13x24 - As Fault

[bunniefuu]

Up next, it looked
like a joyride, but it was

something much worse.

She was gonna jump out of the
back of the truck while it was

moving.

We just thought it was a
crazy drunk person, you know,

just... Partying.

The evidence suggests foul play.

All we knew was that there
was a woman who was in distress

in this truck.

But was this an
accident or m*rder?

His story was inconsistent
with reality.

The bull pen bar in
the northern California town of

guerneville was becoming a
hangout for 32-year-old

Michelle Johnson.

The one-time aspiring model had
fallen on tough times.

After the breakup of her 10-year
marriage, Michelle and her two

young children were forced to
live with her parents, and that

wasn't working out.

There was some strain between
Michelle and her mom and the

stepfather, Paul.

They didn't see eye-to-eye on a
lot of things.

So Michelle moved
out and got her own apartment.

To celebrate, Michelle went to
the bull pen bar, where she was

supposed to meet her friends.

Michelle stayed for about 25
minutes, talked briefly to some

bar patrons, and had three
drinks.

We could see that she seemed
to be acting appropriately.

She seemed to be having a good
time.

Then she left by
herself at 12:54 A.M.

Michelle's friends, who were in
Michelle's apartment building,

left to meet her at the bar.

But as they walked outside, they
saw something unusual.

It was a red pickup truck with a
woman in the back of the truck

flailing her arms.

All we knew was that there
was a woman who was in distress

in this truck.

Michelle's friends
went to the bar, learned that

Michelle had already left, and
went back to Michelle's

apartment.

That's when they saw the red
truck again, this time with no

one in the back.

Further down the road, they
found Michelle's jacket, some

jewelry, a bloodstain, and a
tooth.

There was a watch found that
had been broken and had stopped

at like 1:24 in the morning,
which matched up with the

witness statements that they saw
this lady screaming in the

back of the truck sometime
shortly after 1:00.

We were hoping for the best,
but, I mean, when you hear

something like that, then you
can't help but think the worst.

Her friends now
wondered whether it might have

been Michelle in the back of
that truck.

Straddling the tailgate,
flailing her arms, like,

screaming...

And at the time, we just thought
it was a crazy drunk person, you

know, partying, doing something
hey probably shouldn't be doing,

'cause it was dangerous.

She was trying to get out of
the truck to the point of she

was gonna jump out of the back
of the truck while it was

moving.

Unfortunately,
Michelle's friends couldn't

remember anything about the
truck except that it was red.

At least we had a type of
vehicle and a color, but, again,

there are a lot of red trucks
out there, so it was a lot of

different rabbit trails to
follow up on.

Police canvassed area hospitals.

No one matching Michelle's
description had been admitted.

Law-enforcement volunteers and
family members searched the area

looking for Michelle, but were
unsuccessful.

As time progressed and we
realized that we weren't finding

her, she wasn't showing up at
the hospitals, that this was

more likely a kidnapping
scenario.

Tests showed the
blood on the highway was the

same blood type as Michelle's,
but DNA testing would take

several weeks.

There was a pool of blood,
and leading away from that pool

of blood were drag marks in
blood, which indicates that

whoever was bleeding was drug
away.

We got an opinion that, if
she didn't get immediate medical

attention based on what we saw
at the crime scene, that she was

probably going to die.

Now it was a race
against time, and police soon

found a likely suspect very
close to home.

My sister was very bright and
bubbly and lit up a room when

she walked in it.

She was always smiling.

She always wanted to be friends
with everyone, be around

everyone, make everyone happy.

As police searched
for Michelle Johnson, they

worked under the theory that
she'd been kidnapped.

Michelle's friends told police
they saw a red truck drive by

with a woman in the back and
they now assumed it was

Michelle.

Red trucks are very common.

It never ceases to amaze me when
you get a car and a description

and a color and then you start
looking for it and you realize,

"wow, they're everywhere."

But one was
close-by.

Michelle's stepfather,
Paul Doyle, often drove a red

truck.

One of Paul's friends had a
red truck, so they came to talk

to Paul about his friend and
about him and about where they

were that night.

The owner of the
truck, Sean Phillips, told

police that Paul often used his
truck and that he had his own

set of keys.

And Paul had a possible motive.

Michelle's mother had once taken
out a restraining order against

him.

Michelle hated him, and she
wasn't shy about letting him

know it.

We knew that there were some
type of dynamics, you know, some

negativity involved in the
relationship between Michelle

and Paul.

During his
interrogation, Paul told

investigators something they
found strange.

He said he was shopping at a
supermarket near the bull pen

bar the night Michelle went
missing and that he'd seen her.

He said that he was with
Michelle's mom at about

midnight, 12:30, and they
actually saw Michelle walking

through the parking lot, and
because of the strained

relationship, they didn't make
contact with her or try to talk

to her.

This took place
less than an hour before her

leather jacket and tooth were
found on the side of the road.

Paul could have dropped mom
off and come back to do

something to her.

Any number of things could have
happened.

Paul denied any
involvement and passed a

polygraph.

The owner of the truck,
Sean Phillips, also had an alibi

for the night of Michelle's
disappearance.

He was 70 miles away in
San Francisco.

We were later able to
identify him in some

surveillance footage down there
in the city at the time of the

m*rder.

After four days of
searching, police found

Michelle's nude body in a nearby
river, covered in mud.

She had extensive blunt-force
injury of the head.

It was both external bruises and
abrasions and internal bleeding

around the brain and within the
brain.

She also had a number of
fractures involving the jaws...

Both the upper jaw and the lower
jaw.

Despite the severe
head trauma, the autopsy showed

it was not the cause of death.

It was multiple blunt-force
injuries to the head complicated

by drowning.

She had been placed in the water
still living.

Strangest of all,
Michelle's k*ller had cut off

almost all her hair.

It was pretty hacked.

When you see her in the
surveillance video in the bar,

she had beautiful, waist-length
hair, and when we found her, it

had been essentially hacked off.

This raised
disturbing possibilities about

the k*ller and his motivations.

People, especially men that
k*ll women, have been known to

do that to retain a souvenir,
for example.

That type of
behavior is often exhibited by

serial K*llers.

If that were the case, there was
no connection between Michelle

and her k*ller.

During
Michelle Johnson's autopsy, the

medical examiner discovered
something else that could have

been a factor in her death.

She had substantial amounts
of both alcohol and

methamphetamine in her system.

She had substantial enough
amounts so that if she had been

found, say, deceased in her
apartment with no injury, then

those would have been considered
the cause of death.

But Michelle was
m*rder*d before the dr*gs could

k*ll her.

She'd been savagely beaten, and
her tooth and blood on

highway 116 made it clear her
k*ller hit her at least once

while she was on or near the
highway.

She'd suffered severe trauma
to her face.

This was no
vehicular-manslaughter case at

all.

I found no evidence of sexual
as*ault.

I was looking for semen,
spermatozoa, foreign hair,

foreign fibers.

I found nothing.

Shortly after
Michelle Johnson's body was

found, police checked the
motor-vehicle records of people

living in the immediate area.

They were looking for any males
who drove a red pickup truck.

Besides Michelle's stepfather,
who had use of a friend's red

truck, there was another man,
Luke hasler, whose apartment

was within walking distance of
where Michelle's body was found.

Detectives went to his house
to talk to him and take a look

at his truck.

They thought he was a little
nervous, but, quite frankly,

that can be very normal when
homicide detectives show up at

your house and want to talk to
you.

Luke hasler, a
butcher, was 34 years old, never

married, and had no children.

A background check revealed a
restraining order had been

filed by a former girlfriend two
years earlier.

But what stood out most to
police was his membership in a

private club called the
"odd fellows" club.

It was only a block away from
the bull pen bar, and he was

there the night of Michelle's
m*rder.

One of the witnesses said he
left about 12:30, quarter to

midnight.

They saw him walk across the
street to the bull pen bar to

get his truck.

This was about the
same time Michelle left the

bull pen bar.

Investigators asked managers at
the odd fellows club if they

remembered anything unusual
about that night or about

Luke hasler.

They said that Mr. hasler was
very intoxicated, he'd done some

things that people had
characterized as being strange,

he was, on purpose, spilling his
drink, and then, when the

waitresses would come over to
mop up the floor, that he was

peering down their tops.

Hasler was shown
Michelle's picture.

He said he didn't know who she
was and he'd never seen her.

Investigators looked in the bed
of hasler's truck and could find

no blood, although it looked
like someone had recently washed

it, so investigators concocted a
ruse just to see how hasler

would react.

Another detective took a
napkin and a little bottle of

water and kind of rubbed it
along the back of the truck bed,

kind of simulating a DNA test.

At the time, hasler
showed no reaction, but later

he called friends to express his
concerns.

He started making a few phone
calls to his girlfriend and two

other friends at that point and
mentioned in one of the

conversations, you know, "hey,
they took a swab out of the back

of my truck."

So that really is what, I think,
kind of spun him out at that

point.

This was hardly
enough, even for a search

warrant, but then police got a
call from a woman who refused to

identify herself.

She was very distraught.

She only could tell me that she
knew that the person that she

knew as Luke "hafler" was
involved.

She just had a feeling this
person was involved in the

crime.

The woman wouldn't
say how she knew this man or why

she suspected he was involved in
Michelle Johnson's m*rder.

So that was kind of the
breaking point of the case, as

we knew that Luke was involved.

Police, with
nothing to lose, told hasler

about the call, and now he
changed his story.

He indicated that he was
intoxicated.

He said, quote, "hammered."

Hasler said that as
he was driving home, he looked

up and saw someone standing on
the highway.

Luke's story was that he had
accidentally hit her in his

truck, that she was in the
middle of the road when he came

around the corner or something.

Hasler said he put
Michelle in the back of his

truck to take her to the
hospital but Michelle regained

consciousness and fled when he
stopped at a traffic light.

Luke said that she then
jumped out the back of the truck

and that was the last he knew.

This story was
consistent with the eyewitness

accounts.

They claimed they saw someone
who looked like Michelle in the

back of his truck but later she
was gone.

Luke's story could have made
sense.

"I hit someone in a car, and
there's blood," and that's just

pretty normal.

But investigators
needed more evidence if they

were going to bring Luke hasler
to justice.

There were lots of
unanswered questions about what

happened to Michelle Johnson.

Luke hasler said he'd accidently
hit her with his truck, but the

autopsy didn't support his
story.

One would expect to find
fractures... fractures of the

arms, legs, maybe pelvis.

She had none of those.

The second type of injury would
be abrasion.

A convenient term for that is
"road rash."

Think about friction as somebody
simply slides down the road

unprotected.

She had no abrasion.

The massive amount of injury
that could occur when you're hit

by a vehicle is totally
different than what we see here.

Michelle's autopsy
did show a massive blow to the

mouth, either with a fist or
some foreign object.

There were no tool marks.

Could this kind of beating have
involved fists alone, a gloved

fist?

Sure.

Impact against another object?

Yes, but, again, there was no
pattern.

But hasler had no
marks on his hands.

With a warrant, investigators
searched inside hasler's house

but found no traces of blood, no
traces of Michelle's hair, or

her clothing.

They also searched inside his
truck.

We spent, essentially, three
days ripping the inside of that

truck out to look at it more
closely to try to find any kind

of forensic evidence we could to
tie Michelle with being in that

truck.

It was beginning to
look like either Michelle was

never inside hasler's truck or
hasler had washed the truck so

well that there was no forensic
evidence.

But investigators kept looking
and, after several days, found

something significant...

A tiny stain on the bottom of
the seatbelt buckle, almost

invisible to the naked eye.

Tests showed it was human blood.

They also found blood on another
item under the front seat.

On the jumper cables... this
was a set of 12-foot-long jumper

cables... I found traces of
blood along the entire length of

the jumper cables, including the
clamps on the end.

DNA tests
identified where the blood came

from.

All genetic markers that we
tested for the evidence

samples... the blood samples
from the car... and from

Michelle Johnson all matched.

This left only one
explanation... Michelle was

inside hasler's truck and
bleeding.

It totally contradicted
Luke's story.

She was inside the truck with
Luke, and that it was her in

Luke's truck.

And he had said that he only put
her in the back of the truck.

Police believe Michelle, high on

methamphetamine and legally
drunk, was walking home from the

bull pen bar.

Luke hasler, also drunk, was
driving home at the exact same

time and saw her.

It appears he stopped his truck
and probably made a sexual

proposition.

Why don't you just leave me
alone, you jerk!

An altercation ensued.

Hasler, who outweighed Michelle
by more than 100 pounds, simply

threw her in the back of the
truck and took off.

A few minutes later, Michelle's
friends saw her in the back of

the truck, although they didn't
recognize her.

Two miles down the road, hasler
stopped the truck and got out.

Michelle jumped out of the truck
bed and, preparing for a fight,

tore off her jacket.

But she was no match for hasler.

He hit her in the mouth, knocked
her tooth out, and she lost

consciousness.

He bundled her into the front
seat, where she bled over the

seatbelt, the floorboards, and
the jumper cables.

Hasler then made a u-turn and
headed to his house.

On his way there, Michelle's
friends saw hasler's truck

again, but this time Michelle
was in the cab of the truck, and

they didn't see her.

In an attempt to conceal her
identity, hasler stripped off

her clothes, cut off her hair,
and then threw her into the

river, where she drowned.

The next day, hasler washed the
truck... both inside and out...

But still left some crucial
evidence behind.

We just don't know what would
have happened had they not

crossed paths, you know?

I wish that, you know, she would
have stayed in the bar.

I wish that her friends would
have come to get her.

I just keep re-seeing that
image in my head of her going

down, screaming, and us not
realizing it was even her.

That was when she was alive.

We could have done something
then, you know, but we didn't

know.

At his trial,
hasler again changed his story.

He said he was so drunk he might
have put Michelle inside his

truck.

He also explained why he cut her
hair.

Mr. hasler said at his trial
that the reason he cut off

Michelle's hair was because he
vomited in it and he didn't want

his DNA to be detected on her
body.

But the jury didn't
believe Michelle's death was an

accident, and Luke hasler was
convicted of first-degree m*rder

and sentenced to life without
the possibility of parole.

His version of what happened
almost seemed plausible until

the evidence showed it was all a
lie.

A lot of people are either
k*lled or seriously injured in

car accidents, so there's a lot
of data about what type of

injuries those cause.

Those were nowhere like
Michelle's injuries, so the

medical examiner's report was
critical to say, "no, this was

not a car accident."

We knew they had him, but
without evidence, they couldn't

have put him away.

They couldn't have found him
guilty.

A lot of what forensics does
is to corroborate or disprove

stories.

We answer questions by looking
at physical evidence, and we're

able to say "that story fits" or
"that story doesn't fit with

what we're seeing here."

The forensic evidence gave us
a cause of death, and it also

told us some things that
couldn't have happened.

The defendant, on the other
hand, insisted on an injury

pattern that was not reflected
on the body.

His story was inconsistent with
reality, so that made it pretty

straightforward.