Elements Of Murder | FULL EPISODE | The New Detectives

in montana a murdered woman is found stuffed in the trunk of her car with little physical evidence to go on investigators struggle to catch her killer a seemingly healthy 33 year old woman dies in her sleep tennessee police must determine if her death resulted from natural causes or murder [Applause] in ohio a woman abandons her husband and two children but a routine investigation reveals that her disappearance may not have been intentional [Music] a well-executed homicide can baffle even the most skilled investigator but forensic examiners look beyond the obvious to find proof of a killer's guilt and expose the elements of murder [Applause] [Music] [Applause] settled in the heart of big sky country the city of great falls montana is surrounded by the majestic rocky mountains to its west and the little belt mountains to its east [Music] on an october morning a man hiking along the secluded banks of the missouri river stumbled upon several id cards they belong to a young woman concerned he alerted police deputies from the cascade county sheriff's department responded to the call at the river's edge they found additional id cards belonging to the woman [Music] police were familiar with the name 27 year old susan galloway had been reported missing the previous day unsure what to make of the findings officers from the boat patrol were called in to drag the river 20 feet from shore they signaled they had snagged a woman's purse inside were more of the missing woman's id and credit cards [Music] there was also 100 in cash but there were no signs of susan galloway cascade county police contacted the missing woman's parents and brought them in for an interview the family was alarmed when they discovered that their daughter and her vehicle were gone susan had recently become engaged and she seemed so happy her fiance craig smith was stationed at the nearby air force base the couple often helped out at the business that the galloway zone susan was a devout mormon and though craig wasn't he had agreed to convert so the two could marry the family planned to give the couple ownership of the store as a wedding present they couldn't understand why susan would just take off without a word [Music] veteran detective ken anderson was not optimistic well finding the identification indicated that uh susan galloway uh did not in fact just leave town or drive away in her vehicle without saying goodbye and that sort of thing because she certainly wouldn't have left her identification and money behind [Music] police arranged to interview the missing woman's fiancee [Music] craig smith had no idea where susan could have gone [Music] he last saw her the night before she disappeared after leaving a dinner party susan dropped him off at his apartment around midnight [Music] he hadn't heard from her since the detective was curious about a bandage on smith's hand [Music] he explained that he had accidentally cut himself with a knife a few hours after susan dropped him off he woke up thirsty [Music] he tried to open a frozen can of orange juice but was having trouble [Music] he grabbed a knife but it slipped as he tried to pry open the can his car wasn't running and he walked to the air force base where he was stationed to have a medic treat the wound police later confirmed he had visited the medic that evening the search for susan galloway was going nowhere [Music] three days later a power company employee working at the rainbow dam spotted something on a hill across the river he decided to go check it out when he arrived at the spot he found a car that had plunged down the hillside the vehicle appeared to be caught up on some brush [Music] police and crime scene technicians were contacted and responded to the scene [Music] a check on the vehicle's tags revealed the car was registered to missing 27-year-old susan galloway sergeant anderson made his way down the hill through the window he observed a key in the ignition there didn't appear to be anyone inside but on the back of the vehicle he noticed streaks of blood [Music] there was also what appeared to be a footprint on the trunk then anderson took a closer look inside the car the rear cushion of the back seat had pulled away from the trunk area and at that point in time i could see a body inside the trunk of the car [Music] the woman matched the description of susan galloway and it appeared she had been murdered police towed up the vehicle and began searching for clues inside the car technicians found large blood smears on the front passenger seat they also recovered several shards of broken green glass stained with blood the exterior of the vehicle was thoroughly photographed [Music] the victim's body was transported to the medical examiner's office for autopsy the lack of evidence found near the car led police to believe that she had been murdered elsewhere and then brought to the hillside a dog was brought in to track the victim's scent a mile from the car he alerted to a partially dug hole [Music] more of the victim's blood was found [Music] it appeared the suspect brought the woman to this spot finished the kill and then attempted to bury the victim but for some reason gave up [Music] the medical examiner confirmed the victim was in fact susan galloway pieces of green glass from a 16-ounce soda bottle were found embedded in her skull and neck they had severed her carotid artery and as a result susan had bled to death now detectives had to find out who had murdered susan galloway and why but with few clues and no obvious suspects they knew it would not be easy police in great falls montana had few clues in the murder of 27 year old susan galloway [Music] the young woman had been brutally beaten with a soda bottle placed in the trunk of her car and then sent down a steep embankment no usable prints were found on the glass or in the victim's vehicle hoping to identify a suspect investigators released details of the crime through the media a short while later they got a tip he knocked on my door a man stationed at the local air force base believed he had information asked me about what time did he come to the room he said that on the night susan disappeared he had seen her fiance craig smith smith had come by the barracks in the early morning hours he noticed his friend was carrying a bundle of dirty clothing he also noticed a gash on smith's hand smith told him he had cut it with a knife he was on his way to see the medic for treatment and asked his friend for a ride home after that was done [Music] smith had also told the airmen that he had been out drinking with friends and got stranded in fact he asked his friend to keep the story quiet because his fiancee susan galloway wouldn't have been happy about it the airman's story contradicted craig smith's claim that on the night of the disappearance he had gone to bed soon after susan had dropped him off sergeant ken anderson was suspicious it was almost as though craig's lying about something and all of a sudden he became the main suspect rather than the the grieving fiance [Music] police look to corroborate smith's story [Music] they located the medic who had bandaged his cut hand [Music] he confirmed that craig smith had come in to be treated for a cut in the early morning hours of october 23rd but the medic recalled thinking that the wound was consistent with having been caused by a jagged edge rather than a knife blade as smith suggested though incriminating the information fell short of proving that craig smith was a killer now looking to tie the suspect to the crime scene police canvassed the nearby area a clerk at a convenience store remembered seeing smith and susan galloway the night she disappeared and according to the clerk they seemed to be arguing when they came into the store they bought a few bottles of soda and then left we're going now the clerk showed the officer the type of soda purchased by the couple they were 16-ounce bottles made of green glass identical to the glass that had killed susan galloway the information was enough for police to obtain a warrant to search craig smith's residence the suspect continued to deny any involvement in susan's death he admitted he and susan had been in the convenience store that night [Music] and he also admitted that in the past he had hung out at the area where her car was later found but smith denied ever being at the spot where the partially dug hole was found the place police believe was the kill [Music] site detectives collected the clothing he wore on the night of susan's disappearance but the items had been recently cleaned is there a shirt in there also ken police realized their only hope would be to link smith to the sneaker print recovered from the trunk of susan's car they collected a single pair of muddy shoes an examination revealed that the shoes seized from craig smith were the same size and the souls had the same pattern as those collected from the vehicle but that alone wouldn't be enough to prove murder he had driven her car a number of times his footprint was in an irregular place on the trunk but it could have been there police would have to physically place him at the kill site and all they had to do that was some dirt on the bottom of smith's shoes and it was our belief that if he had been standing in the area of the kill site he would have picked up soil it was very sandy and totally different from the mud and soil at the area where the car was pushed over investigators collected soil samples from various locations where the suspect claimed to have been on the night of susan's disappearance they also collected samples from the spot where they believed the murder took place all of the soil was sent to the university of montana for analysis there geologist and mineralogist jack warrenberg worked the case i was to examine crime scene soils and there was a open burial site and there are several other small areas that they wanted to be checked out to compare the soil that was present on the suspect shoe wareenberg observed that the soil samples taken from the bottom of smith's shoe contained tiny pieces of glass probably from broken bottles a microscopic analysis also revealed that the sample contained bits of ash that were consistent with having been produced by copper the samples collected from craig smith's yard and from the path he had walked to the base had no such ash in fact only samples taken from the crime scene had both the tiny shards of glass and the copper ash and the reason seemed simple a few hundred yards from the crime scene on the banks of the missouri river was the site of a copper smelting plant [Music] wherein berg determined that it was the only area in the county where copper ash appears in the soil [Music] craig smith had been at the kill site something he had previously denied when confronted with the evidence against him craig smith admitted to killing his fiancee [Music] he said he wanted the galloway family business but had no interest in being married to susan he was charged with first-degree murder based on the information police believe that on the night of the murder the couple got into a heated argument then craig smith viciously attacked his fiancee he then dragged her to a secluded spot to finish the job and bury his victim but when that didn't work he placed her in the trunk of her car and attempted to send the vehicle over the cliff craig smith was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to 100 years in prison [Music] a patch of soil was enough for montana police to expose a killer's dirty secret [Music] but in tennessee detectives must look beyond the obvious in order to find answers to explain a mysterious debt in the early morning of december 23 1997 nashville police and emergency workers responded to a frantic 9-1-1 call terry robinson said his wife had been violently ill for several days and now she wasn't breathing she was pronounced dead at the scene with no obvious cause of death detectives were dispatched to the home as a matter of routine well homicide detective e.j bernard was assigned the case 33 year old lenora robinson lay dead on the couple's bed [Music] investigators noticed a black substance on the woman's shirt and on the pillowcase that seemed to have come from the victim's mouth and nose it didn't appear to be blood perhaps they thought it had originated from a cigarette found next to lenora's bed let's they also found and collected a bottle of gatorade and a glass filled with the orange liquid terry robinson told the detective that lenora had been suffering from severe flu-like symptoms for the past four or five days [Music] in fact the day before terry had taken his wife to a doctor for treatment for a high fever and uncontrollable vomiting and diarrhea the physician who examined lenora diagnosed her with a bad case of the flu he gave her an injection to relieve the symptoms and sent her home terry said that lenora seemed better for a while but that night her symptoms worsened he tried to nurse her giving her gatorade and medications but when he checked on her the following morning she wasn't breathing [Music] though there were no signs suggesting foul play police were troubled that someone as young as lenora would die from the flu detective bernard ordered that an autopsy be performed the initial assumption was that it was something to do with the flu or the shot or possibly a heart attack brain tumor something totally unknown to the family members or anyone medical personnel on the scene her body was transported to the tennessee state medical examiner's office located in nashville there chief medical examiner dr bruce levy performed the autopsy the thick black substance that had come from lenora robinson's nose immediately caught his attention well in this case the first thing was there had been noticed some black residue on the pillow next to where her mouth had been which means that something had come out of her body we weren't sure exactly what it was internal examination uncovered evidence of a heart condition and congested lungs supporting the idea that lenora had died of natural causes [Music] then detective bernard arrived to view the autopsy he noticed something unusual [Music] it was the smell of bitter almonds coming from the body [Music] it was an odor associated with people who have died as a result of cyanide poisoning further examination however failed to turn up the tell-tale signs associated with cyanide ingestion there was no liver damage and no signs of burning in the mouth or esophagus toxicology tests on the gatorade found near lenora's bed turned up negative for poison if the 33 year old woman had been exposed to cyanide the question now was how and by whom an autopsy performed on 33 year old lenora robinson led authorities in nashville tennessee to believe her death had resulted from exposure to cyanide to prove it additional tests would have to be performed the medical examiner collected blood tissue and urine samples the items were then forwarded to forensic toxicologists to test for the presence of poison the samples are mixed with chemicals that react to cyanide if the poison is present it will turn a bluish purple color within a few minutes the tissue samples turned up negative [Music] but lenora's blood and urine tested positive for the poison for cyanide to be absorbed in the blood but not in the tissue it would have had to have been inhaled and according to forensic expert agent louis kykendall cyanide is most lethal in a mis-like state [Music] typically the person will have convulsions the person will have uh stomach distress but usually very quickly 30 seconds to maybe two minutes they're into a coma state and then die very rapidly medical examiner bruce levy contacted police with the findings i have the results on the toxicology on lenora robinson it is positive for cyanide but until police could rule out that the poisoning was accidental or suicide the manner of death would remain undetermined detective e.j bernard was quickly able to rule out both of those scenarios there was no suicide notes i learned that she would have died within minutes of ingesting the cyanide therefore she would have left something close by there was nothing close by mr robinson assured me that he did not clean anything up stormy police believed lenora robinson had been murdered [Music] to find out why they questioned the victim's mother and stepfather both agreed that the marriage had been rocky for some time [Music] according to lenore's mother the couple suffered from severe financial problems the small business that they owned and operated together was not doing well and the bills continued to pile up it had caused a lot of anger and resentment between terry and leonardo lenora they said had recently begun talking about the possibility of divorce [Music] they had one more piece of information to add terry they said had once worked as an exterminator and as part of his job he had worked with deadly poisons before obtaining a warrant to search terry robinson's home police needed to know if it was possible for him to create cyanide vapor [Music] pesticides industrial pesticides especially agent kaikendal confirmed that the process is relatively simple you might go ahead and collect that he gave police a list of items to look out for [Music] armed with a warrant police returned to terry robinson's home the suspect maintained his innocence [Music] but as detective bernard began sifting through the couple's financial papers he uncovered a letter lenora had written to her husband [Music] in it she threatened him with a bitter and costly divorce [Music] with a list of chemicals that could be used to transform cyanide into vapor detective bernard searched the suspect's garage there he found several common household items that could have been used he also collected numerous containers of unidentified liquid at the tbi crime lab agent kaikendal began analyzing the substances collected from the home but the results were not what investigators had hoped for essentially what ej found and sent to me none of those had cyanide or enough cyanide at any level that if someone wants to ingest it or get them on that should harm them the investigation was back to square one to make their case police would have to rely on the circumstantial evidence and their best bet would be to prove that the suspect had access to cyanide detectives contacted terry robinson's former employer at the extermination company where he had worked years earlier i need your help [Music] the man confirmed that while robinson worked there the company utilized cyanide [Music] in fact terry robinson helped convert the crystallized poison into a liquid state which would then be administered with a mister to combat insects and rodents the former employer hadn't seen terry in some time and wasn't aware of any poison he may have taken with him when he left the company [Music] still detective ej bernard refused to give up thank you very much well i continued looking for the magic bean we'll say where i could get a receipt where he bought cyanide i was unable to locate that though police had established motive and opportunity they had no hard evidence linking terry robinson to the poison that was used to murder his wife and without that lenora's murder threatened to remain unsolved forensic toxicologists in nashville tennessee had exposed the poisoning death of 33 year old lenora robinson as a homicide but so far they had been unable to link her husband terry robinson to the cyanide gas used to kill her but then they got the break they needed lenora robinson's great uncle came in to speak with believe your name is police blanton he recalled that some time ago terry had asked for his help in killing wasps that had nested near his home did he pay you for this [Music] the uncle agreed and came by the house to give terry several insecticides and poisons among the items were cyanide tablets though the evidence was circumstantial at best police were able to obtain a warrant for the arrest of terry robinson on june 30th police returned to his home and took him into custody terry robinson was charged with the first degree murder of his wife lenora [Music] based on the evidence police believe that terry robinson took advantage of lenora's illness to free himself from an unhappy marriage heavy debt and an impending divorce [Music] on december 22nd he made his way into her bedroom and administered the deadly poison [Music] on october 15 1999 49 year old terry robinson was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to 51 years in prison to trap a killer and make their case police in nashville had to rely on both hard science and dogged determination [Music] but some predators have an intimate knowledge of law enforcement tactics and outwitting them can be a difficult challenge with a population of less than eight thousand residents belpre ohio is regarded as a friendly tight-knit community and when someone goes missing it's everyone's business on september 19 1996 jack mcrady came in to speak with belfree police investigators knew him well mccrady was a respected officer with the ohio state police [Music] and now he wanted to report that his wife jennifer had disappeared he said he last saw his wife that morning as they were getting ready to go to work jack said he hadn't noticed anything unusual about her behavior that morning [Music] though their marriage had its problems he thought things had improved there you go all right he later learned that jennifer never showed up to work that day [Music] jack suspected his wife had been having an affair and now he feared she had taken off with another man leaving him with the couple's two children detective dave garvey agreed when he got home the first thing he saw was jennifer's wedding band on the kitchen counter he checked the house and found out that there were certain items of hers missing luggage was missing and the photographs was missing though police had no reason to suspect foul play they agreed to look into the case they began by questioning the mccready's neighbors [Music] one believed he had seen jennifer leaving the house that morning 10 a.m he saw jennifer's blazer back out of the driveway and screeched down the street in an erratic manner the neighbor admitted that he never actually saw jennifer's face okay but he knew the blazer was her car and he had never seen anyone else drive it [Music] then a few days later police received a call that a vehicle matching jennifer's blazer had been located in a parking lot jack mccrady was dispatched to the scene and he confirmed that it was in fact his wife's car investigators searched the vehicle's interior they found no obvious signs of a struggle or any indications of foul play still the vehicle was impounded for a more thorough analysis crime scene technicians scoured the vehicle using luminol a chemical that can detect invisible traces of blood and other biological evidence [Music] but after hours of processing the examination revealed nothing to suggest that a crime had taken place as an adult jennifer mcrady had the right to be missing and having found no evidence that she had met with foul play belpre police had no choice but to give up on their search for the young mother of two detectives in bel pre-ohio had found nothing to suggest that the missing wife of state police officer jack mcrady had met with foul play all indications suggested the 30 year old mother of two had simply packed up and left there town but then friends of the missing woman contacted police they were concerned something bad had happened to jennifer mcrae jennifer they said was dedicated to her children they were her life [Music] no one who knew her could believe that she would just walk out on her children [Music] and no one believed she was having an affair as jack mccrady suggested but jennifer had been talking about divorcing her possessive and jealous husband then a witness came forward with information she said that around the time of jennifer's disappearance she saw a police vehicle driving in a remote area a few miles outside of town the officer fit the description of jack mccrady to a t the woman had provided unreliable information in the past and at first detective dave garvey didn't believe this would be any different [Music] but when no additional leads surfaced detectives decided to drive out to the secluded spot where the woman had seen the patrol car [Music] there they found something that seemed out of place it was a dirt mound they shoveled away a few inches of dirt and hit a vinyl claw that was followed by the unmistakable smell of death crime scene technicians were quickly dispatched to the scene as the excavation continued the team unearthed a comforter and a sleeping bag [Music] and wrapped inside were decomposed remains the head covered with a white plastic trash bag when the bag was removed one of the officers identified the female as jennifer mccrady she was wearing pajamas that was at odds with her husband's claim that when he last saw her she was dressed and leaving for work as a matter of routine soil samples were collected from the makeshift grave technicians collected the bedding and the sleeping bag for a more detailed [Music] analysis the victim was transported to the medical examiner's office for autopsy [Music] the medical examiner determined that jennifer mccrady had died as a result of a gunshot wound to her head the fatal 357 magnum bullet was collected and sent to the crime lab bell pre-investigators now had a homicide on their hands [Music] the inconsistent information in addition to witness testimony pointed to state police officer jack mccrady as the prime suspect detectives arranged to speak with him at the barracks where he was stationed when they broke the news about jennifer's death he was visibly shaken but as they began to question him mccrady asked for an attorney and ended the interview soon after jack macrady was put on leave [Music] investigators hope the forensic evidence could tell them more all of the items collected from the crime scene were sent to the ohio bureau of criminal apprehension lab for analysis while processing the evidence criminalist michel yezzo discovered dozens of synthetic fibers she also located strands of fiberglass clinging to the inside of the sleeping bag finding the fiberglass insulation within that sleeping bag was something that was very unusual in my opinion because that would be very itchy and because of that that's not something that you would want to have in that sort of context [Music] police obtained a warrant to search the mccrady home [Music] in the bedroom they found linens that matched the comforter the victim had been buried in [Music] several fibers were also collected for comparison with those recovered from the crime scene [Music] in the kitchen police located a 357 magnum [Music] the revolver type of gun used to kill jennifer mccrady as the search continued investigators found and collected newly installed fiberglass insulation in the couple's garage the material appeared identical to the insulation found in the sleeping bag then they noticed another potential clue there were numerous shovels and some were coated with dirt though mccrady explained that he had recently done work on his yard police confiscated the tools now forensic examiners began analyzing all of the evidence michelle yezzo found that the carpet fibers collected from the mccrady home shared all the same microscopic characteristics as those recovered from the bedding that the victim had been buried in all of the evidence suggested the victim was murdered in her own home but none of it told them who had carried out the homicide and their best chance of linking jack mcrady to the murder turned out to be a dead end the gun barrel had been bored out making ballistic comparisons nearly impossible police had underestimated jack mccrady i don't see anything in there the suspect had been clever enough to tamper with the one piece of evidence that could directly tie him to the murder or so he thought police contacted richard bisping a forensic microscopist with the private firm of macron associates [Music] he was asked to compare soil samples that were collected from the grave site jack mcrady's shovel and from the suspect's yard we analyze soil samples by doing a side-by-side careful comparison all the details that we can find in the soil itself the soil differs by color and by the presence of plant material it differs by its mineral content it differs by its texture of the particle sizes in the soil grains themselves and all of those features are compared bisbing began his analysis by comparing the soil taken from mccrady's shovel to samples taken from his yard but the texture size color and mineral composition of the two samples did not match but when he compared the soil from the gravesite with the soil taken from the shovel he found one consistency after another we could conclude that the soil from the shovel was similar to the grave site and could have originated from the gravesite and we were able to show that the place of the grave site was different in its in its soil classification even from the place where the defendant lived and the soil was different than most places in the county a short while later ohio state police officer jack mcrady was placed under arrest and charged with the murder of his wife jennifer [Music] though police remain unsure what drove him to murder the evidence suggests that on the evening of september 18th jack macrady shot jennifer one time in the head to cover up his actions he buried her in a remote spot returned home and altered the barrel of his gun [Music] despite his efforts jack mccrady was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to 15 years to life in prison [Music] some killers will go to extraordinary lengths to distance themselves from their deeds but no crime is perfect and sometimes investigators must rely on a few molecules in order to piece together the elements of murder [Music] you

Channel: The New Detectives

Views: 461,026

Keywords: Cold Case Files Review, Crime Scene Analysts, Crime Scene Forensics, Crime Scene Forensics Experts, Crime Scene Reenactments, Crime Solving, Criminal Behavior Analysis, Criminal Case Studies, Criminal Justice, Criminal Minds, Detective Work, Homicide Cases, Jennifer McCrady, Law Enforcement, Lenora Robinson, Murder Evidence Collection, Sensational Crimes, The New Detectives, True Crime Series, True Crime TV Series, Violent Crimes Investigation

Id: G6IgeTI-Gj4

Length: 48min 54sec (2934 seconds)

Published: Sat Jun 26 2021