Forensic Files - Season 10, Episode 6 - Headquarters - Full Episode | Forensic Files

what can a skull tell you about a person's life and can their bones reveal how they
died a forensic artist an anthropologist and a global positioning satellite would
tell more about this victim than anyone could ever imagine [Music] [Music] [Applause]
[Music] [Applause] [Music] Yellow House Canyon is 200 Acres of very rough terrain just outside the city
limits of lck Texas in 1870 it's where the kamanche Indians exchanged their prisoners for
[Music] horses 125 years later the area became known for something else when some Hunters found what looked
to be a human skull you treat it as a crime scene making the assumption that it is going to be a
homicide nearby by were bits of clothing and a woman's shoe police sifted through the dirt and
found some smaller bones and a strand of hair forensic anthropologist Dr Harold Gil King estimated the bones had been
exposed to the elements for over a year one piece of bone at the bottom of the spine called the sacrum indicated the
victim was female the shape of the sacrum in females is distinctive it's much more
flared it's all part of the birth difference between uh females giving birth and males
not the shape of the skull suggested the victim was Caucasian and the cranial sutures were not yet closed meaning the
victim was young between 18 and 24 the Anthropologist also found evidence of knife wounds I think we had
one to the shoulder blade six to the vertebrae and then another four or five so 12 or 13 injuries that we discovered
and mapped uh into the cut map Dr Gil king ruled the manner of death to be homicidal
violence when word got out that a young woman had been murdered in yellow house Canyon call started to pour in one woman
came up said that she knew her husband had done it because he was a KN freak and said oh by the way we're having a
custody battle tomorrow can you give me a copy of this report from a lawyer so investigators checked the dental records
of 64 young women reported missing throughout the United States and none of them
matched so investigators asked forensic artist Karen Taylor to try to put a face
on the skull granted it's a sort of a last ditch effort when the forensic artist is called in the job of the
forensic artist is to to trigger interest to create that link I often refer to it as being the middleman at
that point she was my best hope in fact she was about our only hope we were just
about out of things to do Taylor pioneered a technique called two-dimensional facial reconstruction
which is part science and part art each race has facial skin which is different than other races using known
scientific data Taylor applied rubber markers to approximate the facial tissue thickness of a Caucasian the tissue
thickness varies on our faces it's if you feel on your own face it's much thicker down in this cheek or chin area
and much thinner up on the forehead so we cut and and apply rubber markers to those landmarks and that helps give a a
guideline as a starting place to create the The Contours of the face Taylor then photographed the skull
and placed a piece of translucent Vellum on top of the picture she then used her
talent and forensic expertise to illustrate her most prominent features the average human eyeball is about 25 mm
in in diameter just so happens to be the size of US Quarter so I in drawing will
will lay a quarter down within the aperture and Trace around it the nose and ears are more difficult to
approximate since they are made of cartilage and have decomposed but research shows that a
Caucasian female's nose has skin that extends roughly 1 fth of an inch to each side of the nasal cavity the nose
particularly struck me because I could see a marked asymmetry at the base of the the nasal aperture the the nasal
opening it's slanted to one side at the bottom and I learned through experience of previous cases that that would
probably show up in life investigators found a single red hair in the soil near the bones which Taylor used as her guide
that was a very good clue for me but I made it interpretable it not blonde blonde and
not dark dark but somewhere in the middle and I I made a similar decision with the eye
color when finished the drawing was released to the media throughout the state of Texas investigators hoped
someone would recognize [Music] her it was like most other days in Beverly tillery's life having her
morning cup of coffee and scanning the newspaper before going to work but the forensic drawing of the
unidentified woman found in yellow house Canyon immediately caught her eye if you
look at the pictures of my children you see that they all have practically the same jawline and same cheek structure
it's kind of a square type thing Beverly was convinced it was her 17-year-old daughter Belinda who had been missing
for more than a year she showed me the paper and she asked me if if I thought that looked like Belinda you know and I
you know the more I sat there and looked at it yeah it's got a lot of her characteristics
dental records confirmed what the family suspected the skull was Belinda's at the time of her
disappearance Belinda worked as a dancer at a local nightclub owned by a gang called the
Bandidos they're an outlaw motorcycle gang they're into everything the people that frequent their clubs are generally
the same type people so the fact that Belinda Tillery was working there would would not be a good thing after I heard
Belinda's name I drove down to the bar where she worked to see if anyone could talk to me about who she was so I could
have more than just a name to go 6 Ines of newsprint but no one at the club was willing to talk the man selling tickets
he certainly didn't know anyone name Belinda and this wasn't Bleak enough an old woman came from the back also a
staff member at The Establishment and and began to say the same thing he had said just in a much more emphatic
way according to Belinda's family Belinda danced at the club on the night she disappeared her brother had given
her a ride home last time I spoke with my sister she wasn't feeling well I just assumed
she would went to sleep so I just went upstairs and I'd had a couple drinks myself ear there in the
evening so I was feeling kind of good too so uh so I went upstairs to down but the next morning Belinda was
gone and hadn't left a note Belinda's family told police why she hadn't been feeling well lately she
kept getting sick and we took her to the doctor and found out that she was pregnant and in the very beginning you
know like the first week or so she was kind of you know stunned about it but like I said that's what caused her to to
change and want to to settle down and be the daughter her mother wanted to raise
you know Belinda had plans to return to school get her diploma find a better paying job so she could raise her child
properly Bel Linda's family believed the baby's father was her ex-boyfriend Troy
Armstrong drank too much that he he was much older he was 10 years older than her I I wasn't really infused with him
he was older than me I'm like this this C be right and uh you know of course I didn't want to openly criticize binda
said W what are you thinking he had a long history of just small Petty crimes very
transient lived in his cars lived with friends uh had a narcotic habit when police tried to interview
Armstrong they discovered he had left town months earlier he was reported to be living in Roswell New
Mexico I drove to Roswell spent two days looking for him was not able to find him but they were able to track down his
current girlfriend Angela Allen she said she loved him as they stayed together a
while he became more and more abusive and eventually he beat her up a couple of times best I
recall Angela said she knew all about Belinda I'd heard a couple of uh messages on an answering machine one one
of them was that she was pregnant and uh she needed to talk to him about it Angela told police that she and
Armstrong ran into Belinda in a local bar shortly before she disappeared and there was a
confrontation she wanted to see him to to clarify the fact that she was going to raise this child herself and it was
hers no matter you know who it belong to Angela told investigators she ended her
relationship with Armstrong when she learned Belinda was pregnant I told him that he needed to go talk to her if she
wanted an abortion he needed to pay for it if she wanted to have the baby he needed to support her in that you know
no matter what her decision was that he needed to be a part of it and help her take care of you know the problem that
he was involved in or else I really didn't want anything to do with him he needed to get the hell out of my life
Angela gave police several items Armstrong had left with her before he left the area among them a large
knife police asked forensic experts whether this was the murder weapon the answer was maybe in my experience people
who attempt to match a particular knife to an injury Venture a little too far from the shores of Sanity over time the
bones tend to warp and the the wounds change a little bit nevertheless investigators needed to
find Troy Armstrong to ask what he knew about Belinda's [Music] disappearance forensic artist Karen
Taylor was able to put a face on the skull found in yellow house Canyon which in turn led to the discovery that it was
17-year-old Belinda artillery her ex-boyfriend 27-year-old Troy Armstrong was the Prime Suspect but investigators
had no idea where he was Angela Allen had dated Armstrong after Belinda did and was initially reluctant to help
police I had to talk to Angela two or three times and every time I'd talk to her I'd get a little more information I
knew the second that I started helping the police that was you know I was putting myself in danger
eventually Angela told police that when Armstrong learned about Belinda's pregnancy he invited Belinda to go
camping with him in Yello house Canyon so the two could discuss the pregnancy Angela said Armstrong acted
suspiciously when he returned from Yellow House Canyon he showed up on my doorstep on his return trip and he had
blood on his hands and there was a cut on his hand Armstrong said he accidentally cut his hand during the
camping trip there was no reason for me not to believe it you know telling somebody else uh without
using the exact words that he killed her you have the location where the body was
found you have the a method that he had blood on his hands which obviously means
that she wasn't shot it means it had to be a close physical attack as with a knife he was pretty cocky about the
whole thing uh pretty much did not make it any big secret that he had killed her when Angela learned that Belinda's
body was discovered in yellow house Canyon she knew the truth I think it was one of the first things that came out of
my mouth was uh he really did kill her didn't he that was whenever it all hit that everything was real and he
really could have done something you know to me my family anybody as the circumstantial evidence Mounted
Police issued a warrant for Armstrong's arrest but they didn't know where he was Angela Allen told police that Troy's
best friend worked in California for a trucking company and suggested they look for him there I wanted to make sure he
was caught I was uh very much up on that police asked Trucking Company officials
for the location of Troy's friend fortunately they knew exactly where he was because every one of their trucks
was equipped with a global positioning system or GPS when detective Watson heard that the
truck had a GPS in it back then you know he's like me she GP what what does that
do 24 satellites orbit the earth tracking Vehicles boats and even airplanes that are equipped with the GPS
receiver it's just like leaving a trail of breadcrumbs behind so that when you look at it on a map you see a trail of
dots representing the path of travel of that vehicle the GPS satellite tracked the
moving truck driven by Armstrong's friend as it made its way through Nebraska they were giving me the
information in real time kept them on the phone I notified the Nebraska highway patrol what I was doing asked
them if they could attempt to locate this truck as it was approaching the uh York Nebraska
within a few hours Nebraska police set up a roadblock and stopped the truck they asked the driver if he knew of
Armstrong's whereabouts much to their surprise they found Armstrong hiding in the truck
sleeper compartment I had no concrete evidence I just knew that he was an acquaintance of this driver and that he
had been riding with him for at some point Troy Armstrong was was arrested and charged with Belinda's murder he's
got these bitty little eyes that makes you feel uneasy looks like a rat smells like a rat you know pretty much going to
be a rat and he's you know he had rat written on him from the beginning Armstrong insisted he had
nothing to do with Belinda's murder but among Armstrong's possessions was the key to a storage
locker inside that storage locker were items armed Armstrong couldn't possibly explain why they were
there when Troy Armstrong was arrested for Belinda tiller's murder he had a key to a rental storage locker in New
Mexico inside were Belinda's personal belongings there were the type of personal items that she most likely
would have been carrying the night that she was killed a driver's license and other things that she would have had in
her possession after leaving her employment at the nightclub what are you doing here
prosecutors believe Troy Armstrong had no interest in supporting Belinda tiller's baby they say he was angry that
his new girlfriend Angela Allen ended their relationship when she learned of Belinda's
pregnancy prosecutors uncovered evidence that Armstrong borrowed sleeping bags and camping equipment from a friend then
asked Belinda to go camping with him so they could discuss her pregnancy later that night Troy picked
up Belinda at her home and went to Yellow House Canyon once there prosecutors believe
they argued and the situation turned violent the forensic evidence suggests Belinda was stabbed over a dozen times
in her [Applause] back and left for dead in yellow house Canyon later Armstrong went to Angela's
apartment telling her he had cut his hand Troy Armstrong extremely violent individual somebody that had no regrets
in stabbing a teenage girl that was pregnant 12 to 15 times with a large knife leaving in a field
at the trial Angela Allen revealed a devastating piece of information he told me that he'd killed her if I ever said
anything about it and about the blood on his hands all that stuff that uh he'd kill my dad he'd kill my kids and my dad
too after a 4-day trial a jury deliberated for only 2 hours before finding Troy Armstrong guilty of first
deegree murder my final argument was was give him a life sentence unless you can
find anything decent about him you know in less than an hour they came back with
a life sentence I think that says a lot about Troy Armstrong even Angela thinks he got off
too easy because Armstrong killed two people that day I believe that he should have gotten the death
penalty because uh nobody considers that baby little man with a big ego and he's
violent um that's really him in a nutshell he's a violent little man she wasn't famous it wasn't a
high-profile case but it's a case that took a lot of people to put together it took a lot of effort and it's something
that you sometimes don't see in somebody that uh is forgotten about Belinda tiller family still Mourns
the loss of their daughter but because of forensic facial reconstruction and forensic
anthropology they know the truth when Karen Taylor put the face on the skeleton that's what broke the case no
doubt forensic art is Art SL science we use all the scientific inputs possible but there is a point where art kicks in
and supplements science the forensic art allowed the dead to speak and and I think that's a really good thing
[Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music]

When hunters found a skull in a Texas canyon, police found bits of clothing, small bones and a strand of hair. A forensic artist reconstructed her face. Now all they had to do was find her 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

Forensic artist Karen Taylor identifies murder victim Belinda Tillery, leading to ex-boyfriend Troy Armstrong's arrest and conviction for her murder.

Key points

The Discovery of a Skull. In 1870, a human skull was found in Yellow House Canyon, leading to a murder investigation.
Belinda's Identity Revealed. Dental records confirmed the skull belonged to 17-year-old Belinda Tillery, missing for over a year.
Facial Reconstruction. Forensic artist Karen Taylor used innovative techniques to recreate the face of a murder victim.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

What can a skull tell you about a person's life?

0:06WatchJan 14, 2022

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