Dr. G: Medical Examiner - Season 2, Episode 6 - A Fatal Attraction - Full Episode | Forensic Files

[MUSIC PLAYING] NARRATOR: When love turns to rage, the victims of two different domestic violence cases
end up in the morgue. In the first, the body of a man is found inside a car with a knife stuck in his chest.
The scene was very gruesome. The entire front windshield was just covered in blood.
NARRATOR: Discovered in the back seat, the body of a second victim, a woman. This was the first time I've seen that.
That actually raises the hairs on your back of the head of what really happened here.
In another domestic abuse case, police respond to a 911 call and find an unexpected victim.
She feared for her life. And she shot him. Was the shooter a battered woman pushed to the brink
or a cunning killer? Well, right there I can tell you, that's not true. That just couldn't have happened.
NARRATOR: Altered lives, baffling medical mysteries, shocking revelations, these are the everyday cases of Dr. G,
Medical Examiner. [MUSIC PLAYING] In NARRATOR: The morgue of Dr. Jan Garavaglia, better known
as Dr. G, the average autopsy usually takes about 45 minutes to complete. And it's her job as a forensic pathologist to make
sure every minute counts. DR GARAVAGLIA: You want to answer all the questions during the autopsy.
You only have one chance at that body before it gets buried. NARRATOR: And in the case of a violent homicide,
that means Dr. G often gets just one chance to identify and catch a killer. Each year nearly 1 million husbands,
wives, friends and family members attack each other in violent, domestic disputes.
Tragically, about 1,600 will end up in the morning. The task of determining whether these deaths are accidental,
self-defense, or intentional murder, often falls to the medical examiner. I got a lot of work to do.
NARRATOR: One such case took place when Dr. G worked at the Bexar County morgue in San Antonio, Texas.
It's the middle of February in San Antonio, Texas. In a church parking lot, a man getting ready for a field trip
makes a horrific discovery-- a blood spattered vehicle with a man's body inside.
OFFICER ODOMS: Very, very gruesome. There was blood all on the windshield. The entire front windshield was just covered in blood.
So it was a very violent scene. NARRATOR: When EMS arrive, they immediately enter the vehicle to determine if the victim is deceased.
But obviously he is. Protruding from his chest is a large knife. That was probably the worst I've seen here so far.
NARRATOR: Then EMS makes another horrendous discovery. EMS: Ma'am, are you OK? NARRATOR: There was a second victim in the car, a woman.
She too appears to have been fatally stabbed. We found the female lying face down in the backseat, pinned
between the back seat and the front bucket seats on the floorboard face down. [MUSIC PLAYING]
NARRATOR: From a passport and driver's license, the victims are identified as 30-year-old Andre Tarlev,
an army officer from Eastern Europe, and Loreen Behner, a 35-year-old San Antonio resident.
Her family is the first to receive the unimaginable news about the death of one of their eight children.
NANCY: My daughter Cindy had been notified. And she told me, I'm sorry, mom. She said, I'm sorry, Loreen's dead.
DAVID: There was all just disbelief. No one could believe that someone could hurt someone that was so generous
and to me was an angel. And everybody described her that way. I mean it was just beyond belief that someone could hurt her.
I guess I was just in a state of denial. I mean it was a very difficult ordeal for me to hear.
[MUSIC PLAYING] NARRATOR: By 11:00 AM, the bodies of Loreen Behner and Andre Tarlev arrive at the morgue
as Dr. G is briefed by her medical investigator. DR GARAVAGLIA: He reports to us that there's two--
there's a man and a woman found dead in a car. She is face down on the floorboard in the back seat.
And he's dead in the front seat. And they appear to have certainly significant trauma, a lot of blood,
pulled head hair of hers. SGT EVANS: We have no witnesses, and we have no one alive that can really tell us
what transpired that evening. All we have is the physical evidence. NARRATOR: With little to go on, Dr. G
faces a formidable challenge-- determine exactly how the victims died and who killed them.
DR GARAVAGLIA: In this case, my job is to try to kind of sort out what happened.
How long could they have lived? Can we recreate what went on here? Was it a spur of the moment thing?
Was it thought out and planned? And you never, ever know what other information is going to be gathered.
You just don't know what's going to be developed. NARRATOR: Sure enough, homicide detectives pursuing the case
in the field soon obtain more information about the two victims. According to family and friends, Loreen Behner
was a competitive dancer who was recently divorced after an 8-year marriage. At age 35, she was pursuing a graduate degree in biology.
And she was not involved in any serious relationships. DAVID: Loreen was going through a phase
where she liked going out with a lot of different people. And she usually made it very clear upfront she wasn't
interested in a relationship. NARRATOR: Only two months earlier, she and the male victim, Andre Tarlev,
met at a Christmas party on a nearby Air Force base. I know that he was nice to her.
They did do a lot of things together. I know they took a couple of trips together.
SGT EVANS: He was very educated. I believe his rank was that equal to a captain in our military.
So he was a supervisory officer. So he was obviously a man that had some prestige in his military.
NARRATOR: Detectives also learned from military personnel that Officer Tarlev planned to return
home to his family in Eastern Europe in only two days. As she does with all stabbing victims,
Dr. G begins her hunt for a killer by having her assistants X-ray each body from head to toe.
Stabbings are often difficult forensic cases. Dr. G will need every piece of evidence that can be found.
DR GARAVAGLIA: Forensically, there's not a whole lot you can tell, honestly, about some
of these knife wounds. Some of the things you can't do I've seen on TV. I mean you can't put latex in the wound
and then get the shape of the knife. I mean that's just ludicrous. NARRATOR: Because there are two victims,
Dr. G will supervise one autopsy and perform the other. Loreen Behner is the first to be examined.
DR GARAVAGLIA: On her, we would look for any foreign material on her, maybe give us an idea where she'd been,
if they'd been somewhere else, leaves or things like that. NARRATOR: As the morgue buckles down
for what promises to be a difficult day, one question weighs heavily on Dr. G-- what tragic story will these bodies tell?
And I've had cases where they have terrible external trauma and it ends up they're not dying from that.
You can always be surprised. NARRATOR: Coming up next, clues mount and evidence begins to point to a possible killer and a motive.
All he ever talked about was the girl that he was seeing, that he was totally in love with her.
DR GARAVAGLIA: That actually raises the hairs on your back of the head of what really happened here.
NARRATOR: When "Dr. G, Medical Examiner" continues. [MUSIC PLAYING] Some dried blood, we'll have to get that off so we can see.
NARRATOR: The autopsy of stabbing victim Loreen Behner begins with an exhaustive
external examination. DR GARAVAGLIA: We need to document the wounds, kind of give a picture of maybe how long it took her to die.
NARRATOR: Loreen Behner and Andre Tarlev were found early in the morning, dead in a church parking lot.
Although it's obvious that they were stabbed, it's not yet clear who killed them and why.
As Loreen's wounds are examined, one thing becomes immediately clear. Loreen's attack was ferocious.
DR GARAVAGLIA: She has five stab wounds to the chest region. She has a stab wound to the back of the right arm, which
actually goes in towards the elbow and extends completely through the arm. And she's got a stab wound to the upper left arm.
NARRATOR: In total, Loreen sustained over 18 knife wounds. And the location and nature of some of the injuries
tell Dr. G something else about Loreen's attack. She was fighting for her life. DR GARAVAGLIA: When we start seeing wounds, in her case,
knife wounds on her chest or on her head, and then she's got more superficial wounds or non-life
threatening wounds across the fingers, across the wrist, to the elbow, that means she's using her arms and hands
to try to protect herself-- protect herself from the knife, in this case, hitting her chest or head.
DAVID: She was not a very large person. But for her size, she was quite strong. And I'm sure she fought very much to try and to stay alive.
NARRATOR: When the external exam is complete, Loreen's body is opened with a y incision.
Internally, the parts of the stabbing injuries are traced. The damage is found to be significant.
One stab wound fractures a rib and penetrates the lower lobe of Loreen's right lung.
Another penetrates nearly 6 inches into her abdomen, transacting her diaphragm and perforating her liver.
Then Dr. G discovers a single knife wound near the center of her chest. She can see that it passed through the sternum then
pierced her left pulmonary vein, one of four major blood vessels leading from the lung
to the heart. This is the injury that was lethal, a single wound that ended Loreen's life.
DR GARAVAGLIA: The one that went into her pulmonary vein would be the one that would be the most deadly.
They came that close. NARRATOR: Dr. G can now tell investigators not only how Loreen Behner died, she can also tell
them the nature of her murder. DR GARAVAGLIA: When you actually look at her, she's obviously a homicide with the multiple stab
wounds to the chest, the defense rose to the hand. You know, when we see knife wounds,
we see a lot of knife wounds, it's correlated with a lot of passion. NARRATOR: In other words, Loreen's murder
was not an anonymous crime of opportunity. Her killing was a crime of passion. DR GARAVAGLIA: It's very personal death.
Two guys fighting, you know, two guys in a knife fight, you only usually see one or two that really go in,
a couple of slashes often. But when you see multiple, you know, 4, 5, 6, 7, you know,
I've had them where they've had 20, 30, 40, 50 stab wounds, it's usually passion.
NARRATOR: The unsettling conclusion, Loreen Behner's killer was likely someone who was infatuated with her.
Unfortunately, it is not unusual for a female victim to know her attacker. Statistically, female murder victims
are significantly more likely than men to be killed by an intimate partner-- a spouse, ex-spouse, boyfriend, or girlfriend.
And because Loreen most likely knew her killer, her death is classified as a crime of domestic violence,
a type of homicide that kills more than 1,200 women every year in the US. Hi, Tammy.
Welcome to the family, I hope my brother Scott-la-la-lottle doesn't treat you the way he did with me--
DR GARAVAGLIA: Domestic violence is unfortunately all too common. They're tragic.
We wish you both the best of what life can bring. Bye. That's all. I walk out of the picture.
NARRATOR: But the question still remains. Who could the killer be? DAVID: She liked going out with a lot of different people.
And quite often, she'd go and meet someone. And they were saying friends originally.
But after three or four weeks, they were wanting a relationship. And then she had to somehow break that off.
And that was always a difficult thing to do. A lot of times the guys would want more from her
even though she had told him that she was interested in a serious relationship. [BUZZING]
NARRATOR: Loreen's autopsy reveals only part of the story. Dr. G hopes the body of the second victim, Andre Tarlev,
will tell her more. Coming up next, the autopsy of Andre Tarlev has scarcely begun before Dr. G draws a disturbing conclusion.
DR GARAVAGLIA: When you look at her, you don't know for sure what happened. I think when you look closely at him,
it puts the whole story together. NARRATOR: When "Dr. G, Medical Examiner" continues.
[MUSIC PLAYING] NARRATOR: Stabbing victim Andre Tarlev is stripped and photographed.
Then his wounds are counted and examined. DR GARAVAGLIA: You look at him, initially
he has a stab wound with a knife still sticking out of his chest. NARRATOR: Dr. G has already determined
that Loreen Behner, the woman discovered in the vehicle with Andre, was murdered in a crime of passion
and that she knew her killer. But no one yet knows for certain who that person is
or why he took the lives of both victims. The last remaining place to find answers
is the body of Andre Tarlev. [MUSIC PLAYING] Pretty much-- NARRATOR: When Dr. G carefully analyzes
the wound in Andre's chest, she discovers something odd. The weapon was thrust into Andre's
heart, not once, but four separate times through only one opening. DR GARAVAGLIA: You could see the pericardial sac,
or the sac around the heart, had four separate defects to it. And then the heart was sliced along the lateral ventricle.
And it completely went through the heart in at least two areas. NARRATOR: The heart wounds enable
Dr. G to quickly determine the cause of Andre's death. He had massive internal bleeding.
So he definitely died from the stab wounds to the heart. NARRATOR: And Dr. G believes the rest of Andre's tragic story,
including the identity of his killer is carved upon his arm. DR GARAVAGLIA: He has not just the stab wound to the chest,
but has incised wounds down his arm, 11 parallel horizontal incisions that sequentially cut
the muscles down the forearm. You can see it as if you're cutting a loaf of bread,
slicing the artery and vein along the way very neatly down to the bone. NARRATOR: For Dr. G, the 11 wounds
raise immediate red flags. They are unlike any of the injuries found on Loreen Behner.
DR GARAVAGLIA: These are quite different than defense wounds like she has. She has the defense wounds on the tips of her fingers
from trying to grab the knife. NARRATOR: But that's not all. DR GARAVAGLIA: You look closely at the knife
and it's got her hair on it. He's got her hair tangled up in his hands. So when you look at her, you don't
know for sure what happened. I think when you look closely at him, it puts the whole story together.
NARRATOR: The evidence found on Andre's body is overwhelming. The absence of any defense wounds,
the uniform series of slashes down his arm, and the clump of Loreen's hair tangled in his fingers
all lead to one stunning conclusion. The killer of Andre Tarlev and Loreen Behner is Andre himself.
DR GARAVAGLIA: The pattern of the wounds are suggestive and certainly look like this
is a homicide-suicide. But then you build the case. That's why we have an investigator.
That's why we have the police. Does that make sense with what I'm finding at autopsy?
NARRATOR: And Dr. G's conclusion is corroborated by additional information that detectives
turn up on Andre Tarlev. SGT EVANS: Co-workers said that really for the last three weeks
he had been changed. All he ever talked about was the love he had for the girl. He didn't want to leave.
He wanted to marry her. She was the love of his life. And that it was really upsetting that he really
couldn't live without her. And those are the things that we determined in our investigation that helped cement
the murder-suicide theory. NARRATOR: Based on the autopsy findings and information
gathered from the homicide investigation, Dr. G can now piece together the circumstance that
led to Loreen Behner's tragic murder and the violent suicide of Andre Tarlev. While at a Christmas party on a nearby Air Force Base,
Loreen Behner meets officer Andre Tarlev. SGT EVANS: He's visiting from overseas
attending this language school. They had a relationship. She thought it was just social.
He took it a step further. He fell in love with her. His tour was up at the language school.
It was time for him to go back. And he had told several of his co-workers and subordinates
that he didn't want this relationship to end. [CAR STARTS] NARRATOR: Only two days before Andre's visa is set to expire
and he has to leave the United States, he invites Loreen out on a farewell date.
SGT EVANS: We hypothesize he professed his love for her, and she told him that she just wanted to be friends
and that she wasn't willing to marry him at this time nor go overseas. And I think this caused him to go into a rage.
[POUNDING] [MUSIC PLAYING] DR GARAVAGLIA: She has the defense wounds on the tips of her fingers
trying to grab the knife. Five stab wounds to the chest. One on the upper left chest ends up
going into her pericardial sac and hitting her pulmonary vein. NARRATOR: Loreen is still alive and bleeding to death when
Andre moves her body from the front seat and shoves her down onto the backseat floor.
Detectives believe that the trash bags found near her body suggest that Andre may have been planning
to dispose of Loreen's body. SGT EVANS: When he placed her in the back seat, she was obviously bleeding.
There's transfer blood in the back seat. There's smearing in the back seat. I was wonder, you know, what's that time
period between after killing somebody and killing themselves. And what was he thinking afterwards?
You know, you kind of wonder what's going through his head. NARRATOR: Whether Andre was considering
hiding Loreen's body and fleeing, no one will ever know. But Dr. G's forensic evidence shows without question
what he did next. Andre goes into a suicidal frenzy. He's slicing his arm 11 times in a row parallel
down his anterior forearm. That obviously wasn't killing him fast enough. So he sticks the knife into his heart.
[CLAPPING] She is deeply loved. And like it says on her gravestone, our angel. DAVID: If I could tell Loreen anything now,
I'd tell her I loved her more than anything. I would have given my life for hers
DR GARAVAGLIA: You know domestic violence happens. And sometimes it's hard to predict
when it's going to happen. I mean, I think she might have felt something. I mean, she might have had some forewarning
that he was the jealous type, that he maybe was a little prone to some bizarre behavior that way.
And, you know, trust your instincts. NARRATOR: Coming up next, Dr. G gets another deadly domestic abuse case.
But this time it appears a woman has turned the tables on a violent man. They go outside.
She goes down the steps. He's coming at her with his gun, and she shoots him. NARRATOR: When "Dr. G, Medical Examiner" continues.
[MUSIC PLAYING] NARRATOR: Women like Loreen Behner die at the hands of aggressive males
with little warning and often no defense. But occasionally the tables are turned
and the victim fights back. But for the medical examiner, determining the truth in these instances is never cut and dried.
In his 19 years as a deputy sheriff in San Antonio, Texas, Roberto Valadez has seen his share
of abusive relationships. Recently, he may have slid into one of his own. Thelma Jean Smith is his girlfriend of three months.
During that time, they frequently quarreled. Police records show they even threatened
each other with guns. Now, the relationship has reached a flashpoint. JODEE: My father finally decided after several confrontations
with her that this was not the woman he wanted to be with. NARRATOR: Late one Saturday night,
Thelma is at Roberto's apartment packing up her belongings. According to her, there's one last argument.
And again, the guns come out. His Glock duty weapon and her 38 revolver. Two shots are fired.
[GUN SHOTS] A call to 9-1-1 alerts the police. JOE MORRIS: They notified my office that they had a shooting
with one individual shot. So I drove to the scene. NARRATOR: Detectives arrive at 2:00 AM.
Thelma is waiting for them scared, but unscathed. The same can't be said for Roberto.
JOE MORRIS: The victim was lying at the bottom of some stairs. These were outside stairs.
He had apparently fallen violently down the stairs. NARRATOR: Thelma then tells the story she would stand by.
JOE MORRIS: She said that he had been drinking, and he was brandishing his duty weapon,
threatening to shoot her. NARRATOR: Thelma admits that she fired first, a warning shot that struck the front door
jamb of the apartment. She claims she then ran out the door and down the stairs.
But Roberto was not far behind. Once again, she says, he threatened to kill her.
There was only one way to save herself. She feared for her life and she shot him.
NARRATOR: Thelma's second shot struck Roberto in the head. He tumbled down the stairs and, according to her,
landed on his back. When paramedics arrived, Roberto was loaded into an ambulance,
but dies en route to the hospital. To the police, Thelma's story seems credible,
a victim of domestic violence turning the tables on her oppressor. Roberto's children, however, say their dad
just didn't fit the profile. JODEE: We grew up in a home where there was-- I mean, there was no abuse whatsoever to be spoken of.
And my father was never a violent person. Anybody who knew my father knew right away that this was just,
you know-- this was a lie. NARRATOR: Roberto's body is transported to the Bexar County
Medical Examiner's Office, there Dr. G begins her investigation by going over the crime scene paperwork.
On the initial investigative report I'm told that we have a gentleman in the morgue
that has got a gunshot wound. Our investigator states that he had been living with his girlfriend.
It sounded likes a bit of a rocky relationship. She claims that they were drunk.
He was fighting. And she wanted out of there. And he had his gun. And, of course, she has a gun.
And they go outside. She goes down the steps. He's coming at her with his gun, and she shoots him.
He's up on the stairs. And she's shooting up at him, according to her story. NARRATOR: Thelma also said that Roberto fell down the steps,
landing face up, and that no one touched the body until the police arrived. In the overwhelming majority of fatal domestic disputes,
men are the killers and women the victims. Of the approximately 1,600 domestic deaths
occurring each year in the US, 74% of them are women. Thelma claims that if she hadn't acted,
she would have been added to the list. Will Dr. G's findings back her up? The central question in a case like this
is, can we confirm her story? Does the angle of the bullet, does where he shot all
confirm what she has to say? [MUSIC PLAYING] NARRATOR: Dr. G begins the external exam
checking to see whether any visible trauma supports Thelma's version. Roberto was found on his back.
She's looking to find injuries consistent with such a fall. Strangely, there are none.
I'd expect bruises on his back. I'd expect a nice bump on the back of the head. NARRATOR: Dr. G Now examines the front of the body
and is surprised to find trauma there. What I see is a kind of a pattern abrasion across his chest.
Mm, that one little acute don't look good. DR GARAVAGLIA: His gum is torn. His lip is tore.
His chips his partial plate off. No question, he takes a hard fall. NARRATOR: For a man who supposedly fell backwards,
he has taken a lot of punishment to his face and chest. But all those are minor injuries compared with the gunshot
to the head, which consists of two wounds, a small hole and a slit below it. Probably where I looked at it look like the entrance,
it looks like he's got a little bit of an exit just above the eyebrow, about an inch above the eyebrow
and a little bit more to the right. So it looks like, hm, entrance, exit. NARRATOR: Finding a bullet's entrance
and exit points so close together is unusual. On further examination, Dr. G also finds evidence
of a second gunshot injury. DR GARAVAGLIA: And then he's got a graze type, very superficial,
on the inner aspect of his left calf. NARRATOR: Since the first bullet hit a doorjamb inside the house, and the second struck
the man's head, the question is, which bullet caused this wound? A good forensic pathologist has to be open minded to all
the possibilities. If you start being closed minded, you're going to miss things.
NARRATOR: Coming up next, Dr. G's scalpel comes out and cuts more holes in the killer's story.
Well, right there, I can tell you that's not true. That just couldn't have happened.
NARRATOR: When "Dr. G, Medical Examiner" continues. [MUSIC PLAYING] NARRATOR: At the Bexar County morgue,
Dr. G begins the critical phase of Roberto Valadez's autopsy-- the internal exam.
The deputy Sheriff has been shot dead by his girlfriend, allegedly in self-defense.
According to her story, he's on the eighth step, coming down. If you count eight up, that's where he is.
She's on about the second step. And he's coming at her. And so she's shooting him in fear of her life.
[MUSIC PLAYING] OK, scalpel. I'll make the initial one. We're ready to go, right?
NARRATOR: Dr. G makes the usual y incision in the chest. But even before she gets to the internal organs,
she finds something. One of the ribs has been broken. And she soon discovers that's not the only thing
that's been fractured. Lo and behold, he's even broken his neck with that hard fall.
So he really hits that face going down. So he goes down like a ton of bricks. I don't like the broken neck aspect.
He's out already, because he's not protecting-- when you fall, you protect your face.
You put your hands out. He can't put his hands out. He's got a bullet in his head.
NARRATOR: The evidence is clear, Roberto Valadez fell face down, which raises a critical question.
How did he end up on his back where police found him? Dr. G now suspects someone rolled
him over after he had fallen. And since the police determined there was no one else present,
that someone could only be Thelma. Let's check. NARRATOR: But Roberto's injuries have only
begun to tell their story of what happened in the final moments of his life. Dr. G now zeros in on the head wound
to see what it might reveal. Earlier, the external examine had revealed that the head wound had a small round hole and a slit
below. Now that the skull itself is exposed, she learns why. DR GARAVAGLIA: We get to the head.
We get to the gunshot wound. And it's one of my favorite wounds, the keyhole-- the keyhole defect in the skull, because it looks
like a keyhole on the bone. NARRATOR: A keyhole wound as unusual, occurring only when a bullet strikes
the skull at a steep angle. The bullet penetrates the bone, leaving a round hole.
A fragment breaks off the bullet and then chips away part of the entrance wound as it is exiting.
What makes such a wound significant is that the round part of the keyhole always faces the gun and the chip bone,
the direction the bullet is traveling. In this case, the chip is at the lower left edge of the wound.
So what's that means is that the bullet's coming in on that left side very sharply downward.
NARRATOR: The finding appears to indicate that Thelma was not standing below Roberto as she claimed, but above him
and firing at a steep angle downward. Still, it's too early to jump to conclusions.
Dr. G must explore the entire range of possibilities. Hm, well, maybe he's bent down.
Maybe he's going down. Or he's somehow inverted. NARRATOR: If Roberto was bent over trying to duck a bullet,
the wound could have been caused by a shot from below. This possibility is the one remaining chance
that Thelma's story is true. Coming up, did Thelma act in self-defense? Or is she a ruthless killer?
An unlikely clue in a flesh wound may hold the key to the mystery. I don't always get the answer.
I don't. But I love it when I do. NARRATOR: When "Dr. G, Medical Examiner" continues.
[MUSIC PLAYING] NARRATOR: The autopsy of gunshot victim Roberto Valadez draws to a close.
As a dark cloud of suspicion grows over his girlfriend, Dr. G has found a so-called keyhole wound in Roberto skull
that indicates the direction the shot was fired and seems to contradict Thelma Jean Smith's account.
But there's one scenario that needs to be eliminated. If Roberto was confronted in a bent over position
when Thelma fired, the head wound could be consistent with her story and her claim
that she acted in self-defense. Dr. G needs to find a way to prove whether Roberto was
standing straight up or not. Meanwhile, outside the morgue, a parallel investigation is
being conducted by detectives. And they are uncovering provocative information about Thelma Jean Smith.
According to Roberto's family, Thelma was anything but the battered woman she claimed to be.
JODEE: She had been stalking him and constantly calling him. NARRATOR: Thelma said that she had broken up with Roberto.
But Roberto's daughter believes it was the other way around. Her reaction was if I can't have Robert,
then no one else can. I would rather see him dead than have anybody else with him.
NARRATOR: Back at the morgue, Dr. G has almost all the pieces of the puzzle necessary pointing to murder,
except one. The keyhole wound in Roberto skull indicates that the gun was fired downwards,
but only if his face was in an upright position. What if he had been bent over during the time
of the shooting? Ironically, the answer to the question may be found in another gunshot wound, one caused by a bullet
that grazed Roberto's calf. The entrance wound was atypical, very irregular, and was consistent with not a typical intact bullet,
was consistent with just a piece of that bullet coming at him. NARRATOR: Dr. G knows that the first bullet
ended up hole in the doorjamb. So it could not have caused the leg world. If Dr. G can show that a bullet fragment from the keyhole wound
struck Roberto's leg, she can establish his posture at the time of death and finally settle the question of
whether or not Thelma is lying. If you looked at the calf, it be like in the 11 to 5
o'clock position. NARRATOR: She re-examines the leg entry wound looking for something called skin tags.
A skin tag is how the bullet then tears the skin as it's going across the skin. It forms tears and in between the tears a little tag a skin.
The tag of skin points to where the bullet's coming from. NARRATOR: The skin tags are pointing sharply upwards.
This is a critical discovery. It proves beyond doubt that Roberto had to have been
standing up when he was shot. Using the head and leg wounds as signposts, Dr. G can now trace the actual path of the bullet.
Thelma is standing above Roberto and fires. The bullet crashes downward through the head,
a piece of it splintering off into the left calf. This exposes Thelma's story to police for what it is.
My final conclusion is she's telling a pack of lies. [MUSIC PLAYING] NARRATOR: With her findings complete,
Dr. G can now give her theory about what happened to Roberto Valadez on the night of his death.
It's 2:00 AM at Roberto's apartment, and he's told Thelma to vacate the premises.
JODEE: This woman had written several letters that we found in my dad's apartment that had
made threats, physical threats. NARRATOR: Thelma carries her belongings to her car.
But leaving is the last thing on her mind. She returns to the apartment, armed with her loaded 38.
When she enters, Roberto was unarmed and has no idea what's about to happen. Frankly, what it looked like is she
fired one shot and missed him. NARRATOR: The first bullet hits the doorjamb. He started running down the stairs, running for his life.
NARRATOR: He just can't run fast enough. And she stood at the top of the stairs and executed him.
[GUN SHOT] NARRATOR: The keyhole wound is the first clue that Thelma fired from above.
She's shooting down at him. NARRATOR: The telltale skin tags of Roberto's leg confirm it.
Thelma fires the bullet downward from atop the stairwell, not the bottom. As it enters the brain, the damage is catastrophic.
He fell face down like a ton of bricks. He can't put his hands out. He's got a bullet in his head.
NARRATOR: Roberto falls through space, impacting face first on the concrete stairs,
breaking a rib and his neck. Then, to make the shooting seem like self-defense, she turns him over and places his gun in his hand.
This deadly domestic dispute wasn't self-defense after all. It was a vicious murder.
On the trip to the hospital, Roberto succumbs to his injuries. On the death certificate--
NARRATOR: Confronted with the evidence from the autopsy, Thelma comes clean. JOE MORRIS: Later in the morning,
she did confess to having shot him and then put the gun in his hand. NARRATOR: Thelma Jean Smith is charged with the murder
of Roberto Valadez. A judge allows her to post bail. But she immediately skips town becoming a fugitive.
For three long years, she lives on the lamb until she makes a mistake and files for unemployment
in Kansas City. [MUSIC PLAYING] NARRATOR: When domestic violence results in death,
the vast majority of victims are women. But Roberto's death is a tragic exception to the rule.
In 2000, 440 men died at the hands of their intimate partners, about 1/4 of all the domestic violence fatalities.
Unfortunately, there are a lot of domestic violence cases that we see. In my rule of thumb in living, I tell people that you better
know who you're dating and who you end up marrying and early know that person well, because so many of our I
see down here dead, one way or the other. NARRATOR: Roberto learned the lesson too late.
But his family has received a measure of justice. Thelma Jean Smith is now in prison, serving
a 30-year sentence for murder. She had played the card of abuse victim, only to be trumped by Dr. G.
When the victim is, you know, six feet under and can't speak for themselves, it just does a family wonders
to know that there is someone like Dr. G who is out there and willing to investigate.
It's great when you can really say definitively this is what happened and I'm going to stick with it.
Yeah, you put the mystery together. You get an answer. I don't always get the answer.
I don't know. But I love it when I do. [MUSIC PLAYING]

It’s an early Sunday morning when a local resident decides to take a short-cut through the church parking lot. Walking past a lone car, the resident can’t believe his eyes.

A Florida medical examiner takes viewers through puzzling cases while explaining procedures and conclusions.

Brief Summary

Two domestic violence cases reveal murder and self-defense, with shocking conclusions about the victims and perpetrators.

Key points

Gruesome Discovery. A man and woman are found dead in a blood-spattered vehicle, raising immediate questions.
The Victims Identified. The victims are identified as Andre Tarlev and Loreen Behner, shocking their families.
A Crime of Passion. Dr. G determines that Loreen's murder was a crime of passion, not random violence.
Murder-Suicide Theory. Evidence suggests that Andre Tarlev may have killed Loreen before taking his own life.
A Deadly Dispute Unfolds. Thelma and Roberto's relationship reaches a flashpoint, leading to a tragic confrontation.
The Truth Revealed. Dr. G's findings contradict Thelma's story, suggesting a calculated murder.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

That actually raises the hairs on your back of the head.

Dr. G reflects on the gruesome scene.

0:43WatchMay 25, 2021

Tension

85/ 100High tension

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