Relying On Advanced Computer Technology To Catch Killer | The New Detectives | Real Responders

paper was light gold in medieval times i want tobacco sugar [Music] that everything we thought we knew about the world might turn out to be completely wrong [Music] in wisconsin dismembered human remains are found along a river's edge to solve this murder investigators must first find a way to identify the victim [Music] the body of a decomposed man is found in an arizona state park only advanced computer technology can lead detectives to his killer after finding skeletal remains texas police arrest a suspect in the murder but unless the victim can be quickly identified detectives will be forced to set a killer free some killers believe that by concealing the identity of their victims their crimes will go unpunished but with advanced technology forensic artists are identifying faceless victims and exposing a killer's guilt by drawing conclusions [Music] in this episode some of the names have been changed outside the city limits of madison the serene landscape of sauk county wisconsin is a popular destination for people looking to enjoy the outdoors around 4 pm on july 30th 1999 a woman and her son were hiking a trail along the shores of the wisconsin river the young boy noticed a plastic grocery bag at the water's edge a closer look revealed the skeletal remains of a human hand the mother quickly summoned police officers from the sauk county sheriff's department responded to the scene the hand was still attached to the arm which had been precisely severed at the shoulder joint [Music] unsure what to make of the finding police decided to spread out and search the area [Music] scattered along the shoreline they discovered several trash bags inside were more human remains detectives recovered the head and torso of what appeared to be an african-american woman [Music] her face and scalp had been sliced from the skull all of the unidentified remains were collected and sent on for a more detailed analysis for detective joe welch of the sauk county sheriff's department the measures taken by the killer to conceal the victim's identity were telling the skin had been removed and placed in a separate garbage bag it appeared that it was removed in a skillful fashion that the person that was doing it knew what they were doing to find the killer investigators knew they would first have to identify the victim by studying the remains the medical examiner concluded that the woman was five feet one to five feet three inches tall and was likely between the ages of 18 and 25. the level of decomposition suggested she had been dead for at least five days examiners were able to obtain fingerprints from the victim's hands [Music] hoping the prints were on file investigators ran them through the fbi's national fingerprint database but there were no matches sauk county sheriff randy stamen would have to find another way to give this victim a name we initially thought that we'd be able to generate fingerprints and make a comparison and identify the body of the victim feeling that if we could make that identification we'd have a very good chance of solving the crime when that failed then the next step obviously was to put out a physical description and a photograph the problem we had there was that we didn't have a face on our victim flesh that remained on the victim's skull held the only clues to the woman's identity and investigators knew that sending the severed head to a forensic artist for a facial reconstruction would destroy that evidence but scientists at the milwaukee school of engineering believed they could help they requested a cat scan of the woman's head engineers believed that by using the cat scan they could possibly create an exact three-dimensional paper replica of the skull which could then be used by a forensic artist to reconstruct the victim's likeness and no evidence would be destroyed in the process engineering professor dr lisa milkowski in this case we're trying to produce a replica that looks like and is very similar to an actual skull and the paper layers look like feel like an actual skull first engineers had to convert the data from the cat scan into a computerized three-dimensional model the resulting information was then transferred onto a disk [Music] next the data was subjected to a process called rapid prototyping normally rapid prototyping technology is used to test engineering designs that have been created on the computer [Music] the process converts the computer model into an actual three-dimensional replica made of laminated paper allowing engineers to analyze it for design flaws [Music] the process had never been used in a forensic setting first the three-dimensional model of the skull was broken down into flat two-dimensional layers [Music] then carbon dioxide lasers began precisely tracing each layer onto a sheet of paper each unique cutout is then layered on top of each other fused together with glue the layering process that is used when constructing an object with rapid prototyping is similar to thinking about slices in a loaf of bread the entire loaf is three-dimensional in nature but each slice is flat the same thing is done when we construct an object with paper layers we start out with with a single paper layer just like a sheet of paper and the laser traces out the shape on that single layer and as all these layers are stacked together each one having a unique cutout we come up with this three-dimensional object the resulting block of paper is whittled down until the replica is all that remains forty hours later nearly ten thousand sheets of laminated paper had gone into creating an exact paper reproduction of the victim's skull investigators decided to send the replica several hundred miles away to the kentucky state crime lab there dr emily craig a renowned forensic anthropologist and a leader in facial reconstruction was asked to put a face on the paper skull the possibility of doing a clay reconstruction on a prototype skull was actually kind of exciting to my knowledge i don't think anyone in this country had done it for victim identification to bring this victim to life dr craig attached tissue depth markers to several different points on the skull [Music] these markers reflect the average thickness of skin for people of similar race age and sex before molding the facial features however dr craig has to be certain that the eyes selected will be of the same size and shape as those of individuals similar to the victim guided by the spatial arrangements of the victim's skull the eyes are precisely set into place in order to generate recognition from the public the spacing and the gaze of the eyes has to be perfect once completed dr craig began bringing jane doe to life by modeling her face using an oil-based clay the fine detail as to the lids and the nose and the lips that's basically where the artistic skills supersede or complement the scientific data you really need both to do a good facial reconstruction after dozens of hours the face of the murder victim began to take shape [Music] variations of the victim's appearance were photographed and the clay model was sent to police in sauk county investigators quickly released the photographs through the media [Music] still weeks passed without a lead but then a woman named sherry contacted police she said the face in the poster bore an uncanny resemblance to a 25 year old woman named muvano kupaza had come to the united states from tanzania to study english [Music] muvano was a relative of sherry's ex-husband peter cupaza who was also from tanzania though the three lived together for some time muvano began having problems at the couple's residence sherry learned that while the three were living together peter had become abusive towards his cousin late at night while sherry was asleep he would sneak into movano's room there he raped the 25 year old exchange student repeatedly threatening to kill her if she ever told anyone she told police that when mavano told her what was going on sherry left her husband a few weeks later muvano decided to return home police now believe that the young woman never made it back to tanzania looking to verify that muvano was the murder victim detectives went door to door throughout the neighborhood neighbors agreed that the reconstructed face resembled movano kupaza police questioned her 40 year old cousin peter he denied any knowledge of the murder [Music] and he viewed photographs of the victim's reconstructed face with a total lack of recognition i showed him a poster i asked him if that looked like anyone he knew he said it didn't look like anyone he knew at all though peter claimed he had no pictures of his cousin he agreed to turn over two photo albums he added that he had recently spoken to muvano's father in tanzania he was told that his cousin had made it home and was doing fine [Music] looking to verify the story investigators contacted muvano's family in tanzania according to her father movano had never returned home and he hadn't heard from her in some time peter cupaza had been caught in a lie detectives began digging into his background kupaza they learned had worked for several years as a butcher though that did not prove murder it went a long way in explaining the precision in which the victim's remains had been severed believing the dismembered victim found at the wisconsin river was investigators shifted their focus to building a murder case against her cousin peter [Music] with the help of forensic anthropologist dr emily craig investigators in sauk county wisconsin believe they had finally identified dismembered human remains as belonging to 25 year old tanzanian native mouvano kupaza and statements made by the young woman's relatives led police to believe that her cousin 40 year old peter capaza was behind the brutal murder and dismemberment before they could prove murder however police needed irrefutable proof that the victim found at the wisconsin river was muvano kupasa they tracked down her local doctor police collected the young woman's medical records hopeful they contained the information needed to make a positive identification they were in love we were able to get some forms that she had filled out and she had actually she touched to fill these forms out we took these forms to the wisconsin state crime laboratory where they did processing and actually were able to locate latent fingerprints on those forms and compared them to our deceased and found that this was our deceased and she was identified as mavano kupaza [Music] to make their case against peter police contacted his ex-wife sherry the following day though the suspect denied having any photos of muvano sherry discovered three pictures of her in her ex-husband's photo album and they bore a striking similarity to emily craig's facial reconstruction with the search warrant in hand police and forensic technicians returned to peter cupaza's residence now they were looking to uncover physical proof of murder in the bathroom they believed they found it on a section of the baseboard they observed reddish-brown stains that appear to be blood [Music] the section was removed for future dna testing investigators turned to forensic examiners for proof that peter cuppaza had murdered his cousin examiners generated a genetic profile of the blood found in kupasa's bathroom when that was compared to the dna recovered from the victim's flesh they found an identical match peter cupaza was arrested and charged with murder based on the evidence investigators believe that muvano began threatening to expose her cousin's sexual abuse and peter cupaza would do anything to keep that from happening after killing her police believe he dragged the young woman's body into the bathroom where he dismembered her then he tried to dispose of the remains by dumping them in the wisconsin river on june 22 2000 peter cupaza was sentenced to life in prison for the first degree murder of his cousin wilvano in wisconsin the willingness to adapt a high-tech engineering process to crime solving led to the conviction of a brutal killer to solve a murder in phoenix arizona police must rely on computer software to help them identify the victim north of the city of phoenix on the evening of february 17 1996 a hunter walking along a trail in the tonto national forest noticed something lying just inside the tree line he approached the object believing it to be an injured animal but what he found was a lifeless human body the man fled the scene and called 9-1-1 deputies from the maricopa county sheriff's office were dispatched to the scene the victim determined to be a white male had suffered a single gunshot wound to the back of the head but with no form of identification located police were unable to determine who he was or why he had been murdered and the level of decomposition had made it difficult to discern any identifiable facial features [Music] the only clues to this victim's identity were a cowboy hat with a bullet hole just above the brim and a pair of prescription glasses [Music] the following day maricopa county investigators were no closer to identifying the victim but for sergeant keith moore mud stains found on the victim's clothes provided a clue as to when the murder had occurred [Music] well earlier in that week we had experienced rain in the area there were some indications from the mud on the clothing that the the body was there before the rain because of the mud that was splashed up on the clothing on the pants legs the medical examiner determined that the victim had been dead at least 10 days [Music] cause of death was a large caliber gunshot wound to the man's head fired at close range he was determined to be between the ages of 45 and 55 standing about six feet tall but other than fingerprints no identifying features remained decomposition had left his face unrecognizable until police could positively identify this victim finding his killer would be nearly impossible police in maricopa county arizona continued trying to identify the decomposed body of a middle-aged white male who was found shot to death in the tattoo national forest [Music] detectives began scouring recently filed missing persons reports hoping to find one that matched their victim but none were found and the victim's fingerprints which were recovered at autopsy did not exist on any law enforcement database homicide detective barry lynch worked the case once we ran through our normal operating procedures investigating procedures fingerprints the autopsy everything that we possibly could do we came to the conclusion that that we had exhausted all our normal investigative tools that we have at our disposal and we're going to have to go someplace else and and look into doing something different to try and make this case or try and identify this individual detectives turned to examiners at the nearby glendale police department [Music] there forensic artist john wintrow was assigned the case [Music] by applying specially designed computer software to photographs of a victim's face wintro has become an expert in erasing the effects of trauma and decomposition having a clear image of the victim's likeness makes it more likely that someone will recognize the face in this case it's a matter of using these tools to eliminate and clean up the original photograph the original picture being scanned to get rid of the decomposition to get rid of the trauma and take that image which is once graphic and turn it into a presentable image for the media so they can assist in the identification of this person before beginning the reconstruction in this case however wintro had to first photograph the face of the victim found in the tattoo national forest [Music] when you're taking photographs of the victim's face ideally what you would like to have is what's referred to as a frankfurt plane which is just a almost a portrait-like eyes front even keeled facial shot in doing so in the process you have to keep in consideration that you're going to be scanning this photograph in wintro next photographed the cowboy hat and prescription glasses that were recovered from the crime scene careful to use the same scale as the photographs of the victim's face taking a polaroid it arms length away gives me a form of measurement so that when i'm taking photographs of glasses and cowboy hats and other items that are going to be scanned and on the photograph i have a distance of measurement investigators hoped that by layering such details onto the reconstructed face it would become more likely that someone would recognize the victim after scanning all of the photos into the computer wintro was ready to begin the reconstruction his first step was to use the computer software to eliminate the trauma and decomposition present on the victim's face taking those graphic images away starts off with finding a good piece of tissue good piece of of skin that is not decomposed and by taking a tool referred to as clone pipe in this program i can take this large circle which is placed over the tissue that is not decomposed or not exhibiting trauma and then taking the small circle and cloning the good tissue over the bad tissue or skin in this case then using a smoothing tool wintro blended all of the skin tones together until no traces of damaged tissue remained in the final step of the process the victim's prescription glasses and cowboy hat were layered onto the image [Music] finally a week after the unidentified victim was found murdered the forensic artist had given him a face maricopa county detectives quickly released the victim's image to the media within a few hours john wintrow's efforts paid off a local resident john christian recognized the victim as being 52 year old thomas donahue now i know i know sue works at the grocery store he hadn't seen or heard from tom in some time he described his friend as a simple but nice man who was always eager to gain the acceptance of people around him john christian told police that tom who was employed as a security guard for a local company lived with a woman named darlene schlicht though darlene and her friends were rumored to be involved in criminal activity including forgery and check fraud scams tom tried to fit in with the group christian had heard that one of those friends kerry scott seemed to resent tom's efforts to include himself in their activities christian hadn't seen darlene or any of her friends in some time looking to prove that the victim was in fact thomas donahue detectives contacted his case employer they said had not shown up for work in several weeks donahue's fingerprints were on file and his employers agreed to forward them to the crime lab examiners compared the known prince of thomas donahue to those recovered from the victim they matched thomas donahue was officially the victim of a homicide now looking to identify his killer investigators began tracking down his roommate darlene schlicht for information but she was nowhere to be found a records check soon explained why three days after thomas donahue's body was found darlene schlicht had been arrested on forgery charges in nearby tempe arizona according to the reports darlene had tried to pass a check at a cafe using an account that had been closed for several months it turns out the account was in the name of thomas donahue after being turned over to police darlene was placed under arrest and transported to the tempe jail though the finding was incriminating it didn't prove that darlene had committed murder police hope that kerry scott darlene's alleged accomplice in the forgery scams would have information about the homicide but she was difficult to track down a short while later investigators got a tip that carrie scott was staying at a nearby motel [Music] the woman who answered the door told police that kerry wasn't there but they didn't believe her police began searching the room [Music] in the bathroom they found carrie hiding in the shower she was placed under arrest on unrelated outstanding warrants at the maricopa county sheriff's office investigators questioned carrie about darlene's role in the murder of thomas donahue at first she was uncooperative but after some time kerry decided to talk she admitted to being present at the time of the killing and she confirmed that darlene schlicht had committed the murder according to carrie one night a few weeks back she darlene and another friend went out for a drive to the tattoo national forest with tom as they made their way to a hiking trail darlene grabbed a handgun that tom had brought along ran up behind him and shot him in the back of the head [Music] though kerry scott claimed she had no idea that darlene was planning to kill tom the murder didn't surprise her darlene had recently told her that tom knew too much about their forgery scams and she wanted to do away with him after hearing the version of the incident from kerry scott then we had to find other individuals and other suspects who were involved in the case to be able to confirm or deny her version of the story police tracked down the third woman said to be present when the murder occurred at first erica land denied any knowledge of the killing but when she learned kerry scott had told police she was there erica broke down but she had a different story to tell according to erica it was carrie scott and not darlene schlicht who had pulled the trigger you were actually holding erica said she had not been included in the planning of the murder in exchange for her testimony investigators agreed not to arrest her unsure what to make of the conflicting stories detectives traveled to the tempe jail to interview darlene schlicht like erica land darlene blamed the murder on carrie scott [Music] darlene admitted that she had helped plan the murder they decided that mr donahue wants to involve himself in our criminal activity and out of a conversation that they had at darlene's apartment they conspired to go ahead and take him to some remote area in the county and kill mr donahue though police had no physical evidence to corroborate the testimony they were now convinced that kerry scott's version of events was a lie keri scott spent a good deal of her time trying to figure ways to isolate herself or remove herself from her involvement in this particular case so there was a stark contrast between the two and having interviewed the other principals involved in the case uh and some of the other witnesses uh they all tend to cooperate what miss flitzet darlene schlitz had stated police believe that thomas donahue tried to get involved in the group's criminal activity but kerry scott and darlene schlicht didn't trust him and they decided to kill him on february 7 1996 they lured him to an isolated spot at the tattoo national forest as he walked along a trail carrie scott approached him from behind and shot him once in the head they believed that prolonged exposure to the elements would keep his identity and their crime a mystery carrie scott stood trial for the first degree murder of thomas donahue she was convicted and sentenced to life in prison darlene schlicht was also tried and sentenced to life in prison the composite that mr wintrow provided to us was crucial in this case because it was the means by which someone was able to identify mr donahue without that we would have probably never found the identity of mr donahue or the principal players involved in this case [Music] with the aid of computer software forensic artist john wintrow was able to restore a victim's appearance and help bring two killers to justice in texas police must rely on a renowned forensic artist to identify a faceless victim in the late afternoon hours of july 18 1989 a young boy playing near a lake in will's point texas stumbled upon some debris that had washed ashore curious as to what he had found he began poking at the trash it flipped over he saw that it was a human skull wrapped in cloth frightened the boy ran to tell his father after receiving the 9-1-1 call deputies from the vanzant county sheriff's office were dispatched to willow lake there they located the human skull and a pair of blue denim shorts scattered on the ground rope had been used to bind the items police carefully collected the remains and a few stray red hairs lying nearby having found no other clues to the victim's identity investigators forwarded what little evidence they had recovered to forensic examiners from the level of decay examiners determined that the remains had been lying outdoors for at least a year [Music] and evidence of blunt force trauma found on the skull suggested the victim had been murdered further analysis led to the conclusion that the victim was a caucasian female but little else was learned [Music] captain rock ellis of the vanzant county sheriff's office was contacted with the autopsy results it was clear this would be a difficult case to solve forensics is telling me you know that the lady is somewhere between 20 and 40 years old she had red hair and that's about all we had to go on at that time as investigators struggled to identify the victim dispatchers received a 911 more human remains had been found because of the decreased water level at willow lake a passerby had stumbled upon a partial skeleton lying in the mud it was found less than 200 feet away from where the skull had been found chicken wire surrounded the remains the caging had been tied to concrete blocks with electrical wire and rope likely used to keep the remains submerged in the lake and there was something else it appeared the ropes had been tied with the same type of knots as those found with the skull forensic analysis later confirmed that these remains were at one time attached to the skull found a week earlier though the findings had provided investigators with additional evidence of murder the identity of this victim and her killer remained a mystery police in vanzant county texas struggled to identify female skeletal remains found scattered along the shores of willow lake [Music] as police began canvassing the nearby neighborhood they made a startling discovery in one of the yards lying next to a roll of chicken wire police noticed some ropes they were the same type and tied with the same knots as those found with the skeletal remains the same knots were tied on all three places a clove hitch is not unique a bow line is not unique but when you see those knots tied with the same type material in three different places it focuses in on the same person tying the knots though no one was home police obtained a warrant and collected the evidence now they needed to find out who lived at that residence a property search revealed that the house belonged to an elderly couple who lived there with their 38 year old son ronald mark holloway [Music] and a records check indicated that holloway was currently on parole for the sexual assault and attempted murder of a woman in another state i contacted the officer that worked the case and uh during our conversations he gave me a lot of insight into holloway and he also read me part of a statement that holloway made in which he said that if he did this again he would cut the person up and put him in the water though investigators had few clues to the identity of the woman found at the lake they believed they had a suspect in her murder what's this all about less than two months later the elusive suspect ronald holloway was finally located in a nearby county and brought in for questioning he admitted that he had tied the knots on the rope found at his parents home but he denied any knowledge of the murder detectives sensed that he was lying though their case was circumstantial they decided to place ronald holloway under arrest for suspicion of murder i was afraid that if i didn't make my move then that he would be a long time before i saw him again so i figured i'd get him while i could but with holloway's arrest investigators found a new challenge because of a texas law they had only a short period of time in which to formally charge the suspect with murder sergeant steve black of the texas rangers was asked to assist in the investigation in texas at that time we had what they call a speedy trial act and if you if you didn't bring your defendant uh to trial within that time where you you know you were in serious trouble the defendant would be gone having only 60 days to make their case investigators turned to renowned forensic artist karen taylor for help with only a skull to work with taylor combines science and art in order to accurately reconstruct the features and fine details that make each face unique the advantage in putting a face on a skull is that arrangement is given there in the skull the openings exist already the various orifices of the skull are there and the features have to be placed over them and so the proportions are built in it's the spatial arrangement of those features that has proven in study after study to be critical for triggering recognition taylor begins by photographing the skull with 21 tissue depth markers placed at precise points tracing paper is then laid over the life-size photographs of the skull [Music] using the rubber markers as her guide taylor began shaping the contours of this victim's face once complete the next step is to draw in the eyes nose mouth and other features that will potentially lead to the identity of the victim [Music] there are certain ways to calculate the individual features there's a formula for each feature for the development of the eye and determination of the width of the nose or the projection of the nose or the the width of the mouth and so forth using established scientific data to approximate the size and shape of the victim's features taylor next looked to other evidence recovered from the crime scene to help her fine-tune her drawing a pair of blue jean shorts were recovered that were sized 26 inch waist indicating a really slender individual so i knew that i needed to slenderize the face somewhat so i actually shaded in the cheek area to make the finished reconstruction drawing look more slender karen taylor had taken a faceless skull and created the image of a young woman hopeful it would lead to her name and the name of her killer the forensic artist has the ability to to develop a face that gives that individual who's a victim of violent crime one last opportunity to be identified and and that's the reason we we do what we do hoping this would generate the lead they needed to link ronald holloway to the murder victim investigators quickly released the sketch through the media within a few hours they got a tip a caller recognized the sketch as resembling 28 year old jennifer d weiniger who shared a house with her boyfriend in nearby elmo texas [Music] police went to the address ray dawson agreed that the sketch he had seen in the paper looked like his girlfriend police asked him for a photograph of jennifer i'm pretty happy [Music] the picture of the girl was a dead ringer of the the artist rendering that karen had fixed for us we've been together around the time jennifer disappeared dawson said he was in jail on traffic violations and though he hadn't heard from her since he didn't think much of it in the past jennifer would ask him to drive her to the local bus station she was a free spirit and enjoyed being out on the road in fact she would often take off on hitchhiking trips across the country and be gone for months at a time police specifically asked him about jennifer's friends and associates but dawson didn't know anyone named ronald holloway [Music] believing they had finally identified their homicide victim authorities retrieved jennifer weiniger's dental records and compared them to the remains found at the lake it was a perfect match though karen taylor's facial reconstruction had led to a positive identification of the remains found at willow lake investigators were no closer to proving ronald holloway was the killer and under texas law police only had a few days left before they would have to release the suspect unless they could find a way to connect him directly to the victim holloway might just get away with murder with the help of forensic artist karen taylor authorities in vanzant county texas had finally identified skeletal remains as 28 year old murder victim jennifer weiniger though authorities had established a physical link between evidence found at the crime scenes and the home of ronald holloway they struggled to tie the suspect directly to the victim and they had only a few more days to prove he was the killer otherwise they would be forced by texas law to set him free hoping to uncover a connection between the suspect and the victim police began canvassing jennifer's elmo texas neighborhood a clerk at a local convenience store knew jennifer well she used to come into the store several times a week and there was more captain rock ellis about the time that she disappeared he told me that jennifer was at the store holloway pulled in and he was pretty well known because he had at that time a pretty flashy red truck and that he talked to her outside the store that evening about 10 o'clock and that she got in the truck and they left together i tried very hard to find anyone who had seen her after that night under questioning ronald holloway insisted he didn't know anyone named jennifer weiniger police knew that was a lie though all the evidence against him was circumstantial investigators felt they had enough to finally win a murder conviction police believe that in august of 1988 the rage holloway had asserted towards women in the past resurfaced soon after he and jennifer began a relationship using a blunt object he beat jennifer weiniger to death and then disposed of her remains in willow lake on january 30th 1990 ronald mark holloway was convicted of the murder of jennifer d weiniger he received a sentence of 25 years to life in prison when solving a murder homicide investigators rely on the victim's identity to lead them to a suspect but to give a faceless victim a name police turn to forensic artists who can expose a killer's guilt by drawing conclusions

Channel: Real Responders

Views: 208,500

Keywords: Real Responders, advanced crime solving, analytical crime solving, crime solving methods, crime-solving technology, criminal case analysis, detective work, forensic DNA analysis, forensic analysis methods, forensic science methods, forensic software, high-tech detective work, homicide cases, investigative techniques, modern detective techniques, modern detective work, murder mystery, police technology, profiling criminals, solving cold cases

Id: BNs92yUft-E

Length: 50min 4sec (3004 seconds)

Published: Mon Jun 14 2021