Bloodline Detectives - Episode 14 - The Clearfield Rapist | Forensic Files

Tonight, a serial rapist terrorizes households in Utah by night and across state lines.
May 22nd, 2001, police in Clearfield, Utah are called to the scene of a horrific sex assault.
TONY RAWLINGS: I don't think you could script a more diabolical, sinister, heinous act of crime perpetrated
against humanity and individuals in a family than what our suspect did. NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER): Using DNA from the crime scene,
police matched the suspect to another sex attack the previous July. KYLE JEFFRIES: We know who the suspect is by DNA.
We just couldn't put the DNA to the man. You know, you wish you could solve them immediately,
like they do on "CSI." In an hour it's done. This is one of those cases that didn't work that way.
NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER): What unfolds next is shocking beyond belief. I don't know if anyone actually knows exactly how many
victims there are, but at the very least, they had 10 cases with 11 victims. Sadistic.
That guy has no conscience whatsoever. He is a true animal. NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER): Police never give up hope, but fear
they may never capture the man responsible, so they turn to a new science for help.
BENJAMIN WILLOUGHBY: We were only fishing for results, and getting nothing. But in 2015, with the advances in DNA technology,
we could begin to actively hunt him. NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER): This is a story of how police, over 17
years, and with the help of a new groundbreaking forensic technique, track down and capture
a serial rapist responsible for destroying countless lives. I'm Nancy Grace. This is "Bloodline Detectives."
It was the only thing that led us to this man. Now we've got the science catching up with the evidence.
We need to pursue this. Now we were hopeful. [MUSIC PLAYING] NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER): It's May 22nd, 2001.
Clearfield Police in Utah get an urgent 911 call from a family there in the area.
TIM ROBINSON: The victim was actually in bed with her husband at the time. The suspect ordered her to wake up her husband and bind him.
She did that. And the suspect asked if there was anybody else in the house. The victim said my daughter is in the house,
and I believe the victim's brother was in the house. He went throughout the home gathering up
all of the occupants, the entire family, one by one, and tying them up as well. Then the suspect proceeded to rape one of the victims
while forcing the other victims to watch, and then he proceeded to sexually assault
the other victim as well. He mostly sexually assaulted the daughter. KYLE JEFFRIES: The uncle told me that while he was raping
the victims, the suspected had brushed up against him, and that he thought he was next to be raped.
I couldn't imagine the horror that went on in that room. TONY RAWLINGS: As you get into the facts
and delve into what happened to these people and what he perpetrated against them,
it is probably as diabolical of a crime as you can possibly imagine. TIM ROBINSON: Near the end of the event,
the door opened and the son of the original victim came in through the door, home from work.
He immediately had a gun put in his forehead, and he was bound and gagged as well.
The son had to be restrained, and then had to sit and watch the suspect finish the perpetration
of crimes against the rest of his family members, his mother and his sister. NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER): Before the intruder flees the scene,
he makes one last demand. After he commits a graphic of an act of criminality as you possibly can, the suspect then incredibly
wanted money from the family. Uncle had $100. The suspect, at gunpoint, made one of our victims
retrieve the $100 and give it to him. KYLE JEFFRIES: Kind of a strange way that he left that attack.
He actually kissed one of the victims on the mouth and said goodbye and walked out the door,
like he was a boyfriend. NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER): Police arrive at the home and straight away begin a forensic examination
of the scene. BENJAMIN WILLOUGHBY: When they arrived, they tried to cast a net. They scoured the area, went to neighbors, looking for, again,
anybody who could have seen somebody coming or leaving, footprints, anybody who might have heard anything.
KYLE JEFFRIES: We took everything from the house. There was boxes and boxes of evidence.
We took the bedding. We took the ties that he used to tie up the victims. We took just about everything.
There's pictures of everything. We had all kinds of evidence in the case. TIM ROBINSON: They would have taken
both the victims in for sex crimes kits and collected DNA. I know the suspect would lick parts
of the bodies of the victims, whether it be through oral sex or licking a breast or a cheek, or whatever.
They would take swabs to collect DNA in that manner. BENJAMIN WILLOUGHBY: It was absolutely necessary to get.
They were very brave to cooperate and to go through all of these steps and attempt to find their attacker.
NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER): The son's able to give a sketchy description of the perp.
KYLE JEFFRIES: He did catch a glimpse of him, but it was a very fast glimpse, and of course, he
had a gun put in his face real quick, so he wasn't really focused on the suspect at that time.
He was focused on the barrel of the gun. TONY RAWLINGS: Still, a rendering was done based upon the information he provided
that did lead to a suspect composition drawing being done that actually that ended up in a newspaper article,
as well, here in our area. Some of the leads that they were following up on based on the sketch, they would have immediately taken
the DNA from those suspects. And these are very loose suspects. Somebody calls in and says that sketch looks
like it might be so and so. None of that led to anything. It was a complete dead end.
The family is law-abiding and well regarded in the Clearfield area. TONY RAWLINGS: This was a family living their lives,
going about their business, minding their business, helping one another, productive in the community, liked
in their neighborhood. And so this was your ultimate victim, in the sense of basically an innocent,
naive, law-abiding family. They were just nice people. The father was a preacher.
This was a religious family just doing their thing day-to-day, and you would never expect the horror
that came into the house. I don't know how any of them still function today, and they're great people.
NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER): Clearfield Police are quick to expand their search outside the local jurisdiction.
TONY RAWLINGS: There was a local focus, as well as an acknowledgment and a possibility that it might be
somebody that comes and visits this area that doesn't necessarily live here, that has business
here, that has associates here. And so you have to keep, I guess, your eye on the ball
going both directions. We don't believe that any of the victims were targeted. He picked a home that had three grown males living inside
of it, who were all home. It would be an incredibly unlikely target. But for someone who is just brazenly walking
along townhomes, just trying to jiggle that door open, it seems to have been his MO.
A disturbing sex attack and a suspect who baffles police, because he seems to strike at random without a pattern
that investigators can identify. But as we see next on "Bloodline Detectives," police get a forensic break in the case,
and with it a window of opportunity to catch a predator. [MUSIC PLAYING] In 2001, police in Clearfield, Utah
are investigating a savage attack on a local family. The perpetrator breaks into their home,
gathers members of the household, and rapes the mother and daughter while the others
are forced to listen. TIM ROBINSON: The suspect ended up finding all of them, and then he raped the mother and the daughter
in front of the entire family. BENJAMIN WILLOUGHBY: After committing the sexual assaults,
he stole money from the family, and then he just walked out of the home the way he had walked in.
NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER): After an extensive investigation, police are no closer to finding a suspect.
We tried everything imaginable to try and find this guy, and we were not going to get him.
NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER): In May, 2002, nearly one year after the incident, police get information
the DNA from the perpetrator matches DNA in another sex assault, July 2000. TIM ROBINSON: She woke up to a nude man straddling her.
He held a knife to her, threatening to cut her throat. He had tore her shirt up, ripped it up with a knife,
and used the clothing to blindfold her with and tie her up. He covered her eyes with tape, and then he
proceeded to sexually assault her inside her own home. TONY RAWLINGS: He did it violently.
He did it aggressively. He did it threateningly, and engaged in the most heinous types of deviant,
sexual forcible assaultive behavior that one can possibly engage in. JOSH CARLSON: The victim had to unbind herself,
and then eventually she called 911 and locked herself in her house. Police arrived, secured the scene, made sure
that the suspect was not there, and proceeded to interview the victim and gather as much evidence
as they could from the scene. She did receive a rape kit, and through that kit and all
the evidence left at the scene, we did get DNA from the suspect. Once they were linked, we're still
trying to find the suspect. We have the DNA, but we had to find something else to try
and catch him, because we have the DNA and we don't have him yet. NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER): Over the next 10 years,
the DNA of the John Doe will be linked to many horrific sex assaults. TIM ROBINSON: Rock Springs; Clearfield; Laramie, Wyoming;
Ogden, Utah; and Layton, Utah. BENJAMIN WILLOUGHBY: In all of these, the MO was the same.
The suspect would enter quietly in the middle of the night. He would jiggle screen doors.
The glass sliding doors on patios, he would jiggle them until he could get one to open.
He wouldn't break locks. He wouldn't break windows. He would just jiggle those screen doors.
We think that's how he got in on all of the cases. We had the way he covered everybody's eyes,
the way he bound everybody up, the weapons that he used. Initially, it was knives, and in the end, it was a gun.
He progress throughout these rape cases in violence and duration of time. BENJAMIN WILLOUGHBY: Just the calculated coldness
while he was doing this, the victims would comment how calculated, how calm he was.
There were some comments made from the victims that kind of stuck out. For instance, one of the things that he said
was, you have nice [AUDIO OUT] for a white woman. And the victim believed that he said
that to give her the impression that he was some race other than white. She had been able to see him and knew that it was a white male.
NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER): In 2015, investigators are approached by the makers of the TV series "Cold Justice."
TIM ROBINSON: Their MO is to put a focus on these type of cases, basically to bring to light what's going on,
the efforts of law enforcement, and try to, I guess, raise public awareness, to a degree.
We've got these victims who have not had justice yet. They haven't had their day in court.
In this particular situation, though, strategically, we felt like that this program might
benefit the investigation. BENJAMIN WILLOUGHBY: Many of the victims, all of the detectives
who were still working took part in that. All of the resources that the Clearfield Police
Department could put towards it participated in running down leads. It was a massive operation.
The hope was that if this story is done, it's going to trigger memories. It might get more public awareness out there.
Maybe we have additional victims come forward. The best way to put it, we use it
as an investigative technique. NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER): This links the suspect's DNA
to another shocking crime. There was a girl who was asleep inside her own home. It was hot, and she was sleeping in the main living area, where
the couch and the TV would be. It was so warm. Probably about 10, 11 o'clock at night, I was so hot.
I moved my blanket down onto the floor and I moved my pillow onto the floor, and I fell back to sleep because the floor was so much
cooler than being on my bed. And next thing I remember is something woke me up. I wasn't sure what it was.
I looked up and I saw an outline of a man against the sliding glass door. And then the person spoke to me, and I
didn't recognize the voice, and told me to roll onto my stomach. So I did. I did exactly as I was told.
I didn't know what to do. As I was there, I heard my parents' bedroom door open and someone went into the kitchen,
opened up the fridge. I could see the lights on. And the person whispered into my ear, don't make a sound,
and put the knife next to my neck. And I can still feel where that knife was, very smooth against my neck.
And part of me was praying that whoever that was would look around the corner, and part of me
was hoping that they wouldn't because I didn't know if this man was going to kill me and then kill them
or what would happen. He put duct tape on my eyes, and he led me through the sliding glass door.
He took me across the small parking lot, so I was able to describe exactly where I was
and where the car was parked. He pulled out of the apartment. And as we pulled out of the apartments and he turned left,
he pushed me down onto the floor, and he had his hand on my back. He pulled into what was then a Park 'N Ride for buses.
He told me to get into the back seat of the car. And he began to [AUDIO OUT]. It hurt so bad.
I didn't know what he was doing. I was not experienced with sex. I was 11 years old.
No experience at all. After he was done, he had me get back in the front seat. He drove me home.
He parked in front of my apartments, told me to exit the car, and he told me to count to 10.
If I thought that I had seen him or his vehicle, him, or if I called the police, he would come back and kill me.
So we realized that we're dealing with one serial rapist and a child rapist, an individual who
is sexually assaulting, it appears, victims almost indiscriminate of age. That is just sadistic.
That guy has no conscience whatsoever. He is a true animal. It is such a change in who I am.
I'm not the same person I was. [MUSIC PLAYING] NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER): Investigators
start to pool all their resources from different locations to try and catch the suspect.
KYLE JEFFRIES: We put the task force together in 2015, when we were able to get everybody
together in the same room and go through everybody else's cases. I knew there were other cases, but I
didn't know the details until we got that task force together. In total, we would have 14 victims and 11 attacks.
We had no leads. We have the DNA. We had nothing else to work with. So the idea was to stir the pot again.
KYLE JEFFRIES: The first thing we did was pull every case and find the commonalities in the cases,
and go through every bit of evidence that we still had. Some evidence had been destroyed from back in the day,
but what evidence we still had and what good evidence we had to find any other links that would help us
find a suspect. TIM ROBINSON: But because so many of the cases were centralized in the Salt Lake area,
we figured that he probably had a home here or some type of a home base. This was where he was centralized.
And so we just kept looking for leads in all the cases, hoping that something would pop up that should have been
obvious that we just missed. After two decades of nothing and waiting for DNA to hit,
this is our first good opportunity to go looking. NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER): 14 victims,
including an 11-year-old girl, 11 attacks. They began with the intruder opening a screen
or sliding glass door. Detectives have the DNA of the John Doe, but will it be the link that identifies him?
That's next on "Bloodline Detectives." [MUSIC PLAYING] In 2015, Clearfield Utah Police reopen the case of a savage sex
attack on a local family back in 2001, an attack that links DNA from the scene to a string of assaults across 14 victims,
dating as far back as 1991. We have 11 victims with DNA matches, but my guess is there's still many more out there
that we haven't uncovered. He may not have specifically targeted me or any of the rest of us, but he was searching for someone,
and he knew what he was going to do. NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER): In 2015, the crime series
"Cold Justice" airs an episode about the crimes that helps investigators in their search.
Our hope was to generate new victims. Not that we wanted to be victims, but we wanted new evidence.
We wanted new leads. And we hoped if we could find new victims, we would get that information.
TIM ROBINSON: For the next three or four days, hundreds and hundreds of phone calls.
It's my brother. It's my dad. It's my uncle. It's my cousin. It's this guy that I used to date.
KYLE JEFFRIES: We went through every single lead and broke them down and listened to rape case
after rape case that just would blow your mind. They got a lot of new leads. They doggedly chased every one of them.
Again, no lead led to our suspect. TIM ROBINSON: We thought there was a good possibility that he
had died and that we would never know who he was, because the cases essentially stopped in 2000.
There were no new DNA hits. We also thought there was a possibility that he'd gone to jail or prison for some type of crime,
that DNA wasn't collected and sent to the FBI for CODIS hits. NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER): Now police
start to use a new science that builds a picture of the suspect. I knew we had DNA.
You would think as a normal person, as a cop, I thought, gee, we got the DNA. It's going to be out there.
TONY RAWLINGS: As I indicated back in 2003, my distinct thinking was someday the science will catch up
with the evidence, and so let's don't let the law and the statute of limitations inhibit that and blow it.
We're now aware of some potential availability of some different types of DNA, particularly
tracing and tracking. The male Y chromosome is one of the things that was initially done.
Now that science is available, let's use it. Let's see where it goes. Let's see what is the result.
NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER): 2017, police decide to capitalize on advances in DNA science.
They enlist Parabon NanoLabs to develop a phenotype. Parabon was able to give us an ethnicity, kind
of a region to where the suspect had come from, so we had some identifiers there.
So Parabon NanoLabs was able to produce a sketch of how the suspect would have appeared in his 20s, 30s, 40s,
and so on just based off of his DNA. They said that his eyes would be blue or green,
his complexion would be clear. We didn't anticipate him to have freckles. Amazing scientific work that you could tell us that.
Still not a lot to go on. NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER): After conducting analysis of the DNA
sample, Parabon provides detectives with the name of a potential suspect. Burn was the last name I was given,
and variations of that name. So of course, as soon as I got that information, I went back through all these leads
that we had had and tried to find a last name that would match. And I did get one of a person local, and everything matched.
And I did do a warrant on that guy, and turned out not to be the guy. Once again, I thought we had our guy.
He looked like the profile. He looked like the picture, and turned out it wasn't him.
TONY RAWLINGS: It created an increased energy and it created some thinking and some thought processes
and some outreach of new and unique ways to look at DNA, possibilities, things that
could be done at this point. TIM ROBINSON: And there was a lot of different stuff
that went into it, nothing that gave us a this is your guy. But what it also did is, ultimately, that process
went on to Dr. Venter. If we're going to spend this money and do this, we want to make sure that it's scientifically
sound to the degree we think it would be admissible in court. So we dotted our I's, crossed our T's, vetted it.
And we came to the conclusion that, again, now we've got the science catching up with the evidence,
we need to pursue this. Now we were hopeful. NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER): Parabon's work
is impressive, but failed to generate any substantive lead. Next, they send their suspect's DNA to Dr. Barbara Rae-Venter,
a genetic genealogy consultant who is contracted to help ID the rapist. The hope is to find a DNA link to a family
member in an ancestry database. I spent several weeks trying to get a hold of Barbara,
and once I did and let her know what was going on, she volunteered to take on the task.
I was able to give her the DNA profile fairly quickly, and then I was also able to get her a sample of DNA
from one of the victim's cases. She again developed a profile that she was able to use to put into her system
to start mining for data. The difference between what we're asking her to do in 2017
versus what we had been trying to do for two decades, it took us from waiting for his DNA to come into the CODIS
database to being able to actively hunt him out by looking for and triangulating any relatives who might be
in a commercial DNA database. TONY RAWLINGS: We were very hopeful, because if anything was going to take us
in a direction of that DNA profile we filed charges on and saw the warrant on in 2003,
this was probably our best hope to date. It was 2018. Dr. Venter reported back that she had found a man who
was likely our suspect's second cousin, and that he was living in Ohio, and that
was our first active break. For the Bloodline Detectives, a stunning new forensic science
called genetic genealogy may finally be the key to identify a serial rapist. But as we see next, investigators
must first climb a family tree to track down a suspect. [MUSIC PLAYING] It's now 2018.
Investigators in Clearfield, Utah are using a new forensic science called genetic genealogy
to identify a serial rapist who's been terrorizing families and communities for years.
Detectives are about to close in on a suspect by navigating some complicated branches of a family tree.
We got the information that she had found a second cousin to the suspect, and we started looking into those leads,
and eventually we found out that the mother of the suspect was adopted. We were then able to petition to the probate court in Ohio
to have the adoption and name change unsealed. So once the court granted it in Ohio,
what that gave us was a piece of paper from the adoptive parents. That paper included a reference that her biological name
was Burns, her last name. Once we found out who the mother's real name was and were
able to get the information, find out who the second cousin, we finally got down to a stepbrother.
While they were able to track him down, they got an actual DNA sample from him, covertly.
Sent it off. Turned out it wasn't the guy, but it was a half sibling to our actual known suspect.
So they went and they interviewed him, and they found out that he had a half brother by the name
of Mark Douglas Burns, and that Mark Douglas Burns had been convicted of rape in North Carolina in the '70s,
and that he was currently living still in the Salt Lake area. Everybody on the team would have
been just ecstatic about that, because after two decades of nothing and waiting for DNA to hit,
this is our first good opportunity to go looking. It was the only thing that led us to this man.
If we would not have had the ability to track him through family members, there's no evidence
that I'm aware of that any of the agencies have right now, evidence or information, that would have led to him.
NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER): Police now began surveillance of the suspect, Mark Douglas Burns.
The detectives ran his criminal history and found that Mark Burns had been convicted of rape in 1974
in North Carolina. In fact, had been sentenced to death row. ADAM HERBETS: So Mark Burns, in 1974, was in the military.
He was stationed in North Carolina. The case he was arrested for was a rape inside
of a McDonald's bathroom. The victim in that case was an 18-year-old woman. TIM ROBINSON: He was charged and ultimately convicted of rape
and sentenced to the death penalty. At that time, North Carolina had the death penalty.
He was in prison for a year, year and a half, and then the North Carolina law changed to where you couldn't
put somebody to death for sexual assault. And so his sentence was commuted to I believe it was 25 years.
And he spent the next 12 or 13 years in a North Carolina prison. It's a terrible, scary story, and it's worse
when you hear about the fact that he, A, got out; B, was supposed to die; and C, did it again
to so many more people in Utah. We then learned, in about 1987, 1988, that Mark Burns was again convicted
of being a peeping Tom. He was caught looking into the window of a woman's apartment.
They don't revoke his parole. And another year later, the same thing. He goes and starts looking at windows.
And so he gets arrested again. I think he does about a year, year and a half in jail,
and then he's released in I believe late 1989. From then he moved back to Salt Lake City.
The process of surveilling him led then to a retrieval from trash, from garbage,
which is perfectly legal and acceptable in the United States. When a person abandons things in the garbage
and they put it out in the trash and wheel it out for public pickup, they no longer have an expectation
of privacy in those items. They got a couple of soda cans and bottles, and they were able to test those and get DNA.
I believe it was September 20th of 2019 when the lab up in Wyoming reported back that the DNA from the garbage we had
obtained had a single male profile, and that it was our suspect. NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER): On September 25th, 2013,
Mark Douglas Burns is arrested by police. At that point, Mark Burns was a truck driver.
He was working out of Brigham City, Utah. He was residing in North Ogden, Utah. And from what it appeared, he was single,
living alone, and just working. TIM ROBINSON: Clearfield came up with a plan to make an arrest.
So the arrest team basically just decided the easiest way to do it would just be go up to the front door
and knock on the door. - Mark? - Yes. Hey, Detective Swanson. How are you doing?
MARK DOUGLAS BURNS: I'm well, yourself? Good. Hey, I need you to come out and talk to me for a minute.
Sure. We need to take you up to the office with us. Had some questions for you. Have another investigator that wants to talk to you.
About what? You know, I have no idea right now. I'm just an investigator. Asked us to swing by.
Said, hey, stop by. If Mark is here, pick him up. He didn't see it coming when they arrested him
and it went down smoothly. I mean, clearly, from the detective standpoint, they're just trying to keep him comfortable.
They want him to be a little bit chatty when they bring him in for questioning to talk about the actual case.
Do you have anything on you I ought to be concerned about? No. Mind if I check? The day he was arrested, obviously we're trying to get
all the information we can. And the first thing we do is we go to his house and we start talking to neighbors, people
who might have known him. And he had a very good relationship with his next door neighbor.
And the things that they were saying, it didn't really seem to fit the type of person
you imagine when you think of a serial rapist. You know, he looked like any guy you'd see on the street.
I mean, he didn't look like a monster. He just looked like an early 60s man who was
being contacted by the police. It was a nice home, middle class neighborhood. Just looked like a normal Joe.
He didn't seem guarded or anything. He provided information freely. But then as soon as I started talking
about the rapes and sexual assaults, he shut down. NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER): An arrest
is finally made by Bloodline Detectives, but their work is not done. Investigators need to know the horrible details
of the many sex assaults their suspect, Mark Douglas Burns, may have committed over three decades.
His interrogation is next on "Bloodline Detectives." [MUSIC PLAYING] In 2019, Mark Douglas Burns, the primary suspect
in a series of sex attacks, is now under arrest in Clearfield, Utah. His DNA linked to nine incidents,
dating as far back as 1991. That is just sadistic. That guy has no conscience whatsoever.
He is a true animal. TONY RAWLINGS: I don't think you could script a more diabolical,
sinister, heinous act of crime perpetrated against humanity and individuals in a family
than what our suspect did. NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER): Now in custody, police began to question Burns.
He wants to know, why am I here? What are you asking me these questions for? Detective Carlson finally told him we're
investigating a rape case. And when he did that, Mr. Burns was visibly upset. He says, fuck.
And he continued talking for a while. I started to confront him, saying we had linked DNA to him, and it wasn't just one case.
It was multiple cases. He didn't seem guarded or anything. He provided information freely.
But then as soon as I started talking about the rapes and sexual assaults, he shut down.
Mr. Burns invoked his right to counsel. Once that's done, we can't ask any more questions.
NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER): On the day his trial set to start, Mark Douglas Burns does something police never expect.
TONY RAWLINGS: His attorney came in. Along the lines had made a pretrial negotiation
to us of a potential plea that would have involved five counts, him pleading guilty to five of the 17.
We said, no, that's not going to happen. He showed up to argue a motion, and leaned over to the defense to ask if they were ready,
and learned that he had come to court said that very day, prepared to plead guilty as charged.
I was expecting that we would at least have further hearings, and I was surprised to find out that he decided he's
just going to plead guilty. That's all. I'm guilty, we're done, and I'll admit to it.
NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER): But Mark Douglas Burns is not finished confessing to terrible crimes.
He now tells investigators that he also committed three murders. In addition to those rape charges that he's already
facing and wants to plead guilty to, he's now confessing to homicides, one of them in Utah,
one of them in Arizona, and one of them in Oregon. TONY RAWLINGS: How can anybody do this to another human being?
How? How depraved? How does a person get to the point where they can conduct themselves
in such a dastardly manner and ruin other people's lives in significant ways? But experiencing Mark Burns, there
was nothing genuine about him. There was nothing sincere. There was nothing contrite.
It was a game to Mark Burns. NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER): Finally, the victims of Mark Douglas Burns
get the justice they deserve. BENJAMIN WILLOUGHBY: One of his last acts before the judge sent him to prison for the rest of his life
was to attempt to silence that 11-year-old girl, who is now a grown woman and wanted to address the court.
How can you do that and also claim that you have remorse or that you feel sorry for her?
I said, I want you to remember that you told me not to bother to tell anyone, that you would never be caught.
I did it anyway, because I'm stronger than you. It may have taken 28 years, but we are here today.
You were wrong and Detective Peterson was right. It was not a matter of if, it was a matter of when.
NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER): Mark Douglas Burns is sentenced for his crimes. The judge sentenced him to the maximum, 16
to life on the 14 counts where he could, and six years to life on the other three counts,
and ran them all consecutive. I hope it eats at him. I hope it eats at him every day, because it eats at me,
and eats at every one of the survivors. BENJAMIN WILLOUGHBY: He expressed some very
shallow remorse to the victims. One single tear, and then the minute he was done,
he was cold again. NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER): If not for the advances in genetic genealogy, the terrible crimes
committed by Mark Douglas Burns would have gone unpunished. BENJAMIN WILLOUGHBY: If we did not
have the genetic genealogy on this case, he would still be living in our community.
We would have no justice. We wouldn't. I don't see any other way that we could have found him.
NICHOLE EYRE: At the end of the trial, I really did put it away. I told my husband that I was going to watch and see
what happened with the Wyoming cases, and to be very honest, I haven't checked once.
I just haven't thought about it. It's completely-- I need to live my life. NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER): Mark Douglas Burns hid
in plain sight as a friendly neighbor, no one ever suspecting he's raped over a dozen women, including
an 11-year-old little girl, and that he would then confess to multiple murders. In 2020, Burns was sentenced to at least 242 years in prison.
But the miracle of the Bloodline Detectives isn't only their ability to solve crimes that occur today,
but the ability to reach back for decades, bringing criminals to justice and finding
some sense of closure for victims and their families. As forensic science continues to evolve,
their work will continue to expand, making communities a little safer for all of us,
and bringing criminals hiding in the shadows out into the light. I'm Nancy Grace.
Thanks for being with us on "Bloodline Detectives." [MUSIC PLAYING]

Brief Summary

A serial rapist terrorizes Utah families for years until DNA advancements lead to his capture.

Key points

A Family's Nightmare. In 2001, a family in Clearfield, Utah, is terrorized by a serial rapist.
The Forensic Breakthrough. In 2015, advances in DNA technology help police actively hunt the suspect.
The Horrific Assault. A mother and daughter are raped in front of their family during a home invasion.
Mark Douglas Burns Arrested. After two decades of searching, Mark Douglas Burns is arrested for multiple rapes.
Confession of Murders. Mark Douglas Burns confesses to three murders in addition to his rape charges.
Sentencing of Burns. Mark Douglas Burns is sentenced to at least 242 years in prison for his crimes.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

He is a true animal.

Describing the suspect's heinous nature.

1:17WatchApr 1, 2021

Tension

85/ 100High tension

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