03x01 - Without a Trace

[bunniefuu]

What are you doing here?

I want to talk to duane.

No, no, no.

I want to talk to duane.

[ g*nsh*t ]

Narrator: when steven harper

Opened fire on the johnson

Family in 1975, he was consumed

With both jealousy and rage over

Sandy johnson's rejection.

With harper in prison for the

sh**ting, his bizarre behavior

Continued.

He mailed these pictures

Depicting sandy as a witch to

Her home.

Initially, sandy johnson

Couldn't believe that her old

Boyfriend was capable of m*rder,

Which explains why she didn't

Identify him as a possible

Suspect.

Their unusual relationship was

The focus of tomas guillen's

Book "toxic love."

She had painted the former

Boyfriend, steven harper, as a

Very peaceful person, as a very

Loving person, as a very good

Boyfriend.

He was not "prone to v*olence."

That sort of portrayal.

Very puzzling, very perplexing.

Why would she do that?

I don't know.

Narrator: after prison,

Harper took a job at the eppley

Cancer institute.

Published reports say it was

Here where harper first learned

About the deadly d.m.n.

A newspaper article had been

Posted on the company's bulletin

Board, describing how a german

Chemist k*lled his wife by

Putting d.m.n. In her marmalade.

Authorities believe that harper

Confiscated d.m.n. From a locked

Refrigerator in the lab and

Experimented at home to find the

Correct dosage.

Harper confided to a friend that

He broke into sandy and duane's

Home on a thursday night when no

One was there.

He poured the d.m.n. In a

Pitcher of lemonade he found in

The refrigerator.

The following sunday afternoon,

The johnsons, sheltons, and the

Grandparents all gathered for

What would be their last family

Get-together.

Duane had been painting outside

And had two large glasses of the

Lemonade to quench his thirst.



Lemonade in his cup.

Sandy's parents did not drink

The lemonade and were drinking

Coffee instead.

Ironically, the presumed target

Of the sabotage, sandy johnson,

Didn't like lemonade and drank

Something else.

Duane d*ed because he ingested

Two full glasses of lemonade,

More than the others.

Chad was simply too small for

His system to handle the toxin.

Steven harper was convicted of

Two counts of first-degree

m*rder and three counts of

Poisoning with intent to k*ll.

He was sentenced to death in the

Electric chair.

But, before that could happen,

Harper committed su1c1de in his

Cell.

The saddest story that you

Could ever think of.

It was sad enough that a child

Dies, that people get poisoned,

That you have this plot of

m*rder by cancer.

But you have living victims.

And his plot to k*ll with cancer

May still come to pass.

Narrator: sherry johnson was

Two years old when she ingested

The d.m.n.

Although a blood transfusion

Saved her life, she suffers

Chronic liver problems to this

Day.

Bruce shelton was so distraught

Over the m*rder of his son,

Chad, and consumed by the fear

That he would develop cancer

That he lost his job, descended

Into a life of alcoholism, and

d*ed, homeless, at the age of



He was buried beside the infant

Son he mourned.

His wife, sally, remarried and

Reportedly refused to have more

Children, for fear she would

Develop cancer and not be alive

To raise them.

That was the most ingenious

Way to commit the perfect crime,

To commit the perfect m*rder --

Give somebody something that

Nobody will suspect, where they

Die years later of cancer.

And you can't detect it.

Narrator: and without

Scientific evidence, the case

Against steven harper might

Never have been proven.

I have spent my whole career

Trying to find out how chemicals

Cause cancer and tried to

Prevent that process.

And it bothers me that there

Would be people out there who

Would take a chemical like that

And use it to try to cause

Cancer.

It's a very sick thing.