The Shocking Murder Of A Female Cab Driver That Baffled Investigators | Exhibit A | @RealCrime

[Music] the brutal murder of a cabie rocks a popular Resort Town how can police find a killer amidst the thousands of people who pass through [Music] daily the investigation leads to a dark world of transient workers cheap motels and violently unpredictable criminals [Music] 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] evidence [Applause] [Music] we are all attracted to unspoiled natural beauty it refreshes the spirit and the body it speaks of a simpler time in the world but nature isn't always beautiful or kind it hides dangers and predators who can strike without [Music] warning B Alberta part of the oldest natural park system in Canada 8,000 people call B home but every summer millions of tourists pass through millions of strangers rushing briefly against each other's lives these traveling millions are served by an army of service workers they also arrive every summer by the thousands looking for work looking for a chance to enjoy a summer in B and sometimes looking for trouble RCMP Corporal Nigel Patterson has seen it all every night here is sort of like a Saturday night in a normal Community we arrest a lot of intoxicated people here for various reasons causing disturbances assaults thefts and other types of crimes that one would associate with a tourism based economy but on a spring night in 1990 it isn't a drunk that gets Patterson's attention I lived in RCMP Quarters on squirrel Street around 2:30 in the morning on May the 17th I awoke to Doug Watty who was another member in B knocking on my door and saying come on man you got to go to work the police car was parked on the street and in the headlights I could see the yellow safety blanket under the blanket lies a brutally murdered cab driver Marie pette I saw the victim lying on her back with her arms outstretched and there was a large amount of blood that had flowed away from the body and she was pretty well completely covered with blood officers are shocked this is the first murder in B in almost 30 years leaving other officers to attend the crime scene Patterson and a fellow mounty perform one of the toughest jobs a cop can do telling someone that the person they love has been murdered Marie's fiance Bobby Jackson lives only a block away from the murder scene we went to the door of the apartment and we had the task of telling him that his girlfriend had been [Music] killed Bobby tells police about his last moments with Marie it was after 1:30 in the morning Bobby was enjoying a quiet moment with his girlfriend Marie pette she had come to bamp 3 years before loved the outdoor life and stayed Marie got a call to take one more fair before Calling it Quits for the night [Music] Bobby says he headed home but he couldn't get up his street because of a police roadblock he figured it was a drunk passed out or maybe an elk hit by a [Music] car and of course he had no idea that that was his girlfriend lying on the street police are then called to the other side of town where a cabbie who worked with Marie is guarding her abandoned taxi he recounts an astonishing story he says that he saw Marie picking up three people at the bamp Springs hotel at about 1:40 [Music] a.m. when he couldn't raise her on the radio a few minutes later he suspected something was wrong he cruised the town looking for her car minutes later he spotted Marie's cab but it wasn't Marie behind the wheel he chased The Fugitive cab through the streets of B and out of town to a wooded suburb he cornered the stolen car on a dead end Street a man bolted from the cab and disappeared into the woods the cabby says he couldn't see the man's face police examined the abandoned cab searching for evidence there are bloody signs of a struggle there was a small amount of blood found in the taxi on the window switch panel on the driver's door a few small droplets on the window and and a small quantity on the steering wheel and the turn lever and the gear shift it appeared that that was probably the victim's blood and that the struggle started in the [Music] taxi apart from a few coins dropped in the cab no Trace is found of Marie's earnings for the night police now believe she was robbed that night a search of of the woods near the abandoned taxi yields no trace of The [Music] Fugitive but the next morning a bloodstained hunting knife is found on the driveway of a townhouse a block away from where Marie's cab was abandoned the knife is sent to forensics for blood analysis and to check for fingerprints RCMP Constable Sandy Harter is present when Marie's body is examined by pathologist she was covered her head was covered in blood um as well as her torso from the bleeding um I could see cuts on her face uh I could see Cuts uh on her hands she obviously put up a good fight because her hands were covered in cuts from either grasping the knife or shielding herself or trying to one of the stabs was inflicted on her cored artery which basically is the The Killing wound cause a death apart from the horrific knife wounds Pathologists find no other forensic Clues to help police identify the murderer Nigel Patterson has an almost impossible task ahead of him in a town filled with thousands of transients where do you start to track down a killer in the days following Marie's murder police tried to narrow down the huge field of possible suspects we tried to recreate what exactly was going on in town that night and who was where and looking into the activities of a large number number of [Music] people thousands of questionnaires are mail to anyone who stayed at the bamp Springs hotel where Marie collected her last fairs the night of her murder someone must know something someone must have seen something someone must be able to help Nigel Patterson checks out the staff housing complex where Marie was supposed to drop off her last fairs but the two women and the man who got into Marie's cab at the hotel are nowhere to be found we put a lot of resources into this case and it really was like looking for a needle in a hay stack for a very long time we were hoping for the piece of information that would break the case wide open but after weeks of hunting the case still isn't broken wide open police are no closer to identifying a suspect and they get no help from the lab analysis of the murder weapon the blood is Marie's but there are no fingerprints on the knife police release a photo of the murder weapon hoping someone will recognize it but there's no response the investigation is at a standstill it's 1990 and DNA profiling isn't yet an accepted forensic science police have to rely on a more limited blood test that can only determine blood type and whether the sample can came from a man or a woman a month after the murder results come in from the tests on the blood found in Marie's cab surprisingly the blood in the cab is not Marie it comes from a man the killer police now know they are looking for a male but he has no name no face 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 required good morning all right in the B Valley's forecast today we have cloudy with occasional showers the search has still not turned up any suspects from amongst the thousands of men passing through b that night Patterson follows up every possible lead but even after 18 months he still has no Suspects he calls on Ron McKay a behavioral profiler to reexamine the circumstances of the killing perhaps McKay's analysis can help them determine what kind of man came to a small town and so brutally killed Marie Payette I evaluate the victim offender Action Reaction so every victim is different and the the environment in which the crime is committed is going to be different each time but this one uh the window of opportunity for the crime to been committed that's what made this case really unique McKay learns that Marie picked up her last fairs at about 1:40 a.m. from the bamp Springs hotel and that they were heading to a party at the staff housing complex police tell McKay that the two women were probably dropped off leaving Marie alone in the cab with the male fair I'm estimating somewhere in a range of 7 8 minutes for the crime to be committed no planning totally spontaneous totally impulsive I see an offender who is uh has been drinking there's alcohol use uh there's a lack of judgment he's intent on committing a robbery he loses emotional control he anticipated presenting a knife a weapon in the face of a female who he anticipated would be timid and give him the money in instead she was assertive challenged him and from then on his whole plan went AR [Music] right soon after McKay delivers his report Nigel Patterson gets a break he's told of a criminal who's a perfect fit for the profile he learns that just the day before Marie was killed Doug wter a viciously impulsive con had escaped from custody in Calgary about a 90-minute drive from ban he had a a lengthy record of assaults unlawful confinement assaults with a weapon a very violent individual and he was known to come to bamp when he was not incarcerated during questioning about Marie's death wter refuses to take a polygraph test or provide a blood sample by now it's 1992 and and DNA testing has become a powerful tool in solving crimes but still investigators cannot compel suspects to provide a DNA [Music] specimen police devise a sting involving two undercover agents in an effort to get a sample of W's DNA Patterson prepares a motel room for the sting including special towels sheets tissues and a hairbrush he might leave behind genetic material which police can compare to the blood in Marie's [Music] cab investigators succeed in getting a sample of W's hair from the brush they send the hair in for DNA analysis hoping this newly developed forensic tool will prove W's guilt as investigators wait for the comparison of W's DNA to the blood from the car Nigel Patterson receives a new tip about the murder weapon the 11-in hunting knife the person who phoned in the tip said that the knife belonged to Ryan love of Duncan BC Ryan love was one of the hundreds of men who had been investigated after the murder but police had been told he had left bamp the day before the killing still they bring love in for questioning he admitted owning the knife but claimed that it had been stolen from him during the week prior to the murder he refused to provide a hair or a blood sample something about Love's response makes Patterson suspicious he gets help from Greg McMartin an RCMP polygraphist and expert in statement analysis in the detection of deception and verbal communication you do not need the person uh it can be way of a tel Tel phone call a statement that is given a letter that is written MCM Martin checks out every verbal cue and finds several instances of extreme evasion or nervousness in love's answers when he was asked about the taxi driver being killed outside a bar and do you remember anything about that he stuttered on the pronoun she five different times before he could answer the question which would show high anxiety to that question that was asked of him he then says that the victim she got herself murdered and again it's as if it was her fault MCM Martin thinks love knows something about the killing that he isn't revealing even though he was supposedly not in town the night of the murder police begin to think love may have some connection to the crime and to their Prime Suspect Doug wer but when the results of W's DNA test come in investigators are dealt an unexpected blow the blood in the cab is definitely not wers he is not the Killer and has to be eliminated as a [Music] suspect almost 2 years after Marie's murder the investigation has once again lost its Forward Motion Nigel Patterson must go back and search for another needle in the Hast stack police now Focus attention on Ryan love they discover that he was in town after all a check of Airline records reveals that love didn't leave bamp until the morning after Marie's murder when they bring love in for questioning he clams up and refuses to answer police questions Patterson desperately needs a DNA sample from love but he's not cooperating police will once again and have to go undercover looking at the kind of person love is Patterson plans an elaborate sting operation to try and persuade love to leave a sample for police part of the plan was to utilize female undercover operators they spent the evening socializing went back to a hotel room that had been prepared by me in advance with the sheets towels pillowcases lenex and tissue at some point everybody left leaving love alone in the room in the hopes that he might feel inclined to leave some seminal fluid behind but the undercover team's attempt to leave love sexually frustrated and willing to donate a seaman sample fails but without a DNA sample the case against Ryan love will fall apart undaunted Patterson and his undercover operators decide to try again again this time the agents asked love to stand guard in a motel room while they go off and rob a fishing boat once again Patterson has cleaned and prepared the [Music] room the undercover operators really had to keep a sharp eye out for anything that he might discard which in the end was the kleenex with the mucus in it exhibit a a discarded tissue that police hope contains enough DNA material to prove the guilt of a suspected killer scientists who earlier examined the blood from the C had discovered a genetic marker so rare that they had assumed the sample had been contaminated but when the same extremely rare marker a third band shows up in love's DNA sample as well police know they have the Ironclad evidence they need to convict a killer how did it happen that Ryan love became a killer that night love was going to attend a family reunion his mother had provided an airline ticket but he had no money and love was the type who needed to make a big impression a quick holdup would solve his financial problem Ron McKay's behavioral profile suest suest the sequence of events that led love from robbery to murder he leaves the nightclub with two females with him probably trying to impress them by giving them a ride home in the taxi he sees himself as being superior to the female of the species he didn't intend to kill her to escalate from robbery to murder in in that short period of time that tells me he doesn't have very much conscience it's all about him he didn't expect the resistance he encountered and that's why he lost emotional control 2 years after her death Ryan love is arrested for the murder of Marie pette at his trial love maintains he's innocent but the unique DNA evidence from the used tissue and the blood in the C is compelling testimony against him during his frenzied attack on Marie he had cut his own hands with a knife leaving behind the blood evidence which would ultimately convict him of murder Ryan love was found guilty and sentenced to life in prison solving this case in the face of so many obstacles and over such a long period of time has given Nigel Patterson great professional and personal satisfaction I still stay in contact with her boyfriend with her parents and I think from that perspective you can't avoid it becoming personal because these are people's lives that have been changed Forever by this event and I'm a part of that process too the elaborate undercover operations to obtain DNA samples from suspects are no longer necessary partly as a result of this case the laws of Canada have changed to allow police to apply for a warrant to collect DNA samples from suspects without their consent 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 the names of the victims are fictitious the names of the guilty are [Music] real when you think of murder weapons you think of guns knives axes ropes even bombs but boobs when was the last time you heard of someone being murdered with alcohol but on Vancouver's Skid Row women are dying with massive blood alcohol levels is this the work of a bizarre serial [Music] murderer enter the world of forensic science the science of crime where a suspect's guilt or innocence can hang on a single piece of evidence [Music] [Music] [Music] it's suicide homicide and fatal accidents are part of the daily fabric of skid R life booze and drugs are so common among the down and outers that an alcohol rated death goes unnoticed until investigators begin to notice a disturbing pattern early on the morning of October 12th 1987 Vancouver Police receive a 911 call from a intoxicated caller the caller mumbles something about an accidental death in a skidrow hotel but the caller refuses to give his [Music] name when detectives arrive at the hotel they find a dead [Music] woman there is no sign of Foul Play the police not scatter baby clothes on the floor but nowhere in the room can they find any identification whatsoever for the dead woman as with all unexplained deaths the body is sent to the morg to be autopsied the autopsy reveals that the deceased has recently been pregnant after a thorough examination the coroner concludes that the cause of death is acute alcohol poisoning the coroner notes some bruises on the dead woman's arms to help identify her the dead woman is fingerprinted the police are able to match her prince her name is jod Miller although she was found in a skidrow hotel a detective locates her mother in a middleclass neighborhood when the detective breaks the news to the woman about her daughter's death she is crushed oh God the detective asks her when she last saw her daughter she says Jody dropped by to ask her to babysit they'd had a huge AR argument she suspected her daughter was going out looking for drugs need to go it broke her heart jod had been fighting so hard to stay clean since her baby was born but when the detective mentions that jod died of acute alcohol poisoning her mother is incredulous she insists it's impossible jod never drinks hard liquor her mother was very persistent a very nice woman uh um she was very persistent when we we told her what her daughter had died of she found that impossible or extremely hard to believe Jody's mother insists that her daughter's death cannot be due to alcohol it just doesn't make [Music] sense detectives soon learn about another death attributed to acute alcohol poisoning the woman's name was Mona beIN a first nation's woman who had left the reservation and fallen on hard times on skid Road it seems she was a chronic alcoholic who had finally drunk herself to death this had occurred 2 years before in 1985 the coroner in that case had asked for a toxicology analysis when the report came back it showed an astronomically high blood alcohol reading of 790 mg perc I'd never seen an alcohol level as high as that and at that stage I had done you know many thousands of autopsies in a variety of jurisdictions but i' had never encountered a blood alcohol level as high as 790 migr percent I mean that's 10 times the uh legal limit for driving 10 times the legal limit for driving well at say levels of 40 mg percent those are the amounts that uh that produce the the pleasant effects the uh mild Euphoria the uh uh decrease in anxiety uh relaxation and that sort of thing at 150 mg percent the vast majority of us will show signs of impairment about 250 migr percent is probably the average level for people uh actually passing out people start dying at about 350 mg percent most people would die at levels of 500 mg percent so with a person with uh 800 mg percent this is the equivalent of 40 drinks or almost 2 26s it's an enormous amount of alcohol consumed probably in a relatively short time just prior to death the coroner who autopsied Mona happened to mention her incredibly high blood alcohol level to some of his colleagues surprisingly three of his colleagues had each had a similar case in Vancouver within the past 15 years involving First Nations women all with blood alcohol readings above 500 mg perent basically they were all Native Indian females uh from different reservations throughout the province who had come to the big city and got caught up in the skid Road life they were known Street folk who consumed alcohol almost on a continuous basis people do develop a tolerance to alcohol with prolonged exposure and these women all were individuals who had had a lot of Prior experience with [Music] alcohol at the time the coroners wondered whether these lethal blood alcohol levels were simply unique to Chronic alcohol users but detectives are now suspicious viewed alone these alcohol rated deaths seem to be the result of acute accidental overdoses but viewed together these cases start to project quite a different picture could there be a killer out there using alcohol as a murder weapon when was the last time you heard of someone being murdered with alcohol or the first time it's extremely rare if there was a pattern to these debts how did jod Miller fit in contrast to the others jod Miller was not a first nation's woman she was not from skid R and according to her mother was not a chronic Drinker the police now want to speak to the anonymous caller who reported Jody's death who is he where is he and can he shed some light on these mysterious deaths an anonymous caller had reported jod Miller's death to police but the operator had kept the man on the line long enough to trace the call the repor is a Gilbert Paul Jordan a 56-year-old Vancouver barber the detective who questions him notes that Jordan is soft spoken and polite Jordan explains that he' picked up jod on skid Road and she had agreed to go to a hotel H with him shortly after they arrived there jod took out a handful of pills Jordan claims he warned her not to mix pills and booze but she was determined to take them he tells the detective he even grabbed jod at one point and tried to stop her but she refused to listen and started drinking straight vodka Jordan tells the the detective he was getting pretty drunk too and he only vaguely remembered getting into bed with her he must have passed out but when he woke up and tried to Rouse her her body felt [Music] cold he panicked left the hotel and returned to his [Music] shop about an hour later out of concern he he dialed 911 but was afraid to leave his [Applause] name but Jody's mother is adamant that her daughter would not have been drinking straight vodka she has drawn up a list of 60 names of people who knew jod was not a drinker she urges the detective to check them out she refuses to believe her daughter drunk herself to death she claims that even when they were celebrating one of the most joyous days in Jody's life the birth of her son Jodie did not even want to have a sip I don't want she really assisted in the investigation she turned us on to a lot of people you know to to start Us in the right direction they explained her Tallman and riddle and abuse and and possibly turning the odd trick uh you know very rarely but the odd trick um I mean there was nothing hidden in giving very detailed backgrounds of their knowledge of her and then we went from those people to other people and we never did find one of probably 60 people we never found one that would say that she drank to any degree ever detectives have come up with two more first nation's women from Vancouver Skid Row whose deaths were attributed to acute alcohol poisoning all together including jod Miller that brings the number of alcohol related deaths to seven detectives discover that it was Jordan who reported Mona bein's death the first nation's woman who died with the massive blood alcohol level of [Music] 790 the police report from 1984 states that Jordan claimed he had picked up Mona for a night of boozing in [Music] sex they had come back to his shop to have a good time they started drinking vodka and fooling [Music] around Jordan told police at some point he passed [Music] out when he woke up Mona was beside him dead there's even a police photograph in the file he was actually demonstrating to the police the circumstances under which he claimed he'd woken up and found this woman dead beside him and there's this photograph of Jordan lying in bed beside the dead woman smoking a cigarette in fact detectives learned that all seven dead women had last been seen with Gilbert Paul Jordan at this point jod Miller's toxicology report comes back her blood blood alcohol level stands at an unheard of 9910 a blood alcohol of 9910 mg per is basically uh a coma anesthetic level of alcohol it would be impossible under any circumstances for someone to voluntarily drink uh sufficient alcohol to get that level added to this jod Miller's liver and other organs showed no fatty deposits associated with chronic alcohol use Jody's mother was right her daughter was not a drinker finally there's a clear break in the pattern suddenly we had a woman who was not a chronic alcoholic who was not the normal skido type of sudden alcoholic death who turned out to have the highest blood alcohol of all and linked with Jordan clearly something highly abnormal and something very wrong jod Miller's mother wants Jordan arrested for her daughter's murder but police still don't have any physical evidence to support a charge of murder against Jordan we had big question how was he doing this did or did he have anything to do with it you know or were these women just drinking to that astronomical extent um and if he was doing it how was he doing it was he doing it purposefully would we be able to prove that he was doing it to commit [Music] murder exhibit a vodka colorless orderless alcohol difficult to imagine as a murder weapon Vancouver detectives believe they have an unusual serial killer named Gilbert Paul Jordan who prays on women and uses alcohol as a weapon in checking in the Jordan's background they find out he grew up in the neighboring province of Alberta he dropped out of school in grade 8 and embarked on a life of booze and escalating criminal activities George not only has a lengthy criminal record but he learned his Barbers trade while in jail he has a number of sex offenses including exposing himself to children and having sex with an enfeebled 16-year-old first nation's girl suspicions against Jordan are strong but investigators need concrete evidence before they can charge him and they are in completely un Uncharted Territory it will be the first time ever in Canadian legal history that a suspect is accused of using alcohol as a murder weapon to get proof that Jordan is somehow forcing alcohol on his victims investigators need to catch him in the [Music] act [Music] when Jordan picks up a first nation's woman named Alice Pratt and takes her to a local skidrow hotel detectives follow they need to time their intervention perfectly too soon and they'll blow their cover and too late is not an option from an adjoining hotel room they monitor the going on [Music] at one point they can hear Jordan trying to co the woman with money to drink a bottle of vodka come on I'll give you the 50 bucks come on come on and know this kind of this kind of talk was heard outside the room but it soon gets more serious and More Physical he was actually either holding the bottle up and holding it right down as far down their throats as he could and just forcing it into them and and saying things like drink baby drink [Music] when detectives hear Jordan struggling with Alice they break in Alice is sent to [Music] detox Jordan is arrested and charged with the first-degree murder of jod Miller Jordan protests and claims he is innocent he tells a fellow inmate that they will never convict him because it will be his word against the women and dead Brads don't talk but the dead do talk to prove that Jordan is guilty of causing jod Miller's death prosecutors will rely on what is called similar fact [Music] evidence as with all six dead women jod Miller had a lethal blood alcohol level in fact her level of 910 was the highest of all when the level gets as high as 6 7 8 even 900 milligrams percent you're dealing with the level of alcohol which would normally be associated with in deep coma and clearly somebody who is in deep coma is not voluntarily drinking alcohol as with all six dead women jod Miller had finger siiz bruises on her upper arm from rescuing Alice Pratt police now know these marks were caused by Jordan holding the woman down while plying her with alcohol prosecutors will argue that this is also what happened to jod [Music] Miller but even with all this evidence prosecutors are still concerned about their chances to win a first-degree murder charge in court the crown recognized that while it may might be very difficult to prove this as a case of murder uh that clearly there was evidence of criminal negligence in other words that Jordan had at the very least created an environment for these women of excessive alcohol resulting in their death and that because because of his past case experience for which we had the clear documented evidence he ought to have known better so to up the chances of a conviction they dropped the charges against Jordan to manslaughter on October 20th 1988 Gilbert Paul Jordan is convicted of manslaughter due to criminal negligence in the death of jod Miller Jordan is sentenced to 15 years in prison this case it was unique because I don't believe since that time or even prior to that time that there' been a case where uh alcohol was considered a homicide weapon and you know we were fortunate enough to get a conviction U for manslaughter in the case but Jordan was never tried for any of the six other deaths of first nation's women on Vancouver's skid role all the cases had been classified as accidental death but each of these victims contributed to putting Jordan behind bars for jod Miller's death in 1991 Jordan appealed his sentence in the death of jod Miller the British Columbia Court of Appeals upheld his conviction but reduced his sentence from 15 to 9 years jod Miller's mother and advocates for first nation's women were angered by the ruling in the end Gilbert Paul Jordan was paroled after serving only 6 years in prison but on August 10th 2000 Jordan was arrested again and charged with administering a noxious substance to an unidentified woman it was alcohol the stories on exhibit a are based on true cases the forensic scientists and investigator s 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 shotgun blast splits the air a daring Heist has been pulled off police must follow a dangerous and twisted Trail are they being led on a wild goose [Music] chase the criminal mastermind has vanished Into Thin Air leaving Carnage in his [Music] weight 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] [Music] evidence [Music] robbing an armored car basically a bank on Wheels can be the greatest challenge to a man who considers himself a master Thief it takes experience planning and ruthlessness you can't lose your cool or get greedy and you'd better know how to cover Your Tracks ashaa Ontario 19 1991 an armored car stops to pick up cash from a busy grocery store Tony Marcus is the armored car messenger today Tony is taking an extra shift for a friend who needed the day [Music] off a taxi driver is waiting nearby for a [Music] fair then suddenly the unthinkable [Music] [Music] happens within minutes police and an ambulance are on the scene Tony Marcus is rushed to the [Music] hospital detective Paul Carroll knows immediately this is no ordinary robbery we knew that we weren't dealing with amateurs they used the term professional Loosely but somebody that was organized somebody that had done this uh in the past they were very familiar um with the type of robbery definitely people that were not above killing somebody who got in their [Music] way police interview the witnesses the armored car driver is still in shock he says it all happened in a blur he thinks there were three robbers the man with the shotgun had a dark complexion and a strange face the other two thugs they just looked unreal police then break the news to the driver that Tony died on the way to the hospital he was devastated he wanted to do more but it happened so fast that he really didn't have a chance there's policy with armed car drivers that the driver stays in the front and under no circumstances are they to get out this incident happened probably in about 30 seconds and the driver really didn't have much time to react except you know call for help and and see his uh partner get get killed the taxi driver could only give a brief description of the robbery he says he Dove for cover when he saw the man with a shotgun blow out his rear window he heard some more gunshots and looked up in time to see two guys run off with the money he chased the getaway car but soon lost their [Applause] [Music] Trail Police bring in the ident unit to gather evidence forensic identification officer John Van Cedars heads up the team it was actually like a giant jigsaw puzzle trying to put all the pieces back together you could see there was a lot of spent ammunition around the scene [Music] ENT officers collect the evidence of the bloody shooting including all the shell casings bullet fragments and two shotgun shells from the location of this evidence van Cedars reconstructs what must have happened to Tony Marcus the guard exited out the doorway and came down to this side of the truck he had to go around the truck in order to get to the side doors where they put the uh the money from their the grocery store we believe he was followed out by one of the culprits that was armed with the shotgun at some point there was gunfire so he returned fire here and at the same time there was another individual that came in from the side and we know that because of some of the fragments and and ammunition that was located at the scene there was also another party that came up from the rear of the truck this guard here was caught in a fatal Crossfire he was facing three three Shooters at once at the morg pathologist Dr Frederick jaffy examines the body of Tony Marcus well I examined every wound I opened it up I followed the bullet track right from the entrance to the exit you can see three bullet wounds there in the back there was the entrance wound of the rifle slug and there was a bullet entrance W just at the in the sacrum here and on the side of the body one two and none of them really caused a life-threatening injury except for the [Music] one a shotgun blast from Point Blank Range of course the blast that killed him showed us how close the individual was that killed him and that's a sign of an individual in my mind that there's only one thing on his mind and that was to kill his bird robbery and an execution style murder police are looking for a gang that's vanished Without a Trace led by a cold blooded killer the robbers have escaped with $150,000 but because Tony Marcus put up a fight the thieves were forced to flee the scene leaving $1.3 million still inside the truck a few hours after the shooting police discover the stolen getaway car abandoned behind a nearby strip mall it contains an ugly surprise what appears to be a homemade bomb [Music] we had to contain the area um keep people away and call in our bomb disposal unit to deal with that and for a moment there he thought things were about to happen they were able to um use a water cannon to uh to blast it apart and it turned out to be plasticine type material so it was fake but it's a good fake a smart diversionary tactic a clever Criminal Mind is at work but not that clever inside the abandoned car police find a treasure Trove of evidence in the back seat a fake beard obviously part of a disguise there are blood stains visible on the steering wheel and John Van Cedars notices the hint of a shoe print left on the running [Music] board hoping he might find a more complete print inside he selects a part of the floor to test I took my best guess and I put the paper over this Dusty area and then I used a process to lift the dust and create a step static charge so that the dust would actually lift off the carpet and adhere to the carbon paper the result is a perfect impression of the tread from a running shoe but none of the evidence so far is leading police to the gang they appear to have made a clean getaway van Cedar's partner Dave Robinson turns his attention to the fake bomb trying to trace the origin of the plasticine type material used in its construction but there was several teams of detectives they went out and got different samples from stores and from other local hardware stores and we're trying to match the the different uh clay to that that we had and we still couldn't we nobody had seen it before and no wonder it's a very unusual product nearly 2 weeks after the holdup investigators finally learn it's sold at only one store in Toronto complexions a Theatrical supply store it was called clean clay it was manufactured in the United States and it was essentially used for Prosthetics in theatrical makeup to create different disguises different masks and different effects for the movie [Music] industry so the fake bomb was made from the same clay used to create theatrical masks what is the connection could this have been part of the master plan a few weeks after the robbery police receiv received their first break a tip from an anonymous informant tells them that an ex-con named Wayne judge was involved in the heist she also gives police the first names of two other ex-cons who she says were involved Curtis and a guy named Dennis she says Dennis is the ring leader police follow up the lead when we were looking at the prison records one of the officers on our team was going through and he had all these potential dennises or Denny's and uh we were going down through them and when I saw smn's name that's when everything just kind of slapped me in the face and I thought that's got to be the guy you know like he's from oshaa he grew up in that area he's got a history for that kind of stuff it's got to be him police discover that the other two named by the tipster Wayne judge and Curtis schweer our guys Dennis smnc hung out with in Collins Bay Penitentiary before they were all released men in prison have plenty of time on their hands and these guys would have had the time needed to plan a complex armored car heist with the names of the three xcon Paul Carroll returns to the Theatrical supply store that sells the clean clay found in the fake bomb he asked whether they ever had a customer with any of the the excon names they did in fact recently have dealings with a guy named Dennis they remember him well they gave us the name of Dennis Ross it wasn't Dennis SMN it was an alias he came into their shop he bought a lot of stuff from them to make these masks and disguises and this sort of thing and he had a couple of private lessons at his home he paid the extra money to have their people go right to his house and show them how to do this so that's why he stuck out in their mind and they were able to quickly identify him and they provided us with an address smuk had learned to make a mask that fit like a second skin he could apply makeup to create any appearance he [Music] wanted police now believe that the man with the dark comp lexion who killed Tony Marcus was really Dennis smuk in [Music] [Laughter] [Music] disguise since he's released from jail Dennis Smoak has been living with his girlfriend Lynn Ross at her apartment she's his most trusted Confidant with their identities established police put the entire gang under surveillance watching as they spend wads of cash still wrapped with red rubber bands from the grocery store money bags 2 months after the crime in coordinated raids using more than one 100 officers police swooped down on the gang arresting them all including Lyn Ross when we arrested Dennis smuk he never really said a thing he was the typical hardcore criminal and it's say nothing do nothing smnc is charged with murder the other two are charged with armed robbery no one is admitted anything to police none of them are forthcoming uh they all basically get the wrong guys we don't know what you're talking about while searching Lyn Ross's apartment officers find a bag containing clean clay bundles of cash wrapped in the red [Music] bands store-bought rubber masks and a quantity of heroin which police believe belong belongs to Linn [Music] Ross when questioned smnc does admit to owning the heroin found in the house that gets Lyn Ross off the hook and she's released from [Music] custody smnc spends a year Behind Bars while awaiting his murder trial he now faces 25 years in jail with no possibility of parole but he has something else on his mind during a conjugal visit he lays out an ingenious plan that he hopes will get him off with a light sentence but he needs Lyn Ross's [Music] help he tells her that he's approached two cons who are about to be released they've agreed to commit copycat crimes similar to his armored car Heist he tells her the cons will come and see her as soon as they're out he figures the new crime spree will create the impression that the real killer of Tony Marcus is still on the loose that way no jury will be able to convict him of murder it's a fishlyn Ross welcomes the twox conson she's anxious for them to get started she spills everything she knows about the original crime and hands over all of smoak's plans and maps for the new robberies she explains that they will have to get their own weapons because the original guns have been buried by a marsh outside the city she gives them the masks and as they try them on the talk turns to the killing of Tony Marcus Lynn has no sympathy for the dead messenger Lyn Ross is about to discover something surprising about her visitors they are undercover cops they got talking about the messenger you know uh Budd he deserved it why did he put up a fight if he hadn't put up a fight uh he wouldn't have got killed and uh you know if he like he deserved what he got police have heard enough Lynn Ross is arrested and charged with conspiracy to commit robbery [Music] the police had learned about smoak's plan for the copycat crimes from one of the cons smnc approached in jail this guy turned stoie and told officers all the details of the plot the evidence against the gang is growing stronger DNA tests prove that the blood on the steering wheel wheel of the getaway car belongs to Curtis schwe the footprint is a match to shoes owned by a Wayne judge and a hair found in the fragments of the fake bomb belongs to Dennis Schmo this might be enough to convict them all of robbery but without the weapons the murder charge against smuk might not [Music] stick police locate the marsh where Lin Ross said the weapons were buried but it's a big area an ENT officer John Van Cedars knows he is searching for the proverbial needle in a [Music] haystack it was basically a hands and knees search and we go to one area and then find nothing and go further and find nothing and until we were almost a week into our search you know it was just a mess and we found something that really started to make the hair on the back of your neck go up then it was the wooden pieces to this shotgun that we believe was the murder weapon because it fit the description it was cut down the handle was saw off then there was electrical tape wrapped around it more gun parts and two pairs of handcuffs are also Unearthed over a 3 we period dozens of objects are col CED including bullets and shotgun [Music] shells it's an impressive Hall but how can they be sure all of these items are actually connected to the crime scene the Earth has one more secret to [Music] reveal I saw the set of keys and I guess they were just thrown there they were a heavy type of a security key and not like the usual house key there's a number stamped on the key this is really significant it means something you can remember our forensic uh officer calling uh was John Van Cedar he said what was the number on that truck and we gave him the number and he had the set of keys with the truck number damed on it so all the evidence found near the marsh is now connected to the robbery by a set of keys if there were a single exhibit a in this case it would have been these Keys deeply stamped with the number of Tony marcus' armored car faced with such overwhelming evidence this case never even came to trial the gang admitted their guilt [Music] Curtis schwe received 10 years for armed robbery Wayne judge was sentenced to life for his role in the shooting and The Mastermind Dennis mnak his mistake was to remove the keys from the dying messenger he got greedy he hoped the keys would open other Armored Cars instead they locked a prison door behind him for life on a conviction of murder it took a year and a half of dogged police work following the trail of Dennis smnc to unmask him for who he really was a greedy thief and a coldblooded killer Mastermind give me a break the stories on exhibit a are based 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

Channel: Real Crime

Views: 76,554

Keywords: Real Crime, cold case investigation, crime scene examination, crime scene forensics, crime scene photos, crime scene preservation, criminal case review, criminal evidence analysis, criminal justice advocacy, criminal minds, criminal profiling techniques, forensic analysis methods, forensic science techniques, forensic technology, miscarriage of justice, true crime series, violent crime investigation, violent crime prevention, violent crime story, wrongful imprisonment

Id: rB8BUe9jImE

Length: 69min 21sec (4161 seconds)

Published: Tue Apr 16 2024