06x08 - Frozen Evidence

[bunniefuu]

NARRATOR: In , two masked gunmen

broke into this home on the Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory

in Canada.

The motive was robbery.

But there was a struggle, sh*ts were fired, leaving -year-old

Ward Maracle critically injured.

It took solid police investigation

and some fancy footwork to identify the perpetrators.

[theme music]

[theme music]

The Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory is a small community

about two hours east of Toronto, Canada.

The Territory was founded over years ago,

when the Mohawk moved here from upstate New York.

The homes and landscape of the area

are no different from any other North American community,

but the sense of family among the Mohawk

is especially strong.

-It doesn't appear to be any different than anywhere else

in Canada or the US in what I would call, for lack

of better term, mainstream culture.

Like I say, the differences is in the people.

-In this community it's-- there's a lot of blood family.

But even if you're not related, you

know everybody pretty close.

So it's like being family.

Ward and Diana Maracle were respected

members of the community.

Ward's Gas Bar, the Maracle's business, a gas station

with a restaurant attached, had always

been a prosperous business.

NARRATOR: At night, they also operated

a check cashing service from their home

for people who didn't have an ATM card.

-Everybody knows Ward and Diane, the business there as well.

Have contact with them.

They're good people.

NARRATOR: At Christmas time, residents of the reserve

celebrate the holiday just like any other community.

With Santa Claus, Christmas lights, and prayer.

[church bells ring]

But in the early morning hours of December , ,

the holiday spirit of the community was shattered.

[banging on door]

MAN [MUFFLED]: Ward?

Oh, Ward!

I want to talk to you.

NARRATOR: Just before dawn, two masked gunmen

broke into the Maracle's home.

MAN: Ward, we're coming to see you!

[door slams]

NARRATOR: They went upstairs, woke Ward and Diana

and demanded money.

MAN: Where's the money?

Give me the money!

NARRATOR: One was holding a . caliber p*stol.

The other, a piece of wood.

-Just take it easy.

MAN: Just shut up and give me the money!

-Just don't hurt anybody.

NARRATOR: Ward resisted.

sh*ts rang out.

By the time it was over, Ward had been shot three times.

The second perpetrator took Diana downstairs.

Fearing for her life, Diana handed

over the money they had on hand.

$, in cash.

And the intruders quickly fled.

[? -, ?] Police Emergency.

WOMAN [ON PHONE]: Uh, we've got a sh**ting down here,

on the reserve.

We will need an ambulance.

Please hurry. -OK, ma'am.

[sirens blaring]

NARRATOR: Ward Maracle was rushed to the hospital

with the b*llet wound to his head.

He underwent emergency surgery.

Most wounds to the head are fatal.

Since the gunmen wore masks, all Diana

could tell police was that the assailants

made their getaway in a red car.

A few miles down the road, police

found the two masks used in the robbery.

One was a wool ski mask.

The other, a rubber Halloween mask.

Inside the Maracle's home, police

found three shell casings, which were collected for analysis.

-The caliber.

In this case, I believe they were . short caliber.

The fact that they are out on the ground

would indicate that, more than likely, a semiautomatic p*stol,

as opposed to a revolver, was used.

NARRATOR: Since the stairs had no carpet

and with snow outside, investigators

suspected that the perpetrators' wet feet might have left latent

shoe impressions on the stairs.

The stairs were dusted with fingerprint powder.

And immediately, a clear impression of a running shoe

was evident.

Outside the house, forensic experts

found a trail of evidence in the snow, which they hoped

would lead them to the perpetrators.

During the Christmas holidays in ,

residents of the Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory

learned the terrible news that one of their most prominent

citizens, Ward Maracle, had been the victim

of a senseless sh**ting.

There is very little violent crime

in this small community of , people.

ALAN BRANT: Shock, initially, that something

of-- of this magnitude could happen

in a community such as this.

WARD MARACLE: Just take it easy.

[sh*ts ring out]

NARRATOR: Ward Maracle was shot three

times by a . caliber p*stol.

One of the b*ll*ts entered his head.

But he was fortunate, he survived.

But the injury would leave him permanently disabled.

Forensic scientist, Jim Eadie inspected the crime scene.

He noticed a piece of wood on the kitchen table.

Diana Maracle told police one of the perpetrators

held the wood in his hand during the robbery.

When Eadie walked outside, on the side of the house

he found a wooden sawhorse with one of the legs missing.

It appeared that the perpetrators took the leg

from the sawhorse and used it to break through the front door.

Next to the sawhorse, clearly visible in the bright December

sunshine, was a footprint in the snow.

CONSTABLE JIM EADIE: And when I looked,

I could see footprints in the area of the sawhorse.

I was certain that somebody had gone back behind the house

and got the sawhorse and ripped a leg off.

There was a potential piece a very important evidence.

NARRATOR: Jim Eadie realized he had to act quickly

before the snow melted, and before anyone

else walked through the crime scene.

His first order of business was to photograph the footprints.

These stills would be important, especially if he

was unable to make a cast of the footprint.

He then rushed to his truck and looked

for materials to make a mold.

There are a number of techniques for capturing

a footprint impression in the snow.

If you choose the wrong one, the impression

could be lost forever.

CONSTABLE JIM EADIE: Snow presents interesting problems

because, if you use conventional casting materials,

such as dental plaster, it's really very heavy.

Dental plaster hardens to stone.

And if you pour it into snow, it tends

to collapse the footprint because of the weight.

NARRATOR: Detective Eadie decided

on a technique called sulfur casting.

He took a small burner and a pot and heated the powdered sulfur.

It takes about minutes before it

melts into a thick brown liquid.

It's then cooled to the point above crystallization.

As it poured into the snow, the sulfur

recrystallizes immediately and hardens,

retaining the important details needed for identification.

The impression was from a pair of Nike Air sneakers size .

The shoe was relatively new, with very little wear.

In the impression were some important clues

about the perpetrator, details called

accidental characteristics.

CONSTABLE JIM EADIE: And

going to be rubbing against the road

and against the sidewalk, and that

has those accidental characteristics that we're

going to be looking for-- and an accidental characteristic

is not just a little point.

Oftentimes, it's like a mini piece of art.

NARRATOR: Eadie noticed three small cuts

all in a row on the sole, as if the wearer had

stepped on a small piece of wire.

In all, Jim Eadie identified accidental characteristics

in the shoe impression.

These would distinguish this particular shoe

from the thousands of other Nike Air size

running shoes that were in circulation.

Not surprisingly, the shoe impression in the snow

matched the shoe print on the wooden steps inside the home.

CONSTABLE JIM EADIE: We had recovered

some very good evidence.

We had shoe prints.

We had brass casings.

The difficulty is, unlike fingerprints, which

can be searched on a computer and identified,

in the case of b*llet casings or shoe prints,

you need a suspect.

NARRATOR: But finding a suspect would not be easy.

The robbery and sh**ting of Ward Maracle on the Tyendinaga

Mohawk Reserve was widely covered

by the media in the surrounding areas.

Two days after the sh**ting, an anonymous telephone call

suggested police look into the whereabouts of Peter Benedict

and Frank Lanoue in the early morning hours of December .

Both men were years old.

Both had criminal records.

Benedict lived in Cornwall, which

is about an hour's drive from the reserve.

Police had no fixed address for Lanoue.

Police went to Peter Benedict's apartment

armed with a search warrant.

Outside Benedict's apartment, police noticed a red card

similar to the one Diana Maracle identified as the getaway car.

Peter Benedict denied any involvement in the crime.

And said he didn't know where Frank Lanoue was.

Inside Benedict's apartment, police

found a . caliber p*stol.

The same caliber used in the sh**ting.

They also found a number of pairs of running shoes,

but none were the Nike Air model size like the impressions

found at the crime scene.

Police also found $, in cash and Benedict

was wearing what looked to be a very expensive ring.

In Benedict's bedroom, police found a receipt for the ring.

It was purchased on December , just hours

after the robbery at the Maracle's homes.

The ring was purchased with $, in cash

from a jewelry store in Ottawa. DET.

SGT. RICK MYERS: We went out to the car

and we searched the vehicle after that.

And in the trunk, I found an Aldo's shoe box.

So I'm thinking, well, Aldo shoe box, brand new running shoes,

brand ring.

I'm going to Ottawa, because there has to be a story

to be told in Ottawa and I wanted to hear the story.

NARRATOR: Once he got to the mall,

Rick Myers discovered that there were

a number of shoe stores in the mall.

He patiently visited each one, asking store employees

if they recognized Benedict or Lanoue as a recent customer.

-Do you work here?

-Yeah.

NARRATOR: The last store that he visited was a Foot Locker,

and he got a break.

-Have you seen him?

-I think he came in a couple of days ago, actually.

NARRATOR: The store clerk recognized

Peter Benedict from the mug shot.

-I think he threw away his old shoes.

NARRATOR: He said

a pair of running shoes just a few days earlier.

And he recalled that Benedict wore the new shoes out

of the store and left his old pair behind.

DET.

SGT. RICK MYERS: He just simply gave up the old ones

for garbage, and just wore his new ones home.

I asked if he would check to see if the old ones were still

around.

He told me that no, the garbage had gone out Friday.

I was insistent that he go and-- and recheck.

Because it's always good to recheck everything,

particular when you're so close in this type of investigation

to getting something that you really want.

NARRATOR: Fortunately for investigators, the trash

hadn't been removed from the back room.

And in the trash bin, the clerk found

the sneakers Benedict left behind.

DET. SGT. RICK MYERS: He did.

And sure enough, he comes back dangling the shoes

and a very nice smile on his face.

And there was an even bigger one on mine.

NARRATOR: They were size Nike Air

charcoal high top basketball shoes.

But were they the ones worn to the crime scene?

When Jim Eadie analyzed the shoes from the trash bin,

he discovered the shoe had accidental characteristics,

which were in the same location, the same shape and size

as those found on the shoe impression in the snow

and on the steps.

Investigators now knew that Peter

Benedict took part in the robbery.

-OK.

Here we are.

NARRATOR: But was he the sh**t?

And where was Frank Lanoue? -Just shut up.

I want the money.

-Could the masks somehow identify

who pulled the trigger?

Within a week of the robbery and sh**ting of Ward Maracle

one the Tyendinaga Mohawk Reserve in Canada,

police had two suspects, Peter Benedict and Frank Lanoue.

Peter Benedict was already in custody.

And Frank Lanoue voluntarily came in

to police headquarters for questioning.

Both denied any involvement in the crime.

But the evidence against Peter Benedict was mounting quickly.

The shoes he left at the shoe store

were positively identified as the shoes which left the print

on the Maracle's stairway, and in the snow print

outside their home.

Next, Benedict's . caliber g*n was tested by ballistics.

[sh*ts ring out]

FINN NIELSEN: This p*stol here is a Beretta Model B.

It's a semiautomatic p*stol, a . short caliber,

which is really the short-- the smallest

caliber that's used in handguns.

It doesn't look like much, it's just a ..

They'll k*ll you just as dead as the bigger calibers will.

NARRATOR: The b*ll*ts recovered from Ward Maracle

in the operating room were too badly

damaged for forensic analysis.

-.s, when they hit bone on head sh*ts are usually useless,

they're projectiles.

They'll break up very, very badly.

NARRATOR: So investigators used the spend shell casings found

in the Maracle's home for comparison.

Benedict's g*n was test fired in the ballistics laboratory.

[shot firing]

The act of pulling a trigger causes the firing pin

to strike the primer, which ignites the powder propelling

the b*llet through the barrel.

Simultaneously, the spent shell casing

is pushed back with equal force.

Just as the b*llet is marked by its passage through the barrel,

so is the shell as it comes into contact with the metal surfaces

of the w*apon's firing and loading mechanisms.

Firing pin impressions are as unique as a fingerprint.

The firing pin impressions on the shell casings test fired

from Benedict's g*n were identical to the impressions

on the three shell casings found inside the Maracle's home.

-It's still you looking at it, and your training

and your experience that causes you to reach a conclusion.

And in this case, what I saw, and my predecessor saw, whom

I trained, indicated to us, yes, those cartridge cases

were fired in that g*n and no other.

NARRATOR: The money found in Peter Benedict's apartment

had numbers written by hand on the bundles.

They matched Diana Maracle's handwriting.

Not surprisingly, inside Benedict's car on the driver's

side, were Peter Benedict's fingerprints.

But on the passenger side, were Frank Lanoue's.

The last challenge for investigators

was to discover which one of these two suspects

was the sh**t.

Diana Maracle said, the gunman was wearing the wool ski mask.

The man in the rubber mask held the piece of wood.

Scientists were able to identify traces of saliva and mucus

inside the masks.

And from that, they were able to generate a DNA profile

of the individuals who wore each mask.

When police compared the DNA of Frank Lanoue and Peter

Benedict, they discovered that Peter Benedict's

DNA was inside the rubber mask.

And that Frank Lanoue's DNA was inside the wool mask.

This identified Frank Lanoue as the sh**t.

When Peter Benedict and Frank Lanoue

learned about the overwhelming forensic evidence against them,

they both pleaded guilty to aggravated as*ault and robbery.

They were sentenced to six years in prison.

Ward Maracle eventually recovered from his injuries

after a long and difficult rehabilitation.

Published reports say he still has lingering problems

resulting from the head injury.

He and Diana still live and work on the Mohawk Reserve.

To this day, Ward and Diana Maracle

refuse to talk about what happened

in the early morning hours of December , .

[shot rings out]

DET.

SGT. RICK MYERS: It was a great case.

It was a classic.

One of the many highlights of my career.

I enjoyed that case.

It was a very exciting day for me

when I saw those running shoes come

waltzing out from behind the back room.

-I believe that the shoe print evidence that we were

working with was very strong evidence.

And it was very strong evidence at the preliminary hearing.

And-- and I think-- I feel like I'm bragging.

[theme music]