Latest / History Dark / Every Identifying feature of her was removed - except one _ The Horrific Murder of Rebecca Koster

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Every Identifying feature of her was removed - except one _ The Horrific Murder of Rebecca Koster · History Dark

• 0:03
  Speaker 1: Her body was charred beyond recognition.
• 0:08
  Speaker 2: Nobody knew who she was. Nobody knew what happened to her.
• 0:13
  Speaker 3: I said, you're the prime target because you're beautiful and
• 0:16
  Speaker 3: everybody wants you.
• 0:19
  Speaker 2: She was missing her nose, her ears, her fingers, her toes.
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: Not only is it disturbing, not only is it horrifying,
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: but it's perplexing.
• 0:32
  Speaker 4: But there are demons out there. and they look like people.
• 0:38
  Speaker 5: A shocking murder becomes a dark mystery. The victim's body
• 0:45
  Speaker 5: holds the key to convicting the killer. Every fiber is
• 0:50
  Speaker 5: a clue. Every wound is a piece of the puzzle.
• 0:55
  Speaker 5: In these cases, it's up to the medical examiner to
• 0:59
  Speaker 5: find the crucial evidence and catch the murderer. is Secrets
• 1:05
  Speaker 5: of the Morgue.
• 1:20
  Speaker 6: Stonyton is a very rural-type community. It's that New England feel.
• 1:26
  Speaker 6: There are a lot of rolling hills, a lot of woods,
• 1:28
  Speaker 6: a lot of quaint hamlets. A lot of long, winding roads.
• 1:38
  Speaker 6: And it's very dark there at night.
• 1:47
  Speaker 5: One evening, on a desolate stretch of country road, a
• 1:52
  Speaker 5: blaze ignites in the dark.
• 1:55
  Speaker 7: A passerby was driving along the road and thought that
• 1:58
  Speaker 7: he had come upon a brush fire.
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: He had stopped, pulled over.
• 2:03
  Speaker 7: Called 911, and as he was getting his fire extinguisher,
• 2:08
  Speaker 7: a fire chief from the area had pulled up with
• 2:10
  Speaker 7: his fire extinguisher.
• 2:14
  Speaker 6: The fire chief began to extinguish the flames. And he
• 2:19
  Speaker 6: quickly recognized that this was a human. Once he saw
• 2:27
  Speaker 6: a human, or what they thought was a human body,
• 2:30
  Speaker 6: it became a crime scene quickly.
• 2:35
  Speaker 7: So instead of directly shooting the fire extinguisher towards the body,
• 2:40
  Speaker 7: he had angled it upwards so that the chemicals will
• 2:43
  Speaker 7: fall a little more gently and put the fire out,
• 2:47
  Speaker 7: but at the same time preserving any evidence. Connecticut State
• 2:52
  Speaker 7: Troopers secured the scene, closed the roadway off, and they
• 2:56
  Speaker 7: surveyed the scene looking for any items of potential evidence.
• 3:02
  Speaker 6: It's very important to document every aspect of how this
• 3:05
  Speaker 6: body was found, what was on it, you know, what
• 3:07
  Speaker 6: it looked like.
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: Her body was charred beyond recognition.
• 3:20
  Speaker 6: She had been wrapped pretty well in plastics and blankets, sheets,
• 3:25
  Speaker 6: and duct tape, as if the killer had taped it
• 3:29
  Speaker 6: to her. And once you saw the wrappings that were
• 3:33
  Speaker 6: around the body, it was readily apparent that this was
• 3:38
  Speaker 6: a dump site.
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: This was not where this victim was killed.
• 3:46
  Speaker 5: Investigators hope the Connecticut State Medical Examiner will be able
• 3:50
  Speaker 5: to identify the charred body.
• 3:53
  Speaker 8: Dr.
• 3:53
  Speaker 5: Ira Canfer has been working as a forensic pathologist for
• 3:57
  Speaker 5: three decades and has performed more than 4,000 autopsies.
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: Well, you have to be comfortable with the job, which
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: a lot of doctors are not, dealing with the horrific
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: things that we see. So, it's a job which I
• 4:13
  Speaker 2: found enjoyable and satisfying, but you have to be built
• 4:17
  Speaker 2: for it. In this case, we had a partially burned body,
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: the side of the road, nobody knew who she was,
• 4:27
  Speaker 2: nobody knew what happened to her. The first thing we
• 4:32
  Speaker 2: do is look at the body as it came in.
• 4:34
  Speaker 2: In this case, it was wrapped in a plastic bag.
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: As they were unwrapping it, they realized there were several layers.
• 4:43
  Speaker 6: They had to very carefully remove the wrappings to assure
• 4:47
  Speaker 6: you didn't destroy any trace evidence.
• 4:50
  Speaker 2: We want to be as careful as we can to
• 4:53
  Speaker 2: not contaminate the evidence so the police can take it
• 4:57
  Speaker 2: back to the crime lab, look for fingerprints, DNA. to
• 5:02
  Speaker 2: give them leads of who may have done this. In
• 5:08
  Speaker 2: examining the body, it was determined that it was a
• 5:12
  Speaker 2: young female, young and like her 20s. I believe she
• 5:17
  Speaker 2: was a light-skinned black female, but she could have been Latin.
• 5:23
  Speaker 2: She was missing her nose, her ears, her fingers, her toes.
• 5:30
  Speaker 2: and there was some skin removed from an ankle. First
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: thing that comes to mind is that they're trying to
• 5:38
  Speaker 2: obscure the identity of the deceased. With no fingers, you
• 5:44
  Speaker 2: can't take fingerprints. With no toes, if she had toe
• 5:47
  Speaker 2: rings or tattoos, those are gone now for purposes of identification. So,
• 5:57
  Speaker 2: It makes it harder for the authorities to identify the body.
• 6:04
  Speaker 9: When someone is mutilated such that their nose and fingertips
• 6:08
  Speaker 9: and other identifying features are removed, it makes it more
• 6:14
  Speaker 9: challenging but not impossible to identify someone.
• 6:23
  Speaker 2: The front was burned quite a bit more severely than
• 6:25
  Speaker 2: the back. That would mean that when she was set
• 6:30
  Speaker 2: on fire, she was on her back.
• 6:35
  Speaker 6: And when they turned her over, the area of her
• 6:37
  Speaker 6: lower back that was pressed into the ground was fairly
• 6:40
  Speaker 6: well preserved. And when you looked at that area, there
• 6:45
  Speaker 6: was an area in her lower back where.
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: The skin was missing. And it wasn't just missing.
• 6:51
  Speaker 6: It was evident when you looked at the body and
• 6:53
  Speaker 6: you looked at the photographs that it had been cut away.
• 7:00
  Speaker 2: My assumption is that there was a tattoo there.
• 7:04
  Speaker 5: Connecticut detectives scour the state data bank looking for any
• 7:08
  Speaker 5: light-skinned young women reported missing with large tattoos on their backs.
• 7:15
  Speaker 5: They find nothing. But when they expand their search to
• 7:21
  Speaker 5: neighboring districts, they get a hit. Eighty miles away, on
• 7:26
  Speaker 5: Long Island, New.
• 7:27
  Speaker 7: York, The person that was missing was Rebecca Koster.
• 7:36
  Speaker 2: A 24-year-old girl.
• 7:38
  Speaker 5: Rebecca is a nursing assistant who lives at home with
• 7:41
  Speaker 5: her parents.
• 7:43
  Speaker 7: The missing persons report was filed by her father, Larry Ross.
• 7:47
  Speaker 7: He had called the police because he was notified by
• 7:50
  Speaker 7: her employer that day that she never showed up for work.
• 7:55
  Speaker 7: She was out with her friends that night, and no
• 7:58
  Speaker 7: one had seen her. since 3.30 that morning.
• 8:06
  Speaker 6: In the missing person's flyer, they had pictures of what
• 8:09
  Speaker 6: she looked like. They had a description of her height
• 8:12
  Speaker 6: and weight and hair color.
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: And they also.
• 8:15
  Speaker 6: Had specific identifying features such as the tattoo she had.
• 8:19
  Speaker 6: She had a large, I think it was a butterfly
• 8:22
  Speaker 6: tattoo that was in the lower back area.
• 8:28
  Speaker 5: Despite the striking similarities between the women, Connecticut detectives are
• 8:32
  Speaker 5: skeptical they have a match because of the distance involved.
• 8:37
  Speaker 5: They turn to Dr. Canfor to see if he can
• 8:40
  Speaker 5: provide confirmation. He discovers that the killer made a strategic error.
• 8:47
  Speaker 2: The perpetrator left the teeth from the deceased intact.
• 8:55
  Speaker 10: Dental records are important. very very valuable source because that
• 8:59
  Speaker 10: is a foolproof form of identification of human remains providing
• 9:04
  Speaker 10: that the teeth have not been removed and even then
• 9:07
  Speaker 10: even if the teeth are removed there are still markers
• 9:10
  Speaker 10: within the jaw of an individual that a radiologist can
• 9:13
  Speaker 10: make a comparison to that will assist you in that
• 9:16
  Speaker 10: identification as well.
• 9:20
  Speaker 6: They reached out to Becky's family and asked for access
• 9:24
  Speaker 6: to her dental records.
• 9:27
  Speaker 2: The Long Island police brought them up personally. So my
• 9:32
  Speaker 2: office looked at the dental records, looked at the teeth
• 9:36
  Speaker 2: from the deceased, and a match was made, which is
• 9:39
  Speaker 2: just as good as fingerprints.
• 9:44
  Speaker 5: Rebecca Koster of Long Island is the woman found burning
• 9:48
  Speaker 5: on the side of the road in Connecticut.
• 9:50
  Speaker 7: Now you have to show up at the family's house,
• 9:54
  Speaker 7: and you have to give them The worst news they
• 9:58
  Speaker 7: ever hear.
• 10:06
  Speaker 5: Rebecca Koster of Long Island has been identified as the
• 10:10
  Speaker 5: Jane Doe found burning on the side of the road
• 10:13
  Speaker 5: in Connecticut. Detectives steal themselves for the awful job of
• 10:20
  Speaker 5: notifying her parents.
• 10:26
  Speaker 4: My husband gets the call. The detectives were at the house.
• 10:36
  Speaker 4: They were waiting for me. And I.
• 10:42
  Speaker 6: I.
• 10:45
  Speaker 4: Looked at the detectives.
• 10:47
  Speaker 3: And I asked them, I said, it's bad news. And
• 10:52
  Speaker 3: they said, please come have a seat. And they said
• 10:57
  Speaker 3: they found Becky. That it was a homicide. And that
• 11:06
  Speaker 3: they were going to go to great lengths to find
• 11:09
  Speaker 3: out who did it to her.
• 11:15
  Speaker 4: I just grabbed my coat and ran outside. I remember
• 11:20
  Speaker 4: running halfway down my driveway, screaming. Killed my baby. Someone
• 11:31
  Speaker 4: killed my baby.
• 11:39
  Speaker 5: Detectives vow to find out how this young woman came
• 11:42
  Speaker 5: to such a horrific end so far from home.
• 11:45
  Speaker 2: I'm married. I have two kids. So, yeah, something like
• 11:52
  Speaker 2: this could happen to any family.
• 11:58
  Speaker 7: We're dealing with the ultimate crime, and you want to
• 12:01
  Speaker 7: make sure that whoever is responsible for this crime is
• 12:06
  Speaker 7: going to be held accountable.
• 12:08
  Speaker 2: For their actions.
• 12:11
  Speaker 7: So we started with talking to family and friends to
• 12:16
  Speaker 7: try and develop a timeline of Rebecca Costa's last movements
• 12:21
  Speaker 7: for that day before she went missing.
• 12:25
  Speaker 6: Becky was 24 years old and was a beautiful girl.
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: In fact, she looked just like her mother. And they
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: were very, very close.
• 12:35
  Speaker 3: I'm a nursing assistant. And Becky took the class, became
• 12:39
  Speaker 3: a nursing assistant. She did home care with developmentally disabled adults.
• 12:47
  Speaker 3: To see her happy in her job made me feel like,
• 12:50
  Speaker 3: you know, a success as a mom.
• 12:54
  Speaker 6: She was very bubbly, very vibrant young girl. And like
• 12:57
  Speaker 6: most people who were 24, you know, Becky was very personable.
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: She liked to go out. You know, she liked to
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: have a good time.
• 13:06
  Speaker 5: Detectives learned that the night her daughter went missing, Barbara
• 13:09
  Speaker 5: was scheduled to work an overnight shift.
• 13:12
  Speaker 3: I remember I was leaving for work, and Becky was
• 13:20
  Speaker 3: hovering over her brother trying to get french.
• 13:22
  Speaker 4: Fries from him. Becky told me that she was.
• 13:27
  Speaker 3: Going out with her best friend, Nicole, and her boyfriend
• 13:30
  Speaker 3: at the time, Dan. They were going to go to
• 13:35
  Speaker 3: their favorite spot hang out for a little while, then
• 13:38
  Speaker 3: she was gonna go home, go to sleep, and go
• 13:39
  Speaker 3: to work in the morning.
• 13:44
  Speaker 6: Dan was Rebecca's boyfriend, but this was not a deep,
• 13:48
  Speaker 6: long relationship. They had just begun dating, and it was
• 13:51
  Speaker 6: certainly nothing serious.
• 13:54
  Speaker 3: I didn't get to really know Dan too much. He
• 13:57
  Speaker 3: seemed to be genuine in his affection. He seemed like
• 14:01
  Speaker 3: a nice guy. I knew they had their troubles. from
• 14:06
  Speaker 3: what Becky had told me. But otherwise, I didn't know
• 14:08
  Speaker 3: too much.
• 14:10
  Speaker 5: As far as her mother knew, Rebecca went out with
• 14:12
  Speaker 5: her friends that night and then returned home as promised.
• 14:16
  Speaker 6: Rebecca communicated with her mother via cell phone to let
• 14:18
  Speaker 6: her know that she was home and that she was safe.
• 14:21
  Speaker 6: And this was about 3.30 in the morning.
• 14:23
  Speaker 3: I was in the middle of morning rounds. My husband
• 14:31
  Speaker 3: had called me, stating that Becky didn't show up for work.
• 14:37
  Speaker 3: I give her a call, no answer. I leave her
• 14:39
  Speaker 3: a message. Call her again, no answer.
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: This was unlike Becky.
• 14:45
  Speaker 6: For her not to communicate or respond back to her
• 14:48
  Speaker 6: mother was very, very unusual.
• 14:52
  Speaker 3: I go home, and the only thing I could think of, well,
• 14:55
  Speaker 3: let me contact Nicole.
• 14:58
  Speaker 5: But Nicole has no idea where Rebecca is. She says
• 15:02
  Speaker 5: she went home early and left Rebecca with Dan and
• 15:05
  Speaker 5: some other friends.
• 15:06
  Speaker 6: Anybody who was last with the victim before he or
• 15:10
  Speaker 6: she disappears is going to be a prime suspect. And
• 15:14
  Speaker 6: when you add a boyfriend to the mix, it's just
• 15:19
  Speaker 6: always somebody that you're going to look at very hard.
• 15:24
  Speaker 5: Detectives locate Dan and haul him down to the station.
• 15:28
  Speaker 5: According to his version, he and the others dropped her off.
• 15:31
  Speaker 6: At 3.30 a.m., Dan said he walked her into the
• 15:35
  Speaker 6: front door, made sure she got in safely, and they
• 15:38
  Speaker 6: left her there. And that was the last time he
• 15:40
  Speaker 6: saw or heard from her.
• 15:44
  Speaker 3: Dan swore up in Dan. I loved Becky. I would
• 15:48
  Speaker 3: never hurt Becky.
• 15:51
  Speaker 5: Detectives suggest that Dan could clear his name by taking
• 15:54
  Speaker 5: a polygraph test.
• 15:56
  Speaker 8: Investigators will often broach the topic and ask a person
• 16:00
  Speaker 8: if they're willing to take a polygraph test. as a
• 16:02
  Speaker 8: way to determine if they could be hiding something, if
• 16:07
  Speaker 8: they feel suspicious or guilty about something. So it's often
• 16:11
  Speaker 8: used as a probe, as a way to try and
• 16:13
  Speaker 8: see how guilty is a person.
• 16:17
  Speaker 7: Dan submitted to a polygraph.
• 16:21
  Speaker 2: The focus of the polygraph is if he.
• 16:23
  Speaker 7: Had any knowledge of her whereabouts, had any knowledge of
• 16:28
  Speaker 7: the events leading up to her disappearance. The results of
• 16:33
  Speaker 7: the polygraph were that he was being untruthful.
• 16:38
  Speaker 5: Despite the puzzling results, investigators aren't convinced that Dan was
• 16:42
  Speaker 5: involved in Rebecca's murder.
• 16:44
  Speaker 7: The polygraph can be used as an investigative tool, but
• 16:47
  Speaker 7: they're not 100% reliable. And Dan cooperated fully with the investigation.
• 16:55
  Speaker 6: They interviewed him thoroughly, and the police searched his home
• 16:59
  Speaker 6: from top to bottom. And certainly there were no red
• 17:02
  Speaker 6: flags to them that she'd ever been there.
• 17:06
  Speaker 7: We try and corroborate everyone's story with other people that
• 17:09
  Speaker 7: were at the scene. And Dan's story and their friend's
• 17:13
  Speaker 7: story all matched up.
• 17:15
  Speaker 2: They were all identical.
• 17:20
  Speaker 5: With no hard evidence linking Dan to Rebecca's murder, they
• 17:24
  Speaker 5: need to widen the suspect pool. Detectives turn to Dr.
• 17:28
  Speaker 5: Canfor to determine the time of death.
• 17:30
  Speaker 2: The deceased was observed to be in a bar and
• 17:35
  Speaker 2: having drinks. In normal people, they metabolize about one drink
• 17:42
  Speaker 2: per hour. At autopsy, we took specimens for toxicological examination
• 17:49
  Speaker 2: for drugs and alcohol, and the alcohol came back negative,
• 17:54
  Speaker 2: as well as the drug screen. Once you die, the
• 17:58
  Speaker 2: metabolism stops, So that tells you that she was alive
• 18:03
  Speaker 2: after she left the bar for a period of time.
• 18:06
  Speaker 3: Dr.
• 18:06
  Speaker 5: Canford lists the time of death as four hours after
• 18:09
  Speaker 5: Rebecca was last seen, but it's only his best guess.
• 18:14
  Speaker 2: It's really an inexact science, no matter what's written.
• 18:20
  Speaker 5: Given the estimated time of death, investigators need to know
• 18:23
  Speaker 5: if Rebecca spoke to anyone after Dan dropped her off.
• 18:27
  Speaker 7: At 3.30 a.m., Her family was able to pull up
• 18:31
  Speaker 7: Rebecca Costa's phone records on the computer to see, of course,
• 18:34
  Speaker 7: who would be the last person to contact her. They
• 18:38
  Speaker 7: had saw that there were two phone calls into her
• 18:41
  Speaker 7: phone early that morning from the same number, a 617 number.
• 18:48
  Speaker 7: They were at 410 and at 427.
• 18:50
  Speaker 5: In the morning.
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: It's quite clear.
• 18:55
  Speaker 6: That this person was probably the last person to speak
• 18:59
  Speaker 6: with Becky.
• 19:02
  Speaker 5: Detectives suspect that whoever Rebecca spoke with on the phone
• 19:05
  Speaker 5: at 4.27 in the morning is likely the person who
• 19:10
  Speaker 5: killed her.
• 19:11
  Speaker 6: Becky Koster, like so many young girls, made a very
• 19:14
  Speaker 6: foolish decision that night to trust that no harm could
• 19:17
  Speaker 6: come to her.
• 19:20
  Speaker 4: Becky never believed that anybody would ever hurt her.
• 19:24
  Speaker 3: And I said, Becky, you're the prime target because you're
• 19:28
  Speaker 3: beautiful and everybody wants you.
• 19:34
  Speaker 4: But there are demons out there. And they look like people.
• 19:37
  Speaker 5: Police are trying to locate the sources the two calls
• 19:50
  Speaker 5: made to Rebecca Koster the morning she was murdered.
• 19:54
  Speaker 6: The police were able to obtain very quickly the cell
• 19:58
  Speaker 6: phone records for that phone number that had been contacting Becky.
• 20:05
  Speaker 10: When you talk on a cellular device, your conversations are
• 20:10
  Speaker 10: bouncing off of cell towers all over North America. And
• 20:15
  Speaker 10: as you move, your conversation bounces from tower to tower
• 20:19
  Speaker 10: to tower. And in this day and age, we can
• 20:22
  Speaker 10: get those records from the service providers. And through a
• 20:26
  Speaker 10: not very complicated formula, they can triangulate to some degree
• 20:30
  Speaker 10: of certainty what area you are in.
• 20:36
  Speaker 6: Police looked at the cell tower information. They could clearly
• 20:39
  Speaker 6: ascertain that the person using that phone was moving now.
• 20:43
  Speaker 6: in communicating with her, and he was moving in a
• 20:45
  Speaker 6: direction west to east to go to Rebecca's house.
• 20:53
  Speaker 7: The first call at 410 was for approximately 15 minutes,
• 20:58
  Speaker 7: and the call at 427 was for approximately 20 seconds.
• 21:04
  Speaker 7: So based on the location of the cell sites and
• 21:08
  Speaker 7: the duration of the last call, It is my belief
• 21:13
  Speaker 7: that this person was at Rebecca Costa's house letting her
• 21:18
  Speaker 7: know that he was there.
• 21:22
  Speaker 5: But they still don't know who the caller is or
• 21:25
  Speaker 5: how Rebecca's body ended up in Connecticut 15 hours later.
• 21:29
  Speaker 7: We tried contacting that phone number and there was no response.
• 21:35
  Speaker 7: And there was no phone record with the 617 number
• 21:39
  Speaker 7: in our system or any place that we could find.
• 21:42
  Speaker 7: It was never listed.
• 21:44
  Speaker 5: With heavy hearts, they deduced that the number must be
• 21:47
  Speaker 5: attached to an untraceable burner phone.
• 21:50
  Speaker 7: So we had no idea who the 617 number was.
• 21:56
  Speaker 5: While investigators try to identify the person on the other
• 21:59
  Speaker 5: end of the phone number, Dr. Canfor struggles to determine
• 22:03
  Speaker 5: Rebecca's cause of death.
• 22:05
  Speaker 2: If the body is burnt, one of the questions that
• 22:08
  Speaker 2: comes up is, Was the person alive at the time
• 22:12
  Speaker 2: of the fire? One of the ways to detect that
• 22:18
  Speaker 2: is looking for soot in the deceased lungs. And if
• 22:24
  Speaker 2: there is, that tells you she was breathing at the
• 22:27
  Speaker 2: time of the fire, so we know she's alive. There
• 22:31
  Speaker 2: was no soot in the lungs, and from that you
• 22:33
  Speaker 2: can imply that she was dead at the time of
• 22:36
  Speaker 2: the fire.
• 22:39
  Speaker 5: The doctor searches the body for other wounds that may
• 22:42
  Speaker 5: have led to her death.
• 22:44
  Speaker 2: The external injury on the skin was very difficult to
• 22:49
  Speaker 2: find due to the burning. It obscured it. So we
• 22:54
  Speaker 2: looked at all the vital organs, heart, liver, lungs, kidneys,
• 22:59
  Speaker 2: and we saw a stab wound of the liver. And
• 23:03
  Speaker 2: associated with the stab wound was several hundred cc's of
• 23:07
  Speaker 2: fluid and clotted blood in the abdominal cavity. So that
• 23:11
  Speaker 2: tells me she's got an injury of the liver.
• 23:15
  Speaker 5: But he isn't certain the stab wound to the liver
• 23:18
  Speaker 5: is what killed her.
• 23:19
  Speaker 2: She had four sharp force injuries of the neck. I
• 23:23
  Speaker 2: just wasn't sure if they were pre- or post-mortem due to,
• 23:29
  Speaker 2: in part, the burning. There's veins in the neck as
• 23:35
  Speaker 2: well as arteries, and if the person is alive and
• 23:39
  Speaker 2: you cut one of these veins of the neck, it's
• 23:43
  Speaker 2: possible that air gets sucked into the vein, and if
• 23:48
  Speaker 2: you get what they call an air embolus, it goes
• 23:51
  Speaker 2: to the heart, and it just stops the heart being
• 23:55
  Speaker 2: able to pump, and the whole system backs up, and
• 23:58
  Speaker 2: you're dead as a doornail in a very short period
• 24:01
  Speaker 2: of time.
• 24:04
  Speaker 5: Dr. Canfor takes x-rays to confirm his suspicions.
• 24:08
  Speaker 2: You could see the blood air level on x-ray in
• 24:11
  Speaker 2: the heart. So that tells me that the wounds of
• 24:15
  Speaker 2: the neck, at least one of them, occurred while she
• 24:19
  Speaker 2: was alive. And air got sucked into the venous system,
• 24:24
  Speaker 2: went to the heart, stopped the heart dead.
• 24:28
  Speaker 5: Because of the multiple sources of wounds, Dr. Canfor lists
• 24:31
  Speaker 5: the official cause of death as a result of all
• 24:34
  Speaker 5: of them.
• 24:35
  Speaker 2: We know it was a homicide. Somebody did this to her.
• 24:39
  Speaker 2: And multiple stab wounds of the neck and the liver
• 24:44
  Speaker 2: is what killed this woman.
• 24:49
  Speaker 5: Armed with the cause of death, police return to tracing
• 24:52
  Speaker 5: Rebecca's movements.
• 24:54
  Speaker 6: They knew from their interviews with the people that Rebecca
• 24:57
  Speaker 6: was with that they had gone to this particular bar,
• 25:02
  Speaker 6: Butcher Boy, and they were able to quickly ascertain that
• 25:06
  Speaker 6: they had a surveillance system. And they were able to
• 25:10
  Speaker 6: view and obtain all of the surveillance footage from the
• 25:13
  Speaker 6: night Becky was there. When they looked at the footage,
• 25:18
  Speaker 6: they were able to determine that Becky was in fact
• 25:20
  Speaker 6: in the bar. She's sort of sitting by herself, her
• 25:25
  Speaker 6: boyfriend and her friends are off talking to other people.
• 25:29
  Speaker 6: And they could see this person approaching Becky. He was
• 25:35
  Speaker 6: a little bit older. You know, he wasn't a 23-year-old.
• 25:38
  Speaker 6: He was dressed conservatively, like a sweater type of vest.
• 25:42
  Speaker 6: So he looked unassuming. He enters her space and enters
• 25:48
  Speaker 6: it quickly. And there is communication between them for a
• 25:51
  Speaker 6: period of time.
• 25:54
  Speaker 7: Watching the video, you can see them both on their
• 25:57
  Speaker 7: phones together. It appeared that they were exchanging some sort
• 26:01
  Speaker 7: of information.
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: It looked like this person took her phone and was
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: punching in a number.
• 26:13
  Speaker 5: Based on what they've just seen, investigators re-interview the people
• 26:17
  Speaker 5: who were with Rebecca that night. And one of them,
• 26:22
  Speaker 5: a woman named Jennifer, remembers something new.
• 26:27
  Speaker 7: She told us about this male subject at the bar
• 26:30
  Speaker 7: that she didn't know that was sitting next to them.
• 26:35
  Speaker 7: She said that this subject made her very uncomfortable, that
• 26:39
  Speaker 7: he was very pushy and did seem creepy with the
• 26:43
  Speaker 7: questions that he was asking her. And he actually took
• 26:47
  Speaker 7: her phone and put his name in her phone with
• 26:51
  Speaker 7: his number, hoping that she would call him. So we
• 26:57
  Speaker 7: took her phone, and computer crimes detectives were able to
• 27:01
  Speaker 7: extract the information. We were able to see that a
• 27:06
  Speaker 7: Jay Brown was put into her contact list with the
• 27:10
  Speaker 7: 617 number.
• 27:12
  Speaker 5: Finally, they have a prime suspect for Rebecca's murder.
• 27:17
  Speaker 7: The 617 number that we saw on Rebecca Acosta's phone
• 27:21
  Speaker 7: records is the same 617 number that this person, Jay,
• 27:27
  Speaker 7: put into Jennifer's phone.
• 27:31
  Speaker 5: But before investigators have a chance to track down Jay Brown,
• 27:35
  Speaker 5: they receive an urgent message from the Connecticut Crime Laboratory.
• 27:39
  Speaker 6: The latent fingerprint examiner was able to process that duct
• 27:43
  Speaker 6: tape that had been wrapped around Rebecca's body. and they
• 27:50
  Speaker 6: developed two thumbprints, a left and a right thumbprint, on
• 27:54
  Speaker 6: the sticky side of that duct tape. I've been doing
• 27:56
  Speaker 6: this a very, very long time, and you don't often
• 27:59
  Speaker 6: get fingerprints on the sticky side, particularly where there's been
• 28:03
  Speaker 6: a fire.
• 28:05
  Speaker 5: Detectives send the fingerprints to the state data bank.
• 28:08
  Speaker 6: They did a physical comparison of prints that were on
• 28:11
  Speaker 6: file with the state and concluded that there was an
• 28:16
  Speaker 6: identification of both the left and the right thumbprint to
• 28:19
  Speaker 6: an Evans Ganthier.
• 28:22
  Speaker 5: In a matter of hours, investigators have unearthed two prime
• 28:26
  Speaker 5: suspects for this horrific murder. Yet the question of who
• 28:30
  Speaker 5: killed Rebecca Koster remains unanswered. Investigators have two prime suspects
• 28:42
  Speaker 5: on their hands for the slaying of Rebecca Koster. Jay
• 28:46
  Speaker 5: Brown has no criminal record, but it's a different story
• 28:50
  Speaker 5: for Evan Scantier.
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: He had a criminal background.
• 28:55
  Speaker 6: It wasn't particularly serious, but they were able to determine
• 28:59
  Speaker 6: that among other things which were of great interest to
• 29:02
  Speaker 6: the police, he had domestic incidents with his girlfriend and
• 29:05
  Speaker 6: there were allegations that he was pimping her out. And
• 29:11
  Speaker 6: that he liked to photograph women in his garage. So
• 29:19
  Speaker 6: there were a couple of things in his background which
• 29:21
  Speaker 6: were disturbing.
• 29:23
  Speaker 5: Investigators ask their witness, Jennifer, to come back down to
• 29:27
  Speaker 5: the station for a second time.
• 29:29
  Speaker 7: We know that Evans Ganthier's fingerprints are on the tape
• 29:33
  Speaker 7: that bound Rebecca Koster at this time.
• 29:38
  Speaker 2: So we then take evidence.
• 29:40
  Speaker 7: Ganthier's photo, and we put his photo in a photo array,
• 29:44
  Speaker 7: and we show that to Jennifer. And Jennifer positively identifies
• 29:48
  Speaker 7: him as the person who took her phone, identified himself
• 29:52
  Speaker 7: as Jay, and put.
• 29:54
  Speaker 2: His number in her phone.
• 29:58
  Speaker 5: It's a revelation. Jay Brown isn't a person. He's Evans
• 30:02
  Speaker 5: Ganthier's alias. Investigators pour all their resources into finding Ganthier.
• 30:12
  Speaker 7: We knew that he had a vehicle that he has
• 30:15
  Speaker 7: had tickets with and had been arrested driving this vehicle,
• 30:19
  Speaker 7: which was an SUV. And we knew that his girlfriend
• 30:24
  Speaker 7: had a residence in the Bronx. So we were checking
• 30:29
  Speaker 7: and surveilling the residence. One night, there was a team
• 30:34
  Speaker 7: of guys that were located. His SUV parked next to
• 30:38
  Speaker 7: the residence where his girlfriend lived. And the following day,
• 30:43
  Speaker 7: we observed him walk into the vehicle and he was
• 30:46
  Speaker 7: placed under arrest. We bring him to our headquarters and
• 30:54
  Speaker 7: I interview him along with another detective. He consents to
• 31:00
  Speaker 7: the search of his vehicle, and he consents to the
• 31:03
  Speaker 7: search of his residence.
• 31:06
  Speaker 5: Ganthier claims there's nothing for police to find, as he
• 31:09
  Speaker 5: had no hand in Rebecca's death.
• 31:12
  Speaker 7: So that residence was searched. In the garage, there was
• 31:17
  Speaker 7: a roller, a scrub brush, a broom, a cement cleaner,
• 31:23
  Speaker 7: and some paint and a paint tray. And you could
• 31:27
  Speaker 7: tell that there was an area that had been cleaned
• 31:30
  Speaker 7: over and painted over. That definitely looked suspicious. But there
• 31:36
  Speaker 7: was nothing that would link Rebecca Costa to that scene.
• 31:45
  Speaker 7: But then his vehicle is processed at the crime lab.
• 31:51
  Speaker 7: And they discover questionable red stains throughout the cars.
• 31:59
  Speaker 6: There's a console, and on that console, on the driver's side,
• 32:03
  Speaker 6: on the passenger's side, on the driver's side, there was
• 32:06
  Speaker 6: a blood stain.
• 32:09
  Speaker 1: And the blood was dripping downward.
• 32:13
  Speaker 6: If you ever sit in your vehicle, you have your
• 32:15
  Speaker 6: seat buckle next to you, and you have that little
• 32:17
  Speaker 6: bit of space in between your seat and the console.
• 32:20
  Speaker 6: If you move the seat back and you go all
• 32:22
  Speaker 6: the way down to the floor, that's where the blood
• 32:25
  Speaker 6: was pooling.
• 32:28
  Speaker 5: Investigators take samples of the blood found in the vehicle
• 32:32
  Speaker 5: and send it for DNA testing.
• 32:34
  Speaker 7: This blood is determined to be the blood of Rebecca Costa.
• 32:42
  Speaker 7: So we could tell that Rebecca Costa was in this
• 32:45
  Speaker 7: vehicle and it appeared that something violent had happened to
• 32:49
  Speaker 7: her while she was in this vehicle.
• 32:53
  Speaker 5: Investigators confront Ganthier with this damning evidence. But instead of confessing,
• 32:58
  Speaker 5: he launches into an elaborate story of defense.
• 33:02
  Speaker 7: He says, I'll tell you, but you're not going to
• 33:03
  Speaker 7: believe what happened.
• 33:07
  Speaker 1: He claimed he'd met her in the bar. They just talked.
• 33:14
  Speaker 6: And he decided that he would call her because he
• 33:17
  Speaker 6: wanted to continue his own party.
• 33:21
  Speaker 7: She had given him directions to her house. Once in
• 33:27
  Speaker 7: the car, he said that she explained that she couldn't
• 33:30
  Speaker 7: hang out long, that she had to go to work
• 33:33
  Speaker 7: in the morning. And then once on the way to
• 33:37
  Speaker 7: his house, she started foaming at the mouth like she
• 33:41
  Speaker 7: was having some medical emergency.
• 33:47
  Speaker 6: And when they arrived, he opened up the garage and
• 33:50
  Speaker 6: Becky was unsteady on her feet. So much so that
• 33:55
  Speaker 6: she needed his assistance and he had to put his
• 33:57
  Speaker 6: arm around her just to walk her into the garage
• 33:59
  Speaker 6: and keep her steady.
• 34:02
  Speaker 7: He claimed that he brought her to the house to
• 34:04
  Speaker 7: try and give her a glass of water. And when
• 34:07
  Speaker 7: they were walking in his garage, she had tripped over
• 34:11
  Speaker 7: a set of dumbbells, hitting her head on the cement
• 34:17
  Speaker 7: and started bleeding profusely from her head. He went on
• 34:22
  Speaker 7: to explain that he put her in the back of
• 34:25
  Speaker 7: his SUV and he was going to drive her to
• 34:28
  Speaker 7: Mather Hospital. And on the way to Mather Hospital, he
• 34:32
  Speaker 7: said he turned around and she had stopped breathing.
• 34:41
  Speaker 1: When he brought her back to his house, she died. And, well,
• 34:46
  Speaker 1: he panicked.
• 34:50
  Speaker 3: So.
• 34:50
  Speaker 7: He tried to hide her identity and make her look
• 34:53
  Speaker 7: like a missing person.
• 35:00
  Speaker 6: He said that he cut off her fingers, he cut
• 35:03
  Speaker 6: off her toes. He admitted to carving the tattoo out
• 35:07
  Speaker 6: of her lower back. Then he told the police that he,
• 35:16
  Speaker 6: in fact, took her body, wrapped up in the back
• 35:19
  Speaker 6: of his SUV.
• 35:23
  Speaker 1: He drove on to the Port Jefferson ferry.
• 35:29
  Speaker 6: Once he got to Connecticut, he was just driving, and
• 35:32
  Speaker 6: he ended up not far from Stonington.
• 35:38
  Speaker 1: He didn't know what to do with her. He didn't
• 35:40
  Speaker 1: hurt her, he didn't kill her, but, you know, what
• 35:43
  Speaker 1: was he going to do? Because people might not believe him.
• 35:46
  Speaker 6: So he admitted to the police that he bought some gasoline.
• 35:51
  Speaker 6: He drove around, and then he just panicked some more
• 35:56
  Speaker 6: because now he's been driving around with her for so long,
• 35:59
  Speaker 6: he just wanted to get her out of the car.
• 36:01
  Speaker 6: So he just pulled over in the area that her
• 36:03
  Speaker 6: body was ultimately found, threw her onto the side of
• 36:05
  Speaker 6: the road, poured a little bit of gasoline on her,
• 36:07
  Speaker 6: and lit her on fire. Then you look at the
• 36:17
  Speaker 6: sheer brutality involved. and the gruesome acts that he engaged in.
• 36:26
  Speaker 6: Once you go to those lengths, you're not hiding or
• 36:28
  Speaker 6: concealing the crime of accident. You're trying to conceal the
• 36:32
  Speaker 6: crime of murder.
• 36:40
  Speaker 5: Evans Ganthier admits to mutilating and burning Rebecca's body, but
• 36:45
  Speaker 5: adamantly denies killing her. He says she died as a
• 36:49
  Speaker 5: result of an accident.
• 36:52
  Speaker 10: When someone's caught committing a brutal murder and they know
• 36:56
  Speaker 10: in their own minds that it's over, the only thing
• 36:59
  Speaker 10: left for them is to save some face. And the
• 37:02
  Speaker 10: way they do that is to try and minimize their involvement,
• 37:06
  Speaker 10: to extricate themselves from the nasty part of this homicide.
• 37:17
  Speaker 6: Evans Ganthier was very, very convincing because like most sociopaths,
• 37:21
  Speaker 6: he has no soul. He has no conscience, and the
• 37:24
  Speaker 6: only thing he's concerned about is protecting himself.
• 37:29
  Speaker 7: He stated that he just wanted to remove her identity,
• 37:33
  Speaker 7: but clearly he was trying to remove any evidence that
• 37:37
  Speaker 7: showed that she was violently killed.
• 37:43
  Speaker 1: Seasoned homicide detectives have a good sense. You know, they
• 37:48
  Speaker 1: can often.
• 37:48
  Speaker 6: Say, this guy's just lying to me, I know it. But,
• 37:52
  Speaker 6: you know, knowing it and being able to get your
• 37:54
  Speaker 6: suspect to admit he's lying are two different things. And
• 37:57
  Speaker 6: the most successful way is to confront him with the
• 37:59
  Speaker 6: truth you have.
• 38:02
  Speaker 5: Investigators need Dr. Canford to refute Ganthier's story. Otherwise, he
• 38:07
  Speaker 5: could get off with a much lesser charge.
• 38:10
  Speaker 2: The charge would be instead of murder, it would be
• 38:13
  Speaker 2: assaulting a dead body. So you have to prove that
• 38:17
  Speaker 2: she's alive at the time the incident occurred. She was
• 38:23
  Speaker 2: definitely alive with a stab wound to the liver because
• 38:26
  Speaker 2: there was a hemorrhage in the liver as well as
• 38:29
  Speaker 2: fluid and clouded blood in the abdominal cavity. And she
• 38:32
  Speaker 2: was alive for at least one of the stab wounds
• 38:35
  Speaker 2: of the neck because we had the air embolus, which
• 38:38
  Speaker 2: came from the air getting sucked in from one of
• 38:41
  Speaker 2: the stab wounds of the neck. He tells us that
• 38:46
  Speaker 2: she tripped, I believe, over a weight, struck her head,
• 38:49
  Speaker 2: and that's what killed her. But when I examined the head,
• 38:54
  Speaker 2: there was no evidence of skull fracture, there was no
• 38:56
  Speaker 2: evidence of subdural hemorrhage, there was no evidence of trauma.
• 39:01
  Speaker 2: But what the autopsy did show is she had stab
• 39:04
  Speaker 2: wounds in the neck, a stab wound in the liver,
• 39:07
  Speaker 2: and that's what killed her, not this cockamamie story of
• 39:11
  Speaker 2: she fell and hit her head.
• 39:15
  Speaker 5: Armed with the medical examiner's irrefutable conclusions... Detectives charge Ganthier
• 39:21
  Speaker 5: with second-degree murder. But even throughout the trial, he maintains
• 39:25
  Speaker 5: his innocence.
• 39:27
  Speaker 1: He was the victim through this whole thing.
• 39:29
  Speaker 2: He didn't do anything.
• 39:31
  Speaker 6: He apologized for being a panicky person who didn't do
• 39:34
  Speaker 6: the right thing. One of the biggest points to the
• 39:37
  Speaker 6: jury in not only just proving the obvious and disproving
• 39:42
  Speaker 6: the ridiculous was that we also had what I thought
• 39:46
  Speaker 6: was very compelling physical evidence. If you looked at his story,
• 39:53
  Speaker 6: she was never bleeding in the front seat of that car.
• 39:55
  Speaker 6: So that story was a lie. He claimed that he
• 39:59
  Speaker 6: had put her into the back of his SUV.
• 40:02
  Speaker 1: Not the front, passenger seat, you know, but the back.
• 40:06
  Speaker 6: According to him, there was no injury, and he never
• 40:09
  Speaker 6: put her body in the front, even after he dismembered her.
• 40:14
  Speaker 6: So how else did that blood get there but for
• 40:17
  Speaker 6: the fact that an act of violence occurred in that car?
• 40:24
  Speaker 5: The trial lasts an excruciating four weeks.
• 40:28
  Speaker 6: Rebecca's mom sat through every single day, and her heartbreak
• 40:32
  Speaker 6: was palpable.
• 40:33
  Speaker 1: You know, you could feel it.
• 40:36
  Speaker 6: But she just wanted to make sure that she was
• 40:39
  Speaker 6: there for Becky, and she got justice for Becky.
• 40:44
  Speaker 3: We weren't planning on going to the arraignment, and then
• 40:50
  Speaker 3: I changed my mind. It was arraignment day that I
• 40:53
  Speaker 3: found out the things that he did.
• 40:56
  Speaker 4: To my daughter. And my head's been in turmoil ever since.
• 41:07
  Speaker 4: That was the worst day of my life.
• 41:14
  Speaker 5: After deliberating for just five and a half hours, the
• 41:18
  Speaker 5: jury finds Evans Ganthier guilty.
• 41:21
  Speaker 6: The jury believed that the cause of death and the
• 41:23
  Speaker 6: manner of death were homicide by stab wound beyond a
• 41:25
  Speaker 6: reasonable doubt.
• 41:28
  Speaker 7: After the long process of the trial, you're able to
• 41:31
  Speaker 7: sit there in the courtroom with the family and listen
• 41:34
  Speaker 7: to the juror's verdict. You could feel the sense of
• 41:38
  Speaker 7: relief that the family has, a sense of closure that
• 41:42
  Speaker 7: someone is being held responsible for what they did to
• 41:45
  Speaker 7: their daughter.
• 41:48
  Speaker 6: To have the jury say guilty was very gratifying for
• 41:52
  Speaker 6: us as prosecutors because we know that we brought this
• 41:54
  Speaker 6: horrific killer to justice and he is not walking the
• 41:57
  Speaker 6: streets again.
• 41:59
  Speaker 5: The judge sentences Ganthier to the maximum 25 years to
• 42:03
  Speaker 5: life and condemns his unthinkably cruel behavior after Rebecca's death.
• 42:11
  Speaker 2: In this case with Rebecca, if we didn't find what
• 42:15
  Speaker 2: happened to her with the the aid of the police,
• 42:19
  Speaker 2: figure out who she was, she would have just been
• 42:22
  Speaker 2: buried in Potter's Field and nobody would have known anything.
• 42:25
  Speaker 2: So we did speak for the dead, the medical examiner,
• 42:28
  Speaker 2: the police department. Yes, we did.
• 42:34
  Speaker 4: Finding him guilty, yes, I'm happy.
• 42:40
  Speaker 3: But it was more of a relief that he wouldn't
• 42:43
  Speaker 3: be out there hurting anyone else.
• 42:49
  Speaker 4: But it doesn't bring her back. I wish I could
• 42:53
  Speaker 4: be the type of person to forgive, but I can't.
• 42:58
  Speaker 4: Not in that case, anyway.