Stolen Identity | FULL EPISODE | The FBI Files

two brutal murders in two small towns located hundreds of miles apart the crimes seem random and unrelated investigators search for a motive they make a startling discovery both murders are the work of a cunning crime ring local police and the fbi must untangle a web of lies to stop a dangerous gang that will kill a man for his identity [Music] [Applause] [Music] in the united states identity theft costs citizens billions of dollars in some cases it cost the lives of innocent people i'm jim calstrom former head of the fbi's new york office in 1999 a bizarre murder led agents and police on a manhunt across the south their mission to catch a killer who stole the identities of his victims and had the survival skills to disappear forever in henderson county kentucky on march 10th at 3 a.m the sheriff's department receives a bizarre call a man reports that a stranger is outside his home the resident tells police that the stranger broke into his truck and is sitting in his driveway honking the horn repeatedly [Music] [Applause] when sheriff's deputies arrive they find the attempted car thief is a 62 year old man he is soaking wet and suffering from severe hypothermia the man identifies himself as richard dorman [Music] he says two men abducted him at gunpoint and threw him in the green river [Music] he tells police he broke into the truck to try and get someone to help him police take him to the hospital lieutenant frank grop the henderson county sheriff's department is called out to question richard dorman [Music] lieutenant gruff does not recognize the name but he knows the face it's between two and three in the morning and we converge at the hospital as soon as i see the guy he looks like the photograph he's the guy in the photograph the photo is from a bank surveillance camera gropp has been searching for the mysterious man in the photo for four weeks ever since he responded to an emergency call to a local farm farmer jack norris lived alone in henderson kentucky on february 3rd lieutenant gropp made a gruesome discovery after a call from one of norris's neighbors when i got out there deputies led me to a building adjacent to the victim's home in the building that the victim had kept hey it was a shed actually opened face and the contents of the shed was have from the floor to the top with a space to the left where you could walk and over in that space was the victim's body and at that point we knew we had a murder obviously two different jack norris's body was covered with blood it appeared he was beaten to death looked like something had punctured his back several there's times pickaxe up toward the entrance closer examination we can see blood on the handle on the pick itself an inch or more of the pickaxe was wet [Music] deputies continued to search the area near a wood pile grop found a pile of hay underneath our dried blood stains closer inspection i could see blood splatter up and along the wood that was stacked there which was telling me that was the the actual point of impact that's the scene of the crime right there group found a heavy iron pole next to the stack of wood there was blood on it [Music] pick up a item that is that heavy and beat a man in the head like that it would tell me that the person that's swinging this weapon is angry aggressive uh he's doing it with force and doing it with a purpose investigators searched the victim's house for clues they hoped that inside they would find something to help them make sense of this senseless act they definitely had time norris's home was ransacked drawers and cabinets were opened and searched whoever this was took their time either took their time or there's more than one individual doing two things at the same time although the murderer tore the room apart nothing of any value appeared to be missing in fact the victim's wallet was found in his pocket one of the things that struck us was the calendars were still on january 31st which was sunday they had not been flipped over to february first so as an educated guest we put the murderer at monday morning later we used the mail carrier and the meal that was in the mailbox and pretty much that confirmed he never did get his mail from monday [Music] sheriff's deputies canvassed the area the victim's neighbors provide an intriguing clue [Music] right away the neighbors telling us this man carried two wallets we have a wallet missing it's the wallet with his id the one while he had id the other wallet he carried for different reasons but our wallet and id is missing the second wallet and the missing id only added to the puzzle police recalled finding an empty box of checks at the victim's home drop thought perhaps he'd found the motive [Music] news of the norris murder spreads quickly local residents were afraid who did this and why for days the henderson county sheriff's office tried to unravel the crime but nothing seemed to make sense [Music] then suddenly they got an unexpected break a bank in union county called with intriguing information the bank notified us that they had received a check from an individual off of mr norris's account that they had compared the signatures and that from what they could tell was a forgery [Music] the only thing missing from the norris home was an id and a box full of checks perhaps the missing checks would lead them to norris's killer we went to the bank this was just an excellent tape of this individual standing there at the counter white hair he had signed a name or used named cleo campbell the man with white hair is richard dorman [Music] hours after jack norris's murder dorman called himself cleo campbell and cast a check on norris's account for eleven hundred dollars almost the exact balance in the account lieutenant grop knows who dorman is but why was dorman posing as cleo campbell [Music] after the norris robbery when grupp got the photo he began searching for campbell which checks around the counties for the person and the name cleo campbell there was no cleo campbell that met the description in the area we go on the internet we look up every cleo campbell that we can find nationwide [Music] if i found a cleo campbell in any particular state i would contact the local law enforcement agency and they'd call me back one after the other and saying you know this is not the guy investigators searched for the elusive cleo campbell for weeks but nothing panned out it was as if campbell never existed then gropp learned that campbell was the name of a robbery victim in alabama the mystery surrounding richard dorman was deepening lieutenant grop has a lot he wants to ask dorman and i said well cleo and i said you don't mind if i call you cleo do you that's how i've come to know you and his eyes are just they get big dorman realizes he's been caught and in a real polite manner he says look i don't want you boys to be offended but this goes across state lines you're going to need some federal people on this you're going to need the fbi lieutenant grupp calls in the fbi special agent paul pape is brought in to interview richard dorman dorman launches into an incredible story he tells the agent that he agreed to meet a man named charlie stewart at a truck stop in clarksville tennessee charlie stewart according to dorman was the ringleader of this group that went around and stole checks and cash checks and assumed other people's identities he said that he was a check casher charlie provided dorman with false identification in the norris check the day before he was abducted dorman was told there was a problem and charlie wanted to talk to him about it [Music] special agent paul pape as he waited for stewart a young male came up to his car and said are you richard dorman and dormancy i am wants it to you and at that point the young male lunged a dormant and tried to start he had a stun gun in his hand and was trying to stun him with his stun gun another older gentleman came around to dormant's car and had a gun a little derringer and pointed that right a doorman and uh at that point dorman seeing the gun stopped resisting and and said basically what's this all about and the older gentleman said charlie wants to see it [Music] norman and the two men drive north until they reach the green river in kentucky [Music] enormously they pulled over on a dirt road there right next to the river got dormant out of the car and went to the back of the trunk they gave dorman a cigarette the older older male said to dorman that uh we got to take you to see charlie before we do that we need you to get into the trunk dorman had no choice the two men demanded his wallet [Music] and all of a sudden the vehicle takes off with him in the trunk and plunges over about a 20-foot embankment into the green river when the vehicle hits the river the trunk pops open uh dorman is able to swim out of the truck before the car submerges he grabs onto a log and drifts downstream probably 100 200 yards the abductors think at this time while he's either drowned or he's going to freeze to death because of the temperature of the water [Music] dorman tells agents he had never met the two men who tried to kill him but he certainly worked for charlie stewart stewart is a man all too familiar to lieutenant grop a man grupp believes must have been involved in jack norris's murder now he has to prove it in henderson kentucky a mysterious man claims two men tried to kill him by throwing him into the green river [Music] he tells police a known criminal named charlie stewart is behind his kidnapping in attempted murder henderson county sheriff's investigator lieutenant frank grop knows steward only too well charlie stewart is infamous in this area he's well known he's been involved in all sorts of different criminal activity charlie stewart is a suspect in the murder of a farmer in kentucky and stewart is also wanted in connection with a homicide in alabama [Music] on the morning of february 8th in alabama five days after the norris murder in kentucky a morgan county deputy responded to a call someone abandoned a van at the old gun pond rock quarry the front end of the vehicle was submerged the deputy checked out the back inside he found an old quilt stacks of paperwork and the body of a man the victim's wrists were bound his face was covered with duct tape body in the van of the rock he was not breathing you could not see any chest movement at all it was obvious if he was dead detective terry kelly is a criminal investigator with the morgan county sheriff's office when an officer comes across what appears to be a especially a homicide but any crime scene that can be processed for evidence he observes what he can backs off calls the investigators and we arrive and take the scene from there investigators secured the scene and waited for the forensic team to arrive captain mike corley patience is hard in a case like this but we knew that the damaging of evidence or the contaminating of evidence would be crucial in court kelly forensics here the forensic unit arrived at the rock quarry [Music] the victim was a white male he appeared to be in his late 40s or early 50s the forensics persons started their processing of the scene which is photographic measuring um checking to see if they could observe any latent prints on the vehicle that would be worth processing all right let's see if we can get it open investigators opened the other door and spotted a dark blanket let me see your hands let and we saw that move someone says there's movement it's kind of scared all of us i'll tell you the truth we were not expecting that get an ambulance all right investigators found a woman she had been badly beaten she was duct taped up also she was had a duct tape around her mouth around her hands what happened what happened to you police questioned the only survivor florence nichols she told them what happened [Music] florence and her son james had just gotten home from a flea market he was a a businessman you know he had a little shop that it was kind of a mom-and-pop type of gun trading and guitars and musical instruments uh and they lived together in eva and they pretty much always had there in the eva community a few minutes later there was a knock at the door [Music] it was a young man asking for directions he forced his way into the house and then he attacked here but she tells investigators she heard a second man's voice as far as she could tell he ran through the living room and down the hall where her son james was a few minutes later she was thrown into the back of her own van [Music] something very heavy was thrown on top of her it was the body of her son according to florence the van drove for a few minutes then stopped [Music] she had been in that van for probably 14 to 16 hours as best as we can reconstruct [Music] the whole time with her son who was deceased on top of her fearing for her own life it had to have been horrendous i'm amazed that she survived she knew deep down that these people intended to kill her i think she had no doubt in her mind florence nichols described her attackers the man who came to the door was young late teens or early twenties [Music] she didn't get a look at the other one she had no idea why anybody would want to hurt her or her son [Music] investigators searched the nichols home looking for clues nothing appeared to be missing in a fairly large glenn collection there was a fairly large amount of knives collectible knives there was so much stuff left that would have been good items to steal it doesn't appear to be a robbery if it's not a robbery why would they kill someone automatically what was the motive what was going on so it's it's a very strange case at first investigators returned to the nichols home they wanted to go over the house a second time in case they missed something this time florence nichols told them she carefully went through her belongings and discovered a few items were missing some collectible guns some knives about 200 in cash and her son's checkbook if those checks are going to show up somewhere forged and passed somewhere else you know that could give you lead you back to your your perpetrator so in a way it's good news that the checkbook was missing checks [Music] the fbi and police are now working two homicides and a string of robberies they suspect are linked to charlie stewart there was an eerie parallel between the alabama and the kentucky murder cases lieutenant frank gropp charlie stewart being from here is an obvious connection from here to there the type of uh murder is the same it appeared that he the man in alabama was murdered for his identification and that fits what we're looking at so at that point we kind of focus on charlie stewart when our case comes together that's exciting and when the pieces fell together like this that was just it was more than i could ask for we felt that this was it but to solve the puzzle investigators must first find charlie stewart agents turn up the pressure on dorman dorman begins to give the agents the details of charlie stewart and his deadly identity theft ring i've only been working with stewart for a couple of three years he was always provided with id that at least appeared to be him or looked like him he would walk into a bank very calmly knowing he had a a stolen check and sometimes a check of a dead man and was passing that and wouldn't even break a sweat not a nervous bone in his body he was a pro ironically dorman himself was targeted by stewart's deadly scan when stewart hired two men to kill dorman they took his wallet before they dumped his body so far police and the fbi have identified two members of the identity theft ring richard dorman is in custody but the most dangerous one suspected murderer charlie stewart is still on the run along with his unnamed accomplices the fbi and police hope dorman can lead them to the men before they target another victim [Music] the fbi and police in alabama and kentucky are working two homicide investigations they think were engineered by the same man charlie stewart in alabama a man was found murdered in a van beside his badly beaten mother at a rock quarry the night before the bodies were found a deputy responded to a call at the rock quarry [Music] a resident complained that someone had stolen his tractor when the deputy first arrived to check out the area he saw a grey 1977 pontiac grand prix the vehicle's hood felt warm but the driver was gone the deputy got the plate numbers and searched for the driver but when he got back the grand prix was gone the grand prix was parked 150 yards from where the van was found the next morning captain mike corley [Music] it was just too too coincidental to have not been related the gray grand prix was now investigators best lead investigator terry kelly it was decided to uh put out what we call a bolo be on the lookout for this vehicle this great pontiac so that was broadcast over the air to local law enforcement news media likes to have scanners they picked up on and of course questioned us and we responded let them know that yes we were looking for this vehicle it was a vehicle of interest possibly in this homicide we simply wanted to talk to the people that were in it see if they saw or heard anything unusual in that area that night we had several telephone calls several sightings tips came in but none of them turned out to be the car they were looking for [Music] we appreciate you coming in sir a few days later a local man contacted the morgan county sheriff's office with a promising tip he told investigators that they should take a look at a man by the name of larry butler who owned a gray grand prix according to the man butler left town on a motorcycle around the time of james nichols murder the grand prix had not been seen since [Music] when police pulled up butler's criminal record they learned that larry butler was an alias his real name was charlie stewart he has numerous aliases and a long long criminal history burglaries robberies violent crimes and a current warrant on him out of the state of florida when you see somebody with that kind of criminal history that suddenly disappears the night of a homicide and nobody's heard from since you know i might be a little cynical as a law enforcement officer but it makes you a little suspicious lieutenant chuck zamba from the morgan county sheriff's office makes several visits to stewart's home the trailer in an isolated area each time stewart's wife tells him she has no idea where he is investigators also questioned stewart's neighbors we had received a word that charles stewart had come to one of his neighbors and wanted him to catch a check on a dead man's account of course that that sent flags for us he was very afraid of strangers convinced that mr stewart would set his trailer on fire and wait until he ran outside and shoot him as he came out that was his words that's right that's the kind of person he thought stewart was that's the reason i didn't come the neighbor also tells investigators that the day before nichols murder he saw stewart in his grand prix with two other men unfortunately he didn't get a good look at the men with stuart agents and police hit another dead end [Music] the fbi is involved in an intense manhunt to try and capture suspected murderer charlie stewart and shut down his identity theft ring [Music] agents already have one of his accomplices richard dorman in custody but he hasn't been able to lead them to the fugitive [Music] after weeks of working the stalled case the fbi gets a break [Music] special agent paul pape someone calls me at the office and said that they had information that i needed to hear this person tells us that the two people responsible for these murders are billy lyon and his father larry lyon both from henderson kentucky according to the cooperator billy lyon told her they intended to rob a tobacco store in evansville indiana where he used to work he planned to kill the manager and steal the safe that was supposed to happen fairly quickly so with this information a new sense of urgency is placed on a case where we not only have old murders but now we have one that's pending so we have to act immediately on it lieutenant frank grop of the henderson county kentucky sheriff's office have you ever seen any of these men agent paul pape and i along city police set up a photo array which consists of six or more photographs of like individuals individuals who look similar and we show that to dorman dorman quickly picks larry lyon and his son 18 year old billy lyon out of the photo array [Music] we initiate surveillance on billy lyon's house in evansville indiana with the fbi and the evansville police and we also have the house in henderson kentucky where larry lyon is living under surveillance the plan was to go obtain search warrants and restaurants both in indiana and kentucky for the two suspects their houses their cars and get everyone coordinated bring up the extra help from surrounding areas to coordinate these searches but as all plans go this one didn't work out there he is there he is billy lyon leaves his house and heads toward henderson where his father lives at this point we have to make a decision do we let billy lyon go and run the risk of one losing him or two him going to larry lyon's house and coordinate with him to go do this tobacco store murder so we made the decision that that we needed to stop billy lyon and arrest him driver shortly after they entered into the state of kentucky the henderson police department pulled bill lion's vehicle over along with undercover units from evansville pd and the fbi and we took billy lyon into custody agents questioned billy lyon at the evansville police station you could tell from his his attitude that he knew at that point that the gig was up he is is obviously apprehensive about speaking to us [Music] as billy is being questioned henderson deputies maintained surveillance on his father's residence they observed larry lyon leave in a hurry yeah he's leaving them authorities fear lion has heard about his son being arrested and that he's trying to make a run for it lieutenant frank grop [Music] at that point in time i believe you have one city cruiser that's behind him that initiates a stop the city officer would hold his position until other officers arrived but larry lyon never gave that chance to happen [Music] [Music] larry lyon is rushed to a hospital in evansville where he dies of a self-inflicted gunshot wound at the evansville police station special agent pape continues to question billy lyon i don't understand why my thought is if i tell him that his his father just killed himself that would be the end of the interview understandably so i didn't tell him about his father at that point i continued with the interview at first it was almost like pulling teeth to try to get him to say anything and he really opened up when i when i told him that i knew charlie stewart was behind this and that you know he was responsible for at least in part in telling you and your and larry to go ahead and commit these murders he told me to do that and first thing that billy said to me was charlie stewart's a psycho they proceeded to tell us about the jack norris murder and the nichols murder in alabama and the kidnapping of dorman and putting him into the river he laid all the guilt on stewart that stewart was directing them to do that lyon tells special agent pape that stewart will be impossible to catch he's smart he knows how to survive in the wilderness and he's extremely dangerous in alabama and kentucky fbi agents and local law enforcement dismantle a gang of identity thieves willing to kill a man for his driver's license only one member remains at large the ringleader charlie stewart the fbi closes in on the fugitive two of stewart's associates now in custody tell authorities the fugitive is dangerous self-sufficient and able to live off the land investigator terry kelly has helped chase stewart for more than a year he supposedly had money stashed in several different locations and he could keep running to he was excellent in the woods and able to hide out a master of disguise and mr stu was very good at changing his appearance [Music] a combined task force of fbi agents and local law enforcement raid stewart's trailer [Music] special agent scott broshears we didn't find any evidence on the murders but we did find a lot of interesting things he had cut a hole in the bottom of his house trailer we could get out and get out the back we found a van that was like in the bushes that we didn't even see it when we first arrived but it had like a telephone wire out there we'd have communications back to his house trailer clear clear clear inside the van agents find 20 weapons and ammunition he could have used it as a bunker and held off people for a long time so we knew that he was not going to be an easy catch and if we did come across him it's probably going to be a battle apparently stewart has been preparing for this moment for a long time and now he's gone basically my job now is since stuart lived in my area was to try to find charlie stewart even though stur seemed to be a ruthless individual he did value his family as time passes agents keep up the pressure on stewart's wife [Music] she continues to claim her husband has not contacted her our sources would tell us that his wife was was very afraid of him even though you know she would protect him she was also afraid of him there is no sign of stewart it is frustrating it's very frustrating [Music] you work as hard as you can you develop leads as fast as you can you look everywhere you can think of looking [Music] after nearly a year stewart is featured on a national crime show we got very few leads um which we felt was unusual because you know a lot of times you get a lot of leads and and more than you can handle and you have to start picking and choosing the good ones but we got very few leads so that kind of led us to believe well he's in hiding somewhere and it's probably going to be in the kentucky area that he knows real well or the alabama area good afternoon agents re-interview the fugitives neighbors they are too afraid to say whether or not they have seen charlie stewart [Music] if stewart found out that they'd talk to us or give any information he would get him killed somehow and they really believed that they were usually scared to death of them and and really wouldn't give us a lot of information as time went on and as i kind of were able to develop a little rapport with a few of the people they started cooperating a little bit and they realized that as scared as they were they're probably better off getting him captured than having him out in the loose you know what day it was slowly stewart's neighbors begin to give agents information that's all you got we were able to find out that his wife had bought like a sleeping bag and was buying some clothes that were too big for her kids she bought size 11 boots uh and none of her kids wore size 11 or she had maybe a 14 year old but i was pretty sure his feet weren't that big it's just more evidence that stewart is hiding in the area authorities try a different approach we developed several sources within the fbi that we thought we could send in to talk to stuart's wife just casually to ask questions about this and that everything the fbi brings in a friend of stewart's who has agreed to help police the man has known stewart for years he agrees to wear a wire so agents can listen in on his conversation with stewart's wife [Music] at this point you know we're kind of sitting on the edge of our seats we're just really confident that he's probably going to be there the cooperator approaches the trailer the source went in nobody was there he knocked on the door didn't see anything and he had to walk back down the dirt road to get back to his car and then as he gets his car he looks in his rear view mirror and he thought he saw uh someone back at the trailer and he thought it was charlie stewart and he looked around and he didn't see the person again and he was telling us you know i'm sure i saw uh stuart up a trailer says so i just got a quick glimpse but you know how i turned around it wasn't there but i'm pretty sure i saw him up there special agent paul pape yeah who knows what could have happened or what he was armed with at that time and it would it would have been a russian roulette to send us in there trying to apprehend him at that time you just don't bum rush the woods to try to find the guy it has to be you have to out fox the fox agents and police must come up with a plan to trap the dangerous fugitive [Music] fugitive charles stewart is wanted for bank fraud kidnapping murder for hire and murder [Music] the fbi and alabama authorities believe he is hiding out in the dense woods behind his home [Music] [Applause] special agent scott broshears we kind of started putting together the theory that okay he's living back in this woods either in a tent or in one of those little caves maybe he comes back after the sun goes down spends a night with the family before the sun comes up he heads back out in the woods i went out with three or four of the guys from our office and we just hiked out in the woods like we were just hunters when the agents find evidence stewart's hiding in the woods [Music] chuck zander and terry kelly from the morgan county sheriff's office bring in a k-9 unit to track stuart down [Music] i'd been looking for charlie stewart for approximately a year by now uh he's put a lot of hours and nothing was really coming up to where i was finding him so i wasn't real optimistic or i probably would have taken more people with me not far from the trailer the dogs pick up a scent detective terry kelly dogs hit a hot track and they hit it hard and they hit it fast almost immediately and the chase was on [Music] the dogs immediately took us to a tree and were barking up a tree which kind of made us a little scared he might be in the tree and we saw a deer stand [Music] the deer stand was empty but the agents were not far behind stuart [Music] the dogs follow the scent down a ravine to a creek [Music] we got down a little ways and the dogs found a cave we kind of backed off a little bit we didn't know what was in the cave dogs went in the cave come back out but it wasn't real deep and with our flashlights and things we had were able to see there was food fresh food the sleeping bag other camping supplies stewart can't be far away all of a sudden you see scott broshears bounding through the field and it looks like he's doing about a four minute mile he's hauling and he's coming to tell us we got a hot track we got a hot track we found his cave we're on him captain mike courtney as quick as i could i called and i got a roll call of everybody that was in service that day i called for the air unit i began to get things in place we had state police responding some of the local police officers from the local cities and the sheriff's office trying to establish a perimeter around this two by five mile wooded area i probably have between 20 and 30 officers out there [Music] as the dog team calls in their location corley positions his men every time i got a chance to shift an officer 100 yards that just took 100 yards away from him i wanted to tighten that area down close that noose in around him to where he had nowhere to go after probably close to three hours of chasing him through the woods i finally hear on my radio from one of the other sheriff's deputies that a guy's been spotted running out of the woods steward is cornered he pulls out a gun [Music] and now probably comes the worst point of the whole search as we're hearing that they're closing in and the deputies think they have him their shots have been fired i don't know if it's you know one of our guys and dog handlers or but then a few seconds later you know we didn't hear nobody was hurt and that uh stuart had been captured [Music] my chase was over a long long chase was over chasing started almost a year and a half before [Music] was a scary man there was a very there's a coldness in his eyes a very very scary coldness i'm i'm glad very glad he was in custody very glad [Music] in january 2002 stewart and his gang are tried and found guilty of bank fraud kidnapping and murder [Music] richard dorman receives a life sentence for his role in the crimes billy lyon is also sentenced to life charles lewis stewart is convicted on all counts he is sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole authorities believe charlie stewart masterminded the entire operation he ordered larry and billy lyon to rob jack norris and james nichols he then handed off the victim's stolen ids and checkbooks to richard dorman the fourth member of the gang so he could clean out their bank accounts stewart chose his victims carefully based on the resemblance to dorman it's a disturbing scenario two innocent men are dead simply because of the way they looked the unrelenting investigation by local police and federal agents put this ring of killers and thieves behind bars forever you

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Id: MtLohVzqZE8

Length: 49min 25sec (2965 seconds)

Published: Sat Dec 18 2021