Toxic Witness | TRIPLE EPISODE | The New Detectives

In North Carolina, a tragic car accident is blamed for the death of a 45-year-old woman, but a routine investigation raises more questions than answers. The police soon discover that things are not always as they seem. A mother of six is ​​found brutally murdered in Forensic evidence from her Florida home points

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to a suspect, but her whereabouts and motive behind the murder remain a mystery to some Killers. Murder can be a profitable business when a victim has been targeted for death. Homicide investigators must look beyond the obvious to uncover a murder. To hire a foreigner on the morning of August 23, 1995, a motorist summoned rescue workers and emergency personnel to a remote area off North Carolina's Blue Ridge Parkway.

As he stopped at a scenic overlook, he had seen a pickup truck that had plunged several hundred feet down the steep embankment. there was no movement in the vehicle Pennsylvania County rescue workers went down the cliff in hopes of finding survivors when the rescue worker entered the vehicle a blood-stained piece of cement block fell from the van a woman lay slumped in the front seat he had suffered massive head injuries he had no pulse the body was removed from the vehicle and sent to the morgue for examination North Carolina State Police began searching for clues that would tell them how and why the vehicle came off. of the road I know you are getting a lot of No skid marks or signs of hard braking were found and there was no indication that the driver had left the road;

It was likely that the woman had fallen asleep at the wheel or had been under the influence of drugs or alcohol in the van. was taken to the embankment for further evaluation, a check of the vehicle's tags revealed that the van was registered to a man named Edward Kratzert whose address was several hundred miles away in Bradenton, Florida, after failing to find Obvious mechanical problems in the truck, technicians processed the vehicle, found reddish-brown stains on the outside of the driver's side door, tested positive for human blood inside, recovered a wallet and driver's license, the driver was identified as Wendy Kretzert.

The 45-year-old wife of the vehicle's owner found blood all over the truck. The back of an earring was located on the floor of the passenger seat. Not knowing what to do with the findings, investigators gathered various items as evidence. Transylvania County authorities began attempting to locate the victim's family to inform them of Wendy's tragic death at autopsy. Medical examiner Dr. Robert Thompson looked at the victim for clues that could explain the accident. He found no traces of drugs or alcohol in the victim's blood or tissue. Wendy's death was due to blunt force injuries to the head.

She had suffered five individual fractures to the top and back of her skull. Although Wendy had not been wearing a seat belt for Dr. Thompson, the location and number of injuries were not typical for car accident victims. Generally Andrews, which we find in car accidents, are those in the areas of the face where the phase comes down and hits the dashboard, so the interests I found were not really consistent with the car accident, although it could possibly have happened that way . The autopsy results led North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation investigators to take a closer look at special accident agent and Wendy Kratzert blood spatter expert Andy.

Klein reviewed the photographs taken at the scene and was immediately struck by the lack of blood found where the victim's body rested from the position in which it rested with the head and the floor on the passenger side and with the upward wound. and on the back of his head, I would have expected to see a larger pool of blood on the floor if he had received that wound in the truck, what was more worrying was the presence of the victim's blood on the outside running board of the vehicle, There were several blood splatters that I noticed on the running board of the vehicle, the part that would have been protected if the door had been closed, so at some point the door was open and she was bleeding, all the evidence suggested that Wendy Kratzert had been bleeding before. to get into the car.

After the routine death investigation had raised more questions than answers, police learned that Wendy and her husband owned a vacation home a few miles from the accident scene. Later that night, authorities went to the address where no one appeared to be and then discovered a large amount of blood testing later confirmed that it came from Wendy Kratzert. An earring identical to the one found inside the truck was located a few inches away. Technicians concluded that no one could have survived such blood loss without immediate medical attention. The championship is the concrete block. Nearby investigators discovered that the outline of an object was similar to the blood-stained cement block found inside the van.

For the police, there could be no doubt that Wendy Kratzert had been brutally murdered. Her death had been staged to look like an accident after obtaining a court order. The team entered the residence unsure of what or who they might find 41 . No one was home and the residents showed no signs of forced entry or looting. Investigators carefully photographed the scene. They also collected numerous personal items and documents belonging to the victim. Now investigators had to determine who had killed Wendy and why Pennsylvania County police were eager to question Ed, Wendy's husband, they tracked him down to his home in Bradenton, Florida, police contacted him and asked him to talk. with the victim's husband.

Ed Kratzert couldn't believe his wife had been murdered. He said that since the couple's children graduated from high school, Wendy had been spending a lot of time at their vacation home in North Carolina, Ed explained that he had recently suffered a heart attack and was home at the time of the murder. Wendy had helped take care of him to help him shortly after she decided to return to North Carolina. Wendy enjoyed her independence; she had even taken a part-time job as a waitress in North Carolina at the time. Ed couldn't think of anyone who would want to hurt him.

Florida police confirmed Ed's alibi and shortly afterward he was cleared as a suspect by police. and forensic examiners had exposed a tragic car accident as an elaborate attempt to cover up a brutal crime, but with few clues and no obvious suspect it looked like Wendy Kratzer's killer might get away with murder in Transylvania County, North Carolina, A routine investigation into traffic deaths had exposed a brutal homicide, Wendy Kretzert, 45, had been brutally beaten to death, her body was placed in a van which was then pushed off a cliff, frustrated by the lack of suspects. or an obvious motive, police in Wendy's hometown of Bradenton, Florida, questioned the victim's friends and neighbors.

A close friend told police that she could only think of one person who would want to harm Wendy and that was her husband, Ed Kratzert. Wendy had described him as ruthlessly controlling, watching her every move and being extremely critical of her behavior. Wendy said he could also be physically abusive Things had become even more tense after medical bills from Ed's heart attack left the couple in serious financial trouble just before his death Wendy had talked about leaving her husband in abroad. The findings were relayed to police in North Carolina, where Wendy's murder took place. Following up on the information, investigators discovered that Ed Kratzert stood to make $100,000 for Wendy's death, but so far he had not attempted to collect on his wife's insurance policy.

Although Ed had misrepresented his relationship with Wendy, he had a solid alibi. and there was no motive connecting him to the crime, in fact, things desperate to identify Wendy's killer

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questioned her co-workers at the local restaurant where she worked part-time. One recalled that just before her death, Wendy had been tired and irritable and said she had been trying. with unexpected guests who had shown up from Florida on a few occasions, the coworker didn't know the visitors' names, but to Transylvania homicide detective Rita Smith, it was clear that Wendy was not happy to have them in her home. .

She felt very uncomfortable with these people because they had smoked in her house and she felt that they had stolen her belongings seeking to identify the guests of the house. Investigators combed through items collected from Wendy's vacation home and found a potential clue: the names Tom and Luana Harrison. had been handwritten on Wendy's calendar, and a record check revealed that the Harrisons lived in the same Bradenton, Florida, neighborhood as Wendy and her husband. Florida police were sent to the Harrison home to question the couple for visiting Wendy in North Carolina a few weeks before her death.

Tom explained that he and Luana were close friends of the Kratzerts, spending a lot of time with her. couple, they had not noticed any problems between Ed and Wendy. Wendy invited them to stay at her house in North Carolina whenever they wanted. They were given the key to the house, they accepted the offer, but that was weeks before her murder. They had not returned since, as a matter of routine, the officer asked a couple their whereabouts at the time of Wendy's murder. Tom Harrison suddenly became agitated, he felt like he was being treated like a suspect, but not to me, he ended the interview and asked the officer to stop Tom Harrison's strange behavior.

Led the police to believe he was hiding something in this timeline to discover what his credit card statements cited for the During the weeks surrounding the murder, they discovered that numerous charges had been filed with hotels and rental agencies. automobiles throughout North Carolina. In fact, the receipts placed Tom and Luana Harrison near the crime scene in the days before and just after the murder. Tom Harrison had been captured. In a lie, although police could find no motive, circumstantial evidence pointed to the Harrisons as Wendy Kratzert's killers. Florida Department of Law Enforcement agents were contacted and asked to arrest Tom Harrison and his wife, Luana, as FDLE Special Agent Vince Delacchio.

Prepared to form the team he received surprising news that Tom Harrison had died. I arrived in the morning and received the phone call from the Manatee County Sheriff's Office. The investigator there asked me if he had seen the front page of the morning newspaper. That headline was Local Man Dies in Boating Accident Authorities had reportedly discovered Tom Harrison's boat burning out of control in the Gulf of Mexico after putting out the Blaze. Rescue workers began a massive search for the owner for several days to find Tom. Harrison found nothing shortly after the search was called off, the prime suspect in Wendy Kratzer's homicide was missing, and authorities in North Carolina, presumed dead, believed they had finally identified the killer of 45-year-old Wendy Kratzert, whose brutal murder had been prepared to look for.

It looked like a car accident, but as they prepared to make the arrest they learned that their main suspect was missing and presumed dead after his boat was found burning in the Gulf of Mexico, but authorities were convinced that Tom Harrison He had faked his own death in an attempt to throw off investigators. Lt. Marty Redmond of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission was asked to find out when I arrived at the scene and looked at the boat. I saw a boat about 25 feet long that used to be a cabin type boat. burned completely to the waterline, accepting certain parts of the starboard bow and starboard quarter.

Fire chiefs were able to quickly rule out electrical issues as the source of the fire after carefully analyzing the burned remains. Investigators found that some places on the ship had been burned at a much higher temperature than others and marred wood with deep scaly scars known as alligator patterns was found alongside wood that was almost untouched by the fire. There was only one explanation for the uneven burning patterns. The first office put out the fire withan accelerant. and in which part of the ship that was started by indicators of burning patterns different melting points of certain materials and other elements that are specialized and searching among charred ashes or charred remains of fires, the fire was started intentionally and no traces were found of human remains in the rubble the investigators were sure that Tom Harrison had said it.

Lieutenant Redmond questioned Tom Harrison's wife, Luana, being careful not to reveal that the examiners had exposed arson. She asked him about the circumstances surrounding the mysterious death of her husband. She claimed that on the night of the fire Tom had not been feeling well after watching a late night football game he told her he wanted to go fishing out of concern for his health she tried to stop him but there was little she could do Tom packed up his fishing gear and left for a while Later, to investigators, Luana did not appear to be the grieving widow, who had just lost her husband of more than 20 years.

Her only concern was to quickly close the investigation into Tom's death. Police soon learned why, in addition to being suspects in the murder of Wendy Kratzer, the Harrisons. We were in serious financial trouble and Luana had to collect a large life insurance settlement as a result of Tom's death, Florida Department of Law Enforcement Special Agent Vince Delacchio, but I knew at the time that Thomas Harrison was not dead and that this surfing action was more likely a staged event just to hide from the fact that he was a suspect in that case and probably more than likely, knowing his situation, he was looking for some insurance money. to test the theory.

Authorities put 24-hour surveillance on Harrison's case. The months at the Bradenton, Florida, home passed without interruption, but then police spotted Tom Harrison alive and well and it appeared he and Luana were preparing to leave town shortly after the couple hit the road, The police stopped them.The foreigner gave the officer a false name and a driver's license, he and Luana were arrested and charged with insurance fraud and arson, but Tom Harrison was uncooperative and without strong evidence linking him to homicide, investigators were still a long way from proving that he had murdered Wendy Kratzert for the police.

Harrison's close ties to the victim's husband could no longer be ignored. He began to theorize that Ed Kratzert, unhappy in his marriage to Wendy, had hired the Harrisons to kill his time. It was only right to contact Ed Crassart, the victim's husband, again. In attempting to conduct another interview about the fact that Harrison had been arrested, we felt that would open up dialogue with Mr. Kratzer. Pretzert was questioned and informed of Harrison's arrest. Investigators confronted him with murdering him over a higher theory and insinuated that he had evidence to back it up, it was a hoax, but it worked well.

Ed Kratzert decided to speak. He confessed to having participated in the plot to murder his wife. He insisted it wasn't his idea. Kratzert said he was complaining to the Harrisons. about their marriage he knew that Wendy planned to leave him not after his heart attack he feared the thought of a long divorce and separation of property Tom Harrison told him he could make his problem go away by paying a fee he can make this problem go away Ed Agreed in which the death was supposed to look like an accident, yeah, done deal and said that when it was exposed as a murder, Ed refused to collect on his wife's life insurance policy.

The Harrisons were never paid for the work, as a result Ed feared that Tom Harrison was plotting. to kill him Ed Kratzert was arrested and charged with conspiracy to commit murder. Police confronted Tom Harrison with statements that he refused to cooperate, but he made no difference to credit card receipts that placed him near the crime scene at the time of the murder. With Ed Kratzert's confession was all police needed to charge him with murder, police believe that after unexpectedly showing up at Wendy's vacation home in North Carolina, Tom Harrison beat the unsuspecting woman to death after the murder. , the couple loaded Wendy's body into their pickup truck and drove to a remote location along the Blue Ridge Parkway where they then attempted to stage her death as a car accident Ed Kratzert was found guilty of the first-degree murder of his wife, descendant of no less than 11 years, Tom Harrison was sentenced to 20 years in exchange for his testimony.

Luana Harrison received three years of probation. The Harrisons had tried to get their way by staging an elaborate accident, but in 1995 in suburban Sarasota, Florida, a killer made no attempt to cover up her actions on the afternoon of November 7. Old Stevie Belush came home from school, no one seemed to be home, but then she stumbled upon a horrible scene. Her mother, Sheila Belush, 35, lay dead on the kitchen floor. Panicking, the young woman called 9-1-1 agents and forensic technicians from the Sarasota County Sheriff's Office and was immediately sent to the house to avoid any contamination. A single forensic technician was allowed to enter the residence and document the scene.

Sheila Belich had been brutally murdered. She had suffered a single gunshot wound to the cheek. There were also indications that she had been brutally beaten. She had her throat cut so deeply that she was nearly decapitated when technicians began processing the crime scene. The victim's husband, Jamie Bellish, arrived home. The detectives broke the news. Police assured him that her stepdaughter Stevie and the couple's newborn quadruplets were safe and sound. Come with me, the frantic husband was escorted out of the house and taken to the police station to answer questions. Technicians look for blood evidence to help them reconstruct the events that occurred inside the home based on the size and location of the blood spatter patterns they found.

It was determined that Sheila Belush was initially shot near a door leading to the laundry room. Streaks of blood suggested that she then tried to get away from her attacker, but she was only able to get away from her a few meters before her attacker caught up with her and cut her. In the throat there was nothing to suggest that robbery was the motive. In the laundry room adjacent to the kitchen, technicians located a single .45 caliber bullet casing a few meters away a white towel lay, part of the fabric was covered with gunshot residue, suggesting it had been used as a weapon. improvised silencer, but for some reason the killer only fired one shot before using a knife to finish the job.

Testing technician Lisa Lanham tried to make sense of the excessive violence inflicted on Sheila Belush, that the gun makes a lot of noise in a small, confined area and probably sounds even louder when you're the one shooting and she may have feared that the Neighbors will hear the gun. The other possibility is that the towel got caught in the gun and then basically made the gun inoperable by searching for any traces of the killer they may have left behind. Technicians collected dozens of prints from throughout the residence, including some found inches from the bullet casing. All evidence was sent to the Sarasota County Crime Lab.

Homicide Detective Chris Iorio was assigned as the lead detective on the case. All I knew at the time The point is we had a mother of six who died in the kitchen from a head injury, most likely a gunshot wound and we took it from there. Investigators know from experience that their best chance to solve a murder falls within the first 24 hours with few clues and no obvious suspects who hoped an autopsy could point them to this brutal killer police in Sarasota, Florida, struggled to find answers to The death of Sheila Belush, 35 years old, mother of six children, found brutally murdered in her home, in the autopsy, the medical examiner recovered a 45 caliber bullet that had been fired from close range into the victim's face. shattered jaw but was not the cause of death a single knife wound had severed the victim's left and right jugular veins Sheila Belich had bled to death there were no signs of sexual assault and no clues were found as to the identity of the killer the exaggeration observed at the crime scene led police to suspect the killer was someone close to the victim.

Sheila's husband, Jamie Bellish, was brought in to answer questions. He described Sheila as a devoted mother and loving wife. Jaime explained that he, Sheila, and their two children from a previous marriage had recently moved to Florida from San Antonio, Texas. Sheila had just gone through a nasty divorce when she and her new husband found out they were having quadruplets and decided to start their lives. Moving to a new city, the decision to move hadn't been easy, but according to Jaime, Sheila's ex-husband continued to harass her even after her divorce was finalized. Jamie said that at the time of the murder he was at work, but homicide detective Chris Iorio.

He took nothing for granted at the beginning of the case. Jimmy Belich was our obvious suspect simply because of his role in the family structure, but he would say four or five hours after we responded we felt pretty confident that he wasn't involved, Detective. iorio contacted authorities in San Antonio Texas and asked them to speak to Sheila's ex-husband about the murder. Alan Blackthorne, a wealthy businessman, admitted that his divorce from Sheila had been acrimonious but insisted that he would never have hurt the mother of his children. At the time of the murder he was on a golf trip in Arizona and had the receipts and documents to prove it and did anyone ride with you on this bike with no suspects and no obvious motive for the murder?

Sarasota police turned to physical evidence to find clues. A fingerprint that did not match any member of the Bellish family and had been found just inches from the spent bullet casing. The evidence brought investigators closer to identifying Sheila's killer. Now they needed to find out who had left that footprint that the detectives returned. The Bellish neighborhood to question residents about the day of the murder one recalled seeing a Hispanic man dressed in military camouflage getting out of a white car and walking through the neighborhood, the neighbor could not see the man's face well but was able to We remember some license plate numbers and we heard about a Hispanic man walking around the neighborhood in camouflage.

We knew he most likely wasn't from that neighborhood, it was primarily a retirement community and no one wears camouflage in this heat and it was obviously a long sleeve shirt and long pants and that just highlighted the description of the man and the details of the homicide were reported through area newspapers shortly afterward. Police received a tip from an employee who worked at a convenience store a few miles from the crime scene. Hispanic man dressed in camouflage around the time of Sheila's murder. He showed them some directions on the map. The man had come looking for directions;

In fact, he was trying to locate the neighborhood where he encountered the young mother. Killed, the employee handed the man his laminated map of the area and added that the stranger got into a white car and drove. Officers collected the laminated map in hopes that the suspect had left the prince behind. Selected examiners at the crime lab located several footprints on the map. Evidence technician Lisa Lanham then compared them to the suspect Prince who were recovered from the crime scene and found a match. Police had identified a suspect and had evidence that could link him to the crime scene.

Now they needed to know his name. All they had was a partial license plate number of their vehicle, there wasn't much to go on, initially we made a tag from Florida, I mean, take the lead, you have to try and I didn't find anything and then we decided that since the bells They were from Texas, It would be the next day to try and when we received that tag, the information was registered to someone in Texas, so we had to follow up to have the lead investigators trace the white vehicle to an Austin resident, Texas, 21 years old, named José Joey del Toro.

A check on José del Toro as soon as we learned his name we discovered that he had a criminal record, but nothing that would make you believe that he was a murderer, but that was a conclusion that the forensic scientists would have to draw from Joey. Del Toro's fingerprint card was sent to the Sarasota County crime lab, where examiners compared his prints to those recovered from the beautiful home after careful examination.scrutiny. They concluded that Joey Del Toro had left his mark and an arrest warrant was issued for police in Del Toro's hometown. Austin Texas was unable to locate the suspect, however, they were able to locate his white vehicle armed with a warrant.

Investigators processed the car in a bag and collected a Colt .45 caliber semi-automatic pistol, it was the same type of weapon used to shoot Sheila. belush to make their case against Joey Del Toro investigators sent the gun to ballistics experts at the Florida Department of Law Enforcement's crime lab first the gun was fired into a water tank the water slows the flight of the bullet without distorting it unique marks left as they pass through the barrel of the gun, the bullets collected from the water tank could be compared to the bullet recovered from Sheila Belush's cheek under a comparison microscope.

Examiners found that the rifling marks that are unique to each gun were identical on both bullets. All the forensic analysis remained. Investigators had no doubt that Joey Del Toro had murdered the young mother of six, but having found no obvious connection between the Killer and the victim, the motive behind Savage's murder was as mysterious as the whereabouts of the Killer. Police in Sarasota, Florida, had finally linked a suspect to the murder of Sheila Belich, a 35-year-old mother of six, found brutally beaten, shot and stabbed in her home. All evidence suggested that Joey Del Toro, 21, committed the murder and then fled to Texas, but so far all efforts have been made to locate him. was unsuccessful, then police received a tip that the fugitive was staying with relatives in San Antonio for help.

Florida police contacted the Texas Rangers stationed there, but authorities had no luck finding the suspect, however they did manage to locate his cousin, a man named Sammy González. he agreed to come in and answer questions. Rangers Lt. Gary de los Santos conducted the interview. Sammy Gonzalez claimed that he had no idea where his cousin Joey Del Toro might be, but he believed he had information about the murder. He said that a few months ago an acquaintance. About him, a golf hustler named Danny Rocha had tried to hire him to beat up someone. Sammy was interested in the job, but when he saw the intended victim he turned him down, but he knew someone else who might be interested in the job.

Sammy admitted to us that Danny Rocha approached him and asked him to hit a girl once Sammy realized there was a woman, he refused to do it but he mentioned to Joey, his cousin Joey Del Toro, that maybe I would be willing to do it. Sammy claimed that he did not know if his cousin had accepted the job and did not ask why the woman had been attacked. He wasn't sure what to do with the information. Investigators began looking into the golfer's background. They were surprised with what they found. Danny Rocha was a close friend. partner of Sheila Belush's wealthy ex-husband, investigators suddenly had to consider that they had exposed a murder-for-hire plot.

The police knew that Sheila's divorce had been bitter, but it had led to the murder of a friend who knew the couple well, was how Sheila had described it. Her ex-husband Alan Blackthorne was obsessive and controlling during her divorce. He demanded that Sheila give up custody of her children when she refused. Blackthorne falsely arrested her for child abuse. The charges were eventually dismissed and Sheila was granted custody of the children. Alan Blackthorne. he allegedly said he would get revenge according to the friend. Sheila took the threat seriously when Sheila and her new family moved to Florida, keeping an unlisted phone number and taking efforts to keep her new address a secret.

Now investigators are looking for evidence that the victim's ex-husband had orchestrated his murder Danny Rocha, the person police believe he hired. The hitman was brought in for questioning on the advice of his lawyer. He refused to answer questions earlier. Letting him go, however, Lieutenant delos Santos asked Rocha to pose for a photograph with him, which he accepted abroad the next day. They brought in Sammy González for another interview. The police were convinced that he knew more about the murder plot than he claimed when he was shown the photograph. Sammy was convinced. that Danny Rocha was cooperating with the authorities out of fear that he had been involved in the murder decided to speak out now admitted that he had accepted fourteen thousand dollars from Danny Rocha to murder Sheila belich shortly thereafter hired his cousin to carry out the murder Sammy believed that Sheila Belush's ex-husband, Alan Blackthorne, had ordered and financed the murder.

He also told investigators where they could find hitman Joey del Toro. Shortly after del Toro was located at a motel in Mexico, he was arrested and after extensive legal investigations. Authorities had exposed three conspirators in the murder of Sheila Belich, but alleged mastermind Alan Blackthorne was still a free man searching for evidence linking him to the murder. Investigators subpoenaed his phone records to In the months before the homicide, a number that kept coming up traced back to the bail bondsman who had helped Sheila get out of jail when she was falsely arrested. The bondsman said he recorded all of her phone conversations.

The police realized that he would have been one of the few people who have a record of Sheila Belush's most current address, once we have those recordings, that's when you listen to Alan Blackburn and there's a person calling pretending to be another person and trying to determine Sheila's address. Investigators confirmed that just before Allen's murder. successfully located Sheila's address in Florida the question the evidence along with the testimony of the other conspirators was enough to arrest the wealthy businessman on January 4, 2000 Alan Blackthorne was arrested and charged with conspiracy to commit murder at trial Police learned that shortly after his divorce from Sheila Alan Blackthorne began plotting to kill her while she was on a golf trip.

Blackthorne told her partner Danny Rocha that her ex-wife was an abusive mother and that he wanted her to stop even if it meant killing her. Danny Rocha agreed to prepare it after acquiring Sheila's life. address in Florida The hitman drove from Texas to the beautiful house Joey Del Toro broke into the residence and waited for his opportunity took the unsuspecting mother completely off guard oh yes, for their role in the murder Joey Del Toro and Danny Rocha received life sentences Sammy González was sentenced to 19 years Alan Blackthorne was convicted of orchestrating the death of his wife and sentenced to life in prison for some money is sufficient reason to commit murder when there are no obvious connections between the killer and the victim.

Detectives turned to forensic examiners to expose the situation. The mastermind behind a murder-for-hire on Maryland's Eastern Shore, a couple's romantic weekend getaway turns deadly when a man dies in a deadly fire, although all evidence suggests a tragic accident, a routine investigation exposes some worrying irregularities in Florida and a seemingly healthy woman dies there. house and the examiners cannot buy anything to explain the death, although the police suspect that a murder has been committed. It will be years before new forensic technology offers any hope of proving that traceable poison is used to commit murder. Homicide detectives face a difficult challenge in searching for help.

They turn to forensic

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ologists. traces and exposes

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death St Michaels is a historic fishing town turned resort on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. The streets and old houses and boutiques have made it a popular weekend getaway abroad. County 9-1-1 In the early morning hours of February 15, 1998, an emergency dispatcher received a frantic call from an employee at a local resort. Is there anyone in the room? One of the rooms was on fire and he believed a guest was trapped inside. 36 respond to St Michael's Resort in room, Talbot County rescue workers. The fire department and Maryland State Police officers arrived at the scene.

The fire, confined to a single room, was quickly brought under control. The employees managed to get the guest out of the room. The victim, Stephen Grieco, 35, was pronounced dead at the scene. his face had been burned beyond recognition. Police learned that shortly before 1:30 a.m., the victim's wife ran to the hotel lobby to report that her room was on fire. Firefighters called 9-1-1 and then ran to the bedroom where they found the victim lying down. Kim Rico, 33, said she and her husband Steve were spending Valentine's weekend together that same night. She and Steve had had dinner with friends at the hotel restaurant.

Kim said Steve had been drinking a lot and had taken antidepressants and cold medicine, so why don't we have a toast? Steve got carelessly drunk she and her husband returned to their room a few hours later Steve continued drinking and then started pressuring her to have sex you're drunk I'm not interested when Kim refused he got angry hey hey to avoid a fight , she grabbed her things and went for a walk when she returned a few hours later, walked into the room and was in the middle of the smoke. She couldn't believe her husband of 10 years was there.

The associate professor thus investigators sought answers to explain the deadly fire. Maryland Deputy State Fire Marshal Mike Mulligan began searching for the source of the fire. The point of origin is key to determining the cause of a fire and determining whether it was accidental or intentional. What you want to do is start in the area of ​​the least fire damage and work your way toward the most fire damage and the idea is that the place where you have the most fire damage is the one that has been burning the longest on the nightstand. next to the bed.

Investigators found their first clue: a partially melted soda bottle. The heat softened the plastic on the side facing the fire while it was still cold on the other side and the plastic began to melt and pointed the neck of the bottle toward the point of origin. The fire had apparently started near the pillow where Steven Preco's head would have been. The burn pattern showed its progress across the bed and onto the charred carpet. Investigators discovered a possible cause of the fire on the nightstand and found an open pack of cigarettes that one was lying on. For fire chiefs, the reason behind the fire seemed tragically clear: We could take out the electrical system, we could take out the heating units. and air conditioning, we could eliminate the wood stove and whatever that left us with.

Well, one of the possibilities was careless smoking. At autopsy, the medical examiner found that Stephen Rico had suffered severe burns to his head, arms and torso, but surprisingly no traces of soot or carbon monoxide were found in Stephen's lungs. the victim, which suggested that he had stopped breathing before the room filled with smoke as no cause had been found. of death Blood and tissue samples were collected for further analysis. Maryland State Police crime lab toxicologists confirmed that no carbon monoxide was present in the victim's blood or tissue. The blood alcohol test results were 0.00 percent. Examiners found no evidence to suggest Steve had been drinking or taking pills while his wife claimed the results were transmitted to the Maryland State Police.

Homicide Detective Joe Gamble struggled to reconcile all the facts of the case. They could not determine how he died. They were able to tell us that he did not die for any reason. natural causes there was no alcohol in Steven's blood nor carbon monoxide soot in his lungs that did not agree with what Kimberly Rico told us that night to resolve the inconsistencies the detectives questioned the victim's wife again, she was surprised by the findings of the laboratory in addition to drinking a lot During dinner, Steve had bought beer and cigarettes earlier that day. She admitted that her marriage had been difficult, but claimed that she and Steve had managed to resolve her problems.

Everything had gone very well as the interrogation continued. Kim became nervous and then asked for a lawyer. She ended the interview abroad to find out what Kim Rico was hiding. Police contacted the couple's friends. They all agreed that Kim and Steve had been working hard to save their marriage, but none of the friends had ever known Steve smoking cigars. Inconsistent information in addition to the autopsy findings led investigators to suspect that Steve Rico's death had not been the result of an accident, as she suggested.wife. To prove it, they would first have to determine exactly how the fire started through arson investigators from the Maryland State Fire Marshal's Office at a training center in the East.

Maryland fire chiefs are seeking to recreate the damage seen at the scene: They lit the same brand of cigarette found inside the room and placed it on a pillow they had obtained from the hotel, thank you. It burned slowly and then the ash from the lit cigarette came out. we couldn't light the flame retardant pillow, we took the cigarettes and placed them on the pillows, we did this repeatedly for about an hour and a half and what the test showed us was that Carol's smoking could not have been the cause of the ignition caused by the pillow.

Investigators now suspected that an accelerant had been used to start the fire. Laboratory tests failed to expose any trace of a flammable substance; however, the accelerant could have been burned during the fire. The only other way investigators could ignite the pillow and recreate the burn damage was by applying a makeshift torch directly toward it. Tess confirmed that the fire was incendiary in nature; it was not an accidental fire; it was not a cause of careless smoking. fire had been set intentionally the findings were relayed to police shortly after Stephen Rico's death. officially classified as a homicide, authorities on Maryland's Eastern Shore proved that the hotel room fire that claimed the life of 35-year-old Steve Rico was not the result of careless smoking, as his wife Kim suggested to the not having found traces of smoke in the victim's lungs.

It also became clear that Steve Rico was already dead when the fire started, but the medical examiner was unable to determine exactly how he died. All the findings led the police to believe that Kim Grico had murdered her husband, now they are looking for physical evidence to prove it. Police located her co-workers at a Washington, DC, hospital where she worked as a surgical technician. No one believed he was capable of murder. However, one doctor recalled an unusual conversation he had with her a month earlier. Kim had been complaining about her marriage. and she jokingly offered him fifty thousand dollars to kill her husband, what are you talking about not taking her seriously?

She joked that she could put Stephen to sleep forever by injecting him with a drug called succinylcholine. What would that do to someone, Kim's partner? The worker described the drug as a powerful muscle relaxant used to prevent involuntary movements during surgery as a surgical technician. Kim wore it almost every day. Homicide Detective Joe Gamble. Kimberly Ricker's profession was important because she worked as a surgical technician and had access to certain medications that other people in the hospital and normal citizens do not have access to one of those medications. We learned it with succinylcholine, although toxicology tests found no traces of the drug in Steven Rico's body.

Detectives discovered that succinylcholine breaks down almost immediately without leaving detectable traces. In essence, the drug is a perfect killer weapon that is injected into tissue, doesn't have to go into the bloodstream, and causes muscles to relax, including the heart, diaphragm, and breathing, and with enough succinylcholine you simply let of breathing and your heart stops and you die with the homicide investigation gaining greater clarity. Focus detectives return to the crime scene while searching the hotel for a syringe or drug bottle. Divers comb the miles of river located directly behind the resort. They spent hours calming the river bottom and surrounding area and nothing a few days later, however a hotel employee found something lying on the grass, it was a discarded syringe, the evidence was sent to the Maryland State Police crime lab, A thorough analysis of the needle produced no trace of the evidence.

Examiners applied the victim's blood or succinylcholine to the evidence in hopes of finding fingerprints that may have been left behind, but all their efforts found nothing without an obvious reason or a murder weapon Investigators would have to rely on circumstantial evidence to prove. that Kim Rico had killed her husband and their best hope was to establish that she had set up the crime scene to throw investigators off her trail, so we set out, of course, to discover where the alcohol and cigars came from, with hoping to prove that Kimberly bought these things or bought these things in the room scenario to prepare the room.

What if I could take a couple minutes of your time to check to see if Detective Gamble investigated convenience stores near the complex recently and found an employee who remembered a woman? Matching Kim Rico's description, the store employee told her that around the time of the murder the woman came in to buy a six-pack of beer and a pack of cigars the customer had made a lasting impression on the employee the store employee store remembered Kimberly that day because Kimberly was particularly rude Kimberly had been very abrupt with her and that stood out in the store employee's mind, that's how she was able to remember that her police officer picked up a pack of cigarettes like the ones Investigators from Rico's hotel room also collected the stamp gun used to attach the price tags to the merchandise.

The items were turned over to forensic document examiner Joan Demartino. at the Maryland State Police crime lab to establish a link between the evidence, began comparing the characteristics of the price tag on the package of cigarettes found in From the crime scene to the convenience store pickup, the most important feature would be the design, the tamper-proof dies that cause something to break if, for example, a person close to you wanted to remove the price. label that would break these are common to a particular manufacturer a visual inspection revealed no differences between all the stickers collected using an infrared light source dimartino looked for commonalities and differences within the ink itself, we found that the dyes and pigments that make up each The unique ink was the same on both packs of cigarettes, they all came from the same gun collected at the convenience store.

Kim Creco had purchased the cigarettes found at the crime scene, something she had previously denied. Police were building a strong circumstantial case against Kim Grico, but having revealed no official cause of death or any obvious motive behind the homicide, investigators were still a long way from proving murder. Maryland police were convinced that Kim Grico, a 33-year-old surgical technician, had murdered her husband with an untraceable drug and then staged the scene to make his death look like a tragic accident, but so far all the evidence has accumulated against her were circumstantial, seeking to discover a motive. Police again interviewed people close to the couple.

A friend admitted that just before Steven's death, Kim said she wanted to divorce him. Kim had been having an affair with a man she had met a few months before they spent much time together and Kim was no longer interested in saving her marriage to Steve, but Kim feared a protracted and expensive divorce, according to the report. It was enough for investigators to obtain a warrant to search Kim's home. There, in a desk drawer, they found two life insurance policies taken out for Stephen Rico. Kim would gain two hundred thousand dollars from the death of her husband.

It was the opportunity homicide detectives had been looking for. We felt that Kimberly had a motive, she had a lot of money to gain, she had been involved in an affair that she wanted to move forward with and those were the two things that we felt Kimberly wanted to gain from the murder. Stephen Rico's house. An arrest warrant was issued for Kim Preco, but before police could act they received surprising information. She had tried to commit suicide. One of Kim's friends had become worried about her because she hadn't heard from her for some time. When she went to check on her, she found Kim unconscious.

An empty bottle of pills was on the floor near her. Well, Kim Rico, the main suspect in her husband's death, was rushed to a nearby hospital although she was in critical condition. Her medical staff had reached her on time a few days later. Kim Grico was released from the hospital. The hospital police were there waiting. She was arrested and charged with murder, based on evidence that investigators believe Kimberly Rico was driven by greed and a desire to continue her affair. On February 15, 1998, she injected her unsuspecting husband with the untraceable drug succinylcholine, which paralyzed him. She immediately staged the scene to make it look like Stephen had been drinking beer and smoking cigars abroad.

Kimberly Rico was found guilty of Larson and first degree murder. She was sentenced to life in prison in Maryland. The circumstantial evidence alone was enough to convict Kim Rico of the murder. her husband, but in Florida investigators would need irrefutable scientific evidence to obtain a murder conviction located in Bay County, on the coast of the Florida Panhandle, home to the wealthy and peaceful community of Panama Beach, around 9 a.m. on the morning of May 30, 1991. 18 year old Jennifer Sibers went to her parents' room to wake up her mother, Kaye, but Kay did not respond, in a panic.

Jennifer calls her father. The Florida State Medical Examiner told her not to worry about her, that she was sending help and that she would be there shortly. Well, emergency workers and a doctor from the medical examiner's office were sent to the scene without responding and showing no signs of life. A 52-year-old woman, mother of three, was pronounced dead at the scene. She the apparent victim of a heart attack. A Bay County sheriff's deputy heard the call on the radio. and he responded to the house thank you. They informed him that the death had occurred from natural causes and that it was not necessary.

Shortly after, the victim's husband, medical examiner Dr. William Sybers, arrived at the home and learned that he was his wife of more than 20 years. He had missed the idea of ​​what caused her to be here. Dr. Cybers requested that her body be taken directly to the funeral home the next day. Agents with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement received a call. An anonymous tipster was concerned about several irregularities surrounding Kay's death and her actions. from her husband after hearing all the details, Special Agent Scotty Sanderson agreed to take a closer look at Dr. Cyber. Certain warning signs emerged.

He was a medical examiner. No autopsy had been performed. Case Iris was apparently in good health. She did not call 9.-1-1 after learning of her distress and the police were notified and sent to the home, but were asked to leave by Dr. Cybers' staff as the medical examiner. Dr. Cybers knows that all unattended deaths require an autopsy to be performed. His wife was not there. exception to find out why you had not followed the protocol the investigators arranged an interview it is important that an autopsy be performed could you tell me why you did not order enough?

Dr. Cyber ​​admitted that he had made a mistake and I was just distraught and not thinking clearly he loved Kay very much and her death was completely unexpected we really enjoyed the night before she died the two of them had gone out to dinner but around 4am she woke him up almost breathing it hurts when I breathe Kay was experiencing pain in her chest and left shoulder Dr. Cybers was worried. K had a family history of heart disease and diabetes. Let's try to relax, but she refused to go to the hospital. Seven, lower your arm for a minute.

Dr. Cybers said he tried to draw some blood. so he could have it tested the next morning, but he said he failed at the job after two failed attempts, gave up, and Kay finally went back to sleep. Dr. Cyber ​​said he called her to check on her several times the next morning, but he was never able to get through. As a matter of routine, Officer Sanderson asked for the syringe, but Dr. Cybers did not have it. He said that on his way to work the next morning, he threw the needle in the trash and then discarded it in a trash can about blocks away. that's normally what your family does household trash most of our trash yes all information including how the needle was disposed problem agent sanderson is a doctor has a needle in a syringe exposed in household trash throwing it into the dumpster supposedly At the end of the street, all of these different factors were alarming me and the othersAgents who were with me about what we were going to work on, concerned about all the irregularities, investigators began to dig deeper into K Cyber's medical history.

FDLE Special Agent Dennis NORAD spilled. In her records, searching for any clues that might help explain her death, she found no record that suggested she suffered from diabetes or heart disease, as her husband claimed that we had collected documents from the time Kay was born to the time she died. in Panama City. and there was nothing to indicate that she had experienced any type of health problem. The information suggested that Dr. Cybers was not being truthful about his wife's medical history in order to discover why investigators needed to examine the victim's body after obtaining a warrant. to the funeral home to recover Kay's remains, they arrived just in time.

Officers were sent to the funeral home where they found she had been embalmed and was in a casket for display and were about to transport her body back to her home in Iowa. Dr Cyber's at the scene was in a hurry to bury his wife. K Cyber's body was transported to an independent medical examiner's office located in Pensacola. Now it was up to them to determine whether her death had occurred from natural causes or from something else that authorities in Bay County, Florida, were seeking to explain. the death of K Cybers An apparently healthy 52-year-old woman, mother of three, was found dead in her home, although her husband, coroner Dr.

William Cybers, stated that she had a history of illness heart and diabetes. Her medical records told a different story. Investigators hoped an autopsy would give them answers. Coroner Dr. Gary Cumberland sought to identify a specific cause of death. An external examination revealed the presence of two distinct puncture marks on the victim's right arm, consistent with Dr. Cyber's claim that he attempted to draw blood shortly after her. before her death, but the marks were also consistent with something that had been injected into her body. I see some recent hemorrhage around these, so I think they occurred before she died, so let's make sure we get some of that tissue for toxicology and for general histology.

Cumberland focused his internal examination on the victim's heart; there was no evidence of disease or signs of damage; in fact, all of the victim's organs appeared healthy. Dr. Cumberland found nothing to explain why the K Cybers had died so suddenly, troubled by the findings he collected. and blood samples for further analysis, basically what we have is a person who died without any natural disease process responsible for their death and in those cases we start looking for toxicological agents, that is, is there any drug or poison that had been administered And what caused his death? Death samples were sent to the Dade County Medical Examiner's Office, but toxicologists were at a disadvantage.

K Cyber's body had been embalmed shortly after her death and those fluids had likely destroyed any traces of drugs or poisons that might have been injected into her system. The test results came back The findings were negative and did little to alleviate researchers' suspicions that K-cybers had encountered Foul Play. We have agents who will accompany this material. Despite the lack of hard evidence, they refuse to close the case, although the victim's husband explained the puncture marks on Kay's body. arms and resulted from an attempt to draw blood, investigators formulated a different theory, speculating that he had been injected with a lethal drug, but a search of trash bins near the couple's home failed to produce a syringe or any evidence that I could try it.

Thanks, investigators turned to The couple's children were hoping to shed light on a possible motive for the murder, but the cyberneticist's daughter insisted that her parents' relationship was strong and normal. Her father was devoted to K and the children. The daughter said she had last seen her mother the night before she died. Yes. wonderful we went to that new restaurant when her parents came home after dinner they seemed happy and were both in a good mood she and her mother stayed up and talked for a while neither of the children believe their father had anything to do with her mother's death.

The investigation was going nowhere, darlings, thank you for coming today. I thought the authorities had no choice but to hand over the victim's body to her family. Cyber's remains were flown to her hometown in Iowa, where she was buried, but the agents refused to give up. She reviewed the case vials for anything they might have missed in her statements to police. Dr Cybers claimed that he had attempted to telephone his wife numerous times on the morning of her death to check on her. Investigators subpoenaed her cell phone records and discovered he was telling them. The truth is, but FDLE Agent Dennis NORAD noticed something else over a period of about three months.

There were approximately 140 strange calls made by Dr. Cybers to a particular phone number. Two of those calls took place on the morning of Kay's death. The number was tracked. To a former lab technician who worked with Dr. Cybers, the woman admitted that the two were close friends. He had called her the day of Kay's death, but she said he was heartbroken and she just wanted to be comforted, but investigators felt she wasn't telling them. All under persistent interrogation, she admitted that she and Dr. Cyber ​​were romantically involved and considered him a father figure, but as they began to spend more time together, their feelings deepened and they soon fell in love.

She didn't believe he was capable of murder. Investigators disagreed that Dr. Cybers was not the devoted husband and father he portrayed himself to be, as they theorized that he had murdered his wife to clear the way for him to continue his affair. Police sent tissue samples from the Cyber ​​case collected at the autopsy to the National Medical Services laboratory in Willow Grove, Pennsylvania. At one of the most advanced forensic laboratories in the country, her renowned toxicologist, Dr. Frederick, readers agreed to investigate the case. After reviewing K Cyber's autopsy report, he found a potential clue: an elevated level of potassium had been detected in the ocular fluid.

Strange, although potassium occurs naturally. in the body in small amounts, if a large dose is injected into a person's bloodstream, it will cause the heart to stop immediately in the normal human body, potassium and iron are found in equal amounts within red blood cells to discover if K cybers had an unnatural function. amount of potassium in your body toxicologists used a newly developed system that measures the ratio of potassium to iron the procedure was successful Dr. readers reviewed the findings the ratio of potassium to iron in critical areas was much higher than normal, which which led me to the conclusion that Potassium had been administered to this person and that was potentially a cause of death for him.

The findings had provided powerful evidence that K cybersno had died of natural causes, but to confirm the results examiners needed additional samples of the victim's body for investigators, which presented a problem in the state of Iowa, where K was buried. Cybers. State law will only allow a body to be exhumed if the family gives consent. consent, but those were the ones that Dr. Cybers, who insisted he had nothing to hide, refused to give permission, desperate not to let his case slip away, authorities turned to Florida State Attorney Harry Shorstein, looking for help. He agreed to prosecute the case, but almost immediately faced a crushing setback.

The only scientific evidence that could prove the murder had been questioned by defense experts because potassium is found naturally in the body. The judge ruled that without additional samples, no There was enough evidence to prove that K Cybers had been given a lethal dose. It was stated very simply when they die, their red blood cells break down almost immediately, they are full of potassium and as a result, the potassium inside their body goes. everywhere and the general thinking among the scientific community is that if you inject potassium unless it can reach the body almost immediately you couldn't distinguish between the potassium that had been injected into the body and the potassium that is inside your body naturally Despite the court's conclusions, everything the authorities had learned convinced them.

Dr. Cybers had murdered his wife, but until they could find irrefutable evidence. could not prove it had been several years since the 1991 death of her 52-year-old brothers, although toxicology tests convinced Florida authorities that her husband had injected her with the lethal dose of potassium, the court ruled that the findings were inadmissible still special prosecutor Harry Shorstein did not believe that K Cybers died of heart disease since her husband, medical examiner William Cybers, had suggested that the examination of the heart that had taken place at the autopsy showed no indication of any heart disease and that we were going to proceed with the investigation. trial without a real cause of death based only on circumstantial evidence in February 1997 an arrest warrant was issued for Dr.

William Sybers, he had since retired and married the woman he had been having an affair with and He voluntarily surrendered to the police. Due to health problems, he was released on bail of three hundred thousand dollars, but not before an electronic monitoring device was placed on him. He was only allowed to leave his house to visit lawyers and attend church, while he approached trial, prosecutors struggled to prepare their case for trial. Then the jury received unexpected news in the years since K Cyber's death. Toxicologists at the National Medical Services Laboratory in Willow Grove, Pennsylvania, developed new forensic tests that could detect previously untraceable poisons, although samples collected at the autopsy were several years old, according to Dr.

Kevin. Ballard, had been well preserved, her cybernetic tissues were taken from her at the time of her original autopsy, but she had already been embalmed, those tissues, those organs were kept frozen for all the years between the time of her death and the moment of his death. Our Analyzes First, Dr. Ballard wanted to test the samples for the presence of paralyzing drugs. These drugs are known to increase potassium levels in the body, which could explain why high levels of potassium were found in tissue samples that underwent processing years earlier. It's called cutoff, which means quadrupole flight time.

Basically, the process acts like a molecular microscope. First, all the molecules that are present in the sample are separated. The individual molecule is then broken down into pieces using sophisticated detection equipment. The individual pieces are then weighed. The weight of the samples is then compared to the molecular weight of known paralyzing drugs. Samples taken from K Cyber's kidney analysis revealed lethal amounts of the drug succinylcholine, instructive choline and these other paralyzing drugs when administered to a person, they paralyze the skeletal muscles of our bodies, these are the muscles that move our limbs, They also paralyze the specialized skeletal muscle, which is the diaphragm, which is the main muscle that we use when we breathe, so part of the effect is to stop a person's breathing with more difficulty, as the doctor, the victim's husband, says.

She had easy access to the drug and the knowledge to use it to deadly effect driven by the desire to continue her affair and avoid a costly divorce. Police believe that on May 30, 1991, Dr. William Sybers injected his wife with a lethal amount of the paralyzing drug. He then tried to use his position as chief medical examiner to cover up his crime in the state of Florida in January 2000. Dr. William Sybers was convicted of the murder of his wife Kay and sentenced to life in prison. . Some murderers believe that by using an untraceable drug their crimes go unpunished, but with each advance in forensic science there are fewer poisons that can escape detection and that means a better opportunity for investigators to solve cases of toxic death that They were once elusive.

Canadian police are searching for a missing woman, although all signs suggest they were murdered. She must rely on a single strand of animal hair to prove it. When an Ohio woman disappears, suspicions swirl around her husband. What the police lack is evidence.hard-hitting in Missouri a man is found brutally murdered to catch his killer police must reconstruct his last minutes sometimes the murder The suspect is immediately obvious, but evidence remains elusive when there are no

witness

es to speak for the victim. Forensic scientists must transform the smallest clue into material. Witness, thank you. Tucked away in the Gulf of St.

Lawrence on the southeastern tip of Canada lies the remote and sparsely populated Prince Edward Island, on October 7, 1994, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police or RCMP responded to a complaint about a vehicle abandoned found on private property when officer arrived and discovered the car was a few hundred yards off a private road, no tags present 41 Basing a check on the vehicle identification number revealed that it was registered to a woman named Shirley Duguay. Police arranged for the vehicle to be impounded and then began trying to locate the owner, but when the woman did not respond to their calls, detectives decided to go to her. address there they were received by Shirley Duguay's father the children's nanny the news of the abandoned car probably worried them they said they had not heard from him for some time the nanny said she last saw the mother of five children 32 years old four days earlier Shirley was leaving to run some errands she never mentioned where she was going she said goodbye and promised to return in a few hours for RCMP inspector Alphonse McNeil the story had raised a disturbing question we wondered why she wasn't reported missing they said Les There was concern that a former common-law spouse named Douglas Beamish, with whom she had had three young children, would end up causing the children at Social Services to discover that she was missing or gone, so they tried to hide that information.

While they could hope to find her for investigators, time ran out to wake up for fear that Shirley Duguay may have come to harm. Police processed her abandoned vehicle for clues. What they found was not encouraging. Dozens of small reddish-brown spots tested positive. Barely visible bloodstain patterns found on the windshield and larger ones on the seat were consistent with having been caused by someone being beaten or beaten. There is blood in the vehicle. Shirley Dugay had been missing for four days, so we were concerned that Shirley Dugay had met some type of death in that vehicle.

Investigators returned to the area where the car had been found abandoned for hours searching for clues to the young woman's fate. He did not find anything, then 500 meters from where the car was discovered the investigators found something that was a pillow stained with what appeared to be blood and a short distance away there was a blood-stained T-shirt. A shovel was also found nearby. All findings pointed to a murder and the shovel led police to believe that Shirley had probably been buried somewhere nearby. But an exhaustive search failed to find the victim's body, now police wanted to speak to the man who had the most to gain from her disappearance, her ex-common-law husband and father of three of her children, Doug Beamish, admitted that he and Shirley Their relationship had been problematic in the past and he realized that his family probably blamed him for her disappearance, but insisted that he knew nothing about him for the sake of the children that he and Shirley had managed to resolve their problems.

He said he last saw her. A week earlier he had been having car trouble and Shirley offered to take him to a job site where he worked as a construction worker. On the way they had a nice conversation about their children and planned to talk more later. He dropped it off and the two said goodbye. He hadn't heard from her since Doug Beamish sensed something was bothering Shirley. He speculated that she had gone out of town to visit friends in Toronto, but it turned out that no one there had heard. After a while, the police received a call from her.

A woman who had been following the case in the media believed she had important information. This lady called and said, "You know," I remember when Shirley Dugay disappeared, I saw a similar car. to her on a road called Allen Road which would be about 20 kilometers from where we found the car uh, I remember it was night, it was dark, I saw two people on the side of the road, a tall man, a very small woman, They seemed to be arguing and I just walked by and I don't know if it's good for you or not. The woman couldn't be sure if she had seen Shirley Duguay, but the information was enough for police to search. the area where her caller had seen the couple, but to cover the several square miles they knew they needed help.

Canadian military personnel agreed to participate in the search for several days, their efforts were unsuccessful, but then they found something that seemed out of place. one group found a white plastic bag. We had a police officer with each group of army searchers. The police officer sees the bench. A search of the area did not produce any additional evidence. Crime lab examiners carefully removed the contents of the plastic bag. They recovered an old pair of white sneakers, there was also a large men's jacket stuffed inside several fibers and a single white hair, but further scrutiny revealed the presence of small stains that tested positive for human blood according to information provided by The Witness.

The police believed it had originated from Shirley Duguay, now they needed to prove it, but there was a problem: we didn't have Shirley Duguay, so we needed to be able to develop a DNA profile the way we did, that's what in some cases It's called reverse parenting. took a sample from his father, his brother and his two children, although the DNA of each one is unique, there is a family genetic resemblance between blood relatives, when the genetic profiles were compared, the examiners concluded that the blood found in all evidence had originated from Shirley Duguay, although the 32 The whereabouts of her 32-year-old mother remained uncertain.

All the evidence suggested that she had been the victim of a violent crime. Police in Canada's Prince Edward Island continued searching for missing 32-year-old Shirley Duguay, a mother of five, although efforts to find her had been unsuccessful. Authorities had uncovered Clues suggesting she had met a violent fate, among them was a man's jacket found stained with blood that originated when Shirley was searching for Clues as to who might want to harm the young mother, Royal Constabulary officers Canadian Mounties ask Shirley's friends who they all believed in. that Shirley's ex-husband, Doug Beamish, was somehow involved in the disappearance recently.

Shirley had started dating again, which had angered her possessive and jealous ex-husband, and Doug Beamish had a history of violence. When was the last time she saw those guys but the friend didn't? I don't remember if Beamish owned a jacket like the one he found with Shirley's blood on it. Doug Beamish was becoming the prime suspect in Shirley Dugay's disappearance, but until now investigators had no physical evidence to prove it—you know, without that jacket being able to be tied together. someone we don't have much I agree so they had a break do you have something hi Dan just came back they found some white cat hair on the inside of the jacket and the only thing I could think about the whole way here was Beamish and his white cat in his home, that was all RCMP Inspector Alphonse McNeil needed to hear.

We knew he had a white cat and there were white hairs on the jacket, so the process was to find a lab that could test them if we could. To confiscate the cat's blood with a warrant in hand, police and a local veterinarian returned to Doug Beamish's home, the suspect continued to deny any involvement in Shirley's disappearance and claimed he did not have a jacket like the one that was stained. with his blood. seemed like a long shot, authorities took possession of her snowball cat in the hopes that they could somehow establish a genetic link to the hair found on the bloodstained jacket.

Blood and hair samples were collected from Beamish's cat, but now the researchers had to find someone who was an expert in cat DNA analysis at the National Cancer Institute in Frederick, Maryland, they found a biologist there, Dr. Stephen O'Brien, who examined the feline genetic code for help in medical research. When contacted, he agreed to help Canadian police, but Dr. O'Brien and his team never imagined that by deciphering the feline genetic code they could also help solve a baffling criminal case. The request to compare a cat's DNA was unique in medical and legal history. The first examiners generated a genetic profile of the cat.

Once completed, the white hair extracted from the bloody jacket was compared to the profile generated from the snowball samples taken. What we discovered was that the genotype was identical to what we had seen on the jacket hair, so we were pretty sure that the jacket hair came from a cat that had the same genotype. A snowball, although the scientists were confident in the results, they could not be absolutely sure of them. It was possible that the few thousand cats that roamed isolated Prince Edward Island shared a common ancestor. Biologists needed to generate more DNA profiles from other cats on the island.

We had to determine what the state of the population was in order to make the calculation of how likely it was that we would make a mistake when pronouncing a coincidence? The examiners got to work. Developing the genetic profiles of 20 randomly selected cats on the island, when O'Brien compared the results, he discovered that none shared a snowball-like DNA signature; In fact, the odds that the hair found on the jacket did not come from Beamish's cat were 45 million. Through a snowball, authorities had established a link between Doug Beamish and a jacket stained with his ex-wife's blood, but Inspector Alphonse McNeil was not satisfied, then obtained a court order to collect foot prints. of the suspect and now hoping to link the suspect to the pair of white sneakers found with the jacket we thought well, if we can put those sneakers on Darkness Beamish's feet somehow, that would be pretty solid evidence, plus her cat.

Dr. Keith Bettels, a forensic podiatrist, received the evidence. He began by creating plaster. casts the suspect's feet to reveal all the unique characteristics people's feet are unique because we walk on them all the time we have many different stresses many different forces on our feet are practically this individual like fingerprints molds of Beamish's feet perfectly Aligned with all the wear patterns seen on the insoles of the white shoes, a single strand of cat hair and a pair of discarded shoes had given investigators the evidence they needed to implicate Doug Beamish in The Disappearance of His Ex. de facto couple. wife, was right down there, Seven months after Shirley Dugay disappeared, severely decomposed human remains were discovered buried in a remote wooded area.

Dental records later confirmed that the victim was most likely Duguay; the medical examiner classified her death as a homicide shortly afterward, Douglas. Beamish was arrested and charged with first degree murder. Investigators believe Beamish couldn't stand Shirley Duguay dating other men. He somehow manipulated her into giving him a ride in her car and directed her to a remote place. Once there, he hit his ex. -common-law wife to death, then buried her body in a remote area and abandoned the car. Douglas Beamish was convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison. No place is immune to violent crime and even the friendliest cities have their problems.

Mansfield Ohio has been called one of the most livable cities in America, which makes what happened here even more surprising. On January 2, 1990, a woman came to talk to Mansfield police. She was worried that something had happened to her friend Noreen Boyle, 44, when she last saw her friend a few days earlier. Noreen was shocked and visibly upset. Her marriage of more than 22 years was falling apart and her husband was not only moving nearly 200 miles away to Erie, Pennsylvania, but he was likely taking the couple's two children with him. Noreen was devastated when she tried to contact her.

Noreen's husband, a prominent local doctor, said Noreen had packed her bags and left town aftera fight, but the friend couldn't believe that Noreen would abandon her two children. Mansfield police agreed to investigate the case. and her first step was to question Noreen's husband, Dr. John Boyle. When Lieutenant David Messmore arrived at the residence, he learned that John Boyle was out of town. John Boyle's mother explained that she had driven to Erie, Pennsylvania a few days earlier where she was opening her new medical practice, she was due to return later that night when asked, she said that Noreen abandoned the family a few days earlier and was caring for the couple's children until their son John returned home.

Excuse me, the woman excused herself to check on Boyle's baby. daughter then the couple's son approached the foreign detective and told him that he was afraid that something bad had happened to his mother but before he could explain his grandmother came back I'm so sorry I don't have more information when she saw what was happening she finished the interview and I asked the detective to leave. I really don't have anything else to tell you. I really need to tell him about the encounter with the police in trouble. He is from Mansfield and Lieutenant Messmore could not have been unaware that Dr.

Boyle had left town around the same time his wife was reported missing. I'm not sure where he is, but he soon learned that the reason for the doctor's trip to Pennsylvania was that he had been hired by a very large medical corporation in Erie, Pennsylvania, so he was basically traveling back and forth between Mansfield and Erie for some time. of time, but where was Noreen Boyle later that night? Detective Messmore returned to the residence. He had anticipated the visit. Dr. Boyle's attorney opened the door. You, you represent Dr. Boyle. Yes, he's fine, is he home right now?

Well, his client had actually returned home. of Pennsylvania, but due to the tension caused by the impending divorce, Dr. Boyle did not want to discuss Noreen with the police. Well, I'll get back to you. It was not the answer the researchers expected. I was kind of stunned because in the case of a missing person in your family, you would hire a lawyer to represent you when there are no accusations or even accusations of wrongdoing or even criminal matters involving the family, so it was certainly a situation very unusual. He wasn't the only one interested in finding. discovered what Dr.

Boyle might be trying to hide Elise questioned that his friends and coworkers are becoming more free professionally. Everyone agreed that Dr. Boyle had an impeccable reputation, but he was personally known to be a womanizer and was rumored to be involved in numerous affairs, one in fact. of his supposed lovers was pregnant and everyone was speculating that the child belonged to Dr. Boyle, although that made him a bad husband, it did not mean that he was capable of committing physical violence, in fact, only one person seemed to believe otherwise and that was the boiled son in question.

For the child's well-being, Lt. Messmore met with him after school. The boy was eager to tell his story. He said that the night before his mother disappeared, he was awakened by the sound of his parents arguing outside his room when he heard a loud noise. deaf and then there There was silence a few seconds later his dad looked into his room the boy was scared and pretended to be asleep the next morning his mom was gone his dad told him that she packed up and left but he didn't believe that her Mom would leave without saying goodbye, did you have a conversation with your father?

Although the police had no evidence that a crime had been committed, they began to theorize that the noise injured by the boy could have been the sound of his own mother being assaulted or, worse yet, the police in Mansfield, Ohio, continued their searched for missing mother of two, Noreen Boyle, and now theorized that her husband, Dr. John Boyle, was involved somehow, although police had no hard evidence that a crime had been committed, they were able to obtain a warrant judicial to search residents of Boyle in Ohio using luminol, a chemical substance. which reacts to proteins found in the blood, technicians began searching the house, but their efforts failed to find any evidence of a violent crime.

Still, investigators persisted to obtain more information and contacted authorities in Erie, Pennsylvania, where Dr. Boyle was establishing his new medical practice in Mill Creek. Pennsylvania Township Police Department detectives located a real estate agent who had recently sold a home to Dr. Boyle and a pregnant woman who introduced herself as his wife. He recalled that Dr. Boyle was particularly interested in the concrete floor in the basement of the house and said he was anxious. to tear it up and build a playroom for his children he offered to pay the asking price as long as he could take possession of the house immediately the real estate agent handed over the sales contract signed by both the doctor and his wife The Pennsylvania authorities sent a copy to Mansfield Police Lieutenant David Messmore, on that copy it was noted that it was signed by Dr.

Boyle and also a boil from Ann Sherry and upon further examination of the background it was quite obvious that the name Noreen Noreen was not Sherry as a middle name, Dr. Boyle had bought the house with a woman posing as his wife. Investigators subpoenaed the suspect's most recent credit card statements and discovered that he had used his card to rent a jackhammer and purchase indoor and outdoor carpeting and a load of concrete, suddenly all the pieces. They were adding up, I had the feeling and a very strong suspicion that the body would be in that place.

Pennsylvania authorities issued a warrant to search the basement of Dr. Boyle's new home, under some bookshelves in the indoor and outdoor carpet, they found a piece of poorly poured concrete. It was about the size of a makeshift slope, a team was called in to excavate the concrete floor, after a while they recognized the unmistakable smell of a decomposing body, then a few meters down they discovered a tarp and inside they were the severely decomposed remains of a human body after carefully excavating the grave The remains were transported to the medical examiner's office a watch and other pieces of jewelry worn by the victim matched the description of those worn by Noreen Boyle and dental records They confirmed that the victim was actually the 44-year-old person.

Noreen, a mother of two children, had been savagely murdered on January 26, 1990, almost a month after her wife disappeared. Dr. John Boyle was arrested in Ohio on suspicion of killing Noreen. Despite the evidence against him, the doctor maintained his innocence. Someone was trying to frame him, which seemed ridiculous. investigators why they are here, but to guarantee a conviction they needed an eye

witness

or physical evidence that directly linked him to the homicide, so far they did not have nor was it possible that Dr. Boyle could get away with it, but almost a week after the murder of Dr.

John Boyle. arrest, a Mansfield Ohio resident made a strange discovery: a pile of concrete had been dumped on a remote property field that was nearly 200 miles from where Noreen Boyle's body had been unearthed, but the man had followed the case in media and thought there might be a A crime scene technician was sent to the scene after photographing the area where the concrete was collected as evidence. Police later determined that the property was owned by a close friend of Dr. Boyles. The doctor had been there numerous times, but to prove murder, police now needed to show that the concrete found in Ohio had originated from the suspect's home in Pennsylvania.

Police had found missing 44-year-old Noreen Boyle buried in the basement of her husband's new home in Pennsylvania, although investigators had a strong circumstantial case against her husband and expected there to be plenty of concrete found in an Ohio field could physically link him to the murder. Samples collected in the field along with concrete taken from the crime scene were sent to CTL Engineering in Columbus, Ohio. There, lab supervisor Larry Pishitelli is an expert at analyzing the microscopic nature of rocks and concrete without being told where the individual samples came from. He was asked to determine if any of the concrete pieces had originated from the same source to analyze the internal structure of the concrete.

The samples are cut into cross pieces using a diamond tipped saw. Once finished, the surfaces are smoothed and polished, then the pishitelli subject the evidence to a high-powered microscope. Concrete is a mixture of stones, gravel and sand called aggregate, held together by a cement paste and some air trapped with the help of a computer, pishitale measures and counts. Each of these components to the average eye, all concrete looks quite similar but, in fact, each piece has a unique story. Each piece of concrete is usually different because the components vary slightly even if they come from the same concrete load.

Two different samples of the same. The same truck load may be different because the percentages of air gaps, small gaps, and trained or trapped air gaps may be slightly different. Pishitelli could not find significant similarities between most of the samples, but when he analyzed the results he found that two of the pieces held up. Apart from the rest, they shared exactly the same number of unique components, these two pieces of concrete had some unique characteristics that were peculiar only to those two pieces of concrete and according to all the data and analysis, the numbers were exactly the same.

I was able to show that those two pieces of concrete came from the same structure of the two samples that matched, one came from the pile of rubble found in Mansfield, Ohio, the other was collected in the basement of the suspect's new home in Erie, Pennsylvania . The police now had enough to charge Dr. John Boyle with murder. Police believe John Boyle murdered his wife in the couple's home to start a new life with his pregnant lover. After the murder, he took her body to Pennsylvania and buried her in a grave he had dug in the basement.

Investigators at his new home theorize that he then returned to Ohio and dumped the concrete remains on his friend's property. Dr. John Boyle was found guilty of aggravated murder and abuse of a corpse. He was sentenced to 20 years to life in prison. John Boyle thought he buried all the evidence of his crime, but in fact the trail of evidence extended for 200 miles. Other murders are more local, but the road to solving them can be just as long. In Harrison County, Missouri, on June 26, 1995, a farmer out for a walk noticed an unpleasant odor. At first he thought perhaps one of his animals had died but the reality was much worse.

Hidden among some overgrowth lay the lifeless body of a man after receiving the 9-1-1 call dispatchers contacted major case squad officers a group of law enforcement personnel from several neighboring jurisdictions Bethany Police Chief George Martz was one of We were the first to respond to the scene, when we arrived we had no idea who the victim was, there was no identification on the body that we could determine at the time, but the way he died was clear, he had been shot multiple times. Sometimes police recovered an empty ammunition box and found several spent shotgun shells, then Sheriff Greg of the nearby Grundy County Sheriff's Department arrived at the scene where he believed he recognized the victim as a local resident named Al Pinegar after that I looked at the body and felt that it might have been Al Panager who I had dealt with in the past in Grundy County.

I couldn't really say for sure, but it seemed to me that it might be who. I wasn't sure what evidence was and what it was. Roadside litter investigators collected numerous items scattered around the area they found and picked up a small plastic watch on the back of which there was a torn adhesive with small synthetic fibers attached to it. They also located a single strand of brown leather lying in the middle of the road. Police hoped that somewhere in the rubble there were clues that could explain this brutal murder. At the autopsy, the medical examiner confirmed that the victim had died as a result of several 12-gauge shotgun blasts.

He had been shot twice in the back and once in the face. The victim's fingerprints. They were lifted and then turned over to Harrison County police. Investigators requested Al Pinegar's fingerprint card that was on file in Grundy County. When they compared those prints to those taken from the homicide victim, they found a perfect match. Now the detectives of the main case teamThey had to find out who wanted Al Pinegar dead They soon had their first chance The police learned that the victim had been reported missing a few days before his body was discovered Well and the report had been filed by his fiancee The police immediately organized an interview the victim's fiancee told detectives that she and Al had been living together for some time she said she last saw him a few hours before he disappeared she had left the house to go run some errands Al said that he was going to mow the lawn and do some work around the house he hadn't mentioned any plans to leave that day recently she had been trying to help him get over a drug problem he had been doing his best to stay away from his friends drug dealers she suspected, however, he had seen some of them that day, when he returned home that same afternoon, he passed a van leaving his neighborhood.

He didn't see Al in the truck, but he knew the vehicle belonged to a couple he used to deal drugs with, which is why he's been dealing. with drugs, she believed that Al may have been ducking to avoid being seen when the fiancé arrived home, she discovered that Al and his 12-gauge shotgun were gone. The information provided police with their first real lead. They did a background check on the couple identified as John Middleton and his girlfriend Maggie Hodges. They gave you and Rodney Middleton an extensive criminal history, mostly related to drug offenses. Find out why he may have wanted to harm Al Pinegar police.

He tracked down Middleton's known associates. An informant described Middleton as an extremely unstable and violent person. Person who said that as a result of police efforts to crack down on local drug dealers, John Middleton had become increasingly paranoid. He threatened to kill the people he did business with if he discovered they were cooperating with authorities. Nobody doubted him for a minute. Everyone was afraid. From him, all the information led the police to suspect that Middleton's paranoia had probably led to the murder of Al Pinegar and they hope that somewhere among the shotgun shells and the assorted trash collected at the crime scene was the means to prove it, the Harrison County police.

Missouri believes a local drug dealer and his girlfriend were responsible for the brutal shotgun murder of 29-year-old Alfred Pinegar. To prove it, investigators needed to physically link the suspects to the crime scene, although several potential clues have been found. there: an empty shotgun case. The shells seemed to be the most promising license price tag found in the box. He led investigators to the store where the ammunition had originated. An employee there pulled up recent sales records based on receipts. Several boxes of shelves were purchased on the day of the murder. The employee remembered. that two men and a woman had come together to make purchases she also remembered something else a few hours after the purchase two of the three customers returned to the store they had unused cartridges and wanted to return them so that an employee would refund them he did not I remember having seen the other man who had been with them earlier when they showed her photographs, she chose Al Pinegar, John Middleton and Maggie Hodges as the three who bought the boxes of ammunition that same day, um, yes, and identified Middleton and Hodges like the two that came.

She returned to return the unused ammunition, although the evidence did not prove murder, it was enough for police to obtain arrest warrants believing that Middleton and his girlfriend were capable of committing great violence. The police cautiously approached the house they shared. John Middleton was quickly subdued moments after Maggie. Hodges was also detained overseas after the suspects were removed from the scene. Police began searching for evidence of murder inside Middleton's truck. They picked up a brown leather jacket with fringes as the search continued. Technicians found a potential clue. Bethany Police Chief George Martz, we took a A piece of the dashboard of Middleton's truck that had a sticky substance on it and in that sticky substance there were fibers.

Those fibers seemed to match the clock we found at the crime scene, so we removed a piece of the entire dashboard and sent it to the lab for analysis, all the evidence was sent to the Highway Patrol crime lab. State of Missouri located in Jefferson City. There criminalist Kathleen Greene worked on the case almost immediately and noticed that the fringes on the brown leather jacket looked identical to a found piece of brown leather. at the crime scene I looked at the jacket to see if any Fringe was missing and found an area where a piece of Fringe was missing.

I then compared the Into The Fringe question to the jacket questionnaire to determine if it was originally attached to it, although the pieces were neatly aligned in green, it could not conclusively state that the piece of leather actually came from the jacket of Middleton, turned his attention to the clock sticker found near Al Pinegar's body when he compared the sticker on the back of the clot to the sticker attached to Middleton's dashboard he found numerous similarities it was the same size it had the same color both were made of the same type of material When the torn edges of the two pieces were placed side by side under a comparison microscope, the examiners found a match, the following fibers found on the watch bar were compared to carpet samples collected from the vehicle, the Criminologist Jenny Smith found one consistency after another, we determined that the fiber from the watch face would have been considered the fiber in question.

It was similar in physical and chemical composition to the fiber from the suspect vehicle, therefore we would conclude that this fiber in question could have come from this vehicle when confronted with the evidence. Middleton was uncooperative, but his resistance didn't matter. The police had pieced together the motive. behind the murder, my belief is that Mr. Middleton thought that Alfred Pinegar was about to rat him out to the police department and law enforcement authorities and Mr. Middleton was not going to let that happen, but Middleton was wrong: the victim did not had made no attempt to contact.

Authorities, police, believe that on the day of the murder, John Middleton and Maggie Hodges drove to Alpinegar's house, asked him to go shoot at a target and he agreed, what he didn't know was that he was the intended target At some point, however, that became clear. The fight started inside the car. Pinegar escaped but did not get far. John Middleton was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to death. Maggie Hodges pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 50 years in prison. It takes motive and opportunity to commit murder. hard evidence is needed to solve one when the clues are few.

Forensic experts provide the knowledge to turn the most common object into a material witness.