10x39 - To the Viktor

[bunniefuu]

[music playing]

NARRATOR: Three homicides
continents apart

all look like
professional executions.

Were they related?

Interpol, the FBI, and
local law enforcement

search for the answer.

They found it in
an old typewriter

and a used piece of tape.

[music playing]

NARRATOR: On a January
morning in 1994,

a surveyor charted land
in North Carolina's

Blue Ridge Mountains.

The work is time
consuming and exacting.

On this day,
however, he saw more

than the topography
of the landscape.

In the snow, the surveyor found
the body of a middle-aged man.

-It was completely nude.

There was two obvious
g*nsh*t wounds.

One to the neck and one
to the head of the victim.

It was clear this was an
execution-style k*lling

perpetrated by a professional.

-The primary reason that
clothing would be removed

from a body at a
crime scene would

be to get rid of
any trace evidence.

NARRATOR: But the k*ller
left one potential clue.

A few feet from the
body investigators

found a 16-inch piece of
black electrical tape.

-It appeared to have a small
hole in it that would be

consistent with a g*nsh*t hole,
some red droplets which we

later confirmed to be
blood, and some human head

hair on the piece of tape.

Apparently, the tape had
been used to gag him.

The blood and hair
were from the victim.

A check of missing persons
reports identified him

as 40-year-old
Victor Gunnarsson--

a Swedish citizen who had been
living in the United States

for the last several years.

Gunnarsson was well known to
international law enforcement.

A few years earlier he was
the chief suspect in one

of the greatest
unsolved m*rder cases

of the 20th century--
the assassination

of Swedish Prime
Minister Olof Palme

REPORTER: This
assassination has shaken

the very foundations
of Swedish society.

The people here are
used to v*olence

in other people's
cities, not their own.

They used to be able to say
it could never happen here.

Now it has, and they are not
quite sure how to cope with it.

NARRATOR: It happened on a
bitter, cold night in 1986.

Olof Palme and his wife
went to the movies.

They had given their
bodyguards the night off.

As they walked out
of the theater,

witnesses said a
man approached them.

They had a brief conversation.

As Palme walked away, the man
fired two sh*ts into his back.

JAN: Olof Palme had
been shot straight

through the spinal column--
straight through the aorta.

Olof Palme was actually dead
before he hit the ground.

NARRATOR: Swedish
officials suspected

Victor Gunnarsson was involved.

He was a right-wing
extremist, he matched

the general description
of the assassin,

and witnesses saw him in a
bar near the movie theater

that evening voicing his hatred
of Palme and his politics.

But when none of
the eyewitnesses

could pick him out of the
police lineup, he was released.

JAN: The name to
Victor Gunnarsson

became a hated one in Sweden.

And Gunnarsson became a pariah.

It was impossible for him
to find paid employment.

People screamed m*rder*r
at him in the streets.

And he realized that he
couldn't live on in Sweden.

NARRATOR: Gunnarsson fled
to the United States.

And now eight years later
he was on an autopsy table

in North Carolina.

JAN: There is a
conspiracy theories saying

that the CIA had
Olof Palme m*rder*d

and that they employed Victor
Gunnarsson as the hit man.

And then, of course,
it was the CIA

who bumped off Victor
Gunnarsson in Salisbury,

North Carolina to
tie up loose ends

NARRATOR: Either way,
investigators on two continents

were very interested in
finding Gunnarsson's k*ller.

Victor Gunnarsson fled Sweden
after he was questioned

in connection with
the assassination

of the Prime
Minister, Olof Palme.

He settled in the small town
of Salisbury, North Carolina

and found work as
a language tutor.

According to friends, he
liked the United States a lot.

PAULA: Victor had quite a
reputation as a ladies man.

He was a very handsome man.

He was also known to just
walk up to any stranger

and start up a conversation
and end up going home,

visiting with them
for several days.

JAN: Sometimes Victor Gunnarsson
tried to attract his lady

friends by claiming to
be a famous American film

director who would
make them stars.

At other times he produced a
fake FBI badge from his wallet

saying he was a secret
agent on a mission.

NARRATOR: During the
autopsy, the medical examiner

confirmed that
Gunnarsson was k*lled

with a .22 caliber w*apon.

And he also found the clue
about the time of death.

JOHN: In the case
of Mr. Gunnarsson

I found what I
recognized or thought

to be potato skins which would
indicate that his last meal he

had something like
a baked potato.

NARRATOR: Undigested food meant
that Gunnarsson was k*lled

within four hours
of his last meal.

The last known person
to see Gunnarsson alive

was a girlfriend Kay Weden,
a local school teacher.

JERRY: She was able to
confirm a time that they ate

and able to confirm the
fact that at the time

they ate that Victor
Gunnarsson had

in fact consumed the potatoes.

NARRATOR: Kay Weden said
Gunnarsson dropped her

off at home around 11:00 PM,
and she never saw him again.

KAY: Victor and I said good
night right on the front porch

stoop of my house, and
he kissed me good night.

PAULA: We do believe he made
it back to his apartment

that night because his
vehicle was parked in front

of the apartment as he
customarily parked it.

NARRATOR: There were no signs
of forced entry to Gunnarsson's

apartment or any
kind of a struggle.

With Olof Palme's
assassination still unsolved,

Swedish authorities kept close
tabs on the investigation.

PAULA: They were
interested in what

we found in Victor's
apartment, in his writings,

and that kind of thing.

But we do not come across
anything that would link

him directly to
the assassination.

NARRATOR: Four days after
Gunnarsson's m*rder,

Kay Weden experienced
another tragedy.

Her 77-year-old mother,
Catherine Miller,

was gunned down in her home.

JERRY: There was
no forced entry.

It was apparently someone she
knew or someone she trusted.

She had allowed that
person to come in.

And the person had shot
her as she stood there

at the stove fixing her supper.

NARRATOR: Like
Gunnarsson, Miller

was shot twice in the
head execution-style.

But it wasn't with
the same w*apon.

This was a .38 caliber.

In a matter of days, two
people close to Kay Weden

were m*rder*d.

And Kay told police
that she too had

reason to fear for her life.

For the past year she
had been receiving

threatening letters
and phone calls.

In another, the caller
demanded $2,000 dollars

and said if it wasn't paid,
her son would be hurt.

JAN: I didn't know who would
have done anything like that.

And again, it's very
difficult to be afraid

when you don't know who
or what to be afraid of.

NARRATOR: Kay told investigators
she didn't have any enemies

only an ex-fiance, LC Underwood,
a retired police officer who

behaved badly after
their breakup.

JAN: I was dating a
gentleman for the first time,

and we had gone to
a restaurant and LC

came barging into
the restaurant.

And he looked down at
the glass of iced tea

and looked up, looked
at me, and picked it up,

and dumped it in my lap.

NARRATOR: Since
then, however, Kay

said her relationship with
Underwood had improved.

And it wasn't Underwood's
voice on those

threatening telephone calls.

Police wanted to interview LC
Underwood about this matter,

but he refused.

When they checked
Underwood's whereabouts

for the night of Victor
Gunnarsson's m*rder,

they learned he called a
friend in the police department

asking him to run a
license plate number.

A few hours later Victor
Gunnarsson was dead.

Homicide investigators usually
don't believe in coincidence.

Not long after Kay Weden
breaks off her engagement

to LC Underwood,
she starts receiving

threatening letters
and telephone calls.

Shortly after that, both
her mother and new boyfriend

are m*rder*d.

A background check revealed
Underwood had three

failed marriages
and several women

had filed complaints
against him.

DON: It became
apparent that he had

problems in dealing with women.

He had a past
history of stalking,

of harassing women, of
vandalizing personal items

owned by these women when the
relationships began to sour.

NARRATOR: To see
if Underwood was

behind the threatening letters
sent to Kay Weden's home,

police confiscated Underwood's
electric typewriter

and send it to document
examiner David Dunn.

DAVID: This ribbon could
have been in the typewriter

for months, possibly years.

It will go through the machine
one time and one time only.

It leaves a permanent
record of the document

that was typed with that ribbon.

NARRATOR: The ribbon on this
typewriter moves up and down.

So the letters strike the
ribbon in vertical columns.

DAVID: It was a ribbon that
had a three-strike pattern.

In other words, the type element
typed in three rows of letters.

NARRATOR: Dunn searched the
ribbon for words or phrases

that appeared in the threatening
letters to Kay Weden.

A key phrase was "roses are red"
which appeared numerous times.

DAVID: As I was reading
and looking at the ribbon,

all of a sudden I see
damn, "the roses are red."

I said I think I
have the document.

But as any examiner will
know, you can't just

stop as soon as you
find one or two words.

Dunn found whole sentences
from the letters.

And there was no
doubt they had been

typed on Underwood's typewriter.

KAY: I had no idea.

I was completely and
totally flabbergasted

when the detectives
told me that LC

Was responsible for
sending the letters.

NARRATOR: With a
warrant, investigators

searched Underwood's home
and found it was spotless.

KAY: He was obsessive almost to
the point of being too clean.

He would vacuum right
after you left a room.

He would empty the ashtray
right after you used it,

and everything was to the
point of almost too perfect.

There was nothing
suspicious within view.

And investigators didn't
find any firearms.

But in the laundry
room behind the washer

they found some
black electrical tape

wrapped around the exhaust pipe.

Magnified 50 times, it
looked like the same kind

of tape found near
Gunnarsson's body.

JOHN: We look at the width.

We look at the thickness.

We look at the
composition of the backing

and the composition
of the adhesive.

NARRATOR: A Fourier-transformed
infrared analysis

provided even more information.

JOHN: If you're passing
an the infrared beam

through the material, or if
you're using a reflectance,

you're bouncing the infrared
beam off the surface.

And you're looking at
the total absorbance.

NARRATOR: In both
tape samples, there

were identical
amount of absorption.

This meant the tape
in Underwood's home

was the same brand and
possibly from the same roll

as the piece used to
gag Victor Gunnarsson.

JOHN: It does indicate
it's possible they came

from the same roll or from
the same manufacturer.

NARRATOR: Finally, investigators
checked Underwood's car.

PAULA: A few days after the
murders of Victor Gunnarsson

and Catherine Miller, Underwood,
in two different trips

took both of these
vehicles to Sam's Car Wash.

JERRY: He instructed the
person there at the car wash

to give him the works.

That is, to completely clean
the vehicle-- vacuum the trunk.

NARRATOR: They found what looked
like scuff marks in the trunk,

although, the trunk
liner was spotless.

The investigator used fiber
tape to pick up any loose items.

The liner was so clean
he was about to give up.

Then he saw something
embedded deep in the fibers.

JAN: When I spotted it, I am
going how in the world can

I not see it first
time going through it.

When I saw the hair there,
I took another piece of tape

out and try to
blot it off, and it

would not come off on my lip.

They were matted
down into the surface

of the mat in one
particular area.

NARRATOR: So he pulled
each hair out individually.

All told there were


Since none had the root, nuclear
DNA testing was impossible.

But they tried a less definitive
test of the mitochondria.

Mitochondria contain
genetic information

that exists outside
the cell nucleus.

FBI scientists ran two sets of
tests-- the first on the trunk

hair the second on
Gunnarsson's blood.

The result like these
demonstration tests

was a perfect match.

JOSEPH: It had the same
mitochondrial DNA sequence

as the known blood sample
from Victor Gunnarsson.

Therefore, Victor
Gunnarsson could not

be eliminated as a
source of those hairs.

NARRATOR: Solid
proof that Gunnarsson

had been inside
Underwood's trunk.

-It was not really a reaction
of shock and surprise.

It was more of an expectation
that this ultimately

is what we were going to find.

PAULA: That was most satisfying
and probably the happiest day

during the course of the
investigation that I had.

NARRATOR: LC
Underwood was arrested

and charged with m*rder.

He insisted, however,
that he was innocent.

Prosecutors now had
proof that LC Underwood

sent the threatening
letters to Kay Weden.

He also owned electrical
tape that matched tape

found near Victor
Gunnarsson's body.

And Gunnarson's head hair
was found in his trunk.

Prosecutors don't
think the motive

was revenge, but jealousy.

Despite the breakup,
Underwood wanted

Kay Weden back in his life.

So we tried to create as much
havoc in her life as possible,

thinking it would
create vulnerability.

DON: Kay Weden was very
dependent on her mother,

as many people are.

If Catherine Miller
and Victor Gunnarsson

were both eliminated,
Kay Weden had

only LC Underwood to turn to.

NARRATOR: Underwood typed the
threatening letters on his work

typewriter and had
someone else make

the threatening phone calls.

But that plan didn't work.

Underwood apparently
was stalking Kay.

He drove by Kay's home one
night and didn't recognize

the strange car parked in front.

RADIO: I need you to
run a 1028 for me.

A David Paul William 7098,

NARRATOR: Underwood traced
the license plate number

and had all the
information he needed.

[door knock]

NARRATOR: He went to
Gunnarsson's apartment,

abducted him at gunpoint, forced
him into the trunk of his car,

and drove to a deserted
location 90 miles away.

Underwood marched
him into the woods,

ordered him to remove his
clothes, and k*lled him.

[g*nshots]

NARRATOR: He removed
as much evidence

as he could but
dropped a piece of tape

that matched tape
found inside his home.

He also had his car thoroughly
washed inside and out.

But 16 of Gunnarsson's
head hairs remained.

DON: Victor
Gunnarsson was simply

a victim of very, very
bad timing in his life.

He had only known Kay Weden for
two to three weeks at the time

he was m*rder*d-- did not know
anything about LC Underwood.

NARRATOR: Prosecutors
say Underwood

went to Kay's mother's
home a few days later

and k*lled her too.

[g*nshots]

JERRY: There were
several witnesses

who had seen Mr.
Underwood possess a .38

caliber Colt snub nose revolver.

And that revolver also had
been loaned to another friend

of his, and on the night of
Catherine Miller's m*rder,

LC Underwood had
gone to that person

and reclaimed that
particular firearm.

So we felt that that was
in fact the .38 caliber

w*apon that k*lled
Catherine Miller.

NARRATOR: But
investigators were never

able to recover
either m*rder w*apon.

The jury found LC
Underwood guilty of Victor

Gunnarsson's m*rder.

He was sentenced to life
in prison without parole.

PAULA: He was very diligent
in covering his tracks.

And had it not been
for modern technology,

we may not have been able
to convict him perhaps

without the evidence
that we now have.

KAY: I don't think that he ever
would have been caught if it

hadn't been for the
forensics evidence

and the mitochondrial DNA
used in Victor's case.