Donita Cutts ////// 599 | Forensic Files

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[Music] crime [Music] today's True Crime Story is a scary one it's about a woman living alone an
intruder a brutal murder a horrific crime scene followed by strange events confusion and a botched
investigation dorothia Lan Cuts II AKA Denita El cuts was an aggressive businesswoman who had
worked her way up in the real estate world she was a friendly vivacious and outgoing single
38-year-old who had lots of friends but sometime between 12:30 a.m. and 5 a.m. on Saturday July 29th
1978 someone entered Cut's lavishly restored 19th century home at 125 wolf Street in Oldtown
Alexandria Virginia and killed her and it looks like that same someone has managed to get away with
murder for 44 years now this is true crime [Music] garage at 5:30 a.m. on Saturday July 29th
1978 the Alexandria fire department responded to a fire at25 Wolf Street in Oldtown Alexandria
Virginia the firefighters fought bravely to put out the fires this is a single family home that they're responding to
there's an upstairs there's a ground level and there's also a basement and the place was well ablazed by the time
that they arrived on the scene they're responding to this Fire based off of phone calls they're receiving from
Neighbors having witness smoke coming from this home after they put out the fire they're in the process of combing
through the scene trying to figure out what caused the fire trying to clean up this residence about an hour after the
fire is put out they come to a very Grizzly Discovery and that is the body of a woman that was recovered from the
basement level of the home well this fire is going to be ruled in arson so this female that they find it in the
basement is now going to be ruled a victim it would take a little bit of time Captain but authorities do identify
the remains of this person to be that of dorthia Lane Cuts II also known as Denita El Cuts she is the homeowner
she's 38 years old and she lives there by herself now a little bit of background on our victim you know first
I have to point out that the captain and I we are like Lord we'll never be royals
but when you hear Denita Cut's background she almost sounds like she is royalty tell me more kind sir so Denita
Cuts or Dortha was born in Charleston South Carolina in 1940 she grew up on her parents 200 acre
estate wow and these are people that are rich enough that they name their property name their homes she was
brought up much like her mother her mother is Doria Lane Cuts first attending boarding school in Baltimore
and then Briar Cliff Jr College in New York and then College in Switzerland the University of Geneva so she went to some
pretty impressive schools now denita's Father Richard malcol Cuts died in 1973 remember our case is taking place in
1978 about 5 years later he was a brigadier general in the Marines and had served as an aid to President Franklin D
Roosevelt and he and his father are credited with inventing an anti-recoil device for firearms so this is a long
history of some very important and impressive people she goes by Denita that's a name that she went by since she
was a child yeah that's to distinguish herself from her mother who had a very similar first name now she grew up
loving Antiques and in fact Denita actually owned an antique or two antique stores at one point in her life but in
the 60s in the 1960 she moved to Alexandria Virginia to become a real estate agent this in
1968 where she was rather successful as a real estate agent but also keep in mind she does come from money so at the
time of her death she had actually been a little bit removed from the agency that she worked for she was moving on to
maintain properties of her own she owned several properties rental properties rehab type properties that she was in
the process of being her own businesswoman so she had moved on to greener pastures at this time now it
seems like we say this a lot with the cases that we cover but there are some definitely weird things about this case
so pay attention you're exactly right Captain it seems like all of these homicide cases especially the Cold Case
ones that there are some strange details in these cases now one detail that I find to be rather weird is Denita had
been out of town leading up to her murder so she recently come back into town right she goes out to dinner with
some friends she's having a good time she comes home a little after midnight and then what we know is the fire
department is responding to a fire at 530 a.m. and after they clear the fire they find her dead in the basement it's
believed that the home was on fire for a minimum of 30 minutes before it was noticed and before firefighters arrived
we do not have an exact report based off of their arson investig to tell us exactly when they believe the fire was
started but through the reports that have been released we know that they believe that at minimum that fire had
been burning for 30 minutes so she is home less than 6 hours before she is killed and her home is set on fire now
I'm assuming that she was actually killed in the house and then the house was set on fire to cover up the murder
that likely seems to be the situation here captain and we're going to go through some of the old articles out of
1978 that are about this crime and I will summarize all of these so we don't have to go through every word but the
first one that I want to go through is from July 31st 1978 and it's titled death in Oldtown
and this comes from the Washington Post and I'm going to scan past the stuff that we've already covered but it says
between some time between 12:30 a.m. and 5:00 a.m. on Saturday someone entered her home and this is BAS in killed her
based off of what police sources are telling the Washington Post police go on to say that Cut's body she was found
bound and gagged and found by firemen the body had been stuffed behind a basement furnace and was lying in a
puddle of blood it was almost an hour after they arrived on the scene again that was at 5:30 a.m. that the firemen
found the body this while trying to clear smoke out of the basement the medical examiner autopsy report was
scheduled to be be released on this day so what we can see here is immediately this is BigTime news this is an affluent
area of Virginia this is a place where these types of crimes these types of murders do not traditionally occur so
now everybody in this area is going to be on edge and this the author of this article John Feinstein he goes on to say
that police remain baffled by the apparent murder arson and says the quote that he gets
from the detective is for all intents and purposes we're right on square one they go on to say this is one of
those kind of weird old timey things that you you you question when you hear this the detective stating this to the
newspaper a detective John Turner said it's hard to make much progress on a weekend what that doesn't make you feel
very good does it yeah well we just won we just don't like to work that hard on the weekend it would be nice too if all
murderers could take the weekend off as well because apparently the police might
not be working in EXA ex apparently the police might not be working in Alexandria Virginia on the weekend so
Cuts is found bound and gagged and then seems like the the murderer moved her body behind the
furnace yeah she may have been so this is where the reports get a little weird and we've seen this in plenty of other
cases where the longer that a case is out there some more information kind of trickles out kind of seeps out and you
get a little more details and then you have to sit back and look at them and go all right well both of these can't be
right so which is correct yeah it gets a little wonky donkey the wording here says in this article says the body had
been stuffed behind a basement furnace it was lying in a puddle of blood to me that implies that it was moved very
possibly moved there are some other reports that later come out that say that they believe maybe that when the
killer left the premises that she actually wasn't dead and she haded tried to move herself that she was trying
to possibly get get out of this basement but was very badly injured from the attack right now one problem that police
are going to have early on in this investigation is that they were trying to contact all of Denita Cut's close
friends and they said that a lot of the people they were trying to speak with some of them were out of town you know
we know that cuts didn't grow up in this area that she moved here for professional and other reasons later in
her adult life um one person that they do state in the newspaper that they are particularly interested in speaking with
was a former boyfriend and the detective goes on to say that they would like to question this man to get more details
about a civil suit that Denita Cutz filed against him in 1976 so 2 years prior to the murder and this I guess
this suit took place this lawsuit took place shortly after Denita broke off the relationship again according to this
article we don't know the details of that relationship they also do not name the boyfriend in this article there is
another article out there that says something else that makes me wonder are they even talking about the same man or
potentially a different man where this other article states that she had broke up with a boyfriend shortly before she
was killed again without them naming either boyfriend or naming the boyfriend right we cannot determine if in fact
this is the same person we do know based off of all of the witnesses and all of the people that knew her that she had an
extensive social life and that she had a lot of friends so it wouldn't be surprising to any of us that she had
broke off this relationship or for whatever reason this relationship 2 years prior had dissolved and now she
had had went on to another relationship that had also not worked out what we do know is that she was traveling leading
up to the time of her death she had just arrived back in town on that Friday remember we know that she made it home
that night and she came home shortly after midnight that night that's why her body was found on Saturday that's why we
know she was killed on Saturday but when we say she was killed on Saturday and she arrived back into town on Friday
keep in mind we're not even talking about an actual 24-hour window of time there she arrives back in town Friday
afternoon maybe early evening we don't have that exact hour right but she's killed she could have been killed very
shortly after midnight or attacked very shortly after midnight we don't know how
long her attacker was in that home we do not know how they gained access to the home we don't know how long there was
between the attack and when the when the fire was set we do know that at very minimum at the very minimum we have
reason to believe that that fire burned for at least 30 minutes before firefighters were on scene and what a
crazy scene that that must have been but we do have some eyewitnesses of the crime scene well
these are more people that knew of Denita and but this gives us a little ability to flesh out the situation a
little bit more here right so we have a a friend a former co-worker of hers her name is Mary who said that the whole
thing didn't make sense to her it didn't make any sense to her because she went on to say that Denita was was very
strong she was aggressive she was in very good shape she jogged all of the time what didn't make sense to her
friend Mary is that she couldn't believe that Denita wouldn't have put up a fight
or scream or something those are her exact words she goes on to say it just wasn't like her to be docile I don't
understand it this is interesting to me here because given the area and taking a
look at Old Town the fact of her friend saying I just don't understand why she didn't put up a
fight or scream or something what we don't have is any earwitnesses saying that they had heard some kind of scuffle
or some kind of fight or a woman screaming we don't have any of that b maybe because it happened in the
basement the attack could have happened there and be harder to hear obviously what I what I think that we might be
looking at here is a situation where either a she was attacked and incapacitated and when she came to or
was able to be in a in a a state that she could potentially put up a fight or scream or
something that she may have already been bound and gagged by that time right or the asent was able to control her up to
the point of tying her up and gagging her it makes you wonder too cuz you were saying that she was out of town be
before all this happened like maybe somebody knew that she was out of town and maybe they knew that she came from
money and that they were in the in the house maybe trying to rob it when she came home that's a very good point here
and you could have a situation where yes this was a planned robbery a planned burglary we should say
and that the person was unaware that she would be returning that night because we already
stated she came from money she lived in an affluent area not only that this woman once owned two antique stores
antique store owners are antique collectors by Nature her home was filled with valuable antiques yeah one man's
junk is another man's treasure there was another friend and this is a man that said that told police that the two of
them were planning to go out early that Saturday morning to look at some property in Alexandria that Denita was
thinking of purchasing remember she was in the real estate game as a worker be so to speak for quite some time and now
she's using her real estate Investments so that she doesn't have to work for someone else and this person her friend
tells police that they were supposed to be leaving together that morning at 7 a.m. remember Denita Cut's body was
located discovered inside that burning home at about 6:15 a.m. to 6:30 a.m. at the very latest so there might be some
strange and weird things in this case but one thing that's not that confusing here is the timeline yes we have a very
brief window of time to work with the the confusing thing seems to to me what went
down in that window of time right so the general timeline is this we know that she returned from her
vacation Friday evening I don't know how long she was on this vacation but the key is she returns that Friday evening
we know that after returning home she goes to dinner with friends we know that she returns to her home home at about
12:15 to 12:30 a.m. depending on which news article you read the autopsy shows that Miss Cuts died shortly before 5
a.m. just after 5:00 a.m. neighbors smelled smoke coming from the house called the fire department and the fire
department is on the scene and actively putting out the fire by 5:30 a.m. one thing that's very odd and strange to me
in this case here Captain is that we have a situation where somebody went to the trouble to set multiple fires inside
of this home and jammed the door to the basement almost sealing Denita Cut's [Music]
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here in the garage cheers to you all and let's put on our our diapers cuz it's going to get weird in here that's right
talk hands in the air to everybody out there in listener land especially the people in the back yeah there are two
really great articles that come out after the fact right we were talking earlier about articles that came out
shortly after the murder shortly after the arson the next article that I want to
hone in on comes out in November of the same year of 1978 and again I'll read my summar
version of this article and it reads the principal homicide detective assigned to
investigate the murder of Alexandria socialite Denita Cutz quit the force two weeks ago so this article
comes out late November Denita was killed Late July of the same year this article is about four months later and
it's telling us that the lead investigator the detective assigned to to investigate this homicide quit the
Force 2 weeks prior to the release of this article and the detective says that he
quit the force because he was angered over the police Force's handling of a suspect in this unsolved case so Joseph
Seuss is the detective that we're talking about and at the time he was a 9-year veteran of the local police force
right so it's not his first rodeo exactly and he said that the Denita Cut's case was quote the final straw in
the Department's series of recent failures to quote live up to the high standards needed in police work Seuss
who has since joined the Alexandra City Sheriff's Office so he didn't leave the biz entirely
right he quit the police force be over this matter and it sounds like there was a lot of concerns he had leading up to
this unsolved homicide of miscuts but it was the final straw for him to quit that
force and take a job with the sheriff's office but this isn't as strange as if he just resigned from law enforcement
period correct he he clearly has an issue with that Department with the Department that he worked for worked
with for nine straight years so his resignation was effective the mid part of November and he says was
the latest in a series of incidents that indicate growing morale and discipline problems within the
228 member police force 220 members of the police force and yet you have another detective telling us you know
it's difficult to solve these weekend homicides the murder of Denita Cuts again 38 at the time was found beaten
gagged and bound July 29th in the burned out basement of her Wolf Street townhouse this has remained a mystery to
her friends and Neighbors in the affluent Oldtown section the detective goes on to say I personally have never
been involved in a case that was so poorly controlled according to the detective
the only worthwhile suspect in the case was allowed to be questioned by half a dozen detectives who showed the suspect
photos of the crime scene later according to no no yes later according to this detective the suspect
made statements about the murder to detectives but the detective Seuss he says he was unable to determine whether
these statements were the result of reviewing the photographs or whether the suspect was really the murderer a point
that detective Seuss said would be crucial in determining whether or not to charge that particular suspect the
detective goes on to tell us I hope these diapers are on sorry that's that's not what he told
us that's that's what the captain told us at the top of I was going to say that's that's weird that he brought up
diapers I brought up diapers so the detective goes on to tell us he meaning the suspect mentioned something things
like a house being on fire a woman in a basement and a door being blocked at the
same time he denied that he had murdered anyone he rambled on about Visions the devil and about being a
prophet so you can see why it would be very difficult to tell whether this particular individual is reciting for
you things that he learned about the crime from the other detectives things that he learned about the crime from
seeing photographs of the crime scene or if he's telling you about something he actually participated in or was
responsible for well on somebody talking like this you know you go to mental illness and you start thinking well
maybe this guy is schizophrenic and and then he doesn't even know that he he he's not
classifying what he did as murder he burnt down the building or the building got burnt down somehow but because he
bound and gagged her she was n able to get free so she is a victim he murdered her but see how somebody I could see how
somebody that was not mentally stable could not see it in those terms yes and this suspect is troubling for many
reasons yeah you think the other part of this too that's incredibly concerning is the detectives handling of
this suspect who seems rather fragile to begin with if you're asking asking me based off of those very brief statements
here now just like the boyfriend or boyfriends this suspect is never named in any of these articles but a little
more background on this guy we learned that this suspect was arrested 2 days after the cuts murder this when the
suspect was found hiding under bushes outside an Oldtown resident so he's in the same neighborhood 2 Days Later
hiding in the bushes outside of a home he was picked up he was charged with attempted burglary and then released the
next day the police arrested this suspect several days later according to the detective when a butcher knife and a
pocket watch found in his possession were identified as items taken in another Oldtown home burglary yeah and
see again you wonder this guy doesn't seem mentally stable he gets into this area he starts breaking into his houses
well broke into a house that the owner wasn't there so that he could just spend time there he could squat there he could
have been squatting there for days he took what we do have is in both of these incidents he was picked up
outside of a home where it's believed that he was attempting to burglarize that home and then later he's picked up
again after being in possession of items that were taking taken in a previous burglary from that same neighborhood
right so he does make for a really good suspect even though he doesn't seem to be all there and your detectives may
have screwed up some of the questioning process the the Control process that you
want when speaking with these individuals and trying to get their statements and collect
evidence he's hiding in the bushes I mean th this guy has to go to the top of the suspect list and we know that he was
previously in somebody else's home illegally and we know for a fact that whoever killed Denita Cuts we don't know
why they were there or for what purpose that they were there but we do know that
they committed the murder and the attack inside the home now when this guy was charged with
burglary he was held in jail and then was sent to to a state mental institution this in Maran Virginia where
and you're exactly right here Captain based you know your earlier statement this man was diagnosed as
schizophrenic uh after he was arrested for this the burglary charge he was later released this about two week sorry
he was later released I don't have the exact date of when he was released but we know that he was
released sometime in November of that same year so he could have been locked up or in jail for several weeks if not
several months before they let him go he was freed on his own personal recognizes the possible
suspect this is the information we do have is a 30-year-old Alexandria man according to his attorney receives a
monthly Army pension for mental disabil so what you're telling me is that this guy is a suspect a good suspect we would
both agree we're having a lot of agreements lately we're going to have to that's not good for Ratings turn up
the heat a little bit in the garage get a little angry but you're telling me that so they they get him to a mental
hospital he gets better he gets let out because he's now mentally stable but law enforcement is going to
make make this statement about him give me that statement so this comes from the
assistant Commonwealth's Attorney his name is Richard melon and his quote is I would say that the man is one of the
most dangerous suspects the sheriff has had in custody for a long long time I'm shocked that what he goes on to say I'm
shocked that the man is free wow wow well let let's take this for what it is right like it would be
interesting to that's a powerful statement it's a very powerful statement it would be interesting to interview
Richard mendleson to find out exactly what he meant by that statement and I know there's people out there they're
shaking their heads they're going come on Colonel seems pretty clear to me what he's saying what I'm pointing out is to
what degree of Truth is this statement based off of the idea that he committed this
Denita Cuts murder right is Mendelson only saying this because he's convinced that this
man killed this woman when this man obviously was never charged with it he was never prosecuted for it we still
don't know 44 years later who killed this woman there's a chance that he did not do it is he simply basing basing the
statement off of the idea that he did Kill Denita Cuts right you see what I mean so it could be it's a bold
statement it's very bold that's a bold statement cotton it's but it could be a flawed statement if it's based off of of
things that are not fact yet they're not true yet so let's let's go on to to examine this statement a little bit
longer well you also wonder and I know I don't think this is what he's implying but it's like you also so wonder what
what is this guy's military background right you know but but he says the word dangerous right well and
we know that he's receiving a check from the military for mental disability so we
we also don't know the full extent of his mental disability yeah right he could simply be pointing out like even
if he wasn't involved in the cuts murder this guy this guy's scary right based off of like you said it could be a
combination of his military background and what the military says about this guy's mental
disability is is he is he prone to just attack people willy-nilly for no reason at all well and it's like I have guys
that I'm friends with that were like ex Marines those guys are they're deadly guys they could be deadly right but I
don't consider them dangerous they're in control of their actions right but they
could be dangerous if they wanted to be they wake up feeling dangerous is this guy beyond the
capacity of knowing who the enemy is right the militaries trained to protect us and in some cases even kill or
destroy the enemy mhm is this guy so far gone that he is unable to figure out who
the enemy is or is he so paranoid that he believes everybody to be the enemy when here he is at home on our home
turf and he's he's even in a a very nice safe neighborhood at that the prosecutor
goes on to say in this article that a medical report from the state mental institution revealed that the suspect
was in fact fit to stand trial but only under the influence of tranquilizers then mendleson went on to
tell us that he argued at the bail hearing right this is when he's trying to tell the judge this dude's super
dangerous don't Grant him bail we can't let him out right he's telling the judge
this guy is and his exact words are exceedingly dangerous don't let him out on bail but
the problem for that became what Mendelson would tell us I couldn't tell the judge that he was a suspect in the
Denita Cuts case right he doesn't have evidence to to does have evidence he doesn't have
evidence to nail this guy he he's saying that in his own personal opinion and personal expert professional
expertise he did not feel confident while he felt confident telling the judge how dangerous this man was he did
not have the evidence or the backing from the police department to tell the judge in good standing that this man is
a suspect in a murder case well and if it was a different time they probably could have pulled some DNA a off of off
of her house right and at least showed that he was possibly that that'd give more of a a reason to say well we think
he was at least attempted to get into her house if we can pull fingerprints or DNA off of like a door handle or
something but obviously it's not those times a couple of more interesting parts to this article before we move on to the
next one a police captain goes on to back up the statement of the assistant Commonwealth attorney's statement by
saying this is a police captain stating that they did not have enough evidence to charge this man with murder he does
say we are still interested in this man we would certainly have to keep him in mind as a possible or as possibly
involved now he goes on to say that there were the the FBI was involved in putting
together a psychological profile of Denita Cut's killer right and he wouldn't go into the
details of that psychological profile of the offender but save you one he did disclose that one result of that
profile was the FBI telling the Alexandria police that in all probability the killer was
mentally ill that according to the police captain he's basically saying you guys know who our number one suspect is
I yeah maybe I I don't know that that's I wouldn't say that that's his exact words I I'm leaving it at exactly what
he told us that that his statement is we are still interested in him we would certainly have to keep him in mind as
possibly involved the FBI profile they've told us that in all probability the killer was mentally ill Now that
statement is very interesting to me for a multitude of reasons they are seeing something at the crime scene or in
relation to the victim and how the victim was treated and how the victim was left that is indicating to these
experts that we are dealing with a person who is mentally ill at the time of this attack and at the time of
setting these fires right now this article gives us a little more detail and that's only because it's released 2
years after the murder and they it talks about a police reconstruction of the crime and it says that Denita Cutz came
in her front door alone shortly after midnight on Saturday July 29th 1978 mhm she climbed the stairs to her second
floor bedroom turning on the lights as she went went she turned down her bed took off her clothes and dropped them on
the seat of a rocking chair she put on a night gown and flicked on the television
set choosing Channel 5 which runs all night movies on Saturdays she then went to the bathroom
to wash up shortly after this an unknown person confronted Cuts in her house perhaps it was an intruder
who had come through an unlocked bedroom window perhaps it was a Prowler attracted by the lights that forced his
way in perhaps it was a friend with a grudge that had let himself or herself in with a key those were the working
theories 2 years into this investigation and again they go back to the fact that
6 hours after the need Cuts return to her home she was dead remember her body was found in the cellar right the extra
details we get here it's interesting of the Reconstruction so the the upstairs portion of this home must have been left
in a way or not as damaged as some of the other portions of the home that they were able to make out these details that
that she likely did this in this order and then the attack occurred later we learn that of some of the injury
suffered by our victim the autopsy determined that she had been struck on the head
and that she died from asphixiation this caused by the smoke from the fire now we should say
fires because this article gives us the detail that there were seven fires set inside the home yeah that sounds like a
madman so somebody looking to either completely destroy the scene or at least cover his tracks didn't set one fire
didn't set two in a fact fact there were some early articles that hinted at the possibility of Three Fires this article
that gives us the most details states that there had been seven fires set inside that home well and at this time
of this article two years later we have police firemen authorities telling us the same thing that you just
stated there right at this point in the in the case they've not arrested anybody
they've not charged anybody with her murder and they're saying you know one reason that the police have had
difficulty developing a lead in this case is that firemen were fighting seven blazes in the house may
have inadvertently obliterated critical evidence and I think that's probably highly likely in this situation yeah it
definitely happened now beyond the strange fact of setting seven different fires this is a little bit weird too so
they say that when Cut's body was found she was lying face down in a 4ft wide crawl
space 10 ft from a basement window she had been bound hand and foot with quote everything in the house end quote
this is coming from our detective who quit the force to join the Sheriff's Office so I feel like do you feel like
that gives him a little more street cred than some of these other statements he's
a little more gangster a little more ganger uh according to detective Seuss he says that she was bound with
everything in the house and he goes on to elaborate on that statement saying sweaters slacks masking tape electric
cord even a pair of socks so you have somebody who sets seven fires you have somebody that seems to be tying her up
with everything that they can get their hands on inside of the house he goes on to tell us that the killer apparently
hit cuts on the head with an antique lamp and this is based off of police finding a shattered base in the house
and then left her for dead in a cedar closet with the door barricaded in the basement this guy's an absolute animal
the detective goes on to say that cut somehow got one foot free and probably made her way up the basement stairs only
to find the door to the main part of the house barricaded in the Gathering smoke she
must have thought of a little window at the end of the crawl space as her last chance she was pretty resourceful the
detective says and he goes on to say she damn near made it so he's seeing stuff at the crime scene that indicates that
she clearly was not dead by the time that the killer left the the premises right and we know that she died from
smoke inhilation but he jammed the killer jammed the door shut and even when she managed to wiggle
free from all of her restraints again she's tied up with quote everything in the house according to the detective she
finds the door jammed up and then tries to make her way to the window and unfortunately she was unsuccessful now
the police do do go on to tell us that they never found any anything missing from the house and more than
$100,000 worth of jewelry remained hidden in a secret compartment beneath the main staircase no keys were
unaccounted for and no windows were broken according to the detective also the victim was not sexually assaulted
according to the medical examiner report like what you're talking about with the
suspect he's stating you know there's this fire and that you know he's basically basically stating the whole
crime scene in in his ramblings before he gets his mental health checked and it just seems like it just
lines up perfectly with this crime police go on to tell us that they did find a jammed handgun at the
house and they say that they believe possibly the murderer used that to intimidate the victim maybe this is why
she allowed herself to be bound to some extent or again I th this broken base to
the lamp you almost wonder if if he attacked her first hitting her over the head with this lamp before he tied her
up to begin with yeah I almost leaned towards that like there she came home there was an attack and then because she
was uh incapacitated at the time then he was able to bound her up in 1980 an article came out that told us
that there's not a lot of Hope for solving this case and they point out that the C Cuts murder has never been
solved even to this day forget about 1980 this even though the police department interviewed more people
devoted more manh hours ran more polygraph tests and spent more money for travel and expenses than in any other
investigation in the city's history as of the time of this writing which was 1980 they go on to tell us that the
police do not expect to be able to solve the case and in fact they go on to site
that one of the complications is a lieutenant Arthur bratcher Who supervised this investigation and also
supervised 14 other unsolved homicides in the area was placed on anactive status so you have one of the leads here
who is not in good with his own agency and has been in charge of supervising and overseeing several homicide
investigations all that remained unsolved as of 1980 can't imagine how frustrating this is not just for the
family but for the community as well and the thing that really intrigues me here
Captain is I would love to get my hands and and view it with my own eyeballs the
FBI profile the psychological profile that was put together on the likely offender of this murder and I cannot get
past these two very bizarre facts of this case of one there were seven different fire set in this home and two
that the victim was was bound hand and foot with quote everything in the house sweaters slacks masking tape electric
cord and even a pair of socks these are two things that are very different these are outlier items very
different from how many cases have we covered here in the garage hundreds billions and I cannot think of a case
that involved one or both of these situations it's one of those cases that you would love to put in front of
somebody like Dr James a brussel or former FBI agent John Douglas and get their thoughts and opinions on this case
and then obviously if we had the suspect's name we could be able to go back and look at their criminal history
or to go and see what they did because they were released did they commit other crimes or did this person get the
the the medical treatment that they needed and they're fine now that they got medical treatment well and something
that you hit on earlier Captain is the community you can't imagine the frustration from the family but also you
can't imagine the frustration from this community you also can't imagine the fear the fear of the people in the
community because we know that the newspapers and that reporters had a difficult time interviewing people for
these articles that they wrote about the case over the years and even years after
the murder there were still neighbors and people in that neighborhood that refused to speak to newspapers or to the
media at the time for fear of retaliation from Denita Cut's [Music] killer [Music]
thank you so much for joining us here in the garage Colonel do we have any recommended reading for the beautiful
listeners yes we do Captain this week we are recommending brainstorm an investigation of the mysterious death of
film star Natalie Wood by Sam Peroni I tell you what I wish this book was out back when we covered the Natalie Wood
case because s Peron did a brilliant job of putting this book together he lays out the case presents all the facts a
lot of new facts that he has uncovered and he doesn't tell you what to think he lets you decide for yourself what you
think really happened after examining everything that he's put together that's called brainstorm an investigation of
the mysterious death of film star Natalie Wood by S Peron you can find that great title and many more on our
website's recommended page at true Crim garage.com if you need more True Crime garage for your earballs check out our
bonus show exclusively on Stitcher it's called off the Record and until next week be good be kind and don't
[Music] [Applause] litter [Music] the Angie's List you know and trust is now Angie and we're so much more than
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Donita Cutts ////// 599

Part 1 of 1

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Donita Cutts was a successful young business woman. She lived alone in Old Town Alexandria, Virginia. In the early morning hours of July 29th, 1978 someone entered Donita’s home and attacked her. Donita was brutally killed and her home set on fire so that the killer could cover his tracks. This was a high priority investigation but there were problems. It has been 44 years since her murder and the killer has yet to be found.

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Brief Summary

Denita Cuts was murdered in 1978; her case remains unsolved due to investigation failures and strange crime scene details.

Key points

A Scary True Crime Story. Today's story involves a woman, an intruder, and a brutal murder.
The Mysterious Death of Denita Cuts. Denita Cuts was found dead in her home after a fire, raising many questions.
A Timeline of Events. Denita returned home shortly before her murder, leading to a tight timeline for investigators.
Detective Resigns Over Case. Detective Joseph Seuss resigns, citing the mishandling of the Denita Cuts case as the last straw.
Shocking Statement on Suspect. Commonwealth's Attorney Richard Mendelson expresses disbelief that a dangerous suspect is free.
Denita Cuts' Final Moments. Detective reveals Denita Cuts fought for her life before succumbing to smoke inhalation.

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0:08WatchNov 16, 2023

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