Forensic Files Season 11, Episode 14 - Dark Waters - Full Episode | Forensic Files

the lake was deep the night was dark the collision fatal the only clues were some chips of paint
a tiny piece of foam and the fatal wound was it enough to tell investigators what happened
[Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] according to native american legend the great spirit scratched his hand
across the land and in doing so created the finger lakes of upstate new york [Music]
the biggest is cayuga lake long and narrow and it's a popular vacation destination
[Music] a lot of people go there to go swimming picnics barbecue any like major functions birthdays
everyone goes there to the park cayuga lake is crowded in the summer with boating water skiing and other lake
activities around midnight on a friday night harry ewell a local celebrity decided to take
his new boat out on the lake for a ride harry was a well-known stock car race driver who went by the nickname
hurricane harry harry loved the lake he loved to fish he loved to swim he loved everything about the lake
around 2 a.m harry headed for shore in his boat so two of his friends could get out and use
the bathroom [Music] 18 year old nazarene raza stayed on board with harry i was just sitting up there by myself
from what i remember that's where i was that's the best view so i can imagine that's where i'd be sitting
since it was a nice night and the lake was calm harry didn't tie his boat to the dock
so it drifted while he waited for his friends to return [Music] then they heard a loud noise
harry stood up and there was a crash there's blood everywhere i felt like a big monster or something came out of the
water and bit my arm off harry yule was pronounced dead at the scene he was just 27 years old
he died instantly he was probably standing up to to try to figure out what was coming and then just got just got
hit in the dark by this massive object [Music] harry's passenger nasreen raza was
rushed to the hospital after losing an enormous amount of blood her arm was just about torn off her arm
was shredded that doctors had to do just about everything they could to try and save
her arm from being completely amputated no one claimed responsibility for the crash
investigators were certain it was a boat and began the enormous task of searching
for it among the 1200 boats on the lake they did flyovers they rode up and down the lake and the patrol boats looking
for signs there's so many points of entrance at cayuga lake that it was uncertain where
the other boater might have entered or left from and it was really a guessing game at that
point to eliminate the guesswork police brought in a vessel accident reconstructionist to investigate the
crash there's no question that a terrible tragedy had occurred on the lake that night there's no question that the
person who committed it had left the area and had intention of turning himself in
but finding evidence wouldn't be easy the lake was one of the deepest in the country and the currents were
unpredictable everything is continuously moving if there's any debris in the water it moves
it drifts away it may sink to the bottom the lake leaves no trace it just erases
any sign of what happened so you're left with very little to determine you know where the the perpetrator went
where they came from what their speed was very difficult the investigation of the boating
accident that killed harry yule and severely injured nasreen raza took a number of unusual twists and turns
when i first got there and looking at this boat i was at at all struck of what i was seeing
it looked like something had plowed right through the center of the boat it was like a big v-shaped hole right where
the bomb was supposed to be like something had driven right through it the victim's boat held some important
clues there was evidence that the boat's lights were off when the crash occurred
there was no bow lights activated switch was not activated the anchor light was not in its
stanchion hull and it was plugged with a rubber plug it was quite obvious that the boat that got hit
was not lit that evening there were numerous chop marks along the top side of the boat that actually cut
through the upholstery analysts realized these were from a spinning propeller proof that the boat actually left the
water and flew over the top of harry's boat the suspect vessel as it was traveling
at high rated speed tends to lift out of the water and be a little bit higher on impact it would launch the front of
the suspect vessel at a 45 degree angle up into the air [Music] medical experts believe that the wounds
to nazarene raza were also caused by the propeller investigators found a bullet-shaped hole
in the forward section of harry yule's boat this was created by the engine of the
other boat the bullet that punched through the hull of the boat indicated to us that it was an inboard outboard motor
also that the boat was traveling at a high rate of speed for it to be able to punch its way through the fiberglass and
continue on through and over the top of the other boat other information about the
perpetrator's vote came from an unlikely source harry yule's autopsy the medical examiner found chips of
white paint in harry's wounds which just gives you a picture of how fast and how intense this crash must
have been to leave such evidence in the wounds investigators were also intrigued by
another finding there were no marine organisms in harry's wounds this was very revealing
we were able to determine that that vessel had either a very clean boat or more likely that it was based on a
trailer when a boat goes on a trailer a lot of times it's either easy to clean and people clean them off or all the
organisms dry up and they wash off investigators now knew they were looking for a damaged white boat with a v-shaped
hull and an inboard outboard engine they knew its propeller was broken and it would be kept on a trailer and not
docked in the water the sheriff's department released this information to the media and asked
anyone with information to come forward there was a big manhunt the the victim was a local celebrity it was scary
because people didn't know who did this or what happened so it was a very very publicized incident
a day later a caller gave police the location of a damaged boat that looked like
it had been involved in a collision and it had what appeared to be some damage to the bow and some damage to the
one side of the boat and had some fresh like compound marks in the paint on the boat
and looking at the dashboard there was what appeared to be a small drop of blood
near the shift lever near the driver's compartment the boat was impounded and searched
everybody thought the case had been solved we have our bad guy right now the vessel in question is right here we have
it but forensic tests found that the paint on this boat was different from the paint found in harry ewell's wounds and
there was no significant damage to its propeller in addition dna tests showed the blood in the boat
was not hairy ewells or nasarin roses but forensic evidence did not match it up actually excluded it from being the boat
that we were looking for so investigators resumed their search knowing that each day gave the
perpetrator more time to hide incriminating evidence [Music] harry yule the victim of one of the
worst boat crashes in the history of the finger lakes was laid to rest a memorial stock car race was held at
the local track in his honor his passenger in the boat that night nazarene raza survived but her arm will
never function properly i can look at my arm and just see an ugly deformed arm but there's some days
i look at it and i just get this wave of flashback oh my god someone died it could have
been me it just feels so close to death it's creepy police appeal to the public through
newspapers radio and television asking anyone with information about this crash to come forward
finally four days after the accident a man called the sheriff's department with a possible lead
he asked me what information i had and i told him i said i think i was a pastor on the boat to hit the
other boat john ottenshad a construction worker said he was riding in a boat on cayuga
lake and he said the boat hit something although he didn't know what it was [Music]
it's just it was so dark overcast we couldn't we couldn't see anything in the lake
i knew we didn't hit a log i don't think it would take us out of the water as far
as it did so we were all the way out of water so we did know we hit something big
ottenshot claimed they circled back to see what they hit but didn't see anything so they drove their boat to the
launch removed it from the water and drove home [Music] he identified the driver of the boat as
his co-worker floyd wright he said he wanted wright to go to the police with him
but wright refused and he says well i i don't want to lose my job i'm going to lose my job i'm
going to lose my house and says well this guy lost his life he says this is wrong
when police questioned floyd wright he too said he didn't know what they hit it was a head-on closure
it was little we don't know because we didn't see it i know because i've seen the books
i was there right i'm not asking i'm telling you heard a thud and we turned around and we
looked and we didn't see nothing and we didn't hear nothing and uh so we figured we better get out of the
water you know before because we didn't know what damage we had i find it very difficult to believe that
wright could not hear the streams of the female passenger in mr ewell's boat we have witnesses on shore you know several
hundred feet away who could hear her screams for help wright admitted that he was drinking
that day but insisted he wasn't intoxicated i had probably about five or six beers
for the whole day i went on water matter of fact i had pepsi most of the time with a warrant
police searched wright's property and found the boat in his barn you could see readily see that repairs
had been made to the boat the bondo and the material on the boat was not flush with the original fiberglass
and it had been spray painted areas have been spray painted white if there had been blood or any other
evidence on the boat's hull it had already been removed and repainted the propeller had also been removed
but was still in the barn broken beyond repair that propeller all three times of it showed extensive
damage denting and tearing of the metal there was no blood or human tissue on the propeller nor did investigators
expect to find any since the water would have washed it away but amazingly the propeller had a tiny crack
and inside was a my new piece of what looked like foam it was nothing short of a miracle that
the tiny piece of foam had stuck in the prop when you consider the dynamic forces going on
trace evidence expert ron stanbro analyzed the material under a microscope i did not have very much sample to work
with but it was more than enough for the analysis that we were required to do under high magnification
different types of foam exhibit noticeably different structures as a result one kind of foam can be
distinguished from another the foam from the propeller looked very similar to the foam padding from the
seat in harry yule's boat so stanbro went a step further using a process known as fourier
transform infrared it's shining a infrared light through that substance and the molecules within
that substance are stretching and vibrating and then we're measuring the absorbance
of that infrared light in that sample this provided a chemical fingerprint of the polyurethane in both samples
they were indistinguishable one from the other so we could conclude from that that they're made up of the same
substance and therefore they could have common origin but this wasn't conclusive
so stanbro compared the paint chips from harry's body to the paint on floyd's boat
they were heated to 800 degrees centigrade and vaporized so that their chemical components could be measured by
a gas chromatograph mass spectrometer again the chemical composition of both samples
was identical i would never go so far as to say that they were a perfect match i would say
that they were indistinguishable which would tell me then that these paint chips from the body could have common
origin prosecutors now had enough forensic evidence to link floyd wright's boat to
the hit and run accident based on the forensic evidence prosecutors say they know what happened
on the night of the fatal accident after taking a ride around the lake harry yule stopped at the dock to let
two of his passengers use the bathroom [Music] for reasons unknown harry didn't tie up his boat so it
drifted into the boating lane without its running lights on [Music] floyd wright and john ottenshot admitted
they were drinking but claim they weren't intoxicated they said they didn't see harry's boat
because its lights weren't on [Music] the propeller tore through nasreen's arm and the boat's upholstery
[Music] the hull struck harry in the head killing him instantly and leaving paint
chips on his body some think floyd turned around to see what he hit and not only saw the damage
but also heard nasreen screams floyd wright and john ottenshot deny this wright took his boat out of the water
and stored it in his barn so he could begin to make repairs he always claimed he didn't know he hit
harry yule's boat they knew exactly what they had hit they absolutely knew there's no way that you
could hit a full-size boat and not know that you've hit something significant or
think that you've hit a log or driftwood it's ridiculous they would have had their lights on
on that boat we would have seen it i can guarantee it that we would have seen it
there was no way to know what floyd wright's blood alcohol level was that night in new york state
this severely limited the prosecutor's case you have to show that the accident was
causally related to the drinking there has to be that close connection new york requires
it so just the fact that he had a few drinks throughout the course of the day doesn't necessarily mean that is the
cause of the death you have to you have to prove beyond reasonable doubt that that's that's the connection being
intoxicated should it be a way out of being held responsible the fact that he was able to run
from the scene and he wasn't charged with anything related to intoxication just makes me question whether our laws
have a loophole in allowing someone to leave the scene of a crime so that they can't be charged with being drunk at
that time coincidentally wright's automobile driver's license was suspended at the
time due to an arrest for driving while intoxicated [Music] floyd wright was charged with tampering
with physical evidence and failing to report an accident he pled not guilty at the trial
but was convicted and sentenced to the maximum of four years in prison and that's like the issue with me you
hit me and you didn't help me just left me there to bleed to death that bothers me
a lot and the thing is physically yeah i'm hurt but i hate to like live with the fact that i have to
like hate someone my whole life that's not a good feeling for me feels like a heavy part in your chest
feel something like that for someone is not good i don't like to feel that but i
do in return for his testimony at the grand jury john ottenshad was given immunity from
prosecution he now admits that he and floyd were intoxicated i'll say legally we were probably drunk we got a dwi
if i got pulled over on the way home or we got pulled over on the way home probably
definitely it was the paint chips the accident reconstruction and particularly the tiny piece of foam trapped in the
crack of the propeller that proved the case the most damaging part of the evidence
was that piece of foam that had stayed on floyd wright's boat from harry's boat told everybody that that was the boat
that that hit and killed harry it's amazing what science can do it's amazing otherwise it would have
been he said she said you know but it's amazing what science can do [Music] [Music]
so [Music] [Applause] [Music] you

When a hit-and-run boating accident caused the death of a popular young man, investigators faced the daunting task of searching for one boat among 1200 others.

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

A boating accident on Cayuga Lake kills Harry Ewell and injures Nasreen Raza, leading to a complex investigation and conviction of Floyd Wright.

Key points

The Fatal Collision. A tragic boating accident claims the life of local celebrity Harry Yule.
The Investigation Begins. Investigators search for the boat responsible for the collision in Cayuga Lake.
Forensic Breakthrough. Forensic evidence links Floyd Wright's boat to the fatal accident.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

The lake leaves no trace, it just erases any sign of what happened.

Describing the elusive nature of evidence in the lake.

4:36WatchJan 20, 2022

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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