14x02 - Hear No Evil

[bunniefuu]

Up next.

A woman goes missing.

- An obvious possibility
was an abduction.

Police find hints of a secret

life inside the
victim's computer.

- The internet opens up a whole
new superhighway of suspects.

And disturbing evidence

in an unexpected location.

- Something had happened
in that basement.

- They almost look
like chainsaw marks.

Scientists provide answers

that no one wanted to accept.

- When they introduce
you to the chapel

as you know the news you
could receive is not good.

It was a February morning

and Sioux Falls, South Dakota.

A routine work day for JDS
Industries, a company that

makes trophies for sports teams.

Routine, except one of their
most dependable employees,

Darlene VanderGiesen
didn't report

to work for a
second straight day.

On Friday, when
she did not show up for work,

her boss called her
parents, Dee and Gene.

Darlene's
parents immediately drove

to Darlene's apartment since
they had their own key.

We went to her apartment,

and we saw her cell phone.

We knew something was wrong.

She never traveled
anywhere, never did anything

without having that
cellphone, so people

could get a hold of
her if they needed to.

Darlene's cell phone
was especially important to her

since she was deaf.

Deaf people rely heavily

on cell phones and text
messaging, instant messaging.

That's their lifeline
with the hearing world.

Darlene's cell phone records

indicated she hadn't used her
phone for the past two days.

Police found nothing
inside the apartment

to indicate foul play.

There was no
sign of a forced entry.

There was no sign of a struggle.

There was overturned furniture.

There were no broken
items in her apartment.

Later that day,
a restaurant employee

called police
reporting an abandoned

truck in their parking lot.

The truck was Darlene's.

The police were
hoping that that would be

a clue as to who was with
Darlene on that night,

but no one in the pizza store
remembered seeing Darlene.

Darlene's parents
told police they were concerned

she had been using the
internet to meet men.

My reaction to her

was, I said, oh
Darling be so careful.

There are so many, excuse the
expression, weirdos out there.

Investigators
took Darlene's computer

to the forensic lab where
they used a piece of software

called EnCase.

Using EnCase we can

run a different type of search.

We can either run
an internet search

or an instant messaging search.

Email search.

We can look at internet history
to see what pages were visited

and when.

The search revealed
several troubling emails

Darlene had received 10 days
before her disappearance.

The emails were threatening,

but it was almost...
It was kind of

in a childish way, kind
of very poor English.

They were
from a woman identified

online as Wendy Smith.

Hello Darlene.

You are troublemaker.

You are ugly and stupid.
Bitch.

I hate you.

According to Darlene's friends,

she didn't know anyone by
the name of Wendy Smith.

We kind of assume that they were

possibly written
by a deaf person.

My understanding is that
deaf people don't necessarily

speak conversational English
like hearing people do.

They Speak more in blocky,
unstructured sentences

just to get a subject across.

Having a deaf acquaintance

wouldn't have been
unusual since Darlene

too was hearing impaired.

We then sent a subpoena to Yahoo

asking for any and
all information

regarding that account
that was created.

The computer analysis also

revealed Darlene met a local
man online, Jeff Flynn,

and the two had been dating.

Flynn worked as a field hand on
a farm about a 90 minute drive

away, but when police got to his
apartment, he too was missing.

The most recently anyone

had seen him was Thursday, but
no one knew where he had went.

His friends down
there were saying

that that was unusual
for him to leave town

for an extended period of time.

Unusual indeed.

In the days following Darling
VanderGiesen's disappearance,

first casual boyfriend, Jeff
Flynn, was nowhere to be found.

When they
suspected that Darlene might

have just taken off for a
weekend with this gentleman,

I insisted over and over
this is not Darlene.

Just didn't ring true
with her personality.

Four days later, Jeff returned.

He said he was visiting
friends out of town.

He was nervous.

Most people are nervous when
they speak to the police.

He was nervous and concerned.

Concerned for Darlene.

Inside the trunk of Jeff's car,

evidence technicians found
what looked like dried blood.

Law enforcement's
antenna really went up

when they saw the
blood in the trunk.

My presumptive
testing showed that it was

likely blood, and further
testing confirmed that it was,

but the detectives were
interested if it was, in fact,

human.

When the police had told us

they found blood
in the car, how do

you describe your heart sinking?

Very, very low.

But forensic testing quickly

proved the blood
was not Darlene's.

It was deer blood.

When they found out

that the blood was deer
blood, huge relief.

A huge relief.

Because then the hope
came back that possibly

she was still alive somewhere.

Meanwhile investigators

were able to trace the source
of the threatening emails

Darlene received shortly
before her disappearance.

When we did
receive the emails that Darlene

had received from Wendy Smith,
that gave us the ability

to send a subpoena
to Yahoo to find out

who may have created
that Yahoo account.

The emails came from this home

in downtown Sioux Falls.

The occupant was a deaf
woman named Daphne Wright.

Daphne said that
she'd met Darlene several times

at the deaf
apartments, that she'd

she met her at the deaf club.


Wright had no criminal record.

During police questioning,
Wright denied any involvement.

- I don't send any emails.

It could have been a
hacker that did it.

- I don't... I don;t
believe the hacker story.

I think you sent
the emails to her.

You created an account
with a different name,

and sent her the
emails on those days

telling her to stay away
from the apartments.

- Oh, yeah, yeah.
I did that.

- OK, and you created
the name Wendy Smith.

- Yes, I did that.

A background check
revealed Daphne Wright had been

involved in a public altercation
with Darlene VanderGiesen

just five days before
she disappeared.

Darlene was having dinner
with Sally Ford, who

was Daphne Wright's
former lover.

They had had kind of argument

that the police had
to be called to,

and she had to be
escorted off the property.

Daphne Wright told the police

that she was jealous.

She told the police that
she thought that Darlene was

destroying her relationship
with her lover.

But by all accounts,
Darlene and Sally Ford

were nothing more
than casual friends.

Darlene and this woman

did not have a
lesbian relationship.

And in fact, Darlene
was not a lesbian.

Darlene told friends
she had patched things up

with Daphne Wright
after this incident.

She said oh mom.

She says we're friends now.

We're all made up, and we're
comfortable with each other.

It's all OK now.

But when Daphne Wright
was questioned about Darlene's

disappearance, the jealousy
was still apparent.

- We've had a lot of
problems, Sally and I.

- Did you think Sally was
cheating on you with Darlene?

- Yes, I thought so,
and sometimes she lies.

- Who lies?

- Sally.

Was Darlene the victim
of a love triangle gone wrong?

Daphne Wright's whereabouts
on the night Darlene

disappeared could
provide the answer.

After sending threatening
emails to Darlene VanderGiesen,

Daphne Wright became the prime
suspect in her disappearance.

Police got a search
warrant for Daphne's house,

and what they found
inside was troubling.

I remember the smell of paint

and the smell of
cleaning products,

especially when we got
down towards the basement.

They look
in the kitchen garbage,

and there's a half full
bottle chainsaw oil.

And they look a little
further, and there's

a receipt for Ace Hardware
for a chainsaw purchase

just a few days ago.

This was a time
of year in South Dakota where

chainsaws are not
in huge demand.

But there was no
chainsaw in Daphne's house

or anywhere on her property.

Downstairs the basement had
been painted with blue paint.

There would
be a spot painted here,

and a spot painted
there, and they'd

be different sizes
and things like that.

Parts of the
wall, not the whole wall.

A three or four foot
section of the floor,

but not the whole floor.

Parts of the steps,
but not all steps.

A few feet away was a small room

that had once been
used to store coal.

The floor was completely

repainted in this blue
paint that was still

tacky and soft touch,
indicating that it

had been freshly painted.

Police also noticed seven
distinct symmetrical

cuts in the concrete floor.

Several of us made a comment

that they almost looked
like chainsaw marks.

So law enforcement
began their investigation

by going to Ace
Hardware stores in town.

Once there, investigators

showed store clerks
a photo lineup,

which included Daphne's picture.

One of the
clerks was able to say yes, I

sold the chainsaw to a
woman, and she was deaf.

That matches the description
of Daphne Wright to a T.

She came in with a note

that said tree cutting machine.

And he took her to the...
To the wrong section

at first because
he misunderstood.

But then he took her to
the chainsaw section.

She was very worried
about the price,

and she picked out
the cheapest chainsaw

available at the store.

Once scientists got
into Daphne Wright's basement,

they had no difficulty finding
even more incriminating

evidence on the wooden walls
of the coal storage room.

We were able to see on the walls

there were some very
small, tiny pieces of bone

and what appeared to be tissue.

Investigators
collected the tissue and bone

samples for analysis and
compared those samples

to the DNA they obtained
from Darlene's tooth and hair

brushes.

That day we were

met by a couple of detectives,
and we were escorted upstairs.

And when we opened the room,
when they introduce you

to the chaplain, and
the chief of police,

and all the detectives
are in the room

and ask you to
sit down, you know

the news you're going
to receive is not good.

And it wasn't.

Darlene's DNA matched the blood

and tissue found in
Daphne's basement.

She felt that Darlene

was coming in between
her and Sally.

And the only way that
she could take care of it

was to eliminate her
from the picture.

But investigators
still had a problem.

They didn't have Darlene's body.

A jury likes a body.

A jury likes a m*rder w*apon.

And you just never know.

You get that one skeptical
juror who doesn't ha...

Doesn't see the body, and
there's maybe enough doubt

for someone to say not
guilty in a case like that.

In their search police,

first check the dumpsters
where Daphne and her neighbors

disposed of their trash.

By the time
the officers got there,

the dumpsters had already been
dumped into the garbage truck

and taken out to city landfill.

Police went to
the Sioux Falls landfill.

A 470 acre property that
serviced five counties

and almost a quarter
of a million people.

It was estimated
that there was probably

some 200 to 300 tons of garbage
that had been brought out there

in the days that we had
been looking for Darlene.

It's below zero
with a frigid wind chill,

and all the police
were volunteering

out there searching.

They had pitchforks and
picks, and they were picking

through the trash, you
know, one foot at a time.

For the three dozen searcher,

the job was difficult
and frustrating.

It went on for days
with no guarantee

the body was even
in the landfill.

The conditions
could have been more horrid.

It was freezing.

It was windy.

It was awful.

And it was a massive effort

to go through the contents
of the landfill looking

for Darlene.

She wanted to bring
that little, that little

morsel of... of joy
into your life.

And every time I saw a photo,
I saw a smile and a big smile.

Three weeks after
Darlene VanderGiesen went

missing, her friends, family
and the deaf community

gathered for a
memorial service, even

though investigators
hadn't yet found her body.

We knew we were
going challenge ahead of us

to locate her body.

After five days of
searching at the landfill,

investigators got a break.

They found the legs and lower
torso of an adult female.

They also found bloody
pieces of carpet

and a blood stained sweatshirt.

It was a sweatshirt that

had some graphics on
it of sign language,

so we knew right there there
was a tie to the deaf community.

Testing proved it was Darlene's

blood on the sweatshirt.

But someone else's DNA was
found inside the sweatshirt.

I took cuttings from the inside

of the sweatshirt,
hoping that one of them

had transferred enough
DNA, or enough skin cells,

to the inside to
get a full profile,

and I was fortunate
and did get a profile.

And that matched Daphne Wright.

By being
able to put Daphne Wright

inside a sweatshirt that had
Darlene VanderGiesen's blood

and tissue on the front of
it, was extremely important.

The sweatshirt was
a critical item in this case,

because it was one of the few
pieces the tied both victim

and suspect together.


the border in Minnesota,

a highway worker
found Darlene's torso

and her severed head
encased in plastic.

The medical examiner
found Darlene

suffered blunt force
trauma to her head.

It had been tied,
cinched around her throat

with a piece of cord
that was matched by one

of our forensic people in
to a spool of cord

hanging on the garage
wall in the house that

was occupied by Daphne Wright.

The medical
examiner had two theories

as to how Darlene was m*rder*d.

Cause of death was
either this blunt force trauma,

the seven inch skull fracture,
or suffocation from this bag

being placed over her head,
or a combination of the two.

Prosecutors say
Daphne was convinced Darlene was

trying to steal
her ex-girlfriend

and wanted to prevent it.

She asked Darlene to meet
her at the pizza restaurant,

but once there, she
changed her mind

and asked Darlene to come
to her house instead.

Once there, Daphne hit
Darlene with a heavy object,

pushed her down the stairs,
then tied a thick plastic bag

around your head with
cord from her home.

She later bought a chain saw
to dismember Darlene's body.

She left behind the sales
receipt, store witnesses,

and plenty of forensic evidence.

Daphne disposed of the body
parts in nearby dumpsters

and in a ditch 25 miles away.

Later she tried to hide
the evidence with paint,

but it wasn't nearly enough.

There was this virtual mountain

of evidence of the
defendant's guilt.

Those emails
and what the emails showed us,

pointed us right
to Daphne Wright.

Daphne's motivation

was one that has been,
throughout the ages

in a homicide, is jealousy.

The tragedy is that Darlene

had no romantic
interest in Daphne's

ex-girlfriend Sally Ford.

Darlene was
not interested in that.

Darlene was not
a lesbian person.

Darlene and Sally did not have
that kind of relationship.

Daphne Wright was
charged with first degree

m*rder, and became the first
woman in South Dakota history

to face a possible
death sentence.

You want a mother

to describe her
daughters m*rder*r?

A very cold hearted.

I don't know how
to describe her.

There's just no sense to
it, and so the question

why will more than
likely never be answered,

unless Daphne
herself will say why.

I would have
to describe Daphne Wright

as just a cold blooded m*rder*r.

To be able to dismember a
human body with a chainsaw

takes a lot of gall.

Takes a lot of spite.

My opinion, you
really have to dislike

somebody to do that to them.

Daphne Wright was convicted,

but the jury spared her life.

Instead she'll spend
the rest of her life

in prison with no
possibility of parole.

- There was maybe
one or two jurors

that stood their ground very
firmly from the beginning

that, no matter what, they would
not go with the death penalty.

- One thing that just
kept coming back

what do we get out of sentencing
her to the death penalty what

did she get out of
it went to society

get out there what
do we get out of it.

And really we
didn't see anything

good that came from it.

This is a
completely senseless m*rder.

It didn't have to happen.

Darlene was never a
thr*at to the relationship

between Sally and Daphne.

It taught me a
lesson not to assume anything

when you're talking to somebody.

That person you're sitting
across from in the interview

room is probably capable of
doing pretty much anything,

even though the evidence
might not show it up front.

This was about as...
As textbook of a forensic case

as you could think.

There was no smoking
g*n in this case.

It was all the little
bits of forensic evidence

that connect the dots.

And it all led detectives
in one direction,

and that was toward
Daphne Wright.