11x18 - A Case of the Flue

[bunniefuu]

It was a case
unlike most others.

Forensic evidence proved
the perpetrator broke out

of the crime scene
rather than breaking in.

No one knew why, until some
evidence on the victim's hands

provided the answer.

Retirees
often face hard choices.

Many find it difficult
to live alone, or grow

tired of maintaining
their own home.

But 82-year-old Kathryn
Bishop wasn't one of them.

She was a quiet
person, but she was feisty.

She trusted everybody.

And she was my mother.

Kathryn's home was in
Hummelstown, Pennsylvania, just

outside the state
capital of Harrisburg.

One morning, a city employee
saw Kathryn's side door

had broken into,
and called police.

The ambulance
was in the driveway.

And I kept saying,
where's my mother?

Where's my mother?

And a man appeared,
and he said, your... I'm sorry.

He said, your mother is dead.

And I just went limp.

Kathryn Bishop
had been beaten to death.

The scene was a violent scene.

The victim had been
beaten severely.

There was a pool of
blood around her head

that she had,
literally, bled out.

I believe
there are defense wounds

on the arms that were observed.

And we had a broken
fingernail, also.

So there were signs there
that she... she probably did

try to fight off her
attacker or attackers.

There was a
half-finished crossword puzzle

in the living room.

And in Kathryn's
hand, a broken pen.

It appeared she was awake
when the break-in occurred.

When you get to be that age,

you have to expect
death to happen.

But not the way my mother died.

And that's... that's what
really, really bothers me.

Strangest of all, there

appeared to be nothing missing.

- According to the
family, everything

appeared normal as it was.

That there was no ransacking
through the house.

That there was no
signs that they

were looking for
anything, in particular.

Through body
temperature and the degree

of rigor mortis,
the medical examiner

estimated that Kathryn had
been k*lled the night before.

- The death occurred between
- 9:00 and 10:30 in the evening.

At first, the side door

looked like the point of entry.

But the broken glass
was outside, not inside.

JR: Very unusual.

Majority of the time,
I've seen break-ins,

the glass is always into
the inside of the house,

because people are breaking
in, not breaking out.

Police canvassed
the neighborhood for leads.

Anytime you have an
investigation where you have

no witnesses, and
you have no evidence,

there is a strong
likelihood that the case

will never be solved.

One of the neighbors said,

she was walking her dog the
night before, around 10:30

and heard some kind of noise.

She turned around.

She saw a shadowy figure
running from Mrs. Bishop's home.

She was only able to see this
figure for a very brief time

period, maybe 10, 15 seconds.

- And that, along with
the medical evidence

allowed us to establish
the time of the crime.

If this was the k*ller,

he left through the
side door, which

explains why the
glass was outside.

If so, how did he
enter the house?

And what was his motive?

- It was a crime that caused
a lot of community concern.

And, of course,
doubled our motivation

to find who was responsible.

Because of
the nature of the crime,

investigators were certain that
Kathryn Bishop's autopsy would

reveal evidence to
help their case.

The medical examiner
concluded that Kathryn

was hit over 60 times.

The cause of death wasn't
difficult to determine.

It was the breaking of the ribs

on both sides of the
body, bilaterally,

preventing her from expanding
and contracting her chest.

And she died of suffocation.

As a matter of routine,

the medical examiner
used clear tape

to pick up any
potential trace evidence

on Kathryn's body and clothing.

And this technique identified
something potentially valuable.

It was a fiber.

And it was a fiber that
wasn't consistent with what

she was wearing.

But where she picked it up
from, that we can't say.

Also on the tape
lift from Kathryn's hand

was a small chip of white paint.

Forensic analyst John Evans
noticed that the paint chip

contained several layers,
each a different color.

He then compared
it to paint samples

from the exterior
of Kathryn's home.

And it matched only
one area... the paint

around her basement window.

- We looked at the layer
structures and the colors

of the layers that were present.

In the paint chip from
the basement window,

I became three layers...
A top white layer,

a middle yellow layer,
and a bottom tanish layer.

The window was located about 4

and 1/2 feet above ground level.

And on the exterior of
the home, on the siding,

there were black marks.

It appeared that someone had
actually crawled up the siding,

and used the siding to help
them go through the window.

Police found marks on
the top of the washing machine

that looked like
fabric impressions.

JR: The impression

had the striated lines.

It had the appearance
of a pair of denim

jeans, what it would look like.

Technicians dusted the area

and found some partial
finger and palm prints,

but they were too badly
smudged to be useful.

In their search for
suspects, investigators

made a list of everyone who
had been in Kathryn's home

over the past several weeks.

We found utility bills
on the kitchen table, which

indicated that she had
a fuel oil delivery.

The oil company
indicated they delivered

three days before
Kathryn's m*rder.

Our investigators went out,

contacted each of these people.

We found out that a fuel oil man
did not even come in the home.

And the oil deliverymen

had solid alibis for
the night of the m*rder.

Police also found a receipt
for a chimney cleaning service.

Two men cleaned
Kathryn's chimney

on the afternoon of her m*rder.

Kathryn's daughter visited
her mother that day,

and spoke with the
two chimney cleaners.

It was three
hundred and some dollars.

And I remember saying, to
have your chimney cleaned,

it's that much?

The two men were
identified as 27-year-old Tim

McEnany and his cousin


McEnany, who was apparently

part of this guild
of chimney sweeps,

it's my understanding
that it was

Tim McEnany that was
the boss of the company.

McEnany and
Reichman told police,

they finished at Kathryn's
house around 6:30.

Then went to a nearby bar, where
they stayed until after 1:00

in the morning.

Several bar patrons
confirmed their alibi.

Then Kathryn's daughter
remembered something.

When she was in her mother's
home on the afternoon

of her m*rder, she saw
three rolls of cash

in a basket on the
dining room table,

money Kathryn used when
shopping for groceries.

And I remember saying,

Mother, put that money away.

You shouldn't have that out
with strangers in the house.

I really felt uncomfortable
because of that,

with them in the house.

And there she had this money.

When police
searched Kathryn's home,

they found the basket, but
not the three rolls of cash.

I think it was Mrs.
Bishop's daughter was saying

there was about
$6,000 cash... I think.

Then a confidential
source told journalist Pete

Shellem that Tim McEnany
and Andrew Reichman made

a little side trip in the early
morning hours after the m*rder.

The robbery
occurred around 10:00 PM.

Sources have told me
that Tim and his cousin

went to Atlantic City.

Which is where the casinos are,

a perfect place to spend $6,000.

The medical examiner
estimated that Kathryn Bishop

was m*rder*d sometime
between 9:00 and 10:30 PM.

The only people who were
in Kathryn's home that day,

besides her daughter,
were two chimney sweepers

who said they left around


Both bartenders were
attractive young women.

The chimney service men
were engaging in small talk,

and commenting to these
bartenders all the time

they were there
and having beers.

The men claimed
they were in the bar

all night, until closing time.

But the bartenders
disputed that.

The first bartender actually

sat next to one of the chairs
that the chimney sweeps sat

in, when she was done her shift.

And when we interviewed
the second bartender,

they were in an entirely
different location at the bar,

two different chairs later on.

Kathryn's home was only

a few miles away from the bar.

A 30 minute window would
have been sufficient to have

left the bar, committed the
crime, and to have returned.

So with a warrant police

searched the chimney
cleaners' homes,

and confiscated the
clothes they were

seen wearing that
night at the bar.

The Pennsylvania State
Police forensic team

concluded that the fibers
from McEnany black t-shirt

were identical to the one
found on Kathryn's body.

But Tim McEnany's lawyers were
convinced that was a mistake.

So they hired their own trace
evidence expert, Skip Palenik.

Skip Palenik is highly
respected in many quarters.

And so it was obviously
of great concern

when he's going to be
testifying for the defense.

Palenik first
examined the fibers

from McEnany's t-shirt
under a microscope.

Well, first of
all, that there appeared

to be both synthetic
black fibers

and natural black fibers.

Next, Palenik
compared the fibers

from McEnany's
t-shirt to those taken

from Kathryn Bishop's body.

And I just, basically, joined

them up with a
line between them.

You can see, are the
diameters the same?

Are the colors really the same?

Tim McEnany and his lawyers

hoped that Skip
Palenik would disagree

with the State Police
forensics expert.

But he didn't.

What we found in this case,

though, when we compared the
cotton fibers, and the tape

of the cotton fibers
from the shirt,

everything looked the same.

When we compared the polyester
fibers from the tapes,

with the polyester fibers
from the shirt, again,

everything looked the same.

We could not see
any differences.

This was hardly the conclusion

Tim McEnany and
his lawyers wanted.

The defense
attorney gets satisfaction

from seeing his client, who
he believes to be innocent,

found innocent.

Our role is entirely
different than theirs.

Our role is to be objective
seekers of scientific truth.

And that's what we do.

- There is a certain
irony in the fact

that they're spending a
great deal of money, trying

to get the bit
hitter to come in.

When you've got someone
of that stature,

they're going to concede
what they must concede.

But McEnany insisted
the fibers proved nothing.

He said he was working
inside Kathryn's home

on the afternoon of her
m*rder, so naturally he

would've shed some shirt
fibers along the way.

So the state's forensic
analyst, John Evans,

examined the rest of
McEnany's clothing,

and found another
tantalizing clue.

I was given the jacket
to examine for trace evidence.

On inspection of
the inside pockets,

I discovered on the left-hand
side, a paint chip that looked

like it could have
come from a house.

Evans discovered that
the paint chip contained three

separate layers of paint... white
on top, yellow in the middle,

and tan on the bottom.

With a scalpel, Evans
separated the layers,

and subjected each
to infrared light.

Different paint reacts
to the infrared light

in different ways, revealing
its chemical makeup.

And paint consists of
many chemical compounds.

We found that the top
layers of all three samples

were consistent with each
other in the infrared region.

Evans then
tested the bottom layer

of the tan paint of the samples.

And they, too, have the
same chemical make up.

The state police took
samples from all of that house.

And the other
samples didn't match.

It was the sample from
the basement window,

the point of entry, that
matched the chip found

in the defendant's pocket
and Mrs. Bishop's hand.

The paint and fiber
on Kathryn's body clearly

linked Tim McEnany
to the m*rder.

But there was no
forensic evidence

linking Andrew Reichman.

The theory was
that Reichman bargained to be

part of a burglary, but
not part of a m*rder.

And when he saw what McEnany
was doing to Mrs. Bishop,

it was then that he
hightailed it out of there.

Unfortunately,
the neighbor walking her dog

couldn't identify Reichman as
the man running from the scene.

So only Tim McEnany was charged
with Kathryn Bishop's m*rder.

To cement the
case, investigators

decided to check one last
thing... Tim McEnany's cell

phone calls on the
night of the m*rder.

And the information in those
records explained everything.

As prosecutors prepared
their m*rder case against Tim

McEnany, they had the
paint and fiber evidence,

but wanted to make sure they
had enough to convict him.

So investigators subpoenaed
McEnany's cell phone records

for the night of
Kathryn's m*rder.

We took the phone into the lab,

and we sequenced the
phone to the last number

called, whatever that would be.

And it turned out to be
Mrs. Bishop's phone number.

McEnany's phone records

showed he made two calls
to Kathryn Bishop's home

that night.

One at 10:07 PM.

And the second call,
a minute later.

The calls were
short in duration...



There appeared to be no
connection with the home phone.

And the calls were made from
Mr. McEnany's cell phone.

But if Kathryn
was home, why didn't she

pick up the phone?

She was hard of hearing.

I would call her
and it would ring,

sometimes it rang as
high as 15 to 20 times,

and she never answered.

Prosecutors believe
McEnany saw the rolls of cash

on Kathryn's dining
room table while he

and Reichman were
cleaning her chimney.

Later at the bar, he probably
made the decision to steal it.

McEnany called Kathryn's
home shortly after 10:00 PM.

And again a minute later.

When there was no answer,

he assumed Kathryn was
either asleep, or out.

The evidence shows that
McEnany entered Kathryn's home

through the basement
window, and inadvertently

collected the tiny
chips of paint.

Once inside, McEnany discovered
that Kathryn was awake,

and made a split-second
decision to k*ll her.

Kathryn fought back,
grabbing the shirt

fibers, as well
as the paint chip.

McEnany kicked
her over 60 times.

Prosecutors believe McEnany's
accomplice ran from Kathryn's

home, breaking the
back door window.

But the neighborhood couldn't
identify if it was Reichman,

because she never saw his face.

Later, McEnany and Reichman
returned to the bar

to establish an alibi.

According to an informant,
McEnany and Reichman then

drove to an Atlantic
City Casino to gamble,

presumably with Kathryn's money.

But this was never corroborated.

During the police
interrogation, McEnany

refused to identify
Reichman as his accomplice,

but virtually
confessed to the crime.

And without any
solicitation he said,

it's that f-ing bear.

Every time I drink,
I get in trouble.

Tim McEnany
was tried and convicted

of second-degree m*rder,
robbery, and conspiracy.

But before he was sentenced,
McEnany run towards the window

and tried to jump out.

A assistant public
defender and the Sheriff

were able to grab him
and pull him back in.

And at that point, his family,
who were in the court room,

were screaming and yelling.

The defendant was
screaming, "you've

convicted an innocent man."

It was... it was bedlam.

McEnany stayed long
enough to hear his sentence...

Life in prison,
and was taken away.

Andrew Reichman was never
charged in this case.

His lawyers maintained
there was no evidence

that he participated
in the crime.

Prosecutors reluctantly agreed.

The difference
between McEnany and Reichman,

aside from the fact
that, I believe,

that McEnany was the principle,
but the forensic evidence was

against McEnany.

We didn't have any forensic
evidence against Reichman.

Investigators say this
was a classic example of barely

visible evidence leading
directly to a k*ller.

SGT. GEORGE KEGERREIS, JR: The
general principle of forensics

is, when you go somewhere
you do one of two things.

You either leave evidence, or
you take evidence with you.

It was easy for the jury
to see something like that.

Juries like that.

They can put the
puzzle together.

And we just provide
them with the pieces

and let them go with
it, wherever it goes.

- I'm thankful, yes, that there
are experts in their field,

and they were able to find
the evidence that they got.