Fragmentary Clues Leads To Killer | The New Detectives | Real Responders

In suburban New York, a young mother is brutally murdered in her kitchen. Police race to identify her

killer

, but

fragmentary

clues

left at the scene are all that remains. In Idaho, an elderly couple is found shot to death in their home. Witness accounts vary Police look for

clues

and turn to forensic science to identify a suspect When

killer

s are hell-bent on revenge, nothing will stop them, but forensic examiners can find the hidden messages in the clues they leave and bring justice to those killed at close range in this episode, some of the names have The suburbs of New York City have changed and are more accustomed to a peaceful way of life, generally untouched by violent crime.

In January 1997, that would change Pelham Manor and Westchester County Police received an urgent 911 call. Jim Martin reported that he found his wife Kathleen in a swimming pool. of blood on the kitchen floor the police arrived and combed the scene and discovered that the 32 year old woman had been shot in the face and stabbed because two guns were used during the homicide. Lieutenant Christopher Calabrese of the Westchester County Police Department speculated that there were Inspection of the body of two perpetrators revealed that there were wounds to the abdomen, hands, he had defensive cuts and also a gunshot wound to the head, so we were looking for two suspects from the beginning, normally we're not going to have two different ones.

Types of injuries in the same victim with an offender Investigators interviewed Jim Martin. He was well known in the county. He and Kathleen owned a horse stable nearby. Jim told police that the last time he saw his wife was that same day. The two had met for lunch. 1 30 in the afternoon he returned to the stable and she took care of the Samaritans anything Jim cooperated and agreed to go to the police department later for questioning the body was sent to the medical examiner for autopsy the police discovered traces of blood on They photographed the kitchen floor and lifted the prints in the hope that once the suspects were identified they could match them to their shoes for forensic examiners.

The print looked like a cowboy boot on the outside of a pantry door. Investigators found a bullet hole that had been partially hidden by a Christmas card. The bullet went through the cabinet door and landed on the shelf inside. Okay, the area was photographed and the bullet was collected for further analysis. There were no signs of forced entry and the burglar alarm had not been activated. Lieutenant Al Maziello of the Pelham Manor Police. The department was disturbed by the violence of the crime. Well, I was very surprised because Pelaman is the kind of place where we normally don't have a homicide.

I was very worried about the family at the police station. Lieutenant Calabrese began identifying the suspects. Martin was the first on his list, obviously, Jim was the closest relationship with Kathleen Martin is her husband, he was the one who discovered the body and in many cases, when there is a murdered wife, we must eliminate the husband as a suspect, Martin consented to take a voice stress test the test is similar to a lie detector it was not admissible in court the police use it as a tool to eliminate potential suspects lieutenant robert jordano administered the test is that wall white the science behind this instrument in particular is that it measures a difference in your vocal response there is an imprinted pattern that is on all of our vocal folds and as stress increases there is a change in that pattern.

Did you murder Kathleen? No, through a series of yes or no questions, Giordano determined that Jim Martin was unlikely to be involved in the homicide, cooperated, and passed along information that could be helpful to the investigation. Kathleen's body arrived at the Westchester County Medical Examiner's Office. Dr. Lewis Rowe performed the autopsy. He took X-rays of the body and determined that a bullet entered through the left eye. the skull and exited the back of the victim's head, the bullet passed through the cabinet door and landed on the shelf. gunpowder residue dotted on her skin. Kathleen's killer was no more than a foot away when he pulled the trigger while Roe examined the body he found.

A stab wound to the abdomen and what appeared to be defensive wounds on his hands from the size and shape of the cut looked like it had come from a curved knife. He found a nine millimeter shell casing tangled in his sweater. It was another indication of how close he was. was her victim's shooter, the victim's clothing was sent to forensic expert Ted Schwartz, since Kathleen's killers were so close to her when she was murdered, he examined the sweater for fibers or hairs that were transferred from the killers to the victim during the crime, the sweater was made of acrylic material.

The sweater, which I noticed early on, was very easy to detach, so I knew that if I was eventually going to look at suspicious items, the fibers of the sweater would be a good starting point to look for something. To recognize the fibers in a suspect's clothing, Schwartz needed to clearly identify them; he and his team used an alternative light source to separate the wavelengths of the colors in the sweater. Each one wore glasses of different colors, red, orange and yellow when the color of the light matched. The color of the sweater, the fibers would be fluorescent and only one of the examiners would see them.

The fibers on the victim's sweater appeared to fluoresce when viewed through the orange glasses and I knew it would make the analysis much easier due to the fluorescence. and the fact that I could detect these types of fibers quite easily in things I would eventually look at. Investigators hoped that somewhere in Westchester County there were invisible fibers attached to the killers, but who were they and how would police find them? It's still a mystery. Detectives went to the stables the Martins owned and operated. A worker told him that Kathleen was a popular writing instructor, but there were signs that someone might have wanted to harm her.

A few months before the murder, a horse trailer was vandalized and placed. on fire kathleen's name was spray painted graffiti on the side the staff believed the vandalism was the work of a former employee named carlos cahigas have a great day thank you but there was no evidence linking him to the crime and it was not known They filed charges against him, Carlos Cahigas was brought in to interrogate Kathleen, he said that she was like a mother to him, that she would never hurt him, plus he had an alibi for the night of the murder, he was at a friend's house cleaning carpets , described in great detail how they cleaned the rugs and then hung them to dry.

The only thing that caught my attention at the beginning was that he was extremely cooperative to the point that his cooperation became an issue for us and at the beginning, when you talk to someone or interview someone, people fall into two categories: people they are going to convey information to him and people are trying to convince him of the information and he fell into the category of trying to convince me that he agreed to take a voice stress test like Jim Martin had done days before again Lt. Giordano administered the test Do you know who murdered?

Kathleen no Giordano was not impressed. I took the test and immediately knew that he had failed the test. It was not admissible as evidence in court. Investigators believed they had a suspect, but had yet to connect him to criminal authorities in the suburbs. New York had identified one of two suspects in the murder of Kathleen Martin. His name was Carlos Cahigas. He was recently laid off from the horse stable that belonged to Kathleen and her husband. He failed a voice stress test, but he was inadmissible in court. The police had no

real

evidence. They needed more before releasing him He agreed to search his car The police collected several articles of clothing and vacuumed the inside for any hair or loose fibers The investigators questioned Cahigas' friends and alibi The reason we stopped by here tonight The couple said.

He spent the afternoon with them cleaning carpets and didn't leave until evening. Investigators reminded the two that they were still searching for another suspect in the homicide. You three were cleaning the carpets here. Yes, he was here, but the couple stuck to their story. His cooperation, if we need to talk to you again, we will be in touch. Okay, feel free. Lieutenant Calabrese suspected that his version of what he had done or what they had done in cleaning this carpet was completely different from his version. Lieutenant Calabrese was I'm sure he had identified one of the suspects, but there was no evidence against him.

He will be him. They did a background check on Kahigas and discovered that he had a history of grand larceny and possession of stolen property and that he had a frequent accomplice. a man named michael fernandez the authorities didn't have much to go on but they picked up michael fernandez for questioning and they knew the x-con cracked was involved don't take it fernandez admitted that he and cahigas had been planning to rob the martins for weeks he said he waited in the car as Kahigas entered the house he told her that he shot and stabbed Kathleen because she went to sound the alarm he gave her a nine millimeter pistol and a knife to get rid of the police he did not think that Fernández was telling the whole truth.

It was rare for one person to use both a gun and a knife, but he cooperated and took them to where he hid the gun and knife. Police recovered a curved knife that matched the weapon used to stab Kathleen. There were no identifiable footprints or blood. In it, Mike Fernandez was arrested, he was charged with criminal facilitation of a murder, the police also recovered the gun from the house of one of his friends, the ballistics examiner found no blood or prince residue on the gun, the gun was shot into a water tank and The bullet was collected for comparison with the bullet found in the pantry of Martin's house.

Enough dirt and grooves were created in the bullet as it traveled through the barrel of the gun to make a consistent match with the ballistic evidence and Fernandez's testimony gave police enough to make an arrest. Carlos Cahigas denied any involvement in the crime The police had the murder weapon but there were no fingerprints linking it to Cahigas and his key witness had a shady past The police needed to decipher Kahikis' alibi Lieutenant Calabrese made another call to friends who They said she was with them the day of the murder and pressed the woman for more details, reminding her that she could be considered an accessory to the crime if she lied to the police. you know that he is involved in this murder. she doesn't want to get involved in a murder investigation she recanted her story, Carlos said he was at home the day of the murder, but then he got a call and went to pick up a guy named Mikey who was there around 2: 40 p. m., he said he returned a few hours later carrying a backpack.

A few days later he overheard Kahigas telling her boyfriend that he had shot a woman who still had the backpack and handed it over to the police. DNA expert Mary Eustis examined a pair of gloves found among the items in the backpack and discovered several dark stains that looked like blood tested positive for human blood the sample was sent for a DNA test but the results would take time police hope to find out schwartz can shed some light on the evidence all the items, including the gloves and trash from Cajus' car, were sent to him for analysis, if the gloves had been in contact with the fibers from Kathleen's sweater they were probably transferred to the gloves, the strands of the gloves were exposed to the alternative light source, he knew the specific wavelength of fluorescent light that would make the Kathleen Sweater fibers glow.

Lit up like a neon sign amidst the trash from Kahiga's car vacuum cleaner, there too the debris glistened with telltale fibers. 41 fibers found on the suspect's items matched the victim's sweater and that wasn't all. A double transfer had occurred. Fibers from Kahika's gloves. were found on kathleen's clothes the evidence showed that cohegus had committed the murder but investigators believe that michael fernandez was also involved in the crime and they still had no evidence that the police had arrested two men for the murder of kathleen martin carlos Cahigas denied any involvement in the Crime. Fernández only admitted to waiting in the getaway car when local news reported that two men were arrested for the murder.

The witnesses came forward. The Martins' neighbor recalled seeing Carlos Cajus running away from the house on the day of the murder. Her son saw Michael Fernández. We had two different guys coming out of Martin's residents and, in fact, later when Mike Fernandez's pitcher showed up inthe news and our witness identified him or told his parents that that is the person I saw leaving Martin's residence, Michael Fernández was inside the house. Based on the evidence, police believe that Kahigas, determined to get revenge, went to the Martin house to rob and kill. Kathleen Kahigas was the trigger.

Her accomplice, Michael Fernández, stabbed her. I have no doubt that when she went to the Martin house, it was her intention. to kill kathleen martin and kathleen martin knew him he went there without any type of map I mean a mask or disguise and she was able to identify him obviously so her intention was not to leave witnesses on February 3, 1999 Michael Fernández pleaded guilty to second degree murder and was sentenced to 25 years in prison in november 1998 carlos cahigas was found guilty of first degree murder he was sentenced to 25 years in prison to life in prison in new york carefully compiled forensic evidence helped bring swift justice and put two murderers behind bars unfortunately sometimes the analysis and interpretation of the evidence is more difficult and a murderer can go free for years bonneville county is located in eastern idaho in the upper snake river valley there residents enjoy of clean air and wide open spaces in early march 1992 leo downerd, a retired plant worker and his wife mary were about their daily life, the depressed children had married and left home, but still lived long enough close enough to pass by.

Leo and Mary love nothing more than spending time with their grandchildren. It was a time in their lives in which they learned to appreciate each day. On March 24, Leo and Mary's neighbors became concerned when they found several days' worth of newspapers on the couple's lawn. and the front door slightly ajar inside leo, they learned the gruesome truth leo downer lay motionless on the living room floor the neighbor also noticed some blood called 911 bonneville county sheriff's office investigators responded to the scene Sergeant Kim Marshall and Detective Victor Rodriguez were among the officers Leo Downard was dead on the floor.

In the living room he was in his pajamas, it appeared he had suffered multiple gunshot wounds to the head and chest. Police searched the room for clues. A trail of blood spatter spread around the body. Three bullet casings were scattered on the ground. The shell casings were photographed and Picked up upstairs the lifeless body of Mary Downer lay on the bed it appeared that she too had been shot several times there were no signs of forced entry the intruder had left no fingerprints Sergeant Marshall had a theory when we arrived At the residence we found that Mr.

Downer was downstairs next to a couch at the top of the stairs and in the master bedroom we located Mrs. Downer. The conclusion I had at that moment was that they opened the door to someone they knew because they were shot during the night, it was obvious that they were in bed and They had a routine that consisted of locking the residents in when they went to sleep and someone had to have the door opened for them. Detective Víctor Rodríguez looked for some clues. I turned on the flashlight, put it on the ground and showed them.

Shining the light beam on the floor next to the door, he found a tennis shoe print in the dust. We didn't know who he was, we thought maybe it could have been one of the paramedics, so immediately before the paramedics left, we looked at his shoes. And we discovered that it is not the same shoe print that was our suspect. The footprints were photographed for further examination. Rodriguez collected three bullet casings from the bed outside. Investigators found an almost perfect footprint in the mud. It appeared to be the same type of footprint. found in the bedroom they made a plaster cast of the impression once they had a suspect in custody they expected his shoes to match the scene the medical examiner performed the autopsies confirmed that leo and mary downer were shot three times each several were collected bullet fragments leo mary's skull and upper chest had also been shot in the head the last shot surprised the medical examiner the bullet had entered the back of his head just behind his left ear at close range the sergeant marshall questioned the depressed man's children to see if maybe he knew someone who held a grudge against their parents his son said he couldn't think of anyone who would do this the two were loved in the community and were devout parishioners marshall were brutal murders and pointless ballistic evidence was sent to Oregon State Police Forensic Laboratory in Ontario, Oregon, Lt.

Rocky Mink examined the evidence in the downed case, we were actually comparing the bullets fired by the deceased with the cartridges recovered at the scene, determined that the bullets and casings came from a 22-caliber firearm, the projectile. The casings matched those from a .22 caliber rifle. He reported his findings to the Bonneville County Sheriff's Office. A rifle suggested that the killer could be a hunter who had the gun in his collection. It would have been difficult to hide it. The police wondered if the perpetrator was worried. hiding it at all idaho police struggled to find the gunman who killed leo and mary downard in the footprints of his house shoes left at the scene and the .22 caliber bullets and shell casings were all that pointed to a killer.

Investigators scoured the Downard neighborhood searching for answers. Hi sir. Did you take it straight from the bottom of the county sheriff's office? A neighbor had seen a man in the house on the day of the murders. His name was Robert Buchanan, a local lawn care worker who owned his own business. Buchanan worked lawns for many. In the area, including the Downers, Sergeant Kim Marshall conducted a background check on Buchanan to see if he had a prior record. The report indicated that Buchanan had threatened his ex-wife with a .22-caliber gun, the same firearm used in the Downard murders.

We become Sergeant Kim Marshall's prime suspect. We considered him a suspect at the beginning of this homicide because of what we learned from our interviews in the neighborhood and upon running some background checks we discovered that there was some violence in his history. Armed with a warrant, investigators searched Buchanan's. apartment, they collected several items of clothing, including a pair of white tennis shoes, but there were no weapons of any kind. The shoes were sent to the Idaho State Police crime lab. There senior criminalist Donna Shepherdson Mead compared photographs of the shoe prints found in the bedroom. to Buchanan's tennis shoes, but it was difficult to make an accurate comparison with the images.

The photograph was in color, slightly out of focus, the camera was slightly tilted relative to the print, and no scale was included in this image either. Normally we would use the scale to do a one-to-one magnification. Shepherdson Mead was able to determine that the print in the bedroom had the same trademark design as Buchanan's tennis shoes, but Buchanan's shoes appeared too large. She hoped the cast taken outside the crime scene would make for a better comparison; she took a shoe print using powder and transparent paper. Shepherdson Mead superimposed the print on the plaster taken outside the residence again.

The design matched, but the shoes appeared to be larger than the ones in the scene. It was not. What investigators expected but still believed Robert Buchanan was his killer Police expanded their search Witness testimony had revealed that Buchanan's father had a gun collection and Buchanan was a frequent visitor at the home where his father possessed several rifles, including a .22. He was granted permission to take The firearm was sent to Lt. Rocky Mink at the Oregon State Police Crime Laboratory to determine whether bullet casings recovered from the crime scene and fragments of bullets collected in the autopsy came from this rifle.

Mink had to fire some bullets and then collected the fired bullets and their casings examined the bullets through a comparison microscope test shots from the well-known Remington rifle were examined and compared with the bullets taken from the deceased based on the microscopic detail that was present in the dirt impressions and grooves that were we were able to conclude that these bullets were fired from the suspected Remington rifle investigators had evidence that the .22 caliber rifle had fired the fatal shots robert buchanan was charged with both murders, but a judge was unimpressed with police findings that the gun had not been found in Buchanan's possession and the match of his sneakers to footprints found at the scene was inconclusive.

The case was dismissed due to lack of evidence. Life in the city of Ammon was uneasy and the police could not let the crimes go unpunished. They had the murder. gun but no evidence linking anyone to the crime fifteen months later Bonneville County authorities reopened the investigation okay kim and bud once you get back to the house and start the crime scene again Victor Rodriguez was assigned to the case, some of them said This is the shoe we saw, investigators reviewed the evidence looking for a small clue they must have missed. Rodríguez knew it wouldn't be easy, it is one of the most difficult cases I handled because you had to start from the beginning.

I had to go back to the beginning of this homicide and skip everything else that was learned and continue with who the suspect could have been at that time. Investigators again interviewed Downard's neighbors and friends. A neighbor did remember seeing a man driving by the house. several times that day it was lanny buchanan robert buchanan's younger brother that was the last time i saw lanny lived in the neighborhood and saw him often detective rodríguez

real

ized that lanny had access to the .22 caliber rifle the investigation took an important turn The more I followed this case the more I investigated this case when I focused on Lanny in the middle of the investigation everything opened up like a puzzle and Lanny put the pieces into that puzzle and the more they learned about it the more suspicious they became, a lot of people did. described as a slow learner with a violent temper there was more when word spread that Lanny was now a suspect in the murders the police received unusual information all the women we spoke to all the friends we spoke to all the men we spoke to we talked everyone said that lanny visited older women all the time now to me that was a red flag one woman said that shortly before the murders lanny came to her house upset and agitated when she asked him what was happening he said that he had given mary Downer to hug her and that Mary had told him not to come anymore.

Lenny was very upset. Detective Rodriguez brought Lanny in for questioning. He denied any involvement in the murders and did not remember the incident with Mary. The depressives were great people and often stopped by her house. For Salude when asked if he used his father's gun, he said he did so to go hunting on occasion the night of the murders. Lanny said he was at a friend's house watching a basketball game. They released him. Rodríguez contacted Lani's friend to confirm his alibi. Lanny was there that night, but he left abruptly saying that he was going hunting.

The police obtained a search warrant to search Lanny's house in his bedroom closet. They discovered a pair of tennis shoes identical to those of his brother Robert. They sent Lanny's shoes to forensic expert Donna Shepherdson Mead. She compared them. With the cast taken outside the descending residence, the tread, overall wear pattern on the toe and heel were consistent with Lanny's shoes and these were one size smaller than the pair worn by Robert Buchanan, a direct match to the cast taken at the crime scene I removed the largest pair of shoes size nine and a half I could not remove the pair of shoes size eight and a half the plaster shoe print placed Lanny Buchanan outside the Downard house but he admitted that he passed by his house often investigators would need proof that he was actually inside the house to make an arrest idaho police had a new suspect in the brutal murders of leo and mary downer lenny buchanan's shoes matched the prints found outside the residence but they had to locate him inside the house to be sure they had the right suspect investigators were not going to take any chances with the photographs taken inside the house they sent the crime scene photos to leric greenwade a prominent mathematician at the idaho national engineering laboratory first greenwade scanned the images into his computer he corrected the photographs taken in the bedroom so that they could be accurately compared to lanny and robert's shoes there were several problems with the photographs thatwere originally received, the first of which was the angle from which the photographs were taken, which was not directly above the footprint, the second of which was the angle from which the photographs were taken, which was not directly above the footprint .

There were no objects directly related to the measurement within the photograph, so it was difficult to take accurate measurements. I needed to see the print head. He then used a special software program that created a mathematical reference and measured the grain in the wood floor that provided the grain of the wood. several points that we were able to measure very accurately. Those measurement points were then very carefully calculated to form a background grid. Those background grids were then compared to the scanned photographs and provided reference points for which the image could be corrected by a computer.

He then converted the measurements into mathematical equations that corrected the problems created by the poorly taken photograph using the corrected images. Green Wade easily identified features such as nicks in the soles of the shoes. Lanny's shoes matched the measurements obtained from the image. one of the pairs of shoes this established a very strong connection with one outfit and yet not with the other, in addition, several imperfections were noted in the impression of dust left on the floor that coincided with the imperfections that were on the same pair of shoes more than a year and a half after the depressing murders in which Lanny Buchanan was murdered.

Arrested and charged with two counts of first-degree murder based on the evidence, police believe Lanny Buchanan went to kill the Downers because Mary had rejected him. He forced his way in carrying a .22 caliber rifle. Leo had nowhere to run. Mary was upstairs. the gunshots woke her up but she never had a chance to get out of bed in november 1996 lanny buchanan was convicted of two counts of first degree murder he was sentenced to two concurrent life sentences without parole when the killers are desperate for revenge, they It takes the hard work and determination of forensic professionals to provide the scientific facts to prove innocence or guilt and ultimately provide justice to those who are victims of violent crimes.