Forensic Files - Season 12, Episode 24 - Driven to Silence - Full Episode | Forensic Files

up next a hairdresser is attacked in her own salon it's a male fist against a female face
is it personal he had its person only one of them got out alive it was the most frustrating case i have ever dealt
with there is forensic evidence but it doesn't match any of the suspects the fingerprint was never identified i
really don't think that they're going to catch you the case goes cold until an auto mechanic comes forward with a
secret there was something inside it said it still ain't right he's going to commit one of the most
brutal murders in the history of spartanburg county for what reason why [Music] on a warm july night in 1995
a south carolina woman was waiting for her ride home and witnessed a bizarre incident
she saw a man jump through the window of a hair salon and run away the witness immediately called police
the deputy arrived thinking okay i'm going to investigate a burglary at this beauty salon
goes in and it's completely dark he has a flashlight training the beam of the flashlight
around walking looking seeing nothing but in the back room he found a woman on the floor
murdered it had to be a very chilling discovery the killer had used a strap tied it around her neck and then
hung her from a hot water heater robbery was not demoted her purse was left behind there was money still in the
cash register her car was left behind it appeared that the motive probably was sexual related
the victim was identified as 27 year old dana satterfield the owner of the hair salon
she was the mother of two young children she had worked in the hair business for
seven years i want to say she'd been in that shop three to four when i say shop it was a converted mobile home that was
made into a beauty salon the murder happened sometime around 8 30 when the shop was still open although
the log book indicated no one was scheduled for an appointment i think that she would usually try to
get out of there before it get dark but it wasn't uncommon for her to work that late
the witness diane harris described the man as white about five feet nine inches tall and wearing jeans and a gray
t-shirt she was very good on height obviously race is important to rule out a large segment of the population based
on the witness's facial description a police artist created a composite sketch which was distributed to the media
another witness reported seeing a suspicious vehicle in the area he sees a blue and white ford bronco part at a
business he notices this because he worked at this that this business himself the business was closed and he knew that
vehicle probably shouldn't be there inside the salon police dusted for fingerprints and they
concentrated on the water heater where the killer strapped dana's body it's a very smooth hard finish and
powder it was bring them up real clear and you can lift them very easily off of a
surface like that they found one print that was very clear there was a detective who said whoever
this print belongs to is definitely the killer i'm thinking god definitely it's a
strong word how do you know that and then this is the way the knot was todd you had to put
your hand there to do it in a surprising development the print on the water heater matched
dana's estranged husband mike satterfield the couple who had two young children were recently separated
all indications from the crime scene would be that the assailant knew dana it was
angry and personal and vicious and vindictive did dana's husband have an alibi [Music]
based on the evidence investigators believe that the killer entered dana satterfield's hair salon
shortly before closing locked the door turned out the lights dragged her into the utility room where
he strangled her to death to have a mother of two killed in this way staged the way that her body was staged
left in that degraded state the guys that i know that worked on the case come hell or high water they're going to
solve it at the autopsy the medical examiner concluded the cause of death was strangulation
and a rape test kit found evidence of sexual assault once they were able to generate a profile that's when everyone
started looking for a possible suspect her body was the primary and best crime scene
that we had followed by the bathroom itself investigators found a fingerprint on the
water heater next to dana's body it belonged to dana's estranged husband mike we had actually had a few problems and
she had actually been living a half a mile from here the kids were staying here and she was
staying there when questioned by police mike claimed he was with his children at the time of
the murder because we were with him that night of course when he got the phone call we
talked to her and then he took us up there so i mean i knew there's no way that my dad did it or had anything to do
with it and there was a perfectly logical explanation for mike's prince to be there
he did all the repair work i just put that water heater in there i done all the maintenance up there i took
care of everything there's zero nada not one scintilla of evidence that mike saterville had anything to do with this
crime done and it was clear that mike satterfield did not fit the description of the man the eyewitness
saw jumping through the salon window he's an enormous man with all due respect to him he couldn't get out that
window there'd be a hole in the side of the mobile home if mike tried to get out
the one and he'd tell you the same thing in a search for suspects investigators found other fingerprints
at the crime scene one in dana's blood all were submitted to the statewide fingerprint database
has all the fingerprints of all the prisoners that's been arrested in south carolina and we take a picture of the
fingerprint bring it up on the computer screen investigators were certain the bloody
fingerprint would provide a lead unfortunately there were no matches the fingerprint was never identified
and and there was prob there's no telling how many they ran through how many people they checked on that
investigators with strong backgrounds and working these type of crimes were brought in for this type case
the search for the white and blue ford bronco turned up plenty of possibilities and it's incredibly distinctive saw
blade rims blue and white ford bronco it's not unique but it's rare i would think that that was a pretty distinctive
car but apparently there are more of those than i would have imagined police checked them all out but all were
dead ends every single time me and my brother saw a bronco pass by we had to call it in we had to tell my
dad daddy we saw bronco you need a call as leads dwindled the case gradually turned cold
and the year went by with no new developments then police got a break a prison inmate told authorities that
his cellmate 29 year old russell trevor quinn often spoke of dana satterfield it was
something about how attractive dana was believe it or not lots of folks in prison
try to swap information for a reduction in charges or less prison time um interestingly enough and his cellmate
didn't keep that confidence he reported it to law enforcement quinn was incarcerated for a crime that
bore a marked similarity to dana's murder he also was in prison for raping a woman and tying her and tying her to a
tree quinn was free at the time of dana's murder and fit the eyewitness description of the killer
the police got his mug shot put it in a photo lineup showed it to diane harris as you will remember was our lone
eyewitness diane actually picked russell trevor quinn out of a photo lineup as being the
person that she came in contact with one of dana's friends says i've seen this man in the shop before the police
are able to put him in a car not dissimilar to the one seen near the scene but this turned out to be another dead
end when his dna didn't match the biological evidence from the crime scene russell trevor quinn was a hopeful
moment for the detectives i mean he he's what you're looking for in terms of of a suspect
he just didn't do it and the case went cold for the next 10 years until dana satterfield's daughter
helped solve the case no statute of limitations on murder cases and they're never officially
closed but with each passing year unsolved cases get more difficult to solve that was true of the dana satterfield
murder it was the most frustrating case i have ever dealt with for 10 years detectives rick gregory and
thomas smith continued to work the case following potential leads i think most english homicide investigators have a
case that really sticks with them probably more than any other case there was two banker boxes full of leads so
there was an excess of 400 leads and the satterfield family never gave up either no people come up to me actually
if they called him yet or they heard anything and i'm like you know i just don't i know that they're still working
on the case but i just i really don't think that they're going to catch him because i really didn't think they would
ashley satterfield was eight years old when her mother was killed now she was 18 in college and trying to
move on with her life one day ashley took her car in for repairs and those repairs changed the course of
the investigation well this girl came in with a little red honda and she got her
oil changed and i was like man she was just in here a couple weeks ago and they said yeah that's actually satterfield
and you know dana setterfeld they got murdered in roebuck well that's her daughter i was like her daughter and
yeah i said i didn't know she had kids this man who wanted to remain anonymous is an automobile mechanic
he knew something about dana satterfield's murder or at least thought he did just by seeing ashley and her being her
mother i had to give them some closure ten years earlier when the auto mechanic was in high school his friend jonathan
vick gave him a ride home vic was driving a white ford bronco with blue trim like the one parked near the crime scene
i'm gonna go get a haircut tonight a haircut he said he's gonna go get his hair cut and i was like where are you
gonna get your haircut this time i'm gonna go he said dana's saying i never knew her last night
it's so hot man i guess and vic said he was interested in more than a haircut he would talk about how pretty she was
and what he would like to do as far as sexual wise and things like that i'm gonna ask her out
you're gonna ask her on a date yeah so you serious yes when i laughed at him he got upset with me he said you
well you don't think i have a chance i just laughed it's like man whatever later
when he saw news reports about dana satterfield's murder he wondered if jonathan vick was involved
if you ask him say he really didn't believe that he did it couldn't believe it wouldn't believe it
here's a 17 year old with no record that you counted as one of your best friends
and he's going to commit one of the most brutal murders in the history of spartanburg county
for what reason why just after dana's murder this man claims he called police anonymously and told them about his
conversation with jonathan vick he also told them vic was driving a white ford bronco
at the time police questioned jonathan vick and his mother aggressively investigators questioned her on six
different occasions about the vehicle you know where was it that night who was using it and the family was getting
tired of people asking them was this your bronco here is this your your vehicle and they even went to the
links of making a homemade sign that said this is not the vehicle and putting it on the bronco
as it traveled down the road that's how that's how many people were calling about it
police even tried to get a court order for jonathan vick's dna but the court refused on the grounds that driving a
vehicle like the one seen near the crime scene was insufficient probable cause where's the probable cause on jonathan
vick at this time it doesn't exist so police dropped their investigation of jonathan vick
there was a time where i figured well maybe you know they have cleared him but there was something inside that said it
still ain't right something it's just not right so now ten years later this man jonathan vick's friend called
police again insisting that they investigate vic for dana satterfield's murder and just like before i didn't want to
get my name but without his name police couldn't get a court order to obtain jonathan vick's dna sample
so police were right back where they started and they had to wonder what was this man really hiding
after waiting ten long years prosecutors now had a witness who claimed he knew what happened on the
night of dana satterfield's murder the witness said seventeen-year-old jonathan vick offered
him a ride home from school vic said he was going to dana salon for a haircut vic also admitted he fantasized about
dana a woman 10 years his senior and said he planned to ask her out on a date vic entered dana's salon
around 8 30 p.m it was almost closing time [Music] prosecutors believe vic made a sexual
advance and dana refused perhaps she thought he was kidding [Music] that's when vic
locked the door turned out the lights and attacked [Music] in addition to sexual assault he
strangled her to death [Music] for reasons no one can understand he decided to leave through the window
which caught the attention of the witness diane harris she got a good look at him
the composite sketch from this brief encounter was remarkably accurate pretty close to exactly what jonathan vick
looks like the hair there was some issue as to whether the hair was light or dark
we had to go find some witnesses that said vic used to tip his hair back then as to why vick's prints weren't found in
the salon investigators say it happens more often than people think just because someone touches something
doesn't mean that that that you have left to print it it has a lot to do with the amount of oil on your skin at the
time and the surface that you're touching eventually the anonymous informant explained why he had waited all these
years to come forward he said vic threatened to kill him if he ever told police what he knew about the
murder he didn't tell me what he did he said if you tell anybody i'll kill you he knew
that i knew that he was going over there he also realized ten years later that he had a responsibility to the
satterfield family so he gave police his name michael pace that does not keep me from being
extraordinarily frustrated with him but to his credit he accepted responsibility he was a very very good
witness and police got their court order for vick's dna sample michael pace is the
probable cause that allowed us to get jonathan vick's dna clearly unequivocally michael pace is how we got his dna
jonathan vick was still living in south carolina after serving two years in the marines all that matters
he'd had well over 15 different jobs he was getting fired or asked to leave because of um
his inability to get along with his co-workers or his supervisors vic also had some brushes
with the law he had two arrests one was a domestic violence which was dismissed and there
was a malicious injury which is basically a vandalism that was dismissed now a husband and father of an infant
daughter vic denied any involvement in dana satterfield's murder at the time of the arrest he basically told us he never
knew jonathan vick's dna matched the biological evidence from the rape test kit gathered at dana's autopsy
a 900 million to one match i was relieved because that particular case had been sitting on my desk for 10
years i was relieved that there was a match every time you see a poster or see an
article or watch tv or on the news or anything about the case it just it bothered me
and now it's over with i feel a lot better investigators believe dana satterfield was vic's first victim
but possibly not his last [Music] there was another acquaintance of jonathan vicks heather renee sellers who
mysteriously disappeared she's been missing for several years ms sellers was actually engaged to him
only weeks prior to her disappearance seller's car was found at the bottom of a river her case is still open
in november of 2005 jonathan vick was convicted of dana satterfield's murder and sentenced to
life in prison [Music] it was guilty guilty guilty all 12 guilty i mean they all they all knew
with you yeah i'll never forget the words that he chose because after all of this
there was still such an arrogance almost or how can you accuse me this innocent man that i am
how can they convict me of this dana's murderer is still free that i wasn't she she did not get done yesterday and then
the judge said you're going to prison for the rest of your life i have no sympathy for him or his mother
or his wife or anyone in his family i have no sympathy for none of them because they all thought that i still
think that he's innocent and they know that he's guilty his mother knew that he was guilty she knew
and she held back on that he's a pathological maniacal liar and i don't like him
but he received a fair draw you

A young, attractive hairdresser was sexually assaulted and murdered in her own beauty salon. The evidence at the crime scene didn't match any of the suspects and, after the initial investigation, the case went cold for ten years.

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

Dana Satterfield was murdered in her salon; Jonathan Vick was convicted after years of investigation and DNA evidence linked him to the crime.

Key points

The Chilling Discovery. A deputy finds a murdered woman in a hair salon, leading to a complex investigation.
The Estranged Husband. Forensic evidence points to Dana's estranged husband, raising questions about his alibi.
A Break in the Case. A prison inmate reveals a suspect who fits the profile of the killer.
The DNA Match. After years of investigation, DNA evidence finally links Jonathan Vick to the murder.
Justice Served. Jonathan Vick is convicted of Dana Satterfield's murder and sentenced to life in prison.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

It's a male fist against a female face.

0:09WatchJan 28, 2022

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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