Someone They Knew with Tamron Hall S02E06 Teenage Terror & The East Mountain Murder_02

Kevin Matt and Louise were typical teenage boys good kids 911 what emergency I think but there gunshots outside they're all dead all three of them okay these young men didn't have criminal backgrounds there was literally almost no information as to who decided to kill these boys no one understood how these three boys could have possibly been targeted for such a heinous [Music] crime Kevin Shirley Luis Garcia and Matthew hunt good kids good students looking forward to college they leave for a party to celebrate the end of the school year say goodbye to their parents and never see them again why their bullet ridden bodies were found on a remote Road in the East mountains of Albuquerque New Mexico seemed unimaginable but there were secrets to be revealed in those mountains secrets that would take years to discover Kevin Shirley Luis Garcia and Matthew hunt were three High School buddies they all um played on the soccer team Matthew though had been in a car accident that had caused him to be paralyzed but that did not mean the friendship was over so he was still a part of the group school had ended on Thursday they had a party to go to and so they were getting ready to go and we just you know Wayne and I said Wayne's my husband you know why don't you guys just stay here just stay home got to get up early anyway oh Mom know it's the end of school everybody's going to be there you know we got to go and so I said you know you need to be home at midnight to which he said 12ish and I said no midnight and he said it'll be 12ish so that was the last words and they hopped in the car and Kevin's car was big enough to put the wheel chair in the party was up in the East mountains in the Sandia Park area a lot of different kind of people like living in that area they don't like the big city it's Rural and it attracts all sorts of people their mothers were not concerned because the boys had gone up there many times and never had a problem it wasn't a a huge party it was just a get together of friends a lot of soccer player friends who uh were relishing the fact that summer was [Music] here Kevin did not show up at 12ish as he thought he would and I just paged him over and over and over again which he absolutely hated but he didn't answer and he didn't come home and I thought after a while you know I'll just go to sleep I'm sure they're just stay in the night11 what emergency I think with their gunshots outside okay how many did you hear I I think about six maybe eight okay are they real close okay are they close to your house yeah right on the corner the crime scene was a remote part of the East mountains of Albuquerque on a darkened Road single vehicle that had been shot up many many times by high powered rifle a neighbor right at the intersection had snuck out of the house after taking cover during the shots and noticed that the three young men had been shot uh many times uh while seated in the car the first person on the scene realizes what he's seeing and he relays that message to his wife who's telling the 911 operator what is being said there's nothing They're All Dead all three of them okay okay we got minut all in the chest they're all three of them dead okay there were three decedents in the vehicle being Kevin Shirley Matthew hunt and Luis Garcia so following the 911 call the original responding officers uh arrived D at the intersection to notice Kevin's little Dotson in the middle of the intersection a number of empty shell casing spent shell casings pervasive damage to the windshield of the car and it was fairly obvious at the time although checks were made that all three of the young men were in the car deceased and shot many times we began then processing the scene the casings were collected we had to secure the car well to perform trajectory studies on the car to see just how this might have happened what we began to see was a pattern from the passenger side to the driver's side and what we might could call to be a cone so Movement laterally by the shooter continuing to shoot from the shooters left to right in front of the car this offender f fired in a cone fashion into that windshield only he or she knew that and so that's not something that's probably smart from a strategy point of view to put out to a neighbor reported seeing a dark colored SUV driving away from the scene the problem for us is that he never saw the real people leaving without their lights on about 9:00 we had a few minutes before we went to church and then when we answered the door of course it was all the detectives they were there to to deliver a very sorrowful message and um of course by then we were just we were hysterical it was a scary time because no one understood how these three boys could have possibly been targeted for such a heinous crime by all accounts these were normal kids normal high school kids we had lots of leads coming in for from pardon my language absurdity to potential but it's not until 2006 that we finally get the break in the case in the summer of 1999 Albuquerque New Mexico seemed caught in the grip of Terror who would kill three in inocent teenagers like Kevin Shirley Luis Garcia and Matthew hunt in the Sleepy East mountains and why there were very few Clues and even fewer [Music] explanations people wanted to know what happened and they wanted an explanation a reason to believe it couldn't happen to their children or couldn't happen to them the investigators talk to family friends acquaint es people from school and by all accounts these were normal uh kids normal high school kids I don't think Kevin would have had enemies that I would have known about or I would have known that through him eventually the investigators were able to determine that there was a house party a gathering uh not too far away from where the homicides happened the report from people at the party did not IND that there was much of anything no altercations no you know oh well so and so got into a fight or this person yelled at that person no one seemed to remember anything unusual I don't know we we go to this house like quite a bit like everyone just the whole crew MH and but that night it wasn't like a real big party it was just kind of a little quiet thing we can't help but think that something must have going on in that party I know that's why I keep thinking what I keep to but I've asked everybody that was up there constantly like was there anybody up there you didn't know was there anybody there that wasn't there usually and you know everybody up toic a name everybody was there by name early on in the investigation there was a dark SUV being indicated as maybe being in the area or being heard or seen a street away from the neighborhood and so that was a a vehicle that was being sought was a kind of a generic but dark colored SUV we had lots of leads coming in lots of people calling in and those leads and any celebrated case range from pardon my language absurdity to potential every one of those leads even the leads that sound absurd have to be followed they're getting all kinds of stories none that really seem to go anywhere oh you should check this kid or I I think that kid drives that kind of dark SUV there was literally almost no information as to who did the shooting who decided to kill these boys so the bur Leo County Sheriff's Department really in my estimation went all out to keep this case in the public view there was a reward that was offered that the money of which seemed to grow every week there were Billboards put up it was a crimestopper tip that had suggested that a Joselyn Snider had remarked in a bar that she had been present there at the party so I met her at her apartment uh she was visibly upset she denied ever saying anything and expressed frustration that someone was just trying to cause her problems in her life all this information I put all of that together into a report gave it to the case agent and then went about answering other leads the case goes on for years I remember doing a oneyear anniversary of the death then a 2E and then a threee and then at at some point it's like we don't have anything more to say it was a cold case they never wanted to admit that there's nothing in the world that I could do to connect with or bring back Kevin Matt or Lise but what I had for victims was the people who loved them and not being able to bring resolution for those folks was difficult Greg came in he took control of the Cold Case and became my friend we took our task force back into the neighborhood and we found a man who said I heard firecrackers going off that night he said I was upset because it was pretty dry in the mountains and you shouldn't be popping firecrackers he said then I heard an in engine revving really high and it drove straight and then it turned on the road and it came right in front of my house and I went up to the window and I was looking and I saw a pickup truck without its lights on flying by my house and it was at that point that we knew that that SUV that had been reported probably had nothing to do with the homicide but it's not until 2006 that we finally get the break in the case Luke Morris was incarcerated up in Cortez Colorado he made mention to a cellmate that he had been present at this particular homicide that cmate reported that to the authorities that made it back to the cocas unit and I was able to interrogate Luke based upon what he had said and he confessed to being there and also described exactly how that shooting occurred and that shooting occurred according to the Luke in a comb fashion in front of Kevin doson which was a fact M that had never been revealed in that case now we had to work on the other participants there was Jeff Moore and there was Luke Morris and a possible witness was Joselyn Snider full circle back to Joselyn that did eventually lead to her giving a statement that the killer in this case was a boyfriend at the time of hers by the name of Brandon Craig Brandon had some charges drug charges a rape case that that was dismissed some theft we know that Brandon struggled and didn't complete his Navy commitment when he had joined the Navy yet everyone in his circles believed him to be a well-trained Navy SEAL so Brandon spent a lot of time time uh and effort trying to promote himself as a killer we think the motive is that he was angry a power play you respect me you don't disrespect me and if you disrespect me this is what happens to you why after that many years did Joselyn Jeff and Luke then become willing to cooperate and to State what had happened WTH paltro the Hollywood actress being sued for a ski Collision this is a he said she said on the slopes the injured skier claims ptro ran into him causing serious physical harm i' like to be Vindicated she denies the allegations and is counter suing for $1 now jury will decide and Court TV will bring it all to you the GTH palro ski crash case live covered Tuesday Mornings at 87 Central only on [Music] TV after seven years three Witnesses have finally come forward with the name of a prime suspect and what has become known as the East Mountain triple homicide but the reason they give as to why he committed these horrific murders is just as unexpected joclyn Snider [Music] apparently dabbled in dealing drugs Joselyn and Kevin knew each other and Kevin had purchased drugs from Joselyn previously I believe that the boys in Kevin's car did not go directly up to the mountain I think as they investigated they knew they had gone to someone's house and picked up some drugs and then they got to the party and I don't think Kevin had any idea of what might Inspire Joselyn had been stiffed she says and the person she said had stiffed her was Kevin Shirley and her boyfriend Brandon Craig was sort of the muscle I guess behind that Brandon Craig wanted to essentially enforce that drug debt uh because Joselyn wasn't doing it so brand 's idea in my opinion was that he was going to send a statement that he was the drug pin and that if he sold to you you were going to pay him he was going to make it so heinous and so big that people would be terrorized by him that they would never think to cross him again so Joselyn Snider and her boyfriend Brandon Craig they learned that Kevin and his friends are going to be at this party in Sandy and NOS so according to testimony they show up at this party there was Jeff Moore Brandon Joselyn and there was Luke Morris Joselyn apparently confronted Kevin Kevin brushed her off Brandon wasn't going to have that there were at least a few Witnesses at the party that did indicate that there had been a confrontation about money owed between Joselyn and Kevin interestingly enough though there were a lot of people at the party that did not know of any confrontation did not indicate that they had seen anybody that they didn't know arrive at the party and so there ended up being a lot of people at that party who were unable to corroborate that Josh Ln Snider Brandon Craig had showed up and gotten into an argument with Kevin shley there was some disagreement at the party they left with Brandon Craig in the vehicle and shortly thereafter the victims left in an orange doson and Brandon Craig got out of the car confronted them with words returned to the car got a weapon a long gun and proceeded to the car stood in front of the car and just sprayed I believe up to 24 rounds of um bullets into the vehicle killing all three and they drove off Matt was shot more than 30 times he got the real brunt of it Kevin was I think 12 shots and then Louise was shot seven times Joslyn Jeffrey and Luke began to report that they left out of there in a pickup truck without its lights on and drove exactly the direction and path that our iwitness had said in terms of the murder weapon uh joshin Snyder had indicated that it had been cut up and disposed in the days after the homicide in different areas of the city this information was also corroborated by Luke and Jeffrey we went to those places never found those pieces but why after that many years did Joselyn Jeff and Luke then become willing to cooperate and to State what had happened they were scared to death here you got what they think to be a Navy SEAL who you've just witnessed very proficiently sumar execute three young men for a drug day it appears that what made them come forward is when they were in trouble and realize it might benefit me tell people what I know about the East Mountain triple homicide I was downtown when he was brought in on the arrest what I remember about Brandon is is that he was quiet Collective non-emotional and uncooperative after 7 years that's a long time it was very surprising um and very emotional that that this was actually coming to at least the first part of the end it might have been a cold case forever Bron Craig was ultimately charged with depraved mind homicide first-degree homicide and felony murder and then three counts of child abuse because the all the people involved were under the age of 18 there ended up being a lot of issues that we were looking at really the biggest issues were there was never any physical evidence uh in this case that uh tied back to Brandon Craig the casings from the bullets that were collected the scene were inevidence but none of that had any comparison that could be made back to Brandon Craig the gun was never recovered there was never any eyewitnesses to the shooting other than Joselyn Jeffrey and Luke and it had been 6 seven years that they had told people they didn't know anything about it had lied about things uh until they did decide to finally come forward with the truth we were told it was about a 50/50 case but we didn't have a chance to change that or not go to trial because Brandon would not accept a plea deal so without a a ple deal you have to go to court but three young men lost their lives and we feel the evidence supports us moving forward on this case against Brandon craigan and we're going to do that they started scaring out of me and telling me I was going to prison for accessory and at the same time I didn't want to tell him my cousin he's my blood you don't rat on family [Music] [Music] the trial of Brandon Craig for the triple murder of Kevin Shirley Matthew hunt and Luis Garcia is about to begin the prosecution knows that a guilty verdict is far from guaranteed almost their entire case rests on the shoulders of witnesses who are no Angels themselves ladies and gentlemen we're uh set for a jury trial in this matter state of New Mexico versus Bron Ryan Craig the part is ready to proceed the state is your honor defense is ready your honor on May 29th 1999 Brandon Craig brutally murdered three teenage boys Luis Garcia Matthew hunt and Kevin Shirley he took an assault rifle riddled their bodies with bullets and fled he left the scene leaving no DNA no fingerprints nothing to tie him to the scene but he took with him something more important three eyewitnesses when you're a trial attorney I don't care if you're defense or prosecution if you've got a weakness in a case you want to be the first one to get it out because it's it's less harmful and that's what Jonathan did the three people who the defendant had with him that night were three people he was close to you at the time Jeffrey Moore one of his best friends Joselyn Schneider his living girlfriend and Luke Morris his own cousin the only eyewitnesses that are going to be able to say it was Brandon Craig are his girlfriend his cousin and a friend and for years and years they denied that it was him they said it was they had no idea who it was in October of 2006 Luke Morris gets into trouble again he's up in Colorado and Luke decides that he's had enough of living this kind of life and that he's had enough of cover him for what happened and he admits he admits the sheriff's deputies that he was there that Brandon Craig did it and that Joselyn and Jeff were there also [Music] eventually they came forward and here's why we can believe them now is that all three of them are saying essentially the same thing that they no longer have a motive to lie in fact maybe now they have actually a motive to tell the truth you'll see that they're far from perfect Witnesses they're recovering drug drug addicts they've been charged with and convicted of felony crimes they all lied for years about what they knew but the state didn't get to choose those Witnesses the defendant did and after they testify you're going to see the truth they saw the defendant commit the coldblooded murders of Kevin Shirley Luis Garcia and Matthew hunt and after you hear all the evidence we believe that you will find the defendant guilty of their murders the defendant Brandon Craig had hired uh defense attorneys pamel Macky and David Kaplan pamel Mackey had previously represented Kobe Bryant on a sexual assault allegation which was ultimately dismissed against Kobe Bryant the evidence in this case will show that three people josen Schneider Luke Morris and Jeff Moore have concocted stories not worthy of your belief in order to accuse an innocent man in exchange for saving their own hides the defense team essentially laid out that the credibility of Joselyn Luke and Jeffrey was at issue and that they could not be sufficiently believed to convict the evidence in this case will show that law enforcement officers eager to solve a horrible crime looked the other way when the evidence they found put the lie to the stories of those three people she thought she owned the courtroom I mean a lot of attorneys have a big ego that's their style as a prosecutor it's all about doing the best job you can and fighting for justice the jury gets to decide what that is Brandon Craig did not shoot those boys the house of fabrication built by these three people is about to come tumbling down as you the jury listen to the evidence in this case and that is why at the end of this case we will ask you to return a verdict of not guilty not guilty on all the charges right Mr Morris if you please come forward I would say Luke Morris ended up being our most compelling witness in terms of testimony against Brandon C was there any discussion of going up to the mountains east of Albuquerque in order to do anything yes um Joselyn had got burnt or ripped off on a drug deal and they owed her money and she said they knew she knew where they were going to be at a party up there who all went inside me Brandon Joselyn and Jeff what did any of the four of you then do we approached them and Joselyn was screaming about her money or whatever and Brandon said he wanted to get the money or whatever and they told him get and this is the person that your understanding of who owed the money said that to my understanding yes what happened in response to that statement we left we pulled off onto a side road and we were loaded a bowl of weed and smoking some weed any other drugs besides marijuana cocaine and then what happened um a car came went by and Ain said that that was them what then did the four of you do we chased the car down and tried pulling it over by flashing our lights who's driving Brandon is and that didn't work so we P we were going around them and we cut him off and what did the car do stopped he definitely seemed in my opinion to be the most believable of all of the Witnesses in terms of the detail that he was able to provide and the credit credibility that seemed to flow from his testimony as the two vehicles then stopped what happened um Brandon got out of this of his side driver side and walked around was saying what's up what's up now and I couldn't really hear what they said and then he went get back into the truck and he pulled the gun out from under the front seat and then he walked back around to the back of the truck right here and started shooting then what happened and Brandon came back to the truck threw the gun to Jeff in the back seat and we started hauling ass with our headlights out we knew the weaknesses in the case no one came forward for six seven years um when they did come forward it benefited them in some way I mean we're talking about Luke was looking at an an extensive or a very lengthy prison sentence he ended up making a statement in this case and got probation I mean that's huge motivation starting in about October of 2006 you start telling them a lot of different stories even though you start telling them about having information yeah they started scaring out of me and telling me I was going to prison for accessory and at the same time I didn't want to tell him my cousin he's my blood you don't rat on family you were charged possession distribution of methane you cop a plea right yeah and you get four years of probation with a six-month rehab completion of a six-month in-house rehab it's a pretty sweet deal don't you think yeah after you broke up with Brandon yes did you go to police then no why didn't you go to police [Music] then the prosecution feels they have gotten off to a strong start with credible testimony from witness Luke Morris and they feel confident about what witness Jeffrey Moore will tell the jury but as they know the Wild Card could be juslyn Snider all right as you indicated uh you saw Brandon open the driver's side door and get out did you see him do anything as he was shooting walked in like a half moon shape present shape in respect to other vehicles yes sir passenger driver side driver passenger side back and forth like that of what vehicle of the orange car given their youthfulness given their fear given their pervasive use of drugs at that age I thought Luke and Jeff presented well in testimony I think the Achilles heel for the prosecution in that particular case was Jos are you still together with Brandon no do you know when you stopped being together with Brandon I believe I left in 2002 was actually the first time he had left me by myself and I called my mom and I had her come pick me up and I left after you broke up with Brandon yes did you go to police then no why didn't she go to police then I scared of Brandon she was meaker she was more easily intimidated she was more easily confused right the cross-examination Miss Macky thank you honor it was hard to sit there um and listen to the defense just Shred the case you say I can't go to jail I can't go to jail I don't know you offer to work off the charges and you mean by that becoming an informant no but you tell them I don't know who killed those kids I wish I did I would tell you guys so fast I don't know I don't know I don't no is that what you tell Miss Schneider yes in this case there there's no choice but to put on the three eyewitnesses we had only put on Luke Morris because he was the most compelling the jury would have had a a huge issue and a question of well what about these other people in November of 2006 you receive a text message from Lacy Morris correct yes now Lacy Morris is Luke Morris's little sister yes now at the time you did not know know that your cell phone was being tapped by law enforcement correct no you've learned that since yes there had been some text messages between um Josh Lind Snider and and Luke apparently where it looked like they were trying to get together on their stories and be consistent and that became a bone of contention in the trial by that time I knew that Luke had came forward um I just want to make sure that our you know whatever little pieces I didn't know like the gun and how it was cut up that I would that I knew so that my story was okay Jon was obviously very nervous on the witness stand it was very rough and the defense took advantage of that M Schneider let's now talk about the truck there were issues that came up in terms of the vehicle that Joselyn Schneider indicated that her and Brandon Craig and Luke and Jeffrey were in on the night of the shooting that she didn't actually own that vehicle back on the day of the homicide that's a bill of sale from the original owner Mr Cox to your father James Schneider for the truck that you'd been claiming for 2 and A2 years was involved in the May 99 homicide correct can you see that yes and the date of sale is on there and if memory serves it's August 5th 19 99 correct yes that's the day your father bought the truck that you'd been claiming was involved in the homicides right yes and so after investigator Stelton sees these documents that puts the lie to the story that you've been telling for 2 and 1/2 years he calls you up and says what's up with this right yes so then you weave this new story about a sto truck obtained through your cocaine dealer estabon correct yes that's the true story and what you want these members of this jury cuz you lied about this story to another jury right yes you want these to believe that back in May of 1999 you go to a trailer park and through eston you meet a man named Julio yes and after you flirt with Julio he just G gives you a truck I needed a truck you know the truck's stolen yes we knew that it was going to be an uphill battle and the jury was going to have a really hard time deciding what was the truth in this case ladies and gentlemen I'm informed that the jury may have a verdict or or verdicts in this matter V in the trial against Brandon Craig the prosecution has only one more chance to convince the jury that he is guilty of murdering three teenage boys in Cold Blood the defense makes their final case that the evidence is nowhere near conclusive it is time for closing arguments May 29th 1999 11:30 at night a time when most of us were probably home asleep safe at that moment along that road in the sanyan nles defendant Brandon Craig decided to end the lives for three young teenagers the main witnesses that you heard from Luke Morris Jeffrey Moore and Jon Snyder although they were not commendable in their actions and in their inactions starting May 29th 1999 for several years they are at least to be commended for finally coming forward when they did the state has proven this case Beyond A Reasonable Doubt all that's left now is for justice to be served the defendant must be convicted of all counts against him in this country in our system of justice if the government accuses somebody of criminal Behavior they must bring enough evidence to prove to a jury a jury full of citizens of this state the guilt of the defendant Beyond A Reasonable Doubt and the prosecution in this case has woefully come short of that burden they are relying on their case on the testimony of Joslyn Schneider Luke Maris and Jeffrey Moore three individuals whose credibility whose veracity whose honesty is subject to huge questions if you hesitate about the quality of the evidence and the veracity of the witnesses then the system says to you it tells you it directs you to come back not guilty Council will be in recess until uh we have a verdict or or question I remember thinking that the defense had put on a really good case in the sense that they introduced a lot of Reasonable Doubt but I also felt the prosecution had just put their heart and soul into this case but I worried that that just wasn't going to be enough I did believe that that Brandon Craig had done this because the detectives had really showed us what they had what the information was and that the witnesses had all pinned this on him the jury liberated for 2 days it was a 2E trial so it was uh it wasn't something that they went in and came out half an hour later all right and ladies and gentlemen I'm informed that the jury uh may have a verdict or or verdicts uh in this matter PA rise for the jury there were three three or four ladies on this jury that had were tear had tears in their eyes when they came in to the uh the box to deliver the verdict the uh forms of a verdict uh reads as follows we find the defendant not guilty of first-degree murder by a deliberate killing as charged uh in count [Music] one the verdict was not guilty on everything which just Florida all right Mr uh Craig is is ordered released at this time the jury for woman talked about the verdict but didn't want to be identified she says it was tough to believe who was telling the truth we went through it over and over and over again the state didn't prove their case when the media talked to the the jury woman she said well we were we felt like he probably had something to do with this but there was there was doubt and so we couldn't come up with a guilty verdict and I'm thinking well if you didn't really believe that he didn't do it and you didn't believe that he did do it why did you not hold to your guns and and hung the jury J went on to take all of this pain and translate it into I think some brilliant work in supporting survivors of homicide one of the healing characteristics of grief is bringing meaning to the death because otherwise it's just three kids that were killed in the mountains I worked with hundreds of victims and and worked in the victim community and knew lots of people and it's because of Kevin that I did this work and and the fact that I could help I don't think that anyone that is intimately involved in the case thinks there's someone else out there there's still a shooter out there that we just haven't found I think most of us believe they found the right person just couldn't prove it and that chapter just didn't get to be written in the way that I think the families deserved I pray that Brandon found out how close he got to losing his entire life and that he realized that by not being convicted of this that he got his life back back and I hope that he's made a good use of it and I and I've hope that the witnesses as well a lot of their lives were stolen as well all of our lives were [Music] stolen it's now been more than a decade since Brandon Craig was found not guilty of the East Mountain triple homicide and by all accounts he's kept a low profile and has stayed out of trouble that's little Comfort though to victim Kevin Shirley's mother Joan she says she has forgiven Brandon Craig but still believes he is responsible and what's been taken away she will never forget I'm Tamarind Hall thank you for watching someone they knew [Music] of the world but in the past mistakes have been made over the last 150 years approximately 1500 people have been hanged in the United Kingdom many of those desperately protested their innocence some of these long-standing convictions could be a miscarriage of Justice the evidence is so overwhelming that they have to tell the truth in this series a living Rel relative will attempt to clear their family name they found him guilty already by reading this searching for new evidence it's in the form of blood spatter which is blood that has been projected onto the surface with help from two of the UK's leading barristers one for the defense there is a world of difference between an unpleasant journey and murder and one for the prosecution he cut off her head dismembered her and buried her in a place where he hoped she would never be found they're on a mission to solve a mystery submitting their findings to a Crown Court Judge your honor ought to declare the conviction for murder to be unsafe thank you both for your submissions I shall consider these matters for myself can this modern investigation reite history on a cold February morning in 1880 a draper called Thomas plunder Leaf was walking along a Country Lane on the border of Oxfordshire and buckinghamshire when he spotted a hat on the ground he stopped to pick it up and made a Grizzly Discovery nearby in a ditch by the side of the road lay the mutilated body of a man his head almost decapitated by a deep knife wound the police swiftly questioned possible suspects four men who'd been drinking with the victim the previous evening one of them was Farm laborer William dumbleton when questioned by police blood stains were noticed on his clothes dumbleton was arrested and charged with murder on the 20th of April 1880 in a trial lasting just one day he was found guilty and sentenced to death and on the 10th of May at Ellsbury prison William dumbleton was hanged today the great great niece of William dumbleton dor is researching the life and death of a relative I've got my nan Winfred dumbleton whose father was Albert and he was the younger brother of William dumbleton 140 years on she's determined to uncover the true truth about William dumbleton conviction through the genealogy research it said that he'd been executed another secret within our family that nobody talks about I think that there is more to the story to clear William's name would be to put him where he should be an innocent man not somebody that was hung and buried in a prison the case against William dumbleton featured two pieces of key circumstantial evidence and seem like a straightforward one but did he receive a fair trial and can a modern day legal team discover fresh evidence to question the original conviction leading the case for the defense is Jeremy Dean QC who has over 30 years of experience as a barrister defending high-profile clients representing the prosecution is Sasha was QC who's brought successful convictions against some of the country's most prolific criminals dor has traveled to London to meet Sasha and Jeremy hello dor he yeah good to meet you Jeremy nice to meet you hello dor nice to meet you well thank you very much for coming dor when did you first hear about the case of William dumbleton A couple of years ago researching genealogy and it came up that he died 1880 prison so you learned for the first time that one of your relations had been convicted of murder and executed yes how did that make you feel I took it out several times out of the family tree thinking oh no that can't be right but my mother was able to take me back to my great-grandfather and then I could follow along the lines so it was correct are you hoping that the conviction will be declared unsafe that would be the best for for William have you discussed it with other members of your family a very distant cousin Sandy she's really into her genealogy right and she knew a lot about the case as well and has she got very strong views about whether this was a safe conviction or not I think at first she wasn't certain yes but the more she's looked into things she's more convinced that it's unsafe all right just get that got feeling that there's more to it we've got a lot of work to do on the case we're going to be looking at it very thoroughly indeed you'll be coming for the Judgment so you'll find out on that day what progress we have or haven't made brilliant all right great to meet you thank you thank you William dumbleton was born in June 1858 in the Oxford Village of piddington from birth dumbleton lived in wretched poverty he slept in the same room as his mother brother and two younger sisters in a cramped two room Cottage the family even had to share a toilet with their neighbors dumbleton was uneducated and ended up working as a poorly paid laborer but could abject poverty have driven William dumbleton to murder Sasha and Jeremy are starting their investigation by examining the key facts of the case well Jeremy this is a case of a fatal assault on the 3rd of February 1880 um a traveling watch repair man John Edmunds known as gentleman Johnny was drinking in the Seven Stars Inn in a village called piddington and during the course of the evening he showed other people present in the pub very expensive silver Hunter pocket watch also in the pub that evening were a group of farm laborers including 21-year-old William dumbleton at about 10:00 five men including John Edmunds and William dumbleton all left the pub and went their separate ways so the following morning a dra called Thomas pendel discovered the body of John Edmunds lying in a ditch he had been badly beaten and had had his throat cut but the expensive watch which he had shown uh people at the pub the previous night had disappeared an investigation began and pretty soon Police Inspector Webb questioned The Men Who had actually been in the Seven Stars Pub initially William dumbleton denied that he had been there at all saying he'd been at home but after a while when he was pressed he accepted he had been in the Steven stars that evening at the same time um as John Edmunds policemen also noticed blood staining on William in dumbleton clothing which dumbleton tried to explain as coming from a scratch on his hand William dumbleton was arrested and charged with murder dumbleton trial took place at the Northampton Crown Court on the 20th of April the whole trial only lasted a day and he was found guilty and sentenced to death so Jeremy what do you think JN Edmonds and William dumbleton left with three other men so we need to look at the movements of those other men and put Spotlight on their activities there might well have been other people involved and I think we could benefit from speaking to a forensic scientist to look at the crime scene and what any blood evidence given at trial means today well William dilton gave a number of different explanations for his movements and what he did and didn't do um and there were contradictions it would be useful to speak to a modern day psychologist so that's what I'd like to do today William dumbleton relative dor wants to find out more about the events in piddington which led to her ancestors leaving the village over a century ago she's come to the scene of the murder to meet Diane James a crime writer who's researched the case Hi D good to meet you so we're standing outside the Seven Stars per in piddington where all the main characters in our story are assembled so towards the end of the evening there were just five customers left in the pub um one of them was John Edmonds he was known as gentleman Johnny um probably because he had a little bit more money than the others so he' quite often got other people's watches on him and he had that night according to the prosecution case it was here that John Edmunds had spent the evening drinking heavily he was showing the water around the pub various other people had handled it we also know that John Edmond had had quite a lot to drink that night um at one stage one witness actually reports that he'd slid off the settle and was asleep on the floor at around 1 p.m. John Edmunds left the pub with four other men Edmunds set off up the road with Father and Son Thomas and Edwin Gibbons Thomas Walker went the other way dumbleton stayed outside the pub for a while and William goes off and says that he just goes straight home which will be the same direction as the gies further along the road John Edmund said goodbye to his companions and continued his journey alone about a mile along the road Edmunds was brutally attacked knocked to the ground and his throat slashed so deeply that he was almost decapitated it was the prosecution's case that William dumbleton was guilty of the crime it's established pretty well straight away that watch it's missing so at this point they realized that it's robbery and it's murder and then they also find a knife um just hidden in the Hedge very close by the scene of the attack it's a very distinctive knife and there is no doubt whatsoever that the knife belonged to William dumbleton quite a number of WI es and his own brother and sister identify the knife the police investigation quickly focused on the men who'd been drinking in the pub the night before when questioned William dumbleton initially denied having been in the Seven Stars but he wasn't the only person who lied to police could someone else have been responsible for the murder of John Edmunds Sasha and Jeremy are looking at the movements of the men who left the pub together well Jeremy this is a map of piddington um this is the Seven Stars John Edmunds was showing off a couple of watches to other people who were drinking in the pub and by 10:00 when it closed dumbleton remained hanging around outside the Seven Stars and then John Edmund was walking along the lugera road on his way home where his body was eventually found in a ditch s we need to bear in mind is that this was a dark foggy February evening there were no witnesses to the attack on John Edmunds apart from William dumbleton there were plenty of other men around when the pub closed he and John Edmunds left in a group of five the scenario is not straightforward when he was first questioned by police he said he'd been at home and it hadn't been in the P but Edwin Gibbon also lied about having been in the p and therefore suspicion is cast not just upon William dumbleton but also upon Edwin Gibbon the prosecution case was that William dumbleton was guilty of the murder what could have driven dumbleton a man with no previous criminal record to attack and almost decapitate a man for a watch to find out more about her relatives life Dorne is meeting with agricultural historian torian John Martin hi nice to meet you hi Don really nice to meet you what could you tell me about will in dumbleton life well dumbleton was about 20 he lived in a really squalid dwelling um which really two bedrooms sharing it with other members of his family this indicated the very low levels of income which he subjected to and the Very precarious type of employment which he was enduring can you tell me anything you know about the victim John Edmund well John Edmonds was an itinerant watch repairer and also possibly buying watches in the process he was nicknamed Johnny who te to live the idea of perhaps being a little bit of a gentleman so you think possibly the motive would be theft stealing expensive watch it it seems difficult to understand why he would want to acquire an expensive watch when it would be so difficult for him to actually sell it it would be rather like a rather poor person driving around in Ferrari it would obviously draw attention to the way they're acquired the vast majority of rural crime in that period was actually associated with poaching so this would have been an exceptional activity and also the problem about the fact that they found his pen knife uh near the body why would a farm labor at a value pen knife leave it behind in such a way the fact that he possibly wouldn't have thrown an important knife away cuz he needed it for work and even if he did steal the watch where was he going to sell it onto he couldn't show it it to anybody just seems a bit pointless act that he would have done John Edmund's throat had been cut deeply with a knife when questioned William dumbleton was found to have blood on his clothes leading to his arrest he claimed the blood had come from a scratch on his hand does dumbleton explanation stand up to scrutiny Joe hello to find out more Sasha and Jeremy are meeting with forensic scientist Joe Millington now it was recorded by the pathologist who gave evidence during the case um that the deceased sustained a number of wounds yes two of which were made by a knife the first knife wound um started 2 in below the left ear it went from left to right it severed his cored artery and his jugular vein and his wind p yes so in terms of the Airborne blood from the severed artery what would that look like well given that the arteries on the left side of the neck have been severed the blood leaves the wound site as a column of blood so there is actually quite significant blood loss I mean we talking about large volumes or or what eventually there will be obviously initially there'll be some the pressure will be higher within the system because it's just started would you describe it as spurting yes so it will spurt under the sort of the pressure of the heartbeat and as blood has been lost and the volume's decreasing the pressure will sort of go down in the system and that would occur really until the point of death yes and in fact cause of death is attributed to that particular injury right Joe has prepared a demonstration to show the barers okay turn it on so talk us through this so it's basically simulating what you what the staining that you'd expect to see after someone has suffered from a a breached artery have you been able to recreate the clothing and the quantity of blood found on William dumbleton clothing I've tried to simulate that in a way using this machine in order to show us what that blood staining might look like so what the presence of of blood spatter on his trousers demonstrates is that he is inter accepted that spray it doesn't necessarily say he inflicted the original injury right so we can see the larger area on the left hand side and on the bottom of the left and William dumbleton said he'd had a scratch to his hand yes is that something that is consistent with a scratch to the hand no why not because it's too extensive and also it's in the form of blood spatter which is blood that has been projected Ed onto the surface so if the injury to his hand was superficial which is my understanding then it wouldn't have the ability to produce this type of patenting right thank you very much indeed thank you very much that's been really helpful thank you the gruesome murder of an aspirational gentleman like John Edmunds rocked the Sleepy Village of pittington to its core leading up to dumbleton trial local newspapers reported on his tough upbringing and working last Roots could this have had an impact on dumbleton conviction dor has come to haddenham community library to look at newspaper coverage from the time this is supplement to the Northampton Mercury Saturday February 21st 1880 dumbleton throughout life he had been as much noted for his idleness as his slovenly appearance he is a man of no education and has lived for the greater portion of his life surrounded by poverty and vice and there is no doubt that he met Edmunds at The Identical spot where the struggle took place they've tried and found him guilty already by reading this well I'm assuming now you couldn't get away with saying something like this in modern day and might even cause a Mist trial I'm assuming a few days after after the murder William dumbleton was in the Magistrate Court in nearby Brill as he was being led from the dock dumbleton made an astonishing admission to a policeman that placed himself and his knife at the scene of the crime but not as the killer Sasha I I think we need to think about comments attributed to William dumbleton by police officers Police Officer James Avery engaged William dumbleton in ation and William dumon said I be innocent and then went on to explain that after he come out of the par a chat came up to him and said let's go and see if old Johnny had anything on him and that other man went after John Edmunds the other man was trying to cut John Edmund's throat with his own knife but he couldn't manage it so he said to William dton can I borrow your knife and William dumbleton lent him his knife comments attributed to him by Avery no legal representation at the time it was never attested to or signed by William dumbleton and finally in terms of the chronology of events I I am really concerned that it seems the police never made any inquiries in relation to this other man well Jeremy you're absolutely right that no um record was made at the time this was 104 years before the police and criminal Evidence Act which brought all of these safeguards for defendants into um the legal system but we have to bear in mind that within the very rudimentary rules that applied in 1880 it seems that William dumbleton made these statements and the defendant never denied giving that account even though he had the opportunity uh to do so so what we are left with is a partial confession if you like namely an admission that he was there he lent the knife to the man who actually did the slaughtering but it was not he who cut the throat of John Edmunds so we have to consider the weight of this evidence within the context of a very very old case William dumbleton had no legal representation in the leadup to his trial on the 20th of April 1880 did he get a fair hearing to find out more Dorne is meeting again with crimer writer Diane James they've come to session's house in Northampton where dumbleton trial was held we're now standing in the very courtroom where William dumbleton stood to for his life he would have walked up these very stairs from the cells and stood here in the dock pretty much where you're standing now so right where I'm standing yeah is where he would stood he's touched here somewhere probably yeah and facing the judge of course upon his dis which must have been quite intimidating yes especially for a 20-year-old William couldn't afford a solicitor so no legal advisor or representation whatsoever and when he turns up at his trial the judge actually appointed a council for him on the day who would have been acting free and this was a Mr Kennedy and quite astonishingly to us Mr Kennedy explains to the jury that although he's obviously going to do his best for William he knows no more about the case than they do Mr Kennedy does his best he asks a few questions here and there and not surprisingly they took around about half an hour to find him guilty during the trial there was a shocking Revelation about the mystery man who dumbleton said he had seen murder John Edmonds but then in court there's a bit of a bombshell this person that William says is involved or may actually have been the murderer a man called James Sharp is actually named and James Sharp extraordinarily is actually known to be Court nobody calls him it's very odd this business of this James Shar and the fact that everyone all seems to be completely uninterested in him him it leaves certainly an uncomfortable feeling about the way this is all being run I was surprised by the fact that he didn't have legal representation until the morning of the trial so possibly if he'd had the money behind him he might not have been found guilty James Sharp was never tried for the murder of John Edmunds to this day very little is known about him could dumbleton and this mysterious man have made some sort of PCT I know Dr bad to find out more Jeremy and Sasha are meeting with psychologist Dr Roberta BB William doublet made a number of comments about his involvement through his cell door quote we then both made a promise if either of us would be found out not to split about the other one after I made a promise I would suffer the law before I would split about it this appears to be some sort of pack made between the two of them I mean what do you make of this I think this pack is what we imagine to be like the laborers code so these are people who are laborers they've done something they're in trouble they look after each other by not telling on each other not grasing so to speak in terms of the reliability of the various accounts that William dilton had given throughout how do you assess the reliability of those accounts it's really hard to assess the reliability because they were all spontaneous they weren't done under a traditional police procedures they weren't immediately recorded down he wasn't actually um informed about the nature of how his words may be used in the trial he's also someone who's quite scared he's facing the death penalty so there's a lot going on for him so it's very difficult to talk about how reliable his accounts is what sort of background did William doubleton have there was a sense that his mother had questionable morals she also smoked a pipe at a time where that actually wasn't the done thing for women and she also used quite foul language lot of the time so there's a sense that actually the class that he lived in the background he came from was actually quite difficult is is that background potentially going to have an impact on someone like William dumpleton commitment to tell the truth yes we learned by social modeling and so we learned from the people around us and so the people around him would have offered a template of how to engage in situations when the truth is needed to be told we know he was poor his mother appears to have taken up habits which were perhaps not not the norm at the time we don't actually know anything about how she brought up her children she may have brought them up to tell the truth the whole time very much so um so we're really just speculating aren't we we are but what you can say with a degree of confidence is that what William um dumbleton said to the police was spontaneous um and voluntary I would say so yes well thank you very much indeed that's been extremely interesting and very helpful thank you thank you very much indeed thank you Dawn wants to find out more about her relatives Final hours today for the first time she's meeting with her distant cousin Sandy who's also been researching the case they've come to Alsbury prison where William dumbleton was held he must have been really frightened going in when those Gates opened and shutting him for the final time they're meeting Deputy Governor Andy rley so Dawn Sandy this is where on the 10th of May 1880 that William would have been led to to these these steps to climb upon the Gallows um he would have seen his relatives for probably the last time so he would have been been on a constant watch with two officers looking after him over that final period because obviously they didn't want to rob the hangman of the execution and they wouldn't want him to commit suicide so William would have been here he would have been hung and he would probably been left for at least an hour before he was removed it's quite surreal standing here knowing that these steps were the last steps he took where he last stood where he took his last breaths sobering thoughts isn't it yeah on the 10th of May 1880 minutes from The Hangman's news it's alleged that William dumbleton said his last words and made a shocking final confession to the prison chaplain as God is my witness in whose presence I'm about to appear I declare these as my last words before I die James Sharp knocked the man down sharp said lend us your knife but instead of giving him the knife I cut his throat myself I hope God will forgive me for my sin I mean he was illiterate and from farming background so I really doubt that he would actually use the words that have been written and and some of it sounds more like in the third person sense and somebody's written it on his behalf and I think they've phrased it for him dumbleton version of events changed dramatically between his arrest and his execution with the Judgment imminent Jeremy is looking at the wording of dumbleton final confession s I'd like to have a look at events post trial in William dumpleton case previously William dumpleton had said said that John Edmund's throat was slit by the other man on the very day he was executed he takes responsibility himself and I find that anomalous that the discrepancy as between what he'd said previously and what he said on the day let's just reflect on the language that he's supposed to have used in this confession quote as God is my witness in whose presence I'm about to appear I declare these as my last words before I die and that the statement I made to the chaplain is perfectly true concerning the murder of the poor man I am suspicious and don't feel comfortable it's too eloquent for William dumbleton to have put together himself but you're not seriously suggesting that the chaplain has implicated William dumbleton in some sort of false confession are you I'm not suggesting that chaplain has created this account um Sasha I'm saying that look none of us were there it was 1880 the context of this is unknown to us I am suspicious about the content of this confession it doesn't sit comfortably with me you are saying well it must be a true bill we'll never discover the truth we simply have competing standpoints he first of all denies being at the Seven Stars he then says he was at the Seven Stars and that he and another man were involved in a plan to take property from the deceased he then blamed the other man for cutting his throat he would have been guilty of murder on a joint Enterprise basis we mustn't forget that within 11 yards of the body of John Edmunds was found a whit handled uh knife there was conclusive evidence that that knife belonged to William dumbleton his mother said so his sister said so his workmate said so and he himself admitted that it was his knife don't get me wrong he undoubtedly had a very hard life but it was that hard life which the prosecution said caused him to Slit a man's throat for a pocket watch well Sasha that's your analysis I feel that there are serious question marks over this confession in relation to the confession I don't understand why he shifted the blame to himself the language doesn't seem to me synonymous with a 21y old of limited intellect um I don't know what was going through his mind or who put thoughts in his mind but I'm not convinced about that confession circumstances which he supposed to have confessed pet tror and anomalous questionable suspicious I I will be underlining these matters in my submissions they are concerning to say the least following his execution at Alsbury prison William dumbleton was buried at an unknown location in the grounds Dawn and Sandy have come to pay their respects it's been quite a journey so far definitely the first flows for him I know very sad isn't it he seems to have been a victim of his birth in poverty right up until we get to this point nothing seems clear-cut yeah it would be nice to see Justice is done for him if they can find the evidence to clear him Sasha and Jeremy have completed their investigation and must now make their submissions to Judge David Redford at the original trial William dumbleton ran a defense that was consistent with his admissions um William dumbleton difficulty is that that would actually make him guilty of murder on a joint Enterprise basis the representation situation in William dilton was terrible I'll be concentrating on the fact that he only had a doc brief to represent him and also some very very suspect police evidence which was clearly significant will dor and Sandy be able to reestablish William dumbleton Legacy within their family he had no children but he does have descendants of nieces and nephews that are still alive and it'd be good for him to be talked about and not forgotten hello Sandy hey Sasha and dor hello again hi Jeremy now today is Judgment Day so dor have you found out any new material um in the course of the family Journey so in the court finding that he hadn't been represented until that morning yes and do you think that's something that's going to make a difference to the safety of the conviction I don't think the conviction itself is safe I don't think the trial itself was a fair one to him well the judge is going to call us in now if you follow me okay Sasha and Jeremy must now present their arguments to Judge David Radford with over 14 years as a senior judge to the largest Crown Court in England and Wales he's tried some of the country's highest profile murder cases please take a seat we're here today for me to consider with the assistance of learned Council the safety of the conviction of William dumbleton for having murdered one John Edmunds Mr Dean would you like to amplify your submissions now thank you very much indeed your honor the case against Mr dumbleton I submit was highly circumstantial principally revolving around blood staining on his clothes and a white handled pen knife thought the murder weapon identified as belonging to Mr dumbleton so I would submit not a strong prosecution Case by any means it it's documented that William dumbleton went on according to police Constable Avery to give an account which essentially amounted to another man having attacked John Edmunds that other man was the man who killed John Edmunds now the position in relation to that evidence is that it should never have featured in the case at all it was obviously very very damaging evidence from Mr dumpleton perspective it it was what would be regarded in the modern era as an interview with a police officer the officer initiated the conversation and then it's claimed that Mr dumbleton went on to give this unprompted account it's the sort of evidence which would not see the light of day in the modern era it's dangerous unsafe unverified and could have influenced the jury and most importantly was not the subject of proper professional scrutiny for the reasons I've already given also absolutely critical Mr dumbleton had had no opportunity to take legal advice or to gain legal assistance as regards the preparation of his trial for murder and it's documented when his Council addressed the jury in this case he wanted the jury to know that he had quote no more knowledge than any of them the jury of the case and so it's my submission for all the reasons I've outlined today that Mr dumpleton conviction is unsafe therefore his trial cannot uh be regarded as a fair or acceptable trial in my submission thank you very much Mr Dean and grateful to you Miss was when William dumbleton was arrested his trousers were found found to be extensively spattered with blood a forensic scientist Joe Millington has suggested that the idea that the blood on the trousers emanated from a scratch is highly improbable William dumbleton explained it was the other man who had decided to Rob John Edmunds the other man who decided to cut the throat of John Edmunds and because the other man's knife was in adequate to do the job he asked William dumbleton for his white knife and William dumbleton obliged um it's worth observing that that account amounts to a confession to murder on the basis of joint Enterprise that is to say that both were acting together as a team uh uh to kill John Edmunds William dumbleton went on to admit to a prison ch that he in fact played a greater part in the murder of John Edmunds the Crown's submission in this case is that the clear evidence against William dumbleton was uh uh the blood the knife and his explanation for it and for those reasons we regret to say that we do not invite your honor to declare that this was an unsafe verdict yes thank you Miss was if you become kind enough to give me some time to gather my thoughts I'd be grateful thank you the legal arguments have now been presented to the judge but has Jeremy done enough to question the original conviction well that you've heard more about lack of representation can you see any way whatsoever that he could have got a fair trial in those circumstances no I don't think given given the circumstances of only me the bar first that morning bar not being able to look over any notes or read anything about what had happened there's no way that the trial could have continued fairly but it will be a matter for the judge to determine dead William dumbleton brutally murdered John Edmonds over 140 years ago or was his case mishandled by the legal system meaning he didn't have a fair trial judge Radford is now ready with his verdict as Miss was outlined the case against Mr dumbleton essentially relied on circumstantial evidence the murder weapon a bloodstained white handled knife was identified by a number of witnesses as belonging to Mr dumbleton his trousers worn on the day of the murder were extensively stained with blood consistent with close presence to the victim uh when his throat and artery were cut the defendant's explanation as to the blood that it was on his clothing because he had scratched his arm in my view stretched credulity and now with the assistance of modernday forensic scientist Joe Millington can be safely rejected as untrue on Forensic scientific grounds alone I do not accept Mr Dean's submission that this was not a strong circumstance anal evidence case I find that it was I find that as far as can now be judged no credible lines of Defense have emerged which rendered a conviction in 1880 unsafe because of substantive unfairness I have concluded therefore that leaving entirely to one side Mr dilton later Fuller confession to the prison Champlin there was ample safe circumstantial evidence that at the very least Mr dilton even on his own case of trial was a joint principal in the murder and robbery of John Edmunds indeed the existence at all of another man involved with him in that murder was of course only asserted by Mr dilton s and unverified by any independent evidence I find no grounds now for holding that the verdict of that jury was unsafe I shall rise [Music] you must be very disappointed both of you a little disappointed but not surprised um it was not a straightforward case no it it's unfortunate that he didn't have proper representation obviously um but I think the jud's view is that even if he had it wouldn't have made any difference but it's been fantastic meeting you both you know hopefully you've enjoyed the experience of investigating it and it's been great to meet you thank you very much thank you very much thank you lovely to meet you you too thank you regardless of what has happened just now I've been able to link up not only with you but with other members of the family that previously I wouldn't have known about it's called together family I didn't know past my great grandfather and lots of new stories I'm sure that will come out in the to can't wait watch his space [Music] in broad daylight look Sarah look at all these people looking for you you'll be home soon Dar oh we promise you you'll be home soon you really will the scene the idilic English Countryside if you can't be safe there where can you be safe the suspect a local man with a horrific past he's done it before if he wanted to offend he wouldn't have too far to go to do that in this program the full story about the murder That Shook Britain there's probably not a person in the country that hasn't heard of Sarah and the killer whose conviction provoked a change in the law I arrested him on a gut feeling for what stage did you decide that you were going to you going to take her no I just realized that what I've been told was [ __ ] tonight key officers exclusively break their silence on this Killer's miscalculations that led them to his door as he came out he was literally shaking and and he's sweating the mistakes that put him in the frame the chances of that DNA profile having come from another person other than Sy p is around one in a billion and errors that meant he'd be locked up for life one liit vehicle now going south London Road on the Northbound [Music] carriageway had Roy white and not made those mistakes he would have got away with this murder [Music] the Sussex Coast a picture postcard playground for children quiet calm and above all safe or so everyone thought until the summer of 2000 when it became the scene of an unimaginable crime emergency what's the problem um I've lost my 8ye old daughter she's been missing about an hour in three qus now the concerned caller from this estate Sarah Payne and was she playing with anybody at all playing with her brothers and her little sister and she's got walked away from them and Sara and her husband Mike told police their daughter had last been seen playing on a ROP swing in a cornfield but officers needed more [Music] information I was the first police officer on the scene after Sarah pay went missing on Route I'm thinking about what it could possibly be has she just gone for a walk has she fallen over and hurt herself and any other potential reason for her going missing I suppose at the back of my mind at the very back was an abduction uh because that's very very rare um but that was at the back of my mind key to the upcoming search would be an image of the missing child I remember asking SAR and Mike if they had a recent picture of Sarah um that I could take away and I remember Sara handed me the iconic picture of Sarah everybody knows in her school uniform that memory stays with me very clearly soon that picture was on the front pages of newspapers in Britain and the World a smiling Carefree child vanished and in danger I led the police team investigating the murder of Sarah pain it is the safest place in the country beautiful countryside lovely weather right next to the grandparents house no traffic if you can't be safe there where can you be safe police and press arrived on the scene in their droves a major search is underway in Sussex for an 8-year-old girl who's been missing since last night the presence of reporters and TV cameras was no accident the police involved them from the start hoping to encourage witnesses to come forward I covered the Sarah pay investigation for Sky News the media's vitally important in cases of missing children where police suspect that the child has been abducted how could possibly something terrible have happened in such a setting but it had and it sent a shudder through families around the country 36 hours after her daughter's disappearance Sara spoke to the media you can't imagine what Sarah means to us we're a strong family and we don't survive well apart we need a home now today as quickly as we possibly can somebody out there must have seen her they must have seen her on that rad they must have seen her these are her last known movements a week after Sarah vanished police staged a reconstruction of her last own movements she'd been playing with her brothers and sisters in a local field when she decided around 8:00 p.m. to return home to her grandparents house some 200 met away it was the biggest investigation that Sussex police had ever launched bigger than the investigation into the Brighton bomb 16 years earlier that had nearly killed Margaret Thatcher within days the helpline received more than 20 ,000 calls no stone was left unturned and no one worried about Finance or resources none of that rubbish it was all about finding Sarah day after day a Resolute Sara spearheaded the family's appeals in an attempt to keep her daughter at the Forefront of the Public's Minds good morning ladies and gentlemen and thank you for coming to the press conference sir welome we say that we haven't already said except that we are so determined to find Sarah wouldd like you to introduce you to Sarah's py uh he doesn't have a name yet Sarah will name him when she comes home Sara pain was extraordinary almost from day one she engaged with the media she had no media training no prolonged for formal education and yet she captivated the audience at a time when police were desperate to get people to engage and to come up with any clues she wouldn't countenance any thought about the possibility of her little daughter Sarah being murdered uh she was clinging to a firmly held belief that she would come back safely but privately police feared the worst and 16 days after Sarah's disappearance they were proved correct police searching for the missing 8-year-old Sarah Payne have found the body of a little girl in West [Music] Sussex this is now a murder inquiry we have been able to identify that the body in the field half a mile from here is sarahan by the time the body was discovered police already had her killer in their sights Roy Whiting a convicted pedophile had snatched Sarah from this Lane as she walked to her grandparents home he later buried her lifeless body in a shallow grave in this field 19 miles away 17 months on a jury here at Lewis Crown Court convicted him of murder and the judge jailed him for life for the thousands involved in the search and the millions who followed the case the jailing of a man with a history of child sex offenses seemed inevitable but it wasn't Whiting nearly escaped punishment and his mistakes almost went [Music] undetected coming up we reveal the errors that proved to be his undoing if we hadn't got to him and secured that evidence and identified those mistakes he wouldn't have been convicted the Sussex Coast just 600 yards from the sea lies this cornfield it was from here that 8-year-old Sarah Payne vanished on the evening of July the 1st 2000 whilst visiting her grandparents although detectives didn't know it at the time she'd been abducted by Roy Whiting a local man with a conviction for a child's sex offense but they'd soon suspect his involvement as a result of his first crucial [Music] mistake my radio went off alerted me to a grade one misper which is a missing person I answered the call and they told me it was an 8-year-old female had gone missing in Kingston gors uh which I know very well Kingston gor is a very remote area there aren't many houses around people who live there tend to be TV celebrities or sports stars it's a place where wealthy people have their weekend homes it's not somewhere where a man looking for a child would stumble across it's one Road in one road out you'd have to really have a reason to go down there the last sighting of Sarah had been on a rope swing near the edge of this field I started forming the opinion that this could be an abduction as opposed to a simple that's walked off as such only a local person would have known of the existence of a rope swing and the fact that children played there and the fact that SAR had gone missing from this corn field uh of raised the alarms that anybody who may have taken it would have local knowledge and maybe even be local themselves if the abductor was local the police were in luck due to a recent change in the law they had access to a database of all pedophiles living nearby I was respons responsible for supervising convicted sex offenders in the area the sex offender act came in in September 1997 and that placed responsibilities on the police to manage registered sex offenders they can be extremely devious and manipulative and controlling individuals and end up for whatever reason committing heinous crimes against children I would personally meet all the sex offenders on their release from prison I would hand over my business card I'm a detective inspector locally if you have any problems at all you contact me but if you commit an offense it's me and my team who will come looking for you and we will get you thanks to his knowledge of sex offenders Behavior patterns detective inspector Paul Williams wanted part of the investigation to focus on those Liv locally but in the early stages it was taking a different direction on the Sunday morning I've um telephoned in to work and Sarah is still missing I was talking to members of my team just to check what they were doing generally speaking what I was told was that they were searching fields and carrying out General house house inquiries so as we went through the day they and I I were I think it's fair to say increasingly getting frustrated that nobody was actually knocking on the doors of of sex offenders the frustration became so strong that di Williams gave his team new orders as some officers continued with General inquiries this program can reveal for the first time a small group of officers split off and began a separate operation specifically targeting known pedophiles I thought it was important that my team should be knocking on the doors of sex offenders we would push the boundaries we would be the phrase was lawfully audacious guiding the Splinter investigation was the sex offenders register with special attention paid to those identified as being at high risk of offending again initially I just had a list of eight and these were people who based on my personal knowledge of them I thought could abduct a child among the names at the top of the list Roy Whiting officers were aware of the danger he posed because he' abducted and sexually assaulted a 9-year-old girl in Crawley in 1995 after serving just 2 and a half years Whiting was [Music] released he was then relocated here to little Hampton on the south coast just three miles from where Sarah [Music] disappeared his place was just off the seafront in St Augustine's road if he wanted to offend he wouldn't have too far to go to do that as the secondary inquiries progressed so did the investig ation in the public eye an investigation on which the family were pinning all their hopes miss you and we're looking for you D and we're going to find you okay we're going to find you she would invite us into uh her in-law's home nearby where Sarah had vanished and I remember one occasion doing a live interview with her uh and she'd spoke in the most extraordinary terms [Music] with your concern would actually like to look through your house as the searches and house-to-house inquiries continued so did the appeals including those from her three siblings who'd been with Sarah shortly before she disappeared here 11-year-old Luke asked to say a few words to his younger sister Sarah if you're watching please come home um family is not saying without you it's just a massive Gap in between everybody away from the public eye the separate operation that had identified Whiting was gathering [Music] Pace the location of the attack so close to his home had already put him on the police's radar but he was about to heighten suspicions further [Music] July the 2nd 2000 a member of the Splinter investigation team knocks at the target's door I was the first police officer to speak to Roy Whiting after The Disappearance of Sarah [Music] Payne it was done in secret the high command were not aware of what we were doing at the time almost 20 years on this is is the first time former officer Chris Saunders has spoken about the encounter from the first moment I arrived at whitting's flat I became suspicious he failed to answer the door to repeated rings from me and then when I went round to the front of the building and saw the open window with the curtain blowing through it I decided to make a call into his flat it rang for a very very long time before he eventually answered it and that started to get my suspicions going before I actually met [Music] him when Whiting did open the door the worries about him grew when I entered his flat I explained to him that an 8-year-old girl had gone missing the previous evening I was actually surprised at his reaction because there was no reaction to it previously only meters from where he lived I'd already spoken to another pedophile who had had completely different reaction from who seemed empathetic and shocked by the disappearence and wanted to help in contrast uh Roy Whiting was the total opposite Whiting even talked about his previous offense to Chris Saunders saying what I put that girl through was terrible I wouldn't do it again Whiting showed no empathy or concern for the fact that an 8-year-old girl had gone missing he asked no questions and didn't seem phased by the idea at all asked about his movements on the evening of Sarah's disappearance Whiting said he'd been at a Fairground in Hove 21 mil away he claimed he'd driven back on the a27 arriving home at 9:30 taking a bath and then going to bed de the responses we were getting were almost automated in in a sense but it wasn't like talking to a regular individual that is giving an account of where they were the previous day um I was certainly getting that gut feeling that that Roy whing was possibly involved in The Disappearance of Sarah as a result of the interview Whiting propelled himself from Mere Person of Interest to suspect but the police needed solid evidence and through his next mistake it was Whiting himself Who provided it the moment I saw that van for the first time I thought [ __ ] this is our man this is the man that has abducted Sarah pay July 2000 within 24 hours of Sarah pay going missing police developed suspicions about a 41-year-old man living here Roy Whiting he was a convicted pedophile his home just 3 miles from the spot where Sarah vanished when questioned by officers at his flat his behavior had raised suspicions but Whiting was about to make another mistake that would prove he was lying [Music] for the officers running the main investigation into Sarah's disappearance blanket media coverage was an essential tool the team involved in the search for Sarah pain were extraordinary they were engaging with us immediately I know they wanted our help to create publicity to find witnesses as hoped Witnesses who'd been near the scene of The Disappearance did come forward the evidence of one who has never before spoken publicly would turn out to be vital I saw a white Transit style van leave the lane at the time Sarah Payne was abducted it absolutely hurtled out of there at speed and went so fast that it just sort of skidded around that corner I felt that I'd seen the white van that this poor little girl was in I went to the police and told them that I'd seen quite a large van looked like little bit like a Transit van for the police there was one key question did I notice the driver I was asked that it goes past you so fast that all you can think is that you saw her face very briefly when the police first knocked at whiting's door they didn't know that he owned a van but he had bought one 6 days before Sarah Payne disappeared unaware of the witness who'd come forward he told officers about the purchase and even offered to show it to [Music] them as we left the flat I was expecting to be taken to a small white van but as I crossed the road I could see this very high side white F the vehicle was a fat ducato and it matched the description given by the eyewitness it was at that point I thought oh [ __ ] this is a huge man this is our man this is the man that has abducted Sarah pay as Whiting had only just bought this van his name wasn't on the file as the owner and if he hadn't told the police they may never have found out but now they were able to establish a pattern back to 1995 then Whiting had used a car to abduct and assault another child a vehicle he'd also bought just days earlier officers now had enough to put Whiting under surveillance in the hours after his interview they saw him making repeated trips between his flat and his van after getting into the vehicle of final time he prepared to drive away the day after Sarah pain went missing I led the team who stopped Roy Whiting in his van I had a decision to make when he got into the van I actually thought was is he going to get rid of the van and destroy the evidence within the van it was almost by Instinct he started the engine so uh one car went behind him I went in front um boxed him in as he came out he was literally shaking and and he's sweating whiting's nervousness was obvious and Justified so after stopping Whiting um and starting to speak to him a the a petrol seat um literally fluttered down and I picked it up I had a quick look at it and it said Buck bar Crossroads which is up the a24 the receipt had been issued at this petrol station at 1 p.m. a matter of hours after Sarah's disappearance but by that time whitinger told police he was at his flat in little Hampton 20 miles away the opinion I initially formed a Roy Whiting was um you've got a panicky very very sweaty guilty man a clever criminal would have ensure they didn't have a receipt in their possession for a petrol 20 mi off that route and he should have given us an account which was consistent and it wasn't it blew his Alibi completely out the window I just realized that what I'd been told was [ __ ] although police now knew Whiting had lied to them they had nothing connecting him to Sarah's abduction but they decided to take him into custody anyway I arrested him on a gut feeling that's all it was we had no solid evidence that he'd abducted their at that time was nervous and I'm [ __ ] myself really cuz I was nervous about the fact that I might have got it wrong the police revealed that they arrested one man on Sunday night but are stressing they are only part of the inquiry we still have the same appeal points we are still looking for the people responsible we are still looking for Sarah they didn't tell us who they arrested but we found out very quickly we knew that they were still examining a property in little Hampton the media descended on the flat spoke to neighbors very quickly we identified Roy Whiting as the suspect even though they had the suspected abductor in custody there was no let up in the search for other potential suspects or Sara an emotional appeal from her grandfather Terry ensured the case remained in the public eye I have a some letters from my brothers and sisters that I'd like to read out so please bear with me on this okay if you're reading this please come home and we miss you and we want you back we will find you no matter what it takes and we have a big surprise for you when you come home detectives looking for that vital clue which could lead them to Sarah there were dozens of potential ual sightings of Sarah pay and people were absolutely engaged and wanted to help the police find Sarah pay the most promising sighting was at a Motorway services in Chesire where a middle-aged woman rememberers seeing a young girl in the lady's toilet it was 5:00 in the morning the day after Sarah went missing the girl was upset and said her name was Sarah if the nuts reciting was Sarah pain she was alive so uh we did gain some hope uh and optimism about that they thought perhaps they had found the trail that would lead to the discovery of Sarah pain but along with all the other leads from different parts of the country this one turned out to be false again and again the trail LED back to little Hampton and Roy Whiting and that trail was about to get hotter as detectives discovered another of his mistakes Whiting knew his van might hold vital Clues and so try to cover his tracks Witnesses described seeing a van with no windows on the back doors but police believed he modified its appearance after Sarah had vanished I could see that there were registration numbers that were etched on the windows of the doors in the back of his van which didn't match the registration number of the van Whiting thought changing the vehicle's appearance would put him in the clear but he botched it creating only more suspicion I ended up later that evening uh talking to somebody from Dorset who had sold Roy Whiting um two doors F dcat doors um just a couple of days earlier that was great because there was only really one inconsistency with the description that was the back doors and now suddenly that inconsistency wasn't there incredibly Whiting had done exactly the same after his previous child abduction in 1995 after that offense he altered the appearance of his red Ford Sierra before selling it on just a few days later there were quite a few similarities between what Roy White Whiting did in Crawley and what then happened to Sarah Payne during the time Whiting was under police watch officers saw him removing various items from the van but what he left inside was just as concerning there are a number of innocent items that were found in the van uh innocent aness aedile there loads of sweets uh children's sweets there children's toys does need you to think that perhaps he was out on the prow looking for a young child to abduct other items included a curtain with a clown pattern a red sweatshirt and more clothes as they were sent off for analysis detectives interviewed Whiting under [Music] caution where you York vehicle when you first saw her no coming now what side of the road was she walking on no comment for what stage did you decide that you were going to you going to take her no comment I mean was it was it a planed thing or was it an instantaneous act what was it coming Whiting refused to answer all questions or to explain how he sustained scratches on his body and temporarily his stonewalling tactic worked with insufficient evidence to charge him police had to release him this was somebody who we believed um there was a very good chance had abducted and maybe murdered Sarah in which case how could we just allow this person back out on the streets unobserved we couldn't so um we put in place uh surveillance I briefed a surveillance unit to follow him Roy Whiting was a free man and might have stayed that way but for his final and most serious mistake it was definite proof that Whiting and Sarah had been in the same vehicle in the hours following 8-year-old Sarah Payne's disappearance from this field on the south coast Sussex police launched its biggest ever Manhunt in the days that followed the search and the appeals continued Sarah's mother Sara drove the media campaign to keep the story alive and keep the possibility of somebody phoning the police with the vital Clues she spoke directly to her own daughter look Sarah look look at all these people looking for you and your flowers look Sarah flowers you'll be home soon Dar oh we promise you you'll be home soon you really will but 16 days into the hunt for Sarah all hope came to an abrupt halt when a farm laborer stumbled across a shallow grave here 19 mil from where she [Music] disappeared this was a very still [Music] evening her body was removed into a hearse it was completely still so that was an abiding [Music] moment any hope of Sarah turning up alive that was now gone this was her body so this this this changed this changed [Music] everything I think when she was found maybe there was some relief for the family I don't know I don't know what they were feeling um but for me personally gutted Prime Suspect Roy Whiting had been released from custody due to lack of evidence the convicted pedophile moved from his little Hampton flat back to his hometown of Crawley in Sussex but he was being watched by the police and the press one morning uh we were filming outside the house and we spotted him stretching up and looking over the garden fence looking uh I suppose for the media who he felt probably would at some stage discover where he was I didn't know at the time of course but there was a police surveillance team uh in the house opposite that were also keeping an eye on him one myin vehicle now going south South London Road on the Northbound carriageway following an attack on the house by Vigilantes Whiting began sleeping rough in desperation he stole a car bringing more unwanted attention from the [Music] authorities Whiting pleaded guilty to the car crimes and was sentenced to 22 months in prison but for the murder of Sarah Payne he continued to be Untouchable circumstantially Roy Whiting was a good suspect but there was no evidence that could possibly convict him but that was about to change as a result of whiting's biggest mistake of all [Music] Whiting had buried Sarah's body in a field north of pbra police later found her shoe just 3 m east near the village of kulum the village is also close to the petrol station where Whiting filled his van on the night Sarah vanished it took 5 months of analysis to see if there was a link to Roy Whiting I led the forensic science team in the Sarah pain murder investigation we're talking about the number of weeks that that shoe could be possibly in that road we found 340 fibers from that FC strap four of which match the f fibers from the red sweatshirt found in the front of his van and also one fiber a multicolored fiber was linked to the clown curtain in front of the van the shoe provided the solid forensic breakthrough that the police needed it was definite proof that Whiting and Sarah had been in the same vehicle it is a mistake by Whiting that he hasn't disposed of this shoe more carefully to ensure that it is never found again Whiting made an error by discarding Sarah's shoe but did he make another when he buried his victim with murderers such as Whiting they don't give any thought to the disposal of the body which is not an easy thing to do examination of Sarah's body did yield further forensic evidence of his involvement we linked fibers from the grave to items within the van including socks that were in the vein and we also linked fibers from the hair to items within the vein then the most damning forensic link of all when we examine the tap hints from the red sweatshirt we found a blonde hair a hair that matched that in color and length to that of Sarah payes the chances of that DNA profile having come from another person other than Sarah P is around one in a billion Sarah pay was in the front of that ve the forensic breakthrough LED detectives to just one conclusion not only had Sarah Payne been in that vehicle but Roy Whiting had murdered her we were going to arrest him and bring him back to Sussex in the knowledge that he would be charged with abducting and murdering Sarah and that felt very satisfying L William wh I'm detective sergeant hgri and I'm going to charge you that you murdered Sarah eelyn Isabelle pay in November 2001 Whiting went on trial pleading not guilty to both charges he told the judge and the jury that he was there to tell the truth um but he didn't endear himself to the jury he was rather hunched uh he rather snarled as he gave his evidence the only time I looked at this guy was when I was actually in court and I took one glance and the only thing I can say I noticed was was those eyes and I I just thought I think they've got the right man after 2 days deliberation the verdict came when the four woman of the jury announced a guilty verdict in a very confident voice guilty to murder guilty to kidnap I did breathe a huge sigh of relief it was only after the verdict that the jury learned of whiting's previous conviction for abducting a child the information had been withheld in order to give him a fair trial I think the jury were extremely relieved that they clearly made the right decision Roy Whiting will spend the rest of his life in prison for the murder of little Sarah Payne who disappeared in July last year later Whiting won an appeal against the length of his life sentence reducing it to a minimum of 40 years he'll now be in his 80s before he's considered for release I think it would be difficult for a parole board panel to ever conclude that he is somebody who's no longer a danger to children but would Whiting be in prison today if he hadn't made a string of mistakes had he disposed of Sarah's body and her clothing more carefully had he got rid of his own clothes had he kept ownership of the van secret had he not acted strangely during his initial police questioning and had he not chosen to commit his crime near his own neighborhood Rory whon was very very close to getting away with murder While most of his mistakes were down to his incompetence ignorance also played its part the sex of offender's register had only recently been compiled He was unaware it gave detectives the information to identify him as a suspect almost immediately he never expected us to be knocked on his door within a day of him having abducted Sarah I think uh he would have got rid of the van he quite possibly would have set fire to it um the other evidence we got from his clothing uh we would have lost given what we now know about what he did there must be a good chance he would have struck again nearly two decades on the case has taken a toll on those involved in the investigation you don't high five at the end there's no easy there's no good good good outcome to a a murder inquiry um especially involving you know a child it's definitely the saddest case I've ever dealt with it does stick with you it's impossible for it not [Music] to there's probably not a person in the country that hasn't heard of Sarah Payne so it does stick with you but it's Sarah's family who've suffered most 14 years after her murder her father Mike died her mother Sara has since become become a tireless campaigner for child protection the crime that happened here on the Sussex Coast is unlikely to be forgotten not least for its Legacy in 2010 it led to the introduction of the child sex offender disclosure scheme which allows the public to find out if an individual in contact with a child has a record of child offenses it's become known as s [Music] personal next Thursday at 10 the detectives reveal how Britain's most prolific serial killer was finally caught in Shipman five mistakes that caught a killer next tonight millionaire agap love brand new after the break [Music] this case has been called the Fatal Attraction case we see in fatuation that perpetuates a delusion she would rather someone die than Let It Go one of the most high-profile murder cases ever in Westchester County it's about sex bet tra Obsession and ultimately rage this sorted Affair that turns very ugly very violent it seemed to fit just perfectly for the media to exploit this perfect couple with the perfect child the perfect home and the perfect life she needs this relationship to not end but to continue in the way that she wants it to we see a need for absolute control utilizing sex is going to keep this guy around and it does you have this very attractive young woman you have this relationship with a married man it's toxic it's poisonous it's deadly she calls 911 and she's frantic but you know what happens during that call the line gets cut and that's where this case begins with a Savage brutal coldhearted [Music] murder so Paul and Betty jeene Solomon live in Westchester New York they've been married for 15 years they're both fairly successful in their own careers he's a teacher and she's an account executive at a credit company on the surface Paul and Betty Jean have what could be considered an idealic marriage I mean they have a kid they have a house white picked fence and for a while things are that American Dream for them Picture This Day Paul and Betty Jean they have the house to themselves because their beautiful teenage daughter has gone off on a skiing trip with her friends they're home they're going through the retirement plans they're talking about the future they're looking at their idealic life together in their latter years they have sex they grab a nice lunch maybe a little bit of champagne together and they're really celebrating the love they have for each other and so that night Paul decides you know what we've had this wonderful day Betty Jean and you know what I think I want to go out and I want to go bowling so we leaves from the outside it appeared as if Paul and Betty Jean had a pretty great marriage but Paul went bowling a lot and that was a point of contention for their marriage Betty jeene wasn't happy with that and those who knew them on a more personal level would probably say that they were having marital problems so even though Betty gan wasn't happy about Paul going bowling again he went anyway he ended up leaving the house around 6:30 p.m. Betty Jean Home Alone she's sitting there in the house a little annoyed at her husband and then she hears something what are youing somebody breaks in pistol whips Betty Jean beating her senseless really on the evening of January 15th 1989 a New York telephone operator received a call from an unknown woman in distress the call was abruptly disconnected which prompted the operator to alert police police were unable to locate the caller because the reverse directory had an incorrect address the call is disconnected and the police can't track her Betty Jean's attempt to get help fails now she's trapped in the house with this Intruder and they take the gun that they beat her with and they start shooting this person takes the weapon and shoots her nine times Betty Jean is beaten so badly and shot so many times in the back that she loses Consciousness and she falls to the ground now she's lying in a pool of her own blood and the Intruder flees there she is on the ground bleeding essentially dying Paul returns home from the bowling alley and he finds Betty Jean lying in a pool of her own blood oh my God oh my God oh my God oh my God she's face down so he turns her over but she's unresponsive so he calls 91 one how does an idealic housewife a mother wind up dead 6:30 p.m. he says goodbye to his wife and he leaves only 4 and 1 half hours later he returns and Betty Jean is dead how horrific somebody not only wanted Betty Jean dead and out of the picture they wanted her to suffer this wasn't an execution this was a brutal brutal attack who could have done this who wanted Betty Jean dead you're always going to suspect the spouse when you see a case where the where the wife is murdered like this I mean that's always going to be something a police will focus on naturally what we commonly see with homicides is that the victim and the killer know each other and the spouse is typically among the first people to be interrogated by police so police start asking Paul questions about where he was when the murder took place so they begin to ask him simple questions but they get a inference from Paul that he's hiding something that he's beating around the bush that he canot account for his time so flags are going up alarms are going off why why can't this guy tell police where he was what's he hiding I look at Paul in general and I see that the guy is sketchy he's wiry it seems like he's lying this guy has a lot to hide so immediately police investigators want to know what's going on what is this guy hiding did he kill his wife of 15 years Paul did uh lie to the police early on police discovered that Paul was acting strangely because he did in fact have something to hide he was having an affair we have this beautiful warmhearted caring mother and wife and she's found brutally pistol whipped and shot nine times inside her own home Westchester it's a great place place to live it's just outside New York city so you get all of the things that the city has to offer but you still get to enjoy that Suburban lifestyle this happened in January a lot of the houses still have their Christmas decorations up there's snow on the ground it's really a beautiful time in Westchester but when a murder like this happens it really rocks the community Betty Jean Solomon was discovered by her husband Paul at 11:47 p.m. after he returned home from the bowling alley he frantically called 911 for help unfortunately he was too late Betty Jean Solomon was already [Music] dead so when I look at a home invasion like that the first word that comes to mind is overkill you know you pistol whip somebody and then you shoot him not once in the back of the head you shoot him nine times there is hatred there is anger all over this crime the suspicion immediately goes to the husband so what do you do next H you sit Paul in a chair and you start talking to him what police find when they're interrogating Paul is that he's clearly hiding something was he bowling or was he not bowling maybe was Paul with his mistress that night earlier on in the evening the night that that e jeene Soloman was murdered he said he was bowling at the time uh and he was with carollyn [Music] warbis Carolyn waras was Paul's colleague and a fellow teacher at Greenville Elementary in Scarsdale New York she went to Columbia University and also completed a master's degree in education before beginning her career as a computer science teacher at the school where she first met Paul she's beautiful she comes from money her father is a Michigan based businessman worth an estimated $150 million so she comes from a life of privilege her education is paid for and so is her apartment in Manhattan she meets Paul he's a sixth grade teacher they hit it off almost immediately and start dating but there's a problem Paul is a married man but she doesn't seem to think there's a problem with dating a married man well when I find out that he has a mistress boom red flag so Paul and Carolyn date for a long time well over a year and Betty Jean had her suspicions she felt that when he went to the bowling alley he was probably going to see his mistress and she was right so you could see that they had some issues in their marriage [Music] in 1987 Paul is a sixth grade teacher in his 40s and Carolyn wmas is a new computer science teacher in her 20s at his school she's gorgeous and just really turns his head Poland and K I think were teaching at the same school district in Westchester County they were colleagues they begin to talk and they begin to realize there's some Sparks there there was flirting going on they were touching and laughing you know obvious chemistry and they decided to take their relationship outside of the school so they decided to go for some drinks with some other teachers but I think they all knew there was more going on here they decide to meet at this bar and when Carolyn shows up at the bar Paul is there by [Music] himself so Carolyn of course course walks up to him and they begin a conversation and you know Sparks turn into lust one thing led to another and they began to have an affair at this point the heat is on so they start having sex sex sex sex everywhere in their cars in the parking lot anywhere they can get it but here's where the water gets really murky Paul had taken out life insurance on Betty Jean just before she was murdered when you start to look at a motive in this case things just don't add up Caroline comes from money so she doesn't really need the insurance payout and you think that if Paul needed the money he could just ask his rich girlfriend so things are just not adding up is Paul's affair with Carolyn the only thing he's hiding or is there more going on here Paul Solomon initially was a suspect um he did take insurance out on his wife's life uh he was having this affair with Carolyn WM for a long time I mean it wasn't just a brief affair it was over a year you have to ask did Paul hire someone to murder his wife was he trying to get rid of Betty Jean maybe I mean they've been having issues in their marriage for some time and inw walks this beautiful gorgeous woman who's willing to have sex with him anywhere anytime so maybe he just decided that he wanted to be with Carolyn instead Carolyn maintains this fantasy of hers in which she could possibly be in denial because why would they have to sneak around into CD hotels why would they have to have sex in his car in her car why wouldn't they be at his house living a life that a boyfriend and girlfriend would lead this wasn't a relationship that was out in the open it was an affair so the newness the sneaking around must have been exciting for Paul especially after being married to Betty Jean for 15 years I know that at some point she knew that Paul was married and Paul told her that he was going to get divorced in a couple of years it was allegedly agreed that Paul would leave Betty Jean when his daughter Kristen graduated high school either way Carolyn was having an affair with a married man so clearly boundaries were crossed what is it about Carolyn that makes her men that are unavailable does she like it is she getting a high off it that Adrenaline Rush she grew up in a wealthy household she got a college degree and a master's degree in education we're talking about a well-educated smart person a very talented well-liked affluent individual Carolyn's parents divorced when she was eight her dad practically ran off with the secretary so from a very young age she was exposed to infidelity and had developed some serious trust issues when we look at someone like that from the upbringing we don't expect them to do things later that cars are eyebrows to raise and our mouths to drop open she lived with her dad and his new wife for a while and even though they were wealthy it didn't mean that it was always smooth sailing her new stepmother felt like she was in competition with Carolyn over her dad's attention and from a young age she fell into this pattern of obsessive competitive relationships over men there was a series of relationships where it seemed that she was uh aggressively involved with men there were stories way back about her getting inv involed with some men and maybe even stalking some men we have a woman when she gets involved with men becomes obsessive I I mean when I say obsessive I don't use that term loosely I mean like violently obsessive she cannot take rejection of any kind someone breaks up with her she becomes obsessed she tries everything right she tries to follow the guy she tries to find out what the guy's doing it's like every time she meets someone and something goes wrong her obsessive nature takes over and her type A personality is driving all of this her narcissism is driving all of this and she just can't tell the guy you're a scumbag get out of my life why because she has low self-esteem after a breakup Carolyn would relentlessly use money to try and win back that relationship ship it was like having to deal with everything she grew up as a child with all over again it's kind of like Cinderella where the stepmother moves in and poor Cinderella is continuously and constantly neglected Carolyn can't stand the idea of being left by another man like her father left her there were incidents where she did use her uh resources or wealth to hire private investigators uh to to locate certain individuals so there's one instance where Carolyn met this bartender she starts having you know wild sex with him anywhere any way every [Music] day they break up and Carolyn goes off the rails she tries all her usual tactics to win and back to no avail none of that works what does she do she h hires a private detective to follow him this is where Carolyn's emotional baggage from her childhood really starts to rear its ugly head and we start to see something serious unfolding you know when I look at private investigators there's kind of two schools there's the old school Columbo type who is out there trying to make good trying to help people trying to help people of the missing trying to solve cold cases that sort of thing but then there's These reality type Hollywood type guys right who who you hire to do your dirty work for you to take pictures right compromising photographs of other people to follow people to plant stuff to get the dirt on people she hires a private investigator but not to track this guy's movements no to set this guy up so he can take pictures of this guy with other women so she can then what show his wife so in her fantasy world the wife divorces him and she gets all of him not surprisingly the relationship with the bartender didn't work out but what happened in the process is she started to form a relationship with the pi Vincent Parco she carried on a relationship with him on and off for a few years but Vincent Parco was also married another twist her affair with him was going on at the same time as her affair with Paul Solomon Paul allegedly was sleeping with other teachers also we have this Playboy Elementary School teacher who's sleeping around Paul has multiple sexual partners and Carolyn has multiple sexual partners so we're starting to see that there's potentially a lot of people involved in this situation again it's a big open question here uh that raises that does raise uh factual questions about the identity of the killer as the case grows the suspect pool grows with it so many suspects so little time so here's what we know about Betty jeene Solomon she's the mother of a Teenage daughter married to an elementary school teacher but her husband is having an affair and she's attacked and murdered in her own home you know even though Paul's wife has been brutally slain Carolyn just UPS the antie here and becomes more obsessed with this guy so police are investigating this murder and Paul and Carolyn are the primary Suspects and as they continue their investigations all these secrets start coming out all the lies all the sex it's just a big mess Paul is beginning to think this is too much for me and he breaks it off with her you don't break up with Carolyn she will not accept that in fact when you break up with her she wants you more breakups and rejections are a big issue for Carol and bringing up all her insecurities built up from a very young age Paul eventually meets another woman and starts dating her and huh this just escalates the situation to add fuel to the fire Paul starts dating a fellow teacher Barbara Balor and the two of them plan a very romantic trip to Puerto Rico and this is a big issue for Carolyn she stalks them all the way to Puerto Rico uninvited they go on vacation there's Carolyn lurking in the bushes lurking in the hotel at one point she even impersonates a police officer Paul and Barbara say that Carolyn actually called a member of Barbara's family pretending to be a police officer and making disparaging remarks in an effort to end their marriage so clearly this is not rational Behavior Carolyn is really starting to to come unhinged and that raises a red flag for police as a focus moves to Carolyn they begin to look at her life and what did they find well they find this private investigator Parco let's remember that Carolyn is also dating other people while she's dating Paul and one of those people is Vincent Parco so please question Parco Parco has information he says look I can give you something big but I need a deal I need to cut myself out of this police go for it they offer him a deal in exchange for information Parco testified under immunity that he fished carent woman's with a 25 caliber handgun and a silencer apparently she uh according to Parco paid him several thousand for the weapon he admits that he gave Carolyn a gun and a silencer wow now that puts the focus entirely on her but hey pump the brakes police are taking Parco at his word here and he made sure he had an immunity deal before he told them anything so this is not a good Samaritan situation Parco made sure he didn't take any heat for any of this you know whenever you're dealing with Witnesses who testify under immunity you've always got to be suspicious it seemed that he had a lot to hide it seemed that he had a lot of reasons to cooperate with the prosecution was Carolyn wmas the kind of person who would physically beat up pistol whip and then shoot nine times uh another person um and that that always seemed to be a a very very large question mark in the case so when par tells police that Carolyn acquired this gun shortly before Betty Jean's murder police start to take a closer look at Carolyn's phone records and what they discover is a phone call made on January 15th the day of the murder Carolyn waris's phone records listed a call made at 3:2 p.m. the day of the murder the call was to raise Sport Shop police obtained store records that indicated the only female to purchase 25 caliber am that day was a woman named Lisa Kai who resided in Long Island when questioned by investigators Lisa Kai denied buying the ammunition Ray sports shop is in the state of New Jersey not only is this woman denying buying the bullets but she's saying look I'm from Long Island New York I didn't buy any bullets I didn't go to a gun shop I wasn't even in the state of New Jersey so while police did not have all the answers at this point they felt that they had enough information and evidence to make a move Carolyn's indicted on second degree murder and second degree criminal possession of a weapon but shortly after her millionaire father posts her $250,000 bail yes she's been arrested but we have to now look at the evidence and see exactly who committed this crime Carolyn Paul or [Music] both did the boyfriend Parco have something to do with it he seemed eager to come forward with information against Carolyn and even more eager to demand immunity could Carolyn a petite woman have done that could she have kicked in the door barged in there and Pistol wh this woman and then shot her or was this a more masculine crime they know that it is tied to that affair they just don't know how and again she denies it and uh no weapon was ever located police know that Paul and Carolyn were having an affair and they knew that the night of the murder Paul and Carolyn had met up in some parking lot somewhere to have sex so they're looking at all the evidence Sex Lies murder and they know there's a connection they're trying to find a way to connect the [Music] dots Paul and Carolyn had sex so either Paul knew his wife was murdered and then had sex with Carolyn or Carolyn knew the wife was murdered and had sex with Paul either way you look at it we're talking about two people who really have no moral compass whatsoever and one of them is a sociopath I wouldn't have been surprised if they convicted and I wouldn't have been surprised if they acquitted this is not an open and shut case for the prosecution we know that Carolyn got that gun but we don't know that she pulled the trigger there's nothing that proves she pulled the trigger there was no forensic evidence there was no uh eyewitness there was no weapon what it really boils down to is that this is a purely circumstantial case and the only two testimonies come from Carolyn's two ex-lovers who are both granted immunity I don't think the evidence was overwhelming or clear-cut a lot of it was circumstantial a lot of it hinged on testimony from cooperating Witnesses who had reasons to lie where the Parco and and Paul Solomon were testifying truthfully there's always a difficult question for the jury especially since they got immunity one of the really interesting things about this this case is that Paul and Vincent both agreed to cooperate with police if they received immunity and Carolyn while she maintained her innocence the entire time and she claimed that she was framed for Betty Jean's murder what we have is a home invasion with really no forensics no trace evidence no fingerprints no witness seeing somebody lurking in the neighborhood what we have is a lot of Suspicion about a husband and his mistress but no proof [Music] this all causes what Reasonable Doubt juries need that smok and gun evidence and it's just not here the trial lasted for 3 months and after 12 days of deliberations the jury could not reach a unanimous vote and without a unanimous vote the judge could not hand down a guilty verdict and on April 27th 1991 he declared a mistrial a new trial date is set but really what the prosecution needs now is new information or new evidence otherwise if Carolyn did do it she's going to get away with [Music] murder so what happens at trial well Carolyn walks free how a mistrial it's a non- verdict really what it does is open up the possibility for the prosecution to retry the case and that's exactly what they do the fact that the jury hung I think they hung 8 to four for conviction I can't say I was surprised a year later in January of 1992 Carolyn goes to trial a second [Music] time what happens in the second trial is interesting cuz some new substantial evidence comes to light and it's not only the New Evidence it's where it comes from in January Carolyn waris's former lover Paul Solomon was asked to search again for evidence for the new trial according to court records he gave prosecutors a glove that he said was tucked away in a box in his bedroom closet forensic tests turned up hard to see finger-shaped human blood stains on one of the gloves Paul claims that he was cleaning up his house one day cuz he still lives in the same house where his wife was murdered and he's moving some boxes around what does he find lo and behold a bloody glove there are a few things about this glove that are really conspicuous first the only person who's claiming that this is in fact Carolyn's glove is Paul there is no real proof here and he hands it over to investigators and investigators think this is Carolyn's glove this ties Carolyn to the crime scene and to this murder the prosecution is arguing that the bloody glove belonged to Carolyn wormus you think that the police had done a really competent job of investigating the murder scene and they would have found all evidence that might have had telltale signs on it for forensic testing uh and a bloody glove is pretty prominent in fact in a photograph at the murder scene there is apparently a photo of a bloody glove somewhere in the scene what's interesting though is that Bloody glove was never tested if you have a bloody glove at the scene of a murder you'd think that the bloody glove would be tested for DNA evidence and it might link the glove to the killer there should be Carolyn's DNA all over this damn glove but no one tests it the first go around the glove appears in pictures of the crime scene then poof it's gone nowhere to be found Carolyn goes to trial and the jury is hung then Paul just happens to find the glove right before the second trial not only that but it happens to fill a void in the prosecution's case physical evidence what's totally mind-boggling is no DNA testing was done at all not even during the second trial if I'm a defense attorney that's the first thing I'm bringing up when they start bringing this glove into the trial is well why didn't you test it it was her glove according to the evidence and that evidence was not refuted the new physical evidence the glove is added to the prosecution's case and it's really just added to all the other evidence that was presented in the first trial the most damning piece of circumstantial evidence was the alleged phone call made from Carolyn Miss's home telephone to a gun shop in New Jersey the day of the killing and then testimony from the gun shop in New Jersey that a woman came in and purchased uh a box of 25 caliber ammunition the day that Betty Jean Salomon was killed with uh nine gunshots from a 25 caliber gun we have the glove and we have the ammunition well the gun shop knows that the person produced a driver's license and the driver's license was registered to a woman named Lisa C now Lisa K said I never went to New Jersey and I never bought any any cartes as part of the investigation it's revealed that Kai's driver's license was was either lost or stolen during a summer job one of her co-workers on that summer job just happened to be Carolyn Warmus that's a kind of a fascinating conglomeration reasonable jurors could draw the inference that Carolyn waras made the phone call to this gun shop the day of the killing went to the gun shop with Lisa K's driver's license bought the cartridges and used the cartridges in her weapon that she got from Vincent Pargo we have Carolyn tied to that ammunition uh by stealing a coworker's ID and buying it from a gun shop to me that may be the most critical evidence in the trial now you know you have a different jury you have additional evidence is that all circumstantial or is that the factual evidence that this jury needs to convict her well in this case it was [Music] enough our sense was 25 to life the judge judge could have imposed the minimum of 15 to life but he decided to make it 25 years to life this case is called the Fatal Attraction case because it it was really happening in real time while the Glen Close Michael Douglas movie Fatal Attraction was released so the media latched on to this you have this very attractive young woman you have this relationship with a married man and then the wife is viciously killed there were similarities and and it was just such a coincidence that the Fatal Attraction story film was popular at the time I see a sociopath who cannot let go of romance I see a woman who every time a boyfriend rejects her she has to act out and it's generally not on the guy it's on somebody else in this case we have a poor innocent housewife who did nothing to nobody who was brutally murdered in Carolyn is the person who did it there's no doubt about it you know and Carolyn can point to Paul all damn day long all the evidence in this case points to one person and that is Carolyn waras when they asked her do you think it was Paul She said it couldn't be Paul I would never think that Paul would do this who did it she doesn't know she said she didn't make the call she said she doesn't know if the call was made and she didn't make it I I think she's thinking that somebody framed her that's her theory that somebody framed her throughout this entire investigation on both trials Carolyn always maintained her innocence and she said that she was framed and her defense claimed that it was very suspicious that both testifying Witnesses were granted immunity not only does Paul have immunity but he conveniently finds the glove as evidence a year later I'd say the timing is a bit suspicious Carolyn Warmus was incarcerated at the Bedford Hills Correctional Facility for women in 2004 waras filed a lawsuit against the New York State Department of Correctional Services alleging rape and sexual abuse by prison guards in 2008 Waris received a $10,000 settlement from the Department of Correctional Services in regard to her lawsuit sounds like Carolyn is having a really rough go in prison she claims to have been raped which is substantiated because she receives a reward settlement then in 2006 her parole is denied imagine Carolyn was actually framed for the killing of Betty jeene Solomon she's spending years in jail she's beaten she's raped it's horrific then she's diagnosed with a brain tumor and holds off on having surgery in the hopes of getting parole she's ill right now I think that you know there are reasons to parole her from the standpoint of her health from the standpoint of the fact that she served so many years in jail already parole is always a tough question especially for the family of the victim the parole board also mentioned that Carolyn said she would not apologize for a crime she did not commit and that also worked against her when people don't admit uh their guilt the Paro authorities are much more reluctant to Grant parole this is really a sensational case and in a lot of ways it became a media spectacle it seemed to fit just perfectly for the media to exploit The public's craving for this type of uh Story the media is truly a powerful force it has the ability to influence a case in either direction and the public needs answers and a resolution in a case like this one so does that mean that the media interfered in this case it's hard to say you have this idelic couple married with a kid living in Suburbia and everything seems happy but then you have this lunatic crazy sociopath obsessed lover willing to stop at nothing including murder to get her [Music] man it has all of these elements that I guess the public uh gets fascinated about you've got sex you've got uh a vicious horrible murder you've got a murder of your Lover's wife I mean killing a your Lover's wife to get total control of your lover that's a pretty extraordinary event the tumor left her with vision problems and Paralysis on one side of her face Carolyn ended up having the surgery in the first part of 2018 but she still requires more treatment in July 2018 Carolyn Warmus requested postponement of her parole hearing as she continued to battle the effects of her brain tumor according to her legal representation waras is currently awaiting the Court's decision on another appeal filed to overturn her 1992 murder conviction [Music] carollyn has maintained her innocence throughout this entire thing but if Paul Solomon or Vincent Parco had anything to do with the murder they can't be indicted because they were granted immunity so if one of them is guilty they really played their cards right because they're sitting at home and she's rotting in prison there's an in what happened in that room is something that only the killer knows who is the killer is it Carolyn wormis she strongly denies it let's put it this way we know she was convicted the jury found her guilty Beyond A Reasonable Doubt but we'll never know for certain whether Carolyn Warmus was the [Music] killer unless Carolyn Warmus confesses she so far hasn't