Forensic Files - Season 10, Episode 5 - Soiled Plan - Full Episode | Forensic Files

[Music] the mother of two young children went missing from her suburban home [Music]
a few days later her close friend and co-worker was killed in a mysterious accident
some wondered if there was a connection 20 years later a body was exhumed and forensic science uncovered
the truth [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] it's winter in ohio charles mill lake is peaceful now
but in the summer it's full of activity punctuated by the sounds of boats and children playing
leroy and melody bruce remember those days fondly we used to go out on a pontoon boat and i remember laying on
the front of the pontoon boat with my hands out catching leaves and bugs and seeing who could catch the most in the
water melody's stepfather larry bruce worked as a driver for roadway trucking judy was a stay-at-home mom
my mom was kind of introverted she did not really socialize a lot because of her speech
impediment she had a hard time with people understanding what she was saying the speech impediment the result of a
cleft palate made judy self-conscious but when she had corrective surgery her life changed
well she got her driver's license she had a car she got a job at mansfield general hospital
and housekeeping she was making friends there judy loved her job at the hospital but
on the morning of november 2nd 1978 she was too sick to go to work she was sick the day before she was not
feeling well and as i came out of my bedroom from getting dressed the door was cracked about six inches i
looked into my parents room and i was able to see that she was laying there the children walked outside to the bus
stop their father left with them to go to work when the children got home from school
their mother wasn't there my brother was already home he asked me when i came in the door
if i knew where mom was at if you look that way i look this way when larry got home from work he too was
concerned and called police to report her missing it appeared that the only thing missing
from the house was mrs bruce and the clothes she was wearing her car was still there her purse was still there
her prescription drugs were still there and there were no signs of forced entry or any kind of struggle
we called the office to see if maybe she was admitted to the hospital and or if she was showed up at work and
nobody had seen her family friends nobody after searching all night police made an unfortunate discovery
the police just kind of swarmed into our house and [Music] i was standing at this kitchen sink
doing dishes and they had said that they had found they had found my mom but she was dead
her body was discovered in a deserted campground along a creek just a few feet from a newly paved road
she was in her pajamas and wrapped in a blanket feet were immaculately clean that was a significant thing that led us
to believe that she wasn't murdered at that spot during police questioning larry bruce
said that judy had planned to spend the day home in bed because she was sick he also said he had no idea where she
might have gone the children provided larry with an alibi confirming that he had left the
house with them that morning and larry's time sheets confirmed he had gone straight to work
he pretty much kept his entire schedule that day nothing was out of order there had been no other time that he could
have committed the homicide police noticed that larry's shoes had dirt on the soles
and they wondered whether the dirt was from the area around judy's body so larry's shoes and a dirt sample from
the campsite were sent to the fbi for analysis the results were inconclusive [Music]
but judy's autopsy revealed several new clues and raised even more questions [Music]
judy bruce's body was sent to the cuyahoga county coroner for an autopsy the medical examiner ruled the death a
homicide the final coroner's report indicated cause of death was asphyxiation she was
actually smothered to death the time of death is an inexact science but was estimated to be either
shortly before or within a few hours after larry and the children left the house
the autopsy also revealed that judy's bladder was empty when you consider a person who is dying
of suffocation when they die that way their bladder evacuates involuntarily investigators found no significant urine
sample near judy's body in the park this was another indication she was killed elsewhere
interestingly judy's children told police their father had complained about some
soiled bed sheets shortly after judy disappeared i can remember him came around and threw
in a bed sheet into the trash and i was you know why you burning that he's like well the dog you know the dog urinated
on it on hearing this news police immediately confiscated what remained of the bedding from the master
bedroom there was some blood staining on one of the pillow cases and there were some unexplained stains on other
blankets on the bed but the forensic tests at the time were unable to identify whose blood and urine
it was back then the technology did not exist to detect whether it would have been
animal human the only technology we had was to get a type of blood in fact you couldn't even get the blood
typing because the sample was so small in the trunk of larry's car investigators found some oak leaves but
little else they didn't have a lot of evidence and what little evidence they did have
forensic science hadn't come a long way toward making it useful just a few days later
there was another death in man's field one of judy's co-workers james isaac was killed in a traffic accident
and larry bruce made a startling revelation he told police that isaac was having an
affair with his wife and accused isaac of killing judy and then he may have killed himself bruce implied
that isaac was somehow responsible for judy's death and killed himself due to his guilt over it
but no one could corroborate larry's claims and the primary focus continued to be
on larry bruce we ultimately made the decision not to press for the indictment at that time
because everything we had at that time was circumstantial time passed and judy bruce's murder slowly drifted
to the bottom of the unsolved case file i never forgot the case i would drive by
their residence and we would even drive by roadway trucking i remember on an alarm off once talking to a dispatcher
at the roadway trucking i said hey you know what what did larry ever you know say about this case because he
worked there for several years after the homicide and it was the feedback i would get was that he was the
kind of guy that was bragging about it he committed the perfect crime he got away with it
about a year after judy's murder larry bruce got married again and the couple continued to live in the house in
mansfield for the next 20 years the case went unsolved until a cold case unit delved deeper
into the death of judy bruce by the year 2000 police in mansfield ohio had a total of 17 unsolved murder
cases in their files and local officials started to grow impatient so prosecutors did what other
communities were starting to do we approached the county commissioners for twenty five thousand dollars to set
up a cold homicide unit to look at cases that were unsolved the first case they reviewed was the
murder of judy bruce which by this time had gone unsolved for more than 20 years
some in law enforcement suspected her husband larry had committed the crime but they couldn't prove it
so the new cold case unit began their investigation with the oak leaves found 20 years earlier in the trunk of larry
bruce's car so it was our theory that when he opened the trunk to take the body out some of
those oak leaves fell into the trunk of his cadillac and information presented in this very
television series suggested a new way to test them i was watching a forensic files episode
one night and they had a story about out western arizona had done a plant dna case
the crux of that investigation was a seed pod found in a suspect's truck which was later matched with plant dna
to the palo verde tree next to the victim's body reinboat contacted the scientists who
pioneered plant dna analysis and asked them to test the oakley found in larry's trunk to determine if it came from the
oak tree near judy's body i did go out to the camp to see if black oaks and red oaks grew
nearby and there were quite a few of them right up the short ways up the street there
unfortunately too many years had passed and scientists were unable to extract any dna from the
leaf but to their credit police didn't give up investigators decided to retest the
stains on the bedding from judy bruce's bedroom dna analysis which didn't exist in 1978
determined that they were semen one stain matched larry bruce's dna judy's husband
the other did not when judy was murdered larry claimed that judy was having an affair with the co-worker james isaac
who died in a suspicious traffic accident days after judy's death to see if it was isaac's dna on the bedding
investigators obtained a court order allowing them to exhume james isaac's body when the dna profile from isaac was
compared with the unidentified semen on the electric blanket it was found to be not a match so the semen on the electric
blanket remains unidentified investigators found no evidence that judy bruce and james isaac were anything
more than acquaintances next investigators asked dick bisping senior research microscopist at macron
associates to analyze the dirt on the bottom of larry bruce's shoes which were still in evidence
to do this bisping used a polarized light microscope it's like looking through polarized
sunglasses and by manipulating the light we can see different optical properties
different optical features of each of these mineral grains their appearance their color their optical properties all
help us identify the type of mineral the dirt on larry's shoes did not match the samples of dirt around judy's body
but the polarized light revealed an important previously undetected clue these brightly colored minerals the soil
from the shoes contain calcite which is calcium carbonate could be from limestone
and that type of material is often used in roadways road beds near judy's body was a roadway that had
been paved with new limestone gravel just days before her body was dumped there this was the first potential link
between larry bruce and where judy's body was found next investigators sent the trunk liner from
larry's cadillac and the blanket judy had been wrapped in to the cuyahoga county coroner's office for forensic
analysis we were trying to find any piece of evidence that we could that would put
mrs bruce's body or the moving pad that she was wrapped in into the trunk of bruce's car or inside
his car in any fashion forensic scientist curtis jones used tape to collect any loose fibers from
the blanket that covered judy's body using a comparison microscope jones compared the fibers to see if they
were similar the three fibers three different fiber types that made up the trunk liner
were also found on the moving blanket but were the fibers in larry's trunk an exact match to the fibers from the
blanket covering judy's body to find out jones used fourier transform infrared spectroscopy a technology not available
in 1978. the fdir uses infrared energy and it passes that infrared energy through the fiber or material that
you're examining and the infrared energy is absorbed or not absorbed by the chemical bonds of
the material and that produces a spectrum of peaks and valleys that can be used to determine what
chemical bonds are present and the result the three fibers from the blanket were
synthetic rayon and the three fibers found in the trunk were also synthetic rayon
the evidence doesn't lie you know in cases there's both sides of the story but the only real side that
doesn't ever lie is the evidence more than two decades after judy's death larry bruce was arrested and charged
with her murder and prosecutors also learned that judy was keeping a dark secret
something that larry bruce did not want to come to light [Music] 23 years after judy bruce's death her
husband larry went on trial for murder prosecutors first witness was the couple's son leroy
[Music] on the morning of his mother's death he recalled going into his parents bedroom
to get a permission slip signed for school i stood there as he signed that permission slip that there was basically
no movement you know i'm sure mom would at least came to see what was going on prosecutors believe judy was already
dead after larry got the children off to school prosecutors say larry wrapped judy's
body in a blanket and put it in the trunk of his car as he left for work he waved to the
children at the bus stop hoping they would be his alibi then he went directly to work to keep his
usual schedule but after work he stopped by the deserted camp and dumped his wife's body
[Music] the synthetic rayon fibers from larry's trunk liner were transferred to the
blanket covering judy's body and larry's shoes picked up the calcite particles from the newly paved limestone
where they were discovered 20 years later by alert forensic scientists the prosecutors were able to put up a
good faith effort and tell them this is everything we know using modern forensics about the evidence that we do
have remaining to us and we pulled out all the stops and here's what we know prosecutor mayor saved his most
compelling witness for last from the age of five until i was 14 larry was sexually molesting me if i
wanted to go do something he would tell me i would have to do something for him first
melody was larry's stepdaughter she also presented evidence that her mother knew what was going on
and that larry had the motive to silence her when she was a little girl before her
mother was murdered she was being molested by her father in a bedroom by chance her mother judy bruce came into the
bedroom she witnessed the molestation she was furious with her husband larry bruce a vicious argument ensued
immediately after that very loud profanities and then the defendant got so worked up larry bruce that he took a
swing at his wife and missed her and punched the wall and broke a bone in his arm
the defense presented no witnesses arguing that the prosecution had improved its case beyond the reasonable
doubts look at every angle of this and you'll see that it's entirely circumstantial case the jury deliberated
for less than two hours we the jury find the defendant larry bruce guilty of the
crime of [Music] just can't believe murder all happening larry bruce was sentenced to 15 years to
life in prison i was glad that he was being convicted but in the same time i didn't want to be
there i didn't want to have to deal with it i didn't want to face the reality that this really did
happen after more than 20 years old-fashioned police work and modern forensic science finally brought justice
for judy bruce's family the forensic evidence was very important to this case because without it
it's very likely that the jury would have acquitted the defendant if i could get into a time machine and go
back to 1978 and tell those investigating officers the things that would be available today
i think it would be beyond their imagination [Music] [Music] so [Applause] [Music]
you

Police instituted an intense search when the mother of two young children went missing. Twenty years after finding her body, advances in technology enable investigators to see evidence in a new light, and discover it pointed directly to the killer.

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

Judy Bruce's murder was solved after 20 years using modern forensic science, implicating her husband Larry Bruce in the crime.

Key points

The Mysterious Disappearance. A mother of two goes missing, leading to a chilling investigation.
The Shocking Discovery. Police find Judy Bruce's body in a deserted campground, raising more questions.
The Cold Case Reopened. After 20 years, a cold case unit revisits Judy Bruce's unsolved murder.
Forensic Breakthroughs. Modern forensic science uncovers critical evidence linking Larry Bruce to the crime.
Justice Served. Larry Bruce is finally convicted of his wife's murder after decades of investigation.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

I remember laying on the front of the pontoon boat...

1:20WatchJan 14, 2022

Tension

85/ 100High tension

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