08x37 - Traces of Truth

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Narrator: a popular high-school gym teacher

Mysteriously left town without saying goodbye to anyone.

He later sent letters to explain why.

But a closer forensic look at those letters and a microscopic

Piece of tissue gave investigators an entirely

Different explanation for where he went and why.

West yellowstone, montana, is primarily a resort town.

Only , residents live here year-round.

But in season, the beauty of the national forestlands and

Yellowstone national park are the main draw.

West yellowstone's basically the gateway to yellowstone

National park.

There's a million-plus visitors that come through here every

Year, so it's a service-oriented town.

Narrator: rene and brad brisbin owned a restaurant

In town.

Brad also worked as a gym teacher at the local high

School.

Brad was fun-loving, enjoyed life.

He loved to play practical jokes on people.

Brad was a very loyal, honest, trustworthy friend who

Would do anything, including giving you the shirt off his

Back, to help you.

Narrator: friday, november , , started like

Most days until brad got a telephone call at work and left

Class unexpectedly.

I met him in the hall.

He had his jacket on.

He was getting ready to leave.

I asked him where he was going.

He just said, "to help out a friend."

And they had brought in a substitute for p.e. Class.

He said he'd see me at dinner later on that night.

Narrator: brad said he was going to belgrade, about

Miles away, to pick up his friend larry moore, who needed a

Ride.

It was odd.

I mean, he doesn't leave his teaching job very much, so,

Yeah, it was odd.

Narrator: what made it even more bizarre -- brad never

Returned home.

That's when we knew something.

I mean, we knew something was already wrong because brad

Hadn't come home, and that wasn't his nature.

That wasn't the way brad brisbin was.

Narrator: when police interviewed larry moore, he said

He met brad at the diner as planned, but he said brad was

Depressed and inebriated.

Brad told larry that he was tired of life, tired of his

Wife, tired of the restaurant.

He was gonna leave, borrowed some money from him, left the

Restaurant.

Narrator: moore said brad left the diner, got into a red

Car with washington plates, and drove off.

Moore said the driver was a woman and that he didn't

Recognize her.

Brad's car was still in the diner's parking lot, and there

Were no signs of foul play.

He loved his family.

There was no problem, and there was never any indication that

There was anything in his mind remotely related to leaving his

Family.

I knew that they didn't know our family, the dynamics of the

Family.

Just to hear people saying, "you know, maybe he did just run

Off," they didn't know him.

Narrator: the brisbin and moore families had been friends

For years.

Larry's wife, shelly, worked with brad.

Shelly coached the girls' high-school basketball team, and

Brad coached the boys'.

Investigators heard rumors that brad and shelly were having an

Affair.

I don't believe so.

We talked to rene.

She didn't think there was an affair.

We talked to shelly, and she denied one.

The only other person that could really say was missing.

Narrator: coincidentally shelly and larry moore separated

Just two days before brad disappeared.

Shelly said her alleged affair with brad was a figment of

Larry's imagination.

I truly believe he thought we were having an affair.

She actually pointed to larry as possibly having done

Something to brad because of some of the domestic v*olence

Against her and the fact that he had accused her of having an

Affair with brad.

Narrator: a few weeks after brad's disappearance, a letter

From brad arrived at police headquarters.

He said he was alive and well and living in washington state.

But after seeing the letter, police weren't too sure.

Narrator: the last known person to see brad brisbin alive

Was his friend larry moore.

Police started their investigation by carefully

Examining larry moore's truck.

He allowed me to search the pickup, and it was immaculate.

When I went around to the camper, I noticed that he was

Patching holes in it with a putty knife.

Narrator: inside the camper, investigators found b*llet holes

In the floor and in the liner underneath.

They also found a b*llet fragment from a . Magnum

p*stol.

Larry told police he once tried sh**ting a mouse in the camper

While on a hunting trip.

But something caught the eye of investigators -- a small piece

Of what appeared to be tissue on a window curtain.

About the size of a quarter.

There's no way to describe it other than it looked like a

Piece of chicken skin or something like that.

Being unsure what it might be, he took the entire curtain

With the tissue on it.

We got it sent up to the missoula state crime lab.

Narrator: an ouchterlony test identified the tissue as human,

And the striations meant it was muscle.

But that doesn't show you that the person's dead.

We can all deposit muscle tissue and still be very much alive.

Narrator: but before police could question larry moore about

This forensic discovery, a letter arrived, postmarked from

Spokane, washington.

It was from brad brisbin.

In it he apologized for creating what he called "a real strain on

Everyone involved."

A few days later, larry moore received a similar letter.

In this one, brad wanted to make sure his wife, rene, was taken

Care of.

But investigators noticed a slight problem.

The name of brad's wife, rene, was misspelled.

The letter to the sheriff had congratulated him to his

Appointment, and the sheriff is an elected position, so there

Were huge mistakes.

There were just huge red flags.

Narrator: investigators tested the letters with

Ninhydrin, a chemical solution that reacts with the amino acids

In fingerprints.

After it was applied, the documents were dried thoroughly.

Scientists found numerous fingerprints on the two

Documents, but none matched brad brisbin.

They weren't larry moore's fingerprints, either.

Next the letters were analyzed by a forensic document examiner.

Both letters were typed with the same typewriter.

The paper was inexpensive, the kind often used in high schools.

The type showed no defects, making it difficult to identify

The typewriter used to create them.

And only the signature was handwritten.

The signature itself is a full cursive signature.

It is full of tremor.

It looks labored, and it looks slow, and it does not look like

It is the product of habitual movement.

Could be disease, could be dr*gs, could even be stress, and

You get that tremor when somebody sits down and tries to

Duplicate the handwriting of another person.

Narrator: experts compared this questioned signature to

Several documents brad signed shortly before his

Disappearance.

The handwriting sample I saw for brad brisbin was a greeting

Card, and he wrote a short note at the bottom and signed "brad."

His handwriting was done all in uppercase capitals.

It was printed, in essence.

All the printed capitals were connected.

It was sort of printed capitals and cursive mixed together.

It's a very high-level, spirited handwriting, very bold

Handwriting, fast, fluid, very much from the hip.

Narrator: but the questioned signature was quite different.

The uppercase "b" in the name "brad" was actually constructed

In three pieces.

There's a break.

It has the up-and-down spine on the left side of the letter, but

Between the top and the bottom of the letter, there's a break.

Interesting that the break is in a place where you would

Naturally stop if you wanted to look to see how you were doing

And continue writing.

Narrator: police suspected larry moore may have written the

Letters, but it was difficult to tell since the questioned

Signature wasn't actually handwriting.

This is a drawing of somebody's signature.

It's not handwriting at all, and it's very difficult sometimes to

Actually determine who it was that made the drawing.

Narrator: although document examiners were unable to tell

Conclusively who signed the letter, they were certain it

Wasn't brad brisbin.

I knew that the letter was completely false.

There's absolutely no way that my father would just up and

Leave.

Narrator: investigators still had no idea where brad brisbin

Was or what may have happened to him.

Narrator: police now knew that the letters mailed from

Spokane, washington, weren't written by brad brisbin.

They strongly suspected larry moore may have been

Involved in brad's disappearance.

On the step of moore's camper, police noticed what looked like

Blood spatter.

Under a microscope, scientists found it was more than just

Blood.

It was tissue.

This was identified as human.

And the sample had both small, granular cells and larger,

Purkinje cells.

This meant only one thing.

This was muscle.

But they wanted a second opinion.

They sent this tissue to a fella named mark cullen, who's a

Neuropathologist in ohio.

He looked at it and said, "yeah, it's mammal, and it's

Cerebellum.

It's the brain stem."

Narrator: the cerebellum sits at the base of the brain and is

Primarily responsible for memory and motor movement.

Since the cerebellum controls the heart muscle, no human can

Survive without it.

A ballistics expert compared the location of the brain tissue in

The camper with the b*llet holes.

Using a -point laser, he marked the center of the b*llet hole

And then followed the b*llet's path.

It showed that the sh**t was firing from a standing position.

Clearly few people sh**t holding the g*n up over their

Head.

If you realize that a body was interposed in between that,

We've only got a few feet to deal with, so it can't be a

Standing man, for example.

It could be a collapsed man or a person nearly down on the floor.

Narrator: next ballistic experts examined the b*llet

Fragment found in the floor of the camper and discovered what

Is called soft damage.

It deforms in a very different way than it would if

It hit wood, concrete, drywall, metal, and it slows down.

The longer the path through a victim, tissue, or a tissue

Simulant, the more velocity is lost.

Narrator: to find out whose brain tissue was in the camper,

Investigators sent the sample for dna testing, but they didn't

Have a body to compare it to.

We can help you to determine whether this tissue is from the

Missing person by comparing the dna from the tissue to the

Family members, and the children, and the mother of the

Person who is missing.

Narrator: children get half of their dna from the mother and

Half from the father.

By taking a dna sample from brad's wife, his four children,

And his mother, scientists could isolate brad's dna profile

Through a process of elimination.

For this scientists used an rflp test, at the time the most

Sophisticated dna test available.

Whosever tissue sample that was was completely consistent

With being the father of both sets of children and consistent

With being the son of the mother of the missing person.

Narrator: next scientists tested the tiny fragment of

Brain tissue.

It was too small for rflp testing since it was about the

Size of a pinhead.

So scientists amplified it using pcr, a process that duplicates a

Small sample to make it large enough to test.

The pcr dna tests revealed that the brain tissue in

Larry moore's camper was brad brisbin's.

I knew it was gonna be a match.

The official confirmation that the blood matched was huge.

I never felt anything like that before.

Narrator: with this discovery, the medical examiner

Ruled brad brisbin's death a homicide.

Larry moore was arrested and charged with m*rder.

The prosecutors knew their case would be difficult to prove

Without a body.

Narrator: prosecutors believe that the motive for

Brad brisbin's m*rder was jealousy.

Larry moore suspected brad was having an affair with his wife.

Moore admitted he called brad at work to ask for a ride.

The forensic evidence suggests the two met at the diner and

Moore somehow lured brad into the back of his camper.

Once inside, brad was ambushed.

I'll show you in a second.

Can you get me those pliers down there?

Narrator: brad was on the floor when moore shot from a

Standing position numerous times.

[ g*nshots ] one shot hit brad's shoulder,

Leaving a piece of muscle.

Another struck brad in the head.

No one heard the sh*ts because it was a busy truck stop with

Lots of traffic.

Authorities had no way to tell where moore took the body.

He's got equipment in west yellowstone.

He owned an excavating company, so he had backhoes and that kind

Of thing, so he could get rid of a body pretty easy.

Narrator: prosecutors believe moore steam-cleaned the camper

And removed the carpet to hide the forensic evidence.

But the b*llet holes and the tiny specks of muscle and brain

Tissue convinced medical experts that brad was dead.

All prosecutors had to do was convince a jury of that.

As a prosecutor, clearly you want to make damn sure that this

Is the right guy and there has been a m*rder.

I can't think of anything worse than being in a position of

Finding out you've convicted the wrong person.

Narrator: larry moore denied k*lling brad brisbin and pleaded

Not guilty.

[ g*nshots ] prosecutors argued that

Larry moore k*lled brad brisbin in a jealous rage, convinced

Brad was sleeping with his wife, shelly.

To throw investigators off the trail, moore forged brad's name

On several letters.

The forensic evidence convinced the jurors of two things.

One, that brad brisbin was dead, and, two, that larry moore was

His k*ller.

We, the jury, find the defendant guilty of the offense

Of homicide.

Narrator: moore was sentenced to years in prison.

It was the first m*rder case in montana to be tried without a

Body.

And it was also the first time in the state that dna was used

In a criminal case.

Just two years after his conviction, larry moore made

Headlines again.

He was charged with conspiring to build a b*mb in prison.

To avoid federal charges, moore agreed to lead authorities to

Brad brisbin's body.

Moore directed officials to a campground where he hid the .

Magnum p*stol he used in the m*rder.

It was found at the base of a tree in one of the campgrounds

In gallatin canyon.

Narrator: moore also led police to a gravel pit a few

Miles outside of west yellowstone, where they

Unearthed brad's body.

He didn't tell us anything about the homicide.

When we did find brad's body, larry did turn a little pale and

Go and sit in a vehicle.

But he never did tell us the real reason or the story behind

How it actually happened.

Narrator: a forensic examination of brad's body

Confirmed what forensic scientists had told the jury in

Court two years earlier.

The determined cause of death was multiple g*nsh*t wounds to

The head and upper thoracic region.

In other words, the chest area or the back.

Narrator: even though moore led police to the body and the

m*rder w*apon, he never confessed...until now.

In an exclusive letter to the producers of this program, he

Admitted his guilt.

His words bring little comfort to the brisbin family.

I think the hardest part has been the kids.

It's not right to have to grow up without a father.

I would love to be in the same room with larry moore, ask

Him why, and get a straight, honest answer about why he

k*lled my dad, 'cause I think he owes it.

I think that's the least he could do to this family.

As a teenager, it completely wrecks your world, even the

Thought of someone doing that.

Narrator: each forensic test was a piece of the mosaic and,

When put together, showed clearly what occurred during

Brad brisbin's last moments alive.

Without it, we couldn't have proved that brad was even dead.

He would still be a missing person.