Forensic Files - Season 1, Episode 6 - Southside Strangler - Full Episode | Forensic Files

[suspenseful music] [glass breaking] PETER THOMAS: Shortly after Thanksgiving in 1987,
an intruder broke into the Tucker residence in Arlington, Virginia. It might have been just another statistic,
but the crime committed that night launched a new era in police investigations. This is how DNA evidence and psychological profiling
helped catch a serial killer and set an innocent man free. [theme music] REGGIE TUCKER: Everything about her was very gentle.
She was very soft spoken. She just had this amazing softness about her, this human quality.
PETER THOMAS: 44-year-old Susan Tucker was a publications editor who worked for the United
States Forestry Service. She was spending the Thanksgiving holiday alone since her husband Reggie was out of the country in Wales
on a business trip. REGGIE TUCKER: Neither of us could put the phone down. We kept saying, "I love you."
And we said this over and over again, I don't know how many times. PETER THOMAS: But without explanation, telephone calls
went unanswered. And neighbors noticed her bedroom window wide open in the cold November weather, so they called police.
[door creaking] [knocking] As they approached the front door, they noticed it was ajar.
OFFICER: Can you hear? Police! PETER THOMAS: Inside, a woman's purse was lying on the foyer floor.
REGGIE TUCKER: I arranged to call on a Monday. Couldn't get an answer. Just rang.
Tucker? REGGIE TUCKER: I rang again. I rang again. I don't know how many times I rang.
PETER THOMAS: Susan Tucker's badly decomposed body was lying face down on the bed.
She had been dead for four or five days. JOE HORGAS: Her hands were tied behind her back.
Her feet were tied. The head hang over the side of the bed almost. PETER THOMAS: She had been strangled and possibly raped.
It appeared that the killer more than likely was inside the home for quite some time.
I mean, it wasn't just a very quick in and out type of a situation. You know, many of the drawers had been ransacked,
had been gone through. PETER THOMAS: When Reggie Tucker first heard the news, he was devastated.
So he said, "Sir, I've got bad news." And I knew it. I just knew it at that point.
And I just, you know-- my whole world just fell away. PETER THOMAS: Detective Joe Horgas
of the Arlington Police Homicide unit was quickly assigned to the case. His task wouldn't be easy.
For one thing, the killer had been careful. He had worn gloves and left no fingerprints.
JOE HORGAS: Yeah, this has been wiped clean. PETER THOMAS: It had been raining on the night of the murder, and he
meticulously cleaned the area around his point of entry. He's smart enough to know that footprints,
which is what we were-- we would have gotten from that, would maybe come back to haunt him, which kind of tells you
maybe some past experience on burglaries. PETER THOMAS: Police collected the sheets, nightgown,
and the large sleeping bag which covered Susan Tucker's body to look for possible blood
and semen stains. They found hairs on the bedding around Susan Tucker's body, in the bathroom sink, and on a washcloth discovered
outside on the clothesline. And they gathered shards of broken glass from the basement window.
Everything was taken to the forensics lab for analysis. But perhaps the most important clue
was also the most obvious-- the rope and knots used to strangle Susan Tucker. The police were convinced they had
seen this killer's work before. Three years earlier, a 34-year-old lawyer named Carolyn Hamm had been raped and strangled in her home
only four blocks away from Susan Tucker. The killer entered the Hamm residence the same way--
through a basement window-- and tied his victim using the same knots. And it's not a common occurrence--
not common at all-- to see victims killed by using ligatures to strangle them, ropes tying up victims.
It's really quite rare. PETER THOMAS: But the Hamm case was closed when this man, David
Vasquez, confessed to her murder and was sentenced to 35 years in prison. Could he have had an accomplice?
Horgas spoke to him for several hours. And from the way he was talking on everything
and answering my questions, I didn't think he knew a damn thing about Carolyn Hamm's murder.
PETER THOMAS: While Detective Horgas began his search for Susan Tucker's killer, 100 miles away, in the capital city
of Richmond, police there were investigating a series of murders shockingly similar.
REPORTER: The body of 35-year-old Debbie Davis was found inside her South Richmond apartment.
She'd been raped and strangled. PETER THOMAS: In less than a month, two young women had been raped and strangled in their homes
just a few blocks from each other. In each case, there was a forced entry with the murderer
entering by cutting the screens and entering through an open window. Each victim was strangled.
Both victims were white, between the ages of 30 and 35 years. PETER THOMAS: Two weeks later, he struck again.
This time, a 15-year-old girl raped and strangled in her bedroom while her family was sleeping.
All three had been bound, raped, and strangled with rope. The knots were identical to the ones
used in the Arlington cases. Detective Horgas suspected that the killer of Susan Tucker
was the same man who murdered Carolyn Hamm and the three women in Richmond. If Horgas was correct, a serial murderer was loose on a 100
mile killing spree. [music playing] PETER THOMAS: Detective Horgas believed the man who raped
and strangled Susan Tucker had also murdered Carolyn Hamm three years earlier. Horgas also believed the same man
was responsible for the three rapes and murders in Richmond 100 miles away. The Richmond police weren't so sure.
I mean, they have three murders that were within a couple miles square radius, I'm guessing,
or maybe even less that, you know-- and now we're trying to say that 100 miles away, we're trying
to link something to theirs. It's like, yeah, get out of here. I mean, this is a local guy.
Horgas was a man-- he was the perfect man for this case because he was obsessed.
He was-- he knew something was wrong. PETER THOMAS: Author Paul Mones wrote a best-selling book
entitled, "Stalking Justice." It profiles the rapes and murders of these five women
and the history-making investigation which followed. Joe Horgas is motivated by the hunt.
He's not a guy who's obsessed by issues of right and wrong, except for his own internal moral compass which tells him
if there's an innocent man in prison, I don't care if we got the guilty guy, we've got to get the innocent man out.
And he was determined to get this guy. PETER THOMAS: But if Horgas was right that all of these murders
were connected, he needed proof. For that, he turned to the forensics lab, where scientists were examining the stains found on Susan
Tucker's nightgown and bedding. I found four semen stains. And when I analyzed the sleeping bag,
I found one very large semen stain. I typed all of those stains. PETER THOMAS: The semen came from an individual
with type O blood and the PGM1 enzyme profile. Although this matched 13% of the population,
it also matched the semen found at the Carolyn Hamm murder scene. Next, they turn their attention to the hair found
at the Tucker crime scene. DEANNE DABBS: And there are characteristics, microscopically, that can classify hair into one
of three racial categories. PETER THOMAS: Which are Caucasian, negroid, or mongoloid.
The hairs found at the Tucker crime scene appeared to be pubic and did not appear to be
from the victim or her husband. They were positively identified as negroid in origin.
This was another possible link to the Carolyn Hamm murder case. Three years earlier at the time of Hamm's murder,
a black male wearing a mask had raped a number of women in the same neighborhood.
The masked rapist was never apprehended and Horgas always suspected that there was a connection
to the Hamm murder. JOE HORGAS: Actually, the same day that Carolyn Hamm's body was found, another girl, lady, was in her house
and this black male with a mask and a knife burglarized her pla-- house, got her, and actually he did
some sexual activity with her. PETER THOMAS: The Richmond police and later at the Arlington police both sought
help from the FBI's Behavioral Science Unit in Quantico, Virginia. This unit has interviewed hundreds of serial killers
to learn what similarities exist in their psychological makeup. They were able to predict a number of important things
about the killer. R. STEVEN MARDIGIAN: We're getting a look at the behavior that's left by the offender
in the commission of his crime. We believe that by looking at that behavior, we can interpret the type of offender that
may have committed the crime. PETER THOMAS: The fact that the strangler attacked
his victims in their homes suggested that he had stalked them first and knew precisely when to strike.
The FBI concluded that the perpetrator was between the age of 18 and 30, the quiet type, a loner who held a menial job.
He probably had a troubled relationship with his mother and began his crime spree with arson.
Historically, many serial rapists and murderers begin with arson. Serial killers are usually white but could be any race.
He lived or worked close to where he committed his first crimes. That's because criminals begin their crime sprees in an area
where they feel most comfortable. He took sadistic pleasure in strangling his victims.
He would periodically release the bindings so he could hear his victim plead for her life.
It appeared that the perpetrator had intended the victim to suffer considerably.
In one case, a shoe impression was found on the victim's back. PAUL MONES: These women were obviously, first, just
terrified to the very bone and then were systematically sexually assaulted. And you know, at the end-- and it's not clear
whether they were dead when he did this or alive, but he also masturbated on his victims.
PETER THOMAS: And it was these semen samples which would prove to be extremely important pieces of evidence.
I can remember our prosecutor, Helen Fahy, a couple of days after the murder asking me if this
was going to be a DNA case. And I'm kind of, I don't know. We don't even know what we got yet.
PETER THOMAS: In 1987, when Susan Tucker was murdered, DNA evidence was still in its infancy.
The first time DNA evidence was used in a criminal case was only a year earlier in England when DNA from a semen
sample was used to convict a bakery worker with the rape and murder of two 15-year-old girls.
[camera flashing] Horgas decided to try this new DNA testing, sending the semen stains from Susan Tucker's nightgown
to the Life Code's Laboratory in New York. Forensic scientists were concerned that the samples may have degraded or been contaminated.
MICHAEL BAIRD: You basically isolate the DNA. You cut it up. You generate profiles or patterns.
And you then generate these patterns on a piece of X-ray film. So it's like a picture of the DNA.
And when you then compare these pictures and the components are the same in the two DNAs,
that would indicate that they're from the same source. PETER THOMAS: The final results from the DNA tests
would take up to 10 weeks, but Detective Horgas still didn't have a suspect. [music playing]
PETER THOMAS: Detective Horgas suspected that the same individual who raped and murdered Susan Tucker
and Carolyn Hamm three years earlier was the masked rapist who was committing crimes in the same area but was never caught.
So Horgas drove out to an area of Arlington known as Green Valley, the area where the masked rapist
committed his first assaults. The FBI told Horgas that rapists usually commit their first crime close to home.
If the first rape was the first rape for this guy, then he would have lived around there.
And that was very crucial to me, because I didn't know that. PETER THOMAS: And as he drove through Green Valley,
Horgas tried to recall the names or faces of likely suspects, young men he'd run across over the years who
came from that area. And it just so happens that Detective Horgas started to focus on this one juvenile he had dealt with
or remembered. I mean, he just couldn't place the name. PETER THOMAS: And all I could remember was Timmy.
I could see his face. I remembered the approximate time period and everything that he--
that I remembered him from, but I couldn't remember his last name. MICHAEL HILL: So we were running all these names
through the computer, seeing when they'd been locked up and released. And suddenly, he just came in and he said,
"Spencer, Timothy Spencer. That's the name." JOE HORGAS: And I saw where he was arrested on January 29,
1984, which was four days after Carolyn Hamm, her body was found. PETER THOMAS: Spencer's history unfolded.
In trouble as a teenager, he had a string of burglary convictions. And even more surprising, just as the FBI predicted,
Spencer had first drawn police attention for arson, for setting fire to his mother's car.
JOE HORGAS: He was presently in a halfway house in Richmond. Well, that-- wow. That's exciting now.
PETER THOMAS: Spencer was on probation, living in this halfway house just a short distance from where the Richmond murders took place.
And according to house records, Spencer had been signed out during the Thanksgiving holiday,
visiting his mother in Arlington, the week Susan Tucker was murdered. The fact that he got out of prison two weeks
before the first murders down in Richmond, the fact that he was available for every murder, the fact
that he came to Arlington when he did for our murder. PETER THOMAS: And the FBI was correct
about another important detail. Spencer lived in the area where the first rape was committed.
And that happened over there. And at the time, Timothy Spencer was living down here, over this hill.
PETER THOMAS: In his mother's house, barely a mile from the homes of Carolyn Hamm and Susan Tucker.
On January 20, 1988, police arrested Timothy Spencer. Within hours, they had collected a blood sample, some
of his hair, and confiscated his clothing for forensic analysis. MICHAEL HILL: The clothing was scraped
down for removing any debris. And once that debris was collected, it was taken to a microscope.
Several dozen particles of glass were removed from the debris that was removed from his clothing.
PETER THOMAS: The glass fragments were of particular interest to the police. [music playing]
PETER THOMAS: After police recovered glass particles from Spencer's clothing, they were examined forensically
to see if they matched glass from any of the victims' homes. One technique is called glass refraction analysis.
By shining light from different points on the spectrum through the particles, the characteristics of the glass
can be plotted on a graph, in effect measuring how the particles bend light. DONAL MCCLAMROCH: If you stick the pin
into the water, which is more dense than the air, it bends the light. What we're doing with the glass particle,
basically, is measuring how much the light is bent in a refra-- and we call it refractive index.
PETER THOMAS: They compared the glass fragments found on Spencer's clothing to the glass
particles taken from the broken window at Susan Tucker's home. JOE HORGAS: We were able to say that that glass that
was removed from Spencer's clothing either came from that particular pain or that particular source
of glass or another source of glass that had the same optical characteristics. PETER THOMAS: When scientists completed the DNA analysis
of the semen stain found at the Susan Tucker crime scene, they made a chilling discovery.
MICHAEL BAIRD: And I remember pointing out an X-ray film from the developer and holding it up from these two
separate cases and being bombarded immediately that the patters I'm seeing are the same.
I'm seeing the same profile on this case from one county versus this case from the second county, which
says to me that same person's involved in both of those incidents. Really gave you chills up and down
your spine to see something like that. PETER THOMAS: Horgas was right all along.
The semen sample from the individual who raped and presumably murdered Susan Tucker
matched the semen stains from the murders in Richmond. There were seven hairs that were consistent with his.
There was a glass fragment that was consistent with his. His family couldn't provide him with a complete alibi
for the entire weekend. PETER THOMAS: And finally, Timothy Spencer's blood DNA was compared to the semen samples from the crime victims.
Once we got a sample from Mr. Spencer to test, we generated a profile that was the same as the profile we got
from the evidentiary samples. We had a frequency of occurrence of greater than one
in a million. So that means that only one person in a million in the population would have that
particular genetic profile. And starting with the first result, the blood type, it was a match, it was a match, it was a match, it was a match.
PETER THOMAS: On July 11, 1988, Timothy Spencer went on trial for his life. It was the first time in the United States
where DNA evidence would be used in a serial murder case. It took the jury less than seven hours
to find Timothy Spencer guilty of rape and capital murder. He was sentenced to death.
I feel some kind of relief, but I'll never have my wife back, you know? That's really the bottom line, is
I'll never really feel happy. I can't feel happy about somebody being guilty of raping and murdering my wife.
I can't feel happy about that. So whatever anger I feel, I will feel till I die.
Death was pronounced by the attending physician at 11:13 PM. There were no complications.
Mr. Spencer did not make a last statement. Thank you. Up until his death, I don't think
that Timothy Spencer made the connection between semen and blood. I don't think he knew that the same DNA that's in your semen
is in your blood. Without DNA, it would have been impossible to convict Timothy Spencer.
If he had committed those murders a year or two years earlier, he could not have been convicted.
In fact, if this had been 1984 or 1985, we probably would not even have arrested him.
Some people ask the question, will DNA fingerprinting replace detective work? I don't think so.
Susan Tucker left Detective Horgas the crime scene, and Timothy Spencer left part of himself at the crime scene.
But his name would never have come up if it wasn't for Detective Horgas. [music playing]
[music playing]

Timothy Wilson Spencer was identified as the man who raped and strangled five young women in Virginia. With the use of DNA profiling, an innocent man is freed and the real killer is convicted.

Forensic Files is the longest-running true crime series in television history. Evidence and interviews with experts help solve real crimes, disease outbreaks and accidents around the world.

Brief Summary

The episode details Susan Tucker's murder and how DNA evidence led to Timothy Spencer's conviction as a serial killer.

Key points

The Murder of Susan Tucker. Susan Tucker was found dead in her home, leading to a groundbreaking investigation.
DNA Evidence Used in Trial. Timothy Spencer's trial marked the first use of DNA evidence in a serial murder case.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

I just knew it at that point.

Reggie Tucker recalls the moment he received the devastating news.

3:08WatchMay 20, 2021

Tension

85/ 100High tension

More from Forensic Files

Solve the Crime

Read a real case one clue at a time, then see how your call held up against the investigators.