Skeleton Of Missing Person Found 14 Years Later | The New Detectives | Real Responders

in rural michigan a search for a missing man ends in cold-blooded murder [Music] investigators call on a team of forensic scientists to establish the victim's time of death and bring his killer to justice in salinas california a couple finds a skeleton in a shallow grave under their house [Music] a missing person's report filed 14 years earlier may have covered up a murder bones of lost victims may lie hidden for years time and the elements can destroy evidence when those remains are finally discovered the deceased have a chance to speak and the tales they tell reveal grave secrets [Music] in this episode some of the names have been changed the quiet agricultural town of salinas california is known for its abundant produce [Music] a town of hard-working people it hardly seems the place for a murder [Music] but on january 14 1998 the owners of a house discovered something that would change that impression forever jim olsen told his wife sandra and her sister that he discovered something strange in the crawl space under the house while installing heating ducts i just happen to look over and there's like a pair of shoes he found a pair of tennis shoes sticking out of the dirt with the toes pointing upwards he was too large to reach them in the cramped space to jim it looked as if someone may have been buried in a shallow grave [Music] they all hoped it was a prank back there right under the kitchen we can't just leave them down there let's go yeah we can go but sandra volunteered to check just to make sure be careful right over here [Music] something was holding the shoes firmly in place it's stuck on something [Music] in the dim light sandra could see that the shoes were attached to a skeleton jim called 9-1-1 officers from the salinas police department responded to the call [Applause] sergeant miller and detective mclaughlin were among the responding officers police confirmed that the bones were human and the area was declared a crime scene right dr galloway as you can see this is exactly how we found it to properly preserve the site and recover the skeletal remains investigators called in dr allison galloway a forensic anthropologist at the university of california santa cruz campus remarkably galloway found the skeleton to be complete and undisturbed by animals [Music] the initial examination determined that the bones were likely male and that they had been there for a number of years we could tell that the body had been there for quite a while uh there was no odor there was no grease in the bone there was no soft tissue left so we say usually that takes about five years minimum but it then can go anywhere up to 50 years so we have quite a long range we didn't see a lot of exfoliation of the bone the bone itself wasn't disintegrating but it was in a very protected environment [Music] decomposed jeans and underwear suggested the victim had been fully clothed at the time of his death and burial as galloway carefully sifted through the remains she found a 38 caliber bullet police now believed they had uncovered a homicide as they scoured the area around the body they uncovered some personal items including a set of keys and a cigarette lighter sergeant miller of the salinas police department spoke with the family that currently owned the house they said that they had lived there for two and a half years and i've got the story just real quick let me let me just see if i get everything straight this was the first time anyone had been in the crawl space [Music] now investigators had to determine who this victim was without the victim's identity police would not be able to track his they are i mean killer you know this one's in albuquerque new mexico the remains were sent to the uc santa cruz anthropology lab there they believe dr galloway could provide vital information okay i'm gonna go with the right femur measurements confirmed that the remains were that of an adolescent male of european descent okay he was approximately five feet ten inches tall to five foot 10. the bullet found among the remains indicated the victim had been shot gladiolus and the xiphoid uh on this journal bodies to verify the cause of death dr galloway looked for any peculiarities on the bones let's take a look at the skull here [Music] she discovered two gunshot holes in the victim's skull so it looks like we have two entry wounds over here in this victim we had a whole series of injuries we had two gunshot injuries to the head and at least one and possibly two gunshot injuries to the rest of the body the first of the head ones came in on the right side sort of around the ear and probably exited through the left eye and then the second injury came in a little bit further forward and that moved and came out on this side over here there was also evidence of at least one entry wound to the victim's back and rip seven we also have some breaking [Music] dr galloway reported her findings to sgt miller thank you very much bye-bye he cross-referenced the address where the victim was found with missing persons reports dating back from five years earlier he came up with a promising match [Music] a teenage boy named chris denoyer was reported missing from the same residence in 1984. sergeant miller reviewed the report there was a picture on file and dr galloway's assessment was consistent with the missing boy's description christianoria was last seen january 13th 1984 and it was his mother who had notified police that in fact her son was missing at that time investigators obtained chris's dental records dr kevin landon performed the analysis he compared the x-rays from chris's file to slides of the victim's dental remains [Music] he noticed something [Music] i found that there was a retainer an orthodontic type retainer on the lower jaw from extending from his left canine to to his right canine tooth with an orthodontic band around it during the time that this individual was alive that was a standard type of orthodontic retainer to place nowadays they are made a little different bonded in the back of the teeth so that they're not so visible dr landon had found a positive match i concluded that the dental remains from this individual under the house match the dental records that i received investigators finally had a name and a face for their victim now they needed to find out who had murdered chris denoyer but after 14 years the killer's trail was cold little evidence remained police were uncertain they would ever solve this case police in salinas california struggled to track the killer of chris denoyer whose body was found 14 years after he was reported missing a caliber bullet was the only evidence the killer left behind investigators now needed to reconstruct the events that led up to his death first they wanted to make sure there was no access to the crawl space from the outside of the house they found none there's only one way in and one way out so the two possible scenarios are either it's a stranger or it's somebody that lives in the residence now if you try to play out the stranger scenario you'd have to say the stranger came into the house murdered chris and then hoped that they would have enough time to drag this body into the house dig a grave cover it over and crawl out before anyone comes home and that didn't seem likely to the police in my mind those people that were suspects in this case were anyone that had access and control to the residents in january of 1984. and the only access was from inside but sergeant miller wanted to be certain that chris hadn't been murdered after he went missing [Music] he made another call to dr kevin landon one of the questions that detective andy miller of the salinas police department asked me was that would have been possible for christopher to have actually run away returned a few years later possibly been murdered by someone and placed under the house and i could tell him that that was impossible due to the fact that his wisdom teeth had not developed any further it was proof that chris was murdered just before the missing person's report was filed the police report indicated that chris had a girlfriend at the time of his disappearance [Music] they hoped she could give some insight into the family so she was the first person that we decided to contact primarily because since she didn't live in the house she wasn't as likely in our eyes to be a suspect she was dismayed to hear the news of chris's death she stated she first met chris denyer in 1983 they dated up until his disappearance in 84. chris she said was her first love when asked about chris's relationship with his parents she said that chris and his stepfather jackson viarta constantly fought vyarta was always on him about something she said she never believed chris ran away he wouldn't have left without saying goodbye to her hi mrs detective miller from salinas pd we talked on the phone investigators decided it was time to speak with chris's mother christopher have you found it they tracked her down at her current residence she was shocked by the news that chris's body had been found on the day chris disappeared she was at work her husband jackson viarta called her and told her that chris had run away she had been convinced he was still alive in fact they had received a telegram from him a few days after he disappeared chris she said was an average teenager but they had their problems with him [Music] he and his sister were having trouble adjusting to life with her new husband jackson villarda [Music] investigators asked if anyone in the family owned a gun she said that jackson villarta had one for home security but she didn't know the kind miller didn't believe that chris's mother had anything to do with the murder at the time of this murder chris's mother was pregnant and she's a heavyset woman to begin with so the idea of her going through this very small crawl space and digging you know a six foot trench in her house and dragging a 180 pound victim under there i mean that's pretty much out of the question [Music] but they did have a suspect in mind chris's stepfather jacksonvillato and you can see from the crime scene sketch here that you know we felt that the only person that could possibly benefit from burying a body underneath a resonance was the person who was in control of that residence and in this case that's jacksonville villarda worked for the telephone company they found him on his route [Music] as investigators approached they noticed he had the right size and build to dig the six-foot trench in the crawl space when we're from salinas pd mr bayard i already talked here he agreed to accompany them in for questioning he was cooperative and admitted that he and chris had had their troubles but he said that was normal teenagers often have conflicts with their step thing i'd like to parents to you a lot of times when people come down to the police department viarta said he worked from noon to 8 p.m on the day chris disappeared when he got home his wife told him that chris had run away his story contradicted what his wife had told investigators earlier a few days later he said they received a mail gram from chris saying he was sorry for all the trouble he had caused and that he had moved out investigators were suspicious vyarta admitted that he had two guns a 22-caliber rifle and a 38-caliber revolver the caliber of the handgun interested sergeant miller the rounds we found in the grave that chris had been murdered with a 38 caliber weapon so it was a very significant piece of information the police needed to get a search warrant to examine the revolver they went to vyarta's house to prevent him from entering and removing the handgun with a warrant in hand police searched the home where viarta now lived they collected the 38 caliber revolver and some ammunition while they waited for the ballistics testing to be completed they checked out vrt's story they secured all of his personal records for january of 1984 there was one small detail that peaked their look at this interest bob yeah come here take a look at this the mail gram that was supposedly sent by chris three days after he disappeared was ordered from and built to viarta's home phone chris had already been murdered police knew that viarta had written it the one sentence in the mail ground that completely gave it away that jackson was the author was when the statement was that in some ways jackson was right and you're talking about a six-year-old kid who hated his stepfather is he going to write in this letter that he thinks that his stepfather was right the only person that would write that was jackson so the whole idea of the milgram right from the beginning was preposterous the circumstantial evidence against jacksonvita was mounting but investigators would need one more piece of evidence to make an arrest detectives in salinas california had identified jackson villarda as the prime suspect in the murder of his teenage stepson chris denoyer but they still needed physical evidence to link him to the scene of the crime a 38 caliber revolver and ammunition were collected during a search of his house scott armstrong senior criminalist with the california state department of justice examined the gun [Music] he fired the weapon into a water [Music] tank and collected the spent bullets the gun whether it's a revolver or a pistol will have two kinds of markings that they impress on the bullet class characteristics and individual characteristics the class characteristics would be things that would be common to all guns of that making manufacture the individual characteristics are unique markings called lands and grooves which are left on a bullet as it travels through the gun barrel they are as individual as fingerprints [Music] using a comparison microscope he compared the bullets from the crime scene to the bullets fired from vyarta's weapon side by side the bullets matched there were class markings and individual markings that were sufficient that i could identify the bullet as having been fired from the revolver it was the hard evidence investigators needed mr vyarda with your left hand slowly reach out and open the door from the outside slowly step out of the vehicle and face away from me take two steps to your left stop put your hands behind your back and interlace your fingers get down on your knees on february 6 1999 jacksonville was arrested for the murder of chris denoyer 15 years earlier under questioning he denied all charges and maintained his innocence at trial investigators presented a videotape that proved it wasn't likely an outsider broke into the home killed chris and then buried him in the crawl space an officer matching the artist's physical description dug a hole in the confined area the experiment was timed it took a little over an hour so getting back to the fact that if an outsider had come into this place done the murder and decided this was how he's going to dispose of the body he would have had to commit himself to minimum of one hour in sort of the danger zone because if someone had come home while he was there they would have been discovered [Music] based on the evidence investigators believe jacksonville and chris argued that day you're going to give me [Music] grabbed his 38 caliber gun and shot chris twice in the head and once in the chest then he hid his body in the crawl space under the house [Music] on february 1st 2000 jackson villarda was convicted of second-degree murder he was sentenced to 17 years to life jacksonville thought that burying his victim under the house would permanently conceal the evidence of his crime but some killers believe time and the elements will erase the evidence for them in june 1995 the lansing police department in michigan was working a difficult case detective jay trust led the investigation missing persons in quite some time we're looking i got a photo of here i'm going to pass out see if anyone here can locate this guy or everyone we believe he's more of a victim we don't suspect he'd be armed but you never know so be careful at this point i wouldn't really consider it mark's wife cindy reported him missing three weeks earlier if you find anything anything about him anyone that knows any information you might think is pertinent just give me a call or leave me a message i'll get back again he's been missing for the longer mark was missing the more detective trust suspected foul play he needed to find out if anyone had seen him or knew of his whereabouts officers were sent to interview his relatives friends and acquaintances they learned that the day before mark disappeared he cashed his income tax check and was paid from his job [Music] but dozens of interviews turned up nothing else the police could find no one who'd heard from him since his disappearance he wasn't seen anywhere couldn't find anyone that had any kind of contact we couldn't find anyone that had even seen him or could remember seeing him anything like that so he just like vanished sergeant mark murray was eager to speak with mark bosom's wife cindy the last person known to have seen him she admitted to him that she and her husband had their problems and were separated as a result [Music] but claimed that both of them wanted to save the marriage [Music] she appeared to me to be very loving and caring mother she market had a daughter and she seemed to be trying to keep the the family together so they were trying to iron out their differences and and get things worked out and patched up she told the sergeant that a few nights before his disappearance mark visited her at the bowling alley where she worked as a waitress [Music] when he arrived a man named tom hart was talking to her mark was uncomfortable with heart and believed that he was interested in more than just a friendship with his wife according to cindy hart was infatuated with her she told sergeant murray that on several occasions she noticed heart following her after work in fact her husband insisted that she take out a restraining order against him but cindy considered heart a friend and couldn't believe that he had anything to do with mark's disappearance sergeant murray wasn't so sure hey guys how's it going what i thought was that that led a little more credibility to the fact that some follow play could have been involved in his gone missing as opposed to him just leaving on his own investigators decided to take a closer look at tom hart when questioned by investigators hart was cooperative the 52-year-old claimed that he and cindy bosum had more than a friendly relationship he said that cindy was planning on divorcing her estranged husband and moving in with him but was apprehensive about telling mark hart admitted that the last time he saw mark was the night before he disappeared [Music] he had met with him in person to inform him of their intentions while mark wasn't happy about this news the conversation ended cordially in fact he had asked hart for a ride to a nearby convenience store [Music] hart agreed and dropped him off as mark walked toward the store he approached two men who were standing outside he seemed to know them when hart asked if he wanted to ride back mark declined saying he'd get one later [Music] that was the last time he saw him police asked if he would be willing to take a polygraph test though he insisted he had nothing to hide hart refused claiming he had no idea where mark bosum was investigators didn't believe him by his his tone and his mannerisms and his uh basically it's not that he wouldn't answer questions but he was very evasive in his answers he wasn't real forthcoming with a lot of information we had to pry everything out of him he would give you an answer to a question but he never gave you any meat investigators knew hart was covering up for something and there was still no evidence of a crime police in lansing michigan worked to solve the missing persons case of 29 year old mark bosum tom hart the last person to see him the night he disappeared said he dropped mark off at a convenience store investigators doubted his story [Music] they contacted the manager of the convenience store to see if there was a surveillance camera in the parking lot there wasn't and no one remembered seeing either man that night with no evidence of a crime and only their suspicions that tom hart was involved in mark's disappearance investigators met to discuss their next move the investigation was going nowhere but then they caught a break at that point there was some information that tom hart owned a farm well from the time that mark bolson came up missing to like within a week and a half tom hart decided to till up his land if hart was involved in mark bosum's disappearance it was also likely he would hide the evidence he could have taken him out to the farm and disposed of the body and tilled him up in the soil with the assistance of the michigan state police sergeant murray conducted an air reconnaissance of tom hart's farm we were looking for where the ground had been tilled up and disturbed maybe a grave had been dug that the the furrows would be different in the ground it was a promising lead but after hours of searching there was no evidence of a burial or a recent grave without a search warrant all investigators could do was wait after approximately a month we there was nothing and on a missing case like this things it starts to go cold there wasn't a whole lot more that could be done what we needed to do is either find him alive or dead and then go from there we were unable to find anything the investigation had hit a dead end trust had been down this road before and knew that someday a clue would turn up he just had to be patient [Music] almost a year and a half later in nearby shiawassee county a man walking his dog made a terrible discovery [Music] hidden among some brush lay a human skull he called the police detective trost and crime scene technicians from the lansing police department responded [Music] investigators hoped this was the lead they had been waiting for until now they had a suspect but no hard evidence of a crime they collected the decomposed skull then carefully searched the area how long ago would you say you got here how long has it been nearby they recovered articles of clothing a blood-stained blanket and more human remains [Music] they also found a spent 22 caliber bullet casing [Music] from the level of decomposition vines that had grown through the tattered clothing and some insect larvae they determined that the body had been there for some time but their search of the area yielded no clues to the victim's identity investigators forwarded the skeletal remains to michigan state university for analysis there forensic anthropologist dr norman sauer looked to the bones to help establish the person's identity after analyzing the shape and dimension of brow ridges on the skull dr sauer concluded that the victim was male likely in his late twenties to early thirties [Music] from the measurements of the femur he determined the individual stood between five feet six inches and five feet nine inches tall he also discovered marks on one of the vertebrae evidence that this victim had been shot in the chest our conclusion was that this was probably a homicide david 314 the central but detectives couldn't be certain that this victim was the long-missing mark bosum the physical description roughly matched bosoms but it also matched countless other missing persons [Music] to catch the killer and determine who the victim was investigators would have to find a way to pinpoint exactly when this victim died oh it is frustrating very frustrating at this point there's no way to for us to say for sure who this person is the victim's clothing and the blanket recovered from the crime scene were sent to forensic entomologist dr richard merritt as an expert in insect growth and development dr merritt analyzes the life cycles of bugs found on a corpse and estimates how much time has elapsed since a person's death the time of death can be determined using the life cycle of an insect so basically when someone dies the insects are attracted immediately to the body within hours [Music] dr merritt began by identifying each of the species found on the shirt and blanket among the various insects present dr merritt observed an adult parasitic wasp though other insects are attracted to a corpse within 24 hours of death research has shown that wasps will not appear and lay their eggs for several months [Music] then it takes time for the wasp larvae to hatch and mature into adults adding in the wasps maturation process dr merritt narrowed down this victim's time of death the entomological findings showed that this body had been around from four to eight months maybe longer since the person died dr merritt's findings held promise this victim hadn't been killed recently forensic botanist dr frank ewers analyzed the grapevines found growing through the victim's clothing by examining the internal structure of the wood stems dr ewers was able to calculate the age of the vine here you can see a growth ring from this we can tell that there was quite a lot of growth the previous year so that meant that it had to be at least 15 months old and so it told us that the body should had to be there at least 15 months it was the break investigators were waiting for cindy bosum put them in touch with mark's dentist his dental records were sent to anthropologist dr norman sauer dr sauer compared mark's dental x-rays with the postmortem x-rays taken from the victim's remains once the police had an idea who the remains belonged to they went to that person's dentist and were able to get a hold of dental records and dental x-rays and that allowed us to do a side-by-side comparison and positively identify the remains as those of mark allen boson [Music] with the help of forensic examiners police had finally identified the victim looking for answers they began questioning all known associates of the suspect let me know what happens we'll do an acquaintance of hearts told police that hart owned a 22-caliber gun [Music] in fact he and hart had used such a gun for target practice prior to mark bosom's disappearance [Music] the information was enough to get a warrant to search hart's property [Music] investigators paid particular attention to tom hart's gun collection [Music] they recovered a winchester model 94 and a remington 16-gauge shotgun detective j trust knew that neither gun was of the caliber used in the homicide i was looking for a 22 handgun something like that i did collect some rifles i didn't really in my heart believe that they were involved but you got to collect everything and then sometimes stories change so we we took what we could find but there wasn't much there 18 months after mark bosum's murder investigators had a suspect but still no evidence against him in lansing michigan police were investigating the murder of mark bosum their suspect thomas hart was obsessed with mark's estranged wife police had a motive but no evidence a search of his property turned up nothing investigators learned that the vehicle hart drove at the time of mark bosom's disappearance was parked outside his work they impounded it for a closer inspection you remember me here's a search warrant we're taking your vehicle in for processing although the car had been thoroughly cleaned they detected trace amounts of blood when we went through it we were able to determine with luminol that there was actually blood on the passenger seat and that wasn't all when they cut the seat open they discovered that the cushion below was covered with dried blood it had been there a year and a half and it was degraded i mean it smelled like degraded blood when you looked on it whoa uh you know i was expecting little trace amounts of blood there was like a big puddle of dried blood so with that that was very very good and exciting evidence for me because now with this blood we got somewhere to go you can figure out whose blood it is i am assuming at this time that it's probably mark bosum's blood now i got to figure out how to get that analyzed investigators knew that if both parents were alive a dna match could be established i knew that the mother was alive i called her and she was able to tell me that the father wasn't back alive so we actually drew blood from both those people it was turned over to the crime lab along with the evidence they had at the scene and they were able to analyze that and hopefully get dna they were in luck it was a match the blood in the car matches both parents blood which in turn is mark bozum blood so now we got an exact match and in my mind right now we got enough probably to get an arrest warrant for murder police finally had the evidence they needed to arrest tom hart but hart was hiding out at his farm [Music] because of his violent history they didn't want to rush the house and it was only a matter of time before he came out police watched and waited he was pretty much aware that there was a warrant for him by now and he was hiding out he actually walked out got in the vehicle and left and and he didn't even go out on the road i'm guessing if he didn't go out on the road maybe he thought police weren't going to get him but he drove through the field when they saw that they just swooped in on him keep your hands where you can see him put your hands on top of your head turn and face the female officer now walk backwards towards me walk backwards towards me that's it keep walking keep walking get to the corner of the car stop he was arrested for the first degree murder of mark bosum [Music] hey have a seat please at the police department tom hart was informed of his rights do you understand you've been arrested for first degree murder before we get into that and i'll talk to you about that he refused to answer any questions and demanded his attorney let's get your attorney we're ready we can get someone to come in here you can take him down to the jail [Music] he was placed in the lansing county jail to awake trial [Music] when it became clear that cindy bosum only wanted to be friends a jealous heart confronted mark fosum he lured him into his car then he drove mark bosum to a deserted area where he shot the unsuspecting victim in the neck heart disposed of the body believing that no one would find it [Music] on january 9 1998 thomas hart was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison [Music] some killers believe they can get away with murder hiding a body may seem like the best plan but even when many years have passed and only bones remain forensic science can find the truth and uncover grave secrets you

Channel: Real Responders

Views: 1,132,694

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

Id: dK1BCcLyRxk

Length: 48min 49sec (2929 seconds)

Published: Mon Sep 06 2021