Expert Witness | Forensic Files | S14 E21 | FULL EPISODE | Forensic Files

[Music] up next a killer seemingly gets away with murder it was probably the cleanest crime scene
as a detective i'd ever been handed he took everything with him for years the case went cold
then he struck again someone just left my house that wrecked me okay do you know who it
was no he had selected me and planned it while the killer may have gone dormant science did not my jaw dropped
when he told me the name i was floored i was just floored clearly dna made this case
it not only identified the suspect in the case but it exonerated someone else [Music]
when tammy tatum first met jim meadow in longmont colorado they were instantly attracted to one
another it wasn't long before the two moved in together and decided to start a family
she called me the moment she found out she was pregnant and was so excited and just
knew that her dreams were coming true what tammy wanted most in life was to be a wife and a mother tammy gave birth to
a healthy baby girl they named sadie but soon after the baby's arrival the couple's life took a downward turn
jim meadow had a major substance abuse issue he would get drunk and get into scrapes
he had numerous duis jim also got into a serious altercation at a local food store he was drinking he
got into a fight with a customer at that store actually tried to choke the customer
jim was charged with disorderly conduct and soon his violence was directed at tammy
according to friends there was often abuse in the relationship uh jim meadow getting intoxicated and
striking out at tammy there were actual reports also of him strangling her it was a very violent abusive
relationship and you know she had confided in me and talked to me about this before
my mother was aware of it my mother told me about it after his fourth dui arrest jim was
sentenced to six months in a drug and alcohol treatment center that was within walking distance of
their home it's a residential facility where folks can live and work and check in and just be in a
structured environment and follow court orders jim had to live in the treatment center but tammy would
pick him up every morning and take him to his auto mechanic job but one morning tammy didn't show up
jim later told police he walked to their apartment to find out why found the door locked
and kicked it in [Applause] my wife apartment number two this is now the kitchen area
body is found on the bed her arms were above her head which is not a natural position
especially when someone is is defending against a strangulation it really looked like the body had been
posed after death the couple's baby was unharmed the medical examiner estimated that tammy
had been strangled several hours before her body was discovered investigators had no doubt about the
killer's motive this was a sexually motivated crime there was injuries around the breast
area as well as the vaginal area but there wasn't any clear evidence of a sexual assault
the cause of death provided a possible clue to the killer's identity the act of strangulation is a very
personal crime we felt that whoever killed the victim probably knew the victim very well
and that made jim meadow the primary suspect her friends had seen her with black eyes
black eyes as soon as 30 days before the homicide when i heard that she had been murdered
my first thought was she told him she was leaving and they got into a massive argument and it ended up in a murder
one of jim's fellow inmates at the treatment center rudy gaetan told police he thought
jim did it he said he would rip her heart out if he caught her cheating on him jim
meadow would make statements to these other inmates about how he could just kill her
or how he could just strangle her jim insisted he was at the treatment center when the
murder occurred which the autopsy indicated was between 9 pm and 9 am records show that he signed
back into the facility at 9 43 p.m jim and tammy's apartment was only a 15-minute walk from the treatment center
which didn't help jim's alibi it was possible for him to commit the crime before leaving the apartment to head
back to the halfway house but it was something else in that apartment that all but confirmed
detective suspicions that jim was the killer tammy tatum's common-law husband jim
meadow was the prime suspect in her murder he had hit her in the past and threatened to kill her
letters found after tammy's murder made it clear she was terrified of him a lot of these
letters talked about the violence in the relationship and how scared tammy was when he hit her
and that the last time he hit her it scared her so much that she wanted to leave
when james meadow knocked in the door heard the baby crying he allegedly kicked in the door
another fact pointing to jim meadow was that the killer appeared to be comfortable in the apartment
he took the time to use a towel found near tammy's body to clean her and the rest of the bedroom
there was no evidence that tied anything or anyone to the crime scene it was probably the cleanest crime scene
as a detective i'd ever been handed and tammy's killer had also taken the time to pose her body i thought the scene had
been staged to look like a sexual assault it was a very strange crime scene but even though tammy's murder was sexually
motivated and there were indications of sexual activity the medical examiner did not believe
she'd been raped we find in the trash a used condom that had been tied shut dna from the condom matched jim meadow
but meadow claimed they had consensual sex the night before and that when he left to return to the
drug and alcohol treatment center tammy was alive investigators didn't buy it our thought was that after that they got
into an argument and that may have been when he choked her to death finding this condom was consistent with
jim meadow performing a sex act and killing tammy tatum but even though the killer had spent a
lot of time cleaning the scene he missed something on tammy's bed amid numerous hairs from jim tammy and
their baby was a single foreign hair and the medical examiner also found a tiny amount of skin and blood
under tammy's fingernails unfortunately in 1993 a larger sample was needed to generate a
dna profile and scientists were worried if they tested these samples and were unsuccessful there would be
nothing left to test later when dna testing improved it was very very frustrating to to spend
as much time as we had spent and to come back with really nothing that would help us at all
there was clearly probable cause to arrest jim meadow but there wasn't enough evidence to convict him
although no other suspect surfaced prosecutors chose not to charge jim meadow with tammy's
murder and the case went cold i thought he was getting away with murder um but i didn't think he'd get away with
it forever then three years later just one mile away police received this 9-1-1 call someone just left my house that
raped me okay do you know who it was no i didn't see any blindfold in my eyes with tape
but he had my hands tied together too how did he get in i have no idea i woke up and he had a
knife on my face he said don't open your eyes or i will cut you which he said quite a bit until he got
the tape around um and then he started telling me don't make a noise or i will kill you
the victim was renee delaney at one point decided that the best thing i could do was convince him that i was
not going to call the police or anything that was the best chance i had for living
renee's rapist spent a lot of time in her apartment making sure he left no evidence behind
when he was finished he dumped water over me and then used a towel and wiped me off so he definitely was trying to
clean up when the rapist actually left the residence he took everything with him he took the tape he
took the knife he took the items that he brought with him so there wasn't a lot of evidence
to be collected on the scene to investigators the mo of the rapist seemed similar to
that of tammy tatum's killer was it possible the two crimes were connected renee delaney was sleeping in her
apartment in longmont colorado when an intruder broke in before dawn and sexually assaulted her i was just trying
to remember details about him for the police but you just have to kind of shut it out there's not a whole
lot you can do you can't really absorb what's happening to you the attack happened shortly after
renee's grandmother left for work around 5 a.m both renee and police were convinced the
perpetrator had planned this attack carefully he had selected me and planned it and
and watched to see what time my grandmother left in the mornings and came in knowing that she'd be gone
the assault lasted for two hours even though renee was blindfolded she could tell
her attacker was going back and forth to the bathroom to wet a towel and wipe down surfaces in
the room i knew he was trying to not leave evidence and i was so afraid it was going to work
but incredibly despite all these precautions renee's rape is still left biological
evidence behind it looked like he had no knowledge of dna evidence but felt certain
that law enforcement could get fingerprint evidence off of a body and that's why he wiped down
rene delaney a dna profile was generated from the biological sample in renee's rape kit
unfortunately it did not match any of the dna profiles in the colorado state database of known
criminal offenders renee's former boyfriends and her co-workers and fellow students
willingly submitted dna for comparison none matched this case goes cold no one is arrested no suspects are named
you absolutely live in fear i mean you have this person who's told you that they were going to kill you and
they've certainly shown you that they're capable of it it wasn't until 10 years later after
colorado officials were able to input all of the dna samples from past criminal offenders
into their statewide dna database that investigators finally got a break the dna
from renee's case turned up a hit this was huge having an investigative lead developed nearly 10 years after the sex
assault that hadn't happened before the d.a called me and asked me if i was sitting down
and proceeded to tell me that they had arrested him and that if i would check my email there was an email
with the photo the dna profile from renee delaney's rape kit matched rudy gaetan a 48 year old auto
mechanic who was married with two children coincidentally he also lived in renee's
apartment complex it was shocking upsetting um to find out that it was someone that had lived
um right next door in fact renee had identified gaetan as a possible suspect the night of her rape i don't want to
say this because i'm afraid i'll be wrong but it's one that sounds kind of like one of
the people in the next building it might oh it did she have it off the awful side
but renee always felt uncomfortable around gaytan he was the creepy neighbor that
always tries to talk to you at the time police had no probable cause to search gatan's apartment
or get a court-ordered sample of his dna but just two weeks after renee's rape kitan was involved in a serious car
accident and there were consequences that went well beyond broken bones it's almost like instant
karma rudy gaytan gets hooked on pain medications and that's what ultimately lands him in
prison in the department of corrections in colorado is his falsification of these prescriptions
since writing false prescriptions is a felony gaetan had to provide a dna sample upon his
release from a three-year prison sentence had rudy gaetan not been involved in this motor vehicle accident
chances are we would never have gotten his dna now police looked further into his past
and were shocked by what they found i knew who rudy was i was floored i was just floored
police recalled that rudy gaytan was the man who provided incriminating evidence against
jim meadow during tammy tatum's murder investigation he was one of the witnesses that
provided information about seeing tammy with bruises and the black eye and some of the violence that was
involved between jim and tammy gaytan knew jim meadow since the two attended the same
drug and alcohol rehab center was it possible that gaetan was involved in tami's murder
[Music] ten years after renee delaney's sexual assault the dna testing identified rudy gaetan
as her rapist surprisingly gaetan was also connected to the tami tatum murder case
he was friends with both tammy tatum and her common-law husband jim meadow jim meadow had actually
introduced rudy gaetan to tammy tatum but tammy told people she didn't like rudy gaetan
she complained to her friends that she found rudy creepy and that he made her uncomfortable
there were many similarities between tammy tatum's murder and renee delaney's rape there was a
startling connection between the two cases the sex assault occurred in the early
morning hours in addition to that there was no forced entry found there was use of water and a towel to
wipe down renee's and tammy's body although there was no seamen in tammy's murder case
investigators did find one foreign hair with the root intact when an analyst finds a bulb on a hair
typically that means that the hair had been forcefully removed in 1993 it was difficult to get dna from
that hair bulb but in 2006 it was there for the taking when the dna from the hair had been
analyzed it produced a dna profile that was identified as rudy gayten guitarn's dna was also found on other
items in tammy's apartment most significantly the towel that was used to wipe her body clearly dna made this case
it not only identified the suspect in the case but it exonerated someone else after all of those years we were able to
finally clear jim meadow when confronted with the dna evidence against him in the tami tatum murder gaetan
confessed but police found parts of the confession unbelievable he claimed it was a consensual affair
gone wrong but he was very clear on the murder you're saying i said a lot of it it is rage so i'm not
expecting you to have a lot of detail but when you started to strangle her what did you have a pinned on the bed so
you were on top of them and how long do you think you know i mean how long did she fight back before
you know she wasn't fighting back anymore do you have any idea prosecutors believe that on the night of
tammy's murder rudy waited until jim medal left the apartment and then knocked on the door
tammy opened the door possibly in the belief it was her husband and gay tan forced his way in
the two fought and during the struggle tammy pulled a single hair from his head rudy overpowered her then strangled her
to death he knew jim was at the treatment facility and wasn't coming home so he had all the time he
needed to clean the crime scene and his victim three years later he attacked renee
delaney but despite his meticulous cleaning of that crime scene he still left biological evidence behind
the dna from renee's rape kit and the single hair from tammy's bed ultimately tied him to both crimes
rudy gaetan was convicted of second-degree murder in the death of tammy tatum and first degree sexual assault of renee
delaney he chose to kill her and i got to live i feel responsible to make sure i you know live
a good life because hers was taken from her gaetan was sentenced to a total of 72 years for both crimes
and will not be eligible for parole until he's 103 years old forensic evidence and the emerging
technology of dna was critical in the solving of this case without the dna evidence that was
recovered from tammy tatum this case would have never been solved i always knew that the technology would
catch up with the samples that they had i never gave up hope i never gave up hope
this had to be done it had to be resolved and i knew it would be

In 1993, young mother Tammy Tatum was found sexually assaulted and murdered in her Longmont, Colorado apartment. Police initially suspected her estranged husband, but did not have enough evidence to charge him and the case went cold.

Brief Summary

Tammy Tatum's murder and Renee Delaney's assault are connected through DNA evidence, leading to Rudy Gaetan's conviction.

Key points

Tammy Tatum's Murder. Tammy Tatum was found murdered in her apartment, raising suspicions about her husband Jim Meadow.
Rudy Gaetan's Arrest. Rudy Gaetan was arrested after DNA from Renee's rape kit matched him, shocking the community.
DNA Evidence Breakthrough. Years later, DNA evidence linked Rudy Gaetan to both Tammy's murder and Renee's assault.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

It was probably the cleanest crime scene.

0:10WatchMar 13, 2021

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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