10x41 - Wood-be k*ller

[bunniefuu]

[music playing]

NARRATOR: A k*ller
tried to remove

all evidence of the crime.

But in the process, created
entirely new forensic evidence

that almost had
investigators stumped,

until scientists
tried a technique that

had never been used
in a criminal case.

And in doing so, made
forensic history.

[theme music]

Farmersville, Texas is the
epitome of small town America.

At one time, it was the onion
capital of the state, a place

where old fashioned
values endure.

VIKKI PICKETT: And we still
have people who will actually

tell me, we lock our doors,
this is Farmersville.

NARRATOR: 20-year-old Rachelle
Tolleson was born here,

grew up here, and
it's where she chose

to raise her six-month-old
daughter, Avery.

MARK O'NEIL: She
was a happy person.

She had her troubled times, just
like any other teenager does.

She was a great mom.

She was a very dedicated mom.

NARRATOR: Rachelle was going
through an unpleasant divorce,

and lived alone
with her daughter,

close to the center of town.

Around 7:30 in the morning,
on a warm spring day in 2004,

Rachelle's mother
stopped by to visit.

Inside she found Avery
on the bed, alone.

But she couldn't find Rachelle.

-I started calling,
calling her name.

She didn't answer.

[CRYING] I started looking in
the closets and under her bed.

And I-- I couldn't find her.

NARRATOR: There were signs
that something had happened.

The bed was moved, and the
headboard had fallen forward.

A night stand was pushed
away from the wall.

But Rachelle's purse and
her car were still there.

On the kitchen floor
was a possible clue.

It was Rachelle's
divorce petition.

And on it, a large shoe
print, as if someone

had stomped on it.

GREGORY DAVIS: Because it
would indicate that someone,

other than Rachelle,
was in that home

the night that she disappeared.

NARRATOR: Rachelle's mother
called her soon-to-be

ex-son-in-law, Andrew Tolleson,
to brief him on the situation.

-I said, Andrew, we
can find Rachelle.

We can't find her anywhere.

He said, he couldn't
leave work right now.

NARRATOR: Police questioned as
many of the town's residents

as they could, and
organized a search party

to look in every
field and pasture.

TIM WYATT: The search was huge.

There was just an
immediate reaction

all over the place,
ATVs, four wheel

drive vehicles,
horseback, on foot.

It was a phenomenal response.

NARRATOR: For five
days the search

continued, with no trace
of Rachelle anywhere.

-I honestly believe that there
was a lot of people that maybe

didn't know Rachelle very
well that were thinking,

oh, well, she just ran off.

PAM O'NEIL: I just, I know her.

She just would
never leave Avery.

She wouldn't leave her
alone for a second.

I mean, that was--
that was her oxygen.

She loved her so much.

NARRATOR: Then a man, hiking
on state land about 10 miles

from Rachelle's home,
discovered the charred

remains of a young female.

Dental records confirmed the
victim was Rachelle Tolleson.

GREGORY DAVIS: About 100 feet
away from where the body was

located, there was
a pit, an open area,

where they found several logs.

They found an area that
appeared to have been burned in.

VIKKI PICKETT: I had spent
many hours with her mother.

And to have to go back and
tell her, we found her body,

but you can't see her.

You can't identify
your daughter.

You can't touch her
and tell her goodbye.

That was hard.

-I don't know, my
heart just stopped.

And I just, I
couldn't believe it.

I needed proof.

I don't-- I don't
know what else to say.

NARRATOR: The investigation
would be difficult.

The k*ller burned Rachelle's
body to destroy any evidence.

But police certainly
knew where to start,

with Rachelle's estranged
husband, Andrew Tolleson.

-People do things
they shouldn't do.

And we suffer because of that.

NARRATOR: Most of
Farmersville, Texas turned out

for Rachelle Tolleson's
funeral service

at the First Baptist Church.

It was difficult for them to
understand how Rachelle could

have been abducted from her
home in the middle of the night

and no one heard it.

TIM WYATT: There are no
strangers in Farmersville.

Her house was three blocks
from the police station,

two blocks from the town square.

I don't think the
police believed

that was a stranger
crime, either.

Clearly everybody felt that
she whoever had taken her.

That she knew them.

-Generally speaking,
in a small community

it is going to be someone
within, at least, that person's

social circle.

Even if they're
not close friends,

it's someone who
knows the victim.

NARRATOR: The autopsy revealed
Rochelle had been sexually

assaulted, stabbed,
and strangled to death.

VIKKI PICKETT: I was horrified.

I'm also a mother
and a grandmother.

Just knowing that one
human being could do that

to another human
being is horrifying.

GREGORY DAVIS: The circumstances
of this case were horrific.

You had a young mother, a
totally innocent victim, who

is kidnapped in the
middle the night.

Is brutally r*ped, choked
to death, and stabbed.

And then her body is taken
out to a remote location

and disposed of,
just like trash.

NARRATOR: To investigators,
the one person

with a possible motive was her
estranged husband, Andrew--

especially since the
divorce wasn't his idea.

MARK O'NEIL: Rachelle just
grew up a little faster

than Andrew did, in the time
that they were together.

-Andrew, stop!

MARK O'NEIL: And I think
it just split them up.

And I think Rachelle just
realized, or felt like, I

should say, that she wasn't
going to get anywhere.

And that it was time to move on.

NARRATOR: Andrew had
an alibi for the night

of Rachelle's m*rder.

He said he was at a
party with friends.

One of them drove
him home later.

And Andrew said he didn't
leave this home again

until the next
morning to go to work.

GREGORY DAVIS: He was heavily
intoxicated during that night.

And we had evidence that
confirmed that he had been

at his home the entire night,
because of his intoxication.

NARRATOR: His alibi appeared to
check out, until investigators

learned there was
bonfire at that party.

This was an interesting
coincidence,

since Rachelle's body had
been burned in a fire pit.

So Lieutenant Larry Smart
wanted to know if there was

any connection between the
bonfire and the crime scene.

LT.

LARRY SMART: We collected
those logs in order

to have the forensic
scientist look at the.

NARRATOR: Lieutenant Smart
sent the wood samples

from the bonfire and
the crime scene fire

to Dr. Henri Grissino-Mayor,
an associate professor

of geography at the
University of Tennessee.

HENRI GRISSINO-MAYER: I wasn't
too enthusiastic, at first.

And I probably came across
as not very enthusiastic.

So I wasn't overly excited.

NARRATOR: By just looking
at, Dr. Grissino-Mayor

recognized that the wood from
both locations was mesquite.

The mesquite tree is extremely
common in desert areas,

and often used to grill food.

It burns slowly and
produces very little smoke.

But there really wasn't any
way to tell whether both wood

samples came from
the same source.

There were no
distinctive saw marks.

And the tree rings
were virtually useless.

HENRI GRISSINO-MAYER: This is
a type of wood where it has

small vessels all throughout
the ring, and if it does not,

therefore, have very distinct
rings when you sand them down.

-I was really let down.

I felt like this was such
good evidence for us.

NARRATOR: But Dr. Grissino-Mayor
remembered something--

a new test he had read about.

A test that could identify
the chemical fingerprint

of the wood.

HENRI GRISSINO-MAYER:
Laser-induced breakdown

spectroscopy is
actually very young.

It hasn't been
around for a while.

But now, it's used by the FBI,
it's used in counterterrorism.

And you learn all
this Dr. Martin.

It is an incredible new tool.

NARRATOR: He sent the wood to
Dr. Madhavi Martin at the Oak

Ridge National Laboratory
in Oak Ridge, Tennessee.

DR. MARTIN: We just put the
wood underneath the laser beam,

excited a spark on
the sample surface,

called the elements-- hydrogen,
nitrogen, oxygen, carbon--

and you will see
it, immediately.

NARRATOR: The spark
known as a plasma cloud,

contains all the chemical
elements from the sample.

A spectrometer identifies
those elements.

Most of the elements
were typical.

But one was not.

DR. MARTIN: This
one had titanium,

which really jumped out at me.

We saw, consistently, titanium
across the whole spectra.

NARRATOR: Titanium doesn't
naturally occur in wood.

And this suggested that the
mesquite tree was growing

near an industrial
area, where titanium

polluted the groundwater.


eight from the crime scene

and three from the bonfire.

All had the exact
same chemical makeup,

and identical
levels of titanium.

HENRI GRISSINO-MAYER: We were
able to determine that the two

sets of wood matched, with about
a 99.99% level of confidence.

These two sets of wood came from
the same population of trees,

if not from the same tree.

NARRATOR: This was
a forensic first.

Never before have
two sets of wood

in a criminal case
being found to have

the exact same
chemical fingerprint.

LT.

LARRY SMART: 99.9 is
just mind-boggling.

I was blown away by that.

If they had come
back and told us

that they're 90% sure that the
wood came from the same tree

or vicinity, we would have
been excited about that.

NARRATOR: Since the wood at the
bonfire was from the same free

as the wood used in
Rachelle's cremation,

this was a remarkable piece
of circumstantial evidence,

pointing to Andrew
Tolleson as the k*ller.

Or was it?

Rachelle Tolleson was
abducted from her home,

apparently, by someone she knew.

And her burned body was found
in a deserted state park.

Rachelle's estranged husband,
Andrew, was at a bonfire party

the night Rachelle was abducted.

And wood from the
bonfire matched

the wood used to
burn Rachelle's body.

A 99.9% certainty.

This evidence as a possible
link between Andrew Tolleson

and the scene of
his wife's m*rder.

GREGORY DAVIS: Whenever someone
turns up missing, particularly

where there's a
divorce involved,

everyone's going to
be a suspect involving

the ex-husband in this case.

NARRATOR: But that
conclusion was premature.

Partygoers told investigators
that Andrew Tolleson

had nothing to do
with the bonfire.

It was someone else who
brought the mesquite

firewood to the party.

It was 21-year-old
Moises Mendoza,

an air conditioning repairman.

And an acquaintance of
both Rachelle and Andrew.

PAM O'NEIL: They went
to school together.

And as a matter of
fact, I even pulled out

pictures of Rachelle's
elementary/middle school.

And as weird as
it sounds, he was

always in one of her classes.

NARRATOR: When Rachelle
and Andrew separated,

friends said Mendoza expressed
interest in dating her.

MARK O'NEIL: I think maybe
Moises wanted to be, uh,

a little closer friend
to Rachelle than what

Rachelle wanted to be with him.

NARRATOR: There was no evidence
that the two ever dated.

But as acquaintances,
they often saw one another

at party's and
social gatherings.

All this seemed innocent
enough, until police

looked into Mendoza's past.

GREGORY DAVIS:
Moises Mendoza had

an extensive
criminal background.

He had committed two aggravated
robberies, where he had

attempted to abduct
young women in Dallas,

had been unsuccessful.

NARRATOR: Mendoza was out on
bail for one of those crimes

when Rachelle disappeared.

A search of his home
turned up a pair of boots.

They were covered in soot,
and smelled of gasoline.

To see whether these boots
matched the print found

in Rachelle's home,
investigators sent him

to forensic analyst
Michael Villarreal.

He made test impressions
of the soles.

And then did a visual comparison
with the partial print

from Rachelle's house.

MIKE VILLARREAL: Once I notice
that there were similarities

in the size, shape,
and design, I

did take a look for specific
accidental characteristics

and see if the accidental
characteristics on the shoe

were also present in the
partial heel impression.

NARRATOR: Accidental
characteristics

results from how a shoe is worn.

They are unique to
each set of shoes.

In this case, the boot
print on the divorce decree

was remarkably clear,
perfect for comparison.

Cut marks in the heel of
the boot left no doubt.

MIKE VILLARREAL: I was able to
determine that the submitted

shoes, in this case, did
make that partial impression,

to the exclusion of all others.

-What they found was this.

It was an exact match.

NARRATOR: Police also
tested the pair of soot

covered jeans from
Mendoza's house.

Underneath the soot
were tiny blood stains.

The DNA profile of the blood
matched Rachelle Tolleson.

Homicide investigators
confronted

Mendoza with the
forensic evidence.

LT.

LARRY SMART: It was
like he didn't care.

He was detached from the whole
situation, had no remorse,

was a very cool person.

GREGORY DAVIS: I'm
convinced of this.

In some people, there's
a violent, evil streak

the controls them.

That streak was
in Moises Mendoza.

He wanted something that night.

He was not going to have
anyone say no to him.

NARRATOR: On the
night of the crime,

prosecutors say Moises Mendoza
went to the bonfire party

and brought along some
mesquite wood to burn.

Witnesses said Mendoza was
drinking and was angry.

GREGORY DAVIS: He had gotten
crossways with several people

at the party.

He got crossways with
two women at the party,

where he threatened
to k*ll those women.

He threatened to
cut their heads off.

He was making all
sorts of threats.

NARRATOR: When Mendoza saw
Andrew Tolleson at the party

alone, he knew that Rochelle
would be at home alone.

-Hi there!

Oh, you got me.

NARRATOR: He left the
party around 2:00 AM.

And the evidence suggests he
drove to Rachelle's house.

[baby crying]
-Hey.

-Hi.

-How's it going?

-Good.
Um--

NARRATOR: It's not clear
what he said to get inside.

But the evidence indicates
there was a struggle.

Rachelle's divorce petition
fell to the floor, which Mendoza

stepped on with his left boot--
clear proof he was there.

Where he took shelter
afterwards is unclear.

But the forensic
evidence suggests

he r*ped, stabbed, then
strangled her to death.

DNA testing found Rachelle's
blood on Mendoza's jeans.

Later, he used some
of the mesquite wood

to start the fire in
the deserted state park,

in an attempt to incinerate
all evidence of the m*rder.

While he may have gotten rid
of some forensic evidence,

he unwittingly
created more, which

provided an unmistakable
forensic link

between Mendoza and
the crime scene.

GREGORY DAVIS: Forensics could
match it back to the same tree.

Not to the same grove,
or the same type of tree,

but to the same tree.

And those are the
types of results

we expect to see in DNA,
not in trees or vegetables.

NARRATOR: Three months
after Rachelle's death,

Moises Mendoza was
tried and convicted

of first-degree m*rder.

He was sentenced to death.

He actually chose the
death penalty for himself

when he decided that
evening to go in that home,

and to take that young mother,
and to snuff out her life,

with absolutely
no regard for her,

or her child, or her family.

MARK O'NEIL: I know it's
probably not right to say this,

but if it was up to me, he
would have got a lot worse.

And when I say a lot worse,
I mean, t*rture-wise.

Because I think that the
death penalty is not,

uh-- I think it's
too good for him.

NARRATOR: Rachelle's
parents are now

raising their
granddaughter, Avery.

And they're grateful that
some enterprising detectives

searched for a
scientific solution

they didn't know existed.

And that those scientists
pushed further,

instead of simply saying,
nothing could be done.

The result made
forensic history.

MARK O'NEIL: It's
unbelievable, the technology

nowadays that they can do.

And the forensic
testing, it's unreal.

And I think that it probably
puts a lot of people's minds

at ease, knowing that they
can do these types of things.

-It' just phenomenal
what they can do now.

And I have tried to convince
the younger detectives that they

really need to stay in touch
with the scientists on all

the new technology
that's involved here.

Because that's going to be
the future of law enforcement,

is the forensics--
if it's not already.