11x28 - If I Were You

[bunniefuu]

Amid the rustic
beauty of rural Idaho,

a retired school
teacher vanished.

But even though he was missing,
his bills were paid on time,

and he continued to
correspond with his family.

But they couldn't contact him,
making this one of the most

bizarre missing persons
cases in US history.

For 22 years, the most popular
teacher at Incline High School

near Lake Tahoe,
Nevada was Paul Gruber.

It was his passion
for travel that

fueled his love of
foreign languages.

- He loved that he could
go to these places

and speak their language.

And he emphasized that very
much, that that was really

one of the main benefit of
learning a foreign languages,

was that traveling
the world, you

could take care of yourself.

- And I went to Mexico with him
my junior year of high school.

That was fun.

We went dancing.
It was kind of embarrassing.

But anyway, we had a good time.

When he was in
his early 50's, Paul Gruber

inherited some money and
retired from teaching.

He moved to Sandpoint,
Idaho, and bought a home

on the shores of Muskrat Lake.

He just liked that slow pace.

When I actually saw Sandpoint,
I could see why he liked it.

It has the same Lake Tahoe feel.

Shortly after
Christmas, in 1993,

Paul sent his
three-year-old grandson

a birthday card,
as was his custom.

But his daughter
noticed immediately

that this card was different
from all the others.

It was a really brief note,

and it wasn't very affectionate.

And it wasn't sitting
right with me.

There was just a
red flag inside.

You know, that
something wasn't right.

And I pulled out
old birthday cards

and started comparing
writing, and it

didn't look like
his signature to me.

Shellie left phone
messages for her father

at his home in Idaho.

Uncharacteristically,
he didn't return them.

So Shellie called the
local police department,

asking them to check on
her father's welfare.

The detectives
found no one home,

and no evidence of a break in.

But virtually everything
inside was gone.

There was a total
absence of personal items...

Clothing, toothbrush, hairbrush.

Nothing.

Just totally vacant.

It was like no one
had lived there,

or someone had rented the house.

Stereos.

Valuable stuff like that.

TVs were all gone.

Shellie decided to set a trap.

She left a bogus message on
her father's answering machine,

reminding him not to forget
her husband's birthday.

Can you please send the
money that we had discussed?

- I think it was just
something that she

made up to see
what would happen.

Five days later, her
father sent Shellie's husband

a birthday card and a $25 check.

She knew
that her dad had never promised

to send a check for her husband.

And I don't think it
was even his birthday.

And so that certainly
let her to believe

that something had
happened to her dad.

An Idaho State Police
forensic document examiner

compared the handwriting on
the check and envelope to Paul

Gruber's known
handwriting samples.

When the
handwriting analysis came back,

the examiner felt that it
was Gruber's handwriting.

Paul's family,
however, didn't believe it.

It didn't look
like his signature to me.

And my husband agreed, that it
didn't look like his writing.

So I think that's when I
started making some more calls.

Police checked
Paul's financial transactions

and discovered that he had
been paying his monthly bills

on time, and was using his
ATM card around town for cash.

Strangely, none of
the ATMs got a picture

of the person using the card.

None of the
ATMs used had a camera.

Not one.

So we found that to
be a little bit odd.

Was this merely a coincidence?

And if Paul was all right,
where was he living?

And why didn't he return his
family's telephone calls?

Shellie Kepley was convinced
that something sinister had

happened to her
father, Paul Gruber.

On a hunch, Shellie called the
post office in Sandpoint, Idaho

and asked them
who was picking up

her father's mail from
his post office box.

A security camera
provided a partial answer.

Unfortunately, somebody probably

knocked it askew,
so that all we got

was a silhouette
of the person who

entered in and went into
his post office box.

The silhouette
wasn't Paul Gruber.

To some people in town, it
looked like 43-year-old Darryl

Kuehl, a local handyman who
had been doing work for Paul.

A comparison between the
silhouette and Kuehl's picture

confirmed it.

Kuehl, from what we could tell,

had lived in California
and possibly Washington.

He had a large family,
wife, and six, seven kids.

Kuehl admitted he had
been picking up Paul's mail.

He said Paul asked him to before
leaving for a trip to Canada.

Investigators showed Kuehl
a photograph of Paul Gruber,

and incredibly, Kuehl
didn't recognize him.

He said, this wasn't
the Paul Gruber he knew.

Somebody pretended
to be Paul Gruber to Darryl

Kuehl, hired Darryl
Kuehl to be a caretaker.

- So we asked him to
provide us with a,

you know, an artist sketch,
police sketch of the person.

- What side of the person's
face did you see the best.

Investigators
took Kuehl's description

and keyed that information
into a computer program

called Compu-Sketch.

I'm entering the answers

that they provide
to the question.

And so the computer with those
answers generates that sketch.

Then Kuehl provided
feedback on the first image

to improve the likeness.

I want to change
one item at a time.

That way, if it's the
nose that's a problem,

we can pinpoint the nose.

Or it eyes don't match the
nose, we can pinpoint that.

Could be, average hour to
two hours to go through it.

When finished, police
released this composite sketch

to the media, hoping
to find the man who

had assumed Paul
Gruber's identity.

But no one called.

Months went by,
and there was still

no sign of the real
Paul Gruber, either.

We still didn't
know where Gruber was at.

We hadn't located him.

We weren't even
sure that anything

had happened to this man.

Police continued
to keep a close eye on Paul's

house, and searched the
property repeatedly,

even using cadaver dogs.

But something inside
the house bothered

Detective Sergeant Valdez.

A small rug in the foyer
had been glued to the floor.

- That just drove me crazy.

I couldn't figure
out why anybody would

glue a rug to the
hardwood floor.

That's crazy.

My wife would k*ll me if
I did something like that.

So we tore it up.

Under the rug, investigators

found a small gouge
in the wooden floor.

It looked like a b*llet had
ricocheted and hit the floor.

Tests of the wood were positive
for the presence of lead.

Police used luminol and
discovered there had been blood

on the floor near the
b*llet mark and elsewhere.

We started spraying up the door,

and you could see white marks
about halfway up the door.

I mean, they stand out.

If you use bleach or anything
else, they stick out real well.

Testing proved that

the blood was Paul Gruber's.

But where was the body?

We don't have Gruber.

We don't have a body.

We can't prove the man's dead.

Darryl Kuehl,
a 43-year-old handyman,

said this man identified
himself as Paul Gruber,

and hired him to take care
of the Gruber property

while he went away on vacation.

This man was
obviously an impostor.

And no one had heard from the
real Paul Gruber for months.

They continue
on with the investigation.

The number one thing that
they're looking for is a body.

Trying to figure out where
the body of Paul Gruber is.

As for Darryl
Kuehl, he was well-respected

in the community and
had no criminal record.

However, a search
of his finances

showed he recently
deposited over $20,000

into his checking account.

At the same time, there
were similar withdraws

from Paul Gruber's account.

Kuehl admitted transferring
Paul's money into his checking

account so that you
could pay Paul's bills.

- None of that to me rang true.

I have a lot of friends.

I don't have any
friends that are,

you know, I'm gonna go out
and pay their bills for them

at $500, $600 a whack,
that I just met.

The only evidence detectives

had were the birthday
cards and checks

Paul Gruber sent to his
family while missing.

A forensic document examiner
concluded that the handwriting

on those birthday cards was
consistent with the real Paul

Gruber's known
handwriting samples.

Paul's family disagreed.

- I was absolutely
persuaded that it wasn't.

So it's hard when you've got
experts saying, yes, it is.

And you're like, no, it's not.

So the materials were sent

to another forensic examiner
for a second opinion.

Once I
knew what his signature looked

like, what his subconscious
characteristics were,

then I took some of the
questioned material, looked

at it, and it didn't take long
to see if it was counterfeit,

or if it was valid.

The most striking
part of the examination

was the writing of the letter
P. Paul Gruber consistently

had a large loop in this letter.

Yet, in the
questioned documents,

the P's were different.

The loops
weren't as well formed.

They were completely missing,
or they were elongated.

Floberg also noticed
that Paul Gruber wrote his M's

and N's much
differently than those

in the questioned document.

He concluded that Paul Gruber
did not write these documents.

The signatures did

look pretty close
to the victim's.

I believe a lot of
practice had gone

into duplicating the
victim's signatures.

His downfall, however, was that
there was a lot more writing

that goes into a birthday
card and an address.

Next, Floberg analyzed
Darryl Kuehl's handwriting

to see if he had written the
checks and birthday cards.

He noticed that K used
the same closed loop

on the capital T and
other capital letters.

And Kuehl wrote his
f's in virtually

the same way as the
questioned document.

No matter how much time

you have to practice writing,
it's so hard to duplicate

the writing of another that
Mr. Kuehl was conclusively

the writer of the forged
checks, and birthday cards,

and addressed the envelopes.

Investigators
searched Darryl Kuehl's property

and found some
incriminating evidence.

We found a hidden door upstairs,

and found military-type, dark
camouflage-type clothing,

throwing stars, a catana,
which is a big sword.

It just didn't sit with Darryl
Kuehl, the family man, father,

Mormon, good Mormon type person.

They also found power
tools, furniture, even a boat,

which were all identified
as belonging to Paul Gruber.

We found a small
suitcase, or briefcase, that

had his Sunday go
to meeting clothes

in it and a large butcher knife.

That really seemed strange.

And in the middle
of it all was one

of Paul Gruber's power bills.

But most
alarming was a .22 caliber

handgun with a
homemade sil*ncer.

Silencers are
illegal because they

can alter the
ballistic evidence.

- The microscopic
characteristics,

which are imparted to the
b*llet by the barrel itself,

are usually obliterated by
a m*ssile lined sil*ncer.

Very, very difficult and
rare to identify a b*llet

with the barrel of a w*apon
which has had a sil*ncer

device attached.

And detectives still
didn't have Paul Gruber's body.


Gruber disappeared,

investigators searched
his house yet again.

This time, in a
basement crawl space,

they found a shallow depression
that wasn't there before.

The ground had
apparently settled.

We worked for two days.

We shifted every 5 gallon
bucket full of dirt.

We went square by square, a
couple of feet at each square,

in a pattern.

We finally exposed what
appeared to be an air mattress,

and eventually confirmed
that there was a body inside.

The body was
identified as Paul Gruber.

He had been shot four times.

The medical examiner removed
several 22-caliber b*ll*ts

from Gruber's body.

But they didn't match test fires
from Darryl Kuehl's .22 caliber

handgun, or his sil*ncer,
which can impart

its own characteristics
on the b*llet.

Any slight change in
the position of that sil*ncer,

relative to the w*apon,
will cause the b*llet

to strike different parts of
the sil*ncer from shot to shot.

And once that occurs,
you're not going

to make an identification.

Nevertheless, investigators

had more than enough
evidence to charge

Darryl Kuehl with m*rder.

Kuehl's first order of business
was to plan his escape.

An inmate testified that
Darryl Kuehl had offered him

money and the car to
k*ll the prison transport

officers who were
taking Darryl back.

This person was
getting out of jail

before Darryl was going
to be transported.

$5,000 for
me, and $5,000 for Harvey,

and $5,000 for Howard.

We thought we were going
pretty cheap there.

Kuehl thought
he'd soon be a free man,

but the investigators
knew better.

The two
officers who were actually

doing the transport,
they said, Gerald, we

know about your plot, that you
were going to have us k*lled.

Those guys turned
State's evidence.

And they said that he was
just crushed at that point.

Prosecutors believe
Darryl Kuehl orchestrated

an elaborate plan to k*ll Paul
Gruber and steal his money.

- This was a crime
motivated by greed.

Paul Gruber had things
that Darryl Kuehl wanted.

He needed more money.

He had six kids, seven
kids, however many he had.

That's a lot of groceries.

Apparently, Paul Gruber

hired Darryl Kuehl for
handyman work around the house

and soon gained his confidence.

Sometime after
Christmas, prosecutors

believe Kuehl went to Paul's
home armed with his .22 caliber

handgun, and shot
him four times.

One b*llet missed,
ricocheted off the floor,

leaving a gouge in the wood.

Luminal tests show that
he dragged Paul's body

into the crawl space,
wrapped him in plastic,

and buried him
underneath his own house.

Kuehl cleaned the
blood from the floor

and glued the rug
over the gouge created

when the b*llet ricocheted.

With Paul dead, Kuehl
now had unfettered access

to Paul's records, his
ATM card, his PIN number,

his checks, his social
security number.

He had everything he needed
to assume Paul's identity.

He started writing
checks in Paul's name

and withdrawing money
from his accounts.

His handwriting may have
fooled one document examiner,

but it didn't fool Paul's
daughter, who knew right away

it wasn't her
father's handwriting.

She set a trap by leaving
some inaccurate information

about her husband's birthday on
her father's answering machine.

Kuehl fell right into
the trap, sending

the birthday card
on the wrong date.

It was a
takeover homicide, where

it wasn't just a homicide,
but afterwards the suspect

took over the life of the
victim, financial matters,

paid bills, paid the mortgage,
wrote out checks and birthday

cards to the grandkids, tried to
keep the persona of the victim

alive so that he could extract
more funds from the victim.

At his trial, Darryl
Kuehl insisted he was innocent.

He denied signing Paul's
name on his checks

and sending the birthday
cards to Paul's family.

He pointed to the opinion of
the first forensic document

examiner as proof.

So what did prosecutors do?

They asked scientists
to swab the back

of the stamp on
the birthday cards.

And they found saliva.

Its DNA matched Darryl Kuehl.

- There was roughly a
million people in Idaho.

So when you have
a one in a million

on a DNA, that tells you
that if everybody in Idaho

is in the same room, this
is still the only person

it could be.

- I felt a lot happier to
know that I wasn't going

to be the only one testifying
to the identity of the writer,

but also that the DNA was going
to corroborate my findings.

After a three week trial,

Kuehl was convicted of
first-degree m*rder,

grand theft, and forgery.

He was sentenced to 25
years to life in prison.

At first, we're skeptical.

The handwriting tells us, don't
be skeptical, keep digging.

Later on, we find
evidence of blood

have confirmed for us that
yes, you have blood here.

Yes, you probably
have a crime scene,

putting us on the right track.

And lastly, the DNA.

I think that's the nail
on the coffin right there.