05x08 - Material Evidence

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-In , an -year-old girl was abducted in broad daylight

from this softball field in Marshallville, Ohio.

When her badly decomposed body was found one week later,

investigators hoped that the orange triangular-shaped fibers

found at the scene would lead them to the k*ller.

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-Marshallville, Ohio, is a small agricultural community

with a population of just under .

It's the kind of place where everybody knows everybody else,

where people care about each other.

Krista Lea Harrison was a carefree -year-old girl

growing up in a place most residents

thought was exempt from big-city crime.

-Krista Harrison was always around the town.

When we were at the ballpark playing softball, her brother

and I on the local softball team,

Krista was always near the home plate area

there when we were coming in off the field.

Always joking around with us.

-On July , , Krista and a friend, a boy who lived nearby,

were collecting aluminum cans at the softball field, which

was directly across the street from Krista's home.

When the boy went to get a drink,

a van drove up and stopped next to Krista.

The boy told authorities the man forced Krista into his van

and took off.

-I'd been on the force for years

at the time this happened, and I had

never seen anything like this.

We never-- I can't even tell you the last time

we experienced anything-- an abduction

like this of a young child.

So it was very emotional for all of us.

Within hours, police set up road blocks

and issued an All Points Bulletin for the van, which

was described as dark red or brown

with bubble-shaped rear side windows.

Krista's friend described the abductor as a white male age

to with dark curly hair and a mustache.

Volunteers searched the entire area immediately

following the abduction on the ground, in the air,

and also in the local waterways.

All without success.

-We were anticipating maybe a ransom telephone call

to the parents, so we had made arrangements

to record phone calls.

We had set up separate phone lines for them

to use so they wouldn't have to tie up their telephone,

hopefully, waiting to get this ransom call, which never came.

-Six days later in a deserted field just outside of town,

hunters found the badly decomposed

remains of a young girl.

The body was partially wrapped in a clear plastic bag.

Near the body, investigators found a pair

of men's blue jeans, a plaid shirt,

and a pair of black leather gloves.

A few miles away, searchers found a clump of human hair,

a beach towel, and a cardboard box covered with blood.

Forensic tests confirmed that the body

was that of Krista Harrison.

-Mr. Harrison-- Gerald was there a little after I had arrived.

And we told Gerald, you know-- I could not identify her.

She was just so decomposed and I told Gerald,

I said just remember Krista the way she was.

-The autopsy revealed Krista had died of strangulation.

She had also been sexually assaulted.

In Krista's hair, clothing, and on the beach towel found

near the body, forensic scientists

noticed some unusual orange fibers.

-I saw fibers-- several fibers that really stood out.

They were an ugly orange fiber.

-Forensic scientist Jeffrey Lynn had

seen these same orange fibers before,

just eight months earlier.

Similar fibers were found on the body of -year-old Tina

Harmon, who had been r*ped and m*rder*d in a nearby town.

-It was amazing to me that I saw the same fibers on Krista

Harrison that I had seen on Tina Harmon.

Tina Harmon's were so unusual and there were so many of them,

we really thought they were important.

I really thought those were important at that time.

But when I saw them on Krista Harrison,

then I knew we had something very important.

-But there was a problem.

The man convicted of Harmon's m*rder, Herman Ray Rucker,

was in police custody at the time

of Krista Harrison's m*rder.

Rucker was serving a life sentence for that crime.

The evidence against Rucker had been largely circumstantial,

since investigators had not been able to link Rucker

to the distinctive orange fibers.

Investigators now wondered whether the wrong man had been

convicted of Tina Harmon's m*rder.

If so, a serial m*rder*r was on the loose

in the farmlands of Ohio.

When Krista Harrison's body was discovered in a field

miles from her home in Marshallville, Ohio,

investigators had only two clues to the perpetrator's identity.

First, a witness said the abductor was driving

a brown van with bubble-shaped side rear windows.

Second, there were a number of unusual orange fibers

in Krista Harrison's hair and on the beach

towel found near her body.

In the forensics lab, scientists discovered that the fibers were

man-made, specifically polyester.

Under the microscope, the fibers were triangular in shape,

or trilobal.

-The fact that it was polyester and trilobal

indicated to me, even back before we had a suspect,

that it was likely a carpet fiber.

-Forensic scientist Jeffrey Lynn was concerned since he found

the same orange fibers on another victim,

-year-old Tina Harmon, who was r*ped

and m*rder*d eight months earlier.

The migrant farm worker, Herman Ray Rucker,

had already been convicted of Tina Harmon's m*rder

and was serving a life sentence in prison.

-They were too unusual to be seen on the bodies of two

girls, both abducted, both sexually assaulted,

both m*rder*d in Wayne County.

-Investigators realized that the possibility of Krista Harrison

and Tina Harmon both coming into contact

with orange trilobal carpet fibers at the hands of two

different K*llers was extremely unlikely.

-Some quick tests between the two fibers

showed that they compared and that they were the same.

Now people were very nervous because we had,

in the minds of the community, two girls taken

from our village streets and it appeared to be the same person.

-Investigators turned their attention

to the clear plastic bag found wrapped

around Krista Harrison's ankles.

It was unusual because of its thickness and the unique way

the bag had been folded in the manufacturing process.

FBI Special Agent Bill Callis needed

to find the origin of that plastic bag.

He traced it to a manufacturer in Pioneer, Ohio.

The bag found with Krista Harrison was

the same thickness, size, and shape,

and had the same fold patterns as those manufactured

for a line of black leather custom seats for use in vans.

The seats were sold exclusively through a specialty mail order

catalog for Sears Roebuck and Company.

The cardboard box used to transport Krista Harrison's

body was unusual since it was L-shaped, and was positively

identified as the shipping container

for these same black leather van seats.

The next step was to search Sears' records

to identify all Ohio residents who had purchased

these black leather seats in the months

preceding Krista's abduction.

-The next order of business was, of course,

to go to those people and interview them to determine

whether or not they might be a potential suspect in our case.

-There were only people in northern Ohio

who ordered these leather van seats.

But none owned a red, maroon, or brown van

with teardrop-shaped bubble windows

on the back side panel that were clearly

described by the witness.

The k*ller with the orange carpet was still on the loose.

-This guy is obviously out there.

We haven't got him yet.

He's done this before and he's certainly

likely to do it again.

So there was a real urgency to finding this individual.

-The town of Marshallville, Ohio,

mourned the death of Krista Lea Harrison, and life went on.

Although no one felt the same sense of security

they once did.

Weeks passed, then months.

Then the one year anniversary of Krista's m*rder, still

wit no arrest.

To the disappointment of investigators working the case,

it appeared that the trail of the bright orange fibers

had turned cold.

-People became very aware of the safety of their children.

They locked the doors at night.

The kids weren't out of eyesight of a trusted neighbor,

the parents, et cetera.

People did watch their kids a lot closer.

The park became a ghost town.

Children didn't play out there for awhile.

And it was a tremendous apprehension

that this could happen again.

-Investigators wondered whether Krista

Harrison's k*ller would strike again.

And if so, where?

Krista Harrison's k*ller left behind a trail

of physical evidence.

Investigators knew he ordered black leather van seats

from a Sears mail order catalog because the plastic covering

and carton from that purchase were

found with Krista Harrison's body.

They also knew that the k*ller had

orange trilobal-shaped carpet in his van or home.

All they needed now was a suspect.

-The fibers were something that were left behind

by the criminal, but we didn't have

the second part of the equation.

We needed to match those fibers with fibers

in the possession of a suspect or a criminal.

-It took police an entire year before they finally

got the break they needed, and they

got it from a most unlikely source.

miles from where Krista Harrison was abducted,

the manager of a local gas station, a woman we'll

call Debbie, was doing some maintenance work

outside when she was abducted at gunpoint.

-Don't move.

You're coming with me.

-She was driven to an unknown location.

And over the next several hours, her head was shaved.

She was beaten, assaulted, and tortured with electricity.

-It was sadistic, inhuman.

And no one should be out on the street

after they have done what they did to me.

And I was at the time.

-The man tortured her by taking a lamp cord

and cutting the wire and plugging it in,

and then using the two electric leads.

-I was tortured repeatedly.

It was the blood that was everywhere.

It was on the ceiling.

But it was in a hallway, you know,

on a bench is how I was tortured with four limbs tied.

-The next morning, Debbie's attacker

left her handcuffed and chained to the bed.

-If you try to escape, I'll k*ll you.

I'm going out.

I won't be long.

-After hours of captivity, still bleeding from her wounds,

Debbie's enormous will to survive took over.

-You know, I even thought at one point

I'd have to eat my thumbs if I could.

I mean, I was so desperate to get out

because I knew he was going to k*ll me.

-Eventually, Debbie freed one of her hands from the ropes

and then was able to free her ankles.

This left the excruciatingly painful process

of attempting to pull her remaining

hand through the metal frame of the handcuff.

Miraculously, she succeeded.

She grabbed a bathrobe and fled.

Once outside, Debbie had no idea where she was.

So she turned to the only place she could think of for help.

-And I looked up to God, and I said, God, I need a sign.

I need help.

I don't know where I'm at.

And a poodle barked so I went to the house.

And she was a wonderful, wonderful lady, Mrs. Smith.

-Mrs. Smith immediately phoned the police.

-She was so badly bruised it looked

like deep purple underwear that she was wearing.

-It was God's will.

I'm a miracle as far as escaping.

It was a miracle.

-Debbie identified the man who had

kidnapped her as Robert Anthony Buell.

Buell worked for the city of Akron, Ohio,

in the planning department, was college educated,

dating a local attorney, and was a respected member

of the community.

Faced with the evidence against him,

Buell pleaded no contest to the charge of kidnapping and r*pe.

But police couldn't help but notice that Buell was driving

a brown van, similar to the one seen

at Krista Harrison's abduction.

Although it did not have the same bubble-shaped windows

in the back the witness clearly described,

Buell's van did have an orange carpet in the back.

Robert Buell denied he was involved

in Krista Harrison's abduction.

Buell's attorney pointed out that even if the carpet

in the back of Buell's van was similar to the carpet fibers

found on Krista Harrison, they were not unique

since many other Ohio residents had similar carpet

in their home, office, or automobiles.

-And even though this polyester trilobal ugly orange color was

pretty unique, certainly there are millions

of other fibers like it in the world.

This is not like a fingerprint comparison.

This is not like a DNA comparison.

This is not a definitive match.

-What else would prosecutors find out

about these unusual orange fibers?

Would there be another link to sew up the case?

A year after the m*rder of -year-old Krista Harrison,

police finally had a suspect in -year-old Robert Buell,

an employee of the city of Akron, Ohio.

He had been arrested for the kidnapping and r*pe of a gas

station manager, who escaped after

grueling hours of t*rture.

And in a surprise discovery in the back of Buell's van,

investigators found orange polyester trilobal carpet

similar to the fibers found on Krista Harrison's body.

-We now had the second part of the equation.

We had the fibers from Krista's hair,

we had the fibers from Krista's clothing,

we had the fibers from the Budweiser blanket.

And we now had something to compare it to.

The fibers from the van.

-To see how rare or common this carpet was,

investigators tracked the manufacturer of the carpet

to the JP Stevens Company in Canton, Ohio.

Factory records indicated that this particular carpet was not

a big seller because of it's color.

-They had only ever manufactured ,

square yards of this carpeting.

Their records also showed that of that , square yards,

only square yards was ever shipped to northern Ohio.

-Further investigation revealed that Robert Buell had purchased

two black leather van seats from Sears and Roebuck on June ,

just three weeks before Krista's m*rder.

The plastic bag which covered those seats,

along with the cardboard shipping box,

were both found with Krista Harrison's body.

Robert Buell also owned a van similar to the one

at Krista Harrison's abduction.

It was similar but not identical, since Buell's van

did not have to teardrop-shaped bubble windows

the witness described.

However, neighbors told police that Buell

had removed the bubble-shaped side windows

and installed sliding rectangular ones shortly

after Krista Harrison's m*rder.

Inside Robert Buell's home was even more evidence linking

him to Krista Harrison's m*rder.

Police discovered Robert Buell owned a pair of jeans

identical in size, make, and with the same wear patterns

as the discarded jeans found near Krista Harrison's body.

Tiny specks of beige and blue paint

also found on the discarded jeans matched

the beige and blue paint samples on the walls

of Robert Buell's home.

Black spray paint from Buell's garage

was found on the cardboard box found near Krista's body.

Prosecutors believe that Buell took Krista Harrison

to his home immediately following the abduction.

The orange carpet fibers from the van

were later found in Krista Harrison's hair.

After the m*rder, Buell placed Krista's body

in the plastic bag from one of his new van seats,

then placed the body inside the cardboard shipping box

that held those seats.

Buell dumped the body miles outside of town in a field.

A little further away, Buell discarded

the jeans and shirt he had been wearing.

Tests on the bones indicated the body had been in extremely high

temperatures for quite some time,

an indication the body was in the vehicle for days

before it was dumped in the field.

Robert Buell never realized that the unusual orange carpet

fibers from his van, along with the ability

to track the plastic bag and the cardboard box,

would be his undoing.

On April , , a jury found Robert Anthony Buell

guilty of the kidnapping, sexual as*ault, and m*rder

of -year-old Krista Lea Harrison

and sentenced him to death in the electric chair.

Herman Ray Rucker, the man convicted of Tina Harmon's

m*rder, won a new trial since the same orange tribal carpet

fibers were discovered at that crime scene.

Rucker was later acquitted.

Prosecutors believe that Robert Buell

may have been involved in Tina Harmon's m*rder.

Robert Buell denies this, and no charges have been filed.

Investigators agree that if it hadn't been for Debbie's

courage, perseverance, and will to survive,

Robert Buell might never have been apprehended.

-I have to believe that Krista is watching,

watching us-- all of us.

And maybe she was the angel that helped me, you know?

God could have gave her wings and she

could have helped me escape too.

You know?

And I'm sure she knows, you know, where Buell is.

So, you know, he can't hurt another person,

another child ever.

-I knew that when I first saw the fibers on the victim,

they had a potential to be very important.

And they turned out to be a very definitive link

between this individual and Krista Harrison.

-This case was built on scientific evidence,

and the fiber evidence was the scientific evidence that

allowed the jury to find Buell guilty of k*lling Krista

Harrison and impose the death penalty for that crime.

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