12x08 - Sole Survivor

[bunniefuu]

A college student
vanished without a trace.

Her abandoned car
was found in one

city, her belongings in another.

Some dirt on a pair
of shoes revealed

the extent of one
man's deception.

Michigan State University

is the seventh largest
in the United States,

with a campus in East Lansing
that spans over 5,000 acres.

With more than 45,000
students, police are often

called to investigate when one
of them fails to stay in touch.

From time to time, we'll

get missing persons
reports around here.

And the majority
of the time they're

going to be bogus... somebody
runs off with somebody

else or boyfriend
forgets to report

home, things of that nature.

In July of 2000,


a graduate student studying
speech pathology, went missing.

She didn't show up
at a family picnic.

And she wasn't
answering her telephone.

And so I called
the East Lansing Police

Department to do a...
An apartment check.

You know, they can
go over to check.

And they went over there,
and she wasn't there.

Michelle lived in
an apartment just off campus.

- We saw no signs of
a, a violent crime

occurring in the
apartment or anything.

It looked like a college
student's apartment.

But they did
find two suspicious things.

There was
evidence around the door knob

and everything to
suggest lock picking.

- There was a regular-sized
couch in the living

room of the apartment.

And the three top cushions
of that couch were missing.

And Michelle's car,
a burgundy station wagon,

was not in the
apartment parking lot.

- There were six or seven
different law enforcement

agencies involved, most of whom
had no actual stake in the case

themselves, but
volunteered people to,

uh, participate in the search.

They were also civilians
who volunteered.

Uh, there were
university, uh, staff

and employees who
assisted in the search.

There were private
citizens that assisted.

Police issued
a "be on the lookout"

call for Michelle's car.


in Toledo, Ohio,

found it parked near
the bus station.

They had ticketed the car
several times... an indication

it had been there for awhile.

Yeah, I got a car
here with a couple tickets.

No one recalled seeing Michelle

Salerno in or near the car.

We didn't really think

it was good news because
she wasn't with it.

And why would it
be in Toledo, Ohio?

It just didn't make any sense.

Michelle Salerno was separated

from her husband Dennis.

When she disappeared, Dennis was
living in Bowling Green, Ohio,

and claimed he hadn't
seen her in over a week.

The last known person
to see Michelle alive

was her next door
neighbor Jason.

He said she helped him
deliver some newspapers

several days earlier.

She had just
recently picked up a local area

paper route, basically to
earn a little extra cash.

And if I recall correctly, the
paper route went from 4:00 AM

to 6:00 AM.

Jason said he
and Michelle returned

to their respective apartments
around 6 o'clock that morning.

And that was the
last time he saw her.

Jason was considered
a suspect for the simple fact

he was the last
person to see Michelle

alive before her disappearance.

Jason and Michelle
were actually close friends.

They had formed a
relationship, not

anything outside of friendship.

But, uh, relationship was tight.

- Based on all of the
circumstances in our followup

investigation, we
were able to quickly

eliminate him as a suspect.

I checked on every
one of Michelle's credit cards.

None of those things
had ever showed

any activity whatsoever on them.

Her checking account, everything
had stopped like Michelle had

just disappeared and everything
about her had just ended.

But people who
disappear usually spend money.

So investigators feared this
was something far worse.

Shortly after Michelle's
Salerno's disappearance,

there was another
suspicious incident in Ohio

a few miles from
Michelle's abandoned car.

A truck driver was m*rder*d
in a rest stop bathroom.

The victim was located

on the floor of the shower.

His throat had been cut.

Uh, he was not clothed.

Some of his personal belongings
were there in the shower.

The man was identified
as 50-year-old Larry McClanahan

plan, a self-employed
trucker from Ohio.

A background check revealed
McClanahan served time

in prison for
sexually assaulting

his 14-year-old nephew.

His cell mate and best
friend was none other

than Dennis Salerno, Michelle
Salerno's estranged husband who

had served time for
theft and fraud.

After getting out of prison,

Salerno went to live with
McClanahan and his family

for a period of time.

So they were, they
were well-acquainted.

McClanahan
opened his door to Dennis,

gave him a place to live.

It also came out that Larry
and Dennis shared Larry's wife,

McClanahan's ex-wife
and formed this net.

They were all sexually
involved together.

The truck stop's security camera

showed McClanahan walking
towards the shower room

with another man carrying
a large black bag.

A half hour later,
the man with the bag

left without McClanahan.

To police, the man looked
like Dennis Salerno.

There was also
a video which shows Salerno

entering a locked and
secured storage area.

There were clear
pictures taken there.

Did you k*ll Larry?

- Why would I k*ll Larry?

I have no...

When police brought
Salerno in for questioning,

he denied everything.

But after several hours,
his story changed.

He said McClanahan called
him a few days earlier

suggesting they meet
at the truck stop.

Salerno said when he
got there, McClanahan

admitted he, quote, "took
care of" his wife Michelle,

since he knew Salerno was
having marital problems.

- Dennis said, what do you mean?

And McClanahan said, I
took care of your wife.

- And he said to him, I've taken
care of your problem, Dennis.

Now, come over here and
take your clothes of

and get in the shower with me.

Salerno claimed
McClanahan wouldn't take no

for an answer and feared
he would be r*ped.

Dennis said he
panicked and reached down

and grabbed a knife and jabbed
it backwards where McClanahan

was, stabbing him in the neck.

- I think he was
trying to, uh, uh...

Pardon the, pardon
the expression...

But k*ll two birds
with one stone.

He was trying to
implicate McClanahan

as the m*rder*r of Michelle
and also extricate himself

from McClanahan's
m*rder by claiming

that it was self defense.

But police were skeptical.

First, the physical
evidence did not

support Salerno's
version of events.

- We later found out that
McClanahan's neck was slashed

from ear to ear, and he
was almost decapitated.

It appears clear that McClanahan

was in a vulnerable
position, that his throat

was cut probably from behind.

He has defensive
wounds, indicating

that he was fighting
off a knife attack.

That's not, uh, something
that falls in line

with Salerno's description
of what happened.

And Salerno admitted
he didn't ask McClanahan

for details about
Michelle's m*rder.

And still, I
had to ask Dennis, well,

did you ask him what he did
with her or how he k*lled her

or where she's at?

Dennis never asked
those questions.

You're not stupid.

You know why we're
talking about you.

You're the only one that
can lead us to Michelle.

How, how can I do that?

How can I do that?

I don't know where she is.

I told you guys
everything that I knew.

I told you about all the friends
that I knew that she had.

Um...

Dennis, have you hurt Michelle

mistakenly, accidentally?

- No.

That's not bruises on her arms.

That's not
a very positive answer.

- Detective Vincent and I
took the tape of Dennis

to some Michigan State
Police profilers.

And one of the
things that came out

is that, if he did m*rder
Michelle, more than likely he

would bury her,
take her someplace

that they had some
connection together.

While Salerno
admitted k*lling McClanahan,

he denied any involvement
in Michelle's m*rder.

So investigators had to
rely on forensic evidence

to find out the truth.

Michelle Salerno, a


was missing and
presumed m*rder*d.

- OK, I came in here to ask
you guys if you knew anything,

and you guys are blaming
me for all kinds of crap.

Her estranged husband
Dennis told police his best

friend Larry
McClanahan k*lled her,

an assertion police
found preposterous.

We investigated
it and we were never

able to determine that
McClanahan had anything to do

with Michelle's m*rder
or disappearance.

Interestingly, police
found Michelle's abandoned car

just 10 miles from
the truck stop

where Salerno k*lled McClanahan.

Inside Michelle's
car, investigators

found Dennis
Salerno's fingerprint

on the passenger side window.

Michelle got the car after
Dennis had moved out.

The fact that her
dad had recently given her

the car does minimize
the possibility

that his fingerprints
could or should be there.

Next, investigators went

through Salerno's
personal belongings.

- Dennis had two
storage lockers...

One in DeWitt, Michigan,
and one in Ohio.

In both of these storage areas,
he had a pack rat mentality,

kept everything he ever
owned or had in the past.

Inside were computers,
pornographic pictures,

a professional lock picking set,
and one of Michelle's letters

addressed to the court.

We found numerous
documents, one of which

being a personal protection
order application

that Michelle had filled
out that Dennis, uh, should

not have been in possession
of at all, unless he had,

in fact, entered her apartment
on a previous occasion

and took it.

I am writing to
obtain a personal protection

order against my husband.

I fear for my safety, because
in the course of our marriage,

he has been physically and
mentally abusive toward me.

Investigators sent
the letter to forensic scientist

Greg Michaud who sprayed
it with ninhydrin.

Ninhydrin is a chemical

that we use to react with the
amino acids in the fingerprint

residuals that are left behind.

When the ninhydrin does
react, the fingerprints

become visible in
a purple color.

On this document,
Michaud found prints

from two different individuals.

There were two palm prints

that were identified
to Dennis Salerno.

And then there were
three fingerprints

that we were able to
identify to Michelle Salerno.

Investigators
believe Dennis stole

this letter from
Michelle's apartment.

That letter was drafted

the night before her death.

- Dennis was not
residing with her.

And there's no reason
that his prints

should ever have
been on that letter.

But Dennis Salerno continued

to deny he k*lled his estranged
wife Michelle, insisting

his friend Larry McClanahan did.

Well, it's a great alibi,

to be able to accuse someone
of a, a homicide when they're

dead, uh, because you can pin
everything on that dead person.

And the dead person cannot talk.

He was caught
on the McClanahan m*rder.

And the prosecutor there
were putting together

a possible death penalty
case against him.

And we came to that agreement.

If he told us
where the body was,

we wouldn't use that information
in a trial against him.

And the Ohio prosecutors would
seek only a 20-year prison

sentence for the
m*rder of McClanahan.

So Salerno took the deal

and gave investigators the
location of Michelle's body.

He told us that
Larry McClanahan had told him

that he had buried
Michelle on top of this,

this dump site,
which was 10 acres.

And it was a large
area, a huge dump site.

After several days of searching,

investigators finally
found a woman's body.

They needed some way to
make an identification.

- I got a hold of Michelle's mom
and said, do you, by chance,

still have one of
Michelle's baby teeth?

And so she gave us one
or two of the baby teeth.

And there was still enough of
the pulp or dentine present

that they were finally able to
get a known sample of her DNA.

The DNA confirmed
the body was Michelle Salerno.

She had been strangled to death.

There was a defect
in the hyoid bone, which

is a three-part bone in your
throat, which is generally

a, a good indicator
that, uh, strangulation

has been a mechanism of death.

You feel like
the weight of the world

has been lifted
off your shoulders

once you've finally found her.

And then, then, of
course, you know,

what you've hoped for for so
long can be very devastating.

Investigators were
convinced that Dennis Salerno

was involved in Michelle's
m*rder, especially when they

found a lock picking set in
his possession and a pair

of mud-caked shoes in
his storage locker.

These just stuck out

because they had been rolled
up inside a floor mat of a car.

Detective Quick was in
charge of taking care

of the trace
evidence at that time

and got a hold of a professor
at Michigan State University

who we called the Dirt Doctor.

The Dirt Doctor was Tom Vogel,

a professor of
geological sciences.

- I always though they
called me the Rock Doctor.

- He said, my results
here could actually

be damaging to
your investigation

because if my results
are found to be generic,

that could actually
give Dennis Salerno

an alibi as far as
him not being there.

Vogel took
samples from Salerno's shoes

and from Michelle's body.

He ground each one to a
fine powder then heated

the samples to 1,000
degrees centigrade.

He did the same for the
sample from the landfill.

And this soil was
the most unique.

I'd never seen anything like it

before in my life.

When they brought the materials
back, I saw, wow, you know,

these are really unusual soils.

The soils had high levels
of metals like nickel, zinc,

and even hafnium,
which is probably

the most unusual metal
to find in a soil.

Astonishingly,
the dirt on Salerno's shoes

matched the dirt found
on Michelle's body.

And the dirt wasn't
from the landfill.

That body had been moved.

She was definitely buried
someplace else first.

The soil at that was right
on, in contact with the body,

did not have these heavy metals.

This meant that
Michelle's body has been

previously buried
at another location

and that Dennis was
the one who buried her.

The soil also matched
soil in the wheel

wells of Michelle's car.

It puts him at the
scene with forensic evidence,

trace evidence,
and shows that he

is involved in the
burial of his wife.

Friends of
Michelle and Dennis Salerno

say their relationship
was doomed from the start.

They eloped after knowing
each other for only a month.

Michelle's parents
were appalled.

I just wanted to
find out more about Dennis

since we knew very
little about him.

So I hired a private
investigator.

And he uncovered
his criminal past.

That was more shocking to me
than when she got married.

I was just really
upset about that.

When Michelle
found out about her husband's

criminal past, she
asked for a divorce.

She had found out
that he was a h*m*, found

out that he had been in prison.

And they had had several
domestic arguments

that, uh, someone
would get hurt.

Either he or she
would, uh, be hurt.

Although Dennis
and Michelle were living

separately, Michelle
feared for her safety.

The forensic evidence
shows that Dennis entered

Michelle's apartment while
she was at work, possibly

to pick up some of his things.

And he found the
protection order

she planned to file against him.

He was incensed.

And when she
returned from her job

delivering newspapers, he
strangled her to death.

No one knows how he got her body

outside and into her car or
where he first buried her.

But mud found on
Salerno's shoes match

the dirt on Michelle's body.

Later, he moved her body
to the landfill in Ohio,

then abandoned
Michelle's car, leaving

his fingerprint on the window.

To cover his tracks,
Salerno needed someone

to take the blame
for Michelle's m*rder

and chose his old prison
cell mate, Larry McClanahan.

He lured him to the truck
stop and slit his throat.

Dennis was always trying

to pin McClanahan's
k*lling his wife,

when, in fact, later on it
came out that Dennis knew

exactly where
Michelle was buried.

And the shoes in which were
found at... in Dennis's locker,

being his, the soil on
his shoes were matched up

to the soil samples
on Michelle's body.

Dennis Salerno pleaded
guilty to Larry McClanahan's

m*rder but not guilty
to Michelle's m*rder.

He was convicted of both,
however, and sentenced

to two life terms in
prison without parole.

Don't have to prove motive,

only have to prove
cause of death

and that it was Dennis
Salerno that did it.

And the evidence was
really overwhelming

when looked at as a whole.

The forensic
evidence proved Salerno handled

Michelle's
court-related documents.

But the most unusual evidence
was the forensic geology.

- The key that tied
him to the m*rder

was the dirt evidence, the
unusual quality of the dirt

as described by the
scientist, in this case.

How he would have had that on
his shoes and it be on her body

is only explained by
him being associated

with that body and its burial.

Without the soil samples,

we wouldn't have been able
to say that Dennis was

responsible for this m*rder
because those samples alone, he

could not dispute because
those are his shoes

and that soil sample was the
biggest part of our case.

When I understood
and he was going to get life

without parole, I was
just like, oh, thank God.

Thank God.

Now, finally, Michelle
has some justice.