Police Were Sure They Had It Right… Then THIS Happened

Foreigners Nigel and Luke here and welcome to Crime Zone On the afternoon of June 8, 2007, a 47-year-old woman pulled into the parking lot of a shopping center in Saint Charles Missouri; She had finished a shift at work shortly before and was on her way home when she decided to talk to her husband at work. However, as she was driving to the parking lot that afternoon, the woman quickly saw something unusual: it was a large crowd of people. who were standing in front of one of the businesses there, including her. I could make out cameras and reporters as the 47 year old woman got out of her vehicle and Drew approached, it became clear that

this

wasn't just any business that people had gathered around, it was her husband's office after she approached two reporters and Telling them that

this

is where her husband worked, she asked him what was going on, the couple exchanged an amused look before pointing him in the direction of some nearby

police

officers, as it turned out that this modest shopping center had just been the scene of a crime. chilling that it would only grow more. terrifying as it became increasingly clear how little investigators had to do, it was a case that seemingly refused to come to fruition, leaving detectives frustrated and locals on edge, until a stroke of luck changed everything before Let's get to today's story, if you find our content interesting. and informative and we haven't yet, we would be honored if you would take a second to like and subscribe to crimezone for more True Crime content like this, it really helps us continue to build the channel and if you've seen some of our videos since you might not even realize you're not subscribed while you're there, don't forget to hit that notification bell, it helps you stay up to date with our latest releases and helps us stay up to date with that annoying problem. -changing the YouTube algorithm leaving that aside, let's get to the family of videos, there were three things everyone knew about Robert Bob Eidman, 48, he had an incredibly strong work ethic, he cared about people and his wife Diane was the person he most loved Bob and Diane in the world had met when

they

were in high school and were together from that point onwards and married in 1979 and eventually settled in the town of Saint Peter's located in the county of Saint Charles, outside St Louis, the couple.

They never had children, but their lives were full anyway,

they

had a large circle of friends they liked to spend time with, and they both worked hard. Bob especially liked to keep busy, in addition to his job as an insurance agent, he became an ambassador for the Saint Charles Chamber of Commerce and also likes to restore old Corvettes in his free time, however, he never failed to dedicate time to Diane, those close to her, and Bob admired their relationship. Bob always had good things to say about his wife and would talk about how proud he was of her to anyone who would listen.

The support was mutual after 15 years of working for an insurance company in Granite City Illinois. Diane was in complete agreement when in 2006 Bob decided to resign to start his own business with the company. Called Brook Auto Insurance, it focused primarily on providing auto insurance to low-income and bad credit customers. It was an area of ​​the insurance business that Bob was apparently very interested in. Specifically, he had seen the way previous companies he had worked for had treated these types of clients. Many refused to do business with them altogether, according to friends and family. Bob was always the type of person who wanted to try to help others, and he saw building a company around these types of high-risk clients as a way to lend a hand. those that no one else wanted to deal with and at the same time creating a better life for himself and Diane in the process, it was a huge task and Bob would have to run the business almost completely alone, but it was something he believed in after all. work had never stopped him before, sadly just a year after taking this big leap, although it all came crashing down in a sudden and terrifying tragedy that changed everything when it did, investigators would expose a completely different side of Bob and Diane's lives. hidden just below the surface. one that would force them to navigate a confusing path of secrets and lies in hopes of uncovering the truth about what had

happened

on the morning of June 8, 2007 appears to have begun without incident for Bob and Diane eidman, as usual, Diane He left for work at St John's Mercy Hospital first that day, while Bob arrived at his office in the capital's first business center at around 10am. m., the business center is a single building shopping center just off Interstate 70 and at that time Brook Auto Insurance was one of eight companies.

Facing the main road additional units could be found in a sort of lower level basement that was hidden in the back of the building around 12:30 p.m. m. A postal employee arrived at the shopping center to make his daily deliveries. He had a few things. He looked for Bob and entered his office, although he had been inside Brook Auto Insurance many times before stopping to chat with Bob occasionally that day, something felt off when he reached the back of the office and discovered why, to To his horror, Bob lay motionless. on the ground and could see a large amount of blood there immediately the postal worker fled the building and made a frantic call to 9-1-1 at the same time he ran down the street screaming for help to get the attention of a passerby .

Saint Charles Police Officer, the officer was able to quickly confirm the chilling discovery inside the auto insurance office. Bob Eidman was dead when detectives arrived at the scene and began by taking a closer look at Bob's body, who was lying face up near his desk and there was a large pool of blood behind his head, an autopsy would later reveal that he They had been fired three times: one of the bullets grazed his chin, the second hit his neck and the third fatal shot passed through his head in an even more disturbing manner, it was determined. that whoever did this had fired the final bullet while he was standing over Bob after he fell to the ground.

Detectives knew this because when they moved the 48-year-old man's body, the crushed bullet from the wound was found on the ground directly behind his head. It seemed that Bob had been the victim of a brutal execution. Unfortunately, other clues at the scene were much less clear. In addition to the spent nine-millimeter casings from the attack, there were several live bullets of the same caliber scattered on the ground. Detectives speculated that there could be several reasons for this, the gunman could have been inexperienced, something could have been wrong with the weapon or perhaps the killer was simply clumsy, there were no signs of forced entry, although this did not mean much since Brook's auto insurance had been open at the time means that anyone could have simply broken in for the same reason authorities doubted fingerprints would be of much use, even if identifiable prints were found at the scene, unless that were on something particularly incriminating, they could have been left by anyone.

Random customer at any time and they weren't necessarily related to The Killing, however, the detectives gathered all the evidence they could and began searching Bob's computer on his phone to see who he might have been communicating with when they discovered that his wallet was missing from his pants. They collected a sample of the inside lining of his back pocket. Investigators knew it was a long shot, but reasoned that if the killer had stolen the wallet, they would have had to reach into the pocket and therefore could have left behind tactile DNA. That is, tiny amounts of DNA left behind simply by touching a surface, in this case probably in the form of skin cells, the evidence was sent for analysis in St Louis County, which was apparently the only facility in the state at that time with sufficiently sensitive equipment.

To properly analyze such a potentially small sample, while this was unfolding, a crowd of reporters and concerned citizens had begun to gather outside, among them was Diane Eidman. After she arrived at the scene that day,

police

took Diane to a side and broke the terrible news that her husband had been murdered and had now secured the scene and were beginning an investigation,

then

they asked Diane a series of routine questions, including if there was anyone she could think of who might have been involved in the crime and whether he could account for his own whereabouts. Until that moment, that day, Diane stated that she had been at work all morning, something that was later verified by her employer and her co-workers, as suspicious or motive, she said that she had no idea that everyone loved Bob, he said and, as far as possible.

She was aware that he had no enemies even though Diane's alibi proved there was something about her behavior that immediately raised red flags for investigators. Apparently, she didn't seem particularly excited about the horrible news she had just been given and her responses. They were brief and flat, while this could have been taken as a sign that Diane was in shock, the detectives read it differently, they thought it was disturbing that saying that this feeling alone was worth very little, so while Therefore, authorities began interviewing as many witnesses as they could, talking to everyone they could think of about Bob's life and even setting up a roadblock in the area a couple of days after the murder in hopes of catching anyone who found him. could have been overlooked, while the roadblock unfortunately produced little of value that the police uncovered.

With a couple of valuable new leads from witnesses at the mall, a woman named Debbie, co-owner of a printing shop, was able to help detectives narrow down the timeline in which Bob's murder took place. Debbie's store was located in one of the lower level units. in the plaza

right

below Bob's insurance office and she said that shortly before 11 a.m. m. That day she heard a couple of loud pops and a thud coming from upstairs. She said the noises had actually been disturbing enough that she had jokingly yelled at Bob to keep him still. downstairs because she was creepily trying to get some work done, now it seemed like what Debbie had really heard was the murder of the insurance salesman.

The second major clue detectives were able to uncover reinforced this timeline. It came in the form of surveillance video footage of a Mexican. grocery store that was

right

next to Bob's office, although the camera was located inside the grocery store, it was pointed towards the entrance of the business and since the door was open on the day of the murder, the device had captured a small swath of the parking lot outside when detectives reviewed the footage, one thing immediately caught their attention: a car that had passed by the camera twice in the span of just a few minutes, the vehicle had entered the parking lot at 10:50 a.m. and had Departed at 10:54 right in the time window. that Debbie, the owner of the print shop, stated that she heard noises that the police now suspected were gunshots from the fatal attack on Bob, although this was an important clue;

Unfortunately, the video of the vehicle was too grainy to make out a license plate, the car was later determined. to be a light-colored Ford Focus, but when detectives examined records they discovered there were at least 1,300 vehicles matching this description in Saint Charles County in hopes of narrowing the search. Investigators released vehicle information to the public and received many tips. The volume turned out to be overwhelming, yet nothing of major interest was found, feeling like they were at some sort of dead end. The police decided to return to Diane Eidman to see if there was anything else she could tell them.

It was a decision that would throw them off quickly. The case in a totally new direction would lead to a series of surprising revelations. When the police conducted their second interview with Diane, several days had passed since the murder and they hoped that this time she might have more information for them. Investigators were also eager to see if her behavior that had made them suspicious of her during her first interview had reportedly changed everything. Diane was much the same as she had been the first time the detective spoke to her, however, Diane now had something new to share with them.

She said that shortly before Bob was killed, she had told him about an argument she had had with a business rival named Jack Michaels. Jack supposedlyhad robbed one of Bob's regular customers, leading to a heated exchange between them when Bob went to confront him. The authorities verified. However, they discovered this clue when they talked to Jack, he claimed that the whole situation Diane had described had been greatly exaggerated, yes the argument had

happened

, but in reality he was not that angry with Bob, certainly not to the point of committing a murder, furthermore, he said that he was in a sporting goods store when the crime occurred, the police followed up on this alibi and it was proven almost at the same time that the detectives ruled out Jack as a suspect, however, new information was beginning to arrive information that made them question Diane more. and more particularly, it seemed like he was withholding information to begin with, when the authorities investigated Brook's auto insurance and realized that the business was not doing well at all financially, in fact, it was about to go under,

sure

ly this It was something Diane would have known.

Since she helped out at times and would have had access to the finances,

then

there was the matter of Bob's life insurance policy, when detectives asked Diane about the couple's life insurance situation, she said she believed that there might be a small policy that said it was probably somewhere in the neighborhood of five thousand dollars, in reality the policy was for four hundred thousand dollars and Diane was the sole beneficiary given the state of Bob's business and the potential financial windfall that would receive due to his death, the authorities were beginning to think that his His wife had a pretty strong motive for murdering, not only that, but also the brutal way in which they had treated him.

The murdered could easily have been a hit. One that had been disguised to look like a robbery gone wrong. Police became even more suspicious when they received a surprise tip from a crime reporter at the St Louis Post Dispatch news outlet that journalist Susan Weich had been investigating. for a story about the case when she came across something disconcerting, it turned out that Diane's father had been shot to death in her home and her mother had been tried for the crime, although Diane's mother had ultimately been acquitted. , it seemed like a strange coincidence. To say the least, so much so that authorities wondered if it was a coincidence when they brought Diane in for questioning about the life insurance policy and consistency.

The police didn't get much from her. She said she had simply forgotten the details that she subsequently agreed to take a polygraph test so authorities could ask her more questions, but the results were inconclusive. Frustrated, although they believed they were on to something, the detectives continued investigating and eventually found something else while looking through Bob's phone records. Investigators noticed a long-distance number that seemed to be coming up quite a bit. It belonged to a man named Drew who lived in Independence, a city east of Kansas City and about 220 miles from Saint Charles. When detectives paid a visit, his response told them: It took him instantly by surprise, he said. that he was not at all surprised to see them, in fact he expected that they would eventually get there, although Drew claimed that he had no involvement in the murder, he did have information for the police that they never saw coming, he claimed that he had been in contact with both Bob because the two were lovers.

Drew claimed that he and Bob had begun their romantic relationship several months ago when they met on a telephone matchmaking service and had since been secretly meeting up spending weekends together. At a motel in Colombia, about halfway between where each of them initially lived, the detectives had no idea what to make of Drew's claims - after all, one of the things they had heard more than any other about Bob Eidman was how much he cared about his wife Diane. However, Drew was able to present convincing evidence that he had kept all the love letters and postcards that Bob had sent him, that was not all, although Drew had a final bombshell for the police, he said not long before Bob's death. , Diane had found out about their relationship.

She had seen that one of the emails between them had confronted Bob and that had led to a big fight after that, Drew said that Bob had sent her a message telling her that they had to calm things down for a moment, at least not they could do it. See you for a while, he told her after hearing all this. Investigators considered the possibility that Drew may have been responsible for Bob's death, reasoning that he may have been jealous after Bob told him they needed to take a break, however, when the police looked. on his alibi, he verified himself with all this new information in hand.

Diane was now solidly the prime suspect in the case. Yes, she could have had an alibi like everyone else the investigators had investigated, but given all the things she had kept secret. Of them, plus the affair and the large insurance payout, seemed to have more reasons to want Bob dead than anyone else. However convincing this narrative may have been, although the authorities had a major problem, there was no real evidence that He would connect Diane to the murder if she paid. kill her husband, now believing they needed to find something concrete to prove it Nine months after Bob Eidman's murder, authorities were hopeful they had discovered just what they needed when they received a call from the St.

Louis County forensic lab in which they had been able to obtain a result from the touch DNA sample that detectives sent when representatives of the St. Louis County forensic laboratory contacted investigators working on the Bob Eidemann case, it appeared that it was only a matter of time before his theory of the case was proven correct. However, almost immediately the detectives hit a roadblock: The lab explained that while they had been able to extract the DNA profile from the tactile evidence left in Bob's back pocket, that profile did not match anyone they had investigated so far. now. didn't match anyone in state or national DNA databases, all the lab could tell them was that the profile they had pulled belonged to an unknown man, so investigators were officially at a dead end and the case He cooled.

The months began to pass. Soon enough, the first and second anniversary of Bob Eidman's murder came and went, and with them came fear and suspicion in the community, much of which was directed at Diane. Police had never arrested or charged her in her case. Some felt that what they had done. What he had discovered was proof enough that she was involved; However, everything changed shortly before the third anniversary of Bob's death. Once again, DNA evidence would be at the center of the case, only this time it would take detectives in a completely unexpected direction in March 2010.

Detectives in the now-named Bob Eidemann Case received an unexpected call that would reactivate their investigation. His unknown DNA sample that had been languishing in the FBI's CODIS database for nearly three years had just received a match that matched a man named Paul. White, a 33-year-old man with an extensive criminal record, fortunately it was not difficult to discover that he had recently been sent to prison on a forgery charge, not only that when the police investigated White further they discovered that he and his wife had been former customers. of Brook Auto Insurance when authorities confronted White in prison with the DNA evidence, however, he was not as easily upset as detectives hoped he would be calm during his interview, denying any involvement in the crime and saying he believed police I was lying about the DNA.

They tried to trick him into confessing to the murder, while the detectives were forced to leave the meeting more or less empty-handed. They still had one thing to do that they discovered and that they hoped he could save them. While investigating White's background, they discovered that he had been stopped in a traffic incident about a month before Bob's murder. White was the passenger. The car belonged to a 31-year-old man named Cleo Hines. He happened to find the vehicle to be a light-colored Ford Focus, believing it would be easier to get to Heinz than Heinz. The white detectives brought him in for questioning when they did so they decided to try to pull off a deceptive Bluff.

Investigators said they had footage of Heinz's Ford Focus outside the crime scene from 2007. The plan worked. Heinz took the bait and began to confess everything. Heinz. He said it had all started on the morning of June 8 when he and White, who was his roommate at the time, had been driving together the night before. White had lost twelve hundred dollars at a casino and Hines said he told him he wanted to get the money back by robbing someone. At first, Heinz said they went to a local Walmart parking lot, although he decided not to pursue anyone there after seeing the amount. of security cameras around, instead said White had proposed a different idea that he thought was his wife's.

Insurance agent Bob Eidman would be the perfect target since Bob worked primarily with low-income clients, many of whom did not have credit cards or checking accounts. He received many cash payments. White knew this, assuming that stealing from him would be an easy way. To make a big point quickly, accounts differ about exactly what Heinz claimed happened next, although what we do know is that he blamed White for Bob's murder in one version of the story, supposedly saying he was simply the driver and He did not find out about the killing until later in another, allegedly saying that he was present at the shooting but had no idea what White was going to do beforehand.

In any case, he said it was White's idea and that White was the gunman. Needless to say, the authorities were stunned. to find out how wrong they had been about their theory of the case from day one the murder of bob eidman had not been a successful disguise to make it look like a robbery gone wrong it had been a robbery gone wrong but they had mistaken it for a murder Furthermore, Diane Eidman had been completely innocent, perhaps worst of all for something even more absurd than investigators had imagined. It turned out that White had been wrong about the amount of money Bob kept in his office.

He had almost nothing there at the time. time except for what was in his wallet White and Hines had only taken three hundred dollars when the police brought Heinz's confession to White, he immediately changed his tune and admitted that the idea for the robbery was his and that the gun was his, but he claimed that Heinz was the one who shot Bob, although the authorities had no real way of knowing which version of events was closer to the truth, they were leaning more towards White being the gunman, after all he came up with the idea that he provided the gun and was the one who knew Bob Eidman said that, put in a legal sense, this was beside the point with these confessions, both men had admitted to having participated in the planning and execution of the underlying crime and, therefore, Therefore, both could be charged with murder in At a subsequent trial in 2012, Paul White was found guilty of first-degree murder and first-degree robbery and sentenced to two life sentences.

His sentences were ordered to run consecutively. Meanwhile, Heinz entered an Allford plea, a type of guilty plea in which the defendant does not actually admit to committing a crime, but formally agrees that there is enough evidence against him for the prosecution to obtain a conviction during his subsequent sentencing hearing. Heinz repeated his claims that he alone had been the driver of the crime and that he had been forced to do it. White said that he only learned of Bob's murder on television news coverage after the fact, but that by then he had been too afraid to come forward because he feared what White would do to him.

Heinz also received two life sentences, although he was ordered to run concurrently and given eligibility for parole at the time of this recording, both Heinz and White remain in prison. I know we've been talking a lot on this channel lately about people's strange reactions to trauma that aren't necessarily a good indicator. of blame, but I think this story is definitely an example worth repeating, while there are good reasons why spouses are often seen as the first potential suspects in situations like this, in the case of Diane Eidman it seems that the police left behind their preconceived notions of what their trauma and pain should look like to such an extent that they completely controlled the investigation.

Yes, it's obvious that Diane didn't do herself any favors by not being forthcoming withinformation like her husband's case, but then she said that this was because she didn't want to ruin Bob's reputation or their relationship in the mud, ultimately she lied out of love for her husband and I think this is something that that most of us can at least empathize even if we think it might have been wiser to act differently while investigating for this case, it really struck me how much Diane was suffering throughout this entire process. Not only was she trying to grieve the terrible death of the man she loved, but she was dealing with a cloud of suspicion that was constantly being cast over her.

She also discussed some of this during the two sentencing hearings where she made two extremely emotional Victim Impact Statements in statements Diane described being simultaneously terrified of being arrested and charged for a crime she did not commit, as well as scared that in Any time At the moment when her husband's murderers could come to finish her off too, she said that the murder had left her unable to trust anyone and that even after years these feelings had not improved, it is really heartbreaking to hear it in the time of this recording. It has been more than 15 years since the murder of Bob Eidman and although the damage caused by this terrible crime can never be repaired, we hope that wherever Diane is, she and the rest of Bob's family and friends have found something resembling the peace before finishing.

I'd like to take a second to say a huge thank you to everyone who has made it this far in the video. Seriously, thank you very much for watching. If you found today's upload interesting and informative, I would be honored if you would consider liking and subscribing. In addition to hitting the notification bell and selecting all notifications to stay up to date with our latest releases, if you're looking for additional ways to help support the channel, we'd love for you to join us on Patreon. Sponsors get ads ad-free and ahead of time. Access all of our content, as well as four additional stories per week for each of our Crimes of the Week and International Crimes of the Week videos.

You can find out more at patreon.com crimezone, where you'll also find some of the great people whose names are currently on screen. All of this being said, we understand that not everyone has the means to support themselves financially and that is totally okay. We appreciate every like, subshare and comment you send us once again. Thank you all very much and take care.