Cold Blooded | The New Detectives

In a small town in Maine, police chase a young mother's killer for 20 years, hoping technology will match their perseverance. A student disappears on the way to class. A ransom is demanded. Is it a kidnapping game or something much more sinister? Detectives in Washington State. He must find a way to outwit a killer who knows his every move before he gets out of hand. Murders of passion can often lead investigators directly to their killer, but when clues are few and leads are tenuous,

detectives

know they are looking for something emotionless, a killer. who is

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blooded

Norridgewock Maine November 23, 1976 Police discover a car in the bushes near River Road.

The engine is still running. There was no one in sight. The officer called the license plate number. The dispatcher said the car had been reported missing by police. Owner von Stevens Stevens claimed that his girlfriend had borrowed the car earlier that afternoon to do some shopping but did not return to the vehicle. The officer discovered blood on the passenger seat. He contacted Vaughn Stevens and was asked to respond to the scene. The officer continued Upon examining the vehicle inside the trunk partially covered by a jacket he discovered the body of a woman wearing only a pair of socks.

Homicide investigations in rural areas fall to state police After being notified, investigators began scouring the area for clues when von Stevens arrived with a friend, positively identified his car, his friend had to identify the victim in the trunk, she was Steven's girlfriend, Janet Baxter, 30, distraught, Stevens was allowed to leave the scene. Maine State Police Detective Chick Love continued her investigation in the car we found. On the groceries she had bought at the store that night we found the sales receipt, the cash register tape that told us which store she was in and exactly what time she was there.

The coroner's autopsy revealed that Janet Baxter had been shot in the head and chest with bullets from a .22-caliber pistol. She had also been raped. Biological evidence from her body was preserved for testing on glass slides known as slide envelopes. The bullets and slide envelopes were sent to the crime lab for further analysis. The car Janet had also been driving. underwent a thorough investigation, forensic experts dusted off the exterior and discovered a set of latent fingerprints on the trunk. She recovered a single hair. Examination later showed that it did not belong to Baxter, in the hope of finding witnesses.

Detectives began searching the area near River Road, said resident Clarice Merrill. She had seen something strange the night before while driving home. Merrill saw two vehicles leave the road at the same spot where Janet Baxter's body was found. Later, one of the cars was a yellow Volkswagen. Merrill believed the other car was a ford ltd inside she saw a man and a woman the woman appeared to be asleep merrill helped create a composite drawing of the man in the ltd as police began efforts to locate the yellow bug in most murder cases the spouses and other important people are always considered suspects the victim's boyfriend von stevens was questioned in depth the next day he agreed to take a polygraph test he told the police that janet baxter worked as a nurse and had recently gone through a bitter divorce she about at 9:30 janet decided to go to the store steven's car was blocking the driveway he gave her her keys janet said she would be back in a few minutes around midnight she didn't show up when he didn't come back called the police the polygraph test Indicated that Stevens was telling the truth.

Detectives also questioned Baxter's ex-husband, but he had a solid alibi and, like Stevens, they ruled him out as a suspect. He was working. Investigators continued to search the area for a yellow Volkswagen. Can I help you? Good evening, I'm Detective Chuck Love. I would like to ask you some questions. A local resident, Galen Lassard. He had a similar car. I'm not involved in this when they questioned him. He was uncooperative and refused to be interviewed. You got the wrong person. You need to see someone else. Well bye. Investigators looked into Lessard's background, although nothing in his records indicated that he was capable of murdering the investigators. learned that he was friends with other men in town, his records told a different story, one was a suspect in the murder of a college student five years earlier, another looked slightly like the composite drawing Merrell had helped the police put together, but none of these men wanted to talk to him. authorities the investigation threatened to freeze on november 28 almost a week since the murder an officer noticed a white sedan parked in the exact same spot where janet baxter's body was found a man was standing outside the car he appeared to be looking for something the officer noted Investigators ran the license plates and discovered that the car belonged to a man named Albert Cochran.

A background check revealed that Cochran had served prison time in Illinois after pleading guilty to murdering his wife in 1964 despite from a sentence of 50 to 75 years he was paroled after 12 years in early 1976 his parole was transferred to the same town in maine where janet baxter lived cochran was interrogated he claimed that on the night of the murder he was smoking marijuana and drinking with three strangers in the parking lot of a local bar. Upon my return he was invited to a party but he did not want to leave his car near the bar so he moved it to the parking lot of a supermarket, the same one that Janet Baxter had visited that night.

She was murdered. Cochran said she got into the stranger's car but made them stop and let him out when she became suspicious of them. She claimed she then walked several kilometers to her brother's house in Norway along the way. She said she saw the Police gathered in an area off River Road, although he refused to submit to a polygraph, investigators obtained fingerprints and samples of his hair to compare with previously gathered evidence. Cochran's fingerprints were examined and compared to those taken from the exterior of the car in which Baxter was found. His hair sample was compared to the hair found in the trunk of the car, neither the prince nor the hair samples matched there was no hard evidence pointing to Cochrane as the murderer the investigation came to a standstill for the next 20 years the case Passed through dozens of

detectives

each one who ran into the brick wall presented by the lack of hard evidence, it seemed that Janet Baxter's death would never be solved, but her family refused to let it go.

Twenty years had passed since the murder of thirty-year-old Janet Baxter in Little New England. city ​​of norridgewock maine during those years no arrests have been made robert mccleary janet baxter's father was determined to keep the case alive no matter how long it took to solve it each year on the anniversary of his daughter's death he would call police headquarters my desire to continue My contact with the state police was deeply motivated by my desire to see someone pay for what they had done so that someone would not get away with the murder and to continue seeking information to continue the investigation and to give us some closure In 1996, the case was turned over to Maine State Police Detective Mike Mitchell.

After reviewing the case files, Mitchell visited Janet Baxter's parents. The detective had grown up near Norridgewock and had been in elementary school when the murder occurred Mr. McLaren Mrs. McClary I am a Maine State Police Detective He promised that he would do everything in his power to solve this case If you have any questions about me Feel free to call me, Mitchell began. Retracing the steps of the previous investigations, he realized the loose ends presented to him by the owner of the yellow Volkswagen, Galen Lassard, and his cronies, who refused to talk to the police despite the problems unresolved, he decided to try again with Albert Cochran, some detectives felt that albert patrick cochran was a suspect and was the person responsible for the murder of janet baxter some detectives felt that it was another group of people who socialized together so what I did was to write down all the names of all the possible suspects who had not done so.

They had an alibi of not being in the area at the time and they listed them all on a piece of paper and by priority as to who seemed to be a better suspect than the others and Albert Patrick Cochran was at the top of the list to do In his case, Mitchell first had to make an inventory of the evidence that had survived over the years. He contacted Maine State Police forensic chemist Chris Montagna. My other two duties were to see what evidence had survived over 20 years and secondly to reconstruct the notes and work that had been done 20 years earlier and try to piece all of that together and link it to a suspect that Detective Mitchell was working on. like janet baxter's killer, let's see what you got, we have to search through the boxes of Evidence investigators found that the original slide envelopes one appeared blank but was thought to possibly contain biological evidence samples from the victim's body.

If the evidence had remained intact, it might be possible to extract the DNA with a technique that did not exist 20 years earlier under the microscope. The slide surprised everyone by revealing the presence of biological evidence removed from Janet Baxter. Now researchers needed to find a DNA sample from Cochrane. They didn't have to go far to find what they needed. Cochran's hair sample collected in 1976 was also preserved. in the file but would the hair have viable material for DNA testing? The forensic DNA specialist was assigned the task to David Munich. These hair samples were known. Hair samples when collected are actually pulled from the head and have skin attached to the hair root.

Unlike hairs that are cut or hairs that fall naturally from the head, both samples provided apple material for DNA testing. When the tests were concluded and the comparisons made, the results were overwhelming. DNA testing showed there was only a one in 37 billion chance that Janet Baxter's killer was someone other than Albert Cochrane Munich called Detective Mitchell with the news when he came back a perfect match I can remember I was driving down the highway I picked up the phone from my car and I couldn't believe it my eyes were watering thinking it was just, you know, something you'll never forget, it will be in March, I think March 17, 1938, maybe I'm about 62 years old, but where Albert Cochrane and Tamara Parker were there? c-o-c-h-r-a-m's computer checks tracked him to an address in Stuart, Florida, on the morning of March 17, 1998.

Detective Mitchell and Florida police arrested Cochran at his home. He was extradited to Maine to stand trial for the murder of Janet Baxter, based on evidence gathered more than 21 years earlier. Detectives believe Cochrane had seen Janet. Baxter alone in a deserted grocery store parking lot his previous history of violence asserting his car took the opportunity to kidnap his victim and then rape and kill her on May 20, 1999. It took the jury just two and a half hours to find Albert Cochrane guilty of the first degree. murder was sentenced to life in prison this time without the possibility of parole murder is not the only

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crime in South Dakota a mother's only son is being held for ransom Aberdeen, South Dakota on May 8, 1985.

Michael Twenty-year-old Kinney left the house he shared with his mother, Sandra McNeil, to attend classes at Northern State University. It's okay, I'll be right back. Bye. When Michael didn't return the next morning, his mother became worried and decided to look for her son. near her house we found michael's car parked on the side of the road, michael was nowhere to be seen sandra mcneil contacted the sheriff's office county sheriff mark milbrandt is assigned to investigate the disappearance we had some concerns due to the fact that Michael Candy's car was found across the road from his residence and had been parked there for, we assume, between 24 and probably 35 hours 36.

The next day, Sandra Mcneil received a mysterious phone call from a man unidentified. Her caller told her to go to a bar in Aberdeen that same night. and she looked for an envelope under the pay phone if she wanted to know what happened to her son she was told not to contact the police Kinney's mother went to thebar and found an envelope hidden under the pay phone inside was a ransom note demanding 200,000 in exchange for her son even though the kidnappers warned that sandra mcneil gave the note to sheriff's investigators who examined it for clues . South Dakota Criminal Investigations Agent Doug Lake was hired to assist with the investigation.

Their first priority was to deal with the difficulties of To obtain the ransom money it was money from the victim's mother and it was on the Friday after the bank closed, the agents went around the different banks in the city and gathered all the cash they had. on hand three days after her son The missing Kenny's mother received a second phone call, this time investigators were listening. Sandra Mcneill was instructed to leave the money at Aberdeen Park at 9pm. m. Investigators traced the call to a public phone booth, but the kidnapper hung up and disappeared before police could approach. the phone had been cleared of prims investigators studied the tape the caller said michael was not injured but refused to allow him to speak to his mother until the ransom was paid the kidnapper described michael's clothing to authenticate his threat investigators They felt they had no choice but to follow the kidnapper's demands, the ransom money was packaged and placed in a briefcase, investigators also placed a hidden tracking device inside an undercover police officer which caused the ransom to be delivered.

As scheduled a short time later, the briefcase was recovered by a man who then ran. He got more than he bargained for. Police quickly followed the suspect and drove to a residence where he parked the blue vehicle. The Oldsmobile he was driving transferred the briefcase containing the ransom money to an orange Camaro and was joined by an unidentified woman from inside the residence led by the tracking device. Agents followed the suspects across the Minnesota border, just inside Minnesota, a roadblock stopped the suspect. The driver was identified as 19 year old Todd Miller the passenger was his 17 year old sister the officers recovered the briefcase from the trunk of the camaro the car was closely examined for clues but there were no signs of michael kinney or any other clues about his Whereabouts Investigators questioned the suspect separately After extensive questioning, investigators discovered that Miller's sister really seemed to have no idea about Kenny's disappearance or the ransom money, so she was released, Todd Miller told the police that a drug dealer named bob jacobs had asked him to pick up a package and deliver it to him in minnesota.

Miller claimed that in return Jacobs had promised to help him financially. When asked if he knew Kenny, Miller said that he was a good friend but that he had no idea that Jacobs' job was in any way related to Kenny's disappearance. Miller's story provided investigators with an opportunity that they would take advantage of in an undercover operation to catch the drug dealer, return his ransom money, and transport him to the prearranged drop-off point. Jacobs never showed up. Detectives took Miller to the police station the next day. Miller admitted that Jacob's story was a kidnapping. it had been a hoax claiming it was all michael kinney's idea miller explained that he had helped stage the entire plot miller said he had been friends with kenny since high school claiming that kinney did multiple drugs and wanted to move to canada miller said he was recruited For the kidnapping scam as a way to help Kenny finance his planned relocation, detectives subjected Miller to an extensive polygraph test.

Did he harm Michael? The test results were inconclusive but tended to show the general truthfulness of his statements which meant that Michael Kinney was alive and in the A warrant was issued for his arrest. South Dakota police continued their search for 20-year-old Michael Kinney. What initially appeared to be a kidnapping was now beginning to look like a hoax. He has something to do with the disappearance. Kenny's friend Todd Miller. He claimed to be a reluctant participant in helping Michael Kinney arrange his own disappearance and extort money from his mother. As a result of Miller's story, an arrest warrant was issued for Kenny, but his whereabouts remained a mystery.

Detectives questioned Kinney's girlfriend. She told him that she was with Michael that night. Before she reported him missing, he had dropped her off at her house after going out for pizza and soda. She hadn't seen him or heard from him since weeks. An Aberdeen farmer made a surprising discovery after noticing a foul smell coming from an ice house on his property. He entered the building. There he found a body. The police were called immediately. At the scene, although the body was badly decomposed, investigators found evidence of three gunshot wounds and what appeared to be blunt traumatic injuries to the victim's head.

The farmer had no idea who the victim was or how the body ended up in the victim's house. ice through dental matches the police would soon discover the identity of the victim they had found michael kinney it was a big shock for us, you know we also went from a possible robbery by deception warrant to a kidnapping murder a homicide in the autopsy it was determined that the cause of death was a gunshot wound to the aorta fibers perhaps from friction were collected from the victim's clothing it was estimated that he had been dead for two or three weeks possibly from the time of his disappearance with michael kinney dead the Investigation turned to Todd Miller because investigators were clear that he was the killer, but now they had to test him to determine if he had written the ransom note.

He was returned to the police station to provide writing samples. While awaiting those results, warrants were obtained to search Miller's cars, investigators discovered that the blue Oldsmobile Miller used to collect the ransom money had recently been washed, however, detectives managed to find two hairs that had survived the search. cleaning. Fiber samples were also collected from the trunk. The inside of the trunk was then treated with luminol. This process revealed evidence of blood, but the samples were too deteriorated for analysis. The evidence was hand-delivered to state crime lab analyst Rex Reese for comparison. Rhys compared the fibers extracted from Kinney's clothing with those extracted from the trunk of Miller's vehicle.

There was an association of the fibers that make up the trunk lining and are present as loose fibers in the metal part or in the lower base of the trunk. These were black rayon synthetic textile fibers that make up this lining present on Mr. Kinney's. The clothing was of the same type of black fibers, although the analysis was incriminating, it was only circumstantial. Investigators needed strong evidence that Michael Kinney had been in the trunk of Miller's car. Reese then compared the two hairs recovered from the trunk of the Oldsmobile to those taken from Kinney's head during the autopsy, but Reese could only make a general comparison.

The hairs recovered from the trunk were too damaged for conclusive analysis. The hairs had been cut at the proximal part of the ant or near the scalp with blunt force, so we couldn't see anything. root structures there, but they exhibited human hair characteristics that were very similar to those of Mr. Kinney Reese. The analysis brought investigators one step closer to making their case, but they were still not enough. Experts conducted a thorough examination of Miller's handwriting to learn the unique characteristics identified in the ransom note matched those of Miller's sample. Mr. Miller, despite his protests, was arrested and charged with first-degree murder.

Detectives determined that Miller had wanted to help his father out of his financial problems. He turned to the person his friend called on the night of May 8, 1985. Michael Kinney left his girlfriend and returned home. He theorized that his friend had warned, how are you doing? Hey, Todd, completely unaware of what was about to happen after hitting Kinney's head, Miller loaded him into the trunk of his car and quickly fled the scene. Miller drove to an isolated farmhouse where he then shot and killed Kinney, still unconscious, to cover his tracks. Miller hid the body in an abandoned ice house, then returned home and coldly set in motion his plans to extort money from Kenny's mother at her trial.

Todd Miller was found guilty of first-degree murder, kidnapping, possession of ransom money and forgery. He received two life sentences plus 20 years in a community near Preston Washington. Another missing person's case turned deadly on September 4, 1996. Rex and Shirley Wren reported his son. James Bradren, 35, missing, police were told his son's roommate, Emmett Marcel, was known for being violent, has brown hair. The parents told police that two months earlier, Marcel became angry with his son while the two were working in the home they shared. he left the residence so marcel would calm down when ren returned later that night marcel shot him in the leg oh my god his son had refused to press charges the information was enough for the police to open a missing person investigation a A background check revealed that police had been sent to Marcel and Wren's residence several times before to resolve angry disputes between the two men on August 10, a month after the shooter called 9-1-1 to file a complaint. formal complaint against marcel for another incident that had not been seen since he was assigned to the king county sheriff's office major crimes unit detective denny gula led the investigation to locate the missing man the last time he was seen was with a king county police officer there was a disturbance at his home and sergeant bockmeyer was the patrol supervisor at the time he had contacted him at his home and transported him to the gluttony substation.

He began by reviewing the record of the officer who responded to the Aug. 10 incident. Records showed that Sergeant Matt Bachmaier had taken Ren to a nearby police station, taken his statement, and then released him in hopes of obtaining more detailed information. Detective Gula made phone calls to Sergeant Bachmeier while he waited for a response. He continued his research. He questioned Wren's neighbors. One Richard Pettygrove recalled that the last time he saw Ren was on August 10. He reported seeing Wren being taken away in a police car after a fight. between ren and his roommate emmett marcel richard described him in marcel as a dangerous and angry person all the neighbors felt that marcel had something to do with ren's disappearance one of my business cards detective gular ran marcel's name in law enforcement database that marcel had recently been placed in a tacoma jail for an unrelated traffic violation for investigators, it was time to pay a visit to the prime suspect in james wren's disappearance ccu okay, Thanks police in King County, Washington, searched for James Brad Wren, 35, reported missing by his parents' roommate, Wren, Emmett Marcel was quickly becoming the prime suspect.

Police went to question him at a Tacoma jail where he was being held for unrelated traffic violations. Your name is Emmett Marcel. Yes, Marcel agreed to submit to a polygraph. He seemed indifferent and claimed to have no idea. where ren could be on the night of august 10 the day ren was last seen emmett claimed he was with a friend in nearby tuck willow washington you didn't know why the polygraph clearly indicated he was telling the truth investigators They were not convinced they had obtained search warrants Marcel's car in the apartment. Investigators found a prescription bottle with Wren's name on it.

They also found a hammer with a reddish-brown substance. Samples of the reddish-brown specks on the hammer were analyzed in the laboratory, but no conclusive results could be obtained. They were too dilapidated The case against Marcel seemed to be going nowhere A search warrant was obtained for Marcel and Wren's residence Inside a suspicious stain on the carpet caught the attention of investigators Samples of the stain were preserved in swabs Detectives They were hoping this would be the break they needed. We are thinking this is pretty substantial evidence, we have sent it to the crime lab to process, what we discovered is that it is bovine or cow blood, with no physical evidence linking Marcel to the disappearance. of Ren.

He was removedas a suspect. He hoped that Officer Bachmaier, who had taken Wren's statement on August 10, could shed some light on the disappearance. He apologized for the delay and said he was under a lot of pressure, which was recently compounded when his house was robbed and burned down. In fact, he explained. that when he responded to 911 he acknowledged that bachmeier was sure that wren was the person he had seen fleeing his house after it caught fire when ren was brought in to file his complaint, bachmaire confronted him about the arson, ren admitted to the crimes, but after writing his confession, the wren stormed out of the station, you know, people don't just storm out of the police station, especially when this person just admitted to you that he had burned down your house, okay, Now let's try that, although it was.

It is unclear whether Bachmaire was involved in Wren's disappearance. Investigators decided to take a closer look at the arson and robbery at his home. Detective Gula met with Renton police arson investigators, who had been the first to investigate the fire at Bachmeier's home after first believing the motive. Behind the fire there was possibly an act of revenge by a criminal. They were now convinced that Bachmaire had set the fire himself. The arsonist had used flares placed in plastic containers to start the fire. A method that would give the perpetrator enough time to leave the scene sooner.

When the fire actually broke out, the investigation further revealed that numerous valuable items, including jewelry, limited edition prints, CDs, and leather jackets, had been removed from the house before the fire and stored in the garage to prevent damage. King County Sheriff's Detective Sue Peters also basically worked on the investigation. Renton police detectives were concerned and thought that Bockmeyer could possibly be a suspect because one of the neighbors had seen what she believed to be Sergeant Bachmar leaving on his motorcycle in the middle of the night and then, several minutes later, His house was on fire due to all the contradictory circumstances Bachmeier's insurance company had refused to pay his claim unless he submitted to a polygraph something he refused to do They stripped him of his badge and gun and suspended him The department was now the prime suspect in Wren's disappearance but the police had no motive or body to suggest a crime had been committed, investigators would have to outsmart a man who knew how to hide evidence.

Washington State Police were beginning to suspect that fellow Sergeant Matt Bachmeier was responsible for the disappearance of 35-year-old James Brad. Wren, according to Bachmeier, Ren had confessed to setting fire to and robbing the officer's home just before he disappeared. A copy of Wren's confession to Sergeant Bachmaier was obtained. Each page bore Ren's signature. However, the statement and signatures appear to be written in a different hand, but it was not unusual for an investigator to write a story and have a suspect sign it to ensure that the confession was sent to a handwriting expert. Examiners determined that the signature at the bottom of each page was handwritten by Wren, while the statement itself was written by Bachmeier, but analysis revealed something more interesting, although the entire statement was written in the same color of ink.

One type of pen had been used to write the first two pages related to Rand's complaint about Emmett Marcel, but pages three, four, and five had been written in a different color. writes those pages containedRen's confession about the arson and robbery for investigators a clearer picture was beginning to emerge. I believed that Brad Wren was going to be used as a suspect in the arson, which was according to Sergeant Bachmar and you know the case is actually related. Together, Sergeant Bachmar was becoming the focus of his own house fire and so he needed to find someone who could say he set his house on fire to free him, so he chose Brad Wren, who led a very simple life.

Search warrants were obtained for the patrol car that Sergeant Bachmeier used on the night of August 10. Small reddish-brown stains were found on the back seat and on the armrest of the patrol car. The rear seat cover was removed. Investigators were surprised when Discovering a much larger stain on the foam padding that looked like a large amount of substance had seeped through the upholstery and into the cushion. Samples of each stain were taken to the crime laboratory. All tested positive for human blood when confronted about the evidence. Bachmeier said Ren had experienced a nosebleed while he was in the patrol car transporting him. what the police did not believe the examiners developed experiments to determine how much blood it would take to leave such a large stain under the back seat of the patrol car using different amounts of human blood to soak the back seats of similar patrol cars the criminals determined the absorption The The speed of the foam padding and the amount of blood needed to make a similar-sized stain determined that a minimum of 200 milliliters or nearly a cup of blood were involved, far more than even the worst nosebleed would produce.

Examiners had to prove that the blood in The Patrol came from Wren, but without a body there were no samples to compare. It was up to forensic chemist Kim Duddy to find a way to fix that problem. His biological parents were still alive and were willing to give blood samples, so our DNA unit took them. blood samples from his biological mother and father and tested them with the stain in question on the seat of Bachmeier's vehicle. The DNA analysis showed that the blood from Bachmeier's patrol car had come from Rex and Shirley Wren's biological son. without a body the evidence was now overwhelming that Sergeant Matt Bachmeier was responsible for the murder of James Wren.

The veteran police officer was arrested. If any doubt remained, it was cleared up on February 2, 1997, less than three months after Bachmeier's arrest. Bones and fragments of clothing were found near a secluded place. dead end in cougar mountain park among the most identifiable pieces were a skull and a red, white and blue cast. The keys to the closed park were found on Bachmeier's keychain. Police believe Sergeant Bachmaier's plan to make easy money by setting up a fake store burning down his house backfired when his insurance company became suspicious. He needed to show them that criminal forces were behind him.

Ren became a scapegoat in his twisted plan. Sergeant Matt Bachmaier was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison without possibility. The number of paroled killers who strike without remorse and whose motives are obscure may frustrate detectives in their efforts to solve the case, but dogged investigation, coupled with patients and the crime lab's ever-advancing scientific methods, will help They can often produce results no matter how cold the crime.