Latest / Crime Stories with Nancy Grace / Gorgeous model, girlfriend of Ashton Kutcher, stalked and murdered by serial thrill killer

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Gorgeous model, girlfriend of Ashton Kutcher, stalked and murdered by serial thrill killer · Crime Stories with Nancy Grace

0:05
Speaker 1: Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. The body of twenty two
0:13
Speaker 1: year old Ashley Lord Ellertt was found by her roommate
0:16
Speaker 1: early Thursday morning. Police see the stabbing happened Wednesday night.
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Speaker 1: I remember like it was yesterday. I entered the house.
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Speaker 1: There was two steps to the left here and Ashley
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Speaker 1: was laying across the two stairs, absolutely blue and covered
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Speaker 1: in blood. A sense of trauma just came over me.
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Speaker 1: I thought maybe the person was sold there and I
0:40
Speaker 1: kind of ran out, end up getting to the car
0:43
Speaker 1: and calling from my cell phone. It still traumatizes me
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Speaker 1: to this day. Ashley ellern was just everybody's daughter, living
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Speaker 1: life and having fun. She winds up meeting somebody who
1:03
Speaker 1: is the wrong person and lost her life over it.
1:06
Speaker 1: You were hearing our friends at forty eight hours describing
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Speaker 1: the death of a beautiful young girl in a serious
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Speaker 1: romance with TV and movie star Ashton Kutcher. I, Nancy Grace,
1:20
Speaker 1: this is Crime Stories. Thank you for being with us.
1:23
Speaker 1: But it doesn't end there. Not only was movie star
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Speaker 1: Ashton Kutcher's girlfriend found massacred, it went on. I observed
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Speaker 1: quite a large amount of blood and not too short
1:42
Speaker 1: distance was Ashley's body a lot of anger, a lot
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Speaker 1: of rage. Somebody had isolated Ashley Ellerin to kill her
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Speaker 1: and was very, very angry when he did it. It
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Speaker 1: just was a very bad sea, probably one of the
2:01
Speaker 1: worst I've seen. What would surprise this seasoned investigator even
2:07
Speaker 1: more was what he didn't see any evidence that would
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Speaker 1: point to a killer. You know, we were just looking
2:14
Speaker 1: for any type of direction or clues that would to
2:18
Speaker 1: lead to a suspect. It was Ashley's friends that gave
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Speaker 1: detectives that first and only clue, pointing them to a
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Speaker 1: young man Ashley had met in the neighborhood months earlier.
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Speaker 1: The information we have is that he introduced himself as
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Speaker 1: a heating and air guy. A heating and air guy.
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Speaker 1: You know, I'm in the middle of a massive manuscript
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Speaker 1: about don't be a victim, and one of the things
2:45
Speaker 1: I'm preaching is to know who was coming into your home,
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Speaker 1: particularly repairman, cable guys, the heating and air guy, the
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Speaker 1: hot water heater guy, the internet guy. Joining me an
3:02
Speaker 1: all star panel topic Hollywood Ripper with Me Joseph Scott Morgan,
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Speaker 1: Professor Forensics, Jacksonville State University, author of Blood Beneath My Feet.
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Speaker 1: John Limley Crime online dot Com investigative reporter, forensics psychologist
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Speaker 1: doctor Jolie Silva, defense attorney Emory Law School, trial professor
3:24
Speaker 1: Randy Kessler, and joining me retired chief medical Examiner doctor
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Speaker 1: Chris Sperry, Doctor Sperry. When you find a scene like
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Speaker 1: that that is so bloody and so brutal, sometimes it's
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Speaker 1: very difficult to find the cod cause of death by
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Speaker 1: just looking at the body. What do you do after
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Speaker 1: the scene is documented and processed? Of course, then you know,
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Speaker 1: once is done, then it comes down to examining the body.
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Speaker 1: And you're absolutely right, that is covered in blood. The
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Speaker 1: blood can hide oh dozens, sometimes hundreds of different injuries,
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Speaker 1: and so that requires just meticulous, careful cleaning and documentation
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Speaker 1: and uh, you know, discovery, And that's the process is
4:18
Speaker 1: slow and tedious, but eventually all of the injuries will
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Speaker 1: emerge from where they've been covered up by blood. Well,
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Speaker 1: how do you clean the body to find the injuries? Well, again,
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Speaker 1: you know, forensically, a lot of photographs are taken in
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Speaker 1: the morgue before we even start doing anything. And then
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Speaker 1: the clothes, if there's any clothing that's carefully removed, and
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Speaker 1: it may have to be cut away and that's preserved
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Speaker 1: and kept for evidence purposes. And then from head to turn.
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Speaker 1: I mean, do you always cut it away or do
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Speaker 1: you put on gloves and try to unbutton it, but
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Speaker 1: then you have to move the body right to pick
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Speaker 1: the body up to take the clothes off. Well either way,
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Speaker 1: I mean sometimes the blood is so it's so dry
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Speaker 1: and the clothing is so crusted that there's just no
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Speaker 1: way to remove the clothing, you know, conventionally unbuttoning, pulling
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Speaker 1: it over the head, things like that. Also, cutting the
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Speaker 1: clothing away really allows very minimal disturbance of the body itself.
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Speaker 1: So you know, clothing we can put back together, but
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Speaker 1: if we have to distort or move the body around,
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Speaker 1: this could even uh, you know, destroy safe trace evidence
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Speaker 1: like hairs, fibers, things like that that may be on
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Speaker 1: different parts of the body. And so you know, a
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Speaker 1: great deal of care is taken to try to preserve
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Speaker 1: the integrity of the body itself. But then you have
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Speaker 1: to clean all the blood off. If the body is
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Speaker 1: this bloody, and I'm talking about Ashley Element, Ashton Kutcher's girlfriend, Um,
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Speaker 1: how do you get all the blood off to find
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Speaker 1: the wounds? Soap and water very carefully, just starting from
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Speaker 1: the top and working working way down and you know,
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Speaker 1: inspecting everything very closely again looking for hairs, fibers, anything
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Speaker 1: that's foreign. But then just some warm water with soap
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Speaker 1: and careful washing to wash the crusted blood away, to
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Speaker 1: expose the injuries underneath. What kind of sup I'll just
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Speaker 1: played at. Actually don works for a well, so dawn
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Speaker 1: would be dishwashing. Yeah, it works, It works very nice.
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Speaker 1: It's very mild. It doesn't you know, it doesn't damage
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Speaker 1: the skin, and it's uh, you know, as I said,
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Speaker 1: it's very it's very mild, so it doesn't really distort
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Speaker 1: or change anything. Joseph Scott Morgan, author of Blood Beneath
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Speaker 1: My Feet on Amazon, professor forensics at Jacksonville State University.
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Speaker 1: In order for somebody like doctor Chris Sperry to do
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Speaker 1: what he does, the processing of the crime scene in
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Speaker 1: a brutal and bloody crime scene like with Ashton Kutcher's
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Speaker 1: girlfriend Ashley Ellern, I mean, when you walk into a
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Speaker 1: scene like that, you better be prepared to stay many,
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Speaker 1: many hours. And I remember at the Courthouse shooting at
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Speaker 1: Fulton County Courthouse, that crime scene was sealed off for days.
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Speaker 1: Do you remember that Judge Rowland Barnes, for one, that
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Speaker 1: I used to play softball with on the Courthouse softball team,
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Speaker 1: My dear friend Julie the court reporter, and I remember
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Speaker 1: that scene being cordoned off for days and days while
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Speaker 1: it was processed. Do you remember that, Randy Kessler. I'm
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Speaker 1: looking at the courthouse out of my window and it
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Speaker 1: brings tears to my eyes every time I look at that.
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Speaker 1: That was that was rrific. I mean, it can take
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Speaker 1: days to process a crime scene. So explained to me
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Speaker 1: Joska Morgan, how do you even tackle that. You have
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Speaker 1: to have a plan to begin with. I know that's
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Speaker 1: that's that's very very short explanation. But you cannot just
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Speaker 1: go in to an environment like this and randomly begin
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Speaker 1: to process the thing. You have to have people that
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Speaker 1: have their specific jobs that are there. As far as
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Speaker 1: photography goes measurements, you have to have what we refer
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Speaker 1: to as a scribe, someone that is literally taking painstaking
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Speaker 1: notes as as you move through it. You'll have a
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Speaker 1: videographer many times that is videotaping a scene and listen.
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Speaker 1: One of the things I want people at home that
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Speaker 1: are listening to this think about think about a scene
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Speaker 1: with a body there, and think about it in the
8:30
Speaker 1: shape of like a wagon wheel, with the body being
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Speaker 1: kind of the central hub, and everything else radiates out
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Speaker 1: from that. You wait, you wait to the very last
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Speaker 1: moment that you can before that body is actually removed
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Speaker 1: from the scene, because if you go directly into the body,
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Speaker 1: go directly into the body, then everything else can be destroyed,
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Speaker 1: all those little fragmented pieces of evidence we're talking about.
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Speaker 1: You know, a case here that's particularly violent, you'll have
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Speaker 1: a myriad of blood evidence that's there, some of which
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Speaker 1: might not be the victims, it could potentially be the perpetrator.
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Speaker 1: You can have a fractured glass from a struggle, broken lamps,
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Speaker 1: broken wood. In some cases you'll have gunshot casing. So
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Speaker 1: you have to be very very careful. Okay, this is
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Speaker 1: what I don't understand, John Limley. This is a yes
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Speaker 1: no okay, which is against everything you stand for. But Limley,
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Speaker 1: isn't it true that movie star Ashton Kutcher was on
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Speaker 1: the scene of the murder that night? Yes, Crime Stories
9:57
Speaker 1: with Nancy Grace Ashley Ellern was a happy team with
10:06
Speaker 1: a bright future. She grew up in the Silicon Valley
10:09
Speaker 1: town of Los Altos, California. Ashley was a member of
10:13
Speaker 1: the swimming team and grinned from ear to ear when
10:15
Speaker 1: posing with the water polo team. She was class council
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Speaker 1: treasurer during her junior year. In one yearbook photo, the
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Speaker 1: Bookish team wears glasses, it's captioned flashback. Ashley Ellern takes
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Speaker 1: time out of her hectic schedule to talk with a
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Speaker 1: friend during brunch. Here she displays a radiant smile with
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Speaker 1: her arms draped around classmates. A few years later, she
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Speaker 1: met actor Ashton Kutcher. It's okay, I know what to do.
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Speaker 1: He was the sexy goofball on that seventy show and
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Speaker 1: his star was on the rise. Ashley was twenty two
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Speaker 1: and studying fashion. In February of two thousand and one,
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Speaker 1: she was getting ready for a date with Kutcher and
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Speaker 1: Ashley Ellern was stabbed forty seven times. Movie star Ashton
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Speaker 1: Kutcher on the scene the night Ashley Ellern stabbed forty
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Speaker 1: seven times Listen to our friends at Inside Edition. On
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Speaker 1: the night she was murdered, Kutcher had invited her to
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Speaker 1: be his date at a Grammy's party. Ashton Kutcher came
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Speaker 1: here to Ashley's house to pick her up. He rang
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Speaker 1: the bell, but there was no answer. Police say he
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Speaker 1: then peered in the window and saw what he thought
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Speaker 1: was wine on the floor. There was no sign of Ashley,
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Speaker 1: so he left. Turns out it wasn't wine at all.
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Speaker 1: It was a pool of Ashley's blood. She'd been stabbed
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Speaker 1: forty seven times and was lying dead behind the front door.
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Speaker 1: Two John Linley Crime online dot Com investigative reporter explained
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Speaker 1: to me, how was it that Ashton Kutcher was on
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Speaker 1: the scene the night of her murderer but was not arrested.
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Speaker 1: What is his story? He had known Ashley a couple
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Speaker 1: of weeks at this point. They had met at a
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Speaker 1: Hollywood party. He was absolutely mitten with this aspiring fashion designer,
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Speaker 1: and on the night Ashton, as we've heard, stop by
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Speaker 1: Ashley's house to pick her up for this post Grammy
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Speaker 1: Awards party. Ashton rings the doorbell, rings it again and
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Speaker 1: again several times, but there's never any response. And at
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Speaker 1: one point, just before he's about to give up, he
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Speaker 1: peers into a window and they're on the floor. Right
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Speaker 1: in front of him is pools of what he thinks
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Speaker 1: is red wine with no sign of Ashley. He finally leaves,
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Speaker 1: of course, without his date. Ashley Ellern not the only
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Speaker 1: murder victim. Take a listen the violence that was visited
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Speaker 1: upon her, if that's the right way to say, it
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Speaker 1: was phenomenal. After she was dead, her body was somewhat mutilated,
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Speaker 1: and you just you know, that's crap you see in
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Speaker 1: the movies and realize that that is very rare. It
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Speaker 1: just doesn't happen. Like Ashley Ellern, Maria Bruno seemed to
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Speaker 1: have no enemies that would do her this kind of harm.
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Speaker 1: In your opinion, it looked like she was killed just
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Speaker 1: to be killed. Yes, it was a bit of a puzzle.
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Speaker 1: I mean, we were able to eliminate burglary or robbery,
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Speaker 1: and relatively quickly, we're able to eliminate sexual assault as
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Speaker 1: being a motive. But unlike the yellow in case, this time,
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Speaker 1: the assailant left something behind outside of Miss Bruno's apartment
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Speaker 1: was a blue cotton booty like a shoe covering. Actually
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Speaker 1: on the soul of the booty was a drop of
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Speaker 1: blood and DNA testing proves that, in fact, it was
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Speaker 1: Maria's blood on the drop of the booty. It was
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Speaker 1: a clue but it was also a dead end. No
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Speaker 1: other evidence was discovered. Wow, you're hearing our friend Maureen Mahr.
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Speaker 1: At forty eight hours the second victim, Maria Bruno, brutally
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Speaker 1: murdered as well. But we believe the pert leaves behind
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Speaker 1: a blue cotton booty, such as the type doctors used
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Speaker 1: when they are operating. To doctor Joey Silva, forensic psychologists
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Speaker 1: joining us out of New York, what does that say
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Speaker 1: to you about the identity of the killer? I mean,
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Speaker 1: you know, I read reports that the booty was something
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Speaker 1: that he had used for work, but you know, maybe
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Speaker 1: it was something maybe he would put something over himself
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Speaker 1: when he was committing the crime so that he wouldn't
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Speaker 1: because I really don't know. It just sounds like it
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Speaker 1: was extremely violent and just organized the way that he
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Speaker 1: was doing this to multiple women. To Randy Kessler, renowned
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Speaker 1: defense attorney, professor of Trial Tactics at Emory Law School,
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Speaker 1: Randy Kessler, for a perp to leave behind a surgical booty,
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Speaker 1: that tells me a lot about who the perpetrator is, Randy,
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Speaker 1: it doesn't you know, psychologists always have a field day
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Speaker 1: that people want to get caught subconsciously they want to
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Speaker 1: have pride of ownership at this not only something that
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Speaker 1: they did, but you know, this guy obviously was taking
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Speaker 1: it to another level. This was not his first rodeo.
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Speaker 1: He's done this, unfortunately, if it's him many times, and
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Speaker 1: maybe he wanted to get caught. Maybe he wants the attention.
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Speaker 1: Who knows how those minds active. He wants to get caught.
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Speaker 1: You know, Randy, you know, and I think I've heard
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Speaker 1: it all. I just ask you a question. He wants
15:18
Speaker 1: to get caught, wants to get caught. Those were just
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Speaker 1: two of his many, many victims. So I guess your theory,
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Speaker 1: if I you know, follow your logic is he continued
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Speaker 1: murdering and attacking to try to get caught. Let let's
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Speaker 1: talk about what it really means. To Joseph Scott Morgan,
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Speaker 1: forensics expert and author of Blood Beneath My Feet on Amazon,
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Speaker 1: it means this was pre planned. Even though there are
15:45
Speaker 1: multiple stab attacks, which we would normally associate with a
15:49
Speaker 1: frenzy murder. No, it's not a frenzy murder. It's not
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Speaker 1: a rage murder. It's very well thought out and premeditated.
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Speaker 1: The guy is covering up parts of his body so
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Speaker 1: He doesn't leave behind fiber, hair, footprints, nothing. That's why
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Speaker 1: we can't get anything on him, because he's covered himself.
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Speaker 1: He shrouded himself and surgical wear specifically not to leave
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Speaker 1: behind evidence that gives me a clue about who my
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Speaker 1: killer is. In it ain't Ashton Kutcher. No, in this
16:25
Speaker 1: particular case, Nancy, one of the things that my mind
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Speaker 1: immediately goes to is that this guy has what we
16:31
Speaker 1: referred to as a murder kit or kill kit, and
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Speaker 1: that is he has specific groups of a specific group
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Speaker 1: of items and tools that he's going to utilize to
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Speaker 1: perpetrate a crime. This is not a disordered event. It's
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Speaker 1: just that when you get into this environment, what the
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Speaker 1: brutality that you're seeing seems frenzied. But this is something
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Speaker 1: that will repeat itself over and over and over again.
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Speaker 1: This guy is showing up prepared. He's showing up prepared.
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Speaker 1: He's bold enough to come to this location and gain
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Speaker 1: entry into this girl's life. And that's that's the scary thing.
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Speaker 1: You were talking just a few moments ago about about
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Speaker 1: how people need to be aware. Listen, people that come
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Speaker 1: into your home now to work on various things, well
17:19
Speaker 1: wear shoe covers. It's part of their stick, you know.
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Speaker 1: They do that so that they won't measure rugs up.
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Speaker 1: This guy has access and these things are available to
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Speaker 1: him to go in and he can justify if the
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Speaker 1: cops stopping. Well, yeah, yeah, you know, I work on
17:35
Speaker 1: I'm the cable guy, so I have to have these
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Speaker 1: things covered in my shoes. It's it's one fallback position
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Speaker 1: that he has. John Linley, Crime online dot Com investigative reporter,
17:44
Speaker 1: what can you tell me about the condition of Maria
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Speaker 1: Bruno's body? Were the injuries similar to those of Ashley Ellern,
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Speaker 1: who is Kutcher's girlfriend. This one seems to be even
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Speaker 1: more brutal. It was Irving Bruno that actually found and
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Speaker 1: his ex wife. There's a nine one one call where
18:03
Speaker 1: he describes what he has found there, Maria's lifeless body
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Speaker 1: laying on what he described as a pool of blood.
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Speaker 1: Her throat has been split and one of her breasts
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Speaker 1: has been cut off. Listen Crime Stories with Nancy Grace.
18:54
Speaker 1: Tricia got home sometime after one am with keys in hand.
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Speaker 1: She went to the side of the house to let
19:00
Speaker 1: herself in. She never made it. The next morning, Trisha's father,
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Speaker 1: Rick was going out to his van. I tried to
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Speaker 1: revive her. That is work freely in your life when
19:17
Speaker 1: you kid pull somebody in love. Trisha's mother, Diane was
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Speaker 1: at work and I just left work and jumped in
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Speaker 1: the car and came home. And I don't remember anything else.
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Speaker 1: She had a lot of blood on her shirt or
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Speaker 1: a blouse. Race Aleevich was the first uniformed police officer
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Speaker 1: on the scene. I was guessing she was stabbed numerous
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Speaker 1: times when I heard a lady screaming and I turned
19:45
Speaker 1: and looked because I was still in the front yard
19:47
Speaker 1: and the mothers running towards Trish. I basically tackled her
19:51
Speaker 1: and I didn't want her to see Trish like this
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Speaker 1: and remember her daughter like that. Our friend Marie mar
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Speaker 1: At forty eight hours John Limley now on victim number three,
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Speaker 1: Trisha Peccaccio. Who is she? What happened to her? And
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Speaker 1: please tell I mean she's not connected to Ashton cusher
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Speaker 1: Tricia Peccaccio had been out with some friends. She comes
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Speaker 1: in around midnight or so, some people say. Some reports
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Speaker 1: say one two a m. Someone plunges a knife into
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Speaker 1: her a dozen times, right on the stoop of her
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Speaker 1: homeside door, and the next morning, as her dad is
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Speaker 1: going out into the driveway to tinker with the truck
20:34
Speaker 1: some her father finds her bloody body right there in
20:39
Speaker 1: front of the door. Say she lives with her family. Yes,
20:43
Speaker 1: she's only eighteen. Wow, that's different from the other cases.
20:48
Speaker 1: So she's living with her family. She gets in around
20:52
Speaker 1: midnight and she stabbed right There was there any robbery,
20:56
Speaker 1: John Linley, No robbery that any was there any sex assault?
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Speaker 1: And that's true with the other cases as well. Yes,
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Speaker 1: they're all very quick from what investigators say. Now three
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Speaker 1: similar attacks on young women, but then a fourth, it's
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Speaker 1: our belief. At around eleven forty in the evening, he
21:19
Speaker 1: gained access into this window, which was opened a few inches,
21:23
Speaker 1: and once he got inside there, he then opens the
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Speaker 1: front door and kind of stages it as an escape route,
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Speaker 1: proceeds into the bedroom where she's sleeping, and what awakes
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Speaker 1: her as a knife being plunged into her. He just
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Speaker 1: flat out stabbed her right She was stabbed multiple times
21:42
Speaker 1: in her chest and shoulder and right arm. Suffered several
21:46
Speaker 1: wounds to both of her hands. As she's grabbing this
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Speaker 1: knife that's being plunged down upon her where those wounds
21:52
Speaker 1: were all required surgery, and at some point there's a
21:55
Speaker 1: lull in the action, so to speak, and she was
21:59
Speaker 1: able to get her feet up and kick him off
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Speaker 1: of her, and that's where he then took off running
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Speaker 1: and left the location. Did he say anything to her ever,
22:08
Speaker 1: I'm sorry, he said, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Wow, you
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Speaker 1: hear our friend Marie Mayor at forty eight hours and
22:16
Speaker 1: we're talking about the fourth victim, Michelle Murphy, who miraculously
22:22
Speaker 1: survives yet another violent and brutal and seemingly frenzied knife attack.
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Speaker 1: To doctor Jolie Silva forensic psychologists joining us out of
22:34
Speaker 1: New York, how do you assess someone that chooses to
22:38
Speaker 1: use a knife in attacks as opposed to, for instance,
22:43
Speaker 1: a gun or a blunt object. It is certainly a
22:48
Speaker 1: violent choice. It is certainly a choice that involves a
22:52
Speaker 1: lot more physically harder to use. And I I mean
22:55
Speaker 1: some of these knife wounds that were forty seven times
22:58
Speaker 1: a dozen times for the physical energy that goes into
23:01
Speaker 1: something like that, So you know, it seems like there's
23:04
Speaker 1: an anger, a rage underlying it, and some kind of
23:09
Speaker 1: satisfaction gained out of the violence. After the fact some
23:14
Speaker 1: type of satisfaction, yes, but not a sex assault. In fact,
23:20
Speaker 1: one woman, Tricia Picaccio, was stabbed dead right there on
23:23
Speaker 1: the stoop of her home trying to get in. Joe
23:26
Speaker 1: Scott Morgan, forensics expert, what does it mean to you, Yeah,
23:29
Speaker 1: with a knife attack, Nancy, this is very, very violent
23:34
Speaker 1: and as opposed to let's just say, for instance, a gun.
23:37
Speaker 1: A gun is a great comparison because you're at a distance.
23:40
Speaker 1: With a weapon, it's very kind of depersonalized. With a knife,
23:44
Speaker 1: you have to be in close proximity to this individual,
23:47
Speaker 1: I mean almost rebreathing their air if you will, on
23:51
Speaker 1: top of them, plunging this knife over and over and
23:54
Speaker 1: over again. And there's also a certain level of threat
23:56
Speaker 1: that's involved with this. You had the victim where you
23:59
Speaker 1: want them, and they see the sharp edge coming at them.
24:02
Speaker 1: It's absolutely terrifying. So we have four women attacked by
24:07
Speaker 1: the so called Hollywood ripper, most of them living alone
24:12
Speaker 1: or with roommates who were not at home at the time.
24:16
Speaker 1: What if anything, does that mean. But there's one difference
24:20
Speaker 1: in the scene of Michelle Murphy. Listen, we have some
24:25
Speaker 1: blood on the steps, okay, and then blood on the
24:27
Speaker 1: concrete steps here leading out down this walkway and into
24:30
Speaker 1: the alley. Investigators followed the blood out to the street
24:35
Speaker 1: where the trail ended, leading them to believe that the
24:38
Speaker 1: attacker was long gone. So how significant in your investigation?
24:43
Speaker 1: And when you showed up that night did you think
24:45
Speaker 1: that blood was going to be huge? Huge? About twenty
24:50
Speaker 1: five days after submitting my samples of the crime lab,
24:53
Speaker 1: I'm informed by a criminalist that we actually have a hit,
24:58
Speaker 1: a DNA hit, a profile that was determined. I didn't
25:02
Speaker 1: get a match. So in one case, we get DNA
25:07
Speaker 1: blood evidence from the alleged perp. But at the same time,
25:11
Speaker 1: something very unusual is taking place. It first started with
25:15
Speaker 1: the flowerwer and Mike, why is Michael bringing us? It
25:20
Speaker 1: was live greenery at Easter time. He brought us a lily,
25:25
Speaker 1: he brought us a dinner certificate to a restaurant, and
25:28
Speaker 1: then he even brought him a shirt. It's like, wait
25:31
Speaker 1: a minute. Nobody else was why is Michael and giving
25:36
Speaker 1: us all of this stuff? And people the detectives at
25:39
Speaker 1: the time, what was going on. It was enough for
25:43
Speaker 1: Cook County Sheriffs detectives Jack Read and Mark Baldwin to
25:47
Speaker 1: take a closer look at Michael. One of the psychologists
25:50
Speaker 1: that was talking to us is he's trying to expiate
25:53
Speaker 1: his sin. He's trying to with tone for his crime
25:56
Speaker 1: with the presence that he was giving to family. You
25:59
Speaker 1: were hearing fam Marie Marrett forty eight hours. Who is
26:04
Speaker 1: Michael and why is he plying the family of Tisha
26:09
Speaker 1: Pecaccio with gifts after Tricia's murder? John Lemley, who is Michael?
26:15
Speaker 1: He is a nice, polite guy according to everyone who
26:19
Speaker 1: lives there in the neighborhood just five hundred feet from
26:22
Speaker 1: where the murders play. Okay, I like that you point
26:25
Speaker 1: out he's a nice guy, But Randy Kessler defense attorney
26:30
Speaker 1: Ted Bundy was charming. He was a nice guy too.
26:33
Speaker 1: I'm not impressed by somebody saying he's a nice guy.
26:36
Speaker 1: Oh look if it's if there's anything that's cliche and
26:38
Speaker 1: our businesses, I can't believe it happened in our neighborhood.
26:40
Speaker 1: He was the nicest guy and it's the family next
26:42
Speaker 1: tour that that is definitely not going to work in
26:44
Speaker 1: a critical setting. Well, now we've got him plying the
26:48
Speaker 1: family of Tisha Pecaccio with gifts. They don't really make
26:53
Speaker 1: any sense. A shirt, a gift carter, a gift certificate
26:56
Speaker 1: to a restaurant, So what if any would have been
27:02
Speaker 1: his connection to Ashley Ellerin. I was walking and then
27:07
Speaker 1: found him sitting in his car at the end of
27:10
Speaker 1: the street with the motor running, and I went in.
27:13
Speaker 1: I just remember keep calling, Ashley, where did you find
27:16
Speaker 1: this guy? This is very odd. Why is this guy
27:19
Speaker 1: in front of our house at two three in the morning.
27:22
Speaker 1: Justin confronted him the next day when Gardulo dropped by
27:27
Speaker 1: for a visit, I said, what the hell were you
27:29
Speaker 1: doing in front of my house at two three in
27:31
Speaker 1: the morning. He started to go on about how the
27:35
Speaker 1: fact that he couldn't go home last night because the
27:39
Speaker 1: FBI was waiting for him at his home to collect
27:43
Speaker 1: DNA samples from Chicago, some murder, his best friend's girlfriend
27:49
Speaker 1: was murdered, or whatever. Ashley and her friends dismissed Gardulo's
27:53
Speaker 1: story as an unlikely fantasy. But what no one realized
27:58
Speaker 1: at the time it was true crime stories with Nancy Grace.
28:18
Speaker 1: I was walking and then found him sitting in his
28:22
Speaker 1: car at the end of the street with the motor running,
28:25
Speaker 1: and I went in. I just remember, keep calling, Ashley,
28:28
Speaker 1: where did you find this guy? This is very odd?
28:30
Speaker 1: Why is this guy in front of our house at
28:32
Speaker 1: two three in the morning. Justin confronted him the next
28:37
Speaker 1: day when Gardiulo dropped by for a visit, I said,
28:40
Speaker 1: what the hell were you doing in front of my
28:42
Speaker 1: house at two three in the morning. He started to
28:46
Speaker 1: go on about how the fact that he couldn't go
28:48
Speaker 1: home last night because the FBI was waiting for him
28:53
Speaker 1: at his home to collect DNA samples from Chicago, some murder,
28:58
Speaker 1: his best friend's girlfriend was murdered or whatever. Ashley and
29:02
Speaker 1: her friends dismissed Gardulo's story as an unlikely fantasy. But
29:07
Speaker 1: what no one realized at the time it was true.
29:11
Speaker 1: You're hearing our friend Marie mar at forty eight hours.
29:14
Speaker 1: So now I've got this guy allegedly sitting down the
29:18
Speaker 1: street at three am in the morning in his car
29:20
Speaker 1: outside Ashley Ellern's home. I've got him plying the family
29:24
Speaker 1: of Trisha Peccaccio with gifts, and I'm yet to hear
29:31
Speaker 1: about a DNA match regarding Michelle Murphy's brutal attack. So
29:37
Speaker 1: who is this guy? Michael Garjulie methodical and systematic slaughter
29:46
Speaker 1: of women. Now. Gardulo grew up in suburban Chicago, played
29:49
Speaker 1: on his high school football team, and later worked as
29:52
Speaker 1: an acy repairman and a plumber. They also say he
29:55
Speaker 1: was a husband and a father. The alleged what nobody
29:58
Speaker 1: knew was that he was leading a double life, because
30:01
Speaker 1: investigators are calling Gardjulo a serial sexual thrill killer who
30:05
Speaker 1: allegedly stabbed and butchered his victims. He's charged with both
30:09
Speaker 1: murder and attempted murder in four different attacks. In all
30:12
Speaker 1: the cases, they say the mo was the same. Gardjulo's
30:15
Speaker 1: plan to kill was to first identify a target who
30:20
Speaker 1: lived near him, acquaint himself with that victim and her
30:24
Speaker 1: habits and routines, and then watch shadow stock and hunt
30:30
Speaker 1: down the victims relentlessly as part of his plan to kill.
30:34
Speaker 1: That's our friends at CBS two News Kara Finistrom. Wow,
30:39
Speaker 1: it's almost too much to take in to doctor Chris Sperry,
30:42
Speaker 1: retire Chief medical Examiner, what do you make of the ems,
30:49
Speaker 1: the method of operation, and the causes of death and
30:54
Speaker 1: attacks on these four women for that we know of?
30:58
Speaker 1: Doctor Sperry's interesting contrast because the perpetrator obviously is planning
31:05
Speaker 1: things very carefully, in great detail. He's preparing himself. He has,
31:11
Speaker 1: as Joe Morgan pointed out, a killed kit. I mean
31:15
Speaker 1: he has everything put together to you know, to carry
31:20
Speaker 1: out his plan. But then once he gets access and
31:25
Speaker 1: overpowers the victim, then the amount of injury I mean
31:30
Speaker 1: multiple stab wounds, I mean almost fifty in a couple
31:34
Speaker 1: of cases. That's that's what we would consider to be overkilled.
31:38
Speaker 1: In other words, there's way too many injuries that would
31:44
Speaker 1: be necessary to kill the person. He just keeps stabbing
31:48
Speaker 1: and stabbing and cutting until unfortunately, except for the last victim,
31:54
Speaker 1: but in the others he keeps stabbing well passed the
31:57
Speaker 1: time that they're dead. So there's it's an interesting mixture
32:02
Speaker 1: of careful planning that finally is an incredible outpouring of
32:09
Speaker 1: rage and hatred too, and just killing the victim over
32:14
Speaker 1: and over and over again until he's finally finished. Some
32:18
Speaker 1: describe him as the boy next door killer. I don't
32:21
Speaker 1: know if those words necessarily fit together or listen. Michael Garjulo,
32:26
Speaker 1: for almost fifteen years, was watching, always watching, and his
32:33
Speaker 1: hobby was plotting the perfect opportunity to attack women with
32:38
Speaker 1: a knife in and around their homes. On one occasion,
32:44
Speaker 1: one of Ashley's friends saw Garjulo staring into Ashley's house
32:50
Speaker 1: at odd hours, surveilling her home. To you, doctor Jolie Silva,
32:56
Speaker 1: forensic psychologists joining us out of New York. It's seems
33:00
Speaker 1: as if as important as the actual murderer was the
33:03
Speaker 1: stalking and the surveilling and the spying that this guy,
33:10
Speaker 1: Michael Gerzuelo would perform. It seems like part of a ritual. Yeah. Yeah,
33:15
Speaker 1: And you know, when you see serial killers, the fantasy
33:20
Speaker 1: that comes before it is quite common. The stalking, the plotting,
33:25
Speaker 1: the planning, the fantasizing, and sometimes in the very beginning,
33:30
Speaker 1: the fantasy alone brings that level of satisfaction, and then
33:33
Speaker 1: that's not enough. It's almost like a drug addiction. Then
33:36
Speaker 1: I need more, and then I need more, and then
33:38
Speaker 1: I need more until if he's escalating, until there are killings,
33:41
Speaker 1: and then he needs a fix every time. But that
33:44
Speaker 1: stalking fantasy usually perceives something like this, take a listen
33:49
Speaker 1: to our him. Miriam Hernandez at ABC seven. Defendant Michael
33:52
Speaker 1: Garzuelo first ingratiated himself to his victims. He was the helpful.
33:57
Speaker 1: Next four handyman, only to stalk them, break in, then
34:01
Speaker 1: repeatedly stabbed them. The defense rebuts Gargello's fingerprints were not found.
34:07
Speaker 1: Is there any physical evidence? As I said, the forty
34:10
Speaker 1: three year old is accused of two murders and one
34:12
Speaker 1: attempted murder in the LA area, but the DA says
34:15
Speaker 1: Garzelou targeted his first victim in nineteen ninety three in
34:18
Speaker 1: Chicago when he was seventeen. His arrest though too late
34:22
Speaker 1: for Mario Bruno, her ex husband found her mutilated body
34:26
Speaker 1: and called nine one okay. The alleged killing spree was
34:39
Speaker 1: enabled by skillful planning. Garzello knew martial arts, studied forensic science,
34:44
Speaker 1: and how to kill with a knife. His cover, he
34:47
Speaker 1: was an air conditioning repairman as me. So much of
34:51
Speaker 1: BTK behind torture killed Dennis Writer who had a regular
34:56
Speaker 1: job as a dog catcher right there that would erase
34:59
Speaker 1: the a flag for me, but had access to neighborhoods
35:03
Speaker 1: and could knock on doors and identify potential victims. So
35:08
Speaker 1: he basically Randy Kessler defense lawyer had a double life. Yeah,
35:15
Speaker 1: I mean, that's not uncommon. That's exactly what we're talking about.
35:17
Speaker 1: Before the boor next door. The average person. Everybody can
35:21
Speaker 1: be a suspect. And that's what's terrible about humanity. You know,
35:23
Speaker 1: you never know who's next door. And the reality is
35:26
Speaker 1: Joseph Scott Morgan, author of Blood Beneath My Feet on Amazon,
35:31
Speaker 1: he started, according to prosecutors at age seventeen that we
35:34
Speaker 1: know of. There's really no telling how many other victims
35:37
Speaker 1: there may be in addition to these four. Yeah, that's
35:40
Speaker 1: the that's the chilling part of this, Nancy. You don't
35:43
Speaker 1: know with that gap of time that we're talking about here,
35:47
Speaker 1: you don't know who else is out there, who else
35:50
Speaker 1: is grieving because they're missing someone, And that's going to
35:54
Speaker 1: cause the police. I would think in these locations where
35:56
Speaker 1: he has lived, where he has lived previously, took a long,
35:59
Speaker 1: hard look this guy to John Litle Crime online dot
36:02
Speaker 1: Com investigative reporter Crime Online where you can find this
36:05
Speaker 1: and all other breaking crime and justice and news. Where
36:09
Speaker 1: does it stand now? Ely Gariulo is facing the death
36:12
Speaker 1: penalty for the two California murders and the attempted murder charge. Now,
36:19
Speaker 1: after this trial, which some people suspect may last as
36:23
Speaker 1: long as six months, he'll be extradited to Illinois to
36:27
Speaker 1: face trial there for the killing of Petaccio. Randy Kessler
36:32
Speaker 1: trial lawyer, Why does every trial takes so long in California?
36:35
Speaker 1: You know, prosecutors want to get it right, and sometimes
36:38
Speaker 1: they do too much, and that gives the defense a
36:40
Speaker 1: lot more to pick apart. But when you're looking at
36:42
Speaker 1: how to prosecute a case, you don't want to be
36:43
Speaker 1: the prosecutor that says, oh my gosh, I just brought
36:46
Speaker 1: this one more piece of evidence. It's one more witnesses,
36:48
Speaker 1: one more person testify, So sometimes they do take longer
36:52
Speaker 1: than they need, and that may be what happened with
36:54
Speaker 1: oj Simpson, right Nancy, you were there well, Cassler Kessler,
36:58
Speaker 1: you preach it to the choir. I say, put it
37:01
Speaker 1: all out there, down to the very very last sintilla
37:06
Speaker 1: of evidence. Don't ever ever say shoulda, coulda, would have
37:11
Speaker 1: When it's on you to prove the case. We wait
37:14
Speaker 1: as justice unfolds Nancy Gray's crime story, signing off goodbye friend,