14x10 - Filtered Out

[bunniefuu]

Up next, a
teenage girl goes missing.

- This child had walked away
into darkness and disappeared.

Was she the victim of foul play,

or did she run off
to be with a friend?

- It was hard horrible, you know?

People just didn't know
what to make of it.

For weeks, there were
many questions, but no answers.

- There's something's
not right, you know?

It was just too weird.

Until police find evidence

of an encounter gone wrong.

- She would have put
up a tremendous fight.

- This is good science.

This is absolute good stuff.

Teenage love affairs
are notoriously passionate.

So when 16-year-old
Tara Munsey fell in love

with her high school
classmate, Nick Zaroba,

she expected it to last forever.

- Tara and Nick was the strongest
love that you could imagine,

but it was like the car
show, Fast and Furious.

It was, sometimes
it was really great,

and sometimes, it
was really furious.

And...

When Nick
graduated, he joined the Navy

and was stationed at the Great
Lakes Naval base in Illinois.

Tara stayed in
Virginia to finish

her last years in high school.

She was in love with him

and she talked about
him constantly.

They planned on getting married.

On the night
of January 25, 2000,

Tara didn't return
home after her shift

at a local fast food restaurant.

It wasn't like Tara to do that.

Tara would always
call in and check in.

Tara's parents called
the local Sheriff's office,

but this was a story they'd
heard 100 times before.

- A teen missing for a couple of
hours is a very routine call.

- Typically, a teenager
or any missing person

turns up within 24 hours.

Her last known
location was the fast food

restaurant where she was seen
leaving alone at 7 o'clock,

carrying a container of food.

Her car was still in the lot.

The car was unlocked,

and the food and hat was sitting
on the front driver's seat

like she had placed it there.

There was no purse nor
keys found at the scene.

The main question

is, why wouldn't
she have her car?

And now, who she is
with, or where she is at?

This is someone that
she doesn't want

her parents to know she's with.

It was as if Tara
had dumped her belongings

and just left.

But it was freezing
outside, so it didn't seem

likely she would
simply walk away.

But by the next morning, Tara
still hadn't returned home.

- Both of us, Tara's
mom and myself,

both knew, deep down, that
something wasn't right.

Some people thought
she'd run off to be with Nick.

Is she headed for Illinois?

Is she for, to
meet the boyfriend?

There was, uh, no
evidence of her

purchasing a ticket
at a bus station.

There was no evidence she had
purchased an airline ticket.

Investigators contacted

Nick at the Naval base.

He said he hadn't

had any contact with her.

He hadn't seen her,
she has called him.

- And his commanding officer
was able to confirm that he had

been on the base
the, the entire time.



police received some
alarming information.

A coworker said that the
night before, Tara was working

the drive-through window
and got into an argument

with two young male customers.

She had had a wordy conversation

or confrontation, maybe,
with a couple of young men

that came through
the drive-through.

We're thinking that those
are two potential suspects.

Normally, there would
be video to identify these men,

but not this time.

Big disappointment.

The restaurant, it didn't
have any video surveillance

of any kind.

This also meant
there was no video surveillance

of the parking lot, and none
of the customers or Tara's

coworkers saw
anything suspicious.

- They didn't really pay
attention who she left with,

or, you know, what transpired
out in the parking lot.

This left Tara's family

and police without answers.

- We knew absolutely nothing.

We had nothing.

The case was completely
clueless from the start.

When Tara Munsey disappeared,

her friends thought
she had run away

to be with her boyfriend,
Nick, in Illinois.

Her parents, however,
didn't believe it.

- I think, maybe one time, Tara
d she was going to run away,

and I think she was
gone for an hour.

She would not run away.

No.

When media outlets
reported the story of Tara's

disappearance, hundreds of
volunteers joined the search.

Everyone wanted
to help find Tara Munsey.

It was cold.

There was snow on the ground.

And it didn't stop people.

They came out,
people poured out,

and searched neighborhoods,
searched parks,

looked everywhere they could for
her, in the snow, in the cold.

- I miss her so much.

I just, I just want her back.

- Some, somebody's got her.

I don't know why, but
she just wouldn't run.

So something's not
right, you know?

It's just too weird.

Tara's friends told
police that the last time they

saw her was after school on
the day she went missing.

From there, Tara went to work
at the fast food restaurant.

Two long weeks passed, and still
there was no trace of Tara.

The pressure
at that time was extreme.

And it was all
fueled by the thought

that this child had walked
away into the darkness

and disappeared.

And it could happen
to yours or mine.

Then, 17 days
after Tara went missing,

a hiker found a body near
an isolated railroad track

seven miles from Tara's house.

Is, how fast can we get there?

Is is Tara, or is it,
or is it something else?

The body was at the bottom

of a 70-foot wooded
ravine, almost

completely hidden from sight.

- It's just a surreal feeling
when you're standing out

in the middle of
the outdoors and you

can see that it was
a violent death.

The victim was
naked from the waist up

and had been sh*t to death.

Some injuries were consistent
with the body being

rolled down the
ravine, postmortem.

A driver's license
in hack back pocket

confirmed everyone's
worst fears.

It was Tara Munsey.

Tara was quite
a girl, and one of a kind.

And it's just too bad
she never got to live to,

for, for all of us to find
out her full potential.

Fortunately,
near-freezing temperatures

helped forensic investigators.

Her body appeared
to be fairly well-preserved.

I remember thinking at the
time that I hope that means

that we're going to have
some, uh, some good evidence.

But the crime scene
itself was another matter.

It was a dumping ground.

It was a ravine where people
dump their tires, their stoves.

- It was very difficult
for investigators

to separate out what was,
perhaps, related to the crime

and what was not.

At the top of the ravine

was a single .22 caliber
shell casing, as well as

Tara's car keys and
parts of a cigarette.

The cigarette filter

was right in the
middle of crime scene.

The filter was found
separately from the cigarette.

Very few
people ever pull a filter

off the cigarette to smoke it.

In a bundle thrown to the side,

investigators found
Tara's t-shirt,

and on it, a potential clue.

You could see
a faint outline of an outsole

of an athletic shoe on
the front of the shirt.

You can make a positive
identification of a footwear

impression just
like you can make

a positive identification
of a fingerprint.

But finding the
shoe wouldn't be easy.

Tara Munsey's autopsy
showed she was most likely

k*lled the day she went missing.

She'd been sh*t four
times at close range.

This child was ex*cuted.

I firmly believe that she
was sh*t in the chest,

and while she was
on the ground, I

think that the r*fle was
held next to her head

and three sh*ts were fired.

Blood found
under Tara's fingernails

showed she had
fought her attacker.

From what
we had learned about Tara

Munsey is, that she would have
put up a tremendous fight.

She would have resisted
any type of as*ault.

There's many
hours of crying, just

thinking how she felt, what
was going on in her mind.

And it's hard to deal with.

Yes.

It was very hard.

It was very hard to deal with.

Even though Tara's
r*pe kit came up negative,

investigators found
seminal fluid on her body.

All of the biological evidence
was sent for DNA testing.

The ballistic evidence
provided a surprising clue.

The m*rder w*apon left
an unusual combination

of lands and grooves
on the fatal b*ll*ts.

Only three types of
.22 caliber r*fles

could have fired those sh*ts.

You're looking for a Sears,

a Marlin, or Revelation.

And by the way,
Marlin manufacturers

for Sears and Revelation.

So it's only one
manufacturer doing all three.

When you're talking hundreds
of different firearms,

to narrow it down
the three, that's

pretty unique and
good information.

Tara's ripped shirt
also provided a possible clue.

Using alternate light
sources, forensic analysts

found a partial muddy shoe
print on the front of her shirt.

Investigators searched their
database of thousands of known

outsole designs, and found
the one they were looking for.

We were able to
tell the police that we, they

need to look for an individual
that has a pair of Nike brand

running shoes with a
herringbone outsole design.

The print wasn't large
enough to identify the shoe

size, but it was valuable
information nonetheless.

Then, Tara's friends
told police something

they had been reluctant
to reveal earlier.

On the day Tara went
missing, Tara and her friends

were smoking marijuana
after school,

and an older man was with
them, the man who had provided

the marijuana,


- It strikes me odd at
that time that there

was a 30-year-old male
there smoking marijuana

with these teenagers
after school.

- He didn't have a
regular employment,

and we're not even
sure that he really

had a, had a regular
place to live.

He stayed, at times, in
his girlfriend's basement.

Tara and Jeff
Thomas knew one another.

Tara often babysat for
Jeff's six-year-old daughter.

A background check revealed
Thomas had a criminal record.

Eight years earlier,
Thomas att*cked a neighbor

with a baseball bat and
served two years in prison.

When questioned by
police, Jeff Thomas

denied any involvement
in Tara's m*rder

and said he had an alibi.

- Thanks for coming
in today, Mr. Thomas.

We found that
there had been some holes

in his alibi, particularly
where he'd spent the night.

Jeff Thomas denied
owning a .22 caliber r*fle,

but said his friend,
Kevin Williams,

a 32-year-old
bricklayer, owned one.

Police converged on
Kevin Williams' house,

hoping to question Williams
and examined his g*n.

But Williams' story
was significantly

different from that
of Jeff Thomas.

Kevin Williams told us

that he owned a .22 caliber
life and that he left

in the possession
of Jeff Thomas.

And he has not seen that
r*fle, or firearm, since.

Williams admitted
he sometimes used the r*fle

for target practice
in his backyard.

Investigators knew this was
their chance to find out

whether Kevin Williams'
r*fle was the m*rder w*apon.

After Williams had told us

that he had fired his
w*apon off of his back...,

off the rear deck his
home, it was a long sh*t

to think that we would find
any casings in the yard.

Incredibly, investigators

found two shell casings
under the porch.

Ballistics matched the shell
casing found near Tara's body.

This is absolute good stuff.

This is good science
which tells you,

you've just recovered
cartridge cases

from the m*rder, m*rder w*apon.

But where was the r*fle?

And which man was
telling the truth?

- At this point, we didn't
really know who to believe.

Uh, we've got two
different people telling us

they gave the g*n to
somebody else.

The prime suspect
in Tara Munsey's m*rder

was Jeff Thomas, the man who
was seen smoking marijuana

with Tara on the
afternoon of her m*rder.

But the m*rder w*apon
belonged to Kevin Williams,

a friend of Thomas'.

Both claimed the other
was in possession

of the g*n at the
time of Tara's m*rder.

Then something strange happened.

An unlikely witness came
forward with a story of her own.

- Ma'am.

Stopped you for going through
a stop sign back there.

There was a lady
who was in her vehicle that had

been stopped for a
traffic violation,

and she knew something
about the case.

- I think I know who
may have k*lled her.

Her name was Barbara Helton.

And when she was
with police, she

told them something
she had kept to herself

for the past several weeks.

She said she knew
Jeff Thomas, and he'd

been staying at her house at the
time of Tara Munsey's m*rder.

On the night of
the m*rder, Thomas

returned home visibly agitated.
- Jeff, what happened?

You're all muddy.

- I messed up.

He was dirty, he
was muddy, he was, uh, upset,

and he told her that
he had messed up.

Told me, I sh*t,
you know, I sh*t

her three times in the head.

The number of sh*ts
fired was inside information.

Police hadn't
released those details

to the media for
these very situations.

- No one knew but us, the k*ller,
and the medical examiner.

But if Helton's story were true,

why hadn't she gone
to the police sooner.

She was scared of Jeff Thomas.

She was scared for
her own safety.

- It was only when she
actually was face-to-face

with the police officer
at the traffic stop

that she was willing to talk.

With the information Barbara
Helton provided to police,

they now had enough
evidence to get

a warrant to search Thomas' car.

In the trunk, they
found a pair of sneakers

with a herringbone
tread pattern.

Transparencies of the treads
were compared to photographs

from the partial prints on
the front of Tara's shirt.

- We were able to say that
the right shoe submitted

by the police department
could have made the two

fragmentary footwear
impressions present on the shirt

collected from the crime scene.

Also in Thomas'
car were three strands

of blonde hair with
the roots intact.

Forcibly removed hairs.

This means they had a
good chance of having DNA

material in the
root of the hair.

It was determined that all
three hairs from the car

were consistent with
Tara Munsey by DNA.

And investigators also compared

Thomas' DNA to the biological
evidence on Tara's body.

His DNA was all over her.

It was on her clothes.

It was on her body.

It was on her inner thigh.

It was on the
bottom of her shoe.

It was underneath
her fingernails.

And it was on the cigarette that
was found at the crime scene.

And so, that was really
the nail in the coffin.

Prosecutors believe
Jeff Thomas stopped at the taco

restaurant as Tara
got off from work.

He may have suggested they'd go
somewhere to smoked marijuana,

as they did earlier
that afternoon.

Once there, Thomas
made a sexual advance.

Tara refused.

There was a fight.

Tara's shirt was torn.

She's scratched his face.

At some point, Thomas
dragged Tara out of the car,

sh*t her once in the chest,
and three times in the head,

leaving his shoe
impression on her t-shirt.

He pushed her body
down the ravine,

then smoked a cigarette
after ripping the filter off.

- You always break the
filters off of cigarettes?

- It's just a habit.

I've always done it.

Three of Tara's
hairs, forcibly removed

during the fight,
fell into his trunk

as he was getting
rid of the evidence.

The r*fle was never recovered.

In March of 2001, Jeff Thomas
was tried and convicted

of Capital m*rder, and
was sentenced to death.

To hear the clerk of court

say, not only are you guilty,
but you are sentenced to death,

death, death, it sent chills
up my spine, literally.

But Tara's mother
opposed the death penalty,

and asked that Thomas' sentence
be commuted to life in prison.

In 2002, the Virginia
Supreme Court

gave him life without parole.

Tara's family realizes that,
without science, her case

might never have been solved.

In the
beginning I always thought,

how in the world you going
to solve a case like this?

And I don't think it would
ever have been solved if it,

if, if it hadn't the
Pulaski police force,

I don't they'd ever
have solved it.

- At the end of the day, we had a
lot of circumstantial evidence,

but it was the forensic evidence
that was the most powerful.

- Young high school
student, uh, um, just, uh,

taken such a short
time in life here.

It's tragic.
It's tragic.

And if we can help find
the truth and justice,

then that, uh, that's
what we're here for.