06x26 - Double Trouble

[bunniefuu]

Narrator: this is the story of two crimes

Committed in different states, miles apart.

In each case, a woman was assaulted late at night.

[Siren]

Investigators found the same signature elements

In both crimes.

The calling card of this perpetrator was so unusual...

It eventually cost him his life.

Perth amboy, new jersey,

About an hour's drive from the hustle and bustle of new york city.

For years, this riverfront town

Has been a haven for immigrants seeking a better life in america.

Melissa padilla's parents came from puerto rico.

She and her brothers grew up here.

Woman: yeah. She was my right hand.

She was always helping me with them.

She--

She was like a second mother to them.

They depend on her.

Man: I remember her often helping me out with my work.

She was an excellent speller,

And my spelling--

It's just something I've never been able to handle,

And she was always there when I needed some help with that.

Narrator: melissa attended high school in perth amboy

But quit in her junior year

And later became pregnant.

She had more children in rapid succession

And in , was unmarried

And supporting herself and the children

With a monthly welfare check.

Irizarry: she didn't have any technical skills

Or something that would demand a high-paying job,

So she would have to suit for minimum wage,

And there was no way that she was gonna make it with that.

Narrator: melissa was able to scrape by for a while,

But then she fell behind on her rent

And lost her apartment.

Melissa and her children then moved into the gem motel,

One of several cheap motels located along route ,

A main north-south artery in avenel, new jersey.

On the night of august , ,

Melissa left the children with her boyfriend

And walked to a nearby convenience store for some groceries.

Irizarry: she went out at : at night

Because her kids were hungry.

Narrator: melissa left the store around :

And headed back to the motel,

But she never arrived.

Her boyfriend told police

He found her half-naked body later that night

Along the highway.

Melissa's mother got the word

Shortly after the body was discovered.

Gonzalez: you're not supposed to bury your children.

Are you gonna die before them?

No parents want to bury their children.

It's hard.

I was supposed to go before her.

Narrator: most murderers go to great lengths to avoid detection.

Melissa's k*ller didn't seem to care,

Committing his crime along a busy highway,

Where he could have been easily seen.

It was this brazenness that would eventually be his downfall.

Narrator: when melissa padilla left her hotel room

To buy food for her young children,

Her route took her along a well-travelled highway

To a nearby convenience store.

Melissa never returned.

Her boyfriend told police he found her body

In a sewer pipe near the highway.

She was naked from the waist down.

Man: the autopsy revealed that she d*ed as a result

Of the manual asphyxiation and as*ault.

Narrator: there were several grocery items near the body,

As well as melissa's blood-spattered shorts,

Found about half a block away with the pocket turned out,

But the most telling evidence came from melissa's body itself.

Man: her eyes were battered,

Indicating that she had received punches

From someone who was strong

And who subdued her in that way.

The fact that she was naked

And that her genital area was mutilated

Obviously indicated that there was a sexual as*ault.

Narrator: scrapings from under her fingernails

Revealed dna that authorities hoped would bring a conviction

If they could only find a suspect.

Melissa's autopsy revealed one other detail,

Something tom kapsak had never seen

In his years of prosecuting homicides.

Kapsak: she had bite marks on her chin

And on her left breast,

Indicating that there was probably some kind of ritualistic element

To the k*lling.

Narrator: the bite mark on the chin was particularly unusual.

Kapsak: I've done a lot of research,

And I've talked to a lot of people.

Bite marks usually occur to the genital areas,

To the breast, to the stomach,

But I have never heard of one

That occurred to the chin before.

Narrator: armed with this evidence,

New jersey police began their search for melissa's k*ller.

The security video from the quick chek store

Where melissa had bought groceries

Helped establish the time of the m*rder--

Shortly before midnight.

It also showed the cashier giving her change,

But no money was found in melissa's clothing,

Indicating she had also been robbed.

Police also began canvassing the area,

Looking for eyewitnesses.

Nagle: there was a witness that was identified

That was interviewed

Who indicated they were traveling past the roadway

And saw what appeared to be two individuals

In some sort of struggle

Standing up near the concrete pipes.

Narrator: but the witness could provide little useful information.

The battering about melissa's face

And the bite marks on her breast and chin

Led police to theorize that her k*ller got a perverse pleasure

Out of assaulting women

And might have struck before.

Just a mile from the m*rder scene

Was a prison for convicted sex offenders.

A check of prison records showed a number of released prisoners

Living in the area.

Kapsak: we then pulled their files

To determine what their m.o. Was

And whether they were involved in any kind of ritual

When they committed their sex crimes.

They complied with requests for dna samples.

They complied with exemplar requests for hairs.

They also submitted to polygraph examinations

That were conducted by the woodbridge police department,

And they all were eliminated as suspects in the crime.

Narrator: melissa's boyfriend,

Who had stayed with her children, was also eliminated.

Nagle: eventually, things started to appear

That we have an unsolved homicide

With no suspect to pursue.

Narrator: months later,

Miles away in maine,

There was another as*ault

Strikingly similar to melissa padilla's.

Excuse me, sir. Are you ok?

Oh!

Narrator: this crime was bold and brazen,

But the perpetrator made a mistake

In choosing his victim.

She was a state trooper.

Narrator: months after the m*rder of melissa padilla,

Police still didn't have a suspect.

The brutality of the as*ault led police to believe

Her k*ller took pleasure in attacking women

And might strike again.

Months later,

State troopers in maine reported a brazen as*ault

On one of their own.

The as*ault took place on april , at about : p.m.

Trooper vicki gardner, an -year veteran,

Was off duty and driving her police cruiser south on interstate .

Man: she came across a vehicle

Facing the wrong way on the interstate,

And she stopped to investigate.

Excuse me, sir. Are you ok?

Yes.

I'm just sleeping.

Narrator: gardner discovered that the driver, steven fortin,

Had been drinking.

Would you please get out of the car?

Stay right there.

Narrator: since she was off duty,

She called for another police vehicle

To take fortin into custody.

Could you send some backup?

Narrator: when fortin heard this, he exploded.

Man: fortin sucker-punched her,

Ripped her clothes off,

Molested her.

In the process of molesting her,

He bit her,

And when the backup cruiser arrived,

He took off in the cruiser.

Narrator: vicki gardner was unconscious,

Still in the vehicle.

When she regained consciousness,

She opened the passenger door and tried to jump out.

Crook: he was sort of trying to reach out and grab ahold of her and pull her back in,

And she swung herself away from him and got away from him.

Narrator: vicki gardner was lucky to be alive.

Crook: I've never seen a woman att*cked that way,

Damaged that badly,

Who lived to talk about it.

Narrator: after vicki jumped out of the vehicle,

Fortin lost control of the car and crashed.

He was later apprehended.

Lieutenant lancaster interviewed him in prison.

Lancaster: he took no responsibility.

He was--

It was-- while we spoke--

Though we spoke of the incident,

It was always somebody else's fault.

Um, he, uh--

I knew that I was dealing with someone that was evil.

Narrator: vicki had scrapes and bruises

Over her entire body,

And her face was severely battered.

Fortin had not only punched and assaulted her,

He had also left a bizarre calling card--

Two bite marks--

One on the outer area of her left breast,

The other on her chin.

Crook: who att*cks a trooper

And sexually molests her in her own cruiser?

You just know from the facts of this case

And the as*ault and the way in which the as*ault took place

And every aspect about it--

You knew that you were dealing with someone

Who had done something like this before.

Narrator: in fact, a check of police records

In fortin's home state of new jersey

Revealed that he had a history of v*olence.

Fortin's name was well-known to prosecutor kapsak.

He had sent him to prison for years

On a manslaughter charge.

Fortin got out after only / years.

Nagle: he had stabbed his brother in the throat in

In the township of carteret

And pled guilty to that.

Narrator: when the new jersey state police heard the news

Of steve fortin's as*ault in maine,

They naturally wanted to find out if fortin was in new jersey

On the night melissa padilla was k*lled.

An interview with fortin's former girlfriend

Provided the answer.

Kapsak: and she told us that in august of ,

Steven fortin did, in fact, live in avenel, new jersey.

In fact, he lived in an apartment with her,

And on the very night in question,

He assaulted her in the parking lot of a restaurant,

And she called the police, and he ran.

Narrator: that restaurant, bud's hut,

Was a short walk from the gem hotel,

Where melissa was living.

The police report listed the time of the as*ault

On dawn archer as : p.m.,

An hour before melissa was m*rder*d.

At last, authorities had a suspect.

Melissa's brother got the word

A day after his birthday.

Irizarry: I didn't consider it a birthday gift,

But I was glad that they did find him,

And I was praying that they would find him

Before he could ever do that to someone else.

Narrator: they found him,

But now they had to prove him guilty.

Prosecutors hoped the dna evidence

Taken from under melissa's fingernails

Would incriminate fortin,

But it didn't.

Nagle: when it was compared to steven fortin

From maine's evidence that we obtained from them,

The dna lab could not include him or exclude him

As a source.

Narrator: with the dna results inconclusive,

The bite marks on the two victims

Seemed to be prosecutors' best chance

Of linking fortin to melissa padilla's m*rder.

A plaster impression was therefore made

On fortin's teeth.

The impression, along with photographs of the bite marks,

Were sent to dr. Lowell levine,

A respected forensic odontologist

Who worked for the new york state police.

Levine: these are mr. Fortin's teeth,

Or actually models of them,

And they're made the same way

As the orthodontist would take models

Or the dentist takes models to do prosthetic devices.

If you take a look at the upper teeth,

He's got a space between his two middle front ones,

And the one on the right is bigger than the one on the left

Because it's a cap,

And, in fact, the biting surface

Is slightly wider also

From front to back.

If you look at the models of the lower teeth,

They're very, very straight across the bottom of them.

He's got almost no wear on the incisal edges,

So they leave linear markings rather than rectangles,

And they're very, very straight across,

And he's got the slightly pointed canines,

So he doesn't have a whole lot of wear.

Narrator: levine compared fortin's teeth

To the bite marks on vicki gardner and melissa padilla.

He found them to be a match.

Leaving nothing to chance,

Prosecutors also brought in roy hazelwood,

A former fbi profiler

And an expert on criminal behavior.

Hazelwood: he was interested in my studying the crimes

To determine whether or not I could do a linkage analysis

In the two crimes.

A linkage analysis is an in-depth study of two or more crimes

With the idea of attempting to determine

Whether or not they were committed by the same person.

Narrator: hazelwood concluded

That the same man had indeed committed both crimes.

The trial of steven fortin began on october , --

A trial with no eyewitnesses, circumstantial evidence,

And inconclusive dna findings.

The prosecutor's case rested almost entirely

On the opinions of two forensic experts.

Narrator: the m*rder of melissa padilla

And the as*ault of a maine state trooper were so strikingly similar

That this became a critical part of the prosecution's case.

At steven fortin's trial,

Maine state trooper vicki gardner

Took the stand to describe how fortin had beaten

And sexually assaulted her.

Kapsak: then we had to bring in witnesses

That brought the two crimes together,

And they were hazelwood and levine.

Narrator: addressing the jury,

Roy hazelwood explained that some crimes,

Like the m*rder of melissa padilla

And the as*ault of trooper gardner,

Have unique patterns of behavior

Which he called "rituals."

Hazelwood: the ritual are those acts

Which are unnecessary to the commission of the crime

And are carried out to meet the emotional needs

Of the offender.

Narrator: in this case,

The need for psychosexual gratification.

Hazelwood identified examples of ritualistic behavior

That were common to both cases.

Hazelwood: bite mark to the chin.

Bite mark to the left breast.

Excessive battering to the upper portion of the face

In both instances.

Injurious a**l penetration

And manual strangulation from the front.

I've never seen that combination of behaviors

In any other crime.

Narrator: then dr. Levine explained to the jury

That no two people have teeth patterns

That are exactly the same.

Levine: what I basically did was to show the jurors

That people leave bite marks that look different.

We used two of the prosecutors,

Myself, and one of the investigators

So that bite marks look different.

Narrator: dr. Levine showed the jury

Overlays of steve fortin's teeth.

Kapsak: we were able to show the jury how the overlays

Fit over the life-size photographs

Of the bite mark on the victim.

We did it by animating the overlay

So that it moves across the screen

And stops exactly on the bite mark,

And it was very effective, and it was very dramatic,

And I think it worked very well.

Reporter: new jersey authorities are coming...

Narrator: the jury deliberated steven fortin's fate

For two days before reaching their verdict--

[Cell door slams]

Guilty.

In the penalty phase,

Prosecutors asked for the death sentence

And concluded by explaining to the jury

Why fortin had bitten his victims

On the chin.

Kapsak: what we finally decided regarding the bite mark to the chin

Was that steven fortin was biting the victim on the chin

While he was looking in her eyes

And mutilating her genitals

And that he was getting a perverse pleasure out of that.

Narrator: on february , ,

Fortin was sentenced to die by lethal injection.

Irizarry: it was justice, but I didn't feel, like, a vengeance,

That justice should have been served, you know?

I was grateful.

Roy hazelwood and lowell levine

Were absolutely critical to the case.

This case, like most m*rder cases,

Depended on circumstantial evidence,

On forensic evidence, on expert testimony.

Narrator: and the tools those experts have to draw on,

Says hazelwood,

Are growing more and more sophisticated every year.

Hazelwood: I'm continuously amazed

At the strides we've made

In investigating crimes and solving crimes

And prosecuting crimes.

Narrator: steven fortin is now in trenton state prison

Awaiting execution.

Melissa padilla's sons are living with their father.

Her daughters are being raised by melissa's mom.

Gonzalez: she was a good mother,

Good sister, good friend.

She was a wonderful daughter.

She was a good person,

Had a big heart.

And, um...

I'm sorry her kids won't be able to know that.