14x04 - Three's a Crowd

[bunniefuu]

- Up next, a suburban
housewife is

gunned down outside her church.

I've seen
brazen murders in my career,

but I've never seen
one this brazen.

- The investigation reveals
some long held secrets.

You have a lesbian affair.

You have corruption.

You know, you have m*rder.

- A love triangle points
in one direction.

The evidence points in another.

This had a
lot of twists and turns.

What the hell
else was going to go on here?

- It was a cold October night
in Poughkeepsie, New York.

Jeff Fassett, a local
policeman, had the night off

and was home watching
TV with his two sons.

His wife, Susan, was at
church choir practice.

My mother
was involved in her church

pretty heavily.

She'd always loved it.

Um, she'd been involved in the
choir for most of her life.

- Around 7:30 PM, Jeff
Fassett told his boys

he was going down to
police headquarters.

- I'll be right back.

He did go out
to the town of Poughkeepsie

to get his paycheck three
miles west of his house.

- Sometime around 8:30, choir
practice ended at the Pleasant

Valley United Methodist
Church, and Susan Fassett

walked to her car to drive home.

Then, sh*ts rang out.

- People ran to the car
to see what had happened,

and they found Susan
Fassett mortally wounded.

- Witnesses saw a
light-colored vehicle

speeding from the scene.

No one indicated to
us that they could see a driver

or how many people, for that
matter, were in the car.

- In a search for suspects,
police immediately

looked at Susan's husband, Jeff.

Jeff Fassett, they learned,

left the house during the
time that Susan was m*rder*d.

- There were rumors
in the police force

that there were problems in
Jeff and Susan's marriage.

We are pretty
comfortable that Jeff

Fassett might be involved here.

- Shortly after Jeff
Fassett returned home,

police converged on his house.

- He begins to see cops across
the street watching him.

So he's watching them watch him.

They look like they have, you
know, shotguns and gear on,

and they're
surrounding the house,

and they're going to come
here and ambush this place.

- Jeff wanted to find out
why this was happening.

He made several
phone calls to his police

department, to the state police.
- Yeah.

This is Fassett.

There's a bunch of patrol
cars outside my house.

What's going on?

Nobody was coming
right out and telling him.

Susan's son Jason
had made a call to the church

and had learned that his
mother had been sh*t.

That's the only
information he had.

- Dad.

Dad, Mom's been sh*t.

- Not sure what to do, Jeff
turned off all the lights.

It looked as if he was

barricading himself
inside the house.

I remember
sitting in the house in, uh,

dark, in silence for what seemed
like a very, very long time.

- They don't know what
he's going to do now.

If a man has k*lled his wife,
his children may be next,

and then he may k*ll himself.

- Two tense hours passed before
Jeff Fassett and his two sons

came out of the house.

They are led outside with
their hands behind their head,

handcuffed, and
tossed on the ground,

face down, like
common criminals.

- And I'm waiting to
find out what happened

to my mother, who... all I
know is she's been sh*t.

Now all of a sudden,
we're all, you

know, seemingly under arrest.

Everyone's crying.

Everyone's upset.

- Eventually, even
Jason Fassett had

to consider the unthinkable.

I remember
sitting there thinking, like,

could this be real?

Am I going to have
to face a reality

where my father had done this?

- Susan Fassett's m*rder looked
like a professional hit.

The k*ller was
apparently lying in wait

and had planned a quick
get away from the scene.

I've seen
brazen murders in my career,

but I've never seen
one this brazen

that just seemed to vanish.

- All of Susan's personal
effects were found in the car,

indicating that it
was not a robbery.

- Susan's husband,
Jeff, a 24-year veteran

of the Poughkeepsie
Police Department

denied any involvement
in Susan's m*rder,

although he didn't
have an alibi.

We could not

confirm where Jeff
was when it happened.

- And Jeff's car was
similar to the vehicle

seen speeding from
the crime scene.

You look at his record,

and his record is blemish free.

I mean, he had absolutely
nothing in his record

that would indicate that he
would turn violent at all.

- But Jeff thought he
knew who was responsible.

Even said to
me, put me under hot lights.

b*at me with rubber hoses.

I don't care what you do
to me, but when you're all

done with me, go
see Fred Andros.

He is behind this.

- Fred Andros was
the superintendent

for the Town of Poughkeepsie, a
man with a terrible reputation.

Right out of the gate,

people had told us
what a scumbag he was.

- Fred Andros a self-centered,
mean, nasty prick.

- Fred Andros and Susan Fassett
bumped into each other,

apparently, one day in
the hallway in the, uh,

town building.

They started a relationship.

- Just one month
earlier, Jeff Fassett

learned his wife, Susan, was
having an affair with Fred

Andros, an affair which had gone
on for the last three years.

Jeff put some
sort of tape recording device

on his telephone,
unbeknownst to her.

In fact, she did
get caught receiving

and making phone
calls to Fred Andros.

- When Jeff Fassett confronted
his wife about the affair,

Susan promised to end it.

Things really up in the air.

And then one day,
they just came to us

and said that they were
going to work on things.

They were going to fix things.

- Police wondered if Fred
Andros might have been angry

that Susan ended their affair.

But Fred Andros had
an airtight alibi

for the night of Susan's m*rder.

Andros and his wife had friends
over to dinner that night.

- The alibi that Fred had for us
in having dinner with a police

officer was corroborated
with the police

officer and, in fact, his wife.

So he was there.

He was not at our crime scene.

Fred Andros

was despondent and upset.

He wanted to know... I
think he asked things like,

who would do such a thing?

And... and he cared about her.

- At the autopsy,
the medical examiner

recovered five b*ll*ts
from Susan's body.

You're looking for a Llama

or a Ruger manufactured


- We determined that Andros
didn't have a registered 45

handgun, nor did
he have a vehicle

that fit the description
of the vehicle

that was leaving the scene.

- The victim's
husband, Jeff Fassett,

didn't own a 45-caliber
w*apon, either.

But the medical examiner
discovered one additional clue.

Susan had intercourse within


- When Jeff Fassett was
questioned about this,

it was news to him.

- They test that semen
against Jeff Fassett's DNA,

and it's not a match.

- Police asked Fred Andros
if he'd had sexual relations

with Susan Fassett before
her m*rder, and he said no.

- He had told us that he
hadn't seen her in a month

and had never been intimate.

- Andros explained why
he was unable to have

sexual relations.

- Fred had said to us that he
was unable to perform sexually

due to the medication
he was taking.

- Fred said he was impotent, but,
uh, that was clearly discounted

by the, uh, numerous
interviews with the prostitutes

in the area that that
was nothing but a hoax.

He was picking
up prostitutes every day,

for crying out loud.

I confirmed, uh,
through his wife

that he wasn't having
relations with her,

but, um, he was... he was
picking up hookers every day.

- When asked to provide a
DNA sample, Andros refused.

They really have no legal reason

to order a DNA sample
from Fred Andros.

You have to have some evidence.

You... and they have none.

They're trying
to obtain a court order to go

to a judge and say, this guy
was alibied not near the scene.

He doesn't have the type
of w*apon that was used.

He doesn't have the type
of car that was used.

You know, that...
That... that starts

to detract from your... from
your real hard suspicion.

- If Susan Fassett didn't have
sex with her husband or Fred

Andros, then she was having
an affair with someone else.

Which opens up

a whole new pool of
suspects for the police.

- Susan Fassett's
autopsy revealed

she'd had sexual relations
within two days of her m*rder.

DNA from that encounter did
not match her husband, Jeff.

So who was it?

Her former lover, Fred Andros,
denied it was him, although he

refused to provide a DNA sample.

We knew it wasn't Jeff,

and we're thinking
it had to be Fred.

Who else would it be?

Because we absolutely
could find nobody else,

uh, that was involved with
Susan that would have had sex

with her a couple days
before the m*rder.

- So Detective Art Boyko
called Andros and set a trap.

I told him
I'd bring him up some lunch.

Uh, he said, sure, that's great.

I brought him a hamburger,
French fries, and a drink.

And right after we got in
the car and started talking,

I said, here's your lunch, Fred.
Here's your drink.

Here's your... you
hamburger and fries.

- But Adros said he wasn't hungry
and didn't touch anything.

It was in the
middle of the day, lunchtime.

The sun was coming
in through the car.

He had a flannel jacket on.

I cranked up the
heat, hoping to, uh,

kind of sweat it out of him.

- The car got hotter
and hotter, but Andros

still wouldn't touch anything.

So I cranked up the
heat more, and so he

went ahead and took a drink.

And once he took the
sip out of that straw,

I knew I had what I wanted.

- Essentially, Fred is
handing over his DNA.

- Tests confirmed that Fred
Andros's DNA matched the DNA

taken during Susan
Fassett's autopsy.

Within 48 hours of her death,

he had had sexual
relations with her.

- He had told us that he
hadn't seen her in a month.

- That's a big lie.
It was like a b*mb going off.

Uh, that was something
that Fred, you know,

deliberately hid, and we wanted
to know the good reason why.

- When faced with the
forensic evidence,

Andros had no choice
but to admit he lied.

But he claimed he did it
to protect the k*ller.

During the
course of that interview, uh,

after a time, Fred Andros
had offered up the name

Dawn Silvernail as a
possibility of the one

who had committed this m*rder.

- 50-year-old Dawn Silvernail
it was a state employee

with no criminal record and
was married with one grown son.

- She's a housewife.

She's got a college education.

She works with the disabled.

She's got a great reputation.

She's never, ever
been in trouble.

- Andros told police he was
having an affair with Dawn

Silvernail at the
same time he was

having an affair
with Susan Fassett.

In fact, he said
the three of them

had five or six sexual
encounters together.

- I told him I'd never done
anything like that before.

And I went to the house,
and she was there,

and he introduced me to her.

And we talked for a few minutes,
and then we went upstairs,

and we engaged in a threesome
with the three of us

there that lasted
maybe half an hour.

Fred would
videotape Susan and Dawn having

sex, and then Fred
would be involved

in the threesome between them.

- Fred Andros suspected that Dawn
Silvernail and Susan Fassett

started seeing one
another alone and perhaps

had a lover's quarrel.

Dawn denied it.

I never had
any contact with Susan Fassett

unless Fred called
me and set it up,

and we met with Fred
in Fred's presence.

I never had any independent
contact of any type

with Susan, ever.

- Dawn also denied having
anything to do with Susan's

m*rder, saying she had
no motive to harm her.

She was so
calm, so cool, so cooperative

that we had to think,
jeez, maybe not.

Maybe... maybe she's not
involved in this thing.

- A background check showed
Dawn owned a 45-caliber handgun

like the one used
in Susan's m*rder.

- She also had a vehicle
registered, uh, to her

that, uh, fit the
general description

of the vehicle seen
leaving the scene.

- But ballistic tests
revealed Susan's g*n did not

match the striations in the
b*ll*ts used in Susan's m*rder.

It looks as if the g*n
had been tampered with.

Up until
that point in my career,

I had never seen that,
where the rifling has been

totally removed out of a w*apon.

- That was incapable of being
compared to any projectiles

that we found at the scene.

- If Fred or Dawn Silvernail
were involved in Susan Fassett's

m*rder, police still had
no evidence to prove it.

Dawn Silvernail admitted
she'd had sexual threesomes

with Susan Fassett
and Fred Andros

but denied any involvement
in Susan's m*rder.

Dawn's 45-caliber w*apon
didn't match the b*ll*ts used

in Susan's m*rder,
but her neighbors

told police some
interesting new.

They said that Dawn
and her husband

would often fire their g*ns
in the back of their property

using the trees for
target practice.

Investigators
immediately converged

on the area looking for b*ll*ts.

We had to go back in time

and find a b*llet
that had passed

through that barrel before
it had been destroyed.

- They recovered dozens
of damage b*ll*ts.

One had distinct
striations on the bottom.

I was able
to make a match to the, uh,

homicide projectiles
from Susan Fassett,

uh, for a positive
identification

that, indeed, Dawn
Silvernail's 45

Ruger was involved in this case.

- Dawn Silvernail was
confronted with the evidence.

- She kind of hung her head
and then said three times

that, uh, I sh*t
that poor woman.

- I rolled down the window.

And when she reached up
to fasten her seat belt,

I pulled the g*n
up, and I fired.

And I sh*t her.

- But why?

Dawn said Fred
Andros wanted revenge

against Susan for
ending their affair.

Given Fred's ego, nobody

was going to say,
uh, no to Fred.

Nobody would break up with Fred.

- But why did Dawn
Silvernail do it?

Dawn says Andros loaned her more
than $15,000 over the 20 years

they'd known one another.

Instead of paying
him back, Andros

asked her to m*rder
Susan to erase the debt.

Andros basically said
she had no choice.

He threatened my entire family

and told me that, if I wouldn't
take care of this problem

with Susan for him,
that something would

happen to somebody that I loved.

- To find out if Dawn
Silvernail's version was true,

investigators used a
new tool called WebTAS.

WebTAS stands
for the web-enabled temporal

analysis system, and it's a
system developed specifically

for the m*llitary and
Department of Defense

to assist with information
analysis against their,

uh, different databases.

- WebTAS collates information
from cell phones,

pagers, e-mails,
and E-ZPass trips.

Investigators compared all this
data from the three main people

in this case,
Susan Fassett, Dawn

Silvernail, and Fred Andros.

The majority
of those communications

were from Fred to Dawn.

And what that indicated
to us was, in fact,

that Fred was not only
planning some activity

but also preparing a conspiracy.

- The evidence
corroborated Dawn's story.

The records

reveal that, within 15 or 20
minutes of the time that she

k*lled Susan, she
stopped at a pay phone

and paged Mr. Andros to signal
him that it had been done.

If you accept what Fred
Andros says, that this

is Dawn Silvernail with her own
motive and her own motivation,

his story doesn't make
sense that she would stop

and, of all people, simply
dial a pay phone and page him

and signal him.

The only person that
she would do that for

is a person who was
involved and knew.

- At Fred Andros's
direction, Dawn

went to the United
Methodist Church

on the night of choir practice.

She parked next to
Susan's car and waited.

When Susan got into her car to
go home, Dawn fired five sh*ts

and sped away.

Dawn told investigators
she left the m*rder w*apon

and phony license plates
in a prearranged spot.

Computer forensics revealed
that Dawn used a pay phone

to leave a message
on Fred's pager


signal the assignment was done.

Later, Fred collected
the evidence,

altered the g*n's ballistics,
and returned the g*n to Dawn.

No one knows why Susan
Fassett met with Fred Andros

shortly before her m*rder,
but for Fred Andros,

his behavior was
particularly appalling.

He looked in her eyes,

knowing that she was going
to be dead within 48 hours.

And that speaks to the
character of Fred Andros.

He
Was a mean-spirited prick.

If there is such thing as a
Napoleonic complex, he had it.

- When police went to
arrest Fred Andros,

he was waiting for them.

And they go into his house.

Investigators walking
up the stairs, and pow.

There's a g*nsh*t.

But Fred survived the
self-inflicted g*nsh*t

in his face.

- I think that it's fitting
that he wasn't able to do it,

that he only deformed himself
and, in turn, was arrested

and was forced to go to trial.

- Fred Andros was
tried and convicted

of second degree m*rder
and first class conspiracy.

He was sentenced to 25
years to life in prison.

He d*ed of a heart
att*ck after serving

only a few years
of his sentence.

- It's entirely appropriate
that he d*ed in prison

and is burning in hell.

- Dawn Silvernail was tried
and convicted of second degree

m*rder and was sentenced to a
minimum of 18 years in prison.

Gullible.
Naive.

She falls for it.

Believes it.

And, in the end,
she's a m*rder*r.

She's a convicted m*rder*r.

Scary person.

- People look at me
like I'm a monster.

And maybe I am.
I don't know.

Maybe I am.

But I'm a monster who's
filled with remorse,

and I feel for the people I hurt
when I did... allowed this man

to manipulate me into
doing what I did.

- Everybody had a part
in this, and every lead

was just tenaciously followed.

Every item of evidence
was collected and tested.

And, uh, it's just
nice when the puzzle

fits together in the end.