Forensic Files - Season 11, Episode 42 - Message in a Bottle - Full Episode | Forensic Files

for 12 long years the murder of a young Hospital worker went unsolved police had their suspicions but
little proof but an old used tissue told a story far better than any eyewitness [Music]
[Applause] [Music] [Music] from the moment she was born Laura win was fighting the
odds she weighed 1B and 14 o es 3 months premature but she was so determined to live that she made it and and they took
her home and she was blind in one eye from the incubator at that time and she also had a Paralysis on her right side
as Laura grew up in Popper Bluff Missouri she slowly overcame these physical challenges and emerged as a
gifted student she worked that paralysis nearly completely out and she never let that
disability blindness ever hold her back from her desires of what she wanted to be and what she wanted to do Laura's
dream was to work in health care to help others as she had been helped and she achieved that by becoming a Hospital
pharmacy technician oh she's a sweetheart the people that she associated with there were pretty much
her friends and as well as the her co-workers uh nice girl nice girl Laura's friends
looked out for her professionally and personally and when she didn't show up for work one morning they called her
mother so her mother said well I'll go down and check and see you know so the land lady opened the door and let her in
and when she went in she found Laura Laura had been murdered on her bed strangled with her stocking Laura's
eyeglasses were on the living room couch without them she was literally blind it appeared she'd been attacked in
her living room and murdered in her bedroom this was a crime of power and control and she was hit in the head on
her Blind Side at first the motive appeared to be robbery we discovered that there were several items missing
from the apartment her purse her some of her underwear some shoes some clothing but there was no sign of forced entry
did that mean Laura knew her killer and let him in the apartment in retracing Laura's steps on the night of her murder
investigators discovered that she left her job at the hospital around 6:30 then went to her usual hangout a local bar
where she had a few drinks and talked with friends Laura's neighbor recalled seeing
her get out of her car and walk into her apartment around 11:15 and Laura's neighbor remembered
something else he said that a man walked up to Laura as she unlocked her apartment door and walked in with her
well he told me that reason why he didn't call the police because he thought that maybe she was just sneaking
a boyfriend in her apartment but according to laur's friends she had no current boyfriend the neighbor described the man
as white medium height around 160 lb but he didn't see the man's face unfortunately the description
matched about half the population of Popper Bluff Missouri [Music] Laura wi's autopsy yielded several
surprises a 2 and 1/2 in contusion over Laura's right ear indicated she'd been hit hard enough to incapacitate her what
would have caused it it was blunt trauma something that didn't lacerate the skin
so it was probably a smooth surfaced hard object but the cause of death was strangulation and the amount of force
was excessive the ligature itself would have done the job over a period of a few
minutes uh if that was the intent but that wasn't good enough uh the emotions got high enough that he had
to lay his hands on her neck back and and squeeze and Crush two cartilages she had also been sexually
assaulted investigators found no foreign fingerprints in Laura's apartment but underneath Laura's body
was a clue a used paper tissue there looked to be biological evidence on the tissue unfortunately at
the time the sample was too small for DNA testing investigators also found two foreign
hairs in Laura's living room these were sent to the lab and found to be pubic haes of an
African-American but this didn't match the description given by the eyewitness who said a Caucasian followed Laura into
her apartment if you know anything about hairs hairs fall off of people all over
their body every day she also had a friend who was an African-American who'd been in her apartment and it helped her
ready her apartment when she moved in police interviewed Laura's African-American friend and he had an
airtight Alibi he was with friends on the night of the murder with no solid leads police turned
their attention to the bar Laura visited before she returned home when investigators questioned
patrons of the bar they learned that Laura got into an argument with Sam Freeman a 26-year-old veteran of the US
Army Laura had accused him of of hustling these two young men playing pool whatever happened wasn't something
that came to blows but there was a disagreement over a pool game and Laura had confronted him Candice Shipman was
working the bar that night she said the altercation was minor just got a little loud then they quit and it seemed okay
you know normal stuff that would happen in a bar several bar patrons said Freeman left the bar about 20 minutes
before Laura did and his parents said he came home a short time later and stayed there the
rest of the night investigators also discovered there was another man in the bar that night Laura's ex-boyfriend
Robert mcwain she loved him she was head over heels in love with him she was just
spitten he could do no wrong you know and it was an on again off again relationship friend said Laura hoped to
marry Robert but he wasn't interested main said he went directly home from the bar on the night of the murder and
family members backed up his Alibi he stayed there at the house the rest of the night never left and his mother and
sister were there also at that time police now were at a dead end no one else at the bar that night
matched the general description of the man presumed to be the killer it was a hurt
that there was just no closure to it because we just kept thinking someone's out there and we just don't know who it
is a and not only that but it was the hurt of losing her and giving her up when she was such a worthwhile person
and and she was so good good to everybody and we just couldn't see any sense in it months passed then years and Laura's
family lost hope that her killer would ever be brought to [Music] Justice when Clifford Maris turned in
his badge after a 35-year career one case haunted him him the brutal murder of Laura win that had gone unsolved for
12 years on his last day on the job he handed the case File to one of his most trusted colleagues detective Tim
Davis I asked him to look into it again I know he's a good forensic man and told
him to go ahead and reinvestigate that and see if he couldn't come up with something and Davis did just that
looking for anything that could be reinvestigated it was never a closed case up to that point all the proper
things that needed to be done were done detective Davis decided to go back and rein everyone who was in the bar with
Laura win on the night she was murdered and his interview with Candace Shipman who was bartending that night
provided an important lead she informed me some things then that she thought was
pertinent to the case that she wanted to share Chipman said there was more going
on between Laura and Sam Freeman that night than just an argument about the pool game Sam flirted with Laura he
tried for her affections she just didn't didn't seem interested at all in Sam so
I think there was little jealousy she just put him in his place and Shipman recalled something
else that night that she never forgot she remembered that Sam Freeman was drinking an Italian Lor
gallano he collected bottles odd-shaped bottles when she poured the last shot of
gallano he asked her for the bottle because it's a very unusually odd-shaped bottle and she gave it to him thought
nothing of it and handed him the empty bottle of gallano witnesses recalled seeing Freeman leave the bar that night
night with the gallano bottle this was significant because of the wounds on Laura's head just a
pattern that was consistent with the size and shape of that bottle and that wasn't all 8 years after Laura's murder
there was another incident at the same bar involving Sam Freeman and a gallano bottle Candace Shipman was again the
bartender and Sam Freeman came in ordered some gallano and chose a song from the Juke Box he was sitting at the
bar and staring me right in the eyes singing oh only you know and I know hair stood up on my you know all over my
[Music] body she was sure Freeman was trying to tell her something with singing the song
Only You know and I know and staring me down I was convinced I was convinced that he had
gotten away with murder and and was flaunting it in front of me now 12 years later Freeman was
married with two children and worked as a supply sergeant for the National Guard
he was even attempting to run for city council I thought well that all was a bit braz
with the way I felt and the things I knew with a warrant investigators found a gallano bottle in Freeman's home
Freeman said this bottle was a recent addition to his collection not the one given to him by the bartender on the
night Laura was murdered but police confiscated It Anyway apparently Freeman filled the
bottle with colored water for display purposes but he didn't fill it to the very
top A lab technician swabbed the entire bottle and on the inside near the top was a microscopic
stain a phenol phine test indicated this was human blood but after 12 years it had degraded there was not enough to do
a DNA profile on but why was human blood inside the bottle investigators were determined to
find [Music] out when human blood was discovered inside the gallano bottle in Sam
Freeman's apartment investigators suspected he was responsible for Laura win's murder
according to Witnesses Sam Freeman and Laura win argued on the night of her murder Laura accused Sam of hustling
some young boys in a game of pool afterwards Freeman had a few more drinks and asked the bartender if he
could have the empty gallano bottle for his collection at 10:45 the bartender announced that it
was was the last call for drinks because the bar was closing at 11:00 p.m. according to Witnesses that's when Sam
Freeman left the bar with the gallano bottle since he knew Laura would have to leave at closing
time Laura lived only a short distance from the bar and when she got home around
11:15 prosecutors believe that it was Freeman who forced her inside and struck her in the head with the gallano
bottle he then took her into the bedroom assaulted her then strangled her to death with her own
[Music] stocking the evidence suggests he used a tissue to blow his nose but left it near
Laura's body he then stole some items and fled that was the prose ution Theory anyway the problem was they had little
in the way of forensic evidence I'm a worrier everybody that knows me I'll tell you I worry about every single case
I never am a prosecutor who walks in and says this is a sure thing slam dog so investigators wanted to know whether any
of the evidence contained DNA that was too small to be tested when the crime occurred 12 years earlier there has to
be some type of skin cells embedded in these nylons unless the suspect wore gloves the knot was chosen as part of
the DNA analysis because I thought that there could be a chance that he could have touched the knot while he was tying
the knot DNA specialist Jason woff swabbed the stocking looking for any of those
skin cells the swabs were treated with a solvent to free possible DNA and then replicated so the sample was large
enough for DNA testing just as they suspected they found a DNA sample I noticed that the
profile was characteristic of a mixture of at least two individuals and the mixture had male and female gender
characteristics the female DNA was that of Laura win the source of the M's DNA was not yet known
woff analyzed the paper tissue found underneath Laura's body with an alternative light source which revealed
a bodily fluid possibly mucus he then cut a tiny piece of tissue and put it into a detergent that
dissolved everything but the complex molecules a PCR DNA analysis once again provided useful
information the majority of the DNA appeared to have male gender characteristics the last step was to
collect a DNA sample from Sam Freeman when we first informed Mr Freeman of why we were there and who we were it was
like at that instance he had just went into shock I had a shocked look on his face his
demeanor totally changed uh that I couldn't describe only the other is U maybe the face of fear before taking his
DNA sample investigators asked Freeman if he had ever been inside Laura wi's apartment did you ever date her had you
ever had sex with her had you ever kissed her did you know where she lived he stated no no no to all these
questions but the DNA from Sam Freeman's saliva sample matched the skin cells on
on the ligature and the mucus on the tissue I would expect the profile from the tissue that had male gender
characteristics to show up once in every 6.131 quadrillion people tested in the Caucasian population the only way
possible that Sam Freeman's DNA could have been at the scene in the home was the fact that Sam freman was there and
was the killer after 12 long years in September of 2005 Sam Freeman was arrested and
charged with Laura win's murder prosecutors believed the motive was clear here she is this woman small
woman dressing him down in front of all these guys and here he is Mr military Mr
Macho Man he wasn't going to put up with it I think he was embarrassed uh humiliated rejected
spurned and that this was a crime of power and control and he got the ultimate last say with war win with this
crime during the trial Freeman's defense attorney pointed to the two foreign hairs in Laura's apartment as proof that
someone else killed Laura and also reminded the jury that the eyewitness's description didn't match Freeman either
I mean they argued Reasonable Doubt which is was a smart argument to make but prose computers maintained that the
DNA evidence was concrete proof I think what happened here was that Sam Freeman didn't realize in 1992 he could leave a
piece of himself at the scene other than Sean blood or fingerprints but he did in September of 2006 the jury found
Sam Freeman guilty of first deegree murder he was sentenced to life in prison without per
I want people to have hope and never give up never give up on justice that someday it'll come about if it had not
been for the proper collection and preservation it doesn't matter how much someone does 13 14 years later an
investigation if you don't have the evidence you don't have a case [Music] more [Music]
[Music]

Brief Summary

Laura Win's murder remained unsolved for 12 years until DNA evidence linked Sam Freeman to the crime, leading to his conviction.

Key points

Laura Win's Tragic Story. Laura Win, a determined young woman, was murdered in her own home, leaving a community in shock.
The Breakthrough in the Case. After 12 years, new DNA evidence leads to the arrest of Sam Freeman for Laura's murder.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

Laura had been murdered on her bed, strangled with her stocking.

2:31WatchSep 16, 2024

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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