01x06 - Small Town Tragedy

[bunniefuu]

on the morning of July 9th 1995 4 year-old Ashley Holmes ran to her

neighbor's house naked and with her hands bound with rope she was standing at my bed and she was shaking her hands

like this my mommy's dead my mom is dead when the Sheriff's Office arrived they

discovered that Maryann home so it was 29 years old it was b*ating upside the head and she was sexually assaulted and it all

happened with her two babies sitting there on the bed watching all of it look

at this town it's a nice safe little sweet town where they have no murders much less something like this person who

committed this crime wasn't just a m*rder*r he was evil this is the kind of freak that we would love to get off the

streets more than anybody our victim is brutally m*rder*d in front of her two little girls actually did drawing and

she showed basically what looked like I had to the inside of her mother's head this is a case in a league all by itself

committed by someone that premeditated and planned and thought it out ahead of time whoever came there brought

everything with them they brought the handcuffs they brought the rope because it was such a violent crime there was an

enormous amount of evidence collected now after 18 years we can finally submit this evidence for DNA testing I think

our chances of finding the k*ller have never been better I've seen hundreds of m*rder cases and

this is the kind of crime that gives you chills this case affected everybody involved I can still remember it like it

happened yesterday and it affected me that these two girls grew up without

their mother it has been 16 years and

still know at least consider her k*lling a cold ears later the case is still unsolved

there are so many cold cases out there just waiting to be solved the crime

scene ultimately tells the story of the m*rder we want to bring justice to these

victims hi this is Yolanda and Kelly

Kelly hi teri Johnson I called my good friend Alan Brown from the Houston Police Department homicide division to

study the case we've all looked at it but we're eager to learn more to see what else we can find out back when this

happened in 95 18 years ago who was working here then I was just a patrolman

at that time and they called me out early that morning I mean I don't know how to describe it it's something to

this day that that we we think about all the time where I was the only investigator here we just didn't have

the manpower they had time him and his unit and I was asked to assist in

November or December of 95 over the years people call in with different things and just nothing that's been

panned out everything's gone to a dead end so let's go show us everything and then we can start talking although first

I have an emotional attachment to this case Marianne's oldest daughter Ashley

tells me almost on a daily basis she's kind of adopted me as a father figure it's very important to solve it not only

for Ashley but the entire family because they want closure tell us about Marianne Berg Marianne was

originally from the Chicago area she left and moved to Arizona and she was more of a want to be a stable mom going

to college here at the local junior college she had joined the the Mormon Church she was focusing on her children

and I know she talked to us several of her friends and said that she wanted to find a good man

Maryanne did want to find someone who could be a good daddy to her babies unfortunately there were a lot of men in

her world that were losers and any one of those could be the k*ller now July

9th 1995 Ashley Mary Ann's oldest daughter went to a neighbor's house said

her mother had been k*lled Mary Ann was found in a fetal position she was bound

by handcuffs her clothing had been cut off her and she had obviously been dead

for quite a while the autopsy report revealed that she d*ed of blunt force

trauma to the head it's by all parents he sexually assaulted her postmortem

vaginally or anally both both I use an instructor he spent at least two hours

in that house torturing her Wow what happened with the little girls

Ashley was tired her hands were bound with rope and repairs were cut off by

the k*ller that just gives me the creeps because you think of her watching her babies there she knows what's fixing to

happen her she's not stupid this guy's a monster there's her baby she thinks they're gonna die that's

horrible that's the thing in a sadistic k*lling the fear that the k*ller causes

to the victim thus the turn-on way back when it happened yes ma'am what did Ashley tell

tell y'all that she saw she referred to the k*ller as a lyin man and a lot of

people started speculating as far as do they have long hair was it looked like a Mane on a lion did he have a tattoo of a

lion she said when I get scared I buried my head but she says she looked over and

in that doorway I seen a great big guy she says kind of like you and pointed to me

actually do a drawing of the scene if you look at that drawing and compare it

to the photographs of the scene they are real close okay so let's talk about the

suspects David black now his father owned the home that Mary Ann lived in at

this time I thought David was actually working on the house the back door could not be

locked supposedly Miriam paid of $200 other

repairs were never made he definitely would have known the layouts of the house he lives in the house he lived in the house now where's my record once

David black moved into the house he started making really weird statements about filling a special connection to

the case he made comments that I can't move out of this house because I feel closer to

Mary Ann how long has this been going on that he's been acting like that that's him I mean he's just like way out there

okay do you think that when you approached him about coming down here to talk to y'all he's gonna come that's it

okay who's your next one Philip Turley he knows Mary Ann because he works at

college he kept like a diary or journal and a lot has to do with Mary Ann Holmes

in how he feels about her and it just really seems like he cannot come up with the courage to even ask her out they

redrew house plans to include her in an art studio and her kids bedrooms and he hadn't even dated her okay what about

this guy john bursee john bursee was an individual that Miriam was deathly afraid of I think in

her words she described him as a con man they broke up she started talking about if anything happens to me he did it he's

your front runner right yep we have been trying to locate him I have multiple

intelligence analysts working on it it almost looks like he disappeared off face the earth seriously as if this

board isn't bleak looking enough on this very day we have a garage Hill or a yard sale according to a lot of the witnesses

there were a lot of people there so it could be a stranger and it could have been someone who was there just looking

around sees that she's by herself don't see a man see two young girls so we got

a lot to do

I think the first thing we ought to do is go meet Ashley Holmes Marianne's daughter she's a 22 now what's different

about this case for us is that our family member was part of the crime that night Ashley Yolanda McClary Ashley might not

have been hurt physically but emotionally and mentally she needs to have this person taken off the streets so that she can feel safe and get on

with her life tell us what you think about all this I mean it makes me

nervous to be here shortly after her mom was m*rder*d Ashley and her little sister went to live with her grandmother

out of state the k*ller could still be living in this town so I'm sure she's

terrified by that thought and also just about having to come back tell us about the favorite thing you remember about

your mom used to read every night before I went to bed so we would always cuddle

together and everything sometimes I get really sad and I'm just in this place

where it's like I feel like a four-year-old again and I just want my mom to wake up she should have been here

she wanted to be a mom really bad she wanted to be with us I should have had her you know

[Music] how much do you remember I remember the

next morning really well okay and I remember before it happened pretty well

but kind of a blind that's why not that's probably yeah well don't you

think so yeah over the past eighteen years through interviews and therapies Ashleigh's try to are very hard is to

come up with information that would lead to who k*lled her mother but because of how young she was we just want her to

know that she shouldn't have to worry about that anymore cuz you know what baby here's the thing there's nothing you're ever gonna remember it's gonna

solve this case it's not gonna happen so no pressure it's relieving talk to everybody we can think of try to find

out whatever we can okay we're doing this for you it means a lot to my family I think it's just time to let it go and

just know that it's in someone else's hands [Music]

Souths is here the 10 roof look at an SUV in the journey as always one of the

first things we want to do is go to the crime scene to get an idea of the actual space that means getting one of the

suspects who lives there to let us inside wow that is a little house

david black has a history of being paranoid and sometimes dangerous so the investigators need to take a special

approach and figuring out a way to convince him to let us inside the house

be serving some oh no no we just come to talk to you for a minute I'm Kendall

Curtis with the police department

right now Ali and Kendall aren't talking to David black one of our suspects and

obviously they haven't talked him into letting us come in yet they k*lled her

it k*lled me k*lled my dad and k*lled two or three other people hold on guys

my phone's going on Allen just let us know that they're not getting anywhere useful with David he's still spouting

out conspiracy theories and unfortunately he's also unwilling to let us investigate his house which is our

crime scene that would freak him out to have five people walking around the house I agree with him let's go to plan

B yeah yeah I think it'd be a good idea

David blacks not gonna let us in so here's where we're at right now we're

gonna do a mock crime scene does this look pretty they're pretty crazy everything looks pretty close to me yeah so we can stand back and go all

right this is what my room shorter the walls would have looked like now here's our key point the door the door that she

couldn't lock we know that the back door to Mary Ann's house did not lock she

rented the house from a man named Roy black he said that he would send his son

David black to fix the back door David never fixed the door and it became the point of entry to this m*rder

since Mary Ann and the girls slept in that living room you would never be able to see an intruder coming through this

door and down this hallway this is all solid wall they wouldn't see anything

until their intruder is literally in the doorway from the kitchen into the living room one of my thoughts was that Mary

Ann is actually facing her intruder she is struck in the head right on the left

side of her head and it was probably the first blow your person would be right-handed she also has a lot of blood

on her hands when you hit your head what's the first thing you do home jeez you grab your head now we have a rope

that's involved that goes around her neck and we have handcuffs

this is the moment that Marianne was probably dazed so this might have been

the time that the k*ller tied up Ashlee handcuffed Marianne and tied a rope around her neck to she know's not good

things are gonna be happening to her in the next moments or hours or whatever to come the ligature marks on Marianne's

neck are kind of weak I don't believe that the k*ller's intent was to strangler but instead to use it like a

leash and control her now this all comes to the ground here this is our heaviest

really thick blood saturation she has some pretty good abrasions on her elbow

she has abrasions on her knees so there's no doubt she's down this way

okay he cuts off her clothes my theory the suspect was possibly having sex with

our victim before she was dead and now all of our wounds are pretty

much on the right side of our head going all the way around to the forehead all

came pretty simultaneously within a couple of blows I'm sure she goes unconscious it's a horrifying scene

there's no doubt about that just to sit here and realize I sound stupid but the

vent I didn't know the bed was this close it all happened right there and those babies are on this bed and you got

to believe that Ashley saw every bit of it being at the mock crime scene and really being able to see how close it

was when it all happened really motivates you to want to catch who did it we have a lot of things pointing in

the direction of john bursee the man mary anne was dating when she moved to thatcher even though Bercy claims he was in

Florida at the time of the m*rder we need to find witnesses who can tell us all about that to see what they have to

say okay let's go hook she's here Barbara Beck traffic she started running

around with him you mean john bursee yeah jumpers on her jack yeah I guess all right go ahead

right away sweeping her off her feet wanting get Mary is so anyway it was nothing but a liar and a real smooth

conman at that so what happened yes please could talk this [ __ ] for so long and Mary Ann got really angry and

she was like I hate your guts I want you out of here just leave and how was he acting when y'all kicking him out oh he

had a violent temper when Mary Ann and john bursee broke up she moved to

thatcher to get away from him she was definitely running away from a relationship that had gone bad I can see

in her eyes that she was scared I do know one thing she actually got phone

calls from him and that was probably two weeks before she was m*rder*d

hello how does this mail me know me let me ask you something this story about

this very very upsetting phone call that Maryann God did you remember her saying

all right talk about that and somebody

was pounding on my door it was Mary Ann and she was shaking and she was so

scared she got the phone call and it was him and she was just terrified because

he knew where she was now I've been

contacted by a person that I previously had a problem with and they just

basically called me to tell me that they they knew where I was and my door in the

middle of the night and then I call you guys you know what I mean

[Music]

the chief woodsfamily John Mercy's

alibis that he was staying with a man named Ann Stanley and his wife in Florida at the time the m*rder occurred

no matter the threats no matter what john bursee has done previous to the m*rder if his alibi is solid

it's the matter do you remember the name john bursee yep we met him because our

truck was running bad John and in your

original statement to the police you said that you and John left Nevada on June the 30th 1995 and then y'all drove

across the country all the way to Jacksonville Florida and arrived there sometime around July the fourth so the

critical question is between July 4th and July the 11th did he leave

for a significant amount of times your

wife there sir they have original investigators lot Mercy's alibi with Dan

Stanley but I see nothing where they talked to his wife miss Daly do you recall the time frame that we're talking

about the guy we're talking about he didn't disappear long enough to go to Arizona and get back to Florida before

he got arrested during that time period right oh no absolutely not anywhere

anyway John Mercy's alibi is about as solid as an alibi can be I have to say

but I still want to wait for the DNA just to make sure she's scared to death of Bercy and she should have been cuz

he's a freak and the one that's after her that she never saw coming could be our k*ller

we're investigating the 18 year old m*rder of Mary Anne Holmes we've confirmed the alibi of Marianne's

ex-boyfriend john bursee so now we're gonna focus on david black the man who now lives in the home where

Mary Ann was m*rder*d did he ever talk about Mary Ann the young lady that was oh I know he's absolutely obsessed with

that m*rder do you think David would have done that I will say this I think

it's his voice and the voice is telling self I think he's capable of listening

to the voices and going nuts so back

when Mary Ann moved into your home that you were renting to her did you ever become friends with Mary Ann no I didn't

get real close to her myself Mary Ann d*ed July of 1995 okay it was

David living here with you at the time no he was living in Salt Lake we talked okay he was in Utah do you know of any

kind of relationship between he and Mary Ann at all not to my knowledge it was a run to school and worked out from Utah

David black still seems real suspicious but he's not talking to us well thank you for coming down so there's not a

whole lot more we can do in that direction to try and determine what to do with him right now

kennel me chin here it's right with hey

guys hey what's going on David black is here to see get out of here

it's right out there and he's got a bunch of documents he wants to show you you know it seems to me like David blacks father must have told him to come

over here and talk to us and explain to us where he was that day and to try and clear his name there were some actions

that brought you to our attention your father rinsed the house there was word that you may have done some repairs

because at the time her house was having some repair done on it and so in any investigation you look at you look at

the people who had access we know that David had met Marian when she rented his father's house and he was supposed to

repair the broken door that the k*ller entered but he never did brought you to brought this out sooner because this does have some things I

think are helpful kasi misra much sure david black brought writings from his

journal they'd indicate that he was in Provo Utah both before the m*rder after the m*rder and the dates of the m*rder

do you have through like the 5th I guess the sheet before and the sheet after this I have the whole year of 95

everything he wrote in his journal in regards to his girlfriend the school he was attending and where he was working

it all checks out and proves that he was nowhere near Mary Ann's house on the night of the m*rder we'd like to get a DNA sample swab okay just put it on the

inside your cheek and it just kind of wave it around a little bit and stick them in the box this evening would we be

able to come at your house look around again and walk through it okay this evening now that David Black has given

us an alibi he's given us his DNA not really feeling it on him being the

suspect but I am gonna take him up on taking that tour of that crime scene

David David yeah but we came back because you tell us we can walk around

the crime scene right ahead okay thank you we appreciate it sure a footprint to come right back this

way and come right in the gate we're going to show the first shoe print that we're finding I want to retrace a shoe

where impressions that Kendall and his guys found to see where they went they went around this way they went around

the back side of the house they went right up to this window that's a great sh*t right in the shoe prints themselves

tell a whole story about how our suspect walked around the house to that kitchen

window that you could so clearly see into the living room it's all very eerie and creepy headed

away from the house here you can kind of see where this footprint is hideous we look with the trail of shoe prints

leaving the property shows that the intruder went in a Northwest direction towards the College in this area right

here was the last two prints that I was able to find that went that way detectives at

the time of the m*rder investigation measured the shoe impressions and determined that they were between a size 11 and size 13 while all of our suspects

in that size range only one of them worked at the college one of our suspects is Philip Turley who very

familiar with the school very familiar with the area Philip Turley was working at the college which is close to Mary

Ann's house it's actually where he matter and fell in love with her so he would probably know I could Park here no

one think anything about it I I know my direction right back to it and gone

are you all excited you're so cute it's almost like looking at your lottery

ticket when it's today we're getting the DNA results back we're hoping that we

can get a DNA profile on the suspect over fifty pieces of evidence went to

Sorenson lab it was the most I've ever seen I think ribbons gonna run out before you print a

hundred and forty pages we know the weapons used by the k*ller were brought by him because none of these weapons

belong to marry anyone who would do this kind of a crime and bring his own m*rder

weapons with him to the house probably also wore gloves but what I'm hoping for

is he bought those sometime way prior to the m*rder without gloves and that's where we're gonna get our DNA all right

let's first take our handcuffs on the handcuffs we have no DNA well that's frustrating because we know

our k*ller brought those there then we have the rope on our victim there is DNA

detected on it unfortunately it is so slight that it is inconclusive he bought

the rope some day somewhere and he put in this garage he didn't do it with gloves that's why I thought the Rope would come back now I do have something

interesting on the bag of clothes the threshold on it was still too small to

develop a profile that could be compared to someone but this piece of DNA could

exclude it excluded john bursee and david black I also have two picture

frames also on the crime scene again it did the same thing it excluded john

bursee and david black but they have Phillip Turley's and they cannot exclude Philip

Turley right exactly they've had Philip Turley they compared Philip Turley's and they can't exclude him DNA profiles are

unique to each person but sometimes we only get a partial small profile in that

case it can't be used as an exact match but it can be used to exclude people

think of it like a lottery when you only know a few of the winning numbers in this case david black and john bursee

didn't have any of the numbers so there's no way that they touch the evidence and now they can be excluded

Philip Turley does match a few of those numbers so we're not going to exclude him Denis Langley is the filter Lee's

ex-girlfriend and she sounds like she's more than happy to talk about how crazy their relationship was says Langley hi

I'm Kelly I'm Steve Carter that's your Police Department we need to talk to you because you're crucial to the case ex-girlfriends are always a

great source of information in these cases but it's tricky because you need to make sure that there's no payback

involved in what they have to tell you but I don't want to be on camera okay you don't need to worry about that Danae

has said some pretty incredible things about Phil Turley and being able to talk to her today will

give us a better sense of what to do with that kind of information you're our very first person in the world of Phil

Turley okay Danae did you know Mary Ann Holmes Phil Turley had told me that they were

engaged to be married he referred to Mary anitha's fiance he told me that he bought land in team Arizona and that he

was building their dream home that they were gonna move into when they got married now when he said that I knew that he couldn't even afford to go buy a

motel room for one night what kind of crazy is he well I know that he was diagnosed with bipolar

disorder when he's on a high and he's not taking his meds even become psychotic we know from your transcripts in your notes and

your other conversations that he talked a lot about kinky sex stuff too

I do remember that he's talked about somebody on their hands and knees going around on a leash on a color and maybe

whipping them or spanking them he was obsessed with a**l sex and I didn't want to do that why do you say obsessed - did

he cuz he wouldn't ever let it go he just kept on bringing it up and wanted to do that and I just didn't want to do

that that made him mad we know from our crime scene that our suspect use

handcuffs on Mary Ann but we also know that he put a rope around her neck and dragged her away from the couch where he

then sexually assaulted her vaginally and anally with some unknown object

Danae statements about Phil Turley sexual habits have a lot of eerie

coincidences and similarities to our crime scene he worked as a correctional officer and he said that whenever the

prisoners wouldn't come out there selling coorporate that the correctional officers would have to go in and use

their batons and b*at the prisoners into submission he said that was a favorite part of his job did he have correctional

gear did he have like his belt and handcuffs and baton and he had that stuff whatever correctional officers had

that's what he had what's the most violent he ever was with you were talked about with you one thing that you said

that I could k*ll you and then I could f your dead body and there's left you could do about it he talked about it

like it would be really fun for him but I would suffer he said that he could commit m*rder in this valley and get

away with that hey I'm detective Curtis

from thought your Police Department we have reopened the Marianne Holmes case our interview with Denis Langley

was really helpful but you always want to get more information by talking to everyone who has first-hand knowledge of

your suspects and that's what our plan is next Philip Turley is that ring a bell with you what would be your opinion

of Philip Turley thinking back of him he's psychologically crazy and he held a

g*n to his head they told I was gonna call the cops and then when I did he disappears and I never heard him again

after that the reason why I left is because we got into an argument and he

took a swing at them for the hole in the wall really any other big big blowup

moments there was one time when we were in bed having sex that can tied me up

uh-huh but the power that I felt when he pulled my legs down to try them just

made me shut up and not saying this and then go along with it because I got [Music]

we've talked to all the women in the life of Phil Turley so we have a good idea the kind of man he is and now it's

time for Allen and Kendall to go find Phil Turley and talk to him face-to-face and assess whether or not for sheriff

years the one who m*rder*d Maryanne Holmes I'm Kendall Curtis from the police department okay I'm Thatcher here

where we looked into the old Marianna Holmes case we just doing some follow-up I didn't do it well I'm not saying you

did but that's what we're trying to do

Phil Turley now lives a few hours outside of Thatcher so we're gonna take him to the local PD

to interview him there oh my god Darren he's big unless Phil confesses we cannot

pin this on him at this time we have no eyewitness we have no DNA honestly what

we need is a miracle obviously you were very fond of Mary Ann and what point did that relationship progress into more

than just a work professional type relationship well it never progressed into any kind of relationship we'd see

each other a couple of times we met each other to church functions and we went to

a movie that they took your diary

thought about being in love with Mary Ann I don't think some of my mind my imagination is working overtime this

evening my first thought was Mary Ann my love deepens by the hour on seven one of 95 now this is exactly

one week seven days before the m*rder it's odd I barely know her yet my heart is all hers

okay so my question is did you ever really go to the movie yeah but you never write about it you've got nothing

going on with Maryann except in your head and it's all right around the time that Maryann turns up dead what do you

think about the kids being left untouched you know in the inside thought all men around the time of the m*rder one of Phil's friends approached the

police and agreed to let himself be wired in the transcripts are a few suspicious statements made by Phil the

most unusual being why Phil theorizes that the k*ller left the children there unharmed I have no clue why he would

leave the kids have to grow up with that so we had somebody who said that you said leaving the children untouched I

want that kind of power the children know who was there and that's power forever I didn't ever say that no and

with the nage what about your sexual interest no tiny anybody yet I don't

know I might I'd tune a out I don't think so though I don't remember how

about handcuffs no I didn't because more

than one girlfriend says handcuffs it's not just de neige that's good you know the way I see it is you have

this whole fantasy built up and you have this perfect life she's like the ready-made family and in your mind you

have all these plans and she cheats down rejection is not a problem for me but

all your su1c1de threats are made when you're being rejected on a by woman there are many times there has to be

some motivation some catalysts to push you into that direction no they're actually doesn't that's normal in

torreón that's the problem I'm a difficult person but I don't k*ll people

would you be shocked that I said that I have DNA in there that I can't exclude you know

you're lying anyway there's a lot of

unexplained things men didn't make any sense some things I don't have answers for we're not gonna break in solve this

case not today not with these answers he's bipolar so he gets a pass on a lot

of them and he gets an it built-in explanation for being a kook cuz he's

not doing it today I might is he smart enough he ain't gonna confess no and we're gonna take

you back home but I have a feeling we'll be revisiting again I'd be more than happy to talk to you as again matter of

fact if you call I'll Drive up there you don't even have to come down here make it easy for you

what do you think after looking at him I still think he's and I I can't rule him

out I have a case no we don't have a case I think he's a kook and I think he can't handle rejection but his answers you

know when you have to you have to always remember that he's bipolar the fact that Phil Turley is bipolar has reasonable

doubt to this case and there's no way of avoiding that without any more evidence it's gonna be just as probable for a

jury to believe that a random k*ller is who did this to Mary Ann Holmes so the worst part is we have to go tell

Ashley that we didn't solve the case

god [Applause] Ashley is sitting here and she wants us

to be able to tell her that we're there we know who k*lled your mom and walking up to see her to tell her the news is

really really hard cuz well I know what it's gonna do to her it's gonna it's gonna hurt her it's gonna break her

heart hey Ashley hello miss Ashley are you in

a cute

ashle unfortunately this week we were not able to find enough evidence to tell

anybody for sure who k*lled your mom there is a suspect that they're focusing on but there's also still the chance

that whoever did this your mom is somebody out there but we might not ever catch okay you should know that because

of you the DNA has been tested they're now gonna focus on one person they may or may not solve it but what you should

know is that whether they solve it or not you cannot control and you need to tell yourself that you are moving into a

new phase of your life you go back home you go back home and you think about

what you want to do for your career in your and your school and where you're gonna live and don't think about this

anymore you don't we need to let it all go okay well mom's talking to you I have

this amazing family but there's this huge hole and no one I mean it doesn't matter how many aunts I have or how many

best friends mom said I kind of adopt as my own you know nothing ever fills that

you can't fix it stop trying she's always worrying about everybody

else her little sister her uncle her grandma she's trying to fix everybody else and I want her to know that she

needs to fix herself I did a lot of death penalty cases and the families they put their lives on hold waiting for

that execution to like make them feel better and then they walk out there like that doesn't fix anything

[Music] [Applause] and if you ever find out who did this to your mom it's not gonna fix your life

you make your life good you're supposed

to move on and you're supposed to feel better about everything but at the end of the day like I just want my mom but I

know that I'm gonna get up tomorrow and my son's gonna be shining and I'm just gonna have to keep going you know you

can't stop thank you do you want to call us an email us invent or ask questions or you hear something new we would love

to get a call 25 years from now because you're not worrying about this anymore it's something happy okay before she

d*ed Maryann wrote a series of letters to Ashley and one of them reads you cry

when I put you down or get out of your sight occasionally I don't want to spoil you but I do want to make sure you feel

loved I want you to need me but I also want you to feel good on your own

[Music]