The FBI's Hunt For A Serial Carjacking Killer | The FBI Files S6 Ep9 | Retold

foreign carjackings terrorize the Washington DC area [Music] ballistics reveal that it's the work of a serial killer who tries to run over one victim with his own car [Applause] the FBI and police set a clever track but the killer insists on a violent shootout [Music] [Music] thank you [Music] in the early 90s a serial killer stock loaned victims in the dead of night is hunting ground the suburbs of Washington DC his Target anyone who owned a car I'm Jim calstrom Farm ahead of the FBI's New York office the gunman was as elusive as he was deadly he struck quickly and without Mercy now the FBI must follow the Twisted path of a killer wherever it leads November 13 1991 Silver Spring Maryland a suburb north of Washington D.C Montgomery County police respond to a report of shots fired at a car dealership officers discover the body of a woman shot in the chest and forehead and another gunshot victim nearby [Music] the man is breathing but unconscious paramedics rush into the hospital foreign Montgomery County homicide detective Ed day coordinates his Department's Swift response to the slaying we saturate the case as fast as you can work out as fast as you can get as much information as fast as you can and try to resolve it as fast you can unfortunately the homicides time is terrible the more time goes by the less your odds are that you're going to have a satisfactory conclusion of the investigation investigators learn the two victims are janitors they were cleaning the building that night and would have come outside around 10 pm to dump the garbage the detectives work to determine a motive for the attack you don't overlook the obvious you have a shooting like this at a car a lot is that a possible motive for the killing the theft of a car course had representatives from the auto dealer come out do an inventory there was no vehicles missing there's no property missing from the inside of the establishment investigators locate the victim's car keys nearby and determine neither of their personal vehicles are missing [Music] robbery does not seem to be the most nothing was taken they had money on them when a single thing missing position yes I am with almost no evidence to go on detective day hopes to learn more from the critically wounded man he's just not uh we do that with all any kind of a shooting that's potentially fatal there's a rule in law that a dying declaration does not have to be corroborated it's not hearsay because since the person knows he's going to die he's assumed to be able to be telling the truth so if you can get a statement from somebody in really serious circumstances and it's always a very very powerful piece of evidence but the victim dies nine days later without ever regaining consciousness [Music] during the autopsy the medical examiner recovers the only piece of physical evidence the bullets that killed the victims [Music] at the Maryland State Police crime lab ballistics expert Joe capera examines the evidence to determine if there was more than one shooter there was a microscopic comparison done to determine if these bullets were far from the same gun indeed as a conclusion to these examinations I I concluded that these bullets were fired from the same God examining the scratch patterns on the bullets capera determines the make and model of the murder weapon if I was able to ascertain first of all the caliber of the gun which was a 357 and then through the measurements of the unique land and groove areas I was able to ask them that was a Ruger 357. with no obvious motive for the slaves detectives explore the victim's personal lives for Clues if you work inside out you try to find out if these people had any enemies if there was any triangle in a thwarted lover or something like that it's taking a hundred different directions and you just have to you have to take care of one thing at a time you eliminate something and you move on to the next issue and just go from there detectors find nothing in the victim's backgrounds that could have led to their murders since investigators found the victim's car keys near the bodies they decide to re-examine the slaves as a failed car theft with that possible motive in mind detectives speculate how the crime might have occurred they were cleaning the business was closed for the night they were taking the trash out respect the gunman demanded the victim's car keys based on the position of the woman's body relative to her keys they believe she tried to run you have to make the assumption that he lost control of the situation and decided to kill the two of them before he identified what car belonged to them he escalated an attempt theft and a murder for no good reason with little evidence to go on the case grows cold then three months later investigators respond to the scene of another homicide they find the body of psychology Professor Dr Shaheen has Trudy lying in a parking lot in Bethesda Maryland unable to locate her car detectives believe she was the victim of a fatal carjacking noting the lack of blood spatter evidence near the body they suspect his Trudy's assailant shot her while she was still inside her car through interviews with her colleagues authorities determined Dr hostrudi left her office around 8 pm she's obviously accosted at some point gets in her car [Music] once she's already in the car she's shot she's taken out of the car dumped on the on the lot I don't know suspect steals her car [Music] gunshot wounded large caliber no Witnesses [Music] the only solid evidence is a pair of bullets recovered from the victim's body investigators send the bullets to the Maryland State Police crime lab to compare them with the bullets from the double homicide it is a match the two crimes are connected so we get a couple of times here homicide detectives begin examining unsolved cases involving similar circumstances [Music] one detective recalls a recent homicide which occurred a month before her Trudy was killed that victim was also shot in the head with a large caliber gun as in the Silver Spring double homicide responding officers found the victim's Keys near his body but this victim didn't own a car which leads investigators to question whether car theft was the motive or if the case is even connected to the other shootings but we said you know this is looking like they're definitely links for some reason so authorities locate the bullet from that case and send it to be tested ballistics expert Joe capera compares the bullets from the four homicides did a cross-comparison examination to the previous bullets the result of that examination I found that that all the bullets were fired from the same weapon guys investigators have connected the four homicides through the ballistic evidence and an apparent car theft motive but they cannot understand why the killer chose to murder his victims none of these people were armed stature wise one of these people I thought were particularly a threat to the suspect two possibilities he lost control of him and felt the best way to regain control of situation was to kill him or there was some psychological reason that he didn't like defensive care people detectives believe they are dealing with an extremely violent and unpredictable criminal and suspect he may still be in the area Montgomery County was his basis of operation that's where he felt the most comfortable that's where he did all his murders that's where he did his in his most risky business that's where he laid and wait for people uh so it was obvious he had some strong tide in Montgomery County [Music] investigators suspect he will strike again and Hope before he does [Music] but they have no clues that can help identify him [Music] these are looking fantastic and the Killer's weapon is the only thing that can connect him to the murders the best evidence we got is bullets and if we can get him and get the gun then we have definitely have a very very strong case authorities don't want to give the killer a reason to destroy his gun and with it they're only evidence so they decide to keep the ballistics Match away from the media if we Supply the information to the press and all the bullets came from the same gun be a good likelihood that he would either dispose of the weapon or he would in worst case scenario obtain a different weapon and keep committing the crime I think that's an interesting thing this one piece will make 52 layers watch on mobile devices or the big screen all for free no subscription or fire hahaha more than a week after the restruti killing a man wearing a stocking mask in latex gloves Robs a Bank in Chantilly Virginia [Music] 's video security system captures His image [Music] [Applause] a witness tells the FBI that the bank robber fled in a late model white vehicle and gives them the license plate number the description of the getaway car matches the vehicle stolen from his Trudy attracting the attention of Montgomery County detectives but the license plate is not his duties investigators trace the plate and Discover it had been stolen from a vehicle in Annandale Virginia for detectives this leaves open the possibility that his Trudy's car was used in the bank robbery the Montgomery County task force which now includes Agents from the FBI requests copies of the bank surveillance tapes to learn what they can about the robber investigators watch the crime unfold and notice the robber is carrying a revolver of the same make and caliber used in the four homicides they think he could be the Killer the footage is the best lead they have in identifying a suspect according to FBI special agent Robert Coffey where it was actually put on the news locally and and regionally to try to see if we could spark some interest as far as someone identifying them investigators also release information that they're suspect the money he stole and the vehicle he was driving may be covered in red dye if you do anything a phone call anything I'm going to shoot somebody the teller managed to slip die packs into the uh the bag of money and a Dye pack is a device that once it goes through the door of the bag it's electronically activated timer on it that gives a person a little bit of time to get away from the bank and then it explodes spewing this terrible rich die stains it's very difficult to get off it gets on the money and it can't will not come off the money it takes a while to get it off you personally [Music] five days after the bank robbery police in Northern Virginia find an abandoned car bearing the stolen plates reported by the witness a check if the vehicle identification number proves that it is astrudy's car or peers inside examining the interior at the red dye stains in it from the die packs from the bank he had proof positive that it had been used in the bank robbery officers impound the vehicle and transported to the police garage for processing technicians find blood stains inside the car and collect samples as evidence find anything that can identify the Killer lab examiners extract DNA from the blood evidence and compare it to his treaties is a match investigators are able to look at the various crimes and understand their suspect's overall plans gelled into something that makes a little bit of sense you went from a situation where you had a whole bunch of motives that really didn't make sense to now a concrete motive that this person is killing people to steal cars to commit bankrupts although athar is Now understand why the suspect is murdering innocent people they have no clue who he is investigators face the nearly impossible challenge of identifying and catching and catch ruthless gunmen before he kills again the FBI and Maryland's Montgomery County Police are hunting a killer who has already committed four homicides as well as a bank robbery [Music] several FBI agents are part of the task force pursuing the gunman including special agent Robert Coffey one of the main roles of the FBI specifically in this type of a crime is that we work with many different agencies to Corral all of the investigators and bring forth the information in one kind of a think tank this multi-agency approach is an invaluable investigative resource for Montgomery County homicide detective Ed day when you start working with multiple jurisdictions on different cases well the more jurisdictions are involved the more jurisdicts have an interest the more assets you can draw from the task force now understands their suspect's crime pattern deals a person's car at gunpoint killing his victim then uses the vehicle in a bank robbery investigators continue to look for past unsolved cases that involved a similar pattern nothing occurs in a vacuum somebody doesn't just start killing people so that's when we really start doing the research identify an incident that occurred in their County almost a year earlier our victim was a maintenance man an Hispanic male he was accosted by a white male carrying a large caliber dark handgun where's the car when the masked gunman asked for the victim's car keys the man claimed he didn't own a car suspect demanded to know which car belonged to him he was told to turn around and face away from the suspect be down on his knees put his hand behind his head where's your car where's your car our victim at that time felt quite certain that he was going to be executed suspect fired three shots one of the shots hit him in the forearm the victim managed to flee down an alley and hide behind a bush and spent some minutes there waiting for the situation to calm down after 10 minutes the victim returned to the street and waved down the first car he saw hoping for assistance to his horror it was the gunman neighborhood called police the victim's life was spared the following day a witness reported seeing a masked gunman leaving the scene of a bank robbery in Centerville Virginia police later recovered the getaway vehicle and determined it was the car stolen from the maintenance man examine the evidence gathered at the scene of the carjacking all they have is a bullet fragment that was lodged in the victim's arm ballistics expert Joe capera one does not necessarily need the whole bullet as long as the fragment that is left that he is examining has enough ballistic evidence on it that he can use fragment against the other recovered bullets to determine if that case is connected to their current investigation the bullet fragment matches but the task force is still no closer to identifying their suspect ful with little hard evidence investigators study the Killer's behavior is exhibited through his actions searching for Clues to his identity [Music] authorities examine the newly linked case and determine he is unusually bold and cocky the investigators got together and discussed the commitment level of this individual to stay at a crime scene for 10 minutes waiting for a witness to come back raised our level of concern about the subject itself [Music] he's not in a big hurry it feels pretty comfortable that the police aren't going to be there anytime soon investigators also believe the suspect has a quick temperate vengeful personality [Music] he's very upset with his victim he's decided that he has been himself wronged in some way and he's going to make him pay for it but authorities cannot understand why the suspect uses what appears to be an unnecessary level of violence during the carjackings it does not make sense to kill somebody in the least risky part of the crime biggest risk he's taken is when he goes into those Banks as far as getting captured being identified or running into any real obstacles taking these people in innocent people off in the middle of the night and in a ground of his own choosing where he can isolate him I mean he's safer at that location than he is a anywhere else and anything else he does so it just doesn't make sense why he chose to kill these people and if your suspect is not only dangerously Disturbed but also clever interesting parts of the mo that this individual used was the number of jurisdictions through which he perpetrated his crimes he exploits the fact that no single Police Department can readily see his entire crime pattern we have a carjacking in one jurisdiction we have a stolen tag from a second jurisdiction we have a bank robbery and a third jurisdiction and then we have the car abandoned in a fourth jurisdiction the gunman's efforts to stymie police do not stop there each time he abandons a stolen car he leaves it unlocked with the keys in plain view one of the difficult parts of recovering the vehicles following the robberies is that they were being driven by other people by leaving the vehicle vehicle with the keys in it the vehicles were then subsequently restolen leaving the vehicles to be restoln destroyed whatever forensic happens would have been left behind so the only thing we had to match all the crimes was the forensic evidence from the ballistics investigators continue to look for additional unsolved carjackings in which the vehicle was later used in a bank robbery and then robbing the bank in Virginia they identify a case that occurred within miles of the other thefts walking out of a doctor's office and realized that she was being followed he turned to try to go back to the doctor's office but was confronted by the individual and then asked for her keys come on come on come on start it start the car start getting off the frightening to start her car and upon starting the vehicle had her get out and kneel down next to a wall unique upon kneeling down he had her weight there for a short period of time she's described as 30 or 40 seconds past yeah look at this you have to wonder is it how long much that time did he spend thinking about whether or not he was going to shoot her he was very compliant that everything she was told to do right when she was told to do it dad might have saved her the next day her vehicle was used in a bank robbery the investigators wonder why their suspect allowed this woman to live yet killed the others they come up with several theories the fact that she was a Caucasian female might have had something to do with it he might have had to Harbor some malice towards uh Hispanic people or foreign people or uh it could be something simple about he lost control and those situations in fact the best way to get gain control was To Kill Force has little to work with but is determined to go on the offensive now we're trying to figure out how can we get ahead of him how can we be in a position where we can be waiting for him when he does something or we can be prepared to mobilize very quickly with the resources necessary to get him the investigators focus on the one aspect of the suspect's crime pattern that they can anticipate we could not predict when a carjacking would take place they were too random we did however know that following the carjack and we would have a bank robbery if authorities can only predict which banks he will rob or where he will be traveling they might have a chance to catch him [Music] a masked gunman strikes again and again in Suburban Maryland just north of the nation's capital he shoots his victims while stealing their cars which he later uses to rob banks hey guys I got some photos in the spring of 1992 the FBI and Montgomery County Police analyzed their suspect's habits in hopes of traffic let's identify why this guy's picking his Banks homicide detective Ed day we had people take aerial photographs of every crime scene and the different Escape Routes and things of that nature trying to find some logical pattern to what he was doing something that would maybe give us a clue what are consistencies what are inconsistencies is there anything like that that we can use to our advantage to to foretell what he might do next year on the surface the list of crime scenes appears random but a closer look by investigators Reveals All the banks he robbed share a single trait everywhere he went he had access to a major roadway they would take him pretty quickly to a thoroughfare like 495 or 270 or something like that the task force shifts their focus from predicting where the suspect will strike next to catching him when he makes his Escape after a bank robbery they decide they will cast a Dragnet on all highway exit ramps in the area FBI special agent Robert Coffey all of the jurisdictions the law enforcement within the Washington where once the bank robbery were to take place he would have to pass through some point to the net meeting with officers from every Police Department in the area the task force details their plan they will watch for any carjacking reports resembling their suspect's MO officers from each jurisdiction will then prepare for a quick response if a bank is subsequently robbed foreign they will immediately stake out pre-assigned highway exit ramps targeting the stolen car Jack the vehicles there was enough support at each particular location that he could be followed we could bring to bear enough additional manpower to make a stop of our choosing and of course affect an arrest if we were lucky enough to spot them ready to cast their net investigators wait for the suspect to steal a car no key players in the plan at 5am each morning special agent coffee begins his day by reviewing the reports of all the area car thefts from the night before he looks for the one that matches their suspect's MO OG if the suspect stole a car the task force needs to identify it before banks open at nine but months pass with no sign of their suspect investigators begin to worry that the killer has gone underground and may never be caught we assume he's obviously stressed at this particular point he's feeling the the heat of the notoriety of what he's done October 9th 1992. [Music] eight months after the Killer's most recent slave I get notification from our Baltimore agents then another carjacking is taking place a white male with a ski mask latex gloves and a handgun has taken place all the way up in Baltimore at approximately 7 A.M a 15 year old girl walked to her mother's car suddenly an armed man approached her and demanded the keys [Music] [Music] the housing police officer heard this and came to her aide the car there was an exchange of gunfire in the car just inflect the scene [Music] all right let's tell them we have our car the black Honda Civic we were feeling very good because we had very very fresh information and we knew he was on the move and he was in Baltimore and more than likely on the way back here the task force determines there is no need to wait for a bank robbery the task force casts and that around the Washington Metro Area hoping that he's going to come back through that net patrolmen and SWAT units from jurisdictions throughout Maryland Washington DC and Northern Virginia race to pre-arrange locations on freeway exit rounds to watch for the stolen car [Music] sure if the suspect has had time to switch the license plates they pull over every vehicle matching its description foreign each time they know they may face a shooter who has already taken four lives [Music] the FBI and police departments throughout the Washington DC area hunt a suspected killer they stop every vehicle matching the description of the one they believe he stole an hour earlier Police pull over dozens of cars would come up empty what's going on you got a girl as the search continues 50 miles away in Western Maryland Brunswick Police Officer Gary Klein is on routine Patrol observed a small black and color passenger vehicle I saw that there was different license plate on it and as the vehicle passed me I looked over and observed the driver had a nylon stocking pulled down over his face kind of shocked me and I was like not really sure what's going on here but kind of Drew my attention real quick I turned around caught back up to the car radioed my dispatchers and the 911 Center requested information on the tag subject in the small black part sped off and wouldn't pull over for me then I'm informed by our dispatchers that this subject is wanted for shooting at a Baltimore City officer hundreds of officers mobilized in the DC area are too far away to assist officer Klein is alone against a ruthless killer the adrenaline's pumping out because I'm pursuing this vehicle knowing somewhere in there I'm going to have to confront this individual the speeds that we maintain in some places were 90 mile per hour to a little over 100 mile per hour officer Klein chases the suspect from Maryland into Virginia it was very intent on getting away from me he just went straight down the middle of the bridge just forcing people East and Westbound out of his way I had to back off because I didn't want to endanger myself or the innocent people or citizens out on the street where he was actually able to gain a good bit of distance on me but once the roadway cleared up a little bit where I could safely get through the vehicle so I was able to catch back up to him the suspect in West Virginia made a right off of Route 340 and he went down this small asphalt road and when he hit that he was going too fast with the rain and everything and lost control and struck the curb stepped out of the vehicle with my weapon drawn and I seen him kind of lean over in the car towards the passenger seat and I seen the gun come up in inside the car officer Klein is concerned about firing his gun in a public place when you discharge your weapon you just don't want to around just going out there somewhere and you could strike somebody innocent you have a split second to make this decision and whatever decision you make can affect you for the rest of your life at that point he placed the car in reverse and sped backwards quickly towards my cruiser and what I believe was an attempt to ram my car or strike me he proceeded down a small Access Road and I proceeded after him he sped into the little dead end dirt gravel area and he tried to go behind his bulldozer and wrecked into it there's nowhere for him to go and now I have to confront him at that time I see the gun coming up which just kind of made my heart jump out of my chest while the suspect Ducks recover officer Klein strategically moves to his right didn't want to stay in one position especially after he already knows where you're at Klein's tactic works the suspect Fires at the position where Klein used to be actually five more shots at him as he ran to get to the back side of his car for cover with backup units still minutes away the loan officer fights to stay alive in a violent Face-Off with a vicious killer in a desperate shootout at Harpers Ferry West Virginia with lone Police Officer Gary Klein I see him start to come up from behind his car through the passenger side window with the gun raised and he's coming up I remember from fire nighting and striking the Kearney duck down behind the car again several seconds past he raises back up period the actual sound of the bullet striking the car the metal and Ducks back down behind the car again finally backup arrives when they put their hand on my shoulder and I knew who they were it was this big relief burden was lifted off my shoulders because now I knew I had fellow officers there within the next 10 minutes police officers from several jurisdictions were on the scene the gunman realizes he is outnumbered then the suspect stood up and walked out in front of myself and my crews are probably about 15 yards and put the gun to his head continue to yell aim to drop the gun to throw the gun on the ground at which time he told me he wouldn't do that [Music] West Virginia State Police Corporal John Jeffries begins negotiating with a gunman we can work through this let me help the only thing after several minutes of negotiation the suspect then pulled the nylon stocking up on the top of his head still wasn't able to really get a good clear look at him the suspect begins to talk he says he's an unemployed house painter he said that he was just upset he had some relation problems with his girlfriend but he'd done some things he wasn't real happy about and just all these things are piled up and just troubled him and he didn't know why he was doing the things he was doing after a 45-minute standoff the gunman makes an unusual demand I remember him saying he wanted to talk to his mother so he gave his mother's name and phone number several tense minutes pass as police attempt to reach the suspect's mother advised the suspect that they had his mother on the phone the woman on the line asks The Negotiator for the suspect's name he identified himself as Alan Newman he wasn't real sure the police he didn't know if we were just lying to him or what we were doing he said well ask my mom what my favorite cookie is I remember Corporal Jeffrey saying uh your mom said your favorite cookies chocolate chip and he started crying it really shocked me because I thought he was just going to drop the gun and give up you see the hammer coming back and everything's like slow motion do you see the hammer drop if you're waiting for the gun to go off and it didn't seizing the opportunity officers rush in and subdue the gunman ending the standoff after it was all over and done very relieved very appreciative of all the guys that were there that day I was able to help to get this person off the street and put him where he needed to be so that nobody else would be would be hurt police take Alan Newman into custody and confiscate his Ruger 357 as evidence [Music] it is the same model used in the murders according to FBI special agent Robert Coffey from the prior ballistics we knew what type of gun it would be it was it was a Ruger make and in fact that's what he was carrying the same types of bullets that were used in the shootings in the homicides were in fact still in the weapon you have told us that over and over after nearly a year of hard work investigators finally meet the killer face to face we no longer have someone running throughout the counties killing people for cars we were very excited about getting a chance to talk to the individual to find out why go ahead while Newman admits to the Baltimore carjacking he refuses to admit to any of the murders according to homicide detective Ed day throughout the interview process he remained pretty cocky and uh you know he thought he was pretty cool [Music] investigators continue to press Newman while at a Firearms laboratory a ballistics expert fires Newman's gun into an 800 gallon tank of water daminer compares the unique markings on the fired bullet to those on the bullets recovered from the four murders and the attempted homicide ballistics expert Joe capera scientific certainty that this is the firearm that farred these bullets and no other firearm could possibly do that I hear it again after hours of interrogation investigators received the ballistics report [Music] like the magic piece of evidence so that's the one that you've really knew would seal the whole case [Music] we had difficult undeniable evidence that we could put in front of a jury that he could not refute in any way shape or form [Music] convict him without much trouble and we could have gotten the death sentence with the information that we had which put it over the top and he decided it was best to make a deal for life rather than take the chance on being executed [Music] Alan Newman pleads guilty to all the charges against him and is sentenced to five life terms without parole plus 100 years for handgun violations looking back it was the collective efforts of more than a dozen police agencies contributing interviews and evidence that led to the successful conclusion of this case the accomplishment for all police officers and all investigators is to to arrest the bad guy and put him in jail when you do that you get a nice warm feeling for about 10 minutes until the next case comes in and you have to start all over again [Music] but for now every investigator who worked this case is content to know they have ended one man's violent Rampage [Music] thank you foreign [Music]

Channel: Retold - Documentaries & Reconstructions

Views: 339,482

Keywords: Crime scene examination, FBI investigations, FBI special agents unit, Hunt for killer, Mystery solving, Retold - Documentaries & Reconstructions, The FBI, True crime community, crime scene examination, criminal case reenactment, criminal minds, forensic evidence, police documentary series, police procedure, real crime investigations, real life crime drama, serial killer, true crime TV shows, true crime drama, true crime thriller, unsolved mysteries

Id: jF03XFZ9QwU

Length: 50min 13sec (3013 seconds)

Published: Thu Aug 10 2023