Forensic Files Season 11, Episode 31 - Muffled Cries - Full Episode | Forensic Files

NARRATOR: An insurance adjuster disappeared while inspecting property damage after a severe storm.
The water currents of a nearby river provided some answers. And the forensic evidence on a motorcycle part and bank
envelope explained the motive. [music playing] NARRATOR: In the summer of 2004, there were four hurricanes
in Florida within six weeks causing more than $1 billion worth of damage. Thousands were left homeless.
ROD CARTER: A lot of people had a lot of hurricane damage. I mean for months, and months, and months
after the storms hit, you could see blue tarps on roofs throughout the state of Florida.
NARRATOR: All across the state, insurance companies dispatched their adjusters to assess the damage claims.
One of them was 25-year-old Katie Froeschle. It was her first job after graduating from college.
JEFF FROESCHLE: We got hit with the first, and then the second, and the third, and then the fourth hurricane
in such a short time. They were absolutely overwhelmed. NARRATOR: One Friday night, after a grueling week of work,
Katie was supposed to meet a group of friends at a local restaurant. But she never showed up.
In fact, none of her family and friends heard from her all weekend. JEFF FROESCHLE: My wife just kept calling Kate periodically,
and saying she can't get hold of her and she just doesn't understand where she could be.
LEO FROESCHLE: She had had a four year relationship with a guy, and had broken up with him,
and was living independently. And for the first time in her life was making her own decisions.
NARRATOR: Katie's best friend, Amy, had a key to Katie's apartment and let herself inside.
Everything was in perfect order, although the cat hadn't been fed. And Katie wasn't there. LEO FROESCHLE: She knew.
She knew something was really wrong. And so she called and she said I don't want to alarm you,
but I'm worried about Katie. I don't know where she is, and I can't find her. NARRATOR: Police put out a bulletin
for Katie's car, a maroon colored Chevy Impala. Katie's employer said her last appointment on Friday afternoon
was to check on an insurance claim of a leaking roof at a home in Tampa, Sulphur Springs section.
LEO FROESCHLE: I knew the kind of neighborhood it was. It was an extremely bad neighborhood.
JEFF FROESCHLE: Katie, for some reason, was having trouble finding it. And Amy was back at the office, on I think, Map Quest,
and was directing Katie to the property. NARRATOR: According to Katie's co-worker,
she finally found the property. Someone walks up. She goes oh I think I found it, someone's
walking up to the car. I'll talk to you later. JEFF FROESCHLE: And that's the last anyone talked to her.
NARRATOR: Katie's parents drove out to the home at 1503 Mulberry Street, and spoke to the occupants, Jason Funk and Pamela Hintz
A young couple who had just moved into the rental property three days earlier. JASON FUNK: We moved in, and now we have strangers knocking
on our door asking hey have you seen Katrina Froeschle here? And then people asking well have you seen an insurance car?
NARRATOR: Jason and Pamela told the Froeschle's they didn't see Katie on Friday because they weren't there.
And there was something else. They said there was no leak in the roof that they knew of.
And that the landlord said nothing to them about an insurance adjuster coming by to look at it.
Just a mile away, in the parking lot of the local bar, Katie's parents found her abandoned car
and called police. It was unlocked, with Katie's keys still inside. LEO FROESCHLE: My first thought was she was in the trunk.
JEFF FROESCHLE: You wanted them to open it, but you didn't want it-- to open it.
You just didn't. LEO FROESCHLE: When they opened that trunk, it was dead silence.
NARRATOR: In the locked trunk of Katie Froeschle's car, investigators feared that they'd find her body.
But they did not. The only thing there was Katie's purse. Her money and credit cards were missing.
JEFF FROESCHLE: You were relieved because she wasn't just there. But she wasn't there, so you were still looking
and you didn't know where to look. NARRATOR: Forensic scientists searched for evidence inside the car.
They didn't find any blood or fingerprints, but they did find skin cells on the steering wheel.
LESLIE NIXON: Swabbings from the steering wheel of Katie's car were submitted to the laboratory,
and DNA testing was performed on these samples. We found a mixture of DNA of at least two contributors.
NARRATOR: One was Katie Froeschle's. The other DNA profile was presumably the killer's.
Other than an empty bank envelope inside the car, investigators found nothing else.
KIM SEACE: It was obvious, whatever happened to Katie, didn't happen inside of that car.
NARRATOR: Police interviewed residents and workers in the area. And found a janitor who said a man left the car
in the parking lot the day before. CHUCK MASSUCCI: A witness had seen a white male, approximately six foot two, six foot three,
walking away from the car. JEFF FROESCHLE: He had driven the car up, and had gotten out of the car, and had started walking away,
and had just dropped the keys in the car and left it unlocked. NARRATOR: Investigators searched the area between Katie's
last scheduled appointment and where her car was discovered, roughly a mile away.
On a hunch, Detective Massucci searched the shores of the Hillsborough River, and eventually got a break.
CHUCK MASSUCCI: As I was scanning the water with my flashlight, I caught a glimpse of white,
and I went back to it. And it took me several minutes to recognize what it was, but eventually it appeared to me to be a bra.
I could see a little bit of a bra strap. I realized that we were beyond red flags,
that we have something potentially tragic here. NARRATOR: Soon, everyone's worst fears were confirmed.
It was Katie Froeschle. LEO FROESCHLE: I just fell down. I remember just like somebody punched me in the stomach.
I just doubled up and just fell down to the ground. I just couldn't believe it. NARRATOR: She had been in the water
for approximately 30 hours. It appeared that she'd also been sexually assaulted.
JEFF FROESCHLE: This doesn't happen to people like us. This happens to other people.
We read about in the papers, we see about it on TV, but this doesn't happen to us.
NARRATOR: The autopsy revealed blunt force injuries to the back of Katie's head.
JOYCE DEJONG: It was very apparent that this was not a drowning. But in fact she was probably murdered
and then put into the water. There certainly remains the possibility that she might have been alive when she was put in the water.
I don't know that that can be ruled out. NARRATOR: But the medical examiner found distinct marks on Katie's skull.
Marks known as pattern injuries. JOYCE DEJONG: There was a mark left behind by the weapon that was very characteristics.
There was a circular mark that was 1.2 centimeters, is I think how big it was. NARRATOR: The medical examiner told investigators
that the wounds might be matched to the murder weapon, if it could be found. JOYCE DEJONG: If you detect a pattern injury,
and then you could in fact, find the weapon, that's a huge help to the investigation.
NARRATOR: A rape test kit was inconclusive. Investigators' next task was to find out how far Katie's body
traveled in the Hillsborough River before police found her. This could potentially identify the crime scene.
It's a relatively simple formula. From the length of time a body's in the water,
you can figure out the distance the body travelled, if you know the speed of the currents.
Investigators got a huge break when they learned there was a dam a few miles upstream.
When it opens, it significantly increases the water current. CHUCK MASSUCCI: In the 28 hour period between the time
we believe Katie was put into the river, to the time I found her, the dams had been closed off.
NARRATOR: That meant that Katie's body entered the river, pretty much where she was found.
From the moment Katie Froeschle's body was found in the Hillsborough River, police considered the home at 1503 East Mulberry Street
as a possible crime scene. It was just 100 feet from where Katie's body was discovered.
The young couple living there were shocked by what happened. They insisted they weren't home on the Friday afternoon
the murder took place. CHUCK MASSUCCI: These people are oblivious to what could have
potentially happened at their house. JASON FUNK: You know, I'm kind of drawing a blank
on my emotional state at that time. But I know I wasn't nearly as anxious as my girlfriend is.
I'm more of a realist person. Just whatever is going to happen is out of my control,
out of her control. Just relax and let it take its course. NARRATOR: The home was a rental, and it was the landlord who
told Katie's insurance company about the leaking roof. Taking matters into his own hands,
Katie's father, Jeff Froeschle, interviewed the landlord himself. LEO FROESCHLE: He said that he had sent her there,
but he had never seen or talked to her. And he acted, they thought, in a suspicious manner.
But the landlord provided an alibi. CHUCK MASSUCCI: He had a worker with him, through the majority of the day of the 12th, when
Katie was known to have gone missing. It's KIM SEACE: It's our belief that the landlord probably did not
tell the renters that Katie, or anybody else, would be coming that day. NARRATOR: In a search for suspects,
investigators decided to check Katie's credit card records to see if anyone used them after her murder.
Admittedly, it was a long shot since few criminals are that inept. KIM SEACE: Sure enough, they were, at least four attempts.
And of the four attempts, I think one was actually successful. And that led to a whole new avenue of evidence for us.
NARRATOR: Investigators went to every location where Katie's credit cards had been used.
One was a grocery store, and its surveillance video showed a white male about six feet tall
using Katie's debit card. According to the clerk, the customer said the card belonged to his girlfriend.
But instead of signing Katie's name, he signed his own. It was Jason Funk. The man renting the home on Mulberry Street.
CHUCK MASSUCCI: We were almost shocked at his stupidity. I can't even recollect what he was thinking.
Or how he thought he could get away with something so obviously stupid. NARRATOR: In Jason's backyard, the investigators
found what looked like a fire pit. There they found burnt hunks of carpet and a burnt belt buckle.
KIM SEACE: It most certainly was consistent with style and the size belt that Katie would
have had on that particular day. NARRATOR: Investigators moved inside the house.
They noticed what looked like a blood stain on the rear door frame. And on the living room ceiling, there was blood spatter.
KIM SEACE: And the realization that hit me, as I was doing that, was I really felt I was standing exactly in the spot where Katie
Froeschle had died in order for that blood to get up there. NARRATOR: Investigators also found a prepaid highway toll
device with the serial number registered to Katie, and her business card was on a shelf above the oven.
JEFF FROESCHLE: And then you're claiming you've never met her before, you've never seen her before.
And her business card is in your house. I mean, its almost like leaving bread crumbs,
I mean for heaven's sakes. NARRATOR: Finally, investigators took the medical examiner's
advice, and looked for an item in the home that could have been the murder weapon.
And in the living room, they found it. A four foot long motorcycle muffler. It was sanitized to the point there were
no discernible fingerprints and no attainable blood evidence. On the end of the muffler, was a circular mounting bracket.
JOYCE DEJONG: You would use this mounting bracket to attach the muffler onto a motorcycle.
NARRATOR: The mounting bracket was measured, and then laid over photographs of Katie's fatal wounds.
The round outer edge of the bracket was the exact size of the blunt force injuries on Katie's head.
JOYCE DEJONG: The circular portion on the muffler, was the exact same size as the injury on her scalp,
and gave a lot of credibility to that being the murder weapon. NARRATOR: And during the interrogation,
detectives noticed something on Jason's Nike sneakers. KIM SEACE: When detectives were actually interviewing Funk,
they noticed what appeared to be blood droplets on his Nike's. NARRATOR: A presumptive test indicated this was human blood.
Then investigators remembered the bank envelop found in Katie's car, so they sprayed it with the chemical Ninhydrin,
which revealed an almost perfect set of prints. Katie's fingerprints were on the envelope,
and so we're Jason Funk's. CHUCK MASSUCCI: That told us, scientifically, the Jason Funk
had been in Katrina Froeschle's vehicle. NARRATOR: Jason Funk continued to deny he was in any way involved.
He claimed he was on a jet ski in the river at the time of the murder. JASON FUNK: If I would have been home that day,
instead of out on my jet ski, who's to say I couldn't have prevented this whole thing from happening.
JEFF FROESCHLE: There's nothing-- no part of my life that hasn't been touched by losing her.
Nothing. Work, vacations, sports, fun, leisure time. It leaves a huge hole in your life.
And Katie was such a bright happy hard headed sweetheart. Just irreplaceable. They all are, but she was for me.
NARRATOR: Prosecutors said they had conclusive proof that Jason Funk murdered Katie Froeschle.
As for motive, Jason had prior convictions for assaulting women. And two days before Katie's murder, Jason had lost his job.
CHUCK MASSUCCI: They were having money problems. They had spent most of their savings
on the security deposit for this residence. So I think he was motivated by greed.
That's my belief. NARRATOR: Investigators know that Katie arrived at Funk's home, because she told her coworker on the phone
that she found it. They believe it was Jason who approached her. When she went inside to inspect the roof damage,
Jason was home alone. His girlfriend, Pam, was at work. Prosecutors think Jason might have made a sexual advance.
No one knows. What the evidence shows, is that he picked up the motorcycle muffler and struck Katie on the back of her head.
This left the blood spatter on the ceiling, and on his sneakers. As he exited the house with the body,
Katie's blood stained the back door frame. The house was concealed enough that Jason could dump the body
in the river without being seen. He abandoned Katie's car near a bar a mile away, handled the bank envelope looking for money,
and took her cash and credit cards. He burned the bloodstained living room carpet, and Katie's
clothing, in order to remove the evidence. He also cleaned the murder weapon. But he left so much other evidence,
his efforts were hardly worth it. Using her credit card, and signing his own name
was a classic. CHUCK MASSUCCI: She was, absolutely, at the wrong place at the wrong time, and fell victim to something
that she should never have been victim of. ROD CARTER: When you hear about cases like this,
you want to think-- personally, I want to think the best of everyone. But it's difficult sometimes to do that when
you see these things that have happened. NARRATOR: Six months after the murder, the forensic lab finished the DNA testing.
The blood in Jason's home and on his sneakers was Katie Froeschle's. The skin cells on the steering wheel
of Katie's car were Jason's. LESLIE NIXON: We put a piece of the puzzle together for the agency.
We were able to match DNA from the victim, to the crime scene. We were able to match the DNA from the victim
to the perpetrators clothing. NARRATOR: Faced with a possible death sentence, Jason Funk agreed to plead guilty to the murder.
And in return, was given a life sentence without parole. LEO FROESCHLE: I think it's a tragedy all the way around.
It's a tragedy for him. It's a tragedy for our daughter. And a tragedy for us and his family.
NARRATOR: Jason Funk still maintains he had nothing to do with the murder. He claims he only plead guilty to avoid the death sentence.
But forensic evidence says otherwise. JEFF FROESCHLE: The forensics in this case,
it was key to bringing the murderer to justice. They all did just a tremendous job.
We are forever grateful for the job that they did. His denial of it was steadfast throughout the whole thing,
and I don't believe without forensics-- I'm not sure we would have been able to convict
[music playing]

After inspecting storm damage to a home in Tampa, the insurance assessor simply disappeared. Thirty hours later, her body was found in a nearby river. But the killer had been careless.

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

Katie Froeschle was murdered after a property inspection; Jason Funk was convicted based on forensic evidence linking him to the crime.

Key points

The Disappearance of Katie Froeschle. Katie Froeschle, a young insurance adjuster, goes missing after a hurricane inspection.
Discovery of Katie's Body. Katie's body is found in the Hillsborough River, confirming everyone's worst fears.
Jason Funk's Arrest. Evidence leads to the arrest of Jason Funk, who used Katie's credit card.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

I just fell down. I remember just like somebody punched me in the stomach.

Leo Froeschle describes the moment he learned about Katie's fate.

7:10WatchJan 20, 2022

Tension

85/ 100High tension

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