05x09 - Michigan City m*rder

[bunniefuu]

♪♪

Narrator: a man in search of the american dream...

Found slain in his own office...

This was a very horrific death.

Adrenaline is high.

Narrator: ...with no witnesses.

We try to piece together the puzzle on what happened.

Narrator: detectives must rely on an all-seeing eye...

The camera doesn't lie.

Narrator: ...that reveals haunting new clues.

Rodriguez: it's a person lurking back there.

What is he doing?

Narrator: the race is on to catch a k*ller.

I'm gonna lose him.

♪♪

♪♪

--Captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com

Captions paid for by discovery communications

April 2016.

Michigan city, indiana.

A popular tourist destination on the shores of lake michigan.

♪♪

This is where 65-year-old hufracio arteaga

Has decided to take his shot at the american dream...

[ Hispanic accent ] nobody can beat that price, see?

...by opening a small car dealership

In the center of town.

Okay. No problem. Thank you.

♪♪

Hufracio made the move to the u.s. Three years ago.

He works seven days a week, and most of what he earns

Is sent back to his family in mexico.

He sleeps in the shop to save money to send it to his kids.

♪♪

Everything he works for is all for his family.

♪♪

Narrator: hufracio finds life lonely on his own,

But he has made friends with fadi,

The owner of a nearby restaurant.

♪♪

He used to come all the time to my restaurant to eat --

Dinner, lunch, whatever, you know?

-Hey, hufracio. -Hey, my friend.

-How's it going? -Fine. Thanks.

What would you like to have today?

Oh, look. That lamb looks amazing.

Go sit down over there. I'll bring it over.

He used to order really funny orders.

He wants me to mix beef and lamb in one sandwich,

Which then I make it for him.

♪♪

We talk about cars. We talk about lives.

We talk about everything, you know?

[ Indistinct conversation ]

Narrator: but he's going through a rough time.

How is everything going with you? How's business?

I'm kind of worried.

Even the business was slow. He was struggling.

Don't worry. It will change. Things always do.

Hope so. I don't know how long it can go on.

Narrator: by now, hufracio's business partner

Has already called it quits.

♪♪

While hufracio still has cars to sell,

He isn't giving up on the dream.

♪♪

♪♪

On saturday, april 23rd,

Sergio pays a visit to his old business partner.

♪♪

♪♪

Worried, sergio tries the office....

But, unusually for a trading day, it's closed.

And there doesn't appear to be anyone inside.

Sergio still has his keys.

Hufracio?!

Hufracio?

Hufracio!

♪♪

Hufracio?

You are okay?

♪♪

Narrator: but sergio quickly realizes something's wrong.

[ Siren wails ]

When a homicide happens in michigan city,

The entire detective bureau comes together

And works on that one case.

Narrator: within minutes,

Michigan city police detective cisco rodriguez arrives.

Investigators film the scene.

♪♪

A lot of the initial investigation

Is just seeing what we have at the crime scene, what we're working with.

Narrator: the office appears in complete disarray.

♪♪

It was kind of shocking.

♪♪

The body had several wounds

To the neck and other areas of the body.

Appeared to be either a g*nsh*t or a stab wound.

♪♪

Narrator: with such a deep wound,

It's odd there is so little blood

And no spatter on the walls.

Then rodriguez realizes why.

Rodriguez: the clothes being bunched up around the body

Would suggest that the body was dragged across the carpet

From one area to another,

Which means we have a transfer of the crime scene.

♪♪

Not too far from where the body was located

Was a large pool of blood.

♪♪

Narrator: the blood spatter and drag marks

Confirm this is where hufracio was k*lled.

♪♪

Rodriguez: pockets are pulled out.

Hufracio's wallet was missing.

Narrator: all signs of a robbery gone wrong.

♪♪

Detective rodriguez breaks the news of hufracio's m*rder

To his ex-business partner, sergio.

Do you know if he had any enemies, anything like that?

No.

Narrator: sergio tells rodriguez

That he last saw hufracio on tuesday,

Just four days ago.

Anything else that you noticed that was out of the ordinary?

Rodriguez: sergio tells the officers

That a white hyundai tiburon is missing

And that it's strange to him because that was the vehicle

That hufracio would drive on a regular basis --

Suspicious that the vehicle is not there

But hufracio's body is there.

Narrator: sergio tells him a green subaru

Has also vanished from the lawn.

♪♪

Rodriguez: a vehicle missing would suggest that person

Who committed this is still in possession of that vehicle.

♪♪

Narrator: rodriguez issues bolo's for the missing vehicles

And subpoenas hufracio's bank statements.

If the k*ller is driving around

Having stolen hufracio's cars and credit card,

Their trail could lead detectives

Straight to their suspect.

♪♪

With no witnesses to the m*rder,

Detectives will have to look for another type of all-seeing eye.

Rodriguez: video surveillance is a very important tool

Because the camera doesn't lie.

It's truthful, and you can visually see

What actually occurs at certain times.

Narrator: with no security cameras at hufracio's business,

Rodriguez widens his search

And makes a game-changing discovery --

A camera on the office building next door.

Rodriguez: so we immediately want to see the footage.

If this camera shows hufracio alive

Or the m*rder*r on the camera, it pretty much solves the case.

♪♪

♪♪

Narrator: 65-year-old hufracio arteaga

Has been m*rder*d in his used-car sales office,

And detectives have just found a potential witness

Pointed directly at the car lot.

Rodriguez: the way that the camera was facing

Could provide some key details to the investigation.

Narrator: inside, the security manager reveals

That the building has three cameras

Surrounding the exterior.

Henderson: it's important to look at the footage and dissect it

Because we had absolutely no leads.

Narrator: they open up the first camera

Closest to the crime scene and begin to play.

Rodriguez: this camera shows the parking lot up to the street.

Just off to the left is hufracio's office,

Which you cannot see on this camera.

Narrator: as rodriguez begins viewing footage

From the day of the 911 call,

He discovers there's a glitch in the time code.

We look at the clock that's on that video surveillance system,

And it's 18 minutes slower than the current time.

♪♪

Narrator: he cues up the surveillance

From tuesday, april 19th,

The last day sergio spoke to hufracio,

And begins to scan the screen.

Business looks really slow.

Rodriguez: while we're reviewing the cameras,

We're looking for the last time hufracio was alive

To try to piece together the puzzle on what happened.

♪♪

Narrator: suddenly at 1:34 -- real time 1:52 --

He spots something.

♪♪

Can you pause it there? Zoom in a bit.

[ Key clacking ]

Rodriguez: we see a dark-colored subject

Come from just outside the camera's angle into the camera.

Although you can't see the face of the subject,

We believe that this figure in the video is hufracio.

Hufracio walks over to a red vehicle parked in his lot

And moves that vehicle toward the office building

Just outside of the camera's view.

Narrator: it's the same red vehicle

Seen on the crime-scene video.

Nothing seems untoward, and it appears hufracio

Is going about his normal day-to-day business.

♪♪

Can we move back from there?

♪♪

Rodriguez: at 9:35 a.m., You can see hufracio

Coming out to a vehicle

Along with another larger dark-colored subject.

♪♪

The larger dark-colored subject gets in the driver's seat.

Hufracio gets into the passenger's seat.

The vehicle then leaves the lot.

♪♪

Zoom in a bit.

[ Key clacks ]

Narrator: rodriguez can now see the car clearly.

It matches the description of the missing subaru.

♪♪

Six minutes later, the green subaru returns.

It's hufracio showing a vehicle to a customer.

It seems like a normal working day.

♪♪

Narrator: 2,000 miles south in guadalajara, mexico,

Hufracio's family are coming to terms

With the tragic news of his death.

The family were very shocked and upset

With hufracio's unfortunate passing.

♪♪

They described him as being a very kind person

Willing to help anybody out,

Give the shirt of his back if he needed to.

They had no idea who would want to do this to him.

♪♪

Narrator: meantime at michigan city police department,

The medical examiner's report is in.

Rodriguez: the autopsy reveals four separate puncture wounds

To the neck and chest area.

Hufracio had died from a stab wound

To the left side of his neck.

Lake: the carotid artery was severed.

This was a very horrific death.

The injuries are up-close and personal

And is not accidental.

Narrator: furthermore, the autopsy reveals

That hufracio died on tuesday, april 19th.

♪♪

Rodriguez loads the video from that day at 1:52 p.m.

And rewatches in anguish.

Rodriguez: after reviewing the camera footage,

We believe this is the last time hufracio

Is seen alive on camera.

♪♪

Narrator: knowing hufracio dies within hours of this footage,

He scans every frame for clues.

We're looking in the background,

Looking for anything that would stand out...

And that's when you notice something moving

In the far background of the video.

♪♪

There.

Narrator: just seconds after hufracio moves the red vehicle,

In the top-left corner of frame, a figure appears.

♪♪

Rodriguez: it's very hard to make any type of identification,

But you can tell that it's a person lurking back there,

Appearing to have some type of interest

Looking over toward the car lot.

What is he doing?

Narrator: there may be an innocent explanation

For this person's behavior,

But it has caught the attention of detective rodriguez.

♪♪

He's on the move.

Rodriguez: you can see the person walking across 11th street

Onto the car-lot property

And then out of camera's view toward the office.

This could be the person that ultimately m*rder*d hufracio.

Narrator: without a clear identity of the suspicious figure,

It's back to square one.

♪♪

Police question hufracio's ex-business partner, sergio,

For any new possible leads.

Rodriguez: there was a couple

That purchased a car several weeks ago,

Were having some issues with it.

They had come to the car lot

And started an argument with hufracio.

Narrator: could this be the same man

Seen lurking in the surveillance footage?

Rodriguez: the manner in which sergio describes the interaction

That hufracio had with this couple

Leads us to believe that they could possibly be involved

And that we need to talk to them.

Narrator: rodriguez searches the police database

And finds a report dated march 24th,

Less than a month ago.

♪♪

Rodriguez: the michigan city police department has body-worn cameras,

So we're able then to go into the body-cam footage database

And pull the body-cam footage for that incident.

Narrator: according to the report,

The couple were angry with hufracio

Because he was late delivering the vehicle's paperwork.

The body cam has caught hufracio on camera

Just three weeks before his death.

Rodriguez: being able to watch the body-cam footage

Actually puts a face and a name to hufracio.

It makes you want to work even harder

To try to figure out what happened to them

And who did it and hold that person responsible.

Narrator: the video shows police talking to the frustrated couple

Weeks before hufracio's m*rder.

Could this be the reason hufracio was k*lled?

Rodriguez: what we need to find out at this time is if an issue

With the car made them so angry

That they wanted to k*ll hufracio over it.

Narrator: police took no action over the prior incident.

It seemed the couple had a legitimate grievance.

Nonetheless, rodriguez sends detective henderson

To their home to question them,

And once he gets there, he's in for a shock.

♪♪

♪♪

Narrator: six hours into the m*rder investigation

Of used-car salesman hufracio arteaga,

Detectives have discovered

He recently upset some customers.

The officer who goes to talk to them

Arrives as they are leaving,

And it appears that they're armed.

Drop the g*n out of the window! Now!

Drop it!

Narrator: but this isn't what it looks like.

The officer learned that the g*n was just a water g*n.

Narrator: a childish prank. Police are not amused.

Okay. Step out of the vehicle right now!

I want to see some i.d. Right now.

The woman is 20-year-old angelica nicole dejesus.

The young man is her fiancé, genesis gavidia.

♪♪

The couple is taken to the police station for questioning.

♪♪

Angelica stated that she works from 2:00 to 10:00 every evening

And that her boyfriend, genesis, stays at home with her sister

And her mother, watching their children.

Mm-hmm.

Narrator: detectives ask if the couple own any weapons.

The line of questioning alarms her.

♪♪

Detectives then interview angelica's fiancé, genesis.

As he's only 17, he is accompanied by his mother.

They ask him about the argument with hufracio.

[ Laughter ]

Okay.

Narrator: the talk of casual violence raises a red flag.

During the interview with genesis,

We looked to see if he had any injuries at all,

Any cuts, scrapes,

Anything that looked like it recently happened.

So, we inform genesis during his interview

That the reason he was at the station

Was because hufracio was found dead.

Genesis appeared genuinely shocked

To find out that hufracio had been k*lled.

He admitted that he had words with hufracio

But that he would never hurt him.

♪♪

Narrator: after confirming the couple's alibis,

Detectives are confident

They had nothing to do with hufracio's m*rder,

And they are free to leave.

♪♪

As night falls, the loss of hufracio

Is starting to sink in for his friend fadi.

♪♪

Daoud: I feel for his family.

He went to mexico a month before he died

To see his kids and to see his family,

And when he came back,

He was so happy and so, you know, excited

To make more money to make their life better.

This guy, he deserved to live

Because he'd been suffering to give his kids

And his family better life.

♪♪

Narrator: back at square one,

With a brutal m*rder and no witnesses,

Police decide it's time to ask the public for help.

-That looks great. Perfect. -Yeah.

Rodriguez: a social-media post is put out

By the michigan city police department

Looking for anybody who has information related

To this homicide.

Narrator: that same evening, the appeal pays off...

[ Telephone rings ]

Michigan city pd. This is rodriguez.

Narrator: ...and they get a fresh lead.

Rodriguez: we received a phone call from a female named kristin

Who states that she had saw something earlier in the week

That she believes is important to the homicide investigation.

Narrator: kristin tells detective rodriguez

That on thursday, april 21st, two days after hufracio died,

She had stopped at the traffic lights by easy drive auto.

Kristin assumed that the man worked at the car dealership

And only became suspicious

When news of the m*rder was made public.

We asked kristin what time she saw this.

She stated it was around 7:45 because that's when

She has to take her kids to daycare before work.

Narrator: this information is crucial,

As it gives detectives a specific time and date

To study on the surveillance footage.

Take a look at that -- from 7:45.

The traffic light kristin stopped at is out of shot,

But rodriguez hopes the man will be captured crossing the lot.

Rodriguez: we expect to see someone come from the office area

Into the parking lot.

Narrator: the car lot remains empty.

Rodriguez lets the footage play on.

♪♪

Finally at 7:51 a.m., There's movement.

Rodriguez: we actually see someone coming from the opposite direction

From across the street walking toward the car lot.

Narrator: making their move from the same place

Where the suspicious figure was seen on camera days earlier.

♪♪

The man then walks across the parking lot...

♪♪

...and is picked up on the law firm's additional two cameras

Walking up the street.

Can you freeze it there?

He's a heavyset black male wearing a black coat,

Khaki pants, and baseball cap.

Fits the description that kristin described

Coming out the window of the car lot.

Narrator: and yet, shortly after kristin saw him

Climb out of the window,

He appears from the opposite direction of the office.

The camera should have caught him over here walking that way,

But it didn't.

Just a few minutes later, he's coming from here.

Yeah. It doesn't make any sense.

Why would he not just come from the building

Rather than coming from an opposite direction?

I believe the person that kristin saw coming out the window,

To separate himself from the business,

Walked around the block, came from the opposite direction,

And then continued to walk away from the car lot.

Narrator: the man's suspicious behavior raises a huge red flag.

♪♪

Let's get some screen grabs of the best, cleanest pictures.

[ Whirring ]

Rodriguez: we sent that out to a department-wide e-mail

To see if anybody can identify the subject

That we have in this photograph.

♪♪

Narrator: while rodriguez puzzles over the man's identity,

A k*ller new lead lands on his desk.

♪♪

♪♪

Narrator: a man is seen climbing out of

Hufracio arteaga's office two days after he was m*rder*d.

♪♪

Police have no evidence that this is their k*ller,

But they are about to get an i.d.

♪♪

A fellow officer thinks he recognizes the man in the image

Rodriguez sent around the police department.

The officer tells us that the person in the video

Is david morris.

He's got an impressive résumé, too --

Battery, drugs, theft.

We see someone we at least want to bring down and speak to.

-He's currently out on parole. -Yeah. That's him.

To identify the person that's seen coming out the window

Of the business two days after hufracio is seen alive

Is a huge break in the case.

♪♪

Narrator: while the search for morris steps up,

Hufracio's subpoenaed bank statements arrive.

-You get anything? -Yeah.

Narrator: it reveals hufracio's card

Had been used several times on the day of his m*rder.

Rodriguez: and upon going through them, we see that hufracio's bank card

Had been used at virk gas station,

Meijer shopping center, charlie's east side liquors,

And was attempted to be used at walgreen's.

-I want to go check this out. -Yeah. That's it.

So we send several detectives out to the different locations

In order to see about getting video-surveillance footage

From these businesses.

♪♪

Can we have a look at that surveillance video

From tuesday, the 19th?

♪♪

Rodriguez: at approximately 10:54 a.m. On tuesday, april 19th,

We see a person enter the gas station

Who we believe to be hufracio.

Can you pause it there, please?

He's wearing the same green fleece sweatshirt

That he was wearing at the time he was m*rder*d.

Okay. You can play on, please.

We see that hufracio did not come to the gas station alone,

But with a male subject.

Narrator: it's the same man seen

Walking past the law firm's surveillance camera.

♪♪

It's david morris.

♪♪

Narrator: hufracio can be seen

Paying for a coffee and a packet of cigarettes.

He doesn't appear to be under duress.

Rodriguez: he swipes his card to pay for the items

And then hands the pack of cigarettes to david morris.

♪♪

Can we see that again?

Narrator: rodriguez scours every second of the footage.

♪♪

Stop right there.

Just as hufracio is swiping his card,

It seems like morris is trying to look over his shoulder.

David morris was taking a great interest

In hufracio's credit card.

Do you have any cameras on the outside?

I'd like to see what car he was driving.

♪♪

Narrator: the clerk switches to an exterior camera.

It shows the men driving away in hufracio's own personal vehicle.

Rodriguez: we believe that this white hyundai tiburon

Is the same white vehicle that sergio informed us

Is missing from the car lot.

Based on the video from virk's,

It becomes clear that david morris

Is a prime suspect in hufracio's m*rder.

♪♪

Narrator: meantime, detective henderson arrives

At meijer's department store.

The transaction at meijer was for a large amount --

Approximately $400.

Narrator: a roomba vacuum cleaner

Was purchased at 6:57 p.m. On tuesday, april 19th,

Five hours after hufracio was last seen alive on camera.

♪♪

Rodriguez enters the item's serial number

Into the crime database...

And gets a hit.

Rodriguez: it showed us that this particular roomba vacuum

Was currently at a pawn shop in portage, indiana.

Narrator: it was sold for $200 on thursday, april 21st,

Just two days after it was purchased.

Rodriguez: it had been pawned by a person named jeff humphrey.

We wondered who jeff was.

Narrator: rodriguez follows up with a trip



Where the pawn-shop manager has good news.

♪♪

They have surveillance from the day of the sale

Covering the entrance and cash registers.

♪♪

Can we have a look at the footage from around 3:00 p.m.?

Narrator: six minutes before the recorded transaction,

A familiar-looking vehicle catches rodriguez's eye.

Rodriguez: at approximately 3:02 p.m., A green subaru is seen

Pulling into the front parking lot of the pawn king.

This car is very similar

To a car that was on hufracio's car lot.

Narrator: there appears to be two individuals inside,

And rodriguez wonders if one of them is jeff.

Rodriguez: a male subject gets out of the driver's seat,

Goes to the back passenger's seat...

Retrieves a white box

That he then carries inside of the pawn store.

♪♪

Pause it there. [ Key clacks ]

Narrator: he's wearing the same dark jacket,

Khaki pants, and baseball cap

As the man seen with hufracio at the gas station.

Zoom in. [ Key clacks ]

It's his prime suspect -- david morris.

♪♪

Rodriguez: the inside camera shows david

Setting the white box up on the counter,

And at that point, we can see that the white box

Is the roomba vacuum.

♪♪

Narrator: but when an i.d. Appears on the counter,

Rodriguez knows it can't be morris'.

He wonders about the second subject

Seen in the passenger's seat of the green subaru

And rewinds the footage to track their movement.

♪♪

Rodriguez: at approximately 3:04 p.m.,

You can see the man enter the pawn store,

Walk over to david morris, and hand him his identification.

♪♪

We believe this is jeff.

Stop. Right there. There it is.

♪♪

Rodriguez: david morris used jeff's i.d.

Knowing that it couldn't be tracked back to him.

Narrator: 12 minutes later,

The pair leaves the pawn shop together with $200 cash.

♪♪

Detectives believe jeff is innocent

And that he was used by david for his i.d.

♪♪

The truth about hufracio's m*rder

Is starting to come into clear focus.

We believe at this time that robbery or money

Was the motive for david k*lling hufracio.

♪♪

Narrator: analyzing the car-lot surveillance

For more incriminating evidence against morris,

Detectives spot something chilling.

A person appears for several days

Between april 19th and april 23rd...

Coming and going and taking cars off the lot.

It appears to be david morris.

Narrator: most K*llers would flee the crime scene,

But morris is brazenly using the car lot

As if it were his own, helping himself to vehicles

And switching them when he's bored.

There's no doubt in my mind that david morris knew

That hufracio was deceased inside that building.

Otherwise he never would have been coming to the lot

For the next four days.

Narrator: as the heat is turned up to find morris,

A new lead on his whereabouts comes in.

Lake: david morris was on probation

Having just been released from jail,

And so we knew that he had to report on monday morning

To the courthouse.

Narrator: the net is finally closing in on david morris.

♪♪

♪♪

Narrator: surveillance footage has revealed

That while hufracio arteaga lay dead in his office,

David morris was busy using the car lot as his own.

Detectives believe they now have enough evidence for an arrest,

And new intel reveals exactly where to find it.

[ Siren wails ]

On monday, april 25th,

Two days after hufracio is found m*rder*d,

Police rush to the courthouse.

They arrive just as david is leaving.

Henderson: adrenaline is high.

What's really great is that david is wearing

The same clothing that he has on in video surveillance.

♪♪

Okay. He's going down the footpath.

I can't get my vehicle down there. I'm gonna lose him.

David continued traveling in an alleyway,

And he begins walking towards me.

End of the line, david!

With nowhere else to go, david kind of gives up

And allows us to detain him.

♪♪

Narrator: at the station, rodriguez confronts morris

About the stolen vehicles

With the incriminating video evidence.

That's you, right?

It was pretty clear that he wasn't being truthful.

Narrator: morris eventually confirms

He was with hufracio on tuesday, the 19th,

But claims he has nothing to do

With the theft of his vehicles or his death.

When confronted with the eyewitness statement,

Morris finally decides to come clean.

♪♪

With no confession or dna

Linking morris to hufracio's death,

He's locked up for theft

While police continue building their m*rder case.

Morris' clothes are sent to the lab for testing.

♪♪

Rodriguez: the results indicate the presence of blood

On david morris' jacket, pants, and shoes.

This blood belonged to hufracio.

♪♪

Lake: the evidence really was convincing

Beyond a reasonable doubt

That david morris committed this m*rder.

♪♪

Narrator: with all the pieces of the puzzle in place,

The prosecution is now able to build

The full, horrifying picture

Of what happened to hufracio arteaga.

Rodriguez: what I believe happened

Was that david morris had come to the car lot

Maybe to legitimately look at a car.

Let me get the key.

♪♪

Hufracio takes him to a gas station,

Purchases him cigarettes.

At that point, he realized hufracio had a bank card,

Had some money on it.

♪♪

David morris then leaves hufracio's car lot,

Comes back later on in the day,

Is seen lurking the background, watching,

Waiting for people to leave that are visiting hufracio.

♪♪

♪♪

Then he comes over when he knows hufracio is alone,

Goes into the business.

What are you doing here?

He tries to rob him.

Before hufracio has a chance to fight, david morris stabs him.

Right now. Ohh!

[ Knife plunging ]

[ Body thuds ]

He went into the pockets and took hufracio's wallet.

♪♪

David morris then proceeds to use the car lot

As his personal car lot for the next four days....

♪♪

...the last time being on saturday, april 23rd,

About five minutes before sergio finds hufracio's body.

♪♪

Narrator: the stolen vehicles

Are later found abandoned around michigan city.

♪♪

In december 2016, david morris is found guilty

Of hufracio arteaga's m*rder,

Burglary, auto theft, and fraud,

And is sentenced to 82 years in prison.

Henderson: without video surveillance, this case could have had

A high probability of being an unsolved homicide.

♪♪

Narrator: hufracio's body

Was flown back to guadalajara, mexico.

He now rests near his family.

Rodriguez: hufracio was a nice man,

And for someone like david morris to come along

And the first day of meeting him take his life like that?

No one deserves to die like that.

♪♪

You remember him, and you remember

Every moment you spent with him.

♪♪

He had a good heart. He tried to help everybody.

♪♪