Up next, a triple
homicide shocks a small town.
There's three great guys
and they're gone,
and nobody knows why.
The crime scene
has some unusual evidence,
but detectives still
can't identify a suspect.
It was very stunning.
A bit of a shock wave.
A lot of speculation
on what had happened,
why it had happened,
who could have done it.
The k*ller leaves
an odd clue behind,
and it proves a dog
can sometimes be
a homicide investigator's
best friend.
We would have never
in a million years
thought that it was dog feces
that was going to lead us
where we needed to go.
With a population
of fewer than 1,000 people,
Lakeville, Indiana,
is classic rural America.
I grew up there.
It's a small town
where families are intertwined
and we know each other
and we've all grown up together.
Just a very safe
and comforting place to be.
But Lakeville is only
a few hours' drive from Detroit
and from Chicago,
so in recent years,
this small town has seen
some big-city problems.
Over the years, the violent
crime has slowly increased
and has gotten bad.
We, again, are no different
than any other city
throughout the country
that has a g*ng problem
and drug problems.
On a September
afternoon in 2000,
a contractor went to check in
with three co-workers
who were doing renovations
at a large, upscale property
on the outskirts of town.
What he found continues to shock
Lakeville residents to this day.
His co-workers were dead.
All three
were laying side by side
on the floor
of an outbuilding, a barn.
They had been sh*t point-blank
in the head.
We're looking at three bodies,
hands duct-taped behind them,
appearing to have been ex*cuted.
My brother called
to say that Dad had been sh*t,
and I figured he was maybe out
on a tractor in the field
or doing some work for my cousin
and maybe an errant b*llet
had hit him from a hunter.
And, uh, I said, "Okay."
I said, "Where will
I need to go?"
And he said,
"There's nowhere to go."
He was dead.
The victims were identified
as 58-year-old Wayne Shumaker,
and 30-year-old Corby Myers.
Of the three victims,
was the youngest.
Myers lived in Breman
and was engaged to be married.
Recently, he found out
his fiancée
was pregnant with their child.
People were shocked
because these were workers
from small towns in the area.
You know, quiet,
rural-type area,
so it's always shocking to hear
about something like that.
No one had any idea
who would do this.
The victims and the homeowners,
who were gone while a barn
on their property
was being renovated,
had no known enemies.
Who?
How? Why?
Why did this crime occur?
These gentlemen were hardworking
family men.
Why did they have to end up
in the fashion that they did?
A possible motive
presented itself
after detectives went from
the barn to the main house.
The entire house
had been ransacked...
drawers pulled out,
dropped on the floor.
Everything's disturbed
inside the home.
It was an extensive scene
to cover.
We were there for several days
doing fingerprints,
collecting evidence, documenting
everything that we see
through photography and video,
as well as then inside the barn.
It looked as if
the k*ller used a ladder
to enter the house
through an upstairs window.
Since the homeowners
weren't there,
it was impossible to say what,
if anything, had been stolen.
The home was isolated.
It sat at the end
of a half-mile long driveway
and was adjacent
to a large cornfield.
We were in the cornfield
looking for any type of footwear
to see if there was
an escape route,
if they ran through the corn,
if they dropped any
of the firearms,
if they dropped any type
of evidence, a ball cap,
which would lead us
to DNA analysis,
but we did not locate anything.
We were even up in the state
police helicopter.
It was just to no avail.
Investigators had few clues.
No m*rder w*apon, no suspects,
no witnesses,
and a community desperate
for answers.
I want to know
why this happened.
I want to know who did this.
It was the middle of September
in a quiet corner
of the county near Lakeville
where a construction worker
found three co-workers dead.
It was somewhat surreal.
The first few days,
it was just kind of spent
trying to... understand,
just really to kind of come
to terms with what had happened
and explaining to my children,
who were young.
It was hard to escape
the conclusion
that these
three construction workers
were specifically targeted
for m*rder,
but no one could identify anyone
who would want them dead,
and robbery didn't make
sense as a motive.
Nothing had been stolen
from the victims,
and when
the homeowners returned,
they told police that
except for some jewelry,
nothing of value
had been taken from the house.
We had two crime scenes.
We had the actual
homicide scene,
which was in the pole barn,
as well as the burglary
that occurred inside the home.
Inside the barn,
we collected lumber,
shell casings, b*llet fragments,
the duct tape that was
around the victims' wrists.
But no foreign fingerprints
were found in the house,
in the barn,
or on the duct tape used
to bind the victims.
That's not uncommon,
not to find
any fingerprints there,
because the suspects
may have worn gloves,
which in this case,
our investigation led us
to believe
that they were wearing gloves.
The victims' autopsies
provided a lead.
Slugs recovered from
each of the bodies
provided
a possible identification
on the m*rder w*apon.
It was a 9mm.
We believe it was a TEC-9.
The ballistics said that TEC-9
would have been
one of the weapons that
could have fired the rounds.
Authorities say this type of g*n
is popular with g*ng members.
A very large handgun.
It almost looks like
it could be some type
of an a*t*matic w*apon.
Very large, large clip.
Had a bit of a muzzle shroud.
So a pretty imposing...
pretty imposing w*apon,
in terms of just visually.
Among the last people
to see the victims alive
was a man who delivered
a load of lumber
on the morning of the murders.
The lumber contained
possible evidence.
On top of one of these pieces
of wood
was a barely visible shoe print,
apparently from a sneaker.
This led to another,
possibly similar clue.
On the sidewalk by
the side entrance of the home,
just below the window that was
entered by the suspects,
there was a small pile
of dog feces on the sidewalk,
and our evidence technicians
looked at it
and saw what appeared
to be footwear impressions
in that dog feces,
which they documented,
again through photographs,
and then they collected
the feces itself
for possible future testing.
The dog feces had hardened,
and in a stroke of luck,
provided an ideal template
for this shoe print,
and it looked like it was made
by the same shoe
that left the print
on top of the wood...
a fact later confirmed
by side-by-side analysis
of both prints.
These shoes didn't match
any shoes from people
who lived in the house
and didn't match the shoes
of any of the victims.
Given the print's locations,
it was almost certain the shoe
that made the prints
was worn by the k*ller.
We were pretty sure that we had
the shoes that were right below
the window that was entered
by the suspects.
But while this
was solid evidence,
investigators still had
no suspects.
The possibility of the k*ller
running free
unnerved the community
and horrified investigators.
There was a real concern.
You know, this is a type
of situation
that could simply go unsolved.
But then, investigators
got a surprise call
that turned
the case upside down.
The caller said she was watching
news of the murders
with a young co-worker,
and that this young woman,
no relation to the victims,
said she knew who did it.
If she hadn't said anything,
I suppose this may still be
just an unsolved mystery.
This lady had started
the ball rolling
on really all of our information
in this case.
Two days after
the triple murders
in Lakeville, Indiana,
analysts were still processing
the crime scene
but had no suspects.
Then, they got
an unexpected call.
The call came into the dispatch
center of a woman
saying that she supervises
a girl
who was at work at the time
when she saw the news,
and that she had broken down
and started crying
and made the comment
that she thought
she was responsible
for what had happened.
The woman in question
was 18-year-old Charity Payne,
and her role in the case
remains a source of controversy.
She was the ex-girlfriend
of a young man
who lived in the house
where the murders took place.
Charity's story
was that one day,
she happened to run into a group
of men she'd never seen before.
They told her they were g*ng
members from out of town
and were casing homes
in Lakeville
because they wanted
to pull off a crime.
They called it a lick.
That was slang at the time
for "robbery."
I really think there was just
a lot of flirting
and teenage fooling around
going on there.
Charity later said
she didn't think
the men were serious,
but that she played
along anyway.
I think she was
trying to be a big sh*t
around these guys
who were obviously guys
who were involved
in criminal activity,
and was trying to impress them.
Charity told the g*ng members
she knew the perfect place
for a robbery...
her ex-boyfriend's family
was gone for the day.
Their house would be empty,
and there were plenty
of valuables there.
She said there was
an opportunity
where they could make
a lot of money.
Now, how that came up,
I have no idea.
She was able
to provide information
to her new friends
about items in the house,
how to get around
the alarm system,
the schedule
for the cleaning lady.
All those kinds of things.
When Charity
told police this story,
it became immediately
apparent to them
that these g*ng members
were capable of m*rder.
Because she told them that,
"You can't go on a certain date,
that there's housekeepers
are going to be there."
They go, "We don't care.
We'll k*ll her."
Charity Payne didn't
know much about these men.
Three of them used street names,
but one of them, the apparent
leader of the group, did not.
His name was Phillip Stroud,
and he was well-known
to law enforcement.
He had probation violations
and he had other pending cases.
He had lucked out and had
an attempted m*rder case
dismissed against him
a few months earlier
because there were
evidentiary issues,
but he still had
cocaine charges.
He was scheduled to go on trial
close to when this happened.
Investigators,
armed with a search warrant,
found Stroud
at his girlfriend's apartment,
and the search provided
a possible break in the case.
There's a hallway and a bedroom,
and I'm standing,
talking to Phillip's girlfriend,
and when I looked down,
I only saw two pairs of shoes,
and they were
stacked side by side,
neatly up against the wall.
I asked whose shoes those were.
She said the ones were hers,
the smaller ones were hers,
and then she said that the other
shoes belonged to her boyfriend,
Phillip Stroud.
Investigators,
aware of the two sets
of shoe prints
found back at the crime scene,
did a cursory examination
of this pair of shoes.
I noticed that there appeared
to be feces
in the heel of one of the shoes.
We were pretty sure
at that point
those were probably
gonna be the shoes.
An examination
of photos of the shoe prints
from the crime scene
showed that Stroud's shoes were
consistent with those prints.
But because the prints
weren't perfectly clear,
this examination did not
definitively tie Stroud
or his shoes to the scene.
However, a new type
of forensic science
presented a possible way
to do that.
I just went on a search to see
who could do animal genetics.
I was led to University
of California, Davis
that had an animal
genetics laboratory,
but at the time, they were
not really doing forensics.
They were just getting into it.
The first case in the world
solved by animal DNA
was in Canada in 1996,
when DNA recovered from
a white cat named Snowball
tied her owner to a m*rder.
The first case in the U.S.
came two years later,
when DNA from a a dog wounded
while protecting its owners
was found
on the k*ller's clothing.
But no one had ever tested
dog feces for evidence
in a m*rder trial.
Still, prosecutors,
who didn't have many options,
were hopeful it would work.
I remember the people
in the prosecutor's office
were super excited about it.
They thought this was the next
best thing to sliced bread.
Investigators
were all but certain
that Phillip Stroud
and three other g*ng members
were responsible
for the triple m*rder
that shocked northern Indiana.
The key piece of evidence
was dog feces,
apparently stepped into
by one of the K*llers,
a possible source of DNA.
We're the only lab
in the United States
actually doing this
for domesticated animals.
People were realizing that this
was a tool that they could use.
Even prosecutors or ASPCA
agencies realized that DNA,
if they have the evidence,
could be tested by us
and perhaps used
in some sort of case.
These analysts focused mainly
on two pieces of evidence...
the dog feces at the scene that
contained partial shoe prints
and Phillip Stroud's shoe,
which appeared to have
dog feces on its heel.
The question now was whether
that material on the sidewalk
at the house
could be tied to Stroud's shoe,
and crucially, could be tied
to one of the two dogs
that lived at the m*rder site.
This is where it gets fun.
I actually, literally went out
to the homeowners and their dogs
and actually swabbed
the interior of their cheeks
to get a DNA sample
for the laboratory.
They weren't too happy with me,
so I give veterinarians
all the credit.
Quality genetic profiles
were generated from both dogs.
The fecal matter, however,
was a different story.
Fecal matter was not something
we had a great amount
of experience with.
Fecal matter is not
an easy substance to work with,
in terms of getting DNA from.
Fecal matter
from animals or humans
does not contain DNA,
but a genetic profile
can still be generated.
Cells aren't actually
in the fecal matter,
they're on the outside.
So, you know, you can think of
when you're going
to the bathroom
and that's coming
out of your body,
it's scraping along
that tube it's leaving,
and that's where those cells
are coming from.
The sample was treated
with an enzyme
that released the DNA into
a neutral liquid for analysis.
We use the same machinery
and we use the same methods
that they do in a human DNA
crime lab.
We use slightly different reagents,
in order to pinpoint the areas
of the DNA
that we want to look at,
and ours are obviously
animal-specific
and humans are human-specific.
The resulting DNA profiles
from one of the dogs
at the m*rder house,
from the fecal matter at the
walkway outside the house,
and from the fecal matter
on Phillip Stroud's shoe
all matched.
This left no doubt the DNA
from all these sources
was linked directly
to one man... Phillip Stroud.
This proved he and his fellow
g*ng members were the K*llers.
People don't think
of their pets as being useful
in terms of evidence
at a crime scene.
That's the last thing
you think of
when you look at your little guy
who's wagging his tail,
so I think it is still
very surprising to people.
Had Stroud not stepped
into this dog poop,
this case might
never have been solved.
The odds of the material
on his shoe
coming from someplace
other than the crime scene
were extraordinarily high.
It was, like,
an astronomical number.
It was even higher than the odds
of winning the Hoosier lottery,
or something like that,
or the mega millions.
Prosecutors believe
Stroud and his co-defendants
came to Lakeville specifically
to commit some type of crime.
They were armed and looking
for an opportunity.
Oddly, that came in the form
of a chance meeting
with Charity Payne,
who gave them
all the information they needed.
When the g*ng arrived
at the house,
they didn't expect
anyone to be there.
Then they saw the three
construction workers.
At this point,
the g*ng could have left.
Instead, Phillip Stroud
made the fatal decision
to go through with the robbery.
The problem was that
the construction workers
could identify them
and had to be eliminated.
The g*ng bound the three men.
According to the other defendants,
Phillip Stroud
fired the fatal sh*ts.
The g*ng used the ladder
to enter the house.
Charity Payne told them
they could bypass the alarm
by going
through an upstairs bedroom,
but m*rder wasn't part
of the original plan.
Now they had three people
sh*t to death on the property,
and it was clear
they were responsible.
Investigators believe the men,
fearing they'd be
discovered, panicked
and left after quickly
ransacking the house.
At some point, Phillip Stroud
stepped into fresh dog feces
on a walkway outside the house,
leaving
a recognizable partial print.
But he didn't realize this
and continued to wear the shoes.
The tiny bit of fecal matter
he tracked from the crime scene
was a gold mine of forensic
evidence and ultimately exposed
Stroud and his g*ng
as the K*llers.
This case was really unique
in that it's almost the closest
that we've come
to being the smoking g*n
in the case,
the thing that really
kind of clinches things.
In September of 2002,
Phillip Stroud was found guilty
of felony m*rder
and sentenced to death.
That sentence
was later appealed,
and he is serving a life term.
Stroud's co-defendants
got sentences
ranging from 45 to 275 years.
In this case,
I think all of these guys
needed to be in prison
and need to be locked away forever,
because
they are very violent people,
and in my opinion,
they're sociopaths
that were just going
to hurt more people.
If they ever get out,
there's no doubt in my mind
they'll return to a life
of crime
and probably hurt others.
Charity Payne,
who, knowingly or not,
put the m*rder plan into action,
was released after serving
a 4-year sentence.
The trauma of these senseless
killings remains,
but the case shows that clues
once not even considered
as evidence
can now lead to convictions.
We get a whole lot
of satisfaction
from knowing that we've done
the evidence justice.
We've communicated clearly
what the evidence is saying.
It's a unique case.
Let's face it, animal feces,
dog feces DNA to solve a crime?
In the whole grand scheme
of things,
it worked out the right way.