Forensic Files - Season 10, Episode 29 - Moss, Not Grass - Full Episode | Forensic Files

NARRATOR: Are blades of grass like a fingerprint or a snowflake, each one different in some way?
Police in the Bahamas thought all grass was pretty much the same, until a forensic botanist showed them
that some grass is better than others. [theme music] Just 120 miles off the coast of Florida
are the Bahamas, a group of islands that are one of the world's premier tourist destinations.
It's particularly popular with golfers, since the tropical climate means they can play year-round.
But in the fall of 1999, the weather turned deadly. The islands were battered by a tropical storm.
The next morning, the groundskeeper of the Emerald Golf Course found more than downed trees and water damage.
-We found out that there was a female body on the golf course. She appeared to have been there overnight.
And it had been raining for some time. NARRATOR: The victim's throat had been slit,
and a $1 bill had been carefully placed on her body. CARLSON SHURLAND: To me, that sent a very profound message.
Because she was laying out there naked. Her throat was slashed-- that's very graphic.
And the only thing that was sort of sitting there speaking to us was a $1 bill. NARRATOR: A few yards away, investigators
found the victim's clothing, a woman's ring, and a used a condom. -There was the indication that there was an attempt, at least
an attempt, for the most part, of a sexual assault. NARRATOR: Police couldn't find the murder weapon,
even though they searched the entire golf course with a metal detector. The victim was identified as 19-year-old Samantha Forbes.
A recent high school graduate, who lived with her family just six miles away from the golf course.
-She was loving, kind. She never give me one hard word one day yet. She was a beautiful person.
Not a day goes by that I don't miss her. NARRATOR: Samantha's mother told investigators
that Samantha left home the night before with her friend, Marjorie Saunders. The two went to a local nightclub.
-I took her up there where I work. She reached there-- the minute she reached there, a gentleman
was there saying, Samantha, how you doing? Would you like to have a drink? And she say, oh, yes, you know.
And they sit down and they talk. NARRATOR: Marjorie and Samantha met two men that night.
Around midnight, Samantha said she was leaving with them to go to another bar. MARJORIE SAUNDERS: She likes to party.
Samantha likes to party. And she think it was a little too early to go home. She wanted to go Freeport, or different discos
and finish enjoying her night. NARRATOR: Marjorie said she tried to stop her. -So I said, Samantha, come. Let me take you back home.
She said, I'm going. So two guys, they left, one holding each hand, and took her away.
NARRATOR: Marjorie told police she thought the two men were sailors. If true, this was potentially bad news for investigators.
Ships come and go from the island port quickly, and the sailors could be long gone by now.
And on an island where tourism is the main source of revenue, the pressure to solve the murder was enormous.
-A young, attractive, Bohemian lady laying on a golf course with her throat slashed.
Something is definitely wrong about that. NARRATOR: The brutal murder of Samantha Forbes
shocked residents in the resort town of Freeport in the Bahamas. Marjorie Saunders was with Samantha
on the night she was killed, and blames herself for not doing more to prevent it.
MARJORIE SAUNDERS: She caught a ride with two total strangers that I even didn't know.
I feel like the whole world came crashing down on me. And from Samantha's death, upwards to this day,
my life hasn't been the same. NARRATOR: The storm that hit the Bahamas on the night of Samantha's murder
complicated the investigation. -We had a watery environment, because it rained. So certainly, evidence would be lost
or destroyed just simply by the water. NARRATOR: Potential fingerprints, hair, and clothing fibers, to the extent they existed,
were all washed away from Samantha's body in the storm. And the rains also removed any biological evidence
that may have been on the condom found nearby. When Samantha's murder was reported
in the local newspaper, a bartender on the island called with some additional information.
She said, Samantha came into her bar with the two sailors. And at one point, she got into an argument with one of them.
-They exchanged some harsh words, I understand. NARRATOR: The bartender said one of Samantha's friends,
Keith Lotmore, stepped in to break it up. -It appears that Keith Lotmore, because he knew Samantha,
tried to calm her down. And told her not to worry about that man, to leave him alone
and not to answer him. And apparently she stopped arguing with him. NARRATOR: After the sailors left,
Lotmore and his friend, Dominique Moss, joined Samantha for a drink. -Mr. Lotmore knew Samantha.
There was conversation that went on and he invited, or she asked for a ride home.
NARRATOR: And witnesses saw Samantha leave the bar with both men. -Whenever a victim is seen leaving with anyone
and those persons, or that person, is the last person to be seen with the victim,
automatically they will be a prime suspect. NARRATOR: Lotmore worked as a barber.
Moss was an electrician. In separate interrogations, they both told the same story.
They said they had given Samantha a ride home. And after dropping her off, returned to the bar
to pick up some food. The restaurant employees confirmed that they did, in fact, return afterwards.
-He went into the restaurant barefoot, I guess looking for the food that he had ordered earlier
for himself and had forgotten to take it away when he left. NARRATOR: Police inspected Lotmore's car
and found no blood or any other evidence of violence. And they also examined the clothing Lotmore was wearing
on the night Samantha was killed. Investigators found no blood or any signs of a struggle.
Police then asked Dominique Moss for his clothes. -When the police went to retrieve the clothing that he
was wearing on that particular morning, he told the police that he did not know-- he didn't even remember what he was wearing.
NARRATOR: So the clothing appeared to be another dead end. With the help of Samantha's friend, Marjorie,
police tracked down the two sailors who were with Samantha earlier on the night she was killed.
They admitted they had argued with Samantha at the second bar they went to, but said they left immediately afterwards
and went back to their ship. Their alibi checked out. NARRATOR: For now, the mystery surrounding the two sailors
had been solved. But there were still more questions to answer. Solving the murder of Samantha Forbes
had turned out to be far more difficult than investigators ever imagined. The rains had washed away potential forensic evidence.
And her body was found on an exclusive golf course surrounded by large expensive homes.
-It was very shocking to know that something like that had taken place overnight.
And the-- the subdivision is a fairly upscale quiet subdivision. And to learn that something like that had literally happened
in their backyards was really troubling for some residents. NARRATOR: Keith Lotmore said he gave
Samantha a ride home that night. But Samantha's family said she never came home.
Police found no forensic evidence or anything suspicious in Lotmore's car or on his clothing.
And then, investigators remembered something. During Samantha's autopsy, the medical examiner
noticed some botanical evidence on her body, most likely from the golf course where her body was found.
ELBURT FERFUSON: We had minute, tiny particles of fragments of grass. And these I would describe in terms of size
as less than a millimeter. NARRATOR: And investigators found the same particles on Lotmore's shoes and socks.
-On those two items we discovered, lo and behold, grass particles. NARRATOR: Investigators needed to know whether there was
any way to tell if the grass came from the same location. Under a high-powered microscope, Ferguson analyzed the grass
from Lotmore's shoes and from Samantha's body. He soon realized this wasn't typical grass.
It was unusually thin, and had other unique characteristics. -So when you look at them under the stereoscope,
they have a defined venation, striations on the surface that were parallel. And seeing those on the various items of evidence, certainly
pricked our curiosity. I felt that this was my only physical evidence, so I needed to have the grass botanically
classified and identified. NARRATOR: To do that, Ferguson asked Dr. Jane Bock, one
of the world's most respected forensic botanists, to conduct an analysis. She had a difficult task.
Worldwide, there are almost 9,000 different species of grass. In the Bahamas alone, there are dozens.
Under a microscope, Dr. Bock compared grass samples from the crime scene and from Lotmore's shoes.
-One of the finest grasses I've ever seen. It doesn't even approach a millimeter in diameter.
It's tiny, fine, fine grass. I've never seen grass that fine here in Colorado, where I spend a lot of time.
Or in Arizona, where I also spend a lot of time. NARRATOR: Eventually, Dr. Bock was
able to identify the grass as a type of Bermuda grass. But it wasn't the usual type of Bermuda grass.
-If you look under the microscope and you have three or four kinds of grass, even
different strains of Bermuda grass, this one is outstanding. NARRATOR: It was a variety known as Almond Bermuda, an unusually
thin grass that thrives in subtropical climates. DR. JANE BOCK: Almond Bermuda grass
is outstanding because it's so fine. And it responds well to rain, and it turns green upon being wet.
And it turns brown in a hurry if there's a drought. NARRATOR: Investigators thought this was interesting, but not
enough to make their entire case. But then, they learned something surprising. Almond Bermuda grass is primarily used on golf courses.
And of the three golf courses on the Grand Island of the Bahamas, only one, the Emerald Golf Course
where Samantha Forbes' body had been found, used Almond Bermuda grass. -The groundsman, the information he
give us was that this particular strain of grass was unique to his tees and fairways,
and this was his baby, so to speak. It was unique to him. And no other golf course would-- would
have had that particular strain. NARRATOR: The groundskeeper planted Almond Bermuda grass,
even though he knew it wasn't durable and didn't do well on resort courses with lots of play.
He chose it because it tends to do well on courses that get a lot of rain. When analyzed, the grass samples from the Emerald Golf Course,
Samantha's body, and Keith Lotmore's shoes were identical. DR. JANE BOCK: I think the chance that Keith Lotmore could
have gotten that grass from somewhere else is slim to none. It wasn't that there was a single blade and I said, aha!
I had dozens and dozens of specimens. And I had, of course, collected stuff from where Samantha's body was found and it was a tight fit.
NARRATOR: When confronted with the botanical evidence, Keith Lotmore admitted he was on the golf course
that night with Samantha Forbes, but insisted that Dominique Moss was the one who had raped and killed her.
Not surprisingly, Moss denied it and pointed the finger at Lotmore. So police arrested both men and charged them with murder.
But they still weren't sure which man was telling the truth. Grass clippings found on Keith Lotmore's shoes and socks
placed him at the very location where Samantha's body was discovered. When confronted with this evidence,
Lotmore admitted there was more to what happened that night than he had told them earlier.
Lotmore said, he helped Samantha end her argument with the two sailors in the bar.
Afterwards, he and his friend, Dominique Moss, joined Samantha for a drink. Lotmore said, Samantha later accepted a ride home.
Along the way, Dominique Moss, who was sitting beside Samantha, had been making unwanted advances towards her.
Moss suggested they stop the car along the golf course so he and Samantha could go for a walk on the course alone.
An idea that Samantha wanted no part of. As soon as the car stopped, Samantha got out and made a run for it.
She ran across the golf course with Moss in pursuit. Lotmore said he ran down the fairway
to try to stop Moss, which is how he got the grass clippings on his shoes and socks.
But Moss had a knife and he threatened to kill Lotmore if he intervened. So Lotmore said he backed off.
Moss sexually assaulted Samantha. Then killed her with his knife. Afterwards, he left the $1 bill on her body.
-Dominique Moss is the coldest son-of-a-bitch I ever met in my life. -The grass that was found on Keith Lotmore's tennis shoes
and socks substantiated Keith Lotmore's story that, yes, I was there. Yes, I went behind Dominique Moss
to try to stop him from hurting Samantha. But I was not successful in doing so. NARRATOR: Forensic scientists analyzed Lotmore's clothing
more carefully and confirmed there was no blood spatter, grass, or grass stains on his pants or shirt.
This confirmed his story that he wasn't near Samantha during the assault or the murder.
DR. JANE BOCK: I found the grass on Keith's shoes and on his socks. But not on his shorts and not on his shirt, which indicated
to the prosecution, and to the defense both, that, in fact, he had not raped her.
And he had probably not been on the ground and slit her throat, either. -Lotmore was standing.
He was never kneeling down. NARRATOR: Not surprisingly, Dominique Moss denied he was the killer and blamed Lotmore.
Nevertheless, both men went on trial for Samantha's murder. And it was Moss' girlfriend who delivered
the most damaging testimony. She said she washed Moss' clothes on the night of the murder.
And did so for a reason. -Dominique's girlfriend was very powerful. Her evidence was very powerful against-- against Dominique.
She talked about him coming home drunk. She talked about blood being on his warm-up suit.
She talked about him saying that someone got killed. -She was able to tell us Dominique Moss
was acting strangely when he came home. She was able to tell us that, in her estimation,
he was intoxicated. She was able also to tell us that he said to her, the girl is dead.
NARRATOR: Dominique Moss was convicted of the rape and murder of Samantha Forbes and sentenced
to 25 years in prison. Based on the forensic evidence, the jury concluded Keith Lotmore was not an active participant
in the rape and murder, although he was present. So the jury convicted him only of manslaughter.
And he was sentenced to three years in prison. Samantha's family has tried to move on.
They say they're grateful for the seemingly insignificant clue, the tiny grass shavings which
brought her killer to justice. LILLA FORBES: Though he killed my baby, but I don't got no hard feelings against him,
because the law-- I believe, the prosecutor did what she's supposed to do. -The strain of grass that was used on that particular golf
course was extremely rare. Extremely rare. It is not something that you see every day.
-I believe that forensic evidence was very important in this case, in the sense of linking victim and-- victim
and suspect together, and at a specific geographic location. -Fortunately, they were in an environment
where trace evidence became available through those minute particles of grass. That's what stands out in my mind.
Grass. The grass was greener. [theme music]

A young woman was found dead on a golf course in the Bahamas. The grass on that course was so distinctive, it had evidentiary value. The evidence led police to two suspects.Each blamed the other, and they had to find out who the killer was.

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Brief Summary

Samantha Forbes was murdered in the Bahamas; grass evidence linked suspects to the crime scene, leading to convictions.

Key points

The Shocking Murder of Samantha Forbes. In 1999, the body of 19-year-old Samantha Forbes was discovered on a golf course in the Bahamas, leading to a complex investigation.
Forensic Breakthrough with Grass Evidence. Investigators found unique grass particles linking the suspect to the crime scene, leading to a breakthrough in the case.
Trial and Conviction. Dominique Moss was convicted of Samantha's murder, while Keith Lotmore received a lesser charge of manslaughter.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

I feel like the whole world came crashing down on me.

Marjorie Saunders reflects on Samantha's death.

5:07WatchJan 14, 2022

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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