Forensic Files (HD) - Season 13, Episode 26 - Trouble Brewing - Full Episode | Forensic Files

[Music] up next the secret life of a call girl often a very dangerous profession they
found a female face down didn't appear to have any signs of life she would be a natural target because she would usually
have significant amounts of cash on her person the evidence points to one man looks like rambo acts like rambo and
dresses like rambo it may be rambo until one tiny clue turns the case around [Music]
it was after midnight on a chilly march evening when virginia russell was driving home from a party with her
boyfriend rodney hartman the couple had been dating for three years and were talking about getting
married but on this night tragedy struck she was thrown from the car the car flipped like eight times and
they were both ejected from the car when an ambulance arrived they pronounced rodney hartman dead at the
scene virginia was rushed to the hospital for 48 hours virginia hovered between life and death
but she survived toxicology tests showed virginia had a blood alcohol level of 0.16 almost twice
the legal limit i had charged her with the felony dui i mean it struck home pretty hard and
like i said it wasn't like it was a stranger that she had hit or anything it was
somebody that she had been dating that the family had known for years virginia was convicted and sentenced to
six years in prison for vehicular homicide it was hard enough that she had lost somebody in her life
and then to be doing time for it and be taken away from her family again i mean it was very difficult time for
virginia when virginia was released from prison she told her family she found work
cleaning houses one evening while spending time with her family virginia got a message on her pager at 8
54 p.m yeah i can do that we asked her where she was going and she tells us that she has to go
clean a house for an individual we said our goodbyes and hugged her and told her we loved her
and she told us as well and that was the last time early the next morning a man walking his dog
found a woman's body near an athletic field in rosewood south carolina the victim had been shot three times
execution style in the head two shell casings were found nearby fingerprints identified the victim
as virginia russell pretty shocking absolutely she hadn't been out two months when this incident happened
she was missing her right shoe there was no dirt or debris on her foot but her stockings were ripped
and she had scrapes on her knees the missing shell casing indicated virginia may have been shot once in
another location and then dragged to where she was shot two more times [Music] there's obviously more to this homicide
than just this one particular location where the body was found police found two empty beer bottles 20
feet from virginia's body no one was sure if they were connected to the murder they also found
a single hair on virginia's body as we do at all crime scenes we've collected everything that we could
possibly collect there was no sign of sexual assault but two purses were found near the body
they weren't but two dollars in change in the purses so investigators believe that part of the motive may have been
robert a background check stunned virginia's family her real profession wasn't cleaning houses
she was a call girl it was a total shock but then again i guess virginia had to do
what she needed to do because it was very difficult for her to find work because of her background
as the family coped with the tragedy investigators were forced to deal with a problem of their own
virginia's profession meant a large list of potential suspects [Music] investigators found virginia russell's
car in an abandoned parking lot two miles from the location of her body there was a single shell casing inside
obviously she was initially shot in the vehicle you could see the blood spatter that went throughout the
car consistent with her having been shot in the head on the passenger floorboard spattered
with blood was a potential clue we found a six-pack of michelob beer that the carton was still there but it had one
bottle full bottle still left in the carton this was the same brand of beer as the
two beer bottles found near virginia's body blood inside the door confirmed virginia
had been dragged from the car her missing shoe was on the driver's side floorboard
[Music] in a search for virginia's killer investigators wanted to know who had paged her on the night of her death the
call was traced to this apartment rented by 27 year old justin bullard who owned an aquarium cleaning business
justin bullard denied any involvement in the murder and said he never met virginia
he had no criminal history mr bullet's alibi was his at home alone and the problem with that was
him being home alone and no one else to cooperate him being there at the time with a search warrant
investigators found a wealth of evidence inside his apartment we find in his apartment a
380 caliber pistol the pistol registered to justin billard was apparently the same caliber as the
gun used in virginia's murder and investigators found something else there are several pages uh ripped out of
the phone book and each of those pages relate to escort services and phone numbers for escort services
on a pair of bullard's boots analysts noticed some slight discoloration the boots were examined
under a microscope they were stained with what appeared to be high impact blood spatter
high impact spatter might be invisible if the surface that it's deposited on is absorbent or dark in color
it's very likely that it would be very difficult to simply visualize it dna tests on the bloody boots tied them
to virginia's murder the swabs were subjected to pcr testing and the results came back consistent
with the victim whoever was wearing those boots was probably in contact with the victim
at the time she was murdered next investigators tested bullard's handgun the firearm that was submitted to me was
a russian manufacturer makarov semi-automatic pistol chambered to fire 380 auto caliber ammunition
shell casings from the crime scene and casings from a test firing of the gun were examined with a comparison
microscope viewed side by side the shell casings left no doubt the murder weapon
was justin bullard's gun i was able to determine that those cartridge cases those 380 autos that
were from the scene were fired by this particular firearm the boots were mr bullard's the gun was mr bullard's the
last phone call from the victim was to mr bullo's apartment but despite the overwhelming evidence
bullard not only denied he was the killer he came up with the incredible tale that
someone must have stolen all his things committed the crime then returned them [Music]
the prime suspect in virginia russell's murder was justin bullard inside bullard's apartment investigators
found all the evidence they needed for a conviction virginia's blood was found on bullard's
boots his handgun was the murder weapon names and phone numbers of escort services were near his telephone
and virginia russell was paged from bullard's phone just hours before her murder
looks like rambo acts like rambo and dresses like rambo it may be rambo bullard claimed a roommate might have
committed this crime with items taken from his apartment bullard said he had allowed a friend to live with him
temporarily because the electricity in his friend's apartment had been turned off due to lack of payment
as preposterous as this seemed it took on more significance when prosecutor knox mcmahon learned of a
similar crime that happened three days before virginia's death [Music] a call girl went to an apartment
to meet her client she said there were no lights on in the apartment only candles
the client wouldn't identify himself but asked her to undress [Music] then without warning he pulled a knife
and demanded money he then tells her to run and don't look back she's only partially clothed
the apartment was leased to a known drug addict roy beck but was he the perpetrator
the victim was shown a photo lineup she positively identified roy back the physical description she gave fit roy
back it's not fit mr bullard coincidentally roy beck was the friend justin bullard
said was living with him at the time of virginia russell's murder that meant two suspects were staying in the
apartment that was the source of all the evidence in virginia russell's murder you definitely have two people bullard
owns the gun owns the boots it's his apartment and roy beck is staying there and has access
to these items also there was no root on the hair found on virginia's body so scientists couldn't perform genetic
dna testing all analysts could say was that visually it looked more similar to beck's hair than bullets
but inside roybeck's apartment the one with no electricity that the call girl visited police found a potential clue
we found three bottles of michelob beer so now you have uh two michelob light beer at the body
scene one unopened and a carton in virginia russell's car and three it beck's unpowered apartment
scientists swabbed the beer bottles from the murder scene looking for a possible
connection unfortunately they didn't find enough saliva or skin cells to generate a dna
profile testing for saliva at that time on the mouth of a beer bottle wasn't as commonly done
as it is today the bottles were then subjected to super glue fuming these fumes will adhere to finger oils
and often produce quality prints glass is a very smooth surface and the residue that builds up on the
ridges and the fingers and in the palms of the hands easily will transfer from the surface of the hand onto a glass
surface and that glass surface will hold it after 15 minutes in the fuming chamber
one partial palm print emerged on one of the bottles found near virginia's body this partial print
didn't match virginia russell justin bullard or roy beck the forensic evidence from virginia
russell's murder pointed to justin bullard the gun the bloody shoes the telephone calls to
the escort service from his apartment but bullard had no criminal record and no apparent motive
some of the circumstantial evidence pointed to his friend roy beck the beer bottles in his apartment were
the same brand as those found next to virginia russell's body and the background check revealed beck
was addicted to crack cocaine he was a drug addict and obviously to feed that dragon you got to have a lot
of cash prosecutor knox mcmahon thought the beer bottles at beck's apartment and those found at the crime
scene were too much of a coincidence so he decided to take a second look if you look at those beer bottles there
is a born on date and there is a code under the born on date the date was october 22nd
1996 followed by the letters wf w is the geographic location in this case williamsburg virginia within
williamsburg virginia there are multiple lines within the plant and f designates
which line the bottling took place on but the key piece of information was the final part of the label
the number 58. at the time the williamsburg brewery produced 600 cases of beer every 15
minutes and each of these 15-minute periods was given a number 58 met the 58th 15-minute period of a 24-hour day which
was 2 15 to 2 30. but how many bottles were filled in one 15-minute period with over a million beers bottled at
that brewery every day only one percent were bottled in any 15-minute period so only 14 000 bottles would have the
same code so what would be the chances that roy beck would have three bottles of beer in
his apartment with the same code as the bottle found inside virginia russell's car and the two next to virginia's body
the probability of that happening is incredibly small you would have to have all the people involved at the same
location at the same time buying the same beer the odds of the beer bottles coming from
different six packs were more than one in 32 million these six beers came from the same
six pack roy beck was arrested and charged with virginia russell's murder prosecutors say beck desperate for money
called the escort service to arrange for an out call which means the girl would go to the customer's home
[Music] the first time he called the escort service he asked that the girl meet him
in his own apartment [Music] when she arrived beck robbed her of a couple of hundred
dollars at knife point then let her go without power beck moved in temporarily with justin
bullard and when he needed more money for drugs called the escort service again this time from bullard's phone
and set up the meeting with virginia russell sure he took bullard's boots and gun and
the beer from his own apartment when virginia arrived beck got into her [Music] car and they went to a deserted location
each drank a beer and threw the empty bottles out the window [Music] prosecutors think beck was acquainted
with virginia from a previous meeting and decided to kill her so she wouldn't identify him
blood spattered on the remaining beer bottle and on the boots beck had stolen from bullard
beck dragged virginia's body onto the road then shot her two more times [Music] he stole all the money from her purses
then drove virginia's car two miles away where he abandoned it beck later returned bullard's
blood-spattered boots and gun to bullard's apartment without him knowing it setting him up for the crime
but beck didn't know that the three bottles of beer left in his apartment would tie him to the bottles at the
murder site and to one in virginia's car it was very significant in this investigation it um
it was the one thing that could really put back at every cri at all three crime scenes
at his trial roy beck insisted justin bullard was the killer but the science showed otherwise
i myself did not feel it was bullard uh when he was on the stand and all i mean just the look in his eyes
i felt like it was back the whole time roy beck was convicted of first degree murder and sentenced to life in prison
investigators described this as one of their most unusual cases two suspects each connected to the crime
by the same evidence until something as seemingly insignificant as the label on a beer bottle showed who
was lying and who was telling the truth that's what sanctum just those those bottles of beer um
i guess he didn't have that in his plan the beer bottles themselves ended up being one of the more
telling aspects of the case and it's very unusual to be able to help solve a crime by the use of beer
bottles and the date they were made it's very unusual that's just the type of circumstantial
evidence that that you just don't get every day that you just don't see every day that people
can look at it and see it touch it and relate to it [Music]

This series profiles intriguing crimes where science catches the bad guy. Follow coroners, medical examiners, physicians, law enforcement officials, journalists and legal experts as they put together the pieces of the crime puzzle.

Brief Summary

Virginia Russell's murder linked to call girl profession and beer bottle evidence led to Roy Beck's conviction.

Key points

The Tragic Accident. Virginia Russell survives a car crash that kills her boyfriend, leading to her conviction for vehicular homicide.
The Shocking Discovery. Virginia's body is found shot execution-style, revealing a darker side to her life.
The Unexpected Suspect. Investigators uncover that Virginia was a call girl, complicating the murder investigation.
The Evidence Piles Up. Evidence found in Justin Bullard's apartment links him to Virginia's murder.
The Beer Bottle Connection. A unique beer bottle label leads to a breakthrough in identifying the killer.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

It was hard enough that she had lost somebody in her life.

Virginia's emotional turmoil after the accident.

2:00WatchMar 5, 2021

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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