Murder by Numbers | FULL EPISODE | The New Detectives

[Music] a serial killer is delivering death door to door [Music] investigators search for a common denominator and find a pattern of uncommon cruelty for years a deadly predator has taunted police while snaring victim after victim with every kill he grows bolder while authorities grow more desperate to catch him [Music] serial killers don't stop on their own as the body count rises investigators must use all of their resources to put an end to their murder by numbers [Applause] [Music] some of the names in this episode have been changed january 12 1990 was another beautiful day in san diego but chris burns wasn't enjoying it he was growing concerned over the whereabouts of his fiancee when his roommates came home burns asked if they'd seen tiffany schultz who also shared the apartment no i haven't seen her all day why because her car is downstairs her car was in the parking lot but in the several hours that burns had been home she hadn't appeared the other roommates hadn't seen her either then they opened the door to a nightmare [Music] schultz lay dead partially disrobed and covered in blood you guys call the cops get somebody here all right vern stayed with her while his roommates called police as detectives interviewed burns and his roommates san diego homicide investigators inspected the crime scene one of the first things they noticed was that the body was posed with outstretched arms and legs bruises indicated that the victim had struggled fiercely for her life she had been stabbed multiple times in the chest there was no sign of sexual assault the answering machine tape was taken to check for suspicious messages as the technicians continued working chris burns told detectives his story i put my hands up under her head like this they noticed his hands and pants were marked with blood the situation gave sergeant ed patrick of the san diego police homicide unit grave doubts about burns it seemed very odd to anybody that it would be a fellow that comes home house is open his girlfriend's nowhere nowhere around but her keys are there her car is there her purse is there but she's nowhere around and there's a roommate's door to the bedroom that's closed which is usually never closed and he never bothers to to knock or open it burns was taken to the police station for further questioning about his fiancee's murder he admitted that he and schultz were having problems the grisly slaying came at a time when they were supposedly trying to salvage their relationship lately they couldn't get along now schultz was dead and burns looked like the main suspect the blood on his clothes told police all they needed to know but burns claimed that the stain on his shirt came from touching schultz after he discovered her dead he believed the blood on his pants was his own from a recent accident on the construction site where he worked the story seemed to contrive chris burns was arrested and charged with the murder of tiffany schultz i can do that schultz's autopsy revealed she was stabbed nearly 60 times while researching this brutal homicide case police learned that the victim was paying her way through college by dancing at a nightclub the manager confirmed that schultz's relationship with burns was tumultuous correct she told police that he didn't want her working there they often came to blows over it their last incident had been recent transcripts from the answering machine tape contained an apology from burns for the hard time he gave his fiancee about her job police wondered if he'd lost his temper and his control one last time only careful forensic analysis of the evidence could determine if schultz was the victim of burns's rage burns shirt and pants were sent to the lab to determine whose blood was on them to better see the bloodstains the genes were turned inside out when the results were positive blood typing was performed the blood on the shirt matched schultz's a b blood type but i'm sure we should but the blood on the pants was type o burns his own type serologist larry turner of the jackson police department crime lab performed the analysis based on what i found i was able to determine that the story that chris burns had been telling it was possible that it was true the blood on his clothing matched him and not that of tiffany schultz and on his t-shirt where he said he had been down to touch her and possibly gotten some of her blood on the t-shirt that was correct as well burns's story as odd as it seemed might be true police had no other evidence with which to hold him he was released though still considered the prime suspect but police would soon regret releasing him on february 16 1990 one month after tiffany schultz was found murdered police got another call to the same apartment complex take a deep breath another [Music] the partially nude body of janine weinhold a student at san diego state university was discovered by her roommate she had been stabbed several times as in the schultz case the killer also posed this body with the legs outstretched police feared they were dealing with a serial killer there just wasn't any question in in our minds that it had to be the same suspect just the body position the stab wound clusters in the chest just just looked like the same murder basically different room this murder occurred only about 100 yards from the apartment where the first victim was killed blood-stained clothes were found on the floor by the bed the killer left the murder weapon a carving knife in the sink but he left something else even more important seminal fluid was found on the bedspread it provided evidence that the victim had been raped it also provided police with their best hope for learning the killer's identity in the lab larry turner tested the evidence in the early 90s dna testing was beyond the scope of most labs turner would have to rely on the older and less precise blood typing tests he found that all of the blood and bodily fluids tested positive for type o [Music] the blood evidence cast further suspicion on chris burns the primary suspect who had type o blood take some of the material to be certain larry turner analyzed the genetic markers within burns's blood and in the fluid samples found at the murder scene genetic markers are inherited proteins that vary from individual to individual while people may share some of the same ones certain markers are more rare and can be used to make an id genetic marker tests are dependable but not nearly as precise as dna turner found that the genetic markers of the suspect chris burns didn't match those taken from the second murder scene that left investigators with two murders and no suspect they returned to the apartment complex and interviewed female residents to see if they'd seen anyone suspicious police feared that these two victims were just the beginning 3 400 claremont drive detectives created a list of over 1 000 suspects from the leads they gathered from the victim's friends and acquaintances with two murders unsolved the police were casting a wide net trying to find their man before he killed again unfortunately that didn't happen on april 3 1990 two months after the weinhold murder police received an urgent call a woman had been found brutally stabbed sir you need to calm down for me if you can okay where is the suspect a witness saw a man with a knife fleeing the scene his face covered by a t-shirt police rushed to respond they met tommy ho who returned from the apartment swimming pool and found her friend holly tarr mortally wounded with a single stab through the heart holly tarr's murder occurred in the same apartment building where the second victim janine weinhold was killed outside police discovered the knife and the t-shirt held by the killer as he fled the scene they also found a shoe print left in the mud which they thought belonged to the suspect unfortunately eyewitnesses couldn't identify him the girlfriend tammy she basically couldn't give any description at all just it was a male you know saw saw a flash go by she she couldn't help in that area we had a second witness who uh at least pinned down the race of the suspect uh as being a black male the knife and t-shirt were clean of fingerprints or hair samples after three murders all investigators knew for sure was that the victims were all white females between the ages of 18 and 21 left semi-nude posed with their legs outstretched and stabbed in the heart all they knew about the killer was that he might be an african-american because the slayings took place in the area of san diego known as claremont the murderer was dubbed the clermont killer a deadly predator a serial killer was on the loose [Music] police looked at their list of more than one thousand suspects and from those re-interviewed all of their african-american suspects again hundreds of blood and saliva samples were voluntarily obtained while the samples were being tested the killing continued on may 22nd 1990 another woman was murdered in her apartment in mid-city san diego the pattern of stab wounds was similar to the previous three murders the claremont killer was on the move four months later 43 year old pamela clark and her 18 year old daughter amber were found murdered in their san diego home both partially nude bodies wore stab wounds around the heart and were posed like the previous victims there was no question after the double murder of the clarks that things really really got heated up we had politicians show up at the mobile command post i had detectives hadn't had a day off in 40 days which was no problem you know they they just we had to catch this this guy but we were back to square one police had a terrifying killer on the loose with few clues and no idea of where he might strike next time each day he ran freely more women were in danger the claremont killer laid low for five months leaving san diego investigators with nothing to go on the trail heated up again on february 3rd 1991 more than a year after he had made his first kill [Music] linda parker age 23 was about to take a shower when she heard noises at her front door [Music] she looked through the people and saw a man trying to slip the lock [Music] linda parker fled through her back door [Music] she went to a neighbor's apartment and together they confronted the intruders parker's neighbor noted the make and model of the man's car meanwhile parker called police reporting a possible encounter with the claremont killer parker suspected the man at her door had stalked her from a nearby gym a previous victim pamela clark had worked out at the same gym right before her murder perhaps this was the killer's current spot for scouting victims officers distributed flyers and asked people at the gym if they had seen the man or the vehicle that parker described the next day they received a call someone had spotted the man on the flyers sitting in his car outside the gym police apprehended the suspect his name was prince police had interviewed him months earlier he had declined to provide a blood sample police needed a sample if they hoped to compare prince's dna to crime scene evidence to win his consent they didn't let on that he was a murder suspect they told him he was arrested for the attempted burglary of linda parker's home the prior day investigators checked his credit cards each had the marks of having been used to slip door locks prince cooperated and provided a blood sample without detectives having to resort to a warrant hey until the dna results came back police didn't have enough evidence to hold him prince was released but he was kept under close surveillance the blood sample was rushed to testing if successful the dna would provide more solid evidence than genetic markers would the problem was that in the early 90s the technology was new and it could take a year before the results came back with nothing to hold the suspect he would be free to kill again with time running against them investigators relied on a less comprehensive but faster test it would compare similarities between the sample and the crime scene dna if similarities existed investigators could assume they were on the right track if the dna bore no superficial resemblance they had the wrong man within a month the results came back the test indicated a match we just were i mean almost in tears it was just unbelievable the emotion involved in in working with something and dealing with the families and and all those crime scenes and and it was over prince was located and arrested police were now able to gather more evidence and buy more time to run complete dna tests in prince's possession were two rings that belonged to one of the victims police also found shoes with souls that matched the print left at a murder scene [Music] hey what's going on though police would never know what triggered his homicidal rage they had a good idea of how his crimes evolved having perfected his craft as a burglar he expanded his repertoire to include assault rape and murder he trapped his victims from the gym and the pool knowing that soon after they entered their apartments they would be vulnerable while taking a shower prince would then break into their apartment and assault and stab them based on evidence gathered at the scenes prince was convicted of six murders he awaits execution at san quentin cleopas prince actively sought his victims other serial killers wait for their prey to come to them on may 3 1983 in san francisco two 55-gallon barrels were found in golden gate park police had been called to the scene by two hikers who reported a foul odor coming from the barrels police suspected they might contain human remains [Music] they were wrapped in plastic their lids sealed with cement but one was leaking they were taken to police headquarters where they were x-rayed before they were open so as not to disturb any evidence inside the x-rays were sent to dr boyd stevens chief medical examiner for the city and county of san francisco one of the barrels had two bodies in it and that was evident by two complete skeletons including skulls and spinal columns etc one of the barrels had one body in it we couldn't tell the sex at that time but we could see that there were dental fillings metal material consistent with the bullet fragments or jackets as well as identifying personal items like rings or earrings and so forth now that they knew human remains were inside the barrels investigators had to determine how they got there technicians took their time looking for any clues the killer might have left kenneth moses an inspector at the san francisco crime lab began by examining the exterior of the barrels he hoped he could find some sort of print on the packaging or the tape but getting clean fingerprints off tape can be tricky powder won't work because it sticks to everything and most fingerprint chemicals dissolve the adhesive destroying the print moses tried an experiment by combining a dark blue dye an antibiotic and water he concocted a dye called crystal violet [Music] he hoped that when the tape was dipped into the solution the antibiotic would stick to the protein left on a fingerprint staining it purple after 14 hours of labor slowly processing each strip of tape as it came off we finally got down around 15 or 20 layers of tape to the last layer now no prints run any of those hundreds of yards of tape finally we peel off the last piece of tape put it into the crystal violet and poof up comes this beautiful fingerprint [Music] a simple magnifying glass revealed another crucial discovery presumably the killer left a clear fingerprint behind in the fresh cement as he sealed one of the barrels [Music] a synthetic polymer was mixed and carefully spread over the print [Music] when it dried it formed a near-perfect cast which was then used to make a record of the print on paper after four days of gathering all they could from the barrel's exteriors investigators were ready to open them one yielded the bodies of two nude females who'd been tied together the women were later identified through their fingerprints as glenda wheatley and paula rodriguez two prostitutes rodriguez worked for thomas michaels identified as the clothed male victim in the other barrel each had been shot in the head the victims had been id'd but the identity of their killer remained a mystery police spoke with friends of the victims but none could shed any light on who could have done this investigators also ran the prince but came up with no matches three months after the barrels were found a man driving on a rural road in california's san mateo county just outside of san francisco made a similarly gruesome discovery he immediately summoned police he led them to a bound female body with what looked like a bullet wound to the head a grim trail of shredded clothing punctuated the horrific scene [Music] detective sergeant robert morse deduced what it meant she had nylon rope extending from both of her ankles and it appeared as though she had been drugged down the road and we later measured off the distance and she had indeed been dragged for 1.9 miles the entire area was secured and each bit of evidence carefully noted [Music] a garbage bag was found near the probable starting point of the brutal dragon the first task after collecting all of the evidence was to identify the victim detectives ran a check on her fingerprints she was identified as marsha geary a prostitute from oakland california now police knew her name the next question was how did she die the autopsy revealed that she had been shot in the back of the head the trajectory going downward approximately 45 degrees the entrance wound was an oblong shape which is a little bit unusual the nylon coated 38 caliber bullet recovered from the victim was also unusual it had none of the lands and grooves that a gun barrel usually etches on a slug as it passes through police were baffled by what kind of weapon could have fired the fatal shot the garbage bag from the crime scene was closely examined for fingerprints and other trace evidence the bag was tested with cyanoacrylate or super glue when heated the chemicals fumes attach to the prints making them visible a latent footprint was discovered that was much too large to belong to the victim all investigators needed was a suspect to compare the footprint to thank you police questioned marsha geary's friends and family to learn where she'd been and whom she'd [Music] her father said the last time he saw her she'd ask him for money [Music] she told him she was trying to find a job and asked him if he would help her get a car police also learned from her friends that she was planning to spend the weekend with a man thank you thank you for now his identity remained a mystery the day after marsha geary was found the body of catherine barrett was discovered in a san francisco pool descent she'd been tortured and stabbed to death [Music] her body was wrapped in plastic [Music] metal shavings were retrieved from the wrapping [Music] as police investigated this latest murder they got a tip from a man named raleigh hill the owner of marsha geary's apartment hill told police that geary was planning to see a man named jack for the weekend hill didn't know jack's last name but he knew he lived in a warehouse what'd she tell you about jack just that she was going to see him bill said that on two occasions he dropped geary off there for dates hill gave police the address it was 20 miles from where geary's body is found where jack lives in yeah okay get there and where it is all right take your team members the warehouse served as the offices of anthony electric an electrical contracting business owned by a former police officer named anthony john sullivan we've explained that to you already better known as jack do you have any other questions about it okay investigators also learned that friends of catherine barrett the most recent victim told them the day before her body was found that she was going to anthony electric [Music] the news sparked their interest the information gave them enough for a search warrant for the warehouse they were about to learn the shocking truth about jack sully a homicide investigation led to an electrical contractor's warehouse where two murdered prostitutes were last reported to have been going a costumed woman wearing a tutu met police at the door [Music] she led them to a small apartment in the rear of the warehouse among the litter of drug paraphernalia police confronted a disoriented partially clad jack sully as they explored the room the bizarre scene became grotesque cocaine well walking into this apartment one gets the sense that um it's almost like a torture chamber he had a hook up on the ceiling can you explain these things he had various ropes around he had vcr tapes of pornography and sadism and one would just get the feeling that it was a horrible place in a preliminary search of the apartment and surrounding warehouse police found several important pieces of evidence including a pistol with the barrel removed it contained nylon covered bullets just like the one that killed marsha gear if you need to place this man under arrest a gun without a barrel might explain the odd oblong shape of the victim's womb since a bullet shot from it would tend to be unstable and tumble instead of going straight if you cannot afford jack sully was arrested and charged with the murder of marsha geary the warehouse was now a crime scene and subject to a full-blown forensics investigation [Music] we photographed virtually every inch of it we covered every inch of it and we're happy that we did because we gained a lot of evidence out of it anything in here at all among their fines were metal shavings and nylon rope like those found at the crime scenes investigators also found blood lots of it the warehouse seemed to be a grim chamber of horrors an inner sanctum for unspeakable acts of torture and cruelty with jack sully behind bars police began to ask his acquaintances what they knew about him they learned he'd bragged about killing three people putting them in barrels and dumping them in golden gate park now that a suspect was finally in custody investigators could compare his prints against the ones taken from the barrels of the unsolved triple murder as soon as he received samples of sully's prince kenneth moses knew the results i took a look at the prince and believe me i knew those prince by heart the minute i saw sally's prince i knew this was the guy sully was charged with the murders of the victims found in golden gate park [Music] police also obtained his footprints they compared them to the print lifted from the garbage bag found where marsha geary's body had been dragged the prince matched in the end an insurmountable stack of forensics evidence was brought against jack sully metal shavings found in his warehouse matched shavings found on his second victim's body the plastic sheeting found around the body of the man sealed in one of the 55-gallon barrels matched sheeting found in jack sully's truck from the investigation sully's pattern of violence became clear under the influence of free-based cocaine he would pick up prostitutes when they arrived at his warehouse he would subject them to prolonged periods of bondage beatings and sexual abuse and ultimately he murdered them forensics linked him to five victims but other evidence proved he had killed six on june 3rd 1986 anthony john sully was convicted of six counts of murder and sentenced to death in california serial killers follow no apparent rules except one to blend in with everyone else on june 28 1989 in riverside california two construction workers stopped on the side of the road to eat their lunch but then they noticed the body of a woman lying at the bottom of an embankment officers and forensic technicians from riverside county sheriff's office responded to their call [Music] the victim was dressed in shorts and a man's western-style shirt a towel covered her body she had no identification the autopsy revealed the woman was strangled to death [Music] a search of the fingerprints file identified her as tara biggs a 28 year old prostitute [Music] evidence collected from the crime scene was sent to the california department of justice crime lab investigators found little more than a few assorted fibers whoever killed this woman didn't leave much evidence behind on december 13 1989 in riverside california another female victim pamela martin was discovered on a rural road she appeared to have been killed elsewhere redressed and abandoned there like the woman found six months earlier she too was a prostitute there were other similarities police found fibers similar to those found on the first victim they also found tire tracks photographs were taken for examination in the lab the photographs were blown up to actual size the tread pattern and wear marks would be unique to the killer's vehicle criminalists identified two different brands of tires they determined the killer probably drove a truck or a van with an alignment problem causing the front tires to wear more quickly than the rear the similarities between the crime scenes linked the two murders to a single killer and he wasn't finished yet in the 16 months following the discovery of the first victim six more prostitutes were found murdered in and around riverside [Music] the information on the tires proved invaluable according to steve sakovsky of the california department of justice crime lab as subsequent victims were found we were armed with the information of what kind of tire track we would be looking for and that would be one of the first things we could see whether or not in fact this is another one of the series that was developing when area police departments met to compare forensic evidence they realized that along with the tire tracks the hair and fiber evidence was consistent gray and red fibers gold threads and bits of rope were found on most of the bodies these fibers lifted from the victims literally tied the murders together we were able to determine that in fact it looked like we had the same suspect environment from one victim to the next and really what that meant to the investigation was it looked like we did in fact have a serial killer with each new murder the killer grew bolder and more sadistic police found the body of another prostitute laura mills in a grove of trees stabbed and strangled a peeled and partially eaten grapefruit lay nearby this odd detail gave police an idea of the kind of monster they were dealing with according to senior investigator bob creed to where he could just have murdered this person strangled this person stabbed this person and then stood over here and ate a grapefruit we felt that this told us something about the emotional makeup of this person we were looking for police seemed no closer to finding him by 1991 10 prostitutes had been murdered and several had been redressed and left in rural areas [Music] the only clues to the killer's identity were the fibers hairs and tire tracks that he left behind but without suspects this evidence amounted to nothing since the victims were prostitutes and drug users police questioned women working the red light districts of riverside and elsinore men known to frequent these areas were investigated as potential suspects [Music] one woman provided a description of a man who had roughed her up a sketch was made from her description it was distributed but no lead surfaced [Music] investigators hoped to have better luck focusing on the killer's vehicle the tires left their unique prints on each murder scene and the interior may have provided the fibers found on the victims if investigators could find his vehicle they could find the killer so we let the investigators know to look for a vehicle with certain type tires on it let them know that they might be looking for a vehicle that had gray interior carpet they might find some rope fibers they might also find some other things in the van that had gold fibers in it because we found a prevalence of gold type fibers maybe some blanket sleeping bag along that line because of the type fibers that we found on many of the victims at an earlier murder scene police found the tread prince of a popular tennis shoe near the victim as the spree of murders continued forensic technicians began to see the same prince [Music] as the tennis shoes print continued turning up the tread showed increasing wear likewise the tire tracks found at the scenes were changing as individual tires wore unevenly and had to be replaced [Music] in january 1991 detectives from several area agencies met to create a task force in july with no end in sight a behavioral scientist was brought in to study the crimes and create a profile of the killer since serial killers rarely kill outside of their race the profile described a white male between the ages of 35 and 40. the police profile and other news of the serial killings filled the newspapers it appeared that the suspect himself was following the report as the next victim was tracy o'donnell who'd been stabbed strangled posed and mutilated though she shared these similarities with most of the other victims one thing made her unique she was african-american that he read in the paper that the serial killer stays within their own race and yet he went out and found this black prostitute and killed her it seemed like he did that just to show us that we were wrong and that perhaps maybe he selects his victims that he's in control here the murderer was maintaining his anonymity and he was becoming more defiant [Music] by the end of 1991 his victims were being found at the terrifying rate of one per month [Music] nineteen dead female prostitutes had been discovered [Music] and there would undoubtedly be more investigators in riverside california on the trail of a brutal serial killer finally got a break on january 9th 1992 an officer patrolling the red light district of elsinore saw a man speaking to a prostitute from his van [Music] the man drove off making a right turn without signaling the officer pulled the van over the driver's name was william the officer thought his van fit the description of the vehicle of the suspected serial killer he noticed the tires were mismatched and each showed a different wear pattern william suff was placed under arrest his van was impounded at the police station and given a thorough inspection police found a gold pillow and a sleeping bag a blood-stained knife was wedged ominously between the driver's seat and the console investigators also found a length of rope consistent with rope fibers found on the [Music] victims while the knife and other evidence from the van went to the lab investigators obtained a warrant to search suff's home there they found a worn pair of sneakers that matched prints found near several of the earlier victims officers also found western style shirts like the one that had been found on the first victim and a stack of vehicle maintenance receipts back at the lab dna tests were performed on the knife found in suff's van the results matched the blood of the last victim william suff's blood saliva and other bodily fluids were tested to establish his dna profile for comparison to fluid evidence found on some of the victims in many cases it was a match fiber from the gold pillow and sleeping bag along with samples of suff's hair also matched evidence found at the crime scenes tire marks from suff's van were consistent with imprints photographed at several locations [Music] the vehicle maintenance records were also helpful in establishing when suff had his tires rotated or changed police kept their own records of the tire positions at each crime scene when they compared suff's records with their own notes they found an exact match police were able to surmise william suff's homicidal pattern he would cruise the red light districts [Music] when he chose a prostitute he would invite her into his van and drive to a secluded place [Music] [Music] he subdued his victims tying them so he could torture and rape then he killed them either by stabbing or strangulation occasionally he dressed the victims in articles of his own clothing so he could move them without getting blood in his van he made no effort to hide the remains [Music] on july 19 1995 william suff was convicted of multiple murders [Music] he was sentenced to death 12 times a serial killer's compulsion for murder never stops once he finds a pattern that works he'll stick with it time and again but the pattern that provides his success also establishes a trail for those who are sworn to track him down [Music] [Music] you

Channel: The New Detectives

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Rating: 4.6291389 out of 5

Keywords: The New Detectives, New Detectives, New Detectives Full Episode, Full Episodes, New Detectives Documentary, Crime, Crime Documentary, Crime Patrol, True Crime, True Crime Daily, Unsolved, FBI, FBI Files, Crime Stories, Crime Documentaries Full Episodes, Unsolved True Crime, Mystery, Solved, Investigation, Police, Criminal, Forensics, Forensic Science, Science, Cleophus Prince, Anthony John Sully, William Suff

Id: rM36TcQcFlY

Length: 50min 16sec (3016 seconds)

Published: Sat Oct 03 2020