Investigators Struggle To Find Killer After Body Discovered | The New Detectives | Real Responders

an unidentified body turns up in the woods of north carolina with no motive and no suspects investigators struggle to find the killer in california a housewife is taken into custody when no record of her arrest turns up detectives begin to fear the worst a tragic horse accident ends the life of a montana woman but examiners uncover the markings of murder when a crime scene yields vague clues detectives must piece together their case through other means forensic science has found ways to uncover motive exposing those who kill for love or [Music] money [Music] north carolina's northwest corner is dominated by rugged terrain its landscape untouched by the problems of city life that was about to change on january 7 1994 a department of transportation worker surveyed some land near a rural highway [Music] he made a horrifying discovery [Music] investigators from the watauga county sheriff's department were called to the scene hidden among the overgrowth they found a body though the cool weather helped preserve the body investigators determined he had been there for some time the victim a male in his 30s or 40s had gunshot wounds on the left temple and right side of the neck [Music] the body was completely new except for a watch and ring on his left hand but other than the jewelry there wasn't much evidence to identify the victim or tie him to his killer investigators scoured the scene around the body searching for any scrap of evidence a few feet from the body they found a piece of black electrical tape the single strand of tape was collected and sent to the crime lab for analysis captain paula townsend worked the case hoping to identify the john doe she entered what little information she had into the police database we knew that we did not have any outstanding missing persons in our county so we would have to make some effort to locate a missing person from another area and determine his identity they didn't have to wait long that evening detectives got a call from police in nearby salisbury a man in their town had been reported missing several weeks before he fit the description of the dead body found along the road his name was victor gunnerson salisbury police agreed to forward their case file [Music] an autopsy showed that two bullets to the head had ended the victim's life analysis of the stomach showed the presence of undigested potatoes eaten within five hours of his murder [Music] townsend searched through gunnerson's case file looking for any clue that could help her identify him as the victim there was nothing conclusive but if gunnerson was the victim townsend learned he had a sensational past victor gunderson was actually a swedish national um he had come to the united states seeking political asylum because he had actually been criminally charged with assassinating the prime minister olaf palma in sweden a few years earlier gunnerson had been held as the primary suspect in the assassination but was released when no witnesses could identify him as the killer watauga investigators were having a similar problem to confirm that the body was his investigators requested his fingerprints which were on file at interpol a week after the body was found the prince arrived in north carolina they matched [Music] now police to determine why someone wanted victor gunnerson dead his notorious past could not be ignored when we learned about what had happened to him in sweden we didn't know if it was related or not we did have to consider that possibility that there was some political motivation in his death the small town murder had huge international implications but as investigators probed gunnerson's final days they learned he had other problems close to home in january having heard about the case on the news a woman named kay whedon came forward to make a statement she'd met gundersen on thanksgiving and had been out with him several times that week about two months ago but after their last date on december 3rd she hadn't heard from him again that night he'd taken her out to dinner whedon confirmed that gunnerson had eaten a baked potato at that time based on the autopsy results investigators knew that this was his last meal after dinner whedon invited him back to her place but they were not alone whedon's ex-boyfriend lc underwood and a friend named shelly thompson cruised by the house around 11 pm it wasn't a friendly visit kay whedon described her stormy two-year relationship with underwood to police though they'd broken up he refused to let her out of his life he had stalked her for some time he was very jealous and obsessive there were several incidents where he had confronted her when she was with another date and the fact that he drove by on the night of december 3rd when victor gunderson was in her house caused him to be a suspect in this case the theory that gunnerson was the target of a political assassination was losing its credibility lc underwood's obsessive jealousy made him a prime suspect in the swede's murder but it wouldn't be an easy case to pursue [Music] in addition to being a suspect he was also a cop [Music] lc underwood had been in law enforcement for 19 and a half years he began his law enforcement career in wilkesboro north carolina and he later moved through a couple of other agencies before he finally moved to salisbury and he had been a police officer in salisbury for about eight years pointing the finger at a police officer is tricky business if investigators suspicions about underwood were wrong they'd be destroying a colleague's professional and personal life but if they were correct they'd be fighting an uphill battle against someone who knew how to hide evidence to make their case investigators would have to stay one step ahead of underwood instead of confronting him directly detectives began by questioning the people around him shelley thompson had been in the car when the suspect drove by whedon's house underwood had told her that he was doing a favor for a friend when he drove by and jotted down gunnerson's license plate number i don't know thompson said that when they returned to his house he called the station and asked a colleague to run the plates investigators confirmed that underwood was given gunnerson's name and address that night [Music] the information was enough for police to obtain a warrant to search underwood's home [Music] as they searched his house investigators asked underwood what he knew about victor gunnerson's murder not only did underwood deny any knowledge of the crime he claimed he'd never even heard the name before the suspect had just been caught in a lie but that didn't prove murder investigators needed solid physical evidence to connect him to the crime the initial search of the immaculate home contributed nothing to the case [Music] if underwood had killed the swede he was too smart and too organized to leave a smoking gun the only way to catch him would be to find less obvious clues in unexpected places behind the washing machine they noticed something they had seen before a piece of black electrical tape like the one found near victor gunnerson's body it appeared the meticulous cop had underestimated his colleague's [Music] determination county north carolina police struggled to solve the murder of 38 year old victor gunderson in the home of the prime suspect police officer lc underwood come on back over here investigators found a critical piece of evidence black electrical tape one particular piece of tape that was found on the back of underwood's dryer in his utility room was consistent in several ways with the tape that was found at the crime scene near victor gunderson's body the unlikely clue was turned over to the trace evidence department at the north carolina state bureau of investigation [Music] technicians compared the sample with the tape found at the crime scene trace evidence expert troy hamlin studied and compared the characteristics of the two samples the physical dimensions were compared the width the thickness the composition was also compared which were inorganic and organic characteristics all of these were consistent with one another and therefore those two items of evidence could have originated from the same roll of tape [Music] it was a key finding but the case against underwood couldn't be made on the tape evidence alone [Music] detectives needed something to physically link the suspect directly to the victim they obtained a warrant to search his car but like his house the vehicle was impeccably clean even the trunk was spotless still investigators refused to simply walk away the trunk liner was removed and sent to the lab for closer analysis [Music] that too would be a struggle the liner had been recently washed and vacuumed removing a great deal of trace evidence in the process using sticky tape examiner troy hamlin went over every square inch of the liner searching for any microscopic clue that survived the cleaning he found nothing [Music] the veteran police officer it seemed was getting away with murder but then hamlin spotted a minuscule clue that could potentially have enormous value he plucked a single hair root barely visible to the naked eye more carefully at that area of the carpet he was able to extract 17 more hairs deeply embedded in the weave [Music] hairs collected from the victim and those found in the carpeting were mounted on slides and analyzed under comparison microscope the microscopic analysis showed that the hairs were physically indistinguishable [Music] detectives finally had the break they needed when i received a phone call from the lab analyst who told me that he had found the head hair in underwood's trunk mat that was consistent with victor gunderson's i was ecstatic but if their entire physical case was going to hang by this microscopic evidence investigators needed irrefutable proof examiners determined that the hair contained enough material for a dna analysis the tests confirmed that the dna sequence from the hair found in the trunk of the suspect's vehicle was the same as the dna sequence taken from the victim's blood [Music] with underwood now physically linked to the murder victim police finally had the evidence they needed a warrant was obtained for his arrest underwood's game of cat and mouse had come to an end police theorized that on december 3rd having seen his ex-girlfriend with another man underwood became enraged with jealousy he paid a late night visit to gunnerson's apartment and abducted his rival with his victim tied up inside the trunk underwood drove for over an hour before arriving at gunnerson's final destination he fired two shots into gundersen's head then began the process of covering up his crime in july of 1997 l.c underwood was found guilty of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison fueled by jealous rage lc underwood would stop at nothing to keep kay wheaton in his life others will use manipulation and murder as a means to satisfy their desires an hour north of los angeles the pacific coast highway winds its way through ventura a city of beautiful beaches a thriving harbor and a close-knit community on may 6 1996 michael daley contacted the ventura police department to report his wife sherry missing he told police that his wife had driven their boys to school early that morning when it came time to pick the children up three hours later she didn't show the 35 year old woman was known as a loving and responsible mother it wasn't like her to forget her children he said that his wife had planned to do some shopping earlier in the day no one had heard from her since detective sean conroy of the ventura police department worked the case he knew from experience that sherry may have gone missing on purpose well the reaction to any missing person's case is generally if a full-grown adult is missing it's because they want to be missing but concerned family members didn't believe that sherry would leave her children they drove around town until they spotted sherry's van in the parking lot of a discount store they contacted police inside the vehicle investigators found her keys purse and a mother's day gift she'd purchased at the store there were no other clues nor any indication of a struggle the following day detectives convened for their regular weekly meeting one of the officers mentioned that a ventura resident had called in about having seen a strange arrest the day before it was in the same parking lot where sherry dally's van was found with her parents or other family members yet one of them was one of these they paid a visit to the witness he said he saw a woman fitting sherry's description being handcuffed by a blonde woman in a tan suit the blonde appeared to be a law enforcement officer he then saw the woman in handcuffs being placed into a green car and driven away the witness tried to catch the license plate but it appeared to have been masked over investigators were now hopeful that sherry was not missing at all at that time we felt that another police agency had come in our jurisdiction and made an arrest without notifying us and we felt that by making a few phone calls that we would discover that the person in the missing persons report sherry dally had been arrested and we had solved the case and with just a few hours work but any hope for a speedy resolution no law enforcement officer from ventura or any other jurisdiction had any record of such an incident police now believe they had a kidnapping on their hands and with no communication from the kidnapper they feared they might also be looking at a homicide [Music] detectives wanted to interview michael dally in greater detail but when they went to talk to him they found him with another woman her name was diana han both were brought in for questioning skip young interviewed michael dally in our first several conversations with michael he did not appear to be the worried frantic concerned husband that you or i may be he was very matter of fact didn't have a reasonable explanation as to why his wife would leave him dally told police that at the time of his wife's disappearance he'd been at the grocery store where he worked the alibi checked out dally's girlfriend diana han denied any knowledge of sherry's whereabouts but it wasn't her statement that raised suspicions hidden beneath her bangs han sported some fresh scratches she claimed she'd had a bike accident and tumbled over the handlebars investigators weren't buying the story we know from years of police experience that is impossible for someone to fall over the handlebars of a bike without putting their hands out to break their fall it's an automatic reflex yet she had no injuries on her hands she had no injuries on her knees we knew at that point that she was lying to us place a ruler up against the bruise photographs of the injury were taken in the pictures investigators could also see faint bruising on her arms and hands it appeared that someone had gripped her so tightly that they even caused bruises to her fingers police suspected that han was involved in the kidnapping she didn't own a green car but she could have rented one investigators canvassed rental car agencies in the ventura county area they learned that a car was rented the day before sherry's disappearance and returned the day after with 126 miles per hour the name of the renter records showed was diana han her credit card had been used to pay for the car and her signature was noted on the form detective conroy hoped that an examination of the rented vehicle would help them find out what happened to sherry dally even though the abduction had happened you know at least a week prior to this the rental agency had not re-rented the car we asked them why the car had been returned with the rear view mirror knocked off of the front windshield investigators confirmed the car rented by han was green exactly as witnesses had described [Music] it was towed to the ventura crime lab there criminalists processed the vehicle searching for any sign of sherry dally throughout the car they noticed staining it appeared to be blood [Music] to find out technicians used moistened swabs to collect the samples [Music] in the lab the samples were placed in a tube with a chemical that reacts to blood if blood is present the swab turns bluish green using this method ventura police detective harry scott got many conclusive results we found that there was blood on the passenger handle the door handle on the inside we found blood and were been washed up on the ceiling or the headliner area of the car and also some blood in the trunk of the car lab work confirmed that the blood was human but there investigators reached a dead end though they suspected the blood was sherries they had no record of her blood type but science has new ways around that obstacle technicians took blood samples from dally's parents from these they generated dna barcodes and compared them against the dna rendered from the blood in the car the results were unmistakable the blood found in the car had come from the biological child of sherry dally's parents but it was not an encouraging finding the presence of her blood throughout the vehicle confirmed their worst fears it was unlikely they would find sherry alive diana han was now the prime suspect but since they didn't have a body they couldn't prove that a murder had been committed the police weren't the only ones looking for answers this is where the community stepped up and friends of cherry dally each weekend morning would gather at the department store where she was abducted and they would go out in search parties on june 1st nearly a month after the abduction searchers noticed the order of decomposition in a remote location on the outskirts of ventura scouring the area along the embankment investigators found a human skull [Music] they believed they had uncovered the final resting place of sherry dally police in ventura california continued searching for sherry dally a young wife and the mother of two who had unexpectedly disappeared a month after she was reported missing by her husband investigators believe they had finally found her the search party calmed the scene in the area where the skull and skeletal remains were found pieces of jewelry were also uncovered the items were carefully collected in the hope that someone could identify them as sherry dallas investigators also found clothing identical to the outfit sherry was wearing when she was last seen their condition told a lot we were able to match the clothing to the bones and we were actually able to determine that there were numerous stab wounds through the shirt and through the bra that showed up on the ribs of the victim dental records confirmed that the remains belonged to sherry dally analysis showed that whoever killed her did so with a vengeance [Music] in addition to the multiple stab wounds her neck had been severed with a sharp object the medical examiner concluded that after a long vigorous struggle the victim had been nearly beheaded the autopsy findings were consistent with the blood staining found in diana hahn's rental car and if han had endured a lengthy struggle with dally it would explain the scratches and bruising that covered the suspect's forehead and arms during her first interview detectives believed that diana hahn had killed sherry deli but they didn't think she had planned the murder on her own monthly phone searching han's calling card records from the day of the murder detective skip young found evidence that her lover had been in on the plot the day of the murder we were able to determine that there was at least three telephone communications from diana han to michael dally the morning of the actual kidnapping and homicide one of the calls was made to him from a pay phone just minutes from the ravine where the body was found it appeared that han was checking in with dally police focus turned back to the victim's husband investigators learned from witnesses that michael dally was a drug user and that he'd been flaunting his affair with han for the past few years we learned from close friends and neighbors that sherry had reportedly given michael an ultimatum clean up your act knock off the drug use drop the other woman and supposedly sherry was actually seeking the advice of an attorney investigators speculated that with sherry out of the way dolly wouldn't have to comply with his wife's demand he could pursue his new relationship without having to pay alimony or share his children a lot of activity during the detective's way of thinking he had a lot to gain from his wife's disappearance the evidence against diana hahn and michael dally was damaging but investigators still hadn't physically connected them to the kidnapping or the murder [Music] if they were going to make a case stick they'd need some evidence proving that han had disguised herself as a blonde law enforcement officer [Music] again the close-knit community came forward to help a clerk who was following the case in the press told police that she remembered selling dianna hahn a blonde wig sometime before the murder the clerk also commented that she had noticed a photograph of a man and two children inside han's purse she assumed the photo was of han's family police showed the clerk a photo of michael dally and his two kids it was the same photograph the clerk had seen in han's purse investigators learned that diana hong couldn't have children of her own they began to suspect that michael dally had manipulated her with promises of a bright new future detectives continued to build their case they poured over han's financial records including copies of chess one of them was written to a large discount store just days before the abduction the list of items purchased included a piece of poster board plastic trash bags a two-piece tan uniform and a hatchet police obtained a warrant to search han's home they never found the hatchet or the uniform but they did locate a piece of poster board the barcode number on the poster board was identical to that recorded on the receipt [Music] they couldn't understand how the board fit on han's shopping list until they took a close look at the shape cut out of it [Music] it was exactly the same shape as a license plate that explained why witnesses couldn't see a license plate number han had covered it over with a fake okay so we gotta be pretty serious about how we planned this but it was unlikely that han thought of that herself what we should do is we should get a wig and investigators believe that dally masterminded the murder plot days in advance motivated by the lure of a new life with michael ron was more than willing to dispose of the one thing she believed was standing in their way police believe that a disguised diana hahn approached sherry as she was leaving the store parking lot pretending to be a law enforcement officer she lured sherry from the car and handcuffed her the staged arrest worked to plan but investigators believe that sherry dally quickly saw through the ruse it is our belief that within a short period of time after sherry was abducted in the green vehicle that she somehow recognized diana han disguise and all we can tell by the damage to the interior of the vehicle mainly the rear view mirror had been knocked off that sherry obviously put up some type of a struggle but sherry couldn't fight off her attacker after driving her to a remote location on viciously stabbed dally at least 17 times and placed the body into the ravine [Music] diana han was arrested for the murder of sherry dally on august 1 1996. [Music] from her jail cell she reluctantly implicated michael dally as the mastermind behind the plot dally was arrested the following november though the murder investigation had come to an end ventura would be forever haunted by the young housewife's tragic end all she wanted to do was to have a family have a husband raise her children i still think about this case i still think about what was going through sherry dally's mind when she realized that it was diana hahn behind the wheel and she was going to have to fight for her life diana han was found guilty of first degree murder and kidnapping she was sentenced to life in prison without parole tried six months later michael dally was also found guilty in the murder of his wife he was also sentenced to life in prison when money is at stake some family bonds can become twisted and deadly nestled in the rocky mountains of western montana mineral county is known for its frontier feel but simple lifestyles aren't immune from deadly mishaps on november 28 1995 chris hanson's wife nanette went to the stable to feed the couple's horses she never came back to the house hanson found his 34 year old wife lying in the mud she was cold and pale hansen called 9-1-1 he thought that maybe nanette had been trampled by horses it's my wife she was either dead or dying the operator immediately dispatched when paramedics arrived nanette was not breathing she had no pulse all her husband chris and stepson scott could do was watch as they attempted to revive nanette with cpr at first paramedics efforts seemed promising the victim took a single gasp of air on her own but that breath would be her last she was declared dead since they performed coroner's duties in this small town the sheriff's department was also contacted chris henson told investigators he stumbled upon nanette's body in the muddy trail next to the horse pasture he said that after calling but there 911 nothing they could do because of his multiple sclerosis he had very poor eyesight if he had seen her sooner he may have been able to save her life returning from the accident scene to the mineral county sheriff's department under sheriff anita parkin had no reason to believe that nanette's death was anything but an unfortunate accident and she did have some bruises that looked like maybe a horse stepped on her or something similar that nature and with the conditions in the barnyard i could see where somebody may have been knocked down or or slipped or something happened of that nature news of nanette's death spread through the small 3000 person community with it suspicions swirled within hours friends and neighbors of the victim were calling the sheriff's department to voice their misgivings about the tragedy no one in the community believed nanette hansen's death was an accident police in mineral county montana continued their investigation into the death of 34 year old nanette hansen accidentally killed by one of her horses but the community wasn't buying that scenario close friends came forward to urge further investigation into nanette's death to them the accident didn't make sense nanette was experienced with the care and control of horses she owned only gentle slow-moving animals the mineral county prosecutor's office was receiving calls from the same skeptical friends but so far there wasn't any evidence to merit the town's suspicion attorney sean donovan consulted with the sheriff's department they decided that the only way to dispel the rumors was to have the body autopsied and we both agreed that just for the sake of putting to rest these concerns that the neighbors had we ought to just have that done expecting nothing to turn up the victim's remains were transported to the state crime lab in missoula there medical examiner gary dale was asked to determine what caused nanette hansen's death she'll generally in fatal horse accidents the fatalities are due to skull fractures cervical fractures and unless someone's rolled over by a horse and there was no external evidence of any readily fatal type injuries the injuries pretty much consisted of scrapes and bruises nanette's skull hadn't been fractured her spinal cord was intact there had been no severe bleeding the injuries that were found were relatively minor a network of small scratches on her head and the two inch bruise to the left temple they shaved the hair overlying the bruise and noticed an unusual pattern on the scalp they could not immediately identify the source of the injury nothing about these injuries fit the profile of a horse trampling internal examination of the body turned up a large amount of mud and barnyard debris in the victim's lungs she hadn't died from trampling she died of asphyxiation and in this case you could make a raise a possibility that she was rendered unconscious by a blow somehow slammed by a horse against the stall of the barn and went down face first into this muck in the barnyard and then that she basically drowned or suffocated in that muck there but there was a major fault in that scenario nanette had suffered only superficial head injuries there was no evidence of any brain trauma that would cause her to lose consciousness a grim new theory formed there was a fair probability that she was held face down into the ground into the soft wet soil by her forearms by her hands and that pressure was being applied to her back and to the back of her head she's basically being forced face first into that what had initially appeared to be an accident was now being called a homicide as soon as that happened we switched from this being a coroner's inquest which is how this had begun to being a criminal investigation with a homicide case opened the victim's husband chris hansen was brought in for questioning they hoped that he could help them find out who might want his wife dead though nanette hansen's death had been ruled an accident an autopsy led montana investigators to open a homicide case detectives questioned her husband chris hansen the many bruises and scrapes on nanette's body suggested there had been a struggle leading to her death to find out if chris hansen had been on the other end of that struggle they asked him to remove his shirt he was covered with what looked like fingernail scratches when asked to explain the marks he claimed that he tripped and fallen inside the house hanson stated that with his multiple sclerosis and near blindness there was no way he could have physically dominated his wife though he was telling the truth about his ms he appeared to be overplaying his handicap we later learned during the investigation that he was able to play dice and and see the the different dice was able to stand beside a pool table and know which number were on where on the balls and that he had applied for and received a big game hunting license in 1994. go ahead and write down your statement though he may have been too weak to work investigators believed he was strong enough to beat up his wife nanette's friends and co-workers said that she frequently had black eyes and bruises things had been particularly bad investigators learned since chris's son scott abe came to town the 31 year old hadn't seen his father since he was a small boy about a year before nanette's death he came for a visit and decided to stay he rented a trailer just a few minutes away and started building a cabin on their property for father and son it was blissful reunion investigators began looking into abe's background as well a co-worker told investigators that abe had been very vocal about his hatred of nanette he boasted that he could stage an accidental death by nailing a horseshoe to a board and beating her with it he said he would do anything to keep her from getting her hands on his father's property and inheritance abe appeared to have gotten his way pouring over records detectives learned that in the weeks before nanette's death ave had prompted his father to financially separate himself from nanette hansen complied he cancelled their joint credit cards and opened a new bank account in his name only [Applause] it wasn't enough information to make an arrest but it did get the sheriff's department a warrant to search abe's property [Music] they searched for any objects that matched the mysterious pattern of cuts and bruises on the victim's scalp [Music] in his trailer they found a pair of boots the tread pattern looked eerily familiar [Applause] [Music] in abe's car detectives made another discovery a homemade weapon called a sap a leather pouch filled with metal objects the items were sent to the montana state crime lab simply believing that the father and son team had killed nanette was not enough to prove murder unless someone could draw an irrefutable link between this evidence and her injuries the two would never be charged [Music] investigators best hopes was now in the hands of forensic expert debbie hewitt it's kind of like putting a puzzle together where you pick up this piece of puzzle and pick up this piece of puzzle and see if it will fit in the appropriate space and when you do find that one final puzzle piece you know that you have the complete picture all done [Applause] hewitt began her analysis with the boots she pressed the treads into an inked pad then made numerous impressions on clean white paper these prints were then transferred to clear sheets of acetate by placing the prints over a life-sized photograph of the wound she could determine whether the boot made the injury [Music] the sole pattern from abe's boot matched the injury on nenet's scalp [Music] hewitt repeated the same process with the sap inking and printing the weapon from a variety of angles when compared against the large bruise on the victim's temple the last piece of the puzzle had finally fallen into place the sap was shown to be a perfect fit for the wound on the side of nanette's head father and son had teamed up to do away with the woman who came between them and their greed but their plot didn't hold up to forensic scrutiny on february 2nd 1996 chris hansen and scott abe were arrested prosecutors theorized that abe first stunned the net with the sap then wrestled her into the mud to make it look like an accident while hanson restrained her his son placed his foot on her head holding her down until she stopped breathing had it not been for the insistence of nanette's close friends this brutal act would have stayed buried forever if she had not been rerouted to the pathologist for an autopsy we never would have seen these particular types of injuries and bruises and the case would have been written off as an accidental both scott abe and chris hansen were convicted of homicide and sentenced to 60 years in prison [Music] when a murder is cleverly disguised investigators must find new ways to see through the deception they turn to forensic scientists to reveal the truth and to bring justice to victims who are killed for love or money

Channel: Real Responders

Views: 449,051

Keywords: The New Detectives, police documentary, investigation, police investigation, true detectives, real crimes, real detectives, private detective, serial killers podcast, crime documentary murders 2020, crime documentary murders, true crime daily 2020, serial killer movies hindi, crime documentary murders solved, true crime youtubers, serial killers never caught, new detectives documentary, the new detectives season 4, crime reenactment, murder in the family, murder next door

Id: j0W7WeBlxzQ

Length: 49min 47sec (2987 seconds)

Published: Mon Jan 25 2021