13x42 - Shoe-In for m*rder

[bunniefuu]

Up next, a young girl
witnesses her mother's m*rder...

but for years,
the crime goes unsolved.

This was somebody that

Crystal knew, and
probably knew well.

A suspect comes forward

with an unbelievable tale.

- That was just the
most bizarre story

I'd ever heard in my life.

- It's completely implausible.

But what if the evidence

shows he's telling the truth?

- The DNA come back,
and DNA doesn't lie.

In the summer
of 1992, Crystal Perry

bought a small house
in Bridgeton, Maine.

The single mother thought it
would be the perfect place

to raise her daughter, Sarah.

My mother's number one priority

was taking care of me, and she
did all she could to, you know,

buy a house for us
as soon as she could

and make sure that, you know, I
had a really stable upbringing.

Crystal found work
in a local shoe factory,

and by all accounts,
was a good parent.

- Whoever you meet
to speak with her,

they would say she worked
very hard at the local shoe

shop trying to make a better
life for she and Sarah.

It was a steady, peaceful life,

but one night after 12-year-old
Sarah had gone to bed,

she heard an argument
between her mother and a man.

I'm woken right up
from sleeping with her saying

no as loud as she can, in
the loudest, most terrified

voice that you
could ever imagine.

Sarah didn't know what to do.

She opened her door and looked
out, but couldn't see anything.

Then, she heard a drawer
in the kitchen open.

No.

No!
No!

I heard silverware
clanging against each other.

After that I heard a
repetitive banging noise...

No!

Which I figured
was someone k*lling

someone else with a knife.

Then, the screaming stopped.

I realized
I have to make contact

with the outside
world, and I have

to do what I can if she
has any chance at living.

- She didn't hear
the attacker leave.

She wasn't sure if the attacker
was still in the house.

Incredibly,
Sarah risked her own life

and left her bedroom
to check on her mother.

I saw a body on the
floor and I saw a lot of blood,

and as I was approaching it, I
was hoping that it wasn't her,

but pretty sure that it was.

Her mother wasn't moving.

Sarah tried to phone, but
there was no dial tone.

So she ran a half mile
to a neighbor's house

and knocked on the door,
but no one answered.

She kept running and finally
came to a small restaurant.

And I said
someone's k*lled my mother,

and I think this person
could be after me.

I really need to call 911.

When police
arrived, Crystal Perry

was pronounced
dead at the scene.

It's a horrific scene.

Crystal Perry is lying
on the kitchen floor.

There's blood everywhere...
There's pools of blood,

there's footprints in
blood, there's blood drops.

Crystal Perry had
been stabbed more than 50 times.

- There was a bloodshed event
that occurred in the living

room area, and then
extended from that area

into the kitchen,
where she was found.

- We classify this

as a crime of passion because
of the over k*ll, which usually,


it to be somebody known...

Some acquaintance of the victim.

Nothing had been
stolen from the house,

and there was no forced entry.

She was in her bathrobe.

It was later at night, and
for her to be comfortable, um,

to open the door, if
that's what happened,

it certainly suggests
she either knows

them or would recognize them.

It looked as if the
k*ller attempted to clean up.

While doing so, he
tracked bloody shoe

prints over the kitchen floor.

There were
footwear impressions of varying

quality and clarity all
throughout the flooring.

Um, approximately 20
or more were visible.

This helped identify
the number of assailants.

Crystal had bare feet,

so either there was one
suspect at the crime scene,

or there were two with
the same type of shoe

in the same outsole design, so
the likelihood of that is low.

Bridgeton was a
small town, only a few thousand

people, and as residents
soon learned, one of them

was a k*ller.

Because Crystal Perry had been
stabbed more than 50 times,

there was an
extraordinary amount

of blood at the crime scene.

The fingerprints were too
soaked in blood to be usable,

but blood spatter analysts
noticed a series of blood

patterns on Crystal's body
that were distinctive.

What stood out to us was clearly

you could see some blood
droplets which were on her leg,

on her exposed leg, and when
we examined the blood droplets,

it was consistent with
a passive a blood drop.

Passive blood
drops are almost always

perfectly circular at
the point of impact.

They result from blood dripping
straight down from a relatively

stationary source,
and since these drops

fell on top of Crystal's body,
it could mean only one thing...

They did not come from Crystal.

There's no way that she would
be able to maneuver her body

in such a way that
blood drops would

come down on the
side of her legs.

- This was an event that
happened after Crystal

Perry was motionless.

That led to one
conclusion... the k*ller was

hurt during the
attack and his blood

dripped onto Crystal's body.

Blood is slippery.

Blood is the consistency
of motor oil.

Your hand is going to slip down,
and probably go over the blade,

and you're going to get cut.

These passive blood drops

were also found in the kitchen.

There
was drips of blood in the sink

and on the counter, and appeared
that he went to the paper towel

dispenser and he got some
paper towels, because there was

no drips coming back
towards the body... they

were all going towards the sink.

Investigators found
a shoe in a local store that

matched the bloody
shoe impression

from the crime scene.

An Oak Harbor model Danny shoe,

so they have an idea of
what the shoe of the suspect

would look like.

At Crystals
autopsy, the medical examiner

found evidence of sexual
as*ault and collected

biological samples
for future comparison.

In a search for suspects, police
turned to Crystal's ex-husband,

Thomas, who lived
only six miles away.

My parents divorced
when I was three or four,

and, um, I didn't really have
a relationship with my father.

He was in town, but I
didn't know him very well.

At the time of the homicide,

Crystal and Tom were
not getting along.

They didn't care
for one another.

It may well have been
over child support issues.

Thomas had an alibi
for the time of the m*rder.

HARRIMAN: He was home

with his live-in
girlfriend at the time.

But Thomas'
alibi was problematic.

His girlfriend, Joanne Stager,
had a run-in with Crystal Perry

shortly before the m*rder.

- There was

no love lost between
the two of them.

Joanne is jealous of
Crystal, and to the point

where she had even
had a altercation

at a local bar one night.

Crystal was punched in the eye,

and she had a big black eye.

They were quickly pulled
apart by the bar owners.

- Joanne is actually
charged with as*ault.

Those charges
were ultimately dropped,

but Thomas and Joanne's alibis
for the time of Crystal's

m*rder were now
considered suspect.

Joanne's alibi was Tom,

and Tom's alibi was Joanne.

Police weren't the only ones

who thought Joanne
might be responsible.

Somebody was always

calling saying that
Joanne's involved.

I'm not saying that she's a
girl that could commit m*rder,

but... but, uh, she
was a tough girl.

But Crystal
Perry's daughter, Sarah,

identified another
possible suspect.

On the night of her
Mother's m*rder,

Sarah said she thought she
recognized the man she heard

arguing with her mother...
It was her mother's

boyfriend, 19-year-old
Dennis Butler.

Sarah said she'd seen Dennis
get angry in the past.

I had seen him go
from being irritated to being,

uh, pretty angry very quickly.

Dennis and Crystal

had a volatile relationship.

Clearly there would be some
hurdles with her being 30

and Dennis being 19.

Crystal says to a coworker

that there was an
incident involving her,

where Dennis and her got into
a fight, and during the fight...

It was a verbal fight,
and he had showed a knife

and made a threat to k*ll her.

When questioned by police,

Dennis denied he was at
Crystal's home that night.

He said he was at
his parents' house.

HARRIMAN: His folks

had no idea whether
he was there or not.

Dennis offered to
take a polygraph examination

to clear his name.

Twice he took the test,
and he failed both times.

HARRIMAN: Everything

pointed to him, everything.

And, I mean, the
more we get into it,

the more fingers
begin to point at him.

After Crystal Perry's m*rder,

her daughter, Sarah,
then 12 years old,

was forced to move to Texas
to live with relatives.

It was understandably
a difficult time.

When I fell apart,
I really didn't fall apart,

and you know, cried at
lot and had a lot of fear,

I didn't want to be
left alone in the house.

Crystal Perry's


Dennis Butler, was
a possible suspect.

Butler failed two
polygraph tests.

- That tells

us that he's being deceptive.

He was not telling the truth
on some of these answers, which

indicated he was either
directly involved

or he had knowledge of
what took place that night.

Butler wore the
same size shoe as the footwear

impressions at the crime scene,
but investigators did not

find Oak Harbor brand
shoes in his home.

When investigators asked
Butler for his DNA sample,

he agreed, but in
return, asked police

for a favor in the event
they return to arrest him.

He
Says I know everything's going

to point to me, and
so when it does,

just try to give me a
little bit of courtesy here.

When you come to get
me at my place of work,

could you come in the back door,
because they've been really

good to me and I don't want
to embarrass the business.

I think in my whole 15
years on the Homicide Unit,

I don't think I ever had
anybody say that to me.

But when Butler's
DNA was compared to DNA

from the crime scene,
to everyone's surprise,

there was no match.

- I was shocked

that it did not
come back Dennis'.

- They were all in shock, I
think they were all probably


Dennis was the one.

So shocking that investigators

had difficulty
believing the results.

- Dennis is such
a logical suspect

they ask that it
be tested again.

The results from
the second test were the same.

The DNA come back

and DNA doesn't lie,
and it was not Dennis.

The DNA of
blood from the crime scene

was also compared to
Crystal's ex-husband, Thomas,

his girlfriend, Joanne,
and several other suspects,

but again, there was no match.

After the DNA results came back,

I think everything
was on the table.

Everything was potentially
possible again.

The DNA from the crime scene

was eventually compared to the
DNA profiles in the database

of known criminal offenders,
and again, there was no match.

With that, the case went cold.

The townspeople were very upset.

I think any time you have
a case that goes unsolved

for a long period
of time, it has

even more of a dramatic impacts.

It's frightening for
the people in town.

Homicide cases
are never truly closed,

but the investigation
continued with little progress.

- I
- was on this case for four years

before I retired,
and quite frankly,

I stayed on an extra
two years with the state

police because of this case.

We knew we had the
physical evidence

that could nail this person.

We just had to find
the person to match.

Over the next 12 years,

several suspects were
considered, including

a serial k*ller and a
local handyman whose

romantic advances Crystal
had once rejected,

but DNA excluded them both.

Eventually, so much time had
passed that I accepted that we

weren't going to
find this person.

Then, incredibly,
investigators got a break.

The statewide DNA database
reported a cold hit.

A man named Michael Hutchinson
had recently served six months

in a Maine prison for
a weapons offense,

and he was required
by law to submit

a DNA sample for the database.

It matched the semen from
Crystal Perry's autopsy.

It is his DNA, it was

DNA to a mathematical certainty.

It was him.

To the exclusion
of everyone else,

it was his DNA at the
Crystal Perry residence.

Michael Hutchinson
lived within about a mile

of Crystal Perry at the time
that this incident occurred.

Hutchinson was 19 years

old at the time of
Crystal Perry's m*rder.

He was never on the screen,

he was barely 20 years old.

- His name never
surfaced because there

was no relationship
between the two of them.

They were never seen together.

When questioned, Hutchinson

made a startling
confession... he admitted

he was with Crystal on
the night of the attack.

HARRIMAN: His story

is that he was having a
secret romance with Crystal.

Hutchinson claimed
he and Crystal were in bed when

an intruder burst
into the house.

He confronted the
man in the kitchen,

but was knocked unconscious.

He then wakes
up, sees the man over Crystal

stabbing her, and he
runs out the door.

Did police find a
possible witness to the crime,

or had they found the k*ller?

Michael Hutchinson claimed
he had an explanation for why

his DNA was at the scene
of Crystal Perry's m*rder.

He claimed he was in
Crystal's home having

consensual sex when
an intruder broke in.

He said he fled the scene during
the attack to protect himself,

and later, was
embarrassed to admit it.

He
Said he was ashamed because he

couldn't protect
Crystal or Sarah.

Uh, he got scared
out of the house,

and he didn't tell anybody
because he was ashamed.

Even
Hutchinson's ex-wife,

who had filed two protection
from abuse orders against him,

insisted he was no k*ller.

- I don't believe
Michael's a m*rder*r.

I don't believe he's capable
of it, and I support him fully.

But Hutchinson,
who worked in his father's

construction business,
was known to have

drug and alcohol problems.

We had former girlfriends

saying that, you
know, he was a nut.

You know, he'd drink and
get... get ugly and get mean.

People that we
spoke to just said that he, um,

he was just real erratic
during this time,

you didn't know what
to expect from him.

Investigators
found numerous problems

with Hutchinson's story.

First, Crystal's bed looked
as if only one person had been

sleeping in it, and if
Hutchinson had been having

an affair with
Crystal, why he hadn't

her daughter ever seen him?

- I would have known, I
was living in the house.

We really lived as a pair.

You know, when you live
with a single mother,

you know what's
going on in her life.

The bloody shoe
impressions at the crime scene

also disputed
Hutchinson's story.

It appeared from my analysis

that there was only one person
there at the crime scene

leaving down that ousoul
design when the blood was wet.

Finally, analysts
compared Hutchinson's DNA

to the perfectly round blood
drops on Crystal's leg.

DNA tests proved this
was Hutchinson's blood.

And what that brought, told us,

was that Crystal
was on the floor,

she was motionless, probably
lifeless by the time,

and the person is
bleeding on, is

dripping blood onto her body.

So the blood was dripped onto
her after she was deceased.

Michael Hutchinson was arrested

and charged with
first degree m*rder.

Prosecutors believe Hutchinson
may have been high on dr*gs

on the night of the m*rder.

They also suspect Hutchinson
and Crystal knew one another

casually, since it
was a small town.

Prosecutors believe he
knocked on Crystal's door

and used a ruse to get inside,
saying he had car trouble

or asking to use the phone.

They think his real
motive was to make

a sexual advance,
which Crystal refused.

There was a fight.

The evidence suggests Hutchinson
used a knife, sexually

assaulted Crystal, then
stabbed her to death.

At some point, he cut his hand.

His blood dripped
onto Crystal's leg

in a perfect circles, proof
he was standing over her

and was not running
away, as he claimed.

The final nail in
Hutchinson's coffin

was the scar police noticed
on his right hand the day

they arrested him.

We saw this
significant scar that

ran, basically,
from the palm area

across the whole
front of the hand.

During his trial, Hutchinson

testified in his
own defense, telling

the same story of the intruder.

The jury didn't
believe him either.

HARRIMAN: Everything

he told us was a lie,
and it was pretty

easy to prove once
we knew who he was.

It took the jury just two hours

to find Michael Hutchinson
guilty of first degree m*rder.

He was sentenced
to life in prison

with no possibility of parole.

- I know this is a really
big day, um, not only for me

and my family, but
it will also bring

peace to a lot of other people.

The best I can do
is accept that there

is pure evil in the
world, and that there

are people who are
not redeemable.

Although it took
years to solve the crime,

science eventually
brought justice

to a daughter who
never lost hope.

I would say the
scientific facts in this case

really have ruled out any
sort of ambiguity that might

have been left in anyone's mind.

- It was the investigators
that found the blood spot that

didn't belong on
Crystal Perry's leg,

but it was the DNA that
really solved the case,

because without
that, we never would

have found Michael Hutchinson.

- If not for forensic
science, in this case,

we probably would have put
the wrong person behind bars.