07x11 - A Clutch of Witnesses

[bunniefuu]

NARRATOR: Two eyewitnesses said they saw a man in a pickup

truck deliberately run over another man-- not

once, but twice.

Police could not find the victim's

body, or the pickup truck.

And when police tried to talk to the two eyewitnesses,

they had disappeared, too.

All police could find were some blood stains in the snow.

But would this be enough to prove m*rder?

[theme music]

On January , , a member of a motorcycle g*ng in Duluth,

Minnesota called police to report

his roommate, -year-old Erik Schrieffer, missing.

He said he hadn't seen Schrieffer

for the last four days, and he was worried.

-Usually that doesn't happen.

People that report missing persons

usually call in within the first six to eight hours in a panic.

-Well great.

I appreciate your assistance.

Have a good day.

NARRATOR: Officer Ryan Temple was assigned to the case.

-Hi, this is Officer--

RYAN TEMPLE: I attempted to contact all the area hospitals,

all the county jails in the area,

the Duluth Detoxification Center.

Also tried to contact the victim's family--

his mother, his father.

Also, his employer.

NARRATOR: No one had heard from Erik Schrieffer.

He worked as an apprentice for the Boilermakers Union .

-Erik was very quiet and reserved.

Very good performance on the job site.

NARRATOR: But he hadn't been to work, either.

Police found Schrieffer's three automobiles

still in his driveway.

His wallet and winter coat were inside his house.

Police discovered that Schrieffer was last

seen at a party in a motorcycle club house.

Two motorcycle club members who were at that party, Charlie

Johnson and Herbert Zingle, said that Schrieffer

got into an altercation with Joseph Wehmanen,

a member of a rival motorcycle club.

-Who stuck you?

[crashing and yelling]

-Son of a bitch!

[glass breaking] -What's up?

Jesus!

-What the f*ck, man?

Screw him.

Take it outside.

NARRATOR: The two were separated and escorted outside--

-Get off me, man! -It's all right.

Just calm down.

NARRATOR: -- where

The witnesses say Wehmanen easily won the fight.

While Schrieffer was still on the ground,

Wehmanen did the unthinkable.

He got into his truck, started the engine,

and intentionally ran over Schrieffer.

Amazingly, he wasn't k*lled.

Wehmanen then put his truck in reverse,

and ran over him a second time.

Fearing for their own safety, the witnesses ran back inside.

When they looked out again, both the truck and Schrieffer

were gone.

-There was something more to this story

than just a missing person.

NARRATOR: The witness is admitted

they were drinking heavily that night,

and weren't sure of all the details.

And the alleged fight took place almost a week earlier.

And the inclement weather complicated the investigation.

-There was a four day time lapse,

and we had received approximately eight inches

of slushy snow on-- in between time.

It made it a very difficult crime scene.

There was-- once we got there, there

wasn't a whole lot to see, to start with.

NARRATOR: When police looked into Joseph Wehmanen's

background, they discovered he had

never been in trouble with the law.

He was an ex-Marine, who had served during the Gulf w*r,

and was a member of the Thunderbird motorcycle

g*ng, although not an active member.

Investigators needed to find some forensic evidence

to corroborate the witnesses' story.

Police wanted to find some way to verify the claims of two

eyewitnesses that Erik Schrieffer was run over twice

by Joseph Wehmanen in his truck.

-From the very beginning, we had to try and put the case

together to understand exactly what had happened,

and then attempt to try and locate where, possibly,

the body had gone to after that period of time.

So initially we were trying to put the puzzle together

before we could find out where the body may have gone to.

NARRATOR: Police set up a command post in the alley

where the fight allegedly took place.

Working in subzero temperatures, officers

uncovered the top layer of new snow

in order to search for blood.

They were successful.

They discovered a blood trail that led from the alley all

the way to the end of a parking area, nearly yards away.

At the end of the trail, police found

one very large pool of blood in the snow.

-Due to the amount of blood that we found in that one spot,

and the fact that there was no blood after that as we

continued to excavate the snow past that point,

we believe the body was loaded into the truck.

NARRATOR: Medical examiner Dr. Donald

Kundel was called to the scene.

-A person, to produce that much blood in one localized area,

had to still have their heart b*ating.

They may have suffered serious injuries,

but their heart had to still be b*ating in order

to produce that much blood coming from a wound.

NARRATOR: Once the heart stops b*ating,

a body no longer bleeds.

The blood evidence suggested that the victim was lodged

under the truck, and was dragged yards.

The pool of blood at the end of the trail

indicated the victim was still alive,

and had been picked up from the snow.

However, Doctor Kundel told police

that without immediate medical attention,

the victim would have d*ed within four hours.

To collect the blood evidence, police used a standard coffee

filter to separate the blood from the snow.

The filter trapped the red and white blood cells,

and allowed plasma and melting snow to drip

through, just as the filter traps coffee grounds,

not allowing them to drip into the coffee.

Without a body, police had another problem--

how to tell whether this was the blood of Erik Schrieffer.

But police got a break.

They learned that Schrieffer had undergone hand surgery

a few years earlier, when he had accidentally sh*t himself.

The hospital saved Schrieffer's tissue sample

that had been sent to the pathology lab for analysis.

The tissue was preserved in paraffin, which

halts the degenerative process, preserving

the tissue indefinitely.

The blood DNA found in the snow was compared

to the DNA from Schrieffer's tissue sample.

It matched.

Police canvassed area hospitals, health

clinics, and doctors' offices.

No one with the type of injuries Schrieffer would have sustained

had been treated.

Convinced that Erik Schrieffer could not have survived

without treatment, the medical examiner

signed a death certificate.

-Yes, we do have a homicide, and one of the worst types

for a detective to have-- a homicide without a body.

NARRATOR: The next step was for police

to speak with the driver of the truck, Joseph Wehmanen.

But he was uncooperative.

-He started to shut the door on me.

At that point, I reached over and grabbed him

by the shirt, informed him that he was under arrest for m*rder.

NARRATOR: Police impounded Wehmanen's vehicle.

But a forensic analysis found no evidence of an accident.

They found no trace of blood, body fluids, or hair anywhere

on the trunk, or underneath.

-The crime lab is well-respected by law

enforcement agencies in this state.

They've got the best equipment, the most sophisticated gear.

And if they couldn't find any evidence in the truck,

then you started wondering, well how could that be?

How could somebody drive a truck over somebody

twice, and there's no hair, no blood, nothing?

And that didn't seem right to me.

NARRATOR: The lack of forensic evidence

wasn't the only problem.

Witnesses' credibility was another.

During police questioning, both witnesses

admitted they were inebriated at the time

of the alleged accident.

One said, quote, "I don't remember

who was at the house, who came back.

We were sitting there drinking.

I know there was people in and out.

Like I say, I'm drunk.

I stay drunk as I can."

And Joseph Wehmanen maintained his innocence.

With two inebriated eyewitnesses,

no forensic evidence in Wehmanen's truck,

and no body to prove there had been a m*rder,

prosecutors knew they didn't have

enough evidence to go to trial.

Investigators needed more evidence in the Erik Schrieffer

case, and the search for his body intensified.

Police decided to find out how their prime suspect, Joseph

Wehmanen, spent his leisure time, and with whom?

-I came across one of his friends

and asked, when's the last time you spent time with Wehmanen?

Where was that that he spent the time with him?

And it'd come to be that within the week previous,

he was ice fishing with this friend.

NARRATOR: Police had a general description of the ice house

that Wehmanen and his friend used,

but they weren't sure where it was

located on the vast Saint Louis River.

Nevertheless, police were assigned to search the area.

SCOTT CAMPBELL: He came across an ice house.

We weren't quite sure whether it was the one

that we were necessary looking for.

But as he was looking into the ice house,

he found a hole that was larger than your normal ice fishing

hole, probably the size of one that a human

could be slipped into.

NARRATOR: An underwater dive team searched the frigid waters

of the Saint Louis River for Schrieffer's body.

Conditions were miserable.

It was snowing with wind gusts up to miles per hour.

Divers could stay under the freezing water for only

to minutes before suffering hypothermia.

After days of searching, they found nothing.

Then investigators got more bad news.

Their case against Wehmanen was based almost entirely

on the testimony of two eyewitnesses who claimed they

saw a fight between Schrieffer and Wehmanen.

But when police went to question them further,

the two had vanished.

SCOTT CAMPBELL: We have actually documented testimony

from family members of the two witnesses

that the Thunderbirds were approached by the Hells Angels,

an in turn approached the two witnesses

and asked them to leave the community.

Downright threatened them.

NARRATOR: With no body, no forensic evidence

against Wehmanen, and now, no witnesses,

the defense filed a motion to dismiss the case.

The prosecution was in a difficult position.

-All the while, too, we're looking for the body.

And we're looking for some more physical evidence

to tie Joe Wehmanen into this.

We were convinced that he was the person

responsible for the death, but he wasn't saying anything.

The more police thought about Wehmanen's truck

and the eyewitness testimony, the more they

realized how unlikely it was that the undercarriage

of his truck would be so clean, especially

in the middle of winter.

In the words of investigators, it was almost too clean.

So nearly six months after the m*rder,

they examined the truck once again.

-We decided we would take the truck apart piece by piece

until we were satisfied that there was no evidence

to be found, or we actually found evidence.

And that's what we did.

-We had a belief all along that if the truck was used

in transport of the body, there always

has to be some type of forensic evidence that's left behind.

Or in any kind of crime scene-- I strongly believe

that there's always forensic evidence that's

left behind in any crime scene.

NARRATOR: They hoisted Wehmanen's truck

up on a rack in the police garage, and bolt by bolt,

they took the truck apart.

-I think I used the analogy in one of my stories--

it was like they were cutting their lawn with tweezers.

They went over that vehicle inch by inch.

NARRATOR: For over two days, police

searched every inch of the vehicle.

Finally, they found their first piece of evidence--

a single strand of human hair that was attached

to the front spring of the truck.

And when they removed the top covering of the truck's cargo

area, they found several small blood stains in the crevices.

Police now suspected that Wehmanen power sprayed

his truck after the m*rder, and the water pushed the victim's

blood into the tiny crevices between the sheets of metal.

But scientists still needed to find out

who the blood and hair belonged to.

When police found blood stains and a strand of hair

in the undercarriage of Joseph Wehmanen's truck,

they promptly informed Wehmanen's attorney

that they would be sending the materials for forensic testing.

-Once the state could tie the body to Mr. Wehmanen's truck,

the case changed dramatically.

And I talked to Joe, and I told him so.

Ultimately it comes down to the old Kenny Rogers song.

You've got to know when to hold 'em, and know when to fold 'em.

And I felt it was-- when they found that blood in the truck,

it was time to fold 'em.

NARRATOR: Without even waiting for the results

of the forensic testing, Wehmanen

agreed to lead police to Schrieffer's body

in return for a reduced charge of unintentional second degree

m*rder.

The prosecution agreed, and Wehmanen confessed.

-It's my opinion that this forensic evidence

was so powerful that Mr. Wehmanen knew what the outcome

would be when we sent it to the lab,

and just decided to plead guilty.

NARRATOR: In Wehmanen's taped confession,

his version differed from the eyewitnesses'.

Wehmanen admitted running over Schrieffer in the alley,

but said it was an accident.

He also said he didn't realize Schrieffer was stuck

under the truck until he reached the end of the parking lot.

Wehmanen said he put Schrieffer in the back of his truck,

and dumped him into the river the next day.

He said the police had searched the correct spot in the Saint

Louis River, but the body may have drifted.

When the divers returned for a second search,

they still couldn't find the body.

A few weeks later, after the plea agreement was signed,

Schrieffer's body surfaced by itself

on the Wisconsin side of the river.

The autopsy revealed that the cause of death

was blunt force trauma to the head.

In Wehmanen's mother's garage, police found a cinder block.

Its size and shape were consistent with Schrieffer's

head injury.

Wehmanen didn't deny striking Schrieffer

in the head with the block, but said

he did it after Schrieffer was already dead.

Prosecutors were skeptical.

MARK RUBIN: He says he hit him with a block

when he was wrapping up his body at his mother's garage,

and hit him with a block of cement just out of frustration,

expressing anger at Erik Schrieffer

for having caused him to do this.

Doesn't make a lot of sense.

NARRATOR: Because of the plea agreement,

Joseph Wehmanen was sentenced to and /

years in prison for Erik Schrieffer's death.

He'll be eligible for parole after eight years.

- years in prison for a m*rder where you drive your vehicle

over a body one time, then back over it again,

if the witnesses are to be believed--

to me, that's not justice.

-The family wanted us to make some type of negotiation,

compromise on the amount of time,

in return for recovery of the body.

And I remember even telling Erik's mom and dad and brother

that Joe Wehmanen is not going to get what he

deserves for what he did to Erik.

I made that very clear to them.

And that's what I even told the court at sentencing.

But we were willing to make a compromise in order

to recover the body and put the case behind.

NARRATOR: The other reason for the deal

was the disappearance of the two eyewitnesses.

They are still missing to this day.

-I hope they are OK.

I hope nothing has happened to them.

And if we could find out who is responsible for their

disappearance, for their being conveniently absent at a time

when we needed them, for us having to reduce

the charge for m*rder in the second degree

intentional m*rder down to unintentional, we want to know.

Then there'll be a little bit of finality to this case.

NARRATOR: The case was solved by forensic evidence

Wehmanen couldn't power wash away.

Wehmanen knew that the blood found in the metal crevices

and the single strand of hair were

Schrieffer's, and that forensic testing would prove it.

-I strongly believe that there's always forensic evidence that's

left behind in any crime scene.

It's just a matter of your human eye

picking up and looking in certain places,

and using the current technologies

to locate that forensic evidence.

-Forensic science was remarkable,

because without the police department going

that extra distance and finding that evidence in the truck,

in the tailgate and the undercarriage,

without the medical examiner finding that blood

sample with the matching DNA at the end of that alley,

we would have been out of luck.

[theme music]