a young woman stopped her car along a
busy highway in California she was never
seen again for three years the search
for her whereabouts continued but the
trail eventually turned cold so cold
that forensic scientists needed new
techniques to solve it
twenty-three-year-old Denise Huber lived
with her parents in Newport Beach
California
an upscale suburb outside of Los Angeles
she just got graduated from college and
I think she just wanted to have have fun
and before she settled down into a job
Denise worked as a waitress and a
part-time sales assistant at
Bloomingdale's at five foot nine
the striking blue-eyed brunette had no
trouble attracting dates
her most recent boyfriend was Steve
Horrocks he's a friendly outgoing person
likes to have fun I know she that's what
she would always say Steve was so much
fun on Sunday night June 2nd 1991 Steve
and Denise plan to see the Morrisey rock
band perform an Inglewood
but at the last minute Steve couldn't
get off from work disappointed but
undeterred Denis asked a casual friend
Robert Calvert to go with her she said
I'll be home late and I remember saying
well don't be too late you know because
I was worried when you're not home on
time after the concert Denis and Rob
stopped at the El Paso Cantina for a
drink where Denis met an old
acquaintance whom we'll call Ross Ross
had had a romantic feelings for her in
the past he did ask her to go with him
that night
we wanted her to go home with him which
she did not do Denise and Rob left the
restaurant around 1 o'clock in the
morning and Denise dropped
Rob off at his home Rob was the last
known person to see Denise Huber I think
in the morning when she wasn't there
obviously it was there was some concern
but we didn't keep that closer tabs on
her either heaven she was 23 years old
and in an adult and totally trustworthy
her abandoned car was found along the
Costa Mesa Freeway three miles from home
with a flat tire it didn't look like
anything had occurred at the vehicle it
was parked between two call boxes that
were never used that night in my mind I
just knew something horrible had
happened because Denise wasn't kind a
person that would just disappear without
telling us
the Costa Mesa police dispatched
investigators to the scene inside of the
car itself appeared to be clean there
was no blood there there didn't appear
to be any windows broken there didn't
appear to be any damage to the car her
purse and shoes were gone like she'd
gotten out of her car and left the
flashers were on in the car like she the
car had broken down and she was gonna
get out and go walk for help search dogs
picked up a scent on the side of the
freeway
but soon lost it police then canvassed
the neighborhoods near the highway but
no one had seen her it appeared Denise
Huber had simply vanished
you
it's worse than if I think I was afraid
of for my own death because I was so
afraid what happened to that night some
precious
police used search helicopters and all
other means to look for 23 year old
Denise Hoover after her abandoned car
was found along a busy highway you could
hear them from our house and you know
what they're looking for and you you
pray they don't find what they're
looking for
this has got to be obviously got to be a
body that they're looking for and it's a
horrible it's the most horrible feeling
you could ever have
it's like I couldn't breathe red on a
hollow police examined the interior of
Denise's car and found no foreign
fingerprints an analysis of the flat
tire revealed it had not been tampered
with
it just blew out from being under
inflated got too hot and the sidewall
failed just went flat while the physical
evidence led nowhere police interviewed
the last known person to see Denise her
date from the night before Robert
Calvert broad could have been infatuated
with her and could have been upset
because there was no romantic contact
between the two of them police also
looked into Denise's relationship with
Steve Horrocks the boyfriend who was
supposed to accompany Denise to the
concert but backed out at the last
minute
Steve Horrocks was again cooperative any
information either from him he was
always willing to give
police also tracked down Ross the
acquaintance Denise met at the elk
Cantina restaurant Ross was able to put
himself in the alibi'd situation to show
that he did not go follow her after she
dropped a Rob off I never gave up hope
that she'd be found alive we did
everything from thinking that she might
have had a boyfriend that the folks
didn't know about and maybe left the
state left the city eloped desperate for
leads investigators and Denise's family
turned to the media all I knew is get a
picture in front of people get the story
out and the news media they were
wonderful because every time we have
anything going on they would be there
and they'd show it so the community
really it was like it was their daughter
we made buttons with Denise's picture
that said pray for Denise we had bumper
stickers that all of our police units
carried and were available all over the
community there was a large banner that
was placed along the 73 freeway here in
Costa Mesa the media attention produced
hundreds of tips most were
well-intentioned some were not we adhere
from psychics we dear from crackpots
we'd have cure from people that would
try to get money from us 350 miles away
in Prescott Arizona
a man living in a well-to-do
neighborhood called local police to
report something suspicious in his
neighbor's driveway it was a Ryder truck
with California license plates it had an
extension cord coming out of the back of
the neighbors said it was plugged into
an electrical socket on the side of the
house whatever was inside the truck was
running 24 hours a day a search of the
truck revealed it had been stolen in
California
inside was an industrial-sized freezer
in the cargo area and inside the freezer
was a large black garbage bag and they
felt it and believed what they felt was
it was an arm of a person I recall
seeing two arms coming back with the
hands handcuffed and a ring
I remember seeing jewelry and I was I
was really shocked and for the medical
examiner it would be the most difficult
case she had ever encountered
for the past year a stolen Ryder truck
containing a freezer with a human body
inside had been parked at the home of 39
year old john famalaro a handyman and
painter mr. famalaro was very calm he
was very polite and he just really
didn't have much to say about it but he
seemed kind of indifferent to the whole
thing the contents of the freezer were
sent to the Maricopa County coroner's
office dr. Ann Buchholz handled the case
obviously it's a homicide or at least a
hidden body for some reason and because
if it's clandestine nature you're like
okay so we got an evidentiary thing here
let's think homicide let's think the
worst and I said yes it's a female she
also had some female jewelry evident and
long fingernails the handcuffs were
evident and we didn't see much in the
way of clothing she appeared to be naked
thawing the body would cause rapid
decomposition
so dr. Buchholz needed to collect
evidence quickly or lose it forever
I took a clean scalpel handle and
actually scraped some of the watery
fluid into jars and held it that way I
thought well at least we can collect the
specimens it was a sheer luck that we
even got any sperm at all
a woman who's frozen three years
dr. Buchholz removed the handcuffs and
defrosted the hands slowly when they're
frozen the skin is fairly symmetrical
and intact until she starts losing the
fluids and then the skin will start
shriveling even in the fingertips in
fact that's where it starts one of the
first we got all the prints that first
day and they are actually rolled onto a
fingerprint card just as if they were a
person who's being arrested it's the
same process on a dead person when they
entered the prints into their computer
database of missing persons they
immediately found a match
it was Denise Huber who had been missing
for three years they were able to do the
finger prints and that's something I
never even thought of a man I never
imagined that we would have that kind of
evidence after three years meanwhile
john famalaro refused to explain why
Denise's body was in his freezer 350
miles away from where she disappeared so
police searched familar OHS home in the
home of his mother who lived next door
she was quite taken back that we had
also secured what we found to be her
home she knew nothing about John having
girlfriends or who it might be
and basically sat up a lawn chair across
the street and just sat there and
watched us for four days
police found the box marked Christmas on
a shelf in familar oz garish inside was
Denise's bloody clothing her driver's
license and her high-heeled shoes
the shoes were scuffed and damaged as if
she had been dragged across highway
paving and police found credit-card
receipts that showed famalaro had bought
the freezer
just days after Denise's disappearance
they also discovered blood-stained
clothing belonging to john famalaro they
didn't know whose blood it was they
didn't know if it was Denise's some
other persons a mixture mr. familar owes
so they needed a sample of Denise's
blood we didn't have blood so we ended
up sending them some bone marrow the DNA
extracted from Denise Huber's bone
marrow matched the DNA in the blood on
familar o's clothes
in familar OHS basement police found a
police officer's uniform and a dungeon I
think that all showed me he was just
that type of person not the
mild-mannered person he was when I spoke
to him he had that very dark violent
other side and was becoming more and
more apparent as as the case progressed
on one of his girlfriends that we talked
to said that yeah he had some weird
sexual fantasies one of the girls have
been handcuffed and left exposed naked
and handcuffed left exposed to an open
window the evidence implicated famalaro
in the disappearance and death of Denise
Huber but it did not explain how she
died we took off two or three black
plastic bags that had encased the whole
body and inside that were some smaller
white plastic bags which covered the
head and when we removed that and we
started defrosting her we actually found
a gag type device over her face and over
her mouth area with a piece of duct tape
that had been taped over her upper mouth
nose area dr. Buchholz discovered that
Denise's skull had been severely damaged
dr. Laura fulginiti a forensic
anthropologist was asked to reconstruct
the skull for further analysis you look
for parts that go together naturally and
you'd start with the vault or the top
round part of the head and then you
proceeded towards the face and the
reason I do it that way is because the
face typically has the smallest most
complicated pieces and you want to have
your framework built so that when you
get to the face you have something to
put the face back on to
the forensic analysis would reveal not
only how Denise Huber died but where
after a three-year search Dionisio
bruised body was found in a freezer in
arizona forensic investigators
reconstructed her skull in an effort to
understand how she died
you can see patterned injuries of two
different varieties indicating two
different weapons were used and you can
also see little pieces of plastic that
are caught in those fractures that told
us that the bags were in place when she
received the blows to the head and dr.
fulginiti discovered Denise had been hit
31 times it's horrifying and if I stop
too long to think about what how she
felt when she was by the freeway I'm
paralyzed and I can't do my job so I
don't I don't think about that until
it's all over and done with
for me it's a matter of here's the
puzzle my job is to put the puzzle
together and interpret the puzzle and
then I can go home and and cry in the
shower the semen found on Denise's
clothing matched john famalaro DNA
profile she was innocent an innocent
victim and it could have been anybody's
sister it could have been you it could
have been your sister your friend and
and that's scary
it really hurts you emotionally at that
point when you realize that I'll be
honest I won't drive on the interstate
and and allow anyone to help me because
of this police also discovered the john
famalaro was working in Newport Beach
California at the
Denyce disappeared he had rented the
front portion of this warehouse for his
painting business they talked to people
who rented the unit after he had moved
out and abandoned it about what the unit
what conditioner unit was in and they
pointed his to his area in the corner
where they found a large brown stain
that washed out with the hose and we
thought well we know dried blood is very
sought up on water it can be washed away
initial tests revealed nothing
investigators decided to wait until dark
and use luminol which flores's or glows
when it comes into contact with the iron
component in blood we sprayed it out of
a little hand sprayer eventually we
checked the whole warehouse I think
never found is that blood in the corner
the warehouse the DNA from those
bloodstains matched Denise Huber's DNA
and a nail g*n found in the warehouse
matched the indentations in Denise's
skull based on the forensic evidence
prosecutors believe that when Denise's
tire went flat famalaro stopped and
offered to help
at some point he overpowered her and
took her to his warehouse a few miles
away
there he k*lled her he stored the body
in a freezer he bought a few days after
he k*lled Denise two years later he
stole the Ryder truck and took the
freezer with Denise's body in it with
him when he moved to Arizona he kept the
truck in his driveway with the freezer
running constantly
it's kind of sick guy sees thing John
has been violent to other people and
it's escalated up to the point of m*rder
but I don't think Denis has been the
only one On June 20th 1997 six years
after Denise disappeared john famalaro
was tried and convicted of first-degree
m*rder he was sentenced to death
forensics were it was challenged every
step of the way here in court even
before court I think a lot of it went to
the state Supreme Court but every
challenge was beat back because of great
forensics and great police work I wanted
to know the truth and if someone was
horrible but I'd rather have the answers
than just be wandering in my mind
because sometimes you imagine things as
bad or worse than what they were this
really is the way it's supposed to be
done and then it makes you work harder
on the next one and when you're about to
throw your hands up in despair you think
Denise Huber you did that case you got
it reconstructed key path there is an
answer here
you
07x20 - Telltale Tracks
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Documentary that reveals how forensic science is used to solve violent crimes, mysterious accidents, and outbreaks of illness.
Documentary that reveals how forensic science is used to solve violent crimes, mysterious accidents, and outbreaks of illness.