Latest / Blood Trails / S1E2: A Monster Among Us, Part 1

Transcript

S1E2: A Monster Among Us, Part 1 · Blood Trails

0:00
Speaker 1: This episode contains graphic descriptions of crime scene details involving
0:04
Speaker 1: sexual violence and murder. It also deals with suicide. Listener
0:07
Speaker 1: discretion is advised if you or someone you know is
0:11
Speaker 1: having thoughts of suicide, call her text nine to eight
0:14
Speaker 1: eight to reach the suicide and Crisis lifeline.
0:22
Speaker 2: In nineteen ninety six, a fifteen year old girl was raped, drowned,
0:25
Speaker 2: and left for dead along the banks of the Gallatin River.
0:28
Speaker 2: Her murderer turned out to be a hunter and a
0:30
Speaker 2: BLM biologist. He was brought to justice nearly thirty years later,
0:35
Speaker 2: but not in the way that anyone expected. That's next
0:41
Speaker 2: on Blood Trails. How well do you know the people
0:57
Speaker 2: you hunt with? You know their names, what they do,
1:00
Speaker 2: where they live. If you went with family, you know
1:03
Speaker 2: a whole lot more. But when you venture into the
1:05
Speaker 2: wilderness to spend days, sometimes weeks alone with another person,
1:11
Speaker 2: do you ever wonder do I really know this guy?
1:15
Speaker 3: I think they just thought he was a pretty normal dude.
1:18
Speaker 4: We thought he was a kind of a quirky guy.
1:19
Speaker 5: But he was ex military and had a fisheries bo
1:23
Speaker 5: just wildlife ball, just background, so we just always thought
1:26
Speaker 5: he was kind of a different guy.
1:29
Speaker 6: We went way back out in the mountains by ourselves.
1:33
Speaker 6: I didn't have any clue where we were and spent
1:37
Speaker 6: the whole day and it was horrible.
1:40
Speaker 7: It was the worst day ever.
1:42
Speaker 3: He was so mean.
1:43
Speaker 8: I shot my first year ever with him when I
1:46
Speaker 8: was nine years old, and I mean, he's always was
1:50
Speaker 8: always there, and he was always the person who pushed
1:54
Speaker 8: me to get more involved with the outdoor activities.
1:57
Speaker 9: Nobody had any idea, And thinking back on it, I
2:01
Speaker 9: remembered that he had been kind of reserved and stuff
2:03
Speaker 9: been like, yeah, I couldn't think of anything that I
2:07
Speaker 9: was never like uncomfortable.
2:10
Speaker 2: The voices you just heard are the relatives, coworkers and
2:13
Speaker 2: hunting partners of a man named Paul Hutchinson. Hutchinson was
2:18
Speaker 2: born in New Hampshire in nineteen sixty nine, but moved
2:20
Speaker 2: out to Montana in the late nineties to attend Montana
2:23
Speaker 2: State University. He earned a degree in fishery science and
2:27
Speaker 2: enjoyed a long and award winning career as a biologist
2:31
Speaker 2: with the Bureau of Land Management. He had a wife,
2:34
Speaker 2: two kids, and a house in Dylan, Montana. He was
2:37
Speaker 2: also a big time outdoorsman. He hunted elk, mule deer,
2:41
Speaker 2: bighorn sheep, and waterfowl, but most of all, he loved turkeys.
2:46
Speaker 2: He traveled to twenty states chasing gobblers, and he aimed
2:49
Speaker 2: to kill a turkey in all forty nine states where
2:51
Speaker 2: they live.
2:52
Speaker 4: Most of Hutchinson's.
2:53
Speaker 2: Social media accounts no longer exist, but his son posted
2:57
Speaker 2: a video in twenty twenty of Hutchinson calling to a
3:00
Speaker 2: group of turkeys from his truck. From the outside, he
3:07
Speaker 2: seemed like a normal guy, maybe a little off putting
3:11
Speaker 2: at times, maybe a little arrogant, but on the whole,
3:15
Speaker 2: not a bad dude to go hunting with. Then last year,
3:19
Speaker 2: that facade came crashing down night.
3:21
Speaker 6: After nearly three decades, a cold case murder in Gallatin
3:24
Speaker 6: County is closed.
3:25
Speaker 10: In nineteen ninety six, fifteen year old Danny Houchins disappeared
3:29
Speaker 10: after going for a walk by a river.
3:31
Speaker 1: Hours later, her body was found in a swampy area.
3:33
Speaker 6: Forensic evidence has determined Paul Hutchinson murdered Daniel Howchins at
3:38
Speaker 6: the Cameron Bridge fishing access.
3:40
Speaker 2: Hutchinson was accused of raping and murdering a fifteen year
3:43
Speaker 2: old girl in a community just down the road from
3:46
Speaker 2: where he lived worked and raised a family. Investigators used
3:50
Speaker 2: cutting edge forensic technology to pin him for the crime,
3:53
Speaker 2: and they confronted him in a high pressure interview you'll
3:55
Speaker 2: hear at the end of this episode. The story rocked
3:58
Speaker 2: the small town of Dylan. Hutchinson's family, friends, coworkers, and
4:02
Speaker 2: hunting buddies ask themselves how they missed the giant, festering
4:06
Speaker 2: atrocity in Paul Hutchinson's past. How could a person so
4:11
Speaker 2: outwardly normal be capable of something so evil? Who was
4:15
Speaker 2: Paul Hutchinson? How did he escape detection for so long?
4:19
Speaker 2: Was anyone else in on his secret? And do his
4:22
Speaker 2: family and friends believe he did what he's been accused
4:25
Speaker 2: of doing.
4:26
Speaker 3: I don't think any of us know what happened.
4:27
Speaker 8: Obviously, something really terrible and provable happened, and there's no
4:33
Speaker 8: like denying it or justifying it or rationalizing it. It's
4:36
Speaker 8: completely crazy. I mean, you hear about the stuff on TV.
4:39
Speaker 8: You never think you're going to be on the villain
4:41
Speaker 8: side of the story.
4:42
Speaker 2: And that story might not be over. Hutchinson traveled the
4:46
Speaker 2: country hunting turkeys, and now investigators are wondering if he
4:50
Speaker 2: used those trips to commit other crimes. Is it possible
4:55
Speaker 2: someone could rape a fifteen year old girl, kill her
4:58
Speaker 2: and then go on to live a crime free life.
5:03
Speaker 2: Right now, no one knows for sure, but still it
5:06
Speaker 2: makes you wonder what else could be hiding in the
5:09
Speaker 2: hearts of those we think we know best. On Jordan
5:13
Speaker 2: Siller's and this is blood Trails a Monster among Us
5:25
Speaker 2: Part one Danny. On September twenty first to nineteen ninety six,
5:32
Speaker 2: Danielle Houchens needed to clear her head. She'd had a
5:35
Speaker 2: disagreement with her parents, as fifteen year olds tend to do, so,
5:39
Speaker 2: she asked her mom if she could drive down to
5:41
Speaker 2: the Cameron Bridge Fishing Access site just outside of Belgrade, Montana.
5:47
Speaker 2: Danny had recently earned her driver's license, so it was
5:49
Speaker 2: a quick ten minute ride in her truck. It was
5:52
Speaker 2: peaceful down by the banks of the Gallatin River, and
5:55
Speaker 2: she'd been there before with friends and family. Stephanie, her
6:00
Speaker 2: younger sister, was twelve years old at the time. Her
6:03
Speaker 2: memory of Danny is colored by the genuine admiration most
6:06
Speaker 2: girls have for their older teenage sister.
6:10
Speaker 1: She was my hero.
6:11
Speaker 10: She was cool and tough, you know she. It was
6:16
Speaker 10: the grunge era, and it was the nineties, and like
6:19
Speaker 10: she wore cool, baggy flannels and listened to awesome music
6:24
Speaker 10: like Pearl Jam and Dirvana and all this angsty, you
6:28
Speaker 10: know kind of music. And so there was that cool factor,
6:32
Speaker 10: and she was adventurous and you know, seemingly unafraid to
6:38
Speaker 10: do things. But she excelled in a lot other ways too.
6:42
Speaker 10: She was very, very very smart and did really well
6:46
Speaker 10: in school. But she wasn't just studious smart. She had
6:50
Speaker 10: this really dry sense of humor and sarcasm that she
6:56
Speaker 10: would point to the people around her, but would also
6:59
Speaker 10: like turn that on herself and be sarcastic and self
7:03
Speaker 10: deprecating their humor. You know, just kind of that hilarious, snarky, sassy,
7:10
Speaker 10: angsty fifteen year old girl.
7:12
Speaker 2: In the nineties, the Houchins didn't do much hunting and fishing,
7:16
Speaker 2: but they did pretty much everything else in the outdoors.
7:20
Speaker 2: They especially liked to skip. Stephanie's parents were both ski
7:23
Speaker 2: patrollers in Big Sky, Montana, and Stephanie remembers doing everything
7:28
Speaker 2: she could to keep up with her older sister on
7:31
Speaker 2: the slopes.
7:32
Speaker 10: She was always the person I looked up to on
7:37
Speaker 10: anything that we were doing as a family, and so
7:40
Speaker 10: there was that innat desire to be like her, to
7:46
Speaker 10: be able to accomplish the kinds of things that she
7:48
Speaker 10: was able to accomplish, to push myself to be tougher,
7:53
Speaker 10: whether it be on the mountain in the winter time,
7:55
Speaker 10: or up hiking and kind of pushing through that last
7:59
Speaker 10: mile of the tree trail before you got to the top,
8:01
Speaker 10: or whatever it was that we were doing out in
8:05
Speaker 10: the woods. She was my motivator to be able to
8:09
Speaker 10: continue doing that when it sucked right and when I'm
8:12
Speaker 10: like a little kid and want to give up. And
8:15
Speaker 10: so it sounds too simple to say that she was
8:20
Speaker 10: my hero, but she was my hero because she was
8:23
Speaker 10: my older sister, and everything I measured myself against was
8:29
Speaker 10: measuring towards her.
8:31
Speaker 2: That Saturday in nineteen ninety six, the town of Belgrade
8:34
Speaker 2: was celebrating a yearly fall festival. The festivities were taking
8:38
Speaker 2: place right across the street from the Houchin's home, and
8:41
Speaker 2: Stephanie was there at the park playing with her friends.
8:44
Speaker 10: And I remember my dad coming over to the park
8:48
Speaker 10: and telling me that Danny was missing, and that you know,
8:53
Speaker 10: they were going to try to look for her, but
8:56
Speaker 10: that she was missing and I needed to come home
8:59
Speaker 10: and so I I kind of ran back home.
9:02
Speaker 2: Danny had left that morning, so when she didn't come
9:05
Speaker 2: home by the early afternoon, her parents started to become concerned.
9:10
Speaker 2: But that concern turned to panic when Stephanie's mom drove
9:14
Speaker 2: down to the Cameron Park Bridge and found Danny's truck
9:19
Speaker 2: but no sign of.
9:21
Speaker 10: Danny, and then pretty quickly there found her keys and
9:25
Speaker 10: water bottle on a trail leading back into kind of
9:29
Speaker 10: the marshy area of that fishing access. That was really
9:33
Speaker 10: I think what set off all the explosive worry for
9:38
Speaker 10: my mom.
9:38
Speaker 2: Stephanie's mom called Danny's name and looked around the fishing
9:41
Speaker 2: access site, but still she couldn't find her. That's when
9:46
Speaker 2: she called her husband and they recruited family and friends
9:49
Speaker 2: to start the search. Stephanie remembers driving around town with
9:53
Speaker 2: a photo of Danny, asking if anyone had seen her sister.
9:57
Speaker 10: My friend's mom drove me around and I went to
9:59
Speaker 10: the different bars, restaurants in Belgrade gas stations. I went
10:02
Speaker 10: to the high school girls' basketball game and just asked
10:07
Speaker 10: folks if they had seen her and tried to create
10:09
Speaker 10: some awareness. I guess it was kind of really all
10:12
Speaker 10: hands on.
10:12
Speaker 2: Deck that day, finding Danny's truck and keys convinced law
10:16
Speaker 2: enforcement that something had happened to the fifteen year old girl.
10:21
Speaker 2: The Galatin County Sheriff's office scoured the swampy area near
10:24
Speaker 2: the fishing access until it got too dark. They didn't
10:28
Speaker 2: find anything, but two brothers who were friends of the
10:31
Speaker 2: family kept searching. They noticed a footprint and a broken
10:37
Speaker 2: cattail the searchers had missed and followed the trail over
10:40
Speaker 2: a creek until they saw what they at first thought
10:45
Speaker 2: was a dead deer lying in the mud.
10:48
Speaker 10: And then I was home that night after Danny's body
10:52
Speaker 10: was found, and I heard my dad tell my mom
10:59
Speaker 10: that she had died.
11:03
Speaker 4: Part two. The crime scene.
11:08
Speaker 2: Danny's body was found face down in about eight inches
11:12
Speaker 2: of muddy water. Her body had been dragged twenty feet
11:15
Speaker 2: and her watch had been pulled over her hand. One
11:19
Speaker 2: of her sandals was missing, but she was still wearing
11:21
Speaker 2: a leg brace due to recently torn ligaments.
11:24
Speaker 4: In her knee.
11:26
Speaker 2: That brace and that injury, would have made it more
11:29
Speaker 2: difficult to run away. Her face was scratched and bruised,
11:33
Speaker 2: and the bruising on the back of her neck indicated
11:36
Speaker 2: that her head had been forcefully held under the mud.
11:40
Speaker 2: Even more disturbingly, if that's possible, her bra had been
11:45
Speaker 2: rolled under her shirt and her underwear had been pulled down.
11:48
Speaker 2: Later analysis found seamen and male hairs in her underwear
11:52
Speaker 2: and in her genitals, along with mud in her lungs.
11:57
Speaker 2: All of this was found and recorded by the sheriff's
12:00
Speaker 2: and the medical examiner, and yet, for reasons that remain unclear,
12:05
Speaker 2: coroner Robert Myers did not rule Danny's death as a homicide.
12:10
Speaker 2: The death certificate lists the cause of death as drowning,
12:13
Speaker 2: but in a box where Myers was supposed to describe
12:16
Speaker 2: how the injury occurred, he simply wrote undetermined. In fact,
12:22
Speaker 2: according to Stephanie, investigators told the Houchens that their daughter
12:26
Speaker 2: may have drowned accidentally. Stephanie wouldn't see the case file
12:31
Speaker 2: until twenty years later, but even in the days and
12:33
Speaker 2: months following Danny's death, they questioned whether the sheriff was
12:38
Speaker 2: being honest with them.
12:39
Speaker 10: It never made sense what law enforcement was saying to us.
12:44
Speaker 10: How could she have just gone down there and accidentally died,
12:48
Speaker 10: How could there have been no marks on her? How
12:51
Speaker 10: could this just be such a mystery and I think
12:55
Speaker 10: that they had all of that really innate guts to
12:59
Speaker 10: suspicions that what they were being told couldn't possibly be accurate.
13:06
Speaker 2: The sheriff at the time was a man named Bill Slaughter.
13:09
Speaker 2: He has admitted to not telling the family everything about
13:12
Speaker 2: their daughter's death, but he has denied lying to them.
13:17
Speaker 2: It's sometimes important to withhold information to protect the integrity
13:20
Speaker 2: of an investigation, and the Houchens aren't the only family
13:23
Speaker 2: to be frustrated by a lack of information from law enforcement.
13:28
Speaker 2: It's also true that in the months following Danny's death,
13:31
Speaker 2: Slaughter told local media that he was investigating her death
13:34
Speaker 2: as a homicide. In a nineteen ninety seven article published
13:38
Speaker 2: in the Bozeman Daily Chronicle, he said, quote, We've always
13:41
Speaker 2: worked it as a homicide. He reiterated that position to
13:45
Speaker 2: the Montana Free Press in twenty twenty four and said
13:48
Speaker 2: he was frustrated the coroner and medical examiner listed the
13:51
Speaker 2: cause of death as undetermined, But in that same article
13:56
Speaker 2: from nineteen ninety seven, Slaughter also claimed that the evidence
13:59
Speaker 2: was not quote conclusive. What's more, Gallatin County Coroner Rob
14:04
Speaker 2: Myers told the media things at the time that contradicted
14:08
Speaker 2: the actual reports. Meyers said there was no visible bruising
14:13
Speaker 2: to indicate that Danny had been held under the water.
14:16
Speaker 2: He also said there were no signs of a struggle,
14:19
Speaker 2: even though she did have what appeared to be defensive
14:22
Speaker 2: wounds on her hands. Slaughter also suggested that they hadn't
14:27
Speaker 2: collected any foreign hairs from Danny's body, but that wasn't
14:32
Speaker 2: true either. They had collected four hairs that didn't belong
14:36
Speaker 2: to Danny, which would end up being crucial pieces of
14:38
Speaker 2: evidence in identifying her killer. The decision not to list
14:43
Speaker 2: Danny's death as a homicide or tell the family anything
14:47
Speaker 2: about her sexual assault had far reaching effects both on
14:50
Speaker 2: the investigation of the case and the Houchin's family.
14:54
Speaker 10: It's pretty likely that family members who suddenly lose such
15:00
Speaker 10: someone to murder, and then you add in a complexity
15:04
Speaker 10: of learning leader that there was a sexual assault incorporated
15:07
Speaker 10: into that penus crime probably deal with a lot of
15:11
Speaker 10: very real trauma throughout their entire lives.
15:16
Speaker 2: Once Stephanie began looking into her sister's case, the decision
15:18
Speaker 2: by the coroner to not list Danny's death as a
15:21
Speaker 2: homicide made it impossible for Stephanie to enter Danny's case
15:25
Speaker 2: into cold case databases. It also, she believes, solidified the
15:30
Speaker 2: notion that Danny's death wasn't worth investigating seriously.
15:35
Speaker 10: The failure in nineteen ninety six sat up, in my opinion,
15:40
Speaker 10: a culture of not taking her case seriously in the
15:46
Speaker 10: Sheriff's office, because they listed undetermined on her death certificate.
15:58
Speaker 4: Part three the investigation.
16:03
Speaker 2: The Sheriff's department did continue to investigate Danny's case. Former
16:07
Speaker 2: detective Cindy Botek began reinvestigating the murder in the early
16:10
Speaker 2: two thousands when she joined the detective squad, and I've
16:13
Speaker 2: been told she took the case file out on a
16:15
Speaker 2: regular basis to see if she'd missed anything. She told
16:19
Speaker 2: the Montana Free Press that the mud in Danny's lungs
16:22
Speaker 2: proved the teen didn't drown in an accident, and she
16:25
Speaker 2: was as frustrated as anyone about the lack of progress
16:29
Speaker 2: in the case. But the fact is, for any detective,
16:32
Speaker 2: it's tough to justify spending your very limited time and
16:36
Speaker 2: resources on a cold case when there are active investigations
16:40
Speaker 2: in the here and now. So the case remained cold
16:44
Speaker 2: until twenty nineteen, when Stephanie decided it was time she
16:48
Speaker 2: found out what happened to her sister.
16:51
Speaker 10: Many times over five years, you know, kind of repeated
16:54
Speaker 10: this mantra to my sister, like I'm coming for you, Danny,
16:58
Speaker 10: I'm coming for you, Like no, we have not forgotten you,
17:02
Speaker 10: and I'm coming and I will not give up until
17:06
Speaker 10: I do this for you.
17:07
Speaker 4: At first, she hit a brick wall.
17:09
Speaker 2: The Gallatin County Deputies assured her they were working on
17:12
Speaker 2: the case, but told her they couldn't release any information
17:14
Speaker 2: about an active investigation. But she didn't give up, and
17:18
Speaker 2: eventually her persistence earned her a call from Sergeant Matt Boxmeyer.
17:23
Speaker 2: Boxmeyer was in charge of Danny's case, and he told
17:26
Speaker 2: her he planned to review and digitize the entire case file.
17:29
Speaker 1: That was the turning point for me.
17:31
Speaker 10: I was like, okay, jumping in head first, let's go,
17:34
Speaker 10: because I thought I was going to have to work
17:36
Speaker 10: a lot harder to get collaboration. And I was pretty
17:39
Speaker 10: excited when I heard from Matt.
17:41
Speaker 2: The sheriff at the time, Brian Goodkin, worked with Stephanie
17:44
Speaker 2: in the County Attorney's office to get approval for Stephanie
17:47
Speaker 2: to see that file. That experience, Stephanie says, was both
17:52
Speaker 2: heartbreaking and.
17:54
Speaker 10: Infuriating looking at her case file and looking at autopsy
17:59
Speaker 10: photos and crime scene photos, and she and I look
18:03
Speaker 10: a lot alike, and that was really terrible having to
18:10
Speaker 10: do that. What happened to my sister was so much
18:14
Speaker 10: worse than anyone had ever shared with us, and so
18:20
Speaker 10: all my worst suspicions about the way her life ended
18:25
Speaker 10: and what she endured leading up to her death and
18:30
Speaker 10: then what killed her was awful. Awful.
18:38
Speaker 2: Stephanie and Sergeant Boxmeyer stayed in touch over the next
18:41
Speaker 2: few years, but the case didn't really get off the
18:44
Speaker 2: ground until Tom Elfmont came on the scene.
18:47
Speaker 11: Once I sat down with the sheriff and they told
18:50
Speaker 11: me about the case and that it was this really
18:52
Speaker 11: wonderful fifteen year old girl who basically got ambushed out
18:57
Speaker 11: at the Gallatin River, I said, you know, it's a
19:01
Speaker 11: case I definitely would be very interested in investigating.
19:05
Speaker 2: Tom had been a captain with the Los Angeles Police Department,
19:08
Speaker 2: but he had since retired and moved to Montana. Dan Springer,
19:11
Speaker 2: who'd been elected as Gallatin County Sheriff in twenty twenty one,
19:15
Speaker 2: had been reaching out to his contacts for someone who
19:17
Speaker 2: might be able to help with Danny's case. He'd heard
19:20
Speaker 2: about Tom through a network of retired LAPD officers, and
19:24
Speaker 2: Tom agreed.
19:25
Speaker 4: To work the case free of charge.
19:28
Speaker 2: He began his investigation by reading the case file and
19:31
Speaker 2: familiarizing himself with witness testimony and available evidence. I asked
19:36
Speaker 2: him if he agrees with Stephanie's assessment that the crime
19:39
Speaker 2: scene evidence clearly pointed to rape and murder.
19:42
Speaker 4: She didn't drown.
19:44
Speaker 11: She was actually suffocated to death while he held her
19:47
Speaker 11: head down, and she had small contusions on the back
19:51
Speaker 11: of her head and also the front of her head,
19:54
Speaker 11: so it was clear to me it was a clear
19:56
Speaker 11: cut homicide from day one.
19:59
Speaker 2: Next, Tom conducts did his own interviews of the various
20:01
Speaker 2: parties involved. He ruled out the brothers who found Danny's body,
20:05
Speaker 2: as well as another potential suspect investigators had identified in
20:08
Speaker 2: twenty ten. He didn't believe any of these men were
20:12
Speaker 2: capable of this crime, so he turned his attention to
20:15
Speaker 2: the physical evidence that had been collected at the scene.
20:18
Speaker 2: He started with a semen that had been found in
20:20
Speaker 2: Danny's underwear. A DNA profile had never been extracted from
20:24
Speaker 2: that semen, partly because the Montana State Crime Lab is
20:27
Speaker 2: underfunded and partly because the underwear had been misfiled in
20:31
Speaker 2: the archives.
20:32
Speaker 11: So I actually drove up to the lab and I
20:36
Speaker 11: met with the people at the lab and I said, look,
20:38
Speaker 11: you have to test the saman and you have to
20:41
Speaker 11: get a DNA profile.
20:42
Speaker 2: Previous investigators had asked the lab to conduct that testing,
20:46
Speaker 2: but it had never been completed. But this time, thanks
20:49
Speaker 2: to Tom's efforts, the DNA profile was done and submitted
20:52
Speaker 2: to the FBI's DNA database. If Danny's killer had committed
20:56
Speaker 2: a felony since about the year two thousand, it would
20:59
Speaker 2: pop up in that system. But nothing appeared, and the
21:02
Speaker 2: genetic information wasn't robust enough to complete another kind of
21:06
Speaker 2: advanced genetic analysis, the same kind of analysis that had
21:10
Speaker 2: caught the Golden Gate killer in twenty eighteen, a case
21:13
Speaker 2: that had inspired Stephanie to begin the hunt for Danny's murderer.
21:19
Speaker 2: By now, you've probably heard of forensic genetic genealogy. If
21:23
Speaker 2: you haven't, the concept is actually simpler than it sounds.
21:26
Speaker 2: If you're trying to identify someone from a DNA sample,
21:29
Speaker 2: but that information isn't in any law enforcement databases, you
21:32
Speaker 2: can look for relatives of the person you're trying to
21:35
Speaker 2: find in one of those genetic testing services like twenty
21:38
Speaker 2: three and meters or ancestry dot com. If you can find,
21:42
Speaker 2: say the cousin or the father of the suspect, you
21:45
Speaker 2: can narrow down the search to people related to those
21:49
Speaker 2: cousins or fathers who were in the area around the
21:52
Speaker 2: time the crime was committed. The semen wasn't enough to
21:56
Speaker 2: do this analysis, but fortunately that was a the only
22:00
Speaker 2: physical evidence collected.
22:02
Speaker 11: In all the evidence that they had from twenty eight
22:05
Speaker 11: years ago, there were four hairs, and the four hairs
22:10
Speaker 11: were actually preserved fairly well.
22:13
Speaker 2: Tom got in touch with an expert in forensic DNA
22:16
Speaker 2: analysis who connected him with a lab called Astria Forensics
22:20
Speaker 2: in San Francisco. According to Tom, this is the only
22:23
Speaker 2: lab in the country that can extract enough genetic material
22:27
Speaker 2: from a hair to perform genetic genealogy. This technology is
22:31
Speaker 2: so new that it didn't even exist just a few
22:33
Speaker 2: years ago. He sent the first two hairs to Astria,
22:37
Speaker 2: but they were too degraded to extract a DNA sequence.
22:41
Speaker 2: Tom only had two hairs left. If those didn't produce
22:45
Speaker 2: the results he was looking for, he'd have exhausted the
22:48
Speaker 2: best evidence from the crime scene.
22:50
Speaker 11: I submitted the third and fourth hairs, and with the
22:54
Speaker 11: third and fourth hairs on the fourth hair, they got
22:57
Speaker 11: a lot of DNA and it was only the seventh
23:01
Speaker 11: case in the United States involving a hare and DNA
23:05
Speaker 11: that was solved with.
23:07
Speaker 4: A DNA profile in hands.
23:08
Speaker 2: Tom then went to one of the best genetic genealogists
23:11
Speaker 2: in the country, a woman named C. C. Moore, whose
23:13
Speaker 2: website calls her the DNA Detective. She was able to
23:17
Speaker 2: find two brothers and a first cousin who were related
23:20
Speaker 2: to the DNA that came from the hares. These brothers
23:23
Speaker 2: and cousin were from New Hampshire, but Tom discovered that
23:27
Speaker 2: one of the brothers had moved to Bozeman, Montana, a
23:30
Speaker 2: month before Danny was killed.
23:33
Speaker 11: So then we knew he was in the area where
23:36
Speaker 11: the crime occurred, and then we zeroed in on him.
23:40
Speaker 2: The man they identified was Paul Hutchinson, a fifty five
23:44
Speaker 2: year old fisheries biologist with the Bureau of Land Management.
23:49
Speaker 2: Stephanie was given Hutchinson's name long before it was announced
23:52
Speaker 2: to the public. I asked her what it was like
23:55
Speaker 2: after five years of searching and nearly thirty years of
23:59
Speaker 2: wondering to finally put a name and a face to
24:02
Speaker 2: the man who killed her sister.
24:05
Speaker 10: Man, it was a pretty complex feelings.
24:13
Speaker 1: It was relieving.
24:16
Speaker 10: And knowing that we were going to solve this.
24:20
Speaker 3: It was.
24:22
Speaker 10: A validation that we were about to go have years
24:26
Speaker 10: of a court battle ahead of us. But it was
24:29
Speaker 10: also really weird knowing that that person, who is truly
24:38
Speaker 10: a monster in my eyes, had like like I could
24:42
Speaker 10: look him up online, and he had a life and
24:47
Speaker 10: he had a career, and that introduces all sorts of weird,
24:55
Speaker 10: just things to wrap your head around that I was
24:59
Speaker 10: not ready for. But at the end of the day,
25:02
Speaker 10: I knew that I had done everything I could for
25:06
Speaker 10: my sister and that we were going to be successful
25:08
Speaker 10: finally finding justice for her murder.
25:16
Speaker 2: After the break, Tom catches up with Hutchinson at the
25:19
Speaker 2: BLM Field office in Dylan and we hear the voice
25:22
Speaker 2: of Danny's killer. Does he admit to knowing Danny or
25:26
Speaker 2: being in the area, how does he react to seeing
25:29
Speaker 2: Danny's face in a photograph, and what is Hutchinson's next
25:33
Speaker 2: move After being confronted about his crime for the first
25:37
Speaker 2: time in nearly thirty years. That's next on Blood Trails,
25:53
Speaker 2: Part four the interview. At this point, Tom knew he
25:59
Speaker 2: had to tread carefully. The DNA evidence was convincing, and
26:02
Speaker 2: it would become even more convincing once they compared the
26:05
Speaker 2: hair on Danny's body with a current sample from Hutchinson.
26:09
Speaker 2: But even with that forensic evidence, the case would be
26:12
Speaker 2: difficult to prosecute.
26:14
Speaker 11: The first thing a defense attorney would have said, is okay,
26:18
Speaker 11: your honor. For twenty seven years, this woman's death was
26:23
Speaker 11: listed as an accident. Why are we here charging my
26:27
Speaker 11: client with murder? Tom wanted to sit down with Hutchinson
26:30
Speaker 11: and ask him questions about where he was and what
26:33
Speaker 11: he was doing in nineteen ninety six. If he had
26:35
Speaker 11: those kinds of statements, along with the physical evidence, prosecutors
26:39
Speaker 11: would have an easier time convicting him. I really wanted
26:43
Speaker 11: him to either lie to us or tell us things
26:47
Speaker 11: about where he was, because you know, he could have
26:50
Speaker 11: always used the.
26:52
Speaker 4: Alibi that a lot of criminals use.
26:56
Speaker 11: Well, I met her there and we had sex, but
26:59
Speaker 11: when I left, she was fine, and I didn't want
27:03
Speaker 11: him to have any kind of an alibi.
27:05
Speaker 2: Tom also knew that if he conducted a formal interview
27:08
Speaker 2: with Hutchinson about Danny's case, he would have to read
27:11
Speaker 2: Hutchinson his Miranda rights, and Tom's experience when a suspect
27:15
Speaker 2: is read his miranda rights, he almost always clams up
27:18
Speaker 2: and asks for a lawyer. So Tom consulted with a
27:22
Speaker 2: criminal attorney to develop a plan that would let Tom
27:25
Speaker 2: interview Hutchinson without reading him his rights.
27:28
Speaker 11: It was agreed that if I could interview him in
27:31
Speaker 11: a public place where he could get up and just
27:34
Speaker 11: walk away any time he wasn't under arrest, he was
27:38
Speaker 11: free to go. That would be okay with the courts
27:41
Speaker 11: in Montana and the federal courts.
27:43
Speaker 2: Tom and another volunteer investigator, Sergeant court de Puigue, of
27:47
Speaker 2: the Newport Beach Police, approached Hutchinson as he was getting
27:51
Speaker 2: out of his truck in the parking lot of the
27:53
Speaker 2: Dylan Blm Field office. Normally, we would have to rely
27:56
Speaker 2: on Tom's account and police statements to learn about what
27:59
Speaker 2: happened next, but Sergeant Dupuige was carrying a camera and
28:03
Speaker 2: we were able to obtain the footage.
28:06
Speaker 3: Hey, Paul, how you doing good? Good?
28:09
Speaker 7: My name's Tom Elfmont.
28:10
Speaker 11: Well, you've got your hands full, so that's okay. I'll
28:13
Speaker 11: just give you a touch there with the Gallatin.
28:16
Speaker 3: County Sheriff's Office.
28:17
Speaker 11: Uh huh, guess, and we wanted to talk to you.
28:21
Speaker 3: We've been asking around.
28:23
Speaker 11: We were over in Ennis and we've been talking to
28:25
Speaker 11: some fisheries people about some things that have been going
28:29
Speaker 11: on here at the rivers in southwest Montana.
28:32
Speaker 2: Well, Tom didn't tell Paul the real reason they wanted
28:34
Speaker 2: to talk to him. He was concerned that if he
28:37
Speaker 2: did that, Paul would end the interview then and there.
28:40
Speaker 2: So as a pretext for speaking with Hutchinson, Tom found
28:43
Speaker 2: other cases of women who have been found dead along
28:46
Speaker 2: rivers in Montana. He and Sergeant to Pwig told Hutchinson
28:49
Speaker 2: that as a fisheries biologist who spent a lot of
28:52
Speaker 2: time on the river, he would have valuable insight into
28:55
Speaker 2: these cases.
28:56
Speaker 7: We're working a couple of vescations involving the water and
28:59
Speaker 7: your name came up as somebody that's been around a
29:01
Speaker 7: long time that that could probably help us. We gotta
29:04
Speaker 7: we got a we got a couple of names. You
29:06
Speaker 7: might even know these guys, but we when we asked BLM,
29:09
Speaker 7: obviously you guys were working the waterways all the time,
29:11
Speaker 7: they said, Hey, these guys have been around forever. They
29:14
Speaker 7: know they know the inside, inside out of everything that's
29:16
Speaker 7: going on. So but that's why, that's why we're I'll
29:19
Speaker 7: talking to you today. So appreciate you sitting down with
29:22
Speaker 7: us to help.
29:24
Speaker 2: Paul doesn't seem overly nervous in the initial minutes of
29:27
Speaker 2: the interview. When Sergeant Apuigue asked to use the restroom,
29:30
Speaker 2: Paul takes out his phone and sends a message to
29:32
Speaker 2: one of his texts. While fielding questions from Tom about
29:35
Speaker 2: his time at Montana State University, I went.
29:37
Speaker 5: To school in New Hampshire for a year. That was
29:40
Speaker 5: a terrible student in high school. I was really lazy,
29:42
Speaker 5: and then you know, military straightened j out.
29:45
Speaker 3: Yeah, and I.
29:46
Speaker 5: Applied to Idaho, Wyoming, Montana over again. I got accepted
29:53
Speaker 5: all of them. And I think it was a cost benefit.
29:59
Speaker 5: M s U was had a good program and it
30:02
Speaker 5: wasn't stupid expensive.
30:05
Speaker 2: This might seem like mundane small talk, but remember the
30:08
Speaker 2: investigators believed that Paul killed Danny during his first year
30:12
Speaker 2: at Montana State, and Tom and Sergeant de Puigue are
30:15
Speaker 2: trying to get more information about that time or catch
30:18
Speaker 2: Paul in a lie.
30:20
Speaker 7: So you went to Montana and that was for how
30:23
Speaker 7: many years of school did you have to go to between?
30:26
Speaker 3: Oh?
30:26
Speaker 7: Really? And then what year did you start there?
30:29
Speaker 3: Ninety five? I think ninety six.
30:34
Speaker 7: Ninety five, somewhere around there.
30:37
Speaker 3: N ninety six, thinks ninety six.
30:42
Speaker 7: Do you think about nineteen ninety six? Okay? Do you
30:45
Speaker 7: do you remember when in ninety six that you came
30:48
Speaker 7: to Montana?
30:50
Speaker 3: I don't. I mean, did you start the fall semester? Yes?
30:56
Speaker 7: Okay, so maybe August September, probably earlier than that, okay.
31:03
Speaker 7: And then did you was that your first femine in Montana?
31:09
Speaker 3: Yes?
31:09
Speaker 7: Okay, perfect. Yeah.
31:11
Speaker 2: Paul must have been wondering why these guys seem so
31:14
Speaker 2: interested in his biography. They're over fifteen minutes into the
31:17
Speaker 2: interview and Tom and the sergeant still haven't asked him
31:19
Speaker 2: a question about one of their cases. But if he's
31:22
Speaker 2: starting to get suspicious, he doesn't show it. He's leaning
31:26
Speaker 2: back in his chair with his right leg crossed over
31:28
Speaker 2: his left and pressing against the edge of the table.
31:31
Speaker 2: When Tom or the sergeant asks him a question, he
31:33
Speaker 2: looks at them and furrows his brow as he thinks
31:36
Speaker 2: he puckers his mouth and moves it from side to side.
31:39
Speaker 2: But when Sergeant Tapuige finally mentions young women being killed
31:43
Speaker 2: near waterways, Paul's body language starts to change.
31:47
Speaker 7: What we're looking into is we've had some deaths that
31:52
Speaker 7: have popped up, females that have been popping up either
31:54
Speaker 7: in the water or near water. And one of the
31:58
Speaker 7: things is is the these cases are cold. Have you
32:01
Speaker 7: ever heard that term before? And what we're trying to
32:03
Speaker 7: do is stimulate him, is try to figure out, you know,
32:05
Speaker 7: who may be responsible for him.
32:07
Speaker 2: Obviously, Paul leans forward in his chair, arms folded, and
32:11
Speaker 2: then immediately leans back. It's like he can't decide whether
32:14
Speaker 2: to lean forward and look more closely at the images
32:17
Speaker 2: in front of him, or lean back and act nonchalant.
32:21
Speaker 2: It ends up looking like he was hit with a
32:23
Speaker 2: small bolt of lightning. The sergeant shows Paul images of
32:27
Speaker 2: two women who were killed along rivers in Montana, and
32:29
Speaker 2: Paul says he doesn't recognize them at one point, pushing
32:32
Speaker 2: the pictures farther away from him on the desk. Then
32:36
Speaker 2: Depuige poses the question they're really there to ask.
32:40
Speaker 7: Okay, this is Daniel Houchins. She was she was killed
32:46
Speaker 7: in September ninety six, and she was found off the
32:52
Speaker 7: Gallatin River. Did you ever fish up there?
32:55
Speaker 2: By this point, Paul had likely figured out what was
32:57
Speaker 2: going on. Tom remembers noticing how difficult it was for
33:00
Speaker 2: the fisheries biologist to keep himself together.
33:03
Speaker 11: I mean, he was profusely sweating. Clearly, he was unbelievably agitated.
33:10
Speaker 2: Paul has a receding hairline, and even in the body
33:12
Speaker 2: cam video you can see a sheen of moisture on
33:15
Speaker 2: his forehead.
33:16
Speaker 5: I h I trapped on the Gallatin, but never fished
33:22
Speaker 5: the Allatan. Okay, I never fished. I don't fish the
33:24
Speaker 5: big rivers. It's always the strange, yeah, the little the
33:28
Speaker 5: backcountry stuff.
33:30
Speaker 7: Okay, So and do you have you ever heard of
33:34
Speaker 7: the Cameron Bridge Access? Have you been there before?
33:38
Speaker 3: Probably? Jack graviit lane?
33:42
Speaker 7: Yeah, exactly? Is that where you trap?
33:44
Speaker 9: No?
33:46
Speaker 3: I trapped over Alberta Angus.
33:49
Speaker 7: I traveled back and forth, okay into a Loup right
33:53
Speaker 7: around that time. And where you was this back in
33:55
Speaker 7: ninety six, ninety seven eight before you shut down here?
34:01
Speaker 3: Oh?
34:02
Speaker 5: Yeah, I trapped up until three years ago. So yeah,
34:09
Speaker 5: I would have been in.
34:10
Speaker 7: That area then back in ninety six.
34:14
Speaker 5: I don't know if I tropped the ninety six that
34:16
Speaker 5: was my first year of college.
34:17
Speaker 2: Again, this line of questioning isn't random. They're trying to
34:20
Speaker 2: get him to admit to being in the area around
34:22
Speaker 2: the time Danny was killed, and even though he equivocates
34:25
Speaker 2: a little, Tom believes his answer was close enough to
34:28
Speaker 2: an admission.
34:29
Speaker 11: He admitted going out having trap lines out there, which
34:33
Speaker 11: would have put him in the woods trapping whatever. He
34:37
Speaker 11: trapped bobcats, skunks, coyotes, and so he was creeping around
34:43
Speaker 11: the woods out there. So he put himself there, which
34:46
Speaker 11: was a big deal. That was a really big deal.
34:50
Speaker 2: As Paul's this comfort grows, he excuses himself from the
34:53
Speaker 2: room for a third time during the course of the interview,
34:55
Speaker 2: which had only lasted about thirty minutes. At that point,
34:58
Speaker 2: he says one of his texts, it's his help, and
35:00
Speaker 2: turns his phone towards the investigators to imply that he's
35:04
Speaker 2: just received a text message. But as he does so,
35:07
Speaker 2: you can see in the video that he's just opened
35:10
Speaker 2: the on x app. Maybe he had a sudden urge
35:13
Speaker 2: to do some online scouting, or maybe he wanted to
35:16
Speaker 2: delete some pins he'd have trouble explaining if investigators were
35:20
Speaker 2: to find them, But when he returns and the interview continues,
35:23
Speaker 2: he tries to play things as cool as he can.
35:26
Speaker 7: Going back to Cameron Bridge access and obviously Danny was
35:31
Speaker 7: killed in what she was found in September of ninety six. Danielle, Yeah,
35:37
Speaker 7: houchinz Yeah, this one. Do you remember hearing about this
35:40
Speaker 7: murder or anything about about that? I don't.
35:46
Speaker 3: I mean I might have.
35:48
Speaker 7: It was a big case just because she was so young,
35:50
Speaker 7: and obviously for Bozeman, that's that's big news, you know,
35:54
Speaker 7: especially in Montana. It wasn't common obviously back in the day.
35:59
Speaker 7: I mean, do you remember this mayor or hearing her name?
36:05
Speaker 3: I don't. I mean, what was that twenty thirty years ago?
36:13
Speaker 2: The investigators pressed Paul on whether he knows any fishing
36:16
Speaker 2: guides or local fishermen who might have been on the
36:18
Speaker 2: Gallatin around the time Danny was killed. Paul reiterates multiple
36:22
Speaker 2: times that he's not much of a fisherman, and even
36:25
Speaker 2: though he is a big time outdoorsman, can't think of
36:28
Speaker 2: a single angler who might be able to help them.
36:31
Speaker 7: No, I'm saying, like any local fishermen back in the
36:33
Speaker 7: day that you knew around Cameron Bridge that might have
36:36
Speaker 7: information for us back in ninety six, remember night, he
36:42
Speaker 7: SAIDs honestly, I don't.
36:49
Speaker 2: I mean kind of Next Tom and the sergeant pressed
36:52
Speaker 2: Paul Harder on his interactions with Danny.
36:55
Speaker 7: Okay, and what about Danny Houches. Do you recognize that name?
37:00
Speaker 3: I don't.
37:01
Speaker 7: Indeed, do you know if you do, you remember do
37:04
Speaker 7: you know her?
37:07
Speaker 3: Was she in school when I went to school?
37:09
Speaker 7: No, she was in she was over at Belgrade High
37:12
Speaker 7: School when you were when you were in school, I
37:19
Speaker 7: don't think as well.
37:20
Speaker 3: I don't know where what circle I would have ran into.
37:24
Speaker 7: Yeah, I mean she's a fifteen year old girl, That's
37:26
Speaker 7: what I'm saying.
37:26
Speaker 1: Yeah.
37:27
Speaker 7: So do you do you recall or does she look
37:29
Speaker 7: familiar to you at all?
37:32
Speaker 3: No, honestly, I don't recognize any of them.
37:35
Speaker 5: But I mean if back then that would have been
37:38
Speaker 5: what on the news of the newspapers.
37:41
Speaker 7: Yeah, yeah, that was a big I mean this, especially
37:43
Speaker 7: this one because it was in Bozeman. Danny was would
37:46
Speaker 7: hang out at the Cameron Bridge access road. Do you
37:48
Speaker 7: remember seeing her there or a similar face?
37:54
Speaker 3: Yeah, I honestly don't. I mean, I probably.
37:57
Speaker 5: I've been to a bunch of fishing access sites for
37:59
Speaker 5: one reason or another.
38:01
Speaker 3: I don't one of them.
38:03
Speaker 7: She is, I mean, Danny does not look familiar.
38:06
Speaker 3: To you at all.
38:07
Speaker 7: You don't know her?
38:10
Speaker 2: No, I.
38:11
Speaker 3: What's the last name, Houchins? Houchins? Does she have an
38:15
Speaker 3: older brother?
38:17
Speaker 7: No?
38:18
Speaker 3: No.
38:19
Speaker 2: Paul maintains a baffled but concerned expression and shakes his
38:23
Speaker 2: head and blinks a lot. The rest of the interview
38:26
Speaker 2: circles around the same kinds of topics. Paul eventually admits
38:29
Speaker 2: that he may have tubed the Gallatin in nineteen ninety six,
38:32
Speaker 2: but he delivers most of his answers with a shrug.
38:35
Speaker 2: Tom and Sergeant to Pwiege never accuse him of anything directly,
38:39
Speaker 2: but they do come close, and at one point, Paul
38:42
Speaker 2: almost asks the question that's likely been spinning around his
38:46
Speaker 2: mind throughout the interview.
38:48
Speaker 7: Is there any reason or do you think there's any
38:51
Speaker 7: possibility that you could have been in the area when
38:53
Speaker 7: this happened? Do you remember a girl screaming or anything
38:57
Speaker 7: like that?
38:58
Speaker 3: I don't.
39:01
Speaker 7: Is there a possibility that you were there when she
39:03
Speaker 7: was murdered? No, you don't remember any screaming or anything
39:07
Speaker 7: like that. You weren't trapping or anything during that.
39:09
Speaker 3: Time, not September that would have been Are you asking me?
39:15
Speaker 7: I mean, I'm just asking if you remember anything all
39:18
Speaker 7: during that time. Don't no, nothing, okay.
39:27
Speaker 2: When the interview concludes after a little more than an hour,
39:30
Speaker 2: Paul seems relieved. He says he'll try to think of
39:33
Speaker 2: someone who might be able to help them, and promises
39:35
Speaker 2: to call Tom if he remembers anything that might be useful.
39:39
Speaker 7: If there's something I haven't asked you that you think
39:41
Speaker 7: I should know this time, tell me now so that
39:43
Speaker 7: might be.
39:44
Speaker 3: More okay, Yeah, question ask grew So.
39:48
Speaker 7: I mean it's what it's part of the job.
39:50
Speaker 3: But yeah, I feel free to call me too.
39:52
Speaker 7: Man, all right, thank you, thank you.
39:58
Speaker 2: Tom told me they weren't concerned that Paul would try
40:01
Speaker 2: to flee the country, but he still instructed detectives to
40:04
Speaker 2: follow their number one suspect. They wanted to keep track
40:07
Speaker 2: of him and see if where he went and what
40:09
Speaker 2: he did might implicate him further.
40:11
Speaker 11: But Dylan was a very very small town. It's one
40:14
Speaker 11: way in, one way out, and it was just impossible,
40:18
Speaker 11: and he was driving like a crazy man. So I
40:21
Speaker 11: told the surveillance people back off and just sit on
40:24
Speaker 11: the north side of town and the south side of
40:26
Speaker 11: town and his house and just see where he comes
40:29
Speaker 11: and goes. And that's what they did.
40:32
Speaker 2: But whatever the plan was for the subsequent days and weeks,
40:35
Speaker 2: they never got the chance to put it into action.
40:38
Speaker 11: And then around four point thirty in the morning, I
40:41
Speaker 11: got a phone call. They told me that he called
40:44
Speaker 11: nine to one one and Dylan and he said officer
40:48
Speaker 11: needs assist and hung up.
40:51
Speaker 6: Just a day after their initial interview with Paul Hutchinson,
40:54
Speaker 6: Sheriff Springer found out that Paul Hutchinson had died by suicide,
40:58
Speaker 6: and he was dead.
41:04
Speaker 2: For most people, Hutchinson's reaction to being interviewed about Danny
41:08
Speaker 2: is evidence enough of his guilt. But when they swabbed
41:11
Speaker 2: Hutchinson's cheek for DNA and compared it to the hair
41:14
Speaker 2: they found on Danny's body, there was no doubt in
41:17
Speaker 2: Tom's mind.
41:18
Speaker 11: They turned it around really quickly and told us that
41:22
Speaker 11: it was ten point seven trillion to one that it
41:27
Speaker 11: was his DNA on Danny's panties.
41:31
Speaker 4: So we knew we got the right guy.
41:34
Speaker 2: I asked Stephanie how she felt when Tom called her
41:36
Speaker 2: and told her that the man who killed her sister
41:39
Speaker 2: had committed suicide.
41:41
Speaker 10: My first thought was, you fucking coward, You fucking coward.
41:51
Speaker 10: I personally have had to put so much courage into
42:00
Speaker 10: an effort for driving justice from my sister, And how
42:05
Speaker 10: dare he decide that he gets to make that last choice? Unfathomable.
42:16
Speaker 1: I was so.
42:20
Speaker 10: Just aghast at that reality. I felt like he a
42:32
Speaker 10: selfish and as terrible as this sounds, because it's not
42:36
Speaker 10: about It was never about me. It was always about
42:40
Speaker 10: justice for my sister. But I was looking forward to
42:44
Speaker 10: staring his ass down in court, and I was looking
42:48
Speaker 10: forward to delivering a victim impact statement and to testifying
42:52
Speaker 10: about the investigation. And I was looking forward to all
42:56
Speaker 10: of that, and he totally robbed that from me.
43:02
Speaker 2: Well, never know what Paul was thinking when he shot
43:04
Speaker 2: himself with a thirty eight caliber Darryner pistol. He could
43:07
Speaker 2: have been thinking about what Sergeant du Puig told him
43:10
Speaker 2: that they'd found male DNA on Danny's body, and as
43:14
Speaker 2: Tom said, modern technology had finally allowed them to unlock
43:18
Speaker 2: its secrets.
43:20
Speaker 7: With the recent.
43:23
Speaker 11: Improvements in DNA technology, I think we're getting to we're getting.
43:28
Speaker 7: To the point where at some point, we're going to
43:32
Speaker 7: be able to I think, don't you agree, identify somebody. Yeah, yeah,
43:37
Speaker 7: I think we're going to be able to identify somebody.
43:39
Speaker 2: Paul doesn't react to this beyond nodding his head. But
43:43
Speaker 2: at that point he must have known he was cooked.
43:45
Speaker 2: He knew he would likely go to prison or worse,
43:48
Speaker 2: and as Stephanie says, he couldn't face that prospect. But
43:53
Speaker 2: I also can't help but wonder if he was thinking
43:55
Speaker 2: about this exchange with Sergeant du Puig just before the
43:58
Speaker 2: close of the interview, and wondering how he could face
44:02
Speaker 2: his own family when the world discovered what he'd done.
44:05
Speaker 7: They rocked this community. And obviously, you know, your dad,
44:08
Speaker 7: you would understand losing your daughter at fifteen, and you know,
44:12
Speaker 7: especially you know you have a girl who's who you know,
44:16
Speaker 7: I'll use an old school term innocent, right, and then
44:19
Speaker 7: somebody takes that innocence away and then murders her. I mean,
44:24
Speaker 7: as a dad, I mean, how would you feel, you
44:26
Speaker 7: know what I mean? I mean, you got a daughter,
44:28
Speaker 7: if that, if she was taking tomorrow by that, how
44:31
Speaker 7: would you feel about that?
44:34
Speaker 3: Yeah? I mean, I mean who you didn't even say it?
44:35
Speaker 3: I mean you have kids.
44:37
Speaker 7: I do, yeah, I mean I'd be I'd be absolutely devastated.
44:41
Speaker 7: I'd be pissed. I'd be pissed off to be honest
44:43
Speaker 7: with you, you know, and I want answers, and I
44:46
Speaker 7: want to know what man did that to my little girl.
44:49
Speaker 7: I mean, whether she's eighteen, she's thirty, she's always going
44:52
Speaker 7: to be your little girl, right And that's what we're
44:54
Speaker 7: trying to answer for Danny's dad right now and her mom.
44:58
Speaker 7: You know, who did that and why I did that?
45:00
Speaker 7: Just answer those questions. Why was it a mistake? Was
45:04
Speaker 7: it you know, was this a one off? Why did
45:08
Speaker 7: this happen to her being you know, fifteen years old?
45:11
Speaker 3: Man?
45:12
Speaker 7: You know, could you imagine I think an adult did it?
45:15
Speaker 7: And then for them to come in and absolutely just
45:21
Speaker 7: you know, you're you're sitting there as a dad thinking
45:24
Speaker 7: my daughters. You know, it's probably screaming in his name,
45:28
Speaker 7: you know, asking for dad's help. All if she wanted
45:30
Speaker 7: to probably do was go home to dad, you know,
45:33
Speaker 7: screaming for her dad to save her, and he couldn't
45:35
Speaker 7: be there, you know, And that as a dad, you
45:38
Speaker 7: know of daughters, and you and me are in the
45:40
Speaker 7: same position.
45:42
Speaker 3: I mean, that just.
45:43
Speaker 7: Wrecks my heart out.
45:46
Speaker 2: Paul's suicide brought Tom's investigation to a close, but it's
45:49
Speaker 2: hardly the end of the story. Once news got out
45:52
Speaker 2: about what happened, journalists, podcasters, and television personalities descended on
45:57
Speaker 2: Bozeman to try to figure out how a seemingly normal
46:00
Speaker 2: man could commit such a horrible atrocity and then hide
46:04
Speaker 2: it for nearly thirty years. They wanted to know who
46:07
Speaker 2: Paul Hutchinson was, how his family and friends were processing
46:11
Speaker 2: the tragedy, and whether Danny was Paul's only victim. That's
46:16
Speaker 2: next time on Blood Trails.