Forensic Files - Season 10, Episode 35 - Sole Searching - Full Episode | Forensic Files

criminals usually leave some kind of trace evidence at the crime scene the trick is to find it
scientists used some aurora pink powder cyanoacrylate fumes and a computer database to identify a suspect in the
midst of a senseless crime spree [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause]
[Music] it was 4 am on an october morning and kim miller was manning the police switchboard
i was working night shift i think i'd only worked there like around six months so i hadn't been
trained at that particular position very long there isn't much crime in lansing michigan it's usually quiet
but this night was different all of a sudden i took this call and this lady said that someone was breaking
into my house someone broke into my house i learned four two one frightened [Music]
the line went dead so i knew something was very wrong police were dispatched immediately it
took less than four minutes to get there at first glance everything looked fine but behind the house was clear evidence
of a break-in the door had been kicked in and kicked in violently the door was actually off of the frame
and there's glass from the door outside on the front porch as well as on the inside entrance way from the door
inside down the hallway police found the bathroom door had also been knocked off
its hinges on the floor was the body of 67 year old audrey nichols she had been shot in the head at close
range with a 32 caliber bullet the phone that they believe that she was using was found right in that area i
believe in the hallway just outside the bathroom the police officers knew mrs nichols she
had worked for the michigan state police for 17 years analyzing traffic accidents
she had retired just four months earlier and lived alone her three children were
grown and living elsewhere we all felt violated by it just because so many of us were alone it was very
shocking to us it was numbing and there was a lot of anger an awful lot of anger
since police arrived within five minutes of the call the killer wasn't inside the house long
none of the drawers or closets had been ransacked but audrey's purse was missing
looked like the house had been selected for a break in so that somebody could go in and find
something of value probably to purchase for drugs a preliminary look at the evidence left no doubt about what had
happened audrey heard the intruder kick in the back door she grabbed the portable phone
ran to the bathroom and locked herself in [Music] but apparently he heard her on the phone
then grabbed her purse and left here was a woman that was huddled on the floor of her bathroom on 9-1-1 who
at least in the opinion of the forensic pathologist turned her head to avoid what she saw was coming the
fatal gunshot it doesn't get worse than that unfortunately police could find no witnesses
we didn't have any neighbors or anything that saw or heard anybody in the neighborhood that could give us any type
of physical description he has no regard for human life and our concern was at that point we
needed to find this guy and put him away police and forensic experts searched audrey nicholls home hoping to find
evidence left by the person who killed her the victim was in the bathroom dead so we determine a pathway from the
entrance way to the bathroom and so everything in between has to be processed and then there was no other way out of
the house but out of the door that the suspect came in in the kitchen police found one foreign fingerprint
although it was badly smudged there were shards of glass spread over the linoleum floor of the kitchen
was it possible that the killer stepped on a shard of glass leaving his shoe impression
the theory of any crime scene investigation is that the suspect is always going to leave something of
themselves at the scene or take something away that's going to link them to the crime
the shards were collected and sent to the forensics lab glass is such a smooth perfect surface
that it's really really the best surface we can possibly hope for to get a footwear impression on
the linoleum floor was dusted with a powder called aurora pink that sticks to any moisture present
then using what is called an alternate light source any powder that clings to the
moisture will fluoresce if you have a patterned linoleum or something where the background is interfering with the
the impression you can usually use your alternative light source to eliminate the background and then the
fluorescent powder that you use to dust up the impression is very bright and so it makes a very good contrast
it was successful they saw one clear print the heel portion of the killer's left
shoe it appeared to be an athletic shoe most of the prints you see are partial prints you may sometimes get some full
footwear impressions but with people walking over on top of them it can destroy the prints and many times you
only get partial prints back in the forensics lab scientists saw what looked to be
another shoe impression on a shard of broken glass so they placed it in a tank filled with
heated super glue the fumes create a permanent image of the print and it looked like the toe area of the
killer's right shoe because we had a toe area on the glass and a heel area on the linoleum we
basically almost had an entire entire shoe impression so we did have a very good idea what the entire tread pattern
looked like i remember looking at the glass and saying we have some really good footwear impressions here
today forensic analysts have access to sophisticated databases of all kinds of shoe impressions
it includes men's women's even children's shoes both dress and leisure from all over the world
this database is called soul mate elements of the shoot patterns will be entered in by the operator so if it has
squares in the ball area of the shoe or the toe area of the shoe you would enter that in
and then the computer comes back with a list of possible shoe treads and you can
pull those up and look at them to determine you know if any of those are the shoe you're actually looking for
checking and cross-checking finally gave investigators their first solid piece of
information the footwear impressions were consistent with having been made by a spalding
tennis shoe unfortunately the print wasn't complete so some details were unclear
the fact that he's wearing tennis shoes was about the only given that we had a month after audrey's death
a pedestrian found her purse in a field about a mile from her home her identification was inside
but all the money was gone this proved robbery was a motive but why murder it was an unanswered question for all of
us it was like who would do this why would they do it and how how did they choose her how did
they choose her it wasn't like she was a rich woman it wasn't like she was flashy at all
research shows criminals often commit their crimes close to where they live so police focused their search in the
surrounding areas but got no leads you always fear that this might be one of those
cold cases that might end up on the shelf and this was a very very serious case so
we had this concern that we hope this one doesn't go cold then six weeks after audrey's murder
police got a break police apprehended a man breaking into a home just down the street from audrey's
irony of ironies they end up with a home nearby audrey's that was broken into and the guy's wearing sneakers
not only is he wearing sneakers but he's wearing spalding sneakers there were glass fragments embedded
right in the shoes of the of the first suspect's shoes it's like whoa is this the guy
and glimmers of hope that maybe there have been a solution to the audrey slain but it didn't turn out to be
that simple [Music] two partial impressions from a pair of spalding tennis shoes were the best
clues found in audrey nichols home following her murder police also found a partial fingerprint
but weren't sure if it was left by the killer the suspect was in and out of the house
so quickly that there really wasn't a lot of other forensic evidence if if any so this particular case really hinged on
those footwear impressions six weeks after the murder police arrested a man attempting to rob a home
not far from where audrey nichols lived he was 25 year old kent embry who had prior arrests for petty theft and
burglary the suspect happened to be wearing spalding tennis shoes just like we had
told the investigators they were looking for since these are spaldings and we already know that we need spaldings we
needed to have these analyzed right away because this could be the big break in audrey's shooting
police sent the shoes to the forensics lab where they were inked and printed using transparent overlays
amy nishod compared them to the two partial prints found in audrey nichols home that was compared directly to the
photograph of the footwear impression and the linoleum and then directly to the glass michaud was looking for two
things class characteristics which result from how the shoe is made and accidental characteristics which result
from how it's worn just the random wear that occurs to the bottom of the shoes through ordinary
activities every day it produces cuts and scratches and nicks on the bottoms of your shoes which make
it unique to all other shoes and so it's those scratches that we really look for
after extensive comparisons michoad called investigators with some bad news the sizes were slightly off
things just didn't line up correctly and then we were absolutely positive that those weren't the shoes that made the
impressions left at the crime scene what we had hoped would be good evidence turns out to be absolutely useless and
unrelated it wasn't that break that we were looking for now we had to basically start from zero again and move
forward investigators went back to canvassing the neighborhood but feared audrey's murder would go
unsolved then almost four months after audrey's murder the local district attorney received a
letter from a man in prison do you remember the retired state police lady that was killed in lansing i can
give up the killer for a deal with the prosecutor he said he found her in the bathroom she was calling for help so he
knocked the phone from her hand and stomped on it when he looked up she was looking at his face so he shot her in
the head with a 32 caliber see what you can do the letter was from a prisoner named
carl headley headley said he heard about the murder from a cellmate who was awaiting trial
for shooting and robbing a truck driver it had to be checked out because obviously sometimes in these jailhouse
settings things get exaggerated or they pick up information that they think they
can sell or trade off and and so that always has to be taken with a degree of skepticism but the details
of the letter were all accurate he had details that we had not released to the public there's only one way he
could have come into that type of information he was either there or he got it from somebody who was
the man's name was john skinner 22 years old homicide investigators questioned skinner about the murder but he denied
it and like everybody else that we interview is accused of a murder they never had
anything to do with them weren't there you know i don't remember where i was that night but i wasn't there
skinner's fingerprints did not match the unidentified print found in audrey nichols kitchen
and there were no spalding tennis shoes in the prison storage unit or at the local county jail where skinner was
first processed it was a tough situation because of the fact that the homicide occurred approximately a
month earlier and we were no closer to finding this horrific person out running around
possibly killing people again the investigation faced a crisis without a fingerprint match
and with no spalding tennis shoes investigators had reached a dead end 22 year old john skinner was the prime
suspect in audrey nicholls murder he was in prison awaiting trial for an unrelated crime when he allegedly
bragged to a cellmate that he had killed audrey nichols and gotten away with it but police couldn't find any evidence
that skinner even owned a pair of spalding brand tennis shoes similar to the prints found at the crime scene we
had the information from the jailhouse informant we knew that we had to have something
else it was imperative to get the shoes to do the comparison work and the longer
you wait the chances of getting the shoes lessons and the chances of more damage occurring to the shoes
if somebody's wearing them that lessens the chance of an identification as a last resort
police spoke with everyone working in the prisoner processing area of the county jail
and they got a break skinner's prison file indicated that his mother picked up her son's personal
belongings after he was incarcerated investigators rushed to her home which was less than a mile from the murder
scene so those sneakers were absolutely essential the mother could have taken him and thrown him in a trash can
or he could have called her and said get rid of them and that could have been very damaging
but police found a worn pair of spalding tennis shoes in john skinner's bedroom we got pretty excited that this might be
the person who committed the breaking and entering the murder of the victim again
amy michaud compared skinner's pair to the transparent overlays of the partial prince found at the murder scene the
partials were a toe from the right shoe and the heel from the left on both of the impressions the one from
the linoleum and the one from the glass there were enough accidental markings and and characteristics that were
visible in the impression that lined up with the the known shoes that we were able to say without a doubt
that these are the shoes that made those impressions how's he going to dispute that his tennis shoes were found at that
crime scene what possible explanation can he give there's no way he could ever explain
his presence in that house other than he went there to rob and ended up killing based on the forensic evidence
prosecutors say skinner kicked in the back door and broke the glass as he stepped into the room his sneaker
left a partial print on a broken shard his other shoe left the partial print on the linoleum floor
audrey heard the commotion grabbed her telephone ran into the bathroom locked the door and called police
when skinner heard this he kicked open the bathroom door and killed her [Music] police arrived within five minutes but
skinner had already fled with audrey's purse inside was all of a hundred dollars in
cash his drive to get money was more important than a human life his downfall was the fact that he was wearing those
spaldings there's no reason for his footwear impressions to be there because he did not know the victim the victim
did not know him police questioned skinner one last time he asked about the evidence against him
after denying the fact that he was there his main question to me was is do you have my prince in the house
and my response to that is yes i do john i have your prince so i need to know whether or not you plan this killing or
whether or not it was a random act skinner then realized the investigation was over
he confessed to the crime and said he chose the house at random that all he planned to do was to steal some money
for drugs he said he didn't go there with the intent to kill her or anything like that
that he heard her talking on the phone and only wanted to make her stop talking on the phone and
somehow the gun went off accidentally which we thought was a bunch of bull crap we never did it identify him with
layton prince and i don't know if he was wearing gloves or not wearing gloves at
the time after he expressed we talked to him about where the gun was because our
main goal was to get the gun back so it couldn't be used in any other crimes he had indicated that we would never
find a gun that it was throwing down a sewer and then later on he recanted that story
indicating that someone else had the gun and we would never find it john skinner pled guilty to
second-degree murder he was sentenced to life in prison i'm glad for the forensic sciences that
they were able to close this case that they were able to get the person who did it
for her family and her friends so that there would be some kind of closure and personally i think that audrey rests
better you know knowing that her kids don't have to wonder what happened and her
friends don't have to wonder what happened while investigating homicides the first
line of defense is forensic sciences a person coming in and fuming the floors obtaining fingerprints
without them would half of the crimes be solved probably not as technology progresses i hope forensic
science does in this case forensic science was at the very heart of this case being solved and being successfully
prosecuted without it who knows we might have a cold case on the shelf plain and
simple but with the forensics everything came together [Music] [Music] [Music] you

Armed with little else, police hoped the shoe impressions found at a Lansing, Michigan crime scene would put their investigation of Audrey Nichols' murder back on track.

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

Forensic evidence leads to the capture of John Skinner, who murdered Audrey Nichols during a robbery in Lansing, Michigan.

Key points

The Call for Help. Kim Miller receives a frantic call about a break-in, leading to a tragic discovery.
The Crime Scene. Audrey Nichols is found murdered in her home, shocking the quiet community of Lansing.
Breakthrough in the Case. Police apprehend a suspect wearing Spalding sneakers, similar to those found at the crime scene.
The Jailhouse Letter. A prisoner claims to know about Audrey's murder, providing crucial details to investigators.
The Confession. John Skinner confesses to the murder, claiming it was a random act gone wrong.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

We all felt violated by it.

The community's reaction to the crime against Audrey Nichols.

2:51WatchJan 14, 2022

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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