11x12 - Capitol Crimes

[bunniefuu]

A hit and run driver tried

to remove all
evidence of the crime.

The vehicle was repaired,
washed, polished,

vacuumed, then sold
to a new owner.

Was it possible that some
forensic evidence remained?

It was late in the
evening on a hot summer

night in Harrisburg,
Pennsylvania,

the state capital.

The streets were empty.

As Artie Allen was driving
home, he saw something odd.

There were sparks flying
over the top of a jeep.

The brake lights went on.

Then it sped away.

Allen stopped and
on the sidewalk

found a man unconscious
and bleeding profusely.

The sparks he saw were
from the man's cigarette.

A short time later,
paramedics declared

the victim dead at the scene.

My first impression

was that the pedestrian had
stepped out into traffic

and was hit by a
vehicle that was

traveling south
on Cameron Street.

There really wasn't anything
that we could reconstruct

to say how fast the
vehicle was traveling.

The victim was


a former Marine, who worked as
a day laborer and lived nearby.

Cains was unmarried
and had no children.

Well, I was angry, upset.

Because it was a hit and run,
we didn't know who did it.

We didn't know... I
didn't know if they

would find out who did it.

The witness, Artie Allen,

said the hit and run
vehicle was a dark SUV,

but he wasn't sure of its make,
model, or license plate number.

The scene itself provided
very little evidence.

We had
two scuff marks with blood

in the right lane
of the roadway,

as well as 20 plus pieces of
lens fragments from a vehicle.

Police collected the
pieces of glass and plastic

at the scene and
took them to the lab.

Officer Lyda, who

was one of the investigators
that responded to the scene.

I gave him the task of piecing
together, if possible, the lens

fragments that we
found at the scene.

Lyda resorted
to one of the oldest

forensic techniques, what's
known as a physical fit.

Like a puzzle,
using scotch tape,

he connected pieces
that appeared to match.

Some were no more than slivers.

It was tedious.

There's numerous pieces and
just matching the lens pieces

together was tedious,
but I was determined.

After three long
days, the pieces of broken lens

provided some
useful information.

There was a Chrysler
car company logo

along with the
manufacturer's code number.

From that, he was able
to identify the vehicle.

The gentleman I
talked to was actually a parts

manager and was able to narrow
down the vehicle to a '96

or a '97 Jeep Cherokee, Laredo,
or even a Grand Cherokee.

At the autopsy
the medical examiner

found black paint chips on
Kenneth Cains' body, most

likely from the vehicle
that k*lled him,

and he also recovered glass
from Cains' elbow, which

had gone through the windshield.

The toxicology report showed
that Cains had been drinking.

Mr. Cains had a blood

alcohol content of 0.17%.

That state of
inebriation probably

contributed to this accident,
in the sense that he stumbled

off the sidewalk
into the street.

To find the
driver, investigators

had to quickly locate the
black 1996 or '97 jeep,

but there were
thousands in the area.

Otherwise, with
some body repairs,

the driver could
cover up his crime.

As with all hit
and run accidents,

police began their investigation
by contacting local body shops

to see if anyone had
brought in a black jeep

that had front end body damage.

We did get a
couple of garages that called

in, and we would
go to the garages

and look at the vehicle, and
none of the vehicles' damage

matched the damages that
we were looking for.

Months passed
with no solid leads.

There was only one
witness to the accident.

No others came forward.

Investigators began to
worry if they'd ever

find the person who
k*lled Kenneth Cains.

This accident
had really fallen off the map,

in terms of news
coverage in Harrisburg,

very quickly after it occurred.

It was just another
unfortunate traffic accident,

in which somebody
had lost their life.

It went cold.

We stopped getting tips.

We didn't get any calls
for many more repair shops,

and at that time, which
was about a month later,

we just put it on hold, and we
moved on to current accidents.

Then, about six months
later, police got an unsigned

Christmas card
with a tantalizing

piece of information.

To Whom It
May Concern, this past July

a hit and run driver k*lled
a man on Cameron Street.

I have heard that state
representative, Tom Druce,

was out drinking that night.

The representative traded
in his state-leased vehicle

the next day.

It was a black jeep.


Thomas Druce

was a four-term Republican
state representative.

He's tremendously
smart politically,

had great political sense,
was a tremendous, effective

legislator as well, for
somebody so relatively young.

He was only all of 40, which,
of course, in political years,

is still a pretty young
guy, and he just sort of

had that aura about
him of a guy...

And you can see that in
people... of a guy on the rise.

The card was
postmarked from downtown

Harrisburg, and
police thought that

the handwriting
looked like a woman's.

The Christmas card, I believe,

came from someone that works
close with Druce, possibly

a secretary, and
perhaps a jilted lover.

I was somewhat suspicious.

It's not uncommon to get
tips that prove to be false.

Investigators checked
with the Department of Motor

Vehicles and discovered that
Tom Druce was driving a leased

black jeep that
had been provided

for him by the taxpayers
of Pennsylvania.

I decided to convene a team

or a task force
of investigators.

I knew this was going
to be a different type

of investigation.

When police questioned Druce,

he was cooperative and
denied any involvement

in the hit and run accident.

On the night of
the fatal accident,

Druce said he was
with several staff

members having a few drinks.

Afterwards, he said he
stopped by his office

at the state capital,
picked up some files,

then got onto the Pennsylvania
Turnpike to drive home.

He admitted he was in a
minor traffic accident,

but said it happened on
the Pennsylvania Turnpike

when he hit a traffic barrel
on the side of the highway.

He filed a
claim with his insurance company

and told the insurance
carrier that he struck a sign

on the Pennsylvania Turnpike
while he was in route home

that particular evening.

The insurance company
paid $3,500 to fix Druce's SUV.

It was repaired.

Then Druce returned the vehicle
to the leasing company a week

after the accident
and got a new vehicle.

Initially
Druce said that it was time

to get a new lease and that
the mileage on his lease

was getting high.

Then, investigators realized

there was a way to
substantiate his story.

If Druce was telling the truth,
that the accident happened

as he drove home on the
Pennsylvania Turnpike,

then the security cameras at his
office building's parking lot

would show there was no
body damage to his vehicle

before he got onto the highway.

The Capitol
Complex has its own police

department, and the whole
complex is photographed,

but it's kind of amazing
that, that night,

that the gate that Druce
entered, that camera

malfunctioned, and, in fact,
the capitol cop that was working

that gate retired right
after the Druce investigation

became public.

A fascinating coincidence.

Are you going to resign?

When the press learned
that state representative, Tom

Druce, had been driving a
vehicle similar to the one

leaving the scene of a
fatal hit and run accident,

there were all sorts of
questions and very few answers.

Who wants somebody
like that for their rep?

A m*rder*r.

That's what he is, a m*rder*r.

From the start,

there was a lot of concern
about a white politician,

from a wealthy area outside
of Philadelphia, getting

special treatment from the
authorities at the expense

of this poor, down on his
luck African American.

I thought that Druce was getting

special treatment
because of who he was.

After the accident,
had the jeep prepared,

then returned it to the leasing
company, who, in turn, sold it

at a car auction, where it was
purchased by a New York State

car dealership and then
sold to another customer

as a used vehicle.

And six months had passed
since the accident.

Even if investigators
found the jeep,

would it reveal anything
useful after all this time?

I didn't think
we were going to find anything

from the road grime
and dirt, water,

and everything getting in there.

We had no eye witnesses

who could put Tom Druce
behind the wheel of a car,

driving at that
location, at that time.

So it was going to be kind
of imperative that there be

some type of physical
evidence to connect

him with the crime scene.

With the help of
New York State officials,

investigators found
the jeep's new owner

and impounded the vehicle.

We took the
vehicle up to the state police

mechanical garage up on Street,

and with the assistance
of state police,

dismantled the passenger
front end of the vehicle

to gather evidence.

First, they measured
the height of the passenger

side mirror and compared
it to the severe bruise

on the left side of Cains' body.

The height and size
were identical.

And they also found what
looked like a human hair.

It was caught in the seam,

on the right side mirror,
where it's spring loaded,

so that if there's impact there,
it flexes back and then comes

closed again.

Next, they
disassembled the vehicle.

You basically
break the car down into a grid,

and you start at one
spot and work your way

all the way through, and then
you come back and do it again.

By putting an extreme amount
of light onto a surface area,

very small dust particles,
hair, fibers, stuff,

and also by using
an oblique lighting

or a side-lighting
technique, a lot of times

you'll see materials
that you would

not see with the naked eye.

And with this technique,

he found some blue fibers still
present on the right front

tire, and there were
shards of broken glass

in the crevice with
the windshield wipers.

Was it possible
these shards were

from the broken windshield?

If you're going
to search everything, you search

every pocket, crevice, nook,
cranny that you can find.

The glass, fiber, and hair

were sent to the
forensics lab for testing.

To see if the shards of
glass matched the glass taken

from the victim's
elbow, scientists

tested its refractive index.

An example of this is

if you look at a glass of
water with a spoon or a knife

or a fork in it, you'll see
that the knife or fork appears

to be going in a straight line
and, once it hits the water,

it looks like it's offset.

The shards were
ground into tiny pieces, placed

in an oil solution, then heated.

So what you're trying to do

is to get the
liquid and the glass

to be at the exact
same refractive

index at the same time,
and, when that happens,

the glass becomes invisible.

The glass from
Kenneth Cains' elbow

had the same refractive index
as the broken windshield

pieces found in Tom Druce's SUV.

Next, scientists took
some paint from the jeep

and compared it to paint
found on Kenneth Cains' body.

The samples were heated
to 700 degrees centigrade.

That intense
heat blows the sample apart,

but the sample blows apart the
same way every time because

of the heat, the amount of
heat and the amount of time

that it's applied.

Both paint samples
had identical reactions,

but the paint and glass
found on the victim

could have come from
thousands of other jeeps, not

just the hit and run vehicle.

So investigators tested
their last two pieces

of evidence, the fibers
and the human hair.

Fibers from Kenneth Cains' jeans
were compared to the fibers

found in the wheel well
of Tom Druce's jeep.

Both were cotton and
identical in shape and color,

but the most telling
was the human hair.

Its shape and thickness
told investigators

it was an arm hair.

Under a comparison microscope,
the hair from the jeep

was compared to an arm hair
from the victim, Kenneth Cains.

You would look
for, first of all, the size

and the shape of the hair,
the color and the shading.

You'd look for pigmentation
granules and the size of those

and the distribution of
those, and any other physical

characteristics that
would appear on the hair.

Forensic analysts concluded
that the single human hair found

lodged in the hinge of
the passenger side mirror

was microscopically consistent
with Kenneth Cains' hair.

After all this time,
it was still there.

I firmly believe Tom
Druce washed that car the night

of the incident or
shortly thereafter.

The car was then
traded in, resold,

I'm sure had been washed
many times in the interim

before we recovered it, and to
recover that type of evidence,

linking someone to a
crime, is really amazing.

Seven months after the accident,

Thomas Druce was
charged with homicide

by vehicle in the hit and
run death of Kenneth Cains.

He was also charged
with insurance fraud,

leaving the scene
of an accident,

and tampering with evidence.

Druce did try
and cover up the accident.

From the minute the
accident occurred,

he took deceptive step
after deceptive step

to throw investigators
off the scent of him being

involved in this
particular crash.

He was never admitting

that he had hit Mr. Cains.

He admitted that
he had an accident,

and he admitted some uncertainty
as to what he may have hit.

He claimed that he
thought he had hit a sign,

but, obviously, he never stuck
around to report the accident

and find out.

But the evidence
told another story.

By his own admission, Tom Druce
was drinking with some staff

members on the night
of the fatal accident.

No one knows whether
he was intoxicated.

Kenneth Cains had also
been drinking that night

and was walking
along Cameron Street,

presumably on his way home.

The witness said Druce applied
his brakes, but kept going.

Prosecutors believe
Druce knew immediately

he had hit someone or something.

The broken windshield
alone indicated this.

Druce said he
drove to his office

a few blocks away, possibly
to survey the damage.

Why the security cameras
in the parking lot

malfunctioned that night
is still a mystery.

The next day prosecutors think
Druce continued the cover up

by washing the jeep, then
taking it in for repairs.

He filed an inaccurate
insurance claim,

when he lied about where
the accident occurred.

He was just
worried about himself.

He was worried about his career.

He's concerned about his career.

He's concerned about himself.

I don't think he would have
cared who it would have been,

had it been a poor white
person, a poor Hispanic,

whoever it was.

He was concerned about himself.

If Druce had just stopped

at the scene of the accident, I
wouldn't be sitting here today

talking about the
Tom Druce case.

He would have not been
charged with hit and run.

He would not have
tampered with the vehicle,

tampering with evidence,
and he would not

have lied or committed
insurance fraud.

Six months later,
after the jeep had been

repaired, washed, waxed,
vacuumed, and sold

to a new owner, there was
still a substantial amount

of evidence remaining
on the vehicle, which

linked it to Kenneth
Cain's death.

Glass from the
windshield matched

the glass in Cains'
elbow and arm hair,

consistent with
Kenneth Cains', was

in the passenger side mirror.

Fibers consistent with
the victim's jeans,

were found in the
jeep's wheel well,

and paint, like that
from Tom Druce's jeep,

was found on
Kenneth Cains' body.

But I can only imagine

that he had to be
devastated beyond belief

to know that we
recovered that vehicle

and we're going to obviously
process that forensically.

When they found the automobile,

I thought, yes, they
would find evidence.

I didn't think that he
could wash all of that away.

It really sort
of is a Greek You know,

you have the young hero,
who's close to having

all of his dreams realized.

You can t*rture the
metaphor even more

and say he got a little
bit too close to the sun

and fell very far, very fast.

In September of


Thomas Druce accepted
a plea bargain.

He pled guilty to leaving the
scene of an accident, evidence

tampering, and insurance fraud.

He served two years in
prison, paid a civil fine

to Kenneth Cains' family
in the amount of $100,000,

and resigned his position
as state representative.

Sometimes it astonishes me

what you can come up with,
with the smallest things.

It just goes to show you that
every little piece that you

collect has a very important
role in your investigation.