Forensic Files (HD) - Season 13, Episode 46 - Waste Mis-Management - Full Episode | Forensic Files

[Music] up next a woman mysteriously disappears we called her thursday we called her friday
no answer she vanished out of nowhere detectives check her apartment but someone's been there before them
obviously someone's been watching csi he knew we were coming he knew what he was doing a suspect
emerges but he isn't talking he was hiding out to sustain himself and if police can't find the victim
they'll have a hard time proving murder [Music] [Applause] sunday services at the golden gate
church in fort worth texas were an important part of glenda ferch's life my mother has attended the same church
since she was born her grandmother attended that church her mother's mother is a generation
church so it's very important so when glenda didn't show up for services one sunday morning
family and church members suspected something was wrong her pastor said that even if she didn't
go to church on a sunday she would call him to apologize for not going to church
we had been calling her and calling her no answer so one of glenda's daughters went to her
apartment the first thing she noticed was that her mother's car was missing the apartment door was locked glenda
wasn't there but the apartment was stiflingly hot the ac had been turned off or turned
down so it was very very hot in there and that was not like mom did not have any air on an
apartment glenda's daughter assumed her mother had gone somewhere for a few days
so she locked the door and left [Music] the next day when glenda didn't show up for work
her family called police to report her missing when police arrived they noticed the air
conditioning had now been turned on and they found unmistakable signs of foul play
there's a very large bleach stain on her carpet next to her bed in her master bedroom
glenda's daughter told police she didn't smell bleach the day before there had been some extensive cleaning
done and there were some items missing from the apartment such as the vacuum cleaner
the trash cans forensic testing of the stain on the bedroom carpet turned up nothing except bleach we
never found any positive signs of any signs of blood and someone had also wiped down the
doorknobs light switches and water faucets to remove fingerprints but where was glenn deferch
we were still holding that hope yeah you don't give up you don't you don't lose the hope glenda's
employer general motor said she was at work on thursday night and left the factory around midnight
and records showed glenda used her credit card to buy gas a short time later at 12 24 a.m we know that she
went and purchased gas because that was the last transaction of her on her credit card
but no one saw or heard from her after that and no one could tell police anything about glenda's
personal life she kept her personal life very private no one in her family could give us the
name of who if anyone she might be dating but a check of police records showed glenda called 9-1-1 a few weeks earlier
saying she felt threatened [Music] by lighting these candles in unity we are sharing hope
51 year old glenda ferch was missing and fort worth investigators feared she had been the victim
of foul play this is a woman just going home from work who had never really done anything
wrong she'd never been engaged in questionable activity and she vanished out of nowhere glenda's
life revolved around her job at general motors her two daughters and her grandchildren she liked to do a
little traveling i loved being with the grandchildren church and shopping like most ladies and
being with her family that was very important to her in a search for suspects investigators learned
that glenda ferch called police several weeks before her disappearance to report
some criminal activity i just wanted to report last week this guy knocked on my door
when i asked who was it he just went to rambling off about something he had to show me
i said no i'm not interested and he said oh just give me a chance just give me a
chance you know he just stood there begging for me to open my door at the time there
were a number of home invasions in the city of fort worth where robbers would knock on doors or
just kick them down but none of the homes were cleaned after they were robbed so investigators concluded there was no
connection between the robberies and glenda's disappearance that's when glenda's neighbors gave
police some key information we found two young men who were moving into a nearby apartment
right across from hers that earlier that morning monday morning at about two in the morning had seen a black male
coming back and forth from the direction of her apartment to a car parked right across
from her apartment that car fit the description of glenda's gold-colored mazda another neighbor described the same man
repeatedly driving a gold mazda in and out of the parking lot on sunday night and early monday morning yet another
neighbor saw a man fitting the same description leaving glenda's apartment this witness
told investigators that the individual that they'd seen coming in and out of the
apartment may have been going to the dumpster for him to be able to come and go for several days for even for a length
of time like he did i think that can suggest that he was not only familiar with the area
he may have possibly lived there at some time evidence technicians emptied the dumpster
and went through the contents of dozens of bags five of the bags contained items taken
from glenda's apartment if the family had to wait until tuesday instead of monday to call us
and the dumpster would have was emptied tuesday morning early and there goes all of our evidence in
one bag was the receipt for the gas glenda purchased on thursday night after work
this proved glenda was home for at least part of thursday evening we all felt like we
hid the mother lode of evidence when we got all the things out of the dumpster that we did
the bag also held empty drink cans and cleaning products including an empty gallon container of
bleach another bag contained one of glenda's blouses slit all the way up the back
when you see the clothing cut you start thinking possibly sexual assault one of the lieutenants on the case
initially said darla we don't know what this is but it's going to be very bad also in the garbage investigators found
another clue we found duct tape used duct tape as well as duct tape still on a roll
and we found some electrical cords that had been wrapped up tied up into knots and other items that
looked like they had been involved in a crime it looked as if someone had used the duct tape and cords
to restrain glenda our worst fears were being realized the only fingerprints found in glenda's
apartment were clenders her prints were on file with the police department when she filed an application for a gun
permit that gun was missing from her apartment veteran detectives were surprised at how
much effort had gone into cleaning glenda's apartment it appeared to have been wiped down
on your mirrors in your bathrooms those are great places to get fingerprints there was not even a
smudge mark obviously someone's been watching csi they vacuumed thoroughly i assumed to
try to collect any hair or fibers that might be present and apparently whoever used the vacuum
cleaner took it with him we just need to know what happened so if anybody knows anything which is pleading to the
community to today it's me tomorrow could be you five days after glenda's disappearance
someone called police to report a fire at a car wash 30 miles from glenda's apartment
[Music] fire officials arrived to find a gold-colored mazda engulfed in flames accelerants had been used the fire had
been deliberately set when the vehicle fire was extinguished investigators found
no one inside the license plates had been removed but the vehicle identification number
was still intact it was glenda ferch's car while they were doing their investigation i guess we were doing our
own little investigation trying to find out what happened we were putting out flyers in neighborhoods we
were talking to media people then a citizen reported finding a female body wrapped in a blue floral
comforter tied with electrical cords along the railroad tracks within the arlington city limits at that moment
there was no doubt in my mind that we had recovered glenda's body but it was not to be a forensic
odontologist compared glenda's dental records to the unknown female and it wasn't glenda that news
was rather shocking how many black females tied with electrical cord wrapped in blue floral comforters can
there be the answer to that was obviously more than one so the search continued one month after glenda ferch's
disappearance dallas police noticed a man getting items out of the trunk of a car
that had been reported stolen as police moved in the suspect took off and led them on a
high-speed chase he drove the vehicle through a couple of stop lights had a couple of narrow
misses and then he got on the freeways and the officers told us that he got that vehicle traveling
faster than they ever thought a ford probe could move a very lengthy pursuit ensued
and the car wrecked out and they took a young man into custody for fleeing from the police and for
driving a stolen car the carjacker was 40-year-old rodney owens an unemployed career criminal rodney had a
dishonorable discharge from the military he had assaulted his commanding officer
which is not a good thing a background check revealed owens had numerous warrants out for his
arrest for aggravated assault charges involving his ex-girlfriend owen's ex-girlfriend told police owens
had threatened to kill her he told her that he could come up behind her and put a plastic bag over her head
and watch her die she also said owens had recently been stalking her and she and her co-workers saw him
driving a gold-colored mazda similar to glenda's car around the time of glenda's disappearance
investigators also learned that owens once lived in glenda ferch's apartment complex
with his mother the front of her apartment looked right out directly at miss ferch's apartment
then investigators noticed something else when police searched the car owens was driving in the high-speed
chase they found a bag containing a roll of tape it brand duct tape this isn't a common brand
it's sold only in a handful of stores in the fort worth area but it was the same brand duct tape used
to bind glenda ferch it also contained a handgun a hunting knife some electrical cord
that had been tied in knots investigators wondered if any of the other items in owen's bag
matched items found in the dumpster outside glenda's apartment so they sent all of the evidence to the
forensic lab there scientists noticed a similarity in the electrical cord found in owen's
car the same type of knots in the same type of cord that were found in the dumpster outside
glenda first apartment they sent us a number of different items including swabs that were reportedly
from cans as well as cuttings from towels and scrapings from clothing the swabs from the drink cans were found to
contain saliva also on one of the cans was a partial fingerprint using super glue fuming and ninhydran
they found another partial print on the cardboard spool of the used duct tape found in the
trash after the print is developed with an anhydrous and the super glue then those prints can be
photographed the print that was photographed off the roll of duct tape i had an enlargement of an enhanced
version and i compared it to an enlarged photograph of mr owens prince that print on the roll of duct tape was
made by mr owens they also found what appeared to be biological evidence on a bath towel that looked like the
towels in glenda's apartment the biological evidence was semen the dna profile from the bath towel and
saliva from the drink were compared to rodney owens there was no surprise the profiles from the soda cans were
identical to the profile i obtained from rodney owens the profile i obtained from the sperm
fraction of the towel was identical to the profile i obtained from rodney owens rodney owens was arrested and charged
with glenda ferch's murder but would owens reveal what he did with glenda's body
[Music] while in custody awaiting trial for glenda ferch's murder rodney owens fell victim to boredom
and let his guard down in a conversation with another prisoner the suspect told another inmate in jail
that he knew that this lady lived alone that she worked at gm and worked a late shift
he knew she drove a nice car and he was pretty certain she would have money prosecutors know that rodney owens was
living in an apartment across from glenda ferch's and he knew glenda's work schedule and
habits on the night of the crime as glenda pulled into the parking lot prosecutors think owens used a weapon to
force glenda into her apartment the evidence shows he used duct tape and electrical cords
to bind her and then he sexually assaulted her and killed her he stole whatever cash and valuables he could
find he then wrapped glenda's body in bed sheets and placed it in her car where he took her body no one knows
glenda's daughter stopped in to check on her mother on sunday owens returned on sunday night
and spent hours cleaning the apartment wiping away the fingerprints and using the vacuum cleaner to remove
hair and fibers he later took the vacuum with him owens threw away most of the items he
used in the crime in the dumpster but he left partial prints on a piece of duct tape
and a drink can he also left his dna on the drink can and biological evidence on a bath towel
later found by investigators in the days after the murder owen's ex-girlfriend said
he was driving a car identical to glenda's and even used it to stop by her workplace
by the time owens set fire to glenda's car he'd already left plenty of evidence of
his involvement in the dumpster outside glenda's apartment we still don't know exactly how glenda first died
but that one fingerprint the few specimens of blood and semen put this case together
it was enough to know that something bad had happened something sexual happened in that
apartment but i can't substantiate a sexual assault you've taken away a mother a grandmother
somebody's child and it's not fair the defense hung its case on the fact that there was
no body that they still couldn't prove that glenda ferch was dead but witness after witness testified
that glenda ferch would never just leave her family her church and her job and owens had a very simple motive
he needed money he had a non-violent criminal past but after he had nowhere to live and no body to
support him he escalated into violence and would you rise and read that verdict please sir
one year after glenda first disappeared rodney owens was convicted of her murder
and sentenced to life in prison he was offered a lighter sentence in return for disclosing where he took
glenda's remains but he refused the most difficult part is the unknown not known exactly not knowing
so still today we don't know and it's the unknown so it's still very difficult it was
a web you had the items that were found in the dumpster his dna combined with purchase items
it was a very intricate intricate web that would never could have been put together
without the forensics in this case i wasn't familiar with forensic science i knew a little bit you
know you watch tv you know but i wasn't real familiar with it but learning going through this process
with the with the d.a with the detectives and i've learned a lot more that forensic science is incredible
you

Foul play is suspected when Fort Worth factory worker Glenda Furch disappears in September 2007 after completing her shift.

Brief Summary

Glenda Ferch disappeared, was murdered, and Rodney Owens was convicted based on forensic evidence despite her body never being found.

Key points

The Mysterious Disappearance of Glenda Ferch. Glenda Ferch vanishes without a trace, sparking a desperate search by family and police.
Foul Play Suspected. Police discover signs of foul play in Glenda's apartment, raising alarm about her safety.
Rodney Owens Arrested. Rodney Owens, a career criminal, is arrested and linked to Glenda's murder.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

You don't lose the hope.

Family's determination to find Glenda Ferch.

3:16WatchMar 5, 2021

Tension

80/ 100High tension

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