11x25 - Shell Game

[bunniefuu]

They thought the
fire would cover their crime.

But one tiny clue, no bigger
than a thumb tack, remained.

And it held all the
information needed

to put a trio of cold-blooded
K*llers behind bars.

On a cold January
night in 1991, the Camden,

Tennessee Fire
Department got a call

about a house fired
outside of town.

But by the time the
firefighters arrived,

the home was completely
engulfed in flames.

Because it was in a rural area,

they didn't even put it out.

They just let it burn.

And they left the scene.

The homeowner
was named Danny Vine.

Since his truck was
gone, firefighters

assumed he wasn't in the
house when the fire started.

The truck was
missing, and the driver.

But Della Thornton,
his fiancee, her car

was there, keys in the ignition.

And basically, everyone just
thought she pulled up, got

in trouble with
him, and they left.

There was virtually nothing left

of the two bedroom frame home.

The house was very small.




Very small.

Total burn out.

Nothing left but just the plate
that goes around where you nail

the joist, and part
of the front porch.

The next day, family members

went through the rubble.

Tragically, Danny's brothers
found bones in the debris.

The sheriff's
department responded.

Law enforcement responded.

Because you know, you find
bones in a... in a fire, that

definitely ratchets
up the investigation.

- Basically, there
was nothing left.

The bones were
basically just powder,

except the skull and the teeth.

After careful analysis,

a team of forensic
anthropologists

from the University
of Tennessee concluded

that the bones were
from two people.

Using dental records,
they were identified

as Danny and his
girlfriend, Della Thornton.

It just seemed like
I was having a nightmare.

I mean, it just seemed like
it was a dream that I'd had,

and that I would
wake up, you know?

Because we live in a small town.

Camden is a small rural area.

Things like that
just don't happen.


was a professional scuba diver.

He bought and sold
mussel shells used

to make mother of pearl jewelry
and to seed cultured pearls.

- Basically, the mussel
shell buyer, at that time,

it was a purely cash business.

They would have to keep
$5,000 or $10,000 in cash

on their person at all
times to buy mussel shells.

- Danny, from what I understand,
treated everybody right.

Paid a fair price.

If he told you something,
then that would be the truth.

His fiancee,


was a factory worker.

Their wedding date was
only a few months away.

- Della, she was a sweet girl.

She was soft-spoken.

Just kind of easy going.

Pretty blonde with brown eyes.

They made a good looking couple.

Their remains were
on the sofa in the living room,

strongly suggesting either
m*rder or m*rder su1c1de.

The reason
that it's important is

because if your
house is burning,

you're not going to sit
down there on the couch

and pop some
popcorn and watch it

burn while you're inside of it.

You're going to make
some kind of an attempt

to get out if you're
able to get out.

If you're not injured, if you're
not being bound by something.

Investigators also found

the remains of the couple's dog.

Now the only thing in the house

that was consistent with a
living thing was the puppy,

from the position that
the puppy was found

huddled in the corner.

A specially trained arson

dog detected an accelerant.

And investigators
noticed what's known

as a saddle burn
near the front door.

- The saddle burn is what
we refer to as a burn down.

And it's where a flammable
liquid has been poured,

and it runs in a
downward direction.

And that's the way
that fire will burn.

Gas chromatograph
mass spectrometry of the ashes

confirmed gasoline was
used to start the fire.

Investigators estimated that
almost 10 gallons had been

poured in the home
and on the bodies.

The fire took more
than just the lives

of Danny, Della, and their dog.

It also destroyed
potential evidence.

A forensic anthropologist
discovered that Danny Vine

and Della Thornton weren't
k*lled by the house fire.

He found remnants of a
b*llet in Danny's skull.

As a lead
b*llet enters the bone,

the edges of the
b*llet are peeled off,

and it begins to splatter.

You get it splattered all
over the inside of the skull,

and you get these little tiny
pinpoints that are dense,

and the x-ray won't
go through that.

That's why they were white
or light, and the x-ray film.

The b*llet
was from a .38 caliber.

He also found lead
fragments in Della's skull.

The theory at that point
is it's m*rder, because it was

not a su1c1de, because there
was no .38 caliber p*stol

found in the house.

There was a .45 Danny
had, but there was no .38.

And so whoever shot
him left the scene.

So at that point, we felt
sure we had a m*rder.

On a deserted
road a few miles from Danny

and Della's home, investigators
found Danny's pickup truck.

The trailer was
attached, but was empty.

Danny's friends gave
police a possible motive

for the murders.

They'd seen $2,500
worth of mussel shells

in Danny's trailer
before his death.

To a mussel diver,
that trailer full of shells

is a trailer full of money.

We also found tracks where
a vehicle had backed up

to the trailer to unload
off of Danny's trailer

onto other vehicle.

And once the truck is located,
and the shells are missing,

then our theory is
that it's robbery.

Unfortunately,
there were no fingerprints.

Truck had been wiped down.

There where nobody's
fingerprints, not even

Danny Vine's in
that... in that truck.

Danny bought mussel
shells from independent scuba

divers, then sold them to
companies that made jewelry,

or used them to seed
cultured pearls.

So you can really say that most

all the pearls of the
world originate from right

here on the scenic
Tennessee River.

But mussel shell divers

had the reputation of being
very tough characters.

You have to be physically tough.

You've got to be mentally tough
to get down in that cold water,

that dark water in the
bottom of the Tennessee River

and feel around with
your hands in the mud,

and hope that you don't find
something you don't need to.

The bottom line is, most
of these mussel shell divers,

some didn't, but a lot of the
ones we dealt with in this case

almost all had multiple
felony convictions.

Since the motive for the murders

looked like the
robbery, investigators

contacted every company
that bought shells

in the two weeks
following the crime.

And they got a break.

One company said,
they were offered

shells that looked suspicious.

They had lost
their water weight.

After several days
out of the water,

the mussels would
open up a little bit

and let all the water drain out.

And the shells are
sold by the pound,

and so they're not
worth anywhere near

as much once the water gets out.

And the shells were
damaged, as if they had already

been through a
shaker, a machine that

separates them
according to size.

If a bunch of shells shows up

at another shell buyer's
camp with chips, and marks,

and things on it which
indicate that it's already been

through a shaker, then that
is going to be an indicator

that either the shells
were stolen... well,

pretty much that the
shells were stolen.

Investigators
learned that the person who

sold these damaged
shells was the wife

of a local shell
diver, Gary Bruce.

Gary and his two brothers,
Jerry Lee and Robert,

all had prior arrests
for numerous crimes.

They often skirted the
law through intimidation.

I remember doing an interview

with a witness in an
undisclosed location.

They blew up a building located
behind where the interview was

being conducted, just
to let the witness know,

I can get to you
anytime I want to.

- Well, one brother,
JC Bruce, had

been convicted of
r*pe, attempted m*rder.

He r*ped a young girl
and strangled her.

He thought she was dead.

Luckily, she survived
to testify against him.

He was out of prison at
the time this happened.

He had been pardoned by the
governor a number of years

earlier.

When police
interviewed the Bruce brothers,

they denied any
involvement in the murders

and claimed they were elsewhere.

They all came in.

And their mother,
Kathleen Bruce,

came in and provided an alibi.

So they were all on her property
at a shed outside sh**ting

pool at a pool table all night.

For the moment, at least,

the case appeared
to be a dead end.

Police were convinced that
the three Bruce brothers had

something to do with Danny Vine
and Della Thornton's m*rder.

But they faced a sizable hurdle.

The Bruce brothers claimed
to have an alibi that they

were with their
mother that night.

So police dug a little deeper.

And gradually, that
alibi started to crack.

They interviewed
this woman who says, no.

I was at the Bruce trailer
that night with Kathleen Bruce,

and none of the
Bruces were there.

According to
a local businessman,

the Bruce brothers were at a gas
station that night, just hours

before the fire at
Danny Vine's home.

The Bruces pulled up
and took out two 5 gallons

gas containers and filled
those up with gasoline.

- One of the brothers
told the store owner

that there's going to be a
hot time in Camden tonight.

And again, we felt like that
that was involving the fire.

But this information
alone wasn't enough.

We have an alibi that
wouldn't hold up,

but we still couldn't put
them on the scene at the time.

- We've got a lot of rumor.

A lot of innuendo.

We got people that are saying
that they're in one place,

but they're really
someplace else.

So investigators turn
to the only hard evidence they

had, the burned
remains of the victims.

And here, the forensic
anthropologist

provided some
useful information.

Burn patterns indicated...
That Danny Vine fell forward

on the sofa after he was shot.

This was a lucky
break in this investigation,

because, uh, it just happens
that where the b*llet was

was the least burned
part of the body.

And the intensity
of the fire was not

as great on the front of
skull as it was on the back.

The lead inside
the b*llet had melted.

But the b*llet's copper jacket
peeled away after hitting

the bone, and it
was not destroyed.

Copper has a melting
point at somewhere near 2,000

degrees Fahrenheit, whereas
the lead core, which would've

been the center
portion of the b*llet,

it had a melting point somewhere
near 600 degrees Fahrenheit.

On the copper
jacket of the b*llet

were rifling
characteristics that

could identify the
w*apon that fired it.

But the Bruces denied
owning a .38 caliber p*stol.

- All we have is a
b*llet, and we don't

have a g*n to match it back to.

But then, a witness
came forward who said,

she was at Gary
Bruce's home one day

when he was target sh**ting.

She says that at some point,

he stopped, took a
p*stol out that he had.

I think it was a
revolver, a .38 revolver...

and took a couple
sh*ts at a tree over there.

The woman took investigators

to Gary Bruce's home
and found the tree.

Sure enough, investigators
found a b*llet hole.

So they cut down the
tree to look inside.

The puzzle was beginning to take

form now and take shape.

And we felt like that
was a crucial piece

of evidence in this case.

Investigators
used a hammer and chisel

to gain access to the
b*llet without damaging it.

When they finally
got to it, they

saw that it was just as
the witness described,

a .38 caliber round.

Both the b*llet from the tree
and from Danny Vine's skull

were sent to ballistics
expert, Tommy Heflin.

In most firearms, a
series of spirals that are cut

are pressed into the barrel, at
a twist either right or left.

It gives a b*llet
its rotational spin

to give its to its target.

Even though
both b*ll*ts had sustained

significant damage, Heflin was
able to compare the striations

on both b*ll*ts and
discovered that the lands

- and grooves lined up perfectly.
- It was very high quality.

It was 100% certainty
it was the same g*n.

We never found the g*n, but we
could prove it was Gary Bruce's

g*n through the
circumstantial evidence.

And it was critical evidence.

- Because of it, we
were able to determine

what g*n it came from,
and who it belonged to.

Thanks to a
stray b*llet in a tree,

the Bruce brothers were
arrested and charged

with two counts of
first-degree m*rder.

But bringing the brothers
to trial wouldn't be easy.

When Carol Vine heard the Bruce
brothers had been arrested

for the m*rder of
her son, Danny,

and future daughter-in-law,
Della, she turned pale.

That's because Della told her
she'd been approached by Jerry

Lee Bruce shortly
before her m*rder.

- Jerry had tried to get her to
go out with him during the time

that, you know, before that.

Not too long before that.

And she told him no.

And she said, you'll never be
half the man that Danny is.

And so, I think that's why
he wanted to sh**t her.

To get her.

Prosecutors say the
primary motive was robbery.

This was wintertime.

Too cold for the
Bruce brothers to dive

for shells in the
icy Tennessee waters.

So they decided to
steal shells instead.

On the night of the m*rder,
witnesses placed the three

Bruce brothers at
a local gas station

filling plastic
containers with gasoline.

Gary Bruce told the
owner it was going

to be a hot night in Camden.

- Sit down and shut up.

Prosecutors believe
that the Bruce brothers robbed

Danny Vine of any
cash he had on hand

and fully intended to k*ll him.

During the robbery, Della
drove up to the house

and saw the Bruces' truck.

She knew there was trouble.

She went inside to
help, and the Bruces

shot them both with
a .38 caliber p*stol.

Chemical tests
prove they poured gasoline

throughout the house
and set the fire.

The position of Danny's
head protected the copper

jacket of the
b*llet from melting.

This tiny fragment tied
the Bruces to the m*rder.

The brothers drove Danny's
truck to a deserted location

and took Danny's mussel shells
worth approximately $2,500.

They wiped their
fingerprints off the truck,

but they made a huge
blunder with the shells.

They either didn't
know or perhaps

didn't care that Danny had
already put these shells

through a shaker to
determine their value.

When Gary Bruce's wife
tried to sell the shells,

the buyer knew right away that
the shells had been stolen.

The shell business is
a multimillion dollar business.

A lot of people buy
shells illegally.

And sometimes they
don't question it,

where they come from.

It's just... but they
have to have a receipt.

You have to get receipts down.

And in this case, we were able
to track the receipts down

where the Bruces had sold these
shells up in Puyear, Tennessee.

As the brothers awaited trial,

Gary Bruce peeled back part of
a chain link fence in the prison

recreation yard and escaped.

We had a lot of
trouble trying to find him.

We searched on horse back.

We searched in the water.

We had helicopters.

We had agents from all kinds
of departments everywhere.

For 14 months,
Gary Bruce eluded police.

He even made the FBI's


But thanks to an anonymous
tip, he was finally apprehended


Nashville, Tennessee,

working as a landscaper.

Gary, Jerry Lee,
and Robert Bruce

were all tried and
convicted of two counts

of first-degree m*rder,
arson, firearms violations,

and conspiracy to
obstruct justice.

Each was sentenced to life
in prison without parole.

- They were doing
that to get money.

But it took my child,
the Thornton's daughter.

It took any future grandchildren
that we could have had.

Kathleen Bruce,
the boy's 60-year-old mother,

was convicted for providing
her sons with a false alibi,

and was sentenced to
eight years in prison.

I don't think they
anticipated all that they got.

But the fact is that they
got all they deserved.

- A lot of people
were very happy.

It lowered the crime
rate significantly

in Benton County and the area.

In the end, the Bruce brothers

were no match for
the power of forensic science.

I think that we're
very lucky in this case.

Many people, when they
set a house on fire,

think it's going to
destroy everything.

Well, it doesn't.
- There's always evidence there.

And in this case, there was
quite a lot of evidence.

- The forensics, in this case,
was absolutely critical.

But for the ballistics, but
for the forensic of cause

and origin for the
arson case, there

would not have been
much of a case.