11x40 - Two in a Million

[bunniefuu]

NARRATOR: A millionaire
and his family

were ex*cuted in their own home.

And for three years, the
murders went unsolved

until a 30-year-old
box of b*ll*ts

and some iridescent fibers
revealed the ultimate betrayal.

[theme music]

The beach house at Pajaro
Dunes in Northern California.

On weekends and holidays,
it was the perfect getaway

for the Ewell family.

The family's patriarch, Dale,
was an extremely wealthy man

who made his fortune
selling airplanes.

-He was quite
successful, because he

was very outgoing, very
personable, convincing.

And he'd go on these ranches and
sell farmers these airplanes.

Land in their field,
sell them planes,

and then teach them how to fly.

NARRATOR: Dale and
his wife, Glee,

had been happily
married for 31 years.

Their 24-year-old
daughter, Tiffany,

was a graduate
student in accounting.

-Tiffany, very sweet
girl by all accounts.

She seemed to do well in
school and everybody loved her.

NARRATOR: Their
21-year-old son, Dana,

was a business major at
Santa Clara University.

-Dana was a very
precocious child,

very smart, almost
too intelligent.

I heard once upon a time
that his IQ was 165.

It was extremely high.

NARRATOR: In 1992, after
spending the Easter holiday

at Pajara Dunes, Dale,
Glee, and their daughter,

Tiffany, returned
home to Fresno.

Two days later, the
Ewell's housekeeper

tried to enter the
home and sense trouble.

The security alarm
was turned off, yet,

the doors were locked.

Inside she found Dale,
Glee, and Tiffany

dead from g*nsh*t wounds.

-The thing that I recall
most about the Ewell home

from the murders
is the photographs

of Glee Ewell laying
on her back in the den.

She had a look of fright
on her face even in death.

-I've never seen a house
that severely ransacked

by any burglar I've
ever dealt with,

and I worked burglary
before I worked homicide.

NARRATOR: Jewelry was
missing from the home.

And Dale Ewell's
wallet was empty.

But there were no
signs of forced entry.

-How did somebody get in
here, turn off the alarm,

because it didn't
ring at the alarm

company or the
police department?

NARRATOR: All three were sh*t
with a nine millimeter w*apon

while bringing their luggage in
from the beach house on Sunday

night.

-So those tragic things.

Your life is great one
second, and a second later,

you're gone.

NARRATOR: Dana
Ewell was fortunate.

He avoided the
ambush since he was

having dinner with
his girlfriend

and her family that
night 160 miles away.

-He began dating Monica Zent,
an FBI agent's daughter.

At the time of the
murders, Dan Ewell

was with the family and his
alibi was FBI agent John Zent.

NARRATOR: Investigators found
an open box of nine millimeter

amm*nit*on in the
master bedroom.

And they also found very
unusual fibers on the victims.

-I had some
fluorescent fibers that

glowed under the ultraviolet
light in the dark,

and some rubbery stuff that I
didn't have a clue as to what

it was, except that it
appeared to be rubber.

NARRATOR: In their
search for suspects,

investigators thought that a
business associate or rival

may have wanted Dale Ewell dead.

Before Dale acquired
his business,

the company was
allegedly involved

in some criminal activity.

-He took over the dealership
from a former owner

who had gotten into a
little bit legal difficulty

with marijuana smuggling.

NARRATOR: Or Glee Ewell
might have been the target.

-Glee Ewell had worked
for the CIA at one time.

The CIA doesn't tell
you a whole lot,

but they did acknowledge the
fact she did work for them.

NARRATOR: With talk of marijuana
smuggling and CIA connections,

investigators knew these murders
would be difficult to solve.

The cold blooded m*rder
of millionaire Dale Ewell,

his wife, Glee, and
daughter, Tiffany,

was big news in
Fresno, California.

-Fresno's had some big
homicide cases over the years,

but I would venture to
say this is probably

one of the biggest
ones of the century.

NARRATOR: Investigators
suspected that the Ewells were

k*lled on Sunday night when they
returned from the beach house.

Glee and Tiffany
Ewell drove back

separately and
were k*lled first.

Dale Ewell got home
about a half hour later.

-Whomever had k*lled his
wife and daughter remained

in the house for perhaps
another half hour.

Why would this
k*ller or K*llers,

why would they remain in the
home for a half hour or so

after they had gunned
down two people?

NARRATOR: But that's
apparently what happened.

Dale with sh*t in
the back of his head

as he entered the house.

-Just stunned and
just became numb.

I just could not
understand, or believe,

or contemplate such a thing.

NARRATOR: All three were k*lled
with a nine millimeter w*apon.

-Those people were
essentially ambushed.

It was just seen of pure evil.

I don't think there's any
other way to explain it.

You can't try to say, oh,
well, these people are insane,

the perpetrator's insane
or anything like that.

The perpetrator in this
case was just purely evil.

NARRATOR: The Ewell's son,
Dana, had an airtight alibi

as did everyone who
had keys to the house.

Investigators found an
open box of nine millimeter

amm*nit*on in the
Ewell's bedroom.

Was this the amm*nit*on
used by the k*ller?

The nine millimeter b*ll*ts
retrieved from the bodies

had been damaged on impact.

But the back end of each b*llet,
known as the heel, was intact.

-The questions on
there had nothing

to do with the
b*ll*ts being fired.

It was something that
occurred during manufacture

and was something that
I hadn't seen before.

NARRATOR: So Allen
Boudreau removed the casing

from an unfired
b*llet and compared

to the heels of the
b*ll*ts from the victims.

The tool marks were the same.

-These b*ll*ts,
the m*rder b*ll*ts,

came from this
box of amm*nit*on.

NARRATOR: An identification
number on the box

indicated the b*ll*ts
were made in 1971,

and the price sticker
on the box revealed

it was purchased at a
local hardware store.

When police called the hardware
store, the owner said he still

had all his sales receipts,
even the ones from 30 years ago.

-And they found the
receipt for that amm*nit*on

made out to Dale Ewell.

NARRATOR: Proof that
Dale Ewell and his family

were k*lled with
his own amm*nit*on.

-It had to be somebody that
knew enough about that family

to know that there
was a box of nine

millimeter a*mo
in dad's bedroom.

Which meant it was an
inside job of some sort.

NARRATOR: And the b*ll*ts
looked like they had been fired

through more than just
the barrel of a g*n.

-These b*ll*ts went
through something

that marked then unlike
any normal g*n barrel.

And it could be a flash
suppressor, sound suppressor,

sil*ncer or something
along that line.

-What robber would
come to a crime scene

with a sil*ncer on a g*n?

NARRATOR: Could it
have been a hit man?

The forensic evidence gathered
and the Ewell family home

painted the bizarre picture
of how Dale Ewell, his wife,

and 24-year-old
daughter were k*lled.

Someone with a house key
turned off the security alarm

and m*rder*d them with
a nine millimeter w*apon

using amm*nit*on belonging
to the victim, Dale Ewell.

It looked like a
botched robbery.

Some money and
jewelry were missing,

and the only forensic
evidence was the b*ll*ts

and the yellow
luminescent fibers.

-From the scientific end
of the investigation,

what I had to work with
was relatively little.

NARRATOR: The only
remaining family member,

the Ewell's 21-year-old son,
Dana, had a rock solid alibi.

He was with his
girlfriend and her family.

-There really was never any
question about his alibi,

where he was on
Easter Sunday when

his parents are being k*lled.

-What innocent guy
gets an attorney

and wants us to contact the
attorney to contact him just

to get information on their
parents or their sister?

That made no sense.

NARRATOR: Dana Ewell
also had a clear motive.

He was the beneficiary
of his parents' estate.

-Dana Ewell stood to inherit
approximately $8 million.

It would have been
approximately $4 million

had his sister not
also been m*rder*d.

-Dana was a prim
and proper type kid,

went to class with his
$200 shirt and his $100 tie

that he let everybody
know that's what it cost.

NARRATOR: He also made
some unusual inquiries

after the murders.

-Dana Ewell called me
at the coroner's office

and interrogated me as to
the progress of the autopsy,

what we'd found and so forth.

-It is really unusual for
some close family member

to call and ask for the details
of the case in the way he did.

NARRATOR: And
investigators learned

that Dana had some
character flaws.

Apparently he had plagiarized
a term paper in his business

ethics class and
failed the course.

Investigators also learned
that Dana was a loner.

His only friend was his
former college roommate,

Joel Radovcich, so they
decided to give him a call.

-The first thing Joel said,
upon being phoned by Detective

Souza, was are you
going to arrest me?

It was an unusual thing to say.

NARRATOR: So unusual that police
put him under surveillance,

and found that he didn't use
the telephone in his apartment.

Instead, he'd use
a pay phone nearby.

-They had two pay phones
mounted on the outside exterior

wall of the 7-Eleven store.

He would look down at his waist
level and then dial a number.

We deducted the fact that
he was looking at a pager.

NARRATOR: An undercover
officer positioned

himself within earshot.

-I want no [bleep]
stock options.

I want a quarter million,
and I want it now.

NARRATOR: Radovich demanded
quarter of a million dollars,

and also wanted advice
on how to invest it.

-Joel was in a world of his
own, like no one was around him.

The only thing they
were talking about

was their investments,
and where they

were going to invest the money.

NARRATOR: According
to phone records,

Joel was talking Dana Ewell.

A check of Joel's
financial records

indicated that he
was spending freely

despite not having a job.

-He was taking helicopter
flight lessons at the Long Beach

airport, some of which
costs $500 an hour.

No job, no source
of income, and he's

spending this kind of money.

-They found that the checks
for some $5,600 odd for Joel's

lessons had been paid
by Dana directly.

This was a very curious event.

This was something
that led directly

to a financial link
between the two suspects.

NARRATOR: And Joel Radovcich
purchased several very

suspicious items
prior to the murders.

During a surveil
of Joel Radovcich,

the detectives found that
Joel had ordered books

from a publisher in
Boulder, Colorado.

And, in turn, he had
these books shipped

to a man named Jack Ponce.

NARRATOR: One of
those books described

how to make a homemade sil*ncer.

A background check revealed
Jack Ponce was a 23-year-old law

student and Joel Radovcich's
life long friend.

Records indicated that
Ponce say owned a nine

millimeter semiautomatic w*apon.

-Jack Ponce said initially that
the w*apon had been purchased

for the purpose of sh**ting
opossums in his attic.

Investigators found the whole
opossum sh**ting scenario a bit

hard to swallow.

NARRATOR: During
police questioning,

Ponce denied any involvement
in the Ewell murders

and said his nine millimeter
g*n had been stolen.

-We've probably heard that
story a few times in our career.

NARRATOR: This
m*rder investigation

had been complicated
and time consuming.

By this time, three
years had passed.

And Dana Ewell told everyone
who would listen that detectives

John Souza and
Chris Curtice were

too inept to solve the case.

-Dana Ewell, he
would call us Mutt

and Jeff, and Bert and Ernie.

And we weren't
smart enough to find

the m*rder*r of his family.

-And Ernie and Bert couldn't
find a g*n in a g*n store.

-And the only reason
we had a cop's job

is because we couldn't
get no other job.

-I'll be damned if some kid like
that's going to make fun of us.

NARRATOR: Investigators now had
three suspects in the m*rder

of Dale, Glee, and Tiffany
Ewell, the Ewell's son, Dana,

his college roommate,
Joel Radovcich,

and Joel's friend, Jack Ponce.

With a search
warrant, investigators

found a number of
interesting items

in Joel Radovcich's apartment,
including a half dozen tennis

balls with holes
drilled through them.

-I found out that
the dyes that they

use in these yellow, orange,
and purple, pink tennis balls

are FDA approved
dyes because children

and dogs chew on tennis balls.

And it was very
interesting, but I found out

everything there is to
know about tennis balls.

NARRATOR: The fibers
from these tennis balls

were consistent with those
found on the m*rder victims.

Proof that the tennis
balls were a part

of the homemade sil*ncer.

-Jack Ponce was
arrested at a restaurant

where he worked as a bartender.

Joel was eventually arrested at
his favorite Taco Bell where he

seemed to eat three
times a day every day.

Dana, however, was
nowhere to be found.

Radovcich admitted nothing.

Jack Ponce, however, didn't
want to face the death penalty,

so he decided to cooperate.

He was the one of the three who,
as the police say, rolled over.

He agreed to turn evidence
against Joel Radovcich and Dana

Ewell, tell them
everything he knew.

NARRATOR: Ponce originally
told investigators

that his nine millimeter
w*apon had been stolen.

He now admitted he sold it
to Joel Radovcich for $500.

A few days later, Ponce
said Joel returned the g*n

and told him to get rid of it.

-Joel told Jack that he was
the one that k*lled the Ewell

family, and he described the
inside of the house, where he

was, how he did
it, what happened,

the sequence of events.

And we knew all that, but it
was never in the newspaper.

NARRATOR: Ponce said he
disassembled the g*n,

threw the parts in dumpsters
and buried the barrel

in a vacant lot in Los Angeles.

In an unbelievable
stroke of luck,

the barrel was still there.

-Been there for three years.

Surprisingly and luckily,
we have an open lot in LA

that stayed vacant and wasn't
paved over, or concreted over,

for three years.

NARRATOR: Holes had been
drilled into the g*n's barrel,

consistent with the
information in the books

that Joel Radovcich ordered.

Investigators dipped the
barrel in a special solution

to remove the mud and rust.

Then attached it
to a r*fle and test

fired it using the
same amm*nit*on

found at the crime scene.

Amazingly, after three
years in the ground,

the test was conclusive.

-Lo and behold, these test
fired b*ll*ts looked very much

like the Ewell b*ll*ts in
their general character

and appearance.

-That was the part that
contained the forensic evidence

we needed to establish that
w*apon was used in the m*rder.

NARRATOR: Four
prosecutors, what happened

was unthinkable, but
perfectly logical.

After all, the evidence showed
it was an inside job all along.

Dana Ewell wanted
his parents' money,

and he did not want to wait for
them to die of natural causes.

And he did not want to share
it with his sister either.

So he hired his roommate, Joel
Radovcich to k*ll them all.

Radovcich decided to
use an as*ault r*fle

with a homemade sil*ncer
reinforced with tennis balls

to further reduce the noise.

Dana gave Joel the house
keys, the alarm code,

and told him where
his father kept

the box of nine
millimeter amm*nit*on.

To establish his alibi,
Dana had dinner that night

with his girlfriend
and her father

who happen to be an FBI agent.

When Glee and Tiffany came
home, Radovcich ambushed them.

He sh*t Tiffany
first, and then he

followed Glee into
another room and sh*t her.

About a half hour
later, Dale came home,

and Joel was waiting.

Tennis ball fibers
left at the scene

were consistent with the fibers
found in Radovcich's home.

Prosecutors believe that Glee
Ewell knew who was responsible.

-She had met Joel before.

Of the three, she's the only
one that got a look at Joel.

And I believe knew that her son
was k*lling her for the estate.

NARRATOR: Jack Ponce was
given immunity in exchange

for his testimony.

Dana Ewell eventually
turned himself in.

And in 1995, he
and Joel Radovcich

were both convicted
of first degree

m*rder, and m*rder
for financial gain.

Both are serving life in
prison without parole.

-I believe that the physical
evidence in this case

was a really big
deal, and probably

carried the weight
of conviction.

-He was an arrogant young man.

He was an extremely
arrogant young man

who thought he was smarter.

A very smart young man,
don't get me wrong,

but he thought he was
smarter than a bunch

of streetwise cops.

-We weren't lax in our job.

It just took a long
time to put it together

to get enough evidence
to go to court.