♪♪
Up next, after nearly
two decades of marriage,
a divorcee is starting fresh.
She was dating a whole bunch
of different guys.
She was doing some
online dating.
But dangerous secrets
lurk in cyberspace.
The whole Internet world
is risky.
You just never know
who's out there.
Romance leads to
horrific v*olence.
I'd never seen anything
like this.
And science exposes a k*ller
convinced he's outwitted
both detectives
and forensic analysts.
♪♪
♪♪
In the summer of
a 42-year-old mother of five,
was ready to start
a new chapter in her life.
Chanin was trying to get an
education and a way to support
herself and the kids.
Recently divorced,
Chanin got certified
as a dental hygienist
and was finally out on her own.
Getting independent was a big
accomplishment,
especially for a
single mom with a brood of kids
ranging in age from 12 to 21.
Chanin got pregnant
on her honeymoon,
and then the first son was born,
and he was a...
he was a whipper.
He was a cute little guy.
Chanin and the children's
father, Clay Starbuck.
Were married and divorced
two times
in a love match that sometimes
b*rned a little too hot.
Clay and Chanin did not have
your normal relationship.
You know, you've heard of
on-and-off.
This was more intense than that,
really.
They just couldn't seem to
keep it together.
Still, the couple attempted
to raise their children
together.
Clay moved out and ended up
in a house,
I think just a
little over a half a mile
from Chanin.
He stayed pretty close.
All told, Chanin and Clay
had been together for most of
her adult life.
In addition to
supporting herself,
part of Chanin's new life
involved dating other men.
Chanin was using a number of
different websites.
To some degree,
this can be risky.
On the afternoon of
December 1st, 2011,
Chanin didn't show up to drive
her children home from school.
No one could get in touch with
her, which was unusual.
It wasn't like her to not
tell anyone where she went.
She wouldn't leave the area
and not tell her kids.
Clay Starbuck asked police to
do a welfare check
at Chanin's house.
No one answered the door, but
nothing appeared to be wrong.
There was no reason for police
to enter the house.
Chanin's children spent
the night with their father
and tried to find her.
And the next day, I got up
and I started calling,
and I knew then that
something was wrong.
Family and friends
kept calling the police.
So, the next night, they checked
the house again.
Nothing seemed changed
from the night before,
but this time,
with a key from the landlord,
they went in.
The house was dark.
It was dark inside.
There was no lights on.
Moving through
the house with flashlights,
officers didn't see
anything unusual
until they got
to the master bedroom.
There was a female laying on
the bed with no clothes on.
I was startled.
I stepped back for a second.
I took a look, a further
look with my flashlight,
and I could
see that it was Chanin.
She was dead,
in a scene of unusual v*olence.
This doesn't seem to be a
"typical" k*lling.
I mean, there was some evil
involved here.
First responders thought she
might have been strangled.
Even worse, the body had been
staged in a humiliating,
sexually suggestive manner.
I'd never seen anything like it.
I was 35 years old in law
enforcement, and the last 20
were in homicide,
and that's the
first actual posing
involving sexual devices
and in a sexual way
that I'd ever seen.
Her family was
devastated by this m*rder
and shocked by the brutality.
I did lose part of me.
I definitely did.
She was my whole life.
A few things appeared
clear immediately.
This staging of the body would
have taken time...
so much time
that Chanin's k*ller
would likely be familiar
with the house
and knew he wouldn't be
disturbed.
Even more telling,
there was no forced entry.
The evidence,
at least at this stage,
indicated Chanin
knew her k*ller.
♪♪
Chanin Starbuck's
m*rder shocked her family,
her friends, and her community.
She was my whole life.
I wanted a little girl,
and she was... oh, my
God, she was perfect.
Chanin was tortured,
and she was beaten so bad
that she couldn't have
an open-casket funeral.
It was a horrific thing to think
about your friend,
having to suffer and be tortured
like she was.
Investigators on the scene
theorized Chanin
had been strangled
and that affected how
they collected evidence.
We swabbed for DNA
prior to moving Chanin's body
from the crime scene.
But the most shocking
part of this crime
was what Chanin's
k*ller did after the m*rder.
When cops come upon
Chanin's body,
the first thing
that strikes them
is how bizarre
the positioning is.
I'd never seen
anything like this.
I've never seen a dead body
positioned and staged
the way this one was.
This staging took
time, and a lot of it.
So did the attempt to clean up
the crime scene.
All of the bedding
has been removed,
and it is in the wash machine.
Whatever staining had been on
the bedding
is most likely
removed in the wash,
and so we're unable
to match it up.
Oddly, for a crime
with clear sexual motivations,
Chanin had not been r*ped.
The autopsy revealed petechial
hemorrhages in Chanin's eyes...
confirmation that strangulation
was the cause of death.
And this gave investigators
a possible break.
There was something
Chanin's k*ller
apparently didn't realize.
Chanin may have just
taken a shower.
Her hair looked like
it was air-dried.
That meant her body
might provide a good,
freshly cleaned
template for the k*ller's DNA.
If there's any
kind of suspicions
that someone may have
been manually strangled,
typically, the medical examiner
will take swabs of the neck.
While those swabs were
being taken,
detectives continued
processing the scene.
Soon, Chanin's ex-husband, Clay,
who lived about a
mile away, arrived.
I told him that Chanin was
found and that she was dead.
And upon that news, he almost
collapsed on the ground.
He was very upset.
Of course, he wanted
to go in there.
He wanted to see her.
I told him he couldn't.
It was a crime scene,
and we were gonna secure
the residence immediately.
Clay told police that Chanin
had been out of contact for
about two days,
which was out of character,
and a big problem
for detectives.
At that particular time,
we're not certain when
Chanin was m*rder*d.
And Chanin's autopsy
didn't provide much help
in narrowing that time frame.
She was cold when found,
so body temperature
couldn't be used
to nail down a time of death.
This meant establishing alibis
for potential suspects
would be nearly impossible.
For now, though, Clay Starbuck
had a theory about who k*lled
his ex-wife.
When I said,
"Who do you think did it?"
he said,
"Just look on her computer
and look on her phones."
Maybe it had been an Internet
date that had gone wrong.
A search of Chanin's cellphone
provided vital information about
her final days and hours.
At 8:06 on the day
she was last seen,
she got a text from a man
named Tom Walker.
The two texted "Good morning"
to each other.
At 8:29, Tom made a request.
Tom had sent a text to Chanin
requesting that she pose herself
in this kind of provocative way
and send him that picture.
Alarmingly, this
mirrored almost exactly
the position in which
Chanin had been posed
after her m*rder.
♪♪
In the two days that
Chanin Starbuck went missing
before her body was discovered,
she exchanged a series of
text messages
with family and friends.
Chanin's last apparent
communication...
asking her ex-husband Clay to
pick up the kids from school...
was at 3:17 P.M.
on December 1st,
two days before
her body was found.
We're using that as kind of
the last known time
we believe she's alive.
That timeline looked
to clear Clay
as a suspect in Chanin's m*rder.
They know that Clay was with
the kids from about 3:30 on.
That creates a pretty tight
window that would excuse Clay.
But it didn't do much for the
chief suspect in this case...
Tom Walker.
He and Chanin had met online,
and he asked her
to photograph herself
in the exact same sexual pose
in which her body was
ultimately found.
To detectives, this seemed like
more than a coincidence.
Tom admitted that he had made
the request for the photograph.
Chanin didn't respond
to this request.
As for Tom Walker, he had
no history of v*olence.
But since analysts
couldn't pin down
Chanin's exact time of death,
he was still a solid suspect.
It's very common to have
the time-of-death problem
because the body doesn't
necessarily tell you.
Best you can get
from a body is range.
Meanwhile, other searches of
Chanin's communications
uncovered a new
potential suspect.
His name was John Wilson.
It didn't take very long
to figure out
that the John Wilson
listed on Facebook
was a fake profile
and this person did not
want to be found.
Using the e-mail address
John Wilson gave to Chanin,
detectives contacted him,
and he refused to divulge
his real identity.
So, detectives did what's called
a reverse directory
on one of the numbers
John Wilson used to call Chanin.
It was traced to a pay phone
outside a library
at Washington State University.
I mean, who uses
pay phones anymore?
The answer,
at least in this case,
was someone who wanted to
hide his identity
and even his location.
The problem for John Wilson
was that there was
a surveillance camera
near this pay phone,
and it recorded this image of
someone walking to that phone
at almost exactly the time
records showed Chanin
took the call.
Investigators who were still
contacting him by e-mail
gave him a choice.
He could voluntarily
identify himself,
or they could put
his picture on TV
and ask the public
to identify him.
With that,
John Wilson came clean.
His real name... John Kenlein.
And he had a good reason for
trying to hide his identity.
He's cheating on his wife.
Kenlein admitted
contacting Chanin,
and even said
he went to her house
during the period
she dropped out of contact.
Kenlein remained a solid suspect
for the same reason
Tom Walker did.
Detectives still weren't sure
exactly when Chanin was k*lled,
so they couldn't alibi
any of their suspects.
Chanin was seen when
she dropped the kids off,
and then her body not found for
almost three days later.
But then,
to the surprise of everyone,
a new piece of evidence emerged.
I find a 911 call,
which was something that we were
never aware of in the past.
911. What are you reporting?
♪♪
About three weeks into
Chanin Starbuck's
m*rder investigation,
detectives came upon a surprise
piece of evidence...
a 911 call traced
back to Chanin's cellphone.
You really hear just what
seems to be a female voice
and sort of a gurgle or a gasp
or some sort of struggle.
And then the call ended.
Why did police only learn about
this vital piece of evidence
now?
Because of a common safety
feature on Chanin's phone.
Certain cellphones at that
time wouldn't record 911 calls
so that if someone
were kidnapped
or needed to make a 911 call
without a third party knowing,
it wouldn't reflect in
their records.
But a later search of
Chanin's physical phone records
showed she had made this call.
During that call, the 911
operator followed protocol
to the letter.
The 911 operator attempted
to call the number back,
but it just goes to voicemail.
One minute later,
Chanin's phone lost contact
with the cell tower,
suggesting it had been
powered off.
There was nothing the 911
operator could do.
Because it's on a cellphone,
they don't have the specifics to
tell them exactly
where that call originated.
And therefore, no cars were
dispatched to check the area.
This call was made at 9:18
on the morning Chanin
dropped out of contact.
It narrows the window.
It narrows the time of death.
But while this potentially
answered a lot of questions,
it raised a lot more.
If Chanin had been k*lled
around 9:18,
why were there messages
from her phone
later on that same day?
One of two things was going on.
Either she didn't die at or
about that time,
or she didn't
send those texts...
either, very important
for detectives.
And also important for
the two chief suspects,
Tom Walker and John Kenlein.
They both had solid alibis for
and were ultimately cleared of
any involvement.
But one possible suspect did not
have an alibi
for that timeframe.
And that was Chanin's
ex-husband, Clay Starbuck.
It is definitely making
Clay Starbuck
look like a stronger suspect
than ever.
But how to prove it?
For that, detectives turn to one
of the few lucky breaks they had
in a very difficult case.
Chanin had just gotten out of
the shower before this happened.
And if Chanin was
strangled after she showered,
this would be fresh DNA
almost certainly
deposited on her neck
at the time of her m*rder.
Because DNA technology
over the years
has gotten more sensitive,
we can now develop DNA profiles
from just a few skin cells.
So, six or seven cells,
we can get a DNA profile.
Using a process called
Y-STR DNA,
which targets the Y chromosome
confined to males,
analysts lifted a DNA profile
from Chanin's neck and face.
The profile matched the "Y"
profile for Clay Starbuck
and any of his male children.
Two of the Starbucks'
children were adult males,
and both had solid alibis for
the time of the m*rder.
That left only one
person... Clay Starbuck.
The DNA profile that we got
left little doubt in our mind
that it was Clay Starbuck.
But Clay had an
explanation for his DNA.
He used to live in the house.
Of course his DNA
would Be there.
Analysts disagreed.
Where his DNA was found, on a
body that was freshly washed,
didn't appear to be
a casual transfer.
This is highly unlikely,
especially for that DNA
to be found
in so many important locations.
Chanin's family says
Clay couldn't tolerate
her seeing other men.
That was the last straw
for Clay.
He was losing any ability
to control her.
The evidence appears to indicate
that Clay snuck into the house
while Chanin drove the kids
to school,
something he had done
many times before.
He's just not even human.
He stalked her.
And that was horrifying.
But this time,
he planned to k*ll her.
He hid himself and waited for
her to return home.
She took a shower.
As she came out, he put her
in a choke hold
and strangled her to death,
not realizing his arm
left touch DNA,
his genetic signature,
on her neck.
He checked her cellphone, saw
the sexually explicit request,
and realized that posing her in
this way was an ideal way
to throw off police.
Afterward, he cleaned the scene,
going so far as to
wash the bedding
and wipe down
the washing machine.
Later that day, he used
Chanin's phone
to send a series
of text messages.
This made it seem
she was still alive.
It broadened estimates for
her time of death,
and it gave him an alibi.
Clay really is diabolical in
using this cellphone.
But what ultimately
broke the case wide open
was Chanin attempting,
however unsuccessfully,
to call 911.
911. What are you reporting?
Clay Starbuck and his
children say he's innocent.
But in June of 2013, he was
convicted of first-degree m*rder
and sentenced to life
without parole.
Even detectives admit that as
brazen as this crime was,
Clay came very close to
getting away with m*rder.
In all of my years of
investigating crime scenes,
I've never seen someone take so
much time in a crime scene
to pose the person,
to dispose of evidence.
The forensic evidence
definitely helped this case
because the DNA that they
were able to gather
helped seal it that it was
a male that had k*lled her
and it was a Starbuck male
that had k*lled her.
If she had not made that
the authorities never would have
narrowed the time frame.
They never would have been able
to eliminate suspects
other than Clay.
She truly helped them
solve this crime.