The Mysterious Double Murder Of A Loving Older Couple | Exhibit A | @RealCrime

[Music] they were your average middle-aged couple it's probably one of the worst cases that I've been involved with just for that Terror and horror that transpired here they were sleep on their boat it's a long weekend it's a busy Marina to see another human being stripped of not only the Dignity of the life that they should have but also the fact that they can be humiliated before their death takes place in my definition that's evil enter the world of forensic science the science of crime where a suspect's guilt or innocence can hang on a single piece of [Music] [Music] evidence [Applause] [Music] forensic evidence can be as varied as beer cans DNA on a sweatshirt or this exhibit a a knotted extension cord in the early morning of August 1992 firefighters out a blaze on board a cabin cruiser mored on Vancouver [Music] Island inside the cabin firefighters make a gruesome [Music] [Music] Discovery two victims a man and a woman both naked burnt and tied together with what appears to be a yellow cord given the burnt water logged condition of the bodies the initial autopsy fails to determine how the couple died as a matter of routine the pathologist takes a vaginal swab from the female victim the deceased were identified as Alex bordon and Mary Posner a couple from the nearby area they were your average couple middle-aged that enjoyed spending time on board their boat and that that long weekend had spent the weekend on the boat they had actually been seen on their boat by various people at the marina having a barbecue and enjoying a glass of wine at the back of the boat what hits the local papers is that the couple may have been engaged in a sexual bondage game and died when a fire broke out on their boat the RCMP brings in the only law enforcement officer in North America actively involved in forensic knot analysis just about every major case you go to has some not ligatures either hands are bound they're strangled they're found hanging uh everything from ropes chains to clothing is used to uh uh to be knoted on a victim and and in some cases the cause of their death one thing he concludes the couple couldn't have tied each other up using photographs replicas and sketches Van Tassel analyzes the knots understanding how the knots were tied will help unravel the mystery of of who tied them and why after the burnt out boat has been towed away investigators learned that a sailboat moed just across the way had been broken into the same night the owner of the sailboat reports that someone drank his booze stole a cell phone and a six-pack of beer and left crumpled beer cans on Deck investigators puzzle over the possible connection then something unexpected happens the police get a call from a man who says I have information about the incident on the burnt boat that man is Mike Smith Who police know has acted as an informant on a couple of occasions an RCMP officer meets Mike at the marina where the couple's boat had been moed and Mike's statement is video taped Mike says he drove to the marina with his friend Rob Smith no relation and a woman Rob had met in a bar that night her name was Mary she would later be identified as the female victim Mary pner Mike said Mary took them aboard the sailboat and was really coming on to him she gave them booze and let Rob use the cell phone so he guessed it was her sailboat that why he was surprised when after a few drinks she led him to the cabin cruiser right across the way Mike told police he and Mary had sex in the forward [Music] cabin afterwards they drank wine and partied with Rob until this guy showed up he would later be identified as the male victim Alex bordon Mike says the guy was freaking cuz his girlfriend was with two guys so to avoid a confrontation he left and went back to the car Mike says he waited for Rob after about 45 minutes Rob showed up and told him to follow him back to the boat to see what he'd done according to Mike he followed Rob down into the cabin there was a blanket lying on the floor and when he stepped on it he heard a wheezing sound he realized Mary was under the blanket in her death throws Mike also claims he saw Alex tied up with a yellow ribbon or something Mike said he'd made up his mind to call the police but Rob threatened he would kill his mother and his kid brother if Mike ratted him out it was not until they were driving to Lake Coin the next morning that Rob told him not to worry about the dead couple because he had set fire to the boat trying to show the RCMP how helpful he's being Mike takes the police to the rest area where he and Rob had thrown away the clothes they had worn that night [Music] and finally Mike Shows them the spot at Lake Coin where Rob took the cell phone he'd stolen from the sailboat and tossed it into the lake so it couldn't be traced in the trunk of Mike's Car investigators find empty beer cans the serial numbers on the cans found in Mike's trunk are ached to the serial numbers on the cans found on the sailboat investigators now have physical evidence to corroborate that Mike Smith was there that night but that doesn't mean his whole story is true I was somewhat skeptical of the story completely some of it had a had a certainly a portion of it that uh was seemed to be truthful however being aware of the victims and their lives somewhat and their lifestyle certainly portions of it were unbelievable and did not have a ring of truth to it for instance Mike had told them that he had no idea that Rob had set the fire until they were driving up to Lake Coin yet he also told police that he and Rob left the boat together so when would Rob have been able to set the fire without Mike knowing about it but until investigators can prove the couple was murdered all they can do is charge Rob Smith with [Music] arson by this time the pathologist has determined that both victims died of asphixiation having been strangled with the extension cord but it's not clear whether they died before the fire broke out or died in the fire we had to wait a few more days for um the result of the carbon monoxide testing which showed that the uh the male and female victims of this homicide were dead prior to the fire it is now clearly a double murder and the fire was set to cover it up when Rob hears that Mike has snitched on him he claims he is not a murderer and vows to tell investigators the real [Music] truth Mike Smith has accused his friend friend Rob of having murdered a couple found aboard a burnt-out cabin cruiser Rob's story is very different according to Rob after he did acid and he and Mike did some drinking just the two of them had gone down to the marina the first boat they broke into was the cabin cruiser belonging to the murdered couple when they heard snoring and realized someone was on board Rob wanted to leave so they went to the sailboat across the way in the cabin of the sailboat Mike found a six-pack of beer in a Cell Phone Mike made a call after about 45 minutes they took the six-pack and the cell phone back to the parking lot that's when Mike talked Rob into doing a creeper a creeper is when you break into a boat while people are sleeping on it [Music] according to Rob at this point they felt only the man was on board they drank wine from a keg in the front cabin then Mike said he was going to sneak down and get the man's wallet he took a yellow extension cord with him while Mike was handing the man's pants up to rob the man woke up Mike told the man it was a robbery and forced him to roll over that's when they became aware that there was a woman down there Rob says mike tied up the man with the extension cord using what he called Butterfly knots the woman told them she had money in her purse Rob found it and told Mike they should leave but Mike refused so Rob went back to the parking lot leaving Mike on board after 45 minutes Rob says he went back to the boat and saw Mike on top of someone he believed was the woman that's when he realized Mike might be killing the couple Rob claims that he left again it was just starting to get light about a half an hour later he saw Mike go to a dinghy and return with a gas can Rob says he thought that Mike had set the boat on fire what happened after that was pretty much as Mike had described it the trip to Lake kaichin dumping their clothes at the rest stop and tossing the stolen cell phone into the lake I think that's an interesting thing this one piece will make 52 layers watch on mobile device deves or the big screen all for free no subscription required Robert Smith seemed much more I don't know if sincere is the right word but he seemed to be more truthful in his approach or a little more um sympathetic towards the crime than Michael Smith but if Rob is as innocent as he claims why did he spend the day with Mike and party at the [Music] beach that's when the not specialist findings come into play in this particular case the uh cordage or lature that was used was a uh extension cord approximately 50 ft long uh it was probably outside on the dock so it would be a utility cord used around a boat the one end was attached to the left wrist of the male dece by simply making three overhand turns the lature material was then taken around the elbow on the other side into this particular fashion it was then taken under the elbow again on the same side as the first knot according to Rob Mike tied up the man with the extension cord using what he called Butterfly knots the standing part the long free end was then passed around the waist up over the back side and two full round turns taken around the victim's neck that would make three turns on the front this would cause strangulation of the victim if the victim struggles he pulls this piece down which would could create more of a strangulation effect first and foremost he is not only restrained but in a very perilous position the long remaining standing part of the legure then went to the female because of their consistency and because they were all on the one side of the male deceased I was able to determine that in my opinion only one person did all the [Music] time according to Mike Rob tied up the couple and murdered them when he was in the Marine apartment paring lot according to Rob Mike had tied up the couple and been the murderer when Rob was in the parking lot what is the truth and can forensics help investigators untangle it two suspects each told differing accounts of the events that led up to a brutal double murder and each accused the other of being the murderer according to Mike he and Rob met Mary Posner in a bar that night and later he and Mary had consensual sex but after checking out the couple investigators find Mike's story hard to believe Mary pner was a professional woman 15 years older than Rob and Mike she and Alex had a committed relationship and were planning to Marry That September she no sooner would have had any kind of relationship or involvement with with these two people than being able to fly to the moon the CMP lab finally comes up with DNA results from the female victim's vaginal swab it contains semen consistent with Mike Smith's [Music] DNA Plus on the sweatshirt Mike Smith discarded after the murders the lab finds traces of his Seaman and Mary posner's vaginal cells the most important piece of evidence was the uh the DNA evidence that um showed that Michael Smith's DNA on a shirt that belonged to him was also mixed with the DNA of the female victim the irony is that Mike L investigators to the sweatshirt as a result of all this Mike Smith is charged with two counts of first-degree murder though investigators now believe Mike tied up the couple the extension Court also implicated Rob Rob claimed he was up in the main C while Mike was down below tying up the couple so how could he describe in detail the knots Mike used particularly the butterfly knot there's 3,000 plus knots what are the chances of you describing a knot that somebody ties if you weren't present they would have to be watching them so they're right there based on the forensic evidence plus additional interviews with Mike Smith and inmates anxious to inform on an informant this is what investigators think happened that fateful night Mike and Rob did break into the cabin cruiser first and leave when they realized someone was on board and they did break into the sailboat across the way steal some beer and a cell phone then they went back to the parking lot that's when Mike Smith who had a long history of doing creepers suggested they go back and break into the cabin cruiser they may have thought only Alex was aboard they drank some wine then Mike snuck into the cabin to get Alex's wallet [Music] that's when Alex woke up Mike was on him in a second he told him to shut up it was a robbery that's when they realized there was a woman there too Mike said everybody keep quiet nobody gets hurt then he screamed hide your face and yelled for Rob to bring him something to tie up the man rob brought him the yellow extension cord Mike told Alex to put his arms behind his back probably Alex hoped that if he complied the guys would just Rob them and [Music] leave so Mike tied up the man Mary told him that her purse was in the main cabin but Rob couldn't find it at first things were getting frantic finally Rob found the purse he told Mike they should leave he might even have yelled let's go but Mike didn't [Music] go that's when the creeper turned into a nightmare of rape and murder right at the end Mike later told an inmate the woman prayed then Mike probably alone tried to cover up the murders by torching the boat it's probably one of the worst cases that I've been involved with just for that Terror and horror that transpired here they were sleep on their boat it's a long weekend it's a busy Marina in a quiet uh part of Victoria um and all of a sudden these two people are on you in an instant and you're tied up and you have no control you have no power you can't go anywhere you're in the front of the boat there's no exit they're blocking the only exit out and you're at their complete control of these two individuals there's probably nothing more devastating for me is to see another human being stripped of not only the Dignity of the of the life that that they should have but also the fact that they can be humiliated before their death takes place so in my mind in my definition that's evil Rob may not have raped Mary pner or killed the couple but according to the law Rob was tied to the crimes simply by being there and not preventing the murders Robert Smith was convicted of manslaughter in sentence to 20 years Mike Smith pleaded guilty to the double murders he was sentenced to [Music] life the story of Mike Smith has some final gruesome twists Mike Smith killed a fellow inmate while in a federal penitentiary by strangling him to death with an extension cord he also got his arm tattooed with the image of a burning ship the stories on exhibit a are based on true cases the forensic scientists and investigators are the actual individuals who worked on the cases the names of the victims are fictitious the names of the guilty are [Music] real a questionable informance spins a shocking tale of murder but there's no body no victim then a skull is found in the bush it takes police through a dark underbelly of runaways and Street [Music] people with little more than Bare Bones can police snare the killer enter the world of forensic science the science of crime where a suspect's guilt or innocence can hang on a single piece of [Music] [Applause] [Music] evidence police need evidence to solve a crime but sometimes they need an informant to find out a crime has been committed it's 1993 the RCMP in Saskatoon are trying to bust a cigarette smuggling ring they use a known Petty Thief Frank Ryan as an informant it turns out he's got more information than they expect he tells them that a year earlier a friend of his witnessed a murder Ryan says the victim was an Aboriginal woman whose name was Angie the murder happened in the Moon Lake District an area of dense Bush Southwest of the city they check out Ryan's story Corporal Al Keller is in charge of the case uh there was nothing to corroborate any kind of suggestion made by our informant at that time that there was anything wrong at all police are mystified a murder Report with no victim no body no evidence another year goes by the police get another report this time from a hunter scouting deer trails around Moon Lake he spots a human skull in the undergrowth Keller gets involved again the skull was the thing that was most ominous there it was just sitting right out in the bush could this be Angie the murder victim described by informant Frank Ryan we had no girls by the name of Angie missing we were pursuing any evidence we could find that there were in fact had been a crime committed we had none all they have is Bones they don't know the cause or the time of death the age sex or identity of the remains police bring in forensic anthropologist Dr Ernie Walker we spent virtually the whole day um recovering the remains in a very controlled manner uh they were spread over about 600 something square meters Dr Walker concludes that the remains were probably scattered by carnivores he discovers that there's soft tissue on some of the bones and fillings in some of the teeth this means that these remains aren't part of an ancient burial site exhibit a Bare Bones worn down by time it's Dr Walker's job to read the bones to discover all he can about the identity of the victim I'm looking for something known as the greater sciatic noge which is a little notch on the side of one of the hip elements in a female it's quite wide and in a male it's very narrow uh virtually everything about those pelvic elements showed that it was female there was no question was clear I guess largely when you get right down to the bones we're pretty much all the same but the different racial groups have have somewhat different anatomies Walker determines from the teeth and positioning of the eye sockets that the skull probably comes from a native person he can also determine the age of the victim by looking at pelvic and skull bones Walker concludes that she's an Aboriginal woman in her late teens this fits the description of Angie the murder victim Frank Ryan told them about now the priority for police is to bring Ryan back in for questioning but he isn't easy to find he's left town and no one around his old hun once knows where he [Music] is while they continue searching for their informant police make a shocking Discovery another set of Bones just a few hundred meters from the first I wasn't expecting a second body would be found then the next day it gets even worse a third body they still have no IDs no cause of death but now they know they're looking at three murder victims in all likelihood victims of one serial killer in this instance it was different because it was not a surface scatter we were dealing with a shallow grave you could see the cranium and some pretty heavy fabric protruding from a burial The Remains were enclosed in a series of blankets and then that was all bound together with an extension [Music] cord the investigation escorts and all of a sudden there's National media pressure there's um you have local interest groups you have everybody wanting to know and rightfully so and you're just just working as hard as you can first they need to know who these victims are police go to forensic artist sirel Chan for help based on studies that show how the flesh sits on the skull depending on Race age and gender Chan can take a bare skull and rebuild a face it's an approximation and you putting all the features that you think is relevant if you look at here you see the shadow of the forehead and I have to incorporate that as I've been putting those Post in you can actually if you were to join the dots so to speak you can start shaping the shape of the face she had high cheekbones and uh she had crooked teeth so that was the first thought I had in mind mine was to make her smile while sirel Chan Works to help ID the victims police intensify the search for Frank Ryan the original informant he's their best lead to the serial killer but his account of a year ago suggests he may not be a reliable source he had lied to begin with he had given us the name of Angie and for all our efforts and our data banks there's no way we could find a missing native Girl by the name of Angie angelene Angela as missing also the friend Ryan claimed had witnessed the murder was untraceable that person didn't exist the sequence of events that he described for us didn't make sense so of course he was a suspect was Ryan's information a bunch of Lies the product of a sick mind playing games with police could the serial killer they're looking for be Frank [Music] Ryan police finally locate Frank Ryan in another city and arranged to meet him by this time they've been able to check out Ryan's background he was a Wandering Spirit he was unemployed really a little big man in examining his past he had never been involved in anything violent to our to our knowledge when police conduct their interview with Ryan they tell him they found not one but three bodies at Moon Lake he's shocked they also tell him they know he lied to them a year ago this time they want the truth Ryan breaks down and tells them a new [Music] story he admits that there was no friend who witnessed the murder he was the Real Witness on that night 2 years ago he was hanging out as he often did with a buddy he'd met in prison John Martin [Music] Crawford back then they usually got drunk and cruised the red light district for [Music] hookers on the night of the murder they encountered a young native woman whose name was [Music] Angie they had seen Angie before hanging around the bars in downtown Saskatoon Ryan enticed her into the car with the promise of money and [Music] booze he says Crawford drove them out to Moon Lake to party when they arrived Ryan got out of the car while Crawford went into the back seat with [Music] Angie Ryan heard an argument then he heard Crawford punch her Crawford raped Angie in the car [Music] when the assault was over she took off into the bush seconds later Crawford emerged and told Ryan to hand over his knife Ryan was scared so he gave it to [Music] him Ryan heard screams and [Music] followed when he found them he couldn't be believe what he saw Crawford had used the knife to stab Angie to death Ryan panicked but Crawford took charge he got Ryan to help him cover the body with leaves and branches Ryan insists he's telling the truth and that Angie's murder is the only one he witnessed he knows nothing about the other two can police believe him they look for ways to corroborate his story with hard evidence Ryan says the murder took place two years ago in the Spring Police compare this time frame with Dr Walker's ongoing lab tests that are zeroing in on the time of death there was a series of Lumbar vertebr that were obviously intact and they had two generations of leaves on top of them so I was pretty sure we were dealing with something uh older than 2 years old he also finds pupe casings the remains of black blowflies that reproduced in the victim's decaying flesh this kind of fly only breeds in cold weather so Dr Walker can place the time of death 2 years earlier in the spring or early fall just as Ryan had said this is some corroboration but is there more what about the crime scene itself was any DNA or physical evidence left behind police hold out hope of finding something on the third [Music] victim the forensics Team Works to find some physical trace of the killer seen hair or Fiber on the blanket or extension cord but they find [Music] none it's only 3 weeks since the first body was found police have no physical evidence of the Killer and a question questionable story from a known liar they don't even know the victim's identities there are hundreds of missing Aboriginal women who could match the general descriptions so police are counting on sirel Chan sketches for help police released the drawings to the media the first victim identified is Anna Johnson her family sees serial Chan sketch in the press and is able to identify their daughter the second woman is identified by her sister she's Ramona peacock 28 years old the mother of two children her sister had been looking after the kids since Ramona's disappearance 2 years earlier finally the police find out the identity of the woman Ryan called Angie her actual name is Marcy wheeler and she was just a teenager when she died they dig deeper into her past and find out that Marcy had a tough life long before she met Ryan and Crawford a sexually abused child she ran away from home when she was only 12 over the next few years her family filed 38 separate missing persons reports for her each time she was spotted living on the streets of Saskatoon and the report was withdrawn Marcy was collecting welfare but soon found that the only way to make ends meet was to turn a few tricks as it turns out Marcy had run into John Crawford at one of the bars she frequented but she didn't trust him she could tell he was a dangerous man if Frank Ryan's story is true then Crawford is the killer police are looking [Music] for police locate Crawford and and have put him under surveillance then they get a damning piece of information he's already spent 10 years in prison for the manslaughter death of another Aboriginal [Music] woman the investigation now focuses on finding enough evidence to charge and convict John Crawford he's already under surveillance but police have to go further Keller has to get to know his suspect he was a habitual Prowler his daily activity included cruising the red light district Crawford is a loose canon an impulsive brute with no emotional response he's capable of a great deal of violence with very little provocation he had no interest to our knowledge he merely existed living at home with his mother Keller needs to find a way to trap prop [Music] he brings in an RCMP profiler Ron McKay who specializes in sexually motivated homicides unquestionably he he fits the criteria of a serial killer uh killed three or more people with a cooling off period in between and those the people he killed had no daily association with him the fact that Crawford's victims were all Aboriginal women gives McKay another clue there would be a racist element involved in in all probability because he would see himself as a superior human [Music] being Crawford felt he had no hope of a normal relationship with a woman so he picked up women he perceived as being lower than himself if they challenged or threatened him in any way he lashed out I doubt doubt that Crawford intended to kill that particular victim that particular day he decided rather than have her report the rape to the police best thing he could do is kill her that's a pretty simple solution an impulsive act on his part serial killers usually kill in extreme isolation two of these murders fit the pattern but not Marcy wheelers the fact that he had someone with him uh really didn't bother him one way or the other because he saw this person as the same as himself or lower but once he had committed the murder it's interesting that he was StreetWise enough to very quickly involve that other person and the disposal of a body so he'd be less inclined to report it to the police police are now convinced that Crawford's the killer but they have no hard evidence to convict him they're going to need a confession McKay and Keller believe that Frank Ryan is the key they approach Ryan and ask him to help set up an undercover sting they want him to wear a wire to get a confession from [Music] Crawford all we basically gave him for instructions was bring up a topic and let it go there people have a need to talk about these things police have to get their approach exactly right McKay's profile is crucial in setting up the sting so we have we have to come up with with plans that uh take them right to the scene either the murder scene or the pickup scene or somehow forcefully emotionally if you will direct his attention to the topic we want him to talk about police get Ryan to invite Crawford up to his motel room they set the scene with Crawford's favorite food and beer they've arranged with a local television station to broadcast a report about the murders at a designated time they've also placed listing devices around the room there's nothing to stop from talking about it because say Hey We're All in This Together kind of thing so he'd be more inclined to open up under those [Music] circumstances at the pre-arranged time the news report comes on the air last fall RCMP investigators were stoed when they discovered the remains of three young women they had no idea who the women were the RCMP don't have a complete pict picture of how the three women met their desk they say all the three women frequented the downtown area as things turned out it worked wonderfully he seen the girl on TV and motioned that's her that's the one I did this to and I mean what could be more unrehearsed uh than a person making a an unprompted disclosure after seeing something on TV Frank Ryan asked Crawford why killed the women he says they made me mad I killed them [Music] first police have what they [Music] need Crawford is arrested charged with murder and later convicted he thought he'd gotten away with the three [Music] murders what he didn't count on was Frank Ryan's conscience the image of Marcy wheeler had haunted Ryan until he had to help police catch her killer Marcy wheeler Ramona p Co Anna Johnson Street people women who live on welfare and turn a few tricks to make ANS meet their invisibility makes them society's most vulnerable people and as long as they remain invisible they are easy prey for brutal Killers like John Martin Crawford the stories on exhibit a are based on true cases the forensic scientists and investigators are the actual individuals who worked on the cases the names of the victims are fictitious the names of the guilty are [Music] [Music] real police are up against a cunning killer with no Witnesses and no body their investigation is going [Music] nowhere but a mysterious informant has left a unique clue at the scene of the crime can scientists use it to solve a brutal [Music] murder enter the world of forensic science the science of crime where a suspect's guilt or innocence can hang on a single piece of [Music] [Music] evidence [Music] how many times can you cheat death cats have nine lives so The Story Goes how many times can a murderer go on cheating the police and his own [Music] fate early fall 1994 on bucolic peaceful Prince Edward Island near Summerside the Island's second largest City police get a report of an abandoned car in a remote field all you could see was the back part of it it was kind of driven into a bush area um the windows were down there was no plate on it and there's no keys and ignition police noticed some rust colored stains in the car's interior but they assume it's just good old Pei Red [Music] Dirt police run a comp computer check on the abandoned car serial number they discover it belongs to Maria McKay who lives near somerside when police arrive music is blaring out of the small country house nobody answers their knock on the door instead of Marsha McCay detective mcneel and Constable seavoy finds 17-year-old Vicky Cooper minding Marsha's five children Vicki is a neighbor's daughter who spends most of her time at [Music] marshes she tells the police that Marsha left 5 days ago and that no one has seen or heard from her [Music] since the last time she saw Marsha Marsha was getting the kids off to school according to Vicki Mara is a terrific mother who loves her children she's had a tough life with Doug Beamish her ex- common-law husband now as a single stay-at-home mom Mara is doing her best for her kids and trying to keep her family [Music] together Vicki remembers that after the kids left for school Mara had gotten all dressed up she even let Marsha her favorite leather jacket before going back to bed Vicki has not seen her [Music] since inspector mcneel asks why Marsha's disappearance has not been reported my understanding is they were worried that if they did report her missing that social services may become involved and that they would take her children they were concerned that the children may be taken away from the family if their mother could not be located right away next the police pay a visit to Marsha's EXC commmon law husband Doug beish beish tells the police he's been worried about Mara ever since he heard from one of his kids that she was missing detective mcneel wants to know Bish's whereabouts on the morning Mara disappeared beish tells police that he was on his way to Marsh's to do some minor repairs when his truck broke down close to her house he remembers getting mad because he wanted to get to work on an old house he was renovating he knocked at her door but got no answer he saw Marsha's car but figured she'd gone back to bed after sending the kids off to school so he got his tools from his truck and walked to the house he was renovating beus says he never actually saw Marsha the day she disappeared police order a forensic examination of Marsha's car the rust colored stains in the vehicle aren't Pei's famed Red Dirt they're blood worse investigators now detect a spatter of tiny stains on the inside of the front windshield a blood stain expert is called in the way blood has been projected onto some areas or has simply dripped onto others can help the analyst reconstruct what happened blood stains are in two categories either projected or non-projected and uh the non-projected blood stains mainly deal with the dripping of blood off of a body or an object and projected stains are created when blood takes flight either from a external Force such as a blow a kick a punch beating or an internal Force when a major artery is severed and the blood is pumped out of the body meanwhile hundreds of people from all over Pei volunteer to search the area where Marsha's car was found that's when one of the search parties makes a Grizzly Discovery we found a pillow a pale green colored pillow with a large blood stain we found out from the family that the lady that owned the vehicle drove she was very short she was only 4' 9 in tall approximately 90 lb she drove sitting on this pillow in order to be able to see over the steering wheel then hidden in a wooded area Searchers discover a shovel with blood on it everything now points to Foul [Music] Play police learned that Marsha had a boyfriend and contact him he has an airtight Alibi for the day Marsha went missing police ask about his relationship with Mara the boyfriend says that Marsha had finally let him spend the night at her place a few days before she [Music] disappeared he doesn't know where Marsha might have been going and to him her disappearance is very [Music] strange that's when Vicki comes up with new information she remembers getting a phone call a couple of days after Marsha [Music] disappeared the caller indicated that his name was Glenn and that he had met the victim the night before in a bar and she was looking for a drive to Toronto he said if you give her the message I can now take her the whole island of Pei is caught up in this case the community is divided has Mara McCay left PEI to start a new life or is she the victim of Foul Play and if she is where is the body [Music] police on Prince Edward Island continue to search for marshia McCay her car has been found with its interior spattered with blood a Blood Stained pillow and a shovel have been discovered in the bushes not far from her abandoned vehicle but Marsha herself seems to have vanished Without a Trace police need to match the blood in the car and the blood on the cushion to Marsha McKay but there's no known sample of Marsha's blood which can be used to determine her DNA so they conduct a reverse paternity test after getting blood from Marsha's parents police get samples from her five children essentially using a process of elimination they will be able to determine Marsha's DNA [Music] soon after this beish moves to take custody of his and Marsha's kids in an interview for a local radio station Beamish portrays himself as a hardworking father with whom Marsha just couldn't get along according to beish Mara has always been a poor excuse for a mother beish knows that Marsha has a new boyfriend who has almost been living at Marsha's [Music] House beish has been concerned about his children's care that's why he sacrificed a well-paying construction job in Toronto to return to Pei just a few weeks earlier beish tells the radio reporter that he thinks marshia has left the island to start a new life but police soon discover a few few things about Doug Beamish He's a Bully with a mean temper and on several occasions Marsha has been seen covered with bruises she had been in a long relationship with an next common-law spouse and it was in described by most of her relatives as on again off again Rocky volatile at times relationship um 2 years before this she had left her home to go to a home for women abused women and basically wanted to start a life away from her Expos the DNA blood tests confirm that the blood on the cushion and the blood in the car belongs to Marsha by now the blood spatter analyst has a better idea of what kind of struggle took place in Marsha's car I see punches in the front seat I see punches in the back seat and I see somebody moving around or being moved depends on whether they're conscious or unconscious at this time Marsha McKay has seemingly been the victim of brutal violence but even after 3 weeks of intensive and frustrating searches throughout the Island police still haven't found her body then a witness remembers seeing two people parked on the side of the road in a car that resembled marshes from a quick Glimpse she believes the two people were arguing a thorough search of the area uncovers a plastic bag stuffed inside is a man's brown leather jacket the jacket is soaked with blood and its lining is matted with short white hair police find a photo of Bei in a brown leather jacket but when the police ask Beamish about it he denies owning the jacket or ever having seen it when the DNA of the blood on the jacket is compared to marshes it's a match and when the stains are analyzed they paint a clear picture of violence there is heavy stains on the right sleeve area and the right chest and side of the jacket it's very consistent with her being controlled or held in this position with as if you will with in a in a restraining or a headlock type action police now suspect that Marsha has been murdered and they suspect that Beamish killed her but they have no real physical evidence in murder cases without a body conviction are difficult they will need irrefutable proof that the jacket belongs to Beamish but that is easier said than done further tests reveal that the hair on the lining of the jacket is animal hair probably cat hair this triggers seo's memory there was a cat in his house a large white cat actually and his name was Snowball and it kept rubbing up against my pant leg leaving all kinds of white hairs against my pant play it's a long shot but can they use snowball's hair to connect Beamish to the brown jacket at this time 1994 human DNA had just come into the forensic Arsenal DNA Labs had been able to work with a sample of human hair but could they do the same with cat hair investigators learn that no one in the world has used animal DNA to solve a crime what's worse none of the labs in Canada even want to [Music] try undeterred Pei police keep searching they finally find Dr Steven O'Brien a molecular biologist in Maryland Dr O'Brien is constructing a gene map of American cats and is doing groundbreaking research on animal DNA obrien agrees to give it a shot but he needs two things to do the comparison samples of the cat hair found on the jacket and samples of snowball's hair and [Music] blood that's when Snowball the cat is subpena I had to seize the cat from the residence of the excon [Music] law and we brought it to local vet who took some blood out of the cat and we proceeded to deliver these exhibits personally exhibit a snowball the family pet will snowball's DNA prove that the bloodstained jacket belongs to Doug beish Prince Edward Island police believe a bloodstained leather jacket its lining matted with white cat hairs belongs to Marsha McKay's killer they believe that killer is her ex Doug beish but unless they can find Marsha's body their only hope of mounting a case is to use DNA to prove that those white cat hairs belong to Bish's cat snowball in his Maryland Lab Dr O'Brien has been comparing the DNA of the cat hair found on the jacket with the DNA of snowballs blood we discovered that at every single marker snowball had exactly the same type the mother and the maternal and the paternal form as did the hair it was a perfect match even though investigators are convinced Beamish is their murderer they also know that their animal DNA evidence will be challenged at every turn in a murder trial defense might argue for instance that because of the way cats in breed on an island snowball's DNA could be very similar to one of any of its possible siblings O'Brien tells Constable seavoy there's only one way to preempt this you're going to have to go out and round us up a bunch of cats so that we can do a population genetic estimation of the markers on the island today so he he says how am I going to do that so seavoy rounds up dozens of cats blood samples are taken and shipped to Dr O'Brien that spring N9 months after Marsha McKay had disappeared a fisherman taking a shortcut through the woods stumbles on a mound of dirt covered with Twigs immediately recognizes it as something being buried so he goes into town and and gets a friend with a shovel and they return and they start to dig they left then and form our Detachment and we had people go out to the scene immediately a decomposing body is found lying on its side in a fetal position she is wearing cowboy boots and a black leather jacket her long dark hair is spread like a veil over her face the victim was badly beaten her nose was broken jaw broken in three places fractures in her throat hands tied behind her back it all amounted to a very violent act that was thought out and committed on a very weak person Vicki identifies the cowboy boots as marshes and the jacket as the one she lent to Marsha the morning she disappeared beish is arrested for the murder of his ex-wife beish claims he is innocent Dr O'Brien's final piece of evidence arrives blood test from a random sampling of Pei cats shows a remarkable DNA diversity the likelihood of a match was something of the order of 1 in 100 million so small that that it's virtually impossible and so the simplest explanation was that the hairs that were found in the jacket which was spattered with the victim's blood were actually from snowball [Music] himself based on all the evidence this is the murder case the prosecution presents to the jury on the morning that Maria McCay went missing Doug Beamish left his home unaware of snowball's hair on his brown leather [Music] jacket that same morning after having sent the kids to school Marsha got dressed up to leave the house police never discovered where she was [Music] going but she must have met up with Beamish and they must have gotten into her car police now believe the couple the witness saw arguing on the side of the road was Marsha and Beamish but at some point words were not enough for Beamish as the evidence suggests he must have tied Marsha up gotten her in a headlock and started punching her in the face the beating carried them from the front seat to the back seat Mara died as a result of that brutal [Music] beating after stuffing his bloody jacket into a garbage bag beish HIIT it nearby in dense Bush then he drove Marsha's car with her dead body 10 km away he buried her with her hands still tied behind her back then he drove 10 km in another Direction direction to ditch the seat cushion and shovel after abandoning Marsha's car he walked the long walk back to Marsha's House to pick up his truck and drove home beish must have thought no human would ever catch him for the murder but he did not count on his cat snowball Doug Beamish would was found guilty of the second deegree murder of Marsha McCay he was sentenced to life in prison with no possibility of parole for 18 years he has never confessed to his [Music] crime the stories on exhibit a are based on on true cases the forensic scientists and investigators are the actual individuals who worked on the cases the names of the victims are fictitious the names of the guilty are [Music] real

Channel: Real Crime

Views: 66,240

Keywords: Real Crime, brutal murders, catching criminals, crime scene examination, crime scene investigation, crime solving methods, crime solving techniques, crime theories, criminal behavior analysis, criminal forensics, criminal motives, criminal profiling techniques, guilty verdicts, justice for victims, murder investigations, pursuing justice, shocking crimes, true crime community, unsolved case, victim justice, wrongful conviction

Id: kBK-EKmCw_0

Length: 69min 21sec (4161 seconds)

Published: Tue Apr 30 2024