09x10 - Head Games

[bunniefuu]

Narrator: a young couple went camping in the woods, but only

One of them came out alive.

The survivor told two different versions of what happened.

So it took forensic psychiatry, ballistics, and korean-w*r

History to discover what really happened in the deep forests of

Oregon.

The area surrounding majestic mount hood in oregon is a

Sportsman's paradise.

Mountain streams, ideal for fishing and boating, and deep

Forests filled with game.

Candra and julio torres chose this area for a weekend camping

Trip.

They were young -- julio was , candra just .

It was pretty much love at first sight.

My father wanted us to get married when I was , because

He could see that the relationship was heating up.

Narrator: the trip celebrated their first wedding anniversary,

And they brought candra's dog, rusty, along.

Although they loved to fish, they weren't catching anything,

So they asked one of the other fishermen who was there for a

Little advice.

When he saw me, he lit up.

I didn't think anything of it.

I was very young, attractive, and I was used to turning heads.

Narrator: the fisherman, tom brown, told them about a

Good fishing spot nearby that had recently been stocked with

Fish.

And we looked at each other and it sounded like fun.

We had had no luck fishing for two days, and we were ready to

Catch some fish.

Narrator: the fishing site was several miles away, and by

The time they got there, it was dark, so they set up camp to get

Some rest.

Three days later, candra went to the local sheriff's office and

Called her mother with some terrible news.

She says, "julio's dead.

It was a terrible accident.

Will you come and get me?" Narrator: candra said that

The three of them had gone fishing and later did some

Hunting.

They sighted a deer.

Julio handed tom his r*fle so tom could take the first sh*t,

But the r*fle went off accidentally, k*lling julio

Instantly.

Candra screamed.

The dog instinctively att*cked tom, and tom sh*t her dog,

Rusty, in self-defense.

And then he panicked, because he had a prior record, was known

To the police, and that no one would believe him.

Narrator: so tom had no desire to explain the incident

To police.

He gave candra the choice between staying with him or

Heading back to town.

I had no way of getting down.

I couldn't even drive.

I didn't have a license.

I didn't know how to drive a stick.

Narrator: confused and in shock, candra stayed with brown.

But after two days, they reconsidered and decided to

Notify the authorities.

He told them that there'd been a sh**ting and it was an

Accident.

And she backed up his story.

He then cooperated and took them to where the body was, helped

Them recover the r*fle.

Narrator: to prove his story, tom took a lie-detector test and

Passed.

Police ruled julio's death an accident.

The sheriff's department was very supportive of tom brown.

I think that they believed the stories and that they wanted to

Keep an innocent man from being locked behind bars.

Narrator: but a few days later, candra changed her story.

Narrator: candra torres originally told investigators

She had witnessed her husband's death and that it was an

Accidental sh**ting.

Everybody was saying it was an accident that knew anything

About it.

No one was saying anything other than that.

Narrator: but candra's mother had doubts about the story.

I know how she loved the dog and I know how she loved him,

But it was just like it was coming out of a stereo.

You know, being replayed or something.

It wasn't really her.

Narrator: but when candra went back to the home she shared

With julio, everything changed.

And when she went inside the apartment, she fell apart.

She said, "mama and daddy, don't hate me.

Don't hate me."

And I said, "I could never hate you."

And then she said she didn't know if it was an accident or

Not, that she did not see him sh*t.

And I said, "my god, candra, don't you realize that man

m*rder*d your husband?" Narrator: in this version,

Candra said she was alone, making breakfast at the

Campsite, when she heard a sh*t.

[ g*nsh*t ] tom brown came running from the

Woods.

Candra said she ran to see what had happened to julio.

And then I heard another sh*t.

And I looked next to me, and my dog was jerking.

He had been sh*t in the head.

And I looked at him with total surprise.

And I said, "you sh*t my dog."

And he smiled a big smile and said, "I sh*t your husband,

Too."

At that second, my life flashed before me.

I was years old and I was going to die.

There was no one that could help me.

My dog that I'd had from childhood was dead.

My husband whom I loved -- he's telling me he's dead, and I'm up

In the mountains with a m*rder*r.

I'm next.

Obviously, whatever he wants with me, he's going to do, and

Then he's going to k*ll me.

And I knew that I was going to die.

Narrator: he then took her deep into the woods.

After hiking for about four hours, we stopped to rest at the

River, and that was the first time that he r*ped me.

Narrator: candra said brown assaulted her repeatedly over

The next several days.

She said the one thing she feels that saved her life was reading

Aloud from the bible.

"...then will I go to the altar of god, to god, my joy and

My delight."

His heart had been too touched and he wasn't able to

k*ll me.

So he came to me instead, and he started crying, and he said, "I

Didn't k*ll your husband on purpose.

It was an accident.

And...

The reason that I brought you up here is because I'm

Afraid to go back to prison."

Narrator: over the next several days, brown told candra

Repeatedly that julio's death was an accident.

And he agreed to let her go, but only if she told authorities

That she witnessed the sh**ting and that it was an accident.

To see if this version was true, candra took a lie-detector test.

Tom brown had been given a lie-detector test, and his

Actually said that he was telling the truth.

He knew how to pass a lie-detector test.

So if I took a lie-detector test, then we'd at least have

Equal evidence against him.

Narrator: but she failed.

Polygraphs do not measure truth or lie.

What they measure is emotion, and if you were a -year-old

Girl that had been r*ped, marched up in the mountain, and

God saved you, brought you down out of that mountain, you're

Emotional, you're talking about your husband that you love that

Was sh*t by this m*rder*r, would you be emotional?

I think so.

Narrator: with nowhere else to turn, investigators looked

More closely at the physical evidence.

The dog's wound would tell whether he was sh*t frontally,

As tom brown claimed, or from behind, which was candra's

Version.

Unfortunately, the dog's body had not been autopsied, and

He was buried in a mass grave for animals.

The b*llet that k*lled julio entered his cheek and passed

Nearly horizontally through his upper vertebrae.

Trajectories could vary depending on terrain and a whole

Variety of other factors of how the g*n was held, whether the

Person receiving it was standing uphill or downhill.

Narrator: the trajectory analysis wasn't enough to tell

Whether the sh**ting was an accident or intentional.

But they couldn't understand how tom brown passed his polygraph.

We believed her, but she flunked the polygraph.

We didn't believe him, but he passed, and so, what do you do?

What are our other options?

Narrator: so prosecutors asked a forensic psychiatrist

How candra could have failed her polygraph, and his discovery

Changed the course of the investigation.

Narrator: at first, candra torres said she watched

In horror as her husband was k*lled in a freak hunting

Accident.

Later she claimed that tom brown m*rder*d her husband while she

Was back at the campsite.

To find out which version was correct, forensic psychiatrist

Dr. Joseph treleaven interviewed candra for several hours.

I concluded that she didn't have any mental disorder.

She was under some stress because she'd had a stressful

Experience, but that was all.

Narrator: but why did candra initially vouch for tom brown,

The man she now says k*lled her husband?

Frankly, at first, I didn't know what to make about it.

I remembered the stories of what happened to the prisoners of w*r

In the korean w*r, and where they were isolated, often

Brutalized, often for fear of their life, and after a long

Period of time, some of them would accept the point of view

Of their captor and then testify against their own

Country.

And they called it at the time "brainwashing."

Narrator: today it's known as the stockholm syndrome, named

For the hostages held in a stockholm bank robbery who

Sympathized with their captors, even while their lives were

Threatened.

Experts say this occurs to hostages when four things

Happened...

The sh**ting of the dog is a very visual and powerful

Demonstration of the dangerousness of the man that

Was her captor, and brings it home.

And then being assaulted physically -- pretty powerful

Stuff, you know -- as stressful, almost, as you can get.

Narrator: for candra, the cascade mountains provided the

Isolation, and brown indoctrinated her by repeatedly

Telling her that the sh**ting was an accident.

Her reward was survival, escape from repeated r*pe and the fear

She may have been responsible for her husband's m*rder.

The reward in candra torres' case wasn't just coming out of

The woods alive.

The reward was that then she wouldn't feel guilty about being

An instrument of her husband's death.

Narrator: candra didn't just accept brown's story of an

Accidental sh**ting -- she actually believed it.

I had nobody with me but a m*rder*r.

Do I really want to believe he's a m*rder*r, because believing

That is terrifying.

Do I really want to think that my husband d*ed so that someone

Could r*pe me and kidnap me?

For me, denial was the best way to survive.

We all tell ourselves little lies -- sometimes big lies to

Make ourselves feel more comfortable and certainly when

Our survival is at stake.

You could change your perception of things.

Narrator: this made her polygraph test useless.

If she doesn't know in her own mind what is truth and what

Is fiction, how can she possibly react properly to a polygraph

Examination?

It's not a piece of equipment that's going to tell the future,

It's not going to tell the past unless you know what it is.

It can't give you information that you don't know.

There is a reason, and a very good reason, that polygraph

Examinations are not admissible in courts of law.

With all respect to polygraph operators and to the science of

Polygraphy, in this incident, tom brown passed the polygraph.

And in this incident, mrs. Torres flunked the

Polygraph.

I firmly believe that both results are dead wrong.

Narrator: prosecutors now accepted the idea that candra

Was brainwashed.

But how would they prove that julio had been m*rder*d?

She could testify to what he said, she could testify about

What happened to the dog, and so on, but we had a crime committed

Without an eyewitness, and this was a very, very close case.

Narrator: ballistic experts re-examined the evidence and the

Level trajectory.

If you're handing a g*n, there's a lot of weight there.

The chances of holding the g*n to be perfectly flat -- again,

Very, very unlikely, because I would expect it to be upward

Instead of straight across.

Narrator: the medical examiner found no gunpowder

Residue around julio torres' entrance wound, so investigators

Wanted to find out the distance between julio and the g*n when

It was fired.

A b*llet isn't the only thing that comes out of the r*fle when

Fired.

Gases and gunpowder do, too.

Brown's r*fle, a .-Caliber savage model , was tested at

The oregon state-police lab.

It was fired at a target six inches away, and it left a

Visible pattern.

There were other test sh*ts at increasing distances.

So, then, you get to a point where you have no pattern at

All, it doesn't show up at all, and that was what the d.a. Was

Primarily interested in -- how far before you don't have

Anything.

Narrator: the r*fle had to be inches away from the target

To leave no trace of gunpowder.

This meant that brown's r*fle was at least three feet away

When the trigger was pulled.

To have muzzle-to-target distance of three feet and a

Level entry-and-exit wound -- how do you contort yourself to

Be able to do that when he's claiming all he was doing is

Passing the g*n along?

Narrator: with this forensic evidence, tom brown was arrested

And charged with m*rder.

Narrator: based on the ballistic evidence, prosecutors

Were convinced that tom brown m*rder*d julio torres in the

Oregon forest to have his -year-old wife all to himself.

Trying the case wouldn't be easy, since candra told two

Different stories to authorities.

Even if you believe candra torres %, she didn't

See it.

There were still no witnesses to this incident.

And he cooperated all the way through.

Narrator: but while brown was awaiting trial in the county

Jail, he admitted the m*rder to his cell mate.

The basics of it was, "I'm going to b*at it.

I passed the polygraph."

"That they wouldn't be able to get a conviction because I

Wasn't emotionally stable enough to hold out in court."

"And then when I b*at it, I'm going to go after these --

Go after her and those two prosecutors."

But if they did get a conviction, it wouldn't be a big

Deal, because he'd get seven years and parole, and he'd get

Out and he'd k*ll me and he'd k*ll my lawyer.

Narrator: his cell mate turned state's evidence, but

Prosecutors still felt they needed the forensic evidence.

That evidence was important, but all those kinds of evidence

That are always subject to human frailties and cross-examination

And credibility and bias and so forth, and of course, the

Powerful nature of forensic evidence is it's not subject to

Those things.

Narrator: candra torres testified in detail about her

Ordeal.

Tom brown told his version and tried to demonstrate how the

Alleged accident took place.

He tried to hand off that r*fle, and it was just -- you

Can't.

You can't do it.

And he stuck to his g*ns and, I believe, stuck to a lie.

But it was demonstrated to be that.

Narrator: brown was so confident that he waived a jury

Trial.

The verdict from the judge was guilty.

He was sentenced to life in prison.

Bob hamilton is retired now, but he attends brown's parole

Hearings to make certain he stays in prison and that candra

Never has to see him again.

Candra is remarried, has a family and a new life.

She credits forensic psychiatry with helping her move beyond her

Horrifying ordeal.

I guess the fact that somebody explained to her and

Explained publicly why she had these confused stories, that she

Wasn't nuts, and there was a logical explanation for it, gave

Her a great deal of emotional relief.

Narrator: but it was ballistics and the physics of

Gunpowder patterns that provided conclusive evidence that

Tom brown was lying.

I thank god for forensics.

I think that they solve a lot of crimes, and the fact that the

Angle of the sh*t and the type of g*n that was used and the

Powder burns were all proof that this did not happen the way that

He said it did, so I was very thankful for that evidence.

You could have five witnesses to a crime -- you're probably

Going to get five different scenarios.

You do the forensic science, you're going to get one.

And that's it.