Crimes Of Passion | FULL EPISODE | The New Detectives

in miami a university football player and his female friend are found beaten to death investigators pieced together random fragments from the crime scene hoping to assemble evidence that will point to the killer a man is found shot to death in his living room with no obvious suspect investigators turn to those closest to the victim and uncover a startling secret when killers are driven by jealousy and desire their desperation is evident in both the crime and their efforts to avoid detection but forensic science can reveal even the slightest mistake [Music] to solve crimes of passion [Music] [Music] sultry miami beach with its hot nights and warm days is the perfect setting for romance but when passion is one-sided jealousy and rage can lead to murder [Music] on april 16 1996 university of miami student darren thomas was returning to the dormitory he shared with star linebacker marlon barnes thomas saw that the tires of his suv were flat he had just loaned the car to his roommate annoyed he wanted to confront him [Music] when he went into the dorm thomas was horrified to find barnes lying on the floor covered in blood he ran next door to call police miami-dade county police and fire where's your emergency university miami what building number room number a patrol officer and an ambulance were immediately dispatched to the apartment pitch night it's 332 university of miami athletic dorm so not there's a subject on the scene in 1901 keto 3105. paramedics entered the scene marlin barnes lay motionless on the floor he'd been severely beaten about the head and face [Music] he was pronounced dead at the scene in the bedroom the officer found another victim a young woman also badly beaten despite efforts to revive her the victim's vital signs remained weak medics needed to get her to a hospital immediately crime scene investigators arrived and began to carefully search through the apartment looking for clues it was eerily undisturbed suggesting that robbery was not a motive for the attack investigators found splinters of wood and shards of metal near the front door but the wood pieces did not seem to match any of the furniture in the apartment it may have come from the murder weapon they also found fragments of teeth and bone testaments to the savagery of the attacks investigators interviewed darren thomas he identified the female victim as 22 year old tim juanica lumpkins unfortunately she too would not survive barnes had borrowed his suv to attend a party at a miami nightclub [Music] he was not aware of anyone who would want to attack barnes or tim juanica [Music] at the miami-dade police department detective thomas romani worked the case from his early assessment of the crime scene romani knew the victims were caught by surprise we were able to establish that the attack was with the heavy blunt object and it took place right at the front door and proceeded into the house and the majority of the trauma sustained to barnes occurred when he was on the floor the victims were autopsied in dade county the examination revealed that both victims died as a result of blunt trauma barnes and timunica had been hit with such force that impressions of the murder weapon were left on their bodies [Music] medical examiner sam galino noted the distinctive nature of the victim's wounds marlin's wounds were predominantly clustered around his face some of them were t-shaped or l-shaped or had some unusual contours to them that made me think that they were made with some sort of very specific weapon timonique had some pattern injuries but they were subtle and they were different indicating that either it was a different weapon a different aspect of the same weapon or possibly that the weapon had somehow altered such as being broken between when she was assaulted and when marlon was assaulted but the the bigger mystery in both of the cases was was there a specific weapon that we could identify and match to these wounds the task of identifying the murder weapon would fall to the miami-dade crime lab thomas quirk is a firearms and tool mark examiner at the lab he studied evidence taken from the scene i could tell by looking at the wood that it looked like what's called a fore end of a shotgun that is a part of the shotgun that's usually held by the left hand when somebody's firing a shotgun the brutality and rage of the crime suggested the killer knew his victims the next day news of the campus tragedy stunned the city would have to develop leads on a suspect investigators met with the victim's close friends and teammates barnes and timonica were popular and well liked by their peers [Music] i saw him at the club club salvation football players told us that barnes and timonico were seen together not all of the football players knew their exact relationship timonico was a friend of marlon barnes since they were in high school miami-dade police also discovered that tim wanika had an ex-boyfriend a rap musician named labrandt dennis dennis was a local of miami he had produced some rap videos and in fact that's how tim juanica and lebron dennis met [Music] police were eager to question tim winika's ex-boyfriend lebron dennis and they wouldn't have to wait long for answers the day after the murder dennis and a friend showed up at the police station and her boyfriend wanted you to research through that see what you can make out of it yeah the ex-boyfriend of the girl is murdered he's outside he wants to talk to you oh good very good good you come out there with two of us detective romani was intrigued by what he found out when i met with him he didn't have a gangster rough rap type persona and i didn't pick up on it lebron was very calm he was inquisitive as to what occurred told me that he didn't have any information about the case had you ever had any problems in your relationship with tomica domestic problems he gave me some background information about his relationship with tim wanika why they broke up he in fact told me that he did not personally know marlon barnes dennis and timonica dated for five years there had been some breakups between them through their five-year-old relationship as well but according to dennis things were getting better between them they were in the process of reconciling he said he was asleep at his sister's house the night of the murders investigators asked to take photographs of his body [Music] police wanted to see if dennis had any marks or scratches signs of a physical altercation thank you take off your shirt please but no visible scratches or bruises were found on his body dennis also agreed to be fingerprinted he was acting like a man with nothing to hide even though there was nothing glaring detective romani wasn't convinced when i was told that lebron dennis responded to the homicide bureau to speak to me i wasn't really surprised but i was apprehensive maybe that he was coming forward to be too helpful it became clear that he was trying to be very helpful miami-dade investigators went to dennis's home he continued to cooperate they conducted a thorough search we're going to ask that you wait by the door here okay looking for anything that might be related to the crime they found nothing out of the ordinary [Music] detectives asked dennis for the clothes he had worn the previous night the clothes would be examined for traces of blood or hair and fiber evidence but nothing would be found they also searched and photographed dennis's car [Music] but again found nothing suspicious despite the lack of evidence police could not eliminate him as a suspect detectives had to expand their search if they were to solve the double murders and they would need hard evidence to bring the killer to justice detectives were struggling to solve the brutal murders of university of miami football player marlon barnes and his friend timonica lumpkins police considered tim wanika's ex-boyfriend lebron dennis a potential suspect but there was no evidence to link him to the crime investigators went to the area outside the nightclub where the victims were last seen at a 24-hour gas station a clerk had seen a suspicious man wearing a hooded sweatshirt pacing back and forth watching the club across the street all of this took place at the same time barnes and timonica were inside the club partying the clerk was concerned and called police by the time they arrived the man had gotten in a car and left the clerk said she did not see his face she gave a precise description of his car recalling every detail including the make and model its tinted windows and a missing rear license plate investigators showed the woman photos of lebron dennis's car [Music] she didn't recognize it and was certain about what she had seen [Music] police needed to locate the car and its driver they looked further into the background of tim monica trying to find a lead to someone who may have wanted to harm her they interviewed a number of her thing at all she friends detective thomas romani discovered that tim monika's relationship with lebron dennis had been fraught with violence and stalking a far cry from the mutual breakup that dennis had described it was very controlling relationship controlling relationships as we spoke to more friends and acquaintances we learned that timonica and lebron dennis had an argument early in the week and she had left him there had been some violent breakups and domestic violence between them dennis said he was asleep at his sister's home when the murders occurred now detectives weren't convinced they obtained dennis's cell phone records on the morning before the murders he'd made a call to a man named stuart dillard investigators were anxious to speak with him they met with stewart he was extremely nervous he of course saw the murder on the news and he was able to put it together then he lent this sold off shotgun to lebron dennis and he suspected that the solo shotgun was possibly used in some criminal act stuart dillard said that on april 14th one day after the murders dennis called him again and told him where to retrieve his shotgun and duffel bag inside stuart found a large folding knife that was not his and several articles of clothing when he looked at his shotgun stewart noticed that the wooden forend was missing he became very afraid of what had happened he put some things together in his mind and he thought that he would be culpable or somehow involved stewart told investigators he disposed of the clothing in a dumpster and had thrown the knife and shotgun down a storm drain all he kept was the duffel bag investigators took possession of it hoping they could tie it directly to lebron dennis when we first started speaking to stewart we were apprehensive about what he was telling us because he did admit that he lent the potential murder weapon to lebron dennis so we did investigate thoroughly what he had to tell us and we believe what he was telling us was the truth that he unknowingly lent this firearm to lebron dennis [Music] miami-dade police went to the storm drain and found the discarded weapons exactly where stewart said they would be [Music] they retrieved the knife and the shotgun that's what we're looking for the weapons were bagged for analysis armed with this new evidence the investigation of lebron dennis intensified [Music] police interviewed his known acquaintances jamie meyer was a former girlfriend [Music] she admitted that she often loaned her car to dennis police saw that her car resembled the suspicious vehicle seen on the night of the murders an officer photographed the car the vehicle had no rear license plate like the vehicle described by the clerk at the gas station investigators re-interviewed the gas station clerk we showed the photographs of her car to the clerk and she positively identified that as being the same car she saw on that evening police had established another connection between lebron dennis and the car but it was highly circumstantial to link him to the murders they turned to the forensic evidence they were confident that the bag had been used to carry the murder weapons the duffel bag turned over by dennis's friend stewart was examined by criminalist toby wilson wilson found what appeared to be droplets of dried blood inside the bag i was asked to do the dna interpretation of samples taken from a duffel bag and we did analysis of those and compared those samples to the standards from the victim and the subject wolfson found a match between the blood in the duffel bag and the blood of one of the victims the dna profiles obtained from the samples from the bag match the dna profiles obtained from marlin barnes blood stain standard which means that those samples came from marlon barnes piece by piece miami authorities were building their case against lebron dennis criminalists had evidence connecting dennis's gym bag to one of the victims but it would take more than a blood stain to charge lebron dennis with murder the murders of university of miami student marlin barnes and his childhood friend tim winnika lumpkins were close to being solved a wealth of evidence including a knife and a shotgun had been discovered but so far nothing tied the gruesome double murder directly to ex-boyfriend lebron dennis miami-dade criminalist thomas quirk examined the flat tire from the car barnes had driven the night before he was killed [Music] i noted that the tire had a very curious v-shaped mark once i received the knife and examined the knife i realized that the tip of the knife was bent and it was very dull if this was a knife that made the marks my job would be now to stab the tire with a knife and see if i could reproduce those v-shaped marks quirk analyzed the test cuts against the punctures from the night of the crime he found the two sets of punctures to be wholly consistent concluding that dennis's knife was used to slash the victim's tires work also examined the shotgun found in the storm drain he compared wood splinters collected at the crime scene to the now bare forend of the shotgun it's no different than building an airplane or building a model car you take the pieces you look at them you notice the fracture patterns to them the manufacturer's markings and you simply place them together and make a little mold out of it and we found that once we did that it fit perfectly into the frame of the shotgun chances are that this shotgun was used to bludgeon the two victims to death in addition to the wood splinters they also collected metal fragments at the crime scene criminalist george borge examined the fragments at the time that the pieces of metal were found they were unknown in terms of what the origin was when the shotgun was recovered and they put all the pieces together it was obvious from my perspective that it was a broken trigger guard and the two pieces of metal look like they could be fragments of metal from the trigger guard themselves but to prove an exact match between the metal fragments and the trigger guard would require more than the appearance of a close fit the molecular structure and the atomic structure of the metal particles are what give it the unique fracture pattern not only are the edges compared to show that the edges line up perfectly in this situation's a three-dimensional fracture so besides the edges comparing favorably the interior fractures compared favorably meaning that every contoured edge of one piece fit within the contours of the adjoining piece and of the shotgun so therefore a combination of all those characteristics exclude the possibility that those trigger guard pieces came from any other weapon besides that one with this evidence investigators now had probable cause they charged lebron dennis with the murders of tim wanika lumpkins and marlon barnes but to prove his guilt police needed direct physical evidence they once again turned to medical examiner dr sam golino golino had previously noted peculiar l and t-shaped wounds sustained by the victims [Music] galino compared the evidence to diagrams of the victim's injuries and we were able to compare different aspects of the shotgun to the wounds and indeed found out that different aspects of the shotgun matched to a great degree of certainty the wounds that were on both of the bodies i was able to conclude that this shotgun had been used to beat both marlon barnes and timonica lumpkins lebron dennis continued to profess his innocence despite the strong case against him but miami-dade investigators had amassed a wealth of evidence supporting his guilt and it had all started with a case of envy from the evidence that we were able to establish in this investigation lebron dennis became extremely upset when he had found out that timonica lumpkins went to meet marlon barnes at this event that hosted many celebrity football players from the nfl and college investigators were convinced that lebron dennis followed the victims to marlon barnes's apartment when barnes opened the door dennis struck him across the face [Music] when dennis finished attacking barnes he went after tim wanika lebron dennis was tried and convicted of two counts of first-degree murder he was sentenced to life in prison [Music] lebron dennis's violent relationship with tim wenika lumpkins led police to closely investigate him and ultimately solve the crime but in some cases there is no obvious suspect fresno california is a quiet peaceful city known for its proximity to three national parks on friday february 18 2000 nancy and ralph gower were making plans for the upcoming weekend dude let's do lunch sure nancy was going to drive to their vacation home that evening so you can be real busy ralph who worked as an auto salesman had to be at the dealership the following morning but planned to drive up saturday afternoon the gowers had been married for 12 years i can't wait thanks that night nancy drove alone to their vacation house the next morning ralph failed to show up for work his concerned employer went to his house to check on him but when she peered through the window she saw him lying on the floor panicked she tried to get ralph's attention but he wasn't moving fresno police detectives daryl green and al murieta responded an emergency response team had already forced entry into the residence and pronounced the victim dead at the scene two bullet wounds marked the right side of his chest but there were no shell casings present the area immediately around the body seemed unusually clean but detectives noted a small amount of blood under the sofa perhaps overlooked by the killer unless he was laying here originally noticed some of the dust here it looks like something's been either moved or some broken stuff underneath the table something's not right here the couch has been moved it appeared the furniture had been moved what initially stood out to the investigators is that we could tell that the couch had been moved and that the scene was extremely clean indicating that someone had cleaned up the crime scene and moved furniture after the victim had been shot crime scene investigators took photographs and meticulously dusted surfaces for fingerprints broken items on the coffee table suggested a struggle had taken place in the entryway investigators found a gym bag inside the bag was a loaded revolver provide us with a serial number on your property sheet so we can check it out okay detectives searched the house for signs of a break-in there were none the automatic garage door mechanism had been shut off the door could now be opened by hand find anything over here uh no i just checked that first drawer i don't know what's in that bag i haven't checked yet oh goodness the detectives found more weapons in the garage the assortment of firearms along with the revolver found in the house would be sent to a lab for ballistics tests detective murrieta needed to contact the victim's wife i'm formulating questions in my mind first of all establishing where was she at at the time that we believe the murder actually took place who could alibi for her and one other striking thing that i needed to clear up who else had keys to that residence while the fresno police pursued the investigation ralph gower's body was autopsied the pathologist would make further curious findings cause of death was attributed to the two bullet wounds to the chest but pathologist vinu gopal noted something more at the autopsy i found evidence of blunt trauma and gunshot wounds to the chest and injuries to the wrist these injuries were consistent with handcuff injuries it appeared that ralph gower had been shackled to something before he was shot so we have hand cuff injuries and somebody's laying on his back next thing you always think of is it some sort of an execution style killing police reached nancy gower and informed her of her husband's death she was shaken by the news and cooperated with the investigation to clarify on time can you tell me where you were friday night the last time she saw her husband was the previous evening just before she left for the vacation home she expected ralph to join her after he finished work but he never showed up oh i don't know detective green got a sense of nancy and ralph's marriage what we found was they were the all-american couple and from talking to people who worked with both nancy and ralph they were well liked and they seem to be madly in love with each other well nancy we're going to be needing to talk again and we'll update you as we get the information we're still loved in the early process of the investigation okay thank you thank you everything that could potentially be a reason for the homicide was discredited including any financial problems any problems at work anything that she thought could have been related we were able to discredit the guns found at the crime scene were sent to the fresno crime lab for testing criminalist iqbal second tested bullets fired from the gun and compared them against the slugs retrieved from the victim there were no matches but characteristics of the slugs led cecon to the first clue of the killer's identity he or she had used a 40 caliber firearm but as the days passed investigators had yet to develop a motive or suspect they felt they had only one place to turn can't hold all the guys that are involved we felt our only option was to bring nancy in and go deeper into their personal life including giving her a polygraph to verify some of her earlier statements nancy gower had cooperated through the entire investigation of her husband's murder [Music] and we need to eliminate you as a suspect once we do that but to investigators it seemed as if she had something to hide in fresno california police were investigating the murder of luxury auto salesman ralph gower with no leads in the case they asked gower's wife nancy to take a polygraph exam she agreed but just as the test was to begin she wouldn't continue she asked to speak with the investigators hi i understand you want to talk to us for a minute yeah i i really think i should tell you something um she made a stunning admission to detective greene the bombshell in this case was that nancy indicated that she was having an affair with one of our police officers not only was he a police officer but prior to coming onto the department he had been a full-time minister and in fact was a chaplain with the fresno police department one of our own the officer's name was paul hirth nancy told the detectives that she and hearth had been involved for several months but she said she recently ended the affair perth couldn't accept the breakup and continued calling [Music] investigators now face the possibility of a killer in their ranks after nancy's admission she took the polygraph and passed an internal committee was formed to investigate we knew we had to hurry on this case if a police officer was the suspect and we were allowing an officer to continue to work and he was a murder suspect speed was of the utmost [Music] police checked the staff sign in sheet for the night of ralph's murder is there any indication they were supposed to work that night no it should have been his regular day off according to the sheet officer hirth and his partner were on duty during the time in question what's going on thanks when investigators spoke with hearth's partner he said that he had not worked that night and had not initialed the sign-out sheet it appeared officer hirth was attempting a cover-up police called him in for questioning sergeant greene with homicide this is detective marietta i want to talk to you about uh the death of ralph gower occurred about a week ago actually i was expecting a call from roy but hey look i didn't do perth was forthcoming about the affair but denied committing any crime i may have broke some police rules but again i didn't murder any anybody okay well that's that's kind of what we thought we were wondering if uh maybe you couldn't fill us in a little bit were you working uh february 18th yes oh you were yes yeah i was on patrol at a college camp he stated that he had been on patrol on the 18th and i broke up the fight he asked about his partner a partner that night it was officer andre benson so he was working uh he no i signed him oh he wasn't there oh he didn't didn't show up i signed him in but he didn't show up okay could we look in your locker when they asked hirth if they could search his house and his work locker he agreed okay good let's uh let's go down to uh let's go out this way and take a look at uh they took his police issued equipment along with his uniform [Music] inside the officer's home investigators located his service weapon it was a 40 caliber beretta the same caliber gun used in the killing of ralph gower criminalists iqbal sikon and gary kortner received earth's weapon the gun was fired into a sealed water tank [Music] fired slugs from earth's pistol would be compared to the slugs that killed ralph gower police waited anxiously for results to see if the gun used to uphold the law would be the same weapon used to break it [Music] fresno police were investigating fellow officer paul hirth they believed he had murdered the husband of his former lover nancy gower criminalist iqbal sikon performed a side-by-side comparison of slugs fired from officer hearth's handgun and the bullets that killed ralph gower cecon looked at several class characteristics including the caliber the direction of the twist and the lands and grooves of the slugs the results pointed directly at the suspect the bullets that killed the victim came out of paul hart's duty pistol paul hearth was arrested for the murder of ralph gower when he was confronted with the evidence he quickly changed his story officer hirth now claimed he went to the gower house with the sole intention of apologizing for his indiscretions with ralph's wife when hearth told him about the affair he became enraged and attacked the officer he said during the struggle ralph got control of his baton he said he went into police mode and drew his gun after shooting ralph twice he panicked and proceeded to clean up the room finally he let himself out through the garage and returned to work perth's claim of shooting ralph gower in self-defense rang hollow with investigators slightly higher as it exits to test the officer's story they re-examined the crime scene reports they believed the angle of the bullet wounds to gower's chest proved he'd been shot from above at a distance of two feet while lying defenseless on the floor investigators returned to the gower house six feet three here it was on the on the ground at that time okay yes and let's see if there is any any evidence of any any damage they scoured the crime scene for any indication of bullet damage to the walls if the victim had been standing as hearth claimed the bullets would have passed through his body and there would be damage to the walls but there was none all the crime scene evidence supported the case that officer hirth was standing over the victim when he fired [Music] despite convincing evidence prosecutors know juries are often reluctant to convict officers of the law fresno authorities turned to the fbi police enlisted the help of forensic profiler and criminalist mark safarik as a special agent with the fbi's behavioral science unit safari studies crime scene photos and other evidence from individual cases from the case materials he developed a profile of the dynamics that took place between the victim and the assailant [Music] his conclusions in the gower case contradicted paul hurt's claims of self-defense i think both behaviorally and forensically it's clear that gower was not in a position to present a threat to hearth there's no indication his hands were in front of his face or attempting to ward off the potential of being shot and the fact that the gunshot wounds are so close together almost directly over the heart area tells me that he he was likely unconscious the time he was shot [Music] based on the evidence police believe that paul hearth went to ralph gower's house with no other intention but to kill him nancy gower had ended the affair and he needed to dispose of his rival investigators believe hearth struck gower with his baton then proceeded to handcuff him to a table leg before shooting him twice in the chest investigators concluded that paul hearth acted alone and nancy had no knowledge of his intentions paul hirth was convicted of aggravated manslaughter for the death of ralph gower he was sentenced to 20 years killers commit their crimes for many reasons but when they are driven by dark emotion they unwittingly leave behind a history of clues forensic science exploits these clues to uncover hard evidence and solve crimes of passion [Music] you

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Id: Z9ewSk3d7SQ

Length: 48min 32sec (2912 seconds)

Published: Sat Jul 31 2021