14x21 - Expert Witness

[bunniefuu]

Up next, a k*ller
seemingly gets away with m*rder.

It was probably the cleanest
crime scene, as a detective, I'd

ever been handed.

He took everything with him.

For years, the case went cold.

Then he struck again.

He had selected me and
planned it.

While the k*ller
may have gone dormant, science

did not.

My jaw dropped when he told
me the name.

I was floored.

I was just floored.

Clearly DNA made this case.

It not only identified the
suspect in the case, but it

exonerated someone else.

When Tammy Tatum
first met Jim medow in longmont,

Colorado, they were instantly
attracted to one another.

It wasn't long before the two
moved in together and decided to

start a family.

She called me the moment she
found out she was pregnant and

was so excited and just knew
that her dreams were coming

true.

What Tammy wanted most in
life was to be a wife and a

mother.

Tammy gave birth to
a healthy baby girl they named

Sadie.

But soon after the baby's
arrival, the couple's life took

a downward turn.

Jim medow had a major
substance-abuse issue.

He would get drunk and get into
scrapes.

He had numerous d.U.I.S.

Jim also got into a
serious altercation at a local

food store.

He was drinking.

He got into a fight with a
customer at that store.

Actually tried to choke the
customer.

Jim was charged
with disorderly conduct, and

soon his v*olence was directed
at Tammy.

According to friends, there
was often abuse in the

relationship... Jim medow
getting intoxicated and striking

out at Tammy.

There were actual reports, also,
of him strangling her.

It was a very violent,
abusive relationship.

And, you know, she had confided
in me and talked to me about

this before.

My mother was aware of it.

My mother would have told me
about it.

After his fourth
d.U.I. Arrest, Jim was sentenced

to six months in a
drug-and-alcohol treatment

center that was within walking
distance of their home.

It's a residential facility
where folks can live and work

and check in and just be in a
structured environment and

follow court orders.

Jim had to live in
the treatment center, but Tammy

would pick him up every morning
and take him to his

auto mechanic job.

But one morning, Tammy didn't
show up.

Jim later told police he walked
to their apartment to find out

why, found the door locked, and
kicked it in.

Why, found the door locked, and
kicked it in.

We will now be entering
apartment number two.

This is now the kitchen area.

Body is found on the bed.

Her arms were above her head,
which is not a natural position,

especially when someone is
defending against a

strangulation.

It really looked like the body
had been posed after death.

The couple's baby was unharmed.

The medical examiner estimated
that Tammy had been strangled

several hours before her body
was discovered.

Investigators had no doubt about
the k*ller's motive.

This was a sexually motivated
crime.

There was injuries around the
breast area, as well as the

vaginal area.

But there wasn't any clear
evidence of a sexual as*ault.

The cause of death
provided a possible clue to the

k*ller's identity.

The act of strangulation is a
very personal crime.

We felt that whoever k*lled
the victim probably knew the

victim very well.

And that made
Jim medow the primary suspect.

Her friends had seen her with
black eyes... black eyes as soon

as 30 days before the homicide.

When I heard that she had
been m*rder*d, my first thought

was, "she told him she was
leaving, and they got into a

massive argument, and it ended
up in a m*rder."

One of Jim's fellow
inmates at the treatment center,

Rudy gaytan, told police he
thought Jim did it.

He said he would rip her
heart out if he caught her

cheating on him.

Jim medow would make
statements to these other

inmates about how he could just
k*ll her or how he could just

strangle her.

Jim insisted he was
at the treatment center when the

m*rder occurred, which the
autopsy indicated was between



Records show that he signed
back into the facility at 9:43

Jim and Tammy's
apartment was only a 15-minute

walk from the treatment center,
which didn't help Jim's alibi.

It was possible for him to
commit the crime before leaving

the apartment to head back to
the halfway house.

But it was
something else in that

apartment that all but confirmed
detectives' suspicions that

Jim was the k*ller.

Tammy Tatum's
common-law husband, Jim medow,

was the prime suspect in her
m*rder.

He had hit her in the past and
threatened to k*ll her.

Letters found after Tammy's
m*rder made it clear she was

terrified of him.

A lot of these letters talked
about the v*olence in the

relationship and how scared
Tammy was when he hit her and

that the last time he hit her,
it scared her so much that she

wanted to leave.

When James medow knocked on
the door, heard the baby crying,

he allegedly kicked in the door.

Another fact
pointing to Jim medow was that

the k*ller appeared to be
comfortable in the apartment.

He took the time to use a towel
found near Tammy's body to clean

her and the rest of the bedroom.

There was no evidence that
tied anything or anyone to the

crime scene.

It was probably the cleanest
crime scene, as a detective, I'd

ever been handed.

And Tammy's k*ller
had also taken the time to pose

her body.

I thought the scene had been
staged to look like a sexual

as*ault.

It was a very strange crime
scene.

But even though
Tammy's m*rder was sexually

motivated and there were
indications of sexual activity,

the medical examiner did not
believe she'd been r*ped.

We find in the trash a used
condom that had been tied shut.

DNA from the condom
matched Jim medow.

But medow claimed they had
consensual sex the night before

and that when he left to return
to the drug-and-alcohol

treatment center, Tammy was
alive.

Investigators didn't buy it.

Our thought was that after
that, they got into an argument,

and that may have been when he
choked her to death.

Finding this condom was
consistent was Jim medow

performing a sex act and k*lling
Tammy Tatum.

But even though the
k*ller had spent a lot of time

cleaning the scene, he missed
something.

On Tammy's bed, amid numerous
hairs from Jim, Tammy, and their

baby was a single foreign hair.

And the medical examiner also
found a tiny amount of skin and

blood under Tammy's fingernails.

Unfortunately, in 1993, a larger
sample was needed to generate a

DNA profile.

And scientists were worried if
they tested these samples and

were unsuccessful, there would
be nothing left to test later

when DNA testing improved.

It was very, very
frustrating to spend as much

time as we had spent and to come
back with really nothing that

would help us at all.

There was clearly probable
cause to arrest Jim medow, but

there wasn't enough evidence to
convict him.

Although no other
suspect surfaced, prosecutors

chose not to charge Jim medow
with Tammy's m*rder.

And the case went cold.

I thought he was getting away
with m*rder.

But I didn't think he'd get away
with it forever.

Then, three years
later, just one mile away,

police received this 911 call.

He said, "don't open your
eyes, or I will cut you," which

he said quite a bit until he got
the tape around.

And then he started telling me,
"don't make a noise, or I will

k*ll you."

The victim was Renée dulany.

At one point, decided that
the best thing I could do is

convince him that I was not
going to call the police or

anything.

That was the best chance I had
for living.

Renée's r*pist
spent a lot of time in her

apartment making sure he left no
evidence behind.

When he was finished, he
dumped water over me and then

used a towel and wiped me off.

So he definitely was trying to
clean up.

When the r*pist actually left
the residence, he took

everything with him.

He took the tape.

He took the Kn*fe.

He took the items that he
brought with him.

So there wasn't a lot of
evidence to be collected on the

scene.

To investigators,
the m.O. Of the r*pist seemed

similar to that of Tammy Tatum's
k*ller.

Was it possible the two crimes
were connected?

Renée dulany was
sleeping in her apartment in

longmont, Colorado, when an
intruder broke in before dawn

and sexually assaulted her.

I was just trying to remember
details about him for the

police.

But you just have to kind of
shut it out.

There's not a whole lot you can
do.

You can't really absorb what's
happening to you.

The att*ck happened
shortly after Renée's

grandmother left for work around

Both Renée and police were
convinced the perpetrator had

planned this att*ck carefully.

He had selected me and
planned it and watched to see

what time my grandmother left in
the mornings and came in knowing

that she'd be gone.

The as*ault lasted
for two hours.

Even though Renée was
blindfolded, she could tell her

attacker was going back and
forth to the bathroom to wet a

towel and wipe down surfaces in
the room.

I knew he was trying to not
leave evidence, and I was so

afraid it was gonna work.

But incredibly,
despite all these precautions,

Renée's r*pist still left
biological evidence behind.

It looked like he had no
knowledge of DNA evidence but

felt certain that law
enforcement could get

fingerprint evidence off of a
body.

And that's why he wiped down
Renée dulany.

A DNA profile was
generated from the biological

sample in Renée's r*pe kit.

Unfortunately, it did not match
any of the DNA profiles in the

Colorado state database of known
criminal offenders.

Renée's former boyfriends and
her co-workers and fellow

students willingly submitted DNA
for comparison.

None matched.

This case goes cold.

No one is arrested.

No suspects are named.

You absolutely live in fear.

I mean, you have this person
who's told you that they were

gonna k*ll you, and they've
certainly shown you that they're

capable of it.

It wasn't until 10
years later, after Colorado

officials were able to input all
of the DNA samples from past

criminal offenders into their
statewide DNA database, that

investigators finally got a
break.

The DNA from Renée's case turned
up a hit.

This was huge.

Having an investigative lead
develop nearly 10 years after

the sex as*ault... that hadn't
happened before.

The d.A. Called me and asked
me if I was sitting down and

proceeded to tell me that they
had arrested him and that if I

would check my e-mail, there was
an e-mail with a photo.

The DNA profile
from Renée dulany's r*pe kit

matched Rudy gaytan, a


was married with two children.

Coincidentally, he also lived in
Renée's apartment complex.

It was shocking, upsetting to
find out that it was someone

that had lived right next door.

In fact, Renée had
identified gaytan as a possible

suspect the night of her r*pe.

But Renée always felt
uncomfortable around gaytan.

He was the creepy neighbor
that always tries to talk to

you.

At the time, police
had no probable cause to search

gaytan's apartment or get a
court-ordered sample of his DNA.

But just two weeks after Renée's
r*pe, gaytan was involved in a

serious car accident, and there
were consequences that went well

beyond the broken bones.

It's almost like instant Karma.

Rudy gaytan gets hooked on pain
medications, and that's what

ultimately lands him in prison,
in the department of corrections

in Colorado is his falsification
of these prescriptions.

Since writing false
prescriptions is a felony,

gaytan had to provide a DNA
sample upon his release from a

three-year prison sentence.

Had Rudy gaytan not been
involved in this motor-vehicle

accident, chances are we would
never have gotten his DNA.

Now police look
further into his past...

And were shocked by what they
found.

I knew who Rudy was.

I was floored.

I was just floored.

Police recalled
that Rudy gaytan was the man who

provided incriminating evidence
against Jim medow during

Tammy Tatum's m*rder
investigation.

He was one of the witnesses
that provided information about

seeing Tammy with bruises and
the black eye and some of the

v*olence that was involved
between Jim and Tammy.

Gaytan knew
Jim medow since the two attended

the same drug-and-alcohol rehab
center.

Was it possible that gaytan was
involved in Tammy's m*rder?


Renée dulany's sexual as*ault,

the DNA testing identified
Rudy gaytan as her r*pist.

Surprisingly, gaytan was also
connected to the Tammy Tatum

m*rder case.

He was friends with both
Tammy Tatum and her common-law

husband, Jim medow.

Jim medow had actually
introduced Rudy gaytan to

Tammy Tatum.

But Tammy told
people she didn't like

Rudy gaytan.

She complained to her friends
that she found Rudy creepy and

that he made her uncomfortable.

There were many
similarities between

Tammy Tatum's m*rder and
Renée dulany's r*pe.

There was a startling
connection between the two

cases.

The sex as*ault occurred in the
early morning hours.

In addition to that, there was
no forced entry found.

There was use of water and a
towel to wipe down Renée's and

Tammy's body.

Although there was
no semen in Tammy's m*rder case,

investigators did find one
foreign hair with the root

intact.

When an analyst finds a bulb
on a hair, typically that means

that the hair had been
forcefully removed.

In 1993, it was
difficult to get DNA from that

hair bulb, but in 2006, it was
there for the taking.

When the DNA from the hair
had been analyzed, it produced a

DNA profile that was identified
as Rudy gaytan.

Gaytan's DNA was
also found on other items in

Tammy's apartment, most
significantly the towel that was

used to wipe her body.

Clearly DNA made this case.

It not only identified the
suspect in the case, but it

exonerated someone else.

After all of those years, we
are able to finally clear

Jim medow.

When confronted
with the DNA evidence against

him in the Tammy Tatum m*rder,
gaytan confessed.

But police found parts of the
confession unbelievable.

He claimed it was a consensual
affair gone wrong.

But he was very clear on the
m*rder.

But he was very clear on the
m*rder.

Prosecutors believe that on the
night of Tammy's m*rder, Rudy

waited until Jim medow left the
apartment and then knocked on

the door.

Tammy opened the door, possibly
in the belief it was her

husband, and gaytan forced his
way in.

Do what I say.

The two fought.

And during the struggle, Tammy
pulled a single hair from his

head.

Rudy overpowered her, then
strangled her to death.

He knew Jim was at the treatment
facility and wasn't coming home.

So he had all the time he needed
to clean the crime scene and his

victim.

Three years later, he att*cked
Renée dulany.

But despite his meticulous
cleaning of that crime scene, he

still left biological evidence
behind.

The DNA from Renée's r*pe kit
and the single hair from Tammy's

bed ultimately tied him to both
crimes.

Rudy gaytan was convicted of
second-degree m*rder in the

death of Tammy Tatum and
first-degree sexual as*ault of

Renée dulany.

He chose to k*ll her, and I
got to live.

I feel responsible to make sure
I, you know, live a good life

because hers was taken from her.

Gaytan was
sentenced to a total of 72 years

for both crimes and will not be
eligible for parole until he's



Forensic evidence and the
emerging technology of DNA was

critical in the solving of this
case.

Without the DNA evidence that
was recovered from Tammy Tatum,

this case would have never been
solved.

I always knew that the
technology would catch up with

the samples that they had.

I never gave up hope.

I never gave up hope.

This had to be done.

It had to be resolved.

And I knew it would be.