11x39 - Fired-Up

[bunniefuu]

Is it possible to
commit the perfect crime?

A house fire in Oregon
came awfully close,

until a microscopic
clue on a piece of pipe

told investigators
what really happened.

There's usually only one reason

why people move to
Gales Creek, Oregon.

Even though you're very close

to Portland or within probably
a half an hour of Portland,

you're out in the woods,
away from everybody.

It's less populated.

It's a chance to get away.

For Derrick and Roxanne Duehren,

Gales Creek provided
a much needed refuge

from their stressful careers
in the computer industry.

When they bought that property

in Gales Creek, that was
more than my sister would

have ever have
dreamed of having.

That was her dream come true.

And it also gave them

enough room for
Roxanne's horse farm.

She loved her horses.

They were her balance in life,
and she loved showing them.

She loved spending
time with them.

That was her downtime and
her stress relief, I'm sure.

After living
there for several years,

the Duehrens
started construction

on a 1,500-square-foot
addition, but they

would never see it completed.

Late one Sunday
afternoon, neighbors

saw a plume of smoke
rising from the property.

: The fire

was actually reported
by folks that

lived more than a
quarter-mile away.

The house was not visible
to any of the neighbors.

It took the volunteer fire

department about 20
minutes to get there.

When we come up to a fire

and it's fully involved,
that means that we visually

can see flames coming out of
every opening, door, window.

That usually means that
it's been a period of time

before we've gotten there.

Derrick Duehren returned home

from grocery shopping, and
when he saw Roxanne's car,

he feared the worst.

Derrick ran up towards the fire

and dropped to his knees
and screamed that he

believed that his
wife was inside.

- Well, that's the worse thing
that you can possibly hear,

is that someone's inside.

You still have the sense that
you want to try to get in there

and possibly save their life.

It took almost three hours

to bring the fire under control.

When they did, they found
Roxanne's charred remains.

: The body

had been burnt horrifically.

: Her remains

were little more than 35 pounds.

They were so limited
that the medical examiner

was unable to determine
the cause of death.

Since dental
records were useless in making

a positive identification,
the medical examiner used DNA.

: So what

we did was take bone
marrow material,

submit it to the laboratory.

They got some samples
from the parents

and proved her identity by DNA.

Roxanne Duehren
was only 34 years old.

From that moment on,

you have a loss, and you're
frightened and you're scared.

But it just seemed
from there, it

went into a bad dream that
just turned into a nightmare.

And that nightmare got
worse when pieces of a handgun

were discovered next
to Roxanne's body.

Fire investigators
wanted to know

what started the fire that
k*lled Roxanne Duehren.

Roxanne's husband, Derrick,
had a possible explanation.

: Derrick

said it'd been a normal Sunday.

They had awakened kind of
late and he had made breakfast

for his wife, and it was
just a lazy sort of day.

But there were frozen pipes
because of the weather.

To thaw the pipes, Derrick

said he turned on the
clothes dryer in the basement

and left its door
open to heat the room,

then left to buy groceries.

The dryer, however,
used propane gas.

: Propane

is pretty dangerous like that.

It lays down in the low areas
and you get a lot of people

get hurt from that.

As a matter of routine,

police asked Derrick
for the store receipt

to prove he was shopping,
and he willingly complied.

There was a receipt that

showed that he in fact
had been at the store

on the day in question.

But police were troubled

by the scratch marks
Derrick had on his face.

His explanation

was that he was clearing debris
that had fallen during the ice

storm across the road that
led up to his residence.

The explanation is in
moving these branches,

that he scratched
himself across the face.

The highly flammable
propane gas clothes dryer

was one possible
cause of the fire.

Another possibility focused on
the garage, where investigators

found that the battery cable in
Roxanne's car was disconnected.

: The car

was brought up as a
possible origin of the fire,

that somehow a battery
cable had caused a spark.

And the house
was being remodeled.

Only the wall frames
were up, which

meant the fire spread easily.

Forensic experts

retained by the state to examine
the vehicle found no indication

that would suggest to them that
there was any type of arcing

that caused this fire to
occur or start in the vehicle

and then spread into the house.

But investigators
thought the laundry

room was the most likely source.

And they found something
unusual... small pellet-like

material near the clothes dryer.

- It all seemed to be
in a small little pile,

right near the
origin of the fire.

At first, no
one knew what this was,

or why it would be there.

: I thought

about this for about three days.

And we had a cat at the
time, and it wasn't until I

had to change the kitty
litter that I determined, hey,

that's a type of kitty litter.

The Duehrens had
cats, but their cat litter box

was nowhere near
the laundry room.

Detective McKinney
kept asking himself,

why would cat litter be
near the origin of the fire?

- I
- went out and bought a bag of it

and brought it
back to my office,

and actually had it
sitting in my cubicle.

And trying to figure out
why that would, you know,

would be there.

As he pondered
this, a fellow detective

took notice of the cat
litter in McKinney's office.

: He walked

by asked me if I was
going to start a fire.

That detective
worked burglary cases

and really didn't know what kind
of a case I was involved in.

And I said, why would
you ask me that?

The detective,
a former Boy Scout,

said soaking cat
litter with gasoline

was an old trick to
help start campfires.

It was in an old "Boy's Life

Magazine" that he
had learned about it.

A background check
revealed Derrick Duehren was

an Eagle Scout in his
youth and might have known

about this method
of starting fires.

But investigators found no
clear evidence of arson.

Arson dogs did not detect
the presence of accelerants

anywhere in the house, including
in the burned cat litter.

In terms of possible foul
play, Derrick and Roxanne

had no known enemies and, by all
accounts, had a happy marriage.

But the Duehrens
owned a handgun,

which was found
near Roxanne's body.

Police had to
consider if this could

have been su1c1de or m*rder.

The handgun found next to
Roxanne Duehren's charred

remains raised new
questions about her death.

The medical examiner
x-rayed the remains,

but the body was
so badly burned,

it was impossible to find
evidence of a g*nsh*t wound.

There was no ash or soot in
Roxanne's lungs and no carbon

monoxide in her
blood, which meant...

- She was not breathing
when the fire started.

This, to me, is a homicide.

There's no other
reasonable explanation

as for why she is a
healthy young woman

who's dead before a fire starts.

And there was
blood in Roxanne's airway.

She had obviously died

by some sort of violent
means, because she

had aspirated blood.

And from my past experience,
people that aspirate blood

means that there was some
sort of horrific injury

to their face or head,
and their last breaths

are taking in blood,
rather than air.

Roxanne Duehren

did not die in the
fire, which means

somebody caused her death.

But how had the fire started?

Investigators turned to the
propane-powered clothes dryer.

Derrick Duehren said he thought
the dryer started the fire,

because when he left the
house, the dryer was running.

But investigators discovered
that the propane gas line

into the dryer was disconnected.

Had firefighters done this
while extinguishing the blaze?

Firefighters

are not concerned about
destroying evidence.

They're there to put the fire
out and to save human life.

Since the disconnected
hose had a threaded metal end,

a forensic metallurgist
found no evidence

that firemen created
the disconnection.

Because
if the threads... once they

lock in, in order
for them to thread,

they'd have to strip
it to pull out.

These threads did not
show that characteristic.

Using a
metallurgical microscope known

as a metallograph, Bruce Wong
saw evidence of oxidation

on the threads.

What I see there tells me

that this pipe was open
at the time of the fire,

that it's sufficiently open
at the time of the fire

so that the deposit could occur.

Also on the pipe,
Mr. Wong saw tiny brass beads

sitting on top of the
oxide on the threads

of the metal fitting.

This formed when the brass
fixture melted and fell

through the air,
forming these tiny beads

before landing on the fitting.

This was further
proof that the fitting

was disconnected
during the fire.

It indicated that the connection

was open, which would
indicate that the fire

was deliberately set.

- Derrick told me that
the dryer was running,

and it couldn't
have been running,

because it was not
connected at the time.

And that was a provable lie.

Fire investigators now made

their official determination.

The fire at the Duehren
house was arson.

And all of a sudden, everything

starts making sense, and you
fall into that... that area

that you can actually
follow what happens then.

It makes sense and you can
forensically prove that.

But what was the motive?

Roxanne's family revealed the
couple argued about money,

particularly the money Roxanne
was spending on her horses.

: They had

a horse barn built,
a riding arena.

She was taking what's called
cutting lessons for... I believe

they would cost $300 per lesson.

Investigators also
learned that Derrick's job was

going to be transferred


That would mean selling their
dream home and relocating,

something Roxanne
did not want to do.

- I
- think that Roxanne said to him,

Derrick you go rent an apartment
or we'll buy you someplace up

there, and then you
come back on weekends.

I don't think my
sister wanted to move.

I think that she voiced that
probably pretty clearly to him.

And I don't think he liked it.

Investigators say Roxanne's

defiance was too
much for Derrick.

It was at variance
with his vision

of a perfect life and
a perfect marriage.

In
Talking to friends, coworkers,

everyone that I could
possibly talk with,

I could not establish
a specific motive.

I had my suspicions that it was
probably because Roxanne was

beginning to stand
up for herself.

According to her
friends, she was starting

to become more independent,
which Derrick would not like.

Derrick wasn't going

to get his way, and
he was going to do

whatever he had to
do to get his way.

And there was nobody that was
going to stand in his way,

and that included his wife.

When questioned by police,

Derrick denied setting
the fire and claimed

he would never have
harmed his wife.

Would this tiny spot on
his jeans prove otherwise?

The medical examiner ruled
Roxanne Duehren's manner

of death as homicide,
since she was

dead before the fire started.

What he didn't know, however,
was the cause of death.

But the fatal fire was
determined to be arson,

and Roxanne's husband,
Derrick, became

a potential m*rder suspect.

On the jeans he was wearing
the day of the fire,

investigators
noticed a small spot.

I asked him specifically

if it was blood, and he
told me no, it was mud.

A phenolphthalein
test proved Derrick wrong.

The spot was blood, and
the subsequent DNA test

proved it was Roxanne's blood.

For police, this
made perfect sense.

They never believed Derrick's
explanation for the scratches

on his face.

- I
- know what scratches from brush

would look like, and this was
not a scratch from brush mark.

This was... this appeared more
to be fingernail scratches.

Derrick Duehren

had lied about how
this fire occurred,

how the scratches on
his face occurred,

how the blood on his
pants came to be there.

With proof of
arson, his wife's blood

on his clothing, and the
apparent fingernail scratches

on his face, Derrick
Duehren was arrested

and charged with
arson and m*rder.

But Derrick was convinced he'd
never spend a day in jail.

Derrick Duehren

thought he was smarter
than everyone else.

He was sending emails to friends
of his, coworkers at Intel,

updating them on the trial
as it was going along,

talking about in terms
of being a chess match

and his view of how that
chess game was going,

and his expectation that
he would be acquitted.

Prosecutors believe
that Derrick and Roxanne got

into an argument on the
afternoon of her death...

An argument that turned violent.

- I'm not getting
rid of my horses.

I'd rather get rid of you first.

Blows were
struck with enough force

for Roxanne's blood to
land on Derrick's jeans.

She tried to defend herself
and scratched his face.

Prosecutors believe
he k*lled her,

although they're not
sure exactly how.

Realizing he needed
to cover up the crime,

he decided to burn
down the house.

I

First, he went outside and
turned off the propane gas,

then disconnected the
supply line to the dryer

and set fire to the
gas-soaked kitty litter.

When he went back outside
to open the propane valve,

the gas would have produce
a blowtorch effect,

burning hotter than
natural gas and immediately

igniting the material
surrounding it.

Prosecutors believe
that Derrick went

shopping to establish an alibi.

But not all of his
time was accounted for.

There was a discrepancy

in Derrick Duehren's timeline,
with respect to the receipts

that he obtained at
the various stores.

He could account
for about an hour

to an hour and a
half of his time,

and it would appear that he
would have had to have been

gone well in excess of two hours
based upon his initial comments

of when he left and
when he returned.

Since the fire
almost completely consumed

Roxanne's body, no one
knows exactly how she died.

: The jury

was unable to make
a determination

on the charge of m*rder,
unable to decide.

They did not find Mr.
Duehren not guilty of m*rder.

They simply said, we are
unable to come to a decision.

As a result, Derrick was only

convicted of arson and
first-degree manslaughter.

He was sentenced to


: Manslaughter

in the first degree is
defined under Oregon law

as recklessly causing the
death of another human being

under circumstances manifesting
extreme indifference

to the value of human life.

- Did Derrick think he
get away with this?

Absolutely.

Absolutely.

Derrick thought that he could
be smarter than all of them.

His ego was that big.

And those people
were beneath him.

Investigators say this
case proves that no matter what

someone does to
cover his tracks,

something always remains behind.

: People

do think, when
they start a fire,

that it's going to burn
up everything and destroy

all evidence that they did it.

And that's a fallacy that
we like people to believe,

because we go back
in as investigators

and pretty well find out
what caused the fire.

: The fire

in this case was so severe that
it destroyed a lot of the type

of evidence that
you might normally

find at a homicide scene.

However, the fire
itself creates evidence.

And in this particular case, the
fire itself, and how it started

and where it started,
became crucial evidence

in the prosecution.

- They always get
caught in the end.

Sometimes it takes a
while, but they get caught.

: This case

was based almost exclusively on
forensics, even though I like

to think that I had
something to do with it.

But in actuality,
in this case, it

was forensics that
found him guilty.