01x06 - Southside Strangler

[bunniefuu]

[Glass breaking]

Narrator: shortly after
thanksgiving in 1987,

An intruder broke into
the tucker residence in
arlington, virginia.

It might have been
just another statistic,

But the crime committed
that night launched a new era
in police investigations.

This is how d.n.a. Evidence
and psychological profiling
helped catch a serial k*ller

And set an innocent man free.

Man: everything about
her was very gentle.

She was very soft-spoken.

She just had
this amazing

Softness
about her,

This human quality.

Narrator: 44-year-old susan
tucker was a publications editor

Who worked for the united states
forestry service.

She was spending
the thanksgiving holiday alone,

Since her husband,
reggie, was out of the country,
in wales, on a business trip.

Reggie: neither of us
could put the phone down.

We kept saying, "I love you,"

And we said this
over and over again.

I don't know how many times.

Narrator: but without
explanation, telephone
calls went unanswered,

And neighbors noticed her
bedroom window wide open in
the cold november weather,

So they called police.

[Knocking]

As they approached
the front door,

They noticed it was ajar.

Inside, a woman's purse was
lying on the foyer floor.

Reggie: I arranged
to call on a monday.

Couldn't get an answer.
It just rang.

Mrs. Tucker?

Reggie: I rang again.

[Phone ringing]

I rang again.

I don't know how
many times I rang.

Narrator: susan tucker's
badly decomposed body was lying
face down on the bed.

She had been dead
for 4 or 5 days.

Man: her hands were
tied behind her back.

Her feet were tied,

The head hanging over
the side of the bed almost.

Narrator: she had been
strangled and possibly r*ped.

Second man: it appeared
that the k*ller

More than likely
was inside
the home

For quite
some time.

I mean, it wasn't
just a very quick,

In and out type of situation.

Many of the drawers
had been ransacked and
had been gone through.

Narrator: when reggie
tucker first heard the news,
he was devastated.

He said, "sir,
I've got bad news."

And I knew it.

I just knew it at that point.

How I just, you know, my...

My whole world just fell away.

Narrator: detective
joe horgas of the arlington
police homicide unit

Was quickly assigned
to the case.

His task wouldn't be easy.

For one thing,
the k*ller had been careful.

He had worn gloves
and left no fingerprints.

This has been
wiped clean.

Narrator: it had been raining on
the night of the m*rder,

And he meticulously cleaned the
area around his point of entry.

Horgas: he's smart
enough to know that
footprints,

Which is what we would
have gotten from that,

Would maybe come back to haunt
him, which kind of tells you

Maybe some past
experience on burglaries.

Narrator: police collected
the sheets, nightgown,

And the large sleeping bag which
covered susan tucker's body,

To look for possible blood
and semen stains.

They found hairs on the bedding
around susan tucker's body,

In the bathroom sink,
and on a washcloth discovered
outside on the clothesline.

And they gathered shards
of broken glass from
the basement window.

Everything was taken to
the forensics lab for analysis.

But perhaps the most important
clue was also the most obvious:

The rope and knots used
to strangle susan tucker.

The police were
convinced they had seen
this k*ller's work before.


Lawyer named caroline hamm

Had been r*ped and strangled
in her home only 4 blocks away
from susan tucker.

The k*ller entered the hamm
residence the same way--

Through a basement window--

And tied his victim
using the same knots.

And it's not a
common occurrence,

Not common at all,

To see victims k*lled by using
ligatures to strangle them--

Ropes, tying up victims.

That's really quite rare.

Narrator: but the hamm case
was closed when this man,

David vasquez,
confessed to her m*rder

And was sentenced to


Could he have had an accomplice?

Horgas spoke to him
for several hours.

And from the way he was
talking and everything and
answering my questions,

I didn't think
he knew a damn thing about
carolyn hamm's m*rder.

Narrator: while detective
horgas began his search for
susan tucker's k*ller,


City of richmond,

Police there were
investigating a series of
murders shockingly similar.

Woman: the body of 35-year-old
debbie davis was found inside
her south richmond apartment.

She had been r*ped
and strangled.

Narrator: in less than a month,

Two young women had been r*ped
and strangled in their homes

Just a few blocks
from each other.

Man: in each case,
there was a forced entry,

With the m*rder*r entering
by cutting the screens

And entering through
an open window.

Each victim was strangled.

Both victims were white between
the ages of 30 and 35 years.

Narrator: two weeks later,
he struck again.

This time, a 15-year-old
girl r*ped and strangled
in her bedroom

While her family was sleeping.

All 3 had been bound, r*ped,
and strangled with rope.

The knots were
identical to the ones

Used in the arlington cases.

Detective horgas suspected
that the k*ller of susan tucker

Was the same man who
m*rder*d carolyn hamm and
the 3 women in richmond.

If horgas was correct,

A serial m*rder*r was loose

On a 100-mile k*lling spree.

Narrator: detective horgas
believed the man who r*ped
and strangled susan tucker

Had also m*rder*d carolyn hamm


Horgas also believed the same
man was responsible

For the 3 r*pes and murders
in richmond 100 miles away.

The richmond police
weren't so sure.

I mean, they have


That were within a couple miles
square radius, I'm guessing,
or maybe even less.

And now we're trying
to say that 100 miles away,

We're trying to link
something to theirs.

It's like,
"hey, get out of here.
This has got to be a local guy."

Horgas was
the perfect man
for this case,

Because he was
obsessed.

He knew something was wrong.

Narrator: author paul mones
wrote a bestselling book
entitled stalking justice.

It profiles the r*pes and
murders of these 5 women

And the history-making
investigation which followed.

Joe horgas is motivated
by the hunt.

He's not a guy who's obsessed
by issues of right and wrong,

Except for his own
internal moral compass,

Which tells him, "if there's
an innocent man in prison,

I don't care if we got
the guilty guy, we got to get
the innocent man out."

And he was determined
to get this guy.

Narrator:
but if horgas was right,

That all of these murders were
connected, he needed proof.

For that, he turned
to the forensics lab,

Where scientists were examining
the stains found on susan
tucker's nightgown and bedding.

Dabbs: I found


And when I analyzed
the sleeping bag,

I found one very
large semen stain.

I typed all of those stains.

Narrator: the semen came from an
individual with type "o" blood

And the p.g.m.-1 Enzyme profile.

Although this matched


It also matched the semen
found at the carolyn hamm
m*rder scene.

Next they turned their
attention to the hair found
at the tucker crime scene.

Dabbs: and there are
characteristics,
microscopically,

That can classify hair into
one of 3 racial categories.

Narrator: which are caucasian,
negroid, or mongoloid.

The hairs found at
the tucker crime scene
appeared to be pubic

And did not appear to be from
the victim or her husband.

They were positively identified
as negroid in origin.

This was another possible link
to the carolyn hamm m*rder case.


Of hamm's m*rder,

A black male wearing a mask
had r*ped a number of women
in the same neighborhood.

The masked r*pist was
never apprehended,

And horgas always suspected
that there was a connection
to the hamm m*rder.

Horgas: actually,
the same day that carolyn
hamm's body was found,

Another girl, lady, was in her
house, and this black male with
a mask and a knife

Burglarized her house, got her,

And actually he did some
sexual activity with her.

Narrator: the richmond police,
and later the arlington police,

Both sought help from
the f.b.i.'S behavioral science
unit in quantico, virginia.

This unit has interviewed
hundreds of serial K*llers

To learn what similarities exist
in their psychological makeup.

They were able to predict
a number of important things
about the k*ller.

Man: we get
in and look at
the behavior

That's left by the offender in
the commission of his crime.

We believe that by looking
at that behavior,

We can interpret the type
of offender that may have
committed the crime.

Narrator: the fact
that the strangler att*cked
his victims in their homes

Suggested that he had
stalked them first

And knew precisely
when to strike.

The f.b.i. Concluded
that the perpetrator was between
the age of 18 and 30,

The quiet type,

A loner,

Who held a menial job.

He probably had a troubled
relationship with his mother

And began his crime
spree with arson.

Historically, many serial
rapists and murderers
begin with arson.

Serial K*llers are usually white
but could be any race.

He lived or worked
close to where he committed
his first crimes.

That's because criminals
begin their crime sprees

In an area where they
feel most comfortable.

He took sadistic pleasure
in strangling his victims.

He would periodically release
the bindings so he could hear
his victim plead for her life.

Dabbs: it appeared
that the perpetrator

Had intended the victim
to suffer considerably.

In one case, a shoe impression
was found on the victim's back.

Mones: these women were
obviously first just terrified
to the very bone

And then were systematically
sexually assaulted.

And at the end, and it's not
clear whether they were dead
when he did this or alive,

But he also masturbated
on his victims.

Narrator: and it was these semen
samples which would prove to be

Extremely important
pieces of evidence.

I can remember our
prosecutor, helen fahey,

A couple days after the m*rder,

Asking me if this was going
to be a d.n.a. Case.

And I'm kind of, "I don't know.

I mean, we don't even
know what we've got yet."

Narrator: in 1987,
when susan tucker was m*rder*d,

D.n.a. Evidence was
still in its infancy.

The first time d.n.a. Evidence
was used in a criminal case,

Was only a year earlier
in england, when d.n.a.
From a semen sample

Was used to convict a bakery
worker with the r*pe and m*rder
of two 15-year-old girls.

Horgas decided to try
this new d.n.a. Testing,

Sending the semen stains
from susan tucker's nightgown

To the life codes
laboratory in new york.

Forensic scientists were
concerned that the samples

May have degraded or
been contaminated.

Man: you basically
isolate the d.n.a.,

You cut it up,

You generate profiles
or patterns.

And you then generate
these patterns on a piece
of x-ray film.

So, it's like
a picture of the d.n.a.

And when you then compare
these pictures,

And the components are
the same in the two d.n.a.s,

That would indicate that
they're from the same source.

Narrator: the final results
from the d.n.a. Test would
take up to 10 weeks.

But detective horgas
still didn't have a suspect.

Narrator:
detective horgas suspected
that the same individual

Who r*ped and m*rder*d susan
tucker and carolyn hamm 3 years
earlier was the masked r*pist,

Who was committing crimes in the
same area but was never caught.

So horgas drove out
to an area of arlington
known as green valley,

The area where the masked r*pist
committed his first assaults.

The f.b.i. Told horgas that
rapists usually commit their
first crime close to home.

If the first r*pe
was the first r*pe,
for this guy,

Then he would have
lived around there.

And that was very crucial to me,
because I didn't know that.

Narrator: and as he drove
through green valley,

Horgas tried to recall the names
or faces of likely suspects--

Young men he'd run across
over the years who came
from that area.

And it just so
happens that
detective horgas

Started to focus on this one
juvenile he had dealt with
or remembered him.

He just couldn't place the name.

And all I could
remember was timmy.

I could see his face.

I remembered the approximate
time period and everything
that I remembered him from,

But I couldn't remember
his last name.

Hill: so we're running all these
names through the computer,

Seeing when they had been
locked up and released.

And suddenly,
he just came in and he said,

"Spencer. Timothy spencer.
That's the name."

Horgas: and I saw where he was
arrested on january 29, 1984,

Which was 4 days after
carolyn hamm's body was found.

Narrator: spencer's
history unfolded.

In trouble as a teenager,
he had a string of
burglary convictions.

And even more surprising,
just as the f.b.i. Predicted,

Spencer had first drawn
police attention for arson--

For setting fire
to his mother's car.

Horgas: he was presently in
a halfway house in richmond.

Well, wow, that's exciting now.

Narrator:
spencer was on probation,
living in this halfway house

Just a short distance from where
the richmond murders took place.

And according to house records,

Spencer had been signed out
during the thanksgiving holiday,

Visiting his mother
in arlington the week
susan tucker was m*rder*d.

Horgas: the fact that he got out
of prison two weeks before the
first murders down in richmond,

The fact that he was
available for every m*rder,

The fact that he came
to arlington when he did
for our m*rder.

Narrator: and the f.b.i.
Was correct about another
important detail:

Spencer lived in the area where
the first r*pe was committed.

And that happened
over there.

And at the time,
timothy spencer was living
down here over this hill...

Narrator: in his mother's house
barely a mile from the homes of
carolyn hamm and susan tucker.

On january 20, 1988, police
arrested timothy spencer.

Within hours, they had
collected a blood sample,
some of his hair,

And confiscated his clothing
for forensic analysis.

Hill: the clothing was scraped
down for removing any debris.

And once that debris was
collected, it was taken
to a microscope.

Several dozen particles of glass
were removed from the debris

That was removed
from his clothing.

Narrator: the glass fragments
were of particular interest
to the police.

Narrator: after police
recovered glass particles
from spencer's clothing,

They were examined forensically
to see if they matched glass
from any of the victim's homes.

One technique is called
glass refraction analysis.

By shining light from
different points on the spectrum
through the particles,

The characteristics of the glass
can be plotted on a graph,

In effect measuring how
the particles bend light.

Man: if you stick
the pen into the water,
which is more dense

Than the air,

It bends
the light.

What we're doing with the glass
particle basically is measuring
how much the light is bent.

And we call it refractive index.

Narrator: they compared
the glass fragments found
on spencer's clothing

To the glass particles
taken from the broken window
at susan tucker's home.

Mcclamroch: we were able to say
that that glass that was removed
from spencer's clothing

Either came from
that particular pane or
that particular source of glass

Or another source of glass
that had the same optical
characteristics.

Narrator: when scientists
completed the d.n.a. Analysis

Of the semen stain found at
the susan tucker crime scene,

They made a chilling discovery.

Man: and I remember pulling out
an x-ray film from the developer

And holding it
up from these

Two separate
cases

And being
bombarded
immediately

That the patterns
I'm seeing are the same.

I'm seeing the same profile
on this case from one county

Versus this case
from a second county,

Which says to me that same
person's involved in both
of those incidents.

It really gives you chills up
and down your spine to see
something like that.

Narrator: horgas was
right all along.

The semen sample from
the individual who r*ped and
presumably m*rder*d susan tucker

Matched the semen stains
from the murders in richmond.

Man: there
were 7 hairs

That were consistent
with his.

There was a glass
fragment

That was consistent with his.

His family couldn't provide
him with a complete alibi

For the entire weekend.

Narrator: and finally,
timothy spencer's blood d.n.a.

Was compared to the semen
samples from the crime victims.

Once we got a sample
from mr. Spencer to test,

We generated a profile that was
the same as the profile we got
from the evidentiary samples.

We had a frequency
of occurrence of greater
than one in a million.

So that means
that only one person in
a million in a population

Would have that particular
genetic profile.

And starting with
the first result,

The blood type,

It was a match, it was a match,
it was a match, it was a match.

Narrator: on july 11, 1988,
timothy spencer went on
trial for his life.

It was the first time
in the united states
where d.n.a. Evidence

Would be used in
a serial m*rder case.

It took the jury less
than 7 hours to find

Timothy spencer guilty of
r*pe and capital m*rder.

He was sentenced to death.

I feel some
kind of relief.

But I'll never have
my wife back.

You know, that's really
the bottom line, is I'll never
really feel happy.

I can't feel happy about
somebody being guilty of raping
and murdering my wife.

I can't feel happy about that.

So whatever anger I feel,
I will feel till I die.

Death was pronounced by
the attending physician

At 11:13 p.m.

There were no complications.

Mr. Spencer did not
make a last statement.
Thank you.

Up until his death, I don't
think that timothy spencer

Made the connection
between semen and blood.

I don't think he knew that
the same d.n.a. That's in your
semen is in your blood.

Without d.n.a. It would have
been impossible to convict
timothy spencer.

If he had committed
those murders a year
or two years earlier,

He could not
have been convicted.

In fact, if this had been 1984
or 1985, we probably would not
even have arrested him.

Some people ask the question,
will d.n.a. Fingerprinting
replace detective work?

I don't think so.

Susan tucker left detective
horgas the crime scene.

And timothy spencer left part
of himself at the crime scene.

But his name would never
have come up if it wasn't
for detective horgas.