Forensic Files - Season 12, Episode 27 - In the Bag - Full Episode | Forensic Files

up next a young boy is the only witness to murder but he didn't see the man's face
whoever came there came there with a specific purpose to kill the killer did almost everything right the serial
number on this weapon was obliterated until he made one small mistake that masking tape was of the same color as
the masking tape that was wrapped around the homemade silencer it was a crime that defied a simple explanation
the goriest crime scene i've ever witnessed in my 17 years in law enforcement if they had not found the
big bag of evidence this crime may never have been solved [Music] four-year-old johnny huffman was usually
driven to preschool by a family member on this morning he ran to school wearing only his pajamas and a pair of boots
[Music] when he got to his classroom an hour late he was covered in blood and told his teachers some horrible news
about his great grandparents police were immediately called to johnny's home i ended up entering into the myers
bedroom where i found jack and linda myers lying in bed and both were deceased as a result of gunshot wounds
to their heads apparently the killer used some sort of silencer it was quilting material used to make quilts or
baby blankets had masking tape on one end and some black powder on it it was shaped in the form of a
cone-shaped thing the murder weapon was a 12-gauge shotgun and it was apparent that jack was killed before linda
because her injuries were not just to her head but also to her hands so she may have
started to wake up and raise her hand because it showed an injury to the hand as well as to her her face
this raised the possibility that jack myers was the primary target the motive didn't appear to be robbery
no money or valuables were missing there was a deposit bag in plain view in the kitchen it was the money from the
pizza business that they ran there was a significant amount of cash in that deposit bag hadn't been disturbed hadn't
been taken the medical examiner estimated that the time of death was between 4 and 6 a.m
police canvassed the area and one of the neighbors saw a minivan in the myers driveway as she left for
work around 4 30 in the morning she wasn't familiar with either jack or linda having a minivan so it struck her
as very odd that a minivan would be backing out of the residence at that time of the morning
the neighbor could not provide a detailed description of the van or the driver outside the meyer's home
the phone lines had been cut and the basement window had been removed investigators also found shoe
impressions in the dirt casts were made for later analysis it was a partial print of the shoe we did
not find a complete full impression of the entire shoe just a partial print four-year-old johnny was the only other
person living in the house his great-grandparents had custody because his mother was a teenager and
too young to care for him when questioned johnny told police he didn't hear any loud noises like
gunshots during the night only that he found his great-grandparents in a pool of blood
when he woke up he had taken a kleenex and he tried to wipe the blood and he reported to us that the blood was just
too much and he couldn't do anything about it but johnny was able to tell investigators one important thing
he said sometime during the night he saw a green monster in his bedroom did this
mean that johnny saw the killer just before dawn an unidentified gunman broke into a
farmhouse in bradford ohio and killed the owners jack and linda myers it was clear to investigators that the
double homicide had nothing to do with robbery nobody appeared to have ransacked
through drawers or closets or anything looking for anything so it appeared to the investigators that whoever had
entered the home had obviously done it because they intended to kill jack and linda myers
the couple had been married for seven years and each had children from previous marriages
even though my mom met jack at a later time in her life that was her soulmate that was her
night in shining armor investigators knew that the couple ran a pizza shop but they found no indication
they had problems with business associates however jack's side businesses raised concerns
jack started a car business he would buy cars repair them and sell them to people
and a majority of these vehicles would be sold on payments you know to help people out
not surprisingly some of these people were unable to make the payments we had learned that if people weren't paying
their car payment on time he had no problem going and seizing that vehicle repossessing it and taking it back
the myers also owned some rental properties and had recently evicted tenants who were behind in their rent
and we had to look at that as a motive for the murder when investigators asked family members
if there were any relatives who wanted to do jack and linda harm they all identified the same person
andrew huffman andrew huffman is the biological father of the four-year-old little boy that
jack and linda have custody of linda and andrew huffman's relationship was strained from the beginning
huffman had refused to pay child support for johnny andrew did not like my mother
she made him very angry because she would not let him be around johnny it escalated to
just a heated argument and he threatened to kill her that's why he was a suspect
because that is motive right there after an exhaustive search investigators found andrew huffman in
another state we were able to put a timeline together he was placed at his own residence in kentucky would not give
him enough time to get up to greenville ohio so huffman was eliminated as a suspect
another family member holding a grudge was jack meyer's 25 year old son greg greg was divorced and going through some
financial difficulties he was missing work due to some drug and alcohol problems
his house was about to be foreclosed so he asked his father for help he didn't come out and say no i'm not
helping you it's like greg stay off the drugs and alcohol go to work every day pay your bills and you can save your
house and police learned that greg stood to inherit his father's farmhouse in the
event of his death greg myers denied having any involvement in the murder of his father or
stepmother he worked 30 miles away at a local car parts factory and punched in at 5 23 a.m
we spent a considerable amount of time at his place of employment searching a number of dumpsters there but a search
of those dumpsters at that manufacturing plant revealed nothing police obtained a warrant to search
greg's house and came up empty we were never able to locate a 12-gauge shotgun at greg's
residence we were also looking for any 12-gauge ammunition slugs or that sort of thing we never found any of those
items at his residence and they also learned that greg wore shoes two sizes bigger than the shoe
impressions found at the crime scene the inability to find a matching shoe at greg's residence was extremely
frustrating to the investigators and police found no green overalls or hunting outfit
like the one johnny described seeing on the night of the murders with no other viable suspects police
were starting to worry that the murders might never be solved the medical examiner estimated that jack
and linda meyers were murdered sometime between four and six a.m the prime suspect jack's 25-year-old son greg had
an alibi for at least part of that time he said he was at work 30 miles away and
had a stamped time sheet to prove it i remember specifically i think 5 23 a.m do you remember the exact time he
supposedly clocked in on that day other than that you know he denied going near his
father's house but greg myers did have a motive he was in financial trouble and he would
inherit his father's farmhouse in the event of his death basically everybody's a suspect i've
seen that this stuff that as far as like law and order stuff clear tv that family is always good
first suspect there wasn't a significant amount of cash that was going to come to greg
it was mostly assets that he would receive and that asset was in the form of property
on a hunch investigators and volunteers searched all known traffic routes between the
crime scene and greg's workplace systematically we're going to all the bridges along all the known routes
there's only so many you can take in and get in there in a reasonable amount of time
it took five days to search the 30 miles of roads and bridges and they had come up empty
but they still had one more place to look the suggestion was made by a deputy and a division of wildlife officer
that there was another location that they felt might have been used or another bridge that crossed the
stillwater river and it was there in the shallow portion of the stillwater river that
investigators got their first break there's a 12 gauge winchester pump shotgun it had masking tape around the
barrel that masking tape was of the same color and the same width as the masking
tape that was wrapped around on the homemade silencer device left at the crime scene
it also had the serial numbers scratched off my initial impression was we're never
going to get these numbers up and if we do we might get one or two at best the stillwater river bridge was just
nine miles from the crime scene about a half mile downstream police discovered a black plastic bag that had
floated down the river and become caught in some overhanging branches it only makes sense if a guy was going
to throw the shotgun in the river he's also going to show the other forensic evidence in the river
inside police found a pair of latex gloves two spent shotgun shells a green hunting jumpsuit and quilting material
similar to the stuffing for the homemade silencer we also found other items of clothing
in addition to a stocking mask that appeared to have been used they also found tennis shoes which were compared
to the shoe impressions found at the crime scene examination of the cast taken at the
scene and comparison of those with the shoes revealed that they were consistent in tread design
but the ten issues were two sizes smaller than the shoe size of their prime suspect greg myers
so again there was nothing in the bag which linked greg myers directly to the murders they were certainly concerned
that a murderer could go free unless they did a lot of work to put the case together after that point
since the serial number on the shotgun had been ground off investigators sent the gun to forensic
scientist timothy door he knew that scratch marks usually weren't as deep as the original engraving the serial number
may only be a few thousands of an inch but the compressed metal goes a lot deeper into the metal
to restore the serial number doer applied an acid solution which only works at one level and goes no deeper
it'll actually eat away and you can actually burn past the point of compression reacts differently between
the compressed and uncompressed metal the compressed being the serial number the acid solution removed the top
surface leaving the bottom or compressed metal virtually untouched upon utilizing the restoration
techniques on this shotgun i was able to restore five of the eight digits in the
serial number those restored were l three one four five but there was no shotgun with those
serial numbers registered to greg myers was this another dead end [Music] investigators had no proof that the
shotgun and clothes dumped in the stillwater river belonged to their prime suspect greg myers
one of the things we suspected was that he probably sought out a firearm through
a classified ad which also means that there's no atf paperwork to connect greg to the firearm
on a hunch investigators subpoenaed greg's cell phone records and look for any unusual numbers
detectives basically went through those records on the time period for the week or so before the murders first
eliminating repetitive calls looking for individual numbers that stand out two numbers belong to individuals who
advertise shotguns for sale in a local newspaper one seller recalled making a sale that
week eugene adams had advice of detectives that point that yes someone had called his number came and purchased
the shotgun from him adams told investigators that a man who identified himself as greg myers bought
a 12-gauge winchester shotgun adams identified meyer's picture from a photo lineup
adams also had the serial number of the gun he sold to myers it matched the serial number of the
shotgun found in the stillwater river but prosecutors needed to find a way to definitively tie greg myers to
the evidence found in the garbage bag and to do that scientists looked once more
at the pair of latex gloves most fingerprints are perspiration and perspiration is 99
water i didn't hold much hope that we were going to get any fingerprints because
this bag had already been in the water for several days submerged in water so the chance of fingerprints was very
minimal but just to be sure they used ultraviolet light both inside and out the light will basically reflect off the
surface and basically i think the light's actually absorbed by the fingerprint itself
amazingly inside houston found what scientists might call an anomaly but laymen call a miracle
this is the only case i can remember i've ever had a print to come up to this quality that had been in the water for
over three four or five days it was a partial print of an index finger and it matched
greg myers oh man i tell you what i was jumping up and down to be real honest with you i
was like this is awesome it survived most likely because he touched skin oil first
it's possible that greg myers wiped his forehead before he put his hand inside the glove the oils from the forehead
area would maybe transfer to his finger making that more of an oil-based type latent print
with all the planning that he tried to do to avoid leaving evidence he ends up leaving a fingerprint inside the glove
with the right index finger which would be his trigger finger lastly police canvassed gun stores in
the area and found an invaluable piece of surveillance tape that videotape conclusively showed greg
myers while he was accompanied by his own two small children purchasing the ammunition
it was federal brand ammunition the same used in the murders and that happened just
two days before the crimes were committed greg myers was arrested and charged with
two counts of murder prosecutors believe greg bought undersized shoes overalls to protect his
clothing and what he believed to be an untraceable shotgun [Music] he fashioned a homemade silencer
then headed to his father's house around four o'clock in the morning he staged the scene to make it look like
a break-in and left his shoe impressions evidence he wanted police to find [Music]
according to the autopsy he shot his father first his stepmother woke up raised her arm to
protect herself and he shot her too greg then went upstairs to check on johnny who must have pretended he was asleep or
else he may have been killed too although johnny didn't recognize his uncle's face he certainly remembered the
green overalls it was greg's van that the neighbor saw leaving the house around 4 30 in the
morning [Music] his way to work greg threw the shotgun into the stillwater river
he put everything else in the garbage bag and threw that into the river as well the next morning tragically
four-year-old johnny woke to find his great-grandparents dead incredibly he ran over a mile to his
preschool [Music] no one knows how he possibly found it but he did he got there he described the scene in the only way
he could by simply explaining what he saw i walked into my grandparents room and i
found the mountain i was very angry very sad he took my mother and my stepfather by murdering
both of them he was supposed to be my close brother it saddened me sick and me angered me
a jury found greg myers guilty of two counts of aggravated murder he was sentenced to two life sentences
with no possibility of parole for all his careful planning he never realized two things
first that the police could raise the scratched serial number and tie the shotgun to him
and second that he left his fingerprint inside the latex glove that tied him to everything in the garbage bag
when we found that shotgun it was just amazing it was it was it was a a sense of relief that
we had some physical evidence we could get our hands on that i was hoping was going to connect him
mr myers attempted to commit the perfect crime he planned he schemed he purchased
he had it all thought out but in the end it didn't it didn't work out in his favor thankfully it worked out on the
side of justice you

After shooting his victims in the head, the killer staged the scene, placed the incriminating evidence into a plastic bag and tossed it into the river.

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

Four-year-old Johnny discovers his great-grandparents murdered; investigation leads to his uncle Greg, who is ultimately convicted of the crime.

Key points

The Only Witness. A young boy becomes the sole witness to a horrific double murder.
The Crime Scene. Investigators uncover a gruesome crime scene with no clear motive.
The Arrest of Greg Myers. Greg Myers is arrested and charged with the murder of his father and stepmother.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

I found the mountain.

Four-year-old Johnny's poignant description of discovering his great-grandparents' bodies.

20:10WatchJan 28, 2022

Tension

85/ 100High tension

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