08x22 - Bound for Jail

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Narrator: a woman jogging along a deserted footpath

In central michigan disappeared.

When investigators find her body,

Clues at the scene point to a k*ller...

...with professional training.

It took almost years before an old hat

And a chip of stainless steel no longer than a fingernail

Brought the k*ller to justice.

On a beautiful summer day in ,

Muriel kirby started her day as she always did

By meeting her daughter jeanette for breakfast.

Kirby: well, to me it was a very special routine,

Just talking over what had been going on

And what was on her mind or my mind.

It was a very special --

Almost a friendship breakfast.

Narrator: but this morning was different from the others.

Jeanette didn't show up,

And she never called or left a message.

She's either ill or she's overslept

Because it's not like her not to make an appointment

Or to call and say, "I can't be there today."

Narrator: jeanette's employer said she hadn't shown up for work,

And she wasn't at her home, either.

Her mother immediately notified police.

The -year-old divorcee with no children

Wasn't known for leaving town

Without notifying friends and family.

As night fell, the sky was dark with rain clouds,

And during the night, there were severe thunderstorms,

The worst in years.

The night that her family realized she was missing

And started searching for her, there was a torrential downpour.

I knew in my heart that jeanette was somewhere in that storm,

And she needed help.

Narrator: jeanette was an avid walker, and she often explored

The secluded trails of nearby riverbend park,

An undeveloped public space of more than acres.

Draganchuk: riverbend park is very large.

It's not what you would think of as a city park,

Manicured and small in size.

Blumer: it's a gorgeous park.

The huge trees with the canopy absorb all sound.

You could touch off a cannon in there, and you wouldn't hear it.

Narrator: the day after jeanette disappeared,

Police found her car at the park.

A parking ticket indicated the car had been there

Since the day before.

A day-long search of the park turned up nothing.

The search continued into the night.

Kirby: I remember praying,

"Dear god, let her be all right."

I knew it was wrong. Something was definitely wrong.

Jeanette was too close to this family.

She would never let us worry.

Narrator: when dawn broke the next day,

Police found jeanette's body in an isolated ravine

Just a half-mile from her car.

There were clear signs of a struggle.

Clothing was strewn about the area.

Jeanette's broken headphones from her tape player

Were found yards away from her body.

Ackerly: from the physical evidence at the scene,

The struggle took place on the walking trail itself.

However, the body was dragged to a lower area

By the drag marks left in the plant material and the dirt.

Narrator: but investigators found something unusual

At the scene.

Jeanette's hands were bound behind her back

With a plastic tie.

Consumers use ties like this for binding electric cables,

But police recognized these

As the same type of ties they use,

Called "flex-cufs."

Police cuffs, seen here on the left,

Have a metal tab inserted into the plastic head.

Consumer ties, seen on the right, have plastic tabs.

That metal tab acts like a ratchetting device,

And that's what makes flex-cufs different

From normal household ties.

It's not something that you can readily go and buy

At home depot or anywhere else.

Narrator: investigators now had a potential pool of suspects --

Fellow police officers.

Was the unthinkable possible --

That one of their own had k*lled jeanette kirby?

Narrator: the rain that fell the night of jeanette kirby's m*rder

Made things difficult for investigators.

Draganchuk: rain is probably one of the worst enemies

When we have a body found exposed to the elements

Because it will destroy a lot of the evidence.

Narrator: police could find no footprints to or from the scene.

There were no tire or bicycle impressions in the area.

At the autopsy,

The medical examiner found no signs of sexual as*ault.

The cause of death was three knife wounds in her chest.

In a search for suspects,

Investigators routinely question relatives and friends.

Jeanette's ex-husband was in florida

At the time of the m*rder,

So he wasn't a suspect.

Investigators discovered that jeanette dated casually,

But none of the men she dated had a motive to k*ll her.

It appeared her m*rder was a random k*lling,

The hardest type to solve.

We don't have an eyewitness. We don't have a m*rder w*apon.

We have no dna evidence.

Narrator: but the way jeanette's clothing had been cut

Gave investigators a clue.

There's this drive here, this seeking of sexual stimulation,

And rather than just

Obtaining that through contact with the victim,

In this case, it had to be obtained through a particular

Set of behaviors involving the victim's clothing.

Narrator: her jersey had been cut up the middle,

And her sweat pants had been sliced apart in squares --

A methodical, time-consuming process.

Draganchuk: you start to get a picture of a person,

A very evil person,

Who is very angry, specifically with women,

And is most likely a predator of women.

You know, I can hardly handle it now

Thinking of what that person,

What that dear, lovable jeanette went through.

And then he just tossed her aside

Away from the path where he k*lled her.

Narrator: the only thing the k*ller left at the crime scene

Were the flex-cufs.

They were same brand used by the local police.

But the tennessee-based company that made the cuffs

Had some very bad news.

Virtually every police force in the country

Used these same flex-cufs.

There were hundreds of thousands of them in existence,

All of them identical.

At the crime scene,

No one saw a policeman in or near riverbend park

Around the time of the m*rder.

Even policemen who were in the general vicinity of the park

Were questioned.

I know several police officers were investigated

As a result of this homicide.

They run down all the leads that they get,

But essentially, they run up against a brick wall

Because nothing gets them any farther in the investigation.

They still have a pair of flex-cufs.

Narrator: a full year passed, then two.

By the fourth anniversary of jeanette's m*rder,

Local police had no new evidence or leads to pursue.

Kirby: they kept saying, "without evidence,

We're not sure we're gonna be able to solve this case."

Narrator: it was four years after the m*rder

That an incident in leland,

A tourist town miles away, offered new hope.

A woman there told police

That a truck with police-style lights signaled her to pull over

On a deserted country road.

The man from the truck approached her

Wearing a police hat, but no uniform.

He ordered her out of her car and into his truck.

She resisted. There was a struggle.

He pulled his g*n and fired a shot in the air.

Just then, another car drove by.

The man panicked and fled.

When the investigators assigned to jeanette kirby's m*rder

Heard this news, they took particular notice.

A man impersonating a police officer

In an attempt to abduct a woman in a deserted area

Sounded all too familiar.

Narrator: police questioned everyone they could find

Looking for the owner of an unmarked pickup truck

With a police-style light bar on the roof.

The gas station attendant remembered that vehicle

And called the police to say he had come and gotten gas there.

Narrator: not only that,

But the gas station attendant remembered that the man

Had used a credit card to pay for the gas.

His name was david draheim.

He was a -year-old factory worker,

A volunteer fireman,

And an ex-marine with no previous record.

He had been vacationing at his parents' cabin in glen haven,

But he lived in ingham county in the same town as jeanette kirby.

When questioned by police,

Draheim denied he was involved in the attempted kidnapping,

Although the victim identified him in the police lineup.

On the front seat of his truck, police found a hat

From the ingham county sheriff's department,

The same county where jeanette kirby was m*rder*d.

Draganchuk: so they call the ingham county sheriff's office,

And they say, "do you know this person?

"Is he one of your deputies?

"Is he someone that you're aware of?

Is he connected to you in any way?"

He was someone that we knew on a regular basis.

Trusted him, knew him,

Believed him to be a local good guy.

Narrator: draheim worked at a wastewater treatment plant

Just a mile from where jeanette kirby was k*lled.

Inside draheim's truck were two other suspicious items --

A knife and a package of plastic ties,

Similar to police-style flex-cufs.

Draganchuk: the suspect, he has in his possession

A type of ties that could be characterized as flex-cufs.

Although they're slightly different

Than the police flex-cufs.

But he has these plastic fasteners in his possession.

Narrator: draheim denied any involvement in jeanette's m*rder.

They didn't have the magic b*llet.

They didn't have the tie between him and the flex-cufs.

They knew that he was found in possession of something

That looked like or were called flex-cufs up north,

But they didn't know where he got them.

Narrator: there was no evidence tying him to jeanette's m*rder.

But david draheim was convicted

For the attempted kidnapping charge

And sentenced to years in prison.

Once again,

Jeanette's case went cold.

Jeanette's family had remained patient.

But in , years after jeanette's m*rder,

Her mother could take no more.

She was disillusioned and angry

That her husband died before they could get justice.

Kirby: jeanette was his baby.

You know, that was his girl.

And how could anyone touch her or hurt her?

He was very angry, and he kept that anger until he died.

And his wishes so many times were,

"If I could only get hold of him, I know what I would do."

Narrator: in desperation, mrs. Kirby contacted

The state's highest ranking law enforcement official.

Kirby: and I finally went to jennifer granholm,

The attorney general, and asked her for help, told my story.

She said, "I'm going to send two criminal investigators

On the case."

Narrator: and those investigators found something

That had been overlooked.

When david draheim was arrested on the kidnapping charge,

The local police in draheim's hometown

Failed to interview all of his friends.

For some reason, a major character was overlooked,

And that was david draheim's best friend

At the time of the m*rder.

He had never been interviewed.

Narrator: that man was mark greko,

And he told police an interesting story.

A few years before jeanette kirby's m*rder,

Draheim and greko shared a house,

And both worked together as security guards.

At the time, greko owned a used police car,

Which greko, pictured here with the car in ,

Was refurbishing.

I was actually physically inside the trunk

Trying to run the wires up through the dash

And that's when I found the plastic bag

Stuck in between the inner and outer fender wall

Of the car.

And it turned out to be a bag of flex-cufs.

Narrator: these were police-issue flex-cufs

That had been overlooked when the car was sold.

Greko said he kept one for himself

And gave the rest to draheim.

Greko: I gave him flex-cufs.

I know I gave him some flex-cufs

Way back in '-something when I bought this car.

Narrator: and greko had yet another story.

He said he'd put his flex-cuf

In the brim of his security guard hat.

It's a common practice in law enforcement.

Police naturally ask greko

Whether he still had his security guard hat.

I'm kind of a pack rat. Sure, I kept everything.

Narrator: deep in his basement,

Among dozens of boxes of clothing and souvenirs,

Greko found that very same hat he wore as a security guard

Years earlier.

Blumer: the odds of that happening are astronomical.

And the importance to the case cannot be overstated.

Narrator: inside the brim, just as he said,

Was a set of police flex-cufs.

It was the same make and model used in jeanette kirby's m*rder.

But investigators wanted to find

Some way to tell whether these two sets of cuffs

Were scientifically related.

Narrator: after years of searching for jeanette kirby's k*ller,

Investigators finally had a break.

They discovered a police flex-cuf

Similar to the one used in the m*rder.

To learn more about how these flex-cufs are made,

Michigan investigators went to monterey, mexico.

The only factory in the world

That makes this brand of flex-cufs.

This is the video shot by those investigators.

Since the cuffs were all made with the same plastic,

Its chemical makeup provided no basis for comparison.

But the stainless steel tabs in the flex-cufs

Were another matter.

A carbide saw cuts the tabs from large spools of steel.

The cut marks at the end of each tab are distinctive.

Well, it is a very fast process,

And just is continually cutting for hours at a time.

Well, during that process,

The blade starts to wear a little bit.

And while it's wearing,

The marks that it's leaving on the metal tabs are changing.

Narrator: the flex-cufs used in jeanette kirby's m*rder

And the flex-cufs provided by mark greko

Were analyzed by scott marier of the michigan state police.

Using a soldering iron,

He carefully removed the tab from each cuff for comparison.

After all these years,

The case came down to some tiny slivers of stainless steel.

Marier: there was a time

When I was looking at this metal tab thinking,

"The entire case rests

On the identification of these metal tabs."

Narrator: using a comparison microscope,

Marier placed each tab on a putty platform

Then compared the two side-by-side.

He was looking for signature marks

Made by the saw that cut the tabs.

Marier soon discovered that the marks were strikingly similar.

They ran down the length of each tab,

Almost like both sides of a zipper.

Marier: the quality of the identification was so good

That it would not surprise me at all if these two metal tabs

Had been produced consecutively.

It was an absolutely perfect match.

So perfect that it took everyone's breath away.

Draganchuk: now prosecutors and investigators

Had a piece of evidence that was a piece of scientific evidence

That put david draheim at the scene of the crime.

Narrator: on june th, ,

David draheim went on trial for jeanette kirby's m*rder.

Prosecutors believe draheim left his job

At the water treatment facility around :

On the day of the m*rder

And drove to riverbend park less than a mile away.

Prosecutors say draheim was a predator,

And when he saw jeanette kirby, he was prepared.

Blumer: he probably allowed her to jog or fast-walk

Past the point where he was hiding

And att*cked her from behind.

[ Woman screams ]

He immediately grabbed her hands behind her back

And flex-cufed her.

Narrator: now she was immobilized and isolated.

Jeanette kirby was m*rder*d

And her clothes cut in meticulous detail.

Blumer: jeanette kirby was simply in the wrong place

At the wrong time.

There is no other link between the two of them.

That could have been me.

That could have been any woman I know.

And those moments that she spent before she died

Had to have been terrifying.

Narrator: at the trial, a surprise witness came forward

Saying that draheim had flex-cufed her years earlier.

Woman: he bent my other arm behind me, and I was tied,

You know, just strapped, you know?

I was just strapped. I couldn't go anywhere.

Narrator: and it was draheim's wife

Who provided the most unusual bit of testimony.

She told jurors he routinely jogged

With a small packet of flex-cufs in a bag

He wore around his waist.

Why on earth would he need that equipment with him

When he went out on a daily jog?

The only reason was

Either it was there because it was part of the daily fantasy

That he carried with him in his head.

Or it was there because he was hoping,

If some opportunity came up,

It would be there when he needed it.

Narrator: david draheim was found guilty of jeanette kirby's m*rder

And was sentenced to years in prison

In addition to the years he was already serving.

Forensic science solved a case which might have gone unsolved

Had it not been

For the persistence of jeanette kirby's mother

And a man who never threw anything away.

Draganchuk: the science doesn't age.

The toolmarks that are left on those metal tabs

Will be there forever.

They'll never change.

Thankfully, forensic science did solve it for us.

And we can rest.

We can rest in peace

Knowing that her case has been solved

Because of forensic science.