Forensic Files - Season 12, Episode 21 - Traffic Violations - Full Episode | Forensic Files

up next a young woman makes a desperate plea for help she was very shooked up before vanishing without a trace we knew
then something rotten had happened police think they've solved the case until it takes a turn no one expected it
was just hard for a lot of people to believe i almost got sick it was the ultimate
betrayal oh my god he was a monster in disguise she got murdered for obeying the law
customers at the men's club in charlotte north carolina could occasionally get a
little raucous but the employees were trained to handle those situations [Music]
26 year old kim medlen worked there as a waitress the money was good she knew how to handle people she could
defuse the situation very quickly she was beautiful but she was smart about it late one night as kim drove home from
work she encountered a road rage incident with an angry motorist they started passing her driving closely
behind her blowing the horn at her things like that kim was afraid these men had followed
her from work so she went to the police for help she was very shook up it took a while
for the police officer to calm her down she also told them that hey i traveled this road
these nights and i'm along here about this time the captain placed a radio broadcast to the other officers that
were working on his shift to be on the lookout for this red jeep and to look out for her if they saw her on the
roadway unfortunately this didn't help two weeks later police found kim's abandoned jeep on the side of the road
the engine was running and the lights were on everything was working condition we knew
then there was something something rotten had happened kim's purse sender money were still in
the jeep but strangely her driver's license was missing there was certainly no logical explanation as to why miss
meddling had left her vehicle the first thing we attempted to do was to determine if in fact a crime had
occurred the next day a search team found kim's body a mile and a half from her car hidden
under some debris we watched the news and my wife looked at me and she says i've seen enough it's her
so we turned off the tv and unplugged all the phones and just went to bed this was not a robbery her wedding band
wedding ring it was a necklace still in place around her neck those items that would have potential
value were still present on her the autopsy revealed kim had been beaten kicked and strangled
but there were no signs of sexual assault there were several blows on the back of
her head and neck and her back area that would have been consistent with blunt force trauma
our theory is that she was knocked down from behind she was stomped on her back and she was had something pressed up
against the front of her neck and there was evidence that kim's wrists had been bound
but the bindings were missing typically if the killer takes the time to tie them
restrain them tape them i've seen duct tape different things i've never seen it removed
it was very unusual and the murder took place on a deserted road outside of town
by this time the killer could be long gone to find kim medlen's killer investigators needed to retrace her
steps in the hours before her murder kim left her job at the men's club around 2 a.m
her cell phone records indicated she called her husband bridger at 2 15 while driving home
which was their custom she would call her husband let him know that she was on her way
bridger medlin told police he went to sleep right after kim called but a local police officer contradicted
his story he claimed he saw bridger's black pickup truck driving through town around the
time of his wife's abduction monroe police officer was confident that he observed mr midland traveled through
monroe at 2 30 in the morning the concern was that perhaps he wasn't being completely truthful about where he
was bridger was outraged i said something is rotten here something is wrong he thought police should spend more time
investigating themselves kim's street smart the only reason she pulled over was because of
some figure of authority had demanded her to pull over was it possible that bridger was correct
that a policeman or someone in authority had pulled kim over based upon the position of the jeep the
fact that the driver's license appeared to be missing one of the investigators early on
believed that this could be a blue light bandit or perhaps even a police officer
involved in the stop of the vehicle a blue light bandit is someone who mounts a police light on his vehicle and
uses it to prey on innocent people this theory was bolstered by the fact that kim's driver's side window was down
if you logically looked at it it really narrowed down the reason she pulled over
and it didn't take long before a witness came forward to corroborate this theory
a motorist said he was driving behind a red jeep presumably kim's on the night of the murder he claimed the woman
driving the jeep did nothing wrong but a police officer turned his lights on and pulled her over
he was driving on a revoked driver's license and so he of course was very concerned when he saw the patrol car
turn in front of him so he fell back obviously not wanting to get too close and draw attention to himself
this explained the bruises on kim's wrists the possibility that they were caused by handcuffs
but police needed to find out the jurisdiction of the police car so we actually used that same witness
and we did what we called a police car lineup the witness identified the police car as
one from the city of monroe but that police department had a 110-man force and it could have been any one of them
since they can use their vehicles while off-duty so investigators tried to find some way
to narrow it down and latent evidence expert ricky navarro looked for clues on kim medlen's clothing
that's when he noticed a print on her sweatshirt at that point in time i could not
determine whether i was looking at a footwear impression or some other type of object that left that
impression on the sweatshirt using alternate light sources and high-speed cameras navarro concluded he
was looking at the heel of a shoe it was a type of shoe that was not flat from toe all the way back to the heel it
had a distinct heel in it which like some of your hard soul shoes would have not like your athletic shoes
would have and there was a distinct v or chevron pattern across the print at first
navarro's search yielded no results the chevron pattern i had not found in any other footwear manufacturing
companies that i looked at but with a little more research navarro discovered the shoe was made by
the theragood company in wisconsin they made quite a few different styles i believe approximately 17 different
styles of uniform shoes many of these shoe styles were worn by police officers this particular shoe was 831 style
dash 6114 and that was the only shoe that thor good put that sole design on at that
time all the other shoes had a diff completely different soul design from that one
navarro measured the print on kim's sweatshirt and determined that the killer wore a size eight eight and a
half or nine theragood shoe the question now was to find the monroe police officer
wearing them investigators now suspected that kim medlen's killer was a monroe policeman
and they no longer believed that her husband bridger medlin had anything to do with her murder
they also discovered that bridger was not driving his pickup truck through town after midnight as one of the police
officers claimed that particular intersection was being videotaped through a atm machine from a
wachovia bank and it actually picked up the image of my truck coming through that intersection after 4 am
this was after bridger was notified by police and was headed to the scene of kim's abandoned car
that was the first and the strongest uh rock solid evidence that i was where i said it was
investigators were also sure that the killer war size eight eight and a half or nine theragood brand shoes
police personnel records showed that only three members of the monroe police department wore this make and model of
shoe in that shoe size range of the three one was working at the fire department
on the night of kim's murder he was assigned to sort of a stationary duty that evening where he couldn't just
get in the car and drive around he had to sort of be there at the department the second officer was on duty
responding to a burglary that night and was in constant radio contact with headquarters
the third josh griffin worked that night until 10 pm then went off duty off the refill told investigators he had
not seen kim medlen that night he had not stopped the car he did not see the jeep in any way shape or form and he
basically said he had gone home and had gone to bed before this jeep before the jeep would have been
discovered officer griffin was 24 years old he'd been a member of the police force for
just over a year when investigators searched griffin's police car they found nothing suspicious
his car was absolutely almost spotless which if you knew josh he was kind of known around the
department of having the dirtiest car in the fleet with a warrant police searched griffin's
house but they couldn't find his pair of police issued work shoes mr griffin told me that he had thrown
those shoes away because they were damaged on an accident scene investigation police questioned employees of the men's
club where kim medlen worked to see whether josh griffin was there on the night of the murder and perhaps followed
her home but no one recalled seeing him but a check of griffin's cell phone records contradicted his alibi that he
was home sleeping that night records show that griffin made a cell phone call around 2 a.m to a tow truck
company when confronted by his superiors griffin changed his story he said he was sitting in his police car
in uniform at baker's intersection in a restaurant parking lot after his shift ended
reading a book he claimed to be sitting in that parking lot reading his law book at that restaurant
that was closed and the motorist asked him to call for a tow truck because his car broke down
nearby this put officer griffin on baker's intersection just a half hour to 45 minutes before
kim medlen drove by on old charlotte highway josh griffin denied any involvement in
kim's murder but soon his fellow officers turned against him apparently everything started when kim told police
she feared driving home alone at night along the dark country roads and was concerned that a customer of the men's
club was following her in an effort to help police broadcast an announcement asking officers to keep an
eye out for kim's car to make sure nothing happened to her and we know from the investigation after
the fact that mr griffin was in fact out and listening to that broadcast that evening
the evidence shows officer josh griffin took an inappropriate interest in kim medlen
and investigators learned that griffin told fellow police officers about it he saw her jeep running up and down through
town and would call and with two other policemen and make comments about the pretty blond-haired girl in the jeep
uh that she's coming through when he was trying to figure out a way to meet her that was really alarming too as i had
other officers that knew about this pattern of behavior but he'd say anything didn't come forward and we
could address it correctly and after kim's murder several women came forward to say
griffin had been harassing them too they tell you how sick this guy actually was this came out in the trial there was
a girl that was being stalked this girl has an unlisted number she gets a call that says i know that
you're at home i'm coming to see you what does she do in a panic she calls the police she calls 9-1-1
who's working who responds to the call josh griffin but for a murder conviction prosecutors
needed more than circumstantial evidence could they find anything stronger prosecutors say that kim medlen's
abduction and murder was the ultimate betrayal perpetrated by a police officer hired to
protect and serve not abuse and suppress i think it was just hard for a lot of people to believe that a local guy a
nice young on the surface young man who was an all-american kid could have committed a violent crime of this type
on the night of the crime griffin ended his shift around 10 pm but instead of going home while still in
uniform he drove his police car to baker's intersection and parked at ron's restaurant which was closed
around 2 a.m a motorist stopped and asked for help telling griffin he had some car trouble
griffin called for a tow truck using his personal cell phone which placed him near the crime scene
about 30 to 45 minutes later prosecutors believe griffin saw kim medlen drive by
and as planned decided to pull her over for a traffic violation as a ruse to introduce himself
a witness saw the policeman pull kim's red jeep over and saw that kim had done nothing
wrong prosecutors believe griffin asked kim for her driver's license then asked her to join him in
his patrol car while he ran her license plate number [Music] griffin may have made a sexual advance
and kim objected griffin knew then that he had gone too far he panicked handcuffed her and drove off
griffin turned off old charlotte highway and kim knew it was a dead end street her injuries suggest she jumped from the
moving car [Music] griffin caught up with her struck her on the back of the head
stomped on her back breaking her neck and leaving the distinctive foot impression
he then strangled her to death probably with his police flashlight before he left
he removed the handcuffs and covered her body with debris i still can't imagine what happened and
what transpired in those few minutes the last few minutes of kim's life if i had an officer that was doing this
i didn't care who it was it shouldn't happen nobody should should suffer and die the
way kim medley did but to get a conviction prosecutors needed to prove josh griffin was the
killer with not having any dna they actually had to build their case around that footprint
according to personnel records griffin was the only officer to wear a size eight and a half clarino style
thera-good shoe so ricky navarro took a new pair of these shoes made an inked impression
and compared it to the shoe print on the back of kim meddling sweatshirt navarro believes
it was the only one that could have created that impression my job is not necessarily to positively
identify everything that comes in here my job was to just render an opinion and at that point in time
it just had to go where it had to go none of us ever want to believe a police officer do something like that
especially one that you work with every day and every night your life just depended on in february
of 1998 officer josh griffin went on trial for first degree kidnapping and first degree
murder he pled not guilty but the evidence was clear and he was convicted of both charges
and sentenced to life in prison [Music] three years later griffin asked to speak
with investigators and on tape he finally confessed i don't know what his motivation was but
i just know what he said he admitted stomping on her back he admitted choking her with a flashlight
he admitted handcuffing her he admitted cutting her driver's license up into a million pieces and flushing it down the
toilet of course he admitted to all the lies he told me that he actually disposed of
those shoes right after this happened he said he threw him in a dumpster behind the local
kmart because of incidents like this officials now caution motorists to be suspicious of any vehicle
with flashing lights particularly if driving on a dark deserted road at night you put a signal on as if you're going
to turn and you wait until you get to a well-lit area that's a public place where there are other people i've done
that since this case and i'm married to a police officer but i don't take my safety
for granted and i hope that no one else does either in a case without much evidence
a partial shoe impression on a sweatshirt was all that was needed without the footwear impression i doubt
we would have obtained the conviction that we did i mean in essence that footwear
impression was the signature of the murder weapon you've got to have something or something in this case and one of the
big somethings in this case was her sweatshirt with the evidence of her murder on her
back and of course one of the murder weapons in this case was mr griffin's foot as strange as that may sound the real
clincher was the shoe print that led a piece of evidence that that you cannot deny it's there in
black and white you

The body of an attractive young woman was found a mile from her abandoned car. Police were especially concerned when they realized the victim had come to them for protection just two weeks earlier, after a road rage incident.

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

Kim Medlen's murder by officer Josh Griffin reveals police misconduct and a shocking betrayal of trust.

Key points

The Ultimate Betrayal. Kim Medlen's murder reveals a shocking betrayal by someone sworn to protect her.
A Shocking Confession. Three years later, Officer Josh Griffin confessed to the murder on tape.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

I almost got sick; it was the ultimate betrayal.

0:21WatchJan 28, 2022

Tension

85/ 100High tension

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