05x05 - Burning Ambition

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NARRATOR: In , a suspicious house fire

destroyed the home of the Seattle, Washington policeman.

In a bizarre twist, an ex-convict

confessed to setting the fire, then mysteriously disappeared.

When investigators looked carefully at the written

confession, they discovered clues

of a more serious crime than arson.

They found evidence of m*rder.

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Sergeant Matt Bachmeier was a -year veteran of the King

County Sheriff's Department, a man well

liked and respected by his peers.

DET.

DENNY GULLA: This guy was a police hero, you know?

He had been involved in several different types of sh**t,

or real interesting type of events, and had survived them.

NARRATOR: On July , , at : in the morning,

a fire broke out in Sergeant Bachmeier's suburban home.

Bachmeier was at a local bowling alley when the fire broke out.

By the time the fire was extinguished,

the home was almost completely destroyed.

The origin of the fire appeared suspicious.

And dogs specially trained to recognize flammable

liquids or accelerants were sent to sniff through the rubble.

The dogs identified five different areas

where accelerants were used to set this fire.

One was in the basement.

A second in the dining room.

There were two separate areas in the attic.

And the fifth was in the garage.

In arson terms, this is called a layering fire.

On the outside wall of Sargent Bachmeier's garage

were spray painted messages critical of police.

One said, Rios lives.

Guadalupe Rios was a man Sergeant Bachmeier Meyer had

sh*t and k*lled eight years earlier in the line of duty.

Bachmeier told colleagues that he had received threats

from Rios' friends and relatives,

but until now they had only been threats.

Captain Dave Maehren was Sergeant

Bachmeier's supervisor.

CAPTAIN MAEHREN: We were concerned any time

a fellow officer's home is-- is arsoned,

that's a traumatic event for them.

And I talked to him what he might need as a way of help

and support and time off to recover from that.

NARRATOR: While the arson investigation continued,

Sergeant Bachmeier himself uncovered

some important information about the fire.

It happened when he was called to break

up a neighborhood fight.

-Sir, are you OK?

-Yeah, I'm all right.

-Did anybody here say what happened?

-I saw most of it.

NARRATOR: One of the men in that fight was Brad Wren, who

had a history of mental problems and had

some prior brushes with the law. -Thank you.

What happened?

-Well, I can start off by telling you two weeks ago

he was sh*t in the leg.

And now tonight, he got in a fight with his

brother's-- his roommate's brother.

-You doing OK?

Is that leg all right?

-Yeah, it's certainly k*lling me,

but I guess it's gonna be all right.

-All right, let's get down to the police station.

We can take your statement there.

NARRATOR: Sergeant Bachmeier asked

Wren to come to the police station

so that he could take his statement.

According to Sergeant Bachmeier, during questioning

Wren asked Bachmeier if he was the cop whose home

was destroyed by the recent fire.

-Are you the cop that had his house b*rned down?

-Yeah. why?

NARRATOR: When Bachmeier said yes,

Wren allegedly told Bachmeier that he

knew the identity of the arsonist.

-He's a drug dealer I met in a bar.

Pepe Hernandez.

NARRATOR: Pepe Hernandez told Wren

that a local cop had stolen some dr*gs and money from him

during a recent drug bust.

-Hey man, this cop busted me the other day.

-Yeah?

-He stole my dope and my stash of money.

-So what are you going to do?

-I know where he lives and I want to go get myself back.

-You know, I'll give you $ if you come and help me.

NARRATOR: The cop Fernandez was talking about

was none other than Sergeant Bachmeier.

-So I said, OK.

-Then what happened?

-We broke into your house and Pepe tore the house up.

He couldn't find the dr*gs or the money.

And so Pepe started stealing things--

paintings and-- and statues.

And I heard him say he was going to burn your house down.

And then he-- he just did it.

-Where is he now?

-If you think I'm going to help you find him, you're crazy.

He'll k*ll me.

When I left, he was pissed and I'm glad he's gone.

NARRATOR: Sergeant Bachmeier transcribed

Wren's entire statement, had Wren sign it,

then released him from custody.

But Bachmeier had a dilemma.

The confession implicated him in the theft of dr*gs and money.

So he decided not to turn it over to his superiors.

At least, not yet.

Brad Wren, the man who allegedly confessed to taking part

in the arson of Sergeant Bachmeier's home,

had a history of mental problems.

It all started when Brad Wren was in the Air Force.

He was in a severe motorcycle accident

and barely escaped with his life.

-He had massive brain injuries.

They didn't know if he went in a coma.

They didn't know what to tell us or anything

until he come out of the coma.

NARRATOR: Wren eventually recovered,

but he was never the same after the accident.

His personality changed.

He was more aggressive.

And for the first time in his life,

got into trouble with the law.

Shortly after the accident, he was

convicted of a sex-related offense

and spent three months in prison.

More recently, Wren was in a violent argument

with his roommate, Emmet Marcel, who sh*t him in the leg,

shattering his tibia.

-His roommate had a mental problem, too.

And if he didn't take his medication,

why, then he was just more or less wacky, you know.

And evidently he'd been off his medication for awhile

and him and Brad got into it.

-They were doing some kind of siding or roofing

or something for a friend.

And Brad hit Emmet's finger with the hammer.

And that's what Emmet said he sh*t him for.

NARRATOR: Unaware of Brad Wren's alleged confession,

arson investigator Becky Gibbs was assigned to investigate

the arson fire of Sargent Bachmeier's home.

She saw evidence that was inconsistent with a fire set

for revenge.

-And typically, if somebody's going

to set a fire for revenge, they may go to some trouble

to set a fire, but this particular way

of setting a fire takes some time.

NARRATOR: The debris from the fire

was analyzed using gas chromatography, which found

traces of gasoline in the debris.

There was also evidence that road flares

were used to ignite the gasoline.

-These would be considered a time-delay device.

If you set the road flare on fire,

the fire doesn't start right away.

But once it reaches the point where it's touching the gas

container, then the fire-- the gas container would melt

and the fire would start.

NARRATOR: Most fires set for revenge

do not use time-delay devices.

The flares would have given Sergeant Bachmeier enough time

to drive to the bowling alley to establish his alibi

before the gasoline containers exploded.

Investigators were also suspicious

because Bachmeier's artwork, porcelain collection,

and bowling trophies were found undamaged

in his backyard shed after the fire.

Sergeant Bachmeier became the prime suspect.

He adamantly denied any involvement.

But when asked to take a lie detector test, he refused.

Under increasing scrutiny, Sergeant Bachmeier

had no choice but to produce Brad Wren's alleged confession,

even though it implicated Bachmeier

in stealing from a reputed drug dealer.

When police tried to interview Brad Wren to corroborate

his confession, they discovered he was missing.

-There wasn't any of his clothes, none of his shoes,

nothing left in the house.

-I knew Brad was dead.

I knew it.

I don't know how I knew it.

But I knew my son was dead.

We would have heard from him.

He would have never went off and left his dog

with nobody taking care of him.

He would have never-- he would have

just never let him like that.

NARRATOR: Detective Denny Gulla asked Matt Bachmeier

if he knew anything about Wren's alleged disappearance,

since Bachmeier was the last known person to see Wren alive.

-He starts laughing.

He goes, well, if you find him dead with my business

card nailed to his forehead, you'll know to come talk to me.

And he kind of laughs it off, kind of jokingly.

And, you know, I wrote that down when he says that,

because I'm going, that's kind of bizarre.

NARRATOR: Police could find no arrest record for anyone

by the name of Pepe Hernandez and police officials

say Bachmeier's handling of Brad Wren's interrogation

was improper.

-It would be highly, highly unusual

for an experienced police sergeant of years

to take a statement like that alone for a suspect.

And then certainly to release him immediately

afterwards would be extremely, extremely rare.

NARRATOR: Although Brad Wren's family identified the signature

on the bottom of the alleged confession

as Brad's, forensic document examiners

weren't entirely convinced.

In Seattle, Washington, police were conducting

two simultaneous investigations.

One into the fire that destroyed police

sergeant Matt Bachmeier's home.

The other, a search for the whereabouts of Brad Wren.

They were connected, since Brad Wren was last seen alive

in the backseat of Sergeant Bachmeier's patrol car.

-That was the last sighting we had and, uh,

in police investigations, last person seen with someone who's

alive is-- is certainly going to attract your interest.

NARRATOR: The four and a half page statement, in which

Brad Wren allegedly admitted to taking part

in the arson of Sergeant Bachmeier's home,

was written by Bachmeier then signed

by Wren, which is standard procedure.

Brad Wren had signed the first four pages of the confession,

but for some unexplained reason, did not sign the last page.

-In our department that's not normal.

That's not a normal procedure.

We would write the whole statement.

The very last page would have that on it.

NARRATOR: The confession was subjected

to a process known as videospectography.

To the naked eye, the ink in Wren's confession

all looked the same.

But the videospectography told a different story.

Under various infrared light sources,

scientists could see that the confession was

written with three different inks.

All of Wren's signatures and his initials

were written in a black ink with high luminescence.

The entire first page and the top of the second

used a gray black ink with medium luminescence.

From then on, a third ink was used, a black ink that

shows no reaction to the infrared light.

And there were other discrepancies.

Wren's occupation was listed as truck driver, which

was incorrect, as well as other vital information.

-James Wren's birth date was different on the second page.

It's listed as .

And then on the third and fourth page, it's .

And then the fifth page doesn't even have a birth date.

NARRATOR: In the confession, Bachmeier incorrectly wrote

the contraction you are as y-o-u-r, the same mistake found

in the threatening message on Sergeant

Bachmeier's garage after the fire.

Next, scientists check Bachmeier's patrol car

and found something unusual.

-As they go through the backseat of Bachmeier's patrol car,

they find just very faint traces of blood.

And initially they thought, well, that's a police car.

It's not going to be unusual to have faint traces of blood

in the backseat of a police car.

They open up the seat and they find

in the stitching several blood stain patterns on the backside

of the seat cover that had soaked through the stitching.

NARRATOR: Using a sample of blood from Brad Wren's parents,

a reverse paternity DNA test was made.

It proved conclusively that the blood from the backseat

of the patrol car was that of Brad Wren.

-Can anybody here tell me what Happened

NARRATOR: Bachmeier said the blood was from Wren's

bloody nose that occurred in the fight Bachmeier

was called to break up.

Investigators decided to test this hypothesis to see

if the size of the blood stain was

consistent with a nose bleed.

Forensic scientists use identical rear seats

from other patrol cars to conduct their test.

Using head sculptures with wigs and weights

to simulate a human head, investigators

poured different amounts of blood onto the seat cushions.

It took two quarts of blood to produce a stain the size

found in Bachmeier's patrol car.

A loss of two quarts of blood would be life threatening.

Police also found Brad Wren's blood

on a pair of Sergeant Bachmeier's work shoes.

Investigators now believed that Brad Wren d*ed in the backseat

of Sergeant Bachmeier's patrol car.

But where was Brad Wren's body?

Seven months after Brad Wren's disappearance,

hikers in a restricted area of Cougar Mountain Park outside

of Seattle found some bones and what

appeared to be a human skull.

The bones had been scattered by animals.

Fragments were found over a quarter mile away.

Only % of the skeleton was recovered,

but the size and shape of the cranium

told forensic anthropologists that the victim was male.

And that the condition of the bones

indicated that they had been in the park less than a year.

They also found a steel rod in the lower leg bone,

a surgical repair identical to one performed on Brad Wren.

And near some of the bones in the park,

searchers found a red, white, and blue leg cast.

-I need your name and address.

NARRATOR: Witnesses said Brad Wren was wearing

an identical leg cast when he left with Sergeant Bachmeier

in his patrol car.

The marrow in one of the bones was tested for DNA

and the results confirmed what investigators

already suspected.

The bone was that of Brad Wren.

-First thing it did was start bawling.

Cried my heart out.

But I was glad in a lot of ways they found him.

It was hell, not knowing where he was at.

NARRATOR: The only remaining question for investigators

was the motive.

-The story is so convoluted and so sort of pathetically obvious

in its fabrication that it almost defies belief.

I mean, I think it would be rejected as a plot for a novel

or a script for a movie because it just

seems so absurd and outlandish and unnecessarily

sort of complex and contradictory.

NARRATOR: Matt Bachmeier was an avid bowler,

and his dream was to compete on the professional bowlers tour.

Prosecutors believe Bachmeier set fire to his own home

using the time-delay device, giving him time to get

to the bowling alley to establish his alibi.

Bachmeier may have planned to use the insurance money

from the fire to finance his entry

onto the Pro Bowlers Tour.

But removing his bowling trophies and artwork

from the home before the fire was a classic arson mistake.

When Bachmeier learned he was a suspect in the arson,

he looked for a scapegoat.

Brad Wren was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

And there is no evidence he ever made

it to police headquarters for questioning.

Somewhere along the way, Bachmeier stopped this car

and forced or coerced Wren into signing

some blank police reports.

-I'm not going to bother taking you down to the station.

I'll just strike the report from what you've already told me.

There'll be no charges.

Just sign a couple of these forms for me, would you?

-Is this something you normally do?

-Yeah. It's fine.

Hey, do me a favor?

In case your statement goes on too long,

could you sign a few extra copies for me?

-Yeah. Sure.

NARRATOR: Then, Bachmeier m*rder*d him.

Wren's blood seeped into the rear seat cushions

as Bachmeier made the -minute minute drive

to Cougar Mountain Park to dump the body.

Some time later, Bachmeier composed the phony confession,

which forensic technology revealed as bogus.

-I'd never been so mad at somebody in my whole life.

There was a time or two there that I just

wanted to get a hold of him so bad.

I think I could have ripped him limb by limb.

I was just furious with that man.

-I don't think he's much of a man.

I think the man must have a mental problem or something,

I don't know.

I can't feature a police officer, years or so,

doing something like this, without having

some kind of a problem.

What-- what-- what was he going to gain out of it, you know?

I don't know.

NARRATOR: Sergeant Matt Bachmeier

was convicted of first-degree m*rder.

He was sentenced to life in prison.

Seattle prosecutors say it was one of the most bizarre m*rder

cases they had ever encountered .

-I can't pretend to, uh, to tell you what sort of a person

gets drawn into a web of his own making to the extent

that he's willing to take a human life.

Uh, All I can say is that we see this happen.

And we rarely see it happen with a law enforcement officer

with years of service.

But most murders are fundamentally

inexplicable, unreasonable, irrational events.

-I think, um, stupid would apply.

But I think-- the thing that comes to mind

is just he really underestimated the people

that worked around him.

-One of our members was, uh, talking not too long

about someone writing a book about this.

And they said, um, I don't think anybody will write a book

about this because when you tell the story, it's not believable.

Um, but it is interesting.

And so I think there's still, for-- for quite some time

to come, will be with our department, unfortunately.

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