13x02 - House Hunting

[bunniefuu]

Up next, a vibrant,
successful real-estate

professional is brutally
m*rder*d.

This involved the entire
range of v*olence.

Even hardened
professionals are troubled by

what they see.

For there to be that much
blood left at a scene, that's

what we consider overkill.

Police find a
possible witness and try

hypnosis to get every detail.

How many times do you see a
composite sketch and you're

like, "okay, this looks like
just about every human being on

the face of the planet"?

It was a real whodunit.

I hate whodunits.

The k*ller leaves behind a clue.

But would it be enough?

People will k*ll for the most
trivial of reasons.

On a hot summer
day, a married couple decided to

look at a sample home in the
Craig ranch housing development

in mckinney, Texas.

When they walked into the sample
home, they couldn't find the

sales associate.

But they knew right away that
something was wrong.

And they walked into the
living room, and then they saw a

blood trail leading into the
kitchen.

And that's where
they found the sales associate,

Sarah Walker, in a pool of
blood.

The victim was stabbed 27 times.

There was an incredible
struggle.

Furniture and
plants were knocked over.

It looked like the victim fought
for her life.

It just didn't happen in a
little 2x4 square area.

If you can picture a barroom
brawl, that's probably what was

happening in that show house.

For there to be that much
blood left at a scene, that's

what we consider overkill.

Sarah Walker was 40
years old, recently divorced,

and the mother of two children.

When I answered the phone, it
was the mckinney police

department.

He said, "Sarah has been
assaulted and as a result...

Has died of her injuries."

And I just started screaming,
"no! No! No!"

Sarah worked for a
real-estate company, showing

model homes to potential buyers
and was very successful.

She also appeared in some sales
videos.

D.R. Horton is so proud to be
in a neighborhood like this that

stands out above all the rest.

She was thrilling, and she

was exciting and full of energy.

She would walk into a room, and
she would just light up the

place.

She had enough energy for four
or five people.

Police found a
bank-surveillance video,

recorded a few hours before
Sarah's m*rder, showing her

making a deposit.

In the video, she was wearing an
expensive ring and watch.

Neither one was found on Sarah's
body.

The watch wasn't at her home
when we searched her home.

It wasn't in her car.

It wasn't anywhere in her
office.

So we started to think pretty
soon that whoever had k*lled her

had taken that ring and that
watch.

She had it on two hours
before she died.

That helps us prove that in fact
a robbery occurred.

Police also
discovered that the k*ller most

likely posed as a client.

She was talking to my cousin.

She said, "I'm sorry.

I have to go.

Somebody just walked in," which
means, "there's a customer here.

I'm gonna go sell a house."

Just 30 minutes
later, Sarah was dead.

It was hard for investigators to
imagine a crime of this

magnitude in an upscale housing
development.

Things just didn't match,
really.

It just struck me as the last
place I would expect a crime

like this to occur.

We had a real whodunit on our
hands if it was a random attack.

We were very concerned that
someone who would k*ll Sarah in

this manner was somebody who
would probably not hesitate to

do this again.

With a k*ller free,
no one, especially mckinney

police, could sleep easily.

As investigators
analyzed the scene of

Sarah Walker's m*rder, they
quickly discovered that she was

k*lled in the living room after
a horrific struggle.

It was also clear that the
k*ller was injured, too.

He turned the dead-bolt knob,
and he closed the blinds, but

his hand was already cut, so he
left his blood in both of those

places.

And then, at some point, he
dragged Sarah into the kitchen,

and he tried to clean up because
that was his blood in the sink.

Investigators also
found perfectly round drops of

blood on the floor of the
kitchen near the body.

That shape is indicative of
blood being dripped straight

down... from a 90-degree angle,
straight down.

The blood evidence
provided police with the

k*ller's DNA profile.

At the autopsy, the medical
examiner discovered no sign of

sexual as*ault, but he did find
something extremely unusual.

Apparently, during the struggle,
the k*ller bit the victim on the

neck.

It almost brought this crime
down to the level of savagery.

I'm looking at the evidence of
one animal biting this woman

because she's some sort of prey
for him that he's gonna take and

do with what he wants to.

And it really was a disgusting
feeling.

In a search for
suspects, investigators first

looked into Sarah's personal
life.

They discovered that Sarah had
recently been divorced from her

second husband, Randy Tate.

There was no love lost
between the Walker family and

Randy Tate.

Let's put it that way.

Randy Tate was the
last known person to see Sarah

alive.

Sarah dropped their son off at
his house earlier that morning

before she went to work.

The bottom line is, I want
them to catch whoever did this.

According to her family and
friends, it was a divorce she

did not want.

She wasn't happy with it.

She was hurt by it, so we knew
that there were some tough

feelings.

Randy Tate claimed
he had an alibi... that he was

playing golf with friends at the
time of the m*rder.

He was initially very
cooperative but then started to

become hesitant, in our minds,
to cooperate when it came to DNA

and that sort of thing, and he
seemed to be very angry.

But Tate did provide his DNA.

And it did not match the blood
DNA at the crime scene.

Next, investigators check an
Internet dating site that Sarah

joined called
millionairematch.Com.

When Sarah got divorced, that
was very difficult on her

self-esteem.

It was very hard to get back
into the dating world.

Sarah didn't date
many men since her divorce.

But when your photograph is on
an Internet-dating-site profile,

there's always the risk of
danger.

Think about it this way.

If I exchange one e-mail with a
random stranger, or if I just

write something like, "no,
thanks.

I'm not interested," you have a
suspect right there.

If you return 30 or 40
no-thank-yous in a week... and

trust me, women get inundated
with that many requests... well,

you've got 40 suspects.

Investigators
interviewed all the men Sarah

spoke to from the site.

Each provided a DNA sample, and
all were eliminated.

By this time, several weeks had
passed, and the trail of Sarah's

k*ller was turning cold.

Then, unexpectedly,
Nelson villavicencio, the

husband of another realtor, came
forward with some new

information.

He said on the morning of
Sarah's m*rder, his wife got a

call from a man who identified
himself as chan Lee.

He wanted to see the model home
located across the street from

the home where Sarah was k*lled.

She felt a little suspicious
about him and wondered if he was

legitimate.

And she tried to call the hotel
he said he was at to find out

what time he was coming, and he
was not in the room that he said

he was in.

In fact, no
chan Lee was registered at the

hotel.

But she still agreed to meet
him.

Remember, when you're in the
real-estate business, you're in

the business of making a
commission, so you're gonna

accept all comers because you
want to sell that house.

You want to make that
commission.

The realtor did
take precautions.

My wife asked me if I was
willing to come along, and I

said yes.

And I did it for my reasons.

When they arrived,
an Asian male drove up in a

white mustang.

He had a t-shirt, no sleeves,
jeans, sneakers... very

athletic.

I asked him, "excuse me, sir.

Is your name chan Lee?"
And he looked up in the sky, did

not make any eye contact with
me, and sort of gave me a vague

look saying, like, "no."

But he didn't express anything.

The man walked
quickly to his car and drove

away.

While Nelson and his wife waited
in the townhome, they saw

Sarah Walker arrive for work
across the street.

I yelled at my wife, "come
and check this out.

There's a beautiful, striking
blonde coming out of this sports

car, and she's going to the
model."

My wife said, "oh, that's
Sarah."

And I said, "oh, Sarah's looking
very good."

She said, "well, yeah."

When Nelson and his
wife realized that their

appointment was a no-show, they
left and saw the white mustang

parked next to Sarah Walker's
car.

Nelson said they considered
stopping by to say hello to

Sarah.

I said, "well, are we gonna
go visit with Sarah?"

And my wife said, "no, we're
hungry," so we left.

They left at
approximately 1:00 P.M.

Sarah's body was discovered


If they had walked in prior
to the defendant k*lling Sarah,

would we have three bodies?

The possibility of we had
visited Sarah and found myself

and ourselves in the middle of
it, of something terrible...

It will always be in my mind.

I consider Nelson's wife to
be very lucky.

I think there's a high
likelihood that she would've

been the victim that day had she
not brought her husband along

with her to that subdivision.

Police now had a
possible eyewitness.

But would it be enough?

Real-estate
saleswoman Sarah Walker was

robbed and m*rder*d in the
sample home of an upscale

neighborhood housing
development.

Her friends and family reacted
with disbelief.

The family has suffered
beyond imagination.

I believe she deemed it to be
safe.

She was very, very excited about
the community when she was first

placed over there.

My fondest memory of Sarah...
She would laugh at all of my

jokes, whether they were funny
or whether they were stupid.

She would still just laugh.

And so that always made you feel
good.

In a fortunate turn
of events, a witness came

forward, telling police he might
have seen Sarah's k*ller.

Unfortunately, by the time he
came forward, several weeks had

passed.

And policed feared he might've
forgotten some of the man's

physical characteristics.

Nelson just had such a brief
look at this person.

I was hopeful, but I was
actually kind of doubtful that

it was gonna work.

So police decided
to try forensic hypnosis before

asking Nelson any questions
about the man's description.

The purpose of forensic
hypnosis is to bring out the

detailed memory from the
subconscious.

Nelson was sent to
Richard shing, a Texas ranger

and a trained forensic
hypnotist.

You get them relaxed, and
then, in that relaxed state, you

bring up a date or an offense
and place them back in a

position to where they were,
where they might recall an

incident.

Forensic hypnosis
has been used law enforcement

since the 1800s.

In Texas, they've reported a 75%
success rate.

Under hypnosis, the images in
your mind, the remembrances,

become so much clearer that I've
got a lot of faith in hypnosis.

The memory is already there
in his mind.

I'm not placing a memory in his
mind.

It's already there.

We're just actually going back
and revisiting that day and

time.

The hypnotist
wanted Nelson to think of the

incident as if he were watching
a movie...

And then freeze-frame the image
of the man he saw at the model

home.

Nelson described the suspect as
Asian, muscular, around 27 years

old, 5'7" tall, with a buzz
haircut.

After he described each feature,
he then looked through a book of

photographs to choose the most
similar.

Everyone, if you look
closely, they have

different-shaped eyes and mouths
and noses.

And that book gives the witness
an opportunity to flip through

the pages and pick out different
features that the suspect had.

Slowly, an image
emerged of the man Nelson saw

that day.

I was saying that with these
facts and this sketch, we'll hit

jackpot.

The composite drawing kind of
brought the case back to the

front burner again because, for
a while, we had nothing.

The sketch was
released to the media and

immediately produced results.

Yet another local real-estate
agent said she recognized the

man.

She rented a home to him.

And she said, once, he came to
her home, asking to use her

phone.

When she refused to let him
inside, he grew angry.

He's banging on her back
door, and now she's terrified.

Her dog's going crazy.

This guy is now in her backyard,
banging on her back door, so

then she calls the police.

Police identified
the man as 25-year-old

kosoul chanthakoummane.

His parents were from Laos, but
he was born in the U.S.

A background check indicated he
drove a white mustang, worked as

a delivery truck driver, and had
a history of v*olence.

From age 15 forward, he was
in jail.

He assaulted a classmate severe
enough to be sent to juvenile

detention.

When he was 15, he was out on
that offense for several

months and then stole a car.

After that, he
robbed and kidnapped two elderly

women in north Carolina.

He was released on parole just
six months before Sarah Walker's

m*rder.

He was paroled to Texas
because his sister lived here,

and his sister was willing to
help him try to get his life

back on course.

When he was
interrogated by police, kosoul

denied any involvement in
Sarah Walker's m*rder.

Denied any involvement in
Sarah Walker's m*rder.

Kosoul's left hand was covered
with recently healed scars...

As if he'd been in a knife
fight.

The scars weren't lined up
all along the same plane.

They were kind of going every
which way.

And police had a
secret w*apon... the bite mark

on Sarah's body.

Would it match kosoul's teeth?

Thanks to an
eyewitness and forensic

hypnosis, investigators now had
a suspect in the m*rder of

Sarah Walker... 25-year-old
kosoul chanthakoummane.

Although he denied any
involvement, prosecutors were

convinced that he was the
k*ller.

Kosoul is a psychopath and a
sociopath.

And by that, I mean that no
matter where he is, he's always

thinking about himself first.

It's all about him... what can
he get for himself?

What can he do for himself?

And others are objects to be
used for his pleasure, for his

needs.

Say your name for me, please.

Kosoul chanthakoummane.

Since the
perpetrator bit the victim,

Sarah Walker, investigators took
photographs of kosoul's teeth

and made dental impressions.

The impressions were then
compared to images of the bite

mark.

What we tried to do is we
tried to make it not match.

We tried to rotate the models,
we tried to flip them around, we

tried to make it not work, and
it just kept going right back to

perfect match.

It was as positive as I've ever
been about doing a

forensic-dentistry case.

Ironically,
evidence found on kosoul's

cellphone indicated he had a
fascination with biting.

He'd been fantasizing about
this.

He had a photograph on his
cellphone of him pretending to

bite his own dog.

Finally, kosoul's
DNA profile matched the DNA of

the blood found on the floor
next to Sarah's body.

Certainly, anytime you have
DNA, I can't tell you how

valuable that is in today's
environment with jurors.

They appreciate it, they accept
it, and since it's specific to

one individual, it's invaluable
to us as prosecutors.

Prosecutors believe
kosoul preyed on female

real-estate agents because they
often worked alone.

On that tragic day in mckinney,
Texas, the evidence shows that

kosoul called his first target,
asking her to meet him at the

model home.

But she sensed trouble and
brought her husband, which

frightened him away.

Excuse me, sir.

Are you chan Lee?

But kosoul didn't give up.

He saw there was another model
home across the street.

And he saw Sarah Walker arrive
for work.

Oh, you know what?

Somebody just walked in.

I won't be able to stay on the
phone.

Prosecutors believe
he went inside and tried to rob

Sarah.

Give me that watch.

There was a fight.

While trying to

subdue her, kosoul bit her.

Then he used his knife and
stabbed her more than 20 times

and cut himself in the process.

Nelson villavicencio and his
wife were just outside while the

m*rder occurred.

Had they stopped in to say hello
to Sarah, they, too, might have

been victims.

He would not have stopped,
and he definitely would've kept

going.

A beautiful,
successful woman... her life

tragically cut short.

Sarah's family still tries to
cope with the loss.

Although she's not here with
us now, she is in a place that

we all dream of, that we all
hear of, and I believe that

she's probably doing the same
thing up there as she did while

she was here, which is helping
people find their home.

In October of 2006,
kosoul was convicted of capital

m*rder and sentenced to death.

People will k*ll for the most
trivial of reasons, reasons that

no rational person would ever
imagine.

What the science did in this
case is it made that defense

attorney get up in his opening
statement and say, "my client is

guilty, and this was a robbery
gone bad."

He would not have said that if
we hadn't had the physical

evidence that we had in this
case.

This case turned out to be
the perfect marriage of good

police work, excellent science,
and prosecutorial expertise.

It was the perfect blend of all
three of those things coming

together to where we got this
case from the day Sarah was

m*rder*d until he was convicted
and sentenced.