Forensic Files - Season 10, Episode 23 - Prints Among Thieves - Full Episode | Forensic Files

[Music] the murder of an eccentric millionaire was not entirely a surprise he flaunted his wealth and cared little
about personal security the evidence clearly indicated robbery but investigators wondered
if there was more [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] battle creek michigan is home to one of
the largest breakfast food makers in the world some call it cereal city eighty-year-old robert rogers lived his
entire life in battle creek through some real estate investments and his ownership of a small trucking
business he was a millionaire many times over he was a tough old bird he never pulled any punches he was always a son
of a to me rogers was stubborn too he always carried large sums of money and didn't care who knew it he would
joke that he would have several thousand in this pocket several thousand in a pants pocket and a couple
more thousand in his back pocket and he generally did not surprisingly rogers became a target for local drug
gangs and petty thieves he was a victim several times of robberies they would take his money from him beat
him up his house had been broken into a few times also so yeah it was a problem for him but he
didn't change his pattern it seemed like he'd still carry the large sums of money
sharon zachary lived next door to rogers and acted as his caretaker sharon zachary had become almost like a
daughter to him she would take care of him she would look in on him she would come and visit him it worked out nicely
until the day sharon zachary stopped by roger's home and found that it had been broken into
what's the problem when police arrived they found robert rogers on the living room floor he had been beaten to death
the person that committed his crime did not want any possibility of mr rogers to be alive to identify the
perpetrator it looked like a piece of firewood was used to break the rear sliding glass
door drawers and closets had been ransacked but if the motive was robbery the perpetrator had not been
entirely successful after the homicide they found 133 thousand dollars in cash hidden in the
house which that by itself uh was such an attention grabber in this community i mean that was the mo that
was one of the most unusual things about the whole incident the blood evidence revealed
rogers was beaten at two different times the victim sustained some injuries and then had enough time to lay there
his wounds even started to heal and then he was hit again that's bloodthirsty that's cold
but to come back and he's not dead and just beat him again to make sure he's dead
that's cold and the forensic evidence indicated the killer approached the body yet a third
time mr rogers when he was found his his arms and actually his forearms and hands were
up in the air this phenomenon is called rigor mortis a stiffening of the body that occurs
several hours after death what this would tell investigators about the time period is that someone moved him
three or four hours after he was dead this meant the killer was inside the house for hours
[Music] when millionaire robert rogers was found beaten to death in his home police began their investigation by
questioning family members and relatives and they learned that rogers had an ongoing squabble with his only son
donald they were barely on speaking terms donald told his father he was concerned
about his memory problems and wanted to take control of his father's finances rogers retaliated by cutting his son out
of his will like i said he was a tough old bird yet it was i could never do anything quite
good enough for him [Music] donald insisted he didn't murder his father although he
admitted the two had serious problems we were putting a roof on the building out here
and i guess i just wasn't doing it fast enough he he picked up a thing of shingles and threw him at me
and i went right over the end of the roof flat on my back knocking him off the roof when a police officer hears
that there's that much animosity and and especially when they find out donald had been cut out of the will out of a
fairly substantial estate that's got to raise a lot of red flags for an investigator
at robert rogers autopsy the medical examiner determined the cause of death was repeated blows to the
head with a blunt object this clearly was a homicide with the number of blows it appeared he had been struck 25 to 30
times i really can't speak to the state of mind of the killer although it certainly appears that they're enraged
but no murder weapon was found at the scene when we leave a crime scene without that
murder weapon we have our work cut out for us in order to put that suspect in the scene
the forensic evidence proved that someone turned rogers over several hours after death presumably to search his
pockets for money for investigators this offered a possible clue how would someone grab hold of him to turn him
over and we did notice that the belt had been disturbed slightly meaning that had been twisted a little
bit and so we kind of thought that perhaps maybe the suspect grabbed hold of the
belt the belt was removed for forensic testing the initial examination found no fingerprints
so they tried super glue fuming it's just simply heating up the super glue inside of an
enclosed chamber allowing that super glue to vaporize and it has the physical properties to want to adhere to the
fingerprint residuals left behind when an item is touched and it revealed a partial thumb print
about five inches from the buckle the quality of that latent fingerprint was very poor
again on a scale of one to ten this laden fingerprint was about a two to a three
this is the only belt that i've ever obtained a fingerprint off of investigators found their next clue
in the shards of broken glass there was a beautiful footwear impression it was maybe half of a half of a shoe or the
whole ball area of the shoe was present this may have happened when the killer stepped into the house
after breaking the glass so it gave me a lot to work with with regards to looking for accidental
characteristics or markings using various databases analysts quickly discovered the print was from the left
shoe of white pure10 brand tennis shoes also at the crime scene investigators found
a set of keys in the grass next to one of the ponds on the 10-acre property the keys opened the doors to roger's
home divers searched the ponds and a week later found a three-foot length of pipe
with a water sprinkler attachment at the end while there were no fingerprints or hair
on the pipe there was a tiny speck of blood which was sent for dna testing how it got left there
has always been amazing to us because it obviously had to have dried first when it was found put in the pond
otherwise it would have washed off as soon as we're thrown in the pond to determine if this was the murder
weapon investigators devised a test to see the marks this pipe would make on a human
skull at the time there weren't a lot of different surfaces or forensically available
sources for for reproducing human skin and um so in this particular case i used just a
honeydew melon it had a smooth surface and it was rounded it was approximately the same size as a human head
she struck the melons from different angles and with varying amounts of force when i hit the test surface to try to
create as many different patterns as i could using that particular pipe and then i compared them to the wound
pattern seen on the victim scientists concluded rogers was killed with this instrument
why was this significant the person that had the keys may have dropped them when they threw the murder weapon into
the pond investigators wondered whether the house keys belonged to the victim's son
or someone else [Applause] police now suspected that the robert rogers crime scene was staged and that
the killer actually entered the home with a set of house keys now we call into question the whole idea
of the breaking entering we call in the question whether this was a crime of some outsider coming in and trying to
rob mr rogers or was it someone that had access to his house access to mr rogers
investigators asked the victim's estranged son donald where he was at the time of his father's
murder he said he had an alibi and offered to take a polygraph test the guy who gives it to me he says well
you passed the polygraph test i says he's passed it he says yeah he says you're a lousy liar
which is that's cool you know so investigators turned their attention to sharon zachary who not only
lived next door to rogers but worked as his caretaker sharon said she was with a friend
shopping all day across town but investigators discovered something suspicious she made several large expenditures in
the months leading up to roger's murder she started spending money from about january to around april it's
estimated about 65 thousand dollars was spent on her own personal items she bought a new car
a boat and took her family on a caribbean vacation the expenses exceeded her family's
discretionary income sharon was a part-time car salesperson her husband was a sales representative
and investigators also learned that rogers named sharon the sole beneficiary of his multi-million dollar
estate armed with the search warrant investigators confiscated sharon's shoes for analysis i believe we got over 20 or
30 pairs of shoes into the laboratory one pair caught michaud's attention a pair of size six and a half tennis shoes
michoad dusted the shoes with powder and applied a sticky sheet of acetate to lift the print
all shoe impressions are distinctive when a shoe is made and it comes out of the factory it's exactly like every
other shoe made in that particular mold and as soon as you start walking on that
shoe you get microscopic scratches and cuts and nicks in the bottom of the shoe that makes that shoe different from all
others in the world the shoe impression found on the glass at the crime scene had various nicks and
scrape marks interestingly sharon zachary's left tennis shoe was the same size make and
model as the impression found at the crime scene and it also had the same nicks and
scrape marks the surface was so clean it made just a beautiful very detailed impression there was enough
accidental markings on the glass that she was able to compare to the shoes and find a positive match to one
shoe and only one shoe that made that print fingerprint analysts had a more difficult time comparing sharon's prints
to the one found on the victim's belt they had to study the ridge details and figure out the direction of the print
and what part of which finger to compare after three days they discovered the print on the
victim's belt was the side of sharon's left thumb took a lot of hours looking at that
latent fingerprint this latent print enough detail in it to make an identification
was not a very high quality latent fingerprint when confronted with the forensic
evidence sharon denied she was the killer she insisted she had no motive but the victim's financial record
suggested otherwise in this case we found a large sum of cash disappearing out of his account
routinely over the time from january to april that money went right into sharon zachary's account
sharon convinced him to give her a power of attorney and sharon convinced him to
give her a checkbook and then when she got onto some of his checking accounts and she just started using them as her
own and you know she got greedy and decided she wanted it all records indicated that sharon zachary
stole up to a hundred twenty thousand dollars and there was clear evidence that rogers
discovered the embezzlement sharon zachary was helping herself to mr rogers funds
and mr rogers apparently was not happy about that and had his power of attorney withdrawn to put a
stop to sharon zachary helping herself to his money sharon also found out that rogers
planned to remove her from his will i believe sharon zachary was in a hurry at that time to kill mr rogers before he
could make that change in his will i believe greed is definitely what drove sharon zachary
the dna test results of the blood found on the metal pipe revealed the blood was
robert rogers more proof that it was the murder weapon when dna was found on the pipe it was
fairly spectacular and it's because we really didn't think that the dna would still be on the pipe two weeks later 31
year old sharon zachary was charged with the murder of robert rogers mr rogers at one point in time he even
told an attorney that she was the daughter he never had it is ironic that robert rogers
attempting to seek sanctuary for himself to seek protection from persons who wanted to rob and hurt him trusted
sharon zachary and it's ironic that this person in turn turned on him and became the very thing that he was
trying to guard against i would never believe that something like this could ever happen this is only
the kind of stuff that you read about but looking back i can see that this can happen to anybody
sharon zachary and her family lived next door to robert rogers and the two became friends
roger's eyesight was failing and sharon not only befriended him she also helped by writing checks so he
could pay his bills but prosecutors found evidence that sharon was doing more than that
and was actually helping herself to some of roger's money tens of thousands of it
well she got a sizable chunk in just the little time that she was her and him were
associated the trip to the caribbean for her and all her family the speedboats the vehicle
on the day of the murder prosecutors believe sharon went to roger's house intending to kill him
before he could change his will and remove her as beneficiary prosecutors think sharon grabbed a piece
of pipe from roger's yard used her keys to gain entrance and struck him over the
head repeatedly as he lay unconscious she spent hours searching the house for the money he had stashed away
if she did find money she didn't find it all at some point she must have realized he wasn't dead
and she struck him again once again she searched the house for money before leaving the house
sharon turned roger's body over to search his pockets leaving her partial thumb print
on his leather belt [Music] to make it look like a robbery she threw a piece of firewood through
the sliding glass door but she stepped on a shard of glass leaving a clear image of her shoe
impression on her way back home sharon tried to dispose of the pipe but dropped her keys nearby
a mistake which led to the discovery of the murder weapon sharon zachary after committing this
crime established an alibi to be seen in different locations at a point far away from her home
to try to establish that she couldn't have committed a crime by and having not been there
we always wondered if it was sharon zachary by herself or sharon zachary with others
we don't know there may have been there may not have been we have no clue we have no evidence
at the trial sharon zachary insisted she was innocent but the forensic evidence told a
different story she was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison
i'm glad they got her but i don't want to sound like i'm out for vengeance although if they wanted to kill her i'd
volunteer it was the shoe impression on a shard of glass and the partial thumb print on the
leather belt that solved the case in my 12 years of doing late print work this case ranks right up near the top
if not the most difficult latent fingerprint that i've had to identify so it was very
very satisfying case for me to be involved with criminals always seem to make mistakes i believe
the mistakes in this case by sharon zachary were because she was fighting the clock this trial would have never
happened without the forensics we had a clear motive money but to show that she was there
to show that the print the shoe print the finger the thumbprint where from her would have not had we wouldn't had a
case [Music] [Applause] [Music] you

The murder of an eccentric millionaire was not entirely unexpected; he flaunted his wealth and cared little for personal security. The evidence at the crime seemed to indicate robbery, but investigators wondered if there was something more.

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

Millionaire Robert Rogers is murdered; caretaker Sharon Zachary is arrested after forensic evidence links her to the crime.

Key points

The Murder of Robert Rogers. An eccentric millionaire is found beaten to death in his home, raising questions about robbery and motive.
Sharon Zachary's Alibi. Sharon, the caretaker, claims she was shopping during the murder, but her finances raise suspicion.
Sharon's Motive. Evidence suggests Sharon was embezzling from Rogers and feared losing her inheritance.
The Trial and Conviction. Sharon Zachary is convicted of first-degree murder, despite her claims of innocence.
Forensic Breakthroughs. Investigators find crucial evidence linking Sharon to the crime scene, including a thumbprint and shoe impression.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

That's cold.

Describing the brutal nature of the murder.

3:40WatchJan 14, 2022

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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