09x04 - No Corpus Delicti

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Narrator: for almost years, a young woman was

Believed to be missing in the dense colorado mountains.

But small pine needles in a clump of hair suggested that

Investigators narrow their search to an area , feet

Above sea level.

This is how forensic plant ecology helped solve a

Very cold case.

After graduating from college, -year-old michele wallace

Decided to pursue her love of photography.

She was known primarily for her photos of people, but she

Decided to try her hand at landscape photography, and she

Headed to the mountainous wilderness of western colorado.

She rode polo ponies and branded cows and went rock

Climbing and was a student at the rochester institute and was

Quite a student of photography.

She was a realist and she knew how to face things and work

Through them.

Narrator: michele faithfully called her parents almost every

Day to let them know where she was and what she was doing, but

When several days passed without a call, her parents became

Alarmed.

I knew that she didn't run off.

You know, they said, "well, this is one of these girls that just

Decides she's a free spirit, and off she goes."

She was not that way.

Narrator: when local officials were told she was

Missing, they instituted what was to become the largest

Manhunt in colorado history.

There were hundreds of people in the woods, literally walking

Hand-in-hand across fields and mountains.

Narrator: search teams covered more than , square

Miles of isolated mountain landscape, but found no sign of

Michele or her red station wagon.

It was as if michele had simply disappeared.

Then, a week after she was reported missing, there was a

Potential break.

A local rancher told police about a german shepherd that had

Come down from the mountains and chased his cattle.

The rancher said he sh*t and k*lled the dog.

The name on the dog's collar was okie, michele's german shepherd.

The fact that the dog, obviously, had been separated

From her and found dead later was of great concern because

People felt, clearly, that michele wallace would never have

Willingly been separated from her dog.

Narrator: and another ranch hand came forward with even more

Information.

He said michele gave him a ride in the mountains after his car

Broke down.

He said his friend roy sat in the front seat with michele and

That he was in the back seat with the german shepherd.

The ranch hand remembers the dog particularly because he had

To sit in the back seat of the station wagon with the dog, and

Amusingly recalled the dog drooling on him as his new

Buddy, roy, in the front, struck up the conversation with the

Girl.

Narrator: he said michele dropped him off at a local bar,

And she was taking roy further down the road to his truck.

He said he didn't know roy's last name and never saw either

Of them again.

The police are looking for a mysterious "roy."

They don't have a last name for this man.

All they know is that he's the last one seen with michele.

Narrator: investigators suspected roy was the key to

Michele wallace's disappearance.

Narrator: michele wallace was last seen in her car with a

Hitchhiker in the colorado mountains.

About a week later, police stopped a man matching the

Hitchhiker's description in pueblo, colorado, miles

Away.

He was identified as roy melanson.

Mr. Melanson's background is pretty checkered.

He had been accused of and convicted of sexual as*ault in,

I believe, louisiana and texas, had served prison time.

Narrator: in melanson's possession was michele's

Backpack, driver's license, and a pawnshop ticket for a

-Millimeter camera.

On the camera was a roll of film.

The last photographs on the roll of film were photographs of

Michele's dog, okie, wearing his hiking packs, and the very last

Photograph on the roll was a picture of roy melanson with a

Young woman that he met in pueblo, colorado.

Narrator: melanson denied having anything to do with

Michele's disappearance.

He said they stopped for coffee, and he admitted sneaking out the

Back way and stealing her car.

He said michele's dog was tied up outside.

Melanson told police he dumped michele's car in

Amarillo, texas.

When police recovered the car, they found no evidence of

v*olence either on the inside or outside, although the car had

Been wiped clean of fingerprints.

All they have is somebody who's admitted stealing a car

From a young woman that he left in town.

There is no body.

There is no evidence of foul play.

Narrator: it was also suspicious that this wasn't the

Only missing person's case melanson was involved in.

There is another case where a woman in port arthur, texas, who

Was his landlady, disappeared, and ironically, the only thing

That was found was her car, and he was the last person seen with

Her.

Narrator: michele's disappearance sent her mother

Into a serious depression.

She became more and more despondent.

She couldn't live without her daughter.

She had lived through her daughter.

Narrator: one morning, george woke to discover his wife was

Dead.

I never felt anybody cold before.

You just can't believe someone that you lived with for years

Would do it.

Narrator: she k*lled herself with an overdose of

Barbiturates.

That my daughter was k*lled, she was k*lled -- simple.

Narrator: michele's mother left a su1c1de note which

Included one last wish.

George actually showed me that note that said, "when you

Find our daughter, bury her remains next to me.

Bury her beside me."

Narrator: with no evidence of foul play, and without a body,

The case of michele wallace's disappearance went completely

Cold.

Because of the difficulties in proving the crime of m*rder,

Without being awfully darn sure that your victim is dead.

Narrator: five long years passed, until investigators got

Another potential break.

A hiker on an isolated trail found what looked like a clump

Of braided hair.

Interestingly enough, those braids are identical in

Appearance to a photograph that was actually obtained from the

Camera of michele wallace when it was recovered in from

The pueblo police department, who had recovered it from a

Pawnshop.

Narrator: again, the case stalled.

The hair, while promising, looked to be a dead end.

Another decade passed, and the case grew cold yet again, until

A homicide investigator, kathy ireland, discovered

Something in the evidence file that had been overlooked.

I came across a hairbrush that had been bagged and sealed,

And it had michele wallace's name on it.

Narrator: and the forensic evidence it contained changed

The course of the investigation.

Narrator: cold-case investigators discovered an

Unfortunate oversight.

When michele wallace disappeared, no one thought to

Compare samples from her hairbrush to the braided hair

Found in the mountains, so everything was sent to

Joseph snyder for forensic analysis.

Under a microscope, snyder visually compared samples from

Michele's hairbrush to the braided hair, looking for

Similarities in color, consistency, and structure.

Microscopic characteristics were very consistent with each

Other.

The widths were the same.

The medullary component was the same.

The center portions and the mid-region portions of the hair

Were the same.

Narrator: but this was not conclusive.

Microscopic similarity is still not a match.

But with this new evidence, detective ireland was not

Willing to let the case go cold again, so she contacted a group

Of scientists with an odd mission and an unusual name.

They call themselves necrosearch, and they find

Bodies no one else seems to find.

We are a multidisciplinary, entirely volunteer organization

That helps law enforcement look for clandestine graves, and to

Recover evidence and to recover bodies from those graves.

Narrator: for necrosearch, the starting point was the

Braided hair that was believed to be from michele wallace.

Forensic plant ecologist vicky trammell looked for any

Plant material that was in the hair.

The hair had spent five years outside, most likely being drug

Around by scavengers like coyotes.

So my question was not so much, "where is the body," because I

Had no way of determining that, but, "where had the hair spent

Five years?" Narrator: the lack of soil in

The hair suggested the body had not been buried.

The hair wasn't muddy and there was bleach marks.

In other words, bleached by the sun in the places that were

Exposed.

That would not have happened had the hair been buried for five

Years.

Narrator: trammell also found pine needles and shards of bark

In the braids.

The bark was from an aspen tree, which tends to grow in cleared

Areas.

She also found needles from two coniferous-tree species -- the

Subalpine fir and the engelmann spruce.

Subalpine firs grow in elevations above , feet, and

Engelmann spruces grow in wet areas, suggesting the body was

Somewhere on the mountain's north slope, which doesn't get

Much sun.

Trammell identified an area matching all these parameters

Just one mile from where the braided hair was discovered

Years earlier.

The necrosearch team, made up entirely of volunteers, moved

Into action.

They have a commonality to them that, I think, they all

Wanted to be sherlock holmes at one time.

Narrator: the team marked off the area and began what's known

As a grid search, each grid measuring one square meter.

On their hands and knees, just a few feet apart, and

Literally crawling across the forest floor, looking for any

Traces of something out of the ordinary -- these are

Scientists.

They're used to looking for the minute, that is, not the

Ordinary.

Narrator: search teams thoroughly analyze one grid area

Before moving on to the next.

On the first day, they found nothing.

On the second, it was a different story.

A lady by the name of cecilia armbrust, who, I

Believe, was a geologist with that group, had actually gone

Down the hill from where the others were working to answer

The call of nature, and on her way back up, had discovered what

Appeared to her to be a skull.

She yelled out, "I found it," and we didn't believe her at

First.

Even though we know that she really isn't much of a practical

Joker, we didn't believe her at first.

Narrator: the skull contained an unmistakable feature

Michele's father told police about almost years earlier.

Michele had a gold tooth, and the sunlight was just right and

It reflected, and then that's how they discovered her.

She had never been buried, and as a matter of fact, we

Could determine that her body probably had just been tossed

Off the side of the road and had rolled up against a tree, and

From there, gravity and scavengers had taken their toll.

I was glad I could be able to help a little bit, and I

Realized that no matter what we did, that we found her remains,

It could never bring her back, so that's part of the sadness, I

Think.

Narrator: but prosecutors still needed to find one last

Piece of evidence proving her death was the result of

v*olence, and not an accident.

Narrator: almost years after michele wallace's

Disappearance, a team of forensic specialists searching

Through the high-altitude forests of western colorado

Found a human skull.

Nearby were other human bones, identified by a forensic

Anthropologist as those from a female in her late teens to

Mid-s.

This woman had been thrown from the road and come to rest

Against a tree.

Her body, her bones, were found in such a manner as to indicate

Exactly how she had come to rest.

Narrator: one of the scientists tested this

Hypothesis by dropping a bucket from the road at the top of the

Hill.

The amazing thing is that the bucket landed at exactly where

The cranium had been.

Narrator: the necrosearch team also found pieces of

Michele's clothing.

The zipper from her jeans looked like it had been pulled apart

Violently.

It's obvious that the zipper has been torn apart as opposed

To simply opened in the normal way, so there's evidence of some

v*olence here.

Narrator: a forensic odontologist compared michele's

Dental records to the teeth in the skull and made a positive

Identification.

Police and prosecutors now focus their attention on

Roy melanson, the last-known person to see her alive.

What do you want to do?

You want to k*ll.

That's what you want to do, even if it costs your life.

Narrator: prosecutors knew michele stopped to give melanson

And the other ranch hand a ride into town after their car broke

Down.

Michele dropped one of the ranch hands off at the local bar, but

The other, roy melanson, asked her if she would drop him off

Farther down the road so he could get his truck.

She agreed.

All right.

Narrator: prosecutors believe somewhere along the way,

Melanson ordered michele to stop the car.

He let the dog out.

There was a struggle resulting in the ripped zipper, and he

k*lled her.

The evidence suggests he dumped her body down the side of the

Mountain...later discovered by the necrosearch team.

Okie made his way to a ranch about miles away, an

Indication that michele was dead, since he wouldn't have

Left her side if she had been alive.

Melanson drove michele's car to texas, where he used her

-Millimeter camera, then pawned it with the unexposed

Film inside.

There were certainly the inferences that were drawn from

The fact that he was buying clothing in downtown gunnison,

Driving michele wallace's vehicle at that time, which told

Us that he knew that she was dead and he knew that she was

Not around to make a report of a stolen vehicle.

He was brazen about that particular fact.

Narrator: by this time, roy melanson was serving time in

A kentucky prison for burglary, but was extradited to colorado

To face trial for m*rder.

Melanson pleaded not guilty and even refused to attend the

Trial.

Instead, he listened to the proceedings from his prison

Cell.

We are not required to prove motive.

The issue got raised, however, during the course of the trial

In closing argument because the defense said, "where is the

Motive?" After the defense raised that

Issue, I asked the jury to look at the zipper that was recovered

From the levis as it was torn.

Narrator: in september of , a jury found roy melanson

Guilty of first-degree m*rder.

He was sentenced to life in prison.

See, these bastards, the devastation that they leave

Behind.

Nobody knows.

They think they k*lled an individual.

They k*ll dozens of people.

They let these animals roam the street when they shouldn't, and

I think that probably I'll be dead, and this animal has a

Chance of walking the street again.

That's what hurts.

Narrator: michele's father is thankful to forensic science and

The volunteers who worked so diligently to find his

Daughter.

They found the site and brought it to a conclusion.

To me, you can't express the gratitude.

And, uh...i just couldn't believe that it finally came to

An end.

The system of justice worked in this particular case.

Whether the system itself ever awards justice to a victim or

Their family is, in my opinion, a hard question to answer.

When you look at the loss of life in this particular case and

The tragedy associated with it, that verdict is never going to

Make them whole -- never will.

But I have some confidence, based upon what happened, that

Our system does work, and it works fairly.