13x06 - Dancing with the Devil

[bunniefuu]

Up next, a
middle-aged man looks for some

excitement...

He's just like any other guy
that would go to a strip club.

And later, turns up dead.

Police ask if the two are
connected.

She said she k*lled him, and
I asked her why, and she said

because they told her to.

Police question the
dancer's boyfriends.

We do not allow boyfriends or
husbands to be in the bar.

Eventually, with
forensic evidence and a little

luck, the pieces start to fit.

Many young men and women dream
of working in the television or

film industry.

Pat mcrae fulfilled that dream,
and he was good at it.

He worked at
Iowa public television.

He was a video-production
coordinator.

He was very well-liked at that
place.

Friendly face... he was always
smiling when I saw him.

Mcrae typically
worked long hours.

Unfortunately, it took its toll.

In 1997, he and his wife of 12
years divorced.

Mcrae took it hard but remained
a devoted father to his two

young children.

We would go over to my dad's
every Wednesday, and we'd watch

TV, hang out.

He would come to my football
games, and we'd hang out at the

varsity games.

And, you know, he'd take us out
to eat, go to movies, stuff like

that.

Mcrae never missed
an opportunity to spend time

with his children.

But one morning, there was a
problem.

He was supposed to pick up
his daughter and take her to

school.

He's a no-show.

Pat's ex-wife knew
immediately something was wrong.

She called both his work and
home telephone numbers but

couldn't reach him.

So she went to his home and used
her own key to get inside.

And she found pat... Dead...

Just inside the front door.

There was significant blood
patterns in the house itself.

There were bloody footprints
throughout the house.

The evidence shows
the attack started in the living

room and ended at the front
door.

It appeared that someone had
used that bathroom to clean up.

Robbery seemed to be the motive.

Pat's wallet had been cut from
the back pocket of his

blood-soaked jeans.

We could see that there had
been a number of clothing items

disrupted, thrown around on the
floor of the closet, and that

there was transferred blood on
some of this clothing.

So, at least visually, it
appeared that somebody had, you

know, spent some time either
searching through the closet or

through the clothes.

And the k*ller left
bloody foot impressions outside

on the porch.

Of particular interest were
that some of these bloody

footwear impressions were
overlaid, which, fairly early on

in the investigation, gave
indication that the one source

of these impressions had made
more than one trip exiting the

house.

The medical
examiner estimated that pat had

been m*rder*d sometime on Friday
night, about 48 hours before his

body was found.

Investigators discovered that
pat spent part of that evening

at a local strip club...
The outer limits.

Pat mcrae was a customer that
came in and, basically, he was a

regular as far as maybe once or
twice per week.

He was a very friendly, a very
quiet guy.

When pat visited
the club, he usually arrived

around 10:00, but on the night
of his m*rder, he came in

early.

I was kind of like, you know,
"wow.

What's he doing in here during
happy hour?"

Which was fine.

It was kind of unusual for him
to do that.

He also did
something else no one had ever

seen him do before.

He asked for a private dance.

The dancer's stage name was
"mystic."

She was the one that he went
in the private area with.

Pat moved from the front of the
stage and went in the private

area.

I remember him dancing with
mystic in the back room.

Mystic's real name
was Laura england.

And for some reason, on the day
pat mcrae's body was found,

mystic didn't show up for work.

Des moines police
thought they had a suspect in

the m*rder of television-station
employee pat mcrae... a stripper

named Laura england.

She performed a private dance
for pat on the last night he was

seen alive.

Two days later, she was gone,
and pat was dead.

She stripped Sunday night...
Danced... Sunday night at the

outer limits, and then she and
her boyfriend leave town.

Police issued an
all-points bulletin for

Laura england.

In the meantime, at the crime
scene, investigators made some

important discoveries.

First, there were bloody
boot prints throughout the

house.

And they had been made at two
different times and several

hours apart.

You could see that somebody
had exited the house and then

apparently re-entered.

The boots were
determined to be size-7

doc marten-brand boots.

All the blood evidence in the
house was carefully catalogued

and analyzed.

Dozens of items were submitted
for DNA testing.

I ended up taking 70 samples
of bloodstains from the crime

scene and processing those all
the way through for DNA

analysis.

One blood stain
stood out from the others... a

drop of blood on the comforter
on top of the bed.

This was different than the
smudges that appeared elsewhere

in the room.

Since the evidence indicated
pat mcrae never entered the

bedroom after he was stabbed,
analysts thought this blood

might be the k*ller's.

There was a little bit of
blood evidence in the bedroom,

and it turns out that that
little bit of blood evidence was

probably the most significant
evidence that we had in that

case.

The droplet was cut
out of the comforter and tested

along with other bloodstains on
the bed.

The results showed a mixture of
blood from two people.

One of the contributors of
the blood in the house is a

female.

The male DNA
belonged to the victim,

pat mcrae.

This meant the k*ller was a
woman.

It's not uncommon for people,
when they're stabbing somebody

else, to s*ab themselves
accidentally, maybe have their

hand slip on the knife, cut the
inner sides of their fingers.

It's really quite common.

Then police located
Laura england...

The dancer last seen with
pat mcrae on the night he was

m*rder*d.

But she denied seeing mcrae that
night and said the club manager

must have been mistaken.

She also wore wigs at the
time, too, which a lot of

dancers have done in the past.

Laura's DNA didn't
match the DNA from the

unidentified female at the crime
scene, and she was released.

The DNA didn't match anyone in
Iowa's state database or the

national database, either.

We had no one to compare that
DNA profile with, or, at least,

I should say we had no one to go
successfully compare it with.

Investigators were
convinced that pat mcrae knew

his k*ller.

There was no forced entry into
the house, which meant he

probably let the k*ller in.

And the blood evidence showed
rather brazen behavior.

Blood on the front drapes
indicated the k*ller opened the

drapes to look outside.

The bloody foot impressions
proved the k*ller walked out of

the front door after the m*rder.

Not only that... the k*ller
returned several hours later,

leaving a second set of boot
impressions, this time in dried

blood.

That's odd.

If you leave a homicide scene,
the chances of you going back to

that scene and tracking blood
out again is not very good.

I mean, once you're out of
there, you want to be out of

there.

The case turned
cold, and for the next five

years, there were no substantial
leads.

Was it possible that a k*ller
this reckless could successfully

elude police?

For five years, the
m*rder of pat mcrae went

unsolved.

Investigators had the DNA
profile of the k*ller and boot

impressions from the scene.

What they didn't have was a
viable suspect.

I just kind of gave up
worrying about whether or

not... It would get solved.

I mean, I didn't like that it
wouldn't, but I had that feeling

that there was probably nothing
we could do.

Then detective

Judy Stanley got a call from her
counterpart in Lincoln,

Nebraska, 200 miles away.

Lincoln police had just arrested
a man named Mars Davis on a

drug-possession charge, and
Davis offered them a deal.

He said he was willing to
provide information about an

unsolved m*rder in des moines in
return for leniency on his drug

charge.

I felt tremendously guilty
for a long time.

I didn't want to think about it
anymore, and it bothered me

every time I closed my eyes.

Unfortunately,
Davis didn't know the name of

the victim.

He did, however, remember the
neighborhood where he lived.

He only knows that he lives
at a house someplace off of

Harding road.

He knows it's by a convenience
store.

He knows there's a couple of car
washes nearby, knows that the

guy works for a TV station,
knows that he went to the

outer limits, and knows that
he's k*lled in his house.

Mars Davis was
describing pat mcrae's m*rder,

and the details he provided were
so bizarre, it was hard for

investigators to believe.

It's not a story that you
expect to hear every day in the

news.

Mars Davis said
that five years earlier, he was

involved with a 24-year-old
stripper named Andrea Morris.

She was good at her job.

I liked watching her work the
room.

You know, 'cause you'd see
prettier girls or younger girls

have trouble, and she would just
mow 'em over.

Andrea was working
at the outer limits club in

des moines, but Mars wasn't
permitted to go inside.

We do not allow boyfriends or
husbands to be in the bar.

Maybe a customer, you know,
might get a little rough with a

girl, and her husband or
boyfriend thinks he's got to

handle the problem when I have
employees to handle those kind

of problems.

You know, and it just causes a
disruption.

One night around
closing time, Mars picked up

Andrea after work, and she said
she'd promised to give a bar

patron a private dance at his
house.

It wasn't entirely out of the
ordinary, but it wasn't exactly

something that happened all the
time, but, yeah.

And money was pretty tight, so I
was... and she didn't ask me.

You know, she just said, "this
is what's happening."

And I said, "okay"...

And "how do we get there?"

Davis said he
dropped Andrea off and then went

to get his truck washed.

Mars tells her, "I'll be back
in one hour."

So he leaves.

He actually goes and cleans the
bronco while he's waiting for

her to do this private dance.

When he picked her
up, he couldn't help but notice

she was literally covered in
blood.

You gonna tell me what the
hell happened?

She told me, like, she got
hit in the nose or something,

and I was like, "that did not
come out your nose," you know?

'Cause it was in her hair.

It was everywhere.

You know, when she took her
clothes off, it was in her

underwear, in her socks.

You know?

And I just kind of went numb
after that.

Did he hurt you?

Do you want me to go back?

No.

All right...

When Mars pressed
the issue, Andrea finally

admitted the truth.

She said she k*lled him, and
I asked her why, and she said

because they told her to.

Um... She heard voices.

They later checked
in to a motel, took showers, and

got some sleep.

Several hours later, Andrea
panicked when she realized she

left her wallet in pat mcrae's
home.

She insisted Mars drive her back
to des moines so she could

retrieve her wallet.

Everything in her wallet was
coated with blood.

I mean, it was like, you know,
it had been sitting in it.

You know?

It was...

But how could

police determine if Mars was
telling the truth?

Mars Davis gave us a ton of
information that would not have

been known to anybody other than
who was at that house.

But how do they
know he wasn't involved in the

actual m*rder?

For that, police needed to find
Andrea Morris.

Five years after
pat mcrae's m*rder, a witness

came forward to say he knew the
identity of the k*ller.

A nationwide search was on for
Andrea Morris, a stripper who

was dancing in the club
pat mcrae visited on the night

of his m*rder.

Des moines police learned
Andrea Morris was recently

released from prison in Nebraska
after serving two years on a

drug charge.

She is required to give a DNA
sample as part of her release.

And so, I find out who her
probation officer is.

I call her up.

She says, "you know what?

I just had to take her DNA the
other day."

And it matched the
DNA from the blood found in

pat mcrae's bedroom.

Andrea Morris was arrested at
her apartment in Lincoln,

Nebraska.

And I introduced myself and
told her who I was and that I

was from des moines, Iowa, when
the blood drained from her face.

And Terry and I, the other
detective that was there, we

both commented about that...
"wow! Do you think she's guilty

- or not?"
- But Andrea said she

was innocent, that Mars Davis
was the k*ller.

I don't know which thing made
me more angry... being accused

of the m*rder or being called a
pimp.

Andrea admitted
performing a private dance for

pat mcrae in his home and said
pat attempted to as*ault her.

She said pat mcrae pinned her
to the couch and wouldn't let

her up and was kissing her and
she was trying to push him away

and he wouldn't get up.

Next thing she knows, Mars Davis
is in the house over them, and

he's the one that starts
stabbing pat mcrae.

That was her story.

But there was no
blood all over the floor and

only one set of foot impressions
from a pair of size-7 boots...

The same size worn by
Andrea Morris.

Mars Davis wore a size-13 shoe.

Big difference between a
woman's size 7 and a man's

size 13.

And we didn't have anything to
put Mars in the house.

Prosecutors believe
that from the beginning, Andrea

intended to rob pat mcrae.

He sat on the couch in the
living room for what he thought

would be some harmless
entertainment.

Instead, Andrea pulled a knife
and att*cked him.

He tried to fight back.

The fight moved across the
living room to the front door.

Mcrae, weak from blood loss and
shock, could no longer fight

back.

In all, Andrea stabbed him a
total of six times.

She used the knife to cut
mcrae's wallet from his back

pocket.

She also took his keys.

A tremendous amount of blood had
been spilled.

Police think Andrea's contention
that she got a nosebleed during

the struggle was probably the
only thing about her story which

was true.

That's how her blood dripped
onto the comforter on pat's bed.

She walked through the rooms,
trying to clean up the blood,

but there was simply too much of
it.

Blood found on the curtains
showed she opened them to see if

Mars had returned.

When he arrived, Andrea left
through the front door and

locked it on her way out,
tracking fresh blood across the

front porch.

Several hours later, when she
realized she'd left her wallet

behind, she returned, tracking
dried blood on top of the foot

impressions left earlier,
proving there were two separate

visits and proving Mars Davis
had been telling the truth.

She said that she k*lled a guy.

Did she say why?

Um, because they told her to.

"They" meaning who?

These voices that she heard
in her head.

Andrea Morris,
almost unrecognizable from her

days as a stripper, maintained
her innocence.

But the jury didn't buy her
story.

In October of 2007, she was
found guilty of first-degree

m*rder and sentenced to life
without parole.

She deserved what happened,
you know.

And it was a really
thing, and...

I feel kind of about,
you know, doing it to her, but

it was either live with it or,
you know...

The pat mcrae case
shows how a single drop of blood

can be the difference between a
conviction or an exoneration.

When I calculated the
statistics of a match on that

sample, it turned out to be
fewer than one out of 100

billion unrelated individuals
would be expected to have that

same DNA profile that was found
on the piece of evidence.

Forensic evidence was the key
to the entire case.

There was just great DNA
evidence.

It's very gratifying that the
physical evidence established at

the initial scene on the initial
day eventually is what ended up

absolutely placing her within
the scene and being the thing

that convicted her.