Killers Who Caused Violence For The Sake of Violence | The New Detectives | Real Responders

[Music] a sniper is on the loose on long island his random pattern leaves investigators with only one clue the ammunition he uses to hunt total strangers investigators in kentucky try to determine the fate of a woman who has disappeared her family suspects the worst but there are no clues no motive and no crime scene in georgia a young man is shot to death on a fishing trip police find the body of his fiancee seven miles downstream but spent bullets are the only clues to killer left behind in a fraction of a second a single bullet can shatter many lives but forensic scientists can decipher clues etched in lead when innocent victims are caught in the line of fire [Music] in this episode some of the names have been changed to protect the identity of the victims and their families how is everything everything's fine on july 22nd 1994 sharon chaffetz joined her husband stephen for a late dinner at a long island restaurant [Music] after many years of marriage they were looking forward to their daughter's wedding just two weeks away [Music] suddenly the window near steven's head shattered and he slumped to the floor the restaurant owner quickly called for help suffolk county new york police and paramedics responded to the call within minutes but it was too late stephen chaffetz was dead from a single gunshot wound to the chest no one in the restaurant had seen the shooter police processed the crime scene for clues the trajectory of the bullet suggested that someone had fired a high-powered rifle at the restaurant from an area across the street no one knew whether the shooting was random or if chaffetz had been targeted for murder lieutenant john garash of the suffolk county police department led the investigation he started by looking into the victim's background in most homicide investigations one of the first things that detectives do is to try to learn as much as they can about the victim most often the motive lies in within the the life of the victim and what's going on with him investigators spoke with the victim's family and friends has he had any contact with any other stephen chaffetz a practicing attorney and a cpa was highly regarded in the community according to those close to him he had no enemies investigators were perplexed why would someone want to kill stephen chaffetz at autopsy the coroner recovered a 35 caliber bullet a type most commonly used in high-powered rifles it was sent to the ballistics lab for further testing four days later 23 year old andy gomez was working his shift inside the cashier's booth at a nearby gas station without warning a single shot rang out the booth's window was double insulated and bulletproof gomez was lucky to be alive within minutes police secured the area they found no trace of the shooter gomez had little information to offer police there had been no attempted robbery and he didn't see anyone prior to the shooting the bullet which fragmented upon impact with the bulletproof glass was all the shooter left behind police collected the fragments and sent them to the lab the mo for both attacks was identical police hoped ballistics analysis could tell them more after noting the similarities between the two shootings investigators working at chaffetz murder shifted their focus the investigation became more complicated because it was obvious to us that the motive did had very little to do with anything to do with the two individuals rather these were now appearing to be random acts and it's those kinds of random acts to make these kinds of investigation most difficult the metal fragments from the gas station were sent to the suffolk county crime lab although they were too small to compare to the bullet recovered from the body of stephen chaffetz scientists were able to determine their metallic content a visual inspection under a microscope revealed the bullets shared a common coloration the fragments from the gas station and the bullet that killed chaffetz both had copper jackets it was the first small step in linking the two shootings but examiners could not say with certainty that the bullets were fired from the same weapon on august 3rd a week after the gas station shooting 42 year old single mother kelly spate was finishing her shift at a local fast food restaurant a single shot ripped through the window hitting kelly the manager called 9-1-1 suffolk county police were dispatched to the scene the victim was badly injured but still alive the single bullet passed through her arm and then through her chest barely missing her vital organs police secured the area and interviewed the restaurant's manager neither he nor any of the restaurant patrons had seen the shooter the bullet was found lodged in the wall despite the frustrating lack of eyewitnesses in all three cases the police had an intact bullet for comparison forensic specialists examined the evidence at the suffolk county crime lab the 35 caliber slug was the same size as the bullet that killed stephen chaffetz the two bullets were examined side by side under a high-powered comparison microscope each gun has a set of markings inside the barrel called lands and grooves these markings are etched into the bullet as it travels down the barrel leaving a series of ridges behind these ridges are similar to fingerprints in that no two weapons leave identical lands and grooves when the ridges from both bullets were analyzed they matched lab examiners had finally provided investigators with solid proof that the shootings were related they told us unequivocally that that bullet and the murder bullet from the first incident were fired from one on the same weapon that told us as much as anything else these were all related cases and with that likely at the hands of one individual police had no idea how or when the shooter would strike next and according to assistant chief john mcalone of the suffolk county police department there were no viable suspects we didn't have anyone to really concentrate on or any even small group to concentrate on so the major obstacle in this case was identity who could it be who was it and how could we stop him how could we prove a case against them as news of the random shooting spread the community panicked the press dubbed the unknown assailant the suffolk sniper investigators feared they were dealing with a madman who shot total strangers for the sheer thrill of the hunt suffolk county police continued their search for an elusive sniper one man was already dead and two others had narrowly escaped his deadly aim investigators were baffled there was nothing similar about our victims this presented almost a nightmare investigatively to detectives because it doesn't give you any direction to start with investigators began by compiling a list of individuals who owned 35 caliber rifles they also searched police records for recently arrested individuals charged with gun related crimes [Music] publishers of various survivalist magazines were asked to send in lists of subscribers from the long island area police canvassed neighborhoods in the vicinity of the shootings but residents reported they had not noticed any suspicious activity patrol officers set up roadblocks and conducted interviews with thousands of motorists after several months investigators had entered over 200 000 names into a database specially modified for the investigation [Music] from these names sergeant edward light called 600 strong leads we're looking for people that appeared more than once for example if they were held a hunting license and they subscribed to a survivalist magazine and perhaps or on parole that would raise a flag to the investigators the suffolk county police department mobilized every available resource to find the killer the massive police presence in the area of the shootings also helped to calm the fearful community they visibly saw a lot more patrol cars than they used to they saw the helicopter overhead more than likely they they saw the canine units all deployed within a certain area of a narrow area of maybe nine or ten miles police were desperate to generate leads after developing a psychological portrait of the sniper they appealed to the public for assistance a detailed analysis of the crime scenes revealed a familiar pattern to investigators they described the shooter as a white male in his mid-20s to early 30s probably a gun lover and an avid hunter the tactic soon paid off police received a call from a parole officer one of his parolees a man named peter sylvester fit the profile of the shooter sylvester had an extensive criminal record including convictions for the possession of stolen weapons and he lived close to where the three shootings had occurred investigators decided to put him under surveillance we had come to know that he was on parole and with his parole with certain conditions that he had to meet our surveillance was telling us that he was violating those conditions within a matter of days sylvester was observed violating the curfew mandated in his parole [Music] he was arrested and brought in for questioning [Music] at the time of his arrest sylvester was in possession of a nine millimeter handgun [Music] when asked about the sniper incidents he denied any involvement police ran the serial number of the nine millimeter they learned the weapon had been reported stolen from a local sports shop sylvester was booked for multiple parole violations including possession of a stolen weapon although there was little evidence that he was the sniper police considered him a prime suspect [Music] how you doing to learn more investigators tracked down sylvester's former employer he told him that sylvester had left a 410 gauge shotgun in the back of his delivery truck police collected the shotgun as evidence they also continued to check all gun-related leads one such lead led detectives to a mental hospital there they spoke to a man who would threaten to commit suicide with a high-powered rifle the patient told investigators that the rifle was a 356 remington although it was not the type of rifle used in the shootings the patient offered investigators one intriguing piece of information he told him he had purchased the rifle from a friend a man named peter sylvester police ran the serial number on the patient's gun it had been stolen from a local gun shop two weeks before the shootings began during this robbery two other guns were also taken a 35 caliber wieland rifle and a 410 gauge shotgun the serial number of the stolen shotgun was compared to the one recovered from sylvester's employer they matched the third stolen weapon the 35 caliber rifle was consistent with the rifle used to kill steven chaffetz but that gun was still missing and that third weapon that unaccounted for a weapon fit almost exactly the description of the weapon that we were seeking as the murder weapon two of the three stolen guns had been linked to sylvester [Music] it seemed likely that he was also connected to the missing 35 caliber rifle [Music] now investigators needed to prove that the missing rifle was the murder weapon [Music] they visited the manager of the gun shop where the robbery occurred [Music] sales records indicated the caliber rifle in question had been sold to the shop by a previous owner police asked for the address at this point investigators had but one hope that the prior owners still had spent bullets from the rifle in his possession if so those bullets could be compared to the ones recovered from the crime scene the former owner told investigators that he remembered firing practice shots into a tree during hunting season but that was a year ago if he could find that tree investigators might have the evidence they needed suffolk county homicide detective kevin cronin was optimistic he said he had hunted that mountain for about 20 years he felt very confident that he could find the tree his confidence rubbed off on us and we went up there myself and our investigative team officers followed the man into the woods he led them straight to the tree he had once used for target practice noting several bullet holes officers cut the tree down they send a cross-section of the trunk to the suffolk county crime in the lab the sections were cut open several bullets were recovered examiners could now compare these to the bullets recovered from the body of stephen chafins the characteristics of both sets of bullets matched investigators had successfully used a missing rifle to link their suspect to the murder they were slowly building their case against peter sylvester a warrant was obtained to search the house sylvester lived in with his mother officers believed the weapon was somewhere in the house they checked everywhere hidden in the ceiling police finally found the 35-caliber wheelin rifle it was now up to the suffolk county crime lab to prove sylvester was the suffolk sniper in the lab the rifle was fired into a water tank [Music] the bullet was then recovered for comparison with bullets fired by the suffolk sniper under the microscope ridges on the test bullet matched the ridges on the bullet that killed stephen chaffetz without a doubt the 35 caliber wheel and rifle was the weapon used in the shootings faced with the overwhelming evidence against him sylvester confessed to the shootings he acknowledged he had never met any of his victims from a secluded position he waited for an easy target he lined them up in his sights and fire peter sylvester was found guilty of murder and received a sentence of 35 years to life no motive was ever established if we weren't able to solve this case for for an indefinite period of time the residents would have to go about with a bunker mentality they'd have to pull down their shade tonight they'd have to look over their shoulders as they went about their daily routine we were able to eliminate that circumstance and suffolk county as it was before this incident remains an extremely safe place to live peter sylvester did not know his victims but in kentucky murder became a more personal matter the serene landscape of dry ridge kentucky hardly seems the place for a terrible crime then again maybe it's the perfect place on september 16 1988 the parents of 28 year old paula doherty reported her missing to the state police in this rural area the state police handled most investigations paula's parents hadn't heard from her for two days it wasn't like her not to contact them or her children paula doherty a divorced mother of two lived at her parents house she had been dating a man named nathan marksberry for six months and had been spending a lot of time with him when nathan heard that paula was missing he called the state police to offer his help though he said he didn't know where she might be still police wanted to meet with him for an interview they drove to his trailer located on his parents farm he told them that the last time he'd seen her was in the early hours of september 15th three days earlier they were at a club with some friends it was closing time and their friends had left marksbury told police that paula had called someone to come pick her up he didn't know why and she wouldn't say they waited outside how are you doing eventually a woman in a yellow or tan car pulled up i'll take care of her paula introduced her as shelley or sheila he'd never seen her before then they drove off and nathan went home by himself marksbury said the woman was either a cousin or a friend from cincinnati paula didn't seem upset it was all very mysterious investigators thought so too sergeant ron harrison learned that it was out of character for paula to simply up and leave without telling anyone prior to her disappearance the last family member that she talked to was her mother who she called from the bar at her about 10 or 10 30 that night and didn't indicate to her mother at that time that she was getting ready to call anybody to come and get her she didn't indicate that she wanted her mother to try to make arrangements to have somebody come and get her or anything of that nature investigators spoke to the other friends who were with paula that night each admitted leaving before paula and nathan did and all of them said the evening didn't end on a pleasant note when they left the bar at closing time everything was fine but then in the parking lot marksbury grew upset over losing his keys one of the friends tried to calm him down and marksberry hit him sergeant harrison retraced the couple's footsteps but found nothing in the bar parking lot as a result of that altercation all of these individuals at or about the same time left the parking lot the only vehicle left on this parking lot after that time was nathan marksbury's vehicle and the only people who were here on this parking lot at that time was nathan and paula and this is the last time that we've been able to establish anyone seeing paula sergeant harrison could find out nothing else about what happened that night but witnesses claimed that in the past they had observed marksbury being physically abusive with girlfriends if he had been violent with paula she hadn't said a word state police had only two facts to work with a dependable woman who disappeared unexpectedly and her boyfriend who witnesses said was abusive [Music] though nathan marksbury was now the prime suspect in paula's disappearance there wasn't a shred of evidence linking him to any wrongdoing investigators hands were tied though it seemed unlikely it was even possible that paula had vanished of her own free will [Music] paula's family wasn't keeping idle desperate for answers they searched for clues on the marksberry's farm it caused some problems the marksbury family were talking to me answering questions assisting me in any way that they could in attempting to find paula and i didn't want that compromised and they were not happy with the doherty family being on the property at the same time as a result we had to talk to the doherty family and explain to them that although they had the right to conduct a search they did not have a right to come on to the marksbury property the investigation into paula's whereabouts continued with interviews of paula's friends and the marksbury's neighbors one neighbor said she might have seen paula with nathan after the couple left the bar nathan had knocked at their door that night he said he wanted to party with them it was late and it was peculiar they'd never socialized with nathan before nor did they want to now [Music] they refused to party with him they did not see paula doherty with him but they saw the silhouette of a what they took to be a female in the car but they could not identify the individual because they didn't get out of the car and then nathan left their residence and they never saw him or paula later that night it was just another vague clue but it indicated that nathan had not gone home alone that night as he said he did other stories were equally vague and equally compelling many neighbors including a state police officer had seen nathan working on the farm after paula disappeared he tended a fire at the farm's trash dump for four or five days [Music] then he was seen churning the smoldering debris neighbors commented that for nathan to do any sort of physical labor at all was unusual he was rarely seen working on the farm it's just a big open pit for investigators nathan's actions were suspicious his behavior was not consistent with the nathan that we all had come to know nathan would not get out and do something like that just in order to clean up the farm coupled that with the fact that all of the leads about where paula might be had wound up with nothing i was really interested in knowing what nathan was doing what he was burying in that dumb despite their suspicions authorities had no basis for a search warrant they had no legal right to enter the property marksberry was free to continue destroying potential evidence twenty-eight-year-old paula doherty was missing presumed dead paula's boyfriend nathan marksberry had been seen burning trash on his parents farm in the days following her disappearance kentucky investigators believed marksbury was destroying evidence but their best lead was really no more than a hunch to test their theory they needed to check marksbury's trash pile but they had no warrant so they tried the direct approach they asked his father for permission to their great relief he gave his consent to search the grounds just so long as they didn't disturb anything or enter buildings [Music] anticipating what they might find the state police brought with them a forensic anthropologist trained to recognize human remains even when they're tiny shards at the dump site that's just what he found fragments of human bones at that time i stopped the search secured the dump site and obtained a search warrant the warrant allowed the state police forensics team just a few days to search the dump site because of the size of the site and the burnt and broken condition of the remains they needed every minute parts were sifted and sorted some were large and easy to spot others were barely recognizable once police had gathered as much as they could find the remains were sent to the central facility of the kentucky state forensics lab the lab has the capacity to flesh out a case based on the smallest of clues it's here that an apparently insignificant fragment can become a crucial piece of evidence [Music] crimes happen elsewhere but they're often solved here the forensic anthropologist must literally put the pieces back together to try to get a picture of the victim's identity and to determine what happened according to kentucky state forensic anthropologist dr emily craig it requires patience and a little soap and water when we first get the bones in the lab the first thing we have to do is is clean them up and we have to get all the debris and soft tissue off of them and we really have to resort to a procedure we call thermal maceration but what it amounts to is dishwashing liquid in a crock pot the cleaned bones are then laid out to see if they're from a single individual it isn't easy fire and mishandling take their toll on fragile bones it takes an expert eye to recognize and understand how they can be distorted part of the problem with burned and fragmented skeletal remains is sometimes a six-foot individual can be reduced to nothing more than the bones you find here in this box they change size they change shape they change color they break from the fire but you uh you can still go through the ashes and find enough bones in most cases to make an identification of the victim and identify the trauma ultimately the forensics lab had enough to work with from the pelvis and the size of the bones it was determined that these were the remains of one female individual [Music] now they had to prove it was paula doherty to make the identification the lab relied on the victim's teeth most of which were recovered from marksbury's farm teeth usually survive even the most intense fires and they're small enough to avoid being crushed by a killer's mishandling the records matched the dental remains paula doherty had been found but finding the body didn't necessarily prove homicide in fact once the remains were identified nathan marksberry contacted police to say that paula shot herself and he disposed of the body because he felt no one would believe that [Music] law enforcement didn't believe it but sergeant harrison was afraid a jury might you work an investigation not to meet the burden of charging someone you work an investigation to meet the burden of a conviction that will stand up on appeal and it was a concern throughout because there was again there was no crime scene per se there was no physical evidence per se other than paula's remains [Music] marksberry said paula had shot herself in the head he gave police the gun she'd allegedly used there were no fingerprints found it was impossible for the kentucky state police to determine whether she had been the one to fire it if investigators were going to find grounds for a murder conviction they would have to rely on the remains alone [Music] the forensics lab began the meticulous process of piecing together the fragments of skull collected from the dump site it was grossly incomplete but the important parts were there revealing not one but two gunshot wounds they told a lot though both shots penetrated the skull neither was necessarily fatal the victim might have fired both bullets and bled to death to test the suicide theory investigators needed to determine the trajectory of the bullets dr craig inserted rods into the bullet holes in the victim's skull to ascertain the position of the weapon she found that paula could not possibly have positioned the gun to her own head at those angles someone else had fired the gun nathan marksbury police believe that person was nathan marksbury he had the gun he attempted to destroy the body based on the evidence he was arrested for the murder of paula dougherty nathan marksberry was sentenced to life in prison plus an additional 15 years for tampering with evidence investigators theorized that on september 15th nathan's anger raged out of control he murdered paula then tried to cover up his crime marksberry's violent temper found a target in the person closest to him harder to catch is a killer whose rage is unleashed on total strangers waycross georgia may 30th 1993. ray hampton and gene dixon were worried both of their teenagers 18 year old charlie dixon and 19 year old jason hampton were missing the high school sweethearts had gone on a fishing trip the day before and did not return it was not like jason to forget to call the two men drove to their kids favorite fishing location on the setilla river ray hampton spotted jason's truck [Music] their worst fears quickly became a reality ray found the body of his son face down in the dirt the boy had been shot several times gene dixon's daughter charlie was nowhere to be found after finding his son murdered on the bank of a georgia river ray hampton radioed the ware county sheriff's department his son's young fiancee was still missing police cordoned off the entire area and carefully processed the crime scene they searched for anything that might point to the killer jason hampton had been shot in the back several 22-caliber bullet casings were recovered from the ground near his body [Music] jason's truck was thoroughly dusted for prints but none were found his fishing poles were missing police also searched the riverbank for evidence [Music] still there was no sign of charlie dixon local police called the georgia bureau of investigation for assistance special agent bill butler took the call we knew at that time that we had a major case on our hands we had a young man who had been brutally murdered and we had another teenage girl who was missing certainly there were was a great deal of concern on all of our parts to find her and to find perpetrator investigators split up into teams to search for charlie dixon in the wooded areas along the citilla river she was nowhere to be found investigators refused to give up hope that they would find the young woman seven miles upstream from where jason's body was found officers made a tragic discovery they found the nude body of charlie dixon like her boyfriend she had been shot several times it appears to us in the investigation that the sequence of events that occurred was that after jason was shot and killed at the scene that charlie dixon was also shot and she was taken from the scene and was taken to the wooded area in the north part of the county near the pebble hill community in less than two hours police were processing their second murder scene [Music] the killer had left behind few clues [Music] no shoe prints or tire tracks were found looking for valuable evidence police collected everything they could find at the scene charlie dixon's body was taken to the coroner for further examination the coroner determined that charlie dixon had been sexually assaulted investigators hoped they would be able to extract and identify the killer's dna from the biological evidence collected the swabs were sent to the georgia state crime lab for analysis forensic biologist john wiggle examined the evidence when you run the dna test on the swabs first thing you determine is is there enough material dna present to continue with the test and yes there was the dna was viable but police had no suspects to compare it with they knew they would have to work quickly the critical time in any major investigation is the first seven eight hours of the investigation well that's when you're going to do the most important work that you do in investigation that includes the crime scene investigation it includes your initial interviews with victims friends and families and where you're going to find out the most important information in the case that will hopefully lead you to a solution hoping to find a lead police interviewed the victim's parents the hamptons and the dixons told investigators that their kids were well liked by their peers and had never been in any trouble charlie a high school senior was looking forward to graduation she and jason a freshman in college had just gotten engaged the parents told investigators that on the morning of may 30th jason picked up charlie to go fishing they planned to spend the entire day at the sattila river that was the last time they were seen alive the bullets from the double homicide were sent to the gbi ballistics lab for analysis the lands and grooves on each of the bullets matched this verified what officers already suspected charlie dixon and jason hampton had been shot with the same gun a 22-caliber remington rifle police had their first solid lead as we began to proceed in this investigation we felt sure that a speedy solution would come about because we had ballistics evidence that we had dna evidence [Music] but they still needed a suspect and a weapon to make a comparison with no obvious motive the murders seem to be the random acts of a stranger investigators feared that each day this killer roamed free more people would die i know that all of us felt the need to get it solved as quickly as possible before another crime occurred and when we looked at the brutality of these crimes we knew that there was a potential there for other people to be victimized the georgia bureau of investigation teamed up with area law enforcement agencies every department was asked to submit reports of recently investigated violent crimes as we conducted our investigation we began to look at people who had records for similar crimes and what we looked at was for any suspect who had a record for either sexual assault kidnapping or burglary hundreds of potential suspects were interviewed 60 voluntarily gave dna samples the samples were sent to the gbi lab for comparison none of the dna samples matched the biological evidence collected from charlie dixon's body the investigation stalled so it's been in your possession all week and as time went on we certainly began to get frustrated because we really developed no suspects that warranted any further investigation into and certainly we were beginning to doubt whether we would solve this case by december of 1993 nearly seven months had passed since the murders agents from the georgia bureau of investigations were no closer to catching the killer [Music] investigators in waycross georgia struggled to solve the brutal double murder of two high school sweethearts the list of potential suspects climbed to over one thousand identifying the killer would take time and patience was the name of the game and we preached it every day in our task force meetings to be patient to keep proceeding to follow every lead to document everything and to keep going ahead until we found the perpetrator of these brutal murders their patience paid off investigators finally got a break it came from a local jail [Music] authorities told agents about a prisoner who was recently placed in custody for violating his parole the man had threatened to kill his mother and brother with a rifle his name was billy daniel rollerson a background check revealed that rollerson was on parole after serving time on a burglary conviction where have you been last week investigators questioned rollerson about the murders he denied any knowledge of them before leaving investigators asked for a blood sample rollerson consented at the gbi crime lab scientists extracted dna from rollerson's blood sample the results of the dna test reveal banding patterns unique to each donor [Music] the banding patterns from rawlerson's dna were then compared to those taken from charlie dixon's body computer analysis statistically confirmed they matched no more than one in 10 million individuals could have that pattern and that was a reasonable scientific certainty the dna from the biological material on the swab originated from mr rollerson police obtained a search warrant for rollerson's home there they found two fishing poles one was identified as belonging to jason hampton they also found a dismantled rifle a 22 caliber remington model 66 police hoped it was consistent with the weapon used in the murders the confiscated rifle was reassembled and sent to the ballistics lab for testing the rifle was fired into a vertical water tank the water stops the velocity of the bullet without damaging the projectile leaving the lands and grooves intact for comparison examination confirmed without a doubt that the bullets that killed each of the victims had been fired with this rifle faced with this evidence rollerson confessed he told investigators that he stalked jason and charlie during their fishing trip when the couple got into the truck he shot jason hampton he later raped and murdered charlie dixon on march 5th 1994 billy daniel rollerson was sentenced to die in georgia's electric chair when a gun is used to commit murder bullets can provide the strongest evidence of a killer's guilt using advances in forensic science investigators can read clues etched in lead to find justice for innocent victims who have fallen in the line of fire

Channel: Real Responders

Views: 474,968

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: LGWxhRVwgsM

Length: 50min 22sec (3022 seconds)

Published: Mon Jan 18 2021