10x30 - Material Witness

[bunniefuu]

NARRATOR: A teenage
girl went missing

after an evening of
horseback riding.

Some tiny bits of metal, wood,
and some weathered green paint

revealed the girl's path on
the night she disappeared.

And they also painted a portrait
of the person she was with.

[theme music]

NARRATOR: Between school,
sports, a part-time job,

and homework,


didn't have a lot of spare time.

Yet, she devoted
every free minute

she had to her first and
only real love, riding.

-We had actually been
riding our entire lives.

My dad actually
brought the first pony

we ever had home when, I
think, I was four years old.

So horses and animals very
much a part of our lives.

NARRATOR: Tracy's neighbors,
Wayne and Sharon Frye,

often allowed her to
ride their horses.

And in return, Tracy
cleaned their stalls.

But after one visit,
Tracy disappeared

and was never seen again.

SHANNON PARKER: My
mother knew that Tracy

was going there to go riding.

And she had anticipated
her to be coming home.

So obviously, that was where
she started to make her calls,

to the Frye residence to
see if they had seen Tracy.

NARRATOR: The Frye's
told Tracy's parents

they were out to
dinner that night.

And when they returned
home, Tracy wasn't there.

But they noticed that Tracy's
favorite horse was sweating,

an indication it
had been ridden.

And the riding equipment
had been used and put away.

-Everything seemed to be
in order at their house.

And then my mom continued to
make calls from that point on.

NARRATOR: Tracy's parents called
police to report her missing.

-When a teenager shows
up not coming home,

disappeared for
less than 24 hours,

without any other evidence
indicating otherwise,

the normal response is
to treat it as a run

away and begin the
investigation in that manner.

NARRATOR: Friends, neighbors,
police and volunteers

searched the entire area
looking for any signs of her.

But they found nothing.

Five days later, searchers found
Tracy's clothing in the woods,

about two miles from her home.

-The clothes were all crumbled
and commingled with each other,

and just thrown off of
the road into the brush.

SHANNON PARKER: The condition
of the clothing was very bad.

There was a lot of blood on the
clothes when they were found.

And the fact that it was
pretty much all of her clothing

just really made
everyone's heart sink

and-- and-- really,
I think, left

a very sickening feeling
over the whole family.

It was a-- a difficult day.

NARRATOR: Nearby,
searchers found a red towel

and an orange blanket,
both soaked with blood.

Since this was before
widespread use of DNA testing,

serology identified
the blood as type O.

The same blood type as Tracy's.

The Frye's home was Tracy's
last known location,

so police searched
their home and stables

and made a surprising discovery.

DOUGLAS HUDSON: I
discovered some blood spots

inside the door to
the basement, and I

though this is very suspicious.

NARRATOR: It was clear that
this was blood spatter.

DOUGLAS HUDSON:
It wasn't a smear.

It wasn't a drip.

It had been thrown there
through some type of force.

NARRATOR: When
questioned, the Frye's

said the blood was the
result of an accident.

An explanation police found
almost too convenient.

DOUGLAS HUDSON: I talked
to Wayne Frye about that

and asked him if he'd
injured himself or anything.

He'd had an injury on his thumb.

NARRATOR: The Frye's home was
beginning to look like a crime

scene, although
Tracy's family still

held out hope that
she might be alive.

-Please bring her home.

That's all I want to say.

NARRATOR: 16-year-old Tracy
Parker had been riding horses

at her next door
neighbors home before she

mysteriously disappeared.

Her bloody clothes
and a blanket were

discovered just
a few miles away.

-Locating the clothes
was really putting things

into a perspective
that we really

didn't want to have to face.

NARRATOR: The red towel
found with Tracy's clothes

was even more telling.

Police discovered that
the towel belonged

to Tracy's next door
neighbors, the Fryes.

They had used it to cover
the window in their garage.

SHANNON PARKER: They just seemed
very, kind of, unmotivated

and a little bit
like two burnouts.

I just thought they
were kind of odd people.

They didn't seem
particularly dangerous

or there wasn't any reason to
feel afraid of them, I guess.

-The Frye residence became
very high on my list

as a potential crime scene.

NARRATOR: Also suspicious,
investigators found blood

on the basement door
of the Frye's home.

-And certainly at
that point, suspected

they had found the place
where Tracy had last been.

NARRATOR: But in a huge
setback for investigators,

an antibody test
revealed that the blood

was from one of the Frye's dogs.

DOUGLAS HUDSON: He had
two rather large dogs

and one of them had injured
the tip of it's tail.

That it was possible that the
blood that was on the wall

had come from the tip
of the dog's tail.

NARRATOR: Nevertheless,
police continued

to focus on Wayne
and Sharon Frye.

They said they
were out to dinner

with friends on the
night Tracy disappeared.

But a check of their
telephone records

indicated someone used
their home phone at 7:44 PM.

Brian Lord, the Frye's
handyman, called his girlfriend

to say he was running
a little late.

IONE S. GEORGE: Brian
Lord and his girlfriend

had just had a baby.

There was a family
get together going on.

It was their first
real dinner party,

and he was expected at home.

NARRATOR: Tracy Parker made a
telephone call from the house


one of her friends.

IONE S. GEORGE: We know that
Tracy made a phone call to one

of her girlfriends
at about 8 o'clock.

The friend was
unavailable to talk

and Tracy said,
well, call me back.

NARRATOR: During
questioning, Brian Lord

said he didn't see
Tracy Parker that night.

He claimed he left
the Frye's home

shortly after calling
his girlfriend.

SHANNON PARKER: My sister
had actually said to me,

you know that guy that
works on the house

up there where I ride the
horse says you're really cute.

She goes, anyhow, I
don't hang out with him.

He's given me a
ride home before.

That was nice.

NARRATOR: In the
forensics lab, scientists

found some rare and
unusual evidence

on Tracy's bloody clothing.

Tiny pieces of metal.

JOHN A. BROWN: When we
looked at the metal shavings,

we could see that there
were tool marks on them

and that they had these
characteristic little curled-up

shapes of metal turnings, as
opposed to some other process.

NARRATOR: They appeared to be
shavings from a metal lathe,

a machine that grinds
and cuts metal.

Investigators used X-ray
Fluorescence Spectroscopy,

or XRF, to determine
the chemical composition

of the shavings.

EDWARD SUZUKI: They
were comprised primarily

of aluminum, but they had a
large number of other elements

present.
So these were aluminum alloys.

NARRATOR: Metal isn't an item
commonly found on clothing.

-It would be extremely rare.

Not everybody is wandering
around with aluminum shavings

on their clothing.

NARRATOR: But investigators
couldn't find similar aluminum

shavings anywhere in the
Frye's home, in their stables,

or anywhere else
on their property.

As the investigation
continued, a search team

made the discovery
everyone had been dreading.

One month after she disappeared,
Tracy Parker's partially

clothed body was
found in a field

about three miles from her home.

SHANNON PARKER: I
felt like my childhood

ended the day Tracy died.

All of a sudden, I--
I had to be an adult

and had adult problems
and responsibilities,

and things that went
along with, you know,

being part of
something like this.

So I feel that I lost
my childhood in a sense.

NARRATOR: The autopsy
revealed the cause of death

was blunt force
trauma to the head.

She had apparently been
m*rder*d around the time

she disappeared.

The autopsy also
found evidence she

had been sexually assaulted.

Investigators found those
same aluminum metal shavings

on Tracy's body,
along with chips

of very old weathered
green paint.

-From that point,
law enforcement

began looking for a
construction site, or really

a woodworking shop
to match up to

where did all of these small
wood shavings come from?

Where did all the metal
shavings come from?

And so they went out really
looking for any connection

to a woodworking or a small
base construction shop.

NARRATOR: Investigators knew if
they found the source of both

the green paint and
the aluminum shavings,

they would find the k*ller
of 16-year-old Tracy Parker.

Records show that Tracy Parker
used her neighbor's telephone

to call a friend around 8:00 PM
on the night she disappeared.

Brian Lord, the handyman,
used the same phone

to call his girlfriend 15
minutes earlier, although he

claimed he didn't
see Tracy that night.

Lord said he stopped by
his brother's workshop

on his way home.

When police searched the shop,
they found nothing suspicious.

-Nothing jumped out
at us right away.

It appears that nothing really
happened in the workshop.

NARRATOR: Brian
Lord allowed police

to search his pickup truck,
and examine the clothes he said

he was wearing the
night Tracy disappeared.

Investigators found
no forensic evidence.

But neighbors told police
they saw Lord washing

his truck with a
hose that night.

-We had witnesses that had
him cleaning his pickup truck,

which was very unusual
for him to do that.

TRAVIS BAKER: He was washing
a truck without a shirt

on in 57 degree weather.

That sort of behavior
was hard to explain.

NARRATOR: Naturally,
investigators

found this suspicious.

So they decided to
take a much closer look

inside his brother's workshop.

The floor looked
remarkably clean

and appeared to have been
covered with some type of oil.

To find out what was beneath
it, analysts sprayed the floor

with a reagent called
leucomalachite green

that reacts with the
protein in human blood.

Just seconds after
it was applied,

large areas illuminated.

FEL ABILLE: Which told us that
there was quite a bit of blood

that was not seen
with the human eye.

I was overwhelmed.

NARRATOR: When Brian Lord's
attorney saw the blood stain,

he suggested the blood
was from Brian's dog

when she was in heat.

-I said, well then, we
better look for this dog.

And he goes, what do you mean?

Because there's got to
be one heck of a dead dog

here somewhere.

I mean, look how
big that spot is.

NARRATOR: Serology tests showed
that the blood was human,

and was the same blood
type as Tracy Parker's.

DOUGLAS HUDSON: The crime
lab examination of the blood

revealed that it was type O
with a particular enzyme, which

limited it to approximately


Turned out that
Tracy Parker's blood

was identical in
type and that enzyme.

NARRATOR: Next, analysts
collected everything

they could find in the workshop.

Paint chips, metal shavings,
wood chips, debris, dust, dirt,

all were sent to
the forensic lab.

EDWARD SUZUKI: In the history
of our crime laboratory,

which has been in
existence since the 1970s,

this is by far the
largest case, as far

as the volume of trace evidence,
that has been received.

NARRATOR: Among the
thousands of pieces of trace

evidence investigators
identified

wood chips and paint fragments.

But the wood chips were so
small it was impossible to tell

whether they matched those
found on Tracy's body.

The white paint chips were
difficult to identify,

but the green ones were easier.

Colored paint has variables like
color pigments, binding agents,

synthetic and organic base
materials that can be unique.

JOHN A. BROWN: Never in my life
have I see green paint that

would have matched
this green paint.

It was badly weathered
and very old,

and it showed in the
examination I did.

And I've never seen a paint
like this before or since.

NARRATOR: The green paint
chips were subjected

to microscopic infrared
elemental analysis.

The results were astounding.

The green paint chips
found on Tracy's body

were identical to the paint
of an old piece of fence

found in Brian Lord's workshop.

EDWARD SUZUKI: They were similar
in their color, texture, layer

structure, degree of
the weathering, chemical

composition, composition of
minor elements, and so forth.

NARRATOR: Police checked
Brian Lord's work records

and learned that Lord had
dismantled this old green fence

just a few weeks before
Tracy's disappearance,

and carted those pieces
away from the work

site in his truck.

-To me, the green paint
chip was the smoking g*n

as-- in relationship
to Brian Keith Lord.

NARRATOR: Finally, investigators
tested metal fragments

in Lord's workshop
with X-ray Fluorescence

Spectroscopy, or XRF.

They were identical in
composition, size, and shape

to those found on Tracy's
body, on her clothing,

and on the orange blanket.

And a single strand of human
hair on the orange blanket

was microscopically similar
to Brian Lord's hair.

TIMOTHY A. DRURY: I think Brian
Keith Lord was an angry person,

and I don't know why.
A vicious, angry person.

NARRATOR: Police found no
evidence that Wayne and Sharon

Frye had anything to do
with Tracy Parker's m*rder.

Brian Lord was arrested.

He insisted he was innocent.

But a background check
revealed a violent past.

One that literally
went unpunished.

Forensic evidence linked
a 25-year-old handyman,

Brian Lord, to Tracy
Parker's m*rder.

When police checked
Lord's background,

they found something horrifying.

Lord had been convicted
of m*rder once before.

-As a child, when he was
only, I believe it was 13,

walked over to a house
of one of his friends

and shot his friend's
mother in the back

while she was hanging
up clothes on the line.

There was no motivation.

He k*lled her.

NARRATOR: For that crime,
Lord served only six months

in a juvenile detention
facility and was released.

-When we learned that Brian
Lord had k*lled before,

I think our family
felt very cheated.

We felt like the system
just didn't do its job.

Why would somebody
spend so little time

for such a heinous crime?

NARRATOR: Prosecutors
believe Brian Lord had

his eye on Tracy Parker
for quite some time.

He frequently worked at the
Frye's homes as a handyman

while Tracy was there
caring for the horses.

On the night of the m*rder,
the Frye's were out to dinner,

so Lord and Tracy were alone.

Phone records show that
Lord called his girlfriend

at 7:44 to say he
was running late.

-OK.

I'll see you then.

NARRATOR: That phone
call ended just 8 minutes

before Tracy called her
friend from the same phone.

-We believe very much
that they met together

at least in the
kitchen area when

those phone calls were made.

Tracy was not seen
after that time.

NARRATOR: Prosecutors
think Lord may

have offered Tracy a ride home.

Along the way, he stopped
at his brother's workshop.

His brother was out
of town that day.

Lord somehow enticed
Tracy inside the workshop.

-Yeah, I like it.

I like it a lot.

-Well, come here.

Right back in here.

NARRATOR: There, he may
have propositioned her

and she refused.

-Stop it.

NARRATOR: The evidence
suggests Lord struck her

on the head with a blunt object
and sexually assaulted her.

Bits of wood, paint,
and metal fragments

on the floor clung
to Tracy's clothing.

The weathered green paint
chips were transferred

onto the clothes and
blanket from Lord's truck.

Hair from Lord's head
fell onto the blanket too.

[door slams]

After Lord put Tracy's
body, her clothing,

and the orange blanket
in different locations,

he rushed back to the workshop,
washed the back of his truck

with a hose, swept and washed
the floor, then spread motor

oil to cover the
blood that had seeped

into the porous concrete.

But the cover up didn't work.

The pieces of evidence
were too numerous.

The analytical powers of the
investigators were too great.

TIMOTHY A. DRURY: It
was very complicated.

It took a very long time
to present each small piece

of evidence and have it traced
back to where it was found

and how it linked then
to other-- other pieces

of evidence that were
found at other sites.

SHANNON PARKER: You wonder
what is this guy all about?

Several times when
we were in court,

he would make little
comments as we would walk by.

And he would say to my dad,
well, if I ever get out,

maybe your other
daughter will be next.

Just horrible things that make
you have a lot of nightmares.

And I thought, I don't have
to deal with him right now.

Maybe at some
point in the future

I will, but right now,
I know where he's at.

NARRATOR: Brian Lord
was tried and convicted

of first degree m*rder
and sentenced to death.

A few years later,
Lord's guilty verdict

was overturned on appeal.

He was tried and
convicted again in 1999.

And this time, sentenced to
life in prison without parole.

-I think the overturning
of capital m*rder cases

is so routine that
it's aggravating,

but it's not a surprise.

IONE S. GEORGE: After the
first trial on appeal,

I believe it was our
state Supreme Court that

said in the written opinion
that this was the most complex

circumstantial trace
evidence case that

had never been
tried in the state.

And I'd be willing to wager
that that stands true.

-I'm not so sure as this case
would have been solved had it

not been for the
forensic evidence.

It was the forensic evidence
that tied all of the scenes

together.

And it was the
forensic evidence that

pointed directly at
Brian Keith Lord.