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The Bar Date That Ended in a Brutal Dismemberment _ Homicide_ Hours To Kill · The Mind of a Man

0:02
Speaker 1: I can't imagine who has the capacity to be this evil,
0:07
Speaker 1: to be this inhumane.
0:10
Speaker 2: A brutal killing.
0:10
Speaker 3: It was something I've never seen in 36 years. The
0:15
Speaker 3: dismemberment was almost done surgically.
0:18
Speaker 2: A dark mystery with multiple suspects.
0:22
Speaker 1: Right away it gets you thinking along the lines of
0:25
Speaker 1: a serial murderer.
0:28
Speaker 4: If you looked at his eyes, you could tell that
0:30
Speaker 4: he was a psychopath.
0:33
Speaker 3: Anybody that she had contact with that night could have
0:37
Speaker 3: killed her.
0:38
Speaker 2: The truth will be revealed.
0:42
Speaker 3: This was truly a whodunit.
0:45
Speaker 2: Every day in North America, dozens of people are murdered.
0:50
Speaker 2: The key to solving the toughest of these homicides lies
0:54
Speaker 2: in the final 24 hours of the victim's life. To
0:57
Speaker 2: crack the case, detectives must reconstruct that critical timeline, the
1:03
Speaker 2: minutes and hours containing evidence that can help unlock the
1:06
Speaker 2: mystery and catch the killer. Manchester, New Hampshire, a blue-collar
1:20
Speaker 2: former mill town threaded with waterways.
1:25
Speaker 3: The Piscata Squad River flows into the Merrimack River. The
1:29
Speaker 3: two do connect in almost the center of Manchester. There's
1:35
Speaker 3: homes along the river. There's an old railroad trestle that
1:39
Speaker 3: kids would use to jump off of and jump into
1:42
Speaker 3: the water in the summertime.
1:46
Speaker 2: But one summer's day, something disturbing emerges from the depths.
1:55
Speaker 1: Several swimmers were out there, and one in particular swam
1:59
Speaker 1: up to what he thought was a bag.
2:01
Speaker 3: It was so out of place that this person decided
2:07
Speaker 3: to look at it.
2:11
Speaker 1: He looked inside and thought what he saw was the
2:15
Speaker 1: body of a small child or an infant.
2:20
Speaker 3: These people were just horrified.
2:26
Speaker 2: Detective Lieutenant Mark Putney and Detective James Soucy are immediately
2:31
Speaker 2: called to the scene.
2:35
Speaker 3: All your adrenaline and everything just kicks in. And I
2:39
Speaker 3: flew over to the west side to the Piscata Squad River,
2:42
Speaker 3: expecting to find a baby inside of a bag. When
2:49
Speaker 3: I opened the bag, the first thing I saw was
2:51
Speaker 3: a torso of a woman.
2:57
Speaker 1: Headless, armless, and no legs, face down at the time.
3:05
Speaker 3: It was obvious to us that she had been dismembered.
3:08
Speaker 3: It was something I'd never seen in 36 years. And
3:12
Speaker 3: I've investigated probably over 50 homicides. So it was very disturbing.
3:20
Speaker 1: Who could do something like this to another human being?
3:25
Speaker 3: Things start running through your mind as to you know,
3:27
Speaker 3: what happened and who is this person.
3:34
Speaker 5: Without the head, it becomes much more difficult to identify
3:37
Speaker 5: somebody because you don't have any dental records, you don't
3:39
Speaker 5: have any basis of comparison.
3:43
Speaker 3: We knew we need to start conducting a search. The water,
3:47
Speaker 3: the trestle, the walkways, the marsh, the entire area in
3:52
Speaker 3: hopes to find the remaining body parts.
4:00
Speaker 6: You're obligated to search as much as you can for
4:03
Speaker 6: body parts. I mean, that brings closure to the family
4:05
Speaker 6: on one side, but also may provide evidence.
4:12
Speaker 3: When we didn't find the rest of the body, we
4:14
Speaker 3: assumed that it happened at some other location and the
4:17
Speaker 3: body was dumped there. So now our crime scene really
4:23
Speaker 3: went citywide. We didn't have any idea where this happened.
4:31
Speaker 2: An examination of the torso yields a key detail.
4:36
Speaker 3: She had a tattoo on her right shoulder that had
4:39
Speaker 3: the first name of Mary.
4:42
Speaker 2: They immediately cross-referenced the name with the town's recently disappeared and.
4:47
Speaker 7: Get a hit.
4:50
Speaker 3: Mary Stetson was reported missing that morning by her oldest daughter, Tamara.
4:59
Speaker 4: And they came and picked us up and we went
5:01
Speaker 4: down to the station. It was weird because I was
5:05
Speaker 4: sitting in the car and I seen a helicopter up
5:09
Speaker 4: in the sky and people heading over towards the water
5:13
Speaker 4: where we live. And I was like, oh my God,
5:16
Speaker 4: what's going on?
5:17
Speaker 3: There's no delicate way to tell someone that their mother
5:24
Speaker 3: was dismembered. You have to just explain it and, uh, Yeah,
5:28
Speaker 3: it's something that you don't forget.
5:30
Speaker 4: To find out it was my mother's torso is just disgusting.
5:44
Speaker 7: You know, it made me sick. That's when my life changed,
5:53
Speaker 7: you know.
5:59
Speaker 3: It's a horrific crime, and to know that she had
6:02
Speaker 3: five children. It's heartbreaking. It's heartbreaking. It's something that, you know,
6:08
Speaker 3: will stay with me the rest of my life.
6:12
Speaker 1: Mary Stetson was described as a wonderful mom, somebody who
6:15
Speaker 1: was a good provider.
6:18
Speaker 4: My mother was working at a cable company. She would
6:22
Speaker 4: work 40, 50 hours a week. She was tall, long legs,
6:27
Speaker 4: just beautiful. inside and out.
6:35
Speaker 3: Our oldest daughter, Tamara, gave information that her mother had
6:40
Speaker 3: gone out on the night of the 18th and that
6:44
Speaker 3: since that night, her mother never returned home. She said
6:47
Speaker 3: that was very unusual. She was last seen at 545
6:51
Speaker 3: on the 18th and discovered on the 20th.
6:59
Speaker 5: Creating a timeline is critical to any police investigation. Without
7:03
Speaker 5: a timeline, it's often difficult, if not impossible, for police
7:08
Speaker 5: to create a suspect list, and it makes it almost
7:12
Speaker 5: impossible for murder to be solved.
7:16
Speaker 1: From the moment she was killed into the moment she
7:19
Speaker 1: was disposed of was probably over a 24-hour period. We
7:27
Speaker 1: determined that the death It probably occurred late on the 18th,
7:31
Speaker 1: early on the 19th.
7:36
Speaker 2: Narrowing it down further will prove a challenge.
7:40
Speaker 8: When finding a body in water, it can prove difficult
7:43
Speaker 8: in determining cause of death and time of death. Being
7:48
Speaker 8: submerged in water may accelerate the internal changes in the
7:53
Speaker 8: body and cause decomposition at an advanced rate than it
7:58
Speaker 8: would outside the water. You also may have fish plucking
8:05
Speaker 8: out the hair and taking pieces of skin off the body.
8:10
Speaker 7: You also may.
8:10
Speaker 8: Have artifact from motorboats. The propeller can make deep cuts
8:15
Speaker 8: in the body to make it look like there was
8:19
Speaker 8: stabbing or cutting before they died.
8:24
Speaker 2: But the injuries to Mary's torso point to something far
8:28
Speaker 2: more deliberate.
8:31
Speaker 3: Of New Hampshire, did an autopsy, and he was able
8:34
Speaker 3: to determine that she died of multiple stab wounds, I
8:38
Speaker 3: think 12 to be specific, to her chest cavity. That
8:44
Speaker 3: tells me that somebody was very angry, extremely upset, and
8:49
Speaker 3: determined to kill this person, that it wasn't something that
8:52
Speaker 3: was an accident or a random act.
8:57
Speaker 1: It clearly seemed like it was a personal attack. Something,
9:03
Speaker 1: you know, I think we would characterize as, you know, vicious, evil.
9:11
Speaker 2: The frenzy of that attack contrasts with what the killer
9:14
Speaker 2: does next.
9:17
Speaker 3: The dismemberment was almost done surgically. The cuts were very clean,
9:24
Speaker 3: right through the flesh and right through the bone. It
9:28
Speaker 3: didn't look like it was done by an To me,
9:30
Speaker 3: an amateur.
9:32
Speaker 5: What that says about the mindset of the person is
9:35
Speaker 5: that they have this willingness not only to kill, but
9:38
Speaker 5: to get up close and personal and chop somebody into
9:40
Speaker 5: little bits.
9:43
Speaker 6: You're already looking for a certain type of person. It
9:46
Speaker 6: takes a lot of strength, even if you know what
9:48
Speaker 6: you're doing. So the person you look for is likely male.
9:54
Speaker 6: That could be someone in the medical profession. That could
9:56
Speaker 6: also be someone who is a butcher.
10:01
Speaker 1: We were looking for someone who had the capacity and
10:04
Speaker 1: the knowledge to dispose of a body, to throw off
10:08
Speaker 1: investigators to both the victim and the suspect, and also
10:13
Speaker 1: someone who was so completely evil and depraved that could
10:19
Speaker 1: do something like this to another human being. It gets
10:26
Speaker 1: you thinking along the lines of a serial murderer.
10:35
Speaker 3: One of the first things we did in this case
10:37
Speaker 3: was reach out to other police departments to see if
10:40
Speaker 3: they had any similar crimes in other jurisdictions.
10:44
Speaker 1: So we were looking for a similar pattern.
10:50
Speaker 3: There were no other cases that matched this case.
10:55
Speaker 2: Detectives shift the focus to Mary's relationships to locate anyone
11:00
Speaker 2: she had contact with prior to her murder.
11:05
Speaker 6: Most murders are committed between people who know each other
11:08
Speaker 6: in one capacity or another. I call them crimes of passion.
11:14
Speaker 1: We really needed to uncover every corner and lift up
11:17
Speaker 1: every stone and specifically get into the details of her
11:20
Speaker 1: life and what she was about and who she socialized with.
11:25
Speaker 2: They turn to Mary's 22-year-old daughter, Tamara.
11:29
Speaker 4: My mother talked to my father, but he lived all
11:33
Speaker 4: the way in Louisiana.
11:34
Speaker 3: Her ex-husband wasn't a suspect. It was a very friendly relationship.
11:41
Speaker 2: But the family can point them to someone who connects
11:44
Speaker 2: directly to Mary's timelines.
11:47
Speaker 1: On the 18th, in the afternoon, she was supposed to
11:51
Speaker 1: go out with a guy named Chris.
11:55
Speaker 4: And he never showed, and she was ready to, you know,
11:57
Speaker 4: go out and have a good time. My mother wasn't
12:01
Speaker 4: the type to wait around. She's like, you know, it's
12:04
Speaker 4: my Sunday.
12:05
Speaker 7: Hey, I'm leaving.
12:08
Speaker 4: She left the house at 5.45 in.
12:12
Speaker 7: A taxi cab.
12:14
Speaker 2: Mary's date then shows up. less than an hour after
12:17
Speaker 2: she leaves the house.
12:21
Speaker 3: It was a very quick conversation. Is your mother here?
12:23
Speaker 3: Is Mary here? And she said no. She had left.
12:27
Speaker 3: And the person said OK and left.
12:31
Speaker 1: This unknown person is not somebody that she frequents with
12:35
Speaker 1: or socializes with. It was somebody that was new.
12:39
Speaker 3: Our focus at this point was trying to identify the date.
12:43
Speaker 3: We don't know what that relationship was like. We don't
12:45
Speaker 3: know what happened after they left, if they did meet up.
12:48
Speaker 3: We don't know if they went to his apartment or
12:51
Speaker 3: a hotel or anywhere. Potentially, there could have been some
12:55
Speaker 3: type of argument where it could turn violent.
13:05
Speaker 2: Detectives looking for Mary Stetson's murderer have their first suspect,
13:10
Speaker 2: a man they know only as Chris.
13:14
Speaker 3: The family provided us the description of the person that
13:16
Speaker 3: showed up at her home. He was a white male.
13:18
Speaker 3: He had blue eyes and blonde spiked hair, slender build.
13:24
Speaker 3: We brought in a forensic artist and sat down with her.
13:29
Speaker 3: She was able to provide us a sketch of who
13:31
Speaker 3: this person was.
13:33
Speaker 1: So we take the composite sketch, and we wanted to
13:35
Speaker 1: get this information out so that we could start generating tips.
13:40
Speaker 3: 3-1-3-8-1-7-2, no water warrant.
13:43
Speaker 6: When you're dealing with homicide, the media is your friend.
13:47
Speaker 6: As much as they want information from you to make
13:49
Speaker 6: the six o'clock news, you need them to also get
13:53
Speaker 6: messages out to your witnesses, maybe to your suspect.
13:59
Speaker 4: But I just didn't like the fact that she was
14:01
Speaker 4: all over the place. Didn't sit well with me at all.
14:08
Speaker 2: The composite sketch is widely distributed but Mary's date does
14:13
Speaker 2: not come forward.
14:15
Speaker 3: We had no one that jumped out at us and
14:18
Speaker 3: said that, you know, you need to take a real
14:20
Speaker 3: hard look at this person. It was very disappointing because
14:23
Speaker 3: here's somebody that was knocking at Mary's door two days
14:26
Speaker 3: before she's discovered, and for the person not to come
14:29
Speaker 3: forward immediately was very concerning to us. This person seemed
14:34
Speaker 3: as if it just dropped off the face of the earth.
14:40
Speaker 2: Police move on to examine the next stage in Mary's timeline.
14:47
Speaker 3: Mary was picked up by a local cab from her
14:50
Speaker 3: Kimball Street address and was taken downtown to a local bar.
14:55
Speaker 1: We conducted an in-depth interview with that driver, who confirmed
14:59
Speaker 1: that he had dropped her off. And he, in fact,
15:01
Speaker 1: saw her leave the cab and walk towards the bar.
15:04
Speaker 1: Mary arrived at the bar at approximately 6 PM in
15:07
Speaker 1: the evening.
15:11
Speaker 2: It's a popular joint on Lake Avenue.
15:15
Speaker 4: That was my mother's spot. She loved it there.
15:19
Speaker 3: We had gone in there with her picture. We showed
15:21
Speaker 3: it around to the different patrons that were there, to
15:23
Speaker 3: the bartender. We learned that Mary had some drinks. We
15:28
Speaker 3: learned that somebody saw her with someone.
15:33
Speaker 1: You now have a connection to a person and your victim,
15:37
Speaker 1: and certainly the The theory is that during that interaction,
15:41
Speaker 1: something went wrong for whatever reason, and then it becomes violent,
15:47
Speaker 1: which certainly happens in relationships.
15:50
Speaker 2: Detectives compare the man's description with the one they have
15:53
Speaker 2: for Chris.
15:55
Speaker 3: Chris had short, blonde, spiked hair, blue eyes. This individual
16:00
Speaker 3: that was seen with Mary had brownish hair, was a
16:03
Speaker 3: little older. So they didn't match. So now we're trying
16:12
Speaker 3: to establish who this person is that was with Mary,
16:15
Speaker 3: and we're also still trying to find out who Chris was.
16:19
Speaker 1: It certainly is frustrating when the information that you're looking
16:22
Speaker 1: for that you think is taking you in one direction,
16:24
Speaker 1: and then suddenly you're getting different information that's making you
16:28
Speaker 1: hang a left and head in another direction.
16:32
Speaker 2: They search for any detail that could help them identify
16:35
Speaker 2: Mary's killer.
16:40
Speaker 1: We started to speak with people inside the bar, and
16:42
Speaker 1: they brought up this one point during the evening. There
16:46
Speaker 1: was a male party who was different than Chris, had
16:49
Speaker 1: apparently purchased this teddy bear from another individual.
16:55
Speaker 3: And the person that was with Mary, he was trying
16:58
Speaker 3: to warm up to her and bought the teddy bear
16:59
Speaker 3: for $ 5 and gave it to Mary.
17:04
Speaker 1: One of the things that stood out was this particular
17:07
Speaker 1: teddy bear only had one eye on it. Several people
17:12
Speaker 1: had indicated that they thought it was unusual. It was
17:16
Speaker 1: just another piece of the puzzle that we were trying
17:20
Speaker 1: to put together.
17:22
Speaker 2: The canvas also helps detectives hone in on the time
17:26
Speaker 2: of the murder.
17:30
Speaker 1: Mary was seen leaving the bar sometime around 11 p.m.
17:34
Speaker 3: That night.
17:44
Speaker 2: At that point, Mary's trail runs cold. Aiming to generate
17:52
Speaker 2: new leads, they look further back in her timeline.
17:59
Speaker 1: The family told us earlier that day she had been
18:02
Speaker 1: to this market which was in the neighborhood.
18:11
Speaker 3: And.
18:11
Speaker 1: There was a store manager, Eddie, who worked inside this place.
18:17
Speaker 4: I didn't care for Eddie. I thought he was very sketchy, weird.
18:23
Speaker 4: You know, how you get vibes from certain people, and
18:27
Speaker 4: he was one of them.
18:30
Speaker 2: Allegedly, this was no shopping trip.
18:35
Speaker 3: One of her daughters had indicated that she had an
18:38
Speaker 3: issue with Eddie. her daughter would work there part-time and
18:43
Speaker 3: stock some shelves, and that he had made an inappropriate
18:47
Speaker 3: comment to her, and that he may have inappropriately touched her.
18:57
Speaker 4: My mother found out about it and was really, really livid.
19:03
Speaker 3: It's a very volatile situation when someone has a revelation
19:06
Speaker 3: that their daughter has been possibly molested.
19:14
Speaker 4: I wondered if he had something to do with her disappearance.
19:20
Speaker 1: Did Mary go back to the store, confront Eddie, and
19:25
Speaker 1: Eddie became so upset, killed Mary?
19:35
Speaker 2: An alleged confrontation between Mary Stetson and a store manager
19:39
Speaker 2: named Eddie sparks the interest of detectives.
19:42
Speaker 3: Based on what Mary's daughter told us, we were concerned.
19:48
Speaker 3: Eddie could possibly be a suspect here. The detectives went
19:52
Speaker 3: there and spoke to him. They tried to get an
19:54
Speaker 3: alibi from him, what he did that night, get a timeline.
19:59
Speaker 1: He did say that Mary had been there on the 18th,
20:02
Speaker 1: and she did confront him about these allegations. And they
20:06
Speaker 1: had a discussion. He described it as a bit heated.
20:11
Speaker 1: He denied having anything take place. Everything was on the
20:17
Speaker 1: up and up. And eventually, Mary left the store, according
20:20
Speaker 1: to him. Eddie had closed the store at 11 o'clock.
20:31
Speaker 3: He said he left and gave another employee a ride home,
20:34
Speaker 3: and he went home.
20:37
Speaker 2: To verify Eddie's claim, They question the man he says
20:41
Speaker 2: was in his vehicle that night.
20:43
Speaker 1: Billy Johnson was another employee in the store. He was
20:46
Speaker 1: a bit of a transient too, I believe. He may
20:49
Speaker 1: have even stayed from time to time in the basement
20:52
Speaker 1: of that place.
20:54
Speaker 2: Rather than providing clarity, Billy's statement confuses the picture even further.
21:02
Speaker 3: He said when Mary had stopped in and he had
21:04
Speaker 3: asked her about what she was doing later and she
21:07
Speaker 3: may have been a little flirtatious. She had suggested that
21:10
Speaker 3: she might stop back between 10 and 11.
21:17
Speaker 1: We had known that Mary was kind of a social butterfly.
21:21
Speaker 1: So it wasn't really all that unusual for her to
21:24
Speaker 1: agree to go out on a date. But the contradiction
21:27
Speaker 1: that we faced was the fact that she went to
21:29
Speaker 1: the store to confront Eddie about these allegations of sexual
21:34
Speaker 1: assault against her daughter. And while she's there, during some
21:38
Speaker 1: time frame, she has interaction with Billy, and she agrees
21:43
Speaker 1: that she's going to have some kind of date with
21:45
Speaker 1: him later on in the evening. It just, you know,
21:47
Speaker 1: it didn't add up. It didn't make much sense.
21:51
Speaker 2: As they probe deeper, allegations surface that may explain the contradiction.
21:57
Speaker 3: People in the neighborhood said that Billy was a daily
21:59
Speaker 3: alcohol consumer, and he'd have these spans of time that
22:04
Speaker 3: he couldn't remember or just didn't make sense. When you're
22:08
Speaker 3: talking to somebody like that, you don't know what they
22:11
Speaker 3: remember and what they don't remember.
22:14
Speaker 2: Then they discover something even more disturbing.
22:18
Speaker 1: We found that Billy worked in a butcher shop and
22:22
Speaker 1: was familiar with the process. When you hear about what
22:28
Speaker 1: took place and you see the manner in which the
22:31
Speaker 1: death occurred, you put two and two together and you
22:34
Speaker 1: say to yourself, This guy certainly has the potential to
22:39
Speaker 1: be a good suspect.
22:43
Speaker 2: With conflicting accounts of Mary's actions, police want to see
22:47
Speaker 2: exactly what happened in the store.
22:51
Speaker 3: There was CCTV video, and the camera wasn't working that night.
22:57
Speaker 1: That clearly did send up a flag that, you know,
23:00
Speaker 1: was it just coincidental? Was it on purpose? Did Eddie
23:03
Speaker 1: create a malfunction with these cameras to hide something from
23:07
Speaker 1: the police? Certainly there was a potential for a motive for,
23:12
Speaker 1: you know, something bad happening. Either Eddie or Billy are
23:17
Speaker 1: both having the potential or even the capacity to do
23:21
Speaker 1: this crime and having the M.O. for our murderer. If
23:26
Speaker 1: we had more concrete evidence, from this closed-circuit TV, if
23:30
Speaker 1: we've seen Mary arrive. I mean, that could really turn
23:35
Speaker 1: into something else. Unfortunately, we didn't have that evidence. So
23:39
Speaker 1: we have to work hard to corroborate their stories and
23:42
Speaker 1: see if they have any alibis that fit. We couldn't
23:51
Speaker 1: connect Mary to Eddie because his alibi was locked up
23:56
Speaker 1: by the fact that he closed the store and he
23:58
Speaker 1: was seen by his family in another location on the
24:02
Speaker 1: same time frame that Mary had been seen in the
24:04
Speaker 1: downtown area.
24:07
Speaker 3: Billy was living with somebody at the time when we
24:09
Speaker 3: spoke to that person and we were able to alibi
24:11
Speaker 3: him that he did come home and never went back out.
24:17
Speaker 3: That whole scenario of the camera not working, I think,
24:20
Speaker 3: was legitimate.
24:23
Speaker 2: To be certain, detectives perform a search for physical evidence.
24:28
Speaker 3: Eddie allowed a detective the opportunity to search the store. Obviously,
24:33
Speaker 3: whoever committed this murder, there would be a crime scene.
24:37
Speaker 3: They went downstairs, they searched the cellar, they looked all over,
24:40
Speaker 3: and they couldn't find any evidence that suggested that Mary
24:43
Speaker 3: had been killed there.
24:47
Speaker 2: As they rule out the market, Mary's date appears from nowhere.
24:55
Speaker 3: Chris just walked into the police department. and said something
25:00
Speaker 3: to the effect of, I think you guys are looking
25:02
Speaker 3: for me. And we interviewed him. That composite sketch was
25:08
Speaker 3: 100% accurate. You could put them up together. It was
25:12
Speaker 3: the same person. What was concerning to me was the
25:16
Speaker 3: fact that after this homicide was reported, it was all
25:20
Speaker 3: over the media. And the fact that that person didn't
25:22
Speaker 3: come forward to us, that was very important.
25:28
Speaker 1: We're wary when he walks in the station right away
25:31
Speaker 1: that he is somehow connected to this, that he has
25:34
Speaker 1: had ample time to dispose of critical evidence, that he's
25:38
Speaker 1: had time to think about the whole process, to think
25:41
Speaker 1: about a story, to think about an alibi. You go
25:45
Speaker 1: into this hoping you could poke holes in his story.
25:50
Speaker 3: He couldn't really provide a real reason for not coming forward.
25:57
Speaker 3: He also... didn't go to work the next day. I
26:00
Speaker 3: remember looking into that and saying, well, this is odd.
26:05
Speaker 3: He didn't come forward for a couple of weeks. So
26:08
Speaker 3: we pressed him hard.
26:12
Speaker 1: Chris eventually told us that he didn't make the appointment
26:16
Speaker 1: when he was supposed to. He was late. By the
26:19
Speaker 1: time he got to her house, she had left.
26:25
Speaker 2: Chris tells police he then joined friends at another bar.
26:28
Speaker 2: across the street from where Mary was dropped off.
26:32
Speaker 3: Both bars were similar, maybe a few yards from one another.
26:38
Speaker 1: We confirmed his alibi by speaking with the friends that
26:41
Speaker 1: he was with that night who corroborated that information. And
26:45
Speaker 1: in fact, he was with them, so he couldn't possibly
26:48
Speaker 1: have been where she was.
26:52
Speaker 3: He also provided us an alibi as to where he
26:55
Speaker 3: spent the night that night. We were able to find
26:59
Speaker 3: the person that he spent the night with. He was
27:05
Speaker 3: cleared as a suspect.
27:09
Speaker 1: Knowing that he was a focus, a critical focus of
27:12
Speaker 1: this investigation, it is discouraging when you think you're angling
27:17
Speaker 1: for the right piece of the pie, and then suddenly,
27:19
Speaker 1: you know, you get that ripped out from underneath you,
27:22
Speaker 1: and you realize, you know, you have to regroup and
27:24
Speaker 1: go in a different direction. I mean, people were on edge.
27:32
Speaker 1: They talked about it in the schools and on the news.
27:35
Speaker 1: It didn't matter if we were exhausted. It didn't matter
27:37
Speaker 1: if we had other things on our plate. But it
27:40
Speaker 1: became increasingly frustrating. The more information that we got, the
27:45
Speaker 1: more of kind of a question we had in the
27:47
Speaker 1: back of our heads as to who this suspect was.
27:51
Speaker 1: Were we ever going to get to the right person?
27:53
Speaker 1: Where were we going to locate that person in time
27:55
Speaker 1: to prevent maybe another tragedy?
27:59
Speaker 4: Chris.
28:00
Speaker 2: Then turns from suspect to critical witness.
28:05
Speaker 3: Chris had seen Mary walking down Lake Avenue with another gentleman, long,
28:11
Speaker 3: dark hair, kind of a chiseled complexion, in his 40s.
28:16
Speaker 3: And he remembers because Mary was wearing the hat that
28:20
Speaker 3: he recognized the dark, wide-brimmed hat.
28:25
Speaker 2: This matches the description of the man seen with Mary
28:28
Speaker 2: earlier that evening. More determined than ever, detectives renew their
28:45
Speaker 2: efforts with the media.
28:47
Speaker 3: You never get tired of tips, especially on a whodunit.
28:50
Speaker 3: And this was truly a whodunit.
28:54
Speaker 2: They get a break. A caller claims Mary was hanging
28:57
Speaker 2: out with a guy known only as Razor.
29:02
Speaker 3: He told us that Razor would use a knife. And
29:07
Speaker 3: he was very skilled with it.
29:15
Speaker 2: Police have a new person of interest. A man who
29:20
Speaker 2: goes by the name Razor.
29:22
Speaker 3: Kind of ironic that he got the nickname of Razor
29:26
Speaker 3: and that he came in on a tip line when
29:28
Speaker 3: we're looking for somebody that had been involved in a dismemberment.
29:34
Speaker 2: They bring in the man who phoned in the tip.
29:36
Speaker 2: His name is Josh.
29:39
Speaker 1: Josh had told us that there was a party that
29:42
Speaker 1: both he and Razor were at. Both were competing for,
29:46
Speaker 1: you know, Mary's affection. And at some point, she was
29:49
Speaker 1: obviously leaning towards Josh more so than she was leaning
29:53
Speaker 1: towards Razor, if at all. Razor was apparently so upset
29:58
Speaker 1: that he located him that next day and assaulted and
30:01
Speaker 1: beat him up.
30:03
Speaker 2: Detectives need to determine if Razor is the same dark-haired
30:07
Speaker 2: man last seen with Mary the night she died.
30:12
Speaker 1: He was upset and had a connection to Mary. Mary
30:16
Speaker 1: kind of had an attraction to his friend instead of him.
30:20
Speaker 1: Maybe he has a criminal past. Those things kind of
30:24
Speaker 1: just kind of add up.
30:26
Speaker 2: They head to Razor's last known location.
30:30
Speaker 3: When he was in Concord, he was living in this
30:32
Speaker 3: tent on the river. I personally actually went to Concord
30:37
Speaker 3: and found his tent. We searched his campsite and surrounding
30:43
Speaker 3: areas and we didn't find anything. No knives. No knives
30:47
Speaker 3: that were capable of causing this homicide.
30:52
Speaker 1: This manner of disposing of a body, it seemed like
30:55
Speaker 1: it was a a process, a very involved process, and
30:59
Speaker 1: that didn't fit his profile. He was a drifter, a
31:02
Speaker 1: transient who lived in a tent. He doesn't have a vehicle,
31:06
Speaker 1: doesn't have the equipment needed. He doesn't have the means
31:11
Speaker 1: in order to commit this type of crime. In the end,
31:15
Speaker 1: he didn't fit the description of the person back in
31:18
Speaker 1: the bar.
31:22
Speaker 2: With Razor ruled out, As concern grows, the case may
31:25
Speaker 2: go cold.
31:28
Speaker 1: That was extremely frustrating because each time we developed information
31:32
Speaker 1: on another person, we were excited, we were getting there,
31:35
Speaker 1: we identified somebody, could this be it? And then suddenly
31:38
Speaker 1: we would speak to these individuals and we realized right
31:41
Speaker 1: away this is not the person we're looking for.
31:44
Speaker 7: Months are going by and we couldn't lay her to rest.
31:49
Speaker 3: It's gut-wrenching when you're trying to solve this case. There's
31:53
Speaker 3: pressure from the family. They want answers, you know, so
31:58
Speaker 3: you have an obligation just to try to solve it
32:00
Speaker 3: as quick as you can and give them answers. We
32:03
Speaker 3: used every avenue that we could to hopefully try to
32:05
Speaker 3: solve it.
32:08
Speaker 2: Then they uncover a curious new lead, a second missing
32:14
Speaker 2: persons report.
32:16
Speaker 1: We received a call late at night from a woman
32:20
Speaker 1: who identified herself as Donna Plick.
32:23
Speaker 3: She hadn't seen her ex-husband, Vaclav Plik. Even though they
32:28
Speaker 3: were divorced, they still had a relationship where they would
32:31
Speaker 3: talk daily. Donna was somewhat nervous, but she was also concerned.
32:37
Speaker 3: She didn't know if something had happened to him.
32:41
Speaker 2: Vaclav Plik was last seen in the early hours of
32:44
Speaker 2: July 22nd, two days after police found Mary Stetson.
32:50
Speaker 6: When someone disappeared in and around the time of the
32:53
Speaker 6: murder or shortly thereafter, that is of great interest to
32:57
Speaker 6: find out where they went.
32:59
Speaker 2: But what detectives learn next turns Vaclav from victim into
33:04
Speaker 2: potential suspect.
33:08
Speaker 1: Vaclav was employed at a place nearby. It was described
33:14
Speaker 1: as a deboning factory.
33:17
Speaker 3: He would debone chickens. He would cut up lamb legs
33:22
Speaker 3: and beef, and he would use a knife, and he
33:25
Speaker 3: was very skilled with it.
33:29
Speaker 1: He was certainly capable of making the type of cuts
33:33
Speaker 1: that we had seen on the torso when we first
33:36
Speaker 1: discovered the body, very clean, very precise cuts.
33:43
Speaker 3: When Donna was interviewed, she indicated that he had a
33:45
Speaker 3: violent past. He had threatened that he could kill her
33:49
Speaker 3: and cut her up, and no one would ever know.
33:53
Speaker 3: Donna knew that he would frequent bars that were on
33:56
Speaker 3: Lake Ave, and that he would go fishing where the
34:00
Speaker 3: body was found.
34:04
Speaker 2: Donna gives police a photo of her ex-husband.
34:10
Speaker 3: One of our detectives that had originally gone out to
34:12
Speaker 3: those two drinking establishments and was asking around saw his photograph,
34:17
Speaker 3: and he was like, You've got to be kidding me.
34:21
Speaker 3: He had been inside the bar showing the picture of
34:24
Speaker 3: Mary Stetson around to see if anybody else had known Mary.
34:28
Speaker 3: And in fact, he had gone over to a table
34:30
Speaker 3: of males that were sitting together and had showed the picture.
34:35
Speaker 3: They didn't speak very good English, but they could communicate
34:37
Speaker 3: that they had never seen that woman before. The third
34:41
Speaker 3: male that was sitting there happened to be Vaclav Plik.
34:48
Speaker 2: With Plik Now the prime suspect, detectives return to the
34:52
Speaker 2: bar where Mary was last seen.
34:56
Speaker 1: We completed a photo array, which included Vaclav. You know,
35:03
Speaker 1: our hope is to have somebody identify him in the bar.
35:08
Speaker 3: We showed it around to the different patrons that were there,
35:10
Speaker 3: to the bartender, and they identified Vaclav Plik.
35:23
Speaker 2: They need to determine what happened in the hours after
35:26
Speaker 2: Mary and Plick left the bar.
35:30
Speaker 3: Well, we started canvassing the neighborhood where Donna showed us
35:34
Speaker 3: this apartment. And there was a neighbor that we spoke
35:38
Speaker 3: to that knew Vaclav.
35:41
Speaker 1: She had seen Vaclav arrive at the apartment with a
35:44
Speaker 1: female who was similar in description to Mary. On the
35:48
Speaker 1: night she disappeared, So when we initially came to the apartment,
35:57
Speaker 1: two of us entered through the common hallway in the front.
36:00
Speaker 1: One of the first things we saw was what appeared
36:03
Speaker 1: to be dark stains on the wall leaving the front
36:06
Speaker 1: of the apartment outside the common hallway and heading towards
36:10
Speaker 1: the exterior door. The stains that we tested did test
36:15
Speaker 1: positive for the presence of human blood.
36:19
Speaker 3: They gave us probable cause to get a search warrant.
36:25
Speaker 3: It was very interesting what we found in that apartment.
36:28
Speaker 3: When you first go in and just look, you wouldn't
36:31
Speaker 3: think that anything had happened there. Everything appeared normal.
36:37
Speaker 1: And then as we looked in further, we determined that
36:42
Speaker 1: there was evidence that not only pointed to this Falkloff
36:46
Speaker 1: Plick as our guy, our suspect, but connected him right
36:50
Speaker 1: away to our victims.
36:55
Speaker 3: On the bed was a rimmed hat. That's Mary's hat.
37:03
Speaker 1: Not only that, there were several teddy bears inside that apartment,
37:08
Speaker 1: one in particular that was missing an eye.
37:12
Speaker 3: All crime scenes are strange, but to see the hat
37:16
Speaker 3: sitting on a bed that was perfectly made and to
37:19
Speaker 3: see this teddy bear without an eye was just, you know,
37:24
Speaker 3: here's the case.
37:28
Speaker 1: It kind of made the hair on the back of
37:29
Speaker 1: your neck stand up.
37:35
Speaker 2: Detectives have proof that Mary Stetson was inside Vaclav Plik's
37:39
Speaker 2: apartment the night she disappeared. Now they're looking for evidence
37:45
Speaker 2: of murder.
37:48
Speaker 3: In his bedroom, the carpet was cut out.
37:54
Speaker 1: I mean, that's consistent with something happening, staining the carpet,
37:59
Speaker 1: and then the carpet having to be removed right away.
38:03
Speaker 3: When someone's stabbing somebody, the blood is casting off.
38:08
Speaker 1: And clearly, people who clean up crime scenes forget the
38:12
Speaker 1: fact that there's other manners in which to collect evidence
38:16
Speaker 1: or see, visually see evidence.
38:21
Speaker 3: You turn out all the lights, and you spray this chemical, luminol,
38:26
Speaker 3: And it luminesces blood with like a black light. And
38:30
Speaker 3: that area lit up like a Christmas tree. There was
38:38
Speaker 3: blood on the bedspread. There was blood on the peter
38:43
Speaker 3: leading to the hallway. You could see there was an
38:45
Speaker 3: enormous amount of blood that was there. There was blood
38:49
Speaker 3: in the bathtub. At the last phase, it kind of
38:55
Speaker 3: tells you a story. This is where he cut her
38:59
Speaker 3: up in the bathroom. You understand the human cost of
39:04
Speaker 3: what that means, but as an investigator, it's another little
39:09
Speaker 3: piece of evidence, because at the end of the day,
39:12
Speaker 3: you're trying to convict this person and put him away
39:14
Speaker 3: for the rest of his life.
39:19
Speaker 2: After a nationwide manhunt, they ambush Václav Plik, outside a
39:23
Speaker 2: gas station in Austin, Texas.
39:26
Speaker 3: We didn't know if he was armed. We knew certainly
39:29
Speaker 3: what he was capable of. So we waited outside, and
39:32
Speaker 3: I pretended I was pumping gas. And as he walked out,
39:36
Speaker 3: we grabbed him and arrested him.
39:39
Speaker 4: I was so happy and relieved because this man was caught,
39:43
Speaker 4: and he, you know, he wouldn't be able to do
39:45
Speaker 4: it against some other woman.
39:48
Speaker 2: As they grill Plick for a confession, they now have
39:52
Speaker 2: a complete timeline of what happened the night Mary died.
39:57
Speaker 3: Mary left her apartment about quarter to six. She traveled
40:02
Speaker 3: in a cab to a local bar. There, she met
40:06
Speaker 3: with Vaclav. They had some drinks at this bar, and
40:13
Speaker 3: he purchased a teddy bear for her. They then left
40:18
Speaker 3: that bar and headed back towards Vaclav's apartment on Orange Street.
40:29
Speaker 3: And that he tried maybe having sex with her, and
40:33
Speaker 3: she didn't want to. And an argument ensued, and he
40:41
Speaker 3: ended up violently stabbing her to death. In a panic,
40:45
Speaker 3: he didn't know what to do. So he dismembered her
40:49
Speaker 3: so he could get her out of the apartment. He
40:52
Speaker 3: used a miter saw that was in his closet. And
40:56
Speaker 3: he put the torso in a large duffel bag. And
41:02
Speaker 3: he threw her in the area that he fished at
41:04
Speaker 3: the trestle. He then took the other body parts and
41:09
Speaker 3: drove out to the total opposite side of the city
41:13
Speaker 3: and discarded them in the woods.
41:18
Speaker 1: To be very close to this person, this level of
41:24
Speaker 1: evil that I don't think I've ever been as close
41:27
Speaker 1: to in the past.
41:30
Speaker 3: With the information that he provided about what he had
41:33
Speaker 3: done with the torso and the body parts, Manchester police
41:36
Speaker 3: conducted another search. And we were able to find her
41:41
Speaker 3: head on one side of the street and some of
41:44
Speaker 3: her extremities on the other. I think it was very
41:49
Speaker 3: important to the family that Ruby recovered, her head especially.
41:54
Speaker 3: They were able to give her a proper burial, and
41:58
Speaker 3: I think that was very, very important.
42:03
Speaker 7: She raised us, and he took that away. He just
42:10
Speaker 7: completely destroyed a family.
42:17
Speaker 2: On November 14th, 2000, Vaclav Plik is convicted of Mary
42:23
Speaker 2: Stetson's murder and sentenced to life in prison without parole.
42:30
Speaker 3: I just remember when the verdict came back, guilty, how
42:35
Speaker 3: emotional it was, even for me. And I turned, and
42:40
Speaker 3: Tamara was there. We embraced each other and cried.
42:47
Speaker 4: It was a relief. I gave Mark a big hug
42:50
Speaker 4: because they worked hard.
42:54
Speaker 7: And it was finally ended. And I was, you know,
42:57
Speaker 7: I was kind of happy. Justice was served.
43:12
Speaker 3: Thank you.