Forensic Files (HD) - Season 13, Episode 1 - Frozen Assets - Full Episode | Forensic Files

up next a well-known business owner is brutally attacked at work there was a lot of blood on the floor on
the walls on the door is it the work of a disgruntled employee no one trusted him he leaves due to
stress or a robbery gone wrong i had given her a thousand dollars night she was killed that thousand dollars
were never found a witness comes forward with a possible motive she made me promise that if anything
happened to her i'd go immediately to the police the evidence answers some questions and raises many more
it didn't look planned he just basically probably stabbed [Music] [Music] for years george hansen and mary ann
clinbury ran zulu's remodeling as business partners in love's park illinois and they were
quite a pair their home-spun television commercials helped make their business a success
at al zulo's the don't move in proof votes one call does it all marianne ram the
finance the business side george ran the construction crew the maintenance buying the products that
sort of thing by 2004 marianne told her partner she wanted to retire very nice person very kind she'd do
anything for anybody she wanted to you know start enjoying life a little bit to get the fruits of
her labor a few days before the christmas holiday after everyone else had left mary ann stayed late to go over the
books as she was about to lock up the office to leave she was viciously attacked
the next morning her partner george hansen and another employee found marianne's body when they arrived
for work i saw all the blood around mary anne i've never seen a dead body before
and nothing that horrible paramedics pronounced her dead at the scene every morning you always gotta i always
went into her office to tell her to have a good day and of course that's what you got back
and that's the last time i spoke to her she had substantial head injuries and the pathologist
determined that she had suffered at least three blows to the back of her head crime scene technicians found some
unusual clues there was fresh blood on top of coagulated blood which meant there were two separate
altercations i could tell that she was hitting the hallway first at least twice when she went down she was down for a
minimum of 15 minutes before he knelt on her back and beat her at least two more times made you question
why that person then would go back to her and and beat her more marianne's purse was missing an
indication the motive might have been robbery but nothing else had been taken from the
office we would expect anything of real value that individuals could carry would be missing nothing was missing
from the business marianne was a 69 year old widow the mother of five grown children i'm visually impaired
she was my eyes she was my love and she was my life we had things to do we weren't two old
people sitting watching the clock go around in a search for suspects investigators
learned that the company recently fired an employee kevin doyle and his dislike for marianne
was well known no one trusted him including zulo employees he was a former employee of el zulus
he leaves due to stress somewhat maybe of a nervous breakdown doyle had a motive and he still had
keys to the building making him the prime suspect hi i'm marianne and this is george and
we're from alveolar remodeling specialists al zulu's remodeling was an institution
in love's park illinois al zulu remodeling has been a part of making your house a home marianne was in some of the
the print advertising very early on in the business kind of doing this vanna white thing
with the kitchen cabinets and marianne clibre was well known in the community for her generosity
she would advance employees salary out of her own pocket not the company money investigators were convinced marianne
was killed by a client or a co-worker it had to be somebody who was somewhat familiar
with the layout of the business the investigation centered on a disgruntled ex-employee
kevin doyle he was not a reputable person i believe that he was a lot of talk but couldn't
perform i believe he said things that weren't weren't accurate and i believe that he was not to be
trusted when questioned doyle said he was at home sick at the time of the murder but there was
no one to back up his story kevin doyle had no criminal record but the day after
the murder he did something very strange kevin shows up and offers his assistance to the family
and how he himself can keep that business afloat we're thinking okay we uh we have a
suspect here you know you hear so often the over cooperative witness so to speak well that was kevin
police also learned that marianne and her business partner george hansen never got along
it is always a challenge between the two because her personalities are so much different they're always in conflict
she was always very elegant talked very well cured herself very well he did not appear to be
what i would call a strong ethical honest person they were business partners and they had
worked together for many many years she didn't realize that he was angry over the fact that al zulu had made her
an equal partner to the business when he died george denied there were problems and said his relationship with marianne
was a good one when you have a business relationship just like a marriage you've got to get
along if you don't get along break it off and we got along great when questioned
by police george said he had an alibi for the time of the murder he had gone to have drinks with his wife
then he took his daughter to some driving school and had gone to a tanning salon
and i believe maybe at that point he finally went home then the day after the murder there was
an unexpected development a local resident called police to report seeing a black garbage bag on top of the ice on
the rock river which was five miles from the murder scene what really brought up to their
attention is not too long before that there was a baby discovered in a garbage bag the fire department
used a ladder truck to lift the bag from the ice it was a substantial project several men
had to go down over the river in the ice which is dangerous and retrieve the bag inside the black
garbage bag was another plastic bag filled with a variety of items a sweater a hammer leather gloves
and a purse containing mary ann clibbery's identification i think when they found that bag that
kind of that connected everything apparently the killer threw the bag from the bridge
but missed the open water and it landed on the ice instead if he looked over the bridge he took two
three steps and hit open water how stupid can you be the sweater in the bag was covered in
blood there was blood spatter inside the right sleeve which goes along with the author at the
scene that was right-handed person that hit her from behind tests showed the blood was mary ann's
employees recognized the sweater right away it belonged to the original owner of the
company al zullo mr zulo had this sweater for many many years and it was always in our office other
people put it on two once a while when they got cold scientists look for areas on the sweater
that might contain skin cells i swabbed the collar of the sweater to determine the
wear of that of the sweat sweater would these skin cells identify the killer police had two suspects in the murder of
mary ann clibbery her business partner george hansen and a disgruntled employee kevin doyle forensic testing of the
bloody sweater found in the discarded plastic bag with marianne's personal belongings
found skin cells on the collar the skin cells provided a dna profile when i analyzed the swabbing of the
collar to determine the wearer it matched george hansen's profile and it didn't match anybody else's
profile but that didn't prove he was the killer the sweater belonged to the original
business owner al zulo and remained in the company closet other employees in addition to george
hansen occasionally wore it i started using sweater in the wintertime and it would wear
and of course all the people put it on two once in a while when they got cold then police discovered another bizarre
piece of information a forensic analysis of marianne's coffee cup found a large amount of a prescription sleep
medication but marianne hadn't been prescribed this medication shortly after drinking some coffee she
became very ill this also happened after eating salads she would fall asleep at her desk in the
afternoons when police asked who had access to marianne's food only one name surfaced
she would come in feeling fine in the mornings george hansen made it a point to hand
deliver her her coffee marianne's boyfriend told police about a possible motive it was something marianne told him about
shortly before her death she made me promise to her that if anything happened to her i'd
go immediately to the police with my knowledge marianne had sent out christmas cards to some of the
clients a couple of these clients returned those cards back to the business with notes informing them you know of
the problems that they were they were suffering these clients told marianne they weren't getting paid
but internal company records showed they had been paid marianne did some amateur forensic
accounting and learned that her business partner george hansen was stealing from the company he was
collecting money from the customers and then he was depositing money in his own account
mary ann discovered that george has stolen up to a hundred thousand dollars he was not only taking actual monies
coming in but also he had a little side business going where he would charge supplies
through the el zulu company and use them for his personal projects marianne was shocked to learn
the company was in danger of bankruptcy i knew of it but there's no way i could have
told anyone if i'd have told anyone marianne and my friendship would have been over
immediately i had to swear to her in secrecy according to her boyfriend marianne was
going to confront hanson on the afternoon of her murder whenever they had a confrontation they
never did it in front of the employees it was always behind closed doors we do know that they had some type of a
meeting that day when questioned by police george hansen didn't deny he was stealing money but
said marianne was in on it too i was deposited and we were splitting the money however marianne's financial record
showed her transactions were consistent with the amount of her salary and nothing more gene sundeen was
outraged by hanson's accusation i knew he was lying i knew he was lying lying through his teeth he couldn't he
couldn't look at me and police soon found george had another possible motive if he did kill her he
got away with that then he would collect the 150 000 in insurance policy that each had on the other he's probably
using this as a vehicle to generate the money to buy the business then police got another tip on the day
after mary ann's murder a witness saw a man on the bridge over the rock river the evidence from marianne's murder was
found later that day on the ice beneath this bridge the person who called the police saw
this truck that kept driving by the bag kind of like looking at it or trying to get it and
thought that that was just suspicious so called the police this truck was distinctive it had vanity
license plates that spelled out zulo the name of marianne and george's business and george was the only person in the
company whose vehicle had these plates what was so fascinating is when his car was searched they found a large
fishing lure rope and some other objects which would lead a person to believe that he
was going to actually try to fish that bag from the bridge investigators needed to look closer at
the items inside that bag to see if anything would prove hansen was the killer i did not kill marianne
from the beginning police thought marianne clippery was killed by someone she worked with
that certainly helps our focus knowing that this is an inside job and that narrows the playing field down
george hansen had a motive marianne could prove he was stealing from the company she
informed hansen she was in fact going to go to the authorities over his business practices
scientists analyzed the plastic bag which contained the weapon used in marianne clibbery's murder they
put it in a sealed chamber filled with cyanoacrylate fumes from super glue these fumes stick to the oils
in human fingerprints i process the items with fingerprint powder this is just a fine
black powder that i just dusted over the surface the powder will adhere to the super glue
developed fingerprints and make them visible they found three distinct fingerprints
and one palm print those prints matched george hansen investigators also found gloves inside
the bag covered with marianne's blood dna tests of skin cells left in the gloves
also matched george hansen all of them had marianne's blood on them and the gloves and the sweater
had george hansen's dna on on them as well the dna was proof george was wearing the
sweater and the gloves as the fatal blows were struck and investigators found the
source of the prescription sleep medication found in marianne's coffee cup we tracked down mr hansen's sister who
signed a statement stating that she was sending him these pills in return he would give her like 25
dollars a month george hansen was arrested and charged with murder prosecutors believe the motive was
financial they want to buy the business and have the money and so he's going to collect
some insurance money on her as a business partnership and inherit the business or buy the
business out and their life goes on prosecutors believe marianne waited until all the employees left before
confronting hanson with the evidence of embezzlement while i see entries in your handwriting
the clients clearly haven't learned well i've been paid of course they've been paid
she estimated he stole more than a hundred thousand dollars from the company he could either pay the money back or
marianne was going to report him to police hanson however chose another option murder as marianne was about to walk out
through the back door hanson struck her in the head with a hammer while hanson staged the scene to look
like a robbery he discovered that marianne wasn't dead so he struck her again creating more blood spatter on top of
the coagulated blood proof of two separate beatings he put his sweater gloves and the hammer
along with marianne's purse into the bag on his way home he dropped the bag into the river but it
was winter time and he missed the open water by about five feet and it landed on the ice
i'd like to have seen his face when that bag hit the ice and he heard a large plunk
instead of a splash the theory was to drop the bag into the water and have it float away
[Music] later a witness saw hanson's car driving back and forth over the rock river bridge most likely
contemplating how to retrieve the bag he tried to throw into the river once in custody hanson changed his story
he denied killing mary ann but admitted to a cover-up he said he found marianne's body
when he first got to work thought he'd be blamed for her murder so he removed the items that belonged to
him from the scene that's where i goofed up i saw my hammer and gloves there which were mine
i saw all the blood around marianne i panicked i didn't call 9-1-1 and i picked everything up put them in a bag
and left but the jury didn't believe it george hansen was convicted of first degree murder
and sentenced to 60 years in prison i've been here for the rest of my life it took longer
for the jury to pick a form and than it did to come back with a guilty verdict hi i'm marianne and this is george of
alzula remodeling specialists and while the boss is away we will pay we will give you a five percent discount
on any new what was once a prosperous enterprise ended in deception and murder but forensic evidence
and mother nature helped solve the mystery what are the odds of going to a river
with the intent to sink a bag and have it hit solid ice knowing that you've already cased the river out
knowing that it's it's wide open body of water except for a few feet on each side and he
he accidentally drops it in the wrong place if george wasn't so dumb we wouldn't have found it it'd have been
a lot tougher case to deal with george was banking on the fact that he had no witnesses
you know not just the blood's better but the fingerprints and then you know the the dna off the
sweater all of those things that kind of pointed back toward george hansen you

In 2004, Mary Ann Clibbery was found brutally murdered in her Illinois business and investigators had to determine if this was a robbery gone wrong or a calculated murder.

Brief Summary

Mary Ann Clibbery was murdered by her business partner George Hansen over embezzlement, leading to his conviction.

Key points

Brutal Attack at Work. A well-known business owner is brutally attacked at work, leaving a bloody scene.
Motive Uncovered. A witness comes forward with a possible motive for the murder.
Suspicious Evidence Found. A black garbage bag found on the ice contains items linked to the murder.
DNA Evidence Leads to Arrest. Forensic testing links George Hansen to the murder through DNA evidence.
Conviction of George Hansen. George Hansen is convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to 60 years in prison.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

I saw all the blood around Marianne. I've never seen a dead body before.

An employee describes the shocking scene upon discovering Marianne's body.

2:08WatchMar 5, 2021

Tension

85/ 100High tension

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