Bloodline Detectives - Episode 6 - Unrighteous Act | Forensic Files

I'm Nancy Grace, and this is the "Bloodline Detectives." A murder in 1976 causes a real stir
when the victim is the ex-wife of a famous musician. High profile cases often draw public scrutiny
and can be very stressful for investigators. Cases where the national spotlight are hard to forget, especially when they go unsolved.
But as we celebrate new approaches like familial DNA and techniques like genetic genealogy,
the value of traditional police work does not disappear. Hunches, interviews, circumstantial evidence,
they all have their place. And the marriage of these new tools with old practice
is helping to catch perpetrators who have escaped, even through death. The murder of Karen Klaas was a cold case for years.
Her children grew up without their mother, their children without a grandmother, always wondering.
But a major breakthrough gave her loved one's closure after decades of grief. Sherlock Homes is history, but the "Bloodline
Detectives" are here to stay. NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER): January 1976 Hermosa Beach, California,
a woman discovered strangled with her own underwear and left for dead. NERISSA KNIGHT: She had one side of her pantyhose binding
her hands together and the other side of the pantyhose, along with a bra strap, were around her neck.
NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER): The attack sends shockwaves through the small community.
ALAN DUKE: It was very shocking that this would happen and that the peace and tranquility of this town
would be shattered. NERISSA KNIGHT: At that time, with him still being out there,
many people did not feel safe. NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER): Within days, our murder investigation is launched.
But despite a major manhunt, the violent killer avoids detection. ALAN DUKE: If this was random, it's very hard for a detective
to pinpoint who might have done it. NERISSA KNIGHT: He virtually just disappeared into the twilight.
He walked into the sunset and got away with raping and murdering Karen Klaas. NANCY GRACE: This is the story of Karen Klaas, how
her life was ended so violently and how 41 years later, cutting-edge DNA forensics and the "Bloodline
Detectives" solve her murder. They were able to, with scientific advances in forensic technology, take the evidence that they had
and do new things with it. THOMAS THOMPSON: Familial DNA was keen. It was-- it was how we solved this case.
[THEME MUSIC] NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER): January 30, 1976, in the seaside town of Hermosa Beach, California,
a woman calls 911. She's frantic and fears for the safety of her neighbor Karen Klaas.
Police are dispatched. When police and paramedics arrived at the house, they went inside, and they found Karen, Karen Klaas,
on the floor, partially bound, and naked and barely alive. The pantyhose, one of the legs had
been wrapped around her throat. Also a bra strap apparently used to strangle her.
And she'd been sexually assaulted. NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER): Still unconscious, Karen
is rushed to the hospital. Police immediately sealed off the scene which is in total disarray.
BONNIE CLARKE-JOHNSON: When I went in, I went around into the bedroom, and that's
where I saw the towel, her bra and nylon stockings. And the bra had been cut off.
So I assumed, since the bra was cut, that that was the ligature that was around her neck.
ALAN DUKE: They noticed that it was apparently a burglary. There were things that were thrown around.
There were drawers that had been opened, things out of place. And there was a towel, a towel that
had semen on it from the rapist, from the attacker. THOMAS THOMPSON: There is body fluid on Karen's body
that was collected. All the ligature and everything that was at the scene and clothing was collected.
NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER): With Karen in a coma, detectives interviewed Noel Castle and Sue Croft,
the friends that called 911. ALAN DUKE: The plan was that she was going to go for breakfast coffee with some
of her neighbor friends. But when it came time for that, they didn't hear from her.
They had seen that her car had pulled up and that she was apparently home. But they didn't know where she was
and why she wasn't keeping their appointment. So one of them called the house. There was no answer, which they thought was really odd.
So they decided to walk over to the house. NERISSA KNIGHT: The two friends went around to the back door,
and they noticed that the sliding door was open. And when they peered in, they saw Karen's crutches.
You see Karen had just gotten into an accident a little earlier while she was skateboarding.
So when Noel Castle saw the crutches inside the door, she knew, well, Karen's home.
She's in there. She saw cookies on the counter. But something didn't seem right.
They called her name. There was no answer. So both friends went around to the front door
to knock on the door. But when they went to the front door, out came a strange man whom they never
seen before with bushy hair and he's, hello, ladies. And they were startled. BRIAN OXMAN: They then got scared to sort
of having a sixth sense of there was something very, very wrong. They'd never seen this fellow before.
So they went to a firefighters' house who they knew. They knew he also had a gun.
They were scared. And they then called 911. Then the police arrived. Once they arrived and went into the house,
the horrible scene of Karen Klaas' murder unfolded before everyone. And the shockwaves of this whole incident
started and really, it has not ended. NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER): On February 4, five days after the attack, Karen dies from her injuries.
Karen died because she was strangled. Her brain was deprived of oxygen for maybe 15 minutes or longer.
If the neighbors perhaps had come 10 minutes earlier and knocked on the door and interrupted the attack,
she might not have died. BONNIE CLARKE-JOHNSON: I thought she was going to live.
I actually did. But after she'd been in the hospital for a few days, the doctors didn't give her any hope,
and then that affected me. I felt that now this is just going to be a homicide instead of just a rape.
NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER): A major murder investigation is launched. THOMAS THOMPSON: We have a description from the ladies who
saw the suspect at the door. So we have a dark-haired male with just the beard, no mustache, scraggly brown hair, 5' 10",
you know, 150 pounds, 160 pounds. So it wasn't a big individual. And that information started to be putting out to the press.
ALAN DUKE: What detectives in 1976 had to do in order to solve a crime, they needed the witnesses who had
descriptions of people, people who saw things and knew things. And so they would go knocking door to door
throughout the neighborhood. And they would find out from knocking on those doors
that neighbors say, yes, there had been this strange man the last couple of days lurking down
the streets of Hermosa Beach right around where Karen was attacked. When her funeral took place, the police
were very, very suspicious that somebody might be at that funeral. JOHN DOUKAKIS: It's just something
you take a shot at to see if anybody looks like they're paying more attention than they should or something
that you try to see something and hope that you'll gain some information. But really, nothing really showed.
NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER): Fear spreads quickly through the quaint beachfront community.
BONNIE CLARKE-JOHNSON: I think it shocked the whole town because we didn't have things like that in this town.
NERISSA KNIGHT: This is Hermosa Beach in the mid-1970s. It's a whimsical, fun, free place on the ocean side.
It's a close-knit community. The people there know each other. People have their doors, their windows unlocked.
Most of the crimes committed in Hermosa Beach were of the nature of someone taking
something out of an unlocked car or entering through an unlocked door. They were petty thefts.
ALAN DUKE: You could count on one hand how many murders that they would have in a decade.
And if somebody's out of place, you would notice them because people know who lives in the houses.
NERISSA KNIGHT: With the suspects still being out there and not being IDed or apprehended,
all the moms in town, all the young girls, there was a fear amongst them. And no one felt safe.
They needed this guy IDed. They needed him brought in for them to get back to the bedroom safe, enjoyable community
that they'd grown to know and love. NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER): In 1976, police rely much more on old-fashioned legwork
than the few forensic techniques available at the time. And as we see next, in the case of Karen Klaas,
there's an unusual complication, an ex-husband who is at first a prime suspect but also a superstar celebrity.
That's next on "Bloodline Detectives." On January 30, 1976 in the quiet town of Hermosa Beach,
Karen Klaas is discovered naked and unconscious in her own home, the victim of a violent sexual assault
and strangulation. NERISSA KNIGHT: When they walked into her bedroom she was on the floor and she was motionless.
She was unconscious with her hands binded with her leggings from her stockings. And the other leg was around her throat along with a bra strap.
She seemed lifeless, but she was just unconscious. They rushed her to the hospital.
Five days after being rushed to the hospital after being raped and strangled, they pulled the plug on Karen,
and Karen died on February 4, 1976. NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER): 32-year-old Karen Klaas
is well known in the area. She had once been married to Bill Medley from the Righteous Brothers.
ALAN DUKE: Karen grew up in a dysfunctional family in the 1950s. Her father, allegedly, was abusive her father
abandoned the family when she was still a child. And so they struggled. She had one brother who ended up in prison, a sister who ended
up in a mental care facility. But she did well. And that was in high school at Santa Anna high school
where she first met the man who would later become her husband, Bill Medley. He dropped out of high school and pursued his music career.
He bounced around in various groups, didn't have any real success, mostly around Orange County
playing in R&B clubs and that sort of thing until it started to get pretty serious
when he was about 22 years old. And that is when love struck between Karen and Bill Medley.
NERISSA KNIGHT: Though they married in 1963, had their son in 1965, Darrin, and then divorced
by the time Darrin was five years old, they were still close. They remained friends, and they were co-parenting very well.
They talked on a daily basis. They got along, and Bill considered her as a friend.
THOMAS THOMPSON: She had two children. Her ex-husband, Bill Medley, was her first husband.
And she was involved in a divorce from her second husband. She was also welcomed into other people's homes.
She was someone you wanted to be around. NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER): From friends and witness accounts,
investigators are able to piece together Karen's last movements. BRIAN OXMAN: Karen Klaas had two beautiful children.
She took one of them to the McMartin preschool in Manhattan Beach, dropped him off, and then came back home.
BONNIE CLARKE-JOHNSON: The witness saw Karen Klaas drive home as usual and drive up her driveway after dropping her son off.
And that apparently, this particular time she had a broken leg, and she walked in to her usual way
of getting into the house through their back sliding door. NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER): Detectives are
keen to speak to Bill Medley. BRIAN OXMAN: The first suspect in any murder, where a woman is divorced, is the former husband.
JOHN DOUKAKIS: We interviewed him at his home in Orange County. And he was able to tell us a few things about his life,
whether there was anybody that he knew that would want to do something to her or things
like that. ALAN DUKE: Bill Medley had a really good alibi. He was with his son. They were at Lake Arrowhead, were on their way
there to buy a cabin. But was it the current husband, who she was divorcing, Jerry Klaas?
They questioned him. They looked at where he had been and ultimately ruled him out.
NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER): Investigators receive the autopsy results. Karen has clearly fought for her life.
THOMAS THOMPSON: The autopsy report showed that, obviously, there's a ligature marks on her neck.
It was officiation. BRIAN OXMAN: They found that she had been unable to breathe for an extended period of time, which resulted
in severe brain damage. NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER): From the analysis of the scene,
police are able to tell what happened at the house the morning of the murder. NERISSA KNIGHT: Looking at the evidence with the disarrayment
of things out of place and strewn throughout the homes and things that were knocked down open and ransacked,
it appeared that the suspect was going through the home and possibly burglarizing it, had possibly watched
and seen Karen's daily routine. We figured that he was hiding behind the door right
to the side of it and just waiting for her to walk through that sliding glass door.
And he just pounced on her. She fought back the best she could with only having one leg.
And I would imagine he probably held his hands over her mouth and just drag her right to the bedroom.
THOMAS THOMPSON: It's surreal, kind of takes you over, trying to imagine the suspect Karen on the ground,
ligature around her neck, and what happened to her. It's sad. NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER): The question
is, who could have committed such a horrific attack? Police are under pressure to solve the crime
before the killer strikes again. BRIAN OXMAN: Oh, my goodness, the upset in the Hollywood
community in the entertainment industry created enormous pressure on the police.
This was what we call a high profile case. When we were trying to go out into the community
to get information identifying the suspect, it was a lot of emotion because it just--
it wasn't solved. And that was the bad part. NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER): With a violent killer still
on the loose, detectives decide to use hypnosis on one of the eyewitnesses, a first in California,
to help the investigation. NERISSA KNIGHT: At this point, they needed a more descriptive
image of this suspect. It was too generic. It looked like too many people in town.
So in a last ditch effort to get more details, they put Noel Castle under hypnosis.
And at the time, it was the first instance of hypnosis being used to garner this information
in a case in California. BRIAN OXMAN: At that time, hypnosis was very controversial, 1976.
Courts were not accustomed to having hypnosis be part of the process of identifying suspects
or drawing out the memory. And what does it do? It relaxes people to the point where
they are able to remember. THOMAS THOMPSON: Hypnosis has shown to bring out more detail--
specific colors, shapes. It could be a license plate number. It could be anything that the person saw but it
isn't coming forward quickly. So we're just looking for anything that would help
us further the investigation. NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER): With the extra information obtained
from the hypnosis, detectives have a three-day composite created of the suspect in the hopes it will shine
new light on the investigation. BONNIE CLARKE-JOHNSON: They made a bust. And then when they finished the bust,
we brought it back to the station. And I photographed the bust. And then we made or had the sheriff's department
had the flyers made up. THOMAS THOMPSON: Basically, that's our opportunity to get a 3D version of the suspect
out there to hopefully help get somebody to think I know that person, that that person is over here.
I've seen someone just like him. We did get a couple of calls off the use of that bust,
but nothing like we thought. None of the information panned out. NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER): With no serious leads
from the composite or bust, detectives follow up on the list of potential suspects they had developed
from their investigations. NERISSA KNIGHT: One of the strongest leads they had was Detective Bynum and his inkling
that he recognized the suspect. He felt the suspect resembled a firefighter out of Orange County.
THOMAS THOMPSON: He was a suspect in a sexual assault in Orange County, didn't really have ties to Hermosa Beach.
But his alibi was he was at his taxmen that morning so he could not have been in Hermosa Beach.
So detectives drove from his Orange County location to Hermosa Beach to see how long it took him.
JOHN DOUKAKIS: What detective Bynum did, he traveled. He did it more than once, traveled to from that office
to the crime scene to see how long it took, whether it was possibly because we had time when this occurred
pretty well nailed down. THOMAS THOMPSON: And it was a little bit too long. It wouldn't have given him any opportunity
to commit the crime, drive to the taxman, and arrive at the time he did. Because our time was so precise, because the ladies
had seen the suspect at the house. So we're working for very specific minute details.
JOHN DOUKAKIS: Another person that we had looked at was actually a son of one of my neighbors.
And he and a friend of his was in a confrontation with her ex-husband, not Medley but the other,
the last husband. And we figured, we'll look at them and determine where they were at the time.
And we went to their jobs and find out that they had been-- they were working at the time of a homicide or at the time of her attack.
So it could have been them. It was just a follow up in every little bit of leads you have,
and we didn't have a whole lot of them. NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER): Despite working tirelessly,
investigators run out of leads, and the case goes cold. THOMAS THOMPSON: It does, in a sense,
turn cold in that we're not working anything at the moment because, you know, we've done everything we thought of.
JOHN DOUKAKIS: We were hoping that somebody would-- somebody would pop up and say, hey,
we saw something that shouldn't be in this neighborhood. But nothing like that occurred.
It was years and years, and we had no information about it. We had nothing. NERISSA KNIGHT: Maybe it's because he looked
like so many other people. He was nondescript. He was your average height, average Joe,
average hair with a beard hiding any descript features. He virtually just disappeared into the twilight.
He walked into the sunset and got away with raping and murdering Karen Klaas. NANCY GRACE: Nondescript, average height.
So often, police are confronted with that generic description. It will take the "Bloodline Detectives"
and their scientific weapons to give that description a true identity. The brutal attack on Karen Klaas in her home in Hermosa Beach,
California, January 1976, is proving to be a mystery to investigating officers. After months of police work, it's labeled a cold case.
But detectives working in the case never give up, determined to track down the man who raped
and murdered Karen Klaas. NERISSA KNIGHT: It was one of those things we got to get that guy.
We got to find out that. We have to prove that we can solve this. Dogged detectives were so frustrated with this case
and this suspect having gotten away. THOMAS THOMPSON: They're always thinking about it.
It never really goes away. And then someone will think of something to do, interviewing somebody trying to get more information
and try to proceed further with it. NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER): In 1999, the unsolved unit
at the Sheriff's Homicide Bureau began reinvestigating the case. Detectives sent evidence and swabs from the crime scene
for analysis, and a DNA profile is developed. In 1999, when the cold case detectives got on board,
they took the evidence that was garnered at the scene, that towel with the semen on it
and took a sample of the DNA from the semen that was on that towel of the suspect and put that into the DNA file
to see if they could find a match. ALAN DUKE: It was in the '90s that they started
building the DNA databases. When someone was put in prison for a crime or arrested even in a county jail, some states,
some governments require that they take a DNA sample. They started building a database.
BRIAN OXMAN: The automation of this process is absolutely astounding. It is able, from time to time, to run that DNA profile
and see if it matches to any of the new profiles which have been placed into that system.
ALAN DUKE: But if someone who committed a murder in 1976 had not been arrested the system in the '90s or later,
their DNA wouldn't be in that database. NERISSA KNIGHT: Unfortunately in 1999, when they were forward thinking and they went and did
that extra step and opened up that case and did that DNA test, there was nothing conclusive.
THOMAS THOMPSON: I'm always a positive person who would try to see the best, except this one
wasn't getting solved. So it just-- I guess it furthers your resolve, furthered my resolve
to there's always hope. There's always something that's going to come out out of the horizon and make it happen.
That hope on the horizon was a new forensic science called familial DNA. And as we'll see next, the "Bloodline Detectives"
working the case would utilize the true extent of its power as a crime-solving tool.
NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER): In 1999, La County sheriffs rerun DNA from the horrific 1976
rape and murder of a 32-year-old mom of two, Karen Klaas. But once again, they faced disappointment
when there's no match or hit on CODIS, the national database. Determined to solve the case, officers
keep looking to new technological advancements. ALAN DUKE: It wasn't until about 10 years later
that they started thinking about familial DNA. It was somewhat controversial, first of all,
because of all the ethical. There was a new process, and they were wondering, is this something that should be done.
Forensic scientists realized that killer may have a cousin, or an uncle, or a brother,
or a sister who was in the database. And through the new strategies of analyzing it,
they could compare and run computer searches on the database and find similarities
between the suspect DNA and others in the database who would be related to the suspect.
And then that would narrow your pool from millions of people or thousands of people
to maybe 20 or 30 people. You're trying to get the family core, someone that has the mother or father's markers that would
be a close relative of the suspect and try to get their information, interview them, and find out whether there's a connection.
And then you would take the circumstantial evidence-- where somebody was, the age, and that sort of thing.
And you would find if who related to them, who would have that similar DNA, could be a suspect.
So they started doing that with the DNA profile of Karen Klaas' killer. NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER): In 2011,
detectives get approval to run the DNA profile on the database again. THOMAS THOMPSON: The first time we used it in 2011,
there was no match. So, you know, it's just-- had there been a match then, it'd have been great.
One thing about CODIS that is constantly run and updated. So if somebody gets-- their DNA gets
put in six months from now, the bells will go off and we'll get notified. But under the other, the new one, familial DNA,
you can only run it once. And then you have to run it again and keep doing that.
They haven't perfected it or done the same thing to it as they did with regular DNA.
BRIAN OXMAN: The fact that there was no match just means that they had not come across the perpetrator
of this crime yet. But somewhere out there, there was a DNA match. They just haven't found it yet.
NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER): But detectives won't give up, and a third search is carried out in 2016.
A call that was four decades in the making came through. Giselle Lavine gave a call to detectives,
letting them know that they'd hit pay dirt in that quest to find who's responsible for the murder
of Karen Klaas. And it was beautiful. It was the highlight of my career. It was hearing that they have a familial DNA match.
It was just-- I had to share it with the chief. I had to share it with the captain.
I had to share it with everybody that was involved in the case that we're working--
we don't have a name yet, but we're working on a potential match. And we're getting very close.
NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER): After 40 years, could investigators finally be close to identifying
the killer? ALAN DUKE: It turns out that there were actually two people now in the database who showed similarities, were
close matches to the suspect. And one of those hits was a direct Y chromosome immediate relative of the suspect.
So then it was a process of elimination and moving in closer to the suspect. It was great hope.
THOMAS THOMPSON: Larry Brandenburg and Tom Harris, along with the deputy DA from the LA County DA's office,
went up to interview this match and to find out what connection and what possible connection
could he have to Hermosa Beach. There was a connection to Hermosa Beach. A relative lived in Hermosa Beach in the north and close
to where Karen lived. So there was more than just one thing that brought him to Hermosa Beach or made him the suspect.
ALAN DUKE: Using that information, they were able to locate the person that they then concluded
raped and killed Karen Klaas. NANCY GRACE: Karen Klaas' case has been cold for 40 years.
But as the "Bloodline Detectives" get closer to catching a killer, it almost seems like the case
is only days, not decades old. NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER): By 2016 and after a 40-year investigation, detectives are finally
close to solving the 1976 brutal murder of 32-year-old Karen Klaas. Familial DNA has given them the name of a suspect.
NERISSA KNIGHT: Kenneth Eugene Troyer was named as the suspect, the person DNA proven
to have killed Karen Klaas. NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER): So who is Kenneth Eugene Troyer?
ALAN DUKE: Kenneth Eugene Troyer was 28, 29 years old in 1976. He'd been in and out of jails.
He was a burglar, and he was a sex assaulter. And he was a free man on January 30, 1976.
NERISSA KNIGHT: He was not one that you'd want out in the public, or want to be around,
or want him to be around anyone you know and care about or love. THOMAS THOMPSON: He's a sick person, evil.
He's just-- he didn't care. He had no heart. He had no thought other than just to do
whatever he wanted to do and didn't matter how he hurt people. It was all about Kenneth Troyer.
ALAN DUKE: When they checked more and more about him, the thing was he was dead.
He wasn't in the DNA database because he had been killed before that was ever a thing.
Kenneth Eugene Troyer died by a police bullet. He had escaped the California prison where he was serving
a sentence for burglary. He had had sexual assault and burglary convictions, a long rap sheet.
Then this Troyer escaped from the men's penal colony in San Luis Obispo. BRIAN OXMAN: He went to Orange County,
and he committed two rapes in Orange County. The police were on his trail. And then at the corner of Cabrillo and 17th Street,
he was in a shootout at that neighborhood. He was shot in the back, at the upper back, the lower back,
in the thigh. And he was killed by the Santa Anna Police Department. It was that incident which then led to the fact
that he was not being sought after as a DNA match. No one thought that that was going to be someone
who should be looked at. It wasn't until years later that his DNA was added to the CODIS system.
ALAN DUKE: But in hindsight, you look back, and what we know now is he wasn't your everyday criminal.
I think it's only unfortunate they didn't take the time to try to figure out perhaps where else
he might have committed crimes. Maybe much earlier, they could have connected this,
and we would have known his name sooner. THOMAS THOMPSON: The LA County Sheriff's Department
investigator contacted the Orange County coroner's office and obtained a sample from them of Kenneth Eugene Troyer.
Once we had the DNA of Troyer, it was easy for the crime lab to make that match.
It was him, 100%. BRIAN OXMAN: When we asked the question, why did that sketch bring no response?
I go back to that day of January 30th, on that street, where there was a family who
knew who the assailant was, and they were silent. They were the ones who needed to speak up.
They were the ones who saw the sketch in the newspaper and were silent. When we ask, why was there no identification,
ask those people. They're the ones who covered this up. NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER): Detectives are finally
able to give Karen's family the information they had been waiting for. NERISSA KNIGHT: When I spoke to Bill Medley, he was so warm,
and he felt relieved. And he seemed a little bit shell shocked or at the time taking it all in, because that's a lot.
Four decades of not knowing who killed whom he called his best friend. And Karen's sons told me that it was
something they didn't feel complete about with it being unanswered. And this was a piece of them that they needed.
ALAN DUKE: You hear the term closure, and you also hear that it's not a real thing.
However, what they've said about the effect that it had on them in knowing was that it did bring to an end
a certain part of the grieving process. NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER): On January 30, 2017,
LA County Sheriff's Department holds a press conference. ALAN DUKE: The Los Angeles County district
attorney called a press conference and didn't say what it was. Just said it was a development in the Karen Klaas case.
I didn't know what they were going to unveil. But they have-- they'll have the charts up,
the pictures, and everything. And you walk into the room and you start realizing this is a big deal.
And it was. Bill medley and Karen Klaas' two sons were standing behind the investigators
next to the district attorney for the big announcement. NERISSA KNIGHT: And you had a sense of relief and proudness
and just satisfaction in that room. It was filled with the vibe that was [SIGHS]..
And you felt it, and you heard it. And there were pats on the back, and there were smiles.
Even though this was a sad occasion about a sad subject, it was relief. It was a closure of a chapter that they
waited so long to be revealed and know the answer to. NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER): After 41
years, the rape and murder of Karen Klaas is finally solved. But her attacker and killer, Kenneth Eugene Troyer
never stands trial for his actions. He did, however, face the full justice of the law.
ALAN DUKE: A policeman's bullet, six years later, was the justice that he got. But there was justice in this case, which
came on January 30, 2017 when we learned who killed Karen Klaas. So yes, there was justice in that sense in that Bill Medley
and the two sons know, the community knows. And they also know that there is not a killer on the loose.
It's really important that you finally know that they're gone. BRIAN OXMAN: This was an unbelievable,
fabulous accomplishment on the part of the investigators. Oh, my goodness. In the halls, in the annals of law enforcement,
the best of the best. NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER): This case is one that eluded investigators for decades
until the use of familial DNA gave a jumpstart to the "Bloodline Detectives." JOHN DOUKAKIS: We didn't even imagine DNA
when we were working on the case, but that's the important part that I knew I had to have somebody down there to gather evidence.
That's eventually what did solve it, the evidence that they gathered when they went
down and left the crime scene. ALAN DUKE: There's no doubt in my mind that if the forensic scientists had not developed
this approach, a familial DNA, this case would remain a cold case. There was no one out there to confess.
The killer was gone, and there was no new evidence to be found in any practical way.
It just goes to show and prove that you can't get away with murder. If you commit murder, at some point at some time,
be it through you, through your children, through your brother, through your father, through your mother,
through your cousin, they're going to get to you at some point. The buck will stop.
NANCY GRACE: Sometimes even in death, you can't escape justice, not if the "Bloodline
Detectives" are on to you. Kenneth Eugene Troyer had been dead since 1982, walking free when he was alive, free of a conviction
related to Karen Klaas' murder. But now he is every bit guilty. And Karen Klaas' family, her children
and grandchildren, as well as Bill Medley, have found peace. The murderer may never have stood in front of a judge jury,
but his familial DNA convicted him. [MUSIC PLAYING]

Brief Summary

The episode details the 1976 murder of Karen Klaas and how familial DNA solved the cold case decades later.

Key points

The Murder of Karen Klaas. In January 1976, Karen Klaas is discovered strangled and sexually assaulted in her home.
Community Shockwaves. The brutal murder sends shockwaves through the small, close-knit community of Hermosa Beach.
Cold Case Investigation. Despite extensive investigations, the case goes cold, leaving the community in fear.
Familial DNA Breakthrough. In 2016, detectives finally get a familial DNA match after decades of investigation.
Kenneth Eugene Troyer Identified. After 41 years, Kenneth Eugene Troyer is named as the killer of Karen Klaas.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

He walked into the sunset and got away with raping and murdering Karen Klaas.

Nerissa Knight describes the elusive nature of the suspect.

2:27WatchApr 1, 2021

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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