Latest / Crime Stories with Nancy Grace / Woman home alone stabbed, sex assaulted, left in bathtub of water. Who murdered Socialite Kay Thomasson?
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- 0:05Speaker 1: Crime Stories with Nancy Grace answers. Blood all over the
- 0:30Speaker 1: places like our post What happened to Kay Thomason? What
- 0:40Speaker 1: happened to Kate Thomason? The question still lingers. Months have
- 0:45Speaker 1: passed and the case remains unsolved. Brutally murdered in our
- 0:52Speaker 1: own home. I visited the crime scene and from the
- 0:56Speaker 1: outside looking in, it looks like a post card. A
- 1:01Speaker 1: beautiful two storied home with the giant lighting fixture hanging
- 1:05Speaker 1: down in the middle, A perfectly kept front and backyard,
- 1:10Speaker 1: beautiful furnishings in the home. In the back you see
- 1:16Speaker 1: dish for the pet, the family pet. Everything's perfect except
- 1:23Speaker 1: for the dead body. I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories.
- 1:26Speaker 1: Thank you for being with us. With me an all
- 1:29Speaker 1: star panel. Daryl Cohen, former prosecutor, now renowned defense attorney
- 1:34Speaker 1: in the Atlanta jurisdiction, well known medical examiner for the
- 1:39Speaker 1: State of Florida, doctor Tim Gallagher joining me. Laura Petler,
- 1:44Speaker 1: crime scene analyst, and PI private investigator. Right now to
- 1:48Speaker 1: Crime online dot Com investigative reporter John Limley. Start at
- 1:51Speaker 1: the beginning. Nancy Kate Thomason had lived in the Derby
- 1:56Speaker 1: Hills subdivision since before Sandy Springs was even a city
- 2:00Speaker 1: up until two thousand and five. Two thousand and six,
- 2:03Speaker 1: the community was just an unincorporated part of Atlanta's Fulton County.
- 2:08Speaker 1: Kay's house sits up on a ridge overlooking a cul
- 2:12Speaker 1: de sac. It's at the very end of a long
- 2:16Speaker 1: wooded street named Old Woodbine Road. Derby Hills is in
- 2:21Speaker 1: an upscale, older neighborhood, one that's highly sought after, especially
- 2:25Speaker 1: by young families. It's a beautiful area, but it's also
- 2:28Speaker 1: surrounded by some really great schools. Kay lived alone, not
- 2:33Speaker 1: just in the house, but in the city. For the
- 2:35Speaker 1: most part. She did have some family members, but her
- 2:39Speaker 1: children and her ex husband lived out of town. Living alone, though,
- 2:44Speaker 1: was not something that seemed to bother Kay one bit.
- 2:47Speaker 1: For one thing, she was constantly busy with lots of
- 2:50Speaker 1: volunteer work. She worked in her garden. In fact, it
- 2:54Speaker 1: was one of those family members in town that became
- 2:58Speaker 1: concerned when they heard that Kay had not made it
- 3:02Speaker 1: to an appointment that day. This is June twenty seventh.
- 3:07Speaker 1: Kay was one of those people, one of those dependable
- 3:09Speaker 1: people that never missed an event, a meeting, an appointment,
- 3:14Speaker 1: anything that was on her calendar. Take a listen to
- 3:17Speaker 1: our friend Joe Hinky at eleven Alive. A relative came
- 3:20Speaker 1: to check on Kay Thomason yesterday evening after she missed
- 3:24Speaker 1: an appointment, and that's when she was found dead inside
- 3:27Speaker 1: of her home on the top of this hill. This afternoon,
- 3:29Speaker 1: nearly twenty four hours after the investigation began, Sandy Springs
- 3:33Speaker 1: police could be seen removing evidence from the scene of
- 3:35Speaker 1: the homicide. Seventy one year old Kay Thomason was killed
- 3:38Speaker 1: inside her home. We're looking into phone records, we're talking
- 3:40Speaker 1: to neighbors, and we're talking to family members as well.
- 3:43Speaker 1: Sergeant Samuel Warsham with the Sandy Springs Police Department said
- 3:46Speaker 1: a relative found Thomason around seven Wednesday night, and the
- 3:49Speaker 1: medical examiner is still determining how she died. Her family
- 3:52Speaker 1: told police Thomason's black twenty twelve Kia Sorrento with Georgia
- 3:56Speaker 1: take Wu one one six two was missing when they
- 4:00Speaker 1: found her. Is that the key to Kay's murder in
- 4:04Speaker 1: her own home in a very very quiet Upskill neighborhood,
- 4:11Speaker 1: nobody heard a thing articulosten to Sergeant sam Worsham, the
- 4:19Speaker 1: PIO at Sandy Springs PD. Around seven pm last night,
- 4:23Speaker 1: we were notified of a homicide here on Old Woodbine Road.
- 4:28Speaker 1: Our officers responded to the location. They were able to
- 4:32Speaker 1: locate the victim, Miss kay Thomason, and her home. At
- 4:37Speaker 1: this time, we are looking for her vehicle. It's missing
- 4:41Speaker 1: from the location. It's a two thousand and twelve Kia Sorrento.
- 4:45Speaker 1: It's black in color and has Georgia tag p WU
- 4:50Speaker 1: one one six two. If anyone has any information about
- 4:54Speaker 1: the location of this vehicle, please call Sandy Springs Police,
- 4:58Speaker 1: where you can call crimes offers as well. Right now,
- 5:02Speaker 1: we are offering a ten thousand dollars reward for the
- 5:05Speaker 1: arrest and conviction of anyone involved in this crime. If
- 5:09Speaker 1: anyone has information, please call Sandy Springs Police immediately. Who
- 5:12Speaker 1: notified the police department? A family member The victim miss
- 5:17Speaker 1: an appointment. A family member came to check and located
- 5:22Speaker 1: the victim at their home and she called novel. How
- 5:25Speaker 1: long had she been laying there? What effect will that
- 5:28Speaker 1: have on her autopsy? Straight out to Medicalsamera for the
- 5:32Speaker 1: State of Florida, Doctor Tim Gallagher. Doctor Gallagher, it's a
- 5:37Speaker 1: real honor to have you with us when ours tick by.
- 5:42Speaker 1: How does that affect the accuracy of the autopsy and
- 5:45Speaker 1: the ability to determine cod cause of death. The time
- 5:49Speaker 1: that passes by does affect some of the evidence that
- 5:52Speaker 1: you may be able to collect from the body. For instance,
- 5:54Speaker 1: DNA evidence will start to degrade, trace evidence will start
- 5:58Speaker 1: to disappear here and by start to become lost. But
- 6:04Speaker 1: actually finding the cause of death during the autopsy isn't
- 6:08Speaker 1: really affected by time as much as people would like
- 6:11Speaker 1: to think. A stab wounds will always be their bullet
- 6:14Speaker 1: wounds will always be there, and they could be bound
- 6:17Speaker 1: within the bone and within the tissue that is last
- 6:20Speaker 1: to decompose. You know, I'm thinking about this woman, Kay Thomason,
- 6:26Speaker 1: and if you could just see how perfectly she kept
- 6:31Speaker 1: her home. Now, one thing I noticed when I was
- 6:35Speaker 1: looking at the crime scene was that you go up,
- 6:40Speaker 1: as John Lumley with Crime Online was reporting, a very
- 6:45Speaker 1: gradual slope up to her home. The driveway to the
- 6:49Speaker 1: home is on the right, and between you've got the
- 6:54Speaker 1: home to the right, the driveway, then an expanse of lawn.
- 7:01Speaker 1: Then you have a not ramshackle, but an old wooden fence.
- 7:08Speaker 1: It's about uh five to six feet tall, and it's
- 7:14Speaker 1: overgrown with foliage. On the other side of that fence
- 7:21Speaker 1: woods forest. Then after you go down through the forest,
- 7:30Speaker 1: through the woods, you come out on a very very
- 7:36Speaker 1: busy street, Peachtree Dunwoodie Road. And the reason it's so
- 7:43Speaker 1: busy is that on one end you have the biggest
- 7:47Speaker 1: shopping centers and the most expensive shopping malls in the
- 7:51Speaker 1: state of Georgia, Linux and Phipps, and a lot of
- 7:55Speaker 1: high end restaurants. And then to the right you go
- 7:59Speaker 1: over hill and there are some of the most prestigious
- 8:03Speaker 1: hospitals in the state of Georgia. You've got Scottish Right
- 8:08Speaker 1: Children's Hospital, North Side Hospital, Saint Joseph's Hospital. So that
- 8:15Speaker 1: particular run of street is highly traveled. Anybody that knew
- 8:24Speaker 1: to go through those woods and get to that fence
- 8:29Speaker 1: could get straight in her home, and her home was
- 8:32Speaker 1: the first house you get to to Daryl Cohen, a
- 8:38Speaker 1: former prosecutor turned defense attorney. Darryl As a prosecutor, you
- 8:44Speaker 1: and I worked in the same office. You know every
- 8:48Speaker 1: inch of Fulton County like the back of your hand,
- 8:51Speaker 1: because when you are looking at everywhere I go. The
- 8:55Speaker 1: children now say it. They go, oh, I bet you
- 8:57Speaker 1: prosecuted a murderer in here. They go, Yes, I did
- 9:01Speaker 1: you know? It could be mansions, It could be a
- 9:03Speaker 1: crack house, It could be a regular tree lined neighborhood.
- 9:07Speaker 1: It could be an apartment complex. If you're a prosecutor,
- 9:11Speaker 1: you've been there, because you go to the crime scene,
- 9:13Speaker 1: you look at it yourself to analyze it before trial.
- 9:17Speaker 1: So I'm sure you know exactly where this is. It's
- 9:21Speaker 1: a very expensive enclave going down Peachtree Dunwoodie toward the hospitals,
- 9:29Speaker 1: just around the Windsor Parkway intersection. You know what I'm
- 9:32Speaker 1: talking about. That ain't shabby, Daryl, No, I know exactly
- 9:36Speaker 1: what you're talking about. In the typical residential neighborhood that
- 9:41Speaker 1: this sort of crime does not happen, but unfortunately it did,
- 9:47Speaker 1: and it's something very close to the hospital, as you mentioned.
- 9:51Speaker 1: We call them pill Hill because of all of the
- 9:54Speaker 1: hospitals that they're there and the very high red neighborhood
- 9:59Speaker 1: for people just don't see this sort of crime happen,
- 10:03Speaker 1: never happens, but that it did. Crime Stories with Nancy
- 10:19Speaker 1: Grace this morning, we have a brief update on the
- 10:25Speaker 1: investigation into the homicide that occurred on wid Buying Road
- 10:30Speaker 1: a little over a week ago here in Sandy Springs.
- 10:33Speaker 1: We also have some information that the family would like
- 10:36Speaker 1: to share this morning with the public. So this morning,
- 10:40Speaker 1: the Sandy Springs Police Department would like to announce that
- 10:43Speaker 1: the reward in this case is now at one hundred
- 10:46Speaker 1: thousand dollars, and we hope that that one hundred thousand
- 10:51Speaker 1: dollars reward will give us a little more interest in
- 10:54Speaker 1: the case and provide someone with some more incentive to
- 10:59Speaker 1: give more leads all this case for investigators to follow up.
- 11:02Speaker 1: Good morning. My name is Keith Sigon Simon. Still the
- 11:05Speaker 1: case remains unsolved. Let's take a listen to that nine
- 11:09Speaker 1: one one call one more time. You think carriers blood
- 11:32Speaker 1: all over the places like our presure bulking the post.
- 11:37Speaker 1: You're hearing the nine one one call and earlier Sinday
- 11:40Speaker 1: Springs Deputy Chief of Police Keith signs the reward now
- 11:46Speaker 1: raised to one hundred thousand dollars, but still no takers.
- 11:52Speaker 1: To Laura Petlar, crime scene analyst and private eye, Laura,
- 11:57Speaker 1: that's very unusual for a he wore to climb to
- 12:00Speaker 1: one hundred thousand dollars and no takers. It is Nancy.
- 12:04Speaker 1: The situation with this particular cases that the offender is
- 12:09Speaker 1: going to be a person who could possibly brag about
- 12:14Speaker 1: this type of an offense. But he also if he's
- 12:17Speaker 1: more on the anger side of the house of these
- 12:20Speaker 1: kind of murders, he won't brag about it, and therefore
- 12:24Speaker 1: he's keeping his secret and he's not telling people what
- 12:28Speaker 1: he did, and therefore, you know, it could be a
- 12:30Speaker 1: smaller pool of people who would come forward. The other
- 12:34Speaker 1: issue is is that a lot of times these type
- 12:36Speaker 1: offenders have a tremendous amount of domestic violence and assault
- 12:40Speaker 1: against women history and their past. And if that's the case,
- 12:44Speaker 1: he could be scaring other women with this horror story,
- 12:50Speaker 1: and if that's what's happening, they're not going to come
- 12:53Speaker 1: forward and to tell what they know about him. To
- 12:55Speaker 1: tell themly climb online dot com investigative reporter, tell me
- 12:58Speaker 1: about the actual murder. What happened to Kay. A lot
- 13:03Speaker 1: of what we have learned and investigators have learned, begins
- 13:08Speaker 1: with this eerie surveillance video. It was a few hours
- 13:15Speaker 1: into the recording from the hours before her body was
- 13:20Speaker 1: discovered by her family members. Investigators had sat there and
- 13:25Speaker 1: combed through the video, and they were beginning to think
- 13:27Speaker 1: they weren't going to see anything. Then with a time
- 13:30Speaker 1: stamp in the early wee hours of the morning, they
- 13:34Speaker 1: begin to see a little flutter. Over to the left
- 13:38Speaker 1: side of the driveway. There's a camera of Kay's surveillance
- 13:42Speaker 1: system pointed down that long driveway, and over to the left,
- 13:47Speaker 1: in the shadow of a tree, you can begin to
- 13:49Speaker 1: see a little bit of a flutter. And then wait, wait, wait, wait,
- 13:54Speaker 1: John Lennie Hall, do let me understand this. Where is
- 13:56Speaker 1: a surveillance camera on the home? I think I recalled
- 14:00Speaker 1: saying it is? It is actually right on the front
- 14:04Speaker 1: of the house, pointed down the driveway. So when you're
- 14:08Speaker 1: on the street looking at the house, is it on
- 14:10Speaker 1: the left or the right? It's really slightly to the right,
- 14:15Speaker 1: but really right dead center in the home. Okay, so
- 14:19Speaker 1: as it is looking now, we're let's pretend on the
- 14:25Speaker 1: front steps of the home. Okay, we're no longer looking
- 14:28Speaker 1: at the home. We're on the front steps looking out
- 14:31Speaker 1: away from the home. The man comes from where as
- 14:35Speaker 1: you're looking down that driveway, he comes from the left
- 14:39Speaker 1: side of the driveway, out of the woods, straight out
- 14:44Speaker 1: of those woods where that fence is, and I looked
- 14:49Speaker 1: for a gate in the fence, but there is a
- 14:54Speaker 1: break in the fence where any you could step through
- 14:58Speaker 1: if you wanted to. It's not but you could do it.
- 15:02Speaker 1: So that's where the purp comes from. Hmm. Interesting, Let
- 15:09Speaker 1: me moull on that. Go ahead, Tom, Sure, As I said,
- 15:13Speaker 1: you see that flutter over in the shadow of a tree,
- 15:17Speaker 1: and probably on purpose, trying to find a shadow, and
- 15:22Speaker 1: then slowly emerges and begins really for lack of a
- 15:26Speaker 1: better word, creeping up the driveway medium to a little
- 15:32Speaker 1: bit on the tall side height something holding something in
- 15:38Speaker 1: his hands. It's a what appears to be a man,
- 15:43Speaker 1: and the video catches him for just I would say,
- 15:47Speaker 1: maybe seven or eight seconds before he goes out of
- 15:50Speaker 1: the camera range. And that's the end of any video
- 15:54Speaker 1: that even shows him. Even though there is a camera
- 15:57Speaker 1: on the back of the house, it never picks him up.
- 16:01Speaker 1: Daryl Cohen, former prosecutor, current defense attorney in the Atlanta area.
- 16:05Speaker 1: Why is it that I can see a rock a rock,
- 16:09Speaker 1: a rock I can hold in my hand on the moon,
- 16:13Speaker 1: but I can't make this guy's face out much less
- 16:16Speaker 1: what he's holding in his hand. I'm so irritated. I mean, target,
- 16:22Speaker 1: for Pete's sake. Have you seen how clear their surveillance
- 16:26Speaker 1: video is. I mean it's awesome. I'll never forget watching
- 16:32Speaker 1: Top Mom Casey Anthony as she was using a forged
- 16:35Speaker 1: check to buy Beard a push up bras for Pete's
- 16:38Speaker 1: sake while her daughter was missing. I mean, I can
- 16:40Speaker 1: make out every tooth in her mouth, every bleached white
- 16:44Speaker 1: tooth she's got. So I don't get it, Daryl. Not
- 16:49Speaker 1: only is this surveillance let me just say crap, but
- 16:53Speaker 1: at least I've got something. I got something. I got
- 16:56Speaker 1: A man coming from those woods up into her home.
- 17:01Speaker 1: Can't make out his face, can't make out what he's carrying.
- 17:04Speaker 1: Why is that? Darryl? Well, it seems to me that
- 17:07Speaker 1: these surveillance cameras that he had were of low quality.
- 17:13Speaker 1: They were not commercial quality. They will probably sold to
- 17:16Speaker 1: her some time ago by a company that said you
- 17:21Speaker 1: will now have surveillance cameras. Well. That's great that she
- 17:24Speaker 1: has a surveillance camera, but it has to show detail,
- 17:28Speaker 1: it has to show more than what it showed it.
- 17:31Speaker 1: This is typical of sometimes we pay for something and
- 17:36Speaker 1: we get less. All right, fine, blame the victim back
- 17:40Speaker 1: to you, John Limley. You know, I like what you
- 17:43Speaker 1: told me because you teld me about the surveillance video
- 17:46Speaker 1: and the image and the man where he came from.
- 17:48Speaker 1: That's all relevant, but objection unresponsive to the question I
- 17:54Speaker 1: ask you about the murder. How was she killed? Was
- 17:57Speaker 1: she strangled? Was she hit with the firepok? Was she raped?
- 18:01Speaker 1: Was anything stolen? Helped me out, lemly sure? She was
- 18:04Speaker 1: actually stabbed in the back of the neck. She had
- 18:08Speaker 1: been tied up. She had been beaten and whoa, whoa,
- 18:12Speaker 1: wait a minute, I didn't know she was tied up. Yes,
- 18:15Speaker 1: oh oh, so she struggled and he had to subdue her.
- 18:19Speaker 1: She's tied up, you said, stabbed in the back of neck?
- 18:22Speaker 1: What else? She had been beaten and had been left
- 18:26Speaker 1: in a tub filled with water. It was a horrific scene.
- 18:30Speaker 1: Was she clothed? She was clothed in a tub full
- 18:35Speaker 1: of water, beaten, stabbed in the back of the neck
- 18:40Speaker 1: and left in a tub of water. Okay, I had
- 18:44Speaker 1: to think that through. I have dedicated my life to
- 18:54Speaker 1: crime victims, to giving a voice to those who can
- 18:58Speaker 1: no longer speak for themselves elves, and that is why
- 19:01Speaker 1: I work with Oxygen to create a nie show. Injustice
- 19:05Speaker 1: with Nancy Grace, we investigate cases that I believe never
- 19:11Speaker 1: got it right, from wrongly accused to botched investigations, to
- 19:16Speaker 1: unclear motives to unjust sentences. I don't just cover cases,
- 19:23Speaker 1: I solve them. I put my heart and soul in it.
- 19:27Speaker 1: Dig deep, look at the background, at the crime scene,
- 19:31Speaker 1: at the families, at the witnesses. I look at every
- 19:34Speaker 1: tiny detail because what matters to me is justice. Join
- 19:40Speaker 1: us in our search for the truth. Injustice with Nancy
- 19:43Speaker 1: Grace watch now on demand and every Saturday at six
- 19:47Speaker 1: five Central only on Oxygen, the True Network for crime,
- 19:56Speaker 1: Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Kay Thomason brutally murdered in
- 20:05Speaker 1: her own home. Months have passed and the case remains unsolved.
- 20:12Speaker 1: What happened to Kate Thomason? Doctor Tim Gallagher is with me,
- 20:17Speaker 1: Thank goodness, the medical examiner for the State of Florida.
- 20:21Speaker 1: I mean, he's got so many accolades behind his name
- 20:25Speaker 1: would run out of time. Sorry, Gallagher, but I got
- 20:28Speaker 1: to talk about Kay Thomason right now, and not all
- 20:31Speaker 1: of your many many accomplishments up, doctor Gallagher. Wow, he
- 20:37Speaker 1: killed her tried to kill her three times, over killed
- 20:40Speaker 1: her twice, over stabbed her in the back of the neck,
- 20:45Speaker 1: beat her, and apparently I was trying to drown her
- 20:48Speaker 1: at the same time. Okay, what I don't even know
- 20:52Speaker 1: where to start, doctor Gallagher. Oh, how the medical examiners?
- 20:56Speaker 1: Had you seen me pull up in my beat up Ponda?
- 20:58Speaker 1: Because I would have to go through every single line
- 21:02Speaker 1: of the autopsy report. Mostly that's your fault because you
- 21:05Speaker 1: speak in medical ease that nobody understands except another doctor
- 21:09Speaker 1: or maybe a scientist. But talk to me in regular people,
- 21:14Speaker 1: talk about what you're learning. What does this mean to
- 21:19Speaker 1: you in your medical examiner's mind. Well, there's a couple
- 21:23Speaker 1: of things that come out to mind. A number one,
- 21:26Speaker 1: you're right, I mean he did try to kill in
- 21:28Speaker 1: several different types of ways, which kind of tells me
- 21:31Speaker 1: he may have been a disorganized a disorganized mindset, meaning
- 21:37Speaker 1: this crime may have been just a crime of opportunity.
- 21:39Speaker 1: Oh wait a minute, Wait a minute, wait a minute,
- 21:41Speaker 1: you're throwing a detective term. Mummy. There are and I
- 21:45Speaker 1: learned this from serial killers. There's organized killers and there's
- 21:49Speaker 1: disorganized killers. We're not just saying they're messy Okay, that
- 21:54Speaker 1: is actually a term applied to killers. When you say
- 21:58Speaker 1: he was a disorganized killer, that is very significant, explained
- 22:03Speaker 1: doctor Gallagher. You're right, there are two types of There
- 22:06Speaker 1: are several types of killers. One as an organized killer.
- 22:09Speaker 1: He's the type of person who plans every facet of
- 22:13Speaker 1: the crime right up until the crime is committed. They
- 22:18Speaker 1: often make long list of things that they need to
- 22:21Speaker 1: do before the crime, and create a shopping list of
- 22:25Speaker 1: things to buy before the crime, and even after the
- 22:28Speaker 1: crime how to dispose of the body. So their mind
- 22:32Speaker 1: goes from step one to step two to step three
- 22:34Speaker 1: in a very organized fashion. A disorganized a type killer
- 22:39Speaker 1: does not have that faculty about them, does not have
- 22:42Speaker 1: that mindset, and we'll kind of do things ad hoc
- 22:46Speaker 1: or as needed during the commission of the crime. Wow.
- 22:50Speaker 1: I like the way you said that, Gallagher. So you're
- 22:52Speaker 1: not just skin and bones. You are very well versed
- 22:59Speaker 1: in the art of crime. In criminology, a disorganized offender
- 23:04Speaker 1: is actually a classification. The distinction between organized and disorganized
- 23:09Speaker 1: was first drawn by a renowned American criminologist, Roy Hazelwood.
- 23:14Speaker 1: The disorganized offender has been stereotyped as low average or
- 23:21Speaker 1: below at low average intelligence. Now I disagree with Hazelwood
- 23:26Speaker 1: on that because I think anyone, even of high intellect,
- 23:32Speaker 1: can kill without a real, organized, anal obsessive plan. Laura Petler,
- 23:40Speaker 1: you're the crime scene analyst, weigh in on that. Oh,
- 23:42Speaker 1: you're right, Nancy. From the standpoint of forensic criminology, there
- 23:46Speaker 1: are dichotomies, There are different types of killers. But however,
- 23:50Speaker 1: as a forendic criminologist, what we like to stay away
- 23:53Speaker 1: from is really categorizing a crime scene as one or
- 23:57Speaker 1: the other, because most of the time we see a
- 23:59Speaker 1: mixed level of organization, as we do here. This appears
- 24:04Speaker 1: to be very targeted. It appears to be very purposeful
- 24:07Speaker 1: and planned. It's possible that the weapon was brought to
- 24:10Speaker 1: the scene by the offender and potentially carried away by
- 24:13Speaker 1: the offender. In that I mean it looked to me
- 24:15Speaker 1: like a sack that he was carrying, and the doorknob
- 24:19Speaker 1: is missing from the crime scene. The body's also in water.
- 24:24Speaker 1: He used the pummeling, which we often see in power
- 24:26Speaker 1: based offenders to subdue the victim. And you know, the
- 24:30Speaker 1: stab wound is the cause of death. And so for me,
- 24:35Speaker 1: as a friensic criminologist. It's more about what was the
- 24:39Speaker 1: purpose of this crime. The purpose of the crime was
- 24:41Speaker 1: potentially sexual assault and robbery, and in order for him
- 24:46Speaker 1: to do that, he planned to at least go over there,
- 24:50Speaker 1: like you said, and I think you're exactly right. You know,
- 24:52Speaker 1: going through those woods was the perfect opportunity for cover.
- 24:56Speaker 1: And then once he gets in there, he had to
- 25:00Speaker 1: subdue her somehow. They reported that the crime scene was
- 25:03Speaker 1: very violent, that she struggled, she fought back, she fought
- 25:07Speaker 1: for her life, and that she was possibly sexually assaulted.
- 25:11Speaker 1: But the scene is the reflection of his personality, and
- 25:14Speaker 1: his personality is showing us that he's angry. He wants
- 25:17Speaker 1: to be in control, he wants power over the victim.
- 25:20Speaker 1: And then he knows something about CSI, you know, the
- 25:23Speaker 1: greatest CSI effect and how this all plays a role
- 25:26Speaker 1: in court, and he puts her in the bathtub to
- 25:29Speaker 1: try to destroy any evidence. No, I was just coming
- 25:32Speaker 1: to you on that, doctor Tim Gallagher. Doctor Gallagher, I
- 25:35Speaker 1: was suspicious. Did he put her in the tub to
- 25:37Speaker 1: try to drown her, make sure she was dead? Did
- 25:40Speaker 1: he put her in the tub to try to get
- 25:42Speaker 1: rid of trace evidence? There is evidence that she may
- 25:48Speaker 1: have been sexually assaulted. What I don't get either she
- 25:50Speaker 1: was or she wasn't, Doctor Gallagher. I mean, how hard
- 25:53Speaker 1: does it figure out if there is sperm on the
- 25:57Speaker 1: body or in the body, or in her mouth or
- 26:00Speaker 1: in her hair on her face, was she partially closed,
- 26:05Speaker 1: has her clothes been in disarray or ripped or torn?
- 26:09Speaker 1: I mean, how can you say may have been sex assaulted? Well,
- 26:13Speaker 1: that's always the question. If there was a semen or
- 26:17Speaker 1: sperm or biological material on the body after the body
- 26:20Speaker 1: was placed in the water, then that may have been
- 26:23Speaker 1: degraded or even totally lost. If there is that type
- 26:28Speaker 1: of material within the body. Using a sexual assault kit,
- 26:34Speaker 1: samples are taken from the mouth, samples are taken from
- 26:39Speaker 1: the female areas and even the rectum. Those would be
- 26:43Speaker 1: preserved in water actually, and then those would good result,
- 26:47Speaker 1: Doctor Gallagher. We're not afraid to say vagina. It's not
- 26:51Speaker 1: a dirty word, you know, Spit it out there so
- 26:56Speaker 1: you can look in the rectum area, the vagina, the
- 27:01Speaker 1: vaginal area. Well, really, when you're looking at a sex attack,
- 27:04Speaker 1: doctor Gallagher, especially of this nature of a disorganized killer,
- 27:09Speaker 1: you could find sperm anywhere on the body. On the stomach,
- 27:14Speaker 1: on the back, on the face, on the mouth, it's
- 27:17Speaker 1: just anywhere. I'm also very interested in her clothing, Doctor Gallagher.
- 27:23Speaker 1: Now explain to me, doctor Gallagher, when the body gets
- 27:27Speaker 1: to the Medical Examiner's office of the Mork, how do
- 27:32Speaker 1: you process those clothes? Now, I know these clothes are
- 27:34Speaker 1: soaking wet, But tell me what do you do if
- 27:37Speaker 1: you're looking for sperm or DNA of any type and
- 27:41Speaker 1: you want to look at those clothes? How do you
- 27:42Speaker 1: do it if the clothes are wet? Or do they
- 27:45Speaker 1: do it? They just say, oh, well, it's a lost cause.
- 27:47Speaker 1: I know the clothing is a very important part of
- 27:51Speaker 1: the process, and there are many techniques that we use.
- 27:54Speaker 1: The first technique we would use would be to simply
- 27:57Speaker 1: dry the clothing and then any DNA material would be
- 28:01Speaker 1: then embedded into whoa, whoa, wait wait a minute, wait
- 28:04Speaker 1: a minute, what do you just throw it in the dryer?
- 28:07Speaker 1: How do you dry it's there's got to be a
- 28:08Speaker 1: special way. There is There is There is a special
- 28:12Speaker 1: drying room where the humidity is kept very low. There
- 28:14Speaker 1: is no wind or breeze associated with that, and then
- 28:19Speaker 1: the clothes are dried in a very humid free environment.
- 28:23Speaker 1: But you don't. You don't actually blow them with like
- 28:26Speaker 1: any kind of a vent or a dryer, do you,
- 28:29Speaker 1: because wouldn't that get rid of DNA potentially like hair
- 28:33Speaker 1: five hair or fibers, clothing fibers. Right. Yeah, there is
- 28:36Speaker 1: no breeze. It's a closed room and just the humidity
- 28:38Speaker 1: is kept very low. There's no air circulation or very
- 28:41Speaker 1: little air sir. Yeah, I was just trying to imagine
- 28:43Speaker 1: that when you said we dry them, I'm like, throw
- 28:44Speaker 1: it in a dryer. I guess you couldn't do that
- 28:47Speaker 1: because that could somehow damage evidence as well. So you
- 28:52Speaker 1: just let it dry and then what do you do?
- 28:54Speaker 1: Just just to reiterate, every aspect of the clothing process
- 28:57Speaker 1: is with the intent that the evidence be preserved. So
- 29:01Speaker 1: there's not going to be any violent or ungentle handling
- 29:10Speaker 1: of the clothing crime stories. With Nancy Grace. What happened
- 29:26Speaker 1: to Kate Thomason, the question still lingers. I got a
- 29:31Speaker 1: question for Laura Petler crime saying, Aliston private investigator, you're
- 29:35Speaker 1: an m fact expert. What can you tell me about
- 29:38Speaker 1: how that could be used? So I was thinking about
- 29:40Speaker 1: that as doctor Gallants a Beer was talking about the clothing.
- 29:43Speaker 1: So once the clothing is dried, the other thing that's
- 29:46Speaker 1: very common in the drawing process is to is to
- 29:49Speaker 1: like put the clothing over white sheets or trays like
- 29:53Speaker 1: so if you're laying them flat or you're hanging them up,
- 29:55Speaker 1: any of the trace evidence would fall onto those sheets.
- 29:59Speaker 1: Then once that process is done and any of that
- 30:01Speaker 1: traces collected, the MVAC is a wet vacuum. It's very
- 30:05Speaker 1: similar to a rug doctor with an upholstery attachment. And
- 30:08Speaker 1: I know that sounds strange, but really that's it's a
- 30:11Speaker 1: great way of understanding what it is. So it looks
- 30:13Speaker 1: like a shower head and you take the dry clothing
- 30:17Speaker 1: and you turn on the MVAC and it shoots water
- 30:22Speaker 1: just like a shower head down through the handle of
- 30:25Speaker 1: the MVAC. And then as you're pulling the handle across
- 30:29Speaker 1: the clothing, it also has a suction like a vacuum cleaner,
- 30:32Speaker 1: and so it's literally almost like a steam cleaner process
- 30:35Speaker 1: where it's pulling all that debris that could be touch DNA,
- 30:40Speaker 1: nuclear DNA, various types of biological material all out of
- 30:45Speaker 1: the clothing. And what's wonderful about it, Nancy, is instead
- 30:49Speaker 1: of just picking an area to swab for touch DNA,
- 30:52Speaker 1: say like on the shoulders if someone grabs somebody by
- 30:55Speaker 1: the shoulders or on the wrist. The MBAC is wonderful
- 30:58Speaker 1: because we can actually and back the entire garment and
- 31:02Speaker 1: collect all the material on the entire item of clothing.
- 31:06Speaker 1: We don't have to pick which would be most likely
- 31:09Speaker 1: where the offender grabbed the victim. Okay, hold on, wake up,
- 31:13Speaker 1: Darryl Cohen, Daryl Cohen, Way. I remember when I first
- 31:17Speaker 1: saw you in the courthouse. I found out, first of
- 31:20Speaker 1: all that your nickname was cool Breeze. I tried not
- 31:24Speaker 1: to judge you because of that. Then I heard the
- 31:27Speaker 1: rumor that you left the DA's office because I elected DA.
- 31:31Speaker 1: He was like your grandfather to me. Lewis Slayton told
- 31:34Speaker 1: you could either be a prosecutor full time or you
- 31:36Speaker 1: could be a male model, and you went with male model.
- 31:39Speaker 1: Now I don't know if that's true or not, but
- 31:40Speaker 1: wake up. Our tutorial on forensics is over. I'm going
- 31:44Speaker 1: to get back down to the nitty gritty, and then
- 31:46Speaker 1: I want you to weigh in. I don't know how
- 31:47Speaker 1: you could represent somebody like this, Daryl Cohen, but somehow
- 31:50Speaker 1: you managed to cast the check. John Limley, question to you,
- 31:54Speaker 1: what did we learn from the body? The body, in
- 31:58Speaker 1: addition to what we've already mentioned, that she had been
- 32:01Speaker 1: beaten and tied up and stabbed in the back of
- 32:03Speaker 1: the neck. Investigators, and why does that just like trip
- 32:07Speaker 1: off your tongue like you're a nursing rum. Hickory Dickory
- 32:10Speaker 1: dock the master runs. I mean the way you say it,
- 32:13Speaker 1: she's tied up, she stabbed in the neck. I mean,
- 32:16Speaker 1: do you hear what you're saying, Lily? It does something.
- 32:19Speaker 1: Can you imagine being alone in a home and finding
- 32:23Speaker 1: out this freak is in there. I'm wondering if he
- 32:25Speaker 1: brought the knife or if he used a knife from
- 32:29Speaker 1: her kitchen. Sob I hate him and I don't even
- 32:32Speaker 1: know who he is. Go ahead. One of the things
- 32:34Speaker 1: that investigators noticed that night when they first saw the
- 32:38Speaker 1: body and then when the autopsy was taking place, is
- 32:42Speaker 1: that Kay had some defensive wounds on her. She had
- 32:46Speaker 1: put up a fight. She hadn't just taken this sitting
- 32:49Speaker 1: down or lying down. She was ready to fight back. Okay, So,
- 32:54Speaker 1: Daryl Cohen, if you go to the saint, let's pretend no, no, no,
- 33:00Speaker 1: I'll go as a defense lawyer. I was gonna say,
- 33:01Speaker 1: pretend you were still in the DA's office. But if
- 33:04Speaker 1: you go to the scene as a defense lawyer, what
- 33:05Speaker 1: are you looking for. The thing i'm looking for is everything.
- 33:10Speaker 1: I'm looking to see if there's a knife taken, as
- 33:12Speaker 1: you mentioned, from the kitchen. Normally people will have knives
- 33:16Speaker 1: all together. I'm looking to see if there's any other
- 33:20Speaker 1: evidence that this pert may have made. And by the way,
- 33:23Speaker 1: let me point out, I think you guys are giving
- 33:25Speaker 1: this guy a lot more intelligence credit than he deserves.
- 33:30Speaker 1: I don't see this as an intelligent guy. I don't
- 33:33Speaker 1: know if this was a targeted murder and robbery or
- 33:36Speaker 1: if it was random. But obviously her house was the
- 33:40Speaker 1: easiest house to get to. But I don't see him
- 33:43Speaker 1: as a bright guy. He is obviously disorganized. I don't either.
- 33:47Speaker 1: Didn't you hear me say I think he was a
- 33:49Speaker 1: disorganized killer. I don't think he's that bright. I think
- 33:52Speaker 1: he picked the first house he got taken. I don't
- 33:54Speaker 1: see him as intelligence. He may be disorganized, and they're
- 33:58Speaker 1: intelligent people are disorganized. I think that he was enraged.
- 34:03Speaker 1: Maybe he was looking for a lot more money. Or
- 34:05Speaker 1: jewelry than she may have had, and that's why he
- 34:09Speaker 1: tied her up, That's why he stabbed her in the back.
- 34:11Speaker 1: I don't think he put her in the tub to
- 34:13Speaker 1: get rid of trace evidence or to get rid of
- 34:15Speaker 1: any evidence. I think that was just another way of
- 34:17Speaker 1: showing his rage. So I go to the house. I'm
- 34:20Speaker 1: looking for everything. I'm looking for how he would have entered.
- 34:24Speaker 1: I'm looking for any possibility that there may have been
- 34:28Speaker 1: something there that he was looking for, that he might
- 34:31Speaker 1: have She had a yard man, maybe she had a
- 34:36Speaker 1: cleaning service that he may have been told by them.
- 34:39Speaker 1: She's keeping this type of wonderful jewelry available. I'm looking
- 34:44Speaker 1: for every possibility, and then I throw it out, I
- 34:48Speaker 1: throw it in the mix, and then I say, no,
- 34:50Speaker 1: this is not what's happened. This should be a treasure
- 34:52Speaker 1: trove of information, Daryl Cohen, because not far away at
- 34:57Speaker 1: all is her Kia Sorrento. Hello, were there not any
- 35:03Speaker 1: prints on that? I mean, that should be a massive
- 35:08Speaker 1: treasure of evidence. John lom me tell me about the car.
- 35:12Speaker 1: Where was it found? I assume that was her car?
- 35:15Speaker 1: What can you tell me? Tell me everything? Well denied
- 35:18Speaker 1: that the family member discovered Kay's body there. The first
- 35:21Speaker 1: thing they noticed when they drove up to Kay's house
- 35:25Speaker 1: was that her suv was gone, a black twenty twelve
- 35:29Speaker 1: Kia Sorrento had a Georgia tag a trailer hitch And
- 35:33Speaker 1: now the date of Kay's murder was Wednesday, June twenty seventh,
- 35:38Speaker 1: and it was three days later, on a Saturday, June thirtieth,
- 35:43Speaker 1: that police did find that suv and it was just
- 35:46Speaker 1: four or five miles away in the city of Shamblely, Georgia,
- 35:50Speaker 1: in the parking lot of an apartment complex. They don't
- 35:54Speaker 1: have surveillance. The apartment complex doesn't have surveillance in this
- 35:58Speaker 1: day and age. I find that very hard to leave.
- 36:01Speaker 1: That would be hard to believe. But if it does,
- 36:04Speaker 1: police have not released that to the public. End to
- 36:07Speaker 1: the press, Kay did own some rental properties around Metro Atlanta. However,
- 36:14Speaker 1: this was not one of them. This appeared just to
- 36:17Speaker 1: be a convenient dump site for the murderer to lead
- 36:20Speaker 1: the vehicle with what appears to be no other significance whatsoever.
- 36:25Speaker 1: Wait a minute, A lady living on her own had
- 36:28Speaker 1: rental property all over Atlanta. That means if she was
- 36:33Speaker 1: personally involved and let's just say rent collection or people
- 36:38Speaker 1: coming by her home to leave rent. I don't know
- 36:40Speaker 1: if that is accurate or not, but that's a whole
- 36:43Speaker 1: another can of worms regarding who killed Kay Thomason with
- 36:51Speaker 1: one hundred thousand dollar reward on the table, video surveillance,
- 36:56Speaker 1: Akia Sorrento that should be covered in prints, potential DNA.
- 37:01Speaker 1: Why hasn't this case been solved? Tipline four zero four
- 37:07Speaker 1: five seven seven tips repeat four zero four five seven
- 37:12Speaker 1: seven eight four seven seven Who murdered k thomasin We
- 37:19Speaker 1: wait as justice unfolds? Nancy Grace crime story signing off
- 37:23Speaker 1: goodbye friend,