 years, it was the second marriage for both of them and Kai Lau was Lisa's son from her previous marriage. They had both enjoyed the good life. Gregory was a successful restaurateur, in fact, one of his restaurants had been a favorite of Washington's elite, but he didn't last long. He suffered setbacks in business and lost his restaurants. I mean, I think you're dealing with a contract sales job that couldn't support the family's affluent lifestyle. Gregory and Lisa argued. about money and her marriage was in Rocky.

Police also learned that Lisa was romantically involved with another man. The police questioned him in his office. He said he spoke to Lisa on the afternoon of July 14, the last day anyone saw or heard from her. He denied knowing anything about a trip to San Francisco and expressed concern about Lisa's sudden disappearance; he indicated that Lisa's husband was suspicious of her relationship when he passed a polygraph test. Investigators believed he was telling the truth. Detectives reviewed the family's finances and saw signs of serious problems. Gregory weighed thirty thousand dollars. In debt Detective Mike Turner realized that two were under a lot of pressure.

It was known that Gregory liked to gamble and we determined that through interviews with friends that he had accumulated some gambling debts that he had not been able to pay off and this was another problem that uh arose with his relationship with Lisa the detectives also found out. That Lisa's bank and charge accounts had been inactive since early July, which made no sense if she was alive, they discovered that her husband, who was still unreachable on a business trip, would claim 200,000 lives. insurance policy if something were to happen to his wife, detectives began to suspect that the couple's financial problems might mean more than just a missing persons case as the investigation continued.

Lisa's son was doing his own detective work. Kai Lau found his mother's address book in her bedroom which was strange because she rarely went anywhere without it he also noticed that furniture was missing from the house or rearranged he called Detective Turner Kai returned to the police station and met with investigators. He had discovered that forty-four thousand dollars had been withdrawn from a bank. account that Lisa kept for her education and that was not all Kai told the police that her stepfather's gun was missing and a sleeping couch was missing. She said her mother often slept in it when she and Gregory didn't get along.

I also informed the detectives that her stepfather Gregory was due to return from his business trip that evening. Investigators also had many questions for Gregory. They received it inairport and took him to the police station. He was worried about his wife and was eager to help the police. He told her that he bought Lisa a plane ticket to San Francisco so she could visit a friend in the hospital. The man said he took her to Dulles International Airport the next day and he saw her board the plane. According to him, he called from Los Angeles and said she was waiting for the flight. to San Francisco he hadn't heard from her since he was told that Lisa's friend wasn't sick and wasn't expecting her, he seemed surprised, told her okay and then offered another explanation, stating that his wife wasn't happy with her appearance and I wanted plastic. surgery said they had argued about it in the past he assumed that might have been the real reason for the trip Lisa probably made up the story about a sick friend who realized he wouldn't buy the ticket if he had known the truth.

When detectives asked about the missing couch, two said it was infested with mice and they took it away. He also said he threw away the gun after a well-publicized local incident in which a homeowner shot some intruders. He explained the thirty thousand dollar debt as travel and business expenses. Two declined further questions saying he was tired from his long trip. The detectives agreed to continue the interview another day if two took a polygraph test. He agreed and promised to return the following Monday. okay, thank you very much Gregory 2 no To keep his appointment, he left town to the detectives, which seemed like the act of a guilty man, so we felt that the suspicions that the family had and that we had gathered from the beginning of The investigation had now become a reality and we were probably facing a homicide.

Their suspicions about Gregory 2 grew even more when Kai brought them an air letter from California in which Gregory stated that he was in Los Angeles looking for Lisa, if he did not find her there he planned to continue their search in San Francisco, investigators considered. the letter A selfish excuse from a guilty man, but believing and proving are two different things without Lisa's body there was no evidence that she was dead they began to look for evidence in Gregory's story investigators followed Kai's advice about his money missed for college and his enlistment with the help of the state's attorney's office, John McCarthy, the assistant state's attorney in Montgomery County discovered that Lisa had controlled him.

Gregory 2 cleaned out that account, we got pictures of the bank and you clean up your day, you can see Gregory 2 stealing the forty-four thousand dollars from that fund and within a 10 day period after he stole it, he had used up that money, It was no longer there. Detective Turner re-examined the plane ticket to San Francisco and discovered that it was possible that someone checked in, punched the ticket, but did not board. on the plane suspected that Gregory II had done that and that Lisa never boarded the plane, they contacted the passengers who had been on the flight, then Attorney McCarthy had a real break, a woman called to say she had been on the plane with her husband and little one. child while it was in the air, the couple took several pictures, which is good, I have some pictures of the seat that Lisa 2 was supposed to be in on that plane from Washington to San Francisco and she is not in those pictures and she told me sent those photographs and one of the ways we could conclusively prove that Lisa was not on that plane that Gregory said she was on had those photos detectives wanted to know more about the missing sofa bed they were wondering if Lisa's body was inside When they took it away, they located the men who picked it up.

They remembered the couch because Gregory tipped them for taking it to the truck. They didn't notice anything unusual about it. The investigators tracked it to the landfill, but that was a dead end. The couch was already there. had been shredded and buried, detectives reasoned that Gregory might have gotten rid of the couch. Because it contained evidence of Lisa's death, if that were true there could be other evidence at the residence, they obtained a search warrant to discover that an examination of Gregory's car uncovered incriminating evidence: clumps of mud, weeds, and twigs were trapped in the undercarriage, indicating that the car had been driven off the road in the trunk, they found a plastic tarp, a carving knife and a machete.

Mike, come here. All of the items were clean, but could have been used to dispose of a body inside the home. Detectives found their first physical evidence of Foul Play—droplets of blood were on a chair near where the couch had been—but investigators suspected more could have been cleaned and discovered they processed the area with a Luma light that shines the light. blood that cannot be seen with the naked eye. They discovered blood spatter where the couch had been and showed a significant pattern. We know the couch was open at the time all of this happened because there was no blood or marks under the couch, it was an open folding couch and when they turned off the processing you could basically see the outline of the couch open like a bed.

Investigators also found signs of stain evidence, someone had tried to clean up the blood while processing the scene, the phone rang at a car rental agency in Las Vegas. Vegas was also calling Gregory the car he rented several days before was overdue it was the break the police were looking for now they finally knew where two were but they needed help apprehending him what I would like you to do is if he calls about the car in the next few days or bring the car to try to stop him or if he calls, tell him that you would like to replace the car with another because it needs a new service or any reason you can think of or it is leaving to be resold but somehow get him to come to the rental office to buy another car.

Hello, my name is Greg. The plan worked on Saturday, September 10. He arrived at the car rental office. His car is ready. Police arrested him on a fugitive warrant almost a month ago. After his disappearance, Detectives Turner and Thompson flew to Las Vegas, where they began tracking the two's activities since he fled Maryland. A book of matches in their hotel room led them to a Chinese restaurant, the manager recognized two from a photograph and told investigators that he had applied for a job saying his wife was dead and he wanted to start a new life. on the job application, he gave his name as Greg Sen.

When the detectives returned home with two, they called a document examiner at the Maryland State Police crime lab, they knew Gregory had used the aliases they wanted. To confirm whether the handwriting on the job application and other items he wrote matched the bank receipt that closed Kai Lao's account at the university, the stolen money would provide the motive for the most serious crime of alleged homicide after providing known samples of The handwriting of two detectives waited for the results of the document examination, the job application, the bank receipt and other documents were compared with the handwriting of two people to make the comparison.

Factors such as writing style, speed and pressure are studied. Document examiner David Sexton explains and it is a combination of those characteristics, as well as a combination of recognizable. letter formations and that combination of features that are unique to the individual's handwriting the handwriting on the job application The bank receipt and other documents were Gregory Two police also consulted a forensic serology investigator about the blood spatters found on the two houses and confirmed that they were consistent with a high velocity wound most likely from a gunshot despite all the evidence investigators had gathered their case was still flawed they needed something solid to prove murder without Lisa's body the only evidence physical that they had was blood from the house in a divorce settlement that they had to somehow link it to the victim Kathy Karen and Linda and they all had only one chance and it was a remote chance to prove that Lisa II had been

murdered

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Maryland investigators had to link her to blood in the house they hoped forensic DNA analysis could do for her. that, but in 1988 it was still in its infancy, in fact DNA evidence had only been used in a few trials nationally, none of them murder cases and the two cases posed a significant challenge, no samples of the Lisa 2's DNA that could be used to In comparison, without them, it would be difficult to connect Lisa to the blood spatter that the DNA lab needed to perform a reverse paternity test, but this time they would have to work backwards: it would determine the DNA from Lisa from her son's blood because Kai Lao was a geneticist.

Combining her parents, in theory, scientists could, in theory, forensically subtract her father's DNA from her blood. What would be left would be Lisa's DNA profile. Blood was taken from Kailau and her father in Hong Kong for comparison through the process of elimination, the laboratory confirmed with an accuracy of 98 to 99. That blood found in the two houses was Lisa's with forensic DNA testing detectives were able prove that homicide investigators believe that Gregory 2 was transferred to Murder Out of jealousy over his wife's affair and the prospect of resolving his financial problems with his life insurance, they put together a probable On the scene of the night of July 14 There were indications that the couple had argued perhaps over the affair perhaps over money.

Gregory II, desperate and enraged, took his gun from the cabinet and shot Lisa. He then disposed of her body despite his protests of innocence. Gregory II was condemned. of first-degree murder on November 21, 1989. He is currently serving a life sentence. Lisa 2's body has never been found once the police had no chance to prove murder without a body, but today they can make a case with forensic science even when the victim is missing Without a trace a missing man emerges in a Texas swamp strapped to his chest is a chilling record of his final minutes The Texas Rangers hope it will help unravel a

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homicide case thanks police have a suspect in a cold-blooded murder but the technology to link him to the crime will not allow It's up to science to catch up with the killer before he escapes forever when a body turns up on the side of a Texas interstate.

Detectives hit the road to stop a homicidal truck driver in his tracks. In Texas there is a lot of space. to hide, but killers in the Lone Star State are used, even the fastest criminals can't escape the long arm of the Texas Rangers on July 27, 1982. The Texas Rangers were called to an abandoned car in a remote drainage ditch near Santa Rosa, the interior was set on fire, a license plate check showed the car was registered to Billy, who along with his girlfriend Letty Castro had been missing for 10 days; It was the first break in the case and one the Rangers desperately needed once they got the car out.

Swamp investigators noticed something even more suspicious: a rock had been placed in the accelerator; It appeared that a deliberate attempt had been made to get rid of the car and conceal a crime, but the fire and days of exposure to the elements had erased all fingerprints and ruined any chance of linking the crime to a suspect. The Rock was the only lead authorities had to lead them to the missing couple, but if the condition of the car was any indication, things weren't looking good for Billy Staton and Letty Castro, Texas Ranger Bruce. Castillo feared the worst long after finding the vehicle, we began an extensive search with numerous individuals searching canals in areas of Brushy in an attempt to find Lefty Castro and Billy Staton, we felt at that time they had been

murdered

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The Rangers combed the area for the certain bodies. They couldn't be far from the charred car, they walked through miles of dense brush along the drainage ditch looking for any sign of the couple. After four days of searching they still had found nothing, but the Rangers Undaunted, they had built a reputation for their ability to solve extremely difficult cases. The Texas Rangers were organized in 1823 by Stephen F Austin to protect early Texas settlers from Indians. 50 years later, in the rowdy days of the Wild West, the Rangers earned their name as tough lawmen by tracking down bandits, bank robbers, horse thieves and cattle rustlers today.

The Rangers are as tenacious as ever as a state police agency. They are highly trained and have investigative and forensic techniques to assist local authorities. The Texas Rangers tackle only the largest and most complex criminal cases. The simple missing person case was becoming more difficult with each passing day. TheRangers questioned Letty Castro's brother, who told authorities he last saw the couple on July 16 when he stopped by the trailer she shared with Billy Staton, that was the same day they went out to pick up. Staton's nine-year-old daughter at his ex-wife's home abroad. The two were going to get married soon and hoped to gain full-time custody of the girl, but their dreams disappeared as quickly as they did.

The Rangers also found out about Letty Castro. brother of Staton's ugly custody battle Billy Staton retained the right to stay with his daughter every other weekend his ex-wife Sherry didn't like meeting Gina simply won't let him know that pick-ups were an especially distressing time to control to Staton's ex. The Rangers' wife found out that Sherry and her new husband, Paul Wolf, had moved in the day after Billy Staton and Letty Castro disappeared, when the Rangers caught up with him, they claimed that Staton never showed up to pick up their daughter, just keep me posted George, it's good to see you. everyone be careful the Rangers obtained a warrant to search the house that Paul and Sherry had abandoned a wet spot on the carpet encouraged the detectives to investigate a little more what they found was disconcerting a small area on the back of the carpet there was been painted It looked like a deliberate attempt had been made to cover something.

Sections of the carpet were sent to the lab to see if technicians could determine anything. Agents tested the carpet so as not to destroy potential evidence. They removed some of the residue with a cotton swab. A chemical that changes color in the presence of blood was then added to the swab. The test was positive. The blood was human due to the limits of technology in 1982 and contamination from paint. It was not determined whose blood it was, but they discovered it was the carpet. It contained a large amount of blood, someone had gone to great trouble to hide it.

Upon further examination of the home, investigators discovered small blood spatters on the walls and curtains and collected samples to send to the lab if the bodies were ever found. The blood types could definitely something had happened in the house, but the most interesting evidence was found outside the house; It was not so much evidence as the absence of evidence. Criminalist Joe Marshawn from Rock Solid Ranger figured out precisely what had happened and we looked around and I finally found a crevice next to a tree where a rock used to be, so we went ahead and we had the Rock at the time and we came back and basically we put it back together like a puzzle and put it back into place by putting these pieces together.

The Rangers turned to Paul Wolf, the husband of Billy Staton's ex-wife, this time changing his story. Paul now admitted that Billy and Letty Castro had arrived to pick up Billy's daughter. He told the Rangers that Sherry and the girl were not home when Billy arrived. He was so angry upon discovering that his daughter was not there that he attacked Paul when he tried to defend himself and accidentally killed Billy with a metal bar. Billy's fiancee, Letty, heard the commotion and ran in when she saw Billy on the ground covered in blood. After Paul, once again, Paul Wolf said he hit her in self-defense, accidentally killing her, too shocked and scared by what he had done, Paul asked a friend, Glenn Henderson, to help him dump the bodies in a drainage ditch to get rid of Billy's car.

He brought a large rock to hit the accelerator in hopes of getting the car into the ditch, but it hadn't worked out as he had planned, so he came back the next day and burned it. The foreigner admitted that he had lied the first time. Wolff then directed investigators to the bodies. Letty Castro's body was found floating in a drainage ditch 12 miles from where the car was located. Her skull showed the damage that Paul Wolf described, but the rangers also saw that she had been shot in the head. It didn't match Wolf's confession. She was clearly lying about 10 miles away.

Billy Staton's body was found partially submerged in a steep canal. His head was crushed when detectives removed the body. He made a peculiar discovery under his shirt tied around his waist there was a mini tape recorder that was in bad shape from the water but the cassette inside was still intact it was a puzzling find The Rangers couldn't explain why Billy was carrying a tape recorder in his his wife's former home, but they knew there was a possibility that Billy's statement had recorded his own murder. The Texas Rangers believed the clue that would seal his case was attached to Billy Staton's body.

The recorder found on the victim was treated with tremendous care for days. Water and mud had ruined most of the mechanism. A crime scene analyst, Joe Marchand, was hopeful of saving the cassette. The most fascinating piece of evidence we found was the tape recorder that was strapped to Billy State and his stomach. We pulled out the tape. we called the FBI lab and asked what we are supposed to do and they said it has been partially submerged in water, they said well put it back in water and send it to us in a container and it is better to be in water than to let the tape dry afterwards After 10 long days, the tape was returned to the Texas Rangers, the FBI had done everything possible to save what had been recorded, it was still unclear if it contained anything vital to the case.

Within seconds of playing the sounds of Billy Staton being brutally murdered were perfectly clear, armed with the recording, investigators returned to the crime scene to precisely match the actions to the audio, measuring distances and timing the events as they corresponded. To the sounds on the tape, the blood found in the house had been compared to Billy's condition, now the blood patterns would tell more about what happened. story, all the blood stains on the wall had little Tails like tears, by studying and measuring them, the Tails examiners were able to determine exactly what angles the blood had come from, combined with the audio tape, they were then able to reconstruct where Billy was in the room at the time The tape revealed to investigators exactly what happened that afternoon.

Billy Staton showed up at the house and was invited to Billy's house. Sherry Wolf and her daughter are clearly heard on tape refuting Paul's claims that they were not home when Billy arrived. The detectives found out. that shortly after Billy arrived, the wolf took out the trash but the trash was just an excuse to go out, he really just wanted to see if Billy had brought Letty with him and he needed to grab the crowbar he had hidden earlier because of the way he As blood had splattered on the walls as they listened closely to the tape, it was obvious to the Rangers that Billy Staton had no idea what was about to happen.

He was sitting patiently waiting when Paul Wolf hit the accomplished Glenn Henderson who had been hiding in another room once his victim was collapsed on the floor the two went out to kill leaving who was waiting in the car no doubt Paul Wolf in self defense It was a lie, these were cold-blooded attacks against unsuspecting people while the tape continued rolling. The murderers took Billy to their car and put him in the trunk. They knew they would have to get rid of the car and the bodies and they took the rock, the fact. That the murder weapons were planted and that an accomplice was present helped prove that they were not spontaneous murders, they were planned in advance, of course, what they did not plan was to capture their crime on tape and this is where they are looking, here It's where they're looking to see where they're going.

Leave them and you can hear the rocks hitting the bottom of the trunk and they are traveling at low speed. The wolf found a secluded area next to a drainage ditch a few miles from the house. Glenn Henderson followed in his truck. The site was far from the road. and the grass was tall enough to seal a corpse, but something was wrong. Letty Castro was still alive because, however, we were prepared for such a problem on the tape you hear a single gunshot, then you hear some screams that are inaudible, then you hear the car. She closes the vehicle door and drives away and approximately 30 seconds later the tape runs out.

For some reason, they decided not to dump both bodies in the same place. They left their next victim nine miles down the road. The car was scrapped just as Wolf had done. described that the hard work was done in the house there was quite a bit of cleaning to do in a short time they had left their victim inside fighting for life a large pool of blood pooled on the carpet the co-conspirators had to rent a professional carpet cleaner to cover his footprints, but even that was not enough. Blood had seeped through the carpet staining the underside in an attempt to hide it.

They painted over the stains to leave the crime behind. The Wolves even moved out of the house. The day after the murders, but they could do nothing, evidence was found that Billy Staton had unknowingly recorded them. The Rangers discovered that Billy had used the recorder on the advice of his lawyer. He wanted to capture Sherry's horrific confrontation and malicious behavior in the hopes that it could help him gain custody of his daughter. Instead, he courted his own murder. Paul and Sherry Wolf were sentenced to life in prison for killing Billy Staton and Letty Castro. For his part, Glenn Henderson also received a life sentence.

Most criminals inadvertently leave evidence behind evidence that can convict, but sometimes evidence is worthless when not even the latest technology can identify the murderer, all detectives can do. It's waiting until science catches up. Thank you. It was the morning of January 22, 1988. When the Texas Rangers were summoned to an isolated farm in Burleson County. to check on an elderly woman who lived alone the neighbors could not communicate by phone there were concerns that something might have happened they were right Lydia Schumacher, 72, had been murdered inside The Rangers discovered the gruesome scene Schumacher was lying partially naked in her bed the sheets were bloody, he had been beaten and then suffocated to death.

The Texas Ranger crime lab in Austin was called to process the house for evidence that someone had clearly broken into the back door and it appeared that some jewelry was missing, apparently Ms. Schumacher had surprised the thief, there were no fingerprints to show. pick up and the weapon used to hit her could not be found, it was likely that she was suffocated with her own pillow, the agents turned their attention to the body and the bed, the foreign scientist Donna Stanley and the biological evidence expert examined the crime scene and found signs that the victim had been raped, so what we did was begin to untangle sheet by sheet and in doing so we recovered the hairs that we saw on the sheets and on the bedspread.

That's where it became clear at that moment that we might have been dealing with more than just a homicide, that we might have had a sexual assault involved overseas to track down the killer. The Rangers began interviewing people in the area for any information within a week, the Rangers had questioned all of Schumacher's friends and neighbors, no one could understand who could rape and murder such a sweet old lady, but they finally emerged. three names of men who, for one reason or another, were considered suspicious by their neighbors. The detectives asked the men if they would be willing to take a polygraph test one by one, took them to the station hooked up to the machine, and asked Point Blank if they murdered Schumacher or if they had any knowledge of the murder.

Texas Ranger Bob Cannell was in charge of the case we had. Several suspects in the course of the investigation, one of them was the next door neighbor and another was a person who was later arrested for indecent exposure. Two men were questioned and released. The third suspect was a

young

man named Charles Supak Jr. Supac and her father had actually been working at the Schumacher home the day she was murdered. A background check revealed that he had once been accused of sexual assault with both feet on the ground. They subjected him to extensive interrogation about the crime, but he denied any firm involvement that Supac was telling the truth.

The three suspects had passed the test and the Rangers were now left empty-handed with no further clues. All they could do was hope to make the best of what they had so far pretty good at the crime lab In Austin, Donna Stanley and her colleagues ran tests on biological evidence left by rapists. Once they determined the Killer's blood type, they compared it to hair samples taken from the three suspects. The medullary structure of the cuticle of the three suspects that I tested, two of them wereeliminated immediately, the third remained as an inclusion in the blood typing test and that was superfluous.

It was not eliminated in typing in 1988. PBO blood typing reduced the evidence to one of only eight blood types, but with hundreds of millions of people. Sharing Supac's type, the test results were barely enough to prove anything, but it was all they had to work with, so the Rangers brought a packet of soup again. He had passed the first polygraph test, but investigators were confident that if he was guilty, Supak would not be able to beat the machine twice in a row. They decided to try again, it was not difficult to find him, he was in jail for possession of marijuana.

The Rangers felt that if she had been under the influence of drugs the first time, she couldn't lie and still passed in the second round, she had been in jail for several days and we knew she had to be clean at that time, so So we took him back for the second polygraph. The same operator passed that one too. No other evidence was found. The Rangers struggled to find Schumacher's killer, but to no avail. On November 29, 1988, they finally had to suspend the case. A rapist and murderer was wandering somewhere in Supak. the Lone Star State and the Texas Rangers couldn't stop him.

It had been three years since Lydia Schumacher was brutally raped and murdered. The sole suspect was absolved of all responsibility and the case sat on the shelf collecting dust, but by 1991 science had advanced enough. To justify another look at the case, serologist Donna Stanley of the Texas Rangers crime lab considered that the new technologies were promising, we still had a little bit of evidence left, as if we were clinging to it in the hope that, as If a new technology appeared, we would be able to apply this evidence to that new technology and once again obtain more information.

I need to get that file, of course, early comparisons made between suspect Charles Supak's hair and bodily fluids found at the crime scene were inconclusive. The forensic examiners had done everything they could. could do, but from the initial research a revolutionary new method for analyzing DNA was developed, called PCR, which allows scientists to obtain DNA from tiny samples, such as a single strand of air or a speck of blood, something they had never been able to do. do before. Stanley was optimistic that the evidence collected at the Schumacher house three years earlier could finally be used to catch the killer.

Well, we'll see you shortly after the case is closed. Sheriff Canel had retired and Texas Ranger Ray Kaufman took his place. Kaufman approved further investigation of the evidence and quickly reopened the investigation. file okay, thanks Bob, something about the time I got involved in the Shoe Park murder. I knew that DNA was making giant strides in its ability to identify suspects and felt that this case was one where DNA could possibly help solve the preserved evidence. Sent to a genetics lab, the Rangers began questioning neighbors and family again in hopes of uncovering more information about Charles Supak.

They soon learned things about their suspect they had never heard before. Shocking facts that made the authorities more suspicious than ever. They confided that Supak had quite the disturbing reputation - it was widely reported that he had unusual sexual habits, including bestiality - but the most useful information came from a man who recalled a strange and frightening night with Charles Supac about four months after the murder. John Golson was woken up late one night by Charles Supak. He told Golson that he had had car trouble and needed help, but something about Supak's attitude didn't seem right.

John reluctantly agreed to take him back to his car, where are we going out on this road while they were driving aimlessly trying to find Golson's car? Suspicions slowly turned to fear. Supak had insisted on sitting directly behind Golson and spent the entire way idly, wrapping an electrical cord around his hands, finally directing Golson to a remote area, but when they arrived, his vehicle was nowhere to be seen tired of. The whole Olson thing. He finally went into the garage when Golson got home he was still feeling uncomfortable. He and his wife inspected the land and discovered that his telephone lines had been cut.

The story took another chilling turn when Golson showed the Rangers where Supac had driven that night. I have no idea what the place means, but its importance didn't escape Rangers Golson's journey with the Rangers LED Supac to believe that his former suspect knew more about Schumacher's murder than he had admitted, but we'll figure that out with this. It is the last place Mr. Shupak brought Mr. Golson that night. Shupak said he had parked his vehicle or got it stuck here next to this tree line. This small lane descends to the Shoemaker residence from about a quarter mile below.

Here Supac had returned to Schumacher's estate. The Rangers knew that it was common for a killer to revisit a crime scene, but it would take more than this circumstantial evidence to pinpoint Charles Supac. The lab had performed complex DNA tests comparing Supac's sample to the evidence. of the Schumacher case finally on March 8, 1992 the results came back in Charles Supak Jr's DNA was on the victim's sheets the updated information finally gave the Texas Rangers the evidence they needed to once again arrest the man they They had been suspicious for more than five years. he was in another Texas county jail for auto theft and was faced with undeniable DNA evidence.

Supac admitted to raping and murdering Lydia Schumacher in her confession. Supac told the Rangers that on January 20, 1988 he and his father had finished some work they had been doing with Mrs. Schumacher's house, we are ready to call it a day, they had spent almost a week on the property and Charles had been inside the house long enough to know that Mrs. Schumacher owned some gold jewelry and thought there had to be more value somewhere in the house. That night Supak returned and claimed that he had been driving around looking for something to steal when he thought of Mrs Schumacher her house was terribly isolated and she was old and helpless the house was silent when he arrived and getting in was easy he had gone a pipe in the garden that day was now the perfect tool and would soon be the perfect weapon once inside the prowler took a look around he snuck into her room and began While she was rummaging through her things when she woke up, Tupac reacted by hitting her on the head with the pipe before Before leaving, he raped her and suffocated her with a pillow.

Nearly five years passed, but Charles Supak Jr was finally convicted and sentenced to life in prison for the murder of Lydia Schumacher. The conviction of Lydia Schumacher was a tribute to Ranger tenacity as much as it was a victory for hard science. Forensic science basically solved this case if it hadn't been for advances in DNA. I'm sure it would still be a cold case left unsolved. It's easier to catch a killer even years after his crime if he stays still. The Rangers pride themselves on their ability to track down suspects on the run in a state as large as Texas.

It's a common situation there's usually not much to see on Interstate 35 between Dallas and Oklahoma, but on August 8, 1994 that changed. Cook County police officer spotted a body on the side of the road near the Oklahoma state line when Texas Rangers arrived on the scene and found a dead white man in his 30s who had been stabbed multiple times in the chest, neck and face around her neck there was a shoelace there was a sock stuffed in her mouth judging by the condition of her body it looked like he had been thrown from a moving vehicle a bra and a baseball cap were discovered nearby a pair of men's pants Underwear was also recovered, they were dark Clues, but it was enough to get started.

The Rangers took the right road. Officers searched the body but found no wallet or identification. The murder victim was transported to the laboratory where fingerprints were taken for his identification. The task of tracking down the murderer. He fell to the Texas Ranger, Johnny Waldrop, within two days he received a positive identification of the victim from the foreign fingerprints. He was a 38-year-old Dallas man. His name was James Sykes. James Sykes had a really bad criminal record and was kind of disposable. person who had no family history apart from his parents and had no money or job and was a heavy drug addict and had an extensive criminal record.

The obstacles we ran into is through research and we were reaching out to people and they Say why do you care, we do care because he was an individual like everyone else. Sykes met a rough crowd when officers located his best friend Murray Bracken. He was in the Dallas County Jail and had a drug charge and became the game warden. The first suspect, Bracken, admitted that he had been with Sykes just the day before his body was discovered. He even acknowledged that the baseball cap found at the scene belonged to him, but he remained adamant that he had nothing to do with the murder.

Bracken said he and Sykes were partying at a motel when they met a truck driver and his girlfriend. The four of them took fern drugs and at the end of the party he asked the trucker to pay his share. The trucker didn't have the money with him, but he said. James Sykes went with a couple to make sure they didn't leave. That was August 7th. Murray sent Sikes to the trucker to collect money that the trucker, for some unknown reason, billed him with his driver's license. to Bracken and said, I'm from Ada Oklahoma. I am a truck driver.

I have to be in Phoenix in a couple of days and this is in good faith. I will leave you my wallet showing you that I will return with the money abroad they never returned it and Murray Bracken said he emptied the trucker's wallet and threw away his driver's license; Fortunately, that was the only evidence that would have backed up his story and provided a solid lead for the Rangers now that he was gone forever to see if Bracken was telling the truth. Waltrip called the Oklahoma Department of Motor Vehicles to check for truckers who had applied for duplicate licenses in recent days.

The DMV gave him a list. It was a man named Terry Brown. He was from Ada Oklahoma police records. revealed that Brown had been stopped for a traffic violation shortly before the murder while driving a truck registered to a trucking company in Carrollton, Texas, finished his job and returned the truck to the company shortly after someone found it. stole from the lock. He was arrested for driving the stolen truck two days later, but was released on bail. Dallas police sent Waldrip the monk photo of him. Hey, thanks for coming. The Rangers put the photo in a photo stack and asked Murray Bracken to inspect the lineup.

Within moments he recognized the trucker. He had last seen him with his friend, he pointed him out to Terry Brown. Okay, the investigation was gaining momentum, but to prove that Brown was the killer, the Rangers needed more than just the word of a criminal, they needed proof. The trucking company was relieved to recover his stolen truck. Only now it was the main evidence of a crime much worse than theft. It matched Brack's description to authorities who were beginning to believe that he rode in the van that James Sykes had taken on his last trip to the Dallas police crime lab.

He was called to search the vehicle for signs that the victim had been inside the Rangers. New Brown had been in the cabin. They arrested him there. Transportation records showed he was driving on business until August 6, some time later he returned to the parking lot and stole. the truck, the company reported the disappearance of the rig and it was recovered on the 8th, the same day the body was found, everything pointed to Terry Brown being the murderer, but Brown had jumped bail, no one knew where he was, the team searched the cabin and bedroom for clues.

They got what they were looking for on the back of the walls. Investigators found some small stains of what appeared to be blood. Careful examination revealed even more blood under the mattress. Strange evidence indicated he was human. Detectives were sure more testing would reveal it. being James Sykes' blood, the evidence was packaged and sent to the laboratory for DNA testing. The Rangers were sure they were now on the trail of the man responsible for the brutal stabbing at the lab. Criminologist Wilson Young used evidence ofDNA to compare the blood with that. of the victim, but what he found surprised the Rangers and presented a major obstacle to the investigation.

We did a type on it, we did a DNA type on it and we found out that actually from that platform that we looked at at that particular time, the blood didn't match. the victim we were looking for we had some blood here but it didn't match the person it was supposed to match they found blood in the truck but it wasn't the blood they expected to find apparently someone else could possibly have been murdered there so ranger Waldrip received news that only complicated things further: another woman was found and she had a ligature around her neck and a sock in her mouth, and of course we found Sykes with a ligature around her neck and a sock in her mouth.

So my initial gut reaction was that Murray Bracken was telling the truth and that we probably have a serial killer after driving a truck. The case had taken an unexpected turn. At least two people had died. The serial killer was loose on the interstates of the United States. Waldrift did not catch up with him soon. There would almost certainly be more bodies to identify along the way. The Texas murders did not end on November 7. Ranger Waldrip received a call from police in Richardson, Texas, a city just north of Dallas. He found another body, it was a woman with a rope tied around her neck and a sock stuffed in her mouth, but this time it was a Twist, the dead woman was Terry Brown's mother.

Brown and his girlfriend Tina Sampson were the main suspects in the robbed murder. his mother's car and disappeared when Waldrip spoke to Brown's last employer he discovered that Brown was supposed to have delivered a load to California he picked up his truck on November 6th the day before the murder and never returned once again Terry Brown had stolen a rig and it disappeared uh we were very lucky at this time we finally had a stroke of luck this was the truck we were looking for. We found out that he drove the truck to Oklahoma City and partied in it for a few days and it ran out of gas and he left it, the Oklahoma City police found the truck abandoned before the Rangers had time to respond.

The trucking company brought the semi back to Texas and cleaned it. The crime lab was sent to look for possible clues that may have survived the cleanup. Fortunately, the company had not done so. Not all evidence was deleted. Stains were found on the bed under the mattress that were likely caused by blood. Judging by the size of the stains, it looked like a lot of blood had seeped through the mattress onto the platform, but this was clearly a new mattress the company had thrown away the old one and with it came some vital evidence for the murder case.

A stroke of luck, the trash had not yet been collected and among the trash was an old, stained mattress. The large stains looked like blood and matched the stains on the truck. Detectives were concerned that days of exposure had taken their toll on the evidence. Everything was sent to a laboratory in Austin for detailed analysis. Laboratory DNA was extracted from the evidence. The strands were chemically cut into smaller pieces, allowing for an extremely precise comparison between the blood found in the truck and James Sykes' sample. I'll leave the light off comparing the DNA fragments. Technicians confirmed that the blood could match only with one person in the whole world James Sykes we were sure that the victim's blood was on the truck, in fact, I mean, when you look at the numbers one in 5.5 billion, that indicates that that particular person was the only one who could leaving the blood in the truck that Terry Brown and Tina Sampson were in.

The next day, Dallas police discovered a couple and their mother's stolen car heading east. They were separated and questioned separately once the evidence was presented before them. Investigators were finally told the true story of what happened to James Sykes. She handled my corn knife. To make sure they paid what they owed, Sykes had gone with them to collect the money, breaking into a truck stop and stopping to wait in the truck while he went to get the money, but Sykes became impatient and decided to collect his money from another way. According to the killers, he climbed into the back and demanded sex from Tina Sampson.

She panicked and pulled out a knife to defend herself against him. Brown returned and saw the two arguing. He assumed that the psychopaths tried to rape his girlfriend. A little angry, he grabbed the knife and stabbed. Samson said she was so upset that she took the knife and stabbed him some more. Brown wrapped a ligature around his victim's neck and stuffed a sucker into his mouth. Samson said they left her body on his back for a while until they were ready to dispose of it. and she told us how they had driven a couple of days later and partied some more, done more drugs while he was in the bed of the truck and then decided to go to Oklahoma City and by Route she didn't.

He didn't know where they were, but they stopped on the side of the interstate and Terry got into the sleeper car and with just his feet he pushed the body out the side door on the side of the interstate and then they drove to Oklahoma City, although investigators didn't know. could. I didn't get a conviction for the other two murders. Tina Sampson received 20 years for conspiracy to murder and Terry Brown received a life sentence for the death of James Sykes. The Texas Rangers' determination paid off. I think this case epitomizes the Rangers we have. We have done it for so many years.

There's an old Ranger that says a wrong man can't take on a right man who keeps coming and that's what we did, in this case we kept coming. The Rangers built a reputation over a period of time. a hundred years ago doggedly pursuing criminals across all types of terrain using any weapon available and are still armed with the power of forensic science. The killers may continue to run from the law, but with technology as their sidekick, the Texas Rangers will never stop. his relentless