Bloodlust | FULL EPISODE | The New Detectives

a teenage girl is found murdered in her indiana home and police soon suspect that she is not this killer's only victim [Music] detectives race the clock to track a serial killer across the country before he strikes again someone is targeting elderly women in a gated california community with no witnesses and little physical evidence investigators struggle to find a link between the murders for homicide investigators it's difficult to predict when and where a serial killer will strike next but with the help of forensic examiners they can isolate tiny clues that can lead them to the killer who is driven by bloodlust [Music] [Music] in this episode some of the names have been changed an hour's drive south of chicago griffith indiana is home to 18 000 people people drawn here by the quiet lifestyle and the low crime rate hey wendy around 7pm on october 13 1987 15 year old christine gallagher returned home from school today she called out to her older sister wendy but there was no response hey wendy though mrs gallagher was still at work wendy should have been home from school hours ago christine checked the bedroom [Music] she found sixteen-year-old wendy's lifeless body on the floor [Music] griffith police and crime scene units were immediately dispatched to the gallagher apartment the distraught teenager was taken to a squad car as police made their way into the residence inside the apartment the living room was neat and orderly but in the bedroom police discovered the gruesome scene the semi-nude victim had been gagged her hands tied behind her back with a bed sheet she'd been stabbed repeatedly it appeared that she had been sexually assaulted but no biological evidence was recovered for lieutenant john mowry of the griffith police department the scene was difficult to comprehend when i walked into that apartment and saw the victim wendy gallagher and saw the savage manor in which she had been killed i've never seen anything like that i i was on the department 17 years prior to that have investigated other homicides i've never seen anything that even comes descriptively close to the way that scene was investigators began to methodically process the scene next to the window they discovered blood spatter on the wall and curtain hoping to find prints they treated the wall with silver nitrate a chemical that reacts to the oils found in fingers and palms then they scanned the area with a light source a partial palm print and more blood spatter emerged the section of wall was removed and forwarded to the crime lab in the living room investigators collected a drinking glass with smudged fingerprints they also found a denim jacket hanging on the back of a chair [Music] searching the pockets they found a driver's license it belonged to a teenage boy with a local address run a check on that part on the kitchen counter detectives recovered a woman's purse there was no identification inside outside christine told police that her father had dropped her off after a school swim meet she said that since their parents recent divorce she and wendy would sometimes be by themselves after school until mrs gallagher returned from work soon after [Music] as christine continued answering questions one of the investigators brought out the purse found in the kitchen christine said it was hers she added that when she arrived home she didn't remember seeing wendy's purse anywhere then mrs gallagher returned from work and learned about the murder overwhelmed with grief she told police she couldn't believe anyone would want to kill her daughter windy was such a beautiful and cheerful girl when shown the id from the denim jacket the gallaghers recognized the boy immediately he was wendy's boyfriend looking for any clue to the killer's identity examiners at the lake county crime lab began to analyze the prints recovered from the gallagher apartment they started with a smudged drinking glass when dusted with black powder two distinct sets of fingerprints were revealed analysis of the arches whirls and loops that makes each print unique established that one set was wendy's but the second set of prints didn't match any of the gallaghers [Music] next examiners turned to the section of wall removed from wendy's bedroom to preserve the fragile drywall they worked from photographs again the partial palm print didn't match samples taken from any of the gallaghers its position on the drywall in relation to the blood found around the window led evidence technician ronald latch to conclude that whoever left it had been startled he put one hand on the wall and looked out the curtain because you could see blood on the edge of the curtain and on the wall and looking out to see if somebody was coming and maybe he heard a voice or a car door slam but the concern must have been short-lived crime scene analysis uncovered no signs of a forced entry or exit it appeared that after committing this brutal murder the killer calmly left the apartment probably through the front door [Music] convinced that the unidentified prints were the key to revealing the killer's identity investigators ran them through aphis a computer database that holds millions of fingerprint records but no matches were found detectives turned to wendy's boyfriend for answers they wanted to know why his jacket and id were found in the gallagher's apartment [Music] the teenager explained that wendy had been cold that day at school he'd loaned her his jacket and she'd worn it home he said he was home with his parents during the time of the murder [Music] he also told police he had no idea who could have hurt wendy she was very popular at school where she was an honor student and a pom-pom girl [Music] [Applause] he said windy was a lot of fun to be with and he couldn't believe she was gone i was in the back of the class though he had a solid alibi detectives fingerprinted him before letting him go but analysis of his prince later confirmed his innocence police spent the next several days interviewing dozens of wendy's friends and neighbors over 50 potential suspects were developed but fingerprint analysis eliminated all of them according to detective carl grimmer tensions in the small town grew as the investigation hit a dead end within the community of griffith after this occurred there's a lot of fear we didn't know who we were looking for we didn't know if we were looking for somebody that lived in our town somebody in a neighboring town or if it could have been a drifter [Music] but a week after the murder police got a solid lead a woman in chicago had found wendy's missing purse i understand you uh found a purse that we would have been looking for the purse somehow ended up in my purse she explained that her own purse had been snatched during an assault when it was later recovered from a dumpster and returned she opened it and found wendy gallagher's purse and id stuffed inside then she'd heard about the murder in griffith he's walking home down an alley and this this car pulls up [Music] the woman said that as she left work through the back door a man with brown hair and the mustache jumped out of a blue car he grabbed her and threatened her with a knife as they struggled a delivery truck pulled up [Music] panicked the assailant grabbed her purse and fled but he had left behind valuable evidence a witness who could identify him and a physical link to wendy's murder [Music] police quickly released a composite sketch of the suspect along with a description of his blue car over the next several weeks they received many leads as a result but none of them panned out [Music] despite the lack of progress investigators refused to give up everybody who had walked into that crime scene that night and saw wendy that's all the incentive you needed to keep going to find out who had done that to her griffith detectives had a composite sketch and fingerprints that could prove murder but until they could identify their suspect that evidence was meaningless and all indications suggested that wendy gallagher was not going to be this killer's last victim chicago the victim from chicago is the one several months had passed with little progress in the murder case of 16 year old wendy gallagher though griffith indiana police had a composite drawing of their suspect and prince recovered from the murder scene his identity and his whereabouts remained unknown as they struggled to keep the case alive an improbable lead was called in by police in pasco county florida located more than 1100 miles away from griffith indiana that's correct yes method of operation while investigating the homicide of a 14 year old girl there florida police believe that a resident had uncovered a connection to wendy gallagher's unsolved murder who was your lead detective on this case that resident diane collins had just moved to pasco county from griffith indiana as details of the florida murder were made public diane immediately noticed similarities to the homicide in griffith the frighteningly familiar details compelled her to contact the police i was very much struck by the fact that this was another young teenage girl who was murdered in her home after school hours just as wendy was in the community i had just left griffith police were skeptical that such a tenuous lead could impact their case but they had little else to go on they asked pasco county investigators to forward the case files according to police reports in january 1988 14 year old janet clark was discovered in her bedroom by her younger brother shortly after 6 pm [Music] he and mr clark had just returned home from running an errand janet had been home from school just a few hours [Music] when police arrived they found janet's partially clad body gagged and bound her hands tied together with a bed sheet she'd been viciously knifed and rigged no prints had been found at the scene and while dna evidence was recovered during autopsy investigators had no suspect to link it to but now griffith detective carl grimmer realized that diane collins instincts might have been dead on we thought it was a long shot that the two cases could be connected but when we we sat and studied the photos studied the crime scenes we became stronger and stronger in our belief that they probably were connected it's just you had to see it to see the similarities it's almost like there was a signature believing they were now searching for the same killer the two departments began exchanging information pasco county florida police intensified their investigation one of the clark's neighbors recalled a man in the neighborhood around the time of janet's murder she had never seen him before she described the man to a police sketch artist as being in his late 20s with dark hair and a mustache she believed that he was driving a late model red corvette with missouri license plates though the description of the vehicle was different griffith police couldn't ignore the striking similarities to their suspect for detective mowry there was little doubt that his serial killer was on the loose time definitely was our enemy we knew from what we had seen thus far how savage this person was so we were we were virtually racing against the clock we wanted to bring him as quickly as we could to prevent him from hurting anybody else but police knew that tracking a multi-state killer would be difficult until he struck again all they could do was wait and they feared this killer wouldn't make them wait very long two months later police in beaumont texas responded to reports of gunfire at a local motel responding officers burst into the room where the shots had been heard there they discovered one of their own officer paul halsey unconscious the victim of a gunshot wound the fallen officer had notified dispatch just a few minutes before that he was checking on the driver of a stolen vehicle who had just entered one of the rooms [Music] officer halsey was rushed to the hospital but his injuries proved fatal he died a short while later [Music] a witness at the motel stated that he heard gunfire and looked out his window he saw a man with dark hair and a mustache speed away in a red corvette [Music] and all points bulletin was issued for the red sports car [Music] and within a few minutes dispatchers reported that the vehicle had been spotted the sports car was able to elude police for more than 20 miles but the driver suddenly lost control and the car swerved off the road he fled into a wooded area on foot and disappeared texas authorities began preparing their manhunt for a suspected cop killer while police in indiana and florida struggled to track down a serial killer who preyed upon young girls [Music] police 2 000 miles away in beaumont texas were on the trail of a suspected cop killer though the suspect had managed to escape police had as abandoned red corvette all right inside they recovered a blood stained 357 magnum that had been recently fired they also found stolen license plates including a set from missouri now their focus was on finding the driver detective ray beck of the beaumont police department organized the manhunt the word was out so we had officers coming in from everywhere just volunteering their time their effort so manpower was unbelievable through witnesses police learned that the suspect had jumped into a taxi and was headed toward houston [Music] for the murder of officer halsey was taken into custody the suspect identified as 28 year michael lee lockhart was questioned at the beaumont police station he immediately confessed to shooting officer halsey but offered no explanation it seemed too easy [Music] robert hobbs an investigator with the jefferson county district attorney's office recalls lockhart's interview he was very calm he was very collected we knew right away that we were um that this was not our typical criminal in southeast texas and that we would have our work cut out for us their instincts told them lockhart wouldn't have killed a police officer over a stolen car there had to be more a lot more to this murder investigators fingerprinted lockhart and collected hair samples [Music] he was held without bond on capital murder charges [Music] ballistics results bolstered by lockhart's confession gave beaumont detectives an airtight case but lockhart's quick confession still seemed too calculated as if he might be trying to head off further investigation evidence recovered from lockhart's motel room indicated he'd been on the move for months police had recovered several hotel and restaurant receipts hoping to find out detective ray beck wrote an article profiling lockhart and details of officer halsey's murder for a national law enforcement magazine the tactic paid off a detective working the janet clark murder in pasco county florida read the article on lockhart and officer halsey's murder he then called the beaumont police department detective beck quickly understood why one of the missing links to their case was the fact that their red carvet had missouri license plates and that was one of the pieces of evidence that we had here was missouri license plates that we found in the carvet detective beck next learned about the connection to wendy gallagher's murder investigators working that case in griffith indiana were immediately notified they requested that lockhart's prints be forwarded to the lake county crime lab hoping they had the evidence they needed to prove murder examiners went to work comparing lockhart's fingerprints to those recovered from the windy gallagher crime scene after scrutinizing and comparing both sets of prints examiner ronald latch was certain that wendy's killer had been found the fingerprints we found at the scene put michael lee lockhart in that apartment and the palm prince put him right next to the body of the victim where there was blood and on the curtain in the wall nearly eight months after wendy gallagher was found murdered in her home investigators finally had the evidence they needed to charge michael lee lockhart with her murder i felt a great sense of relief because i knew that he couldn't commit any more crimes and i also felt happy that we would be able to contribute and help bring some semblance of closure to the gallagher family on june 30th 1988 dna analysis confirmed that lockhart had murdered and sexually assaulted janet clark in florida [Music] working together three police agencies had tied three seemingly unrelated murders to one predator based on the evidence police believe that lockhart traveled the country in search of his next victim hey that was a right down the road he would prowl an area hunting for vulnerable young victims when he knew they were alone he would con his way into their homes where he would rape and murder them michael lee lockhart stood trial for murder in all three states he was sentenced to death in each trial in texas on december 9th 1997 michael lee lockhart was executed for his crimes it took the cooperative effort of three police departments to track a transient serial killer across the united states but sometimes murderers who stay in one place are just as hard for investigators to find 75 miles from los angeles riverside county california is a haven for retirees and people looking to escape the problems of urban life but on february 16th 1994 a 9-1-1 call brought police from the riverside county sheriff's office to a condo in the upscale community of canyon lake [Music] there investigators found the body of 86 year old norma davis slumped in an easy chair a phone cord was wrapped around her throat and knives protruded from her chest and neck investigators began searching the scene looking for anything that could tell them who had murdered norma davis and why robbery appeared to be an unlikely motive the victim still wore an expensive ring on her finger a few desk drawers were open but there were no signs of ransacking forensic technicians processed the body looking for any stray hairs or fibers that the killer may have left behind but from the position of the body it was clear to california department of justice criminalist alyssa mayo thompson that there was little interaction between the victim and killer she appeared to just be sitting in her chair as if she were perhaps reading or watching tv it didn't appear that she had made much of a struggle or had attempted to get up from that chair that told investigators that norma davis most likely knew her killer the knives were removed and sent to the crime lab to be tested for prints [Music] a search of the condo confirmed that robbery was not a motive on the kitchen floor investigators found norma's purse still containing credit cards and cash in the hallway investigators spotted a faint shoe print on the floor get a better look the room was darkened closer examination revealed that it was a sneaker print left in dust and recovering such fragile evidence would be tricky but in a crime scene that yielded few clues to the killer's identity the print could prove to be a vital piece of evidence after thoroughly photographing the print technicians carefully applied an adhesive gelatin to lift it but the minute details of the print didn't survive the lift it would be up to examiners to determine if there was a sufficient sample to do future comparisons when and if a suspect emerged outside detectives talked to alice williams who had found the victim she stated that she had come over to pick up norma for their weekly hair appointment [Music] she let herself in when norma didn't respond to her calls [Music] that's when she discovered the body [Music] she couldn't understand how such a thing could have happened in canyon lake it was a gated community with round-the-clock security norma's ex-daughter-in-law mary pierce had also arrived at the scene she too lived in canyon lake she told investigators that she and norma were very close but as mary continued describing norma in greater detail detectives glanced down and noticed she was wearing nike sneakers they asked if there was anyone close to norma who would want her dead mary reacted with shock insisting no relative could possibly be involved but now detectives weren't so sure they turned to the crime lab for answers but criminalists at the california department of justice forensic lab determined that all of the evidence recovered from the condo had been wiped clean of prince one of those stains they hoped the recovered shoe print could lead them to norma's killer for ricky eldon cooksey a criminalist with the department of justice crime lab in riverside shoe print evidence can carry investigators a long way [Music] a shoe print at the crime scene can help the investigators if we can identify what kind of shoe made that print and there are data banks that store that type of information we can tell them what type of shoe they're looking for and size shoes they're looking for after reviewing hundreds of different sneaker tread designs cookie believed that the print recovered from norma davis's home had been made by a nike he acquired a similar sneaker from the manufacturer and made test prints the tread design was identical cooksey had determined that the suspect's print had been made by a size six and a half nike air tennis shoe for detectives the news was not that encouraging talk to you later tracking down a specific purchase of such a popular shoe would be next to impossible the only thing that homicide detective joe greco could infer from the analysis was that the suspect was a small male or possibly a woman and he already had a potential suspect who fit that description goodbye we suspected the ex-daughter-in-law mary paris because of the the shoes that she was wearing when she came to the crime scene and the brand of shoe matched the brand of shoe that we found in the doorway and uh also she was the caretaker she was the obvious choice police questioned mary pierce in greater detail carefully watching her demeanor she would take her medicine mary said her ex-mother-in-law was a wonderful warm person who didn't have any enemies most days she just watched her tv or read she was just after answering dozens of questions it became clear to investigators that mary was not involved in norma's murder her cooperation and her grief were sincere i appreciate your time detectives reviewed dozens of statements given by norma's family friends and neighbors but no one had any useful information the case quickly threatened to go cold with no suspects and no solid leads it looked like norma davis murder might never be solved in riverside california the investigation into the stabbing and strangulation death of 86 year old norma davis killed in her canyon lake home had ground to a halt attention units we have a possible homicide as investigators struggled to keep the case alive another 9-1-1 call came in from residents of canyon lake another elderly woman had been found murdered in her home [Music] there police discovered 66 year old june roberts dead on her office floor and for everyone in the room this crime scene looked disturbingly familiar though june roberts had not been stabbed she still wore an expensive ring and had a phone cord wrapped around her neck but nothing appeared to be missing for criminalist alyssa mayo thompson it was obvious that june roberts and norma davis murders were connected the type of crimes both brutal homicides occurring within a few short days between each other in this area led us to think that these two crimes may be linked investigators scoured the home [Music] a bible caught detectives attention inside was a handwritten prayer list norma davis name was on that list the two victims were friends but for detective greco how they were connected to the killer was unclear he could be certain about one thing however a serial killer was targeting elderly women in canyon lake this whole case is overwhelming in that it's not something that that one in law enforcement comes across every day it's it's it's a crime of serious violence and and it wasn't stopping i mean it was just the beginning and so far this killer had made few mistakes but a week after june robert's death that all seemed to change [Music] june robert's daughter brought police a statement from one of her mother's credit card companies someone had gone on a spending spree immediately after june's death charging jewelry clothing and other merchandise it was the break detectives were waiting for now they had a paper trail to follow they started at a jewelry store where the first purchase with the murdered victim's card had been made the clerk vaguely recalled the transaction she remembered that a blonde woman came into the store and purchased an expensive set of earrings [Music] the woman charged the items and signed her name june roberts [Music] the clerk couldn't provide enough detail for a composite sketch but she gave investigators a xerox copy of an identical pair of earrings the blonde woman whoever she was had been linked to one of the victims the next purchase on june robert's credit card came from a hair salon a stylist there remembered the woman claiming to be june roberts she said the woman was in her mid-30s with shoulder-length blonde hair hazel eyes and a medium build she added that the woman had a young boy with her according to her appointment book his name was jonathan weaver [Music] an artist was brought in to translate the stylist description of the blonde woman into a composite sketch [Music] gradually a face took shape yes but police still didn't know how this woman fit into the murders and they had no way to put a name to her face pursuing their only other lead investigators began searching for the young boy jonathan weaver who had been at the hair salon with the blonde woman it's very similar they contacted area public schools and found a child with that name went to his address and waited but when they spotted the boy and his mother arriving home they realized the mother didn't resemble any of the of descriptions questioning confirmed that the boy had never been to that salon and neither recognized the woman in the composite [Music] no i've never seen her despite the setback investigators refused to give up the locations of the murders and the credit card purchases were all within a five mile radius of each other investigators knew their killer had to be hiding right under their noses she made more purchases there she made uh hoping to generate a lead they decided to run a check of all violent crimes recently reported within that same area the tactic turned up a possible clue an elderly woman who owned an antique shop just blocks away from canyon lake had been recently assaulted and this young woman came in dorinda hawkins still recovering in the hospital had barely survived the attack [Music] she told investigators that a blonde woman came into her antique shop to ask about framing when she led the customer into the back to show her some samples the woman suddenly attacked her from behind dorinda felt a rope tightening around her neck a rope around my neck she told detectives that she then began begging for her life you know you can have whatever you want take whatever you want i have eight children let me live and the suspect told her uh i'm not doing this for the money dorinda had been left for dead but she managed to regain consciousness when she came to her red coiled key band that held the keys to the cash register was missing from her wrist [Music] and money from the register was also gone when shown the composite she positively identified the blonde as her assailant yes it was now apparent to investigators that the suspect was not simply an accessory to the other crimes she was the serial killer and the rarest type of all a woman investigators raced to put a name with the face on the composite sketch since mary pierce had known both of the murder victims police hope she might have also crossed paths with the killer no no this won't take long at all let me ask you this can you put a name for this face does this look familiar when shown the sketch mary said that the face kind of resembled her stepdaughter dana sue gray as mary described her stepdaughter the pieces started to fall into place let me write that down the information fit the description of the suspect that i was looking for and that she had a key to the first victim's house she knew the second victim she she had a pass to get into canyon lake and she was she was familiar with the area mary added that dana owned a house in canyon lake quickly so you do know those but dana had just gone through a vicious divorce battle and was trying to sell the place because of the resulting financial ruins her job as a registered nurse was not enough to support the affluent lifestyle she had come to enjoy the positive identification of the sketch and the information provided by mary pierce led detectives to obtain a warrant to search dana sue gray's property but that would take time and given the suspect's propensity for violence they didn't want to give her a chance to kill again undercover officers immediately put her under surveillance riverside county investigators continued looking into dana sue gray's background they learned that she was currently dating a man who had a young child named jonathan weaver the same name as the child who had been at the hair salon but this jonathan weaver was enrolled in private school yeah i'm not sure about you remember that previously detectives had only searched public school records later that afternoon one of the officers picked up dana's trail in nearby sun city as she entered a bank she's going in the bank right now when she left a few minutes later dana was seen stuffing a large amount of cash into her purse a few hours later riverside police had obtained their search warrant detective greco briefed the team on the items of evidence they were looking for once they made their way inside the suspect's house we had receipts from the the different locations that the purchases were made for these various items so they knew exactly what they were looking for also i had directed the the searchers to collect all of the shoes within the residence because of the obviously the first victims the shoe print in the first victims case in the early evening hours of march 16 1994 riverside county investigators took suspected serial killer dana sue gray into custody she was taken to the riverside police station for questioning inside the residence investigators uncovered a wealth of evidence [Music] they located a red-coiled key wristband identical to the one stolen from dorinda hawkins at the antique shop they also found merchandise similar to items purchased with june robert's credit cards inside dana's purse police made an ominous discovery there was nineteen hundred dollars in cash and a checkbook in the name of dora bibi the address on the checks was from sun city though dora bibi's name meant nothing to investigators they knew that dana sue gray had been in sun city earlier that day the search continued into the bedroom okay pretty good there evidence technicians found a pair of nike sneakers the evidence was sent to the crime lab danny you understand why you're here don't you at the police station dana sue gray appeared calm and unaffected she she admitted using credit cards belonging to june and another woman whose name she couldn't remember but claimed she had found them lying next to a dumpster you know what can i see those hearings investigators collected dana's earrings which appeared to be the ones purchased on june robert's credit card these look very familiar to me as the detective left the interview to process the hearings another investigator was waiting to speak to him outside there had been another murder the mo was identical to the norma davis and june roberts homicides the latest victim had been killed earlier that day in her home which was located in sun city riverside california police believe that the suspect in the murders of norma davis and june roberts was finally in their custody [Music] as they questioned dana sue gray about the murders detectives were informed that dora bibi an elderly resident in nearby sun city had been found murdered that crime scene bore the same signature as the other homicides in canyon lake detectives realized they had found cash and a checkbook in the name of dora bibi while searching dana's house [Music] is there anything else dana sue gray had killed again just a short while before the surveillance honor began and you found june robert's credit cards in the dumpster too now they needed to be certain that she would never be free to kill again at the crime lab examiners analyzed the sneakers recovered from dana sue gray's bedroom they were sized six and a half nike air sneakers the same style and size as the print recovered from the norma davis crime scene analysis of the characteristics that distinguish one shoe print from another left investigators with little doubt that dana sue gray's shoes had left the print in norma's condo unable to explain away all of the evidence amassed against her dana sue gray had no choice but to confess to her crimes riverside county investigators believe that dana sue gray was driven over the edge by her financial misfortunes that resulted from her divorce angry and envious she chose affluent victims sometimes strangers but mostly friends and relatives as targets for murder to avoid the death penalty dana sue gray pled guilty to the multiple murders she was given two life sentences without the possibility of parole when i think of dana sue gray the first thing that comes to mind for me anyway is evil it's just evil there are usually patterns to serial murder though they're often hard to detect only time patience and meticulous forensic science can delve into the unknown and finally bring them to life but ultimately that's what detectives need to stop the killers who are driven by [Music] bloodlust [Music] you

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Keywords: The New Detectives, New Detectives, New Detectives Full Episode, Full Episodes, New Detectives Documentary, Crime, Crime Documentary, Crime Patrol, True Crime, True Crime Daily, Unsolved, FBI, FBI Files, Crime Stories, Crime Documentaries Full Episodes, Unsolved True Crime, Mystery, Solved, Investigation, Police, Criminal, Forensics, Forensic Science, Science

Id: CEk-vG6yZdg

Length: 52min 26sec (3146 seconds)

Published: Sat Jan 23 2021