13x40 - Office Visit

[bunniefuu]

- Up next, a respected surgeon
is att*cked leaving work.

- There's a gentleman
laying in here,

and he's not really responding.

- The motive is unclear.

- If it was a robbery, the
person only wanted the car.

- This would be certainly
be an overkill.

- A background check reveals
an enemy in the victim's past.

- He was out to get him.

- The question is, can
police tie him to the crime?

- Ever since he could
remember, Brian Stidham

wanted to be a doctor, and he
wanted to work with children.

So it was no surprise that after
graduating from Harvard Medical

School, he did his residency
in pediatric ophthalmology.

- When he treated the child, he
would get down on their level.

He would not only
treat the child,

he treated the entire family.

Eventually Dr. Stidham got
married, had two children,

and joined a thriving medical
practice in Tucson, Arizona,

where he was one of the
few pediatric specialists

in the area.

And that, of
course, just made him

a go-to guy, if you had
a need for your child.

- One night, after a
long day at the office,

he gave a short medical lecture
to a group of med students

in his office, where they
all had pizza and drinks.

Afterwards, he set the alarm
at 7:26 and headed home.

Three hours later,
someone called 911

from the parking lot of
Dr. Stidham's office.

-911, where is your emergency?

- Uh, there's a
gentleman here laying

in the middle of
the parking lot.

There's some papers
strewn about.

I can see his glasses.
He's not really responding.

- By the time paramedics
arrived, Dr. Stidham

had been dead for several hours.

- There were tear marks,
or slicing, cutting marks

through his scrubs, and,
uh, there was a gaping wound

that I could see, uh,
just above his scrub line.

It was obvious to me
that he had been stabbed.

- He still had his wallet,
which had money in it,

you know, in his pants pocket.

So that told law enforcement
right away that this certainly

wasn't a typical robbery
when valuables hadn't taken.

- Dr. Stidham's car was missing
from its usual parking spot,

but a piece of food
told investigators

what might have happened.

Clear on the
other side of the complex

was a pizza crust that
had been bitten into,

and DNA revealed
that the person who

had bitten into that pizza
crust was Dr. Stidham.

- Police believe Dr.
Stidham walked to his car,

probably put his food on
the roof to open the door,

and was att*cked.

Dr. Stidham staggered
away bleeding,

then lost consciousness.

And then when his
attacker got in the car

and drove away, the
pizza crust just

flew off and landed
in the parking lot.

- Unfortunately, police
could find no eyewitnesses,

and there were no
security cameras.

The whole parking lot is
not visible from the street,

and it, it does not
have a lot of lighting.

There are no surveillance
cameras or anything

of that nature in that parking
lot, so it is quite dark.

- Police tried to contact
Dr. Stidham's wife,

but she wouldn't
answer her phone,

so they went to the
Stidham's house.

No one came to the
door, so they broke in and found

that the widow, Daphne
Stidham, was sound alseep.

When they woke her up, the
first thing she said was,

"Has my husband been shot?"

Which was odd, why she
would say that in particular.

- Police also noticed family
financial documents laid out

in plain view on
a bedroom table.

- The bedroom phone
had been unplugged.

And in addition, when they
spoke with Mrs. Stidham,

she indicated that she'd
taken some sleeping

pills that evening.

- And there was no indication
Mrs. Stidham had been anywhere

all night except at home with
their two young children.

Investigators suspected her
unusual comment was probably

caused by the police
break-in and confusion.

- It was their opinion that, that
we might want to look elsewhere

other than her, and, and
I trust their opinion.

- But where to look
was the big question.

Investigators had an
unusual crime scene,

a prominent surgeon
stabbed to death

in his office parking lot.

His car was stolen, but
was car jacking the motive,

or was it m*rder?

- In carjackings,
typically, the owner

is very mildly hurt
or very superficially.

Rarely do you have
somebody's that's k*lled.

- The autopsy revealed this
was an extraordinarily

brutal m*rder.

The 15 s*ab wounds
that Dr. Stidham suffered

would normally lead me
to think that this was

an attack by someone
who knew him,

that this was a violent,
emotionally-based attack

by someone who knew the doctor.

- To investigators,
the motive was clear.

I believe the
carjacking was staged

in this particular case is
the k*lling of the victim,

and the carjacking is just
simply staged in order

to make it look like that's
what this was all about.

- But investigators still needed
to find Dr. Stidham's car.

On a hunch, they
called his cell phone.

We were missing the cell phone,

so our hope was, was
that the cell phone was

with the k*ller who
was with the car.

- If it were on, it would be
possible to send a signal

to that phone, what
they call pinging,

and narrow down its
location by, say,

which cell towers
bounced the signal.

- When they did, they got a
hit on Dr. Stidham's phone,

six miles away, and found the
phone inside Dr. Stidham's car,

in the lot of an
apartment complex.

There is, uh, blood certainly

on the outside of the vehicle,
but as you open the door,

there's individual
blood stains and spatter

and cast off that is in the
door well itself that could not

gotten there with the door shut.

- It looked as if
Dr. Stidham had been

stabbed just as he
opened his car door.

There was a trail of blood
from the parking spot

to where they found his body
about 18 feet away, evidence

of what some investigators
call a blitz attack.

A blitz attack is an
attack that is, uh, sudden

and by surprise.

They could've been anywhere
from, uh, at a minimum,

probably 30 seconds up to,
uh, you know, a minute or so.

- Unfortunately,
the car didn't give

investigators much to work with.

We found no usable fingerprints

on the exterior or
interior of the vehicle.

There was some hairs found.

There was some fibers found.

None of them really
led us to, to anybody

outside the Stidham family.

- Meanwhile, a background
check on Dr. Stidham

unearthed a bombshell.

When he came to
Tucson, Dr. Stidham

joined an established
medical practice,

but what he didn't
know at the time

was that the senior
partner of the practice

was under investigation.

It was very
upsetting to the staff.

We were all working.

We had patients.

And the DEA walked
in, and we were

told that they were going
to search the office.

- Authorities found evidence that
Dr. Bradley Schwartz, the man

who recruited Dr. Stidham
to come to Tucson,

was involved in drug fraud.

- What was illegal
about that was,

these were not dr*gs that were
prescribed to these people

for any kind of
medical condition.

- Dr. Stidham wasn't
implicated in this activity,

but Dr. Bradley
Schwartz was indicted

on 77 counts of
prescription drug fraud.

His medical
license was suspended.

He lost his privilege to
practice in Arizona until he

completed certain
therapy programs

through the medical
board as well.

- When Dr. Schwartz was indicted,
Dr. Stidham left the practice

and went out on his own.

Stidham took
the patient base with,

thereby leaving
Schwartz with nothing

once he was able to
start practicing again.

- At the time of Dr.
Stidham's m*rder,

Dr. Schwartz had completed
drug rehabilitation,

regained his medical
license, and resumed work.

I had disregarded
him as a suspect very early

on, because it just didn't
make a whole lot of sense.

The problems that
Stidham and Schwartz had

were years in the past.

- Doctor Schwartz also
had a solid alibi

for the night Dr.
Stidham was k*lled.

He was eating dinner
in a public restaurant.

His whereabouts were
accounted for the entire night.

And Dr. Stidham's
staff couldn't identify

any patient families
who were angry with him.

Investigators were now stumped.

If this wasn't a robbery
and wasn't revenge,

and wasn't a
carjacking, what was it?

Investigators searching for Dr.
Stidham's k*ller were baffled.

The victim was a young,
Harvard-trained surgeon

in the prime of his life
who had no known enemies.

- He was very gentle, very
compassionate, very caring.

I had a lot of respect for him.

I, I enjoyed working with him.

He was a good friend,
not just a boss.

- When questioned by
police, Dr. Stidham's wife

continued to identify
her husband's ex-partner

as someone they should look at.

- She, in fact, did tell them
that there was, you know,

their husband was
very well-loved,

and that there was only one
person that he had as an enemy,

and that was his
ex-partner, Dr. Schwartz.

- But Dr. Schwartz had
an airtight alibi.

He was in a public restaurant
with his girlfriend

at the time of the m*rder
with dozens of witnesses.

- There was no way
Dr. Schwartz could

have been the k*ller himself.

No way.

- On a hunch, investigators
interviewed Dr. Schwartz's

girlfriend, Lisa, about
her dinner that night.

Right away, investigators
knew something was odd.

- They'd met online, as I recall,
and even though they'd only

been out two or three
times, Dr. Schwartz

had already asked
Lisa to marry him.

- Lisa also said that
during dinner, a man

named Bruce called Dr. Schwartz,
then later joined them.

What the girlfriend finds odd,

Bruce joins them but
doesn't have dinner.

He picks off of their plates.

And he's supposed
to know Schwartz

from some addiction
counseling meeting.

- And for someone who'd
been in drug rehab,

surprisingly, he ordered a beer.

She found that odd.

- The time was 8:30, an hour
after Dr. Stidham was k*lled.

Schwartz asked Bruce, so,
how'd those scrubs work out?

Bruce's answer to him was,
well, they worked out fine.

When she asked, well, why
were you wearing scrubs,

Bruce told her that he'd used
them for horse-back riding.

Which she found to be rather
ridiculous, because she's

very, very familiar with horses.

- When police analyzed Dr.
Schwartz's cell phone records,

they discovered that
someone called Dr. Schwartz

from a convenience store
pay phone a half hour

before the m*rder.

- That convenience store
is located only 400 feet

from the office complex where
Dr. Stidham's office was.

- The convenience store employee
said the man at the phone

was wearing surgical scrubs.

He told her that he was
supposed to be in a meeting,

and that they were serving
pizza at this meeting,

and he didn't feel like pizza.

- That was telling, since Dr.
Stidham was serving pizza

at that moment to
the medical residents

as he was lecturing
across the street.

A half hour after the
m*rder, Dr. Schwartz

got a call from a pay phone
located just across the street

from where Dr. Stidham's
car was dumped.

- So we've got all of these
things happening, so what's

most important,
at this point, is

we have to identify
who this other guy is.

- Investigators asked Dr.
Schwartz's office staff

if he had a patient named Bruce.

They said he did.

His name was Ronald
Bruce Bigger.

- He came into Dr.
Schwartz's office

getting in some sort
of fight and had an eye

injury that needed
taken care of.

- Bruce Bigger was no
stranger to law enforcement.

He'd served prison time
for drug offenses, fraud,

and was currently on parole
on a forgery conviction.

- What we know about
from Ronad Bruce

Bigger, Bruce, is that he was
unemployed, didn't have a car,

didn't have a phone,
didn't have a residence,

didn't have anything.

He did have a drug habit.

- And on the day after
Dr. Stidham's m*rder,

he had a lot of money.

- Bruce was seen with a
huge wad of 100s and 50s

as big as a softball
and told folks

that it was about $10,000.

- Surveillance cameras show
Dr. Schwartz cashing a check

that same day for
cash for $10,000.

- So that was a huge
piece of information.

- With that information
in hand, police

arrested Bruce Bigger on
the outskirts of Tucson.

A few hours later, Dr.
Schwartz was also in custody.

Dr. Schwartz, can
you tell us why you did this?

Did you do it, Dr. Schwartz?

- No comment.

- But prosecutors still
had a major problem.

No m*rder w*apon,
no eye witnesses, nothing.

What a hole.

How do you convince
a jury that's

raised on forensic evidence
that they see on TV to convict

somebody when you've got
nothing to show them?

- Tucson was a dream destination
for Dr. Brian Stidham.

He moved there after
he was recruited

by another ophthalmologist,
Dr. Bradley Schwartz,

but the two didn't
really get along.

Dr. Schwartz was addicted
to prescription dr*gs

and behaving erratically.

- Having affairs with
various women, which

was one of the things that
ultimately led to his divorce.

He was having sex with
patients or mothers

of patients in the office.

- When Dr. Schwarz lost
his medical privileges

and entered drug
rehabilitation, Dr. Stidham

decided to leave the practice
and go out on his own.

Later, when Dr. Schwartz
got back on his feet,

and his medical
license was reinstated,

Schwartz had to jumpstart
his surgical practice alone,

and according to
friends, resented it.

- Bottom line is, he
felt Stidham didn't

stand by him in
his time of need.

- In frustration, Dr. Schwartz
told various girlfriends

he thought about
harming his ex-partner.

- These women said
Schwartz wanted

to put acid in Stidham's eyes.

Crush Stidham's hands,
or ruin his reputation

like putting child pornography
on Stidham's computer.

- Although investigators
had plenty

of circumstantial evidence
against Dr. Schwartz and Bruce

Bigger in the m*rder,
they wanted more.

- It's incredibly
frustrating when

you know you've
got the right guy.

All the circumstantial evidence
tells you've got the right guy,

but you don't have
the kind of evidence

that juries demand these days.

That scientific evidence,
the fingerprint,

the blood drop, the DNA.

You don't have it.

- So investigators went back
inside Dr. Stidham's car,

looking once again for anything
that could help the case.

They didn't find foreign
fingerprints, hairs, or fibers,

and they had already
swabbed virtually

everything they could find.

- In this particular
case, dozens of swabs

were analyzed by several labs.

A lot of those did not
have any DNA on them.

- And the DNA they did find
belonged to the victim.

But after testing
about 60 swabs,

the lab found one, swab LX39,
taken from the air conditioning

knob, that had more
than two peaks.

That is immediately
indicative of the fact

that there is more
than one donor who

contributed the DNA
found in a the sample.

- The large peak on LX39
was the major donor.

It was DNA from Dr. Stidham.

The minor peak came from
microscopic skin cells,

the sample so small, it
was barely measurable.

But a new DNA test
generated a partial profile.

- There's a very good chance that
the DNA from the minor donor

came from Ronald Bruce Bigger.

- Scientists believe Bruce Bigger
may have wiped his forehead,

then turned on the
air conditioner,

leaving microscopic
skin cells behind.

- To have even just a little bit
of science is better than none

at all.

So, to have a
partial profile that

is consistent with
my defendant, was,

was very, very important
to me, and that's

what it boiled down to.

- Prosecutors believe this
m*rder was elaborately planned.

Wearing surgical scrubs,
Bruce Bigger called Dr.

Schwartz at the
restaurant around 7:00

Pm[ letting him
know he was ready.

At 7:30, Dr. Stidham
walked to his car.

Bigger rushed him with a
knife, stabbing him repeatedly.

Investigators believe
Bigger was wearing gloves

but, at some point, wiped
some sweat from his face,

then turned on the
air conditioner,

leaving his DNA behind.

After Bigger dumped
the doctor's car.

He called Dr. Schwartz
from across the street,

which signaled his
location again.

He later joined Dr.
Schwartz and his girlfriend

at dinner, where they tried to
communicate with one another

without suspicion.

This, too, was unsuccessful.

He made one mistake.

He left one piece
of himself behind.

Without that, it might have
been the perfect crime.

Now we could tie him to
the car and to the m*rder.

- Bruce Bigger was convicted
of first degree m*rder

and sentenced to life in prison.

Dr. Bradley Schwartz was
convicted of conspiracy

to m*rder and will serve
a minimum of 25 years.

Bruce Bigger k*lled
Dr. Stidham because he wanted

money, and Dr.
Schwartz had money

and wanted Dr. Stidham m*rder*d.

And, when they got together,
that was the catalyst.

- Your goal always,
uh, is to, uh, strive

to be, uh, as objective as
possible, uh, in your analysis.

Uh, sometimes that, uh,
helps free a person.

I'm just as proud of that as I
am the time when it helps to,

uh, convict an individual.

- What a waste.

What an utter waste of a life.

Actually, utter
waste of two lives.

Both of them were
brilliant surgeons.