07x04 - Who's Your Daddy

[bunniefuu]

NARRATOR: In 1988, the
body of a young woman

was discovered in an
Ohio River, under ice.

Most of the evidence
found at the crime

scene hairs, fibers,
and fingerprints

had been washed away.

But the victim's
six-year-old son unwittingly

told investigators
all they needed

to know about the k*ller, and
he did it without saying a word.

The clue was in his jeans.

[theme music playing]

That telephone pole about
half way up through there

walk down through and
we'll pick up just trash

and clean up this road.

NARRATOR: A troop of Boy Scouts
headed to Possum Run Creek one

Saturday morning
in January of 1988.

Their mission was
to pick up aluminum

cans for a recycling project.

[picking up cans]

[WALKING ACROSS BRIDGE OVER
RIVER]

Hey guys, come over here.

Look.

What is that down there?

NARRATOR: In the icy
creek in rural Ohio,

they spotted what appeared
to be a mannequin.

DET.

DAVID E. MESSMORE:
They saw something

just under the ice, submerged.

NARRATOR: It was the
body of a young woman.

Local police took every
possible precaution

to preserve trace
evidence by wrapping

the victim's body in a sheet
before taking it to the morgue.

A check of missing
persons reports

identified the
woman as 32-year-old

Margie Coffey, the single
mother of two young children.

She had been reported
missing 10 days earlier.

JOHN ALLEN, JD: The police
had found her vehicle down

off a Park Avenue east by a
bar, and she was a missing

person by the time
this body was located

over by the Mohegan Park.

NARRATOR: The autopsy revealed
that Margie Coffey had been

strangled with her own scarf.

The coroner estimated
she had been

dumped in the creek


the same day she disappeared.

Margie Raimi was
her maiden name.

She was one of six
children who grew up

in the heartlands of
Ohio, on the outskirts

of a town named Butler.

DON STALLARD: And she was
an outgoing girl, personal.

Well, she was a robust
girl and she loved life.

She worked on the farm
and then she would

help her mother on the farm.

They had a lot of cattle to take
care of and she helped in that.

NARRATOR: Margie grew up in
a loving, religious home,

but in her teenage
years, as most kids do,

she yearned for independence,
began spending most of her time

in Mansfield, a larger
city about 15 miles

Northwest of Butler.

She made friends with
an unsavory crowd.

DET.

DAVID E. MESSMORE: She
got into some activities

that were subject to
prosecution, by the law.

And they were mainly street
crimes, that type of thing

that probably were
very low level,

but that's how we got to
be acquainted with her

during our work on the street.

NARRATOR: Those street crimes
allegedly included prostitution

and illegal drug use.

NARRATOR: Eventually,
Margie rejected that life.

She met a man
named Steve Coffey.

The two married and
had a daughter, Angie.

But the marriage soured and
Margie and Steve divorced.

To support herself
and her daughter,

Margie worked as a waitress.

She also enrolled in college
to study law enforcement.

And during this time, Margie had
another child, out of wedlock,

this time a son, Brandon.

Police investigating
her m*rder wondered

if Margie had returned
to the streets

to support her children?

DON STALLARD: Well, I know
her family helped her some,

but she didn't make a lot of
money, and going to school.

No, she didn't
make a lot of money

by working in a restaurant.

NARRATOR: As police knew from
experience, life on the streets

meant special dangers
and a large pool

of potential suspects.

[swings purse at camera]

Get away!
DET.

DAVID E. MESSMORE: Maybe
there's somebody in her past

that has a reason
to want her dead.

Maybe she's done something
or not paid something.

Maybe some street person
has come to this conclusion

they ought to k*ll her.

NARRATOR: With no
suspects or leads,

police hoped that the rushing
water of Possum Run Creek

had not washed away
evidence, which could

lead them to Margie's k*ller.

NARRATOR: When 32 year old
Margie Coffey was found

strangled in a frozen creek,
police wondered if her past

had finally caught up with her?

DET.

DAVID E. MESSMORE: In her
particular case, since she had

a background of some
activity that was certainly

against the law, we looked
into that possibility,

that she may have slipped back
into the drug environment.

NARRATOR: But friends
said that wasn't the case.

Margie had been focusing
her attention on her family

and her education.

DET.

DAVID E. MESSMORE:
They were just

adamant that they had not seen
her; she hadn't been around.

And, to their knowledge,
she completely cleaned up

all of her past activities.

DON STALLARD: Margie was raising
and taking care of the children

on her own, and she
loved her children.

She loved them.

She really loved them.

And I feel that Margie
was a good mother.

I really do.

NARRATOR: She had also
rediscovered religion.

DON STALLARD: I believe she
wanted to be a Christian lady.

From all that I
could gather from her

that's what she was
striving for, to be better,

to live better, to act better,
and forget all about anything

in the past.

NARRATOR: Police learned
that Margie had been actively

dating since her divorce.

Among the men she was
seeing were to Mansfield

police officers, both
of whom were married.

One was Robert Lemon,
a veteran of the force.

DET.

DAVID E. MESSMORE:
He indicated to us

that it had ended some time
before that, probably a year

and a half minimum,
and that he had not

had any contact
with her or had even

spoken to her for any reason.

NARRATOR: The other
was Lieutenant

Charles Oswalt. He, too, said
his relationship with Margie

was over.

LT.JOHN WENDLING: Lieutenant
Oswalt was very much in love

with his wife.

Often times spoke about what
they did on weekends and things

like that.

He was a type of police
officer that other police

officers, I would say,
would try to emulate.

NARRATOR: Lieutenant Oswalt
furnished a police report

indicating he had been
on duty that night

on a drug investigation.

NARRATOR: The trail of Margie's
k*ller was growing cold.

ANTHONY TAMBASCO: We
had no fingerprints.

We had no w*apon.

We had to explore the
other possibilities,

and those possibilities, really,
were going to come from her.

NARRATOR: Margie Coffey was
last seen alive at this diner,

sitting in a booth,
with her school books

open, studying for a class.

Detective David Messmore
interviewed the owner

of the diner, who
said that Lieutenant

Oswalt was in the diner
the same time as Margie.

NARRATOR: The two weren't
sitting together but they

did acknowledge one another.

[LIEUTENANT OSWALT WALKS UP TO
MARGIE AND TAPS HER ARM]

[margie looks up at him]

Hi.

How are you?

DET.

DAVID E. MESSMORE: It was a
very distressing situation.

Not only did I work
with him, I knew

he was a very good policeman,
but I've been friends with him.

And it was just-- it was
very upsetting to me,

to think that he might have been
involved in a crime like that.

NARRATOR: When confronted
with this information,

Lieutenant Oswalt
refused to comment.

[church bells ringing]

NARRATOR: Margie's parents
laid their daughter

to rest, an excruciating task
few parents are prepared for.

DON STALLARD: Margie's
parents, Mr. and Mrs. Raimi,

suffered from that day on.

There was times that they would
just break down and cry when

they would see a
picture of Margie

or when Mrs. Raimi
would talk to me.

NARRATOR: Little did police
realize that Margie's own son

would provide a
tantalizing clue, one that

would lead them to the k*ller.

NARRATOR: As the search
for Margie Coffey's k*ller

continued, a Mansfield
police officer

told homicide investigators
about a suspicious incident

that occurred the night
Margie was k*lled.

The officer said he saw
Lieutenant Charles Oswalt, who

had been linked romantically
to Margie, on foot, out

of uniform, and
behaving strangely

near the police station.

LT.JOHN WENDLING: And he
had a leather jacket on,

which would be
unusual at that time

of the night due to the
fact that he was working.

DET.

DAVID E. MESSMORE: This
officer said, what's going on?

How you doing?

And he, kind of, ignored him.

Then he continued on walking
into the police department,

through the back way.

NARRATOR: Oswalt's behavior
cast doubt on his claim

that he was investigating a
drug operation that night.

JOHN ALLEN, JD: For
him to be nervous

and excited, in that period
of time, was kind of unusual.

That, kind of, took the luster
or the punch out of his alibi.

NARRATOR: In the forensics lab,
Margie Coffey's clothing would

soon tell a story of its own.

ANTHONY TAMBASCO: We had the
scarf, you had leg warmers,

you had a heavy coat.

Once the clothing is
dry, basically, it'll

be hung on a hanger, just like
your clothing would be at home.

There'll be a piece of paper
placed underneath in case

anything naturally falls off.

And then the article is
simply held and scraped

with a spatula,
all the way down,

to help lift these articles
off and let them fall

into the paper to be collected.

NARRATOR: While most
of the trace evidence

had been washed
away by the water,

a very small amount remained.

ANTHONY TAMBASCO: We recovered
a number of hairs and fibers.

In particular, two
fibers, red in color.

The presence of these two
fibers, about a quarter

of an inch in length, and
no more than twice the size

of a human hair across, were
all we had to really work with.

NARRATOR: While
different fibers may

look similar to the naked
eye, under a microscope

they are very distinctive.

The foreign fibers on
Margie's coat and leg warmers

were triangular in
shape, or trilobal.

From the side,
this trilobal shape

gives the appearance of having
a stripe running along the side.

Trilobal carpet is usually
found in high traffic

areas like hotels and automobile
interiors since it hides dirt.

Tony Tambasco took carpet
samples from every location

where Margie had been in
the days before her m*rder.

Tambasco thought he found what
he was looking for in the home

of Margie's parents.

ANTHONY TAMBASCO: At
Marjorie's parents' house

we found a floor mat that
actually had red carpet.

The red carpet fibers
in the floor mat

looked very similar
to those that we

had recovered from the victim.

NARRATOR: But
under a microscope,

that carpet was not similar to
the fibers on Margie's clothes.

Since Lieutenant Oswalt was
seen in the diner with Margie

on the night she
disappeared, Tambasco

wanted to examine the
police cruiser Oswalt

had been driving that night.

Most police vehicles are not
carpeted because of heavy use

and have rubber
flooring instead.

But police records revealed
that on the night in question,

Lieutenant Oswalt was
the watch commander,

and the watch
commander's vehicle

was different from the others.

ANTHONY TAMBASCO:
The unique thing

about that particular
cruiser, cruiser number 306,

was it was a supervisor's car.

It wasn't your standard
police car that you

buy every year with the fleet.

It was bought at
a public auction.

JOHN ALLEN, JD: The Mansfield
police had gone to an auction

and purchased a Chevy
caprice classic, a full size

car for their commanders.

And, of course, the upper
echelon of police department

had a little nicer vehicle
than the guys in the street.

NARRATOR: The
carpet in the watch

commander his car was red.

Tambasco took a small
sample from the vehicle.

At first, it looked similar to
the carpet in Margie's parent's

house, but under a
microscope, the fibers

told a different story,
and were similar,

in all respects, to the fibers
found on Margie's clothing.

ANTHONY TAMBASCO:
We looked at color,

you can see the
color's the same.

We looked at diameter, you can
see the diameter is consistent.

We looked at the
trilobal design,

and the pattern does show that.

NARRATOR: Chemical
tests revealed

that both sets of
fibers had been

dyed with the same chemicals.

But fiber evidence, unlike
DNA or a fingerprint,

is not definitive.

ANTHONY TAMBASCO: The
presence of the fibers,

being consistent with the
fibers in the vehicle,

is not an identification to
the exclusion of all others.

It's not an absolute.

There's no way anyone should
come to court-- there's no way

anyone can come to court and
testify that, that fiber came

from the carpet.

It's just not going to happen.

NARRATOR: But even more damning
evidence against officer Oswalt

would come from Margie's
six-year-old son, Brandon.

NARRATOR: The circumstantial
evidence in Margie Coffey's

m*rder all pointed to
Lieutenant Charles Oswalt,

so did the forensic evidence.

The two red carpet fibers
on Margie's clothing

were microscopically
similar to the carpet

in Oswalts automobile.

But the question haunting
police was motive.

If Oswalt m*rder*d Margie
Coffey, why did he do it?

After Margie had given birth
to her second child, Brandon,

she told social services
that she couldn't identify

the baby's father,
since the pregnancy

was the result of a r*pe.

But later, when she applied
for financial aid at college,

she was required to
identify Brandon's father

and explain why she wasn't
receiving child support.

JOHN ALLEN, JD: When she
became a Jehovah's Witness,

and they began to
counsel with her,

they found these details out.

They said, look, you can't lie.

You're to tell the truth.

DET.

DAVID E. MESSMORE: And she named
Chuck Oswalt as the father.

NARRATOR: With this news,
prosecutors asked Oswalt

to undergo a paternity test.

It revealed that the likelihood
of Oswalt being Brandon's

father was greater than 99%.

Investigators also discovered
that Oswalt had refused

to pay for child support
when Margie asked, possibly,

because he didn't
want his wife to find

out about his infidelity.

JOHN ALLEN, JD:
Lieutenant Oswalt what

was married and had children.

In fact, up until
all of this broke,

his wife didn't know
anything about Margie

Coffey, did not know that he
had a child by another woman.

And so, I'm sure that her
finding that out certainly

was motive for what happened.

NARRATOR: Oswalt allegedly
offered Margie a few thousand

dollars from an insurance
settlement, which Margie

refused, as insufficient.

During Charles
Oswalts m*rder trial,

prosecutors presented one more
piece of evidence against him.

A woman, who had once
worked for police as a Decoy

in prostitution investigations,
Charlene Dry Sawyer,

testified that she too had been
having an affair with Oswalt.

Sawyer claimed, that
Oswalt had not only

told her he m*rder*d
Margie Coffey,

he also provided
details of the crime.

NARRATOR: Sawyer said, that
after Oswalt and Margie saw

one another in the diner, they
went to Oswalts police car

to talk.

They discussed the child
support matter and Oswalts offer

of $3,000 to end the dispute.

Take the 3,000
bucks and get out.

No, it's not enough!

NARRATOR: With Margie's
refusal, the conversation

grew heated and
Margie threatened

to disclose that Oswalt
was Brandon's father.

I will file a law suit
and your wife and kids

will find out about this.

Slut!

[margie hits oswalt]

NARRATOR: Margie slapped him.

[slapping]

NARRATOR: Oswalt
responded by strangling

her with her own scarf.

NARRATOR: The forensic evidence
reveals that Oswalt put

Margie's lifeless body in the
back seat of his police car,

where her coat and
leg warmers picked up

the tiny, red, triangular
shaped carpet fibers.

NARRATOR: Later, prosecutors
say Oswalt drove to the bridge

over Possum Run Creek and
dumped the body into the water,

in the mistaken belief that
any incriminating evidence

would be washed downstream.

[OSWALT DRAGS MARGIE'S
BODY OUT OF THE

CAR AND DUMPS HER IN THE RIVER]

[splash]

LT.JOHN WENDLING: You
know, when it's yellow,

and it waddles, and it
quacks it's probably a duck.

And that's the case
that we had here.

NARRATOR: At his trial,
Lieutenant Oswalt

took the stand in
his own defense

and denied k*lling
Margie Coffey.

He repeated his claim, that
he had been working alone

that night on a
drug investigation

and offered the typed
police report to prove it.

But prosecutors contended
that the report was bogus,

implying that
Oswalt, himself, had

typed the phony report,
after the m*rder,

to give himself an alibi.

The jury found
Lieutenant Charles

Oswalt guilty of
voluntary manslaughter

and abusing a corpse.

He was sentenced to 10
to 25 years in prison.

To this day, Oswalt insists
he did not k*ll Margie Coffey.

DON STALLARD: He
may deny it, and he

may go to the grave denying it.

I think-- I think, he's guilty.

Now, if I'm wrong,
God, forgive me.

NARRATOR: For
residents of Mansfield,

the ultimate betrayal is a
policeman who commits m*rder.

DON STALLARD: I mean, it's
bad enough to m*rder someone,

but then when you supposed to
be protecting people and then

using the office of
authority to k*ll someone,

then that's the lowest
m*rder that I can think of.

LT.JOHN WENDLING: He will never,
ever, ever admit that crime.

I don't care if they keep
him in jail till he dies,

he will go to his grave
with that in his mind.

He will never, ever-- and
I really believe that.

NARRATOR: Prosecutors
say that it

was solid police work and some
luck that helps seal the case.

ANTHONY TAMBASCO: The
presence of these red fibers

in that carpet must be
simply a shot in the dark.

A police car in
our own backyard,

a police car in our fleet.

The uniqueness of
that police car

being bought at
auction, the chance

of that, one in a million.

NARRATOR: And without
the forensic evidence,

Lieutenant Oswalt might not
have been brought to justice.

JOHN ALLEN, JD: I'd say, this
was one of the key pieces

of evidence, and
it would have been

more difficult for a
jury to have convicted

him if not impossible.