Mother & Daughter Go Missing In Massive Yacht Blaze | The New Detectives | Real Responders

a family vacation turns tragic when a pleasure yacht catches fire near the islands of southern alaska as the fire rages a mother and daughter are missing [Music] when the wreckage surfaces evidence suggests the blaze was no accident [Music] in alabama a young single mother suddenly disappears and her child is left behind [Music] as investigators look for signs of foul play patterns of guilt emerge when killers know their victims they rely on their intimate knowledge to pull off the perfect crime but even the best laid plans leave traces of forsaken trust [Music] [Music] nestled between the tungus national forest and the pacific ocean sitka alaska is a picturesque fishing town in the southeastern part of the state its 9 000 residents enjoy a tranquil life in the safe and quiet sea community where crime is the last thing on their minds air station's sick if it has some force we can help you on june 4th 1996 business owner robert meyer called the u.s coast guard to report an accident his 50-foot pleasure yacht had caught fire his wife and daughter were missing now get the red helo online get the red heli online within minutes a search and rescue operation was launched [Music] the yacht was completely engulfed in flames and it was sinking even in june the alaskan waters are cold rescue workers needed to act quickly if they hoped to rescue diana and chrissy meyer coast guard officials in juneau notified the sitka police department about the accident and that the mother and daughter were missing sergeant daryl rice went to the meyer residence in the hopes of gathering any information to aid in the rescue efforts robert meyer had returned home soon after he had phoned the coast guard he was exhausted and distraught [Music] he told the officer he had taken his family on a cruise around the islands just north of town they left two days earlier it was supposed to be their last outing together before his daughter chrissy went away to college sergeant rice asked about the trip he responded that this was the most perfect weekend and it could have been any better we were having a great time meyer said that sometime around daybreak he smelled smoke coming from the console and that the floor above the engine room felt hot thinking the boat was on fire meyer said he rushed to get his family onto the small skiff and safely away from the flames [Music] realizing the family dog was still inside chrissy begged him to go back and rescue her [Music] when he came back his wife and daughter were gone [Music] meyer went on to say there were two to three foot swells in the waters he believed his wife and daughter fell trying to get into the skiff [Music] sergeant rice asked him if he needed medical attention meyer said that he had noticed a scrape on his leg he must have gotten it as he left the boat the search for the missing women continued search and rescue captain don clooting organized members from the sitka fire department we had actually lots of coverage we had air coverage provided by the coast guard we had water coverage provided by the sika fire department search and rescue teams as well as private boats in the area they followed the current searching the water and shore for any sign of diana or chrissy but with each passing hour the rescue workers grew more concerned [Music] if you guys can uh go ahead and head east conduct a shoreline search on up towards the inlet up here uh cover the chart fairly good we need to get we're calling out we're using attraction um as well as looking the number one goal was you know to locate diana christie players which is always what our number one goal is we were in you know search and rescue mode we were doing a type 2 search which is you know fairly thorough we're looking for you know any types of evidence things like that as well as people on the beach [Music] the rescue workers spotted a red object floating in the water they retrieved the empty gasoline container they noticed its cap was missing the search continued for hours but by mid-afternoon rescue workers were running out of options we searched the beaches uh around the vicinity where the boat sank we also conducted a shoreline searches you know from the boat we covered and recovered the areas over and over again we totally exhausted the search areas the search for diana and chrissy meyer lasted for over 24 hours the rescue mission was now a recovery operation the determination was made to you know suspend the mission pending further developments authorities continued to comb the shores but now they were searching for bodies they were also searching for wreckage of the burned yacht most of which was now at the bottom of the ocean [Music] alaska state trooper randy mcferrin was called from ketchikan to lead an investigation looking into the fatal accident at a briefing mcferrin viewed a tape of the burning yacht supplied by the coast guard according to robert meyer there were three foot swells in the water when his wife and daughter were going from the yacht onto the skiff but in the video the water appeared calm the waves are three to five foot as you can see here in the video the seas are relatively calm okay sounds like he took out from sitka on sunday he was also briefed on meyer's weekend route the day before the fire instead of taking a safer more inland route meyer took his family out into rougher seas so why would somebody go out here where it's rough when it comes through here when it's nice and smooth i don't know okay that's a question as the other officers brought him up to speed regarding the investigation mcferron noticed some inconsistencies in robert meyer's statements before they could proceed a full set of transcripts of all interviews were ordered for comparison sergeant daryl rice went back to robert meyer's house hoping he could shed some light onto how and why the fire started since meyer had told him he was the first one to smell smoke sergeant rice asked to see his clothes he was looking for some clue as to the fire's origin we were invited in the kitchen and there was a room adjacent to it a little laundry room that had his clothing in it inside of a wash machine and they reeked of diesel fumes meyer explained that after he discovered the fire he ran directly to the engine room where he got some fuel on his clothes [Music] the officer also asked to examine the 24 foot skiff the boat was retrieved from the beach near myers marina and taken to a coast guard hangar [Music] at the state crime lab criminalist walter mcfarland examined the clothing he used ultraviolet light to detect evidence of hair or fibers [Music] but found nothing significant there was quite an odor of a summer or fuel present and our main objective at that time was to get them into containers and protect it to save that type of evidence the clothing was preserved until they could be examined for the presence of accelerants or solvents sergeant randy mcferrin and daryl rice combed through the transcripts uncovering several inconsistencies in myers statements in one interview he described how the electricity went out then one engine then another engine and then he felt uh fire below decks in another interview he said the engine stopped and then the electricity went out in one interview he said his wife and daughter were asleep when the boat broke down and another interviews he said they were awake [Music] the next day mcferron hoped to clear up some of the discrepancies by speaking to meyer personally [Music] but meyers suddenly would not cooperate and wouldn't talk to the investigator he refused to speak to us unless his attorney was present we agreed to do that later that afternoon we did a short interview about half an hour long with him with the attorney president before the attorney terminated the interview and told us to leave [Music] without further cooperation from meyer investigators turned to an examination of his boat meyer's 24-foot carolina skiff was photographed and examined for possible damage trace evidence and blood stains [Music] just beneath the windshield on the cabin he noticed a small red colored stain the stain was swabbed and a presumptive blood test was performed the sample tested positive they found blood preliminary forensic tests revealed the blood was of human origin now they needed to find out whose blood it was investigators were puzzled they had two missing women and nothing more and although there was very little evidence suggesting this was anything other than an accident the only person who might supply answers now refused to talk [Music] the only other place to look was on the yacht and that was at the bottom of the ocean investigators in sitka alaska began to suspect foul play in a boating accident diana and chrissy meyer were presumed dead [Music] but they had no bodies and little forensic evidence businessman robert meyer still refused to speak with police or help in the investigation into the disappearance of his wife and daughter efforts to locate and extract the sunken yacht also met with repeated obstacles while the sunken boat was initially thought to have landed on a ledge divers and underwater cameras failed to locate the bulk of the wreckage the boat was missing the news of the accident spread through the small town of sitka if robert myers wouldn't talk to police they soon discovered many would at the sitka police station tips and additional information started to come in there's a life insurance policy on meyer's wife and daughter you asked for okay two days after the fire lead investigator randy mcferrin learned of insurance policies meyer had taken out on his wife and daughter they were for five hundred thousand dollars each again it's kind of suspicious you know number one why would you insure a teenager for 500 000 i mean she's not a wage earner they're dead and now you're looking at getting a million dollars meyer also had complete replacement insurance on his 50-foot yacht listed on the policy as a hatteras a boat worth two hundred fifty thousand dollars mcferron needed to learn as much as possible about the meyer family um could you tell me what her relationship was like with her parents um seemed fine she was really tight with her mother one of chrissy's friends told him that she was not aware of any family problems and that to her knowledge the meyer family was close especially chrissy and her mother [Music] when asked if chrissy was a good swimmer she said that chrissy had taken lessons in school okay contrary to meyer's claim his daughter not only could swim but she completed an advanced course [Music] from the school mcferron then spoke with a seasonal employee from meyer's business the employee said that robert meyer was acting strange in the days following diana and chrissy's disappearance he didn't appear to be upset and he had little input into his family's arrangements [Music] she commented that meyer had a short temper and would often snap and yell at employees she had seen him fire and re-hire employees several times in the four summers she worked for him there were rumors of an affair between meyer and one of his employees a neighbor told the investigator she saw an employee come over to myers residence several times when diana and chrissy were out of town she said the woman would often stay until morning another curious piece of information came from a repairman who regularly worked on meyer's yacht the repair man told the investigator that the yacht was not a hatteras like meyer claimed but a less expensive look-alike meridian yacht difficult to tell apart and it was not in the best condition this is the initial survey with rumors of an affair and indications of possible insurance fraud circumstantial evidence surrounding robert meyer was mounting quickly but without anything concrete investigators knew it would be difficult to prove their case they believed the forensic evidence they needed was buried deep within the submerged wreckage two weeks after the fatal fire meyer's clothing and the empty gas can were analyzed at the state crime lab in anchorage criminalist chris beiheim tested the clothing by attaching a small strip of activated charcoal on the lid of each can the charcoal would absorb any ignitable liquid the cans were then placed into an oven and heated to speed up the process [Music] once that was complete baeheim used a gas chromatograph mass spectrometer to separate the components and break down the complex mixtures [Music] petroleum distillates make a bell-shaped graph which can be read and analyzed bayheim concluded that the solvent in the empty gas can discovered at the site of the fire was the same as that found on meyer's clothing there were five clothing items present in this case and four of the items i detected the presence of fuel oil something similar to kerosene or a diesel fuel the petroleum products that i detected in the meyer case were all heavier in nature not as volatile as say gasoline or lighter fluid so they would tend to stay around longer and not evaporate as fast on the surface evidence was beginning to stack up against robert meyer investigators believe the strongest physical evidence still remained hidden somewhere at the bottom of the ocean [Music] unless the wreckage could be found and recovered investigators knew there was little chance of ever proving their case detectives in sitka alaska struggled to discover the truth behind a deadly fire that appeared to have claimed the lives of two women circumstantial evidence suggested foul play and robert meyer was emerging as a suspect failed attempts to locate the burned yacht left investigators without solid physical proof and the small town of sitka did not have the resources necessary for a successful recovery [Music] two months after the investigation began state trooper randy mcferrin received a fax from alaska fish and game authority we found out a mini sub was going to be in the area doing uh some research work and we got a hold of them and asked us asked them if they could work us in for a day and they did after an hour of searching the murky waters at a depth of 500 feet mcferrin found what he was looking for the superstructure and main deck had been totally consumed by the fire but the engine room and a majority of the swim step appeared intact to try to salvage the wreckage mcferron contacted the bureau of alcohol tobacco and firearms and enlisted the services of certified fire investigator george barnes based on footage taken from the submarine barnes concluded that the best and perhaps only chance at salvaging the boat would be to try to bring it up by its two diesel engines but they needed to wait until the early spring the salvage operation was too difficult to attempt during an alaskan winter the operation was planned for march the following year using a crane barge from a company in sitka and a remotely operated vehicle supplied by the u.s navy wreckage from meyer's boat began to surface extensive corrosion and water damage had taken a toll on the yacht the boat was so badly damaged we couldn't pick it up off the bottom there was just nothing hard to grab onto it's kind of like picking up a stick of warm butter george barnes was right about the engines the salvage crew had something to grab onto making lifting easier and contrary to myers theory the engines were intact his story was that the fire started as an engine room fire and progressed to eventually involve the whole vessel when we recovered the engines we noted that there was still paint in considerable amounts on the engines we also noted that there was also some holes attached to the hose connections and insulation on electrical wiring that was recovered based on those observations we concluded that the fire could not have started in the engine room as mr meyer had alleged investigator barnes examined three pieces of a swim step that were recovered he believed they would prove his theory that the fire started someplace other than the engine room the wood appeared to be teak and had irregular burn patterns [Music] the right or the starboard side of the swim step was severely damaged by fire and the area nearest the vessel was severely damaged by fire but the vessel itself was not damaged that same area if he was correct and the wood was teak barnes knew it would have been difficult to burn if the fire had started in the engine room the distance between it and the swim step made the severe burn patterns found on the wood virtually impossible because teak wood burned so slowly by the time the fire reached the swim step the swim step would have been submerged and the damage would be minimal randy mcferrin had the wood tested to determine its type [Music] barnes was right the wood was t to test his theory george barnes performed an experiment [Music] not only was the wood difficult to burn as he suspected but the location of meyer's swim step was only six inches above water in calm conditions mr myers had claimed that the seas were three to four feet at the time of the fire and we found it rather surprising if not impossible for this swamp step to have exhibited this type of fire damage was constantly being dunked in sea water it uh during these swells investigators also knew that without bodies it would be difficult to determine the truth about the women's death at the state crime lab in anchorage hayne hamilton tried to extract dna from a tiny blood stain found on myers skiff to do this the scientists tried a new technology at the time called polymerase chain reaction or pcr the former dna analysis required as much stain as the size of a quarter the newer pcr or polymerase chain reaction that we utilized required as little as the dot at the end of a sentence the sample is mixed with chemicals and heated then cooled in an instrument to break down separate and copy the dna double helices after 32 cycles of heating and cooling the chain reaction of the new and copied dna multiplied from a few to billions all with unique genetic markings once the process was completed hamilton compared genetic markings and was able to conclude that the blood could not have belonged to robert meyer or his daughter but investigators had no way of getting a blood sample from his wife diana using blood supplied by her biological parents hamilton was able to perform a reverse paternity test the probability that the blood on the skiff was diana's was over 99 in one of his early statements bob meyer said that if any blood was on the skiff it would have been his he claimed that he cut himself boarding the skiff on on had an external gas tank and he cut his leg and that that blood would have been his mcfarron believed this was the evidence he needed to arrest robert meyer although the bodies had not been recovered investigators now believe that meyer had murdered his wife and daughter sometime during their weekend together he then doused his yacht with gasoline and deliberately set it on fire to make it look like an accident but days before robert meyer was due before a grand jury he was suddenly injured in a car accident he broke his neck and was paralyzed from the neck down when this occurred we were making plans to take this case to the grand jury here in sitka and so basically put everything on hold we're just waiting to see if he was going to survive from his injuries or not he did survive he returned to sitka to face the hearing confined to a wheelchair the grand jury handed down indictments charging meyer with two counts of murder in the first degree two counts of murder in the second degree arson tampering with physical evidence and two counts of scheme to defraud [Music] but meyer would never face a criminal trial a few months before he was to appear in court robert meyer's body was discovered in shallow water off the end of a dock after a thorough investigation investigators concluded he had taken his own life [Music] robert meyer planned and successfully executed the murders of his wife and daughter but in the end submerged forensic evidence proved his guilt in alabama investigators were up against a very different crime scene that left many clues but few possible suspects birmingham the state's largest metropolitan city prides itself on its blend of modern sophistication and traditional southern hospitality on the morning of may 19 1992 a landlord stopped by one of his rental properties his plan was to repair his tenant candace brown's broken fence he had just arrived when he saw glass from a broken window pane he also noticed a cut telephone line concerned for the safety of the young single mother the landlord went to the front door to check on her but no one appeared to be home the landlord immediately went to a neighbor's house and phoned police [Applause] when officers arrived they discovered a two-year-old boy sitting alone in a bedroom [Music] but there was no sign of candace afraid that she might have been the victim of a kidnapping or worse the officers knew they had to find her as quickly as possible detectives and volunteers set out to search the neighborhood in the nearby woods the canine unit was brought in to help find the young mother as the search continued candace's house was processed for clues although the phone line was cut and the window was broken there was nothing inside suggesting robbery and no signs of visible struggle this puzzled veteran homicide detective steve corvin inside the home we found very little evidence nothing was disturbed the house wasn't ransacked there didn't appear to be anything missing outside forensic investigators photographed and bagged the broken pieces of glass [Music] the broken window was the point of entry and there was another potential clue a detective i think we got something over here [Music] a shoe print discovered on one of the pieces of glass showed visible and distinct markings the freshly cut phone line was also removed and taken as evidence as investigators continued their search of the house candace brown's parents arrived to take the little boy they had no idea what could have happened to their daughter they had just seen her the night before [Music] candace left her son at their house while she went out for a few hours when she came to pick him up she asked if they would follow her home her parents said that she had been nervous lately her home was burglarized a week earlier and she was afraid to go into a dark house alone with her son [Music] but after turning on the lights she smiled and waved them off candace's parents told detectives their daughter was outgoing and worked as a volunteer at a church ministry she regularly visited a local minimum security prison known as an honor farm where she counseled residents as officers tried contacting the ministry detective corvin spoke to her neighbors [Music] one neighbor said she saw something suspicious she looked out the window the night before and noticed a man in an unfamiliar vehicle parked outside candace's house although she didn't get a good look at the driver she described the car as a white honda accord several hours had passed and the searchers still had not found candice to get more accurate information on the shoe print found outside candice brown's house the glass was sent to the state department of forensic sciences lab forensic examiners analyze the print to try to determine the size and make of the shoe the pieces of the cut phone line were also examined [Music] technicians hoped that the particular cut in the line would help them identify the type of tool used to sever the wire with the results still inconclusive detective corvin visited the honor farm candace's parents gave the detective the name of an inmate that was an old friend of hers the friend told the detective that he and candace went to high school together absolutely absolutely i mean when in there is where they met that candace regularly came to the honor farm to visit him [Music] the friend also said he introduced candace to another resident michael land came to two or three meetings with candace and seemed interested in her ministry and her desire to help him get back on track he went on to say that since michael land had been released already he had asked him to go check up on candace for him i just hope he can figure it out because detective corvin performed a background search on land and discovered he had been imprisoned before with candace brown still missing and time running out detectives felt they now had a potential lead and they set out to find michael land [Music] detectives in birmingham alabama were investigating the suspicious disappearance of candace brown [Music] it had been more than two days and with each passing hour the hopes of ever finding the young mother alive faded so far the most promising lead was a known felon named michael land who candice counseled in prison [Music] detective steve corvin tracked downland who was working for a local construction company we told him candace brown was missing and we'd like to talk to him about her disappearance he didn't say we suspected him of anything we just thought he might be healthy [Music] michael land volunteered to go with the detective to the police station while being tape recorded michael land explained to the detective how he met candace brown at the honor farm he said that they were introduced through a mutual friend and had developed a friendship he also said he went to visit her after he was released and we did for a friendship with the tape still rolling michael land denied having any knowledge about candace's whereabouts [Music] she would come in on the night of her disappearance land claimed to have been at his girlfriend's house [Music] he said that he slept in his car outside her house that night and was nowhere near candace's [Music] but at one point during the interview the detective noticed something suspicious while land was talking he crossed his legs the print on the bottom of his shoes looked similar to the print found on the broken piece of glass to rule out land as a suspect the detective asked if he could examine the rest of his clothing [Music] as michael land changed into jail clothes the detective had his story checked out a police officer went to visit land's girlfriend at her house she claimed that she did not see michael land at all the day before to her knowledge he had not slept in his car outside her home lance shoes and clothes were sent to the police lab where they were examined the clothes provided no clues but forensic scientist phyllis roland found several stains around the toe of the tennis shoe that looked like blood in looking for stains and identifying them as blood stains i will visually look at the item of evidence for primarily reddish-brown stains or stains that might look like blood and remove a very very small amount of those stains and use a chemical test to determine whether they give a reaction that is indicative of blood the blood found on the shoes was human [Music] detective corvin confronted michael land and land asked the detective to turn off the tape recorder [Music] he wanted to come clean [Music] land admitted to breaking into her house a week earlier but claimed he didn't take anything he then said that on the night of candace's disappearance he ran into two guys named tony and edward tony and edward wanted to know if he knew of any easy places to rob and land told him about candace's he said that he went with them but that the two guys started to get rough with candace he confessed that the blood on his shoes happened when one of the guys gave candace a bloody nose but after things started to get violent he got scared and left he had an answer for everything until we started being able to show that there was inconsistencies with what he was telling then he would make up something to cover that he said that one of the guys slapped her to the floor and bloodied her nose and we said well we didn't find any blood on the floor there was still some hope that candace was alive investigators asked land for the keys to his car not knowing what they might find the officers got verbal authority from the district attorney to open the trunk with land still at the police station the detective went to examine the car inside the trunk they found a pair of wire cutters and a 45 caliber gun [Music] but no sign of candace the car was impounded while they waited for an official warrant the detective had enough to hold michael land for 48 hours while evidence could be processed and an arrest warrant issued police still didn't know what had happened to candace but they feared the worst we had come to the conclusion that she was probably dead but we had no idea where to look he didn't admit that he had harmed her in any way and his uh only connection to it was that he was there with two men the very next morning two boys had skipped school and were hiking near a quarry on roughner mountain [Music] they made a shocking discovery partially hidden in some trees was the body of a dead woman detectives were called to the scene and photographed the body detective corbin recognized the body as candace brown she had been shot once in the head and there was evidence of possible sexual assault after days of searching detectives worst fears were confirmed a young mother was dead and all the evidence seemed to point directly at michael land and now detectives needed proof police in birmingham alabama were now investigating a homicide the body of candace brown a young mother was found in the nearby woods and all of the evidence pointed to michael land and the detectives now needed to prove he was a killer at autopsy it was confirmed candace had died as a result of a single gunshot wound to the head [Music] the bullet was removed and sent to the ballistics lab there was also evidence of sexual assault although michael land admitted he broke into the house he maintained two other individuals attacked candace land referred to them only as tony and edward detective steve corvin suspected he might be lying we didn't believe that these men were real to begin with when somebody gives you a real generic name and and they just met them and that sort of thing you you know that it's it's pretty pretty much fictional forensic examiners made a print of land's shoes it was then measured against the print found on the glass they concluded there was only one perpetrator in the house and the prince at the crime scene matched the shoes worn by land [Music] at the state forensic lab phyllis rowland examined the clothing candice was wearing to try to determine where she was murdered [Music] i retrieved the shirt that was identified to be from candace brown and looked at the bloodstained patterns that were present on it and determined that she was shot where she was found and in doing so looked at the back of the shirt and found biological stain there which was actually a semen stain the stain was removed and tested for dna [Music] using the available method of dna fingerprinting phyllis roland was able to match the blood found on land's shoe to candace brown she also matched the semen stain to michael land's dna [Music] the only thing left to do was to confirm the 45-caliber weapon found in the trunk of land's car was the actual gun used to murder candace ballistics experts conducted tests using lands 45. the spent bullet was checked against the one taken from candace's body there was a match armed with overwhelming evidence michael land was placed under arrest [Music] detectives determined land acted alone that night [Music] after cutting the phone line michael land broke the window and entered the house [Music] he then kidnapped candace brown leaving her two-year-old son still sleeping [Music] because the murder was committed during a kidnapping and burglary michael jeffrey land was convicted of two counts of capital murder and sentenced to die [Music] when killers strike those they know they shatter the bonds of confidence and trust but for detectives and forensic investigators it is often the evidence of that forsaken trust that helps bring the murderers to justice

Channel: Real Responders

Views: 33,534

Keywords: police documentary, the new detectives, forensic science, investigation, detectives, police investigation, cold cases, criminals, crimes, true detectives, sherlock holmes, real crimes, real detectives, private detective, the new detectives 2020, the new detectives full episodes, the new detectives 2021, the new detectives new episodes, the new detectives serial killers, the new detectives real responders

Id: Pu1Y10oIllc

Length: 48min 34sec (2914 seconds)

Published: Mon Nov 15 2021