Random Targets | FULL EPISODE | The New Detectives

[Music] police in central california find themselves in the midst of a violent crime wave at first the deaths appear unrelated [Music] but detectives uncover evidence that points to a single killer [Music] in virginia women start turning up dead in their own homes and it appears a sadistic serial killer is to blame but until police can identify a suspect they remain powerless to stop him when there is no obvious connection between victim and killer solving a murder can be difficult but forensic experts can play a vital role in exposing the predator who chooses random targets [Music] in this episode some of the names have been changed california's central coastline is famous for its rugged beauty and isolation but in the early 1980s the city of santa cruz became the backdrop for a series of violent crimes on april 23rd rescue workers and police from the santa cruz sheriff's office responded to a call about a vehicle found burning along a rural mountain road the car had been burning for hours and was completely destroyed to authorities it appeared to be the work of vandals but a closer inspection revealed a much more gruesome act than arson a human body burnt beyond recognition lay in the front seat the unidentified victim was removed from the burned-out wreckage and transported to the medical examiner's office for autopsy investigators began searching for clues to explain the fire but they found none of the telltale signs suggesting that an accident or engine trouble were to blame a check on the tags revealed the car was registered to 20 year old mark farrell who listed an address less than a mile from the scene one detective sergeant david deverell oversaw the investigation the lack of an obvious cause of the fire was troubling [Music] there was no reason for the car to have caught fire there was no dynamic crash um it's very unusual to have a body burnt up in a vehicle with no explanation as to how it happens police hoped the autopsy would yield more answers this is feral with detective devarell present forensic pathologist dr richard mason began his examination by x-raying the victim after reviewing the results it was clear this death was no accident i could see evidence of at least three possibly four bullet pathways through the chest entering on the right and exiting on the left there's also a very probable gunshot wound to the head the young male victim had been murdered but the heat of the fire had destroyed any ballistics evidence that may have been left behind [Music] but then embedded in the young man's chest dr mason found a single bullet that had somehow survived the intense heat dr mason a gun enthusiast analyzed the fragment under a microscope [Music] it was a unique bullet i am a long time handgun rifle shooter and i recognized it immediately as a 38 special wad cutter they are heavy they're very penetrative and they will drill deeply into a body dental records later confirm that the murder victim was in fact the owner of the burned-out car twenty-year-old mark farrell now police had to find out who had killed him and why investigators questioned the young man's mother she couldn't imagine why anyone would have wanted to harm her son she said she last saw him the previous afternoon mark a college student studying to be an engineer was late for the night shift where he worked as an analyst at a nearby electronics plant [Music] there didn't seem to be anything that was troubling him [Music] mark was well liked by everyone who knew him he didn't have any enemies with no obvious suspects police look to reconstruct the last hours of mark farrell's life his employer confirmed that mark had worked his entire shift the night before and left around 2 a.m there were no indications that anything out of the ordinary had happened during his shift and he said mark got along well with all of his co-workers the manager handed over the videotape from the company's security camera at the santa cruz sheriff's office detective devarell reviewed the tapes the uh surveillance he watched as mark farrell left work without incident in looking at the tape there was certainly nothing unusual in it looked like you know it was the end of the night he was headed home there was absolutely nothing in it weeks passed with no additional leads soon the investigation turned cold and the caseload for santa cruz homicide detectives was about to increase two months after the murder of mark farrell the tranquility of the nearby community of laguna beach was shattered [Music] the lifeless bodies of two men were discovered on the beach officers and crime scene technicians were dispatched to the scene right about here right there they found two young asian men who had both been shot in the back multiple times police began processing the scene for clues in the breast pocket of one of the victims they found a wallet all right say anything else i don't that's good i got the shot we can put them back down and okay okay and inside was identification belonging to a man named check chin a resident of san francisco police could find no id on the second victim however they located a set of car keys [Music] detectives theorized the double murder was the result of a robbery gone bad using the set of keys police were able to locate the victim's car [Music] based on the vehicle registration they believe that the second victim was the car's owner thirty-year-old han lee also from san francisco looks pretty good so we'll get dave in here as police began looking for clues to the killer's identity they noticed one empty spot in the nearby parking lot and in the space were fresh tire tracks unsure if the killer had left the marks crime scene technicians collected the evidence using a plaster cast mold [Music] the nature of the double murder troubled police it was a really unusual scene for us we had two bodies up here on the trail multiple homicide is certainly something we don't see it's something that concerned us greatly the victims bodies were transported to the coroner's office for autopsy again dr richard mason worked the case sure uh when you're done with the overviews for a while he's in his position we'll get the id shot he extracted the fatal bullets from the victim's backs he had seen them before they were unique 38 caliber wad cutters identical to the bullet recovered from the body of mark farrell two months earlier [Music] police now had three unsolved murders on their hands and it appeared the same gun had been used in all of the homicides [Music] dr mason and detective deverell realized it was too much of a coincidence to be ignored it's an unusual book [Music] police in santa cruz california had three unsolved homicides on their hands [Music] and the bullets recovered from all of the victims appear to have originated from the same gun to find out the bullets were forwarded to ballistics expert paul doherty at the san mateo police crime lab from the size and diameter he confirmed that all were 38 caliber wad cutter bullets typically wad cutters are used for target a shooting cutter is a projectile that's designed to punch a hole in paper for target shooting so you get a nice clean hole so you can measure your accuracy of your score in other words in some cases when you get right on the line you want to make sure you're cut if you've cut the line the score goes higher and that's what this does it just cuts a nice clean hole each gun leaves unique markings on a bullet as it travels through the barrel when examiners compared the bullet recovered from 20-year-old mark farrell to the ones taken from the two asian victims found at laguna beach they found that all shared the same characteristics after extensive research authorities determined that the markings left on the bullets had likely been produced by a rare great western single action revolver manufacturer and see if we can't get somewhere with that although it becomes a little problematic when you start looking it was a promising lead but it was nearly impossible for police to track down everyone who currently owned the handgun and though it seemed unlikely detective dave deverell had to consider that the three murders were unconnected you look at it go well maybe the gun got passed from one person to another and there really is no connection between the cases um that didn't work for any of us it just was not didn't make sense that a gun and bullets would somehow transfer from one person to another and be used again in another homicide to find out if there was a connection detectives traveled to san francisco's chinatown district where the two laguna beach victims han li and check chin had lived it's a notoriously insulated community and investigators realized that getting information would not be easy a team from the santa cruz sheriff's office worked the case homicide detective joe hanard uncovered a possible lead we had information that both victims had worked at the golden dragon restaurant in chinatown where two years prior there was a gangland shooting where a number of people were murdered we were concerned that there could have been gang activity that these guys were followed down to santa cruz and were shot and killed on the way over to the beach through an interpreter from the san francisco police department's asian gang task force the manager of the restaurant described the two young men as decent hard-working employees in fact he last saw them the day before they were found murdered it was payday and the men were anxious to receive their checks they had made plans to take a day trip down to laguna beach the manager didn't believe the two men were involved in any gang activity he could think of no one who would have wanted to harm them [Music] having found no connection between the victims detectives realized they were powerless to prevent more killings soon the investigation into the murders of mark farrell check chin and han lee had hit a dead end the case was very frustrating we had the bullets linking the murders we knew what type of gun we were looking for we had a lot of evidence in the case but we didn't have even a glimmer of why these three people were killed but a year and a half later all of that changed a man named dave bonan contacted police his daughter lynn he said was in great danger she had recently broken up with her boyfriend mark cunningham and now he was stalking her [Music] the daughter feared for her life mark cunningham had allegedly bragged about killing three men a year and a half earlier [Music] it was the break police had been waiting for the father took them to speak with lynn at the grocery store where she worked [Music] his daughter was afraid to speak to police about cunningham so he offered to bring her out of the store but there was just one complication mark cunningham was there talking to lynn dave bonan got his daughter's attention and brought her outside when detective dave deverell heard the suspect was inside he quickly interviewed lynn and uh kind of did just the quickest interview on record you know we kind of went lynn your dad tells us that your boyfriend may have killed some people and we need to know what happened lynn told police that a year and a half earlier she and mark cunningham were driving around near laguna beach suddenly mark pulled into a parking spot claiming he needed cash he said he'd be right back but he wouldn't tell her where he was going lynn told police he was gone for several minutes she recalled that when he returned he was agitated and out of breath she thought she saw a gun in his possession police realized it was the same spot where the two asian men were found murdered became apparent to us in this real brief interview with lynn mark was the guy we were looking for as lynne finished telling her story mark cunningham exited the store in a wide open parking lot there was any number of ways the suspect could escape and if mark cunningham was in fact the killer police feared he would not hesitate to use violence after a year and a half police in santa cruz california finally had a solid lead in three unsolved homicides mark cunningham had allegedly bragged to his ex-girlfriend that he was responsible for the shooting deaths cunningham was cooperative and taken into custody without incident he insisted he knew nothing about any of the murders i'm sorry i really he claimed that his girlfriend lynn bonan was trying to get back at him for ending the relationship he denied owning a great western single-action revolver the type of weapon used in the three killings police didn't believe him but they had no hard evidence to prove he was lying still cunningham remained in police custody when a few days passed with no additional leads police turned to his ex-girlfriend for more information lynn bonan had reason to believe that cunningham had committed the murders she said that a few days after the two men were found murdered at laguna beach cunningham admitted to the crimes then without warning he pulled out an old revolver and forced lynn to the ground he threatened to kill her and her father if she ever said anything to police a short while later cunningham got rid of the revolver lynn didn't know anything about mark farrell the 20 year old man who had been shot and burned in his car along a mountain road at some point however in the past she and cunningham and some friends would hang out on that road and have bonfires cunningham would often brandish his weapon at passersby who complained about the illegal fires police had strong circumstantial evidence linking mark cunningham to the scenes where all three victims had been found murdered now they needed hard evidence they turned to the tire treadmarks found at laguna beach nearly two years earlier the tires from the truck that had been driven at the time of the murders had been sold but police were able to track down the current owners the tires were collected and forwarded to the crime lab for analysis first examiners generated an ink impression of cunningham's tire treads then transparent overlays were placed on top of life-size photographs of the tire tread found at laguna beach nearly two years earlier they found that all of the class characteristics including the shape size and dimensions of the tread design lined up perfectly [Music] the evidence had placed mark cunningham's vehicle at the scene of the double murder but to tie him to all three homicides they needed to find the murder weapon lynn bonan agreed to help she brought investigators to the area where she believed the gun had been tossed it appeared to be a waste of time but then buried under dirt and debris they found a pistol it was a rare great western single-action revolver to prove it was the murder weapon police forwarded the evidence to forensic examiners ballistics expert paul doherty knew it would not be easy rust had severely damaged the weapon but after days of cleaning the revolver he was able to get the gun to fire three two one fire firing ballistics tests proved that the gun was used in both the laguna beach murders and the death of twenty-year-old mark farrell cunningham was subsequently charged with three counts of murder police theorized that cunningham had started a small bonfire by the side of the road mark farrell headed home after a long night of work saw the flames and stopped to find out what was going on without warning cunningham pulled his gun and shot the young man several times in an effort to cover his tracks cunningham then doused the car with a flammable substance then set the vehicle on fire it was a crime of opportunity one the killer would repeat several weeks later at laguna beach [Music] mark cunningham was tried and convicted on three counts of first-degree murder he was sentenced to life in prison mark cunningham preyed on victims who happened to cross his path but in richmond virginia one killer carefully looked for targets that shared something in common on the morning of september 19 1987 a man noticed a car with its engine running pulled up onto the sidewalk it appeared the vehicle had been abandoned the man called police 911 dispatchers ran a check on the tags and learned the car was registered to a woman who lived a few blocks away from where the vehicle was found but when efforts to contact her failed police tracked down her landlord an officer was dispatched to the residence the landlord was also concerned she had noticed a missing window screen and feared the place had been burglarized not knowing what to expect the officer cautiously made his way through the [Music] apartment in the bedroom he made a gruesome discovery a woman lay dead she had been tied up and strangled within minutes richmond police and crime scene technicians were dispatched to the scene the woman found fully clothed was identified as 35 year old donna doyle no items appear to be missing [Music] robbery was not the motive behind the murder believing the killer had gained access to the residence through the window technicians scoured the area for prints but they found nothing and the victim's car which had likely been taken by the killer and then abandoned yielded no additional clues at autopsy the medical examiner determined that the death had resulted from ligature strangulation the device had been fashioned from a sock shoestring and vacuum cleaner pipe donna doyle had been slowly strangled [Music] though the victim was clothed in cut off jeans and a shirt there were indications she had been sexually assaulted biological evidence of rape and some stray hairs were collected at the time dna testing was in its infancy and all serologists could determine was that the killer had type o blood homicide detective ray williams was assigned the case he realized this investigation would not be simple i worked thomas hat for 20 some odd years in the city and after looking reviewing the scene i knew it to be very unusual homicide either way she was tied and strangled was very apparent to me that at that point we weren't dealing with an ordinary killer hoping for more detailed information the hairs recovered from donna doyle's body were forwarded to forensic experts at the virginia division of forensic science [Music] they determined that two of the hairs had not originated from the victim and from their texture and cross-sectional shape examiners concluded they had come from an african-american male for investigators it wasn't much to go on to learn more detectives questioned the employer of a local bookstore where donna doyle worked [Music] on the day of the murder donna had worked her regular shift out of the ordinary had happened that day she described donna as a dedicated employee and a very likable person although she was somewhat shy after closing the store donna headed home her employer didn't know if she had plans that night [Music] she believed that donna lived alone and was unaware if she currently had a boyfriend after two weeks detectives had no luck identifying a suspect or an obvious motive the investigation into donna doyle's murder was going nowhere then emergency dispatchers received a 911 there had been another homicide as police in richmond virginia struggled to solve the brutal rape and murder of 35 year old donna doyle they received word of another homicide the victim identified as 32 year old dr stephanie harris was discovered inside the bedroom closet by her husband the scene was less than two miles from the site of donna doyle's murder her hands and feet were bound and a cloth belt was wrapped tightly around her neck she had been sexually assaulted for police the crime scene looked eerily familiar there were no indications of robbery and it appeared the killer had entered through a window but few clues to his identity were found the victim's husband explained that he discovered his wife around 2 a.m upon returning from maryland where he was a law student he had no idea who could have done this he was later cleared as a suspect police sensed the two murders were connected [Music] to find out chief medical examiner marcela fierro began examining dr stephanie harris she found broken blood vessels in the victim's eyes called petechial hemorrhages [Music] like the donna doyle case that suggested stephanie harrison had been strangled slowly when the victims were examined there were certain patterns of injuries that were common and those patterns included evidence of restraint evidence of strangulation evidence of injury that took place over a period of time which was very disturbing because it would indicate a pattern of torture the similarities between the crimes led authorities to believe that the same sadistic killer had committed both murders when you do autopsies you get some insight into the nature of the person who committed the crimes it was apparent from the injuries from the restraints and from their physical findings that these were very cruel deaths and that they were committed by somebody who enjoyed doing it the biological evidence recovered from stephanie harrison was sent to forensic serologists an analysis revealed that those samples and the ones collected from donna doyle shared the same blood type both were type o [Music] richmond police were certain that the same killer dubbed by the press as the south side strangler had committed and having found no obvious connection between the two victims it appeared he chose his victims [Music] randomly feared he would strike again the question now was where and when [Music] they got their answer two months later on november 22nd 1987 police just a few miles outside of richmond in chesterfield county were dispatched to the scene of a murder the victim 15 year old dawn chang had been viciously raped and strangled in her bedroom [Music] [Music] like the other cases the perpetrator had entered the bedroom through the window [Music] strangely investigators found a figure eight painted on the victim's body but aside from a few stray hairs little physical evidence was recovered however the hairs were enough for authorities to conclude that dawn chang had been the south side strangler's third victim unlike the other victims dawn was a teenager she was asian and she didn't live alone in fact her parents were sleeping in the next room at the time of the murder they never heard a thing they described their daughter as a typical teenager they last saw her the night before after dinner dawn said she had some homework to do and planned on going to bed after she finished she said good night and went to her bedroom [Music] the mother discovered her daughter's lifeless body the following morning authorities had a serial killer on the loose and he appeared to be spreading out beyond the richmond city limits his ability to avoid detection led police to believe he had done this before desperate to generate a lead detective ray williams contacted police departments throughout the region looking for any unsolved cases with a similar mo less than a hundred miles away in the washington dc suburb of arlington virginia he got a hit there detective joe horgas of the arlington county police department had several unsolved rapes and murders that went back nearly three years the details of those were frighteningly similar to the murders in richmond and chesterfield county three weeks after fifteen-year-old don chang's homicide arlington county police had been dispatched to the home of sandra thomas watch what was stefan the 34 year old woman had been discovered raped and murdered in her home she lived alone and like the victims in richmond she had been strangled with household items from hairs and biological evidence recovered from the scene police determined that sandra thomas's killer was an african-american male with type o blood the other unsolved crimes in arlington with a similar mo had been committed in 1984 at first it seemed odd to detective horgus that the killer would suddenly stop only to resume three years later he didn't stop because he got a girlfriend he didn't stop because he got married he stopped because he either relocated he's dead and he's not dead if he's doing the other ones or he's in prison detective horgas reviewed recent parole and probation records looking for african-american males who were arrested in arlington in 1984. then he found something in early 1984 a 21 year old man named timothy w spencer was arrested in connection with a series of breaking and entering and petty thefts though those were non-violent crimes records also indicated he was identified as the prime suspect in a series of unsolved rapes throughout arlington however he was never charged with those crimes after serving three years on the theft charges spencer was paroled and that wasn't all his probation officer here in arlington knew that he was released from prison to a halfway house down in richmond and he was released about two weeks before the first murder if detective horgas was right timothy spencer was now the prime suspect in at least four murders throughout virginia but unless investigators could physically link him to the crimes he would remain free to kill again police in arlington virginia had finally identified a suspect in a series of unsolved rapes and murders that spanned a three-year period and those homicides bore an eerie resemblance to a string of serial murders taking place 100 miles away in richmond all right all right here's tucker's ham to find out if they were dealing with the same predator arlington county homicide detective joe horgas traveled to richmond there he teamed up with detective ray williams after comparing the details of all the homicides there could be little doubt that the same killer had committed all of the crimes the detectives learned that their prime suspect timothy spencer had been recently paroled and was currently living in a halfway house in richmond according to the director of the house the suspect was currently out running errands detectives asked to see the log book that contained the times and dates of when a parolee leaves and returns to the house according to the records timothy spencer had signed himself out on september 18th october 2nd and november 21st dates that corresponded to the murders in richmond and chesterfield county he had also signed out on november 25th to spend thanksgiving weekend with his mother in arlington arlington county detective joe horgus realized that timothy spencer's mother lived just a few blocks from where the latest victim sandra thomas had been murdered that same weekend what are the odds that 100 miles away our lady up here that's murdered ammo fits identical to theirs down there and where's timothy spencer he's up here at the same time too many coincidences just don't add up what it adds up to is logic this is our man a short while later timothy spencer returned home and police were there waiting the suspected serial killer was taken into custody on suspicion of murder a search of his room at the halfway house failed to produce any hard evidence linking him to the murders but on his bed they discovered a drawing of a figure eight similar to the one found painted on the body of fifteen-year-old dawn [Music] he claimed to have no knowledge about any rapes or murders and he denied drawing the figure eight found on his bed detectives sensed he was lying and now they look to the forensic evidence for proof hair and blood samples were collected from the suspect [Music] at the virginia division of forensic science criminalists compared the hairs taken from spencer to those recovered from several of the crime scenes the shape size color and texture of the hairs were identical though timothy spencer had type o blood so did millions of other people for irrefutable proof that he was the south side strangler examiners turn to a newly developed more sophisticated type of analysis called dna testing the testing revealed that the genetic profile of the suspect was identical to the ones generated from the biological evidence left behind at four murder scenes the chances that the killer was someone other than timothy spencer were nearly 900 million to one he was charged with four counts of murder investigators theorized that after randomly choosing his prey spencer an experienced burglar would slip silently through his victims windows once inside he raped and strangled them timothy spencer was sentenced to death for the murders of donna doyle dr stephanie harrison and dawn chang in richmond and for the death of sandra thomas in arlington he was the first person in the united states to be executed on the basis of dna fingerprinting for richmond homicide detective ray williams the new forensic technology could not have come along at a better time word not for dna evidence timothy spencer would have never been convicted see when you put a case before a jury the jury has to see touch feel and hear we didn't have a whole lot of things for them to see touch feel and hear other than dna and that's dna spoke for itself some killers require no motive at all to commit their crimes and for homicide detectives identifying a suspect can be a challenge [Music] in those cases they must rely on the physical evidence to expose a killer who has set his sights on random targets [Music] you

Channel: The New Detectives

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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

Id: RAXOAWVWOOE

Length: 49min 10sec (2950 seconds)

Published: Sat Jul 03 2021