10x05 - Soiled Plan

[bunniefuu]

Narrator: the mother of two
young children went missing from

Her suburban home.

[ Tires squeal ]
a few days later, her close

Friend and coworker was k*lled
in a mysterious accident.

Some wondered if there was a
connection.


Exhumed, and forensic science

Uncovered...

The truth.

It's winter in ohio.

Charles mill lake is peaceful
now, but in the summer, it's

Full of activity, punctuated by
the sounds of boats and children

Playing.

Leroy and melody bruce remember
those days fondly.

We used to go out on the
pontoon boat, and I remember

Laying on the front with my
hands out, catching leaves and

Bugs and seeing who could catch
the most in the water.

Narrator: melody's
stepfather, larry bruce, worked

As a driver for roadway
trucking.

Judy was a stay-at-home mom.

My mom was kind of
introverted.

She did not really socialize a
lot because of her speech

Impediment.

She had a hard time with people
understanding what she was

Saying.

Narrator: the speech
impediment, the result of a

Cleft palate, made judy
self-conscious, but when she had

Corrective surgery, her life
changed.

Well, she got a driver's
license, she got a car, she got

A job at mansfield general
hospital in housekeeping, she

Was making friends there.

Narrator: judy loved her job
at the hospital, but on the

Morning of november 2, 1978, she
was too sick to go to work.

She was sick the day before,
she was not feeling well, and as

I came out of my bedroom from
getting dressed, the door was

Cracked about six inches.

I looked into my parents' room,
and I was able to see that she

Was laying there.

Narrator: the children walked
outside to the bus stop.

Their father left with them to
go to work.

[ Car horn honks ]
when the children got home from

School, their mother wasn't
there.

My brother was already home.

He asked me, when I came in the
door, if I knew where mom was

At.

You look that way.

I'll look this way.

Narrator: when larry got home
from work, he, too, was

Concerned and called police to
report her missing.

It appeared that the only
thing missing was mrs. Bruce --

Her car, her purse, her
prescription dr*gs were still

There.

Narrator: and there were no
signs of forced entry or any

Kind of struggle.

We called the office to see
if maybe she was admitted to the

Hospital or if she showed up at
work, and nobody had seen her --

Family, friends -- nobody.

Narrator: after searching all
night, police made an

Unfortunate discovery.

The police just kind of
swarmed into our house, and I

Was standing at the kitchen
sink, doing dishes...

[ Sniffles ]
and they had said that they had

Found my mom...

But she was dead.

Narrator: her body was
discovered in a deserted

Campground along a creek, just a
few feet from a newly paved

Road.

She was in her pajamas and
wrapped in a blanket.

Feet were immaculately
clean -- that was a significant

Thing that led us to believe
that she wasn't m*rder*d at that

Spot.

Narrator: during police
questioning, larry bruce said

That judy had planned to spend
the day home in bed because she

Was sick.

He also said he had no idea
where she might have gone.

The children provided larry with
an alibi, confirming that he had

Left the house with them that
morning.

And larry's time sheets
confirmed he had gone straight

To work.

He pretty much kept his
entire schedule that day.

Nothing was out of order.

There would have been no other
time that he could have

Committed the homicide.

Narrator: police noticed that
larry's shoes had dirt on the

Soles, and they wondered whether
the dirt was from the area

Around judy's body, so larry's
shoes and a dirt sample from the

Campsite were sent to the fbi
for analysis.

The results were inconclusive.

But judy's autopsy revealed
several new clues and raised

Even more questions.

Narrator: judy bruce's body
was sent to the cuyahoga county

Coroner for an autopsy.

The medical examiner ruled the
death a homicide.

The final coroner's report
indicated the cause of death was

Asphyxiation.

She was actually smothered to
death.

Narrator: the time of death
is an inexact science...

But was estimated to be either
shortly before or within a few

Hours after larry and the
children left the house.

The autopsy also revealed that
judy's bladder was empty.

When you consider a person
who is dying of suffocation,

When they die that way, their
bladder evacuates involuntarily.

Narrator: investigators found
no significant urine sample near

Judy's body in the park.

This was another indication she
was k*lled elsewhere.

Interestingly, judy's children
told police...

Their father had complained
about some soiled bedsheets

Shortly after judy disappeared.

And I remember him, came
around, and threw in a bedsheet

Into the trash.

You know, and I was, "why you
burning that?"

He's like, "well, the dog
urinated on it."

Narrator: on hearing this
news, police immediately

Confiscated what remained of the
bedding from the master bedroom.

There was some bloodstaining
on one of the pillowcases, and

There were some unexplained
stains on other blankets on the

Bed.

Narrator: but the forensic
tests at the time were unable to

Identify whose blood and urine
it was.

Back then, the technology did
not exist to detect whether it

Would have been animal, human.

The only technology we had was
to get a type of blood.

In fact, you couldn't even get
the blood type because the

Sample was so small.

Narrator: in the trunk of
larry's car, investigators found

Some oak leaves but little else.

They didn't have a lot of
evidence, and what little

Evidence they did have, forensic
science hadn't come a long way

Toward making it useful.

Narrator: just a few days
later, there was another death

In mansfield.

One of judy's coworkers,
james isaac, was k*lled in a

Traffic accident...

And larry bruce made a startling
revelation.

He told police that isaac was
having an affair with his wife

And accused isaac of k*lling
judy, and then he may have

k*lled himself.

Bruce implied that isaac was
somehow responsible for judy's

Death and k*lled himself due to
his guilt over it.

Narrator: but no one could
corroborate larry's claims, and

The primary focus continued to
be on larry bruce.

We ultimately made the
decision not to press for the

Indictment at that time because
everything we had, at that time,

Was circumstantial.

[ Bell tolls ]
narrator: time passed, and

Judy bruce's m*rder slowly
drifted to the bottom of the

Unsolved case file.

I never forgot the case.

I would drive by their
residence, and we would even

Drive by roadway trucking.

I remember an alarm off once,
talking to a dispatcher at the

Roadway trucking.

I said, "hey, you know what?

What did larry ever, you know,
say about this case?" -- Because

He worked there for several
years after the homicide -- and

The feedback I would get was
that he was the kind of guy that

Was bragging about it -- he
committed the perfect crime.

He got away with it.

Narrator: about a year after
judy's m*rder, larry bruce got

Married again, and the couple
continued to live in the house

In mansfield.

For the next 20 years, the case
went unsolved...

Until a cold-case unit delved
deeper into the death of

Judy bruce.

Narrator: by the year 2000,
police in mansfield, ohio, had a

Total of 17 unsolved m*rder
cases in their files, and local

Officials started to grow
impatient.

So prosecutors did what other
communities were starting to do.

We approached the county
commissioners for $25,000 to set

Up a cold-homicide unit to look
at cases that were unsolved.

Narrator: the first case they
reviewed was the m*rder of

Judy bruce, which by this time
had gone unsolved for more than



Some in law enforcement
suspected her husband, larry,

Had committed the crime, but
they couldn't prove it.

So the new cold-case unit began
their investigation with the oak

Leaves found 20 years earlier in
the trunk of larry bruce's car.

So, it was our theory that
when he opened the trunk to take

The body out, some of those oak
leaves fell into the trunk of

His cadillac.

Narrator: and information
presented in this very

Television series suggested a
new way to test them.

I was watching a
"forensic files" episode, and

They had a story about, out west
in arizona, had done a plant-dna

Case.

Narrator: the crux of that
investigation was a seedpod

Found in a suspect's truck,
which was later matched with

Plant dna to the paloverde tree
next to the victim's body.

Reinbolt contacted the
scientists who pioneered

Plant-dna analysis and asked
them to test the oak leaf found

In larry's trunk to determine if
it came from the oak tree near

Judy's body.

They did go out to the camp
to see if black oaks and red

Oaks grew nearby, and there were
quite a few of them a short ways

Up the street, there.

Narrator: unfortunately, too
many years had passed, and

Scientists were unable to
extract any dna from the leaf.

But to their credit, police
didn't give up.

Investigators decided to retest
the stains on the bedding from

Judy bruce's bedroom.

Dna analysis, which didn't exist
in 1978, determined that they

Were semen.

One stain matched larry bruce's
dna -- judy's husband -- the

Other did not.

When judy was m*rder*d, larry
claimed that judy was having an

Affair with a coworker,
james isaac, who died in a

Suspicious traffic accident days
after judy's death.

To see if it was isaac's dna on
the bedding, investigators

Obtained a court order allowing
them to exhume james isaac's

Body.

When the dna profile from
isaac was compared with the

Unidentified semen on the
electric blanket, it was found

To be not a match, so the semen
on the electric blanket remains

Unidentified.

Narrator: investigators found
no evidence that judy bruce and

James isaac were anything more
than acquaintances.

Next, investigators asked
d*ck bisbing, senior research

Microscopist at
mccrone associates to analyze

The dirt on the bottom of
larry bruce's shoes, which were

Still in evidence.

To do this, bisbing used a
polarized-light microscope.

It's like looking through
polarized sunglasses, and by

Manipulating the light, we can
see different optical

Properties, different optical
features of each of these

Mineral grains.

Their appearance, their color,
their optical properties all

Help us identify the type of
mineral.

Narrator: the dirt on larry's
shoes did not match the samples

Of dirt around judy's body, but
the polarized light revealed an

Important, previously undetected
clue -- these brightly colored

Minerals.

The soil from the shoes
contained calcite, which is

Calcium carbonate.

It could be from limestone, and
that type of material is often

Used in roadways, roadbeds.

Narrator: near judy's body
was a roadway that had been

Paved with new limestone gravel
just days before her body was

Dumped there.

This was the first potential
link between larry bruce and

Where judy's body was found.

Next, investigators sent the
trunk liner from larry's

Cadillac and the blanket judy
had been wrapped in to the

Cuyahoga county coroner's office
for forensic analysis.

We were trying to find any
piece of evidence that we could

That would put mrs. Bruce's body
or the moving pad that she was

Wrapped in into the trunk of
bruce's car or inside his car in

Any fashion.

Narrator: forensic scientist
curtiss jones used tape to

Collect any loose fibers from
the blanket that covered judy's

Body.

Using a comparison microscope,
jones compared the fibers to see

If they were similar.

The three different fiber
types that made up the trunk

Liner were also found on the
moving blanket.

Narrator: but were the fibers
in larry's trunk an exact match

To the fibers from the blanket
covering judy's body?

To find out, jones used fourier
transform infrared spectroscopy,

A technology not available in


The f.d.i.r. Uses infrared
energy, and it passes that

Infrared energy through the
fiber or material that you're

Examining, and the infrared
energy is absorbed or not

Absorbed by the chemical bonds
of the material, and then that

Produces a spectrum of peaks and
valleys that can be used to

Determine what chemical bonds
are present.

Narrator: and the result?

The three fibers from the
blanket were synthetic rayon,

And the three fibers found in
the trunk were also synthetic

Rayon.

The evidence doesn't lie.

You know, in cases, there's both
sides of the story, but the only

Real side that doesn't ever lie
is the evidence.

Narrator: more than two
decades after judy's death,

Larry bruce was arrested and
charged with her m*rder.

And prosecutors also learned
that judy was keeping a dark

Secret -- something that
larry bruce did not want to come

To light.

Narrator: 23 years after
judy bruce's death, her husband,

Larry, went on trial for m*rder.

Prosecutor's first witness was
the couple's son, leroy.

On the morning of his mother's
death, he recalled going into

His parents' bedroom to get a
permission slip signed for

School.

I stood there as he signed
that permission slip, and there

Was basically no movement.

You know, I'm sure mom would
have at least came to to see

What was going on.

Narrator: prosecutors believe
judy was already dead.

After larry got the children off
to school, prosecutors say larry

Wrapped judy's body in a blanket
and put it in the trunk of his

Car.

As he left for work, he waved to
the children at the bus stop,

Hoping they would be his alibi.

Then he went directly to work to
keep his usual schedule.

But after work, he stopped by
the deserted camp and dumped his

Wife's body.

The synthetic rayon fibers from
larry's trunk liner were

Transferred to the blanket
covering judy's body, and

Larry's shoes picked up the
calcite particles from the newly

Paved limestone, where they were
discovered 20 years later by

Alert forensic scientists.

The prosecutors were able to
put up a good-faith effort and

Tell them "this is everything we
know, using modern forensics,

About the evidence that we do
have remaining to us, and we

Have pulled out all the stops,
and here's what we know."

Narrator: prosecutor mayer
saved his most compelling

Witness for last.

From the age of 5 until I was


Me.

If I wanted to go do
something...

He would tell me I would have to
do something for him first.

Narrator: melody was larry's
stepdaughter.

She also presented evidence that
her mother knew what was going

On, and that larry had the
motive to silence her.

When she was a little girl,
before her mother was m*rder*d,

She was being molested by her
father in the bedroom.

By chance, her mother,
judy bruce, came into the

Bedroom, she witnessed the
molestation, she was furious

With her husband, larry bruce, a
vicious argument ensued

Immediately after that -- very
loud, profanities -- and then

The defendant got so worked up
that he took a swing at his wife

And missed her and punched the
wall and broke a bone in his

Arm.

Narrator: the defense
presented no witnesses, arguing

That the prosecution hadn't
proved its case beyond a

Reasonable doubt.

Look at every angle of this,
and you'll see that it's an

Entirely circumstantial case.

Narrator: the jury
deliberated for less than two

Hours.

We, the jury, find the
defendant, larry bruce, guilty

Of the crime of m*rder.

I just --
I just can't believe it's all

Happening.

Narrator: larry bruce was
sentenced to 15 years to life in

Prison.

I was glad that he was being

Convicted, but, in the same
time, I didn't want to be there,

I didn't want to have to deal
with it, I didn't want to face

The reality that this really did
happen.

Narrator: after more than 20
years, old-fashioned police work

And modern forensic science
finally brought justice for

Judy bruce's family.

The forensic evidence was
very important to this case

Because without it, it's very
likely that the jury would have

Acquitted the defendant.

If I could get into a time

Machine and go back to 1978 and

Tell those investigating

Officers the things that would

Be available today, I think it

Would be beyond their

Imagination.