Catching A Killer With No Evidence | The New Detectives | Real Responders

a quiet town is wrecked with terror as police hunt a killer who preys on young women a vague description and inadequate clues are all they have the next move is up to him someone took great pains to try to dispose of a body stripped of her identity this victim can't lead detectives to her killer any chance of justice must be found in the dead woman's hands a dark knight a sharp curve and a woman lies dead at the bottom of a canyon it looks like an accident but maybe that was the plan [Music] most people don't kill unless they're certain they can get away with it murderers always believe they can outwit the police and that's their fatal error [Music] [Music] in the late night hours on tuesday november 23 1982 police in morris county new jersey were visited by the mother and co-worker of 18 year old amy hoffman [Music] amy had failed to return from her job in a nearby mall amy's mother told police that her daughter worked at the dress store two nights a week [Music] she was on her high school cheerleading team and was saving to go to college to become a chiropractor amy's co-worker said that amy helped her lock up [Music] it was around 9 30 and they were among the last at the mall [Music] when amy failed to return home her mother went to the mall to look for her her car was the only one in the lot her keys were in the ignition amy's book bag purse and wallet were all on the seat [Music] but there was no sign of her daughter frantic mrs hoffman called amy's co-worker the two didn't know where else to turn [Music] police responded to the mall parking lot with a canine handler to track amy her scent trail went cold two parking spaces away evidently she left the mall with someone else but who the parking lot yielded no clues according to morris county detective sergeant john kenicom neither did amy's car we search the vehicle as we do routinely for fingerprints any type of items which may assist us in the missing person but we ultimately didn't find anything but that was about to change two days later on thanksgiving day a man out for an afternoon walk in a secluded area of morris county new jersey made a startling discovery [Music] the lifeless body of a young woman he fled the scene and called police responding deputies from the morris county sheriff's department found the victim lying in an abandoned water retention tank from the description police knew they had found amy hoffman she had suffered multiple stab wounds [Music] the body was removed and sent off for further analysis investigators began scouring the area for clues looking for anything that might help them identify amy's killer blood stains were recovered near the tank but later tests showed they belonged to the victim evidence technicians gathered all that they could sometimes the most valuable clues masquerade as ordinary litter [Music] the autopsy had a little more information to offer the victim had been stabbed repeatedly and had most likely bled to death there were indications that she'd also been sexually assaulted but no biological evidence was found [Music] fibers and bits of foam padding clinging to her boots and clothing were the only potential evidence collected [Music] hoping for more information police returned to the mall to question other employees and i need to ask you some questions one woman stated that when she left the mall around 9 pm she saw a creepy looking man just sitting there in his car she thought the vehicle was an old chevy she only caught a glimpse of the man's face [Music] she could not offer police a detailed description investigators knew they would have to work quickly we knew we had a major offender in our community we knew we had somebody that was a predator and what motivated me as well as all the other law enforcement officers who worked in this case is we had to capture this guy before he he killed again two weeks after amy hoffman was murdered a truck driver parked at a rest stop 20 minutes from the morris county mall was jolted from his sleep a terrified young woman was begging for help she was bleeding badly and barely clinging to life the truck driver called police though she'd lost a lot of blood 25 year old deirdre o'brien was still conscious when the paramedics came she told authorities that less than one mile from her home a car forced her off the road fearing the driver of the other vehicle had been hurt in the accident she went to see if he was okay he brandished a knife and forced her into his car an old chevy he drove her to the rest stop sexually assaulted her and then stabbed her repeatedly deirdre o'brien would not survive her injuries she died at the hospital but not before giving a description of her killer the victim of the second homicide advised law enforcement officers that the assailant was in fact a white male he was a about the same size as as the victim that he had jean blue jeans on and a certain type of shirt it was a western type shirt the suspect and his vehicle matched the description of the suspect in the amy hoffman case [Music] with only tiny synthetic fibers recovered from deirdre o'brien's clothing investigators went to the site where she had been abducted to search for more clues they found a tire track left in the dirt it was photographed and then a cast was carefully made [Music] to preserve the impression forensic investigators use a durable casting medium called dental stone originally formulated for making dental casts [Music] it sets up quickly and is more durable than a traditional plaster while the tread was only one potential clue it was the strongest most energy was put onto the tire track itself because we could see where it's location approximately four feet from the victim's vehicle that was probably the suspect's tire the cast and photographs of the tread were sent to forensic tire expert pete mcdonald and i looked at the tread design guide book and found that there were maybe 20 different imprints similar however the cyberlink snowpower tire looked the most consistent detective sergeant kennacom carried the photo of the tread impression to shopping malls neighborhoods and junk yards but he couldn't find a single tire like the one pete mcdonald described [Music] investigators were driven to find the killer before the killer found victim number three but then a call came in there'd been another stabbing [Music] investigators in morris county new jersey struggled to solve the homicides of two young women all of the clues pointed to a serial killer but none pointed to a suspect as investigators raced to identify a suspect before he could strike again another stabbing was reported [Music] this time the victim was a man but the details were familiar [Music] 34 year old james kodatic told police that while he was driving he was pulled over by an early model chevy with a flashing blue light on the dash the driver of the other car pulled him out of his vehicle and stabbed him kodatic fought off his attacker and fled to his mother's house his description of the assailant resembled the murderer at large to police james kodatic was fortunate his wounds were not serious an ambulance came to take him to the hospital [Music] before leaving he gave the police permission to examine his car for any trace evidence his attacker might have left [Music] hoping to find evidence linking this incident to the unsolved murders examiners thoroughly vacuumed the car [Music] it was an early model chevy the same type as described by witnesses of the previous two murders [Music] thinking it may just be a strange coincidence detective kennicom took a closer look at the tires i looked at the right rear tire of the vehicle and it was in fact like the tire we were looking for i then went to my attache case where i carried a copy of the sketch of the tire with certain important measurements measured the tire on the right rear of the vehicle saw some oddities with that particular tire and made a match james kodatic's vehicle was now linked to the abduction site of 25 year old deidra o'brien murdered a few weeks before the killer's third victim became the investigation's prime suspect to be absolutely certain that the tires matched investigators turned again to forensic tire expert pete mcdonald the tire in question is rolled on what's essentially a giant ink pad leaving an impression of its entire tread circumference on a length of white cardboard after completing this process on kodatic's chevy investigators sent a negative transparency of the tire impression found at deirdre o'brien's abduction site to peter mcdonald mcdonald then compared that to the suspect's tire impression after 25 hours of scrutiny mcdonald was absolutely certain he'd found what he was looking for i was able to make a positive identification because there were many cuts and tears in the tire that were unique to that tire only [Music] that proved that kodatic's car was at the scene the information was enough for investigators to obtain a warrant kodatic was still in the hospital when arrested for suspicion of murdering deirdre o'brien when confronted with the tire impression evidence the suspect admitted making a sharp turn on that stretch of highway but not at the time of the murder though police did not believe him the evidence was only circumstantial investigators had to find another way to build their case and not just for the murder of deirdre o'brien but also for the murder of 18 year old amy hoffman they wouldn't need to go very far the fibers collected from kodatic's car interior were compared against those found on both victims victims evidence such as fibers from skirts were actually found in his car and then carpet fibers from his vehicle and foam from the seat cushion was actually found on the victims said it was a cross link despite the evidence against him kodatic maintained he was not the killer [Music] he pointed to his stab wound as proof investigators decided to take a closer look at the injury [Music] the severity and the angle suggested it was self-inflicted but why did he bother we believe that he thought the police might have had an idea or were looking at him as a suspect in a case which we weren't but that's why we believed he made this particular scenario up but kodatic's plan backfired and led investigators right to him based on the evidence police believe that kodatic prowled for vulnerable women to abduct molest and kill for the murders of amy hoffman and deirdre o'brien james kodatic was sentenced to 95 years kodatic was difficult to apprehend because his random victims had no connection to him most murders aren't random and the killer goes to great lengths to obliterate the connection between himself and the victim on may 8 1993 a young couple at lake lou yeager park in illinois frantically summoned the help of the park caretaker someone had built a fire in a pile of brush in the center was what looked like a mannequin at first the couple thought it was a prank but when they looked closer they realized whoever did this was deadly serious the body was real after the body was pulled from the smoldering pile the police were notified police could discern that the victim was female but that was all her head was missing they retrieved melted trash bags and the charred cardboard carton from the debris detective mike shealy of the illinois state police led the search for more clues we brought in illinois state police dogs and attempted to search the area for any other possible evidence and the possibility of finding the victim's decapitated head those those were unsuccessful investigators had no clue who the killer was and no clue to the victim either they felt confident that the identity of the victim would lead to her killer this crime was simply too gruesome to be a random attack [Music] anyone who'd go to all that trouble to to try to burn a body and to decapitate them went to a lot of trouble because of the association between the suspect and the victim for now their best clue was the victim herself x-rays revealed fibroid tumors in her uterus severe enough to cause medical problems the plastic bags were ordinary trash bags the cardboard carton was from a self-service moving company [Music] neither seemed like much of a clue [Music] a forensic anthropologist was called in to determine all he could from the victim's bones determining an approximate age height and the victim's race would be crucial to matching her with a missing person's report forensic anthropologist dr mark johnsy of the illinois state police crime lab made the analysis [Music] the pubic symphysis which is down the pelvic region is a very good indicator of age the pelvic bone in this area changes very diagnostically with age and based on that i could make an assessment of her age which i gave her an age range of 35 to 39. establishing race was more problematic [Music] flesh tone is distorted in death and the fire didn't help that [Music] dr johnsy had to rely on his best judgment under difficult circumstances [Music] both the pubic hair and the axillary hair in the armpit which she had both was very straight and she was fairly light skinned and with the combination combinations features it was just felt that she was a caucasian now investigators needed a name [Music] the most certain way of identifying a person is by fingerprints but that works only if they can be lifted from the victim and if the victim's prints are on file somewhere illinois state police forensic scientist gary havey was assigned the task of seeing that this jane doe met those requirements the victim's hands were removed and sent in sealed cans to his lab they were dry and stiffened in a clutched position [Music] if havey hoped to raise any prints he'd have to amputate individual fingers and soften the tissue in the case of jane doe in order to soften the tissue one of the procedures or methods that i have found to be useful over the last years is actually soak the fingers in a solution of detergent the solution softens the tissue on the friction ridges which are the unique arches whirls and loops on every person's fingertips once the fingers were softened and dried havey rolled them in ink and printed their ridge patterns onto white paper but he wasn't satisfied i didn't want just suitable prints i wanted the absolute best standard we could achieve we then decided to utilize a different method in obtaining the friction ridge detail from the fingers and palms over the years i've had good success utilizing black powder and frosted lifting tape the powder and tape yielded better results which were then photographed and labeled they would then be classified and sent to aphis the automated fingerprint identification system in joliet illinois which holds fingerprint cards for the entire state only jane doe's left thumb and index fingers were clear enough for the aphis computer [Music] usually that's all it needs at this time there were 1.7 to 1.8 million cards on file in joliet it would be totally impossible for me to manually search all of those cards but with aphis we can actually scan those individual cards in a period of 30 minutes upwards to two or three hours the results came back negative no matches the victim and her killer remained anonymous a nameless murder victim was found burning in an illinois park until investigators could determine the identity of the caucasian woman her killer would remain free desperate for clues detectives interviewed witnesses who were in the park the night the body was discovered [Music] two students taking a drive after their prom reported seeing the fire nearby was a cargo van they believed the tags were from missouri the back was open and they could see plastic trash bags [Music] detectives were convinced the teenagers next saw the killer they actually pull alongside the suspect van um and and they're they're quite alarmed that somebody would actually have a fire in this no burn area they're familiar with the park and basically at that point the uh the suspect sees the car pull alongside and he immediately runs and jumps into the van and speeds away but without a tag number it was another untraceable lead to solve this case investigators had to identify the victim who they referred to as janie doe they expanded the aphis fingerprint search we performed atha searches in over 45 different apis systems throughout the united states canada and even puerto rico this would prove to be the most extensive aphis search ever undertaken by the illinois state police millions of prints were scrutinized and still no leads [Music] the victim apparently had no criminal record and was not on any database likewise hundreds of missing persons reports were scrutinized over a period of more than 18 months though none matched the description of a 30-something caucasian woman whose fingerprints matched janie does one name consistently popped up though the one constant factor that we continued to see was a victim uh lynn matchum thomas from the greater st louis area she had came on our list before and and we had called st louis missing persons and also talked to the homicide squad but we had discounted the fact that this would be our victim because she was african-american with no other leads investigators went to speak with shirley macham the mother of lynn matchum thomas like her daughter she lived in missouri only 50 miles from the illinois park where the victim was found shirley had reported lynn missing the day before the body was found according to her mother lynn had light skin like the victim she also had fibroid tumors that she was seeing a doctor about in fact the day she disappeared her brother had dropped her off at her doctor's office and made arrangements to pick her up afterward [Music] when he returned he was 10 minutes late [Music] he went inside but she was no longer there [Music] he assumed that she grew tired of waiting and decided to walk home he didn't think anything more about it later that night mrs macham received a call from lynn's husband curtis thomas asking where lynn might be he said she'd left his house 20 minutes earlier and he assumed she'd gone to her mother's but her mother hadn't seen her all day [Music] shirley matcham knew her son-in-law to be violent and suspected the worst the next day she filed a missing persons report with the st louis police department investigators reviewed the report they learned that st louis police had followed up with a visit to lynn's home to speak with her husband curtis thomas he told them that the night lin disappeared she was moving out of the house he wasn't happy about it and they fought the last time he'd seen her she was walking away from the house at first he thought she'd just run off without her things but when she didn't show up at her mother's he thought something serious might have happened sifting through the report investigators found another potential clue we also found out that when lynn macham thomas was discovered missing that the police had went to the thomas residence and asked for permission to search the house mr thomas let him in they conducted a search on the second and first floors and when the police asked to go to the basement mr thomas insisted that he call his attorney and they terminated the search with no victim or any signs of foul play the missing persons investigation in st louis ended but now almost two years later investigators in illinois suspected that the body found in the park was lynn matchum thomas the timing of her disappearance fit her medical condition was the same and her husband curtis thomas was becoming the prime suspect investigators in illinois struggled to identify a decapitated woman found burning in a state park though they believed she was surely matchum thomas and that her husband curtis had put her there they had to prove it [Music] investigators went back to lynn's mother for past employment information about her daughter and quite to our surprise she said that her daughter had been employed by a local bank and during the course of that employment that she had been fingerprinted so we were able to go to the st louis police department now and look in a specific file those files were not in any database and manually had to pull those fingerprints to compare them with our janie dill [Music] the comparison was made jamie doe was in fact lynn macham thomas [Music] because of their stormy marriage their violent history and the fact that he was the last one to have seen lynn curtis thomas became the prime suspect what police needed was proof investigators now tried to find a link between evidence left at the crime scene and the suspect they determined that a cardboard carton pulled from the fire was from the same moving company that the victim was using to pack her belongings however incriminating the evidence was only circumstantial to learn more about curtis thomas and his activities following lin's disappearance investigators located an ex-girlfriend who he started seeing after his wife was reported missing she said that curtis claimed the police were stupid for misidentifying the race of janie doe [Music] this was several weeks before she was identified as african-american she also added that curtis had access to a van through his work it matched the description of the van seen at the park the night of the murder the girlfriend was frightened of curtis and ended the relationship that testimony along with the rest of the circumstantial evidence they gathered gave investigators enough to arrest curtis thomas in january 1995 for suspicion of murdering his wife almost two years earlier a search warrant for his home was issued though thomas insisted he knew nothing about the fate of his estranged wife investigators found newspaper clippings regarding the mysterious body in illinois police theorized that the abusive curtis thomas was unwilling to let his wife simply walk out on him investigators believe that after murdering lynn machamp thomas he kept the body in the basement until he could get the work van and to throw investigators off his trail he beheaded the victim then transported her to the park in illinois where he set the remains on fire curtis thomas was found guilty he was sentenced to life without parole [Music] thomas tried to erase the connection between himself and the victim others try to erase all evidence of the crime itself on september 14 1985 a motorist on a secluded highway in utah pulled over to help a frantic man david moseman said his pickup truck went off the road in logan canyon and plunged 285 feet to the river below his wife tanya was still down there the motorist called for help though banged up and visibly shaken moseman's injuries were relatively minor he told emergency workers that his wife was conscious when he'd helped her out of the wreck and onto the shore [Applause] [Music] he begged them to help her as david moseman was transported to the hospital a rescue team was in the canyon searching in the dark for his wife about 40 feet from the overturned vehicle caught on rocks in the middle of the river lay tanya moseman she was face down in the water dead by the time she was retrieved david moseman was in the hospital getting his wounds treated he told the nurse that he glanced off the road for a second to look at his wife at that instant the truck went over he blamed his carelessness for the accident [Music] investigators arrived at the hospital they asked the nurse if david was in any shape to make a statement she told him that his injuries were minor and he didn't stay there she said that mosman told her he'd been thrown from the truck just as it went over the embankment [Music] she considered him lucky to be alive investigators waited until the next day to get a detailed account of the accident when asked about his marriage david moseman said that things between him and his wife had been shaky they were going through a bitter divorce but lately they were working to save their relationship [Music] that night he'd taken her to a restaurant they enjoyed themselves and each other it was like it used to be before their relationship soured after dinner they'd headed home [Music] david moseman had driven that stretch of road dozens of times before he said he must have taken his eyes off the road as he approached the curb [Music] he said all he remembered was his wife's screams confused and shaken he made his way to the bottom of the canyon when he reached tanya she was partially ejected from the back of the truck he helped her out and started back up to get help utah highway patrol officer larry forsgren worked the accident investigation he said he put her on the bank and that she was all right and he had talked to her and she was fine he said that she did mention that her her head hurt a little bit but other than that and and he didn't see any any blood she wasn't bleeding and he put on the bank so then he'd go up and get help moseman said it took him more than two hours to climb up the canyon in the dark he thought he must have blacked out or fallen asleep in the cold i told him he didn't know how his wife ended up back in the river in the days following tonya mosman's death accident reconstruction experts studied the spot where the truck went over on the pavement was a small scuff mark showing that the steering wheel was turned abruptly off the road at about 20 to 30 miles per hour for cache county deputy medical examiner sergeant george becker that fact presented an inconsistency with david moseman's account at that point the vehicle would tilt up to go off the road as it's going over the bank uh it would have been impossible to get out of the vehicle on the driver's side you'd have to lift the door straight up and climb out while the vehicle is moving it's impossible the routine analysis of the accident had raised more questions than it answered for investigators this case demanded a closer look police in utah continued investigating the tragic death of tanya moseman killed when the truck she and her husband david were driving plunged 285 feet into a canyon [Music] david moseman's account of the accident didn't jibe with the facts investigators requested an autopsy on tanya mosman [Music] water in her lungs showed that her cause of death was drowning a mark from hip to shoulder suggested she'd been wearing her seat belt which would have made it impossible for her to be thrown through the back windshield as her husband claimed the only other marks to her body were three blunt and distinctive contusions on the back of her head looking for answers the forensics team inspected the truck for what might have caused the marks they also used chemically treated suaves called hema sticks which turn blue on contact with traces of blood no blood was found and no object in the truck could have caused the victim's contusions [Music] investigators went back to the scene to gather more information what they found was a length of sprinkler irrigation pipe entangled on the riverbank david moseman a schoolteacher moonlighted as a sprinkler installer the pipe was sent to dr kent glanville of the logan county police department crime lab for further examination he placed the pipe over life-sized photographs of the wounds on tonya's head the pipe was a perfect fit but mosman had a reason to carry it and however unlikely it might have struck the victim during the truck's tumble with all the inconsistencies and lingering questions investigators pressed mosman to try to remember more details of the accident he was asked to draw a map of the road and to mark where he lost control and went over [Music] he did it with pinpoint accuracy something most accident victims can't do he was exactly sure that this is where he went off and it was close to the approximate same area that the vehicle went off and that was kind of odd because when he went off it was nighttime it was dark and for him to pinpoint it he had to be pretty familiar with with that location and i got the impression that he knew beforehand where that vehicle is going to go off two days after the accident that impression was reinforced when a friend of david moseman's named terry contacted police he said the couple had a difficult marriage and that david was always joking about how he was going to kill tanya [Music] chief prosecutor jim jenkins followed the investigation david told terry that he didn't want to go through the expense of a divorce he didn't want to risk losing custody of the two children and he didn't want to give any of the property or finances that he had accumulated now trying to prove that david moseman had murdered his wife police began interviewing tanya's friends they were well aware of the mosman's disintegrating marriage one friend said that tanya was often terrified of david [Music] sometimes he was violent mostly they fought over the custody of their two young children she told investigators that david had recently tried to make tanya sign a document he'd written forcing her to relinquish custody of their kids if they divorced he'd even threatened to kill her if she didn't sign it even so tanya sought legal advice about getting a divorce shortly after that david began acting very nicely to her tanya told her friend that she was looking forward to dinner with her husband she sincerely believed that on the night she died they would reconcile it all seemed tragically convenient for david moseman so investigators continued to dig they discovered that david had had a ten thousand dollar life insurance policy on his wife for many years but nine months before her death while their marriage was crumbling he took out additional policies for an additional one hundred thousand dollars [Music] a motive was firmly established and the circumstances of tanya's death were suspicious [Music] still it could have been an improbable accident investigators had to prove that it wasn't david moseman said he left his injured wife on the riverbank but she was found in the middle of the river [Music] investigators hired hydrological engineer dr dave tullis to see if that was possible the deputy wanted me to assess the situation see if there was any reasonable way that she could have gone from the riverbank where he said he left her to the location in the river in the condition that she was in dr tullis measured the river's depth velocity and direction of the current to calculate if an object as large as a human body could be carried from the bank and deposited at the spot where the victim was found he determined that the shallow water near the bank couldn't support a body and even if it could the speed and direction of the current would carry it along the edge not to the middle of the river if she was unconscious she couldn't move and the current would not have been able to to move her along and so she would have been found right by the riverbank in the unconscious condition or drown condition [Music] but she wasn't remembered she had never been taken to the bank of the river as her husband had said [Music] david moseman was arrested for suspicion of murdering his wife investigators believe that david moseman tried to kill tanya in the premeditated crash but when she survived he had to climb down the canyon and finish the job the motive apparently was hatred of his wife custody of his children and one hundred ten thousand dollars in insurance for his crimes david moseman was sentenced to life in prison prisons are filled with people who thought they'd committed the perfect crime but a murder isn't over once the victim is dead for investigators that's just the beginning they turned to forensic scientists to help bring justice to the victims by exposing a killer's fatal error you

Channel: Real Responders

Views: 294,188

Keywords: real responders, real responders documentaries, the new detectives, suspect, killer, murder, no evidence, inspectors, investigation, police, police investigation

Id: ZaKsR8SCFiE

Length: 50min 59sec (3059 seconds)

Published: Thu Mar 11 2021