06x04 - Hand Delivered

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NARRATOR: In , police in California

received an anonymous letter which identified

a pair of severed hands as those of a Navy pilot

who had been m*rder*d.

The letter described the m*rder in gruesome detail.

Investigators searched for some clue

to the identity of the author and the k*ller.

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San Diego, the second largest city in California.

Its bay is one of the finest natural harbors

is in the world, and is home to one of the largest Naval bases

is in the country.

In , workers at the San Diego Fibres Corporation

were sifting through some cardboard in a recycling bin.

They made a gruesome discovery-- two human hands.

LT.

JIM COLLINS: First I wasn't sure that this was legitimate.

I thought, a pair of human hands found

in a dumpster, seemed a little bit strange.

-And we collected evidence as if it

was a normal homicide with a complete body.

This was a little bit different because all we had were hands.

NARRATOR: X-rays showed degenerative damage

of the joints, consistent with an individual over age .

And the size of the fingers and knuckles

indicated they were men's hands.

The right hand had one distinctive feature,

the thumbnail was missing.

Detectives checked local hospitals and morgues

to see if they had a body of an elderly man without hands.

On the other side of town, Mary Mead and Terry

Holland were beginning to worry.

They hadn't seen their father, Don Harden, in more than a

week.

MARY MEAD: And I called everybody

that I could possibly get a hold of.

Have you seen him, have you heard from him?

Nobody had heard anything.

So that, that's at the point where I really got scared

because I thought where would he have gone?

-It's very hard to explain.

You go through scared, and then almost an anger,

and then worry.

NARRATOR: When police learned that Don Harden was missing

the thumbnail of his right hand, they knew immediately,

and the fingerprint analysis confirmed that the hands were

those of -year-old retired Navy pilot Don Harden.

TERRI HOLLAND: It's a shock.

I felt that, that we were in some badly

produced police story from TV.

I mean this doesn't happen in real-life.

And it just really through us for a loop.

NARRATOR: When homicide detectives searched

Don Harden's home, they found evidence of robbery.

The television, VCR, and microwave oven

were all missing.

So was Harden's pickup truck.

The TV Guide was open to March , which was probably

the last day Don Harden was home.

Small drops of blood were found in the kitchen,

and it appeared that detergents and bleach had been used

to wash the kitchen and bathroom floors.

TERRI HOLLAND: We were under the impression

that it was either a missing person's report, or a theft

involved with a missing person.

You never lose hope.

You never lose hope.

NARRATOR: Don Harden was a widower

who had moved to San Diego a few years earlier

to be near his daughters.

Neighbors described Harden as ornery and difficult.

But his daughters remembered him as a loving father.

MARY MEAD: One of my cherished thoughts that I have of him

is that every time I spoke to him on the telephone,

at the end of our conversation, I always said I love you dad,

and he'd say I love you too kiddo.

NARRATOR: Harden had a history of helping those in need.

He often hired homeless men to do odd jobs around his property

and often let them live in a camper in his backyard.

TERRI HOLLAND: We were very comforted

knowing that there was somebody there in case of an emergency.

That my father could be taken care of immediately.

MARY MEAD: Wow! I think that's really great.

There's a guy there that can kind of keep an eye on Dad.

He's kind of a companion to Dad.

It gives him someone, you know, someone to talk to.

He helps him out.

You know, I felt good about it.

NARRATOR: Police were on the lookout

for the items stolen from Harden's home.

DET.

TERRY LANGE: We, in fact, did recover

some of Mr. Harden's property.

I believe it was a wallet and a driver's

license and maybe some army medals.

And we followed that up, on that,

to find out if we could-- if that

would lead back to a suspect.

That was kind of a dead end.

It was found in a dumpster.

And we really couldn't put that back to a viable suspect.

NARRATOR: Investigators had no idea what happened

to the rest of Don Harden's body,

but they suspected something terrible

happened inside his home.

A pair of severed hands found at the San Diego recycling plant

were identified as those of -year-old Don

Harden, a retired Navy pilot.

A search of Harden's home revealed

evidence of burglary and v*olence.

DET.

JAMES TOMSOVIC: We were in the kitchen.

And the kitchen floor had a fine white powdery substance

unevenly applied over the whole floor.

It was pretty obvious that some cleanser

had been used to clean the floor up.

-We noticed that there were blood-- blood spots

throughout the carpet which led from the kitchen around

through the living room and towards the bathroom.

NARRATOR: Behind the hamper, detectives found a blood stain

and some human tissue inside the heating grate.

To find out whether blood had been cleaned up,

detectives administered luminol, a chemical which fluoresces

when it comes into contact with the iron component of blood,

even after it has been removed with water and detergents.

GARY DORSETT: When you spray luminol

it doesn't really hurt the blood itself.

It helps you find it.

So it doesn't compromising the evidence,

it just helps you locate the evidence.

It helps you find the scenario as far as what happened.

It's a presumptive, it's not conclusive,

but it's a tool that we use.

NARRATOR: After spraying the luminol

the lights are extinguished and the camera,

with high-speed film, captures the images.

GARY DORSETT: It

of luminol I had ever seen in my life.

It glowed like a Christmas tree.

NARRATOR: Police found a huge amount of blood

on the kitchen floor and a blood trail leading from the kitchen

to the bathroom, and in the bathroom

there was even more blood.

DNA tests revealed the blood was Don Harden's.

The amount of blood led forensic pathologists

to conclude that Harden could not

have survived such a devastating attack.

MARY MEAD: I go over to the couch and we sit down.

And he says, there is positive proof

that your father was k*lled in the kitchen

and he was dismembered in the bathroom.

And he is dead.

It's positive proof that he is dead.

-It didn't sink in for-- for quite some time.

But there's disbelief.

There's the question why.

What could have possibly provoked it?

NARRATOR: Harden led a simple life in retirement,

similar to other Naval retirees in San Diego.

So who would want him dead?

And who would go to such lengths to conceal the m*rder?

The day before he disappeared, neighbors

saw Don Harden with one of the homeless men

he allowed to live in his backyard camper.

His name was Dale Whitmer, a -year-old drifter,

who had a police record for vagrancy and intoxication

but no past history of v*olence.

DETECTIVE: He's going out to the car.

He's carrying something wrapped up in a piece of cloth.

A bundle-like.

Putting it in the rear seat.

NARRATOR: Whitmer denied any knowledge

of Don Harden's whereabouts.

Whitmer, said that Harden had loaned him the pickup truck,

but hadn't seen him since.

He said he worked for Harden on and off for years.

And said he regarded the old man almost like a father.

But friends and neighbors disputed that.

DET.

JAMES TOMSOVIC: Dale had told other people, neighbors,

that the old man was bothering him,

and that he was really getting mad,

and that he was tired of the old man poking him and calling

him names and belittling him.

DETECTIVE: I want you to take your time.

I want you to look at it closely.

NARRATOR: During the police interrogation

Whitmer, was shown a photograph of the severed hands.

-They're, uh, Don Harden's hands.

-How did you know that? DET.

JAMES TOMSOVIC: And we asked how he could know such a thing

and he just said he'd grown accustomed to seeing them

over the year that they'd been together.

And, uh, he just recognized them as being Mr. Harden's hands.

NARRATOR: But Whitmer would say no more.

When police asked him to take a lie detector test, he refused.

Whitmer's fingerprints were found inside Harden's home,

but since he did odd jobs for Harden, this wasn't unusual.

LT.

JIM COLLINS: Mr. Whitmer, was very nonchalant.

Um, he talked to us, and had an answer

for almost every question the we had.

And just told us that, I don't know where is,

he asked me to do a few things for him.

I was driving his truck because he let me,

he asked me to take some things from his house

and give them to other people.

And I did.

NARRATOR: With no other leads, the case of Don Harden's

disappearance went unsolved for over

a year, until police received an anonymous letter that contained

details of Don Harden's m*rder that

hadn't been released to the public.

Forensic evidence indicated that Don Harden had been m*rder*d

inside his home, but all investigators ever

recovered were his severed hands.

More than a year after Don Harden's disappearance,

police received a tip.

An anonymous letter arrived at police headquarters

containing details about Don Harden's m*rder.

DET.

TERRY LANGE: When I read it, I realized

that whoever wrote the letter, or provided the information

for the letter, knew something about our crime.

There were things in the letter that only a suspect would know.

I got real excited about it.

NARRATOR: The writer said that his friend, Bob,

had identified Don Harden's k*ller.

MAN [VOICEOVER]: He was m*rder*d by Dale Whitmer.

Dale hated Mr. Harden, who abused him by hitting him

with a cane if he didn't work hard enough.

Dale's a heroin addict who lived behind Mr. Harden's home

for a year or so before the m*rder.

He put the body into the bathtub, dismembered his body,

put it in garbage bags, and buried different bags

all over the county and Mexico.

NARRATOR: Harden's dismemberment in the bathtub

was the information that had not been released to the public.

The letter went on to say that Bob would not come forward

to testify against Dale Whitmer,

MAN [VOICEOVER]: I asked him to contact you directly

but he didn't feel like you could do it.

Bob is convinced that Dale will know

Bob is the source of the information,

and may try to silence him or hurt him in some way.

NARRATOR: It was clear that the writer of the letter

wanted to help but did not want to get involved.

MAN [VOICEOVER]: Good luck, Detective.

NARRATOR: The forensic documents office at the San Diego police

department analyzed the letter.

And looked at the postmark for a clue to its origin.

The letter wasn't mailed with stamps,

but had gone through a postal meter,

the type businesses normally use.

Each postal meter prints a number

on the envelope, which is the meter's registration number.

But the writer had covered the number

with white ink in an effort to conceal the letters origin.

-We can look at letters for trace evidence, latent

evidence, and in this case obliterated evidence.

And quite often find something that would allow us to source

that document.

But we can't always.

NARRATOR: Using what is known as a Video Spectral Comparator,

various light sources and filter combinations

can often reveal what is hidden underneath ink and markers.

The first attempts to see the meter number were unsuccessful.

So Hugh Curfman, the operator of the comparator,

tried looking through opposite side of the envelope

by cutting it in half.

He then used a blue green light to penetrate the white ink

and it worked.

HUGH CURFMAN: So it was a pretty clear image.

And Detective Lange looked at it and quickly

said, well, there it is.

NARRATOR: The number of the meter, .

The initials PB on the postmark indicated

the manufacturer, Pitney Bowes.

The serial number revealed the state, city, street name,

and office address of the postal meter.

It was located at Davis Capital Management

in La Mesa California.

The owner of the company was Mark Davis,

who was also a bishop in the Mormon Church.

When confronted by police, Davis admitted

that he wrote the anonymous letter.

The source of his information was a member of his church.

But Davis refused to identify the source further,

citing the religious privilege that

exists between the clergy and a church member.

Prosecutors took Mark Davis to court

and the judge ruled against him.

DAVID RUBIN: The religious privilege hurdle

is not absolute, in the sense that not every communication

with a clergyman is protected.

In this instance the judge found that there was actually

a good argument that this was not protected

by the priest/penitent or clergyman/penitent privilege.

NARRATOR: The court ruled that the information might

have been privileged at one time.

But once Davis wrote the letter to police,

the privilege was broken.

Mark Davis complied with the court ruling

and identified the source of the information.

Bob was Dale Whitmer's own daughter, Andrea.

DAVID RUBIN: She was the trickiest, most difficult,

most sensitive witness we had to deal with, in that,

she loved her father, even though he

had m*rder*d this man.

And that's something that you would expect.

She also never expected to be found out and yet she was.

And she was dragged into this.

NARRATOR: Dale Whitmer, m*rder was

arrested and charged with m*rder.

JUDGE: Sir, could you state your true name, please?

NARRATOR: Dale Calvin Whitmer.

NARRATOR: On September , , Dale Whitmer,

went on trial for the m*rder of Don Harden.

He pleaded not guilty.

The star witness against him, his daughter Andrea,

found herself in a difficult position.

DAVID RUBIN: If she lies on the stand to protect her father,

she betrays her God.

If she tells the truth on the stand,

she is true to her religion, but she betrays her father.

Which one do you choose, if you're Andrea Whitmer?

NARRATOR: Andrea Whitmer, chose to tell the truth.

And she corroborated everything that Mark

Davis had written in his letter.

The letter said, Dale Whitmer was a heroin

addict and desperately needed money.

Prosecutors believe that on March , ,

Dale Whitmer walked into Don Harden's kitchen

and k*lled him.

The motive was robbery and revenge

for past abusive treatment.

The luminol evidence suggests that Harden was bleeding

profusely in the kitchen, and the body

was dismembered in the bathtub.

Traces of blood and human tissue were

found behind the hamper on the heating grate.

Whitmer, later removed the blood evidence

with water and detergents, but the iron component in the blood

was easily detected by the luminol.

Whitmer, stole Harden's TV, VCR, and microwave oven

and sold the items to buy dr*gs.

Over time, Whitmer, disposed of Harden's body parts

in numerous dumpsters throughout San Diego and Mexico.

The hands were the only part of Don

Harden's body ever recovered.

The jury found Dale Whitmer, guilty of second-degree m*rder.

Don Harden's daughters asked for permission

to address the court before sentencing,

which wasn't an easy thing to do.

-I can't do this. -That's okay.

I'll do it. I'll do it.

I'll do it.

He almost got away with committing this hideous crime.

I am grateful he will be in prison and not

able to inflict himself on another family.

This ordeal has renewed my faith in the criminal justice system.

-Life without my father, and Father's Day

is the hardest for me.

We really miss him.

I find myself still wanting to pick up the telephone

and call him. -A vicious and chilling m*rder.

NARRATOR: Dale Whitmer, was sentenced to years

to life in prison.

DAVID RUBIN: We would have been unable to prosecute him

but for the luminol work and of course the letter.

DET.

JAMES TOMSOVIC: It would've been unsolved.

There was a probability that we would have known who did it,

but we would never have been able to prove it.

LT.

JIM COLLINS: Obviously finding the hands

was an important case, but the forensics

allowed us to examine the scene and find the amount of blood

loss that-- that was there at the scene,

the extent of the scene.

And, obviously, the envelope played

a very, very big part in this case.

-I hope that with all the forensic technology that they

have, that anyone that's possibly even thinking

of doing any kind of wrongdoing, that they'll

stop and think about it before they do it.

Because with all the forensic technology that's out there,

they're going to be caught.

-Fire!

[playing taps]

NARRATOR: After the trial, Don Harden's hands were cremated

and his ashes were buried by the US Navy

at sea, off the coast of California.

MARY MEAD: After

we just felt so much better.

We felt like, OK, it's closed now.

Dad's had his proper burial at sea.

It's over.

TERRI HOLLAND: Those were his final wishes.

And we carried out those wishes.

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