Death In Alaska | FULL EPISODE | The FBI Files

the day began like any other they share overall Chapman until the silence of a peaceful Sunday morning was shattered the deformity Cheryl's sister Nancy had not shown up for work and several attempts to reach it by former unsuccessful the Chapmans sensing something must be wrong anthe rushed to the rock [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] some killers of stealthy killing with an almost clinical precision others act on a violent impulse saturating the crime scene with their rage how a murderer behaves tells much about who he is in 1987 the brutality of a triple homicide in Anchorage tested the mettle of even the most seasoned investigators I'm Jim Kallstrom former director of the FBI's New York office when Nancy Newman and her two young daughters were found slain in their apartment local artists who needed help they called the FBI at the crime scene Clues are everywhere but seemed to lead nowhere agents knew that to crack this case they need to somehow get inside the killer's mind [Music] Alaska sits on the edge of the wilderness seemingly isolated from the rest of the world in its troubles its inhabitants are united by the beauty of the landscape and a mutual respect for the self-reliant nature of the community cracker before it was shortly before 8 a.m. on a Sunday March 15 1987 Cheryl and Paul Chapman were awakened by a phone call Cheryl's sister Nancy Newman was hours late for the breakfast shift at the restaurant which annoyed Nancy's shift manager told Cheryl that Nancy's car was in the restaurant parking lot but Nancy was nowhere in sight maybe the Chapman should check on her from the moment Paul and Sheryl arrived at Nancy's apartment they sensed something was wrong there was no sign of Nancy her two daughters eight-year-old Melissa and three-year-old Angie were nowhere in sight coffee mugs from Cheryl's Friday night visit with her sister was still in the scene the remains of breakfast had been left on the table the tin where Nancy kept her tip money sad empty and a brown cigarette but not a brand Nancy smoked was in the Astra Nancy Nancy in Nancy's bedroom all made a gruesome discovery he found Nancy lying beaten and lifeless in her bed all rush to the other bedrooms to find Nancy's two girls to his horror he found Melissa and Angie brutally murdered [Music] [Applause] [Music] from work if they call this at our house what Norfolk scanner we came over to find her within minutes the first Anchorage Police officers arrived with the Newman's apartment not wanting to disturb the crime center the officers secured the earth then tried to calm the distraught family until the crime scene processing unit arrived what police found was horrific Nancy and Melissa Neumann appeared to have been beaten and strangled little Angie Newman's throat was cut so deeply she was almost decapitated Anchorage Police Officer Jill Gifford was at the scene well the impact of a case like this was quite often it's hard to capture in words we're pretty used to working homicide cases and serious assault cases and overall I think a community becomes if not callous somewhat accustomed to these kind of things happening just the typical murder something of this magnitude however people are never prepared for the murders were so gruesome that even experienced police officers were shaken it is shocking for the for the public and it takes it toll on its on the investigators and the officers work in the case as well because you're just not used to see as I mentioned things of this magnitude Nancy Newman's body was lying on her bill her nightgown hiked up around her chest there were abrasions on her nose chin and forehead and Annie seemed to bring injured bloodstains were at the foot of the bed the pair of olive green gloves were on top of the dresser down the hall Melissa Newman was found on her back in the middle of her room a bloody twisted pillowcase under her neck another pillowcase had been used to tie her arms three-year-old Angie Newman lay on her bedroom floor in a pool of blood surrounded by her favorite blood stain pattern analysis often yields clues the positions of the victims and killer the movements of the victims and the number of blows struck can be reconstructed by an experienced examiner in this particular case it assisted us in establishing a sequence of events stains found on Nancy Newman's bed suggested that she and Melissa had been forced down the hall to her mother's room where they were assaulted and stains on the hallway carpeting indicated that Melissa was then returned to her room and killed there [Music] officers treated each area as a completely separate crime scene first they determined the type of physical evidence that was likely to be found and then the order it should be processed are we doing given the horrific nature of this crime and the lack of an obvious suspect investigators knew that every possible piece of physical evidence was potentially in value Detective Sergeant Michael Grimes was in charge of the Anchorage Police Department's homicide assault and robbery unit I knew that they were going to be in this crime scene for hours and hours and hours this immediately is what we identify as a forensic case there was very little disturbed by them when they found the body so we were very fortunate in that respect investigators frequently find evidence in common household dirt sometimes hair and fibers buried in carpeting can be traced to a suspect for thorough coverage investigators broke each room into quadrants and vacuumed each section to begin the painstaking task investigators must first cordon off a three foot by four foot area of the room the investigator uses an ordinary vacuum with a special filter attachment as the debris is pulled off the floor it travels down a short tube and then goes into a collection point there it becomes trapped in clean filter paper once a quadrant of the room has been processed the filter is removed and placed into an evidence container [Music] many my nude hairs are fibers are missed by crime-scene vacuuming they're for a portable argon laser is used which causes unseen hairs and fibers to fluoresce when exposed to the lasers light [Music] a technique called luminol processing was also used to look for traces of blood if present the luminol spray will cause the proteins in the blood to fluoresce making them visible to examiner's processing the the scene and looking for invisible traces or invisible blood patterns we found a luminescent impression that we were able to photograph we also knew we had a knife missing out of the kitchen we took one of those knives out the knife set and we found that matched in width and length to the to that of the luminol impression that we had the crime-scene appearance suggested the murderer had taken the victims bicep rocket it appeared that Newman's morning routine was suddenly interrupted perhaps indicating that they knew the killer okay excellent a big question was motive at the scene Cheryl told police that Nancy seemed to have no enemies as a waitress she was popular among her customers and colleagues friendly and flirtatious and what possible motive could explain the rage infected upon eight-year-old Melissa and three-year-old Angie [Music] burglary was unlikely it was obvious to investigators that the apartment had not been ransacked or otherwise disturbed investigators struggled to find a solid lead detective bill reader worked the case from the beginning the initial lead came from the scene itself that we could find no signs of forced entry so I kind of leaned us toward looking at people that had access to the apartment or the new the new the victims immediately the questioning began neighbors family and friends anyone who may have had information what we were looking at was to find someone that had seen anything unusual any strangers in the area had heard anything unusual had seen someone carrying things away anything at all that would help us focus on someone or somebody family members LuAnn was always suspects during an investigation Paul Chapman was no exception though he had no one to back up his alibi which was that he was alone most of Saturday his reaction to discovering the bodies was clearly amount of trauma [Music] investigators spoke with everyone close to the family and learned that Nancy Newman was happily married to John Newman the father of their two girls he was a suspect spouses usually are but John Newman was in California training to be a locksmith at the time of the murders another way to eliminate a suspect is to watch and continue to talk to him John never gave us any indication other than he wanted this case solved he was extremely distraught gave all the signs that anybody would give under the circumstances because the Newman's lived in a multi-unit apartment complex detective Grimes knew that interviewing neighbors in the immediate area would be a daunting task it was an apartment in a multi-unit apartment house which was in a particular area of town that was surrounded by large multi-unit apartment houses and we're looking at literally hundreds of dwellings in that area [Music] the close-knit community of Anchorage was shocked by the brutality of the murders police investigators have no experience with crimes too shocking we're asking the most frightening of all possible questions was a Siri police felt pressured to work with what kind of person would do this kind of crime was there significance in the way that people were murdered that could give us some kind of leads as to who we were looking for at least what type of person and so immediately I'd say within the first day or so we were getting some help from the FBI investigators quickly realized they needed help in determining the type of individual responsible for the murders they turned to the FBI's behavioral science unit in Quantico Virginia special agent Judd Rae received a call as a profiler in the unit Ray's job was to assist investigators in hunting down America's worst killers to do that Ray had to understand the workings of the killer's mind we were looking at deeds and acts of individuals after it happened and trying to predict the kind of personality if you will a composite view of what kind of human being could have done it through detailed evaluations of crime-scene photos and police reports Ray provided investigators with a psychological portrait of the killer this is a disorganized crime scene I mean you know low self-esteem all the kinds of things that you would say about about this kind of person you know that he's been he's society has rejected him through the years and now it's his time to reject society ray told the Anchorage detectives that they possibly faced a repeat performance this particular incident alarmed him so much particularly with you know three victims at one time to being children that his opinion also he said that you know we need to get something working on this right away because it appears that this person's out of control and there's the potential that he's going to be doing it again in the very near future from the autopsy reports investigators learned that Nancy and eight year-old Melissa Newman had been sexually assaulted based on this information and characteristics of the crime Ray concluded that this violent offender would have a history of sexual assault he would be a white male in his early to mid-20s and underachiever following Ray's conclusions investigators began to narrow the range of possible suspects among them was a young man who had recently moved in a few doors down from the numerous police also questioned Kirby Anthony the 23 year old nephew of John Binford party Anthony had an alibi for the morning hours of Saturday March 14th but the Navy did notice a tremendous rage that was inflicted on they almost decapitated the the young three-year-old suggested that they to mean that there's nothing in my mind that I'd came across that would been sufficient on its face to justify this kind of rage by a stranger Ray's insistence that the killer was known to the victims led investigators to shift focus away from the man who lived nearby neighbors and friends of the Newman's confirmed the young man's claim that he had never met Nancy Newman or her children because I talked about familiarity somebody this close to the family somebody that knows her that had some sort of relationship with her perhaps even been rejected by her they said was a matter of fact there's a nephew they come to mind as investigators continued questioning possible suspects the volume of evidence that has been collected from the crime scene was taxing the limits of alaska's state crime lab once again Anchorage Police turned to the FBI the evidence was sent to the FBI's crime lab in Washington DC [Music] hair and fiber expert Doug Deedrick was given the case Diedrich began by sorting through the evidence searching for any meant to assessment hairs fibers blast particles soil paint chips anything that may have been transferred during the killer's violent contact with his victims altogether I believe I looked at three over three hundred close to 400 items of evidence from the crime scene from the victims from elimination samples from different people both suspect and relatives and possible acquaintances fibers are unusually difficult to trace and because no one knew what the killer was wearing during the murders there was no basis in which to compare recovered fibers the varieties that are out there are analysts so that when an individual in a case for instance who was wearing a particular type of clothing transfers fiber material that evidence will will be considered to be unique even though they may have made a number of garments of the same type by the time it gets out into the public this material is dispersed like a drop of oil in the ocean it just it's there but it's hard to find distinct fibers amounting to less than a thimble full of evidence were recovered from the Newman's apartment Diedrichs expertise of fiber transfer however enabled him to reconstruct the suspects movements during the crime giving investigators a clearer picture of what actually transpired and [Music] as Diedrichs analysis progressed Anchorage boys asked Kirby Anthony to come to the police department to give more detailed statements they began to learn more of his story and Rose the Antoninus girlfriend had moved some Twin Falls Idaho to Anchorage 18 months earlier both had stayed at the Newlin's for a while that were asked to leave about the time they found jobs on a fishing he and his girlfriend split up while working on the boat after Kirby accused her of having an affair with the skipper [Music] his mates described him as irrational and unstable after the breakup he clashed with the skipper and was fired he returned to Anchorage alone on February 14 1987 having nowhere else to go Anthony took a taxi from the airport straight to the new hands through Cheryl Chapman's continued assistance police learned that John Neumann is upset over his nephews return to the Newman household during his absence at the same time the situation was becoming increasingly uncomfortable for Nancy after a few weeks she asked Anthony to leave he moved in with an acquaintance dan grant as the investigation began to focus on Kirby Anthony sergeant Grimes recalled his first encounter with him the day of the murders detective Grimes took on the task of notifying Anthony about the deaths I told him that we had some bad news for him that his aunt and and her two little girls had been found dead just earlier that morning as I recall curly Kirby grabbed his hair and and started wailing and moaning but it was all dry eyed there was no tears Anthony's demeanor did not fit that of a grieving family member but Grimes knew that Anthony's odd behavior would never justify an arrest the autopsy report however made investigators more suspicious autopsy results help pinpoint the murders between 7:00 a.m. and noon on Saturday March 14th really to demonstrate is that the murders happened early in the morning after the victims had had done gotten up in the morning the one of the victims had had a bowl of cereal the other was in the process of eating some cereal the mother was in the process of having a cup of coffee establishing the time of the deaths made Anthony's alibi Iran's issue which was that he was at an all-night party until early that Saturday morning he admitted that he drank smoked some marijuana and did cocaine he said he returned to the house and granted about 7:00 a.m. then left again at about 8:45 a.m. meanwhile FBI agent Diedrichs investigations into fiber and hair evidence was growing more complicated one of the items that had come in consisted of vacuum sweepings at least there were several vacuum sweepings from different rooms those items have to be processed and hairs have to be prepared from that what was I think probably the most difficult aspect of this case for me was in trying to account for every hair that was found in that residence and that's something that's not usually done and seeing as they're they're often too many hairs to deal with but in this case it was it was a monumental task to do that each hair displays its own peculiar characteristics under a microscope making it possible to trace it's likely origin the fact that hairs will differ from person to person is very evident when you magnify these characteristics upwards of two hundred fifty four hundred times who examine the fibers and hairs collected at the scene Diedrich used two high-powered comparison microscopes connected by an optical bridge one for known material and the other for material yet to be identified [Music] because Anthony had lived within Uniroyal his hair was likely to be in the apartment that meant it was important to establish whether the trace hairs were old or recent [Music] so Didrik went through the contents of the vacuum used in the new house [Music] because of the vast quantities of hairs and other items that were found in the back I had to look at the vacuum bag from a layer standpoint that is what it was the most recently deposited or recently vacuumed material since Kirby Anthony had denied being in the Newman's apartment recently it was imperative that Diedrich determined the condition of the hairs the condition of the surface of hairs the condition of the ends the roots will often indicate how long a hair may have been in a particular environment working his way through the layers of the Newman's vacuum bag Diedrich found some of the same types of hairs that did not appear to belong to many of the new heads these hairs had been recently deposited in addition to the vacuum sweepings unidentified hero players were also found on their victims and inside their business to determine the significance of these findings Diedrich now wanted to know how hair is usually transferred from one room to another so he conducted his own experiment it was a question as to how likely would it be to find somebody's hair since a pubic hairs in different areas of a home so I designed a little experiment where I took a vacuum home crime scene vacuum to my house and vacuumed four bedrooms over a two-week period at the same time every day just to see what types of hairs might be found I was focusing mainly on pubic hairs [Music] deidre preserved the material from every sweeping he then compared the hairs from those sweepings with known hairs from himself Diedrich was able to conclude that the hairs did migrate from room to room mostly by sticking to socks and other clothing the hairs deposited at the beginning of the experiment were deeper in the vacuum debris and therefore more damaged the more recently deposited ones were not [Music] the finding was significant to Diedrich since Cheryl told police that Nancy vacuumed her house Friday the unidentified hairs found on the victims would have been deposited right at the time of the murders [Music] under microscopic scrutiny an important piece of evidence was revealed a pubic hair with a partial egg casing the kind associated with genital lice was clinging to the damp washcloth found in the Newman's bathroom Diedrich told investigators of his findings and waited for a sample from a suspect in order to make a comparison there were at least a half a dozen individuals who were considered prime suspects investigators received lists from the state corrections department of people recently released who had a history of sex crimes or violence some of them were living in the area close to the Newman's to eliminate these individuals of suspects each one was extensively questioned and all of their alibis were checked out police continued to question anta he admitted nothing but with each interview the details of where he was and what he did the morning of the murders changed slightly that was a kind of a an indicator of what we were going to be dealing with with Kirby from the get-go was these little lies that weren't necessary but were thrown out to us unaware of Diedrichs hair analysis Anthony was asked by investigators to submit hair and blood samples wanting to appear cooperative he voluntarily submitted the samples they were rushed to Diedrich for comparison the next day Diedrich notified investigators that Anthony had pubic lice that was probably the most significant breakthrough at that point we could start focusing on curvy as the suspect when confronted with the evidence of the hair and egg casing on the washcloth Anthony admitted that he did have likes he said he had showered at the Newman's a week before the murders so as not to spread the pubic lice at Dan Gran's house for Judge ray the dirty washcloth left at the crime scene told much about the suspect the killer had cleaned himself at the murder scene why take the risk why not go home it was obvious to me that he had to get that he had to go somewhere where or when he couldn't go there all bloody which sort of got into this guy's not a loner living living alone somewhere raised behavioral profile also predicted the killer would have been associated with a previous sexual assault this prediction prompted investigators to look deeper into Kirby's past they learned that Kirby Anthony had been the central suspect in an Idaho case that remains open to this day the victim a 12 year-old girl suffered brain damage in the attack and was unable to testify he had just previous to coming to Alaska been the focus of police attention down there they had a some type of outdoor picnic outing and there was a 12 year old that was found in the woods she had been strangled unconscious near death and she had been sexually assaulted their investigation pointed right at Kirby Anthony Rae also predicted the killer would want to appear cooperative with police they told us that the suspect would interject himself into the investigation he would call to find out what the evidence was showing and Kirby started doing that what investigators did not share with Anthony was the Diedrichs other hair comparisons were also pointing to anthony the pubic hair found on the washboard was only one of many positive associations Diedrich was able to make between hairs found at the crime scene and those submitted by anthony and in this case a number of pubic hairs that were like Kirby Anthony's were found in the rooms both the victims room the two girls and as well as a couple of them that were similar to his on the bed of mother a hair from Anthony's head also was found in a top sheet of Nancy Newman's bed facial hairs that matched Anthony's beard were found on all of the victims and in their words the vacuum sweepings from Melissa's room contained nine of Anthony's pubic hairs the sweepings from Angie's room included two pubic hairs one with blood and one with lice casings investigators felt it was time to keep tabs on Anthony's movements through surveillance investigators learned of Anthony's hangouts and discreetly followed in around town to hope that Anthony would reveal something to his friends that could further implicate him in the murders if he did the investigators would soon find out the effort paid off one of Anthony's acquaintances told investigators that he was writing poetry on napkins when passing the poems around the table he told one of the women that Nancy Newman is all forced to watch part of the assault investigators also learned that at one point after the murders Anthony called his ex-girlfriend's mother in Idaho to tell her about the crime Angie Newman had been stabbed he said and Nancy and Melissa's sexually assaulted in both instances the call to Idaho and the scene at the bar Anthony could not yet have known about the details he described the information had not been released by police to the press nor had investigators mentioned it to Anthony during questioning since the surveillance was not a twenty four-hour-a-day tactic they would often drive by his house to see if his vehicle was parked out front if he was home investigators would often ask him to answer some questions to circumstantial evidence against Anthony was mounting during a visit to his residence investigators noticed a manually operated camera belonging to John Neumann that had been reported missing after the murders he told detectives that the Newman's lent it to him but when asked later to demonstrate how it worked he seemed to have no idea how to operate it another item missing from the Newman house seemed to be traceable to Anthony the tip money missing from the cookie tin consisted only of coins three of Anthony's friends told police they either saw him rolling coins into wrappers or saw him pay for items with wrapped coins and then there were the prints Anthony's palm print was found on the wall over the bed where Melissa Newman had been assaulted prints found on the empty cookie tin on the kitchen table matched Anthony's his prints were also found on the living room closet door and the inside and outside of the apartment another place we located one of Kirby's fingerprints is on the back side of the door to the mother's bedroom and again it's its position was significant in that it led us to believe that perhaps someone was trying to escape out of the room and he already had some other trace evidence on his hand he slammed the door shut transferring not only a fingerprint but some of the other trace evidence it was found in the scene the evidence was overwhelming every suspect in the month-long investigation had ultimately been cleared except Kirby and through four investigators it was time to obtain an arrest warrant and then you got home Judd Rae had previously cautioned investigators that the killer might try to flee if the pressure became too much the increasing intensity of police questioning had made Anthony nervous Jetray was right again and I confided to his roommate and grant that he was leaving town he asked his friend not to tell police [Music] grant was afraid to contact Anchorage Police because of Anthony's notorious Tim nonetheless he did finally call seven hours later Anthony was heading to the Canadian border an eight hour drive away and he had a seven story [Music] Anchorage and the Canadian border separated by hundreds of miles of uninhabited wilderness Anthony could be hiding anywhere [Music] [Applause] Anchorage police quickly contacted US Customs at the Alaska Canada border they described Anthony in his vehicle and told the custom official that Anthony was a suspect in a triple homicide they were hoping to reason [Music] less than an hour later Anthony arrived at us customers having no idea that investigators have been tipped off Anthony calmly pulled up to the customs gates [Music] did you know he was detained and questioned until Alaska State Troopers arrived he was arrested for driving on a suspended license and returned to Anchorage as he was turned over to the Anchorage Police he was read his rights and charged three counts first-degree murder two counts sexual assault and one count kidnapping under Alaska law kidnapping can be charged if a victim is restrained during an assault Melissa Newman had been tied up during it he jumps up and screaming what is this kidnapping stuff and which struck us as odd because here he was charged with three counts of murder and two counts of sexual assault and any screaming about the kidnapping charge by this time the forensic evidence was complete enough that police believed they could reconstruct how Angie Melissa and Nancy were brutally murdered the last time Cheryl Chapman saw her sister alive was Friday March 13th Cheryl Paul and Nancy had each arrived separately at the restaurant where Nancy worked to meet for drinks Cheryl's daughter Kelly had taken Nancy's girls swimming so the adults had a night out Paul Chapman had to leave the restaurant early to pick up his son but time to meet them later at Nancy's apartment as they were leaving Cheryl suggested that Nancy leave her car at the restaurant and ride home with her Nancy had Saturday off and Paul would gladly give her a ride back to her car tomorrow at 11:30 yeah [Music] Cheryl Pol and Nancy all ended up at the Newman's apartment to wait for Kelly and the girls he sent laughing and talking until about 9:45 when the girls came home Kelly had treated them two hamburgers at about 10 p.m. Cheryl and Paul were ready to leave Cheryl helped Nancy clear the table and put the used coffee mugs in the sink Angie was already in her pajamas and Melissa had gone to a room to get ready for bed as they said good night Paul told Nancy to call him the next day if she wanted a ride back to her car sometime between 7:00 a.m. and noon on Saturday March 14th Kirby Anthony arrived at the Newman's apartment Kirby Anthony is the only person who knows what happened next perhaps Nancy refused to lend him money but she refused his sexual advance perhaps she ordered him out of the apartment in any case his anger boiled over [Music] [Applause] [Applause] [Music] evidence indicated that part of this anomalisa occurred in her mother's womb both would have had to have been restrained and their bodies did show signs of having done ballet but we are able to show through serological findings that Melissa the eight-year-old had been assaulted in the mother's bedroom and that she had crossed the bed and it was actively bleeding at the time and then she is subdued somehow and held in a position in that room for a period of time Melissa Newman probably witnessed the rape and murder from she then was taken back to her bedroom where she was assaulted again [Music] [Music] the knife used to school angie was never recovered it was unclear whether she was killed first or last what was certain was that she seemed to be the target of a horrible uncontrolled rage [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] Nancy Newman did not call Paul Chapman the next day for a ride to her car nor did she answer the phone and her sister tried to reach him repeatedly instead she and her two daughters lay dead nearly a full day before their bodies were discovered the particular grudge against angie may have grown out of the few times that anthony babysat the girls reportedly he had called her a tyrant but for those close to the victims and for investigators working the case nothing could explain Kirby Anthony's savagery I don't really think that you could isolate any one thing that would cause a man to fly into the homicidal rage like Herbie Anthony did now for the most part you know I don't think that Kirby Anthony could even tell you why he would do something like that a grieving John Newman sat in stony silence throughout his nephews trial after eight weeks of testimony the jury reached a verdict on June 3rd 1988 a clean-shaven Anthony seemed confident as he waited for the verdict as each guilty verdict was read Anthony's composure disintegrated until finally it shattered completely he was sentenced to 357 years for his crimes Kirby Anthony's conviction represented an almost textbook example of cooperative police work Anchorage Police provided the FBI with evidence collected from a meticulously preserved crime scene Doug Deedrick carefully analyzed the hairs and fibers and anticipated Kirby Anthony's excuses conducting his own home experiment to the future Jud Rae helped police stay several steps ahead of Anthony's thoughts and actions and for the first time testimony of an FBI profiler was accepted in court it was a good case to test the waters in terms of them whether or not this was going to be accepted and a judicial system and for that the implications are probably for each is it open the door [Music] [Applause] [Music] you [Music]

Channel: The FBI Files

Views: 1,938,573

Rating: 4.6027665 out of 5

Keywords: FBI, FBI Files, FBI Documentary, Documentary, Crime, Crime Documentary, Crime Patrol, True Crime, True crime daily, Unsolved, Crime Stories, Crime Documentaries Full Episodes, Full Episode, unsolved true crime, fbi files full episodes, we got him, mystery, solved, investigation, police, criminal, prison, jail, kirby anthoney, kirby anthony, nancy newman, alaska

Id: SyGuB06JjKE

Length: 51min 53sec (3113 seconds)

Published: Sat Oct 26 2019