Latest / History Dark / The Brutal Murder of a Single Mother in a Small Town _ The Tragic Case of Solange Haikkala

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The Brutal Murder of a Single Mother in a Small Town _ The Tragic Case of Solange Haikkala · History Dark

• 0:02
  Speaker 1: We heard from neighbors that there was always a lot
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: of yelling. She would often appear with bruises and discoloration.
• 0:11
  Speaker 2: He possibly had a shotgun. I didn't know who it was.
• 0:16
  Speaker 2: And we started a verbal command, show us your hands,
• 0:19
  Speaker 2: show us your hands.
• 0:21
  Speaker 3: It's like she almost seeked out those dangerous situations.
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: I knew he was hiding something. I just didn't know what.
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: The brain was absent.
• 0:33
  Speaker 4: Their face was gone. There was no ability to look
• 0:36
  Speaker 4: at this person and to determine who they were.
• 0:38
  Speaker 5: I mean, how do you even start to figure that out?
• 0:44
  Speaker 4: In this case, no science, no case.
• 0:49
  Speaker 6: Every murder is a mystery. But a victim's body is
• 0:56
  Speaker 6: a sea of evidence. Every fiber is a clue. Every
• 1:02
  Speaker 6: wound a piece of the puzzle. The medical examiner holds
• 1:07
  Speaker 6: the key to unlock their stories and catch a killer.
• 1:13
  Speaker 6: This is Secrets of the Morgue.
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: Jamestown is a very small mountain community. It's about 15
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: miles northwest of the city of Boulder.
• 1:33
  Speaker 5: It's kind of an eclectic mix of people. The free
• 1:37
  Speaker 5: spirit kind of folks. But we don't really get a
• 1:41
  Speaker 5: lot of crime.
• 1:43
  Speaker 6: The peaceful veneer of this mountain town is stripped one
• 1:48
  Speaker 6: Saturday morning when a resident makes a desperate call.
• 1:52
  Speaker 7: 911, what's the emergency?
• 1:56
  Speaker 8: Okay. Me and her daughter just walked over here. She's
• 2:03
  Speaker 8: on the couch, and she's got blood all over her
• 2:06
  Speaker 8: face and everything, and I can't get her to wake up,
• 2:10
  Speaker 8: and I can't still hold her. And she's cold, real cold.
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: A neighbor, Richard Astron, called in, unresponsive female, and she
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: was on the couch. He described her as being cold
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: at the touch, no pulse, and he described a strong
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: odor or smell about her.
• 2:36
  Speaker 5: How old is her daughter?
• 2:38
  Speaker 8: Her daughter is 12.
• 2:40
  Speaker 4: And she's the one that's there with you?
• 2:42
  Speaker 8: Yes, she is. I am her daughter.
• 2:47
  Speaker 6: What's your name?
• 2:48
  Speaker 3: My name is Laura. OK, Laura, I'm going to stay
• 2:51
  Speaker 3: right with you until they get there, OK?
• 2:53
  Speaker 5: OK. The 911 call taker tried to get him to
• 2:59
  Speaker 5: do CPR, and he said, no, she's dead.
• 3:05
  Speaker 6: Detectives Steve Ainsworth and Mark Spurgeon arrive at the scene.
• 3:13
  Speaker 2: I've been with the Sheriff's Office for 18 years and
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: the last eight years in major crimes. There's a lot
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: of patience that goes into it, but there's also a
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: lot of adrenaline that comes with it.
• 3:30
  Speaker 5: For me, the most satisfying part is helping somebody through
• 3:34
  Speaker 5: an absolute horrible part of their life.
• 3:38
  Speaker 6: The detectives join EMS in a garage that has been
• 3:41
  Speaker 6: converted to an artist's studio.
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: It's a small room. I would say probably 15 by
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: 20 feet.
• 3:53
  Speaker 5: There's beer bottles all over, which really isn't unusual. But
• 3:58
  Speaker 5: the thing that I really remember is it looks like
• 3:59
  Speaker 5: it's completely ransacked. There's been some kind of a fight.
• 4:04
  Speaker 5: I mean, it looks like a very potentially violent crime scene.
• 4:09
  Speaker 5: You open the doors, and she's lying on her back
• 4:12
  Speaker 5: on the floor. And she's covered partly up with a blanket,
• 4:16
  Speaker 5: like below the waist a little bit. She's got a
• 4:21
  Speaker 5: smear of blood on her upper left lip. And you
• 4:24
  Speaker 5: can see where her hair is dragged through it, because
• 4:26
  Speaker 5: there's little trails through it onto her cheek. So we
• 4:31
  Speaker 5: don't know if she's been assaulted or got into a
• 4:33
  Speaker 5: fight earlier. We just don't know where that came from.
• 4:38
  Speaker 5: I look at the body, and I look at the scene,
• 4:40
  Speaker 5: and having seen so many of them now, I think, okay,
• 4:44
  Speaker 5: what makes me think this is not a homicide?
• 4:50
  Speaker 6: Richard Mastron, the neighbor who called 911, says the victim
• 4:55
  Speaker 6: is 30-year-old Solange Heikela.
• 5:01
  Speaker 2: This was a very sad case.
• 5:04
  Speaker 4: Solange.
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: Heikela was a mother of a 12-year-old daughter. She died
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: in this horrible way. And of course, as investigators, we
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: want to give her justice. We want to find out
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: who's responsible for her death, and we want to hold
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: that person accountable.
• 5:23
  Speaker 6: While detectives continue their investigation of the studio, they are
• 5:27
  Speaker 6: joined by the local coroner, Emma Hall.
• 5:30
  Speaker 7: The reason I wanted to become coroner is when I
• 5:33
  Speaker 7: was four years old, there was a woman who was
• 5:35
  Speaker 7: murdered at the canyon a few miles from the ranch
• 5:38
  Speaker 7: that I grew up on. That was really the first
• 5:41
  Speaker 7: case that got me interested as a child, and I
• 5:44
  Speaker 7: ended up becoming the coroner. That's the part that I
• 5:49
  Speaker 7: really love about this field is it's very interesting work,
• 5:53
  Speaker 7: and there's a lot of science. It's really about being
• 5:58
  Speaker 7: there to make sure that justice can be served.
• 6:02
  Speaker 5: Coroners and law enforcement officers, when we go to a scene,
• 6:05
  Speaker 5: we do separate but parallel investigations. So their focus is
• 6:10
  Speaker 5: cause and manner of death and issuing the death certificate.
• 6:13
  Speaker 5: Our focus is, is this a crime?
• 6:17
  Speaker 7: I remember she was laying on the floor, kind of
• 6:20
  Speaker 7: wrapped in a blanket. So we are removing the blanket
• 6:26
  Speaker 7: a little bit to where we can get a better
• 6:27
  Speaker 7: look at her. And at that point, we realized that
• 6:31
  Speaker 7: she's only wearing a tank top, but she didn't have
• 6:33
  Speaker 7: anything on from the waist down.
• 6:38
  Speaker 2: Her daughter, Elora, tells us that she thought it was
• 6:41
  Speaker 2: odd that her mother was found naked from the waist down.
• 6:44
  Speaker 2: She said her mother normally always slept clothed.
• 6:49
  Speaker 7: The fact that she doesn't have anything on from the
• 6:51
  Speaker 7: waist down is a red flag for sure.
• 6:56
  Speaker 5: She had bruises all over her body. and on all
• 6:59
  Speaker 5: what we call contact surfaces. So the shins, the legs,
• 7:02
  Speaker 5: the forearms, the arms. At this point, I'm thinking this
• 7:08
  Speaker 5: is a sex assault.
• 7:12
  Speaker 6: The night before, Solange asked her neighbor Richard to babysit
• 7:17
  Speaker 6: her daughter, Elora.
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: She was known to spend a lot of time partying
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: with other residents of Jamestown.
• 7:30
  Speaker 5: The night before, she had gone to the mercantile, which
• 7:35
  Speaker 5: is pretty common for most of the people in town.
• 7:40
  Speaker 3: I know that there was times when Solange wanted to
• 7:43
  Speaker 3: go out, she would drop Elora off at Rich's house,
• 7:48
  Speaker 3: and Rich would take care of her, would feed her dinner,
• 7:51
  Speaker 3: make sure she was bathed and put her to bed.
• 7:57
  Speaker 2: Richard tells us about 2.30 or 3 o'clock in the morning,
• 8:00
  Speaker 2: he hears Solange come home and speak with Elora.
• 8:07
  Speaker 5: And then she goes across the street into the studio,
• 8:11
  Speaker 5: and Elora watches her go into the studio, turns the
• 8:13
  Speaker 5: light on, and lays down on the couch, which you
• 8:17
  Speaker 5: can see from Richie's house.
• 8:20
  Speaker 2: So far, that's our last sighting. We know she's alive
• 8:24
  Speaker 2: at that time. and that after that, we don't know
• 8:27
  Speaker 2: what happens to her.
• 8:31
  Speaker 3: To find out that she had been murdered, that somebody
• 8:35
  Speaker 3: had caused this death, and, you know, it wasn't just
• 8:41
  Speaker 3: the murder.
• 8:42
  Speaker 5: She was raped.
• 8:45
  Speaker 3: All I could think of was it just felt so
• 8:50
  Speaker 3: unreal that she was gone.
• 8:54
  Speaker 2: She's gone. My best friend is gone.
• 8:57
  Speaker 3: And I didn't get to say goodbye.
• 9:00
  Speaker 6: One step that will help detectives find the killer is
• 9:07
  Speaker 6: determining the exact time of death.
• 9:11
  Speaker 7: The longer the person has been deceased and the blood
• 9:14
  Speaker 7: is not circulating through the body, it becomes fixed. And
• 9:18
  Speaker 7: what that means is when you press on it, it
• 9:21
  Speaker 7: stays red. Another observation we're looking for in the body
• 9:26
  Speaker 7: is called rigor. So we'll be looking to see, can
• 9:29
  Speaker 7: we move the fingers and the hands? Can we move
• 9:31
  Speaker 7: the jaw? And then the other thing that we check
• 9:33
  Speaker 7: is the core temperature of the body. With Solange, we
• 9:37
  Speaker 7: felt that she had been there anywhere from three to
• 9:40
  Speaker 7: six hours.
• 9:44
  Speaker 6: With a window for the murder established, investigators move on
• 9:48
  Speaker 6: to determining how Solange died.
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: Although there were bruises on the body, there was no
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: obvious sign where you can say, this is how she
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: died without an autopsy. So we needed the pathologist to
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: answer that basic question, how did this woman die?
• 10:06
  Speaker 6: To get the answers they need, detectives turn to forensic
• 10:09
  Speaker 6: pathologist Dr. Michael Arnall. He's performed over 4,000 autopsies, and
• 10:16
  Speaker 6: offered testimony in more than 400 homicide trials.
• 10:21
  Speaker 4: It's my job as a forensic pathologist to defeat the assailant,
• 10:25
  Speaker 4: to decipher what they've done despite their best efforts to
• 10:29
  Speaker 4: fool you.
• 10:32
  Speaker 2: I don't like bullies.
• 10:35
  Speaker 4: And an assailant is in no uncertain terms a bully.
• 10:39
  Speaker 6: To assess how Solange died, Dr. Arnall and Coroner Hall
• 10:43
  Speaker 6: begin with a detailed inventory of her body.
• 10:47
  Speaker 7: Part of the external examination includes the sex crimes kit.
• 10:50
  Speaker 7: You need to take your swabs first or you may
• 10:52
  Speaker 7: lose all that. It's called transient evidence.
• 10:56
  Speaker 4: We do innumerable swabs looking for DNA so that the
• 11:02
  Speaker 4: detectives can identify who they have to talk to. We
• 11:07
  Speaker 4: do pubic hair combings to see if someone would have
• 11:09
  Speaker 4: left their pubic hair on this person.
• 11:13
  Speaker 6: They also take samples of the multiple bruises found all
• 11:16
  Speaker 6: over Solange's body.
• 11:18
  Speaker 4: I swabbed those bruises for DNA, the thought being, if
• 11:23
  Speaker 4: we identify your DNA on a breast bruise on a
• 11:27
  Speaker 4: dead woman, you have some splainin' to do. We look
• 11:32
  Speaker 4: at the wrists, because individuals try to protect themselves, and
• 11:35
  Speaker 4: assailants will attempt to control an individual by grabbing the wrists.
• 11:38
  Speaker 4: So there are bruises on the wrists, What we saw
• 11:42
  Speaker 4: were punctate, small, round contusions.
• 11:45
  Speaker 2: And in particular, on the.
• 11:46
  Speaker 4: Inner thigh and on the arm, there are linear arrays
• 11:50
  Speaker 4: of four punctate contusions. Well, that sure looks like the
• 11:56
  Speaker 4: fingertips of a hand. And on the inside of the thigh,
• 12:00
  Speaker 4: there's no way a young woman's going to get an
• 12:02
  Speaker 4: injury like that on the inside of a thigh unless
• 12:05
  Speaker 4: someone was trying to pry her legs apart. There are
• 12:08
  Speaker 4: a series of small, round, punctate bruises on the breasts.
• 12:12
  Speaker 4: Certainly a suggestive of someone using their fingers to press
• 12:15
  Speaker 4: or grab hard enough to break blood vessels. That's extraordinarily
• 12:20
  Speaker 4: unusual for a young woman. Next, the bruises on the
• 12:24
  Speaker 4: neck show up.
• 12:26
  Speaker 2: The bruises on Solange's neck are very important. We need
• 12:32
  Speaker 2: to have some type of an idea from the pathologist
• 12:34
  Speaker 2: at the time those bruises occurred. When you get a bruise,
• 12:38
  Speaker 2: it starts out red.
• 12:40
  Speaker 4: Over time, it changes to green, then the bruise becomes yellow,
• 12:45
  Speaker 4: finally it becomes brown, and then it fades away. We
• 12:50
  Speaker 4: weren't able to determine whether a bruise was created on
• 12:52
  Speaker 4: the day of death or several days prior to death.
• 12:57
  Speaker 6: But the science of timing bruises can only provide a
• 13:00
  Speaker 6: certain level of accuracy.
• 13:03
  Speaker 4: Two bruises could be a day apart, and I couldn't
• 13:05
  Speaker 4: tell the difference. But in this case, they all appeared
• 13:08
  Speaker 4: as though they could be contemporaneous.
• 13:12
  Speaker 6: However she was killed, it was a brutal confrontation. Police
• 13:17
  Speaker 6: begin to investigate Solange's love life.
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: Sheldon Jones was Solange's boyfriend. They had been together for
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: a number of years. When investigators started asking questions about
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: her relationship with Sheldon, they started to hear a lot
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: of troubling aspects. We heard from neighbors that there was
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: always a lot of yelling. We heard that she would
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: often appear with bruises and discoloration.
• 13:47
  Speaker 2: We knew that Laura was staying with Richard for the
• 13:50
  Speaker 2: past several months, most every night, due to the fact
• 13:53
  Speaker 2: that there was so much domestic abuse between Sheldon and Solange.
• 13:59
  Speaker 2: Laura didn't feel safe there. Laura was sleeping on the
• 14:02
  Speaker 2: couch in the living area, which is directly across from
• 14:06
  Speaker 2: Solange's residence. It's an unobstructed view. Elora would wait up
• 14:11
  Speaker 2: for her mother to come home every night, and her
• 14:14
  Speaker 2: mother would normally come in, kiss her goodnight, and then
• 14:16
  Speaker 2: go into the home across the way. Elora would watch
• 14:20
  Speaker 2: her mother go in, make sure she gets in the house.
• 14:25
  Speaker 2: Elora was taking care of her mom.
• 14:29
  Speaker 9: If you find out it's an abusive relationship, then you
• 14:32
  Speaker 9: already know that the spouse or the boyfriend has a
• 14:36
  Speaker 9: propensity for violence. You have to look at him as
• 14:39
  Speaker 9: a very viable, certainly person of interest, maybe even a suspect.
• 14:44
  Speaker 2: One of our big concerns was that Sheldon was not
• 14:47
  Speaker 2: home on the night into the morning when she was found.
• 14:51
  Speaker 2: And Elora told us that he is normally always home.
• 14:56
  Speaker 2: What changed his normal patterns and why?
• 15:00
  Speaker 5: Of course, that's the first person you're going to look at.
• 15:04
  Speaker 5: But we can't find him.
• 15:10
  Speaker 6: Detectives investigating the suspicious death of Solange Heikela have identified
• 15:16
  Speaker 6: a prime suspect.
• 15:19
  Speaker 2: My initial assignment was to locate and interview Solange's boyfriend,
• 15:25
  Speaker 2: Sheldon Jones. Where was he during the time frame of
• 15:30
  Speaker 2: the last day to the last two days?
• 15:34
  Speaker 3: Solange knew Sheldon from high school. And back then, he
• 15:38
  Speaker 3: was this scrawny little blonde kid. He had moved away,
• 15:42
  Speaker 3: and when he came back into her life, he changed
• 15:45
  Speaker 3: from this scrawny kid to this, like, you know, attractive man,
• 15:49
  Speaker 3: and I think she was pretty smitten with him. But
• 15:55
  Speaker 3: over time, it started becoming kind of tumultuous, their relationship.
• 16:02
  Speaker 6: There was an.
• 16:02
  Speaker 3: Aspect to Solange where it's like she almost seeked out
• 16:06
  Speaker 3: those dangerous situations.
• 16:10
  Speaker 2: We learned that Solange was seeing and dealing with other
• 16:14
  Speaker 2: men in town, and we knew that was an issue
• 16:17
  Speaker 2: with Sheldon. We knew that he was jealous about her.
• 16:22
  Speaker 5: They fight all the time. They drink all the time.
• 16:25
  Speaker 5: He's jealous of her flirting with other guys. There's everything
• 16:28
  Speaker 5: that would indicate Sheldon is the guy that did it.
• 16:32
  Speaker 6: Investigators track down Sheldon. and bring him into the sheriff's
• 16:36
  Speaker 6: office for questioning.
• 16:40
  Speaker 2: My first impression of Sheldon was he appeared to be distraught.
• 16:44
  Speaker 2: He had just lost his significant other.
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: He's crying. He's confused. He seems genuinely upset.
• 16:56
  Speaker 2: Sheldon describes Solange as being abusive to him, but he
• 17:00
  Speaker 2: also said that he was abusive to her.
• 17:06
  Speaker 5: That Thursday night, they were drinking, and he pushed her away,
• 17:09
  Speaker 5: he hit her, he said he twisted her breasts and
• 17:13
  Speaker 5: did all of these things to her. He said, well,
• 17:19
  Speaker 5: I did it because she wouldn't leave me alone, and
• 17:20
  Speaker 5: he said, so I grabbed both of them and I twisted.
• 17:22
  Speaker 2: As hard as I could.
• 17:26
  Speaker 5: Sheldon admitted he had assaulted Solange.
• 17:30
  Speaker 6: The mysterious bruises on Solange's breasts are accounted for. Police
• 17:36
  Speaker 6: wonder what else Sheldon can explain.
• 17:40
  Speaker 10: Oftentimes in relationships that are abusive and violent, we see
• 17:44
  Speaker 10: an escalation process. The pushing, the shoving, the psychological abuse
• 17:49
  Speaker 10: can then lead into more serious kinds of violence. Eventually,
• 17:54
  Speaker 10: in some tragic cases, that can also lead into murder.
• 18:01
  Speaker 6: One recent episode between Sheldon and Solange is alarming to investigators.
• 18:08
  Speaker 2: Sheldon described an incident that occurred about a week prior
• 18:12
  Speaker 2: where he put his hands on her neck in an assault.
• 18:16
  Speaker 2: He put her down on the ground and began applying pressure.
• 18:24
  Speaker 2: He thought that he probably obstructed her airways as well.
• 18:29
  Speaker 6: Sheldon's abuse of Solange is extreme.
• 18:33
  Speaker 3: Dr.
• 18:33
  Speaker 6: Arnall examines the bruises on her neck more closely to
• 18:37
  Speaker 6: see how they fit with Sheldon's testimony.
• 18:41
  Speaker 4: We look at the neck with the skin removed. In
• 18:46
  Speaker 4: this case, there were bruises over the thyroid gland on
• 18:50
  Speaker 4: the left and right. There were bruises on the muscles
• 18:54
  Speaker 4: of the neck. There was a bruise behind the voice
• 18:57
  Speaker 4: box on the esophagus. meaning that someone had pressed so
• 19:01
  Speaker 4: forcefully that it caused the thyroid cartilage to bruise the
• 19:05
  Speaker 4: esophagus behind the voice box.
• 19:09
  Speaker 2: In addition, I had the.
• 19:10
  Speaker 4: Petechiae, the little burst blood vessels in the whites of
• 19:14
  Speaker 4: the eyes. Petechiae are caused when the blood vessels of
• 19:18
  Speaker 4: the neck are compressed. So there's no question this person
• 19:21
  Speaker 4: died as a result of blood trauma to the neck.
• 19:25
  Speaker 6: If Sheldon choked Solange once, he may have done it again.
• 19:30
  Speaker 6: But facing a murder charge, Sheldon insists he was not
• 19:34
  Speaker 6: there the night she was killed.
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: At about 6 o'clock the night before, when by all
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: reports Solange was still alive, Sheldon had called Richie just
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: to say, I'm not coming home tonight, let Solange know.
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: We learned from both Sheldon and Richie that he was
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: going to go to a friend's house and he was
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: going to stay with his friend because he had to
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: be back at work early the next morning.
• 20:04
  Speaker 5: This was verified by not only the co-worker, because that's
• 20:09
  Speaker 5: not really it, but by neighbors of the coworker who said, yeah,
• 20:13
  Speaker 5: we saw him here that night and he never left.
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: So Sheldon first comes across as a pretty good and
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: likely suspect, but he had an alibi.
• 20:27
  Speaker 6: Detectives remain suspicious, but need to see who else was
• 20:31
  Speaker 6: involved with Solange.
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: So that's when the police really have to kind of
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: go back to the drawing board and start talking to
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: everybody who had anything to do with Solange the night
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: before when she was seen alive.
• 20:46
  Speaker 5: You're working this and going, oh, we know who did it,
• 20:48
  Speaker 5: we know who did it, we know who did it. No,
• 20:50
  Speaker 5: it's not him. I had a bad feeling about the
• 20:53
  Speaker 5: case because we have whole world possibilities. Somebody is out
• 21:00
  Speaker 5: there that killed her. We don't know his motives, we
• 21:02
  Speaker 5: don't know what he looks like, we don't know.
• 21:06
  Speaker 6: Detectives turn to Solange's daughter, Allora, for more details.
• 21:12
  Speaker 2: Well, Allora spoke about the light on in the artist's
• 21:16
  Speaker 2: studio where her mother was staying. She remembered her mother
• 21:20
  Speaker 2: walking back and going into the artist's studio, turning on
• 21:23
  Speaker 2: the light, and being in that room. And she later
• 21:26
  Speaker 2: recalls that the light was off, which she described to
• 21:29
  Speaker 2: us as being unusual. She normally knew her mother would
• 21:32
  Speaker 2: sleep with the light on. I thought with that light
• 21:36
  Speaker 2: being off and that that was such a concern to
• 21:39
  Speaker 2: Laura that it was an important piece of information that
• 21:41
  Speaker 2: we needed to look at fairly seriously.
• 21:44
  Speaker 5: She said then at 5 o'clock the light was off.
• 21:47
  Speaker 5: What that can mean is that whoever killed her had
• 21:51
  Speaker 5: made entry between 4 and 5 o'clock and had turned
• 21:54
  Speaker 5: the light off.
• 21:58
  Speaker 6: Solange's neighbor Rich also tells detectives... that earlier that night,
• 22:02
  Speaker 6: Solange had gone to a party at the home of
• 22:05
  Speaker 6: a man named Kent Weeks.
• 22:08
  Speaker 5: I think there's a party at Kent's house just about
• 22:10
  Speaker 5: every weekend. It certainly is possible that somebody could have
• 22:13
  Speaker 5: followed her home.
• 22:14
  Speaker 2: From the party.
• 22:16
  Speaker 6: The news makes nearly everyone at the party a potential suspect.
• 22:21
  Speaker 6: Detectives question the other guests and learn that a man
• 22:23
  Speaker 6: named Robbie Kohler was seen driving Solange home.
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: Now the focus turns on Robbie. So what's Robbie's story?
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: Robbie Kohler at that time was the fire chief in
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: the town of Jamestown.
• 22:39
  Speaker 2: Robbie was on call when the call came out for
• 22:43
  Speaker 2: Solange's body being found, but he didn't respond to the scene.
• 22:49
  Speaker 2: That was somewhat unusual for Robbie. So I needed to
• 22:53
  Speaker 2: talk to Robbie and determine where he was during this
• 22:55
  Speaker 2: time frame. His demeanor to me at first was extremely nervous.
• 23:03
  Speaker 2: He appeared that he didn't want to be talking about
• 23:06
  Speaker 2: this incident. But I was able to learn that he
• 23:11
  Speaker 2: had left the party around 12.30 from Kent's place. He's
• 23:18
  Speaker 2: the one that drove Solange home, dropped her off in
• 23:21
  Speaker 2: front of her residence around 2.30 in the morning, and
• 23:24
  Speaker 2: then he drove home. So we had a void of
• 23:29
  Speaker 2: time between 1230 until 2.30 or 3 o'clock in the
• 23:32
  Speaker 2: morning that was concerning. So I started asking him questions
• 23:36
  Speaker 2: specifically about details during that time frame.
• 23:40
  Speaker 5: Robbie says that he and Solange leave and they park
• 23:44
  Speaker 5: in front of the fire station. But he was very,
• 23:47
  Speaker 5: very evasive. He said they were just making out. And
• 23:51
  Speaker 5: then he said he fondled and licked her breasts. And
• 23:54
  Speaker 5: he said that went on for probably a couple of hours.
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: So here's a guy who, in his very first telling
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: of the story, leaves out the fact that he was
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: with her in any kind of intimate way. You know,
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: at first he said there was no touching. Later he
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: admitted to some touching and fondling. Later he admitted to
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: more touching and fondling. We want to know why the
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: last person who was seen with her was not necessarily
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: telling us the full truth.
• 24:33
  Speaker 6: Detectives interrogate Fire Chief Robbie Kohler about his connection to
• 24:37
  Speaker 6: the murder of Solange Heikela.
• 24:41
  Speaker 2: I knew he was hiding something. I just didn't know what.
• 24:45
  Speaker 6: In his autopsy report, Dr. Arnall details the evidence of
• 24:49
  Speaker 6: sexual assault that detectives can use to investigate Robbie.
• 24:54
  Speaker 4: Now we see the bruises on the breast, bruises on
• 24:56
  Speaker 4: the inner thigh, bruises on the arms. Our level of
• 24:59
  Speaker 4: suspicion at this point is extraordinarily high. As it turns out,
• 25:03
  Speaker 4: in this case, there was a small fissure in the vagina,
• 25:07
  Speaker 4: indicating that this person had an intimate physical encounter that
• 25:11
  Speaker 4: they didn't want. In the case of a rat, there
• 25:17
  Speaker 4: may be semen on a woman's clothing. That semen can
• 25:21
  Speaker 4: be tested for DNA.
• 25:25
  Speaker 7: The clothing was collected and there was semen found on
• 25:28
  Speaker 7: her tank top.
• 25:31
  Speaker 6: With this new information, detectives confront Robbie.
• 25:36
  Speaker 4: The detectives love going back to a perpetrator knowing what happened.
• 25:41
  Speaker 4: They get to play with a perpetrator as a cat
• 25:43
  Speaker 4: plays with a mouse. And it's my job as a
• 25:46
  Speaker 4: forensic pathologist to give that advantage to the detective. That's
• 25:50
  Speaker 4: how we work as a team.
• 25:53
  Speaker 2: I know There's going to be some type of evidence
• 25:57
  Speaker 2: on Solange's body. And where that DNA evidence is located
• 26:01
  Speaker 2: on her body is going to be important. So when
• 26:04
  Speaker 2: I approached Robbie about this, I explained to him that
• 26:07
  Speaker 2: he needed to be very clear and specific about how
• 26:11
  Speaker 2: he answers these questions.
• 26:15
  Speaker 5: So this is where Mark's very good. He says, well,
• 26:18
  Speaker 5: why don't you tell me, man? Just, you know, man
• 26:20
  Speaker 5: to man, why don't you tell me what's going on?
• 26:23
  Speaker 6: But despite detectives' attempts at getting Robbie to confess, he
• 26:27
  Speaker 6: insists he did not have sex with her and that
• 26:31
  Speaker 6: he is not guilty of murder.
• 26:34
  Speaker 5: We think his DNA is going to be found on
• 26:35
  Speaker 5: her neck, on her breast, certainly. But if there's any
• 26:38
  Speaker 5: vaginal DNA and it's him, he has some explaining to
• 26:41
  Speaker 5: do because he never went there, he says.
• 26:46
  Speaker 6: But with the pressure mounting, Robbie tells investigators there is
• 26:51
  Speaker 6: another man they should be questioning.
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: So Robbie Kohler says just prior to leaving, there was
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: a man named Tom A. asking Solange if he could
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: drive her home, and it was clear to Robbie that
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: Solange did not want to go home with Tom A.
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: So Robbie says when they stopped in front of the
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: firehouse and.
• 27:12
  Speaker 2: They parked, Tom A. kept driving back and forth.
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: What was he doing driving back and forth on the
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: street that night? At this point, we have two interesting people.
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: We have the last person who was actually with her,
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: Robbie Kohler, who was with her parked in a car.
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: And then we had this particular person, Tom A., is
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: out there. He's driving by. He's watching them and ultimately
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: engages them in a short conversation.
• 27:47
  Speaker 5: He pulls in next to Robbie's truck and says, hey,
• 27:50
  Speaker 5: are you guys OK? And he goes, yeah. and he
• 27:53
  Speaker 5: says he leaves and goes west, and he doesn't see
• 27:56
  Speaker 5: him come back.
• 28:00
  Speaker 6: Despite the story, Robbie still has no alibi.
• 28:05
  Speaker 2: We couldn't corroborate where Robbie was during the night after
• 28:09
  Speaker 2: and into the morning of the day that Solange was found.
• 28:14
  Speaker 2: He said he was home, but we have no one
• 28:16
  Speaker 2: else there that could corroborate that story.
• 28:21
  Speaker 5: So he's kind of in limbo, he's not in custody,
• 28:24
  Speaker 5: but he's certainly somebody that we need to keep an
• 28:27
  Speaker 5: eye on.
• 28:29
  Speaker 6: Detectives now turn their focus to this other man, Thomas A.,
• 28:34
  Speaker 6: and question local residents about him.
• 28:38
  Speaker 5: So all we know is he was like a strange
• 28:40
  Speaker 5: guy and not really a lot of people in Jamestown
• 28:42
  Speaker 5: really liked him. Solange didn't want to be anywhere near him.
• 28:49
  Speaker 5: And in fact, she confronted him in the mercantile one
• 28:51
  Speaker 5: night and said, what you did to me, I've heard
• 28:54
  Speaker 5: you did to other women in this town. Now, nobody
• 28:57
  Speaker 5: knows what that means.
• 29:00
  Speaker 6: Detectives take it as a sign about Tom A's character.
• 29:05
  Speaker 6: They proceed with a background check and are startled by
• 29:09
  Speaker 6: what they uncover.
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: Investigators look through the registry of sex offenders who are
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: living in that particular area.
• 29:18
  Speaker 2: We checked the registered sex offender within the area of Jamestown,
• 29:22
  Speaker 2: and we get a name of Thomas Ultimus. He has
• 29:26
  Speaker 2: a sexual assault in his criminal history. We needed to
• 29:31
  Speaker 2: know him, and we need to find him soon.
• 29:38
  Speaker 6: Registered sex offender Thomas Ultimus. Altimus was one of the
• 29:41
  Speaker 6: last people to see Solange Heikela alive.
• 29:47
  Speaker 2: He had a sexual assault here in Colorado from 2006.
• 29:49
  Speaker 5: So we got the reports from his sex offense that
• 29:55
  Speaker 5: got him the sex offender label. and it was a
• 29:58
  Speaker 5: female who was very intoxicated and it was a very
• 30:00
  Speaker 5: violent sexual assault. Thomas Altimus had taken her home and
• 30:07
  Speaker 5: had sexually assaulted her and he had beat her up.
• 30:14
  Speaker 6: If Solange was drunk that night, she may have been
• 30:17
  Speaker 6: an easy target for Altimus.
• 30:21
  Speaker 5: When we talked to Elora, one of the things that
• 30:23
  Speaker 5: she said was she remembered her mom coming in the
• 30:25
  Speaker 5: door And she said she was drunker than she had
• 30:29
  Speaker 5: ever seen her.
• 30:33
  Speaker 3: There was a definite attitude of, like, I know what
• 30:36
  Speaker 3: I'm doing. Like, this is OK. I'm just having fun.
• 30:40
  Speaker 3: And then it became a habit.
• 30:44
  Speaker 6: To test Solange's alcohol levels at the time of her murder, Dr.
• 30:49
  Speaker 6: Arnall runs a full toxicology analysis.
• 30:53
  Speaker 4: We measured blood alcohol. We measured urine alcohol. and we
• 30:57
  Speaker 4: measured vitreous alcohol. Vitreous is the fluid in the eye.
• 31:01
  Speaker 4: In this case, the vitreous and urine alcohols are significantly higher.
• 31:07
  Speaker 4: What it means is that this person's blood alcohol, minutes
• 31:11
  Speaker 4: or hours earlier, had been much higher. The blood alcohol
• 31:17
  Speaker 4: is the alcohol that is actually bathing the brain and
• 31:21
  Speaker 4: affecting this individual's behavior. In this particular case, It was
• 31:26
  Speaker 4: probably over. 3. She would have been stumbling drunk. She
• 31:30
  Speaker 4: would have been significantly incapacitated.
• 31:34
  Speaker 6: Thomas Ultimus is now a prime suspect, and it's time
• 31:38
  Speaker 6: for him to be questioned.
• 31:43
  Speaker 5: We finally go to his house, and we can't find him.
• 31:50
  Speaker 5: There's no sign of him anywhere, but his truck is there.
• 31:54
  Speaker 5: So he either hitched a ride somewhere or he's somewhere around.
• 31:59
  Speaker 2: So we talked to a good friend of Thomas Ultimus.
• 32:04
  Speaker 2: He tells us that he had recently given Thomas a shotgun.
• 32:08
  Speaker 2: And he said after this event happens, after Solange is found,
• 32:12
  Speaker 2: he disappears. He says Thomas always talked about an interest
• 32:18
  Speaker 2: for a piece of property that was for sale at
• 32:20
  Speaker 2: the end of the road that Thomas lived on. We
• 32:26
  Speaker 2: made a determination that we were going to go check
• 32:28
  Speaker 2: that area. It's a hilly, forested area in the mountains.
• 32:32
  Speaker 2: We knew that Thomas possibly had a shotgun. So there
• 32:42
  Speaker 2: were four of us. Two of us took our long guns.
• 32:45
  Speaker 2: Two of us had our pistols. We hiked up the
• 32:49
  Speaker 2: trail area, and something catches my eye about 70 yards
• 32:54
  Speaker 2: in front of me. At that time, I didn't know
• 32:58
  Speaker 2: who it was or what it was. And we started
• 33:02
  Speaker 2: a verbal command, show us your hands, show us your hands.
• 33:09
  Speaker 2: We were coming up closer and closer. It appeared to
• 33:13
  Speaker 2: be a man.
• 33:15
  Speaker 5: He's laying there on his side, snuggled up with a
• 33:17
  Speaker 5: shotgun between his legs. He's dead of what looks like
• 33:25
  Speaker 5: a shotgun wound to the head.
• 33:28
  Speaker 2: At that time, we felt that it was possibly Thomas Altomus.
• 33:35
  Speaker 2: So we've called for additional resources, including the coroner's office
• 33:38
  Speaker 2: and their investigative staff.
• 33:42
  Speaker 7: I hiked up the mountain with the detectives, and we
• 33:46
  Speaker 7: did a body assessment there on the side of the mountain.
• 33:51
  Speaker 7: With the shotgun wound, you know, there's quite an explosion, really,
• 33:54
  Speaker 7: and there's pieces and parts for a bit of a distance.
• 33:58
  Speaker 7: And so at that point, we're kind of, you know,
• 34:01
  Speaker 7: looking around because you don't want to step in the
• 34:02
  Speaker 7: wrong place and you want to retrieve as much of
• 34:05
  Speaker 7: that as possible. Really, the entire head is disrupted by
• 34:10
  Speaker 7: that injury. And so there's not a lot to go
• 34:12
  Speaker 7: on for a visual identification.
• 34:15
  Speaker 5: Dr.
• 34:16
  Speaker 6: Arnall begins his second autopsy in three days.
• 34:21
  Speaker 4: There was no ability to look at this person and
• 34:24
  Speaker 4: to determine who they were. Their face was gone. Because
• 34:29
  Speaker 4: there's soot inside the tissue inside the wound. It appears
• 34:35
  Speaker 4: to be contact, meaning that the metal of the barrel
• 34:37
  Speaker 4: of the gun was touching the skin when the gun
• 34:40
  Speaker 4: was discharged. We don't see evidence of a struggle. That
• 34:44
  Speaker 4: individual had placed a shotgun underneath their chin and pulled
• 34:47
  Speaker 4: the trigger.
• 34:49
  Speaker 2: We couldn't identify him through photographs. but we felt fairly
• 34:53
  Speaker 2: confident that we should have an identification through fingerprints fairly
• 34:57
  Speaker 2: soon through the coroner's office. And we did. He was
• 35:02
  Speaker 2: identified as Thomas Altomus.
• 35:06
  Speaker 5: Well, my opinion is that he shot himself because he
• 35:08
  Speaker 5: didn't want to go back to prison. Once he realized
• 35:14
  Speaker 5: the next morning that it really did happen, he goes home,
• 35:17
  Speaker 5: gets a shotgun that he had borrowed, loads it with
• 35:19
  Speaker 5: double-out buckshot, and walks up the hillside.
• 35:22
  Speaker 6: Detective Ainsworth's theory about Thomas Ultimis is certainly possible, but
• 35:28
  Speaker 6: with two other suspects intimately involved with Solange right before
• 35:32
  Speaker 6: her death, detectives need proof.
• 35:37
  Speaker 4: Without the DNA, your ability to determine which individuals are
• 35:42
  Speaker 4: responsible for what activity would have been severely compromised. In
• 35:47
  Speaker 4: this case, no science, no case.
• 35:55
  Speaker 6: Two months have passed since Solange Heikela was discovered dead
• 35:59
  Speaker 6: in her studio. The swab results from various parts of
• 36:03
  Speaker 6: her body are in. Investigators hope that DNA will prove
• 36:08
  Speaker 6: who killed her.
• 36:10
  Speaker 2: We still have three outstanding suspects at this time, so
• 36:13
  Speaker 2: we knew that the DNA was going to be important.
• 36:17
  Speaker 6: The first suspect is Solange's abusive boyfriend, We.
• 36:23
  Speaker 2: Found DNA samples from Sheldon on Solange, on her breasts,
• 36:28
  Speaker 2: around her facial area, and other bruises. We knew he
• 36:32
  Speaker 2: had been in an intimate relationship with Solange, so we
• 36:36
  Speaker 2: would anticipate and expect that his DNA would be on
• 36:40
  Speaker 2: Solange's body.
• 36:43
  Speaker 5: So Sheldon Jones, we've eliminated.
• 36:46
  Speaker 6: Next up is the Jamestown Fire Chief.
• 36:50
  Speaker 5: Robbie Kohler, we haven't eliminated. but he has fallen down
• 36:54
  Speaker 5: on the list. Robbie Kohler's DNA was on her breasts,
• 36:59
  Speaker 5: which is where he said it would be. And Tom
• 37:02
  Speaker 5: Altomus is at the top of the list.
• 37:05
  Speaker 2: Thomas Altomus's DNA was found on her neck, her wrist.
• 37:10
  Speaker 2: It was inside her vagina. So that was strong information
• 37:15
  Speaker 2: for us to believe that Thomas Altomus was with her
• 37:19
  Speaker 2: prior to her death and was the one that killed her.
• 37:26
  Speaker 7: So there was a mixture of DNA, but really the
• 37:29
  Speaker 7: most key one was the vaginal swabs with that being only,
• 37:33
  Speaker 7: you know, coming back with Thomas.
• 37:37
  Speaker 6: Both Sheldon and Robbie can explain how their DNA ended
• 37:41
  Speaker 6: up on Solange. The only possible explanation for Thomas Ultimus
• 37:47
  Speaker 6: is that he is the killer.
• 37:50
  Speaker 5: When I heard that Thomas Ultimus' semen, the sperm fraction,
• 37:55
  Speaker 5: was from him, It was like, okay, this is it.
• 37:58
  Speaker 5: There we go.
• 38:00
  Speaker 6: Investigators finally have an answer to the mystery of who
• 38:03
  Speaker 6: killed an innocent young mother.
• 38:06
  Speaker 5: I think what happened is Solange and Robbie drive down
• 38:10
  Speaker 5: and they park in front of the fire station. And
• 38:13
  Speaker 5: Altimus parks somewhere where he can watch what they're doing.
• 38:20
  Speaker 5: And then sometime later, Robbie drives Solange off. Now remember,
• 38:24
  Speaker 5: she's very, very intoxicated. Altimus had waited long enough for
• 38:29
  Speaker 5: her to maybe pass out, go to sleep with her,
• 38:31
  Speaker 5: but he knew where she was because the light was on.
• 38:36
  Speaker 5: So I think he goes into the studio and attacks
• 38:40
  Speaker 5: her and sexually assaults her and strangles her and then
• 38:44
  Speaker 5: leaves and goes back to his house.
• 38:54
  Speaker 3: I never really thought about the fact that she wouldn't
• 38:57
  Speaker 3: be in my life anymore. She doesn't get to be
• 39:03
  Speaker 3: here to watch her daughter grow up, her grandchild grow up.
• 39:12
  Speaker 3: She doesn't get to be here to be my old
• 39:15
  Speaker 3: best friend.
• 39:20
  Speaker 5: So now all that's left to do is write up
• 39:23
  Speaker 5: what's called a probable cause summary And it's basically if
• 39:26
  Speaker 5: you're writing a warrant for the person, except the person's dead.
• 39:30
  Speaker 5: And then we presented that to Ryan Brackley, and he
• 39:34
  Speaker 5: said if he was still alive, we would definitely charge him.
• 39:39
  Speaker 2: So the case was ultimately cleared with death of an offender,
• 39:43
  Speaker 2: with being Thomas Ultimus.
• 39:46
  Speaker 4: It is not unusual for perpetrators to adjudicate the case
• 39:52
  Speaker 4: by either hanging themselves or blowing their brains out.
• 39:55
  Speaker 2: That's not uncommon.
• 40:01
  Speaker 5: The key to putting this whole thing together is the
• 40:04
  Speaker 5: forensic science. You know, you have the background, you have
• 40:07
  Speaker 5: all of that other stuff, you have his actions that day.
• 40:09
  Speaker 5: None of it by itself is going to prove that
• 40:11
  Speaker 5: he did this, but the forensic science does.
• 40:17
  Speaker 2: Without the DNA evidence, I think this case probably would
• 40:20
  Speaker 2: have gone unsolved. I think we would have had a
• 40:22
  Speaker 2: good understanding of what occurred, but I don't think we
• 40:26
  Speaker 2: would have had specific evidence that would have been able
• 40:28
  Speaker 2: to link Thomas Ultimus to this crime.
• 40:33
  Speaker 6: The DA closes the case on Solange's murder, but there's
• 40:37
  Speaker 6: one last loose end that investigators need to tie up.
• 40:41
  Speaker 1: We wanted to do some justice for Solange, for her daughter,
• 40:45
  Speaker 1: and for her family. So when we finished with the
• 40:48
  Speaker 1: homicide investigation, we asked ourselves, should we focus and hold
• 40:53
  Speaker 1: Sheldon Jones accountable for those injuries that were all over
• 40:57
  Speaker 1: the body of Solange Heigla? We filed charges against Sheldon Jones,
• 41:03
  Speaker 1: and he eventually pleaded guilty to an assault charge.
• 41:11
  Speaker 5: I think it was important to me as just one
• 41:13
  Speaker 5: last show of, you know, we care about her. And
• 41:18
  Speaker 5: I think it was to show him that you can't
• 41:22
  Speaker 5: get away with this. Yeah, she's dead, but that doesn't
• 41:26
  Speaker 5: mean that you walk on it.
• 41:30
  Speaker 4: After I go home, I do contemplate this issue of
• 41:34
  Speaker 4: man's inhumanity to man. I mean, you can only do
• 41:36
  Speaker 4: that if you keep your wits about you. If you
• 41:39
  Speaker 4: go through meticulously and do everything you were trained to do,
• 41:42
  Speaker 4: then the case is going to be resolved as it
• 41:46
  Speaker 4: should be.
• 41:48
  Speaker 5: What struck me about this case was Elora. I felt
• 41:53
  Speaker 5: so bad for her. You know, so she loses her
• 41:56
  Speaker 5: mom and goes on with her life. And she's just,
• 42:01
  Speaker 5: amazing is an overused word, but I think it's completely
• 42:04
  Speaker 5: appropriate when you talk about her. She's an amazing young woman.
• 42:21
  Speaker 3: Thank you.