The Criminals Who Cruelly Poisoned Their Victims | The New Detectives | Real Responders

[Music] a woman tests positive or arsenic poisoning just in time to save her life but others before her weren't so fortunate now investigators must build a case on cremated remains [Music] doctors watch helplessly as a man wastes away and dies detectives diagnose it as murder and unless they can stop it it may be going around a young woman is killed in a tragic writing accident but a series of subtle clues leads investigators to believe that this tragedy was really no accident most victims are poisoned by someone they trust done in by a fatal lapse of judgment but it only takes investigators a whisper of suspicion to detect a taste of poison [Music] in march of 1988 in the rural town of san angelo texas paramedics responded to a call at the home of lita and algie nobles lita told the paramedics that she and algie had both been suffering from a stomach flu algie had refused to go to the hospital [Music] three days after the onset of his symptoms lita found algie unconscious paramedics pronounced him dead lyda nobles had been nursing her sick husband for months he'd been in a car accident that should have claimed his life with a shattered jaw he could only eat baby food about time what kind of garbage is this convalescence was far from peaceful despite the tension he seemed to be making a swift recovery lita wasn't faring as well the stress of tending to her quarrelsome husband aggravated her ulcers [Music] she lived on antacids [Music] two months after algie's death a close friend tim scoggin brought lita to the hospital she complained of extreme fatigue vomiting and stomach pains she had lost a large amount of blood doctors believed an ulcer was to blame but treatment didn't improve her condition [Music] weeks passed her condition worsened with ulcers then her hands and feet became paralyzed looking for a cause doctors ran a battery of tests including a screen for heavy metal poisoning i think what we're going to have to wait for is that blood test to came back positive lita nobles had arsenic in her body [Music] the texas rangers were contacted investigator george frazier's first job was to eliminate environmental contamination as the source of the toxin when we first started the investigation all that we knew was that there was presence of arsenic in the body of leda nobles so in the process of elimination to find out where she got this poison we tested her water well her house was on the water well arsenic is a poisonous metal found naturally in the earth because it is an element it can't break down but its atoms can combine to form other compounds a little arsenic has a lot of killing power in rural texas it was once used as a cotton defoliant through runoff it could contaminate a water supply samples from the noble's home were taken and tested the well was clean investigators questioned lita's brother and sister-in-law who stayed at the house after algie's death neither of them suffered any symptoms even though they had eaten all of their meals there and yet during that time lita grew progressively sicker suggesting she'd been repeatedly exposed to the arsenic [Music] as investigators eliminated every possible source of accidental contamination they came to one grim conclusion lita nobles hadn't been randomly poisoned she had been targeted for murder someone wanted her to die [Music] investigators questioned her about who might want her dead nothing to speak of except what's out in the garage insecticides and things like that she pointed the finger at her deceased husband our first suspect in latest poisoning was algie because she felt like they they were an older couple and they had a lot of times that they just quarreled and and bitted each other seemed like all the time and she first told us that if she had been poisoned he did it and so we had to eliminate him as a suspect even though he was already dead to find out whether algie had had a hand in his wife's illness detectives needed to know whether she'd been poisoned before or after his death the victim's hair they believed would answer that question [Music] arsenic stays in hair and fingernails long after it has left the bloodstream by analyzing those traces forensic scientists would be able to determine how and when lita had been poisoned and if they knew that they'd have a better idea of who tried to kill her [Music] at texas a m university research chemist dennis james uses a nuclear reactor to determine the precise amount of trace elements in a given sample the process is called neutron activation analysis neutron activation analysis is capable of testing for a lot of different types of materials some of those are poisonous and some of those aren't it is particularly sensitive to transition metals and some of the heavy metals in particular lita's hair was cut into six segments each representing about a month of hair growth by comparing the amount of arsenic in each segment scientists could build a timeline showing when each dose was consumed and how much arsenic it contained the canister containing the samples is shuttled to the core there it is exposed to nuclear energy for six hours during which time some of the elements in the samples absorb subatomic particles and become unstable once removed from the reactor the elements decay losing the extra subatomic particles as they do so they emit a distinct burst of energy called a gamma ray using a gamma ray detector technicians look for arsenic's signature emission [Music] by comparing the readings from the hair snippets to that of the control samples they can calculate the concentration of arsenic in each sample each snip of lyta noble's hair progressing from tips to scalp showed an increasing amount of arsenic had gradually increased over at least six months by administering moderate amounts of arsenic over that length of time the killer had inadvertently given lita a tolerance for the poison which he tried to overcome with a whopping dosage shortly before leader was hospitalized the poison had been administered after algie was buried he couldn't have been the culprit but he may have been a victim though algie's hair was too short to tell scientists how long he'd been poisoned tissue samples taken from his body showed that he like his wife endured a massive dose of arsenic the toxin was found throughout his organs finding the poisoner wouldn't be as easy as finding the poison someone with access to the elderly couple had over time been administering toxic doses of arsenic into their food or drink that meant that the murderer was probably someone close to the nobles someone they trusted investigators faced the delicate task of asking the victim's friends to point out who among them might be a poisoner a neighbor had a suggestion this next-door neighbor felt that a young man named timothy scoggin was a very likely suspect because he spent a lot of time in their home new in town scoggin was a well-liked member of the san angelo community best known for his skill as a porcelain painter and his willingness to help the town's senior citizens with errands and odd jobs he was a mortician by trade but appeared to be doing well in a series of business ventures and he loved to make himself useful among the elderly people he helped were lita and all g nobles shortly after befriending them he had purchased their air conditioning business although he was chronically behind in his mortgage payments lita's faith in this surrogate son never wavered after algie's death leta had relied heavily on him to fraser scoggin fit the profile of a poisoner first of all he had motive he owed the victims 100 000. secondly he had access to the noble's home finally he had his victims undying trust after we suspected timothy scoggin we went and talked to mrs noble and interviewed her in the hospital room she practically ran us out she liked this guy he was coming to the hospital room and and doing her hair and doing her nails it wouldn't be long before frasier could expose the greed beneath scoggins angelic demeanor he learned that during the time of elitist hospitalization there had been a lot of suspicious activity in her bank account while she lay in bed nearly forty eight thousand dollars in personal checks had been written to tim scoggin suspicious for a woman who had no use of her hands she has these rubber bands and braces on her hands and couldn't sign her name if she wanted to so we passed those checks in front of her and asked her how she signed those and that was enough to convince her that he was the one but check forging doesn't prove homicides if detectives were going to turn their suspicion into a murder charge they'd need to know more about what made tim scoggin a probe into his past convinced investigators that his penchant for poisoning didn't start with lita and algie nobles [Music] investigators learned that before moving to san angelo tim scogen had lived with two elderly sisters who had died suddenly within days of each other scoggin boasted he'd probably be inheriting a small fortune from these deceased ants well thank you very much but the true story was far different than the version scoggin had been spreading around town they were not ants they weren't any kin to timothy scoggin however interestingly enough he had been kind of a houseboy an errand boy for them and had lived with them off and on for a long time as he had done with the nobles scoggin endeared himself to catherine and cordelia norton i thought this might pick up your spirits a little bit just five weeks before algie noble succumbed both sisters were dead [Music] in february scoggin had taken catherine norton a diabetic to the hospital for a checkup after her surgery for cancer of the pancreas [Music] when they returned home cordelia became violently ill he quickly shuttled the older sister to the hospital scoggin and catherine returned home and went to sleep thanks so much you have a good time scoggins stayed at the house in case catherine needed anything in the morning scoggin checked on catherine and finding her unresponsive called her doctor he pronounced catherine dead the next day cordelia died in her hospital bed both deaths were ruled natural causes no i think probably six months after the deaths of the norton sisters investigators wanted to know if they like the nobles had been poisoned by arsenic problem was catherine and cordelia norton had been cremated investigators learned that tim scogan had used his expertise as a mortician to destroy any evidence of foul play in the deaths of the norton sisters he used that knowledge to to know how to forge orders for cremation which he presented on both of these ladies and said that they had personally requested from him that they'd be cremated as soon as they had died and they were promptly cremated and buried investigators now were faced with the task of detecting poison in ashes no one had ever tried this before if scientists could navigate this uncharted territory they'd be one step closer to catching a murderer the ashes of cordelia and catherine norton were brought to the texas department of public safety crime laboratory where toxicologist rod mccutchen was asked to analyze them chemically [Music] he was initially doubtful about his chance of success i really didn't think there would be much of a chance to find any poison in cremation remains i'd never heard of anyone trying to do this after reflecting a minute about the particular poison he was interested in the arsenic i realized that there was some possibility that the arsenic may still be present because it's an element and an element will not change to test for the presence of arsenic mccutchen placed the cremated remains in an acidic solution then heated it impurities are burned away if there is any arsenic it remains in the liquid chemicals are added to turn the arsenic into a gas [Music] it bubbles through a liquid which turns purple in the presence of arsenic the more arsenic in the sample the more intense the color the tests showed that cordelia's remains contained lethal amounts of arsenic catherine's remains showed none the negative findings in catherine's ashes actually bolstered the case by serving as a control [Music] since both sisters had died on the same day and had been cremated in the same oven the lack of arsenic in one of the samples proved that the ashes were not contaminated by the burning process neutron activation analysis confirmed the findings detectives began their pursuit of skogen by seeing if he had purchased arsenic they visited the local grocery help store yes here tim scoggins love familiarity would strike against him the clerk told detectives that he remembered scoggin buying a large amount of rat poison shortly before any of the victims died the primary ingredient of rat poison is arsenic investigators deduced that skogen had mixed the poison with products that he knew only his victims would eat algie's baby food and leaders had acid since he regularly delivered their groceries he could have mixed up the rat poison before bringing them over to test their hunch investigators searched the noble's cabinets and refrigerator most of the food had been thrown away but a few of let's add acids were still around [Music] a single bottle of the medicine tested positive for arsenic based on the scientific evidence law enforcement was ready to take tim scoggin into custody the real strong thing that made the case for us was a work done in the laboratories of course there's no other way we'd have ever found arsenic in those ashes nor in the body of mr nobles and so the people who did the forensic work really are the ones who turned the crank in this case for us we'd probably still be working on it if it hadn't been for them finding this heavy metal portion scoggin was arrested for the murder of all g nobles and the attempted murder of lita he was found guilty and sentenced to life in prison and even though there was no direct proof that he killed catherine norton investigators believe he tampered with her insulin dosage he subsequently pleaded guilty to the murders of both sisters and was given two 50-year sentences the horrifying truth is that poisoners often get away with their crimes at least for a while but vigilance and persistence are strong antidotes to a poisoner's toxic schemes on november 1st 1982 paramedics in saint peter's missouri were summoned to the home of lloyd and shirley allen forty-year-old lloyd allen had been sick for months with an undiagnosed illness [Music] that morning his wife said he became violently ill then lost consciousness [Music] the coroner believed that he died from natural causes but he couldn't be sure on the death certificate cause of death remained blank a few days later detective robert birding of the saint charles county sheriff's department learned of a series of anonymous calls phoned into the local news station lloyd allen hadn't died a natural death the tipsters said he'd been poisoned a canvas of lloyd allen's neighbors uh was initiated it was subsequently learned that the anonymous phone calls came from one or more of lloyd's neighbors detective birding did a routine follow-up to see if the phone calls had any merit meantime authorities prevented the body from being buried pending investigation hi ma'am i'm starting the st county sheriff the neighbors told police that the timing of his illness was suspicious lloyd's health and behavior changed drastically after his new wife and her daughters moved in two investigators these neighborly observations didn't seem like much at first hardly the kind of information to hang a murder investigation on but they prompted police to ask more questions about the allen family friends and neighbors told police that problems began shortly after shirley and lloyd married in the fall of 1981 everyone was pleased that lloyd a sociable and generous man had finally found the love and companionship he'd been looking his whole life for it was his first marriage but shirley's fourth after the wedding lloyd brought shirley allen and her two daughters fifteen-year-old norma and twelve-year-old paula into his home [Music] now he had an instant family to banish the loneliness and a true soul mate in his new wife norma norma norma but winter brought stress and unhappiness to the family ran away from home several times and eventually landed in juvenile detention the marriage grew strain then lloyd started feeling sick lloyd went from doctor to doctor none was able to relieve his symptoms or tell him what was wrong he tried to work around the house and yard but was too weak to complete any of his projects detectives learned that shirley tried to boost his stamina with an iron supplement drink but it didn't help as he grew sicker i began keeping him away from other people suspicions began to center around lloyd's new wife drink some more the neighbors related to us that uh she was segregating him uh from neighbors he uh he wouldn't be seen out very much uh he wouldn't uh uh he wouldn't be able to acknowledge uh their hellos and their their gestures of greeting because of of his his poor health and it appeared to them that shirley was concealing uh lloyd [Music] then finally cut him off and tired a neighbor had come to pick up a wheelbarrow he blown to lloyd concerned about his friend's diminished health he urged lloyd to seek another doctor [Music] the conversation was cut short when shirley arrived she ushered the neighbor out and later filed a trespassing complaint against him shirley's behavior seemed odd but investigators couldn't hang a murder case on neighborhood gossip birding needed to discover a motive he did shirley was the beneficiary of a 25 000 life policy and we also learned that she was uh the beneficiary of lloyd's will which had recently been changed it is only natural for a wife to be named as her husband's beneficiary but it was the timing not the payoff that gave detectives pause the death of your husband lloyd's health began to decline just days after signing the papers that was something to go on but not much it didn't provide the kind of firm foundation detectives required to move forward birding hoped that an interview with the suspect would reveal something more but he was met only with stock answers of course she gave us some exculpatory statements that uh lloyd allen's death was of natural causes he's being treated by a variety of physicians for uh for a variety of illnesses that she described to us as depression there was a litany of medications in the home that she said that he was taking for his treatment the fact remained that the victim had continued wasting away with no apparent cause and no evidence of disease mrs allen was still a suspect she had motive and opportunity but investigators had no clues no witnesses and no idea what killed lloyd allen lloyd allen was dead and detectives suspected he was poisoned by his wife but they had no way of proving it the investigation stalled this is in regard to the death of lloyd allen then police got a break when a witness came forward i don't want to talk over the phone four days after lloyd's death shirley's daughter norma called the sheriff's department she told him she was in possession of the poison norma backed up her story with some evidence inside a brown paper bag detectives found a wine bottle filled with green liquid on the label a handwritten warning read don't drink a warning that norma told police her mother asked her to write norma said she wasn't sure what was in the bottle but she suspected it was antifreeze she told investigators that over the last two months she'd seen her mother giving the liquid to lloyd [Music] norma also told police that she witnessed her mother mixing gas treatment with sugar and orange food coloring to simulate the iron supplement [Music] on the day of his death norma said shirley poured him a dose of pure antifreeze and forced him to drink it [Music] guided by enormous testimony toxicologists tested the contents of the bottle for antifreeze a sample of the liquid was injected into the gas chromatograph the apparatus separates a compound into smaller chemicals so it can be analyzed each chemical is displayed as a peak on a graph the resulting peak was a match for antifreeze known chemically as ethylene glycol according to toxicologist christopher long of st louis university antifreeze with its sweet taste is a subtle stealthy killer the victim might never even realize he's drinking himself to death antifreeze would produce something like having a drink of alcohol but as far as a burning sensation or anything to warn you no it wouldn't so it'd be the same as it maybe if you had a little taste of beer or something like that only without the flavoring so you might get just a slight change in how you feel but nothing really noticeable [Music] but over time antifreeze is deadly as it is metabolized by the body it produces toxins that raise the acid level of the blood with each dose lloyd allen's body and mind would slowly be destroyed when your body chemistries change and your kidneys aren't working it's not purifying your blood of the waste products so that could in fact account for why he appeared dizzy or a zombie-like or just plain dull you know his mind wasn't working properly we can't seem to find it because so many of lloyd's organs were failing it would have been difficult for any doctor to diagnose the poisoning in the final stages even if lloyd knew that the woman he loved betrayed him with poison he would have been too weak to protect himself and too confused to plea for help scientists determined that antifreeze poisoning was consistent with lloyd allen's mysterious ailment to prove it the body was autopsied and tissue samples were tested his liver kidneys and brain contained crystals formed by the breakdown of massive quantities of ethylene glycol it was consistent with long-term consumption of the liquid the coroner ruled lloyd's death a homicide by ethylene glycol poisoning detectives had found their poison now they had to be sure about the poisoner well uh norma was a troubled teenager who'd been at odds with her mother for years the possibility remained that she had poisoned lloyd herself to frame her mother after a series of interviews that theory was quickly discounted norma was truly fond of the victim and had nothing to gain by his death with the evidence in hand police arrested shirley allen [Music] they were able easily to construct their case against her a 25 000 life insurance policy gave her the motive to kill her husband the spiked wine bottle gave her the means [Music] in a trial that lasted only four days she was found guilty of killing lloyd allen shirley allen was sentenced to life with no parole for 50 years she died in prison without the forensic evidence uh and learning that actually uh lloyd allen's body contained ethyl glycol we would not have had a homicide investigation we would not have learned of his death as being a homicide in sheryl most likely would have gotten away with his death because of the concern of lloyd allen's neighbors a cunning murderer was brought to justice it wasn't the only time a crime was exposed when nosy neighbors smelled trouble it was a summer evening in 1980 when david davis sped to his neighbor's house in hillsborough michigan pleading for assistance [Music] [Applause] [Music] davis told his neighbor that he and shannon his wife of 10 months had been riding when her horse reared sending her tumbling she had struck her head on a large rock injured but still conscious she sent him for help the men arrived to find shannon davis unresponsive [Music] her head was bleeding her skin had a bluish cast [Music] they rushed her to the hospital [Music] when she arrived she had no pulse and her pupils were fixed and dilated [Music] technicians attempted to resuscitate her but failed doctors determined that she had died of a head injury from the fall case closed [Music] but not for long two months later the incident came to the attention of michigan state police detective don brooks brooks had heard that davis's neighbor had refused to let the case die the death was rude to be an accident but the circumstances are such that uh he felt this was probably a murder case suspicion took place in the neighbor's mind the day after the death when he revisited the scene he noticed that the branches of a nearby tree were marred by two circular bruises suggesting that horses had been tied there a fresh pile of manure sat six feet away confirming that impression it appeared that the davises the only riders in the area had stopped here long enough to tie their horses that didn't fit with davis story about the victim's horse bolting and his mad rush to find help the neighbor dick britton was also a family friend but he grew concerned that davis was hiding something first i felt guilty thinking that way i kept thinking i got to be wrong you know but you know it this went on for quite a while and you just keep thinking and and things just didn't add up didn't make sense shannon and david had been married for only ten months before the accident wed after only a seven week courtship it was love at first sight after their marriage shannon came to live on davis farm he taught her how to ride to britain and the victim's family the account davis had given didn't fit with the way he'd seen shannon riding just minutes before the accident she was a cautious rider with a quiet horse shannon's parents really didn't know much about their son-in-law except that he made their daughter happier than they'd ever seen her after the accident the victim's parents had clashed with davis [Music] he wanted to have his wife cremated cremated no way they insisted on burial and so shannon was buried and there's a double indemnity at the hospital davis told shannon's family that he had no life insurance for her the other will benefit by receiving honey don't you think that's a little too much but they learned that weeks before her death the newlyweds had signed a policy i have a contract for each of you now davis was preparing to collect on it with double indemnity for accidental death davis stood to gain more than three hundred thousand dollars the family believed that provided three hundred thousand reasons for davis to plan a murder [Music] to investigators it merely looked like a grieving family trying to blame a tragic accident on the victim's new husband the meddling neighbor was helping to stir them up fueled by their suspicions shannon's family in britain urged authorities to reopen the case [Music] one month after her death the victim's body was exhumed the examination clearly showed a fatal brain injury and bruises consistent with a fall from a horse a routine drug screen was also conducted but the physical damage was so compelling that the case was closed a second time even before the drug screen was completed britain and the family would not let the matter rest mr britain stay pleased the detroit free press published an article on their suspicions surrounding their daughter's death it prompted the state attorney's office to get involved don brooks handled the case i thought to myself if 50 of this article is accurate uh there's a great deal of information to go on and and it's going to be very helpful and it sure leads one to believe that this is a murder case not an accident for brooks the capstone of britain's argument involved the rock which ended the victim's life it was the only one in the area of an area it might have been a freak coincidence that she happened to hit her head on it but in light of the other evidence this small detail raised big questions these percentage of someone falling off from a horse in that area and happened to hit their head on the only rock around was so high that uh that itself would would should raise a lot of questions the closer brooks looked into the death the more suspicious he became okay he sought the results of the drug screen from the autopsy and learned that it too raised some difficult then over here it questions time to seek answers in the lab a tissue sample from the autopsy was analyzed by a gas chromatograph every substance creates its own peak of a specific length at a specific point these peaks are called the retention time of the substance the chromatograph showed a strange chemical in the victim's tissue that matched nothing in the lab's database [Music] no one knew what it was but before they could pursue it the case was closed again and the mystery was buried with the victim [Music] still convinced that shannon was murdered her family pinned their hopes on this mysterious peak pressuring investigators to study it further [Music] technicians toiled for weeks but couldn't identify the compound they ruled out instrument error they simulated the conditions of embalming and burial on sample tissues to see if the victim's tissue was contaminated after death no matter what they did they couldn't isolate the chemical all they knew was that there was something in the victim's body that shouldn't have been there and they had no idea what it was four months after the tragic horseback riding fall that ended shannon davis's life grave suspicions whirled around the so-called accident based on the questionable crime scene the insurance money and the curious lab results brooks was convinced that foul play was involved in the victim's death now he had to prove it you put it all together and it was it was very obvious to me that this was a was a murder case he set his crosshairs on the victim's husband david davis but davis had moved to florida investigators had no choice but to watch him go though the circumstantial evidence was heaped against him there was no solid proof that he lied about the accident even if i received a confession from dave davis we still had the problem with the autopsy saying that those injuries were consistent with falling off from a horse striking the head and the cause of death was the injury to the to the brain so that became the challenge of the medical community at that point the case teetered on the mysterious chemical peak uncovering its relationship if any to the victim's death was the last chance detectives had to foil what might otherwise prove to be the perfect crime unable to determine what the compound was brooks reviewed the other facts of the crime what he couldn't figure out was how the victim could have been unlucky enough to have struck that solitary rock brooks mulled various scenarios over with his colleagues but none seemed to work then a moment of inspiration struck revealing a scheme that would tie up all the loose ends and explain the mystery chemical if this young lady was paralyzed in some way you know her muscular system her nervous system was paralyzed in such a way where she couldn't resist and he could create the injury he wanted investigators believed that the victim was immobilized before her head was intentionally struck against the rock they began searching for a chemical that would fit a killer's criteria a drug that could immobilize quickly then leave little trace [Music] [Applause] it would also have to be easy to obtain without browsing suspicion what could it be and where would they find it [Applause] since davis lived on a farm it was likely that he had access to compounds designed for animals detectives interviewed one of the vets employed by davis he described a litany of sedatives and tranquilizers among them was a drug that seemed a likely candidate in humans it can paralyze the respiratory system in seconds because it breaks down into chemicals naturally found in the body sch is considered a nearly perfect murder weapon one that wouldn't show up in a gas chromatograph [Music] at brooks's request toxicologist tom carroll of the medical college of ohio tested it anyway so i immediately went over to our pharmacy got some succinyl choline and was able to put it onto the gas chromatograph and it had the exact same retention time as our unknown peak bingo we thought we had something to confirm the result the chromatograph was recalibrated and the sch retested a total of five times each time the results were identical but for absolute confirmation the tissue samples had to be tested on the more sensitive mass spectrometer to see if the chemical could be isolated that way [Music] the samples were sent to two labs for fine-tuned analysis unfortunately neither of the mass spectrometers could distinguish the chemical in the victim's tissues carol took the sch and the tissue samples to stockholm sweden where scientists were experimenting with methods to analyze chemicals very similar to sch shannon's tissues were tested in the spectrometer there the initial results were disappointing test after test failed to reveal the chemical if they couldn't find it then davis would have committed the perfect crime carol wouldn't allow that to happen investigators pressed on the precision that made the spectrometer so sensitive also made it temperamental after scores of attempts a tiny adjustment to the temperature of the equipment brought hard-won success boom we had found it and i mean you talk about a celebration this this was some hooping and hollering that you never believed from there on out it was simply a matter of doing more extractions getting all the data necessary we were now able to identify it in the tissues now investigators had to determine how the chemical was introduced into the victim's body more than a year after her death the victim was re-exumed and a new autopsy performed to look for a likely site of injection it revealed extensive bruising on the left these injuries told of a hard fall the right side was uninjured except for two curious marks one on her shoulder one on her wrist these two bruises represented the faint tracks of a killer's needle they'd have been overlooked before because no one suspected that a needle was used in the crime as investigators prepared their findings they thought their long struggle was [Music] over scientists in sweden thought they'd found the weapon that killed shannon davis in michigan through sheer diligence they perfected a way to isolate traces of deadly sch from human tissue the jubilant team told investigators that they could now arrest the suspect david davis we told this we told don brooks we told him back there we got it get him uh can't do that the method has not been scientifically evaluated yet the success of their test relied on an experimental method for preparing the tissue sample before a new forensic technique can be accepted in the courtroom other scientists must evaluate it the process can take years but because of the gravity of the case carroll's findings were reviewed and published in a matter of weeks scientists had successfully proven that sch had a role in the death of shannon davis brooks's theory had proved correct according to the prosecution scenario davis set out to kill his wife on their way home from the britons he tied the horses then went after shannon with a syringe injecting her twice with the lethal drug for that second injection site to be delivered she would probably have had to been paralyzed at that point because it was precisely right on the vein this bruise up here was probably as a result of the struggle while he's injecting her while she still had some life in her and um that's how i think you know once she goes to down the ground and collapses uh then he can pick her up and drop her onto this rock and that will create the effect of falling from the horse it was a cleverly thought out plan undone by the scientific method davis staged what he thought was the perfect crime the only problem was the perfect murder weapon was no longer so perfect david davis was convicted of first-degree murder and sentence to life without parole [Music] brooks suspected that shannon davis wasn't the first person whose death by sch poisoning was overlooked but because of this case hopefully she's one of the last and so to be a part of investigation like this where the medical field basically uh or the information about dicholi in the medical field has been rewritten that's kind of a nice thing to be a part of it's impossible to know how many more victims have been killed silently by people they trusted poisoners may never lay a hand on their victims but with advancing forensics techniques it's getting harder to escape without leaving upgrades [Music] so [Music] [Applause] [Music] you

Channel: Real Responders

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Keywords: The New Detectives, bombs, bomb, bomb disposal, mail explosive, explosive disposal, police documentary, forensic science, investigation, detectives, police investigation, cold cases, criminals, crimes, true detectives, sherlock holmes, real crimes, real detectives, private detective, The New Detectives Season 4, Reenactment, Crime Reenactment, American Crime Story, True Crime, Police, Criminals, Murderers, Serial Killers, Wonder, Real Crime, Investigation Discovery, Crime and Justice

Id: ctYFPXVnIKQ

Length: 52min 3sec (3123 seconds)

Published: Mon Aug 10 2020