Up next, she doesn't appear
to have an enemy in the world.
She loved people,
people loved her,
and that's the way
she always was.
But for someone,
that love turned to hate.
What a sick little
bastard he is.
A watery paradise
becomes a watery grave.
You had to wonder if the person
was actually thrown
into the water alive
in that condition.
But the water doesn't
wash away everything.
It's very difficult to carry out
a crime like this
without leaving behind
some sort of evidence.
♪♪
♪♪
The intercoastal waterway
along Florida's East coast
is a maze of rivers, lagoons,
and barrier islands
that once served as hiding
places for pirates, g*n runners,
and all sorts of people
outside the law.
These days, it's mostly
a dream destination
for outdoor enthusiasts.
Great surfing, fishing.
Great place to live.
Schools.
I live over there myself.
Small-town feel,
beautiful place to live.
On July 23rd, 2000,
a local judge noticed
something unusual floating in
a river close to his property.
He thought it was a manatee,
a freshwater mammal
that can weigh up to half a ton.
It floated up in the river
and was a pretty good distance
from his backyard,
so he couldn't really tell
with any certainty what it was.
But this was no manatee.
It was the body
of a young woman.
It was a Sunday afternoon.
I was the on-call agent
that day,
so everything happening
death-wise,
I was getting a call.
This was my fourth call
of the day
to respond to a dead person.
The victim was unclothed,
had nothing to identify her,
and had apparently been
in the water for days,
which destroyed some evidence.
There was no evidence of trauma.
There's no g*nsh*t wounds,
no broken bones.
Whether she'd been r*ped
or engaged in consensual sex
before the m*rder
was impossible to say.
Decomposition was going to
create trouble with evidence,
but local police,
who had some experience
pulling bodies out of the water,
were ready.
We had our dive team out there,
and they they go down
with a body bag into the water
and put the body bag
up around the body
and pull it out
to the water's edge,
and that body bag is made
to wick out the water.
The water seeps out of the bag
so that everything stays intact.
The victim had been bound
around the hands and feet.
The rope itself
was a nylon-type rope
that you would commonly see
on sailboats or boating.
It had a double-diamond pattern
to it,
and the ends were burnt
to apparently avoid
fraying of the ends.
And the rope had
some unusual knots...
what are known as cow hitches.
These were knots that were done
in a very specific way.
That was a knot
that's consistent
with being in the Navy.
And there was something
intertwined in this rope...
a strand of hair.
It was thicker and coarser
than what a human hair
normally is.
The victim also had duct tape
wrapped around her eyes
and neck.
But it's white instead of
the standard silver-gray color.
Usually, duct tape is gray or
it's in some other colors now,
but at that point time,
white duct tape was very rare.
I wouldn't really think
it was that,
in itself, that big of a deal.
Yeah, it later became part
of a big deal,
but at first it's just tape.
The k*ller clearly
planned for his victim
to sink to the bottom
of the river.
He weighed the body down by
filling shopping bags with rocks
and tying them to the body.
But the bags were too flimsy.
The grocery bags had some
distinctive markings on them.
It had the design
of a baby club on it.
And it also had
a set of numbers on it
that was unique in of the fact
that these numbers represented
the person operating
the machine when it was made.
The location of the body
also revealed a potential clue.
To find out how it ended up
where it did,
investigators did
what's called a drift test.
It's done with coconuts.
You know, you throw a bag
of coconuts overboard
bound by a net...
the person's weight
or whatever...
and it was a true test
at the time.
It floated right up to the area
where the body was.
And where it was was one of
the deepest parts of the river.
Local people called it
the black hole.
If you lived in this area
for an extended period time
and you were active
on the water...
boating, fishing,
anything like that...
you would be aware
of the black hole area.
This indicated the body
was dumped from a boat,
not from a bridge
or from the shore.
The clues were starting
to come together.
The use of a boat,
the unusual knots in the rope,
the body in the black hole.
Investigators knew something
about their k*ller.
The problem was that they knew
nothing about their victim.
♪♪
Police were trying to identify
the body of a young woman
who'd been found m*rder*d
in the water
off Florida's Atlantic coast,
but she'd been in the water
for so long,
a lot of evidence was lost.
The medical examiner
couldn't even determine
an official cause of death.
We knew the manner of death
being homicide,
but we didn't have
an exact cause of death.
So there's an assumption
that she was drowned.
At the same time, a local family
was looking for their daughter.
Her name was Misty Morse.
She was a carefree spirit,
and she was also
a friend magnet.
Her mother and I always
called her a friend magnet.
Everywhere she went, she would
instantly make friends.
On the night
of July 19th, Misty,
who had recently moved back
in with her mother,
said she was going out
to meet some friends.
Misty appeared to be going out.
She was getting dressed.
She wanted to know what mom
thought of her outfit
before she left.
When Misty didn't return home
for a couple of days,
her mother wasn't
overly concerned.
She's 22 years old.
It was not all that unusual
for her
to go spend the night
with some friends or something,
so her mom didn't think
anything of it.
But after four days passed,
Misty's family grew worried.
Across town,
and unbeknownst to them,
investigators were employing
a rare forensic technique
to identify their victim.
It's called de-gloving,
and it involves removing skin
from the victim's hands
while keeping the prints intact.
They'd make an incision around
the wrist of the individual
and pull the entire outer
layer of skin off of them,
and it makes like a glove.
One of the forensic technicians
then slide their hand
into that skin
and roll
the fingerprints for us.
Amazingly,
the de-gloving worked.
The prints from the dead woman
matched Misty Morse,
whose prints were on file
after a misdemeanor arrest.
When police arrived
with the tragic news,
Misty's family
already suspected the worst.
Linda Morse opened the door,
and when she opened the door,
she immediately looked at me
and said something like,
"It's her, isn't it?"
I remember being dumbstruck.
I just stood there almost numb.
It's like I was in a fog or I
was there, but I wasn't there.
Detectives' first question...
who would want Misty dead?
The answer... no one,
at least no one her family
and friends knew of.
I had no clue.
I had absolutely zero clue.
Since the k*ller
tied the body up
and transported it to the river,
he'd have had plenty
of time and privacy.
I just believe
that it was obviously
somebody that knew her.
It was somebody that was
really familiar with the area.
And he almost surely had a dog.
Test results had come back
from the strand of hair
found with Misty's body.
That's a big deal we know.
So there's a dog involved.
And DNA... I mean, that's
the exciting thing about it,
especially in 2000.
You know, you got human DNA.
You didn't have any dog
DNA stuff
going on at the time
to speak of.
And there was someone
in Misty's life
who had a dog
and a possible motive.
His name was Brent Huck, and
they dated off and on for years.
Misty and I met for lunch,
and she was telling me all about
this new guy she just met,
and he was good-looking,
and he had money.
He came from a well-to-do family
on Merritt Island.
My understanding is that
he received
an allowance every month,
so it wasn't as though
he truly had to work.
Brent readily agreed
to come to the sheriff's office
for an interview.
There, he told detectives that
although his relationship
with Misty was over,
they continued
to see each other.
Misty was a friend
with benefits,
as I remember him saying.
But officially Brent
and Misty were no longer dating.
In fact, she had
recently started
seeing another young man.
He's a tough guy.
He's known for being
a tough guy,
tatted up, that type of thing.
I expected the worst out of him,
and I expected the guy
just not to speak with me.
But he did speak.
And what he told police
ultimately put them on the trail
of another man with a clear
motive to harm Misty Morse.
♪♪
A one-time
boyfriend of Misty Morse
emerged as a potential suspect
in her m*rder.
I went there, of course,
hoping this was our guy.
I'm working on this case
and there was something there.
But this young man had none
of the things investigators
were looking for in the suspect,
and he was cleared.
He doesn't have a boat,
he doesn't have
the boating experience,
and he certainly
doesn't have the dog.
But this one-time
boyfriend did have a lead
on another potential suspect,
a man who showed
a lot of interest in Misty
and who police found
was no stranger to the law.
Here's a guy that's got
a felony arrest,
sexual battery
in his background,
lives with his sister,
no work, no gainful employment.
The guy's going nowhere.
And this, I'm thinking,
is our best suspect...
just a criminal.
His name was Teddy Underwood,
an ex-convict
with a violent past.
This is the guy.
He has the history,
he has the look,
he has the life...
I mean, everything
that you're looking for,
he is just checking off
all the boxes.
Except for the boxes
that in this case
made all the difference.
Teddy Underwood
didn't have a boat,
he was unfamiliar
with the water,
he didn't have a dog,
he didn't even have a car,
and he was eliminated
as a suspect.
Whoever we're looking for
has resources.
Which led investigators
back to Brent Huck.
A background check showed Huck
had no prior criminal record,
but he had been in the Navy,
and that didn't go so well.
He had problems in the Navy,
attitude problems,
was discharged.
Brent didn't advertise
his discharge to friends.
Instead, he bragged that he was
a Navy SEAL, which was false.
Brent had talked about
being a Navy SEAL.
I remember even on one
of his vehicles,
he had a little
Navy SEAL sticker.
But all his friends of his,
they all thought
he was a Navy SEAL.
Well, Brent didn't even pass
the swim test for the Navy.
And Brent had one of the key
things investigators
were looking for in a suspect.
He was comfortable
on the water and with boats.
He loved boats.
He wanted to be a boat Captain.
I think he had actually
captained some boats
back and forth from the Bahamas
or from South Florida
to this area.
And he was very comfortable
being on the boat.
Brent appeared to be the
only person with the resources
to perpetrate
this particular crime.
But was there evidence
to prove it?
Investigators went
to Brent's house,
which happened to be
right on the river
where Misty's body was found.
His parents were away.
They had other property
in the Bahamas.
He was the only occupant
of the house at that time.
He answers the door.
This dog tries to rush out.
Brent and his dog were only
too happy to welcome the police.
I'm standing there
with my partner, watching this,
and I remember
looking at each other
'cause we knew we were looking
for at least someone with a dog,
and bingo.
Yeah, here's
the clue number one.
And so began an extensive search
for possible evidence,
starting with the dog.
And believe me, I felt bad
getting the standards
of that dog.
I had to pull 50 hairs
from the dog.
- Oh, gosh.
- Yeah, I felt bad.
- How'd he take it?
- Oh, he was a champ.
- Oh.
- He was a real good dog.
What detectives wanted to know
was whether anything
in the house
could connect Brent
to the crime scene.
Brent was the kind of guy
that thought
that he was smarter
than everybody else.
But he wasn't
smart enough to realize
what detectives
were looking for,
and he allowed them
to search his house.
I went into Brent's bedroom,
and on the dresser
I found a crumpled-up
piece of white duct tape.
A crime scene detective
brings out
the crumpled-up
piece of white duct tape,
and Brent's, you know,
jaw hits the floor.
You wish he had that all on tape
because you could never ask
for it to be any better.
The tape appeared to be
identical to the tape
found with Misty's body.
I started getting the feeling
that we were
really onto something
in this residence.
In the kitchen, investigators
found a grocery bag
that turned out to be identical
to the ones
used to weigh down Misty's body.
It had the same number system
stamped onto it,
so we knew at that juncture
that that bag was manufactured
by the same person on
the same lane on the same shift.
But none of this
evidence was conclusive.
Detectives needed something more
and were looking to
Brent's dog to provide it.
♪♪
Brent Huck
was emerging as the only suspect
in the Misty Morse m*rder.
Police divers now search
the river
near the dock by his house.
In the water, they found
a piece of nylon rope
that looked remarkably familiar.
That rope was
a double-diamond pattern,
nylon rope,
similar in consistency
to the rope we found
on Misty Morse.
And knots in the rope were
the same unusual cow hitch knots
that had been used
to bind Misty's hands and feet.
People in the Navy, this is
a knot that's taught to them
as a routine part
of their basic training.
But most damning was the DNA.
Brent's dog was a German
Shepherd Rottweiler mix.
The breed was consistent
with the dog hair
found at the crime scene.
And a mitochondrial DNA test
indicated the hair from that dog
was consistent with the hair
found on Misty's body.
The problem for Brent Huck
was not that one single piece
of evidence definitely tied him
to the crime, because it didn't.
His problem was the combination
of all that evidence.
The state proved the case
on the strength
of the forensic evidence.
This wasn't just a
circumstantial evidence case.
Now, a circumstantial evidence
of guilt is evidence of guilt.
In October of 2002, Brent Huck
was charged with kidnapping
and first-degree m*rder.
What was his motive?
Oddly enough,
he gave it up to police
during his
initial interrogation.
He told investigators that
the night Misty was last seen,
he was at a bar
with several friends
when he heard
a disturbing rumor.
That presented a problem.
Brent Huck had just
gotten engaged
to a woman from West Palm Beach.
She was a socialite,
if you will,
the same caliber of society
that his mother,
I think, was more used to.
Brent admitted he became angry
and called Misty from the bar.
The prosecution argued
that Brent was enraged
that Misty's rumor
of pregnancy...
and it was just a rumor...
the autopsy showed
she was not pregnant...
would break up his engagement.
In their first phone call
on her final night, they argued.
In the second call, Brent said
they patched things up.
Prosecutors believe
he picked Misty up
and brought her to his house.
And once there,
she was at his mercy.
He overpowered her,
bound her hands and feet,
tying her with
a distinctive cow hitch knot
and double-diamond rope.
A single dog hair, later linked
by DNA to his dog,
was intertwined with that rope.
He taped Misty's eyes and mouth
shut with the unusual
white duct tape
later found in his house,
he weighed her body down with
the same kind of plastic bags
also found in his house,
then he threw her
into the black hole,
mistakenly thinking
all evidence of his crime
would sink to
the bottom of the river.
I think that she was
tossed overboard
while she was still alive.
What kind of evil person
this must be.
No remorse, no compassion
for another person.
He thought that he's getting
rid of this problem,
but it's so stupid.
You think and look back at all
these mistakes that he made.
But you know what?
The guy was drinking
all the time.
He's smoking pot, he's stupid.
You know, he's just
one of these guys...
he's just making himself
dumber by his lifestyle.
Following a two-week trial,
the jury deliberated
just 3 1/2 hours before
finding Brent Huck guilty.
It was funny to me.
I mean, the way he reacted...
he was stunned.
His expression,
he just literally went.
Like, "How dare you convict me?
This isn't possible.
My dream team
is gonna get me off."
Clearly not.
He was as shocked or stunned
as I was pleased and relieved.
In the end, it came down
to this single dog hair
intertwined with the rope used
to bind Misty's arms and legs.
This was an ironic twist
because Misty had given
Brent the dog as a gift.
She had a puppy, and she
couldn't take the puppy
where she was moving,
so he kept the dog... Cheba.
The Morse family
and investigators all agreed
Brent's conviction
might not have happened
if it weren't for the dog.
To have the dog hair
be a significant portion
of solving this crime for Misty
and it having been her dog,
I just thought that was
an amazing aspect to the case.
That's a big part of what was
used to convict him,
in fact, was that dog hair.
♪♪