03x11 - Speck of Evidence

[bunniefuu]

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-Honey, do mom a favor.

Take this down to the mailbox, okay.

-Okay.

I love you mom.

-I love you too.

NARRATOR: Vicki LynneHoskinson never returned home

after running the errand for her mother.

Her abandoned bicycle was theonly clue to her disappearance.

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NARRATOR: Eight-year-oldVicki Lynne Hoskinson grew up

in Flowing Wells, asuburb of Tucson, Arizona.

She was the youngest ina family brought together

by the second marriage ofher mother, Debbie Carlson.

DEBORAH CARLSON: There was something about her

that grabbed your heart theminute you were around her.

She had this intensity of aroyal blueness in her eyes.

When you looked into her eyes you

saw this depth of wisdomthat was beyond her years.

NARRATOR: Vicki's prized possession

was the pink Stingray Bicycleshe had received as a Christmas

present, which is what she rode to the mailbox

on the day she disappeared.

To get to the mailbox, Vickiheaded down a dirt path

behind some neighbors' homes,went down a dead end street,

and over an uncleared area of desert brush.

Her mother expectedVicki back in minutes.

When she didn't return, she sent her older

daughter, Stephanie, to look for her.

DEBORAH CARLSON:Stephanie came right back

and she was hysterical. She was crying.

She goes, Mom, I found Vicki'sbike in the middle of the road.

And I go, what do you mean you found Vicki's

bike in in the middle of the road?

She goes it was laying inthe middle of the road.

And she goes something'swrong, something's wrong.

STEPHANIE HOSKINSON: My mom got in the car

and drove around and picked up the bicycle,

and I rode through theneighborhood looking for Vicki.

When she returned home she called the police.

DET.

LEO DUFFNER: At the time,we thought we were possibly

looking for just a missing childwho had failed to come home

after going out to do an errand for her mother.

And as the search went on, it became obvious

that something-- somethingother than a normal disappearing

child had occurred.

NARRATOR: Hundreds of volunteerssearched the nearby desert,

and police helicopters scoured the area.

Vicki's family pleaded for her safe return

on local television.

DEBORAH CARLSON: My faith in God, that,

that he's watching overher and he's protecting her

and that he is going to bring her home to us.

I really believe that she is still alive.

NARRATOR: Police receiveda number of calls

from people who claim to have seen

a child who looked like Vicki.DET.

LEO DUFFNER: There werea lot of Vicki sightings.

It's not an unusual phenomenon when

you ask people to go look for such a person.

And our community wasactively looking for Vicki.

NARRATOR: But all of thesightings were dead ends.

Within days of Vicki LynneHoskinson's disappearance,

yellow ribbons appeared all over Tucson

as a sign of the community's concern

for the missing eight-year-old girl.

MARK KIMBLE: The picture of Vicki

that is locked in everyone'smind of this little gap

toothed eight-year-old girl,the way Vicki was forever frozen

in most people's memory, was everywhere.

It was on the front pageof newspapers many times.

It was on billboards around town.

It was on TV so often.

It was one incident, and one person,

who really brought Tucson together.

NARRATOR: But police had no solid leads

on Vicki's whereabouts.

The local police called in the FBI,

who wanted to questionthe last teacher at school

who had seen the little girl alive.

It was Vicki's athletic coach, Sam Hall,

and the story he told them was chilling.

He said he was in school playground,

picking up some sportsequipment with a student.

-Come on Rachel, you ready?Come on Rachel, let's go.

We gotta get out of here.

NARRATOR: A strange looking character

in a sports car caught his eye.

The man appeared to be staring at the children.

He had long hair, and an unkempt appearance,

and drove away shortly after he was spotted.

SAM HALL: Something was telling me

that this gentleman just wasn't right.

And as a Christian man, and as a man of prayer,

and a man who does pray,and I have a relationship

with the Lord, I sensed the Lord telling me

this man was going to dosomething evil and wicked

and that I needed to write down everything I saw.

NARRATOR: Hall immediatelywent to his car,

wrote the man's license platenumber on a piece of paper,

and put it in his glove compartment.

The FBI told Hall that Vickidisappeared near the mailbox

one block away, not long after Hall

saw the man in the sports car.

SAM HALL: As soon as theytold me what happened,

that Vicki Lynne was abducted,immediately I went right back

to that car and what was-- is sitting

in my glove box of my pick up.

NARRATOR: The car had a California license

plate with the number KEZ.

The car was registered to Frank Jarvis Atwood.

He had two prior arrests,one for lewd and lascivious

behavior, the other for kidnapping.

In each case, the victims were young boys.

Atwood was out on parole atthe time of Vicki Hoskinson's

disappearance, but there wasno proof of any connection

between Atwood and Vicki Lynne Hoskinson.

Investigators went back towhere they found the bicycle.

This time, they saw somethingthey hadn't seen before.

LARRY BAGLEY: I noticed apost had been bent over, about

feet away at the side of road.

So when I went over and examinedit, it had been a fresh bend,

and the bend was about inches from the ground.

NARRATOR: Investigatorssuspected that the dent may

have been caused by the perpetrator.

Since it was low to the ground, it

looked like it was causedby a small vehicle, possibly

a sports car.

The car registered to Frank Atwood

was a sports car-- a Datsun Z.

Police issued an all-pointsbulletin for Frank Atwood.

Three days after Vicki's disappearance,

Atwood was traced from California,

to Arizona, to Oklahoma.

And finally, to the smalltown of Kerrville, Texas.

Under questioning Atwood said nothing

that could link him, or his automobile,

to Vicki's disappearance.

But afterwards, one of the detectives

noticed a small speck of painton the front bumper of Atwood's

car that looked to be the same color

as Vicki's abandoned bicycle.

Frank Atwood was then arrestedon a suspicion of kidnapping.

DEBORAH CARLSON: We allgathered in the living room

and they showed the arrest on TV,

and my first feeling was, oh my god,

this man looks like Charles Manson.

All I could think about was, this man

could have touched my daughter.

NARRATOR: Atwoodmaintained his innocence,

but the police were convinced that Atwood's car had

been at the scene of the crime.

For the proof they neededthey turned to science.

Frank Atwood was in custodyon the suspicion of kidnapping

Vicki Lynne Hoskinson , but he denied

he was involved in any way.

The family gradually came toterms with the possibility

that Vicki would never be found alive.

STEPHANIE HOSKINSON: Christmas.

That was-- Christmas.

Thought for sure she wascoming home for Christmas.

That's when I realized thatshe was never coming home.

Excuse me.

NARRATOR: The only evidence against Atwood

was circumstantial, a tinyspeck of paint on his bumper

that may have come from Vicki's bicycle

but could have come from anywhere.

Police sent Atwood's car and Vicki's bicycle

to accident reconstructionistPaul Larmour.

When Larmour placed thebicycle on the ground sideways,

he noticed that the pedalwas at the exact same height

as the scratch marks and the indentation

on the gravel pan under Atwood's front bumper.

PAUL LARMOUR: There was no impact

in the classic sense of the word.

There was contact between the two

and the car continued to push against the bike,

pushed it down on the ground,and overrode it to the point

that the pedal deformed thegravel pan under the car.

Larmour believes that Atwood'scar was going less than five

miles an hour when it struck Vicki's bicycle.

This would account for thelack of blood at the scene.

The car was going too slow for Vicki

to have sustained serious injuries.

Next, the bumper of Atwood'scar and Vicki's bicycle

were both sent to the FBIlab in Washington, DC.

JAMES CORBY: The prosecution requested

that we look at the bicycle andcompare that to the paint that

was scraped off the bumper of the vehicle,

as well as the paint thatwas remaining on the vehicle,

and try to make a comparison to see

if those paints originatedfrom the same source.

Namely, did the pink painton the suspect's bumper

match the pink paint fromthe victim's bicycle.

NARRATOR: Paint analysis involves

microscopic andmicrochemical examination.

Under the microscope, the samples

of paint from Atwood's bumper and the bicycle

appeared to be similar.

Next microchemicals wereadded to both paint samples.

Both reacted to thechemicals in the same way.

Finally, the paint samples wereplaced in a gas chromatograph

mass spectrometer, and heatedto a temperature of degrees

centigrade, which vaporizes and separates

the organic components of the paint samples.

The compounds in both paintsamples were identical.

This did not necessarily provethat the paint on Atwood's

bumper came from Vicki Hoskinson's bicycle.

When Jim Corby studied the paint samples

under the scanning electron microscope,

he noticed one element in the paint

from Vicki's bicycle which was not

common in the chemical formulation of paint.

He found traces of nickel,but where had it come from?

When he looked closer at Atwood's bumper,

he noticed that the chrome on the bumper

next to the pink paint had been scratched,

exposing the nickel under-plating.

The chemical compositionof the nickel under-plating

on Atwood's bumper wasidentical to the nickel sample

found on Vicki's bicycle.

JAMES CORBY: It leads one to believe,

as a forensic scientist, that these two items,

uh, namely the bicycle and the bumper,

were in forcible contactwith each other at one time.

Meaning that they made physical contact with each other.

NARRATOR: This two way transfer, paint

from the bicycle onto the bumper,

and the nickel from the bumperonto the bicycle, placed

Frank Atwood's automobile at the scene

of Vicki Hoskinson's disappearance.

Seven months after VickiHoskinson's disappearance,

a man hiking through thedesert outside of Tucson,

found a human skull, whichlooked like that of a child.

DET.

LEO DUFFNER: It was an area thatwe had initially speculated,

uh, if you were going to get rid of a body,

where would you do it, and it was an area that

was close to the area where she disappeared.

It was on that side of town, it was remote.

NARRATOR: After several days of searching,

more bones were discovered.

Some had been gnawed by animals.

Among those found was alower jawbone with teeth.

The news was devastating to the family,

although not a surprise.

DEBORAH CARLSON: I'll never forget

the look on Sheriff Dupnik's face.

Him and I are really close, but I just

knew looking at him what the answer was,

without them telling me verbally.

And uh, I just remembered losing it,

and watching all these grownmen turn their back to me

because they didn't want meto see that they were crying.

NARRATOR: Forensicanthropologist, Dr. Walter

Birkby was asked to analyze the skeletal remains

to see if they belonged to Vicki Hoskinson.

He used a technique calledcomparative dental radiography

to compare the teeth andjawbone found in the desert

to the dental x-rays of Vicki Hoskinson.

They were a match, but hecould not determine the cause

of death from the rest of the remains.

WALTER BIRKBY: There weren't anysharp implement marks, really

nothing that would indicateblunt force trauma.

Nothing like that, but so cause of death

could have been practically anything.

JAMES CORBY: Hundreds of people attended

Vicki Hoskinson's funeral.

Many knew of her only through news reports,

but wanted to share in the family's grief.

MARK KIMBLE: It grabbed theemotion, not only of people

here, but of all people in Tucson.

It was something that everyoneat the time was talking about.

I can't think of anything that's been,

that's even approachedthat magnitude since then.

NARRATOR: Frank Atwood was charged with m*rder.

His lawyers pointed out that Atwood

had been in police custody since three days

after Vicki's disappearance.

They said it was impossible to know when

the body had been dumped in the desert.

It was possible it could have happened

while Atwood was in custody.

Medical examiner, Dr. Richard Froede,

was asked if there wasany way to tell when Vicki

Lynne Hoskinson had been k*lled.

RICHARD FROEDE: Now wemust take it, if anything

we can find on the bones.

And one of the things we found on the bones

was there was some adipocere there.

NARRATOR: Adipocere, also knownas mortuary fat, is a grey,

waxy substance, which formswhen a body's exposed to high

temperatures, bacteria, and water.

Dr. Froede knew that the deserthad high temperatures as well

as sources of bacteria, but deserts

have little or no water.

Was it possible that the bodywas first in an area with water

before it was moved to the desert?

If so, Frank Atwood would be exonerated

since he had been in custody since three days

after the girl's disappearance.

Dr. Froede researched the weather conditions

for the period that VickiHoskinson had been missing. .

RICHARD FROEDE: We found thatwithin a day or two after she

had disappeared, that therewere heavy rains in that area

and then there were no more rains for months.

NARRATOR: The adipocere told Dr. Froede

that the body was in thedesert during these rainstorms,

most likely in a shallow grave.

The rain water mixed with the bacteria

and the high temperatures overthe next two to three months,

forming the adipocere found on her bones.

RICHARD FROEDE: We now know that the body had

to have been thereduring these heavy rains.

Had it been a month later,two months, three months,

it would've been dry and thebody would have been mummified

and you would not seen the adipocere.

NARRATOR: This put the time of Vicki's death

within a day or two of her disappearance.

Prosecutors believe that Atwoodwas cruising the Tucson area

for a child the day Sam Hallsaw him near the school yard.

Fortunately, Hall had the presence of mind

to write his license numberdown on a piece of paper.

A half hour later, Atwood solvesaw Vicki on her pink bicycle

a block away from the school.

He accelerated into Vicki's bicycle

knocking her to the ground.

The bumper hit the bicycle justunder the seat, which produced

the double transfer of paintonto his bumper, and nickel

from the bumper onto the bicycle.

The bike wedged beneath the car's gravel pan,

leaving an indentation and scratch marks.

-Where are you taking me?-Shut up, kid.

Just get in the car.I'm going to take you home.

NARRATOR: Atwood forced Vicki into car, possibly

with the promise that he would drive her home.

While making his getaway,Atwood backed into the mail post

leaving the dent later found by police.

No one knows what happenedto Vicki Lynne Hoskinson

during that fateful drive to the desert.

But prosecutors believe he buried her body later

that same day, in a shallow grave.

Within a day or two, heavyrain seeped into her grave

causing the adipocere to formon her decomposing bones.

DET.

LEO DUFFNER: Vicki was in thewrong spot at the wrong time.

I believe that Frank kidnapped her

and I believe he hit her, uh, knocked her off

the bicycle to make contact with her.

I think he'd even done that in the past,

made contact with people bycontacting them on bicycles.

I believe he sexually assaulted her,

and I believe he k*lled her.

NARRATOR: Frank Jarvis Atwoodwas tried and convicted

of first-degree m*rder in thedeath of Vicki Lynne Hoskinson,

and was sentenced to death.

LARRY BAGLEY: From aninvestigative standpoint,

the real hero in this investigation

was Sam Hall, who's a gym teacher here

at Homer Davis Elementary School.

SAM HALL: People say thatI'm the hero of the case.

But I just want to be a hero that

would save the child's life that's all.

STEPHANIE HOSKINSON: I'mnot a victim that will ever

forgive the perpetrator, the m*rder.

I will never forgive him.

And I don't visit the cemetery because I

don't believe that's where she is.

When Atwood left her in the desert,

that's where she was laid to rest.

I feel that really is where, other

than in my heart, where my sister is.

DEBORAH CARLSON: There was one time

when I was going through areally tough time, trying

to come to a peace about her death,

that she came to my bedroom.

And I woke-- I was like I'm sleeping

and I hear these little pitter-patter of feet,

and this little tapping ofmama, mama, mama, and I look up.

And you have to understand thisis after Vicki's been deceased.

And here's Vicki standingat the foot of my bed.

And there's this white light surrounding her,

and she's saying Mommy, I'mOK, I need you to be OK,

and then she disappeared.

That was a turning point for me.

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