Forensic Files Season 11, Episode 5 - Shattered Dreams - Full Episode | Forensic Files

[music playing] NARRATOR: The dean of a prestigious university had a secret life that may have led to his death.
A tiny piece of a latex glove and some broken glass where the only clues. To solve the mystery, investigators
needed to know what he was doing with an 18-year-old girl. [theme music] NARRATOR: For 12 years, students and faculty at Texas Tech
University could set their watches by Douglas Miller's schedule. As the Associate Dean of Libraries,
he would arrive promptly by 8:00 AM. A schedule that never varied, until one day,
he just didn't show up. LIZ APPLIN: If he was ill he would call in, and that sort of thing.
So we were aware that things weren't exactly the way they were supposed to be. NARRATOR: Police found his car in a drainage ditch in Canyon
Lake State Park, just five miles from the university. 53-year-old Doug Miller was dead in the backseat.
And there was an 18-year-old woman, Viola McVade, found dead in the front passenger seat.
Both were shot with a .380 caliber pistol. AARON FULLERTON: There were six bullets recovered at the scene,
that all six were able to be able to be identified as .380 auto caliber. And they were all fired from the same firearm.
NARRATOR: Gunfire had broken both of the car side windows. But there was no broken glass in the drainage ditch, which meant
the murder took place elsewhere. ASHLEY RODRIQUEZ: It took hours for them to check the ground and the sticks and everything
possible around the car, before they could even pull the card out of the gully. And after that, they would remove the bodies out.
NARRATOR: The car was dusted for fingerprints. And the only ones found belonged to Doug and Viola.
And investigators soon discovered why. They found what appeared to be a small piece
of a latex glove beneath Doug Miller's body. MATT POWELL: It was the tip of a finger, is what was.
It was less of a half an inch. NARRATOR: If the killer was wearing rubber gloves,
this was a clear indication the murders were premeditated. ASHLEY RODRIQUEZ: You wondered right away,
why is 53-year-old male in the car with an 18-year-old female? You know, what's that connection?
Which of course, we were all asking. NARRATOR: Investigators learned that Doug Miller met
Viola McVade for the first time just a few hours before the murders. A known prostitute, Teresa Williams had introduced them.
Doug Miller called Teresa Williams looking for a date. [phone ringing] And Williams suggested her friend, Viola McVade.
-He would take out a young woman on a date several times and see where it would go.
That it was not a situation he asking for someone to sleep with him. Not real common, but it happens.
Not that uncommon, either. As far as I know, this might have been a lonely man that
just enjoyed the company of these young girls. And maybe that's the naivety in me, you know, that says that.
NARRATOR: Doug Miller was a divorced father of two grown children. Viola was an aspiring model, and hadn't
yet graduated from high school. TERREMY BEAVER: Words can't describe how I felt.
I loved her, but the way I truly felt for her, you can't-- I can't explain it to you.
NARRATOR: Her fiance, Terremy Beaver, knew nothing about this paid date, but wasn't entirely surprised.
TERREMY BEAVER: She loved money, I know that. Whatever it would have took for her to,
you know, to get, to provide for her and her family, that's what she was going to do.
She didn't care what it was, or how she had to go and get it. She just had that mentality.
NARRATOR: Investigators knew Beaver had nothing to do with the crime, because he was
in jail that night on a drug charge. I always tell folks, it's almost impossible
to killed in Lubbock, unless you're doing something you shouldn't be doing, unless you're
some place you shouldn't be. NARRATOR: The double homicide of a college dean and a teenage girl was going to be difficult to solve,
since Doug Miller and Viola McVade were barely acquainted, and each have different backgrounds to look into.
When questioned by police, Doug Miller's friends said, he had no known enemies. ASHLEY RODRIQUEZ: Everyone we asked, his friends,
his co-workers were completely shocked. They had no idea why he would have been in this part of town,
or with this person. NARRATOR: In fact, Doug Miller had a reputation as one of the most private and generous people
at the university where he worked. LIZ APPLIN: He anonymously set up a scholarship
for a student assistant in the library. Now they all knew that a scholarship was available,
but they didn't know who funded it. And I just always thought that was very interesting, that he
had every opportunity to say, you know, put his name on it, or say, I did this. But he never did that kind of thing.
NARRATOR: The crime scene suggested that Doug Miller may not have been the primary target,
but that Viola McVade was. MATT POWELL: I think she had three gunshot wounds to the head, very close.
She had stippling that was, you know, gunpowder burns, that we're very close. Almost close contact wounds to her head.
NARRATOR: High impact blood spatter inside the car on the driver's side proved that Doug Miller was shot in the front seat,
and then moved to the backseat. -With the amount of blood that was in the seat, and it being all smeared, would indicate
that after he was removed from that seat, that someone had to sit down in that blood,
and transfer that blood from the seat to their person. NARRATOR: Both victims still had their wallets,
jewelry, and other personal items. So robbery was not considered a motive. The bodies were in Doug's car in a ravine in Canyon Lakes Park.
There was no glass on the ground from the broken windows-- an indication the murders took place elsewhere.
But where was the murder scene? Police records revealed a potential clue. Around 10:00 PM on the night before the bodies were
discovered, several people called police headquarters to report gunfire in a dark alley.
-I think the reason nobody saw anything is because nobody wanted to see anything.
I think this from an area of town where you don't want to be involved in telling what you
may or may not have seen or heard. NARRATOR: A close inspection of the alley revealed shattered glass, which was sent
to the forensics lab for testing. Analysts tested the glass for what's known as its refractive index.
RUSTY WHITE: Refractive index is the measure of the speed of light as it passes through a substance.
It's the reason that, when you put a straw in a glass of water, it looks like the straw bends.
NARRATOR: The sample is crushed into small pieces and placed in a drop of oil, then heated.
When the oil and the glass reach the same refractive index, the glass disappears.
RUSTY WHITE: We change the temperature of the oil until we see that glass disappear,
and then we know, at that temperature, the oil is this refractive index, therefore, the glass is that same refractive index.
NARRATOR: The refractive index of the glass in the alleyway was similar to the glass from Doug Miller's car.
To be absolutely certain, scientists heated the glass with an argon plasma torch to identify its chemical makeup.
RUSTY WHITE: If the levels of all nine of those elements from the question sample fall within the range
of those same levels for the known, then we say that's a positive association. NARRATOR: And this proved the class in the alleyway
was from Doug Miller's car. -That definitely was our first, I guess, link saying,
those two scenes are connected. MATT POWELL: We knew where the crime scene was. We were able to determine that the glass that was found
in the alley came from the victim's vehicle. NARRATOR: Next, investigators wanted
to know where Doug Miller and Viola McVade were before they were killed. In Doug Miller's home, investigators
found a lipstick-stained cigarette butt. JIM THOMAS: DNA testing was performed on that cigarette butt.
And that was actually determined to be consistent with the DNA profile of the female victim.
NARRATOR: Next, investigators checked Doug Miller's telephone records and found something interesting.
Someone, presumably Viola, used Doug Miller's phone to call her sister, Liza. But Liza's boyfriend, Vaughn Ross, answered the phone.
SHONDA JOHNSON: They didn't get along. They never got along. Not even from the first day that they actually met.
They never got along. She always said there was something about him. -Those are just rumors of me.
What the hell you talking about? NARRATOR: According to Liza McVade, she never got to speak with Viola that night.
She said that Vaughn and Viola argued, and that Vaughn hung up on her. -Hello? NARRATOR: Perhaps the most telling piece of information
was that Vaughn Ross' apartment was just 15 feet from the alley where Viola and Doug were murdered.
But he wasn't the only person who lived near the alley. So too did Teresa Williams, who admitted
she was with the couple earlier in the evening. RENE MARTINEZ: At that point, she
became a very likely suspect, or someone who possibly had more information than what she had relayed to us.
-Well, everybody that has contact with the victims at that night is considered a suspect.
NARRATOR: Police had a number of suspects in the double homicide to Viola McVade and Doug Miller.
One was Teresa Williams, a prostitute who introduced the two on the night of the murders.
MATT POWELL: We knew what type of business that Teresa was in. We knew what type of things that everybody
else that kind of ran in the circle did. And so we made our presumptions, as far as that was concerned.
NARRATOR: Others included Viola's sister, Liza McVade and her boyfriend Vaughn Ross.
Coincidentally, Ross was a masters student at Texas Tech University studying architecture,
the same university where Doug Miller worked. But police found no evidence the two knew one another.
When questioned by police, Vaughn Ross and Liza McVade confirmed that Viola called them about an hour
before the murder. -I have nothing to say to you. NARRATOR: They admitted there was an argument,
and that Vaughn hung up on her. -Why would you hang up on my sister? -'Cause your sister's strange.
-Well, y'all can be like a kid now. NARRATOR: But both Liza and Vaughn Ross insisted that they weren't home when neighbors heard
gunfire in the alley an hour later. Liza said she left Vaughn's apartment and went home after Viola called.
MATT POWELL: She decided, well, I'm just going to walk over to my dad's house. She didn't have a vehicle.
And so her dad didn't live too far away from where his apartment was. It was sometime around 9:00, 9:30, I think,
is what she said. NARRATOR: Vaughn said, he too left his apartment just after Liza did, to run some errands.
A background check revealed some troubling information. Vaughn Ross had a history of violence.
As a minor, he had been convicted of stabbing a former girlfriend. MATT POWELL: That was a very violent act that he had done.
He had, basically, cut a girl, I think eight or nine times, in a very deep laceration to her throat, you know,
to her neck area. NARRATOR: A search of Vaughn Ross' apartment turned up nothing.
There were no bloody clothes, no bloody shoes. There was no gun or ammunition. Nothing that would link him to the murders.
The only forensic evidence at the scene was the fingertip of a latex glove found inside Doug Miller's car.
The lab technician swabbed, what appeared to be, a speck of blood on the outside of the latex.
A phenolphthalein test proved it was human blood. And a DNA test showed it was Douglas Miller's.
Now investigators were interested in what was on the inside of the fingertip. -So that would tend to contain more DNA evidence
from the cellular material from the hands. So the sweat actually, potentially, would release more DNA from the hand.
NARRATOR: Just as they suspected, the swab from the inside of the tip did show some cells, but a very small amount.
Just a few years ago, this sample wouldn't have been large enough for DNA testing.
But now, polymerase chain reaction increases the sample size by replicating it. So a DNA analysis was possible.
And the results were astonishing. -I remember getting the phone call, and going, wow!
This is awesome. Because to me, that just summed it up for us. And that's what was able to-- that kind of sealed the deal.
NARRATOR: The microscopic skin cells on the inside of the ripped latex glove yielded some surprising news.
It had DNA from not one person, but two. JIM THOMAS: The DNA profile from the inside swabbing
of the latex glove was consistent with a mixture of the male victim and the suspect, Vaughn Ross.
With that small piece of the tip of the latex glove, we were able to place the suspect, Vaughn Ross,
in that vehicle. -If that match had not been made, somebody would have had to have made a decision
whether to let us go ahead with what we had, or let it be an unsolved case. NARRATOR: Vaughn Ross was arrested and charged
with two counts of first-degree murder, for shooting deaths of Viola McVade and Doug Miller.
As Ross was led to the police station, investigators noticed he was wearing a sweatshirt.
On a hunch, they confiscated the sweatshirt and sent to the forensics lab. GARLAND TIMMS: Days later, I began
examining that sweatshirt, and found a stain of blood right on the front, right in the chest area of that shirt.
It was transferred blood. It was just a small stain, where you could tell that that shirt
had come into contact with a bloody source. NARRATOR: DNA testing confirmed the blood was Doug Miller's.
Somehow Ross transferred a small amount of Miller's blood onto his shirt. Based on the forensic evidence, prosecutors
believe they know what happened on the night of the murders. Doug Miller wanted company that night,
so he asked an acquaintance, Teresa Williams, if she knew anyone who was free? Williams introduced Doug Miller to 18-year-old Viola McVade.
-Hi, how are you? -Good. Uh, good. NARRATOR: DNA testing of a cigarette butt revealed Doug and Viola spent part of that evening
in Doug's home. [phone ringing] Telephone records indicate Viola called Vaughn Ross' apartment
and asked to speak with her sister, Liza. Ross refused. Viola may have suspected that Vaughn was physically abusing
her sister, and told him she was coming over to check up on her. -No. I'm going to come over there and speak with her personally.
-What did you hang up on my sister for? -'Cause your sister is strange. -Well, y'all can be like a kid now.
NARRATOR: But Liza left before Viola arrived. MATT POWELL: I don't think she ever
thought, in a million years, that this was what was going to happen. I think she was just tired of him.
And she just left. I think, clearly, he did the act on his own. NARRATOR: Prosecutors believe Ross put on a pair of latex
gloves, grabbed a semiautomatic pistol, and waited for Viola to arrive. When Doug Miller drove into the alley to drop Viola off,
he walked into an ambush. Ross shot Viola three times in her head. Then he killed Doug Miller.
Glass from Miller's car fell to the street. Forensic testing proved this was the crime scene.
As Ross moved Doug's body to the back seat, a tiny piece of the rubber glove ripped.
Inside was enough DNA to link Vaughn Ross to the crime. Ross drove five miles to Canyon Lakes Park,
and dumped the car in a ravine, then ran home. Investigators believe, Ross the gloves
and the murder weapon in a trash bin along the way. He never realized he left the most
incriminating evidence inside the car. JIM THOMAS: And I believe the tip of this latex glove
was like the nail in the coffin on this case. NARRATOR: Ross had a previous conviction for assaulting
a previous girlfriend, so he was no stranger to violence. Prosecutors think, in this case, that Ross' animosity
towards Viola McVade was what set him off. -I have no doubt it mind, sitting here in front of you
today, that that's the reason that she was killed, is because of this hatred and this ongoing feud.
NARRATOR: Despite the forensic evidence, Vaughn Ross insisted he was innocent. But this telephone call, recorded in prison
before the trial, between Ross and his mother, clearly contradicted that. MATT POWELL: That's about as close-- he
just couldn't lie to his mom. You know, an innocent person just is going to say, come on!
Of course not! Or no. But it was a long pause, and I might have. I mean, to me, that's as close a confession as you could get.
NARRATOR: After a two week trial, Vaughn Ross was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death.
-That let's you know, there's not a such thing as a perfect crime. There's some kind of evidence somewhere,
you just have to look deeper to find it. The slightest little thing can give a person away.
NARRATOR: Ross took every precaution he knew about, but it simply wasn't enough.
AARON FULLERTON: Finding the tip of the latex glove is what conclusively put him as the shooter.
So without the science, I don't think he might have even been caught. ASHLEY RODRIQUEZ: I don't know where this case would have gone
without finding the tip of that glove, because there were so many people involved that didn't
tell the whole truth, that you could tell were holding something back, that may have wanted
to cover up for someone else. -One of my favorite quotes is that, when man commits a crime,
God will find a witness. [theme music]

When a car was found in a drainage ditch with two bodies inside, a fingertip torn from a latex glove would point investigators to both the crime scene and 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

The episode details the investigation of Doug Miller and Viola McVade's murders, leading to Vaughn Ross's conviction through forensic evidence.

Key points

The Mysterious Deaths. The double homicide of Doug Miller and Viola McVade raises many questions.
A Shocking Connection. Investigators uncover the unexpected link between Doug Miller and Viola McVade.
DNA Evidence Unveils the Truth. A tiny piece of latex glove leads to a breakthrough in the case.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

Words can't describe how I felt.

Terremy Beaver on Viola McVade's death

3:54WatchJan 20, 2022

Tension

85/ 100High tension

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