08x10 - Dinner and a Movie

[bunniefuu]

Narrator: an affluent young
woman was found dead in her home

While her husband was off
on a sailing trip.

Police uncovered allegations of
sex parties and wife swapping.

But it was an old movie,

An overheard telephone call,

And an air conditioner
that cracked the case.

Ed and ellen sherman lived
in niantic, connecticut,

For the entire 16 years
of their marriage.

Ed taught business
at a local community college

And was a member of mensa,

An organization for people with
exceptionally high i.q.s.

Ellen was 5 1/2 months pregnant

And worked in the family
publishing business.

Fredriksen: ellen sherman
was a sweetheart.

Everybody that met ellen
just adored her.

She had a smile and a friendly
hello for everyone.

Narrator: on a friday night
in august of 1985,

Ed left for a week-long sailing
trip with four friends.

Lebrun: they are always fun.

And we always have a great time.

That's great sailing
from maine down.

We stop at the vineyard and
nantucket and what have you.

Boys' night out type thing.

Narrator: on sunday afternoon,
two days into the trip,

Ed called his pregnant wife
to make sure she was okay.

After numerous calls
went unanswered,

Ed contacted len fredriksen,

A good friend of the couple,
and asked him to check on ellen.

I got over there when it was
just starting to get dark,

And I could hear
the air conditioner running.

The lights were on in the inside
and the outside.

I checked all the doors.
They were locked.

It was locked up,
which was very strange,

Because they always left
their house open.

I used to kid ellen about,

"You're gonna come home and
there'll be nothing left."

Narrator:
no one answered the door,

So fredriksen entered the home
through an unlocked window.

Inside was the family dog.

He called for ellen,
but there was no answer.

Upstairs,
he opened the bedroom door

And found ellen's lifeless body
on the bed.

Fredriksen: I had no idea
what had happened.

I didn't think
that she'd been m*rder*d.

Why would I think

That anybody would m*rder
this wonderful person?

It appeared at first glance

As if she were the subject
of a sexual as*ault,

And her night clothing
was on the floor

And her underwear
and the bedding.

Narrator: red ligature marks
around ellen's neck

Indicated strangulation.

The medical examiner determined
that the m*rder occurred

Sometime saturday night
or early sunday morning,

Based on rigor mortis,

The temporary stiffening
of the body after death.

The lines on her fingernails

Were evidence
they had been bent backwards.

Could be because
during the strangulation,

Victim tried to keep
themselves free,

And meanwhile tried to struggle
with the perpetrator --

May scratched the forearm.

Narrator: police found no signs
of forced entry,

And no valuables were missing,
which ruled out robbery.

Using their ship-to-shore radio,

A policeman gave ed sherman
the bad news.

Lebrun: he talked to him
for a while,

Which I wasn't listening to,

But he eventually did hand me
the microphone and said,

"Wayne, take this.
It's the police.

They said ellen's been k*lled."

Narrator: detective mike malchik
soon learned

That the shermans' lives
were far from ordinary.

It was a lifestyle
of deception...

Sex...

And intrigue.

Narrator:
the medical examiner estimated

That ellen sherman was m*rder*d
sometime over the weekend

While her husband was sailing in
the atlantic ocean with friends.

Ed sherman told investigators

That he last spoke with his wife
on friday night

From his friend's house.

Malchik: they said mr. Sherman
did get on the phone,

And he's telling his wife

Go to the bank
to make this deposit,

All these different things.

Narrator: and ed sherman
was unusually candid

About their sex life.

And the girlfriend had a child,
and it was his child.

Narrator:
the woman was ed's coworker,

Nancy prescott.

Fredriksen: she was very
different than ellen.

In fact, ellen used to refer
to her as ed's valley girl.

She was blond
and very different-looking.

Ed wanted an open marriage.

He encouraged ellen
to have affairs.

Narrator:
and ed sherman's lifestyle

Was unusual in other ways.

I remember being
at a new year's eve party

At their house.

I believe it was 1984.

They had several couples there,

And I guess
they were gonna swap partners.

I was with a young lady,

And ed asked me
if I was interested

And would I ask the young lady
that I was with

If she was interested,

And I just said, "look, we'll
leave," and we did.

So ed was really the one

That was pushing
that type of situation.

Ellen did not want that
in her life.

I was totally unaware of
and would not have guessed it.

Narrator: since there were
no signs of forced entry,

Police suspected ellen may have
known her k*ller.

From the downstairs to upstairs,
everything in proper order.

No sign of a ransack
or violent struggles.

You have a foreign intruder,

Usually we see some sign
of struggle.

Narrator: dr. Henry lee,

At the time the director
of connecticut's crime lab,

Was called in
to assist investigators.

Dr. Lee examined photos
of the ligature marks

On ellen sherman's neck
and found a faint pattern.

And this pattern
is a zigzag pattern,

Which is so unique.

Initially we don't know
where they come from.

Narrator: lee compared this to
the clothing found at the scene,

Including the torn panties.

Subsequently, when we start
stretching the panty,

You can see this zigzag pattern.

The space started opening up

And shows identical pattern
as what's left on the neck.

Narrator:
but other evidence showed

That ellen was strangled
with bare hands,

Not the panties.

The autopsy revealed

The cricoid cartilage
in the neck had been fractured,

Something
which cannot be accomplished

During ligature strangulation.

Dr. Lee believes

The k*ller wrapped the panties
around her neck afterwards

In order to stage
the crime scene

To make it look
like a sex crime.

On the bedsheet
under ultraviolet light

Was biological evidence

Investigators hoped would
identify the k*ller.

A criminal usually --
it's the bedsheet

We found close to 150 to 200
individual semen stains.

That's a lot of semen stains.

Narrator:
this biological evidence

Was too badly degraded
for dna testing,

Which meant the material had
been there for quite some time

And had survived laundering.

While searching for suspects,

Police discovered that ed's
mistress, nancy prescott,

May have been angry
with ed and ellen.

Ed had recently agreed to end
the affair to save his marriage.

Malchik: when ellen got
pregnant, she said,

"I want you to stay home
and be a father to this baby

And be there when it's born
and give up the girlfriend."

Fredriksen:
so they talked it out,

And ed said that he was willing
to give up his girlfriend

And that he would be a father
and a husband to ellen.

Narrator: detectives asked ed
to take a polygraph test.

He agreed.

The results were inconclusive.

And nancy prescott had an alibi
for the day of the m*rder.

The trail of the k*ller was
starting to turn cold.

Mike malchik had promised
ellen's mother, rose,

That he would stay on the case

And that they would find out
who did this to her daughter.

Narrator:
then, malchik got lucky.

He learned there was a movie

That featured a m*rder identical
to ellen sherman's.

Would this film lead police
to the k*ller?

[ screams ]

Narrator: initially, police
didn't consider ed sherman

A suspect
in his wife's m*rder,

Since he was on a sailboat in
the atlantic ocean

The day she died.

This case is in the middle
of the ocean --

A perfect alibi.

And four witnesses.

Time of the deaths
become very important

In many homicide investigations

Because that result --
time of the deaths --

You can impeach a witness
statement or a suspect statement

Or corroborate
with the suspect statement.

However, time of the deaths
is a difficult area.

Narrator: rigor mortis
is one way to estimate

The time of death.

This is what a body looks like
when rigor mortis occurs --

A stiffening of the entire body

That lasts between 12
and 24 hours after death.

When ellen's body
was discovered,

It was in the final stages
of rigor mortis

And becoming more pliable.

In looking through the
investigators' report,

Dr. Lee discovered
an important clue.

It was something len fredriksen
said when he found ellen's body.

Malchik: it was like opening
a freezer almost.

The air conditioner
was going full blast.

The person later described it

As being extremely cold
in the room --

Colder than a normal person
would have

Their air conditioner on.

Narrator: a freezing-cold room
will slow decomposition

And the progress
of rigor mortis.

This meant
that ellen sherman's m*rder

Could have occurred earlier
than originally estimated.

Here it's clear the time of the
death is definitely not sunday,

Although we don't know exactly
the hours.

Every indicator pointed
as friday sometime.

Narrator: if ellen was m*rder*d
on friday night,

Then ed sherman would have had
plenty of time

To commit the crime.

Police also learned that sherman
was wearing long pants

And a long-sleeve shirt
on the sailing trip in august.

Lebrun: in looking back on it,

We were all in shorts
and t-shirts,

And he had long pants on
and a turtleneck.

I never saw him on the boat
with short sleeves on.

Narrator: since ellen's
fingernails had been damaged,

Police suspected that ed might
have been hiding scratch marks.

Ed vigorously denied this

And insisted his wife
was alive when he left.

He said he even spoke to her
from his friend's home

By telephone
in front of witnesses.

If true,

Ed couldn't have been
the k*ller.

Well, have a good weekend.

But ed wasn't the only one
listening in

To that conversation.

His friend's daughter was, too.

She picked up and was getting
ready to make a call, I guess.

Fredriksen: she said,

"Well, I heard mr. Sherman
talking on the phone."

And she says,
"well, I was on the other end.

"It was just ringing
and ringing,

"And I heard him saying,
'i love you, too,'

And there was nobody there."

And they said,
"why didn't you hang up?"

And she said, "well, I thought
it was very unusual

Because he was talking
to a ringing phone."

Five minutes
after he leaves his house,

He fakes a phone call
with his wife.

I mean, that's hard to explain.

Little did he know that,
you know,

Some 9-year-old girl
was gonna bring him down.

He wasn't as smart
as he thought he was.

Narrator: and there was another
interesting development.

A witness told police
that she had run into ed

On the morning
of his sailing trip.

During the conversation,

Ed recommended she watch a movie
he particularly enjoyed,

Called "blackout."

Where are you?

Narrator: in the film, a man
kills his wife and children,

Puts the bodies
inside the house,

Then manipulates the crime scene

In order to fool
forensic scientists

And mask the true time
of death.

Richard widmark,
who plays the detective,

Comes out to the press
and says,

"The time of death is gonna be
very difficult to determine

"Because the bodies were put
in a cold room

With the air conditioner turned
all the way up."

the medical examiner estimates
they were dead

for at least three days.

[ Woman screams ]

The air-conditioning system
in the house was turned on,

Apparently to slow the
decomposition of the bodies.

Narrator: was it possible that
ed did the same thing?

Friends say he displayed
a morbid fascination

About details
of his wife's m*rder.

He asked me once,
he asked me 10 times,

"Do you know if they've
determined the time of death?"

He was very interested in that.

He also asked me one time
if I knew how a body decomposed.

I thought that was a very
strange question.

I said, "no."

Truth is absolutely stranger
than fiction.

I mean, there are so many things
that happen in real life

That there's no need
to make anything up.

I mean, it's awful.

Narrator:
police and prosecutors alike

Wondered what motivated
ed sherman to k*ll his wife.

Despite the apparent
reconciliation,

Friends say ellen decided
she wanted a divorce.

Since ellen was the majority
owner of the family business,

She allegedly told ed

That she would leave him
with almost nothing.

And ellen said he can have
his girlfriend and his sailboat,

And that's it.

So I said to her, I said,

"Are you sure
this is what you want to do?"

She says, "I can't live like
this anymore."

She says, "he's never gonna be
a husband

"And a father to our children.

He's always gonna have
this double life."

Narrator: prosecutors believe

That ed sherman carefully
planned his wife's m*rder.

The couple had a light dinner,

And then while ellen
was changing her clothes

In the bedroom,

Prosecutors say ed
strangled her to death.

The forensic evidence shows
that ellen was dead

Before ed wrapped the panties
around her neck

To make the m*rder appear
to be a sex crime.

Inspired by the movie
"blackout,"

He set the air conditioner
to its coldest setting,

Closed the door,

And left for the sailing trip
around 7:00 p.m.

Later that night,
to cement his alibi,

He staged the call to his wife
in front of his friends,

Not knowing his friend's
daughter was listening in.

Sherman called len fredriksen
from the sailboat

On sunday evening,

Asking him to check on his wife,

Hoping the cold temperature
of the bedroom

Would mask the true time
of death, just like the movie.

It fooled forensic scientists,

But only for a while.

Dr. Lee: of course, witnesses
play an important factor.

The first person discovered the
body feel the temperature cold.

The young lady listening
on the phone,

Of course,
knows he's lying.

But science will fill the gap,

Show something
that's impossible.

The time of the death sunday --
it's impossible.

Then we show
what's more probable -- friday.

Then we show the w*apon
and the motive.

He almost got away --
very close.

Narrator: detective malchik
arrested ed sherman for m*rder.

Malchik: he knew that I knew

That he was the one
that had m*rder*d his wife,

And when he saw me, he looked at
me, and I just walked in.

I was the first one in,
and he looked over,

And I said, "ed, it's time."

And he turned white.

He started to sweat.

And he knew it was time.

Narrator: and the forensic
evidence mattered most

To jurors.

During deliberations,

They asked to hear again
the testimony of dr. Lee

And the medical examiner,

Particularly
on the time of death.

One of the jurors said that it
boiled down to the fact

That they figured
he had the time

And the opportunity
and the motive.

Narrator: six years after
his wife's death,

The jury found ed sherman guilty
of first-degree m*rder,

And he was sentenced
to 50 years in prison.

While ed sherman
never admitted guilt,

He did show some remorse.

He said she deserved
a better lifestyle,

And he apologized for leading
such an indulgent lifestyle.

And then he said, "I do not know
who k*lled ellen."

Narrator: after spending only
three years in prison,

Ed sherman died of a heart
attack at the age of 52.

He was a very bright individual,
high i.q.,

And liked to make people know
that he was smarter than you.

That's the way he made me feel,

And I've heard the same
from other people.

Ed thought he could have
whatever ed wanted.

He's got to be an awful cold
person to be able to do that.

That's a hands-on crime,

And she's pregnant with his own
child, and it is a son.

So he's a cold,
calculating person.

Doesn't deserve any sympathy
from anybody.

Narrator:
but sherman was not smarter

Than the detectives
and scientists

Who investigated the case.

In all my years of doing this,

I've never seen a case

Where a body was placed
in an air-conditioned room

And it was turned up
to the maximum degree

To apparently throw off
the time of death.

This case demonstrates
how important the teamwork...

Detectives, witnesses,
scientists --

When work together,
did not give up.