08x11 - A Wrong Foot

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Narrator: police in illinois search for a k*ller

Who was careful enough not to leave fingerprints,

But who didn't bother to mask his identity.

This is how a forensic scientist with some fancy footwork

Identified a perpetrator

When not one, but two eyewitnesses could not.

July , , was typically hot and humid in peoria, illinois.

Once the sun set and the temperature subsided,

It was a perfect night for a cookout.

Logsdon: it was hot, very hot,

And we had the windows open and the back door was open.

Narrator: kasey johnson and her roommate, jennifer logsdon,

Spent the evening with jennifer's fiancé, tommy smith.

Logsdon: after we ate dinner, we went out to the grocery store

And got stuff to make blizzards...

And came back and we moved the coffee table out of the way

And pulled our mattress out into the living room

So we could all three lay down and watch tv.

Narrator: they all watched a stephen king horror movie.

And less than minutes later, jennifer fell asleep.

She awoke to sounds that didn't come from the television.

Logsdon: I could hear screaming.

Narrator: she turned and saw tommy fighting an intruder

Who was armed with a knife.

Kasey ran to the phone to call police.

Narrator: before police arrived,

The intruder wounded tommy, then he went after jennifer.

Logsdon: I just kept screaming as loud as I could.

He just kept stabbing me all over.

Narrator: incredibly,

Jennifer grabbed the knife from her assailant.

Logsdon: I fought as hard as I could.

I was hitting him and kicking him.

Narrator: but her actions only fueled his anger.

The intruder got the knife back and att*cked again.

Logsdon: that's when he cut me twice

And just left me for dead.

Operator: this person that broke into your house --

Does he have any weapons?

[ Kasey screams ]

Hello?

Narrator: he then found kasey in the bedroom

On the phone with the police.

[ Kasey speaking indistinctly ]

Operator: hello?

Narrator: jennifer managed to run to a neighbor's home

For help.

Kasey: I can't move. My-- my throat is slit.

I've lost a lot of blood.

Narrator: when the police arrived, the intruder was gone.

Logsdon: I told the police that I knew I was dying,

But go and save tommy and kasey.

Narrator: but it was too late for -year-old tommy smith.

He was pronounced dead at the scene.

Jennifer and kasey were rushed to saint francis medical center.

Holford: my father came to get me at work

And, uh, he told me that tommy had been k*lled.

And I immediately freaked out in disbelief.

You know, "no, it wasn't him. Not tommy."

And it wasn't soon after that that it --

It finally sunk in that he was -- he was k*lled.

Mike: tommy smith's actions were quite heroic.

He took it upon himself to apprehend the suspect,

Put him in a chair and stand over top of him,

Hold him there until police arrived.

And in doing so, he sacrificed his life.

I don't think tommy

Could have ever lived with one of them getting k*lled,

Especially jennifer.

Narrator: police hoped the two girls

Would be able to identify their attacker.

Narrator: connie smith had to do what every parent dreads --

Plan the funeral of a child.

He was the neatest kid a mother could have.

He was the best baby, best little boy,

Most loving young man.

Even if he got mad, he never stayed mad long.

He would have made a great dad.

He would have made a great husband,

Because I know he was a great son.

Narrator: tommy's fiancé, jennifer,

Was in the intensive care unit near death.

She had sustained multiple s*ab wounds, a cut throat,

And a punctured lung.

If tommy smith wouldn't have been in that house,

Those two young ladies wouldn't be here today.

They'd be dead.

And i-i believe that.

Narrator: the crime scene

Gave new testimony to the girls' intense will to survive.

Holford: he had really done a number

On both of the young ladies.

They both exhibited a great deal of courage.

They had very strong constitutions.

They had a very strong will to live.

Narrator: gradually, their conditions improved.

But when they spoke to police, they could remember very little.

He just kept stabbing me all over and nothing hurt,

But I -- and I didn't see any blood either.

She did state that a black male had entered the home.

She wasn't sure how.

And I can't remember what he looked like.

Narrator: investigators would have to rely on the crime scene

For clues.

They quickly concentrated their attention

On the assailant's point of entry --

A bedroom window.

The outside screen was jarred and out of place and cut.

Narrator: investigators were shocked by the amount of blood

Found in the home.

I think once he started cutting, he went into a frenzy.

And at that point, he felt

The only way that he could prevent the police

From finding out who did this to these kids

Was to k*ll all three of them.

Narrator: in one of the bedrooms, amid the clutter,

Police found the wooden handle of the m*rder w*apon.

Bridges: when the handle of the knife

Was located at the crime scene,

It speaks of our suspect's panic in his hurry to flee the scene.

Mike: miss johnson had grabbed the blade of the knife

And was able to break it loose from the handle.

Narrator: unfortunately, there were no fingerprints on it.

Police found a party invitation on the floor

Near the point of entry.

Police used black magnetic powder to see

If the k*ller may have knocked it to the floor

During the struggle.

They were looking

For the friction ridges of a fingerprint.

On top of the friction ridges are pores,

And that's where the perspiration comes from

When the person sweats.

And when they touch an item,

They may or may not leave their identification

Through those unique characteristics.

Narrator: on the invitation, gary siebenthal found

What appeared to be a partial palm print...

A print that did not belong to tommy, jennifer, or kasey.

While interviewing neighbors,

Police were surprised to learn that despite the girls' screams,

No one saw the k*ller leave the crime scene.

Police thought they had solved the case

When they found blood

On the screen door of a neighbor's home, gene brown.

And he explained that he had cut himself on the lower leg

Carrying the garbage out earlier in the night.

Narrator: tests revealed the blood was brown's,

And investigators found broken glass in his trash can,

Which brown said had caused the cut.

Brown's palm print did not match

The print on the party invitation at the crime scene.

And neither jennifer nor kasey

Identified their next-door neighbor as the assailant.

Police suspected the k*ller lived nearby

Since he fled the scene on foot.

And it was the foot which would lead police to the k*ller.

Narrator: gary siebenthal refused to give up

In the search for tommy smith's k*ller.

In reviewing the case, siebenthal recalled something

Jennifer and kasey had both remembered about the intruder.

I ended up taking the knife away from him

Because he had socks wrapped around his hands.

Bridges: she did describe him

As wearing, she thought, khaki shorts.

He was also described as being a black male,

Approximately ', '", slim build with a mustache.

Narrator: and the girls remembered something else.

The intruder was barefoot.

Why would a k*ller enter a home wearing socks on his hands

But nothing on his feet?

And if the k*ller lived nearby, why didn't he cover his face?

He's breaking into a home where people can recognize him,

Will certainly recognize him.

And I think by the fact that he went in there quietly,

Armed with a knife,

That his intention all along was to do great harm

To both the young ladies living there.

Narrator: but the fact that he was barefoot

Quickly became the central focus of the investigation.

Mike: that led a little insight

Into what the strange print was on the card

Because it didn't look like a palm print

To the crime-scene investigators.

It was something strange that they really hadn't seen before.

Narrator: suddenly, it occurred to siebenthal

That the print on the party invitation

Might not be a palm print at all.

If you look at certain parts of the palm,

They can mimic parts of the foot,

Because they have the same characteristics.

They have dots, short ridges,

And bifurcations and trifurcations.

Narrator: was it possible

That the perpetrator knocked the party invitation to the floor

And then stepped on it?

If so, the hot, muggy july night created the perfect conditions

For leaving a print behind.

How he does that is through the moisture

That the individual leaves in his fingerprints,

In his palm prints.

Narrator: siebenthal began the painstaking task

Of identifying the print.

Using a microscope and a pointer,

He examined the friction ridges,

Every bifurcation and trifurcation,

Which are points where one line divides into two or three.

Police have a fingerprint database they can refer to,

But they don't collect footprints.

On a hunch, police ask

The girls' next-door neighbor, gene brown, for his.

Mike: we took his footprints through a search warrant.

But taking footprints

Is something that the average person doesn't have to do

When they're taken into custody.

Narrator: siebenthal compared brown's footprints

To the print on the party invitation.

Siebenthal: you have to look for the uniqueness

Of those points of identification,

And we found it on the outside left heel print

Of gene autry brown.

Narrator: gary siebenthal had a match.

And it was the first time

In the history of the peoria police department

That a footprint had been recovered from a crime scene.

Holford: why he had no shoes on, I'll have no idea,

But, uh, it wasn't very smart.

It wasn't the smartest thing you can do.

The average person doesn't realize

That their footprints, in fact,

Are inherent to that particular person.

They are as individualistic as fingerprints are.

So, he would have been as well off

To leave the socks on his feet

And put another pair on his hands.

Narrator: in a search of brown's home,

Police discovered a set of knives

Which were identical to the m*rder w*apon.

And they also found kasey johnson's purse.

Police found bloody socks

With the broken blade of the m*rder w*apon inside.

And in one of the socks was gene brown's wedding ring.

Finally, investigators found tiny traces of blood

In brown's hair.

Mike: he must have had a great deal of blood on him

When he left the house after attacking the three individuals.

And he still had blood on his body.

Narrator: dna tests of the blood samples

Showed it was from all three victims --

Tommy, jennifer, and kasey.

Gene brown was arrested and charged with m*rder.

He had a wife. He had a cute little boy.

He had a family that cared for him, you know.

And because he chose dr*gs, he took my son away from me.

When you entered the house

And started across the bedroom

Towards the door --

I didn't see anyone till I got in the living room.

By that time, the guy had jumped me, grabbed my head.

Do you understand

That you have the right to remain silent

And you do not have to talk to me

Or answer any questions

Unless you voluntarily choose to do so?

Correct.

Narrator: when police confronted gene brown

With the mountain of evidence against him

For the m*rder of -year-old tommy smith

And the att*cks

On jennifer logsdon and kasey johnson, he confessed.

Did you s*ab him with the knife?

I can't say I stabbed him.

I don't know. We was struggling.

It was more or less he was trying to get the knife,

And I was trying to keep the knife.

And at the same time, he was being cut.

Did, uh, you and he struggle for any length of time?

I'd say about seconds.

What ended the struggle?

He...walked away and fell to the floor.

Narrator: brown admitted using crack cocaine

On the day of the attack.

After having dinner with his wife and infant son,

Brown said he needed money to buy more cocaine.

I went to bed, got up,

Put my clothes on, and went next door.

Narrator: he removed his shoes so he could walk quietly

And used his socks to cover his hands

To make sure he didn't leave any fingerprints.

He entered the victims' home through an open window

By removing the screen.

But he never realized his feet could leave

The very same prints as his fingers --

Just as distinctive, just as incriminating.

Tommy smith fought valiantly,

But was no match for brown's knife.

Jennifer slipped out of the house

When brown was in the other room.

Kasey survived by playing dead after she was att*cked.

Prompt medical attention saved them both.

Tommy smith's best friend still struggles

With the absurdity of it all.

Holford: it disgusted me

That somebody would take a life like that for a dollar

So he could go get high.

It was very, very senseless, a very senseless act.

You know, losing him so early --

What made it bearable was he had years,

And he enjoyed every one of them.

He knew how to enjoy life.

Narrator: despite his confession,

There are still parts of brown's story detectives don't believe.

Jennifer and kasey lived next door to brown.

Police think that brown broke in

With the intent to r*pe and k*ll the two girls

And didn't realize

That tommy smith had stayed over that night.

He deliberately went barefooted just to stop --

Hold the noise down.

He wore gloves to avoid leaving fingerprints.

He took a knife with him

That was still encased in a cardboard sheath

So that he would not injure himself.

He took no -- he made no effort whatsoever to cover his face,

And he is going into the home next door.

It takes a bit of an evil individual

To take a life hand to hand, let alone attempt to take three.

He went from a sneak thief to a m*rder*r within moments.

Narrator: in exchange for his guilty plea,

Gene brown was sentenced to life in prison

For the m*rder of tommy smith

And years for each count of attempted m*rder.

He did this in order to escape the chance

Of facing the death penalty in a trial.

It was a capital case,

And, I think, probably, it was a good move on his part.

Narrator: little did gene brown know

That tommy smith's mother

Would not have pushed for the death penalty.

I could not stand the thought

Of another mother standing over a casket with her son so cold

And another family going through what this family's went through,

You know.

Having a son in prison for the rest of his life is bad,

But nothing is worse than burying one.

I don't really know where to begin.

I don't know why this happened, but it did.

And all the time I've been sitting here

Talking to you guys,

I wished there was a way I could take it back,

But it's done.

Bridges: he would express remorse

And state how sorry he was that this thing had happened,

But at the same time, he would protect himself

By not being able to recall just what had occurred.

It happened, and I'm still asking myself why.

I don't know why.

Narrator: jennifer logsdon is now married with children,

But she still lives with emotional and physical scars

From that attack.

Logsdon: he said he was sorry.

He didn't mean to -- to do it.

And I can't forgive him yet.

Yeah, I think he got what he deserved.

When you get caught doing something, you say, "I'm sorry."

Would you say you were sorry if you didn't get caught?

See, I don't know. I don't believe that.

Narrator: if gene brown hadn't gone barefoot that night,

Investigators wouldn't have recovered the valuable footprint

That placed him at the crime scene.

Well, I think it's the greatest irony of all

To be so smart and get caught.

It just goes to show you,

The best laid plans of mice or men, you know...

He -- he, in fact, tried to go in barefoot

So that he would be quiet

And be able to move through the house quietly.

And, in fact, left behind a tremendous piece of evidence.

When you're able to point out to your suspect

That they, in fact, are the best witness

That we have against themselves --

In the case of this particular footprint that was left,

He did seal his own fate.