Forensic Files - Season 12, Episode 2 - Insulated Evidence - Full Episode | Forensic Files

it's usually easy to figure out how a criminal enters a crime scene but in this case it was far from clear
it looked like the killer vanished in thin air and perhaps he had [Music] [Music]
getting into medical school it's the hope and dream of thousands of students who apply each year then pray
they'll be accepted michael andrade was one of those hopefuls he really wanted to be a doctor he
really wanted to help people just recently my mom told um told me she used to tell him don't worry michael all
your hard work is going to pay off because you worked really hard at school in 2005
michael was a pre-med student at saint mary's university in san antonio texas he decided not to live in the dorms so
he rented an apartment a few miles from campus he actually chose that apartment because
it seemed more family oriented than the other apartments he said that was the one he felt safer at one morning in
february of that year workmen smelled smoke coming from michael's apartment they noticed that the windows were
coated with soot and when they went to the door it was unlocked and as soon as they opened the front door smoke came
below me now they were forced out because of the smoke and when they went back in they found mr andrade laying on
the bed michael andrade had been strangled to death his body was somewhat burned but
very little compared to if the fire would have taken over he was found with one of his arms his right arm in fact
back behind him about belt high it appeared that he had been at some point tied up with his hands behind him
there were no signs of forced entry but electronic equipment was missing there was a entertainment center that
had speakers hanging off the front of it which appeared to have been connected to
something and that item was missing on the computer desk was a perfect you know demarcation of where a computer
would have sat this meant that the computer had been stolen after the fire started
and the fire was set in three different locations arson investigators gave information
from the beginning that the fire probably was not started with an accelerant it wasn't
gasoline it wasn't uh lighter fluid anything that would create big flame type uh a big flame type fire a winged
back chair placed in between the kitchen and dining area was the site of one fire
the foot of the bed was another and the third fire started on the floor of the bedroom closet
i had watched a lot of forensic shows and i knew that that seemed like a cover-up that when there's three points
of fire one person's not gonna the person who's obviously passed away was not the person who said it that there
was obviously gonna be someone trying to cover up whatever evidence was in the apartment
michael had been wearing boxer shorts and a t-shirt an indication he might have known the
perpetrator and willingly let him or her inside he knew them and was comfortable
enough around them to be just in his underwear if it was somebody that he didn't know
everyone was certain that he would have put on more clothing before he answered the door
with no forensic evidence investigators hoped that the stolen items might lead to the identity of the
killer there was always a chance that something would happen something would break later
someone would brag about the crime someone would uh come across the stolen material and or stolen property and
bring that back and we could track it back that way or maybe there was evidence in the apartment that they
couldn't yet see at michael andrade's autopsy the medical examiner confirmed what
investigators already suspected she did find that he had been murdered before the fire was set because there was no
smoke in his lungs the deposit of soot across the body indicated that he had actually died in that face down position
because the soot deposition was much more prominent across the back of the body the cause of death was
strangulation with a piece of cloth ripped from the bed sheet [Music] and dr dana also found fiberglass
insulation on the body this was unusual since there was very little structural damage caused by the
fire the material deposited was there alone there's a possibility that it had been deposited by the perpetrator
when the when the deceased was strangled it's unusual that you would see just the
insulation material without this other debris such as wood burned wood nails screws that have
come out and even fixtures out of the ceiling in their search for suspects investigators couldn't find anyone who
had a motive to kill michael andrade he never had no enemies i never seen him mad at anybody upset
about anything it's a person that you don't even think anybody would have anything against them
so i had no idea investigators discovered one person who was apparently angry with him his
longtime girlfriend a fellow student 22 year old lily macias i do remember quite a few fights between
the two of them where he'd be very upset either hurt or mad at her i don't know exactly what would happen it was just
they would have problems and you could tell investigators found a voicemail from
lily to michael left at 8 30 that morning she had left a message on michael's cell
phone indicating that they were having problems and that she was done with their relationship
was it possible that lily went to michael's apartment afterwards and there was an altercation
at that point combined with the fact that it seemed like michael may have known the person
who did this to him she was initially a suspect but lily had an alibi she was working at her part-time job on
the morning of the murder and was eliminated as a suspect she was very forthcoming she was willing to give us a
statement willing to allow us search of her apartment willing to allow us a search of her vehicle
michael's sister stephanie provided the first solid lead she said michael complained about a man
he saw around the apartment complex the guy would just talk to him but that the guy made him feel very uncomfortable
for some reason he didn't say while the guy never said anything suspicious to him or
anything mean but he just said he always felt a little uncomfortable or a little uneasy around
the guy just because his character seemed a little off unfortunately michael never identified
the man provided a physical description or mentioned where in the complex he lived
right at that point the investigators had merely the crime the crime scene and a
very large universe of potential suspects with with not a whole lot to go on pinpointing a specific person
with no other suspects for the murder of michael andrade investigators appealed to the public for
help four days later an anonymous tipster called the crime stoppers tip was amazing in
its detail the tipster told police the killer didn't enter andrade's apartment through
the front door or even a window he entered through an attic crawl space the tipster knew that mr andrade's
laptop was missing knew about the contents of the laptop which was never public information
you really have to question how would somebody know this kind of information [Music]
investigators got an anonymous tip in the michael andrade murder investigation that the killer entered michael's
apartment through a crawl space in the attic sure enough investigators found a paneled opening to
the attic in the ceiling of michael's bedroom closet when investigators checked it out
they discovered that someone could access other apartments through the crawl space
the insulation was only matted between michael's apartment and department number
1002 these spaces connected to each other it was something i would have never thought
of it was something that unless you were a maintenance person i would figure you
wouldn't know about none of the insulation above any of the other apartments had
been disturbed the only apartment that had been disturbed was michael andrade's apartment
the tenant of apartment 1002 was 23 year old maria solis a single mother who lived there with her three-year-old son
when questioned by police maria claimed she didn't even know michael andrade or where he lived
but investigators didn't believe her so they took the unusual step of confiscating maria's vacuum cleaner and
the clothes in her hamper investigators found a pair of men's jeans and on those jeans were tiny glass
fibers the small air pockets within the glass had expanded creating a distinctive football shape
this was fiberglass insulation that had been in or near a fire the evidence was not destroyed it was
simply charred this gave it unique properties something that i can compare back to with any
standards that were found at the scene the charred insulation on these jeans was consistent with the charred
insulation found on michael andrade's body the insulation was unique it was burnt
insulation so it wasn't a situation where the person could say i'd been working at
a construction site that's how i got this insulation on my clothing wrapped around the spool of the vacuum
cleaner investigators found highly distinctive thread black polyester fibers were wrapped
around cotton fibers then colored with an unusual combination of dyes this fibrous bundle is composed of
polyester and cotton it's a blend it also has the dark colored polyester that gives the dyeing characteristics
and adds in strength to the thread this thread was consistent with thread found around michael's neck it matched
his bed sheet which had been torn and used as a ligature microscopically it was the
pattern that the threads had that were able to give me that distinguishing or that unique appearance
that associated with the bedding material also in maria's apartment investigators found a video camera and
keys to a ford truck the video contained images of michael andrade's family proof that the camera was michael's and
the car keys were michael's michael andrade's truck was a ford f-150 and these keys were ford keys
went down with the alarm remote on the set of keys and opened up his truck investigators confronted maria soliz
and wanted to know who owned the men's genes found in her hamper after she was threatened with
prosecution maria soliz changed her story she now admitted she had a roommate 25 year old
joe luna she met luna over the internet and seemed to me to be desperate to be in a relationship with the man
and latched on to joe luna in what i believe was a very manipulative relationship
maria claimed she knew nothing about joe luna's criminal past that he had served five years in prison
for carjacking and aggravated assault on a police officer and joe luna was wanted for a series of
home invasions that bore a marked similarity to the michael andrade case he would break in cut bed sheets up tie
up the people who were at the house with those strips of bed sheets he terrorized
five separate people three of whom were families with children he tied them up he used weapons
he threatened them he stole from them brook anvik was a victim of one of those home invasions
it's just indescribable i mean you feel like your home is where you're safe after the robbery
brook found forensic evidence the perpetrator had left behind and we noticed that two cigarette butts were in
the garage we don't smoke and none of our friends who had been at the house recently smoke
dna from the saliva on the cigarette butts matched joe luna it's surprising to me that someone would
leave behind their dna almost uh carelessly leave behind cigarette butts that they had you know of cigarettes
that they had smoked just five days after michael andrade's murder joe luna was arrested and charged with
the crime did you kill your neighbor my killer buddy period i don't ever see myself in a position where i would have
to do something like that despite his denials joe luna was facing a possible death
sentence the forensic evidence painted a vivid picture of joe luna's movements on the
morning of michael andrade's murder prosecutors believe joe luna spent most of his time inside
his girlfriend's apartment since he knew there were warrants out for his arrest on the robbery cases
with nothing to do he discovered there was an attic and crawl space above the apartment
so he looked around and discovered there was another apartment just 60 feet away
michael andrade's apartment prosecutors believe he opened the panel in michael's bedroom
closet and when he didn't hear any sound dropped in but michael was sleeping and the noise
woke him up there was a struggle [Music] luna tore the bed sheets bound michael's
hands behind his back and strangled him to death fearing that michael could identify him
to mask the evidence he set fire to the clothes in michael's closet and returned to his girlfriend's
apartment through the crawl space when he didn't hear the fire alarm sound he suspected the fire went out so he
returned to michael's apartment to start the fire again he stole michael's computer electronic
equipment and his car keys before leaving he set the two additional fires when luna returned to his girlfriend's
apartment he shed fibers from michael's apartment which he tried to remove with his girlfriend's vacuum cleaner
and he put his jeans into the clothes hamper which had the burned insulation on them
having that forensics evidence in your back pocket as an investigator is just something that you can't overcome when
it's on your clothing there's a real hard hurdle hurdled overcome to say that i didn't i didn't do it now
during her police interrogation maria soldies eventually admitted that luna had confessed
it's like i went into an apartment and he's just like well somebody was there when i got there
and i'm like okay and he's like well they saw me it's like so it's like i had to do what i had to do
i'm like what are you talking about what did you think in your mind that he did that he had heard somebody that
he had done what he did to this boy i don't like to say that four letter words that he had taken this person's life
joe luna headed for trial insisting he was innocent but the forensic evidence caused him
to reconsider the fiber evidence that was found and the fiber evidence that i had looked
at was apparently so compelling that the defendant didn't want to continue on with this
case which is quite unusual for a capital myrtle trial so luna changed his plea to guilty
and admitted what he had done in open court he testified that he enjoyed it that he lived for the adrenaline rush
that it gave him to victimize people and to get away with it i cannot fathom the terror
that that young man went through and really there could be nothing worse than seeing a joe luna walk out of your
closet in march of 2006 luna asked the jury to give him the death penalty they willingly obliged
there are certain people in our society that have absolutely forfeited their right to live among us
by their own actions and by their own decisions joe luna is one of those people ironically
joe luna tried to cover up his crime by burning the evidence but he didn't destroy it instead
he made those tiny glass insulation fibers more distinctive it was actually the last way i thought
that they would catch him that was furthest from my mind that it would be in a vacuum
you have to have the forensics you have to have the evidence that can't skip town you have to have the evidence that
can't lie to you as my old professor once said there is no such thing as a perfect crime
that you can plan you can calculate you can try to manipulate the circumstances or the surroundings
but you always leave a piece of trace evidence behind [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music]
you

It's usually easy to determine how a criminal entered the crime scene. But in this case, it was far from clear. It looked like the killer vanished into thin air...and perhaps he had.

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

Michael Andrade was murdered in his apartment; Joe Luna was identified as the killer through forensic evidence and later confessed.

Key points

The Mysterious Murder of Michael Andrade. Michael Andrade was found dead in his apartment, leading to a complex investigation.
The Unusual Evidence. Fiberglass insulation and unique fibers linked the suspect to the crime scene.
Joe Luna's Confession. Joe Luna changed his plea to guilty and admitted to the murder in court.
The Death Penalty. Joe Luna asked for the death penalty, and the jury obliged.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

It's surprising to me that someone would leave behind their DNA carelessly.

14:52WatchJan 27, 2022

Tension

85/ 100High tension

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