A college student
vanished without a trace.
Her abandoned car
was found in one
city, her belongings in another.
Some dirt on a pair
of shoes revealed
the extent of one
man's deception.
Michigan State University
is the seventh largest
in the United States,
with a campus in East Lansing
that spans over 5,000 acres.
With more than 45,000
students, police are often
called to investigate when one
of them fails to stay in touch.
From time to time, we'll
get missing persons
reports around here.
And the majority
of the time they're
going to be bogus... somebody
runs off with somebody
else or boyfriend
forgets to report
home, things of that nature.
In July of 2000,
a graduate student studying
speech pathology, went missing.
She didn't show up
at a family picnic.
And she wasn't
answering her telephone.
And so I called
the East Lansing Police
Department to do a...
An apartment check.
You know, they can
go over to check.
And they went over there,
and she wasn't there.
Michelle lived in
an apartment just off campus.
- We saw no signs of
a, a violent crime
occurring in the
apartment or anything.
It looked like a college
student's apartment.
But they did
find two suspicious things.
There was
evidence around the door knob
and everything to
suggest lock picking.
- There was a regular-sized
couch in the living
room of the apartment.
And the three top cushions
of that couch were missing.
And Michelle's car,
a burgundy station wagon,
was not in the
apartment parking lot.
- There were six or seven
different law enforcement
agencies involved, most of whom
had no actual stake in the case
themselves, but
volunteered people to,
uh, participate in the search.
They were also civilians
who volunteered.
Uh, there were
university, uh, staff
and employees who
assisted in the search.
There were private
citizens that assisted.
Police issued
a "be on the lookout"
call for Michelle's car.
in Toledo, Ohio,
found it parked near
the bus station.
They had ticketed the car
several times... an indication
it had been there for awhile.
Yeah, I got a car
here with a couple tickets.
No one recalled seeing Michelle
Salerno in or near the car.
We didn't really think
it was good news because
she wasn't with it.
And why would it
be in Toledo, Ohio?
It just didn't make any sense.
Michelle Salerno was separated
from her husband Dennis.
When she disappeared, Dennis was
living in Bowling Green, Ohio,
and claimed he hadn't
seen her in over a week.
The last known person
to see Michelle alive
was her next door
neighbor Jason.
He said she helped him
deliver some newspapers
several days earlier.
She had just
recently picked up a local area
paper route, basically to
earn a little extra cash.
And if I recall correctly, the
paper route went from 4:00 AM
to 6:00 AM.
Jason said he
and Michelle returned
to their respective apartments
around 6 o'clock that morning.
And that was the
last time he saw her.
Jason was considered
a suspect for the simple fact
he was the last
person to see Michelle
alive before her disappearance.
Jason and Michelle
were actually close friends.
They had formed a
relationship, not
anything outside of friendship.
But, uh, relationship was tight.
- Based on all of the
circumstances in our followup
investigation, we
were able to quickly
eliminate him as a suspect.
I checked on every
one of Michelle's credit cards.
None of those things
had ever showed
any activity whatsoever on them.
Her checking account, everything
had stopped like Michelle had
just disappeared and everything
about her had just ended.
But people who
disappear usually spend money.
So investigators feared this
was something far worse.
Shortly after Michelle's
Salerno's disappearance,
there was another
suspicious incident in Ohio
a few miles from
Michelle's abandoned car.
A truck driver was m*rder*d
in a rest stop bathroom.
The victim was located
on the floor of the shower.
His throat had been cut.
Uh, he was not clothed.
Some of his personal belongings
were there in the shower.
The man was identified
as 50-year-old Larry McClanahan
plan, a self-employed
trucker from Ohio.
A background check revealed
McClanahan served time
in prison for
sexually assaulting
his 14-year-old nephew.
His cell mate and best
friend was none other
than Dennis Salerno, Michelle
Salerno's estranged husband who
had served time for
theft and fraud.
After getting out of prison,
Salerno went to live with
McClanahan and his family
for a period of time.
So they were, they
were well-acquainted.
McClanahan
opened his door to Dennis,
gave him a place to live.
It also came out that Larry
and Dennis shared Larry's wife,
McClanahan's ex-wife
and formed this net.
They were all sexually
involved together.
The truck stop's security camera
showed McClanahan walking
towards the shower room
with another man carrying
a large black bag.
A half hour later,
the man with the bag
left without McClanahan.
To police, the man looked
like Dennis Salerno.
There was also
a video which shows Salerno
entering a locked and
secured storage area.
There were clear
pictures taken there.
Did you k*ll Larry?
- Why would I k*ll Larry?
I have no...
When police brought
Salerno in for questioning,
he denied everything.
But after several hours,
his story changed.
He said McClanahan called
him a few days earlier
suggesting they meet
at the truck stop.
Salerno said when he
got there, McClanahan
admitted he, quote, "took
care of" his wife Michelle,
since he knew Salerno was
having marital problems.
- Dennis said, what do you mean?
And McClanahan said, I
took care of your wife.
- And he said to him, I've taken
care of your problem, Dennis.
Now, come over here and
take your clothes of
and get in the shower with me.
Salerno claimed
McClanahan wouldn't take no
for an answer and feared
he would be r*ped.
Dennis said he
panicked and reached down
and grabbed a knife and jabbed
it backwards where McClanahan
was, stabbing him in the neck.
- I think he was
trying to, uh, uh...
Pardon the, pardon
the expression...
But k*ll two birds
with one stone.
He was trying to
implicate McClanahan
as the m*rder*r of Michelle
and also extricate himself
from McClanahan's
m*rder by claiming
that it was self defense.
But police were skeptical.
First, the physical
evidence did not
support Salerno's
version of events.
- We later found out that
McClanahan's neck was slashed
from ear to ear, and he
was almost decapitated.
It appears clear that McClanahan
was in a vulnerable
position, that his throat
was cut probably from behind.
He has defensive
wounds, indicating
that he was fighting
off a knife attack.
That's not, uh, something
that falls in line
with Salerno's description
of what happened.
And Salerno admitted
he didn't ask McClanahan
for details about
Michelle's m*rder.
And still, I
had to ask Dennis, well,
did you ask him what he did
with her or how he k*lled her
or where she's at?
Dennis never asked
those questions.
You're not stupid.
You know why we're
talking about you.
You're the only one that
can lead us to Michelle.
How, how can I do that?
How can I do that?
I don't know where she is.
I told you guys
everything that I knew.
I told you about all the friends
that I knew that she had.
Um...
Dennis, have you hurt Michelle
mistakenly, accidentally?
- No.
That's not bruises on her arms.
That's not
a very positive answer.
- Detective Vincent and I
took the tape of Dennis
to some Michigan State
Police profilers.
And one of the
things that came out
is that, if he did m*rder
Michelle, more than likely he
would bury her,
take her someplace
that they had some
connection together.
While Salerno
admitted k*lling McClanahan,
he denied any involvement
in Michelle's m*rder.
So investigators had to
rely on forensic evidence
to find out the truth.
Michelle Salerno, a
was missing and
presumed m*rder*d.
- OK, I came in here to ask
you guys if you knew anything,
and you guys are blaming
me for all kinds of crap.
Her estranged husband
Dennis told police his best
friend Larry
McClanahan k*lled her,
an assertion police
found preposterous.
We investigated
it and we were never
able to determine that
McClanahan had anything to do
with Michelle's m*rder
or disappearance.
Interestingly, police
found Michelle's abandoned car
just 10 miles from
the truck stop
where Salerno k*lled McClanahan.
Inside Michelle's
car, investigators
found Dennis
Salerno's fingerprint
on the passenger side window.
Michelle got the car after
Dennis had moved out.
The fact that her
dad had recently given her
the car does minimize
the possibility
that his fingerprints
could or should be there.
Next, investigators went
through Salerno's
personal belongings.
- Dennis had two
storage lockers...
One in DeWitt, Michigan,
and one in Ohio.
In both of these storage areas,
he had a pack rat mentality,
kept everything he ever
owned or had in the past.
Inside were computers,
pornographic pictures,
a professional lock picking set,
and one of Michelle's letters
addressed to the court.
We found numerous
documents, one of which
being a personal protection
order application
that Michelle had filled
out that Dennis, uh, should
not have been in possession
of at all, unless he had,
in fact, entered her apartment
on a previous occasion
and took it.
I am writing to
obtain a personal protection
order against my husband.
I fear for my safety, because
in the course of our marriage,
he has been physically and
mentally abusive toward me.
Investigators sent
the letter to forensic scientist
Greg Michaud who sprayed
it with ninhydrin.
Ninhydrin is a chemical
that we use to react with the
amino acids in the fingerprint
residuals that are left behind.
When the ninhydrin does
react, the fingerprints
become visible in
a purple color.
On this document,
Michaud found prints
from two different individuals.
There were two palm prints
that were identified
to Dennis Salerno.
And then there were
three fingerprints
that we were able to
identify to Michelle Salerno.
Investigators
believe Dennis stole
this letter from
Michelle's apartment.
That letter was drafted
the night before her death.
- Dennis was not
residing with her.
And there's no reason
that his prints
should ever have
been on that letter.
But Dennis Salerno continued
to deny he k*lled his estranged
wife Michelle, insisting
his friend Larry McClanahan did.
Well, it's a great alibi,
to be able to accuse someone
of a, a homicide when they're
dead, uh, because you can pin
everything on that dead person.
And the dead person cannot talk.
He was caught
on the McClanahan m*rder.
And the prosecutor there
were putting together
a possible death penalty
case against him.
And we came to that agreement.
If he told us
where the body was,
we wouldn't use that information
in a trial against him.
And the Ohio prosecutors would
seek only a 20-year prison
sentence for the
m*rder of McClanahan.
So Salerno took the deal
and gave investigators the
location of Michelle's body.
He told us that
Larry McClanahan had told him
that he had buried
Michelle on top of this,
this dump site,
which was 10 acres.
And it was a large
area, a huge dump site.
After several days of searching,
investigators finally
found a woman's body.
They needed some way to
make an identification.
- I got a hold of Michelle's mom
and said, do you, by chance,
still have one of
Michelle's baby teeth?
And so she gave us one
or two of the baby teeth.
And there was still enough of
the pulp or dentine present
that they were finally able to
get a known sample of her DNA.
The DNA confirmed
the body was Michelle Salerno.
She had been strangled to death.
There was a defect
in the hyoid bone, which
is a three-part bone in your
throat, which is generally
a, a good indicator
that, uh, strangulation
has been a mechanism of death.
You feel like
the weight of the world
has been lifted
off your shoulders
once you've finally found her.
And then, then, of
course, you know,
what you've hoped for for so
long can be very devastating.
Investigators were
convinced that Dennis Salerno
was involved in Michelle's
m*rder, especially when they
found a lock picking set in
his possession and a pair
of mud-caked shoes in
his storage locker.
These just stuck out
because they had been rolled
up inside a floor mat of a car.
Detective Quick was in
charge of taking care
of the trace
evidence at that time
and got a hold of a professor
at Michigan State University
who we called the Dirt Doctor.
The Dirt Doctor was Tom Vogel,
a professor of
geological sciences.
- I always though they
called me the Rock Doctor.
- He said, my results
here could actually
be damaging to
your investigation
because if my results
are found to be generic,
that could actually
give Dennis Salerno
an alibi as far as
him not being there.
Vogel took
samples from Salerno's shoes
and from Michelle's body.
He ground each one to a
fine powder then heated
the samples to 1,000
degrees centigrade.
He did the same for the
sample from the landfill.
And this soil was
the most unique.
I'd never seen anything like it
before in my life.
When they brought the materials
back, I saw, wow, you know,
these are really unusual soils.
The soils had high levels
of metals like nickel, zinc,
and even hafnium,
which is probably
the most unusual metal
to find in a soil.
Astonishingly,
the dirt on Salerno's shoes
matched the dirt found
on Michelle's body.
And the dirt wasn't
from the landfill.
That body had been moved.
She was definitely buried
someplace else first.
The soil at that was right
on, in contact with the body,
did not have these heavy metals.
This meant that
Michelle's body has been
previously buried
at another location
and that Dennis was
the one who buried her.
The soil also matched
soil in the wheel
wells of Michelle's car.
It puts him at the
scene with forensic evidence,
trace evidence,
and shows that he
is involved in the
burial of his wife.
Friends of
Michelle and Dennis Salerno
say their relationship
was doomed from the start.
They eloped after knowing
each other for only a month.
Michelle's parents
were appalled.
I just wanted to
find out more about Dennis
since we knew very
little about him.
So I hired a private
investigator.
And he uncovered
his criminal past.
That was more shocking to me
than when she got married.
I was just really
upset about that.
When Michelle
found out about her husband's
criminal past, she
asked for a divorce.
She had found out
that he was a h*m*, found
out that he had been in prison.
And they had had several
domestic arguments
that, uh, someone
would get hurt.
Either he or she
would, uh, be hurt.
Although Dennis
and Michelle were living
separately, Michelle
feared for her safety.
The forensic evidence
shows that Dennis entered
Michelle's apartment while
she was at work, possibly
to pick up some of his things.
And he found the
protection order
she planned to file against him.
He was incensed.
And when she
returned from her job
delivering newspapers, he
strangled her to death.
No one knows how he got her body
outside and into her car or
where he first buried her.
But mud found on
Salerno's shoes match
the dirt on Michelle's body.
Later, he moved her body
to the landfill in Ohio,
then abandoned
Michelle's car, leaving
his fingerprint on the window.
To cover his tracks,
Salerno needed someone
to take the blame
for Michelle's m*rder
and chose his old prison
cell mate, Larry McClanahan.
He lured him to the truck
stop and slit his throat.
Dennis was always trying
to pin McClanahan's
k*lling his wife,
when, in fact, later on it
came out that Dennis knew
exactly where
Michelle was buried.
And the shoes in which were
found at... in Dennis's locker,
being his, the soil on
his shoes were matched up
to the soil samples
on Michelle's body.
Dennis Salerno pleaded
guilty to Larry McClanahan's
m*rder but not guilty
to Michelle's m*rder.
He was convicted of both,
however, and sentenced
to two life terms in
prison without parole.
Don't have to prove motive,
only have to prove
cause of death
and that it was Dennis
Salerno that did it.
And the evidence was
really overwhelming
when looked at as a whole.
The forensic
evidence proved Salerno handled
Michelle's
court-related documents.
But the most unusual evidence
was the forensic geology.
- The key that tied
him to the m*rder
was the dirt evidence, the
unusual quality of the dirt
as described by the
scientist, in this case.
How he would have had that on
his shoes and it be on her body
is only explained by
him being associated
with that body and its burial.
Without the soil samples,
we wouldn't have been able
to say that Dennis was
responsible for this m*rder
because those samples alone, he
could not dispute because
those are his shoes
and that soil sample was the
biggest part of our case.
When I understood
and he was going to get life
without parole, I was
just like, oh, thank God.
Thank God.
Now, finally, Michelle
has some justice.
12x08 - Sole Survivor
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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.