“These Murders are Beyond Comprehension” The Body Found Stuffed in a Suitcase | Forensic Factor
York, [music] England. With its slowmoving rivers and [music] cobblestone streets, York is a storybook town where everyone knows each other, where nothing disturbs. It’s picture postcard perfection. What the residents of York don’t know is that darkness is about to descend on their fairy tale world. November 2nd, 2001.
[music] A resident is out walking his dog when something catches its attention. The man soon realizes that something is wrong. >> Come on. Come on. >> Suspicious, he contacts [music] police. The officer makes a grim discovery. The way that he carried out these [music] murders is just beyond comprehension. a missing woman.
>> Was this just a victim of opportunity, >> a demented killer? He got gratification out of that. Um, and then he went on to kill again. >> The solution hinging on forensics. >> I had to look at trying to date when she died. >> Can police stop the suitcase killer before he strikes again? >> [music] >> Heat. Heat.
>> [music] [music] >> Thank you very much. Here he comes. >> I tried to understand anything. >> What have we got here then? Hello, Alan. Well, we have a suitcase with a body inside. North Yorkshire detective superintendent Alan Ankers heads the investigation >> case and saw the eye he can tell you all about. >> It was late at night.
We were in a country lane and the lighting conditions were very poor. I took a decision at that time that all we would do was photograph the [music] suitcase in situ and then we would regroup with certain forensic experts and [music] police staff early the next morning. >> No, I think we should take it back. Detective Sergeant Steve Smith will be Anchor’s right-hand man.
>> I think it’s going to be okay. >> That case had been there for some some days, if not weeks. Number of people had seen that case during the preceding days, but no one else had thought to to ring [music] us about it. We decided that we would not carry a detailed examination out on the suitcase at that location.
>> To preserve any evidence, the suitcase is carefully wrapped before being sent to a local mortuary. >> Even the hardened investigators are shocked by what they discover inside the suitcase. The body appears to be that of a young Asian woman. >> Well, initially you you can’t help but think it’s quite appalling >> that uh somebody has um died and and been abandoned in in such a callous fashion.
>> As a parent, I would say I I was [music] just wondering how, you know, where this girl had come from. How had she come to end up in in the suitcase? Why did she end up in North Yorkshire? One detail leaps out at investigators. >> The girl’s face had been wrapped in tape. >> Covered with haunting faces, the tape seems to be something from the art world.
The cause of death was upper airway obstruction, which in effect was suffocation, which had [music] been caused by the covering of her nose and her mouth. >> Hoping to find a clue to the killer’s identity, forensic scientist Mark Bates examines the tape. >> In terms of unwrapping the tape, it was actually placed onto a mannequin um and was basically unwrapped as it had been wrapped.
Um that was for for three main reasons. if there was any debris or anything attached to it, hairs, fibers for example, that might be significant. Also to look at the way it had been bound in case that became important later on in terms of cause of death. >> Most importantly, police hoped the tape will reveal the killer’s fingerprints. >> The tape was so heavily soaked in body fluids that although extensive fingerprint treatment was undertaken, we didn’t raise any finger marks from the tape.
>> Anchors decides on a threepronged investigation. The first avenue will concentrate on the suitcase. The second will trace the tape while the third will try to identify the victim. We were faced with the body of a young Asian female whose identity was unknown to us at that time. >> To help in the identification, DNA samples are taken, the victim fingerprinted, and her teeth x-rayed.
In trying to identify the female, uh, we checked all the missing person’s reports nationally that matched or potentially matched the description of of our victim. [music] We utilize the media both nationally and internationally and made inquiries through interop. Yes. Well, here at the scene tonight, the road is still cordoned off.
>> Police hope that the media attention will shed light on the case. >> Things are fairly quiet now. >> It’s just absolutely unbelievable. No one expects it on their doorstep. >> Despite the media interest and the generating of publicity, we were not getting any positive indication of who she might be. >> In an attempt to narrow their search, police turned to forensic anthropologist Sue Black.
Her job is to determine the victim’s racial background. She didn’t have the very hard chiseled features and gross features that you you expect as [music] you go further north in terms of the Mongaloids and equally was much more fine bone structure than you would find as you go further south in the [ __ ] races. So that in terms of a genetic pool, it put her very clearly around the [music] area of Korea, the eastern border of China, down to the Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, around that sort of an area.
>> To determine the victim’s age, her chest is X-rayed. >> The most definitive indicator of age at death from this X-ray are these tiny little slivers and islands of bone that you can see just [music] to either side of the sternum there. And these are growth plates. And that shows that these joints here haven’t finished growing yet.
Those islands are going to start to appear around 20 years of age. They’re going to have completely disappeared by the time she’s 25. So this individual, just by the presence of these small slivers, has to be somewhere between 20 and 25 years of age. >> Let’s cut away the last section. Once we’d established that the girl was oriental, we did a check on every missing person we had on our records, particularly from that area, Southeast Asia, to see if [music] any people who’ve gone missing from North Yorkshire, were in fact the victim.
>> 45 days later, police are no further ahead in identifying their young victim. But neither officer knows that fate is about to intervene. >> North Yorkshire Police, how may I direct your call? >> Detective Superintendent Anchor’s place. >> Certainly. Is he expecting your call? >> No, he doesn’t know me, but I’m sure he want to talk to me.
>> For police, one mystery is about to be solved. But an even more baffling one awaits them. In the story book town of York, England, the body of a young woman is found stuffed inside an abandoned suitcase. The woman has been suffocated by a haunting death mask. But who she is and how she got there is a complete mystery.
Yes, our breakthrough came just after the Christmas holidays when a [music] superintendent from South Korea who was studying at Leed University was aware of our publicity in in this area [music] surrounding the body in the suitcase. >> The caller has just visited [music] a Korean website for missing persons.
Posted on it is a picture of a young woman who had been traveling in London when she mysteriously [music] disappeared. Detective superintendent anchors, please. >> Because all South Korean adults have to register their fingerprints, investigators are able to compare the missing girl’s prints with those of the murder victim.
Finally, they learn the identity of their victim. She is 21-year-old Jin Ho Young. >> She seems to have been a a typical 21-year-old student. [music] Liked all the things that students do, like music, boyfriend. [laughter] Every indication was that she was [music] just a normal, pleasant young girl growing up, very polite, very civil, [music] uh just seeking to broaden her horizons, experiences of the world by travel and [music] learning uh foreign languages.
>> While police try to figure out how Jyn ended up dead in a suitcase in North Yorkshire, forensic scientists continue their [music] search for clues. running parallel to the body identification. Obviously, we’re looking at if there’s any information scientifically on the suitcase that might help us give some indication about where this woman met her death or obviously who may have done this.
The surface of the suitcase is swabbed for DNA evidence. Particular attention is paid to the handle, an area likely touched by the killer. on the suitcase. If there was things like soil or or other particles of debris, we would brush those and collect those off. In relation to one area of the suitcase, um there was a smear of blue paint.
A sample of the paint is taken and stored for future reference. [music] Meanwhile, investigators have tracked down the origin of the tape used to suffocate Jin. We had to ascertain that the tape had been [music] commissioned by the tape gallery in London and used work by the artists Gilbert and George. Police learned the gallery had ordered a total of 2,000 rolls of the unique tape.
>> We recovered around 600 or 700 from the gallery. >> Police begin the painstaking task of examining the gallery sales records. They know whoever bought that roll is out there somewhere and they may kill again. >> Yes. Hello. It’s Detective Smith calling in regards to the uh body in the suitcase found by the roadside.
>> Detectives begin to piece together Jyn’s last known movements. >> Yeah. All right. She was a young girl uh taking time out to to go and study and travel. She had gone from South Korea to [music] France. Initially, she went to Leyon where she studied and stayed. These >> are really amazing photos. >> I know.
>> While on a sightseeing trip in Paris, Jyn met up with other young Koreans. >> Whilst there, she’d stayed in what is described as a a hostel called the Hungu on the outskirts of Paris. >> I’m sitting here. Perfect. While she was there, she had decided that she was going to go across for a short break to London.
I think there [music] you guys been there before. >> She had decided to go and stay at a similar type hostel setup. >> Interviewing Jyn’s friends from the hostel. Police get their first concrete lead, the address of Jyn’s last known whereabouts. Ankors and Smith moved their investigation to London. >> Once we’ positively identified Miss Jin and that it had been her intention to travel from Paris across [music] to Eagle Street in in Hullbornne, we contacted our colleagues in the Metropolitan Police.
>> DS Ray. Oh, good morning gentlemen. DCI Alan cuz DI Smith you sit down. >> I got a phone call in fact from a colleague from a police station in East London saying that he had an officer coming down from North Yorkshire and I met Alan Ankers. As I said on the [music] telephone, we’d really appreciate your assistance in our investigation into the death of [music] a Miss Jen Jung who was a detective chief inspector um from North Yorkshire and he was heading this murder inquiry.
And sitting talking to him, he explained to me that uh a young girl by the name of Miss Jyn [music] had been found in a suitcase side of a road in North Yorkshire. [music] >> We understand that until fairly recently she lived here in London. Now, [music] Steve, maybe you could fill us in. >> But what Vic Ray next revealed to the seasoned investigators was a major shock.
>> Gentlemen, [music] it just so happens I’ve been working on a case myself, maybe of [music] some interest to you. >> We learned that there was [music] another girl missing from an address in East London in Popppler. Once we realized that uh the girl from popular was also Korean, it seemed um too much of a coincidence to us that the two could not be linked.
>> Now the question on everyone’s mind is, are there more bodies to be found? Gentlemen, it just so happens I’ve been working on a case. >> When investigators track murder victim Jin Ho Yung from Paris [music] to London, they discover that Scotland Yard is already looking into the disappearance of another young Korean woman, Song He.
[music and clears throat] The detectives are convinced that the cases are related. But how? What were the links between these two girls? Because we actually from our inquiry saw that there was no actual link. They were not friends. They didn’t know each other. Miss Jyn had come over from Paris for the weekend, whilst Miss Song [music] was actually a student here.
>> Hoping to establish a connection between the two women, investigators look into Song’s past. >> I know Miss [music] Song was one of two children. She had a a brother and they lived just outside Soul. Initially, they were suggesting that she’d may have gone off on a catering course and uh and not actually been speaking to anybody since she’d gone off on that course.
But the fact that she hadn’t been speaking with her mother, who she regularly spoke with, did cause me concern. Miss Song was actually studying in London at a university and had actually been staying in university uh accommodation, [music] but was finding it very difficult financially to keep that going. Determined to continue her education, Song had recently moved into a less expensive flat.
On December 7th, she visited with friends. She was never seen again. [snorts] Examinations of both Jyn and Song’s financial records reveal a disturbing coincidence. What we found out was that both girls bank accounts [music] had been cleaned out of money. >> Their bank account was uh empted by use of bank cards at ATMs nearby and considerable amounts of money taken out within days of their disappearance.
>> Both girls had had about £2,000 taken out of their accounts. But when investigators look into the addresses of where the two women stayed, they make their most important discovery. Song had moved into a flat located on Augusta Street in East London’s Popppler District. Jyn’s last known address was less than 5 kilometers away on Eagle Street in West London.
After a couple of days, it became quite apparent that the two were linked through the fact that both properties were managed or leased by the same man. Mr. Kaisu Kim was a man that had decided to come to London to study English. Um, and what it seen was that there was money to be made from renting properties himself and then subletting them to to students passing through.
And it’s quite normal within the Korean community that people exchange uh details of host. And that’s how she came by [music] Mr. Kaisu Kim’s address. And uh she ended up there having contacted him in Paris asking if he had a room and uh he said he did. >> Hi. >> Hi. So, how are you? >> Good. How are you? >> Good. Nice to see you.
>> Nice to see you, too. Thanks for >> Miss Song had actually met >> Mr. Kaisu Kim and knew that he had properties that he would rent out rooms in. And uh she’d actually asked him whether she could have a room uh at Popla, which he agreed to. >> For the cash strap song, the cheap room was just what she had been looking for.
>> She decided to move in. >> Yeah, I really needed it. Thanks. >> It was a terrible mistake. What song couldn’t have known was that her new home would prove to be anything but a haven. >> British investigators have finally made a connection between murder victim Jin Ho Yung and a second missing Korean woman song in he >> both women rented [music] from the same landlord.
But when police try to question Kaisu Kim, he is nowhere to be found. He had said to friends that he was um visiting uh [music] friends in in Germany and gone to Germany, but he became our first suspect. [music] >> Searching for clues to Song’s whereabouts, investigators descend [music] on her flat. >> Right, lads, let’s get to it.
The popular street address, which was Miss Song’s address, we found nothing [music] untoward forensic examination wise at the initial stages of the inquiry when she reported missing. It was searched. Nothing was found there. Everything did correspond with the fact that she probably had gone away on a catering course.
[music] >> An? >> No. >> Could Song’s disappearance simply be a coincidence? Right, let’s pack it up. >> At Jyn’s Eagle Street address, investigators have also come up empty-handed. >> We’ve been down in London since the Monday, and by now we’re on to the the Thursday evening. We’ve been told that day that we would be [music] staying through to the following week.
>> [music] >> Hi, darling. No. >> So, I was in the process of making a phone call to basically [music] to say, uh, I’ll be back in a few days time. >> While sat on the bed looking at the floor. I >> call you back. >> Noticed that there were bleach stains on the uh, light carpet. By quickly smelling it, it’s quite obvious that body fluids had seeped [music] into the weave of that carpet.
>> Crime scene investigators led by forensic scientist Peter Grant descend on the room. When carpets are cleaned, it may be that the [music] top layer of the carpet becomes clean and looks clean. But what happens with carpet cleaning, especially if a lot of water is used, is that the blood is simply forced down into the lower side of the carpet or even onto the floor beneath.
>> The blood stains begin to reveal the secrets of the room. The stain on the floor was close to the double bed in the room. And this bed was pushed into the corner, but when we turned the bed around, there was a large smear of blood low down on the bed. [music] In addition to this, there were some smaller spots and splashes of blood low down on the wall which were actually behind a desk.
And so we knew that these this desk must have been moved after those stains had got there. Well, there were a number of things we could deduce from the blood pattern. The first being that with these splashes on the wall, so we knew that there was some sort of [music] impact into blood low down on the bed in the room from the large stain on the carpets.
This to me suggested [music] that the body had been in that position for some time, leaking fluids after death. And then finally, the suitcase has stood in the wardrobe for a period of time leaking fluid onto the carpet. We knew from an examination of the suitcase that there was a smear of blue paint on it, as if it had been scraped against a blue painted wall.
And it came [music] out that inside the wardrobe there were two areas still painted blue that had been recently scraped. [music] Samples of [music] the paint scrapings are taken and sent to forensic scientist Ian Gray for further analysis. >> We were [music] asked to compare the paint that was uh found on the surface of the suitcase with a control sample from the walls within the [music] premises.
>> The paint samples are compared under a microscope [music] to determine if they are in fact the same color. [music] Chemical composition is also compared. [music] Infrared spectroscopy is used to determine organic similarities in the paint’s pigments. The paint on the surface of the suitcase matched in all the tests undertaken [music] with the control sample of paint from the wall at Eagle Street.
Police now have their murder scene. But is Kim the man responsible for this horrendous crime? >> Now, Miss Ushimura >> is Ishimura. Um, [music] >> police track down Kim’s former girlfriend. >> Yes. >> She tells police she bought a roll of tape at the art gallery and that Kim had asked to borrow it. >> [music] >> This is a tape I got from tape gallery.
Another part of uh the jigsaw that she was able to fill in for [music] us was what his demeanor was like around the time that um Miss Jyn was murdered. [music] And she said that he was acting most peculiar and she believed that he’d been trying to clean [music] the bedroom. There was a smell of bleach within the bedroom and also she remembers there had been quite a stale smell in the bedroom around about the time of the murder which we believe was probably Miss Jyn’s body that was being uh kept in the water at that time.
The roll of tape that we recovered from an ex-girlfriend of Mr. Kim um bore blood staining on the inside cardboard tube [music] and we identified through DNA that this blood was Mr. clips. There was a small amount of his blood present on on a desk. If you take that together with the blood on the inner tube of the roll and [music] also the fact that the type of tape used on Miss Jin, it’s my opinion that she probably he probably became injured during the struggle and that had bled on the tape as he manipulated to use it upon her.
The forensic evidence all points towards Kim, and that means the killer is still at large. [snorts] After intensive investigation, police finally have a prime suspect in the murder and disappearance of two young Korean women. The problem is the suspect has vanished. >> By this time, we’re getting quite a a good deal of evidence that we already had in our possession.
The one thing we were badly lacking was uh the suspect, Mr. Kim. >> When Kaisu Kim became our suspect, we started looking at his emails and his telephone billing to see um where he may be. >> Kim’s phone bills revealed that he had recently been in contact with a travel agent. So we made inquiries down at that travel agents and we in fact found that he’ booked a ticket to Toronto, Canada.
>> But before investigators can pursue Kim, their hard work pays off again. >> This is the place. >> Whilst we were doing the tracking of Mr. Kaisu Kim, one of uh bits of information [music] we obtained was that he’d actually rented a car around the time that Miss uh Jyn, we believe had been murdered. >> Good afternoon, sir.
I’m Detective Ray, Metropolitan Police, Detective Smith. I’d like to know if you’ve seen this gentleman before. >> We were able to trace that rental car back to the company and actually take possession of that car and do a forensic examination of the car. Because of the nature of the fact that the body is transported up to and and deposited in York, the most logical place for the suitcase to have been stored was in the boot or as you would call the trunk of the vehicle.
>> Detective Ray, what is it? >> The investigators must now prove that the suitcase carrying Jyn’s body had been in the car. >> Let’s swallow it. See what we’ve got. we found present on that boot carpet was small stains of body fluid with blood that we were able to identify by DNA as being Miss Gins.
The position and distribution of these bloods was in keeping again with with fluids leaking from the suitcase as it was taken out of the vehicle. Looking at the mileage on the car, we could see that it had done some considerable mileage over a short period of time. Taking that together with tracking the use of his mobile phone, we could see that he had traveled up to the North Yorkshire area around about the time of the first sighting of the suitcase that contained Mischin.
>> While police have mounting evidence that Kim is Jyn’s killer, they still don’t have a motive. >> From the witnesses and associates that we spoke to in London about Mr. Kim, he was seen as a something of a gentleman, but clearly as things have transpired, he has another side to his character. >> Mr.
Kim had um rented both properties where um Miss Jin had stayed and Miss Song has stayed as a tenant and then he sublet them. >> Thanks. >> But he got his uh mathematics slightly wrong. >> And he wasn’t managing to cover the costs through his uh subleting of the the property to students. So, he’s slowly getting him [music] himself in debt. >> Well, I’m kind of busy right now.
>> That’s okay. It won’t take long. Just It’ll be quick. >> Yeah. >> But spiraling debt wasn’t the only motive driving Kim. I’m >> kind of busy right now. >> Come on. It’ll be fine. Come on. [laughter] >> No. Stop. No. Forensic psychologist Paul Britain ventures into the mind of the killer. >> I think when you consider the motivation behind this particular offense, then there are likely to be at least two strands.
One of its purely financial, but the most important part of this case is of a particular form of psychosexual sadism. Rape may or may not have occurred. It doesn’t have to. The violation of this woman was entirely psychological. The person was able quite literally to bind her, to set her death in process and have the sense of control, the sense of power that is particularly important to the sadist at a distance.
The tape is put on in a way that has the victim suddenly come to know they’re going to die. [panting] The important thing about the precise layering of the tape is that the person who has applied it will watch the young girl die and see the terror and the agony in her eyes. [music] [music] She’s then put into the suitcase at some point and obviously uh taken out the flat into the car and driven away and just abandoned in a country lane hundreds of miles from London and thousands of miles from my home.
Our next step was to to look at um flying officers over to Toronto and see if we could actually locate him. Before officers can be dispatched, investigators receive a tip. Kim has returned to London and told a friend to meet him at a local internet cafe. Knowing that it might be their only chance to capture the killer, police swoop down.
>> Mr. Kais [music] Kim. Initially, he was reluctant to say that he was Mr. Kaisu Kim. I think you know you’re the person that we’re looking for. >> When he saw that we had photographs of him, he he admitted it was him uh and came quietly. Stand up. Turn around. Put your hands behind your back. Please. Come on.
Come on. Mr. Kim, you have been arrested and charged with the murder of Miss Jyn. All the evidence, all the proof is there. You will be found guilty. Finally, police have Kim under arrest, but any hopes of quickly finding the missing song soon evaporate. >> Over the next two to three days, uh, myself and a colleague from the police in London tried to interview Mr.
Kim to to find out what he could tell us about his knowledge involvement in the murder of both girls because we were convinced although we had found no body, that Miss Song by now was dead herself as well. I’ve been keeping count, [music] Mr. Kim, of the number of times you’ve refused to give an answer to our questions.
[music] >> I told you that you could. >> Unfortunately, throughout the time he was in custody, Mr. Kim has said not a word about his involvement or knowledge of either of these people. >> I hope [music] you’re counting, Mr. Kim, the damage you’re doing to your case. Kaisu Kim during the interview came across [music] as a very cold calculating individual who who gave no regard to [music] these two girls well-being.
He refused to answer any questions. Um the only thing he tried to say [music] that uh Miss Song was involved in drugs and it must have been a drug dealer that had killed her which was a total and absolute pack of lies. But that’s kind of individual he was very cold calculating no respect for these [music] girls’ lives. and we have enough evidence to see you put behind bars for the rest of your life.
>> What police didn’t realize is that Song had been right under their noses all along. >> Stand up and turn around. Put your hands behind your back, please. After months of intensive investigation, police arrest Kaisu Kim for the murder of Jin Ho Yong. [music] But days of interrogation failed to get Kim to confess to a second murder.
>> I don’t know anything. >> We knew by then that he had killed Miss Song [music] inwardly. We knew as an investigative team. So, it was imperative that we find her body because we couldn’t charge him with her murder until we found the body. >> Police receive a break when a plumber working in Song’s bathroom makes a disturbing discovery.
>> See this? There’s flies. >> It’s not normal, is it? Flies coming up from the pipes. >> No. >> What do those pipes go to? >> I don’t know. So I decided that I would send another team in there, full [music] forensic team and especially trained search team and actually look at tracking where those pipes led to and see um if we could find where the flies were originating from.
Ray and his team follow the pipes down through the floor to a hallway below and a wall that seems to have been recently worked on. hollow wall here. >> It looked like um a painted wall. But when they realized that there was actually a hollow part to that uh part of the wall, I said, “Smash it down.” He had actually put a a panel over the concealed chamber, so it wasn’t actually noticeable.
[music] What they found was a concrete type chamber full of clothes initially, but um when they started removing items of the clothing, they first of all saw a foot and they realized there was a body in there. And that’s [music] when I said stop and we’d actually get the scientists in and take out each item and clothe them slowly so we wouldn’t lose evidence.
One of my main concerns after finding Miss Song’s body was the fact that a defense that Miss Mr. Kaisu Kim may put up was that when she was murdered, he was out of the country. So, I had to look at trying to date when she died. >> Ray turns to forensic entomologist John Manlo for help. >> Now, the question I was being asked was quite specific.
Could the body have been placed in [music] the cupboard during early December? We went into the cupboard not thinking there would be an awful lot of enmological activity quite possibly because there weren’t an awful lot of adult blowflies within the flat. What we found was hundreds if not thousands of [music] flies from a completely different family.
The finding of [music] adults of this particular species of fly was significant in that this fly doesn’t like to lay eggs below a certain temperature. [music] Checking weather records, Manlo discovers that there had been an extended cold spell in late December. Because the flies had hatched, that meant that Song’s body could only have been placed in the chamber in early December when temperatures were warmer and Kim was still in the country.
With Kim’s alibi negated, investigators returned to the gruesome task of building their case. >> After removing all the clothing, we found that Miss [music] Song had been wrapped in a sheet. And uh really she was like mummified. When we opened up the sheet, immediately we saw this the stark resemblance in the way she had died to that of Miss Jyn.
Her head had been bound with tape exactly the same way as Miss Jin. One of the things we really needed to do was link the two uh girls desks forensically wise. [music] So every item of clothing removed from the the chamber was examined, tested for DNA. When the body of Miss Song was found, obviously she was in quite an advanced state of decomposition.
So we were able to identify her in part through DNA by comparison with that from her parents given that DNA is inherited. In addition, there was property in the cupboard in [music] which she’d been kept. Um and some of that property were able to link back via DNA to Miss Jyn. In particular, two pairs of footwear. [music] The frightening part of what Mr.
Kaisuk Kim was doing in Toronto was uh very similar to what he had done in the United Kingdom. He had um [music] booked in with an English uh teaching school there. Uh had got himself a flat and was subletting the flat out to [music] to students. Uh and uh my concern was that had he stayed there, would he have carried on doing what he ended up doing in the United Kingdom? >> Look what I got.
>> Look what I got here. I did send officers to search his flat and what we found there was his laptop computer. Mr. Kim had obviously been looking at um pornographic sites and uh had been saving uh images that he found gratifying. And uh one of the thoughts that I had was uh he’d seen this and had decided to experiment with it and had taken it that step beyond experimenting uh and uh had killed and a result of the first killing he got gratification out of that um and then he went on to kill again.
We also found [music] a t-shirt that we could link back to the Miss Song murder. On that t-shirt was paint from the tape removed from Miss Song’s face. Interlaid [music] within that tape was the same paint. So we were able to connect the [music] two there. Kaisu Kim is tried in London’s Old Bailey court.
Kim pleads guilty to a manslaughter charge in the death of Song. Prosecutors refuse his plea. Kim is found guilty of both murders and given two life sentences. Kim came across as a very calculating individual. To kill two people in such a fashion and dispose of the bodies in such a callous manner um shows a certain degree of evil on his part.
During the time I was on the murder investigation team, I dealt with in excess of 20 murder investigations [music] and I can say this was the most gruesome murder and unnecessary murders. I think I said at one of the very first [music] press conferences that we held that this shouldn’t happen. A person shouldn’t end up spending their life in a suitcase dead for up to two or three weeks lying in a country lane in a country they probably didn’t know.
[music] They called it Bloody Christmas. Four innocent victims shot down in cold blood just minutes and blocks apart. For Phoenix, Arizona, it was a night of violence that would not soon be forgotten. >> To have that many shootings was a blood bath. >> But the violence didn’t end or even begin there.
As police would soon discover, the [music] bloody Christmas was just part of a deadly shooting spree that would stretch over 15 long months. >> This is extreme crime with no apparent motive. >> It’s just for fun. It’s just for kicks >> and little evidence left behind. >> We were operating against ghosts and ghosts are tough to find.
Stopping the rampage would demand the dedication of dozens of law enforcement officials and require the rigors of forensic science to match the kill to their killers. Turn [music] December 29th, 2005. Just days after Christmas, all is quiet in downtown Phoenix, Arizona. 39year-old Tim Tori heads home after a
long day at work. But Torai doesn’t make it home. Minutes later, and just blocks away, Joseé Ortiz is shot as he heads towards a downtown homeless shelter. On the next street, Marco Curo’s late night smoke break is brought to an abrupt end. A few minutes later, Clarissa Rowley gets a nasty surprise as she plies her trade in the city’s red light district.
A 911 call to Phoenix police sends veteran detective Clark Schwarzoff out into the night. The fact that someone could violently go out and shoot this many people in one night was extremely troublesome. >> The first victim, Tim Tori, clings to life and is rushed to hospital. Schwarzoff surveys the crime scene for evidence.
There isn’t much, just a single shell casing on the roadway where Tori was shot. Schwarzoff moves on to the other crime scenes. Both Joseé Ortiz and Marco Coreo die on the spot. The fourth victim, Clarissa Rowley, survives her attack and is sent to hospital. Schwarzoff tries to make sense of the multiple shootings. Given their proximity, time, and location, the incidents are almost certainly related.
He wonders if the crimes are motivated by drugs. >> So, that’s what we look for [music] first is some type of drug or drugrelated issues. There were no drugs found at the scene. [music] >> The victim’s personal belongings are not taken. >> Robbery clearly wasn’t a motive. >> Perhaps the two survivors can tell Schwarzoff what’s behind this rash of violence.
He starts with Tim to die. >> When he got off the bus, he was walking. [music] He was listening to his radio, shot in the back. He did not hear the gunshot that hit him. He just felt the impact of the projectile. >> Did you see anything? >> Tori can tell the detective nothing about his shooter. >> I didn’t see anything.
>> Schwarzov then interviews [music] Clarissa Rowley. >> I thought it was a John. I don’t know what else to tell you. The fact that she was a prostitute [music] could have brought any number of people into the into the mix. A disgruntled pimp, a disgruntled customer. >> Rowley didn’t see the driver and can’t identify [music] the make or model of the vehicle.
With little else to go on, Schwarzoff turns to the only evidence he has, the bullet casing [music] found where Tim Tori was shot. He turns it over to ballistics expert Phil Wols, who quickly determines that the casing is from a 22 caliber semi-automatic rifle. Schwarzoff secures the bullet fragments from the other victims, hoping to learn if they came from the same gun.
Wolsgel inspects the bullets for rifling marks. When you fire a bullet down the barrel, [music] there are channels cut in the inside of the barrel that are designed to spin the bullet. As the bullet is pushed down through those those channels, the surface of the bullet is cut from the forensic aspect. The cutting into the surface is what leaves the unique information that can be compared back to that particular firearm.
With careful examination, Wollegel gets the information he needs. >> The bullet fragments, although fairly well damaged, um, did have significant rifling information on them that I was able to say that they were consistent among each other. There was no indication of a different firearm being involved, >> confirming Schwarz’s theory that all four victims were shot with the same 22 caliber rifle.
Someone went on a deadly shooting spree. But who? A 22 caliber rifle is not the usual [music] go-to weapon among the criminal element. >> It was fairly unusual. Most of the shootings that we encounter here in the city of Phoenix are larger caliber. >> But the 22 caliber does offer certain advantages to a killer.
>> A 22 rifle is not very loud. sounds like the cracking of a whip because of the more silent report of the weapon is very difficult to figure out from actually where the [music] the shot came. And the 22 caliber has an extensive range which means the shooter can be a long distance from the target.
So where did the shots come from? Clarissa Rowley was shot from a car. Is this the same case with the other victims? Schwarzoff and Wollegel recreate the Curio crime scene, tracing the bullet’s trajectory to the middle of the street. >> We knew that that shot had to come from traffic. It wasn’t fired from somebody off the road.
It was fired from somebody on the road. >> They determined that Tori and Ortiz were also shot from the road. The killer must be shooting from a vehicle. Four driveby shootings in one night. For Phoenix residents, the news is chilling. >> It was a a a bloody night and it definitely [music] made headlines in the newspapers. >> For police, the incidents are equally disturbing.
>> To have that many shootings was a blood bath. It’s been referred to as bloody Christmas. That one person could pull off so many shootings in downtown Phoenix, unseen and unheard suggests a steely will and a steady hand. Schwarzoff wonders if police should be searching for a professional sniper. >> Individuals with possible u military experience, individuals with possible police or ex police experience.
>> And what is the shooter’s motive? Schwarzoff’s biggest fear is that the violence has not yet come to an end. Is the shooter poised for another strike? And can police move fast enough to stop it? The city of Phoenix is rocked [music] by a night of driveby shootings that leaves two victims dead and two wounded.
Ballistics analysis confirms that the same 22 caliber rifle was used in all four incidents, but that’s all the police know about the crimes. >> You We’ve had this blood bath. You’ve had this bloodletting that occurred one night. What investigators [music] hoped was that this was a one-time incident, >> but evidence proves the contrary.
to see whether the weapon has been used in other crimes. Ballistics expert Phil Wlegel enters the recovered shell casings into a ballistics database called Nyben. >> NBN system is a camera and computer system that you can enter a cartridge case into and it will digitize a photograph of it. It will then search that database for similar casings.
>> Almost immediately he gets a hit. a 22 caliber bullet casing recovered six months earlier from a murder scene in the nearby town of Talison. The victim was 20-year-old David Estrada. David was found on the on the sidewalk at 83rd [music] Avenue and I 10. He had his luggage there. He had some personal property and he was dressed [music] like he was going somewhere, like he was going cross country, maybe hitchhiking, I don’t know.
The cause of his death was determined to be a single gunshot wound to the chest. >> A late night drive by shooting with no witnesses and no apparent motive. We questioned 30, 40 people in his background. There was nothing that we could associate with his death. Nobody [music] that he knew had caused his death. Now, the matching shell casing clearly links Estrada’s murder to the [music] bloody Christmas shootings.
Then, Schwarzoff learns that around the time Estrada was [music] killed, someone had been shooting domestic animals in Talison. >> We’ve been getting calls. Um, horses were being shot in Tison farms. I don’t remember [music] the exact number of incidents, but it was going on for a couple weeks. At the ballistics lab, Wollegel examines shell casings and bullet fragments from the animal shootings.
He quickly determines that they are from the same gun used to shoot David Estrada and the Bloody Christmas victims. Realizing the shooter has been active for some time, Schwarzoff searches through old case files, looking for unsolved [music] incidents with a similar ammo. He finds two. Phoenix resident Tony Menddees was murdered on May 17th, a month before Estrada’s shooting.
>> Mr. Menddees was pedaling a bicycle with a trailer. Uh he was he was uh running southbound on a [music] residential street. He was shot in the back. >> 4 days later, Reginald Remlard was killed in downtown Phoenix. He was found bleeding profusely [music] from a small caliber womb to the left side of his neck.
>> Once again, ballistic analysis [music] proves that both Mendes and Ramlard were killed with the same weapon used in the Estrada [music] and Bloody Christmas shootings. Instead of isolated incidents, the Bloody Christmas episodes [music] appear to be the latest violence in a shooting spree stretching over 7 months.
And Schwarzoff is no closer to identifying [music] the killer. >> There’s a combination of planning and impulsive behavior here. The detective calls in forensic psychiatrist [music] Park Deetsz to get a better handle on who he might be looking for. >> Each of the offenses occurred close to a main road with freeway [music] access.
All occurred under cover of darkness. In contrast to the carefully planned time and location, the killer’s choice of victims appears completely arbitrary. >> It suggests [music] that the victims are considered worthless by the offender. That is that they’re considered the dregs of society that no one will miss.
>> An attitude not uncommon among serial killers. I think anyone who successfully evades detection for murder after murder begins to feel superior. The more one feels superior to [music] other people, the easier it is to pull the trigger. >> What would prompt a person to such violence? One of the most difficult things to [music] grasp is the idea of an adult killing another [music] human being simply for the thrill of it.
>> Killing animals is no different. Shooting animals is just a substitute for shooting people. What the offender wants is the [music] thrill of shooting something and getting away with it. A thrill killer cruising the Phoenix Valley by night, choosing victims at random. >> There were no clear targets.
There was no clear picture of who was doing this, why they were doing it, [music] uh where they were coming from. We were operating against ghosts, and ghosts are tough to find. >> Several weeks after the bloody Christmas [music] shootings, the Phoenix streets remain eerily quiet. Is the rampage really over? Or is this just the calm before the next storm? A deadly thrill killer in Phoenix [music] has racked up five murders and two attempts, and police have no idea who is responsible.
With no new [music] evidence coming in, Detective Schwarzoff turns to the media. Like the temperatures, tensions in Phoenix have been running high this summer. >> We hope that somebody out there in the public will come forward with some information about somebody that might be capable of doing this, somebody that may have said something about doing this, somebody may have bragged about doing something like this.
>> They were hoping to find somebody, anybody who knew what was going on. Uh the best way to [music] do that is is to broadcast the message as as widely as possible. Thousands of tips pour [music] in and police question hundreds of possible suspects. >> We were looking for people that had grudges, people that were disgruntled with some something in their life.
>> One by one, the suspects are ruled out. >> Thank you very much for the information. >> Despite the publicity, Schwarzoff is no closer to apprehending the killer. Then 4 months after the bloody Christmas attacks, 20-year-old Clauddio Gutierrez Cruz is gunned down in a late night driveby shooting. The incident has all the hallmarks of the throw killer, but there’s one big difference.
This victim is shot with a shotgun. Gutierre’s cruise is rushed to the O where surgeons work desperately to save her life. After several hours on the operating table, she succumbs to her wounds. But her body does yield up one crucial piece of evidence. Removed from her body besides shotgun pellets uh was the shot cup itself. Uh that that’s inside a shotgun cartridge.
>> Schwarzoff sends the shot cup to the ballistics lab for analysis. The shot cup being recovered in the body um still retains the caliber information and the manufacturer dimensions. Based upon that, I can identify that it came from a 410 shotgun. Within days, there are four more shootings, all using a 410 shotgun.
At first, police wonder if they have a second serial shooter on their hands, but Schwarzoff suspects that the throat killer has simply changed weapons. The question is why? Compared to a .22, [music] the 410 shotgun is a more cumbersome weapon, heavier and harder to handle. Schwarzoff thinks the killer may be trying to throw police off the trail.
In a shotgun, the pellets [music] travel down the barrel in a plastic tube called a shot. The pellets never come in contact with the barrel, so there is nothing that can identify a particular pellet back to a firearm, >> making the killer’s new weapon untraceable. >> The shotgun does offer one forensic advantage.
It allows Schwarzoff to reconstruct exactly how these last shootings occurred. Schwarzoff and Walls shoot paper targets from different distances using a 410 shotgun. >> When the shotgun is fired, the the shot cup starts to spread apart and and your pellets start to fly down range. The further the pellets fly, the more they start to separate.
>> So targets that are further away have a more dispersed pellet pattern than targets that are closer. They compare the patterns on the targets with the wounds on the victims. Gutierre’s cruise was shot from pointlank range, so close that the pellets hit her in a single clump, and the shot cup was embedded in her body.
Dispersed pellet wounds on other victims indicate that they were shot from a distance as far away as 20 or 30 feet, leading Schwarz cough to a chilling conclusion. The plausibility of someone doing [music] it by themselves to me was zero. If you’re driving by a person at a fairly good rate of speed, it’s very difficult to target that person um as you’re driving and trying [music] to control a vehicle.
It would be very easy, however, for a partner to target somebody and you could continue driving as fast as you wanted to. >> Suddenly, Schwarz cop is chasing not a single individual, but a team of thrill killers, making the [music] case that much harder to solve. >> Anytime you have more than one person involved in making a decision, things go differently. that can change the timing.
It can change the victim selection. It can change choice of weapons. One can act without the other. And so there many more variables at work than if we have one [music] person who’s responsible for it. >> For Phoenix residents, the prospect is terrifying. You have a population of 4 million people and every one of those people is is [music] vulnerable.
residents uh wouldn’t send their kids out at night to to [music] to play or to go to friends houses. A lot of times they wouldn’t even drive to the to the supermarket. Um there were just major concerns about what could happen to them. >> Police intensify their presence across Phoenix streets. >> We would work the case during the day and I would do surveillances till late in the morning hours at night.
We had a lot of officers out on the streets in marked and unmarked cars. >> Unfortunately, police can’t be everywhere. A pair of serial shooters who have terrorized the Phoenix Valley for more than a year continued to evade police. Despite an intensified effort to patrol the Phoenix streets, the shooters strike again.
We just had a few drinks at a local bar and when we were leaving, my husband and I got in a little bit of an argument and so I decided I was going to walk home because it was a neighborhood I grew up in for, you know, 20 years and I felt very comfortable and that it was safe and a good neighborhood. >> Ashley Armenta, a mother of three young children, is just a few blocks from home.
I can’t I can’t I put my hand up to my head and saw the blood on my hand. I said, “I think someone threw a firecracker at me or something.” I couldn’t figure it out because it just felt like a lot of stinging. >> Luckily, the pellets merely grazed the back of her head and neck. Uh she was very fortunate.
Had the individual targeted her at the waistline, she probably would not be with us today. [music] >> And Armenta is able to supply Schwarzoff with a crucial piece of new evidence. >> I [music] thought it was some firecrackers going off Fourth of July, but I do remember the car. Miss Armenta [music] was the one that gave us an absolute almost perfect description for the very first time of the suspect’s vehicle.
>> Armenta provides a make, model, and approximate year of the car. She also remembers it is silver in color. >> And that description that she gave us was monumental in building a case. >> Schwarzoff now has a vehicle associated with the shooters. An all points bulletin is issued on the car >> and we were trying to stop or question or have any reason we could to contact anybody in that area that looks suspicious.
But there are thousands of silver sedans in the Phoenix Valley. The search [music] seems hopeless until Schwarzoff is called into a seemingly unrelated investigation. >> There were fires at at at two department stores [music] on the night of June 8th. both on the west side. There were numerous people in the stores. They had to be evacuated.
>> But the arsonists don’t get away undetected. >> Security cameras picked up two men in the store that they believe were responsible for these crimes. The cameras capture images of the men both inside the store and in the parking lot where they are seen getting out of a silver four-door sedan. It seems Schwarzoff’s APB has paid off after all.
Finally, the detective gets [music] his first glimpse of the two men who may be the city’s notorious thrill killers. The tapes don’t afford a clear view of the [music] men’s faces, but the footage does reveal a clue. In the video, you can see a tattoo. It’s clearly It’s clearly visible on the subject’s right forearm.
>> A clear distinguishing feature. Someone out there must be able to identify the tattooed man and his accomplice. >> Recognize these guys? The Glendale Fire Department wants to hear from you. They’re both between 25 and 30 years old, seen getting away in a light two-door sedan, possibly a late ’90s Toyota Camry.
Police were able to release photos of them to the media and to the public and ask for help in identifying them. >> Thank you for coming to Georgia. >> This time the public appeal [music] gets results. A woman recognizes the tattoo. >> His name is Sammy. >> She’d worked in a bar as a bartender for several years and a waitress on the west side of town and I knew this particular individual.
>> Here you go, dog. The bartender hasn’t seen the man in months, but she does remember his first name, Sammy. [music] It’s a solid lead, but before police can act on the information, the shooters strike again. And not just once. >> There were a total of, I believe, six more shootings, >> bringing the tally to 19 attacks [music] over 15 months.
And the shooters are getting increasingly brazen. >> They’re targeting pedestrians by themselves. They’re targeting bicyclists by themselves. They’re targeting people between 10 p.m. and 3:00 a.m. Stay off the streets. If you have to be out there, be out there with somebody. Don’t be by yourself.
The kind of crimes they were committing escalated over time. Each step along the way becomes a greater thrill. And because you can’t sustain adrenaline rushes forever with the same behavior, there’s a natural tendency to try to do something more extreme. It’s the same search for the adrenaline rush that characterizes extreme sports.
This is extreme crime. In response, Schwarzoff sets up a task force pulling police departments from all across the Phoenix Valley. There were over 365 people that actually had some type of job either investigating, uh, conducting analysis, doing follow-ups or whatever that actually dealt with this investigation.
But until police can [music] find the tattooed Sammy, Schwarzoff can only pray that nobody else is killed. >> Unless somebody comes forward with some information, can we even really stop what’s happening? We don’t know. >> And Ben Schwarzoff gets another tip. An anonymous caller claims to know something about the shooters.
Schwarzoff agrees to a clandestine [music] meeting. But can this mysterious figure be trusted? Everybody was a suspect in my book. So when he contacted us, I had to look at his information with a skeptical eye. >> The informant, Ron Horton, is an ex- biker and a regular at Westside Bars. >> He listed a person that he knew by the name of Sammy that he thought was responsible for this case.
He said that Sammy had talked to him about murdering someone. There’s the name again, Sammy. >> Thank you for coming in. >> Schwarzoff brings Horton to the station for further questioning. Okay. >> He confirms that Horton Sammy and the tattooed [music] man from the department store fires are one and the same. >> I know that tattoo.
>> Then Horton starts to fill in the pieces. [music] >> He gave me a very detailed description of a person [music] that he knew by the name of Samuel Deepman. how he’d actually reached out to Sam to give him a place to stay, how Sam had [music] lost his job, how Sam had lost friends, how Sam had become an alcoholic.
But when Schwarzoff pushes for information on where Sam Deepman might be found, Horton clams [music] up. >> Bikers have a creed, and that is is that, you know, they pretty much keep to themselves. You know, what you do is what you do, and and that’s the way it is. At least they have a name. Schwarzoff turns to the criminal database and learns that Sam Deepman has a long string of criminal offenses.
The police scour the city, determined to bring Deepman in, but they can’t act fast enough. On the night of July 30th, 22-year-old Robin Blesnik is shot dead as she walks from her parents’ home to a nearby convenience store. >> She was a a perfect victim for them. A a girl by herself on the street, completely unaware of what was going to happen to her.
>> Blasnic is victim number 20. The Phoenix community is outraged. Robin Blasnik was sort of one of these faces that really cemented the crimes in the minds of of the public. uh you know she was a she was a young girl shot and killed randomly for for no reason at all and [music] I think at at at that time the the outcry from the public was very strong.
>> It seems there is nothing police can do to stop the violence. But the case takes an unexpected turn when Schwarzoff hears again from Ron Horton. The city of Phoenix is under siege as the notorious Thrill killers continue to gun down unsuspecting pedestrians. Police now have the name of one suspect, Sam Deepman.
But before they can find him, the killers claim their 20th victim. The murder brings informant Ron Horton back to the investigation. >> Ron Horton felt like he had some kind of blood on his hands because he hadn’t done more earlier. >> This time the reluctant informant is prepared to go all the way. >> You want Sam Demon? >> I know where he hangs out.
>> Horton and Schwarzoff come up with a plan. Horton lures Sam Deepman out for a drink. >> He set up the meeting with Samuel Deepman uh two [music] days after Robin Blaznic was murdered, >> giving Schwarzoff the first clear look at the man who may be one half of the Thriller pair. Then Horton fakes an urgent matter, leaving Deepman alone in the bar.
Schwarzoff hopes that Deepman will call his partner in crime for a ride home. the ploy works. When I saw that Toyota Camry roll in to the parking lot with a white male driver um and almost a perfect description [music] of the same vehicle that actually our men had provided us. I got I sat back and I just I kind of went, “Okay, now now’s time.
” Schwarzoff runs the vehicle’s license plate number. It’s registered to a Dale Sean Howner. >> Until that day, we had no idea who who Dale Hower even was. He was a ghost as far as we knew. >> But Schwarzoff is certain he has both thrill killers in his sights. It >> was at that point I knew exactly who was involved.
I knew that we had the right [music] two individuals. I couldn’t prove it, but I had a gut a a policeman’s gut reaction. >> But police can’t move in on the pair just yet. >> We had no problem caused to arrest these [music] guys. We had the we had third party information that one [music] of them may have committed a murder.
We had a car that was similar to thousands of other cars in this valley. So, what we needed to do to develop our case was to follow that. >> Schwarzoff hopes the two will return home, but that’s not where they’re headed. >> And from there, um, [music] it was probably the worst night of my life. These guys trolled the streets of cities in the southeast part of the valley, slowing down as they approached pedestrians, making quick U-turns, clearly looking for someone to shoot.
We had surveillance officers [music] on them that had to not only watch their every move, but not let anybody know that they were watching. For hours, police trail Howner and Deepman as they cruise the Phoenix Valley >> and all all the time just basically biting their nails, [music] hoping to God that they didn’t shoot somebody right in front of us.
>> But there are few pedestrians on the street that night. >> The saving grace that night is that it rained. >> So the hunters call off their hunt and head for home. Howner and Deepman disappear inside for the night and the surveillance team sets [music] up outside to watch and wait. From then on, they were under 24-hour [music] surveillance.
>> Unwittingly, the killers play right into Schwarzoff’s hands. >> Sam Deven made a trash run. Our surveillance officers grabbed the trash bag and brought it to me at main police headquarters and in it we found a map. This particular map I looked and I could recognize that there were specific marks on this map that correlated with shootings that I had investigated.
>> Although incriminating, the map alone doesn’t prove that Hner and Deepman carried out the shootings. Schwarzoff needs more >> and he gets it. There was a soda can in this trash and inside that soda can was a 410 shotgun casing. The same type of shot that had been used in the murder [music] of Robin Blasnik.
The fact that he owned or clearly [music] had access to 410 ammunition was huge for the case. But it still isn’t enough to conclusively link [music] Hner and Deepman to the crimes. Schwarzoff turns to a rarely used policing method. >> In an emergency situation [music] where you believe the public is in danger, you can procure an emergency [music] wire tab.
>> The surveillance team manages to place a bug inside the wall of the adjoining apartment. Suddenly, Schwarzoff is privy to the inner workings of the deadly duo that has terrorized Phoenix residents for more than a year. >> Hey, Dale. >> Hey, you know they’re searching other states? >> Really? We’re being copycatted? >> Oh, yeah. It’s like we’re pioneers.
Better life for everyone. >> They sound like high school teammates joking [music] about the game. And here they’re talking about having killed people. Check this out. On the 5 a.m. news, Phoenix and Miss police have linked the shooting death of a young Messa woman to the serial killer, which now brings the total to six.
>> Idiots. They forgot about the guy on 27th Avenue in Northern. >> Howner and Deepman’s chilling banter provides clear cause for arrest. On August 3rd, a Phoenix SWAT team raids Dale Howner’s apartment. >> [screaming] >> Howner and Sam Deepman are taken into police custody. >> We are confident these are the individuals involved.
What the two are saying is unclear. What is clear is investigators confident that these two men are the only ones known as the serial shooters. Both were in their Mesa apartment and were unaware their wakeup call would come from the task force SWAT team just after midnight. >> Officers scour the apartment. They discover weaponry and other criminal paraphernalia.
>> We found two 410 shotguns in his apartment. We found a 12- gauge shotgun. He had a ton of ammunition, all types. He had books on being a criminal, how to avoid detection, uh how to get even with people that that wrong you. >> Perhaps the most chilling find is a wall plastered with news articles and other memorabilia of the shootings.
Offenders who care about making a name for themselves, who care about notoriety, who care [music] about their impact on the world, revel in the publicity from it. The evidence is damning, but is it enough to bring these deadly thrill killers to justice? After 15 months, seven fatal shootings, and dozens of other attacks, the Phoenix police finally have the Thrill Killers on their knees.
Inside the killer’s apartment, they find an abundance of guns, ammunition, and other evidence related to the crimes. While officers search the apartment, [music] Schwarzoff returns to the station to question the suspects and finally gets an insight into the nature of this deadly pair. >> Originally, I thought Deman [music] was probably the person that was in charge of this group.
After interviewing him both extensively, I I learned that Dale Halra was in fact the [music] leader of the two. >> Deepman is a licensed electrician, but his career, like many other aspects of his life, had fallen apart. Sam Deman had problems with alcohol, methamphetamine. He was uh sort of a a smart guy who had just found his way through life into bad crowds.
Howner, on the other hand, seems like a regular guy. He [music] works at the Phoenix airport and moonlights as a freelance photographer for a boxing magazine. But behind this innocuous facade is a voracious ego, greedy for notoriety any way he can get it. >> It was Howner who set the tone for collecting [music] obituaries and news clips and pinpointing on a map where they’d done their murders.
and who [music] set the tone for this being fun and thrilling. >> Under questioning, Deepman breaks down, [music] admitting to the murders of Claudia Gutierrez Cruz and Robin Blasnik. >> I didn’t kill all these people. Dale killed all these other people. >> Howner, however, is a tough nut to crack. >> He denied everything, which isn’t unusual for somebody in this type of situation.
Instead, Howner tries to turn the tables on his partner. >> Collect these. I’ve I’ve been doing this for years. >> And look, this photo. He gave me this picture. >> Mhm. >> He told me to hang it on the wall. >> He said he was the driver and you killed the rest. >> He would say that, wouldn’t he? >> Once he realized that Sam Deman was confessing to to what had occurred, he wanted to blame Sam.
Sam had used his car. Sam had access to all his weapons. We have been watching. >> Howner even holds a news conference from jail saying police have got it all wrong. >> Outstanding member of society. [music] I’ve been with the same city Phoenix job for 8 years. Um I worked three jobs to make ends meet because the city unfortunately [music] doesn’t always pay what you’d like it to.
>> Howner was a grand standard and liked the attention he [music] was getting there. Wanted to be in control. Schwarzoff is certain of Hner’s guilt, but he needs forensic evidence that will tie Howner directly to the shootings. And he gets it inside Howner’s car. >> Expended cartridge casings from his vehicle were recovered.
>> The casings, seven in total, are from a 22 [music] caliber rifle. They match the casings found at several crime scenes, including Tim Toris. So, there was a direct link between the crime scene and the suspect’s vehicle. >> The evidence against Howner is now overwhelming. The weapons in his apartment, the map, the wiretap [music] conversations, the 410 shell casing, and now the 22 caliber casings found in his car.
To cap it off, Sam Deepman agrees to testify for the prosecution. Most conspiracies [music] fall apart because the weakest link gives in and confesses or talks too much. And that’s why the smartest offenders don’t conspire with others and avoid having partners. You just can’t trust another criminal. >> Howner’s insatiable appetite for attention became his undoing.
I think Howner liked having an audience, so he found himself a stoogge and it backfired. >> For his part in the killings, Deepman is sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole. >> I’m truly sorry for the the pain caused. >> Howner [music] continues to deny any wrongdoing. >> Um I really this is all just overwhelming to me.
I I really I can’t believe this is happening to be honest. But the jury simply doesn’t buy his story. >> After full consideration of the facts, the defendant is guilty as to first-degree murder. >> Out of 87 counts that Dale Hower was charged, he was found guilty of 80 of those counts. >> On March 27th, 2009, Dale Shan Howner is sentenced to death.
This was easily one of the most horrendous crime sprees in the history of of the state. I’m glad that as a task force, [music] as an and as an individual, we were able to to stop it before it it affected anybody else. I I don’t want to have to do it again. Knock [music] down. Data [music] Naom.
Stop. Stop.
