12x22 - Brotherly Love

[bunniefuu]

Narrator: up next, he promises to avenge his sister's

m*rder.

I prayed to god that I would be led to be in the right place

At the right time.

Narrator: for years, he tracks her k*ller without

Success.

Every day was another blow to the stomach.

Narrator: somewhere deep in the houston crime files are the

Secrets to solve the case.

He just had to find them.

Houston had , prints.

Everybody has fingers.

That's million prints.

Narrator: years later, investigators find the answer.

I want to know who k*lled diane.

Narrator: in december of , diane maxwell pulled into

The company parking lot in houston, texas.

It was sunday, and downtown was virtually empty.

Diane worked for the southwestern bell company, and

Her shift started at : p.m.

But she never made it inside the building.

A half-hour later, a homeless man saw someone walking away

From an old shack next to the parking lot.

He walked back to the shack and walked very close to him and

Got a good look at him and went on to the shack, and he found

This young girl lying on her back with her hands tied behind

Her back.

And he asked her if she'd been assaulted.

She said, "yes."

She asked him to untie her, and he said, "no," but he agreed

He would go call the police.

Narrator: tragically, by the time police arrived, -year-old

Diane maxwell was dead.

She was lying on her back -- bra pushed up, small wound just

Above her navel, probably an inch in width.

Narrator: diane was just years old, a single mother of

A -year-old son.

Well, I will tell you that it was the most devastating thing

I'd ever experienced.

My first reaction was denial -- that there's no way that, you

Know, diane could be dead.

When my father called, he could barely speak, and my

Stepmother took over, who was much more composed under those

Circumstances and was really able to give me more of the

Details.

Narrator: in a search for evidence, police scoured the

Wooden shack.

Among the debris, they found a rumpled pink blanket and a man's

Gray suit coat.

It had been used as a storeroom for a service station,

And everything imaginable was in there, from service manuals to

Old oil cans.

Narrator: the only witness was the homeless man,

Willie bell.

And the only physical description was that it was a

Black male with an afro haircut.

Narrator: there was no money in diane's purse.

Her car keys were missing, and her car, a new red mustang, was

Gone.

Police found it, nine hours later, a mile away.

The car was locked.

The keys were in the ignition.

So it was obvious that whoever k*lled diane took her

Keys and then took her car.

Narrator: at the autopsy, the medical examiner found evidence

That diane had been sexually assaulted, and she had been

Stabbed just once with surgical precision, severing an artery.

One possibility was that the k*ller was a medical

Professional, and since one of the state's largest prisons was

Just miles away in huntsville, an ex-convict could

Have been responsible.

Houston was the first stop, and usually they had just the

Clothes on their back and probably $.

And it wouldn't have been enough to live on, a day or two, until

They would start into other endeavors.

Narrator: diane's brother vowed to help catch her k*ller.

Narrator: the senselessness of diane maxwell's m*rder

Shocked everyone -- friends, co-workers, and family.

I knew that she had been att*cked and m*rder*d, and I

Really never asked for any other details just because I didn't

Think I could really deal with it.

The last thanksgiving we spent together, diane had gotten

Me off to the side and said, "you know, david, if something

Happens to me, I want you to raise my son."

And I said, "okay, I will."

And that was less than a month before she was k*lled.

Narrator: more than of diane's co-workers at the phone

Company quit their jobs.

Many of those who remained arm themselves with ice picks and

Knives.

It was very, very hard.

And it was very public because the news carried quite a bit of

Information about it, and you're seeing it on tv and you're

Reading about it in the paper.

And I'm getting phone calls, even phone calls from people I

Don't know.

Narrator: but the k*ller had stolen diane's red mustang and

Abandoned it, leaving it a mile from the crime scene.

I printed the steering wheel, inside the driver's door, and

The t-shift.

The next day, went back over it and was successful in getting, I

Would say, or identifiable latent prints -- very good

Prints -- and many of them looked fresh.

Narrator: the prints -- three partial fingerprints and a

Partial palm print -- did not match those of the witness,

Willie bell, and he was eliminated as a suspect.

In , before computers, someone had to literally compare

A print visually to all the ones in the houston crime files, and

There were millions of prints.

Let's just say houston had , prints.

Well, if you think everybody has fingers, that's million

Prints.

Now, if I were to try to take that latent and look at

Million prints, well, I don't know how many lifetimes it would

Have taken.

It would have never happened.

Narrator: instead, police compare the prints from diane's

Car to everyone arrested for a crime committed after her

m*rder.

Police also question the people who loitered in the downtown

Area.

They were looking for a black male.

They knew that from willie bell telling them it was a black male

That he had seen raping diane.

They did get a few leads, but they didn't pan out.

Nothing pointed to the person that actually committed the

Offense.

Narrator: since the fatal wound was made with surgical

Precision, police also focused on healthcare workers as

Possible suspects.

They just started dragging everyone -- all the black

Males -- downtown and had them fingerprinted, and they were

Doing some things that would not be accepted today.

I thought that, honestly, that the person just slipped

Through the cr*ck.

Narrator: diane maxwell's m*rder started to look like a

Random homicide, the hardest kind to solve.

Everyone assigned to the homicide division at the time --

There were like detectives -- they all worked the case.

But as time goes on, as you know, and the leads diminish,

There just comes a point in time when there's just -- there's no

More trails left.

Narrator: each week, as more and more fingerprints were added

To the houston files, examiners would compare those to the

Prints from diane maxwell's mustang...

With no success.

We were confused.

We thought -- we expected that it would be resolved, you know?

And you had had the funeral and everything.

Then you did begin to think about the resolution, and so it

Was very, you know, upsetting and hurtful that there was no

Resolution.

Narrator: eventually, the trail of diane maxwell's k*ller

Turned cold, and for years, there was virtually no progress.

Nevertheless, diane's father never lost hope.

Every time I would see him, he'd say, "son, I want you to

Solve this case before I die.

I want to know who k*lled diane."

Our parents were quite elderly at the time, so I know

That was an impetus.

But I think it was just an ongoing impetus.

Narrator: so, at the age of , david maxwell was accepted

Into the oldest and most exclusive law-enforcement agency

In north america -- the texas rangers, an elite group

With only members.

I thought about it a great deal -- that if in law

Enforcement, if I was able to eventually get in the

Texas rangers and it remained unsolved, that I would be able

To reopen the case and eventually solve it.

What happened to diane influenced him, and it was

Certainly part of the reason that he decided to go into law

Enforcement.

Narrator: and by this time, the houston police department

Had recently purchased an afis system, the automated

Fingerprint identification system, which can

Instantaneously compare unknown prints to those in the houston

Database.

David asked the department to run the unidentified prints

Found in his sister's car.

At the time, they actually had to be traced.

We don't do that anymore, but years ago, the traced image --

We just had better luck with the tracing than the direct.

The image just wasn't as clear as it is now.

Narrator: unfortunately, there was no match.

I began to think that maybe he was dead because I couldn't

Imagine that you would commit that type of crime, which was

Probably random, and never commit it again.

Narrator: and the case turned cold again for another years.

It was becoming clear that david maxwell would need help.

Narrator: for more than years, david maxwell was haunted

By his sister's m*rder and still hoped to find some way to solve

It.

He had been successful in solving a lot of very

Complicated crimes, and I know that it was really important to

Him to try to solve this crime, because, of course, this was

Very personal, and, you know, he felt very deeply about it.

Narrator: and he had promised his father he would solve the

m*rder before he d*ed.

By this time, his father was close to years old, and time

Was running short.

And he would tell me that he would dream of seeing diane, and

That's all he thought about.

He said, "that's all I can think about, is diane and this case

Being solved.

I want to know who k*lled her before I die."

Narrator: with nowhere else to go, david turned to his

Friend jim ramsey, a veteran homicide investigator with the

Houston police department.

The two had known each other for years, but david never told jim

About his sister's m*rder.

I was shocked.

I was amazed that anyone could hold that in and not talk about

It.

But if anyone could do it, it would be david.

I saw no need to tell people about what had happened in my

Life.

I wasn't looking for sympathy.

David could have had just about anybody in the state of

Texas work that case.

I really considered it, I guess, a privilege when he asked me to

Look into it.

Narrator: ramsey's first priority was to examine

Diane maxwell's clothing.

If we could do the dna from the sexual as*ault and get that

And put it in the database, because now all the offenders --

As they go to prison, they're taking dna samples.

And we're getting a lot of cold hits on the dna database.

Narrator: but diane's clothing was gone.

To their shock and dismay, it had been thrown away.

Over the period of years, I guess folks in the property room

Just had to make room for new property coming in.

Narrator: next, ramsey tried to interview the only witness to

The crime, willie bell.

We tracked him out to an address in california, and we

Eventually learned he had d*ed back in, I think, the mid-'s.

Narrator: then things went from bad to worse.

The crime-scene photos and the negatives were also gone.

Apparently, in violation of police policy, someone had sold

Them to the british crime magazine master detectivein

.

When contacted, the publisher no longer had the pictures or

Negatives.

All they had left was a single copy of the magazine.

I asked them to send it to me because I didn't have any

Pictures of the crime scene, and they were hesitant to do that

Because that was their only copy.

So I asked them to please make copies of the photograph.

Narrator: the photocopies of the magazine pages were

Virtually useless.

And then jim ramsey and david maxwell got even more bad

News.

The k*ller's fingerprints found in diane maxwell's car that were

Supposed to be in her police case file were also missing.

It was just like every day it was another blow to the

Stomach.

I knew they existed, and now they're gone.

So, yeah, I was pretty upset about it.

Narrator: with all the evidence gone, david now had to

Tell his father that the case might never be solved.

And I prayed about it, you know, because I knew that

Physically and as a ranger or whatever, I'm doing what I can

Do.

But I prayed to god that I would be led to be in the right place

At the right time.

Narrator: if the prints couldn't be found, there was

Nothing more anyone could do.

Narrator: investigators literally had no evidence from

Diane maxwell's m*rder.

The crime-scene photos were gone, the victim's clothing had

Been discarded, the only eyewitness had d*ed, and the

k*ller's fingerprints were missing, presumably misfiled in

One of the thousands of open-case files in the

Houston police department.

Everybody, at some point in time, was looking for that case.

So it wasn't like, "okay, well, we'll just do it in our spare

Time."

Somebody, every day, was looking for that case.

I guarantee you they went through many, many files -- a

Tremendous undertaking.

Debbie and I have worked together for years.

Rumor has it that she went to the director of the latent lab

And told the director that sergeant ramsey was threatening

An ied investigation if they didn't find that print.

Well, I never once said that.

I respect authority, but I don't mind challenging

Authority.

But whatever happened, it got them off of dead center and

There were several people that were assigned to go through

Every h.p.d. Case looking for prints.

Narrator: after months of looking through all of the case

Files, someone finally found them.

They just put it in the wrong file, you know.

It was just a clerical error.

Narrator: of all the evidence lost, at least the fingerprints

Had been recovered.

My goodness, what a task, to have to go through all those

Folders of all those labs.

You're talking about every car burglary, every home burglary,

m*rder, robbery, as*ault -- just thousands and thousands of just

Print cards.

But they did it.

Narrator: by this time, the year was , and sophisticated

Computerized fingerprint systems were everywhere.

Jim ramsey had the prints from diane maxwell's car compared to

Those in the texas statewide database.

Unfortunately, there were no hits.

Undeterred, ramsey ran the prints through the fbi's

National database.

This time, there were potentialhits.

All were then examined visually...

And one stood out.

When this print came up, it was like, "oh, my gosh.

This looks awfully good.

This looks like we're gonna have a hit."

Narrator: the print belonged to -year-old james davis, a

Career criminal.

I identified him four different times.

I identified him, I think, fingers -- right index, right

Middle, and right ring -- and then the right palm.

It's hard to really describe how I felt, but I was absolutely

Elated about it.

James ray davis spent the majority of his adult life

Incarcerated -- auto theft, forgery, assaults.

Narrator: davis was living in a housing project on the

Texas-arkansas border.

He had been out of prison for about years following a

Conviction for abducting a young girl.

Detective ramsey knocked on his door.

I said, "mr. Davis, I'm from the houston police department."

And you could tell his demeanor changed drastically.

He just stared at me.

Narrator: ramsey pulled out a photo of diane's car.

Davis didn't want to look at it.

He said, "I've never, ever seen that car."

Well, that's strange -- it's a red mustang.

You've never seen a red mustang?

Then I pulled out a picture of diane that david had given me,

And I handed it to him.

But he wouldn't take the picture.

I tried to hand it to him.

He wouldn't take it.

Narrator: davis initially denied any involvement.

But when told of the fingerprint evidence, he confessed.

He had been out of prison five days when he k*lled diane.

And his life was a lifetime of crime.

And his life was a lifetime of crime.

Narrator: after more than years, the mystery was finally

Solved.

Well, my father was ecstatic.

It just was a huge boost for him, you know, that they knew

Who it was.

I've worked scores or hundreds of murders, and they're

All important to me, but it's not very often that you're

Personally touched by them.

Narrator: davis said his primary motive was robbery.

When he saw diane get out of her car, he abducted her at

Knifepoint and took her to the wooden shack.

He admitted robbing her but denied sexually assaulting her,

Although the evidence clearly showed that he did.

Then he stabbed her to death and stole her car.

He abandoned the mustang across town and left his fingerprint

And a palm print.

Although it took almost years to find him, his fingerprints on

File had not degraded.

If it had not been for the afis system, he would have never

Been identified.

Narrator: on january , , james davis plead guilty

To m*rder with malice and was sentenced to life in prison.

I never saw remorse, not one time.

The only time I saw remorse was when he came to court and he

Plead guilty and the judge sentenced him to life.

He didn't care about diane.

Narrator: diane maxwell's father lived long enough to see

Her k*ller brought to justice.

David was really responsible for keeping people looking into

This case.

It was always at the top of his agenda.

It was always first in line in terms of what he wanted to

Accomplish.

This database has been such a boost to law enforcement -- to

Be able to help solve these crimes that otherwise would go

Unsolved.

And now with the dna database, and that's doing the same thing,

I mean, it's just been a tremendous boost to those of us

In law enforcement who work these kind of cases.

Narrator: investigators believe the conviction was the

Result of hard work, cooperation, and perhaps

Something else.

I really think it was divine intervention.

'Cause, I mean, look at the odds that we had going into this

Thing.

We didn't have a million-to-one chance that we'd clear this

Thing.

And I don't know -- maybe because of the unselfish life

That david has -- the career that david's committed to the

People of texas -- maybe the lord said, "well, I'm gonna give

Him a break."