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on a bitter cold night a family home
went up in flames k*lling one man and
leaving a second person injured a
witness blamed a kerosene heater local
investigators suspected arson forensic
science was needed to sort through the
contradictions was this an accident or
cold-blooded work
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the weather in Jackson Georgia is
usually warm most of the year but in
January of 2003 it was an unusual cold
snap with temperatures below freezing
citrus growers used kerosene heaters to
save their orange crop and Jean and Jim
long used a kerosene heater in the
workshop of their home so the pipes
wouldn't freeze but something went
terribly wrong when firemen arrived the
house was totally ablaze jean long had
escaped the fire but her husband jim was
trapped inside my father-in-law came to
the door to wake us he said
he said there's a fire at your dad's
house and it's bad there was a angle and
buyings
very shocking moment firemen searched
the area around the home but there was
no sign that Jim had escaped I just
thought my dad would come walking out
but the Long's home was attached to a
workshop Jim used to store the equipment
for his tree trimming business it too
was on fire after the fire was put out
the firefighters cut through the metal
siding they found the body of 53 year
old Jim lon
it's almost like disbelief that was
going on at that time I'm just real hard
to almost like it was a dream that you
were gonna wake up from Jean was taken
to the hospital where she was treated
for minor scrapes and bruises one of the
bruises was on her chin she told police
that her husband tried to fulfill their
kerosene heater with fuel and then there
was an expl*si*n he was covered in
flames she tried to put hit the fire out
with her hands the gloves caught fire in
a panic Jean said she ran from the
workshop into their home to call the
fire department
at the fire scene investigators found
the remnants of the kerosene heater but
the plastic fuel can was found outside
the workshop door in perfect condition
inconsistent with jeans story and major
might over be believed that the position
of Jim's body was inconsistent with most
fire victims
it appeared that his legs were
outstretched in his arms were above his
head it appeared to me the way someone
would be positioned if they had been
dragged into a particular spot or
carried that was the first thing that I
noticed that they were not in a fetal
time position that that you see in fires
in addition over be found visual
evidence of poor patterns around Jim's
body the type of patterns which result
from the use of an accelerant that to
him suggested that James Wong had been
lying on the floor and gasoline or an
accelerant had been poured over him
intentionally
he'd been set afire and Jim's autopsy
revealed even more evidence that he was
unconscious before the fire started
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during Jim Long's autopsy the medical
examiner found something suspicious
there wasn't as much dirt soot and smoke
damage in his lungs as one would expect
in a fire victim mr. Lal did not have
enough of the chemicals that are found
in the blood after a person dies of
smoke inhalation for that to have caused
his death he had breathed some smoke he
had certain in his throat but he had not
breathed enough smoke to k*ll him and
Jim also suffered a fractured skull dr.
bill bass a world-famous forensic
anthropologist at the University of
Tennessee was asked for his opinion we
have three fractures a radiating out
from the same source the source being
the hole that is in the skull that is an
indication that there's been blunt force
trauma there is not due to the fire the
cause of death was determined to be
thermal injuries and blunt force head
trauma
his death was listed as a homicide
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homicide investigator major michael
overly asked jean long to explain what
happened on the night of the fire
Jean said her husband was filling the
heater with kerosene when it exploded
you said that he reliving inside yet the
red plastic fuel can was found outside
the workshop and over be noticed that
Jim's arms and legs were outstretched
when he was found underneath Jim's body
for several aerosol cans there was one
under his head there was one under his
right leg and another one up under his
back and that appeared on that appeared
to me something that could be used to
accelerate the damage of the body in a
fire patterns on the concrete floor
around the body were also suspicious
makes these marks this is what it leaves
specially in concrete when an accelerant
such as gasoline is poured on some gene
also said she called the fire department
from a phone in the house but
investigators found the outside door was
locked
if gene locked it on her way out police
saw this as evidence that she was in no
hurry to save her husband her husband is
on fire burning in this building
she runs outside but she locks the door
behind her see to me that's very
important you think the jury's gonna buy
this I can say right now hey whoa
major overbee asked gene to take a
polygraph test and she agreed she was a
sport like if she poured her husband
with gasoline said he won't fire
she failed that question she failed if
she was present when he was m*rder*d
investigators discovered that Jim was
angry with his wife for spending so much
time in Kansas each year visiting
relatives there were also rumors that
Jim may have been planning to leave
Jeanne major
overbee believes on the night of the
fire the couple may have been discussing
a divorce which prompted an argument
it's our theory that there is a domestic
situation between mr. long and his wife
I believe that the abrasion on her chin
came from him possibly slapping her and
his skull fractures I believe was a
result of her striking him in the head
with some hard object Overby believes
gene poured an accelerant on Jim set him
on fire then inadvertently carried the
fuel can out of the workshop when she
left to call for help I felt like it was
a strong circumstantial case I felt like
we had eliminated any other reasonable
hypothesis for this death the day after
her husband's funeral gene long was
charged with arson and m*rder she didn't
seem shocked she made no statement at
the tub
she acted like she was expected Jean
told her lawyers there was an expl*si*n
in that workshop and that there must be
evidence in the ashes to prove it
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gene Long's family hired defense
attorneys Wade crumbly and Barbara moon
for what they feared would be a long
difficult trial Bob Ramon met with gene
in the county jail
she was very broken woman started just
twiddling her hands and shaking
unbelievably I thought she was very
genuine and I believed in her it's just
that simple
a week later James Church managed to
raise the money for her bail jeans
family insisted that her marriage to Jim
was a happy one Jim's daughter from a
previous marriage agreed I was glad he
met somebody and that he was happy and
he wasn't gonna be alone time he seems
iam you st. Jean same one you say melted
like whenever we're together and Jean
had no financial motive Jim's life
insurance amounted to less than $40,000
but local prosecutors were convinced
this was an open-and-shut case their
theory was she saw the opportunity to
get rid of him and poured him and lit it
and then made it seem or tried to tell
everyone that it was an accident the
defense asked John Lentini a nationally
known fire investigator for his opinion
with respect to the quality of the fire
investigation it ranks up there with the
worst that I have ever seen and I have
seen a lot of bad fire investigations in
my day this was over the top
local investigators suspected
accelerants had been used to start the
fire
but Lentini discovered that the workshop
housed containers of fuel for jim's
tree-trimming equipment in his shop we
had vehicles we had tanks of acetylene
we had tanks of propane
we had containers of liquid fuels he had
chainsaws in there lots of papers
clothing lots of combustibles and when
it went up it just really went up and
Lentini disputed police claims that
there were poor patterns around Jim's
body
he said the heat of the fire made such a
determination impossible once you get to
full room involvement you're gonna get
all kinds of patterns that are easily
misinterpreted it happens all the time
I've created them by mistake I've
created them on purpose
the homicide investigator thought that
the position of Jim's body was
suspicious we felt like from the very
beginning based on the way he was laying
on his back with his arms stretched over
his head and his legs straight out that
he had been placed there a gene had
always contended that while her husband
was on fire he was flailing about was it
possible the Jim struck his head on the
metal table nearby causing the fractured
skull and knocking him unconscious I can
tell you that there is a blow to the
side of the head that caused fractures
who did that blow or how that bro got
there I can't tell you
could he fall on the metal workbench yes
he could have
Lentini believes the charge of arson and
m*rder had been a rush to judgment and
that the kerosene heater was to blame
basically what you do is you fill this
up with kerosene or diesel fuel you
throw a wick of some kind down in there
what happens when you have this lake of
fire down in here is you're generating
lots and lots of soot and that suit
coats the inside and it self will catch
on fire like charcoal so if you don't
allow this thing to cool down
sufficiently it's pretty dangerous in a
surprising discovery
gas chromatography of the residue inside
the heaters fuel t*nk identified
gasoline and not kerosene it takes more
heat to ignite kerosene gasoline ignites
at very low temperatures the difference
in flammability between gasoline and
kerosene is just tremendous and I've
worked on a lot of fires where people
miss fuel kerosene heaters with gasoline
end up having big fires gene said they
were using the heater outside before
they moved it indoors since a gallon of
gasoline is equivalent to 20 sticks of
dynamite when Jim poured it into the hot
fuel t*nk it caused an expl*si*n just as
gene described the residue of gasoline
inside that smudge pot was the physical
evidence and mrs. long story was the
eyewitness evidence it fits together and
she couldn't have faked that part the
fuel canister found outside the workshop
which investigators found so suspicious
contained kerosene proving it played no
role in the fire
prosecutors still believe jean long
m*rder*d her husband but which version
would the jury believe
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you
/ be employed a standard police
technique when he ended the
interrogation and left the room with the
tape machine still running in this
situation a suspect will often say
something incriminating in this case she
said something else what major Overby
had hoped that happened I think worked
against him I think he was in hopes that
she was going to say something to hurt
her
criminate herself and what she did she
reached out to God and started begging
for help
to give her the strength to endure that
hostile interview the defense claimed
that the fire was accidental
that Jim long stakin li filled the hot
kerosene heater with gasoline causing
the expl*si*n gene frantically tried to
put it out and when she couldn't achieve
ran to call for help at some point Jim
struck his head on the workbench which
fractured his skull and caused his death
the defense offered no explanation for
why gene locked the door on her way out
of the house except that it was force of
habit
something she did everytime she left the
house gene long herself took the stand
in her own defense she came across as
completely genuine terrified about the
prospect of what she was going through
and terrified at reliving the moment of
what happened that night
the jury didn't hear about the results
of the polygraph test polygraph
examinations are inadmissible
there's no admissible reason they're not
reliable bottom line jeans family says
the medication she was taking may have
been a contributing factor she was just
really drugged up more or less she was
on the pills the hospital had given her
to help her stay calm and to kind of
take in everything
after eight days of testimony the jury
deliberated for just three hours before
rendering their verdict
they found jean long not guilty of all
charges this case never should have been
brought they should have consulted an
expert my training is in violent crime
interpretation and crime scene
interpretation in reconstruction to this
day major Overby doesn't agree with the
verdict or with john lantini's
conclusions about the fire I believe
that that she k*lled her husband I
believe that she got by with m*rder the
unanswered question to me would be why
the jury decided what they decided after
the trial and the not guilty verdict
Jean long moved out of the state and is
trying to put her life back together
again
she's still grieving she's finally being
able to not concentrate on the trial and
stuff and being able to work through her
emotions the remnants of Jim and Jean
Long's house and workshop are still
standing
a reminder that forensic science isn't
only a tool to convict the guilty but to
protect the innocent as well if I could
keep this from happening to another
family and their people wouldn't have to
go through what we went through what we
need in our system of justice is for the
state to have proof that it really is a
set fire and they didn't have that here
wasn't a case of charging the wrong
person was a crime there was no crime at
all it was an accident
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10x01 - Trial By Fire
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Documentary that reveals how forensic science is used to solve violent crimes, mysterious accidents, and outbreaks of illness.
Documentary that reveals how forensic science is used to solve violent crimes, mysterious accidents, and outbreaks of illness.