07x20 - Telltale Tracks

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a young woman stopped her car along a

busy highway in California she was never

seen again for three years the search

for her whereabouts continued but the

trail eventually turned cold so cold

that forensic scientists needed new

techniques to solve it

twenty-three-year-old Denise Huber lived

with her parents in Newport Beach

California

an upscale suburb outside of Los Angeles

she just got graduated from college and

I think she just wanted to have have fun

and before she settled down into a job

Denise worked as a waitress and a

part-time sales assistant at

Bloomingdale's at five foot nine

the striking blue-eyed brunette had no

trouble attracting dates

her most recent boyfriend was Steve

Horrocks he's a friendly outgoing person

likes to have fun I know she that's what

she would always say Steve was so much

fun on Sunday night June 2nd 1991 Steve

and Denise plan to see the Morrisey rock

band perform an Inglewood

but at the last minute Steve couldn't

get off from work disappointed but

undeterred Denis asked a casual friend

Robert Calvert to go with her she said

I'll be home late and I remember saying

well don't be too late you know because

I was worried when you're not home on

time after the concert Denis and Rob

stopped at the El Paso Cantina for a

drink where Denis met an old

acquaintance whom we'll call Ross Ross

had had a romantic feelings for her in

the past he did ask her to go with him

that night

we wanted her to go home with him which

she did not do Denise and Rob left the

restaurant around 1 o'clock in the

morning and Denise dropped

Rob off at his home Rob was the last

known person to see Denise Huber I think

in the morning when she wasn't there

obviously it was there was some concern

but we didn't keep that closer tabs on

her either heaven she was 23 years old

and in an adult and totally trustworthy

her abandoned car was found along the

Costa Mesa Freeway three miles from home

with a flat tire it didn't look like

anything had occurred at the vehicle it

was parked between two call boxes that

were never used that night in my mind I

just knew something horrible had

happened because Denise wasn't kind a

person that would just disappear without

telling us

the Costa Mesa police dispatched

investigators to the scene inside of the

car itself appeared to be clean there

was no blood there there didn't appear

to be any windows broken there didn't

appear to be any damage to the car her

purse and shoes were gone like she'd

gotten out of her car and left the

flashers were on in the car like she the

car had broken down and she was gonna

get out and go walk for help search dogs

picked up a scent on the side of the

freeway

but soon lost it police then canvassed

the neighborhoods near the highway but

no one had seen her it appeared Denise

Huber had simply vanished

you

it's worse than if I think I was afraid

of for my own death because I was so

afraid what happened to that night some

precious

police used search helicopters and all

other means to look for 23 year old

Denise Hoover after her abandoned car

was found along a busy highway you could

hear them from our house and you know

what they're looking for and you you

pray they don't find what they're

looking for

this has got to be obviously got to be a

body that they're looking for and it's a

horrible it's the most horrible feeling

you could ever have

it's like I couldn't breathe red on a

hollow police examined the interior of

Denise's car and found no foreign

fingerprints an analysis of the flat

tire revealed it had not been tampered

with

it just blew out from being under

inflated got too hot and the sidewall

failed just went flat while the physical

evidence led nowhere police interviewed

the last known person to see Denise her

date from the night before Robert

Calvert broad could have been infatuated

with her and could have been upset

because there was no romantic contact

between the two of them police also

looked into Denise's relationship with

Steve Horrocks the boyfriend who was

supposed to accompany Denise to the

concert but backed out at the last

minute

Steve Horrocks was again cooperative any

information either from him he was

always willing to give

police also tracked down Ross the

acquaintance Denise met at the elk

Cantina restaurant Ross was able to put

himself in the alibi'd situation to show

that he did not go follow her after she

dropped a Rob off I never gave up hope

that she'd be found alive we did

everything from thinking that she might

have had a boyfriend that the folks

didn't know about and maybe left the

state left the city eloped desperate for

leads investigators and Denise's family

turned to the media all I knew is get a

picture in front of people get the story

out and the news media they were

wonderful because every time we have

anything going on they would be there

and they'd show it so the community

really it was like it was their daughter

we made buttons with Denise's picture

that said pray for Denise we had bumper

stickers that all of our police units

carried and were available all over the

community there was a large banner that

was placed along the 73 freeway here in

Costa Mesa the media attention produced

hundreds of tips most were

well-intentioned some were not we adhere

from psychics we dear from crackpots

we'd have cure from people that would

try to get money from us 350 miles away

in Prescott Arizona

a man living in a well-to-do

neighborhood called local police to

report something suspicious in his

neighbor's driveway it was a Ryder truck

with California license plates it had an

extension cord coming out of the back of

the neighbors said it was plugged into

an electrical socket on the side of the

house whatever was inside the truck was

running 24 hours a day a search of the

truck revealed it had been stolen in

California

inside was an industrial-sized freezer

in the cargo area and inside the freezer

was a large black garbage bag and they

felt it and believed what they felt was

it was an arm of a person I recall

seeing two arms coming back with the

hands handcuffed and a ring

I remember seeing jewelry and I was I

was really shocked and for the medical

examiner it would be the most difficult

case she had ever encountered

for the past year a stolen Ryder truck

containing a freezer with a human body

inside had been parked at the home of 39

year old john famalaro a handyman and

painter mr. famalaro was very calm he

was very polite and he just really

didn't have much to say about it but he

seemed kind of indifferent to the whole

thing the contents of the freezer were

sent to the Maricopa County coroner's

office dr. Ann Buchholz handled the case

obviously it's a homicide or at least a

hidden body for some reason and because

if it's clandestine nature you're like

okay so we got an evidentiary thing here

let's think homicide let's think the

worst and I said yes it's a female she

also had some female jewelry evident and

long fingernails the handcuffs were

evident and we didn't see much in the

way of clothing she appeared to be naked

thawing the body would cause rapid

decomposition

so dr. Buchholz needed to collect

evidence quickly or lose it forever

I took a clean scalpel handle and

actually scraped some of the watery

fluid into jars and held it that way I

thought well at least we can collect the

specimens it was a sheer luck that we

even got any sperm at all

a woman who's frozen three years

dr. Buchholz removed the handcuffs and

defrosted the hands slowly when they're

frozen the skin is fairly symmetrical

and intact until she starts losing the

fluids and then the skin will start

shriveling even in the fingertips in

fact that's where it starts one of the

first we got all the prints that first

day and they are actually rolled onto a

fingerprint card just as if they were a

person who's being arrested it's the

same process on a dead person when they

entered the prints into their computer

database of missing persons they

immediately found a match

it was Denise Huber who had been missing

for three years they were able to do the

finger prints and that's something I

never even thought of a man I never

imagined that we would have that kind of

evidence after three years meanwhile

john famalaro refused to explain why

Denise's body was in his freezer 350

miles away from where she disappeared so

police searched familar OHS home in the

home of his mother who lived next door

she was quite taken back that we had

also secured what we found to be her

home she knew nothing about John having

girlfriends or who it might be

and basically sat up a lawn chair across

the street and just sat there and

watched us for four days

police found the box marked Christmas on

a shelf in familar oz garish inside was

Denise's bloody clothing her driver's

license and her high-heeled shoes

the shoes were scuffed and damaged as if

she had been dragged across highway

paving and police found credit-card

receipts that showed famalaro had bought

the freezer

just days after Denise's disappearance

they also discovered blood-stained

clothing belonging to john famalaro they

didn't know whose blood it was they

didn't know if it was Denise's some

other persons a mixture mr. familar owes

so they needed a sample of Denise's

blood we didn't have blood so we ended

up sending them some bone marrow the DNA

extracted from Denise Huber's bone

marrow matched the DNA in the blood on

familar o's clothes

in familar OHS basement police found a

police officer's uniform and a dungeon I

think that all showed me he was just

that type of person not the

mild-mannered person he was when I spoke

to him he had that very dark violent

other side and was becoming more and

more apparent as as the case progressed

on one of his girlfriends that we talked

to said that yeah he had some weird

sexual fantasies one of the girls have

been handcuffed and left exposed naked

and handcuffed left exposed to an open

window the evidence implicated famalaro

in the disappearance and death of Denise

Huber but it did not explain how she

died we took off two or three black

plastic bags that had encased the whole

body and inside that were some smaller

white plastic bags which covered the

head and when we removed that and we

started defrosting her we actually found

a gag type device over her face and over

her mouth area with a piece of duct tape

that had been taped over her upper mouth

nose area dr. Buchholz discovered that

Denise's skull had been severely damaged

dr. Laura fulginiti a forensic

anthropologist was asked to reconstruct

the skull for further analysis you look

for parts that go together naturally and

you'd start with the vault or the top

round part of the head and then you

proceeded towards the face and the

reason I do it that way is because the

face typically has the smallest most

complicated pieces and you want to have

your framework built so that when you

get to the face you have something to

put the face back on to

the forensic analysis would reveal not

only how Denise Huber died but where

after a three-year search Dionisio

bruised body was found in a freezer in

arizona forensic investigators

reconstructed her skull in an effort to

understand how she died

you can see patterned injuries of two

different varieties indicating two

different weapons were used and you can

also see little pieces of plastic that

are caught in those fractures that told

us that the bags were in place when she

received the blows to the head and dr.

fulginiti discovered Denise had been hit

31 times it's horrifying and if I stop

too long to think about what how she

felt when she was by the freeway I'm

paralyzed and I can't do my job so I

don't I don't think about that until

it's all over and done with

for me it's a matter of here's the

puzzle my job is to put the puzzle

together and interpret the puzzle and

then I can go home and and cry in the

shower the semen found on Denise's

clothing matched john famalaro DNA

profile she was innocent an innocent

victim and it could have been anybody's

sister it could have been you it could

have been your sister your friend and

and that's scary

it really hurts you emotionally at that

point when you realize that I'll be

honest I won't drive on the interstate

and and allow anyone to help me because

of this police also discovered the john

famalaro was working in Newport Beach

California at the

Denyce disappeared he had rented the

front portion of this warehouse for his

painting business they talked to people

who rented the unit after he had moved

out and abandoned it about what the unit

what conditioner unit was in and they

pointed his to his area in the corner

where they found a large brown stain

that washed out with the hose and we

thought well we know dried blood is very

sought up on water it can be washed away

initial tests revealed nothing

investigators decided to wait until dark

and use luminol which flores's or glows

when it comes into contact with the iron

component in blood we sprayed it out of

a little hand sprayer eventually we

checked the whole warehouse I think

never found is that blood in the corner

the warehouse the DNA from those

bloodstains matched Denise Huber's DNA

and a nail g*n found in the warehouse

matched the indentations in Denise's

skull based on the forensic evidence

prosecutors believe that when Denise's

tire went flat famalaro stopped and

offered to help

at some point he overpowered her and

took her to his warehouse a few miles

away

there he k*lled her he stored the body

in a freezer he bought a few days after

he k*lled Denise two years later he

stole the Ryder truck and took the

freezer with Denise's body in it with

him when he moved to Arizona he kept the

truck in his driveway with the freezer

running constantly

it's kind of sick guy sees thing John

has been violent to other people and

it's escalated up to the point of m*rder

but I don't think Denis has been the

only one On June 20th 1997 six years

after Denise disappeared john famalaro

was tried and convicted of first-degree

m*rder he was sentenced to death

forensics were it was challenged every

step of the way here in court even

before court I think a lot of it went to

the state Supreme Court but every

challenge was beat back because of great

forensics and great police work I wanted

to know the truth and if someone was

horrible but I'd rather have the answers

than just be wandering in my mind

because sometimes you imagine things as

bad or worse than what they were this

really is the way it's supposed to be

done and then it makes you work harder

on the next one and when you're about to

throw your hands up in despair you think

Denise Huber you did that case you got

it reconstructed key path there is an

answer here

you