Scent Of The Kill | FULL EPISODE | The New Detectives

[Music] in texas a raging fire turns a couple's home into a death chamber investigators believe it's arson but they'll need an expert to sniff out the truth after a student in illinois disappears police fear that she's the victim of a murder the crime scene may have gone cold but at least one tracker is still hot on the trail detectives in tennessee suspect that a missing person's case has turned into a homicide to make their case they must rely on canine detectives to dig up the truth [Music] [Applause] when plotting a murder a clever killer will do anything to cover his tracks but not all clues can be concealed when investigators lose sight of their prey it falls upon a special breed of dog to pick up the scent of the kill [Applause] [Music] [Music] on june 8 1994 around 3 15 a.m a pizza delivery man in the rural community of belleville texas was on his way home after working the late shift [Music] he spotted a man pulling out of the driveway of a burning house the driver flagged down the delivery man [Music] he identified himself as charles fitz fitz said his wife was trapped inside their burning home he begged the delivery driver to call 9-1-1 by the time the fire department arrived intense flames and heat consumed the home as long as the fire burned out of control firefighters could only battle the blaze from the outside inside chances for francis fitz's survival vanished with the rest of the couple's home emergency medical technicians arrived to treat charles fitz disoriented and upset he blamed the fire on the cheap wiring that ran through their home with difficulty breathing fitz was transported to the hospital for treatment of smoke inhalation by the time the flames were extinguished some three hours later the house was reduced to a smoldering pile of rubble somewhere inside was the body of francis fitz detectives began their routine investigation into the cause and origin of the deadly fire they started with a visit to charles fitz who was recovering in the hospital fitz told him that he'd fallen asleep that night on the sofa [Music] in the early morning hours he woke up to a house filled with smoke he tried to get to the bedroom to save francis his wife of 17 years but the smoke and flames were too intense he'd tried repeatedly to get back into the house breaking several windows in the process but all of his rescue attempts failed it was a harrowing account but to investigators at the austin county sheriff's department the story was at odds with fitz's physical condition sheriff's deputy richard holloman explains according to what he was telling us there should have been you know some burn marks on his arms his face and should have cinched hair but with which he had none the next morning investigators proceeded to the fire scene francis fitz was found in what used to be the couple's bedroom her charred remains were transported to the morgue the medical examiner would later confirm that the cause of death was smoke inhalation [Music] investigators began processing the burned-out wreckage looking to confirm fitz's story they searched for signs of faulty wiring but there was no evidence of an electrical source to the fire [Music] neither the gas main nor the water heater had malfunctioned [Music] with the obvious accidental causes ruled out there remained one possibility the fire had been intentionally set investigators began looking for signs of arson that's why we during their search investigators found debris with alligator-like patterns on the surface wood rarely burns this way unless it is doused with an accelerant like gasoline or lighter fluid finding traces of the fluid would be the first step in proving arsene it appeared however that the fire had burned away that evidence [Music] but investigators had another tool in their arsenal canines can be trained to sniff out traces of arson that otherwise go undetected by humans george cavett of the houston police department teaches dogs to search for flammable liquids called hydrocarbons it can be naphtha alcohol distilled liquor brake fluid anything of that nature coleman fuel charcoal lighter fluid just a large list of things that puts off the same scent that the dogs can detect okay good girl we got that good girl let's check the dogs began searching through the remains of fitz's house back here for me hours of searching passed with no signs of a hit but then they found something and the location was just inches from where francis fitz's body was discovered and he worked all areas of the bedroom and came back right to the flooring that the victim was laying on top of and gave me an alert and right beside of it and on the bed springs in that whole segment the samples were placed in sealed cans to preserve whatever vapors remained and sent to the lab with their suspicions raised investigators next took the dogs to the police impound lot where charles fitz's truck had been towed the dogs were given the command to search for traces of accelerant again the dogs alerted police to the presence of hydrocarbons on the gas and brake pedals they were collected along with the other samples and sent to the lab for analysis [Music] with the help of their canine detectives investigators had recovered enough evidence for forensic examiners to conduct a thorough analysis the lab a piece of charcoal is inserted into each paint can containing the evidence removed from the seam then the can is heated to just below the boiling point for up to 18 hours during that time the charcoal absorbs any hydrocarbon vapors [Music] any potential hydrocarbon is then removed from the charcoal with the solvent carbon disulfide [Music] the resulting liquid is then analyzed by means of a gas chromatograph [Music] by breaking down the substance into its various components the gas chromatograph produces a pattern of peaks and valleys in this case the known pattern for gasoline came up in three of the 13 samples [Music] the two from the interior of charles fitz's truck and one from the bedroom where the body was found thanks to the accelerant sniffing dogs the deadly blaze had been exposed as a deliberate act of arson and a homicide and charles fitz the only other person in the house was the most likely suspect in his wife's death [Music] police in belleville texas investigating the death of francis fitz killed in a house fire believed they had uncovered a murder [Music] since he was the only other person in the house francis's husband charles was the prime suspect [Music] travis kane the district attorney of austin county began delving into charles fitz's background the family of francis fitz told us that charles fitz was a braggart wilson who really never held a job he was somebody who wore flashy jewelry somebody who wore big hats and big boots who bragged a lot and made a lot of noise about what he was going to do but never really did anything through family members police learned that francis a secretary was the breadwinner of the family even though she struggled with debilitating arthritis she was dedicated to taking care of charles and never spoke poorly of him though charles rarely gave anything of himself in return the marriage seemed solid to outside observers having found no obvious marital problems police struggled to find a motive for the deadly fire perhaps in one of charles's many unsuccessful business ventures he had made enemies someone seeking revenge against him could have set the fire detectives decided to take a closer look at some of his former associates as investigators continued looking for answers francis's relatives sifted through the wreckage looking for any mementos of their lost loved one [Music] during their search they found some documents that had survived the fire among the papers found was a list of overseas phone numbers and several insurance policies on francis listing charles as the [Music] beneficiary investigators immediately contacted the insurance agent they learned that charles fitz had recently made changes to the policies in the months before the fire he had upped the amount of the insurance on francis's life and on the home [Music] the agent told investigators that charles fitz stood to gain 824 000 from the deadly fire [Music] though the timing of the policy changes was suspicious it wasn't proof of murder and investigators still had to rule out the possibility that someone other than charles fitz had committed the crime but all of charles's past business associates had been dismissed as potential suspects now investigators had to determine why charles fitz would want his dedicated and supportive wife dead for answers they turned to the only other piece of evidence that survived the fire [Music] one of the overseas phone numbers led investigators to a young english woman named tracy muns who was living in the philippines tracy reluctantly told investigators that she had had an affair with charles fitz while she attended college in texas she claimed that they planned to marry after she graduated charles had agreed to leave his wife but tracy grew frustrated when charles didn't keep up his end of the bargain she moved to the philippines and tried to cut ties charles wouldn't let it go then in june of 94 he called her and said my wife is gone i'm free to come down to you and she said no i don't want to have anything to do with you and that that was the last time she spoke to charles fitz by killing his wife investigators believe that charles fitz was clearing the way to be with his mistress the insurance payoff would give him enough money to start a new life overseas though tracy moons had provided investigators with a possible motive they needed to find proof that fitz had planned his wife's murder pouring over the suspect's financial records investigators learned that charles fitz had sold his second car a mercedes shortly after the fire though it didn't seem like much of a clue they tracked down the classified ad and the man who bought the car to investigators the language of the ad was telling it read 1983 mercedes must sell leaving country the man who bought the car said that during the sale fitz told him that he was unmarried the ad and the information from the car buyer in addition to the arson uncovered by the accelerant sniffing dogs was enough for investigators to arrest charles fitz for murder detectives theorized that charles fitz believed he had everything to gain from torching his house and killing his wife not only would it give him a huge amount of money it would clear the way for him to be with his young lover but he would be disappointed one week after the fire fitz proposed to tracy only to find that she'd already married someone else on february 2nd 1996 charles fitz was found guilty of capital murder he was sentenced to life in prison by picking up the scent of arson dogs in texas brought a killer to justice [Music] but in the midwest police couldn't prove a murder had been committed until they got some help finding the victim on march 5th 1987 a distraught father contacted the champaign illinois police department ludwig warner believed his 22 year old daughter karen was missing [Music] it was a thursday and he hadn't seen her or her car since monday morning her purse wallet and eyeglasses were also gone his daughter frequently spent the night at friends homes but she'd never been gone for this long without checking in the next day detectives questioned karen warner's friends like the young woman's father none of them had seen her in four days one close friend told investigators that over the last week she hadn't noticed anything unusual about karen's behavior [Music] though karen had recently lost her job she was looking forward to resuming her college career in the fall [Music] karen hadn't mentioned any plans to travel but that didn't mean that she hadn't taken an unexpected trip in fact karen had recently been getting calls from an ex-boyfriend named curly b lee he wanted to rekindle the romance but karen was planning to tell him in person that she wasn't interested curly had become too possessive and physically abusive but it was possible that karen had a change of heart during their time as a couple karen and curly frequently took unplanned vacations investigators at the champaign police department believed there was a reasonable explanation for karen's disappearance sergeant jim luking explains she was gone he was gone and her car was gone it could very well have been that they decided to go off together which wouldn't all be all that unusual for two people to decide to do that to find out investigators paid a visit to curley lee when they were led into his rooming house they found that curly and his clothes were gone and nothing seemed out of the ordinary but karen's family didn't buy it desperate for answers they urged the media to get involved hoping to generate a lead pictures of karen her car and of curly were published in the area newspapers along with details of her disappearance [Music] no one responded about karen but someone had seen curly the caller reported that a friend of hers had driven curly to the bus station two days after karen's disappearance said he was heading south to his mother's house in hughes arkansas champaign police contacted law enforcement in arkansas and asked them to speak with curly like the rest of karen's friends curly said that he had no idea where his ex-girlfriend could be he said they had spoken briefly before he left champagne but that was just to say goodbye [Music] as investigators struggled to find answers the family's publicity campaign paid off a man in danville illinois 30 miles from champaign recognized the photograph of karen's car he believed that same car was sitting abandoned in his church parking lot a check of the license plates confirmed that it was the vehicle registered to the missing woman [Applause] if any questions remained about karen warner's fate the discovery of her abandoned car erased them [Music] that was the first physical evidence that there was something wrong it would be unusual for her to be there for her car to be there especially investigators brought the car to the police station for a more detailed forensic examination but the initial search of the vehicle indicated no obvious signs of a struggle the car was thoroughly dusted for prints technicians collected blue and red fibers found on the floor mats and in the trunk the items were forwarded to the crime lab for further analysis hoping someone had seen how the car ended up in danville police turned again to the public for help [Music] and again the strategy paid off [Music] a woman called police to tell them that she may have seen the car [Music] police brought her in to identify the vehicle [Music] the woman's name was rhonda and like karen she too was an ex-girlfriend of curly leaves she recognized the car immediately [Music] police questioned her further ronda admitted that she had driven the car around the time karen had been reported missing [Music] but she had no idea that the car belonged to karen warner she told investigators that curly had called her one night asking for a favor he needed to return a car to a friend in danville and asked her to drive him because he didn't have a license [Music] to detective mike smith curley's demeanor sounded suspicious she asked him whose car it was and he never replied he never answered and he told her to avoid certain streets and to drive fast [Music] rhonda said that curly then dropped her off at a bar in danville [Music] she remembered that he had a grocery bag with him in the car but she never saw what it contained [Music] curly explained that he had a few errands to run and told her to wait for him in the bar he gave ronda some money for a drink then drove away [Music] about 15 minutes later curly returned to the bar on foot he said that he didn't have a valid later that night he had some friends drive them back to champaign rhonda hadn't heard from curley since [Music] investigators suspected that in the 15 minutes that curley had left rhonda alone he would have had time to dispose of karen's body which was likely hidden in the trunk they believed he then abandoned the car in the church parking lot located just a few blocks away and then returned to the bar on foot they now focused their attention to finding karen warner's body and they believed it was in the wooded area behind the bar he was only gone long enough that he couldn't have gone very far to place the body anywhere else so it had to be down there in our opinion had to be down there in the weeds or in the brush or in the river but finding a body in this densely wooded area would be difficult there were no obvious grave sites and in the cold air any smell of decomposition had been hampered after two days of searching the team had reached their limits [Music] but investigators had one more option [Music] they called upon the expertise of joyce fares a dog handler from nearby urbana illinois [Music] for over 15 years fairs and her dogs have volunteered their services to local police and sheriff's departments bloodhounds like hers are bred to distinguish the vaguest of sense the handler has to begin with a sent article it can be any object the victim has come in contact with in this case investigators got a t-shirt and a pillowcase from karen warner's bedroom and sealed them in a plastic bag to preserve the scent fairs then gave the dog the find command letting him know his job is to find the source of that same smell check it out the bloodhound took fares on a twisted route [Music] three times he brought her down close to the river as if someone had carried karen's body looking for a place to hide her then deciding against it [Music] then the dog led fairs to a deep ravine [Music] but it would have been difficult for anyone to cross this gorge carrying a body [Music] investigators knew that the body had to be near [Music] within 15 minutes the dog closed in on an area of brush [Music] at first joyce thought he'd lost the scent but then in a slight depression covered with brush she caught a glimpse of a red sweater and a human hand [Music] investigators in champaign illinois struggled to solve the disappearance of 22 year old karen warner hidden in a remote wooded area joyce faires and her bloodhound believed they had finally found her [Music] and then i could see her hand the back of her right hand and that's when i shouted for jim looking to come i believe that would found her body after removing the body investigators began scouring the area for clues [Music] nearby investigators recovered a blue blanket [Music] 100 yards from where the body was found they discovered a grocery bag like the one rhonda described [Music] inside investigators found shoes eyeglasses and a purse all of the items were collected and sent on to the crime lab joyce fares and her dog had uncovered a homicide and investigators had little doubt that they had found karen warner using dental records the medical examiner confirmed that the remains were those of karen warner and a fracture to one of the bones in her throat told him that the young woman had been strangled to death the lack of defensive wounds and other injuries suggested that karen had been caught off guard now investigators had to make a murder case [Music] and karen's ex-boyfriend curly b lee was their prime suspect they turned to the crime lab for help examiners confirmed that blue fibers recovered from the victim's clothes match the fibers from the blue blanket found near the body next the blue fibers from the crime scene and red fibers taken from karen's sweater were compared against the blue and red fibers found in the trunk of karen's car all of the fibers matched [Music] examiners had proven that karen warner had been wrapped in a blanket and then placed in the trunk of her car and the last person known to have driven the vehicle was curly b lee illinois police now had enough evidence to arrest him for murder [Music] but as they headed south to arkansas to pick him up they learned from authorities that curly had fled again but this time police quickly tracked him down by canvassing bus stations arkansas police learned that curley had just purchased a ticket to palm beach florida investigators contacted law enforcement in palm beach they staked out the bus station waiting for the unsuspecting fugitive to arrive curly was arrested and extradited to illinois back in champaign investigators confronted curley with the case they'd built against him he admitted killing karen but claimed it was an accident all of the evidence suggested otherwise police theorized that curley had tried to rekindle his romance with karen but when karen refused his advances he erupted into a rage he didn't like to lose anything and he decided that he was going to teach her a lesson now whether he intended to kill her or accidentally killed her i don't know but i think if you strangle somebody you intend to kill him after killing her curly struggled to come up with a plan to cover up his crime he collected karen's belongings in a grocery bag and then searched for a blanket to wrap the body in before carrying her out to the trunk later that night after dropping rhonda off at the bar he drove behind the property and searched for a place to get rid of his victim in an effort to make it appear that karen had simply taken off he drove her car to a nearby church and abandoned it two days later he packed up his belongings and fled to arkansas but with joyce fares and her bloodhound on his trail curley's run quickly came to an end curly b lee was convicted of murder and concealment of a homicide he was sentenced to 35 years in prison in the karen warner case the dog had to follow a trail that was seven days old [Music] to solve a murder in tennessee another canine will have to track ascent buried for almost a year in june of 1996 ray and flita holiday went to the tennessee bureau of investigation for help in finding their 39 year old daughter kathy beedle so tell me what you found out in april they said they received a letter from her saying that she discovered she had cancer and was headed to a clinic in toronto for experimental treatment she said that she didn't want any direct contact with them during the therapy from then on kathy communicated only by facts the typed messages were brief and impersonal completely out of character for their daughter [Music] fearing that kathy might be going through some kind of emotional breakdown ray went to toronto to find his daughter he got the address off a father's day card kathy had sent the month before [Music] as he approached the front of the treatment center a panic set in the address belonged to a run-down and abandoned building [Music] there was no cancer treatment center and no clue to his daughter's whereabouts [Music] flita holiday added that just before her daughter disappeared kathy was considering leaving her husband tony vic but kathy had two children from a previous marriage to think about her first husband had died tragically in a plane crash [Music] as part of the insurance settlement kathy received eight thousand dollars a month [Music] though she had become wealthy as a result she wanted her kids to have a father figure but kathy seemed to have fallen out of love with tony and though he made every attempt to get back in her good graces kathy didn't want to talk to him she told her mother that she might need some time to herself in the near future to sort things out with no evidence suggesting a crime had taken place investigators at the tennessee bureau of investigation believe that kathy had simply kept her word but kathy's parents knew their daughter would not leave her two kids behind and disappear without a trace desperate for answers they mounted their own publicity campaign plastering kathy's picture all over tennessee but the family never heard a word in february of 1997 nearly a year since kathy had disappeared ray and fleeta holliday made one last attempt to get the police involved they contacted the knox county sheriff's office [Music] they told investigators that a few months back kathy's husband tony vick had also disappeared claiming he was going to find his wife he left the children and the couple's home with the holidays they hadn't heard from tony since the resulting financial strain forced rey and fleeta to sell their daughter's home but before they did they wanted to be absolutely sure that there weren't any overlooked clues in the home sheriff tim hutchinson took the case once we learned that all the events that had occurred prior to us being notified that number one she was missing from our jurisdiction and second it had been a long period of time that's hard to follow up and start an investigation when that much time has lapsed investigators processed the empty home searching for any clues that could help them determine kathy beedle's fate but since the home had been placed on the market a vast amount of potential evidence had been destroyed furniture and belongings had been removed floors had been scrubbed walls had been painted for investigator terry lee of the knox county sheriff's office working a clean crime scene means looking past the obvious for instance in this situation the carpet had been vacuumed that's taken up good forensic evidence such as hair fiber samples and so forth that we would normally collect so you have to look a little bit deeper investigators scrutinized every inch of the home they processed all of the sink drains in the home using luminol a chemical that glows in the presence of blood traces of blood were found in three separate sink traps the traps were removed and sent to the crime lab [Music] investigators determined that the blood found in the sink was human [Music] but the samples were too deteriorated for a more comprehensive analysis still the presence of so much blood led detectives to suspect something violent had happened in the couple's home investigators in tennessee struggled to solve the mysterious disappearance of kathy beedle a 39 year old mother of two missing for over a year [Music] after searching her and her husband's vacant home investigators believe they had uncovered evidence of foul play [Music] they decided to take a closer look at kathy's husband tony vick what they found was not encouraging and then we learned that tony vick's first wife died suspiciously some say she slipped and fell and drowned in a bathtub others said that tony had murdered her but instead of being charged vic turned a profit earning life insurance payoffs that totaled over six hundred thousand dollars [Music] investigators now feared that kathy beedle met a similar fate and they believed money was the motive for murder but investigators were a long way from making their case they had no body and their prime suspect tony vick had also disappeared hoping to generate a lead details of the case were published in area newspapers the tactic worked the owner of a local consignment shop called police she recognized tony vick the woman stated that a few months back a man dropped off a lot of expensive clothing he seemed glum and told her that his girlfriend had just died of cancer he told the owner that he would return for the check once the clothes had been sold he never did the check made out to tony vick remained unclaimed for investigators tony's statements to the consignment store owner had a very clear meaning that tells us that you know she's she's definitely deceased we just need to keep digging need to keep looking until we can find her body to build their case against tony vick knox county sheriffs needed to know his every move prior to his disappearance [Music] investigators tracked down the nanny who took care of his and kathy's children [Music] she hadn't observed any violence between kathy and tony nor did she notice any sign of struggle in the home following kathy's disappearance but she was able to offer investigators an unusual piece of information she remembered that after kathy disappeared vic scolded her and the kids for playing in the backyard [Music] investigators suspected that there was another reason for his outburst they now believe that kathy beedle was buried somewhere in her own backyard a team of forensic investigators went back to tony and kathy's vacant house now they were looking for a clandestine grave one that had been dug a year earlier but after hours of searching they could find no evidence of a burial site [Music] unless investigators could find kathy's body making a murder case against tony vick would be difficult and they were running out of ways to accomplish that goal in tennessee investigators from the knox county sheriff's department believed their missing person kathy beedle had been murdered and they believed her body had been buried somewhere in her backyard but hours of exhaustive searching yielded no clues investigators had one more option at knox county's canine unit dogs are trained to search for a variety of scents from narcotics to explosives to fugitives working with dogs since 1994 sergeant robert spangler has come to appreciate the animal's ability to pick up where the human senses leave off their sense of smell is 200 000 times hundred thousand times what a human is and that's basically what they're good for and if there's any kind of scent there human or or non-human they're gonna pick it up where a human can't even by looking but even sergeant spangler had doubts as to whether the dog could detect the body after it had been buried for a year [Music] in march of 1997 he and his dog were brought to vic's backyard where he gave his partner the command to search for a human scent as they approached a pile of wood he noticed the signs of an alert [Music] the dog was telling them to dig beneath the woodpile [Music] shortly after they began digging investigators struck a layer of concrete [Music] knowing that evidence could be anywhere they carefully sifted through the soil as they dug further with their hands trying not to break the concrete they realized that the dog had discovered a grave in the concrete they could see the outline of a body [Music] once the cement was carefully removed they could see the body of a woman wrapped in a sleeping bag and a layer of plastic the body was sent to the medical examiner's office for autopsy the medical examiner confirmed through dental records that this was the body of kathy beedle some snapped cartilage in her neck told her that she died from strangulation [Music] someone had killed her with his bare hands [Music] that's someone investigators believed was her husband tony vic [Music] the sheriff's department finally had the evidence they needed to secure an arrest warrant for tony vick [Music] but they still didn't know where he was [Music] his photograph and description were entered into the ncic a database that connects law enforcement agencies throughout the country a few days later knox county sheriffs received a call tony vick was apprehended for stealing a 100 suit from a store outside of atlantic city new jersey when police there ran his name through their database they learned that he was wanted for much more than shoplifting detectives theorized that soon after the death of his first wife vic had his eye on kathy not for her love or companionship but strictly for her money [Music] the man kathy came to trust and love soon began plotting her murder a year before kathy disappeared tony gave rey and fleeta holiday a fax machine [Music] he knew that in order to collect the eight thousand dollars a month kathy received from her first husband's death it would need to appear as if she were alive [Music] in april of 1996 after all of the elements of his plan were in place tony vick carried out the murder in the couple's home [Music] after strangling her he dug a grave then covered it with concrete thinking it would conceal his guilt from the world he then sent faxes to the family in kathy's name assuring them that their daughter was alive [Music] but sergeant spangler's dog uncovered the truth [Music] tony vick was convicted of the first degree murder of kathy beadle and sentenced to life in prison he was subsequently found guilty of killing his first wife he received an additional life sentence the human senses reach their limit man's best friend can become a detective's greatest asset [Music] whether they're used to sniff out arson track a missing person or uncover a hidden grave no rival can beat the dog when it comes to finding the scent of the kill [Music] you

Channel: The New Detectives

Views: 371,531

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, FBI, FBI Files, Crime Stories, Crime Documentaries Full Episodes, Unsolved True Crime, Mystery, Solved, Investigation, Police, Criminal, Forensics, Forensic Science, Science, Francis Fitz, Karen Warner, Kathy Beadle, police dogs trained, how are police dogs trained to smell drugs, how police dogs are trained

Id: 9p2Twzh4x5U

Length: 51min 22sec (3082 seconds)

Published: Sat Jan 16 2021