07x07 - Purr-fect Match

[bunniefuu]

NARRATOR: A young woman
vanished from her home

on an island in rural Canada.

Thousands of police,
Army, and local residents

spent months searching for her.

This is the story of
how one tiny, white hair

solved the mystery
of her disappearance

while adding a new
chapter to the history

of forensic science.

[theme music]

Prince Edward Island,
Canada's smallest province,

a 2,100-square mile vacation
destination in the summer, cold

and desolate in the winter.

Father Eloi Arsenault has
ministered to the islanders

for almost 30 years.

We're not used to
big, violent things

going on because people
are very much down

to Earth and everybody
knows everyone because we're

a small community.

There's not a very large
population on the island,

you know?

NARRATOR: On October


called police to
report an abandoned

car in a field near her house.

The license plates were missing
and when police looked inside,

they saw what looked
to be a crime scene.

There were blood stains,
small specks of blood

on the windshield, on the
inside of the windshield,

on the side windows of
the vehicle, inside.

NARRATOR: These dots
indicate the location

of blood inside the car.

Forensic scientists
identified the blood

as medium-impact blood spatter,
the type caused when someone is

hit with an object like a fist.

The serial number of the
vehicle identified the owner

as a local woman,


Shirley was a stay
at home mother

of five children, the
oldest 15, the youngest,

eight-year old twins.

Shirley and her
children were living

in this home, now abandoned
in the small town of Richmond.

Her father, Melvin,
had been watching

the children since Shirley
disappeared four days earlier.

Well, we found it very odd
that no one had reported her

missing initially
and of course, it

raised some suspicion with us.

Shirley Duguay had
been known in the past

to take off for a couple of
days and not tell anyone where

she had gone and then return.

NARRATOR: Police suspected it
was Shirley's blood in the car.

The pillow she sat on while
driving was found nearby

soaked in blood.

She was a very small,
diminutive person,

four feet, nine inches
tall, less than 100 pounds.

So very, very frail
looking individual.

Other than that, we didn't
know too much about her.

NARRATOR: To identify
the blood, scientists

needed a blood sample from
Shirley's father, Melvin,

for DNA testing.

Since Shirley would get half
of her DNA from each parent,

scientists found that the
blood in the car contained 50%

of Melvin Duguay's
genetic markers, meaning

the blood was Shirley's.

While examining the
blood, forensic scientists

found something
else, blood that did

not come from Shirley Duguay.

Was this the blood of
another victim or possibly

the blood of a k*ller?

After Shirley Duguay's car was
found abandoned and spattered

with blood, the Royal
Canadian Mounted Police

began one of the largest
searches in the history

of Prince Edward Island.

They checked hundreds of
square miles and every waterway

in the area.

We used psychics, we
used hypnosis, anything

that we could put our hands
on Earth or could think of,

we used it.

NARRATOR: Some of the
revelations were very unusual.

Psychics have even
told us that she

was buried near water or
pine trees, shallow grave,

but where?

You just don't know
where to start.

NARRATOR: About a half mile
away from Shirley's car,

police found a shovel with two
long, black hairs attached.

When scientists
compared that hair

to hair taken from Shirley
Duguay's hair brush,

they were
microscopically similar.

The search for Shirley's
body lasted for weeks,

then investigators came
upon a possible clue.


police found a plastic bag

with a pair of sneakers and a
blood-stained leather jacket

inside.

The blood on the
leather jacket matched

Shirley Duguay's DNA profile.

But the jacket was
a man's size, much

too big to belong to Shirley.

When police asked
Melvin Duguay who

might have wanted to
harm his daughter,

his response was startling.

I would have k*lled him.

I would have k*lled that guy.

NARRATOR: He was talking about
Shirley's estranged husband,

Doug Beamish, a
demolition worker

who had been separated from
Shirley for the past 18 months.

I think I would have did a
good deed if I had a shot him,

k*lled him, because
she'd be alive today.

I'd be in jail but
she'd be alive.

NARRATOR: During the
couple's on again, off again


police learned that Beamish

had physically abused Shirley.

Every woman that lives
with an abusive husband

or boyfriend or whatever
and end up m*rder*d

react in the same way.

People advise them to not go
with them or live with them

but for some reason they do.

NARRATOR: During
police questioning,

Beamish denied any involvement
in Shirley's disappearance.

Where were you on
October the 3rd?

NARRATOR: Then,
investigators asked

him what size shoes he wore.

Nine.

NARRATOR: The same size
as the sneakers found

with the bloody leather jacket.

Now, police wanted
to know if Doug

Beamish had worn these shoes.

So they turned to a forensic
podiatrist, Dr. Keith Bettles.

Everyone wears
shoes differently,

mostly because of the
variations in size,

shape, and mechanics
of their feet.

Each individual has a
unique way of walking.

This ultimately is transmitted
to the sole of the feet, which

again is transmitted to
the inner sole of the shoe

and again onto the
outside of the shoe

as to where the walking to the
wear that's individual's shoe.

NARRATOR: With a warrant,
police cast Beamish's feet

by placing them in
Styrofoam molds, then

poured plaster of Paris inside.

Once hardened, the molds
can be compared to the wear

patterns in a pair of shoes.

This computer-generated
image shows how these wear

patterns are created.

The different colors indicate
the amount of pressure

made by each part
of the foot as it

touches the inside of the shoe.

The feet create marks
called pressure points

and are unique to each person.

Mr. Beamish's toe
was hyperflexed,

that means it just turned
up a little bit at the end.

The nails would be chafing away
and rubbing at the inner lining

of the shoe.

NARRATOR: And Beamish's
feet were pronated,

meaning they turned inward.

When Doctor Bettles
cut open the sneakers,

he found wear patterns caused by
pronated feet and chafing marks

in the top of the
shoe like those

caused by hyperflexed toes.

After I'd done the
examination of the sneakers,

I was quite satisfied that these
shoes had been worn at the time

by Mr. Beamish.

NARRATOR: But Doug Beamish
denied the sneakers were his.

He also denied
owning the leather

jacket found with the shoes.

Inside the jacket, investigators
discovered even more evidence,



Under a microscope, the hairs
did not appear to be human.

Human hairs have thin
medullas, the cord that runs

through the center of the hair.

These hairs had thick medullas,
meaning they were animal hairs.

But what animal?

NARRATOR: Constable Roger
Savoie thought he had an answer.

He remembered something from
his interview with Doug Beamish.

It was the type of observation
we make hundreds of times

each day but usually forget.

Savoie recalled that he saw
a cat in Doug Beamish's home,

but it wasn't just any cat.

It was a pure white one.

A cat Beamish called Snowball.

Savoie also recalled that the
cat rubbed up against his leg

during his visit leaving
a number of white hairs

on his trousers,
hairs that looked

identical to the ones found
in the bloody leather jacket.

Investigators now wondered
whether there was any way

to prove scientifically whether
the cat hairs on the leather

jacket belonged to Snowball.


Duguay was still missing

but a leather jacket
stained with her blood

was found 15 miles
from her abandoned car.

Police believe the
leather jacket was

the key to her disappearance.

The person involved
in Shirley's death

was likely wearing
that jacket because it

was not Shirley's jacket.

So we had to put the
jacket on somebody.

We had to prove that
jacket belonged to someone.

NARRATOR: Inside the jacket
were several brittle, white

hairs, which were suspected
to be from Doug Beamish's cat.

If we could prove that it was
this particular cat's hair,

then we would be able to
say that this belonged

to Mr. Beamish, the jacket.

And the job was to
find someone that

could do this type of testing.

NARRATOR: Savoie made
hundreds of telephone calls

and found, to his surprise, that
forensic testing on cat hair

had never been done before
anywhere in the world.

But he was fortunate enough
to come across Dr. Stephen

O'Brien, a geneticist at the
National Cancer Institute

in the United States who
had spent decades studying

hereditary illness in cats.

The Constable said to me
on the phone, Dr. O'Brien,

I've looked all over the
country, in fact, all

over the world for an
expert in cat DNA technology

because I would like very
much to know whether or not

the hairs that were in the
lining of the jacket, which are

tied to the scene of the
crime because the jacket was

covered with the victim's blood,
are those hairs from Snowball?

NARRATOR: Dr. O'Brien asked
Canadian police for a blood

sample from Mr Beamish's
cat, but this was

more difficult than expected.

Snowball wasn't at
all cooperative.

It took approximately
half an hour

from chasing the cat from
under the beds to every room

in the house until-- it was
almost like the cat knew

that we were taking him in.

Roger Savoie told me he
went down to the house

and read out the rights, the
cat's rights to the parents.

And I said to Roger,
what did the cat say?

And he said, meow.

There's an old saying with the
RCMP, we always get our man,

but this case, we had to go
to say we always get our cat.

NARRATOR: After finally
capturing the cat,

Snowball was taken to a
local veterinarian's office

for the necessary blood sample
Dr. Jane Bond drew the blood

as two Canadian
officers stood by

to take custody of the
sample in order to preserve

the chain of evidence.

Snowball's blood and cat hairs
taken from the leather jacket

were delivered in person to
Dr. O'Brien and his team.

One of the hairs contained a
root, which was cut into pieces

and put into a buffer
solution, which dissolved

everything except the DNA.

It was then amplified or
photocopied so scientists

had enough for their tests.

The DNA profile of the hair
found in the leather jacket

was then compared to the
DNA from Snowball's blood.

We got a very clear match
between the genotype of each

of the markers in the hair
to each of the same markers

in Snowball and the only way
that that could have happened

is that they came
from the same cat.

NARRATOR: But Prince
Edward Island is isolated

and there are thousands
of cats there.

Was it possible because of
inbreeding, isolation, or just

plain feline promiscuity that
another cat on the island

had the same genetic
profile as Snowball?

If so, the DNA match
would be useless.

You need to know
that some other cat

on Prince Edward Island couldn't
have contributed that hair.

What if 25% of the cats
on Prince Edward Island

had the same DNA profile?

Or 10%?

Or even one in 100 cats?

So that's the next
question you have to ask.

What is the frequency
of that profile?

NARRATOR: Blood
samples were taken

from 20 cats on
Prince Edward Island

and sent to Dr.
O'Brien and his team.

The DNA profiles
of these 20 cats

showed a rich genetic diversity.

The chance that the cat hair
found on the leather jacket

belonged to a cat other
than Snowball was estimated

to be one in 70 million.

This was the break
Canadian investigators

had been hoping for.

And then, after seven
months of searching,

a fisherman found the
last piece of evidence.


Duguay's disappearance,

a fisherman along
Canada's Enmore River

saw a pile of brush
on the riverbank

that looked out of place.

As he moved the brush
away, he saw what

appeared to be a human body.

It was a very
shallow grave dug just

deep enough to cover the body.

The person was a
very tiny person.

We knew Shirley Duguay
was less than 5 feet tall,

less than 100 pounds.

Obviously, we expected
it was Shirley Duguay.

I was alone by myself
and it started to snow.

It was a freak snowstorm
and I recall all I had on

was a rain jacket.

And I felt bad because the
body was partly uncovered.

So I took my rain
jacket, which was

all I had to keep warm and
put it on top of the grave

to keep the snow off her.

NARRATOR: Ironically,
Shirley's body

was buried in a spot
nearly identical to what

the police psychic
predicted, near the water,

under pine trees.

It was just lucky that
they found her when they did

because the police told me that
within two or three weeks more,

and they would have
had a hard time

to identify her because
the ground was thawing out.

They knew that there was very
little hope of finding her

alive and when they found
her, they were very relieved

in the sense that they knew,
at least, that they could have

a service for her and
pray and get together

and they could sort of
bring a closure to it.

NARRATOR: At the autopsy,
the cause of death

was determined to be
blunt force trauma.

Just as the blood spatter
in her car suggested.

Shirley's nose was broken and
her jaw broken in three places.

One of her front teeth was
found embedded in her lung.

Doug Beamish was arrested
and charged with m*rder.

Scientists discovered
that it was

his blood mixed with Shirley's
inside her abandoned car.

But what was his motive?

Police discovered
Beamish had written

Shirley a letter
threatening to k*ll

her before he'd allow her to
get custody of their children.

The whole letter
was written in blood.

It was just one page, mind you,
but it was written in blood.

NARRATOR: Although Beamish
denied owning the leather

jacket stained with
Shirley's blood,

police found this
photograph taken the day

before Shirley's disappearance.

In it, he is wearing a
jacket identical to the one

found at the crime scene.

Well, actually he has no
defense at all except to say,

I didn't do it.

But I think if you
interviewed all

the prisoners in the prisons
in Canada, they'd all say,

I didn't do it.

That's pretty well--
they've always

got someone else to blame on.

You know, criminals do that.

They always blame someone
else for their problems.

Certainly, you never see
a criminal go in court

and say, I did it, Judge.

NARRATOR: After going to great
lengths to cover up the crime,

Beamish never
realized that petting

his cat before the m*rder
would be his downfall.

One in three criminals have
cats and maybe one in four

have a dog.

So when you go to the
scene of the crime

and if there is a
trace of DNA there,

it's like leaving your name,
your rank, and social security

number, which can be used.

And failing to have
the individual's,

if they leave their
pets' parts there,

that can implicate them, too.

This is what happened
with Mr. Beamish.

His pet cat implicated him.

NARRATOR: Doug Beamish
was tried and convicted

of Shirley Duguay's
m*rder and sentenced

to 18 years in prison.

The case is among the most
celebrated in forensic history

because it is the first
time that animal DNA

was used to convict a m*rder*r.

Since then, we've
received calls

from, after the investigation,
from all over the world,

literally.

I received calls from Japan
asking us how this worked.

How did the animal DNA work?

I mean, I was
actually surprised.

Once the Snowball
case became well-known

among the forensic community,
I would say about once every

two weeks, I would receive
a phone call from a police

department that was
investigating a crime where

an animal hair had
been left behind

and they were asking
us to help them.

NARRATOR: T.S. Eliot
penned these lines

in his "Old Possum's
Book of Practical Cats,"

you now have learned
enough to see that cats

are much like you and me.

We've learned that
applies to their DNA, too.

And Doug Beamish now wishes
that this wasn't true.

[music playing]