Forensic Files - Season 10, Episode 20 - Four on the Floor - Full Episode | Forensic Files

NARRATOR: The last time anyone saw Betty Lee alive, she was talking on a telephone.
The next day, her body was found in the New Mexico desert. The forensic evidence revealed there were two perpetrators who
left the scene and drove off into the desert. A discarded cell phone revealed why.
[theme music] These 25,000 square miles of high desert are called the Four Corners, where
Utah, Colorado, Arizona and New Mexico meet. It's home to America's largest Native American population,
including the Navajo, Hopi, Ute, and the Jicarilla Apaches. There is some violent crime in these parts, but not a lot.
So it was a surprise in June of 2000 when an electrical worker saw blood on a remote stretch of road.
A short distance away in the bushes was the body of a young woman -It was quite obvious when I saw the body
that we had a homicide. And a-- and a very brutal one at that. NARRATOR: A knife and a sledgehammer
were found in the brush nearby. The victim was identified as 36-year-old Betty Lee
from Shiprock, New Mexico, about 30 miles away. Betty was a Native American, a Navajo,
divorced with five children. She had been going to school to become a nurse. -My Aunt Betty was a very happy person.
She loved everything about life. I mean, her kids were her number one priority and then school.
And that was why she was back in school was to make life better for them. NARRATOR: Two years earlier, another Native American, Donald
Tsosie, was found stabbed and beaten to death in the desert just 10 miles away. Police feared a serial killer might be on the loose.
At Betty Lee's autopsy, the medical examiner found numerous stab wounds to her chest.
As well as blunt force trauma to the head. -Death would be quick. Not necessarily instantaneous, but it would be quickly.
NARRATOR: It appeared that the sledgehammer and knife found near her body were the murder weapons.
There were no signs of sexual assault. Toxicology tests showed some alcohol in her system, but not a lot.
-She had some alcohol on board, but wouldn't necessarily be so impaired that she couldn't defend
herself or do something else. NARRATOR: The alcohol was a potential lead. A quick check of the local bars indicated
Betty Lee spent her last night in a place called The Turnaround. She was with two of her friends, Tina and Gloria.
According to witnesses, there were two men drinking with them. TYLER TRUBY: One was named Johnny Miller.
And the second guy, we never learned his first name; however, his last name was Pretty Boy.
NARRATOR: Eventually, the two man asked two of the women if they wanted to continue the party somewhere else.
-Gloria and Tina decide to leave the bar Johnny Miller and Pretty Boy and go to a motel room.
And Betty-- at this time, it made it Betty Lee almost a third wheel. NARRATOR: Witnesses said Betty pleaded with their friends
not to leave since she didn't have a ride home. But the foursome left anyway in a red pickup truck.
TYLER TRUBY: And they say that Betty Lee was chasing after Johnny Miller's red Dually pickup and screaming at them
and begging them not to leave her at the bar. NARRATOR: From there, she walked to a convenience store
and used the pay phone. TYLER TRUBY: Betty called the Shiprock Dispatch Center where
she asked the dispatcher to contact her brother, who is a Navajo Nation police officer.
NARRATOR: But her call didn't go through. A witness said she hung up the phone and cried.
When the witness looked again, Betty was gone. Investigators wanted to know what happened from the time she
made that telephone call to when she was murdered in the desert. While investigating the murder of Betty Lee,
police search for two women who were with Betty the night before at The Turnaround Bar and had left with the two men.
Police were able to corroborate their alibis. The foursome had checked into a nearby motel, where
they had remained until morning. Investigators hoped forensic evidence at Betty Lee's murder
scene would point them in the right direction. TERRY EAGLE: I had been on some homicide cases prior to this.
At this point in time, this was the most extensive and the most horrific I had seen.
NARRATOR: After dusting both the sledgehammer and the knife, there were no fingerprints on either one so
that was a dead end. Not far from Betty Lee's body were some tire tracks and some shoe impressions.
Both were revealing. The shoe impressions told investigators there were two killers.
One wore men's boots, size 13. The other wore Converse brand basketball shoes, size 10.
The third set of shoe prints were the victim's sandals. The tire impressions near the body
were the size found on a car, not a truck. Yet, there were three different tires.
-I've not seen a vehicle with three kinds of treads like that before. It's the only one I've ever seen.
It may happen, but I haven't seen it. NARRATOR: The three different tire impressions led away
from the crime scene down the road a short distance, then turned off, heading into the desert.
-I wanted to find out where them tracks were leading, and why were they out there?
Because at times, you might have more than one crime scene, too. There was always that possibility.
There might have been another crime scene out there. NARRATOR: Police decided to follow the tracks,
having no idea where they would lead. The trail went on and on, deeper and deeper into the desert.
RICK DUNCAN: At times, we noticed that the tracks crisscrossed each other, so we'd have to take time and figure
out what direction we wanted to go because they overlapped each other. MATT WILCOX: We weren't even 100%
positive that this was a vehicle that was directly related to this homicide. We were just following tracks that
led out of the crime scene. NARRATOR: At times, it was difficult to decipher. RICK DUNCAN: Where are these tracks
leading, why are they here. Over the next three or four hours, we followed tracks.
And when we lost them, we'd get out, walk, look for them. Pick them up again, drive some more until we lost them again.
NARRATOR: And this went on for mile after mile after mile. And then, the trail stopped.
Nearby were tire impressions from several different vehicles. Apparently, there had been some sort of meeting.
RICK DUNCAN: It was obvious the vegetation had been tore up. There was ruts in there.
The sand was tore up. And then I started picking up several different shoe impressions.
One was a smooth sole. It might have been a western boot. NARRATOR: About 20 yards away, they
found another extraordinary piece of evidence. A cell phone. MATT WILCOX: I've lived in the area my entire life.
That's something that's very uncommon is coming across cellphones out in the middle of nowhere.
RICK DUNCAN: The cellphone looked fresh. I mean, there was no dust on it. There was no rain spatter compared to the bottles
and trash that was in the area. NARRATOR: Was is it possible that the cell phone belonged to the killer?
From the phone company, police identified its owner as a tow truck driver, Charlie Bergin.
-I got a call from the sheriff's department asking me why my cell phone was laying near this dead body,
you know, out there in the middle of nowhere? You think, oh my gosh, I'm going to be arrested for murder.
NARRATOR: Bergin insisted he knew nothing about any murder. But he said he could explain the four sets of tire tracks
in the sand. According to Bergin, a car got stuck in the sand the night before. The owner called his father, who arrived in a pickup truck,
and the pickup truck got stuck too. They called for a tow truck, and it got stuck.
Finally, the tow truck driver called Charlie Bergin, and he pulled them all out.
CHARLIE BERGIN: I've been doing this a long time, 17 years of it. And you see people do some really stupid things.
People have weird ways. It's none of my business what they do. I just go on and towed them out and did my thing.
NARRATOR: Investigators could hardly believe it. But what was Bergin's phone doing in the sand?
-While I was pulling them out, my phone rings. Cell phone reception here is not very good.
Couldn't hear a word she was saying, it was my wife. It kind of pisses me off, so I just throw the phone away.
No big deal. NARRATOR: Investigators were now faced with a dilemma. Either Charlie Bergin had just told one of the biggest
lies they'd ever heard, or he had come face-to-face with Betty Lee's killers. 36-year-old Betty Lee, the single mother
of five young children, had been murdered in the New Mexico desert. The tire tracks found at the crime scene
led police on a journey several miles into the desert where, apparently, the vehicle got stuck.
Charlie Bergin, a tow truck driver, told police he was called to the scene to pull the vehicles from the sand
and was paid for his services with a check. It was signed by 31-year-old Bobby Fry, a construction
worker who had a police record. CHARLIE BERGIN: He seemed nervous in a-- kind of a weird way.
Not really nervous, just didn't want us in the vehicle, I guess you could say. I don't know why he didn't want us in that vehicle.
I-- I don't understand that. NARRATOR: Bergin said Bobby Fry was driving the car.
BOB MELTON: And we're headed off to Bobby Fry's house. This is something that needs immediate attention.
If there's any evidence, we're going to-- we need to get to his house and preservative it,
if there is any. NARRATOR: When questioned about the incident, Bobby Fry confirmed that his car got stuck in the desert
and that he called his father to help pull him out. But he denied having anything to do with Betty Lee's murder.
And he willingly allowed police to search his home. -I remember walking in to Robert Fry's bedroom and thinking,
oh my gosh, there's-- there was an enormous pile of clothes. There was stuff scattered everywhere.
The room was in total disarray. And I remember thinking, I have to go through this entire room with a fine tooth comb.
NARRATOR: In the pile of clothes, investigators found a black t-shirt and a pair of size 13 boots.
The same size as the impressions found at the crime scene. Bobby Fry said his friend, Les Engh,
was with him the night before. In Engh's home, police confiscated his clothes and a pair of Converse brand basketball shoes, size 10.
The same size as the impression found at the crime scene. The clothing and the murder weapons,
the knife and sledgehammer, went to Rod Englert, an expert in blood spatter analysis.
He examined Bobby Fry's shirt. Under enhanced lighting, Englert noticed tiny blood droplets.
The size and shape indicated medium impact blood spatter. He found the same size and shape blood
droplets on Bobby Fry's boots. To Englert, this told a story. ROD ENGLERT: It was consistent with him being the one that
had the sledgehammer and hitting Betty Lee with it as she lay on the ground. -There were no fingerprints on either the sledgehammer
and the knife, who would tell us who was actually handling the sledgehammer or who was handling the knife.
NARRATOR: But Rod Englert found another way to prove who was handling the sledgehammer.
Under a microscope, Englert discovered tiny traces of sand and blood deeply embedded
in the shoulder of Bobby Fry's shirt. Englert said there was only one way this could have happened.
ROD ENGLERT: And that is consistent with placing the sledgehammer with the handle over one shoulder with the sand
and the blood, and carrying that 10-pound weight on the shoulder. That is my opinion as to what occurred
after she was hit with the sledgehammer. That one casually walks off carrying the hammer on the shoulder.
NARRATOR: As for Les Engh, there was no blood whatsoever on his clothing, and no blood spatter on his shoes.
But there was a blood transfer pattern. It looked as if Les Engh carried Betty Lee's body
into the brush, but he wasn't nearby when she was killed. ROD ENGLERT: So you're able to eliminate and exclude,
by the evidence, the participation of Leslie Engh in the killing of Betty Lee. NARRATOR: DNA testing of the blood on Bobby Fry's clothing
and shoes and Les Engh's shoes confirmed that it was Betty Lee's blood. -We found Betty Lee's blood in the vehicle itself.
And in fact, we found an earring-- or the police found an earring in Robert Fry's vehicle
that matched up to the earring Betty Lee's body had after she was murdered. NARRATOR: And finally, the tire impressions
found at the crime scene matched the tires on Bobby Fry's car. Bobby Fry and Les Engh were both arrested
and charged with first-degree murder. But investigators still didn't understand the motive.
When confronted with the overwhelming amount of forensic evidence, Bobby Fry denied he was involved.
But Les Engh confessed. -You guys, don't leave me behind, here. How am I going to get home?
NARRATOR: On the night of the murder, Betty Lee found herself without a ride home
when her friends left the bar with two men. And she wasn't able to find anyone to give her a ride home.
According to Les Engh, Bobby Fry was angry that night. He had gotten into a bar fight earlier
and was looking for trouble. That's when they saw Betty Lee crying near the pay phone.
[card door closes] NARRATOR: Along the way, Fry stopped the car, pulled Betty out and tried to rape her.
But Betty put up a fight. In anger, Fry stabbed her repeatedly with his knife. Then took a sledgehammer from the car and beat her to death.
Blood splatter landed on Fry's shoes and shirt. Sand and blood on Fry's shoulder proved
he disposed of the sledgehammer after the murder. Both men carried Betty's body into the bushes creating
the blood transfer pattern on Les Engh's shoes. The two left the murder weapons at the scene,
along with their shoe and tire prints. Their trail led into the desert, where they planned
to do some joyriding, but they ran into trouble. In a colossal blunder, Fry's car got stuck in the sand.
He called his father, who also got stuck. They called a tow truck and it got stuck too.
Ultimately, it was Charlie Bergin who got them out. Had it not been for Charlie Bergin's cell phone, that he
threw in anger when his wife called while he was pulling the cars out of the sand, police might
never have solved the case. CHARLIE BERGIN: You know, when I got that call that day from my wife, I thought, oh God,
what does she want this time? You know, just called me up to bug me all the time.
But it was probably the best phone call I'd ever got in my life. NARRATOR: Robert Fry was tried and convicted
of first-degree murder and sentenced to death. Les Engh testified against him and received
a 40-year sentence. Bobby Fry was later convicted of three other murders, including that of Donald Tsosie, the Native American whose body
was discovered two years earlier just 10 miles away from where Betty Lee was murdered.
Betty Lee's family members are grateful for the work of law enforcement and the forensic evidence
that identified her killers. -We really appreciate their efforts in bringing justice to her murder.
-Betty Lee did not deserve to die. And no one deserves to die in such a horrible terrifying manner.
This was one of the worst situations you can even imagine for a woman's last moments on Earth.
It's-- it's horrible. NARRATOR: A memorial now sits on the site of Betty Lee's murder.
A reminder not only of a life senselessly lost, but the scientific investigation
that put her killers behind bars. -The evidence at the scene, as well as the evidence
we recovered on follow-up made the difference in this case. The physical evidence is always the most important factor
in the trial process if it's available. Physical evidence doesn't lie. -Forensic science was huge, the way everything from the blood
spatter interpretation, the DNA, the footwear evidence, the tire evidence, it was huge.
Forensic evidence solved this case. [theme music]

A Native American woman was brutally killed in the desert of New Mexico, and the crime scene was rich in forensic evidence: tire tracks, shoe impressions and even the murder weapons.

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 murder of Betty Lee in New Mexico leads to arrests through forensic evidence and a tow truck driver's cell phone.

Key points

The Murder of Betty Lee. In June 2000, Betty Lee was found murdered in the New Mexico desert, shocking the community.
Forensic Breakthrough. Forensic evidence, including blood spatter and tire tracks, led to the arrest of her killers.

Episode highlights

Forensic BreakthroughForensic evidence, including blood spatter and tire tracks, led to the arrest of her killers.“Physical evidence doesn't lie.”20:45Jan 14, 2022

Episode quotes

Betty Lee did not deserve to die.

Family member reflecting on the tragedy.

20:00WatchJan 14, 2022

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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