Marked For Death | FULL EPISODE | The New Detectives

[Music] women are turning up dead in their offices in suburban texas bodies are found only a few miles apart investigators must link the crimes together in the hopes of stopping a killer before he strikes again a convenience store owner is stabbed to death in broad daylight although the crime scene yields few leads the victim's bones reveal the signature of the killer scientists must piece together small clues to solve the crimes often criminals are careful to leave no evidence behind but the methods of the murder itself can create a lasting impression especially when the tools of a trade leave an innocent victim marked for death [Music] [Music] houston texas one of the fastest growing metropolitan areas in the united states boasts economic growth and rapid expansion it's a mecca for people seeking a better life and greater opportunities but in 1996 houston's suburban workforce found themselves terrorized at the hands of a sadistic killer at approximately 5 30 pm on january 5th jerry cowan returned to the storage rental facility he owned with his wife rita in spring texas cowan was surprised to find the door to rita's office locked and the closed sign posted on the door rita rita panic jerry smashed the window rita rita the office appeared ransacked but what jerry saw next was devastating he notified police hold off for the sheriff's department please quick a nearby patrol can arrive within minutes she's in here but it was still too late okay all right sir i need you to stay in here okay just stay in here rita cowan was dead on arrival 4833 we have a confirmed away we need a superbug crime scene investigators were called to the residence it appeared she was strangled with a self-locking plastic tie wrap rita's hands and feet were bound and investigators speculated she worked one hand free in a desperate attempt to stay alive harris county detective ben bell investigated something about the money box it was a very brutal way to dye the tie wrap around the neck the our victim would have known that she was dying there wasn't any way to get the tie wrap off her neck the motive appears to be robbery we believe it was premeditated because the murder weapon the tie wraps were brought to the scene from outside the scene the zip tie wraps were an industrial gauge plastic [Music] investigators searched the apartment and office for clues to the killer's identity although money was stolen from the cash box it was something else that caught detective bell's eye what's this over there it's a contract a partially filled out rental form 308 out here laying on the desk was a contract that was used by the many storage warehouse people and all of the company information was filled out and the storage unit number was written on it but there wasn't any customer information on the contract detectives began their investigation looking to those closest to the victim hoping for answers with any type of homicide you you start basically at home move out from the home the family detective bell interviewed the victim's husband jerry cowan [Music] just based on the circumstances that he was one of the last people to see her alive i talked to him extensively obtained a statement from him cowan told the detective he saw his wife rita alive that morning as he was leaving for work around 8 am today um no i think i'll wait till they talked about running some errands and everything seemed fine when cowan returned from work around 5 30 he found his wife dead and he was able to pretty well alibi himself for the entire day he was at work at the autopsy the medical examiner noted deep abrasions to the victim's neck the ligature around her neck was drawn with extreme force she didn't have a chance to survive the official cause of death was listed as strangulation additional contusions were found on the victim's bound wrists and ankles the plastic tie wraps provided the killer with a weapon that combined efficiency and deadly force the tie wraps were sent to the harris county crime lab for analysis matthew clements is a tool mark examiner at the lab in tool mark identification you have to be able to recognize a pattern across a three-dimensional item that that's going to have shape to it as opposed to a flat you know a flat piece of paper or something like that so you have to kind of have to train your eye and train your mind to to look at these things across three dimensions the tie wraps were industrial grade common to the electrical and air conditioning trades at first they appeared to be generic with no distinguishing features but under magnification clements noticed something the ends of the cable ties had been cut there were tool marks present this was a key discovery because tools in this case a pair of pliers or wire cutters leave distinctive marks and the ties were cut to equal lengths the wire cutters have a blade and that blade actually presses into the the plastic strap the surface variations of the blade are gonna scratch basically a set of lines on that cut surface these are the striations that we use for comparison much like a fingerprint's identified to an individual you're identifying that set of markings to an individual too investigators believed if they found the tool that cut the tie wraps they also might find the killer it can break a case it can be your one it could be the lynch pin of your of your case if you don't have any fingerprints or you don't have any dna if you don't have any other evidence actually linking your suspect to your scene if there are tool marks left behind that's as good of an identification if that tool is recovered from his position crime lab technicians also analyzed the rental agreement found at the crime scene for possible fingerprints undetectable to the naked eye latent print examiner gail mills when the document was discovered to be partially filled out we knew that it had been handled on a porous item such as this paper when a person touches the the paper the residue from the fingerprints is then transferred to the document or the paper and within this residue is things like fats and oils and salts and amino acids mills applied a chemical called dfo to process the paper the dfo reacts to the amino acids and the residue of the fingerprint the paper is then dried and the latent print is studied using an alternate light source a light source is an intense forensic light that we use to view certain types of evidence there's varying wavelengths within the light source that you can change to to cause different types of evidence to fluoresce the document is examined under those light sources and if the latent print is there that has reacted with the amino acids it should fluoresce deputy mills had isolated one fingerprint that did not match the victims [Music] at that point the fingerprint needs to be photographed in order to preserve it so that's what i did in this case [Music] it was now up to investigators to link the unidentified print to a suspect [Music] at the harris county sheriff's office detective bell reviewed the evidence although he knew the plastic zip ties were cleanly cut and the killer left behind a fingerprint neither clue brought him any closer to a suspect detective bell went back to read his husband jerry cowan and asked him to check his residence to see if any additional items in the cash box were missing cohen scoured the apartment and discovered some jewelry and two money orders were also missing investigators looked to trace the money orders jerry recalled that about two or three days prior to the murder he and his wife had purchased two money orders from the grocery store close to their residence they used the money orders to pay their bills one money order was for several hundred dollars we used to pay the car payment and then there was a second money order for ten dollars jerry cowan said he knew the money orders were stolen because the carbon receipts were missing since the money orders were as good as cash detective bell believed the killer may have been motivated by money harris county detective showed the clerk a picture of rita cowan the clerk remembered rita purchasing the money orders but there was a problem the store didn't keep records of the money orders investigators moved quickly and contacted the company that issued them so we'd have to call the company itself to uh verify if you call the company and you have give them that number they can trace it okay hey this detective bell office in houston i'm trying to trace a couple of money orders i contacted the money order company and advised them that we're working a homicide the money owner company told me that they could track the money orders for us but that it would take them several weeks before they could get back with us detectives know if they don't have a suspect within 48 hours their chances of ever solving the crime drop dramatically any delay in a homicide investigation would keep the killer on the streets longer and as detectives quickly learned the delay would also prove to be deadly detectives were struggling to solve the vicious murder of rita cowan but their killers seem to be one step ahead of them in neighboring montgomery county just 17 days after rita cowan was killed another woman was found strangled in her office the victim was real estate agent janice vogel her hands and feet had been bound with red electrical wiring and around her neck was a thick plastic tie wrap just like the one used to strangle rita cowan news of janice vogel's murder quickly spread throughout the houston metro area and people were frightened ben hey uh just watching the news and montgomery county is working on a deal a detective in the harris county sheriff's office saw the story and quickly recognized similarities to the rita cowan murder apparently strangled i jotted down some notes and everything like that maybe you can give them a call see what they're up to detective bell contacted investigators in montgomery county it was likely they were looking for the same killer and likely he would strike again it appeared that the uh same type of tie wraps had been used in that murder also prior to miss van hesp being murdered we had not had any cases even remotely similar to that and then for a second homicide to occur 10 days later in close proximity we felt that we had a predator out there and that he was probably going to continue to murder victims until we caught him a fax came in from republic money orders investigators knew they had a major break they had discovered that the larger money order had been cashed and they had sent me a photo copy of the money cash money order front and back showing a purchaser's name and the back had been endorsed by another person the 400 money order had been cashed at icehouse a local bar and the signature was revealing the front of the money order showed that the money order had been purchased by a roy landry who with an address in south houston there was a second signature on the back of the money order but only the first name bill was legible we conducted a computer check on mr landry located a rather extensive criminal history on him and immediately determined that he was a potential suspect in our case based on his his past criminal history detective bell finally had a suspect now he needed to find him we located a mugshot photo of roy landry placed it in a photo spread and my partner and i drove out there to the ice house the ice house was a no-frills beer and whiskey hangout where patrons minded their own business investigators went there in the hopes of finding more information about the money orders [Music] they presented the photo lineup with roy landry's picture the owners didn't recognize anyone and they had never heard of roy landry positive okay how about the back detectives showed them the other signature with the first name bill this they recognized right away it was bill kutzner they had another check from kutzner one that bounced the signatures were nearly identical they immediately recognize the name as bill kutzner and and he's the person that is their refrigeration and air conditioning man out there detectives needed to speak with both kutzner and landry they reached roy landry first we were able to make contact with mr landry he came down here to the homicide division to provide us with some limited information regarding mr custer and where we might be able to locate him for the purchaser is roy landrieu they discovered he had a lengthy criminal record and when they caught up to landry he was reluctant to give them any information you can either be a witness or you can be a defendant what's it going to be all right i'm not going to take the rap landry gave in to detectives and gave up information on kutzner's whereabouts yeah he said something about doing a robbery so it was an easy pick because lady was by herself i asked him why didn't he do it himself and he said he lived too close you know where that stuff is now yes at that house investigators drove to bill kutzner's house most of the windows didn't have curtains on them there seemed to be very little furniture in the house and it almost appeared that the house had been abandoned kutzner was nowhere to be found but then detective bell made a startling discovery when i was walking back to our car i stopped right and noticed right laying in the driveway almost embedded in the in the gravel was one of the large white tie wraps that had been used in both of the homicides detective bell knew the tie wrap was circumstantial evidence insufficient to make an arrest each clue brought them closer to catching the killer but detectives needed to hurry if they were to stop him before he struck a third time investigators were closing in on the killer who was terrorizing a community two women were dead and detectives were working round the clock to catch him before he killed again detective ben bell did a background check on their prime suspect his full name was richard william kutzner and he had a history of arrests one of the neighbors detective bell interviewed kutzner's ex-wife there's been hardly any communication at all she said she hadn't spoken with him in weeks and she had no idea where he might be but then she recalled a key incident trump was and they took that and that was really the last of anything we had left kutzner had fallen behind in the payments on his truck but there was nothing he could do as he watched his truck being taken his ex-wife remembered he didn't even have a chance to remove his gear from the back of the truck [Music] he was very violent she recalled the name of the auto company that took possession of the vehicle i could smell alcohol on him you know that's an old story that's never going to change it was a w motors if i'm not mistaken investigators went to the car lot and spoke with the manager he remembered kutzner's red truck coming in [Music] he had told us that when he the truck was repossessed all of kutzner's personal papers air conditioning equipment tools all of his belongings were still in the truck that kutzler had contacted him said that he was going to come by and pick the stuff up and then when he never showed up they removed all of customers belongings from the truck boxed them up and locked them in one of their sheds for safekeeping investigators looked at kutzner's possessions careful not to touch anything wanting a closer look they chose to obtain a warrant we could see that several of the ties similar to what had been used in our case and the montgomery county case were clearly visible in the box since we were dealing with the possibility of two capital murder cases here we decided to err on the side of caution and went ahead and obtained a search warrant before we went through the box and all of kutzner's belongings a few hours later investigators returned with a warrant they discovered a mound of evidence [Music] once we got the box we found that there were tie wraps that matched the harris county case there were tie wraps that match the montgomery county case along with red wire they also found a 10 money order as well as a tenant information form on unit 308 it matched the contract found on cowen's desk rental information form with the unit number on it investigators also retrieved a pair of diagonal wire cutters examiners at the crime lab had already established the killer had used a cutting tool such as wire cutters at the crime scenes [Applause] forensic examiners compared the red wire from the suspect's belongings to the wire used to bind janus vogel's feet ultimately what you want to try to find in the end is the same pattern of striations on your evidence item that you made on your known items a high-powered magnifying glass would be used to enhance the wire patterns and if you have a sufficient quantity of these striations then i can render an opinion that no other tool could have made that mark based on all of the evidence that we were able to recover from the used car lot we were able to obtain an arrest warrant for bill kutzner for capital murder for the case in harris county one time suspect roy landry had told investigators where kutzner was staying harris county officers decided to close in late at night when kutzner would likely be at the residence and bystanders would be minimal detectives entered the residence and found bill kutzner sleeping on the couch take the bell rolling stop rolling stuff what do you want you're under arrest he was arrested without incident and he denied any involvement in the murders he said you're under arrest well that's all i know about the money orders what else do you want with the suspect in custody investigators continue to strengthen the case against william richard kutzler latent print examiner gail mills compared kutzner's fingerprints against a single latent print developed at the crime scene the print was found on the partially executed rental agreement it was photographed and i then compared it to the prince of richard kutzner the suspect in this case and i did identify richard kutzner's thumbprint as being on the document the fingerprint match verified kutzner had been in the mini storage office but it did not prove he had committed the murder police believed kutzner's gear from his storage locker would seal their case tool mark examiner matthew clements knew the ties had been cut by wire cutters and now he had the tool to match with the markings [Music] the process that you would use to compare wire cutters to evidence recovered from a crime scene would be to make your test cuts in a similar medium that's not going to damage the tool itself after making the test cuts clements used a comparison microscope to do a side by side analysis of scratches or striations found on both the evidence and the test cuts in the case of bill kutzner examiners found exactly what police hoped a perfect match the forensic evidence that we were able to obtain the fingerprint the tool marks on the wire and the tie wrap showed that bill kutzner was the person that committed both of these murders and only bill kustner and bill kutzner got what he deserved when he was sentenced to death [Music] he was executed on august 7 2002. here bill kutzner purposely avoided high-profile locations to commit his crimes but for some killers heavily traveled roadways are no deterrents for murder foley alabama is a small town of 150 000 the crime rate is low and murder is rare december 4th 1997 boldly in a broad daylight a robbery is taking place along a highway a customer just finished filling his car with gas he went inside to pay nothing could have prepared him for what he saw next he called 9-1-1 9-1-1 what is your emergency an ambulance arrived in minutes but it was too late the victim's driver's license was found she was 43 year old nancy biddle the owner of the store lieutenant richard springsteen of the foley police department responded it seemed that there was a struggle and there was what appeared to be defensive wounds on the hands of the victim there was um some some blood stains collected fingerprints collected um multiple pictures of the crime scene um and of course the the body of the victim was taken to the forensic sciences laboratories investigators noticed the knives on the sandwich counter appeared to have been handled they were collected as evidence the victim was autopsied by dr james downes at the alabama department of forensic science he analyzed her brutal murder she had at least 35 different stab and cutting injuries to her face her chest her extremities nancy struggled to survive she fought her killer ferociously as indicated by the dislocated finger in the multiple defensive injuries when i look at a knife wound on a body what i'm trying to do is get a sense of the measurements how far does a knife go into the body and there's some room for interpretation for instance in a stab wound to the chest the depth of penetration of a stab wound is different depending on whether or not one is inhaling expanding their chest or exhaling dr downs noted the width and depth of each wound as well as cuts left on the victim's bones downes compared the stab wounds to each of the knives collected at the scene in nancy's autopsy it was easy to determine that the stab wounds had actually penetrated into the body up to approximately four four and a half inches that actually penetrated through bone through rib and through the breast pump you look at the injuries for the type of weapon that might be used and i measure each and every one of those 35 stab wounds i measure how long the wound is on the body how deep it penetrates into the body that penetration gives you an idea of how long the blade is and looking at the suspect knives that were brought in for me to compare against the wounds on the body it was fairly easy to rule those out because the blade links weren't right they weren't the proper thickness or the proper width so none of those fit the wounds that were present on her body [Music] i didn't notice anyone inside came back out maverick was still there the police located a witness perhaps the last person besides the killer who saw nancy biddle alive the witness bought gas that morning he recalled as he returned to his car he noticed a green ford maverick parked at the store he hadn't seen the driver but his description of the car gave police their first lead although the maverick has not been manufactured since 1977 a search of motor vehicle records indicated a surprisingly large number of green mavericks in the area [Applause] police tracked down every green maverick registered within a 60-mile radius of the crime scene five adam six two eight correction five atom six two zero eight d david center road seventy one north of 64. okay drivers were interviewed and their identifications checked good afternoon see your license please but after several days no significant leads were developed the investigation had stalled we're looking for a vehicle that matches this description obviously you're not here thank you and although detectives believe the car would lead them to a killer the trail of green mavericks had led police to a dead end [Music] what is your emergency i'm sorry you said there's a woman down what's your address there ten days after the brutal killing of convenience store owner nancy biddle 9-1-1 dispatchers received another distressing call 9-1-1 transfer for a woman down at the diamond gas station a second woman cashier linda weber was found stabbed to death in a back room the similarities between the crimes were disturbing the service station was along the same highway as biddle's gas station and although the store had a video surveillance camera the video recorder was torn from the wrap leaving behind no account of the crime examiners lifted fingerprints from the area where the vcr was taken but results would be inconclusive for lieutenant warren steward of the alabama department of investigations the similarities to nancy biddle's murder could not be ignored well both scenes it appeared to be a robbery and a struggle we really didn't know what we were dealing with if we were dealing with just someone needing money or if we had a serial killer possibly within the foley area once again the victim's body would be examined at the alabama department of forensic science as in the first case dr james downes measured linda weber's stab wounds and checked for bone lacerations [Music] in the case of linda we didn't have a bone defect to compare to the suspect knife but we did have the physical measurements of the wounds in the body which were identical to those in nancy's body dr downs concluded that both nancy biddle and linda weber had been stabbed with the same weapon with the community and local businesses gripped in fear bowen county sheriff's department formed a task force it consisted of the county's most seasoned investigators they structured a plan to catch the killer [Music] this is the area near the diamond mart and diamond mart's here in the parking lot in this wood line here that's behind the area the investigators poured over photographs and details from each of the murderers this is the area they had to act fast to restore peace to the community highway 59 is here detective hughie mack of the bowen county police department led the task force investigation the predominant emotion at the time by the public was fear it is a low crime area homicides are rare but when you have two homicides within just a few days that are believed to have been committed by the same individual fear was starting to run rampant with limited evidence the task force would need the public's help [Music] they blanketed the local media with information set up a hotline and requests for tips it began to pay off a witness came forward as the police re-canvassed the area around the second murder scene detective mack believed it might be a solid lead after the second homicide we had an individual who described a black male coming from the woodline within minutes of the crime being reported our witness literally heard the sirens responding to the gas station when she saw this individual run from the wood line she thought she recognized the man from her neighborhood his name was calvin stallworth detectives immediately searched the area behind the store amidst the leaves they found a vcr they believed to be the same as the one taken from the store hoping to find a tape detectives were disappointed to find the machine empty the tape had been wrenched from the machine the woods were dense but police scoured the large area in search of the tape they found nothing we believe the tape not only contained the image of the suspect but based upon the images that the particular cameras in this store would have captured more than likely film the entire murder investigators immediately followed up on the witness's tip they performed a background check on stallworth he had an extensive criminal record and an outstanding warrant investigators had a suspect now they had to find him police distributed his mug shot to the media hoping someone would know his whereabouts we disseminated to the media time and date and location information and asking them to please contact the public if anyone had any information to call a 24-hour number which was set up for this so that people could respond this lady took on her own initiative to call and let us know after seeing his picture on the news a manager at the city electric company contacted police but earlier today about an hour after the murders the manager remembered seeing the suspect at the electric company she said the man came in to pay an overdue electric bill [Music] she recalled he pulled out a large roll of money and paid his bill in cash [Music] hearing police sirens outside the man grew agitated and nervous then he left what did he look like oh maybe that is early investigators obtained the billing address from the electric company the address belonged to stalwart's girlfriend they presented her with a warrant as they entered the house they caught stallworth in a back room trying to escape [Music] knowing he may be armed and dangerous the officers drew their weapons and ordered him to surrender stop right there they handcuffed the suspect and began searching the house all the while stallworth professed his innocence in the back bedroom police found incriminating evidence detective i found something a knife beneath the mattress this jacket here is this yours and blood stained clothing uh calvin stallworth waved his rights and began to talk to the police he said he had nothing to hide stallworth insisted he had nothing to do with the murders [Music] and claimed he had never been at the stores detectives then told him an eyewitness placed him at one of the crime scenes if you would explain to me stallworth quickly changed his story i got scared i saw the money laying on the counter and i needed the money lieutenant stuart questioned the suspect and couldn't believe what he heard when he walks in the store and she's playing behind the counter and notices that she's been stabbed at this point he says he gets scared and he sees money up on the counter and on the floor and he said he knew he needed money to pay his bills so he just took the opportunity that was presented to him hello anybody here second homicide he puts himself going into the station he says as he walks in he hears a noise man man he looks up and observes the vcr and camera in the back room at this point he gets scared he's afraid he's on video and that if he don't take that vcr he's going to be accused of the homicide so he basically goes up grabs the vcr and leaves the scene of the second homicide his stories were totally unbelievable calvin placed himself at the scene of both ladies as they died despite his detailed account detectives were building their own theory of the crimes and it didn't jive with calvins forensic scientists would bring together all the pieces confirming that calvin stallworth was indeed their man [Music] detectives were convinced calvin stallworth murdered two alabama store workers despite his proclamation of innocence [Music] they knew he was lying stalwart's sweatshirt was processed for blood evidence william jones of the alabama department of forensic science explains we swab the stain to see if we can get a color change for a positive presumptive test for blood once we do that we do further testing to see if there was human dna present in the stain [Music] the blood was found to have the same dna markers as the blood of linda weber but because stallworth admitted to being at the crime scene the evidence was inconclusive now dr downs would scrutinize the knife found under stalwart's mattress thick single sharp edge he measured and recorded all its dimensions the knife was consistent with the size and depth of the wounds to both nancy biddle and linda weber and the measurements are consistent with those in the wound dr downes then compared the edge of the blade to the cut marks on the bones of both women this too was a match i was able to take that knife and measure it the length of the blade the width of the blade the thickness of the blade and compare that to the piece of bone that i had retained from my original autopsy and i was able to take the piece of bone and the knife and literally like a hand would fit into a glove and to show that this knife had the exact same physical dimensions as the wound in the bone the alabama state appeals court has sent the case back to a balwin county circuit judge although stalwart's unbelievable story placing himself at the crime scene may have been enough evidence to sway a jury investigators were quick to point out this case relied heavily on science to ensure a guilty verdict without forensics we probably would not have obtained a conviction in this case forensic is what linked calvin stallworth to both scenes once again science prevailed bringing calvin stallworth to justice he was tried and convicted of two counts of capital murder he was sentenced to death for his crimes most killers try desperately to cover their tracks but there are times the very act of their violence creates a signature that cannot be erased forensic science can reveal that signature and with it a killer who's left his victims marked for death [Music] you

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Id: X_QvP08vhXc

Length: 49min 4sec (2944 seconds)

Published: Sat Aug 14 2021